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 26
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The accumulating Cushing fund, after meeting the cost of construction of the school edifice, was found in November, 1876, to be $120,542.34, and since that date the fund remains unimpaired, the income only being used for the maintenance of the school.
The spacious dwelling, appropriately named Jewett Hall, and now employed in the accommodation of instructors and pupils connected with the school, was presented to the cor- poration by Charles Hastings, and the Crosby house on Cen- tral street was donated by Rev. Josiah D. Crosby to found, in memory of his wife, the Elvira W. Crosby scholarship.
A library of nearly two thousand volumes, including generous donations from Dr. A. T. Lowe of Boston and from several residents of this town, has been collected and will become of inestimable service to the school. The apparatus for scientific illustration and experiment is annu- ally increasing. Prominent in this department is a valuable telescope, presented by J. H. Fairbanks of Fitchburg.
The mission of Cushing Academy is scarce begun. Its brief history, if conspicuous and honorable, fades in the
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CUSHING ACADEMY_ ASHBURNHAM.MASS.
357
` THE CUSHING ACADEMY. -
light and warmth of its hopes and its aspirations. These pages are annals of the past. The face of this youthful, vig- orous institution is turned the other way. Situated in a broad field, with a rapidly increasing patronage, and bear- ing the confidence of the public, it enters upon its second decade with hope and courage.
The first principal of Cushing Academy was Edwin Pierce, A. M., who continued in charge four years, and whose name is honorably associated with the initial history of the institution. The excellent reputation of Professor Pierce as a scholar and an able instructor led the board of trustees to solicit his services and to his care they confided the school with unlimited confidence. In character, in purity of motives and in faithful, earnest endeavors to carry the school through the exacting ordeal of its inauguration, the confidence of the trustees was not misplaced. In the prog- ress of his labors in this institution it gradually became apparent to Professor Pierce and to the board of trustees that they were not in full sympathy in regard to discipline and that there was a failure of cooperation on the part of all the friends of the academy. With the universal confi- dence and respect of the community, Mr. Pierce retired from labors auspiciously begun in June, 1879. From the first he was recognized as a cultured gentleman and in all his relations with the school and with the people he was frank, sincere and honorable.
Edwin Pierce, son of Dana and Diadema (Paul) Pierce, was born at Barnard, Vermont, June 25, 1826. He pur- sued a preparatory course of study at Woodstock, Vermont, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. and was graduated at Dartmouth College 1852. The suc- ceeding four years he was instructor of Latin and Greek at Seneca Collegiate Institute, Ovid, New York. From 1856
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
to 1863 he was professor of Latin and Greek at Yellow Spring College, Iowa; his connection with that institution was severed by its decline at the outbreak of the Rebellion. During the succeeding eight years he successfully taught a private school in Jersey City, New Jersey, and later he taught the classies in the High School of Cleveland, Ohio, until he became connected with Cushing Academy. He now resides at West Newton, Massachusetts.
Professor Pierce was succeeded by Professor Vose who has been a member of the faculty since the opening of the academy. During the past six years he has continued the efficient principal of the school and his successful administra- tion has been a continued season of prosperity. His service to the school and to the cause of education cannot be esti- mated until the remaining chapters are added and his labor is completed.
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Prof. James E. Vose, son of Edward L. and Aurelia (Wilson) Vose of Antrim, New Hampshire, was born July 18, 1836. His life has been devoted to educational pursuits. He has had charge of several institutions of learning and was principal of Francestown (New Hampshire) Academy two years immediately preceding his removal to this town. He is the author of an English Grammar, and in 1877 he delivered the Centennial Address at Antrim which is pub- lished in the History of that town.
Of the persons who constituted the original board of trust' only four now remain. The term of service and the date of appointment of the trustees are briefly stated :
Francis Wayland, Alexander HI. Bullock,
1865, died 1867.
I865, resigned 1876. .
Josiah D. Crosby, 1865.
1865, died 1871.
Asa Rand, Ohio Whitney, Jr., 1865, died 1879.
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THE CUSHING ACADEMY.
Jerome W. Foster,
1865, died 1871.
George C. Winchester,
1865, resigned 1882.
Abraham T. Lowe,
1865.
Ebenezer Torrey,
1865.
Alvah Crocker,
1865, died 1874.
Amasa Norcross,
1865, resigned 1880.
