USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Hubbardston > An address, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Hubbardston, Mass. > Part 2
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The territorial bounds of the town remain the same as the original survey, except that one five hundred aere farm in the South-East Corner was set off to Princeton in 1810. I suppose this was one of the feathers which naturally clung to the east wing when that was cut off.
Not one of these proprietors ever settled here, and yet their influence lives after them. The very policy which they pur- sued in regard to these wild lands has greatly affected the prosperity of the place even down to the present time.
The old Romans, to conceal the meanuess of their origin, claimed to have descended from the gods, and gloried in the brillianey of their fabulous history. We claim no such high origin. Our ancestors were neither divinities, nor very re- markable men, though we believe they were honest, brave, and true men, men who labored for the welfare of succeed- ing generations. We shall resort to no fiction in describing the first settlers, but give you the simple facts as we find them.
As we have already said, the first settler was Eleazer Brown, who came here with his family as early as 1737, and continued the only settler till the time of his death in 1746, about nine years. Mr. Read, in his history of Rutland, says, "Mrs Brown had the resolution and fortitude to remain on the settlement for several years after the death of her husband, before there were any other inhabitants, and, for a number of years it was called 'Widow Brown's Farm.'"
Of the character of Mr. Brown we know but little, but it would seem from facts already stated, that his business
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was to keep a hotel. For a man to move out here into an unbroken wilderness, inhabited only by deer, bears aud wolves, with no roads, except the path before described, and erect his log hut five or six miles away from any neighbors, for the purpose of keeping a house of entertainment, would seem almost like Cain attempting to keep tavern in the land of Nod. But when we reflect that this was at the time when companies of men were engaged in surveying the country, and many were looking it over with reference to purchase or settlement, that these forests were valiable hunting grounds to the sportsmen, and these ponds were attractive to the angler, and remember also that the Valley of the Connectient was then the far west to the eastern towns, and that this may have been the main thoroughfare for the conveyance of cider to the new settlements, we may believe that his house had as many guests as some houses of enter- tainment at the present day.
It seems that he was faithful in his business, and exhibited true benevolence, for in the Proprietors' Records for 1743, we find the following minute, " Whereas Eleazer Brown, for seenring travellers from being lost in storms, was settled in the N. E. Quarter of Rutland, and has dwelt there six years, and undergone considerable difficulty in so doing, therefore voted, that for the encouragement of said Brown, Mr. John Caldwell be desired to purchase a good Milch Cow, for the use of said Brown, and that he be paid therefor out of the proprietors' stock." The record also adds, " Mr. Caldwell informs that he is ready to deliver Mrs. Brown either of his cows which she may choose, for £16". (old tenor. ) This shows human nature to have been innch the same 125 years ago as now. Mr. Caldwell improved the opportunity to make a good sale of one of his own cows, and Mrs. Brown appears as chief manager of the firm of Brown & Co., Inn- holders.
From all we can gather, we judge that Mrs. Brown was well fitted for her position,-hardy, resolute, and masculine
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in her character .* Though we may suppose that her house was not furnished, nor kept, after the style of the Astor or Parker House, yet it is said that she sometimes had wealthy, and distinguished guests from Boston. At one time she had several such gentlemen to dine with her, and she prepared the best dinner in her power. After they were all seated, she took her place as table-waiter. They dispatched their pudding first, which was the fashion till within the last half century, and one of them, who was a little more fastidious than the others, wanted a clean plate for his meat. As she could not furnish one, she took his quickly to the side of the room, washed it, probably in cold water, and returned it, all dripping, to its place. As he did not quite fancy that, she reached over his shoulder, took it again, and catching up the bottom of her short gown, wiped it and returned it. He, not seeing the operation, now relished his dinner, and those on the other side of the table did not describe the dish towel till dinner was over. If we shudder at such rudeness, we must remember that she was the smartest, handsomest, and most accomplished lady in town-the very elite of the place. I cannot say how far the plain, practical character, and rough sense of this woman, have influenced the prevailing senti- ments of the town, but one striking characteristic of the place has always been the general equality of the people. The spirit of caste has never flourished in this town. The people have always associated on a common level, without stately airs or ceremonious etiquette.
