USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > The history of Melrose, County of Middlesex, Massachusetts > Part 12
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The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.
May it be a long time before this old well-sweep is displaced! It is one of the last North Malden relics of former days. Suffer it to remain as a reminder of former generations of the Uphams of Upham Hill!
Still another Upham farm and homestead was situated on Upham Street, that of Nathan Upham, son of Amos, born February 28, 1781, and died in 1845, aged 64 years. This was on the north side, between Upham and Porter Streets. This farm was inherited by his two sons, Eli and Albert, two bachelors, who tilled its soil for many years; and finally lost possession because they would not set back a small carriage or tool house in order to widen Upham Street; being ordered so to do, first by the town authorities, and then by the County Commissioners. As they were determined not to move it, it was done by the State, the necessary tax levied, refusal to pay, citation in Court, non-appearance, defalcation decreed, and the estate sold to Nathaniel P. Jones, and thus passing out of the possession of the Uphams forever. Quite a portion of the farm has been sold in house lots, and many of our finest residences built thereon; but Mr. Jones still owns many of its acres, and he still owns the old homestead, which was built by Nathan Upham in 1816.
The brick house, on what is now known as the "Parker Place," was also built by an Upham, Joshua, son of the senior Jesse, in 1810. He was a master-mason of Salem. The road leading from the present Upham Street, just to the east of this residence, built in 1796, was the old way to Saugus and Lynn. This Upham house was sold sometime during the war of 1812,
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to a Mr. Peale, for $2,000, and the payment was made in whole pepper, which, from fear of being raided if taken to Salem, was stored in the chamber of Jesse Upham's house, then on Upham Street, now on Waverly Avenue. After the war was over, it is said by representatives of the Uphams, the pepper was bought back by the former owner. Some years later a Mr. Derby bought this place, and after owning it several years, sold it to the present owners, the Parkers. Cottages for different mem- bers of the Parker family have been built near by, and the whole cluster of buildings makes one of the pleasantest resi- dential spots in Melrose.
Time was when the old original Amos Upham, and the two Jesse Upham houses, views of two of which are given, were the only ones existing on what is now Upham Street, once Upham Lane, or the old country road to Saugus.
Just over the brow of the hill, at the extreme end of East Foster Street, there exists what may be called an Upham Ceme- tery, but what remains visible has more the semblance of a tomb; the door has disappeared, and the entrance has been walled up. Here were buried the two Jesse Uphams, father and son, their wives and many of their children. There was also entombed, Thomas Smith, who married a daughter of Jesse Upham, and his wife, also a Mr. Towle, who once lived on the Parker Place. There were graves outside the tomb, in which burials were allowed; among them, a negro named Johnson and his wife, and quite a number of others. These graves were entirely obliterated, years ago, by plowing and cultivating the soil. The tract embraced some ten thousand feet, and was originally fenced; but that also has disappeared, and nothing but the face of the undoored tomb now remains, in an open, unprotected field.
On the north side of Lynde Street, a few rods east of where Summer Street intersects, there once stood a very old house, built by John Pratt, who, at his death in 1743, gave it, with twelve acres of land to his grandson David Green, who sold it to Amos Upham. Mr. Upham was a blacksmith; the only one in this part of the town; and his shop was nearby his dwelling. These were situated on the original 1653 road. In those days, besides shoeing horses and cattle, and repairing carts, a great variety of work was done at the blacksmith's shop; here all kinds of agricultural implements then used were made; plough-
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shares, axes, spades, hoes, scythes, etc .; also all kinds of house- hold utensils; and a blacksmith's shop was a much frequented place. Here public notices were posted. In 1693, when rams were not allowed to run at large, the town passed the following vote which was duly tacked upon the blacksmith's shop:
That ye finder of any Rams shall forthwith set up a paper one both ye Smith Shops in this town fairly writen ye marke of said Ram.
This property passed into the hands of William Upham, of the fifth generation, in 1777. He was born August 7, 1747, and was a soldier in the Revolution; being in the battle at Bunker Hill, and at White Plains, where he was wounded and crippled for life.
