USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Hubbardston > An address, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Hubbardston, Mass. > Part 3
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During this year the General Court sent an order to the town to furnish their share of a quantity of beef for the army, which was 3420 lbs. The town voted to comply with the request, and wanted the sum of £5130 for the pur- chase of the beef. This would make the cost of it about thirty shillings per pound.
It appears that another call for beef was made, for on the first day of January, 1781, the town appointed another com- mittee to purchase beef, and raised the additional sum of £10,000 to pay for it. This would make the sum of more than $50,000 to purchase meat for the army. And in esti- mating the sacrifices of those times, we must remember that much of this paper money had cost them as much as good money would in ordinary times.
In an old memorandum book of Capt. John Woods, we find charged for doing some writing, probably a deed, $30. For flip, drank, probably while doing it, $8. For an almanac, $6.
Up to this time the town furnished the required number of men without a draft. But the summer of 1781 was proba- bly the darkest period in the whole history of the place. They had furnished a large proportion of their able-bodied men for the army, and had exhausted their means in paying bounties and for provisions. Now came the order for a draft.
The Selectmen and militia officers made every possible effort to obtain the men, but failed, and the Constable was ordered to warn all the inhabitants, personally, to meet on the second day of July, to decide what measures should be adopted. At that meeting they voted to postpone the draft one week, and to indemnify Capt. Slocum for all damage that might happen in consequence of the delay. The men
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were not obtained and the draft was made ; but who were drafted does not appear.
A few days after they voted to give these drafted men nine pounds (old tenor) each, as a bounty. Also, "voted that Nathan Stone give his obligation to such of the men as prefer it to the obligation of the town." This shows that their credit was exceedingly low.
It is probable that but one other call was made for men. Of these, seven in number, four were hired from abroad for £75 each, and the other three volunteered.
Through all this year monthly calls were made for pro- visions for the army, and all through the war the families of all the men in the army were provided for at the expense of the town. In this they received no State aid, as in the re- cent war.
With the opening of 1782, after the surrender of Corn- wallis, the murky war-cloud, which, for eight years, had enveloped the nation in gloom, began to break, and the bow of hope spanned the receding storm. In some respects, the records of those days are meagre and obscure. They sought to meet the stern demands of the occasion, rather than to furnish material for our jubilation to-day. I have not been able to ascertain who, nor how many died in the army. But there can be no doubt that the war drew largely upon the bone and sinew of this infant town. Widows and orphans were left to be cared for. Their means were so ex- hausted that they were overwhelmed with a deluge of debts and accounts. The State tax was excessively burdensome, and many law-suits were brought against the town. But there was not one lisp of repudiation. With the same man- ly courage, and the same noble sense of justice, which led them to support the government, they set about adjusting their debts, almost as soon as the last gun was fired. They voted to instruct the Selectmen to borrow money and pay all just demands if it could be done at a rate of interest not exceeding 25 per cent.
In 1778, when the State Constitution was presented to
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the people for their adoption or rejection, this town voted unanimously against it. And the principal cause of their opposition was the property qualification of voters and of- fice holders. They were then ready to recognize the fact, that a man is a man, without reference to his broad aeres or well filled purse. This constitution was not adopted, and the next spring the question was presented whether another convention should be held. This town voted in the affirma- tive on certain conditions, one of which was that it be held near the middle of the State, showing that they were afraid of Boston influence and Boston lawyers. These conditions were not regarded, but they sent Capt. John Woods, as a delegate, and when the Convention had framed a Constitu- tion and it was again submitted to the people, there was but one dissenting vote in this town.
Capt. John Woods was also a delegate to the Convention called to ratify the United States Constitution, and, with the entire north of Worcester County, except Athol, he voted against it. Only six towns in the County voted yea. And there were only nineteen majority in the whole Convention.
