USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Maynard > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wayland > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wayland > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Maynard > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 15
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on the Farm road, extended from the corner to just beyond the house recently occupied by Mrs. Josiah Russell. At the southwest corner stood the school- house ; and at the southeast corner the old mceting- house, which was removed about 1814. This land, as before stated, was sold to Dea. James Draper. The meeting-house was not moved entire, but was taken to pieces and set up without the replacement of some of its original external ornaments. When in its new position it had a common gable roof with slight pedi- ments and covings, and stood fronting the main street nearly on a line with the fence by the sidewalk as it is at present. It had a projecting porch on the front and also on each end. It had eight windows in front, four on each end, four on the back, one large circular top window back of the pulpit, and a semi-circular one in cach gable end. It had neither steeple, turret nor chimney ; and near the beginning of the present century its paint was so weather-beaten as to make the original color quite indistinct. A fine sycamore tree stood just back of the pulpit window, and as it towered high above the building added very much to the otherwise plain appearance of the place. On the corner just south of the meeting-house, near the spot now occupied by Mellin's "law office," stood the " Pound." Just beyond the brook, on the right, stood the Samuel Russell house, with two stories in front and one back, within which the church-going dames gathered on a cold Sunday to fill their foot-stoves with coals. There they also talked of the sick and bereaved, for whom prayers may have been offered at the morning service, and other matters of interest and curiosity.
The Village Grocery .- In the early part of the pres- ent century a small West India and dry-goods store was kept by Heard & Reeves. Later it had but one proprietor, and was known as "Newell Heard's store." It was a low, red building, and stood a few feet southeasterly of the present railroad station. It was a genuine country grocery ; and old inhabitants still remember the tall, slim form of " Uncle Newell," as he was familiarly styled, who was in stature a typi- cal Heard. Mr. Heard was cross-eyed, which may have given rise to the story among the small boys that he could see in different directions at the same time.
This store was a great resort for the staid villagers, who, on a fall or winter evening, gathered there, and many is the grave question of church and state that has been settled by the social group as it sat on the nail-kegs about the fire of that old-time grocery-store. After the proprietor's death the building was removed, and a part of it is now on the premises of L. K. Lovell.
The Common .- This public property was so called because it was "the town's Common land." The term, formerly, did not simply refer to a village green, but to all the land that was held in common by the early settlers. The old Common was at the centre, and contained about one aere of land that was bought by the town in 1725-27, " as a site, ordered by a com- mittee of the General Court, on which to place the PHYSICIANS .- Ebenezer Roby, M.D .- One of the most notcd physicians of East Sudbury was Dr. Ebc- nezer Roby. He was born in Boston in 1701, and graduated in Harvard College in 1719. He settled in meeting-house." It was also to be used as a training- field. It was nearly square, and bounded southerly by the Farm road, easterly by the great road. The north line, it is stated, would come within about fifteen feet | Sudbury about 1725, and in 1730 married Sarah, of L. K. Lovell's house; while the south line, or that daughter of Rev. John Swift, of Framingham. He 5
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lived in the old Roby house, which was recently de- stroyed by fire. He was prominently connected with town matters in Sudbury, where he lived and prac- ticed his profession till his death. He was buried in the old grave-yard at East Sudbury, and the following is his epitaph :
" In memory of Ebenezer Roby, Esq., a Native of Boston New England.
" He fixed his residence in Sudbury in the character of a Physician, where he was long distinguished for his ability and success in the heal- ing art.
Born Sept 20th 1701 Died Sept 4th 1772 aged 71."
His son, Dr. Ebenezer Roby, Jr., born in 1732, also practiced medicine in Sudbury, and died July 16, 1786, aged fifty-four. Dr. Joseph Roby, son of Ebenezer, Jr., was a practicing physician in East Sudbury till 1801.
The following is a speeimen of Dr. Roby's bills. It was rendered the town for attendance and medicine furnished to some of the French Nentrals. These un- fortunates were a part of the Nova Scotia exiles re- ferred to by Longfellow in his poem "Evangeline." One thousand of them were taken to the Massachu- setts Bay Provinee, and supported at publie expense. Different towns, among which was Sudbury, had their quota to care for :
MASSACHUSETTS PROVINCE.
" For medicine and attendants for the French Neutrals from Nova Scotia.
" 1755, Dec. 11-To Sundry Medicines for French young woman-27 -- To Do. for girl 6ª
"1756, March 22,-To Sundry Medicines and Journey in the night west side the river-0-5-8
"To Sundry Medicines and Journey west side 0-4-0
" To Do. 4ª To Journey and Medicines 0-7-0
" To Do. ¿ for the old Gentleman when he fell off the house and was greatly bruised and sick of a fever the clavicula being broke."
