USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Sturbridge > Historical sketch of Sturbridge, Mass., from its settlement to the present time > Part 2
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In Arithmetic the " Golden Rule of Three" was the utmost limit which the boys were expected to reach ; the girls having no occasion for figures could be better employed in some other way. As for Grammar and Geography, the former was supposed to be of no use to common people, and the latter had not been heard of at this dis- tance in the country.
The annual appropriation of money for schooling at this time was 70 or 80 pounds Old Tenor, amounting to 30 or 35 dollars. The sum was slowly increased till 1761, when a new impulse was given to the cause of education. Near the beginning of that year, "after some debate upon the situation of the schools, it was put to vote to see whether the town would choose a committee out of every cor- ner, to take into consideration the circumstances of said affair ; and voted in the affirmative." In pursuance of this vote ten of the princi- pal inhabitants were constituted a Committee, with instructions to "report to the town as speedily as may be." The most essential part of their report was, "that each school district should draw out of the treasury as much money as they pay to the school rate ;" which report was adopted by the town. This important measure rendered it necessary to establish school districts with definite boun- daries,-a thing which had never yet been done. The school law then in force contemplated nothing more than the maintainance of " a school" in every such town. But where could a single school be kept, that would accommodate any considerable part of a population scattered over a territory ten or twelve miles square? To remedy this difficulty the people had already divided their school money be- tween the Northern and Southern sections of the town, which divi- sions had again been subdivided between several schools. But the remedy was incomplete till the whole town was parcelled out into regularly defined districts, and the inhabitants of each district had the privilege and the responsibility of expending their own share of the school money, in supporting a school in their own district. Such indeed is the present law of this Commonwealth : but the plan was devised and adopted by the citizens of this town long before our law-makers had suggested such a thought. The committee who were appointed to divide the town into school districts, reported five, viz. " The Middle," including the centre village ; " The Southerly," embracing what is now Southbridge; "The South West ;" " The North West ;" and " The North East." The same year the town raised &25 Lawful Money, or $110, for school instruction, and adopt-
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ed the rule, which has ever since been followed, of expending three quarters of the money in the winter, and the remainder in the sum- mer. Other districts have been added from time to time, and the amount of appropriations increased, till there are now 18 school dis- tricts on the territory which was then included within the limits of Sturbridge, and about $2000 annually raised by the inhabitants of these districts for the support of common schools.
The first notice that I can find of a town pauper in Sturbridge, is contained in the warrant for a town meeting to be held in May 1765. In that warrant is the following article, viz. " To see if the town will do any thing whereby the Old Frenchman who lives at Col. Marcy's Mills may be enabled to support his family, and pay his rent." The action of the town upon this article is recorded thus : "Doct. Erasmus Babbit brought his account of 19 shillings, 11 pence, Law- ful Money, for doctoring the old Frenchman, his wife and child; which was allowed him by a vote of the town." It is certainly an intelligible and interesting comment on the early industry and thrift of this place, that the first call for pecuniary assistance from the town was not made till more than thirty years after its settlement com- menced, and even then by a sick and disabled foreigner ! We al- ready begin to see that his Majesty's " Honorable Council" had mis- taken either the quality of the soil, or the character of its settlers, in judging that the tract of land prayed for was not capable of mak- ing a township. It was some years after this first application for aid, before another was presented, and a much longer time before any one stood in need of permanent assistance from the town.
We come now to a period in the history of Sturbridge fraught with events of peculiar interest. I refer to the period of the American Revolution-a period which gave birth to an influence that has gone out from these shores to every land, and will be felt in every age till the last stroke of departing time. If we could ever admit the truth of that ancient maxim, " vox populi vox Dei,"-The voice of the people is the voice of God,-we might easily believe that there was something divine in the voice which summoned these colonies to that struggle, for it was certainly the voice of the people. I see nothing in the transactions of that eventful day more truly surprising, than that plain men, who had spent their days in subduing wild land, and making new roads among these hills, should take it upon them to settle questions touching the prerogatives of kings and the rights of nations. Yet such was the business in which the citizens of this
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town seem to have been chiefly engaged for several years. Nor were the decisions to which they came on these points any thing like those windy, vaporing speculations which will sometimes procure for a man the name of a patriot and politician. They were such decisions as men form when they feel that they shall be called to support them at the hazard of fortune and life ; they were such as their posterity, af- ter more than half a century of reflection, still approve.
