USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 17
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The staunch old house weathered a fire about fifty years ago with the greatest loss that of the kitchen fireplace. For many years it was the summer home of John Williams, Esq., a lawyer of Waltham, and then became the property of Mr. Edward Turner, whose daughter, Virginia, is the present owner of the historic mansion.
The Patriotic House
Near the Lincoln line on the old Lancaster Road, in an attractive setting of sloping lawns with well placed trees and shrubbery, stands a house that is in the Weston Tax List for 1765. It was built by Samuel Phillips Savage, a descendant of Samuel Savage who came to Massachusetts in the ship Planter with Sir Harry Vane in 1635. The gambrel roof, the large central chimney, the wide front door and the two side entrances are all Colonial features; a spiral staircase leads from the cellar to the second story; this has been covered at the first floor for convenience, but the original spiral remains.
Born in Boston in 1718, Mr. Savage "was prominent in the affairs of that town until he removed to Weston." Son of Mr. Arthur Savage, a young Boston lawyer and his wife Faith Phillips, daughter of Samuel Phillips, an influential Bostonian, Judge Samuel Phillips Savage had held the office of Selectman of Boston, was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Middlesex County, and was President of the Massachusetts Board of War during the Revolutionary Period.
Judge Savage is first mentioned in Weston Records in the action of a Town Meeting: "On the 3rd Day of Nov,-A.D. 1765 at one of the Clock after Noon: Voted by said Town to give Instructions to their Representative Relative to makeing good to the Sufferers In the town of Boston by the out Rage Committed there on the 27 of August, 1765, to be Pd out of the Publick Treashurey and Chose a Committee to Prepare a Draught: viz Samuel P. Savage, Esq., Elisha Jones, Esq., and Cap" John Brown." This "out Rage" was one of many protests made against the enforcing of the Stamp Tax, and the quartering of British soldiers in Boston.
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The Patriotic House
Famous in Colonial days is one room in the home of this patriotic Judge. At the left of the front door, with Colonial fire- place, panelled mantel and chimney closets, is the room in which the Boston Tea Party was planned. On December sixteenth, 1773, so it is said, "a dark and rainy day," people from outlying towns were crowding into Boston and milling about in and near the South Meeting House. An adjourned town meeting was being held with Judge Savage as the Moderator; at first it was voted that the tea should not be landed, and then that it should not be used at all. Among the men disguised as Indians who threw many sacks of tea to steep in the salt water of Boston Harbor was young Samuel Hobbs, also of Weston.
At a Town Meeting on September twenty-ninth, 1774: "It was Put to vote by yeas and nays to know the mind of the town Wheather they Send a Committee to the Provincial Congress to be holden at Concord on the second Tuesday of October and it passed in the affirmative." Josiah Smith, Esq., Samuel P. Savage, Esq., and Capt. Bradyll Smith were the three men chosen to represent Weston.
At an adjourned meeting of the town, August eleven, 1783: "Voted, That Deacon Thomas Russell, Samuel P. Savage, Esq., Mr. Jonathan Stratton, Deacon Isaac Hobbs, and Deacon Samuel Fiske be a Committee to wait on Mr. Samuel Kendal and inform him that the Town are now ready to receive his answer to their call to settle with them in the ministry. The meeting was adjourned for fifteen minutes, and Mr. Kendal came into the meeting and exhibited his answer."
As a citizen of a farmers' town, the yearly Records give evidence that the famous Judge enjoyed his beautiful Weston property. An invoice taken by the Assessors in 1781, credited him with one servant; his farm property consisted of thirty-four acres of tillable land, one Horse, two Oxen, six Cows, and 2 Swine, while the "Account of the Town Treasurer from the first Day of March, 1782, to the 28th of February 1783," listed: "Paid Sam1 Ph. Savage for a Pigg for Mrs. Willington, 8s3p."
Judge Savage was also one of a Committee with John Warren,
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Thomas Marshall, and Isaac Hobbs to draft instructions to the Weston Representative to the General Court, concerning the return of former Tories and the restoration of their property. Submitted in May, 1783, and written by Judge Savage in eloquent words, the report is too long to quote entire, but one sentence shows the tenor: "Shall it ever be said that those men participated in the first fruits of Liberty who for eight long years strove to tear up the fair plant by the roots."
Of the children of Judge Savage, the only one to settle in Weston was Lucy, who in 1783, married Amos Bigelow, brother of Abra- ham, sons of the Abraham Bigelow who owned the mills and built the beautiful house at Stony Brook. Amos died in 1794, but Lucy with her five children lived on in the family mansion. Church records carry the name of Faith Savage Bigelow as a member of the Evangelical Missionary Society in 1814. At the Historical Rooms in the Jones House is a framed photograph of this famous Judge taken from a portrait painted by Copley in 1773. The calm features, the shrewd but kindly eyes, and a certain assurance in the posture are evidence that he was one in whom trust and confidence could be placed. The Hon. Samuel Phillips Savage, Esq. died sud- denly in Weston on December ninth, 1797, at the age of seventy- nine. Although the family tomb with the coat of arms is in Kings Chapel burying ground, the simple stone that marks the grave of this noted man is in the oldest cemetery in Weston, the Farmers' Burying Place.
