USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 3
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During the first week in July, 1817, President James Munroe visited Boston and on the fifth of July inspected the Navy Yard at Charlestown. On July second came an order from Head Quarters in Boston, for the Weston Independent Light Infantry to join Brig. Gen. Austin's Brigade: "To parade on Bunker Hill near the Warren Monument on Saturday, the fifth day of July, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, completely equipped for review. The President of the United States will review the troops. His Excel- lency the Governor, Commander-in-Chief, expects that every officer and soldier will do his duty on this occasion. Six blank cartridges, at least, will be wanted as some firings are contem- plated."
"Present, Captain Charles Stratton, Lieut. Henry Hobbs, Ensign Luther Harrington; Sergeants, Daniel Smith, Cyrus Russell, Mar- shall Jones, Henry Stratton; Drummers, Jonas Hastings, Silas Up- ham; Fifers, Josiah Hastings, Jr. and Francis Hastings, and thirty- eight Rank and File,"-the Boston Post Road again echoed to martial tread in time of peace.
In the year 1825, on the seventeenth of June, came an important celebration for Charlestown and Boston-the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, with the laying of the corner-stone of the famous monument. Over the old Boston Post Road from New York, in a coach with four outriders, rode the Marquis de Lafayette, the guest of the United States Government. The General spent the night of Tuesday, July fourteenth, at Wayside Inn, Sudbury. By morning, word was sent on ahead, and the whole population of Weston were on the Common or along the road-
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Weston: A Puritan Town
sides to wave and shout their welcome to this famous friend. General Lafayette arrived in Boston early in the afternoon of Wednesday, the fifteenth of June, and alighted at the home of Hon. James Lloyd on Beacon Hill, to await the day of cele- bration.
The Grand Procession formed near the State House; many of the troops had camped for the night on the Common. In the military escort of two regiments of Massachusetts Militia was the Weston Independent Light Infantry Company, Captain Sewall Fiske. "The Company assembled on Boston Common, early in the morning of June seventeenth, 1825, and at ten o'clock, with the other military companies, escorted the Procession to Bunker (Breed's) Hill. The Military was ordered to remain on the grounds until the Oration by the Hon. Daniel Webster, and other services were concluded. They were dismissed at half-past four of the clock on Charlestown Neck."
From the Columbian Sentinel, Saturday, June 18th, 1825. "The Military display was very imposing, the day was temperate, and fair, and all the arrangements made to honour it were executed with a punctuality and good order which could only be effected by the entire unison of all the hearts and hands in the ceremonies. The Hon. Daniel Webster, Orator of the Day, pronounced his address in every particular worthy of the celebrity of the Orator; and his address to the silver-headed worthies of the Revolution and to the distinguished Guest of the Nation, the Marquis de Lafayette, filled every heart with transport."
For the incidents that follow, a few facts will bear repetition. The Independent Companies in the Massachusetts Militia were commissioned in 1787, when the State government felt some in- security. Commissioned by the Governor, they were to be re- sponsible for orders only to the Major-General of Militia, an officer elected by the Legislature, who was entirely independent of all other officers, and who would always be loyal to the Gov- ernment. And loyal to the letter of the law were the Independents, even, as on the following occasion, refusing to comply with orders from Head Quarters.
33
Ye Olde Boston Post Road
For the autumn review on the eighth of October, 1830,-"From Head Quarters: The Weston I. L. I. under the command of Cap- tain Elmore Russell, will be reviewed and inspected in line with the Fourth Regiment, and will receive and obey all orders from Colonel Nathan Adams of said regiment." On the day of this re- view at Watertown,-"Colonel Adams invited Captain Russell to form his company with the Fourth Regiment, which invitation was declined, the Independent Light Infantry forming twenty paces to the right of the regiment and maintaining this position while in line, throughout the day."
A similar incident had occurred in 1826, and had brought to trial by Court Martial, the three commissioned officers of the Weston Company; they were found guilty of insubordination and were dismissed from the service. Their townspeople never held the young men responsible for any misdemeanor; there was an at- tempt by two Militia Officers to soften the decree but the Court voted, six to two, to retain the sentence.
