USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 15
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Weston: A Puritan Town
From 1802 until 1810, Isaac Train, second son of the Deacon, opened the house built by his grandfather as a Tavern. It was the only Inn on the south side of Town but it was not on the Framing- ham Turnpike, the South County Road in Weston, and patronage was uncertain.
The third son of Deacon Samuel Jr., Charles Train born in 1783, was a pupil at the Southwest School, then studied with Dr. Samuel Kendal. Graduating with distinction from Harvard College in 1805, he had intended to study law, but in 1806, decided for the Baptist Ministry. Ordained in Weston in 1811, he was Pastor in his native town and preached also in Framingham, as a branch was formed there in the same year. In 1826, this branch became a distinct Church, retaining the Reverend Charles Train as Pastor. After 1822, he served in the State Legislature, six years in the House, then in the Senate. He was, "prominent in revising the laws pertaining to public schools; for a considerable period while serving as the first Pastor of the Baptist Church, this son of Weston enjoyed a high reputation and wielded a large influence in civic and in religious affairs."
The second son of Reverend Charles Train, Charles Russell, born in Framingham in 1816, graduated from Brown University in 1837, became an eminent lawyer of Boston and was Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1873 until 1890. In 1871, he married Sarah Cheney of an old Boston family, lived in the city in the winter, with the summer home in Framingham. Their son, Arthur Cheney Train, born in 1875, "on the sunny side of Marlborough Street," said of himself: "I enjoy the dubious distinction of being known among lawyers as a writer, and among writers as a lawyer." One of the most famous characters in fiction is Mr. Ephraim Tutt, a lawyer who "wins acquittal for his clients through his knowledge of obscure points of the law. In twenty years, old Tutt has argued over eighty cases, and has yet to be caught out in an error." A few years before his early death in 1945, this talented member of an old and revered family, came to the birthplace of his ancestors. The charming and modest personality of Arthur Cheney Train was made known to only a few people who chanced to be there
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Along the Indian Path
when he visited the Town Library; however, the Librarian could show a fine array of his popular novels.
Although early Train families were large, the name is no longer in Church or Town Records. From 1882 until 1887, Herman A. Train was Secretary of the School Board, and Clerk of the Baptist Church in Weston from 1887 until 1904; for many years he was Town Auditor. Mr. Train died in 1933, at the age of eighty-two; his only child, Arthur, who graduated from Weston High School in 1901, then went to Harvard College, died in 1938.
The Benaiah Morse Tradition
A well-constructed dwelling, protected by trees and shrubbery, with lawns and gardens on the south and the east, stands at the corner where Oak Street leads from the South County Road, now South Avenue. Two great chimneys rise from the broad pitch roof that has unusually wide gables with two large windows instead of the usual small one. The house is located on the 1792 map of Weston, and the property was taxed in the same year in the name of Benaiah Morse. In 1801, the Inventory lists with house and barn, three A. tillage, four A. upland, four A. fresh meadow, 30 A. pasturage, twelve Bbls of Cyder yearly, fifteen A. unimproved land, 9 A. unimprovable land, one horse, two oxen, four cows.
Benaiah was Surveyor of Highways in 1799, and member of the School Board for the Southwest District in 1800. In 1795, there was a stir in Town Meeting about schoolhouses and a Committee was appointed :- "To examine the School Housen in Town to see what repairs are Necessary and Expedient to make them Comfort- able and Convenient." The report was :- "It is the opinion of ye Committee that the School Housen in the Southeast and Southwest Districts be repaired, viz by Building Porches, by Clap Boarding, by providing Stoves, Building new Seats and Benches and such other Repairs as shall be found necessary."
Captain Benaiah Morse died in 1806, at the early age of forty years, and was buried in the family lot in the South Yard on the County Road. His widow, Sarah, carried on the farm, dispensing with the oxen but keeping the horse and one cow. Later, when the two sons, Charles and Alpheus were grown, they divided the great house with front and side entrances for each part; the capacious
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attic was unchanged. The story goes that twenty-one children of various ages used to sleep there at one time; the Town Records produce evidence that Charles had eleven children, Alpheus, nine, but Records are sometimes incomplete!
It was while the two brothers were living at the corner, that excitement grew as to the coming of the end of the world; the Day was set for March twenty-first, 1843. Another story tells of a group of devout and faithful Second Day Adventists or Miller- ites clothed in white, who remained all day on the considerable slopes of the roof of the Morse house awaiting their deliverance, but the sun set and darkness fell, and the earth was still in its orbit.
