History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

496 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
working as a journeyman in the employ of Simeon
Prattj of Eoxbury, joined the famous party whicli,
in disguise, threw overboard tlie tea in Boston
Harbor.
Samuel Phillips Savage owned and occupied at
this time "the liousc standing on the Deacon Bigelow
farm, so called, in tlie north part of Weston,
near Daggett's corner." lie was commissioned
a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Middle-
sex County, November 2, 1773. He and Josiah
Smith represented tlie town in the Provincial Con-
gress held at Concord, October 2, 1774. He-w'as
the president and an active member of the Massa-
chusetts board of war during the Revolution.
His father^ Arthur Savage, married a daugliter
of Samuel Philliiis, distinguished among book-
sellers in Boston one hundred and eighty years
ago. Thomas, the father of Arthur, was born in
lOiO, tiie second child of Thomas Savage who
emigrated from England, and his wife, Faitli,
daughter of William and the famous Ann Hutch-
inson. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Joshua
Scottow, a merchant of Boston, and the autiior of
two curious tracts in the latter part of the seven-
tecntli century.
The growth of the town in population after its
incorporation was very slow, but the farmers in-
creased in wealth and prosperity. It has always
been a farming town, and retains its primitive
condition to a more marked degree than any otiier
within the same distance from Boston. A chair
manufactory and a macliine-shop are the only industrial
establishments within its borders. Many
of tlie farms, in wiiole or in ])art, remain in the
possession of the original settlers. The schools
have always been good, and a new high-school
house lias been erected, within two years, at a cost
of §15,000. There has been but one store in the
town for a portion of the last century. Two or three
blaeksmith-sliopshavclM'cn in the Upiiam family for
a hundred years. I':\(r]jtiiig Ihe old tavern bars
there has never been a (lr,iiii->li(.|) in tlu' town, nor
an apothecary shop, the ph\sici;ins canviiiLr their
drugs aiul potions in tiu'ir s;i(h!l(-b.ii;s.
In SeptemlHT, 1 7;;r., Franris Fulham, James
Jone.s, and .IomMi liivwcr, "in tlir names and
behalf of IIh- |.,un of \Vrsl„n," ni;.,l(. answer to
the pnilinn IVulH .l„h„ Flinl ;,n,l (,thr,-s, „r tlir
>'"rllip;irl nf ihr Inu „, f,,,- a s,|,,,r;,tr t„u ii^ln,,, .-nMl
claimed: " I. Thai thr s;,i,l Tcmii nf Wolnn is
but small, Th(i' ah.. ul S, viii MHc,. in |,,.|ii.-|li fnini
North to Nc.ulh, \cl >r,ncr Thr.c .\lihs"v,i,l^. ,11
the Centre & in considerable parts not above half
so much, & great part of the land very poor, rocky
and barren not capable to be inhabited. That
there are but about a hundred families in all, &
many of them in Low Circumstances. 2. That
the Said Town hath lately been at great Cost and
Charges to build & finish a Decent Meeting house
for the publick worship of God not oidy of suffi-
cient Dimensions for the whole town, but it is not
near fil** when assembled together and this Meet-
ing-house stands by the great Eoad & as Survey-
ors find by the Piatt within a few Eods of the
Centre of the Town. So tiiat the Petitioners liave
little more Reason to complain of the Distance or
Diihculty than their Neighbors who live at the
South End of the town. That the Petition afore-
said Takes from Weston near Twenty families
(tho' severall of them do not subscribe) & Some
of the best livings in the town." The remon-
strants carried their point at tliis time, but nine-
teen years later, by the incorporation of Lincoln,
April 19, 1754, AVestou lost a good slice of its
territory.
" A large part of tlie farm of Mr. Alonzo S.
Fiske, in the north part of tlie town, was conveyed,
October 1, lU7o, to Lieutenant Natlian Fiske, his
direct ancestor, in whose family it has since then
remained."
"Tlie house of Jlr. Oliver R. Robbins, in the
south part of the town, is supposed to be from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred years old, and
is probably the oldest house in Weston."
The residence of Mrs. A. H. Fiske was built in
1753 by Mr. Woodward, the minister, and occu-
pied l)y him and his family. Two houses near the
Weston slalioii of the Fitchburg Railroad have
been in the possession of the Hobbs family for
many years. Next to one of these — the house of
Mrs. Samuel Hobbs — was the old tan-yard, car-
ried on by members of this family for a cenliiiy
and a quarter. The business Avas given up, and
the tannery removed in 1862.
Ahrain Hews, in 17C5, started a piltery on
(he site of the house opposid- Ihe ]>nsrnl biaek-
SMiilh-shop, and for three general inns his deseend-
IS |,la(
loved
liis .Mval-mandson, a few
In Ihe soulhcrn ]urt of the lowu is an old
house, liuih probably in 1787, or earlier, standing
iilion the farm formerly owned by I/ieuteiiaiit-
(lovcrnor Moses Gill, that has belonged succes-