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ACTON IN HISTORY.

COMPILED FOE THE MIDDLESEX COUNTY HISTORY.

PUBLISHED BY

J. W. LEWIS & CO., OF PHILADELPHIA,

with

MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS ADDITIONAL,

i; v

REV. JAMES ELETCHER.

Copyright is!hi isy J, W. Lewis Go., transferred ro Rev. .ia.mks Fletcher.

PHILADELPHIA am. BOSTON: J. W. LEWIS & CO., 1890.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

Thanks are hereby expressed to the publishers, J. W. Lewis & ('(>.. of Philadelphia, for their generosity and courtesy in providing the printed extras for the Acton Local, a1 such reduced rates.

To the owners of the expensive c'hoice steel plates, — for the tree use of the same.

To Rev. F. I'. Wood, for his accommodation in the matter of engraving blocks. To the Pratt Brothers, for their indulgence in the same line.

To George C. Wright, for furnishing the new photo-electrotype block of the oil painting of ('apt. Isaac Davis' wife, which has never before been printed for the public eve. The oil painting was a remarkable likeness of the venerable lady, taken by the best artist when she was in her 92d year. It was photographed by Mr. Wright, several years ago in New York, where he found it with some of the descendants. He has had this photograph photo-eleetro- typed for the uses of the Acton Local. It is a rare, historic gem.

Thanks are also due to Mrs. Winthrop E. Faulkner for the photo-electrotype engraving of the crayon sketch of her husband, a fine facsimile of the original.

To Arthur H. Cowdry, M. I)., of Stoneham, for the block of his father, so highly prized by all.

To lion. William A. Wilde, who again has shown his appreciation of his birthtown by the gilt of the frontispiece picture of this book, and also of the photo-electrotype of his own person.

To Horace F. Tattle, for his gratuitous services, of the last winter months, in drawing and compiling the original for the lithographic map of Acton.

To the public in general, for their response, in interest and subscriptions, to the work, which is now submitted to them in trust.

JAMES FLETCHER.

Acton, Mass.. Dec. 1^. 18U0.

ACTON IN HISTORY.

COMPILED BY REV. JAMES FLETCHER.

(ONI E N T S .

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Revolutionary Preliminaries	250,1-2-:!	The Davis Guards1 Reception	284
The Faulkner Homestead	253-4	The civil War Record. Bj Lut'.ici- Conant, Est	1. 2S4-7
(Hi. Winthrop E. Faulkner	255
('apt. Isaac Davis' Route to North Bridge	255	Hon. William A. Wilde
Luther Blancbard	256	The Tablet List by Julian Tuttle . . . .	280
James II ax-ward	257	The Congregational Church	200
Aimer Hosmer	257	Rev. James T. Woodbury	■'00
Mrs. Mehitable Piper	257
Rev. .1. T. Woodbury's S]>eeeli	. 357-61		20:!
Capt. Isaac Davis	261		204-5
Capt. Isaac Davis' Wife	201-2
Men of the Revolution	263	Graduates of College	200-7
The French ami Indian War	- 204
The Second Meeting' House	. 204-5		299-0
William D. Tuttle's Sketch	20(5-0	Deaths of the Oldest Persons	301
A. A. Wyman's Sketch	. 269-76	Biographical Sketches
Mrs. John Hapgood's Sketch of West Acton	27(1-1

PHILADELPHIA AND BOSTOX: .1. W. LEWIS & ('(>.. 1^00.

AN

HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

TOWN OF ACTON.

BY

REV. JAMES FLETCHER.

REPRINTED FROM THE "HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

TOWN OF ACTON.

The hope of rescuing from the wreck of oblivion some of the precious | relics of the past has been the solace of care in the preparation of this work.

Hearty thanks are here expressed and acknowledgments made to those ' who have contributed with the pen anil the memory in aid of the sketch.

William D. Turtle, Esq., the town clerk, and his son, Horace P., have rendered important assistance in gathering facts from the town records.

The historical map prepared by Horace F. Tuttle for the history, and which it was hoped could be published in the same, is a valuable acquisi- tion for future reference lis important items are given. It should be printed and doubtless will be soou. Rev. Dr. Knowlton, Rev. F. P. Wood, Rev. Mr. Heath, A. A. Wyman, Esq., Horace Hosnier and his daughter Bertha, Deacon Samuel Hosnier, Mrs. John Hapgood, Mrs. Lottie Klagg, Luther Conant, Esq., Moses Taylor, Esq.. and Luke Smith have rendered essential service in gathering up the fragments that nothing be lost.

The Centennial address of Josiah H. Adams, Esq., Shattuck's " History of Concord " and the "Colonial History " of Charles H.C. Walcott have been freely consulted in the compilation.

The history of Acton seems to the writer in the review like a romance dropped freshly from the skies. It is in reality a plain tale of persons and events which have consecrated for all time this locality.

James Fletcher.

Coloxial Period. — Acton, tweuty-four miles northwest of Boston, has on the north Littleton and Westford ; on the east Carlisle and Concord ; on the south Sudbury. Maynard and Stow ; and on the west Boxboro' and Littleton.

Acton at its incorporation, July 21, 1735, was bounded by Sudbury, Concord, Billerica, Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton and Stow, which then included Boxborough. The principal part of what is now Carlisle, then belonging to Old Concord, was set off as a part of the new town, Acton.

The Carlisle District of Acton was incorporated as a separate town in 1780; the easterly part of Old Concord was incorporated in the new town of Bed- ford in 1729 ; and the southerly part of Old Concord was incorporated in the new town of Lincoln in 1754, so that from 1754 to 1780 the township of Acton was larger than that of Concord, though much behind in wealth and population. At the time of Concord's in- corporation, in 1635, what is now the Acton territory was not a part of Concord, but was granted to Con- cord a few years after by the name of the " Concord Village," or the new grant covering nearly the pres- ent boundaries of Acton. The Willard Farms in- J eluded in the act incorporating Acton in 1735 had, previous to that act, been granted to Concord.

When Acton was made a town the statute bounded } it on the east by " Concord old Bounds,'' from which it appears, as before stated, that it includes no part of the original Concord and that the dividing line be- I

tween the two towns is a portion of the old Concord on that side.

The Acton boundary extended leads to a heap of lichen-covered boulders, surmounted by a stake.

This ancient monument is near the top of a hill in the southwesterly part of Carlisle, and undoubtedly marks the old northwest corner of Concord.

It was identified and pointed out to Chas. H. Walcott, of Concord, on the ground by Major B. F. Heald, of Carlisle, who says that he has often heard his father and other ancient men, long since deceased, speak of this bound as marking the old Concord corner.

Everything goes to corroborate this testimony. The place was commonly known by the name of " Berry Corner," and was the original northeast corner of Acton, but in 1780 (statute passed April 28, 1780) a portion of that town near this point was included in what was then constituted the District of Carlisle, and subsequently formed a part of the town of the same name (Carlisle did not acquire all the legal characteristics of a town until February 18, 1805—3 Special Laws, 497).

Thomas Wheeler and others who came to Concord about 1639, found the most convenient of the lands already given out, and in 1642 petitioned for a grant of land on the northwest, which was conceded on coudition that they improved the grant within two years. Most of the lands were granted to Concord for feeding.

They were not very accurately defined, being found upon actual survey to contain a greater number of acres than nominally specified in the grants.

A settlement was begun on these grants as early as 1656 and possibly a few years earlier. The Shepherd and Law families were among the first settlers.

Many of the meadows were open prairies affording, with little or no labor, grass in abundance.

Some of the uplands had been cleared by the In- dians and were favorite places for feeding. In those days the " new grant " was familiarly called, and with some reason, " Concord's sheep pasture."

In 1666, in pursuance of an order from the General Court, Richard Beers, of Watertown, and Thomas Noyes, of Sudbury, laid out the new grant, or Con- cord Village, as it was called, comprising the present

ACTON.

239

territory of Acton and portions of Carlisle and Lit- tleton, and made their return in the following year.

On January 12, 1669, a lease was made by Con- cord to Captain Thomas Wheeler, for the term of twenty-one years, of two hundred acres of upland and sixty acres of meadow, lying west of Nashoba Brook, in consideration of which he agreed to pay a yearly rent of £5 alter the expiration of the first seven years, and to build a house forty feet in length, eighteen feet wide and twelve feet stud, " covered with shingles, with a payer of chimnes," also a barn forty feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and twelve feet stud. These buildings were to be left at the end of the term tor the use of the town, with thirty acres of land in tillage and sufficiently fenced.

He agreed further, and this was the main pur- pose of the lease, to receive and pasture the dry cattle belonging to the town's people, not to exceed one hundred and twenty in number nor to be fewer than eighty.

The cattle were to be marked by their owners and delivered to Captain Wheeler at his house, and the price was fixed at two shillings a head, payable one- third in wheat, one-third in rye or pease, and one- third in Indian corn.

The owners were to " keep the said herd twelve Sabboth dayes yearly, at the appointment and accord- ing to the proportion by said Thomas or his heires allotted."

The number of cattle received under this agree- meut fell below the lowest limit, and, in January, 1673, the terms of the contract were so modified that Captain Wheeler was entitled to receive one shilling per head.

The town of Concord laid out a road to Thomas Wheeler's mill, the first grist-mill in Acton, located on the present site of Wetherbee's mill, as is proved by the foundations of the old mill found when dig- ging for the present mill.

The canal now used is essentially the same as then used.

The mill was tended for the most part by women. A Mrs. Joseph Barker had charge among the last.

Going up from that site to the present saw-mill we find on the east side of the dam, near the road, the abutments of what were old iron works, called at the time a forge.

Here they had a trip-hammer and other implements and conveniences for working in iron. Joseph Har- ris made the latches and the iron-work from this forge for the first meeting-house.

The ore, which was smelted with charcoal, was bog iron ore found in the vicinity, some rods southwest. The building for the storing of the charcoal was a little distance up the old road going west, beyond the old walls. The charcoal bed is easily determined by striking a spade into the ground.

The old road went south of the present saw-mill and wound around near the old wall up to the brook

at the foot of the hill, and there followed up the stream on the right side.

Captain Thomas Wheeler's house, supposed to be the first dwelling-house deserving the name, was west of the brook, not far from the wall where the old lilac bushes still stand, which belonged to hia garden plot.

The spring near the brook, now enclosed in a bar- rel, was Captain Wheeler's well. There are evidences of an old orchard opposite on the south side of the brook. The Canadian plum-trees near by are said to have come from the stones of plums which the sol- diers brought on their return from Canada in the French and Indian War.

Mrs. Joseph Barker, who tended the mill, lived at one time in Captain Wheeler's house. John Barker's house was a little to the right, on the east side of the stream, and farther west of Thomas Wheeler's house and bam .

Captain Thomas Wheeler died in 1676, from wounds received in his fight with the Indians at Brookfield. He was born a leader of men in war and peace. The narrative of the expedition of Cap- tain Edward Hutchinson, after hostilities had begun at Plymouth, written by Captain Thomas Wheeler, is the epic of Colonial times. He was so associated with the first start in the settlement and business ac- tivities of Acton, before its incorporation, that we give space to the excellent synopsis of his narrative, by Charles H. Walcott, the Colonial historian of Con- cord :

" Captain Hutchinson was commissioned by the Council at Boston to proceed to the Nipmuck coun- try, so called, in what is now Worcester County, and confer with the Indians there for the purpose of pre- venting, if possible, any extension of Philip's influ- ence in that direction.

" Captain Thomas Wheeler, of Concord, who was already advanced in years, and had commanded the western troop of horse ever since its organization, was ordered to accompany Hutchinson with an escort of twenty or twenty-five men of his company. Ac- cordingly they set out from Cambridge and arrived at Quabaug, or Brookfield, on Sunday, August 1st. Here they received information that the Indians whom they expected to meet had withdrawn to a place about ten miles distant towards the northwest. A detachment of four men was sent forward to assure them of the peaceable character of the expedition, and a meeting was agreed upon for the next morn- ing, at eight o'clock, on a plain within three miles of the town.

" There was some apprehension of treachery, but prominent citizens of Brookfield not only expressed confidence in the good intentions of the savages, but declared their own willingness to be present at the conference, and Hutchinson decided that theappoint- I ment must be kept. The Indians, however, did not I appear, and this fact, together with other suspicious

240

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

circumstances, led the sagacious Wheeler to think that to venture further would be unwise. But Hutchinson was unwilling to abandon his mission with nothing accomplished, and, in deference to his wishes, the order was given to advance towards a swamp where the savages were supposed to be lurk- ing.

" As they proceeded the narrowness of the path, with the swamp on one side and a rocky hill on the other, forced men and horses to march in single file.

"Suddenly the war-whoop resounded, and the ad- vancing column was assailed by a volley of arrows and bullets discharged from behind trees and bushes, kill- ing eight men, wounding five, and throwing the line into disorder, which was materially increased by the difficulty of turning about or passing by in the strait- ened passage-way.

" Captain Wheeler spurred his horse up the hillside, when, finding himself unhurt and perceiving that some of his men had fallen under the fire of the enemy, who were now rushing forward to finish their work, he turned about and dashed boldly forward to attack them.

" The movement separated him for a few moments from his men. A well-directed shot killed his horse and brought the old man to the ground wounded, and it would soon have been all over with the brave captain, had not his son Thomas, who was also wounded, come to his rescue.

"Quickly dismounting, he placed his father in the saddle, and ran by his side until he caught another horse that had lost his rider, and so the two escaped with their lives, but suffering severely from their wounds.

" This was merely the beginning. Hutchinson had received a wound that caused his death in a few days, and now the task of extricating the command from its perilous situation devolved upon Captain Wheeler. It was performed in masterly fashion. Keeping to the open country and avoiding the woods, they re- traced their way, with the assistance of friendly In- dian guides, to the village of Brookfield, took posses- sion of one of the largest and strongest houses, and fortified as best they could.

" They had not long to wait before the enemy ap- peared in superior numbers, and attacked the strong- hold with vigor.

" The captain's disability brought to the front Lieu- tenant Simon Davis, another Concord man, who fought and prayed with a fervor that reminds one of the soldiers of Cromwell. To him, associated with James Richardson and John Fiske, of Chelmsford, the direction of affairs was entrusted.

" Two men, dispatched to Boston for assistance, were unable to elude the vigilance of the besiegers, and were obliged to return.

" The Indians piled hay and other combustibles against the side of the house and set fire to them, thus forcing the English to expose themselves in their

efforts to extinguish the flames. Their bows shot arrows tipped with ' wild fire,' which alighted on the buildings within the enclosure and set them afire.

" To get their combustible materials close to the walls, a remarkable engine, fourteen rods long, was > constructed by the savages of poles and barrels, which | they trundled forward on its menacing errand. For three days and nights this horrible warfare continued.

"The besieged were compelled to witness the mutila- tion of their dead comrades who had fallen outside, and to endure as best they could the jeers and taunts of the foe.

"Rain came to the assistance of the little band by putting out the fires of their assailants and rendering it difficult to kindle new ones. Davis, who is said to have been of a ' lively spirit,' exhorted his men to remember that God was fighting on their side, and to take good aim before firing.

" The prayers and hymns of the soldiers, borne out on wings of fire and smoke, were answered by cries of the unregenerate heathen, who gave utterance to hid- eous groanings in imitation of the singing of psalms.

"Twice did brave Ephraim Curtis attempt to make his way through the enemy's line to go for succor. Twice was he compelled to return baffled. The third time, by great exertion and crawling for a considera- ble distance on his hands and knees, he succeeded in reaching Marlborough, where he gave the alarm, and on the evening of the 4th the garrison was overjoyed at the arrival of their old neighbor and friend, Major Willard, with a force of forty-six soldiers and five Indians, who, hearing at Marlborough of their dis- tress, had altered his course to come to their relief.

"Towards morning the Indians departed, having set fire to all the houses, except that which sheltered the whites.

"It has already been stated that Captain Wheeler was severely wounded, and his son was detained at Brookfield for several weeks by the injuries he had received.

" It is easy to believe that the Captain and the re- mainder of his troop received a hearty welcome on their return home. The town kept the 21st day ol October, 1675, as 'a day of praise and thanksgiving to God for their remarkable deliverance and safe re- turn.* It was a battle in which Concord men were foremost in the display of courage and the rarer qual- ities that constitute good leadership.

" The Indians appear to have behaved very badly from the beginning. They were guilty of an unpro- voked and treacherous assault upon a party whose purpose was one of peace and friendship. The mis- sion was an honorable one and faithfully discharged; and Wheeler and his men are deserving of praise for all time as brave soldiers who acquitted themselves nobly under the most trying circumstances."

Nathan Robbins appears to be the first owner of the land after Wheeler, and the land has passed from father to son ever since.

ACTON.

241

Acts of Incorporation. — An act to incorporate the town of Acton, passed July, 17'i-j.

" Whereas the inhabitants and proprietors of the Northwesterly part of Concord, in the County of Middlesex, culled the Village or New Grant, have represented to this court that they labor under great difficulties by reason of their remoteness from the place of public worship and therefore desire that they and their estates, together with the farms called Wlllard Farms, may beset off a distinct and separate township for which they have also obtained the consent of the town of Concord :

" Be it therefore enacted by his Excellency the Governor, Council and Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that, the said Northwesterly part of Cjncord, together with the said farms be, and hereby are set off, constituted and erected iuto a dis- tinct and separate township by the name of Acton, and agreeably to the following boundaries, namely, beginning at the Southwest corner of Concord old hounds, then Southwesterly on Sudbury and Stow line till itcoinesto Littleton line, then hounded Northerly by Littleton, West- ford and Chelmsford, then Easterly by Billerica till it comes to the Northwest corner of Concord old bounds anil by said boundi to the place first mentioned.

"And that the inhabitants of the lands before described and bounded he and hereby are vented with all the town privileges aud immunities that the inhabitants of other towns within this Province are or by law ought to be vested with.

•' Provided that the Slid inhabitants of the said town of Actou do, within three years from the publication of this Act, erect and finish a suitable house for the public worship of God and procure and settle a learned orthodox minister of good conversation aud make provision for his comfortable and honorable support."

This vicinity was called Concord Village in those days.

Here was a happy, independent, industrious com- munity, owning their lands, worshiping God in their own way and educating their children.

For seventeen years all went well, till Sir Edmund Andros appeared in Boston and tried to overthrow the charter which was served by the people as their safeguard and protection.

He prohibited town-meetings except once a year to choose officers.

Puritan flesh and blood could not stand this. Their town-meetings meant business, and now they were ordered to give them up. Taxes were laid without consulting those who were to pay them, and, worst of all, Andros declared all land titles null and void.

When the people showed their deeds from the In- dians he said he cared no more for an Indian's signa- ture than he did for the scratch of a bear's paw.

Then they pleaded what we in late days have called squatter sovereignty. But he said that no length of possession could make valid a grant from one who had no title.

Then the people rose to defend their homes and the rights of Englishmen.

On the 19th of April, 1689, the Concord Company, commanded by John Heald, the first selectman of Acton after its incorporation, marched to Boston to assist in the revolt which overthrew the Andros gov- ernment.

In this way the men of Concord and Acton ante- dated the original 19th of April, which has since be- come the red-letter day in our history.

The First Meeting-House.— We will retrace our steps by the old Brooks tavern, to the spot opposite 16

where now stands the stately school building of the Centre District.

We will have to pause a long time here before com- prehending the situation. It is the spot where stood for seventy years that old landmark of the past — the first meeting-house of the town of Acton.

If you have seen the striking picture in the pamphlet of the centennial celebration, you will have been helped to an impression of the house and its surroundings.

You must stand yourself on that hill of Ziou, for such it was to our early forefathers, and view the landscape o'er. On the south is the road that leads through the woods to the resting-place of the dead. On the east rises Annursneak Hill, hiding from view the peaceful homes of Mother Concord.

To the north of Annursneak is Strawberry Hill, whose brow strikes but eight feet below the brow of the former, having a view more commanding and more accessible. To the north and west are the delectable Hills, and towering above them all in the distance, Watatuck, Monadnock and Wachusett, old, familiar faces to every Acton boy and girl.

The building of this meeting-house is associated with the organization of Acton as a separate incor- porated town. (See act of incorporation.) The location and erection of a meeting-house soon began to agitate the people. In October of the year of incorporation it was voted not to build that year, but " to set the meeting-house in the Center." By the centre was meant the point of intersection of lines drawn to the extreme limits of the town. This decision was not satisfactory to all the inhabitants.

At a meeting holden November 10, 1735, it was pro- pounded whether the town would not reconsider their vote to have the meeting-house in the centre, and " agree to set it at some place near the center for con- venience.'' It was voted not to reconsider. It was also voted not to do anything towards building the meeting-house the ensuing year.

At a meeting on the first Monday in December the same year it was again proposed to the town to re- consider the previous action, with reference to the lo- cation. The article was dismissed. But the minority had another meeting warned for December 29th, " To see if the Town will reconsider thar vote that they will set thare meeting-house in the Center, and agree to set it on a knowl with a grate many Pines on it, Laying South Easterly about twenty or thirty Rods of a black oak tree, whare the fire was made the last meeting, or to se if the Town will agree to set thare meeting-house on a knowl the North of an oak tree whare they last met, or to see if the Town will chuse two or three men to say which of the places is most convenient, or to se if the Commity think that knowl whereon stands a dead pine between the two afore- said knowls, or to say which of the three places is most convenient."

