USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 14
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The sturdy wing or ell is now the home of the Mckinley Warrens. Many features show its ancient origin: the quaint front entrance, the two-foot overhang of the gambrel, the great central chimney with fireplaces in every room, heavy beams, low ceilings, wide floorboards, the wooden pegs and handwrought iron nails with which the whole is put together. One year when the Town
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Line was perambulated the Selectmen discovered that the house stands partly in Weston, partly in Wayland, and it was decreed, "The occupant votes where he sleeps."
Alpheus Bigelow, Jr., at once entered Town government, offi- cially his first duty that of Tythingman. In 1814, he was voted a member of the School Board for the West Center District, Number II, where his children went to school, was returned to the office for twenty years, and from 1818, was Surveyor of Highways for ten years. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1814, from then on signing Town documents following the name of Isaac Fiske, Town Clerk. These two men with country-wide reputations for honesty and for ability, for years served on suits brought against Weston-one complaint by the County Commissioners concern- ing the condition of the Post Road near the Wayland line was settled by voting Squire Alpheus Bigelow, Jr., Surveyor of High- ways for the District.
From 1810 through the years, the Boston Post Road from Watertown to Marlborough was straightened and widened, several changes being made in Weston :- at Townsend Place, near the Wayland line, the ancient highway was surveyed to run due west to Sudbury. In the early 1820's, Squire Alpheus Jr. built the present mansion on level ground southeast of the Townsend site and the name of the corner area became Bigelow Place.
With beautiful surroundings the great house stands well back from the Post Road, imposing in line and in proportion, elegant but homelike and inviting. It was three years building; according to an old story, refreshment sent from the Townsend-Bigelow house to the workmen consisted of a bowl of flip and a ladle with which they filled their earthenware cups.
Wide gable ends of the broad pitch roof and the huge chimneys give an idea of the interior. A great door with fanlight and matching glass side panels, opens into a roomlike hall,-a stairway with unusually fine pedestal and balustrade leading to a large hall on the second floor. Wide doorways with carved cornices, french windows, inside blinds, great fireplaces with lovely mantels are in all six rooms that surround the entrance hall. One of the most
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The Bigelow Mansion
charming is the diningroom with windows looking out over what was then a large and well-tilled farm. The Townsend house be- came the farmhouse; Squire Bigelow was an interested farmer, but was committed more and more to his law office across the way, leaving the cultivation of his land in capable hands. The Assessors Valuation list of 1821 credits him with 150 acres; ten acres of tillage land, three horses, four oxen, ten cows; this was farming on a large scale.
Alpheus Bigelow, Jr., Esq. lived an active life well into his nine- tieth year: he died in 1874. The house and the estate finally descended to his youngest son, Frank Winthrop, the only one of his seven children born there. He succeeded to the title of Squire and was also Captain Bigelow from his service to the Country in the Civil War. A granddaughter, Blanche Townsend Bigelow, lives not far away in Dorchester.
In 1812, the Weston Tax List carried six Bigelow names, each man a property holder with a family, but none appears in the Records today.
The House on Beacon Hill
Of the fourth generation from Lewis and Anna Jones who came from England to Watertown in 1635, Elisha, born in Weston in 1710, was the youngest of five children of Captain Josiah Jones, Jr., and was own cousin of Isaac Jones, Esq., of the Golden Ball. Captain Josiah, Jr., had bought many acres on the south side of old Sudbury Road between Willow Lane, now School Street and the present Highland Street and extending southerly for a mile or more. He had married Abigail Barnes of Marlborough in 1691, and had built on the high ground known later as Beacon Hill, a family house that was then and is now one of the handsomest in Weston. His will, dated in December, 1734, gave farm and house to Elisha who in 1733 had married Mary Allen of Weston; he and his bride lived in a house no longer standing on the northerly side of Chestnut Street at the corner of Highland, until they went to live in the homestead a short distance away.
A present day authority pronounced the lines of this mansion perfect for the type of architecture, with the broad gambrel roof and two great chimneys. Through the wide front door with its ancient brass fittings is a long, wide hall; at right and left are large square rooms, each lighted with four many-paned windows, each with Colonial fireplace and mantel. The hall is wainscoted while the stairway at the left and to the rear has a carved pedestal and balustrade; another wide door with window lights is at the rear. There is a gracious elegance everywhere.
