Watertown City (part 2 of 5)

Within her original limits were embraced the present towns of Watertown, Waltham, Weston, * the greater part of Lincoln, a part of Belmont, and that portion of Cambridge lying east of Mount Auburn Cemetery between Fresh Pond and Charles Biver. Watertown is now one of the smallest towns in the state. A strip was cut off for Newtown in 1631; thirty acres on the south side of Cliarles Biver were also relinquished to her in 1634; a third excision was made in 1635 in favor of Concord, and one half of its territory was taken off and incorporated as the town of Weston, January 1, 1713. This tract had been commonly known as Watertown Farms; afterwards as tlie Farmers' Precinct, sometimes as the Third Military Precinct, and sometimes as the Western ftrecinct. Lincoln, incorporated April 19, 1754, was made from the northern part of Weston, the southern ])art of Concord, and the western part of Lexington. The incorporation of Waltham, January 4, 1788, took off about three fifths of Watertown's already much diminished teriritory. After the incorporation of Weston the Middle Precinct (Waltham) became the West Precinct of Watertown. lu April, 1754, a strip of land about half a mile wide was taken from the eastern border of the town and ' annexed to Cambridge. Belmont, incorporated . March 18, 1859, took off the northern part of the town, including Fresh Pond and more than one^ third of its remaining territory. The boundary between it and Watertown begins near the entrance of Mount Auburn, and runs northwesterly on the south side of Belmont Street, seven hundred and thirteen rods to the " four comers," thence northerly one hundred and eighty-six rods to Beaver Brook.

These successive amputations have diminished the area of the town from about 29,000 to 2,887^ acres, from which if the river, the arsenal, and the cemeteries be deducted the actual acreage is reduced to 2,04 L Although thus repeatedly shorn of her territory, Watertown has nevertheless continaed to increase in }K)puIat]on, business, and wealth, the enterprise of her citizens proving equal to every emergency.

The first printed description of Watertown is found in Wood's New Englah(V9 Pronpect^ written in 1633. He says : '' Half a mile westward of this plantation [Newtown] is Watertown, a place nothing inferior for land, wood, meadow and water to Newtowne. Within half a mile of this town is a great pond which is divided between these two towns, which divides their 4>ound9 north ward. r. A. mile and a half from this town is a fall of fresh waters which convey themselves Jnto the ocean throG^h Charles Eiver. A little 'b^low this fall of .waters the inhabitants of Watertowne have built a wear to catch fish wherein they take great ^tore of shads and alewives. In two ti^es they Jiave. gotten 100,000 of those fishes, ^iiis is M small benefit to the plantation. Ships of small' burthen may come up to these two towns^ out the*' oyster banks do bar out the bigger ships.'' ^ < ^ " '-^?

Edward Johnson's descriptipn, iwe^tyt years later, ' bq^ with a singuljpr misstatement. /' Watertown is situate/' so he wsites, '' upon one of the branches of Charles River ;^ fruitful plot and of large extent, watered with many pl^a§aht sprihgs ' and small rivulets runiring like veins throughout her body; which hath Caused her inhabitants to scatter in such manner that their Sabbath assemblies prove very thin if the season ^vor not, and hath made this great towif consisting of 160 families to shew nothing delightful to the eye in any pUce. This to\iii begun by,occasipu of Sir Richard Saltonstall who, at hi^ arrival having some store of cattle and servants they wintered in these parts. This town abounds in several sorts of fish at their seasons, bass, shad, alewives, frost-fish, and smelts. Their herd of kine and cattle of that kind are about 450, with some store of sheep and goats. Their land in tillage is near upon 1,800 acres. Their church is increased to near about 250 souls in church fellowship." ^. - '

On the 12th of June, 1630, therArbella>.one of the fleet of seventeen ships that left England in that year, bearing Governor Winthrop, Deputy- Governor Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Rev. George Phillips, Rev. John Wilson, and others afterward prominent in the settlement of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, cast anchor in the harbor of Salem, whitlier, in 1628, a colony had preceded them, with Captain John Endicott as its governor. In her came, it is believed, no less than fifteen of the first planters of Watertown. Some of these emigrants were from tlie west of England, but the greater number came from London and its vicinity. They were Puritan Nonconformists who, self-exiled from their native land, sought on an unknown shore that liberty of religious worship which had been denied them at home. They came to stay, and their familiarity with husbandry or some useful handicraft insured the j)ermanence of their settlemeiit. A n^t)ler body of men, or one better equipped .physically and morally for the conquest 6f a A-ildemess aiiui the founding of a great state, the If orld JiaS nevcv seen.

« After reconnoitrmg the country about the bay for It more de^iilible pbce of settlement, the peninsub of Charlestowu ivas selected, and thither the emigrants at once pvciseeded. Owing, however, to the want of good ,wa|er, a gprtion of them, with Saltonstall as their leadifir, accompanied by Mr. Phillips as their pastor, soon began a settlement about four miles up Charles $iver, at first called Sir Richard Saltonstall's Planbition, but, September 7, by the 'court named Watertown, doubtless because it was 'so well watered. Watertown was the first of the inland towns to. be settled.

The ^tract of'^hnd lying east, north, and sooth of Mount Auburn is undoubtedly the site of the beginning of the plantation in 1630, and it was icalled'^the toirn" at a very early day. It is con- ^jectuced that the lot of Rev. Mr. Phillips, opposite the Old Bury ing-G round, a mile from the site of the;' colleges, was i^s centre; that here the fir^t 'house of worship was built, and that here the first 'burials were made, if anv occurred before the appropriation of the old graveyard for the purpose.

On the 30th of May preceding its settlement ten of tlie Dorchester emigrants, who had just arrived, proceeded up tlie river and landed where the United States Arsenal now stands. It is supposed that they planted crops here, and hence the name of Diprch(^ter Fields, by which it was long afterwards known. Roger Clap, one of the party, says : " We went up Charles River until the river grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our goods with much labor and toil, the bank being steep; and night coming on we were informed that there were hard by us 300 Indians. One Englishman that could s\yeak their language (an old planter) went to them and advised them not to come near us in the night, and they hearkened to his counsel and came not In tlie morning some of the

Indians came and stood at a distance off looking at us but came not near us. But when they had been a while in view some of them came and held out a great bass towards us^ so we sent a man with a biscuit and clianged the cake for a bass. Afterwards they supplied us with bass, exchanging a bass for a biscuit cake and were very friendly unto

(although by our dilligence we had got up a kind of shelter to save our goods in) but we Iiad orders to come away from that place which was about Watertown, unto a place called Mattapan near Dorchester. So we removed and came to lilattapan.*'

The uneventful annals of the town record the peaceful progress of an agricultural community occupied in drafting its needful supplies of food from the soil and from tlie river, and occasionally sending its little colonies to the Connecticut valley, the " far west " of that day. Undisturbed by the terrible Indian war that in 1675 devastated so many thriving New England villages, and untroubled by the whirlwind of superstition that culminated in the Salem tnigedy of 1692, singularlv free from these and other calamities that befell less favored localities, Watertown yet bore her full share in the efibrts and in the burdens of the colony in its struggles, first for existence, and subsequently for independence. For more than half a century she was preserved from mental stagnation by an acrimonious dispute over the question of the proper location of a new meeting-house.

A striking contrast to the simple lives of these Puritan emigrants is afforded by those of their descendants of to-day. Beligion furnished not only their spiritual food, but intellectual recreation as well. The two Sunday senices, the weekly lecture, and the family devotions, filled the place now occupied by the newsjwper, the public librjiry, the lyceum, public amusements, and the otlier manifold methods of employing spare time. Books were scarce and highly prized, and - the Bible excepted - consisted principally of treatises by the Puritan divines. Without being superstitious, they saw a providential significance in the most trivial occurrences. Thus at Watertown, one day (so Governor Winthrop tells us), "many persons saw a great contest between a mouse and a snake. After a long fight the mouse prevailed, and killed the snake. The Bev. Mr. Wilson of Boston, a sincere and holy man, gave this interpretation of it : the snake was the devil ; the mouse was a

Tliere was much sickness during the first winter, which was one of great severity, and also much suffering from scarcity of food, many being com* pelled to subsist solely upon shell-fish, groundnuts, and aconis. Several of the settlers lost their houses and wigwams by fire, and Bev. Mr. Phillips and others had their hay burnt. The settlers were also greatly annoyed by wolves, and one night, the report of a musket discliarged at them in Watertown having been heard at Boxbury, the people there, apprehending an Indian attack, were greatly excited, and were called to arms by beat of drum. The alarm was communicated to the people of Boston, who also turned out, but who, on learning the cause, were greatly relieved, and " went merrily to breakfast,'^ savs the narrator of the incident.

A site for a fortified town and for a capital of the colony having been selected by Governor Winthrop and the assistants in December, 1630, the settlement of Newtown (now Cambridge) was began between (^rlestown and Watertown. The territory of these towns, then undefined, was contiguous, and embraced all that is now included in Cambridge, Arlington, Belmont, Lexington, and Somervillc. That between Charles Biver and Boxbury, and extending from the Back Bay to the southwest, belonged to Boston and Watertown. Between the hue of Newtown and Sir R. Saltonstairs homestead there was only one small intervening lot, and it is probable tliat a number of his companions found themselves included in the limits of the new settlement. The boundary between Wa^ tertown and Newtown was established by the General Court April 7, 1635.

Tlie town, as well as the colony, suffered a'great loss in the spring of 1681, when Sir Richard Saltonstall returned to England, leaving his two eldest sons to manage his affairs. His is one of the first among the great names on the roll of the founders of New England, conspicuous alike for sound judgment, public spirit, humane and liberal views, and for social and personal worth. He was tlie son of Samuel, and nephew of Sir Richard Saltoiistall, Jjonl Mayor of London in 1597, and was bom at Huntwicke, in the West Riding of York, England, in 15BC. He was a justice of the peace and lord of the manor of Ledsham, near Leeds, when, in 162S, he became one of the Massachusetts Bay Company, in whose charter he was the first named of the eighteen assistants. He was a promfiueut advocate of the transfer of the government of the company from England to the colony, and took a leading part in its transactions prior to the emigration. After his return he b^me one of the patentees of Connecticut, and wa9 active in promoting its settlement He continued to manifest his interest in both colonies by befriending them on various occasions, thwarting the macliitiatious against them by his' influence at court. In 1644 he was ambassador to Hollandi where his portrait was painted by B^mbrandt. In 1649 he was one of tlie High Court of Justice ap|)ointed to try the Duke of Hamilton, Lord Capel, the Eart of Holland, and Sir John Owen for high treason. His death occurred in 1658. A long line of distinguished descendants has illustrated the name of Saltonstall in New England down to the present day.

