USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > The history of Medway, Mass., 1713-1885 > Part 2
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The probability of the case is that the fall of her knitting-work with a dingle was the cause of her fright, and the noise of the needles upon the snow-crust was mistaken for the tread of a wild beast, and that the tenacity of the yarn which held the stocking continued the pursuit by drawing it after
16
her. In closing the door she shut in and broke the yarn, as the innocent cause of her trepidation was discovered next morning upon the door-step.
A story is told of an adventure somewhat serious in its consequences, and which illustrates the superstitions of those days. A team was unable to draw its load along this same way, when the driver, believing the hindrance to be the result of witchcraft, instead of whipping his cattle bestowed his blows upon the wheels of the cart. Soon the team drew the load without further trouble, and it was afterwards ascertained that the old woman who did the witch business in the neighborhood was covered with wales from the driver's whip.
LACROIX Del
THE OLD STONE BRIDGE AT THE NECK.
BOGGASTOW BROOK is not without its scenes of interest. In its upper part the stream is of considerable vivacity, but as it approaches the broad meadows it becomes sluggish like the Charles. It runs through the Boggastow Pond, a sheet of water whose surface lies hardly below the level of the Broad Meadow, and a quarter of a mile further east it falls into or rather unites with, the Charles River near the northeast corner of the town.
Thus Lovers' Retreat, Dinglehole, Pine Grove, Bog- gastow Brook, and The Old Stone Bridge, are some of the rural haunts of the region celebrated in legendary story, objects of curiosity and the scenes of many pleasurable and sentimental rambles.
17
INDIAN CLAIMS AND EARLY GRANTS.
Originally the territory of which Medway forms a part belonged to the Nipmuck Indians. The Charles River seems to have formed the eastern and southern boundary of their country, separating it from the dominion of the Massachusetts. The Nipmucks were once a powerful tribe, holding do- minion over the greater portion of Middlesex and Worcester counties, with their capital near Wachusett Mountain, where their sachem resided. But before King Philip's war they became divided into several independent tribes, of which one was the Natick. While, therefore, the deed of Josias, a chief of the Massachusetts, acknowledging the grant of his grandfather, Chickatawbut, and confirming to Medfield her territory, related only to that part on the east side of the river, the Nipmucks claimed all that was on the west and north sides. Accordingly, on the 25th of January, 1672, the town of Medfield chose a committee consisting of Thomas Wight, Sen., John Frary, Sen., John Ellice, John Medcalf, and George Barber, " To treat and conclud with John of Boggastow, we mene John a Wasameg of Natick for the interest and right he claims in the Lands within our Towne Bownes on the west side of Charlles River." Under date of March Ist, 1672. the record is as follows: " This day the rate for the Endians pay was Drawen up it being 21£ 7s. there was all most a fifth part raised on the New Grant."
It was the custom of the Colonial Government to make grants of " country land " to eminent citizens. In 1643 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted to the Rev. John Allin two hundred acres of wild land lying in the forest beyond the west bounds of the town of Dedham. This is the earliest intimation that civilization was about to lay her hand upon the wilderness on the west side of the Charles River.
It is probable that the Rev. Mr. Allin never took the trouble even to visit his landed possessions, and it might have puzzled the godly man to tell the exact locality of his " farm," so called. Subsequently his rights of owner- ship were purchased by one of his parishioners, whose name will appear on a subsequent page as the first settler in these parts.
In 1649 Captain Robert Kayne, of Boston, received a grant of one thousand and seventy-four acres of meadow and upland upon Pawsett or Po- cassett Hill, bounded south by Mr. Allin's farm ; and we learn from the records that the line between Medfield on the south and Sherborn on the north corresponded with the line between these two grants; and also that the Broad Meadows were bounded north by Mr. Allin's land.
THE OLD GRANT.
