History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

122 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
piety in practice as the only sure foundation of a
happy life ; and he made the Bible his daily com-
panion, that he might gain \risdom at the fountain-
head of truth. He never entered upon affairs of
importance without seeking the blessing and im-
ploring the guidance of God. We are told that at
the tender age of eight years he conducted family
worship in the absence of his father, " to the aston-
ishment of those who attended on the exercises of
the family " ; and that through his life " at stated
times he every day addressed himself to Heaven."
" Such was his humility," writes his biographer,
"that when unguarded words fell from his lips,
he would ask forgiveness of his children and ser-
vants." His son, the Eev. Joseph Emerson of
Pepperell, thus emphatically describes his charac-
ter : " He was a Boanerges, a son of thunder, to
the workers of iniquity ; a Barnabas, a son of con-
solation, to the mourners in Zion."
As has been intimated, the coarse of church
affairs during the settlement of Mr. Emerson was
not such as would induce great spiritual peace.
From the incorporation of the town " our Charlestown
neighbors," or those who dwelt at Mystic-
Side within the limits of Charlestown, had enjoyed
church privileges with the inhabitants of Maiden.
As members of the church they were entitled to
vote in its affairs ; but as inhabitants of Charlestown
they had no voice in the complementary trans-
actions of the town. It may be readily seen how,
under these conditions, a town-meeting, althougli
nearly, if not entirely, comjjosed of church-mem-
bers, miglit refuse, as often happened, to concur
with the church of which they were a part. Be-
fore the ordination of Mr. Emerson steps had been
taken for the annexation of Mystic-Side ; but, in
consc(|Ucuce of the opposition of Charlestown, and
perhaps for other reasons, it was not consummated
until the spring of 17'26, when the General Court
passed the necessary act in answer to the petition
of Joses Bucknam, Jacob Wilson, and Jonathan
Barret. This act ceded to Maiden all the territory
of Ciiarlestown on tlie northerly side of Mystic
River and the easterly side of North River, oxce])t
a small strip of laiiil at I'cuiiv Vvvvx whirli still
forms a ]>arl of Charlestown. This trart com-
prised about one iialf of the |>ivseiit town of
Everett, and thirty-four years later it was in-
habited by thirty families.
It was not long before the sections came into
conflict. The meeting-house near Bell Rock had
become too small for the town, and it was pro-
posed in 1727 to build a new one. Two locations
were considered, one upon the town land near the
old house, and the other upon a knoll in the par-
sonage orchard. These were soon abandoned, and
the town voted to build " between Lewis's Bridge
and the Pound on the west side of the Country
Road." It was afterwards found that " the South-
erly Inhabitants were Something uneasy " about
the matter ; and " they Said if they Could have a
Committee of wise, indifferent men to determine
the matter they Should be intirely easy." The
other inhabitants, in a conciliatory spirit, "notwithstanding
the former vote, readily consented "
and, at a town-meeting held November 17, 1727,
a committee was chosen, which was composed of
five eminent men of the colony, to whom the three
localities mentioned were submitted for their de-
cision. The committee reported in favor of the
location near Lewis's Bridge ; but their report fell
into the hands of those of the selectmen who were
of the south side, who refused to pUt it upon the
record. At this point the General Court inter-
posed, and ordered the record to be made and to
become obligatory upon the town, in accordance
with the vote by which it had constituted the com-
mittee. This was not a settlement favored by the
southern selectmen, who at once called a town-
meeting, M'hieh the other side " thought to be a
manifest Contempt of Authority"; and to the num-
ber of nearly seventy they "entered their Dissents."
The meeting was held, however, and the men of
the south decided against the recording of the re-
port. The factious party appear to have had their
own way for a while ; and nothing more was done
about the new house for more than a year and a
half, when the General Court passed an order that
the house should be placed on the location most
favored by the people of the northern section, be-
tween Lewis's Bridge and the pound, on the site
now occupied by the church of tiie First Parish.
The land for this purpose was given by William
Sprague, and was a portion of that which had been
known as the "clay-pits," in reference to which a
fine was laid in 1609 to " punish transgressors y'
shall intrench on y" highways ju diging of clay."
Bricks were made near by many years after ; and
the Frog Pond, well remembered by Maiden boys
wlio arc on the writer's side of forty, was a relic
of the elay-digging days. The frame of the new
meeting-house was raised, no doubt with liberal
compotations, August 28, 1729. A rude ground-
plan of the house was made some years ago by one
;