USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westminster > Celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Westminster, Mass. > Part 1
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M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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3 1833 01067 0898
CELEBRATION
OF THE 100th
10010 (2)
ONE
HUNDREDTH
ANNIVERSARY
OF THE INCORPORATION OF
WESTMINSTER, MASS.
CONTAINING AN
ADDRESS, BY HON. CHARLES HUDSON, OF LEXINGTON;
A
POEM, BY MR. WILLIAM S. HEYWOOD, OF MILFORD;
AND THE OTHER
PROCEEDINGS AND EXERCISES CONNECTED WITH TIIE OCCASION.
130076
BOSTON: PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN & SON, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 1859.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
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CELEBRATION
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1. Westminster, Mass - Conteggial coloration, etc. 2. Wollte. Mass: Geneal. 1 Hudson Charles, 1795 IL n. Title.
Library of Congress
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F74.W.72W6 a22 1;
Westminster, November 25, 1859.
Hon. CHARLES HUDSON :
Dear Sir,-Agreeably to a vote of the Inhabitants of the Town, passed at a legal meeting, we respectfully request a copy of the Address prepared by you for our Centennial Celebration, that it may be published for distribution among the inhabitants of the town. Permit us to express the hope, that you will comply with our request.
Very respectfully, yours,
BENJAMIN WYMAN, WILLIAM S. BRADBURY, JOEL MERRIAM, JR., Committee of Publication.
GENTLEMEN : Lexington, December 1, 1859.
Your kind note of the 25th ultimo has been received; and I do not feel at liberty to deny a request coming, as it does, from the Inhabitants of a Town with which I am connected by so many pleasant associations. But I wish to embrace this oppor- tunity to explain the character of the Address. I am sensible that it differs from most Addresses on such occasions. I was fully aware that an Address, more popular in its character, could be prepared with much less labor, and would be better adapted to the mere convivialities of the day. But being apprised in advance that it would be printed, and distributed among the Inhabitants of the Town, I chose to give it the character of a History, rather than that of an Oration. Great attention is paid, at this day, to his- torical and genealogical research, in every part of the country ; and great efforts are made to procure Town Histories, and thus preserve the perishing papers and fading traditions connected with our early settlements. As no full History of your Town has been written, and as many facts could now be collected which in a few years will be irrevocably lost, I have purposely given to my Address a historical and genealogical character, believing that that would be the most profitable in the end, though perhaps less pleasing at the time. I have been more full in the genealogy of the early families than of the later ; because the people now living can more casily supply the omissions in the later families, than in the families of the carlier settlers.
I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, Your obedient and humble servant,
CHARLES HUDSON.
BENJAMIN WYMAN, WILLIAM S. BRADBURY, JOEL MERRIAM, Jr., Esqrs., Committee of Publication.
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NOTE.
WESTMINSTER was incorporated as a District, October 20, 1759. That day would have been selected for the Celebration, but the adjoining town of Princeton was incorporated the same day, and it being under- stood that they would celebrate on that day, it was thought expedient to select some other day, so as to avoid all interference. Consequently, the 6th of October was selected for the Celebration at Westminster.
+
ADDRESS.
WE have met here to-day, not to honor the living, but to revere the dead. And, though we rightfully rejoice in the present, we glory in it as the result of the past. I stand here, to-day, to speak for the past ; and, in the name of that past, I welcome you to these hills and vales, made fruitful by the toil of your fathers ; to these rivulets, which watered and fertilized their meadows; to these delightful landscapes, which cheered and gladdened their hearts ; to this Hill, where they knelt in devotion, and to yonder valley, where their remains rest in peace.
I am certain that the joys of this day will be heightened by a . recurrence to days gone by,-by pleasant memories of the scenes of your childhood, and by the fond recollections of the mothers who bore, the fathers who protected, and the friends who surrounded you. The present is but the offspring of the past ; and filial gratitude requires that we should, at stated times, turn our atten- tion to what has gone before us. And surely it is not too much to turn aside from the bustle and business of life once in a Century, and contemplate our origin as individuals and as a community.