At this meeting the location was changed to the

242

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX

COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

first "knowl" mentioned in the warrant. The site of the first meeting-house (a little to the south of where the Centre School-house now stands, near the two elms) was twenty or thirty rods southeast of the geo- graphical centre of the town, as it was before the in- corporation of Carlisle.

At the meeting which finally decided the location of the house, it was voted to begin that year and the dimensions were fixed upon.

The house was to be forty-six by thirty-eight feet in length and width and twenty feet in height.

At the next meeting (January 2, 173G) the former vote was reconsidered, and the vote was to have the house forty-six by thirty-six and " 21 feet between joynts."

Voted, " That all the inhabitants of the town should have the offer to work at giting the timber for the house by the Commity."

Voted, "That Samuel Wheeler, Jonathan Parlin, Simon Hunt, John Shepherd and Daniel Shepherd be a Commity to manage ye affair of giting the tim- ber for ye meeting-house."

Voted, " That the Commity should have six shil- lings per day for thar work, and the other Laborers five shillings per day."

Voted, " That there should be a Rate of seventy pounds made and assessed on the inhabitants of the town of Acton towards setting up the frame of the house."

May 10, 1736, it was voted " That the Selectmen should agree with Madam Cuming for ye land for ye meeting-house to stand on."

The deed of the land of the first meeting-house in Acton was dated January 25, 1737, signed by "Anne Cummings, wife of Mr. Alexander Cummings, Sur- geon, now abroad, and attorney of said Alexander Cummings, being empow-ered and authorized by him."

This deed is written in a bold, large-lettered style, and is very plain to read — as but few specimens of penmanship seen in ancient or modern times.

It is in a fine state of preservation in the keeping of the town clerk.

The style of it reminds one of John Hancock's signature to the Declaration of Independence.

September 15, 173G, the town voted "To frame and Rai.-e thar meeting-house before winter, and John Heald, Thomas Wheeler and Simon H::nt were chosen a Commity impowered to Regulate and Inspect and order ye fnming and Raising ye meeting- house in Acton and like wise to agree with Carpen- ter or carpenters to frame ye house."

At the same meeting it was decided to do nothing about preaching for the en-uing winter.

November 1, 1736, Voted, " That they would board and shingle ye roofs and board and clap-board ye aides and ends, make window frames and casements and make ye door and crown of doors and windows, put troughs round, build ye pulpit and lay ye lower '

floor, ye work to be done by ye first of November next."

May 30, 1737, Voted, "To underpin the meeting- house by working each man a day."

Those who were delinquent were required to work a day " at high ways, by order of ye surveyor, more than thare equal part other ways wood have been."

"The work of pinting the underpining was let out to Jonathan Billings for 2£ 10s., which work he engaged to do spedily and Do it Wei."

Public worship was first held in the meeting-house in January, 1738.

At the time of Mr. Swift's ordination, November, 1738, it was far from being finished.

May 15, 1745, Voted, " To raise twenty pounds, old tenor, for finishing the meeting house that year."

Not till two years after this was the house com- pleted. One should read the several dates in order to get a full impression of the slowness and difficulty of building a meeting-house in those colonial times.

There is a tradition that Lord Acton, of England, for whom the town may possibly have been named, offered a bell for the house of worship, but, having no tower, and the people feeling too poor to erect one, the present was declined.

When the house was finished (so-called), in 1747, there were no pews, except on the lower floor adjoin- ing the walls of the house, and these were but sixteen in number. The four pews which were under and over each of the gallery stairs were built at intervals some years after. Several of the pew-holders from time to time obtained leave of the town to make a new window for their own accommodation and at their own expense. Each seems to have consulted his own fancy, both as to size and location. Little windows, in this way, of different sizes and shapes, came to be placed near the corners of the building.

In the body of the house, on each side the broad aisle, were constructed what were then called the body seats, and these together with the gallery were occu- pied by all who, through poverty or otherwise, were not proprietors of a pew.

Both in the body seats and in the gallery the men were arranged on the right of the pulpit and the women on tne left, so that while the pew-holder could sit with his wife at church, all others were obliged to keep at a respectful distance.

The custom of "seating the meeting-house," as it was called, was found necessary, and was well calcu- lated to prevent confusion and to insure particularly to the aged a certain and comfortable seat.

To give the better satisfaction the committee were usually instructed to be governed by age and the amount of taxes paid for the three preceding years. In the year 1757 they were also instructed to be gov- erned by " other circumstances," at their discretion.

The report of that committee was not accepted and a new committee was chosen with the usual instruc- tions.. What the " other circumstances" were does

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not appear. But it should have been known that any circumstances which depended on the estimation and discretion of a committee would fail to give satisfac- tion in a matter of such peculiar delicacy.

The new committee, however, seem to have restored harmony, and the same practice was continued during the existence of the old meeting-house.

Special instructions were given in favor of negroes, who were to have the exclusive occupation of the " hind seat " in the gallery.

How the youthful eyes lingered on the heels of Quartus Hosmer as they disappeared in his passage up the gallery-stairs, and how eagerly they watched the re-appearance in the gallery of his snow-white eyes, made more conspicuous by the eel-skin ribbon which gathered into & queue his graceful curls!

He lived at the house then occupied by Mr. Hosmer, near the turnpike corner on the way from the Centre to the South, midway between the two villages.

In 1769 " the hind parts " of the body seats were removed and four new pews were erected in their place. They were occupied by Thomas Noyes, Daniel Brooks, Joseph Robbins and Jonathan Hosmer. In the same year the house was new covered and glazed. In 1783 four other other pews were built and another portion of the body seats was removed. Three of these were sold and the fourth was " assigned for the use of the clergyman. It was through the banis- ters of this pew " old Mother Robbins," who sat in the body seats, used to furnish the centennial orator, Josiah Adams, Esq., the son of the pastor, those marigolds, peonies, and pink roses, decorated and perfumed with pennyroyal, southernwood, and tansy. She was indeed a most interesting old lady. No other public building has existed in the town so long as this stood. It was the house in which the first minister, Mr. Swift, preached during the whole of his long ser- vice of thirty-seven years, and in which Mr. Moses Adams, the second minister, officiated during the period of thirty years.

It was used not simply for religious worship, but for town-meetings. Here the money was voted for the first public schools, here the roads were laid out, here the poor were provided for, here Acton took its munic- ipal action preliminary to the Revolutionary War, and here the first vote was passed recommending the Con- tinental Congress to put forth the Declaration of Inde- pendence. The house stood and was used for these public purposes until 1808, when it was forsaken and after a few years torn down.

It would be a novel and impressive service could the persons of the present generation be transferred just for one day and witness the scene in that old meeting-house on the " knowl." We would like to catch just one look at that venerable row of the deacons' seat. We would like to see them there, each in his turn reading the psalm, a line at a time, and tossing it up for the use of the singers in the front gallery. We would like to hear the peculiar voices of James Bil-

lings and Samuel Parlin coming back as an echo. This practice of reading a line at a time, which, doubtless, had its origin in a want of psalm-books, be- came so hallowed in the minds of many that iis dis- continuance was a work of some difficulty.

In 1790 the church voted that it should be dis- pensed with in the afternoon, and three years after- wards they voted to abandon the practice.

On the Sabbath previous to the dedication of their second meeting-house, the people of Acton came from all directions, a whole family on a horse, toward the old meeting-house, to bid farewell to the place where their fathers had worshiped. After the whole town had come, entered the church, taken their seats in the old-fashioned square pews, sungsomeof Watts' hymns, and listened to a long and fervent prayer, their beloved minister, the Rev. Moses Adams, eloquently discoursed from the following text (Micah 2 : 10) : " Arise and let us depart, for this is not our rest." "Let us sing in his praise," the minister said. All the psalm-books at once fluttered open at " York."

A sprig of green caraway carries me there to tbe old village church and the old village choir.

" To the land of the leal they have gone with their song, Where the choir and the chorus together belong, Oh ! be lifted ye gates ! let me hear them again, Blessed song: blessed Sabbath. Forever. Amen."

Rev. John Swift, the First Pastor. — We come to the fine mansion now owned and occupied by Dea- con William W.Davis. Since its recent improvements it has become an important addition to the structural adornment of the Centre. It is near enough to the main avenue of the village to be easily seen, and, with its elevated front and majestic elm towering above the whole, it makes a fine perspective view on approach- ing the town from either road.

Mr. Eliab Grimes, who formerly occupied the place, was a successful farmer who tilled the land in the warm months of the year, and taught the schools in the winter, and had important trusts of service from the town as selectman and representative. Joash Keyes, David Barnard, Esq., in 1800; Deacon Josiah Noyes, in 1780 ; and Rev. John Swift, in 1740. One dwelling-house on this site was burned. Here is where Mr. Swift, the first pastor of Acton, for so long a period lived. Here we must pause long enough to get affiliated to the historical atmosphere, which seems to pervade the whole region around.

At a meeting of the town October 4, 1737, while the first meeting-house was being built, a committee was selected to supply the pulpit. The meetings were to begin the first Sunday in January. At a meeting on January 25, 1738, it was voted "to raise thirty pounds to glaze ye meeting-house, to raise fifty pounds to support preaching, and Joseph Fletcher should be paid for a cushing for ye pulpit out of the tax money." In the warrant for a meeting holden on March 28th was this article : " To se if ye town will appint a day for fasting and prayer to God, with

244

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX

COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the advice and assistance of sum of ye Neighboring Ministers for further directions, for the establishing ye gospel among them, as, allso, who and how many thay will advise with, as, allso, to chose a commett to mannig ye affare and provide for ye Pulpit for ye time to come."

Voted "to appint ye last Thursday of March for fasting and prayer."

Voted "that thay will call in five of ye Neighboring Ministers for advice in calling a Minister, viz. : Mr. Lorin, of Sudbury; Mr. Cook, East Sudbury; Mr. Gardner, of Stow; Mr. Peabody, of Natick ; and Mr. Rogers, of Littleton. Also, voted ye Selectmen be a Committ to Mannig ye affare, and provide for ye pulpit for ye iutur.'' At this meeting John Cragin was appointed to take care of the meeting-house, and thus he became Acton's first sexton.

May 9, 1738, the town invited Mr. John Swift, of Framingham, to settle with them as minister. It was voted to give him £250 as a settlement, and an annual salary of £150, to be paid in semi-annual in- stalments in Massachusetts bills, which at the time was equivalent to about £117 settlement, and £70 salary. The contracting committee were John Heald, Samuel Wheeler, John Brooks, Amtniruham- mah Faulkner, Simon Hunt and Joseph Fletcher. The salary offered was to rise or fall with the price of the principal necessaries of life. In the year 1754, the following list of articles considered as principally necessary for consumption in a minister's family were reported by a town's committee, with the cur- rent prices in 1735 annexed, and were adopted as a basis for regulating the amount of Mr. Swi't's salary.

The signatures of the parties on the record show their entire satisfaction.

" 30 b. Corn, at 6s.; 20 b. Rye, at 10s.; 500 lb. Pork, at 8d.; 300 lb. Beef, at 5rf. ; 25 lb. wool, at 3s. 6d.; 15 lb. Cotton, at 4s. 6d. ; 50 lb. Flax, at Is. 3d. ; 56 lb. S Jgar, at Is. 4c/. ; 20 gals. Rum, at 8s. ; 80 lb. Butter, at Is. 4d. ; 2 Hats, at £3 ; 10 pr. shoes, at 15s."

The contract and agreement between Rev. John Swift and the town of Acton is here copied as an in- structive chapter on the times:

" Whore-as the Town of Acton at a Town Meeting Duly warned May 10th, 1738, did invite ye Rev. John Swift into ye work of ye ministry among them, and did all so pass a vote to give him two hundred and fifty Pounds towards a settlement, and a hundred and fifty Pounds Sal- lary yearly and since, at a town meeting Octoher ye 10th, 1738, did vote that said Sallary should he kept up to ye value of it and paid in every half years End yearly, and did also chuse John Heald, Joseph Fle:cher, John Brooks, Samuel Wheeler and Simon Hunt as a Com- mitt to contract with the Said Mr. Swift about ye said Sallary, the contract and agreement between said Mr. Swift and said Committ is as follows :

" I". That said sallary shall be paid According to ye ould tenure of the Massachusetts Bills or in an equivalency of such hills of pr. cent or lawful CUITeDCJ as shall pass from time to time.

'•2d. That the value of said sallary be kept up from time to time ac- cording as when it was voted on May afore according to ye prise of the necessary provisions of life.

"3d. That the payment of said sallary continue so long as said Mr. Swift shall continue in ye work of ye ministry in said Acton and Id witness her of said Mr. Swift and said CVimmitte have here-

unto set their hands this 30t>> day of October A. D., 1738. John Swift, John Heald, Joseph Fletcher, Amine Faulkner, Simon Hunt, John Brooks.

"Ordered on this book of Records,

"Attest Simon Hunt, Town Clerk."

The contract was faithfully kept by the people of Acton, and the pastorate of Mr. Swift continued till his death, November 7, 1775, thirty-seven yearb lack- ing one day, at the age of sixty- two years.

The small-pox prevailed as an epidemic in Acton that year. Mr. Swift took the disease and never afterwards was able to preach.

Mr. Swift was ordained on the 8th day of Novem- ber, 1738. No particulars of the ordination can be gathered either from the town or church records, ex- cept that " the Council had entertainment at the house of Mr. Joseph Fletcher."

Mr. Swift was the only son of the Rev. John Swift, of Framingham. He was born in Framingham, in 1713 ; graduated at Cambridge in 1733, and at the time of his ordination was twenty-five years of age. He was little above the common height, rather slender, his manners and address agreeable and pleasant. He was somewhat economical in the man- agement of his affairs, but kind to the poor and a good neighbor. He was opposed to excess and ex- travagance of every kind and to promote peace and good feeling was his constant care. He had some ■singularities of character, but led an exemplary life, and retained the affections and respect of his people through a ministry of thirty-seven years. His preach- ing was practical, plain and serious, though it is said he had occasionally some unusual expressions in the pulpit Which were rather amusing.

As was the custom of many clergymen of his day, he used to receive lads into his family for instruction in the studies preparatory to college. In one year five young men were presented by him at Cambridge, and all passed the examination and were admitted. There are a few scraps in his handwriting which ap- pear to discover considerable ease in the use of the Latin language, and in his church records there are many similar instances, but they are so attended with abbreviations and characters that it is not always easy to discover their import. Some extracts from his church records are given. The volume is a very small one. It begins without caption or heading, and there is nothing to indicate what the contents are to be.

The first entry is in the following words: "Nov. 8, 1738. I was ordained pastor of the church in Acton." He speaks of himself in the same manntr in all parts of the record.

Under date of June 14, 1739, is the following record, " It being lecture day, after the blessing was pronounced I desired the church to tarry, and asked their minds concerning the remainder of the elements after communion and they voted ' I should have 'em.' "

"Sept. 11, 1744. I made a speech to the church thus: 'Brethren, I doubt not but you have taken

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notice of the long absence of brother Mark White, Jr., from the ordinances of God in this place. If you request it of him to give us the reasons of his absence some time hence, I desire you would manifest it by an uplifted hand. Whereupon there was an affirma- tive vote.' June 7, 1749 notations of sacraments ceased here, because I recorded them in my almanac interlineary."

The book is a curious intermixture of Latin and English accounts of admissions to the church, bap- tisms, administrations of the Supper and dealings with delinquents, and it is evident that Mr. Swift had little more in view than brief memoranda for his own use. He writes: "I regret that I did not at the be- ginning of my ministry procure a larger book, and keep a more particular and extensive record. I hope my successor will profit by this hint." Rev. Mr. Swift lived to see the opening of the Revolutionary War. His preaching, prayers and influence at the time doubtless helped in the preliminaries of that eventful struggle.

Thomas Thorp, in his deposition given in 1835 to the selectmen and committee of the town, says : "On the morning of the 19th cf April, 1775, I had notice that the regulars were coming to Concord. I took my equipments and proceeded toCapt. Davis's house. I passed the house of Rev. Mr. Swift. His son, Doc- tor John Swift, made me a present of a cartridge box, as he saw I had none. I well remember there was on the outside a piece of red cloth in the shape of a heart."

On that memorable morning Capt. Davis marched his company by Mr. Swift's house to the music of fife and drum. The blood in the pastor's veins quick- ened at the sight and sound, and he waved his ben- edictions over the heroic company as they passed on to the scene of action. He helped to sustain the widow in her first shock as Davis came lifeless to a home he had left but a few hours before, strong and vigorous. Mr. Swift did not see the end, only the be- ginning of the struggle.

In November of the same year a funeral cortege was seen wending its way to the old cemetery in Acton. They were following the remains of their first pastor. A mound and a simple marble slab mark his grave. Four pine trees of stately growth sing their requiem over his precious dust as the years come and go. All honor to the dear memory of him who laid the foundation stones of this goodly church of Acton, and did so much to form the peaceful, frugal character of its inhabitants.

" Honor and blessings on his head While living — good report when dead.'

We do not easily part from a spot so suggestive of the stirring events, parochial, ministerial, civil and military, which centralized in the early days of Acton, on these very acres. We will leave the home- stead in the care of Deacon Davis, who has spent the

best energies of his life in improving and adorning the premises, and whose sympathies are in full accord with all the memories of the past and with all the prospects of the future.

Music in the First Church. — In 1785 the singers were directed, for the first time to sit together in the gallery.

In 1793 the practice of performing sacred music by reading the line of the hymn as sung was discon- tinued. A church Bible was presented in 1806 by Deacon John White, of Concord.

In the church records, as far back as March 23, 1797, is found the following vote : 1st. " It is the desire of the church that singing should be performed as a part of public worship in the church and congre- gation.

" 2d. It is the desire of the church that the select- men insert an article in the warrant for the next May meeting to see if the town will raise a sum of money to support a singing-school in the town and that the pastor apply to the selectmen in the name of the church for that purpose.

"3d. Voted to choose five persons to lead the sing- ing in the future.

"4th. Voted to choose a committee of three to nom- inate five persons for singers."

Deacon Joseph Brabrook, Deacon Simon Hunt and Thomas Noyes were chosen this committee. They nominated Winthrop Faulkner, Nathaniel Edwards, Jr., Simon Hosmer, Josiah Noyes and Paul Brooks, and these persons were chosen, by vote, to lead the singing in the future.

Voted, " It is the desire of the church that the singers use a Bass Viol in the public worship, if it be agree- able to them.

Voted, " It is the desire of the church that all per- sons who are qualified would assist the singing in the public worship."

Deacon Simon Hosmer played for thirty years.

Deacons in the First Church. — Joseph Fletch- er, chosen December 15, 1738, died September 11, 1746, aged 61 ; John Heald, chosen December 15, 1738, died May 16, 1775, aged 82; Jonathan Hosmer, died 1775, aged 64; John Brooks, died March 6, 1777, aged 76 ; Samuel Hayward, chosen September 29, 1775, died March 6, 1795, aged 78; Francis Faulkner, chosen September 29, 1775, died August 5, 1805, aged 78; Joseph Brabrook, chosen Septem- ber 29, 1775, died April 28, 1812, aged 73 ; Simon Hunt, chosen April 19, 1792, died April 27, 1820, aged 86; Josiah Noyes, chosen March 27, 1806, dismissed and removed to Westmoreland, N. H., October 16, 1808 ; Benjamin Hayward, chosen March 27, 1806, excused June 15, 1821 ; John Wheeler, chosen April 18, 1811, died December 17, 1824, aged 64 ; John White, chosen April 18, 1811, died April 3, 1824, aged 54; Phineas Wheeler, chosen June 15, 1821, died in 1838, aged 65; Daniel F. Barker, chosen June 15, 1821, died in 1840; Silas Hosmer, chosen June 15, 1821.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Woodlawn Cemetery. — This is now a very old and extensive burying-grouad, pleasantly located, with a slight natural grade descending from the north to the south — the new portion towards East Acton being level and of light, dry soil adapted to burying purposes. It has two pumps, a hearse-hou»e and re- ceiving-tomb, and a beautilul pine grove shielding from the summer's sun where public services can be held. Many ornamental monuments and slabs have been erected in later yeara.

The original deed to the town for the opening of Woodlawn Cemetery was given by Nathan Robbins January 16, 1737, and contained one-half an acre. The second deed was given by Joseph Robbins De- cember 11, 1769, a small tract adjoining southeast corner. The third deed was dated November 2, 1812 ^ the fourth deed was dated January 1, 1844; the fifth deed was dated August 22, 1862. The present area (1890) is between eleven and twelve acres. The old- est date noticed upon any of the slabs is 1743.

In earlier times slabs were not erected — a simple stone marking the place of burial. Many have been buried here whose graves have no outward token of their locality. A recent careful count of the graves in this cemetery makes the number 1671, showing that here lie the remains of a population nearly if not quite equal to those above ground on the present limits of the town. The location is about midway between East Acton and the Centre, and easily reached by good roads leading from all the villages and the other portions of the town.

