John Upton & the Upton Tavern

John Upton was born in the early 1600’s in or very near Scotland. He was likely one of the prisoners taken by Oliver Cromwell at either the battle of Dunbar on September 3, 1650 or at the battle of Worcester in 1651. Cromwell later sent John Upton and other prisoners to New England. His name on the prisoner list may be listed as John Rupton. According to Upton family tradition he was sold (indentured) upon his arrival in Massachusetts to a woman who lived in what is now West Peabody near the Upton Tavern. It is said that several of the early fruit trees on the Upton farm were brought over from England by her. John obtained his freedom and became a man of means and property. He was a blacksmith and is associated with the early Saugus Iron Works.

John’s Scottish wife, Eleanor Stuart was said to be an adherent of the royal house of Stuart. Family tradition suggests that Eleanor Stuart seems to have anticipated Upton’s coming to New England, and was here upon his arrival, where they married. Their first child, John III was born in this territory in 1654.

The Upton family has a lengthy history in North Reading and West Peabody. John Upton purchased upwards of 200 acres of land in Salem (now West Peabody) from 1658 through 1671. The first parcel of 70 acres was purchased from Henry Bullock in 1658. It is recorded on this transaction that John Upton was "sometime of Hammersmith".  Hammersmith was the name given to the Saugus Iron Works. Two years later, in 1660, Upton built a dwelling house on the site of the present homestead on Lowell Street. Upton purchased 80 acres from Daniel Rumball in 1662 and another 70 acres in 1671 from James Hagg.

It was around 1678 that John Upton moved from his 200 acre farm in the area now known as Upton’s Hill. His sons, William and Samuel Upton continued on the farm in West Peabody with the dwelling house on Lowell Street near Birch Street. The West Peabody dwelling became known as the Upton Tavern. A noted feature of the house is the large kitchen fireplace with a hearth measuring 8 ½ feet in length and projected into the room 5 ½ feet. This homestead was used as a tavern before 1774 by Ezra Upton and continued by his son, Jesse, until his death in 1825. The tavern farm remained in the Upton family until 1837, when David Upton sold it to Daniel P. King and Daniel Brown.

Around 1680, John Upton is listed among the first six families located in the territory now constituting North Reading. Our Peabody source reports that in 1676 John Upton bought a large acreage in North Reading and built a house there around 1678. Eaton’s History shares that he lived on the farm that was occupied in 1874 by Mrs. Sylvester F. Haywood. In 2016 The Hayward Farm area runs along Route 62 near the Thompson Country Club. This area is close to the Ipswich River near West Peabody. He became a “freeman” of the colony just a few years before his death in North Reading in 1691.

"Upton Tavern" Lowell Street West Peabody

photo by Bob Upton

Sources:

Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Mass: Including the present towns of Wakefield, Reading and North Reading from 1639 to 1874 by the Honorable Lilley Eaton 1874.

https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhist00eatoiala

The Peabody Story: Events in Peabody’s History 1626-1972 by John A. Wells 1972

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Peabody_story.html?id=eMUMAAAAYAAJ

The Upton Memorial: A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of John Upton of North Reading,MA  by John Adams Vinton 1874

https://archive.org/details/uptonmemorialgen00vint

Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress Crash ~ North Reading 1942

In July, 1942, during World War II, a United States Army Air Force Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress, registration 39-8 crashed in North Reading and was damaged beyond repair. The Veterans’ Memorial on the town common commemorates the ten crew members who lost their lives in this crash. They were Orville Andrews, Robert Aulsbury, Stephen Bilocur, Archie Jester, Don Johnson, Marion Klyce, Sidney Koltun, William Perkins, James Phillips and Charles Torrence. 

The following was written by Andy Dabilis, and published © in the Boston Globe, November 12, 1995: “NORTH READING, JULY 18, 1942 -- It was about 3:20 p.m. on a foggy Saturday afternoon during the World War II years when 16-year-old Leonard (Gig) Stephens heard through the cold mist the sound of an aircraft in trouble near his home by the Red Hill Country Club, not far from Route 62, and he ran outside to see a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber on a descent to death. He will never forget, he says, the sight of an airman standing in an open hatchway as the plane started to clip the tops of pine trees into a wooded area, too low for a parachute to work. The engines were spitting flames. The plane cut a path 200 feet long and 40 feet wide, leaving behind one of its giant wings in the back yard of J...”     
( I am working to retrieve the entire article and locate more information.)

Details of the incident can be found at the Aviation Safety Network:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=97310

 Information can also be found here: http://www.91stbombardmentgroup.com/Aircraft%20ID/FORTLOG.pdf

If you are interested in more Massachusetts aviation history, please visit the Massachusetts Aviation Historical Society website. I am currently the archivist for their collection. (2015-2016) 
http://massaerohistory.org

Ancient Redding – Pioneer Town

“Several early settlers of Redding came to Massachusetts at the time of Gov. Winthrop’s arrival and a few were here years before; Richard Walker, Redding’s first representative, was in Salem with Gov. Endicott in 1629; Peter Palfrey, whose homestead during his last years was near Crystal Lake, was with Roger Conant in Gloucester and Salem from 1624 to 1629; John Poole, the town-miller, was one of the eight men who with Lieut. Gov. Dudley began the settlement of Cambridge in 1631. Redding, therefore, may justly claim to be one of the pioneer towns of the Commonwealth.” p.1

