USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 32
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On this lot in 1844 Mr. Partridge built a store which is the front half of the present store there except for a recent ex-
UNION STORE, 621 MAIN STREET, BUILT 1844
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MERCANTILE
tension towards the street. First to carry on business in this new store was the firm of Partridge & Lord, and there were other intervening tenants prior to 1853.
During the year 1853 a travelling agent of the co-operative movement, New England Protective Union, came to Athol and convinced our people that by the organization here of one of the units of this co-operative agency they could to some extent at least combat the current high cost of living. A local union, numbered 493, was speedily formed, and in the Partridge building a union store was established. Pending the appoint- ment of a local manager Mr. Partridge took temporary charge of the store but let it be known to the various travelling agents or "drummers" as they were then called, that a permanent agent was desired.
Pitts C. Tyler was a native of Hinsdale, New Hampshire who had in 1849 seen the vision of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and joined in the mad rush to California. By 1853 he had returned to New England, not possessed of the fabulous riches of which he had dreamed, but rich in experience and possessed of some cash. In that year he was visiting his sister, Mrs. Albert Kendall in South Royalston, when word came into that village carried by one of these drummers that there was a job awaiting an applicant at Athol's Union Store. Without waiting for a train to bring him here nor expending any money for transportation he walked to Athol and forthwith secured the job.
For the succeeding six years he was the local manager of this co-operative, gradually acquiring the shares of those who wished to withdraw from the enterprise. During these years a large percentage of Athol's citizens were shareholders in this store and "trading privileges" were granted to perhaps a score of others. Not only were these shareholders residents of the Depot Village but the Center, Chestnut Hill, Lyons Hill, Pleasant Street, and the south part of the town contributed members to the group.
The records of this Union end with the 1859 annual meet- ing. It is understood that by 1860 Mr. Tyler had acquired a considerable majority of the stock and that amicable adjust- ments were made with the remaining stock holders so that the entire business passed into Mr. Tyler's ownership.
At an early date, perhaps co-incident with the opening of the store for general trading, the front end of the second story was occupied by Stephen W. Bliss with his jewelry business,
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
which in several locations and with several different partners he carried on here for fifty years. He was a native of Royalston who came here soon after 1830. He joined Engine Co. No. 2 in 1834 and remained in Athol until his death in May, 1883. He with his four wives are buried in Highland Cemetery. In his old age he built for a home the dwelling, now moved half its width to the east and greatly changed, numbered 459 School Street. In 1854 he with Barzilla J. Whitney acquired title to this Union Store building but before many years it passed into the Tyler ownership.
As already stated, Brooks & King conducted the store busi- ness in 1862-3 but succeeding them with various partners and under various names for only a few years short of a half century, the Tyler family was wholly or partly in control there, and the stand was known as Tyler's store although to many of the oldsters it remained Union Store.
Charles H. Tyler, a younger brother of Pitts C. Tyler, came here in 1854 and associated himself with his brother. In 1862, designated as a "clerk," he entlisted in Co. E, 53rd Reg- iment and served during the entire period which that Com- pany was away from Athol.
Following this service he was connected with the store most of the time but at rare intervals being employed elsewhere. After the early eighties he was sole owner until the last few years of his life in which period his son, E. Warren Tyler, was proprietor. He died April 19, 1908 and a few weeks later E. Warren Tyler sold the building and the business to Arthur H. Bowker, who in 1940 conveyed it to William B. Sullivan. In 1945 Sullivan conveyed it to the present owner, William P. Lynch.
After Charles H. Tyler acquired this real estate he extend- ed it southerly about doubling its length, and in 1947 Mr. Lynch built an addition onto the north end and lowered the floor to the street level.
Greatly changed is this store from its early .appearance Then, after climbing some four or five steps, one entered the rectangular room with its stove in the center and its counters on three sides. On the right were bolts of cotton and other cloth with an assortment of boots, shoes and rubbers, while on the left were the food stuffs with the coffee grinder and the cracker box on the rear counter. The kerosene barrels and the molasses hogsheads were in the back room and upstairs were the stock of nails and other hardware.
