USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Ashburnham > History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts : from the grant of Dorchester Canada to the present time 1734-1886 with a genealogical register of Ashburnham families > Part 2
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INTRODUCTION.
mills at Burrageville. In compensation for exhausted energy it soon receives a tributary from the south and rushes on to its many tasks below until it falls into the Connecticut near Greenfield. By this river a half of the town is drained. The source of the brook rising in New Ipswich and flowing through this town is the extreme eastern point of the Connecticut valley.
The southeastern or Merrimack slope is divided into four seetions and is drained by as many streams flowing outward. The first drainage is in the northeast part of the town and embraces the basin defined by Great Watatic, Little Watatie and Blood hill. Here the overflow of Stoger meadow and a few smaller streams falling into Ward pond and thence into Watatie pond give rise to a branch of the Souhegan river. Its course is through the north part of Ashby and New Ips- wich and onward to the Merrimack river at the town of Mer- rimack, New Hampshire.
The second drainage is of small area lying between Blood and Russell hills and embraces portions of the Dutch and Cambridge farms. The streams leave this town near the residence of Joseph W. Wilker and fall into the Ashby res- ervoir. IIere the collected water assumes the name of Willard's brook and is tributary to the Squanicook river in Townsend.
The third drainage is bounded on the north and east by the Connecticut slope and the first and second sections of the Merrimack slope. The western boundary is the height of land from Mecting-house hill, thence south across the farm of Joseph Harris to the line of Westminster. The water collected at Rice or Reservoir pond is drained by Phillips' brook flowing through the centre village and onward through the northeast part of Westminster into Fitchburg.
The fourth drainage of the Merrimack slope embraces the
20
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
southwest and remaining area of the town. Here are several artificial ponds but no natural body of water. The drainage is collected in the stream rising in the Nashua reservoir and flowing through the village of South Ashburnham and thence through Westminster in a course nearly parallel with Phillips' brook to the line of Fitchburg. At this point it abruptly turns to the north and unites with Phillips' brook at West Fitchburg. Dashing on in a first embrace through the rocky valley of Fitchburg it more leisurely pursues its way through Leominster and Lancaster to a point between Groton and Shirley where it receives the Squanieook, bearing the waters of the second drainage. Together the triune river engulfed in stronger currents falls into the Merrimack river at Nashua. Perhaps somewhere in the river-bed they recognize and mingle with the clear waters from Watatie pond which in its onward course to the ocean has wandered through the valley of the Souhegan. Fallulah or Baker's brook flowing into Fitchburg and a small stream flowing into Westminster are tributary in a short distance to the larger streams and are not considered separately.
There are eight natural ponds in this town ; four are trib- utary to the Connecticut and four to the Merrimack river.
THE UPPER NAUKEAG or Mecting-house pond, beneath the towering summits of the surrounding hills and dotted with rugged islands, is a lake of peculiar beauty and attrac- tion. The water is clear and cool and the basin unusually free from sediment. The shores are mainly rocky, some- times bold and rugged, in other places pure sand of spark- ling whiteness forms the encireling barrier and extends beneath the surface of the crystal water, but nowhere is the lake approached by low and marshy ground. This lake and the Watatie mountains were known to the explorers before the settlement of the town. The names undoubtedly are
21
INTRODUCTION.
of Indian origin. but the original sound has been so imper- feetly preserved and the names have experienced so many changes in English orthography that students of the Indian dialects fail to discover the original signification of the terms. Professor Trumbull, a recognized authority, has examined these names in every form of orthography and fails to find in them any clement that designates either pond or mountain.
THE LOWER NAUKEAG LAKE is less rugged in outline. At the eastern extremity the accumulating deposit of cen- turies has appeared above the surface of the water and many acres of low land are included within the original basin of the lake. The drainage is controlled by artificial obstruction.
A NAMELESS POND of small area is found in the forest and surrounded by marsh. It is situated a short distance west of Little Watatie and is tributary to the stream which flows through North Ashburnham.
ANOTHER NAMELESS POND, a lonely sheet of water, is found in the marsh in the southwest part of the town. It is near the line of the Cheshire railroad and midway between the depots at North and South Ashburnham. It is tributary to the south branch of Miller's river at Burrageville. The course of the stream is northwest and near the line of the Cheshire railroad.
