History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

Indians came aud stood at a distance off looking
at us but came not near us. But when they iiad
been a wliile in view some of them came and held
out a great bass towards us, so we sent a man witli
a biscuit and changed the cake for a bass. After-
wards they supplied us with bass, exchanging a
bass for a biscuit cake and were very friendly unto
us We had not been there many days
(although by our dilligence we had got up a kind
of shelter to save our goods in) but we had orders
pan."
The uneventful annals of the town record the
peaceful progress of an agriculturnl community
occupied in drawing its needful supplies of food
from the soil and from the river, and occasionally
troubled by the whirlwind of superstition that
,
culminated in tiie Salem tragedy of 1692, singu-
larly free from these and other calamities that
befell less favored localities, Watertown yet bore
lier full share in the efforts and in the burdens of
tiie colony in its struggles, first for existence, and
subsequently for independence. For more than
lialf a century she was preserved from mentfll stag-
nation by an acrimonious dispute over the question
of the proper location of a new meeting-house.
A striking contrast to the simple lives of these
Puritan emigrants is afforded by those of their de-
scendants of to-day. Religion furnished not only
tiieir spiritual food, but intellectual recreation as
well. The two Sunday services, tiie weekly lecture,
and the family devotions, filled the place now
occupied by the newspaper, the public library, the
lyceum, public amusements, and the other manifold
methods of employing spare time. Books were
scarce and highly prized, and — the Bible ex-
cepted — consisted principally of treatises by the
Puritan divines. Without being superstitious, they
saw a providential significance in the most trivial
occurrences. Thus at Watertown, one day (so
Governor Winthrop tells us), "many persons saw
a great contest between a mouse and a snake.
After a long fight the mouse prevailed, and killed
the snake. The Eev. Mr. Wilson of Boston, a
very sincere and holy man, gave this interpretation
of it : the snake was the devil : the mouse was a
WATERTOWN. 437
poor contemptible people which God had brought
hither, who should overcome Satan here, and dispossess
him of his Kingdom."
Tliere was much sickness duiing the first winter,
which was one of great severity, and also much
suffering from scarcity of food, many being com-
pelled to subsist solely upon shell-fish, ground-
nuts, and acorns. Several of the settlers lost their
houses and wigwams by fire, and Rev. Mr. Phillips
and others had their hay burnt. The settlers were
to come away from that place whicli was about also greatly annoyed by wolves, and one night, the
Watertown, unto a place called Mattapan near report of a musket discharged at them in Water-
Dorchester. So we removed and came to Mattatown having been heard at Roxbury, the people
there, apprehending an Indian attack, were greatly
excited, and were called to arms by beat of drum.
The alarm was communicated to the people of Bos-
ton, who also turned out, but who, on learm'ng the
cause, were greatly relieved, and " went merrily to
sending its little colonies to the Connecticut valley, breakfast," says the narrator of the incident.
the "far west" of that day. Undisturbed by tlie A site for a fortified town and for a capital of
terrible Indian war that in 1675 devastated so the colony having been selected by Governor Win-
many thriving New England villages, and unthrop and the assistants in December, 1030, the
settlement of IVewtown (now Cambridge) was beuuu
between Chariest own and Watertown. The terri-
tory of tliese towns, then undefined, was contigu-
ous, and embraced all that is now included in
Cambridge, Arlington, Belmont, Lexington, and
Somerville. That between Charles River and
Roxbury, and extending from the Back Bay to the
southwest, belonged to Boston and Watertown.
Between the hue of Newtown and Sir R. Salton-
stall's homestead there was oidy one small inter-
vening lot, and it is probable that a number of his
companions found themselves included in the limits
of the new settlement. The boundary between Watertown
and Newtown was established by the Gen-
eral Court April 7, 1G35.
The town, as well as the colony, suffered a great
loss in the spring of 1681, when Sir Richard Sal-
tonstall returned to England, leaving his two eldest
sons to manage his affairs. His is one of the first
among the great names on the roll of the founders
of New England, conspicuous alike for sound
judgment, public spirit, humane and liberal views,
and for social and personal worth. He was the
son of Samuel, and nephew of Sir Richard Saltonstall.
Lord Mayor of London in 1597, and was
bom at Huntwicke, in the West Riding of York,
England, in 1586. He was a justice of the peace
and lord of the manor of Ledsham, near Leeds,
when, in 1628, he became one of the Massachusetts
Bay Company, in whose charter he was the first