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To make the picture complete Silas Worrick, Joel Doane, and J. Sanford Bigelow frequently congregated around the stove and with the wisdom and assurance of old age settled every problem.
Many more pages of this work would be covered with the enumeration of the mercantile establishments both ancient and modern which have served our community.
In the early nineties William D. Mellen conducted a grocery store at 372 Crescent Street which was the forerunner of a half dozen stores there now.
For many, many years the Fredette family has maintained a store on Silver Lake Street at the corner of Goodale.
Long ago George H. Cleveland began selling shoes in his mother's house, 495 Cottage Street, later building for him- self the dwelling at 477 in that Street, with a commodious front room for his shoe store. After some years a visit by a determined robber laid him low and he abandoned his enter- prise.
Early in the present century a store building was built at the corner of Sanders Street and Hapgood Road, and there a store has been maintained ever since, for the last twenty years or so, by the Bruno family.
For perhaps a quarter of a century our Lithuanian residents operated a Co-operative Store on the site of the former Abel Lord home at 378 South Street and around this have sprung up perhaps a half dozen little shops.
To the writer the regrettable part of this mercantile story is that the old merchants who prospered here and who were the solid citizens of the town are disappearing, many of them to be replaced by local managers of store chains who are here today and gone tomorrow, to be replaced by another with no more sure tenure.
389
CHAPTER XXII NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY
T THE newspaper industry of Athol covering more than a dozen decades is a colorful one. Its beginning is Decem- ber 18, 1827 when Athol's first newspaper, "Freedom's Sen- tinel" was issued. Printed and edited by Alonzo Rawson, it was in folio form on a sheet eighteen by twenty-six inches wide, and contained twenty columns. One of the principles of his newspaper concerned anti-slavery and carried the announce- ment, "We shall never hesitate to reprobate in the strongest terms the injustices and horrors of slavery." Its figurehead was an old hand printing press over which was scrolled "The Tryant's Foe-The People's Friend."
Soon after this paper began its career of two years, the anti- Masonic craze swept the country and much of its space was taken up by denunciation of this unholy association. The file of this paper in possession of Athol Historical Society shed many rays of light on that long ago era in our history. After publishing one hundred four issues its editor and publisher abandoned the enterprise, claiming the right to "Take a friend- ly leave of his patrons and depart in peace, good spirits and with empty pockets," which he did on December 14, 1829.
Equally short was the existence of "The White Flag," Athol's second newspaper published first on September 7, 1850. It was printed by M. H. Mandell in a building owned by John C. Hill at No. 431 Main Street (later the Post Office). The editor and proprietor, Rev. D. J. Mandell, stated, "The object of this journal is to promote the Christian confederacy of neighborhoods, towns, states, and nations," but his efforts were not appreciated by our people and after some thirteen months, publication was suspended.
For fifteen years Athol was without a newspaper until in 1866 certain townsmen fostered a movement which sought to offer "suitable inducement to a competent person to estab- lish in town an independent weekly paper." As a consequence Mr. R. William Waterman, publisher of "The Worcester West Chronicle," removed his plant and newspaper from Barre to the Richardson Shop (now Y. M. C. A. corner), thus becoming the first to establish a permanent newspaper here. The motto of his paper "Open to all, influenced by none" best describes
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the life work of this sturdy character who for fifty-two years was Athol's editor.
Born at St. John's, Newfoundland on November 8, 1936, R. William Waterman came to Massachusetts with his mother when quite young, his father having died when William was but an infant. His education and early industrial experience was in book printing. While employed at the New England
R. WILLIAM WATERMAN 1836 - 1920
Type Foundry in Boston he worked on Harriet Beecher Stowe's manuscript of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and at the University of- fice in Cambridge he set type for the first edition of Long- fellow's "Hiawatha," carrying the proofs to the author daily.
Feeling the infirmities of age, Mr. Waterman sold his paper in 1918 to John D. Bell and retired to his home at 19 Me- chanic Street. For eleven years Mr. Bell had the esteem of our people and published a most acceptable weekly paper. By May 30, 1929, however, the paper had been sold out to H. Burr Eldridge of Winchendon. This ownership lasted until 1935 when on August 14 the last edition of the "Chronicle" was published, the entire plant and goodwill of this, Athol's oldest newspaper, having been purchased by the Athol Daily News.