On the 25th of November, 1746, Mr. Brown left his home to hunt in the woods, but never returned. On the 17th of January, having been missing fifty-three days, his dead body was found about three miles from home, near the line of Barre, bleaching in the northern blasts. His gun stood by the side of a tree, and a large buck decr lay dead by his
* Mr. Brown used to take cattle from the lower towns, let them run in the woods, guard, and salt them. At the sound of a conch-shell they would collect. Mrs. Brown, after her husband's death, would take her gun, mount her horse, ride along the cattle's paths, and by the sound of her conch-shell collect them, and, when necessary, pass over Ware River to Rutland.
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side. All else is conjecture. Of Mrs. Brown we hear no- thing after 1749, when she was living at the same place.
It is probable that not many years passed after the death of Mr. Brown, before other settlements were made. Molly Green, danghter of Israel Green, has always been reported to have been the first child born in town. She died in 1826, supposed to be 77 years old. If so, Mr. Green must have settled here as early as 1749. He lived on great farm, No. 26, near what is now the residence of Enke Waite. Ile remained in town about twenty years, and the first two years after the incorporation, his name appears as Modera- tor, Constable, Assessor, and Selectman. This is the last we hear of him, and suppose he left town about this time. The daughter, Molly, became enfeebled in body and mind, and returned to be supported by the town.
Several years before the incorporation of the district,* Charles Parmenter, Joseph Rist and Joseph Eveleth resided here ; having located more for the purpose of hunting than for clearing up the land. Benj. Hoyt also came carly to town, and commenced to clear a farm, the one now occu- pied by Mr. Lamphear, and built a large barn in 17644. In 1761 Joseph Grimes and four sons, one of whom was the celebrated Ephraim Grimes, came from Tewksbury, and the next year Stephen Heald came from Rutland. During 1766 several families came from Marlborough, Leicester and Holden, and commenced settlements in different parts of the town. These latter came with the definite object of making this their home, and devoting themselves to the formation of society and the establishment of a town. Now things began to assume a positive shape and character.
Efforts had before been made to obtain a charter as a sepa- rate District, with the powers and privileges of a town, but the number of families was so small, their request was refused. Now they petitioned with renewed zeal, till they
* This town was never incorporated as a town. As a district they had all the privileges of a town, except that they united with Rutland in their repre- sentation to the General Court.
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accomplished their purpose .* On the 13th day of June, 1767, the N. E. Quarter of Rutland was incorporated into a separate district, taking the name of Hubbardston, from Hon. Thomas Hubbard, one of the original proprietors. He was long a prominent man in Boston. At one time Speaker of the House of Representatives. For seventeen years Treasurer of Harvard College. As his name appears among the proprietors of some of the neighboring towns, and as treasurer of the proprietors of Royalston, we judge that he was an extensive land-holder.
Tradition says, that in view of the honor of giving his name to the town, he promised to give the glass for the first meeting-house, and that the people of the town, to make his liberality more conspicuous, planned for an extra number of very large windows. But he died in 1773, and his estate was so much involved that they received nothing, and they were obliged to glaze their extra windows themselves,-an- other example of men standing in their own light.
It would be very interesting to go back and take a look at the town in its physical and moral aspect, as it appeared at the beginning of its corporate life, that we might more fully realize the changes of a century ; but with all available data it is impossible to re-produce the picture, except in a very limited degree. So far as can be ascertained, there were about thirty families and one hundred and fifty per- sons here at that time. We cannot now tell where they all came from, nor on what farms they were all settled, but they were scattered in different parts of the town. In all these towns, for obvious reasons, the hills were sought as the first places for clearing. This will account for all the old roads running over the highest hills. Settlements were made, then paths cut out from one to another, and these paths gradually grew into roads.
