USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Eastern Worcester : its first settlers and their locations : historical and genealogical, in three chapters > Part 4
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John+ Gates, who was 21 years old when his father came here in 1731, settled on the estate where we now are, which he pur- chased, or which his father purchased for him, of David Newton, blacksmith, who came here from Westboro, and bought the same of Moses Leonard. Moses Leonard purchased it of Abra- ham Wheeler, whose farm of one hundred acres, including Mr. Draper's estate, extended east to Plantation street, south to Bloomingdale road, and west to the farm then of Jacob Holmes, whose house occupied the site of the present Union railroad depot; and Mr. Wheeler's hundred acres extended north to the then Adams, afterwards Putnam farm; the present Henry and Samuel Putnam, sons of the late Samuel Putnam, senior, being descendants of the first settler on Belmont street, Charles Adams, t senior, whose residence was on the corner of Belmont and Adams streets, where five generations of the family have since lived.
* See "Reminiscences," p. 41 and 980. 354
t This Charles Adams, senior, was son of John Adams, who was grand- son of the emigrant ancestor, Henry Adams of old Braintree, from whom have descended in the male line two Presidents of the United States. Charles Adams, Jr., succeeded his father on that estate, and the latter's daughter, Martha, who inherited the estate, was wife of Isaac Putnam, a cousin of Gen. Rufus Putnam, of revolutionary fame, Isaac being father of the above mentioned Samuel Putnam, senior.
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John Gates, who built the main part of the house where Mr. Draper now lives, over a century and a half ago, lived here till 1771, when he sold the estate to Edward Crafts. The farm then consisted of 20 acres on the west side of Plantation street and north of Bloomingdale road, and 60 acres more on the east side of Plantation street, extending to the Lake, which John Gates' father, Jonathan, senior, willed to him at his death in 1756. Edward Crafts resided here 8 years, till 1779, when he sold the estate, then also comprising 80 acres, to Nathan Patch, who willed it at his decease in 1808, to the children of his son Joshua, born in 1767, whose wife was Rebekah Bemis. They resided here till his decease June 23, 1818, aged 51 years, and his wife and children after him.
The Patch heirs, consisting of the children of Joshua Patch and their representatives, sold the estate in 1845, then consist- ing of 102 acres, to the late Samuel Putnam, who sold the same January 13, 1846, to the late Wm. A. Draper,* father of our generous host on this occasion. The estate extended south to Bloomingdale road, and north to the railroad, and easterly of Plantation street to Lake Quinsigamond.
Since the elder Mr. Draper began operations here, forty-five years ago, how extensive have been the changes and improve- ments! Where formerly nature was in its wildness, we now see, under the hand of its present enterprising owner, a blooming garden rise up, with the beautiful attractions we see around us, with innumerable varieties of trees and fruits, and flowering shrubs, and pleasure grounds for every kind of amusements and rational entertainments, which might satiate the appetite of the most devoted pleasure seeker at our seashore and mountain resorts.
Where formerly was but one vast farm of 102 acres, we see now nine different estates, which, with those into which the other sections of the original Jonathan Gates farm of 1756 have been divided, the whole comprise now quite a thriving little vil- lage, appropriately named by Mr. Draper the "Bloomingdale District."
Mr. Draper has reserved to himself the meadows and best portion, comprising 15 acres of the original John Gates farm, including the ancient house. The original house, comprising the main part of the present one, was in the old fashioned square form, with the usual big chimney in the middle, as may
* Wm. A. Draper, born in Spencer, December 28, 1806, whose wife was Calista, daughter of Asa B. Watson of Leicester, was son of Lenas and Jemima (Allen) Draper of Spencer, and great grandson of James Draper, born in Dedham in 1720, who was one of the first settlers in Spencer, and whose descendants have been numerous and prominent there and elsewhere. Wm. A. Draper's sister, Eliza, married Silas Grout of Spencer, and their daughter Anna, is wife of our honored mayor, Francis A. Harrington, and first cousin of our respected host, James Draper.