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
The "Athol Transcript" of twelve to sixteen pages devoted to home news was started in December, 1870 by E. F. Jones and Lucien Lord, with Col. George Hoyt as editor, but Col. Hoyt was hampered in this work by his law practice and his political duties as local representative to the Legislature of 1872. This situation culminated in the association of Wells L. Hill with the "Transcript" as editor and later as owner.
Throughout the more than half century of Mr. Hill's con- nection with the "Transcript" his personality more than any
WELLS L. HILL 1850 - 1929
other factor made it an outstanding weekly whose editorials were often copied by the great metropolitan newspapers. His literary style was direct, clear, and usually serious, but there often occurred flashes of humor equal to that of a Mark Twain.
In the earlier years Vernon O. Taylor, Edgar A. Smith, Frank W. Gourley-long foreman of the printing office, and Winfield H. Brock were associated with Mr. Hill. When Wells Hill took up the work, Athol was a town of under 4,000 people, business conditions were bad and remained so for several years, and a less persistent soul would have many times succumbed, but he kept steadily at his task until general conditions became better and he eventually was established on a basis which gave
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him a comfortable income, with modern equipment for his work.
The courage of this man was truly remarkable. Born in Athol on July 25, 1850 he attended the Main Street School until twelve years old when a violent attack of scarlet fever deprived him of his hearing, so that in perpetual silence he spent the rest of his days. After his graduation with high honors in 1872 from the National Deaf Mute College in Wash- ington, he accepted a position in the Boston Custom House where he felt he should probably spend his active years. But fate played a hand when Mr. Lucien Lord proposed his associa- tion with The Transcript.
His oldest son, John Clarence Hill, after graduation from Athol High School in 1895 entered the Transcript offices and for more than thirty-three years was a most loyal assistant to his father. Louett E. Hill, the next oldest son, was connected with the Transcript printing plant for some years, proving him- self a very valuable and useful man.
In September, 1935, six years after the death of Wells L. Hill, the Transcript was sold by his heirs to the Athol Daily News.
Five other local periodicals of interest were "The Cottager," "Progress," "Our Church Record," 'The Healthy Home," and the "Athol Sentinel."
"The Cottager," established in 1881, was an eight-page family monthly devoted to "good literature and a concise rec- ord of current events." It gained phenomenal circulation and was ranked by Pettingill's agency as having the largest sub- scription circulation of any paper in the state outside of Bos- ton, but with one exception. "Progress" was its weekly edition, containing numerous local features.
"Our Church Record" was a successful and unique weekly devoted to the interests of the local churches. Its editor and owner for nearly half a century was Miss Hattie M. French who carried on until 1933 when the infirmities of age made it impossible for her to continue any longer. She then sold her paper to the Eldridge interests and it was consolidated with the Chronicle.
All four of these papers were published at the plant of the Cottager Company, an organization incorporated under Mass- achusetts law to carry on the printing and publishing business, and owned by W. H. Brock and Company.
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
In 1933 Mr. Winfield H. Brock, who had been the dynamic force in the organization of W. H. Brock and Company for forty-three years, sold "The Healthy Home" and it was speed- ily consolidated with another publication and lost its identity. The other publications carried on by this concern were discon- tinued and Mr. Brock retired from active newspaper work.
WINFIELD H. BROCK PUBLISHER 1861 - 1936
"Athol Sentinel" made its appearance in 1935, its sponsor being one Harry H. Graves. This was established as a protest because the Daily News refused to publish some of Mr. Graves' attacks upon local people. After continuing about six months, publication was discontinued. The printing of this paper was done on the press of the Orange Enterprise and some features of that paper were incorporated in the Sentinel during the time that it was published.
Lincoln O'Brien, son of Robert Lincoln O'Brien, long-time editor of the Boston Herald, appeared in Athol in 1934 with the ambition to establish a daily newspaper here. He made overtures to. the Chronicle, the Transcript, and the Orange Enterprise, but was not immediately successful in making negotiations with any. He opened a newspaper office in the Starrett building, installed there a press and other equipment,
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NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY
and on November 1, 1934 presented to the public of Athol the first issue of "Athol Daily News." In the summer of 1935, the Daily News purchased both the Chronicle and the Tran- script and discontinued both papers. After some three years of active management of the company, Mr. O'Brien became the editor of the Boston Transcript in a last attempt to save that longstanding publication, taking in one Farley Manning as his editor and manager here.
On August 1, 1941, one Harold M. Evans and Edward T. Fairchild purchased the O'Brien interest, and after a few months Mr. Evans retired from the business and disposed of his interest to his partner. Since that time Mr. Fairchild has been the sole editor and publisher of the paper. Its circula- tion has materially increased under his management and it has made for itself a place in Athol.
395
CHAPTER XXIII BANKING - FINANCIAL
I ITTLE do we know of the conditions under which the early « settlers of Athol transacted their financial affairs. There were no banks in New England at the time Athol was settled nor when it was incorporated. In fact very little money of any kind was then in circulation, most of the debts and obligations being paid by an exchange of commodities. The taxpayer paid his taxes to a large extent by doing work upon the roads, furnishing fuel for the school houses, or boarding the paupers. When money was borrowed by the town, the Selectmen usually gave their personal notes as security and their property was holden for the town debt until the town reimbursed them.
Captain Thomas Lord, my greatgrandfather, gave his per- sonal note for a bounty paid to a soldier as an inducement to enlist during the Revolutionary War. The claim was made that this soldier never performed the service and a suit at law was instituted against Capt. Lord personally. In the end the town voted to reimburse him for all costs and expenses to which he had been put on account of this litigation. That any other official even suffered financial embarrassment because of his doing good for the town's indebtedness, I do not know. In fact there was very little public debt in 1774 just before the Revolution, Massachusetts being entirely out of debt with no outstanding obligations.
Debts were contracted during the early years of the Revolu- tion when the Colonies issued currency, which were in effect, promises of the State Government to pay certain sums of money. As the war dragged on and on the uncertainty of the outcome became apparent, the value of the exchange was very much depreciated until in 1780 the paper currency in circula- tion was worth about 2c on the dollar.
War was not only at our very doors but within our own gates. The townsfolk were at war with their minister. He was paid a salary by taxation upon all the property of the town, which salary amounted to fifty-two pounds a year, just about $5.00 a week. When the currency became so depre- ciated he asked the town if it would not pay his salary in the old way, that is, grain, wool, flax, cheese, and other necessaries,
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BANKING - FINANCIAL
but the town was disposed to get rid of him as quickly as possible and insisted on living to the letter of its bargain, re- fusing to pay him otherwise than per contract, in currency. Just about that time the town paid sixty pounds for a blanket, thirty-six pounds for a pair of shoes, thirty pounds for a shirt and twenty pounds for a pair of stockings, all these to equip a soldier to go into the war, but refused to pay the minister the value of one good wool blanket for an entire year's service in this community.
Then came the severest financial difficulties which Massa- chusetts ever experienced. With this depreciated currency people were unable to pay their debts. Hard money had prac- tically disappeared from circulation; imprisonment for debt was the law of the land and many a man, honest in his inten- tions and with considerable tangible property, was thrown into jail because he could not meet his obligations. This caused so much ill feeling that it ended eventually in an insurrection against the Government.
Athol seems to have been one of the prime movers of this insurrection. The records of the Courts at Worcester state that "at the June sitting of 1786, the first problem of the Court was to consider the petition of the selectmen of the town of Athol, that the Courts refrain from passing upon claims for indebtedness until the present emergency should be re- lieved," but the Judges were strong for the law and insisted upon enforcement. This so displeased the people that when the next session of the Court came in September, there was a general uprising. The records of the Court state simply "that the Court was prevented from holding a September ses- sion in 1786, by the presence of an armed mob."
Chief Justice Artemus Ward we know attempted to argue with the mob and was driven from the court house steps with a bayonet cut in his great coat.
