USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 66
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3SI
"TOWNSEND.
Thomas, and Rev. George T. Raymond. The present minister is Rev. E. W. Pride, a graduate of Brown University in 1865, and of Newton Theological Institution in 1868. The number of members is about one hundred and thirty. Since the building of the Baptist meeting-house in 1843
it has been enlarged and greatly improved. A commodious vestry has been added at the rear. When this church was formed a Sabbath school was also organized, and has been successfully con- ducted ever since.
TOWNSEND.
BY ITHAMAR B. SAWTELLE.
T OWNSEND is situated in the northwestern angle of the county, on the state line; it is bounded on the north by Mason and Brookline, New Hampshire, on the east by Pepperell, Groton, and Shirley, on the south by Lunenburg, and on the west by Ashby. It contains 19,271 acres. In its outlines it is per- haps more quadrangular than any other town in the county.
The borders of the town, except at its southeast corner, are occupied by prominent hills, upon some of which are standpoints commanding views of scenic beauty. A large portion of the land on these hills is well adapted to the cultivation of the cereals, and produces much fruit, - particularly apples and peaches. The central part of the town is generally quite level, and contains large areas of land con- sisting of a light, sandy soil. Interspersed among these plains and near the river are many fertile tracts, which afford excellent crops. Through this central basin flows the Squanicook River, which is produced by the confluence of several large brooks in Ash Swamp, situated in the northwest part of the town. These brooks drain parts of Mason, Greenville, and New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and parts of the towns of Ashby, Ashburnham, Fitch- burg, and Lunenburg.
The Squanicook River runs through the town in a southeasterly direction to near the Groton line, when it takes a more southern course, and in a very crooked channel it journeys on out of Townsend at the northeast corner of Shirley. This river and
its tributaries have furnished many mill privileges which have been and are still utilized in various branches of industry. The town has three postal centres, known as Townsend Harbor, Townsend, and West Townsend, each situated about two miles from the other and clustering on both banks of the Squanicook. The Peterborough and Shirley Rail- road, a branch of the Fitchburg Railroad (com- pleted in 1849), passes through the town, touching the three villages daily with regular passenger trains. The central village is situated nine miles from Fitchburg, twenty miles from Lowell, and forty miles from Boston. Townsend was named by the provincial governor in honor of Charles Townshend, the English statesman, who was very popular in the colonies at the time it received its charter. It appears from the town records that for more than fifty years from the time of its in- corporation the correct orthography of its name- sake was generally preserved. Near the beginning of the present century the "h" was dropped from the name in the records, contrary, perhaps, to good taste. The population of the town (census of 1875) is 2,196.
The earliest historical trace of any claim of ownership in the soil of Townsend has been found among the grants of " the great and general court" to the prominent military men, who two hundred years ago participated in King Philip's War m New England.
The Records of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Vol. V., page 10-4, contam the following grant : -
" Layd out to the Wor pff" William Hanthorn Esq. six hundred and forty acres of land, more or
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
less, lying in the wilderness on the north of Groaton river at a place called by the Indians Wistequas- suck, on the West side of sayd hill.
" It begins at a great hemlock tree standing on the West side of the sayd hill marked with II. and runs north and by east three hundred and twenty pole to a maple tree marked wth H; from thence it runns West and by north three hundred and twenty pole to a stake and stones; from thence it runs south & by west three hundred and twenty pole to a great pine in a little swamp marked wth H; from thence it ruuns east & by south to the first hemlock. All the lynes are rvnne & the trces are well marked. It contaynes a mill squar and is lajd exactly square, as may be easily demon- strated by ye platform inserted vnderneath & is
on file. JONATHAN DANFORTH, Survejo". " The court allows & approves of this returne so it interferes not wth former grants."
William Hathorn was a magistrate in Salem when the Quakers commenced their eccentric and indecent proceedings "against the peace and dig- nity " of the colony ; and a captain of Salem mili- tia during the Indian war, afterward promoted to the rank of major. He was a deputy to the Gen- eral Court two or three times, speaker in 1661, and a man of prominence.
