USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Fitchburg > Fireside legends : incidents, anecdotes, reminiscences, etc., connected with the early history of Fitchburg, Mass., and vicinity > Part 6
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Tolman & Proctor have removed to Rollstone Block, near tho R. R. Depot, and would now offer to the public a general assortment of
IRON AND STEEL.
Among which may be found the following Articles : Old Sable, Swedes, English and American Band and Hoop Iron .; Cast, German, Swedes, English & American Spring and Corking Steel. SHAPES, RODS AND NAIL PLATES, BAR MOULDS, HORSE SHOES, FILES & HORSE RASPS, NAIL RODT, AXLETREES & MOULDS,
VISES, ANVILS, WASHERS, NUTS, LEAD, ZINK, and BORAX ; HORSE, OX, & OTHER NAILS OF ALL KINDS. -ALSO~
Adams' Patent Wood Pumps. ALL OF THE ABOVE ARTICLES ARE OFFERED ON THE MOST REASONABLE TERMS FOR CASH
Fitchburg, Oct. 20th, 1845,
NATHAN TOLMAN, SULIVAN O. PROOTOR
ILDE . Printers, Fitchburg
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Reproduction of an old handbill advertisement issued by Tolman & Proctor in 1845.
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SULLIVAN G. PROCTOR.
Machinist. Several years in iron business with N Tolman and I. C. Wright; in 1862 engaged in coal business with J. F. D. Garfield, soon withdrawing in favor of his son. Since en- gaged in attending to his real estate interests.
SETH TWICHELL.
Building mover for more than half a century. Moved the state house, Columbia, S. C., Fort William Henry Hotel, Lake George, the Merrifield steam chimney in Worcester, and many of Fitchburg's transplanted buildings.
Sara J. D. Robinson.
Very truly yours 6- Retinsono
"OAKRIDGE," LAWRENCE, KANSAS. RESIDENCE OF THE LATE GOV. CHARLES ROBINSON FROM 1866. 291
CHAPTER X.
REMINISCENCES OF FITCHBURG PIONEERS IN KANSAS.
The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854 had opened up a vast domain to the spread of slavery. By its provisions the infamous fugitive-slave law was extended into these territories, and so far as congressional aetion eould go, every foot in the United States was open to slavery. Jefferson Davis was secretary of state, Franklin Pieree president, and the administration at Washington was wholly devoted to establishing slavery in Kansas. When it beeame known that this bill had been signed by the president, bells were tolled in the towns and eities of the North for what was then considered the death-knell of freedom.
Wendell Phillips, as reported in the Liberator, said: "The moment you throw the struggle with slavery into the half-barbarous West, where things are decided by the revolver and bowie-knife, slavery triumphs." Mr. Garrison said: "Will Kansas be a free state? We answer, No, not while the existing Union stands. Its fate is. settled. Eastern emigration will avail nothing to keep slavery out of Kansas." At this eritieal period there were those, however, "who heard the divine call for defenders of liberty and obeyed the signal that pointed to Kansas as the battle ground." One of the first in the field was the Hon. Eli Thayer of Worees- ter, who eoneeived the ideas embodied in the plan of the Emigrant Aid Society-that of organized emi- gration, guided and guarded by a responsible business company, where eapital should preeede the emigrants and prepare the way for their comfort and protection. Thayer was the acknowledged leader in this great enterprise, and he was most fortunate in his selection of Dr. Charles Robinson, afterwards governor of Kansas, to carry out the plans and purposes of the organization.