RICE POND is the most important body of water in the Merrimack drainage. The dam at the outlet controls the natural current and overflows the original boundaries. The declivity of the shores is generally uniform and the natural features and contour of the pond are generally preserved. At the present time it is frequently called Reservoir pond, and in 1735 it was known as Wenecheag pond.
MUD POND of small area is tributary to Rice pond and is situated about one-half mile northwest of it.
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
WARD POND, formerly known as Whiteman pond, is a gem among the lakes guarded and nurtured by the encircling hills. Its pebbly shores are familiar to the angler while its placid surface and picturesque surroundings are suggestive of rest and tranquillity.
. WATATIC POND on the stream below Ward pond is similar in outline but smaller in area. It lies partis in Ashby, but the greater portion is in this town. Near these two ponds were the homes of several of the earliest settlers of Dorches- ter Canada.
In addition to these natural bodies of water, which for cen- turies have enlivened the landscape and mirrored in their crystal waters each passing bird and the overhanging hills, there are many reservoir's or artificial ponds in this town. Maintained by the work and for the convenience of man they are perishable and unless the barriers are constantly renewed the waters will again flow within the banks of the natural currents. They form no part of the natural features of the town.
The prevailing arboral products are white pine, spruce, hemlock, maple, birch and beech. These are found in all parts of the town. In the original forests the heaviest growth of the deciduous varieties was found in the southeast part of the town, while the soft woods were in greater abundance in the northern and western portions of the town. The red oak, chestnut, white and black ash, hard pine. juniper or tamarack, fir balsam, basswood, leverwood and hornbeam are native here. The elm, black cherry and white oak are found in small quantity. The white willow, poplar and gray birch are possibly of secondary growth and are constantly increas- ing in quantity. The moosewood, with its large, broad leaves, flourishes beneath the shade of the forests. Black alder, bearing red berries, is seen upon the roadside, and tag alder
23
INTRODUCTION.
lines the shore of the brooks and the margin of low lands. Red and poison sumac, or dogwood, are rare. Clusters of withe, whitewood, witch and nut hazel. and laurel are found in many places. A. few locust - two varieties - butternut or white walnut, and Lombardy poplar have flourished as shade- trees, but are not natives here.
The town originally was heavily wooded. The denizens of the dense forests included a variety of animals common to the locality. In the early progress of the settlement the black bear forsook his favorite haunts without thought of contest or show of resistance. A coward both by instinct and habit he fled at the approach of man. But every solitary bear that since has made a hasty circuit of the town has lived in peren- nial tradition and has immortalized every man or woman who chanced to behold the fugitive presence. Very few of the early settlers ever beheld the countenance of a living bear. Habitually his face was directed the other way and his eye was ever resting on some distant point he desired to visit. The wolf in early times was more numerous and troublesome. Fifty years ago they had not entirely disappeared.
Traces of beaver dams are not yet wholly obliterated but the builders abruptly refused to labor in competition with man. The track of the otter is yet seen occasionally in the new fallen snow and the mink still inhabits along the courses of the streams. Muskrats with little fear of man continue to build their round moundlike houses in the shallow water of the ponds. Foxes, fed by the garbage of civilization, and the woodchuck, partial to the succulent vegetation of cultivated fields, are probably as numerous as at any former period. The several varieties of squirrels, the hare and the coney rabbit, while limited in the area of their possessions, are rel- atively numerous. Occasionally the sleepy porcupine is found in his quiet home in a hollow tree and the raccoon visits
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
the fields of ripening corn from year to year in unequal numbers.
The birds found here are such as are common to the latitude, and other conditions of the town. The melodies that greeted the morning light in the solitudes of the original forests are our delight at the present time. The thrush and the sparrow, first to confide in the merey of men and nest near the hamlets of the clearing, if not as numerous as formerly, are still the welcome visitors of the summer-time. The red-headed wood- pecker, whose animated rappings broke the stillness of the forest, was frequently seen in former years but is now extinct, while the imported sparrow has found its way hither from the seaboard. The wild goose, the black and gray duck, of migratory habits, visit the ponds in their spring and autumn transits. The wood and dipper duck not unfrequently nest here, and can be found in their retreats during the summer and autumn. The loon or northern diver ( Colymbus gla- cialis ) during the summer months and early autumn is daily seen floating upon the lakes or is heard ealling his mate during a flight between the ponds. They frequently nest upon the islands in Upper Naukeag. The wild pigeon is less abundant than formerly, while the sonorous whistle of the quail ( Ortyx virginianus) is sometimes heard, but this bird seldom nests in this latitude. Partridges ( Tetras umbellus, or the Bonasa umbellus of Linnæus) are abundant, and the loud whirring sound of their wings, as they burst away at the approach of visitors to their haunts, and their animated drumming in the forest continue to attest their familiar presence.
