USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Shrewsbury > Old times in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Gleanings from history and tradition > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 Sh85wd
Gc 974.402 Sh85wd 1195036
M.L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00086 1564
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/oldtimesinshrews00ward_0
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THE SUMNER HOUSES AND THE CHURCH AS IT STOOD BEFORE 1834.
.7
OLD TIMES
IN
SHREWSBURY
MASSACHUSETTS
GLEANINGS FROM HISTORY AND TRADITION
BY
ELIZABETH WARD
974.402 Sh 85 wd
1892
1
-
COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY ELIZABETH WARD.
Press of The McGeorge Printing Co., 220 & 222 William St., N. Y.
1195036
2
CONTENTS.
THE EARLIEST TIMES, . 5 .
PAGE
THE FIRST MINISTER AND OTHER WORTHIES, . 28
THE. PEASE TAVERN,
· 45
THE BALDWIN TAVERN AND ITS VARIOUS OWNERS,
59
DR. SUMNER AND THE CHURCH, · 79
OTHER PEOPLE AND INCIDENTS,
108
THE HENSHAW PLACE,
I28
SHREWSBURY IN THE REVOLUTION-SKETCH OF GENERAL WARD, 137
0 1 r
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE BALANCED ROCK,
9
THE WHEELOCK HOUSE, 13
GERSHOM WHEELOCK'S KNEE BUCKLES, 15 ROCKY PASTURE BETWEEN THE SEWALL AND RAWSON LANDS, I7 THE FIRST PARSONAGE, 29 THE FIRST COMMUNION SERVICE, 32
THE HAVEN TAVERN, 35
THE WITHERBY HOMESTEAD,
43
THE PEASE TAVERN AS IT WAS IN THE STAGE DAYS, 46
THE OLD MILE STONE,
52
THE BALDWIN TAVERN,
63
FACSIMILE OF THE DOCTOR'S BILL, 67
THE LAST OF LADY JONES' CHAIRS, . 78
THE SUMNER HOUSES AND THE CHURCH PREVIOUS TO 1834,
81
DR. SUMNER IN HIS WIG, .
90
THE SOUTH PORCH AS IT WAS, IOI
MR. ALLEN'S PULPIT, 103
THE CHURCH IN 1892, 105
FACSIMILE OF MARRIAGE NOTICE, I21
THE HENSHAW PLACE,
·
129
SIGNATURES OF VOLUNTEERS IN THE CANADIAN EXPEDITION,
145
THE WARD HOMESTEAD,
149
GENERAL WARD'S SWORD, . 159
SHERIFF WARD, .
·
175
THE WARD MONUMENT,
183
THE EARLIEST TIMES.
T HERE are moments in history which shine out brightly through the centuries, and to us, who are looking back into the dimness of the past to catch every ray of light that can show us more of the lives of those who came before us, they are full of the most in- tense interest. Events which seemed trivial to those who were the actors, even as the daily happenings of our lives seem to us, are surrounded with an interest that increases as time passes, and we gather every frag- ment of a story pertaining to the home life of those who a century ago moved about among these familiar scenes, and linking them together find how our forefathers lived, what heroic deeds they accomplished, what hardships they endured, and in all respects what manner of men and women they were who subdued the wilderness for us, and made the paths smooth in which our more ten- der feet were to tread.
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
The earliest recorded fact concerning any inhabitant of Shrewsbury comes to us from the soil itself, and from a grave found upon our borders. Here we learn that the mastodon once roamed in his majesty over our hills, and claimed one of our valleys for his last resting-place. For an unknown number of years no owner of the soil had any suspicion that beneath the smooth, heavy sod in the meadow lay a gigantic body, until the flesh had be- come a part of the soil and the bones had crumbled to . dust. In 1884, while Mr. W. U. Maynard, the present owner, was having a deep trench dug, in order to drain and improve the land, the spades of the workmen brought up with the dark soil nine beautiful, polished teeth darkened with earth stains, and resembling choice specimens of agate. These with a few fragments of bone were all that remained of the "Mastodon Giganteus." In close proximity to these teeth was found a human skull, and the mystery surrounding the fact, that these two skulls were found in one place eight feet below the surface of the ground, has not yet been cleared away. Perhaps a ray of light is shed upon the human skull by a recent reliable historian, W. T. Harlow, who tells us that undoubtedly this farm was the first in town occupied by a white man, and that this man was Mr. Warner. He also tells us that Mr. Warner suddenly disappeared and no trace of him was ever found. May not this be a trace, this skull without a name? Doubtless Mr. Warner lost his way in the trackless swamp and sank in the soft
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
mire to the rock bed on which lay the mastodon. This spot may now be seen in the meadow bordering on the Northboro line and the county road, at the right as you go westward. The mastodon teeth are preserved by the Natural History Society in Worcester, and Mr. Warner's skull (if it be Mr. Warner's) was sent to the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, where it has been examined by scientists and pronounced by them to be a remarkable specimen; they also deemed it worthy of a learned treatise by one of their number. It is fitting that the memory of the first white inhabitant should be thus perpetuated.