Saltbnstairs letter of rebuke to the ministers of Boston has been well characterized as '' a noble testimony* to his charitable and Christian feelings,^' which were in advance of the age. In it he says, '' It doth not a little grieve my spirit to hear what aadd things are reported dsily of your tyranny and perBecutions in New England as that you fyne, whip and imprison men for their consciences.^' He goes on to say, that to comi)el such men to come into their assemblies as they know will not join in their worship, and then to punish them for showing their dislike of it, is to ^nake them hypocrites and sinners, '' conforming in their outward man for "fear of punishment. These rigid ways,'' he adds, ^ liave laid you very low in the hearts of the saynts. We pray for you and wish you prosperitie every way and not to practice those courses in a wilderness which you went so far to prevent. .... I hope you doe not assume to yourselves infallibilitie of judgment when the most learned of the apostles confessed he knew but in part and saw but darkly, as througli a glass. Oh that all those who are brethren though yet they cannot speak and think the same things might be of one accord in the Lord! .... The Lord give you meeke and humble spirits, and not to strive so tench for uniformitie as to keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ! "

Watertown was probably one of the Indian settlements of the bay depopulated by the terrible pestilence of 1617. Its advantages for planting, beaver-hunting, and especially for fishing, could not liave been overlooked by the natives, and at

Nonantuin, on the other side of the mer, they were quite nnmerous. - March 4, 1630 - 31, niKm t complaint made by sagamores John* and Peter for the burning of two wigwams which,' opon examination, api)eared to have been occasioned by James Woodward, servaiit of Sir Richard Saltoiiftall, it was therefore ordered 'Ulmt Sir Bichard should satisiie the Indians for the wrong done to them, which accordingly he did by giving them seven yards of cloth." September 4, 1632, the Court ordered a severe penalty to be inflicted on Richard Hopkins for selling guns, powder, and shot to the Indians. At a General Court, September 6, 16-38, '' It was agreed that the Court of Assistants should take order for the Indians that they may have satisfaction for their riglit at Lynn and Watertown." In March following the Court desired Mr. Gibfaena '' to agree with the Indians for the land within the bounds of Watertown, Cambridge, and Boston," for which £23 8#. 6^. was paid them in Ma?, 1640, by the two former towus ; Cambridge also '^ to give Squa Sachem a ' coat eveiry winter while she liveth." This Indian queen was the widow of NanepashemiL The Massachusetts settlera were scrupulously careful to pay the Indians for their lands, and to deal justly with them on all: occa^ sions.

The earliest existing records of the town bear date in 1634, four years after its settlement, and in the same year that the creation of a house of deputies, or representadves, wrought a most important change in the government of the colony. At the same time that the people began to be represented in the colonial government they also, ** for the ordering of tlie civil affain of the town,'' intrusted them to that peculiarly New Enghiad institution, a board of selectmen, annually chosen by the freemen. The three Watertown men fint chosen to this board, one of whom was- to aerve as town-clerk, were William Jennison, Brian Pendletou, and John Eddie.

What led to this improved method of administration was an order of the court, dated Februaiy 3, 1631-32, '' that £60 be levied out of the several plantations towartls making a pnlisade about the New town.'' When the warrant for £8> its proportion of that tax, reached Watertown, *^ the pastor (Mr. Phillips) and elder (Mr. Richard Browne) assembled the people and delivered their opinions that it was not safe to pay moneys after that soit, for fear of bringitig themselves and their posterity into bondage.'' Tlieir opposition was lawful and proper, as the charter, so far from authorizing the assistants to tax all persons living on the company's lands, did not even empower them to assess the freemen. Summoned before the governor and assistants on the 17th of the same month, there was "much debate,*' but being "the weaker party,'' they were compelled, says Winthrop, " to make a retraction and submission." In view of the result of this contention it seems altogether unlikely that auy retraction was made ; at any rate, \Vatertown has reason to be proud of her defence of the great principle of no taxation without representation, for, only three months afterward, at the very next meeting of the court, a committee of two was appointed from each town to confer with the court about raising '* a public stock [treasury] ," and thus the popular representative body of the colony originated, and thus the trading corporation unconsciouJy became a representative democracy. The names of John Oldham and John Masters stand first on this committee ; while those of Bobert Feake, Bichard Browne, and John Oldham appear as the delegates from Watertown to the first General Court, held Way 14, 1634.

At a court of assistants, April 12, 1631, a watch to begin at sunset was ordered at Dorchester and at Watertown, and " if any person shall shoot off a piece after the watch is set he shall forfeit 40 #. or be iriiipped." In May, 1634, this watch was reduced from four to two, and on March 9, 1636-37, wards were also to be kept on the ^' Lords Days " and every person above the age of eighteen (except magistrates and elders of churches) '* shall be compellable to this service." Every town was at the same time onlercd to have a watch-liouse. The meeting-house was sometimes used as a watchhouse, and also as the depositary of the ammunition of the town. In 1711 the old school-house on School-house Hill was ordered to be re})aired for a watch-house. In 1639 the town was fined for not having a pair of stocks, ilnd ordered to procure one.

In the early days great importance* was attached to the i)erformaiice of the duties of citizenship. In 1639 it was ordered that any duly warned freeman absent from a town-niocting shouhl be fined is. 6//., a penalty afterwards increased to 5#. A selectman almnt from the place of meeting " past 9 of the clock in the forenoon " aUo forfeited 2#. 6fL to the town. One of the duties of tlic selectmen was to take turns, ''every man his day to site uix>n tlie gallery to look to the youths tliat they may prevent miscarriages in the time of public services on the Lord's Day." They were also to. take notice ^f ''sundry persons in tliis towne who are in thejf habits contrary to tlie law concerning the exoctis of apparell," and to see that none "except sudi as the law doth allow, do either wear silke goods or silke scarfes, gould or silver lace, or buttons, ribbons at knees or trassed liandkerchiefs, upon t)w ferfeiture of wliat penalty the law doth .apoynt which is, that they shall be rated in the country rate after £200 in the same." Among the early enactmen,ts of the town was one offering a reward pf 5#. for each wolf killed in the town ; another affixing a penalty upon whoever " should suffer his dog to come to the meeting upon the Lonl's Day "; and that ordering that the two fairs at Watertown, " the one upon the first Friday of the 4th month ; the other upon the first Friday of the 7tli month shall be kept upon the trayning place."

At t)ie second meeting of the . governor jitid assistants September 7, 1630, precautions were taken in anticipation of Indian attacks, and provision was made for the support of Captain Daniel Patrick of Watertown, and Captain Jolin Underhill of Boston, both of whom liad served, in the Low Countries, as instructors in the military art The latter Iiad the training of the, soldiers on tlie south side of Xharles Biver, while Patrick had charge of those on the north side, at Giarles^wn, Watertown, Newtown, and MedCord, the men of the two former towns training together mitil 1635, , .

It seems probable that the settlers of Watertown were more numerous than those of tlie other towns planted in 1630, and that tUs superiority of numbers was maintained for twenty years, Tlie ap* portionment of tlie early tax. levies indicates this. Her people, like those. of Roxbury, soon brgsm to be overcrowded, and to disperse either to form new pbntations, or to go to otlier towns already settled. In August, 1635, it was "agrpcd by the consent of the freemcA (in consideration there; be too many inhabitants in tlie town, and the town thereby in danger to be ruinated) that no farrainor coming into the town, or any family among ourselves shall have any benefit of commonage cyr land undivided, but what they shall ))urchasc, except tliat they buy a lyian's right wholly in the town." It was further agreed, " that, wliosoc\-er being an inliabitant ii| the tonTi shall nwive any I)erson or family upon their propridy that nuy prove chargeable to the toun sliall maintain tlie

WetheraMd, the oldest town ;< In Connecticut, received from Watertown its first' considerable emigration in 1Q*34. Pyqiing, it^ Indian name, was changed In 1633 to Watertoi^, and later to Wethersfield. Some of this colony were afterwards among the first lettlers of Stamford, Milford, and Bmnford. Majr 29, 1635, the folIdVfiig Watertown men went to Wethersfield.^ Rev. Richard Denton, I^bert Reynolds, John' Strickf^nd, Jonas Weede,;Bev. John Sherman, Robert Coe*, imd Andrew Ward. The two ktter afterwards settled in Stamfbrd! Leohard Chester, John Unch, Nathaniel Foote, John Oldhato, Edward Picrt^e, John Reynolds, and Robert Rose went before 1642.-

In 1636 Dedham'was largely settled from Watertowiii and in the s^me year some of h6f>> people were among the settlers bf Concord. Sudbury was the next'tbih|) planted by Wetertown, the coi^, in November, 1637, "in regard of their straitness of accommodlition and want of n^eadow^' giving'them leave npon tlieir petition ^^ to reipove and settle a plantation upon the river which runs to Concord/' Martha's iTipeyard was fir^ (ijantod-by & Watertown colpny led by Thomas Mayhew in 1642, and her sons were the pioneers in the settlement of Lancaster^ Oroton, Framingham, Shrewsbun', Worcester. Rutland, and Spencer, as also of many of the towns in southern and ed^em Connectteut, and on Long Island. .. Emigrant^ from Watertown are found .among the early settlecs of nearly all of the towns in Middlesex County. "^

The.eatliest list of the inhabitants of Watertbtrn is dated July 25, 1636. It is "a grant of: the Great Dividends [allotted] to thc^ freemen [and] to all the townsmen then inhabiting, being 120 in number.*' "-

The war ending in tlie extinction of the warlike Pequot tribe in 1637 was caused by the murder of John Oldham, a highly respected citizen of Watertown, its deputy to the fii-st General Court, and a member of its church, while trading at Block Island, July 20, 1636. .Immediately afterward John Gallup, in a larger vessel, with a crew consisting of one man and two boys, seehig Oldham's pinnace in the possession of Indians, ran into her with such force as nearly to overset her. Six of the Indians jumped overboard and were drowned. Repeating the manoeuvre a second and a third time, the remaining Indians were either drowned or taken, and two boys who had accompanied Oldham were rescued uninjured. This is the first American sea-fight on record.

