USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 2
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from old drawing
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Meeting House Common
meetinghouse without help from the town, and without a base- ment story. So vanished the famed landmark that had stood on Meeting House Common for one hundred eighteen years, and would today add distinction to the town. In outer appearance it was much like that of the stately church that overlooks Wayland Center. During the interim, church services were held in Josiah Warren Hall. Mr. Warren had bought Smith Tavern in 1838, and rented the ballroom for public purposes.
This 1840 church, the third to be built on Meeting House Com- mon, was plainer in design, and somewhat smaller than the Colonial landmark; it faced the west, and was built on land adjoin- ing the present Endicott estate, land deeded to the Parish in 1840, by Mrs. Clarissa Smith, "for the purpose of building a meeting house, and no other." The entrance porch was nearly on a line with the present Parish House, and the County Road passed a few feet in front of the Church steps.
The Parish meeting of June 16, 1847, "Granted that the in- habitants of Weston have permission to erect a town house on the northerly side of the Common,-belonging to said Parish-to be used for a school-room and all town purposes and to remain there so long as the same shall be used for said purposes, and to be located on such part of said Common as the Parish Committee shall designate." Other lots had been offered, but the Town Fathers together with the Building Committee recommended this one, "As it could be got for less money and the situation would be pleasant and central, and the Common in front of it would be grass." This was a part of the land deeded to the Parish by Nathaniel Coolidge, Sr.
The new Town House was dedicated on the evening of Febru- ary 8, 1848, with a grand ball, the brilliant event of the season; invitations were sent beyond the town limits, people attending even from Boston. Nine townsmen formed the Committee of Arrangements, with three floor managers; dancing was to begin at six o'clock, and "extended into the wee hours of the morning. Charles Merriam, a Boston merchant formerly of Weston, was full of activity, cutting pigeon wings and making other demonstrations,
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Weston: A Puritan Town
thereby creating much mirth and jollity. One most graceful and charming young lady came from her Boarding School in Framing- ham to attend, and there was also Samuel Hobbs, Chairman of the Committee wearing a pair of worsted-work slippers which were great attractions. Most of the dancing young ladies of the town had new ball dresses for the occasion; the Hall was resonant with revelry."
From 1848 until 1917 this building stood on the northerly side of Meeting House Common, directly opposite the present Library, its Doric columns fronting south. From 1854 until 1878, it housed the Weston High School,-at recess time the girls adorned the front steps, while the boys played ball on the church green.
So stirred was the loyalty of the citizens of Weston when they heard of the attack on Fort Sumter, April 12 and 13, 1861, that within a month money was subscribed for a flagstaff to be set on Meeting House Common, a flag was bought, and on the afternoon of the third of May, there was an unusually exciting program for the quiet town. Amid firing of cannon and shouts and applause of the people, the Stars and Stripes were raised in honor of the Union. The flagstaff stood about where the present fountain is, and re- mained there until 1917.
From 1861 until the end of the Civil War, it was on the Com- mon, between the flagstaff and the County Road, that young Weston men gathered on the way to enlist in Boston for service in the Union Army. With about fourteen hundred people, the quota for Weston was seventeen, but twenty-nine enlisted at the call for nine months' men on August 4, 1862, and thirty-eight for the three years' service on October eleventh of the same year. The number of men furnished by Weston during the War was one hundred twenty-six. Of these, eight lost their lives on battlefields, three died of wounds in hospitals, while one, of the United States Navy, perished in Andersonville Prison. There is a tablet in the Town Library commemorating the service of these patriotic men in a time of dire need.
At Town meeting in 1875, "The Selectmen were directed to establish a town pump near the Town House, and not to dig the
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Meeting House Common
well when the springs were full, but at the proper time." What became of the well is not known, but since the autumn of 1875, there has been some form of drinking fountain for thirsty animals in so-called Weston Center, at that time still Meeting House Common.
