Natick Town (part 1 of 2)

Natick Town

HE neighbor towns of Natick are, on the east Neediiam and Diiver in Norfolk County, Sher- Imrii to the south, Franiingham west, and Wayland north. Lake Cochituate, the Long Pond of our fathers, but resuming its Indian name when it became Boston's water-supply, is a noteworthy natural feature. Charles River crooks through South Natick; and on the edge of Dover Pcgan Hill rises four hundred feet. Natick has three villages : the compact, populous Centre, on the Boston and Albany Railroad, seventeen miles from the city ; Felchville, a mile north ; and two miles southeast tlie original settlement, South Natick. Population, by the census of 1875, 7,419.

This town, one of the few in Massachusetts with an Indian name, preserves thus the fact of its aboriginal origin; for when John Eliot's missionary labors at Nonantum bore fruit, he wished to gather these converts into a community remoter from the whites. Riding in quest of a good location, and disappointed in one place examined, the record states that he prayed behind a great rock for guidance in this matter. Soon after a friendly Indian suggested another site, of which Eliot thus writes : " The Lord did discover that there it was his pleasure we should begin this work. When grasse was fit to cut, I sent some Indians to mow, and other to make hay, because wc must oft ride thither in the Autumn, and in the spring before any grasse is come, and there is provision for our horses, their work was performed well, as I found whiii I went u|) to llicm with my man to order it."

N A Tick

They next built a foot-bridge eighty feet long, rising from either end to the centre. It gave easier access, especially in the spring floods, to their gardens and orchards ; for on the left bank of Charles Eiver lay a meadow previously reached by a ford. This bridge was so firmly set that it did good service for years. The Indians gave their labor, though Eliot offered payment, and the bridge was dedicated with religious exercises.

The Speen family (Indians) owned the land which by a quitclaim deed, yet treasured in the town archives, signed by Eliot and witnessed by seventeen Lidians, they generously gave to the common weal, taking only a single right in land, but retaining the weirs they had put in the stream.

Natick has been commonly thought to mean " the place of hills," which it certainly is. Another suggested signification links the word with the sound of water dashing over rocks. A third explanation gives " my land."

History is silent as to the exact time of removal from Nonantum; but on coming to Natick they laid out three parallel streets, two on the north, and one on the south side of the water, and divided the land into fifty lots more or less. That would show a population of two hundred probably. A few houses were built, but Gookin says they liked wigwams better as being warmer and more portable. Then for the general good a fort was constructed, ditched, banked, and stockaded; round and capacious.

In the summer of 1651 they were building a framed edifice, fifty feet by twenty-five, with two stories - the lower a schoolroom week-days, a sanctuary on the Sabbath. The upper story became a warehouse for furs - one of their chief men, Waban, being a trader - and other valuables, with a corner walled off for a small chamber. Here Eliot lodged when at Natick. The natives sawed the timber, and only had the help of an English carpenter at the raising. An Indian despises manual labor ; but these friends of the white teacher proved their civilization and Christianity by their industry and skill. And now, below the wooded hills, we see the riverside plantation in the dense forest.

The next step established the village into a body politic. It was already under the general jurisdiction of the colony, and so Eliot's converts became loyal subjects of tlie English crown. But in local affairs, for his convenience and theirs alike, Eliot would teach them self-government. Read his account : -

" Therefore upon the sixt day of the sixt Month of this present year, (their Pallizadoe Fort being finished) they had a great meeting, and many came together from diverse parts, though sundry were hindered and came not at that time : where with Prayer to God I read and expounded tlie eighteenth of Exodus, and finally they did solemnly choose two rulers among themselves, they first chose a Ruler of an hundred, then they chose two rulers of fifties, then they chose Ten or Tithing ilen." When ten captains of ten men each were elected, every private selected his captain. Totherswamp, we suppose, was generalissimo; our oldest acquaintance, Waban, stood next in rank. So early were they instructed in the science of government, and each man allowed the freeman's right to vote for his rulers. Does Eliot's policy in making his settlers landowners and voters suggest light on the Indian problem of to-day ?

October 8, 1651, was a notable day at Natick. Their revered teacher visited the place. Other dignitaries also came. The minister and the magistrate in those times received marked respect. Church and state were well represented on this occasion. Governor Endicott, Rev. Mr. Wilson of Boston, witli others, wished to be eye-witnesses of tlie good work, and bid the workers Godspeed. The governor came as far as Dediiam, resting there overnight, and next morning, escorted in official dignity by a troop of twenty horsemen, rode hither. We fancy tlie nine miles after leaving Dedham town found clearings scarce, and the bridle-path may have been on an Indian trail through the woods. Rev. Mr. Wilson, with cousin Rawson, the secretary of the colony, spent the night at Watertown Mill, and rode over in the morning.

After the guests had looked around meetingtime came. The drum-beat may have served for a tolling-bell, the falling sands of an hourglass as their clock to measure time. We suppose the service that day was held in the open air inside the fort. The meeting-house probably stood within the palisade. The visitors were seated under a canopy ; beneath a smaller awning were the village magistracy, twelve men ; the Indian women were in one part, the men in another. What a scene ! - the governor in state ; the reverend clergy, eager listeners ; the train-band with a trumpeter at least to make music ; and before them the dark sons of the forest, men, women, and children, a hundred or more ! One of the best-taught natives preached. His name is not chronicled, but we have his text and homily, the treasures hid in a field, and the merchantman seeking goodly pearls. When he prayed he stood up, but gave his exhortation sitting on a stool. He was dressed like the English, and discoursed three quarters of an hour. Then Eliot expounded for an hour. The governor and Mr. Wilson briefly addressed the assembly through an interpreter. Finally the schoolmaster, Monequassun, deaconed off' a psalm, which the Indians sang to an English tune cheerfully and "pretty tunable," the governor writes.

After service the chief men consulted with Endicott about a grist-mill they proposed to build. Mr. Wilson speaks of the fair house, the fruittrees, of the goodly plain over the river toward Dedham, their planting ground, and their bridge.

Civil aff'airs being arranged, Eliot sought to gather the converts into church estate, a task needing more time and patience than the former ; for the churches, as well as the converts, must be sure of their thorough preparation. Nor do we forget the helpers in England who watched their progress with unflagging interest. In 164-9 had been incorporated The Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England. Men like Baxter, Caryl, and Sir Thomas Boyle co-operated. They gathered funds to sustain Eliot and his coworkers. The letters of Wilson, Shepard, Mayhew, and Eliot were published and widely read; and the titles of these little books reveal a growing confidence in the good work : The Day Bri'iikimj, if not the Snn-rising of f.Iie Gospel with the Iiidicnis ; The dear See S/iiee of the Gosjiel; The Light appearieij lenrr mill more uuto the perfeet Dcii/. These tracN all'iird original information from the workers themselves.

Waban and others became Cliristians at Nonantum. Good Wampoas on his death-bed there said to his friends, " I now shall dye, but Jesus Christ callcth you that live to go to Natieke, that there the Lord might rule over you, tliat ynu miglit make a church, and have the Ordinances of (iod among you."

October 13, 1652, the elders and messengers of the cliurches met with Mr. Eliot and his dusky friends at Natick. Five of the principal natives told their religious ex])erieTicc, which was translated for the visitors. The waning afternoon gave no time for others, but the confessions of fifteen were next spring published with the title. Tears of Repentance, and widely read on both sides of the Atlantic.

June 13, 1654, eight men from Natick went Koxbury for examination. Monequassun, the school-teacher and chorister, was detained by sickness, of which he died soon after.

In 1656 Daniel Gookin of Cambridge became civil superintendent of all the Indians under Massachusetts jurisdiction. This office brought him into close relations with Eliot, and the two wrought each in his sphere most lovingly ; one ordering the civil matters of the natives, and the other their religious. Roxbury and Cambridge were mutual helpers in gosjDelizing the aborigines in yet another way, as we shall soon see.

In the fall of 1658 a solemn fast was kejjt at Natick, partly preparatory to church gathering, partly also on account of excessive rains, hurtful to their crops. The substance of the exhortations, or sermons, by Waban and Nishokou is still extant.

At last the Natick church was gathered in 1660, composed of those whose confessions had been printed, with others ; but just when, and with how many members, and under what circumstances, we find no record.

In a letter of later date Eliot describes the church usages of the Praying Indians. Their practice was like the whites in the inchurching, and after a church was established they received menabcrs thus : " They were diligently examined botli ])rivately and publickly in the catechism, their blameless and pious conversation is testified to, their names are publickly exposed as desiring to make confession. When the teachers and chief brethren judge them meet they are called publickly to confess, confederate, and be baptized, both themselves and their children, if not grown up. All the Indian churches in 1673 were furnished with officers, saving the church at Natick, and in modesty they stand off, because so long as I live, they say there is no need; but we propose (God willing) not always to rest in this answer."

In 1658 Mr. Eliot petitioned the General Court for more land to be granted the plantation " out of tlie common lands adjoining" ; four thousand acres were given in a northerly and westerly direction. This tract covered what is now South Framingham, and the lands westerly and southwest of Farm Pond, and on the northwest it touched Sudbury River near Merriam's Hill.

The church fairly planted, Natick became a missionary centre. Till the formation of other churches, those living at Hassanemesit, Magunkook, and ilarlborough held membership here. Teachers and preachers were trained for the growing work. Already our untiring apostle, notwithstanding pastoral labor at Roxbury (lie had three colleagues during his fifty-eight years' ministry) and days of toilsome travel, - for he had explored the country from Martha's Vineyard to the ilerrimack, from Cape Cod to Brookfield, - had devoted pains by day and night to a greater task of Christian scholarship. Having learned the language from an Indian servant, he could, in 164G, preach to Waban in his mother tongue. But Eliot longed that the natives should have the Bible at their wigwams. In 1649 he wished to translate the Scriptures; in 1651 he wrote "that he had no expectation to see the Word of God translated, much less printed in his day. The attempt was so heroic, we do not wonder at his fears. But he did see both. In 165S Genesis and Matthew were in use at Natick. This translation of the Bible must have been studied out partly in Roxbury, partly in his little chamber here; thoughts, words, plans, came to him doubtless in his journeyings.

