USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Palmer > Historical address delivered at Palmer, Mass., July 5, 1852, in commemoration of centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town > Part 2
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The bill was enacted on Thursday, January 23, 1752 *. It con- ferred upon the citizens of this place, then numbering about seventy families, " all the powers, privileges, and immunities that the inhabi- tants of towns within this province are, or by law ought to be, invest- ed with, saving only the choice of Representative, which, it is repre- sented, said inhabitants are not desirous of." Perhaps one reason why the residents of this town were not, at that time, " desirous of" the invaluable privilege of being represented in the Colonial Legisla- ture, was the fact that the granting of this power was known to be contrary to the general policy of the mother country, and, therefore, they asked only for what they thought could be obtained.
HUTCHINSON mentions in his history that in 1757, five years after Palmer was raised to the dignity of a District, the Lieut. Governor of the Province, by the King's instructions, " was strictly charged to consent to no act for making a new town, unless, by a clause in it, there should be a restraint of this power of sending representatives." Thus jealously did the British crown guard its supremacy in the Colo- nies which were even then beginning to be restive. Such a veto seems to have been interposed by His Majesty, to prevent an increase
* See Appendix E.
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of opposition to his power in the popular branch of the Legislature, filled as it was with representatives from the towns which were gene- rally against his policy. This town, therefore, was deprived of the power of sending a representative at its incorporation ; and it did not attain this privilege till a general act was passed by the State Legisla- ture, soon after the Revolution, empowering all districts to exercise this valuable prerogative of their civil rights .* In a statute for the regulation of towns, passed March 23, 1786, is the following clause : " And be it further enacted, that all places incorporated by the name of districts before the first day of January, 1777, are hereby declared to be towns, to every intent and purpose whatever." It was by vir- tue of this enactment that Palmer, like Danvers and several other places, was raised from the subordinate rank of a district, incapable of representation in the General Court, to the more honorable position of equality with the other towns of the Commonwealth ; entitled to all the privileges, and vested with all the rights, possessed by these sister municipalities.
The bill of incorporation having failed, inadvertently, to provide for calling the first meeting of the district, a special resolve of the Legislature was passed June 4, 1752, authorizing John Sherman, Esq., " upon application to him made for that purpose," to issue his warrant for such a meeting, where the inhabitants miglit " choose and appoint such town officers as the law directs." In accordance with this provision, a warrant was issued, and the first official meeting of the citizens of the newly incorporated district was held " at the public Meeting House, on Tuesday, the 30th day of June, 1752." The act of incorporation, as it passed the House of Representatives, contained also no name for the new district, though the inhabitants had petition- ed for that of " Kingstown," by which it had previously been called. The probable reason why this natural request was not granted, was the fact that in the year 1726 a town in Plymouth county had already been incorporated by the the similar name of " Kingston." It was, however, no unusual thing for districts and towns to be thus name- less when the act of their incorporation passed the Legislature, leav- ing it for the Lieut. Governor, or some member of the Council, to be sponsor to the young offspring of the State. Such was the case with PALMER. The name was given by Lieut. Governor, Spencer Phipps, of Mass., in honor of his relative, THOMAS PALMER, EsQ., who had
* See Appendix D.
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recently died in Scotland .* It is somewhat singular, and no less appropriate, that the town should bear the name of one who was a na- tive of that land from which the greater part of the first settlers origi- nally came.
But to return to the account of those who early established them- selves here : - the first notice in the public records that persons were desirous to settle on these lands is a petition to the General Court, from Joseph Wright, John Kilburn and others, in Hampshire Coun- ty, dated December, 1726. They asked for " a tract of land bound- ed westerly by Ware river and southerly by Chicopee river," and proposed " to settle there soon." The General Court appointed a committee to view the place ; but their report, if they made any, does not appear on record. The first date recorded on the town books oc- curs in specifying the birth of Sarah Frost, the daughter of Samuel and Deliverance Frost, who was born February, 1725. The first death on record is that of Moses King, son of John and Sarah King, who departed this life April 26, 1729. In recording the death of any one, the number of years, months and days, were very carefully giv- en ; and sometimes even the hours and minutes !
