Historic Homes and Places

Middlesex County - Woburn

(Excerpt taken from: Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs.  Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. William Richard Cutter, 1908)  

 In 1630, when Gov. John Winthrop landed with his company of English immigrants Charlestown, the country round about was wilderness, and ten years later, in 1640, when the settlement Woburn was begun, the territory where nothing Woburn now is was still wilderness, and the country round about was broken only in one or two places by small settlements.   The nearest incorporated towns at that date were Rowley and Ipswich, on the north; Salem and Lynn, northeast; Charlestown, east; Cambridge, southeast and south; and Concord, southwest.  The country round about had then been but very little explored.  The discovery of the territory was accomplished with difficulty, and the inducing the settlers to locate on the lots already laid out by the parent town, or on lots to be laid out, or to stay afterward, with a matter of still greater difficulty.  The courageous persistence of a few accomplished the work.  The area of the first settlement included all of the present city of Woburn, the major part of the present towns of Wilmington and Burlington, and a larger part of Winchester, and for more than 90 years the town had but one church and one place of public worship for all of its inhabitants.  The name of the town was derived from Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, in the following manner: the town had three patrons, “Nowell, Symmes, Sedgwick”, the first a magistrate, the second a clergyman, and the third a military officer.  Major General Robert Sedgwick was baptized in infancy at Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, and the town, being early explored by him, received the name of his birthplace, Woburn, according to a custom of the day; Duxbury, Groton, and Haverhill, Massachusetts, being similarly named in honor of the birthplaces of Standish, Winthrop, and Ward.  (Doyle, “English Colonies in America”, iii., 7.)

The difficulties to be met with in the forest were to be overcome by men with hard muscles, long inured to severe toil.  Thus the opening of the settlement of Woburn, it is known by contemporary evidence, was accomplished by laborers of the roughest sort.  They traveled through unknown woods and through watery swamps, through well-nigh impassable thickets and over crossed trees.  They were scratched by ragged bushes, and scorched on an occasional plain, where the sun cast such a reflecting heat from the abundant sweet fern, he scent was very strong, that some of the parties were near fainting from it, although otherwise very able to undergo such hardships and travel. 

Woburn was the first town to be set off from Charlestown, and a first explorers authorized by Charlestown to discover the territory of Woburn were Edward Converse, William Brackenbury and Abraham Palmer, who were empowered to perform this work in 1635.  To them probably we are indebted for the survey, or the land plot, known to posterity as the “Waterfield Grants.” 

 There is reason to believe that the first exploration was made from the direction of Stoneham, where there is a height which was called in former times “Mount Discovery”, in honor possibly of this event.  The very wet and impassable nature of a large part of the Woburn territory, as described by contemporary writers, also renders this idea practical practicable. 

 As early as 1638, however, a large number of lots were laid out under the designation of “Waterfield”, and assigned to the names of nearly of all the inhabitants at Charlestown, being, in the conception, the general laying out of a common grant belonging to the municipality of Charlestown.

The name of Waterfield was no misnomer, and to illustrate the amount of water once to be found as a permanent feature in the soil of Woburn, before the days when the town was drained very generally by the digging of the Middlesex Canal (1803), is this quotation for the diary of Judge Samuel Sewall: “February 9, 1682-83; there being considerable quality of snow, a warm rain swelled the waters, so that Woburn (and other places) suffered by the damage done.”

 One incident of this early day is cited from the records: on September 6, 1640, Captain in Sedgwick and others went to view the bounds between Lynn Village (Reading) and Woburn.  “Like Jacobites  (Genesis, 28:11) when the night drew on, lying themselves down to rest, they were preserved by the good hand of God with cheerful spirits, though the heavens poured down rain all night incessantly.  On this occasion they were the subjects of a remarkable Providence, never to be forgotten.  Some of the company lying under the body of a great tree; it lying some distance from the earth; when the daylight appeared, no sooner was the last man come from under it - when it fell down, to their amazement; the company being forced to dig out their food, which was caught under it; the tree being so ponderous, that all the strength date they had could not remove it.”

The town of Woburn was incorporated September 27, 1642, in the following words: “Charlestown Village is called Woburn.”  There had been already appointed seven grantees, and 60 families were soon gathered together.  The grantees were to build houses and create a town.  Rules were formed for their government, called “town orders.”  Each inhabitant received two lots of land - one for the home lot in the village, near the meeting- house, and the other of upland, farther off, to be cleared and tilled.  The corporation, represented by the seven trustees, acted as landlord, and received from the original settlers a rent of sixpence an acre.  Civil union came before ecclesiastical, but before any action as a corporation occurred, a minister was chosen, a meeting-house built at public cost, and a church formed.  The seven trustees formed the nucleus of the church as of the township.  The church never professed to be co-expensive with the town, but only received from time to time such citizens as of free choice attached themselves to it.