Ensign William Jennison, one of the four ofiicers in command of the expedition to Block Island in the following autumn, '^to do justice to the Indians for the murder of Mr. Oldham," was, in March, 1637, chosen first captain of the train-band of AVatertown. He was a man of cni^city and integrity, and was almost constantly in the public service. All the able-bodied men of the colony were, in December, 1636, arranged in three regiments, those of the districts now included in the counties of Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex. Of the latter, which then included Charlestown, Newtown^ Watertown,

Concord, and Dedham, John Haines was colonel, Roger Harlakenden lieutenant-colonel, and Captain Patrick muster-master. Watertown raised fourteen of the one hundred and sixty men levied for the Pequot War, in April, 1637, and the first forty MaBsachusetts levies marched under Captain Patrick. Lieutenant Robert Seelev, a Watertown man who had removed to Connecticut, was second in command to Captain John Mason in the famous fight and destruction of the Pequot stronghold.

From November 28, 164-3, to November 9, 1647, the records of the town are lost. Records of marriages, births, and deaths were ordered by the court in September, 1639, to be kept, and June 14, 1642, they appointed a ''clerk of the writs'' to ]x^rform the sennce. The first of these officers in Watertown was Simon Eire. The earliest mar* riage on the record is that of John Bigelow and Maiy Warren, in 1642, "before Mr. NowdL'' Marriage, then regarded as a civil contract, was for a long time performed only by magistrates or specially authorized persons. The earliest record of a marriage here by a clergyman was that by Rev. John Bailey, August 10, 1686. For fifteen years after John Saltonstall's departure, and until Mr. Richard Browne was authorized to perform the ceremony, the people of the town, being without a magistrate, were obliged to apply to magistrates of other towns to be married.

The apostle Eliot began his missionary labors among the Indians " near Watertown Mill, upon the south side of Charles River,'' in October, 1646. This is not the place in which to enlarge upon this subject, nor can we know how much interest the people of Watertown took in this pious but futile eff'ort to Christianize the heathen around them, but to us it seems one of the most picturesque and memorable incidents in our early history. Five years later the Indian church and village of Natick were founded bv Eiiot.

One of the earliest of the executions in New England for witchcraft took place about 1650, when a Mrs. Kendall of Cambridge was judicially murdered for bewitching to death a child of Good* man Gennings (Jennison) of Watertown. The principal evidence was that of a Watertown nurse, who testified tliat the said Kendall did make much of the child, and then the child was well, but quickly changed in color and died a few hours after. After the execution the parents denied that their child was bewitched, and stated that it died from imprudent exposure to cold by the nurse the

In the formidiible Indian outbreak of 1675-76, known w Phih'p's War, which threatened the destruction of the New England colonies, thirteen towns were destroyed and more titan six htifidred men, chiefljr young men, the flower of thie country, perished in the field. Watertown esbaped, but her citizens were repeatedly called out to repel the onslaught of the savages upoii neighboring towns. Ther following names of twenty " souldiers,*' impressed from Watertown in November, 1675, for the defence of the colony, were returned by Captain Hugh Mason as '' rationaly most fit to goe upon the* servis": "Daniell Warrin, Sr., John B^lah, Sr., Nathaniel Hely, Josepli Tayntor, John Whitney, Sr., George Harrington, William Hagar, Jr., John Rirkhursfit, Micluiel Flagg, Jacob Bullard, Isaac Learned, Joseph Waiglit, George Dill, William Pierce, Nathaniel Sanger, Moses Whitney, Jdm Windam, Joseph Smith, Nathaniel Barsham, John Barnard.^'

Tlie brave Captain Beers, of Watertown^ while marching from Hadley to bring oiF the garrison at Squakheag (Northfield), was, on the morning of September 4, 1675, waylaid by the Indians and slain, together with about twenty of his men. Tlie scene of the conflict is to this day called Beers' PUin, and the eminence to which he withdrew his men and where he fell is still known as Beers' Mbuntain. Richard Beers came to Watertown in 1630. He was a soldier in the Pequot War, participating, as he himself says, ''in two several designs when the Lord delivered them into our hands/' Soon after, or, as he says, " Uppon his return, such a weakness fell uppon his body that for 8 years space he was much disinabled to labor for his famyly, sijending a great part of that little ho had upon phesitions/' He was a sergeant in 1642, when the court ordered him to superintend "the breeding of saltpetre.'' His homestead, where in 1654 he was licensed to keep an ordinary, was on the southwest border of Fresh Pond. In 1664 he petitioned for a grant of land from the colony " where he can find it in this wilderness, seeing he hath many children to share in the same and hath been an inhabitant in this jurisdiction ever since tlie first beginning tlien'of, and according to his weake abilities served the same." He was a representative from 166.'J, and liad b<»en a lieutenant many years, but was styled captain

Captain Hugh 'Mason, who at the head of forty Watertown* men marched to the relief of Groton, was, March 15, 1676, appointed one of a committee of four to provide for the defence of the frontier towns' bf ^liddlcsex County. April 20, his men assisted the inhabitants of Sudbury to repulse the attack of two hundred Indians, whoto they dro?e across the river. Next day they followed tbein and renewed thie attick in the hope of affording relief to Captain Wads worth, but there being 'Moo many ** of them, our men, who were almost surrounded, retreated to Captain Goodnow's garrison. Some of Wadstrorth^s men who had taken refuge in Noyes' Mill were rescued by Maik>n, who, joining Captain Huntiug^s com|)any, went over the river, gathered the slain of Wadsworth's and Brocklebank's comimnies, and buried them. This was Philip's last success, and he was soon afterwards hunted down and killed. Captain Mason was seventy-six years of age at this time. He iras oiie of the original settlers of the town, and had been a representative and selectman for many years. He was chosen captain in 1652. It is conjectured that he was the brother of the distinguished Captain John Mason of Connecticut.

Some of the Watertown men who fell in the wars with the Indians were : William Flagg, at Lancaster, August 2£, 1675; John Chinery, at Northfield, September 4, 1675 ; John Ball, at Lancaster, September 10, 1675; John Sherman, Jr., son of Captain John, at the Narragansett Fight ; Geoi^ Harrington of Wadsworth's company, at Lancaster, February, 1676 ; Lieutenant Gershom Fla^, at Lamprey Eiver, July 6, 1690, and Sei^eant Jacob Fulham, at LoveweU's Pond, ifay 8, 1725.

Watertown's proportion of the tax for the carrying on the war against Philip was £45. January 22, 1677, the government made allowance to tlie people distressed by the war, and allotted to the selectmen of the several towns their proportion out of the "Irish Charity" in meal, oatmeal, wheat, malt at 18*., butter per ball 6rf., and cheese ^d. per pouTid. Nineteen Watertown families, consisting of seventy-six persons, were thus aided, Boston and Charlestown being alone entitled to a larger measure of relief.

In 1727 tlie soldiers who were in the Narragansett expedition in 1675, or their lawful representatives, petitioned the Genend Court for the land promised them when tliey enlisted. Their petition granted, and to tite Watertown men named below was assigned a portion of Township No. 2, now Westminster, Massachusetts. They were John Sawin for his father Thomas, Ephraim Cutter, James Cutting for liis father James, John Bernard^ Joshua l^igelow, William Sliattuck, Joseph Giant for his father Joseph, Zacluiriah Smitli for his father Jonathan, Samuel Hagar foi: his father John, George Harrington's heirs, John Harrington, Joseph Priest for his father Joseph, Zachariah Cutting, John Bright for his uncle John, Geoi^ Parmeter for his father William, Joseph Ball for his uncle Jacob Bullard, Thomas Harrington for his wife's father Timothy Bice, John Sherman for his uncle John, Captain Josepli Bowman for his wife's uncle James Barnard, Joseph Smith for his father Jose])h, Bichard Beers for his father Elnathan, Michael Flagg's heirs, John Cutting for his father John, the heirs of Dr. W^ellington and. of Benjamin Wellington.

When, upon the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange in Engbnd, the people of Boston and vicinity overthrew tlie hated government of Andros, representatives from all the towns in the colony met at Boston, May 2^, 1689, to consult as to the propriety of resuming the old charter, William Bond and Benjamin Garfield, on behalf of the })eople of Watertown, were instructed to maintain ** the charter rights/' that is, the old charter, and to. agree to the declaration set forth at a previous meeting of representatives until further orders from the English government. This course was recommended by a large majority of tlte towns, but the old charter was never restored, and a new one, less liberal in some respects, was granted by King William m. in 1691.

After the decease of Captain John Sherman in 1691 the town was divided into three military precincts. The first was under Captain William Bond, who was made a magistrate in 16S6 ; the second (Waltham) was Lieutenaut Garfiehl's ; and the third (Weston) was that of Lieuten<int Jqsiah Jones.

The ineflectual attempt to establish three regular market-places in Boston in 1731 gave great offence to the neighboring towns, mIio reganled this restriction as an infrincremcnt of tlicir ridits. In retaliation, the people of Watertown voted to suspend all intercourse with the Bostopians at their markets under a heavy ix^nalty, but it is probable tliat a measure so absurd as that of prohibiting people from selhng vegetables where it was for their interest to sell, soon became a dead letter.

In 1 758 a company from Watertown and vicinity, commanded by Captain Jonatlian Brown, was in service in dinada, in the regiment of Colonel Wil« liam Williams. Captain Brown was afterwards a member of the Provincial Congress, serving on important committees, and was for many years a selectman.

Watertown, in common with the other towns in the colony, heartily co-operated witli Boston in the various measures of the patriot leaders in opposition to the . arbitrary acts of the British gov* emment. Tliat imposing duties on tea, paper, glass, etc., aroused universal indignation. At the meeting held in Boston towards the close of the year 1767, for the encouragement of home pKoduotions and to lessen foreign importations, the othei^ towns were appealed -to for sympathy and support in this policy. Watertown, January 18,. 1768, responded by voting to dispense with imported goods, at the same time' declaring all foreign teas expensive and pernicious, as well a^ unnecessary. " This continent,'' she said, *' abounds with many herbs of a more salubrious quality, which, if we were as much used to as the poisonous Bohea, would no doubt in time be as. agreeable, perhaps much more so ; and whilst by a manly influence we expect our women to make this sacrifice to'the good of their country, we hereby declare we shall highly honor and esteem the encouragers of our own manufactures and the general use of th^. productions of this continent, this being in our judgment at this time a necessary means, under God, of rendering us a happy and free people.'*

Thus it appears that almost six years before, tlie. tea was thrown into. Boston Harbor it had been thrown overboard, metaphorically, by Watertown, which took the lead in denouncing this '' expensive, pernicious, and i)oisonous '' herb.