Elisha Jones was an aristocrat and a conservative in politics. His name is listed in the Records in 1746, when Weston still held Precinct Meetings: he was Precinct Assessor, and one of three of a Precinct Committee; these became Selectmen in Town govern- ment. Elisha was Colonel of the Weston Militia, he was a Justice of
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The House on Beacon Hill
the Peace, and for ten years represented Weston in the Great and General Court. An able man and a leader in town affairs, Colonel Elisha was one who remained loyal to King George III and became a hated Tory in the minds of his townsmen. In May, 1773, he had again been chosen as a Representative, but by other members of the Court being considered a Tory sympathizer, at a Special Town Meeting held September twenty-nine, he was recalled and Captain Bradyll Smith was appointed in his place.
After April nineteen, 1775, not even such a distinguished citizen was safe in this hotly patriotic town; Colonel Elisha and the family still living with him, left Beacon Hill; the estate was confiscated by the Town together with Jericho Farm, his property on the North side of the Boston Post Road. Some of the sons went in sailing boats to Canada and Nova Scotia, but Colonel Elisha never left Boston; he died there in December, 1775-it is said of a broken heart.
Nathan, the oldest son born in 1734, found his home in Maine. In 1764, he was one of three men who applied for and were granted by the General Court which then represented the Crown, Town- ship Number III on the coast of Maine; this grant of land is now the town of Gouldsboro on U.S. Route One. His fortunes are related in The Peninsula by Louise Dickinson Rich; Mrs. Rich writes: "Nathan Jones was a native of Weston, Massachusetts, a pleasant little colonial village on the outskirts of Boston." A turn at West Gouldsboro to Route 186, leads to Jones Pond and a lovely spot where the depression that once was the cellar of the Jones house can still be seen. There Nathan, his wife Sarah Seaverns of Weston, and their eleven children lived a happy, healthy, busy life. Nathan owned mills and carried on an extensive lumber trade.
In 1789, Massachusetts issued an Act of Incorporation making Gouldsboro a town, "vested with all powers, privileges, and immunities which other towns of the Commonwealth may and do enjoy." In Town Records of Gouldsboro, Nathan Jones is listed as Moderator, as Surveyor of Roads, with other familiar titles: as population was limited, men had to double as town officers.
The confiscated farm and mansion on Beacon Hill, in 1782
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were bought by Colonel Thomas Marshall, a descendant of Captain Thomas Marshall who came from England in 1635, and settled in Lynn. The title of Captain derived from Oliver Cromwell in whose army he had been a soldier. Colonel Thomas was born in Boston in 1717, commanded the Tenth Massachusetts Regiment during the Revolutionary War and was with General Washington in the final surrender at Yorktown.
A distinguished officer and gentleman, Colonel Marshall became an interesting citizen of Weston and served on many Church and Town Committees, especially when some noted person was to be entertained. He married the charming widow of Reverend Samuel Woodward, was waited upon by two faithful family servants in his splendid residence, and rode in his own carriage with a pair of horses, not a chaise! The Assessors Invoice of 1796 credited the Colonel with, "Plate {10; 98 Acres of land; two Horses; two Oxen; five Cows; one Dog." There were but two others in town credited with Plate-Thomas Townsend, Esq. and Judge Savage.
Colonel Marshall left no direct heirs. He died in November, 1800, and his widow in June, 1805. The Executors of the Colonel's will in 1801 sold, "the Elisha Jones Homestead Farm," for $7000 to Dr. John Clark of Cambridge. In 1803, Dr. Clark married Jennet, daughter of Mrs. Ruth Mackay who was the widow of Alexander Mackay of an old Boston family. In 1805, Jennet became a widow and having no affinity for a country life, gladly "conveyed to Ruth Mackay for $500. quitclaim the late Elisha Jones Homestead." To old timers in Weston it became the Mackay farm. There seems to have been, during Mrs. Mackay's ownership, a sunny garden in front of the house with pathways in different directions and curvings at the intersections where stood marble statues of mythical beings.
After Mrs. Mackay's death in 1833, her son John, "conveyed the Homestead Estate in Weston to Philip J. Mayer for $6900." It remained in Mr. Mayer's possession until 1865, when reverses in fortune forced a sale to William M. Roberts of Weston; soon after, in 1867, he sold the estate to General Charles J. Paine of Boston. In 1882 when General Paine planned to build the present house on
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The House on Beacon Hill
the same site, he gave the Colonial mansion to Charles H. Fiske, Esq., provided he would move it. In Mr. Fiske's own words, "This offer I gladly accepted and the house then started upon its pilgrimage across the fields to the Main Road, now Central Avenue, and along this road until it was placed for a short time on land belonging to the Heirs of Isaac Fiske, just West of his barn and East of the Homestead of the late Reverend Joseph Field, D.D. Its surroundings, however, did not seem adequate and proper for such a noble structure." A few years later, about 1890, the beauti- ful mansion was moved again to its present resting place at 22 Church Street, where it looks serenely and majestically through trees and shrubbery upon the helter skelter in Weston today.