In 1652, ten years after its incorporation, Captain Edward Johnson said of the town: “The situation of this town is in the highest part of the yet people land;…it is very full of pleasant springs and great variety of very good water;… the meadows are not large, but lie in diverse places to particular dwellings, the like doth their springs; the land is very fruitful in many places, although there is no great quantity of plain land in any one place, yet doth the rocks and swamps yield very good food for cattle;… there is great store of iron ore;..  The people are very laborious, if not exceeding (laborious), - some of them.”  Men, in admission to this community, were not refused for their poverty, but were aided, when poor, in building their houses, and in the distribution of land; only the exorbitant and turbulent were excluded from their midst as persons and fit for civil society.  A spirit of thrift evidently prevailed in the infant settlement, despite the wilderness condition.

A list of all the heads of families in Woburn in 1680 is preserved in the records, the number of families, in all, being ninety-two.  In 1708, Woburn was the fourth town in Middlesex County in point of numbers and wealth.  In this respect in that year, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Watertown exceeded her, and Concord and Medford were behind her.

In 1800 the population of Woburn was 1228.  The houses, with scarcely an exception, were all of wood; many were two stories, - the “two-stories in front and one in rear” kind, a number of which yet remain.  A small number proportionately were more one-story houses.  They were unpainted, and with small pretensions to beauty.  Eighteen at least were “old houses”, and five were “very old houses.”  A very few were “old and poor,” and several were “not tenanted or tenantable.” Next lower in the scale were those “very poor” and “out of repair.”  One house was “half old and half new, and unfinished.”  Three houses were new, one almost so, and another was not finished.  Only one house was painted, and only one was built of “part brick and part wood.”  The condition of the barns and outbuildings was even worse, and the situation was not much changed until after 1825, the time when the centre village began to grow to its present dimensions.

Among the old houses of Woburn now standing, the first in prominence and age is the Baldwin mansion, in the north village or ward of the city.  Built in 1661, it is still one of the most imposing houses in Woburn, and is palatial in its dimensions.  During its existence it passed through some changes and occasional improvement, and has been owned by one family for six generations.

From memoranda written by members of the Baldwin family in a copy of John Farmer’s “Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England”, the following facts regarding the history of the house are found, written mostly about the year 1835.

“Henry Baldwin's will is dated, say 1697; the house in Woburn was built in 1661, as appears by the date on a timber in the kitchen chimney, sawed off by B. F. Baldwin, when the fireplace was altered to put in a boiler - the piece with the date on it is lying about the house in 1835.  This house had therefore been owned by Henry Baldwin from 1661 to Henry Baldwin, son of the above; Henry Baldwin (the son) went to New Hampshire.  James Baldwin succeeded Henry as owner.  Loammi Baldwin, son of James, to 1807; he put on a third story, in 1802 or 1803.  Benjamin F. Baldwin, 1807 to 1822; Loammi, Mary, and Clarissa Baldwin, from 1822 to 1836.  George R. Baldwin from 1836 to November, 1887 (or to death, October 11, 1888.)”

Besides the Baldwin mansion, which is admitted to be the oldest house now standing in Woburn, there was another, which outlasted nearly all of its contemporaries, and has been demolished only recently.  This was the Simonds house, built about 1670, known latterly as the Jesse Cutler house, Cummingsville.  Fortunately its appearance has been saved by photography.  This house was a good specimen of the second period of architecture in New England.  It had a large brick chimney in the centre, was of two stories, and had a gable roof.  William Simonds, died in 1672, leaving this house and other real estate, to his widow Judith (Phippen-Hayward) Simonds occupied for her thirds the west end of the house, the east end of the barn, and 20 acres of land adjacent.  That the house was new when William Simonds died, seems apparent that from his indebtedness to Sergeant John Wyman for seven windows at four schillings a piece.  Benjamin Simonds succeeded his father in the ownership, and the house was used in 1675-6, as a garrison-house under Benjamin's name, or during King Philip’s War.  Benjamin was succeeded by several Benjamin's’, until the time of Nathan Simonds, who died in 1827.  From Nathan the house descended to his children, the Barnard family; thence to Blanchard (1840), thence to Duren, thence to William Barnard, 1843-44 and lastly to Jesse Cutler in 1844.

