USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > Proceedings 1892 at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Woburn, Massachusetts > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
V. SINGING.
BY THE TEMPLE QUARTETTE.
II2
1
6
FRANK B. RICHARDSON, Author of the Historical Address.
October 6.]
VI.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
THE INTRODUCTION BY MAYOR THOMPSON.
Among the first settlers of our town the name of Richardson was very prominent, no less than three persons of that name being included among the seven chosen by the Church in Charlestown to establish a church in Woburn. The name has always been prominent in the history of Woburn, and up to the year when Winchester was set off from us, no less than seventy-five persons bearing this name may be found in the tax-lists of our town. I am happy to present to you, as the orator of this occa- sion, Frank Brooks Richardson, a direct descendant of Samuel Richardson, one of the original seven.
THE ADDRESS BY FRANK BROOKS RICHARDSON.
The story of a life told in detail has always about it a certain charm. As one traces the order of events, the different situations often group themselves with an intense dramatic power, until the historical narrative seems almost like the original action. The humble beginning, the first feeble struggles, the slow growth, the accumulation of strength as years roll on, the youthful promise and its fulfilment or failure, are subjects which cannot fail to interest the passer-by who pauses a moment in the onward march and glances backward.
These periods of retrospection are most commonly taken when some individual is removed from the community after an honorable and useful career. Then the public mind instinctively turns back the pages and reviews the life that has gone, recogniz- ing its dominant aims and purposes, and measuring more or less accurately their accomplishment. The evidence is all in, the case is closed, and the verdict goes forth for or against the indi- vidual. The character then relegated to history is finished, and the responsibility for its success or failure is correctly placed upon a single person, since under his control and his alone have been the actions for which he is judged. The verdict is final and conclusive. The life of the individual is thus presented to us as
113
.
[Thursday,
a picture, a photograph, if you will, where every feature, every angularity is portrayed with uncompromising fidelity. Each trivial fault or incidental virtue is set forth with bald exactness, and this intense personality makes it difficult to estimate the true value of a career or its real influence upon the world left behind.
There is, however, another and more subtle form of life than that which we associate with the body, -- the life of an idea, the existence of an organization. This strange, incorporeal thing which we call a town is a being with character as real, with duties and responsibilitet as insistent as those we lay upon humanity. Yet there is an essential difference. Where life assumes this impersonal form, the picture ceases to be indi- vidual and becomes composite, preserving only the strong, typical features, and discarding all occasional and temporary tendencies, which have little or nothing to do with the final result. In a community so many brains have planned, so many hands have wrought, it is difficult to fix responsibility for any particular suc- cess or failure. The generation that planted has passed away, and others have entered into their labors; times and oppor- tunities have changed, rendering impossible early plans and purposes. Things which one age regarded as essentials have become mere adjuncts in the next, until it seems as if the original aim had been swallowed up and lost. The loss, however, is only apparent. Every trait of character, good or bad, has left its impress on the whole, even as every feature leaves its trace upon the composite photograph. These traits, repeated through gen- eration after generation, by their cumulative energy, so stamp themselves upon the impersonal body politic that they become a living, motive power, an external force, moulding and shaping the various conflicting influences into a true and harmonious personality.
The career of the individual closes at a fixed period - death. The sudden wrench from time to eternity gives a tinge of sadness to the satisfaction with which the history of the life is reviewed ; but in the case of a community like our own there is no such saddening influence. There has been a beginning but no end. The life has passed continuously from one group to another as it has pursued its endless journey, ever finding itself farther and farther from its birthplace, involved in paths more and more
II4
October 6.]
intricate, and burdened with responsibilities growing heavier day by day. It is thus particularly fitting that we should stop for a moment upon the vantage ground of our two hundred and fiftieth year, and look back across the intervening space to the far-away point whence the journey began. To look back, not. with sadness or regret as upon a finished yet incomplete career, but to look back for encouragement, to estimate progress, and to. contrast the dim, uncertain outlines, imperfectly traced through. the distant haze, with the real and substantial attainments which Woburn can this day call her own.
