USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Leicester > Handbook of historical data concerning Leicester, Massachusetts > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 L53b 1852027
ELECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 1069
HANDBOOK
OF
HISTORICAL DATA
CONCERNING
LEICESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
LEICESTER MASS
TOWN INC
15, 1713.
(ADOPTED MARCH 5, 1900)
ILLUSTRATED
MISS ADELINE MAY,
Regent of Col. Henshaw Chapter, D. A. R.
DEDICATED TO
ADELINE MAY
REGENT OF
COL. HENSHAW CHAPTER
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AT ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY
1912
GHTERS
YONVO · AMERIC
UTION . 3HL
RICAN REV
TOLL
MAUD KNOWLTON BURNETT EDITOR
UNITARIAN CHURCH AND LEICESTER ACADEMY, 1889.
LEICESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
This brief outline of the history of the town Introductory of Leicester, Massachusetts, was, for the great- er part, compiled from essays written by pu- pils of the graduating class of the Leicester Center Grammar School, nineteen hundred and eleven, in response to the offer of a prize for the best composition on the subject from the Col. Henshaw Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The matter has been arranged by a member of the chapter, assisted by the late Parkman T. Denny, and others.
HERE VED PETER SALEM A NEGRO SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTION
SITE OF HOME OF PETER SALEM.
January 27, 1686, a tract of land eight miles square was bought of the Nipmuc tribe of Massachusetts Indians, by nine men living, most of them, in Roxbury. Fifteen pounds, of the value of the money then used in New Eng- land, was paid for it, and the deed was signed by the heirs of the recently deceased chief, Oraskaso.
The place was known as Towtaid, and the towns we know as Leicester, Spencer, some of Paxton and twenty-five hundred acres of Au- burn formed the purchase, which, geographi- cally, is 42 degrees, 14 minutes 49 seconds north latitude, 71 degrees, 54 minutes 47 sec- onds west longitude. Our immediate vicinity was known to the settlers at first as Strawberry Hill. It is about fifty miles from Boston, six from its nearest neighbor on the east, Worces- ter, and something like one thousand and sev- en feet above sea level.
February 15, 1713-14, Leicester was made a town by the General Court of Massachusetts, and named after the old city of Leicester in England.
It was divided, February 23, 1713-14, the eastern part to be sold to settlers, the western to belong to the proprietors who now number- ed twenty-two wealthy investors. In June of this year, John Chandler surveyed the town to determine the boundary lines which were said to have been established by the General Court.
Purchase
Location
Incorpor- ation
Name
Division
7
Spencer
The first settler of the western half was Na- thaniel Wood. These eighty lots, including the two for church and school, sold slowly, but in 1753 were incorporated as the town of Spencer, named after the lieutenant-governor of the colony, Spencer Phipps.
Eastern Part
Lots in the eastern half were deeded on Jan- uary II, 1724, to thirty-seven different persons, among whom were ancestors of the Denny, Earle, Southgate, Henshaw, Smith and Sar- gent families, all since that time closely iden- tified with the history of the town. Before this, by a vote of the proprietors, nominal al- lotments had been made of the fifty house lo!s into which this eastern part had been divided, at "a shilling an acre."
Paxton
In 1765 a strip of land two miles wide was taken from the northern side of the town for Paxton.
Auburn
About twenty-five hundred acres from the southeast part went to the town of Ward- now called Auburn-in 1778.
Size
The town now contains about thirteen thou- sand four hundred fifty-three acres.
First Settler
The first settlement on Strawberry Hill was on lot numbered one, drawn by John Steb- bins. May 14, 1714, Samuel Stebbins, the fa- ther of John and Joseph, was given a life in- terest in lots one and two, the sons being un- der age, as they might agree. Hereabouts was
8
THE JOHN KING HOUSE, CORNER OF PLEASANT AND KING STREETS. Where a garrison is said to have been maintained in Colonial days.
built, not later than, perhaps before, 1713-14, the first house. The site is identified by a granite marker.
We are told by the historian of Leicester, the Honorable Emory Washburn, that "at the foot of Meeting House Hill, east of the prin- cipal village, the waters on the south side of the Great Road flow into the Quinnebaug," thence into the Thames, "while those upon its north side find their way into the Blackstone," and Narragansett Bay. Shaw Pond flows to the Connecticut, Burncoat to the Thames, and Waite Pond into the Blackstone.
Two miles east of the Center village is Cherry Valley named in 1820. South Leices- ter, next called Clappville, from Joshua Clapp, who became the owner of the mill property there in 1829, and finally named Rochdale, in November, 1869, is about three miles south. This name was for Rochdale in England, the same kinds of cloth being manufactured here as there, and some of the people having come from that place.