Another house which bears distinction as the birthplace of Woburn’s most eminent native, Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, noted in the world as a scientific discoverer, philanthropist, and successful administrator, prime minister of Bavaria, etc., next claims attention, for in one of its rooms – said to be of its lower rooms, the one at the left of the front door, as one enters – the Count was born, March 26, 1753.  

The Rumford birthplace is a specimen of eighteenth century architecture, with gambrel-roof and large centre chimney.  The house is standing on Main Street, North Woburn, and is owned by the Rumford Historical Association.  In 1798, this house was owned by Hiram Thompson, an uncle of Count Rumford.  It was then described as a dwelling-house, 40 by 30, area 1,200 square feet, 13 windows, 38 square feet of glass, two stories in front, and one in rear.  The house lot contained one acre.  Franklin Jones, a grandson of Hiram Thompson, was the owner of the house in 1831.  In 1820, the house was occupied by Willard Jones, and in 1832 by his widow, Bridget Jones, the daughter of Hiram Thompson.  Mrs. Bridget Jones died in this house in 1856.

Passing from the history of this house, the reader’s attention is directed to two houses of notable appearance now standing in Woburn centre, two houses which have been intimately connected with the history of the Fowle family.  The first is called the Fowle, or Flagg house, and the second the Fowle, or Baldwin house.

The house of Major John Fowle, built about 1730, and now standing in the angle between main, say Loma, and broader streets, in excellent condition, is a large gambrel-roofed structure of two stories, and was occupied for many years in its later history as a tavern.  Major John Fowle, who is supposed to be its builder, died in 1775.  During a portion of his life he lived in Marblehead.  He derived the land on which the house stands from his father, Capt. James Fowle; he died in 1714, who inherited it from his father, the first James Fowle, who settled in Woburn.  Major John Fowle left the house to his children.  In 1798 it was owned by Joshua Wyman and Catherine Wheeler; she was the daughter of James Fowle, a son a major John Fowle.  Joshua Wyman was the husband of Mary Fowle, a daughter of Major John Fowle.  In 1803 the house was leased to John Flagg, 2d, and the Flagg family occupied it ad a tavern, and this family were still occupying it in 1831.  Since that date it has had many occupants.

The companion house to the Fowle house, and standing on the opposite side of Main Street, is an eighteenth century structure of the period before 1740.  It is of two stories, and has a gambrel-roof.  It was built on a part of the estate of another Captain John Fowle, who died in 1744.  In 1740, one Thomas Henshaw conveyed to the above John Fowle, a “certain edifice or building”, - which was this one, - “standing on said Fowle's owned land.”  Henshaw had married Kezia Fowle, the daughter of said Fowle, and in 1749, being a widow; she disposed of her interest in the house to her brother, James Fowle.  The house was the property of James Baldwin in 1831.  It best acquired the name of the Baldwin house.  It had had many occupants in 1831, and now belongs to be Salmon estate.  The land descended from the first James Fowle, he died in Woburn in 1690, the victim of the military campaign against the French at Quebec, he having died after his return home of disease contracted in Canada.  The lot where the house stands was a part of the little orchard, which was “Isaac Cole’s”, before the Fowle occupancy.

The Lilley house, erected before 1696, located on Main Street, North Woburn, is one of the oldest houses in that vicinity.  In 1798, it had three owners, two sisters and a brother, named Phebe and Ruth Eaton, and Lilley Eaton.  In 1831, it was our by Lilley and Ruth Eaton.  It is of the gable roof order, and had two stories in front and one in rear.  It was early owned by John Lilley, who came to Woburn in 1691, and whose daughter Phebe married Noah Eaton.  John Lilley bought the premises of William Pierce in 1696.  When he bought there was upon the place a mansion house, - apparently this one, - and the locality was called New Bridge End.  In 1749, Noah Eaton acquired one-half of the house, and later in the same year the rest, all but one room.

The gable-roofed Baldwin house, now occupied by Baldwin Coolidge, 784 Main Street, was built of the materials acquired from the pulling down of the second meeting-house in Woburn First Parish, sometime about or possibly before or after 1755. Some of the same material was used in erection of the small red house, - now much changed from its original form, standing at 725 Main Street, on the ancient Coggin lot, now the property of one of the Baldwin family.  In 1798, Isaac Johnson owned this house.  It was then of one-story, 15 by 12, and had four windows, and one acre of land with the house.  It was owned by George Baldwin in 1831.

