USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 52
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every child an opportunity to participate in the benefits of public instruction.
The first school-house was located in the centre of the town, for the use of all the children in town. It was a humble edifice, about twenty feet square, covered outside by rough boards, with no inside ceiling. - It was furnished with a cellar, to which access was gained through a trap-door in the centre of the room. In one corner of the apartment stood a huge fireplace, built of rough stones and surmounted by a chimney of the same materials. The room was furnished with a few seats, made of rough planks, and with benches constructed of boards, over which a plane never passed. To facilitate the means of supporting a school for a few weeks each year, it was customary to rent the building to some pedagogue or school-dame, as a tenement, in part payment for his or her services.
Dame Nutting - as she was reverently called at the time by people of every age -- occupied this responsible station for many years. This female official might have stood beside Falstaff him- self without losing aught `by the comparison. She kept herself furnished with a stick, some six feet in length, with which she reduced her urchins to due subordination. Hand-bells had not then been invented, and as a substitute the dame would step outside the door and ply her stick to the weather- beaten ceiling ; and woe to the offender who did not. heed, for the recent notions in regard to corporal punishment formed no part of the school code of those days.
The work of school-teaching was assumed by Dame Nutting at a late period of her life. In her younger days she broke the monotony of household duties by a very different employment, - she made excursions to Boston, and procured young negroes, either by gift or purchase, and secured homes for them, at a price, in Shirley and vicinity. She travelled on horsback, and conveyed her infant charges in panniers. Andrew Mitchell, who was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, and from whom descended many families, was one of the protégés of this afterward famous school-dame.
Eventually the town was divided into districts, -- three in number, - and these, by subsequent changes, were enlarged to five, and then to seven, which promise to meet all present and coming wants in this direction. The town has also always made such pecuniary appropriations for educational purposes as to give it an average standing with the other towns and cities of the commonwealth.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
There are elderly people in all our towns who behold with rejoicing the contrast between the present schools and those of their early days, when their school-buildings were little better than hovels, their school-terms limited to six or eight weeks, and their text-books confined to Dilworth's Speller, the New Testament and Psalter, and per- haps Webster's Third Part, and none but " written arithmetics."
By the will of the late Hon. Leonard M. Parker the town has been furnished with the commence- ment of a fund for the support of a high school for the free use of all the inhabitants of the town.
Though the settlements of Shirley were subse- quent to the time of Indian depredations, the town was organized as a district seven years before the close of what has been termed the French War, which occasionally demanded army recruits from the colonies. Several volunteered from Groton and some from Shirley, among whom was Mr. Joseph Longley. He was chairman of the select- men at the organization of the district, and was the first town-clerk. This latter office he was ap- pointed to fill until 1758, when he enlisted in his Majesty's service, and was mortally wounded in the battle and defeat of Fort William Henry.
Previous to the rupture with the motherland the town had assumed larger proportions, and was enabled to take an active and decided part in the controversies and conflicts that resulted in the inde- pendence of the country.
The settlers of Shirley had, with the Puritan de- scent generally, been proud of their motherland, --- " blessed England," as they reverently called her, --- and willingly did reverence to the " best of kings"; yet when the grievances imposed liad become too numerous and oppressive to be tamely endured, they were prepared to second every worthy measure to sustain the rights and secure the liberties of the colonies, and to pledge their property and lives in the glorious struggle for independence.
The papers that were drawn at the order and sanctioned by a vote of the town, in relation to British aggressions, - too long for insertion here, --- are admirable both in spirit and scholarship. The first was adopted at a meeting of the town, October 18, 1765, and was a protest against the Stamp Act. While they firmly condemned in this paper the officials of the crown, they avowed loyalty to his Majesty's person, and invoked for him the favor of Heaven.
In about eight years after the repeal of the
Stamp Act the inhabitants of the town received a missive from a committee appointed by a meeting of the citizens of Boston, complaining of the in- justice of the crown in appointing judges for the province of Massachusetts Bay, paying their sal- aries, and without whose consent they could not be removed, as a serious infringement of their rights, giving the people no better chance for justice, no better security of life and property, than if they were ruled by the most despotic government under heaven.
