USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Somerville, past and present : an illustrated historical souvenir commemorative of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the city government of Somerville, Massachusetts > Part 2
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It may be proper here to give a sketch of these pioneers of our town.
John Woolrich or Wolrich was an Indian trader ; he " built and fenced a mile and a half without ye necke of land in ye maine, on ye right hand of ye way to Newe Towne," which would be somewhere on the northerly side of Washington Street, beyond the Fitchburg Railroad bridge; perhaps not far from Dane Street. He was prominent in affairs, and was a repre- sentative to the General Court in 1634.
Of Captain Norton, accounts are somewhat conflicting : in one reference he is called John, in another Francis ; one record is that he was killed by the Indians in 1633, another makes him join the church in 1642, marry in 1649, and die in 1667. There may have been two Captain Nortons.
Major-General Edward Gibones, the most distinguished of our early citizens, excepting Governor Winthrop, was a young man recently converted and admitted to the church ; he ultimately rose to the rank of Major-Gen- eral in the militia, being "a man of resolute spirit " and " bold as a lion." He represented Charlestown in the General Court, in 1635 and 1636, and died in 1654.
Of William Jennings and John Wignall but little is recorded.
Richard Palsgrave was the first physician of Charlestown, living in the town several years, and died about 1656.
Edward Jones was an inhabitant in 1630, and removed to Long Island in 1644.
Palsgrave and Jones each built three-quarters of a mile beyond the neck, on the northerly side of Washington Street, "right before the marsh," probably opposite the Asylum grounds.
John Winthrop, the first Governor of the Massachusetts company that
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came over here (Craddock never came), was granted the Ten Hills Farm of six hundred acres in 1631 ; it extended from the Craddock Bridge, near Medford Centre, along the Mystic River to near Convent Hill, and em- braced all the land between Broadway, Medford Street and the River. This was the Governor's farm where he built, lived, planted, raised cattle, and launched the first ship in Massachusetts, the " Blessing of the Bay," July 4, 1631. Governor Winthrop was the ancestor of the late Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. He was a man of liberal education and sterling worth, a devout Christian and an honor to the Colony ; he died in 1649.
CHAPTER II.
FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE REVOLUTION.
EARLY EVENTS. - PASTURING AND HERDING. - CHARACTERISTICS OF EARLY IMMIGRANTS .- MACHINERY OF PRIMITIVE INDUSTRIES SET IN MOTION. - ESTABLISHMENT OF TOWN GOVERNMENT OF CHARLESTOWN. - MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS. - PERSONA NON GRATA. -FIRST HIGHWAYS. - THE STINTED COMMON. - CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. - PETI- TION OF EZEKIEL CHEEVER. - THE FIRST TOWN SCHOOL. - MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS AND FORTIFICATIONS. - KING PHILIP'S WAR. - INDIAN ALLIES.
CHARLESTOWN'S settlers in 1629 were in all ten families, not including Thomas Walford and wife, whom they found already there living in "his pallisadoed and thatched house," and not including servants of the Bay Company.
Their first winter was full of discouragement; provisions were gone and disease so prevalent that "almost in every family lamentation, mourn- ing and woe were heard "; "many perished and died." Added to this, the water became bad and brackish, and Indians threatening; many left Charlestown and removed to Boston, where the water was better. The arrival of Capt. Pearce with a shipload of provisions, however, inspirited them anew, and was hailed with rejoicing and thanksgiving.
The first inhabitants built around Town Hill, now Bow Street, near Charlestown City Square. They were allotted grounds for planting on other parts of the peninsula, which they were required to fence; but the grazing ground for their cattle was here in Somerville, or "without the neck," and Somerville was in those early times known as the "Cow Com- mons," and later, as the " Stinted Pasture." The rights of pasturage were apportioned among the citizens in 1656, and perhaps before.
A herdsman, as early as 1632, was appointed to "Keepe the Milch Cattle of this Towne, in a herd without the necke of land upon ye maine till the end of Harvest, and hee is to drive them forth every morning and bring them into Towne every evening." The herdsman sounded his horn from Town Hill each morning, to call the cattle together, in readiness for
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ALVANO T. NICKERSON.
SAMUEL W. HOLT.
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pasture. In 1633, the salary for this official was "fifty bushels of Indian corne."
A fence with a gate was early ordered and built across the Neck, from Mystic River to Charles River basin, to keep these cattle, and perhaps wild beasts, from straying into the town; for wolves were common then, and bounties given for their destruction.
