USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Princeton > Celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Princeton, Mass., October 20th, 1859 : including the address of Hon. Charles Theodore Russell, the poem of Prof. Erastus Everett, and other exercises of the occasion > Part 3
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The succeeding February, Houghton and others again petitioned, setting forth " that said farms and Wing being, incorporated into a Distinct Township, will make a very good one, and do not contain the contents of six miles square, and that said Wing, by itself, will not be able to defray the charges of building a meeting-house, settling a minister, and maintaining the Gospel among them, and making roads, without an intolerable heavy tax ; " that the farms are not able alone to meet such charges, and " cannot be accommodated to any other town, and will be forever disobliged if not laid to said wing, and both together will find the charges of a new settlement heavy enough ; " that " both wing and farms are at present under very difficult circumstances, by the extreme distance and badness of the roads to the public Worship of God in any other Town." They add, "we can but seldom attend it, and in the winter season are quite shut up, which circumstances are not only distressing to the present Inhabitants, but very Discour-
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aging to new Settlers. Wherefore, the humble prayer of your petitioners is, that said wing and farms may be incorporated as above-said."
This petition was signed by forty-five persons, of whom twenty-four resided upon "The Farms," and twenty-one upon the " Wing."
Notice was ordered by the General Court, to be given " to the Proprietors and Inhabitants of the East Wing of Rutland," by inserting the substance of the petition in some one of the Boston Newspapers, to show cause if any they had, at the next session of the court, why the prayer " of the petition should not be granted.
The notice given was defective in form, and Eliphalet Howe and others, by memorial, took advantage of this. The petition was thereupon postponed to the May session, and new notice ordered and given.
At this session, Joseph Eveleth and twenty-one others, " Inhabitants and Proprietors of the East Wing of Rutland," sent in a long memorial, " in answer to the petition" of Houghton and others, and praying " that said wing might be incorporated into a Town or District." In this they say, "your memorialists beg leave to say, that they are very sure that Every Impartial man that is acquainted with , the Situation and Circumstances of said Wing and farms will Readily say that the wing of itself, will make a much better settlement than if the farms are laid to said wing, for this Reason, Because the farms in General, are some of the poorest land, perhaps, that there is in the Province, Lyes in a very bad form, and although the said Proprietors and Inhabitants of said farms, did exhibit a plan to your Excellency and Honors, that appeared that said farms lay in a very good form to be adjoyned to said Wing. Your memorialists beg leave to say, that they are very sure that said plan is not true,-But done, as they apprehend, to Deceive your Excellency and Honors, and as almost all the Best of the land in said wing, Lyes on the Southerly side of it, and the Chief of the Inhabitants living on that Side;
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and not only so, but the land on the northerly side Never will admit of Half so good a Settlement as the Southerly side will ; and if the farms should be annexed to said wing, it would Cary the Center of the wing and farms to the very Northerly side of said Wing, which would oblige the two-thirds of the Inhabitants always to travel Three or Four miles to meeting, and the great Difficulty that your memorialists must be put to in making Highways and Building Bridges through a very Rough, Rocky Country, will Burden them so, that they had rather have one-quarter of their Real estate Taken from them, than to be obliged to Joyne with those People, where they are certain they shall always live in Trouble and Difficulty. And as the said wing contains better than twelve thousand acres of Land, and is capable of making a very good Settlement of itself, and cost your memorialists a very great price ; and if your Excellency and Honors should annex the Farms to the wing, we apprehend it would be taking away the Rights of your memorialists, and giving it to those that have no just claim to it." They therefore pray that the petition of Houghton and others may be dismissed, and that the wing may be incorporated into a Town or District.
This petition and memorial was referred to a Joint Com- mittee of the General Court, who gave the parties a hearing, and reported, "That in order to have a clear understanding of the sundry things mentioned in said Petition, that a Committee be appointed and sent by this Honorable Court to view the Farms and the East Wing above mentioned, and Report to the Court, the charge of said Committee to be borne as this Honorable Court shall hereafter order." This Report was accepted, and Gama- liel Bradford, Mr. Witt, and Colonel Gerrish were appointed the Joint Committee.