The large house of two stories, with gambrel-roof, owned in 1798 by Samuel E. and Elijah Wyman, in the New Boston Street neighborhood, was before their day the mansion of their ancestor, Deacon Samuel Eames.  It is of the period of 1730. The house was owned in 1831 by Charles and Elijah Wyman.  Its neighbor the Jacob Eames house, was owned by him in 1798.  He still occupied the premises in 1831.

The Evans house at Montvale, No. 301 the Montvale avenue, was the property one hundred years ago of Andrew Evans, described in 1798 as a dwelling-house two stories in the front and one in the rear; area 38 by 28.  Adjoining it at that time was a farm of seventy acres.  From Nathaniel Richardson, who died in 1714, the lot on which the house stood passed to his son Joshua Richardson, whose daughter Mary married Andrew Evans, Senior, father to the Andrew Evans adds 1798.  The latter was followed by Hosea Evans, who lived in the house till about 1831.  The house was occupied by the Heman and Louis Sturdevant in 1831.  The house stands on land, which was a part of the original Admiral Graves farm of 1638.  Dr. Thomas Graves, a son of Thomas Graves, the original proprietor, granted it to Nathaniel Richardson in 1686, and it that time there was a small house upon the premises.

The Bartholomew Richardson house, at the corner Bow and Salem streets, retains its original shape, being of the two stories in front, and one in rear, variety.  In 1798, it's joint owners were Bartholomew Richardson the first, and Bartholomew Richardson the third. It remained in this family and fill within a few years.

The Captain Josiah Richardson house, recently demolished, which stood at the corner of Ash and Main Streets, belonged to widow Jerusha Richardson (widow of Deacon Josiah) in 1798.  It was of two stories; and dimensions, 37 by 29, had eighteen windows, and a shed or woodhouse, joined to it, 10 by 10, and with it was a farm of twenty-five acres, extending in one direction to Horn Pond.  In 1798 the house was comparatively new.

The house known as the Chickering, or Oliver Bacon place, now standing at the corner as Reed and Pleasant streets, was owned by Benjamin Simonds in 1798.  It dimensions are given as 38 by 27.  It is of two stories. and in well-deserved condition.  In 1798, one front room and the two front chambers were not finished.  The farm adjacent to the house contained 43 acres.  With the house in that year was a wash- room, 14 by 11.  Zachariah Hill was the occupant in 1831.  The house was built by Benjamin Simonds in 1797, on the site of a former house, which was burned in that year.  In 1804, it was sold to Reverend Joseph Chickering.  It been sold to Simonds by Isaac Johnson, administrator of Josiah Johnson, Esquire, in 1787. The house that was burnt was therefore the residence of that distinguished individual in Woburn history, Major Josiah Johnson, Esquire.

The Bennett house, now standing on the road to the Merrimack Chemical Works, is a house of two stories, 34 by 16.  Philip and Richard Alexander, sons of Philip Alexander, conveyed this place to Thomas Hardy in 1754.  Hardly shortly after conveyed the premises to John Tay, and Tay and his brother-in-law Lot Eaton conveyed them to James Harvel Eames in 1797. Eames conveyed to Jonas Munroe the greater part of it in 1799. Jonas Munroe’s heirs conveyed them to James Boutwell, 1834.  The estate is occupied by Matthew Bennett, in 1907.

The house known as the Fisher house, in North Woburn was the dwelling of Abijah Thompson in 1798, when it was described as 55 by 17 1/2 in front, the back part 43 by 12, the whole house containing 1478 1/2 square feet.  The house was two stories in front and one in rear.  The house, -and unusual thing at that date,  - was painted.  The windows were nineteen in number, and two rooms and two chambers were finished.  From this circumstance the house was probably then new.  With this house were two large horse-sheds a blacksmith shop.  Oliver Fisher owned the house in 1831 and it is still the property of his descendants.

Daniel Thompson, who was killed in battle on April 19, 1775, lived in a house since remodeled, now standing at 649 Main Street.  In 1798, the house was owned and occupied by his widow, Phebe Thompson, and described as 36 by 18 feet, and of two stories.  At the south end of the house was then a garden about 20 square poles in area.  Mrs. Thompson moved out of Woburn, and Isaac Richardson was the owner of the property in 1801, and the same Isaac Richardson still under place in 1831.  In later years, it had been the property of Isaac’s descendants; until it was purchased by Mr. Albert A. Clement.