Greenville, named for one of its first settlers, Captain Samuel Green, and once known as Hammertown, lies between Rochdale and the Center village.
Mannville, so called about 1856, after Mr. Billings Mann, who improved the water priv- ilege of the neighborhood, is about two miles north of the Center.
First House
Water- shed
Cherry Valley
Rochdale
Greenville
Mannville
9
Mulberry Grove
About 1827, the northeast part of the town began to be known as Mulberry Grove, from the fact that Mr. Silas Earle attempted to start a silk industry there from the silk worms which fed upon the mulberry trees he had planted.
Carey Hill
Bald Hill
Legend tells us that a hermit was found by the exploring white men, living on what was afterwards from the name of its new settler, Arthur Carey, called Carey Hill. Another tra- dition says that Bald Hill in Cherry Valley was so called because it had already been cleared, and crops planted there before the white set- tlers came.
Garrisons
All about was a trackless forest, filled with wolves and rattlesnakes. There has been found no record of any Indian raids in this immediate vicinity, though the fear of such was great, and garrisons were built at the house of Rev. Mr. Parsons, on Strawberry Hill, at Judge Menzie's near Henshaw Pond, at Jonah Earle's in the northeastern part, and it is said, at the John King house, a couple of miles south of the center which was standing until about 1905.
Natural Ponds
The only natural ponds, those fed by springs, in town are Shaw Pond in the north- western part, once called North Pond, and Henshaw Pond, only a mile southeast of the center, formerly known as Judge's Pond, from being on the farm of Judge Menzies, an early
IO
THE OLDEST HOUSE IN TOWN-THE HENSHAW PLACE.
comer, but known by its present name since the purchase of the property by Capt. David Henshaw. The house now standing, amid what must have once been imposing surround- ings, was built about 1720.
There are many houses in the town which were built previous to 1800, and a large num- ber were erected between that time and the completion of the May house in 1835.
Set into a retaining wall opposite Paxton Street is one of the original milestones, set up after the measuring of distances by Benja- min Franklin, indicating that it is "54 miles to Boston."
Lake Sargent was originally the "Town Meadow," and is still referred to as "Tophet" by old residents. Waite Pond, so called from adjoining the land of Nathan Waite, the inn- keeper, was made from meadow land about 1847. This was until recently known as the Alice Waite Pond, Alice having been the daughter of Nathan Waite. A number of oth- er ponds have been made by damming streams for mill privileges or reservoir use.
Leicester Center is supplied with water from springs in Paxton, with a stand pipe on Carey Hill, built in 1891, by the Leicester Water Supply District. A new district was formed in 1910 to supply water to the villages of Cher- ry Valley, Rochdale and Greenville from wells at Henshaw Pond, with standpipes on Bald
Stone Mile
Ponds
Water Supply
II
Hill and near Greenville. Worcester, our neighbor six miles to the east and five or six hundred feet below us, obtains part of her wa- ter supply by damming Lynde Brook, in the northeastern part of the town. A series of three reservoirs extends along the road from Paxton to Lakeside. In the spring of 1876, this dam broke causing a flood which did great damage to the country below it, and to the mills and property in general in Cherry Valley.
Roads
An Indian trail passed through the old town of Leicester from east to west. This, in time, became the "Great Post Road," extending from Boston to Albany. Leicester built her share of this in 1723. A vote by the town, taken in 1724, authorized the laying out of Pleasant street, or the "Charlton Road." The next month the "Oxford Road," Pine street, was voted for, and in 1739, Henshaw street, now so called, came into existence.
Taverns
Leicester had a number of taverns in the old coaching days. As early as 1721, there was a public house at the northwest corner of Main and Paxton streets, then called respectively the "Great Post Road" and the "Rutland Road." The original building was burned in 1767, but was rebuilt and occupied until some- where about 1818. From 1727 until a few years previous to 1818, a tavern was kept on the Post Road opposite the present Catholic
12
SARGENT HOUSE, CHERRY VALLEY. Where the "Minute Men" halted to receive bullets made from clock weights.
church. This building was taken down be- tween 1855 and 1860.
Leicester Inn stands where a tavern has been carried on since 1776. Previous to, and during the Revolution, houses in the vicinity of Mt. Pleasant were used as taverns, and still others were to be found in Rochdale and Greenville, one on the road leading to Tat- nuck, and one on the Paxton Road.