In the warrant for a town meeting, which was held Oct. 17, 1765, a leading article was, " To see if the town will give their representa- tive some instructions respecting the Stamp Act coming in force, im- posing a tax upon these Colonies." Their action upon this article is recorded thus ;- " After some considerable debate in the meeting about the said Stamp Act, and after reading considerable part of said Act, the town proceeded to give their representative the following instructions, viz. that the town look upon the duty of the Stamp Act to be insupportable, and do instruct and desire their representative to use the utmost of his endeavors consistent with loyalty, that said Stamp Act may be repealed." The representative that year was Col. Moses Marcy, who was also chairman of the Select Men.
Their next instructions to their representative show less tenderness of conscience on the subject of loyalty. The Lieut. Governor, and some other of his Majesty's faithful servants in Boston, had sus- tained a considerable loss of property in the riot which was occa- sioned there by the odious Stamp Act; and the question which came before the people of this town at their meeting, Sept. 12, 1766 was, " whether the town will give their representative any instruction what the mind of the town is, and what the town would have the General Court do about making up that loss ?" Their views were expressed in the following rather remarkable words : " Voted, that our repre- sentative use his endeavor in the General Court, that the loss, which the Lieut. Governor sustained last year by the mob or riot respecting the Stamp Act, be made up to him with as much credit, and as lit- tle charge to the Province, as may be;"-which was afterwards ex- plained as meaning that they would have the General Court do no- thing about it.
The increasing burdens which Great Britain imposed on the Colo- nies increased the strength of their determination to throw them off. In this town a special meeting of the citizens was called by the Se- lect Men, June 27, 1774, " to consider of some measures proper to be adopted for the safety and defence of the Province in this distress-
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ed condition by reason of several late acts of the British Parliament." The Select Men at this time were Daniel Fiske, Nathaniel Walker, James Johnson, John Tarbell and Samuel Ellis. " After solemn pray- er to God for direction," they chose one of their number to officiate as " Speaker ;" and having discussed the public grievances for several hours, the united voice of the town, as expressed by formal vote, was, not to purchase any goods which should be imported from England after a certain specified time. They even entered into solemi co- venant with each other to abide by this vote, and signed their names.
On the 25th of the next August another meeting was called for the purpose of acting upon the following proposition, which seems to have come from some other quarter, and was probably sent to all the towns in the County, viz. " That, considering the present alarming situation of our public affairs by reason of several late acts of the Bri- tish Parliament, altering the course of justice and annihilating our once free Constitution and Government, a Committee be chosen in each town in the County to meet at Worcester, or some other suitable place, to consult and advise what is necessary and prudent to be done by the inhabitants of this County." After a free discussion the pro- position was carried unanimously, and a Committee appointed, con- . sisting of Moses Weld, Timothy Newell,* William Mckinstry, John
* The Hon. Timothy Newell, Esq. was born at Needham, in 1742. Hle removed to Stur- bridge, a young mechanic, withont property or patrons, and established himself in the manu- acture of spinning-wheels, chairs, and rakes, about the year 1763. In this humble, but ho- nest calling he labored for many years. By industry and economy he was at length enabled to open a small store, which was gradually enlarged till he found himself engaged extensively in trade, and the owner of a handsome estate-one of the most considerable in town. His early education was quite limited, but by reading, observation, and thinking, he became fami- liar with many of the sciences-especially mathematics and mechanism-to which he also added an extensive knowledge of history and politics.