On the opposite side of the street, on the rising ground, stands the little one - story Dolly Upham house, built by William Upham, in 1812, for his son William. In 1845, this property passed out of the THE DOLLY UPHAM HOUSE. possession of the Uphams. THE HOWARDS. The Howards were among the original families occupying the territory of Melrose. Peter Tufts, who seems to have been a land speculator, owning large tracts of land in this region, sold, in 1663, to Samuel Howard, then of Charlestown, his farm land, which was situated in what is now the centre of Melrose. It is described in the Middlesex Deeds, book 3, page 276, as lying at Ell Pond, and is embraced within the following bounds:
Northerly by sd Ell Pond, easterly by the brook from sd Ell Pond, and southerly by the brook running from Spot Pond, westerly by John Sprague's farme.
This latter line has been described as running northerly from Spot Pond brook, through Cottage Street, crossing Foster Street and the railroad east of the late Mrs. Liberty Bigelow's house, and so on a straight line to the head of Ell Pond. Mr. Howard, who came from England in 1635, in the ship " Elizabeth," built a house on the border of Ell Pond, on the
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east side and near its outlet. He also built a dam across the outlet, and erected a sawmill thereon. Samuel Howard died about 1681, his estate passing into the possession of his heirs. His son Samuel had the homestead of twenty acres, with the sawmill, bounded north by Ell Pond and south by a line a few rods north of Winthrop and Vine Streets. His son Jonathan had the remainder, lying south of this line, and afterwards came into possession of this mill, as is evidenced by the fol- lowing sale, dated Jan. 8, 1721:
Jonathan Howard conveys to Samuel Howard, wheelwright, one acre of land lying near the dwelling house of said Samuel Howard, with the grist or cornmill that stands on the land with the mill dam and all the privilege belonging to the mill.
THE OLD HOWARD HOUSE.
It would seem that this mill, after a service of fifty years, exhausted the timber in its vicinity and was converted into a gristmill.
Mary Howard, wife of Jonathan, came into possession of eight acres of land with the buildings thereon, on the east side of Ell Pond. The house here referred to is the one which, until the latter part of 1900, stood on the corner of Porter and Lebanon Streets. This was a very old house. The curb of the
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old well still stands, but the sweep has disappeared. Benja- min Howard sold one-half of it to Joseph Lynde, in 1762, mentioning in the deed that he purchased it of his father in 1740. This estate passed into the hands of Jonathan Howard, who sold to Amos Howard in 1786; and he sold to the late Nathaniel Howard, so long the principal undertaker of Mel- rose. He was born in this house, with a large family of brothers and sisters. One of them, Atalanta Howard, married Isaac Emerson, who built his homestead, wherein he passed a long life, where now stands the handsome parsonage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on Main Street. Another, James, built the house on the corner of Pleasant and Summer Streets, Malden, now occupied by his grandson, George Howard Fall, and who, many years after leaving his home on the borders of Ell Pond, wrote a poem in its memory: "But Now, No More, No More," two stanzas of which, furnished by Mr. Fall, are as follows:
The twilight kissed that little lake, The waves dipped on the shore; We said such days shall come again, But now, no more, no more. The sun it dazzles on the lake, As in the days of yore ; There the old cottage, still it stands, Where we shall meet no more.
The east half of this old Howard House, and the adjoining land was sold to the Melrose Hospital Association before its demolition; the other half of the estate, still belongs to Cynthia Howard Hawkes, a daughter of Nathaniel Howard, who now lives in Saugus.
Nathaniel Howard, son of Jonathan, built a house at an early period in the rear of the present Eastman's Block, on Main Street, about fifteen rods east of said street, near the Ell Pond brook. By his will, dated in 1763, he gives his real estate and buildings to his sons Amos and Ezra. This estate consisted of about forty acres of land, lying on both sides of Main Street, which was not then in existence, embracing the old village cemetery lot on the north, on which now stands our High School Building, bounded east on Ell Pond Brook, south to a line within about ten rods of Foster Street, including the Baptist Church and Sewall School House lots, west on line just in the rear of the Main Street stores, crossing Essex
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Street on the line of the City Hall lot, crossing Dix's Pond and Winthrop Street to a line parallel with the north line of the cemetery lot. Ezra Howard became sole owner of this estate by purchase from his brother Amos. Ezra Howard died and the estate, in 1808, passed into the possession of Ezra Tainter and William Dix, who married two of Ezra Howard's daugh- ters. Dix's residence was on the corner of Main and Essex Streets, where now stands our City Hall. Tainter owned the old house, which was in a dilapidated condition, and was demolished about the time Main Street was laid out in 1806;
PRATT FARM HOMESTEAD.
and the material was used in the building of the old Tainter house, for many years occupied by the late Henry G. Fields, and by him sold to Messrs. Burrell & Swett. They sold it to Seth E. Benson, who removed it to Faulkner Place, where it now stands. Where it formerly stood, the present handsome block was erected by Messrs. Burrell & Swett in 1891. It contains stores, and, for several years the Post Office was here located; its upper stories are occupied by the Melrose Club.
