USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westborough > The history of Westborough, Massachusetts. Part I. The early history. By Heman Packard De Forest. Part II. The later history. By Edward Craig Bates > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
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GENEALCC: COLLECTION
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Go 974.402 W536d
THE HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH,
MASSACHUSETTS.
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofwestbor1717defo
THE SQUARE. FROM TOWER OF BERNARD'S STRAW SHOP.
-1
THE
HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH,
MASSACHUSETTS.
Part I. THE EARLY HISTORY. BY HEMAN PACKARD DEFOREST.
Part II. THE LATER HISTORY.
BY EDWARD CRAIG BATES.
WESTBOROUGH: PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN. 1891.
Copyright, 1891, BY C. S. HENRY.
MAniversity Press : JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
1127712
GENERAL PREFACE.
T T HE warrant for the town meeting of March 7, 1887, had an article, " To see if the town will print in book form the history of the town as gathered by Rev. H. P. DeForest and others, or act anything in relation to the same."
At an adjourned meeting, held March 21, the town voted, " That the moderator appoint a com- mittee of three to take the matter into consid- eration, and report, with an estimate of the expense, at a future meeting."
George B. Brigham, George Forbes, and Joshua E. Beeman were appointed as the committee. At a meeting held April 27 of the same year the committee reported that Rev. H. P. DeForest could furnish the earlier history, and some one here in town the later, but that they could give nothing definite in regard to the expense, as Mr. DeForest would leave the matter to the town to pay what they thought best. The committee made no recommendation, and no action was taken at this meeting; but at a town meeting held Septem-
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iv
PREFACE.
ber 21 the committee reported further, recommend- ing that the town procure one thousand copies, and that the sum of $800.00 be appropriated to cover the expense of printing and publishing the same.
The town voted "that the report be accepted and its recommendations adopted, and that the committee carry out its recommendations, and have power to fill any vacancy in the committee." Mr. George Forbes having died, Mr. Charles S. Henry was chosen as a member of the committee.
Mr. DeForest was engaged to write the earlier history of the town, and Mr. Edward C. Bates to write the later history.
Judge William T. Forbes has written a chapter on the early land-grants which is of great value.
A few biographical sketches of men who have been prominent in town affairs have been pre- pared, and several portraits are given, also views of a number of our public buildings.
The pictures are most of them the work of the Boston Photogravure Company, and the engrav- ing for the wood-cuts has been done by Mr. Al- bert E. Wood, of New York city, a native of this town.
As we finish our book and present it to the town we regret that we must speak of the death of Mr. George B. Brigham, the chairman of our committee, to whose efforts the publication of this History is due. He brought the subject before
V
PREFACE.
the town, labored faithfully and untiringly to make the work thorough and accurate, and hoped to live to see the book published.
We submit our work to the town, hoping that it may prove useful in preserving its records and stimulating our people to take a deeper interest in them.
JOSHUA E. BEEMAN, CHARLES S. HENRY,
Committee.
WESTBOROUGH, March 10, 1891.
PREFACE TO PART I.
T HE only motive which has induced me to give this sketch of the earlier history of West- borough to the public is the conviction that the material which had been incidentally gathered in connection with my work and residence there ought not to be lost. There is that in the history of the earlier growth of all our New England towns which is of permanent interest to the historian, the ge- nealogist, and the student of social forces ; and it is desirable that every town should embody in some accessible form, for the benefit of its own people and their descendants, such facts of its early struggles and development as may be rescued from oblivion. Faulty as I know this sketch to be, it may serve such a purpose. The manner of its origin is as follows. In 1874 the Congregational church, of which I happened at that time to be pastor, celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth
viii
PREFACE.
anniversary of its organization. It fell to me to write the story of that period. In 1876, when all the towns kept the centennial of Independence, I was requested to deliver the historical oration on the Fourth of July. Not long afterward the town voted a request that the material thus gathered might be prepared, with such other as I might be able to collect, for publication, and appointed a committee to that end. Busied with the care of a large parish, my time for such work was very lim- ited ; and it progressed very slowly until 1880, when I was called away from the town, and the material was consigned to a drawer, where it remained un- touched for some eight years. But at that time a few citizens of Westborough who were especially interested in saving its history from oblivion, pro- cured the passage of a vote in town meeting calling for the history, and appointing a new committee to attend to the matter. At their urgent request, sec- onded by my own feeling as to the recklessness of consigning any historical material to destruction, I consented to undertake the difficult task of resus- citating my buried work, and finishing, at a distance from the locality, and with too much remoteness from the fresh memory of previous work, the task which I
ix
PREFACE.