The following are the physicians who sueeeeded the Drs. Roby : Nathan Rice, 1800-14; Ebenezer Ames, 1814-61 ; Edward Frost, 1830-38; Charles W. Barnes, 1860-64; John MeL. Hayward, 1874. Charles H. Boodey located in Cochituate in 1874, where he still resides.
LAWYERS,-Othniel Tyler, Samuel H. Mann, Ed- ward Mellen, David L. Child, Richard F. Fuller, Franklin F. Heard, Gustavus A. Somerby, Richard T. Lombard, Danicl Bracket, Charles Smith.
SKETCHES OF PROMINENT PERSONS .- Edward Mellen, Esq., was born at Westborough, September 26, 1802. He graduated at Brown University in 1823, and went to Wayland November 30, 1830, where he died May 31, 1875. He was well known iu the legal profession. In 1847 he was made justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1855 was made chicf justice of the same eourt. In 1854 he received from his alma mater the degree of LL.D.
Lydia Maria Child, whose maiden-name was Fran- eis, was born in Medford, Mass. She married David Lee Child, and went to Wayland in 1853. She was celebrated as a writer, and her works have had wide
eirculation. She was eminent as an advocate of free- dom for the blaek man, and long evineed her sineer- ity in his cause by substantial labors. She was an intimate acquaintance of and earnest co-worker with the prominent anti-slavery advocates of her time. Her home was an humble, unpretentious dwelling, situated about a quarter of a mile east of Sudbury River, on the Wayland and Sudbury Centre highway. Connected with her liome was a small and tastefully- kept garden-patch, where she and her husband culti- vated flowers and a few vegetables in such moments as they could spare from their busy literary life. It was no uncommon thing for the passers-by to see one or both of this aged couple quietly at work in their little garden-plot, or perhaps toward the close of the day "looking toward sunset," beyond the peaceful meadows that fringe the bank of Sudbury River. Since the death of Mr. and Mrs. Child the place has goue into the possession of Mr. Alfred Cutting, who has built an addition to the original structure.
General Micah Maynard Rutter was a deseendant of John Rutter, who came to America in the ship "Confidence," in 1638. He was born in 1779, and lived on his farm in what has since been known as the Rutter Distriet, on the road from Weston " Cor- ner " to the " Five Paths." He was a patriotie, pub- lie-spirited man, and interested in all matters that concerned the welfare of society. For years he had the office of sheriff, and received from Governor Lin- coln the commission of major-general. He dicd in 1837, and his remains were interred in the Rutter family tomb, in the old burying ground.
Franklin Fisk Heard, Esq., was born in Wayland, and graduated at Harvard University in 1848. He studied law and became noted in his profession as a writer and compiler of works of law. In his latter years he resided in Boston, where he praetieed his profession until his death, which occurred in 1889.
Dr. Ebenezer Ames was born in Marlboro' in 1788. He studied medicine with Dr. Kittredge, of Framingham, and began the practice of medicine in Wayland in 1814, and died in 1861. He early identified himself with the Evangelical Trinitarian Church, of which he was made deaeon November 11, 1829. He was some- what noted as a physician, and had an extensive prac- tiee, not only in Wayland, but in the adjacent towns. As a citizen he was respected by all. He was emi- Dent for his wisc counsel and noble, manly charaeter. As a Christian his conduct was exemplary, and he was steadfast in what he believed to be right. At first he lived in the centre village, but soon after built the house upon the Sudbury and Wayland high- way, about an eighth of a mile westerly, where he lived and died. His design in building this house was to provide a home for himself and his minister, and the west end of it was used as the parsonage for many years.
Rev. Edmund H. Sears, D.D., was born at Sandis- field in 1810, graduated at Union College in 1834,
RICHARD HEARD At the age of 78.
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and at the Harvard Divinity School in 1837. He was ordained February 20, 1839, and installed at Lancas- ter December 23, 1840.
Mr. Sears continued pastor of the Old Parish (Uni- tarian) Church, Wayland, until 1865, when he took charge of the Unitarian Church at Weston. He was a useful citizen and greatly esteemed by his fellow- townsmen. For years he served on the School Com- mittee and also on the Library Committee, and per- formed such other services as greatly endeared him to the people. As a public speaker he displayed great ability, being substantial in thought and clear and forceful in expression. As a writer he excelled, and his books have been popular among those who were of his school of theological thinking. He exhibited fine poetical talent, and some of the sweet hymns of the church are of his authorship. In theology he was of the conservative class of Unitarians. His residence in Wayland was on the "plain," about a mile easterly of Wayland Centre, near the Summer Draper place. He died at Weston January 16, 1876.
