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 4
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. Around this house, Captain Holman, of Templeton, formed his company, with such reinforcements as had joined them, and the occupants found themselves in a state of siege.
Messengers were despatched to the towns adjoining, to call together their Committees of Safety for coun- sel. Meanwhile, the house was guarded strictly, through the remainder of the day and the night suc- ceeding, under a heavy storm. Attempts were made, from time to time, to arrange a capitulation; but without success. At length, the tradition says, that one of the besiegers, Mr. Samuel Byham, of Temple- ton, unable longer to restrain his impatience, declared his determination to shoot, if not with, then without, orders. This seemed to bring matters to a crisis. The party within, unwilling to cause the shedding of blood unnecessarily, and probably convinced that they were too few to maintain a successful resistance, lis- tened to the suggestion of Joshua Willard, Esq., one of their number, who avowed himself in favor of a surrender. His counsel met with favor, and was adopted.
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The party besieged accordingly threw open the doors of the house; and, as they came forth, were surrounded, and marched to the tavern kept by Mr. Winslow (the house which stood beneath the elm), and there an examination was held by a Council of the various Committees of Safety. The throwing of the stones was confessed to by the offender. This extemporaneous court decided that the royalists should give up their arms, and enter into an engage- ment not to act against the revolutionary movement for the future. Some of the traditions say, that they went much farther, placing them under the most stringent surveillance; forbidding them to go beyond the limits of the town, or even off their farms, without passports from the Committee of Safety. If these last orders were adopted, they were not long or rigorously enforced.
Here we begin to conceive the fearful nature of civil war. No, we do not conceive it. It was. too long ago. The perspective is too far drawn. The images are indistinct. Set the imagination to work to bring the objects close, and the picture may become a reality. Here stand those who have been kind and agrecable neighbors, - yea, nearer than that, - those who were brought up around one hearthstone, - here they stand, gun in hand, liable to hear, at any moment, the command to point their deadly weapons at one another's breasts, and, worst of all, are ready to obey.
Tradition says, that two anxious wives, one having a husband inside the beleaguered house, the other
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having one outside, met in the solitary fields that lay between their respective dwellings, and there held tearful converse in the darkness; they cared kindly for each other, as in neighboring wives was becoming. But their husbands, they knew, were ranged in hostile- ranks; and they lamented, as they foreboded evil on that stormy night .*
The great drama of war soon opened. We have dwelt too long, perhaps, on the feelings and measures which preceded it. We must pass, with but a brief mention, some few events and facts belonging to the line of our story, and connected with the war itself. The history of the Revolutionary War is the familiar chapter in our nation's history. It, least of all, needs to be dwelt on to-day. This town bore its full part in all those burdens. In men and money, in patriotic. zeal, and ready and efficient action, it was among the foremost.
It may be worthy of mention, that, on April 12, 1775, just one week before the battle of Lexington, the town being met, voted, " that the present assembly be directed to warn every male inhabitant, from sixteen years old and upwards, to meet at the mecting-house in Petersham, with arms and ammunition, on Monday next, at nine o'clock in the morning." So that there was a general muster of all the able-bodied men and youth in the town, on the day but one before the memorable 19th.
* Mrs. Sylvanus How and Mrs. Seth Hapgood. The account of this affair at Mr. Stone's has been gathered from town-records, traditions, " Boston Evening Post:" for March 13, 1775, MSS. of Mrs. Sarah How, &c.
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The tidings from that first battle-field was the war- note that waked the nation. The sagacious saw what the colonies were come to, and that there was now no turning back. From this, as from all the towns, com- panies, hastily mustered, marched at once toward the theatre of war.
It deserves to be recorded perhaps, as an early symptom of the approaching assumption of indepen- dence, that the first town-meeting in this place not warned in the name of his majesty, the English king, was held on the 17th of July, 1775, just about a year before the formal Declaration of Independence. The Selectmen " requested " the Constable "to warn and notify the freeholders, and other inhabitants that have estate of freehold in land of [the value of ] forty shil- lings per annum, or other estate to the value of forty pounds sterling."