A most original and pleasing book of records is that of the Secretary of the Weston Cornet Band. Organized February 6, 1876, the membership of twenty-five young men includes many names still known in the town. The Band was to meet once a week for practice, but when an invitation from the Selectmen was accepted to play for the Memorial Day exercises, May 30, 1876, three meetings a week were ordered. The performance on that day gave such a favorable impression, that subscriptions were raised to build a band-stand on the Common near the flagstaff; from then on, weather permitting during the summer months weekly con- certs were given. A uniform was adopted in time for a "Concert and Ball," given in the Town House on February 22, 1877. At the meeting on February nineteen, it was, "Voted, that all members wear their coats buttoned to the chin while playing February 22nd." The Band was invited to play in Sudbury, in Wayland, in Concord, in Waltham, and for the G.A.R. in Watertown. The price set was, "fifty dollars and expenses."
On March 28, 1878, the Band, "Voted, to accept the invitation to play at the dedication of the new High School House, Saturday, April 6, 1878." Also, "Voted, that H. E. Smith be a committee of one to see the Fathers of the Town in regard to Memorial Day." For various reasons, and in spite of the offer from the Selectmen of the Town House free of charge for practice, the last public service of the Weston Concert Band was for the town on Memorial Day in 1880. On June seventeen of that year it was, "Voted to adjourn the meeting to an indefinite time."
In April 1883, at an annual Parish meeting the question arose of repairing and enlarging the 1840 meetinghouse. In April, 1884, at an adjourned meeting, it was voted by a small majority to build a new church of field-stone, but it was not until February, 1887, that the wooden building was taken down. The stones were brought
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Weston: A Puritan Town
from farms nearby or at a distance, some of them on Sunday, by Dobbin and the "carry-all." The new church completed in the spring of 1888, was placed several rods in front of the site of the 1840 house, the County Road over the knoll was discontinued, while Meeting House Common became little more than a front lawn, as the turn from the Boston Post Road passed between the town fountain and the Church Green.
And so, through the years have changes come to this old Puritan town; however, the deeds of the land that was granted to the First Parish in Weston, and called Meeting House Common, are preserved as interesting relics.
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MFK
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Hagg Tavern ( from old photograph )
Ye Olde Boston Post Road
On November 27, 1917, the people of Weston met to dedicate the new Town House and the Common, not only in honor of Mr. Horace S. Sears, whose generosity made possible this beauty spot, but also to hear the orator of the occasion, the Honorable Calvin Coolidge, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, later Governor, and then President of the United States. The following lines are from his speech: "You have had here in Weston not only an inter- esting population, but an interesting location. It was through this town of Weston, that the great arteries of travel ran to the West, to the South, and to the North."
The road to the west was the Great Country Road, or the King's Highway; from Watertown to Sudbury (now Wayland), known as the Sudbury Road. As early as 1673, a regular monthly postal service was established from Boston to Worcester, Spring- field, Hartford, Stratford, New York, and to points South. The "Model" contained these conditions: "Post-riders must be active, stout, and indefatigable, and sworn as to their fidelity; the mail has divers bags according to the 'Townes' the letters are designed to, which are all sealed up until their arrivement; the wages are 3 d. per mile, as full satisfaction for the expense of man and horse." So the Great Country Road which passes through Weston from east to west became also the Boston Post Road. On the day when the Post-rider was due in Weston, a day not known by its calendar name, but which was called "Post-day", the people met at Flagg Tavern for distribution of the mail. Personal letters were few, the mail consisting of newspapers, or news-letters, but the Post-rider had always a fund of gossip collected along the way.
As there were no bridges from Boston over the Charles River
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Weston: A Puritan Town
until 1786, the Post Road ran over Boston Neck to Roxbury, through Brookline, Brighton, and Newton, crossing the river at Watertown, and thence out to the country.
The first mill in Watertown was running in 1634; the earliest bridge over the river was built in 1641, a foot-bridge near the mill at the head of tide-water, called, and still known as Mill Bridge. A horse-bridge followed in 1648, but it was not until 1718 that "Weston and Watertown entered into a contract to build a bridge over Charles River for the passage of carriages and teams." For both building and repairing the bridges (the first one was demolished in a great storm), Weston furnished men for labor, and "lumber for planks," until the year 1801, nearly one hundred years after the separation of the two towns.
"Weston, May 7, 1801,-Voted that Eben Hobbs, II, Isaac Lamson and John Slack be and are hereby appointed Agents Vested with Power and Instructed to endeavor to make a final settlement with the Agents of the Town of Watertown respecting the Great Bridge in Said Watertown over the Charles River." An entry dated June 1, 1801 gives as a result of a meeting with agents from Watertown: "The Inhabitants of the Town of Water- town have agreed that the Inhabitants of the Town of Weston, shall be discharged from Contributing any further to the Sup- port, Maintenance, Building, or Widening the Great Bridge, for- ever."
