Waltham City (part 2 of 5)

We come now to the period when the seeds of revolution, sowed by the framers of the Stamp Act and' its kindred impositions, are beginning to thrust their shoots through the stratum of loyalty which has hitherto held tliem in check, and from, this time the growth is rapid and fruition speedy and coqiplete. On the 25th of Januan*, 1773».at a meeting of the town, a letter was read from the town of Boston to the selectmen complaining of the grievances the colonists liad suffered and were sii^ffering, ])articularly those of the Massachusetts Bay. The letter also set forth the natural, civil, and religious rights of the people. Tlie town chcMe Samuel Livennore, Esq., Jonas Dix, £sq., Captain Abijah Brown, Leonard Williams, Esq., and Deacon Isaac Steams a committee to. draw up and consider a vote in answer.. At the May (10th) meeting of the town a letter was read setting, forth the barbarous, unchristian, and inhuman practiofs of African slaverv. This matter was referred to the representative, to act therein according to his discretion. In March, 1774, the town voted to build a new school-house near the meeting-house. The committee to whom the details were intrusted reported, in September, the work accomplished at an ex])ense of £81 5^. 3//. Jonas Dix was elected representative in May, and Jacob Bigelow in September. The selectmen ordered four haUrbarrels of powder, 450 weight of bullets, and 300 flints, to complete the town^s stock of ammunition. On the 30tli of September the to^-n chose Captain Abijah Brown, Leonard Williams, Esq., and Captain Jonathan Brewer a committee to draft instructions to their representative in regard to what course he should pursue on the question of the General Court's resolving itself into a provin^- cial concrress. In the mean time a convention of delegates from the towns of Middlesex County had been held at Concord, and among other things recommended the holding of a provincial congress at that town, and that each town should appoint a committee of corresiK)ndence in order,. as the warrant for the Waltliam town-meeting said, ''that other Towns when thev send out on any Emer- gencj may know who to seud to and that said pommittee upon any emergency may send to other Town's Committees/' Accordingly, at a meeting ^i^ the^ Sd of October the town elected Mr. Jacob Bigelow^delegate'tothe congress, and Captain Wil- "Uaj^ Cqolidge, Deacon Elijah Livermore, Captain Abijah Brown, Lienteiiant Abijah Child, and Ensign Abraham Peirce a committee of safety. . (In the list of delates on file at the State House - vide Miscellanepus (1 -. 138) - Watertown has three delegates, Newton three, Sudbury two, Weston three, Liiyx)ln two, Waltham two. Waltiiam's two are Mr. Jacob Bigelow and Captain Eleazer Brooks.) Ooiihe 1 2th of December a town-meeting was held, '' To take into serious Consideration the xVssociation of the grand American Continental Congress^ and accordhig to their BesolVes to choose a Committee to attentively observe that said Assdciation be punctually and strictly carried into Execution.'' Jonas Dix, ^sq.. Comet Nathaniel Bridge, and Deacon Elijah Lawrence were chosen a corhmittee for that purpose. In November, 1774, the town voted to take down the old school-house, and build one at the northwest part of the town.

Agreeabl;^ to a recommendation of the Provincial Congress, the voters of the town convened on the 9th of January, 1775, to determine wliat should be done in regard to enlisting minute-men, and it was voted to be the mind of the town that '' they will all be prepared and stand ready ef{uipt us minute-men." At the same meeting Jonas Dix, Esq., was elected delegate to the Provincial Congress to be holden at Cambridge hi February. In March the town voted to pay the money collected for taxes to Henry Gardner, Esq., treasurer of the provincial government. The selectmen, in the same month, appointed a committee to take an exact state of the town's ammunition, and report in writing. Nothing appears in the town records to indicate the struggles at Lexington and Concord, and it is difficult to determine' how many of Waltham's sons took [)art in those conflicts, but some were there. David Smith, an apprentice to Phineas Steams, was wounded by the bursting of his gun at Lexington, and Abram Child, a native of Waltham, took part in the pursuit of the retreating English soldiery. On the day following these skirmishes the Ceiitral Committee of Corresponden6e issued a stirring appeal to .the sub-committees of the colony, M'hich concluded in these words : ''We beg & entreat that as you will answer to your Country to your Consciences and above all as you will answcfr to God himself, that yon will Iiasten and encouhige by all possible Means the Enlistment of Men to form the Arm v." At a meetir ing of the selectmen, May 13, they delivered to each of the following men a good blanket, in accordance with the '' Recommendation of the Provincial Congress, they being inlisted into the Servi6e of the Massachusetts, for tlie Defence of tlie Liberties of America": Eliplialet Hastings, Jonas Lawrence, Elijah Cutting, Elislm Cox, William Lock, Samuel Roberts, John Glynn, Josiah Con vers. Cutting Clark, Abraham Pkrkhurst, Matthew Peirce, Josiah Bemis, Jr., Daniel Warren, Elijah Mead, Samuel MuUiken, Amos Fiske, Zechariah Weston, Job Priest, David Smith, Benjamin Gallop, Amos Ha^ rington, George Wellington, Micah Bumpo (negro), Jonas Smith, Jr., John Tiles, Josiah Lovett, £lisha Harrington, Habakkuk Steams, Jesse Goodell, Nathan Wrijjht, Asa Gould, Bc^leel Wright, Abijah Fisk, Rufus Stacey, Isaac Bemis, Elislia Steams, Reuben Bemis, Timothy Flagg, Eliphalet Warren, Moses Warren, William Sprague, Thaddeus Child, Andrew Benjamin, John Symms, and Edmund Lock. In May Jacob Bigelow was chosen to the Provincial Congress, and in July and August Jonas Dix filled tlie same position. A protest against Dix being allowed his scat in the Congress, signed by twenty-six citizens, appears in the state records, the complainants alleging that his election Was illegally procured, inasmuch as he used his influence to prohibit the votes of such of the men serving in the army as were known to be opposed to him. In the troublous times of the early breaking out of the Revolution neighbor seemed to eye neighbor somewliat askant, and every suspicion was intensified by the fever of the times. Of th^ number of the suspected was one John Milliquet, a tavern-keeper, whose wife, having a child in Boston, ]nssed through the lines, and obtained it, and returned, and was thought to have furnished information to the enemy. The sdectmen, however, in their reply to the Central Committee of Correspondence, cleared the family of the cliaige ; in fact, Milliquet was licensed as an innholder tlie following year as a person friendly to his country. Another suspected one - suspected by his own neighbors - was, singularly enough, Lieuteiumt- Colonel Abijah Brown. The selectmen, in a letter to the Provincial Congress in May, accuse Brown of slandering the Congress, thrtmtening tliat the army would rebel against its authority, etc The committee a])i)ointed by Congress to examine into tlie charges completely exonerate Colonel Brown, aiid tarn, the tables on those who have denounced him to the selectmen. In a letter to tlijs Board of War, dated May 19, 1775, Brown writes that he has removed the cannon under his chai^ at Waltham to Watertown, and delivered them to the Committee of Safety, '' and shall have my company in readiness to march to Cambridge to-morrow morning.'* In June the Provincial Congress recomineads that Brown, who is holding the position of lieutenant-colonel under Colonel Woodbridge, be commissioned, and on the 23d of that month he acknowledges the receipt of his commission. Another unfortunate had inadvertently bought a few pounds of tea, but was s))eedily made to realize his offence. Of the part taken by the men of Waltham at Bunker Hill there appears to be no record, save here and there an item telling of some one wounded or«ome one losing a gun or accou- .trements. Captain Jonathan Brewer was among those wounded, and Eliphalet Hastings . lost a bayonet. It is probably safe to infer that the entire number enumerated as enlisted were in tliat battle.

At the meeting held March 18, 1776, Captain William Coolidge, Tliomas Wellington, and Lieutenant Samuel Steams were chosen the committee of correspondence. In the warrant this committee lias also the terms " inspection '' and " safety.'' This was in accordance i^itli a resolve of the General Court, February 13, 1776, uniting the three committees in one, and directing the annual choice by the several towns. Those familiar with the colonial history of this period will remember the many difficulties tliat the colonists labored under through lack of saltpetre, and its manufacture was urged upon the people. At the March meeting the ioyn\ chose Jacob Bigclow, Samuel Harrington, and Elislia Cutter a committee to inquire into the feasibility of manufacturing it in private families in Waltham. At the meeting in May (27th) Jonas Dix, Esq., was chosen representative, and at the same meeting, " the question being put to know the mind of the Town wliether they will advise their Representative that if tlie Honorable Congress should for the Safety of the united Colonies Declare them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain thev the said Inhabitants will Solemly engage with their lives and fortunes to support them in the measure. And it passed in the affirmative.*' At a meetinc held June 25 the town voted to excuse from paying a bounty tax those who had served in the army or who should join the Canada expedition. A bounty of £6 &s. 8d, was voted to each non-commissioned officer and private Enlisting for that expedition. A committee to whom the raising and disbursing of this bounty was intrusted reported the following names of recruits: Jbnn Coolidge, Ezra Peirce, John Gleason, Elisha LiveiE*- more, William Hagar, John Hagar, Josiah' Sanderson, Edward Brown, Elias Hastings, Eli Jones, Abijah Brown, Jr., Benjamin Ellis, Isaiah Edes "for my Negro,'' Josiah Wyer, JDavid . Steams, Jonathan Stearns, Abijah Fisk, John Lawrence, Samuel Gale, Jr., Samuel Bigelow, Stephen^ Willman, Eliphalet Hastings, Natlian Sanderson, John Bichardson.

Tlie council of the colony having ordered a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence to be sent to the minister of each parish, of every denomination, and by him to be read immediately after the close of the service of the Sabbath following its receipt, the copies then to be delivered to the town clerks, and bv them entered on the town or district records, " there to remain as a perpetual Memorial thereof,'^ we find it copied at length in the records of this period. On the 28th of October the town refused to give its sanction to the formation and enactment of a state constitution. In December the following named men ^tie enlisted for Waltliam, under Captain Bhiney, in Colonel Thatcher's regiment, for three months : Samu^ Lufkin, Solomon Keyes, John Glode, Jamies Davis, William Chambers, Timothy Brown, Samuel Lufkin, Jr., Timothy Farrar, Tristram Davidson, Jeremiah Williams, Lemuel Wheeler, . Abel Parker.. The school-teachers paid during this year were W^illiam Fisk and Paul Litchfield.

