USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 12
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A frequent meeting place during pre-Revolutionary times, the tavern was also the scene of the spy incident, when Joel, oldest son of Josiah, was the acting landlord. Late in the morning of
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April fifth, 1775, Sergeant John Howe of the British forces, in the guise of a countryman with a pack on his back, entered the taproom and ordered a rum and molasses, as well as dinner. As he left the Post Road and passed through the inn yard, two team- sters were shackling their horses to a loaded wagon; one of the men recognized Howe as an officer he had seen in Boston, fol- lowed the would-be countryman and whispered to Joel that the man must be a spy. Kindhearted Joel gave Howe his order of rum and molasses but directed him for dinner to the Golden Ball Tav- ern where Tories were welcome. The Landlord, Isaac Jones, sens- ing Howe's danger, secreted him until dark, then sent him in charge of a trusted servant, by way of Jericho Road, to the home of Dr. Wheaton, another Tory. When one reads in Howe's own Diary that he escaped being tarred and feathered by thirty angry Liberty Men who gathered around Golden Ball Tavern at eleven o'clock that night, and how he survived other hairbreadth adven- tures, it is no wonder that he reported adverse conditions to General Gage, when he returned to Boston on April twelfth. The old Post Road through Weston and Sudbury, was not to be the center of excitement on the nineteenth of April in the early morning!
As travel increased on the Post Road, Smith Tavern was more and more patronized; it was often the first stop from Boston, and hostlers would be waiting to attach fresh horses, while a pleasant and attentive host would be ready with a hearty New England meal.
But Josiah was not only the popular landlord of Smith Tavern. As Justice of the Peace, he performed the marriage ceremony when the First Parish minister was not available; he had the care of the Colonial meetinghouse at one time; in 1768 and 1769, he was Town Clerk, and held the office of Selectman from 1766 until 1779. In the Warrant of 1768 :- "Town Creditors are in- structed to bring their Credits to the Selectmen at the House of Josiah Smith, Innholder, in said Town, at four o'clock in the afternoon on the day before Town Meeting." In October, 1775, Josiah was sent as delegate with Samuel Phillips Savage, to the
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Josiah Smith Tavern
Provincial Congress at Concord, presided over by John Hancock, while in 1779, he was Representative to the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.
At Josiah's death in 1782, his son Joel succeeded as Landlord. Joel, also, was quite a person. Born in 1749, the Records show that he taught school in Weston for several years beginning in 1769. From the Treasurer Accounts: "Paid Joel Smith for Keeping School for two months in the year 1769 {4 16S;" in 1772 :- "Paid Joel Smith for Keeping a Wrighting School 2 months the Winter before Last, {4 16S;" in 1773 :- "Paid Joel Smith for Keeping School five months and Boarding himself,-{12." It was in 1773, that Joel Smith married Hannah Harrington of Waltham, one result being his name in the list of Town officers as Field Driver. He was Town Clerk for five years, 1776 until 1781, Tythingman in 1782, Surveyor of Highways, 1779 until 1790, Selectman for two years, 1791 and 1792, and in 1796 was one of the School Board.
In 1800, he was a member of the "Committee for Altering and Repairing the Meetinghouse." The names are interesting: Artemas Ward, John Stimson, Caleb Hayward, Joel Smith, Ebenezer Hobbs, II, Isaac Lamson. These men not only met the demands made upon every building committee, but frequently paid debts themselves, as their submitted report attests :- "Your Committee further report that a considerable part of the bills aforesaid have been paid in full or in part by one or another of your Committee, and that Sums now due from the Town on Account of Repairs and Alterations aforesaid are due to the Persons hereafter named." The Town responded properly :- "Voted to pass and allow the account of the Committee, and the Treasurer is Directed to collect the monies mentioned in the Account and pay the sums that are now due." In this really great undertaking, townsmen supplied some of the materials and much of the labor, but people and busi- ness firms from Lexington, Charlestown, Boston, Watertown, and East Sudbury are also listed. Joel Smith was responsible for the welfare of these out-of-towners for thirty-one weeks, and re- ceived seventy-four dollars and fifty cents.
With the opening of the Framingham Turnpike, as well as a
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Weston: A Puritan Town
southerly stage route to New York, tavern business declined along the Boston Post Road. Joel's daughter, Nancy, in 1810, married George Washington Peirce of Weston, and he succeeded as land- lord when Joel died in 1817. In 1828, the Tavern Stand, as the old deed records it, was bought by, "Colonel Russell Wood of Taunton in the County of Bristol, Innkeeper." The acting land- lord, however, was named Macomber, as the Town Records have a Town Meeting held in April, 1828, "in the Hall of John T. Macomber's Tavern."
