USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Eastern Worcester : its first settlers and their locations : historical and genealogical, in three chapters > Part 3
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THE LEONARD FAMILY.
Samuel and Isaac Leonard had a brother Jacob, also of Bridge- water, to whom a forty acre lot, with the usual right to a sec- ond division land, was granted Oct. 28, 1714, on the line of what is now Plantation street, where the ancient farm of George S. Howe is, on the south side of what was known as "Bimelech Hill." This whole purchase right Jacob Leonard conveyed, May 9, 1717, for £40, to his nephew Moses Leonard, then also of Bridgewater. A month later, June 12, 1717, Moses Leonard, then of Worcester, conveyed this right to Benjamin Flagg of Worcester, ancestor of five generations of the name in Worces- ter, the last of the family to reside on this estate being the
* See "Reminiscences," p. 58.
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children of the first Benjamin Flagg's great grandson, Aaron Flagg, who died there in 1836.
Samuel, Isaac and Jacob Leonard, had a brother John, who was father of Moses Leonard. These four brothers were sons of Solomon Leonard, from Duxbury, an original proprietor and one of the first settlers in Bridgewater, (variously written on the ancient records Leonardson, Lennardson, Lennerson and Lenerson.) Solomon died in Bridgewater in 1686, leaving a widow, Mary, and sons Samuel2, John2, Jacob2, Isaac2 and Sol- omon2, Jr., and a daughter Mary2 who married in 1673 John Pollard. Samuel2 settled his father's estate in 1686, said to be the first settlement in the records of the Probate Court of Ply- mouth County. Soon after this, Samuel2 undertook his settle- ment at Worcester, from which place he was driven by the Indians in 1697, and his son Samuel8, Jr., a youth of 16, was carried off by them, the account of whose captivity, heroic deeds, and fortu- nate escape, comprises one of the most thrilling incidents of Indian history. John2 Leonard, (son of Solomon1), by his wife Sarah, had John Jr., Enoch8, Moses8 (who settled a while in Worcester), Josiah8, Joseph3, and Sarah8 who married Thomas Washburn in 1708.)
Jacob2 Leonard, (son of Solomon), had a grant of land in Worcester in 1714, as before stated, which he sold to his nephew Moses8, and died in 1716, leaving a wife Susanna, and daughter Abigail, born in Weymouth in 1680, married Thomas Washburn ; Susanna, born in Weymouth in 1683, married in 1714 Ebenezer Hill ; Experience8; Mary8 ; Sarah,8 born in Bridge- water in 1699, married in 1721 Wm. Orcutt; Solomon8; and Jacob8, Jr., born in 1702.
Isaac2 Leonard, (son of Solomon, ) had also a grant of land in Worcester 1714, as before mentioned, which he sold in 1717 to Nathaniel Jones. Isaac? Leonard by his wife Deliverance had a daughter Hannah3 born in 1680, Isaac8, Jr., Deliverance', Joseph8, and other children. The father conveyed his home- stead in Bridgewater in 1717 to his son Joseph8.
Moses Leonard, (son of John, and grandson of Samuel Leon- ard,) was a cordwainer by trade. After selling out his estate in Worcester, in 1729, to Benjamin Townsend of Brookfield, Moses Leonard removed to that town, and thence about 1735 to Hardwick, (then called Lambstown. ) He resided there and in Rutland, Barre and vicinity, till his decease, at great age, as the historian of Hardwick, Rev. Dr. Paige says. By his wife Mercy, daughter of Moses Newton of Marlboro, whom he mar- ried in 1705, Moses Leonard had born there: 1, Moses, Jr., born Nov. 1, 1706, to whom the father deeded 64 acres of land in Brookfield in 1732 ; 2, Ezra, born Sept. 19, 1711, who mar- ried in 1737 Olive, daughter of Benjamin and Experience, (Curtis) Smith of Hardwick, and settled in Barre, where Ezra
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
was selectman, assessor, etc., had ten children, most of whom had families, and he died in Wilbraham in 1798 with his son-in-law Jonathan Flynt ; 3, Mercy, born Oct. 1, 1714, married in 1732 Samuel Robinson, one of the first and most prominent settlers in Hardwick, and had a large family there. Moses Leonard's first wife Mercy died in 1715, and he married Aug. 8, 1716, Hannah, daughter of John Woods, and widow of Thomas Wetherbee of Marlboro, by whom he had Jonas, born Oct. 19, 1717, in June of which year he removed to Worcester, and had here Andrew, born Nov. 20, 1719. Ezra, son of Moses, was selectman, assessor, etc., had ten children, most of whom had families, and she died in Wilbraham in 1798 with his son-in-law, Jonathan Flynt; 3, Mercy, born October 1, 1714, married in 1732 Samuel Robinson, one of the first and most prominent settlers in Hardwick, and had a large family there. Moses Leonard's first wife, Mercy, died in 1715, and he married Aug. 8, 1716, Hannah, daughter of John Woods, and widow of Thomas Wetherbee of Marlboro, by whom he had James, born October 19, 1717, in June of which year he removed to Wor- cester, and had here Andrew, born November 20, 1719.
