USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > The history of Concord, Massachusetts > Part 36
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James Hosmer as has been stated in a former chapter lived near his father by the Assabet river, at the present Concord Junction. He married Sarah, a daughter of John White, an early and well-to-do proprietor of lands at Lan- caster. The following is a Probate record relative to the estate of James Hosmer, Jr. :
"An Inventory of the estate of James Hosmer junior, of Concord, in Middlesex, deceased, being slaine in the ingagement with the Indeans at Sudsburie, on the 21 of the second month in the yeare 1676.
Prizers James Hosmer Senr. Henry Woodis John Scotchford Thomas Wheeler
Rev. George W. Hosmer D. D. who was a lineal descendant of James Hosmer and formerly President of Antioch College, and lately pastor of Channing Church
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Newton, stated in a letter concerning his ancestor who was several generations from him as follows:
"My grandfather when resistance was in vain, plunged into the river to swim across and a bullet passed through his head."
James Hosmer Jr. was a brother-in-law of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson of Lancaster The following is from the old records "James Hosmer and Sara White married Oct. 14, 1658."
Samuel Potter was a son of Luke Potter who early set- tled at Concord and who was a deacon in the church there as late as 1697. Samuel Potter Senior married for his second wife Mary Edmonds in 1644.
The following are from the Concord early records,-
"Samuell the sonne of luke and Mary Potter the I, of the 2 mo. 1648."
"Samuel Potter and Sarah Right married 8 Jan . 1673"
"Samuell Potter husband to Sarah his wife: died 31 march 1676."
The house lot of Luke Potter the father was on Potter's Lane since Heyward street.
Joseph Buttrick was a son of William Buttrick who came to Concord in 1635. Joseph married for his first wife Sarah Bateman who died in 1664, and for his second, Jane Good- now of Sudbury. Joseph Buttrick was a child of the first wife. The following arefrom Concord old records :
"Mary, daughter of Will Buttricke & Sara his wife borne, 17, June : 64"
"Sara, wife of Will Buttricke died 17, July : 64."
"William Buttrick & Jeane goodnow married 21 feb. 1667."
Of Daniel Comy, Shattuck says that he was at Concord in 1664. We conjecture that the first name of Comy is David rather than Daniel. There are the following refer- ences to David Comy among the early records ;
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"John son of David & Elizabeth Comy born 18, Oct. 1665."
"David son of David Comy & Elizabeth his wife borne 14, Nom' 1666.
"Ester daughter of David Comy born 14, 12, 75.
"Elizabeth wife of david Comy died 4 March 70, 71."
John Barnes, Shattuck states was at Concord in 1661, and married Elizabeth Hunt in 1664.
Josiah Wheeler was a son of Obadiah Wheeler one of the town's early settlers and one of the first three Wheelers who arrived at Concord, the other three of the six who set- tled there arriving in 1639. Obadiah Wheeler Sr. died Oct. 27, 1671. aged 63, and his wife Susannah died 1650. Oba- diah Wheeler the 4th son married Elizabeth White in 1672, and was father to Obadiah, Josiah, Samuel, Joseph, and others.
Obadiah Wheeler lived in the vicinity of Brook meadow. The following is part of a Probate record relating to the estate of Josiah Wheeler :
"An Inventory of the estate of Josiah Wheeler, of Con- cord in the County of Middlesex, deceased being slain by the engagement with the Indians at Sudsburie on the twenty-first of the second month in ye yeare 1676."
We have discovered nothing concerning David Curry beyond a statement that the Middlesex Probate Records afford evidence that he was a victim to the Indian ambush- ment at Sudbury on April 21st. Neither have we been able to gather much information relative to Jacob Farrar. A John and Jacob Farrar were proprietors in the town of Lan- caster as early as 1653. According to Shattuck John died Nov. 3, 1669 and Jacob either a son of John or Jacob mar- ried Hannah, daughter of John Hougnton Esq. 1668 and was killed by the Indians August 22, 1675. His sons Jacob, George, Joseph and John, the same author informs us sold their property in 1697 to an uncle of the name of Houghton and removed to Concord.
Among the names of the men who went from Concord
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to join the Narragansett Expedition in 1675, is the name of Stephen Farre, which name we conjecture may have been pronounced Farrar.
