USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 43
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Formerly, children attended the Peakham school from as far south and east as the Brown farms near the Framing-
RESIDENCE OF NAHUM GOODNOW.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
ham line, and from as far north as the Perry and Moore places. This district lies along a large share of the town's western border, but is perhaps at no point more thickly in- habited than within a half mile of the school-house. The Massachusetts Central Railroad runs through it, and has a station called the " Wayside Inn Station." The situation of this depot is exceptionally secluded, no other building being in sight on account of the woods by which it is nearly sur- rounded. The district has several places of considerable historical interest, and has been the birthplace and home of some of Sudbury's most prominent men. Here is " Howe's Tavern " or the " Wayside Inn." (See chapter on Taverns). Here is the old Walker Garrison House, and the sites of the Parmenter and old Brown garrisons. (See Chapter XI.) Here, at Nobscot, was the house of John Nixon, and here was the small-pox hospital. For years there were three mills in this district, - Howe's, Dutton's and Moore's. The first, early in the century, was owned by Buckley Howe, and still earlier by Joseph Howe. It was for years a grist- mill only, but subsequently it was made use of by J. C. Howe as a manufactory of shoe nails. It stands on Hop Brook a short distance above the Wayside Inn, and was the most westerly mill on this stream in town.
Dutton's mill was built by Joel and Samuel Knights about 1780. They also owned and used it. About the same time they established a West India goods store on the "Dutton farm." Moore's or Pratt's mill was erected about 1740, by Daniel Woodward, its first owner, who died in 1760. In 1794, it was called Perry's saw-mill. Mr. Woodward also, about one hundred and fifty years ago, built the house occu- pied by Capt. James Moore, whose grandfather married Mr. Woodward's daughter. At first this mill was only a saw- mill, but in 1830 a shingle mill was started there, and in 1837 a grist and bolting mill were put in by Ephraim and James Moore, who divided the property in 1848. Colonel Ephraim Moore used the mill until about twenty-five years ago, since which time it has been owned by S. B. Rogers, and latterly owned and used by Nathan Pratt.
Heavy timber once grew on the Peakham district. (See
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
Chapter I.) These lands, though some of them sandy and light, have yet been fairly productive by the diligence and thrift of its inhabitants. In the hundred years last past, great changes have taken place in the occupants of old home- steads.
The following are some of these changes, as given by Capt. James Moore when over eighty years of age. In the left column are present or late owners or occupants, and opposite, in the right column, are the earlier owners or occupants of the same places.
Newton and Spencer Brown. Samuel Brown.
Hubbard Brown. John Brown.
Luther Cutting.
William Brown, brother of John.
John Dakin. Caleb Brown, later Abel Dakin.
The above farms were probably one estate originally, and belonged to William Brown, an early grantee. (See Chap- ter III.)
Nahum Goodnow. Isaac Gibbs.
George Stone. Wm. Stone, Innholder. (See chapter on Taverns.)
Above the Stone place, on the left of the road that goes to the north, was the Jeduthan Moore farm. Two old, unpainted buildings stood there until within thirty or forty years.
Jonathan Bacon. - Rily, later, Joel Jones.
Near the junction of the South Sudbury and Marlboro road with the road to the school-house, was a house owned by a man named Dalyrimple.
Abel Willis. Ezekiel Loring.
Beyond the Willis place was the Dutton house now re- moved. Next to the Dutton house, on the corner, and now removed, was a house formerly occupied by Peter Willard, carpenter.
Abel Parmenter. Peletiah Parmenter.
This was an old Garrison House. (See Chapter XI.)
Addison Parmenter. Jedediah Parmenter, brother of Peletiah.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
The next building is the Wayside Inn.
Calvin Howe. David Howe.
West of Nobscot Hill there was a house destroyed by fire which was formerly occupied by David Howe.
Otis Parmenter. Israel Parmenter (original owner).
In a lane near the Dutton place was a farm once owned by Caleb Clark, but now a part of the Dutton place.
Solomon Dutton. Samuel Knight of Charlestown (original owner).
Abiathar Carr. - Plympton (original owner).
Willard Walker. Deacon Thomas Walker (Garrison).
Above the Willard Walker place was the Abner Walker place, buildings now gone.
Madison Parmenter.
Micah Parmenter (original owner).