Ezra, son of Moses, was selectman, assessor, etc., in Hard- wick, and was ensign of Capt. Joseph Warner's company of that town which marched for the relief of Fort Wm. Henry in 1757. Ezra's son Nathan, was captain of militia and member of the company of "minute men" which marched to Lexington April 19, 1775, and in 1778 he was captain in Col. Nathaniel Wade's regiment in the revolutionary service.
MONUMENT TO THE PIONEER.
Near the highest point of land in Lake Park, just inside the west circuit, and about three hundred feet south of the ancient road before spoken of where several old cellar holes designate the locations of several of the first settlers in that section of the old town, one of the munificent donors of this Park, Hon. Edward L. Davis, erected in 1888 the majestic tower which commands such a magnificent view of the surrounding country from its summit. The next most appropriate thing to be done, is the erection, on the most appreciate spot, of the monument, already prepared, commemorative of the heroic deeds of the son of the first settler, Samuel Leonard, Jr., then a youth of 15, who was taken prisoner and carried off in March, 1697-8, by the same Indians who on their way to Canada with him cap- tured Mrs. Hannah Dustin and Mrs. Mary Neff of Haverhill in the attack on that town by the savages. Of the tragic events relating to the capture and escape of these prisoners, Cotton Mather has the following account, given him, as he says, by Mrs. Dustin herself :
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"March 15, 1697-8, the savages made a descent on the skirts of Haverhill, capturing and murdering about 39 persons, and burn- ing about half a dozen houses. A body of twelve Indians, dur- ing their bloody devastations, drew near to a house in which lay Hannah Dustin, with her young babe, only a week old, attended by her nurse, Mary Neff, daughter of George Corliss, and widow of Wm. Neff, who died in the army at Pemaquid in February, 1688. Mr. Dustin, seeing the enemy approach the house, hastened home from his work in the field to protect his dis- tressed family ; and first bidding seven of his eight children, 2 to 17 years old, to go as fast as they could to some place of shelter, he went to inform his wife of the horrible distress coming upon them. Ere she could get up, the fierce Indians were so near, that utterly despairing to be of any service to her, he ran out after his children, resolving that on the horse he had with him he would ride away with that child his affections were most pitched upon in his extremity, and leave the rest to Divine Providence. He overtook the children about forty rods from his door, but then such was the strength of his parental affec- tion that he found it impossible for him to distinguish any one of them from the rest; therefore he took a courageous resolu- tion to live or die with them all. A party of Indians came up with him, and now, though they fired at him and he fired at them, yet he manfully kept at the rear of his little army of un- armed children while they marched off with the pace of a child five years old ; until, by the singular Providence of God he arrived safe with them about a mile or two from his house. But in the house, the nurse trying to escape with the new-born in- fant, fell into the hands of the savages, who coming into the house, bid Mrs. Dustin to rise, which she did, and sitting down in the chimney place, saw the raging dragons, rifle all they could carry away, and set the house on fire. The Indians then led them away with half a score of other English captives, but ere they had gone many steps they dashed out the brains of the infant against a tree ; and several of the other captives, as they began to tire in their sad journey, were soon sent unto their long home. The savages would frequently bury their hatchets in their brains, and leave their carcases on the grounds for birds and beasts to prey upon. However, Mrs. Dustin with her nurse, notwithstanding her present condition, traveled that night about a dozen miles, and then kept up with their new masters in a long travel of 150 miles within a few days without any sensible damage to their health from hardships, scanty and poor diet and lodging, etc. Before starting on this long jour- ney, Mrs. Dustin was barely allowed time to dress, and was compelled to go with only one shoe to her feet. That Indian family, the captors of those persons, consisted of twelve per- sons, two stout men, three women, and seven children. They
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were travelling with these two captive women, Mrs. Dustin and her nurse, Mrs. Mary Neff, and an English youth taken from Worcester, named Samuel Leonard, unto a rendevous of sava- ges which they call a town somewhere beyond Pennacook. Their master, (says Sewell in his diary) had lived in the family of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson at Lancaster, and he told Mrs. Dus- tin that when he prayed the English way he thought that it was good, but now he found the French way better. The Indian captors told those poor women that when they came to that town they must be stripped and scourged and run the gauntlet through the whole army of Indians. They said this was the fashion when the captors first came to a town, and they derided some of the faint-hearted English who they said fainted and swooned away under the torments of this discipline.
