USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > Sketches of Framingham > Part 5
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
VI.
Up! up with the Rafters-each frame is a State! How nobly they raise! their span, too, how great! From the north to the south, o'er the whole they extend, And rests on the walls, while the walls they defend,
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be- Combined in strength, yet as citizens free.
IX.
Huzza! my brave boys, our work is complete, The world shall admire Columbia's fair seat; Its strength against tempests and time shall be proof, And thousands shall come to dwell under our roof.
Whilst we drain the deep bowl, our toast still shall be-
Our government firm, and our citizens free.
This song is printed in the record of the Convention, but without the name of the author. I wish we knew who wrote it. It is evidently copied from the "Centinel" of February 13, 1788.
74
ACTIVE HELPERS
I now conclude my review of our Framingham active helpers in the so-called "Period of the Revolution," with a personal tribute to Edward Channing, in whose course at Harvard I won honors, and who in later years was a personal friend. The last chapter of Volume III of his great six volume "History of the United States" is en- titled, as I stated in the beginning, "At the End of the Era," and here is his closing paragraph, a comprehensive and beautiful climax. Let me read it as a summary in part of his life long study of American History.
"In the thirty years that have just been passed in re- view, the American people had seceded from the mother country, established republican forms of government within their thirteen states and had gone far in the readjustment of economic life to their new conditions. They had devised a colonial system that harmonized with their political principles and was to succeed in the coming century beyond that of any other colonizing country of the earth. They had adopted a form of fed- eral government that was new to the world, republican in essence and imperial in power. These were large achievements for a single generation. No wonder that they looked forward with hope to the coming years. Announcing the ratification of the Constitution by New Hampshire and Virginia, the 'Pennsylvania Packet' on July 14, 1788, thus advertised the establishment of the new union:
SHIP NEWS-EXTRA
'Arrived safe in port, the ship 'Federal Constitu- tion', Perpetual Union, commander. In her came passengers Flourishing Commerce, Public Faith, Confidence, Justice.' "
BOOK II
FRAMINGHAM 100 YEARS AGO
FRAMINGHAM ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
(Written as of June, 1930, the Massachusetts Tercentenary Anniversary.)
T HE century has become a common measuring stick for comparison of national and local events, and it is interesting at this time to use it with reference to our own Framingham. What was happening here one hun- dred years ago? Who were the town officers and leaders in business and social and religious life? What were the topics of interest? How were they studied and what have been the results?
By way of general visualization of that period we have first of all the comprehensive map made from actual surveys in the years 1830 and 1831 and published in 1832 by Jonas Clayes and Warren Nixon. It bears the memorandum: "Framingham, Mass. is situated twenty- one miles West of Boston on the turnpike between Bos- ton and Worcester. It contained in 1830 2313 inhab- itants. It has a territory of 18,976 acres of which 537 are covered with water and 324 are used for roads. It contains 330 dwelling houses." This map is a beautiful example of the skill and art of the surveyor, the drafts- man and the lithographer. It will compare most favor- ably, I think, with any similar work of that time.
Colonel Jonas Clayes, the senior surveyor, built and occupied the brick house on the Worcester Turnpike west of the old Josiah H. Temple homestead. He was a descendant of the Peter Clayes who came here in 1693
78
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
with his wife Sarah as refugees from the witchcraft per- secution of Salem, the wife escaping from imprisonment after condemnation to death. Jonas became a prominent citizen, serving in important town positions and in the State militia. He was the father of Addison Cloyes and Joseph C. Cloyes of whom many of us today have pleas- ant personal recollections.
The younger surveyor by whom this map was "drawn" was Warren Nixon, grandson of Colonel Thomas Nixon of the Revolutionary Army and grandfather of our curator, Miss Marcella Davis. At one of our recent meet- ings we saw many examples of his draftsmanship and scholarship. His name is preserved in Nixon Road, on which he had his home.
This map is the best portrayal we have of the topog- raphy of our town, giving in graphic illustration the hills and water courses. There is on it interesting evi- dence of the direction of travel. The two turnpikes so marked are the "Worcester Turnpike" which is now becoming the superhighway of 1932 and the "Central Turnpike" now known as Waverly Street. All of the roads leading into the town from the North, West and South are marked "Road from Sudbury," "Road from Marlborough," "Road from Southborough and Marl- borough," "Great Road from Southborough," our pres- ent Pleasant Street, "Road from Westborough," "Road from Holliston." The roads, however, leading to the East are marked, "Road to East Sudbury," now Way- land, "Great Road to East Sudbury" the old Connecticut Path passing the Mansion Inn, "New Road to Newton" now Cochituate Street. According to these surveyors Framingham was the magnet of the community life to the West, but itself felt the pull of the big city to the East.