“In 1639, nine years after the arrival of Gov. Winthrop with the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settlements were begun in Lynn Village near the shore of Lake Quannapowitt. At that time there were only seventeen towns in the Colony and they had only recently been given the right to elect officers, pass by-laws and give title to land within their borders.” p.1

Remember, in 1651, the Court granted to the inhabitants of Redding, two square miles north of the Ipswich River that became the Second Parish – now North Reading. Remember also, North Reading, North Parish and Second Parish are names for the same location. ”In 1658, the land north of the River was divided among the forty-five inhabitants of Redding, few of whom settled in the North Parish but sold their land to settlers who came from Salem and Danvers. The Town of Redding later gave one-half of Sadler’s Neck, south of the River, to six proprietors of the Second Parish.” p.3

Howard, Loea Parker. Ancient Redding in Massachusetts Bay Colony; its planting as a Puritan village and sketches of its early settlers from 1639 to 1652. (1944). Internet Archive

How to Preserve Children

1 large grassy field
½ dozen children
2 or 3 small dogs
Pinch of brook and small pebbles

Mix children and dogs well together and put them in the field, stirring constantly.

Pour the brook over the small pebbles and sprinkle the field with flowers.

Spread a deep blue sky over all and bake in a hot sun.

When thoroughly browned, remove and set to cool in the bathtub.

Anonymous
Taken from page 16
North Parish Bicentennial Fair Booklet
Union congregational Church
December 5-6 1975

William and Eudora Hailmann: Kindergarten Pioneers

Eudora Lucas Hailmann was an early childhood education innovator. She and her husband, William, introduced kindergarten models to American school systems. She was also the first president of the National Education Association. She prepared and published a valuable collection of kindergarten songs and games. She also developed kindergarten equipment that included sand tables and group tables. Eudora was born in 1835 and lived in Louisville, Kentucky. She died March 9, 1905 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, North Reading. Her sculpted headstone flanks a commemorative plaque for her husband, William Nicholas Hailmann.

William married Eudora on December 24, 1875. After attending Medical College in Louisville, Kentucky and receiving a PH.D from Ohio University in 1885, William taught high school natural science. From 1865 to 1873 he directed the German and English Academy where it is noted that he and Eudora built the first kindergarten classroom in the United States.

William also served as superintendent of the Indian School Service in 1894, and worked to hire more Native American teachers to teach Indian children. Working with Theodore Roosevelt, he developed an exam which ensured applicants for teaching jobs on reservations were aware of the unique hardships of American Indians. This process helped create more employment of Native American teachers. Eudora worked alongside her husband in all his efforts. William was born in Glarus, Switzerland in 1836 and died in Pasadena, CA, May 13, 1920. After Eudora’s death, he married Helena Kuhn of Detroit.

For a photo of the gravesite in Riverside Cemetery, North Reading, visit the following link at Find a Grave:

findagrave.com

Other References:
“Eudora Lucas Hailmann” . Kindergarten Primary Magazine. Vol. 17. 1904. p. 559.
googlebooks.com

“William Nicholas Hailmann”. 26 June 2011. Wikipedia. July 25, 2011. Hailmann

Early Land Grants and Town Bounds from 1639 to 1802 (Reading)

Click the "Internet Archive: Early Land Grants and Town Bounds" link below to find land records of the town of Reading 1639-1802: “A True Transcript from the Town’s Old Books made in 1853 by W. J. Wightman, Town Clerk”:

Internet Archive: Early Land Grants and Town Bounds
http://www.archive.org/details/earlylandgrantst00wigh

“The 18th of the 12th Month 1638: The town records of the lands and meadows that lyeth in the bounds of the town of Reading either as they were given by the town of Lynn or as they were given by the town of Reading or as they have been purchased of others.”

Early men receiving divisions of land include: Nicholus Brown, Bonifas Buxton, Leiut Thomas Marshall, Jeremiah Swain, George Taylor, Capt Richard Walker, John Pool, Zachariah Fitch, Hannaniah Parker, John Bacheller, Edward Taylor, Hugh Burt, John Person, Josiah Dosten,, Thomas Hutchinson, Thomas Dunton, Thomas Kendall, George Davis, William Blott, Thomas Clark, Nathaniel Cutler, William Houper, Samuel Bennett and William Cowdrey.

Also laid out were town and county highways, footpaths & a grist mill. It includes information about (Reading’s) Bear Meadow, Pine Swamp Lands and land down to the (Saugus) iron works.

Remember: 1629- Lynn founded, 1644-seperated land established Reading, 1651-added land north of the Ipswich River to Reading, 1713-separation of North Parish (North Reading), 1853-the incorporation of the Town of North Reading

Thank you to Reading Public Library, the book contributor and digitizing sponsor and to Internet Archive. Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

Jared B. McLane & His Wagon Factory

Around 1887 Jared B. McLane started the McLane Wagon Factory in North Reading. McLane Wagon Factory became a dominant manufacturing establishment of the town. McLane wagons were purchased and used across the United States.

The average number of workmen at the McLane factory was about fifty. He employed cabinet makers, blacksmiths, sign painters and carpenters. The output of the factory included a full line of commercial wagons, sleds and parts for replacement and repairs.