"But in the good Providence of God, a day of deliverance came to the captives, the two women and the boy Leonard, through their own heroic efforts. On the way to their destination, the captors stopped at the home of the principal chief, a small island at the junction of Contoocook and Merrimack rivers, since called Dustin's island on account of what then happened there, as related by Cotton Mather.
" After starting from the Island where they had been stop- ping, while the party were yet about 150 miles from the Indian town, a little before break of day, when the whole crew of Indians were in a dead sleep, one of these two women captives took up a resolution to imitate the action of Joel upon Sisera, and being where she had not her own life secured by any law unto her, she thought she was not forbidden by any law to take away the life of the murderer of her child. She heartened the nurse and the youth to assist her in this enterprise; and all furnishing themselves with hatchets for the purpose, they struck such home blows upon the heads of their sleeping op- pressors, that ere they could any of them struggle into any effectual resistance, they bowed, they fell at the feet of their prisoners, where they bowed, they fell down dead. Only one squaw escaped in the woods, sorely wounded, she receiving seven hatchet wounds, and she was left for dead, but jumped up and ran into the thicket, and one boy whom they reserved asleep intending to bring him away with them, suddenly awaked and scuttled from this desolation. Mrs. Dustin killed her master, and the boy Samuel Leonard despatched the very Indian who told him where to strike and how to take off a scalp! The deed was accomplished before the day began to break. After cutting off the scalps of the ten Indian wretches killed, the prisoners came off and received £50 from the General Assembly of the Province as a recompense of their action ; besides which they received many presents of congratulation from their more private friends; but none of them gave 'em a greater taste of
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bounty than Col. Nicholson, the Governor of Maryland, who hearing of their action, sent them a very generous token of his favor."
After performing the bloody work, Mrs. Dustin, according to the account, gathered up what little provisions there were in the wigwam, taking the gun of her dead master and the toma- hawk with which she killed him, and scuttling all the canoes except one, she embarked in that with Mrs. Neff and the Leon- ard boy, on the waters of the Merrimack, to seek their way to Haverhill. They had not proceeded far, however, when Mrs. Dustin, perceiving that they had neglected to take the scalps, and fearing lest her neighbors-should she ever arrive at her home-would not credit her story, she hastened back with her companions to the scene of death, took off the scalps of the slain, and wrapped them in a piece of linen cloth that was taken from her house at the time of her capture.
This cloth she afterwards divided among her daughters, and a part of it is still preserved by some of her descendants.
With these bloody witnesses of their feat, the escaped pris- oners hastened again on their downward course to Haverhill, each alternately rowing and steering their little bark. They were thinly clad. In the night two slept while the other rowed. Thus they pursued their journey till they arrived unexpectedly with their trophies at their homes, totally unexpected by their mourning friends who supposed they had been killed by the Indians. It was an affecting scene for Mrs. Dustin to meet again her husband and children, who she had reason to sup- pose had been killed by the savages.
After recovering from the fatigues of the journey, Mrs. Dus- tin and her two companions, (her nurse and the boy Leonard, ) accompanied by Mr. Dustin, started for Boston, where they arrived April 21. They carried with them the gun and the tomahawk, and their ten scalps, witnesses that would not lie. Soon afterwards, Dustin presented a petition to the General Court, "Setting forth the claims of his wife and Mrs. Neff and the boy Leonard to recompense from the public" for their action, etc. The petition was read in the House of Representa- tives June 8, 1698, 191 years ago, when it was voted "That the above named Thomas Dustin, in behalf of his wife, shall be allowed and paid out of the public treasury, £25; Mary Neff the sum of £12 and 10s., and the young man (named Samuel Leonard) concerned in the same action the like sum of £12 and 10s.," making in all £50, as before related.
Thomas Dustin, with question of life or death for himself and cruel captivity for his children, directly before him, heroically staked his life for his children.