Isaac M. Murdock,
1865, died 1875.
George H. Barrett,
1873.
Leonard S. Parker,
1874. .
Eli A. Hubbard,
1875, resigned 1882.
B. K. Pierce,
1879.
George F. Stevens,
1879.
Francis A. Whitney,
1879.
Orlando Mason,
1880.
Charles Winchester,
1882.
Henry M. Tyler,
1882.
George P. Davis,
1882.
Presidents :
Rev. Dr. Wayland,
1865-1867.
Gov. Bullock,
1867-1876.
Dr. Lowe,
1876.
Vice-Presidents :
- Gov. Bullock,
1865-1867.
Hon. Amasa Norcross,
1867.
Treasurers :
E. Torrey, Esq.,
1863-1876.
Hon. Ohio Whitney, 1876-1879.
G. F. Stevens, Esq.,
1879.
Clerks :
Rev. J. D. Crosby,
1865-1876.
Col. Geo. H. Barrett,
1876.
1863. .
Abijah P. Marvin,
1874, resigned 1879.
Charles O. Thompson,
CHAPTER XIV.
BOUNDARIES.
DONATIONS OF LAND TO OTHIER TOWNS. - ORIGINAL AREA. - PROVINCE LINE. - INCORPORATION OF ASHBY. - GARDNER. - AREA SEVERED FROM ASH- BURNHAM. - THE FAMILIES. - LAND ANNEXED TO ASHBY. - THE PETI- TIONERS .- ASHBURNHAM RESISTS. - NEW BOUNDARIES. - THE FAMILIES. - A NEW TOWN PROPOSED. - MEETING-HOUSE BUILT. - RENEWED EFFORT AND OPPOSITION. - JOHN WARD AND WILLIAM BARRELL ANNEXED. - PETITION OF GEORGE WILKER AND OTHERS.
ENCROACHMENT upon the borders of this town has been a favorite pursuit of our neighbors. Four considerable tracts . of land have been severed from the original township, and other attempts have been successfully resisted. Our fathers could spare the land such as it was, and no doubt both the donors and the recipients wished it had been better, but the loss of several worthy citizens was a more serious considera- tion. According to the surveys of the several grants the original township contained twenty-seven thousand one hundred and ninety acres. The early surveys were of liberal proportions. The wilderness from which the grants were severed was large and there was no one to protect the province from excessive measurements. The actual area of this township was very nearly thirty-one thousand acres. The first encroachment upon our domain of fair proportions was by the province of New Hampshire in 1741. By this act eight hundred and seventy-seven acres were severed from Dorchester Canada. The incorporation of Ashby severed
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BOUNDARIES.
about fifteen hundred acres from the area of this town. The proceedings were so intimately connected with the in- corporation of Ashburnham that they were admitted in an earlier chapter of these annals.
The erection of a new town out of parts of Ashburnham, Westminster, Templeton and Winchendon was earnestly debated and the preliminaries arranged as early as 1774. In the intent of the petitioners, in the generous impulse of the remaining portions of the several towns, in the general policy of the General Court to increase the number of the towns in the province, in the spirit of the event, Gardner is a decade older than the number of its years. The Revolution delayed but did not defeat the project. In the dawn of returning peace it was successfully renewed. So far as the action of Ashburnham is concerned, the suggestion of a new town near the close of the Revolution was not presented as a new measure, but as a continuation of the proceedings begun several years earlier. In 1774, or eleven years before Gardner was incorporated, the town "voted that the petitioners from Westminster and other towns be so far answered in their petition as to take the lands, after named, from this town beginning at the northwest corner of Kelton's lot, number 46, second division, and running from thence on a straight line to the southeast corner of William Ames' lot, number 55, in the second division, and the said corner of land is voted off to join with the other towns to be incor- porated into a district."
Referring to this vote it was proposed in 1781, " To see if the town would vote off two ranges of lots in addition to what was formerly voted off in the southwest corner." Whereupon the town, May 21, 1781, amended the former vote but added only a small part of the two ranges included in the proposition.
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HISTORY OF AASHBURNHAM.
Voted that the southwest corner of this town be set off to join with a part of Westminster and Winchendon into a separate town as far as the following lots viz. : beginning at the northwest corner of lot number 45, second division ; from thence by the north line of said lot to the northeast corner of said lot; from thence straight to the northeast corner of lot number 55, second division ; thence by the east line of said lot to Westminster town line. Including 2348 acres.
