USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Boylston > Centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Boylston, Massachusetts, August 18, 1886 > Part 6
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RESPONSE BY THE BAND.
The towns of Lancaster and Shrewsbury ; the honored pa- rents and guardians of Boylston in her infancy; to their early fostering care the daughter owes much of her growth and prosperity.
Responses : Rev. A. P. Marvin, for Lancaster; George H. Harlow Esq., for Shrewsbury.
RESPONSE OF REV. A. P. MARVIN.
Mr. President : - The sentiment just read in reference to Lancaster, the mother of towns, is fitting and well expressed. The oldest town in the county, and one of the oldest in the State, having been begun about thirteen years after the settlement of Boston, and having been endowed with an ample territory, it was natural that her vast acreage should be cut up into other towns as the years passed over her. And so it has come to pass that eight towns, besides her own goodly proportions, are the results. Five of these towns-Harvard, Leominster, Bolton, Ster-
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ling and Berlin, are children, and the two Boylstons and Clinton are grand-children of this prolific mother. She responds kindly to your reverent greeting, and I am happy to be called upon to say a few words in her behalf. The good old town is rather proud of her family, and loves to be greeted as the mother of them all.
But, truth to say, she has no great claim to your filial grati- tude and honor. Only a fraction of your territory was ever in her domain. Very few settlers inhabited this section for nearly a century after Prescott, Ball and Waters began to lift axes against the big trees in the Nashua valley. Still, there was Lan- caster blood here in your early settlement, and it continues here to this day. Sawyer, Bigelow, and other names, tell of Lancas- ter birth and breeding. But, on the whole, the old town must be modest in her claims upon Boylston for filial respect. You are only a partial reproduction of herself. You have drawn your population from other towns in larger proportion. Your inher- itance from her is somewhat like that of a noted divine who was visited by the gout. The question was whence it came. "Did your father imbibe too much ?" "No." " Was your grand- father a wine-bibber ?" No." "Well, then, how came you by the infliction ?" Oh, I inherited it from my wife's father," was the reply. Therefore, if you are blessed by many good things, by way of heredity, give Lancaster her share of credit ; if any- thing not good has come to you, lay the blame on some other ancestry.
I am glad to say to you that the good old town is holding on her way, unwrinkled, and with undecaying vigor. While many other joining towns are decreasing in population, the last census showed an increase in numbers notwithstanding a de- crease of inmates in the State Industrial School. Our farms are improving, our roads are unsurpassed, our schools are among the best in the county, our beautiful scenery as the Creator made it, only improved by cultivation. Like the original Eden, it is the duty of the inhabitants to till and dress it. More than all, the ancient town is " booming" now, to use a coinage of the times. Houses are full, several buildings are now going up, and another is to be erected this season, which will not be inferior to the best in the county of Worcester when finished. I know you
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will be glad of the prosperity of the mature but still young and vigorous mother town, as she will always be in sympathy with all your improvements.
Leaving this line of remark, called out by the toast. I wish to express my pleasure in being able to attend this anniversary meeting. I can recall no occasion of the kind which so com- pletely realizes my ideal of a Centennial Celebration of a New England town. I was delighted when, on first coming this morning, I looked off upon the scenery that greets and charms the cye in various directions,-but chiefly as you look westward over the Nashua valley, the intervening woods and waters,-and finally rested on the magnificent dome of the county-Wachusett. Not less pleasing, in another way, was the immediate scene around us. The throngs of people, the procession of happy chil- dren, the campus with all its moving siglits as well as its encom- passing buildings ; the decorations, the flags, and mottoes, and trees laden with fruit, the tents and the town hall crowded with its antique licir-looms ; the old powder-house, brimful, if not of pow- der, yet of associations of the times which tried men's souls ; all these sights enchained my attention, and as the hours have sped. my interest has increased. To me the side-shows with their penny-getting grecd, and the auctions with their extravagant rhetoric about pills and powders, and the cure-alls, have a char- acteristic flavor. Then I took special pleasure in seeing the horses, and the big guns, and the evolutions. There, I said to my- self, in the last resort, is the concentrated might that secures rights under law, puts down rebellion and drives foreign ene- mies from our shores. And here, in this vast tent, with its throng of sons and daughters of the town, with its exercises of music, reading of the Word of God, poetry and oration, we have the culmination of the noblest civilization that has yet blessed the earth. In the crowd without I have neither seen nor heard any. thing to mar the happiness of the occasion ; and this blending of country and city in the gathering, wherein you cannot discern the line of meeting ; this country flavor with city culture, so gently melting into each other that nothing occurs to check the full tide of friendship and sympathy, is delightful to see. The whole will have an abiding place in my memory as it will in yours.
