USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Templeton > Historical discourse in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the formation of the First Congregational Church in Templeton, Massachusetts : with an appendix, embracing a survey of the municipal affairs of the town > Part 12
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As early as 1764, the practice was adopted for the Select- men to issue two warrants, duplicates, for each meeting, - one direeted to the constable for the east side of the town, the other to the eonstable for the west side, each to warn their own part of the town. These duplicate warrants were both copied into the records, with the return upon them, as long as both parts of the town remained together. The earliest intimation that I find of warning meetings by posting copies of the warrants is in 1769, when the town voted, " that posting a copy of the warrant on a post erected for that pur- pose shall be a sufficient warning for the east side ; " and, for the west side, it shall be sufficient " to post a copy at the house of Charles Baker : " to be done fourteen days before the time of meeting.
TOWN-HOUSES.
The town-meetings, from the first, were held in the old meeting-house, and as long as that stood. The town- officers frequently, or generally, met at Landlord Wright's tavern. In 1811, when the new meeting-house . had been ereeted, it was voted to sell the old meeting-house, and apply the proceeds to build a town-house. A Committee was appointed with full powers to aet at their discretion for proeuring a town-house. One was built, using the timbers of the first meeting-house, and finished in the summer of
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1812. It stood on the present site of Mrs. Newton's dwell- ing-house. In 1844, School District No. 1 being about to build a schoolhouse, the town united with the district, and erected the present brick building, under certain specified conditions as to the joint ownership and repairs by the town and district. The new Town Hall cost the town somewhat over two thousand dollars. In 1846, the town authorized the sale of the old Town House, with the land under and adjoining it.
PAYMENT OF ACCOUNTS AGAINST THE TOWN.
It was customary for more than forty years after the incorporation of the town, as it always had been at meetings of the proprietors, to have all accounts, presented by indi- viduals against the town, laid before the town in detail, and accepted, each by special vote, before the Selectmen should pay them. The practice began to be changed in 1808. That year, the Selectmen were made a Committee to allow accounts, except their own (which were still to be laid before the town). A similar vote was passed in 1811 and in 1813, and afterwards annually for a number of years, till it became the settled practice, which continues to the present time, to leave it to the Selectmen, in all ordinary cases, to adjust and make payment of claims against the town.
TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN.
At that critical period of American history, near the close of Washington's administration, when the question was before Congress as to carrying into effect the treaty with Great Britain negotiated by John Jay, with the discussion
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of which the eloquence of Fisher Ames will always be associated, the town of Boston sent a circular letter to the interior towns, containing the draft of a memorial to Con- gress in favor of the treaty, and recommending the towns to adopt it. The occasion was justly viewed as a very important one. Rev. Mr. Sparhawk, on Sunday, May 8, 1796, requested the male inhabitants of Templeton to as- semble the next day to express their minds on the subject. The meeting voted to adopt " the memorial from Boston, and sign the same," and directed Col. Silas Hazeltine and Mr. Thomas Fisher to write the names of such as should per- sonally request it. One hundred and eighty persons ordered their names to be set to the memorial ; and it was " voted that the Selectmen, with the Moderator and Town Clerk, shall certify that every person whose name is set to it was present, and ordered it to be done ; and also to certify that the inhabitants were perfectly united, and that there was not a single dissentient."
It may be considered as a further index of the spirit of the inhabitants, that at a special meeting for the purpose, on the 8th of July, 1794, when there were some apprehen- sions of war, the town voted that each soldier who should voluntarily enlist into the service of the United States, agrecably to the act of Congress of May 9, should have his pay made up by the town to forty shillings a month, "in case they shall be called into actual service, and that the government should not make up their pay to that amount within one year of the expiration of their enlistment."
SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND.
A considerable number of persons from the militia of this town were called into service during the war of 1812-15, mostly for short periods, and to guard the forts in Boston
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Harbor and on other parts of the New-England sca-coast. I have not found any records of the names of the men. During the embargo which preceded the war, the town voted, in 1808, to petition the President of the United States to suspend the embargo, in whole or in part, and appointed a Committee to draw up a memorial. In 1809, the town voted to petition the Legislature of the Common- wealth, praying them "to petition the Congress of the United States to relieve them from the embarrassments which they severely experience from the Embargo Law." The same year, the town voted " to provide, and keep con- stantly under the control of the Selectmen, powder, balls, and flints, for the use and benefit of the soldiers in this town."
When the war was declared, in 1812, the town voted to present a memorial to the President against the war, and for the restoration of peace. A Committee, consisting of Rev. Elisha Andrews, Rev. Charles Wellington, Lovell Walker, Esq., Samuel Cutting, Esq., John W. Stiles, Leonard Stone, and Deacon Paul Kendall, reported a very elaborate memo- rial, entering largely into argument upon the subject. It covers twelve pages in the Town Records, and was adopted by a vote of eighty-six to twenty-two. The memorial was the composition of Mr. Stiles, who was then a merchant in this town, - a man of great vigor and mental ability.