The lakes, reservoirs and rivulets of this town abound in fish peculiar to the waters of this vicinity. So far as known, none of the natives of these waters have become extinct. The black bass, land-locked salmon and lake trout are of recent and artificial introduction. The brook, or spotted
25
INTRODUCTION.
trout. fond of shade and cool water, have been disturbed in their favorite haunts by the removal of the forests, and are Jess numerous than formerly. The name and the charac- teristics of the habitants of the lakes and brooks of this town are familiar to all, yet the following list may be of interest at some future time :
The pickerel ( Esox reticulatus) ; brook trout ( Salmo fontinalis ) ; perch (Perca flavescens) : shiner ( Stille chry- solencas ) ; bream or sunfish ( Pomotis vulgaris) ; chub or cheven (Leuciscus chephalus) ; black sucker ( Catostomus) ; chub sucker, another of the same genus; the minnow, or minum, a very small fish, and a specie of Leuciscus; cat fish or horned pout ( Pimelodus catus). The common eel ( An- guilla tenuirostris), and the lamprey cel, a specie of the Petromyzon, although rare, are sometimes taken from the ponds.
The most prominent elevation is Great Watatic. Its rounded summit is one thousand eight hundred and forty- seven feet above tide water. This grand and lofty tower on the line of the water-shed. is symmetrical in its form and imposing in its presence, and with grim visage it overlooks the hamlets in the northeast part of the town. In a right line and a mile nearer the old common, is Little Watatic, of similar form and softened outlines. An earlier orthography of these mountains, was Wantatuck. Blood hill, south of Great Watatic, and on the line of Ashby, in the morning light, casts its fretted shadow over the lakes at its base and around its crest the rainbow appears in the lingering rain of an evening shower. Across the intervening valley at the south, is the plateau of Russell hill, once heavily wooded, and now the seat of productive farms. Jewell hill, near at hand, is a sturdy watch-tower on the limits of the town.
East of Rice pond, suddenly rises the bristling form of
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
Mount Hunger. If its name and sterility are suggestive of famine, its situation near the lake is a safeguard against thirst. And on the line of the water-shed, is Meeting-house hill, which commands an extensive view of the surrounding country. Here our fathers literally went up to worship, and early called it "a hill with a very fair prospect." Brown hill, and the ridges in the northwest part of the town, and other elevations, on which are houses and cultivated fields, would be styled mountains amid surroundings less grand and lofty.
The altitude of the town. and the bold and rugged outlines of the landscape, are the elements of scenery unsurpassed in beauty and grandeur. These features of nature are a living inspiration and enjoyment to all who inhabit here, and treasured among golden memories are the visions of matchless sublimity which delighted the childhood and youth of every absent son and daughter of Ashburnham.
"From such a 'scene, how many feelings spring ! How many thoughts flash through the kindling mind ! Delightful dreams have birth ; -- we almost seem Pass'd to another sphere, -- and the glad heart Forgets that earth is still its transient home. This is a vision for the rest of life, An amaranthine tenant for the breast, A morning star for mem'ry, which, amid Life's fitful clouds, shall radiantly shine forth. When scenes less beautiful attract my gaze, I shall recall thy quiet loveliness."
CHAPTER I.
THE EARLY GRANTS.
SEVEN GRANTS OF LAND. - THE POLICY OF THE GENERAL COURT. - AN ERA OF GRANTS. - THIE STARR GRANT. - OWNED BY GREEN, WILDER AND JOSLIN. - THE CAMBRIDGE GRANT. - THE FIRST SURVEY. - THE LEX- INGTON GRANT. - SALE OF SAME TO THE GERMANS. - THE BLUEFIELD GRANT. - THE EARLY ROAD TO NORTHFIELD. - THE GRANT SOLD TO WILLIAM JONES AND EPHRAIM WETHERBEE. -- THE CONVERSE GRANT. - SALE TO JOSEPH WILDER. - THE ROLFE GRANT. -- SALE TO JOIN GREEN- WOOD. - THE DORCHESTER CANADA OR TOWNSHIP GRANT. - THE CANADA SOLDIERS. -- FOUR TOWNS CHARTERED IN ONE ENACTMENT. - THE TOWN- SHIP SURVEYED. - AREA. - PERSONAL NOTICES.