In the May following, the voice of the town for. independence was heard more distinctly. A meeting was called to be holden on the 27th of that month, "to see if the inhabitants will instruct their Repre- sentative to inform the Great and General Court of this Province, that they stand ready, and are fully determined, to support the Continental Congress with their lives and fortunes, on condition they should declare the American Colonies independent of corrupt and arbitrary Great Britain."
At the meeting thus warned, Colonel Doolittle was Chairman of the Committee appointed to report on the subject. And " when the question was put, whe- ther they would stand by and support the Continental
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Congress, on condition they should declare the Ameri- can Colonies independent of corrupt and arbitrary Great Britain, with their lives and fortunes, it passed. in the affirmative, with but one dissentient."
On the very day on which Congress were adopting the Declaration of Independence, and proclaiming it in the streets of Philadelphia, the inhabitants of Petersham were in session at their humble, weather- stained meeting-house, that stood over yonder by the gate of the burial-field, there devising and executing such measures as should make that declaration good. On that July 4th, 1776 (seventy-eight years ago this day and hour), Hancock, Adams, Jefferson, and the immortal train of patriots with whom they sat in council, decided at Philadelphia, that, " sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish," they gave heart and hand to that vote which severed the American Colo- nies from the English crown, and created a new empire.
That same day, the staunch patriots of this town, sitting in council on the `spot just indicated, with Colonel Doolittle for their Moderator, were helping to provide the men and the means, without which that declaration would have been but waste paper. And it neither belittles the moral grandeur of that scene at Philadelphia, nor foists to an unbeseeming conspi- cuity that which transpired here cight and seventy. years ago, to associate them together.
Honored be the men that dared declare indepen- dence! Honored, equally with them, the men who, saving that declaration from becoming a hissing and a
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by-word, made it the rock of foundation on which to build the foremost nation of this century!
I have spoken with an honest and a heartfelt enthu- siasm of the time when, and of the men by whom, this nation had a beginning. Let those who can, render her unqualified honor for what she now is, and for what she now does. In all that exhibits a mate- rial prosperity and power, her career has indeed been one of unexampled, amazing splendor. But there was a promise in her birth which has not been kept. She promised that all of human-kind beneath her ægis should be recognized as having equal natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She does not abide by her noble declaration. She has not only failed to make it good: she has lent herself to an oppression which flouts it with con- tempt.
Are these words discordant with your feelings ? and do you hold none a true lover of his country who refuses to praise her on her great anniversary ? It is because I love my country, that I desire for her a spotless, an honorable, an ever-brightening fame. She will never fulfil her early promise, never be great in. the greatest way, till she honors man as man ; till she protects with an impartial justice, and cherishes with an equal love, all her children.
The zeal with which the people of this town made their declarations for independence, and gave pledges of aid in securing it, did not end in words : their deeds corresponded with their promises. Through all the dark days of that trying period, they were steadfast in
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their support of the cause of freedom. Every encour- agement was given to the strong-handed sons of the town to enlist in the armies ; liberal bounties were offered them in money; clothing was provided; they were exempted from taxation; and their families were provided for during their absence, so that none should want. But the time came, at length, when they felt that they were repaid for all their sacrifices and priva- tions ; the war was ended, and their liberties ' were secured.
In January, 1778, the town considered at length, and with much debate, the Articles of Confederation which Congress had submitted to the country; and, in their action upon them, partly approved, disap- proved in part, and proposed various amendments.
In the same year, they unanimously voted their rejection of the State Constitution proposed by the General Court, though they could not agree upon a report embodying the grounds upon which . they rejected it. A large Committee, of which Colonel Doolittle was Chairman, submitted an elaborate report to the town on the subject, which was not accepted ; and when another large Committee had been appointed, and submitted another report, it was found no more satisfactory than that of their predecessors .*
The contest with England was hardly well ended, before other dangers threatened, scarcely less formida- able. The long war had exhausted the country. The habits which war naturally induces had unfitted many
* Town Records.