On the 3d of March, 1777, the town re-elected the same men for its committee of correspondence, and a committee was chosen to devise some equitable manner of proportioning the assessments levied on account of filFrng Waltham's quotas in the army. In May Sepresentative Dix was instructed to join with other members of the General Court (if he should think proper) in the formatioTi of '* such a Constitution of Government, as he shall Judge best Calculated to Promote the happiness of this State; and when compleated cause the same to be printed in all the Boston News Papers,, and also in hand bills, one of which to be transmitted to the selectmen of each Town, or the Committee of each Plantation, to be by them laid before their respective Towns or Plantations, at a ipguhr meet- ing of fhe Inhabitants thereof, to be called for that purpose ; in order to its being by eaeh Town and Plantation duly considered.'* Jonas Dix, Jr., and* William Fisk taught school during the year.

On the 9th of February, 1778, a meeting was heU^ at which '' the Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the United States of America was read to the Town and tnaturelv conaidered by them, the Town, unanimously agreed that the said plau of Confederacy is well adapted for the securing the Freedom, Sovereignty, and Independence, of the United States of America^'* and the representative was instructed to vote that tlie state delegates be authorized to ratify that instrument in Congress. At the March meeting Matthias Collins, Lieutenant Isaac Hagar, and Peter Ball were chosen committee of correspondence, inspection,; and safety. In May Abner Sanderson was obosen representative. On the vote to ratify the state constitution tlie town stood six in favor, twentyi>two opposed. On the 28th of September a committee was chosen '^ to Estimate what each one had done in the war by Bearing Arms Personally or their paying money to Encourage others to do the same & proportioning the same by a Tax upon the Polls and Estates of the Town,'' etc. This . committee reported on the 19th of October. In their report tiiey give the following names of the thirty men which \yaltham sent for the eight months' campaign ; Colonel Jonatliau Brewer, Colonel Abijah Brown, Captain Abijah Child, Captain Abraoi Child, Lieutenant Oliver Hagar, Captain Jedediah Thayer, Josiah Con vers, Elislia Wellington, Lieutenant Isaac Bemis, David . Smith, George Wellington, Beubeu Bemis, Josiah Bemis^ Jr., Amos Fisk, Abijah Fisk, Timothy Flagg, Jonas Lawrence^ WUliani Lock, Josiah Leaverett, Edmund Lock» Elisha Steams, Daniel Warren/ Thaddeus Wellington, Zachariah Weston, Eliphalet Warren, Amos Harrington, Moses Warren, Cliarles Warren, Moses Mead, Jr., and Francis Brewer. These the committee judged should have £3 \i9. each. The town sent nine two-months men to the Cambridge lines, namely : Lieutenant Isaac Bemis, Josiah Wier, Samuel Gale, Jr.,. Samuel Goodin, Phineos Warren, Jr., John Kidder, Joel Harrington, Thaddeus Goodin, and Ebenezer Phillips; they should receive 18«. each. Captain Abijah Child, Josiah Convers, Josiah Bemis, Jr., Captain Jedediah Thayer, Jonas Lawrence, TImddeus Wellington, and Edmund Lock went into Canada ; they should be allowed £15 each. Colonel Jonathan

Brewer, Captain Abraham Child,. William Lock, and Jonas Lock were in the service in the Jerseys in 1776, losing baggage, etc. ; they should, be allowed £4 each. Captain Isaac Gleason, Lieutenant John Clark, Jonas Dix, Jr., Josiah Sanderson^. Nathan Sanderson, William Bridge*, Elisha Livermore, Jr., Joseph Hagar, Jr., William Hagar, Jonatlian Steams, Ephraim Hammond, John Lawrence, Samuel Gale, John Gleason, Samud Bigelow, and Abijah Livermore, choosing to hire rather than give' personal service, paid £6 each above the regular bounty; Captain Gleason and Ephraim Hammond refused the town's bounty, and paid £12 6«. id, each. Colonel Abijah Brown, Jonathan Hagar, Josiah Wier, Stephen Wellman, Ezra Peirce, David Steams, Edward Brown, and John Coolidge, receiving only the state and town bounty, should be allowed £6 each to put them on the same terms as the others. Deacon Elijah Livermore, Amos Brown, and Jonathan Fisk each paid £6 to procure men to go to the '* lines at Boston.^' Leon? ard Williams, Esqf., Captain Isaac Gleason, Bezaleel Flagg, Matthias Collins, Lieutenant. Samuel Steams, Daniel Cutting, Deacon John Sanderson, Ephraim Peirce, Phineas Lawrence, Kathan Viles, and Zachariah Smith procured men to go to White Plains, and Lieutenant Isaac Hagar and Isaac Parkhurst go in person ; each should be allowed £ 10. Ensign Samuel Harrington, Jacob Bigelow, Samuel Gale, Josiah Mixer, Captain Abraham Peirce, Peter Ball, John Durant, David Townsend, Captain William Coolidge, Benjamin Stiattou, Benjamin Green, and Elijah Livermore each paid £6 ; Jonas Dix, Esq., Deacon Jonatliau Sanderson, Comet Nathaniel Bridge, Lieutenant Daniel Child, Jonas Smith, John Dix, Jonas Brown, Josiah Whitney, Abraliam Bemis, Thomas Fisk, Jonathan Sanderson, Jr., and Moses Mead, £5 each; Elisha Livermore, £ 10 ; Eli^lia Cutler, £ 14.; and Joseph Wellington, £3, to procure Waltham's. quota towards reinforcing the army, and should be allowed these respective sums. Lieutenant Isaac Bemis, Joseph Brown, Elisha Steams, Ezra Peirce, David Steams, George Steams, Tliaddeus Bemis, Jonathan Smith, Elijah Smith, Timothy Fbs^, Charles

Sanderson, 3d, and Samuel Green went to tlie Dorchester Hills and Boston lines ; that service being easv, the committee think 20^. each should be allowed. Warham Cushiug, James Priest, and Benjamin Hagar each hired a man to serve for three years or the war; each should be allowed £30..

Tbe following named individaals contribated the rams annexed to hire men to serve in the army : ^WiUiam Brown, William Wellington, Eleazer Bradshaw, Jonas Giild, Isaac Peirce, Silas Steams, Isaac Steams, Jr., Joshoa Steams, Samuel Fisk, and Abner Sanderson, £10 each; William Fisk, Isaac Qiild, Jr., and William Coolidge, Jr., £8 each; Joseph Wellington, £7; Cornet Nathaniel Bridge, Samuel Peirce, Jonas Dix, Esq., Jonas Smith, Moses Mead, Jonas Viles, Captain William Coolidge, Uriah Cutting, David Townseud, John Duiiint, Peter Ball, Benjamin Green, and Elijah Lawrence, £6 each; George Lawrence, Samuel Dix, Juel Dix, Josiah Hastings, Josiah Whitney, Abraliam Bemis, Thomas Fisk, Jonatlian Dix, Ephraim Peirce, Jonatlian Sanderson, tkl, and Thomas Livermore, £5 each; Captain John Clark, Jonathan Fisk, Josiah Sanderson, Abijah Livermore, Peter W*arren, and Elisha Culler, £4 each; Abraham Bemis, Jr., Deacon Jonathan Sanderson, and Daniel Child, £3 each; Jonas Bro\iii, Amos Brown, William Bridge, Jonas Dix, Jr., and Daniel Taylor, £2 each; and Phineas Lawrence, £1. Lieuteiiant Isaac Bemis, Jonas Lawrence, and Jacob Mead went to Rhode Island ; they should have £6 each. Daniel Steams, Abraliam Bemis, Jr., Ephraim Peirce, Jr., Tliaddeus Bemis, and Thaddeus Goodwin were drafted to go to Bennington, and either went or sent some one ; for their service they should have £30 Is. II (L each, exclusive of what they received. The sums annexed to the-foUowing names were paid ^' at that time to Encourage those that tumed out and went '': Deacon Elijah Livermore, Leonard Williams, Samuel Gale, and Isaac Parkhurst, £30 each; Ensign Josiah Bemis, £10 ; Phineas Lawrence and Joshua Mead, £ 6 ; Jonas Dix, Esq., Jonas Dix., Jr., Joel Dix, Jonatlian Stearns, Comet Nathaniel Bridge, William Bridge, Abraham Bemis, Jacob Bemis, Captain John Clark, Silas Steams, Daniel Steams, Jonathan Sanderson, 3(1., Josiah Hastings, Abijah Livermore, Thomas Livermore, John Lawrence, Moses ]^Iead, and Joshua Steams, £5 each; Jacob BigeloW) Samuel Peirce, John Sanderson, Peter Edes, Jonatlian Fisk, Amos Peirce, Jonas Smith, and Josiah Siniderson, kl each; David Smith, Nathan Viles, William Fi^^k, Ziichariah Smitli,'Jonas Viles, and Isaac Peirce, £8 each; and Peter Warren, Lieutenant Daniel Child, Elisha Livermore, Jr., and Nathan Sanderson, £*2 c^ich; which should be allowed. William Peirce and Moses Lawrence served at Dorchester II ills tliree montlis; they should have £ 10 each. Lieutenant Samuel Stcam^^ Samuel Steams, Jr., Abijah Bigelow, Amos Har* rington, Abijah Fisk, Reuben Bemis, George Lawrence, and Elisha Steams went in November, 1777, '^ to guard the troops of Convention,^' serving nnltil April, 1778 ; they should receive £ SO each. Chp tain Abraham Peirce, W^illiam Coolidge, Jr., Benjamin Harrington, Jr., John Bright, Amos Fisk, Moses Warren, John Perry, Thomas Hoppens, and Bezaleel Flagg, who went in January last to perfoml the same duty, should be allowed £16 each; and Jonas Child, Zachariah Smith, Nathan Sanderson,' Elisha Livermore, Jr., Joshua Steams, Daniel Warren, Jo4m Lawrence, Isaac Child, Jr., Isanc Peirce, Joseph Brown, and Josiah Hastings, Jr., for similar service should receive £ 12 6«., exclusive of what thev have had and are to receive. Liea«i tenant Isaac Hagar, John Gleason, Samuel Bigelow,' Eliphalet Warren, Alpheus Gale, Jonathan Hagar, Eli Jones, Closes Mead, Jr., Josiah Leavitt, Jona^' than Sanderson, 3d, Amos Peirce, Jedediah White, Charles Cutter^ and Jacob Bemis went to the Boston and Boxbury lines last spring, for which thej are entitled to £6 each. The following named persons paid the sums aunexed to their names last spring '' to fill the Continental Battalions and to secure the passes of the Tf orth River,*' namely : Captain William Coolidge, John Dix, Jacob Bigelow, Ensign Samuel Harrington, Benjamin Harrington," Cornet Nathaniel Bridge, Eleazer Bradshaw, Jonas Dix, Esq., Eli:«ha Livermore, Jonas Smith, and David Smith, £20 each; William Hagar, Josiah Mixer, Matthias Collins, Mr. Peirpont, and Deacon Elijah Livermore, £15 each; Captain Isaac Glea;- son, £12 bs,; Ehsha Cutler and Abner Sanderson, £11 each; Daniel Taylor, Samuel Dix, Nathaniel Livermore, Uriah Cutting, David Townsend, Jolm Durant, Peter Ball, Cnjitain Abraham Peirce, Jolin Gleason, Bezaleel Flugg, Daniel Cutting, Ephraim Hammond, Benjamin Stratton, Benjamin Green, Elijah Lnwrence, Hy. Kimball, Zachariah Weston, Ebenezer Brown, Jonas Brown, Abraluim Bemis,- Captain John Clark, Lieutenant Daniel Child, Isaao Child, Jonas Dix, Jr., AVilliam Wellington, Joiiathan Dix, Thomas Fisk, Jonathan Fisk, 'William Fisk, Samnel Fisk, Oliver Ilaggett, JosialuHastings, Thomas Hammond, Abijah Livermore, Phineai Lawrence, Joshua Mead, Moses Mead, Jonathan Sanderson, Jr., John Sanderson, Josiah Sanderson, and Nathan Viles, L 1 0 each ; Benjamin Peirce, £"9 ; and Peter Warren £6; and these sums should be allowed them. William Adams, William