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But, Mr. President, the only thought I had to express when I came here was, if called upon to say anything, this, that the old-time people who came and settled here in the unbroken woods that filled this region, were a happy set. It is the fashion to pity them as an unhappy generation, with their privations and want of amusements and rusticity. But they need not our com- miseration, and ask it not.
True, they had hard times cutting down the forests, break- ing the sod, living in log houses, making roads ; in this there was hard work. Nor was the task of their wives less trying than that of their husbands. Then there were wild beasts, such as foxes, woodchucks, and other nuisances of the sort, besides beasts of prey, as wild-cats wolves and bears. The all-devouring birds made havoc of their crops. Clouds of them shadowed the sun and made the woods ring with their songs or their croakings ; and when they fell upon field or garden, the hopes of men were devoured. Nor is this all. Did you ever think what an omni- present curse were the snakes in those days ? Serpents of all kinds, and in all places, infested their land and crawled into their houses. Many of the towns around us had their " rattle- snake hill." The journals of the officers in the old wars, from 1676 to 1763 have frequent mention of snakes which were killed in their scoutings. Indeed, they endured hard times in their inclement winters ; but, after all, they were the happiest people in the world. This is not the language of extravagance. Your orator of the day has spoken well to this point. It was an aged minister's wife, in Winchendon, who said of the carly settlers of that town, " They were as poor as poverty but merry as grigs."
But they had the true foundation of happiness. You are aware, sir, that people who are always contriving how to be happy, only betray their unhappiness. Good morals, industry, frugality, honesty, neighborly kindness, fidelity to marriage vows, public spirit, and the fear of God, were the sources of their happiness. They had pleasant gatherings and innocent hilarity, and an out- flow of love to family and kin, anl kind, which enriched their minds. They had schools and books, excellent though few ; and above all the meeting-house with pious and scholarly pastors, which brought them knowledge, quickening thought, and incite-
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ments to honorable living, and taught them that they were im- mortal souls. In a word, they had a religion that enlightened their minds, sweetened their affections, bound them together in kindly neighborhood, and showed them the way to heaven. As you inherit the fruits of their labors, so cherish their virtues as you honor their memory.
The town of West Boylston; the only daughter; her growth, industry and prosperity have done honor to her parentage.
Response by REV. JOSEPH W. CROSS, of West Boylston.
Mr. President :- It must be very gratifying to this only daughter to receive so flattering a compliment from the lips of this venerable mother, on her one hundreth birth-day. It indi- cates not only entire reconciliation, but just appreciation and respect, as well as maternal affection.
It has been my pleasure to sustain an intimate relation to this only daughter for nearly fifty years, and I can truly say this compliment is as fairly merited as it has been kindly bestowed. During my long and intimate acquaintance with both mother and daughter, I believe their relation to each other has ever been mostcordial, and their intercourse most friendly.
If I am correctly informed, this was not always the case. In their earlier history there was some sharp contention, and much temporary alienation. When this daughter was about twenty- two years of age, she became somewhat self-willed and ungovern- able ; the mother regarded her, if I may use a scriptural phrase, as " heady, high-minded." The fact was, she began to feel her own importance ; began to be impatient of maternal restraint. and, if the truth must be told, she coquetted with a major. In spite of maternal council and restraint, she became infatuated and fairly bewitched with him ; or he with her. I believe it was a mutual affair ; until the major by pluck and perseverence, finally snapped the apron string and led her away.