In 1661 the New Testament issued from the Cambridge Press, followed in 1663 by the Old Testament. Two hundred copies of the first, strongly bound in leather, had at once been circulated among the Indians. The whole Bible makes a stout quarto of over one thousand pages, and with it are bound the Psalter versified from the Bay Psalm-Book, and a short catechism. All were published at the expense of the English society, who sent over the press and materials. The building erected for Indian students became the printing-house for the second edition. A diffuse laudatory dedication to Charles II. prefaced the cojoies of the first edition sent to England, and Sir Robert Boyle tells how the merry monarch received the strange gift. " He looked a pretty while upon it, and showed some things in it to those that had the honor to be about him. Yet the unexpected coming in of an Envoye from the Emperor hindered me from receiving that fuller expression of his grace toward the translators and dedicators, that might otherwise have been expected."

We appreciate the difliculties and grandeur of Eliot's work, with no grammatical helps to acquire a dialect utterly unlike the Old-Woiid languages, when we remember the college of scholars that.

gave England King James' version, and the select company of English and American divines whose headquarters in preparing the latest revision are the Jerusalem Chamber, in Westminster Abbey.

Eliot made an Indian grammar, and describes his method of study. " I would pursue a word, noun or verb, through all the variations I could think of." As the savages had no written language, our author represented their sounds by the Roman letters. All the qualifying terms relating to the principal idea were joined by prefix or suffix to the leading word. For genders, nouns were divided as representing animate beings or inanimate things, and formed their plurals accordingly in orj or ash. " They had no complete or distinct word for the verb substantive, but it is under a regular composition, whereby many words are made verb substantive." Tiie personal pronouns had a separable and inseparable form, mtj being expressed by the letter N, prefixed to the word."

Our Apostle of New England assisted in organizing an Indian church on Martha's Yineyard, August 22, 1670, and in 1671 his own second church arose at Hassanemesit. But the Natick church, the first-born in the wilderness, was the largest, and enjoyed more of the missionary's presence. In 1670, ten years old, it had fifty communicants. That it was active in all good endeavors, is shown by the instructions of the Natick church to its chosen members, William and Anthony, also John Sausamon, whom it sent as ambassadors to the Missonkoiiog savages, to avert if possible their going to war with the English.

More Indians were educated for preachers by Natick schooling and exercising their gifts ui church-meetings, than availed themselves of the Indian Hall at Cambridge, though a number studied there. One aboriginal name graces the Harvard Triennial, an islander from the Yineyard, a graduate in 1665. But the close confinement to books was more than the native temperament could bear. Mr. Eliot left at Quinbisset, now Thompson, Connecticut, in 1674, Daniel, a Natick Indian, as their teacher, - probably Takawampbait, of whom more presently.

Next year came that fearful conflict of the aboriginal and European races, called, from its instigator, Philip's War. Waban and Sausamon warned the whites of Philip's designs, and Sau.samon lost his life thereby. Eliot, in the Roxbury records, thus characterizes him : " A man of eminent parts and wit, he was of late years oonv'ted, joyiied to the

Clmrcli at Natike, baptized, and was sent by the church to Asowamsick, in Plimoth Pattent to p^ach the gospel." Among liis Taunton neighbors he was esteemed a good Christian, and his death was much bewailed.

A company of fifty-two soldiers was raised by the Praying Indians. In July Oneco, sou of the famou.s Uncas, came to Natick with fifty Mohegan braves as allies of the English. After a successful battle tile Mohegans went looting, while our Natick men wanted to pursue the foe. They knew the tactics of the wily savages better than the whites^ and did good service, and might have lielped much more. But the colonists grew unwisely distrustful of the Christian Indians. Says Eliot, " The prophane Indians p've a sharp rod to the English, and the Englisii a very sharp rod to the praying Indians."

To quiet the popular apprehension, the General Court had ordered the Ciiristiau Indians to confine their residence to five villages, - Natick was the first, - nor roam more than a mile a.way from these ; which order quite broke up their hunting and fisliing. White superintendents were chosen, two residing at Natick. These measures did not satisfy the public.

Accordingly the General Courts " 1675, October 13j ordered that all the Natick Indians be forthwith sent for, and disposed of to Deare IsLind as the place appointed for their present abode." Other praying Indians were also transported dowu the harbor. Deer Island to-day is a place of banishment for the city's lawless boys, and the brick House of Industry is a familiar sight to all who come or go by water.

October -'50, Captain Thomas Prentice, with a guard, came to bring away the villagers and their goods to the Pines, near where is now tiie Watertown Arsenal. Old Jetiiro and ten more escaped into the woods, preferring the range of the forest with his own race to the cold hospitality of the M;iss:iclmscHs authorities.

Sillily ihr vest left their fish weirs and bridge, their iiicli;inls and gardens, their fort and meetingliousc. Mr. Eliot writes : " Wiien the Indians were iiurried away to an Hand at half an hour's warning, pore soules in terror y left tiieir go(n.ls, books, bibles, only some few caryed y'' bibles."

From Natick they went afoot nine miles to the Pines, near tiie base of Nonantum Hill. Here Eliot, Gookin, and some others met flicm, ;ind spent the iiiglit liours in prayer and exhurlution.

An eye-witness says : " 'T was affecting to see how Christianly these poor soules carried it^ being in fear they should never return, but be transported out of the country." With the flood-tide at midnight the waiting boats dropped down stream.

Through the dreary winter they suffered, especially the aged and feeble. Some of their men had leave of absence for duty as guides and scouts. The Hassanamesit Indians were carried off by the enemy, who off'ered them plenty to eat and good treatment if they went with them. Job Kattenanit escaped, but his family were taken. It appears that these fared better among the heathen, as the hostile savages were called, than their Natick brethren with the Christian wliites.

In December James Quannopowit and the Job just named were sent from Deer Island as spies, to learn the enemy's spirit and movements. ' They took to tlie woods at Natick December 31st, and soon were among the warlike Nipmucks, where they represented themselves as. wronged by the English. Here they found the Hassanamesit refugees. James' relation to the General Court we now follow. These Nipumcks sold beaver and wampum to the Mohawks, in exchange for powder obtained from the Dutch at Albany.

Some Indians mistrusted tiiese spies, but Jolmwitli-the-One-Eye knew James, and said, "I know thee that thou art a valiant man, therefore abide at my wigwam and I will protect thee." But Job stayed with his children. Tiiey abode thus some days, and went forth to hunt deer. Early one morning James, having gotten a pint of nokake, or pounded corn, went hunting with Job. Some Indians suspected and watched them, but at night they were unobserved. About three o'clock before day James said to Job, " Now let us escape away if we can." But Job said, " I am not willing to goe now, because my children arc here. I will stay longer, if God please he can preserve my life, if not, I am willing to die. I will use what policy I can to get away my children ; if I live tlu-ee weekes hence I will come back to Natick. I shall if I live, by that time get more intelligence of afliiirs." Then James said : " I must now go away, for I am not like to have a better opportunity ; but I am sorry for you, lest tiiey kill you for my sake." So, having prayed, James travelled homeward niglit and day on snowshoes, and reported his eighty miles' scouting to Major Gookin.

and naming the day. In the spring those at the island were allowed to dwell on Mr. Oliver's estate in Cambridge, whence in the autumn some came to the falls of Charles Kiver, others to the original station at Nonantum.

Wattasascomjjanum, or Captain Tom, whom Gookin had made a magistrate in remote plantations, by that fact had stayed with the warring savages. Taken prisoner, he was on very slight evidence condemned, and suffered death in Boston, June, 1676. He died much mourned by Eliot and tlie better sort.

In September four chief captives were sliot at the town's end, one of them Old Jethro, who, at tlie removal to Deer Island, had taken to the woods. Some others, once dwellers at Natick, found with the enemy, had been carried into slavery.

" 1676, Nov. 10, An account of the disposall of the Indians, our friends (pro tempore) presented to the Councill (at their desire) by Daniel Gookin, sen.

"The Natick Indians are disposed in fower companies as followeth, vict. one company with James Eumney ^larsh, and his kindred living in Meadfield, with the approbation and consent of tlie Englisli there; these are in number about twenty-five, 5 : 20.

"Another company live near Natick adjoyuiug the garrison-house of Andrew Dewin and his sons, who desire their neighborhood, and are under their inspection ; the number of these may be about fifty soules, 10: 10.

. "A third company of them with Waban live neare the falls of the Charles Eiver, near to the house of Josepli Miller, and not far from Capt Prentice. The number of these may be about sixty soules, whereof are 10 : 50.

" A fourth company dwell at Nonantum Hill, near Leift Trowbridge and John Coones, who permits them to build their wigwams upon his ground. They are employed to cut wood, and spin, and make stoTie walls, being but a small distance from the hill of Nonantum where tlieir meeting is to keep Sabath. These may be about seventy five souls, 15 : 60."

After the winter others returned to their old home. In 1679 Natick exchanged land with newly settled Sherborn, giving 4,000 acres north of Sherborn, and receiving a like amount at Magunkook Hill, with two hundred bushels of grain to boot.

well as at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, distant from the battle-scenes, the work still flourished. Waban puts his mark to a petition for the pecuniary encouragement of the pastor at Sherborn, son of Major Gookin, for lecturing regularly at Natick. They say, that, deprived of seeing \\x. Eliot's face, and hearing liis voice (especially in the winter season) so frequently as formerly, the churcli and people of Natick invited Jlr. Gookin, two and a half years before, to lecture, which he had done in English, and an interpreter translated his words. This letter has sixteen Indian names subjoined. Old Waban marks first, and eiglit more also mark. Daniel Takawampbait, the second name is signed, and the last is Thomas Waban, son of the first. This document Professor Stowe, himself Natick-born, discovered in London. Its date is March 19, 1684.

The next summer old Waban died, his last words attesting a Christian's trust. To-day a placid lake, whose surface his canoe oft cleft, bears liis name.

