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 5
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The second meeting of the proprietors was held November 10, of the same year. While it was assembled under a new warrant, or notification, as our worthies styled it, it was practically a continuation of the former meeting. The account of the committee already mentioned was allowed and to pay the same an assessment was ordered. This action called for a new class of officials. Samuel Sunmer and Edward Hartwell were chosen assessors, Thomas Lyon, Jr., collector, and Benjamin Bird, treasurer. The following extract from the records outlines the most important of the proceedings :
Voted the Confirmation of the place Marked out by the Com- mittee for Building the Meeting House on, and the Highways they have Laid out thereunto in Said Town. The Meeting House Lot Contains 10 acres lying squar and it Lieth on a Hill 180 Rods South of a Greate Pond and has a very faire Prospeck. The North East Corner is a young Pitch Pine and thence it Runs west 40 Rods to a stake and Pillar of Stons and thence South 40 Rods to a stake and Heep of Stones and thence it Runs East 40 Rods to a stake and Heepe of Stous and thence it Runs North 40 Rods to whare it began.
Voted to Clear the Highway, and Edward Hartwell Esq', Capt. Oliver Wilder and M' Joseph Wheelock were Chosen a
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Committee for that Sarvice and also to Fire the Woods the first Convenant time.
Voted that Edward Hartwell Esq', Capt Oliver Wilder and M' Joseph Wheelock be a Committee to a Gree with a Sutable Person or Persons to Build a Sawmill in said Town in the most Convenant Place that they Can find therefor. and That in Giving encurragement to any Person to undertake therein they do not exceed one Hundred acres of Land and that they oblige the Person so undertaking (by Bond or other ways) to have the Mill Going within the space of five months and to Keep the same in Repair for the space of Ten years and that he saw Boards for the Proprietors for forty shillings a Thousand and Saw timber Brought to said Mill for Twenty shillings a Thousand and other Timber Proportionable.
The same month the committee charge the proprietors for four days each, three hired laborers four days each and one man one day in clearing the roads leading to the place set apart for the meeting-house and a common, which we are here informed and fully realize "has a very faire Prospeck."
At this meeting the house or first division lots are distrib- uted among the proprietors. The eighth lot is reserved for the ministry, the ninth for schools and the fifty-seventh for the first settled minister. Here ends the record of the first year. A New England winter regains control of the wilder- ness and for a time closes the door against the progress of the settlement.
1737. With the arrival of spring, the committee chosen for that purpose enter into negotiations with Hezekiah Gates of Lancaster to build a saw-mill within the township for the accommodation of the settlement. The committee grant him ninety acres of land, lying on the stream between the Upper and Lower Naukeag lakes and receive from him a bond of five hundred pounds, obliging him to build and conduct the
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mill on the terms outlined in the vote of the proprietors. The charges of the committee for their services establish the date of these proceedings :
1737 May 17 the Committee four days each
with the man that is to Build the saw mill @ 10 £6- 0-0- ¿ day each to signe the Righting 0-15-0-
0- 3-0- the writings with M' Gates
In effecting an agreement with Mr. Gates the committee consume ample time in its consideration and apparently con- duet the business to the present satisfaction of the proprietors, but in the years immediately following both Mr. Gates and his mill were an endless source of perplexity and litigation. The proprietors continually complain of the construction and management, while he successfully resists their directions to raise the dam and make repairs, until the fact gradually develops that there is a better head on Gates than at his mill, and more revolving power in his mind than in his wheel.
Two formal meetings of the proprietors are held this year at the " Turks Head Tavern in Dorchester," and Henry Wood- man, James Bishop, Joseph Bent and Joseph Herbert make their first appearance as proprietors in place of Matthias Evans, John Andrews, Joseph Weeks and Thomas Lyon, Jr. At the first meeting, August 25, it was voted " to lay out in a second Division, Sixty three Lots in the up land, each lot containing eighty Aeres at the least and in case so many Lotts cant be laid ont in the very best of said land, that it be in the Power of the Committee to add to every eighty Acre lot so much as to make them equal to the very best Lot, not exceeding Forty Acres to any one Lot."