Alpheus Morse in 1856, and again in 1863, was the Representa- tive to the Great and General Court, while his son, George Al- pheus, under the call of President Abraham Lincoln of August fourth, 1862, enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Regiment of In- fantry, and served through the Civil War.
The original grape vines are growing about the estate, evidence of a rare wine made by succeeding generations of the Morse fam- ily, at first for use in observance of Church Ceremonials. However, so great was the demand that production was increased; a section of the great cellar holds some of the appliances of the process, as well as the old-fashioned containers in which the precious wine was stored.
The property remained in the Morse family until 1937. The present owner is Mrs. Robert Murkland. The single entrance has been restored-a wide door with panel windows opens into the large hall that has a fine stairway at the back. The original small- paned windows were found in the attic, and replaced; the rooms are all finished in exquisite woodwork; in the long sunny room facing south, the great fireplace hearth is ten feet long. The dwell- ing is one more evidence of the strong, upright citizenry of an ancient Town.
The House on Doublet Hill
Ensign Samuel Child of Weston, born in 1718, was the fourth generation from Deacon Ephraim Child. Deacon Ephraim left Yorkshire, England for America in 1630, settled in Watertown, was admitted freeman in 1631, and was one of the first Deacons of the Watertown Church. Selectman from 1636, as well as Town Clerk from 1650 until his death in 1663, he often received appoint- ments from the General Court as a Commissioner, "To end small causes." The appraisal of his homestead and the amount of his Inventory, {772.15s. show that he was one of the most well-to-do of the first settlers. As the Deacon had no children, the estate was left to the widow, to two brothers and to several nephews. The Deacon's widow died in 1665; "The distribution of her wardrobe and her furniture by her will shows that she had some of the elegancies as well as the comforts of life."
Ensign Samuel was a grandson of John Child, the younger of the Deacon's two brothers. In 1749, on the present Newton Street, he built the house to which he took his bride in 1750. "Samuel Child of Weston and Esther Parker of Newton were married there by Reverend John Cotton, Minister of the Parish." In the South Side Tax List for 1757, the first one published in 1897 by the Town, Samuel Child carries a personal property and a real estate tax.
Situated on a southerly slope of Doublet Hill, the house has a superb view of Pine Brook Valley and the fields and woods be- yond. With broad front, wide gables, and two great chimneys the house is on a generous scale throughout. The aged retaining wall, the stone steps and granite posts are in excellent condition. The farm prospered. The Inventory of 1771 lists Samuel Child with
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The House on Doublet Hill
ten Acres pasture, four Acres tillage, thirty Barrels Cyder made upon the farm one year with another, four Acres English and Upland mowing, twelve Acres fresh Meadow, two horses, four oxen, five cows, six sheep.
Samuel served the Town as Preserver of Dear, (sic) and as Fence Viewer. In 1770,-"Paid Sam1 Child for Providing and Bording a School Dame three months last summer {3.12s." In 1774,-"Paid Sam1 Child for his Daug" Esther's Keeping School 16 weeks at Southeast School {3.16s.9p." No one of the nine children of Samuel Child, six girls, three boys, succeeded to the ownership of the farm. In 1795, the tax was paid by Samuel, Jr., and in 1796, the property was bought by Jedediah Warren, tenth child of John Warren, Jr., and grandson of Deacon John Warren.
Born in 1759, at the Warren homestead on the north side of Weston, Jedediah, although only seventeen, served with the Com- pany of Weston men at the siege of Boston in 1776, and later in 1778, with the Guard over the British soldiers held prisoners at Winter Hill. In 1796, Jedediah Warren and Sally Peirce, a neigh- bor and former schoolmate, were married by Reverend Samuel Kendal and thereby came the Warren family of the south side of Weston. In the Valuation of 1801, the property consists of one Dwelling House, one Saw Mill and Grist Mill, two Barns, three Acres Tillage, ten Acres fresh Meadow, six Acres Upland, ten Acres Pasture, one horse, four cows. Jedediah is also credited with a quite enviable Bank account at six per cent! This is one of the few estates to descend in the same family name until today-from Jedediah to his son Amos, then to grandson Charles. Mary Eva Warren, the present owner, is the tenth generation from John Warren, the early settler in Watertown; Miss Warren is a sister of Mrs. George W. Cutting, Jr., our present Town Treasurer.
The 1740 Mansion
The name is an early one; in 1635, John Upham came to Massa- chusetts from England with the Reverend John Hull, and settled in Weymouth. As a Representative to the General Court in 1636, he was appointed to treat with the Indians in relation to land holdings; it is noted that Weymouth had very few Indian troubles.