Jared Brown McLane was born in Pugwash, Nova Scotia on May 8, 1853 to Alexander and Harriett (Brown) McLane. When he was young he apprenticed with a carriage maker and blacksmith to learn the wagon-maker’s trade. At nineteen he left Nova Scoria and moved to Topsfield, Massachusetts where he worked for D. E. Hurd, wagon and carriage builders. In time he became a partner of Mr. Hurd, which lasted several years. They were contemporizes of my great grandfather, C. Fred Jordan, a prominent Topsfield blacksmith.

About 1873 he sold his interest and came to North Reading and started a blacksmith shop in the rear of the present Flint Memorial Library. Eventually he purchased an adjacent building and began building wagons. One of his first wagons was purchased by the town as a patrol wagon and was used by Constable Henry Dane.

Mr. McLane’s well constructed, lettered and varnished wagons were used by police departments in many surrounding cities and towns. In 1902 he produced an illustrated catalog showing several types of wagons: “Market, Store, Express, Milk, Meat, Ice and laundry” as well as “Carts, Caravans, and Pungs built by our design or your specifications”.

Mr. McLane was very active in town affairs. When the North Reading Board of Fire Engineers (the early fire department) was organized in 1895, Mr. McLane was a charter member and was appointed as engineer, responsible for the care and maintenance of all the firefighting equipment. He was also a member of the committee for the erection of the new LD. Batchelder School building. He held the chairmanship of the town finance committee, and was a member of the Good Fellowship Club.

Mr. McLane became a director of the First National Bank of Reading. In 1914 he was elected to the General Court of Massachusetts, representing the towns of North Reading, Reading, Woburn, Wilmington, and Burlington.

Mr. McLane married Alice M. Long of Topsfield on September 16, 1875. She was the daughter of Henry and Catherine (Perley) Long. Henry was of North Andover, Massachusetts and Catherine was of Boxford, Massachusetts. Mr. McLane died in Pinehurst, North Carolina, March 27, 1917 and funeral services were held at the Union Congregational Church in North Reading. Following his death the J.B McLane Wagon Factory became the North Reading Wagon Factory. The factory was destroyed by fire in February 1928.

The Jared B. McLane house still stands at 148 Park Street, North Reading. It was built in the federal style in 1818 by Ebenezer Damon on land purchased by Dr. Jacob Goodwin. Three years later it became the home of Reverend Cyrus Pierce the third pastor of the Congregational Church. In 1828 the property was purchased by Dr. David A. Grosvenor and in 1876 conveyed to Jared B. McLane.

References:
North Reading Historical Commission, North Reading Cultural Resources Survey Part I. 1978

Murphy, Leo. North Reading Review: Annals and Reminiscences, North Reading’s Industrial Past. No. 5. December 1962

Noble Advisory Board, American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Volume 5. New York. American Historical Company. 1919

Rufus Porter Murals, Damon Tavern

Rufus Porter (1792-1884) was an American painter, inventor and founder of Scientific American magazine. The extensive murals in the upstairs ballroom of the Damon Tavern have been attributed to him by Jean Lipman. Ms. Lipman’s 1968 book: Rufus Porter Yankee Pioneer, reprinted in 1980 as Rufus Porter Rediscovered, was part of a special exhibition of the Hudson River Museum on nineteenth-century art. The murals from the Damon Tavern appear on page 137 in Rufus Porter Rediscovered. Lipman states that Porter decorated the Tavern’s ballroom circa 1835-1840.

Circa 1958 the Town of North Reading purchased the Damon Tavern building from the Whitcomb Family for use as a public library using funds bequeathed by William W. Weeks. The murals were discovered a short time afterward behind room partitions and layers of wallpaper. By the 1980’s the building had fallen into condemnable disrepair. According to a 1983 article in MassBay Antiques, the murals were authenticated by Nina Fletcher Little of Boston. The Damon Tavern is listed on the Massachusetts Register of Historic Places. In October 1996 North Reading Town Meeting approved $627,000 for renovation of the Damon Tavern building. There was a $90,000 matching grant from the Massachusetts Preservation Project Fund.1

In 1819 Rufus Porter traveled extensively by coach and on foot, painting portraits throughout New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Around 1824, Porter’s interest shifted from portraits to landscapes and then to painting murals. He traveled throughout New England creating mural landscapes for houses and taverns. His wall paintings were less costly for home owners than expensive imported wallpaper of the time. He became a prolific muralist between 1825 and 1845, decorating some 160 houses and inns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and as far south as Virginia.

Porter generally created murals in a large scale on dry plaster walls by a combination of freehand painting and stenciling. He incorporated simple silhouettes into scenes of entire towns or harbors. Some murals were in full color while others were painted in monochrome. He sometimes stamped foliage with a cork stopper instead of painting it with a brush. Often Porter would do portraits of the principal household members where he was doing the murals.

Many Rufus Porter murals have been destroyed throughout the years. The few that remain are most often found in private residences and local historical societies. However, you can actually stay in a suite decorated by Rufus Porter at the Hancock Inn in Hancock, NH. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston houses Porter’s mural of Boston Harbor, painted circa 1824. The Rufus Porter Museum and Cultural Heritage Center in Bridgton, Maine possesses original murals and information.

Rufus Porter and I are descendants of John and Mary Porter who came from Dorset, England to Salem Massachusetts in the early seventeenth century. At the time of John Porter’s death in 1676, he was the largest landowner in Salem Village, his lands lying in what is now Salem, Danvers, Wenham, Beverly, Topsfield and Boxford. John Porter was Rufus’ 4th great grandfather and my 9th great grandfather.