In 1803, the Savage estate was sold by the heirs to Thomas Bigelow, son of Josiah and Mary Bigelow. The Bigelow name was an early one in Weston; for many years the tax list carried at least six different Bigelow families, many of the men important in a professional or a business way in the town while others carried their interests afar.
Born in 1768, in 1791, "Thomas Bigelow of Weston and Miriam Hagar of Waltham were married there by Reverend Jacob Cushing of the First Parish Church." Mr. Cushing was the class- mate at Harvard, and the lifelong friend of Reverend Samuel Woodward of Weston; moreover, the two young parsons had
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The Patriotic House
married the sisters, Anna and Abigail Williams, daughters of Reverend Warham Williams, predecessor of Mr. Cushing in the Waltham Parish.
As a citizen, Thomas Bigelow served both Parish and Town. He was chosen Ensign of the Weston Independent Light Infantry in 1804, Lieutenant in 1806, and Captain in 1808. He served on the School Board for the Northeast District where his eight children went to school, was Selectman and Surveyor of Highways for many years. In 1808, "At a Church meeting holden on January 7, proceeded to the choice of two Deacons by ballot. Brother Nathan Warren and Brother Thomas Bigelow were chosen by a large majority." In 1812, the Church, "Voted to choose a Committee of five as a Standing Committee,-Eben. Hobbs, Esq., Joseph Russell, Esq., Dea" Nathan Warren, Ira Draper, Esq. and Dean Thomas Bigelow were chosen." This same Committee formed the Council for the ordination of Reverend Joseph Field in 1815.
Captain Thomas Bigelow was also making good as a farmer. In the 1811 Invoice he is caring for forty-eight acres of tillable land and pasturage, with one horse, two oxen, seven cows, one swine. There must have been a fairly large orchard as he was credited with "ten barrels of Cyder."
After serving the Parish as Deacon for twenty-one years, Captain Bigelow resigned the office; he died in 1856 at the age of eighty-eight. In the 1870's the property came into the possion of a Boston merchant Mr. Samuel G. Snelling; he remodeled and en- larged the house and made it a summer residence, as did Mr. Samuel L. Thorndike, his successor. The present owners, Dr. Joseph Gardella and his wife, both of whom admire and respect eighteenth century architecture, are restoring the beauty of this historic and dignified mansion.
The Garfield Name
Facing south on Summer Street of today is a well-preserved Colonial, once the home of several generations of the Garfield family. Edward Garfield was one of the earliest Proprietors of Watertown in 1635; he and his sons Samuel and Edward, Jr., held important offices in early Town government. Ephraim Garfield, son of Samuel, was in Captain John Mason's Company, formed to meet the terrible Indian attacks of 1675. Captain Benjamin Garfield, son of Edward, Jr., also served through King Philip's War; later, he was Representative to the General Court from Watertown nine times between 1689 and 1717.
Of the fourth generation from the first Edward, a son of Captain Benjamin, Lieutenant Thomas Garfield, born in Watertown in 1680, in 1706, married Mercy Bigelow, daughter of Joshua Bige- low of the Farms and built the homestead on Summer Street, now owned by the Charles Martins. In the Province Tax List of 1708, when Weston was still taxed by the Mother Town, are Thomas, Benjamin and Benoni Garfield; chosen at Town Meeting in 1721, Benoni was a Selectman for five successive years.
A son of Lieutenant Garfield, Thomas, Jr., born in Weston in 1713, fourth of twelve children, in 1736, "own'd ye Covenant," and in 1741, was, "Rec'd into Church Fellowship." Also in First Parish Records so faithfully kept by Reverend William Williams, "May 22, 1743, Rebecca Garfield (late Johnson) wife of Thomas Garfield, Jr., dismiss'd and recommend'd from the Chh. in Lunen- burgh rec'd into this Chh." Thomas bought land in the Northerly Precinct of Watertown Farms, to the north of the Lancaster Road, now North Avenue, and built there a substantial hip roof house;
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The Garfield Name
the farm joined that of Deacon Benjamin Brown, younger brother of Captain Abraham Brown of early Watertown fame whose mansion is still a homelike residence on the Boston Post Road. In 1702, Benjamin married Anna, sister of Lieutenant Thomas and settled in the North Precinct of the Farms with no thought of town boundary lines. Although still standing on the southerly side of Lincoln Road, the Deacon Brown house, over two hundred fifty years old, is in sad condition; the old Garfield mansion, a short distance over the fields has fallen away entirely.