For many years from the early 1920's, it was the home of the Austin Mason family; some additions were made but with little or no change in the original contours. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. West, Jr., who now own this distinguished landmark, are proud of its antiquity and of its history and are interested in its preserva- tion.
A Distinguished Landmark
The ancient lean-to at the corner of Wellesley and Chestnut Streets, has endured fewer changes than many old houses in Weston, while it has also sheltered some notable people of the Town. It was built by Joseph Allen who settled in Watertown Farms after his marriage with Ann Brazier of Watertown, in 1667. On the opposite side of Chestnut Street, a cellar hole and the remnants of a brick walk are evidence of an earlier house, probably built by Walter Allen, father of Joseph-the latter is recorded as born in Weston. Watertown Records state that "On Oct. I, 1673, by deed of gift, Walter Allen conveyed the land to his sons, Daniel and Joseph, and soon moved to Watertown where he died in 1681."
The year of the building of this landmark by Joseph Allen is set as 1696. The front entrance has an overhang with window lights above the door; this opens into a narrow hallway with the usual large well-lighted rooms on either side, wide floorboards and great fireplaces; the one in the long kitchen that extends under the whole length of the lean-to roof, was originally ten feet in length and five feet high. Here Thomas Rand, who lived in the house then, melted, trimmed, and boxed bullets for the War of the Revolution, or so it is believed.
The quaint house has many closets each with its own use, as well as an odd little room, the milk room, with a grated window, halfway between the ground floor and a deep cellar; directly over this, a few steps up from the hallway is another little room, said to be the cheeseroom, its temperature modified by the milk room underneath. There are wooden shutters in the parlor, one with a bullet hole, and there is a secret stair in which the tread may be removed showing a hollow space underneath.
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A Distinguished Landmark
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A Distinguished Landmark
The Allens were of importance both when Watertown Farms became a Precinct in 1698, and a Town in 1712-13. Four Allens are listed with the eighteen men who, together with Reverend William Williams, organized the First Parish Church in 1710: Joseph Allen, Joseph, Jr., Abel and Ebenezer. Ebenezer married Sarah Waite of Weston in 1712, and their daughter, Thankful Allen, born in 1717, married Abraham Hill of Boston in 1735, and was the great grandmother of Edward Everett Hale.
Nathaniel Allen, a much younger brother of Joseph, Sr., was appointed a Deacon of the First Parish Church in 1745, and served in the office until his death in 1772. Nathaniel's daughter, Mary, in 1733, married Elisha Jones, the elegant Tory gentleman who built the mansion on Beacon Hill, while another daughter, Rachel, became Mrs. Samuel Train and lived in the house on the Indian Path.
Nathaniel Allen had settled on some of the Walter Allen acres, in the northerly part of the Town bordering Lincoln. His house on Concord Road is located on the map of Weston made in 1795; it was a fine dwelling, but was burned in the 1890's. For many years the property has been owned by the Cronin family; John J. Cronin, Jr., is now serving his town faithfully as an officer of the Weston Police Force.
At some time between 1772 and 1775, the Allen property on Wellesley Street passed to Thomas Rand, born in 1727, son of Benjamin Rand and Abigail, his wife. A tale handed down by word of mouth is that Thomas and his son, Thomas, Jr., were at work building the barn when news came of the British invasion of April eighteenth, 1775. Both names are in the list of the Militia Company that marched to Concord on the morning of the nine- teenth. Both men served through the war, Thomas, Sr., on the Weston War Committee, Thomas, Jr., with the troops. At one time Thomas Rand, Sr. was one of the men who kept the Beacon burning; he was also Selectman during those troublous years.
Another son of Thomas, Sr., Benjamin II born in 1754, went to Canada in 1777, and served through the Second Period of the War. In 1782, he married Sarah Ayres of Weston; it was their son
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Benjamin, III, born in 1786, who graduated from Harvard College in 1808, became an authority on legal matters, and was honored with an L.L.D. degree.
