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 49
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Woburn Gas Light Company .- Incorporated 1854 : Gas works built, 1855. Commenced making gas, January 10, 1856. D. D. Hart, President in 1867; Aaron Thompson, Treasurer.29
A most useful association, though of modern origin ; which, by the gas its managers produce, renders the streets of Woburn passable with comfort and safety by night, as well as by day ; and furnishes the means of lighting up halls, and places of popu- lar resort in the evening with a brilliant light, which largely con- tributes to the ease and pleasure with which public speakers
29 Communication of N. Wyman, Esq., town clerk.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
may be heard on various interesting occasions, by the crowds who assemble to listen to their addresses.
MASONIC INSTITUTIONS.
Mount Horeb Lodge .- Instituted in 1856 : contains at pres- ent (1867) about eighty members. T. G. DAVIS, Master; C. K. CONN, Secretary.30
Good Samaritan Lodge. - Instituted October 17, 1865; No. of members, two hundred and fifty. GEORGE H. WOODSIDE, C. T .; FREDERIC W. ELLIS, Secretary.30
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
An Act of the Legislature, 1851, establishing a Fire Depart- ment in Woburn, was accepted April 7, 1851.31
" The Woburn Fire Department is organized as follows :
" Chief Engineer and four assistant engineers.
" Steam Fire Engine, ' Woburn No. 1,' built by the Amoskcag Manufacturing Company, Manchester, N. H .; in charge of an engineer, fireman and driver.
"' Independent' Hose Company, No. 1, consists of twenty members. They have charge of a beautiful four-wheeled hose carriage, built by Button, of New York, and 1,200 feet service- able lose.
" Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1, consists of fifteen mem- bers. They have a serviceable truck, well supplied with hooks, ladders, ropes, rakes, axes, etc. These three companies are located on Railroad Street.
"' Jacob Webster' Engine Company, No. 2, consists of thirty- nine members. They have a very good Howard & Davis hand engine, and all the apparatus usual with such machines. This company is at North Woburn.
" Washington Engine Company, No. 3, consists of one hun- dred and seventeen members. They have a machine the exact counterpart of No. 2. This company is at Cummingsville.
30 Communication of N. Wyman, Esq., town clerk.
31 Town Records, Vol. XVII., p. 332.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
" Niagara Engine, No. 1, is at present without a company ; but is kept in good order, and can be used in an emergency. It is kept in the basement of the First Congregational Meeting- house."
"From JOHN L. PARKER." 32
CHARITABLE READING SOCIETY.
Lastly (though it be not the least of the numerous benevolent associations in Woburn), must be noticed the " Charitable Read- ing Society of Woburn, connected with the First Congregational Church." This society originated with a young lady, who, con- ceiving a strong desire to see established in Woburn an associa- tion for self-improvement and doing good to others, similar to one whose good fruits she had witnessed in Boston during the winter of 1814-15, communicated her desire on her return to another young lady of Woburn, of a kindred spirit. These two combined, and drew up a skeleton constitution for such a society as they wished for, which they submitted to their pastor, Rev. Mr. Chickering, for his revision; and when they received it from his hands amended and approved, they immediately put it in circulation through the town for signatures. It was speedily returned to them, with the addition of thirty names besides their own. And then, agreeably to an article of the constitution, they met at the Town Hall, on Wednesday P. M., June 21, 1815, to organize. At that meeting, they elected their pastor's wife, Mrs. Betsey Chickering, for their President; and chose all the other requisite officers in due form : and though within five months from their organization, they and the whole community were afflicted with poignant grief by the death of their lovely and be- loved President, yet they did not give way to discouragement. The society still lived; the vacancy caused by their President's death was in due time filled by the election of Mrs. Mary B. Wyman; and before the first year of the society had expired, thirty-three new members were added to their list.
The rules and customs of this society were, to meet once a
32 Communicated by Nathan Wyman, Esq., September 24, 1867.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
month either at the house of some member, or in the room over the porch of the Congregational meeting-house, then used as a Town Hall; to open each meeting with reading a portion from the Scriptures, and to offer prayer from a prayer-book procured for them by Rev. Mr. Chiekering: but this form of devotional exercise was at an early period exchanged for extempore prayer. Then followed the appointment of committees to search out and to visit the poor, sick and infirm; the hearing of reports of com- mittees previously appointed for this purpose; and the granting of needed relief from funds raised principally, at first, from a monthly contribution by each member of sixty cents each. Next followed reading, by one or more of the members, portions of some interesting and instructive publications, such as Blair's Sermons, Hunter's Sacred Biography, Mason on Self Knowledge, Mary Lundie Duncan, Lady Huntington, Parsons Cooke on Be- nevolence, and occasionally extracts from the Boston Recorder or Panoplist, the Missionary Herald, and " various magazines and reports, calculated to raise the standard of benevolence by ap- prising us of the world's want and wretchedness."
