MASSACHUSETTSHISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, State House, Boston. 1. Town Marlborough. Name Josiah Stow Homestead.

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1 FORM B - BUILDING In Area no. Form no. MASSACHUSETTSHISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, State House, Boston / ;;L. 1. Town Address Spoonhill Ave. Name Josiah Stow Homestead 2. Present use Residence Present owner Luther Crist 3. Description: 2t story center chimney Date 1713 Source Pub. local histories.ct.,.,..,...,-~ 4. M W sketch of building location in relation to nearest cross streets and other buildings. Indicate north. Style Colonial Architect Exterior wall fabric Clapboard Outbuildings (describe) N_o_n_e _ H o S ---_..-I~ ia6--~r c. ~ e, 0 OR o s Other features Fenestration suggests one room plan developing into two room plan. Altered Date Moved Date 5. Lot size: One acre or less Over one acre X Approximate frontage 150 feet Approximate distance of building from street 100 feet o NOT WRITE IN THIS:SPACE 6. Recorded by Ern e_s_t_g_inn e_t_t_i _ USGSQuadrant \ S Organization Historical HC Photo no. " Comm1..ss1..on '\ Date_1_2 1_ _7_6 _ SM-2-75-R061465~ (20M-2~76) \ ~.. \ "\ (ovexrece\\jed \

2 7. Originalowner (ifknown) Jabez Stowe Originaluse Farm Subsequentuses (ifany)and dates Residence Themes (checkas many as applicable) Aboriginal Agrtcultural Architectural The Arts Commerce Communication Community development x X Conservation Education Exploration/ settlement Industry Military Political x --x- Recreation Religion Science/ invention Social! humanitarian Transportation 9. Historicalsignificance(includ explanation ofthemes checked above) On the above farm, whose buildings are hardly visible from any road, situated as it is among trees and ledge lived Jabez Stowe and ~vife. Their daughter P~tty had married Phineas Welchp(a descendant of Paul Welch who settled in Bolton in 1740) and they took the farm and remained here at the homestead caring for the aged parents. the farm was then not one of the most fertile, but Phineas Welch was a hard-working man and soon accumulated property and lived comfortably. Among their seven children was Josiah Stowe Welch, born 1825, and married Lydia Stowe in He had early learned the trade of cutter and soon had the distinctio of using the first sole and upper leather ever cut in. In 1849 in company with his brother-in-law Edmund Stowe he began making shoes. Soon he was in busine~s for himself and became quite a prominent citize~ being one of the Incorpor~tors of the Hudson National Bank, Trustee of the Hudson Savings Bank, Town Treasurer and numerous other offices. He died in Hudson, October 1, 1909 age 84 years. 10. Bibliographyand/or references(suchas localhistories,deeds, assessor'srecords, early maps, etc.) Historical Reminisces of, Ella Bigelow, map of Marlboro:ugh, Silas Holman Surveyor,....-.'.

INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Massachusetts Historical Commission 80 Boylston Street Samuel (?)ffhomas Stow House Form No.

3 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Massachusetts Historical Commission 80 Boylston Street Samuel (?)ffhomas Stow House Form No. Additional information by Anne Forbes, consultant to Historical Commission, 6/21/95: ASSESSOR'S #45-71 less than one acre PHOTO #95-17: 37 ARCHlTECfURAL DESCRIPTION. Certainly one of the oldest houses in, at least part of this structure may date to the late seventeenth century. (See below.) It still faces south, as if ignoring the road in favor of the sun that would have warmed it through all its early winters. It is one of the better-preserved of 's very old houses, still clad in clapboards, and standing on a fieldstone foundation. It is a 2 1I2-story house, one-room-deep, with an asymmetrical four-bay facade, the fenestration of which suggests that it may have begun as a three-bay "half-house", with the west end added relatively soon after the east portion. Spanning the rear west end of the main house is a one-story leanto, which connects to a two-part, one-story ell that stands perpendicular to the east end of the main house. Abutting the north end of the ell is a modem two-car garage. Most windows in the building are 6-over-9-sash, in projecting surrounds. A fixed 6-light window is located under each end gable. The architectural trim includes narrow comer boards, and a molding under the shallow front overhang of the roof. The main entry has a 4-panel door with four lights across the top; its surround has been altered, and a later pediment added. A second door, with six lights, is located on the south side of the ell. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont. At the end ofelia Bigelow's narrative on the Stow/Welch farm, she makes the tantalizing statement that Charles Welch and his sister Emily "make the sixth and last generation" of the family to live there. If Charles was indeed Josiah Welch's brother, it would mean that part of the house, at least, was built by the first member of the Stowee) family to settle in, Samuel Stow. Certainly the house may predate 1721, the year of Samuel's death, but it is uncertain whether it would have been built by him, (if so, it was probably constructed in the late seventeenth century), or by his son, Thomas. According to Hudson, it was apparently in the 1670's that Samuel Stow ( ) came here from Connecticut (where his father, Thomas Stow, had moved after several years in Concord). He was a proprietor of, had evidently served in King Philip's War, and was one of the signers of the petition for the Ockoocangansett (Indian) Plantation in Then in 1684, according to Hudson, he "bought of Waban and James Atchuit, two Indians of Natick, for 6 pounds--3 pounds in money and 3 pounds in corn--twenty acres of land in." It is likely that "Waban" was Thomas Waban, son of "Old Waban" (d. 1674), who was reputed to have been the first Indian convert in the Bay Colony. James Atchuit may have been the man known as "Great James". In the early part of 1684 these two men, much to the anger of other Indians, were engaged in illegally selling, without the authorization of the General Court, and for their own profit, parcels of land within the Indian plantation. (Cont.)

