USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 42
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beyond the bridge, near the old " upper dam." There were also tanning vats on the "Island " (land between the ma- chine shop and the mill). On the "meeting house road " was a bakery. It was moved from the spot just east of the Willard Wheeler house, and is now owned by John Jones. About 1850, William Jones and Theodore Brown had a shoe manufactory at what is now the Bowen place. Since 1850, shoe tacks and nails were made at the mill by Calvin How, and hats and leather board by Rogers and Moore. The main business in and about South Sudbury has been farming. Of late years, early gardening has received much attention and greenhouses have been used by some. The first greenhouse in Sudbury was erected in 1879 by Hubbard H. Brown for raising cucumbers. He has since erected three more, all of which cover six thousand feet of ground. Since 1882, thirty greenhouses have been built. There is now used for raising vegetables and flowers nearly one hundred thousand square feet of land covered with glass. Fifteen farmers and gar- deners are engaged in the work. It is estimated that seven hundred tons of coal are consumed yearly, and about fifty thousand dollars are invested in the business. The buildings are all heated by hot water except in one instance where steam is used. Most of these are used for raising vegetables, such as cucumbers, lettuce, rhubarb, tomatoes, etc. One house has twenty-eight thousand lettuce plants, another has twelve thousand carnation pinks. In 1881, the manufacture of machinery was begun at South Sudbury by Rufus H. Hurlbut. The business is now carried on by the firm of Hurlbut & Rogers. The machine shop is near the Parmen- ter mill and the Massachusetts Central Railroad.
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS.
The first carriage in town was owned by John Brown. A wagon was owned by Christopher Cutler nearly fifty or seventy-five years ago which cost eleven dollars. The first kerosene lamp was used by Miss L. R. Draper (Mrs. A. S. Hudson) at the Willard Wheeler house. The first mowing machine was owned by John Whitman Rice, and used on the Farr farm. The first sewing machine was, perhaps, the
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
one used by Richard Horr at the Kidder shop for stitching " shoe uppers." It was operated by a crank turned by hand. Hard coal was, perhaps, first used at Hunt's store.
The former owners of most of the farms in and about South Sudbury have been given in connection with other parts of its history ; we will, therefore, only mention the few that remain. The Thadeus Moore place was the Ashbel Hayden place ; the main house was the Thompson house, moved from just beyond the bridge at South Sudbury village. The Nathan Haynes place, just beyond Lowance Brook or Hunt's Bridge, was the Jonas Hunt place. The small red house with gable roof, on the South Sudbury and Fram- ingham highway, just beyond the Old Colony Railroad, was moved to its present position, many years ago, from the Bryant place just beyond the William Stone house. Walter Rogers' farm was formerly part of the Cutler place and was owned by Major Holden, and before that by Mr. Seger, a sea captain. The C. G. Cutler place was the old George Pitts place. A building formerly stood south of the present one, near which the old road passed. It was once used for a tavern, and was probably kept by George Pitts, at whose house one of the early meetings was held to consider the matter of having preaching on the West Side. (See Period 1700-1725.) The George Pitts farm once contained a large land tract which was granted to him in 1715. The record of this grant is as follows: In 1715, at a meeting of the proprietors of the common and undivided land in Sudbury, " Said Proprietors by unanimous vote without any Contra- diction did give and grant to George Pitts of Sudbury and his heirs and assigns forever all the common land as the committee hath viewed it and returned and bounded it that is to say, all ye common Land Lying between the new Mills in Sudbury and so from there as the road goeth to Marl- borough to the gate yt Leads to Capt Brown's yt is, all the Land on the South Side of the road as it is bounded and the meadows called Lowance meadows Lying east south and west of the land, all which land the Proprietors have granted to George Pitts, only the Proprietors reserve for our con- venient Drift ways to the above said Lowance Meadows,
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and gravell to mend the Mill Dam and the highways as there shall be occasion. This vote passed into an act as attest.
" Peter Haynes Moderator
" This said land is on the west side of Sudbury river."
(Proprietor's First Book of Records, page 175.)
SUDBURY CENTRE.
