USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > The history of Concord, Massachusetts > Part 13
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Such to an extent was the scene, and thus varied were the objects of beauty and of interest that surrounded the first in succession of these meeting houses, when Parson Edward Bulkeley and Deacon Griffin entered the portal of the new edifice, perhaps on a bright morning in the year 1672, to see if everything was in readiness to hold the first service there.
But even more might be said of it; for were it our pro- vince to speak of things modern we would pause and make mention of the illustrious gatherings that have con- vened about this ancient church site at the occasional funeral services of the "mighty dead"; for as statesmen, orators and distinguished preachers, philanthropists, philos- ophers, poets and jurists have spoken and worshipped within the walls of the structures that stood there, so their mortal remains have been borne from there; and more than once has the world's great grief been manifest in the sad and solemn requiems and notable eulogies that have been sung and spoken there ; and so long as this an- cient church site is associated with these its renown is secure, for their's were of the "few immortal names that were not born to die."
That the early meeting house stood for the educational interests of the colony needs no reiteration. It was at
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these places and by means of the ministers, that many of the people acquired even the little knowledge that they possessed during that period of New England history that has been called "the dark age." This period, which was between the passing away of the original grantees and the coming of the second generation following, was approxi- mately from 1675 to 1725. That the settlers were friendly to education during this period goes without saying, not- withstanding towns were sometimes fined for not providing
proper school privileges. They loved and demanded a
learned Gospel ministry. They welcomed the catecumen- ical exercises ; and that they improved themselves with books when they had them and when the pastor loaned them from his meager library indicates what might have been their literary status "Had fortune frowned not on their humble birth." Moreover, the people loved their long sermons, doubtless, and the long prayers, for by them their spiritual and intellectual natures were fed. But the settlers were many of them poor, schoolmasters and school- mistresses were scarce ; life was a scramble for bread, a fight to make both ends meet; and when the immigrant settler who came to this country with a fair education had passed away, then the dark age came; many signed their names with a mark, many could not read, and there was a lament- able lack of learning generally. But the meeting houses by their ministers kept brightly burning a lamp of knowledge when others had gone out. The long and elaborate discourses were educators; good language was encouraged. In short, a high intellectual standard was kept before the people, and the desire for better things was fostered by frequent contact of the parishioner with his pastor. Let not then too much credit be ascribed to "the little red schoolhouse," for the little log meeting house was before it; and but for the latter, the former might never have been. So let us in ascribing "honor to whom honor is due" leave a large place for the New England
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meeting house, which made "giants in those days," and which made the minute men who came later, and was the beginning of our present greatness. And let us, like those who founded them, say with a whole-souled sincerity, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go up to the house of the Lord."
Place In The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord
& The Detachment of the Regular who fired first
on the provincials at the Bridge find faut 1/2.
2. The Provincial headed by Edonel Robinson &. "Noch hus. Major Buttrich 3 &The Bridge
CHAPTER XVII.
Visit to the Home of Goodman George Heywood- Talk with Miller William Buss - Ramble about the Mill Pond-Flint's Pond - History of the Bulkeley Grist Mill - Succession of Millers - Stroll about Concord Center - Description of the Mill Pond.
T HE next morning we arose about sunrise, and after breakfast and family prayers, started with one of the hired men who was going to mill, for the house of George Heywood.
We went in an ox cart, and as the bullocks were but imperfectly "broken" we were bounced and jolted over many remnants of old roots and through sloughy places, insomuch that we concluded that the highway work of those days consisted mainly in shoveling snowdrifts, and keeping the wheel ruts from the constant encroachment of the shrubbery, and the casting of brushwood into the wet places to prevent miring.
As we entered the village, for we will call it such, al- though it was "only a collection of housen," as miller Buss told us, Goodman Heywood met us at the bar way, for there were gates and bars at the head of lanes which it was the common law should be kept closed, and with a smile and voice as bright and breezy as the day, bade us good morning, and insisted upon our taking a second breakfast. Hospitality in those days was the rule and not the excep- tion, and "stay to dinner," or "stay to supper," or "stop over night" was only a natural accompaniment of one's coming, and everywhere expected as a matter of course.