Here is Natick in 1685 as sketched l)y John . Dunton of London, who visited New England on a bookselling speculation. Calling on Rev. Mr. Eliot at Roxbury, he received twelve Bibles just from the press. They would be a fortune to our booksellers. But we quote : " On horseback about twenty miles to Natick. We tied up our horses iti two old barns almost in ruins. We had no place where we could bestow ourselves, unless upon greensward until the lecture began. We were informed tliat the sachem and queen were there, and went immediately to visit them. When we had made our visit, we went to tlie meeting-place, where the lecture was preached by Mr. Gookins. The poor Indians were very much affected, and seemed to hang upon his lips. The Natick Lecture was done about four in the afternoon, and we had twenty miles to Boston, so that we were obliged to moimt immediately and make the best of our fl'ay."

:March 19, 1687, died :\Iajor Gookin, whose gravestone is yet in the ancient cemetery at Cambridge. Near this time Eliot's wife, his companion for more than fifty years, a person remarkably fitted for her position, died. Her husband's simple eulogy has a tender pathos : " Here lies my dear, faithful, pious, prudent, prayerful wife."

From Judge Sewall's recently published diary we glean these facts : " Wednesday, May 21, 1690, about one in the mornimr ^Ir. Eliot died. This puts our Election into Mourning." His death was referred to by Mr. Walter in the Thursday lecture with reference to 2 Kings ii. His funeral was attended on Friday by the magistrates and ministers, six of the latter serving as bearers. The burial-spot, since then the tomb of the pastors of the First Church of Koxbury, is in the cemetery, on the corner of Washington and Eustis streets. The Natick cliurch mourned their spiritual father many a day, for no Elisha caught the mantle of the ascending prophet. In amiability of character he M'as our New England St. John ; in abundant labors for an outside race our apostle to the Indians was a very St. Paul. Cotton Mather's anagram on his name reveals his earnest spirit, for " Eliot," reversed, reads " toile." Three places in Massachusetts shall ever honor his holy memory, - Roxbury, Newton, and Natick.

The cloud which Eliot in his later years saw resting over his cherished work did not lift, but rather darkened, after his decease. In 1693 one writes, "Since blessed Eliot's death the Natick church is much dwindled." Daniel Takawampbait had been ordained as their teacher, probably when Eliot's age took him from active service. Judge Sewall's interleaved almanac, under date of July 29, 1683, says: "The first Ind ordeyned Minest was Daniel of Natick."

But the light was waning. In 1698 two pastors were chosen by the legislature to visit all the native plantations and report their state. Here they found a church of seven men and three women, "their pastor Dan' Takawampbait (ordained by the Rev and holy man of God, John Eliot deceased) who is a person of great knowledge. Here are fifty-nine men, and fifty-one women, and seventy children under sixteen." In 1699 they inform the legislature that tlicir house was fallen down, and ask leave to assign John Collar, Jr., a little nook of land in their plantation, in recompense for his building another meeting-house. Two hundred acres, after some delay, weri' granted him. Takawampbait died Scpirmlirr 17, 171(i, aged sixty-four, as his humble ^loiic on the sidewalk informs us. Two Indians preached transiently after him ; the last record of such was in 1719. The ten members of IfiDS, as the church probably added none, may all have jjassitl away in the next twenty years.

Natick had been a purely Indian settlement. The town records were written at one time in their language by Thomas Wabaii, son of Eliot's first

At a public meeting. May 4, 1719, certain persons, twenty in all, of those six Speens, and another, a woman, were declared to be " the Only and True Proprietors of Natick."

In 1720 John Sawin erected a saw-mill first on the river, but soon removed it to the brook named after him. His father, Thomas of Sherborn, made a grist-mill for the Indians as early as 1686.

Some time later the dam just above the bridge was made. The little island was then the south bank of the stream, but a freshet once found a short cut, and to-day the new channel is rather the wider of the two.

Rev. Oliver Peabody (Harvard, 1721) was engaged as an Indian missionary by the same society that assisted Eliot. He took a mission service which eleven men, it is said, had declined. His first sermon was preached August 6, 1721. A meeting-house must have been built, as a proprietors' meeting in September granted iloses Smith of Needham forty acres on the southwesterly side of Pegan Hill for finishing the meeting-house.

Mr. Peabody found the original church extinct, and no records preserved. Therefore, December 3, 1729, a new church of three Indians and five whites was formed. Rev. Mr. Baxter of Medfield, whose daughter, Hannah, Mr. Peabody had married, preaching the sermon. And our Indian missionary was ordained a' fortnight later at Cambridge. He built his house on the Sherborn road, on a knoll commanding a fine river-view. Traces of the cellar may yet be seen.. The Indians brought two young elms, and planted them as friendship trees in his front yard. They stood about a century.

in 172S the proprietors had voted " that Rev. Mr. Peabody, during his continuance in the work of the ministry in Natick, have tiie sole use and improvement of the Ministerial Lot," a hundredacre tract on Pegan Plain, the very heart and business centre of Natick to-day ; also "that there be a Contribution for y' Rev. Mr. Peabody the last Sabbath in every month, Lieut. Wamsquan to hold the box."

N A Tick

Our Indian pastor must have been a good preaclier, for in 17-52 he preached the Artillery Election Sermon, which was printed at Boston by T. Fleet,

Thomas Sawin had a mill in Xatick, and may have sojourned here awhile ; his son John has been thought to be the first while resident, though others had lands from the natives before hiui. Mr. Peabody, in 1736, speaks of his lonesome life, as his nearest English neighbor was a mile away.

Captain David Morse, son of Captain Joseph, of Sherboru, moved to Natick, and built upon the site where now Mr. Asa Caswell resides. Tiiis was about the year 17-Z7. He became first captain of the white military company. Jonathan Carver, who has given name to the hill back of the hotel, was among the early settlers. Ebenezer Felch lived in the north part of the town. He was an active citizen, filling various offices acceptably, such as schoolmaster, surveyor, proprietors' clerk, and the first English deacon of the ciiurch.

The village officers until 1733 were all Indians, the first whites elected being John Sawin, constable, and Thomas Ellis, tithing-man. No Indian held a town office after Natick became a parish.

In 1698 the plantation had no schoolmaster; and only one child, out of seventy under sixteen years of age, could read. But in 1731 - 32 Ebenezer Felch received six pounds for teaching, and four pounds the next year. Four years later the town sold one hundred and fifty pounds' worth of common lands, " the income and yearly interest whereof to be toward the maintenance of a school in Natick." In 1746 it was voted not to have a school, but they spent eighty-five pounds for parish ammunition. Two years after the inhabitants grew wiser, and appropriated forty pounds. Old Tenor, for a reading and writing school.

In 1743 the church felt the wave of Whitefield's influence in New England. Their pastor wrote that within two years about fifty persons, Indians as well as whites, were added to the church.

As the white population increased, Natick plantation became by legislative act a precinct or parish, January 3, 1745. But the Indians lost their citizeuship, and were henceforth under guardians. They could not sell their land without permission of the General Court. Many a petition for that object is on the state files.

document reads: "An assessment of £12 10*. being a tax granted and agreed upon by ye inhabitants of Natick, regularly assembled, to give to the Eev. Mr. Peabody, as a Gift Money, by the subscribers, January y^ 21^', 1746-47, each person's proportion to said Rate."

We have a cniiiplctc list of the Indian families in 1749, adults and cliikhvn in each household, - one hundred and .sixty-six in all : forty-two on the south side of the river by Dedham, sixty-four south of Saw-pit Hill on Pegan Plain ; sixteen west of Saw-pit Hill, and twenty-six southeast of Pegan Plain. This census was taken on account of the endeavor of some dissatisfied white people to change the location of the church. Beneath the names we read, " All these are accommodated as the meeting house now stands."

Anotiier valuable 2)aper is entitled, " This is a Plan of the Roads, and the Situation of the houses in the Parish of Natick. The red spots are English houses, and the black spots are Indian houses or wigwams, Aug. 1^' 1749, Samuel Livermore Surveyor." There are about forty black spots and fifty red ones.

We find, in 1746, a town vote, the forerunner of many stormy debates upon the question " to see if the Town will agree upon a place to set the Meeting-house, and to see if the Town will vote, that the Indians of Natick shall have an equal privilege with them, according to their number in a new meeting-house, when they shall build one, if they will meet with them." Soon follows this record : " Fo/ed to have Mr. Peabody for minister if he will come to the centre of the town "; which opened an unpleasant difference of opinion that embittered Natick history for the next fifty years. Our good minister, however, was to be taken from the evil to come. He spent a season on a mission to the Mohegans in Connecticut. About this time a new meeting-house was under way. In a private diary we read: "June 8, 1749. Natick meetinghouse raised." We have seen the bills for money paid to sundry Indians for labor and material for the meeting-house. But it was not proceeded with, on account of divided desires as to its location.

Returning with enfeebled health, Mr. Peabody fell into a decline, and died on Sunday, February 2, 1752. His gravestone, as was then customary for ministers, bears a Latin epitaph. His widow married Deacon John Eliot of Boston, and died in 1796, aged ninety-two. As a preacher, his sermons were plain, direct, and yet tender. His in- flueiice over the Indians was excellent in leading tliem to intelligence and habits of temperance and industry. Governor Belcher was a personal friend who often welcomed him to his house. Besides the discourse already named^ a sermon of Mr. Peabody's was published, delivered at the evening lecture at the New North Church in Boston, June 8, 1742. He had twelve children. With the servants and visitors his family frequently numbered twenty around his hospitable board. The oldest son, Oliver, Jr., graduated at Harvard, was ordained pastor of the church in Eoxbury, Mr. Eliot's fourth successor, but died after a brief ministry. He built a residence nearly opposite the church, which for eighty years was the parsonage. It is now owned and occupied by that eminent scholar and antiquarian, C. K. Dillaway, Esq.