In September, 1730, John King, Samuel Nevins and others, who were on these lands, petitioned for a grant of six miles square, and a committee was appointed to consider the matter and view the land, but nothing was done. In June, 1731, Joseph Wright, and others residing at " Elbows," petitioned to have their lands confirmed to them ; and John King and others sent a similar petition. As was before stated, a company of the Scotch-Irish emigrants had begun to establish themselves here as early as 1727. They were encouraged to do this by grants or permits from the proprietors of Lambstown, (now Hardwick ) who claimed an extensive tract of land in this re- gion, by virtue of a purchase from the Indians, December 27, 1686, " for the sum of twenty pounds current money of. New England." The Colonial government, however, did not admit their title to the land, and accordingly fifty-six of the inhabitants, mostly Scotch-Irish, but some from Springfield and other New England towns, presented the following petition for a grant of this tract of land :-
" To His Excellency, Jonathan Belcher, Esq., Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over his Majesties Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New
* I am'indebted to Rev. J. B. FELT, Secretary of the Congregational Library Association, for this interesting fact.
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England, The Honorable His Majesties Council, and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, May 31, 1732.
"The petition of the subscribers dwelling and residing on a tract and parcel of land lying and situate between Springfield and Brookfield, Brimfield and the land called the Equivalent land and Cold Spring, Humbly Sheweth :-
"That they are sensible the said land belongs to the said Province, yet the reason why your petitioners entered on the said land was as follows :- Some from the en - couragement of Joshua Lamb, Esq., and Company, that the said land belonged to them ; and that they would give to such of your petitioners as entered thereon under them a good right and title to such a part thereof as they respectively con- tracted for. Yet notwithstanding your petitioners are now sensible that the said Lamb & Co. have no right to the said land, and that the same will prove greatly to your petitioners damage - that is to such as hold under them, unless relieved by your Excellency and Honors ;- and that others of your petitioners entered on from necessity, not having wherewith of their own to provide. Yet nevertheless your petitioners are duly sensible that they deserve your discountenance. But confiding in the reasons offered, they humbly request your compassionate consideration, that they may be put under such regulation as may have a tendency to promote the flourishing of religion, &c.
" Therefore your petitioners most humbly pray, that your Excellency and Honors would take the premises into your wise consideration, and either grant them the said tract of land, or put them under such restrictions and regulations as in your consummate wisdom shall be thought most reasonable ; and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.
James Dorchester, John Harvey, Joseph Brooks,
Joseph Wright, jr.,
Joseph Wright, John Bemon,
Robert Nevins, Samuel Brooks,
Bernard McNitt,
Duncan Quintin,
Humphrey Gardner, Robert Dunlap,
Daniel Fuller, Isaac Magoon,
Nicholas Blancher, Benjamin Parsons, William Crawford, James Lamberton,jr,
Andrew Mackie, Isaac Magoon, jr.,
James Shearer,
Micah Tousley,
Samuel Nevins, Timothy McElwean, John Gerish, William Sloan,
James Stephens, Elijah Vose,
Elisha Hall,
Samuel Shaw, Thomas IIill,
Daniel Killam, David Spear, Alexander Tackels, Andrew Rutherford, James McElwean, Thomas Little, Robert Farrell, Daniel Parsons, Matthew Brown, Joseph Fleming,
Samuel Doolittle,
James M'Clenathan, Patrick Smith, James Lamberton, John Brown,
James Brakenridge, Aaron Nelson,
Thos. M'Clenathan, Aaron Parsons,
William Shaw,
John Henderson, David Nevins,
Robert Thompson, Andrew Farrand.
" In the House of Representatives, Nov. 24, 1732. In answer to this petition, Voted, that Col. John Alden, of Duxbury, and Mr. Samuel Bradford, of Plymp- ton, with such others as the Honorable Board shall appoint, be a Committee to re- pair to the land petitioned for, carefully to view the situation and circumstances thereof, as well as those of the petitioners ; and also the quantity and quality of the said land ; and to report their opinion at the next May session, what may be proper for the Court to do thereon, and that the petition be referred accordingly. Sent up for concurrence.
J. QUINCY, Speaker.
" In Council, Nov. 27, 1732. Read and concurred. Ebenezer Burrill, Esq., of Lynn, joined in the affair.
J. WILLARD, Secretary.
"Consented to, J. BELCHER."