As Goodman Heywood had an important town matter
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to look after he excused himself for the forenoon, and we went into the mill which was near by, where we found the miller standing by the meal trough in the midst of a score or more of bags of unground maize. Entering into con- versation, we found that the task of grinding the town's corn was not easy ; "For," said the miller, "we've got but one run of stone and slow at that ;" "but," he continued, "we have ter try, for folks fetch their grists here from far and near; some come clean from the Nashaway, some from farms nigh Nashoba, some from beyend Shawshine, and there's a few towards Sudbry and up agin Malbry."
After inquiring as to how they brought their grist, we found that those who had horses threw the sacks over their backs, that some brought them in ox carts or on sleds, some in wheelbarrows, and a few on their backs; even though coming sometimes from miles away. At times, he stated, they "stayed over" or started home late at night and this, it might be, in cold or stormy weather, or in deep snow, so great at times was the stress for meal.
He did not tell us about his "toll rates," neither did we ask him, knowing as we did that there had been several misunderstandings about this matter, both in relation to himself and his predecessors.
Having learned what we could from the genial miller, and growing weary of the noise of the mill machinery, we resolved to ramble about the pond to discover anything that might be of service in describing the central village of Concord town as it was about the middle of the 17th cen- tury.
Leaving the Mill dam we passed the "pound," and keep- ing on the side of the pond next to the "Strate strete" and going just back of the site of the "First Parish Church," we found ourselves on the swamp lands to the eastward, which but for a dry October would have been damp. After walking a considerable distance in the brushwood, occasionally through the openings, catching a glimpse of the pines on the ridgeway, we reached the "Bay road,"
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where a bridge of loosely laid logs crossed Mill brook on a level with the roadbed. Hard by was the house of Goodman Meriam, beside which was a snug barn and sheep shed and a couple of barley stacks. Near the bar- ley stacks was a threshing floor consisting of logs, square hewn and closely set, where with slim walnut flails fastened with eel skin, Goodman Meriam and a neighbor, Nathan- iel Ball were threshing, while the plump barley grains were bounding briskly all about them. Thinking it uncivil not to call, we halted ; as we did so the men, flails in hand, came to meet us and greeted us with a right hearty cordi- ality, and the rest of the household consisting of his wife and several children appeared in the doorway.
On leaving Goodman Meriam's dooryard we rambled over the fields in a southwesterly direction and soon came to a ditch. At first we thought it might be one of the ditches that the early settlers used for fencing, but upon following it a short distance we came upon a body of water, perhaps as charming as ever traveler beheld. It was com- pletely surrounded by woods and tinted with a blue as beautiful as that of the sky that bent over it. We knew where we were, for Major Willard had spoken to us of Flint's pond, which on the modern maps is called "Forest lake," and said that it received its name from Esquire Thomas Flint, who owned all the territory since occupied by the village of Lincoln center.
The discovery of the pond explained the presence of the ditch ; for we at once concluded that this ditch, which in the "records" is repeatedly referred to as "the gutter," was the means of conducting the water from Flint's pond to the Mill brook, in order to raise the water in the Mill pond whenever needed.
We did not long remain at Flint's pond, beautiful though it was, but soon retraced our steps to the Mill brook and followed its course till we came to the head of the Mill pond where we sat down upon a log which had been lifted at high water upon a hassock of coarse grass, and listened
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to the multitudinous voices which, strangely mingling with the deep bass of the distant mill, made a strange medley.