It would be strange, indeed, if there had not arisen among us a desire, stronger than mere curiosity, to know what manner of men were these our fathers, what hardships they bore and what purposes were theirs when they founded this municipality. "What went they out in the wilderness to see?" A simple and almost instinctive query, but how great labor is imposed upon him who would answer it. Ten generations have passed away, leaving behind them such scanty records as the stern, practical business of the age permitted. A few necessary legal documents, an occasional book, a hundred or two headstones with their "Hic jacet" form the memorabilia of our first hundred and fifty years.
From this miscellaneous mass must come the material to build up our ideas of these men and their times. In order that these conceptions should be complete and well rounded, it is necessary to conduct an orderly and systematic search for facts beyond cavil or dispute. Localities must be identified, families must be traced, and a thousand minute and puzzling questions must be answered with scrupulous exactness. Each bit of evidence must present its certificate of character before it can enter the charmed circle. None but those who have made the attempt can realize the patience and labor required before any single statement can be rescued from the dusty archives of the past, tested to make sure of the genuine ring, and given its true posi- tion in history. Woburn has been fortunate in having had among its citizens those for whom such pursuits had almost the charm of a recreation. Having devoted themselves to this line of work, their labors have been painstaking and their search exhaustive. They have examined the records of this and other
115
t d e
n
S
[Thursday,
towns ; searched the registers of churches ; sifted contempora- neous literature ; unravelled the mazes of courts; and even invaded the sanctity of private correspondence. Papers have been read, lectures delivered, volumes written, until to-day there remains scarcely a source or a subject that has not been thor- oughly investigated. It is well for the unthinking public, at least once in two hundred and fifty years, to turn with a passing respect to the antiquary, for, by his patient toil, he has made it possible that we should have a brief and concise answer to the queries suggested by the events of to-day.
To most of us, however, this array of facts, precise and accu- rate though it may be, will bring little inspiration. The dead remains of a past age have small attraction to the average mind as mere things. They must be clothed with a living, breathing personality, so that behind the fact can be felt the thinking mind, the beating heart, moved by the same hopes and swayed by the same passions that we too feel and understand. Would there were some magic wand to wake to life the early pages of Woburn's ancient records with their time-scented, yellow leaves ! Thirty long years embalmed in thirty-six brief pages ! What a tale would they tell, what sacrifices, what toils, what hopes, what fears ; yes, what tragedies !
" Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre."
Let us then accept with profound gratitude all that the anti- quary has garnered for us ; but let us pass on and strive to transmute the cold, mechanical vibrations into the living voice that shall speak to us of days gone by, and bring to the children in the nineteenth century a clearer understanding of the difficul- ties encountered by their fathers in the seventeenth.
The coast line of New England has been the subject of history and tradition from earliest times. The Northman in his storm- driven bark felt his way along its shores and landed his wild war- riors four hundred years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. Following the Viking came explorer, trader, fisherman, searching out each harbor and headland, until the general outline of the
116
Miles Standish
MYSTIC RIVER
1621
FLOAT - "MILES STANDISH ASCENDING THE MYSTIC."
October 6.]
coast was well known and recorded. From the nature of their pursuits these parties made but few excursions inland. It was left for the settler to gradually open up the country behind him, and starting from the impassable barrier of the ocean on the east, he began that westward journey in which he never paused until the continent was crossed. Parties of venturesome men were continually feeling their way outward from these settlements, under the control of that restless spirit of curiosity which filled every breast, when fame and fortune might lie within reach of any man's hand.
Such a party set out from Plymouth on a midnight in the latter part of September, 1621, and, drifting down with the tide by Gurnet Point, headed northward. At noon on the following day an observer on Nantasket Beach could have seen an open shallop making its way along the shore, around Point Allerton, and up the broad opening into Quincy Bay. Ten white men and three Indian guides, under the command of Capt. Miles Standish, had come to explore the country around Massachusetts Bay and establish friendly relations with the inhabitants thereof. After landing near Quincy and making a treaty with the Indians who dwelt there, they re-embarked and holding along to the north by South Boston and Castle Island, they sailed up the main channel between Boston and East Boston to Charlestown, where they anchored in the mouth of the Mystic River.