A meeting of the parish of Natick was called in 1754-, "To see if the inhabitants accept the school that was kept at Joseph Travis' as a school for that Squadrian "; and some years later, " To see if the Parish will Imploy School-Dames to school their children." A list of the soldiers in Natick under Captain John Coolidge names forty-two, and the alarm-men were twenty-one more. Eev. Stephen Badger's name heads the last company, April 19, 1757. We find returhs of men enlisted or impressed for his Majesty's service. They were at the lakes in the Ereuch and Indian War, and learned a soldier's duty, useful hereafter, when not in his Majesty's service. A number of Indians went in these campaigns. But in 1759 a distemper carried off some score of Indians, only two who were attacked recovering, while of the English who took cars of the sick natives but one caught the disease and died. Nantucket chronicles a similar story about the same time.

" Know all men whome these Presents may Concern, that we Samuel Taylor and Hannah Taylor his wife; In Consideration of tlie Good Servis our Negroc Man Servant, Named Plato, hath Done and may Do for us During our Life, and Considering tJie trouble he the said Plato May be brought to .\fter our Deceas : we Do by tliese Presents att our Decease, Absolutely and fully Eree and A(iuit him, the said Plato from being sold or being any Slav(> Servant to any Person whooin soever ; but he shall have his full Liberty to serve with whome he will, and his wages Siiall be for liis well-maintenance,

Just before this time died Joseph Ephraim, the Indian deacon. At his election all the whites gave him their votes, and he held the office from the organization of the church through Mr. Peabody's ministry, and probably till his death, about 1761. He was a n:an of good parts, and highly respected. Having been asked why young Indians when living with the whites kept sober and industrious, but returning to their own kindred soon grew lazy, intemperate, and shiftless, he replied, in his broken English, " Tucks (ducks) will be tucks for all old hen he hatch um." He had a descendant, John, Avho inherited his acres, but not his virtues.

Eev. Stephen Badger, in 1753, was appointed Indian missionary at Natick. The white inhabitants agreed to give £ 13 6*. M. towards his salary, and build him a house with timter from the ministerial lot, and draw him thirty cords of wood yearly. He was born at Charlestown; graduated at Harvard College, 1747 ; and was ordained March 27, 1753, President Appleton, of Cambridge, preaching the sermon.

The next year a new meeting-house, the fourth on the spot, was built, largely at the cost of the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians. The mutual influence of the whites and Indians worked badly on many of each race, who took each other's evil qualities. Natick, as a parish, voted money toward galleries in the meeting-house, and the preacher's salary was voted by the town, often rcluel.iiitly, the trouble growing out of the location of the church.

Mr. Badger built a manse which is still inhabited. It well preserved its character of respectable age, and was the residence of Oliver Bacon, founder of the free library; but since his death it has been modernized.

Weston, 1716, who married Hannah Morse in 1742. Though residing over the river, and so in another town and comity, iiis public life is coiniected with Naticlc. His house, finely placed on a gentle swell of land upon the river-bank, was removed only four years ago, when Mr. Benjamin P. Cheney built liis beautiful mansion on the very spot. Esquire Jones was an influential citizen ; justice of the peace under royal and republican jurisdiction, a colonel in the militia, considered conservative in his politics about the Revolutionary period. He filled tlie office of proprietors' clerk, and was an excellent surveyor. His plans of surveys at Mt. Desert in 176:1 have been presented to the Maine Historical Society by his grandson, Elijah Perry, Esq. Some amusing extracts from his journal as justice of the peace have been in print recently. Mr. Jones was for many years deacon in Mr. Badger's church. His second wife was Tabitha Battle. He died in 180:J.

In the troubles with the mother country preceding the Revolution Natick, like other New England towns, was deeply moved. Crispus Attucks, - that stalwart mulatto wlio with tliree others fell in the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, - though he had been servant to "William Brown of Framingham, used to live just over the line in Natick. The site of his hut is well known. There flowed in his veins a tinge of Indian blood. At the time of his death he was a sailor.

A company of minute-men had been formed here March, 1775, and on the eventful 19th of April a company under Captain Joseph Morse marched, on the Lexington alarm, to harass the retreat of the redcoats. A muster-roll in the state archives registers seventy-six men, out of a population of five hundred and thirty-five. Some of them were veterans of the French and Indian wars. They were leading men in the place, - the Morses, Bacons, Broads, Sawins, and Manns.

These companies belonged to Colonel Samuel BuUard's regiment. The town voted. May 12, to dismiss " Captain Joseph Morse, Lieutenant William Boden, and Lieutenant Abel Perry from being selectmen, as they are going into the Massachusetts service." Captain Morse's company was with the army at Cambridge, in Colonel Patterson's regiment, until August 1, 1775 ; other Natick soldiers in Captain Mellen's company, of Colonel Ward's regiment. The next year Captain Aaron

Gardner's company, in Colonel Brooks' regiment, has eleven names from this town. A recruit needed a suit of clothes. Tradition avers that the sheep were sheared, and twelve maidens spun, wove, cut, and made it, in twenty-four hours. Natick had her sons at Bunker Hill. The British cannonade could have been heard in her peaceful homes, and the smoke of burning Charlestown that Saturday afternoon was to be seen from her iiilltops. Rev. Mr. Badger met witli serious pecuniary loss, for Charlestown had been his home.

A town-meeting was called, June 20, 1776, "to see whether the inliabitants will vote to stand by tiie Continental Congress with tlieir lives and fortunes ; in Case the Continental Congress shall in their Wisdom, Declare for Independence of the Kingdom of (ireat Britain." After reaching the article they adjourned two and a half hours to await the report of their committee, - Rev. Stephen Badger, Captain John Coolidge, and Daniel Morse. Tiiese presented a well-written, patriotic resolution, which the town adopted. An extract will show the spirit of the day : " We will with our lives and fortunes Join with the other inhabitants of this Colony, and with those of the other Colonies, in supporting them in said measure, and which, if we may be permitted to suggest our opinion, the sooner it is Come into we shall iiave fewer Difficulties to Conflict, and the grand objects of peace. Liberty, and Safety will be more likely Speedily to be Restored, and Established in our once happy land."

July 3, 1776, Samuel Welles being moderator, tlie town voted " seven pounds additional to the boiuity of seven pounds, that the colony gives to those that Inlest into the Canada Expedition." A number went with Arnold on that toilsome march tlirough the Elaine forests, ending in the brave but unsuccessful assault upon Quebec.

The Declaration of Independence is recorded on the town-book, in the handwriting of the clerk, a true patriot and gallant soldier. Ensign Daniel Morse. Soldiers enlisted, or " did a turn," as the expression was, at Dorciiester, Canada, New York, and Rhode Island. Some citizens paid their substitutes. Captain Josepii Morse, who had risen to the rank of major, returned in poor health, and died December 16, 1779. Ensign Sawin, the father of her who founded Sawin Academy, served in the Revohition. His cap and gun are still preserved m the family. Asa Drury became captain, and lived respected years after the peace. Hezekiah Broad won a major's commission. He had been a delegate to the Provincial Congress of l??-! at Concord, and after the war was a member of the Constitutional Convention hi Boston. A gentleman of the old school, he long continued to dress in the Continental costume. Lieutenant William Boden did good service in the army, and was a public-spirited citizen. He gave land for a school-house and cemetery. His monument in the West Cemetery was erected in 1855 by the town, for the ungrateful adopted son who received his property had not raised the simplest stone to the memory of his honored foster-father. Benjamin Smith outlived all his fellow-pensioners. He was musician to tlie minute-men who went to Lexington, was at Monmout]i,aud in his old age delighted to furnish martial music on public occasions. At the last Cornwallis celebration in Natick, 1S57, he was present, a robust man of ninety-eight years. He died at Grafton, at the age of nearly one hundred and one.

The negroes of Natick joined in tlie patriotic struggle. Out of an hundred and twenty who enlisted, some twenty had been slaves. Caesar Ferrit and ins son John were in the ranks nearly all tlie war, begimiing at Lexington, ('a'sar v.\\\w from the West Indies, and used to say that the blood of four nations flowed in his veins ; for he had a French and also a Dutch grandfather, and one of his grandmothers was an Indian, the other an .Vfrican. Plato Lambert, whose emancipation was noticed, deserves further mention. Years after pi'ace was ralitied lie took to roaming around the eounliy with bis i^'rcat dog. But man and dog strangely were missing at last. A large skeleton corresponding to Plato's size was found near the lake a long time after his disappearance. He liad been murdered, it was said, but by whom was never known.

Natick became an incorporated town in 1781. A tract of land called Needham Leg, reaching nearly to Lake (^ochituate, and containing 1,600 acres, was in 1797 annexed to Natick. Its loca- 1 11)11 was a source of debate, and several times its inhabitants had souglit to be set on or ofl' during the last fifty years. In exchange Nalick ceded to Neediiam about four hundred acres, between AVabaii Brook and the i)resen1 town line. The l;md thus transferred in, ludrd tli,- \V,llrs tinii, whmr,. the the much-visited park-like grouiuls of 11. 11. Huniiewell, Esq. 'Ilie barren field, cultivated for years with judicious expense and tlie best taste, is changed into a garden of rare beauty : azaleas and rhododendrons delight the lover of flowers; there are broad velvety lawns, trees grouped or massed, paths revealing beautiful vistas, terraces commanding charming lake-views.

The Welles family of Boston had here their country home. Mr. Samuel Welles was active in church and town affairs in Mr. Badger's time, and offered to advance funds for finishing the meetinghouse at the time when the town was uncertain what to do. Two houses the family formerly lived in are tenanted still. One retains the pictured tiles round the fireplace. Lake Waban in the last century lay chiefly in Natick, and was called Saw- Mill Pond, then Bullard's Pond. Samuel Welles, the famous banker of Paris, was born in Natick, going hence in 1815 to win celebrity and a fortune abroad. He died in 1841, and his widow, a native of Watertown, became afterward a titled lady, .Marchioness de la Valette ; and their son, Samuel Welles, married a daughter of M. Rouher, Prime Minister under Napoleon III.