The causes which led to the settlement of New England, the landing of the Puritans upon these shores, the suffering's they en- dured, and the fortitude with which they bore them-their love of education, their attachment to civil liberty, and, above all, their ardent devotion to the great principles of religion, " are known and read of all men," and need not be repeated here.
Two hundred years ago, this section of the Commonwealth had been traversed only by the red men of the forest ; but they were then friendly, and were in a manner under the protection of the
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Massachusetts Colony. For, on the 8th of March, 1644, at a Court held at Boston, Cutshamekin and Squaw-Sachem Masconomo, together with Nashacowam and Wassamagoin, two Sachems near the great Hill of the west, called Wachusett, came into the Court, and, according to their former tender to the Governor, desired to be received under the protection and government of the Colony.
The covenant then entered into included all the Indians between the Merrimack River and Taunton, and so embraced those who had wandered about the Wachusett. The ceremony of receiving them consisted in teaching them a few of the great principles of the Christian religion and the ten commandments. When they were told that they must not swear falsely, they answered, in their simplicity, that they " never knew what swearing an oath was." And when they were told that they must not work on the Lord's day, they innocently said, " it was a small thing for them to rest on that day, for they had not much to do on any day ; and therefore they would forbear on that day." The Chiefs were received with great and solemn parade. They presented the Court with twenty- six fathom of wampum, and the Court gave each of them a coat of two yards of cloth, a good dinner, and to each of them a cup of sack at their departure ; so they went away joyfully.
But while they were in quiet possession of the country north of the Wachusett, and manifested no unfriendly disposition, Philip, the bold and daring Chief of the Wampanoags, was, in 1675, plot- ting the extermination of the English settlements. Calling to his aid various tribes, and being joined by the powerful Narragansets, he became the terror of the Colonists. Massachusetts, Plymouth, and the neighboring Colonies, in order to resist the formidable force of this wily and daring Chief, ordered out most of the effective men in their respective dominions. This war, which lasted only about a year, was one of a most fearful and sanguinary character. Villages were burned, families were massacred, and all the barbarities of savage warfare were inflicted upon the inhabitants. And, while the women and children were exposed to all the hor- rors of the tomahawk and scalping-knife, of immediate destruction, or hopeless captivity, the poor soldiers in the field suffered incredi- ble hardships from a winter campaign in unexplored forests and dismal swamps, exposed at all times to the midnight surprise or secret ambush of an insidious foe, practiced in all the arts of guile, and in every species of cruelty and torture. This war cost New
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England the loss of six hundred men, and about the same number of dwellings laid in ashes by the ruthless savages.
Owing to the poverty of the Colonies, these soldiers, the brave defenders of the English settlers, were, at the time, but poorly rewarded for their services. After the lapse of more than half a century, the surviving soldiers belonging to Massachusetts, and the representatives of those who were sleeping with their fathers, peti- tioned the Legislature for further remuneration. Whereupon, the General Court, on the 15th of June, 1728, Resolved,
" That Major Chandler, Mr. Edward Shove, Major Tileston and Mr. John Hobson, be a Committee, fully authorized and empowered to lay out two tracts of land for townships, of the contents of six miles square each, in some of the unappropriated land of the Province; and that the said lands be granted and disposed of to the persons, whether officers or soldiers, belonging to this Province, who were in the service of their country in the Narraganset war, or to their lawful representatives, as a reward for their public service ; and is in full satisfaction of the grant formerly made them by the Great and General Court; forasmuch as it is the full intent and purpose of this Court, that every officer and soldier who served in said War, shall have a compensation made him over and above what wages and gratuities any of them have already received :
" That public notice shall be given in the News Letters, and advertisements be posted up in every town in the Province, notify- ing all persons that have served, and were in that fight, and the legal representatives of those deceased, that they give or send a list of their names and estates to this Court, at their next fall ses- sion ; and when such list is completed by a Committee then to be appointed by this Court, the Grantees shall be obliged to assemble in as short a time as they can conveniently, not exceeding four months, and proceed to the choice of a Committee to regulate each propriety, who shall pass such orders and rules as will effectually oblige them to settle sixty families at least, in each township, with a learned orthodox minister, within the space of seven years, from the date of this grant : Provided nevertheless, if the said Grantees shall not effectually settle said number of families in each township, and also lay out a lot for said settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the schools in each of said townships, they shall have
8
no advantage, but forfeit their said grants ; any thing to the con- trary herein contained notwithstanding."