The Rufus Porter murals in the ballroom of the Damon Tavern have been inaccessible to the public since the 1980’s. During the renovation, the rest of the Tavern had a water sprinkler system installed. However, this system was not installed in the ballroom over concern that any discharge of water would damage the murals. Solutions continue to be sought to once again make the murals available for public viewing.

References:

1. North Reading Transcript Vol. XLII No.11, July 17, 1997

Lipman, Jean. Rufus Porter, Rediscovered. Clarkson N. Potter Press 1980

Mayer, Kaye, MassBay Antiques Magazine. January 1983. Pg. 10

Flint Memorial Library, North Reading, MA http://www.flintmemoriallibrary.org/libraryhistory.html

Rufus Porter Museum and Cultural Heritage Center in Bridgton, Maine http://www.rufusportermuseum.org/

Hancock Inn in Hancock, NH.
http://www.hancockinn.com/rufus-porter-room.html

Townsend Historical Society, Townsend, MA.
http://www.townsendhistoricalsociety.org

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/boston-harbor-500074

National Publications Highlight The Church Book North Parish

I am pleased to announce that my article entitled Massachusetts Mystery, The Story of a Lost Church Book has been published in the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly December 2010 issue. (Volume XXV, Number 4, Pg 193)

This article gives background about North Parish and details The Church Book 1720-1806 – the original record for the North Parish, hand written by Reverend Daniel Putnam and Reverend Eliab Stone. The Church Book contains vital records for births and marriages for the inhabitants of North Parish during this time period. It also contains writings concerning regular church business as well as the Church Covenant and the list of founding members.

Previously, I painstakingly digitally photographed The Church Book into 133 high resolution images and placed on them on a CD – totaling 620MB - making each page easy to zoom and read details. It includes an index. The CD is available at Massachusetts Historic Genealogical Society on Newbury Street in Boston. The information about the CD has been published in their American Ancestors magazine (Spring 2010, Vol 11, no. 2, pg.58).

The CD of The Church Book is also available at the Congregational Library at the Congregational Christian Historical Society on Beacon Street in Boston, where the original document is carefully preserved on permanent loan.

I plan to provide a CD of The Church Book to the North Reading Flint Memorial Library very soon.

George F. Root (1820-1895) Composer

George F. Root (1820-1895) was one of the most successful American composers of the 19th century. He was well known for his patriotic songs written during the Civil War. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (the boys are marching!") and “Battle Cry of Freedom” are two of his best known tunes. The tune of “Tramp!” was also used as "Jesus Loves the Little Children". “The Battle Cry of Freedom.” can be heard throughout Ken Burns’ film: The Civil War. Listen to both by clicking the links:
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!   (or Jesus Loves the Little Children)
The Battle Cry of Freedom

Root was born in 1820 in Sheffield, Massachusetts and moved to North Reading when he was six years old. As a young teen he could play many instruments and dreamed of being a musician. At 18 he moved to Boston where he studied under George Webb, founder of the Boston Academy of Music and organist at Boston’s Old South Church for over 40 years. Mason was also very active in arranging music conventions and supporting normal institutes, through which he trained countless public school music teachers and perpetuated his philosophy of teaching and music.

In 1850 Root made a music study tour of Europe, staying in Vienna, Paris, and London. He returned to teach music in Boston, as an associate of Lowell Mason at Boston’s Academy of Music. In 1851, Root began composing. By the early 1850s musical conventions had become established features in all parts of the country. Mr. Root conducted several such enterprises, including convening one at the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.

Root helped organize the first Normal Musical Institute, held in New York in 1853, and quickly became a leader in raising the standards of music education. In late 1855or early 1856, Root and his family moved back to Willow Farm in North Reading, where he continued his writing and convention activities. In 1856 Root developed a more permanent organization known as the ‘Normal Musical Institute”. With the assistance of Dr. Mason and J.G. Webb the North Reading Institute was created and became known far and wide. It was held in the Third Meeting House on the Common through 1859. Guests attending concerts included Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher.

An autograph album of the Normal Music Institute (North Reading, Mass.) was kept by Emory L. Smith, probably a student, during a music convention held there in August, 1861. A fine example of a musical autograph album, Smith had the teachers and selected students sign the book, and many provided brief musical quotations. Smith pasted photographs of five participants onto the pages with their signatures: the composers Lowell Mason, George F. Root, and George B. Loomis, and two fellow students, James H. Lansley and Lewis Story.

Besides his popular songs, he also composed gospel songs, and collected and edited volumes of choral music for singing schools, Sunday schools, church choirs and musical institutes. He also composed various sacred and secular cantatas which were popular on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the 19th century.

In the 1880s and 1890s Root wrote as series of dramatic cantatas for children, most with texts by his daughter, Clara Louise Burnham, all meant to be staged.
George Frederick Root died at his summer home on Bailey Island, Maine in 1895. He is interred in the Harmony Vale Cemetery, on Chestnut St., North Reading Massachusetts.

Click this link for my favorite of his hymns: Ring the Bells of Heaven

References:
Cyber-hymnal George F. Root

Hall, J.H., Biography of Gospel. Song and Hymn Writers. New York. Fleming H. Revell Company 1900.

Smith, Emory L. Normal Music Institute (North Reading, Mass.) Autograph Album. 1861 August 14-20. William L. Clements Library. The University of Michigan. Photographs Division. A.1.33.