The gun referred to continued in possession of the male line of Dustin's descendants to 1859, when it was presented to the
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
Dustin Monument Association of Haverhill, by Mrs. Lydia H. Dustin, widow of Thomas Dustin, of Henniker, N. H., and acknowledgment of the same was given her at a meeting July 9, 1859, as stated by the historian of Haverhill, the late George W. Chase.
Hannah Dustin was the oldest daughter of Michael and Han- nah (Webster) Emerson, and oldest of fifteen children. She was born December 23, 1657, and was married to Thomas Dustin December 3, 1677, by whom she had thirteen children. Their house stood 20 feet N. W. of the "Dustin Monument," recently erected in Haverhill. Their house was the first one attacked by the Indians, who made such terrible havoc and destruction in Haverhill in 1698.
The precise spot where Samuel Leonard located his dwelling during his brief residence, or attempt to settle here, does not appear for certain, but there is every reason to think that it was on the line of this old road, the extension eastward and southward of Bigelow Lane, but there are no remains of any former habita- tion between the three old cellar holes before alluded to in Lake Park and the old town line, so it seems most likely that Samuel Leonard's residence in Worcester was on one of those spots. It is certainly known that Joshua Bigelow, who bought the old Samuel Leonard and Benjamin Allen estate or grant, as well as that of Samuel Andrews, who bought his estate of Samuel Gray, was on one of those sites, and most likely on the highest one, just inside the west circuit of Lake Park, as that is the oldest spot, where an ancient house was torn down over fifty years ago, which bore the appearance of having been a garrison house in the early Indian times.
The monument, already prepared and awaiting its location on that ancient site, consists of a huge statue in brown stone, representative of the characteristics of the early pioneer, the work of the sculptor, E. A. O'Connor. It is 34 feet in height, standing on a granite pedestal 18 by 15 feet. The design is typical of events of the early times. The statue represents the sturdy pioneer rolling up his sleeves, preparing to begin the work of cultivation with the spade. One of the panels represents a savage stealthily approaching a boy to carry him off. On the other panel, in contrast with this, is a sculptured scene, illus- trating the fruits of the pioneer's toil, piece, security, education and domestic happiness, as represented by a mother with her child asleep in her arms, while the little one is listening to an elder child reading from a book.
The first proprietor of the land westerly of the lake and south of the old Worcester line or of the grant to Rev. Benjamin Allen on the original right of Samuel Leonard, was Wiggles- worth Sweetser, shopkeeper of Boston, who deeded his grant, comprising "300 acres south of the town of Worcester and west
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of the south end of Worcester pond, sometimes called Quinsig- amond Pond," to Robert Kelley, trader of Boston, Nov. 22, 1734, for £300 public bills of credit, reserving 11 acres for a highway through the same, as was in the original grant.
Robert Kelley deeded the same, with buildings thereon, etc., for £500, current money, to James Moor, of Grafton, husband- man. Moor deeded the same Jan. 24, 1741, for £620 bills of credit to Isaac Morse of Holliston, and he in 1745 conveyed 50 acres of it to his son Isaac and 40 acres to Obadiah Newton. On the death of Isaac Morse, senior, in 1750, his son Isaac, as administrator, sold at public auction 184 acres of the remaining portion of the paternal estate to Palmer Goulding and Wm. Johnson, for £137, and the latter for £74 conveyed 90 acres of this bordering east on the lake to Bezaleel Stearns in 1753 for £74. This land, extending south to the old road to Grafton and Shrewsbury, afterwards became the property of Benjamin New- ton and others, till the late Hon. Isaac Davis purchased that portion between the lake and the railroad, and since 1884 it has been owned by H. H. Bigelow. Bezaleel Stearns, who married Thankful Davis in 1749, was son of the first John Stearns of Worcester, and several of his brothers and nephews, as well as his father and himself lived in that section of the old town, be- tween the old Grafton road and the lake. A more particular account of the Stearns family, formerly so numerous here and in other sections of the old town, will be included in a future: publication.
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
CHAPTER III. FIRST SETTLERS IN BLOOMINGDALE DISTRICT AND VICINITY.
MEETING AT JAMES DRAPER'S.
The last one of these three historical field meetings was held Saturday afternoon, August 16, 1890, in the beautiful grove on Parks Commissioner James Draper's Bloomingdale farm and nurseries on Plantation street, and it was a significant success in numbers and interest. More than one hundred persons, including many of our oldest and most prominent citizens were present, comprising a representative gathering of citizens inter- ested in our local history. The day was one of the loveliest of the delightful summer season, and the visitors improved the opportunity to inspect the handsome grounds. The meeting was called to order at the time appointed, half-past three o'clock, by Mr. Wall, in the pretty grove, which was furnished with seats, and His Honor, Mayor Francis A. Harrington, was called upon to preside.
