USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Waban, early days, 1681-1918 > Part 5
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The hamlet which became the village of Waban had its share of the earliest settlers of Newton. Back in the 1600's there were freemen living on this ground. On the west side of Moffatt Hill lived Alexander Shepard, Senior, followed in 1748 by Jeremiah Allen. The Pine Farm land (on the corner of Chestnut and Fuller Streets, the latter then called Homer) was owned successively by Samuel Craft, Samuel Murdock, Esq., and Jonathan Stone.
The land holdings of Henry Seger at the lower end of Beacon Street (then the Sherburn road) date back to 1674.
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WABAN - EARLY DAYS
Going towards Waban Square from the present fire engine station, there followed the lands of Job Seger (1709); then Jonathan Mason (1689); Daniel Mason succeeding him in 1717 and William in 1730. Where the Gould houses stood was the land of Daniel Woodward (1701), which passed from his son Daniel, Jr., to Matthius Collins in 1778.
Further down the road stood an old tavern, in 1763, run by Captain Nathan Fuller. It was torn down in 1840. That land then passed to Jonathan Woodward in 1772. It is a pity that no further record remains of this old tavern on the Sher- burn road. There are other sites vaguely suggested, but this seems to be the most authentic; at any rate, there was definitely a tavern on the old Sherburn road and it was run by Captain Nathan Fuller.
The William Locke house, still standing on Beacon Street, dates back to 1784. Further down on that part of the Sherburn road, now called Woodward Street, between the village green and Chestnut Street, was the land of Eleazar Hyde (later owned by Col. Edward Wyman). John and Thomas Taylor owned a narrow strip of land which went through to Beacon Street. Beside it ran a lane which later became Allen Avenue, named for William H. Allen who lived just beyond (the Betheul-Allen house). This land was first owned by Captain John Clark in 1734, then William (1741) and Daniel (1787). The Woodward land holdings across the way date back to 1681.
The Staples-Craft-Wiswall house (later Strong, now Episcopal rectory) is, in parts, very ancient. The homestead of the Dresser family (still standing, facing Quinobequin now) and the Judge Joseph Bacon farm are also among the early properties, as is the Raymond house (acquired by Patrick and Mary Cotter), now on Fuller Street, but originally on Chestnut, built in 1787.
The first recorded grant of land in what is now Newton was in the year 1632. "Mr. Phillips hath 30 ac of land granted
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EARLY HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRYSIDE
him upp Charles Ryver, on the south side, beginings att a creek a lyttle higher than the first pynes, and soe upwards towards the ware." In 1650 "wild land" in Newton sold for $1.25 an acre.
1701. "Voted, that the select men shall be Asesores, to Ases the contrey rates." A glance at the rating in the Assessors' books of some representatives properties of Waban Free- holders of the eighteenth century:
1798 Direct Tax of the United States.
Craft Joseph. 1 house Value $245 Acres - 78 Value $2,612 Total $2,857.
Collins, Matthius. 1 house Value $215 Acres - 119 Value $2,152 Total $2,367.
Woodward, Ebenezer. 1 house Value $360 Acres - 117 Value $2,810 Total $3,170.
In ancient days, up to the turn of the seventeenth century, and how much longer no one knows, Newton had wolf trouble. Witness these early records:
"1693. Paid Joseph Fuller 20s, for killing three wolves.
1695. The Town Treasurer paid William Ward 30s. 10d.
1696. Paid Thomas Wiswall 6/8 for killing a wolf."
Also indicating the rural atmosphere:
"1711. March 9 - Voted, that sheep shall go at liberty upon the commons."
""'1711. At the same town meeting, the citizens appointed fence viewers, tithing men, a sealer of leather, a person to take care of hogs, and one to provide a school master and agree with him."
"1717. March 3 - Voted, that those that shall kil black birds from ye: 1: of April til the last of May, and bring their heads to the Court or Selectmen, shall be alowed twelve pence for dosen of the town rate."
Waban is not, after all, a "mushroom village" as people often think, but a very ancient hamlet.
DEACON JOHN STAPLES, the FIRST SCHOOLMASTER of NEWTON (A W aban resident but he never knew it.)
JANE BACON MACINTIRE
John Staples, a weaver by trade, came to Newton in 1688, aged thirty years. Nothing is known of him before that time. He married Mary Craft of Newton on July 24, 1690. They had no children. The marriage is said to have taken place in the house which is now the rectory of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Waban, and to have been performed by Reverend John Eliot. John Staples owned a large part of the land which is now Waban and lived in some original part of the aforesaid house.
