History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 160

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 160

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The following list of the Townsend insurgents has been preserved among the papers on file with the town records. It is worthy of notice that about one- fourth of the persons whose names are in this list were young men in their minority. Fourteen of them

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

had the suffix of Jr. to their names. Abraham But- terfield, the son of Peter, was less than seventeen years old, and some of them were under sixteen years of age. Four of these men held commissions during the Revolution, and most of them were respectable and useful citizens, misguided though they were :

"Peter Butterfield, Asa Heald, Samuel Stevens, Jonas Warren, Jacob Bachelder. Beaja. Spaulding, Jr., Andrew Searle, Jr., Daniel Clark, Simeon Richardson, John Emery, Ephraim Lambsou, Jonathan Pierce, Asa Stevens, Isaac Lewis, Andrew Searles, Jedediah Jewett, Elijah Dodge, Jesse Baldwin, Nathaniel Bailey, Jr., Zachery Hildreth, Aaron Proctor, Phillip Warren, Isaac Green, Isaac Giles, Solomon Sherwin, Azariah P. Sherwin, Peter Adams, Joseph Rumrill, Jonathan Sanderson, Thomas Seaver, Josiah Burge, Jr., Moses Burge, Abijah Monroe, Abel Keys, Elnathan Spalding, Josiah Richardson, Levi Whitney, Benj. Wal- lace, Moses Warren, Isaac Farrar, Jr., Stephen Warren, Jonas Ball, Nathan Conant, Jr., Isaac Wallis, Jr., Reuben Gaschett, Benjamin Dix' William Stevens, Jr., David Wallace, James Ball, Asa Whitney, Isaac Wallis, Joseph Baldwin, Jr., Phinehas Baldwin, David Spafford (3d), Sol- omon Peirce, John Conant, Benja. Wood, Natlian Carlton, Samuel Searles, David Spafford, Ehenezer Ball. Jr., Abraham Ball, James Sloan, Richard Warner, John Waugh, Jr., Joel Davis, Jeremiah Ball, Charles Richards, Jesse Maynard, Nath1. Bowers, Josiah Rice, Abraham But- terfield, John Campbell, Jr, Jonas Campbell, John Colburn, John Graham, Benja. Brooks, Jr., Thuds. Spaulding, Abijah Hildreth, Abel Green, Isaac Spalding, William Wallace, John Giles, Aaron Scott.

About thirty of the young men, whose names ap- pear in the foregoing list, marched to Concord under Lieutenant Peter Butterfield and were present at the time the court was stopped.

A strict search, in and around Townsend, was made for Butterfield by the posse comitatus under Colonel Woods, when Shattuck was taken, but he eluded his pursuers. There was after that time quite an effort made to capture him. During a part of the follow- ing winter he secreted himself in a cabin masked with evergreens, on the hill northwesterly from his house, in plain sight of the same, where he was apprised of ap- proaching danger by his wife. His house stood abont three-fourths of a mile northerly from the harbor, on the west side of the road leading to Brookline, along the easterly base of Nissequassick Hill. At length his retreat was discovered, and his pursuers followed his track on the snow until nearly night, when, get- ting into a secluded place in a thicket, in the dusk of the evening, they lost sight of his track and abandon- ed further pursuit. After he was satisfied that his enemies had departed, he took a direct course for the house of one of his friends, who immediately took him over the line into New Hampshire. His exer- tions to escape flooded him with perspiration, so that waiting iu a frosty atmosphere to be sure that the officers had gone, he took a violent cold, which in- duced rheumatism, from which he suffered during the remainder of his life. He never was arrested by the officers, and there has been found no certificate from any magistrate, showing that he took the oath of alle- giance, although the same file of papers iu which, these names were found, contains the certificates of different magistrates, before whom sixty of these men took that oath. He was a man of excellent moral character, very industrious and had many friends.

Daniel Shays, from whom the outbreak takes its

name, was born in Hopkinton, 1747. After the rebel- lion was crushed he fled to Vermont, and afterwards removed to Sparta, New York, where he died Sept. 29, 1825. He was a pensioner of the United States, having been a captain in the Revolutionary War.