" Hathorn's farm," so called, is situated on the southwestern slope of what was formerly known as Wallace Hill, including the meadows at its base, and was undoubtedly selected from the unbroken wilderness on account of the spontaneous growth of grass which it produced. The Indian name in this grant has been found spelled quite differently. In both the town and the proprietors' records the word is almost invariably Nissequassick. This word, in English, signifies " the two-pine place " (nissi, two, coos, pines, and ick, a locative parti- cle). This name has never been applied to any other locality. There is nothing which goes to show that the Indians ever made Townsend a permanent place of abode, although a tomahawk and a few of their stone instruments have been found imbedded in the best soils along the river, where, perhaps, they occasionally planted corn. The settlers of the town made several garrison-houses in different situations, but there is no record or tradition that they were ever molested, or injured in the least degree by the red men.
From 1676 to 1719, for nearly half a century, nothing is known concerning Hathorn's farm or
its surrounding wilderness. Meanwhile the seasons came and departed ; the gentle breath of spring awakened the untrod forest verdure; autumn painted its crimson on the maple leaves ; winter summoned its winds to chant the requiem of the years as they made their "exits and entrances," but the axe of the Puritan was not heard on Nisse- quassick Hill.
In 1702 the colony of Massachusetts Bay com- menced issuing paper money to pay debts which accumulated from the expense of the Indian wars, and other causes. The inflation of the currency, together with a strong passion and greed for landed estates, brought to the surface a class of speculators who were anxious to have new towns granted and surveyed.
In 1719 a certain number of men, the most .. prominent of whom belonged to Concord, petitioned the General Court for a grant of two towns at the " Westerly side of Groton." This was soon after Groton had been resurveyed by Samuel Danforth (vide Ms. Records of General Court, 1713, p. 216), who established the northwest corner of Groton on the easterly side of " Wistequaset Hill," at the southwest corner of the old township of Dunstable, thereby giving to Groton the gore of land between the north line of that town and the south line of Old Dunstable, having the east lines of Lunenburg and Townsend as they now are for its western boundary. By this survey Groton obtained large portions of land which are now included within the limits of the townships of Pepperell and Shirley.
On the 7th of December, 1719, the General Court made the following grant, which is of great importance ; for it is not only the foundation of the municipal rights of the town, but it is the base upon which rest the titles to all the real estate in Townsend except Hathorn's mile square. It is here given entire, from an exact copy of the colo- nial records : -
" Anno Regni Regis Georgii Magnae Brit- tannae Serto. At a great and General Court or Assembly for his Majesty's Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay in New England, begun and held at Boston, upon Wednesday, the twenty-seventh of May, 1719, and continued by Prorogation to Wednesday, the fourth of November, 1719, and then met ; being their second session.
" Monday, December 7, 1719.
" In the house of Representatives, the vote for granting two new towns was brought down from the board with Amendments, which were read and
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TOWNSEND.
agreed to And the said vote is as follows, viz : Voted, That two new Towns, each containing a Quantity of land not exceeding six miles square, be laid ont in as regular Forms as the Land will allow ; to be settled in a defensible manner, on the Westerly side of Groton West line, and that William Tailor, Samuel Thaxter, Francis Fullam, Esqrs., Capt. John Shipley, and Mr. Benjamin Whittemore, be a Committee fully impowered to allot and grant out the land contained in each of the said towns, (a lot not to exceed Two hundred and fifty acres) to such persons, and only such as will effectually settle the same within the space of three years next ensuing the laying out and granting such by the Committee, who are instructed to admit eighty families or persons in each Town at least, who shall pay to the said Committee for the use of the Prov- ince, the sum of Five Pounds for each allotment, which shall be granted and allotted as aforesaid ; and that each person to whom such lot or lots shall be granted or laid out, shall be obliged to build a good Dwelling House thereon and inhabit it; and also to break up and fence in three acres of land at the least within the Term of three years ; and that there be laid out and reserved for the first settled Minister a good convenient Lot; also a Lot for the School, and a ministerial lot, and a lot for Harvard College, of two hundred and fifty acres each ; and the Settlers be obliged to build a good, convenient House for the Worship of God in each of the said Towns, within the term of four years ; and to pay the charge of the necessary sur- veys, and the Committee for their service in and about the premises ; and that the Committee give public notice of the time and place when and where they will meet to grant allotments.
" Consented to - SAML SHUTE."