Appointed a Deacon of the First Parish in 1715, Benjamin Brown also served in various town offices, "always much respected for his Civic and his Christian duties." Moderator of Town Meeting in 1721, when the vote was cast to build the Colonial Church on Church Green, he never failed in his support of the ambitious project, finally completed in 1722. As one of the opposition, he did not sign the Petition of 1744: "The Proprietors in the easterly part of Concord and the northerly part of Weston and the westerly part of Lexington, do petition His Excellency Governor William Shirley, the Honourable His Majesty's Council and the House of Representatives in General Court assembled in Boston, to be made into a separate Precinct." This petition signed by forty-six Pro- prietors, among them Lieutenant Thomas Garfield and Thomas, Jr., was finally granted in 1746; in 1754, the Precinct of Lincoln was incorporated as a Town. When the boundary was drawn, both the Brown and the Garfield homesteads were in Lincoln.
Deacon Brown continued to serve the First Parish until August 4, 1747, when according to Lincoln Records, "he, with some others obtain'd dismission from their respective Churches." From the minutes of a Precinct Meeting held in Weston in 1752: "Att the Public Meeting House on Monday, the Twenty Seventh Day of Novr. att two of the Clock in the Afternoon then and there,- Voted by the Inhabitants att Said Meeting that they Give to the Revd Mr. Samuel Woodward and to his Heirs the Pew which was Dean. Benjamin Browns (and which Said Brown hath given to Said Parish) unto the Revd. Mr. Samuel Woodward and to his Heirs
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Weston: A Puritan Town
to Injoy as the other Pews are Injoy'd by the Inhabitants of Said Precinct that Built them." Then followed: "Voted by the Inhab- itants aforesaid att Said Meeting that they Return Dean. Benjamin Brown their Hearty Thanks for his Generossity in Giving his Said Pew to Said Precinct." Deacon Benjamin Brown died at his home on Lincoln Road on March eleventh, 1753, a notable and much loved citizen.
The Garfield name continued in Weston Records after the "Separation" as several families had settled along the Lancaster Road. In 1749, Joseph Garfield from the North Side, Edward Garfield from the South Side, each was, "allotted a Seat in the Meeting House in the first section below the Gallery,"-Joseph paid {143.10s., Edward, {129. There were three of the name, Joseph, Samuel, and Daniel in the Train-band mustered in 1757, to serve through the French and Indian War; Thaddeus Garfield marched to Concord with the Company of Captain Israel Whitte- more on April nineteenth, 1775. Through the years, Garfield men filled Town offices, Garfield children are listed in the Northeast and the Southeast Schools.
From the Weston Town Report of 1882 :- "School Number III Northwest District :- It has been with real satisfaction that the Committee have marked the progress of these young minds in their upward course from the dark vale of little beginnings. In the coming years it may be that some of our ambitious boys may become men to whom the world will look up and whom the world will delight to honor; what has been may again be, for from out of the little old Northwest School House many years ago, went a boy who before life's close had attained to the highest honors in the land.
Nahum Smith
Sub Committee."
The reference is to James A. Garfield, a Major General from Ohio in the Civil War; he served in the United States House of Representatives, then in the Senate, and was inaugurated the twentieth President of the United States on March fourth, 1881.
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The Garfield Name
In his boyhood for several years, James Garfield lived with his grandparents in the Garfield homestead on Lincoln Road; dinner- pail in hand-there were two sessions in those days-he walked the distance over the rough road or short cut through the fields to little old Schoolhouse Number III on Concord Road in Weston, a youthful jaunt that the Northwest District was proud to remem- ber.
The 1753 Landmark
Young Harvard graduate, Reverend Samuel Woodward, or- dained over the First Parish in Weston, September twenty-fifth, 1751, on March sixteenth of the following year bought of William Smith of Weston, thirty acres of land on Concord Road. "Prob- ably the buyer and the seller sought refuge from bitter March winds in neighboring Baldwin Tavern and settled the terms over mugs of flip or a jug of hard cider." The deed states that it was made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of His Majesty King George II; it is signed by Colonel Francis Fullam, Elisha Jones, Esq., and mine host Samuel Baldwin, Innkeeper, all good sound men of Weston.
Built in 1753, "neere the Town Road," probably with help from his parishioners, this is the house to which the young minister brought his bride, Abigail Williams, daughter of Reverend Warham Williams, of the First Parish in Waltham, cousin of Reverend William Williams, first ordained minister of our own Parish. The early house was rectangular without the ells that it has now; from the front entrance hall on the left was the parlor with the Parson's study at the back; on the right the dining room led into the kitchen through a hallway with a side entrance door. The huge central chimney has six flues supported in the cellar by an arch fitted with a door to form a room for the storage of vegetables-a winter's supply at least. With a constantly increasing family of his own, Parson Woodward eked out his income by having Harvard stu- dents live with him and there was need of an abundance of farm supplies.
