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 6
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PROPRIETARY HISTORY. .
established by the records. The owner of the saw-mill was permitted to build his house near by. The house of Mr. Mossman, and the fortified house of Dwight and Wheeler, were completed to the acceptance of the proprietors. But the number and location of the earliest dwellings have escaped record and have faded from the traditions of men.
The original grant of several towns in this vicinity was at very nearly the same time. At the outset it was an even race. The proprietors of Dorchester Canada, manifesting a livelier interest in their plantation by more frequent meet- ings and more comprehensive action, secured better results and made more progress in a preparation for the future than was made by their rivals. It is probably true that if the building of the meeting-house had been delayed a very short time, it would not have been built until the return of peace after the French and Indian War. Admitting the conjecture, the fact remains-one was built, and it was more than twenty years before a similar edifice was reared in Rindge or in Winchendon.
The fear of attack from the Indians which led to the desertion of the settlement was not without good and suffi- cient reason. Any other course would have been rash and venturesome. A view of the surroundings as they were in 1745 leads directly to this conclusion. Townsend, includ- ing the greater part of Ashby, and Lunenburg were incor- porated towns containing several block-houses on which the inhabitants relied for protection. The settlement in West- minster had made substantial progress, containing about twenty families. In that town was a line of ten block- houses or fortified dwellings which, joining with the fortifi- cations in Lunenburg and Townsend, made a continuous line of defences on the south and east, with Ashburnham on the outside doing picket duty for the older and fortified towns.
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*HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
There was no protection from the north and west. In this direction, between the lines of settlement along the margins of the Connecticut and Merrimack rivers, was an expanse of unbroken wilderness through which an insidious foe could approach unchallenged. The only settlements on the dan- ger side of Ashburnham were at New Ipswich, Peter- borough, Rindge and Winehendon. All these were deseried. It would have been foolhardy for any of them or all of them in alliance to have attempted to maintain an existence during these years of danger. History commends the wis- dom of the course pursued by these unprotected and feeble settlements. It is a well-established fact that the Indians were discovered many times lurking along the line of the garrisons and ready to attack any unguarded point. They were held at bay only by the active measures taken for defence. They even entered Westminster and Lunenburg and in a part of Lunenburg now in Ashby, they burned one of the fortified houses, killing two of the three soldiers who had been stationed there and carried into captivity an entire family, consisting of John Fitch, his wife and five children.
The Indians made their retreat and doubtless came through Ashburnham. Electing between retreat and mas- sacre, these settlements were abandoned. Even within the fortified line there were expressions of fear and repeated calls for assistance. July 8, 1748, three days after the cap- ture of John Fitch, fifty-eight citizens of Lunenburg and Leominster join in a petition for more soldiers "for the pro- tection of their lives," giving as a reason for their request "that we are soried to look upon ourselves in a very hazard- ous as well as distressed case to such a degree that we can- not many of us labor on our farms or abide in our houses with tolerable safety." Four days later the commissioned officers and the selectmen of Lunenburg renew the request
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PROPRIETARY HISTORY.
for help declaring that for the past week "ahnost daily the enemy are heard shooting in the woods above us." In the accumulated evidence of these and other documents which care has preserved and research brought to light is found the danger which led to the abandonment of our little settle- ment and which raised alarm in the older and stronger towns.
During this period of suspension in the affairs of Dorches- ter Canada, material changes occurred in the membership of the propriety. Thomas Tilestone died October 21, 1745. No other name has become so familiar. He was the leading petitioner for the grant and was appointed by the General Court on the committee to admit the grantees and also to condnet their organization. Subsequently he was elected moderator of every meeting of the proprietors, was named on the most important committees and until his death, at the age of seventy years, he was the leading spirit among his associates. He was a son of Timothy Tilestone and was born in Dorchester October 19, 1675. Through a long and useful life he was called to many positions of trust, both in civil and military affairs. His name is honorably connected with the annals of his time. In the concerns of Dorchester Canada, he was succeeded by his son Elisha Tilestone, who from inclination or otherwise made no attempt to exercise an equal influence in the management of its affairs.