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
now be seen, and containing four rooms. An important addition was made to this original part 60 years ago, when John A. Patch and his brothers and sisters lived here, when our present venerable fellow citizen, Joseph Lovell, built the chimney for the addition then made to the north side, to make another tenement.
John Gates, when he sold out here to Edward Crafts in 1771, went to Tatnuck, where he settled on the estate on Fowler street afterwards owned and occupied by his son Jonathan and by the latter's son Ebenezer, and since 1835 by Sumner Cook.
John Gates' brother, Capt. William, of revolutionary fame, resided on the old homestead of his father, where he died in 1811, and where his descendants have since lived, including in all five generations, to the present owner, Mr. Eaton, who has reserved to himself two acres surrounding the old house, the remainder having been sold and cut up into house lots on which various parties have built.
The first Jonathan® Gates' son, Jonathan4, Jr., whose portion of the paternal estate was south of his brother, Capt. William, left his estate after his death to his sons, Jonathan" the third, and Thomas5. This Jonathan" third in 1790 sold his half in 1790 to his brother Thomas' and moved away, and Thomas" in 1810 sold the whole, then comprising 90 acres west of the Lake and 20 acres east of it, to Nathaniel Harrington, son of the first Francis Harrington on Harrington Court, whose estate it adjoined on the west and south-west. The house of this Jonathan4, Jr., and Thomas' Gates stood about where Rev. Wm. T. Sleeper a few years ago built and resided for a while, at Lake View, on the line of an old road in exten- sion of the present Bloomingdale road which formerly went round that way and extended south to what is called Bigelow lane, the latter lane or ancient way leading from the Harrington place or court south-easterly to and across the Boston & Albany railroad and the present Lake Park to the Lake, connecting with an ancient road which went nearly on the line of the present Boulevard or Lake avenue to the old road to Grafton and Shrewsbury, by the old Wesson place. An old cellar hole and other remains of a former habitation visible when Mr. Sleeper built there, a little south-west of Lake View station, on the Dummy railroad, indicated the site of the house formerly stand- ing there, where John Gleason, from Bennington, Vt., who married Asubah Duncan, lived after Thomas Gates left, and also John Gleason, Jr., who married Nathaniel Harrington's daughter Sally.
John4 Gates, born in Cambridge in 1710, son of Jonathan® and Persis (Shepard) Gates, married Violata Rice, daughter of Jotham and Mary (Earle) Rice, Jotham being son of James Rice, brother of Jonas and Gershom of Worcester, original 3
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settlers in Worcester (see Rem., p. 40-43.), and Mary being daughter of Ralph Earle who removed from Newport, R. I., to Leicester, Mass., in 1717, where he was one of the first settlers, and ancestor of all the Earles in this county.
John4 Gates died at his last residence on Fowler street, in Tatnuck, Nov. 27, 1797, aged 87 years, and was buried in the old Mechanic street cemetery ; his wife, Violata, died Feb. 10, 1801, aged 79 years, and was buried by his side. Their re- mains were afterwards removed, with others, in 1877, when that burial ground was broken up by the city, to Rural Cemetery. John and Violata (Rice) Gates left at their decease, 12 children, 97 grand children, and 32 great grand children. Their eleven children, all born on the old homestead on Plantation street, before the removal to Tatnuck, were: 1st, Prudence,5 born July 12, 1743, married Luke Rice, son of Hezekiah and Mary (Taylor) Rice of Shrewsbury, and brother of Lemuel Rice, the first keeper of the old stone jail and jail tavern on the south side of Lincoln square from 1788 to 1798 ; 2d, John Shepard5 Gates, born March 11, 1745, married Hannah Moore, daughter of Asa and Sarah (Heywood) Moore, of Tatnuck; 3d, Persis,5 married in 1767 John Moore, born