USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Spencer > Historical sketches relating to Spencer, Mass., Volume III > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 Sp34t v. III 1136355
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 4493
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch03towe 0
1
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES
RELATING TO
SPENCER, MASS.,
BY
HENRY M. TOWER.
VOLUME III.
1903
SPENCER, MASS. W. J. HEFFERNAN-SPENCER LEADER PRINT.
1903
"Preserve your local history for it is of priceless value, though some do not seem to realize it, and this value will surely increase as the centuries one after another roll around. What would we not give for authentic and unabridged his- tory of life in the golden days of the Grecian and Roman empires? To be sure we know much but the mind of man is not satisfied. We would know all."
1136355
TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER AND MOTHER, TWO OF THE BEST PERSONS I HAVE EVER KNOWN, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
1
ROSAMOND DRAPER (ADAMS) TOWER.
Daughter of Levi and Betsey Adams. Born at Brookfield, Sept 20, 1827. Died in Spencer, Aug. 29, 1897. A descendant of Henry Adams of Quincy, who came from England about 1637.
AMBROSE MENDELL TOWER.
Son of Luke and Polly Tower. Born at Rutland, March 27, 1821. Died at Spencer, May 3, 1874. A descendant of John Tower of Hingham, who came from England in 1637.
BIRTHPLACE OF ROSAMOND D. TOWER,
Brookfield Centre, Mass. House recently torn down. It stood op- posite the mansion of the famous Capt. Simeon Draper. The bay window was made for the use of a watch repairer and is said to have been one of the first built in Worcester County.
BIRTHPLACE OF AMBROSE M. TOWER,
West Rutland, Mass., now standing. A short distance to the right is Bigelow's saw mill. It was here that Joseph Tower, a millwright from Lancaster, and great grandfather of Ambrose M., built the first saw mill in that section when Rutland was mostly a wilderness.
PREFACE.
It has never been my purpose, as some have supposed, to write a detailed history of Spencer during the Civil War. I know too well the magnitude of the task. My aim rather has been to gather perishable data from the memories of the living, and un- collected and unprinted manuscripts which otherwise might be lost and preserve the same for the use of the present and future generations.
Probably no one can realize the amount of work involved in compiling or writing history except those who have actually en- gaged in it. James Draper says his history of Spencer would not have been undertaken had he apprehended beforehand the amount of labor required for its execution. Again no man was. so well equipped with facts in regard to Spencer during the Civil War as Luther Hill. He knew its history in detail and at the close of the war determined to write it. For that purpose he se- cured a room on Beacon hill, Boston, near the State House, where the official war records could readily be consulted. He worked at his appointed task, eighteen hours a day for a full week, and then, having hardly begun the work, but beginning to realize the amount of labor involved in it-having health, time, means. and complete data at command-he tore up what he had written, abandoned the work and returned home. That he did so will ever be a cause for regret. As may be noted, the larger part of this volume has been written by Spencer men who were in the. war and at the front and who relate from actual experience what they thought, felt and saw. On this account the record is of greater value than if the tales had been told second-hand. In the use of so many names, dates, places, etc., it is quite likely some errors will appear and if so and notified I shall be glad to» make corrections in Vol. IV.
I hereby extend my gratitude to all who have so kindly as- sisted me in the preparation of this volume and especially to Major William T. Harlow of Worcester.
MAJOR WILLIAM TAYLOR HARLOW.
Son of Gideon and Harriet (Howe) Harlow was born Oct. 3, 1828 at Shrewsbury, Mass. He came from good old New Eng- land fighting stock. Lineally descended from Major William Bradford, Ensign William Ford and Sargeant William Harlow,
who were all participants in the great Narragansett fight (Kings- ton, R. I., Dec. 1675.) Five generations later his ancestors served in the Revolutionary War-one on his father's side, his great-grandfather, Gideon Harlow of Duxbury, and two on his
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
mother's side, his great grandfather and grandfather, both named Nathan Howe and both of Shrewsbury.