In relation to the Act on Tea, passed by the par- liament of Great Britain in 1773, we find the fol- lowing resolutions, with other decisions equally firm, receiving the unanimous vote of the citizens convened for the purpose : -
" 1. That we will neither buy, nor sell, nor drink, nor suffer it to be drunk in any of our fam- ilies, any Tea that is subject to an American duty. " 2. That we will stand ready to unite with our brethren, through the colonies, in every proper measure to retrieve our liberties and to establishı them upon such a firm basis, that it will be out of the power, at least of our present enemies, to wrest them out of our hands."
The sympathy, repeatedly expressed, with the. citizens of Boston was confirmed by deeds. After the passage of the Boston Port Bill a town-meeting was called and holden, January 18, 1775, at whichi it was voted to " make some provision for the suf- fering poor in Boston and Charlestown on account of the Boston Port Bill, so called, and that the same be done by subscription." A committee was chosen " to receive the donations for said poor, and forward them, as soon as may be, to Boston or Charlestown."
At this same meeting the yoke of allegiance to the mother country was completely broken by a vote to withhold the province tax for the support of his Majesty's government.
It was also voted, at this meeting, to endorse the Association of the Grand American Congress, held in Philadelphia in October, 1774. The paper of association, which was drawn for the signatures of the entire people, - too long for insertion here, --- would have done honor to a much older commu- nity than that which peopled the young town of Shirley. It was presented for signatures January 18, 1775. This decision of the people was attended by another as extraordinary as it was rare. Here is the record. " At a legal meeting of the iuliabi- tants of Shirley, held on the 18th day of Jan.,
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A. D. 1775. Resolved and voted that the above draught of an association is approved of, and that the same be entered in the District Book of rec- ords, and that the same be signed by the several inhabitants of said district, and that the committee of correspondence see that the same is done or in- form the district at their next district meeting of every person who shall delay or refuse to sign the same, so that the district may take such further order thereon as they may think proper."
This hearty and unanimous response to the pro- ceedings of the First Continental Congress proved that the patriotism of Shirley was without any mix- ture of tory alloy.
By such decision on the part of the yeomanry of the country a formal separation from British rule was encouraged, and nerve was given to the daring of the council and to the valor of the battle-field.
The pledges that were made by the people of Shirley were nobly redeemed. When the tidings of the Lexington battle reached town, every man old enough to bear arms, except seven, volunteered his services and marched to Cambridge. The age and infirmities of these, or the situation of their families, prevented them from joining their brethren. One of them, Mr. William Longley, known to the people as Old Will the Miller, though bent down with age and supporting himself with two staves, said he would join the company, and when reminded of his infirmity, replied, "I know that I cannot handle a musket, yet I will fight the redcoats with my two canes," at the same moment brandishing those formidable weapons aloft.
The church common was crowded with the eager citizens. Women and children were there to en- courage their sons aud brothers to be true to the principles of liberty, to supply them with the com- forts needed on their march to join the army before Boston, to invoke the blessing of Heaven upon the enterprise, and to bid them what might prove a last farewell ! These movements were unmistak- able tokens of the patriotism of the actors.
Volunteers went, from time to time, as militia- men before the opening of the memorable campaign of 1777. Twenty-two men were then raised for the regular army, and the town voted each man thus raised $20 additional bounty.
Subsequently the citizens of Shirley were re- quired to supply other support in the service of the war, such as muskets, military coats, and camp stores, all of which were readily contributed. -
In 1780 more men were wanted, and the town
voted every volunteer one hundred silver dollars, and it also voted to give £40 to each recruit who would serve three months additional to his ap- pointed time.
At the next annual town-meeting the town voted to raise $1,200 in silver, to be assessed on the in- habitants, towards paying the soldiers hired for three years, whose time had expired.
Added to this heavy war expense in camp and field, the town appointed a committee to provide for the wants of the families of the absent soldiers, in addition to the ordinary current expenses of the town.