In 1838, Colonel Wood sold the property to Josiah Warren of Weston, and its life as a tavern was ended, although until 1847, Town Meetings and other gatherings were in Josiah Warren Hall, the beautiful ballroom. The last sale of this historic landmark was on March second, 1842 when ownership passed to the brothers, John and Marshall Jones. Mr. John Jones was the grandfather of Miss Ellen and Miss Alice Jones, who kept intact what should be a lasting memorial to this grand old Puritan Town.
In accordance with the terms of the will of the sisters, the Josiah Smith Tavern (or Jones House) is now in the possession of the Society For The Preservation of New England Antiquities.
The Wedding Gift and The Little Shop
In early records of the Town of Weston is this entry: "Captain George Washington Smith and Miss Clarissa Lamson, both of Weston, were married August 7, 1810." Captain Smith, grandson of Josiah Smith, Esq., was son of Joel, who inherited the Tavern in 1782, and became a popular landlord in his own right. For a wedding gift, Joel Smith gave his son George, land adjacent to Meetinghouse Common on the east side, now Endicott property, and built there for the young people, a substantial dwelling house; it stood in a grove of pines not far from the entrance to the present driveway.
Captain Smith died in 1829. He had filled many town offices,- a Constable for several years, a member of the School Board for the East Center District, and as Selectman for three years. For six years, from 1817 until 1823 he was chosen Representative from Weston to the Massachusetts General Court,-at the time of his death, he was forty-one. Clarissa lived on in the "house in the pines" with the two children, Ellen Maria, aged twelve, and George W., Jr., aged ten.
It is tempting to write on about Clarissa; a popular beauty, she was an excellent wife and mother and an able and willing Parish member, "one who was in earnest every moment of her life, both public and private." She was a directress of the Female Cent So- ciety, and when its usefulness was over, it was Clarissa who called
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a meeting of the ladies of the Parish at her house on Wednesday, February 7, 1841, to form a "Society for Charitable Purposes," and the First Parish Ladies' Benevolent Society came into being, with Mrs. Charlotte Field, wife of the minister, as the first presi- dent.
It was Clarissa Smith who came to the rescue in 1840, when there was such great unhappiness over taking down the Colonial Church of 1722. Many opposed placing the new edifice on the same location, but Mrs. Smith deeded, “ A certain tract and parcel of land to the members of said Parish and their successors and assigns, to them and their use and behoof forever, for the purpose of building a Meetinghouse thereon and a Common about the same, and for Parish purposes and no other."
The plain Church of 1840 was thereon placed; "the tract" was approximately one hundred feet square, and is partly the site of the present Parish House, the Common was taken by the stone Church, while the old County Road was also appropriated.
In 1845, Mr. David Lane, a wealthy Boston and New York importer of French goods, married Clarissa's young niece, Caro- line Lamson, and bought the Smith property. In order to make a perfect setting for his country mansion, he sold Clarissa's house to Benjamin Peirce, Jr., who moved the homestead west over the Post Road to its present location, Number 436. At this time just across the way was the Lamson house, unfortunately taken down in the early 1920's.
In 1866, for a few months, the historic Smith house was the residence of Reverend Edmund Hamilton Sears and his family; later in the same year it became the property of Mr. Edward Coburn, a time-honored citizen of Weston, lifelong member of the First Parish. The estate remained with the heirs of Mr. Coburn until 1958, when it came on the market for a quick sale. The rather tired-looking old house seemed doomed for destruction but fortunately it came into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. John Boyd, and the century and one-half landmark has been appropriately re- stored.
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The Wedding Gift and The Little Shop
The Little Shop
Diagonally across on the right of the Post Road is Mrs. Caffrey's inviting place, a small house that has a history of its own. Years ago, Weston had a thriving dry goods business; the store was in the Center, opposite Smith Tavern,-some may remember the building as the George W. Cutting and Son, grocery store.
From towns far to the west and to the north, driving in the one- horse chaise, people came to buy cloth, putting up at taverns until the shopping was finished; no one thought of going to Boston-even Waltham ladies came to the nearer town. These journeys Spring and Fall made real outings for people who had the time and the money to enjoy them. The Weston store was opened in 1782, by Isaac Lamson, but it was his son Daniel, who became manager in 1810, who listened to complaints that there was no one to make up the cloths. In 1817, Daniel Lamson built this small shop and installed a tailor.