Joseph Wilder of Lancaster was a member of the Council in 1735 and was one of the committee to admit the grantees. At first he was prominent in the councils of the proprietors, but occupied with affairs of greater moment his name now fades almost entirely from these annals. He was Judge of Probate many years and one of the Justices of the County Court from the organization of the county in 1731 until his death in 1757. It was his son Joseph who was one of the
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HISTORY OF ASHIBURNHAM.
surveyors of the first division lots in 1786. Another son Caleb and a cousin Oliver continue active members of the propriety for many years, and among the residents who appear at a later period the name of Wilder will receive honorable mention.
Edward Hartwell was one of the first settlers of Lunen- burg where he continued to reside until his death February 17, 1785, aged ninety-six years. He continues a proprietor of Dorchester Canada, but after this date he gives very little time or attention to its affairs. His sound judgment and vigorous intellect made him a leader among men. He was a major in the militia and was frequently in service in the protection of the frontier. For many years he was a mem- ber of the Legislature and served in that capacity after he was eighty years of age. He was also one of the Justices of the County Court from 1762 to 1774. In the midst of these accumulating honors and with weighty responsibilities resting upon him, he is found clearing the roads in the new township seven and one-half days and is rewarded with a gratuity of fifty shillings on account of his extraordinary hardship.
On the muster-roll of Captain Withington's company which served in the expedition to Canada in 1690 appears the name of Samuel Hicks. The son Samuel, Jr., being dead a right in the township of Dorchester Canada was awarded to Timothy Mossman of Sudbury who married Sarah Hicks a daughter of Samuel, Senior. Mr. Mossman was the only one of the sixty original proprietors who settled in the township. Driven away by fear of the Indians and being advanced in years, he did not return when the settle- ment was renewed but the name will ever be associated with the earliest annals of the place. While he resided here, as stated elsewhere, he owned and occupied a house and lands
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PROPRIETARY HISTORY.
a short distance south of the common. From a petition found in the forty-sixth volume of State archives it appears that Mr. Mossman had a lease of other land and that potash was manufactured there at a very early date.
The petition of Timothy Mossman which humbly craves leave to show that your petitioner lived in Dorchester Canada and was drove off by the Indians from that town, and thereby I lossed my House Moveables and Improvements and being impoverished sold my land there. I was put in possession of the pottash farm by virtue of a Lease from Capt Plaisteed, where I did much labour in fencing improveing and makeing roads to the value of Two Hundred pounds where a so I met with Great sickness in my person & familly and was further reduced by the loss of the possession of the province land as it became profitable.
Therefore I pray your Excellency and Honours from your own goodness and Humanity to Compassionate my distress'd Circum- stances and forgive me the debt I owe to the Province and give me a small Tract or Tracts of Province Land that may be found to Lye betwixt Westminster and Leominster that is useless to the Govern" or the Sum of Two Hundred Pounds or Equivolence in land, and as in duty bound shall ever pray.
TIMOTHY MOSSMAN.
In answer to this petition of Mr. Mossman, the General Court ordered June 12, 1764, "that the sum of twelve pounds, being a debt duc from the petitioner to the prov- ince, be remitted to him in full answer to his petition."
The second allegation in the petition concerning the pot- ash works under the lease of Captain Plaisted relates to events which occurred after his removal from this town. To Thomas Plaisted had been granted fifteen hundred acres of land, now a part of Princeton, and while Mr. Mossman was ocenpying this grant in 1760 the title was forfeited on account of non-fulfilment of the conditions. It is this mis- fortune that is recited in the petition. Timothy Mossman was born in Wrentham, 1679, and died in Sudbury, 1773. He did not reside in this town subsequent to 1744.
CHAPTER III.
A RECORD OF SETTLEMENTS.
RENEWED ACTIVITY OF THE PROPRIETORS. -- MOSES FOSTER. - THE SECOND SAW-MILL. - GRAIN-MILL. - SETTLEMENTS. - DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN RESIDENT AND NON-RESIDENT PROPRIETORS. - NAMES OF EARLY SETTLERS. -THE GERMAN SETTLEMENT. - THE PROVINCE LINE. - MANUFACTURE OF POTASH. - DISTRIBUTION OF UNDIVIDED LANDS. - FAREWELL TO THE PRO- PRIETORS. -- PERSONAL NOTICES.