Hubbard. W.L. Editor. The American History and Encyclopedia of Music. Pp. 187-8 Google Books

Early Schools to 1754

The first notation of a school in North Parish was in the town report of 1693. The first schools in North Parish were moving or roving schools. As there was no specific building, school was often held in the front room of local citizen. Remember that in 1685 only nine known families were settled in North Parish.

"In 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. The English Puritans who founded Massachusetts believed that the well-being of individuals, along with the success of the colony, depended on a people literate enough to read both the Bible and the laws of the land. The English Puritans who settled Boston in 1630 believed that children's welfare, on earth and in the afterlife, depended in large part on their ability to read and understand the Bible." 1

The Massachusetts law of 1647 stated that there should be a school in every community where there were fifty families, and a grammar school in every community of one hundred families. In 1693 this law provided for a ten pound fine annually for the violation of the law. In 1701 the law imposed a fine of twice that amount. It was also stated that the grand jurors were to report all breaches of the law.

When the Parish settled its first minister, Reverend Daniel Putnam, in 1721, the interest in schooling began to grow and school money was raised in the parish rates to assist with children’s education.

It wasn’t until 1754, however, that the Parish voted that some particular persons have liberty to set a school house on land near the meeting house at their own cost. Even then, the majority of inhabitants were not yet behind the notion of established school houses.

Reference:
LePage, Samuel. A History of North Reading, Tercentenary Edition. 1944.

1. http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=113

Hillview Country Club - Holt's Farm 1795

Dating to the late eighteenth century and extant by 1795, 178 North Street was built for Benjamin Holt, a gentleman farmer who made a comfortable living “raising hops and catching wild pigeons.” Holt invested his money in real estate and owned a “thousand acres of land, more or less, in the north section of town.” Holt’s land included “broad acres for farming just below” (his Georgian house).


Benjamin Holt was descended from “a prominent family in England, the most notable of whom was Lord Chief Justine Holt.” The story of the Holt family in Massachusetts began with Nicholas Holt who, along with his wife and child, arrived in Boston on the ship “James” in June 1635, after a voyage of fifty eight days. From Boston, Nicholas Holt went first to Newbury, Massachusetts and by 1644 had settled in Andover, MA.


The sixth among the original settlers of North Reading’s neighbor to the north, Nicholas Holt died in Andover 1685 at the age of eighty three. Nicholas Holt had served Andover well, holding positions on important committees related to the public welfare and laying out of roads.


The story of North Reading’s Holts begins with Joseph Holt, the grandson of Nicholas Holt of Andover. Joseph Holt’s father was James Holt, the eighth child of Nicholas Holt. During the mid 1720’s James Holt settled in the northern part of the then North Precinct of Reading. His eldest child, Joseph, was born in 1727.


Joseph Holt, son of Joseph Holt above, was born in North Reading in 1754. He was educated in the district schools, and remained on his father's farm until the breaking out of the Revolution. He was in Captain John Bachellor's company, Colonel Ebenezer Bridge's regiment, which answered the alarm on April 19, 1775. Later in the same year he served in the companies of Captain Amos Upton and Lieutenant Ebenezer Damon. He served also in 1776. He married, December 9, 1779. Mary Eaton, of Wilmington, and soon settled near his birthplace.



His farm of one thousand acres or more was in North Reading on the Andover road near the Andover line. He became a large grower of hops, much of his product going west into New York state. He also supplied the Boston market with pigeons, and was known all through that section as "Pigeon Joe.-' He was a very popular man in his town, and was very religious, being particularly strict about Sunday observance, he carried on his farm and raised large quantities of corn. He was a member of the Orthodox church. He died suddenly, February, 1847, while carrying corn up into his corn chamber. Children: 1. Benjamin, born August 7, 1781, mentioned below. 2. Mary, August, 1783. 3. Lois, March 13, 1785. 4. Surviah, October, 1787. 5. Sally, 1792. 6. Joseph Elbridge, 1795.


***Lois Holt, born in 1785 to Joseph and Mary above, married Samuel Killam of Boxford in May 1807. Lois and Samuel are my great x3 grandparents. Joseph Holt, "Pigeon Joe", is my great x4 grandfather.


Benjamin Holt, also the son of Joseph and Mary, was born at North Reading, Massachusetts, August 7, 1781. He was brought up on his father’s farm, receiving the education of a farmer’s son of that period. He followed farming all his life, and carried on successfully his father’s business of hop growing, becoming well off. He also made a business of snaring wild pigeons, carrying great numbers to the markets in Boston. In this he was even more successful than his father. His farm produced large quantities of lumber which brought him much money.



He was a great worker and speculator, and died well to do. He was of a tall stature and very jovial disposition. He was a Whig in politics, and much interested in town affairs. He was a member of the Orthodox church. He married, April 3, 1804, Hannah Sheldon of North Reading. Their first born, Benjamin, born April 12, 1805, died March 31, 1857, married Mary Killam of Boxford.


In 1894 the home was still occupied by members of the Albert H. Holt family. The property later became the Red Hill Farm, a popular restaurant and function facility. A golf course was eventually constructed. On November 5, 1941, owner Harvey Kelch who also operated the club, incorporated the property on North Street as the Red Hill Country Club or the Olde Redding Country Club. In the 1950’s the Red Hill Country Club became the Hillview Country Club, a members only club.