After 1838, when the dry goods business was no longer so lucrative, the little house had its ups and downs, once a store for men's and boy's ready made clothing, once a hair-cutting and barber stand, in 1917, to further the development of Weston Common, the small shop was moved west along the Post Road to its present site under Lamson Hill. Here, the one hundred- forty-three year old landmark looks quite happy and prosperous, with pleasing display windows and a cheerful garden in the fore- ground. The little shop has seen much of life on the Boston Post Road!
The Abraham Hews House
Across the Post Road on the left stands a square house; it has a wide front door with window panels and a fan light, as well as side doors, east and west. It was built by Mr. Abraham Hews, in 1765, and here Mr. Hews and Abraham Jr. carried on a pottery business said to be the first of its kind in New England; as demand for the goods increased, a factory was built near the corner of the present Highland Street and the By-pass; it is still standing, now a dwelling house. Abraham, Jr. was at one time Captain of the Weston Independent Light Infantry. It was Captain Hews and his son Abraham of the third generation, who built the brick-end house now Number 65 1 Boston Post Road, and in 1824, the family house of 1765 was sold to Mr. Marshall Jones. The property was owned by his descendants until the sale to Mr. and Mrs. Boyd in 1948; restored to excellent condition, the landmark is spoken of as The Doctors' House.
Captain Abraham Hews, Jr. was chosen Deacon of the First Parish Church in 1828; he served until 1849, when he asked for release from active duties, "on account of his increased infirmities and age." His request was granted and in the ensuing vote, "The choice fell by ballot on Brother Samuel Hews who notified his acceptance." Samuel, born in 1795, was the oldest son of Captain Abraham, Jr. In 1854, the Captain died at the age of eighty-eight, one of the outstanding citizens of Weston. For many years he served as Assessor and Collector of taxes; was Surveyor of High- ways, a member of the School Board for the West Center District, and for several years was chosen a Selectman. His family of four daughters and six sons was an asset to the Parish and to the Town.
Horatio, the fifth son, married Martha Brackett, niece of Miss
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The Abraham Hews House
Rebecca Brackett, and built a house on the right of the Post Road, nearly opposite the entrance to Highland Street. This Colonial has been sacrificed but a picture of it is in the Historical Rooms. The oldest son, Frederick, gave his life for his country at Gettysburg in 1863. It was Albert Horatio, the second son, who, with his Uncle Abraham Hews, III, carried on the family business. This had greatly increased over the years, and in 1871 it was necessary to move the pottery works nearer the central market.
There was much teaming of the goods over the Post Road; a mental picture emerges of the shining wagons drawn by two or four great horses that were the pride of the town as well as of the Hews family. The factory was set up in North Cambridge and bears the name of the great-grandson of the founder; the firm of A. H. Hews Company, Inc., is still running an extensive business.
The sixth son of Captain Abraham Jr., Horace, was a notable and devoted citizen. Both he and his brother Horatio served as Selectmen and in other Town offices, and Horace was the faithful Town Treasurer for thirty years, from 1859 until 1889, when he resigned because of failing health. He lived on the Post Road in the brick-end house built by his father, Captain Abraham, Jr.
In the First Parish, Mr. Albert H. Hews is not to be forgotten; he served on the Standing Committee for many years and was a vital member of the Friendly Society. He served the Parish in many, many ways-always the guiding power to bring success to Parish Fairs when they were annual events. At his sudden death in 1904 there were no heirs, and the Hews name is no longer in Parish or Town Records. A crayon portrait of Albert Horatio Hews is in the First Parish House.
The Artemas Ward House
In 1782, two brothers, Daniel and Ebenezer Eaton of East Sudbury (now Wayland) bought land in Weston on the north side of the Post Road near the Farmers' Burying Place. In early days all locations of residents for the tax lists were made North Side or South Side of the Great Country Road, now the Boston Post Road which runs through Weston from east to west. Ac- cording to the old deed, the brothers bought, "the land bounded on the East by Gawain Brown, North by land of Widow Lydia Goddard, West by Rev. Samuel Woodward, and South by the Great Country Road, with a Town way running across the South- west portion." This Town way is now Concord Road.
