Historic leaves, volume 1, April, 1902 - January, 1903

[24] twenty-five years ago. Nathaniel married Mary Pierce in 1753. They had two daughters, Mary, who was married to John Stone in 1780, and Elizabeth, who was married to Ebenezer Smith. The latter had no children, but from ColonelStone and Mrs. Stone are descended the old families of Stone, Vinal, Sanborn, and Bonner now in town. Nathaniel inherited from his father the ‘Great Pasture,’ so-called, containing fifty-five acres. This pasture was bounded by the present Walnut street, Highland avenue, School street, Somerville avenue, and Bow street. There was no house on it at the time of the father's death, and, indeed, it bore only one house for more than a hundred years, or till a few years after the setting off of the new town. This house was the residence of Nathaniel Tufts, Jr. It will be remembered as the old house taken down a few years ago, which stood close to the eastern wall of the First Methodist Episcopal church on Bow street. Nathaniel continued to live in it till 1767, when, like his father, he died at about the age of fifty.

The descendants of Peter Tufts are more numerous than those of his brother Nathaniel. They have numbered many hundreds, and have largely lived in Eastern Massachusetts. Peter inherited from his father, with the farm above referred to, the dwelling bought of Russell in 1701. It is the house familiar to the members of this society as the one on Somerville avenue, which General Greene occupied as his headquarters during the siege of Boston. It continued in possession of the family for more than one hundred and sixty years, having been long owned and occupied by the late Samuel Tufts Frost. It has been changed and added to from time to time, but still retains the appearance of a very old house; in fact, it is by several years the oldest structure in the city. Mr. Frost had in his possession some of the ancient window sashes with their leaded diamond panes. There was long left in one of the great beams of the kitchen an iron staple said to have been used to hang the steelyards on in weighing the rations for the soldiers.

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