USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Millbury > Centennial history of the town of Millbury, Massachusetts, including vital statistics, 1850-1899 > Part 6
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SOLDIERS OF THE COLONIAL STRUGGLES
response to the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775, to Roxbury; service, 21/2 days.
Joel Tainter. Corporal, Capt. Andrew Eliot's co., Col. Learned's reg't which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775; service, 13 days; also, Capt. Bartholomew Woodbury's co., Col. Job Cushing's reg't; enlisted Aug. 13, 1777; discharged Nov. 29, 1777; service, 3 mos. 27 days, in Northern Department including 10 days (200 miles) travel home; promoted to sergeant Oct. 13, 1777; company marched from Worcester Co. Aug. 16, 1777; also, Sergeant, Capt. Abijah Burbank's co., Col. Jacob Davis's reg't; marched to camp July 30, 1780; discharged Aug. 7, 1780; service 12 days, on an alarm at Rhode Island, including 312 days (75 miles) travel home. Jonathan Trask. No record given under this name for Sutton. Samuel Trask. Sergeant, Capt. Andrew Elliott's co., Col. Jonathan Holman's reg't; service, 18 days; company marched to Providence, R. I., on the alarm of Dec. 10, 1776.
Joshua Wait. Private, Capt. Andrew Eliot's co., Col. Learned's reg't; which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775; service 13 days; also, Corporal, Capt. Abijah Burbank's co., Col. Jonathan Holman's reg't; service 17 days; company marched from Sutton to Providence, R. I., Dec. 10, 1776, on an alarm; also, private, Capt. Abijah Burbank's co., Col. Jacob Davis's reg't; marched to camp July 30, 1780; discharged, Aug. 4, 1780; service, 9 days, on an alarm at Rhode Island, including 312 days (75 miles) travel home.
William Wait. Private, Capt. Isaac Bolster's co., Col. Ebenezer Learned's reg't; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; enlisted Apr. 25, 1775; service 3 mos. 14 days.
Abraham Waters. Sergeant, Capt. Andrew Eliot's co. Col. Learned's reg't; which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775; service 13 days.
Lieut. Asa Waters. Lieutenant, Capt. Andrew Eliot's co., Col. Learned's regt., which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775; service 13 days; also lieutenant, Capt. Bartholomew Woodbury's co., Col. Lernad's reg't, company marched Dec. 9, 1775; also 1st Lieut. Capt. Bartholomew Woodbury's co. of 69 men raised in Sutton, Northbridge, and Douglas; return dated Roxbury Camp, Jan. 18, 1776, of officers and men of militia companies which joined Col. Ebenezer Learned's reg't to serve until the last of January, 1776; ordered in council Feb. 1, 1776, that officers of such companies as contained 64 men or upwards be commissioned; reported commissioned Feb. 1, 1776; also 1st lieutenant, Capt. Abijah Burbank's 13th (5th Sutton) co. 5th Worcester reg't of Mass. militia; list of officers in said reg't Mar. 20, 1776; ordered in council, April 4, 1776, that said officers be commissioned; re- ported commissioned Apr. 4, 1776.
Joseph Waters. Corporal, Capt. Andrew Eliot's co. Col. Learned's reg't, which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775;
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HISTORY OF MILLBURY
service, 8 days; reported enlisted into the army; also, private, Capt. Isaac Bolster's co. Col. Ebenezer Learned's reg't; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; enlisted Apr. 27, 1775; service 3 mos., 12 days; also, company return dated Roxbury, Oct. 7, 1775.
Samuel Waters. Corporal, Capt. John Sibley's co., which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775, by order of Col. Learned; service, 12 days. (Samuel Waters private in Capt. Andrew Eliot's Co., Col. Jonathan Holman's reg't, marched Sept. 26, 1777; 30 days with Northern Army.)
Simeon Waters. Private, Capt. Andrew Eliot's co. Col. Learned's reg't, which marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775; service 8 days; reported enlisted into the army; also Capt. Isaac Bolster's co., Col. Ebenezer Learned's reg't; company return dated Roxbury, Oct. 7, 1775; also, name on order for money in lieu of bounty coat, dated Camp at Roxbury Dec. 26, 1775.
