USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Petersham > An address delivered in Petersham, Massachusetts, July 4, 1854, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of that town > Part 3
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The movements of an age or of a nation are not recounted in full, much less is their significance understood, when it is related how one aspirant went up to a throne, or another went down from one; how one kingdom spread itself beyond its bounds, and another was, by just so much, curtailed and straitened
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in its borders. The towns of the Massachusetts Colony went on many years, showing, to superficial observers, simply that they assessed and paid their taxes regularly ; that they annually repaired their highways, and appointed the requisite number of con- stables and field-drivers ; that they made yearly appro- priations to cover the minister's salary and the expenses of their schools. When England and France went to war, of course the New England and the New France, this side the water, went to war too. And these wars are the main outstanding facts which arrest the eye of the reader of early American history. But more and more it comes to be seen, how, while the surface is calmest, the waters beneath are often fastest gathering volume and tide; how men are often think- ing most when acting least; and how their ideas are hardening into convictions and inflexible purposes most rapidly, while there is smallest manifestation of present change. Take the period from the incorpora- tion of this'town, to the time when the Revolution and the independence of the country arose to view as pal- pable fact. It is only to the outward eye that this seems a period of inactivity. It was a preparation time, without which that struggle and its results could never have been.
While the people of this town were apparently doing little more than growing richer and more pros- perous and more numerous, during the twenty years that elapsed between the beginning of their town-his- tory and the visible beginning of the Revolution, they were, in common with the people of all the towns,
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talking among themselves; reading their newspapers, and digesting their contents ; and clearing and settling gradually, within their own minds, certain fundamen- tal principles relating to constitutional government and popular rights, on which they were afterwards to organize their opposition to the home-government, and next to organize a new government of their own.
But I must leave the larger field which is opening before me, to pursue the humbler path of the local annalist.
The same tone of feeling which existed in Boston, as New England's centre and head previous to the Revolution, existed gencrally throughout the country towns. The controversies which went on between the Governors, their subofficials, and the defenders of kingly prerogative, on the one hand, and the leading spirits of the Revolution on the other, were all taken up with as passionate a zeal, re-argued as many times over, and as hotly disputed, in the interior, as they had been at the seat of government. To every trum- pet-call of freedom from the borders of the sea, the hills sent back a quick and hearty response. Not- withstanding the comparative slowness and infre- quency of intercommunication between town and country at that period, every pulse of feeling at the heart shot out an almost instant throb to the remotest extremities ; and the fiery eloquence which famous old Faneuil Hall knew so well in those days had its modest echo in many a country meeting-house.
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When the opposing forces came to draw off to their respective sides in this place, it was found that the party friendly to the government, or rather the party counselling acquiescence in the measures of govern- ment, although less numerous than the other, yet embraced nearly all the persons in the town of chief social consideration. The minister, whose profession had then far greater influence than now, supported that side. Not only by the weight of his character, but in his pulpit addresses and public prayers, he lent his support to the doctrine of the divine right of kings and of governments de facto. Others, as · much re- spected for their virtues as for their intelligence, threw their weight upon the same side. Not all these, by any means, acquitted the home-government of blame, or altogether of oppression ; but these all agreed that it was wildest folly to attempt to withstand the action of that government by any outright resistance. On the other side, there was as much honesty, and doubtless as much patriotism, and probably no more. It was a case where there was room for an honest difference of opinion. And it is to be remembered, that that difference was rather as to what was expe- dient for the colonies, than as to whether king and parliament had done right in the premises. Many would have said " Resist," had they hoped that resist- ance would do any good. But they saw no hope of suc- cess. Simply differing in opinion, then, at first, as to what would be the effect of resisting, they grew warm ; positions taken with the coolness of conviction came to be defended with the heat of passion. Party spie
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rit arose, - rose higher and higher; more and more decisive became the separation ; bitterness of feeling took the place of neighborly kindness, and hate ripened into violence and open war.