On taking the chair, Mayor Harrington spoke of the import- ance of the subject under consideration, and the great interest which he, as a native of the old town, where his ancestors for several generations had lived, regarding the investigations made by the speaker of the afternoon into the early history of the place. He expressed the hope that Mr. Wall would continue his work till the whole territory of the city had been covered in a similar way. The Mayor closed by introducing Mr. Wall, who said :
After viewing the attractive surroundings of this beautiful section of the city, all along the ancient thoroughfare of travel opened at the beginning of the old town, from the head of Lake Quinsigamond and Sagatabscot Hill on the south, where also many of the earliest settlements were made, who can wonder the first settlers selected the sites they did on these hills and along these valleys? I have before me a multitude of manuscripts
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regarding the first settlers in this section of the city, and their descendants ; the location of their estates, and the history of the same from the beginning of the first comers, which I propose to print in book or pamphlet form at an early day, in connection with similar material regarding other sections of the old town. I will begin with the Gates family, of whom the first settler, Jonathan, came here from Cambridge in 1731, and located on the spot on Bloomingdale road, which has ever since been in the family, where his great great-grandson, William Eaton, now lives, and this Jonathan Gates' son John, who was 21 years old when his father came here with him, settled on the spot where we now are.
Mr. Wall then proceeded to give a detailed history of the two estates mentioned, including the two ancient houses respectively which Mr. Draper and Wm. Eaton now own and occupy, from the first settler on each, through all the successive changes of owners and occupants to the present time.
The surrounding estates now of Alderman A. F. Gates, Wm. Henry and Samuel Putnam, George Dana, George S. Howe, the Harringtons on Harrington court, and others, were spoken of in a similar way, and their history given. He said :
THE GATES FAMILY.
Jonathan® Gates, born in Cambridge, June 22, 1683, who died in Worcester, February 7, 1756, aged 72 years, and was interred in the old Common burial ground, was son of Simon2 and Mar- garet Gates of Cambridge, Lancaster, and Marlborough, and grandson of the emigrant ancestors, Stephen and Ann Gates, from Hingham, in old England, who came over in the ship "Dili- gent," in 1638, with two children and settled in Hingham, Mass., whence they removed to Cambridge, and thence to Lan- caster in 1654, and thence again to Cambridge, where Stephen1 Gates died in 1762, and his wife died in Stowe in 1683. Their grandson, Jonathan8 Gates, who came to Worcester in 1731, then purchased for £310, of Nathaniel Jones, 180 acres of land which the latter bought of the heirs of the original proprietor, Aeneas Slater, to whom it was granted in 1714, as elsewhere mentioned. This tract of 180 acres was bounded on the east by Lake Quinsigamond, on the west by Plantation street, on the north by land granted to the original proprietor there, Moses Leonard, most of which is now included in the State Lunatic Hospital estate, and on the south by that originally granted to Isaac Leonard, (uncle to Moses Leonard,) and others, which latter land, south of Jonathan Gates', afterwards came into pos- session of Joshua Bigelow, son of Col. Timothy Bigelow, of revolutionary fame.
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Jonathan Gates' wife was Persis, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Ensign) Shepard of Malden, Thomas being son of the emigrant ancestor Ralph Shepard, from Stepney Parish, London, who came over in the "Abigail," in 1635, and settled first in Dedham, and lastly in that part of Charlestown now Malden, where he died September 11, 1693, aged 90 years. Jonathan and Persis (Shepard) Gates had three sons and six daughters, born between 1710 and 1735, among these daughters was Persis, Jr., born in Charlestown, August 1, 1719, wife of Adonijah Rice, born November 7, 1714, the first white child born in Worcester, son of the first permanent settler, Jonas Rice,* and had eight children in Worcester; and another daughter of Jonathan® and Persis Gates, Margaret4, born in Charlestown, August 27, 1721, was wife of Wm. Bigelow of Athol, son of Joshua Bigelow of Worcester, elsewhere referred to, who resided near Lake Quin- sigamond. Jonathan Gates' wife Persis died July 12, 1776, aged 86 years, and was buried beside her husband in the old cemetery on the Common. At his death in 1756, he divided his great farm of 180 acres among his three sons, John, Jona- than, Jr., and Capt. William, the latter taking the central portion, including the old house where his descendants have ever since resided, John the northern section, and Jonathan, Jr., the southern.
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