This society celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, 21st June, 1865, in the First Congregational Church, with the mutual friendly greetings of its members both resident and from abroad, and with appropriate exercises and addresses. From the pro- ceedings on that occasion, which were afterwards published, it appears, that during the fifty years of the society's existence then completed, a total of $2,500 had been raised in money, and paid out for various benevolent objects. Of this sum, $817 had been bestowed on the poor about home, beside clothing and other necessaries not counted; a large share had been used in fitting out children for the Sunday School; several promising young men had been assisted in their efforts to obtain a liberal education ; ministers, churches and colleges in straitened cir- cumstances had been helped; contributions had been made to several Missionary Societies, both domestic and foreign; and" certain missionaries in foreign lands had received benefactions ; the Christian Commission, the Sanitary Commission, Sabbath School Missions, the Freedman's Aid Society, and the Congrega-
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
tional Aid Society, had all tasted the bounty of the Charitable Reading Society of Woburn. Nor must it be forgotten or over- looked that this society was the immediate instrument, under God, of getting up the sabbath school in the First Congrega- tional Society within three years from its own organization. At a meeting, May 6, 1818, several members expressed themselves as anxious to establish a sabbath school, but no vote was taken. June 3d, it was voted to establish one. A special meeting for this purpose was called, to be held June 17th, at the Town Hall. A Constitution, which had been prepared, was then read twice, adopted, and a board of managers (three of whom were living at the late anniversary meeting) and a board of twelve lady teachers were chosen.
Presidents of this Society for the first fifty years.
1815. Mrs. BETSEY CHICKERING.
1816. Mrs. MARY B. WYMAN.
1818, 20. Mrs. SARAH CHICKERING.
1819. Miss SUSAN CLAPP ?
1821. Mrs. E. LEATHE.
1822-Feb. 1846. Mrs. MARY BENNETT.
1846-47-48. Mrs. CELINDA THOMPSON.
1849-50-51. Mrs. ANNA B. THOMPSON.
1852-53-54. Mrs. N. B. GRAMMER.
1855. Mrs. A. G. CARTER.33
In reviewing the statements presented in this chapter, showing the advances which Woburn has made this century thus far, in matters pertaining to the present comfort and respectability, and to the future happiness of all her inhabitants, well may her aged citizens exclaim, What hath God wrought for us! How many, and how beneficial have been the changes which He in his kind Providence has accomplished for this place! Be thankful, my friends, if in any measure he has employed you as his instru- ments for effecting so much for the cause of humanity, and for the promotion of your own benefit, and that of your children, and
33 Proceedings at celebration of fiftieth anniversary, 1865.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
children's children, yet unborn. Ascribe praise and thanksgiving to him for the honorable distinction He has thus bestowed on you. While life is spared, and your opportunities are lengthened out, still labor to be continuing and multiplying and increasing the benefits conferred by you on this place of your nativity or long continued residence. Encourage those, who are rising up to take the places you have so creditably filled, to pursue a course like to that which you have followed, and which, with the smiles of Heaven, has resulted in so much good to yourselves and to them: that when you quit this stage of action, others whom you leave behind may call you blessed; may praise God for you, and for others of a like spirit who have gone before you, and say, Behold the men by whom Woburn has been built up !
Young men of Woburn, allow an old man who wishes you all well, for your fathers' sake as well as your own, to address you with a few words of congratulation and advice. You are about to enter on the cultivation of fields in which others have wrought before you; to reap the fruits of their toil, and to enjoy the privileges and advantages which they have labored to procure or prolong to you. I rejoice in the happy lot which has fallen to you, and which, it may be truly said, far exceeds that of hundreds, nay thousands of others, even in this favored land. But remem- ber that of them to whom much is given, much will be required.