CANAL AND RAILROADS.
Great attention was always given in this town to im- provement of roads ; and the public-spirited citizens early perceived the importance of some more feasible modes of communication than the common highways or turnpikes. Before railroads had been introduced or thought practi- cable, a plan was started for a canal from Boston to the Hudson River. Surveys were made, both in the northern
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and southern portions of the State, to find a practicable route, especially by Loammi Baldwin, Esq., an engineer of high reputation. In 1825, this town chose a Committee, con- sisting of Col. Ephraim Stone, Col. Leonard Stone, Joshua Richardson, Esq., Col. Artemas Lee, and Capt. Eden Bald- win, with directions " to examine a route for a canal through Templeton, and to wait upon the Canal Commissioners when they pass through this part of the country."
But it was soon found that railroads are far better adapted to New England than canals ; and, from the first, this town has acted with great vigor and carnestness to secure facili- ties of transport in this manner. Before the Fitchburg Railroad had been projected, the town, in 1835, raised money, and appointed a Committee to act in favor of a railroad from Worcester to Keene, N.II., through this town. In 1844, the town passed resolves in favor of the location of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, and chose a Committee to act in its favor. After the road had been chartered, and its location determined to pass through Templeton, those who had control of the corporation under- took to alter it so as to pass through Winchendon, and leave this town at a distance from railroad facilities. This was strenuously opposed, both by individuals, who contri- buted largely of their time and money, and by the town in its corporate capacity, which appropriated funds and appointed committees to resist the change. Surveyors were employed, counsel retained, and long trials had, both before the County Commissioners of Worcester and before committees of the Legislature. The Committee to whom it was intrusted by the town consisted of Col. Artemas Lee, Capt. Joseph Davis, Joseph Mason, Esq., Gilman Day, Esq., and Col. Leonard Stone.
The County Commissioners, after a long hearing of evi- dence at Baldwinville in 1845, had decided against changing the location of the railroad from Templeton. The company, however, again petitioned the Legislature for leave to alter the location. In November, 1845, the town passed some
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very spirited resolves on the subject, setting forth the case in forcible language and at considerable length. In 1846, the Committee of the town were directed to oppose, be- fore the Legislature, the petition of the railroad company, and to employ counsel. The final result was, that the General Court refused to change the location ; and the road was built here. Passenger-cars passed through this town, for the first time, in 1847. The stock in the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad has not been profitable ; but the accommodation to the town and benefit to its business have been very great, and perhaps may, at a future time, become greater than now.
In 1847, the town authorized a Committee to advocate the petition of David Henshaw and others for a charter for a railroad from Worcester to Keene. Similar action was taken, in 1848 and 1851, in favor of contemplated routes for roads leading across the county to connect with the Boston and Worcester and the Western railroads. But these enterprises have not as yet been carried into effect.
COUNTY-RELATIONS.
The county of Worcester contains fifty-eight towns. Tem- pleton stands at very nearly the average of the towns in the county, in respect to both population and valuation. At the time of the Revolutionary War, Templeton (then including most of Phillipston) paid about one dollar in sixty- six of the tax levied by the county. The portion of terri- tory remaining to Templeton has increased, as to valuation, more rapidly than the average of the county : for the town now pays one dollar in sixty-three of the county-tax ; and Phillipston pays, besides, one dollar in a hundred and fifty.
The project of separating the north part of Worcester County to form a new county, with the addition of other
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towns out of the county, lying cither to the west or to the east, has been discussed, at various periods, for almost a hundred years. The idea was sometimes entertained, that, in the event of a new county, Templeton would be the shire-town. Petersham was sometimes proposed. A great many conventions have been held in this region, and town- action often taken on the subject, from the period of the Revolution till now. At one of the earliest town-meetings held after the incorporation of Templeton, - viz., Aug. 9, 1763, - Joshua Willard, Esq., was chosen an agent, in behalf of Templeton, to act " at the Great and General Court concerning a new county."