In the later years of his life Rev. Mr. Badger wrote a valuable communication on Natick history.^ When the new meeting-house at the Centre, where the cross-roads met, was completed, he was requested to preach the first sermon there in 1799, but declined on account of his health; and there was no preaching in the old church after 1798. He died in 1803, after a stormy pastorate of fifty years, and lies buried in his family lot, where one stone records all the family epitaphs. His personal appearance and character as a man and preacher are portrayed in Biglow's History of Ndfick by one who knew him well. A double sermon on Drunkenness, preached October, 1773, was published at the time, and reprinted in 1829. He has also some pliilosophical essays in the Columbian Cenfinel. He was the Parson Lothrop in OliUown Folks. His widow survived him twenty years, and the settlement of her estate involved a famous lawsuit, in which Daniel Webster pleaded.

Now follows Natick's history since 1800. It was then a farming community, its population 094. The growth was slow. In 1830 the census found only 890 persons. Five farms occupied the land within a half-mile circle from the first church. The meeting-house where Mr. Badger preached, unused before his death, was sadly neglected afterward. The village children sported there ; and an

The present First Church Avas organized at the Centre, with twenty-three members, in February, 1802, and for about thirty years was the only religious society in town. Eev. Freeman Sears, the first jjastor, was ordained January 1, 1806, and died, lamented, June 30, 1811. His monument in Dell Park was erected in 1-873.

Eev. Martin Moore succeeded him, being jjastor from 1814 to 1833. The most of the ministerial lot, an hundred acres given by the Indians in Mr. Peabody's day, was now sold. It covered the present business centre of Natick. Tlie proceeds largely form the ministerial fund now. Mr. Moore was a sound divine, and fond of antiquarian research. His New Year's Historical Sermon, January 5, 1817, and Life of Eliot possess much merit. At his dismissal in 1833 the church numbered one hundred and seventy members. The Sabbath school began in April, 1818. Mr. Moore edited tlie Boston Recorder after leaving Natick, and, dying in 1866, lies buried in Mt. Auburn.

Rev. E. D. Moore followed from 1833 to 183S. A new church was built in 1836. Eev. Samuel Hunt preached from 1839 to 1850. He afterwards became private secretary to the late Vice- President Wilson, rendering valuable assistance in some of his publislied works. July 23, 1878, he followed his distinguished associate into the otlier world.

During the ministry of Eev. Elias Nason, the well-known historical writer, from 1852 to 1858, a new church was built, the third on the same site. Eev. Charles M. Tyler (1859 to 1867) and Eev. Jesse H. Jones bring the list down to tiie present pastor, Eev. F. N. Peloubet, installed January 17, 1872. In 1875 a new brick edifice of fine proportions replaced tlie church consumed in the great fire of January, 1871.

In 182S the Unitarian (Eliot) Church, South Natick, was built and dedicated, whose semi-centennial was observed November 20, 1878. Tliis sanctuary stands upon the spot of Eliot-'s church. Its first pastor, ordained February 17, 1830, was Eev. J. W. Thompson, D. D., now of Jamaica Plain, Eev. Alexander Young of Boston preaching the sermon. Nine permanent ministers have followed him. Eev. H. Alger filled the desk nearly fourteen years, the house being improved by adding the chancel, spire, and clock. Eev. J. P.

The recent semi-centennial commemoration was a day of historic interest. Valuable papers were read by the pastor on the previous houses of worship built on this spot, and by Eev. IMr. Alger on the history of the present edifice. Eeminiscences were given by former pastors and older members, and expressions of good-will by visiting friends. Voices were heard that Avere musical in tiie choir fifty years ago. We hear, from one who remembered, that the weather, a pouring rain, corresponded to that on the day of original dedication.

The Methodists worshipped a long time just across the line, on the edge of Needham and Weston. But in 1834 they organized at Natick, dedicating their first house July 4, 1834. It became the town-house in 1868, and went down - or up - in the flames of January 13, 1874. Tlie vestry of the new and beautiful house is now used.

In 1848 the Baptists began services at South Natick, removing in 1851 to the centre of the town. Their church stands south of the Common. Eev. A. E. Eeynolds is their able and de-voted pastor.

Tiie John Eliot (Orthodox) Church, South Natick, was formed in 1859, under Eev. E. E. Strong as pastor. In the fall of 1862 they entered tlieir pleasant sanctuary. Eev. Pearse Pinch, tlie present pastor, was ordained July 25, 1878.

Tlie increase of the foreign element of the population soon introduced the Eoman Catholic worship. Tiie congregation of St. Patrick's occupy the enlarged house, originally sold by tiie First Churcii to tlie Universalists, and by tiiem, on their disbandment, to the Catiiolics in 1860. At South Natick also is another prosperous congregation.

St. Paid's Episcopal Church was formed in 1871. They entered their house of worship in 1875, which was consecrated December 13, 1877. Eev. B. E. Gilford officiates as rector.

We have seen that the school and church at Natick at tiie first used the same room. Piety and learning were closely associated. Eliot's Indian teacher wrote for copies in the scholars' writingbooks the questions and answers in the Cateciiism.

For some time prior to 1819 the town raised annually §600 for sciiools. After 1820 select schools, giving instruction in tiie iiigher branches, were taught by Joiin Angier, Charles Forbush, Eev. Daniel Wight, Eev. Samuel Damon, and J. W. Bacon. During the winter of 1837 the centre district school was successfully conducted by a young man, Henry Wilson, wlio became an educator in a wider si^here. In 1852 the town established a high school, approjniating §1,000 for its support. This school has enjoyed able teachers and trained capable pupils; but it never had a suitable domicile till the spring of 1S78, wlien it occupied the new and attractive building on East Central Street. Abner Rice was its first principal, serving ten years. Mr. F. 0. Baston is the present incumbent. Judge Bacon, one of the committee at the starting of the high school, gave a fitting address at the dedication of the new edifice, March 23, 1878. Some of our graduates take a college course, Harvard being usually their clioice ; but more follow some handicraft of industry or skilled labor. There are three grammar sciiools, and the last enumeration of children of the school age was seventeen hundred.

We may just name the Sawin Academy, crowning Sherborn's central hill, since it originated and is endowed by the legacy of Miss Martha Sawin of South Natick. That institution realized from her estate $40,000.

William Biglow (now spelled Bigelow) should be mentioned liere. He graduated the second scholar at Harvard, 1794; was $BK poet in 1799. He studied theology with Rev. Mr. Thayer of Lancaster, and preached some in prominent pulpits, but never settled as a pastor. He carried on a successful school in Salem, and was master of the Boston Latin school, from 1805 to 1814. In later years one infirmity marred his power. He was an easy writer. He published his history of Natick in 1830. He wrote also a history of Sherborn, and was a frequent contributor to the papers and magazines. He died in 1844, and rests witli his generation in the old cemetery at South Natick.

The Ladies' Social Library began at South Natick in 1836, and has contributed to the intelligence and culture of that village. In 1870 Mr. Oliver Bacon presented to the society their neat little building as a memorial of the interest his lately deceased wife had always felt in the library. It stands under the majjles, close by the Eliot Monument. Their collection will soon be merged in the new library.

The Historical and Natural History Society at South Natick was started in 1870. Its name indicates the intent of its founders, - scientific investigation and local historical research. It was incorporated in 1873 as the Historical Natural History and Library Society. In the destructive fire of Marcli, 1872, its collections were consumed, including certain antiquarian treasures, the soundingboard of Parson Badger's pulpit, his wife's satin sli])pers, a pair of venerable shoe-buckles, etc. All the society's stufl'ed specimens were destro^yed, a fine polar bear having been put on tlie slielves oidy the evening before. An extensive collection of ferns was lost. But the society lias risen from this disaster to greater prosperity. Papers of historic and scientific interest are read quarterly. Mr. William Edwards, an active member, a loving and reverent student of nature, has a very fine collection of ferns. The society has a good cabinet of Soutii American birds gathered for them in Guiana by one of their members, an ornithologist, Mr. A. L. Babcock of Siierborn. There are also stufl'ed animals, minerals, shells, some Indian stone implements, and relics from aboriginal graves. Its library numbers nine hundred and twenty-five volumes. It possesses some ancient and curious books and pamphlets. Rev. H. Alger has long been its efficient president. By tiie munificent bequest of the late Oliver Bacon, Esq., the society Avill soon have a fire-proof building in coiuiection with the Bacon Free Library. The groinul-plan makes the building in the form of a Greek cross. R. G. Siiaw is the architect.

The Natick Social Library was fmuulcl a1)out 1810. A catalogue shows fifty-two proprietors and ninety-four volumes. No books were added after 1820, and in 1840 the societv became cx-

Natick

The Citizens' Library was established February 10, 1847. Five hundred dollars were subscribed in five-dollar shares. Its catalogue of 18.5£ counts four hundred and thirty-two volumes. February 11, 1857, it was given to the town as the foundation of a town library, " provided Natick appropriates three hundred dollars the first year for books, and one huudred dollars annually afterwards, also a room for the library, and choose and pay a librarian." The town accepted the proposal, and in April the Citizens' Library, with four hundred and eighty-three volumes, became the town's property. The town library thus originated, in 18.59 had 1,741 volumes. This was transferred in 1874 to the Morse Institute, bringing that organization its 3,154 volumes.

In June, 1862, Miss Mary Ann Morse died. Her will gave all her estate to found a public library for the use of all the inhabitants of Natick. If the town accepted the bequest, then five trustees.