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Robert Harper,
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"The Committee appointed by the General Court at their session in Nov. last, to repair to the land petitioned for by James Dorchester and sundry others, hav- ing, in pursuance of the vote of said Court, repaired to said lands, and carefully viewed the condition of the inhabitants thereof, as well as that of the petitioners, and also the quantity and quality of said lands, do Report our opinion thereon, as follows, viz :-
" We find the land petitioned for to be a tract of land commonly called the ' El- bow tract,' lying near Springfield and the Equivalent Lands, containing 17,014 acres, (viz. contents of five miles square, and 1,014 aeres over,) exclusive of par- ticular grants taken up and laid out within the same, bounded and included within the lines and boundaries of the adjacent land as hereafter laid down, viz :- Easter- ly in part upon the west line of Brookfield township ; from the North-west corner the said line runs South two deg. West to the river, called Quaboag alias Chicopee river ; thence bounding on Brimfield township, as the said river runs, Easterly in part, and Southerly, and in part Westerly so far down said river, as to where the South end line of a traet of Equivalent land, called Cold-Spring township, [now Belchertown,] erosses or skirts the said river ; then bounding Northerly on the said line, as it keeps East by the needle of the surveying instrument, to the South- east corner of said traet or township, which is the mouth of Swift River ; thenee bounding Westerly in part on the said traet or township of Equivalent land as the river runs, to where the South line of another traet of Equivalent land, [now Ware] containing 10,000 aeres belonging to John Read, Esq., strikes up or runs from said river ; thenee bounding Northerly upon said line as it runs East and by North to the South-east corner of said tract, being a heap of stones by the root of a great red oak tree, fallen elose by one on the West side of a run of water, about eighteen rods Southerly of the river, called the Ware River ; thence bounding Westerly on the East line of said tract, as it runs North by the needle, until an East line there will strike the North-east corner tree of Brookfield, as by a plan presented herewith appears.
"We find the greatest part of said land to be a Pine land, high hills and low vallies ; the hills very poor and mean, the vallies pretty good. We also find that the said traet of land lies in a broken form, and is mueh discommoded by farms claimed by particular grants from this Court, which have taken up the best of the land. We also find that the circumstances of the petitioners and settlers are diffi- cult and much intricated and perplexed ; some of them having entered and settled without regulation, and have interfered and encroached upon other men's pitches and improvements ; and in many instances, two several settlers elaim one and the same spot, under different pleas and pretenees of right ; some having lots laid out, some partly laid out, and others only pitched, interfering one with another as afore- said. We would further inform this honorable court that we have taken great pains and care to inspect and inquire into every particular instance relating to the said tract of land, and find it needful, to prevent further charge and difficulty, to report particularly, viz :- That we find that there are entered, and settled, and about settling, on the said traet of land, the number of eighty persons, the most whereof are families who have built houses, and made considerable improvements, and are now, and have constantly, for more than three years past, been supplied with a minister to preach the word of God unto them, who has been supported by a free contribution. We also find that about forty-eight of the above number were introduced and led on, or encouraged to settle and make improvements, by Joshua Lamb, Esq., & Co., and their Committee, who claimed the said tract of land by
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virtue of an Indian purchase ; and the most of the number had actual contracts from them for certain parcels thereof, and had received deeds of conveyance, and orders from them for laying out of their lots, and have had the most of them laid out accordingly. We are, therefore, humbly of the opinion that the several per- sons and families hereafter named, that were so admitted and settled under and by the said claimers, have their several and respective lots, hereafter mentioned, rati- fied and confirmed to them, their heirs and assigns, in such proportions and under such restrictions and limitations and considerations as follows and are hereafter mentioned."
Specific grants to forty-four different persons were then made, most- ly of 100 acres each, and they alone were constituted Proprietors or Grantees, with power to take and divide among themselves all lands within the limits of the town, not otherwise appropriated. One of the conditions of this adjustment of their affairs was, " that such of the aforenamed persons or grantees, as are non-residents, and their lots not settled, shall forthwith settle them by their own persons, or by such credible wholesome inhabitants as shall be accepted by the ma- jor part of the resident settlers." Another of the terms was, that they should " lay out in some suitable and convenient places, one lot, not less than one hundred acres, to be to and for the first settled and ordained minister ; and, also, two other lots, of the same contents, one for the use of the ministry, and the other for a school." Thus early was provision made for education and religion.
The Committee reported further :- " We find that the following named persons, to the number of thirty-one, having presumed to enter upon the Province land, in the said tract, without any leave or order from this Court, or under any pretence of mistake, or admission from the aforesaid claimers ; yet, they having, most of them, made consid- erable improvement, and expended the chief of their small substance, and having paid their proportion to the support of the ministry among them ; that to remove them off would reduce them to extreme pover- ty. We are, therefore, humbly of the opinion that it may not be in- consistent with the honor of the Province, and yet a sufficient dis- countenance to such presumptuous settlements, if there be granted to each of them a single lot, including their improvements, upon such conditions as are hereafter mentioned."