Lieut. Nathaniel Whitmore. Sergeant, Capt. Arthur Daggett's (Sutton) co. Col. Learned's reg't; marched on the alarm of Apr. 19, 1775; service 2 weeks 1 day; also, 2nd Lieut. Capt. Barthol- omew Woodbury's 8th (also given 3rd) (3rd co. in Sutton), 5th Worcester Co. reg't of Mass. militia; reported commissioned Apr. 4, 1776; also name on receipt dated Phillipsborough Nov. 16, 1776; also lieutenant, Capt. Reuben Sibley's co .; list of officers at service at Dobb's Ferry, Tarrytown, and North Castle, N. Y., in 1776; also lieutenant, Capt. Bartholomew Woodbury's co., Col. Jonathan Holman's reg't; service 21 days; company marched from Sutton to Providence, R. I., on the alarm of Dec. 10, 1776; also, lieutenant, Capt. Jonathan Woodbury's co., Col. Jacob Davis's reg't; marched July 30, 1780; discharged Aug. 7, 1780; service 12 days, on an alarm at Rhode Island, including 4 days (72 miles) travel home.
Peter Willard. Credited to Lancaster. Served in Continental army; engaged for town of Marlboro; mustered July 17, 1777, for 3 years; also private, Capt. Job Whipple's co., Col. Rufus Put- nam's 5th (also given 4th) reg't; credited to town of Medford; age 25 yrs .; stature 5 ft. 312 in .; complexion black (negro); eyes black; hair, wooly; enlisted Mar. 16, 1779, by Col. Putnam for the war; also private, Capt. Job Whipple's co., Col. Putnam's reg't in 1781.
For the War of 1812, in Millbury, as well as in many other Massachusetts towns, few soldiers enlisted.
Only Ithran Harris and Nathaniel Waters are on record as going from this town. Mr. Harris was a justice of the peace, and for years afterward was commonly known as Judge Harris. Mr. Waters was the progenitor of Edwin D. Waters, a member of the 25th Mass. Reg't, who died in the Civil war.
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CHARACTERISTICS AND SURVEY
CHAPTER V
CHARACTERISTICS AND SURVEY
As we have seen in a preceding chapter, for many years prior to 1813, the inhabitants of the North, or Second, Parish of Sutton had seriously considered its establishment as a separate town. From the extremes in the northern section it was a considerable distance to the First Parish meeting-house for attending town meetings and, although the difficulty was compromised by having a third of the meetings in the North Parish, this arrangement only served as a concession to the fact that attendance at Sut- ton center was inconvenient for many. Mills had sprung up in the North Parish, so that the interests of many of its leading citizens and other inhabitants were away from the agricultural life, and the future of the parish seemed to lie in these industries.
At the time of its incorporation Millbury had a popu- lation of five hundred, embraced in one hundred and sixty families. The farms had not been brought completely under cultivation and bridle paths in places were still used. Wages, both on the farms and in the mills, were small, but the industries of the section promised abundant support for the future.
At this time (to quote from an annotation made in his copy of the Sutton History by the late Colonel Waters) "a town meeting was called to determine upon a name for the new town. A proposition was introduced to call it Moscow. There is a tradition that Gen. Caleb Burbank, then one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of the town, strongly protested and said the name had to him unpleasant associations. That when he was a boy
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HISTORY OF MILLBURY
his father bought a cow of 'Old Morse' over in Sutton and she was called the 'Morse cow' and she was an ugly kicking 'critter' and as for calling the town Morse-cow, he couldn't stand it and he wouldn't. And he did not. This tradition of this peculiar man is somewhat apochry- phal, but it is probably true that he prevented the name of 'Moscow' from being adopted and he deserves the thanks of all succeeding generations." (Moscow, the Russian city, had been occupied by Napoleon and his army and had been burned during the year preceding this town meeting.)
The name "Millbury" was suggested as a designation for the town by General Burbank. The word expressed the characteristics of the new town and the people at once recognized its fitness.
After previous unsuccessful attempts at incorporation, a bill, which had previously passed both houses of the Legislature, was signed June 11, 1813, by the governor, giving the North, or Second, Parish the right to become the separate town of Millbury.
The following is a copy of the Act of Incorporation for the town of Millbury:
"June 11, 1813, An Act to Incorporate the North Parish in the Town of Sutton into a separate town by the name of Millbury. "Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent- atives in General Court Assembled and by authority of the same .- That all the lands comprised within the North Parish in the town of Sutton, in the county of Worcester as the same is now bounded together with the farm on which Joshua Chase now lives in said town, with all inhabitants dwelling thereon, be and they hereby are incorporated with all the powers, privileges and immunities and subject to all the duties and requirements of other incorporated towns agreeably to the constitution and laws of this Common- wealth.