(o serve five years, were to take the estate and execute the intent of the will. The town accejjted, and chose Willard Drury, John W. Bacon, Horatio Alger, John 0. Wilson, and Elisha P. Hollis, trustees ; and this board has been thrice re-elected. A friend thus writes of Miss Morse : " ilary Aim Morse was the third child and only daughter of Reuel Morse and Mary Parker, born June 16, 1825, and died June 30, 1862. She was of the eighth generation in a direct line from Samuel Morse, born in England in 1585, who was the first of this name emigrating to this country. He came to New England in 1635, and settled in Dedham. Miss ilary Ann Morse had two brothers, who both died before her. They were all born in the brick house then standing on the spot where the library now is, but moved to Clarendon Street to give the site for the present fine edifice. Her teacher, when Miss Morse was a girl of fourteen, speaks of her excellent health, kind disposition, and fair abilities. Her later years were spent in the family of Dr. Ira Russell, now of Winchendon, wlio influenced her much in the final disposition of her property." Within the library, facing the staircase, a marble memorial tablet bears this inscription : -

But her generosity came near being thwarted. In 1864 the town rescinded tlicir accrptauce, declined the bequest, and instruclrd the tnisiecs to resign. These applied to the Siipninr .ludicial rouvt for instruction as to their dui\ , and the case was heard by the full bench at the .Jaimaiv irnn, 1m;.'.. A report of this can be foiiml 10 .Mien's iicports, and is interesting as being the first case in this country where it has been held that a befpiest lo establish a public library for tiic use of all the inhabitants of a town IS a public charity, which the conrt.s will not allow to fail by reason of any misconduct or neglect of any of the parties charged with the trust. The appraised value of the estate was about $ 17,000, with several thousaml dollars of debts. Yet the skilful financial management of Captain Drury, the treasurer, enabled the trustees in 187:i to have about $-i5,000, besides a large lot on which to place the new library building. The plan was drawn by George B. Thayer of Boston. The beautiful edifice was completed, and dedicated, with an address by Judge J. W. Bacon, December 25, 1873. It is a two-story brick structure, of Gothic style, Avith liglit granite trimmings. The wdiole number of volumes, February 1,^1879, was 10,09!).

Tiie trustees hold funds to the sum of S 12,500, the income of which may be appropriated for the purchase of books alone. Other expenses tiie town ])ays. Among the treasures of this library is a copy of Eliot's Indian Bible.

tick we know not, but the Natick Observer made its appearance April 5, 1856, and went through at least six volumes. The Natk-k Times, Vol. I. No. 1, is dated October 28, 1864, and lasted certainly five years. T/ie Natick Bulletin, a wideawake weekly, reached its tenth anniversary November, 1879; while its vigorous competitor, T/ie Natick Citizen, came into being in December, 1877. Both are able papers.

Various kinds of manufactures liave engaged the industry of our people. The dam at South Natick gives a fall of nine feet. On the canal formerly stood Curtis^ paper-mill, now owned and operated by the Boston Flax Leatlier Company. They control the entire water-power, and their land was the planting-ground of the first settler.s. They employ fourteen men, Mr. J. B. Sewall being their efficient superintendent. The little island midway the dam Mrs. Stowe makes the young men's studyplace in her Oldlown Folks. The grist-mill hums its well-accented song. Years agone a paper-mill and a plaster-mill were in one building here ; indeed, the spot has been a mill-site over a century. Brickmaking was successfully pursued many years on the west shore of Lake Cochituate. A hat establishment, now extinct, did a good business. A long three-story building near the railroad shows where one of tlie enterprising citizens has made his fortune, and given work to many in tlie extensive baseball factory of Harwood and Sons.

But the largest business here, as in other towns of Eastern Massachusetts, has been shoemaking. The original manufacturer, Mr. Asa Felch, died in April, 1S7S. He first made sale shoes in 1827. Later his brother Isaac became a partner, and those of the family name still follow the business. The thriving suburb of Felchville thus got its name and growth. Mr. Felch manufactured brogans, since Natick's staple production; his workshop was a room in his house. He took apprentices, whom he instructed. William Bent, founder of the house of W. and J. i\I. Bent, of Cochituate, served with him. Mr. Asa Felcli is said for years to have kept no books, remembering all his affairs.

Mr. William Coolidge, Albert Leighton, and Edward Walcott,. in the West Part, and George C. Whitney, Mr. Kimball, and David M. Whitney, at the Centre, were in the shoemaking trade before or by 1830.

bench are as out of place now as our grandsire's flintlock muskets, or grandmother's swinging cranes in the great fireplace. On Saturdays a one-liorse wagon took the week's work to Boston, bringing home new stock. Mr. Kimball kept the only store at the Centre, on the present Common facing tlie yellow church. His shoe-shop was upstairs. Biglow's History names several handicrafts pursued,, but has not a word about shoemaking, soon to be the making of Natick.

For the next twenty years the shoe-business greatly increased. Its originators here enlarged their operations ; left rooms at home or small sheds for the commodious shops ; instead of a few apprentices, they sought workmen by tens and twen- I ties; and new firms sprang up. Natick leaped I from tlie slow grovrth of a farming town to quick increase. Stores, houses, and inhabitants doubled. Until 1830 the population had added from forty to : ninety every decade. The increase from 1820 to 1830 was five per cent; from 1830 to 1840, fortyfour per cent; between 1840 and 1850 the population more than doubled, and nearly doubled again during the Tiext ten years. As labor-saving machines were used in shoemaking, the several oper- ations were subdivided among cutters, bottomers, dressers, and stitchers. ' In 1831 two enterprising dealers took their goods by water to New York. So hard was the voyage, it was feared that they were lost ; but they arrived and prospered.

In December, 1833, a young man of Farmington, N. H., walked thence to Natick. On arriving, Henry Wilson engaged with a manufacturer, giving five months' labor to learn the business. In a few weeks he bought back his time and began for himself. He once started to make fifty pairs of shoes without sleeping, and almost succeeded. In 1836 he visited Washington for his health. As an operative Mr. Wilson was industrious, alert, economical, and temperate. Men worked then twelve or fifteen hours a day. From doing a journeyman's work he became in 1838 an employer, doing business ten years. In 1847 he employed one hundred and nine persons, who made over two thousand cases of shoes.

Hi; resumed business for a year and a lialf, till liis election as United States Senator in 1855. As a manufacturer he was lionest and fair-dealing, sympathizing with the workmen, for lie Iiimself had worked as one. But his aiiibilinii was in anotlier direction than business and wcallli.

Edward Walcott was a personal friend of Mr. Wilson. He is largely identified witli Ihc business growth of Natick. He was a inannfart urcr a( first, but afterwards became in(( rcsteil in nal ("^lalc, lie built the Walcott Block, and al his deal h was iniicl, missed. A fully etiuipped sho(--f'actory runs almost as much machinery as a cotton-mill. In the beginning all tlie operations were hand-work, but now each part has its ingenious machine, and some six or eight of these clattering inventions do the work. Once a pair of shoes signified three hours' labor.

The first shop at South Natick began in 1840. Four large shops at one time were busy hives ; but two were burned, and business fell off. Many make shoes in little shops, getting stock from the large dealers. Mr. Pfeiffer has recently built a fine workshop.

The Harrison political campaign brought Henry Wilson into his sphere of life-work. An acceptable platform speaker, he won notice as " the Natick Cobbler." Occasional defeats when nominated for office only led at last to higher promotion. He was state representative in 1S41, state senator in 1844, major, colonel, brigadier-general in the state militia, delegate to the National Convention in 1848, from which he and Charles Allen withdrew, and an unsuccessful Free-Soil nominee for governor. But his meridian was not yet reached. In 1855 lie became a senator in Congress, the colleague and comrade of Charles Sumner. Both were stajich patriots, who did splendid service in the nation's critical hour. Mr. Wilson attained the vice-presidency on General Grant's second nomination, and was the third Massachusetts man to fill that chair.

Upon the north side of the Common stands the Soldier's :\ronmiu'iit, dedicated .luly 4, 1868. We' read eii^lity-niiie uanu's of our townsmen who died in the war. Natick sent some three hundred men. Many went in the 13th regiment. Company H, and in the 39th regiment, Company I. This monument is flanked in front and rear by four brass twelvepounders. Standing between two churches, and near a school-house with five hundred pupils, it is a memorial to old and young of patriotism and sacrifice. General Wadsworth Post 63, G. A. R., is in a flourishing condition.

Before us lies a printed sheet, entitled, " Psalm C, - to be sung at the Tea Party given in the Town-Hall at Natick, Oct. 28, 1846, for the purpose of raising means to purchase a copy of Eliot's Indian Bible, to be preserved in the Archives of the Town."

Source changes here: from History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, by Drake, Samuel Adams, published 1880; 10,238 words in this source stream.

Natick Town

HH neighbor towns of Natick are, on the east Needham and Dover in Norfolk County, Sherbom to the south, Framingbam west, and Waylaiid north. I^e Cocbitnate, the Long Pond of our fiithers, but resuming its

-- Boston's water-supply, is a note- worthy natural feature. Charles Eiver crooks through South Natick; and on the e^ of Dover Pegan Hili rises four hundred feet. Natick has three villages : the compact, populous Centre, on the Boston and Albany lUilroad, seventeen miles from the city ; Felchville, a mile north ; and two miles southeast the original settlement. South Natick. Population, by the census of 1875, 7,419.

This town, one of tbe few in Massai^usetta with an Indian name, preserves thus the fact of its aboriginal origin; for when John Eliot's missionary labors at Nonantam bore fruit, he wished to gather these converts into a community remoter from the whites. Riding in quest of a good location, and disappointed in one place examined, the record states that be prayed behind a great rock for guidance in this matter. Soon after a friendly Indian suggested another site, of whicli Eliot thus writes: "The Lord did discover that there it was his pleasure we should begin this work. Whco grasse was fit to cut, I sent some Indians to mow, and other to make hay, becanse we most oft ride thither in the Autumn, and in the spring before any grasse ia come, and there is provision for ou horses, their work was performed wdt, as I found when I went up to Uiem with my man to order it"

Natick

Thej next built a foot-bridge eighty feet long, rising jfrom either end to the centre. It gave easier leoess, especially in the spring floods, to their gardens and orchards ; for on the left bank of Charles Hirer lay a meadow previously reached by a ford. This bridge was so firmly set that it did good service for years. The Indiatis gave their labor, tboogh Eliot offered pa}rment, and the bridge was dedicated with religious exercises.

TheSpeen family (Indians) owned the land which bj a quitclaim deed, yet treasured in the town archives, signed by Eliot and witnes.^ by seventeen Indians, they generously gave to the common weal, taking only a single right in land, but retaining the weirs they had put in the stream.