* The petition bears date Jan. 28, 1767, in which the petitioners say "that the said North-East Quarter of Rutland is of the contents of six miles square of land capable of making a very good town." The reasons they set forth for ask- ing to be incorporated, are that they have no roads and no means of making them, and they are so far from the public worship of God, in Rutland.
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Many of the adjoining towns were settled before this, and families came over and located near the border.
At that time, where this beautiful village now stands, there were only three or four rude dwellings, and these streets were a dense forest. There were no roads, except bridle paths, (or " bridal roads," as some of the records describe them), through the forests, followed by the help of marked trees. There were no bridges over the streams. No stores, no post office, no meeting house, no school house, no mills. The families had but few of the comforts we now enjoy. There was no publie conveyance to any place. The first stage- coach in America eonnenced running in 1772, from Boston to Providence, a distance of forty-one miles, and was two days in making the journey. Scarcely a spot now remains as it then was. The lords of the forests have fallen and saplings grow in their places. We sadly regret the indis- criminate slaughter of the old trees. Their value was not simply in the number of feet of hunber they would make. They were links with former generations. They were mor- al teachers. If these hills and valleys had been naked of forests, or covered only with shrub oaks and alders, I do not believe the carly settlers would have been the men of large hearts and noble ideas they were. There is some- thing in the stately oak, and the towering pine, that awak- ens lofty sentiments and high purposes. Let the same old trees, which sheltered the fathers from the storms, spread their genial shade over the children, and they will have a hallowing influence. I know this town has done nobly in setting trees to beautify the place. But another century must pass before these can be surrounded with the tender associations of many of those which have gone. If any of these old land-marks are still left, we would say,
" Woodman, spare that tree, Touch not a single bough."
There is not one building now standing that was erected a hundred years ago, except a portion of the house where Charles Hinds now lives.
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The first spot occupied as a burial place, was on the west side of the common, near the hay scales. Whether the dust of those buried there was removed, or still reposes beneath the green turf, we do not know : but suppose we could call forth one of the inmates of those graves and show him Hub- bardston as it now is in contrast with his recollections of it. Take him to this stand, and show him this vast assem- blage of the natives of the town. Take him over the village and point out the neat dwellings and public buildings, and the fruitful farms all around. Take him into the homes of the people and show him how they live. Give him a seat on the sofa in your nicely furnished parlor, and play him a tune upon the piano. Point out to him the fashions of the day, some of which have a beauty of extreme minuteness. Go into the several cemeteries, where so many hundred mon- uments keep their silent vigils over the precious dust of hundreds, who have been born and died since he lay down to sleep ; and tell him that instead of these places being shrouded with gloom and dread, they are the places of most public resort. In short, show him Hubbardston of to-day, and would he not sigh and say, "This is not Hubbardston as I knew it! How changed ! How strange! Let me sleep on, for I am not at home here."
The first town meeting under the new charter was held July 3d, 1767, at the house of Edward Rice, who lived near the present residence of Hervey Clark. The call was is- sued by John Murray, Esq., of Rutland, a Justice of the Peace for the County of Worcester. He was chosen Mod- erator, and John LeBourvean, Clerk, Israel Green, Benj. Nurs, and Benj. Hoyt, Selectmen and Assessors, and Ezekiel Newton, Treasurer.
On the same day the Selectinen issued their warrant for another meeting, to be held at the same place, on the 15th of the same month, to raise money to build the county road from Templeton to Rutland, which had just been laid out. This was the old road leading over the "Muzzy Hill," through the village, and by where Isaac Mundell now lives.
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This was the first public road, and for more than sixty years remained the great thoroughfare from Vermont, through Keene and Worcester, to Rhode Island.
At this meeting, the sum of £16, or about $53, was granted to clear out the road. This could not have been so much as eight dollars to the mile. Soon after, a con- tract was made with Stephen Heald, to build a bridge over the branch of the Ware river, for $33. This was near where Brigham's mills now are.