It was about the year 1767, that a young man, Ensign Man by name, a graduate of Harvard College, after having taught a school in Lancaster some three years, came to Petersham to pursue the same employ- ment. He had warmly espoused the cause of liberty. The Committee who were to pass upon his qualifica- tions as a teacher, of whom Rev. Mr. Whitney was one, did not like his political sentiments, and were willing to throw obstacles in the way of his appoint- ment. Mr. Whitney refused to take any active part in his examination, and withheld from him his appro- bation, though he appears to have been present when the examination was made. But, in spite of all anti- pathies and objections, Mr. Man at length commenced his labors. The course taken by Mr. Whitney exaspe- rated, to a higher pitch, those who were of the oppo- site party, and fanned the fire all ready to blaze. He was assailed, even in the public prints, with unsparing severity .*
Early in '68, the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives, after having voted an address to the king on the subject of their grievances, in terms which were deemed offensive by the government, were required to rescind their action. The vote on rescinding stood seventeen in the affirmative, to ninety-two in the nega-
* See Appendix F.
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tive. Of course, the staunch ninety-two, who would not take back their own words at the royal mandate, were everywhere applauded warmly by the revolution- ists, and the seventeen who were ready to comply were as vehemently denounced. The faithful and the faithless were alike remembered, and their deeds duly celebrated, by the Petersham Whigs.
The "Sons of Liberty," as they styled themselves in this town, met on the 20th of September of that year (1768), to dedicate a tree to the goddess of liberty. Having selected a thrifty young elm,* they first cut off seventeen poorer branches, leaving, as they asserted, ninety-two remaining. The tree was then, with some ceremony, consecrated to liberty ; and the seventeen amputated. limbs were consigned to the flames, the famous Song of Liberty t being sung by the votaries of the goddess, while the dishonored branches were consuming to ashes. Having scattered the embers to the winds, and shouted long and loud huzzas around the new shrine of their divinity, they marched in procession to a place of entertainment, and there, in dishes of barley coffee, drank patriotic toasts, expressive of loyalty to the king, and enmity
* This tree is said to have been one of the southernmost of that row of elms now standing along the east side of the street, above the Peter Chamberlain Place, and against the land of Seth Hapgood, Esq.
t A song, consisting of eight verses, much sung among the revolutionary patriots at that period. It was sung to the tune Hearts of Oak, and began --
"Come, join hand in hand, brave Americans all, And rouse your bold hearts at fair liberty's call; No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim. Or stain with dishonor America's name."
It was parodied by their opponents, and the parody then parodied again in turn
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to all kinds of tyrants .* In the ceremonies of this occasion, young Mr. Man was a prominent actor. His part in them was, of course, not calculated to conciliate those who were already embittered against him. If they had liked him little at first, they liked him less now that they found him lending efficient aid to what they regarded as the most treasonable agitations. All other persons of education in the town being of the royal party, the training which Mr. Man had had in letters made him a valuable acquisition to the Whigs, who had frequent occasion, no doubt, to avail themselves of his services in drawing up their papers, and putting their resolutions in form. And, just to the extent to which he could and did render them aid, he provoked necessarily the ill-will of those who heartily wished them confusion and defeat.
At length, the conflicts and collisions, which, as yet, had been confined to words, took a more positive form. In August, 1770, Captain Thomas Beanian, a Tory (to use the common designation of those who were of the government party), who lived on the place now owned by Artemas Bryant, Esq., which place he had bought of Mr. Sylvanus How, claimed that a certain small schoolhouse, standing about seventy rods east of his dwelling, was upon his land, and was his property; and accordingly, with the design of keeping the obnoxious schoolmaster from entering the same, padlocked it, and made it fast.
* For further particulars relating to this occurrence, as well as comment: there- upon, see " Boston Evening Post " of Sept. 28, 1768 (supplement), Aug. 22 and Oct 3 of same year, and March 13, 1763.