The point of beginning, as defined by this vote, is about eighty rods north of the point established in 1774. The other terminus in Westminster line is the same in both votes. When Gardner was incorporated four years later the land severed from Ashburnham, and consequently the line then established between the two towns, coincided at all points with the line defined in the last vote of this town. In later years the line has been broken at two points, at least, for the accommodation of individuals. The records of Ashburnham . in this connection define only one of the boundary lines of the territory severed from this town. If the existing lines between Ashburnham and Winchendon and between Ash- burnham and Westminster be extended, the former southerly and the latter southwesterly, they will meet at Gardner Centre, and with the former line will enclose the triangular area that, until 1785, was a part of Ashburnham. Con- cerning the number of acres included within these lines the doctors disagree. Rev. Dr. Cushing, in his historical dis- course, estimates it at four thousand acres. To the record of the vote the town clerk has appended, "including 2348 acres." This amount is too small but it is much nearer exactness than the more liberal conjecture of Mr. Cushing.
Ashburnham, still rich in the extent of its territory, could easily afford the lands donated to the new town, but the loss of several worthy citizens from the municipal community
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BOUNDARIES.
was a more important consideration. The families residing on the area severed from this town were in themselves and have continued in their descendants a material element of the character and population of Gardner.
Captain Samuel Kelton came from Needham to this town 1778, and settled on land belonging to the heirs of Edward Kelton who was an early proprietor of right number 47, and afterwards of right number 49. The eminent services of Captain Kelton are noticed in another connection. He resided on the northern part of the land set off to Gardner and near the line of Winehendon. In 1785 his family com- prised a wife and three or four children. One child died in this town November 30, 1780.
Marvriek Hill, from Medway, and five sons, three of whom had families, resided in this town several years before their farms were annexed to Gardner. Moses Hill, the eldest son, had four children in 1785, and in the family of Jesse Hill, another son of Marvriek, were three or four children. Mr. Cushing has left the record of the baptism of James Marvriek and Thomas Adams, sons of Moses Hill, and Enos and William, sons of Samuel Kelton, baptized at the house of Mr. Hill, at a lecture. In another connection Mr. Cushing refers to "the lecture at Mr. Hill's in the southwest part." In these families there were probably twenty-two persons.
Josiah Wilder removed to this town from Sterling about 1776. His wife and one child died in 1782, and he married, second, February 4, 1784, Joanna Baker. He was a distant relative of other families of same name in this town. Three children were living in 1785.
Jonas Richardson came from Shrewsbury in 1781, and was admitted to the church in Ashburnham October 21 of that year. In 1785 his family consisted of his wife and eight children, the eldest thirteen years of age.
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
John White was born in Lexington, June 1, 1748, and settled in the east part of the traet annexed to Gardner about six years before the incorporation of that town. There were three children in 1785.
Peter Goodale was born in Shrewsbury, December 12, 1751. He was married in the north parish of Shrewsbury, now West Boylston, March 9, 1775, and their eldest child was born there December 23, 1775. Soon after the last date the family removed to this town. They had four children when Gardner was incorporated.
Scarcely had Ashburnham generously and good-humoredly contributed materially to the creation of Gardner before another draft was made upon its domain and inhabitants. This time, the attack was made upon the opposite corner of the town. In the end it was vigorously opposed. The original line of Ashby extended from an existing town bound on Blood or Prospect hill, nearly due north to the State line. For twenty-five years the northeast corner of Ashburnham was nearly two miles east of the present corner. A number of families in this part of the town for several years had not been in sympathy with a majority of the town in the support of the ministry. And as soon as a new meet- ing-house was proposed their slumbering discontent was fanned in open revolt. In the spring of 1791, under the leadership of John Abbott, they signified to Ashby a desire to be annexed to that town. Ashby promptly responded in a vote "to receive Isaac Whitney, Josiah Burgess, James Pollard, James Bennett, Joseph Damon, Jeremiah Abbott, John Hall, Daniel Brown, John Abbott, Amos Brooks, John Shattuck and others with their lands together with the non-resident land within the bounds of a plan that they shall exhibit to the town if they can be legally annexed to this town." The following month a meeting was convened in
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BOUNDARIES.