THE RIVER MEADOWS .- These border on Sudbury River, and are more largely in Wayland than Sud- bury. They extend, with varying width, the entire length of the river course. In some places they may narrow to only a few rods, while in others they ex- tend from half a mile to a mile, where they are com- monly called the Broad Meadows. They are widest below the long causeway and Sherman's Bridge. Comparatively little shrubbery is seen on these mea- dows, but they stretch out as grassy plains, uninter- rupted for acres by scarcely a bush. At an early date these meadows yielded large crops of grass, and subsequent years did not diminish the quantity or quality, until a comparatively modern date. From testimony given in 1859 before a Legislative Commit- tee, it appeared that, until within about twenty-five years of that time, the meadows produced from a ton to a ton and a half of good hay to the acre, a fine crop of cranberries, admitted of " fall feeding," and were sometimes worth about one hundred dollars per acre. The hay was seldom "poled " to the upland, but made on the meadows, from which it was drawn by oxen or horses. Testimony on these matters was given before a joint committee of the Legislature, March 1, 1861, by prominent citizens of Sudbury, Wayland, Concord and Bedford. Their opinions were concurrent with regard to the coudition of things both past and present.
From cvidence it appears that a great and gradual change in the condition of the meadows came after the year 1825. The main cause alleged for this changed condition was the raising of the dam at Bil- lerica. This dam, it is said, was built in 1711 by one Christopher Osgood, under a grant for the town of Billerica, and made to him on condition that he should maintain a corn-mill, and defend the town from any trouble that might .come from damages by the mill-dam to the land of the towns above. In
1793 the charter was granted to the Middlesex Canal, and in 1794 the canal company bought the Osgood mill privilege of one Richardson, and in 1798 built a new dam, which remained till the stone dam was built in 1828.
It would be difficult, and take too much space to give a full and extensive account of the litigation and legislation that has taken place in the past near two centuries and a half, in relation to this subject. It began at Concord as early as September 8, 1636, when a petition was presented to the Court, which was fol- lowed by this act : "Whereas the inhabitants of Concord are purposed to abate the Falls in the river upon which their towne standeth, whereby suchi townes as shall hereafter be planted above them upon the said River shall receive benefit by reason of their charge and labor. It is therefore ordered that such towns or farms as shall be planted above them shall contribute to the inhabitants of Concord, proportional both to their charge and advantage."1 On Nov. 13, 1644, the following persons were appointed commis- sioners : Herbert Pelham, Esq., of Cambridge, Mr. Thomas Flint and Lieutenant Simon Willard, of Concord, and Mr. Peter Noyes, of Sudbury. These commissioners were appointed "to set, some order which may conduce to the better surveying, improv- ing and draining of the meadows, and saving and preserving of the hay there gotten, either by draining the same, or otherwise, and to proportion the charges layed out about it as equably and justly, only upon them that own land, as they in their wisdom shall see meete." From this early date along at intervals in the history of both Concord and Sudbury, the question of meadow betterment was agitated. At one tine it was proposed to cut a canal across to Water- town and Cambridge, which it was thought could be done "at a hundred pounds charge." Says Johnson : " The rocky falls causeth their meadows to be much covered with water, the which these people, together with their neighbor towne (Sudbury) have several tines essayed to cut through but cannot, yet it may be turned another way with an hundred pound charge." In 1645 a commission was appointed by the colonial authorities (Col. Rec. Vol. 1I., page 99) "for ye btt" and imp'ving of ye meadowe ground mpon ye ryvr running by Concord and Sudbury." In 1671 a levy of four pence an acre was to be made upon all the meadow upon the great river, "for re- claiming of the river that is from the Concord line to the south side, and to Ensign Grout's spring." Later a petition was sent by the people of Sudbury, headed by Rev. Israel Loring, for an act in behalf of the meadow owners. But legislation and litigation per- haps reached its height about 1859, when most of the towns along the river petitioned for relief from the flowage. The petition of Sudbury was headed by Henry Vose and signed by one hundred and seventy-
1 Shattuck's " History of Concord," page 15.
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six others; and that of Wayland by Richard Heard and one hundred and sixteen others.