By 1785, the Eaton brothers had built the large square house with gable roof and cornices, front- and side-door entrances, with an ell to the north. Within, the rooms are a delight with beautiful carved woodwork, the hall dignified by a stairway of exceptional stateliness, all well-lighted by large windows. At the death of Ebenezer in 1789, Daniel sold the estate to Artemas Ward, Esq., son of General Artemas Ward of the Revolution, Aide to General Washington during the siege of Boston, 1775 to 1776. A rising young lawyer, Artemas, Jr., in December 1788, married Catherine Maria Dexter of Weston, and within a few months the young people were living in the rather elegant yet home-like mansion.
In August, 1789, Artemas Ward and his wife Catharine Maria were admitted into Church Fellowship in the ministry of Dr. Samuel Kendal. In 1791, "Mr. Artemas Ward bought a Pew up the Broad Alley on the left hand and Adjoining to Mr. Joseph Russell's Pew. {29.14S."
Young Artemas was soon brought into town affairs. In 1790, he
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The Artemas Ward House
was one of a Committee-the other two were Captain Estes Howe and Deacon Isaac Hobbs "To adjust and report to the Town on a matter of cancelling a bond held by the Treasurer against," two Weston citizens. He was chosen to represent the Town in an action brought against Weston in 1791, by John Norcross of Petersham. Later the same year he was appointed Agent in behalf of the Town to defend and settle a dispute brought by John Richardson of Concord. Selectman in 1792, and for four years following, it was Artemas Ward with Ebenezer Brackett, who laid out Concord Road from Brackett's Corner, "2 rods wide, and had the Said Road approved by vote of the Inhabitants at Town Meeting." This was in 1793, the year in which, "He was agent to settle disputes with Concord and with Waltham."
"The Inhabitants of the Town of Weston being assembled at the Publick Meetinghouse on the ninth day of May, 1796,-did then and there Elect and Depute Artemas Ward, Esq. to repre- sent Sª Inhabitants in the General Court of this Commonwealth the ensewing year." Re-elected for five years as Representative, he was then chosen for the Senate. He was generally Moderator at Town Meetings, represented the West Center District on the School Board and in 1800 as Chairman of the Committee for repair- ing the Colonial meetinghouse, was a large contributor "without interest," in the immediate payment of bills later met by the Town.
In 1803, he was Executor of the will of Colonel Thomas Mar- shall, the Revolutionary officer who died in Weston at the age of eighty-four. In January, 1815, Mr. Ward was one of the board of seven agents for the sale of pews in the Colonial Church, but on May 20th of the same year, it is recorded, "I, Artemas Ward of Boston in the County of Suffolk Esq. in consideration of two hun- dred dollars to me paid by Isaac Fiske of Weston in the County of Middlesex Esq.,"-not only gave up his right to "the Pew on the left side of the Broad Aisle,"-but also, "all my right, title and interest in and to a certain stable situated near the Meetinghouse, being numbered four in a range of ten stables which were built about twenty years since." After 1815, his name appears but once,
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in the Non-Resident Tax List, as living in Charlestown. The estate was finally bought in 1836, by Benjamin Peirce, Sr.
The Peirce name is an early one in Weston, Francis Peirce being one of the nineteen men who gathered with the Church in 1709 under Mr Williams. There was a Benjamin in every generation, beginning with 1639, in Watertown, and they settled in various parts of the Colony. Through the years the men of the Peirce family in Weston filled various Town offices and were faithful members of the First Parish, but for actual service to the town, service that will be effective forever, Mary Frances, daughter of Benjamin, Sr. and Almira Harrington, his wife, leads them all.
On March twenty-eighth 1892, Town Meeting voted to print and to bind early Town Records, the editing to be in the hands of Mary Frances Peirce. Untiring in research, so that the Records as printed are perfect in accuracy, Miss Peirce sometimes added, in brackets, spicy and delightful comments upon various matters. In the Preface to Tax Lists, 1757 to 1827,-"If a man reached the age of twenty-one and was not a pauper, the Assessors were sure to find him."
"Jan'y 15, 1758, Dyed Francis Fullam, Esq., in the 87th year of his Age. (His gravestone has 1757, which is incorrect, Ed.)"
"(The date on the stone is wrong. She died 1829, aged 85. Ed.)"
"April 15, 1787, Abrm Jones and Hepsy Fisk. (Fisk is the correct name. The Town Clerk's copy of the return gives Smith, but it is an error. Ed.)"
"(It has required a good deal of study to get at the facts con- cerning these two Solomons. Bond is wrong.)" The two Solomons were surnamed Jones; Dr. Henry Bond was the well-known his- torian of Watertown!