Captain Howe, the elder, whose commission was issued by "'The Major Part of the council of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" at Watertown, Feb. 5, 1776 (Governor Thomas Gage being there with the British over in Boston, which was hard beseiged by Captain Howe and other rebel Yankees under com- mand of rebel General George Washington) died of an illness contracted on the night of the building of the fortifications* at Dorchester Heights. Before the Revolution Captain Howe liad served his apprenticeship as a soldier fighting for the British crown against the French in Canada.
Mr. Harlow graduated at Yale in the class of 1851 and read law with Judge Benjamin F. Thomas at Worcester. After admis- sion to the bar he settled in Spencer, February 1854 and remained in practice as a lawyer there till the Spring of 1861. He married May 31, 1863, Jeannette, daughter of Lewis Bemis of Spencer and has had three children, Frederick Bemis, Gideon, (died in infancy) and Margaret. In 1861 he went to the War with the 21st Mass. Vols., commissioned as 1st lieutenant dated Aug. 21, 1861 and was promoted captain July 29, 1862. Except two tem- porary details, one as regimental quartermaster (about three months) and one as lieutenant, commanding Co. A (Templeton, Co.) about three weeks, he served with Co. C and took part in the battles of Roanoke Island, Newberne, Camden Court House, second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburg. He also received another commission from Governor Andrew dated Nov. 5, 1863, as Major in the 57th vet- eran regiment and assisted in recruiting it, but did not go to ser- vice with it.
In January 1867 he went to California and remained there (Red Bluff, Tehama Co.) about two years, during which time he held the office of assistant assessor of internal revenue by appoint- ment of the assessor of the Sacramento District. His return to Worcester was on account of severe illness from fever and ague originally contracted in the South during the war. In 1869 he was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the Worcester dis- trict by President Grant and held that office for about four years. Jan. 1, 1877, he was appointed by the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court assistant clerk of the courts for the County of Worcester for three years, which office by successive reappoint- ments (8) he has held to the present time.
*They were of wood and were carried up and built in the night, Mar. 5, 1776, under the supervision of Gen. Putnam.
REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
BY MAJOR WILLIAM T. HARLOW.
On Sunday, April 14, 1861, came to Spencer the news that Sumter was taken. News of the attack upon the fort was in Sat- urday's papers and had been read in Spencer and all over the country. All winter the rebels had been building their batteries around Charleston Harbor and getting ready for their attack. ** "Whom the gods will destroy," they first make mad, and the mad- men had actually fired on a U. S. steamer bearing supplies and re- inforcements to the fort-all which was well known to the good people of Spencer and all the rest of the people of the Northern States. But somehow they did not seem to think that the rebels were much in earnest. Even Saturday's news like the firing on the Star of the West (Jan. 5) was received in Spencer and gener- ally throughout the North with very little manifestation of con- sciousness of what it really meant. Down to the actual taking of Sumter, an incredible apathy had rested on the North and the lethargy of the grave seemed to hold in its grasp all sensibility to national honor and national safety.
But Sunday morning the news spread rapidly over the Northern states. In 1861 Sunday editions of newspapers were not regularly issued in Worcester or Boston. But this Sunday's news required an " Extra " and many papers put out one. In Spencer a passing traveller at the Jenks Tavern pulled out of his pocket an Extra Worcester Spy, a little sheet about four or five inches wide by ten or twelve long, printed only on one side. "Sumter Surrendered " was its startling caption. In a few minutes the news flew over the village, and in an hour or two was all over the town of Spencer. That little sheet set the town on
Town on Fire.
fire. Such flashing of eyes as there was, and fight in every one of them. Before one had time to open his lips he saw fight in his neighbor's eye. On sight of the caption of the little sheet my mind was made up to fight, and everybody else looked as if his mind had jumped to the same determination. In and about the
*Old Roman proverb.
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
old tavern assembled great crowds of people and at street corners: and elsewhere all over town people ran together to tell and hear the news.