Just previous to this, in 1784, the Massachusetts Bank had been organized in Boston, the first in New England, but it had not functioned sufficiently to relieve the situation to any ex- tent. Massachusetts had established mints in 1783 at Boston and Dedham but the output was very limited and by the Con- stitution of 1789, the states were prevented from coining money, so this activity was at once discontinued.
Conditions improved quite rapidly after General Shays' little insurrectionary army was put to rout from Petersham Common on a cold February day in 1786. Shays, after closing the courts at Worcester had marched upon the courts at North-
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
ampton and Springfield, but by that time the Massachusetts Militia under General Lincoln got into action pursuing Shays to Pelham, from there over the New Salem Hills to Petersham where he made his last stand, fleeing hastily through Athol to the Ashuelot Valley in New Hampshire.
When order was restored in Massachusetts, all who had par- ticipated in the uprising were disfranchised, but except for a few leaders were restored to citizenship by surrendering their arms and taking a new oath of allegiance, the signed oaths being preserved in the archives of the Commonwealth. In those documents we find eleven from Royalston, fifteen from Gerry, thirteen from Orange and some seventy-five from New Salem, but only one, Capt. John Oliver, from Athol. Of the four Revolutionary Captains who went into that war from Athol, two, Capt. Ichabod Dexter by then a resident of Hardwick, and Capt. John Oliver, were numbered in the army of the hemlock (Shays'). Capt. Stockwell, then a resident of Gerry, is not recorded as taking any part, while Capt. Lord went out with several Athol men under Gen. Lincoln to suppress the insur- rection.
Parsons in "A Puritan Outpost" states that "No Northfield name was identified with the rebellion" but we find a few of her citizens taking the new oath of allegiance.
While we have recorded evidence of only one Atholite par- ticipating in the rebellion yet we cannot believe our people were out of step with their adjoining towns and must conclude that the sheet containing other Athol oaths must have been lost.
Then followed a long era of prosperity in Massachusetts. The state government was functioning nicely, the federal con- stitution was adopted, industries developed all over New England, transportation was improved, and there was general contentment and prosperity until the second war with England in 1812. New England was opposed to this and her hostile communities joined in the Hartford Convention which is under- stood to have all but adopted articles for secession, but before final action was taken, the delegates went home to their constituencies, to learn the temper of the people. Then came our victory of Lake Erie and the general feeling that war was near its end, so this convention never re-assembled but it was not with any great consistency that Massachusetts so violently opposed South Carolina when she seceded in 1861. Fifty years before, her delegates had all but taken a similar step.
During this war, all the banks except those in New England,
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BANKING - FINANCIAL
friendly to and assisted by the British government, suspended specie payments. While that war had great financial effect in other parts of the country, it was not seriously felt here.
In the years that preceded and immediately followed that war, there was a considerable development of financial insti- tutions throughout Massachusetts. In 1804 a commercial bank was organized at Worcester; in 1822 a similar institution at Greenfield; in 1828 the Old Worcester County Institution for Savings; and in 1834 the Franklin Savings Institution was or- ganized at Greenfield.
Transportation facilities were not good and it is not con- ceivable that these institutions, the nearest being some twenty- five miles from here, were of any material assistance to our people. A large district we were, without banking facilities, the private individual of some means being the banker for his neighbors. My father has told me that during this period it was said that the town of Wendell had a mortgage on the entire Connecticut Valley, and Mary Farr has said that when the Baptist Church was built in 1848, her father and Deacon Frye went to Petersham and borrowed the money to finish the job.
1.
ESQ. THEODORE JONES 1779 - 1863
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
There were in town, however, after the first quarter of the nineteenth century, two depositories for surplus funds. One was Esquire Jones who kept a general store at about 1590 Main Street where there is now a Shell Filling Station. Esquire Jones did much to teach thrift to the younger generation of Athol. After his coming here, just before 1820, he offered to take the pennies of the children as they saved them, give his personal note for them, and give them interest. This he con- tinued to do for a great many years, helping to inculcate the habit of thrift in these young people.
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