Abijah Walker. Oliver Morse.
Hayden farm. William Hayden.
Back of Hayden's farm lived John Moore, grandfather of Deputy Sheriff John B. Moore of Concord. (Building now gone.)
Joseph Noyes. Dudley place. Benjamin Dudley.
Eliab Hayden.
Perry place. Ebenezer Perry (original owner).
Woodward Moore. Daniel Woodward Moore.
Capt. James Moore.
Daniel Woodward.
This house is in point of age perhaps second or third in Sudbury. Cider-mills once stood in this district at the . houses of Buckley Howe, David Howe at Nobscot, Micah Parmenter, Paul Walker, Capt. James Moore, John Brown, and at the Wayside Inn. A prominent person who lives in this district, and one of the oldest citizens of the town, is Capt. James Moore. He is a descendant on his mother's side of Daniel Woodward, before mentioned as the builder of Moore's Mill. For years Captain Moore was one of the town's selectmen and moderator of its meetings.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
THE NORTH-WEST DISTRICT.
This district formerly bordered on Concord and Stow, but when Maynard was set off, about two thousand acres of it became a part of that town. This locality was a school dis- trict for probably at least a hundred and fifty years. The school-house stood in about the centre of the district, by the county roadside, not far from the Balcom estate. As only a part of the original district comes within the present town limits, only a few facts about it will here be stated. The village of Assabet, now Maynard, was for years the com- mercial centre. A paper-mill was built there about seventy years ago, it is supposed, by William May, and a grocery store was kept by J. Sawyer. Near Jewell's mills, over the river, a saw-mill once stood, and there was also on a brook near the Daniel Puffer house another mill, which was con- nected with the farm. It had but little head of water, and because it ran slowly the people used to start it and then go to their work. A tavern was kept nearly ninety years ago at what has since been the Levi Smith place. But the old- time tavern best known in the district was kept by Jonathan Rice. It was an inn for about a hundred years. Says an old resident, " The last quarter of the last century on the very old Concord and Marlboro road then much travelled, now almost deserted, in the west part of Sudbury, was the noted Rice tavern, kept by the same family as early or earlier than 1750. Col. Jonathan Rice was the last proprietor, and closed it about 1815." The building stands just north of the present town bounds.
The oldest house in the district is supposed to be the Daniel or Jabez Puffer house. It is not known when or by whom it was built, but it is surmised to have been built by a Pratt, Puffer or Wedge. Some of the earlier occupants of this district were Jonathan Rice, Jabez Puffer and Peter Smith ; other early occupants were Amos, Asahel and Heze- kiah Smith, Richard Taylor, Mathias Rice, Jonas Balcom, - Wedge, Ephraim Pratt, William Rice ; and still later, but yet early, Benjamin Smith, Henry Vose, Ithamer Rice,
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
Abijah Brigham, Joel, Micah and Asa Balcom, Loring Wheeler, Daniel and Reuben Puffer and Abel Willis.
THE NORTH-EAST OR PANTRY DISTRICT.
Another district in Sudbury is that which has been famil- iarly called the "Pantry School District." This is in the north-easterly part of the town, and takes in the region about the head of " Gulf Meadow " and of a small stream called "Pantry Brook." The district may have been named after the aforesaid brook, but whence the name of the brook, probably no one knows. It may be from a shortening of the term Pine-tree.
A natural feature of the district is the extensive "Gulf Meadows," which at high water are overflowed in places, nearly up to the county road. This district is sparsely peopled, if we exclude the village of North Sudbury, which is now hardly within its limits. It has neither store, shop, nor mill, but scattered about it are well-kept homesteads and farms, where live a thrifty and industrious people. A saw- mill stood by the brook many years ago. The northern branch of the Old Colony Railroad passes through the locality, and has a station which is called North Sudbury. About a half mile southerly of the station is a school-house, and about an equal distance north-easterly is the North Sud- bury cemetery. One of the marked changes of this district in the past quarter century is the removal of the " Old Pantry School-House," a place once dear to many an inhabi- tant now middle aged or already grown old. This school- house formerly stood at the road corners near the Pantry bridge, and was latterly like others of the town, a one-story, white building, with two doors towards the south. There for years the youth of the "North part " went to school. From the east and north they came, from nearly as far as the town line, and from the south and west from half to three-quarters this distance. But the children of this district go to school at that spot no more.