had been obliged to drop. It has been entirely re- written, some of it more than once. It represents, as all historical work must do, the study of many weeks and months, scattered through years which have been crowded with other duties. I have tried to write a continuous narrative, believing it · more likely to be read than if divided, in the manner of many local histories, into disconnected sections.
I am indebted to many helpers for assistance rendered, at many times and in various ways, since the inception of the work. I have consulted the local histories of the vicinity, especially Hudson's Marlborough, Peter Whitney's Worcester County, and Joseph Allen's Northborough, and have given credit where these have been quoted. To the late E. M. Phillips I am under many an obligation for reminiscence and story of the days of his boyhood. To the late Hon. Samuel M. Griggs, whose interest in the town and its history was always keen, and whose knowledge of facts and places was excep- tional, I owe more than to any one else in the earlier days of this study. Judge W. T. Forbes and Mrs. Forbes have rendered great service in the past year, and Messrs. J. A. Fayerweather and F. W.
X
PREFACE.
Forbes have assisted much at various times. And finally, to the Committee of Publication, Messrs. Brigham, Beeman, and Henry, and my coadjutor, Mr. E. C. Bates, I owe many courtesies and helps. Of the town itself I have only the happiest memo- ries, and it has been pleasant to recall them in this gathering up of the threads of many years' work.
H. P. DE FOREST.
DETROIT, MICH., November, 1889.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
iii
Part I.
PREFACE TO PART I. .
V
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY. - INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND. - FIRST WHITE SETTLERS
, I
CHAPTER II.
EARLIEST LANDHOLDERS WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE PRES- ENT TOWN. - " KING " PHILIP'S WAR . 15
CHAPTER III.
PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS TOWARD A NEW TOWN. - INDIAN TROUBLES DURING " QUEEN ANNE'S WAR " . 29
CHAPTER IV.
INCORPORATION, AND BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE .
42
CHAPTER V.
HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER
59
CHAPTER VI.
ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH, AND ORDINATION OF THE
FIRST SETTLED MINISTER . 72
xii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
RECORDS. - CHURCH AFFAIRS. - SCHOOLS. - EARTHQUAKE. - GROWTH OF THE TOWN 87
CHAPTER VIII.
THE NEW COUNTY. - BEGINNINGS OF DIVISION. - CHURCH MUSIC 103
CHAPTER IX.
CHURCH ORDER. - PHASES OF CHURCH LIFE. - THE GREAT
AWAKENING. - AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON 118
CHAPTER X.
THE FIRST PRECINCT
131
CHAPTER XI.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. - BEGINNINGS OF THE RE- VOLUTION. - CHURCH MUSIC AGAIN 146
CHAPTER XII.
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR .
I58
CHAPTER XIII.
CONTEMPORARY MATTERS OF LOCAL INTEREST. - DISCUS- SION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. - DEATH OF MR. PARK- MAN . 176
CHAPTER XIV.
FROM THE DEATH OF MR. PARKMAN TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 190
xiii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV. PAGE
ITEMS OF PROGRESS. - ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. - THE BE- GINNING OF MODERN IMPROVEMENTS 208
CHAPTER XVI.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. - THE DIFFUSION OF INTELLIGENCE 222
CHAPTER XVII.
LATER ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY .
231
Part II.
PREFACE TO PART II. .
244
CHAPTER I.
THE CIVIL WAR. - ACTION OF THE TOWN. - IN THE FIELD. - SOLDIERS' SEWING SOCIETY 245
CHAPTER II.
RECORDS OF SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR
274
CHAPTER III.
THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. - FIRES AND NEW BUILDINGS. -- · 328
CELEBRATIONS
CHAPTER IV.
GROWTH OF THE TOWN. - POPULATION. - AGRICULTURE AND
MANUFACTURES. - WEALTH · 344
xiv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
PAGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. - WILLOW PARK SEMINARY. - PUBLIC LI- BRARY. - POOR-FARM. - FIRE DEPARTMENT . 372
CHAPTER VI.