In 1649 the inhabitants of Dedham petitioned for a grant of land west of the river. The reason they gave was, " because we are streightened at our own doores by other towns and by rocky lands." At this day one naturally wonders how much of what they already possessed was under cultivation. But as they lived in a territory, as described by patent granted in 1628 as that part of New England extending from a point three miles north of the Merrimac to three miles south of the Charles, and from the Atlantic Ocean
18
to the Pacific, with the illimitable wilderness around them as yet unoccupied, why should not their utmost wishes for room be gratified! Such seems to have been the view of the case taken by the General Court; for they re- sponded to the petitioners by granting them a tract three miles from east to west and four miles from north to south, on condition that they should erect a distinct village thereon, within one year from the twenty-second day of October following. Captain Kayne, Mr. Edward Jackson, and the surveyor- general were appointed to lay it out, upon a week's notice being given by Dedham. Accordingly, May 22, 1650, " the new village in Dedham " was laid out. " The line," say the commissioners in their report, " beginning at a small hill or island in the meadow, on the west side of Charles River, and running thence about west three miles, then turning south three and a quarter miles and ending at Charles River, the river to be the bound to the place where the line began." The petitioners accepted this territory, though it did not embrace as much as was specified in the grant.
The town of Dedham granted the territory on the east side, and at their request the new village was called Medfield. Thirteen families having located on the east side, it became a town May 23d, 1651. In 1660 Samuel Maverick wrote A Briefe Description of New England, in which he says : "Five or Six Miles from Deadham is a Small in-land Towne called Medifield handsomely Seatted for Farming and breading of Cattle."
The small hill or island mentioned in the foregoing report is about a quarter of a mile north of Boggastow Pond; and the line running thence west, so far as is known, corresponds with the present line between Medway on the south, and Sherborn and Holliston on the north, the west end of it being at present the corner of the town of Millis. From this point the line ran south along the westerly border of Black Swamp, and came to the river at Medway village, passing a little to the west of the spot now occupied by Christ Church. The meadows along the banks of the Charles and its tribu- taries furnished, no doubt, a leading motive for the location of a town at this point. The grass procured without tillage, requiring only the labor of the haying, though inferior to that of the upland, produced by cultivation, was still a great boon to a people beginning to live in the wilderness, who had at once dwellings to provide, fields to clear, roads to make, and institutions to found, besides supplying the daily needs of life. By a wise forethought, this advantage was secured by grants on both sides of the river. Of so much im- portance was it considered that we find the first land on the west side divided among the new citizens of Medfield was that portion still called the Broad Meadows, lying north of the point where the railroad crosses the river. In 1652-3 a highway, the first in Medway, probably that still used for carting the hay, was laid out one rod and a half wide from the entrance of the Broad Meadows at the south, and running through the whole to the north end, crossing each lot. There were twenty-two lots, containing about ninety acres. These lots were bounded " on the north by a little river and by the meadow of Mr. John Wilson, of Dedham."
About the same time thirty-three acres of meadow were laid out " before Bridge street." These seven lots were bounded east by the river, and formed the tract now crossed by the turnpike.
In 1653 Abraham Harding and Peter Adams had grants in Grape
19
Meadow, a tract lying east of Black Swamp, and west of the farms of the late Andrew Morse and J. Willard Daniels, Esq.
At this time the record mentions the Great bridge. This spanned the river near where the railroad now crosses, and soon after mention is made of Dwight's bridge, both of which must have been constructed to gain access to the grass in the meadows, and the pasturage in the woods on the west side. Several grants were made " 13: 11 : 1655" to Benjamin Alby, Alexander Lovell, and others, of meadow-lands, by "Henry Adams, Dept."
These facts show the importance then attached to the meadows, while the uplands had as yet received little or no attention.
The neighboring town of Mendon found their territory so deficient in meadows that they petitioned the General Court to give them leave to take such as lay in adjoining territory not claimed by other towns, so that each farm of thirty acres might have at least ten acres of meadow, or in that pro- portion.
It was not until about the end of 1658 that the town voted to lay out some uplands on the west side of the Charles River. The localities are thus described : "On the longe plain to begin next to Boggistow River on that end" ; "At the furder Corner of our bounds By Charles river to begin next the town "; " In pine valley to begin at north end and go throf it"; "At the end of pine valley on a persell of land that the path goeth throfe."
" The longe plain " was the level land stretching southward from the mills to the meeting-house of the First Church of Christ, or perhaps farther south. Fifteen lots were granted in the spring of 1659, containing nearly one hundred and eighty acres, and a highway was reserved on the east end of the lots, running nearly north and south. These lots were bounded east and west by the waste land, and were taken up, beginning at the Boggastow Brook, according to the vote of the town, in the following order :
I. Benjamin Alby, . 15 acres.
2. Heirs of Joseph Morse, 15
3. Thomas Wright, Sen., 15
4. John Thurston, . 10+ 12. Thomas Thurston,
13. Thomas Ellis, .
9+
6. Peter Adams,
7. Nicholas Rockwood, . 11+
8. Thomas Wright, Jun., 6
9. John Frary, Sen.,
14+ acres.
