USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Georgetown > Georgetown: story of one hundred years, 1838-1938 > Part 5
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But as this line and these terms are not considered unreasonable by your com- mittee, they are of opinion that no time can be expected to arrive when a division of the town can be made with so much harmony and with such general consent of all parties concerned, as at the present moment.
Yet, your committee, believing that the increase of small towns, but for the strongest reasons is prejudicial to the best interests of the community, and that this kind of local legislation, has been carried, in some instances, to an extent altogether unwar- rantable, and will ever be dangerous and unsafe, when based not upon the facts in the case, but upon the wishes of the parties, do not consider the fact that there exists an almost universal impression through the town, that a division is or will soon be necessary, is itself insufficient to justify a separation.
The town of Rowley is twelve miles in length and from two to six miles in width. It contains 2,444 inhabitants; 1,500 on the part proposed for the new town and 944 in the tract to remain for the old town. The villages of Old Rowley and New Rowley are six miles distant from each other; the first situated on the great road to the eastward, the other on the main road from Salem to New Hampshire; the first engaged almost entirely in agricultural pursuits; the other in manufacturing and the mechanic arts. The associa- tions and business of the first are with the town of Ipswich; of the other with Bradford, Boxford, Danvers and Haverhill. A territory lies between comparatively unsettled and a road, at certain seasons of the year, almost impassable, so that there is very little inter- course between them, except what is made necessary for the management of their
Page Thirty-seven
municipal affairs. The character and habits of the inhabitants are entirely different.
New Rowley has increased with great rapidity for the last ten years. Seven or eight dwelling houses have been built each year, for the last five years. A shoe business is carried on to the amount of about $400,000 annually, and the tanning business to a much greater extent.
The valuation of estates in May last in New Rowley was $240,602; in Old Rowley, $198,931. The number of rateable polls in New Rowley, 471; in Old Rowley, 300.
There are no public buildings in Rowley. Until within the last two years the town meetings have been held alternately in New Rowley and Old Rowley, but as no building can be procured in New Rowley large enough to accommodate the whole town, the meet- ings must hereafter be held in Old Rowley until a new town house is erected.
The average travel for the voters of New Rowley to attend Town Meeting is about seven miles. The expense of a passage is fifty cents.
This inconvenience cannot be remedied, the center of the town being a tract wholly unsettled and altogether unsuitable for the erection of a town house.
If division be made, no public buildings will be necessary in either village for many years, the buildings that can be used being sufficient for their accommodation.
The people of New Rowley transact much business through the medium of the Post Office, and there being an office in each village, have experienced much inconvenience and loss by the misdirection or miscarriage of letters. By regular mail it requires four days to carry a letter from one village to another.
The principal objections presented by the remonstrants were, first, that the line of separation and the terms agreed upon, were altogether in favor of Old Rowley. The dividing line will leave the whole parish of Old Rowley, part of the parishes of Byfield and New Rowley in the old town. It will cut five farms and one school district; second, that the taxes will be increased; third, that the non-resident taxes will be much multiplied.
The Committee are of opinion that the dividing line agreed upon is far preferable to the one contended for by the remonstrants. Any line which would include more of the territory in the new town, would leave Old Rowley too small, both in wealth and popula- tion, to manage advantageously her municipal affairs; and as New Rowley will probably continue to increase in the measure she had done, and Old Rowley remain nearly sta- tionary, sound policy requires such line of division as will leave both towns respectable in numbers and wealth.
The cutting of the farms and the school district is an objection of small magnitude and cannot be remedied without the introduction of a greater.
The taxes and the general expense of managing the business of the town will not, in the opinion of the committee, be increased but materially diminished, by the separation. The number of non-resident taxpayers will be increased from 300 to 360.
From the above facts, and other evidence presented at the hearing, your committee are led to believe that a division of the town should be made, and they herewith report a bill for that purpose.
The town of Rowley is entitled to send two Representatives to the General Court, and the new town should have the right to elect at least one of the Representatives, unless barred by the provisions of the Constitution.
By the twelfth article of the amendment of the Constitution, and the proceedings had in conformity with its provisions, the number of Representatives which any city, town or Representative District may elect, is to remain fixed and unalterable until the next decennial census of polls.
As your committee believes it was not intended, by the framers of that article, to take from the Legislature the power of creating new towns, or altering town lines; or to limit the exercise of that power; or to deprive any portion of the citizens of the Common- wealth of the right of voting for Representatives, they have introduced a section into the bill providing for the representation of the proposed new town until the taking of the next decennial census of polls.
For the Committee,
NATHAN BROOKS, Chairman
Page Thirty-eight
TRACING THE CENTURY
THE FIRST PERIOD
T OWN records offer the historian many a disappointment. Those of the early days of Georgetown unfortunately shed little light on the temper of the residents or how quickly they swung into the full current of helpful community life. But it must be understood that Georgetown in 1838, the year of its incorporation, was a community of fast increasing growth, had 471 rateable polls, and that business in the tanneries and shoe shops was thriving.
Life was simple and not always serious. The first town meeting of the incorporated town elected Robert Savory as moderator; George Foot as town clerk; John A. Lovering, Sewell Spofford and Gorham P. Tenney as selectmen and assessors; Benjamin Winter as treasurer and collector. How many voters attended and how much enthusiasm was shown we do not know. The meeting was held in Savory's Hall, a building which adjoined the hotel and which was later called Mechanics' Hall. (Here meetings were held for several years. Tenney's Hall was used for a decade previous to the building of the Town House.) The sum of $600 was voted for schools, $600 for highways and $650 for other town charges. The surveyors were allowed 121/2 cents per hour for labor on the highways and a similar amount for ox labor "and what they think proper for carts, plows, etc." It was voted that cattle and horses be restrained from running at large.
Several residents have left us more or less informing reminiscences of the early town meetings. John Kimball, who built the Kimball House on Elm Street, had much to say about them in his old age. He termed the meetings loud and angry, residents often announcing that they could not pay their taxes until they had sold their cider. Personal discussions were carried on to such a pitch that the participants would twit each other of their various shortcomings and call each other liars and other significant names.
It is quite common testimony that the voters usually succeeded in electing their most able citizens to office and that to succeed in that work electioneering was carried on from one town meeting to another. No matter how serious the business, voters were determined to make their town meetings as entertaining as possible. They brought their lunches (when they did not adjourn) and talked the hours away. It was not uncommon to have several adjourned meetings in a year. Votes were taken one meeting and rescinded the next.
The town records, up to the year 1844, are dry reading. In 1841 the voters con- sidered 121/2 cents an hour for laborers on the highways extravagant, reduced the pay to eight cents an hour but retained the 121/2 for oxen. In 1843 the town advanced the school appropriation to $800, the highway appropriation to a similar figure and raised $1,200 for other town charges. There had been several small fires and the question of purchasing fire apparatus had long been debated. It must have been a shock to the reactionaries when the town voted $1,000 for a handtub. That vote, however, was rescinded at an adjourned meeting a few weeks later, by 122 to 126.
PUTTING DOWN LIQUOR
But the question of putting out fires by water was no more engrossing, apparently, than the question of putting down liquor by moral suasion. An extraordinary effort was made by vote of the town in 1844 when a committee, comprising the Selectmen and the Overseers of the Poor, was appointed "to visit every man in town that is engaged in the sale of liquor and talk with them and try and persuade them to stop the traffic and if they
Page Thirty-nine
will not, to prosecute according to law as in such cases made and provided, and the same was passed in relation to those that are in the habit of drinking and getting drunk."
Fire apparatus and the equally absorbing question of restraining dogs and horses from their gambols about town, must have provided plenty of excitement, but another question arose for town meeting concern in that lively year 1844. Here we find the first hint of rowdyism in the town records. We can imagine the boys converging on the "corner" every night to engage in their fun, such as insulting women, breaking windows and tearing down fences; singing and perhaps burglary. A committee on by-laws had brought in a report which the town had accepted, empowering the selectmen "to take all necessary methods for the preservation of the peace and good order of its inhabitants and offer such rewards as in their judgment they may think best for any crimes that may have been committed within thirty days from date or that may hereafter be committed."
Georgetown did not have a good reputation among its neighbors. It was said by outsiders that the town possessed the sharpest traders in northern Essex County; that Young America "ran riot" on public occasions; that law and order were continually flouted and that culture and refinement were at a low ebb. Defenders of the town insisted that the criticism was inspired by jealousy, inasmuch as Georgetown had far out- stripped her neighbors in business and her citizens were men of energy and enthusiasm. (At that time many citizens had visions of Georgetown outrivaling Salem.)
THE FIRST FIRE APPARATUS
In 1843, after the town had voted, and then rescinded the vote, for a handtub, the flower of Georgetown youth took the matter into their own hands and purchased the first suction handtub ever seen in town. As early as 1830 the boys had a handtub which squirted water as rapidly as the tank could be filled with buckets. It was derisively dubbed "Yellow Belly" and was first kept in a small shed where the Plummer House, East Main Street, now stands. Later, it was moved to the house at 26 Central Street, built by George J. Tenney, which Hiram N. Harriman later occupied for many years. The third location was on the site of the building now owned by Thomas Watson.
The new handtub became the possession of Pentucket Company No. 1, formed on August 17, 1843. It was termed "The Volunteer Association for the Protection of Property from Fire." The first officers comprised: Foreman, H. N. Noyes; first assistant, William Nelson; second assistant, John Killam; clerk, T. A. Merrill. It would appear that for the first eight or ten years of the company's existence about everything was done but that of fighting fire. There were monthly meetings, entertainments, dinners, processions, drills, speech-making. The first fire reported in the records was that of April 9, 1848, reading as follows: "Between 12 and 1 o'clock in the morning the small house of Samuel Furbish was discovered to be on fire which was consumed together with barn of Mr. Bettes and the house was saved only by the promptness and efficiency of the Fire Department."
At this time another company was doing business, No. 2, and there were many pleasant exchanges of courtesy and good times. On October 12, 1848, the Pentucket Com- pany accepted an invitation from their rivals to unite in a torchlight procession. They paraded round the Square, partook of an "oyster soup" and fish chowder and enjoyed an entertainment. "On the whole this was decidedly the greatest time the Fire Department of Georgetown ever had," the secretary reported.
In eighteen years the Old Pentucket Engine weakened. There had been numerous fires and tournaments. In order to produce a fair stream it became necessary to put the hose to soak the night before. A new machine was purchased, a second-hand Hunneman.
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Its arrival was the occasion for a great consumption of oysters. The old Pentucket went to Boston as part payment. From that date, March 21, 1860, the company bore the name of Washington.
The first help of the town toward the support of the first department was recorded in 1846 when Engine Company No. 1 was given $30 and No. 2 $25. From that time the town has appropriated money every year for its fire department, greatly increasing the amount in the last ten years.
HIGH SCHOOL AND ALMS HOUSE BARN
Though it is not to be supposed that the earlier problems of fire apparatus, drunk- enness and rowdyism ceased to disturb the citizens, two new problems appeared in 1850- a high school and a new barn at the almshouse. After voting to establish the high school, the citizens changed their minds a few weeks later and tackled the other issue. A vote in favor of a barn was passed and a committee appointed. The barn was to be 36x44 feet and the cellar seven feet deep. This vote was hardly recorded when it was decided to add ten feet to the length. Still the dimensions did not please, and it was voted "to take four feet off the length and add it to the width, making the barn a 40x50-foot structure." The build- ing committee was given the privilege of disposing of the old barn and allowed $600 to build the new one. While the committee was empowered to choose the location, they were instructed by the voters, as an afterthought, to be sure that the posts were 16 feet.
The barn problem came up again in 1853 when the committee was given $300 more to complete the structure. There was so much wrangling over the construction of the barn, that the town treasurer evidently had withheld the funds. This matter was debated at length in town meeting and it was voted that the money be at the disposal of a majority of the committee. The barn was finally erected and presumably the bills paid.
In 1853 the town saw a chance to secure the State Normal School which finally went to Salem. A committee was appointed to confer with the commissioners "to induce them to establish the school." No report was recorded of the failure.
As the high school problem had been held in abeyance until the almshouse got its barn, the cause of education came to the fore again in 1855, and with it the question of building a Town House. A committee, comprising Colonel Joseph Kimball, S. D. Hall, Isaac Wilson, Samuel E. Clark, Caleb Tenney, Samuel P. Cheney and John A. Lovering, was chosen to study the matter and report on the expense of a lot and building. It was voted to purchase the Universalist Meetinghouse and lot for not more than $2000 and to build according to a plan presented by Samuel E. Clark, "with a few variations." Another com- mittee was appointed to dispose of the meetinghouse, prepare the lot and build the house. Colonel Joseph Kimball, George J. Tenney, Hiram N. Noyes, Isaac Wilson, comprised this committee. It was voted to assess $1000 on polls and estates and hire not over $8000. That appropriation was later increased by $3000.
There was apparently as much ill-feeling over the construction of the Town House and the establishment of the high school as in all other mooted questions, for in 1856, with the building completed, the school committee elected, comprising Dr. P. M. Reed, Rev. William Reed, J. P. Jones, H. P. Chaplin, John D. Howard, declined to serve and another committee was elected.
In 1858 the high school question reached its apex in excitement. A motion to raise $500 for the high school was amended by a motion to cut the figure to $450, the vote to be on roll call. The amendment was defeated by two votes. At an adjourned town meeting the vote was reversed; Yeas, 144; Nays, 124. In the following year the high school appropria- tion was raised to $600.
HELP FOR WAR VETERANS
The beginning of the Civil War found Georgetown as excited as other towns and more united than ever before. It was apparently easier to appropriate $5000 in the town
Page Forty-one
meeting of 1861 for the benefit "of such of our families as may volunteer or be required to act in the service of their country during the ensuing year" than it had been to appro- priate $25 to a fire company.
A committee of one from each school district was appointed to ascertain what sup- plies might be needed by volunteers without families or families of volunteers called into service during the ensuing year. The committee named to spend the money comprised Hon. Moses Tenney, H. P. Chaplin, Isaac Wilson, Jeremiah P. Jones, H. M. Couch, Caleb Tenney, Humphrey S. Howe.
In 1862 the town voted to purchase or build suitable houses for the fire engines and took further action on volunteers for army or naval service. One hundred dollars was offered to each volunteer and an additional bounty of $50 for those enlisting for three years. The selectmen were authorized to secure recruits from out-of-town as well and to offer a reward of $10 for the arrest of any citizen liable to the draft who evades it. Later it was voted to pay each volunteer $250 for nine months' service, and $500 for the benefit of discharged and disabled volunteers and their families.
AGES OF THE LEADING CITIZENS
It is interesting to learn of the ages of the leading men of the town eligible for war service, as recorded, June 1, 1863, as follows: Jophanus Adams, 32; John W. Berry, 27; James O. Berry, 33; Gayton Brown, 21; Walter M. Brewster, 21; George W. Boynton, 42; Joseph E. Bailey, 24; David N. Bridges, 26; Michael Buckley, 40; Perley Bunker, 22; George H. Carleton, 32; Mosely D. Chase, 25; Luther F. Carter, 24; Robert A. Coker, 23; James Carroll, 21; Samuel E. Clark, 39; Alfred P. Cheney, 32; Herbert H. Dale, 31; Green- leaf N. Dole, 20; John O. Davis, 39; William B. Dorman, 27; Joseph P. Folsom, 39; Owen McGauley, 31; James B. Giles, 43; Samuel A. Holmes, 23; Hiram N. Harriman, 26; George Harnden, 43; Stephen S. Hardy, 32; Daniel W. Hall, 23; Milton Holmes, 27; Patrick Hughes, 33; Joseph S. Hilliard, 42; William S. Horner, 37; J. Adams Illsley, 32; Charles E. Jewett, 35; Jeremiah P. Jones, 44; Gorham P. Jewett, 30; William K. Lambert, 39; Benjamin P. Lowe, 20; John H. Lovering, 26; Henry W. Longfellow, 26; Daniel E. Moulton, 41; George L. Mighill, 21; Patrick Moan, 28; Colonius Morse, 28; Byron J. Merrill, 34; George W. Noyes, 20; Herbert Niles, 22; Solomon Nelson, 36; Sherman Nelson, 28; Solomon A. Nelson, 29; Henry M. Nelson, 26; Chauncey O. Noyes, 22; Stephen Osgood, 36; Byron L. R. Perkins, 20; John Preston, 43; Kendrick W. Pickett, 30; Edwin P. Perkins, 26; George Pettengill, 23; Samuel T. Poor, 20; Prescott Poor, 30; Charles S. Spofford, 41; George M. Spofford, 39; Melvin G. Spofford, 32; Moses E. Tenney, 24; Milton G. Tenney, 25; Charles E. Tyler, 23; George H. Tenney, 25; Gorham D. Tenney, 33; Charles R. Weston, 30; Bartlett H. Weston, 30; Sherburne K. White, 25; William G. Wadleigh, 22; Samuel H. Wadleigh, 31; George S. Weston, 26; Isaac Wilson, 39; Edward P. Wildes, 23; John H. Winter, 44; Charles W. Tenney, 19; George O. Tyler, 19; Hamilton H. Perkins, 18; George N. Boynton, 19.