In 1781, the town acted upon a letter from the town of Warwick respecting a new county, and appointed a delegate to a convention at Petersham, but with instructions not to join in the petition, unless the towns of Westminster, Aslı- burnham, Fitchburg, Ashby, Lunenburg, and Leominster should be included. In 1784, Charles Baker was chosen an agent to act for a division of Worcester into two counties. But the opinions of the majority of the town varied ; for, the next year, they refused to send a member to a convention on the subject at Petersham. Not long after, a Committee was chosen to act in the matter, but was dismissed in a few months. In 1791, the town, at first, sent delegates to a convention called at Petersham, concerning a new county ; but, in August of the same year, " the town, by vote, signified their disapprobation of a new county." In 1792, an effort was made to unite, for county-purposes, nineteen towns ; of which Ashburnham was the most east- erly, and Pelham and Shutesbury the most westerly. But the town voted " that its agent should not sign said peti- tion." In 1794, there was another similar refusal. In 1796, the plan of building a new court-house at Worcester was entertained. The people feared the expense, and re- monstrated against it, assigning three general grounds : first, that the county of Worcester was too large, and, if divided, the existing court-house would be sufficient ;
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second, that, if not divided, the court-house ought to be nearer the centre ; third, that it was a bad time to build, materials and labor being so high. The last difficulty, we may believe, has not been remedied during the whole sixty years from that day to this.
The town accordingly, for several years, favored a divi- sion. In 1798, they voted for it eighty-four to one. The efforts did not succeed, and the subject was dropped for a time. It was renewed in 1810, when a convention was called to meet in this town on the matter ; and a petition on behalf of the town, for a division, was forwarded to the Legislature. But in 1828, on the question of a new county, according to the petition of Ivers Jewett and others, to be composed of sixteen towns in Worcester and five in Middle- sex, the vote of the town was- yeas, four ; nays, a hundred and twenty-six. During the efforts made from 1851 to 1855 in behalf of a new county, the town, though not with such unanimity as in 1828, constantly remonstrated against the measure, and repeatedly chose Col. Artemas Lee a Coni- mittee to join with Committees of other towns to oppose the project. These latter movements contemplated mak- ing Fitchburg the shire-town. The petitions were not granted by the Legislature. But at length, in 1856, Fitch- burg was made a " half-shire" by establishing there two civil terms of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Worcester each year, - viz., on the first Monday of Febru- ary and the fourth Monday of October, - and one criminal term each year on the first Monday of June.
JEHU RICHARDSON FUND AND MASONIC FUND.
In 1827, the town voted to accept a charity-fund be- queathed by Jehu Richardson, of this town, for the benefit of unmarried females, of good character, in indigent circum-
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stances. In 1843, the Masonic Lodge, when dissolved, gave its funds to the town, in trust, for the relief of the indigent, with stipulations as to the annual increase of the fund very similar to some made in Mr. Richardson's will. These provisions appear in the following report made to the town by the Committee of the Lodge : -
The undersigned, a Committee chosen by the members of ITarris Lodge, resident in Templeton, to present to the town that portion of the funds of said lodge belonging to them, to be held by the town in trust, the income of which to be appropriated to charitable pur- poses, beg leave to report : -
That whereas the institution of Masonry was originally designed for laudable purposes and ends, - among which, as a cardinal virtue, was that of charity ; and whereas the designs of this institution, like other human institutions, have been perverted, and its character thereby prejudiced, and in consequence thereof, and from the his- tory of events, it has been deemed expedient by the members of the IIarris Lodge, in obedience to public sentiment and the laws, to dissolve said lodge ; and whereas, upon its dissolution, there was a fund which fell to the members of Templeton, amounting to four hundred dollars, - therefore, to the end that the objects and designs of the institution, and especially the aforesaid fund, shall not be perverted and misapplied, but that the integrity of the lodge should be kept, and the fund perpetuated by them, the members of the fraternity, by their Committee, propose to deposit said fund in the hands of the town, to be held in trust, and to be called the Masonic Fund, and upon the following conditions : -
That the town annually, at their March or April meeting, choose three Trustees, whose duty it shall be to see that the fund is safely invested upon good security on interest annually, payable to the Treasurer of the town ; or, in the event the town should appropriate the fund to its own use, the town to give an obligation payable to the Trustees as aforesaid, and in such form as will designate the name of the fund. One per cent of this interest shall be annually added to the principal ; and the residue of the income arising there- from said Trustees shall pay out annually to such needy and destitute persons belonging to the town as they may think the most worthy and deserving of the same, with special regard to their merits; and the said Trustees shall report annually in writing, at the March or April meeting, their doings and the state of the fund, and before a new choice of Trustees is made.
EPHRAIM STONE, Committee LEONARD STONE, of
ARTEMAS LEE, the Lodge.
TEMPLETON, April 3, 1843.
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The town annually elects Trustees of the Masonic Fund, and also of the Richardson Fund. The capital of both is, at present, loaned to the town, and interest paid annually, with addition of the one per cent to the principal. The amount of the Richardson Fund is a little over seven hun- dred dollars ; of the Masonic, about four hundred and fifty dollars.
DONATION, BY DR. SHATTUCK, OF SHARES IN THE BOSTON ATHENEUM.