IO. Robert Hinsdale, 9+ =
II. Joshua Fisher,
15+-
II+ 6 6
5. Samuel Bullen, . 13 10+
14. Mr. Wilson,
13++-
15 . James Allen, 7+
173 acres.
With perhaps a single exception, those men who drew these lands never resided on this side of the river. The only one who became an inhabitant was Nicholas Rockwood, who in his old age came to reside with his son, John Rockwood. It was for their sons to become the first settlers.
Benjamin Alby, whose name is first in the above list, and whose lot was next to Boggastow Brook, received another grant in 1669, of twenty-five acres of upland, bounded northwest by his meadow, southwest by the waste land, southeast by a swampy brook, and in part on the northeast by Boggastow Brook ; a highway three rods broad to go through it to the mill. It seems that the two lots, consisting together of forty acres, were joined, and the de- scription seems to point to the farm occupied by the late Mr. Richard Rich- ardson, including some of the land on the northwest side of the road, now belonging to H. M. Collins, Esq., and others. Mr. Alby was a member of
20
the first board of selectmen in Medfield. Afterward he disposed of his lands here, and in 1664 took part in the settlement of the town of Mendon. He made an agreement with the superintending committee to erect and main- tain a corn-mill for the plantation, on Mill River, near the boundary between Mendon and Milford. His mill was probably started in 1664 or 1665. The authorities afterwards voted him a bounty of fifty acres, in consideration of his building and maintaining a mill. The History of Milford says: " Benjamin Albie was a very enterprising man, a public-land surveyor, and much employed in numerous layings-out of ways, lots, and common lands in early times. When Mendon became an incorporated town in 1667, he was made one of its first selectmen, and intrusted with other responsible offices. When King Philip's war broke out, in 1675, he fled eastward with the Men- don fugitives, and all his buildings were burnt by the savages. He was now an old man, and never returned farther than Medfield. There he probably died. All his Mendon property passed into the hands of his son James."
It appears that January 25, 1659, John Fussell received a grant of eight acres of upland lying on a little plain above the corner of the great swamp west of Charles River. This is the field on the south side of Union Street, near. the railroad crossing. It formed a part of the Sylvanus Adams farm, now occupied by Cyrus Daniels. Mr. Fussell settled here afterward, and when the Indians destroyed Medfield his house was burned with him in it. Jonathan Adams, who married Mr. Fussell's daughter, afterwards rebuilt the house in which he resided.
In the latter part of 1659 it was ordered " that there shall be a highway to lie over the small brook west of Charles river which shall be for a drive- way to pass between the land of John Fussell on the south of the way and the land of John Plimpton on the north of the highway, so to pass on west and up into the wilderness by a stony ridge hill where lieth a path ; also that there is a highway laid out which turneth out of the aforesaid highway at the west end of John Plimpton's lot, and so throfe the other lots where it was at first drawn, to run two rods wide unto Boggastow brook for a leading way for such as have occasion to make use of it, but not for an open driveway."
The highway which was "to pass on west and up into the wilderness by a stony ridge where lieth a path" was doubtless that leading over the neck and so on by the Lyman Adams place. The other road mentioned as laid out and reserved at the east end of the Long Plain lots was that which ran directly from the house of Sylvanus Adams to that of the late Deacon Paul Daniell, and passed the residence of the late Richard Richardson, Esq., to Collins's mill. Along the woods there are still marks which show this an- cient highway, although the traces in the open fields which existed a few years since are now quite obliterated.
The small stream, sometimes called "Spring Brook," is crossed by the old road to Medfield not far from the residence of the late Deacon Paul Daniell, and empties into Boggastow Brook a little distance to the eastward. Spring Brook in the early days swarmed with trouts and was a great resort for fishing. So famous was this brook for these speckled prizes that it be- came known as Trout Brook. But in later years this is a misnomer, except in a historic sense, and trout-fishing is one of the lost arts, for the best of reasons,- no trouts to be fished.