In the course of time, about the whole of Somerville was enclosed with fencing ; fencing or "paling," as it was called, extending all along the Cam- bridge line, and between the common pasture and the Ten Hills Farm, with gates at the highways.
In speaking of highways it is but natural again to recall the first engi- neer in these parts, Mr. Thomas Graves, who came in 1629, and who, it is supposed, laid out all earlier streets, and other works of improvement in Charlestown. It is claimed that he was the (afterwards) noted Admiral Thomas Graves of the English Navy.
It is quite fair to presume that he traced the routes for our infant thoroughfares, Washington Street and Broadway.
Those early emigrants were a sturdy, tireless race ; their energy knew no obstacle. Roads were laid out, watering places located, landings built, bridges thrown over streams, and, where too wide for bridges, ferries estab- lished.
Those to Boston and to Malden (the latter called " Two penny ferry ") remained until after the Revolution, the only direct means of communication between those places.
All kinds of business and trades were soon started, mills built, one at Charlestown Neck opposite Miller's River as early as 1645, lime kilns set up, fish-weirs established, ledges opened, and all the primitive machinery of industry set in motion,
Among the various trades and callings found here in Charlestown be- tween 1630 and 1650 were the following : cutting of posts, clapboards and shingles ; raising of horses for export; farming ; fishing of various kinds, especially for alewives, oysters, and lobsters, which were abundant in these waters - lobsters of twenty-five pounds weight being mentioned : rope and anchor making ; coopering ; tile making ; brewing ; salt manufacturing ; car- pentering ; ship building ; wheelwright work; pottery; charcoal burning ; and various kinds of mill work, there being in 1645 in Charlestown wind, stream, and tide mills.
A town government was very early organized, and local laws enacted, controlling church, school, and military matters, as well as civil and crim- inal. The town officers were the " Seven men " or Selectmen, Constables, Highway Surveyors, Town Clerk, Herdsman, Overseers of the fields, and Chimney Sweepers, and later on, Town Treasurer, Town Messenger, In- spector of youth, Tythingmen, Surveyors of damnified goods, Clerks of the market, Packer of fish and flesh, Corder of wood, Culler of staves, Sealers of hides and leather, Measurers of lumber, Cullers of fish, and Measurers of salt and coal.
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The freemen of the town could vote for Governor and Deputy, and for Major-General, Representatives, Grand Jury, and also for Assistants or Magistrates ; in electing the latter, corn and beans were used, corn for "yes," beans for " no." The penalty for fraud in voting was £10.
Among the wholesome regulations were those guarding against fires : they required every house to be provided with ladders, and to be statedly inspected, and every chimney to be swept once a month in winter, and once every two months in summer. A blazing chimney brought a fine on the tenant.
All children must be educated and "catechised," for neglect of which their parents answered in court.
Sabbath-breakers, tipplers, and gamblers were sharply watched, and severely punished. One woman, for instance, was heavily fined for washing clothes on Sunday.
Strangers in town were "personae non gratae," and had speedily to account for themselves. A committee was appointed to " marke such trees for shade by the Highwa[ies] and watering places as in theire discretion shall bee thought mete ; " fine for cutting these, five shillings, and a special order was also made that no tree "under any pretence whatsoever " should be cut outside the Neck without the knowledge of the Selectmen.
As already stated, several of the settlers had, as early as 1629 or 1630, located, built, and planted, here in Somerville, and in the year 1633 the town gave liberty to any of its inhabitants to build outside the Neck, pro- vided, etc., that it " bee not a shortening of the privileges of the Towne," and in 1634 ten persons were granted "planting ground " on the "South side of New Towne highway," forty-one acres in all. From this time on, settle- ments on Somerville land increased, and the records show many transfers of property in this part of Charlestown.
HIGHWAYS.
The first road in Somerville was Washington Street, from the Neck to Cambridge, described in 1630 as the "Way to New Towne " (Cambridge), and in one place spoken of as narrow and crooked. The next was probably the easterly part of Broadway, called " the way to Mystick," connecting, perhaps, as early as 1637, by trail, or bye road around or over the Ten Hills Farm, with the ford and bridge then built at Medford Centre over the Mystic River. It was probably many years afterwards that Broadway was extended over Winter Hill to Menotomy (now Arlington).
The Stinted Common was apportioned in 1656 among the citizens of the town, and remained a cow pasture until 1681 and 1685, when it was cut into strips one-fourth of a mile wide, with numbered rangeways between them, and granted in stated lots to the inhabitants entitled to them.