Andrew Wilder was chosen to lay out the lots and a com- mittee of ten was chosen to conduct the business. At the
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second meeting, December 14, the survey of the second division lots was approved, and a lot was assigned to each owner of a right. The tenth lot was reserved for the first settled minister, the eleventh for the ministry and the sixty- third for schools.
The price of labor on the highways was rated at seven shillings per day, and Henry Woodman was added to the committee on highways who were instructed that " but one of said Committee work on that Business at won and the same time." During the year the roads receive the benefit of twenty-three days' labor at a cost of £9-2-0. The charges for laying out the second division lots were £224-9-6, the clerk and treasurer receives £5-7-0, for his services to the close of the year and a few small charges are allowed. To meet these demands an assessment of £258 or £4-6-0 on each right is made. Only one proceeding of interest during this year remains unnoticed :
Voted That Mr Joseph Harbort have five acres of Land and the Stream by it for to Set a fulling Mill he mataining said mill ten years for the Sarves of the Proprietors, the said Proprietors paying him for what work they have don at said Mill. And the Committee that was appointed to a gree with a man for to Bulding a Saw Mill he the Committee to give a Deed and take Bond of said Harbort He Paying the Committee for their troble.
This solitary mention of a fulling-mill is all that is heard of it for many years. The committee, to whom the project was referred, found ample employment in the management of Mr. Gates and his saw-mill. This addition to their per- plexity was an act of great unkindness on the part of the proprietors. It is reasonably certain that the grant of land was never consummated, perhaps, admonished by the perilous adventure of Don Quixote and the fulling-mills, the subject is not revived.
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1738. Samuel Hayward has become a proprietor repre- senting the right formerly of Robert Redman, and Hezekiah Gates also appears at the meetings of the board, but whose right he has purchased is not certain. Other changes in the membership of the proprietors occur from time to time, but the general management of affairs continnes to be referred to those whose names have become familiar. Only one meeting is held this year, which is convened August 22, "at the house of Jonathan Dwight of Boston, Innholder." Timothy Green is elected clerk and treasurer in the place of Benjamin Bird. The saw-mill has been built but the contention con- cerning its efficiency and management has not as yet suffi- ciently developed to prevent the proprietors from considering a request from its owner, in a generous and good-natured manner :
Voted That Mr. Hezekiah Gates of Lancaster have liberty to lay out Thirty Acres of Land adjoining to the land he has already laid out at the Mill between the Pond and the lower end of his Land already laid out in part of his Ninety Aeres.
Voted that M' Hezekiah Gates have liberty to build his House on his Land near the Mill and clear as much Land there as any one Proprietor is obliged to do by his Grant.
Also at this meeting Captain Oliver Wilder and Mr. Gates are chosen "to clear a good cart way from the saw mill to the place where the meeting house is to stand as strait as the land will allow of." For this purpose an appropriation not exceeding eight pounds is made. The sentiment of the pro- prictors was taken in regard to building a meeting-house and "it passed in the negative."
1739. A note of preparation for some weighty under- taking is heard in the early call for a meeting of the proprietors. Earlier by several months than in former years are assembled the controlling spirits of the township. This 5
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memorable meeting was held in Boston April 11, at the house of Mr. Dwight. Notices had been published in the Boston papers and posted at Dorchester and probably at Milton and Stoughton, announcing to the proprietors that they will be invited at this meeting "to consider what is proper to be done about building a meeting house for the worship of God." Of the time for building a meeting-house stipulated in the charter two full years yet remained, and in consideration of the small progress made in the settlement, and that so far the plantation had been a continual source of expense to the proprietors, an excuse for delay is easily found. The record, however, presents no shadow of hesita- tion but rather the cheerful voice of a united purpose.
Voted That a Meeting House for the Publick Worship of God be Built as soon as conveniently may be, on the Meeting House place in the said Township to be Forty Five Feet Long, Thirty Five Feet wide, the Corner post to be Twenty one Feet high.
Voted That Thomas Tilestone & Edward Hartwell Esqr Major Oliver Wilder, Mr. Andrew Wilder and Mr. Hezekiah Barber be the Committee for Building said Meeting House.
Voted That a Tax of Three Hundred Pounds be laid, on the Proprietors, to pay Charges past and towards Building said Meeting House.