A few years since, the old school-house was moved and became the depot of the Old Colony Railroad, and has since
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
been destroyed by fire. Its former site remains unmolested as the town's common land ; and the place once merry with the shouts of glad school children is now voiceless, save as the words of the transient traveller break the silence of the play-ground of this old-time school. The routine of school life here was doubtless like that of the other school districts, and such as is described in our sketch of "Lanham." It may not however be inappropriate to introduce here a poetic description by Hon. C. F. Gerry, an old pupil of "Pantry."
PANTRY SCHOOL.
I'm thinking of the school-house, Ned, Where, sitting side by side, We studied Webster's spelling-book, And laughed o'er Gilpin's ride ; And traded jackknives now and then, When not engaged in play, And got our jackets nicely warmed, How often I'll not say.
I'm thinking of the roadside green, Of every tree and nook, And how, in sultry hours of noon, We swam in Pantry Brook ; And, when upon the casement came The ruler's tattoo loud, How each of us in passing in Took off his hat and bowed.
I'm thinking of the benches rude, And desks so broad and steep, On which we left our autographs, In letters wide and deep ; And of my first new writing-book, Without a stain or spot, So soon adorned, on every page, With many an off-hand blot.
I'm thinking of the " Old Slough," Ned, Whose waters dark and cool So often laved our sunburnt feet, While on the way to school ; On whose warm rim the tadpoles lay, In spring-time, many a score, While golden lilies richly bloomed In summer, near the shore.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
I'm thinking of the forest hoar Where fir-trees densely grew, And tired feet in mosses sank, While hunting gum to chew ; And of the pleasant meadows, where, On many a scattered tree,
The red-winged blackbird sang in spring, His love song, " Quonk-a-ree."
I'm thinking of the hour-glass, Ned, With sands so white and fine, On which our teacher smiling gazed, As neared the hour to dine ; But feel my sands are wasting, Ned, For oft the children say, While fondling them upon my knee, " Papa, you're growing gray."
A short distance from the North Sudbury Depot is the old residence of the late Israel Haynes, who, it is said, cast the decisive vote that elected Charles Sumner to the United States Senate.
Mr. Haynes was an old-line Democrat, and that year represented Sudbury at the General Court. When the vote was taken for Senator there was for a time no choice; but Mr. Haynes liked the young man Sumner, and he changed the equipoised balance by a break from the party vote. By this ballot Sumner went to the United States Senate, where he championed liberty's cause and stirred up those elements that burst forth into civil war, which made our whole land free. What an influence thus went out from this quiet place, and how changed our nation's history by this silent act ! Mr. Haynes belonged to the old Haynes family of Sudbury and had a numerous progeny, some of whom still live on the old estate. On the Haynes farm, and south of the homestead, perhaps forty or fifty rods distant, once stood a block house. It was a small structure, heavily built, and demolished nearly a century ago. This doubtless was the stronghold for the neighborhood in the Indian war. (See page 200.) South-westerly of the depot a half mile or more is the Town Farm, or the "Poor Establishment," as it is sometimes called. In the southerly part of the district, on
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
the estate of the late William Hunt, stood the old residence of Rev. Israel Loring. The building was latterly an old red structure with a long slope roof at the back, and was used for years by Mr. Hunt as a lodging place for some of the town's poor, under the system of boarding paupers at the lowest price bid. Such are some of the features of " Pantry," as it is and was, in the not far distant past. Like other districts, it is dear to many who remember the days of the old district schools, but the reminiscences that are rich about it are passing or are passed away with the generations to which they belonged.
THE GRAVEL PIT.