The following is the biographical data of the Concord sol- diers who met with casualities in the Narragansett Expedi- tion.
George Hayward who was killed at the Swamp Fight may have been a son of George Hayward who early built a corn mill at the southwest part of the town and died March 1671. We have no record of his birth but conclude from the fact that we have seen the name of the mill proprietor written in history George Hayward senior, that George the soldier was his son.
Abraham Temple who was one of the wounded at the Swamp Fight was a son of Richard Temple who had a mill on Spencer Brook. An old record states of him, -
"Abraham Temple and Deborah hadlocke married 4 desem 1673."
"Richard son of Abraham Temple & Debra his wife borne 6, Oct. 1674."
Thomas Brown the other wounded soldier at the Swamp Fight, lived in the North quarter beyond the Concord river on what has since been the Edwin S. Barrett place and in the neighborhood of Boaz Brown whose home was on the place since occupied by Eli Dakin.
CHAPTER XLIV
Historical Sketches of Major Simon Willard, Lieut. Edward Oakes, Lieut. Simon Davis, Capt. Thomas Brattle.
B EFORE closing the subject of Concord in King Phil- ip's war it is proper to give some further account of Maj. Simon Willard who, as before stated, was one of her most conspicuous citizens, and of several other officers who served at that time, and are associated with the town.
The more prominent military service of Simon Willard as related to the public at large began when, in 1653, he was appointed Sergeant-Major of the forces of Middlesex county.
In October, 1654, he was made commander-in-chief of a levy of a little more than three hundred footmen and horsemen who were sent out by the United Colonies in an expedition against Ninigret, the Sachem of the Niantics, returning to Boston with his troops by October 24.
The result of the expedition was the obtaining of a satis- factory agreement with Ninigret and also with the Pequod Indians.
Among the earlier services of Mr. Willard in Philip's war was the organizing of the Colonial troops, and one of his first acts in the field was his part in the relief of the Brookfield Garrison. At that time he was, with Capt. Parker, about starting with his company of forty-six men to look after some Indians to the westward of Lancaster and Groton, having five friendly Indians with him as scouts. Soon after this he was in command of a consider- able force, consisting, among others, of the companies of Captain's Lathrop, Beers and Mosely, sent to range the country about Brookfield. 463
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According to a paper presented to the Court after the decease of Major Willard, asking payment for his services, there is evidence that from Sept. 20, 1675, to April 18, 1676, " the major was employed about the country busi- ness Settling of Garrisons in towns and settling of Indians at Concord and Chelmsford, and other business."
For several months Major Willard was occupied in the various towns assisting in their defence, and soon after the return of the Narragansett expedition at the arrival of Canonchet in the Nipmunck country the Council ordered him to raise a large force of mounted men to do duty in the vicinity of Groton, Lancaster and Marlboro.
The miscellaneous nature of the military services of Major Willard may be set forth by the following copy of a report sent by him to the Colonial Court, giving an account of his movements from March 21 to 29, 1675-6, Mass. Archives, Vol. 68, p. 186 :
"A short narrative of what I have attended unto by the Councill of late, since I went to relieve Groatton. The 21 : I : 75-76, I went to Concord, and divided the troope committed unto me from Essex & Norfolke into three pts one to garde the carte, pressed from Sudbury, one pt for ye carte pressed from concord, both to Lancaster, one pt for ye carte that went from Charlestowne & Wattertowne that went volintiers or wear hiered when I had sent them to their 'severall places I came downe being the 22 : 1 : 75-6 : & went to concord the 25 : 1: 75, when I come there & inquired how it was with Lancaster the answer was they weare in distresse, I pesently sent 40 horse thither to fetch away corne, and I went that night to Chellmsfoord to se how it was with them, they complayned, Billerikye Bridge, stood in great need of being fortified, I ordered that to be don, allso they told me, that the Indians made two great rafte of board & rayles, that they had gott, that laye at the other syd of the river. I ordered 20 souldiers to go over & take them, & towe them downe the River, or paserve them as they se cause, the 27 of this instant I went from
SITE OF MAJOR SIMON WILLARD'S HOUSE
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Chellmsord to concord agayne when I came there, the troopers that I sent to Lancaster last had brought away all the people there, but had left about 80 bushells of wheat & Indian corne, yesterday I sent : 40 : horses or more to fetch it away, & came down from concord, this day I expect they will be at concord, Some of the troope I relesed when this last worke was don, the other I left order to scout abroad until they heare from me agayne, I thought it not meet to relese men, when we stand in need of men, my desire is to know what I shall do herein concord & chelmsford look every day to be fired, and wold have more men but know not how to keepe them, nor paye them, your humble servant. SIMON WILLARD 29 : 1 :76."