THE CONGRESS of nations convened at Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, effected a suspension of hostilities between England and France, but during the summer of the following year, detached bodies of Indians, sometimes accompanied by a few French soldiers, continued to menace the exposed line of settlements. Not until 1750, did a feeling of security invite a return of the settlers to the frontiers, nor at this time in any considerable number. One by one the hardy pioncers break an opening in the wilderness or enlarge a clearing already begun. The rude cabins are separated by wide wastes of unbroken forest. The cheering presence of a new arrival, or the return of a former companion is only hailed at long intervals of time. It was several years before there were many settlers in the township. The renewal of the war in 1754, and the news of sudden incursions by the Indians into Salisbury, Charlestown, Walpole, Keene, Hinsdale and other towns in New Hampshire, continued to cast clouds of discouragement over a second attempt to pos- sess the township. While this state of affairs from 1750 to
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A RECORD OF SETTLEMENTS.
1760 greatly retarded, it did not prevent material progress in the settlement of Dorchester Canada.
Early in the year, 1750, the proprietors, aroused by the bustle of preparation heard on every hand, are convened at the inn of their old associate, Jonathan Dwight. For five years they have beheld their possessions in Dorchester Canada, through the dim vision of gloomy fear and fading hope, but now assembling with cheerful countenances, they forget the misgivings of the past as they read on every hand the accumulating promises of amended fortunes. They can- not fail to note the vacant chair of Timothy Tilestone. Joseph Wilder, engrossed by affairs of greater moment, has withdrawn from any participation in their affairs, and Edward Hartwell, after this date, is seldom present. In their room come Elisha Tilestone, Richard and Caleb Dana, Henry Coolidge, Eleazer Williams and John Moffatt, while the Sumners, Colonel Oliver and Captain Caleb Wilder, Jona- than Dwight, Hezekiah Barber, Joseph Wheelock, Nathan Heywood and others, whose names are familiar, will con- tinue active members of the board. And last, but not least, from year to year there will be added to their councils new members, residents of the settlement, increasing in numbers and influence until they gain control of the corporation. These, in whom we have much the greater interest, will be introduced with honorable mention as they make their appearance at the meetings of the board.
The date of the first meeting after the long interval, was February 20, 1740-50. It was proposed to procure windows and finish the meeting-house, and the expedieney of calling a minister was suggested for the first time, but nothing was decided in regard to a minister or the meeting-house. A committee was named to report at the next meeting concern- ing the probable expense and the location of a grist-mill, and 6
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
then, with their accustomed alacrity, they admonished Mr. Gates instructing him in specific terms, to keep the saw-mill in good repair and to "raise the dam one foot and a half higher than it used to be or ever has been." After some attention to the roads, which doubtless needed mending, the proprietors directed attention to one subject of no little interest. Present at this meeting, and mingling with them, was Moses Foster, then almost sixty years of age. For several years he had resided a portion of the time, at least, in Dorchester Canada. He brought them tidings from the wilderness, and gave them an account of what had happened there. By him they were assured the meeting-house had been unharmed and he gave them the names of those who had been to the wilderness or were proposing to settle there. Mr. Foster had purchased one first and one second division lot lying adjacent in the northeast part of the town, now in Ashby. The title to one of the lots was in dispute and the proprietors at this meeting made him a grant of fifty acres. Not content with this measure of kindness to their aged guest, the proprietors vote him five pounds " for being one of the first settlers." There is no record of the payment of this gratuity, but a few years later a tract of about fifty acres was granted to "Mr. Moses Foster one of the first settlers" . on condition he "shall come personally and settle and inhabit there and continue there for several years provided his life be spared him." This grant was located adjacent to and cast of the common, and for many years was known as the Deacon Foster grant. It is now owned and occupied by Benjamin Cushing. Permission was also given Mr. Foster to throw up his house lot No. 51, and lay out another which he did, selecting a tract extending north from the land granted to him, but not extending so far westward.