This Committee had a view and further hearings, and there are sundry papers on file presented to them. Among these are the two following of some interest to us :
"October ye 6th, 1759 .- This may certifie whomsoever it may Concern,
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that the Land Between Leominster, Leuningburg and Narrowgassett No. 2, and as far as the Potash Farm, is Chiefly uninhabitable, and very bad land, and no waye fit but for a very few Inhabitants.
Test our hands :'
EZRA HOUGHTON JONATHAN WILDER.
LANCESTER, October 7th, 1759.
These may certifie that the Lands north of the farm Called Potash Farm, betwixt Leominster and Narragansett, is Generally Rough Land, and will admit of but few Good Settlements. Atts :
JOSEPH WILDER, JOHN BENNIT.
N. B .- The above subscribers were the gentlemen that layed out the above-mentioned Lands and assisted in Dividing them."
I apprehend much of this controversy turned upon the so often vexing question to towns of the centre.
The final result was, that on the 20th of October, one hundred years ago, the act which occasions our festivities, received the consent of the Royal Governor, and incorpo- rated the town with precisely the same bounds asked for by Houghton and others, and according to the plan presented by them. Looking back through all this period, over our history, not one here doubts, that in putting these two sections together in a well- shaped and substantial town, the law makers did wisely and happily. The fears of the southern section, that if joined to the north they should " always live in trouble and difficulty," and which led them in the heat of controversy to say, that they " had rather have one-quarter of their real estate taken from them than be obliged " to do so, were speedily dissipated. From that day to this, never has a town been more free from sectional strife or division. Were you now to propose to separate the two original divisions, if any mortal man could find the line, you would stir up a thou- sand fold deeper, more protracted, and bitter struggle than that which brought them together. If there be one common feeling of joy to-day, it is that we are citizens of a common town. And I trust we mean.to remain so, as
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long as Wachusett, our common inheritance, looks down upon a town at all.
The act of 1759 made the territory, in name, a district ; but in its own language, invested it "with all the privi- leges, powers and immunities that towns in the Province did, or might enjoy, that of sending a Representative to the General Assembly only excepted." They had a right to send an agent to the General Court, a right which they soon after exercised.
Early in the history of Rutland East Wing, the Rev. Thomas Prince, colleague pastor of the old South Church, Boston, became a large proprietor, owning five of the thirty-three shares. His interest was, probably, at a later period, larger. For this reason, and in respect to him, possibly to smooth matters a little with the Rutland oppo- sition, the town was named Prince Town, a name which the act of 1771 contracted to Princeton.
The first town meeting was held, and the town organized by the choice of the necessary officers, on the 24th of December, 1759. This meeting was at the tavern of Abijah Moore, where all subsequent ones were held, until the meeting-house was boarded and partially finished, in May, 1763. The records of the first meetings are gone from the record book, but it appears, from documents, that Dr. Zach- ariah Harvey was the first Town Clerk. At this time he occupied, I judge, the most prominent and influential position in town. The petition for incorporation is in his hand- writing. He had come here, not long before, from that part of Shrewsbury then called the Leg, and which lies along our eastern border, now a part of Sterling, and resided on the farm more recently owned and occupied by Deacon Ebenezer Parker.
The first town meeting of which a record exists, was in March, 1761. Dr. Harvey was chosen Moderator, District Clerk, Chairman of the Selectmen, Chairman of the Assess- ors, and Agent to the General Court, a plurality of offices, I think, never since held by one person. There seems to
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have been no little trouble and commotion at this meeting, more, by much, I apprehend, than has ever occurred at any of its successors. There is a protest upon the records, signed by eight persons, declaring the proceedings illegal, "by reason of the meeting not being purged from such persons, or voters, as are unqualified by law to vote."