ROME was founded on seven hills. Ashburnham was founded on seven grants of land. To give some account of these several grants will be the province of this chapter. One hundred and fifty years ago, Massachusetts was rich in lands, but poor in treasure. The public treasury was con- tinually overdrawn, and in place of money, the nappro- priated lands became the currency of the province. Upon the wilderness, the Government made frequent and generous drafts in the payment of a great variety of elaims and demands against the colony. At the time these seven grants of land were made, the prolonged controversy concerning the loca- tion of the province line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was being vigorously prosecuted. It was clearly the accepted policy of Massachusetts to fortify her elaim to a
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
lange tract of the controverted territory by possession and occupaney, in the hope thereby of maintaining a claim to the domain after all diplomacy had failed. Thus stimulated. both by necessity and policy, the General Court made numerous grants of land in this immediate vieinity, with unmistakable alacrity. It was an era of benevolence. Per- ceiving the disposition of the Government, many, who could only make the smallest pretext of service rendered the colony by themselves or their ancestors, were found among the petitioners for land. Seldom were their requests denied, and even old claims, which had remained unanswered many years, were suddenly revived and rewarded with generous parcels of the public domain. While this spirit of liberality was rife and condescending, the territory within the ancient. boundaries of this township was severed from the wilderness and bestowed in recognition of service rendered the colony.
Included within the limits of Dorchester Canada, were six earlier grants, which were located and surveyed before the bounds of the township had been established. They fell within, yet were independent of, the main grant, as will appear in the progress of our narrative. In regard to the relative dates of these grants, the traditions of the town are not in harmony with the facts, and Whitney's History of Worcester County, 1793, incorrectly asserts: "To the original grant were afterwards added Lexington farm of one thousand acres, Cambridge farm of one thousand acres more, and Rolfe's farm of six hundred acres, and another of about a thousand acres." Rev. Dr. Cushing, in his Half Century Sermon, 1818, repeats the error in nearly the same words : "To the original grant, four farms were annexed : Lexing- ton Farm, Cambridge Farm each of 1000 aeres, Rolf's Farm of 7 or 800 acres, and another of 1000." But he nearly corrects the statement when he adds, that "these
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THE EARLY GRANTS.
farms were located west of Lunenburg and Townsend, and north of Westminster, before this town was granted." It will appear that there were six farms, or grants of land. and that all of them were conveyed and located previous to the grant of Dorchester Canada. In the survey and location of the township, these farms were included within its boundaries, but were not computed as a part of the thirty-six square miles that were conveyed in the grant of the township.
About 1650, Dr. Thomas Starr accompanied, as surgeon, one of the expeditions against the Pequots. This service is the earliest event of which we have any knowledge, that is immediately associated with the history of Ashburnham, and leads directly to the narrative of the first grant of land within this town.
I. THE STARR GRANT. -- On account of this service of Dr. Thomas Starr, who died in Charlestown, 1654, his widow, four years later, petitioned for a grant of land, as appears in Court Records, 1658 :
Whereas Mr Thomas Starre deceased having left a desolat widdow and eight smale children was ye chirurgeon of one of ye companys yt went against ye Pequotts in Ans' to the Request of Severall Gentl" on yt behalfe.
The Court judgeth it meete to graunt fower hundred acres of Land to ye sayd widow & children & doe impower ye Tresurer and Capt. Norton to make sale or otherwise to dispose of the sayd as may best conduce to ye benefit of the widdow & children as they shall see meete.
It is certain that this grant was never located and that the desolate widow and eight small children did not receive any benefit from the kind intentions of the General Court. Seventy-five years later, the descendants of Dr. Starr revived the claim as set forth in Council Records. October 19, 1733 :
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNIIAM.
A Petition of Benjamin Starr for himself and the rest of the heirs & Descendants of the Widow of Thomas Starr late of Charlestown decd showing that the General Court of the late Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in the year 1658 for Service done by the said Thomas Starr made a Grant of four hundred Acres of Land to his said widow &Children which has not yet been laid out and therefore praying that they may now be allowed to lay out four hundred Acres of the unappropriated Land of the province to satisfy the said Grant.