A description of the grants to these persons then follows, and also the conditions applicable to all the settlers. These were " that all and each of the above-named persons or grantees, both first and last mentioned, (excepting the Rev. Mr. JOHN HARVEY,*) do pay into
* The first settled minister of the town. See Appendix A.
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the public treasury of this Province, the sum of five hundred pounds within two years ; as, also, forthwith to pay the further sum of £67, 11s and Op, the charge and expense of this Committee on the affair ; each man or grantee his equal part or proportion of said sums, accord- ing to the quantity of his grant or first allotment. And if any of the aforenamed persons or grantees, either first or last mentioned, do not fulfil the aforesaid conditions, within the term of time herein limited, their lots to be forfeited, and other ways disposed of as this Court shall order. And that all public charges arising for the future (until they be settled and invested with the powers and privileges of a township, ) shall be raised upon their several lots, according to the quantity of acres ; and that all such of the aforesaid persons, or gran- tees, as are entitled to draw after-rights and divisions, shall pay a double proportion to all such charges, according to the quantity of their grants or first lots. And that they, the aforesaid settlers and grantees, do erect and build a suitable house for public worship*, and settle a minister within two years ; and that they be allowed to bring in a Bill for erecting and setting themselves off a township accordingly."
This Report was presented by Ebenezer Burrill, Esq., and adopt- ted by the General Court, June 21st, 1733. It seems to have ad- justed all difficulties in the case, and from this time the affairs of the youthful settlement seem to have gone "on the even tenor of their way." The following record on the Proprietor's book shows the es- teem in which the labors of this Committee were regarded by them :- " At a meeting of the Proprietors of the common and undivided lands in the Elbow Tract, legally convened by adjournment, on the third of June, being Monday, 1735,- Voted, That there be granted and laid out to Ebenezer Burrill, Esq., Col. John Alden, and Mr. Samuel Bradford, who were the Honorable Committee of the General Court for viewing and determining the grants of this Elbow Tract,-to each of them an hundred acre lot, in any of the common land that was added to the tract since it was surveyed by the former claimers, as a grateful acknowledgment of their great and good service to the settle- ment, in dispatching the affairs thereof by a full and particular Report, superseding the charge and difficulty of a Committee of regulation." The record also exists of the land surveyed and laid out to Esquire Burrill and Mr. Bradford, " in the north-end addition, so called," which is now probably within the limits of the town of Ware.
* See Appendix B.
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The tax levied upon the inhabitants by the General Court, in ac- cordance with the conditions specified in the Report, seems to have pressed as a heavy burden, " too heavy to be borne " by the feeble and struggling colony. It may appear as a small sum to us, but it was a great amount for them to raise, amid the privations and desti- tutions of that carly time. The currency was in Province bills, which were then worth in silver only one-third of their nominal value ; so that the whole tax of £567, 11s, Op, was equal only to about $630, or less than four cents an acre for the 17,014 acres which the town contained ; yet the people found it very difficult to pay even this pittance. They accordingly applied to the General Court for relief, and also appointed a Committee from their own number, to consult with the Hon. John Stoddard and Ebenezer Pomeroy, Esq., and " lay before them the state and condition of this settlement," with respect to this matter. The payment was delayed from time to time, till at last execution from the Province Treasurer was issued against them, and their collectors exposed to imprisonment for not meeting the demand of the General Government. The town immediately ad- dressed a petition to the Court, in Sept. 1743, ten years after the tax was levied, setting forth the claims of " this little, poor, infant plan- tation," to farther forbearance and mercy. They represented them- selves as being but " a poor people, on a small, mean tract of land," and that their taxes were " very hard, and grevious, and wholly in- supportable." In answer to this petition it was "ordered that the warrant mentioned be so far stayed as that they be obliged to pay only one-quarter part thereof forthwith, and the other three-quarters in three equal payments, viz: in the years 1744, '45, and '46." This probably settled the matter, and out of their deep poverty they paid the stipulated price of their humble homes.