But the matter did not end here. The same March, a long memorial was sent to the General Court, by these and other persons, setting forth that there were, at this meeting, "several votes and transactions altogether illegal and unwarrantable, and unfairly and unduly obtained by means of many persons being admitted to vote at said meeting, that were not legal voters there, and some that were not even inhabitants of the same." They go on, in very plain terms, to charge the Doctor with pretty high-handed and rather awkward measures, and ask to have the pro- ceedings declared void, and another meeting called and new officers chosen.
The Doctor was called upon by the General Court, " to render an account of the proceedings complained of." He filed his answer, which is missing, so that we loose his version of the matter. The decision was in his favor, and the proceedings of the meeting were ratified and confirmed.
At the incorporation, few roads existed. The first of which I can find any trace, was, I suppose, a Province road, from Lancaster to Sunderland. There is a map of it in the State archives. It ran along the north-east line of the town, crossing the edge of Wachusett pond, in Westmin- ster. The distance by it, as stated on the plan, from Lan- caster meeting-house to Wachusett pond, is eleven miles. This road was in existence as early as 1735, when a grant of land was made to Samuel Kneeland, on each side of it and near the pond.
The road, I think, also existed through town to Hub- bardston. The first road, apparently, built by the town, was that from Westminster line by Mr. John P. Rice's, over
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Meeting-House Hill to Holden. This was in 1762. Upon a map of the town, taken as late as 1793, and filed with the Secretary of State, there are laid down only these three roads. Probably most of the early roads were made by a tax, " worked out" upon them, as they have been repaired ever since.
Originally, towns were incorporated, as a general rule, whenever the territory could support a gospel ministry. Hence, the representations in this respect, in the petitions I have cited. This became, therefore, at once the legal duty of the town, and early measures were taken to erect a meeting-house and settle a minister. Instantly there came up this exciting question of the centre, so distressing always in our towns. Several meetings were held upon this trying subject. First, the house was located; then a vote revoking this ; then a committee from Bolton, Holden and Westminster, were appointed, with a surveyor from Rutland, and one from Westboro, all to " be under oath for the trust committed to them, to survey the town, find the centre, and affix the place for building the meeting-house on." Of what this sworn committee reported, we unfor- tunately have no record. The town refused to accept it, and finally voted to locate the house " on the highest part of the land given by John and Caleb Mirick, near three pine trees, marked, being near a large flat rock," __ the ' site upon Meeting-House Hill, with which they began.
Here, in 1762, the first church was reared, as the record has it, " fifty foots long and forty foots wide."
"Scarce steal the winds, that sweep his woodland tracks, The larch's perfume from the settler's axe,
Ere, like a vision of the morning air,
His slight framed steeple marks the house of prayer ; Its planks all reeking, and its paint undried ; Its rafters sprouting on the shady side.
It sheds the raindrops from its shingled eaves Ere its green brothers once have changed their leaves,- Yet faith's pure hymn, beneath its shelter rude, Breathes out as sweetly to the tangled wood,
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As when the rays thro' blazing oriels pour On marble shaft and tessellated floor ; Heaven asks no surplice round the heart that feels, And all is holy where devotion kneels."
Our fathers were religious men, and long before the building of the meeting-house, maintained religious worship portions of the year, in private dwellings, in different parts of the territory. The first sermon ever preached within our limits was at the tavern of Lieut. Moore, to an audience which a single room held. An old lady living in 1838, told me she remembered hearing a sermon preached there, by Rev. Mr. Harrington, of Lancaster, in 1759, on the occasion of the District's incorporation. "There were then but a handful of us," said she, "who found our way to church by marked trees."
In 1767, the Rev. Mr. Fuller was settled, the first minis- ter of the town. In 1768, upon his petition, in considera- tion of this, his settlement, with a heavily burdened people, in what he there terms " a wilderness country," the General Court granted him Wachusett, and the mountain thus passed to private hands. Mr. Fuller was dismissed at the opening of the Revolution, from difficulties between him and his people, growing out of. that great conflict.