The history of the red men who followed the mastodon is also hidden from us, but we feel certain that here some of them lived their lives and passed on, let us hope, to the happy hunting-grounds beyond. Of their names we are ignorant, and it is only by the finding of their knives, arrow-heads and other stone implements, that we have evidence that their homes were once where ours now are; but it must have been at a very early period, for we do not learn that they claimed any title to the land when the first grants were made. One of these grants was to Mr. Isaac Johnson who sailed with the squadron of twelve ships which left England in 1628, in the stately ship "Ar- bella," named in honor of his young and beautiful wife, the Lady Arbella, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, who had left her luxurious English home with all its comforts to find another, she little knew how comfortless, in the
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
New World which was at that time attracting so many adventurers from beyond the sea. Isaac Johnson had gathered together all that he had, and taken his portion of his grandfather's estate to take himself and his frail young wife to America and establish there a home for themselves. After their arrival, he made himself useful to the government and received as remuneration a grant of several hundred acres of land lying in the northwest part of what was afterwards called Shrewsbury. The Lady Arbella found refuge for a time in Salem in the home of friends, but she soon faded away like a delicate tropical flower in the cold, hard life which she found in New England. Her amiable and heart-broken husband followed her in one month, his grave being the first in King's Chapel burying ground in Boston. It is pleasant to feel that the story of the charming Lady Arbella is even so remotely connected with any part of our town, though it is probable that neither of them ever saw the Shrewsbury land.
A very distinguished man of the early times left his name upon Shrewsbury soil. Rawson's Hill, in the north, is a part of the land granted in 1639 to Edward Rawson, the young and talented man who at the age of three-and-twenty took his seat among the legislators of the colony. Five hundred acres were granted to him for "his paynes" in the public service, "provided he go on with the business of powder making if the Salt Petre come." So he experimented largely upon this land but
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
got little Salt Petre; however the grant was given him for the large amount of time and money he had spent in the search. Edward Rawson was a remarkable man, no blemish being found upon his character save that he used his influence to hang the Salem witches. More than one hundred and fifty years later his descendants, Elijah Rawson and his son Samuel, lived in this town.
On the rocky ledge, not far from Rawson's Hill, at the left as you go toward Boylston, is the "Rocking Stone" or "Dog's Head" as it has been called. It is a large boulder, resting upon a flat rock, but touching it in only one spot, and that searcely larger than a man's hand. It is said that at one time it was so perfectly balanced that it could be rocked by a child, but so firmly placed that
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
no power could dethrone it. Some years ago several men, to try their own strength and that of their oxen, made great efforts to throw it off from its high pinnacle, but only succeeded in fixing it more firmly in its position and rendering it immovable, so that now it is no longer the "Rocking Stone " but the "Balanced Rock." A large piece has at some remote period been broken from it and lies by its side, but the memory of the "oldest inhabit- ant" fails to recall the time when the two were one. The boulder is of a different formation from the rock be- low and must have been left there by the ice long before the mastodon passed that way.
Another eminent man of the seventeenth century left his name upon the land here. This was the Hon. Samuel Sewall, who was chief justice of the colony, and it came about in this wise. In his youth he was a student at Cambridge and on the day that he took his degree he also fell in love with the Boston Mint Master's rosy- cheeked daughter, Hannah Hull. She had gone over from Boston as girls do now to see the young men grad- uated, and was very favorably impressed with the ap- pearance of Mr. Samuel Sewall. The attraction being mutual, the young man found his way frequently to her home, but her father was not well pleased with his attentions ; finding, however, that he was a godly youth, he reluctantly gave his consent to the marriage. The wedding took place on Feb. 28th, 1676, in Boston, in the old hall, "which was one very large room," and they
II
THE EARLIEST TIMES
were married by Gov. Bradstreet. After the ceremony, which was performed in the presence of a large com- pany, John Hull ordered the servants to "bring in the balances;" into one scale he placed his daughter, and from a large chest in a corner of the room he took out handful after handful of bright new pine-tree sixpences and shillings of his own coining, throwing them into the other scale until Hannah went up and the shining six- pences and shillings went down, when he presented the contents of both scales to the happy husband, he him- self being much delighted with this novel method of bestowing his gifts. He also gave to his daughter a certain grant of land lying within the bounds of Shrews- bury which afterwards became her husband's ; a part of it is yet known to us as Sewall's Hill, and Sewall's Pond.