At the same meeting her representative was instructed, while resisting all encroachments upon her riglits and joining in all vigorous but legal and peaceable measures for obtaining relief, "not to be drawn into any rash or disorderly measures, either disrespectful to the best of sovereigns, or undutiful to our mother country,'* thus indicating how far they then were from any thought of re«r nouncing allegiance to Great Britain. The circular of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, issued in November, 1772, enumerating the wrongs and grievances inflictwl by the British Parliament, and calling u^Kin the people to be watchful, was answered by the Watertown committee, February 5^

Hie sentiments of the inhabitants npou the destruction of tlie tea in Boston Harbor found expression in the spirited resolves and preamble of the town-meeting of January 8^ 1774. *^ We are fully of opinion/^ say they, '' tliat the people had no design or desire that the tea on board the vessels should be destroyed or any way damaged but, on the contrary, were very desirous and used their utmost endeavors' tliat said tea might, be safely returned to the owners thereof.^^ The. accom[)anying resolves proscribe with all possible strength of expression the use of tea in any mode or quanr tity.

As early as May, 1774, just before the closing of the port of Boston, the selectmen - Samuel White, David Bemis, Josiali Capen, David Sanger, and Elijah Bond - bought four half-barrels of powder, and proposed to the town the purchase of balls and flints. The committee of corresi)ondencewere Samuel Fiske, Moses Stone, Bichard Clarke, Jedediah Leathe, and Nathaniel Stone. Thd town was represented in the ^liddlesex County Convention, lield August 80, 1774, at Concord, which decbred its intention to '^ nullify the late acts of parliament in violation of our rights/'

The Bevolution was now making rapid progress, and early in September tlic town ordered that its militia should beVxercised two hours every week, and that its stock of arms and ammunition should be inspected. Tliis was followed up by votes instructing its tax-collectors to pay their money into the treasury of the town instead of that of the province; directing their representative, Captain Jonatluin Brown, to unite with those of the other towns in forming a provincial congress ; aTid authorizing- the mounting and ecjuipping of the two pieces of cannon in the town. November 21, 1774, a committee of nine was ap|K)inted to carry into effect the association and resolves of the General Congress at Philadelphia, and likewise those of the Provincial Congress. A minute-company was formed January 2, 1775, "four coppers'' (to be laid out for refreshment) being allowed each man for his attendance once a week to learn militarv exercises. Its officers were : Samuel Barnard, captain ; John Stratton, first lieutenant ; Pliinchas Stearns, second lieutenant; Edwanl Harrington, Jr., ensign ; Samuel Sanger, Abnor Craft, Christopher Grant, Jr., and Josiah Capen, Jr., sergeants; Stephen Whitney, Moses Stone, Jr., Isaac Sondenon, Jr., and Natlianiel Bright, corporals.

On the morning of the memorable 19th of April, 1775, the Middk»ex regiment, under Colonel Thomas Gardner, assembled at the Watertown meeting-house. Micliael Jackson, who commanded the Newton company tliat day, and afterwards, m Qolonel of the 8th Massachusetts Regiment, served through the Bevolutioimry War, found, on his a^ rival at the meeting-house, tliat tlie officers were in council in the adjacent school-house. Obtaining the floor, he told them that the time for talkii^ had passed and the time for fighting had coiae; that if they meant to oppose the march of th^ British troops they must forthwith leave tlie school* house and take up their march for Lexington, and that he intended that his company should take the shortest route to get a shot at the British^ His blunt, vigorous speech broke up the council, each company behig left to take its own conrse. Tbose of Newton and Watertown, joining near Lexington, encountered Lord Percy's retreating column, exchanging shots with it, ai^d banging upon its flank and rear, until, at nightfall, it reached Charlestovui completely exlwusted and demoralized. Tliey received upon tlie field the thanks of Dr. Warren, president of the Provincial Congress, for their bravery. The Watertown men were led that diy by Captain, afterwards Major, Samuel Barnard, one of the Boston Tea-Party, losing only one of their number, Joseph Coolidge, in the action.

Three days after the battle the second Provincial Congress adjourned from Concprd to Waters town, its sessions and those of the third and hskt as well as those of tlie General Court, its sucoesMr, being held in the old meeting-house until the adjournment of the hitter body to the state-house in Boston, November 9, 1776. President Langdon, of Harvard College, preached the Election Sermon before the Congress that assembled here May ;}L After tlie dejiarture of President Hancock, who was a delegate to the congress at Phila^* deiphia, Joseph Warren, the early martyr in the cause of American freedom, presided over its dehb^ erations until the memorable 17th of June. Before his departure for the scene of action tliat day he entreated the ladies of the house in .which be boarded to pre)iare lint and bandages, observing, "The poor fellows will want them all before night.''

Stieftt was opened this building had to be leinoved, and it now stands nearly opix)sJte the higli school. Tliese two bodies 'were kept in a state of great activity by the extraordinary exigency iliat had arisen> having in charge not oidy the re-establishment u])on an entirely new basis of the civil authority, but also the raising, equipping, and supplying of an army, as well as the general oversight and direction of the military operations of the province. Arms and military stores had been deposited nnder guard, early in the siege, at the house of Edwanl Ilichardson, who kept an inn at the intersection of Belmont and Monnt Auburn streets. The old house is yet standing, and was the residence of the late Mr. Joseph Bird. At the end of April sixteen pieces of cainion belonging to the colony were stored in Watertown.

Even the clewry were carried away by the warlike spirit tli^t pervaded tlie people. The annual convention of ministers, held in the Watertown church, June ly 1 775, of which Bev. Amos Adams, of Roxbury, was the scribe, recommended to the people to take up arms, and oflered their services, with the consent of their several congregations, to officiate by rotation as cimplnins in the army.

Before the final assault of tlic British at Bunker Hill Gardner's Middlesex regiment, in which was Abner Crafts' Watertown coniiiany, was ordered to the field. Its brave commander received his death-wound while leading on his men. Under its major, Michael Jackson, it pressed forward, and ]X)uring a well-directed fire upon the advancing Britons, gallantly covered tlie retreat. Lieutenant- Colonel William Bond, of Watertown, succeeded to the command, and led his regiment during the 81^^ of Boston and the invasion of Canada. ' In an old dilapidated building that stood until recently within the foundrv-yard of Miles Pratt & Co., near the bridge, 754^ Basion Gazette and Coun* iff Journal, the leading onrnn of the patriots, was pablished from June 5, 1775, to October 28, 1776, when it was removed to Boston, its original place of issue. Edes, its proprietor, had escai)ed from Boston in a boat by night, taking with him a press and a few types, with which tlie Gazette was continued, and was made printer to congress and to the assembly. His ija]K*r was distinguished by its spirited and fearless advocacy of the American cause, and obtained a wide ]K)pularity.

Washington, then on his way to Cambridge to take command of the army, was met at S])ringrield by a deputation from the Provincial Congress, who attended him, escorted by volunteer companies and cavalcades of gentlemen. July 2, he arrived at Watertoim, where he was greeted by congress with a congratulatory address.

Tlie inhabitants of Boston who had taken refuge in Watertown held here several meetings for the transaction of their public business. The anniversary of the 5th of March was duly celebrated by them in 1776, and an oration was delivered by Rev. Peter Thatcher, of Mihon.

Captain Edward Harrington died in the service at Ticonderoga, in September, 1776, and during the war many other Watertown men, among whom was Colonel William lV)nd, died either from disease in camp, or on the field of battle. Soldiera were raised, to whom liberal bounties were paid, and in general the town Co-operated heartily in measures for the common defence. Her citizens. May 20, 1776, unanimously approved the Declaration of Lidependence, declaring they would ^' stand by and defend the same with their lives and estates^'; and on January 17, 1778, her representative was instructed to signify her concur* reuce in the Articles of Confederation. On account of the prevalence of 8mall-|K)x in Boston, the legislative session of 1778 was held in Watertown. At a town-meeting, held May 24, 1779, a large majority voted against the proposed iorm of state government ; but it had a majority of the votes of the state, and the convention that met in September following framed the present state con? stitution.

A depreciated currency^ tlie inevitable result of the over-issue of irredeemable paper, caused general alarm and embarrassment, and was erroneously attributed to monopolists. A town-meeting, held July 7, 1779, to remedy the evil, adopted fixed prices for labor and all the important articles of trafiic. This was also done in other towns, thus aggravating an evil already sufficiently alarming. The price of labor was fixed at 60 «. per day ; shoes, £6 per pair ; a coat, £S; candles, 8^. jxfr pound ; milk, 2*. j)er quart ; barley, £4 10*. per bushel; shaving, 3*.; soap, 10*. per jwund. Those who sold at higher rates were deemed enemies to the country, and were to be " cryed '' as such by the town- - clerk for six months, at every public meeting of the town. In 1781 a poor-house was first established, upon the south bank of the river, above the bridge.

17, 1890. The address delivered by Bev. Convers Francis on this occasion was embodied^ in his histoiy o^ the town, published soon afterwards A centennial celebration was held, July 4, 1876, at. White's Hill Grove, and an address was delivered by William H. Itigraham, Esq., president of the day. 'The oration by Bev. J. F. Levering contained 'many interesting passages from the early records of the town. '

Between the hours of one and two in the afternoon of July 21, 1841, occurred the mbst destruc* tive fire ever known in Watertown. Originating in the stable of the Spring Hotel, a strong southwest wind communicated the flames to nearly every building in its range to leeward for nearly a mile. The new and beautiful meeting-house, erected by the First Parish in 1836, th& interior of which was el^^tly fitted up, took fire from some sparks that lodged in the tipper part of the building, and, together with its valuable organ, was entirely con* Slimed. Besides injuring the hotel (which was of brick), the fire destroyed the grocery store' of John Clark, the bakery and dwelling of Francis Leathe, John Lenox's barber-shop, and the dwellings of Messrs. Loud, Dana, Stratton, William Sherwin, iand Colonel Livermore.

