Miscellaneous 26 items

448 Gravestone of Reverend Thomas Jones January 1975 1 photograph : b&w.

Rev. Thomas Jones was born in Dorchester, Mass on April 20, 1720, the son of Ebenezer and Waitstill Davenport Jones. He graduated from Harvard College in 1741 and was ordained in 1751. Sept., 1751 Rev. Thomas Jones married Abigail Wiswell, daughter of John and Sarah Pierce Wiswell of Dorchester, Mass. He preached for seven years as a supply minister before accepting the call to the Second Church of Christ of Woburn in Shawshin. He owned the Sewall house from 1751-1774 and was the second minister of the Second Church of Christ, serving from 1751-1774. Rev. Jones died in 1774 at the age of 52. His three daughters were Lucy, who married the Rev. Joseph Lee; Mary, who married Edward Walker of Burlington; and her twin, Martha, who married Rev. John Marrett (1741-1813), the third minister called to the Second Church of Woburn.

Reverend Thomas Jones' (1720-1774) gravestone is the only memorial with a portrait. The stone is thought to be the work of William Park (Burlington Municipal Archives and Burlington Historical Commission, A Guide to the Old Burial Ground, Burlington, Mass., 1999).

449 Gravestone of Madam Abigail Jones January 1975 1 photograph : b&w.

Madam Jones was the wife of Rev. Thomas Jones, the second minister; for more information see Miscellaneous: item 448. The mural in the vestibule of the Burlington Historical Museum depicts Abigail Jones serving salmon to John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Dorothy Quincy. Madam Jones died May 22, 1814 at the age of 92.

450 Gravestone of Polly Dean ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

[Catalog record in progress].

456 William Wood's map 1634 1 photograph : b&w.

Map shows was is present day northern Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and Massachusetts. [Catalog record in progress.]

457 Map of Burlington center in 1906 ca. late 20th century 1 photograph : b&w.

Cartography by Alan Nelson.

458 Map of Burlington center 1875 1 photograph : b&w.

Reproduced from a bound series by Frederick W. Beers, County atlas of Middlesex, Massachusetts. New York : J.B. Beers and Co., 1875.

459 Map of Middlesex Turnpike from Lexington line to Lexington Street in the 1850s ca. late 20th century 1 item.

Property lines by James Ashworth. Notes the location of the following property: William Nichols, S. Simonds, Nichols Tavern, Abel Simonds, Samuel Skelton, and Samuel Reed.

460 Map of Burlington Center in 1974 ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Cartography by Alan Nelson.

461 Tri-state trolley map showing Boston and Northern and Old Colony Street Railway Companies' Systems and Connecting Lines ca. early 20th century 1 photograph : b&w.

462 Map of Burlington in 1859 ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Cartography by Alan Nelson.

463 Map of Wyman Farms in 1665 1 June, 1957 1 photograph : b&w.

Map compiled by Dr. A. Warren Stearns, June 1, 1957. Cartography by Merrill A. Brown (Carlisle, Mass.) Maps shows the property lines of Daniel Gookin, John Wyman, Francis Wyman, Henry Dunster, and Edward Collins.

466 Honor roll memorial on town common ca. 1940s 1 photograph : b&w.

Note on verso reads: Burlington Honor Roll built by Raoul J. Lippe. Dedicated October 17, 1943. Mother's Service Club, Maud Graham, Pres. War Parents of American, Mrs. J. Holden Bennett [Mary E. Duncan Bennett]. Unveiled by Mrs. Ellsworth Foster whose husband then was prisoner in China. Highway barn in background.

467 Shoemaker's lasts for one of Burlington shoe shops ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Note on verso reads: shoemaker's lasts from one of Burlington's several shoeshops. Now in Burlington Museum. For more information see Buildings: item 47.

468 Drum that Henry Lyman Bates carried in the Civil War ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Note on verso reads: the drum that Henry Lyman Bates carried in the Civil War. Also his Bible and the watch given him by a dying soldier. Attached note reads: Henry Lyman Bates Anthony Burns in 1854, Ladies Anti-Slavery Society John Brown's said 1859. So. Carolina Dec. 1860 [Catalog record in progress.]