79
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
The map further is evidence of the resourcefulness of the town life within its own borders. It was just before the day of the railroad. No railroad appears on it. The turnpikes suggest the lines of stage coaches passing East and West. In the different villages and hamlets are the taverns, stores and blacksmith shops indispensable for independent village life. The tavern at the Centre is marked "Samuel Warren's", "Turner's Tavern" is near the East Sudbury line in Saxonville. "J. J. Clark's Tavern" is on the site of the Old South Framingham Hotel.
The industries of the period appear on this map as follows: the "factories" at Saxonville with two boarding houses; the "cotton factory" and "boarding house" on the outlet of Lake Cochituate; a "carpet factory" on this same outlet; "tanneries" are marked at Warren's Corner near the Main Street bridge and on the Sax- onville-Sudbury road, and on the So. Framingham Sax- onville Road now Concord Street; "Brown's Mills" near the Fenwick Street bridge; "saw mill and lathe" on Mill Street; "machine shop" on Stony Brook on Salem End Road; "old grist mill" on the upper Baiting Brook near the E. F. Bowditch house; "blacksmith shops" are marked in the corner of Central Square and the Worcester Turnpike, at the junction of Hollis and Irving Streets, South Framingham, and near the Haven house, now Miss Foster's, on Grove Street; "shoe makers" and "cabinet shop" on Central Street between Framingham Centre and Saxonville.
Several of the well-traveled streets of today do not appear. Only the middle section of Union Avenue is shown, the way from the Centre Village to the South End being by Walnut Street and Lincoln Street. Grove Street from the common to Miss Foster's is of a later
80
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
date. Mill Street is missing, and there is no Prospect Street, and the section of Central Street from Gordon's Bridge to Indian Head Road does not appear. The pres- ent Hollis Street is not indicated, the traveled way to Holliston being by the old road around the western end of Waushakum Pond.
The "town house" is located between Plymouth Church and Dr. Thurber's house. This is the "old town house." The new town hall now leased to the Village Improvement Association and known as the village hall was built in 1833 and the old "town house" was sold to Hollis Hastings and moved to Hastingsville and used as a carriage factory. It has disappeared but the cellar hole can be seen to be compared with our present muni- cipal bulding as typical of the beginning and ending of the century.
TOWN MEETING OF 1832
The town meeting of 1832, therefore, was one of the last town meetings to be held in this old town house. The warrant for the meeting was signed by Moses Edgell, Nathan Stone, Warren Nixon, Elias Temple and Winsor Moulton, selectmen, and warns the inhab- itants of the town to assemble in town meeting at eleven o'clock in the forenoon on Monday the fifth day of March, 1832. Let us enter and greet the officers and citizens thus assembled in town meeting. The warrant contains nineteen articles, the first calling for the elec- tion of a Moderator, and Josiah Adams is elected to that position.
81
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Since 1808 he has been the "squire" of the village. He was a native of Acton, but was the son of a Framing- ham mother, Abigail Stone, the daughter of Honorable Josiah Stone, a Selectman, Town Treasurer, Town Clerk, Representative, Delegate to the Provincial Con- gress of 1775-6, State Senator and Counsellor and a Special Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. One can imagine the gratification of the mother in giving her father's honored name to her infant son. The father of Josiah Adams was Moses Adams, a graduate of Harvard College who had lived a while in Framingham, but had become the long time minister of the church in Acton. Josiah Adams is referred to in Temple's history as "a man of infinite humor and an able lawyer." He became one of the leaders of the Bar of Middlesex County and gave special service as County Commissioner of which evidence can be seen today by referring to the early records in the probate office. He also served on the Gov- ernor's Council. He is referred to in the autobiography of Senator George F. Hoar as a "waggish attorney" and we have two anecdotes in that book of his wit.