Within the memory of some now living, before the new road from the Centre was laid out and the only passage was by the present site of Mr. Moorhoiiae, winding through a continuous line of woods, growing darker till the gurgling waters of Rocky Guzzle were heard just as the grave-stones struck the eye, it re- quired more nerve than most boys and girls had in those more superstitious times to travel that way alone in the night or even in day-tune. The hair would stand on end in spite of one's self as one reached the sombre retreat. Few were brave enough to pass that way to mill unattended unless necessity or the calls of love impelled.

With the more cheery aspect of the thoroughfares in later years and with the mind cleared of the ghoat, stories, which, if heard, are discredited on the spot and expelled at once from the memory, one can travel that way and sing or whistle as he goes by, conscious of none but helpful companionship.

A few epitaphs on the tornb-stones are here given, which may be of interest. The oldest slabs of unique design have at the top the Latin words Memento mori, which means, remember that you must die.

Erected in memory of 31 r. Josinli Hayward, who departed this life May 6, 1783, aged TO.

He was a gentleman of worth and integrity, lived much respected for hie private, social and public virtues; sustained divers civil ofhYes with houor to hiuiielf and benefit to the eouiuiunily aud pn r'icnlm ly that of

u representative for this town in the General Assembly, where he showed himself a warm friend of his country.

His memory is precious with the friends of virtue, religion and man- kind.

He had life in his imagination and a good judgment, was a humble, patient Christian, ever ready to do good when he saw an opportunity. Whoever you be that see my hearse, Take notice of and learn this verse, For by it you may understand, You have nut time at your command. Bless.d are the dead that die In the Lord from henceforth, yea, sail!) the Spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them.

On the marble slab at the tomb of Rev. John Swift :

Rev. John Swift died November7, 1775, aged 62 years.

He was ordained as the first pastor of the Congregational Church of Acton, November 8, 1738, and continued in this relation until death. He was a plain, practical and serious preacher aud a faithful minister.

Memento Mori.

In memory of Major Daniel Fletcher, who departed this life Decem- ber 15, 1776, in the 69* year of his age.

'Tis dangers great he has gone through From enemies' hands his God him drew When fighting foi that noble cause, His country and its famous laws. But now we trust to rest has gone Where wars and fightings there is none. Here lies buried the body of Deacon Joseph Fletcher, who departed this life September 11, 1746, in the 61" yar of his age.

Memento Mori.

This stone Is erected to preserve the remembrance of Deacon Samuel Hay ward, anil to remind the living that they mut>t follow him. He died March 6, 1791, aged 78.

For many years he commanded the militia in this town. He was a kind husband and father, neighbor and a lover of his conutry, of good men, of religion and of the poor. The memory of such a man is blessed.

Erected in memory of Captain Stevens May ward, who died October 6, 1817.

In memory of Deacon John White, who died April 3, 1821, in his

53d year.

Erected in memory of James Fletcher, who died December 9, 1815, aged 57, whose death was caused by the falling of a tree. The rising morning don't assure,

That we shall end the day, For death stands ready at the door, To snatch our lives away.

The following inscription is upon a large siab mounted in a horizontal portion :

Sacred to the memory of Rev. Moses Adams, who was born in Franiing- hain, October 16, 1749, graduated at Cambridge in 1771 ; w as ordained in 1777, minister of the Church and congregation of Acton, and continued such till October 13, 1819, when he died on the 16*, which was the 7U"1 anniversary of his birth.

His remains were placed beneath this etoue. In his person he was dignified and modest, in his intellect vigorous and sound, in his heart benevolent and devout. His preaching was plain and practical, and his example added greatly to his power. The Scriptures were his study and delight, and while he exercised the protestant right of expounding them for himself, his candor toward the bincere who differed from him was in the spirit of the Gospel.

The good beiug whom he loved with supreme devotion was pleased to grant him many years of prosperity and gladness, and to add not a few of affliction and sorrow.

The first he enjoyed with moderation and gratitude, and in the last he exhibited the power of religion to sustain the practical Christian.

To his people and his family he was ardently attached and spent his life in exertions and prayers for their w elfare, and they have placed this inscription to testify their reverence f,.r his ctiarai ter and their love for his memory.

We cannot mourn the venerable shade whom angels led in triumph to the skie" while following sorrow halted at the toinb.

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Tiie North Acton Cemetery. — Its location is between three and four miles from Acton Centre, on the road to Carlisle on the left hand. It is a very old burying-ground of small area and contains about 100 graves.

A few of the epitaphs are given :

Sabred to the memory of Captain Samuel Davis, who died July 4th, 1800, aged 89.

Retire my friends,

Dry up your tears, Here I must lie Till Christ appears.

In memory of Davis, who died September 16, 181), aged 72.

Beneath this stone

Death's prisoner lyes, The stone shall move,

The prisoner rise, When Jesus with Almighty word,

Calls his dead saints To meet the Lord.

Mememto Mori.

Here lies buried the body of Deacon John Heald, who departed this life May 1G, 1775, in the 824 year of his ago. Ilis wife Mary died Sep- tember 1, 1758, aged 61.

Mount Hope Cemetery, West Acton. — The West Acton Cemetery is gracefully located on elevated dry ground*on the southern border of the village to the right as one pa-ses from West to South Acton. It was opeoed in 1848. It is regularly laid out; has a new receiving tomb and many modern slabs and sev- eral costly monuments of artistic design. It contains 271 graves and will have an increasing interest as the years go by.

The Brooks Tavern. — Many now living can recall the gambrel roof two-story house at the foot of the hill, near where Mr. Moorhouse now lives, owned and occupied for many years by Mr. Nathaniel Stearns, the father of Mrs. Moses Taylor.

In the earlier days, before the present avenue and village at the Centre had been laid out, it stood as a conspicuous centre-figure facing the old meeting- house on the knoll, near where the school-house now stands.

The space between these two buildings was the Acton Common of ye olden time. Here were the military drills. Here were the town-meeting gather- ings. This Stearns house was the hotel of the sur- rounding districts, and was known as the " Brocks Tavern," from Daniel Brooks, who occupied it in 1762, and Paul Brooks afterwards.

When the new meeting-house of 1807 was raised it was necessary to send to Boston to engage sailors ac- customed to climb the perilous heights of a sea-faring life. They assisted in raising and locating the frame of the steeple. After the deed was accomplished they celebrated the exploit in feasting and dancing at the " Brooks Tavern."

Could ihe walls of this tavern be put upon the stand, and could they report all they have seen and heard in the line of local history, we would have a chapter which would thrill us with its heroic, humor- ous and tragic details.

The Fletcher Homestead. — As we leave this enchanted spot we notice the old stepping-stone of the meeting-house which Mason Robbins has erected in the wall at the right, and inscribed upon its broad face the memorial tablet of the bygone days. As we reach the house now owned and occupied by Mrs. Jonathan Loker, we see a lane to the left leading into the vacant pasture and orchard.

Pass into that lane for a few rod3, and we reach the marks of an old cellar on the left. Here stood for many years, frcm 1794 on, the Fletcher home- stead, where James Fletcher, the father of Deacon John Fletcher, and his brother James and Betsey, the sister, lived during childhood up to the years of maturity. A few feet from this ancient cellar-hole to the west is the site of the first Fletcher russet apple- tree. Childhood's memories easily recall the ancient unpaiuted cottage, the quaint old chimney with the brick-oven on the side, and the fire-place large enough for the burning of logs of size and length, and in front to the southeast a vegetable garden un- matched at the time for its culture and richness, and a large chestnut-tree to the south, planted by Deacon John, in early life.

The farm and homestead of Potter Conant, where Herbert Robbins now lives, on the cross-road, near Mr. Thomas Hammond's, was originally owned and occupied by James Fletcher, the father of Deacon John, and the birth-place of the latter. It was sold in exchange to Potter Conant, when Deacon John was four years old.

Thomas Smith, the father of Solomon Smith, died here in 1758. Solomon Smith, who was at the Con- cord fight, lived here at the time. His son, Luke Smith, was at Baltimore with his knapsack and gun, when the rioters mobbed the old Sixth on the 19th of April, 1861. Silas Conant lived here later. Betsey married a Mr. Shattuck, who moved to Landaff, N. H.. and was the mother of Lydia Shattuck, the noted teacher at Mount Holyoke College. For forty-one years she was connected with the institution, as a pupil in the fall of 1848, and of late years has been the only in-tructor who bad studied under Mary Lyon. She began to teach immediately after gradu- ation. She made a specialty of natural history studies and was an enthusiastic botanist. She was associated with Professor Agassiz and Guyot in founding the Anderson School on Penikese Island, and was largely instrumental in awakening the interest which led to the founding of Williston Hall at South Hadley. Last summer she was made professor emeritus and granted a permanent home at the college. She died at the college November 2, 1889, aged sixty-seven years and five months.

The Skinner House. — This structure, of which the artist has given a genuine and beautiful sketch, is located in the southeast corner of Acton. Its stands on rising ground, just off the main road, facing a striking landscape towards the west, which includes

218

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSE'ITS.

the Assabet River, with Its picturesque scenery of banks, foliage and bridge. The artist stood with this view all in his rear, with what is embraced in the sketch in front. The house was built in 1801, by Mr. Simeon Hayward, the father of Mrs. Skinner. It was at the time one of the most costly and tasteful residences in the whole town and held that rank for years. Even at this late date it will stand criticism with many dwelling-houses more modern and expen- sive.

That majestic elm which towers above the house on the right is a hundred years old, and is a fair spe- cimen of its cotemporaries distributed in all parts of the town. Without them Acton would be shorn of its distinguishing beauty. To the left is the carriage- house and in the background the barn.

This house took the place of the old one which stood just in the rear of this when Mrs. Skinner was born, August 14, 1796. Her grandfather, Josiah Hay- ward, moved on to this site in 1737, and had promi- nence in the early history of the town. He and his wife were allowed a seat in the first meeting-house in 1737, which was considered at the time a marked compliment to their intelligence and rank. On the south and east sides of the house are many thick trees to prevent accident in case of explosion at the powder-mills which are built a short distance away on the banks of the Assabet River.

Do not pause too long on the outskirts of this de- lightful homestead. A knock at the door will give you a welcome within. Here lives tbe oldest person in town, — Mrs. Mary Skinner. On meeting her, she takes you by the hand with a genial welcoming ex- pression of the face which puts you at ease and makes you glad that you came. *

One needs not the painted miniature done on ivory when she was twenty-one years old to assure the beauty of her youth. There are in her aged coun- tenance no doubtful traces of that ear.y charm, which made her a most attractive maiden. This in- teresting old lady never tires in tellicg of the frolics and festivities of her girlhood day*, and the doings of the beaux and belles.

The young people for miles around used to meet at the wayside inn, where many a grand ball and party was given in honor of the loveiy Jerusha Howe, the beauty of the town of Sudbury. Mrs. Skinner went to the dancing-school when eight years old.

Do not miss the kind offer of Miss Dole, the faith- ful attendant for years of the venerable Mrs. Skin- ner, to visit the spare parlois. Here, one may fairly revel among the old-fashioned portraits, curious- shaped dishes and antique furniture. In a corner of the parlor is a tiny piano of rosewood, with gilded finishing and ornaments made eighty years ago. It still has the clear sweet tone of ye olden time. Un- derneath the key-board are three drawers to hold music, each with little gilded knobs. There is some

exquite music-copying which Mrs. Skinner d d years ago. Also many pictures which she painted ; but the most interesting of all are the white satin .-hoes which she wore when she was married. On a little printed slip neatly pasted inside of one of them the maker's name is given, mentioning that he kept a variety store, and also that at his establishment cus- tomers could have "rips mended gratis."

At the age of twenty-eight she married and re- moved to Andover, Mass., where her husband, Mr. Henry Skinner, was in business. She lived there about four years, but after the death of her husband and two children, who died within eleven days of each other, she returned to her home, which she left as a bride, and here she has lived ever since. At the age of sixty-four she found it necessary to wear glasses, but only for a short time, and now has re- markable eye-sight. She keeps well informed through tbe daily papers, and sits up until a late hour to have the news read to her.

All her near relatives are dead. Her father, Simeon Hayward, died June 5, 1803, when she was seven years old. Her son, Henry Skinner, born two months after the decease of her husband, graduated from Harvard College before he was eighteen years old, in 1846 — a civil engineer — died February 18, 1867. Her sister Betsey, who lived in ihe same house with her, with her husband, Rev. Samuel Adams, have both been dead for years. Betsey, when a young maiden, by the election of the ladies of Acton, presented to the Davis Blues an elegant standard and bugle. The address on that occasion was marked with st-ntiment and culture. It closes in these words, — "Should ever our invaded country call you to the onset you will unfurl your banner and remem- ber that he whose name it bears sealed his patriotism with his blood."

Her attendant for years says Mrs. Skinner has a most lovely disposition. You allude to the many changes and trials her of life, and she says, " My life has been a favored one." She never speaks an unkind word, is never out of patience with persons or things. No matter what happens, it is always right — all right. She has been kind to so many. No one knows how many she has helped. No matter who comes with a subscription paper she listens patiently and givts cheerfully. When subscribing to bear the expense of her husband's portrait and of the sketch of her historic homestead, she said, " I may not be alive when the picture is taken, but :t may do some one some good."

In sickness her aim seems to be to relieve the care of attendance. Only yesterday she quoted the re- mark: Every person has three characters: 1. The one which their neighbors give. 2. The one which they themselves give. 3. The one which they really are. They all seem to be blended in one in Mrs. Skinner.

Mrs. Skinner has been for the larger portion of her

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life a consistent member and liberal patron of the Acton Church. She gave the pulpit to the new meet- ing-house. Sitting in her cosy room, with its quaint ornaments and substantial furnishings, her white hands resting on her lap, she is a never-to-be-forgot- ten picture of serene, happy old age, while all about her there appears a peace above all earthly dignities — a still and quiet conscience.

The Old Parsonage. — Town Records, January, 1780 :

" Voted, that the select man appoint a town-meeting Tuesday, Jan. '25th, 1780, at one o'clock p.m., to see if the town will raise a sum of money to make good that part of the Rev. Moses Adams' settlement that is to he laid out in building him a dwelling-house1 and pass any other votes that may he thought proper when met Relating to settlement or the pay of the workers that have Don Labour on said house.

" Acton, Jan. 31, 1780."

The town being met according to adjournment by reason of the severity of the weather adjourned the meeting to the house of Caroline" Brooks, in order to do the business, and proceeded as follows : On the second article it was voted "to allow the artificers that worked at Rev. Mr. Adams' house 15 dollars per day and ten Dollars for common Labour, 24s. per mile for carting."

" Voted, three thousand Pounds to make good the one Hundred Pound of Rev. Mr. Adams' settlement.

" Voted, three Thousand five hundred and sixty to Pounds to the Rev. Mr. Adams for his sallary this present year."

These figures show the depreciation of the currency during the Revolutionary period.

We proceed in our historic ramble, reluctant to part from the ancient " Knowl " where stood the First Church of Acton for threescore years and ten.

We drift on this tidal-wave of past reminiscences, and the drift takes us at once down the road a few rods to the northwest, where sits to-day so grace- fully the old parsonage of our fathers and grand- fathers and mothers and grandmothers of ye olden time. It faces tjie gentle slope in front to the south- east, looking towards the Hill of Zion on the " Knowl " and ye old Acton Common and the Brooks Tavern just beyond, now all gone to rest. It is a quaint old mansion, with a stately elm standing over it i;i all the majesty of years. The structure was built five years after the Concord Fight, 1780.

The side of the house faces the street and is three stories. \U front, built on a hillside, is half three and the other half two stories. A long flight of steps leads up to a large portico, which makes the front entrance overlooking the green fields and orchards just beyond. The chimney rises in the centre of the roof some three feet high and six feet wide. Its four flues answer all household purposes. The lilac bushes and the yellow lily bed on the roadside, just outside the wall, are still flourishing as in the earliest recollec- tion of the oldest persons now living.

Moses Taylor, Esq., has done a great service to the future public by purchasing this estate and restoring the faded tints of early days — green blinds, light yel- low, the main color of the house, with white trim-

mings. It is now presentable to the eye of the anti- quarian, and even to the modern critic.

When laying out the new sidewalk leading up to the village, Mr. Taylor said : "Spare the lilac bushes and lily-bed. They shall remain for old memory's sake. I used to go by these loved relics in school- day times, and they are to me now even dearer and sweeter than when a boy."

Mrs. Adams, the wife of Rev. Moses Adams, the second minister, a very energetic lady and a notable housekeeper, kept store in the basement story. Keep- ing store, added to her maternal duties, as the mother of three sons and three daughters, house-work, spin- ning, weaving, knitting and cheese-making, to say nothing of parish duties, must have made for her a busy life, and this part of the house at least must have been a lively centre for the earthly activities of the parsonage. The upper part of the house was the scene of the pastor's private study, and contained rooms neatly furnished for those times and ever ready to receive guests from abroad.

Rev. Moses Adams, the first pastor occupying this house, had been selected with great care. In May, 1776, the town chose a committee to take advice of the president of the college and the neighboring ministers and to engage four candidates to preach four Sabbaths each in succession. One of the four was Moses Adams. He, like his predecessor, Rev. Mr. Swift, was a native of Framingham. He was born October 16, 1749, and graduated at Cambridge, 1771. On the 29th of August, 1776, it was voted "to hear Mr. Moses Adams eight Sabbaths longer on probation," and on the 20th of December " to hear Mr. Moses Adams four Sabbaths longer than isagretd for."

In the mean time the church had appointed the 2d day of January for a fast, and had invited the neighboring ministers to attend on the occasion. On the 8th day of January they made choice of Mr. Adams to take the oversight and charge of the church. The choice was confirmed by the town on the 15th of the same month. At an adjournment of that meeting, on the 17th of March, an offer was made of £200 settlement and £80 salary in lawful money, according 6s. 8d. per ounce. It was also voted to pro- vide him with fire-wood the first year after his settle- ment. The invitation was accepted, and Mr. Adams was ordained on the 25th day of June, 1777, then in his twenty-eighth year.

He was the only child of respectable but humble parents. By the death of both parents he became an orphan at the age of seven years. The property left him was sufficient, wiili economy, to defray the ex- pense of a public education. The first years of his ministry were attended with considerable pecuniary embarrassment, for, although precaution was taken to make the salary payable in silver, yet the value of that compared with the necessaries of life very con- siderably decreased. . -

230

The promptness and spirit with which the people of Acton met the calls of the Government for the support of the war rendered them less able to pay their minister. His settlement had been relied on to meet the expenses of building a house, which a young and increasing family made a matter of necessity. The settlement was not wholly paid for several years. The subject was agitated at two meetings in 1781, and in February, 1782, the selectmen were directed to pay the remaining balance.

In 1783 Mr. Adams, in a communication which is recorded, made a statement of £123, which he con- sidered his due for balances unpaid of his three first years' salary, accompanied by an offer to deduct £43 if the remainder should be paid or put on interest. It is not certain whether this was a legal or merely an equitable claim, but the town promptly acceded to the proposal. In justice to the town it should be observed that so far as it regards their pecuniary dealings with their two first ministers a liberality and sense of justice is manifest, with few exceptions, from the beginning to the end of the records. There were other negotiations in regard to the salary. It was all, however, in perfect good feeling and in accordance with the respect and affection which existed between Mr. Adams and his people through the whole period of his long ministry of forty-two years.

He died on the 13th of October, 1819, and was bur- ied on the 16th, which was the seventieth anniversary of his death. -i->/ r ^

In consequence of his request in writing — which was found after his decease — no sermon was delivered at Lis funeral. To anticipate the silent tear was more to him than the voice of praise. He had days of pros- perity and he knew how to enjoy them. He witness- ed seasons of sorrow and bore them with rare equa- nimity. In public duties,, in social intercourse, in the schools, in the transactions of private life, he carried himself with a genial but serene self-poise commanding universal confidence, veneiation and love.

The house where such a man lived and died, whose walls witnessed the mental struggles of his closet and study, the composition of his four thousand sermons, the training and education of his children, and of those from abroad, fitting for college under his care, is a hallowed retreat calling for a tender appreciation by all who shall hereafter gaze upon this memorial structure. The following items have been copied from the town records, in regard to his children. Moses, son of Moses and Abigail Adams, born Novem- ber 28, 1777; Mabby, daughter, born January 21, 1780 ; Josiah, born November 3, 1781 ; Joseph, born Septem- ber 25, 1783 ; Clarissa, born July 13, 1785.

We must not leave the site too hastily ; still another chapter of records opens upon our vision right here and now.

The pulpit was constantly supplied by the town during the last sickness of Mr. Adams, and after his

decease. In the next month a committee was chosen to procure a candidate. They engnged Mr. Marshall Shedd, who was graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, and was then a member of the Rev. Mr. Greenough's church in Newton, Massachusetts, which wa3 his native town^CCL-mW l^lge A 1*7. 9 . 1 7 * ^ .