NEWSPAPERS. - POST-OFFICE. - BANKS. -- DISTRICT COURT. - LYMAN SCHOOL. - INSANE HOSPITAL
391
CHAPTER VII.
PROMINENT SOCIETIES
405
CHAPTER VIII.
WATERWORKS. - PHENOMENA. - NEW BUILDINGS. - OTHER · 415
IMPROVEMENTS
Appendir.
I. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES .
431
II. LAND GRANTS
454
III. TOWN OFFICERS .
465
IV. REPRESENTATIVES TO GENERAL COURT
470
V. VOTES FOR GOVERNOR
472
VI. REV. EBENEZER PARKMAN'S HISTORY OF WESTBOR-
OUGH
479
INDEX
483
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE SQUARE
Frontispiece
INSANE HOSPITAL, ACROSS LAKE CHAUNCY
18
THE WHITNEY PLACE
36
EBENEZER PARKMAN
66
BRECK PARKMAN
106
EAST MAIN STREET
I34
ELI WHITNEY
192
OLD ARCADE
208
CHARLES PARKMAN
218
OTIS BRIGHAM
226
UNITARIAN CHURCH
234
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
238
WESTBOROUGH, FROM WHITNEY HILL
245
TOWN HALL AND BAPTIST CHURCH
250
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
274
POST-OFFICE BLOCK
332
REV. HEMAN P. DEFOREST 340
ELMER BRIGHAM
352
GEORGE B. BRIGHAM 360
WILLIAM R. GOULD
368
THE HIGH-SCHOOL BUILDING
376
WILLIAM CURTIS
380
CHRISTOPHER WHITNEY
388
JOHN A. FAYERWEATHER
396
DR. N. EMMONS PAINE
402
RESIDENCE OF JOHN A. FAYERWEATHER
412
xvi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
RESIDENCE OF MRS. H. K. TAFT
418 ST. LUKE'S CHURCH AND RECTORY 424
THE WHITNEY HOUSE 426
CHARLES B. PARKMAN 432
LYMAN BELKNAP 438
HORACE MAYNARD . 442
HENRY K. TAFT . 450
DANIEL F. NEWTON 466
Maps and Plans.
MAP OF WESTBOROUGH I
FLOOR-PLAN OF THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE 55
FLOOR-PLAN OF THE SECOND MEETING-HOUSE 138
THE ORIGINAL MARLBOROUGH, AND THE NEW TOWNS "SET
OFF " FROM IT 456
THE ORIGINAL CHAUNCY, AND SOME OF THE TERRITORY AFTERWARD ANNEXED 457
MAP OF WESTBOROUGH IN 1766 463
THE EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
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LIKNAR
THE
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
CHAPTER I.
To 1660.
TOPOGRAPHY. - INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND. - FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.
T HE traveller from Boston toward Worcester by the Albany Railroad, after passing Cochituate Lake and Farm Pond, strikes the valley of the Sudbury River near Ashland, and following it for some eight miles beyond that village, through an uninteresting region broken by two small manufacturing stations and ending in a long and lonely stretch of wood and swamp, comes suddenly upon the central square of a busy town, with its brick blocks and tree-lined streets, its lumber-yards and factories, with church spires rising beyond the square. It is a good place to stop, -and to live, if one is looking for a coun- try home, with some charming scenery, and not too far from the whirl of life; with school, church, and library at hand, and easy communication with the appliances of civilization. The village of Westborough, which is in the centre of the town, is only ten miles due east from Worcester, and twenty-nine west-southwest from Boston, as the bird flies. It lies in the southern portion of a plain, which traverses the area of the town from north-
I
2
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
west to southeast, terminating in the cedar swamp through which the train passes. It belongs to-day in the highest class of New England villages ; its population is largely descended from the native stock, - industrious, enterpris- ing, and law-abiding; believing loyally in New-England institutions, and not yet emancipated from the sway of conscience.