The monthly trips of the Post-riders were interrupted in 1675, by King Philip's War, in which so many Massachusetts towns were devastated; although the War ended with the death of the Indian Chief in 1676, the Post did not ride again until 1685. In 1691, postal service came under control of the Crown, and Post- riders were "Royal Messengers with guide and horn." One Ebene- zer Hurd was a Royal Messenger for forty-eight years, from 1727 until 1775; it was he who carried to New York the news of the battle of Concord and Lexington.
In 1737, when Benjamin Franklin became Postmaster-General for the Colonies, postal service developed a national quality and extended from Maine to Charleston, S.C. To Franklin are due the picturesque milestones, a few still to be seen along the Post Road.
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Ye Olde Boston Post Road
Franklin was removed from office abruptly in 1774, and postal service became infrequent during the Revolution.
Traffic over the Boston Post Road was utilitarian in several ways. Finding a good market in the towns to the east, Weston farmers, largely with ox-teams, sent in loads of wood, hay, vege- tables, fruits, eggs and other food products even though it was about eighteen miles to the market. In 1710, a visitor to Boston wrote: "The Neck of Land betwixt the Town and Country is about forty yards broad and so low that the spring tides some- times wash the road, which might with little charge be made so strong as not to be forced, there being no way of coming at Boston by land but over the Neck."
While private coaches and wagons had traveled the Post Road as early as 1731, probably the first public stagecoach left New York for Boston on June 25, 1772. In the advertisements were these assurances: "Gentlemen and Ladies who choose to encourage this useful, new, and expensive Undertaking, may depend upon good Usage, and Coach will always put up at houses on the Road where the best Entertainment is provided."
Stagecoach lines increased year by year; passenger coaches allowed five or six days for the journey to New York. Mail coaches traveled day and night, stopping more often for change of horses, drivers, and guards, as all must be rested and well fed. It was one duty of the guard to sound his horn through every village, not only to warn all traffic from the path of the United States Mail, but also to tell of the approach to the Inn where the changes were made. As late as 1835, the mail-coach from New York passed through Weston at midnight, the guard sounding the horn from the Wayland line to Stony Brook.
Long before the Revolutionary era, the Boston Post Road was one of the most important and most traveled roads in the country; it was also the best conditioned, although present day travelers would certainly consider it rough going. The towns through which it passed were responsible for repairs; in early Weston Records occur several instances when the General Court cited the inhabitants for negligence in the care of the Great Country Road.
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Weston: A Puritan Town
On the morning of April 5, 1775, over the Boston Post Road came a man dressed in the manner of a countryman looking for work, with his pack on his shoulders, and an ingratiating manner; he was Sergeant John Howe, a British spy acting for General Gage of the Army occupying Boston and sent to find out about military stores of the Colony, hidden in Worcester. So difficult and hazard- ous was his mission because of the suspicious and hostile towns- people along the way, that he turned at Marlboro toward Con- cord, and made the best of his way back, reaching Boston on April twelfth. He reported to General Gage that although roads and bridges were good on the Worcester road: "The people were so hostile that if the General should send 10,000 men and a train of artillery to Worcester, not one of them would get back alive." Therefore, instead of the Boston Post Road, on the night of the eighteenth of April, General Gage chose the old Turnpike through Arlington and Lexington for the march of a detachment of the British Infantry from Boston, to capture the military supplies stored at Concord. The General did not know about the midnight ride of Paul Revere!
Only a few months later, on July second, 1775, General George Washington, mounted on a magnificent charger, and attended by his staff officers, came down the Post Road, on the way to Cambridge. The townspeople, informed by outriders, swarmed along the roadsides to view this grand parade! Under the great Cambridge elm, on July third, 1775, General Washington drew his sword, read the Commission from the Congress at Philadelphia, and took command of the Continental Army, a command that was ended only in 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
The Weston Train-band joined ranks on Meeting House Com- mon and marched over the Post Road to Somerville to serve during the siege of Boston, and there was constant delivery of food, not only for Washington's Army, but for the people of Cambridge and nearby towns. With the evacuation of Lord Howe on March 17, 1776, the seat of war left New England for the Middle Colonies, but the Boston Post Road still served.