On the 20th of February, 1820, Mr. Shedd was unanimously invited by the church to become their pastor, and on the 13th of March the town unani- mously voted to give him a call. Five hundred dol- lars was offered as a settlement, which was increased by subscription and the salary was fixed at six hun- dred dollars, with fifteen cords of wood. In case of permanent inability the salary was to be reduced to two hundred dollars. This liberal offer was accepted, and on the 10th of May Mr. Shedd was ordained pastor of the church and minister of the congrega- tion in Acton. •

The ordaining council consisted of Mr. Willard, of Boxborough ; Mr. Newell, of Stow ; Mr. Greenough, of Newton; Mr. Litchfield, of Carlisle; Dr. Ripley, of Concord ; Dr. Homer, of Newton ; Mr. Foster, of Littleton ; Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge; Mr. B'ake, of Westford ; Dr. Pierce, of Brookline ; Mr. Noyes, of Needham ; Mr. Hulbert, of Sudbury, with delegates from their respective churches. Such a combination of religious opinions in an ordaining council obtained by a unanimous vote of both church and congrega- tion was very remarkable at that period, and dis- covers a liberality of Christian feeling which is worthy of all imitation.

Mr. Shedd was a pious, peaceable and exemplary minister, with more than ordinary talents and indus- trious in the discharge of duty. It was a time of great religious conflict. The heat of controversy became intense in all this vicinity of towns, resulting in the division of churches and congregations.

Parochial difficulties multiplied in all directions. Acton began to feel the irritations of the epoch. Mr. Shedd labored to harmonize the colliding elements, but the lines of divergence were too sharply drawn, and he bowed to the inevitable and gracefully retired.

Providence opened to him, as he thought, a more hopeful field for himself and family in what was then the new settlements in Northern New York, he decid- ed to enter it, and in May, 1831, the corporation, which was now called a parish, concurred with the church in granting Mr. Shedd's request that his connection might be dissolved, and in thesame month that agree- ment was confirmed by an ecclesiastical council.

Mr. Shedd came to Acton a married man, his companion having been born in Newton, like himself a Mi>s Eliza Thayer, daughter of Obadiah Thayer. He resided with Mr. Shedd in Acton at the parsonage.

He is still remembered by some of the oldest in- habitants of Acton as a man of great excellence of character, a rare mingling of refined and positive traits, an unswerving advocate of truth and righteous- ness. He died intftfillsborough, N. Y., in 1834.

THE OLD PARSONAGE.

ACTON.

251

The first year of Mr. Shedd's pastorate was event- ful. On the 10th of May he was ordained. On the 21st of June he became the father of one of the most notable and worthy men now living. It is no ordin- ary honor for the parsonage and the town to be the birth-place of Rev. Prof. William G. T. Shedd, D.D.

The simple surface record of the man runs thus : born in Acton, June 21, 1820; graduated at the University of Vermont, Burlington, in 1839; at Andover Seminary in 1843 ; pastor of Brandon, Vermont, 1843-45 ; Professor of Engli-h Literature in the University of Vermont, 1845-52; Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology in Auburn Seminary, 1852-54; Professor of Ecclesi- astical History and Pastoral Theology in Andover Seminary, 1854-62 ; co-pastor of the Brick Presby- terian Church, New York City, 1862-63 ; Professor of Sacred Literature in Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 1863-74; Professor of Systematic Theology in Union Seminary since 1874.

His publications are: History of Christian Doc- trine, Theological Essays, Literary Essays, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, Sermons to the Natural Man, Translation of Guericke's Church History, Translation of Theremin's Rhetoric.

He has adorned every position which he has touched. He is a scholar, a gentleman, an author, a preacher, a philosopher, a theologian, a Christian of the very highest order in the land, and so acknowl- edged even by those not always agreeing with his views.

He has not forgotten his birth-p'ace or the scenes of his boyhood, though leaving the place when eleven years old and visiting it but twice since that time.

He remembers his old family physician, Dr. Cowdry ; Deacon Silas Hosmer, one of the officers of the church, who died at the age of eighty-four ; the two Fletchers, Deacon John and his brother James; (he Faulkner mills, where there were about a dozen houses when last he saw it ; East Acton, the place where he went to take the stage, upon the main road, when great journeys were to be made; Wetherbee's Hotel and some fine old elms, which he hopes are still standing; Deacon Phineas Wheeler and his grist-mill, to which he often carried the grist ; the Common in Acton Centre, now covered with fine shade-trees, where there was not a single tree of any kind when he played ball upon it in his boyhood ; those inscrip- tions upon the grave-stones around the monument which he used to read when a boy in the old ceme- tery ; the huckleberry and blueberry bushes still growing in the same rough pastures, where he has picked many a quart.

He is now in his seventieth year, but there are some still living who recall his early days on the street and at the parsonage. He was a model youth, and had in him at the start elements which all recog- nized as the promise of his future career, if his life should be spared.

The following tributes to the memory of his father and mother were received in a letter from him dated December 23, 1889: "My father lived to the great age of eighty-five, dying in Willsborough, N. Y., in 1872. After leaving Acton he was never settled as a pastor, but for many years, until age and infirmities prevented, he preached to the feeble churches in the region, and did a great and good work in the moral and religious up-building of society. My mother died soon after our family removed to Northern New York, which was in October, 1831. She departed this life in February, 1833. I was only twelve years of age, but the impress she made upon me in those twelve years is greater than that made by any other human being, or than all other human beings collectively."

In the same letter he gives this record of his two brothers — younger than himself — whom several old schoolmates, now living in Acton, remember with interest. Marshall died in Wlisborouijh, N. Y., in 1879, in the Christian faith and hope. The younger brother, Henry S., is living, and for more than twenty years has been connected with the post-office in this city (New York).

The Acton town records give the following dates of birth : William G. Thayer Shedd, son of Marshall and Eliza Shedd, born June 21, 1820; Marshall, born April 11, 1822; Henry Spring Shedd, born February 21, 1824; Elizabeth Thayer Shedd, born September 9, 1825. In his last brief visit to Acton several years ago he said in conversation: " The old scenes and persons in Acton come back from my boyhood memories with outlines of distinctness more and more vivid as the years go by."

Revolutionary Preliminaries. — At a special meeting in January, 1768, the town voted " to comply with the proposals sent to the town by the town of Boston, relating to the encouragement of manufac- ture among ourselves and not purchasing superflui- ties from abroad."

In September of that year Joseph Fletcher was chosen to sit in a convention at Boston, to be holden on the 22d of that month.

Action of the Town on the memorable 5th of March, 1770. "Taking into consideration the distressed circumstances tliat tills Province and all North America are involved in by reaBon(s) of the Acts of Parliament imposing duties and taxes for the sole purpose to raise a Revenue, and when the Royal ear seems to be stopt against all our humble Prayers and petitions for redress of grievances, and consid- ering the Salutary Measures that the Body of Merchants and Traders in this province have come into in order for the redress of the many troubles that we are involved in, and to support and maintain our Charter Rights and Privilego and to prevent our totnl Ruin aud De- struction, taking all these things into serious Consideration, came into the following votes :

"1st. That we will useourutmost endeavorsto encourage and support the body of merchants and traders in their endeavors to retrieve this Province out of its present Distresses to whom this Town vote their thanksfor the Constitutional and spirited measures pursued by them for the good of this Province.

" 2. That from this Time we will have no commercial or social connec- tion with those who at this time do refuse to contribute to the relief of this abused country— especially those that import British Goods contrary

252

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to the Agreement of the body of merchants in Boston or elsewhere, that we will not afford them our Custom, but treat them with the ut- most neglect anil all those who countenance them.

" 3. That we will use our ulmost endeavors to prevent the consump- tion of all foreign superfluities, and that we will use our utmost En- deavors to promote and encourage our own manufactures.

"4. That the Town Clerk transmit a copy of these votes of the Town to the Committee of Merchants of inspection at Boston.

" A true copy attested.

" Francis Faulkner, " Town Clerk."

A committee of nine of the principal men of the town was appointed to consider the rights of the Colony and the violation of said rights, and draft such votes as they thought proper.

In January, 1773, the following report of the Com- mittee was accepted and adopted :

"Taking into serious consideration the alarming circumstances of the Province relating to the violation of our charter rights and privi- leges (as we apprehend) by the British administration, we are of opin- ion : That the rights of the Colonists natural, ecclesiastical and civil are well stated by the Town of Boston.

"And it is our opinion that the taxing of us without our consent — the making the Governor of the Province and the Judges of the Supreme Court independent of the people and dependent on the Crown, out of money extorted from us, and many other instances of encroachments upon our said charter rights are intolerable grievances, and have a di- rect tendency to overthrow our happy constitution and bring us into a state of abject slavery.

" But we have a gracious Sovereign, who is the Father of America as well as Great Britain, and as the man in whom ve have had no con- fidence is removed from before the Throne and another in whom we hope to have reason to put confidence placed in his stead, we hope that our petitions will be for warded and heard, and all our grievances re- dressed.

" Voted also, that as we have no member in the house of Representa- tives, we earnestly recommend it to the Representative Body of this Province that you gentlemen, inspect with a jealous eye our charter rights and privileges, and that you use every constitutional method to obtain redress of all our grievances, and that you strenuously endeavor in such ways as you in your wisdom think fit, that the honorable judges of the Supreme Court may have their support as formerly agreeable to the charter of the Province.

''Voted, That the sincere thanks of the Town be given to the inhabit- ants of the Town of Boston for their spirited endeavors to preserve our rights and privileges inviolate when threatened with destruction.

In March, 1774, resolutions were passed with refer- ence to paying duty on tea belonging to the East India Company.

In August, 1774, three of the principal citizens of the town were appointed delegates to a County Con- vention to be holden in Concord the 30th of that month.

In October of the same year two of the three dele- gates referred to above were chosen to sit in a Pro- vincial Congress, which was to assemble at Concord soon, and at the same meeting a Committee of Cor- respondence was appointed.

In December, 1774, £25 was voted for the use of the Province, and a vote was passed to indemnify the assessors for not making returns to the British gov- ernment. It was also voted to join the association of the Continental Congress, and a committee was ap- pointed to see that all inhabitants above sixteen years of age signed their compliance, and that the names of those who did not sign should be reported to the Com- mittee of Correspondence. Samuel Hay ward, Francis

Faulkner, Jonathan Billings, Josiah Hay-ward, John Heald, Jr., Joseph Robbins and Simon Tuttle were chosen a committee for that purpose.

In November, 1774, a company of minute-men was raised by voluntary enlistment, and elected Isaac Davis for their commander. The company by agree- ment met for discipline twice in each week, through the winter and spring till the fight at Concord.

In January the town voted to pay them eight pence for every meeting till the 1st of May, provided they should be on duty as much as three hours, and should attend within half an hour the time appointed for the meeting.

In the winter of 1774-7 the town had two militia companies, one in the south and one in the east.

In 1775 Josiah Hayward was twice chosen a dele- gate to the Provincial Congress at Cambridge.

In June, 1776, a vote was passed giving the follow- ing instructions to the representative of the town :

" To Mr. Mark White :

"Sir, — Our not being favored with the resolution to the Honorab le House of Representatives, calling upon the several towns in this Colony to express their minds with respect to the important question of American Independence is the occasion of our not expressing our minds sooner.

" But we now cheerfully embrace this opportunity to instruct you on that important question.

" The subverting our Constitrrtion, the many injuries and unheard of barbarities which the Colonies have received from Great Britain, confirm us in the opinion that the present age will bo deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves, if they do not establish an Ameri- can Republic. This is the only form of Government we wish to see es- tablished.

" But we mean not to dictate —

" We freely submit this interesting affair to the wisdom of the Conti- nental Congress, who, we trust, are guided and directed by the Supreme Governor of the world, and we instruct you, sir, to give them the strongest assurance that, if they should declare America to be a Free and Independent Republic, your constituents will Bupport and defend the measure with their lives and fortunes."

In October, 1776, when a proposition was before the people that the executive and legislative branches of the. Provincial Government should frame a Consti- tution for the State, the town of Acton committed the subject to Francis Faulkner, Ephraim Hapgood, Samuel Hayward, Ephraim Hosmer, Joseph Robbins and Nathaniel Edwards, who reported the following resolutions, which were unanimously accepted :

" 1st. Remlved, that as this State is at present destitute of an estab- lished form of Government, it is necessary one should be immediately formed and established.

"2. Resolved. That the Supreme Legislature in that capacity are by no means a body proper to form and establish a constitution for the follow- ing reasons, viz.:

" Because a constitution properly formed has a system of principles es- tablished to secure subjects in the possession of their rights and privileges against any encroachments of the Leg-slative part, and it is our opinion that the same body which has a right to form a constitution has a right to alter it, and we conceive a constitution alterable by the Supreme Legislative power is no security to the subjects againBt the encroach- ments of that power on our rights and privileges.

"Resolved, that the town thinks it expedient that a convention he chosen by the inhabitants of the several towns and districts in this State being free to form and establish a constitution for the State.

" Rerolvd, That the Honorable Assembly of this State be desired to recommend to the inhabitants of the State to choose a convention for the above purpose as soon as possible.

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" Retained, that the Convention publish their proposed constitution lie- fore they establish it for tlio Inspection and remarks of the Inhabitants of this State."

At a meeting in February, 1778, " the United States Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," after being twice read, were accepted by the town.

In May, 1778, a Constitution and frame of govern- ment for the State, which had been formed by the General Court, was laid before the town for consid- eration, and was rejected by a vote of fifty-one to e ghteen.

The instrument was so offensive to the inhabitants that in May, 1779, an article being inserted in the warrant, " to see if the town will choose at this time to have a new Constitution or frame of government," the constitution was rejected.

The proposition, however, though rejected by this town, was accepted by a majority of the people, and in July, 1779. Francis Faulkner was chosen a dele- gate to sit in a convention in Cambridge to form a Constitution, and the result was that the present Constitution of this Commonwealth was laid before the town for consideration on the 28th day of April, 1780,, and it being read, the meeting was adjourned for consideration till the 15th of May.

On that the articles were debated, and at a further adjournment on the 29th of the same month every article was approved by a majority of more than two- thirds of the voters. These simple records show he- roic grit, combined statesmanship and patriotism worthy of those olden dates and worthy of any dates since or of any that are to follow.

The Faulkner House (South Acton). — This is the oldest house now standing in Acton. You go from the railroad station south across the bridge and ascend the steep hill, and you at once approach the ancient structure. It has on its face and surroundings an impress of age, which strikes the eye at first glance, and the impress deepens as the eye tarries for a second look.

Colonel Winthrop E. Faulkner, who died March 25, 1880, aged seventy-five years, used to say that they told him when a child it must have been 150 years old then. No tongue and no records fix the original date of this ancient landmark. It is safe to call it 200 years old, some parts of it at least.

It was a block-house, and in the early Colonial times it was a garrison-house where the settlers in the neighborhood would gather in the night for pro- tection against the assaults of the Indians.

Enter the southwest room. It will easily accom- modate 100 persons. It is a square room neatly kept and furnished with antique mementos. Raise your hand and you easily touch the projecting beams of dry hard oak, which the sharpest steel cannot cleave, eighteen inches solid. The space between the beams of the sides of the room are filled with brick, which make it fire-proof against the shot of the enemy.

You notice the two small glass windows as large as

an orange in the entering door of this room. They were for use in watching the proceeding of the courts which once were held here by Francis Faulkner, the justice.

Measure the old chimney, nine feet by seven, solid brick furnished with three large fire-places and an oven below and an oven above in the attic for smok- ing hams, large enough to accommodate all the neigh- bors and hooks attached in the arch where the hams could remain suspended till called for.

Mark that fine photograph on the wall. It is the life-like face of Colonel Winthrop E. Faulkner. Give him a royal greeting, for he was the life of the village and town in childhood's days and in later years, and there comes his aged widow, still living and gracing the old homestead and guarding the precious relics, now in her eigh:y-third year.

Mrs. Lottie Flagg, her daughter, the veteran and successful school-teachf r, who does a noble work in helping the outfit and hospitality of this historic site. -Note her words as she repeats the tale of this rally- ing centre on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775.

Francis Faulkner, Jr., a boy of fifteen years, was lying awake early in the morning, no one yet moving and listening to the clatter of a horse's feet drawing nearer and nearer. Suddenly he leaped from his bed, ran into his father's room and cried out, " Father, there's a horse coming on the full run and he's bring- ing news." His father, Colonel Francis, already had on his pantaloons and his gun in his hand. The fleet horseman wheeled across the bridge and up to the house, and shouted, " Rouse your minute-men, Mr. Faulkner! The British are marching on Lexington and Concord," and away he went to spread the news.

Mr. Faulkner, without stopping to dress, fired three times as fast as he could load and fire — that being the preconcerted signal to call out the minute men.

"And so, through the night, went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm ; A cry of defiance, and not of fear ; A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forever more."

Being the chairman of safety and colonel of the Middlesex Regiment of Militia — the men were to as- semble at his house. Almost immediately a neighbor repeated the signal and the boy Francis listened with breathless interest to hear the signal guns grow faint- er and fainter off in the distant farm-houses. Signal- fires were also lighted, and every house awoke from its slumbers to the new era. By this time the family were all up in the greatest commotion — the younger children crying because the British would come and •kill them. Very soon the minute-men began to come in, every one with his guD, powder-horn, pouch of bullets and a piece of bread and cheese, the only breakfast he proposed to make before meeting the en- emy of his country. Some came hurrying in with their wives and children in the greatest excitement, to get more certain news and to know what was to be

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

done. Word came from Captain Davis that he would march as soon as thirty should come in. In the mean time they were busy in driving down stakes on the lawn and hanging kettles for cooking the soldiers' dinners. They brought from the houses beef and pork, patatoesand cabbages. The women would cook the dinner, and some of the elder boys, of whom Francis, Jr., was one, weredesiguatedtobringitalong packed in saddle-bags. By the time these prelimin- aries for dinner were made Lieutenant 'Hunt took command of the West Militia Company, Capt. Faulk- ner having a few days before been promoted to the position of colonel of the Middlesex Regiment.

The line was formed on the lawn south of the house, and they marched amid the tears of their fam- ilies. Colonel Faulkner accompanied them to take command of the Middlesex Regiment, as the other companies would come in at Concord. Uncle Fran- cis, the boy, waited with great impatience for the dinner to be cooked and packed. Every woman wanted to prepare the dinner complete and separate for her husband or sons. But after much discussion it was agreed to pack all the beef and pork, bread and vegetables, each kind by itself, and let the men them- selves divide it. At length, after some hours of talk- ing and boiling and packing, the horses were loaded, and the boys started off.

I asked Uncle Francis why in the world they did not take a wagon, and one horse wonld be enough for the whole. Didn't they know enough to do that? "Oh, yes — they knew too much to do that," he said. The British soldiers might have the road. If we saw a red-coat we were told to give him a wide birth, or he might get us and our dinner. We could quietly top- ple over a stone wall or take out a few rails and escape through the fields and find our men wherever they might be. To the great surprise of the boy he found the Acton men iu the highest spirits. They had made the re<l-coats run for their lives.

This house is so associated with the history of the Faulkner family, and this family is so blended with the history of the town, that a brief family record is here appended.

Francis Faulkner, the father of Ammiruhammah, and the grandfather of Col. Francis Faulkner, was a rtsident of Andover, Mass., and married Abigail Dane, daughter of Rev. Francis Dane, the second minister of Andover, a woman of noble character and exemplary piety. She was accused of witchcraft, tried and condemned to death. She passed through the terri- ble ordeal with unshaken firmness, and the sentence was revoked.

Ammiruhammah Faulkner, son of Francis, came ' from Andover and settled in " Concord Village," in 1735, at the "great falls." of the "Great Brook," where he erected the mills which have since been owned and occupied by his descendants, where he died Aug. 4. 1756, aged sixty-four.

Col. Francis Faulkner, son of Ammiruhammah,

was born in Andover, Mass., Sept. 29, 1728, and died in Acton Aug. 5, 1805, aged seventy seven. He mar- ried Lizzie Mussey April 29, 1756. He was a member of the Provincial Congress held in Concord, 1774, and represented the town of Acton in the Legislature of 1783-4-5. He had a military commission under George IN., but the oppressive and arbitrary acts of Great Britain induced him to renounce his allegiance to the crown. In 1775 he was elected major of a reg- iment organized to "oppose invasion."

On the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, he marched with the Acton patriots to the Concord North Bridge, where he engaged the British, and with his men pursued them to Charlestown. He was sev- eral times engaged in actual service during the war, being lieutenant-colonel in the Regiment Middlesex Militia called to reinforce the Continental Army at ;he occupation of Dorchester Heights, in March, 1776. He was in service when Burgoyne was taken, and commanded the regiment which guarded the prison- ers on that occasion. He was a courageous officer, an able legislator and an exemplary Christian. He built the mills which for a century and a half have been k nown as the Faulkner Mills, now of South Acton. They were first only a saw and a grist-mill, the two most indispensable agents of civilization and comfort in a new country. To these was added in due time a fulling-mill, which was among the very earliest efforts at the manufacture of woolen cloth in this country.

There was first a carding-machine, which changed as by magic the wool into beautiful rolls. They were distributed to many houses to be spun and woven icto rough woolen cloth and returned to the mill. Here the cloth was fulled under stampers with soap, which made it foam and helped cleanse and thicken it up. The process of f aising nap with teazles was exceed- ingly interesting. The teazle w«s a product of nature and seemed expressly and wonderfully created for that very purpose. Then came the shearing off in- equalities by the swift revolving shears and the final finishing up into cloth. When the wool was of fine quality and evenly spun the result was a passable broadcloth of great durability.