The town, extending from two to three miles about the village in all directions, has numerous good and well-kept farms, with thrifty-looking buildings, and a delightful mingling of woodland, meadow, pond, and hill, which has endless charms for the lover of Nature. An irregular range of low green hills rises to the south and west, and another to the northeast. One never tires of the views they give in payment for an easy climb; and walks and drives of picturesque beauty are numberless. From the highest point of these hills one gets an inspiring view of Wachu- sett, twenty miles away, and of a line of sentinels that guard the northwestern horizon, comprising Monadnock, Watatic, and the Temple Hills. There are long reaches of meadow, lying between wood and knoll, and terminating, perhaps, in a far-off glimpse of a church spire relieved against the blue background of a hill. There are pictu- resque confusions of hill and dale, - now shutting one into a sheltered nook; now, after a steep climb up a rocky slope, confronting him with a sweep of landscape that reaches to New Hampshire. There are walks through the woods, the path strewn with soft pine-needles or rich brown oak-leaves. Here the road winds unexpectedly round a sharp curve, and runs down the hill to a rude bridge by an old mill; again, as it climbs a gentle slope, the well-tilled fields sweep away toward the town, with fringes of maple on the farther verge, which in October
3
TOPOGRAPHY.
burn with a hectic flush against the greens and browns of the meadow.
The water area of the town is comparatively small. There are no large streams, but brooks are numerous, and those which are fed from the western slopes of the hills gather themselves in the northerly meadows into the Assa- bet River; while those that rise on the eastern slopes, col- lecting in Cedar Swamp, form the Sudbury. These two streams, receiving their names before they leave the town area, separate widely, then flow together, and uniting in the Concord, flow to the Merrimac, and so to the sea. But if there are no rivers, there are ponds, of which Chauncy is king, and which unfolds its full beauty only when seen from the slopes of the Hospital grounds, with the village spires in the distance, relieved against the back- ground of the southern hills. Hidden darkly at the foot of the wooded hills to the west, its seclusion only just now broken in upon by a railroad cutting, lies Hocco- mocco, whose true and better name is Hobomoc. Down in the recesses of Cedar Swamp there lies another pond, as one may find in the winter if he will thread the mazes of the frozen forest. And high up on the southern hill- sides is still another, now enlarged by artificial dredging and embankment, which supplies the water for the village, and has natural " head " enough to drench the village spires through a well-directed hose.
Westborough is one of the "borough towns." That means, in local parlance, that it is a part of the area-now including also Marlborough, Northborough, Southborough, and a part of Hudson-which, about the time that Charles II. was proclaimed king of England, was incorporated as " Marlborow." The present Westborough is the south- western part of the ancient "plantacion," with some addi-
-
4
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
tions on the west and south. The story I am to try to tell runs back to the middle of the seventeenth century, and comes down to the middle of the nineteenth. It is the story of a quiet inland town, with few striking episodes ; of small importance to the history of State or nation; not great in the arena of public affairs, but taking its share, without either fuss or flinching, in the movements that the times have thrust upon it. What I should be glad to do, if possible, is to " develop," as the photographers say, a few pictures that have long lain concealed in musty documents and half-forgotten traditions, and give them a little reality to the descendants of the men and women who subdued the wilderness, and made the pleasant life of to-day possible.
In the earliest time of which we have any knowledge, - the time of Indian occupation, - this region was a border- land between two or three tribes. It is quite impossible to clear up the confusion which rests on the topography of Indian tribes, and leads nearly every writer on the subject to a different conclusion. They were still a nomadic race, to a great extent; their boundaries were flexible, and the relative subordination of tribes and clans to one another varied from time to time. In general, it seems reasonable to adopt the statements of Major Gookin, the friend and helper of John Eliot, who travelled over the whole region and had friendly intercourse with all the tribes. Accord- ing to his division the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, held southeastern Massachusetts,-including Bristol, Plymouth, and Norfolk counties, - as far north as Charles River. The Massachusetts occupied the district north of Charles River, and westward from Massachusetts Bay to the western boundary of Middlesex County. The Pawtuckets were
5
INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND.
north of the Massachusetts, covering Essex County and part of north Middlesex, and extending into lower New Hampshire. Westward of these tribes were the Nip- mucks, whose principal domain was along the Nipmuck or Blackstone River, but also extended westerly toward the Connecticut. To this tribe belonged the Indians of Hassanemisco, whom Eliot had gathered into the sem- blance of a town on Grafton Hill.