At the first town-meeting in Watertown to act upon matters relating to the War of the Bebellion, held April 2£, 1861, several patriotic speeches were made by the clergymen of the town and others, and $5,000 were appropriated to aid in fonning a new military organization. The company thus initiated had its full complement of men in one week's titne, went into camp at Cambridge July 2, and served through the war as Company K, 16th Regitnent Massachusetts Volunteers. It left camp August 17, 1861, under Colonel Powell T. Wyman; it was in the campaign before Richmond (losing its colonel at Olcndale), Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Petersburg, and has inscribed upon its banner the names of twentynine battle-fields.

Watertown furnished three hundred and ninetytwo men for the war, fifteen of whom were commissioned officers, - a surplus over and above all demands. Its appropriations for tlie war amounted to $41,200. Her women were not behind their sisters in other to>vns in working for tlie benefit of the soldiers. Tliey held weekly meetings during the continuance of the contest, and furnished great qtiantities of garments and useful hospital stores.

A copy of an autograph letter from President Lincoln, acknowledging their receipt and assuring them of his grateful appreciation of their efforts for the health and comfort of the soldiers, was inscribed uix)n the records of the town.

EcclesiasticaL - The first work of the settlers after providing for themselves a temporary shelter was to combine into cliurch fellowship. On account of the great sickness and mortality prevailing'in Charlestown, July 30, 1630, was observed throughout the colony as a day of fasting and prayer. After the closef of these exercises at Watertown, as we are told by Rev. Cotton Mather, ''about forty ftien, wherebf the first was that excellent Knight, Sir Richard Saltonstall, then subscribed this instrument (a' church covenant), in order onto their coalescence into a church estate,'' and its date, coeval with that of the organization of the Boston church at Charlestown, entitles the Watertown church to rank next after those of Salem and Dorchester.

At "the first Court of Assistants, held at Charlestown, priority was given to the question of providing for the ministers. Sir Richard Saltonstall undertook to have a house built at his plantation for Mr. Pliillips, and the governor tit the other pkntation for Mn Wilson, and a stipend of £'50 a year was assigned to each.

A house of worship was probably constructed very soon after the settlement of the town, certainly before 1634. It is supposed to have stood east of Mount Auburn, where Saltonstall, Rev. Mr. Phillips, Elder Richard Browne, and most of the freemen of that date resided. August 7, 1635, a nite of £80 was ordered to be levied for the charges of the new meeting-house, which, it is conjectured, was on meeting-house common, near Mie old graveyard. Dr. Francis says, '^ It stood on rising ground between the houses of Deacon Coolidge and Daniel Sawin, on the north side of the road to Cambridge. There was a common before it which was used as a training-field/' It hod a bell as early as 1648-49, and in the following September a levy Ti'as made to provide it with a gallery. Another, built on or near the same spot in 1656, after the pattern of the Cambridge meeting-lK>use, continued in use for the whole town, including Wakham and Weston, until after tlie resignation of Mr. Bailey, M'hen a controversy as to the inconvenience of its location resulted in a division of the church and the building of a meeting-house at the southeast comer of what are now Belmont and Lexington streets.

In 1720, soon after the decease of Bev. Mr. AngieTi ike town, which before the incorporation of Weston had been divided into three precincts, iras re-divided into two, with independent ecclesiastical organizations, each society building its own lioase. The West Precinct (Mr. Angler's) purchased the old Newton meeting-house in 1721, which they

-set np a. little north of Waltliam Plain, Jdearthe old Livermore homestead, siuce known as the Lyman Place. The Eastern Precinct (Mr. Gibbs's) in 1723 bnilt tlieir house on School-house Hill, afterwards known as Meeting-house Hill, the ancient Strawberry Hill. This structure gave place to that built at the comer of Mount Auburn and Ck>mnion streets. In May, 1754, before its completion, the new house was burned to the ground. The historic edifice in which were held the sessions of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, built on the same spot, was completed in February, 1755. Until 1827'. this was the only meeting-house in Watertoi/iTi. It was enlarged in 1819, but was taken down in 1S37, a new edifice having been completed and -dedicated September 7, 1836. This was destroyed by the great fire of 1841. The present hoase, erected on the site of the latter, was dedicated August 3, 1842. » The first church of Watertown, organized July 30, 1630, was the only one in the town for sixty-six years. * It was the first to adopt independency, to which it adhered for a long time more strictly than did either of the otiier churches, standing alone, in this respect at least, until after tlie arrival of Bev. John Cotton. For more than ten years, and until the ordination as his colleague of Mr. John Knowles, December 9, 1640, Bev. George Phillips was its

' 1631 Elder Bichanl Browne, the same who afterwards opposed arbitrary taxation, avowed and 4}efended the opinion that the cimrchcs of Borne were true churches, a view in which Pastor Pliilli|)s r concurred. An idea more repugnant to the zealous Puritan could hardly be imagined, although it seems entirely consistent with the enlai^ed and liberal mind of Mr. Browne. Governor Winthrop, Deputy- Governor Dudfcy> and Elder Nowell visited Watertown on two different occasions, to discuss the startling proposition, and it Mas declared to be an error. A temporary reconciliation was effected, but Browne was dismissed from office in 1632. Bichard Browne had been an officer in a church of Separatists in London. He was one of the first settlers, and was the first ruling elder in the Watertown church. After his dismission his fdlowcitizens mainfested their esteem by sending him as a commissioner to W^ethersfield to heal the distraction in that colony. He was their representative in the first court in 1634, and in most of the subsequent ones until 1657, when he removed to Charlestown, where he died in 1659. He was a man of more than ordinary ability and of marked independence of character. It was Browne's compkint to the assistants that caused them to write to England in disapproval of Endicott's act in cutting the cross from the king's colors, whiph he argued would be regarded in England as an act of rebellion that would draw down the royal displeasure upon the colony.

In 1642 Katlianiel Briscoe, a rich tanner of Watertown, wrote -and privately circuhited a pamphlet against supporting the ministry by taxation. For this grave offence he was summoned before the court, and, acknowledging his fault, was fined £10. A letter of Briscoe, who had ^turned in disgust to England, dated London, September 7, 1652, in which he says, ''I am partly promised a place in the Tower of £50 per aimum, but had we liberty of conscience witli vou I had rather be there with £20 per annum,'' fell into the hands of the colo* nial government. As this letter freely censured the course of parliament, and as it was at once sent to the speaker of that body with an indorsement by Secretary Bawson and Bev. John Wilson, it is not unlikely tliat Briscoe's " place in the Tower" was promptly pronded. Another example of the means then supposed to be efficacious in the ftnppression of heresy was afibrded in the case of John Stowers, of Watertown, who in 1643 was fined fpr reading an Anabaptist book. From all these facts - from tlie independence of its church, from its opposition to arbitrary taxation, from Saltonstall's m<inlv rebuke of the Boston ministers, and from the outspoken criticisms of Bev. Mr. Phillips, Elder Browne, and others, upon the course of tiie Puritan government - it is endent that an unusually cathohc spirit, as well as just ideas of civil and reliprious liberty, prevailed among the first settlers of Waterto>ni.

Bev. George Phillips, " a godly man, especially gifted, and verj- peaceful in his pbce,*' was a native of Bainham, in Norfolk, England, and was educated at Cambridge, where lie received the degree of A. M. in 1617. At the university he was distinguished for piety, talent, and remarkable pro- fieiengr in his studies. He was 'settled in the ministry at Boxted, in Essex, wlien persecution drove him to New Enghind, where his wife died soon after their arrival. Mr. Phillips was an able controversialist, and was familiar with the original hngnages of the Scriptures, which he is said to have read through six times every year. Johnson -ays, Z*^ He was mighty in the Scriptures, and very dUif^t to search out the mind of Olirist therein oqntiiined.'' His views of the Congregational order and discipline, soon universally adopted by that diurch, were for a time r^irded as novel and extr^e, and met with much opposition. Possessing great independence and firmness, he was conscieiitious in forming and fearless in maintaining bis opinions. His opposition, with that of Bichard Browne, to a tax levied by tlie governor and assistants, produced a result no less important than the institution of a representative body in the government of the colony. He dikl July 1, 1644, at the age of flfty-oue. There is a tradition that he lived in the house, y^ standing, opposite the old burying-ground. This old house, whose solid oaken frame is said to have been brought over by Sir R. Saltonstall, has a projecting second story, partly concealed by a modem' piazza, and stands well back ftom the street. Externally there is nothing to indicate great age, but its interior retains many marks of antiquity. It formeriy had three porticos, which have been removed from its front, and a steep roof, which has given place to one of much less altitude. Mr. Piiillips' first residence was burnt in 1630, and thb was perhaps the j^econd house built on the parsonage lot. Mr. Phillips^s son Samuel was the minister of Bowley. Most of the name in New England are believed to have descended from the minister of Watertown ; among them William Phillips, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, Samuel and John, founders of the academies of Andover and Exeter, John, the first mayor of Boston, and Wendell Phillips, the phibntliropist and orator.

Bev. John Enowles, who was a native of Lincolnshire, became a student at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and was chosen a fellow of Katharine Hall in 1625. He liad here at one time forty pupils, many of whom were subsetjuently distinguished as members of parliament or as preachers. Afterwards, when a lecturer at Colchester, he incurred the enmity of Archbishop Laud, who revoked his license, and in 1639 he came to New England. Gbvemor Winthrop, speaking of his ordination, and referring to the strict ind^pendencj of the Watertown church, says : *' The church of Watertown ordained Mr. Knowles, a good man and a prime scholar pastor, and so they had now two pastors and no teacher, differing from die practice of the other churches, as also they did la' tiiieir privacy, not giving notice thereof to the neighboring churches, nor to the magistrates, as the common practice was.'*' After a pastorate of about ten years Mr. Knowles returned to England, and preached in the catliedral at Bristol until silenced in 1662 by the Act of Uniformity. From October, 1642, to June, 1643, he had peirforroed missionary hibor in Viiginia. He was privately preaching in London when the plague broke odt in 1665, and rendered great service in that terrible exigency. In 1672 he became colleague to Bet. Thomas Kentish, at 'St Katharine's, and died April 10, 1685, at an advanced age.