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for steady industry, and a ready obedience to law ; " the yoke of old authorities had been thrown off, and men were not prompt to bow their necks to a new. one, though contrived with wisdom and equity, and imposed by kind and impartial hands." There was no currency. Individuals were in debt: so were the government. Wild expectations had been indulged in, of the immediate and happy results of emancipa- tion from British rule. These false or exaggerated hopes meeting with disappointment, the real causes of disappointment were not well understood. Disorders arose. The people knew that things were not well : they knew not why. It was not very strange that many should attribute the distressed condition of the country to bad management in the government, or that jealousies should arise towards those who were supposed to possess the power to remedy the existing evils, and yet did not use it. Out of these causes arose what is known commonly as the Shays Rebel- lion ; an insurrectionary movement, pretty much with- out plan in its origin, and which tended, during its progress, to no specific results of importance. The disaffection towards the government was greatest in" the interior and western parts of the State. It was felt here; indeed, an uneasy feeling prevailed through- out the Commonwealth, and society was unsettled in its foundations. Nearly all classes saw that there
were evils to be redressed; and the greater part of the citizens of this town were assiduous, with petitions and other means, to hasten and guide the action of the Legislature towards measures of relief: but not the.
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majority, not a very large number, could see how relief was to come by arming themselves, and resisting the government. There is no reason to think that it was because the insurrection had more adherents here than elsewhere, that their forces fled hither, when hotly pressed in other quarters. The nominal head and recognized leader of the insurgents was Daniel Shays, a person without any of those qualities which indicate one born to command, or one fitted to take the conduct of important affairs.
After various gatherings, risings, outbreaks of vio- lence, and instances of armed interference with the courts, Shays found himself, at length, with about two thousand men around him, at Pelham, in Hampshire County, on the 2d of February, 1787; and General Lincoln, with a strong force, set down in his front.
On Saturday morning, Feb. 3d, there was some par- leying between the two forces, but no change in the posture of affairs. In the evening of the same day, word was brought to General Lincoln at Hadley, that Shays had secretly decamped, and that he was retreating, with his followers, towards Petersham, where, it was given out, he would be strengthened by large additions to his force from the towns around, and would make a stand. General Lincoln put his troops in instant pursuit. By eight o'clock, they were in motion. The early part of the night was light, and the weather not inclement for the season. But, about two o'clock on the morning of the 4th, they having advanced as far as New Salem, a violent and intensely cold wind sprang up in the north and north-west,
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accompanied with snow. For the distance of eight miles, - between New Salem and this place, - there was no means of obtaining shelter. The snow filled their path, and the biting blasts froze their limbs ; they could not stop to take refreshment, on account of the danger of freezing to death ; there was no alter- native but to continue their march. Thirty miles they travelled, from Hadley to Petersham, through snow and cold; executing, says the historian, one of the most indefatigable marches that ever was per- formed in America. None of the men perished; but a great number were severely frost-bitten : indeed, the
part or other, many of them very seriously ; and "the greater portion of Lincoln's men were frozen in some
sufferings of that dreadful night-march to Petersham were long remembered and spoken of in this part of the country." The pursuing troops reached this town about nine o'clock Sunday morning, where they were so little expected, that they found Shays's men, who had arrived the night before, unconcernedly cooking and eating their breakfasts. So secure were they, in the imagined impossibility of such a pursuit as their ene- mies had made, that they had even neglected to post" proper guards and sentinels, and were taken entirely by surprise. Their kettles were left hanging over the fires ; in some instances without their arins, in others but partially clothed even, they fled, singly or in squads, scattering in all directions. The larger num- ber turned towards Athol, and thence in the direction of Northfield. But there was no farther gathering in any considerable strength. The rout was so com-
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plete, that they were utterly broken and dispirited. About one hundred and fifty were made prisoners ; and the greater part of the body would have been captured, doubtless, but for the blocking snow, which prevented Lincoln's pouring his men rapidly into the town. The captives, - excepting the officers, - on their taking the oath of allegiance, were at once released, and received passports to enable them to return to their respective towns .*
The ecclesiastical affairs of the town demand here a brief survey. Mr. Whitney, as was before men- tioned, was peremptorily excluded from the town's pulpit. He continued, till near the end of his life, to hold religious services at his own house.t He survived his expulsion about four years, and died in 1779, at the age of sixty-five. Mr. Whitney was a native of Littleton, in this State, and a son of Moses Whitney, of that place. He was born in 1714, graduated at Harvard College in 1737, and was ordained minister of the plantation of Nichewaug in December, 1738. He received the lot numbered four- teen, among the lots drawn by the original proprietors, at his settlement, and built a dwelling upon it. His. house stood a few rods south and west of that now owned and occupied by George White, Esq .; while his farm embraced a considerable tract of land, extend-
* Minot's Ilistory; Bowen's Biography of Gen. Lincoln, in Sparks's Biographies; newspapers of the period. - See Appendix I.