The " Centre," or, as it was formerly called, the " Middle of the Town," is situated on the northern branch of the Old Colony Railroad, and nearly midway of the town. It has three churches, a school-house, town-house, blacksmith's shop, wheelwright's shop, grocery store, depot and three or four dozen dwelling-houses. The place was anciently called "Rocky Plain," afterwards " The West Precinct," and dates its beginning as a village about 1725. The oldest house in the village is, probably, the " Tower house," now owned by Frank E. Bent, and situated next south of the Orthodox Church. Its date is unknown, but it looked old in the youth of the oldest inhabitant, as did also the Lewis Moore house, the next but two further south, where Mr. Moore, the village cooper, in an L running northerly, once plied his trade. The Tower house, prior to its possession by Mr. Jonas Tower, was occupied by a man named Noyes. This house may have been the first one erected on " Rocky Plain," and the one referred to in the Town Records as "the new house." This village has undergone much change within the past seventy-five years. Early in this century there was a blacksmith's shop at what is now the corner of the railroad and highway, and northerly of the house of Horace Par- menter. The shop was kept by Josiah Haynes; nearly op- posite, north of the road, was a house since demolished occupied by Asa Haynes ; and a little beyond this on the bank, was the George Barker house, a low building with its four-sided roof, which stood until a few years ago. Dr. Taft, a physician, once lived there. Subsequently a store was kept at the place by Reuben Moore. Where Garfield and Parmenter's grocery stands, there was formerly a store kept by Ephraim Stone and Asahel Dakin, which was burnt about forty years ago, together with a tavern house which stood
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on the corner nearly north of it. Nearly opposite the grocery site the Powers house once stood, at which time it was painted red. At the Joel Moore place, since the residence of Lemuel Brown, the first house west of the Unitarian Church, a store was kept by Capt. Asahel Wheeler. This country store-keeper, we are informed by an old inhabitant, " was large, smart, and lived to be very old." For a long time he led the singing in the old church choir. Nearly opposite Captain Wheeler's store was a low, unpainted house which looked old seventy-five years ago. The school-house was near the bank by the town-house. It was a small, red structure, built towards the close of the last century. Its successor stood on the common at its south-east corner, and was moved to its present position only a few years ago. On the common, nearly front of the old parish meeting-house and under the large buttonwood-tree, was the horse-block where the people mounted and dismounted when they went on horseback to church. Near the site of the Orthodox Church once stood the blacksmith's shop of Abijah Powers. It was moved to its present location about 1839, and was an old building then. Before its possession by the present owner it was occupied by Myron Wright, and still earlier by John Wallace. A "noon house " stood near the horse- sheds ; perhaps there were more than one. These buildings were erected by private parties and furnished with fireplaces for the benefit of people between services on the Sabbath. Beyond the Common to the easterly, in what was then the first house towards Boston (Loring parsonage), a tavern was kept by Walter Haynes. Beyond this, at the George Good- now house, Parson Bigelow lived. On the road to South Sudbury, at what is now the Smith Jones place, Rev. Rufus Hurlbut lived.
The house now occupied by Luman Willis was the old Ashur Goodnow store. There a grocery was kept for years, and many a townsman still remembers the bent form of the aged proprietor as he dealt out his wares. The second building westerly of the Unitarian Church was erected by Dr. Thomas Stearns, about a half century since, and used for his residence till his decease ; and after the " old Corner
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Tavern" was burnt it was used for a public house by Webster Moore. The present store building was moved to its present location since 1848. The lower story was for- merly the old Centre school-house. Various traders have sold at its counters, prominent among whom were Stone and Dakin, Jonas Hunt and Smith Jones. The house occupied by Horace Parmenter was formerly owned by Capt. William Brigham, and was moved to its present location from a spot to the north-easterly, to give place to the railroad. The wheelwright's shop of Sewall Taylor is on the site of the building once used for religious services by the Evangelical Union Church. It was built in 1853, and was moved from South Sudbury, where it was originally Haynes's carpenter's shop, and later, Jones and Brown's shoe shop. In 1851, a saw and grist mill was built near Wash Bridge by Asahel Haynes. It is now owned by the Prescott Willis heirs. A small saw-mill once stood southerly of the Asa Jones place, which was built by Mr. Jones in 1842. It was moved about five years afterwards and demolished in 1851. Beyond the Willis mill is the Wash Brook bridge. About seventy-five years ago, the father of the late Reuben Rice of Concord was killed crossing this bridge ; he was engaged hauling lumber for the meeting-house when the load fell on him. Before leaving this part of the town, it may be of interest to men- tion the outlying estates as they were known to the older inhabitants. For the sake of brevity, we will place in two columns the present or recent and former names of the places, owners or occupants.
PRESENT.
FORMER.
Charles Haynes.
