USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > Two sermons preached in the First Congregational church in Milton, on the 15th and 22d of June, 1862, and suggested by the centennial celebration, on the 11th of June, 1862 > Part 5
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And there were others of an earlier generation, who lived out their . four score years and more,-women of dignified personal bearing and of remarkable conversational powers. Blue Hill and Brush Hill and Milton Hill had their
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representative women, -ladies of the old school, who had not feared to improve their minds by substantial reading and thinking. In their personal deportment there was that combination of dignity and kindness which secures our respect at the same time that it gains our confidence and affection. A lasting impression was often made upon the young by their conversation, which was none the less attractive because it was instructive, nor any the less entertaining because it was always high-toned in sentiment, and touching often on great and important subjects. They recognized their obligations to the community in which they lived and to all its members. They were ready to do their part in sustaining all good institutions, and deserve especially to be remembered and imitated in their re- lations to the poor. The influx of destitute foreigners, a few years ago, render- ed public measures necessary to meet the heavy and multiplied calls of charity. But already that emergency has subsided, and there is danger lest public soci- eties and relief provided by law should so interpose themselves between us and the poor whom we have always with us as to do away the pleasant and mutu- ally beneficent relations which formerly connected a thoughtful, charitable wo- man with the needy and suffering around her. The relation was not one entirely of dependence on their part and of charity on hers. Her superior intelligence assisted and guided them She taught them to help themselves, and encouraged their self-respect by enabling them to feel that they were doing something for her in return for her kindness to them. There were thus cher- ished between the parties habits of personal intercourse, sustained by feelings of deference and kindness and gratitude, which gave her a salutary influence over them, and ministered to the happiness of all.
Women of this character, representatives of the high breeding and better thought of a former generation, were here when I came to Milton. They seem- ed less like fleeting individuals than settled institutions, or permanent features in the landscape. I could hardly approach one of them without a subdued sen- timent of tenderness and reverence. It seemed to me sometimes as if I could see the history of a whole life-time written out on the countenance, in charac- ters which pointed far back into the past, and forward to a sky all aglow with hopes of future reunion and recognition. The shadows of many years had fall- en upon them ; but there were new lights kindled for them in heaven. If they connected us with the past, they drew us also towards the future. The birds that come together to prepare for their departure when the summer days are beginning to put on an autumnal hue, take our thoughts back to the pleasant season which has been gladdened by their songs, and lead them forward to the sunny lands where their joyful home shall be when our bleak coast is scourged by the winter storms. So do they-our aged and beloved ones-stand before us, as messengers about to depart for other lands, and we can hardly see them without having our thoughts carried on from the cares and fears which attend us here, to the serenity, and joy, and everlasting peace which await them there.
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MILTON NAMES.
A sketch of the different finnilies of Milton, their changing features, position, influence and character, would be full of interest and instruction. To trace the history of those who have removed from this place and see how the same traits which have been recognized here are developed elsewhere, what new features grow out of them or are engrafted upon them by altered circumstances and relations, would be a profitable work, and if intelligently and thoroughly carried out, it might do something in a small way, to throw light on one of the most important questions of the age, the distinction of families and races, and the manner in which they are moulded by external influences so as to lose their separate characteristics and become absorbed into one another. Researches of this kind, to be of any value, inst be exceedingly minnte and comprehensive. But there is also a superficial, disconnected way of viewing the subject, which is not without its interest to those who are attached to the place and the people living in it.
Of the twelve persons who signed the original Church Covenant in Milton, four bore names, Newton, Holman and Blacke ( William and Edward), which are no longer found here. Sumner, Clap, Lion and Swift still remain. The Summers have been a numerous and influential family. And sixty years ago, I have been told, that at a Town Meeting in Milton, no public measure could be carried which was opposed by John Swift, the energetic head of an important family which is now represented here by only one male member. The remain- ing four signers of the Covenant all bore the naine of Tucker. During Mr. Thacher's ministry, there was usually a Dea. Tucker, Senior, and a Dea. Tucker, Junior. At the present time, the Tuckers hold, probably, about the same rank in numbers and position. There are to-day two deacons of that name in Milton. The first of the name that I find here was Robert. Mr. Sav- age gives this account of him : " Robert, Weymouth, 1638, had Sarah, born 17 March, 1639, and, I think, Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseli, besides pos- sibly others, before or after removal. He was fined in 1640, for upbraiding James Britain, as a witness ; called him a liar and said he could prove it ; of which the character of Britain may lead us to think he might be right ; remov- ed to Dorchester, that part which became in 1662 Milton, for which he was representative 1669-80 and 1." This Robert Tucker was the " Recorder for Milton," when the town was first incorporated. It is said, probably somewhat hyperbolically, that there have been times when the Tuckers and Voses com- bined could out vote all the rest of the town.