The first recorded town meeting was March 6, 1721-2, in the meeting house. Samuel Green was the moderator and was chosen first select- man, assessor and grand juror.
The first saw mill in Leicester was built by Captain Green, at Greenville.
Before 1730 a grist mill was built by Wil- liam Earle on "Hasley Brook," which flows into Lynde Brook in the northeast part of the town.
Carpenters came in 1717, and a very few years later a mason, a wheelwright, and a tailor had established themselves here. There were two hatters in the town at one time, and also a book bindery, a scythe manufactory, a small cotton mill, and a number of grist and saw mills.
The manufacture of woolen goods was begun in 1814 by Mr. Samuel Watson, a clothier, in Cherry Valley. Mr. Thomas Bottomly has been called the founder of Cherry Valley, as, in 1821, he built the mill now known as the
Begin- nings
Manufact. uring
13
Olney mill, and thus formed the nucleus of the manufacturing village. In 1889 there were ten woolen mills in the town of Leicester.
The manufacture of satinets was begun in 1838 by Amos S. Earle and Billings Mann in the Mannville district. Earlier than this, sat- inets were woven by hand, in this same vicin- ity, for Mr. Samuel Watson, four yards being the extent of a day's work, for which the pay was one dollar.
In the Kent planing mill and box factory, built at Lakeside in 1853, was set up the first circular saw in this part of the state,
After building a dam and canal, Chapel mill in Cherry Valley, was begun by John Waite, but, after being later used as a shuttle shop, it was in 1844, occupied as a wire mill by H. G. Henshaw. Two of his employees, Richard Sugden and Nathaniel Myrick, bought the ma- chinery in 1849, and with it established a large and profitable business in Spencer.
In 1830, five large tanneries and several small ones were in operation in the town.
Messrs. Horace and Warren Smith began to make shoes in 1866 at Mt. Pleasant. The same industry was carried on previously for a number of years by the Leicester Boot Co.
The machine knives made at the Hanky mill in Greenville for very many years, are ex- ported to all parts of the world.
14
1
THE RESIDENCE OF REV. SAMUEL MAY.
Leicester's first settlers were farmers, and their clothing was made from thread spun by the women upon their own wheels, woven on their hand looms out of the flax or wool raised by them, as was the custom of the time.
Leicester has been made famous by the manufacture of card clothing, first by hand and then by machinery. The nature of the busi- ness did not admit of foreign labor, so Leices- ter had no foreign population during its early years. Nearly every name associated with the growth of Leicester Center is synonymous with the card clothing industry. It began with Edmond Snow who, in 1785, was making hand cards for wool. Mr. Pliny Earle, begin- ning the business the next year, was the first manufacturer of machine-made card clothing in the United States. This was in 1790. In 1837 there were seventeen concerns making hand cards in Leicester. In 1890, the Ameri- can Card Clothing Co. took over the control of most of the card clothing factories in the Unit- ed States, thus, because the works were moved to larger centers, depriving this village, Lei- cester Center, of its chief industry.
L. S. Watson & Company make hand cards, heddles, and so forth. They started the indus- try in 1842, later buying the business of J. B. and Edward Sargent. A member of the lat- ter firm, George H. Sargent, founded the well known Sargent Hardware Commission House of New York.
15
The diversion of the water, which furnished the power for the mills at Lakeside and Mann- ville, to Worcester's water supply, ruined the industries of those villages, and today but lit- tle remains of them.
Banks
The first town house was built in 1826. The same year the Leicester bank was chartered as a state institution with John Clapp its first president, and located in the town house. In 1853, the bank was removed to the second floor of a brick building standing at the east cor- ner of the present Market street. In 1865 it was made a National bank and in 1871 was removed to the building now of the Leicester Savings Bank, which was incorporated in 1869. The National Bank was discontinued in 1904, when the Savings Bank purchased its building from the National Bank.
Town House
The present Town House was completed in 1855. It might be interesting to note that the bricks of which it was built were made on the farm of John E. Bacon in South Eastern Spen- cer.
At the town meeting in March, 1888, it was voted to contract with the Leicester Electric Co. to light the town hall by electricity. The following September steam heating was in- stalled.
Library
For some years before the Library building was finished, in 1896, the Town House contain- ed the property of the Social Library, formed
16
CORNER OF MAIN AND MARKET STREETS. The brick building was occupied at one time by the Bank. The building at the right was the first Town House.
about 1793, and its successors of 1829 and the Public Library established in 1861. The two early collections of books were kept some time in a store near Pleasant Street, and some time in a private house. The Public Library is well equipped for its purposes. There is a ju- venile department in the basement and a mu- seum of considerable historical value on the second floor. On the first of January, 1911, the library contained thirteen thousand eight hun- dred and fifty-seven volumes.