An omission to give this record in full would be an act of injustice. The will of the meeting expressed in other terms would conceal, in a great measure, the resolute purpose and firm determination of the act. On the strength of this action alone the meeting-house was built. No postponement, no amendment nor qualification of this action was ever tolerated. In marked contrast with the early history of other towns in this vicinity the first meeting-house was located with rare unanimity and built without contention. The picture of the
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" faire Prospeck " was not marred with an exhibition of the passions of contending men. Under the direction of the committee, the meeting-house was built by Benjamin Ballard, who received in six payments £251-17-0. In his Half Century Sermon, 1818, Rev. Dr. Cushing says : "In 1739, the proprietors erected a meeting house 50 by 40. It was the first frame that was set up in the town and it has been considered, and was at the time, as an extraordinary enter- prise that it was raised by only sixteen men." This refer- ence to the year in which it was built is of interest, since the records do not make it appear whether it was built in 1739 or the year following. November 19, 1740, it was voted to pay Mr. Ballard one hundred and fifty pounds in part for building the meeting-house, and at the same time the committee was requested to make a report. While the records admit the conjecture that it might have been built in 1740, there is found no cause to qualify the assertion of Mr. Cushing that it was erected in 1739. In regard to the size of the edifice, it is fair to presume, that referring to it twenty- seven years after it was removed, it would have been easier for Mr. Cushing to overlook the exact dimensions than for the committee to exceed their instructions so far as to erect a meeting-house longer and wider by five feet than directed by the vote of their associates. On one point all the authorities are in harmony. At this time the roof and sides were covered with boards and open spaces were left for windows and doors. It was several years before the roof was im- proved and doors and windows procured.
Two other meetings were held at Boston this year, at which considerable business was transacted. It was pro- posed to clear a road leading from Lunenburg to Winchester, New Hampshire, but the ambition of the proprietors was satisfied in the choice of a committee to view and estimate
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the expense of a road from the common to the west line of the township. A gratuity of four pounds each was voted to the first fifteen settlers who, previous to May, 1740, should build a house and comply with the other conditions of the grant ; and a grant of sixty acres of land was made to " Thomas Gamble who lately met with some loss by fire in said township." An account of this fire, probably the first in the settlement, would be of interest, but no additional information has been found. At a former meeting there had been a decree to prosecute all persons who out any white pine trees on the undivided lands, and now a committee is chosen to number and mark all the white pine trees fit for clapboards and shingles on the ten-acre common that they may be reserved for future use.
1740. The chronicles now declare the war of 1740. The growing discontent over the continued mismanagement of the saw-mill culminated in acts of open hostility at a meeting, assembled at the inn of Jonathan Dwight, on the tenth of April. The declaration of war is inscribed in a bold, firm hand upon the records :
Voted that Edward Hartwell Esq. of Lunenburg, Col. Oliver Wilder and Joseph Wheelock of Lancaster be a committee to put in suit and pursue to final judgment and execution the bond of Mr. Hezekiah Gates of Lancaster.
Forgetting that their treasury was empty and that Mr. Ballard was waiting for his pay for building the meeting- house, the proprietors do not fail to vote the sinews of war :
Voted that the committee, chosen to put in suit and pursue to final judgment and execution the bond of Hezekiah Gates, have liberty to draw upon the proprietor's treasurer what money may be thought proper and necessary to carry on the suit.
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,
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Mr. Gates was sued; probably Daniel Gookin, the first sheriff' in Worcester county, served the writ. The discon- tent of the proprietors had become chronic and relief could not be found in treatment less heroic. It was a valorous attack, but the enemy was not wholly routed, as appears in a call for a meeting to be assembled at the inn of Captain Josiah Shelden in Boston, November 19, "to hear what Mr. Hezekiah Gates hath to offer for an agreement concerning the saw mill and damn." The records of Timothy Green are spelled with great accuracy. He fails now in the orthog- raphy of one word. Probably he did not use that word often, but we are sorry to find him using it in this form when he is talking about Gates and the saw-mill. Mr. Hartwell is allowed and some time later was paid £33-3-0 " for sueing Hezekiah Gates ; for charges attending Court at Worcester May 1740 and for officers fees and witness fees and for laying out ten acres of pine land and laying out Hezekiah Gates' land." In 1743. after many votes and references to the affair, the proprietors, in a more conciliatory spirit, pro- pose to adjust the difficulty on receipt of £40 or £10 new tenor. The proposition was accepted and payment made by Mr. Gates soon after. Complaint however was renewed in a future year, 1744, in a call for a meeting "to see what the proprietors will do concerning Hezekiah Gates; the saw mill being out of repair and no boards." When the meeting was convened nothing was done about it for the saw-mill and all minor troubles were forgotten in the sorrows and discour- agements of the French and Indian War.
