USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > The history of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass. from the grant of its territory to Charlestown, in 1640, to the year 1680 > Part 47
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Rev. Mr. Randolph was the first and the last minister whom the Second Universalist Society appears to have statedly em- ployed. No other subsequently to him is mentioned on their records. At a meeting, March 29, 1847, called "to see if they would close up their affairs," 30 they seem to have dissolved their connection with one another, as a distinct religious society, and to have yielded up the disposal of their meeting-house, upon some terms, to the Unitarians, who thenceforth had the charge of providing the preacher employed in it, and of paying for his services.
FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIETY.
Reference is made in the records of the Second Universalist Society, 1844, to Unitarians, as being at that time accustomed to assemble for worship in the Town Hall. No regular legally
29 Memoranda, by John Johnson, Esq.
30 Letter of Rev. Eli Fay.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
constituted society, however, of this denomination appears to have existed in Woburn, till 1847. By a warrant issued by 'Albert H. Nelson, Esq., March 31, 1847, the members of a reli- gious association, not named therein or incorporated, were warned to assemble in the vestry of the Universalist meeting- house that day, at a given hour.31 In compliance with this notice, several gentlemen of the Unitarian belief came together at the time and place appointed, some of whom liad had appa- rently no previous connection with the Universalist Society, and the first act of their proceedings on that occasion was, to organ- ize the gentlemen present into "The First Unitarian Society in Woburn." 31
At a parish meeting, held May 20, 1848, Rev. Henry F. Edes, an alumnus of Bowdoin College, 1828, and of the Theological School, Cambridge, 1831, was invited to become the pastor. He accepted the invitation ; but resigned March 18, 1850.31
January 10, 1853, Mr. George F. Simmons was unanimously called to the pastoral office ; but declined.31
March 7, 1853, Rev. John M. Masters, a graduate, 1847, and a tutor, 1850, of Harvard University, was chosen and accepted. During his ministry, the church building was remodelled, and the society prospered greatly. But, March 25, 1855, he ten- dered his resignation, on account of ill health.31
April 15, 1857, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, D. D., was elected pastor. The office to which he was thus chosen, he accepted ; and continued to fill it till November 28, 1863. The society prospered under his labors.31
Rev. Dr. Stebbins is a native of Wilbraham, Mass .: was a graduate of Amherst College, 1834; an alumnus of Cambridge Theological School, 1837; settled in Leominster, September 20, 1837-44. President of the Meadville Theological School, Mead- ville, Pa., 1844-56 ; and received the honorary degree of D. D. . from Harvard University, 1851.
Rev. Eli Fay was chosen his successor, April 16, 1864,32 and still (1867) continues in office.
31 Letter of Rev. Eli Fay.
32 Letter of Rev. Eli Fay.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Before the ministry of Rev. Dr. Stebbins in Woburn was com- pleted, his society had taken measures to provide themselves with a larger and more commodious house of worship. Thus far, since their organization as a society, they had met on sabbath days in the church built by the Second Universalist Society, in 1845, and which had been remodelled and enlarged by them, during the ministry of Rev. Mr. Masters. But now, the more fully to answer their wishes in this respect, they had purchased, enlarged and adorned, at the cost of about forty thousand dollars, the comparatively new church erected by the First Congrega- tional Society of Woburn, in 1841; and having finished their labors upon this stately, elegant church edifice, they dedicated it anew, April 16, 1865.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Methodist preaching was commenced in Woburn, at the town house, 1850, by brethren of that denomination, Stephen M. Vail, D. D., Leonard P. Frost, and J. W. Merrill, D. D. Previously, there had been a few Methodists in the town, a portion if not all of whom belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Med- ford, and had for some time been organized as a class, nearly all the members of which attended very punctually.
In February 1851, a church was organized by Amos Binney, presiding elder, consisting of ten members in full communion, and several probationers.
In May 1851, Brother H. Kendall, a local preacher, was ap- pointed by the presiding elder to supply the people regularly with preaching. He is characterized, as " carnest, laborious and suc- cessful " in his vocation; and at quitting the place, in 1852, he left to the charge of his successor twenty-seven members in church fellowship, and twelve probationers.
In 1852, he was followed by Brother J. B. Holman, a local preacher, who made the earliest permanent church record.