Thomas Upham, Jr., of the fourth generation from John the first settler, came from Reading to Weston in 1720, is listed as a miller, married Elizabeth Train, daughter of John Train of the old Indian Path, and in 1726, the young people were received at the First Parish Church, in the ministry of Reverend William Williams. The earliest Upham house in Weston was on the present Ash Street, a fine large Colonial, with wide deeply-sloping roof, that was the home of generations of the family until it was destroyed by the Metropolitan Water Commission in the late 1890's. In 1730, when but thirty-six years old, Thomas Upham, Jr., died suddenly; by his will he bequeathed his small son Thomas, III, as well as the mill property to a younger brother Abijah, an excellent and conscientious man.
Abijah Upham, born in 1698, was an important citizen; often Selectman, for several years a Representative to the General Court, in 1745 he was appointed a Deacon of the First Parish Church and in general was active in Town affairs. In November, 1746, he was one of eight men to petition the County Court of Middlesex: "To Issue a Warrant for Calling the first Precinct Meeting in the First Precinct of Weston viz to Choose Precinct Officers as the Law Directs." At this Meeting: "On thisday ye Eleventh Day of De- cember at two of ye Clock Afternoon," Parish affairs were dis- cussed and for the first time a Moderator was chosen, a Precinct
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The 1740 Mansion
Committee of Three, a Treasurer and three Assessors. The Deacon was frequently Moderator and often returned to the Precinct Committee. "Att the third meeting of ye Freeholders and other Inhabitants of ye First Precinct of Weston, ye 5th. Day of March, 1749, Deacon Abijah Upham was chosen one of the Precinct Committee, the chief Duty to provide Preaching until ye next Precinct Meeting." Deacon Upham was one of the Committee in 1751, to provide entertainment when young Samuel Woodward was ordained over the Parish.
At the first Town Meeting: "Assembled on Monday ye Fourth Day of March, 1754, at Ten of ye Clock in ye forenoon at ye Publick Meeting House in said Town, five Selectmen were chosen for the year ensewing :- Deacon Abijah Upham, Elisha Jones, Capt Samuel Bond, Mr. Sam1 Seaverns, Mr. Isaac Hagar." Then and there began a Town government that has never failed in the excellence of its record for well over two hundred years.
Deacon Abijah Upham and nephew Thomas in 1740 had built the great house on the present Newton Street, the house that in 174I became the home of Thomas and his bride. From Church Records :- "Thomas Upham of Weston and Ruth Hammond of Waltham were married in Weston, January Ist. 1741, per William Williams, Minister of the Gospel there."
This 1740 mansion recently has been restored to perfect con- dition by the present owner, F. William Aseltine, Jr., who con- siders the ownership a privilege. An early Colonial, it is a fine example of the houses built by our ancestors to stand for genera- tions: a strong foundation, low studding and wide, steeply-sloping roof, (to aid in shedding heavy winter snows?) the welcoming front door opens into a panelled hall with a winding stairway to the second story. There are two large rooms on either side of the hall with fireplaces and chimney cupboards, while the long kitchen with a great hearth and very low ceiling has an exceptional view over "Fresh meadows and Upland." There must have been orchards, as in 1768 the Inventory listed: "Eighty Bbls. of Cyder made upon the Farm one year with another;" also listed, "Two Horses, four Oxen, six Cows, twenty Sheep."
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Weston: A Puritan Town
In 1767, Thomas Upham and Thomas Russell were appointed Deacons of the Parish Church; from the Diary of Rebecca Bald- win, "New Deacons take the Seet Oct. 25, 1767." The Town had assumed the duties of Treasurer and Assessors, but Deacons were still Keepers of the Peace and Arbiters of Justice.
During the French and Indian War, 1756-1763, Thomas III joined the Weston Train-band and later in the Revolutionary Years was one of three members of the Weston Committee of Correspondence; he also served on the Town War Committee, the duties of which were many and difficult.
While sons and grandsons, nephews and cousins succeeded to the 1740 farmstead, several other Upham houses were built, all on the south side of the Great Country Road, later the Boston Post Road. Upham given names recur in each generation-Phinehas, Thomas, Abijah, Amos, Silas, Nathan, Joel. Moreover, the same excellent qualities abide; through the years as members of this farming community Uphams have been good citizens serving the Town on both Grand and Traverse Juries (1755), as Surveyors of Highways, on the School Board for East Center and Southeast Districts, on Committees to Provide Instruction in Sacred Music for the Three Parishes, besides being active supporters of the Baptist Society.