1741. Several of the proprietors of Dorchester Canada, compared with the standard of their time, were men of wealth. It is apparent that others were less fortunate. A considerable portion of the taxes which had been assessed from time to time on the rights in the township remained
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unpaid, and many demands against the propriety were unad- justed. The embarrassment occasioned by this state of affairs finds frequent expression in the records. Early this year it was voted to sell at auction the land of the delinquent owners, but before the day appointed for the sale arrived, the majority took a more conciliatory course in referring the subject to a committee. It is probable that no sale of land for the payment of taxes was made until 1751 ..
In the annals of this year should be recorded an important event over which the proprietors had no control. The boundary line, having been adjusted previously by the con- tending provinces, was run by Richard Hazen in February of this year. 1 belt of land along the northern boundary of Dorchester Canada, containing nearly one thousand acres, was ruthlessly given to New Hampshire. Overcome by a grief which refused utterance, or sustained by a stoic resig- nation which commanded silence, the proprietors make no reference to this event for many years.
1742. The annals of this year are somewhat brief and uneventful, and the careless reader might fail to discover the feature of greatest interest. Here is found the first trace of faction among the proprietors. In a call for a meeting to be held at the meeting-house in Dorchester Canada, the first attempt to hold a meeting outside of Dorchester or Boston, appear the names of Caleb Wilder, Joseph Wheelock, Heze- kiah Gates, Benjamin Harris, Gardner Wilder, Edward Phelps and Nathaniel Carter. These were the petitioners who caused the meeting to be called and designated the place. Former meetings had generally been called by Thomas Tilestone, Jonathan Dwight, Hezekiah Barber, Samuel Kneeland and others living in Boston or immediate vicinity. The record of the proceedings of the meeting convened in Dorchester Canada is brief: "A number of the
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proprietors met at the meeting house in Dorchester Canada and there was objection arose about the calling the meeting and so nothing was done."
Evidently, without consulting the Tilestone party, the same gentleman joined by a few others get a meeting called soon after to be convened at Leominster. Again " there was objection arose " on account of the absence of the clerk "and so nothing was done." It becomes apparent that in the fictitious play of Mohammed and the mountain, the Boston party preferred to be the mountain. A meeting was then called to assemble early the following year at the inn of Mr. Jonathan Dwight in Boston where matters of grave import were considered.
1743. At a meeting convened March 31 at the house of Jonathan Dwight, an entertaining proposition was considered and decided as follows :
Voted That the proprietors give encouragement to one person that will settle a Family and Keep a public House with Suitable Entertainment.
Voted That the sum of £100. O. T. be paid to one person that shall build a good and sufficient House - three Rooms on a floor with Chimneys in each Room of it for a House of Entertainment and Bain and provision suitable for to entertain men and Horses.
In order that the bounty proposed might be paid to any person complying with the conditions a tax was assessed at this time. but the money was not promptly collected. Timothy Mossman of Sudbury built a house of entertainment this year, and received eighty pounds of the one hundred pounds which was attempted to be raised. The record will establish this point beyond dispute. Under an article "To do what shall be thought necessary in order that Mr. Timothy
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Mossman may have the money paid him which is justly due and owing to him from said proprietors" it was ordered " That the sum of eighty pounds old tenor be allowed and paid to Mr. Timothy Mossman for his service in building a house of entertainment and if there should be peace with France within twelve months that the aforesaid Mossman to have the sum of forty pounds old tenor."