The territory thus laid out extended from Washington Street, Bow Street and Somerville Avenue, to Broadway, and from the present Charles- town line to Elm Street. The first Rangeway is now Franklin Street ; the , second, Cross Street ; third, Walnut ; fourth, School ; fifth, Central ; sixth,
MARSHALL H. LOCKE.
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FRANKLIN N. POOR.
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Lowell; seventh, Cedar; and eighth, Willow Avenue. There were three others, running from Broadway beyond Elm Street, into Medford. The first has been entirely obliterated ; the second is now Curtis Street, and the third, North Street.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
Until 1632 the good people of Charlestown sought religious consolation in the church at Boston, but in this year they separated and organized the " First Church of Charlestown "; their early meetings were held " under the shade of a great oak," celebrated as the "Charlestown oak"; it stood in or not far from the square ; they soon purchased the " great house," no longer used by the town, and fitted it up for a meeting house. People from the remote parts of the town, as well as from Somerville, attended this church, among the number, our earliest settlers, Woolrich and Jones, who are on its membership roll. The services lasted all day, beginning at nine o'clock or before ; and for the benefit of those living at a distance, the town built small houses with chimneys, called "Sabbaday houses," as the record says, " of a convenient largeness to give entertainment on the Lord's day to such as live remote," etc. In November, 1882, the two hundred and fiftieth an- niversary of this church was celebrated.
It is probable that, in earlier days, all the young people of these parts received their first teaching in the schools of the peninsula, going and re- turning over the Neck, a long and tedious walk in winter ; all the branches were taught, from a, b, c's to Latin grammar. There seems to have been some rivalry then, among the educators of the town, which is generously hinted at in the petition of Ezekiel Cheever, schoolmaster of the town school, in 1666, to the Selectmen ; he had evidently been promised that no other schoolmaster should set up in the town, but says that "now Mr. Mansfield is suffered to teach and take away his scholars." The town schoolhouse of that day can well be pictured from the records, which speak of it (1686) as twelve feet square, and eight feet high, with flattish roof, turret for bell, and "mantle-tree " twelve feet long; ceiled with brick and clay, and built at a cost of $90.00. Yet in it ancient and modern lore were for years successfully dispensed.
MILITARY.
The military prowess of the pioneers stands out boldly in their history ; they were men of intelligence, education and piety, and the defense of home, religion and rights was first in their thoughts. They at once began their military organizations and their fortifications, protections against foreign foes as well as Indians. The "Castle" in the harbor, the Fort on " Town Hill " and the " Half moon " at the Neck, all gave a greater feeling of security to people on the peninsula. Companies were organized, offi- cered, and drilled, and in the various struggles with the savage and the Frenchman, Charlestown soldiers bore well their part. Among them and pre-eminently prominent was a resident of Somerville, Major-General Edward Gibones.
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King Philip's war in particular caused much suffering and alarm among the inhabitants ; it became necessary to impress men for the service. As a protection from Indian attack in 1676, it was proposed, but afterwards abandoned, to build a stockade across the country from Charles River to the Merrimac. A company of praying Indians was also organized here in Charlestown for this war, and did good service.
It would be pleasant to trace the part Somerville settlers bore in these various conflicts if there were space and the records complete, which they are not.
CHAPTER III.
ADVENT OF ANDROS AND CONSEQUENCES TO THE COLONISTS. - TITLES TO ESTATES IMPERILED. - TEN HILLS FARM AND ITS OWNERS. - A FAVORITE HOME FOR GOVERNORS. - " THE BLESSING OF THE BAY" BUILT AND LAUNCHED. - CAPTAIN ROBERT TEMPLE. - SLAVE HOLDERS IN SOMERVILLE. - THE FIRST PRIVATEER IN AMERICA. - COLONEL SAMUEL. JAQUES. - THE OLD POWDER HOUSE. - JEAN MALLET. - A TRAGIC LEGEND.
IN 1686 the happiness of the people was rudely shattered by a royal edict, appointing Sir Edmund Andros "Capt. Generall and Govr. in Chief" over New England: it gave him royal powers to choose Coun- cillors, make laws, and assess taxes ; it constituted Andros and Councillors a court of justice for trial of all cases, civil, criminal, and of property rights, as well as petty cases; also unlimited authority over matters military and naval, thus annulling the charter of the Bay Company. A struggle ensued which, lasting three years, ended in the revolution of 1689, the seizure and imprisonment of Andros and others, and capture of the Castle in Boston Harbor ; and in 1692, the restoration of their old rights to the colonists.