"If town papers are still in the possession of private persons, it is hoped that they will be promptly delivered up."
A graduate of Framingham, Miss Peirce taught for a number of years in Cambridge; rather small in stature, but with a striking per- sonality, kindly, interested in her pupils' success, she was long remembered. At College, one day, Professor William Marshall Warren said to the writer, "You are from Weston, do you know
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The Artemas Ward House
Miss Mary Peirce who was my teacher in the Cambridge High School?" When this was related to Miss Mary Frances, "Remember Will Warren?" she said, "No teacher could forget such a brilliant boy."
The two sisters, Mary Frances and Margaret, with two brothers, Edward and Joseph, lived on in the house at Brackett's Corner after the death of Benjamin Peirce, Senior; Joseph was a business man in Boston going back and forth on the Massachusetts Central for many years. Mary Frances was the last in possession; when she died in 1914, the Peirce heirs sold the estate to Mr. Joseph Seabury. In the early 1920's, the house was moved to the brow of the hill at the north, where it cheerfully overlooks the changes at Brack- ett's Corner.
At this writing the estate is in the hands of Mr. Paul R. Ignatius.
The Northwest Neighborhood
The distance from Meeting House Common to Bond's Corner, where Merriam Street branches from Concord Road was about one mile; from the Corner bearing west then northwest, down a steep hill and over a long one with Cherry Brook Valley lying between, was well over another mile to the farms and dwellings of six early settlers in the town. There were rocks and hills, but the stretches of level fertile land with spring fed brooks running through each farm made this an ideal location and it became a happy community. The farmers were ready with the helping hand in any season, while connecting the houses were well trodden footpaths over which mothers and children went for neighborly chats and friendly meetings. There was hospitality with noon dinners and early suppers; sometimes all would gather at one home for a meal, the food brought by the wives and daughters-a merry event!
The year of settlement is not definite, but it was an early one. In 1676, during King Philip's War to destroy Watertown and all communities in eastern Massachusetts, the determined resistance of Sudbury and East Sudbury, (Wayland) the frontier towns, protected Weston from Indian attacks. The nearest that the in- vaders came to Watertown was an incursion in the spring of 1676, during an attack upon Sudbury; a barn was burned on the Smith farm but tradition mentions no loss of life.
An early Colonial house stands on the Smith acres which border the Weston boundary line with Wayland. Facing south on Sud- bury Road there are wide lawns at the front with sloping fields and a running brook to the west. The door, not quite in the middle of the house, opens into a large hall from which an easy stairway leads up at the right. The low-ceilinged rooms are large, well
-
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The Northwest Neighborhood
lighted with small-paned windows, fireplaces and carved mantels are in every room; the floors are of wide pine boards. The dining room windows to the north overlook lovely meadows bordered with woods of pine and maple that make a background especially attractive in spring and in autumn. The entrance door in the rear hall is double sheathed, probably for warmth as it faces the north, but it would offer great resistance to an Indian attack.
William Smith and Mary his wife were living on the farm when their oldest son Bradyll was born in 1715; he and his younger brother, Josiah, both familiar names in Weston history, established homes in other parts of the town, and it was James, the youngest child, born in 1724, who inherited the farm. He married Lucy Stearns of Weston in 1748, and both were admitted to Church fellowship in 1751, the first year of the ministry of young Samuel Woodward.
James Smith served the Town: in 1754, he was Surveyor of Highways as well as Preserver of Deer, then one of the three Fence Viewers, and from 1770 until 1776, Collector of Taxes; he was also a member of the Train-band, with regular drill practice. During this time he was caring for thirty-three acres of tillable land with the usual farm animals, one horse, two oxen, six cows,- and the Assessors in 1771, credited him with a flock of twelve sheep.
Of the four children of James Smith, it was the youngest, Samuel, who lived on in the homestead after the death of the parents. In 1789, he married Mrs. Olive Pepper, widow of Ben- jamin Pepper who had served in the Revolutionary War. Samuel began with the office of Fence Viewer in 1803. In 1815, he "bought a Pew in the Meetinghouse situate in the front gallery and marked number Nine;" for this he paid sixty dollars and it was the Smith pew in 1840 when the Colonial Church was taken down. In 1804 he was a member of the School Board for the Northwest District and was still serving in 1819; the list of pupils for 1812 in this ancient little schoolhouse, Number III was fifty-one between the ages of four and eighteen.
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