Be thankful then to God for the auspicious circumstances under which you enter upon the duties and cares and labors of life. Resolve, in his strength (which daily implore), that the choice favors you inherit shall not diminish or turn to no account in your hands. Improve well the means of enlarging your knowl- edge, which your predecessors have so liberally provided. Accustom yourselves to the active, industrious habits which you have observed in them. In transacting the business of your several callings, and in all your dealings with others around you, use those methods only which the wise and good before you have sanctioned by their instructions and example. Imbibe and cher- ish that public spirit which they have manifested in aiming at the good of others, as well as their own, in the various sacrifices and generous exertions they have made. In a word, assured of
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
the intimate, inseparable connection there is between religious, virtuous principle and action, with all real, lasting prosperity, both private and public (a truth which you have seen illustrated and proved in so many instances of actual fact, in the foregoing history), make it your habitual concern to shun what is base and dishonorable, to practise whatsoever things are pure, just, lovely and of good report; and to seek to prosper in your several worldly employments in those ways only which are enjoined by the precepts and recommended by the example of the meek and lowly Jesus, and by the gospel of his grace. So may you con- fidently expect that the God of Heaven, the God of your fathers, your own God, will guide and keep, prosper and bless you in all your affairs and concerns ; will make all things work for your good; will give you the satisfaction, as you proceed in your earthly course, of seeing the continued and increasing prosperity of this place of your abode, as being the result, in some good degree, under God, of your benevolent efforts; and before you pass away, will impart to you joy unspeakable in reflecting that you have not lived in vain; that you have employed your time and talents and means for good, in promoting the designs of their Divine Author, and so as to secure through the Saviour his everlasting approbation and reward.
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APPENDIX
TO
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
APPENDIX, No. I.
TOWN ORDERS FOR WOBURN, AGREED UPON BY THE COMMIS- SIONERS AT THEIR FIRST MEETING, DECEMBER 18, 1640.
[Omitting the Preamble.]
" It is required that all persons admitted to be Inhabitance in the said Towne shall by voluntary Agreement subscribe to these Orders following ; upon which Condistion, they are admited.
" First Order for Sixpenc an Acre." "For the caring one [car- rying on] Common Charges, all such persons as shall bee thought meete to haue land and admittance for Inhabitance, shall paye for every Acre of land formerly layd out by Charlestowne, but now in the limmets of Woburne, six pence ; and for all hereafter layd out, twelve pence.
" Second Order: to returne their lotts, if not improved in 15 months." "Every person taking lott or land in the said Towne shall within fiueteen monthes after the laying out of the same, bulde [build] for dwelling therone, and improve the said land by planting ether in part or in whole ; or surrender the same upp to the towne againe : also they shall not make sale of it to any person but such as the Towne shall approve of."
" Thurd Order : about fencing." "That all manner of persons shall fence their Catell of all sorts ether by fence or keeper : only it is Required all garden plots and orchards shall bee well inclosed ether by pale or otherwayes."
" fourth Order about Inmats." " That Noe maner of person shall entertayne Inmate, ether married or other, for longer time than three days, without the consent of fower [four] of the Select- men : Every person ofending in this perticqler [particular] shall paye to the use of the Towne for every day they offend herein six pence."
fiuft Order : about timber." "That noe person shall sell or cutt any younge Oake lyke to bee good timber, under eaight inches square, upon forfitur [forfeiture] of fiue shillings for euery such offence."
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APPENDIX, NO. II.
" These Persons subscribed to these Orders."
" Edward Johnson
John Carter
Edward Conuars
Jams Conuars
John Mousall
Danill Bacon
Ezekill Richison
Edward Winne
Samuwell Richison
Henery Bolden
Thomas Richison
ffrances Kendall
William Lernedt
John Teed
James Thomson
Henery Tottingham
John Wright
Richerd Lowden
Michall Bacon
Will. Greene
John Seers
Benjamen Butterffeild
John Wyman
Henery Jefts
ffrances Wyman
Jams Parker
Mr Thomas Graues
John Russell
Nicholas Dauis
Jams Britten
Nicholas Treerice
Thomas ffuller." 1
APPENDIX, No. II.
LINES IN VERSE BY CAPT. EDWARD JOHNSON,
Referring to the difficulties encountered by him and the other Com- missioners for the Settlement of Woburn, and prefixed by him to the Town Records, Vol. I., p. 1.
" RECORDS FOR THE TOWNE OF WOBURNE,
ffrom the year 1640 : the 8 : day of th : 10 month : Paulisper Fui."