One of the first acts of Andros was to declare all previous property titles valueless ; the charter had not been complied with, " and, therefore, all the lands of New England have returned to the King"; and further, it was declared that "wherever an Englishman sets his foot, all that he hath is the King's." Andros angrily asserted that "there was no such a thing as a town in the country," and that the ancient town records of titles were "not worth a rush." In Somerville, by this action, many estates were imperiled; one or two of these had been in the same family half a century.
Some of the owners submitted to these cruel exactions, while others rebelled. The greatest of these outrages was the granting of the Stinted Pasture to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Lidgett, a follower of Andros, and already one of the owners of Ten Hills Farm : of which, however, he also received Andros' title of confirmation. Lidgett immediately began the prosecution of the rightful owners of the pasture, for cutting wood and for other alleged trespasses. They were caused much annoyance and distress ; and in some cases were fined and imprisoned.
But Lidgett's chickens flew home to repose : in 1689, with Andros and others, he was seized and thrown into prison, with which just retribution ended the fraudulent title speculation.
1137042
AMOS KEYES.
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SEWARD DODGE.
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SOMERVILLE, PAST AND PRESENT.
TEN HILLS FARM.
It is especially notable that this old estate, called Ten Hills after the ten knolls on it, should have kept for two hundred and sixty-five years the name given it by its first owner ; though that name at present applies to only one hundred acres or so of the original grant.
This property is one of the few in the city whose title can be clearly traced in the records, through each conveyance, from aboriginal and royal grants to the present time.
Besides being included in the deed from Squa-Sachem, already quoted, it is, of course, within the limits of the royal grant to Plymouth Colony in 1620, and in the Plymouth grant and Royal Confirmation to the Massa- chusetts Bay Company in 1628 and 1629.
By the Massachusetts Bay Company's Governor and Council it was granted direct to John Winthrop.
The record reads : -
"6 Sept., 1631 - Granted to Mr. Governor, six hundred acres of land, to be set forth by metes and bounds, near his house at Mistick, to enjoy to him and his heirs forever."
The claim of the Andros government, that none of the settlers held any title whatever to their lands, did not hold good regarding this estate. It was the only one in this city, however, that was granted by the Bay Com- pany.
On the death of the Governor, in 1649, the property fell to his son John, Jr., Governor of Connecticut, by whose executors it was deeded, in 1677, to Elizabeth Lidgett, widow of Peter Lidgett, a merchant of Boston. She deeded one-half of it to her son Charles, the same year. The Lidgetts and their heirs, among them the wife and children of Lieutenant-Governor Usher of New Hampshire, deeded a portion of it, in 1731, to Sir Isaac Royal, the most of which is in Medford, five hundred and four acres.
The remainder, or Somerville portion, two hundred and fifty-one acres, they sold to Captain Robert Temple, in 1740 ; on his death, it fell to his son Robert, Jr., the " Royalist," who retained it until after the Revolution, selling, in 1780, to Nathaniel Tracy of Newburyport, and he, in 1785, to Honora- ble Thomas Russell, who again sold it, in 1791, to Captain George Lane. Later it was owned by Theodore Lyman ; and then by Elias Hasket Derby of Salem ; afterwards it became the property of Colonel Samuel Jaques, then of Samuel Oakman, and finally of the present owners, the heirs of Fred Ames and F. O. Reed and others.
It is noticeable that Ten Hills, if not continuously a gubernatorial demesne, has in all times been held in some favor by governors and their relatives and associates : first, Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts : then his son, Governor of Connecticut; then the wife of Lieutenant-Governor Usher ; then by Robert Temple, son of the Governor of Nova Scotia ; then by Robert, Jr., whose wife was the daughter of Governor Shirley; then by Royal and Russell, each a governor's councillor ; and now by the heirs of the brother of Governor Ames.
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There is much of interest akin to romance in the annals of this old property ; and in the lives and doings of its various owners.
