History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

260 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
pending call, and to jiay each volunteer a bounty
of §100. It was also voted to pay the same
bounty to each volunteer belonging to the town
who had already enlisted. August 14, it was
voted to pay a bounty of $ 150 to fill the next
quota, and $4,500 were appropriated for that object.
An appropriation of § 500 was made November
16, 1863, for the benefit of discharged,
invalid, and disabled soldiers and their families.
March 26, 1864, it was voted to raise $ 1,600 to
pay bounties to volunteers. The treasurer was
authorized to borrow $3,500 to pay volunteers for
future calls. . It
was voted, August 22, to pay a
bounty of § 125 " for each man of the present
call." Meetings were held in January and March,
1865, in which votes were passed to continue re-
cruiting and the jwyment of bounties.
The town furnished one hundred and thirty-
one men for the war, a surplus of seven above
all requirements. The town expended for war pur-
poses, exclusive of state aid, §15,-315. State aid
raised for the families of the soldiers amounted to
$11,828.37.
Flint Memorial Hall is a fine building, erected
and donated to the town by Mrs. Charles F. Flint.
It cost nearly $20,000, and contains a public
library of fifteen hundred volumes, towards which
Mrs. Flint contributed $1,000. She has also
given $3,000 as a permanent fund, the income
of wliich is to be devoted to the support of tiie
library. The hall was dedicated with appropriate
services October 21, 1875. An address was de-
livered on the occasion by Hon. George B. Loring.
On each side of the hall are slabs containing the
names of the soldiers and sailors who died in the
Civil War.
Among the men of note who were natives of the
town was Rev. James Flint, D. D., born in 1779.
He graduated at Harvard College in 1802, was
pastor in East Bridgewater from 1806 to 1821.
In the latter year he removed to Salem, where he
was installed pastor of the East Society. He died
in 1855. He was a man of varied and extensive
culture. lie won distinction as a scholar, preach-
er, poet, and critic.
Efiv. Timotliy Flint, born 1780, gnuliiated at
Harvard €ollege in 1800, and wasj)astorin Lunenburg,
from 1802 to 1814. " He was well known
in America and on tlie other side of tlie Atlantic as
the author of various works, tiiat have given him a
rank among the most distinguished writers of the
country." He died in 1840.
It is worthy of mention that a daughter of
General Stark, the hero of the battle of Benning-
ton, resided here for about twenty years, and died
June 18, 1870, at the age of eighty-eight years.
She married Samuel Dickey, of Manchester, New
Hampshire, and was tiie mother of eleven children.
Her youngest daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Stark
Campbell, the youngest grandchild of the general,
with whom ilrs. Dickey spent the last twenty years
of her life, is still a resident here. She confirms
the statement that the name of her grandmother
was not " Molly," but Elizabeth. She thinks it
quite probable, however, tiiat the general used the
expression, "Molly Stark," as claimed in the tra-
dition. It was one of the pet names he often
apjjlied to her. In later years he more frequently
called her " Deborah."
The town statistics for the year 1878-79
give, as the total valuation, $ 444*^,518 ; total tax
assessed, $7,792.06; rate of tax per $1,000,
$16.40 ; immber of houses, 203 ; number of acres
of land assessed, 7,564; number of horses, 148;
cows, 249; town debt, $19,445; number of
polls, 251.
The census for 1875 gives the whole number of
manufacturing establishments in the town as twenty-two
; number of persons employed, one hundred
and seventeen; capital invested, $42,225; value
of manufactures, $ 145,071. Number of per-
sons employed in agriculture, one hundred and
twenty-five; value of agricultural productions,
$78,000. The population of the town in that year
was nine hundred and seventy-niue.
The people of the town have always taken special
interest in educational matters. A private acad-
emy, through the influence of Colonel Daniel FHnt,
was opened about 1825, and flourished for several
years. A high school was established by the town
hi 1868, which, notwithstanding the limited popu-
lation, is still maintained.
The number of scIkidIs in town is six ; the
whole number of pupils attending the schools in
1878 was one Imndred and sixty-four; total
amount expended for support of schools for
tiiat year, $2,124.62. Tliis sum represents very
nearly the amount ammally devoted to the support
of schools.