In order to encourage wool production and skill in using it, prizes were offered for the finest specimen of home-made broadcloth — that is, the wool, the spin- ning and weaving were of home ; the rest was of the fulling-mill. This spinning and weaving were the fine arts of our grandmothers and greaf-grandmothers, and noble women were proud of the prizes they won. A prize to a spinster was sure to attract the most flattering attention and take her speedily out of spin- sterhood.

Colonel Faulkner was not only an active, energetic "clothier," but also a leading citizen in all public in- terests. For thirty-five successive years he was chosen town clerk, and the records are kept with neatness, clearness and order. (See Cyrus Hamlin's

COL.

WINTHROP E. FAULKNER.

ACTON.

Historical Sketch, read before Historical Society at Lexington.)

Winthrop Faulkner, the son of Francis, was born in Acton March 21, 1774. and died in Acton March 17, 1813. He received a justice's commission at the age of twenty-three. He was a man of cultivated mind and sound judgment, and his advice was gener- ally sought for all important town matters. He was one of the original members of the Corinthian Lodge of Masons in Concord.

Colonel Winthop E. Faulkner.— He was the son of Winthrop Faulkner, born April 16, 1805, and died March 25, 1880. He was initiated into the Co- rinthian Lodge of Masons in 1854. He married Martha Adams Bixby, of Framingham. He was noted in all the relations of life. He was an enter- prising miller, an enthusiast in music, dancing, mili- tary, civil, social and parish activities. He was a pushing man, forward in all enterprises for the pub- lic improvement. He was one of the prime movers in projecting the Fitchburg Railroad, and but for his enterprise in controlling the first plans, the road would have gone in another direction. He was for a long run of years one of the most active directors.

The Bobbins House. — Returning from the Fletcher homestead to the main road, and proceeding direct by the cemetery and beyond till we reach nearly the brow of the hill on the left, we come to the site of what was for to many years called the Robbins House. The land on which it was located was pur- chased of Captain Thomas Wheeler, whose house (the first in Acton) was located a few rods to the south, near the little brook before described in this narra- tive. When the latter house was taken down the timbers were found to be in good condition, and were used in the construction of the L part of Nathan Robbins' house.

It was an historic structure from the start, and was emphatically so after the 19th of April, 1775. "Be- fore light on that eventful morning, hours before the British entered Concord, a horseman, whose name was never known, going at full spe.ed (they spared neither horseflesh nor manflesh in those days), rode up to this house, then occupied by Captain Joseph Robbins, the commissioned officer in the town of Acton, who lived nearest North Bridge, and struck with a large, heavy club, as they thought, the corner of the house, never dismounting, but crying out at the top of his voice, ' Capt. Robbins! Capt. Robbins! up, up ! The Regulars have come to Concord. Ren- dezvous at old North Bridge! quick as possible alarm Acton.' "

His only son — afterwards a venerable magistrate — John Robbins, Esq., was then asleep in the garret — a lad ten years old.

But "those rappings" — and there was no sham about them — and that cry brought him to his feet inslanter and every other living man in that house. It waked the babe in the cradle. In a few minutes

he was on "father's old mare," bound for Captain Davis's, not a mile off, who commanded the minute- men, and then to Deacon Simon Hunt's, in the west part of the town, who commanded the West Company as first lieutenant, Captain Francis Faulkner having, a lew days before, been promoted to be major, and the vacancy not having been filled.

" The harrying footstepe of that steed The late of a uatijn was riding that night."

The locality where this house stood is easily recog- nized from the indications on the ground. It was a two-story building. The barn was struck by light- ning in the year 1830, and was rapidly consumed. The citizens rallied to save the building, or at least part of it, but Esq. Robbins shouted out with his stentorian voice : "Boys, save your fingers. There is plenty of timber in the woods where this came from ! '* He knew how to shout, for he was often moderator of the Acton town-meetings, which gave him a good chance to drill in that liue of practice. The house stood afterwards for years unoccupied, but at last it yielded to the destiny of flames, supposed to have been an accide'&tal fire, from the carelessness of tran- sient occupants. The old door-stone still remains in position, battered somewhat by relic-hunters, who have chipped from it for the sake of a memento. A tablet memorial will some day be erected on this ground befitting its historic interest.

The report of this house having been haunted in former years is easily credited by the superstitious, but denied by Lhe more phlegmatic crowd. That those April rappings should have reverberations long continued is credible, and any one going by of an imaginative and appreciative turn of mind can hear them still ringing iu his ears.

Captain Davis' Route to the North Bridge. — The 19th of April, 1775. It was a bright, genial morning. The sun was up at a good, cheery height of an hour and a half. The birds were chanting the very best songs of the opening spring. The men were drawn up in line. The captain at last gave the word "march." Luther Blanchard, the fifer, and Francis Barker, the drummer, struck at once the stirring notes of the " White Cockade," and forward they moved with a quick, brave step. They soon reached the homestead of Parson Swift. -They could not stop for the greetings or the partings of the good man, but ou they pressed, with their faces set for Mother Concord. They moved along over the old and only road leading from the present site of Deacon W. W. Davis' cross- ing in a straight line through to the meeting-house on the " knowll."

The road struck the other road just below Dr. Cow- dry's barn, where now stands Deacon John Fletcher's barn, just relocated by Moses Taylor, Esq. The old road-bed was found when recently digging the cellar for the barn.

They could not stop for the silent benedictions of the old church, but the prayers and blessings of the

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p;istor they could hear, and march all the. faster for the memory. The handkerchiefs waving from the Brooks Tavern doors and windows helped the thrill of the hour. Down the hills they moved by the present site of Mr. McCarthy, up the ascent 10 the right, over the heights on the road path, now closed, but still a favorite walk down the hill, across the Revolutionary Bridge, west of Horace Hosmer's present site, the road leading by the spot where the elms south of his house now stand.

This bridge stood very near the spot where the railroad bridge now stands. Some of the stone which formed the abutments of the old bridge were used in the construction of the railroad bridge. The bridge, a few rods to the south of the original, has been sketched by Arthur F. Davis, Acton's young artist, and it is a favorite landscape etching on sale in the cities.

Up the hill they hasten and turn to the right, going by Mr. Hammond Taylor's present residence, the old Brabrook homestead, on the south side, which was then the front side, the road on the north being a comparatively new opening; there thlry left the main road, struck through the woods, taking a bee-line to their deslined point. After passing the woods, the march is by the Nathan Brooks place, now owned and occupied by Mr. H. F. Davis. The passage then was by the nearest way to Barrett's Mills, as then called, not far from the North Bridge.

Luther Blanchard. — He was born within the limits of what is now Boxboro', a part of Littleton at the time of the Concord Fight. He was a favorite young man, tall, straight, handsome and athletic. He was living at the time with Abner Hosmer, a mason, whose residence was the site of Mr. Herman A. Gould, on the South Acton road, from the West, making him a near neighbor to Captain Davis. He was learning the mason's trade. He was a notable fifer, and his skill and zeal on the morning of the 19th had much to do wiih the spirit of the whole occasion. The scene was just adapted to wake the musical genius to its highest pitch, and if there were any white feathers around they soon changed to fiery red at the signal from Luther's fife. When they began firing at the bridge, the British at first used blank cartridges. Captain Davis inquired if they were firing: bullets. Luther said " Yes," for one had hit him and he was wounded. "If it had gone an inch fur- ther one way it would have killed me, and if an inch in the opposite direction it would have not have hit me at all." He followed on in the pursuit of the British on their retreat to Boston, fifing with all the vigor of his manly strength, which grew less as the excitement of the day bfgan to tell upon his wasted forces. The wound, which he did not think serious at firs', grew worse as he proceeded, and on reaching Cambridge he was obliged to be taken to a hospital, where he died.

Mrs. Jona'.han B. Davis, a daughter of Simon Hos-

mer, often told these facts to Mr. Luke Blanchard, now living. It was the statement of Mr. Luke Blanchard's father, who was always careful in what he affirmed, that Luther died from the effects of his wound. Luther Blanchard's brother Calvin died from the fall of a tree. He helped tear down barns to build the fort on Bunker Hill. He would carry one end of the timber while it would take two men at the other end to balance.

Luther and Cilvin Blanchard's father was in the fight at Quebec, and lost his life on the Plains of Abraham. There must have been patriotic gun- powder in the very blood of the Blanchards at the original start.

Aaron Jones was near Captain Davis when he fell, and followed in pursuit of the British on their re- treat. He never could forget that morning or speak of it without a changed tone and face. He thought much of Luther Blanchard as an associate on that eventful day, and of his fifing march. He named one of his sons Luther Blanchard in memory of the martyr fifer. As the first blood shed on the 19lh at Concord antedated the fall of Davis, in the person of Luther Blanchard, there ought to be a tablet, somewhere, memorizing the fact.

The James Hay ward House. — The house in West Acton, formerly the residence of Hon. Stevens Hayward and in later years known as the Leland Place, now occupied by Mr. Kraetzer. Mr. Wood- bury, in his legislative speech, thus relates the cir- cumstances of James Hayward's fall on the 19th of April, 1775 :

''At Fiske's Hill, in Lexington, they had, as some, thought, the severest encounter of all the way. The road ran around the eastern base of a steep, thick- wooded hill. James Hayward, who had been active and foremost all the way, after the British had passed on, came down from the hill and was aimiug for a well of water — the same well is still to be seen at the two-story Dutch-roofed red house on the right from Concord to Lexington, not two miles from the old meeting-house. As he passed by the eud of that house he spied a British soldier, still lingering behind the main body, plundering. The Briton also saw him and ran to the front door to cut him off. Lifting up his loaded musket he exclaims, ' You are a dead man.' Hayward immediately said, ' So are you.' They both fired and both fell. The Briton was shot dead, Hayward mortally wouuded, the ball entering his side through this hole," holding up the powder-horn, " driving the splinters into his body. He lived eight hours; retained his reason to the last.

"His venerable father, Deacon Samuel Hayward, whose house he had left that morning in the bloom of vigorous manhood, had time to reach Lexington and comfort him with his conversation by rtading the Scriptures and prayer. ' Jamts, you are mortally wounded. You can live but a few hours. Before ' sunrise to-morrow you will nu doubt be a corpse.

POWDER HORN WORN BY JAMES HAYWARD,

AT LEXINGTON, AND THROUGH WHICH HE WAS SHOT AND KILLED, APRIL 19, 1775.

The town of Lexington has recently erected a Tablet with the following inscription :

At this well, April 19, 1775, James Hayward, of Acton, met a British soldier who, raising his gun, said, "You are a dead man." "And so are you," replied Hayward. Both fired, the soldier was instantly killed, and Hayward mortally wounded.

ACTON.

1T> 7

Are you sorry that you turned out ? ' ' Father, haud me my powder-horn and bullet-pouch. I started with one pound of powder and forty balls, you see what is left,'— he had used all but two or three of them, — ' you see what I have been about. I never did such a forenoon's work befcre. I am not sorry. Tell mother not to mourn too much (or me, for I am not sorry I turned out. I die willingly for my country. She will now, I doubt not, by help of God, be free. And tell her whom I loved better than my mother — you know whom I mean — that I am not sorry. I never shall see her again. May I meet her in heaven.'

" Hay ward had lost, by the cut of an axe, part of his toes on one foot, and was not liable to military duty. He 'turned out' that morning as a volunteer in the strictest sense— as hundreds did. He was one of the earliest at Davis' house, belonged to the same school district and born and bred by the side of him, their fathers being next-door neighbors. He was twenty-eight years old, one of the most athletic, fine- looking, well-informed, well-bred young men in town. He had been a schoolmaster, he knew the crisis, he knew what he was fighting for and what was to be gained. He came early to Davis' house and acted with his company. He was seen to go to grinding on the grindstone the point of his bayonet there. On being asked why he did it, ' Because,' said he, ' I ex- pect, before night, we shall come to a push with them and I want my bayonet sharp.' ''

A fine stone tablet has been erected by the town of Lexington opposite the house where Hayward fell, in honor of the man and the event.

Abner Hosmer House. — Abner Hosmer, a pri- vate in Davis' company of minute-men; only twenty-two years old ; unmarried ; the son of Dea. Jonathan Hosmer, of the Acton Church. A friend and neighbor of Davis fell dead at the same volley- shot through the head. He lived where Mr. Gould now lives, half-way between South and West Villages, nearly a mile from either.

Mrs. Mehitable Piper (Acton's centenarian). — She was the daughter of Joseph Barker (2d) and wife of Silas Piper; born Jan. 24, 1771. She died March 25, 1872, at the age of 101 years and two months. Her funeral took place at her residence on the 28th. The house was filled with relatives and friends. After prayer and touching words of consolation a solemn funeral procession followed the remains to the church at the Centre. The house was filled in every part. Rev. Mr. Hayward, Universalist, and Rev. F. P. Wood, Orthodox, officiated.

Her existence was contemporaneous with that of the nation itself. She saw her mother weep in her father's embrace when he tore himself from the bosom of his family to take the part of a patriot in the Concord fight. She was living at the time where Moses Taylor, Esq., now lives, and went up to the top of Raspberry Hill, back of Rev. F. P. Wood's present 17

residence, to see or hear something from Concord. She had seen every phase of her country's wonderful growth, and to perpetuate and promote it hail sent her descendants into the War of 1812 and through the streets of Baltimore to the terrible War of the Re- bellion.

She was the last of the devoted band of Puritans who had worshiped God in the town at the time when religious differences were unknown. She was the relic of other days and the wept of many hearts. Though older than the nation, she did not live long enough to make a single enemy, and her friends were those who at any time had known or seen her. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery by the side of her partner.

Some of her ancestors were remarkable for their longevity, her father being upwards of ninety-nine years of age at his death.

She lived eighty years in one spot. She had twelve children, forty-two grandchildren, seventy great- grandchildren, and two children of the fifth genera- tion. Her father stood beside Captain Davis after he fell, and exclaimed to his comrades, "Boys, don't give up!"

Rev. J. T. Woodbury's Speech.— Who was Cap- tain Isaac Davis? Who was Abner Hosmer? Who was James Hayward ? And what was Concord fight ? What did they fight for, and what did they win ? These were Massachusetts Province militiamen ; not in these good, quiet, piping times of peace, but in 1775, at the very dark, gloomy outbreak of the Amer- ican Revolution.

Let us turn back to the bloody annals of that eventful day. Let us see, as well as we can at this distance of three-quarters of a century, just how mat- ters and things stood.

General Gage had full possession of this city. The flag that waved over it was not that of "the old pine- tree"; nor that one, with that beautiful insignia, over your head, sir — with the uplifted right hand lettered over with this most warlike and, to my taste, most appropriate motto in a wrongful world like this, " Ense ])etit placidam, sub libertate quietem." No, no ! It was the flag of that hereditary despot, George the Third !

And if there had been no Isaac Davis or other men of his stamp on the ground in that day, the flag of the crouching lion, the flag of Queen Victoria — due successor to that same hated George the Third ; first the oppressor, and then the unscrupulous murderer of our fathers ! Yes ; I know what I say — the un- scrupulous murderer of our fathers — would still wave over this beautiful city and would now be streaming in the wind over every American ship in this harbor. Where, in that case, would have been this Legisla- ture? Why, sir, it would never have been ; and my conscientious friend from West Brookfield, instead of sitting here a good "Free Soil" man, as he is, would have been called to no such high vocation as making

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laws for a free people — for the good old Common- wealth of Massachusetts; voting for Robert Rantoul, Jr., or Charles Sumner, or Hon. Mr. Winthrop to represent us in a body known as the United States Senate, pronounced the most august, dignified legis- lative assembly in the civilized world. Oh, no ! Far otherwise! If permitted to legislate at all, it would be done under the dictation of Queen Victoria; and if he made laws it would be with a ring in his nose to pull him this way and that, or with his head in the British Lion's mouth — that same lion's mouth which roared in 1775 — showing his teeth and lashing his sides at our fathers.

This city was in full possession of the enemy, and had been for several months. Gen. Gage had con- verted that house of prayer, the Old South Church — where we met a few days since, to sit, delighted auditors, to that unsurpassed election sermon — into a riding-school, a drilling-place for his cavalry. The pulpit and all the pews of the lower floor were, with vandal violence, torn out and tan brought in; and here the dragoons of King George practiced, on their prancing war-horses, the sword exercises, with Tory ladies and gentlemen for spectators in the galleries.

At the 19th of April, 1775, it was not " Ease petit placidam, sub libertate quietcm." "Sub libertate!" It would have been, rather, "Sub vili servitio'1' — sub anything — rather than liberty under the British Crown !

Information had been received from most reliable sources that valuable powder, ball and other munitions of war were deposited in Concord. Gen. Gage determ- ined to have them. Concord was a great place in '75. The Provincial Congress had just suspended its session there of near two months, adjourning over to the 10th of May, with Warren for their president, and such men as old Samuel Adams, John Hancock, John Adams and James Otis as their advisers. Yes, Concord was the centre of the brave old Middlesex, containing within it all the early battle-grounds of liberty — Old North Bridge, Lexington Common and Bunker Hill — and was for a time the capital of the Province, the seat of the Government of the Colony of Massachu- setts Bay.

And Concord had within it as true-hearted Whig patriots as ever breathed. Rev. Mr. Emerson was called a "high son of liberty." To contend with ty- rants and stand up against them, resisting unto blood, fighting for the inalienable rights of the people, was a part of his holy religion. And he was one of the most godly men and eloquent ministers in the Col- ony. He actually felt it to be his duty to God to quit that most delightful town and village, and that most affectionate church and people, and enter the Conti- nental army and serve them as chaplain of a regiment.

What a patient, noble-hearted, truthful, loyal, con- fiding, affectionate generation of men they were. And remember, these were the men, exasperated be- yond all further endurance by the course of a deluded

Parliament and besotted ministry, who flew to arms on the 19th of April, 1775. These were the men who then hunted up their powder-horns and bullet-pouches, ! took down their guns from the hooks, and ground up their bayonets, on that most memorable of all days in the annals of the old thirteen Colonies — nay, in the annals of the world — which record the struggles that noble men have made in all ages to be free !

Yes, to my mind, Mr. Speaker, it is a more glorious day, a day more full of thrilling incidents and great steps taken by the people to be free than even the 4th of July, itself, 1776.

Why, sir, the 19th of April, '75, that resistance, open, unorganized, armed, marshaled resistance at the old North Bridge- — that marching down in battle array, at that soul-stirring air, which every soldier in this house must remember to this day, for the tune is in fashion yet — I mean " the White Cockade " — was itself a prior declaration of independence, written out not with ink upon paper or parchment, but a decla- ration of independence made by drawn swords, up- lifted right arms ; fixed bayonets ground sharp, crack- ing musketry, a declaration written out in the best blood of this land, at Lexington first, and finally all the way for eighteen miles from Old North Bridge to Charlestown Neck, where these panting fugitives found shelter under the guns of British ships of war riding at anchor in Mystic River ready to receive them ; a declaration that put more at hazard, and cost the men who made it more, after all, of blood and treasure, than that of 1776.

It cost Davis, Hosmer and Hayward and hundreds of others, equally brave and worthy, their hearts' blood. It cost many an aged father and mother their darling son, many a wife her husband, many a Middlesex maid her lover.

Oh, what a glorious, but oh, what a bloody day it was ! That was the day which split in twain the Brit- ish empire never again to be united. What was the battle of Waterloo? What question did it settle? Why, simply who, of several kings, should wear the crown. Well, I always thought, ever since I read it, when a boy, that if I had fought on either side it would have been with Napoleon against the allied forces. But what is the question to me, or what is the question to you, or to any of us, or our children after us, if we are to be ruled over by crowned heads and hereditary monarchs ? What matters it who they are, or which one it shall be?

In ancient times three hundred Greeks, under Le- onidas, stood in the pass of Thermopyhe and for three successive days beat back and kept at bay five million Persians, led on by Xerxes, the Great. It was a gal- lant act, but did it preserve the blood-bought liberties of Greece? No. In time they were cloven down, and the land of Demosthenes and Solon marked for ages by the footsteps of the slave.

We weep over it, but we cannot alter it. But not so, thank God ! with " Concord fight," and by " Con-

THE BRONZE STATUE WHICH STANDS UPON THE SPOT WHERE CAPT. ISAAC DAVIS AND PRIVATE ABNER HOSMER FELL IN THE CONCORD FIGHT.

ACTON.

cord ligbt," I say here, for fear of being misunderstood, I mean by " Concord " all the transactions of that day.

I regard them as one great drama, scene first of which was at Lexington early in the morning, when old Mrs. Harrington called up her son Jonathan, who alone, while I speak, survives of all that host on either side in arms that day. He lives, blessed be God, he still lives ; I know him well, a trembling, but still breathing memento of the renowned past ; yet linger- ing by mercy of God on these " mortal shores," if for nothing else, to wake up your sleeping sympathies and induce you, if anything could, to aid in the noble work of building over the bones of his slaughtered companions-in-arms, Davis, Hosmer and Hayward, such a monument as they deserve. Oh, I wish he was here. I wish he only stood on yonder platform, noble man !

" Concord fight " broke the ice. " Concord fight," the rush from the heights at North Bridge was the first open marshaled resistance to the King. Our fathers, cautious men, took there a step that they could not take back if they would, and would not if they could. Till they made that attack probably no British blood had been shed.

