History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

424 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
teaching school. For tlie first time for a long
series of years the town, at the March meeting,
voted the freedom of the higliways to swine. Abner
Sanderson was elected representative in May.
A letter to the selectmen from Timothy Tufts and
others in behalf of Charlestown appears in the
records for tliis year, desiring them to request the
corporation of Harvard College to reduce the rates
of ferriage between Cliarlestown and Boston, which
had been advanced during tlie war, — that body
having authority to regulate the matter. Benjamin
Green, Jr., was again engaged, in 1785, to
teach the grammar school. On the 5th of Sep-
tember, 1785, the town was divided into four
school-districts, — Pond End, Trapelow, the south-
west part of the town above Mixer's Lane (Bacon
Street), and the remaining portion belonging to
the middle district. On the 1-ith of February,
1786, the selectmen engaged Jonas Dix to teach
the grammar school for one year, and authorized
the engagement of an usher for that scliool. In
March John Remington was paid for services as a
teacher. Abijah Bigelow was engaged in Marcii
to teach at the new school-house at tlie west end of
the Plain, until the appropriation was expended;
l\e was to keep " two schools a day " after
the 1st of April. In May Leonard Williams was
unanimously elected representative. In August
the board of Mr. Jackson, and the salaries of
Nathan Underwood and Abijah Bigelow, all school-
masters, were paid ; and in October the selectmen
engaged Jolui Child to teacii the school near the
meeting-house, and Jonas Dix to teacli the one at
the foot of the hills. In the latter part of 1786
occurred tlie outbreak known as Shays' Insurrec-
tion, causing cpiite an excitement tliroughout cen-
tral Massachusetts. That Waltham's sons were
prompt to lend tlie state their aid is evident from
the fact tiiat, early in January, 1787, the selectmen
directed Colonel Isaac Ilngar to be ])aid for beef
supplied to the militia at Cambridge in November,
and on the 14t]i of tiiat montii the town voted
fortyeight .shillings per month to tlie thirty-days
volunteers in tlie service of the governinoiit, tlie
town, however, to receive any allowance made for
such services by the state. At the Marcli meeting
tlie town voted to each private soldier who marclied
from tlie town in the 2d Division to join Gen-
eral Lincoln in the service of the government, six
sliiilings, exclusive of his public pay, and to cncli
officer a like sum in pro])ortion. Finally, in Apiil
the town voted tlie volunteers under Geiutral \m\-
coln tlie three dollars paid to each in advance, pro-
vided they would release the town from further
demands, and trust to getting their pay from the
state. In April Captain Samuel Bigelow was paid
for keeping the school at the Upper Plain, and in
May Abner Sanderson was unanimously chosen
representative. In October teachers were to be
engaged for the four schools. A town-meeting
was held, December 17, to choose a delegate to the
convention to meet at Boston in January, to con-
sider the Federal Constitution reported at Phila-
delphia; Leonard Williams was elected for that
purpose.
The tax upon the town for the support of the
Great Bridge was probably beginning to be onerous,
and the people evidently began to be a little restive
under it, for in Marcli, 1788, a committee reported
verbally that they were unable to find any grant of
land made for its support in which Waltham or
Weston had any interest. Abner Sanderson was,
in May, again elected representative, a position
which he continued to fill until 1802. In 1790,
according to the adjustment of accounts for repairs
on the Great Bridge, Waltham had outstripijed
Weston in valuation, and was rapidly overtaking
Watertown, the proportions being: Watertown,
£2 15.y. 6^/.; Waltham, £2 13*.; AVeston, £2
7*. 5c/. Bridge, Dix, and Mead were paid for
teaching, and the school grant, appropriated De-
cember 6, was divided as follows, among five
school-houses: Upper end of Plain, £25 6«. 8r/.
Foot of Hills, £22 2«. ; near the meeting-house,
£30 OS. -.id.; Trapelow, £18 3*. 10c/.; proprie-
tors of new school-house (probably at Lower Plain),
£4 2«. 3c/. In the records for this and the suc-
ceeding year there appears an oath of allegiance to
the state and general government, signed by a
majority of flic town ullicers. In 1791 it was voted
by the town to buy tlic school-houses at the Upper
Plain and at the Trapelow district, a committee
appointed for the purpose having pronounced them
suitable for the purpose and the proprietors willing
to sell. £77 ll.«. were appropriated for the one
at the Upper Plain, the amount being divided
among twenty-one proprietors, all of them residing
on upper Main and South streets; £56 18*. lOc/.
were appropriated for the one at Trapelow, jjroprietors
not named. The Iumisc near the Widow
Barnard's was reported upon adversely by the
mmmi:iee. The schools were ealle.l al'this time
IN.iid Knd, riiin, Trapelow, and Southeast Cor-
ner. \\\ order appears among the selectmen's
;