But just here, I wish to say what I now believe to be admit- ted on all sides, that this major was a very worthy, honorable man;
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held in the highest estimation throughout all the community ; distinguished both in civil and military life ; a very patriotic and noble-licarted citizen ; the successful suitor of the daughter, and the honored father of the town ; so highly esteemed by his fellow citizens, that it was seriously proposed at one time to change the name of the town to Beaman, a proposition which it is to be re- gretted, was not carried into immediate effect.
But, Mr. President, I do not wish to occupy too much time on this occasion, nor to anticipate what may be better said by those who may come after me, and I will therefore leave it to them to speak more particularly of the growth and prosperity of West Boylston ; and close my remarks with a brief allusion to one of your own beloved pastors ; Rev. William II. Sanford, with whom I was three years in Harvard College, and subsequently enjoyed a very pleasant ministerial intercourse of nearly twenty years. His class, that of 1827, was distinguished for talent. having furnished the presidents of two colleges, Dr. Felton, of Harvard, and Rev. Dr. Stearns, of Amherst. The late Rev. Dr. Sweetser, of Worcester, and Rev. Mr. Rogers, of the Winter Street Church of Boston, were members of that class.
It was also distinguished for its curious combination of names. They did not all graduate, but their names were all in the college catalogue at one time ; I think it was in the sopho- more year. I do not recall them all, but I remember the follow- ing : Brooks and Wells, Miles and Inches, Toy and Paint, Potts and Kettle. There was a student from the South, by the name of Hamilton Potts, and Rev. Mr. Rogers name in college, was Samuel Mattrick Ellan Kettle. Thus you will perceive, the class was well provided with both cabinet and kitchen furniture.
In announcing the next toast, the toast-master said : We cannot pass by the town of West Boylston, without offering some tribute of regard to the memory of one who in the days of the Revolution, was one of the most active and patriotic citizens of the Shrewsbury North Parish, who was influential in the incor- poration of the town of Boylston, and twenty-two years later the principal petitioner for the incorporation of West Boylston. A man who lived in three different towns, and yet never changed his place of residence.
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To the memory of Major Ezra Beaman, the chairman of live first Board of Selectmen of Boylston and West Boylston, and the first representative to the General Court from both towns ; a brave patriot, a conscientious man, and a useful citizen, may his memory endure so long as both towns shall exist.
Responded to by GEORGE M. LOURIE, EsQ., of West Boylston.
The town of Sterling ; the ancient Chocksett ; the dwelling place of Sholan and the Nashaway ; we are glad to greet her citizens and renew formalities upon this Centennial Day.
Response by ARTHUR P. RUGG, EsQ., of Sterling.
Mr. Toast-master, Ladies and Gentlemen :- Boylston and Sterling are the two daughters of mother Lancaster, most nearly allied to each other in size, position and age. With an interval of only five years between their births, and separated by a far longer period from any of their sisters, they have kept step through their history in the tastes and occupation of their inhabi- tants, and in their general characteristics as towns.
In neither have great manufacturing interests centered ; in Boylston not enough to change it from an agricultural communi- ty ; while in Sterling the few which once existed have almost entirely died out. The value of her annual manufactures half a century ago exceeded by many thousand of dollars, the present product. Consequently there has been little or no increase in population ; indeed Sterling numbers less now than when she first took her place among the towns in the county. The list of tax-payers and voters changes not materially from year to year. Many of the names foremost when our town was incorporated. still appear prominently among our citizens.
When with these facts in mind, one looks over the beauti- fully diversified landscape of forest and field, hill and vale of these sister towns, quiet farm-houses nestling here and there. but no noisy factories or bustling villages to break the silence, with almost literal truth might be applied the lines of Gray:
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" Far from the madding crowds' ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learned to stray : Along the cool, sequestered vale of life
They kept the even tenor of their way."
But is this want of material progress all together a cause of regret ? It needs only such a celebration as this to answer us, No. This ingathering of so many honorably eminent sons of the ancient mother town, teach that her chief and most enduring glory is not the number of her population, nor the aggregate of her valuation, but rather in the quality of the sons and daughters she has produced. The brighest jewels of her centennial coro- net, are not the gold and silver gathered within her borders, but the men and women who come back to honor her as their first home.