Paul Revere's most famous ride was over the Concord Turnpike, but as Lieut. Colonel Revere, in command of Fort Independence
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Ye Olde Boston Post Road
in Boston Harbor, he was ordered on August 29, 1777: "To march with five drummers, five fifers, one hundred and twenty sergeants, corporals, bombardiers, gunners and matrosses, with their com- missioned officers, to Worcester, there to meet and take charge of the prisoners captured at Bennington, on August sixteenth, by General Stark,"-the first victory by the Americans in the Sara- toga Campaign.
Colonel Revere left Watertown at six o'clock, had breakfast at the Golden Ball Tavern in Weston, and dined at Wayside Inn, in Sudbury. On the return, added to the Bennington prisoners, were those from Saratoga, where General John Burgoyne surrendered his army, thus ending the Saratoga Campaign on October 17, 1777.
Artillery was directed by Colonel Revere over the Framingham Turnpike, South Avenue in Weston, as it was feared that the bridge over the Sudbury River in Wayland would not bear the weight of the cannon. Under command of General Glover of Marblehead, the captured forces marched over the Post Road, and spent one night in Weston, camped in the vicinity of the great tree known as the Burgoyne Elm. In the Town Treasurer's ac- counts for the year: "March the 2nd, 1777, to March the 2nd, 1778," are these two items: I. Pd Joshua Jennison for taking care of ye Meeting House in 1777, { 1. 4S; 2. Pd. Joshua Jennison for cleaning ye Meeting House, Immediately after the Prisoners taken at Bennington and Saratoga, { 1. 16S." One of the officers of this expedition wrote from Cambridge: "I do consider it strange that a bridge is not built from Charlestown to Boston. Unless you cross the ferry, you have to make a circuit of several miles over swamps and morasses from this place, which is less than two miles in a direct line."
Beginning with 1787, the Post Road echoed to the tread of the Weston Independent Light Infantry Company, on the way to muster in various towns: Waltham, Watertown, East Cambridge, Somerville, Medford. As a result of the disturbance known as Shays' Rebellion, the Weston Company of the State Militia was commissioned by his Excellency Governor James Bowdoin, on January 16, 1787.
The officers were Abraham Bigelow, Captain, William Hobbs,
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Weston: A Puritan Town
Lieutenant, Ebenezer Hobbs II, Ensign. The motto adopted, "Be just and fear not. Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's." Several towns had Companies called Independent, but considered a part of the State Militia. This was done, "That there might be loyal troops, loyally commanded, upon whose services the Governor could always rely, with orders to be ready at short notice."
According to hearsay, the Weston Company, on January 25th, 1787, joined the Massachusetts Militia commanded by General Benjamin Lincoln, an officer on Washington's staff during the Revolution, which passed through Weston over the Post Road on the march to Springfield, to put down Shays' uprising. No Town Records mention the fact, but in town meeting in March, 1787, the citizens refused to pay any bounty to the troops engaged in the expedition. Throughout the State, there was much sympathy with those opposing the heavy taxation of the period. The gather- ing at Springfield was subdued by a few shots; Daniel Shays was taken prisoner and brought to trial. He had been an Ensign in the engagement at Breed's Hill on June 17th, 1775, and became a Captain in the Continental Army. The Court wisely pardoned him, and he received a pension for his services in the Revolution.
In October, 1789, President Washington's journey to the New England States brought him again to Weston. His visit stirred the countryside; he received ovations through every town, people flocking from far and near along the route; many had been in his army, and he greeted them all with affection.
Over the Post Road by mail-coach, in August, 1798, came Presi- dent John Adams, second President of the United States, to his home in Quincy. This, too, was a notable event; led by such citizens as Dr. Samuel Kendal, Colonel Thomas Marshall, the Honorable Artemas Ward and Dr. Amos Bancroft, the people of Weston at Flagg Tavern gave the President a reception, followed by an elegant collation. The Hon. Samuel Dexter gave the speech of welcome, in the course of which he said, "The Town of Weston, Sir, has no disorganizers. When called to elect public men to office, we have upon every occasion proved our federalism, and
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Ye Olde Boston Post Road
we pray you to be assured that we shall continue firm in the cause of our Country, and be ready to defend it upon all emer- gencies." In the President's short but excellent reply, he con- gratulated the Town of Weston on their felicity in having no disorganizers to disrupt harmony and good neighborhood among the families, and ended, "Upon all such towns may the choicest of blessings descend."