The Charles Pratt farm, of forty-six acres, on Lebanon Street, now belonging to the City of Melrose, having been pur- chased in 1887, for the purpose of enlarging the Wyoming
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Cemetery, was originally owned by Jonathan Howard, who built a house thereon. Reference is made to this by the Selectmen of Malden, when running bounds in 1690, as fol- lows:
Beginning at the ferder post of Joseph Lynde orchard so along to Jonathan Howards land next to the common land.
When bought by John Pratt, father of Charles, in 1778, ac- cording to a memorandum found among Mr. Barrett's papers, the house
was two story with a leaky kitchen on the back of the west end and occupied by 2 old Maids Ruth & Sarah Wait. The old Maids were to have the East End of the house during their life time. . . After the death of the old maids John Pratt tore down the old house and built the house where Charles Pratt now lives, in 1806.
Charles Pratt lived in the old homestead a year and a half after selling his farm to the town of Melrose, for $10,000, that consideration being a part of the price. He died Sept. 2, 1888, at the age of eighty-six years. At a town meeting held March 14, 1898, it was voted to utilize the mansion house and twelve acres of this property as a poor farm, until such time as the territory shall be needed for cemetery purposes.
Where now stands the Masonic Building, on the corner of Main Street and Wyoming Avenue, once stood another home- stead of the Howards, that of Joseph, the second son of Jonathan Howard, who died in 1769. This descended to his heirs, and afterward passed into the possession of Joseph Boardman; and when the Masonic Building was erected, the old house was removed to Dell Avenue, and occupied as a dwelling until within a few years, when it was demolished.
THE VINTONS. John Vinton of Lynn, was the ancestor of all the Vintons of America. The first of the Vintons that settled on Melrose territory, were the brothers Thomas and Benoni, of the fourth generation, about the year 1742. They married sisters, Hannah and Mary Green. Thomas bought his farm in 1758, situated on what is now Vinton and Franklin Streets. The old county road from Stoneham to Lynn, ran through our territory on or near our present Franklin Street; a short portion of it being now covered by Day Street. Phonics binton
As we have seen in the sketch of the Barrett family,
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Thomas' brother Benoni, came into possession of the Moun- tain House farm, to the south of Maple Street. This was also in 1758. Curious articles of agreement between these brothers exist in a quaint old manuscript: It is
agreed and Entered into by & between Thomas Vinton of Stoneham in the County of middlesex & province of the Massachusetts bay in New England, Husband=man on the one part and his brother Benoni Vinton of malden in sd County Husband=man on the other part witnesseth that they the said Thomas and Benoni for their own Convenace and preventing future Dificulty do Covenant promise & agree to & with each other in the following manner Viz that the said Thomas shall & will pay or Deliver to the Said Benoni in his the Said Thomases orchards near his house annually apples anought to make two barrels of Cyder or else two Barrels of Cyder Ready made and delivered by the said Thomas at his house annually to the said Benoni that is Equaly as Good as the other Cyder that the said Thomas makes provided that the Said Thomas may make four barrels in a year and untill the said Benonis young orchard near his house doth bear apples anough to make two barrels of Cyder in one year as Shall be Judged by Indiferent men and that the Said benoni Shall & will Give Liberty to the Said Thomas within three years from the Date hereof at any time to pull up and take away the one half of all the young apple trees that are now in the nusseries near the house and barn of the Said benoni.
Also Benoni
Shall and will be at one half of the Cost of additional finishing the house the said Thomas now Dwells in and the whole to be done within three years from & next after ye 28 day of July Ad: 1758.
This house was on what is now Ashland Street, but has been turned round and altered somewhat. It is now owned by the estate of the late Charles A. Messenger.
Benoni Vinton's son, Lieut. John, was a man of note, and filled a number of prominent positions in Malden. He was a constable in 1777, and as such served a warrant under the following circumstances, as told by Mr. Corey, in his History of Malden, pp. 769-70:
In the winter of 1776 the General Court passed " an Act to prevent Monopoly & Oppression," which was designed to check speculation and a spirit of extortion, which, as is usual in times of public distress, began to appear. Under this act Ezra Sargeant and Jonathan Sprague gave information, on oath, to the Board of War, "that they have good Reason to suspect that in the Houses of Mary Emmerson Widow &
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HISTORY OF MELROSE.