In 1854, Dr. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, since de- ceased, gave five shares in the Boston Athenaeum to the town of Templeton, in token of his affection for the place of his birth. These shares are to be perpetually held in trust for the following purposes, as expressed by the donor : " That the Selectmen of the town, for the time being, shall permit the use of the five shares, from year to year, by any one five persons resident in said town, to be selected by them from the classes of clergymen, physicians, lawyers, teachers, and scientific farmers and mechanics ; it being un- derstood that the said shares themselves are to be for ever inalienable." In addition to the cost of the shares (three hundred dollars cach), Dr. Shattuck anticipated the annual assessment of five dollars a share by paying a hundred dollars in advance, additional, on each ; thus securing the perpetual privilege of taking out books, on the shares, from the excellent library of the institution.
The town, on the reception of this donation, passed a vote of thanks to Dr. Shattuck, in acknowledgment of " their grateful appreciation of his munificence in conferring this franchise upon the town which has the honor of numbering him among her most distinguished and useful sons." A
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similar donation was made by him to the town of Littleton, the birthplace of his father.
Dr. Shattuck was an eminent physician in Boston, where he practised from 1807 till his death in 1854. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1803; was possessed of much wealth; and was distinguished for his benefactions to the needy. He gave liberally to Dartmouth College and to Harvard College, and to various public institutions, both in his lifetime and by his will.
A discourse has been printed, preached on the occasion of his death by Rev. Mr. Bartol, minister of the West Church in Boston, where Dr. Shattuck was a communicant. He was son of Dr. Benjamin Shattuck, who was born in Littleton, and was grandson of the first minister of that town. Dr. Benjamin Shattuck (H. U. 1765) studied medi- cine with Dr. Prescott, of Groton. He came to Temple- ton, by invitation of the people of the town, about 1769, and continued in active practice here till his death in 1794. He was a warm and intimate friend of Rev. Mr. Sparhawk, of whose church he was a member. A discourse preached at his funeral, by Mr. Sparhawk, was published at the time.
POPULATION.
The number of inhabitants in Templeton, at various periods, has been as follows : -
In 1765 (including the territory in Phillipston), it was . 348
In 1790 (after the separation of Phillipston) 950
In 1801 .
1,068
In 1811 . 1,205
In 1821.
1,331
In 1831 . 1,552
In 1840 . 1,776
In 1850 . 2,173
In 1855 . · 2,618
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VALUATION.
The successive State-valuations have been as follows. The first four were computed on a reduced scale of six per cent of the estimated value : -
1790
£1,944. 17s. 11d.
1801
. $8,593.52
1811
. 10,444.93
1821
. 13,294.55
1831
378,358.00
1840
581,845.00
1850
877,725.00
In 1856, the Assessors' inventory of property taxable in this town was $1,026,283: namely, real estate, $592,676; personal estate, $433,607. The number of polls taxed was seven hundred and fifty.
MANUFACTURES AND PRODUCTIONS.
The Assessors of each town, in the year 1855, were directed to return to the Secretary of the Commonwealth the statistics of the various branches of industry for that year. The following are some of the most important items reported by the Assessors of Templeton : -
Cassimere. - 7 sets of machinery ; 275,000 pounds of wool con- sumed ; 220,000 yards of cloth manufactured ; value, $198,000. Persons employed, - males, 85 ; females, 45.
Iron-castings. - 300 tons ; value produced, $24,000; men em- ployed, 15.
Machinery. - Value, $10,000 ; men employed, 10.
Tin-ware manufactured. - Value, $36,000.
Boots, 34,000 pairs ; shoes, 1,700 pairs. - Value of boots and shoes, $46,000; number of men employed, 92.
Lumber prepared for market. - Value, $18,000.
Wooden-ware. - Value, $50,000 ; persons employed, 61.
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Chair-seat frames. - Value, $5,000; persons employed, 10.
Chairs, including cabinet furniture. - Value, $164,900 ; males em- ployed, 139 ; females employed, 150. Carriages. - Value, $2,000.
Various other articles manufactured, included in the returns; to the value of about $67,000.
The quantity of land in the town occupied with the various kinds of grain, and statistics of other agricultural productions, were reported as follows : -
Average produce per acre.
Indian corn
174 acres .
35 bushels.
Wheat .
14
"
16
"
Rye .
20
"
10
"
Barley
106 "
25 "
Oats
87
"
30
"
Number of acres of potatoes (113 bushels to acre) 163
Number of acres of English mowing 2,239
Number of tons of English hay cut 1,690
Number of tons of meadow hay cut 529
Number of apple-trees cultivated for their fruit . 4,313
Number of oxen over three years old . 193
Number of steers under three years old 147
Number of milch cows . 530
Number of heifers
198
Number of horses
327
THE END.
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