Next morning (Apr. 15) the mail brought the Worcester and Boston papers containing President Lincoln's Proclamation, calling a special session of Congress and for 75,000 troops. On Sunday it had been wired to the Governor of every Northern state, and the Associated Press had placed it in the possession of all its members. Until the papers came I felt a burning anxiety-not so much to get the details about Sumter -- the main fact, which we had already, being of infinitely more importance than any possible details-but to know for sure whether all the people of Massachusetts and the other Northern states felt about the rebel taking of Sumter as we of Spencer did, and whether they were as full of fight as we were. To tell the truth, I was far from sure about it till I read it in the morning papers, and after that I wanted to see the New York papers which would have news from remoter parts of the country. Now when one has made up his mind and formed an opinion on an important matter all alone by himself and afterwards finds everybody else agreeing with him and expressing his own views and feelings with great force and emphasis and giving weighty reasons therefor, some of which he has not himself before thought of, he feels himself greatly strengthened in his position ; so thought and felt the people of Spencer after they had read the newspapers morning and after- noon of April 15, 1861.
All Business Suspended.
All business in Spencer was suspended. Not since the Revolutionary War probably had such an intense spirit of patriotism been engendered and this spirit so dominated the minds of the people that they could think of nothing else. The war spirit was rampant. Monday the 15th saw nearly every male citizen in town more or less excitedly discussing the situation with other citizens either in front of Jenks Tavern or the Town Hall. Everybody felt as much incensed as though the South had made a personal attack upon his own property and home, and everybody wanted to fight. Talking over the situation did not satisfy men who felt ready for immediate action. They wanted to do something besides talk, and so it was proposed that Col. Temple organize the crowd into a company and instruct them in the rudiments of warfare. This he. did and some two hundred or more men --- not a few of them past military age-form- ed into line and with limb wood as a substitute for guns marched over to Josiah Green's boot factory and back to the Town Hall, which they then entered to listen to the orators of the town in
Town Hall.
1
THE OLD TOWN HALL.
This Hall was replaced by the present structure in 1871. The old hall building was sold to Abraham and James Capen for a thuosand dollars. They purposed moving it to the space now occupied by F. W. Boulton as a drug store and there fitting it up for a meat market and various other kinds of business. Isaac Prouty & Co., not taking kindly to this arrangement, purchased the building and moved it to the rear of what then was the nucleus of the present big shop. Here for several years it served as a storehouse and shipping headquarters. The demand for additional room for making boots and slices resulted in its being incorporated into the present factory of over six hundred feet in length. The old hand engine house (Engine No. 2) is shown at the right.
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
their expression of patriotic sentiments. If never before, the Town Hall this time was packed to its utmost capacity and deaf- ening cheers rent the air as each patriotic sentiment was pro- claimed by the speakers.
The North at last was thoroughly aroused. It no longer misunderstood the South. The apathy-till then so universal and so unexplainable-was not explained, but it was at an end and its place was taken by a deep feeling of concern for our coun- try's weal. Out of its grave of lethargy had sprung the North -not dead, only sleeping-as if it had heard a blast from the last trumpet of the archangel.
In a day or two United States flags begun to be much in evidence everywhere-I speak not merely of Spencer-in all cities and towns, big and little. Bunting was very scarce and high and the flags were not large, except the old campaigners, Democrat and Republican, of the then recent presidential election, which six months before had waved defiance to each other and to the opposition candidate, but which now reappeared and har- moniously made common cause for our country with President Lincoln, and Douglas* too, against the public enemy. In the absence of bunting other material was forced into use by the public demand. Being minded to have a good sized flag flying over his office, the writer sent an order to Barnard & Sumner in Worcester for a flag. Mr. Sumner, who was an old friend and schoolfellow, kindly replied that they had no bunting and bunt- ing was not to be had for love or money, but they were making flags of flannel, alternate stripes of red and white, with a blue field and white stars, sewed together in the same way that flags
The Stars and Stripes Forever.
of bunting are usually made. Next morning after receiving it, I got up early and had my flag proudly waving over the Union Building, to the great surprise and admiration of the other tenants of the building and of all other beholders, not one of whom seemed to detect the material.
Two regiments of infantry were called for from Massachu- setts, and in cities and towns where there was an organized com- pany of militia, public attention was absorbed and engrossed in helping the company to get off to service as quickly as possible. It was the misfortune of Spencer not to have any militia company organized for immediate service, though there were very few young men in the town at that time who did not wish there was such a company and that they were members of it. Everybody
* Stephen A. Douglas one of the Democratic candidates for President in the late elec- ion at once declared himself on the side of his country.