As a surveyor Mr. Willard was also celebrated. About 1652 he was sent as a commissioner to establish the north- ern boundary of Massachusetts at the head of the Merrimac river; and it is said that the letters S. W., which some years since were found upon the Bound Rock near Lake Winnepesaukee, were probably the initials of his name.
For prominent service in the settlement of Lancaster Mr. Willard was presented with a large land tract, and it is supposed that he removed to that town in 1659. Sub- sequent to his removal he acquired a strip of territory in Groton, now situated in the town of Ayer. This land has been known as the Nonacoicus grant, it being adjacent to a brook of this name.
Upon this tract of territory Mr. Willard erected a house which, according to a map made by Thomas Danforth, surveyor, was situated not far from the present county road leading from Ayer to Shirley Village. The exact spot where this house stood has not been positively ascertained; it is believed, however, that it was upon a knoll about twenty-five rods, more or less, from the county road on the southerly side. This conjecture is favored by the nature of the locality. The spot is near the junction of Nonacoicus brook and the Nashua river, where the inter- vale or meadow extends quite a distance southerly before
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reaching the upland, thereby affording good land for culti- tion. Nearby is a considerable rivulet, making convenient the watering of stock and the supplying of the house. The proximity of the Nonacoicus brook and Nashua river afforded opportunity for fishing and the bottom lands about them for game ; moreover, the Nashua river, running, as it did, through Groton and Lancaster, formed a con- venient water way between the two towns; and for this reason Mr. Willard would naturally place his homestead near it. In early times streams passing through a wilder- ness country were made use of both for transportation and personal passage. The Indians in the upper country were accustomed to make use of them for one or both of these purposes and in the time of the intercolonial wars these water- ways were sometimes watched by companies of provincial rangers who lay in wait to intercept any enemy who might use the water courses for reaching the settlements.
The spot just indicated was well situated for defense, it being so elevated as to command a near view of the sur- rounding country. About this locality formerly there was quite a hamlet ; the marks of cellar holes being still visible. Upon the knoll until within about a half century ago a house was standing which when demolished was very old. This may have been the immediate successor of the Wil- lard house, or at least the second. As Mr. Willard went to Groton from Lancaster in 1671, the house was probably erected the same year. We may suppose that it stood quite alone, the estate being a large one and the house according to the plan of Danforth being in the central portion. Another circumstance making presumable its isolated condition, is that it was not called a garrison house which we believe it would have been if there had been homesteads about it.
But although removed from near neighbors and about five miles from any cluster of dwellings at central Groton, the Willard house in Philips war was much frequented by military men for military purposes. As it was on the main
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line of frontier territory along the region of the Nashua river and the general course of scouting parties as these made their way through the wood from Dunstable to Groton and Lancaster on past Washacum and Wachusett to Quinsigamond, it became a place of rendezvous ; and its comfort and geniality were often shared in by the worn soldiers and their tired horses. Bunches of stacked mus- kets in the door yard may not have been unusual objects, while in the nearer forest to the northerly by the river side and upon the stony ridge at the eastward and along the wilderness road toward Shabbokin, where the road which is now a common highway was then a trail toward Lancaster, may have been many times seen the vigilant sentry. The house was attacked by the Indians and burned March 13, 1676. The family were absent at the time, warning having been given of the approach of the Indians.
March 2nd the town of Groton was put on its guard by the presence of a band of savages who pillaged several houses and stole some cattle. This act of hostility had sent the inhabitants of the scattered homesteads to the several garrison houses of the town and saved many people who would otherwise have perished. When on March 13 the final attack came Major Willard who with his men was scouting among the exposed towns and arranging for their defense went immediately with a squadron of cavalry to the town's relief; but he arrived too late. The town was destroyed. Forty dwelling houses had been laid in ashes, and also the meeting house.