Perhaps there never was so much smoke and so little fire, or so small a show of talent or brains in any insurrection as in the Shays' Rebellion. The in- surgents appeared to dread a collision with the troops during the whole time they were in arms against the government. All the loses in the rebellion were three killed and one hundred and fifty taken prison- ers-all Shays' men. In 1787 certain laws were altered, which made every thing satisfactory to the entire voting population of the Commonwealth.

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY .- The settlers of Town- send, in common with the citizens of all the towns in this Commonwealth, displayed much sagacity in matters concerning their future welfare. As early as 1734 the proprietors' records contained the follow- ing:

" Voted, that Jasher Wyman, Lient. Daniel Taylor and Nathaniel Richardson be a comteo to take effectual care that there be no Strip or Waste made of Timber, or Timber cntt, or Pines boxed, or Candlewood picked up for tarr upon ye nndivided Land, and to sue and Prosecute any persons whom they shall find Guilty of said offences. Also to prosecute any persons who have heen Guilty thereof, or take satisfaction therefor for ye use of ye proprietors."

In connection with these precautionary measures, one interesting fact may be learned from this extract, and that is, the importance that was attached to the value of the " candlewood," or resinous pitch pine, scattered on the undivided land. Families, at that time, were generally large and almost every one of them constituted a school by itself. Around the capacious fire-places, common in those days, sat the sons and daughters, in order according to their age and advancement, while the father or mother acted as teacher. The Bible, and particularly the New Tes- tament, was one of the principal books used. Their cabin walls and the shining faces of youth and beauty within were illumined through the long winter even- ings by the pine-knot light; and no one can say that this training of the mind, in their rude domiciles, was not sufficient to furnish the town with amiable women and honorable and capable men. Every op- portunity for intellectual improvement, withiu their limited means, was then turned to their advantage, and a complete exemplification of the maxim " where there is a will there is a way," has come down to us in their example.

The first record of any effort for a public school was in 1744, when the town "voted to raise twenty pounds, old tenor, for the support of a school, and chose two meu as a committee to provide a school- master : John Conant chosen first, Josiah Robbins second." The record further states where the school should be kept at different dwelling-houses, in differ- ent parts of the town-the north school at the house of Benjamin Brooks, the school at the middle of the

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town at Joseph Baldwin's, and the south school at Daniel Taylor's. One man, without doubt, taught the school at these three places. There is no record to show the name of the first teacher in Townsend. From 1745 to 1750 the town raised twenty pounds, old tenor, for the support of schools, which were kept at several different places. In 1749 the town " voted to raise £10 lawful money to support a school," and designated three places at which it should be kept, oneof which was " at the new school-house in the mid- dle of the town." The foundation of this house may still be seen, ou the east side of the old discontinued road, nearly opposite to the spot where the first meet- ing-house stood. There is no record of the time when this house was built, but probably it was during 1747.

From 1754 to 1766 the town, each year, appropri- ated £S, lawful money, for the support of a school and decided where it should be kept. In 1753 the records show that there was a " school on the south side of the river," but when it was built, or its size, is not known; neither can the precise spot where it stood be pointed out. At that time the largest part of the inhabitants of Townsend lived in the east part of the town, within three miles of the east line thereof, so that a school on Nissequassick Hill, one at the middle of the town, and one just south of the harbor would accommodate the people in the best possible manner.

In 1783, beginning to realize that they had thrown off the British yoke, and feeling the spirit of inde- pendence stirring within them, the people, at a town- meeting in May, chose a committee of nine " to divide the town into squadrons for convenience for school- ing." This committee divided the town into seven parts, for school purposes, and designated the location of the several houses. Not many of the places where these school-houses stood have houses on them at present. There is nothing of importance on record in regard to educational affairs from the time these squadrons were made until the population of the town had increased so that larger houses were required. In 1796 voted to choose a man in each school squadron for a School Committee. Chose Samuel Stone, Jona- than Wallace, Life Baldwin, Jacob Blodgett, Ephraim Lampson, John Sherwin and Daniel Adams, Esq., for said committee." This first School Committee chosen in Townsend was made up of men of prominence in the districts to which they belonged. What they lacked in the higher branches of mathematics, as taught in our high school, and on which much time is lost by pupils who never expect to be teachers or professora, they made up in square common-sense general information and integrity of character.