Jacob parker Housewright or Gentleman, both of Malden aforesaid there is considerable number of yards of Woolen & Linnen Cloth, which Cloth is absolutely necessary for the use of the Army & that the said cloth in said Houses the owner refuses to sell or dispose of at reasonable price."
On this information a warrant was issued, upon which the following return was made March 19, 1777.
"Jn obediance to the within Precept I have made Search In the house of the widow Mary Emerson & have found in said house forty three yards one Qr! & one 8. of a yard of Checked woolen Cloath & twenty five yards one half & 1.8 of a yard of Tow Cloath & after taking the same into my care the Agents appointed by the Selectmen of malden agreed with the said mary for the Cloath & purchased it at the State price. I Dident proceed to go to mr Parkers house by reason it was not Suspected that any of the Goods had been Removed there
"pr me JOHN VINTON Constable." Papers on file in the office of the Secretary of State.
Mrs. Emerson was the widow of the Rev. Joseph Emerson, and Jacob Parker was their son-in-law. After the death of Mr. Emerson his widow and daughters appear to have kept a small shop for the sale of goods in their house near the meeting house.
Lieut. Vinton was a member of the Committee of Corre- spondence for Malden, for the years 1779 and 1780, serving with Lieut. Bernard Green, John Green, William Dexter, Sam- uel Sprague, Jonathan Sprague and others. He was also Tax Collector for Malden's assessment by the State.
TREASURER'S OFFICE, Jan' 13 1778
Received of Mr. John Vinton of Malden one hundred twenty four pounds 6 in part for Taxes committed to him to collect for the Year 1778.
£124=6=0
H. GARDNER Treasurer.49
Lieut. Vinton's military services are given in the chapter "Military History."
Benoni Vinton died in 1760, and his brother Thomas in 1763. Thomas left three sons, Thomas, Timothy, and Ezra. To Timothy he gave the above homestead. He never married, but lived with his mother, until she died in 1804. He lived to be ninety-two years of age, and died in 1836, an abject miser. Turning his farm productions into money, he would hide it in all sorts of out-of-the-way places; burying some of it in the ground, a part of which was undoubtedly lost; five 49 From old papers in possession of George A. Fuller.
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hundred Spanish dollars, old and tarnished, found in his house, were divided among his relatives immediately after his funeral.
For Thomas was built, in 1770, the house formerly standing near the corner of Tremont and Franklin Streets, since re- moved to the corner of Tremont Street and Ellsworth Avenue, and now owned by John Singer, Senior. This farm descended to his son Thomas, who died in 1841, aged 70, of whom it is said he never left his farm for forty years, and never visited Boston, although living so near it. He left a very singular will, bequeathing his property in a curious manner to the Baptist Church of Malden. In 1846, the Baptist Church sold it to Winthrop Richardson. This was soon after the Boston and Maine Railroad was opened. At this time there
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WIS DINĆE OF WINTHROP MOT.DAC ON :30
were but four houses in what is now the Highlands, west of Main Street-three occupied by Vintons and one by the Greens. This old homestead farm was held by Mr. Richard- son for farming purposes until 1853, when it was surveyed, and laid out in streets and house lots, and people from Boston began to make investments and build homes thereon. For himself he built a fine mansion, of which the above is a view. It stood about where now is situated the residence of Charles E. French, on Highland Avenue, the tower standing where the Stone Fort, sometimes called "Chipman's Folly," is situated, on Chipman Avenue. This tower, from the top of which was afforded a most extensive view of the surrounding country, was destroyed by an incendiary fire one Fourth of July,
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several years since, and the house has been removed to Ash- land Street, and is now the residence belonging to the estate of the late Charles A. Messenger.
The following is a view at the corner of Franklin and Green- wood Streets as it existed in 1853, and where now stands the residence of the late Frank A. Messenger. The two houses are those of the late octogenarian, Deacon Joel Snow, and Mrs. Martha A. Adams, widow of the late Rev. John G. Adams, D. D.