The father of Senator Hoar was Samuel Hoar, the squire of Concord, and we are told that in some meeting with Squire Adams the two fell into a discussion con- cerning John Quincy Adams, then President of the United States, who, probably because of Unitarianism, was not held in as high esteem by the Framingham Adams, in spite of the name, as he was by Mr. Hoar. The latter stated that he felt very sure that "John Quincy Adams means to be a Christian." Whereupon Josiah interrupts, probably with a twinkle in his eye, with the unexpected question, "When?" We are also told in this same autobiography of a meeting of Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw and the attorneys of the county,
82
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
probably at the tavern in Concord, when different mem- bers of the party were telling stories, and the Chief Justice contributed toward the entertainment an ac- count of the finding of grains of wheat in the wrappings of a mummy in Egypt, and added that "these grains of wheat were planted and produced a very good crop." Mr. Adams interrupted with apparent gravity, "Of what, Your Honor, mummies?" And then the Chief Justice turned very gravely and replied, "No Mr. Adams, of wheat." This story illustrates the humor of Mr. Adams and the utter lack of humor of the famous Chief Justice.
Mr. Adams has left three publications which will be found in our public libraries, first the genealogy of the Haven family and second his historical address at the Centennial anniversary of Acton in 1835, and a later letter to Lemuel Shattuck, historian of Concord, re- viewing the latter's account of the Concord fight. Mr. Adams claimed for the Acton Minutemen particular credit for their part in the events of April 19, 1775, that the men of Concord were without leaders and that nothing was done until the Acton men arrived, that they volunteered to lead the attack and their men, Cap- tain Isaac Davis and Private Hosmer were the first to fall. His address and his letter to Shattuck are among the controversial authorities of that time a controversy which was well summarized by someone's reference to the "Battle of Lexington fought at Concord, by Acton men."
In his address he says, "the soil of Acton does not seem to have been congenial to the growth of lawyers, but two, David Perham and Samuel Jones, have ever been planted here. They languished a few years and were transplanted to different soils." A recent canvass
83
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
by the Council of the Middlesex Bar Association devel- oped the fact that today there is no lawyer living or practicing in the town of Acton. This, then, will intro- duce the Moderator.
Under the second article the town officers are elected including some that seem very unusual today, and among them we find Hog-reeves, Fish-reeves, Tything- men and Cullers of Hoops and Staves. The appropria- tions are interesting by way of contrast with present appropriations, for example, for the support of poor $100, for Town creditors $950, compensation for the Collector $50, repair of highways $800, support of schools $1100, and for fire wood and lights for the Se- lectmen's rooms $10, in all $3160. The action under article 18 suggests a debate. This article is as follows, "To hear the report of the committee chosen in Novem- ber last relative to the method of repairing the high- ways." This committee consisted of Josiah Adams, Luther Haven and Benjamin Wheeler, three of the most sterling citizens of the town. In spite of the standing of this committee, however, the town voted to reject their report. I wish we had a copy of the report. Possibly some of the mooted questions of today relative to work on the highways were in issue then as well as now.
There are two other matters of interest in this town warrant. There is a report from a committee consisting of Abner Wheeler, Thomas Hastings and Nathaniel S. Bennett, as to the cost of a stone arch bridge with sluice- ways of different widths, and on the basis of this report the total cost of the bridge is placed at $150. Another committee consisting of Moses Edgell, Elias Temple, Nathaniel S. Bennett and Phinehas Rice submit a carefully prepared report advising the purchase of a poor farm as the most economical way of caring for the
84
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
town's poor, and the recommendations of this report are carried into effect at a later meeting.
Before we leave the town meeting, let us become more acquainted with the town officers.
Moses Edgell is the senior selectman. His name is associated with every local cause of his generation. His grandfather, Captain Simon, was a soldier with John Nixon in the French and Indian wars, and led the Fram- ingham minutemen to Concord on April 19, 1775, serv- ing later at Cambridge, Ticonderoga, and in the Rhode Island campaign. His father, Aaron Pike, a native and life long resident, had added local meaning to the fam- ily name. As a young man Moses had served in the militia through all the grades from private to colonel. In 1832 he was in the early prime of life, forty years old. He had been a Selectman since 1825 and continued through 1835, and served again in 1840. He was Town Treasurer from 1825 to 1855. He was Representative in the General Court from 1835 to 1830 and again in 1841, 1844 and 1852. He was one of the incorporators of the Framingham Bank in 1833 and was the first presi- dent of the old Framingham Savings Bank serving from 1846 to 1871. He was one of the organizers of the Ly- ceum Library in 1834 and the Framingham Library a few years later, and in 1851 of the Reading club, these early efforts resulting in 1855 in the establishment of our Framingham Town Library. He died February 8, 1875, aged 82 years. The residue of his estate, some $47,000 was bequeathed to the town as the "Edgell
85
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Library Fund." A specific fund of $10,000 was also be- queathed for the building of the beautiful Edgell Mem- orial Chapel in our cemetery. His direct line is now extinct in Framingham.