In recognition of faithful service, the sun of twelve shillings per day for seven and one-half days was voted to Edward Hartwell, Joseph Wheelock and Andrew Wilder, a committee " to view out and mark out a road from the meet- ing house to the west line and that fifty shillings be allowed to each of them for their extraordinary hardship."
1744. At the threshold of a new year stand the waiting heralds of impending war; their messages, borne on the wings of alarm along the unprotected frontier, are answered in hasty preparations for defence. The settlers from the unprotected borders through fear of attack from the Indians are hastening to the older and fortified towns. The proprie- tors of Dorchester Canada, perceiving that the existence of the settlement was involved, adopted early measures to create a feeling of security. First, they place themselves squarely on the record : "Voted that the proprietors will fortify," and at the same meeting one hundred and sixty pounds was voted to Asher Cutler if he would "build a fortification around his house and receive the soldiers that is- ordered for that place and have the province pay for billeting and keep a tavern with good stabling hay &c to the accept- ance of the proprietors." Mr. Andrew Wilder was chosen "to view the fortification Mr. Cutler is to build in said town- ship." It is reasonably certain that this contract was. annulled. In August following an agreement is made with Jonathan Dwight and Ephraim Wheeler "to build a block
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house in said Dorchester Canada and keep a good and suffi- cient house of entertainment fit both for man & horse and to entertain all soldiers that have or may be ordered to said township & to receive the province pay for their billeting." The consideration for this undertaking was two hundred pounds which was paid them the following year, but no record of any payment to Mr. Cutler is found.
Only two months preceding this agreement with Dwight and Wheeler, Timothy Mossman was chosen "to take care of the meeting house by nailing boards against the windows and doors and prevent the burning of brush near it." It is probable that between these dates Mr. Mossman had left the house of entertainment built the year preceding. Certainly in the following year he was residing in Sudbury. It appears, also, that Asher Cutler was the owner of the Moss- man inn when he made the agreement with the proprietors to fortify his house in Dorchester Canada.
In confirmation of this statement there is the record of a deed dated August 10, 1744, of Timothy Mossman of Dor- chester Canada conveying the fourteenth and fifteenth first division lots to Asher Cutler of Sudbury. These lots are west of the highway and between the house of Seth P. Fair- banks and the old common. There is also a distinct tradi- tion that this aneient inn was fortified and stood near the site of the Powder House.
At the time Dwight and Wheeler built the block-house Mr. Wheeler was the owner of one-half of the Bluefield or Bellows grant, and it is not improbable that the house built on this grant in 1734 was a part of the block-house built in the autumn of 1744 or the following spring. Enos Jones, who settled on the Bluefield grant about 1762, was accus- tomed to say that there was a block-house and an inn situ- ated a short distance south from the house occupied by the late Deacon Daniel Jones.
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1745-1749. If any meeting of the proprietors was con- vened, during these five years, no record of it has been preserved. It would be a source of satisfaction to make it appear, upon proof, that during these years of gloom and discouragement to all the frontier settlements our little colony had maintained a continuous habitation in Dorchester Canada. But a knowledge of the fortunes of other settle- ments similarly situated, the absence of any sustaining evidence and the voices of tradition combine to destroy any such picture and to lead to the conclusion that during a con- siderable portion of the time the settlement was entirely deserted. If it is true that the fires are suffered to burn low on these primitive hearths, they are not wholly extinguished. In a little while the pioneers return in augmented force and the infant colony grows apace. It was the rest and inac- tivity of sleep, but not the eternal silence of death ; and the little clearings in the forest, the meeting-house and the mill will await them on their return.
Previous to this date, in addition to grants of land to the saw-mill and for other purposes, the proprietors had expended above one thousand five hundred pounds, old tenor, in forwarding the settlement. Substantial progress had been made. Primitive roads had been constructed from Lunenburg to the meeting-house and from thence to the Winchendon line. There was a road of more pretension from the saw-mill to the meeting-house, and the Northfield road extended through the township. A. saw- mill and later a meeting-house had been built and the fruit of civilization had been enjoyed in a lawsuit of very fair proportions. Through several clearings in the forest the summer sun warms the earth and paints in livery of green the tender blade. A few houses have been built in the centre of the clearings. The house on Bluefield farm is
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