The day was beautiful; the sky cloudless; and the soft south wind which had set in with the sunrising was just beginning to tone down the crisp atmosphere and make it enjoyable. The foliage was at its best, for but few leaves had fallen and every branch and spray was painted with those perfect colors which art cannot imitate; and as the yellow birches and crimson maples flashed their tints among the dark evergreens, it was as if the wood nymphs had lighted the torches and were awaiting guests. And the guests were there ; for while we sat meditating in wonder, a couple of kingfishers sprang their rattle just over us, and as one dashed into the water and came up with what looked like a trout, we concluded that the small mill stream, be- fore its waters were made to work, was a "trout brook" that once went rollicking riverward as free as the wind, notwithstanding the level country through which it passed.
In a shallow cove among some lily pads were a doe and two fawns, while beyond, under some hemlocks in the flags a flock of dusky ducks was riding at anchor, and keeping at an aristocratic distance from three diminutive teal, which lingered later than was their wont in Concord waters be- cause of the mildness of the Fall. As the air was still cool in spite of the south wind, and the frost sparkled on the bilberry bushes, we decided to make a fire to warm our fingers, and see if anything could be learned in addition to what we already knew relative to the ponds the mill, and the adjacent hamlet. Accordingly, we started in search of some drift wood from the pond shore, well knowing that the sparks from this if from anything would be prolific of information. With this fuel, a little moss, and a flint and steel which Major Willard had lent us, we made a blaze. Soon the flames crackled and the sparks snapped merrily ; nd the story stripped of all that is fictitious is as fol- lows :
The little brook which was early crossed by "Fort
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bridge" or "Potter's bridge," and now runs through the culvert at "Hasting's Corner," and by the Bank, has the distinction of first serving the town of Concord for mill purposes ; and except for its presence, there might have been no Concord center where it is, but its location might have been determined by some other stream. A "corn mill," as these places were once called, was considered indis- pensable to a new township. Like an army, the settler should keep near his base of supplies, and a mill house with a good water power was his commissariat. The usual order was a mill, a meeting house, and an "ordinary," or a public place of entertainment for man and beast.
The miller was an important personage, next to the tavern keeper, and both made good material for selectmen and militia officers. The mill was a place for news or a kind of village exchange. There the farmer learned pa- tience as his grist slowly fell into the mill trough, or as he waited his turn, or was told to come the next day or the day after. There he compared crops and made bargains. Perhaps, also, it was there he learned as much about colo- nial law and provincial politics as at any place except the meetiing house; for people came "to mill" from far away, bringing not only their bags of corn and barley but tidings of accident, adventure and the rise and fall of market rates at the seaboard.
The first mill in Concord was erected by Rev. Peter Bulkeley, or with his money; which circumstance, were there no other, would show that Mr. Bulkeley was a "man of means"; for mill machinery was costly and doubtless much of it, together with the mill wright who put it up came from "below." Probably the mill was never "run" by its original owner but was leased; for we find that as early as 1639 it was in charge of William Fuller, who the records state, was fined "£3 for abuse in over-tolling."
The first mill was doubtless small and stood on or near the site of the brick building by the old Bank.
In consideration of building the mill, or as a gratuity,
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Mr. Bulkeley was allowed a tract of thirty acres upon which his house and mill stood, lying between the pond and the river. He was also granted the right to raise the water of the brook "to a perpendicular height of four feet and ten inches from the bottom of the mill trough," and of digging clay on the common for making repairs on the dam ; franchises akin in principle to those accorded to early mill builders in other places; and the small amount allot- ted may indicate that landed possessions were not lavishly bestowed upon any one, nor as a rule, conveyed without value received.
Timber trees, pasturage, planting places and hay on meadow lands, whether they were public or private prop- erty, were jealously guarded, and whether the common lands were "sized" or divided, or conveyed as a gratuity, or perquisite, it was in a manner that established no unsafe precedent.