As the Selectmen had been ordered by the State to furnish arms and powder for the Light Infantry Company, the citizens of Weston in a special town meeting on November 1, 1802, voted: "To build an Armory and Powder House for the deposit of Arms and Ammunition and that the Selectmen be a Committee to con- duct and 'compleat' the building thereof." At that time, there were five members of the Board,-Ebenezer Hobbs, II, Isaac Lamson, Nathan Fiske, John Slack, Isaac Train. Quaint and attractive in design, built of rosy brick, the Powder House stood on the north- east corner of what, later, was the Central Burying Ground, the corner where Linwood Avenue now leads from the Post Road in a southerly direction. In this unique storehouse were arms and ammunition in readiness should orders be received by the Weston Company, from the Governor, to report for duty, at once.
For more than thirty years, the Powder House served its pur- pose, but in 1834, was sold to a new-comer in Weston, Mr. Alpheus Cutter, "and demolished by him for the bricks." The gentleman who made this comment was so disturbed over the short-sighted policy of the town, that although his ancestors were among the first settlers of Weston, in 1635, people feared that he would sell the ancestral estate, and move his family away. Wise counsel pre- vailed to keep him here, but the town lost another priceless land- mark.
The United States, having declared War against Great Britain, on June 18, 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry, from Boston: "Called upon the Militia of Massachusetts, duly to notice the solemn and interesting crisis and exhorted them to meet the occa- sion with constancy and firmness. He also required that particular attention be paid to all the Town Magazines, that they were fully
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Weston: A Puritan Town
provided with the ammunition, military stores and utensils that the law directs." This War was not popular in Massachusetts chiefly because her commercial interests were so thriving that the prosperity of the State was threatened, particularly by the Em- bargo. Massachusetts owned more than one-third of the total tonnage of vessels of the United States.
But war was war, and the Weston Company of Light Infantry in September, 1813, was ordered to duty as a guard for the Arsenal in Charlestown. "The guard should consist of one Sergeant, one Corporal, and twelve Privates, to be relieved weekly until further orders." First and Second Detachments were formed, "the one to relieve the other. As the First Detachment left Meeting House Common for the march over the Post Road, full of good nature and fun, their jokes and witticisms were numerous and of constant recurrence,-the sexton, who was one of the privates, warning the inhabitants to allow nobody to die during his absence." Massachu- setts militia were sent to guard the coast towns from Plymouth as far east as Machias on the Maine coast, the separation of Maine from Massachusetts not occurring until 1820.
With the Peace in December, 1814, the Weston I. L. I. returned to its normal duties, and on May 2nd, 1815, "Assembled in pur- suance of law and in obedience to orders, at Flagg Tavern for annual inspection and review of arms." Also, on Monday, the 9th day of October, 1815, the First and Fifth Regiments of Infantry, the Regiment of Artillery, and the Regiment of Cavalry were ordered by the Governor to assemble at Waltham "for Review Inspection, and Discipline, at precisely ten o'clock. The parade grounds must not be left to procure refreshments. Elias Phinney, Esquire, of Charlestown, has been appointed and commissioned as Brigade Quarter-Master and will be obeyed accordingly." And so, the following: "Field Inspection return of the Weston I. L. I. Company, Charles Stratton, Captain, on Plain Pasture in Waltham, near the Governor Gore house, on Monday, the 9th day of October, 1815. Present the Captain, Lieutenant and Ensign; 4 Sergeants, 5 Drummers and Fifers, 32 Rank and File. Absent 4 Privates. Daniel Smith, Clerk."
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Old Powder House ( from old drawing )
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Ye Olde Boston Post Road
Monday, May 6th, 1816. At a meeting of the Inhabitants of Weston assembled at the public meetinghouse, in this town, on this day, at three of the clock in the afternoon, it was voted: "That to those soldiers who were draughted and served in the late war shall be made up the sum of fourteen dollars per month for the term they actually served, with the sum allowed by the United States." Voted also: "That the same sum be allowed to those mem- bers of the Independent Light Infantry Company, belonging to Weston, who actually served."
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