I do not propose to trace any history of the town much beyond the point I have reached, and especially I do not the ecclesiastical. Since Mr. Fuller's day, religious contro- versies have existed, that are happily buried in the past. I have the charity to believe, what it is but justice I should say, that they have all originated in deep convictions of truth, and a sincere and earnest desire to promote it. Some- times, perhaps, the differences have been greater in appear- ance than in reality. Parties starting, like the streams from our mountain, have for a time followed in opposite courses, only to find themsleves at last in a common ocean. To-day, at least, we look back on all these scenes, as the sun looks on the sea, to draw up thence all that is pure, and sweet, and invigorating, while it leaves all that is salt
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and bitter behind. We are not the less attached, as townsmen, because the love of a common Savior con- straineth us, in his service, to adopt different denomina- tional forms or creeds.
In 1771, an additional act was passed, by which the gore, of three thousand acres, known in after years as No-Town, was annexed to the town. To this addition the town objected, and the next year petitioned the General Court, setting forth that this was a "strip of land extending a great way from the centre, where the meeting house stands, and that the inhabitants were poor and unable to make roads, and praying it may be set off again." Upon this petition, in 1773, an act was passed, setting off from the town all the lands which did not belong to the district; so that the limits of the town became precisely the same under the acts of 1771 and 1773, that they were in 1759. Not a foot was permanently added. The map filed in 1793, is identical with the plan of 1759. The only additions since made are five hundred acres from Hubbardston, in 1810, and a like area from No-Town, in 1838. None has been taken off, so that the present area is about twenty thousand acres.
Of the history subsequent to the act of 1771, I have no time to speak in detail. From that period to the present, as already observed, the changes peculiar to the town and distinct from those resulting merely from participation in the general progress, have been less than in most towns. It was, and still is, purely an agricultural town. Its popu- lation in numbers, has been about the same for half a century. Its growth, prior to that time, was considerable. The venerable historian of Worcester County, in 1793, says: "In little more than thirty years from its incorporation, Princeton is become very considerable among the towns of the County. It has surprisingly increased in number and wealth. The finest of beef," he adds, " is fatted here, and vast quantities of butter and cheese produced, and from the appearance of their buildings and farms, we must judge
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the people are very industrious ; " and he closes a glowing description of the seat of Hon. Moses Gill, thus : " Upon the whole, this seat of Judge Gill, all the agreeable circum- stances respecting it being attentively considered, is not paralleled by any in the New England States ; perhaps not by any on this side of the Delaware." The President of Yale College, Dr. Dwight, in 1797, speaks of Princeton as a rich grazing township, and adds, " the houses of the in- habitants, and the appearance of their farms, are sufficient indications of prosperity, and the people are distinguished for industry, sobriety and sound morals." He also speaks of Governor Gill's establishment "as more splendid than any other in the interior of the State ; " and he adds what impresses us with the character of the surrounding country even then, that in attempting to make his way to Rutland, " he came very near being lost for the night."
In 1771, there were in town ninety-one dwelling-houses, while in 1790 there were one hundred and forty-four. At the former period there were but one hundred eighty-three and three-fourths acres of tillage land out of the whole twenty thousand, and but one thousand and eighty-three of pasture. But little more than one-twentieth of the land ยท had been subdued, and but a mere fraction brought into cultivation.
There is one other fact revealed by the valuation of 1771, on file at the Capitol, which may astonish some who hear me, and which makes a heaven-wide difference between those days and ours. There was upon these mountain heights, now all vocal with shouts of freedom for the op- pressed, and denunciation upon the oppressor, then owned and dwelling, a slave-one of the few in the Province. Slavery has existed at the base of Wachusett. The slave's foot has pressed our soil, and the shackles did not fall.
The number of dwelling-houses here in 1800 were but four more than in 1790, while the population in 1810 had increased only forty-six over that of 1790, and probably at this moment, after nearly seventy years, does not exceed
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it by more than two hundred. Nor has the character of the people changed. Sons have succeeded fathers on the old homesteads, and worthily maintained the family name and honor. Were it not a little out of taste in their pres- ence, I should add, were the historian of Worcester County, or the President of Yale again to pass this way, they would transfer to the sons the language applied to the fathers.