How many years the Bulkeley mill continued to grind the "town's corn" we were not told, but there was a long succession of millers. Among them were some of the town's stanchest citizens; and if the records show that in one or two instances there was a deviation from what was conventional or statutory, all the circumstances not being disclosed, we may not be able to judge fairly, since there might have been mitigating facts ; for example, William Fuller may have properly set up in defence by way of "jus- tification and avoidance" that morally the laborer is worthy of his hire, whether legally so or not, and that at times the mill did not pay ; for when there was a scarcity of water in the pond, or too much back water in the brook, it was slow grinding, and he perhaps took it upon himself to adjust prices, and so likewise when in 1665, William Buss was warned by Constable Thomas Brooks "to answer for his want of scales and weights in his mill," he may have pleaded inability to purchase them. The year previous, the Heywood mill was established, and perhaps competi- tion had commenced, and business may have been done on
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too small a margin to make "up to date" appliances profit- able ; we were not there, the sparks say nothing, and we can be charitable. Moreover, so far as Buss is concerned, presumption is greatly in his favor; for when he kept tavern in 1664, at about the spot where the town library now stands, he wished to be excused from selling strong drink, and he was considered by the selectmen a most suit- able person for a licensed innkeeper.
That Mr. Bulkeley retained ownership of the mill for many years is indicated by the fact that after his death, which occured March 5, 1659, a controversy arose con- cerning the mill' bstween his widow, Grace Chetwood, and the citizens of Concord, and the matter was investigated by the Colonial Court, one result of which was a conclusion that the contract between Mr. Bulkeley and the town of Concord had been loosely drawn.
About 1666, Captain Timothy Wheeler, who lived in the house of Mr. Bulkeley, became owner of the mill, and he left it by will to his daughter, Rebecca Minot; and her husband, James, operated it for many years. The build- ing which now stands on Main street by the brook near the bank is in the succession of these ancient mills. It has been supposed by some that it may have been built by Captain Timothy Wheeler, but no record nor reliable tradition gives any certain information of its age. It is very old but that it existed earlier than the first quarter of the 18th century is considered improbable.
But long ago the rumbling of the old mill ceased ; and the water of the mill brook released from its useful bondage once more went dancing downwards as wild and unre- strained as when the settlers first saw it. The pond shrank back into its original channel, and the flags and clover blos- soms upon its grassy border, looked laughingly down into it as if glad to be brought back to their old playground. Today, nature and art are both there; tomorrow it may be only art.
It was nearly high noon when we started on our return
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to the village, which we reached in time for dinner. The meal was served in accordance with the hospitality of the times. In the early afternoon and after a conversation with Goodman Heywood, in which he spoke of his plan for the erection of a saw mill, we proposed a stroll over the village, to the end that we might better describe at some future time the mill pond, the village roads, and the homes of the inhabitants.
As good fortune would have it we were left to go alone ; for just as we were about starting, John, the eldest son, stepped in and said that the Gobble boys down at the "Bay" (Fairhaven) had sent for his father to come and weigh some tar, which article we infer was a commodity in early times in Concord, and that sometimes there was tres- passing in order to obtain it, as the Sudbury records inform us that in 1661, the town appointed men "to agree with Robert Porctor of Concord about his trespass of burning up our pines for making tar." Having obtained all neces- sary instructions we went forth, and by sunsetting had gathered many facts and formed many theories relative to the village, the mill and the ways of the inhabitants ; but lest our observation may have been too limited, and being a visitor, we had been shown only the best side of things, we will relate only what conforms with history.
First, we will describe the mill pond. From the height . of the dam, and various records relating to the flow- age of water in its vicinity, together with the "lay of the land," we may fairly conjecture what was its shape and size, and trace its outline on at least three sides. The north side was bounded by the dam, which probably extended from the mill house to a point a little east of Mill brook where it crosses the present Main street. From the dam on the east side it followed the upland until it shoaled up near the crossing on Heywood street, and lost itself among the meadows, then swamp grounds, in the direction of Meriam's corner. On the west it had a similar contour. Beginning at the mill, it followed the general direction of
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the present Walden street, and keeping well within the up- land as it variously sloped, made a curved shore nearly corresponding to the one opposite.