+ Mr. Whitney claimed to be the minister of the town up to the end of Lis life: Whatever basis the claim might have had ecclesiastically viewed, it was practically a barren onc, as the town proceeded as if the ministerial office were vacant.
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ing chiefly to the south and west of the house, - the farm subsequently owned and occupied by two of his successors .* Mr. Whitney appears not to have been one of those who make prominent the peculiari- ties of a sect; and he seems to have been universally respected for his virtues. The records of the church made during his ministry, though they are very brief and incomplete, indicate that the church was gene- rally in a state of harmony and prosperity. He was very successful as a farmer; and the improvements which he made upon his land, particularly by judi- cious drainage, were such as to become the subject of frequent public comment, and are still mentioned by the aged as among the traditions they received from their fathers.t He had a numerous family, and edu- cated four sons at Harvard College; one of whom, Rev. Peter Whitney, settled in the ministry at North- borough, was the historian of his native county. De- scendants, through several generations, have followed him in the pastoral office, and the line is not yet extinct .¿ Councils were called to consider the relations of Mr. Whitney to the town ; but no record of them has been preserved. Tradition says, that one ecclesi-
* Mr. Reed and Mr. Willson.
t See Appendix F. - One of the productions of Rev. Mr. Whitney's farm was deemed such a curiosity in its time, that numerous visitors came from a distance to see it, and scientific naturalists studied it as a wonder. This was an apple-tree, whose fruit was sour upon one side, and sweet on the other. The tree stood south from Mr. Whitney's dwelling, a little way north from the present residence of Mr. Daniel Stowell. An account of it was written by Rev. Peter Whitney, of Northborough, and sent to President Willard, of Harvard University, who was also President of the American Academy. It may be found in the Memoirs of the Academy, vol. i. p. 386.
į Appendix K.
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astical Council, after declaring the pastor's moral and religious character blameless, and his ministerial fide- lity unimpeachable, closed by adding, that nevertheless, inasmuch as he was the "enemy of his country," it was judged expedient that his connection with the town and church be dissolved .* This was probably in 1777. It is certain, at least, that a mutual Council did meet sometime in that year, and advised the disso- lution of the connection between the church and pastor. Up to this time, the church would seem to have adhered, for the most part, to their minister; and had indeed voted formally, though not without opposition, that they were satisfied with him, notwith- standing the course he had taken in various matters of public controversy. After the action of this Coun- cil, separating him from his pastorship, most of the members of the church, belonging to the families of his political friends, took letters of dismission, and scattered to the churches of the neighboring towns. The war possessed an absorbing interest; dissensions disturbed the Christian fold ; attempts at conciliation were attended with only half success, which was vir- tual failure, and the institutions of religion were much neglected. Preachers were hired, from time to time, however; and in November, 1777, the church gave an invitation to Mr. Reuben Holcombt to become their minister, which invitation was declined. Other preachers came and went, during two or three years,
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* Councils had been held previously, which had arrived at results less satisfactory to the town, though it is not known precisely what they were.
t Mr. Holcomb afterwards settled in Sterling, Mass., of which town he was the minister thirty-five years.