Another locality of interest, though not called a district, is the vicinity of the old causeway or gravel pit. The place is partly in Wayland, the town line running nearly midway of it. It takes its name from the gravelly bank by the road- side, from which the town has taken gravel for public pur- poses from the time of its settlement. Repeatedly on the records, as the years passed by, has the term Gravel Pit been inscribed ; and one objection of the East Side people to the division of the town was that by such an event they would lose the gravel pit. The locality had early occupation, and is often referred to, but outside the records little is left to indicate what it has been. The natural objects remain, but persons and their dwelling-places have passed away. There, was probably the west side of the ferry, before the build- ing of the causeway. Peter Noyes's boat may have been moored to those meadow banks, when it furnished the main means of transit to the town's early grantees as they went to the West Side. Before the town was divided into two parochial precincts, an effort was made to have a meeting- house built there. (See page 289.) There was the begin- ning of the old Lancaster road which went to " Nashuway " (Lancaster). There the road started that went to Noyes's mill at Hop Brook ; and, from that point, a meadow path was laid out north and south over which the people hauled their hay. Several taverns have been kept there. During the Revolution a man named Wheeler kept a tavern there.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
The house stood on the Thomas Battles place, which was formerly owned by John Taylor, and since, by the Wheeler Haynes heirs. It was burned down years ago. Later, a tavern was kept by Abel Cutler, and at another time by a Mr. Carter. A school-house was once located there, and a blacksmith's shop used by Mr. William Brown, and Thomas Plympton kept a store there. Near the gravel pit is a place once called " Judge's Point." There, by the hill- side, Micah Goodnow, a fisherman, lived, whom they called " Judge," which circumstance probably gave a name to the place. On the upland, not far from the training-field and northerly or north-easterly of it, is a spot where, tradition says, an Indian is buried. It is said he was shot from the east side of the river as he was exploring thereabout in a time of hostility, and that the gun is now in possession of John Morse, son of Noyes Morse of Wayland. It is a long, heavy piece, a rare specimen of firearm, and has been in the Noyes family for successive generations.
The vicinity of this section is memorable in connection with the Revolutionary period. South-westerly on the hill, about a quarter of a mile away, were the government store- houses. (See period 1775-1800.) The land about the place was called Training-field Hill, the town owning about an acre there for training purposes. At one time a muster was held there. At the beginning of the present century there was an old, low building standing on or very near the spot where the George Taylor house stands ; in this house some of the government guard were boarded. The town's eastern boundary, as it runs through this locality, turns abruptly towards Wayland, takes in a small space, and then goes on in its regular course. The occasion of this was as follows: when the town was divided, a remonstrance was made by the inhabitants of the West Side, because, among other rea- sons, they would lose their training-field. Remonstrance was also made to the division by Caleb Wheeler, who stren- uously opposed having his farm of forty-three acres included within the limits of East Sudbury. It is supposed that, to compromise matters and so adjust things as to secure a division, the whole farm and the training-field were allowed
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
to remain in Sudbury. At various times, propositions have been made for straightening the line, but all efforts to accom- plish it have thus far failed. The piece of land is triangular shaped, situated on Sand Hill, and the South Sudbury and Wayland highway passes through it. It belongs to the Farr farm, and is still called the " Wheeler place."
CHAPTER XXIX.
1850-1875.
The Wadsworth Monument .- Petition to the Legislature. - Response .- Description of the Monument. - The old Slate Stone. - Fac-simile of it. - Dedication of the Monument. - Dismission of Rev. Josiah Ballard. - Sketch of his Life. - Ordination of Rev. Charles V. Spear. - His Dismission. - Installation of Rev. Erastus Dickinson. - His Dismission. - Sketch of his Life. - Rev. Webster Patterson. - Set- tlement of Rev. Philander Thurston. - His Dismission. - Sketch of Rev. George A. Oviatt. - Rev. Calvin Fitts. - Rev. David Goodale. - Rev. Warren Richardson. - Deacons. - Donation of Samuel Dana Hunt. - Bequest of Miss Emily Thompson. - Gifts from Mrs. Abigail Smith and Miss Ruth Carter. - Wadsworth Academy. - Congrega- tional Chapel. - Changes in School Districts. - In School-Houses. - Numbering the Districts. - The Goodnow Library. - The Building. - The Donor. - Incorporation of Maynard. - The Framingham and Lowell Railroad. - The Massachusetts Central Railroad. - Miscella- neous.
Look, how they come, - a mingled crowd Of bright and dark, but rapid days ; Beneath them, like a summer cloud, The wide world changes as I gaze. BRYANT.
THE period between 1850 and 1875 was an eventful one to the country. In it occurred the great and calamitous Civil War; and Sudbury, in common with other towns, bore
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
a share in the toil and the sorrow that were incident to it. Before, however, entering upon this subject we will give the annals of the town exclusive of those relating to the war. In presenting these, we shall, in some instances, make our narrative more consecutive by mentioning events that oc- curred outside the period.