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KAMDOS YAY
FROM STATION HOVSI
What property had not been disposed of by Mr. Richardson, before his accidental death on the railroad in 1853, was in- herited by his daughter, Mrs. Caroline M. Wood, who now lives on Tremont Street; and in 1895, the large tract of land north of Highland Avenue, then owned by her, was surveyed and laid out in house lots, in an artistic manner by Ernest W. Bowditch; and many fine residences have since been built thereon. It is destined to become one of the finest residen- tial precincts of Melrose.
In 1777, Ezra Vinton bought the Deacon Joseph Green farm and homestead, situated westerly from the original Thomas Vinton farm, the house being on Vinton Street, near the corner of Franklin Street. Our present Vinton Street was then merely a cartway which led from Stoneham to Malden. About 1790 this house was burned, and Ezra then built on the same spot the house now standing. This is one of those large-timbered, strongly-built, huge-chimneyed, with oven
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attachment, old-fashioned houses of the early settlers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; devoid of ornamenta- tion, but commodious and comfortable. It is not quite so strongly built, in the way of timbers, as those of the earlier settlers. It has had some alterations and additions in the rear, and the top of the chimney has been made smaller.
At the death of Ezra in 1817, the estate was inherited by his son Joseph Vinton, who owned it until 1845, when it was sold to Horatio Nelson Perkins, who lived many years on the corner of Vinton and Franklin Streets. He sold the Vinton homestead to Israel Richardson of Portland, and the property
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EZRA VINTON HOMESTEAD.
is now owned by his heirs; but Miss Sarah A. Chever, through Mr. Richardson's generosity, has a life lease of the house. She has gathered many interesting heir-looms therein; among them three chairs and writing table that belonged to Rev. Cotton Mather, D. D. On this table many of his sermons and books were written; the chairs will be seen in the centre of this in- terior view of one of the rooms in this comfortable old mansion, but the table has been disposed of.
A grandson of Ezra, Aaron Vinton, born in 1826, lived on
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Howard Street, where he carried on the farming industry for many years. He died July 1, 1901.
The southern part of the Ezra Vinton farm, the woodlands. was sold by Mr. Perkins, to Dexter Bryant, and is still owned by him, with the exception of those portions sold in houselots and built upon. On this land, some way south of Orris Street, formerly Green Lane, on the high ground, is an old cellar-hole where once stood the Wilson house. Six or seven large elm trees are now growing within its walls. Mr. Wilson was a shoemaker and school-teacher; and carried on both branches of his business in that house, and at the same time.50
EZRA VINTON HOUSE-INTERIOR.
A natural curiosity existed on the southern part of this Vinton farm, and now belongs to the estate of Mrs. Benjamin F. Dyer, No. 44 Orris Street. It is an immense "Cleft Boul- der," or natural gateway to the woods beyond, a view of which is here given. The space between its walls is wide enough for a carriage drive, and it has a large oak tree growing therein.
50 This Wilson place formed the corner from which the boundary line was run northerly, in the act
of IS53, when a part of Stoneham was set off to Melrose.
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It is an interesting specimen and relic of the glacial age. It has been called by some "Chapel Rock"-why I know not.
As we have seen in the history of the Green family, for more than a century they owned nearly all the territory now comprised in the Melrose Highlands, and a large part of Greenwood. After the advent of the Vintons, and their mar- riage into the Green fami- lies, this Highlands territory, to a very large extent, be- came the property of the Vintons. These three broth- ers, Thomas, Timothy and Ezra Vinton, lived side by side, on the then existing county road, (discontinued when Franklin Street was built,) and joined Captain Sprague's company of " Min- THE CLEFT BOULDER. ute Men," marching from Stoneham to Lexington, April 19th, 1775.51
These families, the history of which has been given more or less in detail, are the ones that owned nearly every acre of the occupied territory now Melrose, during the early years, and many of the members of which were prominent in town affairs; and each and every one of which has descendants among its citizens today. Their characteristics, as well as those of all New Englanders in general of that period, are concisely described by Corey, in his History of Malden, pp. 296-300.
Whatever the superficial observer may pretend to see in the past which is now two centuries agone, there was very little of romance in the lives of the foredwellers of New England. The land which, when weary leagues away beyond the sea, seemed to flow with milk and honey and to stand forth a later Canaan amid the virgin forests of the new world, became to their nearer vision a reality of bleak and rocky shores, a stubborn land of dark woods and rocky soil wherein Israel might rest ; but where existence was to be had at the price of priva- tions not unmixed with suffering, and where a livelihood was only to be gained by the literal sweat of the brow.
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