History and observation show that among those who have climbed the highest in business or in the professions, have been those who received their early training in country towns. The strength of character, and habits of economy, and shrewdness, instilled into their being in youth, were the elements which in- sured them success wherever they might go. If I mistake not, Sterling has given at least one to cach of the professions whom the country could have ill afforded to be without.
A son of our first minister, Prentice Meller, was the first, and for many years the Chief-Justice of Maine, and one of the soundest lawyers who have helped to make her jurisprudence respected.
The next generation gave to the Unitarian pulpit in the per- son of Dr. George Putnam, one whose silver-tongued cloquence and profound thought did much to render Boston the purest, as well as the most cultured of our great cities.
And many whose blindness has been turned in vision, and whose ears have been unstopped, will pour down blessings on the licad of the youngest of our eminent sons, and who is privileged to be here to-day-Dr. William Holcombe, of New York.
Besides these a far larger number have gone forth from our borders to share in the business and in the prosperity of larger towns and cities. No doubt Boylston can at least furnish a counterpart to this list from among her own sons. This is why
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they do not increase in population ; they generously give to the cities a goodly proportion of each generation, retaining only enough to keep the stock of the old town good.
No, the nation cannot afford to do without these staid old country towns, and the strong men whom they furnished her. .And it is safe to say that the need for the characteristics which the country boys of generations gone by, have supplied to the business and professional life of the state, is as great now as before.
The five years of Sterling's second century which have al- ready elapsed, show that she appreciates in some degree the duties of country towns, for she has established a high school and appropriated liberally for its support, and in the past six years has graduated four of her sons from college.
In presenting on this occasion the heartiest congratulations of the elder to the younger sister, on the completion of so suc- cessful and honorable an hundred years of corporate life, I can think of no better sentiment in which to embody them than this :- Boylston and Sterling, may they live through their second and succeeding centuries in the sisterly emulation of giving the state and country the truest examples of American manhood.
The Town of Clinton, the youngest daughter of old Lancas- ter, her teeming industries, led by millions of flying spin lles, have enabled her to far outstrip the mother towns and all the family circle in population, wealth and resources.
RESPONSE BY C. C. COOK, EsQ.,
Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Clinton.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen ;- In rising to re- spond to this toast, so complimentary to the town of Clinton. I am mindful of the fact that gentlemen from Clinton are seated at this table, whose eloquence far transends any language at my command ; still, owing to the position I have the honor to hold temporarily, a few words of congratulation may not be out of place. And, in behalf of the citizens of Clinton, I do congratu-
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late you that you have reached your one hundredth birthday under such favorable circumstances. The day itself, with its cloudless sunshine, seems to bespeak another century of peace and prosperity for the good old town of Boylston.
You have been pleased to call Clinton "the youngest daugh- ter of old Lancaster," and yet Clinton is thirty-six years of age. This may, or may not be considered a compliment as the oppo- site sex, you know, are somewhat timid in this particular, cer- tainly, after having reached the age of twenty-five years. When you say, however, "Her teeming industries, led by millions of fly- ing spindles, have enabled her to outstrip the mother town, and all the family circle, in population, wealth and resources." we hide our blushes and thank you heartily for such a wholesale compli- ment, and yet are not such the facts ?
From the few small factories, thirty-six years ago, scattered along our streams, we now point with pride to several of the largest industries of their kind in the country, one of which is taxed this year for nearly one and a quarter millions of dollars.
The history of this marvelous growth cannot be given in a brief after-dinner speech. The chief reason, however, for this wonderful and continued prosperity lies in the fact that from the date of her incorporation until this very day, our capitalists, merchants, manufacturers, and citizens generally have taken as much interest in the welfare of the town as in their own, conse- quently Clinton, to-day, enjoys nearly all the advantages and conveniences of a modern city. The present year more money will be expended in enlarging factories, building new, and erect- ing private residences, than has been expended in any one year since the incorporation of the town.
And sir, does not the prosperity of Clinton mean also the prosperity of Boylston ? Those of us in middle life remember the old covered market wagon that wended its toilsome way " on the road to Boston." Now you have a market at your very doors. May the mutual good fellowship now existing between Boylston and Clinton long continue, and allow me to improve this oppor- tunity to invite you one and all to the centennial celebration of Clinton in the year 1950. May you all live to see that day.