As there may have been some premonition of the future, the Spring Review of the Weston Company merits a few lines. "Weston, May 3rd, 1831. The Weston I. L. I. assembled at Flagg Tavern in this town, at one of the clock, P.M. for annual in- spection. The Company formed on their time-honoured parade ground in front of the Tavern, went through the ceremony of Inspection and were refreshed by a liberal supply of landlord Stratton's excellent punch. An election for the choice of Lieuten- ant was held, and Ensign Charles Bigelow was chosen in room of Henry Sherman, who declined to be qualified. These duties performed, the Corps took up the line of march for the middle of town, halting in front of the residence of the Revd. Mr. Joseph Field, where, forming in line, they paid him the annual May training compliment of three rousing volleys of musketry. The march was then continued to the old meetinghouse, in front of which a halt was made, arms were stacked, ranks broken, and the entire Corps were speedily partaking of good cheer, offered by mine host, John Macomber, at his hostel directly opposite. (This, of course, was the famous Smith Tavern). Then the Company
34
Weston: A Puritan Town
marched quite a distance on Lincoln Road, and on their return the parade was dismissed."
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Head Quarters, Boston, May 30th, 1831. Ordered that the Weston Independent Light Infantry, com- manded by Captain Elmore Russell, be disbanded, and the members there of be enrolled in the Companies of Infantry within whose limits they reside.
By His Excellency's Command. Wm. H. Sumner, Adgt. General.
There is a record of 1831, the instance of the adoption of a new uniform by the Company, contrary to the wishes of many mem- bers. "Those opposed to the change neglecting or declining to procure the new dress, dropped out of the Company. At the un- fortunate Watertown Review, the absence of sixteen men, reduced the Company below the membership required by law."
Before the outbreak of the Civil War, but when anti-slavery feeling was strong, the Post Road served as a part of the "under- ground railroad," for escaping slaves, the route to Canada branch- ing to the North at Sudbury. There were at least two "con- ductors", in Weston, and thereby arose the report, not yet proven unfounded, that an underground passage lay between the two houses of John Mark, and John Lewis Gourgas. These are now the homes of Mrs. David Kellogg, and John Brooks, 2nd.
With the growth of railroads, stage routes and stagecoaches were not necessary, inns and taverns became private property, and Ye Olde Boston Post Road, for a time was the Main Road, and later, Central Avenue. Until the opening of the Massachusetts Central Railroad in 1885, a stagecoach ran from Marlboro to Stony Brook on the Fitchburg R.R. but Sudbury, and Wayland and Weston were still farming towns; a coach going easterly in the morning, and westerly in the afternoon gave, for those days, adequate transportation.
Once again, the people of Weston gathered at the Center, to
35
Ye Olde Boston Post Road
honor a martial parade. For the First World War, Captain Robert Winsor, Jr. in command of Company F, 303rd Infantry, 76th Division, was in training at Camp Devens. Robert Winsor, Sr. made arrangements with the Fitchburg Railroad for the transporta- tion of the Company to Stony Brook, thence they marched over Central Avenue to the Green at the new Town House where an "elegant collation" awaited them. As the line swung around the curve at the Sears estate, with Young Captain Winsor and our beautiful Flag in the lead, a hush fell upon the townspeople. Hats, all but one, were doffed, when Mr. Patrick McAuliffe, Chief-of- Police, standing by the offending owner, with one swing of his arm swept the hat to the ground; salutes were made, but many eyes were moist as they watched the earnest young faces of the soldiers. However, the quiet was broken when the line had passed-cheers and applause followed them to the place of enter- tainment. This was in the month of June, 1918; on July fifth, 1918, the Company sailed for France.
At the Town Meeting in March, 1926, it was voted: "To appoint a Committee to consider re-naming some of the streets of the Town, using the terms Road and Lane, as more suitable for a country town." The Committee was appointed, studied the matter, and at the March meeting, 1927, presented a list which was put to vote. Certain changes were approved, others rejected, in no un- certain manner, but one suggestion that met with unanimous ap- proval was the return to our famous highway of the time-honored appellation, the Boston Post Road.
1775071
Early Deacons of the First Parish
On Sunday, January twelfth, 1813, the one hundreth anni- versary of the incorporation of the Town of Weston, from the high pulpit in the colonial church Dr. Samuel Kendal preached his famous Century Sermon. In the following paragraph Dr. Kendal said, "Since 1709, one hundred four years, only twelve deacons have been chosen and have officiated in this Church:
January 4, 1710,
April 20, 1715,
1733, June 20, 1745,
Capt. Josiah Jones John Parkhurst
Benjamin Brown
Ensign John Warren
Nathaniel Allen
Abijah Upham Thomas Upham
September 14, 1767,
Thomas Russell
December 18, 1780,
Samuel Fiske Isaac Hobbs
January 7, 1808,
Nathan Warren Thomas Bigelow
Since my ordination (1783) we have buried but one Deacon, viz: Deacon Thomas Russell in 1792, who sustained the office almost twenty five years."