Deacon Amos Brown, Jod Dix, Thomas Livennore, Samuel Peirce, Ezra Peirce, Silas Stearns, Daniel Steams, Jonas Viles, Josiak Whitney, Tliomas .Wellington, Jacob Bemis, and Tliciddeus Bemis each paid £10 to hire men to go to Bhodc Island in the -ommer of 1777, and these sums should be refunded. George Stearns, Elijah Smith, Joseph Lock, William Peivce, Samuel Gooden, and Cobum weitt in July, 1778, *' to guard prisoners of Convention," and were gone fifteen days ; they should be allowed £4 each. Josiah Leavitt^ Ephraim F^rce,r Jr., Jonathan Smith, Peter Warren, and John Livermore were of the guard which escorted prisoners to Rutland, and for tliat service should receive £6- each. Two men were also sent in the summer to guard prisoners until the 1st of January; there s!iould be allowed for them the expense of hiring them, £70 (supposed). Four men were* sent for to guard the lines in and about Boston until the 1st of January, 1779; two of them are hired and sent, and are to receive £ 18 per month, including their wages; this will cost about £66; the other two are drafted, and if they go or hire substitutes are to be paid at the same rate ; this will amount to about £5-1. Captain Abraham Peirce, Lieutenant Samuel Steams, Samuel Bigelow, John Gleason, Joel Harrington, Elisha Harrington, Eliphalet Warren, Williams Cushing,Bezalpel Flagg, Samuel Green, Samuel Steams, Jr., John Livermore, Nathan Lock, Warham Cushing, and Jonathan Hagar went to the lines at the alarm in August, 1778; they should bs allowed £2 each. If it should appear that there were other inhabitants of the town who had done service either in person or in money during the war, they should have the allowance made in the report in similar cases. The entire total of these sums is £3,-303 6#. 4^/., which amount should be proportioned and asses5ed upon the real and personal estate ; those whose payment as by f he above list is short of their assessment to make up the deficiency, and those whose payment is in excess of the assessment to be reimbursed *' in case they will receive it when offered.'' The sum recommended by the committee was granted, but the vote was subsequently reconsidered. James Barrett, county agent, acknowledges, April 8, the receipt of twenty-five shirts, twenty-five pairs of shoes, and twenty-five pairs of stockings from the selectmen of Waltham for the army. Tliis closes the record for 17 78.

At the regular annual meeting in ^Inrch, 1779, Captain Abralia'm Peirce, Lieutenant Samuel Steams, and Isaac Hagar were ekcted committee of corres[)ondence,.and at the May) meeting Abner Sanderson was chosen representative, an^ he was instmcted, by a vote of twenty-four to ten, to cast his ballot in favor of a new state cou8titui> tion under simibr restrictions made. underii previous vote (see 1777). On the 18th of June a committee was chosen to hire men for the army on the town's <;redit. A week later they. Deported but one man engaged, on account of the high bounties demanded ; the meetings directed them thereupon to make the best terms they could. A conventioD was held at Concord on the 14th of July to regulate the prices of inerchandise. On the 2d of August the rei>ort of the convention was read at a to^-n-meeting in Waltham, and a committee of eleven chosen to carry out the vote of that body. On the 9th of August the committee reported the following scale of prices : Inidiolders, for a good meal of butcher's meat \fith vegetables, 12 «., if with tea, 15*.; West India flip, 12#. per mug; bowl of toddy, 12*.; for labor, haying and stonewall work, 42*. per day and found; mechanics, with their own tools and found, 60 «.; for blacksmith shoeing a horse, £4; shoemakers, best men's shoes, £5 8#., women^s £4 1«.; tailors, making a coat, £6, breeches, £S; weavers, weaving cotton and linen shirting, 6*. per yard ; hatters, for a good beaver, £32 10*.; farmers, hay 86*. per cwt., oats 36*. per bushel, etc. Persons taking more than above rates to have their nnm^s published in the newspapers by the committee of correspondence, inspection, and safety, in order that they may be dealt with according to Resolution 2 of the Concord Convention. It must be remembered, in considering these prices, that they are founded on a depreciating currency. On the 18th of August Jonas Dix, Esq., and John Clark were chosen delegates to the constitutional convention to be held at Cambridge, September 1. Tlie town granted Jonas Dix, Esq., in behalf of the committee appointed to raise men for the army, £2,838. September 20, the town voted to hire four men to serve in the army in Rhode Island, and October 14, voted to hire eight men to reinforce the army under General Washington. In November the town granted £2,180 18*. 6rf. to defray tlie expense of employing these men. In July the committee reported having hired Josiah Wyer, Eli Jones, Elislia Harrington, Thaddeus Goodin, and Richard Hoppin at 8 1,540 each, and Habakkuk Steams and Joseph Perry at S840 each.

Another committee reported in November that they had borrowed £1,714, and hired* Artemas Cox, Moses Cummins, and Aaron Cummins to go .to Brliode Ishind witli orders to equip themselves ; Colonel Jacob discharged the last two for not being equipped,, and they, being ordered to march again, rdTus^ either to do so or to return part of the bounty received. Tlie committee also hired Samuel Trull for £246, Robert Dalrymple for £171, William. Taylor, Joseph S|)aulding, Joseph Dows, and Jonathan Gray for £246 each, and John Fletcher (who afternards deserted) for £ 60. Mileage was also reckoned for eight men, two hundred miles, at 2#. per mile. Several orders are given during the year for the first com])Gny of mihtia to be ready to march at a moment^s notice. In May an order is given for one private to march to Tiverton, Rhode Island, and in September for two privates to go to Providence to ultimately join Colonel Jacob's regiment under General Gates. Samuel Kendall, Mr. Morse, Natlianiel Bridge's son, and Eunice Mixer were paid during this year for teach- . ing school.

At tiie March meeting in 1780 the same committee- of correspondence was chosen, Isaac Hagar having this time the prefix " Ensign " to liis name. A committee was chosen to examine the accounts of money received and disbursed for bounties. Some idea of the depreciation of the currency may be had from tlie fact that in the liighway account $ 16 per day for a man and §32 per day for a man and team were allowed. Hie town elected Jonas Dix, Esq., representative in May, and in the same month appointed a committee to examine and report upon the new state constitution. Tlie committee reported on the 5th of June, favoring an amendment limiting the time of suspension of the act of habeas corpus to six months ; if, liowever, this could not be done, they favored the adoption of the constitution as it was. Tlie report was adopted by a vote of thirty-two to four. On tlie 14th of June the town appropriated £15,000 to hire twelve men to reinforce the armv, and for procuring shirts, shoes, etc., in accordance with the requisition of the General Court ; money for support of the schools was refused. Twelve days later the town voted to raise fourteen men for the army, and appropriated £26,660 for military matters, and on tlie 20th of July the selectitien ordered the treasurer to \my to Jonas Dix, Esq., £1,000, Abner Sanderson £700, and Peter Ball £ 1,200, in payment for a horse which each of these men had sold fhe town for use in the nim%; £55 were also appropriated for expenses in procuring the horsfe. On the 4th of September the election of state officers under the new constitntioa was held. The result, for governor and lieutenantgovernor, in Waltham, was : for governor, Jolm Hancock, Esq., fifty-four votes ; James Bowdoin, Esq., three ; for lieutenant-governor, Major-Gcoeral Benjamin Lincoln, forty; James Bowdoin, Esq., eight. October 11, the town re-elected Jonas Dix, Esq., representative, and again refused to appropriate money for schools. To sucli an extdit had the currencv depreciated, tliat the miiiister*!! salary was now £5,600, and the total appropriations at this meeting £23,041. Seventy-two hundred pounds of beef for the army were ordered, to fill a requisition from the General Court, and £1£,000 were appropriated for that purpose. On a petition from Timothy Flagg for additional pay for service in the armv,. he was voted leave to withdraw. . On the 29th of November the town granted £3,360 for the support of schools. At a meeting, December 20, the town chose a committee to procure twelve men for the army, under a requisition of the General Court; £21,000 were voted,* to procure 13,824 pounds of beef for the army. Abijah Fiske petitioned for relief from the to'wu^ under the following circumstances : he was one of the sixteen men fumishefl by Waltham to fill a requisition of the General Court. By order of Lieutenant Hastings he went with soldiers to search the house of Edward Garfield for Felix Cuff (negro), one of tlie enlisted men. Cuff was, however, claimed by Garfield as a servant, and Fiske was sued and fined. Tiie town, takmg into consideration the facts, granted his request by giving him his note for £7, which the town held, with interest. Elisha Brewer also presented a petition representing tliat he had served in the Continental army from the beginning of hostilities until July S, 1779; that in the meantime his pay liad depreciated until it was nearly worthless, rendering him unable to provide for himself and family. He prays for remission of his tax-bill, a portion of which is on real estate, of which he owns none, and which is more than he ought or is able to pay. The town refused to grant his petition; The committee appointed in 1779 to procure men for the armies in Rhode Island and on the Hudson River reported the following names of men engaged, and the bounties paid to each : William Taylor, £2,180; Loudey Harris and John Mixer^

£1,800 each; Elias Hastings, Moses Livermore, and George Stearns, £2,270 each; Thaddeus Gooding^ Jonathan Cobum, and Nathaniel Flagg, £ l,ldO and sixty bushels of corn' each ; Eli Jones^ paid by Captain Gleason; Lieutenant Eliphalet fastings, Joel Harrington, Abijah Fisk, arid M(Mes Gearfield, £1,770 each; Timothy Flagg and John Bobinson, £1,300 each; Habakkuk Stfams, Joel Wellington, Asa Peirce, and Asahel Steaims, £600 and sixty bushels of com each ; and Felix Cuff, £1,500 and sixty bushels of com. Eunice Mixer, Samuel Kendall,. Mr. Boardman, Buliamah Wellington, and Nathaniel Bridge's sou were paid for teaching school.