His natural and acquired talents prepared him to exert an influence in society, and soon brought him into public life. At the commencement of the revolutionary war he entered the army as Brigade Major, and when he left the service he held the rank of Colonel. He was one of the foremost in resisting the mutinous spirit which at lengthi broke out in Shays' rebel- lion, and was next to General Lincoln in command of the troops sent by the Government to quell it. Either before or immediately after this event he was promoted to the rank of Maj. General of the division of militia in this County. As a civilian he was not less distinguished than as a soldier, having been called more than once to a seat in the Governor's Honorable Council.
While Gen. Newell was in the army he became acquainted with the religious speculations of the French philosophers, and perhaps, like many others at that time, secretly adopted them as his own. But he made no attempts to influence the minds of others, nor even withheld his support from the religious society in town. On the contrary he took a leading part in adding a steeple to the Meetinghouse, in which he also placed a town-clock at his own expense. He died Feb. 5, 1819, aged 76 years. His grave-stone bears the following honorable testi-
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Salmon, and Benjamin Freeman. The convention was held soon efter, and a report of their proceedings, " being read twice distinctly" to the assembled citizens of this town, was approved by vote.
Hitherto the people of these Colonies had employed no other wea- pons in the sacred cause of liberty than those of argument and en- treaty. Ten years had already elapsed since the controversy began, and no deliverance had been wrought, no wrong redressed ; nor was there any prospect of better success .by a continuance of the same pacific measures. On the contrary new burdens had been imposed, and others still were threatened. They were thinking, therefore, with painful interest, of a resort to arms. The citizens of Sturbridge were not behind the foremost of their fellow countrymen in giving expres- sion to these sentiments. In a regular town meeting, Sept. 28, 1774, it was voted, " to provide four half barrels of powder, 5 cwt. of lead, and 500 flints." Timothy Newell and Erasmus Babbit stepped for- ward and generously offered to furnish one half barrel of powder at their own expense; which was received with applause. A committee of seven were then chosen "to make provision for the men of this town in case they should be called away upon any sudden emergen- cy," and a vote was passed " by a great majority", to pay the men who should thus be called away. At the same meeting they appoint- ed Capt. Timothy Parker a delegate to the Provincial Congress to be convened soon after at Concord.
In the month of November following, another town meeting was held in which the Select Men were authorized to provide still more ammunition. On this occasion the Rev. Joshua Paine, who was then Pastor of the Congregational Church, proposed to pay for one cask of powder himself, if the town would be at the trouble of procuring it ; whereupon Licut. Henry Fiske, one of the principal members of the , Baptist Church offered to give 1 cwt. of lead to go with it.
From such expressions of individual feeling we may casily conjec- ture what was the general feeling in the community. But we have something more decisive than mere conjecture. That they might know the real spirit that prevailed in the town, and the precise state of their military affairs, they adjourned the meeting till the first Mon- day in Dec. at 10 o'clock A. M. with a request, " that all the men in
mony,-" Distinguished for his wisdom in counsel, and his valor in defending the liberty of his country."-His wife was Miriam, the daughter of Col. Moses Marcy. Of their 9 children only 2 remain-Mrs. Allen of Worcester, and a sister residing in Salem, N. Y.
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town, from 16 years old and upward, then meet at the Meetinghouse in Sturbridge with arms and ammunition in order for reviewing."
That meeting must have been one of extraordinary interest. Ten o'clock A. M. the 1st Monday in Dec. 1774 found this Common a military camp. It had never presented such a spectacle before, and probably it never will again. Here stood the elders of the town form- ed into a company of " Alarm men." There the gallant Capt. Par- ker was marshaling the active and athletic youth into a band of " Mi- nute men." The brave Capt. Newell with his company of Grena- diers were drawn up in another part of the field ; while a body of Ca- valry under Capt. Craft occupied still another. Almost every male citizen over 16 years of age had become a soldier. All things being properly arranged, they marched into the Church in military order. The rest I will relate in the language of the town records .- " After solemn prayer to God, and singing, the Rev. Joshua Paine preached a sermon from Psalms - .* After the exercise was over, the ad- journment of the town meeting was read and the remaining part of the articles which had not been acted upon. Proposed by the town to call over the list of the Alarm men first, the number of which was 103, some 60,-some more than 70 years old. Most of them were deficient as to arms or ammunition, and some as to both. The Clerks of the other companies returned to the town that the men were genc- rally present, and generally equipped, or would be soon, and if there were any not likely to be, their names would be returned to the town. Capt. Ebenezar Craft for the troop in this town returned an account of every one in particular, that they were well equipped and all pre- pared."