Of the 114 names which I find in Mr. Thacher's records of baptisms and admissions to the Church, 34 are still found here, and :S are no longer repre- sented by any man in Milton. I give below these 114 names in Mr. Thacher's somewhat peculiar orthography, marking with an asterisk those which are now extinct among us.
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Adams
Durant*
Hunt
Stimson*
Andrews*
Eastee*
Hunter*
Sumner
Atherton*
Eeles*
Jemmesou*
Swan
Badcock
Endicot*
Jordon*
Swetland*
Badlambs*
Everenden*
Jones
Swift
Bailey*
Field
Kelton*
Swinnerton*
Beal
Fenno
Kinsley*
Talbut*
Belcher*
Ford*
Langley*
Thacher*
Bent
Foster
Liscome*
'Coleman
Bentlet*
Frissel*
MacKee*
Tompson*
Billings*
Ganzey or Garsey* Man*
"Triscot*
Black"
Glover*
Miller*
T'rot*
Blake
Gold or Gould
Montgomery*
Tucker
Blair*
Gouliver*
Mooree*
Vose.
Chandler
Graécian*
Mos (Morse ?)
Wadland*
Clap
Gregory*
Newton*
Wadsworth
Collin
Grosse*
Peirce
Wales
Craine+
Harper*
Pitcher*
Warren
Crehore
Haughton
Puffer*
Web
Daminon, or
Hayden* or
Rawson*
Weeks*
Damon*
Heiden
Redman*
Wheeler
Daniel*
Henshire*
Rider*
White
Davenport
Hersey*
Robards or Robers Wier*
Davis
Hlichborne*
Roy*
Williston*
Dean*
Holman*
Sawyer*
Witherbee*
Denmark*
Horton*
Scot
Witherton*
Dennis*
How*
Sheperd
Withinton *.
Diekerman
Hubbard*
Smith
Woody*
Dike*
Hudson*
Spencer*
Of the 34 names still found in Milton, quite a number, e. g. Smith, Web and Warren, have died out in the old stock, and are now represented by those who are inhabitants here of a comparatively recent date. Not 30 of the 114 names recorded before 1727 are now perpetuated here by lineal descendants of those then living in the town. These simple facts show the migratory charac- ter of our most stable N. E. population A few families, e g. Babcock, Tucker, Vose, hold now, perhaps, nearly the place which they held at the beginning of the last century. Others, e. g. Gulliver, Crehore, Billings, Henshaw, Belcher, Ford, have either entirely disappeared, or are reduced to a single male member. And not only families, but races have disappeared. The names of Indians and Negroes appear on our Church records, but at this time I think there is not one Indian man or woman, nor one Negro family, in Milton.
Besides the names which I have given, and which belong to the first 65 years of our history as a town, there are families which have come into the town, ex- ercised an important influence fer a generation or two, and then disappeared.