If some prophetic finger could have touched the eyes of those ten Europeans and revealed to them " the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be," with what different feelings would they have viewed the scene. The green hills then so untenanted and still were destined to throb and pulsate with a mighty life whose heart-beat would be felt in the remote corners of the earth, while their own dear Plymouth, the town for which they had labored and suffered and from which they had hoped so much, would sink into insignificance and sleep away its years in dreamy, historic repose, undisturbed by the roll of progress by its doors.
Strange, indeed, that these pioneers, earnest, courageous, and clear-headed as they undoubtedly were, should have missed such locations as Boston, and Lynn, and Salem, and Gloucester, and chosen a spot which Fate had erased from the map of the future.
II7
[Thursday,
With no suspicion of coming events, they slept that night in their boat, and on the following morning, Oct. 1, 1621, they landed and started up the river valley in search of Squaw Sachem, the widow of Nanepashemet who had been the chief of the Paw- tuckets and controlled the territory north of the Charles River. This march of Capt. Miles Standish and his little army up the Mystic on that crisp autumn morning is of especial interest to us, because each step they took brought them nearer to Woburn. Slowly and laboriously they made their way through swamp and thicket, finding here and there the remains of an Indian's wig- wam or a chief's stronghold ; but the valley which to-day teems with the life of a million people was then primeval solitude. The hurrying railroad, the hum of machinery, the energetic cities and towns which are so familiar to our eyes, the mighty physical changes wrought by the feeble strength of man in the less than three centuries that have passed, would have seemed to this simple ten a wonderful, heavenly vision. But their eyes were holden and they saw only the natural beauties of our pleasant valley which so impressed themselves upon these explorers that they have left on record their appreciation, and regretfully wished that "they had been there seated." They were in search of Indians to trade with and found them somewhere in the vicinity of Mystic Pond; but not finding Squaw Sachem, who was said " to be a great way off," they retraced their steps and sailed back to Plymouth. Such was the first recorded excursion of white men toward the territory of Woburn, and while they stopped at the gateway and did not lift the latch upon which they had placed their hands, yet they left behind them footprints which the next comers found it easy to follow.
No record tells us who first actually traversed our territory, but in 1630, soon after the settlement of Boston and Charles- town, information became more general, and, as hunters and traders went to and fro, they brought back such accounts of the country that, on the maps of 1633, we find names of ponds and crude outlines of streams, not in their correct position it is true, but sufficiently located to show that our territory was recognized by the geographer of that day.
At the same time (1633) it is officially stated in the Charles- town records that : -
118
FLOAT -" ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF WOBURN."
October 6.]
" At a meeting of the inhabitants of this town, if was agreed and concluded that any of the inhabitants have liberty to go without the neck to build, and upon demand, provided it be in such place as may stand most convenient and be not a shortening the privilege of the town."
Again in 1635 : -
" Mr. Edward Converse, William Brakenbury, and Mr. Abraham Palmer, were desired to go into the country upon discovery three or four days, for which we agreed they should be satisfied at the charge of the town."
These votes indicate the spirit of migration that had seized upon the inhabitants of Charlestown with its narrow boundaries, and that sent its energetic citizens out into the country in search of farms to be be had for the asking. This spirit finally cul- minated in a petition to the General Court, and we find it recorded that : -
" At General Court holden the 3rd of March, 1636, ordered that Charlestown bounds shall run eight miles into the country from their meeting- house, if no other bounds intercept."
Again in 1638 : -
" Edward Converse and Ezekiel Richardson are instructed to lay out a highway in the most convenient place over the meadow at the head of the north river."
In the same year was taken a true record of all homes and lands that were possessed by the inhabitants of Charlestown, whether by gift or purchase.