May 3, 1746, brother of the above mentioned Hannah Moore, and resided first on the farm of the late Gen. Wm. S. Lincoln, and last on the estate of his son and grandson, Levi Moore, and Levi Moore, Jr., in Tat- nuck; 4th, Jonathan5, born March 2,1749, married Sarah Wiswall, daughter of Ebenezer Wiswall, and succeeded to the estate of his father on Fowler street, in Tatnuck, where he was himself succeeded by his son Ebenezer Gates, as elsewhere stated ; 5th, Daniel5, born March 2, 1751, married Sarah Moore, sister of the above mentioned Hannah and John Moore; 6th, Mary5, born May 11, 1753, married Joel Howe of Tatnuck, Worcester, a deputy sheriff, afterward removed to Damariscotta, Me., and died there; 7th, Sarah5, born July 20, 1755, married her cousin, Ralph Earle, Jr., a tory, who fled his country, her second husband being Oliver Pierce of Boylston, where both died; 8th, Silas5, born January 29, 1757, married Irene Wiswall, sister of the above mentioned Sarah Wiswall, and removed to Black River, Vt .; 9th, Martha5, born April 20, 1759, married Ebenezer Whitney of Worcester, and resided lastly on Leicester street, where she died September 18, 1847, aged 873 years, and he died June 17, 1836, aged 77 years, they being parents of Mrs. Wm. Hovey and Mrs. Oliver Eager, and two unmarried daughters, Polly and Betsy, who resided on the estate of their parents ; 10th, Phinehas5, born January 20, 1760, married Rebecca, daughter of Uriah Ward of Worcester; 11th, Lydia, born July 23, 1762, married Thomas Martin of Paxton, and settled in Whitehall, N. Y .; 12th, Nathaniel5, born March 29, 1770, died in consequence of a fall in his barn Decem-
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
ber 10, 1824, married in 1819, Lucy, born April 10, 1770, daughter of Peter and Lucy (Brewer) Goulding of Worcester, and succeeded to the estate of her father, Peter Goulding, in Tatnuck, which her daughter, Mary, who married the late Capt. Erastus Tucker, afterwards owned and occupied. Lucy Gates, wife of Nathaniel Gates, died June 15, 1855, aged 85 years, and her son, the late Levi Gates of Tatnuck, who was born in 1790, died in 1878, aged 88 years, and Levi Gates' brother-in-law, the late Capt. Erastus Tucker, born in Shrewsbury, October 19, 1793, died in Tatnuck in 1887, aged 94 years.
Capt Wm.4 Gates, the youngest of nine children of Jonathan8 and Persis (Shepard) Gates, was born in the present house of his great-grandson, Wm. Eaton, March 27, 1735, and married November 7, 1764, Joanna Stearns, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (Spring) Stearns of Worcester. Ebenezer Stearns was a clothier, great-grandson of the emigrant Isaac Stearns of Water- town, uncle of the emigrant Charles Stearns. Capt. William Gates was sergeant in Capt. (afterwards Col. ) Bigelow's com- pany of minute-men, who marched from Worcester on the alarm of April 19, 1775, and he was lieutenant in a company under Capt. Jonas Hubbard, who served three months near Boston the same year, and captain of a company organized September 4, 1776, that were in Col. Jonathan Holman's regiment in the re olutionary service. Capt. Wm. Gates died July 7, 1811, aged 76 years, in the house in which he was born, and his tomb stone on the old Common, now beneath the surface, bears this inscription :
We'll cease, then, to weep for the dead, For low is the couch of repose ; But sweet is the thought that their head In triumph and glory arose.
Strive ye to make Jesus your friend ; Like him, then, you'll gloriously rise, And triumph o'er death and the tomb, In regions above yonder skies.
Capt. Gates had four daughters, Lucretia, Anna, Eleanor and Mary, and an only son, Wm. Gates, Jr., who married Betsy Stearns, and succeeded his father in the estate. The second one of 'the daughters above mentioned, Anna, born January 22, 17'67, married Hon. Wm. Eaton, born September 10, 1766, and their son, Wm. Eaton, Jr., born June 13, 1788, was the next owner and occupant of this estate, succeeded by his son, Wm. E:aton, 3d, the present one, who is of the fifth generation in descent from the first Jonathan Gates.