Natick has been commonly thought to mean "the place of hills,^^ which it certainly is. Another suggested signification links the word with the sound of water dashing over rocks. A third explanation fp^ves '^ my land.^'

History is silent as to the exact time of removal Irom Nonantum; but on coming to Natick they laid out three parallel streets, two on the north, and one on the south side of the water, and divided the land into fifty lots more or less. .Tliat would show a population of two hundred probably. A few houses were built, but Gookin says they liked wigwams better as being warmer and more portable. Tlien for the general good a fort M-as constructed, ditched, banked, and stockaded; round and capacious.

In the summer of 1651 they were building a framed edifice, fifty feet by. twenty-five, with two stories - the.lpwer a schoolroom week-days, a sanctuary on the Sabbath. The upper story became a warehouse for fars - one of their chief men, Waban, being a trader - and other valuables, with a comer walled off for a small chamber. Here Eliot lodged when at Natick. Tlie natives sawed the timber, and only had tlie help of an English carpenter at the raising. An Indian despises manual labor ; but these friends of the white teacher proved their civilization and Cliristianity by their industry and skill. And now, below the wooded liills^ we see the- riverside plantation in the dense fgiest.

The next step established the village into a body I politic. It was already under the general jurisdictkMi of the colony, and so Eliot's converts became .

loyal subjects of the English crown. But jn local affairs, for his convenienciB and theirs alike, Eliot would teach them self-government. Bead his account: -

*' Therefore upon the sis^t day of the sixt Mouth of this present year, (their Pallizadoe Fort being finished) they had a great meeting, and many came together from diverse parts, though sundry were hindered and came not at that time : where with Prayer to God I read and expounded the eighteenth of Exodus, and finally they did solemnly choose two rulers among themselves, they first chose a Buler of an hundred, then they chose two rulers of fifties, then they chose Ten or Tithing Men." Wlicn ten captains of ten men each were elected, every private selected his captain. Totherswamp, we suppose, was generalissimo; our oldest acquaintance, Waban, stood next in rank. So early were they instructed in the science of government, and each man allowed the. freeman's right to vote for his rulers. Does Eliot^s policy in making his settlers landowners and voters suggest light on. the Indii^ problem of to-day ?

October 8, 1651, was a notable day at Natick* Their revered teacher visited the place. 1 0ther dignitaries also came. The minister and the magistrate in those times received marked respect. Church and state were well represented on this occasion. Governor Endicott, Bev. Mr. Wilson of Boston, with others, wished to be eye-witnesses of the good work, and bid the workers Godspeed. Tlie governor came as far as Dedliam, resting there overniglit, and next moruing, escorted in official dignity by a troop of twenty horsemen, rode hither. We fancy the nine miles after leaving Dedham town found clearings scarce, and the bridle-path may have been on an Indian trail through the woods. Bev.,Mr. Wilson, with cousin Baws6n^ the secretary of the colony, spent the night at Watertown Mill, and rode over in the morning.

i\iter the guests had looked around meetingtime came. The drum-beat may have sensed for a ctoUing-bell, the falling sands of an hourglass as their clock to measure tiine. We suppose the service that day was held in the open^ air inside the fort. Tlie meeting-house probably stood with- . iji the palisade. The visitors were seated under a canopy ; beneath a smaller awning were the village magistracy, twelve men; the Indian women. were in one part, the men in another. What a scene I - the- governor in state ; the reverend cleigy, eager listeners ; the train-band with a trumpeter at least to' make music ; and before them the dark sons of die jbreet, men^ women, and children, a hundred or more I One of the best-taught natives preached. His name is not chronicled, but we have his text and homily, the treasures hid in a field, and the merchantman seeking goodly pearls. When he prayed he stood up, but gave his exhortation sitting (m a stool. He was dressed like the English, and discoursed three quarters of an hour. Then Eliot expounded for an hour. The governor and Mr. Wilson briefly addressed the assembly through an interpreter. Finally the schoolmaster, Monequassun, deaconed off a psnlm, which the Indians sang ta an English tune cheerfully and ''pretty tunable,'' the governor writes.

After service the chief men consulted with EndicOtt about a grist-mill they proposed to build. Mr. Wilson speaks of the fair house, the fruittrees, of the goodly plain over the river toward Dedham, their planting ground, and their bridge.

Civil a&irs being arranged, Eliot sought to gather the converts into church estate, a task needing more time- and patience than the former ; for the churches, as well as the converts, must be sure of their thorough preparation. Nor do we forget the helpers in England who watehed their progress with unflagging interest. In 1649 had been incorporated Tiie Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England. Men like Baxter, Caryl, and Sir Thomas Boyle* co-operated. They gathered funds to sustain Eliot and his coworkers. The letters of Wilson, Shepard, Mayhew, and Eliot were published and widely read; and the titles of these little books reveal a growing confidence in the good work : The Day Breaking , if noi the Sun-rkiHg of the Oospel toiih the Indiana ; The clear Sun Shine qfthe Oospel; The Light appear^ ing more and more nnto the perfect Dag. These tracts aflbrd original information from the workers themselves.

Waban and others became Christians at Nonantum. Good Wampoas on his death-bed there said to his friends, '' I now shall dye, but Jesus Christ caDeth you that live to go to Naticke, that there the Lord might rule over you, that you might make a church, and have the Ordinances of God among you."

October IS, 1652, the elders and messengers of the churches met with Mr. Eliot and his dusky friends at Natick. Five of the principal natives told their religious experience, which was translated for the visitors. Tlie waning afternoon gave no time for others, but the confessions of fifteen were next spring published with the title, Tears of Repentance, und widely read on both aides of the Atlantic.

June 13, 1654, e^ht men from Natick went to Boxbury for examination. Monequassun, the school-teacher and chorister, was detained by sickness, of which he died soon after.

In 1656 Daniel Gookin of .Cambridge became civil superintendent of all the Indians under Massachusetts jurisdiction. This oflice brought him into close relations with Eliot, and the two wrought each in his sphere most lovingly; one ordering the civil matters of the natives, and the other thek religious. Boxbury and Cambridge were mutual helpers in gospelizing the aborigines in yet another way, as we shall soon see.

In the fall of 1658 a solemn fast was kept at Natick, partly preparatory to church gatherii^, partly also OU; account of excessive rains, hurtful to their crops. The substance of the exhortations, or sermons, by Waban and Nishokou is still extant

At bst the Natick church was gathered in 1660, composed of those whose confessions had been printed, with others ; but just when, and with how many members, and under what circumstances, we find no record.

In a letter of later date Eliot describes the church usages of the Praying Indians. Their practice was like the whites in the inchurching, and after a church was established they received members thus: ^Tliey were diligently examined both privately and publickly in the catechism, their blameless and pious conversation is testified to, their names are publickly exposed as desiring to make confession. When the teachers and chief brethren judge them meet tliey are called publickly to confess, confederate, and be baptized, both themselves and their children, if not grown up. All the Indian churches in 1673 were fumishel with officers, saving the church at Natick, and in modesty they stand off, because so long as I live^ they say there is no need; but we propose (God willing) not always to rest in this answer.''

In 1658 Mr. Eliot petitioned the General Court for more land to be granted the plantation '' oat of the common lands adjoining " ; four thousand acres were given in a northerly and westeriy diree* tion. This tract covered what is now South Fram* ingham,^ and the Lmds westerly and southwest of Farm Pond, and on the northwest it touched Sudbury Biver near Merriam's Hill.

The church fairl; planted, Natick became a missionary centre. Till the formation of other ebaiches, those living at Hassauemesit, Maguukook, and Mariborough held membership here. Teachers and preachers were trained for the growing work. Already our untiring apostle, notwithstanding pastoral labor at Bosbury (he had three colleagues duriug his fifty-eight years' ministry) and days of toilsome travd, - for he liad explored the country from Martiia's Vineyard to the Merrimack,' from Cape Cod to Brookfield, - had devoted pains by day and night to a greater task of Christian scholarship. Having learned the language from an Indian servant, he could, in 164>6, preach to Wabnn in his mother tongue. But Eliot longed that the natives should have the Bible at their wigwams. In 1649 hevished to translate the Scriptures; in 1651 he wrote that he had no expectation to see the Word of God translated, much less printed in his day. The attempt was so heroic, we do not wonder at his'fears. - But he did see both. In 1658 Genesis and Matthew were in use at Natick. This translation of the Bibfe must have been studied out partly in Roxbury, partly in his little chamber here; thoughts, words, plans, came to him doubtless in his jounieyings.

hi 1661 the New Testament issued from the Cambridge Press, followed in 1663 by the Old Testament. Two hundred copies of the first, strongly bound in leather, had at once been circulated among the Indians. Tlie whole Bible makes a stout quarto of over one thousand pages, and with it are bound the Psalter versified from the Bav Psalm^Bobk, and a short catechism. All were published at the expense of the English society^ who sent over the press and materials. The building -erected for Indian students became the printing-house for the second edition. A diffuse laudatory dedication to Charles II. prefaced the copies of the first edition sent to England, and Sir Bobert Boyle tells how the merry monarch received the strange gift. '' He looked a pretty while upon it, and showed some things in it to those that had the honor to be about him. Yet the unexi)ected coming in of an Envoye from 'the Em])eror hindered me from receiving that fuller expression of his grace toward the translators and dedicators, tliat might otherwise have been expected."

We appreciate the difhculties and grandeur of Eliot's work, with no grammatical lielps to acquire a dialect utterly unlike the Old- World languages, when we remember the college of scholars tliat i gave England King James' version, and the select company of English and American divines whose' headquarters in preparing the latest revision are the Jerusalem Chamber, in Westminster Abbey.