On the 20th of the same month, another meeting was held, at which provision was made for a school, to keep three months in the coming winter; one month at the house of David Slanow, where Albert and Edwin Bennett now live; one month at the house of Edward Rice, before named ; and one month at the house of Adam Wheeler, the present residence of William Joslin. These schools were attended by nearly all the boys. in the town.
If you ask why the girls did not attend these schools, we can only answer, that in those days it was expected that the men would do the business which required education. That was before the agitation of woman's rights, and the young ladies, even in the F. F. V.'s, were educated more on the spinning-wheel and the loom than in Algebra and Astron- omy .* Their accomplishments were more in milking the cows and making golden butter, than in music, French and drawing ; though in one modern accomplishment-horse- back riding-we think they would excel even the experts of the present day. Some of the mothers now living we know to have ridden from Watertown and Newton to this place, on horse-back and on a man's saddle, in a single day.
We suspect that another reason why some of the girls did not attend these schools, was because they had no shoes to wear. Besides, perhaps, the provision was made on the supposition that the boys would naturally embrace the girls.
We see that the charter of the town was not regarded as
* Gov. Bullock says he remembers to have passed, in early evening, to the sweet sleep of childhood under the wolian cadence of the spinning-wheel.
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a mere name or title of honor, but under it the citizens be- gan at once to work in earnest, to lay the foundations of the future. During the next five years, many roads were laid out and built at a large labor tax.
During the years 1771-72, Isaac Bellows, from Rutland, James Woods, from Marlborough, and William Muzzy, from Lexington, come into town, each with a large family. They were men of good education and general intelligence, and possessed of those qualities which make the good citizen. They did much towards forming the public sentiment of the place.
The town continued to increase in population and wealth. In 1790 there were 933 inhabitants, and at the close of the 18th century, 1113. And at that time the proportion of the State tax was $1.89 on $1000. More than double what it now is.
In 1770 the first school house was built, near the south- west corner of the old burial ground, and for several years was used for schools, for meeting house and town house. This was the only school house in town till 1782, when the town voted to divide the territory into seven districts, or squadrons, and granted £105 to build seven school houses the same year. But so great were the pecuniary burdens of those times, that four years after, but few of these houses were completed, and some of them not commenced; and in the mean time, one other district was set off on petition of the inhabitants, and Dec. 12, 1785, $50 additional was granted to cach squadron to complete its school house, and a new building committee appointed, and the houses were probably finished the next year.
Every year, except two or three of the darkest in the midst of the revolution, the town made appropriations of money for schools, in sums from £10 at first, to £100 in 1795, besides the income of the school lot. This money was divided among the several districts in proportion to the number of scholars between four and twenty-one years of age. But few professional, or liberally educated men have
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ever been raised in this town, but in general intelligence and interest in common school education, we believe it has not been below other places.
The loyalty and patriotism of the town has never been questioned, except in one sad instance. Through all the bloody conflicts and struggles of the nation, this people have borne their part bravely and unflinchingly. The town had its birth amidst exciting scenes. The first settlers came here while the French and Indian war was raging. And even before their charter was given the Revolution had be- gun. There were signs of the approaching storm, too dis- tinet to be mistaken. Two years before the charter, the famous Stamp Act was passed by Parliament. This roused the people in all the colonies. Franklin wrote to Charles Thompson, "The sun of American liberty is set. The Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy." "Be assured," was his friend's reply, "we shall light torches of a very different character." The almost superhuman elo- quence of Patrick Henry had already kindled the phrensy of enthusiasm in many hearts. In New Hampshire, on the morning of the day when the act was to go into effect, the bells were tolled and the people assembled in funereal pro- cession. A coffin, bearing the name of Liberty, was carried to a grave on the shoulders of eight men, to the sound of minute guns. A funeral oration was pronounced and the coffin lowered. Suddenly signs of life appeared. It was raised, and now bore the inscription, "Liberty revived." Enthusiastic cheers went up from the multitude, and the sound of drums and trumpets greeted the resurrection. Such was the feeling all over the land. It was war rather than submission to such injustice. The next year after the in- corporation, General Gage, with his troops, landed in Bos- ton, and two years later occurred the Boston massacre. As a weekly newspaper, perhaps ten days old, brought the news of the event into this new settlement, may it not be supposed that it awakened the same feeling that prevailed on that ever memorable Sabbath, the 14th of April, 1861,
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when the news came that the stars and stripes no longer floated over fort Sumter. Or on the 19th of the same month, when we heard of the bloody Baltimore massacre.