Coming now to the history of the estate of Alderman A. F. Gates, on the corner of Plantation and Belmont streets, it may be stated that Moses Leonard, in 1726, then of Worcester, for £360 conveyed to Wm. Caldwell, one of the Scotch Irish Pres-
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byterian emigrants of 1718, thirty acres of his land, "upland an swamp, on the road from Quinsigamond pond to the house ( Jonas Rice." This included land on both sides of Plantatio street, and it adjoined the 180 acres which Moses Leonard sol to Benjamin Townsend of Brookfield, in 1729, and which afte: wards came into possession successively, of Joshua Child Nathaniel Adams and others, as elsewhere stated. Wm. Calc well appears to have been the first settler on this estate, whic he purchased of Moses Leonard. When Wm. Caldwell went 1 Barre, (then Rutland, north-west district, his son James havir preceded him there, ) in 1742, he sold for £670 this estate of h in Worcester to James Goodwin, housewright, from Readin; afterwards captain in the French and Indian War in 175 Capt. Goodwin was son of Dea. John and Mary (Pearsoi Goodwin, and grandson of Ensign Nathaniel and Mary (Lun Goodwin of Reading. Capt. Goodwin also purchased in 175 for £333 6s. 8d., of Margaret Binney, widow of Thomas Binne an original proprietor of Worcester, 120 acres of land grant to Thomas Binney in 1714, located on the north-west corner, Plantation and Belmont streets, and including the site of t present State Lunatic Hospital building. -
After the death of Capt. Goodwin, June 2, 1776, aged 61 year his heirs sold his estate, then consisting of 171' acres, a, including where Alderman A. F. Gates now lives, to Al Holbrook, from Sherburne, a teamster in the revolution a- brother of Eleasar Holbrook, elsewhere spoken of, both of whe married sisters, Lydia and Kesiah Leland, respectively. A Holbrook's heirs sold the estate in 1789 to Samuel Gates, § of the Solomon' Gates who settled east of his brother Simc near New Worcester; this Solomon and Simon Gates, be- sons of Simon8 of Marlboro, who was brother of the first Joj than& Gates of Worcester. This Samuel' Gates born in Word ter, January 1, 1751, who died December 19, 1831, (son of & omon,) married August 15, 1781, Lucy Chadwick, who ₲ September 22, 1819, aged 56. Samuel5 and Lucy (Chadwi. Gates had Joel® (father of the late John Gates, lum dealer), Polly®, Joshua®, Willard6, Henry® and Nahum® Gaf born between 1782 and 1797. The father built for his Joshua® Gates, born June 19, 1787, who married Be Flagg, the house on the south-west corner of Plantation Belmont streets, for the last 20 years owned and occupied Thomas A. Dickenson, which, with a small lot of land aro. it, Samuel Gates deeded in 1820 to his son Joshua's child: 1, Benjamin F., Rufus P., Ruth F., Emily F. and Elizabeth F. Gates. At the same time the father deeded to his other sons, Joel, Willard, Henry and Nahum Gates, the whole of the re- mainder of his estate, comprising 140 acres, with the buildings thereon, reserving to himself the privilege of living there. This
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
140 acres and buildings afterwards in 1830, became the property of Edmund Munroe of Shrewsbury, who sold the same Novem- ber 1, 1832, to the late Henry Prentice and Jonas Bartlett, who lived there about eleven years, each occupying one-half of the house, and they sold the estate in 1843 to the late Samuel F. Gates,* whose widow, Maria (Fay) Gates, and son, the present Alderman, Asa F. Gates, now own and occupy it.
THE CALDWELLS.
Wm. Caldwell was 34 years old when he came to this country in the spring of 1718, with his fellow Scotch Irish Pres- byterian emigrants. He was accompanied by his wife, Sarah Morrison, and sons James and John, and perhaps other children, He brought with him a certificate of good character for his household, for admission to church privileges here, signed by James Woodside, Jr., minister, and dated April 9, 1718, at Dunboe parish, in the barony of Coleraine, county of London- derry, in the north of Ireland. The original certificate was in the possession of the late Seth Caldwell of Worcester, a great grandson, whose three daughters became wives, respectively, of Edward A. Goodnow, Charles E. Stevens, and the late Dea. George H. Kendall of Worcester. The first Wm. Caldwell died in Barre in 1783, aged 99 years, and his son John lived to be nearly a century old. Wm. Caldwell, sheriff of this county from 1793 till his death in 1805, was grandson of the first William.
