History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

free choice. This act is the more to be praised,
as it was not demanded by the law of the common-
wealth, the population never having exceeded the
requisite number. Although acted on each year,
the vote estabhshing the school is still sustained,
and a good high-school is in successful operation.
Besides the high school, which is accommodated
WINCHESTER. 511
in the town-house, there are five other schools in
the town.
The eminent men born in Wilmington are Timothy
Walker, LL. D., celebrated as a jurist, who
settled at Cincinnati, Oliio, and his brotlier. Sears
Cook Walker, the distinguished mathematician and
astronomer.
WINCHESTER.
BY EDWIN A.
HE town of Winchester is in the
p^^\m easterly section of Middlesex
County, eight miles northwest
of Boston by the Boston and
Lowell Railroad, whicii here
sends off branches to Woburn
and Stoneham. Its form is tri-
angular, and it is bounded on
the north and northwest by
Woburn, on the east by Stoneham
and Medford, on the south by Medford and
Arlington, and southwest by Lexington.
All of this territory was a part of a grant of land
made to Charlestown in the year 1&\Q by the Gen-
eral Court of Massachusetts. The portion formerly
callfed South Woburn was ceded to Woburn
with the remainder of that town in 1642. It was
in this quarter probably that the first dwelling-
house in the town of Woburn was erected by Deacon
Edward Convers. He came over from England
to this country in 1630, settled in Charlestown, and
removed to Woburn in 1643. His place of business
was at the mill called by his name (near Whit-
ney's), and there and in that vicinity several of his
numerous posterity continued to dwell for many
years. He was quite a prominent man in public
affairs, and deacon of the First Congregational
Cliurch in Woburn until his death, August 10,
1663, at the age of seventy-three years. Among
his descendants there have been and still are in-
dividuals highly honored and respected.
Eev. Zeehariah Symmes, the progenitor of those
who write their names in the manner indicated,
came over to this country with his wife and seven
fourteen miles northwest from London. He set-
tled in Charlestown, and was the minister there
from 1634 until his death in 1671. During his
lifetime the town of Charlestown voted to give to
him a tract of three hundred acres of land extend-
ing from the north end of Medford Pond to the
borders of Woburn.
Captain William Symmes, a son of Zeehariah,
occupied a portion of this land at an early period.
On a plan of his land which was drawn up in
1705 appears his house, which is there designated
as the old house, indicating that it must have been
built some time prior to that date. The old house
was located not far from the present Centre railroad
station in this town, about opposite the railroad
freight-yard, and the railroad now passes over the
spot where the cellar of the house then stood.
This Captain Symmes was a clotliier, or em-
ployed in fuUiug cloth, and had a small dye-house
near his residence, which he used principally in
connection with his business. He afterwards built
a house in what is now termed Baconville, between
the two houses now located there. Tliis house was
long since taken down, and other structures put up
near by. The original grant of land to Zeehariah
Symmes was ceded to Medford with the rest of the
town at an early date, and afterwards became a
part of this town. Durable memorials of the oc-
cupancy of a large jrortion of this ' territory by
Indians have been shown in numerous implements,
tools, etc., used by them, which have been occasion-
ally dug up from the ground.
The river running through the town was named
by the Indians Aba-jona,from two Indian lovers who
children in September, 1634, from Bedfordshire, are said to have sacrificed their lives in its waters.