The office of Deacon was the second highest honor the Parish could confer; at "A meeting of ye Brethren of ye Church in Weston," a name would be voted upon, the chosen one would be visited by the minister and the remaining Deacon, and after due consideration would accept the honor-only one instance is in the
37
Early Deacons of the First Parish
records of a refusal. The office was not a life tenure; a deacon could resign, but only two ever did.
Deacons were Assessors, Tax Collectors, and Treasurers of the Parish and the Town, before the separation; until the Town ap- pointed Constables, Deacons were also Keepers of the Peace. "April 27, 1726: At a meeting of ye Brethren of ye Church in Weston, there was Discourse concerning Brotherly watchfulness and ye Duty of friendly Advice and reproof as we see one another stand in need-and particularly concerning Some Ir- regularities on ye Lord's Days and Some Indencys in ye Publ. worship. And ye following Express'd and voted as their gen1. Sentiment,-That turning ye back towards ye Minister to gaze abroad, and laying down ye head upon ye Arms (in a sleeping posture) in ye time of Publick Worship (Extraordinary cases excepted) are gestures irreverent and indecent and which ought to be reformed where they are faulty therein and carefully avoided."
When trouble was brewing in some quarter, a charge was presented to the Minister, the Deacons visited the family con- cerned, heard the story, tried to convince wrong-doers of their errors, and then reported to the Minister, the final judge. If neces- sary, offenders were brought before a tribunal of Minister and Deacons, but if the offense was more than a family affair, deacons and church members formed a Court presided over by the Minister. The Rev. Samuel Woodward records: "Attended a Church meet- ing, January 20, 1763, to hear the acknowledgement of Benjamin Bond for his mis-conduct,-It was read, and the Church Members (so far as I observed) unanimously voted they were in charity with him. I then gave Brother Bond an Exhortation to a Circumspect Walk and dismiss'd the meeting." A number of complaints were against people, "Disguised with Strong Liquor by Drinking to Excess." For this an offender was debarred from Communion and if no reform was apparent, from Church service until he or she was ready, "to confess, and to give Satisfaction from the Broad Alley." This was the central aisle in the Colonial Church leading from the pulpit.
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Weston: A Puritan Town
Through the years, as Parish and Town were growing apart, the duties of Deacons lessened. In 1824, the Town voted to Dr. Field his regular salary and his firewood, but at the Annual Town Meeting in March, 1825, no such provision was made. The first Parish Meeting separate from the town was held in April, 1825. It was quite formal, its chief object being to raise money to sup- port the Church. Three Assessors and a Collector were chosen; the Assessors list for 1826 contains two hundred ten names; a poll tax of seventy cents also went to the Parish; annual Parish Meetings were set for the first Monday in April of succeeding years. Meet- ings of both Parish and Town, although held separately, were in the basement story of the Colonial Church of 1722 until it was taken down in 1840, but the Town now assumed care of the high- ways and the schools and chose a Constable to look after evil- doers.
In the year 1879, on April twenty-eighth a Parish Meeting voted: "That a Committee of three be chosen to take measures to re- organize this Parish on the nineteenth day of May, current, at three o'clock in the Afternoon." New by-laws were adopted, assessors were done away with, and full powers of management of Parish affairs were vested in the hands of a Standing Committee and a Treasurer. Revenue was to be obtained by voluntary sub- scription. The title of Deacon became an honorary one.
In the oldest cemetery, the Farmers' Burying Place, on one of the stones in quaint lettering is this memorial:
Here the Clay form (in hope to rise) Of Deacon THOMAS UPHAM lies; Sixty-two years measured his race Thirteen of which the Deacon's place With other trusts he did sustain In all of which shone the Christian But God ordains the Wise the Just Like other men should mix with dust. Ob. October 17th A.D. 1780
Mr. Joseph Mors, 1703-1706
In the autumn of 1701, there came to Weston with his wife, Mr. Joseph Mors, a graduate of Harvard in 1695, twenty-first in a class of twenty-two. Mr. Mors came to teach school, bought several parcels of land, "between what is now Wellesley Street and the Canal," the brook that flowed through the peat meadows of the present By-pass, and built a small house on the south-west portion at the corner where Maple Road now meets Wellesley Street.
In 1702, Mr. Mors was invited to preach in the First Parish, the meetinghouse begun in 1695 being nearly finished. Although of the forty-two voters, twelve were opposed, Mr. Mors accepted the call, and began his duties in the summer of 1703. Early in the following year, he was given a house, twenty by forty feet, built for him by the Parish; it stood on the site of the "Deacon White house," the present home of Dr. Stanley Hobbs.