On the 8th of January, 1781, the toirn voted to hire twelve men for the army for three years or the wa^^ and appropriated £50,4-00 for tliat end. The toien who were the committee of correspondence, etc,^ had been chosen to attend to hiring men to fill the requisitions on the town, but for some reason they seemed to lack success. They reported in December, 1780, and in January and Febraary, 1781, that they could not find a man at any price ill town. That this report was unsatisfactory, is evident froin the fact that at a meeting on the 12th of February the town voted to discharge this committee, and appointed Captain Isaac Gleason, Peter Ball, and Abner Sanderson, in their stead ; bat this did not prevent their being re-elected Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety at the March meeting. At the regular annual meeting it was unanimously voted to accept Joshua Kendall for an inhabitant, provided he could be set off with his estate from the town of Cambridge. There seemed to be unusual trouble in. electing town officers for this year. On several previous occasions one or two electees had declined to serve, and others had either been elected in their stead, and induced to accept, or the aid of the law invoked to compel those elected to serve ; but on this occasion William Hagar and Nathan Yiles, chosen as constables, and William Fisk, Abraliam Peirce, and Lieutenant Samuel Steams (three of theTour), chosen as assessors, refused to serve. In the case of the assessors three others were elected at a subsequent meeting in their stead ; William Fisk was chosen constable in place of Nathan Yiles, and Williams Cushing in place of William Hagar. Hagar was to pay £ 6, or, failing to do so, the selectmen were to apply to the Court of Sessions to compel him to pay the pennlty in such cases provided. At this same meeting (March 12) the town appropriated £ 25,000 (old issue) to hire soldiers. In obedience to a resolve of the Greneral Court the tar-payers were divided into as many classes as there were soldiers to be raised. Each section famishing its man was relieved from farther charge and responsibility. On the 26th of March John Smith, Lowdie Harris, and John Myre were returned as having been secured as soldiers in behalf of the whole town. A receipt, signed by John Potimia, dated April 12, certifies, tliat Captain Abraham Peirce paid him two hundred Spanish-milled dollars to serve the town as a threeyears recmit for the army, - this sum to be in full of all hire or bounty. On the 18th of June the selectmen reported having paid the following bounties in silver : to John Smitli £ 90, to Lowdie Harris £60, to John Myre £60, to William Ben^ jamin £78, and to John Robinson £76. William Peirce, Habakkuk Steams, and Nahum' Smith each fumished sixteen heifers, and were each allowed £lj(200 (currency). General Brooks writes to the commander of the '^second militia company in Waltham,'' under date of June 19, that two men were to be detached from tliat com^ny. As mention was made of the fiv9t company in 1779, the natural inference is that there were two.' Jonathan Hammond and George Steams were enlisted for the army in Rhode Island, for three months, and Jonathan Weston, Abijah Fisk, Moses Livermore, Jedediah White, Jr., Alpheus Bigelow, Joseph Perry, John Collins, and William Taylor for the army at West Point, for the same time. Tlie West Point men were all mustered into the service bv the 23d of August, except John Collins. In May Jonas Dix, Esq., was chosen representative. Ou the 16th of July the tou^n voted unanimously to procure men to fill another call, and granted £ 180 in silver to defray the expense ; £ 300 (new emission) were also voted to purclmse beef. . The committee for raising recmits reported on the 30th of July that they had secured the men for seven hundred and eighty " hard dolkrs,'' and tlie town granted £ 60 in silver additional for that service. Felix Cuff must have given considerable trouble, for an article was in the warrant for a town-meeting held September 10, to grant money to defend Eliphalet Hastings and others indicted for riot while endeavoring to arrest said Cuff as an enlisted man kst year. £45 were granted at the September meeting for the schools. On the 17th of December the town ordered the remaining taxes to be collected in silver, at the rate of one dollar in silver for serentj-five in paper of the old emission. It was also voted to instruct Sepresentative Dix to use his endeavors to have the voting qoalifications of 1768 restored. The school-teachers who were paid by the town this year were Jonas Dix, Jr.> and Nathaniel Bridge's son. In December the selectmen engaged Ebeuezer Bowman to keep the school *' near the meeting-hoose.^'

ISarly in 1782 the selectmen licensed David Townsend to retail tea. At the Alarch meeting the town elected Captain Isaac Hagar, Lieutenant Samuel Bigelow, and Lieutenant Elisha Livermore committee of correspondence, in$})ection, and safety. It was voted to remove the school-house, and a committee was chosen to select a proper site. In accordance with a resolve of the General Court, Waltham was called upon to r^ise five men towards the contingent of fifteen hundred to be raised by Massachusetts for the army. Ebenezer Bowman was the school-teacher. No representative was chosen in 1782, but in 1783 Jonas Dix itas again returned for that position. The first business of iipportance occurring in 1783 was the adjustment of the accounts of Waltham, Watertown, and Weston for repairs on the Great Bridge. The method of calculation being on the basis of the state tax, the amounts paid by each will be perhaps some indication of the relative valuation : the share of Watertown was £4 11*. 9rf., Weston £4 ^s. Id., and Waltham £4 Is. id. Nathaniel Bridge, Jr., was paid for teaching school. At the March meeting the committee of correspondence of 178:i were, re-elected. The selectmen ordered that a four-penny loaf of white bread should weigh 1 pound 7 ounces; a biscuit for two coppers, 7 ounces; hard biscuit in the same proportion, allowing for drying. The foUpwipg persons were licensed innholders : Isaac Gleason, Steplien Wellman, Isaac Bemis, Zacliariali Weston, Jonathan Brown, Benjamin Hagar, Samuel Bigelow, Zachariah Smith, Widow Mary {lagar, - nine in all. At this time the population was only.fiS9 persons, so that the proportion of taverns to the ])0])ulation was as 1 to 76^. It must be remembered, however, that Waltham was on a great highway, and a very large amount of travel was a necessary consequence. The a})- proaches to Boston, and the avenues from tliat and all the large towns in the state, were few, and their importance Mas immensely greater than now. Towns were few, and the majority of houses none too hirge to accommodate the rapidly growing

There were other 'men who belonged in Waltham who were in the Continental armies, besides those mentioned in the town records, - bow many, of course, it is impossible to say. The names of some of them, however, are to be met with amb)ig the state archives. Isaac Crosby, of Waltham, enlisted at Hingham, about 1780, for three years or the war; Isaac Parkes (fifer), Samuel Fuller^ Edward Bird, and Joseph Brown were in Captain Fuller's company (Colonel Brooks) ; William Taylor, Nathaniel Flagg, and John Colbum wei^ among the six-months men in 1780 ; Prince Collins enlisted in Newton; John Bennett, John Bemis, Jr., Abijah Child, Jr., Peirce Dewyer, Thomas Field, Ihivid Holland, Azel Hooker, Minhano (?) Mitchell, John Ryan, David Stoel (Stowell?), James Twinas, are names on the rolls credited to Waltham ; John Bettis and Jonathan Wellington served from 1776 to 1780 ; Kera Chappie, Harvey Bezen, and John Kidder were among those drafted into Colonel Thatcher's regiment in 1778^ John Potoma (aged 25, - black), Samuel Dale (37), John Robertson (35), William Benjamin (17), Nahum Steams (£2), John Wellington (19),aQd Francis Parker (21), enlisted in 1781 for three years or the war; William Glasscock served 87 months, 18 days ; Hugh Hines (deserter) served 28 days; Ariel (Azel? - probably same as previous] Hooker, after ser\dug 30 months and 7 days, de^ serted ; Michael Minuehau died in the service after serving 48 months ; John Owins (deserter) served 12 months and 20 days; John Colbum and Abijah Fiske were in Captain Gage's company (Colonel Webb) ; Tliaddeus Bemis and Joel Bemis were on board armed sloop Winthrop, Captain George Little; John Greenleaf, Josiah Barnard, and Thomas Wilbur were also credited to Waltliam in the army rolls.

The population of the town, instead of preserving its rate of increase, which would have increased it, in all probability, to nearly 1,000 souls in 1783, under the terrible pressure of the Eevolution upon its vitality lost ground. .In 1763 the population was 063; in 1783, under favorable circumstances, it should have been about 980, but instead it was 680, while in 1776 it was 870. On the 29th of September John llemington was engaged to keep the school near the meeting-house, and Josej^ Jackson the one at the foot of the hill.

teaching school. ' For the first time for, a long aeries of years the town, at the March meeting, Toted the freedom of tlie highways to swine. Abner Sanderson was elected representative in May. A letter.to the selectmen from Timothy Tufts and others in belialf of Cliarlestown appears in the records for this year, desiring them to request the corporation of Harvard College to reduce the. rates of ferriage between Charlestown and Boston, which had been" advanced d^iring the war, - that body having authority to regulate the matter. Benja- Inin Green, Jr., was again engaged, in 1783, to teach the grammar school. On the 5th of September, 1785, the town was divided into four -cbool-districts, - Pond End, Trapelow, the southwest part of the town above Mixer's Lane (Bacon Street), and the; remaining portion belonging to the middle district. On the 14th of February, 1786, the selectmen engaged Jonas Diz to teach the grammar school for one year, and authorized the . engagement of an usher for that school. In March John Semington was paid for services as a teacher. Abijah Bigelow was engaged in March to teach at the new school-house at tbe west end of the Plain, until the appropriation was expended; he , was to keep *' two schools a day " after the 1st of April. In May Leonard Williams was unanimously elected .representative. In August the board of Mr. Jackson, and the salaries of Nathan Underwood and Abijah Bigelow, all schoolmasters, were paid ; and in October the selectmen engaged John Child to teach the school near the meeting-house, and Jonas Dix to teach the one at the foot of the hills. In the latter part of 1786 occurred the outbreak known as Shays' Insurrection, causing quite an excitement throughout central Massachusetts. That Waltham's sons were prompt to lend the state their aid is evident from the fact that, early in January, 1787, the selectmen directed Colonel Isaac Hagar to be paid for beef supplied to the militia at Cambridge in November, and on the 14th of that month the towu voted ibrty-«ight aliillings per month to the thirty-days Tolunteers in the service of the government, the town, however, ta receive any allowance made for such services by the state. At the March meeting the town voted to each private soldier who marched from the town in the 2d Division to join General Lincoln in the service of the government, six shillings, exclusive of his public pay, and to each officer a like sum in proportion. Finally, in April the town voted the volunteers under General Lincoln th^ three dollars paid to each in advance, provided they would release tlie town from further demands, and trust to getting their pay from the state. In April Captain Samuel Bigelow was paid for keeping the school at the Upper t^bin, and in May Abncr Sanderson was unanimously chosen representative. In October teaclters were to be engaged for the four schools. A town-meeting was held, December 17, to choose a delegate to the convention to meet at Boston in Jannarv, to conaider the Federal Constitution reported at Pliiladelphia; Leonard Williams was elected for that purpose.