THE WADSWORTH MONUMENT.
An important event that occurred early in the last half of the present century was the erection of the Wadsworth Monument. February, 1852, a petition was presented to the Legislature of this Commonwealth, in which, after a brief rehearsal of the events in connection with the Wadsworth fight, the petitioners say " that a small, temporary monu- ment was erected many years ago by the Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, President of Harvard College, over the grave of his father, Captain Wadsworth, and his associates in arms. Said monument being in a dilapidated condition, it is desir- able that it be rebuilt in a more durable form. Wherefore, at a legal town-meeting held for that purpose, your peti- tioners were chosen for a committee and instructed to petition your Honorable body for aid in erecting a suitable monument to the memory of said officers and men."
Signed, " Drury Fairbank and thirteen others."
The committee on military affairs, to which was referred this petition, in closing their report say : "The petitioners further state that said monument, which still bears the names of those brave officers, is now in a dilapidated condi- tion, and must soon go to destruction unless some immediate measures are taken to rebuild it; and that the inhabitants of Sudbury, being actuated by a strong desire to preserve it, are willing to defray a portion of the expense attending its rebuilding, if the State will aid them in so doing ; although, independent of the fact of its being located within the limits of their town, they feel no greater interest in its preserva- tion than should be felt by every patriotic citizen of the Commonwealth. Your committee concur with the petitioners on this point. True, the monument is intimately connected with the early history of Sudbury ; but is it not also quite
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
as intimately connected with the history of the State ? And should not every son of Massachusetts venerate and hold sacred these ancient landmarks, so to speak, wherever upon her soil they are found, which serve so forcibly to remind him of the struggles, the trials, and the valor of his fore- fathers ? ... They do not ask the State to erect a new monument over the remains of those who survived a san- guinary strife, and died among their own kindred and friends after a long enjoyment of that for which they contended ; nor do they ask to have such a monument erected away from the scene of that strife; but they ask that the State will aid them in the discharge of a duty which they feel belongs to every patriotic citizen of the Commonwealth, - that of endeavoring to preserve from destruction a simple and not expensive monument, built by their forefathers nearly a century and a quarter ago, over the single grave of the twenty-nine gallant men whose memory it was designed to perpetuate, and upon the very spot where their lives were sacrificed in the service of their country, and which is fast going to decay. Your committee are of the opinion that this case ... has no precedent and can establish none. And, even if it should establish a precedent, it is a good one, and one which should be followed in all similar cases, if any such should be hereafter presented, for it would be an indelible stain upon the escutcheon of Massachusetts and a source of the deepest mortification to her sons, if a single spark of patriotic feeling remained in their bosoms, if these sacred memorials of her past history were permitted to go to destruction, merely because their preservation would involve the expenditure of a few paltry dollars from the public treasury." Accompanying this report is the resolve, "That a sum, not exceeding five hundred dollars in all, be and the same is hereby appropriated towards defraying the expense of repairing or rebuilding, in a substantial manner, the mon- ument in the town of Sudbury, erected by President Wads- worth of Harvard College, about the year 1730, to the memory of Capt. Samuel Wadsworth and a large number of other officers and soldiers and others in the service of the colony, who were slain upon the spot marked by the monu-
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ment, . . . in the defence of that town against the Indians, - the said sum to be expended under the direction of His Excellency the Governor, in connection with a committee of said town of Sudbury."
Agreeable to the foregoing resolve, at a legal town-meeting held June 14, 1852, it was voted that Nahum Thompson, Drury Fairbank, Ephraim Moore, Enoch Kidder and J. R. Vose be a committee to superintend the building of the Wadsworth Monument. It was then voted to appropriate a sum of money, sufficient to complete said monument and finish about the same, out of any unappropriated money in the Treasury, said sum not to exceed five hundred dollars. His Excellency George S. Boutwell, then Governor of this Commonwealth, in connection with the committee of the town, "procured a handsome monument, consisting of three large square blocks of granite, one and one-half, two, and three feet thick, raised one above the other; from the upper one of which rises a granite shaft, tapering towards the top; the whole being twenty-one and one-half feet in height. On the front of the centre block appears the following inscription :
This monument is erected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the town of Sudbury, in grateful remembrance of the services and suffering of the founders of the State, and especially in honor of
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