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against him. Mr. How, contending that the school- house was not on Beaman's land, but in the highway, accompanied Mr. Man to the schoolhouse, and, with- out ceremony, broke it open. This led to a suit against How and Man, in which Beaman alleged that' he had been damaged by the trespass to the amount of £9. 10s .* The case was tried in the Court of Com- mon Pleas, and the jury awarded to the plaintiff six shillings. The defendants, however, appealed to the Superior Court, where the damages were reduced ; but the costs, amounting to a considerable sum, were thrown upon the defendants. Our Captain Beaman, by the way, the complainant in this case, has the unenviable distinction of having acted as a guide to the British troops in their march to Concord, on the day of the Lexington and Concord fight.t He after- wards fled to the eastern provinces, and his estate was confiscated.
Mr. Sylvanus How, in carrying his appeal from the Court of Common Pleas to the Superior Court, in the case just related, sought aid of one of the most eminent men of his day, and one of the foremost in
* The complaint runs (in the style of legal instruments), that Now and Man did, "on divers days and times, between the first day and the 15th day of August inst., with force and arms, break and enter a small house belonging to yo said Tho- mas, made for a Dwelling-house, of about 18 ft. square, standing on the said Thomas' land, in Petersham aforesaid, which he lately bought of ye said Sylvanus, which house is of the value of twenty pounds." . . . That they " there, and within said time, with force as aforesaid, took and carried away one of the plaintiff's padlocks, three of his iron staples, and one of his iron hasps, all of the value of Ten shillings; " and that " other injuries the said Sylvanus and Ensign did the said Thomas, . . . in his same small house and his close adjoining, . . . to the damage of the said Thomas, to the value of nine pounds." - Court Records.
+ Shattuck's History of Concord.
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influence and action among those who led the Ameri- can Colonies to take and maintain their stand against the aggressions of the English crown. This was the distinguished Josiah Quincy, jun. He died at an age at which few men are ripe enough to begin to lead; but he had accomplished the work of a long lifetime. He did not live to see the struggle open even; and yet few, if any, contributed more than he to its tri- umphant termination. The sagacious and penetrating Franklin confided in him, and sought his counsel, as if he had been a man of widest and longest expe- rience. The king and his ministers showed their estimate of his abilities, by courting him with flatter- ing attentions, and still more significant advances ; they discovered, at once, and unmistakably, however, the temper of his virtue; and attested, by the watch- ful eye which they kept upon his movements, how highly they rated his capacity to help or obstruct their counsels, and how much importance they attached to his espousal of the one or the other side of their quarrel with their American colonies.
Mr. How, being brought into association with Mr. Quincy in the relation of client, and being about the same time appointed by the town chairman of a Com- mittee to draft a Reply to the Circular Letter from the Boston Committee of Correspondence, was willing to receive aid from so competent a hand, in the dis- charge of his duty as a member of that Committee. The fact of this aid explains the wide attention which the Petersham Letter and Resolutions attracted to themselves on their publication; though it is but due
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to the Committee to say, that those parts of their report which came directly from their own hearts and hands are not without many sentences fiery with patriotic passion, and expressive of a resolute energy, which is determined to stand by their cause and coun- try to the last. What they did contribute to the report shows it was not from want of capacity that they did not furnish the whole. Such were the spirit and force with which some portions of it were drawn, that the, question is said to have been repeatedly asked of Captain Ivory Holland, by his brother- officers of the army, what eminent man the town of Petersham possessed, who had attached himself to the Whig cause .* To these questions, he could only an- swer, that the Whigs of that town had not one liberally educated person among them; for, by this time, Mr. Man had been wounded and taken captive by a sub- tler warrior, and a hero of more conquests, than ever went clad in armor of metal. The minister could not convert him from his idol-worship at the shrine of liberty, nor all the armies of the royal George subdue or bind his spirit; but the minister had a gentle daughter, the glance of whose eye smote his shield through and through, cleft his helmet in twain, and left him defenceless. At the feet of Miss Alice Whit- ney, he had, by this time, surrendered at discretion, renouncing utterly the politics of his earlier man- hood. - This by way of parenthesis.
The Whigs of Petersham had received an important
* Appendix G.