At the next session of the General Court, held in December, 1728, the Committee, by their Chairman, Major John Chandler, submitted a "plan describing a tract of land containing 23,286 acres, 2 roods and 10 perches, without allowing for the pond, which is supposed to contain at least 246 acres, 2 roods and 10 perches. The residue (being 23,040 acres) is the content of six miles square, and laid out in as regular a figure as the land would admit of, for one of the townships granted by the General Court at their sesion held May 29, 1728, to the Narraganset soldiers ; which land lies adjoining to the towns of Rutland and Lunenburg Additional Grant, (now Fitchburg,) and elsewhere by Province land."
Upon this Report it was resolved, "That the land protracted and described in the within plan, be and hereby is confirmed to the officers and soldiers who served in the Narraganset war."
The list of claimants increasing, the Legislature at its session in June, 1732, ordered that further townships be surveyed, so that 120 persons, whose claim shall be allowed within four months, shall be entitled to a township six miles square, under the aforemen- tioned regulations and restrictions. Though the tract which now constitutes the town of Westminster, was surveyed, and by resolve granted to the Narraganset soldiers in 1728, it was not specifically confirmed to a particular company till 1732. Then it was resolved that this grant should belong to 120 persons, on condition that they should settle sixty families in seven years ; but this time was subsequently extended two years further.
A general meeting of the Grantees was held by adjournment on Boston Common, June 6, 1733. It was found that the whole number of Grantees amounted to 840 ; whereupon it was agreed that they be divided into seven separate societies, of 120 members each-this being the number fixed upon by the Legislature for a township. The Company which afterwards drew the township north of Wachusett, was composed of 17 Grantees from Cam- bridge, 33 from Charlestown, 27 from Watertown, 5 from Weston, 11 from Sudbury, 7 from Newton, 3 from Medford, 6 from Mal- den, and 10 from Reading .* Of this number, only 19 were then
* As this list shows, in part, who served in the Narraganset War, it may aid some inquirer by inserting the names. See Appendix A.
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alive who had served in person, the other claimants were the heirs and representatives of those who perished in the war, or who had died subsequently. This Company organized by choosing John Cotting of Watertown, James Lowden of Charlestown, and Joseph Bowman of Lexington, a Committee to manage their affairs.
At a general meeting of the Narraganset Grantees, held at Boston, October 17, 1733, the townships were numbered ; and No. 1, on Saco River, was assigned to Philip Dane and Company, from Ipswich and vicinity. It is now known as the town of Buxton, Maine. After disposing of No. 1, they agreed to dispose of the others by lot ; but before casting lots, it was agreed that the Com- pany which should draw No. 2, near Wachusett, should assign 500 acres to His Excellency Gov. Belcher, for his honored father's right. On casting lots, James Lowden, for the Company, from Cambridge, &c., received No. 2, north of Wachusett .*
Thus far the Grantees of the different Companies met together, and transacted their business in common. But having formed separate Companies, and cach received its own township, cach Company, in future, transacted its own business without any refer- ence to the others. The Proprietors of Narraganset No. 2, (for this was the name by which the township was known, till it was incorporated in 1769,) held their first meeting in Cambridge, De- cember 3, 1733, and organized by choosing Joseph Bowman, Moderator, and William Willis of Medford, Clerk. At the same meeting they chose Joseph Bowman, then and for many years a prominent citizen of Lexington, John Cotting of Watertown, and James Lowden of Charlestown, a Prudential Committee. Subsc- quently, at an adjourned meeting, Benjamin Brown of Watertown, William Brattle of Cambridge, Benjamin Pemberton and Edward Jackson of Newton, John Hall of Medford, and Nathaniel Nor- cross of Weston, were admitted to the Committee.