Curtis Moore.
The Prescott Willis heirs.
David Lincoln.
Elisha Goodnow.
Capt. William Brigham.
Widow Asahel Dakin.
Asa Jones.
Francis Haynes.
Samuel Jones, prior to him Maynard.
John Quinn. Elisha E. Smith.
Lyman Willis.
William Maynard.
George Moore.
Newell Bent.
Calvin J. Morse.
Martin Moore.
Theodore Morse.
Jason Bent.
Asahel F. Hunt.
William Hunt.
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W. H. Fairbank.
Luke McCann.
Charles Haynes.
John W. Rice (House recently Capt. William Rice. burned). Horatio Hunt. Lucius Bent. Isaac Clark.
Aaron Hunt.
Tilly Smith. Henry Goodnow. Reuben Moore.
Thomas Hurlbut. Reuben Moore, Jr. - Osborn. Thomas Plympton (House demol- in 1886).
Among the objects of interest about the village of Sudbury Centre is the old Burying-Ground. The Common, also, is a place of interest. Thither the minute-men repaired at the bell strokes on the morning of April 19, 1775. The train- bands of Sudbury afterwards made it their place of parade and spread their tents upon it on "old Election " or the Fourth of July. Generations of church-goers from the West Precinct's very beginning have strolled over it, or sat on its grassy covering during the intermission of Sabbath services ; and all that is mortal of many a former inhabitant has been borne over its quiet roadway to the church-yard beyond. The school children from the old red school-house made it their play-ground for many years. There the people talked politics on town-meeting day when the meeting-house was their voting-place, and about it clustered the first homesteads that made a village of Sudbury Centre.
NORTH SUDBURY.
The village of North Sudbury is in the northerly part of the old Pantry school district, which it was once a part of, and borders on Concord. It contains about thirty dwelling- houses, which is about the same number as were there both fifty and one hundred years ago. Whatever of village this locality has is mainly made up of scantily scattered farm- houses along the Boston and Fitchburg highway, which was built about 1800. It has a post office, kept by Edwin Conant. The school-house is by the " Great Road ; " it was built during the late war and cost three thousand dollars. Before its erection the pupils went to "the Pantry school."
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The post office was established about 1830, on petition of Willard Maynard and others. The following postmasters served up to 1839 : Josiah Adams, Joseph Wheelock, Wil- liam Hunt, 3d. For a time, the postmaster at Lincoln took charge of the North Sudbury mail ; but, on petition of three- fourths of the town voters for the removal of the South office to the Centre, the South postmaster, wishing to retain his office, suggested to the people of the north part to petition for the re-establishment of a post office there, which they did with success. The petition for an office at the Centre was refused on the ground that it was nearer the South office than the department rules would allow. The new office at the North was kept by John Sawyer. Various small indus- tries have engaged the attention of the people of this neigh- borhood in the past. In 1770, a Mr. Brown had a harness and whip shop near the south side of the Tavern Plain. In 1780, Samuel Dakin and Deacon Dakin had cooper's shops, and there was another near J. H. Adams's in 1825. A shoe- maker's shop was at J. Puffer's tavern in 1800, and N. Barrett had a shoe shop one-half mile cast of Pratt's tavern. Daniel Bowker had a blacksmith's and axe shop between 1790 and 1820, and John Haynes had a blacksmith's shop from 1820 to 1840 and a wheelwright's shop from 1835 to 1845. Abijah Brigham had a blacksmith's shop one mile west of Pratt's tavern from 1770 to 1800. The site is now in May- nard. Thus the ring of the anvil and hammer have been heard in the past where now not a shop exists. In 1827, iron ore was taken from the edges of bog meadows and from different farms to the amount of over one hundred tons, which was carted to Concord River at Lee's Bridge and taken in boats to Chelmsford.