Staples was much respected and esteemed; a religious, benevolent and kindly man. He was a Deacon of "the church," a Selectman for eight years (1701-9), Town Clerk for twenty-one years (1714-34)-the third of the Town Clerks of Newton. In 1705, he and his neighbor, John Woodward, jointly purchased and divided land holdings. In 1735 Staples bought thirty-six acres of woodland from William Robinson for £405.
The first law establishing Public Schools in America was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts on October 27, 1647. From the Town Records of Newton:
"1698. March 7. The Town voted to build a school house as soon as they can!
"1699. May. Voted, to build a school house, sixteen feet by fourteen, before the last of November.
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DEACON JOHN STAPLES
"1700. January 1. The Selectmen and inhabitants did hire and agree with John Staples to continue the keeping of the school, four days in a week, until March, and he to have two shillings per day.
"Voted, that the schoolhouse be set in the highway, near to Joseph Bartlett's, and that it be finished by the first of October, and agreed with John Staples to keep the school one month, four days in a week, for £1.4s."" This first schoolhouse was on Center Street, near the old cemetery.
As the various sections of Newton were so widely scat- tered, other schools were needed, but they were secured only after many stormy meetings; education was fought off with vigor by the citizenry. Witness the following, set down by John Staples, Town Clerk and Schoolmaster:
"May 11, 1700 - At a towne meeting appointed by ye Selectmen for to hear the petitision of sundrey ye inhabitanc on the westerly side of ye towne, for to have three scoolehousies in ye towne, and to have theire proportion of scooling, as also to hear ye request of sundrey of ye inhabitanc to have but one schoolhouse to keep ye gramer schoole in; as also, to hear the propesisions of sundrey persons, yt. if the gramer schoole be kept but in one place, yt. there should be a consideration granted to ye remoat parts of the towne for schooling among themselves. The inhabitanc being lawfully warned by Mr. Ephriam Wil- liams, constabil, to meet att the meeting house on said eleventh day of May, and being assembled on said day, did first trye a voat for three schoolhousies; and was negatived.
"2. Did trye a voate for to have the gramer schoole to be kept but in one place, and it was voated to have but one schoolehouse to keep grammer schoole in for the towne.
"3. Voated, to grant the remoat parts of ye Towne a consideration for schooling among themselves.
"4. Voated, to choose a Commity to consider whear said one schoolehouse should be erected for to keep the gramer
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schoole in; as also to consider who ye remoat parts of the towne are yt. cannot have ye benifit of but one schoole and what alowanc they shall have for schooling among themselves; and to make theire repoart of what they do agree upon at ye next publick town meeting for confirmation or non-confirmation. . .
Recorded per me, John Staples, Towne Clarke."
Further notes set down in the midst of an educational uproar :
"1721. Did trye a voat yt. ye gramer schoole should be kept att the schoolehouse by the meeting-house for ye present; negatived.
"Did trye to have it kept at ye schoolehouse in ye south- erly part of ye towne; and it was negatived.
"March 12, 1722. - Voated, that the schoole shall be kept this yeare two-thirdes of ye time at ye meeting-house and one-third at ye south end of ye towne."
The families of the pupils paid 3 pence per week for those who were learning to read and 4 pence for those studying writing and arithmetic.
And so John Staples taught school in what is now Waban! He died on November 4, 1740, aged eighty-two; his wife in 1763, aged ninety-three. In his will, Deacon Staples gave seventeen acres of woodland "for and towards the support of the ministerial fire, from year to year," £25 to the poor of Newton, and a silver tankard for the communion service. And his wife was henceforward called "the Widow Staples," ac- cording to the custom of the day.
Staples had brought up two young men, James Pike and Joseph Lovering. In his will he left James Pike £20 and the other all that was due on a bond from him. Although Staples and his wife had no children of their own, these and other young ones were brought up in his house. Moses Craft lived with the Staples together with his wife Esther, daughter of Daniel Woodward. They had eight children, three boys and
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DEACON JOHN STAPLES
five girls. In the will of John Staples: "John Staples Craft (the second oldest son; born 1733), son of Moses Craft, shall be brought up to learning, so far as to fit and prepare him for the ministry of the gospel, if he be capable of learning, and is willing to it, but if he cannot learn, or is not willing and free to learn, he shall have £400 in money, when he shall come to the age of twenty-one years." He left Moses Craft all his prop- erty after the death of Mrs. Staples and all the legacies paid. Son John Staples Craft did not go into the ministry, however, but studied medicine and became a doctor in North Bridge- water.