this town " To hear the petition of Ensign John Abbott and others requesting to be voted off with fourteen hundred acres of land to be annexed to Ashby if the town see fit." The town did not see fit. The petitioners were answered with a cold and unqualified refusal. Undaunted, they renewed their solicitation and caused another meeting to be called in the autumn of the same year. At this stage of the proceedings the town attempted to crush the revolt by paci- fying the leader of it and proceeded to " vote off" about five hundred acres including the homestead and other lands of Mr. Abbott. The proposed compromise was a failure. The petitioners refusing to accept the proposition renewed their original demands and secured another town meeting early in the spring of 1792. Again the town refused to grant their petition. It is plain the petitioners were depre- ciating in the good opinion of the town. The gentleman, whom they styled at the outset as Ensign John Abbott, is now called Mr. John Abbott and soon after he was degraded to plain John Abbott. Another town meeting was called in May, 1792, at which the town "voted to oppose any families or land being taken from this town and annexed to Ashby more than was voted off at a former meeting and that the representative act in behalf of the town in that matter at the General Court, - the vote being unanimous except seven persons and those were petitioners for being set off."
The issues were now sharply defined and the controversy was transferred to the Legislature. Samuel Wilder, Abra- ham Lowe and Jacob Willard were chosen to remonstrate with the Legislature against this encroachment upon the territory of the town. Jacob Willard, also, was the repre- sentative at this time. The earnest effort of the town and its agents in opposition to the measure was met with defeat. The act, severing the land of the petitioners from this town,
-..
:
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
was passed November 16, 1792. By the terms of the act the northeast corner of Ashburnham on the State line was established five hundred and four rods west of the former bound and at land of James Spaulding. The dividing line from the new corner extended southerly by the east line of James Spaulding one hundred and forty-five rods, and thence southeasterly eight hundred and seventy rods to the line of Ashby. Henry Hall, Sen., who lived within these limits, did not join in the petition. His farm was divided by this proposed line and by a special clause in the act all his land remained in this town.
If the purpose of the Legislature had been faithfully executed the dividing line between Ashburnham and Ashby would have been located between Ward and Watatic ponds and would have annexed to Ashby a larger area than was subsequently included within the established bounds. When the line was run southeasterly from the State line, local attraction at the base of Watatie mountain caused a variation of the needle, defleeting the course to the cast. Giving a liberal construction to the act of the Legislature, the line was run straight to Blood or Prospeet hill. The selectmen of Ashburnham and Ashby in a joint report informed their respective towns, "That when we came to the easterly corner of Potatuck hill a mine drawed the needle and ran between Henry Hall Jr.'s house and barn and came to the old line between Ashburnham and Ashby on a hill called Prospect hill and erected a stake and stones." The line here described, which was run according to the needle and not according to law, has been maintained to the present time ; the only exception being a slight change to restore to Ashburnham a part of the farm of Lemuel Whit- ney, formerly of Henry Hall, Jr., which had been divided by the new line. The hidden mine at the base of Watatic
367
BOUNDARIES.
saved the town many acres of land. It is the only mine in Ashburnham that has been successfully operated. At the beginning it was worked for all it was worth and possibly its resources were early exhausted.
The families transferred to Ashby included those of John Abbott, five children; Jeremiah Abbott, two children ; Daniel Brown, three children ; James Bennett, two children ; John Hall, one child ; Amos Brooks, eight children; Isaac Whitney, four children; Judah Whitney, one child; the widow of Ephraim Whitney, two children ; James Pollard, John Shattuck and Joseph Damon.
The remorseless knife of the General Court, which three times had clipped a considerable tract from the corners of the township, was next brandished over the peaceful hamlets in the southeast part of the town. These depredations on the borders were becoming a most serious matter. The original pentagonal township, with its sharp, projecting corners, would soon be trimmed to a diminutive circle if the process was not stayed. The project of creating a new town out of adjoining portions of Ashburnham, Westmin- ster, Fitchburg and Ashby, now buried beneath the accu- mulating dust of ninety years, was bold and aggressive. The measure was forwarded with ability, but was crushed beneath the united opposition of the four adjoining towns. A list of the names of the persons engaged in the enterprise, and living within the limits of the proposed township, has been preserved. It bears the names of thirty citizens of Fitchburg, sixteen of Westminster, six of Ashburnham and two of Ashby. Eight, and possibly more, names were added previous to 1791 and one or more of these resided in Ashburnham. The movement originated in 1785.