The town increased but slowly in population. The land, covered mostly with primeval forests, presented few attractions to any save a hardy and persevering race of men, who could earn, from a rugged and somewhat sterile soil, a scanty subsistence only by severe and patient toil. Their early efforts and labors, like those of emigrants to our now distant western borders, were necessarily directed to the toilsome work of clearing the heavy timbered lands, and building their rude log-houses. There was little opportunity afforded them for the acquisition of property. Their dependence was almost exclusively placed upon what their own hands might gain from a soil never famed
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for its fertility. Whatever they could raise, beyond what their own necessities required, had to be carried by long and expensive journies to Boston, in order that they might procure other articles of domestic consumption. Their pork, and grain, and potatoes,- the culture of this latter vegetable being introduced into this country by the emi- grants from the north of Ireland, - were there exchanged for sugar, and spices, and other commodities, which only the city could furnish, not forgetting a little tea !- for the good dames of that period were undoubtedly as fond of a social chat, and a bit of scandal too, over " the cups that cheer but not inebriate," as are their more modern sisters. The women of the Scotch-Irish made much finer linen and thread than our New England women, which they often sold in the river towns. Nothing was known here about the foot-wheel for spin- ning flax, until these emigrants came to this country. It may be thought, perhaps, by the cynical that these were articles of luxury, for which the people of that day had no great necessity. They were elements, however, of refinement ; for they manifested a taste which would naturally seek to gratify itself in other ways, and which would thus gradually lead to the improvement of their condition in many other respects. Still a spirit of patriotic prudence, and, if need be, of self-sacrifice was early and strongly cherished by our worthy pro- genitors. At the annual town meeting, held March 15, 1768, an article had been introduced into the warrant " to see if this District will agree upon, and come into some effectual measures to promote industry, economy and manufactures." " Whereupon," it is record- ed that, " in a very full meeting, the following votes passed :- " Whereas, the excessive use of foreign superfluities, is one great cause of the present distressed state of this country in general, and the happiness of the communities depends on industry, economy and good morals ; and this District, taking into serious consideration the great decay of trade, the scarcity of money, the heavy debt contracted in the last war,* which still remains upon the people, and the great difficulties to which, by these means, they are reduced : Therefore, VOTED, unanimously, that this District will use their utmost endeav- ors, and enforce their endeavors by examples, in suppressing extrava- gance, idleness and vice, and promoting industry, economy and good manners. And, in order to prevent the unnecessary exportation of money, of which the continent has of late been so much drained, it is
* The old French War, so called.
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therefore, VOTED, that this District will, by all prudent means, en- deavor to discountenance the use of foreign superfluities, and eneour- age the manufactures of the whole continent in general, and of this Provinee in particular."*
These resolutions were worthy of those who were cotemporaries and co-patriots with "the Boston tea party." It was such a spirit, so rife even in the retired rural districts, which prepared the way for the long and arduous, but triumphant struggle of the Revolution. It does not appear, from any record or tradition that has come within my reach, that the inhabitants of this town, in its earlier days, were ever sub- jected to the inroads and ravages of the Indians, by whom they were surrounded. Traces of the aborigines are still found in our fields. Their rude stone implements of husbandry, domestic utensils, and ar- row-heads, are occasionally turned up by the plough-share. This ap- pears to have been a favorite region with them. It was their fishing and hunting grounds. From the Quaboag ponds in Brookfield, along the valley of the Chicopee river, to where it empties into the Con- nectieut, the free, hardy, stalwart sons of the forest roved at pleasure. Though this was never the seene of any general and sanguinary con- flict with them, yet the early settlers were obliged to be ever on the alert against a sudden surprise or open attack. Strong guard houses were ereeted in different parts of the town, to which for a time the men were accustomed to resort at night, leaving their families exposed and defenceless ; for it was generally found to be the aim of the sav- age foe to cut off the male portion of the inhabitants, well knowing that from them they had the most to fear. It was customary, also, for the first settlers here, as was the case in other parts of our exposed frontier settlements, to go into the fields with a gun in one hand, and the implements of husbandry in the other. The females left at home had loaded fire-arms ready, and ready arms to use them, in defence of themselves and their little ones ; and they kept a constant look out, " all eye, all ear," in dreaded expectation of the foe. On one oe- casion an heroic matron, i while left alone at night with her little fam- ily, her husband having gone to the guard house, was startled by the howling of the frightened dogs who attempted to burst in the door of the log house. She feared that this boded an attack from the ruth- less savage, but was greatly relieved when three loud yells of a pan- ther, thrice repeated, told the real character of her untimely visitor.
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