In 1729 Moses Craft had bought 931/2 acres of land from Nathaniel Parker on the Sherburn Road. After the death of Widow Staples, his land holdings were extensive. He was Selectman for four years, and died in 1768, aged sixty-four. Then his son Joseph inherited the place. The next owner was William Wiswall, 2nd (1824); he was twenty-three years old when he became the owner. In his day the place was known as the Wiswall Farm. Then came David Kinmonth; after him, Col. Edward Wyman, who in 1869 conveyed the property to his brother, Dr. Morrill Wyman. Then came William C. Strong; after he built his new home on Windsor Road, the place was occupied by Mrs. Marshall Scudder.
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DAVID M. KINMONTH
Mr. William Strong told me that the new portion of the rectory was built by a Scotchman named David M. Kinmonth (not Kinmouth) who was the proprietor of what was perhaps the first department store in Boston, and who bought the Wiswall homestead farm for a country residence.
David M. Kinmonth, of Newton, died Feb. 26, 1860, leaving an estate inventoried at $216,941.63, of which but $11,000 was real estate, - his homestead in Newton. His inventory disclosed $50,000 invested in the capital of Hogg, Brown & Taylor (dry goods firm located at the corner of Washington Street and Temple Place), and the value of his leases of the corner of Washington and Winter Streets as $8,000.
Excerpts from the will of Moses Craft, dated Steptember 20, 1868: "I give and bequeath unto Esther, my well beloved Wife, all my House- hold moveables, or Utensils. ... I also give to her a Cow. I also give unto her the said Esther during her natural life the improvement of the Easterly End of my Dwelling House, with that of the Cellar that is under it together with the privilege of the Entryway & Stairway for passing and repassing to the Cellar & Garret & the privilege of going to the well & taking water out of same. . . Also Eighty pound of Mer- chantable Pork, forty pound of Merchantable Beef, two Bushels of Malt, two Barrels of Cyder ... and the privilege of the use of a Horse and Chair, when she Shall have an Occasion to Ride."
Then his son Joseph inherited the place. He had fifteen children by his two wives, five by one and ten, including two sets of twins, by the other.
CHARLES C. BLANEY
THE WOODWARD HOMESTEAD
1681
(A compilation of data from various sources, most of it furnished by Mrs. Frederick Woodward and Mr. Willard Woodward, with whose approval this article is presented. J.B.M. Ed.)
The Woodward homestead, on the street which bears the family name, is one of the oldest hereditary dwellings in America, if not the oldest. It has been occupied without in- terruption by eight generations. In this respect alone it is unique - to have been in the possession of a single family for over two centuries. This, the second oldest house in Newton, is probably the oldest dwelling in America in which direct descendants of the original family have been the sole occu- . pants. It was standing one hundred years before the signing
THE WOODWARD HOMESTEAD Courtesy of Mr. Willard B. Woodward
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WABAN - EARLY DAYS
of the Declaration of Independence, and was built only forty- five years after the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts, the oldest dwelling still standing in New England.
The Woodward Family
On October 10, 1589, Richard Woodward was born in Ipswich, England. When he was forty-five years old, he came to America aboard the ship Elizabeth, William Andrews, Master, bringing with him his wife Rose, aged fifty, and his sons George and John, both aged thirteen. He took the Free- man's oath in September, 1635, at Watertown, Massachusetts, thus becoming one of its earliest settlers. The town records, which date back to 1641, include seventy odd names, supposedly all the adult males who lived there prior to that year. Among them is that of Richard Woodward. His wife Rose died in 1662, aged eighty. The next year he married Ann Gates of Cambridge. He died in 1665, aged seventy-six.
The son George was admitted Freeman in 1646. He had eight children by his first wife, Mary, then he married Eliza- beth Hammond, daughter of Thomas Hammond of Cambridge Village. There was one daughter, Mercy, by that marriage. In his will George Woodward left this wife 100 acres of land on Muddy River in Brookline, where their son George, Jr., later settled.
The fourth child of George, Sr., was John, born in Water- town on March 28, 1649. He was a weaver by trade. He married Rebecca, daughter of Richard Robbins of Cambridge. Through her, John Woodward became the owner of a thirty- acre farm extending from the road (now Woodward Street) back to the Charles River. From the Middlesex deeds (which date back to 1648): "1681, Richard Robbins, of Cambridge, to John Woodward, weaver, and his wife Rebecca, daughter of said Robbins; north by a way leading to the Lower Falls, south by Charles River; east by land of Squire Pelham; and west by Thomas Croswell."