The townships of Lunenburg and Townsend, by this order or grant of the General Court, were called into legal existence from the "country land " of the province and from a territory previously called Turkey Hills. From the date of this grant till each of these towns was surveyed and received its respective charter Lunenburg was called Turkey Hills, and Townsend was called The North Town, sometimes Turkey Hills North Town.
The committee named in this grant called their first meeting at the inn of Jonathan Hobart, of Concord, on the 11th of May, 1720, when seventy- two of the eighty shares in North Town were taken up, some subscribers paying the five pounds,
others paying only a part, and others nothing at that time. Twenty-four of these seventy-two share- holders belonged to Concord. At a subsequent meeting the other eight shares were taken, but the names of those who took them do not appear on the manuscript record of Francis Fullam, clerk of the committee. This mannscript is preserved in Harvard College Library. It was impossible for the original proprietors of the town to conform to the strict letter of the grant. The " convenient house for the worship of God " was not built till 1730. It was a rude structure, and the only one in town at that time built of sawed lumber. Only a few of the men who met at Concord in 1719, and subscribed for an eightieth part of the town, ever became settlers in the North Town. Accord- ing to the town records, the first birthi was in 1728, during which year several families came here from Chelmsford, Groton, and Woburn.
On the 29th of June, 1732, Townsend was incorporated and its boundaries made ; but not till October, 16, 1734, did the town settle " a learned orthodox minister." Just before, and at this time, there was a sharp controversy going on between the land proprietors of the townships of Townsend and Old Dunstable, the point in dispute being a tract of land in the northeast corner of Townsend, then in Dunstable. It appears, from all the records, that the Townsend proprietors held unreasonable views concerning the boundary line between these towns. During the next decade the town advanced considerably. The General Court made a law em- powering the selectmen to assess and collect a tax of one penny on every acre of " Non-resident land," which was a great help towards the support of their minister. In 1733 a saw and grist mill was built at the Harbor ; still, the settlers were very poor, and subject to many privations.
In 1741 the province line between Massachu- setts and New Hampshire was established, by which Townsend lost about one third of its terri- tory, which is now embraced within the limits of Brookline, Mason, and New Ipswich, in New Hampshire. This was another source of trouble to the land-loving proprietors of the town, who soon petitioned the General Court for indemnifica- tion. The subject was not acted upon till 1765, when the assembly "granted a township some- where at the eastward of the Saco River, six miles square, to the Townshend proprietors and others, for military services and other losses and services." Of this township Townsend was to have 10,212
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
acres. There is, however, nothing recorded going to show that Townsend ever complied with the terms of the grant, or received the least benefit from it. At this period (1765) log-houses began to disappear, comfortable cottages took their places, and quite a number of the two-story houses, with their .monstrous chimneys, were built by the most wealthy people of the town. The population at that time was 598.
By the incorporation of Ashby, in 1767, Towns- end parted with territory enough to form about two thirds of that town, with as little regret as is felt by a mother at the marriage of the eldest daughter of the family. Since the time of this excision the limits of the town have remained undisturbed.
At the inauguration and during the progress of the Revolutionary War the town took a very active part, being in constant correspondence with the town of Boston through the Committee of Safety. When the alarm was made on the 19th of April, 1775, seventy-five men, in two companies, under the command of Captain James Hosley and Cap- tain Samuel Douglas, took up the line of march for Concord, to resist the "ministerial troops." Ephraim Warren left his plough in the furrow, mounted one of the horses with which he was at work, and calling for his gun and ammunition started at full speed " to have a shot at the regu- lars." During the siege of Boston several sled- loads of provisions were sent by this town to its suffering inhabitants. The town records attest the spirited manner with which its quotas for the army were filled, and to the great interest manifested in the cause of freedom. It, however, had more than its share of tories, who were a source of great trouble and annoyance to the patriots. Several became refugees. The most prominent among them was Joseph Adamns, a physician, who owned real estate both in this town and in Pepperell, all of which was confiscated and sold.
During the Shays Rebellion excitement many of the citizens of the town, not discriminating between self-government and anarchy, were in sympathy with the insurgents. "The distressed situation of pub- lic affairs " are the words of the record of a town- meeting in 1786. Some of the most prominent men in town were ready to assist in obstructing the sit- ting of the courts. A company was raised by Lieu- tenant Peter Butterfield, largely made up of young men and minors, which participated with Job Shat- tuck in the attempted raid on the court at Concord.