In 1853, Brother Cary succeeded, the first appointed by the Conference; but left before the close of the year; and was fol- lowed by Brother H. R. Parmenter from the Biblical Institution at Concord, N. H.
43*
498
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
In 1854, Brother George Sutherland was stationed at Woburn by the Conference ; preached there two years, and was very suc- cessful in his labors. During his ministry, the chapel was moved from the site now occupied by Lyceum Hall, and placed where it now stands; was bought of the parties that built and owned it, paid for, and " filled to overflowing with an attentive congrega- tion, most of whom loved God and each other."
In 1856, Brother Sutherland was followed by Brother Tread- well; and he, in turn, in 1857, by Brother J. A. Ames, " who was very successful. More persons were received on probation, more baptized, and more married by the pastor of the Methodist Church in Woburn during his two years' service, than in any other equal length of time, during the first fourteen years of its history."
Brother Ames was followed, in 1859, by Brother M. P. Web- ster; and he, in 1860, by Brother Otheman; and he, in 1862, by Brother Atkinson; and he, in 1863, by Brother Barney, a student from Concord, N. H.
During the years 1862, 1863, " many were ready to give up the organization ; and but for a very few determined spirits, the church must have broken up. For a long time, the Records show no conversions, no baptisms, and no marriages. In fact, the church seems to have been crippled socially, financially and spiritually."
During 1864, the church was supplied, under the presiding elder, by Rev. N. D. George, who, with the church, succeeded in obtaining pledges for nearly enough to meet the cash payment ($5,000) on the church building we 33 now occupy. About one- half of such pledges were collected, when Brother George was succeeded, in 1865, by [the] present pastor, (Rev. M. M. Park- hurst.) Between the 1st of April and 17th of May, the build- ing was purchased, the balance of subscription ($2,500) was collected and paid over, and a deed obtained. The church building was thoroughly repaired, carpeted, cushioned. Gas
33 The foregoing account is copied chiefly from communication of Rev. Mr. M. M. Park. hurst, May 1866, the present pastor of this church.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
pipes were brought into the audience room ; a new pulpit, altar rail and chairs purchased, and the house was re-opened May 17, 1865, with all the bills paid, but the small balance ($1,000) of the purchase money of the church."
During the time from the 1st of April, 1865, to the present . [May 1866], the congregation has increased greatly; the sab- bath school has doubled in numbers ; the church has enlarged in financial ability and social power ; and has increased its pastor's salary, and its membership about four-tenths.33
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
In 1847, the Roman Catholics commenced holding meetings at Woburn, in the Town Hall. A house of worship was erected by them, in 1852, under the supervision of Father Carroll, who then officiated among them as priest, and who was succeeded in office by Father Brannigan. In 1862, Father McCarthy became a resident priest in the town, and remained until 1864, when Father John Qually became pastor.34
The church erected in 1852 for the public worship of this denomination of Christians, is now, it is understood, found too strait for them, and strenuous efforts are now being made, under the direction of Father Qually, and with the aid of several citi- zens of the town, to build them a larger and more convenient house for this purpose.
The present average attendance upon their Sunday services is about eight hundred. A sabbath school of about two hundred and fifty meets in the afternoon at the church.34
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL SOCIETY.
Zealous efforts are now being made to establish an Episcopal Society in Woburn. Numbers, it is understood, regularly meet on the sabbath in Lyceum Hall, who make use there of the Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States in their worship, and who hope ere long to see a church erected, and a society legally formed, for the benefit of their denomina- tion. And here it seems not inappropriate, and may be accept-
34 Communication of Father Qually, April 21, 1866.
6
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
able to the good people of Woburn, to remind them that the worship of God, according to the forms and usages of the Church of England, is no new thing in their town.
In 1751, immediately after the ordination of Rev. Thomas Jones as pastor of the Second or Precinct Church in Woburn, twelve dissatisfied persons out of the one hundred and three, who were that year ratable inhabitants of the parish, signed off, as was said, to the Church of England.35 Most of them, it is believed, joined the Episcopal Church in Cambridge; but a few of them appear to have connected themselves with one or other of the three Episcopal Churches then in Boston. In the course of the three next succeeding years, 1752, 1753, 1754, two others joined them, and they were all rated each year by the Second Parish Assessors for their minister taxes; and those taxes were severally paid over (as the Province law of 1742 then required) to the Episcopal clergyman, upon whose services the Assessors were certified, that they "usually and frequently attended." But after 1754, they do not appear from the Parish Records to have been rated at all by the Second Parish Assessors for their parish taxes.