In peniles [pennyless ] age I Woburne Towne began : Charls Towne first mou'd the Court my lins to span : To vewe my land place, Compild body [to] reare, Nowell, Sims, Sedgwick, thes my patrons were. Sum fearing I'le grow great upon these grounds, Poore I wase putt to nurs among the Clownes ; Who being taken with such myghty things As had bin work of Noble Queeins and Kings,
1 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 2.
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APPENDIX, NO. III.
Till Babe gan crye and great disturbance make,
Nurses Repent they did her undertake. One 1 leaues her quite; another 2 hee doth hie To foren lands free from the Baby's crye :
To [two] 3 more of seauen, seeing nursing prou'd soe thwarte, Thought it more ease in following of the Carte.
A naighbour by, 4 hopeing the Babe wold bee A pritty Girle, to rocking her went hee. Too [two] 5 nurses less undanted then [than] the rest
ffirst howses ffinish : thus the Girle gane drest. Its' rare to see how this poore Towne did rise
By weakest means : two [too] weake in great ones Eys : And sure it is, that mettells' deere Exstraction Had neuer share in this poore Town's Erextion; Without which metall and sum fresh supplys [supplies] Patrons conclud she neuer upp wold rise. If ever she mongst ladys haue a station, Say 'twas ffrom Parents, not her education. And now conclud the Lord's owne hand it was,
That with weak means did bring this work to pass ; Not only Towne, but Sister Church to [too] ade [add] Which out of dust and ashes now is had.
Then all inhabit Woburne Towne, stay make
The Lord, not means, of all you undertake.
[Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 1.] 1
APPENDIX, No. III.
OLD AND NEW STYLE.
The distinction between Old Style and New owes its origin to the difference in length between the Julian year and the Solar. The Julian year (so named from Julius Caesar, who instituted this way of reckoning time) consisted of 365 days and 6 hours ; making three consecutive years of 365 days each, and the one next following of 366 days, to be equivalent to four years of the above denomination. The Julian year was in general use throughout Christendom, in the computation of time, from the sitting of the Nicene Council, A. D. 325, till A. D. 1582. It
1 Ezekiel Richardson.
3 Samuel and Thomas Richardson ?
2 Thomas Graves.
4 Edward Johnson.
5 Edward Convers, built at the Mill; and John Mousall, on " Hilly Way."
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APPENDIX, NO. III.
was then ascertained by accurate observation, that it exceeded the Solar year (or that which was measured by the apparent annual motion of the sun from one point till his return to the same point again) a little more than eleven minutes. This excess, amounting to a day in about 131 years, or to three days in 400 years, had arisen, in 1582, to about ten days since the Nicene Council, A. D. 325, when the vernal equinox was on March 21st, but was now thrown back to March 11th. As this change had caused derangement in the computation of Easter day, that great festival of the Church, which was regulated by the day on which that equinox occurred, Pope Gregory XIII., the then Roman pontiff, ordered that ten days should be omitted in the Calendar reckoning, thus restoring the vernal equinox to its old place in the Calendar, the 21st of March. And to prevent a recurrence of the error, he further directed, that the Bissextile or Leap year should be omitted thrice every four hundred years, viz : in each centennial year, the two first figures of which could not be divided by four without a remainder, as A. D. 1700, 1800, and 1900, and be reckoned only in those centennial years which could bear such division, as A. D. 1600 and 2000. This method of computing time was called, from its author, the Gregorian, or otherwise, the New Style; and was speedily adopted in all or most Catholic countries. But in Great Britain, the Julian or Old Style was still retained; and the year 1700 being consid- ered there as a Leap year, the difference between the Old and the New Style was now increased to eleven days. But in 1752, New Style was adopted in Great Britain and its American dependencies ; and the Calendar was corrected by dropping eleven days in September; thus bringing it into conformity with the Gregorian Calendar. But in Russia, Old Style is still con- tinued; and the year 1800 having consequently been accounted there as a Leap year, the difference in that empire between Old Style and New is grown to be twelve days. From the above statements, it is plain, that to reduce dates in England and this country from Old Style to New, ten days must be added for events that occurred between 1600 and 1700; and cleven days for such as took place between 1700 and the adoption of New
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APPENDIX, NO. III.
Style in Great Britain and its American Colonies in 1752. The landing at Plymouth, for instance, was on December 11, 1620, Old Style, answering to December 21st, New Style. And the birthday of Washington occurring February 11, 1732, Old Style, its date in New Style is February 22d.