About 1815, a grocery store was kept a few years by Asa Puffer, one-half mile west of Pratt's Tavern, and at the same place groceries and dry goods were kept by Josiah H. Adams from 1822 to 1830. In 1820, William Hunt, 3d, and William Wheeler kept a grocery and dry goods store, a half mile east of Pratt's tavern, and at the same place from 1825 to 1851 Nahum Thompson kept a stock of the same articles. Gro- ceries were also kept by John Sawyer, three-quarters of a
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mile west of Pratt's tavern, from 1830 to 1840. In this part of the town the most noted tavern was perhaps the old Pratt Tavern, burned in 1887. This was built previous to 1820 by Nathan Wheeler, adopted heir of Isaac Puffer, who many years kept a tavern in a house now owned by Mrs. McNulty. Since the first proprietorship the following persons have kept this inn : David Gerry, 1822; Earl Stratton, Willard Wiley, 1826 ; Lucius Dickinson, one year ; Joseph Wheelock, William Hunt 3d, Lyman Haynes, Solomom E. Pratt, about ten years ; Jesse Gibbs, Robert Burrington, Leonard Carter, 1863. The farm and buildings were purchased of the Bur- rington heirs about 1864, by Capt. Abel B. Jones, who annexed the land to his farm and discontinued the tavern. Four stages daily, Sundays excepted, stopped at this inn for passengers and a relay of horses. The stage route belonged to Chedorlaomer Marshal, commonly called Kidder Marshal, of Fitchburg, who was mail contractor.
This stage route continued after Mr. Pratt kept the tavern until the completion of the Fitchburg Railroad. Jonas Puffer, brother of Isaac, kept a tavern a half mile from his brother's during the last quarter of the last century, on the old Con- cord and Marlboro road, then much travelled, now almost deserted. The road through North Sudbury is called by the people of the place the " Great Road," and by those of the centre and South Sudbury the " North Road." The true name is the Boston & Fitchburg Road.
But few homesteads in North Sudbury are possessed by the posterity of original proprietors. It is supposed that the ancestors of Frank M. Bowker, Jonathan C. Dakin and Frederic Haynes were probably the first settlers on the farms that their descendants now occupy, but other places have largely changed hands. There are in the district but few old houses. Most of those built from 1700 to 1725, which had two stories in front and one in the rear, and nearly all of which faced southward, whatever direction the road, were nearly all pulled down between 1820 and 1840, and were succeeded by houses of two stories, only one room in width with a projecting kitchen called an "L." It is said this style continued about twenty years and was followed by the
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modern house of various shape. A saw-mill once stood near the place now owned by George Barton, which was built by Joseph Noyse about 1775. The water power was insufficient, and the mill was finally sold, taken down and carried to Maynard.
It is said that the saw, as it dragged down through the log and then went up, sounded as if saying, " Shall I go or shall I not."
1
CHAPTER XXVIII.
1850-1875.
Description of School Districts. - Lanham District. - Territorial Limits. - School-House. - Old School Customs. - Order of Exercises. - Examination Day. - Former Dwellings. - Their Owners or Occu- pants. - Clay- Pits. - South-West District. - Origin of the Term Peakham .- School-house .- Name of it .- District Limits .- Location of Railroad Station. - Places of Historic Interest. - Mills. - Present and Former Owners or Occupants of Homesteads. - North-West District. - Location of School-House. - Assabet Village. - The " Rice Tavern." - The Oldest House. - Early Inhabitants. - North- East or Pantry District. - Territorial Limits. - Origin of the Name. - Railroad Station. - Pantry School-House. - Poetic Description of it. - Mr. Israel Haynes. - Incident of his Life. - Block House. - Old Loring Parsonage. - The Gravel Pit. - Historic Reminiscences. - Taverns. - School-House. - Indian Grave. - Government Store- Houses. - Training-Field. - Irregularity of Town Boundary Line. - Cause of it. - Caleb Wheeler Farm.
Each man's chimney is his golden mile-stone, Is the central point, from which he measures Every distance Through the gate-ways of the world around him. LONGFELLOW.
LANHAM DISTRICT.