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accession to their strength, in 1772, in Colonel Ephraim Doolittle. He came here from Worcester, where he had held various offices of trust, and been prominent and active as a Whig from the beginning of the troubles preceding the Revolution. He was a member of the Committee but just now referred to, as having presented the Reply to the Boston Circular, in December, 1772; and some portion of it he may have written. William Lincoln, Esq., in his "History of Worcester," speaks as if he were the author of the whole. We have shown that he was not the writer of all: he may have been of a part .* . The Committee consisted, besides Messrs. Doolittle and How, of Jonathan Grout, Samuel Dennis, Daniel Miles, Cap- tain Elisha Ward, John Stowell, Theophilus Chandler, and Deacon William Willard, - men of strong sense and excellent understanding. Mr. Doolittle was also the moderator of the town-meeting at which the let- ter and resolutions were adopted, without a dissent- ing voice. In 1773, he represented the town in the General Court; the following year, he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress which met at Concord, and was chosen the Captain of the "West Side." Militia Company; and, soon after, Colonel of the regi- ment of minute-men in the county. He marched with his troops on the 19th of April, 1775, and was stationed at Cambridge. Being disabled, in conse- quence of a previous injury, he was not in the engage- ment at Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June; though
* See Appendix G.
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his regiment was engaged, and bore itself gallantly in the battle of that day. Colonel Doolittle " participated in almost every act of a public character in Worces- ter and Petersham during his residence in either town." *
During the years 1773 and 1774, the public mind continued in a ferment throughout the colonies. In this town, there was no abatement - not a momen- tary lull - of the storm. The excitement went on increasing. The Whigs, gaining numbers and confi- dence, grew more bold, united, and determined ; while their opponents, if unchanged in feeling, followed, to some extent, the dictates of prudence, and were less defiant. Some of the leading persons of the place, indeed, though in sympathy with the royal cause, took no active part in the contentions which were going on. Nevertheless, the opposition to the revolu- tionary measures continued to be strong in influence, if not in numbers, in this quarter. Lampooned in verse, t and denounced in prose, in the newspapers, they repaid their antagonists with contempt, and with such more substantial resistance as they were able to make. Considerable numbers of them entered into a compact essentially the same with that known as
* Lincoln. For further particulars of Doolittle, see " History of Worcester," pp. 176, 281-2. A singular weapon, which he devised, and caused to be manufactured, for the want of a better, is still preserved among the curiosities of the American Anti- quarian Society's cabinet in Worcester. The more polite called it a "Tory-hook." It had a name less polished for ruder cars. Though a formidable instrument to look at, it was not found serviceable. A description of it may be seen in the " History of Worcester." Colonel Doolittle was a hatter, and lived, while in this town, in a " hip- roofed " house, situated a little north of the present residence of Mr. William Clark.
t See Appendix H.
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Brigadier Ruggles's covenant; an agreement binding them not to acknowledge the pretended authority of any Congresses, Committees of Correspondence, or other unconstitutional assemblages of men; and pledging them, at the risk of life, to oppose the forci- ble exercise of all such authority; to stand by each other, and repel force with force, in case of any inva- sion of their rights of property or of person.
For this act, the town voted a public censure upon them ; and ordered three hundred handbills to be printed, posted at the taverns, and circulated abroad, naming them as enemies of freedom and of their country, and forbidding all persons carrying on any commerce with them. The number included in this censure and proclamation was fourteen, embracing some of the most respected and influential persons in the town. The esteem in which they had been pre- viously held by their opponents is evinced even in the very act which denounced and almost outlawed them. After calling them "incorrigible enemies of America," and charging them with being willing " to enslave their brethren and posterity for ever," their judges say, " We are with great reluctance constrained to pronounce those, some of which have heretofore been our agreeable neighbors, traitorous parricides to the cause of freedom in general, and the united provinces of North America in particular."