But when peace came, and the armies of foreign oppression were withdrawn, there was not that har- mnony of action established that is required to build up and sustain a well-ordered republic. In Mas- sachusetts insurrectionary movements commenced with petitions from popular assemblies to the state government for a redress of grievances, which were not duly regarded. The result was that armed forces assembled in several counties, under different leaders, who committed acts of violence by stop- ping courts of justice, arresting private citizens and holding them in durance, and in some instances by pillage and robbery.
Now, although the people of Shirley had, with- out a solitary exception, sustained the cause of American independence, they were, with one or two exceptions, in favor of some movement to ameliorate the existing condition of things. And it may be that a majority did not discoun- tenance a resort to forcible measures, should milder efforts fail. It was the first purpose of the insur- gents to suppress the courts of sessions until some action should be taken to stay the flood of execu- tions which wasted their property and made their homes desolate. Hence, a party from Shirley joined another party from Groton, under the com- mand of Job Shattuck, of the last-named place, who had served in the French and Revolutionary wars, and was otherwise qualified to be conspicuous in such a cause.
Connected with Mr. Shattuck in this command were two brothers, residents of Shirley, - Sylvanus and Nathan Smith, - both of whom had been offi- cers in the late War for Independence. The party marched to Concord on the 12th of September, bivouacked for the night, and by preventing the ses- sion of the court on the following day accomplished their object, and returned to their homes.
In January, 1787, the army headquarters of the
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insurgents being at Pelham, where the commander resided, invitations were extended to the disaffected in every part of the state to organize, and repair thither, and act as circumstances should require. This presented another opportunity for the disaf- fected patriots of Shirley and Groton to show their zeal for the rebel cause. Matthew Clark, a resi- dent of Shirley, and a private in the campaign, has thus described the movement ; we follow his ac- count.
" A number of men were assembled from Shirley and Groton, in the centre of the first-namcd town, at the public-house of Mr. James Dickerson, and after paying their devotions at the altar of Bacchus grew brave, and proceeded to organize themselves into a military company, to join the insurgent forces under Shays, and assist him in his patriotic work. Aaron Bigelow, of Groton, was elected captain ; Solomon Pratt, of Shirley, was promoted to a lieu- tenancy ; and Cornelius Davis, also of Shirley, was appointed ensign. The company immediately took up a line of march for Pelham, which place they reached on the third day. They remained there about eight days, when the rebel army was re- moved to Petersham'.
" During this period the company from Shirley formed a part of the detachment that was sent to Springfield to suppress a court in that place. After a slight skirmish the detachment was driven back by government troops. As General Lincoln, who commanded these troops, pushed forward towards the rebel camp in Petersham, Shays, with his prin- cipal officers, fled to other states, and eventually took refuge in Canada. Captain Bigelow and Lieutenant Pratt were also among the missing ; but Ensign Davis, true to the obligations he had as- sumed, never left his command, but made an orderly retreat back to Shirley with his entire company. At Fitchburg, through which town they passed, a body of government troops were stationed to intercept, and if possible capture them ; but so well disciplined and firm was the rebel corps, that it was allowed an unmolested course. As these soldiers marched through the villages lying on their way, they presented as great external appearance of ' the pomp of war' as their means would allow, by unfurling their banner and marching in closed ranks to the sound of music.
" When the company arrived at the border of Shirley it was disbanded, and each man returned to his home. Subsequently every individual that volunteered in this campaign was arrested, carried
to Fitchburg, and there forced to surrender his arms, take the oath of allegiance, and receive a discharge."
The following action from the town records will show the attitude of the people at this perilous period. A meeting of the town called by a war- rant posted January 29, 1787, contained these articles : 1. " To see what the town will do in re- gard to sending provision to those men who are gone, or about to go (as they say), in defence of their rights and privilegcs. 2d. To see if the town will take into consideration the present distressing circumstances of our public affairs, and consult upon means for a settlement of those disturbances that are subsisting in this commonwealth."