For any one to attempt with great positiveness to clear up a subject which has perplexed legislators and lawyers, might be considered presumptuous. It is safe, however, to say that while there is evidence showing that the meadows werc sometimes wet in the summer at an early period, they were not generally so ; it was the exception and not the rule. It was a sufficient cause of complaint if the settlers had their fertile lands damaged even at distant intervals, since they so largely depended upon them ; but the fact that they did depend on them, and even took cattle from abroad to winter, indicates that the meadows were generally to be relied npon. Certain it is that, were they formerly as they have been for nearly the last half-century, they would have heen almost worthless. Since the testimony taken in the case before cited, these lands have been even worse, it may be, than beforc. To onr personal knowledge, parts of them have been like a stagnant pool, over which we have pushed a boat, and where a scythe has not been swung for years. Dry seasons have occasionally come in which things were different. Such occurred in 1883, when almost all the meadows were mown, and even a machine could, in places, cut the grass. But this was such an exception that it was thought quite remarkable. For the past quarter century peo- ple have placed little reliance upon the meadows ; and if any hay was obtained it was almost unexpected. This condition of things in the near past, so unlike that in times remote, together with the fact of some complaint by the settlers, and an occasional resort by them to the General Court for relief, indicates that formerly freshets sometimes came, but cleared away without permanent damage to the meadows. At times the water" may .have risen even as high as at present. It is supposed that at an early period the rainfall was greater than now, and that because of extensive forests the evaporation was less. The little stream that may now appear too small to afford ade- quate power to move saw and grist-mill machinery, may once have heen amply sufficient to grind the corn for a town. But the flood probably fell rapidly, and the strong current that the pressnre produced might have left the channel more free from obstruc- tions than before the flood came. Now, when the meadow lands arc once flooded they remain so, till a large share of the water passes off by the slow pro- cess of evaporation. The indications are that some- thing has of late years obstructed its course. As to whether the dam is the main and primal canse of the obstruction, the reader may jndge for himself.
GRASS .- Various kinds of grass grow on the mead- ows, which are known among the farmers by the fol- lowing names : " pipes," " lute-grass," " blue-joint," " sedge," " water-grass," and a kind of meadow "rcd- top." Within a few years wild rice has in places crept along the river banks, having been bronght
here perhaps by the water-fowl, which may have plucked it on the margin of the distant lakes.
-
COCHITUATE .- This village is situated in the sonth part of the town. Its name is of Indian origin, and was originally applied, not to the pond near by, which was formerly known as Long Pond and at present Cochituate Pond, but to the land in the neighborhood, and the locality so-called gave its name to the pond. The evidence of this is the use of the word in the early records. In a record of the laying out of the "Glover farm" in 1644, is this statement: "The southwest bounds are the little river that issueth out of the Great Pond at Cochituate." The word has been spelled in various ways, some of which are Wo- chittuate, Charchittawick and Cochichowicke. It is said (Temple's "History of Framinghamn ") that the word signifies " place of the rushing torrent " or " wild dashing hrook ;" and that it refers to the outlet of the pond when the water is high. There are indica- tions that on the highlands west of the pond the In- dians once had a fort, and it is supposed the country abont was once considerably inhabited by natives.
Cochituate village is probably largely sitnated upon lands which were once a part of the Dunster or Pond farm or on the Jennison grant before men- tioned. Both of these farms early came into the possession of Edmund Rice, who purchased the Jen- nison farm in 1687, and the Dunster farm in 1659. The Old Connecticut Path passed by this locality and took a course northerly of the pond into the territory now Framingham. Not far from Dudley Pond a house was erected, about 1650, by Edmund Rice. This was probably the " first white man's habitation in this vicinity." The lands on which he built were a part of the Glover farm, and leased for a term of at least ten years. One of the terms of the lease was that Mr. Rice should erect a dwelling on the premises within five or six years, and that it should be of the following dimensions : " thirty foote long, ten foote high stud, one foote sil from the ground, sixteen foote wide, with two rooms, both below or one above the other ; all the doores well hanged and staires, with convenient fastnings of locks or bolts, windows glased, and well planked under foote, and boarded sufficiently to lay corne in the story above head."
Mr. Rice was probably the first white settler of the place, and from this lone dwelling-place streamed forth a light into the dark wilderness that must have looked strange to the native inhabitants. The conn- try in and about this village continned to be like the other outskirts of the town, a quiet farming com- munity, until the early part of the present century, when the mannfacture of shoes was commenced in a small way by William and James M. Bent. In the course of a few years, this business developed into quite a sonrce of employment, not only for people in the immediate vicinity, but for some living in the ad- joining towns. Stock was cut and put up in cases at the Bent shop, and workmen came and took it to their
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homes to finish. The shoes were mostly what were are kept in the grammar school house in the cen- known as " kip " or "russet " shoes, and were sold tral village, the other is a primary school and kept in cases of fifty or sixty pairs.