Few of our eariy divines were so eminently dis« tinguished for intellectual gifts and Christian graces as the Bev. John Sherman, bom in Dedham, Essex, England, December 26, 1613. His deep religions impressions were derived from the ministry of Bev. John Bogers. Educated' at Trinity College, Cambridge, he came, in 1634, to New England, where he acquired a very high reputation, his eloquence torning for him the title of tlie goldenmouthed preacher.'^ Mather says that on a Thanksgiving day, in Watertown, Mh Shermaof preached his first sermon as an assistant to Mr. Phillips, in the presence of many other divinesy who " wondered exceedingly " at this early display of his ability. After two or three years' service as a magistrate of New Haven colony, he became Mr. Knowles^ colleague in 1647, and was sole pastor from 1650 until his death, August 8, 1685. After his settlement he was chosen a fellow of Harvard College, and for thirty years gave lectures once a fortnight, which were attended by the students, who walked from Cambridge to hear him. His favorite studies were astronomy and mathematics, in which he was the foremost man of his time in this country. For many years he pnb^ lished an almanac, to which he added pious reflections. He was one of the moderators of the' Beforming Synod at Boston, in September, 1679, and in 168£ preached before the convention of ministers in Massachusetts. Afr. Sherman is said to have had twenty-six children, twenty of whom were by his second wife, a granddaughter of the Earl of Bivers.

Perfaape (he first instance of an inrtallation in the colony was tliat of Bev. John Bailey, at Watertown> October 6, 1686, the usual method of in- Auction to clerical office being by ordination. He was so popular that people flocked to the communion in such numbers that *y the neisriiborliood could not supply elements enough/' Bom near Blackboume, Lancashire, England, in 164-d, he hfid been for fourteen years a preacher in Limerick, Ireland, but, having been silenced and thrown into prison for non-conformity, came to Boston in 1684. HI healUi and mehincholy caused his return to tliat place in 1692, where he was assistant minister of the First Church from 1693 until his death, December 12, 1697. His brother, Bev. Thomas Bailey, ** i^ painful preacher,'' was his colleague in Watertown from November 2, 1687, until his death, January 21, 1689; to whom Mr. Henry Gibbs succeeded November S, 1690. Mather, alluding to the success of Mr. Bailey^s ministry, says, '^ He seemed rather to fish with a net than with an hpok for the Kingdom of God''; and John Dunton, who visited the brothers, thus refers to them : " These are two popular preacliers, and are very generous to strangers. I heard Mr. John upon these words, ' Looking unto Jesus,' and I thought he spake like an angel."

J!ver since Mr. Phillips' time there had been '^ an earnest contending " about the place of meeting, which was reinote from the centre of the territory and population of the town. The controversy culminated when Mr. Bailey removed to Boston in 1692, and the erection of a new house was proposed. The matter was referred to the governor and council, who. May 18, 1693, advised the building of a meeting-house for the whole town on the knoll, between the house of AVidow Steams and AVhitne}^8 Hill. The opposition to this plan by the east part of the town was so fierce tliat a town-meeting, held October 2, 1694, was obliged tp^ be adjourned, '^ to prevent such inconvenience as might justly be feared by reason of the heat of spirit that then seemed to prevail." Notwithstanding the strong opposition, eighty-two residents of the eastern and thirty-three of the westeni portions of the town uniting in a protest against it, a lew was made and a house built on the southeast comer of Lexington and Belmont streets, in which a town-meeting was held December 20, 1,695, and Fejbraary 4, 1696, it was accepted by the town as the place of public worship. In March the town voted that town-meetings should in future be held in it Mr. Samuel Angier, son of Edmund Angier, of Cambridge, where he was bom March 17, 1655, was called to preach in the new house August 28, 1696, and ordained May 25, 1697. Descended maternally from the famous Dr. William Ames, he was graduated at Harvard (college in 1673, was ordained at Behoboth, October 19, 1679, and died in Watertown, January 21, 1719. When the town was divided, Mr. Angier's society built their meeting-house in the West Precinct, and it became the church of Waltham. Mr. Angler's successor (1723-1751) was Bev. Wariiam Williams, son of Bev. John, of Deerfield, who with his family was carried away into captivity by, the Indians in 1704. .

Mr. Gibbs, who luid declined the ofiers of the westem party, and who was fully in sympathy with the people at the east end of the town, to whom he had preached in the old house for nearly seven years, was ordained over the new society, organized here October 6, 1697. So much ill-feeling had grown out of this quarrel that, though the day was cold, the ceremony, which took place in the afternoon, was obliged to be performed in the open air. The westem party, having the selectmen on their side, got possession of the meeting-house, and would not suS'er the assemblv to enter there. . Henry, son of Bobert Gibbs, a wealthy and prominent merchant of Boston, graduated at Harvard College in 16S5, and died October 21, 1723, aged fifty-five. His sound sense and discretion is seen in the fact that, in the difficult position in which he was pbced, and amid the angry discussion and strife tliat prevailed in the town during his ministry, he was held in the highest respect, and received no word of certsure from either faction. He possessed warm piety, real kindness, and a welldirected zeal in doing good. Though his habit was to write his sermons on the bellows in the chimney-comer, it should not be inferred that they were at all inflated thereby, his pulpit ministrations being highly esteemed both by his own and neighboring parishes. His society, embracing the whole of the Eastern Precinct, continued to occupy the old meeting-house.

A Mr. Bobert Sturgeon, having, " without due advice and direction, gone on to the j)ublic actions of a pastour '' to a small number of brethren, who had attempted tlie formation of a third church, soon found himself in troubled waters. A council of fourteen churches, convened at Watertown, May 1, 1722, with Bev. Cotton Mather for moderator.

dedaied that he had no right to the office of pastor among them ; that he ought no longer to preach nor exercise any part of the ministry there ; and judged him unworthy to be employed until he made ''a public satisfaction/' The brethren were at the*Aime time admonished 'Uo repent of and depart from their disorderly and schismaticall proeeedings/as they would avoid a further and more awful censure upon their offences/' Mr. Stui^eon was also indicted by the grand jury for '^ continuing his wicked and malicious 'inclinations to overthrow, ruin^ and subvert, as well the churches of -aid Watertown as the other churches of this province/'and was found guilty and fined £20 aud costs. All this terrible outcry was owing to the It^ that those best accommodated by the Angier meeting-house where it was were not disposed to comply with the advice of the committee, aud de^ termined to maintain worship where for twentylive years they had gathered for tliat purpose, and had employed Mr. Sturgeon a!s their pastor. Though the -persous principally complained of declined to attend the council,' they lieeded its admonitions. Mr. Sturgeon's friends gradually withdrew, and the meeting-house, which for thirty years had been a bone of contention, was closed, and has long since disappeared. *

Mr. Gibbs' successors in the First Giurch were : Seth Storer, from 17*24 to 1774; Daniel Adams, from April to August, 1778 ; £ichard £. Elliott, a descendant of the Apostle to the Indians, from 1780 to 1818; Convers Francis, from 1819 to 1842; John Weiss, from 1843 to 1847; Hasbrouck Davis, from 1849 tb 1853 ; Geoige Bradfotd, from 1856 to 1859 ; Arthur B. Fuller, from 1860 to 1862; John Weiss, from 1862 to 1869; James T. Bixby, from 1870 to 1873; Joseph F. Levering, from 1875 to July 80, 1878. During the period in which his functions in the Brattle- Street Church, Boston, were suspended by British occujpancy, the eminently ^triotie Dr. Samuel Cooper ministered to the Watertown church.

Many of the early settlers of the Farms were from five to eight miles distant from the meetinghouse, and attended the meeting in Sudbury, but were taxed for the support of the ministry in Watertown. At a town-meetihg held January 6, 1701 - 1702, it was voted that " the bounds of the Farmers' Precinct for the ministry is from Charles Eiver along the brook called Stony Brook, that oometh out of a pond called Beaver Pond, said precinct being on the westerly side of said brook."

Already, ih March, 1700, the farmers had built and occupied a small house of worsliip, thirty feet square, on the land of Nathaniel Coolidge, a little in front of the present house. A church havii^ been gathered and organized here, Mr. William Williams was ordained pastor, November 2, 1709, some three years before the Farms were incorporated as the town of Weston.

A Universalist church, erected by the Watertown and Newton societies, was dedicated August 15, 1827, and' Rev. Bussell Streeter installed pastor. He was succeeded by Rev. W. Si Balch, May 15, 1830. Services were discontinued in November,

The Baptist Meeting-house, built in 1858, is oo the site of the first edifice, dedicated August 19, 1830, at which time Bev. Peter Chase was installed pastor. The society was oi^nized, with forty-six members, July 18, 1830, at the house of Jesse Wheeler. Its pastors since Mr. Chase have been : Nicholas Medbury, from October 19, 1832, to August 15, 1843; Edward D. Very, from December 19, 1843, to January 28, 1845; Charles H. Colver, from January 28, 1846, to 1850; B. A. Edwards, from September 17, 1850, to 1855; William L. Brown, from February 2, 1855, to February 1, 1861 ; Alfred S. Patton, from June 11,

The Methodist Society originated at the house of Leonard Whitney, where its meetings continued to be held until, in the autumn of 1837, they bought the academy building on the hill. This estate was sold in June, 1847, and has since been in the possession of the Roman Catholics. Tlie present church, on Main Street, was consecrated October 20, 1847. The weathercock that surmounted its steeple, formerly belonging to the First Church, was blown down in February, 1879, but is carefully preserved. The society, consisting at first of four persons, - Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Whitney, John Devall, and Joshua Rhondes, - now numbers one hnndred and twenty. Its first class was established and a Sunday school formed October 4, 1836, and at nearly the same period Charles S. Macreading officiated as pastor. Father Pickering was appointed their first conference brother, June 17, 1837. The present pastor is T. W. Bishop.