The first house destroyed was that of Major Willard at Nonacoicus and it is not altogether unlikely that he passed the smoking ruins of his own homestead on his way to the rescue of the central village.
There are two scenes in the history of Simon Willard that are especially interesting- one, when the noble old officer over seventy years of age rode hurriedly over the rough wood roads followed hotly by his troop in eager impatience to arrive at Brookefield in season to rescue his
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former townsmen of Concord or their sons and Capt. Wheeler an associate officer ; and the other, his ride to Groton where his own home was situated and his own son was the minister.
After the destruction of Groton, the inhabitants and the portion of goods that had been saved, as soon as it could be done with safety, were conveyed through the woods to the lower towns ; a considerable portion of them being left at Concord.
It is pleasant to contemplate that in selecting temporary abiding places for his Groton townsmen he showed a pre- ference for his old Concord home, and it may be that the welcome accorded to the Groton exiles was the more hearty because they had been associated in their homes with Simon Willard.
The house of Major Willard at Groton was never rebuilt. Soon after, he went to Charlestown where he died April 24, 1676.
When the "piping times of peace" returned and the sunlit forest with its kindly sheltering shades again afforded safety and the birds sang there sweetly undisturbed by the harsh war sounds, some one perhaps repaired to the deserted and desolated spot still lovely in its forest environment, and scraping away the cold grey ashes and finding a foundation which the fires of war had not crum- bled, built upon it. For years, the structure then erected endured. The storms swept over it and scoured its shingles or tore its thatching. It finally fell; the place again was left vacant, and today the traveler as he passes along the country road may see in the near distance in a pleasant pasture a few bunches of low shrubbery which alone remain to remind one of the former residence of Simon Willard.
But to the interested reader of the town's early his- tory there is about these silent objects and surroundings a special significance. The rough rocks and loosely lying stones may have been resting places for the exulting savage,
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as he sat on that dismal March morning after applying the torch and watched the flames as they consumed the dwell- ing place of one whom he intensely hated and feared. The little rivulet that still creeps down through the grassy runlet and crosses the highway in its passage, affording now the simple service of a wayside watering place, was once it may be rippled by the bucket of Madam Willard or her servants. Where the interval broadens out from the river and brook until by its gentle winding it reaches almost within view from the door, the younger children of the family in the season when the "sound of falling nuts is heard" may have repaired with their coarse baskets to gather wal- nuts and chestnuts, or to pick cranberries.
Another man who did good service in Philip's war and who spent a portion of his life in Concord was Lieut. Edward Oakes.
He came from England in 1640, and lived for many years in Cambridge where he was a selectman twenty-six years. His wife's name was Jane; and the names of four of his children were Urian, Edward, Mary and Thomas, the two former having been born in England. He was a Deputy to the Gen. Court from Concord in 1683, 4, and 6.
Lient. Oakes did service during King Philip's war in the troop of Capt. Prentice, who commanded one of the five troop of horse in the colony. To belong to a cavalry company was a privileged position. The members had extra pay and were generally from the more thrifty and well to do families, each one owning his own horse. Lieut. Oakes was in the summer campaign at Mount Hope. The fact that he was Lieutenant in Capt. Prentice's Com- mand is evidence of a creditable record. He died at Con- cord Oct. 13, 1689, aged about 85.
Simon Davis was a son of Dolor Davis who was a peti- tioner for Groton in 1656. His father married Margery a sister of Major Simon Willard.
Simon and his brother Samuel made their homes in Concord and had families the descendants of which are
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widely scattered and greatly respected.
Simon Davis subsequently became a Lieutenant and then a captain, and in King Williams war with forty troopers and thirty foot soldiers was appointed to defend the frontier from Dunstable to Marlborough. Beside serving faithfully as a soldier, captain Davis successively occupied several civic offices, being a representative about 1689. He mar- ried Mary a daughter of James Blood in 1660 and Died June 14, 1713 aged 77. It is said that three Governors John Davis, George Robinson and John D. Long have descended from this family.