There happened to be a few men in town, who did not make their appearance on this occasion; and the Select Men, with two other cit- izens were, appointed a Committee " to go to them and take an exact account of their preparations as to arms and ammunitions," and make report at the next meeting. When that report was made, the town passed the following spirited vote: " that it is the sense of this town, that every man in town able to furnish himself with arms and ammuni- tion do forthwith fix himself complete ; and be it further recommend-
* The preacher's text is not recorded ; but if he selected the one most accordant with the real spirit of that occasion, we may conjecture that he took the Ist verse of the 144th Psalnı : -" Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight." It is a fact, that very soon after this discourse was preached, there was an article in the warrant for a town meeting, "To see if the town will allow the company of minute men, so called, any consideration for their en- couragement to learn the art of war."
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ed in the strongest terms to all in town unprepared to defend our just rights and privileges and all that is dear to us, in this time of great danger and distress, to exert themselves to the utmost to be prepared immediately." A committee of one from cach school district was also employed to obtain the signature of every individu- al in town to a written pledge "for the strict observance of all the resolves of the Continental Congress, in particular that part called the Association."
Such was the spirit which reigned in this town at the beginning of the year 1775. Nor was it for the protection of their own fami- lies and firesides alone that these energetic measures were adopted. Their views were broad. Their patriotism was comprehensive and impartial, taking its rise beyond the narrow sphere of private interest, and encircling the whole body politic. Many recorded facts might be stated in illustration of this remark.
On the 20th of May, 1775, the following instructions were given to the delegate whom they were about sending to a Provincial Con- gress in Watertown: " 1. Respecting civil government (in case the petition or address to his Majesty should be rejected) we think it highly necessary to assume government, by and with the advice of our sister Colonies, as soon as may be. 2. Respecting the demands of the Grand Congress, we advise that the whole of their expenses be paid ; and as to their wages, we think that 13 shillings and 6 pence per day is too much, and we advise our delegate to plead in behalf of the Province, that things may be carried on with as little expense as possible in this day of trouble and distress."
The citizens of Sturbridge had already borrowed money on interest to redeem the pledge which they had given to support the common cause. They had made great sacrifices, and stood prepared to make still greater. A vote which was passed at one town meeting to raise £100 for the purpose of repairing roads, was promptly reconsidered at the next, because in their judgment political oppression was worse than bad roads. They had been contemplating the erection of a new Meetinghouse, but even this, though greatly needed, they cheerfully put aside, till they should get through the present struggle for liberty. Such men had a right to recommend economy in the management of public affairs. And if on this point they were even rigid, it was the result not of parsimony, but of patriotism. It was " in behalf of the Province," and not of themselves, that they were pleading.
It is truly surprising to observe the alacrity with which they conti-
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nucd to draw upon their scanty resources to meet their country's de- mands. The following document which the Rev. Mr. Paine sent into the town meeting about this time, may be taken as a fair speci- men of the general feeling.
" To the inhabitants of the town of Sturbridge. " Gentlemen,
" While you are preparing arms and ammunition to defend our just rights and privileges, occasioned by the alarming tidings from Parliament, I feel it my duty to engage in the common cause of liberty, believing that he is unjust to God who can tamely submit to tyranny. I proposed [at a former meeting] to pay for a barrel of powder, or a cask, provided you would be at the trouble of procur- ing it. But as I understand you have been unable so to do, neither does it appear to me worth your while at this time. Still I find it my duty to bear my part in the calamities that are common to us all. Not to rest in words, I propose to make a present to the town of £100 Old Tenor, to be reducted out of my next assessment ; i. e. to assess but £53 ; and, to oblige, I propose, if the town will give me security for what then shall be due in June, that I will wait one year for it, and. longer, unless mortality or something extraordinary shall prevent."