4 'INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Massachusetts Historical Commission 80 Boylston Street Samuel(?) /Thomas Stow House Form No. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont. Partially to stop these sales, the colonists obtained a deed to the entire Indian plantation, even though it was clear that the General Court would not recognize it as legal. Even so, in 1686 the proprietors of laid out parcels and divided the Indian plantation anyway, and held a lottery to apportion 30-acre parcels of upland in it to each of them. Since Samuel Stow's name appears on the list of recipients, it is not clear whether the land on which this house stands was part of his 1684 illegal purchase, a piece of the 30-acre parcel he drew, or another piece of land. Among the children of Samuel Stow and his wife, Elizabeth, was Thomas Stow ( ). He married Hannah Johnson in 1713, another date which has been suggested for the house, and which is presently painted on the chimney. At the very least, the building is likely to have been enlarged around that time. Future deed research is likely to confirm what Thomas Stow's will, and the map of 1803, already suggest--that the next owner of the farm was his youngest son, Josiah Stow, ( ), who was charged in the will with providing for the support of his mother, Hannah, for the rest of her life. (She died in 1789). Josiah, like many of his generation, took part in two wars, the first for England, and the second against it. As a young man, he was a member of Captain Weeks' company in the French and Indian War, (organized 1757), and in his early 50's he was a delegate from to the last two Committees of Correspondence during the Revolution, in 1781 and Two of Josiah and Ruth's sons, Joel and Jabez, married sisters, Elizabeth and Sarah Barnes. By 1798, Jabez (b. 1769), who had married Sarah in 1792, owned part of the house, while his aging father owned the other part. As the 1978 inventory form points out, Jabez carried on the tradition of living here and caring for his parents, who lived to be 87 and 76. Like his father, Jabez was also a loyal and respected citizen of, and served on the Board of Selectmen in As to the Welches, who apparently inherited the entire farm after Jabez and Sarah died, maps show that Charles Welch had come into the property's ownership by ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. Maps and atlases: 1803, 1830, 1835, 1853, 1856, 1875, 1889, Marlboro vital records. Marlboro directories and tax valuations. Bigelow, James. "Photographs and Descriptions of Some Old Houses in Marlbrough, Mass." Hurd, D.H. History of Middlesex County [X] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completed National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.

5 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Massachusetts Historical Commission 80 BoyJston Street Community Property Samuel(?)ffhomas Stow House FOTID No.

6 Massachusetts Historical Commission 80 Boylston Street Community Property Address 33 Spoonhill Avenue Form No(s). National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check all that apply: [x] Individually eligible [ ] Eligible only in a historic district [ ] Contributing to a potential historic district [] Potential historic district Criteria: [x] A [] B [x] C [] D Criteria Considerations: [] A [] B [] C [] D [] E [] F [] G Statement of Significance by _An_n_e~F~o~rb~e~s The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. _ Except for the alteration of its entries, the Samuel (?)ffhomas Stow House meets Criterion C as an excellent example of a four-bay, 2 1/2-story First Period house that exhibits a typical eigihteenthcentury growth pattern. For its association with members of the earliest generations in of the large and influential Stow family, and four or five generations of their descendants, as well as for Committee of Correspondence member Josiah Stow, it also meets Criterion A. The property retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts Historical Commission 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts Historical Commission 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts Inventory No: Historic Name: Common Name: Address: HRV.165 Blood, Joseph House Farnsworth, Jonathan - Beaman, Jonathan House 74 Poor Farm Rd City/Town: Village/Neighborhood: Local No: 9-17 Year Constructed: