USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections, Vol. II > Part 34
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+ Mr. Tiffany informs this writer that he commenced his apprenticeship in the printing business with Mr. P. E. B. Botham, in February, 1828, in setting type for The Reformer
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The Village Courier was at first designed as a family news- paper, neutral in politics, but the proprietors soon differed in the policy of continuing a neutral paper. Mr. Tiffany being a Whig in politics, and desirons of entering the political field in favor of Henry Clay, then the competing candidate against President Jackson, a candidate for re-election ; the great leading questions being at this time the policy of sustaining a national bank, and the American protective system ; a tariff encouraging domestie manufactures ; Mr. Clay being the na- tional leader on both the bank and the protective system. Mr. Joslin, not favoring a political paper, sold his interest in the Courier to Mr. Tiffany, in August following ; when the Henry Clay flag was hoisted by Mr. Tiffany, and The Village Courier was issued under that character till Jannary following. The last issue was No. 52, on the 31st of said month, 1833. Mr. Joslin becoming involved peeuniarily, and he being the capitalist, the issue was wholly suspended.
Soon after Mr. Tiffany began the issue of his paper favoring Mr. Clay, another newspaper was published from the same press taking the opposite side in politics, and styled The True Republican, supporting the interest of General Jackson ; the first issue was about the 1st of September. 1832. This paper was edited and published by Harrison Grey Otis Parks, de- signed as a campaign paper, and ceased to exist when the contest was over.
There was a literary paper issued in Southbridge for a short period, styled The Ladies' Mirror. The first issue was on the 28th of August, 1830. Each number contained eight pages, of nine by eleven inches. It continued through volume 1. and issned two numbers of volume n, so far as has been ascer- tained, and it is presumed the issues here given were all, and
and Moralist, and continued till his failure in 1829. In April, 1830, he went to Hartford and completed his trade. In January, 1832, formed a connection iu business with Millon Joslin, and bought of Josiah Snow the press and type be used in printing The Southbridge Register.
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that the paper was then discontinued. George W. H. Fiske appears as the publisher for the first five numbers, and from No. 6 Josiah Snow appears as the printer, and W. N. Sher- man, as the editor, from commencement of volume II.
It is believed that the publishing and issuing of a newspaper in Southbridge was discontinued in 1833. and that from that time no paper was published in this town for the next twenty years.
The next issue was The Southbridge Press, by the firm of Green & Brown ; nine numbers only; beginning the 1st of October, 1853.
After this firm, the paper of same name was issued by Sidney Clark, beginning January 10, 1854, and continuing till May, or 1st of June, same year, when, on the 3d of June, Clark Jillson, who had for a time been associate editor, became joint proprietor, and continued until about the close of 1855.
In 1856 Sidney Clark alone was the "editor and publisher, and continued for a year or more, when the paper changedin the latter part of 1857 to the hands of E. A. Denney, as editor and publisher, about one year, and was issued as The South- bridge Press. The next newspaper was The Saturday Morning News, issued in 1859, by Charles L. Newhall & Co., but dis- continued same year. This paper. was followed in 1860 by a new issue called The Quinebaug Item, by Mr. O. D. Haven, but of short duration.
The paper in 1861 changed to The Southbridge Journal, and was published and edited by Henry C. Gray, and continued by him until August 17, 1868; this date being his last issue.
Mr. Gray disposed of his interest to Mr. William B. Morse, who became editor and proprietor, and issued his first paper, No. 25, on August 14 following, which he continued till December 1, 1871, when he associated with him Mr. George M. Whitaker, and now, 1873, they are condueting the paper with much energy and with apparent prosperity,
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giving evidence of a permanently established journal, which, since their joint issue, has been greatly enlarged, with a corresponding increase of patronage.
DISTRICT COURT.
The First District Court of Southern Worcester was estab- lished by an act of the Legislature, approved, May 26, 1871, to take effect the 1st day of August following.
The jurisdiction of this court embraces a district composed of the towns of Sturbridge, Southbridge, Charlton, Dudley, Oxford, and Webster.
This court consists of one standing justice and of two spe- cial justices. The first standing and present justice, is the Hon. Clark Jillson ; the two special justices are Frederick Whiting Botham, Esq., of Southbridge ; and William H. Davis, Esq., of Webster.
These courts are held for criminal offenses on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Southbridge ; and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at Webster, in each week. except legal holidays ; and for civil business in Southbridge on Mon- day, and at Webster on Tuesday of each week, and at such other times as may be fixed according to law .*
* See General Laws, May, 1871. An Act to Establish the First District Court of Southern Worcester.
28A
CHAPTER V.
RAILROADS AND CANALS.
STEAM, as a motor applied to purposes of navigation or 2 railways, is of recent origin ; although the expansive power of water, by the application of cold or heat, has been known from ancient times. At any temperature, from the boiling point, 212°, down to 32°, below which it becomes ice, water is constantly in a slow state of evaporation-that is, making steam to a moderate degree ; but at 212° the power of evaporation becomes equal to the weight of atmospheric pressure, and in a confined position has a pressure equal to 14.7 pounds to the square inch ; this is termed one power, or the weight of one atmosphere ; at 250° of heat the pressure is equal to two atmospheres; at 274°, three ; at 292°, four; at 306°, five; at 357º, ten; at 389°, fifteen ; and at +15°, twenty atmospheres, which, at 14.7 pounds each, is about 294 pounds pressure to the square inch. These are the governing prin- ciples of the expansive power of water by heat.
Water is a liquid only when its temperature ranges between 32° and 212 of Fahrenheit's scale, which divides this range of heat into 180°, the range of heat between the freezing and boiling point. Water at 42° of temperature is in its most dense condition, the increase or decrease of heat at this point causes expansion ; by the increase of heat it continues to expand until it reaches 212°, the boiling point; when, if the same quantity of heat is continued, the temperature of the water will remain the same, as the heat is expended in the evaporation, and the quantity of water, instead of expanding, will decrease ;
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and if this process is continned 5₺ times of that which changed the water from the freezing to the boiling point, the whole quantity of water will become steam; when, if the vessel has been such as to retain all the steam, it will be found to meas- uro 1,700 times the bulk of water thus evaporated, which is the measure of the expansive power of water .*
There had been many experiments by different persons extending through a long period of time in preparing machines for the utilizing of this power, which is not the purpose here to explain. But the first introduction of this motor for a practicable purpose was by Robert Fulton, applying it to navigation on the Hudson river, at New York, August 7, 1507. At this time he run the steamboat called the Clermont, from New York to Albany, and back, at a speed of about five miles an hour. This inaugurated a new era in navigation ; before this time the only mode of propelling vessels in water was by the power of wind.
The application of steam-power to the traveling engine to facilitate communication by land is of more recent date.
The first important trial of the traveling engine or loco- motive propelled by steam was upon the railway eleven miles in length, connecting Darlington, on the river Tees, in the county of Durham, in the north-east part of England, with Stockton, a port at the month of that river. This road was built by George Stephenson, and opened for travel in 1825. It was at first operated by horse-power. The attention at this time of the most able minds, skilled in the science of machanies, was engaged to adapt machines for the use of the power of steam for land carriage, as it had so effectually been done upon water.
* When cold is applied to water at its lowest liquid point. 33º, it will lose its liquid form and become dry solid ice, and when heat is continued after the temperature of the water rises to 212º Fahrenheit, it will then decrease and lose also its liquid form, and become perfectly dry and colorless; thus by an excess of either heat or cold below 32º or above 2124, as fuet Fiat dl, water loses its moislure and becomes dry. Sensible heat expards water to 212º, and latent heat evaporates to perfect dryness, or is that contained in the pure steam.
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Thus, an engine, called the Active, had been built by the son of Mr. George Stephenson, the celebrated Robert Stephen- son, which was tested about this time on this railway. The speed attained was only about six miles an hour, with but a moderate amount of freight. This test was not conclusive in the public mind ; but by Mr. Stephenson it was deemed a success, showing that by some further improvement the desired object would be accomplished. The Darlington and Stoekton road had demonstrated the superior advantage of the railway over the common highway or macadamized road, even when operated by horse-power, and was the means of giving en- couragement to the parties who constructed the railway between Liverpool and Manchester. But the relative value of animal and steam power was yet unsettled ; as also, the question whether the stationary or traveling engine should have the preference, if either should prove superior to animal power.
At this juncture the directors of the Liverpool and Man- chester Railway Company, for the purpose of settling the question of the value of the traveling engine operated by steam as a motor, offered a premium of £500 for the best competing engine, to be tested on their road ; one that should not produce smoke, should draw three times its own weight at ten miles an hour, should be supported upon springs, should not weigh more than six tons, if it ran on four wheels only, and should not cost more than £550.
In October, 1829, four locomotives were presented for trial, when the prize was awarded to the engine called the Rocket, weighing four and a quarter tons, built by Robert Stephenson. The speed attained on this trial was an average of fourteen miles an hour, with seventeen tons of freight.
This important result was conclusive in favor of the travel- ing engine propelled by steam, over that of any other known power. Thus was commenced the era of steam-power applied
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to the purposes of land travel. The name of Robert Stephen- son, by this achievement in the year 1829, became as cele- brated in Europe and throughout the world as that of Robert Fulton by his success in the application of the same power to navigation in the year 1807, on the river Hudson, in America.
From this point have emanated the vast number of railway enterprises which now span a great part of the habitable globe .*
To understand the progress of internal improvement in this country, with regard to facilitating travel and the trans- portation of freight, it is important to trace from the com- mencement the first idea and movement for canals, and their progress, which stimulated the idea of a more rapid system of intercommunication, by introducing steam as a motor on rail- roads.
So far as opening the first canal in this country, Massachu- setts may justly claim the honor, as she does that of the first railroad. But as to the origin of the idea of the practicability and superior advantage of canals for transportation in this country, it is not an easy matter to decide, as they had been suggested by different men even in the colonial period of its history, by many of the most intelligent citizens at various periods, and in different sections of the same.
Canal navigation in Europe has been in successful use for several centuries; its antiquity extends even to an earlier civilization, in Egypt and the Asiatic States; it has also been in common use by the Chinese from a remote period. The Greeks and Romans understood its value, and during the con- tinuation of the empire of the latter in Gaul and Germany, they planted marks of progress in this kind of internal im- provement, particularly in the Netherlands, where, down to the present time, it is in more general use than in any
* See Brande's Encyclopædia of Science, Literature, and Art.
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other place. These well-known facts, presenting the advan- tages of inland water communication, were within the knowl- edge of intelligent gentlemen at all times in the history of this country. Their adoption here was only a question of time and ability, when extended population created for them a demand.
Dr. Hosack, in his memoirs of De Witt Clinton, gives the names of distinguished persons who at different periods in the history of this country, have advocated them as feasible at dif- ferent places in the interior, for connecting such regions with the sea-board, not only for their advantages in encouraging commerce, but in a political sense, by uniting more intimately the social relations of the different sections of this extended country, and as important in cases of war.
Probably about the first suggestion of much importance was in the time of Cadwallader Colden, during the adminis- tration of William Burnet, in the province of New York, in 1724. In a communication to the British government, he refers to the interior of this colony, and its advantages for canal navigation, to wit :
" From Albany the English traders commonly carry their goods over land sixteen miles to the Mohawk river, at Schenectady, and from thence they carry them in canoes up the Mohawk to the carrying-place between that river and another one which runs into Oncida Lake, which carrying-place is only three miles in length; from thence they go down Onondaga river to Lake Cataracui (the French name for Ontario), allud- ing to the feasibility of the country for a work of this kind "*
William Tryon, the last colonial governor of this province, refers to this tract of interior country, and its favorable state for such a work, and its advantages to the future prospects of this province and interior, connecting the Hudson with both Lakes Champlain and Ontario, in 1774.
Many distinguished persons have referred to the favorable
* See (). Turner's History Holland Purchase, p. 176.
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position of this interior for inland navigation with one grand object, that of connecting the navigation of the great interior lakes with the tide water, and through this medium to open for settlement the vast interior connected with the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Among these were Governor George Clinton, General Philip Schuyler, and Elkanah Watson; besides many others of equal note; but perhaps there were none to whom there was so much credit due as to General Washington, in finally fixing public sentiment on the subject of connecting the great interior by canal navigation with the Atlantic .*
Soon after the close of the war for Independence he entered upon this business with great earnestness, traversing on the line of the James river, the Potomac, and also from the Hud- son into the interior of New York.
He executed plans of the country, giving distances and many details with great accuracy, and laid these before Gov- ernor Harrison, of Virginia, with strong arguments in their favor. The result was an action by the General Assemblies of both Virginia and Maryland in establishing improvement companies for adding advantages to navigation connected with the James and Potomac rivers; this was from 1784 to 1791.1
General Henry Knox and others were moving in this mat- ter in 1792, in Massachusetts, when bills were passed in their General Court granting charters for canals around the falls on Connecticut river, at South Hadley and Montague, for im- proving its navigation ; and for a canal from Boston to the same river ; while the latter failed to be built, the first two were successful. Then followed the Middlesex canal, 27 miles in length, in 1808, connecting Boston harbor with the Merrimac river at Chelmsford, now Lowell.#
* See O. Turner's History Holland Purchase, pp. 619 and 627.
t See Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. II. p. 67; same by Irving, vol. IV, pp. 424 and 436.
# See History of Western Massachusetts by J. G. Holland, vol. I, pp. 304 and 412.
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The great leading work of this character was the Erie canal; there had been no effectnal movement for this work until 1810, when a resolution by Jonas Platt for this object was adopted in the assembly of New York, appointing Gouveneur Morris, De Witt Clinton, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter, commissioners to examine and survey for this object. De Witt Clinton, from this time, identified himself as the leading man in this enterprise .*
Mr. Clinton, while united with these able commissioners in the examination of this interior and in making the surveys, kept a journal during these tours, and carefully noted down his observations, which has since been published, and is an interesting work, relating to this interior country.
The report of these commissioners to the assembly, in the winter of 1811, which was drafted by Mr. Morris, was in favor of this undertaking, and being favorably received by the Legislature, Mr. Clinton, then lieutenant-governor, and Mr. Morris, were appointed to solicit aid from the General Goverment ; but failing in this, they reported to the Legisla- ture, and stated that sound policy demanded that the canal should be made by New York alone.
In June, 1812, the State Legislature authorized a loan of $5,000,000, to be obtained in Europe; which sum was the estimated cost of this work by these parties.
The war with England having now commenced, the law authorizing this loan was repealed in 1814, and nothing more was done in relation to the canal until the restoration of peace.
In the autumn of 1815 De Witt Clinton, Thomas Eddy, and Jonas Platt, united with others in calling a meeting in New York, when a committee . was appointed to prepare a memorial to be presented to the Legislature. This memorial
* See llistory of the Holland Purchase, by O. Turner, pp. 617-637.
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was the labor of Mr. Clinton, and was presented to the Legis- lature on the 21st of February, 1816. Governor Tompkins favored the enterprise in his message. On the 21st of March Colonel Rutzen Van Rensselaer, chairman of the joint com- mittee on canals, made report urging the immediate commence- ment of the Erie and Champlain canals. The assembly passed the bill as reported, on the 13th of April, by a vote 83 to 16. On the 16th Mr. Van Buren, in the senate, moved to amend, by authorizing the appointment of five canal com- missioners to survey and estimate the expense of the work, and to ascertain the practicability of making loans on the credit of the State. The bill thus amended became a law, and there were -appointed for the five commissioners, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, Joseph Ellicott, and Myron Holly.
The commissioners reported respecting the Erie canal on the 17th of February, 1817, and on the 19th upon the Cham- plain canal ; these set forth in an able manner the feasibility of the work and its great importance to the resources of the State.
After much discussion, a bill favoring immediate action passed the assembly, April 10, 1817, by a vote of 64 for and 26 against, and it was taken up in the senate the 12th, and passed on the 15th, when it became a law.
The Erie canal was divided into three grand divisions, for convenience and expedition in construction.
It was determined to commence work on the middle sec- tion of the canal. Ground was first broken near Rome on the 4th of July, 1817. A large assemblage were present on this occasion ; Colonel Samuel Young made the principal address, and presented the spade to Judge Richardson, the contractor, on this section, when amid the discharge of cannon the first earth was removed.
The middle section was finished in 1819, and on the 23d
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of October it was navigated from Utica to Rome, and in 1821, from Rochester to Little Falls; and on the 8th of October, 1823, the eastern division was finished, and a boat for the first time passed through to the Hudson river. The whole length was completed and opened for navigation, October 26, 1825. The last point finished was the locks and canal at Lockport, which was announced as follows :
" To the Ilon. Stephen Van Rensselaer, President of the Bourd of Canal Commissioners :
" SIR -- The unfinished parts of the Erie canal will be completed and in condition to admit the passage of boats on Wednesday, the 26th of October next. It would have been gratifying to have accomplished this result as early as the 1st of September, but embarrassments which I could not control have delayed it.
" On this grand event, so auspicious to the character and wealth of the citizens of New York, permit me to congratulate you.
"WM. C. BOUCK, Canal Com. " LOCKPORT, Sept. 28, 1825."
On the promulgation of this intelligence active preparations commenced for celebrating the grand opening of this magnificent achievement. An important feature of the arrangement for this celebration was the placing of cannon of large calibre at hearing distances from Buffalo to Sandy Hook to announce the departure of the first boat from the waters of Lake Erie, at Buffalo, to pass from thence through the length of the canal and the Hudson river to New York. The work on the canal was finished, October 24; the guard-gates were then opened, and on the evening of the 25th the entire canal from Buffalo to Albany was in navigable condition. Buffalo at this time had but twenty-five hundred inhabitants, and on the line of the canal, where then were only a few log huts, there soon arose in some places large cities, and in others prosperons and elegant towns ; such was the wonderful effect of opening navi- gation through this country ; at this time mostly a wilderness.
On the morning of the 26th the celebration commenced.
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Buffalo was filled with noted persons from all parts of the State to witness this interesting occasion.
Governor Clinton, and the lieutenant-governor, and a large delegation from New York and from the principal towns on the line were present.
A procession was formed at 9 o'clock, A. M., at the court- house, and moved down Main street to the head of the canal, where the pioneer boat, Seneca Chief, was in waiting. The governor, the lieutenant-governor, and the committees were received on this boat. After the ceremony of introductions and speech-making, all being in readiness to move, the signal gun was discharged, followed with one continuous roar from the cannon along the line, until the sound reached New York, announcing to its citizens that the grand procession of boats was then on its way from Buffalo to the Empire City. The time for the sound of the cannon to pass the whole line of canal to Albany, and thence down the Hudson river to New York, was one hour and twenty minutes.
The Seneca Chief led the way in the procession, drawn by four gray horses, fancifully caparisoned, followed by the Perry, Superior, and Buffalo. The fleet moved from the dock, under a salute from a rifle company, accompanied by a band of music. The four boats, which left the head of the canal at Lake Erie, were joined by others at the principal places on the line, and arrived at Albany on the 2d of November, at 1 o'clock, P. M. The celebration here at the capital was on a large scale, and, as was remarked by one of the company who came in the pro- cession through the line, " It was a protracted 4th of July celebration." The crowning jubilee was at New York, which exceeded anything of the kind ever before arranged in that city. The final conclusion was a vast fleet that sailed down New York bay to Sandy Hook, where the whole were assembled to witness the pouring, by the governor, of a keg of water taken from Lake Erie, into the Atlantic ocean.
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The same keg was here filled with water from the ocean, and this, on the return of the Seneca Chief to the head of the canal at Buffalo, was poured from her deck by Judge Samuel Wilkinson into Lake Erie; thus the waters of the ocean and inland seas were mingled, in token of perpetual union.
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