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Dr. Robinson had been a physician two years in Fitchburg, going to California as surgeon of a pioneer party in '49. While there joined with the miners and settlers against what were known as the "Land Grabbers." In the "Squatter riot" which ensued he was shot through the body, placed on board a prison ship, and there held until elected to the California legislature. Returning to Fitchburg he resumed the prac- tice of medicine, and at the urgent request of Benjamin Snow and other friends took charge of the Fitch- burg News, which he conducted with great vigor for two years. In October, 1851, he married the daughter of Hon. Myron Lawrence of Belchertown. She proved a worthy companion for him, especially in the Kan- sas struggle in which they were so soon to engage, for her excellent judgment and ready pen did valiant service for the cause of freedom. Dr. Robinson possessed all the elements of leadership. Cool, sagacious, self-possessed and entirely devoid of fear, he knew what to do and did it. His policy, first, last and all the time, was non-resistance to the U. S. government. He was imprisoned, his house burned, and his life often threatened, yet he never counselled armed resistance to the army under the flag of our common country. Dr. Robinson was elected provisional governor in 1856. Afterwards, while on his way East in company with Mrs. Robinson, he was arrested by federal authority at Lexington on the trumped up charge of being a fugitive from justice. Judge Sawyer, to whose house they were taken, had lived in Fitchburg, studied law in Wood & Torrey's office, and treated his prisoner more like a prince than a fugitive from justice. While there Robinson received a call from Dr. R. H. McDonald, the surgeon who extracted the ball from Robin- son's body when he was shot in the Squatter riot of 1850. As Mrs. Robinson was not regarded as a fugi- tive from justice or labor, she was permitted to go on her journey. Robinson was taken to Westport, Mo., and to Lecompton by way of Leavenworth. Arriving at Leavenworth he was placed in charge of "Bill" Martin, captain of the Kickapoo Rangers, and three assistants. Martin was called to attend private meet- ings, reporting occasionally to his prisoner. He said the pro-slavery men wanted him to surrender his pris- oner that night, and when he declined they wanted him to lock him in a room and leave him without a guard. He said he got mad and told them when a prisoner was placed in his charge by the U. S. govern- ment he would protect that prisoner while his own life should last. As the excitement increased, Martin said he should give him a pistol with which he could help defend himself. That night, Judge Lecompte and Marshal Donaldson slept with their bed against the prisoner's door, while Gen. Richardson occupied his bed. Early next morning, before the drunken mob was on the street, a company of U. S. dragoons from Fort Leavenworth appeared with an empty saddle, which was soon filled with the prisoner, and he was taken to Lecompton to join the other "traitors," under charge of U. S. troops.
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DR. CHARLES ROBINSON.
JOHN W. GREW.
CHARLES T. SABIN.
DANIEL LOWE.
WILLARD H. LOWE.
FRANKLIN KIMBALL.
EDWARD KIMBALL.
SAMUEL KIMBALL.
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FRED KIMBALL.
CHARLES ALLEN.
GEORGE W. HUNT.
GEORGE A. HUNT.
CHARLES W. HUNT.
GEORGE F. EARL.
WILLIAM H. EARL.
RUFUS G. FARNSWORTH.
C. PAYSON FARNSWORTH.
J. MARSHALL FARNSWORTH.
BRAINERD T. TRASK.
LUCIEN WALLACE.
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JOSEPH LOWE.
JOSIAH C. TRASK.
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A daguerreotype of Dr. Robinson, taken at Leavenworth with his keeper, "Bill" Martin, at the latter's request, and given to Robinson as a souvenir, is here reproduced. Martin, as captain of the Rangers, had acquired a bad reputation, which was not wholly deserved. He had a kind heart and high sense of honor. Gov. Robinson always called him Mr. Martin. While these events were transpiring Lawrence had been declared to be in rebellion, its printing presses and new hotel indicted as nuisances and then destroyed, its leading citi- zens arrested on charge of treason, and the town pillaged by an armed mob. After his release on $5000 bonds, Robinson continued to act as provisional governor. In 1861 he was made first governor of the new state, and as war governor proved an able executive.
The Hunt family were the most numerous of any from Fitchburg. George Washington Hunt was conductor of sev- eral parties to Kansas, was commissary general 1st division, Kansas Vols., in 1855, one of the two contractors to build the large Free State Hotel. His eldest daughter, Emily J., went to Kansas with Gov. and Mrs. Robinson, and married Hon. Joel Grover. His sons, Charles W. and George A. took active part as young pioneers.
CAPT. MARTIN AND DR. ROBINSON.
George F. Earl was a member of the first military com- pany, sheriff of Douglas county. Gov. Robinson found him trusty and reliable in every emergency. Dur- ing the civil war he was in the United States signal service and lost his life in the service. Besides those elsewhere mentioned, there were among the early pioneers from Fitchburg, Dea. Jolin T. Farwell, Dea. Dan- iel Lowe, Dea. William Marshall, Charles N. Wilson, Albert H. Andrews, Henry Bacon, Mrs. Sarah M. Earl, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Earl, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Grew, Mrs. Abbie S. Gay, Miss M. E. Gay, Mr. In- gersoll and wife, William Ingersoll, Mrs. J. G. Sands, Henry Sawin, Lucien Wallace, Ira S. Younglove, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Kimball. Charles T. Sawin, Rufus G., J. Marshall and C. Payson Farnsworth.
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RUINS OF THE FREE STATE HOTEL LAWRENCE, From the Daguerreotype taken for, Mrs. Robinsony
"Lawrence, the city where the plunderer fcasted at the hospitable table and, Judas-like, went out to betray it, will come forth from its early burial clothed with yet more exceeding beauty. Out of its charred and blood stained ruins will spring the high walls and strong parapets of freedom. The sad tragedies in Kansas will be avenged when freedom of speech and of the press and of the person are made sure by the downfall of those now in power, and when the song of the reaper is heard again on the prairies, and instead of the clanking of arms we see the gleam of the plowshare in her peaceful valleys."
While in prison camp with her husband Mrs. Robin- son wrote a book, published in 1856, entitled "Kansas, its Interior and Exterior Life," a book which in its time was a not unworthy rival of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and did scarcely less in its sphere to rouse the Northern heart in the early years of the Kansas struggle. The book was issued simultaneously in Cincinnati, Boston and London, and so great was the demand that it passed through nine editions, the one recently published being the tenth.
4
UNITED STATES CAME. NEAR LECOMETON. From the Daguerreotype taken for Mrs Robinson
From Mrs. Robinson's "Kansas," 1856.
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MISS M. E. GAY.
MRS. MARY EARL GREW.
January, 1864.
MRS. ABBY S. GAY.
MRS. SAMUEL KIMBALL.
HARRIET H. EARL.
MRS. SARAH M. EARL.
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L MRS. FRANKLIN KIMBALL.
MRS. MARTHA HOWELL, Formerly Mrs. Fred Kimball.
THE MASSACRE AT LAWRENCE, KANSAS.
The city of Lawrence was, on the evening of Aug. 20, 1863, one of the most thriving towns between the Missouri river and the Rocky moun- tains. At daylight on the next day it was a heap of ruins. A gang of guerrillas, eight hundred strong, under Quantrell, crossed the Missouri river on the evening of the 20th and pushed forward to Law- rence, where they arrived just before daybreak. Guards were posted around the town to prevent all escape, and the work of pillage and murder began. The citizens were massacred by the light of their burning homes and their bodies flung into wells and cisterns. In one case twelve men were driven into THE MASSACRE AT LAWRENCE, KANSAS. Photo by W. R. Rankin of a full page illustration in Harper's Weekly, Sept, 5, 1863. one building, where they were shot down and the house burned over their bodies. The number is stated at one hundred and eighty, including the mayor and the principal citizens. Two of the banks were plundered and the third escaped because the marauders could not force the safe in time. Loss of property, $2,000,000. No other such instance of wanton brutality has occurred during the American war. The names of Nina Sahib in India, Cut-Nose in Minnesota and Quan- trell in Kansas will go down in history together .- [Harper's Weekly, Sept. 5. 1863.
