Historic leaves, volume 3, April, 1904 - January, 1905

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[90] couple were married April 19, 1750. Their graves may be seen in the old Phipps-street yard, Charlestown, where it is recorded that Mr. Tufts died March 4, 1791, aged sixty-three, and his widow, February 7, 1813, aged eighty-four. A list of their twelve children, with some of their descendants, may be found in Wyman's ‘History of Charlestown.’

The next name to interest us is that of Stephen Miller. May 2, 1774, it was voted that he have an order for what he had expended for the school, £ 21 3s 4d; and April 18, 1776, we read: ‘Agreed with Stephen Miller, one of the committee for the school without the Neck, that he have an order for £ 34 10s Od, the whole sum named for said school. But as Mr. Gardner's and Mr. Russell's orders were drawn (but not paid) and recorded in this book, this is deducted, and makes his payment £ 20 17s 4d.’ These amounts, then, represent what it cost the town of Charlestown to maintain the Milk Row school, at the time of the Revolution. It also shows us that, unlike the one on the peninsula, this school was not suspended, at least for any length of time, during the exciting scenes that followed the eventful April 19, 1775.

Stephen Miller represented one of the old families of Somerville. He was the son of James3 (James2, Richard1) Miller and Abigail Frost, and was born in 1718. He followed the blacksmith's trade, and died February, 1791, aged seventy-three. By his will, he left to the negroes of the town £ 20, and made generous provision for the widow and children of his brother James, besides remembering other relatives. This James Miller was slain on Somerville soil by the British on the day of the Lexington and Concord fight, and near the spot a tablet has been placed to commemorate the event.

From 1776 to 1793 Milk Row school was directed by three men, who in turn acted in the capacity of local committeeman, Timothy Tufts, Samuel Tufts, and Nathaniel Hawkins. Some time before 1776 we read that the citizens in town meeting assembled, for some reason or other, discontinued the practice of choosing a local superintendent, and voted that the selectmen should have sole charge of the school without the Neck, and full