COMMITTEE AGAINST LIQUOR
War days were also rum days in Georgetown, as may be assumed from action by the town in appointing a committee of fifteen to enforce the law against the illegal sale of intoxicating liquor. This committee comprised John P. Coker, Richard Tenney, Joseph P. Folsom, George W. Chaplin, Otis Thompson, William S. Horner, Alfred B. Noyes, Charles Boynton, Joseph Kimball, William H. Harriman, Albro Kennedy, John M. Palmer, George H. Carleton, George W. Boynton, Erie P. Thompson. It was also voted to discontinue the liquor agency, but it was still going years afterward.
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In 1865 the agitation for a Soldiers' Monument was started and the town passed its first vote of $1000 for the same, choosing a committee comprising J. M. Clark, Henry P. Chaplin, O. B. Tenney, Sherman Nelson and George J. Tenney. The town took cog- nizance of a movement on the edge of Rowley (Dodgeville) for annexation to George- town, a petition to the Legislature having been filed. No such annexation came about, however.
The war over and town affairs becoming more settled, the town took up with earnest- ness the question of street lines. One of the proposals which never received favorable action by the town was that of the selectmen for a street leading from Middle Street near the Church through vacant land to the Boston & Maine station. This was on petition of Stephen Osgood and others. The selectmen had awarded the Church, $1000 as land damage; Mr. Osgood, $150; J. M. Clark, $300; Robert Boyce, $50 and James D. Sullivan, $150. Two years later the proposal came up again in town meeting, along with such other street laying- out proposals as Nelson Avenue, Moulton Street, Cottage Street and Clark Street. All were accepted but the proposed street across the fields to the station. The continuation of Moulton Street over the tracks to West Main Street was vetoed by the state railroad commission.
Turning from streets to the continued agitation for the erection of a Soldiers' Monu- ment, the town indulged in much consideration of the project, and in 1874 voted to erect the monument on Union Park. There were amendments to the motion by William Boynton, who asked for the Centre School house lot; Stephen Osgood for a site on the Corner, near the reservoir; and J. B. Hardy who sought a site in front of the Town House, and on the same lot. Ward Tenney, an engraver employed in Boston, got out a fanciful sketch of the proposed monument standing in the soggy land near Carter's shop, propped up with posts. The Centre School House lot finally prevailed, and the monument cost about $3000.
After the disastrous fire of 1874 the town appointed a committee "to purchase a steam fire engine, or any other apparatus in their opinion is necessary for the extinguish- ment of fires," and at a later meeting voted $8000 for the engine and house. A special fire police force of twenty-five men was named, comprising William Nelson, Humphrey Nel- son, A. C. Hall, John A. Hoyt, William H. Illsley, George L. Mighill, Charles S. Spofford, William Rogers, Timothy Hoyt, C. Gould, Samuel E. Clark, L. F. Carter, J. M. Wagg, George H. Carleton, James O. Berry, J. F. Hilliard, Alfred Cheney, Albro Kennedy, A. P. Peabody, John O. Davis, Dennis Donoghue, George S. Harnden, William A. Harnden, Isaiah Perkins.
POPULATION OF GEORGETOWN
1840
1540
1900
1900
1920
2004
1870
2088
1905
1840
1925
1888
1880
2231
1910
1958
1930
1853
1890
2117
1915
2058
1935
2009
Page Forty-three
Historical Episodes
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Top-Mrs. Laura G. Pedder and the pupils of her early school. Centre-Swearing in the Officers of the Founding of the Parish. Bottom-Arrival of John Spofford, first settler of Georgetown, and his family. Page Forty-four
THE SECOND FIFTY YEARS
T HE first period of the incorporated town's history were years of simple living and simple planning. They had to do with handtubs, lawlessness, the building of an almshouse barn, the laying-out of streets, the establishment of a high school, the con- struction of a Town House. Then came the Civil War and the great worries of the people over the fate of their favorite sons and of their own means of livelihood while the boys were at the front. That Georgetown dealt generously with the people in war relief work was never questioned. The total amount raised for that purpose was about $25,000.
The next fifty-year period was one of almost constant municipal excitement, as the town struggled, amid much bitterness, with such questions as the construction of a new Town Hall, the Perley Free School, the new Peabody Library, the idea of employing a superintendent of schools, the various proposals for the establishment of electric car lines, the telephone service, the electric light service, and finally water.
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