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A RECORD OF SETTLEMENTS.
At this time occurred a radical change in New England in the terms employed expressing money. In 1736, the paper money, styled old tenor, compared with silver was worth about one-third of its nominal value. It gradually depreci- ated, until in 1750 the bills issued by Massachusetts were rated at about fourteen per cent. In 1749, England sent to the New England colonies in compensation for the cost of the recent war a large amount of specie. The proportion of Massachusetts, amounting to $612,330.41, was employed in redeeming the issue of paper money at current rates. After this date when a sum of money is stated, a pound will represent an equivalent to $3.333 in silver. Referring to payments of money previously made, the vote in 1737 to give the laborers upon the roads, seven shillings per day was equivalent to thirty-one cents, and the cost of building the meeting-house was about two hundred and twenty-five dollars. The gratuity tendered Mr. Foster on account of his early settlement, was equivalent to two dollars and twenty- five cents. In 1751, measures were adopted which led to the building of a new saw-mill. In order to accomplish this desired result, the proprietors first declare their independence of Mr. Gates and his mill, and then, in the light of a dis- covery, come to the conclusion that the former grant of land to him is revoked and can be given by them to any other person or persons who will undertake to build another and a better mill. With the summary retirement of Mr. Gates, the old mill falls into decay, and the temper of the proprie- tors is reflected with more serenity in the pages of the records. Let it not be presumed that this continued trouble over the saw-mill has been unduly colored in these annals. Only a few of the many complaints of the proprietors have been mentioned, and always with a conscientious effort to temper their acerbity.
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
The final vote was passed, November 5, 1751.
Voted that the proprietors do hereby grant to Caleb Dana, Timothy Green and Jonathan Dwight and their heirs, the stream of water whereon the old saw-mill was built by Hezekiah Gates, and the ninety acres of land, sixty acres of which are laid out near or adjoining to said stream, which was supposed to be granted to the said Gates. They viz : Caleb Dana, Timothy Green and Jonathan Dwight build a saw-mill and keep the same in good repair three years after said mill and a good dam is well finished at or before the 20th day of May next or sooner.
At the same meeting a bounty of forty-eight pounds was offered to any one who would build a grist-mill on the same stream "as near the saw mill as conveniently can be." There were stipulations that, at the saw-mill, work should be done at a stated price and that the grist-mill should be kept in good repair and with good attendance for the term of fifteen years. It was proposed in April, 1752, to make a further grant to encourage the building of . the grist-mill and the subject was referred to the next meeting with the encouraging remark "by which time the grist-mill will be finished." Stimulated by these proceedings a new saw-mill and a grist-mill were soon built. Caleb Dana of Cam- bridge, the owner of many lots of land but never a resident in this township, and Elisha Coolidge, also of Cambridge, who settled at this time in Lane Village, bought of Jonathan Dwight fifty acres of land situated southeast and adjoining the old saw-mill grant. On their new purchase they built a saw-mill and a grist-mill in the year 1752. These mills were near each other and possibly under one roof, and were located nearer the Upper Naukeag than was the old saw- mill. In January, 1753, Dana and Coolidge sold the two mills and the Dwight land to Nathan Dennis of Dudley.
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A RECORD OF SETTLEMENTS.
Mr. Dennis removed at once and took possession of the mills and for a number of years Mr. Coolidge remained here. Dana and Coolidge for many years retained posses- sion of the saw-mill grant. For some reason the grant was not confirmed to them by the proprietors until 1760, nor was the gratuity of forty-eight pounds to encourage the building of the grist-mill promptly paid. This delay led to the second lawsuit which attended the fortunes of the settlement. In this instance the proprietors were the defendants and in 1756 paid the successful litigants on an execution the sum of £77-15-2, and abont the same time Mr. Dennis, the proprietor of the mills, secured an execu- tion for the sum of £14-15-3. The proprietors, having secured the building of a better saw-mill and a grist-mill for the accommodation of the settlement and satiated with vexatious experiences and the lawsuits attending every enterprise in this direction, now leave their management and the building of other mills to the enterprise of business men. The continued history of mills and manufactures will be found in another chapter.