The Phillips Congregational Chaich was organized April 17y 1855^ with twenty-six members, £ev. Dr. Lvman Beecber acting pastor. Until its first edifice was ready for occupancy in April, 1857, services were held in the town-ball, where Dr. Beecber, the champion of Orthodoxy, preached once each Sonday, another discourse^ of a decidedly unorthodox complexion being given by Bev. Theodore Parker in the same place, on the same day, to seoe^ers from the First Church. The present house, first occupied January 12, 1862, is on the site of the first, which was bunied down on the niglit of, January 13, 1861. Its successive pastors have bepn: S. B. Dennen, D. D., from July 11, 1855, to August 1, 1862 ; James M. Bell, from April 23, 1865, to May 23, 1871 ; Edwin P. Wilson, July 5, 1872. In the interim between the pastorates of Messrs. Dennen and Bell, William L. Gage, now of Hartford, preached one year, but was not settled.

Education. - . Public instruction had before 1649 been made compulsory, each town of fifty householders being required to have a school for reading and writing, while each town of one hundred householders must have a grammar sclux)l, with a teacher competent to fit youths, for the university. ' In that year the first school-house in the town was erected, probably on School-house Hill, and David Mitchell was requested to teach. The first known teacher, Richard Norcross, was hired January 6, 1650 - 51, one year for £30, he being also allowed 2«. a head for keeping the dry herd. Norcross continued to teach until 1701, when he was seventynine years of age.

In 1667 the school was to be free to the inhabitants, others to pay as before, " their pay to go towards the teacher's salarj'." In 1667 the school hours were eight, between 7 a. m. and 5 p. m., from May to September, six hours from September to November, and in winter from 10 to 2. In 1679 the selectmen agreed that '^ tliey would go two and two through the town to see tliat all the children be taught to read the English tongue, and some orthodox catechism, and to take the names of all youths from ten years' old unto twenty years' old, that they may be publicly catechised by the pastor in the ipeeting-house." In 1683 those west of Stpny Brook were freed from the school tax, that they might provide their own teaching. In 1694 schooling was to be paid by the parents, *' for English 3/f. per week, writing- 4^. a week, Latin id. a week. The teacher also to catechise scholafSr and all other persons that are sent to him.'' Ii^, 1709 a school-house was built near Mr. Angier'a meeting-house, 25 x 20 feet.

In accordance with the recommendation of the legislature in 1733, the town in that year reived to have two school-houses, and to employ two schoolmasters. In 1771 it was agreed that there should be five women's schools, three on the north, side of the town and two on the south side, and to allow 5«. and 4rf. per week to each of the mistiessea '' they finding housijes to keep in. Said schook to be kept twelve weeks eac)i.'' In 1830 there were four public schools, two of which were kept throughr out the year, the other two being taught by masten in the winter and by female teachers in the summer, average attendance about 240. There are now six public schools, including a high school establislied in 1853, with an average attendt^nce of 876.

.On the southeast comer of Arlington and Mount Auburn streets is one of the oldest graveyards in New England. The first mention of it in the town records occurs July 5, 164p> when a '* sufficient '* fence was ordered to be set up about it. There is a tradition that' on the opposite side of Mount Auburn Street, on -the southerly comer of Joseph Bird's estate, there was an earlier burial-place, soon abandoned. Among the oldest stones remaining are those of Sarah Hammond, 1674,.Captain Hugh Mason, 1678, and Hannah Coolidge, 1680. Here are the tombs of Rev. Thomas Bailey and his wife> " Pious Lydia," with their . quaint inscriptions ; aud here also a plain granite shaft, erected by his descendants, April 19, 1875, commemorates the patriot Joseph Coolidge, who fell at Lexington just a century before. Tlie two ne?tt graveyards originated in a vote of the town January 1, 1702 -1703. That of Mr. Angler's society on Gro^ Street, near Beaver Brook, was the only one, in Waltham for more than a hundred years. . The Weston burying-ground was near the meetinghouse. The Village Bury ing-G round, in Watertown, at the interaction of Mount Auburn and Common streets, dating from 1754, has been recently enlai^ed U)X)n its northem border. Since its opening few interments have been made in the old yard.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, the first of the rural cemeteries of America, renowned for its extent, its . natural beauty, and its artificial embellishments, is the burial-place of many oi the wealthy and dia- tinguished of the metropolis of New England, and of a wide region around it. Situated in the midst of the small lots of the first planters of the town, its area of one hundred acres doubtless includes some of their old homestalls. Owing to the roughness of its surface, its thick growth of forest trees, its ravines and Tock j eminences, little of -its area was adapted to tillnge. Much of Deacon Kmon Stone^s estate of fifty acres is probaCTy embraced in it, hei^cc its old name, - Stone's Woods. A number of Deacon Stone's descendants jret reside on portions of the ancestral .estate, while on'Uhe very spot where he first pitched his tttxi Mf. Win* cheater, thirty years ago, erected what, was at that time the finest piansion on Charles Biver. Mount Auburn had for many years -been the resort of parties of pleasure, when it^ came into the possession of Mr. .George W. Brimmer, who sold it for; 96,000 to the .Massachusetts Horticultural Society . for a oemeteryi the idea of which originated with Dr. Jacob Bigelow. It was formally de^icated'^ September 24^ }831. Its beautiful cliapel contains statues of John Wintbrop by U.reenough^ Johi| Adams by fio^rs, Joseph Story by his son^ Wil^. liam W. Storv, and James Otis bv Crawford.

A little to the east of Mount Auburn Mr. Richard Browne wajf allowed by the court, Noveniber 5,' 16SS, ''to keep a Ferry over Charles Biver against his house, to have %d. for every single person he- 80 transports and 1^. apiece if there be two ormore." f<

The earliest bridge in Wattrtown was the iooti, bridge over Charles Biver at the Iiead of tide- water* yery near the first mill, usually called Mill Bridge, or the Great Bridge. In June, 1641, the court ordered that '' the toll of Mr. Mayhew's bridge is , referred to the Governor and^two magistrates . to settle for 7 : years." In 164S the court granted MayhewSOO acres of land in' regard of his chaiges about the bridge at Watertown, mill, and tl|e bridge to belong to the country. The first horse-b?jdge was built here in 164S. Its frequent repairs orTebuilding in the first hundred years was a heavy burden to the town, and aid >vas several times asked of tlie county, but witliouii succ^ess. The first bridge for wheel-carriages was buiK about 1720, where the present bridge is,''a few rods above the site of the original structure.

Tlie fishery of Charles Biver was formerly let out by the town, and produced an annual income of some $700, there being ^' great store '^ of bass, shad, and alewives. Latterly this sum had been divided between Watertown and Brighton, the 1stter receiving three tenths. Owing to the imparities discharged from the gas-works, the dye-house, and the factories, the fish ceased to come up the river, and since 1860 no income has been derived from this source. The weir was built just belor the fall, in the^^ring of 1632, probably by tlie enterprising John OMhaih^ whose house, bunied in August following, stood near it. Governor Winthrop's assent to its erection, without an order of the court, was brought up agaihst him by Deputy-Governor Dudley when, not long afterward, these two worthies had their famous quarrel.

Owned at first by the town, the weir afterwards became private property, and was held in shares. In 1634 fishing near it with nets was prohibited. In 1635 '* four rods in breadth on each side of the Biver and in length as far as need^liall require, so as. not to prejudice the water mill,^ was granted it, also in 1636 a tract of one hundred and fifty acres OH the south side of the river opposite the bridge, confirmed by the court to Thomas Mayhew in '1641. In i671 the Indians, being "like to bny ^ the privilege,^' and " being like to be bad neighbors,'' the town voted, '* all as one man," to purchase the weir for the use of the town. After 'Waltham and Weston were incqrporated they retained a joint proprietorship in the weir, which continued until cancelled in 1802, on condition of their exoneration from contributing to the mainj[enance of the Great Bridge over Charles Biver. Complaints were made of the Watertown people to the General Court as early as in 17*}8, and frequently thereafter, by Newton, Natick, and otiier towns, for stopping the course of the fish in the river. '-

It is probable that the first mill in Watertown was built in 1634 by Edward How. It was a grist-mill, on Mill Creek, a oinal partly or wholly artificial, leaving the river at the head of the falls, where a stone dam was afterward made across the river. During Philip's War the mill was intrusted to the guard of Bichard Sanger, his two sons, and three others. In 1789 Daniel Jackson had a saw-mill here^ ^Li 1795 Messrs. G. and F. Willia'ms had a paper-mill here, the saine afterwards known as Annis^ and latterly as Hollingsworth and Whitney's. A fulling-mill ou Beaver Brook, supposed to have been where Kendairs Mills now are, was the next mill built here. In 1679 a corn-mill was set up on Stony Brook. About 1760 David Bemis built a mill about a mile above the old one, and another was built bj John Boies where the Waltham factories Iiave since been built. Since the opening of the century a number have been erected, absorbing a lai^ amount of capital, and giving employment to numerous families.

In 1778 the dam at Bemis' Station, where the Etna Mills now are, about one mile above the old mill, was built by David Bemis and Dr. Enos Sumner. Bemis owned two thirds of a paper-mill on the Newton side, built in 1779, and before 1790 also carried on a grist-mill and snuff-mill on the Watertown side, - the first mill at tliat point. His son Seth became sole proprietor about 1796, and in 1803 began to spin cotton by machinery, a business that proved exceedingly profitable. Cotton sail-duck, for which a twisting-machine of forty-eight spindles was constructed, was first made here in 1809. In 181G the introduction of the power-loom and other improvements reduced the price of duck one half. Afterwards, in connection with his son, Seth, Jr., and until be gave up business in 1836, he made tnis the leading factory in the countr}' for grinding and preparing dyestuffs.

Having in 18:^1 become sole owner of the waterpower, Mr. Bemis built the present stone rolling dam in front of the old one. The Bemis Manufacturing Company, incorponited in 1827, transferred its property and rights in 1860 to the Etna Mill Company, which enlarged the works, and which manufactures woollen fabrics by both water and steam i)ower. Between 1790 and 1796 Bemis constructed a bridge over the river, which in 1807 was swept away by a freshet. A foot-bridge, built soon after, was also swept away in 1818. The present bridge was built not long after.