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The town of Berlin. Another descendant of old Lancaster. Like Boylston, her growth has been slow and vigorous. If her garments were not fashioned, her pattern, at least as a town, was partly formed by a Boylston Taylor. We are glad to return the interchange of Centennial greetings upon this day. To the town of Berlin and the memory of David Taylor.
Responded to by REV. WILLIAM A. HOUGHTON, of Berlin.
Mr. President :- I respond sympathetically to the expressed relationship of my native town to yours, though somewhat puz- zled as to our consanguinity, by your one-fourth descent from Berlin's good grandmother. Evidently Boylston is thus a quad- roon. But we stand by our kin anyway.
Berlin has kept its best side towards Boylston. That is, one of them. We have several,-our inside is best. Boylstonward stood John Hudson, sentinel of Bull Hill, father of Hon. Charles Hudson, and an original member of our church. Next on line stood the Barneses, a name of noble record, and perpetuated in Barnes Hill. To our loss you enticed some of them over the line,-David Barnes, John Barnes, and others, stand largely in our reading for Boylston. But when, as Shrewsbury, "N. P.," you courted Phillip Larkin and Larkindale, your suit failed. Joshua Houghton, my kinsman far back (on the present Israel Barnes place), and Daniel Albert and his son Frederick, near the present fine residence of Henry C. Hastings, sought to push your northern boundary a mile and a half into Lancaster, Phillip appealed and you were compelled to jump his farm which was kept in Lancaster till our organization. True, you were kind enough to send us a very good Taylor to help put us " in fash- ion " as a town. Your record of our David, as a workman in Boylston, is very commendable-Town Clerk, Selectman, Asses- sor, Parish Clerk, etc. He was our first Precinct Clerk ; also, was original member of the church. IIc died, 1794, his widow in 1806. They settled, with their daughter Esther and son-in- law, Deacon Job Spofford, on the Assabet, and, I think, on the territory which the Taylor's (of Marlborough then), left when they emigrated to Shrewsbury sixty years before. David Taylor
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was a mighty man of valor. Towns were proud of such in those days. In one of the " borough towns " the minister was cham- pion ; a teamster, at the public inn, defied the whole borough ; the evening wore on and he was victor. The parson was sent. for ; the call stirred his prowess, and coming in, he said : "Wlio is this Goliath that defies our army ?" Goliath came forth only to be laid on the floor. Our David was champion in lifting. In the Navy Yard, one day, the marines tauntingly defied the coun- tryman to " end-up" one of the cannon. He did so, and to the amazement of the lookers-on, threw the lower end of it over his shoulder, in which tremendous exertion he burst open a new pair of cow-hide shoes. Our traditions never surrender on the feat, the fact, nor the shoes. We have natives who, before, in athletic strains, had burst indispensable attire, but we surrender to Boyl- ston town on king David.
Personally 1 just missed of Taylor blood in my own muscle. My grandfather, in second marriage, took Mary Taylor, of Boyl- ston. She called her only son Jonah in honor of the prophet, I always supposed. Her son's son she named Jonah Taylor, which name the naughty boy rejected when he grew up. But he knew not the history of his own name. Ward's Shrewsbury gives Jonalı Taylor, son of William Taylor, born on the place of the late Amasa Howe, killed in the capture of Louisburg 1745, aged 28 years. So Mary Taylor commemorated the Shrewsbury pa- triot in Berlin, seventy-five years later, in the name of Jonah Taylor Houghton. Remember, friends, what your names mean.
I have noticed, Mr. President, that we are called " the little towns." Of right we should have been the big ones. Our Cen- tral Massachusetts Railroad lies on the direct line from Boston to Albany. Before the Boston and Albany Railroad was thought of, Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn, discoverer of the Baldwin apple on his own farm, civil engineer, built a little observatory in one of those ever sightly elms on Watoquadock Hill in Bolton, to take the depressions and elevations of the surrounding region with reference to a canal (a la Erie) from Albany to Boston. Berlin, West Berlin and Sawyer's Mills gave in our tonnage in 1825 on that idea. The Boston and Albany should have been on that line, but Worcester, like Casar, was ambitious. They
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