In the House of Representatives Read & Ordered that the prayer of the petition be granted and the petitioners are allowed and impowered by a Surveyor & Chainmen on Oath to Survey and lay out four hundred Acres of the wvappropriated Lands of the province so as not to prejudice the Settlement of a Township & that they return a Plat thereof to this Court within twelve Months for confirmation.
In Council Read & Concurred,.
Consented to
J. BELCHER.
Again the petitioners suffered their grant to lapse, and, in November, 1734, the General Court with expansive consid- eration "ordered that twelve months more be allowed to Benjamin Star of New London and other heirs to take and return a plat of land."
Under the provisions of this vote the grant was consum- mated and the service of Dr. Starr, after the lapse of nearly a century, was rewarded. The survey was made by Joseph Wilder and returned under date of May 30, 1735.
The chainmen in this survey were John Bennett and Joseph Wheelock. In the mean time the Cambridge farm and the Lexington farm, which were granted in 1734, had been sur- veyed and confirmed, and the Starr farm, although first granted, became the third in the order of survey. The con- firmation or approval by the General Court is under date of June 10, 1735 :
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THE EARLY GRANTS.
A Plat of four hundred Acres of Land Granted to the heirs of the widow Starr laid out by Joseph Wilder Esq', Surveyor and Chainmen on oath, lying on the north side of Narragansett Town number two and bounded every other way by Province Lands beginning at a stake & stones on the aforesaid Narragansett Line, Eighty rods west of where the said Line crosses a Branch of Lancaster North River that comes out of Wenecheag pond ; thence running north 18 deg" west three hundred & thirty rods to a stake and stones ; thence Running west 18 deg" South two hundred & Eight rods to a stake & stones; thence Running South 18 degne East three hundred & thirty rods to the aforesaid Narragansett Line to a stake & stones; thence with said line East 18 deg" north two hundred & eight Rods to where it first began.
In the House of Representatives : Read & Ordered that the Plat be accepted and the Lands therein delineated & described be and hereby are confirmed to the said Benjamin Star and the other heirs and descendants of the widow of Dr. Thomas Star deceased their heirs and assigns Respectively provided the plat exceed not the quantity of four hundred Acres of Land and does not Interfere with any former Grant.
Consented to J. BELCHER.
This tract of land can be easily traced at the present time. It lies on the line between Ashburnham and Westminster, its southeast corner being on the town line four hundred and fourteen rods westerly from the common corner of Ashburn- ham, Fitchburg and Westminster. It is a rectangle extend- ing three hundred and thirty rods northerly and two hundred and eight rods westerly from the point named. Ten rods were added to the length and eight rods to the width on account of " uneven ground and swag of chain." The home- stead of John G. Woodward lies within the grant.
Before the close of the year the heirs sold the grant to Thomas Green, a merchant of Boston, for two hundred
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
pounds, which then was about two hundred dollars in silver. Six years later Mr. Green sold the whole four hundred aeres to Joseph Wilder. Jr., who continuel the owner alone and in company with John Joslin until the time it was sold in small lots a number of years later. While Mr. Wilder had posses- sion of this land he also owned the Converse grant which lies next west, and together they were known as the Wilder farm.
II. THE CAMBRIDGE GRANT. - For many years the Gen- eral Court of the colony made it obligatory upon Cambridge, Newton and Lexington to maintain the bridge spanning Charles river between Brighton and Cambridge. This struct- ure, called the "Great Bridge," was built in 1662 and was justly considered an achievement of considerable magnitude. These towns made frequent requests to be relieved, wholly or in part, from the burden of its support, and finally the three towns joined in a petition to the General Court pray- ing that "they may be in some measure eased of it or that the Court would make them a Grant of Land the better to enable them to support said charge." The Court, appar- ently, was more inclined to give them land, than to offer or suggest any other relief, and with commendable promptness voted to each of the three towns one thousand acres of land. These grants were made June 22, 1734. Newton located five hundred and sixty-six acres adjoining Athol and Peters- ham and the remaining four hundred and thirty-four aeres at Berwiek, Maine. Cambridge and Lexington located their grants within the limits of this town, which for many years were familiarly known as Cambridge and Lexington farms. . The Cambridge grant was surveyed previous to September 6, of the same year, for at that date Nathan Heywood made oath that in surveying this grant he had employed his best skill and understanding. The location and survey of the
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