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THE WOODWARD HOMESTEAD
THE WOODWARD HOMESTEAD Courtesy of Mr. Willard B. Woodward
John Woodward was twenty-six when he came to Newton to occupy this land. In 1686 he bought the 75 acres adjoining from Eben and Margaret Stone; his land holdings then com- prised 105 acres. The original deeds still hang in the home- stead. That of 1681 is signed by Major Daniel Gookin. (At one time this estate contained 300 acres.) John Woodward died in 1732, aged eighty-three.
The following is the list of the ten generations of Wood- wards, eight of whom have lived in the homestead:
Richard Woodward born in Ipswich, England - 1589
George Woodward .born in Ipswich, England - 1621
John Woodward born in Watertown, Mass. - - 1649
Deacon Ebenezer Woodward .... born in Woodward Homestead - - 1691
Captain John Woodward born in Woodward Homestead - - 1724
Deacon Ebenezer Woodward .born in Woodward Homestead - - 1758
Deacon Elijah F. Woodward .born in Woodward Homestead - 1786 Deacon Samuel N. Woodward .. born in Woodward Homestead - 1819
Deacon Frederick N. Woodward born in Woodward Homestead - 1845
Frederick Rand Woodward born in Woodward Homestead - 1880
Willard Bacon Woodward born in Woodward Homestead - 1884
This was Indian country when the Woodward family set- tled here. In fact, in the memory of the elderly aunt of the
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brothers Frederick and Willard, there were Indians living under the three very tall old pines at the end of Orchard Avenue near the railroad, just beyond the Woodward lane towards Eliot. These friendly Indians lived there long before the Woodward house was built and continued to live there through the years, generation after generation.
Deacon (Captain) Ebenezer Woodward married Mind- well Stone in 1716. In 1744 he was selectman for a two-year term. Their son, Captain John Woodward, was also a prominent citizen. In 1773, at a town meeting, he was one of a committee of fifteen chosen to urge the people of Newton against the buying, selling, and use of India teas.
The Woodward family was represented in the Revolution and in other wars. On April 19, 1775 - Concord and Lexing- ton - Captain John, then aged fifty-one, joined one of the three Newton companies of Infantry, the West Company of thirty-seven overage volunteers who were called "the alarm list." He was in 1776 moderator of the Town Meeting at which it was unanimously voted that Congress be requested to declare the colonies independent. Captain John loaned £100 in 1777 for the soldiers' pay, one of many prominent citizens who put their hands in their pockets for that purpose. His son Ebenezer, aged seventeen years, was a drummer boy in Captain Amariah Fuller's Company of West Newton (sixty-eight in number), and marched the twenty-eight miles to the Battle of Lexington and was gone four days.
Captain John Woodward was Town Clerk and Treasurer of Newton in 1778, and was re-elected each year until he was succeeded by his own son, Ebenezer (the ex-drummer boy), in 1795. He was selectman of Newton for seven years and repre- sentative for two. This fine and distinguished man died May 11, 1801, at the age of seventy-seven.
The son, Ebenezer, who followed his father as Town Clerk and Treasurer, had a son Elijah, who also held these offices
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THE WOODWARD HOMESTEAD
from 1826 to 1845, when he died. He was a surveyor. He, too, was elected representative for four years. Deacon Elijah, said the Rev. Dr. Furber, was so regular in attending the Friday evening meeting at old First Church, Newton Center, that his horse became so familiar with "Old Hundred," always the closing hymn, that on hearing it he left the shed and went to the church door unsummoned!
Elijah's son, Samuel, became the next owner of the Wood- ward homestead. He married Mary A. Bacon of Washington, N. H. There were two children, Frederick N. and Maria L. Frederick married Ellie Tillinghast of Wilmington, Ohio, and there were two sons, Frederick and Willard. Thus the ten generations of Woodwards. Mrs. Frederick Rand Woodward now occupies the homestead.
BEDROOM IN THE WOODWARD HOMESTEAD Courtesy of Mr. Willard B. Woodward
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The Woodward Homestead
The old homestead is a worthy setting for this family of fine and useful citizens serving their country with such dis- tinction. Originally it was a two-and-one-half story structure, consisting of two front rooms, two rooms above and the "age-old" kitchen. A ladder to the second floor was drawn up at night. The timbers were filled in solidly with Holland brick and mortar as protection both from the cold and the Indians. These timbers are a foot in thickness and were brought from England for the purpose; not that we did not have the trees, but because of the reputation for long life of the English oak.
Hand-hewn boards, 17 inches in width, were laid for the flooring; the hand-shaved clapboards were secured with hand- made blacksmith nails. Small-paned windows were used - glass then being a luxury and a rarity. The massive chimneys and Dutch-tiled fireplaces are as originally constructed. Four foot cord wood was burned.