For nearly one hundred years the great men of the times travelled up and down the path which led from Boston out into the wilderness, until settlements sprang up all along, and the path became the King's highway. At first these hills were passed by, when men talked of building, for fairer lands beyond, until at length they began to look with greater favor upon this "shunned forest," and their strong arms longed to grapple with the tough problem of planting a town here. The formative influences which determine the character of a town differ with the times. Oklahoma may have been built in a day, but Rome was not, neither was Shrewsbury. The grant made in 1717 to a few men was, "provided they
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
number forty families; build themselves houses, and settle an orthodox minister within three years." During these three years the pioneers had battles to fight; the knowledge of this added courage to their strength and zest to their labors. They built their houses with their guns at hand, for Indians were still feared, though the friendly Hassanimiscoes in 'Grafton were the nearest tribe; yet they were but Indians, and treachery was a characteristic of the race. The wild beasts prowling about their doors must be vanquished ; the ground itself must be wrested from the dominion of the forest, and with the rudest of implements, subdued to fruitfulness, by indefatigable energy and ceaseless toil. A strong purpose and persevering labor succeeded in bringing to- gether the elements of a town within the prescribed time.
One of the first names that appears to us on the records is that of Gershom Wheelock, who for his enterprise and cheerful disposition, deserves especial mention. He is said to have been the first man to build a house in the new settlement and spent one winter in its erection. . This house was situated on what is now the old road to Worcester in the valley near "Middlebrook." He labored alone that winter, keeping up his spirits through the cold, dreary days by his merry whistling, sleeping in the loft and pulling the ladder up after him at night, always whistling his morning song before putting it down again. His courage never failed until the spring birds sang to him while he whistled, and the house was done; then he
WHEELOCK HOUSE.
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
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married Abigail Flagg of Marlboro, and housekeeping began in Shrewsbury. In 1720 his father Samuel Whee- lock, who owned the land, gave him a deed of eighty acres and the house, "In consideration of Love, Good will and affection which I have and do have towards my dutiful Son Gershom Wheelock!" The first house built in town was the first to be burned ; nothing was saved from the fire but a few pieces of furniture. Being dis- satisfied with his ventures in that part of the town, he next built a house on the Boylston road, the one which is now occupied by his great-grandson Erastus Wheelock.
GERSHOM WHEELOCK'S KNEEBUCKLES.
Gershom Wheelock appears to have been quite an im- portant man in the new town, holding at different times several town offices. He was ensign in the first military company here and afterwards commissioned Captain. The Wheelock house as shown in the engraving is a low, ancient house, shingled on the outside, with nar- row windows and quaint, low rooms. It has not been added to, but remains much the same as when built more than a century and a half ago.
It was not until 1720 that the "Town proprietors" chose a committee to "manage about the meeting-
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
house," and they "voted two hundred and ten pounds for, and towards building a meeting-house, it being five pounds on each proprietor." Measures were also taken to cause two saw-mills to be erected in the town and put in operation by May Ist, 1721, to prepare the materials
for building. The meetings of the proprietors were held at the house of the widow, Elizabeth How, in Marl- -boro. May 4th, 1721, the first meeting-house was erected -
on what was called "Rocky Pine Plain," just a little northeast of the spot where the present church now stands. It was a small building 40x32 feet, a plain, homely structure without steeple or bell; it is said that people were called to worship by the beating of a drum. The first sermon preached in town was by Rev. Robert Breck of Marlboro, and was printed by vote of the people. In March, 1732, there was "granted to Thos. Green ye sum of one pound for sweeping ye meeting-house in ye year 1731." "In 1730-31 the town granted the sum of one pound ten shillings for clearing one acre and one half of land for the burying place." "In June, 1729, there was granted fifteen pounds towards building and furnishing the school-house' in Shrewsbury, this was made into a rate and committed to Edward Goddard and Thomas Hapgood to collect." The account of Simon Mainard, John Wheeler, Michael Chapman and Elias Keyes, shows that they did most of the work of build- ing. Just where this first school-house stood is not stated, but in 1730 there was laid out fifty acres for a
ROCKY PASTURE BETWEEN THE SEWALL AND RAWSON LANDS.