"Sec. 2. Be it further enacted: That the inhabitants of said town of Millbury shall be holden to pay all the arrears of taxes which have been assessed upon them by the town of Sutton; and shall also support and maintain all such persons as heretofore have been, now are, or hereafter may be inhabitants of that part of Sutton hereby incorporated, and are or may become chargeable
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CHARACTERISTICS AND SURVEY
according to the laws of this Commonwealth, and who have not obtained a settlement elsewhere therein.
"Sec. 3. Be it further enacted that the inhabitants of the said town of Millbury shall be entitled to receive and hold such pro- portion of all real and personal property of the said town of Sutton of what kind soever it may be, now owned in common by the inhabitants of said town as the property of the inhabitants of Millbury bears to the property of all the inhabitants of the said town of Sutton according to the last valuation thereof; and shall also be holden to pay their proportion (to be ascertained as afore- said) of all the debts now due and owing from the said town of Sutton and the inhabitants, and the inhabitants of said Millbury or any religious society therein shall furthermore be entitled to receive and hold such proportion as they are now entitled to, if any, of the ministerial money raised by the sale of ministerial lands in said Sutton which money is now in the hands of the First Congregational Society in Sutton.
"Sec. 4. Be it further enacted: That in case the dividing line between the said town of Millbury and said town of Sutton should happen to divide the farms of any of the inhabitants of either of said towns the said inhabitants shall be taxed for the whole of their home farms in that town only where they may respect- ively dwell.
"Sec. 5. Be it further enacted: That any Justice of the Peace for the county of Worcester upon application therefor is hereby authorized to issue his warrant, directed to any freeholder in said town of Millbury requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants thereof to meet at such time and place as may be appointed in said warrant for the choice of all such town officers as towns are by law required to choose at their annual town meetings.
"In the house of Representatives June 10, 1813,
This Bill having had three several readings passed to be enacted Timothy Bigelow, Speaker.
"In Senate, June 10, 1813.
This Bill having had two several readings passed to be enacted John Phillips, President. "June 11, 1813, approved Caleb Strong, (governor).
"Secretary's Office, June 11, 1813, A true copy, attest. Alden Bradford
Secretary of the Commonwealth."
76
HISTORY OF MILLBURY
There have been three distinct eras in the industrial development of Millbury. The first period was that of the small, independent mill having few, often not more than one, engaged in its operation. This stage was marked by small water power at each privilege for, with ruder water wheels and with no call for all the available power, the streams were not utilized to their full capacity.
The second era included the time of Millbury's be- ginning as a separate town and it was characterized by increased development of water privileges on the Single- tary and on the Blackstone. Two families stand out at this period as thus centralizing the water power resources on these streams. On the Singletary the Burbank family gained possession of the privileges on the stream and de- veloped them further, constructing additional reservoirs for making steady the flow of water at the mills, the height of Singletary pond was raised and the unequal rainfall of the year equalized as much as possible. On the Black- stone River the brothers, Elijah Waters and Asa Waters, Jr., acquired what power had already been utilized on that stream, at the location where the armory was built, and after the death of the elder brother, Asa, Jr. developed other privileges on the river within the town, viz: the Stillwater (Felt Mill) and the Cordis, as well as one in Sutton at Wilkinsonville, bringing all to a high state of efficiency.
In the third period the industries again divide into separate ownership and each is still further developed by the use of steam in addition to water power. For fifty years there has been until recently but little addition to the power thus developed at these various industries, presumably because of the limitations of the water power and the cost of hauling coal at a distance. Without usher- ing in a markedly new era, recent years have seen another step in advance which offers greater possibilities for growth in the introduction of electric power which is generated on the great Connecticut River and its branches. This
7
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CHARACTERISTICS AND SURVEY
supplements the local water-power cheaply, regardless of the distance of the factory from railroad transportation.
The men of early Millbury lived in a day when there was little to divert their attention to outside interests. Paper was expensive, so that newspapers were few and private correspondence was uncommon. Not all knew how to read, so that what papers and books there were meant comparatively little to many of the people. Jour- neys were taken either on foot, on horse-back, or in the comparatively slow-moving stage-coach. Those who read had few books and those who travelled went to compara- tively few places. The result was that most of the people stayed closely at home, occupied with their immediate labors.
With this circumscribed life the men of early Millbury looked into their tasks rather than abroad from them, hence we find that the vital interests and the mental activity of those early workmen showed itself in a mastery of their tasks and in inventions of improved processes.
The first paper mill in Central Massachusetts was built in Millbury by Abijah Burbank.