Still to be remembered are Marshall L. Upham and his son, Augustus M., to whom the Town owes many of its excellent high- ways. In recent times also, a daughter of Joel Upham, Carolyn, who became Mrs. Arthur T. Burrage, and was a popular and dedicated member of the School Board for many years, while her brother, Arthur E. Upham was an efficient Town Treasurer. The name holds in Town Records today with Maurice L. Upham :- first a Fire Department Call Man, from 1925 until 1944 on the Weston Police Force, now, as Fire Chief, he provides protection for our homes and for our forests.
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The Coburn Landmark
The Coburn Landmark
The earliest name connected with this ancestral place is that of Jeremiah Whittemore, born in Charlestown in 1695; he married Patience Reed in Boston, March 15, 1722. In the First Parish Records so faithfully kept by Reverend William Williams, under the date February 16, 1726: "Jeremiah Whittemore and Patience his Wife Dismiss'd from ye Church in Rumney Marsh and reco'd. Rec'd into this Church." That the house was built at least as early as 1726, the following is evidence: "Isaac Whittemore the son of Jeremiah Whittemore and Patience his Wife was Born in Weston, November 15, 1726."
Of the two older sons, Jeremiah, Jr., born in Concord in 1723, married Mary Carter of Weston in 1748, and settled in Spencer, Massachusetts, while Isaac married Ruth Bullard of East Sudbury (Wayland) and lived there. Israel, born in 1732, married Abigail Browne of Watertown, bought the shares in the property of his two brothers and lived on in the homestead. Israel Whittemore was an important citizen in Weston, elected to various offices beginning with 1760. He was Selectman from 1776 until 1781, and was one of nine members of the Weston War Committee for the American Revolution. As Captain Israel Whittemore of the Weston Militia Company of Artillery, he and his men marched to Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775. The Company was on duty for four days and received one penny a mile for their serv- ices.
About 1793, Israel Whittemore deeded the property to his son Aaron, who sold it in 1801, to Jonas Coburn of Waltham, son of Mr. John Coburn who lived in Weston in what is called the Luther Upham place on Chestnut Street, from 1774 until his death
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Weston: A Puritan Town
in 1796. At the time of the purchase by Jonas Coburn, the farm contained one hundred twenty acres; there was a house, evidently of value and a barn, as the sum paid by Jonas was $4,400.
The house was built of hand hewn oak timbers and wide pine boards with the great central chimney facing due south. The large square rooms have massive beams, low ceilings, fireplaces with panelled mantels, and deep twenty-paned windows; over the long well-lighted kitchen once extended a lean-to roof that reached nearly to the ground; the crane still hangs in the great kitchen fireplace with its brick oven and ash hole. At the southeast corner of the house once stood a shed open at both ends so that an oxen load of wood could be driven in. The story goes that during a heavy snow storm, a year or two after the opening of the Fitch- burg Railroad, an engineer on one of the trains, out of wood, found here a welcome supply of dry pine that, "made the old engine hum."
Nor must the herb garden be forgotten; below the house on the southeasterly side, remnants to be found even now, grew such old-fashioned herbs as horseradish, sage, balm, sweet marjoram, lavender, peppermint, and catnip.
There have been changes through the years and some additions, but fortunately the house weathered the modernizing era of the late 1890's; the same wide hospitable front door swings open for the entering guest.
In 1804, Jonas married Susannah Viles of Lexington, and so began the history of one of the most illustrious families in this old town. From 1806, until his death in 1836, Jonas Coburn was a notable citizen as well as a prosperous farmer. His name is in Town Records as Surveyor of Highways, and member of the School Board for the Northeast District, while for ten years, from 1816 until 1826 he was a Selectman. Of his eight children, two boys, Isaac, born 1811, and Edward, 1820, married and made their homes in Weston, Isaac as the older, succeeding to the property. Edward bought the adjoining farm and built his own house a short distance away.
Isaac married a Weston girl, Julia Ann Cutter who lived at
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The Coburn Landmark
Cutter's Corner on the South County Road, and descendants will tell of Isaac's being allowed to use the family chaise, "to go a wooing his fair lady," some miles away.
Of the third generation Isaac, Jr., the oldest son, married and settled in Everett, but the four younger children, Anna, William, Edith, and Arthur, made the ancient house a place of happy living and of wide interests. All shared in town and in Parish activities: Anna Coburn was probably the best loved and the most popular teacher ever in Weston schools, while both sisters were devoted to the First Parish; Will became a banker in Boston but was always a leader in town and church interests here; Arthur, who inherited the carrying-on of the farm, held offices in the Town year after year, particularly as a member of the School Board and as a Selectman.