The tax upon the town for the support of tbe Great Bridge was probably .beginning to be onerous, and the people evidently began to be a little restive under it, for in March, 1788, a committee reported verbally tlmt they were unable to find any grant of land made for its support in which Waltham or Weston liad any interest. Abner Sanderson was, in May, again elected representative, a position which he continued to fill until 1802. In 1790, according to the adjustment of account? for repairs on the Gre^t Bridge, Waltham had outstripped Weston in valuation, and was rapidly overtaking Watertown, the proportions being: Watertown, £2 15*. 6rf. ; Waltham, £2 18*.; Weston, SLi 7i, 5d. Bridge, Dix, and Mead were paid for teaching, and the school grant, appropriated December 6, was divided as follows, among five school-houses : Upper end of Pbin, £25 6*. 8//. ; Foot of Hills, £22 2*.; near the meeting-house, £30 5*. 3rf.; Trapelow, £18 3*. lOrf.; proprietors of new school-house (probably at Lower Plain), £4 2*. 3^. In the records for this and the succeeding year there appears an oath of allegiance to the state and general government, signed by a majority of the t^wn officers. In 1791 it was voted by the town to buy the school-houses at the Upper Plain and at the Trapelow district, a committee appointed for the purpose having pronounced them suitable for the purpose and the proprietors willing to sell. £77 Hi. were appropriated for the one at the Upper Plain, the amount being divided among twenty-one proprietors, all of them residing on upper ]iLain and South streets; £56 18«. lOr/. were appropriated for the one at Trapelow, proprietors not named. The house near the Widow Barnard's was reported upon adversely by the committee. The schools were called at this time Pond End, Pbin, Trapelow, and Southeast Corner. An order appean among the selectmen's records in 1791 appropriating Si. 6d. to pay for a horse and chaise '' to bring tlie sclioolmistress from Framingliam/' hence we may conclude that at least one of the teachers was imported. In Aprils 1792, the town voted to remove the school-house which was iiear the meeting-house to a point as nearly central as possible, - between Jonas Dix's and Phineas Warren^s ; this would have located it just below the cemetery, on the north side of Main Street. In April, 1793, the town voted unanimously to grant the request of Christopher Gore (afterwards governor of the state) to become an inhabitant. In September, 1795, on an article in the warrant in regard to the purchase of stoves and shutters for the schools, and the building of porches on two of them, the town appropriated £50, and chose a special committee of three to each school to attend to the expenditure of money devoted to educational purposes. Tliis was probably, to all intents and purposes, a school committee who attended to all the minor details, for we lose sight for a time of the payments to teachers which indicated who the teachers were. Prior to 1796 grants were almost wholly made in pounds, ^^hillings, and pence ; after that date dollars and cents were the rule. In 1797 the to\i*n chose a committee to defend it against a presentment for not assisting in repairs on the Watertown Bridge. In September, 1798, the town granted 8533.33 for men's and 81 00 for women's schools. In the direct tax levied by the general government we find that tValtham was assessed for 109 dwellings, and for 83 acres of lots which tlier stood on, $70,574. The house of £ev. Jacob Gushing and one belonging to Harvard College, with one acre of land to each, were exempted, making a total of 111 dwellings in the town. Tl)e number of house-owners was. 119; the number of occupants, 130. The number of acres of land assessed was 7,666, exempt (16 acres of Rev. Jacob Cushing's and 159 owned by IIar\'ard Collc^), 175; total, 7,926 acres. Valuation of hind, 8258^^634.80; total valuation, §329,208.80. In June, 1 799, the town apix)inted a committee with full powers to act upon a proposition of Watertown parties to widen and 8up|)ort the expense of the Great Bridsre forever if the towns would yield their fishery riglits. Tlie schools respectively taught by masters and mistresses arc distinguished in the records as '' men's and women's'' scliools. During this year the town appropriated §25 to establish a singingschool, and $15 to purchwe a bass-viol (probably for the meeting-house). In 1801 the Great Bridge question was finally disposed of accord* ing to the Watertown proposition ; a school committee of ten was elected, and the same school grants made as for the last year. Li 1S02 Jonathan Coolidge was elected representative; it was voted to plant shade trees on the meeting-house common ; to pay for sixty caps for the militia company under Captain Stephen Mead; and a school committee of four was elected. The school committee, then as now, had charge of the details of the expenditure of the school fund, employing of teachers, etc., and this method of disposing of the subject seems to have given so much satisfactiou that it was voluntarily continued to the tim^ when the statute made it obligatory. Li 1803 the towa voted to send no representative, and in the saone year appropriated §120 to hire a teacher of music. Musical instruction at this time was undoubtedly encouraged as a religious rather than a secular accomplishment, and an appropriation was made- - with occasional intervals - for several years. In 1 804 Jonathan Coolidge, Esq., was elected representative ; the town voted also to- purchase three bathing-machines, similar to those in Watertown, to be used under direction of a physician. In the following year the town was divided into four school districts, and the appropriation was divided according to the proportion of children in the districts, the males between the ages of seven and twenty-one, the females between the ages of four and eighteen. In 1806, 1807, and 1808 iM)ner Sanderson, Esq., was chosen to represent the town in the General Court. In 1 809 he was succeeded by David Townsend, Jr., Esq., who was continued in the office- until the year 1821, except in 1818 and 1819, when the town voted to send no delegate. The Bev. Jacob Cushing liaving died in 1809, the church took means to secure a successor, and voted to call- Bev. Samuel Bipley to the position. In August, 1809, the town passed « vote concurring unanimously with the church in its choice, and also voted him, in case of his acceptance, a salary of 8700 per year. Mr. Bipley accepted the iu\itation, and was ordained November 22, 1809. In the same year there were petitions from several parties praying to be set off witli their estates from Waltham, but the petitions were not granted.

It is amusing at this present period to watch the conserwitism of the voters of the olden time in regard to those iimovations for increased comfort which We have come to look upon as necessi- ties. The subject of a bell for the meeting-house agitated the public mimi of Waltharn^ for^ several yean, but finally the revolutionists triumphed, and in 18}5 an appropriation was voted td have one. Again, in 1^14 it- was voted not to have &ny blinds put upon the meeting-house, nor ** to pfty for the one Mr. Ripley put on *' ; however, the succeedtii|^ year the town voted to pay for the ** pulpit blind." In 1818 the stove came in as a disturbing^ element. It would appear by the record ttiat some person or persons, not having the tranquillity and sanctity of the church before their mind^, had placed a stove in the meeting-house, atid asked the town to sanction an act already eommitted*. That was enough. The town in its dignity rose equal to the occasion, and voted, first, not to purchase the stove in the meeting-house, and, second, to order it out of the meeting-house. A spirit of concession, however, prevailed ; tlie last vote was xeconsidered, and at the next meeting (in April) the abvereigns voted to accept the stove as a present from the ladies of Waltham, said stove to remain town property. The threatened revolution was averted by female diplomacy. . In 1812 the town voted to pay those soldiers who should be drafted as the quota of Waltliam %VS per month (including the pay 6f the government), and $1.25 per day for each day they should be under military discipline. To those familiar with: the extent to which party spirit was carried prior to and during the War of 1812, it will not be a matter of surprise to learn that Pastor Ripley preached a sermon to which some of *his parishioners took exception. This dis'satisfoction finally culminated in the insertion of an article in the warrant of a town-meeting, the purport of wiiich was to know the mind of the town in regard to ascertaining from Mr. Ripley upon what conditions he would resign his pastorate. On this the town, by a vote of sixty-six to fifty-six, decided to take no action. The subject was brought up twice in 1813 with a very similar result, and in 1814 the malcontents, who in the mean time had discontinued attendance at the regular meeting and employed Bev; Elisha Williams, a Baptist from Boston, to preach more acceptable sermons (first in the schoolhouse, afterwards in the hall of a tavern where the Cehtral House now stands), returned to the original flock. In 1813 the Factory Village (Lower Place) was set off as a separate school-district.

ascertain who had been in the service of the government during the war with Great Britain, and what sums the town should in justice pay them, submitted the following list of names, with sums annexed : Joseph Hoar, Jonas Lawrence, Elijah Lawrence, Nathaniel Steams, lUcluird Wellington, Jacob Lawrence, Amasa Harrington, John Sanderson, 2d, Alexander H. Piper, John Simonds, Henry Pisk, Richard Cutter, Isaac Farwell, William Goss, Darius Wellington, Jacob Ryan, Timothy Morris, Dauiel Emerson, William. Trask, Thomas Barnes, Abel Hubbard, and William Cbrk, 84.68 each ; and James Jones, Noah Hardy, John Cole, William B. Winch, and Otis Puffer, $17.80 each. Among those serving the government during the war may be mentioned David Steams, who was purser on board the Wasp at the time of her battle with the Frolic.

In 1815 an aSiur occurred which deserves mention from the rarity of such incidents : The legal number of voters petitioned the selectmen to call a town-meeting to act on the enforcement d the collection of certain highway taxes and the reconsideration of certain abatements; the selectmen neglected to issue the warrant, whereupon the interference of a justice of the peace was solicited and obtained, and the meeting ordered by him in accordance with the law in such cases. In 1817 the town voted to set off the Boston' Manufacturing Company^s estates for a school-district, and discontinue that of the Cotton and Woollen Company. In 1818-19 the town voted to send no representative.