THIS word has been spelled Lanham, Landham and Lan- num or Lanum. (For origin, see page 70.) As a school district, it formerly extended a half mile westerly of Mill Village (South Sudbury) and southerly to just beyond Hunt's Bridge. Lanham proper extends from the South Sudbury and Wayland highway to Framingham line, and from Heard's Pond to Lowance Brook. Various changes have taken place in this district, noticeable among which is the removal of the school-house to its present location. It formerly stood on
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the town's common land, near the Coolidge place, between the three roads, and was removed but a few years since. Its predecessor was an old red structure built, probably, about a century ago. We remember it as a nearly or quite square building with a roof sloping four ways and a small L for an entry on the south. The windows were high, and on the rude benches and desks were the signs of misspent hours, where the idler with his jackknife had made his mark. As the customs of district school life here were, probably, the same in the other districts, we will allude briefly to some of them. There were two terms in the year, called the " winter school " and the " summer school." The former began the first Monday in December and closed about the first of March. The beginning and the ending were both great events. The first was attended by early rising and repairing to the school- house to get a "good seat." While propriety gave the back seats to the elder scholars, the principle acted on was "first come, first served." Weeks beforehand, books were put in the desks as a kind of half claim, but the day the school was opened the room was occupied long before daybreak. At nine o'clock the schoolmaster appeared, sometimes attended by the local " committee man." He at once became the object of common and curious scrutiny, his sagacity, stature and strength being then and there duly considered. The names and ages of the scholars were then taken, and the questions to each, " What have you studied ?" " How far have you been ? " " What studies do you expect to take ?" were quickly put and answered, and the classes were formed. The order of exercises in the morning was as follows : roll- call, reading of the Scriptures, each scholar rising and read- ing a verse in turn, prayer at the option of the master, and classes in reading, arithmetic and writing, interrupted by a short recess at half-past ten. In the afternoon the order was, usually, reading, beginning with the first class, geography, grammar, history and spelling. The recess was at half-past two. The " nooning " was from twelve to one. This was usually employed by the boys, in good weather, at ball, "round ball " being the favorite. The Massachusetts Cen-
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tral Railroad now runs over the old ball-ground, which lay east and west of the bridge.
Such was the usual routine as the weeks passed by. Now and then some little episode would break in, as when the " committee came in" or the school had a sleigh-ride some bright winter's day, or a half holiday for some reason was given. At the close of the term was examination day, familiarly called the "last day." This was the great event of the term, when the committee, and friends, and visitors from other districts came in. The day before was always devoted to washing and trimming the school-room. The floor was scoured till it was almost white. The woods were searched for evergreens, and wreaths and festoons were , made to decorate the nicely cleaned walls. When all was completed, the weary workers sat down to a feast, made up of pie and cake brought by the girls, and confectionery pur- chased by the boys with a collection of small change. After the recitations of examination day were over the committee " made remarks," the clergyman offered prayer, and the visitors retired. The master lingered for a time to make some parting remarks, or perhaps to present a card or book or bestow a reward for good conduct, and then " school was done." The summer school was always taught by a woman, and lasted two or three months. The older boys and girls were kept at home this term to assist in the household and on the farm.
Besides changes connected with the school, many others have occurred in Lanham in the last hundred years. A stone bridge has taken the place of the wooden one. On the site of the Nahum Goodnow house, built in 1886, the old house of John Goodnow the centenarian once stood. The latter, built by Mr. Gooodnow when a young man, is still standing a few rods to the north. At or near its present site was a small building where Mr. Goodnow lived when he first came to his Lanham estate. The lane, running westerly by Lanham meadows towards Lowance to William Goodnow's, is old. On the north side of it various dwell- ings once stood, a man named Gibbs living in one of them. Near where the Brooks house now stands was the old Elisha
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Hunt homestead. Several generations of Hunts have lived in this house, which was probably built at least one hundred and fifty years ago. It is now moved easterly, to the north side of the road, and is used as the farmhouse of the Brooks estate. The first house on the place, tradition informs us, was built of planks, and was half frame and half log house ; it stood at or near the original site of the farmhouse. By the roadside, at the corner a few rods west, was a small, low, unpainted building consisting of two rooms, once used for a school-house. At one time Isaac Moore, a Revolutionary soldier, lived there. His son, Warren, was in the privateer service of 1812, and was made prisoner and taken to Dart- moor Prison, England. In this district was the old Good- now Garrison. (See page 199.) In this district are several . clay-pits ; some are near Heard's Pond, and some are men- tioned in the records as being near the town line. Lanham brook is the lower part of Hop brook. Robinson brook, near Green Hill, has its name from the Robinson family, which lived south of the road on the east bank of the brook. The Massachusetts Central Railroad station in this district is called East Sudbury.
SOUTH-WEST DISTRICT.
This district has also been called Peakham. It is stated that a man by the name of Peakham once owned a little land in that part of Sudbury, and that the land was called after the name of its owner; from which circumstance the whole locality thereabouts came to be called Peakham. The area embraced in the original limits of this district is large, but it contains neither post office, village, nor even any consider- able hamlet. The school-house is situated a little northerly of the South Sudbury and Marlboro road, and was built towards forty years ago. A school-house has stood on the spot at least a hundred years. Latterly, the school was called the " Wayside Inn School," but for several years it has been discontinued, and the scholars being few are carried to South Sudbury.
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