Shortly after the individuals above referred to had withdrawn from the worship of the Second Precinct in Woburn to that of the Church of England, they were joined by Benjamin Simonds,
35 " Profess'd or Pretended members of the Church of England, Inhabit- ing this Parish : rated for Salary only.
" William Smith 7:8 :
Robert Reed 6:0.
Swithin Reed 18:11.
Ebenezer Reed
18:6.
George Reed junr 9:9.
Eliphaz Reed
9:9.
James Perry 9:2
Thomas Skelton jun. 16 :0
Caleb Simonds 18:1:2
Caleb Simonds jun. 11:0:0
Seth Johnson 16:0:0
John Cutler 16:5 :0."
Second Parish Records for 1752, Vol. II., p. 18.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
of the First Parish,36 who proved a very important man among them. His house is still standing, having its back to the road at the north, but a magnificent elm growing in the yard on the south side in front; and is the same house as that now occupied by Mr. Jesse Cutler on the road from Burlington to Cummings- ville. At this house, these professed Episcopalians met on ordi- nary sabbaths for public worship, when the liturgy of the church of England was read to them, and not improbably a printed sermon likewise, by Mr. Thomas Skelton, Jr., one of their number. But on extra occasions, when an Episcopal clergy- man from Cambridge or Boston came to minister to them, they would, as often as the weather allowed, meet in the yard under the shade of the wide-spreading elm, no room in the house being large enough to hold them, and there the minister would preach to them, and celebrate the ordinances. The late Mrs. William Kendall, of this town, once showed me an octavo English prayer book, from which she said her grandfather, Mr. Thomas Skelton, Jr., was accustomed to read the church of England prayers on sabbath days in the Episcopal meeting at Mr. Simonds'; and Mr. Gideon Simonds, deceased, a son of Mr.
36 Copy of certificate, yet extant, of membership from Christ Church, Boston, to Benjamin Simonds : -
" This may Cartify the treasurer of the first precinct in Wooburn, that Mr Benjamin Simonds of said precinct is a professed member of the Church of England, and that he atends the publick worshep of God on Sundays at Christ Church in Boston as frequently as he can, and as is useuel at his Distance.
his
" TIMOTHY X CUTLER, minister of Christ Church in Boston mark
"Boston September ye 10. 1759.
"Witnes the signing of Docter Cutler, " John Pigen
" Caleb Simonds juner,
" Thomas Ivers Church wardins." " Sarah Cutler."
This certificate is accompanied by another on the same page, in the same words, to the treasurer of the second precinct in Woburn; and it bears indubitable marks of being a transcript, taken by some ignorant and care- less person from a genuine certificate of Rev. Dr. Cutler, signed by him and his church wardens at the given date, except writing " his mark," which must be deemed an expedient of the transcriber, adopted for some purpose of his own.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Caleb Simonds, Jr., a member of that meeting, once told me, that he, and (I think I may confidently add) his brothers Calvin and Jesse, were baptized by an Episcopal clergyman under that venerable elm.
But at the commencement of the revolutionary war, this Epis- copal meeting in Woburn, like several others of that denomina- tion in various parts of New England, appears to have been broken up. Its connection, however, with the Episcopal churches in Boston, by which it had been patronized, was not at once dis- solved, as the annexed certificate, still extant, seems to indicate.
Dec . 4, A. D. 1781. Then was married Mr Ebenezer Page to Miss Susanna Simons [daughter of the above named Benjamin Simons] by the Rev. Mr. Samuel Parker of Boston."