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
school lot. From an old history of the town we find that "In 1797 a school-house standing in the fork of the roads opposite the house of Mr. Calvin R. Stone (now Dr. Brigham's) was burnt with many school books there- in." "Nov. 1729-Granted 20 pounds to pay the school master in Shrewsbury."
" To Lieut. Ward, Town Treasurer :
Sir : We desire that you take speedy Care to get ye Remainder of ye Farmers money in order to defray ye Charge of ye School-house.
JOHN KEYES, DANIEL HOW, GRESHOM WHEELOCK. Selectmen.
Shrewsbury, March 5th, 1730-31."
Here is another school document :-
"' To Mr. Nahum Ward, Town Treasurer :
Sir : Please to pay to Mr. Daniel Rand & Mr. Abraham Knowlton ye sum of Seven Pounds out of ye town Treasury to pay a school Dame in ye South part of ye town for three months service.
ELNATHAN ALLEN, ISAAC STONE, SIMON MAYNARD.
Feb. 5th, 1733-4."
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
The following shows that there was quite a premium paid for killing wild beasts :
"August 16, 1731. Then recd. of Nahum Ward, Town treasurer, the sum of one pound for one wild cat's head. I say received by me. Henry Keyes."
These copies were all made from the original docu- ments.
The law required all towns to provide stocks and a whipping-post, that offenders might be punished and. order preserved. An elm tree that stood near the old. tavern in the centre was used as a whipping-post, but tradition tells of only one public whipping there. A. black man was whipped for stealing clothes from a line at the house now owned by William U. Maynard. His piteous wails and cries were long remembered by those who heard them and saw the lashes laid upon his bare back. It is said, too, that the tree died soon after. The stocks were erected in the vicinity of the graveyard, probably that serious thoughts of their final resting-place. might dwell in the minds of those who were here im- prisoned and fixed for a time, as a penalty for their crimes. It is told that the first man who was punished. in the stocks was the one who made them, and the pay- ment he received for the work was the remittance of a. fine for some misconduct. A man, then, who was found in the company of a drunken man, was considered to have been guilty of wrong-doing to the extent that sitting a day in the stocks was not too great a punishment.
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
From the following document it would appear that the town grew careless in regard to the education of the young and set a bad example to towns in the vicinity ; the laws of King George, however, brought them back from the error of their ways :
"Worcester s. s. Anno Regni Regis Georgii Tertii Mag- næ Brittanniæ Francia Et Hiberniæ Quarto-
Att a court of General Sessions of the Peace held at Worcester within and for the County of Worcester on the third Tuesday of August being the Twentieth Day of said Month,
Annoque Domini, 1765.
The Town of Shrewsbury in said County having been Presented at the Court of General Sessions of the peace held at Worcester in and for said County on the first Tuesday of November in the fourth year of his Majesty's Reign by the grand jurors for the Body of said County, for that the Said Town of Shrewsbury hath for some years last past, Consisted and does now Consist of more than an Hundred and Fifty Families or House-holders, and so are by Law obliged to Set up a Grammer School and maintain a Grammer Schooll master there, Suitable for such School, yet in Contempt of Law, and in Dis- couragement of Learning they for the Space of Six Months last pest utterly neglected the same and for the time aforesaid have not been Provided with Such School or School Master, as by the Law is appointed and Re- quired, in evil Example to others against the peace of the said Lord the King and the law in that Case made
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
and Provided. And the Presentment by order of Court hath been Continued from Court to Court until this Court. And now the Selectmen of Shrewsbury Plead and say they will not Contend with our Sovereign Lord the King but put themselves on his Grace.
And the Court having duely Considered of their Neglect order that the Inhabitants of the Town of Shrewsbury aforesaid forfiet and pay the Sum of Seven Pounds Ten Shillings for three months neglecting to Provide and Keep a School as in said presentment mentioned to be Levyed by warrant upon them according to Law and paid into the County Treasury for and Towards the Sup- port of Such School or Schools within the Same County when this Court shall judge there shall be most need and that they pay. Costs Taxed at one Pound Ten Shil- lings Lawll money to be levyed aforesaid."