Moreover, in countries which adopted the New Style at its introduction in 1582, the year began with January 1st ; whereas, in Great Britain and its American colonies, March was anciently regarded as the first month of the new year, and January and February as the eleventh and twelfth months of the year preceding. For instance, the first choice of Selectmen in Woburn is recorded to have taken place on the 13th of the 2d month, (April 13th,) 1644; the second choice on the 19th of 12th month, "1644" (viz : 19th of February, 1644-5); and the third choice, on the 3d of the 1st month, (3d of March,) 1646. 1
But though March was then called in England and its depen- dencies the first month of the year, yet in the eye of the law the first day of the year was not till March 25th, or Lady Day. Accordingly, Governor Winthrop, in writing to his wife from aboard the Arbella, as he was about to sail for New England, dates his letter March 22, 1629 ; and yet dates another letter, written to her from aboard the same ship only six days after, March 28, 1630.2
Again, events that took place before 1752, between March 1st and March 25th, were designated in England and this country by a double date, as March 10th, 1743 ; for though they happened in the first month of the new year, yet the law regarded them as having taken place in the old year; so that they were practi- cally accounted as belonging to a period of time that was com- mon to both years. And for a like reason, the custom of dou- ble dating came, at length, to be extended to events in January and February, as occurring in the year preceding, according to Old Style, and in the year following, according to the New.
1 Woburn Records, Vol. I., pp. 6-8.
2 Winthrop's History, by Savage, Vol. I., Appendix, pp. 440, 441.
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APPENDIX, NO. IV.
APPENDIX, No. IV.
CHURCH COVENANT.
The Covenant agreed upon by the founders of the Church of Woburn in 1642, and copied from Johnson's Wonderworking Providence, in the account given of the gathering of this church in Chapter I. of this History, appears to have continued unchanged till 1756, when the following was adopted, probably on the recommendation of Rev. Mr. Sherman, the junior pastor: the Records containing the original covenant being then un- accountably missing or lost.
The Covenant of the Church of Christ in Woburn, April the 6th 1756.
" We whose names are hereunto subscribed, apprehending our- selves called of God into a Church State of the Gospel, do first of all confess ourselves unworthy to be so highly favoured of the Lord, and admire that rich & free grace of his that triumphs over so great unworthiness, and with an humble reliance upon the aids of grace therein promised to those who, through a sense of their own inability to do any good thing, do humbly wait on him for all, we do thankfully lay hold on his Covenant, and chuse the things that please him.
1. " We avouch the Lord to be our God, and give up ourselves and our Seed after us in their generations to be his people, in the truth and sincerity of our hearts.
2ly. " We give up ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be ruled and guided by him in the matters of his worship, and in our whole conversation ; acknowledging him not only our alone Saviour, but our King to reign and rule over us, and our Prophet and teacher by his word and Spirit ; forsaking all other teachers and doctrines which he has not commanded ; and we do wholly disclaim our own righteousness in point of Justification, and depend alone upon him for righteousness and Life, Grace and Glory.
Bly. " We do profess ourselves to be Congregational in our Judg- ment, and do purpose to practise upon Congregational principles, as far as they are agreeable to the doctrines of God's word, looking upon the Platform of Discipline in general, as gathered out of the word of God, and agreeing therewith.
Aly. " We do further promise, by the help of Christ, to walk with
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APPENDIX, NO. IV.
our brethren and sisters of this Congregation 1 in the spirit of brotherly love, watching over them, and caring for them ; avoiding all jealousies, suspicions, backbitings, censurings, quarrelings and secret risings of heart against them ; forgiving and forbearing, and yet seasonably admonishing and restoring them by a spirit of meekness, and setting them in joynt again that have been overtaken in any fault amongst us.
5ly. " We further promise and bind ourselves in the strength of Christ to labour how we may advance the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ ; how we may win and gain them that are without, how we may settle grace and peace amongst ourselves : and seek as much as we can the peace of all the Churches ; seeking the help, counsel and direction of other churches, if need be ; not putting a stumbling block before any, but will labour to abstain from all appearance [of evil].
6ly. " We do hereby promise to behave and demean ourselves obediently in all lawfull things to those that God hath or shall place over us in the Church or Commonwealth; knowing that it is our duty not to grieve them, but to encourage them in their places, and in the administration of the charge which God hath committed unto them.
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