Nor was the attachment to the royal government of England, which the use of its established forms of public divine wor- ship had nurtured and strengthened in this band of Episco- palians in Woburn, at once renounced or cast off. The late Capt. James Reed, Sen. of this town, once told me, that being col- lector one year for Woburn, he presented a tax bill to Mr. Thomas Skelton, Jr., the Episcopal reader mentioned above, for payment. " I wont pay it," said Mr. Skelton; " the govern- ment that ordered the tax, is no lawful government; and I wont submit to any tax of its imposing." After repeatedly applying to Mr. Skelton to pay the bill, Capt. Reed was peremptorily commanded by the assessors of Woburn, to collect the tax, or to take the body. Upon Capt. Reed's communicating the orders he had received, Mr. Skelton instantly replied, " Well, take the body, if you will; but I suppose you will give me time to go up stairs, and shift my clothes before you take me off." The liberty asked was readily granted; but Mr. Skelton was gone to his chamber so long, that Capt. Reed began to be seriously alarmed, lest his debtor had given him the slip. At length Mr. Skelton returning to him, said, " Capt. Reed, will you sign a paper I shall give you, if I will pay you them taxes ?" " Sign !" replied Capt. Reed; " Why, Mr. Skelton, I'll sign anything, if you will only pay that demand." Mr. Skelton then produced a receipt to be
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
signed, expressed as follows : " Received of Thomas Skelton Jr., he being threatened with imprisonment, his taxes due for such a year." The receipt was quickly signed, and Mr. Skelton was let off in peace.
At another time, the same Mr. Skelton sold a piece of land to Mr. Swithin Reed, the Captain's father ; and, drawing up a deed of it himself, gave it to the Captain to deliver. Upon reading it, the old gentleman said to his son, " Jim, I don't know but this deed is all right; yet it seems to me, it don't read exactly as other deeds do. Here, take it to Cambridge, and show it to " Mr. Deany," [Hon. Judge Francis Dana] " and he'll tell you at once whether it be as it should be." Accordingly, the Captain took it to Cambridge as directed, and the moment the judge read it, he threw it aside, saying, "it was not worth a farthing." " Why, what is the matter with it?" inquired the Captain. " Matter !" said the Judge : " Why, don't you see ? Instead of dating it in such a year of the United States Independence, he writes, " In such a year of His Majesty's Reign !"
The prime movers of this Episcopal meeting have all of them long since gone the way of all the earth. Their children, too, are all dead. Those of them who continued in town, at the time the war of the Revolution put a stop to their assembling on the sabbath for Episcopal worship, joined to a man, it is believed, the Precinct Congregational Society; and nothing more was heard in Woburn or its precinct, of meeting to worship according to the liturgy of the Church of England, till the present attempt to establish an Episcopal Society was commenced.
P. S. On Tuesday, October 29, 1867, the corner-stone of an Episcopal Church, to be called Trinity Church, was laid in Wo- burn, in due form. The principal services of the occasion were conducted by Rev. Dr. Huntington, rector of Emmanuel Church, Boston. In consequence of the unfavorableness of the weather, the persons who were to take part in, or to witness the exercises of the solemnity, fifty or sixty in number, assembled at the house of Mr. Oliver W. Rogers, adjoining the church, where appropriate lessons from the Scriptures were read, prayers were offered, and
.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
the hymn, Te Deum Laudamus, was sung by the choir. Then the whole company moved in procession to the church, where a list was read by the Rev. H. D. Nicholson, the rector, of the articles previously deposited in a metallic box let into the stone, which lay ready to be set in its place. This list comprehended an " historical sketch of the parish, names of the officers, by- laws, names of building committee, architect, builder, copies of Middlesex Journal, Christian Witness, order of service for the day, etc., etc."
" Rev. Dr. Huntington then taking a hammer, and striking the . stone three blows, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, pronounced,
" 'I lay the corner-stone of an edifice to be here erected by the name of Trinity Church, to be devoted to the service of Almighty God, according to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
"' Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed for evermore, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the for- giveness of sins. Amen.'
" On their returning to the house, Dr. Huntington addressed those assembled, in a most eloquent and masterly manner. The exercises then concluded with a hymn."-Middlesex Jour- nul, Woburn, Nov. 2, 1867.
CHAPTER XVI.
Progress of Woburn since 1800, in population, business, wealth, buildings, schools, and other means of promoting the public welfare.
GREAT and rapid, during the last sixty years, have been the advances of Woburn in numbers, business and wealth; in all the means of literary and social progress, and of spiritual pros- perity and enjoyment. It is the design of this last chapter of its history, to contrast the present condition of the town, in respect to the above-named and other particulars, with what it was at the commencement of this century, and in other previous portions of its history.