Another Officer who was connected with the town of Concord was Capt. Thomas Brattle at one time a merchant in Boston and a member of the Artillery Company in 1674. He purchased of the Indians large tracts of terri- tory along the Kennebec and Merrimac rivers and owned the iron works at Concord. From 1678 to 1681 he was a deputy from Lancaster. He was one of the founders of the Old South Church in Boston and married Elizabeth, a daughter of Capt. William Tyng. Thomas Brattle was appointed Cornet of the Suffolk troop on May 30 1670, became Lieutenant Oct. 13, 1675, and captain May 9, 1676.
Thomas Brattle while Cornet on Sept. 8, 1675 conducted a detatchment of soldiers for distribution in the towns of Dunstable, Groton and Lancaster, and arranged with the people for their doing garrison duty among them. He was engaged in the organization and supply of several expeditions and was with the Narragansett army after the Swamp fight.
He died April 5, 1683 leaving it is stated the largest estate in New England at that time. His sons Thomas and William graduated at Harvard College and both were cel- ebrated and popular.
Before closing the subject of the connection of Concord with Philip's war we would observe that some of the mili- tary methods employed during the period correspond quite
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nearly to some of the practices of the period just preceding the war of the Revolution. For instance the function of the "committee of militia" was similar to the later com- mittee of safety and the latter may have had its origin in, or been a continuation of the former. In the time of Philip's war in a town adjacent to Concord, according to its historian, the inhabitants who were capable of bearing arms were divided into two military organizations, one, which was made up of two thirds of the inhabitants, acting as the reg- ular militia, and the remaining third standing in readiness to act at a moment's warning, suggesting both by the num- ber of men in each organization and by the service expected of those in the latter that here may have been the origin of the "Minute men." The company that stood in readiness to act at a moment's notice was known as "The Alarm." If this was the practice in neighboring places, without evidence to the contrary we may suppose it was so in Concord, and perhaps the twelve men who went to the rescue of Sud- bury, were Minute men.
The signal service consisting in the firing of several mus- kets succesively may have given rise to the same signal service of a subsequent century.
The making use of the town of Concord as a rendezvous of soldiers, a place for war refugees, for a gunsmith, a "Magazine," and a deposit of military stores may have caused it to be used for a military purpose in both the intercolonial wars and in the conflict of 1775.
Thus closed the tragic and grimly picturesque period of King Philip's war; a period in which the valor of the United Colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Con- necticut had been many times demonstrated, and in which the endurance and resources of the respective towns had been severely taxed. Both races left that in their records which they had great reason to regret, and which judged by the standards of later years is far from being commendable. The English in their fighting qualities even when they were displayed under circumstances which were wild, and ill
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adapted to the usual conditions of waging war, had shown themselves the masters, although by an inconsiderate rash- ness or overconfidence they had suffered their greatet losses. Their work had been open and their methods if not unmixed with cruelty had been tactful and orderly. The Indians had shown themselves coarse adepts in trickery and without successful comprehensiveness of plan. Their chief resource was the ambuscade, and they seldom attacked where the forces were equal. We know of but one notable instance of open siege by them, or of carrying a fortified place by storming it. The incidental references to their traits as brought out in the various war records, and in the literature of the times set forth we believe far less of a native nobility to the life and character of the savage than the poet has associated with him. He was gross in his general habits. The forest cleanliness that belongs to bird or beast was not observed by him, and the precariousness of his manner of living points to him as being lazily improvident. Some of his faultiness in these respects is brought out by Mrs. Rowlandson in a manner so marked as to make the very reading of the descriptions almost repulsive. In short the general testimony of the entire contest is that Indian observation of Euro- peans for a portion of two generations had not removed him from his ancient barbarity nor led him to abstain from vile practices which he observed before he had ever seen a white man. It is the old story oft repeated in ethnological history that nature alone is ill suited to reform a sin stained soul.
But on the other hand Philip's war remarkably affirmed the province of grace and the gospel to do a work in the human heart that even war with all of hell that there ma be in it cannot erase or eradicate.
The Praying Indian although persecuted by his own and his adopted race stood firm between the two fires and amid all the tribulations by which he was tested he could be
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depended upon in the hour of a "forlorn hope" as none other of his race could be.
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