The Major Samuel Tay house, still standing 907 Main Street, North Woburn, was his property in 1798, when it dimensions were given as 40 by 30; house, two stories in front and one in rear.  The farm belonging to it been contained one hundred acres, valued at one thousand dollars.  Stephen Nichols was the owner in 1831. Major Samuel Tay was born in Woburn, December 4, 1738, and died there November 2 or 3, 1804.  He was the son of William and Abigail (Jones) Tay.  He married April 27, 1769, Sarah Johnson.

The dwelling house of Samuel Thompson, Esquire, (1731-1820) still standing at 31 Elm Street, North Woburn, is a two- story structure with gable roof.  The son of Samuel Thompson, named Jonathan, owned the whole of the house in 1831

The late Ruth Maria Leathe house, on Main Street, opposite the common, was built after the Revolutionary War, by Zebadiah Wyman.  In 1798, the house was owned by Zebadiah, the son of Zebadiah Wyman.  It was then described as having an area 45 by 24; as two stories high, part brick and part wood; and attached to the rear was a kitchen well, 24 by 27 feet.  The same Zebadiah Wyman was its owner in 1831.  He was followed by Samuel Leathe, the father of Miss R. M. Leathe.  In 1794 it was called Zebadiah Wyman’s brick store.

Other old houses in which brief mention only can be made are the Elijah Leathe house on Salem Street, near Stoneham line.  The Jonathan Tidd house, on Pearl street, North Woburn, is an old house antedating 1750, but Daniel Baker, Senior, in his will gave his “Grandson-in- law” Jonathan Tidd, “that now liveth in my house,” all his houses and lands.  Jonathan Tidd, the grandson-in-law, was called “currier” in a deed in 1748.  

The attractive house architecturally of the Wheeler family, near the Baldwin mansion, at North Woburn, was raised in the year in 1790.  The origin of this house is given in the diary of a contemporary neighbor: “August 26, 1790…Mr. Bartlett’s house raised.”  The Mr. Bartlett referred to was Captain Joseph Bartlett  (Harvard college 1782), who settled in Woburn about 1789, and left about 1795.  He was an attorney-at-law, and captain of a Boston military company about 1786.  He was a native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and for an account of his eccentricities see “Plymouth Memoirs of an Octogenarian”, by W. T. Davis, pp. 248-250.  See also Cutter’s “Bibliography of Woburn” for an estimate of his character, pp. 203-205.  The house was completed by Colonel Loammi Baldwin, and a great centennial jubilee was held in it about that time in 1800. 

The Baker House, so-called, on New Boston Street, near the City Park, is an eighteenth century house of two stories and gable ends.  Abraham Alexander, who by wife, Jerusha has a daughter Jerusha, who married Jeremiah Converse (Samuel 4, Josiah 3, Samuel 2, Alan 1), a hundred and thirty years ago occupied this house.

Authorities: William R. Cutter published a work entitled “Contribution’s to a Bibliography of the Local History of Woburn, Mass,” 1892, to which was added a short supplement, 1893.  The principal authorities on the subject of the history of the town mentioned in that work were Captain Edward Johnson’s “Wonder- working Providence’ (1654); Reverend Samuel Sewall’s “History of Woburn” (1868); “Woburn: an Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Town”, by the Board of Trade (1885); Chickering’s “Historical Discourse” (1809); Bennett’s “Anniversary Sermon” (1846); Drake’s and Lewis & Co.’s Histories of Middlesex County (1880 and 1890); Parker L. Converse’s “Legends of Woburn” in two volumes 1892 and 1896; David S. Moreland’s “Souvenir Memorial” (1892); W. R. Cutter’s “Woburn Historic Sites and Old Houses” (1892); Reverend Daniel March, D. D., pastor, “Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Congregational Church” (1692); the official account of the celebration published by the city, entitled “Proceedings”, etc. (1893); and Honorable Edward F. Johnson’s “Abstracts of Early Woburn Deeds” (1895), and his “Vital Records”, in seven volumes from 1890 to 1906.  On the earlier works, Mr. Cutter, in the bibliography, makes extended critical comment.

My Thanks to Patty Bancroft Roberts for the excerpts and pictures from this book!  Thanks, Patty!  You can email Patty at: Lotsarock@aol.com
Visit Patty's site!  www.pattyroberts.com

Come again soon!

info@yeoldewoburn.net

This site created and maintained by: Toni Lasseter (9 Jan. 2000)

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