The next name on the warrant as Selectman is that of Nathan Stone, a family of much prominence in the early history of Framingham. He was Selectman from 1830 to 1834. His grandfather, Joseph, had owned the southern part of Indian Head Hill, probably on both sides of Prospect street and had built the oldest por- tion of the house recently the home of Mr. Clarence L. Butler. He also had been a Selectman a century earlier in 1732, 1742, 1743 and 1755. I shall refer to him later.
The third Selectman is Warren Nixon, the surveyor to whom I have already referred. He was Selectman through the decade 1830 to 1840 and Representative in 1849.
Elias Temple is next on the list, a Selectman in 1830, 1831 and 1832 and Town Clerk from 1832 to 1856 and Representative in 1834. He was one of four brothers, sons of Josiah Temple of Cambridge. The father "or- ganized the Boston Post Office." One of these sons, Thomas, was a clerk in the Post Office of Boston. The older brothers all became prominent in Framingham. John frequently referred to as "Captain John" and "Deacon John Temple," was father of our historian, Reverend Josiah H. Temple, and grandfather of John H. Temple of our own times. He was one of the original members of the Framingham Artillery Company organ- ized in 1799, and later became the captain and served as such in the war with England in 1814. He had a leading position in the parish in 1828 and 1829, acting
86
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
as senior member of a committee to choose a colleague with Dr. Kellogg.
Elias Temple (the next brother), our Selectman in 1832, was known to a generation of school children. For thirty years he had taught in the district schools. He is referred to as "one of our boys educated at the Framing- ham Academy," who taught school in the winter months to obtain means for their own college expenses, al- though his name is not among the college graduates. He was born in 1785 and probably began teaching be- fore 1805, and if so, his thirty years would, it is likely, cover the period prior to his election as Town Clerk, say from 1802 to 1832.
It was within this period, 1825, when the town voted, upon recommendation of Josiah Adams, William Buck- minister, Benjamin Wheeler, Rufus Brewer and Dr. Simon Whitney, Committee "to prefer teachers quali- fied to instruct youth in Orthography, Reading, Writ- ing, Arithmetic, English Grammar, Geography and Good Behavior, instead of teachers instructed in the Latin and Greek Languages." Elias seems to have been continued as a teacher from which it would seem clear that he was not asked to teach the apparently incon- sistent subjects, Latin, Greek and Good Behavior. There is this record of Elias Temple that in 1801 he walked to Boston to mail a letter to Moses M. Fiske in Dart- mouth College "which required haste." The recipient of this letter graduated in 1802 and married Mary Tem- ple, sister of Elias, in 1803. Was this letter "which re- quired haste" one of a series of love letters, and, if so, think of the loyalty of the younger brother, some sixteen years old, who made this long tramp as a willing Cupid. His line is represented in Framingham today by his
87
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
grandson, Charles R. Horne and by Mrs. George Mar- lowe, daughter of the late Frederick B. Horne.
The youngest of the Temple brothers was William P., a farmer who tilled the fields and harvested the crops of the farm now converted into the golf links of the Framingham Country Club. In the memoirs of Rev. Peter Parker, M.D., prepared by members of the fac- ulty of Yale University and published with funds under Dr. Parker's will, there is this beautiful reference to William P. Temple, a nearby neighbor in Framingham. "The person who would speak encouragingly to me, notwithstanding every obstacle, was my best and most intimate friend, William P."
A STROLL ABOUT THE COMMON
And now having attended the town meeting let us stroll about the Common, as it was in 1832 and 1833. Leaving the Town House we pass the two meeting houses shown on this map, as "Trinn Meeting H," and "Unitarian Meeting House," the latter at the oval end of the area marked "Common." Nearby is the home of Artemas B. Muzzey, the Unitarian minister from 1830 to 1833 apparently on the location of the house now occupied by Mr. Esty. There is no Grove street and the next building is the original brick school house, the Framingham Academy, the present stone building not then having been erected. Nearby is the house marked "Mrs. Gordon," this being the home of the Pre- ceptor of the Academy and of some of the out-of-town
88
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
students, kept then as the Academy Boarding House by Mrs. Elizabeth S. Carlyle Gordon who had come from Charlestown to enter her two sons, George H. and Robert in the academy. This boarding house occupied the site of the present Jonathan Maynard school. Next is the house marked "E. Wheeler," this being the home of Captain Eliphalet Wheeler, one of the three Wheeler brothers, natives of Lincoln, who were among the leaders of the village life of their time. They came from a sturdy family of ten children, one of who, Lucy, married Joseph Merriam of Concord, my grandparents. Elipha- let was one of the first proprietors of the Saxonville Mills and for a time the superintendent. Later he be- came deputy sheriff, a position which he held for many years. Miss Abby G. Wheeler, now living in Framing- ham, is his granddaughter. There is no other building indicated along this side of the Common.
Returning to the Town House we pass the house marked "O. Boynton," the home of Otis Boynton, now occupied by Charles H. Thurber. He was a bookbinder coming from Rowley in 1832 and building his home on what was then known as the "Old Town House Cor- ner." His neighbor, toward Central square, is Doctor Simon H. Whitney, a graduate of Harvard college in the class of 1818 and of the early medical class in 1822. He came at once to Framingham where, in the language of Temple's History, "he spent his days." It is also stated that "he attained eminence in his profession; was genial in his manners, and true in his friendships: trusted and honored as a citizen." His service here as a physician ex- tended to his death in 1861, nearly forty years. His house is now occupied by Dr. Arthur K. Stone, although moved from its former location.
There is no Auburn street. This space apparently
89
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
being occupied by "School House No. 1." This school house is shown in the picture of the Framingham Com- mon in 1808, and had, therefore, been the school house for this district for many years. On the next lot is the home of "J. Ballard 2nd." a carriage trimmer and har- ness maker who came to Framingham in 1811 and built the house now the home of Mrs. Harry W. Bean. He was the father of Addison Ballard, Doctor of Divinity, a professor of Lafayette College, East Pennsylvania. He is remembered by many of us as one of our guests at the Bi-Centennial in 1900.
Next we have the home marked "B. and I. S. Wheeler," father and son, known popularly as Major Benjamin and Sumner Wheeler. They were the mer- chants of the village, maintaining a large country store shown in the picture of 1808 with the sign "Benj Wheeler." The father is referred to in Temple's His- tory as "the leading merchant in Center Village for many years who by his foresight and business capacity, and honorable dealings secured a competence." Major Wheeler we are told "was affable and dignified; in the best sense, a gentleman of the old school. His memory is cherished by many who in their earlier years found in him a safe counsellor and a sympathizing friend."
The nearby neighbor of the Wheelers is Nathan Stone who occupied the house approximately on the present site of the Framingham Center Post Office. This house is shown in the picture of 1808. Mr. Stone was a Select- man in 1833 to whom I have already referred. Mr. Tem- ple acknowledges that he is much indebted to his retentive memory for facts in his history from the period of 1800 to 1830. His son Edward, a graduate of Brown University in 1835, who must have spent his youth and early manhood in Framingham, became the Unitarian
90
SKETCHES OF FRAMINGHAM
minister at Norridgewock, Maine. He is referred to as an "enthusiastic geologist" and died in Framingham in 1876. Nathan Stone became one of the venerable men of the village. He died in 1875 at the age of 96 years. We are told that if it had not been for the exposure incident to attending the centennial of the Concord Fight he might have rounded out a full century of life. We have an interesting picture enlarged from a tintype which has been recently published in the Hundred Years Record of the Framingham Bank.
At the corner of Edgell street, as we know it now, and the Turnpike, is the house marked "A. and L. Kings- bury." This is the home of Asa and Lawson Kingsbury, who built later the house on the Turnpike now the parish home of Saint Bridget's church. Lawson Kings- bury, the son, was a graduate of Dartmouth College, later a cadet at West Point and a lieutenant in the army and still later a lawyer, having his office at this time at his home. Mr. Temple states that he was remarkable for his retentive memory and genealogical knowledge.
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.