That this outline is fairly correct, may be indicated by traces of ancient water lines detected in excavations for building purposes ; and also from the records of town action relating to early riparian rights. A pond of this description, and situated amid such scenery as Concord center may then have possessed was doubtless exception- ably beautiful. Not only would such a sheet of water pent up in the woodland solitude of itself be charming, but we infer there were objects accompanying it that would make it doubly so. Among these was the abruptly rising ridge- way a few rods to the eastward, its crest crowned with ancient oaks and dark pines, and its slope variously in- dented with gentle hollows; at its foot the "little strate strete" curving gracefully, its sides fenced by snipped sap- lings and along which were small wood-colored cabins with prim door yards, where in summer might have been seen busy housewives deftly twirling the flax reel or tethering some pet animal, or sitting, it may be at noonday in the cooling shade, or in the autumn attending the drying of their sliced "pompion" or whisking the wasps from their spread huckleberries, or snatching from the night damp their half cured herbs. Moreover, there might have been seen standing separate and far out in the water a few maples and pines left there when the pond was filled, the perching place of fish hawks and crows, conspicuous landmarks and a general outlook for all birds; further up there might have been a fording place for cattle, used before the build- ing of a bridge at Potter's lane, where of a spring morning might have been seen the farm boy following the cows or a tired teamster watering his oxen, while wading at divers points along the pond's margin and feeding among the lilies and pickerel weed and brushing flies, may have been seen animals both domestic and wild.
But not the least of its attractions perhaps were its dark,
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rich reflections which were to be seen on every side except that of the dam and the shallow water on the south. These reflections may have been of objects rarely seen in the vicinity at the present, for in process of time there have doubtless disappeared from the precincts of Concord center rare plants and grasses and shrubbery that once were there. There may have been on the banks among the lesser shrubbery both the yellow and black birch, the "sweet scented saxifrage" and the red osier, and the spoonwood or mountain laurel, as it is now called, purple and white aza- lias, and the pink rhodora of which one of Concord's poets has so beautifully written, alder, elder, and wild holly, with their sprinkling of bright berries to give sprightliness.
Among the trees there may have been the white and the red spruce, and perhaps the bass, the horn beam, and false elm. Peeping out from beneath and looking over the pond's edge as if laughing at their own loveliness may have been rare flowers, as the trumpet weed, the buck bean and the fringed gentian ; the painted cup may have also presented itself, and rare orchids, the mountain rice, and the flowering dogwood, all of which have been found in the vicinity in later times. That the mill pond did justice to this gentle company we cannot doubt, and that the scene afforded on its surface on a calm, clear day would be a gor- geous one is as little questionable.
But not the sights alone but the sounds also naturally made this spot a restful one, and such as they only could expect to find who are willing to penetrate a wilderness and pioneer under old time condition, where everything is wild and primitive. There might have been the monotonous sound at stated intervals of the church drum ; the oft recur- ring roaring of the "rolling dam" when the rain had filled the pond to an overflow ; the mournful call of a distrained animal from the usually empty town pound, reminding its owner to pay a shilling and rescue it; the dull rumble of the mill stones and jolt of the clumsy water wheel; the slow, measured jog, jog, of the farm horse, and the harsh
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rattle of the farm wagon, as they moved over the rough roads ; now and then might have been heard the strokes of a distant threshing flail, or the echo of a cheery halloo, or the dropping of some pasture bars ; and now and then may have come to the ear the sweet strains of psalm singing, or the imploring accents of prayer; these with the multitudi- nous voices of Nature might enter into the sounds of that little lone hamlet'
In such a place and amid such a scene was born Con- cord's first village. Perhaps in part from its peaceful aspect the town took its name, and if so we may conjecture that the mill pond not only located the hamlet, but also chris- tened it. Such a conclusion may by no means be unwar- ranted. Large things are often occasioned by small ones ; and though the latter may be lost or forgotten, and only live in their effects, so may it not be that the presence of this pond, which was a factor so important in the success of the settlement, and the beauty of its environment, together with the tranquility of the town's inhabitants all suggested the name of Concord, and hastened the approach of its "chrisom" hour.
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