2I
ROUT
ROOK
" The land at the
furder Corner of our bounds By Charles river to begin
next the town " is not easily located. "Pine valley" was perhaps the valley through which the road passes from the Great Bridge to the " Harding place," now the residence of Mr. Hosley. The end of pine plain might have been that around and west of the house of Moses Adams, Esq. The " persell of land that the path goeth throfe," is described in the grants as Boggastow plain. Ten lots were laid out containing ninety acres, a cart-way two rods wide to cross them all. The direction of this highway was northwest and southeast. It may have been that leading from Dwight's bridge to the Great bridge.
LAGROTTE
THE NEW GRANT.
In the Acts of the Provincial Government for 1659 it is recorded, " In ansr. to the peticon of the inhabitants of Meadfield, the Court judgeth it meete to graunt unto them as an addition unto their former bounds & at the west ends thereof two miles east & west & fower miles north & south provided it intrench not upon former graunts & ye Capt. Lusher & Left. Fisher are hereby appointed to make return thereof to the next session of
22
Court." This grant was made May 11, 1659, a day memorable for the exe- cution in Boston of three Quakers, Stephenson, Dyer, and Henderson. It was laid out by Captain Lusher and Lieutenant Fisher, and formed a regular parallelogram, embracing eight square miles, afterward known as the New Grant. The north line was an extension of the north line of the first grant two miles to the west ; thence running south, parallel with west line of the Old Grant to the river, which formed its southern boundary. To the east it was bounded by the Old Grant line. It embraced within its borders one- half of Winthrop Pond, the Indian name of which was Winnekening, or the Smile of the Great Spirit ; also the territory now occupied by the little vil- lage at Metcalf Station, and even extended beyond the northwest side of the road leading from Holliston to Milford. These lines remained unchanged, and all this territory belonged to Medfield, and later to Medway, until 1829, when the northern portion of it was given to Holliston in exchange for a part of Holliston which lay to the west of Medway.
At the annual town-meeting, February 6, 1660, it was ordered that the New Grant be divided to all the inhabitants of the town that were proprietors, according to the common rules of division of land by the numbers of per- sons and estates, each member of the family being reckoned the same as ten pounds of estate.
As there was no large tract of meadow which could be so divided as to give each proprietor a share of sufficient size to justify a separate division, it was ordered that the meadow should be divided with the rest of the land as the lot might determine.
It was the practice, in order to prevent disputes and ill-feeling, to draw lots for the individual grants. The numbers were put in a hat and each man drew out and took his land where the lot fell, or, as it is expressed in the record, "where the providence of God shall direct."
April 20, 1660, it was ordered, "that highways be laid out on the New Grant four rods wide or more if it be needful in the judgment of those that lay them out."
One of the highways was to enter it from the Old Grant, half a mile north of Charles River, and to run westerly across the same to its west side ; another to lie through the midst of the tract of land from the way just de- scribed, running northerly to the north end of the New Grant.
Neither of these roads was ever made and used in its entire length for public travel. The old discontinued road called Vine Lane, now unused and overgrown with bushes, which runs west from Holliston Street near the house of Edward Fennessy, and that past the north end of West Medway Cemetery, where it is called Evergreen Street, and on farther west the road past the house of A. P. Thayer, Esq., and up through the woods, now Me- chanics and Oak streets, form a part of the first of these highways and now occupy the land which was originally left for that purpose. The other high- way which was to lie through the midst of the New Grant, running northerly to the north end of the grant, was formerly called the Pond road, from the fact that it terminated at Winthrop Pond. That portion of it that is now in use as a public highway forms a part of Elm Street, the whole of Pond Street, a part of Lovering Street, and Allen Lane. The part not practicable for a road, with other such lands, was subsequently sold by the town.
23
These two highways divided the New Grant into three sections. The southern one next the river, containing about one thousand and seventy-nine acres, was divided into twelve farm lots by lines running north from the river to the first of these highways. The other two sections, each a mile wide, on the east and west sides of the pond road were divided into lots by lines running east and west. The west section, containing eighteen hundred and ninety-six acres, was divided into nineteen lots ; on the west side of this sec- tion, land was left for a road now occupied by Summer Street. Of the east section, sixteen hundred and fifty-eight acres were divided into sixteen lots, and two hundred acres at the north end lying east of Winthrop Pond were left undivided, making eighteen hundred and fifty-eight acres.
It was ordered, " that the lots to be drawn shall take their place succes- sively as they are drawn forth, the first lot to begin at the hither side of the grant on the division next the river, and to pass on through that division to the west side of it, and then to begin on the south end of the west division, and so to go through that tract to the north end of it; and then next, the lots shall take place on the south end of the tract of land on the east of the highway, and so to go successively through the same."