The petitioners continued their solicitations and the town a persistent opposition until the beginning of the present
1
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
century. In the mean time the petitioners adopted a limited organization and built a meeting-house and laid out a com- mon in anticipation of securing from the Legislature the desired act of incorporation. The meeting-house was built by voluntary contributions. The long list of pledges for the material presents a bewildering assortment of sills, beams, posts, girts, rafters, boards, shingles, nails, a little money, and other donations, to forward the undertaking. There was also a special subscription in labor and stimulat- ing material to assist in framing and raising the building, - containing pledges for one hundred and fifty-eight days labor at framing, seventy-five at raising, a few modest sums of money, twenty-four bushels of rye, one hundred and fifty- eight quarts of rum and forty-five gallons of cider. With Landlords Cooper and Upton living hard by in case of a failure of any of the supplies, these doughty church builders, surveying their situation with complacency, entered on their records, "enough has been subscribed to raise and cover the meeting-house except a part of the boards and shingles."
In 1789, with spirit and understanding, as long as the last requisite remained, they raised a frame forty-five feet square. Two years were consumed in fitful efforts in completing the outside. The interior was never fully completed. The building, profanely called the Lord's barn standing in plain view on Cooper hill in Westminster, was a familiar object for many years. At a late day, it has been suggested that the impulse which led to the building of this house was a failure of sympathy with the creed of the surrounding churches. The most reliable information leads to the con- clusion that they were adherents to the prevailing creed and could not fairly be considered as an association of dissenters. Their first effort to obtain preaching was a vote extending an invitation to the Orthodox ministers in Ashburnham, Winch-
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BOUNDARIES.
endon, Westminster, Fitchburg and Lunenburg to preach to them. Many of the leading men in this enterprise were members of the standing order in the several towns in which they lived. Not organizing a church as they anticipated at the outset, their original relations were continued until dis- solved by death.
Joshua Billings, Joseph Gibbs and Reuben Rice were members of the church in Ashburnham, and so was John Ward who lived over the line in Westminster. Even under the unyielding discipline of the time, their association with this movement did not provoke the censure of the church. The Lord's barn and its builders were orthodox. Of itself the old meeting-house in Westminster has little connection with the history of this town ; but as a part of a more com- prehensive project, as the first step towards the incorporation of the proposed town of Belvoir, it caused our fathers great alarm. The erection of an unpretentious building was of little moment, but this persistent attempt to slice a corner from the town greatly irritated the good citizens of Ash- burnham. Four town meetings were called at an early date to oppose the movement. Samuel Wilder, Jacob Willard and John Adams were chosen to confer with the other towns and Joseph Jewett, Jacob Willard and John Adams were instructed to oppose the petitioners at the General Court.
The residents of Ashburnham included in this movement were Joseph Gibbs, Joshua Billings, Reuben Rice, Jonathan Winchester, Thomas Gibson and Silas Whitney. The scheme was revived in 1815 when forty-two petitioned for a town to be called Vernon. The following year a new petition bearing ninety-eight names was considered by the General Court and a public hearing was ordered. This time the petitioners suggested the name of Belvoir for the proposed town. Town meetings were promptly called and 24
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
Elisha White, George R. Cushing and Joseph Jewett were selected to oppose the Vernon petition. The Belvoir petition was successfully resisted by Elisha White, Thomas Hobart and Abraham Lowe, and thus ended a contest which had been continued over thirty years. From beginning to end the arguments of the petitioners were the same and stated with little change of language. The last petition was as follows :
The petition of the undersigned inhabitants of Fitchburg, West- minster, Ashburnham and Ashby humbly sheweth that whereas your petitioners are situated quite distant from the meeting-houses in the towns to which we respectively belong (especially in West- minster and Fitchburg, some in the former town living at the distance of seven miles from the meeting-house), and the land on which we live formed as if nature itself intended it for connection, and the interests of those living in the remaining parts of the towns, especially in Fitchburg and Westminster, being in many and most respects totally different from ours, it is therefore the prayer of your petitioners that the General Court would be pleased to incor- porate us into a distinct and separate town by the name of Belvoir.
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