Certain acts of the Rev. Mr. Ripley, snch as teachhig a school, etc., appear to have either stirred up a new feeUng against him, or to have afforded a pretext for further opposition, for at a town-meeting in January, 1820, four articles appear in the warrant, charging him with neglect of duty and causing dissension, and calling for his dismissal. These articles the town, by a vote of sixty-four to twenty-six, refused to consider. At the same meeting it was voted to allow the Boston Manufacturing Company to enlarge the meetinghouse at their own expense, in a manner agreed \x\yox\ by the town and corporation, the company to have all profits arising from the sale or rental of the extra pews. At the lilarch meeting an effort was made to see if the town would appoint a committee of fifteen - three from each district - to interview Mr. Ripley and try to induce him to give up his school, but the project missed. In May, 1820, the town voted to receive the "manifesto'' of the Second Religious Society, and not to oppose their petition for an act of incorporation. This Second Beligious Society erected a meeting-house, and established itself as a distinct bodv. EtTorts made to reunite the two factions were of no avail, but from some cause the Second Society failed of success, and they finally split, the society retaining the house and charter with Bev. Bernard Whitman as pastor, and the church forming a new organization under Bev. Sewall Harding. In 1821, 1822, and 1823 Luke Fiske repre^nted the town in the General Court, the bst year in connection with Charles Lyman. In March, 1823, the town voted to procure fipe-ladders, hooks, etc., and in 1829 appropriated 8350 to .purchase a fire-engine; this was the germ of our present fire department. In 1 824 Isaac Bemis, Jr., and David Touiisend, Esq., were representatives; in 1825, Luke Fiske, Esq.; in 1826, David Townsend ; in 1827, David Townsend and Isaac Bemis, Esq.; in 1828, 1829, and 1830, Jonas Clark. In 1829 the town voted to exclude needlework from the summer schools in the morning, and to allow it in the afternoon, and in 1830 a small sum of money was appropriated by the town to procure medals to be given to those scholars deemed most deserving. On the 30th of July, 1830, the meeting-house erected by the Second Society was struck by lightning and burned. In 1831 Amos Harrington and David Townsend, Esq., were elected representatives. " As early as in

1820 the project pf a grammar school had been agitated, an act passed by the General Court in June, 1789 (acconling to an item in the warrant, but a law passed not far from 1700 was very similar), making such a school incumbent on every town containing two hundred families ; but it was dismissed one year, only to come up the next. In

1821 the town was sued for not complyhig with the provisions of the act of 1789; but our town fathers were apparently but little concerned, and it was not until 1832 that the progressionists gathered strength enough to overcome the opposition. In that year the town appropriated $1,200 to build a grammar-school house and town-house on the old meeting-house common. Subsequently it was voted to change the location to a "gore of land ** owned by Mr. Lyman, he offering to give the land and §200 in furtherance of the plan. But this was not satisfactory, and after so many meetings and so many votes that it seemed as though the, project would finally be smothered in motioiis and amendments, the town purchased pf Mr. T. B. Plympton the piece of ground now occupied by the North Grammar-School House, increased the appropriation somewhat, and erected the building there. The fbllowing year the town appropriated $300 to enable the general school committee to hire a schoolmaster and establish a high school, and the committee were instructed to commence such a school at as early a day as possible. Following out the history of this school to the present time, we find that the first principal was Franklin Hardy, the second Josiah Butter (1835), the third William H. »Eopes (1838), the fourth E. A. W. Harlow (1841), the fifth Charles F. Simmons (1842), the sixth Daniel French (1842), the seventh William H. Boj^es (1844, second time), the eighth Leonard P. Frost (1847). During Mr. Frost's term of service, in 1849, the interior of the building was altered, the town giving up. the use of the upper story for public purposes, and establishing a high school there distinct from the grammar de])artment, Mr. Frost taking charge of the former, and being succeeded in the latter by his brother, George W. Frost. In 1869 L. P. Frost again took charge, and he was succeeded in. 1869 by William E. Sheldon, in January, 1871, by Alonzo Mesen'e, in September, 1871, by John T. Prince, in 1877 by John S. Hayes, in 1879 by J. T. Prince (second time), who is now teaching.

In 1868 the town established a grammar school upon the south side of the river, of which Arthur P. Smith was appointed principal, a position beld by him at present. The principals of the higli school succeeding Mr. Frost have been Timothy AV. Bancroft (1859), A. J. Lathrop (1864), James C. Parsons (1865), Minton Warren (1874), W. E. Bunten (1876), and Ruel B. Clark (1877). Mr. Parsons resigned his situation in 1873, the school being in charge of sub-masters James L. Fowle and Frederick T. Famsworth until his sucoessOir was appointed. Mr. Clark resigned in 1878,*^ C. W.. Parmenter, sub-master, becoming acting principal. The number of schools at present (.\pril, 1879) is thirty-seven, exclusive of evening schools (established in 1874), and the appropriation has increased correspondingly, about $32,000 being now required for the annual expenses.

Between the years 1831. and 1879 the town was represented in the General Court by the following persons (except 1839- 35, when the town did not

Ill December, 1826, a number of gentlemen, having in mind the formation of a society, for mutual improvement, met to take some action to that end. The result was that on Saturday evening, December, 80, of the same year, an association was organized under the name of the Rumford Institute for Mutual Instruction. Courses of lectures were instituted, which have been continued with but a single interruption for each succeeding year. A library was founded, which by the year 1865 had acquired 3,700 volumes. In that year it was, bv a vote of the Institute, transferred to the town, forming the nucleus of the present public

Bringing now the ecclesiastical history of the town down to the present time, we find that from the first permanent secession from the parent chureh sprung what was known at its organization as the Second Religious Society. A meetingbouse was built for them on Church Street, which was dedicated January 17, 1821, and on the same day Rev. Sewall Harding was ordained and installed pastor. But a few years elapsed before they, too, experienced secession, doctrinal points forming the basis of the trouble, the members of the society desiring a change in the theolosry, while the members of the church were unanimouiily content with that expounded by their pastor. The church, with Mr. Harding, withdrew (April, 1825), changed the name (July 25, 1826) to Trinitarian Congregational Clinrch, and built a meeting-house at the comer of Main and wliat is now Heard Street, dedicating the new building' 'October 11, 1826, the old society continuing worship onder Rev. Bernard Whitman. Mr. Harding' was succeeded in 1837 by Rev. John Whitney. lu 1853 fresh trouble arose, and another division bccnrrfd, a new organization being formed under the name of Orthodox Congregational Chnreh, with Rev. Rosswell Foster for pastor; l)ut in April, 1858, this latter offshoot returned to the parent oipmization. In Mav, 1858, Rev. Ricliard B. Thurston succeeded ]Mr. Whitney, and he in turn was succeeded, in 1865, by Rev. EInalhan E. Strong. In 1878 Mr. Strong resignied, and at the present time the church is without a settled minister. In 1870 the old church was sold and the present one erected, and dedicated March 2, 1871.

Not far from the year 1820 the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg found adherents in Waltham. Meetings were at first held in the house of Captain John Clark, and were continued in private residences until! 860, when a stone chapel was built on Lexington Street, at what is commonly knovn as Piety Corner. Mr. Benjamin Worcester lias from the beginning been leader in the devotional exercises. In December, 1869, the interior of the chapel was destroyed by fire, but in the following year it was restored, and the edifice enlarged. On Sunday. July 4, 1869, a church society was formally organized. Tliere is also comiected with the society a private school, which gathers its pupils from nearly every state in the Union.

About the year 1820 the nucletis of the Methodist Episcojial Church began to form, in the shape of class-meetings, a class of twenty-four being gathered, with Charles Barnes as leader. Regular meetings of the class were held for about five years. A majority of the members leaving town for Lowell, about 1825, the class was discontinued. Circuit preaching was occasionally had, and small appropriations from time to time were allowed for its support. Between the years 1828 and 1830 class-meetings were revived,. Marshall Livennore being leader, succeeded in 1833 by Dr. Theodore Kittredge. Occasional preaching was had, the places where the service was held being the fiictory school-house on Elm Street, Smith's Academy on School Street, and the Masonic Hall on Main Street. In^farch, 1837, regular services I were commenced at Masonic Hall, with 1B«v. 2Uba

B. Dunham as pastor.. Early in the following year the worshippers purchased the meeting-house then standing on the Common^ and owned by the Second Unitarian Society^ and in June of the same year a regukr church organization was fonned, with about forty members. Waltham and Watertawn were now made a distinct circuit, with £ev. Thomas Pickering in charge (residing in Waltharo), and Bev. Otis H. Howard as junior. In 1S39 Bev. Franklin Fisk and Edward A. Lyon were appointed to the circuit (the latter residing here), succeeded in 184-0 by Bev. Daniel Webb and Horace G. Barms (Mr. Barrus being resident here) ; in 184-1 Bev. Mr. Barrus was placed* in charge, with Bav. G. W. Frost assistant ; in 18^i Bev. B. K. Pierce was stationed at AVahham ; after this (in 184>'j) the relations of the two towns as a circuit ceased. Since then the Waltham church has had for pastor the following: 1813 -4'4, Bev. David Kilbum ; 184-3, Bev. John Paulson ; 1846-47, Bev. Moses Webster; 1848-49, Bev. Jacob Sanborn; 1850-51, Bev. George W. Bates (Mr. Bates dying while in charge was succeeded in 1851 by Bev. N. J. Merrill, who was reapi)ointed in 1852); 1853-54, Bev. Luman Boyden (Mr. Boyden, about the middle of* his second year, was ap|)ointcd to mission work, and Bev. J. S. Biirrows completed his term) ; 1855, Bev. J. S. Barrows; 1856-57, Bev. T. W. Lewis; 1858-60, Bev. E. A. Manning (in 1859 the meeting-house was removed from the Common to the corner of lilain and Moody streets, where, four months after its dedication, which toolc place January 25, 1860, it was destroyed by fire ; a new edifice was erected on the same site, and dedicated March 13, 1861, services having been held contiimously, except from January to Msiy, 1860, in Bumford Hall) ; 1861-62, B?v, Samuel Kelley; 1863-64, Ite v. D. K. Merrill; 1865-67, Bev. C. L.Eastman; 1863-69, Bev. D. E. Cluipin ; 1870-71, Bev. L. J. Hall; 1872-74, Bev. J. Wagner; 1875, Bev. W. A. Braman; 1875 -7S, Bev. W. W. Colbuni; 1879, Bev. Gooi^e H. Mansfield.