A daughter of Benjamin Rand, II, and Sarah his wife, Clarissa, born in 1797, married Henry Robbins of Roxbury in 1826; the young people after a few years, probably in 1832, came to live in the old home when her father found the care of the large farm too great. Their children, Eliza Ann, Sarah, and Oliver, were brought up in the First Parish Church and in the East Center School. In 1856, Eliza Ann married Edwin Hastings of Weston, a descendant of Thomas Hastings who sailed from Ipswich, England, in 1634, and settled in Watertown; they lived in the Hastings homestead also on Wellesley Street, while Sarah and Oliver kept the family home only a few rods away.
Oliver Robbins was a Library Trustee and a good one from 1872, until his death in 1903. A serious and high-minded man, he rated history, biography and books of travel, far above fiction; he frequently checked the record of the librarian as to the demands of the reading public of Weston.
The Joseph Allen house still stands at the corner of Wellesley and Chestnut Streets; the landmark has changed owners but three times since it was sold by the heirs of the Robbins estate in 1903. In 1961 the property came fortunately into the possession of John W. Scott; both Mr. and Mrs. Scott are doing all in their power to restore and to keep intact the beauty and appeal of probably the oldest house in Weston.
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The Harrington Homestead
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The Harrington Homestead
A sightly house on Wellesley Street, now the home of David Blaney and his family, is on the early map of Weston, 1792, under the name of Stephen Harrington. The first of the family in this Farmers' Precinct was Benjamin, third generation from Robert Harrington, whose name is among the Proprietors of Watertown in 1642.
Born in 1661, Benjamin Harrington in 1684 married Abigail, daughter of John Bigelow, a blacksmith of Watertown and a Selectman from 1665 until 1671. The young people came to the Farmers' Precinct and settled on the Harrington Land Grant of about two hundred acres in the south side of the Farms; they were admitted to the Weston Congregation in 1710. Of the four chil- dren, two daughters, Abigail and Thankful, married Weston men, while the two sons, Benjamin, Jr. born in 1685, and Isaac in 1692, inherited the homestead and the farm when Benjamin, Sr. died in 1724.
Isaac Harrington in 1720, married Susannah Allen, beautiful daughter of Abel Allen, an original member of the First Parish; Susannah was born in 1697, in the historic lean-to at the corner of Wellesley and Chestnut Streets-in those days the young people were considered neighbors. Their son, Stephen, born in 1739, when only eighteen years old, joined the Weston Train-band, and a year later, in 1758, was one of thirty men to enlist in the Infantry Company of Captain Henry Spring for the Invasion of Canada in the French and Indian War, 1756-1763, the War that gave Canada to England.
From Church Records: "Stephen Harrington and Sarah Hastings Both of Weston Were Joyned in Marriage per Reverend Samuel
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Weston: A Puritan Town
Woodward, Minister of the Gospel in Weston, July 12, 1769". In the same year Stephen was voted Field Driver, the office bestowed upon all young married men; through the years he was Constable and Collector of Taxes at 51/2 pence per pound, was Surveyor of Highways and a member of the School Board for the Southwest District. The Inventory of his farm for 1801 lists besides dwelling house and barn, one other building, twelve A. Tillage, sixteen A. Upland, thirty A. Fresh Meadow, forty-eight A. Pastureage, twenty A. Woodland, fifty-five A. Unimproved land, fifteen Bbls. Cyder, two horses, four oxen, six cows. The Harringtons bore the reputation of being able farmers and very well-to-do.
An interesting cousin of Stephen's, a few years younger, was Justus Harrington, one of the four young men who built the first Baptist Church on the South County Road, in 1784. His enthusiasm carried the entire family away from the First Parish; it is believed that Stephen was reluctant but finally accepted the new doctrines.
"Know all men by these Presents that I, Stephen Harrington, of Weston in the County of Middlesex, Yeoman, in consideration of the sum of fifty dollars paid me by Thomas Townsend of Weston, Yeoman, do hereby release, remise, quit claim and convey to him, the said Thomas H. Townsend and to his heirs and assigns all my right, title, estate and interest to onehalf of the pew that was my father John Hastings late of Weston, deceased, viz. that half adjoin- ing to Colonel Thomas Marshall's Pew in Weston Meeting House, it being the Pew at the left hand going into the front of the Door of said Meeting House. Witness my hand and seal this second Day of May, 1798, and twenty second of the Independency of America."