In regard to the location of the first mills in this town there is little doubt. The mill which was built by Mr. Gates in 1737 was on the saw-mill grant, located on the stream between the Upper and Lower Naukeag lakes. Between the grant and the Upper Naukeag was a lot of fifty acres on which the two mills were built by Dana and Cool- idge in 1752. The bounds of these traets of land are defi- nitely defined and the location of the mills approximately shown by deeds recorded in the Worcester Registry. The first mill was near the lower mill of Packard Brothers, for- merly of Elias Lane, and not many years since traces of the old log dam could be seen abont twenty yards south of the present dam. The other mills were about sixty yards east
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
of the mill in Lane Village, now of Packard Brothers, for- merly of C. & G. C. Winchester. Traces of the dam, in the present mill-pond, still remain.
Referring the action of the proprietors in regard to roads and to ecclesiastical affairs to chapters devoted to those sub- jeets, there are found remaining many items of interest and information which relate to the progress of the settlement. In the proceedings of a meeting convened in March, 1751, and between the record of two other votes on disconnected subjects is found the following assertion : "Voted that thirty men or upwards residing in the township." This is startling information. Turning to the warrant for an article intro- ducing this vote there is found, "To agree upon a speedy and full compliance with the conditions of the General Courts Grant." The conditions of the charter requiring the settlement of a certain number of families within a limited time had been unfulfilled several years. On account of the. troublous times which had retarded the progress of all the younger settlements, the General Court, by tacit consent and sometimes by enactment, had extended in an indefinite man- ner the time stipulated for the fulfilment of the conditions of the grants. Yet the policy of reminding the settlements of their delinquency was being pursued. The solemn declara- tion of the proprietors that there were thirty men residing in the township at this time should be qualified. It was not recorded for their own information but was rather addressed to the General Court. If the vote had a desired effect in the quarter to which it was directed, it did not increase the number of settlers. The population of their plantation could not be inflated at will by resolving that the men were there. Only a few families were residing in the township when this startling vote was passed, and any mention of thirty men, if correct, must have included any who were
:
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A RECORD OF SETTLEMENTS.
repairing roads for the proprietors or clearing lots prepara- tory to a removal of their families; but their existing legal residence and the home of their families were not as yet in Dorchester Canada.
About the time the town was incorporated, and perhaps an incident of that event, there are found renewed evidences of discord between the resident and non-resident propri- etors. For several years the meetings of the propriety had been held in Dorchester Canada and in them all there had been opportunity for differences of opinion in the policy which should be pursued in the general management of affairs. The non-resident proprietors in forwarding the set- tlement were increasing the value of their lands, while the resident proprietors, having a twofold interest in appropri- ations for roads and other public concerns, would favor larger appropriations and the pursuit of a more liberal policy in the general management of the corporation. By conciliation and sometimes by the postponement of con- tested measures an open issue was avoided, leaving the pro- prietors at greater liberty for a contest over the place of holding their meetings. The resident proprietors constantly increasing in number had now maintained the meetings in Dorchester Canada without much interruption for several years. There was no injustice in their claim that the minor- ity and wealthier part of the propriety could come to the plantation to attend meetings with less sacrifice than would attend them in a journey to Boston. At a meeting con- vened in Dorchester Canada in April, 1765, an unusual amount of business was transacted, including a vote that nothing be done about holding future meetings in some other place. The defeated party on the pretence, real or imagi- nary, that "they were hindered from giving their attend- ance by reason of the extraordinary freshets at that time
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HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
which rendered travelling thither impracticable," immedi- ately called another meeting. In the warrant for this meet- ing there was an article providing for the reconsideration of all that was done at the April meeting. They assembled at the meeting-house May 8. On account of a former vote a meeting could not be called elsewhere. In the organization of the meeting Seth Summer, a non-resident proprietor, was chosen moderator in place of either Elisha Coolidge, Dea- con Moses Foster or Samuel Fellows, who had frequently been selected at former meetings. Without a vote on any other question the meeting was adjourned to meet in Rox- bury, and having met at that place was adjourned to meet in Boston.
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