At the same meeting they also made choice of a Committee to divide and lay out their lands. This meeting was adjourned to
* No. 3, now Amherst, New Hampshire, but formerly known as Souhegan- West, was drawn by Richard Mower, for a Company from Salem and vicinity. No. 4, at Amuckeag, or Quabbin, was drawn by Edward Shove. No. 5, at Souhegan-East, now Bedford, New Hampshire, was drawn by Col. Thomas Tileston. No. 6, in the County of Worcester, now Templeton, was drawn by Samuel Chandler. The grant for this Company was at first in New Hampshire, but not liking the location, another grant was substituted, viz., what is now Templeton. No. 7, in Maine, was drawn by Col. Shubael Gorham,
2
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the 17th, and then to the 24th of the same month. At these ad- journed meetings, they agreed to lay out their lands in lots of sixty acres ; and the Dividing Committee was authorized and empowered to add to this quantity where the soil was poor, so as to equalize, as nearly as possible, the value of the lots. They were further directed to omit all meadows and cedar swamps, if any there were. At the same meetings, they authorized the Standing Committee to tax the shares, and to apply to the Legislature for any additional powers they might deem necessary, in the management of their affairs. The Proprietors did not meet again till July.
In the interim, however, the Standing Committee held several meetings at Capt. Bunker's in Charlestown. At their meeting, December 28th, they directed the Dividing Committee to "fix upon a place for house lots, His Excellency's farm, and a proper place for a meeting-house ; and then lay out land sufficient for a meeting-house, training-field, and a burying-ground, not exceeding ten, acres ; then a lot for the first settled minister, a lot for the ministry, another for schools, and then lots for the Proprietors.".
The place selected for the meeting-house was on the Hill, where the first two meeting-houses were erected. The Governor's farm was located southwesterly from the meeting-house lot, and con- tained 500 acres, and 20 acres for roads .* It included the land on which Capt. Knower, Messrs. James, John, and Joseph Sawin, Mr. Aaron Darby, and Mr. Asa Holden, now reside.
In fixing upon house lots, the Committee first laid out the " town street," where it now runs, through the Village and over the Hill, and then laid out the lots in the form of a parallelogram, one hundred and sixty rods by sixty, with one end bounded on the street. This form was departed from, in a few instances, in the first range of lots, and very frequently in other cases. At the same meeting the Standing Committee, foreseeing that the seven years allowed to settle sixty families in the township, would expire before that number could be settled, agreed to petition the General Court for an extension of the time. An application was accordingly made, and in April, 1734, they obtained an extension of the time till June 1, 1741.
The Standing Committee met again January 21, 1734. At that
* In laying out their lots, they generally specified a certain number of acres for roads, so that if their lands were subsequently taken to that amount, they were not entitled to any damage.
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time no settlement was made, or house erected, in the township. The Committee contracted with Edward Jackson of Newton, and Zechariah Smith of Watertown, for ninety dollars, to "erect a house in the township, twenty-two feet long, sixteen feet wide, and seven feet studs, to be built of square timber, framed roof, covered with long shingles, and having a good stone chimney." This dwelling was erected early in the season of that year; for at their meeting in July, 1734, the Proprietors voted " that the house erected on lot No. 1, be for the use of the Proprietors for seven years, and after that shall belong to the person who shall own the lot." This was the first building erected in the township. It was built of square timbers, laid one upon another, after the manner of building log-houses. It was situated a little west of the present Baptist meeting-house, and was unoccupied, except occasionally by survey- ors, committees, &c. who visited the township, till 1737, when it became, for a short time, the residence of Capt. Moore, the first settler in the town.
In July, 1734, the Proprietors met at Watertown, and voted that lot No. 8, be assigned to the first settled minister, and No. 95, be the ministerial lot. After disposing of these, they proceeded to draw their lots. These lots contained about sixty acres, and were called First Division Lots. The rest of the land remained undi- vided, and was owned in common by the Proprietors.