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
began talking about recruiting such a company and getting it ready for the next call. And the young men were all ready to enlist. At the request of the young men and of some who were no longer young-grave and elderly citizens of the town, among whom I will mention Col. Alonzo Temple and Capt. Jeremiah Grout, whose military titles canie from service in the M. V. M. years before-then long past military age themselves, I drew up an informal paper or agreement to enlist, which was signed by a goodly number on the first day on which it was presented for signatures.
In the uncertainty which we all felt about the proper method of procedure I went to Boston to see the adjutant general about it. It was Saturday, Apr. 20. I fix the date because I remem- ber it was the day the Third Battalion left Worcester for Balti- more. I found the state house filled and surrounded with people from all parts of the state, every one of them possessed with a burning desire to do something, and the most he could and that without delay, to help meet the present emergency, if only he could find out what to do. The excitement and commotion beg- gars all description. Men usually calm, quiet, reserved, conser- vative, dignified in looks, manner, speech, gestures and behavior. were the very opposites of their usual selves. Information was given out at the Adjutant General's office to the effect that no attention whatever could be given to anything or anybody else till the regiments and companies called for were gotten ready and. started off on their way to Washington. The office was packed with men, some of them in militia uniform, going and coming, and running both ways. Of course it was useless for me to per- sist in seeing Gen. Schouler.
Men All Ready to Enlist.
But I did succeed in getting a brief interview with Col. John W. Wetherell of Worcester, then a member of the Governor's staff, whom I knew very well and who kindly informed me that Gov. Andrew would be glad to have as many new militia com- panies formed as possible ready for future calls, which were to be expected at any time, and that proper blanks were being. printed for organizing such companies and he would send such to me as soon as they should be received from the printer.
Returning to Spencer, during the next week I obtained to our informal paper names enough to meet the maximum requirement: for a company, and several more. In time, though not as soon as I expected, I received from11 Col. Wetherell the proper blank form for enlistment, which was signed by 101 men and at once forwarded to the Adjutant General, who in reply sent me an order to notify the enlisted men to meet at the Town Hall in
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
Spencer on Monday, May 6, seven o'clock p. m., for the election of officers of the company.
Meantime, several things took place which it is proper to mention, though I will not dwell upon them. War meetings were held, how many I cannot now remember, at which fiery speeches were made, this on week days or rather in the evenings of week days, and on Sundays in all the churches the preachers preached patriotic sermons and prayed patriotically for our soldiers. "The war" was the one ever present topic that came up at every meeting or assembly of men, no matter what was the professed purpose of it, and was preached upon and lectured upon, and commented upon and discussed and considered and that too without any- body's ever getting tired of it. And this is said to have con- tinued to be true during the whole war of four years and more. No matter whether the meeting was a prayer meeting or a cock- fight or a Masonic lodge or a cattle show or a society of learned antiquaries. And meantime too (Apr. 29) the selectmen called a patriotic town meeting at which Rev. Mr. Waterman (about that time installed over the Congregational church) and others made patriotic speeches and at which the town unanimously voted to appropriate $5000, or as much of it as may be needed to fur-
Money Voted Freely.
nish outfits and uniforms for a company of soldiers about to be organized in this town for the service of the government; also to pay each member of the company seventy-five cents for each half day spent in drilling during the next thirty days, and to pay from the $5000 before voted $10 per month to each member of the company while in actual service, in addition to the government pay, all to be expended and paid under supervision of the select- men and assessors. Except as regards the per diem for drilling which was promptly paid and the uniforms which were made by- Mr. H. P. Dunton, the tailor, and furnished to the company, I have no knowledge whatever and shall say nothing. The proin- ise of $10 per month extra pay was an overflow of municipal patriotism unauthorized by law and could not be fulfilled.