By the 1980’s, the Club had fallen into disrepair. A new owner and manager, Arthur Angelopulos, bought the facility in 1984 with the idea of converting the course into nine holes and selling additional land for development. One set of plans included building 110 single family homes along Central Street; another plan would have put 350 units of low/moderate income housing on the north side of the course.


In 1987 the Hillview Study Committee was formed, eventually growing into the Hilliview Commission, responsible for planning capital improvements, setting policy and overseeing the running of the facility. On January 19, 1988, the committee presented their proposal to the town of North Reading to acquire by eminent domain the land known as Hillview Country Club and to operate the golf course as a municipal facility.


References:



Cutter, William. Historic Homes and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs. Vol. 2. 1917. Google Books.


Gordon, Edward W., Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey #114. 2001


LePage, Samuel M. A History of North Reading. 1944.


Miller, Nancy, Of Minitmen & Molly’s. 2002


Reading Municipal Light Department Historical Calendar, August 2004

Damon Tavern 1817

According to information given to the 1978 Historical Commission Cultural Resources Survey, the David Damon Tavern was built in 1817 by Ebenezer Damon for his older brother, Captain David Damon, a Revolutionary War veteran.

The building still stands on Bow Street at the intersection of Park Street and Haverhill Street. Here Damon catered to several stage coaches on the Salem-Lowell Boston-Haverhill lines as well as other travelers passing through the center of town.

Diagonally across from the tavern (the site of the present Flint Memorial Library) Damon located the large stable and carriage house to service the many travelers.

The 21 room and 9 fireplaced tavern also served as the town's first Post Office. David was appointed the first postmaster in 1830.

Taverns & Inns

Early inhabitants were served by the first recorded tavern in 1648. The settlement had grown to such an extent that the General Court granted: “Francis Smith has leave of the court to draw wine in Reading for the refreshment of travelers and others, he paying the legal excise therefor.”

An innholder or taverner received his license from the General Court only if he complied with formidable laws and restrictions. Each tavern was compelled to provide stables in conjunction with the Inn, and that the innkeeper be responsible for his clients’ horse or cattle by providing food, shelter and care. “There was to be no drinking or tippling after nine o’clock in the night, under the penalty of twenty shillings.” “That no singing, fiddling, piping, or any other musiek, dancing, or reveling shall be suffered or exercised, in any tavern, or other publick licensed house, on penalty of ten shillings.” “That common drunkards be posted up at the houses of retailers of wine and liquors out of doors, and the law directs to publick licensed houses, with a prohibition to them of selling drink to any such.”

The inn or taverns were also a main center for the community’s civic affairs, town meetings and elections. The license required the recipient to “locate his tavern as near the meeting house as can bee”. The meeting house where church services occurred was generally unheated during the winter. The congregation arriving from outlaying farms after a long drive or walk in the extreme cold weather could go to the tavern before and after services. They could also replenish their foot-stoves with burning pine and hard wood knots from the fire of the inn.

There was a tavern located in the westerly part of the Parish, near Mill and Park Streets in the vicinity of Lobbs Pound Mill in the mid-1800’s. At that time the main road from Boston to the interior of the colony passed by the mill. Traffic also passed eastward toward Salem and westerly to Concord and Greenfield, Massachusetts. The tavern was near enough to the local training field to be a rallying point for the local militia. Eliezer Flint, son of George Flint and Jerusha Pope Flint, and grandson of Sergt. George Flint was the landlord for this tavern. Eliezer was born on March 12, 1731. He acquired the tavern about 1761 and conducted it along with an extensive farm containing two hundred acres until his death in 1808.

On the south side of the Ipswich River at the junction of Mill and Short Streets was a tavern operated by Jeremiah “Jerry” Nichols Junior, previously owned by his father. Jerry Nichols, Jr. mortgaged this tavern in 1818 to Mr. Edward Southwick.

Jerry then moved to the center of North Parish where he built a large tavern o n the west side of Haverhill Street opposite the Common. He didn’t prosper in this location and in 1824 sold the building and land to Colonel Flint, who opened and Academy.

Barnard’s Tavern became a well known station between Boston and Concord, New Hampshire, exchanging horses for the many stage coaches passing over the newly opened Andover and Medford Turnpike.

Jacob Barnard was a native of Peterborough, New Hampshire, born in 1789. He established a profitable tavern on Elm Street in the Dock Square area of Boston. From this tavern, many stages left and arrived daily from Concord and Hanover, New Hampshire.

Barnard recognized the need for a relay station, and built a two story wood frame building on the westerly side of Main Street, north of Park Street in this North Parish of Reading. He utilized this tavern as an accommodation for his passengers and stables for his coach horses. It has been published that as many as six and eight stage coaches were standing at one time in front of the tavern, and as many as thirty horses tethered in the stations daily.

Mr. Barnard’s Stage Line was one of the first to employ the Concord Stage Coach, introduced and built by a personal friend, Mr. Lewis Downing, of Concord, New Hampshire.

Barnard’s Tavern was a social center for the West Village and he and his wife, Grace held numerous functions. When Jacob died in 1830 his wife and son, Prentice, carried on the business for two more years.

They then sold the tavern, stables and sheds to Benjamin Page. However, with the decline in passenger service due to rail travel, he converted the tavern into his home. He occupied the building until it was destroyed by fire in 1867.