Those were trying days for a town just out of its cradle, but how nobly it stood in its lot for "freedom's holy cause," the records clearly show.
As early as 1774, the Selectmen of the town of Boston sent out a circular to all the towns and districts in the Prov- ince, calling for an expression of the sentiments of the peo- ple upon public matters. To this call the people of this town responded in the following language :
" We are of opinion that the Rulers first derive their pow- er from the Ruled, by certain laws and rules agreed to by Rulers and Ruled, and when Rulers break over such laws and rules as agreed to by Rulers and Ruled, and make new ones, that then the Ruled have a right to refuse such new Laws, and that that the Ruled have a right to judge for themselves when Rulers transgress.
We think the Parliament of Great Britain have taxed us contrary to chartered rights ; they have made our Gover- nor independent of the people by appointing him a salary from home, and the Judges of the Superior Court, we hear, have a salary appointed from home, and have reason to be- lieve it, which appears to us so big with slavery that we think it enough to arouse every individual that has any idea of arbitrary Power above the Brutal Creation, to use his ut- most endeavors, in a lawful way, to seek redress for our in- jured rights and privileges.
We think we ought immediately, vigorously and unani- monsly, to exert ourselves in the most firm, but most peace- able manner, for obtaining relief. The cause of liberty is a cause of too much dignity to be sullied by disturbance and tumult. It ought to be maintained in a manner suit- able to her nature. Those engaged in it should breathe a sedate yet fervent spirit, animating us to actions of justice and bravery. A free people cannot be too quick in observ- ing nor too firm in opposing the beginning of alterations in a constitution."
This shows that they clearly comprehended the true prin- ciples of government, as well as their own grievances ; that they bravely dared to stand by the right while they sought
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for harmony and peace. Though the language is not alto- gether the choicest, yet who does not admire its truly Lin- colnian strength and perspicuity.
About this time they adopted the Resolves of the Conti- nental Congress, which were submitted to the people, to the effect that they would use no article that was imported from Great Britain.
Soon after, Congress called upon the people to assemble in their respective places of voting, to see if it be the minds of the people that Congress should declare the Colonies free and independent of Great Britain; and the inhabitants of this town, being assembled for this purpose, on June 14th, 1776, voted, unanimously, in the affirmative. And then voted, "that if Congress should so declare the Colonies in- dependent of Great Britain, we, the inhabitants of this town, solemnly engage, with our lives and our fortunes, to support them in the measure."
This was no mere idle declaration, for directly after the fight of Concord and Lexington, a large number of men en- listed as "minute men," one of the first of whom was Isaac Bellows, and other prominent men followed. The town promised them a bounty in case they should be called into service. They were called out before the battle of Bunker's Hill, and thirty men responded, but the treasury of the town was so embarrassed that it was a long time before this bounty was paid.
In May, 1778, a call was made for three men for three years, and the town voted a bounty of £120 to each man who would enlist.
In the spring of 1780 a call was made for more men and provisions. At this time, paper money, or the old "Conti- mental money," had so depreciated in value that it became very difficult to make negotiations in definite sums, and the practice of taking the value of other articles as the standard of prices for bounties was adopted. The men who enlisted for six months, were to "receive £10 per month, in Rye, In- dian Corn, Beef and Sole-Leather, based on former prices."
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And those who enlisted for three years, were to receive "twenty head of three years old Cattle-Heifers and Steers of average value."
It was also voted "to pay each man now hired the addi- tional sum of $500 in paper money."
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