During Stephen's lifetime and that of his son, Tyler, additions were made to the original square house with the long sloping roof and two chimneys that give evidence of the great fireplaces needed for the large rooms. No change in the south entrance that opened into a hallway through the house with a second door leading to a terrace on the north side. An ell at the east and another at the west, each with a chimney-there are really three houses in one.
Stephen Harrington lived until 1828, to the age of ninety years
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The Harrington Homestead
-one of the grand old men of whom Weston may be proud; he and his son, Tyler, from 1806, shared the management of the great farm, each paying one half of the rather large tax. The son of Tyler Harrington, John W., born in 1818, carried on family customs until 1891; his oldest daughter Matilda, in the 1870's, married young John Shaw, a newcomer in Weston. In the spring of 1903, the Harrington heirs sold the estate to Dwight Blaney, an artist of Boston, and the distinguished dwelling came into its own.
The Shaw name is still in Weston; a grandson of Matilda Har- rington is Chief of Police Frank O. Shaw.
Along the Indian Path
The Train family were early settlers in Watertown Farms; "John Traine then aged twenty five, came over in the Susan and Ellen in 1635; in the same ship was Margaret Dix aged nineteen, and they married soon after their arrival here. He took the oath of fidelity in 1652, and died in Weston in 1680."
On the present day Winter Street, that was an old Indian trail to Natick and Framingham, an early map of Weston has two houses standing near the Natick line, not far from Nonesuch Pond, one the home of Samuel Train, the other of Samuel Train, Jr. The latter, on the right side of the street is the older, and many changes and additions have been made through the years. The original house, now an ell, was oblong, the longer side facing the south, with two doors opening into an extensive interior; a hip roof with very deep overhanging eaves, and a large central chimney are early Colonial features. The estate now is the property of the Rivers Country Day School. The house was probably built by John Train, Jr., of the second generation who married Mary Stubbs of Watertown in 1674, and settled in Weston, then "the Farms."
John of the third generation, born in Weston in 1682, married Lydia Jennison of this town in 1705, and it was their son Samuel of the fourth generation, whose name occurs often in Church and in Town Records.
"Samuel Train and Rachel Allen both of Weston were married in Said Town Decr 31st., 1741 by Wm Williams Minister of the Gospel there." Across the road toward the southwest from the family home, Samuel built for his bride the classic foursquare Colonial, the front door facing north; there are two side doors, east and west; on the south side a large well-lighted room extends the
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Along the Indian Path
full length of the house,-the tremendous fireplace indicates that it was the family room and the kitchen. The front rooms are panelled, with small-paned windows well preserved, and wide floor boards. There are two ells at the back so added that the beauty of the early house is not spoiled. The fine place is being well cared for by the Robert Austins.
Samuel Train in 1756 was voted Constable and Collector at Town Meeting; in 1757, "Jonas Harrington and Bradyll Smith were chosen to the office and they Hired Sam1 Train to serve for them both, he was accepted by the Town and Sworn at Ye Same Meeting, Money Oath and Oath of Office." Samuel must have given satisfaction :- "In 1761, Joseph Woolson highered Samuel Train to Serve for him and he was excepted by the Town and was Sworn March the 2nd Money Oath and Oath of Office." From 1763, for several years he was Selectman as well as Surveyor of Highways. Samuel Train lived until 1806, to the age of ninety- five; from 1772, his oldest son, Samuel, Jr., born in 1745, also served in Town offices.
In 1771, Samuel Jr. married Deborah Brown, daughter of a neighbor, Gowen Brown. A few years later he not only joined the Militia Company that set out for Concord on the morning of the nineteenth of April, 1775, but he was one of the eighteen young men of Weston who, "Marched to Canada in 1777." For this expedition Town Meeting, "Voted that Eighteen Pounds be allowed each man;" this was in addition to the money granted by the State.
Samuel Jr. returned from the War a Lieutenant, then began his long service to the town. Highway Surveyor, Collector of Taxes at sixpence per pound, member of the School Board for the South- west District, Selectman from 1799 until 1825, he also cared for a farm. In the Inventory of 182 1, he had eight acres under tillage, thirty acres of pasturage, ten of woodland, two horses, two oxen, seven cows. The woodland provided free fuel for his Church on the South County Road, and for the schoolhouse. Always a faithful Baptist, in 1820, he became a Deacon of the Baptist Church in Weston; he served until his death in 1839, at the age of ninety-four.
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