Sources:
Historical Address and Poem; Delivered at the Bi-Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Old Town of Reading May 29, 1844. James Flint and Lilley Eaton

North Reading Review. Leo Murphy. 1964

Timothy Flint Author, Pioneer, 1780

Timothy Flint was born in North Reading in July 11, 1780. He was the fifth of nine children of William and Martha Kimball Flint. Although born into a farming family, Flint apparently did little work on the farm, probably because of ill health that plagued him all his life. His early lack of experience as a farmworker might account in part for Flint's failure when he attempted later in his life to support his own family by farming in Missouri.

He was a graduate of Harvard in 1800 and entered the ministry. He was an American author. Timothy Flint became one of the more important men of letters in the American West during the first half of the nineteenth century. Demonstrating a remarkable range of interest and knowledge, he wrote books that classified geographical, historical, and biological features of the West.

As a missionary he traveled up and down the Mississippi valley from 1815 until 1825 and recorded in Recollections of the Last Ten Years (1826) the frontier life he experienced.

He also wrote several romantic novels of frontier life, notably Francis Berrian (1826) and George Mason, the Young Backwoodsman (1829).

His vivid Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone (1833) did much to develop the Boone legend. Flint interviewed Boone and embellished his adventures, making the book one of the most popular and best selling biographies of the 19th century.
View:
http://books.google.com/books?id=5e1pJ0KrWh0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=memoir+of+daniel+boone&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Recollections of the Last Ten Years details his travels from Pittsburg and the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico and from Florida to the Spanish frontier in a series of letters to the Reverend James Flint of Salem, Massachusetts.

“Recollections of the Last Ten Years is perhaps the most interesting of Flint's works to the modern reader because of its fresh description of emerging society in the western states and territories. An autobiographical account of his western experiences, the book is written ten years after Flint and his family emigrated down the Ohio River and is organized as a series of letters to his cousin in Salem, Massachusetts; the account of the difficulties they encounter and the places they visit is detailed and firsthand. With some regrets and homesickness for the order and neatness of his native New England, he gradually finds more to admire than condemn in the westerner, putting to rest the "horror inspired by the term backwoodsman" on the East Coast.”
Dictionary of Literary Biography on Timothy Flint (page 5)

Recollections is in the Flint Memorial Library’s History Room in North Reading center. (LH 917.7 Fli reference book)

It can be found online at Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=iiMVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Recollections+of+the+Last+Ten+Years&hl=en&ei=Afb_S86FLMPflgeZq5T_CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

During his most prolific writing period he also founded and edited the Western Monthly, a literary magazine in Cincinnati, from 1827 to 1830. He served as coeditor of the Knickerbocker: or New-York Monthly Magazine for several months in 1833-1834 until chronic ill health forced him to resign.

Timothy Flint died on August 16, 1840 in Salem, Massachusetts. His burial site and monument are in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts.

For Timothy Flint, pioneer, missionary, author, editor, 1780-1840; the story of his life among the pioneers and frontiersmen in the Ohio and Mississippi Valley and in New England and the South (1911) by John Kirkpatrick, visit:

http://www.archive.org/details/timothyflintpion00kirk

Early Roads, Andover and Medford Turnpike 1803

The center of North Reading has been an important junction for travel for almost three hundred years. Freight wagons drawn by oxen, farm wagons, drovers herding cattle, sheep or swine, private carriages, mail coaches and passenger stagecoaches all passed through town. They went to and from the commercial seacoast towns in the east, the agricultural community in the west, and from industrial Boston and the textile manufacturing in the north. As late as 1794, there were only six through roads in town and all were carrying more than their share of this important but slow moving traffic.

In 1803-1804 a group of local businessmen and their contemporaries in neighboring towns wanted to create a hard-packed gravel highway and incorporated a Toll Road Company. Under the guidance of Mr. Peter Tufts they planned and constructed the Andover and Medford Turnpike in 1805-1806. This was a direct road from Andover through Reading and Stoneham to the bridge in Medford. The present Route 28 includes parts of this early road. An act by the General Court in February 1807 allowed the Andover and Medford Company to maintain a toll gate at the Essex-Middlesex county line jointly with the Essex Turnpike Corporation.

The toll for using the road made it very unpopular and so it was used infrequently. Because of the lack of travelers no dividends were ever paid to its stockholders. Its expenses later proved to be greater than the revenue it yielded and by 1828 the stockholders no longer wanted it. January 1836 the Middlesex county commissioners declared the road a public road .Many travelers used a branch of this gravel highway as a direct and shorter route to Manchester and Concord, New Hampshire.

Btw: In the 16th century a “turnpike” was a spiked barrier across a road that was lifted after a toll was paid.

Information adapted from North Reading Review by Leo Murphy 1964; Medford on the Mystic. By Carl Seaburg and Alan Seaburg, April 1980; Wapedia Wiki:Massachusetts Route 28.

Early Roads, 1648 & 1707

In 1648 it was recorded in the old record book that a vote was taken to build a bridge over the Ipswich River, four miles from Reddinge. Its accompanying road ran from Nahant Bay in Lynn through Reddinge, now Wakefield, and then northerly to the present Middleton-North Reading line, proceeding through North Reading into Andover.

The old records describe this road as “the first highway formally laid out” and “Captain Richard Walker, Thomas Marshall, and Nicholas Holt, being appointed by the General Court to lay out the County Highway from Andevour to Reddinge, have thus agreed to follow the cart-way from Andevour to Goodman Holt’s farm, leaving his house about a quarter mile on the left hand, and so on in a strate south or nere a south lyne to the Ipswich River according to the marked trees, and so from the river upon a like strate lyne to the head of a meadow, called great meadow to the saw mill in Reddinge thence through common cornfields to the meeting house.”