In September, 1635, John Masters was licensed by the court to keep an ordinary. June 6, 1637, George Munnings was fined 20#. for sellnig beer, and keeping a house of entertainment without a license. Captain Bichard Beers was licensed in 1654, and Captain Abner Crafts in 1772. South of the bridsre, on the east side of the wav, is an old building of the Revolutionary era kept as a tavern from 1761? to 1770 by Nathaniel Coolidge, and aftenvards by his widow. It was in 1770 known as the "sign of Mr. "Wilkes near Nonantum Bridge,'' and was the appointed rendezvous for the Committee of Safetv in Mav, 1775. Here AVashington tarried Mhile on his way to Cambridge to take command of the army, in order to pay his respects to Congress, then in session, and liere too he lodged while making his presidential tour in 1789. Opposite the entrance to California Street^ near by, is the old John Cook house, where Henry Knox, aftenii'ards General Knox, resided for a whik in 1775. In one of its chambers Paul Beveie engraved and printed the colony notes issued by the Provincial Congress.

The Spring Hotel, bnflt of brick in 1824 by a son of Dr. Spring, was* partly burned in the great fire of 1841. On its site Caleb Church kept an ordinary from 1686 to 1711. His successor was Thomas Learned, licensed in 1712. Mary, his widow, and his sons, Abijah and Bezaleel, kept it successively until 1771.

Early in 1816 Captain Talcott, an officer of the army, selected the site for the United States Arsenal at Watertown, on the mai^n of the Charles River, where the first landing of white men in that town liad been made, the state ceding to the United States the jurisdiction of an area not to exceed sixty acres. To the original purcliase of forty acres subsequent additions were made, the last of which, September 25, 1867, of forty-four acres, brought its total area up to one hundred acres. An encampment of about fifty friendly Indians, of the Stockbridge tribe, nestled here during the investment of Boston by the patriot army, in 1775-76.

Tlie buildings, completed in 1820 under the superintendence of Captain Talcott, were two magazines of stone, erected several hundred feet from the other buildings, which are of brick, upon the four sides of a parallelogram, which faces the four cardinal points, the s])aces between being filled by a wall fifteen feet in height. There have since been constructed a ftumber of other buildings, some of them made necessary by the exigencies of the great civil war, rendering it an arsenal of construction as well as of deposit. These include two lai^ timber store-houses, a carriage and machine shop, and a smith's shop ; also a laboratory, gasworks, brass and iron foundry, and new quarters for the commanding officer, built in 1865.

During the War of the Bcbellion Captain, afterwanls Brevet Brigadier-General, T. J. Bodman, the inventor of the famous Bodman gun, was in command, the working force at that time being upwards of one thousand persons, including men, women, boys, and girls. The operations were confined principally to the manufacture of wooden field-carriages, iron carriages for heavy sea* coast guns, artillery implements and equipments^ tmnnmitbii for small arma and* for field, siege, ttd sea-coast service. The enlisted force during tke war was one hundred and ten men; the 'present number is twenty-two. . Colonel Theodore T. 8. Laidley, of Virginia, a graduate from West Point in 1842, has been in command since April 11, 187L The former commanders have been: Captain George 'Talcott, 1816 -1820; Major Abraham R. WooUey, 1820-1821; Lieutenant David T. Welch, 1821 - 1823; Lieuten- 'ant John W. Thompson, 1823-1824 ; Lieutenant D. Van Ness, 1825 ; Major H. K. Craig, 1825 - 1888; Major M. P. Lomax, 1838-1842; J. A. Webber, military store-keeper, 1842-1849; Captain W. A. Thornton, 1849- 1851 -, Major E. Harding, 1851-1854; Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Bipiey, 18o4-1855; Captain B. A. Wainwright, 1855 -1859 ; Captain T. J. Sodman, 1859 -1865 ; Lieutenant-Colonel C. P. Kingsbury, 1865-1870.

Tlie town-hall was dedicated November 6, 1846. Tlie free public library, established in 1868 and opened for the deKvery of' books in March following, occupies a portion of the building. It contaius 12,000 volumes, nearly as many pamphlets, and has a well-furnished reading-room. Watertown has a National Bank, opened in 1873, and a Savings-Bank.

Pequussette Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, constituted in January, received its charter December 23, 185-7, having thirty-three members. Its place of meeting until 1870 was in Dana^s Block; its present hall is 4n Noyes' Block, opposite the town-hall. Most of the charter members of Belmont Lodge, and many of Dalhousie Lodge, Newton, received their degrees in Pequossette Lodge. Its present membership is one hundred -and twenty-tWo.

In the early days property was very evenly distributed. For eighty years after the first settlement there were not more than one or two inventories that exceeded £700. Taxation, as in all new countries, was necessarily heavy. The annual expen^ of supporting the - ministry alone in the time of Bev. Mr. Sherman was nbout two per cent of the whole assessed value of the town. The number of taxable persons between 1658 and 1685 fluctuated from 153 to 192. A tax of 4//. in the pound for the building of a new meeting-house in 1695 amounted to £320 4«., shoiiing a total valuation of £19,212. In 1879 the total valuation was 87,027,500; number of polls, 1,266; achool-children between the ages of five and fifteen

For a time the populatiou' of Watertown, as shown by the tax-levy, equalled 'that of Boston, but it was soon outstripped by the superior advantages of the seaport town. In tlie first two hundred years it increased very slowly. iBeginning in 1630 with forty heads of families - about 250 persons - in 1840 it had increased only to 1,810 souls, owing in part to amputations of its territonr, and in part to successive migrations. These causes were especially active between the years 1651, when tliere were 160 families, and 1790, when they nom^ bered but 164. Tlie largest increase, thai of the decennial period ending in 1875, when the census showed a population of 5,599, 1,456 of whom were of foreign birth, was mainly due to building enterprises.

Out of a population of 1,518 m 1820, 179 were engaged in manufacturing and 145 in agricultund pursuits^ At present the occupations of the - people are greatly diversified. According to the state census of 1875 there were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical occupations, 851; trade and transportation, 387 ; agriculture, 191. Tliere were twenty-six manufacturing establishments; capital, $1,033,075; value of product, $1,875,455; and thirty-six other occupations, with a capital of 3272,292, producing $835,336. Yalne of hay and other agricultural produce, 8101,500. The principal establishments are the Etna Wbollen Mill, a paper-mill, a manufactory of bronze goods, and another for stoves. The Union Market, whose extensive buildings make one of the stations of tlie Fitchburg Bailroad, now shares with Brighton the large cattle-tmde once exclusively belonging to the latter.

Dr. Marshall Spring, a distinguished physician of Watertown, descended from John, an early settler, and his wife, Elinor, was bom February 19, 1741-42, and died Januar}- 7, 1818w Graduating at Har\'aTd College in 1762, he was aided in obtaining his medical education by his mattemal uncle. Dr. Josiah Converse, who bequeathed to him the larger part of his estate. With the exception of a brief sojourn in the island of St. Eustatia, he always resided in his native town, sustaining a wide-spread professional repute, and attracting patients from f^ great distance. In pleasant weather his house, especially on Sunday mornings, waa thronged with persons seeking medical advice. He was an acute observer, possessed great aagacity.

and was one of the few who oonld snccessfull; meet Chief Justice Parsons in the keen encounter of wit Though a tory in the Bevolotion, fully and finnly ''convinced of the entire inexpediency of resistance/^ he was yet early in the field at Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, devoting his skill to his wounded fellow-citizens. So highly appreciated and so necessary to the people were his professional services, and so winningand benevolent were his manners, that, odious to them as were his political < sentiments, he mrelv suffered anv serious annoyauce 'on tliat account. He taught the school in Watertown in 1763, was a representative in 1787, and was frequently a member of the Executive Council -of Massachusetts. Dr. Spring was rather short in stature, but was compact and well-proportioned, and was one of the handsomest men of his time. At his decease he left one of the largest estates ever bequeathed by a professional man in the state.

Colonel William Bond, fourth in descent from William, one of the early settlers of the town, was bom Februarv 17, 1733-84. He was lieutenantcolonel of the Middlesex regiment of Colonel Gardiner, who fell mortally wounded at Bunker Hill, and, succeeding to the command, led it in the disastrous expedition to Canada. Ketreating with the enfeebled remains of the army to Blount Independence, opposite Ticonderoga, he died there of smallpox, August 31, 1776. Tlie family rcsidetice for one hundred and seventy years (1655- 1825), now in Belmont, and originally the homestead of Cap- ^n William Jennison, was latterly the elegant seat of Mr. John P. Cushing.

Dr. Henry Bond, a distinguished physician, grandson of Colonel William, was born in Watertown, March Zl, 1790. Graduating at Dartmouth College in 1813, he studied medicine, and settled in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1816, but in 1819 removed to Philadelphia, where he became eminent in his profession, and died tliere. May 4, 1859. In 1855 he published his Ilisiofj and Genealogies of ir/iferfotcu, one of the most valuable contributions to this department of research ever made. Dr. Bond was also the author of many important papers upon subjects connected with his profession.

John P. Cushing, a wealthy and benevolent citizen of Watcrtown, died in Belmont, April 12, 1862, aged seventy-six. Having in early life amassed a fortune in China, his subsequent career was marked by active participation in public enterprises, and by liberal but unostentatious charities. Ja his beautiful grounds, now belonging to Samuel B. Payson, he established a magnificent conservatory, which he liberally threw open to the public His garden, now included in the town of Belmont, was a place of great attractiveness, to which thou* sands of admiring visitors flocked every season.

Convers Francis, D. D., a distinguished clergyman and scholar, was bom in Arlington, No* vember 9, 1795 ; died April 7, 1863. He graduated at Harvard College in 1815, and was ordained over the First Parish of Watertown, Jiflje 23, 1819. After a useful and successful service of twenty-three years, he preached Ins farewell sermon to his parish, August 21, 1842, when he entered upon the duties of Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Care at the Divinity School, Cambridge. Besides a historical sketch of Watertown, he was the author of a life of the Apostle Eliot in Sparks' series of American Biographies. He was an industrious student, a ripe scholar, and a genial and instructive companion. Dr. Francis, who was the brother of Lydia Maria Child, resided on the homestall formerlv of Thomas Mavhew, on the comer of Market Street and Biverside Place.

Harriet G. Hosmer, a distinguished sculptor, was born in Watertown, in the house now the residence of her cousin, Dr. Alfred Hosmer, October 9, 1830. At an early age she began modelling in clay, and on her return home from a course of anatomical study in the medical college oC St. Lonjs in 1851, she commenced her bust of Helper, which attracted great attention on its completion in 1852. Her father then placed her under the instruction of Gibson, the eminent English sculptor in Bome, and there she has since resided, ha\nng won a high reputation in her chosen profession.