At the meeting that followed it was voted, " 1st, not to send provisions to the men gone from this town under arms. 2d, to choose a committee, agreeable to the second article." This committee reported in favor of sending a petition to the Gen- eral Court praying that all " the disturbances sub- sisting in this commonwealth may be settled "; which report was accepted, and the petition sent. By this action of the town we find that a majority of the people were opposed to the use of forcible measures, though it cannot be denied that almost all of them were in favor of some immediate and salutary reforms in the affairs of government.
The War of 1812 with Great Britain and the Mexican War have left no data worthy of record, and the incidents usual to most of the New Eng- land towns were experienced in Shirley in regard to the War of the Rebellion. The news of the capture of Fort Sumter, which came to town April 15, 1861, aroused the entire community from their apathy, and caused the dullest to be- lieve that the rebels were in earnest in their bellig- erent declarations. From that time intil the war closed the interest and zeal of our people were unabated. Town-meetings were of frequent occur- rence, large sums of the public funds were appro- priated for the benefit of the army, and the stream of private charity was constantly accumulating for the encouragement and comfort of the Federal sol- diers.
The whole number mustered into the service from Shirley was one hundred and thirty-eight. Of this number twenty-one were killed, died in camp or hospital, or at home of disease engendered by the hardships of army life.
The town has been largely peopled by persons of rural occupations and rural habits. To till the
· SHIRLEY. 305
soil has been their life business. The average yearly death-rate during the one hundred and six- teen years of the town's existence has been 12} per year. There have been, at different periods, eight physicians who have lived and practised their pro- fessions in town. Of those who made Shirley the place of their life-work was Dr. Augustus G. Parker. He was born in Harvard, February 14, 1796. His father was a physician, and he was the youngest child of a numerons family. He early imbibed a taste for the profession of his father, and while yet a youth began to acquaint himself with the rudi- ments of the healing art. It is undoubtedly true that his future success was, in large degree, owing to that singleness of purpose with which he de- voted himself to the duties of his calling. While he was yet a minor his father removed with his family into the state of Vermont, where he passed the rest of his life.
Here the subject of this notice commenced the active duties of his profession in company with his father. He was thus ushered into business, like many other practitioners of his time, without a public education, and without those other privi- leges that are now almost universally regarded as a necessary passport to the confidence of the com- munity.
Dr. Parker removed to Harvard, his native town, and entered into partnership with Dr. Stone of that place. In one year he removed to Shirley, where he passed the remainder of his life, having a very large and lucrative practice. In 1827 he received a diploma from the Massachusetts Medical Society. He died June 18, 1843, in the forty-eighth year of his age.
The early settlers of most of the New England towns were of Puritan descent, and possessed one form of Christian faith, one order of church pol- ity, - hence the ecclesiastical history of one com- munity may be fairly taken as a history of all. It consisted generally of accounts of special fasts, the calling, ordaining, and burying of ministers, - for it was rarely trne that one was dismissed, or relinquished his position while he lived, - the dis- ciplining of members, and the building of meeting- houses.
For several years after the town was incor- porated the people continued to worship with their friends in Groton, and it was not until after many and hard struggles with poverty that they were enabled to set up an altar to God nearer home. In 1754 the first meeting-house was erected.
When first occupied it was only rough-ceiled on the outside, and wholly without pews or seats, either on the ground-floor or in the galleries. Still, it was an essential point of attraction for all true lovers of the sanctuary. It protected them from the rough winter blasts, and from the scorcli- ing suns of summer, and supplied the hardy settlers with a place of worship.
With various improvements, this house remained the only place of public worship for twenty years, when it was converted into a barn, which is now in use. In 1773 the second meeting-house was erected, and the framework and outside covering of this second temple are now parts of the meeting- house of the First Congregational Society, which is now and ever has been in constant occupancy. The building has undergone alterations on three different occasions, and is at present one of the most convenient, ornamental, and substantial church structures that can be found in any of our rural districts.