THE DANA FARM.
Benjamin Gates, great grandson of the first Stephen Gates, and a second cousin of the John' Gates above mentioned, was the first settler on the farm now of George Dana, on Plantation street, west of the Harrington farm, and south-west of the ancient Jonathan and John Gates' estates, where Wm. Eaton und James Draper now live. Benjamin Gates sold out in 1747 ;o Matthias Stone, from Newton, who married November 17, 1749, in Worcester, Susannah Chadwick, daughter of the first John Chadwick of Worcester, and Matthias and Susannah 'Chadwick) Stone's daughter Susannah, born on this estate, was wife of David Curtis, the latter being parents of George Jurtis, father of George Wm. Curtis of New York. Benjamin Gates removed to Rutland north-west district (Barre), where
This Samuel7 F. Gates, who died May 30, 1867, aged 51, was son of a Samuel® Gates who settled on the farm now of Elliot Moore, near Tatnuck, and who was son of Paul5 Gates, a brother of the Samuel5 Gates who mar- ried Lucy Chadwick, and settled on the estate which his grand-nephew, the late Samuel7 F. Gates purchased in 1843 of Messrs. Prentice & Bartlett, as above stated. The present Leonard and Charles' Gates, butchers, of Worcester, are brothers of the late Samuel7 F., and another brother, the late Lewis Gates, lived where the father did, where Elliot Moore now lives.
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he died in 1756. His wife, whom he married in 1727, after he came to Worcester, was Bethulia, daughter of Jonathan and Anna (Derby) Rice of Sudbury, and second cousin of the Violata Rice, who married the above mentioned John Gates. Of Ben- jamin and Bethulia (Rice) Gates' eight children, all born in Worcester, two, Israel and William, went to Cornway, and one, Benjamin, Jr., born November 27, 1737, was father of Capt. Benjamin Gates, born in Barre in 1778, a prominent man there and father of Hon. Horatio Gates, who went to Montreal, where he became a distinguished member of the legislative council of the Province of Lower Canada, and died there April 11, 1834, aged 56 years. Horatio's brother, Samuel, who remained in Barre, left by his will at his decease $500 for the founding of a Free Public Library there, provided a like sum should be appropriated by the town for that purpose, which was done, and this was the foundation of the present Free Public Library in Barre.
Matthias Stone sold out this estate in 1760, then comprising 80 acres, to Luke Brown, the first keeper of the old jail and jail tavern on Lincoln street, and removed to Barre, and after- wards to Claremont, N. H. Luke Brown in 1765 conveyed this estate to his son, Samuel Brown, whose heirs sold the same in 1797 to Samuel Curtis, Jr., father of our venerable and esteemed fellow citizen, Albert Curtis, who was born there July 13, 1807, 83 years ago. After the death of Samuel Curtis, Jr., in 1814, the farm came into the possession of his son-in-law, Ebenezer Reed, Jr., and after the death of the latter in 1837, it was sold to Ebenezer Dana, from Oxford, whose son George is the present owner.
THE GOULDING FAMILY.
Peter Goulding, ancestor of the Gouldings in New England, was one of the earliest proprietors of Worcester, before the beginning of the permanent settlement. His presence il this country is not traced farther back than 1665. He ap- pears to have been a man of a good deal of note in his day mentally and physically, stalwart and persistent. The grant o fifty acres made to Benjamin Chase of Boston, in 1675, and resigned by him, was given to Peter Goulding at the beginning of the second unsuccessful attempt to settle the place in 1683 from which he was driven by the Indians in 1694, and to which his son, Palmer Goulding succeeded at the beginning of the per manent settlement in 1713. The location was just south of the spot where we now are, and included both sides of Plantation street, south of Bloomingdale road. This grant included the usual right to after divisions. The old Goulding house, many years ago torn down, stood in the corner of land between Bloom- ingdale road and Plantation street, near where Wm. Putnam,
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ITS FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATIONS.
now lives, an old cellar hole several years ago marking the spot, now cultivated for a garden by Mr. Putnam.