Perhaps the most marked change of the century, or even the last fifty years, is the disappearance of the forest. One returning here to-day, after a quarter of a century's absence, will miss first and most the immense tracts of primeval wood-land he used to see. Next to this absence, he will note a new presence, that of hundreds, of late years, resorting here in the Summer season. The forests have gone, and the fashionables have come. And although every gipsy hat and fluttering ribbon along our highways, from June to September, is a sweet exotic, we would not spare, we cannot help an occasional regret, that the axe has carried its warfare so unrelentingly, and that the wood- man has not here and there spared a tree, a remembrance of days lang syne, and a blessing and a beauty for days to come.
When I speak of slight changes, I mean, as I have said, those special and peculiar to the town. In those that have come from the stupendous progress of the century and the country, it has shared to the full measure of the towns in the Commonwealth. Our fathers, from the days when they served under a King, to those when, in town meeting, they could arraign a President, have gone along in full sympa- thy with every great and good movement around them. Pioneers, they opened the forest, and planted civilization in its depths. They made roads, aud built churches. They subdued lands, and reared school-houses. Not in advance of, but never behind, their fellow citizens, they shrank from no duty. From the first gathering of their children to be taught in a private school, to the voting of the last dollar for schooling, they maintained. their educational
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institutions, as you have maintained yours, up to the standard of the State. They and we settled ministers, and they became unsettled, and singularly, not one in the whole century, in any denomination, has died in the occupancy of a pulpit. And yet, what adds to the singularity, but just one has been involuntarily dismissed, and each has held his place up to the average ministerial tenure of his time and denomination. The fathers and the sons, in matters eccle- siastical, have had their divisions and their controversies, sometimes the outbreak of a pervading change in the com- munity, sometimes special to themselves; but they have never failed to give the institutions of the gospel an open, earnest and unwavering support, from the day, uniting all in the doctrines of the great Genevan reformer, they gave Mr. Goodrich a call, to that when the conscientious sym- pathies of some led them to prefer to the elder faith the communion of that great church Wesley founded, Whitfield honored, and good men everywhere respect and love.
In all the great struggles that have wrought out and distinguished our country's history, the people of our town have been intelligent, early and active participants. They fought the preparatory battles of freedom with their King against the French, and they fought its actual battles with the French against their King. Their records show them to have been early, constant and discriminating sup- porters of all the measures of the Revolution, from its faint rising to its glorious consummation. On two occasions, at least, their action was of character and importance enough to secure honorable mention by the latest and ablest of the historians of the United States. The features of numbers of revolutionary pensioners are too distinctly impressed upon our memories to require the details of services in this war.
They voted for our State Constitution. With a love for State sovereignty too ardent to leave the judgment clear and perfect, they opposed the Constitution of the United States when proposed. With a patriotism too large and
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judicious to yield right to consistency, when adopted they supported and sustained it.
Prior to this, many of them sympathized, and some joined in "Shay's rebellion," and one, if the truth must out, came nearer being hanged than I hope any one else from the town ever will for a like or any cause.
But I must pause. Our Thanksgiving has other ser- vices, which exhausted nature already reminds us we are under solemn obligations to perform. If I began while the dinner was cooking, I am continuing while it is waiting. Let me incur no such weighty responsibility.
We have come up here from our homes and occupations, to revive associations, to renew acquaintances, to promote kindly feelings, to strengthen affections, brighten sympa- thies, and draw tighter the cords of love that bind us to the old family home and fireside.
The past and present here unite Beneath time's flowing tide, Like footprints hidden by a brook, But seen on either side.
As I have sketched the days long gone, and sought to
" Review the scenes, And summon from the shadowy past The forms that once have been,"
I have only followed the necessities of the occasion, and hope my rude and homely attempt may draw some charm from it.
And now, as we look upon what our eyes behold; upon these free hills and valleys, robed in the resplendent beau- ties of Autumn; upon these farms, from which the teeming harvests have just been gathered and garnered ; upon these houses of comfort and plenty ; these homes of con- tentment and love ; these churches, reared for the service of God, and these schools for the education of man; upon this prosperous, moral and happy people; and then upon the Commonwealth and common Country, that hold over it
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