If rebels at all, it was only on paper. They had not levied war. They had not vi et armis attacked their lawful king. But by that act they passed the Rubicon ; till then they might retreat with honor ; but after that it was too late. The sword was drawn and had been made red in the blood of princes, in the person of their armed defenders.

Attacking Captain Laurie and his detachment at North Bridge was, in law, attacking King George him- self. Now they must fight or be eternally disgraced. And now they did fight in good earnest. They drew the sword and threw away, as well they might, the scabbard. Yesterday they humbly petitioned. They petitioned no longer. ,Oh, what a change from the 19th to the 20th of April. They had been, up to that day, a grave, God-fearing, loyal, set of men, hon- oring the king. Now they strike for national inde- pendence and after a seven-years' war, by the help of God, they won it. They obtained nationality. It that day breathed into life ; the Colony gave way to the State ; that morning Davis and all of them were British colonists. They became by that day's resist- ance either rebels doomed to die by the halter, or free, independent citizens. If the old Pine Tree flag still waved over them unchanged, they themselves were changed too, entirely and forever.

Old Middlesex was allowed the privilege of opening this war; of first baptizing -the land with her blood. God did well to select old Middlesex, and the loved and revered centre of old Middlesex, namely, Concord, as the spot not where this achievement was to be com- pleted, but where it was to be begun, and well begun ; where the troops of crowned kings were to meet, not the troops of the people, but the people themselves,

and be routed and beaten from the field, and what is more, stay beaten we hope, we doubt not to the end of time.

And let us remember that our fathers, from the first to the last in that eventful struggle, made most de- vout appeals to Almighty God. It was so with the whole Revolutionary War. It was all begun, con- tinued and ended in God. Every man and every boy that went from the little mountain town of Acton with its five hundred souls, went that morning from a house of prayer. A more prayerful, pious, God-fear- ing, man-loving people, I have never read or heard of ; if you have, sir, I should like to know who they are, and where they live. They were Puritans, Plymouth Rock Puritans, men who would petition and petition and petition, most respectfully and most courteously, and when their petition and petitioners, old Ben. Franklin and the re9t, were proudly spurned away from the foot of the throne, petition again ; and do it again for more than ten long, tedious, years ; but after all they would fight and fight as never man fought, and they did so fight.

When such men take up arms let kings and queens take care of themselves. When you have waked up such men to resistance unto blood you have waked up a lion in his den. You may kill them. They are vul- nerable besides on the heel, but, my word for it, you never can conquer them.

At old North Bridge, about nine o'clock in the fore- noon, on the memorable* 19th of April, 1775, King George's troops met these men and after receiving their first fire fled, and the flight still continues — the flight of kings before the people.

Davis' minute-men were ready first and were on the ground first. They were an elite corps, young men, volunteers, and give me young men for war. They must be ready at a moment's warning. They were soon at Davis' house and gun-shop. Here they waited till about fifty had arrived. While there some of them were powdering their hair just as the Greeks were accustomed to put garlands of flowers on their heads as they went forth to battle, and they expected a battle. They were fixing their gun-locks and mak- ing a few cartridges, but cartridges and cartridge- boxes were rare in those days. The accoutrements of the heroes of the Revolution were the powder-horn and the bullet-pouch, at least of the militia.

And Concord fight, with all its unequaled and un- eclipsed glory was won, by help of God, by Massachu- setts militiamen. Some were laughing and joking to think that they were going to have what they had for months longed for, a " hit at old Gage." But Davis was a thoughtful, sedate, serious man, a genuine Puri- tan like Samuel Adams, and he rebuked them. He told theni that in his opinion it was "a most eventful crisis for the colonies ; blood would be spilt, that was certain ; the crimsoned fountain would be opened, none could tell when it would close, nor with whose blood it would overflow. Let every man gird himself

260

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX

for battle, and not be afraid, for God is on our side. He bad great hopes that the country would be free, though lie might not live to see it." The truth was, and it should come out.

Davis expected to die that day if he went into bat- tle. He never expected to come back alive to that house.

And no wonder that after the company started and had marched out of his lane some twenty rods to the highway he halted them and went back. He was an affectionate man. He loved that youthful wife of his and those four sick children, and he thought to see them never again and he never did. There was such a presentiment in his mind. His widow has often told me all about it and she thought the same her- self, and no wonder he went back and took one more last lingering look of them, saying — he seemed to want to say something, but as he stood on that threshold where I have often stood and where, in my mind's eye, I have often seen his manly form, he could only say, " Take good care of the children," the feelings of the father struggling in him and for a moment almost overcoming the soldier. The ground of this presentiment was this : A few days before the fight Mr. Davis and wife had been away from home of an afternoon. On returning they noticed, as they entered, a large owl sitting on Davis' gun as it hung on the hooks — his favorite gun — the very gun he car- ried to the fight — a beautiful piece for those days — his own workmanship — the* same he grasped in both hands when he was shot at the bridge, being just about to fire himself and which, when stone dead, he grasped still, his friends having, to get it away, to un- clinch his stiff fingers.

Sir, however you may view this occurrence or how- ever I may, it matters not ; I am telling how that brave man viewed it and his wife and the men of those times. It was an ill omen — a bad sign. The sober conclusion was that the first time Davis went into battle he would lose his life. This was the con- clusion, and so it turned out. The family could give no account of the creature and they knew not how it came in. The hideous bird was not allowed to be disturbed or frightened away, and there he stayed two or three days sitting upon that gun.

But mark : with this distinct impression on his mind did the heart of this Puritan patriarch quail ? No ; not at all, not at all. He believed in the Puri- tan's God — the Infinite Spirit sitting on the throne of the Universe, Proprietor of all, Creator and up- holder of all, superintending and disposing of all, that the hairs of his head were all numbered and not even a sparrow could fall to the ground without his God's express notice, knowledge and consent. He took that gun from those hooks with no trembling hand or wavering heart, and with his trusty sword hanging by his side he started for North Bridge with the firm tread of a giant. Death ! Davis did not fear to die. And he had the magic power, which

some men certainly have. God bestows it upon them to inspire every one around them with the same feel- ing. His soldiers to a man would have gone any- where after such a leader.

After about two miles of hurried march they came out of the woods only a few rods from Colonel James Barrett's, in Concord, and halted in the highway, whether discovered or not (this road came into the road by Barrett's some twenty rods from Barrett's house), looking with burning indignation to see Cap- tain Parsons and his detachment of British troopers with axes break up the gun-carriages and bring out hay and wood and burn them in the yard.

They had great thoughts of firing in upon them then and there to venture. But Davis was a military man, and his orders were to rendezvous at North Bridge and he knew very well that taking possession of North Bridge would cut off all retreat for this de- tachment of horse and they must be taken prisoners.

In a few minutes more he wheeled his company into line on the high lands of North Bridge, taking the extreme left of the line — that line being formed facing the river, which was his place, as the youngest commissioned officer present in the regiment — a place occupied a few days before by him at a regimental muster of the minute-men.

A council of war was immediately summoned by Colonel James Barrett and attended on the spot, made up of commissioned officers and Committees of Safety. The question was, What shall now be done? The provincials had been talking for months, nay, for years, of the wrongs they had borne at the hands of a cruel motherland. They had passed good paper resolutions by the dozen. They had fired off their paper-bullets, but what shall now be done f Enough had been said. What shall now be done? What a moment! What a crisis for the destinies of this land and of all lands, of the rights and liberties of the human race. Never was a council of war or council of peace called to meet a more important question, one on the decision of which more was at stake. Their council was divided. Some thought it best, at once, to rush down and take possession of the bridge and cut off the retreat of Captain Parsons ; others thought not.

Here were probably found in battle array over six hundred troops standing there under arms. Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn were in plain sight, with their red coats on, their cocked-up hats and their spy-glasses inspecting from the old grave-yard hills the gathering foe, for they came in from all directions suddenly, unaccountably, like the gathering of a sum- mer thunder-cloud. Of course it was admitted on all hands that they could take possession of the bridge, but it was to be expected that this skirmish must bring on a general engagement with the main body in the town. The Provincials would be in greater force by twelve o'clock M. than at nine. And if the whole British Army of eight huudred men

THE ACTON MINUTE-MEN.

MARCHING UNDER THE ARCH AT THE OLD NORTH BRIDGE, CONCORD, AT THE CENTENNIAL, APRIL 19, 1875.

ACTON.

should take the field against them in their present number most undoubtedly the men would run — they never would " stand fire." Their officers thought so : their officers said so on the spot. They gave it as their opinion, and it is probable that no attack at that hour would have been made had it not happened that, at that moment, the smoke began to rise from the centre of the town — all in plain sight from these heights — the smoke of burning houses. And they said, Shall we stand here like cowards and see Old Concord burn ?

Colonel Barrett gave consent to make the attack. Davis came back to his company, drew his sword and commanded them to advance six paces. He then faced them to the right, and at his favorite tune of " The White Cockade " led the column of attack towards the bridge. By the side of Davis marched Major Buttrick, of Concord, as brave a man as lived, and old Colonel Robinson, of Westford. The British on this began to take up the bridge; the Americans on this quickened their pace. Immediately the firing on both sides began. Davis is at once shot dead through the heart. The ball passed quite through his body, making a very large wound, perhaps driv- ing in a button of his coat. His blood gushed out in one great stream, flying, it is said, more than ten feet, besprinkling and besmearing his own clothes, these shoe-buckles and the clothes of Orderly Sergeant David Forbush and a file leader, Thomas Thorp. Davis, when hit, as is usual with men when shot thus through the heart, leaped up his full length and fell over the causeway on the wet ground, firmly grasping all the while, with both hands, that beautiful gun ; and when his weeping comrades came to take care of his youthful but bloody remains, they, with difficulty, unclutched those hands now cold and stiff in death. He was just elevating to his sure eye this gun. No man was a surer shot. What a bap- tism of blood did those soldiers then receive ! The question is now, Do these men deserve this monu- ment? One that shall speak?

Davis' case is without a parallel and was so con- sidered by the Legislature and by Congress when they granted aid to his widow. There never can be another. There never can be but one man who headed the first column of attac/: on the King's troops in the Eerohitionary War. And Isaac Davis was that i/><at. Others fell, but not exactly as he fell. Give them the marbie. Vote them the monument, one that shall speak to all future generations and speak to the terror of kings and to the encouragement of all who will be free and who, when the bloody crisis comes to strike for it, " are not afraid to go."

The Birth-Place of Captain Isaac Davis. — Captain Isaac Davis was the son of Ezekiel Davis and Mary Gibson, of Stow. He was born February 23, 1745, at the place in West Acton known as the Jonathan B. Davis House, where Mr. George Hagar now lives. He was baptized, June 23, 1745. He

married Hannah Brown, of Acton, October 24, 1704. She was born in Acton in 174(5. On February 10, 17H5, he covenanted with the church.

Captain Isaac Davis' House at the Time of the Concord Fight. — It lies about eighty rods southwest, from the present site of Deacon W. W. Davis, at Acton Centre. We pass through the lane from Deacon Davis', still traveled as a private way, but at that time the old road ; then go through the pastures, then strike the avenue leading to the resi- dence of Mr. Charles Wheeler. His present house now stands very nearly where Captain Davis' house stood in 1775.

The two fine elms in front on the opposite side of the road, if permitted to stand, will help the anti- quarian to locate the grounds, destined, as the years go by, more than ever to be the centre of Acton's local interest. The house in which he lived, has been re- placed by another and that one repaired and enlarged. It was for many years the residence cf Nathaniel Greene Brown, from 1812. It was occupied by Joseph Brown many years before 1812. It was known for some time as the Ward Haskell place, who recon- structed the building in later years, a noted carpenter. Elias Chaffiu occupied the place in 1812. The origi- nal house was two story in front, and the back sloped down to one, the kitchen in the lower part.

An old apple-tree, a few years since, stood seven rods from Mr. Wheeler's house in his present orchard. This was the shooting mark of Captain Davis in his gun practice. The scars made by the bullets had been healed over, and what seemed like burrs covered the body of the tree when cut down. Mr. Wheeler now regrets that the wood of this tree was not at the time made into small memorial blocks, as keepsakes in memory of the noted marksman. Such relics are more in demand now that the days of the newness have passed, and the oldness has come instead.

This site must ever have a historical value, as the house of Davis, on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, where his company gathered, ready for battle, and where the funeral took place, of the three mar- tyred soldiers, Mr. Swift officiating, and where the yeomanry of this surrounding country met on that epoch day, to join with the widow and the breaved public in solemn rites of burial. The antique flat stepping-stone at the ell door of Mr. Wheeler's house is the same trodden by Captain Davis and family, and consecrated by the remembrances of that funeral occasion.

Captain Isaac Davis' Widow and Family Record and later Residence. — The children of Isaac and Hannah (Brown) Davis were: Isaac, born in 1765, a bachelor. He gave his father's sword to Concord. Another son whose name is not known. Hannah, born in 1768, and married Amos Noyes in 1793. She had a daughter, Harriet, who married Mr. Simon Davis, the father of Harriet and Simon Davis. Amos Noyes was the grandfather of Lucian Ephraim>

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

born in 1773, settled in Maine. Mary, born in 1774, married Noab Fitch in 1796.

The widow married for second husband Mr. Samuel Jones, a man of property, July 30, 1782. She had by Mr. Jones, Samuel and Eliza. Samuel was a lawyer and built the house adjoining the monument house, one story, where he had a law-office.

The building was built upon the stumps of the trees, without a cellar. These old stumps were found years afterwards when digging the cellar. This house was afterwards more recently raised to two stories by Simon Davis.

Samuel also built the house owned and occupied now by Mr. John E. Cutter, and the house now owned and occupied by Rev. F. P. Wood, and where for a time Mr. Jones himself lived.

Elijah married a Mr. Waite, and lived in Groton, Massachusetts, and afterwards moved to Albany, New York. She taught school and was highly edu- cated. She secured on one of her visits to Acton a fine oil portrait of her mother in later life, which was much admired and must be a valuable painting if still preserved as an heirloom.

For her third husband she married a Mr. Francis Leighton, of Westford, November 21, 1802. After his decease she lived with her granddaughter, Mrs. Simon Davis (Harriet Noyes) occupying the house now owned by Mr. Lucian Noyes, the grandson of Amos Noyes.

There she was living when Rev. Mr. Woodbury called upon her in company with his brother Levi. When asked by Mr. Levi how she managed to live so long, she replied, " I have always lived on the best I could get."

She was a good-sized woman, well developed, and with marked features. She is well remembered by many still living in Acton.

Mr. Woodbury, in his legislative speech, thus refers to her: " These buckles were given to me by Davis' widow, when ninety years old, under very affecting circumstances. I had rendered her aid, in pro- curing an annuity of fifty dollars from the Common- wealth, and that being insufficient, two hundred dollars more from the United States. Before these grants she had nearly come to want. The money arrived. We were all delighted at the success almost unexpected, for advocating which before the House of Representatives I am under greater obligations to my eloquent friend on my right (General Caleb Gush- ing), then a member of the House, than to any other man, and to Honorable Daniel Webster in the United States Senate, for which, with all his recent sins on his head, I must love him as long as I live. He never employed his gigantic mind in a nobler cause."

On receiving the money, " Take your pay, Mr. Woodbury," said the old lady.

"I am fully paid already," I said ; " but, if you have any Revolutionary relic of your husband. Captain

Davis, if nothing more than a button, I should like it right well. She took her cane and hobbled along to her old chest and drew out these shoe-buckles.

" There," said she, " I have lost everything else that belonged to him. These I had preserved for his children, but if you will accept them they are yours."

Precious relics! seventy-five years ago bathed in the heart's blood of one who, in the name of God and oppressed humanity, headed the column of the first successful attack in modern times of people re- sisting kings, of ruled against rulers, of oppressed against oppressors. Yes, the very first in these years of the world, but by the grace of God, who has de- clared himself the God of the oppressed, not the last ! no, by no means. When I have done with them I will hand them over to my children as worth their weight in gold. By these buckles I would swear my son, as Hamilcar, that noble African prince, swore his son Hannibal, " never to give up to Rome." I say, by these shoe-buckles, would I swear my son to be faithful unto death, as Davis was in the cause of human liberty, and the just rights of man. Handle them, sir ! handle them ! How at the touch of these, patriotism, like electricity, will thrill through your bones :

"And one was safe and asleep in his bed, Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket ball."

Revolutionary War. — January 20, 1776, Mid- dlesex County was ordered to raise a regiment of 571. Acton's quota was thirteen.

A new organization of militia was made in Febru- ary, 1776, and Acton was assigned to the Third Regi- ment, Francis Faulkner, of Acton, being made Lieutenant-colonel. The officers of the Acton com- pany were Simon Hunt, captain; John Heald, Jr., first lieutenant ; Benjamin Brabrook, second lieuten- ant. A regiment raised inSeptember,1776,commanded by Eleazer Brooks, of Lincoln, was in the battle of White Plains. Rev. Moses Adams, of Acton, was chaplain. The Acton company was in the engage- ment, Thomas Darby being killed. The regiment be- haved bravely.

Of a company of eighty-nine men at Dorchester, in the fall of 1776, Acton furnished five.

Thirteen Acton men were of the 670 Middlesex men in the three months' New York Campaign, beginning in November, 1776.

A company sent to Rhode Island in the summer of 1777 had for its first lieutenant Daniel Davis, of Acton. In October, same year, a volunteer company of sixty-three men from Acton and Concord left Con- cord for Saratoga, arriving there on the 10th and en- camping two days. On the 13th they went to Fort Edward. On the 14th and 15th they wenton a scout, and on the 16th brought in fifty-three Indians, several Tories and some women. They returned to Saratoga on the 16th, and had the pleasure to see the whole of Burgoyne's army " parade their arms," and march out

WIFE OF CAPTAIN ISAAC DAVIS.

ACTON.

203

of our lines. They guarded the prisoners to Cam- bridge. Captain Simon Hunt, of Acton, commanded the company that was of the guard at Cambridge, November 28, 1777.

Acton furnished five men for the army April 20, 1779; four more between April and June; eleven, September 1st; eleven June 5, 1780; ten December 2d ; and eight June 15, 1781.