In 1891 an electric car line was established to succeed the old stage coach. This was the first suburban line out of Worcester.
In 1906 a telephone exchange was installed at the Center.
Electricity was first manufactured for illu- minating purposes in this town by L. S. Wat- son and William F. Whittemore, the Leicester Electric Company, in the factory at "Lower Tophet."
At the town meeting in March, 1889, it was voted to light the streets of the town with elec- tricity. The evening of Aug. 13, 1889, eighty- two incandescent lamps of twenty-six candie power each illuminated the town.
Pipes were first laid for gas by the Worces- ter County Gas Company in 1905.
Gas
The first Post Office at the Center was prob- ably established in 1798. Ebenezer Adams was the first commissioned postmaster. In
Electric Road
Electric Lights
Post Offices
17
1826, Rev. Mr. Meunscher was made master of the Post Office then established at Clapp- ville. In 1859, Harvey Tainter, Esq., was commissioned Postmaster at Cherry Valley. The mail was first brought to town by the "post rider" on the route from Worcester to Springfield. Later the stage coach brought it, and now it is conveyed from Worcester on the electric cars. Rural free delivery was es- tablished here in 1905.
Fire Depart- ment
As early as 1841 a fire department was pro- jected. Somewhat later a steamer was pur- chased, partly by the town and partly by pri- vate subscription. Previous to this, for very many years, two "hand tubs" had been used. Apparatus and equipment has been purchased from time to time, that at the Center being housed in a small building in the rear of the Town House. Other pieces of apparatus are established in Rochdale and Cherry Valley.
First Church
As the religious affairs of early New Eng- land were conducted by the state, they form an almost inseparable part of its history. The first church had been built on the common, in Leicester, before the year 1719 arrived. It was erected by Captain Eleazer How, who, because he had been building the church, had not settled his own lot May 21, 1719, and was, in consequence, given until January 20 to do it. The meeting house was a very rude struct- ure without embellishments or, indeed, con-
18
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH (BURNED 1900) WITH TOWN HALL AT RIGHT, AND CARD FACTORY AT LEFT.
veniences of any kind. Later, each family built its own pew and furnished it with a foot- stove, if any heat was desired, and seats.
In November, 1720, the town voted "that Mr. David Parsons be our Gospel minster." He was to have "the forty-acre lot next the meeting house, a salary of sixty pounds, and sixty pounds settlement." As he hesitated to accept these terms, thirty of the settlers agreed to add to this amount so that the salary should be seventy-five pounds, and the settlement one hundred. He accepted this and became pastor in 1721. The town soon found itself short of funds and consequently could not pay the sal- ary agreed upon. Within six years it was vot- ed "that the town be willing that Mr. Parsons should remove and remain out of this town." Thus began a quarrel that lasted for sixteen years. Mr. Parsons finally left March sixtlı, 1735, but died and was buried in Leicester. His grave is a few feet north of the house now occupied by Col. E. J. Russell on Paxton Street.
The third pastor, Rev. Joseph Roberts, was eccentric and a miser. After his death, at the age of ninety-six, bags of money were found hoarded in his garret, he having lived in ex- treme poverty.
A second meeting house was built, a little in the rear of the old site, in 1784. This was mov- ed to the location of the present Congregation-
First Minister
Third Pastor
Second Meeting House
19
al church in 1826, and sold in 1867, moved to the rear of the Academy and used for a gym- nasium and some time for dormitories, until demolished in 1908.
The third church was a fine example of the best church architecture of that period. It was struck by lightning and burned in 1901. A stone church, dedicated the following year, now occupies nearly the same spot. The early New England faith, you will remember, was Orthodox.
Sixth Pastor
The sixth pastor was the Rev. John Nelson, D. D., to whose memory the present edifice was erected. He "exercised a deep and abiding influence on his church and the community" for fifty-nine years and a little more than nine months. He came to Leicester in 1812. Rev. Amos H. Coolidge held the pastorate of the church for thirty-seven years.
Friends
A Society of Friends was organized about eighteen years after the incorporation of Lei- cester. In 1732 eight men resident in Leices- ter declared themselves to be Friends. The first meeting house was built in 1739, the second in 1791, at the north end of the cemetery, on Earle Street. In 1826 the Society had about one hundred and twenty members, mostly of the Mulberry Grove neighborhood. Today there is only the little Quaker burying ground and the memory left.