After being driven by the Indians from his attempt at settle- ment here, like old Ephraim Curtis, Peter Goulding retired to his old home in Sudbury, where he waited an opportunity to re-occupy in safety his estate in Worcester, but he died in 1703, before he had opportunity so to do, leaving by will all his real
estate to his sons, Thomas, Peter, Jr., and Palmer. The two former, who went to South Carolina, disposed of their share in their father's estate to their brother, Palmer Goulding, whose residence was as before stated, near where Win. Putnam now lives.
Peter Goulding married for his second wife Sarah Palmer, sister of the celebrated real estate proprietor of lands in Wor- cester and elsewhere, Judge Thomas Palmer of Boston, of the ancient real estate firm of Palmer, Oulton & Waldo. By her he had the last eight of his 13 children, all born between 1665 and 1695, of whom Capt. Palmer2 Goulding was the youngest, the fourth child, Martha, being the wife of John Smith, from Had- ley, and the fifth, Elizabeth, born in 1673, was wife of Judge William Jennison; both Smith and Jennison being extensive original proprietors of Worcester .*
Capt. Palmer Goulding, in 1753, sold his farm here, then comprising 116 acres, to Thomas Stearns, hotel keeper, and Wm. Johnson, blacksmith, brothers-in-law, for £295. All but the 8 acres in Pine Meadow, was located south of what is now Bloomingdale road and on both sides of Plantation street and the road leading therefrom to the Harrington estate, now called Harrington court, and it included land afterwards purchased and still owned and occupied by the Harringtons, and that owned by Wm. Putnam, south of Bloomingdale road.
Wm. Johnson sold his half of the old Palmer Goulding estate to Thomas Stearns, and the latter disposed of it, or the main part, including the old house, to Eleazar Holbrook, brother of Abel Holbrook, elsewhere mentioned. After Eleazar Hol- brook's death in 1777, the estate was purchased by Samuel and Stephen Salisbury, and it became subsequently merged in the different surrounding estates, Wm. Putnam's present estate including a part of it.
Palmer Goulding seems afterwards to have lived in Holden, where he died February 11, 1770, aged 75 years, and he was interred in the burial ground on the old Common in Worcester. No record appears of the settlement of his estate, for the reason, as I suppose, that he had disposed of all his real estate before his death, his son Windsor, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Zebadiah Rice of Worcester, succeeding to his estate in Holden,
* See "Reminiscences," p. 48-52, and p. 56-60.
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east of the Worcester reservoir there, where Winsor Goulding's son-in-law, Paul Shepard, father of the late Russel R. Shepard of Worcester, lived for awhile, before he came to Worcester.
Capt. Palmer2 Goulding's brother, Capt. John2 Goulding, who married Abigail Curtis of Sudbury, a neice of old Ephraim Curtis, settled in that part of old Sherborn, now Holliston, where they had seven children. He was a man of great size and almost superhuman strength.
Of Capt. Palmer2 Goulding's nine children, his oldest, Pal- mer®, Jr., who married Abigail Heywood, daughter of Deacon Daniel Heywood of the Old South Church, resided in the old house which occupied the site of the present Waverly House on Front street, where Palmer Goulding and his son, Capt. Daniel, kept a hotel, afterwards kept by Nathaniel Eaton and others, known as the Elephant Hotel .*
Palmer2 Goulding's second son, Col. John3 Goulding, settled in the north-east part of Grafton, where he had ten children, of whom the fifth, Ephraim' born in 1765, and died in 1838, was father of Palmer,5 born there in 1809, who was father of our honored fellow citizen, Francis Palmer Goulding, Esq., city solicitor.
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