History informs us that this town took a prominent part in the " Shays Rebellion," a fact we would gladly conceal did not truthfulness require that we should allude to it. In 1784 we find them sending William Muzzey as delegate to a Con- vention held in Worcester, whose object undoubtedly was to plot this Rebellion.
The country was exhausted by the protracted war, till it had almost become bankrupt in its resources. There was no currency but the almost worthless paper money. Towns and individuals were overwhelmed with debts they had no ability to pay. Taxes could not be collected without seizing lands and goods. The court dockets were crowded with law-suits-there being more than two thousand entered at Worcester in a single year. The large hopes of the peo- ple on the closing of the war had been disappointed, and there was general distress and discontent.
These were the causes of that Rebellion, led by one Daniel
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Shays, of Pelham, which was confined to the north part of Worcester County, and the Counties west of us. Its ob- jeet, so far as it had any, seems to have been to prevent the sittings of the courts. This town embarked in the wild scheme almost unanimously. Even those who had fought and bled for the Independence of their country now joined in a movement to subvert its authority and trample its laws under foot.
Capt. Adam Wheeler, who had served most honorably through the Revolution, raised and commanded a company which marched to Worcester, in September, 1786, and pa- raded in front of the court house. On the steps was sta- tioned a body of men with fixed bayonets and in front was Capt. Wheeler with his drawn sword. In this manner they received the court. But they were awed by the fearless and determined manner of Chief Justice Ward. He pressed forward till the bayonet points pierced his clothes. These men wore a sprig of evergreen in their caps as the badge of the Rebellion. The people generally did not sympa- thize with them, and they suffered extremely, sometimes going thirty hours without food or drink. Probably Shays' army never numbered more than two thousand men. And their whole course shows very plainly that they felt no con- fidence in their cause.
During the winter the privates went home, not covered with glory as when they came home after the Revolution, but humbled and made forever loyal by shame and suffer- ing.
Capt. Wheeler escaped being captured by mere accident, and fled to Canada where he remained four years, when he returned, and the town settled up a civil action which had been brought against him. Thus we find the people true to their leaders even in a bad cause. We have not one word of justification to offer in their behalf, in this matter. It is a foul blot on the fair fame of the town, the county and the State. But when we remember what they suffered, we think it should make us tolerant in our judgment.
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We cannot claim that the people of this town have al- ways been right in their course on public questions, but we think we can safely say that they have always had opinions of their own which they have dared to defend. True, we are told that John Clark, when the officers questioned him in regard to his views upon the Shays Rebellion, said he was "a nothing." But he was not the founder of a party of that order.
The same loyalty characterized the people in the war of 1812 as in the Revolution. Though a large portion of them were opposed to it, as needless and wrong, they did not re- fuse to support the government.
We contemplate their course through the recent war with feelings of gratitude and pride. You know with what alac- rity Massachusetts sprang to support the falling banner of the nation. In the very first regiment raised in the State this town was represented, and in the second more largely, and in ten or twelve others that followed, our men were found. The whole number of men furnished by this town was one hundred and fifty. About one hundred of these were citizens .*
Of this number a large proportion have gone to their rest. Some sleep where their slumbers will only be broken when the sea shall give up its dead. Others repose along the banks of the lower Mississippi, while others had but a shal- low bed scooped in the "sacred soil of Virginia." And in all these sacred enclosures for the dead at home, the brave warrier has been laid by loving hands, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." .
Some of them fell in the bloody conflict, more from ex- posure and disease, while others wasted away in the slower tortures of starvation in the stockade of Andersonville, where 30,000 Union boys were needlessly and wilfully mur- dered-rendering up their lives to the Moloch of secession.
* Ten more men were sent than required. About forty died. Ten paid $300. Six furnished substitutes. Paid in bounties, $8,625. Raised by subscription, $2,405.
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But few of these men were promoted to high commands, though we have Capt. Woodward and Lieut. Heald, and others of similar rank among us. It was in the ranks that the valor of these soldiers was displayed. They bravely met the foe, or endured suffering in the hospital and prison. Their record is neither stained by treachery nor cowardice.