Soon after the Baptist meeting-house at West Town- send was erected, the subject of establishing a semi- nary for young ladies at that village began to be dis- cussed. The idea was suggested by Mr. Levi Warren, who, at that time, was the most influential man in that section of the town. In 1835 between thirty and forty gentlemen of the Baptist faith, a part of

whom did not belong to Townsend, contributed to- wards purchasing the land and erecting the building known as " the seminary." No sum was subscribed less than twenty-five dollars, which was called a share, and most of the subscribers took one share, while others gave according to their interest in edu- cation and the prosperity of the village. The largest contributor was Mr. Levi Warren, who subscribed for nineteen shares. The building was finished in April, 1836, and the institution was inaugurated un- der highly favorable circumstances, which more than met the expectations of its patrons and founders. March 13, 1839, the owners received an act of incor- poration from the General Court under the name of the "Townsend West Village Female Seminary." The lady who was principal when the seminary com- menced, remained in office only about a year, when she married and left town. Another principal suc- ceeded her until the fall term, 1839, when the trustees engaged the services of Miss Ruth Robinson, a person of excellent judgment and ample scholastic attain- ments. Associated with the principal were six teachers of experience in the natural sciences, mathe- matics, intellectual and moral philosophy, the orna- mental brauches and music. This board of instruc- tion was selected with much care hy a board of trus- tees from different New England States. It was a Baptist institution, but enjoyed the confidence of all denominations. The Baptists of the Eastern States and some from New York sent their daughters to West Townsend for an education at this seminary, which for more than twenty years was very popular. In almost every State in the Union may be found one or more who have been teachers, principals of high schools and seminaries, besides wives of professional men, who remembered with pleasure the pleasant days of their youth passed at this, their Alma Mater. In 1844 a more Incrative position was offered Miss Robinson, when she resigned her office. Miss Han- nah P. Dodge, a native of Littleton and a graduate of this seminary in 1843, succeeded as principal. She remained in office until November, 1853, when, at her own solicitation, she was dismissed, partly on account of ill health. The building was commodious, well arranged and its recitation rooms richly carpeted. The Lesbian Society, a literary association of the pu- pils, was a success, belonging to which was a ju- diciously selected library, a large part of which was presented by Messrs. Levi and Charles Warren and their Baptist friends in Boston.

In every particular it had no peer in America ex- cept, perhaps, in Miss Willard's Female Seminary, at Troy, New York. But after a successful existence of about twenty-five years-after it had shone brilliantly among the constellations of the literary galaxy of its time-in an evil hour, it finally sunk, never to rise again from beneath the horizon of financial misman- agement which enshrouded its exit. Thus the civi- lizing influence, which to a great extent built up

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

West Townsend, which gave a fresh impetus to our public schools and made Townsend an objective-point as a seat of learning and refinement, was irretrievably lost. The building passed into the hands of the mortgagee and it is now used for the graded schools at West Townsend.

After the seminary had been in operation for four or five years the Congregationalists and others at the ceutreof the town, observing the good influence emana- ting from that institution, and that the Baptist Church was much better filled than at previous times, took the idea of an academy at Townsend Centre. First and foremost in this enterprise was the Rev. Mr. Stowell, the orthodox minister. Accordingly, from the people of the town, and from the members of the Congregational society in particular, a sufficient sum of money, in addition to the quantity of lumber and building materials given by others interested, was subscribed to erect a suitable building. Capt. Elna- than Davis gave the timber for the frame, delivered on the ground where the building was to stand. The traders at the Centre gave the nails, lime and hard- ware, and the academy was built by a mutual effort by which no one felt the least impoverished. It was finished in the summer of 1841, and opened the fol- lowing September with a respectable number of stu- dents. It stood on the north side of Main Street, nearly opposite to where the bank now stands, in what is now the stable-yard of Walter Fessenden & Son. It was not so expensive a structure as the seminary, but it was a substantial, well-arranged, two-story building, with a tower and bell surmounting it. For five or six years consecutively this academy received a good share of patronage, and during the autumn months a large number of scholars gathered within its walls.