469 Cattle auction poster 29 November 1926 1 photograph : b&w.

Poster advertises a sale a short distance from town "on account of other business Mr. Edward D. Bennett [Edward Dana Bennett, 1871-1941] has decided to dispose of his entire herd of high grade and pure bred cows by auction…"

470 Mural of John Hancock and Samuel Adams being entertained at the Sewall house on April 19, 1775 ca. 1970s 2 photographs : b&w.

Mural by Don Gorvette and Jeff Weaver. The mural is located in the foyer of the Burlington Historical Museum and was painted in 1973. The image shows left to right: Madam Abigail Jones, Rev. John Marrett, John Hancock, Cuff Trot, Samuel Adams, and Hancock's fiance, Dorothy Quincy.

On the morning of April 19, 1775, John Hancock and his elderly aunt, Mrs. Thomas Hancock; Hancock's fiance, Dorothy Quincy; and Samuel Adams were at the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke in Lexington. They had been warned the night before by Paul Revere that the British were moving toward Lexington and Concord.

The orderly sergeant of the Lexington minutemen and proprietor of Lexington's Munroe Tavern, William Munroe, led the group from Lexington along the road to Woburn's second parish (Burlington). They stopped just over the Lexington-Burlington line at Capt. James Reed's house on the old Lexington Rd.; this house stood on the south side of the Burlington Mall parking lot. The group next stopped at the home of Madam Abigail Jones, the recent widow of Rev. Thomas Jones. The house stood on the corner of what is now Lexington St. and Independence Dr. and was known as the Sewall house; the house was destroyed by fire April 23, 1897.

The group was sitting down to dinner when they were warned that the British were coming. Madam Jones' servant, Cuff Trot, and the minister, Rev. John Marrett, led Hancock and Adams to the Amos Wyman house, just over the Burlingon-Billerica border.

Rev. Samuel Sewall gives an account in the History of Woburn:

Mr. Marrett next conducted Mrs. Jones' illustrious visitors to the house of Mr. Amos Wyman, situate in an obscure corner of Bedford, Billerica and Woburn Precinct, where were collected the women and children of several of the neighboring families, who had flex thither for safety; fearing that if they remained at home, "the regulars" might come, and murder them, or carry them off. And now, as soon as Messrs. Hancock and Adams had had time to become calm after their flight, they besought Mrs. Wyman to give them a little food; saying they had had neither breakfast nor dinner that day. Their good natured hostess, in ready compliance with their request, took down from a shelf a wooden tray, containing some cold boiled salt pork, and also (it is believed) some cold boiled potatoes unpeeled, and brown bread; and upon this plain, course fare, they made a hearty meal. Upon their return to Mrs. Jones' the next day, they learned that the enemy had not come there in pursuit of them. Either they and never intended it, or else, being closely pursued from Concord by their exasperated and hourly increasing Yankee foes, they thought it best to take a prudent care for their own safety, rather than to digress in their march, into the neighboring towns, in pursuit of Hancock and Adams. Not many years since, it was a current report in Lexington, that Hancock, in gratitude to Mrs. Wyman for her kindness to him and Adams at her house, in their flight for fear of the British, made a present to her of a cow.

471 Mural of streetcar in front of Major General John Walker house and blacksmith shop during the early 1900s ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Mural by Don Gorvette and Jeff Weaver. The mural is located in the foyer of the Burlington Historical Museum and was painted in 1973. For more information, see Historic homes and farms: item 55; Buildings: item 63; and Transportation: item 146.

472 Mural of stagecoach in front of Marion Tavern during the late 19th century ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Mural by Don Gorvette and Jeff Weaver. The mural is located in the foyer of the Burlington Historical Museum and was painted in 1973. For more information, see Historic homes and farms: item 39 and John Goff's Historic Resource Survey form for 59 Center St.

473 Mural of man and plow during the late 19th century ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

Mural by Bill McNamara. Mural is located at the Council on Aging.

495 Group portrait of the first Council on Aging 1966 1 newspaper clipping.

Standing left to right: Jack Crane, State Representative of Massachusetts Commission on Aging; Glen McNeese; Vice Chairman; Edwin Ellis; Elmer Morrison; Charles White. Seated left to right: Barbara Brown; Clementine Marchant; Chairperson Barabara Ellis; Bertha Ganley; Secretary Melba Nazzaro. Not pictured is Executive Secretary Dick Binnall.