While the blood-bought victory of Newbern and Roan- oake Island and Gettysburg, and the persistent campaign which opened the Mississippi, live in History, and while men talk of that series of terrible battles in which Sherman "swung around the whole circle," and Grant "fought it out on that line " till our triumphant banner waved over the bat- tlements of Richmond, so long will the heroic deeds of these men shed a lustre upon the town which enrolled them. In the language of our present honored Governor, "so long as we or our children live to enjoy the blessings of the Union, we will breathe a prayer of benediction for those, who, with untold sufferings, sealed the freedom of all races in Amer- ica."
I see some of them before me. In the name of the town, in the name of the whole country, we thank you, and bid you welcome. And to those who are represented here only by the widow and the orphan, we would say, sleep on in peace while a nation, disenthralled and almost reconstructed, offers grateful incense at your graves.
Those, also, who remained at home, stood nobly by the government from first to last, straining every nerve to meet the demands made upon them. The ladies vied with cach other in their sacrifices for the comfort of those who were bravely doing their duty at the front. Thus the century which opened with the heroic sacrifices of the patriots of the Revolution, finds a fitting close in the equally noble record of their descendants.
Not one slave ever breathed the air of Hubbardston. Slavery was not abolished in Massachusetts till 1780, and down to that time it existed legally in different parts of the State. At the beginning of the Revolution there were about
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five thousand slaves in the state. But not one human being was ever owned as a chattel by our citizens.
We have not yet noticed the religious history of the town, and want of time will now prevent us from enter- ing into all its interesting details. The principle which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, was freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. In a compact, written and signed in the Mayflower, they declared that they had undertaken the voyage "for the glory of God and the advancement of a Christian faith."
The same principle which led to the planting of the first colonies entered into the settlement of all these towns. Among the first objects of the early settlers, were a house of worship and a permanent ministry. Before they "dwelt in ceiled houses" themselves, the Lord's house was built.
And even before they had meeting houses in any form, they had public worship. "The groves were God's first temples." The same forests which resounded with the woodman's axe six days in the week, echoed the voice of prayer and song on the sabbath.
We have already noticed the liberal appropriations made by the original proprietors for "the first learned and ortho- dox minister," and for meeting-house and common. How farthey were actuated by religious principle in this, we can- not say. A far-sighted worldly policy would have dictated as much. This was the surest way to encourage settlements and the purchase of their lands. But whatever their mo- tive, it shows the prevailing sentiment of the times. Towns were usually incorporated when they could support a min- ister. And in granting these charters the State made pro- vision for laying permanently, the foundations of schools, and religious institutions.
We cannot claim that all the first settlers of this town were men of personal piety and Christian experience. In- deed, we have reason to believe they were not religious in the most rigid sense. Yet the fact which they set forth in their petition for a charter, that they are so far from the 5
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public worship of God, and the fact that as soon as there were twenty-five or thirty families they began to move for a meeting-house and a minister, show their high appreciation of religious institutions and privileges. We dare not say that they lived up to the letter of the law which made it a penalty for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday, but that they respected all divine institutions is evident.
This town has long been distinguished for its liberal and unsectarian religious character. Unusual harmony and kindly feeling have prevailed among the different denomi- nations, and though the "old Adam" has sometimes got the better of this feeling, we think we can trace it all the way back to the earliest times.
The first effort to establish a church was made by Joseph Grimes, probably in 1766, but it failed because only four or five church members could be found in town.
The church was organized Feb. 14, 1770. All the rec- ords say that at first it consisted of seven male members. But after a careful comparison of dates, I am convinced that there were but six members, one, whose name was in- cluded, not uniting till afterward. Rev. Mr. Parker was one of the original number. In 1771, Joseph Eveleth and Adam Wheeler were elected deacons.