The only powder mill in this section of the county in the early days of the Revolution was erected by the Province on the property of Mr. Burbank, and was operated by Asa Waters, Sr.
William Crompton perfected his first fancy loom here, an invention that has revolutionized weaving throughout the industrial world and has lessened the price of clothing in all civilized countries.
The process of welding gun-barrels under triphammers and a lathe for turning out gun-barrels of regular size were invented by Asa Waters, 2d, who made several other useful inventions.
Thomas Blanchard lived within the limits of Millbury when he developed his inventive genius in boyhood. It was here that he invented his tack-making machine that gave him a start in prosperity and it was here that he in-
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HISTORY OF MILLBURY
vented his eccentric lathe that revolutionized gun-making and later affected every shop in which irregular forms were made or used. His inventions, together with those of others, led to the development of the system of the inter- changeability of parts in machines, guns, etc., which has meant so much in the manufacture of all machinery from the watch to the saw-mill.
Hervey Waters in Millbury invented a pin-making machine and a machine for sticking the manufactured pins into paper in rows. He also invented the process for rolling scythe and bayonet blades so that much hand labor was saved and these implements could be made more cheaply.
Thomas Kendall, Jr., a Millbury man, first made the thermometer a practical instrument, thus making his influence felt in every house, factory and store of the land.
In the perfecting of the telegraph Samuel F. B. Morse was assisted by Dr. Leonard Gale, of Millbury, who, it is said, gave practical suggestions that made possible the complete telegraph equipment.
The first brass foundry located in the Commonwealth outside of Boston was established by Asa Kenney, Jr., in Millbury.
About 1820, Millbury developed the first organization similar to what later became the old lyceum that did so much for the intellectual life of communities throughout the United States.
In this town was organized the first society established for the assistance of students for the ministry-the fore- runner of the Congregational Educational Society and other similar denominational organizations.
In Millbury, Ichabod Washburn began the manufacture of wire and began that series of improvements in its manufacture that resulted in later years in the immense output of the American Steel and Wire Co., a successor to his labors.
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CHARACTERISTICS AND SURVEY
In fact the town has been the location for the operation of industries large and small covering a wide range of productions extending from the small shuttle-eye to the large eccentric lathe, from the peaceful pen-knife to the warlike bayonet, and from the pin of the household to the powder of the battlefield.
Situated six miles from Worcester on the lines both of the N. Y., N. H., & H. R. R. and the Boston & Albany R. R., with two trolley lines, which give trolley express service, Millbury, with its five thousand inhabitants, is an excellent manufacturing and residential town contain- ing as it does excellent mill and factory sites. It has the advantage of possessing three beautiful lakes and it has a high pressure water system which supplies the purest of water. Electric light and power are furnished by the Connecticut River Transmission Company and a local company. With its great diversity of industries the town has been remarkably free from labor difficulties. Its advantages include several miles of macadam roads, a low rate of fire insurance, an automatic fire alarm system, paid fire and police departments, and a street sprinkling service. Three free delivery mail routes are in operation and others are soon to be established. For schools, twenty-five thousand dollars are annually expended, a fifty thousand dollar high-school building has been erected and there is a private Industrial School for boys. Its institutions include eight churches, many secret fraternal orders, a free public library, a national bank and a savings bank that has never paid less than four per cent interest. Its late town clerk, Ira N. Goddard, was the oldest in point of service of any in the United States, having been elected for the sixty-second year.
Mr. Charles Monroe, once of Millbury, but now de- ceased, has given some interesting information about gun and scythe work in the early days of the town. He stated:
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HISTORY OF MILLBURY
"In this place I would say that there was no machine there then to turn gun barrels, except a common engine which any green workman can set to turn any length of iron on a taper. After the barrels were welded they were taken to a great grindstone which was nearly nine or ten feet in diameter, a crank was attached to one end of the barrel and the tender would place it before the grindstone in a fixture that kept it against the stone, and at the same time turn it around. This stone revolved with great speed. Speaking of scythes, I mention the names of two men who were in Elder Waters' employ as great workmen with the trip-hammer. I venture to say they were the best hammersmen then in existence. Their names were Lewis and John Lilley. They were the men who welded the gun-barrels with lightning speed. They made scythes and sleigh-shoes. The shoes they would hammer out true and straight as a carpenter would joint a board. One of the brothers moved to Lowell, and worked for the Tremont Corpora- tion a number of years."
