SEPTEMBER BEGINNINGS

The town of Burlington celebrated its incorporation in 1799, but the town really experienced its first official stirrings 69 years earlier when the Second Parish was established.

In fact, 277 years ago, the Great and General Court (of Massachusetts) voted on Sept. 15, 1730 to allow residents living in the northwest corner of Woburn to establish the Second Parish (today’s Burlington).

According to local historians, including John E. Fogelberg and Martha Sewall Curtis, residents living in what is now Burlington found it a hardship to walk to church in Woburn (the First Parish). Not only the poorly marked trails and cow paths, but also the distance of about five miles made the Sunday trip challenging. In winter weather, the journey was worse; some worshippers donned snowshoes to travel to church.

Fogelberg writes in “Burlington: Part of a Greater Chronicle,” that when the church was built in Woburn in 1672, it was centrally located for the population then. But, by 1708, Woburn’s population had grown, especially in the north and northwest corners, and those residents, such as those from what became Burlington, had a long way to go to worship.

To alleviate the situation, residents from these areas petitioned the Woburn selectmen in 1724 for relief. Their request was refused, but the following year, funds were approved to support preaching in the three shortest months of the year in each of the two northerly corners.

In 1727, residents of what became Burlington petitioned the General Court that either the meetinghouse be moved to a more central location, or that the petitioners “may be set off (as) a distinct township or precinct.” Three years later, the request was granted.

Of the 312 taxed to pay the Woburn minister in 1730, 82 set off to establish the Second Parish. Curtis writes that the Woburn church was not happy about the separation; not only were they losing parishioners, but they were also losing financial support. Another Burlington historian, Lotta Rice Dunham, notes in “The History of Burlington, 1640-1950,” that several disputes developed in 1730 in both parishes regarding who should pay what to the minister, Rev. John Fox.

According to Dunham, “The people of the northwest (Burlington) felt they were unjustly taxed as they did not receive as much benefit from the minister’s services as their neighbors in the First Parish.” Fogelberg writes that ultimately, the General Court ruled that the Second Parish was exempt from paying Fox anything from the end of the year 1732.

The Second Parish worshipped in the home of Simon Thompson for the first two years after their separation from Woburn. Thompson’s house stood on land across from today’s Grandview Farm, approximately where the phone company building is currently located. In September, 1732, they met to begin discussions that led to the building of their meetinghouse on Forest Field Hill in July, 1732. The land was donated by Benjamin Johnson, and the original structure cost $943.17 to build.

Today, the meetinghouse still stands on its original site, and is home to Burlington’s Congregational Church. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

When you drive by the church at the corner of Bedford and Lexington streets, know that its original worshippers 277 years ago began what became Burlington.

by Judy Wasserman, member of the Burlington Historical Commission Advisory Committee