In the vear 1830 tlio Catholic Sociftv was instituted in Waltluim. AViien the building which had been occupied by the Second Society, on Church Street, was burned in 1820, a portion of the sheds were saved. Tliese, vitli the lot, were purchased by the Catholics, and a section of the sheds fitted into a temporary church. Shortly after this a wooden building was enacted, which was occupied as a place of worship until June, 1848, when il was destroyed by fire. Up to the year 1839 theie was no settled pastor, the services being conducted from tiiiie to time by clei^ymen from Boston. In 1839 Bev. T. Fitzsiminons was appointed pastor. He was followed by Bev. Mr. Lynch and Bev. Mr. Strain. Mr. Strain continued pastor until 1847. Certain acts of his administration caused considerable discontent among a few of tlie unruly'' ones of his parish, which in June, 1846, assumed so far the proportions of a riot as to oblige the selectmen to order i\\e artillery company under arms. The trouble was settled, however, without the necessity of further acrinn by the military. In 1847 Bev. Patrick Flood took charge of the society. During Mr. Flood's jutstorate, which continued until his death in December,. 1863, the large brick church on School Street was erected. Tln$ building was occupied in 1860, and dedicated in 1877. Upon the death of Bev. Patrick Flood, a nephew, Bev. Bernard Flood, was appointed pastor. He also died, as it were, in the hamesli', in December, 1876, from sickness induced by his labors in superintending tlie remodelling of the church, and Bev. T. Brosnahan, the present pastor, was appointed early in 1877 to the vacancy.

The Universalist Society was started in the spring of 1S37, and regular public services were held in the hall in the bank building on Main Street, Bev. William C. Hanscom being pastor; in 1838, Mr. Hanscom having fallen a victim to consumption, Bev. Sylvanus Cobb, D. D., succeeded him ; from the bank hall the Morshippers removed into the then town-hall, in the grammar-school building, and from thence into the meeting-house of the old First Parish. On the 6th of March, 1839, they organized and took measures to be incorjxirated under the name of First Universalist Society of Waltham, and built a church on a lot of land presented them by Theodore Lyman, Esq., on tlie comer of Lvman and Summer streets. In 1840 Mr. Cobb was succeeded by Bev. Edwin A. Eaton, and in 1844 Bev. T. G. Fanisworth succeeded him. From 1818 to 1855 the pulpit was occupied only temporarily, though quite regularly. In 1854 the societv sold the lot on Lvman Street, atid removed the meeting-house to the corner of Main and Spring streets. From 1S55 to 1857 Bev. Massena Goodrich was pastor, succeedwl in 1857 by Bev. Henry A. Eaton. During his jKistorate a dissension occurred in the society which in the end cost tliem tiieir.charch and organization. A new society iras oiganized in 1865 under the. name of the Uni- T^rsalist Society of Waltliam. Service^ were held in Bumford Hall (wliere they have ever ^incc been continued), Bev. Benton Smith being pastor. In 1870 Bev. Phebe A. Hanaford suceeeded Mr. Smith,, resigning in 1871, and was si]icceeded in turn by Bev. M. B. licqnard, the present pastor, i Next in order. of organization was the society ^ed the First Parish. The old meeting-house of the.original First Parish not proving central enough ,to please the people of the growing town, Mr. Bip- .V^ having developed opposition to himself amotig a few energetic ones of his society, and the Second Brligjous Society having split, measures were taken to ^rect a new building. This was built on the site of the present Unitarian Church, and was dedicated, February 6, 1839. The society wa? formed under the title of the Independent Congregational Society, and was composed largely of tlie three classes just cited. Tlie membership of the elder church dwindled to a mere handful, the new society proving the more attractive, and in 18^1 the old First Parish, sacred by a century and a half of usefulness, ceased to ^xist. Bev. George F. Simmons had been formally installed as pastor in October, 1841. Mr. Bipley was invited, on the dissolution of his own societv, to become an associate, with the understanding tliat he was to Jiave no salary and 110 parochial duties, and the society took to itself the old name. In 1843 Mr. Simmons resigned, and. in 1845 Bev. Dr. Thomas Hill was ordained; in April, 1846, Mr. Bipley, removing from town, resigned his pastorate; Mr. Hill continued as pastor until 1860, when he was succeeded by Bev. James C. Parsons ; in 1865 Bev. S. B. Flagg became pastor ; in 1SQ9, Bev. Clay McCauley ; in 1.873, Bev. Edward C. Guild, the present jxistor. The old building was thoroughly repaired and remodelled in 1867.

The Episcopal Society was organized, under Bev. Ar 0. Patterson, in 1848, services being held for about a year in Bumford Hall. In the mean time the present church was erected, and Bev. Thomas F. Fales called to the jectorship, entering upon those duties in November, 1849. He still continues pastor, after nearly thirty years of continuous service.. The building has been enlarged once and a vestry added.

The Baptist Society was organized November 4, 1852, holding its earlier services in Bumford Hall. The first pastor was Bev. M. L. Bickford, ordained in August, 185S. During the early part of his pastorate the pr^nt meetiag-house^as erected, and on the 14th of Februaiir, 1856," was dedicated. Mr. Bickford remained as pastor un^il June, 1863, and was succeeded by Bev. E. B. £ddy, Bev. A. &(. Bacon, and Bev. W. H. Shedd, each, of them remaining two or tliree years. In January^ 1872, Bev. AY. C. Barrows became pastor, and he was succeeded in 1875 by Bev. F. D. Bland, D. D., who resigned in 1879. The church is at present without a settled pastor.

. It would not be possible to give in any detail fiit history of Waltham and Waltham's sons and daughters during tlie late War of the BebeUion mthout exceeding the limits to which this sketch has been restricted. It is therefore only practicable to give a slight outline. When the booming of the first gun in Charleston harbor in 1861 roused the loyal North, Waltham was among the foremost to rally to the call to arms. A citizens' meeting was held and resolutions passed demanding immediate action by the town in its corporate capacity. On the 26th of April a town-meeting was held at which it was voted to furnish each soldier with a uniform, to pay him S 10 per month for five months' service, and toprovide for the support of his familj during his absence. For this purpose the sum of $ 6,000 was appropriated. A resolution was also passed authorizing the town-treasurer to disregard any trustee process which might be instituted to divert any of this money from the purpose for which it was intended. The stirring sounds of the fife and drum were heard, and our streets and Common were tlie scenes of frequent military parades and mana*uvres. In July the town appropriated 3 5,000 to pay state aid to the families of volunteers, in accordance with the law. Tliis sum proving insufficient, an additional grant of 82,000 was made in January, 1862. In July, 1862, the selectmen were authorized to pay a bounty of $100 to each volunteer for three years who was credited to the town, and in August this bounty was extended to the nine-months men* In August, 1863, it was voted to pay state aid to the families of those * men who might be, or had been drafted into the service. In July, 1864, the bounty to three-years men was increased to §125. The total number of .men required from the town during the war was 693 ; the total number sent was 700 ; and in rank they ranged from the drummer-boy to the majorgeneral, there being twenty commissioned ofiicers. Of the entire number sent less than a dozen were

Source changes here: from History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, by Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Ed, published 1890; 46,190 words in this source stream.

By Nathan Warren

The history of a New England town is full of interest and is an object-lesson in the fundamental principles and practice of our government. The rise and progress of such an institution for self-government is that of a little Commonwealth conducted by its own citizens under the purest and simplest form of democracy. The town in New England is a miniature Commonwealth. Its Legislature is the town-meeting; its legislators are the voters in their individual capacity. The development of such a government in its political and material affairs, in all matters pertaining to its social and educational welfare .and in its religious character, so far as religion was in former times more intimately connected with the body politic, is a study of more importance than the mere recital of events and the growth of wealth and population. Whether the town remains practically at a standstill for a hundred or more years, like some of our towns - yet prosperous in all that makes happy homes, a well-ordered community - and insures a fair competence to its people in their walks of life, or whether under the impetus of manufactures or trade, or from a fortunate position for enterprise or residence, it shows great progress in business and population and all that belongs to municipal importance, its course is governed by the same elements of republican characteristics and the same principles of popular jurisprudence.

To trace the beginnings and locality of early settlement - the circumstances which dictated the direction of progress and development ; the causes which gave a turn to local political affairs and led to divisions and the creation of new towns ; the names and qualities of the " forefathers of the hamlet," and of those of their descendants who have guided public sentiment and have fostered and encouraged private and public enterprise; the incidents of local history, important in their results rather than in the nature of their occurrence - is a subject worthy of the historian in the bearing it has upon the institutions under which we, as a people, have sought peace and prosperity. The town is the unit of our system of government. It is the primitive source of popular sovereignty. It is the child as well as parent of our institutions, and in New England attains a power and individuality not known and recognized to so full an extent in the rest of the country. The details of its history are pregnant with the fate which has wrought great events on the continent.

Waltham w.as incorporated January 4, 1737-38, old style - by the modern calender January 15, 1738. Its history for the first century of settlement is so blended with that of the parent town of Watertown that it is difficult to separate the incidents of its existence for that period or to fix upon what was distinctive to its territory and inhabitants. With no defined village or local parish interests until shortly before its incorporation, the early records give us but vague information as to what portions of the annals of Watertown particularly apply to the early history of the part subsequently set off as Waltham. Until the last of the seventeenth century its territory was practically a wilderness. A fringe of farms occupied the hills in its northern limits. The Great or Sudbury Road traversed the plain on its southern limits by Charles River, but no collection of houses, church or schoolhouse marked any locality to give prominence in traditions or data to anything distinctively belonging to the locality.

Watertown, within the limits of which, as above stated, Waltham was included for the first century of its settlement, was one of the first settled places in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ranking as fourth in the order of incorporation. It has well been called the " mother of towns," for out of her territory have been formed the towns of Weston and Waltham and parts of Lincoln, Cambridge and Jielmont. Besides these contributions from her area she sent forth colonists to the Connecticut River settlements, to Weathersfield, Connecticut, Martha's Vineyard and the neighboring new settlements in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, so that hardly a town in Middlesex County but has families which trace their origin to this prolific and enterprising mother. In 1636 it was the most populous town in the Colony, and fears were entertained that the population was getting too crowded for ihe general welfare. This feeling was doubtless one of the reasons which prompted the healthy exodus to other localities.

Within its original limits is the location of the newly-discovered city of Norumbega. This illusory town of the early voyagers, half-mythical, half-authentic, has recently given rise to considerable speculation. The discoveries made have not been accepted as establishing an ante-colonial settlement, but at least have given a touch of romance to the beautiful and historical Charles River, and the localities along its banks, where enterprising traders from other lands may have given the primitive wilderness a display of thrift and busy civilization. The imagination may fondly picture the waters of the river along the borders of Waltham and Watertown freighted with strange and picturesque craft, bearing to unknown countries the products of the forests, the results of the long and patient toil of the trapper and of the barter with the aborigines. Here, by the researches of the eminent man who has zealously followed his investigations, are the evidences of a busy, intelligent population who have left their record in various places within the ancient borders of Watertown. But the early colonists make no note of their observations of any evidences of previous occupation by civilized men, and it is only after the lapse of two centuries and a half that additional renown and pre-historic information have been given to the region.