In 1658 the General Court “Ordered that there be a highway of tenn poles broad left at each end of all those lotts of upland beyond the Ipswich River.” William Cowdrey, John Smith, John Brown and Jonathan Poole, were selected to divide that tract of land recently acquired by Reddinge, located north of the Ipswich River. They surveyed the land into lotts leaving a “tenn pole highway” at either end. This land then became common land for the use of the town as a highway, watering place and other public uses as it became necessary. The land left for the highway ran parallel to the river on the north side, bypassing the marsh and meadow and staying with the lowland, avoiding the fertile high ground.

In 1707, a way was laid out northward from the vicinity of the present common to the Andover line. This was known as “Sixteen Pole Way” and led through Sergeant George Flint and John Eaton’s land. In 1715 Sgt. George Flint complained to authorities that the road ran through his fertile fields and cut his farm in half. He offered to exchange land to the north with the town if they would relocate the highway westerly of the then existing position. The course of the new road was laid out by Timothy Wiley, Joseph Burnap, and John Goodwin. The old record show “At the north meeting house it is goe next to John Eatens land until it comes within twenty poles of sum low land that joynes to Sart. George Flints orchard, and then goes a slant over to Sargent Flints land fourty pole. Then turns a slant by the hill over to said Eatens line at ye end of the hill, then it is to ly by said Eatens line cross three swamps, then turnes a slant to said Flints line at ye middle mark. Then it is to turn a slant over to Eatens line at ye norwest end of Rattle-snake Rock. Soe by Eatens line till it comes to the foot of the hill at this side Jebit Plaine then it is to turn a slant to Flints line at a Valle at the hether end of said Jebit Plaine.

Reverend Eliab Stone at Salem

More on placing Eliab Stone in Salem, MA.

Historical Address and Poem, delivered at the Bicentennial Celebration.
BOSTON : Printed by Samuel N. Dickinson. (1844) Appendix p. 123

Lieutenant David Parker, now living at the North Parish, at the
age of ninety years, who was at the battles of Lexington and Bunker
Hill, and served two years in the revolutionary war, tells the following story of Rev. Mr. Stone:

" In the time of the revolutionary war, it was customary, if danger
was threatened or expected from the enemy, to fire three distinct guns
at short intervals, to alarm the people. Three guns in the night time
were fired at Salem : as all ears as well as eyes were open to danger
at that time, many turned out immediately from several towns within
hearing of the alarm ; and among others the Rev. Mr. Stone, although
a minister, turned out with his musket and military accoutrements,
having on his full-bottomed, white wig, to travel on foot to Salem to
meet the common enemy. But before they arrived at Salem, they
were met by a company from Boston, who informed them that it was
a false alarm, and no danger was at that time expected: they immediately set out for home, but on their return they met others going down, who were told by Mr. Stone that it was a false alarm. 'Ah/ said they, ' he is an old tory. We will not believe him, we will continue our march to Salem ! ' "

They soon met others from Andover, to whom he gave the same
information ; one of their number happened to know him, and said,
" Surely we can believe him, for this-is Parson Stone !" and upon this
information turned towards their homes.

http://www.archive.org/stream/historicaladdress00read/historicaladdress00read_djvu.txt

Reverend Eliab Stone, Minitman 1775

During the American Revolution era, the alarm sounded to stir the inhabitants of North Parish into action. It was then that Reverend Eliab Stone put on his white ministerial wig, grabbed his gun and marched with the Minit Men.

An educated guess suggests that he marched into Salem, MA during the event known as Leslie’s Retreat. On a cold New England Sunday morning in 1775, British Colonel Alexander Leslie had come to capture the rebel cannon. Leslie left Castle William by ship and landed his troops at Homan’s Cove on Marblehead Neck. Alarm quickly spread. The soldiers marched toward Salem. They got as far as the draw bridge called North Bridge in Salem when they were halted by the bridge drawn up on the opposite bank. A standoff occurred, escalating into what could have begun the war. Leslie restored order and realized the futility to retrieve the cannon. He agreed to leave if allowed to fulfill his orders by searching on the north side of the bridge. He was given permission to march his soldiers fifty rods past the bridge if he agreed to immediately return to his ship. This location is currently identified along the North River on Commercial Street in Salem, MA

In the Diary of William Bentley 1811-1819, Reverend Stone’s wig is said to reside in the Museum of the Essex Institute (Now known as the Peabody Essex Museum, located in Salem, MA.)

1761 Rev. Eliab Stone – 2nd Minister of North Parish

On December 6, 1760 the warrant for a special parish meeting was called “to see whether the parish will concur with the church vote in making choice of Mr. Eliab Stone to be our minister.” It was voted to give him L160 as a settlement, and L73 6s 8p for his annual support. He accepted the invitation.

Eliab Stone graduated at Harvard College in 1758. He was ordained May 20th 1761 as pastor of the second church. Delegates from the first church to the ordination were Deacon Benjamin Brown and Brown Emerson, Colonel Nichols, Captain Gardner and Jonathan Eaton.

He died August 31, 1822 in the eighty-sixth year of his age and sixty second of his ministry. In his long service he married some of the great grandchildren on those married at the beginning of his ministry.