One hundred pounds Old Tenor was equal to £13 Gs. Sd. Lawful money, or $44,44, which was about one fifth of Mr. Paine's annual salary. This sum he gave; and then, "to .oblige," waited four years for the remaining &53 .*
I have said that this generous sacrifice of the minister, in sustain- ing his suffering country, may be taken as a fair specimen of the general feeling at that time. And whoever will take the trouble to review the records of this town during that period, and examine the sums of money that were raised for bounty to the soldiers, for
* So great were the fluctuations in the currency at that time, that during those four years money had depreciated in the proportion of 20 to 1 ; in other words, the sum of £20 in 1779, was worth no more in procuring the necessaries of life, than El was in 1775. This was the report of a Committee consisting of Aaron Allen, Ebenezar Craft, and Timothy Newell, who had been appointed to make an estimate of the amount which should be paid to Mr. Paine. So that the £53 of his salary which he had permitted the town to keep in their hands during four years of distress, had sunk to the small value of £2 13s. when the time of payment came. But those noble minded men who were themselves engaged in a struggle for justice, had too keen a sense of justice to think of paying any thing less than the value received. In making settlement, therefore, with Mr. Paine, they generously voted "to grant him money sufficient to purchase the necessary articles of consumption which £53 would in the year 1775;" and accordingly paid £1060 as an equivalent for the E53 which they had borrowed.
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ammunition, arms, provisions, and for other military purposes, will see that it was indeed, " like priest, like people." Money, however, was not the most costly offering which they laid on the altar of free- dom. I have obtained the names of 239 men, all from this town, who at different times went out and joined themeslves to the armies which fought the battles of liberty during the Revolutionary struggle. Among this number there was one Colonel, one Major, eight Cap- tains, eight Lieutenants, and two Ensigns, besides the Rev. Joshua Paine, who officiated two months as Chaplain in the neighborhood of Sing Sing, N. Y.
Such facts as these show wherein consisted that invincible strength by which these infant Colonies were able to resist the will of Great Britain :- it consisted in the bones and sinews of their lion-hearted yeomanry. And it will appear not improbable to a reflecting mind, that the reason why these revolted Colonies did not fall into the hands of some aspiring Dictator, as it was confidently foretold that they would, if they left the Mother Country, was not so much because there was no one here to dictate, as because there were none to be dictated.
This strong repellency to every thing in the form of dictation, the citizens of Sturbridge discovered, not only in throwing off an old form of government, but also in adopting a new one. After the Declara- tion of Independence had been published to the world, and the pco- ple of this town in a special meeting for that purpose had solemnly " engaged to support it with their lives and fortunes," and had actu- ally transcribed it entire in the book of their town records, a circular was sent throughout the Commonwealth, the object of which was to ascertain whether the people would consent that their Representatives then in session should frame and ratify such a Constitution and form of government for the State as they might judge best. When that proposal came before the citizens of Sturbridge in public meeting Oct. 14, 1776, it passed in the negative with but one dissenting voice ; and a Committee, consisting of Dea. Daniel Fiske, Dea. Moses Weld, Col. Daniel Plimpton, Mr. John Holbrook, and Lieut. Henry Fiske, were appointed to draw up the reasons for this vote. The principal one was the following, which contains perhaps as much sound politi- cal truth as was ever thrown into so small a compass. " As the end of government is the happiness and safety of the people, so the sole right and power of forming and establishing a plan thereof is in the people ; consequently we think it unadvisable and irrational to con-
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sent that any set of men should form and ratify a Constitution of government for us before we know what it is." It was approved by vote of the town, and sent to their representative for his instruction.
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