Next we find the surveyor busy laying out the land in this eight-mile grant. The lower part of it had already been assigned, but above Mr. Cradock's farm in Medford, lay the part of Charlestown now included in Woburn and Winchester. This ter- ritory, known as Waterfield, was cut up into slices and allotted to the inhabitants of the town, in the significant language of the records, " by joint consent." These so-called Waterfield lots included the broad stretch of land between the Aberjona River and the Lexington hills, with Church Street, Winchester, for its southern boundary, and Rag Rock for its northern. This terri- tory was divided into ranges laid out with mathematical regularity, the lines running over rock, hill, meadow, swamp, and river with rigid impartiality. These ranges were then sliced up into lots
119
[Thursday,
with a greater or less frontage according to the quality of the land. Thus Richard Palgrave, to whom was assigned a consider- able portion of Horn Pond Mountain and more than half of the pond itself, is given an unusually wide lot, while its next door neighbors, Edward Burton and Thomas Richardson, content themselves with more modest slices of territory not so copiously irrigated. The records of Charlestown go on from this date registering land grants outside of the peninsula, with here and there a name that has a familiar ring and which afterward figured in the settlement of our town ; but it is not until 1640 that the real work begins.
After a careful study of the early records, one is forced to the conclusion that most of the work previous to that date was done on paper, and that many persons asked for and obtained grants which they not only never cultivated but never intended to. It is frequently stated or hinted in the records of Charlestown that the land was divided by common consent, was given away, was assigned to such persons as would be most desirable, etc. The inference is plain. Land was to be had for the asking by any one who had influence in the community, and there was a scram- ble for lots in the eight-mile grant, which, for our simple an- cestors, had all the wild excitement that a plunge in the wheat pit or a Western land boom has for their descendants. The lots cost nothing, consequently no questions were asked as to their quality. A well-watered section of Horn Pond or a stone quarry on Rag Rock was taken with the same cheerful alacrity as the most fertile meadow land. A few of the shrewd ones, among whom may be found most of the original seven, evidently had gone out to the ground and made a personal selection, for we find them decently equipped with lots that are at least inhabitable.
At the opening of the year 1640, about all the land within the boundaries of Charlestown had been allotted to various citi- zens, and far from being satisfied with their possessions, this free feast seemed only to whet their appetite for more. With quaint simplicity the record says : -
" In this year, 1640, in May, news was brought of the conveniency of land near adjoining to Charlestown. Forthwith a petition was framed to the Gen- eral Court, then holden, for two miles square of land to be added at the head- line of Charlestown."
I20
October 6.]
And so these original speculators in city lots sent up their peti- tion, headed with a "whereas " and reinforced by a " firstly " and a " secondly." It was granted on May 30, 1640 ; but the shrewd, homely sense of the popular assembly was quite as keen as that of the petitioners, and a check was put on further non-resident land-grabbing by the quiet addition of the phrase, "provided they build within two years."
Two days later, on May 15, a committee consisting of Mr. Increase Nowell, Mr. Zachariah Symmes, Edward Johnson, Edward Converse, Ezekiel Richardson, Samuel Richardson, and Robert Hale, together with Mr. Hubbard, artist (surveyor), searched the land lying within the two miles square. Nearly four months elapsed before the records reveal any further action in regard to the new territory, and then on Sept. 6 : -
" Noble Capt. Sedgwick, Ensign Palmer, Thomas Lynde, Edward Johnson, Edward Converse, John Mousell and others went to view the bounds between Lynn village and this town."
This excursion, as described in the Woburn records, was not a pleasant one. It rained incessantly all night long, and the party vainly endeavored to make themselves comfortable under such shelter as the trees afforded. Some of the company took refuge under the trunk of a tree which had partly fallen over. In the morning it fell down completely, burying their provisions so that they were forced to dig them out, but fortunately no one was injured. This occurrence is solemnly entered in the official records of the town under the head of " a remarkable Providence."
On Sept. 30, 1640, the same committee went to Lynn and held a consultation with the authorities of that village in regard to the boundary lines.