At the commencement of the present century
-
the people of the town were very much divided in opinion in regard to the location of their house of worship. As was the custom when it was built, it was located on a hill which afforded many charming views of the surrounding country. The village at Grotou, with its white church-spire and dwellings, the farm-houses in Lunenburg, and the graceful contours of the Turkey Hills at the south- west and west, constituted a delightful outlook from this standpoint. Here had been their house of worship since the settlement of the town. The necessity of climbing a steep hill to attend meet- ing, together with the difficulty in getting good wells of water thereon, were the prominent objec- tions to that spot, hallowed to these worshippers by many tender recollections. In 1798 the town began to agitate the subject of a new meeting- house in another location, and during the next year a committee of sixteen members was chosen "to find the centre of the town," and to select a suitable place for the building; but nothing defi- nite was agreed upon till 1803, when, after having from three to five town-meetings in each year, the town voted to remove their meeting-house to the place where it now stands, on the Common, where it was newly set up, renovated, and dedicated in the autumn of 1804. The selection of this spot for the centre of the town was a very judicious act on the part of the committee. The pitch-pine forest soon disappeared, and the meeting-house became the nucleus of a thriving settlement, since grown to the proportions of a manufacturing village, " with the modern improvements."
The war with Great Britain in 1812 being unpopular in Massachusetts, no very enthusiastic response to the call for troops was made. This town was represented by one volunteer and about half a score of drafted inen, among the Middlesex County troops stationed at Fort Warren, under the command of Colonel Walter Hastings of Towns- end. For the first fifty years of the existence of the town there is nothing to be found on record whereby the military history of that period can be written. That an efficient militia was here is evi- dent from the fact that many town officers have military prefixes to their names. The earliest records of the militia show that the town had two companies, known as the North Company and the South Company ; and the records of the former, from 1788 to 1817, and of the latter from 1782 to 1815, are still preserved. The names of the captains of the South Company, as they succeeded
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TOWNSEND.
each other in office, are William Stevens, Zachariah Hildrith, Timothy Fessenden, Eliab Going, Heze- kiah Richardson, William Archibald, Isaac Spauld- ing, James Adams, and Isaac Kidder; and of the North Company are John Campbell, Jonathan Wallace, Samuel Brooks, Joseplı Adams, Walter Hastings, John Wangh, and George Wallace. These were prominent townsmen in their day, when it meant something to be the commander of a military company. In 1817 Levi Warren, Wal- ter Hastings, and others petitioned for the eharter of an independent company, which was granted ; and soon after it was organized under the name of the Townsend Light Infantry, which was kept alive till 1852. It was a well-disciplined, fine-looking corps. It invariably appeared on parade with ex- cellent music, and received on muster-days many compliments from military men during the thirty- five years of its existence. The organization of this company left the number of soldiers in town liable to do military duty so small that they were enrolled in one company. The military spirit in Massachusetts began to wane about 1825, previous to which time the training and muster days were looked forward to with mueh interest. In 1837 the legislature passed a law making all military duty voluntary, which resulted in the disbanding of the entire un-uniformed militia of the common- wealth.
There was little interest manifested in military affairs until 1861, when the life of the nation was threatened by the Southern slaveholders. The part taken by Townsend in that terrible civil war was very creditable, both to its young men who enlisted and entered the service, and to the tax- payers who poured forth their treasures without stint in the cause of patriotism and for the preser- vation of the Union. The town sent to the field three commissioned officers, and, including one drafted man and substitutes, two hundred and sixty-seven men, of whom one hundred and sixty- one were voters in this town at the time when they volunteered. Of the Townsend men ineluded in this number thirty-four lost their lives, - twelve in action, and twenty-two by starvation in Rebel pris- ons, by disease, or other casualties of war. In Company E, 33d Massachusetts Regiment of Vol- unteers, were twenty-six Townsend men, twelve of whom were either killed in action or died in the army. At present there is no military company in town and, in fact, the commonwealth itself is in about the same defenceless condition as when the
guns were pointed towards devoted Sumter in 1861. Our legislators and the people profess the most profound respect for the memory of Wash- ington, forgetting his parting advice: "In time of peace prepare for war."