Against Rev. Mr. Whitney, who had continued, both in his sermons and his prayers, to inculcate sub- mission to the sovereign, the tide of popular indigna- tion rose at length to the highest pitch. The church
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was rent by dissensions, and public worship was neglected; till at length, about the close of 1774, the town voted that they " will not bargain with, hire, nor imploy the Rev. Mr. Whitney to preach for them any longer." Mr. Whitney attempted to open negotiations for a reconciliation with the people; but they refused to compromise with him, discontinued his salary, and, finding that that would not cause him to desist from preaching, they chose a Committee of ten, on the 24th of the next May, " to see that the publick worship on Lord's Day next, and all future worship, be not dis- turbed by any person or persons going into the desk, but such persons as shall be put in by the Town's Committee." In pursuance of this vote, an armed guard * was stationed at the meeting-house door, on Sunday morning, who, when the minister arrived, and would have entered as usual, refused to allow him to pass. After this, Mr. Whitney preached regularly at his own house on the sabbath, the services being attended by those who were politically in sympathy with him.
While Mr. Whitney was an out-spoken adherent of the royal cause, Rev. Mr. Dennis, pastor of a Baptist church at the south-west part of the town (the Factory. Village, as it has been called of late years), was as ardent a Whig, t and drew many of the disaffected from the ministrations of the Congregational church to his own.
* Peter Gore, a half-breed Indian, was appointed to this duty. He lived in a small house, just above the present residence of Joseph Brown, Esq.
+ Appendix G.
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During the year 1774, town-meetings were con- tinued along, by short adjournments, pretty much through the year. The military companies were effi- ciently organized and officered; a company of minute- men, numbering fifty, was enrolled, with Captain Wing Spooner for captain ; liberal appropriations were made for increasing the town's stock of ammu- nition ; while earnest endeavors were made to engage every male inhabitant of the town, above twenty-one years of age, to sign the non-consumption covenant, - an agreement not to use any of the articles on which Parliament was seeking to raise a revenue from the colonies. Observing men saw now that force would have to be met by force, and that soon. .They were generally ready for the issue. Their minds were made up. Such was the posture of affairs, that it was next to impossible for any to remain neutral. How- ever reluctant, nearly all were compelled to take sides ; and nearly all did so.
Things were in this state at the opening of the year 1775.
One of the first instances, in the country, of open collision between the friends of the king and the party of freedom, took place in this town in January, or early in February, of this year.
Two British officers, Captain Brown and Ensign D'Bernicre, were sent out from Boston, by General Gage, in the latter part of February, to travel up through the country from Boston to Worcester, with instructions to make observations on the situation of the country, the roads, distances, &c. At great risk,
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and with much difficulty, they made their way to Worcester and back again, in disguise. At Worces- ter, some gentlemen, in the Tory interests, sent them word secretly, " that the friends of government at Petersham were disarmed by the rebels, and that they threatened to do the same at Worcester in a very little time."
The transaction here referred to was substantially as follows : -
One Dr. Ball, of Templeton (that part which has since borne the name of Gerry and Phillipston suc- cessively), a warm Whig, being in this town, chanced to fall into an altercation with one or two young men of the opposing party ; one of them a son of Mr. David Stone, who lived at the place where Mr. Silas Hildreth now lives.
The disputants separated in no very amiable tem- per; and when Dr. Ball, after a time, was descending the hill just this side of the old tan-yard, on his way home, those who had had the contention with him waylaid him, and pelted him with stones. One of the missiles took effect, and wounded him seriously (it was afterwards said fatally). It needed but some . such spark of provocation to set in a blaze the com- bustible passions with which the breasts of all were filled. The tidings of the outrage were quickly spread through the neighboring towns. The Templeton Whigs, in particular, were much exasperated, as the sufferer was one of their number. Gathering together a considerable force, they marched across to this town, where they were joined by those who sympathized
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with them living here; while many more were brought in, by their interest in the great struggle pending, from other towns round about. The Tories, meantime, having taken the alarm, and not knowing where the excited feelings of the people might stop, had assembled, with their arms and ammunition, at the house of Mr. Stone, which they barricaded and secured, preparing to defend themselves there, if the case should require it.
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