A document has come to light which for Maynard is the
equivalent of discovering a long-lost draft of the Declaration of Independence.
It begins, "To the Hon. Senate and House of Representatives in General
Court assembled. We the subscribers residing in the borders of the Towns of
Sudbury, Stow , Acton
and Concord
wishing to unite as a body corporate and form a township...set forth the
following reasons."
The petition of
record, dated January 26, 1871, was submitted to the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts by people in what was
informally known as Assabet
Village Sudbury and Stow . Three supportive petitions followed
shortly thereafter, adding 63 more names for a total of 134 signatures. After
negotiations with the parent towns (and payments) a smaller Maynard was created
on April 19, 1871 with the present-day boundaries. We are creeping up on the
150th anniversary.
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| David Griffin (L) and Paul Boothroyd (R) of the Maynard Historical Society hold the framed "lost" petition. |
There have always
been rumors of an earlier petition from either 1869 or 1870, never submitted.
Remarkably, the original recently surfaced. Key differences from the official
petition are that the town-to-be was not yet named and there was intent to
acquire land from Acton and Concord
in addition to Sudbury and Stow . Reasons given:
"Within the
limits of said contemplated town are three manufacturing establishments, one
cotton and wool factory village containing over one hundred inhabitants
situated three miles from the center of its respective town, also one powder
manufactory and one paper mill doing business on a large scale situated four
miles from the center of their respective towns and many of the other
inhabitants are as badly situated. Our schools are not sufficient many having
to travel two miles distance. We are not provided with sufficient roads and
those now located are in a bad state of repair and many thousand acres of
fertile land remain uncultivated for the want of better accommodations. Said
towns have been often requested and refused to supply said deficiencies. We
therefore pray that this Hon.
Court would incorporate said contemplated township
with the like privileges of other towns."
This petition has 68
names. There is barely any duplication of names between the unfiled petition
and the four subsequent petitions. Best guess here is that men who signed the
first thought it had become support for the official document. Minus a few
duplicate names, the total number of signers across all five petitions appears
to be 200. Some of these men would end living outside what became Maynard.
Many of the last
names on the newly unearthed petition are familiar as being early and
significant landowners in what became the town: Bent, Brooks, Brown, Conant,
Fowler, Haynes, Maynard, Puffer, Smith, Vose and Whitney. Interestingly, Amory
Maynard's signature does not appear on any of the petitions. Of his sons,
Lorenzo signed but William did not. Signer "Nathan Pratt, Agt." was
in all likelihood the manager of the gunpowder mills. Signer "William
Parker" was owner of the paper mill.  |
| Streets named after early families |
Provenance of the
document was circuitous. As a rolled-up scroll it was in possession of Winslow
Damon, great-grandson of Calvin Carver Damon, founder of the Damon Woolen Mill,
in western Concord .
No information on when or how it got to Winslow, but it may have been that some
of the signers were members of the Masons in Maynard and he was also a Mason.
He passed the document to Frederick S. Johnson in 1960. Johnson, Mason and
Maynard resident, had it professionally framed behind UV protective glass, and
created a typed transcript of text and signatures.
Hard work, given 19th century penmanship and fading ink!
Hard work, given 19th century penmanship and fading ink!
Johnson passed away
in October 2013 before his intended transfer of the document to the Maynard
Historical Society, but his nephew John Taylor III completed the process. In
time, MHS intends to post both a facsimile and a transcript on its
website.