Its first proprietor settled on it when it was in all its original wildness, built his house and barns, planted his gardens and orchards, raised his cattle, and hunted and fished through its woods and along its shores. In the record he kept, he gives one picture of his life here, under date of October 11, 1631 : "The Governor being at his farmhouse in Mistick, walked out after supper and took a piece in his hand, supposing he might see a wolf (for they came daily about the house and killed swine and calves, etc.) and, being about half a mile off, it grew suddenly dark, so as in coming home he mistook his path, and went till he came to a little house of Saga- more John, which stood empty. There he stayed, and having a piece of match in his pocket (for he always carried about him match and compass and in the summertime snake weed), he made a good fire near the house, and lay down upon some old mats, which he found there, and so spent the night, sometimes walking by the fire, sometimes singing psalms and some- times getting wood, but could not sleep. It was (through God's mercy) a warm night ; but a little before day it began to rain, and having no cloak, he made shift by a long pole to climb up into the house. " In the morning " ... " he returned safe home, his servants having walked about, and shot off pieces, and halloed in the night, but he heard them not."
It was here, at Ten Hills, that he built and launched the first ship built in this Colony, which records mention as follows : "July 4, [1631]. The Governor built a bark at Mistick, which was launched this day, and called ' The Blessing of the Bay.'"
In November, 1631, his wife with some of their children arrived from England in the ship Lyon; the event caused great rejoicing. "The ship gave them six or seven pieces," "the captains with their companies in arms entertained them with a guard and divers volleys of shot, and three drakes " (cannon) ; people from the near plantations welcomed them and brought in great store of provisions, "fat hogs, kids, venison, poultry, geese, part- ridges " and other contributions. "The like joy and manifestations of love had never been seen in New England."
Meanwhile the Governor had established himself in Boston, probably his winter home at first, but afterwards his permanent abode ; this was on Washington Street between Spring Lane and Milk Street, his house, which was framed in Charlestown, being at the corner of Spring Lane. The Old South Church occupies his front yard, or "green."
Colonel Charles Lidgett has already been noticed in the account of the Andros trouble.
Captain Robert Temple was the son of Thomas Temple, once Governor of Nova Scotia. Robert Temple, Jr., the " Royalist," as he has been called, was brother of Sir John, first Consul-General from England to the United States, and uncle of Sir Grenville Temple, both baronets in England ; Sir John married the daughter of Governor Bowdoin; and Robert, Jr., the daughter of Governor Shirley. Thus connected with Royalists and perhaps,
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The Round House. Residence of the late ENOCH ROBINSON.
Residence of HENRY E. WRIGHT, 31 Pearl Street.
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very naturally, not showing intense enthusiasm in the patriot cause, Temple was looked on as a tory, and when, in May, 1775, he started on a journey to England, he was seized by the Committee of Safety of Cohasset, and sent to Boston, where, after inspecting his letters and questioning him personally, it was recommended that he be treated as " a friend to the interests of this country, and the rights of all America."
The Temples were slave-holders, though probably not the only ones in Somerville.
It was during the occupancy by Temple that the British landed at his wharf on their raid to the Powder House and Cambridge.
Nathaniel Tracy, the next owner, was said to be "generous and patri- otic." He fitted out the first privateer in America during the Revolution, and his firm did a large business in that line, losing many, yet reaping, finally, a rich harvest.
Thomas Russell, who bought of Tracy, was a "merchant prince," a rep- resentative to the General Assembly, and an executive councillor. He sold to George Lane, a sea captain.
Elias Hasket Derby, merchant, of Salem, who owned the place and lived here for some time, was a man of note; he was wealthy and enter- tained sumptuously. His son died here in 1801.
Colonel Samuel Jaques, who made the "Ten Hills" famous in the ear- lier days of this century, had his title from a long service in the militia and in the war of 1812. His farm was stocked with horses, cattle, sheep and deer ; he had his pack of hounds, and that he was the famed Nimrod of these parts, many a wily fox could testify.
The destruction of the mansion and slave-quarters in 1877, and digging down of Winthrop Hill, is too recent to require further mention. It is now a dismal wreck, let it be hoped that the construction of the elaborate park- way proposed across it, and a more liberal policy in the improvement of its surroundings, will restore the locality at no distant day to something of its former importance and beauty.
OLD POWDER HOUSE.
Where a long-abandoned ledge Breaks the brow of a grass-grown hill, Near its crumbled and mossy edge Stands the old deserted mill.
Like a sentinel keeping watch and ward over neighboring fields and highways, the old round tower on the ancient quarry's brink has stood for nearly two centuries. Around it cluster obscurity, legend and history, those charms of antiquity, and they have hung over it a mantle so attractive as to render it one of the most interesting of relics. It stands on Quarry Hill, called also in the quaint nomenclature of old, " Two penny brooke quarry," which winding meadow stream it overlooked.
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