List of the Men of Acton in the War of the Revolution. Isaac Davis ; Capt. Davis liveil on the Ward Haskell farm, about one mile west of the meeting-house. John Hayward, Lieut., grandfather Co Ebenezer Hayward, lived on the Swift Fletcher place. John Ileald, Ensign, entered the Continental army and rose to be Captain ; lived on John Nickles' place, and after the war kept tavern on the Westford and Concord road, under tlio great elms, where John Ileald died a few years since, and where his son William now resides. His daughter Lydia gave me a letter of Ensign John, dated at Ticonderoga, March 20, 1776, for his wife, directed to Lieut. John Heald, his father, who was out also in the Revolutionary war. Joseph Piper, clerk, uncle to our Silas Piper ; David Forbush, Orderly Sergeant, died 181)3, aged 85, uncle to Captain Forbush, covered with David's blood when shot ; Oliver Em- erson, Sergeant, died in 1818, aged 43 years ; George Mayfield, Sergeant ; Seth Brooks, Sergeant, grandfather of Esquire Nathan Brooks ; Luther Blanchard, lifer ; Francis Baker, drummer ; Joseph Braker 2d ; Ephraim Billings, out in most of the war ; Oliver Brown ; Joseph Chaffin, out in most of the war ; Exekiel Davis, brother to Captain Isaac ; David Davis ; Elijah Davis; John Davis, Mr. Luther Conant's uncle; Reuben Davis, at the taking of Burgoyue ; Jacob Gilbert ; Dea. Benjamin Hayward, out in most of the war, brother of James; Abner Hosmer, killed; James Law, Reuben Law, Joseph Locke, Philip Piper; Joseph Reed, out in most of the war, our William R.'s father ; Stephen Shepherd, out ill most of the war ; Solomon Smith, at the taking of Burgoyue ; Jona- than Stratton; William Thomas, a school teacher, well informed; Thomas Thorp, Ord. Sergeant several years in the Continental army, and was during all the war ; died, 9G yiars old, at Acton ; Jonas Hunt, he was Frances Tuttle's uncle; Abraham Young; Stephen Hosmer, brother to Abner, who was killed ; total of Capt. Davis's company, Joseph Harris (alive in 1851, 81 years old) said the true number was 38 ; James Hayward, an exempt, acted with them as volunteer ; A. F. Adams, John Adams ; Benjamin Brabrook, deacon ; Joseph Brabrook ; Joseph Barker 1st, our Joseph's grandfather ; Samuel Barker, John Barker, William Barker ; David Barker, died at Ticonderoga in 1770 ; James Billings ; Jonathan Billings, died 1824, at the age of 85; Joseph Brooks, Daniel Brooks, Silas Brooks, Paul Brooks, George F. Brooks, Elias Barrow, David Brooks ; Joseph Brown, Captain during the war, fought at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and received a ball at Bunker Hill, which lodged in his body and was afterwards skillfully extracted and Brown shot it back at Saratoga ; Stephen Chaffin ; Elias Chaffiu, died in 1832, aged 77 ; David Chaffin, Simon Chaffin, John Chaffin ; Francis Chaffiu, alarmed Joseph Reed, went into Continental army aud died of small-pox; Robert Chattin, Esq., Robert's father, died 1828, aged 76; John Cole, William Cutting, Silas Conant, Josiah Davis (Isaac's brother), Stephen Davis, Jonas Davis, James Davis, Ephraim Davis, A. C. Davis, Samuel Davis, Amos Davis ; Dauiel Davis, Captain, and father to Eben- ezer, was at the taking of Burgoyue ; Flint Davis ; John Dexter, brother to Timothy ; Ephraim Dudley ; Thomas Derby, killed in battle ; Col. John Edwards, Nathauiel Edwards, John Faulkuer, A. Faulkner, Na- thaniel Faulkner; Col. Francis Faulkner, at the taking of Bnrgoyne, and was Col., grandfather to Col. Wiuthrop E. Faulkner ; James Faulk- ner, Ephraim Forbush, Samuel Fitch; James Fletcher, father to Dea. John Fletcher, took part in the Concord fight at sixteen years of age, as a voluuteer in Davis's company, afterwards enlisted and served through the war, and died, from the fall of a tree, at 53, without pay and before pensions ; Peter Fletchor, Jonas Fletcher, Col. Joseph Fletcher, Daniel Henry Flint, Samuel Fitch, Jude Gilbert; Titus Hayward, colored man, hired by Simon Tuttle ; Simon Hayward ; Dea. Samuel Hayward, father of Jonas; James Hayward, killed, acted as volunteer in Davis' com* pany ; Samuel Hayward, Jr., Josiah Hayward, sons of Samuel ; Stephen Hayward, father of Hon. Steven Hayward ; Ephraim Hapgood, father of Nathaniel ; John Hapgood, John Hapgood, Jr. ; Jonathan Hosmer, Esq., Simon's father, died in the army ; Abraham Bapgood, father of James ; Col. John Heald, father of John H. ; Ephraim Hosmer; Sam- uel Hosmer, father of Dea. Silas Hosmer ; Simon Huut, Lieut., com- manding West Company of common militia from Acton, Capt. Faulkuer

having been promoted to be Major; lived ou Bright place ; Captain in the war ; a good officer ; Jonas Hunt ; John Hunt, his brother, on Coffin place; Paul Hunt, son of Simon; Nathan Hunt, son of Capt. Simon ; Simon Hunt, Jr., son of Capt. Simon; Oliver Houghton, Jonas Heald, Israel Heald, Titus Law, Thomas Law, Stephen Law, Stephen Law, Jr., John Litchfield, John Lampson ; Aaron Jones, father to Capt. Abel ; Oliver Jones, Samuel Jones, Jonas Munroe, Nathan Marsh, Thomas Noyes (Lieut.), Josiah Noyes, John Oliver, Abel Proctor; Samuel Piper, at Ticonderoga in 1770; Samuel Parlin, Asa Parlin, Esq., Nathan Parlin, Josiah Parker, Jonas Parker, John Prescott; Benj. Prescott, Jos.Robbins, Captain of East Company, lived near old graveyard ; Joseph Bobbins 2d, also Captain ; George Bobbins, John Robbing, John Robbing, Jr., Jona- than Robbins, Philip Robbins, Robert Robbins, Ephraim Robbing, James Russell (Captain in the French War), Amos Russell, Moses Richardson, Jonas Shepherd, James Shurland ; Samuel Temple, served during tho war, a very good soldier, died 1826, aged 74 ; Samuel Tuttle ; Simon Tuttle, Esq., Francis' grandfather; Eleazer Sawtell ; Edward Wetherbee, Edward's father, gave the alarm up to Simon Tuttle's road to Littleton ; was at the taking of Bnrgoyne; Oliver Wetherbee, Ammi Wetherbee, Roger Wheeler, Thomas Wheeler, Sampson Wheeler, Ezra Wheeler, Hezekiah Wheeler, John Proctor Wheeler, Oliver Wheeler, Timothy Wheeler, Samuel Wheeler, Jude Wheeler, John Wheeler, Daniel White, Mark White, Ebenezer White, Moses Woods, Abraham Young, Samuel Wright, John Willey, Lemuel Whitney, Nehemiah Wheeler.

The list is, no doubt, incomplete. Probably forty or fifty more names ought to be added; here are one hundred and eighty-one.

James T. Woodbury.

Supplies were furnished for the army as needed and called for.

Revolution Items. — Samuel Hosmer, father of Dea- con Silas, was in the Eevolution. He went down to Rhode Island, lived upon horse flesh and berries. He was a born fisherman.

Ezekiel Davis, a soldier of the Revolution, brother of Captain Isaac Davis, in his company. Wounded in the hat at the Concord fight. Died February 15, 1820, aged sixty-eight.

John Cole, captain in Colonel Robinson's regiment ; served in Rhode Island from July, 1777, to January 1, 1778.

Simon Hunt, captain in Third Regiment Militia.

Benjamin Brabrook, second lieutenant ; died Jan- uary 14, 1827, eighty-five years, six months.

Thomas B. Darby, killed at battle of White Plains, 1776.

Fifteen Acton men were in that battle.

East Acton Company : Captain, Joseph Robbins; Israel Heald, first lieutenant ; Robert Chaffin, second lieutenant.

Littleton, February 19, 1776. — Jonathan Fletcher was a minute-man at Lexington, April 19, 1775. He enlisted in Captain Abijah Wyman's company, Wil- liam Prescott's regiment. He was at the battle of Bunker Hill, at which Colonel Prescott's regiment suf- fered such severe loss of life. At the siege of Boston, on Winter Hill, January, 1776, as fifer from Acton. He was lieutenant and captain until the close of the war — five years. Eighteen years old when enlisted. Son of Major Daniel.

Colonel Francis Faulkner and Captain Simon Hunt were in the battle of White Plains, Colonel Eleazer Brooks' regiment; behaved finely on this occasion.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Address. — At the second centennial anniversary of the incorporation of*the

264

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

town of Concord, September 12, 1835, ten of the sur- viving veterans who were in arms at the Bridge on the 19th of April, 1775, honored the festival with their presence ; four of the ten were from Acton — Thomas Thorp, Solomon Smith, John Oliver, Aaron Jones. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the orator of that day, thus speaks of these men :

" The presence of these aged men, who were in arms on that day, seems to bring us nearer to it. The benignant Providence which has prolonged their lives to this hour, gratifies the strong curiosity of the new generation. The Pilgrims are gone ; but we see what manner of persons they were who stood in the worst perils of the Revolution. We hold by the hand the last of the invincible men of old, and con- firm from living lips the sealed records of time. And you, my fathers, whom God and the history of your country have ennobled, may well bear a chief part in keeping this peaceful birthday of our town. You are indeed extraordinary heroes. If ever men in arms had a spotless cause, you had. You have fought a good fight. And having quit you like men in the battle, you have quit yourselves like men in your vir- tuous families, in your corn-fields, and in society.

" We will not hide your honorable gray hairs under perishing laurel leaves, but the eye of affection and veneration follows you. You are set apart, and for- ever, for the esteem and gratitude of the human race. To you belongs a better badge than stars and ribbons. This prospering country is your ornament, and this expanding nation is multiplying your praise with millions of tongues."

The French and Indian War. — Acton has pre- served its record as a gunpowder settlement from the start. Before its separate organization as a town, during the Colonial period, there are proofs which show its preparations for self-defence, in case of at- tack from the Indians or any other foes. After that date the town records show the same. March 21, 1744, the town voted to procure powder and bullets as a town stock. At a later date the town voted to re- plenish the stock of ammunition.

The town had an important part in " the French and Indian War," 1750-63.

There is a tradition that Captain Gershom Davis led out a company from Acton in 1759, and that Captain J. Robbins led another company four years later near the close of the war.

Major Daniel Fletcher was born within the present territorial limits of Acton, October 18, 1718. He was a lieutenant in Captain David Melvin's company from March to September in 1747, and was stationed at Northfield. He was a captain of a company of foot in his Majesty's Service, in a regiment raised by the Province of Massachusetts Bay for the reduction of Canada, whereof Kbenezer Nichols, Esq., was colonel, in which expedition he was wounded and taken pris- oner. Enlisted as captain March 13, 1758, to No- vember 28, 1858. He was captain in Colonel F rye's

regiment, and in the service in the Province of Nova Scotia, after the 1st of January, 1760, and at the time of their discharge.

In 1768 he was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives of His Majesty's Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay in New England. On June 26, 1776, he was elected by ballot by the Massachusetts Assembly, major for the Third Battalion destined to Canada. He died in the fifty-ninth year of his age. See his epitaph in the record of Woodlawn Cemetery. He had nine children, all born in Acton, — Daniel, Charles (died young), Peter, Sarah, Ruth, Joseph, Charles, Jonathan. His oldest son, Daniel, married Ann Bacon, of Acton, September 11, 1760. They had one child, Ann, born November 12, 1769, married May 27, 1788, to James Law. Peter married Martha Farrar, of Acton, and they had several children. Ruth married Joseph Barker, and they had several children. Joseph married Abigail Bacon, of Lincoln, Massachu- setts.

The Second Meeting-House. — The town had much difficulty in locating this house. At one time they voted to build at the junction of the road lead- ing from West Acton with the road leading from En- sign Josiah Noyes to Moses Richardson, near a flat rock at that point, supposed to be the one lying east of the Puddle hole, on Joseph Reed's land, and west of Francis Barker's, now occupied by Mr. Maurice Lane.

This vote was afterwards reconsidered, and they finally left it to a committee to decide, consisting of Joseph B. Varnum, of Dracut, John Whitney, of Lancaster, and Walter McFarland, of Hopkington. The committee decided that the house ought to stand upon the site now occupied by the present town- house.

Their report was accepted by a vote of 73 to 59. After the house was located it was thought best to have it face a Common, and for this purpose the fol- lowing purchases of land were made: Of Deacon Joseph Brabrook, 25 rods at $200 per acre, $31.40; of John White, a little over an acre, Mr. White to re- move his house and fruit trees, $460; of Paul Brooks, one-half acre and 27 rods, $80.40. In addition to these the following gifts of land were made to the town : By James Fletcher, father of Deacon John, 9 rods ; Samuel and James Jones, 1 acre and 27 rods. The town seems to have been especially indebted to him for its Common. He was a prominent man at that time and represented the town in the General Court that year, and he was doubtless a moving spirit in the matter. He was a lawyer, and had an office in the north end of the house lately occupied by A. L. Noyes, of the Monument House. He built and resided in the house now the home of Rev. F. P. Wood. He constructed a turnpike over the hill by his house upon the elevation of land over which it passed, but he became financially embarrassed and left for New Orleans to escape imprisonment for debt.

THE SECOND MEETING

HOUSE.

1807.

ACTON.

265

In connection with the building of the second meeting-house was the following vote : — " At a meet- ing, November 3, 1806, it was propounded whether the committee shall at the sale of the pews give the people any spirituous liquors at the expense of the town — passed in the negative." This prohibition idea seems to be no new notion in the histoiy of the town :

"September 4, 1812.

"iToknow if the town will provide any refreshments for the companies in this town on muster day, and pass any vote or votes the town may think proper upon the above article.

11 Voted to provide some refreshments for the companies on muster day.

"Voted to raise forty-six dollars.

"Voted to choose a com. to provide the following: 200 w. beef; 50 P. 0. cheese ; li bushel of meal made into bread ; 2 D. O. pottatoes ; 200 pickles; 10 gallons of W.I. Bum."

This muster was to be on Acton Common, Septem- ber 1, 1806. The town voted to choose a committee of five persons to make a draft of such a meeting- house as they shall think proper for the accommoda- tion of the inhabitants, and report to the town at that next meeting. Voted to choose said committee by ballot. The following persons were elected for the purpose : Aaron Jones, David Barnard, Winthrop Faulkner, Phineas Wheeler, Captain David Davis. The dimensions of the building subsequently reported by this committee were fifty -seven feet long and fifty- five wide, with a projection of fifteen feet in front. Voted, to accept and build the meeting-house as re- ported. Voted, to build the year ensuing and have said house finished January 1, 1808. Voted, that the committee who drafted the plan be the committee to have charge of the building.

It was for the times a generous appropriation, and the structure was successfully completed and was universally admired as a model in its design. It had an elevated tower for the belfry and above the belfry another ornamental circular story, supported by high posts, with a circular and graceful roof, rising from whose centre projected the elevated iron shaft for the support of the vane.

The internal arrangements were in harmony — a spacious vestibule, with three doors from the outside and the same from within ; square pews, with rising seats ; an elevated pulpit, approached by long, wind- ing steps on either side ; a gallery, high and ranging on three sides, curving in front ; a ceiling, high and arched overhead.

The artistic effect from within on the Sabbath, when the whole town was supposed to be present, and the great choir joined with the pastor in giving effect to the service in prayer and song, and all the congregation stood with reverent mien, was impres- sive to any one participating. The Sabbath in those days had an interest, civil, social and religious, be- yond the ordinary rountine of later dates.

The sacrifices made in constructing this costly temple intensified the appreciation by the people of its beauty and its uses. There was timber enough in this building to construct a good-sized village,

spread lightly around according to modern style. It was of the best quality and furnished in lavish abund- ance.

The first bell, which was mounted high up in the tower, cost $570, and when it swung out its peals on Sabbath morn it was a missive to all the households in the town. It meant business as well as worship to get all things in readiness and reach the steps of the church before the last stroke of the tolling bell.

There must have been at one time at least thirty horse-sheds ranged in lines in the rear of the build- ing and giving an impressive outlook to its surround- ings, especially on the Sabbath and town-meeting days, when they would all be occupied.

John C. Park, Esq., grandson of Parson Adams, writes to Hon. John Fletcher from Boston, February 6, 1874, acknowledging the receipt of the Acton Moni- tor: "Some of the happiest days of my childhood were spent at Acton, and many pleasant memories are revived. I must come and see for myself, for I cannot realize the burning of gas in a village where I helped my grandmother and aunt to make ' dips.' Speaking of Hosmer, one of my earliest recollections is my childish admiration of the great 'H,' a silver- plated letter on the back of the chaire which brought Deacon Hosmer to meeting. Do you remember it? Do you remember how we used to turn up the seats for prayer in the old church, and the clatter it made letting them down at the close, and how one naughty little boy (John C. Park) used to keep his to the last?"

Persons connected with this church so far as ob- tained: Deacons: Simon Hunt, Benjamin Hay ward, Josiah Noyes, John Wheeler, John White, Phinehas Wheeler, Daniel Fletcher Barker, Silas Hosmer, John White 2d.

Pew-holders (left body pews) : Mrs. Simeon" Hay- ward, David Barnard, Esq., Stevens Hayward, Esq., Deacon John White, Luther Conant.

Right body pews : Simon Hosmer, Esq., Silas Holden, Levi Waitt, Deacon Benjamin Hayward, Seth Brooks.

Choristers : Winthrop Faulkner, Silas Jones, Luther B. Jones, Daniel Jones.

Players on musical instruments : Bass viol, Jona- than Billing, Abraham B. Handley ; double bass viol, Eben Davis ; violin, Winthrop E. Faulkner, Henry Skinner ; clarionet, Elnathan Jones, Samuel Hosmer.

Singers : Polly Davis, Ellen Jones, Lucy J. Jones,

Abigail Jones, Jerusha Brooks, Ann Piper, Captain

Abel Jones, Simon Davis, Seth Davis, Benjamin

Wild, Amasa Wild, Edward Wetherbee, Oliver Weth-

... * erbee, Jedidiah Tuttle, Rebecca Davis, Susan Davis,

Catharine Wetherbee, Lucinda Wetherbee, Polly Wetherbee, Susan Piper, Lucinda Piper, Mary Faulk- ner, Charlotte Faulkner, Catharine Faulkner, Susan Faulkner, Clarissa Jones, Amasa Davis. Jessie Pierce, Uriah Foster, Alden Fuller, Jonathan Piper, Dr. Harris Cowdry.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

266

Rev. Mr. Adams, the second minister, enjoyed the advantages of this spacious and elegant church during the last eleven years of his pastorate and of his life ; Rev. Mr. Shedd during the eleven years of his pastorate. The huilding stood for over fifty years as an attractive centre for civil and religious uses. By the decision of the courts the building came into the possession of the First Parish, and this parish deeded it to the town June 4, 1859.

In the great fire of November, 1862, which took in the barn of the hotel and which consumed the hotel, the tailor's shop building, occupied by Samuel Des- pean as a tailor-shop and by Daniel Jones as a store, the shoe factory of John Fletcher & Sons, and threatened at one time the whole village ; a blazing shingle was wafted on high across the Common and struck the highest roof of the church tower, became fixed and soon ignited the steeple. The people below stood helpless and appalled, as nothing could be done to stay the raging flames. The whole building with all its massive timbers were in one brief hour a heap of smouldering ashes. This earthly structure went up as in a chariot of fire and was translated to the third heavens by the order of Him to whom it was originally dedicated. The building has gone, but its memories of pastor and choir and congregation abide.

William D. Tuttle. — The time when the very first settlements were made on the present territory of Acton is a matter of some uncertainty. It is evi- dent from the town records that the town was pretty well settled over at the date of its incorporation. People were living in all parts of it at that time. The Indians had withdrawn to other hunting-grounds, and had ceased to be a cause of fear or annoyance.

The first public enterprise was the building of a meeting-house for public worship, being one of the conditions of the act of incorporation, and the next was to construct roads by which the people could get to it.

These were little more than bridle-paths cut through the forest from one homestead to another and con- necting them all more or less directly with the meet- ing-house and the mills. That it was the day of humble beginning and of many privations and hard- ships we can well believe.

For lack of bridges, streams were crossed at what were called ford-ways. Forests were to be felled, houses to be erected, fences to be built, which required the strong arms of a sturdy race of men. Life was real and earnest to the men and women of that time. If their home life was barren of many of the luxuries and conveniences of modern days, there was in it a large element of downright sincerity, hearty good cheer and mutual helpfulness.

The church was then the centre of the social as well as the religious life of the people. It must have been an interesting sight to see the people on Sunday coming up from all parts of the town on horseback or on foot, for carriages, whether spring or otherwise.

were not yet, to attend divine service at the ancient church.

It was here that neighborly courtesies were exercised, mutual acquaintances and friendship formed, many of which developed in after years into more intimate relations. The town-meeting — that nursery of states- men— was also another of the educators of those days. Four or five times in a year did the inhabitants come together as a body to discuss their local affairs, to choose their town officers and to make regulations for their mutual welfare. If any one had a grievance, if his taxes pressed too heavily, if his accommodations in the way of roads were insufficient — whatever might be the cause of his complaint, here was a trib- unal of his peers, where he could be heard and where justice was usually done.

From its first settlement to the present time Acton has been mainly an agricultural town. The first set- tlers depended for their livelihood on what they could get from the soil and from what grew above it. They had cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, the latter being permitted for many years to run at large and pick up their living in the woods.

Their agriculture was a varied one; money was scarce and hard to get. Everything that could con- tribute to the support and sustenance of a family was included in the farmer's course of husbandry. Wool, flax, Indian corn, rye, oats, beans, turnips, beef, pork and the products of the dairy were the principal products raised. Clothing was largely of home man- ufacture and the noise of the spinning-wheel and loom was heard in every well-appointed household.

They had plenty of apples, all natural fruit (the finer varieties being of later introduction), and nearly all the large farms had a cider-mill, which was kept busy during the months of October and November in producing a beverage all too common in those days.

From a census return made in 1790, it appears that no large number of cattle and horses was kept com- pared with what is usual at present, and but little English hay cut; the natural meadows being relied upon to a great extent for the supply of hay for stock.

Coming down to a later time, to the year 1800, a period of sixty-five years, we find the town's people in comparatively easy circumstances. Many had ac- cumulated a fair estate for those times. More pre- tentious houses were erected and an era of general prosperity seems to have dawned.

In 1807 the town built the second meeting-house at an expense of nearly or quite §10,000, paid for by the sale of pews and a town tax of $1151, all of which was accomplished without apparent difficulty.

The manufacture of bellows was carried on exten- sively by Ebenezer Davis, senior and junior, for many years in the east part of the town.

A large and well-appointed flour and grain mill was erected on an ancient mill site by Daniel Weth- erbee, in 1840, which, under the management of him- self and son, has continued to the present time.

ACTON.

267

The pencil manufactory of Henry M. Smith, East Acton, was built in 1848, by Ebenezer Davis, Esq., and has been occupied successively since that time by Benjamin Davis, sash and blind manufactory ; by William Schouler, print works; by A. G. Fay as pencil manufactory, and by its present occupant also in the manufacture of lead-pencils.

Among the various industries pursued for many years in the early part of the century, was the coop- ering business, from fifteen to twenty thousand bar- rels annually having been manufactured. The little cooper-shops, so numerous in all parts of the town, in which many of the inhabitants found employment in the winter season, is conclusive proof that the busi- ness was a source of very considerable income.

The indenture of Gill Piper March 25, 1790, copied from the town papers is here inserted as a specimen of the times and the business then popular.

The Indenture of Gill Piper.

March 25, 1790.