On a perfect evening in the late spring of 1899, the time-honored house was in radiant array for a wedding when Anna Cutter Coburn and Francis Henry Hastings were united in marriage. As both Will and Arthur were living with their families in nearby homes, the historic house, always well cared for, became the temporary home of a few fortunate people. Some years ago, how- ever, the homestead came into its own, and family traditions are carried on by Mrs. Arthur L. Coburn, Sr.
The approach to the Coburn farm from the west by way of Church Street offers one of the loveliest views in Weston. Over fields laced with good grey stone walls, with a background of Stony Brook Valley and outlying hills, on a wide stretch of smooth lawn, stands the landmark, stately, peaceful, with an air of friendly welcome imparted by generations of the Coburn family.
Hobbs Corner
The Great North Road, also known to our ancestors as the Lancaster Road and the North County Road, now North Avenue, was the eastern end of the Old Mohawk Trail as it made its way to the sea. No Post-riders or stagecoaches traveled this vital highway; "Over it came the enormous amount of teaming, the flocks of sheep, the droves of cattle from Vermont, New Hamp- shire and the back towns of our own state, to the market in Boston."
Coming west from Watertown, the Lancaster Road branched from Old Sudbury Road, now the Boston Post Road, ran over the present Stow Street between Bald Hill and Bare Hill, (generally corrupted into Ball's Hill and Bear Hill), on through Stony Brook Valley to Nine Acre Corner, Maynard, Stow, Lancaster, and out to the north and to the west.
In early days it was the custom to locate people and their homes or farms in Weston by the distance from the Tannery on Hobbs Brook where the stream flows under the Great North Road to join Stony Brook on the way to Charles River and the Atlantic Ocean. Ebenezer Hobbs, born in Boston in 1709, came to Weston in 1730 with his father, Josiah Hobbs, who had bought large tracts of land on both sides of the Lancaster Road. In 1734, Ebenezer married Eunice Garfield, daughter of Thomas, whose family was one of the earliest in Weston, and built the oldest part of the house now owned by Mr. Mahlon Hoagland, on North Avenue.
Ebenezer was the ancestor of the Hobbs family in Weston, a family important in town interests for nearly two hundred years. He founded the Tannery about 1750; bark for tanning was brought from Vermont and New Hampshire by ox-teams over the Lan-
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Hobbs Corner
caster Road, and from Maine by boat, the cargoes being landed in Watertown and thence teamed to Weston.
Ebenezer died suddenly in 1762, leaving the property to his oldest son, Isaac, born in 1735. In 1758, Isaac had married Mary Harrington of Waltham and had built the family home now owned by Leonard Dowse. Beginning with 1763, Isaac Hobbs was Town Assessor, Surveyor of Highways, Selectman for six years from 1777 until 1783, and from 1781 was Town Clerk until 1803, a period of twenty-two years. From 1775 until 1783, he was Treasurer of the Town War Committee, the duties being to keep filled the quota of Weston men for the Continental Army, to have a record of the places where they served, and to make sure that they received proper pay. The Town voted certain rates in addition to the pay from the Government.
Matthew Hobbs, brother of Isaac, ten years younger, served throughout the War. He was Lieutenant in the Company of one hundred men that gathered on the morning of April 19th, 1775, went through the woods to Lexington Road and pursued the re- treating British to West Cambridge. Later, ordered to Dorchester Heights, he was also at White Plains, at Ticonderoga and Crown Point and at Saratoga. He was made Captain of the Weston Com- pany in 1780, and returned only when the War ended :- "Like many others he came out of the Army without a shilling in his pocket." Later, Captain Matthew was active in the Weston In- dependent Light Infantry.
In 1780, Isaac Hobbs was appointed a Deacon in the First Parish Church, an honor that he held until his death in 1813. In 1786, he built for his sons, Ebenezer II, born in 1762, and Isaac Jr., in 1765, the goodly house across the road from his own at the corner of North Avenue and Church Street. Hobbs Corner, a venerable landmark for over two centuries, should not be forgotten. Both of these sons followed in the family wake of service to the Town and to the Church. Through the years, Ebenezer II, often Moderator at Town Meetings, was also Assessor, Treasurer, and Selectman. It was his daughter Susan, or Sukey, who married in 1803, Isaac Fiske, the rising young lawyer.
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