Meantime on Apr. 29 or thereabouts, Major General Augus- tus Morse of Leominster (such was the full sonorous title and ad- dition of him, whom, never before having had anything to do with the M. V. M., I had never even heard of, but whom I after- wards came to know very well indeed) established his headquar- ters at the Bay State House in Worcester and issued orders through the newspapers to all new companies then recruiting in Worcester County, of which there were several others besides our hopeful in Spencer, to report to him. Visiting the Bay State House to see what was up, I found there Maj. Joel W. Fletcher
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
of Gen. Morse's staff, whom I had met before as a member of the Worcester County Bar, though I had only a very slight acquaint- ance with him. He was profuse in offers of good advice and in- formed me that it would be greatly to the advantage of the Spen- cer company to keep in close contact with Gen. Morse and his staff. I asked him if he could refer me to a competent drill mas- ter to instruct us in the tactics. Maj. Fletcher would send us a good one.
At the time appointed for our company election of officers, May 6, seven p. m., appeared Maj. Theron E. Hall of Holden,
CHENEY BEMIS. One of the Fifers.
another officer of Gen. Morse's staff, having been detailed by the General to preside at the election, accompanied by Dr. Joseph N. Bates, and Adjutant John M. Studley of Worcester. After a per- functory examination of us as to age, height, soundness of wind
Officers of the First Company of Volunteers.
and limb, etc., the learned doctor "guessed we would do" and so certified, or in words to that effect. The election proceeded and the following members of the company were by their fellows
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
elected officers, viz :- Wm. T. Harlow, captain; John W. Bige- low, 1st lieutenant; Lawson S. Powers, 2nd lieutenant; Albert Adams, 3rd lieutenant and Horace E. Prouty, 4th lieutenant.
Maj. Hall had brought up Adjutant Studley to introduce him to us as a drill master. The selectmen being then in session, I took him to their room where they made an agreement with him to drill us.
I am unable to give a complete list of all the members of our company nor can I recall the names of more than one of the non- commissioned officers. The rolls and records are lost. I had supposed the original roll was at the Adjutant General's office at: the State house in Boston, but I have been informed, though I have not myself inquired there about it, that it is not to be found there. But the names of all those who entered the United States service and served their country in the War of the Rebel- lion may be found in the rolls of the 10th and 21st regiments in the Adjutant General's published Records of Mass., Vols. 1861- 1864. These do not make up the whole list of the original com- pany but I do not think it worth while to waste much time in trying to make up rolls of honor with the names of mnen whose only service in the war was "playing soldier" in'Spencer.
Adjutant Studley, who afterwards entered the U. S. service as captain of one of the companies of the 15th regiment, and later on was Lieut. Col. of the 51st, was a well drilled militia officer and gave us very good instruction in the school of the soldier and the school of the company according to Scott's Tactics, which. had been in use in the U. S. Army till a short time before the- war and I suppose was still at the time of our drilling in use in the M. V. M. But "Scott" had already been superceded in the. regular army by Hardee's Infantry and Rifle Tactics. * The: difference, however, between Scott and Hardee in company movements was not radical and in the manual of arms where the difference was more, our instructor gave us no lessons at all for the quite sufficient reason that we had no arms. Every available.
Wooden Muskets to Drill With.
musket and rifle being needed at the front, in the absence of fire- arms the selectmen supplied us with wooden imitations, sawed out of 114 inch pine plank in the form of a gun by Barnes & Mullett, a Spencer firm of carpenters and builders. The soldiers,
* Bvt. Lieut. Col. Wm. J. Hardee, U. S. Army (later Lieut. Gen. Hardee, C. S. Army) was the author of this work, the first edition of which was published in 1855 by the War Department (U. S.) under an order signed by " Jefferson Davis, Sec. of War." May I. 1861. the War Department (U. S.) reprinted it, omitting the author's name. The C. S .. War Department also reprinted it and later several other reprints of it U. S. and C. S. were issued during the War. all verbatim except the title pages. A collection of the- various editions and reprints of Hardee U. S. and C. S. may be found in the American Antiquarian Library at Worcester.
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
called them Barnes & Mullett's rifles and Adjutant Studley treated them as a joke to begin with. He did not think it worth his while to attempt to teach the manual of arms with them. They at once became a laughing stock and were never used at all.
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