Military History. 223 



blacksmith-shop; parts of the dam may still be seen projecting 

 from either shore of the pond. Starting at the Cove and going 

 westward, we should have seen at this early period the charred 

 remains of the houses of John Otis and Thomas Loring. But lit- 

 tle was left, however : for the fire that destroyed them was an 

 old storv many years back, and now had become little more than 

 a tradition. Nevertheless, from a spot nearly opposite the smithy, 

 their owners had looked out many a bright morning on the pretty 

 scene before them. A few steps further, and near the corner of 

 Ship Street, — or Fish Street, as formerly known, and which per- 

 haps was a lane at even this early time, — was the home of Peter 

 Barnes, the ancestor of the present family of that name ; and 

 close by, for a neighbor, lived John Langlee, the miller, who was 

 also a" shipwright, and later an innkeeper on the same spot. 

 Now, however, he must go a-soldiering, and a-soldiering he went, 

 and not over willingly, we may presume ; for not only do we 

 know that he left a wife and one or two babies to fare as the 

 fates should will, but we learn that he was impressed into the 

 service. However, he shared with many a fellow-townsman in 

 the glory of the brave and unfortunate Captain Johnson and his 

 company, and was one of the two men from Hingham who 

 were wounded in the great battle. He was the owner of the 

 island originally granted to Richard Ibrook, now known as 

 Laugley's Island, and from him descended Madam Derby. The 

 house of Charles A. Lane stands on the spot where lived Joseph 

 Church, brother of the famous Capt. Benjamin Church, the final 

 conqueror of Philip ; and just beyond was the garrison house of 

 Capt. Thomas Andrews, now occupied by the Misses Lincoln. 

 With Captain Andrews lived his father, Joseph, the first town 

 clerk, at this time one of the old men of the settlement. A 

 hundred feet or so to the south, bubbling and rippling as it 

 danced along, flowed the cool waters of the town brook, crossed 

 a trifle higher up by a bridge, and broadened at that point into a 

 drinking-pond for cattle and horses. Lincoln Building covers 

 the spot from which the little pond long since disappeared. 

 Captain Andrews' next neighbor to the westward was Capt. John 

 Thaxter, who had served with distinction against the Dutch, and 

 who was at this eventful period a selectman and one of the fore- 

 most citizens. His family was a large one, and a son — later 

 known as Capt. Thomas Thaxter — served at Martha's Vineyard 

 under Captain Church. The old Thaxter house was known 

 twenty-five years since, and for many years before, as the Leavitt 

 house. The fine old mansion has given place to St. Paul's Ro- 

 man Catholic Church. In the rear, " Ensign Thaxter's Hill " 

 formed the northerly boundary of a wide training-field, which lay 

 between it and the houses on the street. Next beyond, and just 

 at the bend of the road, was the home of old Edmond Pitts, — 

 Goodman Pitts, as he was called, — a weaver, sexton of the 