There were, from time to time, various additions to the homestead, some of which date back as far as 1729. Under six layers of wall paper and one of cloth there was discovered pine panelling 201/2 inches in width. Butterfly and H and L hinges grace the doors.
The barn held a dozen horses and four cows. The Wood- wards farmed, as did everyone else in Newton in those early days. The family owned a glue factory by the river and used a part of the land, near the corner of Woodward and Chestnut Streets, for one process in the manufacture of the product.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, when he lived across the way in the Bethuel-Allen house, was a frequent visitor at the Wood- ward homestead. He was very fond of both the family and the house.
But for the determined battle staged by Samuel N. Wood- ward of the sixth generation, the railroad would have sliced through the Woodward house itself.
THE BETHUEL-ALLEN HOUSE
(Ralph Waldo Emerson House )
Ralph Waldo Emerson lived on Woodward Street in 1833-34, in an old farmhouse across from the Woodward home- stead just beyond Allen Avenue. The house was small, low and painted yellow; lilacs grew at the door, elm trees sheltered it. It was a very ancient dwelling, called the Bethuel-Allen house after old-time occupants; the Riley family was the last living there. The house was struck by lightning and set afire about 1894. What remained was torn down soon after.
..
MATTEWS, NORTHRUP & CO. A-tale, NY
THE BETHUEL-ALLEN HOUSE Reproduced from King's "Handbook of Newton," kindness of Miss Eleanor Dresser
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When Emerson came here he was thirty years old. He had lost his wife and gone abroad to travel. He returned from Europe, Liverpool to New York, by sailing packet; one month, five days en route. He landed in New York on October 9, 1833, and went by stage to Boston, thence to Woodward Street - "a half mile from Newton Upper Falls" - to the quiet farmhouse where his mother was living for a time. His biographers say that it was "probably the farm of their relative, Mrs. Ladd," and offer us no further description. Madame Emerson was then sixty-six years old.
Emerson obviously was serene and happy here in this tranquil spot, indulging his love of nature to the fullest degree. From King's Handbook of Newton - 1889 appears this quote from a letter which Emerson wrote to a friend: "Why do you not come out here to see the pines and the hermit? ... It is calm as eternity, and will give you lively ideas of the same. These sleepy hollows, full of savins and cinquefoil, seem to utter a quiet satire at the ways and politics of men. I think the robin and the finch the only philosophers. "Tis deep Sunday in this woodcock's nest of ours from one end of the week to the other; times and seasons get lost here; sun and stars make all the difference of night and day."
Excerpts from the Journal of Ralph Waldo Emerson, all set down during his residence here:
Newtowne, October 20 (1833)
"A Sabbath in the country, but not so oderiferous as I have imagined."
October 21
"When a man goes into the woods he feels like a boy without loss of wisdom. To be sure a dandy may go there, and Nature will never speak to a dandy."
Newton April 26 (1834)
"The Muses love the woods, and I have come hither to court the awful Powers in this sober solitude."
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THE BETHUEL-ALLEN HOUSE
April 26
"Rain, rain. The good rain, like a bad preacher, does not know when to leave off."
May 1, 1834
"In this still Newton we have seven Sabbaths in a week. The day is as calm as Eternity - quite a Chaldean time."
On May 31, he wrote to his brother, Edward Bliss Emer- son, in Porto Rico: "Here sit Mother and I among the pine- trees, still almost as we shall lie by and by under them."
June 20, 1834
"The bells in America toll because Lafayette has died in France. The bells in all the earth, in church, monastery, castle, and pagoda might well toll for the departure of so pure, faith- ful, heroic, secular a spirit out of the earth to which it has been salt and spikenard. Go in, great heart! to the Invisible, to the kingdom of love and faith. He has
'Lingered among the last of those bright clouds
Which on the steady breeze of Honour sail
In long procession, calm and beautiful.' "
Emerson was chosen at this time Phi Beta Kappa poet and at the annual meeting in Cambridge incorporated in his poem eulogies of Lafayette and Webster.
June 26
"Next" door to us lives a young man who is learning to drum. He studies hard at his science every night. I should like to reward his music with a wreath of Smilax peduncularis." (A footnote comments, "Probably the older name for S. rotundi- folia, the common catbriar.")
September 15
"The charm of Italy is the charm of its names. I have seen as fine days from my own window."
Emerson took long solitary walks here, alert for flowers, which he knew by their Latin names. Birds, insects - all creatures, even to the crickets, enchanted him. He spent much
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time at the Woodward homestead across the way; he loved both the place and the family.
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