496 Deed dated 1769 from Benjamin Johnson to the Second Parish of Woburn for first burial ground ca. 1970s 1 photograph : b&w.

For more information, see Historic Homes and Farms: item 49.

497 Commemorative seal from 175th anniversary celebration 1974 1 photograph : b&w.

507 Christmas card from Arthur W. Nichols ca. early 20th century 1 photograph : b&w.

For more information, see photograph description for People: item 217.

514 Commemorative seal from 175th anniversary celebration 1974 1 photograph : b&w.

521 Gravestone of Cuff Trot [January 1975?] 1 photograph : color.

Cuff Trot (ca. 1746-1813), was the African slave of Madam Abigail Jones (1722-1814) and Rev. Thomas Jones (1720-1774). Cuff "guided Hancock and Adams through the woods to a place of safety" and "waited upon Hancock and Adams and Dorothy Quincy, and helped to hide their coach in Path Woods" during the April 19, 1775 Battle of Lexington and Concord (Martha Elizabeth Sewall Curtis, "The Story of Cuff and Venus." Woburn News, Oct. 1, 1892) According to Martha Sewall Curtis, Cuff moved with Rev. and Madam Jones from Dorchester and was "so honored in the parish that he was borne to his grave personally by the selectmen of the town" (Martha Elizabeth Sewall Curtis, "An Old Time Celebration." Woburn News, April 22, 1899).

According to the census of 1800, two African slaves lived in Burlington one was the aforementioned Cuff Trot, and the other was Venus Roe (ca. 1750s-1844) was the servant of Capt. James Reed (1745-1832) and was a gift from the Boston merchant, Swithin Reed, for Capt. Reed's wife, Elizabeth Reed (1752-1824); it is extremely probable that Swithin Reed (1712-1790) was Capt. James Reed's father, who built the Reed house in 1740; for more information, see photograph description for Historic homes and farms: item 64.

According to Martha Sewall Curtis' account, the baby was brought home in one of Capt. Reed's saddlebags. Venus' grave is not marked, but she is supposedly buried at the feet of her master and mistress.

Although Cuff Trot and Venus Roe are commonly considered Burlington's only African slaves, this is not accurate. John Goff's 1997 Francis Wyman House Restoration plan mentions Tom Kennee and Jebyna, Black slaves of Francis Wyman, as well Beck, a Native American servant girl of Mary Farmer (1642-1719), the wife of Edward Farmer (1645-1727); the farmers leased the Francis Wyman farm ca. 1676-1680. In addition, the Town Clerk's Vital Statistic Index and Cemetery Inscriptions, 1799-1863 reports that a "Negro woman of George Reed" (1703-1804) died May 15, 1775 at 20 years of age and that a "Negro man of Widow Tidd" died Sept. 10, 1784 at 22 years of age.

The bulk of Burlington's research on slavery has focused on federal census records after 1800; the first federal census was completed in 1790. It is clear that a search of probate court records will yield further information on slavery in Burlington, as will further research on individuals listed as "other free individuals" ie freed African Americans. The 1790 federal census for Woburn (and thus, Burlington, as Burlington was not incorporated until 1799) shows that the following individuals held the following number of other free individuals:

Loammi Baldwin (1). This was Colonel Loammi Baldwin (1745-1807)

David Cummings (1). Probably David Cummings (1729-1799), the husband of Joanna Jones (1730-1794)

Prince Cutler (5)

John Hastings (3)

John Hunt (1)

Abigail Jones (1722-1814) (1)

Margery Reed (1) Margaret Perry Reed (1711-1806) was the wife of Swithin Reed (1712-1790)

Rev. Samuel Sergeant (1)

Samuel Tay (1)

Elisha Tottingham (1)

For more information on the famous visit to the Sewall house, see Miscellaneous: item 470 (1790 Woburn federal census and genealogy resource file accessed November 2000).

522 Gravestone of George Reed [January 1975?] 1 photograph : color.

George Reed (1749-1775) died in the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War. He was Burlington's only casualty from that war who is buried in the Old Burying Ground. GR was the third child and first son of George Reed (1723-1804) and Mary Wood Johnson Reed (b. 1726) (genealogy resource file accessed November 2000).

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