In 1704, began differences that grew more and more serious. Mr. Mors had never been ordained a minister, had never organized a church, and opposition forces were growing stronger. A Council of Churches condemned both minister and people; attempts were made, but the differences could not be settled, and on March 6, 1706, the Council voted that after a month, Mr. Joseph Mors cease to preach at Watertown Farms.
There was still trouble about his house and farm, as Mr. Mors went at once to Canton, refusing to make any disposal of his property here. A committee of four, Thomas Wilson, Captain Josiah Jones, Captain Francis Fulham, and Lieutenant John Brewer, was appointed to treat with Mr. Mors as to the purchase of his property, for the use of the ministry of the First Parish, but no agreement could be reached. Finally the Parish appealed to the
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Weston: A Puritan Town
Court of Sessions; toward the end of the year 1707, Mr. Mors agreed to convey the property to the Committee, and his relations with the Farms were ended.
This is the wise comment made by Dr. Samuel Kendal in his Centennial Sermon of January, 1813: "If we might be allowed to draw an inference, it would be that Mr. Mors was not very ready to accommodate himself to the views either of his people or of their advisors. Faults there were, undoubtedly on both sides; but as much condescension appears on the part of the Precinct, as is to be found in almost any similar case. I cannot but venerate the Fathers of this Town when I trace the records of their proceed- ings."
In Canton stands the tombstone of Mr. Mors, with this epitaph:
Within this silent grave here now doth lie
Him that has gone into Eternity Who when he lived was by good men respected Although by others was perhaps rejected Yet that don't hinder his triumphant joy
With saints above where naught can him annoy.
Reverend William Williams, Jr., 1709-1750
Presented several times at the Court of Sessions for not having a settled minister, the Precinct, on February 4, 1708, gave a call to Mr. William Williams, Jr., a Harvard graduate of 1705, who be- longed to a distinguished and intellectual family. His father was the Reverend William Williams of Hatfield; his mother, a descend- ant of the Reverend John Cotton, who came to Boston in 1633, and is called the "Patriarch of New England." A cousin, Colonel Israel Williams, founded Williams College; another cousin was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
It was not until August 23, 1709, that Mr. Williams accepted the call, but from then on affairs moved rapidly. A church was gath- ered here through dismissal of members from Watertown and East Sudbury (now Wayland), and others who had not been communicants; a covenant was adopted; deacons were chosen and on November 9, 1709, Mr. William Williams, Jr. was ordained by his father, assisted by the Reverend Mr. Hobart of Newton, and the Reverend Mr. Baxter of Medfield, "and thereby the first Church in Weston came into being."
In 1710 Mr. Williams married Hannah, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, "a rare and lovely woman, who, as his assistant in the Parish, was a blessing, a true inspirer, and a true helper." As a gift from the town, in 1714, Mr. Williams received the plain but comfortable house built for Mr. Mors; it had been enlarged, and there Mr. Williams lived happily with his family. Of his eight children, William, the oldest, became an early settler in Pittsfield, was a distinguished Colonel in the French and Indian Wars, and then an eminent judge in the Berkshire County court; two daughters, Mercy and Lucy, married ministers, one of
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Weston: A Puritan Town
Harvard, the other of Rutland; Anna married Mr. Oliver Partridge of Hatfield; Esther, the youngest daughter, Dr. Thomas Williams of Deerfield, while Solomon, the youngest of the family, studied at Harvard, then with a Boston surgeon, and became a physician. Although rather far from home, as they were all well-to-do, they seem to have visited often in Weston.
Nathaniel, the sixth child, in 1750, when he was twenty-seven years old, married Dorothy Stratton of Concord, and was the only one to settle in Weston. After the death of his wife in 1745, Mr. Williams was desolate, so Nathaniel lived with his father, and brought up a family of eleven fine children. Nathaniel's name is found often in the old records, sometimes as a member of com- mittees chosen, "to reconcile matters between troubled parishioners, and to make a return of their doings at a prescribed church meet- ing."
During the first thirty years of his ministry, Mr. Williams added three hundred fourteen members to the church; he is considered to have been an ideal country minister, liberal in thought, and open-minded. He had, also, a reputation abroad as a preacher of talent: among other instances, in 1737, he preached the Election Sermon before the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, his text from Eccl. 9, 18, "Wisdom is better than the weapons of war"; in 1741, the General Election Sermon before Royal Governor Belcher, His Majesty's (Geo. II) Council, and the House of Representatives. He is credited with having preached a sermon at the Newton Church that added eighty new members to the congregation.