It is now nearly forty years since this tragie event, and Mrs. Robinson is still living in Kansas, actively interested in literary work and historical reminiscences. In a recent letter to the writer, dated Aug. 21, 1900, she says : % * * "This is the anniversary of the Quantrell raid. They had done their fearful work and gone at 8.15. They came at 5.15 that morning. None of us could realize how much they had done until nearly noon, as all the killing was at the homes. When Gov. Walsh told me he thought they should have to send word to Leavenworth that twelve persons had been slain, I was astonished, notwith- standing I heard the leader of the gang who rode down past the house say, "Kill every man, woman and child." I calculated the time by a glance at the clock to see how long since the doctor left the house. (He
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and his colored man, Walter Johnson, had gone up to Oread to get out the horses to go over the river haying.) He left at a quarter before five. I heard the bullets crash into Gen. Deitzler's room and ran to the front window to see the men in the street, and heard the leader say, "Wheel left! Kill every man, woman and child." I looked at the clock. It was a quarter after five. The doctor had time to go up on Mount Oread. When the bullet crashed in I heard Gen. Deitzler's hired man say under his window, "Well, the Bushwhackers have come." Among the victims of this massacre were three Fitchburg men-Joseph Lowe, Frederick Kimball and Josiah C. Trask.
Mr. Joseph Lowe was a most efficient man. He lost his life the morning of the raid by going down into a well to assist in removing the dead bodies of Mayor Collamore and his hired man. They had gone down into the well to escape from the raiders. Mr. Lowe said to his wife, "Now, Sarah, you write home that we are all right and I will go over and see what I can do for Mrs. Collamore." He had objected to having a rope put around his body, but took it in his hand. To their first inquiry from the top of the well he replied, "I am all right." To the second inquiry he gave no answer, and as the attempt was made to draw him up, the rope slipped out of his hand. He had been overcome by the foul air. His remains were brought to Fitchburg and funeral services were conducted by the Masons Sept. 4, 1863.
Fred Kimball was trustworthy and reliable, a fine musician, as were also his brothers, all members of the same band. Knowing something unusual was going on in town, Sam Kimball and Mrs. Kimball went across the dooryard to Fred Kimball's, house. Franklin and Ed. Kimball soon joined them. C. Payson Farnsworth was also there. Three of the gang of Bushwhackers came to the house, broke in the door, set the house on fire in three places, arrested the men and ordered them to jump over the fence into Winthrop street and go up to the "old Whitney house," in the meantime beating them over their heads with musical instruments taken from the Kimballs. One of the gang, a brutal looking fellow, stood in the side door watching. As Fred Kimball did not go over the fence where the others did, this man evidently thought he was not going with the others and shot him through the head, killing him instantly, while both the Mrs. Kimballs stood looking from the door. Franklin Kimball escaped into a ravine. Mrs. Shultz and her very young babe were brought down stairs to escape the bullets which were being fired upon the chambers, and laid upon the floor upon a feather bed. Payson Farnsworth was relieved of seventy dollars which he had in his pocket, and he was compelled, with two others, to open safes.
Mrs. Fred Kimball, now Mrs. Howell, lives in Lawrence. Mrs. Ella Cooper, only child of Fred Kimball, has been for five years a very efficient and capable nurse at the Haskell School for Indian Children.
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Josiah C. Trask was as noble and upright in mind as he was stalwart and prepossessing in physique. When Gov. Robinson was trying to run a newspaper in Fitchburg, as well as to practice medicine, there were times when there was a prospect of copy running short, and Mrs. Robinson would hear, in Josiah's clear tones as he came up between Mr. Kinsman's house and Mr. Proctor's, "More copy, more copy." One had to have a little on hand in case of emergency. At the Quantrell raid three young men with their wives were boarding at Dr. J. F. Griswold's, a very pleasant home and very admirable people. The people were Mr. Baker and his wife, not a year married, Mr. Thorpe and his wife and one little girl, and Josiah and his wife, also married only the November before. That fatal morning they were aroused before five o'clock, were told they must go over to the Eldridge House with their captors. There was not much parleying, for no one fcared danger. Josiah said, "Why, Rhoda, they say we shall come back, and we shall." As they passed out the gate they were all shot down. Dr. Griswold and Josiah were killed at once, Mr. Baker was shot in three places and left for dead. He is alive to-day and still connected with a large wholesale grocery firm in Lawrence. Mr. Thorpe came to Lawrence as a teacher. He was a lawyer and state senator at To peka the previous winter. He was brought into the parlor and laid upon the floor upon a mattress. He survived two days and met his death calmly. When Osborne of the legislature came down from Topeka to see him, his greeting was, "Well, Tom, they have moved the previous question on me."