As early as 1768 we find that Rev. Nehemiah Parker was preaching here as a candidate, probably hokling meetings in private houses and in the open air, as there was not even a school-house till two years later. He received a unanimous call to settle, though at a small salary, even for those times. Hle accepted, but was not ordained till June 13, 1770. The ordination services took place under a large oak tree, on the west side of the common.
On the 8th of September 1772, it was voted "to build a meeting-house the present year," and at another meeting, ou the 22d of the same month, the size and shape of the house were agreed upon, and a building committee appointed. The erection of the frame was let by the job for £80, "to be completed during the month of June next." In their ar-
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rangements for raising the house they provided entertain- ment -"vitals and drink," for one hundred men and no more. What this entertainment consisted in we do not know, but in another town that we know of, it was voted "to purchase a barrel of rum to raise the meeting-house." * It seems that no more was accomplished this year than to put up the frame and enclose it. During the next winter the window sashes and frames were made, and the floor was laid. The next spring they arranged to purchase the glass, and voted to have the outside finished that year. Thus, in a little more than two years, they had the outside of a meeting-honse. If we think them dilatory in the work, we must remember that they were but few in numbers and of sinall means, and that the events of the Revolution were al- ready crowding upon them.
In this house, without paint or ceiling, pulpit or pews, or even seats except boards, and these probably laid upon the refuse blocks of timber, and no fire to warm it, they probably worshipped for nine or ten years. And though there was no rustling of silks or sparkling of jewels in the congregation, we doubt not they rendered as acceptable praise to God as if all had been in modern style. The men sat on one side and the women on the other.
As soon after the war was over as they could take breath, they began the work of finishing the inside, which work went on slowly. A pulpit and deacons' seats were first built, and then permanent seats on the lower floor. These seats soon began to give place to pews, and as early as 1794, the wall pews on the lower floor and one tier in the rear of the body of the house, and one tier in the first gal- lery were erected. The same year they voted to paint it outside and inside.
The huge belfry, and the old clock which looks down up- on this scene, to-day, with the same sedate and unsmiling face as of old, were the work of still later years.
Thus came into being, by slow degrees, the "old meet-
* The meeting-house was probably raised June 13, 1773.
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ing-house," which is so closely interwoven with the child- hood scenes of many of ns. It was a large, square structure, with double rows of windows-double doors on the south side, opening into the broad aisle which led to the pulpit. On the east end was a projecting entrance, and on the west end the great belfry with another entrance door. In the inside was the towering pulpit, and sounding board hung like a huge extinguisher over the minister. In front was the deacons' seat, and underneath, an open space which was a terror to all the boys who were inclined to whisper. There were galleries on three sides, square pews with chat- tering seats which uttered an audible response at the close of every prayer. This house stood near where the Unitarian Church now stands, and was reconstructed to make that honse, in 1842.
From all that we can learn of Mr. Parker, the first minis- ter of the town, we judge that he was not a man of superior intellectual gifts, but well educated, being a graduate of Harvard College, in the class of 1763, and in his student days somewhat given to college pranks. He was a man of decided theological views, and conscientious convictions. Of simple, umaffected piety, and tender sympathies. He was a man who could not endure controversy or strife,-like Abra- ham of old, a man of peace. For more than twenty years after his settlement there seems to have been the kindest feel- ings between him and all the people of the town. During all the trying days of the Revolution he manifested a truly noble and generous spirit. He asked for no additional aid, though the people showed a willingness to grant it. When the town was embarrassed for want of funds, he waited long for the payment of his small salary. During these years he sold the one hundred and fifty acres of land near Comet Pond, and nearly one-half the hundred acres where he lived, (his house was near the large elm on the common, ) and ex- pended all the proceeds in living, and still found himself in debt.
In 1792 he made known his situation to the town, and
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they very coldly granted him £15 additional for that year. The next May he was obliged to ask further aid, and pro- posed to sell the remainder of his real estate for a parson- age. After much discussion and many propositions, the meeting was dissolved without any action, showing that for some reason their feelings towards him had been alienated. His friends now moved for another meeting, at which it was voted to add £15 to his salary, annually, while he re- mained as their minister. Subsequent to this the attention of the town was twice called to the same subject, but no re- lief granted.