The following are the names of the proprietors of the New Grant in the order in which the lots were drawn, and the number of acres in each :
No.
NAMES.
A.
No.
NAMES.
A.
23
Isaac Chenery.
77
SECTION NEXT THE RIVER.
24
Joseph Clark.
16I
1
Ralph Wheelock
156
26
John Fisher.
61
2
John Metcalf.
117
3
Robert Mason
57
4
John Pratt. .
39
29
Abiel Wight
38
5
Widow Sheppard.
51
30
John Frairy, Jr
177
6
Thomas Wight, Jr.
31
Mr. Wilson ...
147
7
Timothy Dwight.
146
8
John Turner.
120
EAST SECTION.
Gershom Wheelock. 36
78
Benjamin Alby.
138
35
John Frairy, Sen
147
WEST SECTION.
36
Henry Adams.
148
37
Thomas Wight, Sen.
166
13
Heirs of Joseph Morse
141
38
Thomas Mason
73
14
Henry Smith.
158
39
Francis Hamant.
87
15
John Bullard .
100
40
John Partridge
69
16 Sampson Frairy
68
41
John Warfield.
22
17
Edward Adams
IO2
42
Thomas Ellis. 77
18 John Fussell.
24
43
John Bowers .. IO2
19
William Partridge
61
44
Thomas Thurston.
72
20
Jonathan Adams.
84
4.5
John Thurston
191
21
Daniel Morse ..
12
46
Peter Adams. 101
22
John Plimpton
107
47
George Barber
149
9
Alex. Lovell.
94
10
John Ellis
I26
II
James Allen.
IO2
12
Joseph Thurston.
15
25
Robert Hinsdell.
157
27
Nicolas Rockwood.
85
28 Samuel Bullen
136
56
32
33
Joshua Fisher
34
The cost of laying out this grant, paid by the town, was £19, 6s., 5d. The first lot, drawn by Ralph Wheelock, was that on which Medway Vil- lage now stands. It is recorded August 31, 1661 : "Whereas the way
24
leading through the new grant from east to west is found not passable nor capable of being made so ; it is therefore agreed on, and also layed out by the men that were deputed thereunto that the way is to assent the hill by the river and from thence to cross the lot of Mr. Ralph Wheelock to the side line of John Medcalff's, by a little pine standing on a stony ridge and so to turn down by John Medcalff's side line, to the other way at the head of his lot, which is a matter of 40 rods and to be 4 rods wide."
At this early period there was no road from the Great bridge westward excepting that which is described as " the path up into the wilderness," which had been staked out and reserved for a highway, and which afterward became the country road to Mendon and so on further west. Here a portion of it is described as ascending the hill by the river, across Ralph Wheelock's lot. The little pine standing on the stony ridge has long since passed away, but the highway that turned by it " down by John Medcalff's side line to the other way at the head of his lot " is, no doubt, now represented in part by the street called "Lover's Lane," John Medcalff's lot lying on the west side of it.
The heirs of Joseph Morse took the lot including the farm of Addison P. Thayer, Esq., and the site of the Baptist church and Plainville. Henry Smith took the next lot to the north.
Mr. Wilson, who drew the lot at the northwest corner of the New Grant, was the Rev. Mr. Wilson, first minister of Medfield. His lot embraced the land on which stands the little village of Metcalf Station in Holliston, and the nursery of S. M. Cutler ; it was bounded east by Winthrop Pond.
The first lot at the south end of the east division was taken by Gershom Wheelock. Upon it now stands the house of Edward Fennessy, Esq. This lot was but eighteen rods wide. The next was taken by Joshua Fisher. The lots were laid so regularly, and the record is so complete, that the situa- tion of each of them can now be determined with very great certainty. It is safe to say that not one of the original owners ever occupied these lands ; indeed more than one generation passed away before there was a settlement within the New Grant. In some cases the descendants of these men afterwards settled upon them.
The Rev. Abner Morse, in his History of Sherborn and Holliston, says : " Henry Morse, born June 14, 1703, and died April 5, 1766, settled ± mile southwest of Winthrop Lake, on a lot of 177 acres, assigned by the proprietors of Medfield, in 1659, to John Frairy, his great grandfather."
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