Morning Again, This is going to come in 2 parts. as is a bit lenghty. It can also be found on the Thompson page at. David Thomson Researchers - http://www.wellswooster.com/tommies/ So Any Tommies on the list, you can delete now. :) This is a new URL for the Thompson Home Page. Anyone with Thompson ancestry , this is the page to find all the Thompson data. you'll ever want to know or need. . I have been a member of this group since it originated. Alice ============= This unpublished manuscript, was written & read by Rev, Carlton Staples before the Mendon Historical Society, Mendon, Ma. three years before his death in 1901: The original is 8 pages long, although very interesting is being shortened, hopefully without losing too much on the life and times of the first 12 years in Mendon, Ma.. EARLY MENDON & KING PHILIP'S WAR by Rev. Carlton Staples: (abridged for this writing, by APP ) (also writings in parenthesis added by me for further explanation or update on the written article.) Part 1: Let us turn back the pages of history to consider an event which ushered in the most distressing and bloody war New England has ever seen. It is commonly called King Philip's War which began in the Mass. colony with the attack on Mendon July 14, 1675. The place had been settled about 12 years. and probably contained 20 or 25 families. Mendon was then a lonely settlement in a dense wilderness as yet almost untouched by the woodsman axe, with only a horse and cart path connecting it with the civilized world. It is difficult to conceive of the loneliness and hardship, the suffering involved on such an existence. The houses were probably all built of unhewn logs. though there is a mention of a saw pit where boards were made by hand. They had a Blacksmith , a carpenter, a weaver, and a minister, among them , but no Doctor, lawyer or schoolmaster until many years afterwards. Domestic animals , oxen. cows. sheep, hogs and horses soon became common and added largely to their means of substance and comfort. Their food must have been wild game. meat, corn, and rye, beans . berries and nuts and of these at first of a scanty supply; Their clothing of the coarest kind of spun and woven in their own homes. Their Books , the Bible, Pilgrims Progress and the New England Primer. Their Amusement were husking and quilting bees. Their holidays Thanksgiving and Sunday Meetings which constituted their principal social life. (the Puritans objected to Christmas and in 1647 by an act of Parliament the observance of both Christmas and Easter were abolished and also condemned by the New England Puritans. ) Let's look for a moment at the location of some of the families, On the Medfield Road (now Hartford Ave, East, Hopedale, Ma. ) we find Benjamin Albee , on Mill River where he built a corn mill; Before this the settlers carried their grain to be ground at Marlboro or Medfield both 15 miles away. Coming towards the village the next settler was John Rockwood . Thence crossing Muddy Brook 20 rods above the present bridge we come to the cabin of Matthias Puffer, whose farm included a part of the Samuel ALDRICH place bounded on the northeast by the rock just beyond the cemetery under which gushes a copias spring. Below Puffer's on what is now the Providence Road, there was probably no inhabitants. But coming toward the village we pass the cabin of Ferdinando Thayer who wrote his name with two small f's instead of a capital letter, and who , tradition says, was a renowned wrestler. Further up we pass the houses of the Lovetts and near the old Burying ground that of Warfield, afterwards the first school master/ then the ALDRICH families, George & Joseph, Abraham Staples and Joseph Whites (where the aforementioned Saw mill was) which brings us to the corner above the Public Library where the Meeting House stood. a humble structure twenty feet square , the roof of which came to an 8 ft. square over the center. ( today the Meeting House grounds are called Founder's Park and has a monument dedicated to the first settlers; George Aldrich's name is 2nd on the monument. with Ferdinando Thayer 1st; also the Library, mentioned above has been for the past 80 years the Mendon Historical Museum: -2001) Part 2: Up the North Road. (now North Ave) were probably a dozen other dwellings, ending with that of the contumacious old rebel Job Tyler. who wouldn't come to work on the Minister's house which the town was building for Rev. Joseph Emerson . (Mendon's 1st Minister) and when the selectman sent the constable to warn him, he said, "If they had more to say to him than he had to them, they might come where he was," An audacious speech which they threatened to report to the court and also his miscarriages on he Lord's Day. Returning to our brief survey to the meeting house. we enter what is called the Country Road (now route 16) leading to Nipmuc Great Pond and south meadows-- probably those near wig-wam hill, where the settlers went for hay. On this road at the Dr Metcalf Place we find the House of John THOMPSON and further on, that of Walter COOK , near Mr. Adams house and above Mr. Winter and Probably Deacon Jones, the pioneer of what is now Hopedale..(was Milford) (Deacon Jones was the first settler in the North Purchase) Continuing on this road to the pond we find there Col. William Crowne, the town clerk, the most notable man in the settlement, excepting the Minister. Probably he had been with Crowmwell's army where he won military renown. He received from Parliment the province of Nova Scotia which he was never to get possession of. His son John Crowne, was a ribald poet and a boon companion of King Charles II and associated with his dissolute court. Col Crowne's was the last house on this road; it stood in what is called on the records, FORTIFIED: indicating that there was some kind of fortification in the vicinity. In addition to the homes and roads already mentioned there were what is known as the Back Lane and Birch Alley., laid out originally as a road eight rods wide. On this were the houses of John Harber. Mr. Emerson. John WOODLAND, and Deacon Moore at the Welcome Staples place. Doubtless there were others within the principle families living here in 1675, and located mainly on this road, leading from Medfield North to Marlborough over a distance of 2 1/2 miles, the houses widely separated and precluding much social intercourse between the people, Evidently they were men of public spirit and strong religious convictions. They laid out this portion of the town a generous scale with the expectations of it's growth and importance, In these 12 years since the settlement began, they had built a Meeting House. a parsonage, and maintained a Minister for most of the time , paying him 40 lbs. a year . one half in County produce. When we recall how few were in numbers. and how straightened their means.. how much larger the value of money was then, than it is now, we partially comprehend the hard constant self denial which these facts show must have filled up their life. They had founded a town, a church here, forming a community of sturdy, intelligent Christian men & women, loving liberty, and walking humbly with God. End of Part 2: Part 3 and 4 to follow: [email protected] - Message From Massachusetts