History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

for seventy-five iu paper of the old emission. It
was also voted to instruct Representative Dix to
use his endeavors to have the voting qualifications
of 1763 restored. The school-teachers who were
paid by the town this year were Jonas Dix, Jr.,
and Nathaniel Bridge's son. In December the
selectmen engaged Ebenezer Bowman to keep the
school "near the meeting-house."
Early in 1782 the selectmen licensed David
Townsend to retail tea. At the March meeting
the town elected Captain Isaac Hagar, Lieutenant
Samuel Bigelow, and Lieutenant Elisha Livermore
committee of correspondence, inspection, and
safety. It was voted to remove the scliool-house,
and a committee was chosen to select a proper site.
In accordance with a resolve of the General Court,
AValthatn was called upon to raise five men to-
wards the contingent of fifteen hundred to be
raised by Massachusetts for the army. Ebenezer
Bowman was the school-teaciier. No representative
was chosen in 178;J, but in 1783 Jonas Dix
was again returned for that position. The first
business of importance occurring in 17 S3 was the
adjustment of the accounts of Waltham, Water-
town, and Weston for repairs on the Great Bridge.
The metiiod of calculation being on the basis of the
state tax, the amounts paid by each will be per-
ha])s some indication of the relative valuation : the
share of Watertown was £4 11*. %d., Weston
£4 2.». Id., and Waltham £41*. %il. Nathan-
iel ]?ridge, Jr., was paid for teaching school.
At the March meeting the committee of cor-
respondence of 1782 were re-elected. The se-
lectmen ordered that a four-penny loaf of white
bread should weigh 1 pound 7 ounces; a bis-
cuit for two coppers, 7 ounces ; hard biscuit in
the same proportion, allowing for drying. The
following persons were licensed innholders : Isaac
Gleason, Stephen Wellman, Isaac Bemis, Zacha-
riah Weston, Jonathan Brown, Benjamin Hagar,
Samuel Bigelow, Zachariah Smith, Widow Mary
Hagar,— nine in all. At this time the population
was only 689 persons, so that the proportion of
taverns to the population was as 1 to 76|-. It
must be remembered, however, that Waltham was
ou a great highway, and a very large amount
of travel was a necessary consequence. The ap-
proaches to Boston, and tiie avenues from that and
all the large towns in the state, were few, and
their importance was immensely greater than now.
Towns were few, and the majority of houses none
too large to accommodate the rapidly growing
WALTHAM. 423
families of their occupants, and hence the way-
farers needed a larger number of inns.
There were other men who belonged in Waltham
who were in the Continental armies, besides
those mentioned in tiie town records, — how many,
of course, it is impossible to say. The names of
some of them, however, are to be met with among
the state archives. Isaac Crosby, of Waltham, en-
listed at Hingham, about 1780, for three years or
the war; Isaac Parkes (fifer), Samuel Fuller, Edward
Bird, and Joseph Brown were in Captain
Fuller's company (Colonel Brooks) ;
William Tay-
lor, Nathaniel Flagg, and John Colburn were
among the si.K-months men in 1780 ; Prince Collins
enlisted in Newton; John Bennett, John Bemis,
Jr., Abijah Child, Jr., Peirce Dewyer, Thomas
Field, David Holland, Azel Hooker, Minhano (?)
Mitchell, John Eyan, David Stoel (Stowell?),
James Twiiias, are names on the rolls credited to
Waltham ; John Bettis and Jonathan Wellington
served from 1776 to 1780 ; Kera Chappie, Harvey
Bezen, and John Kidder were among those drafted
into Colonel Thatcher's regiment in 1778; John
Potoma (aged 25, — black), Samuel Dale (37),
John Robertson (35), William Benjamin (17),
Nahum Stearns (22), John Wellington (49), and
Francis Parker (21), enlisted in 1781 for three
years or the war; AVilliam Glasscock served 37
months, 18 days; Hugh Hines (deserter) served
28 days; Ariel (Azel?— probably same as previous)
Hooker, after serving 30 months and 7 days, de-
serted ;
Michael Minnehan died in the service after
serving 48 months; John Owins (deserter) served
12 months and 20 days; John Colburn and Abijah
Fiske were in Captain Gage's company (Colonel
Webb) ; Thaddeus Bemis and Joel Bemis were on
board armed sloop Winthrop, Captain George Little;
John Greeuleaf, Josiah Barnard, and Thomas
Wilbur were also credited to Waltham in the army
rolls.
The population of the town, instead of preserv-
ing its rate of increase, which would have increased
it, hi all probability, to nearly 1,000 souls in 1783,
under the terrible pressure of the Revolution upon
its vitality lost ground. In 1763 the population was
663; iu 1783, under favorable circumstances, it
should have been about 980, but instead it was
689, while in 1776 it was 870. On the 29th of
September John Remington was engaged to keep
the school near the meeting-house, and Joseph
Jackson the one at the foot of the hill.
In 1784 Benjamin Green, Jr., was paid for