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till, early in 1780, an invitation was extended to Mr. John Reed. This invitation was also declined, he having another invitation at the same time, which he preferred to accept .* Very soon after Mr. John Reed had answered the call to settle here in the negative, a like call was extended to his younger brother, Solo- mon Reed; and it received a favorable answer.
Rev. Solomon Reed, the second minister of this town, was a son of Rev. Solomon Reed, of Framing- ham, and was born in that town in 1752. He gra- duated at Yale College in 1775, and was ordained in this place on the 28th of October, 1780 ; - " a beauti- ful autumnal day," says one on whose memory the circumstances of that day yet remain vividly stamped. He was dismissed from his ministry on the 25th of June, 1800, and died on the second day of February, 1808, at the age of fifty-five years.
In the settlement of Mr. Reed, the differences by which the church had been disturbed were amicably adjusted. On the one hand, regrets and disapproba- tion were expressed at the treatment Mr. Whitney had. been subjected to, particularly in exacting from him military duties and taxation ; and, on the other side, the friends of Mr. Whitney came forward, and united in friendly relations with those who had been their opponents. Thus the parties which had been so long
* Mr. Reed was settled in West Bridgewater, where he fulfilled a ministry of half a century. Hle was a man of eminence in other walks than those of his profession, filling, for six years, the office of Representative in the Congress of the United States, He received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from Brown University, in 1803, and was the author of many published occasional Discourses, as well as of a work on Baptism,
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alienated, as a chronicler of the event expressed it, " hung the harp on the willow, and united," - a figure of speech, it is presumed, which had, in the writer's mind, much the same sense as that of burying the hatchet, or the other of beating their swords into ploughshares.
I am happy to be able to characterize Mr. Reed in the language of one who remembers him well, and than whom few could have had better opportunities of knowing him. " He was a man," says the venerated ex-pastor of the church in Deerfield, " of superior mental power; of great independence and freedom in his conduct and modes of expression ; often hyperbo- lical in conversation ; argumentative, and generally serious and impressive, in his public discourses. Un- happily, he bargained, in the early part of his ministry, for a very large farm, for which he was never able to pay ; and the consequence was, that he was too much embarrassed, during the whole of his ministry, to have ' either time, or quietness of mind, for regular study; and these embarrassments of mind led indirectly to his dismission.
" Mr. Reed, soon after his ordination, was married to Miss Susanna Willard, daughter of Colonel Josiah Willard, of Winchester, N.II .; and, in outward per- son, they were, I think, the most gigantic couple I ever saw together. It might be too much to say that their minds were in full proportion to their visible frames ; but they were both distinguished for their mental powers, and she was deservedly esteemed and beloved. They had a numerous family of children ..
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most of whom survived both their parents, and were valuable members of society."
It may be added, that Mr. Reed, though nominally of the Calvinistic school in theology, did not hold the system of that school in its integrity; and was, like his predecessor, rather inclined to urge the practical than the metaphysical aspects of the Christian religion upon his hearers.
That a kindly relation subsisted between Mr. Reed and his flock, up to the end of his ministry ; that the. occasion for its termination was sincerely lamented by the people; and that any frailty of will which may have hindered his ministerial usefulness was more. compassionated than censured by them, - is attested by the fact, that the proposition to dissolve the con- nection originated with him; and that no charge whatever against his moral or ministerial character was laid before the Council called to dismiss him.
The first symptoms of a change from congregational to choir singing, in the public worship, began to show" themselves about the year 1778. In the summer of '79, a town-meeting was held, at which one of the ; articles for action was " to see if the town will appro- priate the two hind seats on the lower floor, on the men's side of the alley, to the use of a number of peo- ple that will set in said seats and sing; and allow the said singers to build a door at each end of said seats, provided they build said doors on their own cost ; and that said singers do not have the privilege of said seats any longer than they will carry on sing-
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