20
THE JOSHUA CLAPP HOUSE, NOW STONEWALL FARM.
In 1777 a colony of Jews, the most promi- nent of them Aaron Lopez, came here from Newport, Rhode Island, to escape the threat- ened British invasion. The colony numbered about seventy persons, twelve of whom were slaves, was wealthy, quiet and highly esteemn- ed. They lived in Leicester only about five years, most of them returning to Newport.
Thomas Green, one of the first settlers of Greenville, and the first physician of the town, founded in 1738, and was pastor of, a society of Baptists in Greenville, whose first church was built about 1747. Dr. Green was a most ver- satile man, and has many noted descendants, among them Samuel S. Green, for years the efficient librarian of the Worcester Free Public Library, which was founded by his uncle. The present church edifice was erected and dedicat- ed in 1860.
In 1823, Christ Church, Episcopal, was formed in Clappville, through the influence of Mrs. Ann Wilby, an English lady who came to Leicester in 1822. In 1824 their church building was erected and is the oldest of its kind in Worcester County.
St. Thomas' church was built in Cherry Val- ley in 1844, as a "House of Prayer," a branch from Christ church. It was burned Novem- ber 25, 19II.
By the withdrawal from the "First Church" in 1833 of a number of prominent families, a
Jews
Baptists
Episco- palians
Unitarians
21
Unitarian Society was formed. Their church was built the following year, and still stands north of the common. Rev. Samuel May was the first and most prominent of its pastors. He resigned after twelve years of service, but continued to reside in Leicester until his death in 1899. He came from a prominent Boston family, was an active abolitionist, agent for the Worcester County Anti-Slavery Society, South, Secretary of the Massachusetts Anti- Slavery Society ; secretary, permanently, of the famous class of 1829, Harvard College ; deeply interested in all town affairs during his life, and ably succeeded by his two daughters in philanthropic work.
Methodists
In 1844 a Methodist Episcopal church was organized. In 1845 the denomination was di- vided; the Methodist Episcopal church made its home in Cherry Valley, while the Wesleyan Methodists built a house of worship on Pleas- ant Street in Leicester Center the next year. The Cherry Valley church was burned in 1856, but was soon rebuilt. The Pleasant Street church is now called the Sanderson Methodist Episcopal.
Catholics
The first Catholic services in town were held in the house on Water Street of Michael Ken- ary, January 12, 1846. For a number of years it was under the charge of priests from Holy Cross College.
About a half mile east of the Center in 1854
22
J
-
BUILDING THE NEW TOWN HOUSE IN 1854. Old Leicester Hotel background at left.
-
a Roman Catholic church edifice was erected, called St. Polycarp's. In 1867 this having been removed to Rochdale, and rebuilt, was re- christened St. Aloysius. St. Joseph's has occu- pied the site of the first named since 1869, Rev. Robert Brady being its first resident pastor, 1880. According to a census taken in Janu- ary, 1888, by Rev. Father McGrath, and his assistant, Father Kenney, there were in the town of Leicester three hundred and twelve Roman Catholic families.
Back of the first meeting house, surrounded by a brush fence, was one of the earliest bury- ing grounds. About 1765, Rawson Brook cem- etery on Main Street was opened. Captain Samuel Green was the first white person to be laid to rest in the cemetery of the Baptist church in Greenville. This was in 1736, but this is really the oldest burying ground in Leicester, as it was used as such by the In- dians. The Friends' burying ground on Eliot Hill was opened in 1739, and one in the ex- treme north part of the town was first used about 1850. There are several family burial places apart from these.
Cherry Valley Cemetery was laid out in 1816. Pine Grove cemetery was incorporated in 1841. In this beautiful place, on Pine Street, Leicester Center, many men who, in life, achieved national reputation, have their last resting place. Among them is the Honorable
23
Ceme- teries
John E. Russell, statesman, orator, and schol- ar. Here also is the tomb of the Henshaw family, as well as many another patriot, and the grave of Hon. David Henshaw, appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Tyler.
A short distance north of St. Joseph's church, on Waite Street, is the Catholic cem- etery, dedicated on June 13, 1900, the gift, as was also a Celtic cross, of Honorable and Mrs. John E. Russell.
Schools
On the last day of the year 1731, within ten years of the actual settlement of the town, it was voted to choose a committee of three to provide a school master. Eight dollars and seventy-five cents was appropriated to meet the expense. School was kept in three differ- ent parts of the town, by one master, John Lynde, Jr., for three months in the year. When the town was originally laid out, one hundred acres were allotted for school purposes.
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