It was not until 1727 that Shrewsbury was incorporated as a town, and in February, 1727-8, the town "granted to Lieut. Ward 1 pound 16 shillings for getting the town set off. This was made into a rate and committed to William Taylor and Elias Keyes to collect."' "March 3, 1728-9, granted for stating the County Road through the town of Shrewsbury 6-1-3." The town at first contained all the lands lying between Lancaster, Marlboro, Sutton and Worcester. The first town meeting was held Dec. 29th, 1727.
1
In 1723 was "the most remarkable, as well as the most sorrowful occurrence that ever took place in this
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
part of the country." The following account is said to have been printed in the only newspaper published at that time in New England. It was a small half sheet, printed by B. Green :
" Boston, August 15, 1723. An exact account of the awful burning of Capt. John Keyes' House, with five persons in it at Shrewsbury, in the night between the 7th and 8th of this inst. taken from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Breck of Marlboro, and from the mouth of Mr. Ebe- nezer Bragg of the same, formerly of Ipswich, the only person of those, who lodged in the house, who, by a dis- tinguishing Providence, escaped the flames. Capt. Keyes was building an house about nine or ten feet off his old one. . It was almost finished ; and Mr. Bragg aforesaid, the carpenter, with his brother Abiel, of 17 years of age, and William Oaks of 18 his apprentices, were working in it. Capt. Keyes, his wife and four daughters lodged in the old one ; and the three carpenters, with the three sons of the Captain, viz. Solomon of 20, John of 13 and Stephen of 6 years of age, laying in the new. On Wed- nesday night, going to bed, they took a more than ordi- nary care of the fire, being excited thereto, by the saying of one, he would not have the house burnt for one hun- dred pounds ; and the reply of another, he would not for two hundred ; upon which they carefully raked away the chips lying near it and stayed till the rest were almost burnt out ; and then they went all six together into three beds in one of the chambers ; and were very
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
cheerly and merry at their going to bed, which was about ten of the clock. But about midnight, Mr. Bragg was awakened with a notion of the house being on fire, and a multitude calling to quench it, with which he got up, saw nothing, heard no voice, but could hardly fetch any breath through the stifling smoke; concluded the. house was on fire, perceived somebody stirring against. whom he hit two or three times in the dark, and not being able to speak, or breathe any longer, and striking his forehead against the chimney, he thought of the window, and happily found it; when he gained it, he tarried a minute, holding it fast with one hand, and reaching out the other, in hopes of meeting with some one or other to save them, till the smoke and fire came so thick and scorching upon him, he could endure it no longer. And hearing no noise in the chamber, only as he thought, a faint groan or two, he was forced to jump- out, and, the window being small, head foremost ; though he supposes by God's good providence he turned before he came to the ground. As Mr. Bragg was just got up again, Capt. Keyes, being awakened in the old. house, was coming to this side of the new, and met him. But the flame immediately burst out of the win- dows, and the house was quickly all on a light flame. No noise was heard of the other five who perished ; and it is very questionable, whether more than one of them. moved out of their beds. The old house was also burnt, and almost everything in it, but the people were saved,
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THE EARLIEST TIMES
through the great goodness of God. " But a most dread- ful sight it was, in the morning, to see the five bodies. frying in the fire, among the timbers fallen down into the cellar, till towards the evening, when the few almost consumed fragments, without heads or limbs were gath- ered, put into one coffin and buried." These houses. stood just east of where the currier shop of C. O. Green, now is.
The labors of the pioneers were great and their amusements few ; their books and papers were very few, if any. Their houses were scattered at a distance from each other, and when these far-away neighbors gathered together on winter evenings before some blaz- ing log fire, they made what fun they could for each other, and often for entertainment resorted to the ways of the ancient Britons, who portrayed in rhyme any notable event which took place, and the stories of many unimportant doings have come down to later times by this means. In our forefathers' days all communities had their rhymesters and fun was generally the object of their verses. There was an eccentric individual who lived here about 1740 by the name of Tombolin and he seems to have made considerable sport among his townsmen, for we find that more than one comic rhyme was made and sung about him. He lived on the West- boro road not far from the house where Hiram C. Reed now lives, and while absent from home one day the house took fire and Mrs. Tombolin, being alone, had to
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