The ecclesiastical history of Townsend, like that of most New England towns, is replete with inter- est. There were settlers here, in the easterly part of the town, two or three years before a church was gathered, who were acustomed to attend public worship at Groton. The extreme poverty of these men, together with the long controversy with Old Dunstable (before mentioned), is supposed to be the principal reason why Townsend did not receive its charter about the same time that Lunenburg was incorporated (1728). The meeting-house was built in 1730, and probably there was occasional preaching in it for some time before a church was gathered. There is nothing left on record concern- ing the religious status of the town previous to 1734, when a call was extended to Phineas Hemen- way to become the town's minister. A copy of Mr. Hemenway's acceptance of this call is in the town records, dated July 22, 1734. He was or- dained on the 16th of October, at which time the church, consisting of sixteen male members, was gathered. The names of these members are Phineas Hemenway, Joseph Stevens, William Clark, Nathan- iel Tailor, Daniel Tailor, Joseph Baldwin, John Stevens, James MeDonald, John Wallis, Samuel Manning, Jacob Baldwin, Samuel Clark, John Slowen, Benjamin Tailor, Isaac Spaulding, and Jeremiah Ball. The wives of some of these men were soon after admitted to the elureh. Belonging to this body, also, were some of the negro slaves owned by the wealthiest citizens whose names appear above. During Mr. Hemenway's pastor- ate the church increased from sixteen to seventy- nine members.
Rev. Phineas Hemenway was born at Framing- ham, April 26, 1706. He was the son of Joshna and Rebeekah Hemenway, of Roxbury. The father settled in Framingham in 1691, and was one of the founders of the Church of Christ in that town, October 8, 1701, at which time he was chosen deacon. He had enjoyed the advantages which Roxbury afforded, and received a superior education for the time. He was town schoolmaster in 1706. He was a man of decided convictions and earnest piety. In doctrinal belief he agreed with Edwards ; in eliurch polity he was a strict Congregationalist, as opposed to the Presbyterian tendencies of the
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
day. He took a firm stand in favor of the revival under Edwards and Whitefield, and was known to and shared the confidence of such ministers as Sewall and Prince of Boston. He was an aeknowl- edged leader in the civil affairs of the town, was deputy to the General Court in 1712 and in 1717, and held many important offices of trust. Phineas, the son, grew up under the intluence of such a train- ing. He graduated at Harvard College in 1730. No traditions of his personal appearance or charac- ter are preserved in the family. He was the first native-born son of Framingham to graduate at college, and was elected master of the grammar school at the close of his senior year. He com- menced teaching July 27, and continued in the service one year, for which he received the sum of £50. On the 8th of May, 1739, he married Sarah Stevens of Marlborough, who was born Sep- tember 27, 1713. She survived him, and on the 20th of October, 1761, married David Taylor, of Concord.
Mr. Hemenway was a very useful citizen and a faithful pastor. None of his writings except what are in the records of the church have been found. He died May 20, 1760, in the twenty-seventh year of his ministry.
Withi commendable promptness, on the 20th of October following the town " Toted and chose Mr. Samuel Dix to be their pastor and gospel minister, by a unanimous vote," whereupon the church gave him a formal call, which he accepted January 13, 1761. Rev. Samuel Dix was a native of Reading, born March 13, 1736, was graduated at Harvard in 1758; ordained at Townsend, March 4, 1761; died November 12, 1797, in the thirty-sixth year of his pastorate, aged sixty-two. He married Abigail Chandler of Boston. Mr. Dix was an excellent scholar. Everything that is left of his writings goes to show that he possessed strong intellectual powers, fully equal to most of his contemporaries in the ministry. He per- formed more pastoral work than any other minister ever settled in Townsend. The towns of Mason, Brookline, Jaffrey, Hancock, and Stoddard, in New Hampshire, and Ashby in this county, were all favored by his visits, to offer consolation at the bedside of the dying, to attend funerals, and to preach the Word. Some of these towns had no set- tled minister at that time. Rev. Stephen Farrar, who preached his funeral sermon, attests to his faithfulness and ability ; that " he shone peculiarly in the virtues of meekness, patienee, humility, and
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