Mr. Bela Chase, when eighty-eight years old, after seventy-two years absence, was in Millbury a few years ago, and visited many fields of his old associations. He recalled the location of the old shop in the "hollow" on South Main street, once part of the old armory, and later of the Atlanta mills. There Thomas Blanchard conceived an idea of the eccentric lathe, which he after- wards perfected at his shop in West Millbury. He re- called the occasion and the importance then attached to the invention. It was while Mr. Chase was a resident of Millbury that the digging of the canal was begun and he was in town when it was opened for commerce. He also remembered the Millbury Canal store, when it was located at the corner of Main and Canal streets', on what is now the lawn of the Walling estate.
As an example of the provision which was frequently made for one's old age we have the following bond which was given by Elijah Holman in return for property by which he bound himself to furnish his mother-in-law with needed supplies. Strange though this may seem to us such an instrument was not uncommon in 1813.
"Know all men by these presents :- that I, Elijah Holman, of Millbury, in the county of Worcester, Yeoman, am holden unto my mother-in-law, Susannah Holman, of said Millbury, in the full
THE OLD BLANCHARD SHOP
THE HENRY W. GLOVER SHOP
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CHARACTERISTICS AND SURVEY
and just sum of Five thousand dollars, to the payment of which well and truly to be made, I bind myself, my heirs, executors and administrators firmly by these presents-Sealed with my Seal, dated this ninth day of March, A. D. 1814.
"The condition of the above obligation is such, that whereas by the last will and testament of Col. Jonathan Holman late of Millbury, deceased, there is a bequest to his Widow, Susannah Holman, a chaise, and the use and improvement of half his estate in Sutton and Ward as by said will may appear, which aforesaid bequest the said Susannah hath relinquished upon the following conditions (viz) :- That there be furnished and delivered to her each and every year during her natural life the following articles (viz) :- Two hundred and sixteen pounds of well fatted pork-two hundred and sixty-six pounds of beef, seventeen bushels of Indian corn, four and one quarter bushels of rye, two bushels of wheat. three bushels of oats, seventeen bushels of potatoes, one hundred and sixty-six pounds of cheese, sixty-six pounds of Butter, ten pounds of sheep's wool, ninety pounds of small fresh meats, Six pounds of green Calf-Skin, One sixth part of the Cyder made, and of the flax raised on the farm. Also be comfortably provided with wood cut fit for the fire at the door, what she need to burn. Be furnished with a horse and Chaise whenever she wishes to ride. Be furnished with garden and other sauce growing on the farm, what she shall need for her family, and also fruit of all kind, which the farm produces. Also the right to use and occupy the two west- erly rooms on the ground floor of the dwelling house, and the chamber over the southwesterly front room, and a priviledge in the Cellar & garrett, in the kitchen for washing and baking, in the buttery for dairy purposes and at the well through the north room and Kitchen for water. Also be furnished with what milk and cream she shall want for her family from the farm annually. Also have the priviledge of keeping poultry. Now upon the perform- ance of all the before mentioned conditions the above obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in force.
Signed, sealed and delivered in presence
of AARON PEIRCE, PATTY JACOBS.
ELIJAH HOLMAN (seal).
In the Rev. Peter Whitney's History of Worcester County (1793) the following industries are mentioned as being in operation in Sutton. And as the North Parish was the industrial portion of the town most of these would be early Millbury industries. He enumerates:
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"one paper mill, one oil mill, ten grist mills, six saw mills, three fulling mills, seven trip-hammers, five scythe and ax makers, one hoe maker, several who work at nail making, and six works for making potash."
In 1827, a geological and agricultural survey of Mill- bury was made by a committee from the local branch of the Lyceum and in the "National Aegis", published in Worcester, for Oct. 24, 1827, the following account of industries in Millbury is given. In speaking of the Bur- bank River (the Singletary) it stated that:
"Few streams in New England, of the same size and length, possess so much power, or move so much machinery . . . In passing a mile and a quarter it falls 212 feet within which distance it unites with another branch of the Blackstone (the main stream) and, by the aid of this other tributary in the two lower establish- ments, it already moves by its force two grist mills, two saw mills, two scythe factories, a screw factory, a manufactory of pen-knives, of joiners' squares, a paper mill, one cotton and two woolen fac- tories, and an armory. At these establishments there is manu- factured annually, flour from fifteen to twenty hundred bushels of grain, paper to the amount of ten thousand dollars, fifteen or twenty hundred dozen scythes, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand yards of cotton cloth, 7800 lbs. cotton yarn not wove, 67 thousand yards broadcloth at one mill, the other not known, and three thousand muskets. One or two priviledges are not yet taken up and several not fully occupied."
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