Preliminaries having been duly cleared away, Charlestown takes its first official step, and on Nov. 4, 1640, appoints a committee of thirteen men " to set the bounds betwixt Charlestown and the village, and to appoint the place for the village." The names of these men are interesting : Capt. Robert Sedgwick, Thomas Lynde, Edward Converse, Ezekiel Richardson, John Mousall, Mr. Thomas Coytemore, Samuel Richardson, Francis Willoughby, Abraham Palmer, Mr. Thomas Graves, Ralph Sprague, Edward Johnson, and Robert Hale. They were to advise with Mr. Nowell,
I2I
[Thursday,
the magistrate, and the elders, in any difficulties they might meet with. On the following day, Nov. 5, the church of Charlestown appointed a committee of seven men for the purpose of erecting a church and town in the new territory. Their names were Ed- ward Converse, Edward Johnson, John Mousall, Mr. Thomas Graves, Samuel, Thomas, and Ezekiel Richardson. A comparison of the two committees will show that Edward Converse, Edward Johnson, John Mousall, Thomas Graves, Ezekiel Richardson, and Samuel Richardson were members of both. In other words, the church selected its committee (with the exception of a single name, Thomas Richardson) from the civil committee already appointed by the town.
The civil committee have left little on record by which to know their work; but by their own statement their duty was to fix boundaries and choose a location for the new village. The church committee, by their own statement, were chosen for the carrying on the affairs of the new town. The function of the first body was transitory and soon accomplished, while that of the lat- ter was continuous. To the civil authorities was given the dig- nity of formal settlement, the laying of the official corner-stone ; on the church was laid the burden and detail of the upbuilding. The civil committee accomplished its work with promptness and despatch. Appointed Nov. 4, on Nov. 7 they had secured from the General Court an enlargement of the last grant to " four miles square"; on the 17th they fixed the boundaries of the village and selected a site for the church on the lot of Mr. George Bunker, which included the present centre of the city.
The church committee proceeded with more deliberation. Having received their appointment Nov. 5, they made an attempt to explore the territory on Nov. 9. The General Court had spec- ified in the last grant that the territory should not come within a mile of the Shawsheen River, and with that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin, this committee immediately started up to the Shawsheen to view the land that they could not have. Winter had already set in, and "being lost, they were forced to lie under the rocks, whilst the rain and snow did bedew their rocky beds." On Nov. 17, they met with the civil committee and tacitly agreed to the boundaries and locations chosen by them ; this acquiescence was probably due to the fact that they
I22
FLOAT -"LOST IN THE SNOW."
October 6.]
knew little about the territory in question, for later on, after more explorations, they repudiated the agreement and selected another location for the village.
The Charlestown church became alarmed at the large number of its members that wished to cast in their lot with the new organ- ization, and in the words of the ancient chronicler, " had a suspi- cious eye over them." But in the end they yielded to the inevi- table, and gave them permission to go on with the work.
Dec. 18, 1640, was a memorable date in our history, for on that day the church committee met at the house of Mr. Thomas Graves, in Charlestown, and perfected their organization by choos- ing a town clerk and drawing up town orders to which all persons admitted to be inhabitants must voluntarily subscribe. It is also recorded that upon this occasion Capt. Edward Johnson drew a plot of the town. Would that we had it to-day ! We could have easily spared his Paulisper fui and subsequent poetical effusions, if he had substituted this first plan of Woburn ; but he was only too human, and gave thought and loving care to preserve the weak and feeble children of his imagination, while the priceless plan was left to perish. The town orders, or first by-laws, are so brief and present so accurately the temper and condition of our ancestors, that I venture to insert them in full. They were five in number and, omitting the preamble, which Poole says is almost an exact copy of the preamble to the " Liberties of the Massachu- setts Collonie," they read as follows : -
[FIRST ORDER.] For the carrying on common charges, all such persons as shall be thought meet to have land and admittance for inhabitants shall pay for every acre of land formerly laid out by Charlestown, but now in the limits of Woburn, sixpence; and for all hereafter laid out, twelve pence. [SECOND ORDER.] Every person taking lot or land in the said town shall, within fifteen months after the laying out of the same, build for dwelling thereon and improve the said land by planting, either in part or in whole, or surrender the same up to the town again; also, they shall not make sale of it to any person but such as the town shall approve of.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.