After the sudden death of this devoted and well-loved Pastor in 1782, Mrs. Woodward lived on in the family home. The Town
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The 1753 Landmark
paid the funeral expenses, granted the widow a year's salary and freed the estate from taxes, but after several years when only daughter Sarah was with her in the great house, and as Colonel Thomas Marshall had asked her to share his fortunes, on December third, 1795, Mrs. Woodward conveyed to her son-in-law, Reverend Samuel Kendal, all her dower rights in the property, including her pew in the meetinghouse and her chaisehouse nearby; he was to pay her "$46.47 annually for the rest of her natural life."
On December tenth, 1795, Dr. and Mrs. Kendal conveyed the whole property to Artemas Ward, Esq. who in 1788 had married Catherine Maria Dexter of Weston and was living in the handsome house at the corner of Concord Road, built by the Eaton brothers in 1785.
In 1796 there came to Weston young Amos Bancroft, who had graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1794; a friend of Artemas Ward, he moved at once into this house and in 1797 bought the Ward property, "two acres of land with the house and barn thereon standing." Dr. Bancroft was not only the Town physician, but a popular member of the School Board, Moderator at Town Meetings, and from 1806 was Selectman on a Board of five members. A special Town Meeting October 6, 1810 :- "Voted to accept the report of the Selectmen laying out a town way from the Great Road to Concord Road." Then follows the descrip- tion :- "Beginning at a stake and stones at Concord Road by land of Dr. Amos Bancroft, thence running a southerly course over land of said Bancroft and land of Jonas Green to a stake and stones in land of said Green thence the same course to the Great Country Road." This road or "passway" is now Fiske Lane that has been a Town way since 1810. The Selectmen ended the report with this bit of normal prudence :- "No damages were required by any person through whose land said Way is laid out." Although Dr. Bancroft bought property in Groton and moved there in 1811, the Weston estate remained in his name until 1828 with taxes "paid by the occupants."
In 1816, the house became the home of Dr. Benjamin James and in the same year the Doctor and his wife Caroline were
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received into the First Parish by Reverend Joseph Field, Jr. by letter from Reverend Mr. Eaton of their church in Boston. Caroline James was an earnest and capable young woman; she was Mod- erator of the Meeting when the ladies of the Parish organized the Society for Charitable Purposes that developed into the Cent Society, of which she was Directress in 1816 and for several years following.
Not only was Dr. James the Town physician, he also held other Town offices; member of the School Board for the West Central District, he was Selectman, Assessor, and for a number of years held two or three offices :- "Mr. Samuel Bartlett and Miss Sarah Smith both of Weston were joyned in Marriage by the Subscriber on the fifth day of June, A.D., 1833, Benj" James, Justice of the Peace and Recorded by B. James, Town Clerk." Highly respected and much loved, Dr. James is described as, "a little short man wearing green spectacles." A rather awesome rumor that has never died: from an iron hook in the ceiling of the room in the ell used by the good Doctor for an office, was suspended a full-size skeleton.
In 1822, Dr. James and his family moved to a house on the Post Road near the Center, while Dr. Bancroft retained the title of the estate until 1829; from then there were several changes until in 1848, the whole property was bought by Augustus H. Fiske, son of the famous lawyer Isaac Fiske, Esq., great-grandfather of Brenton H. Dickson, III, well-known citizen of present day Weston. At that time, well over one hundred years ago, extending from the house to Concord Road and enclosed on three sides by a lilac hedge was an old-fashioned garden filled with flowering plants and shrubs. From the front door ran a path with small flat beach stones and ending at a white gate that opened to the road. Landscaping many years later produced the sidewalk, the retaining wall, and the driveway, all utilitarian but not so picturesque. Many years have passed since the young minister and his bride began the life of the historic mansion; it is to be hoped that the present ownership continues far into the future.
References
The Early History of Watertown, Henry Bond, M.D. History of the Town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890, Col. Daniel S. Lamson First Parish of Weston, Massachusetts, 1698-1898 Printed for the Parish, MCM
Town of Weston, Mary Frances Peirce, editor
Records of the First Precinct, 1746-1754 and of the Town, 1754-1803 Records of the Town Clerk, 1804-1826 Tax Lists, 1757-1827 Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1707-1850 Gravestones, 1703-1900 Church Records, 1709-1825
Weston Town Reports Records: the Seven Parishes of Weston
Middlesex County Court House, Cambridge, Massachusetts Old deeds and wills
Boston Newspapers The Town Crier
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