In the cursory review of the history of Watertown in its general relation with that of Waltham, and so far as it has special reference to the latter, we find much of sterling and absorbing interest that cannot be omitted and yet must be touched upon but lightly. The first authoritative record of discovery or of a visit by European settlers was May 30, 1630, ^Yhen a party of ten from Dorchester went up Charles River in a boat and landed at a spot supposed to be where the United States Arsenal now stands. They were hospitably received by the Indians, who were quite numerous in the vicinity, and were supposed to have planted some crops, but they made no permanent settlement. Later, in June of the same year, Sir Richard Saltonstall moved from Charlestown up the Charles River, and established a settlement, to which the name of Watertown was given. Rev. Mr. Phillips accompanied him as the pastor of the church, and thus on its religious and municipal basis the nucleus of the original town and prosperous oft'spring was securely and permanently located. The new settlers were of the best class of immigrants, hardy, industrious, familiar with husbandry or some trade, and imbued with those staying qualities necessary to successful colonization. Many of them were from the west of England, but the greater number doubtless came from London and vicinity. They were Puritan non-conformists who came to worship God in their own way and to bear heroically the consequences of their acts. Physically and morally they were well equipped to wrestle with the wilderness and to lay the foundations of a State where the nobility of man should be above that of rank.

On July 30, 1630, the church estate was formally established as the first work for permanent organization, the covenant was subscribed by about forty men and civil and ecclesiastical government authoritatively commenced. At the Court of Assistants, September 7th, it was ordered that the town be called Watertown.

The character and qualities of the early settlers are conspicuous for an occurrence which had an important bearing upon the future policy of the Colony, and reflects honor upon those who manifested the spirit of the occasion. It was the resistance to taxation without representation. When the (yourt of Assistants, in 1632, ordered Watertown to pay its proportion of a levy towards making a palisade about Newton, the assembly of the people voted " that it was not safe to pay moneys after that sort," as they were not represented in the Court of Assistants. The agitation of this subject gave origin to the committee of two from each town and to the representative body composed of these committees to manage the affairs of the Colony and to become what is now known as the lIou.so of Rejiresentatives. Thus to the people of

Watertown is due the historic credit of originating this popular representative body, and of establishing its power over taxation. With a prophetic instinct its primitive law-makers composed of the freemen in their collective wisdom seemed to have foreshadowed the contest that was to occur between their descendants and the mother country nearly a century and a half later on the same great principle of taxation without representation.

The first recorded adventure and exploration of the part of the country now comprised within the limits of Waltham was on the 27th of January, 1632, when Governor Winthrop and "some company with him went up by Charles River about eight miles above Watertown." This journey was doubtless on foot and for the purpose of laying out a public road. The account of this visit is a valuable contribution to local history and description, and the names applied by the explorers to the prominent features of the landscape Are retained to the present day. Winthrop's journal says they " named the first brook, on the north side of the river (being a fair stream and coming from a pond a mile from the river), Beaver Brook, because the beavers had shorn down divers great trees there, and made divers dams across the brook. Thence they went to a great rock, upon which stood a high stone, cleft in sunder, that four men might go through, which they called Adam's Chair, because the youngest of their company was Adam Winthrop. Thence they came to another brook, greater than the former, which they called Masters' Brook, because the eldest of their company was one John Masters. Thence they came to another high pointed rock, having a fair aspect on the west side, which they called by the name of Mount Feake, from one Robert Feake, who had married the Governor's daughter-in-law. On the west side of Mount Feake they went up a very high rock, from whence they might see all over Neipnett, and a very high hill due west, about forty miles off, and to the N. W. the high hills by Merrimack, above sixty miles off." Beaver Brook is still quite a large stream, emptying into Charles River on the north, and forming the natural eastern border to what has been known as Waltham Plain. The pond described was what is now a meadow between Lexington Street and the Lyman estate. This pond was on the western branch of the brook, a half-mile or more above the confluence with the eastern branch. It would seem from Winthrop's own record that he regarded the western branch as the main stream and so applied the name. The pond, or its present site, is the only one that can be identified with his record. But within the past generation a heated and quite amusing controversy has arisen over the appellation of this and the eastern branch. It is claimed that the latter is the only original and duly accepted Beaver Brook of history and tradition, and that the western branch is Chester Brook. To the eastern branch has been given the appropriate and euphonious name of Clematis Brook. This application was considered almost a sacrilegious innovation upon the sanctity of old names, but it remains in popular use. The wordy contest over the subject was conducted zealously in the local paper of the day, almost to the personal estrangement of the principal advocates of the respective names, but still the brooks run on as men may come and go and dispute over what was the proper name to be applied to carry out the original designation of the Puritan Governor.

The next local object, Masters Brook, emptying into the river on the north, forming the western boundary of the plain, retains its designation, while Mount Feake is the site of the cemetery of the same name. The high rock may be what is called Boston Rock Hill, near where the reservoir of the waterworks is located ; while Adam's Chair is supposed to have been destroyed by the Fitchburg Railroad. But historical lore is doubtless at fault or Winthrop's journal was inaccurate. He speaks of Masters Brook as larger than Beaver Brook. This could never have been. That description fully meets the case of Stony Brook, a mile up the river, and flowing into it likewise on the north. This journey and the facts adduced therefrom have been amply treated by local historians, but with evident inability to reconcile the account with objects visited. The conflict of names and descriptions doubtless arose from Wiuthrop's inadvertence in writing his journal or to the confusion of localities in making up his record after his return from his tour of exploration.

The query has often arisen as to what was the face of the country in the early settlements. Was it continuous and uninterrupted forest and wilderness? Were the settlers obliged to make a clearing in the primitive forest for every tract of land to be cultivated, for every house to be erected ?

Reference is seldom made to the fact by historians, either because it has not been deemed of suflicicnt importance, or because the settlers made little record on the subject. But " Wood's Prospect," that quaint and highly-instructive volume of experience in New England in 1033, states that the country was not all forests. There was much clear land, not only naturally, but from the work of Indians, who had made and preserved such tracts for their planting.

The first grant of land within the limits of Waltham Wixs that of five hundred acres to John Oldham. This grant was in the southwestern part of the town, and included Mount Feake and in the vicinity of Roberts Station. No reason is assigned for this especial favor to one individual. Oldham was a prominent man of those days, and had figured quite conspicuously in the Plymouth Colony and among the wayward and convivial settlers at Merry Mount, and established a reputation not quite consistent with Puritan simplicity and rectitude. He had led an eventful life, and his leading qualities were quickly recognized by the community with which foituneor hisown inclinations united him. He was one of those men who naturally and by force of circumstances come to the front when occasion requires a leading mind. When the General Court was established he was chosen one of the first representatives from Watertown, and in the original town he continued to reside, never occupying the grant allowed him. He met his death tragically by Indians when trading off Block Island. His death was followed by even more tragic and war-like results, for it gave origin to the famous Pequot War. Thus the first and largest grantee of Waltham, the enterprising trader, the energetic magistrate, unconsciously brought about the first serious and disastrous Indian war in New England.

As the necessities for land increased with a growing population, more territory was divided into large areas, to which local designations were given. These divisions relate almost excluaively to the territory of Waltham. The earliest general grant after the original small lots was that of the Great Dividends, made in July, 1636. The laud was divided into four divisions, each one hundred and sixty rods in width, running parallel along the northern limits of the town. These divisions were sometimes called squadrons, and the lines dividing them the squadron lines. It is conjectured that they commenced near the present boundary lines between Watertown and Waltham, and ran in a northwesterly direction. The next general grant of land was the Beaver Brook Plow Lands, extending from the Driftway (now Gore vStreet), near the eastern lineof Waltham, south of the great dividends to the Oldham grant in the west. The part of this grant situated east of Beaver Brook was called the " Hither " or " Little Plain," while the section west of Beaver Brook was known as the Farther or Great Plain. These designations are now all obsolete, save that, perhaps, of the Great,-or Waltham plain, on which the city is now principally located.

In addition, in 1638, was the Lieu of Township lots apportioned to those freemen who had no lots at the township. They were situated west of the Plain south of the great dividends and extended westward beyond Stony Brook. This completed the general division or allotment of lands in Waltham.

The course of settlement was not towards the level lands of the plains, but for some reason it followed only the hills skirting the northern part of the town. As the population was quite exclusively of farmers it doubtless chose the stronger and more fertile land of the hills rather than the sandy soil of the plain. Besides that, it was moving in the direction of the general trend of migration from the original settlement at Mount Auburn. In this section of the town for nearly two centuries was located the numerical and intellectual strength of the town. The region is now devoted to farming and still retains the local appellations of Pond End and Trapelo, applied to different sections. The former derives its name from the large pond in the northwest of Waltham, called at different times Mead's, Sherman's or Hardy's as the chance of the possessor of adjacent lands or the caprices of the day may determine.. Trapelo traces its name from no reliable origin, though it is supposed or imagined that the word may be a corruption of the words " trap below," used to localize a place of trapping. It is to be regretted that this historical and expressive name is not officially recognized in any local designation. The well-known Trapelo road, still an important thoroughfare, named often in ancient records and famous in tradition, is modernized into North Street. But in popular parlance the name is still applied to the district.

Another locality in that part of the town still retains its ancient cognomen of " Piety Corner," a name derived from the fact that some of the deacons and leading men of the church formerly resided in that vicinity.

Sudbury road, now Main Street, early laid out as a principal thoroughfare to the western settlements, extended through the comparatively uninhabited plain, important only as a means of communication to distant regions. The fact that the territory was unsettled doubtless accounts for its generous width and straight direction, as otherwiseit might have followed a course to lead past the scattered farm-houses situated at the caprice and convenience of their owners.

The first bridge over Beaver Brook was built in 1673, and the records state that a gallon of" liccur" was provided on the occasion, doubtless as a necessary element in its construction.

The growth of Waltham as an outlying part of Watertown was slow and without annals of note. Its areas were used mainly as pasturage grounds, into which it was divided by local and natural bounds. Large ranges were established extending from Beaver Brook to Stony Brook, and doubtless for a half-century that land was held in common, unfenced, though allotted in small sections to different ownei-s. The principal hills received early in the settlement the names they now bear, and Mackerel Hill, Prospect (at first, for some reason never explained, called Knop'a Garden), Bear Hill, are recorded as landmarks to bound and designate tracts of laud and the progress of settlement.