It was some eight years after the meeting-house had been prepared for use before a ministry had been established, the pulpit, meantime, being sup- plied by transient preachers and regular candidates. On the 25th of February, 1762, Mr. Phinehas Whitney received a unanimous invitation to settle, on the following terms : First, he was to receive £133 6 s. 8d. as a settlement, one half to be paid in three months, and the rest within the year. Second, he was to receive £53 13s. 4d. as a sal- ary, to be raised to £60 when the town should have seventy-five families, and to £66 13s. 4d. when there were eighty-five families. Third, he was annually to receive twenty cords of wood, to be cut and brought to his door. These prelimi- naries being adjusted, Mr. Whitney was ordained June 23, 1762.
The ministry of Mr. Whitney, which lasted for more than half a century, was one of general peace and prosperity. He had the confidence of his people, and between him and them a good degree of harmony was maintained. He was also favor- ably considered abroad, was frequently invited to sit in ecclesiastical councils, to assist in the settle- ment of clergymen, and was noted for liis decision and firmness. In the trying period of the Ameri- can Revolution, when the people of the town found themselves unable to pay his full salary, he bore the deprivation with calm resignation, and even contributed of his private resources, towards the expenses of the war, what would have been an
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
equitable tax on his property, had that property been legally taxable.
Mr. Whitney was a classmate and particular friend of Rev. Zabdiel Adams, of Lunenburg, and preached the funeral sermon at the burial of that distinguished divine. In his doetrinal views Mr. Whitney assented to many of the tenets that were imported in the Mayflower, yet maintained a be- coming liberality towards fellow-Christians of other names. He seemed rooted and grounded in the noble principles of Arminian Congregationalism, and believed that on these principles the church militant could be most securely established.
Mr. Whitney was born in Weston, Massachu- setts, April 23, 1740, graduated at Harvard College in 1759, and died in 1819, after having entered the fifty-seventh year of his ministry. For several of the later years of his life he was deprived, by paralysis, of ability to perform his pulpit labors, and had the assistance of a colleague from 1815 until within a few months of his death. From 1819 until 1834 the society was without a settled minister, when the present incumbent, Rev. Seth Chandler, was chosen for the work.
The first important secession from the old Con- gregational Church was made by Universalists in 1812. On the 21st of September of that year a religious organization was effected, of these se- ceders, who ealled themselves the First Universal Christian Society in Shirley. This movement was not more the result of sectarian than of local in- fluences.
The south village, through its manufacturing interests, had begun to assume an importance that laid claim to some special identity, and the location of a church in its midst would secure that identity. Most of those, too, who from religious motives were engaged in the movement, lived in the viein- ity ; and that village -two miles from the een- tre of the town - was chosen to locate the new, and what was considered in all the region around strange form of Christian belief.
The first meeting-house was erected in 1816. It was a humble structure, neither neat, tasteful, nor convenient. Its high box-pews aud angular aisles were in striking contrast with the orna- mented mouldings and fretted cornices that had distinguished those portions of church architecture, even in Puritan temples, that had survived to that period. It had but one door of entranee, which opened into a narrow poreh, and thence tc the body of the church. A singers' gallery extended
along the western wall, and was entered by flights of stairs located within the auditorium of the house. It was covered by a hip-roof and furnished with a numerous array of windows, not protected by blinds. The cheap and inartistic properties and proportions of this religious temple marked the care and fru- gality of the time.
In 1846 this uncouth structure was thoroughly remodelled, and made to present the graceful pro- portions of modern architecture. In 1869 it was removed, and converted into a public hall, and a new and splendid church edifice was set up in its place. Its style of architecture is the English Gothic, adapted to wooden structures. The length of the building, including chancel and vestry, is one hundred and ten feet. The width is forty-one feet. Including the porch and tower, the width is sixty-six feet. The height of the spire is one hun- dred feet, and it is sufficiently capacious at the base to admit carriages. The entire expense of the church was $25,000. The society has furnished itself with the various organized means of charity, juvenile instruction, and adult mental culture, that have become the order of the day, and is designed to exert a healthful moral influence throughout the village and vicinity.
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