At a town meeting held on the 5th day of June, 1800, Mr. Parker requested a dismission. In this request he says : "Considering the many infirmities of my body, and other important reasons, I think it most for the glory of God that I be dismissed." The town voted to grant his re- quest, though we fear not altogether on the ground of pro- moting the glory of God. Here I will quote the exact words of Mr. Bennett in reference to this matter :
"Thus was dissolved that connection between Rey. Nche- miah Parker and the inhabitants of Ihubbardstou, which was formed in the open air under the spreading branches of a lofty oak tree, on the 13th of June, 1770; that connec- tion which so happily continued for more than twenty-two years, when each party had seemed ready to lay down its life for the other, to spend and be spent for their mutual bene- fit and happiness. But when the prime and vigor of man- hood was beginning to depart from that faithful servant, and other troubles, over which he had no control, were pressing heavily upon him, that sympathy which he had formerly re- ceived, and now, more than ever, needed, was beginning to be withhell, and so continued, by slow degrees, till he was forced to believe his usefulness had departed. Now, in the evening of his life, with ruined health, and poverty before him, he felt willing, for 'the glory of God,' to relinquish that small salary, which, for the last few years, had been so grudgingly paid him, and cast himself entirely upon the merey of that Heavenly Friend and Master whom he had so faithfully served, and who he no doubt trusted would soon take him home.
£
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We would, in charity to our ancestors, withhold this nar- rative from the people of the present day, but, as faithful historians, we feel bound to make it public. No truer illus- tration of the fable of 'the old Hound and his Master,' was ever acted out in real life."
Mr. Parker died Ang. 20, 1801, aged 59 years, and his remains sleep among the voiceless congregation to whom he once ministered, in the old burial ground.
At the beginning of the present century, the town seems to have been in a very prosperous condition, increasing more rapidly in population and wealth than most country towns.
For some time after the dismission of Mr. Parker, they were without a stated ministry, but liberal appropriations were made for the support of the gospel. In January, 1802, after hearing several candidates, they gave a call to Rev. - Allen, which he declined.
On the first day of July following, they voted to give a call to Mr. David Kendall, with a salary of $400, "until a majority of the town, or Mr. Kendall, should see canse to call a conneil of seven churches, whose decision should be binding." This call was accepted, and the ordination took place on the 20th of October, 1802.
Mr. Kendall was also a graduate of Harvard College, and a man of sound principles, but of very different spirit and temper from his predecessor. Mr. Parker, in his letter of acceptance declared that he "desired their souls, not their money." Mr. Kendall seemed to dwell with most empha- sis on having a "comforable and respectable support."
When they wanted to get rid of him they did not find him the man to sacrifice all his own interests at their bidding, and they seem to have been at their "wits' end," to know how to manage him at all.
The relation did not long continue harmonious. Com- plaints began to be made on both sides. Grievances were magnified by prejudice, and bitter criminations followed. The people charged the minister with a want of sympathy
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for them generally, and he complained of their neglect to fulfill their implied, though unwritten promises of pecuniary aid made at the time of his settlement. Thus matters con- tinued, the opposition growing stronger, till Sept., 1808, when a meeting of the town was called to see if they would "choose a committee to wait on Rev. Mr. Kendall, to see on what conditions he will take a dismission from his minis- try."
Such a committee was appointed, and, at a meeting three weeks later, made an elaborate report, the principal recom- mendation of which was that the two parties mutually se- lect a committee, and then one of the parties should name three settled ministers, and the other should select one of the three to be moderator of the committee, and to this com- mittee was to be submitted the grievances on both sides, and if their report should be accepted by both parties, it was to be a "final settlement and burial of all complaints be- tween the town and the minister."
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