The funeral of Mr. Trask was held in the Trinitarian church in Fitchburg, Sept. 3, 1863. In his sermon, Rev. Elnathan Davis took a saying of Mr. Trask's, "I'll die for Kansas," and paraphrased it for the occa- sion; lincs long to be remembered.
"'I'll die for Kansas!' ay, and he has died! Died in the freshness of his young renown. O, reverently, my country, yet with pride, Give him his well-earned due, a martyr's name and crown."
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REV. ELNATHAN DAVIS (1807-81).
Williams College '34; East Windsor Theological Seminary '36. Several years pioneer missionary in the then far West; delegate to World's Peace Congress at Paris, 1849. Fourteen years pastor of Trinitarian Church in Fitchburg. Representative 1869.
MRS. MARY AVERY (WHITE) DAVIS (1814-99).
BENJAMIN SNOW (1814-92).
Paper manufacturer. Alderman 1873-74; member of school board. Active anti-slavery and temperance worker, and lead- ing supporter of the Trinitarian church. Director in Rollstone Bank from its incorporation in 1849; one of the incorpora- tors and president of Worcester North Savings Institution.
MRS. MARGARET P. SNOW.
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.
FRANK H. SNOW. Son of Benjamin Snow, Jr. Graduate ot and teacher in Fitch- burg High School; now chancellor of Kansas State University.
HOME OF BENJAMIN SNOW, JR. At intersection of Day and Waverly streets. Mary_C. Whittier, Photo.
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STORY OF THE TRINITARIAN CHURCH BELL.
Weight eight hundred pounds. Cast at the Buckeye foundry, Cincinnati, 1856. Used by B. D. Beavin of Plains Plantation, Missis- sippi, to call his one hundred and twenty-five slaves to labor. Mr. Beavin died soon after the breaking out of the rebellion. His execu- tors sent the bell to New Orleans to be cast into confederate cannon, where it was captured by Gen. Butler, confiscated and sent North to be sold. (The bell was teamed from the plantation to the river landing by an old slave, Uncle John Hedden.) The bell was "bid off" at an auction in Boston by Benjamin Snow, Jr., placed in the belfry of the Trinitarian church in Fitchburg, presented to the society with stipulation that its first peal should tell of freedom to the slave. This was done according to program, and Mr. Snow had the satisfaction of ringing it himself when President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation was issued, a small boy rushing into the street, shouting "Hurrah, the niggers are free! the niggers are free!" In 1872 the church disbanded, the church building was sold, and the bell was purchased by the First Congregational church in Ayer. A photograph was taken expressly for "Fireside Legends" by Harry E. Evans of Ayer, and the publisher is indebted also to Hon. George J. Burns of Ayer for the facts relating to its history.
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FLEMMEI. D.
FIRST C. C. CHURCH, 1835. Corner of Main and Rollstone Streets.
France
TRINITARIAN CHURCH, 1872. Corner of Main and Church Streets.
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REV. GEORGE TRASK (1797-1875).
MRS. RUTH F. TRASK (1800-80).
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CHAPTER VIII.
ANTI-SLAVERY, ANTI-TOBACCO AND INCENDIARY REMINISCENCES.