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Mr. Robbins has mentioned several such families. Gov. Belcher and Gov. Hutchinson, though living in a measure apart from the surrounding inhabitants, were parishioners in this place, and attend ints at this church. The Thachers were represented here in four generations. The names, Smith, Boies, Holbrook, Amory, Baldwin, recall to our older citizens the remembrance of families, which, though never numerous and now represented here by no living descendant, held once a high place among the families of Milton. The M'Leans, father and son, ought not to be omitted in any notice, however slight, of the prominent Milton families. John M'Lean was born at Georges, near Thomas- ton, Me., in 1761. His father, Hugh M'Lean, removed soon after to Milton, where he engaged, and at length became largely interested, in the business of paper-making. He lived in the house now occupied by Mr. George Hollings- worth, and died Dec. 1799, aged 75. John M'Lean. during the latter part of his life, was in partnership with Mr. Isaac Davenport. He died Oct. 16, 1823, aged 62. Both father and son are buried in Milton. John M'Lean will be honorably known, for many generations to come, as the munificent benefactor, if not the founder, of the M'Lean Asylum for the Insane, at Somerville, and of the Mass. General Hospital in Boston. He was also the founder of the M'Lean Professorship of Ancient and Modern History in Harvard University. He be- queathed to the Congregational Society in Milton, and also to that in Federal Street, Boston, two thousand dollars each, the income to be distributed annu- ally to such persons, " not paupers," as the minister and deacons of the re- spective societies " should deem suitable for such relief." Few men have done more than he did permanently to relieve human suffering in some of its most aggravated forms, and no one better deserves to be held in grateful remem- brance for the perpetual benefactions which his wisdom and benevolence have devised and carried out. Yet the way in which our citizens are most frequently reminded of him seems to savor a little of ostentation. 'The mile-stones on the Brush Hill turnpike bear this inscription, "J M'Lean, 1823." The common impression, I believe, is, that these mile-stones, with this inscription, were erected by himself. But it was not so. They were erected by Mr. Isaac Davenport, at Mr. M'Lean's request and expense, and as they were not finished till after Mr. M'Lean's death, Mr. Davenport had this inscription put upon them, as a sort of monumental testimonial to his friend and partner.
Here I close these brief, imperfect, shadowy memorials of a past, whose spirit goes with us where we go, and, under the guiding hand of God, has made us what we are. It is a false philosophy that would separate the living from the dead, and send the children of each generation, fatherless and motherless, into the world, to seek their fortunes, and to form their own characters. As we in- herit our flesh and blood from our ancestors, so we are born into the ideas, sen- timents, institutions, and habits which are the result of their living through ma- ny generations, and which we cannot change at pleasure by any arbitrary act of ours, but ouly as we change the quality of trees and plants, within certain limits, and in obedience to established laws. We grow out of the past. Its life flows through our veins. And yet we can modify that life. We can graft
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upon it better ideas. We can live amid what was low, parsimonious, and un-' generous in our ancestors, and perpetuate it with an added intensity and defor- mity of our own, or we can live amid what was lofty, disinterested, and praise- worthy in them, and thus help to purify and advance the tone of private and public sentiment in the community. It is with this purpose that I have taken a satisfaction, not wholly sad, though not entirely free from sadness, in walking, as it were, a little while among the graves, and calling up anew the forms of dear and honored ones, that, while moved and impressed by the memory of their virtues, I might soothe the feeling of personal bereavement by writing down their names, or, where that seemed too much an intrusion into the sacred pri- vacy in which they moved, that I might at least refresh my own thoughts by the more inspiring images of holiness and piety which they furnish, aud bind myself more firmly to heaven by the renewed affections which follow them into that higher realm.
To those who may look, a hundred years hence, at the church records which I have kept, there will appear only a catalogue of names. But to me almost every record that I have made recalls a scene which has its peculiar interest. Each wedding has its own little story of life's dearest hopes, fulfilled or disap- pointed. Each baptism calls up its own affecting image of the relation which the greatest artists have endeavored to express in their pictures, of the Madonna and her child, a new creation of God, to her at once the gift and the inperson- ation of the divine Jove. Each death, with the accompanying date and name, tells of a whole completed history, which, if it could be related in truthful, loving words, would be not without its interest and its uses even to strangers. I had wished to clothe some of these names with life again, that affections so gentle, hearts so true, countenances so beaming with intelligence and benignity, minds so thoughtful and so modest, a faith so humble and so lofty, a charity so gracious and self-forgetting, might not wholly perish in this place of their earth- ly abode, when those who knew and loved them here have all departed. But such things cannot be. We have our sainted dead, and those who come after us will have theirs . May we and they alike be true to the holiest memories which come to us from the past, till those memories become blended in our lives with the hopes which draw us on into a future still more beautiful and holy.
If a single copy of this pamphlet should, like a stray leaf on some troubled stream, be borne down to those who shall take part in the tri-centenary cele- bration of our town, we, from these sad times of civil war and present disasters, thus far bravely met and hopefully endured, would send them our kindly greet- ing, and our earnest prayer that they, under more peaceful skies and with greater fidelity and success, may labor, as we have sought to do, that the taber- nacle of God may be with men, that he may dwell with them, and that they may be his people.
Millon, Wednesday evening, Sept. 10, 1862.
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