Cochituate has two meeting-houses, one for the Wesleyan Methodist, the other for the Methodist Episcopal Church. The former building is situated in Lokerville, and was erected in 1850. The lat- ter is at Cochituate village and was built about A street railroad was recently made from Cochit- twenty-five years ago. The construction of a uate to Natick, and arrangements have been made Catholic Church was recently commenced on Main the present year for the survey of a branch rail- Street. It is designed for the use of the French road from Cochituate village to the Central Mass- Catholic people of the place. Sabbath services are achusetts Railroad at Wayland Centre. only occasionally held at the Wesleyan meeting- The place has several stores of various kinds house, but at the Methodist Episcopal Church they and a bakery. Recently it has been provided with are held regularly.
Cochituate has six public schools, five of which
at Lokerville. The village has a cemetery pleas- antly located near Cochituate Lake. The place is supplied with water from Rice's Pond by means of works, constructed in 1878. at an expense of $25,- 000.
electric lights.
PART III.
Taken from Rogers Hill, South Sudbury.
DISTANT VIEW OF NOBSCOT HILL, THE EARLY HOME OF INDIAN JETHRO OR TANTAMOUS.
.....
....
C
THE ANNALS
OF
MAYNARD, MASS.
'Tis of thy forests vast, Thy plains and meadows by the sunny stream, The hum of mills Amid the hills, And all of nature and of art That gladdens home and cheers the heart We here relate.
As from the silent, long gone past We draw the veil the years have cast, And witness wondrous change, What thauks, what gratitude should rise To Him who rules the earth and skies, For all the good that wide-spread lies Within these quiet bounds.
THE AUTHOR.
MAYNARD.
1871.
MAYNARD is a new town incorporated April 19, the upper bridge. near the old Whitman place, was 1871. Its territory consists of 1300 acres taken early known as Assabet Brook. It has thus been from Stow. and 1900 acres taken from the north- designated by tradition and document. and the term westerly part of Sudbury. It is situated about has come down to the present, notwithstanding that twenty-one miles by highway west of Boston ; and the terms Elzabeth, etc., have been applied to the is bounded north by Acton, south and east by Sud- river. We consider it, then, fairly established that bury and west by Stow. The town contained in the river, the locality and also the brook were all 1875 a population of 1965 ; and has a central vil- called by the Indian name. The words Elsabeth. lage, the principal business of which is the manu- Elizabeth, etc., may have crept into use as corrup- facture of woolen goods. The territory is divided tions of the original Indian name. and the map- by a stream now called the Assabet River, but which makers doubtless took the name that was popularly has at different times been known as Elzabeth, El- used. It is probable that the Indians would have a zibeth, Elzebet, Elisabeth and Elizebeth. On an name for a stream of such size, and also that the old map of Sudbury by Mathias Mosman. bearing settlers would call it by the same name.
date April 17. 1795, and made by authority of that As Maynard is composed of territory taken from town in obedience to an order from the General Sudbury and Stow, a few facts concerning the set- Court of June 26, 1794, the name is spelled Elsa- tlement of these old towns may be interesting, and beth. In a note explanatory of the map, is the assist to a better understanding of the early history following statement by the author : " The rivers are of the place. Sudbury was settled in 1638 by a also accurately surveyed and planned ; the river company of English emigrants, some of whom Elsabeth is from four to five rods wide. but [there came direct from England, and some from Water- is] no public bridge over the river where it joins town after a brief stay there. The lands were at- Sudbury." On a map of Sudbury by William tained by permission of the Colonial Court. The first H. Wood, published in 1830, the name is spelled grant was of a tract about five miles square, and was Elzibeth. But although the river has at times purchased of the Indian proprietor Karto, or Good- been called by what has sounded like an English man, as he was called by the English. This tract word, it is not probable that this was its original extended from Concord on the north to what was then the " wilderness land " (now Framingham) on the south, and from Watertown (now Weston) boundary on the east to a little westerly of the village of Sudbury Centre. In 1649 the set- tlers obtained by petition another grant, which extended westward, and was called the "Two-Mile Grant." name. On the contrary. the evidence is that Elzi- beth or Elzibet and similar ones are corruptions of the Indian word Assabet or Assabaeth. At a date prior to the use of the name Elzibeth, Elzibet, etc .. as before given, the terms Asibath and Isabaeth were used. When the lands south of the Assabet River were being laid out and apportioned to the settlers, about the year 1650, the farm of William
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