Though the Proprietors had several meetings, nothing of moment was transacted till, at their meeting in May, 1735, they contracted with Maj. William Brattle, of Cambridge, to build a good saw-mill in the township, and keep it in repair twenty years, in consideration of twelve acres of " meadow swamp," to be set off to him by the Proprietors ; and the privilege of flowing all the meadows above his lot, from the last of September to the tenth of April, from year to year. This mill was erected and completed early in 1736. This was the second building erected in the town. It was located at the head of the " Narrows," where Mr. Wyman's dam now stands. The erection of this mill must have exerted a very considerable influence upon the early settlement of the place ; as it afforded facilities for building, which were much needed in this wilderness. Timber was abundant, and with a mill to convert it into suitable forms for building, one of the great evils of a frontier settlement was overcome.
As yet no settlement had been made. The Proprietors were not
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very desirous of leaving the comforts of civilized life, near the metropolis, and of settling in a wilderness, made vocal by the howling of wild beasts. At that time the whole township was a dense and almost impenetrable forest. Save the surveyors and a few land speculators who visited the place, these fields had never been traversed but by the roving savage. These rivulets which now contribute to works of art and to the comforts of civilized life, then meandered through the thickets or glided down their rocky beds unseen by the white man. The lofty pine and the stately hemlock bowed in the breeze and sang their mournful requiem to none but the red men of the forest. No wonder there- fore, that our fathers were not over solicitous to take up their abode in a trackless waste, and to exile themselves from the comforts of life, and from the social and religious privileges of older settlements.
At their meeting in May, 1735, the Proprietors offered a bounty of forty dollars each to the first fifteen families which would settle in the township before the 30th of September, 1736. This proving ineffectual, at their meeting in June, 1736, the Propric- tors offered a bounty of thirty-three dollars to each of the first sixty families, which would settle in the township within two years. At the same meeting, they levied a tax of sixteen dollars and sixty- seven cents upon each Proprietor, to enable them to hold out these inducements to settlers. The bounty above mentioned was offered on condition that each settler should enter into bonds to clear, fence, and prepare for cultivation, three acres of land, erect a framed house, and continue in the place a certain length of time ; cach family to settle on a separate lot. Though they required each set- tler to erect a framed house, it will not be considered a very ex- travagant demand, when it is known that the house need be only eighteen by sixteen feet-barely enough for one good-sized room. No settlement, however, was effected till the next spring.
We come now to the most difficult part of our narrative. To fix the dates at which the different families came to the place, is no easy task. Here the Proprietors' records afford us but little assist- ance. The settlement was not sufficiently early to be connected with scenes of Indian warfare, and so have the dates written 'in blood, in the annals of savage massacre ; and, at the same time, it was so remote, that accurate records were not kept. Nor will the recollections of the oldest inhabitant reach back to the period when the first settlers came to the place. Some, and perhaps
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most of the settlers who had families, were in the place a portion of one or two seasons before they removed their families. If, therefore, all the particulars were known, it would be difficult to say when certain persons became permanent inhabitants ; and it is more difficult now, when most of the facts are lost.
Captain FAIRBANKS MOORE, from Lancaster, was the first who removed his family into the place. He came to Narraganset in March, 1737. He at first took up his abode in the house erected by the Proprietors on lot No. 1. This, however, was not the lot on which Captain Moore settled. He simply took up his residence in the Proprietors' house, till he could erect a dwelling upon his own farm, which he did in the course of the season. It was a framed house, and was situated at the north-east end of the Pond, near the spot where Mr. Solon Raymond now resides. Here, if we may believe tradition, the first birth and the first death occurred-both children of Captain Moore. No record of this birth or death. has been found ; but there is a rough stone in the old part of the burial ground, marked, " A. M. 1742," said to have been erected for Abner Moore, a lad twelve or fifteen years of age. This is un- doubtedly the oldest stone in the yard. Captain Moore was an active and enterprising citizen. As early as 1740 or '41, he opened a public house, which was the first opened in the town- ship.
He was engaged, like many others in his day, in land specula- tions. Nor did he confine his operations to Narraganset ; but cx- tended them to the unsettled townships on Connecticut River. He left this place probably about 1746, and went to Fort Dummer, now Brattleborough, Vermont, where one of his sons had fixed his abode. While at that place, he was on a visit at his son's house, about two miles from the Fort, when the Indians attacked the house in the night time. Moore and his son fought desperately, but were overpowered by numbers, and both massacred .*
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