This indenture witmssetli. That Francis Faulkner, Aaron Jones and Jonas Heald, Selectmen of the town of Acton, Mass , Middlesex Co., put and bind (Jill Piper, a minor, now under the care of the Selectmen aforesaid, unto Paul Hunt, and Betsey, his wife, to Lame the Cooper's trade ; after the manner of an apprentice to dwell and serve from the date hereof until he, the said Gill Piper, shall arrive to the age of 21 years; during all which term the said Gill, his said Master and Mistress worthily and faithfully shall serve, their secrets keep close, their Lawful and reasonable commands Readily obey and perform ; damage to his said Master and Mistress he shall not do, or suffer to be done by others without informing his said Master or Mistress of the same ; tavern he shall not frequent ; at cards, dice, or any other unlawful game he shall not play ; matrimony he shall uot contract, or fornication commit with any person ; but in all things behave himself as a good and faithful ap- prentice until his fulfilment of his years or term above mentioned ; and the said Paul Hunt, for himself and his heirs, do covenant, promise and agree with the said Francis Faulkner, Aaron Jones, and Jonas Heald, selectmen of the said town of Acton, and their successors in said trust, in this manner following, that is to say, that said Paul Hunt will teach or cause to be taught the said Gill Piper to read and write and cipher (if capable to learn) by giving him one month's schooling in each of the first two years of his service and one month in the last two years of his service, and will find and provide for the same Gill Piper good and suffi- cient meat, drink, washing and lodging, and also sufficient apparel suit- able for one of his degree and calling, during the said term, and at the end of said term to dismiss the said Gill Piper w ith two good suits of Apparel, one suitable for Sabbath days, the other for working days. In witness whereof, the parties set their hands and seals to this indent- ure, the 22d day of March, 1790.

(Signed) Paul Hunt.

Francis Faulkner.

Aaron Jones.

Jonas Heald Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of

Joseph Baker, Jr.,

Job F. Brooks.

Middlesex, ss :

March ye 2.5th, 1790. The above indenture considered and approved of by

Silas Taylor, Francis Faulkner, two Justices of Peace.

Gill Piper has not been heard from since so far as the town records go. We may infer with this start in life, that he became a worthy citizen. Nothing to the contrary has come to eye or ear.

Many hop kilns were erected, but in a few years the prices received were so fluctuating and unsatisfactory as to deter many from embarking in it and the busi-

ness at length became so unremunerative that their culture was abandoned altogether.

Centre Village. — Previous to the time of the building of the second meeting-house there was no considerable village in the town. There were at that time a very few dwelling houses in the Centre, proba- bly not more than a scant half-dozen in all. At this time there was, beside the first meeting-house, the old tavern, kept by Daniel Brooks, his widow Caroline and his son Paul, and afterwards occupied by Nathan- iel Stearns ; the well-known parsonage built by Moses Adams, sometimes called the Bullard place; the house of Benjamin Brabrook, situated a little easterly from the residence of Edward Tuttle; the house of John White, blacksmith, a little westerly of the pres- ent town-house; a cottage-house, where Francis Hos- mer now lives, and one where Eddie F. Conant resides.

The building of the second meeting-house gave an impetus to building operations in this village; and about this time, 1807, the tavern first occupied by Henry Durant, afterward by Silas Jones, for many years and others later, was built, as also the house now occupied by T. F. Noyes ; L. B. Jones' house now occupied by Rev. F. P. Wood ; one on the site ot that occupied by William D. Tuttle; one by John and James Fletcher, lately removed to make room for the Memorial Library. The house so long occupied by Stephen Weston, now occupied by John F. Davis, and the Cyrus Dole house now occupied by J. E. Cutter and the Edward Tuttle hou*e.

The large mansion west of the town-house, long the residence of Hon. Stevens Hayward, was built about this time by Doctor Peter Goodknow. A store was kept on the site of the library building by James and John Fletcher, which was burnt. At a later date the store now occupied by M. E. Taylor, was built and kept by Joseph W. Tuttle, Francis Tuttle, James Tuttle, Rufus Holden, Daniel Jones, J. E. Cutter and many others, almost continuously to the present time. Samuel Jones, Esq., had a law-office for a short time where the house of A. L. Noyes stands. Samuel Jones, Sr., married the widow of Captain Isaac Davis, and resided on the place now occupied by Rev. F. P. Wood. To his public spirit we are largely indebted for Acton's beautiful Common.

In 180G the town bought of Captain Paul Brooks 107 square rods of land at the east end of the Com- mon, and in 1807, of John White 154 rods, northerly and westerly of the second meeting-house.

In 1806 Samuel Jones, Esq., in consideration of the good-will and respect be had for the inhabitants of Acton, deeded to the town about one and a quarter acres of land extending along the south side of the present Common, from near the house of A. L. Noyes to the house of Luke Smith, to be used as a town- common. The town also purchased of Joseph Bra- brook thirty-one rods of land in 1808, on the north- erly side of the Common, extending from the Robert Chaffin place to the town-house.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

At this time there were not so many houses where the thriving villages of West and South Acton now stand. The latter was universally called Mill Corner, and had three dwelling-houses within a radius of a quarter of a mile, the Ammiruhamah Faulkner House, the tavern and store owned and occupied by Samuel Jones and his son Captain Aaron, the cot- tage-house, nestled under the hill owned by Captain Abel Jones, a son of Aaron ; and the mills consisting of a saw and grist-mill and a fulling-mill, where cloth was dressed and fulled. Many now living can re- member the time when these, with a few out-buildings, were all that made up the village of Mill Corner.

Where the enterprising village of West Acton now stands there was less in the way of building and busi- ness. Bradley Stone built the brick house on the corner in the centre of the village. He estab- lished a blacksmith and wheelwright-shop, near where the house of Yarnum B. Mead now stands, and carried on the business for some years. He also built the first store in West Acton, which was first opened by Sidney and Henry Bull, and afterwards kept by Burbeck & Tenney.

The building of the Fitchburg Railroad, in 1844, marks an important era in the history of the town. Entering the limits of the town at the southeast corner and passing westerly and northerly through the south and west parts of the town, a sudden impetus was given to the growth of these villages, which has continued ever since.

Before this time a communication with our com- mercial metropolis, Boston, was slow and difficult. The country trader's merchandise had to be hauled by means of ox or horse-teams from the city. Lines of stage-coaches indeed radiated in all directions from the city for the conveyanceof passengers, but so much time was consumed in going and returning by this conveyance that a stop over night was absolutely necessary if any business was to be done.

Instead of being whirled rapidly in an hour's time or less into Boston, and having ample time for the transaction of business and returning at night with equal ease and rapidity to our homes, a visit to Boston before the era of the railroad was something to be planned as a matter of serious concern. All the internal commerce between city and country necessi- tated stage-coaches and teams of every description, and on all the main lines of road might be seen long lines of four and eight-horse teams conveying mer- chandise to and from the city.

As a matter of necessity, taverns and hostelries were numerous and generally well patronized. Thus in the east part of Acton, on the road leading from Boston to Keene, there were no less than four or five houses of public entertainment. With the advent of railroads all this changed. The Fitchburg Railroad was completed to West Acton in the autumn of 1844, and that village became a distributing point for the deliv- ery of goods destined for more remote poiuts above.

Two names may be mentioned in connection with the location of this road through the limits of this town, — Colonel Winthrop E. Faulkner, of South Acton, and Bradley Stone, of West Acton.

Public-spirited and powerfully impressed with the importance of securing the location of the road through their respective villages, they labored untir- ingly until this was secured, positively and beyond a doubt. No personal effort was spared and no obstacle was suffered to stand in the way. until the coveted end was gained. Who will- say that their ambition was not a worthy one, and has not been amptly justi- fied?

The April meeting warrant for 1840 contained this article : " To see if the town will take measures to have trees set out on the Common." On this article the town granted leave to set trees on the Common, and chose a committee of seven to say where ihey shall be placed. Francis Tuttle, John Fletcher, Winthrop E. Faulkner, John White, Nathan Brooks, Simon Tuttle and Rufus Holden were appointed as this committee.

The said trees were to consist of rock maple, button- wood, elm and white ash. As the result of this ac- tion of the town, the committee extended a general invitation to all the inhabitants to bring in suitable trees for transplanting, of the kinds mentioned, on the 19th of April. As the 19th came on Sunday that year, the trees were set on the following day under the direction of the committee. The people responded nobly, and from all parts of the town the citizens came into the village on the morning of the 20th loaded with trees ; nearly all lived and grew well. Most of the rock maples were set out at a later date, 1859.

Our notice of the village of the Centre would be incomplete without the mention of the name of one prominent in the business history of the town for years. John Fletcher, at first a country trader in a small way, began the manufacture of boots and shoes in 1815. Finding a ready sale for his goods, he con- tinued to enlarge his manufacturing facilities until his boots and shoes were well and creditably known far and wide. He associated his two sons, John and Ed- win, with him under the firm-name of John Fletcher & Sons. The firm did a successful business for many years.

The Great Fire. — In the evening of Oct. 24, 1862, occurred the greatest fire Acton has ever known. Beginning at the stable near the hotel, the shoe man- ufactory of John Fletcher & Sons, the hotel, and store occupied by Daniel Jones, and finally the town hall, formerly the meeting-house, built in 1807, all were in a short time consumed.

The incendiary had done his work but too well, and had left, as he had threatened, a black mark in the Centre Village. Looking over the scene of desolation, it seemed as though the place was doomed to extinc- ' tion. Good friends, however, came to the rescue. In

ACTON.

269

the November warrant for town-meeting an article was inserted to see what action the town will take in regard to building a new town-house. At this meet- ing it was voted to choose a committee of six persons, one from each school district, to obtain plans, specifi- cations and estimates to report at a future meeting.

On Tuesday, the 2d day of December, another meet- ing was called to hear the report of the committee. At this meeting it was voted not to build a town-house. Another meeting was called on the 15th of the same month. In the warrant was inserted the following : " To see if the town will build a house suitable for a town hall and armory for the Davis Guards."

At this meeting it was voted that when the town build a town-house it be built on the spot where the old one stood. Also voted to choose a committee of seven, by ballot, with full powers to build a town-house with an armory in it suitable for the town within the next twelve months. This committee consisted of Daniel Wetherbee, Samuel Hosmer, James Tuttle, Cyrus Fletcher, David M. Handley, Artemas M. Rowell and Luther Conact.

This was erected the next year, as also the large shoe manufactory of John Fletcher and a new hotel by John E. Cutter. Thus, in a measure, was replaced Acton's great loss by fire.

Among other noted residents of the village for many years was Jonas Blodgett, blacksmith and auc- tioneer. He came to Acton about the year 1830, and carried on his trade until failing health and eyesight obliged him to retire.

West Acton.1 — The brick house on the corner was built by Bradley Stone. He also built the first store at the corner in 1837, where Mead Brothers are now, occupied formerly by Burbeck & Tenney, then Sidney and Henry Bull.

In 1858 Charles Robinson moved that building to where it now stands, occupied by George Conant, bluine manufactory, and built the present store. The hall now used by Isaac Davis' Grand Army Post was built by Mr. Robinson for the use of the Universalist Society, and was used by it for ten years.

The first meat market was opened by John R. Houghton under the tin-shop of L. M. Holt, and was occupied by him until he built his present market. A blacksmith-shop was built by Bradley Stone where the house of V. B. Mead now stands. When this was burned he built a new shop near the site of the old one, and where it now stands, occupied by Samuel A. Guilford. The shop was run for awhile by Enoch Hall, who in 1865 transformed a barn standing near it into the present wheelwright-shop of Herbert F. Clark.

The New England Vise Company in 1868 erected a building for its business which proved unsuccessful. The Butter and Cheese Factory Company was incor- porated about 1873, and ran three or four years.

1 Items furnished by A. A. Wymau, Esq.

This venture proved unprofitable, and the building erected for the company is now occupied by William H. Lawrence, blacksmith, and Waldo Littlefield, car- riage manufacturer.

A part of the ground^ now occupied by the refriger- ator and apple-house of A. & 0. Mead & Co. was a building put up by the West Acton Steam Mill Com- pany in 1848, which was burned in 1852, and, as the business had not been satisfactory, was not rebuilt. The building for the manufacture of overalls and clothing was put up by Charles H. Taylor in 1886.

Soon after the railroad was built through West Acton a tin-shop was built by Henderson Rowell, who occupied it until his death, in 1860. Since then it has been carried on by various persons in the same place, and is now run by Lorenzo M. Holt, who does a large and increasing business.

About 1858 a shoemaker's-shop was built, and was occupied by Oliver C. Wyman until his death, in 1885. The business since then has been carried on by William Mott.

In 1845 Shepley & Davis built a house, which was occupied by a Mr. Page and called Page's Tavern. After a few years it was purchased by Adelbert and Oliver Mead, and reoccupied by them for a dwelling- house a number of years. Since then it has been oc- cupied by various tenants.

In 1848 Dr. Reuben Green opened an office. In 1852 he was bought out by Dr. Isaiah Hutchins, who still occupies the building erected by Dr. Green. In 1848 a post-office was opened in Dr. Green's office, in which building it remained until Dr. Hutchins, in 1854, resigned, whereupon it was transferred to the store, where it remained until the Cleveland adminis- tration, when Hanson Littlefield became postmaster, and the office was removed to his store. In 1889 Charles B. Stone, the present incumbent, was reap- pointed, and removed the office to the room specially built for it.

The grain and grist-mill and cider-mill of E. C. Parker & Co. was built in 1868, burned in 1869 and rebuilt in 1870. The cigar-factory of Frank R. Knowlton was over the store of Hanson Littlefield until the new factory was built in 1889.

Tubs and Pails. — B. F. Taft began the manufacture in the building and was succeeded by Samuel Sargent. Sargent was succeeded by Enoch Hall, who, with his sons, now carry on the business. The business has become an important source of thrift. It was started seventeen years ago and has been steadily increasing.

The lumbering business has been introduced and enlarged ; wood lots and farms have been bought in the neighboring towns with reference to the lumber supply. Tubs, churns and pails are manufactured in large quantities and sent for market in all directions, as far as Australia, South America, California and Europe. Twenty-five men are employed through the year, with extra help in the winter. Estimated aver- age sales per year, $50,000.

270

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Mrs. John Hapgood, the mother of Mrs. Nash, a few weeks before her death, when enjoying unusual clearness of mind, though over eighty years old, wrote out carefully these items from her own personal recol- lections, and the original copj in her handwriting is now with the town clerk. The statements have since been corroborated by Deacon Samuel Hosmer, over eighty-six years old, whose memory is quite clear and retentive.

H. A. Gould's Place. — Deacon Jonathan Hosmer was the first settler on the place that is now owned by Mr. Gould ; he had four sons — Jonathan, Stephen, Abner and Jonas. Abner was the one that fell, April 19, 1775, at Concord Bridge, with Captain Davis. I remember of hearing my aunt Sarah Hosmer, sister of N. D. Hosmer and wife of Samuel Hosmer, when she was very young, say that her grandfather went out to see if he could hear any news on that day, and when lie returned he groaned when he passed their ■window to go into the front door. What sorrow was then experienced !

Stephen Hosmer, one of the sons of Deacon Jona- than Hosmer, settled on the homestead with his father (at Gould's place). His sons were three — Stephen, Nathan Davis and Jonathan. Nathan Davis Hosmer, son of Stephen Hosmer, bought the place, the homestead, and built the new house which is now occupied by Mr. Gould.

The old house was pretty large for those days, two front rooms with entry between, upright back part with two rooms below. The back chanbers were low and unfinished.

Aaron Hosmer, son of Nathan D. Hosmer, had made arrangements to keep the place, the homestead, as his own ; but he died a few months before his father died. If Aaron Hosirfer had lived, the place would probably have been in the Hosmer name now, which would have been the fourth generation.

Jonathan Hosmer, son of Deacon Jonathan Hos- mer, bought and settled on the place now occupied by Mr. Neil, the Simon Hosmer place. It is the first house beyond the Kelley place toward Acton Centre. He had but one son, Simon Hosmer, Esq. He bought the place and lived there most of his lifetime. Afterwards it went into other hands. Francis Tut- tle owned it at one time.

Noyes & Barker Place. — Ephraim Hosmer owned the farm that is now occupied by Noyes & Barker. He was a nephew of Deacon Jonathan Hosmer ; he had a number of children, but buried two or three by the dreadful disease of malignant sore throat. My grandmother, Sarah Davis, wife of Stephen Hosmer, said that one of the girls told her she was hungry but she could not swallow — a terrible disease to get into a family. He had two sons that lived, Joel and Samuel, father of Deacon Silas Hosmer.

Joel kept the home place, but when the turnpike was being made, he thought it would be important to have a hotel or tavern, as it used to be called, and he

built the large house for that purpose now owned by Joseph Noyes and Joseph Barker; but custom failed, it did not meet his expectation, and after a few years the farm had to be sold, a very great disappointment to him and all of his family.

Frank Knowlton's Place. — Samuel Hosmer, brother to Joel Hosmer and son of Ephraim Hosmer, bought the place that Frank Knowlton now owns. He lived in a small house, but had quite a large barn. He was the father of Deacon Silas Hosmer, who succeeded his father on the home farm and built the large two-story house since remodeled by F. R. Knowlton, who is the husband of Emma, daughter of Deacon Silas Hosmer.

Handley Place. — Mr. John Tuttle owned that place in 1800 and was called a very wealthy man. It has been owned by many different persons since — Jacob Priest, Reuben Handley.

Isaac Peed's Place. — William Reed was the first owner of the farm, living there during his lifetime. Then his son William bought and lived there during his life. The present owner is his son, Isaac Reed.

Andrew Hapgood's Place. — It was owned by a widow Brooks. Ephraim Hapgood and Nathaniel Hapgood,, two brothers, bought it of her, Ephraim keeping the old house and Nathaniel building a new one just above it. Ephraim Hapgood and Nathaniel Hapgood were sons of Ephraim Hapgood.

Ebenezer Smith's Place. — Mr. Smith bought the farm when he was quite a young man (do not remember the person); the house was an old one, but they lived in it a number of years, then built a new one; it was called nice in those days. After his death Edwin Parker owned it, living there several years, then sold it to the present owner, Amasa Knowlton.

Ephraim Hapgood's Farm. — Ephraim Hapgood thought it would be a good plan to go to Maine and take up a large tract of land and settle there, as he had several boys. Accordingly, one summer, he went to^ see about it. The next summer he took two of his sous and went to Maine, to a place called now Nor- ridgewock, and worked all summer, intending to take his family the next year.

When the time came for them to start for home Ephraim, grandfather of Mrs. Nash, one of the sons, said he would walk home instead of going by water, and by that means saved his life, for the vessel was shipwrecked and the father and son were both drowned.

Ephraim Hapgood gave up all idea of going to Maine after the death of his father and brother, bought the home-place, took care of his mother, living 1 there his lifetime. After his decease his two youngest sons, John and Benjamin Franklin, bought the farm,, keeping it together several years. Then Benjamin F. bought out his brother John and lived there until his death. He was killed at the crossing of the Fitch- burg Railroad, near Andrew Hapgood. Nathaniel Hapgood was also killed at the same time. The farm : was afterwards bought by Cyrus Hapgood. He kept

DEACON SAMUEL HOSMER.

THE ONLY SURVIVING MEMBER OF THE FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZATION IN ACTON.

ACTON.

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it a few years then sold it to a Mr. Prescott. The house was burned not a great while afterwards. The land is now owned by individuals — only a small house upon it, owned by Mr. Blanchard, for the accommo- dation of hired help.

Simon Blanchard' 's Place. — Abraham Hapgood, brother of Ephraim Hapgood, and son of the one that was drowned, bought the place and lived there during his life.

James Hapgood, his only son, bought the place, keeping it several years, afterwards sold it to Alvin Raymond. He kept it a few years, then sold it to Mr. Jonathan Fletcher. After his death Simon Blanchard, the present owner, bought the place ; married for his first wife Elizabeth Fletcher, daughter of Mr. Jona- than Fletcher.

Mr. Hager's Place. — Elias Chaffin lived on this place a number of years. The next owner was Jonathan B. Davis. He kept it a good many years, then sold it to the present owner, Mr. George Hager.

Leland Place. — It was the home of Captain Stevens Hayward, the father of Stevens Hayward, Esq. Mr. Hayward living there during his life, then his son Stevens owned it many years, afterwards he sold it to Benjamin Lentell. He lived there several years and sold it to Mr. Leland.

A. A. Haynes' Place. — It was the home of Deacon Benjamin Hayward. He had three sons — Moses, Aaron and Luke. Moses was accidentally shot by his own son. His home then was the late Cyrus Hay- ward's place. Aaron Hayward after the death of his father settled on the homestead, but died when quite young.

Alden Fuller Place. — Nathaniel Faulkner in the olden time lived there ; he owned the place ; he had several sons. Nathaniel kept the home-place and lived there during his life. His daughter Sarah mar- ried Alden Fuller. He bought the home-place and lived there during his life.

Houghton Place. — Oliver Houghton bought that place, living in a very old house for a long time. There have been two houses built on that place, the low one built first. Levi Houghton succeeded his father and built the new house. Since his death George H. S. Houghton, a nephew, owns the farm and is living on it.

Mrs. Hapgoods Place was formerly owned by the Faulkners. A widow lived here who had three chil- dren. The son's name was Moses. There must have been two generations before it went into other hands. It has been owned by Brown and a Wilson. Daniel Wetherby bought it afterwards, then John Hapgood bought it.

Coffin Place. — Deacon John Hunt owned this farm for many