GOLDEN WEDDING OF COL. JAMES BROWN AND WIFE, AT Framingham, Mass., Nov. 4, 1857. Let me not to the marriage of true minds Oh no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love 's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks But bears it out even to the edge of doom. - SHAKESPEARE. HOLLISTON; E. G. PLIMPTON, PRINTER, 1857. Introductory. THE residence of COL JAMES BROWN is situated three miles east of Framingham Centre, and half a mile south of the village of Saxonville. The natural outlet of Cochituate Lake and the Saxonville branch railroad run through the centre of his large farm. Fifty years ago, the now flourishing village of Saxonville in Framingham, with its three churches, its elegant High School, its Town Hall, numerous stores and manufacturing establishments, contained but six scattered dwelling-houses and a solitary saw and grist mill. The beautiful centre village, now numbering three elegant churches, a spacious and convenient State Normal School, a large and costly High School, two Banks, a Town Hall and other public buildings, a printing office, three large stores and one hundred and fifty-five dwelling-houses within the circuit of a mile from the centre; contained fifty years ago, a single church, an academy, a small store and seventeen dwellinghouses within the same circuit. Framingham now numbers five thousand inhabitants. Col. Brown built his house in 1807. He occupied it on the day of his marriage, and has resided in it uninterruptedly, for fifty years. He married Nancy Fiske, a daughter of John Fiske Esq., who was for many years a prominent, influential and public spirited citizen, a sincere and ardent promoter of piety and morality, a warm friend of education, and for eight |