Near the junction of the Concord and Merrimac rivers, - now in Lowell, - the Wamesits, a clan of the Paw- tucket tribe, had their headquarters; and to this clan be- longed the Indians of the Marlborough settlement. The territory of the present Westborough, therefore, had the Nipmucks on the one hand and the Wamesits on the other, while the Massachusetts were close by on the east. It is uncertain which of the tribes built their camp-fires around these ponds, and gave them their names, and wove their superstitions about them, since they all alike belonged to the great Algonquin race and spoke its language. But they have left their traces in two or three localities. Chauncy Pond was to them Naggawoomcom, or "Great Pond ;" and the pretty sheet of water at the foot of what was then a serpent-haunted hill, hidden among thick trees, its waters always dark with shadows, its shores a lurking- place for wild beasts, received from these imaginative children of Nature the name of Hobomoc, - their Evil Spirit, to whose dwelling-place they believed it to be a hidden entrance.
The late Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, who was a Westborough boy, made use, in his college days, of the old Indian traditions about this latter spot to weave a very pretty legend of the tiny lakelet, - a tale of love and strat- agem and revenge. There is a chief and a rival; a dusky
6
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
maiden beloved of both, but soon to be wedded by the chief. There is a little skiff upon the lake paddled by the maid ; a dark figure plunging into the water, and swimming silently under the surface till he can pull the unsuspecting bride down to her death, so mysteriously that they who spy it from the shore attribute it to the evil Hobomoc him- self. Then, as a year is finished, comes a warning to the murderer, mysterious and awful; the second year, another ; the third, a vengeance, weird and terrible, sweeps him to his watery doom beneath the dark surface of this mouth of hell. And thereafter when any of the tribe crossed the spot he dropped a stone into its depths, until the cairn rose above the surface.
There would be little use in looking for the monument to-day. But there are few spots that are the worse for a legend or two; and this one lends itself to the purpose with a singular suggestiveness, as the imaginative youth from the old farm-house on the hill discovered.
Besides the names they have left and the legends they have suggested, there is very little by which we may trace the occupancy of the Indian proprietors. There is a measure of probability that we have such a trace in the name of the Jackstraw Pasture, beyond the house of Nathan M. Knowlton. This section was granted to one William Beeres about the time of the incorporation of Marlborough, and was then known as Jack Straw's Hill. This indicates a previous Indian occupation. In April, 1631, Governor Winthrop was visited in Boston by Wah- ginnacut, -" a sagamore upon the River Quonehtacut [Connecticut], which lies west of Naragancet," -" with John Sagamore and Jack Straw, -an Indian who had lived in England, and had served Sir Walter Raleigh, and was now turned Indian again, - and divers of their
7
INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND.
sannops," who "brought a letter to the governour, etc." Whether this was the Indian who gave the name to the hill in question is uncertain, but it is not impossible. Accounts have been found of two Indians carried by Raleigh from his Roanoke colony to England; and of these the only one who remained here was known as Man- teo. He was the first Indian baptized by the English colonists, and served them as scout and interpreter. He was made " king" of an island in Pamlico Sound, which still bears the name of Manteo. Raleigh's expedition to this coast was in 1584; and a youth who was twenty years old at that time would be sixty-seven at the time of the interview with Governor Winthrop. There is not sufficient evidence to make any positive asser- tions, but the coincidence of statements is highly inter- esting. A hundred years later there were three Indians bearing the surname of Jackstraw living in Hopkinton. They might easily enough have been the descendants of this Indian, as the Hopkinton line is not far from the locality which bears his name. How he came by so sin- gular a cognomen is not easily answered, but a curious extract from the "Narrative of Phineas Pratt," who came to this country in 1622, gives a possible hint. He says : -
" Not long after the overthrow of the first plantation in the bay, Capt. Louit Cam to yer Cuntry. At the Time of his being at Pascataway, a Sacham, or Sagamor, Gaue two of his men, on to Capt. Louit, & An other to Mr. Tomson ; but on yt was ther said, ' How can you trust those Salvagis? Cale the nam of on Watt Tyler, & ye other Jack Straw, after ye names of the two greatest Rebills yt ever weare in Eingland.'"
Pratt relates this out of the fulness of his heart, for he had suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and con- sidered them the most treacherous rascals alive.
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