Eliot made an Indian grammar, and describes his method of study. ^' I would pursue a word/ noun or verb, through all the variations I could think of." As the savages had no written language, our author represented their' sounds by the Boman letter^. All the qualifying terms relating to the principal idea were joined by prefix or suffix to the leading word. For genders, nouns were divided as representing animate beings or inanimate things^ and formed their plurals accordingly in og or ash. ' '' They had no complete or distinct word for the verb substantive, but it is mider a regular composition^ whereby many words are made verb substantive.'' The personal pronouns had a separable and insepa«^- rable form, my being expressed by the letter iV, prefixed to.tlie word.'' - '-

Our Apostle of New England assisted in drganiziug an Indian church on Martha's Vineyard, Au*' gust 22, 1670, and in 1671 his own second church arose at Hassanemesit. But the Natick church, ' the first-born in the wilderness, was the largest, and' enjoyed more of the missionary's presence. In 1670, ten years old, it had fifty communicants.'' That it was active in all good endeavors, is shown by the instructions of the Natick church to its chosen members, William and Anthony, also John Sausamon, whom it sent as ambassadors to the Missonkouog savages, to avert if possible their going to war with the English. ''

More Indians were educated for preachers by Natick schooling and exercising their gifts in ^ cimrch-meetings, than availed themselves of the Indian Hall at Cambridge, though a number studied there. One aboriginal name graces the Harvard Triennial, an islander from the Vineyard, a graduate in 1665. But the close confinement to books was more than the native temperament could bear. Mr. Eliot left at Quinbisset, now Tliompson, Connecticut, in 1674, Daniel, a Natick Indian, as their teacher, - probably Takawampbait, of whom more presently.

Next vear came that fearful conflict of the aboriginal and European races, called, from its instigator, Philip^s War. Waban and Sausamon warned the whites of Philip's designs, and Sausamon lost his life thereby. Eliot, in the Roxbury records, thus * characterizes him : *' A man of eminent parts and - wit, he was of late years conv'ted, joyned to the

Ghtuch at Natike, baptized, and wis sent by the church to Asowamsick, in Plimoth Pattent to pF^h the gospel/' Among his Taunton neighbora he was esteemed a good Christian, and his death was much bewailed.

A company of fifty-two' soldiers was raised by the Praying Indians. In July Oneco, son of the fEonous Uncas, came to Natick with fifty Mohegan braves as allies of the English. After a successful battle the Mohegans went looting, while our Natick men wanted to pursue the foe. They knew the tactics of the wily savages better than the whites, and did good service, and might have helped much more. But the colonists grew unwisely distrustful of the Christian Indians. Says Eliot, '* The prophane Indians pVe a sharp rod to the English, and the English a very sharp rod to the praying Indians.''

To ^uiet the popular apprehension, the General Court bad ordered the Christian Indians to confine their residence to five villages, - Natick was the first, - nor roam more than a mile away from th^ ; which order quite broke up their hunting and fishing. Wliite superintendents were chosen, two residing at Natick. These measures did not satisfy ^ the public.

Accordingly the General Court, ^ 1673, October IS, ordered that all the Natick Indians be forthwitli sent for, and disposed of to Deare Island as the place appointed for their present abode.^' Other praying Indians were also transported down the harbor. Deer Island to-day is a place of banishment for the city's lawless boys, and the brick House of Industry is a familiar sight to all who come or go by water.

October 30, Captain Thomas Prentice, with a guard, came to bring away the villagers and their goods to the Pines, near where is now the Watertown Arsenal. Old Jethro and ten more escaped * into the woods, preferring the range of the forest with his own race to the cold hospitality of the Massachusetts authorities.

Sadly the rest left their fish weirs and bridge, their orchards and gardens, their fort and meetinghouse. Mr. Eliot writes: "When the Indians were hurried away to an Hand at half an hour's warning, pore soules in terror y left their goods, books, bibles, only some few caryed y' bibles."

From Natick they went afoot nine miles to the Pines, near the base of Nouantum Hill. Here Eliot, Gookin, and some others met tliem, and spent the night hours in prayer and exhortation.

An eye-witness says : '^ 'T was aflSBcting to* see how Christianly these poor soules carried it, being in fear they should never return, but be transported out of the country." With the flood-tide at midnight the waiting boats dropped down stream.

Through the dreary winter they sUfiFered, especially the aged and feeble. Some of their men had leave of absence for duty as guides and scouts. The Hassauamcsit Indians were carried off by the enemy, who offered them plenty to eat and good treatment if they went with them. Job Kattenanit escaped, but his family were taken. It appears that these fared better among th^ heathen, as the hostile savages were called, than their Natick brethren with the Christian whites.

In December James Quiinnopowit and the Job just named were sent from Deer Island as spies, to learn the enemy's spirit and movements. Tliey took to the woods at Natick December Slst, and soon were among the warlike Nipmucks, where they represented themselves as wronged by the English. Here they found the Hassanamesit refugees. James' relation to the General Court we now follow. These Nipmucks sold beaver and wampum to the Mohawks, in exchange for powder obtained from the Dutch at Albany.

Some Indians mistrusted these spies, but Jofanwith-the-One-Eye knew James, and said,- ''I know thee that thou art a valimit man, therefore abide at my wigwam and I will protect thee." But Job stayed with his children. They abode thus some days, and went forth to hunt deer. Early one morning James, liaving gotten a pint of nokake, or pounded com, went hunting with Job. Some Indians suspected and watched them, but at night they were unobserved. About three o'clock before day James said to Job, " Now let us escape away if we can." But Job said, '^ I am not willing to goe now, because my children are here. I will stay longer, if God please he can preserve my life, if not, I am willing to die. I will use what policy I canto get away my children ; if I live three weekes hence I will come back to Natick. I sliall if I live, by that time get more intelligence of affairs." Hien James said : '^ I must now go away, for I am not like to have a better opportunity ; but I am sorry for you, lest they kill you for my sake.'* So, having prayed, James travelled homeward night and day on snowshoes, and reported his eighty miles' scooting to Major Gookin.

and naming the day. In the spring those at the island were allowed to dwell on Mr. Oliver's estate in CaiQbridge, whence in the autumn some came to the falls of Charles Biver^ others to the original station at Nonantum.

Wattasascompanum, or Captain Tom^ whom Gookin had made . a magistrate in remote plantations^ by that fact had stayed with the warring savages^ Taken prisoner^ he was on very slight ' evidence condemned, and suffered death in Boston, Jnne, 1676. He died much mourned by Eliot and the better sort.

In September four chief captives were shot at the town's end, one of them Old Jethro, who, at the removal to Deer Island, had taken to the woods. Some others, once dwellers at Natick, found with the enemy, had been carried into slavery.

'' 1676, Nov. 10, An account of the disposall of Jhe Indians, our friends (pro tempore) presented to the Councill (at their desire) by Daniel Gookin, sen.

"The Natick Indians arp disposed in fower companics as foUoweth,. vict. one company \iith James Bomney Marsh, and his kindred living in Meadfield, with the approbation and consent of the English Ibere; theseare in number about twenty-five, 5 : 20.

" Another company live near Xatick adjoyning the garrison-house of Andrew Dewin and his sons^ who desire their neighborhood, and are under their inspection; the numbei' of these may be about fifty soules, 10 : 40.

*f A fourth company dwell at Nonantum Hill, near Leift Trowbridge and John Coones, who permits them to build their wigwams upon his ground. They are employed to cut wood, and spin, and - make stone walls, being but a small distance from the hill of Nonantum where their meeting is to keep Sabath. These may be about seventy five souls, 15:60."

Pliilip's War and Mr. Eliot's infirmities of age sadly ireakened the prosperity of the native churches in .Massachusetts. But on the cape, as well as at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, distant from the battle-scenes, the work still flourished. Waban puts his mark to a petition for the pecuniary encouragement of the pastor at Sherboni, son of Major Gookin, for lecturing regularly at Natick. They say, that, deprived of seeing Mr. Eliot's face, and hearing his voice (especially in the winter season) so frequently as formerly, the church and people of Natick invited Mr. Gookin, two and a half years before, to lecture, which he had done in English, and an interpreter translated his words. This letter has sixteen Indian names subjoined. Old Waban marks first, and eight more also mark. Daniel Takawampbait, the second name is signed, and the last is Thomas Waban, son of the first. Tliis document Professor Stowe;, himself Natick-bom, discovered in Lon4on. Its date is March 19, 1684.

The next summer old Waban died, his last words attesting a Cliristian^s trust. To-day a placid lake, whose surface his canoe oft cleft, bears his name.

Here is Natick in 1685 as sketched by John Dunton of London, who visited New England on a bookselling speculation. Calling on Bev. Mr. Eliot at Eoxbury, he received twelve Bibles just from the jjress. They would be a fortune to our booksellers. But we quote : '* On horseback about twenty miles to Natick. We tied up our hprses in two old. bams almost in ruins. We had no place where we could bestow ourselves, unless^ upon greensward until the lecture began. We were informed that the sachem and queen were there, and went immediately to visit them. When we had made our visit, we went to the meeting-place, where the lecture was preached by Mr. Gookins. The poor Indians were very much affected, and seemed to hang upon his lips. The Natick Lecture was done about four in the afternoon, and we had twenty miles to Boston, so that we were obliged to mount immediately and make the best of our way/^

March 19, 1687, died Major Gookin, whose gravestone is yet in tlie ancient cemetery at Cambridge. Near this time Eliot's wife, his companion for more than fifty years, a i)erson remarkably fitted for her position, died. Her husband's smir pie eulogy has a tender pathos : " Here lies my dear, faithful, pious, prudent, prayerful wife."

From Judge Sewall's recently published diary we glean these facts ; " Wednesday, May 21, 1690, about oue in the morning Mr. Eliot died. This pots oar ' Election into Mourning.*' His death was referred to by Mr. Walter in the Thursday lecture with reference to 2 Kings ii. His funeral was attended on Friday by the magistrates and ministers, six of the latter serving as bearers. The burial-spot, since then the tomb of the pastors of the First Church of Roxbury, is in the cemetery, on the comer of Washington and Eustis streets. The Natick church moutned their spiritual father many a day, for no Elisha caught the mantle of the ascending prophet. In amiability of character he was our New England St. John ; in abundant labors for an outside race our apostle to the Indians was a very St. Paul. Cotton Mather's ana- gram on his name reveals his earnest spirit, for " Eliot,*' reversed, reads " toile." Three places in Massachusetts shall ever hbnor his holy memory, - Boxbury, Newton, and Natick.