Mr. Williams was devoted to his Parish; in matters of conduct and discipline he was truthful and straightforward, and yet so kindly that he had always the confidence and respect of his people. He was minister during the constant struggle against the tyranny of royal governors in Massachusetts, and was always in sympathy with the cause of liberty. Although in 1750, Mr. Williams asked for his dismissal as a minister, he remained as a member of the Church, and lived on in the town, aiding his youthful successor; at one time he served as a school master.
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Reverend William Williams, Jr., 1709-1750
Mr. Williams died in 1760; his tombstone in the oldest cemetery, the Farmers' Burying Place, reads: "In memory of the Revnd Mr. William Williams who was for many years the learned, laborious, and reputable Pastor of the Church of this place."
Nathaniel and his family, in 1770, were dismissed from the Weston Church and recommended to the Church in Lanes- borough, a town near Pittsfield; soon after, the heirs sold the family property to Mr. Samuel Fiske, who was chosen a Deacon of the Parish in 1780.
Reverend Samuel Woodward, 1751-1782
The successor of Mr. Williams, Mr. Samuel Woodward, was born in Newton in 1727; his parents, Ebenezer Woodward and Mindwell Stone, were both of old and honored families. Grad- uating from Harvard in 1748, Mr. Woodward came to Weston when he was only twenty-four years old, but he seems to have been a prudent young man, as in his long letter of acceptance, he wrote: "Friends tell me that I can by no means live within your offers." In spite of his youth, or attracted by it, the Town accepted his views and unanimously voted what he considered necessary for his needs, eighty pounds a year, and ten cords of wood.
Mr. Woodward built the house that stands among evergreen trees, well back from Concord Road, the first house on the right from the Boston Post Road, with the date 1753 on the large central chimney. It is now a part of the Fiske estate. There have been additions through the years, but the main house is quite unchanged; the front stairway, with high lifts and narrow treads, the large low-studded rooms, each with a fireplace, are all Colonial features.
Mr. Woodward married Miss Abigail Williams, a daughter of Rev. Warham Williams, who, in 1723, was settled as minister of the First Parish in Waltham, and who was a cousin of Rev. William Williams, settled in 1709, over the First Parish in Weston. When Mr. Warham Williams died in 1751, the widow, Mrs. Abigail Williams, lived on in Waltham with her daughters, Abigail and Anna. The successor of Mr. Williams in Waltham was Reverend Jacob Cushing, a classmate at Harvard of Samuel Wood- ward. Quite naturally, the two friends visited back and forth, exchanged pulpits now and then, and courted the two attractive girls. On January eleventh, 1753, Abigail Williams and Samuel
to M!
Me
Here lie Remains of MY NATHAN FISK he deceafed June g 4th A 1769 in y 68 Year of his age.
Behold & fee as you pass by As you are now fo once was I As I am now fo you must be Prepare for Death & follow me
from old drawing
47
Reverend Samuel Woodward, 1751-1782
Woodward were married by Rev. Jacob Cushing, while on November third, of the same year, Rev. Samuel Woodward performed a like ceremony for sister Anna and Jacob Cushing.
The house in Weston built by Mr. Woodward, sheltered a family of twelve children, only five living to be more than twenty years old. Samuel, the eldest, graduated from Harvard in 1776, served as a surgeon in the Patriot Army, and after the War practised medicine in Newburg, New York; he died there in 1785, twenty-nine years old, leaving a widow and a very young son. In a Weston diary of that time is this pathetic entry: "June 8, 1786, Little Samuel Woodward died in Providence, almost fifteen months old." Cyrus, the third son, born in 1764, a most promising boy, died suddenly from a fever in 1782, when he was a sophomore at Harvard. Warham, the fourth son, was in business in Charleston, South Carolina, but he left no children. There was no heir to carry on the Woodward name, as the youngest son, John, died when he was nine.
Mr. Woodward is said to have had an attractive personality; he was amiable in temper, social by nature, gracious in manner at all times, and held the respect and affection of his Parish, even though his sermons were very long, and never very eloquent. The follow- ing paragraph is from a short biography by the Reverend Francis B. Hornbrooke, S.T.D .: "The work of the average minister of the time, consisted in preaching sermons which stated in the customary manner what people accepted as a matter of course, and in attend- ing to the duties which usually belonged to his office; Mr. Wood- ward seems to have been adapted by nature to his environment. He was not expected to be striking or original, and so far as we know, he never disappointed expectation. He never startled his hearers with novelties, nor did he puzzle his own brains or theirs, with discussing abstruse problems."
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