POPULATION. - Within the last twenty years, the number of the inhabitants of Woburn has surprisingly increased. The total population of the town in 1765, was 1,575.1 According to the colonial census in 1776, it had advanced only to 1,691.1 By the first census under the United States government in 1790, the sum of the white and colored inhabitants was but 1,750. By the second census in 1800, it had diminished to 1,246, in consequence of the detachment of Burlington from Woburn the year before. In 1810, the population was still further reduced in number to 1,219, which is less by twenty-seven than it was in 1800. In 1820, it was only 1,579, which is but four more than it was in 1765, fifty-five years before. But since 1820, the increase has been very rapid. In 1830, the whole number of inhabitants, according to the census taken that year, was 1,977; in 1840, it was 2,994; and although by the incorporation of Winchester as a separate town April 30, 1850, Woburn lost a large number of people who previously belonged to it, yet by the census of 1860, the sum total of its inhabitants had increased to 6,295, which is more than double the number it contained in
I Town Report, March 1865, pp. 31, 32.
44
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
1840, only twenty years before; and even this large number, according to a State census of 1865, had advanced still further on May 1st of that year to 7,003, an increase of 708 in five years.2
To accommodate its 1,575 inhabitants with dwellings, Wo- burn was provided in 1765 with 228 houses; but in 1860, with 1,126 houses for its 6,295 inhabitants.1
PRINCIPAL BUSINESS. - The principal employment of the original inhabitants of Woburn was doubtless the cultivation of the soil, for which they all had larger or smaller grants of land given them by the town. But at the present day (1867), the employment pursued in the town more than any other is work upon leather. For in a town report for the year ending March 1, 1866, it appears that of two hundred and forty-one children whose births are registered in 1865, the fathers of ninety-four were curriers, of twenty-four were tanners, of fourteen were cordwainers, and of six were leather and shoe manufacturers, making a total of one hundred and thirty-eight employed upon leather, and leaving only one hundred and three of all other occupations.3
The leather business was followed in Woburn from the beginning, upon a small scale. John and Francis Wyman, brothers, and among the first settlers of the town, were tanners ; and, as tradition affirms, had their tanyard in the Wyman Lane, near where the late Dea. Benjamin Wyman (a descendant from Francis) had his dwelling. Gershom Flagg, too, another carly inhabitant, who came a young man, from Watertown, and mar- ried in Woburn in 1668, was a tanner by trade, and had his " dwelling hows, bark hows, mill hows, and bearne hows, tann fats, with an acre of land more or less thereunto belonginge, being or situate in High Street nere the meetting hows, bounded West by Mr Thomas Carter, and East by the burying place, South by the trayning feild." 4 And during Philip's war, Wo- burn taxes at one time were partly paid in shoes, manufactured
? Communication from Nathan Wyman, Esq., town cierk.
3 Town Report, March 1866, pp. 3-7. .
" Town Records, Vol. I., p. 21, inverted.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
probably from leather prepared by one or all of the citizens above named.5
But it is not likely that either of them carried on the business very extensively, or employed about it many hands. For Lient. John Wyman, having his eldest son killed by the Indians in the swamp fight, December 1675, petitioned the General Court in May following, that his servant, Robert Simpson, a tanner by trade, whom he had " bought on purpose for the management of his tan yard," but who had been long in the war, needed clothes, and was then a garrison soldier in Hadley, might be allowed to come home to him, that " so his lether now in the fatts may not be spoyled; " 6 which looks as though Mr. Wyman was not suf- ficiently provided with help to conduct his business, or that the servants he had then with him were not well skilled in the trade they worked at.
The Messrs. Wyman appear to have been succeeded in their business, in the same vicinity where they had wrought, by Jona- than Wyman, a grandson of John; and also at a later period (about 1768), by Mr. David Cummings, originally from Tops- field, who is styled in sundry papers he left behind him, a tanner, and who was an ancestor of the present John Cummings, Jr., Esq. But tanners in Woburn were then few and scarce ; and it has recently been told me by a middle-aged gentleman of Burlington, that he could remember the time when it used to be said, that " old Mr Jonathan Tidd, of New Bridge, was the only tanner in Woburn."
But since Gen. Abijah Thompson entered into the business of tanning, etc., about the year 1814, it has astonishingly and with great rapidity increased in Woburn. According to the statistics of the " Industry of Massachusetts," for the year ending May 1, 1865, p. 419, and published with the sanction of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, there were that year in active
5 " Paid in to the Treasurer [1675] by John Richison, Constable, in silver and debenters all advanced, the full sum of - £68:16:3
" paid more by shoose and barly
08:11 :6"
Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 64, 65.
6 Extract from Colony Records, by Rev. Joseph B. Felt.
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