History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

westward with the land of Thomas Wedge, southward
with the land of Solomon Johnson, Jun^
eastward with a highway thirty rods wide running
between the squadron of lots, in the New Grants,
of Sudbury, aforesaid. To have and to hold, the
said tract of land six stone and five acres (be the
same more or less) with the house thereon erected,
and all the fences, belonging to the said tract of
land and all timber and firewood and the orchard
thereon, with all the conveniency of water thereon,
wjiether of Pond or Brook and all profit and advantage."
The family of Rices were long lived, and
it is found that Jonathan Rice and Jonathan Rice,
Jr., kept an inn at this place for about one hundred
years.
The land above described was conveyed by Jona-
than Rice to William Rice, his son, and described
as bounded by land now in possession of Ephraim
Pratt, etc., in a. d. 1733. The Wedge-Pratt farm
was sold to Jabez Puffer of Braintree in 1743,
and the house now standing was supposed to have
been erected prior to tiiat date. Ephraim Pratt
removed to Shutesbury, where he died in lSO-1, at
the great age of one hundred and sixteen years and
some months. The following account of Mr. Pratt
is from Dr. Dwight's Travels.
" He was born at Sudbury, Massachusetts, in
1687, and in one month from the date of our arrival
(Wednesday, November 13, 1803), would complete
his one hundred and sixteenth year. He was of
middle stature; firmly built; plump but not encum-
bered with flesh ; less withered tlian multitudes at
seventy possessed of considerable strength, ;
as was
evident from the grasp of his hand and the sound
of his voice, and without any marks of extreme
age. About two months before his sight became
so impaired that he was unable to distinguish
persons. His hearing, also, for a short time had
been so imperfect, that he could not distinctly hear
common conversation. His memory was still vigorous;
his understanding sound, and his mind
sprightly and vigorous.
"The principal part of the time which I was
m the house he held me by the hand ; cheerfully
answered all my questions; readily gave me an
account of himself in such particulars as I wished
to know, observed to me that my voice indicated
that I was not less than forty-five years of age,
and that he must appear very old to me ; adding,
however, that some men who had not passed their
seventieth year, probably looked almost or quite as
old as himself. The remark was certainly just;
MAYNARD. 155
but it was the first time that I had heard persons
who had reached the age of seventy considered as
being young. We were informed, partly by hinr-
self and partly by his host, that he had been a
laborious man all his life ; and, particularly, that
he had mown grass one hundred and one years
successively. The preceding summer he had been
unable to perform this labor. During this season,
his utmost effort was a walk of half a mile. In
this walk he stumbled over a log and fell. Imme-
diately afterwards he began evidently to decline,
and lost in a considerable degree both his sight
and hearing. In the summer of 1802 he walked
without inconvenience two miles, and mowed a
small quantity of grass. Throughout his life he
had been uniformly temperate. Ardent spirits he
rarely tasted. Cider he drank at times, but spar-
ingly. In the vigorous periods of life he had
accustomed himself to eat flesh, but more abste-
miously tiian most other people in this country.
Milk, which had always been a great part, was now
the whole of his diet. He is naturally cheerful
and humorous, and not much inclined to serious
thinking. According to an account which he gave
his host, lie made a public profession of religion
near seventy years before our visit to him; but
was not supposed by him, nor by others acquainted
with him, to be a religious man. He conversed
easily, and was jjlainly gratified with the visits and
conversations of strangers. When he was ninety-'
three years old, he made a bargain with his host
(who told us the story), that he should support
him during the remainder of his life for £20.
" He was never sick but once, and then with
fever and ague. It is scarcely necessary to observe
that a man one hundred and sixteen years old,
without religion, was a melancholy sight to me."
The Rev. Reuben Puffer, D. D., was a son of
Jabez Puft'er, a noted divine, graduated at Har-
vard College in 1778, settled and ordained as pas-
tor at Berlin, Mass., in 1781, and died in 1829,
aged seventy-three.
Other of the earlier settlers of Maynard were
Hezekiah Taylor, John Taylor, Thomas Smith,
Amos Smith, William Skinner, William Carly,
Zachariah Maynard, and John Brigham, and some
of the settlers on the Stow side, of the river may be
found in the proceedings of the proprietors at their
meeting held May 19, 1719, when, as appears from
Stow Old Proprietors' Book, a selection of lands
was made, as follows :
—
"Pitched on by Richard Temple, between Plum