HE anti-slavery and the anti-tobacco questions found warm advocates in Fitchburg. In C 1843 the intense feeling on the slavery question caused a portion of the C. C. church to se- cede and form the Trinitarian Congregational church. They were active workers in the slavery controversy, and it was known as one of the so-called stations of the underground railroad to Canada in the flight of the slave to freedom. They erected what is known as the old Post-office block, at the corner of Main and Church streets, in 1844. The first offi- cers of the church were the Rev. George Clark, pastor; Timothy F. Downe and Nathan Tolman, deacons. The other pastors were Rev. Foster Pettibone, Rev. Charles Bristol, Rev. George Trask and Rev. Elnathan Davis. It is a noticeable fact that the slavery issue was their only uniting force, and that when the freedom of the slave was secured the society began to lose its cohesive power, and its last sermon was preached on the day that the equality of the negro before the law was guaranteed. On the fifteenth day of November, 1871, the church building was sold at auction to John M. Carpenter for $14,300. The proceeds of the sale were disposed of by presenting the Rev. Elnathan Davis $2000 as a token of appreciation of his success.
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and the balance was given to the Freedman Aid Society. The Rev. Geo. Trask, through his anti-tobacco principles and his unrelenting crusade against the weed in every form, became well known throughout the country. He published the "Anti-Tobacco Journal," issued quarterly and as much oftener as funds came in to enable him to do so. This and the one hundred or more different tracts, filled with spicy and interesting reading matter, were written in his own peculiar style and illustrated by grotesque and striking caricatures, procured at ran- dom from different sources, without any reference to their original use or purpose. A few of these we reproduce. No better description of the man and his work can be given than was written by himself in one of his publications, extracts of which are here given :
"I was born near the close of the last century. The exact moment of that occurrence, so auspicious to me, I never knew and as I have the weakness of a clergyman-the wish to be thought young always-I hope I shall be pardoned if I pass over this delicate point without further notice, three score years and ten shall not make an old man of me if I can help it.
"I was born when men were born and the fires of seventy-six were burning brightly above the socket. To those times I attribute an infusion of a radical element, which is said to mar my character, and which now and then has given me and my conservative friends some annoyance. This troublesome element is indigenous. I should not be blamed for it. "I don't whistle -- it whistles itself,' OLD VIRGINIA said the school boy. PIPES
"I was born in Beverly-a town blessed with as many clever people as any on the map. I would take the premium, I dare say, in any fair competition LACAL for this amiable virtue. Hence if I have here and there an amiable streak you may impute it to the place of my birth-Old Beverly, Essex County, SCOTCH Massachusetts. 'Honor to whom Honor.' Jeremiah Trask was my father-Hannah Wallis was my mother. They were both of a godly type-Israelites indeed-Calvinistic to the hub and as true to the venerable Catechism as the needle to the pole. The blood is traceable to the blue hills of Scotland, and it must have been very respectable blood for even now, in spite of all adulterations, it is not half as bad as much that is current about us. I have searched my pedigree and I find no Trask who was king, lord, or duke, or any tremendous character, and I find none that were hung, whatever our deserts.
"I have seen something of the 'rough and tumble' of reforms, and have often seen the verification of a remark made by Dr. Emmons, tantamount to this; 'He will be the successful preacher and most blest in his labors, who in a fearless manner early advocates all righteous reforms.' I have been honored with many offices-more than I care to name. I have sometimes risen to presidential glories! I have been president of temperance, moral reform, peace and abolition societies, when brick-bats were in high repute, and when we had to say to gentlemen of property and standing, 'Gentlemen, these arguments are weighty, but not con- lusive.' *
* I am not a great man, and make no such pretension - whatever God does by my agency, he shows he can do business on small capital and use even one talent to some advantage."
Mr. Trask had a remarkable faculty of interesting prominent men in his work, his acquaintance with public men was extensive. The writer
has in mind at least one instance when a gentleman, for many years an inveterate user of tobacco, was led to abandon the habit largely through the influence of one of Mr. Trask's anti-tobacco tracts, "The Diary of Rev. Solomon Spittle."
About the year 1827 or '28 an eccentric genius by the name of Crosby came to Fitchburg to teach school. He was engaged to teach in the center district, in a school house located at the corner of Main and Mechanic streets-about where now stands the residence of the late ex-Mayor David
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