Mr. Noahdiah Dickinson was the first preceptor, a graduate of. Amherst College, a good scholar, and of very gentlemanly deportment. While Mr. Stowell remained in town he took much interest in this school, and he assisted Mr. Dickinson, when the services of an additional teacher were needed, in a manner very acceptable to the students.

Jonathan C. Shattuck, a graduate from Dartmouth in 1842, had charge of this academy for some time. The difficulty of supporting two institutions of simi- lar character in so small a town soon became apparent ; besides, three of the towns joining Townsend had each an academy, in addition to New Ipswich Acad- emy-all seeking patronage. After Mr. Stowell and Mr. Dickinson left this town, the interest in the Academy began to decrease, uutil finally, in 1851, the old district school-house, situated at the northeast corner of the Common, was much too small to accom- modate the scholars, and what was District No. 1 bought this academy-building and moved it on the ground nearly north of the Methodist meeting-house, and fitted it up for the accommodation of two schools. It was used for a public school-house until January

5, 1870, when it was burned, as was supposed, by an incendiary. There have been four other school- houses burned in this town-two in what was called Potunck District (No. 8), and two in the Harbor Dis- trict. About 1830 a school-house was burned which stood about oue-fourth of a mile southerly from the bridge over the river at Townsend Harbor, in the angle of land made by the divergence of the Shirley and South Row roads; and in 1872 another school- house, situated on the west side of said Shirley road, nearer the Harbor, was destroyed by fire by the care- less deposit of ashes.

The school laws of the Commonwealth are altered so often, and there is such an effort made to hurry along the scholars from one grade of school to the next higher, and everything about the schools is so much run in grooves, that it is doubtful if our scholars leave the schools now with any better mental or moral equipment to enter the battle of life than those did, long ago, when Miss Rebecca Warren, Seth Davis, Miss Mary Palmer, John K. Palmer, Samuel Adams and Miss Polly Giles were the teachers.

CEMETERIES .- Generally, the cemetery of the New England Puritans was situated next to their house of worship, so that the shadow of their sacred temples might fall upon the graves, which, being in plain view, on each returning Sabbath might forcibly re- mind them of their mortality. The situation of the first meeting-house in Townsend, on "Mount Grace," as it is called in some of the old deeds, made it im- practicable to conform to this custom, on account of the rocky and ledgy nature of the land. It is not known where the people of this town buried their dead for the first fifteen years after there was a settle- ment here.

In 1742 the town "voted to accept of an acre of land from Mr. William Clark, for a burial place." It is probable that this "God's acre" was given to the town a considerable length of time before this vote was passed. There must have been some burials in Townsend before this time, and considering the near- ness of this spot to their meeting-house, this was un- doubtedly the first place selected for the interment of the dead. The graves first made here are marked by rough slabs of slate, minus any inscriptions, aud the first stones on which are any records date back no further than 1745.

In 1744, " Voted to choose a committee of three men to clear up the burying-place, and dispose of the timber for the best advantage of the town. Chose for this committee, Nathaniel Richardson, Joseph Baldwin and Josiah Robbins." In 1747 the town evinced a deceper interest in this cemetery, and " Voted to fence the burying-ground with a stone wall four feet and four inches high." Mr. William Clark, the giver, was the owner of a large amount of land in this town. His name appears on the list of the seventy-two persons who were present at Concord on May 19, 1720, when he subscribed for a " Lott in

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ye North Town," but did not pay for it at that time. He was a shoemaker, owned slaves, came from Con- cord to this town, and settled on the south side of the river, at the base of the hill, on the South Row road, leading from the first meeting-house, where one Isaac Spaulding afterward lived. A slate grave- stone, now in a good state of preservation, was erected to his memory, situated near the centre of this burial-place, from which it appears that he died in 1756, aged seventy-seven years.

About 1816 the people began to talk about a new cemetery, the acre given by Mr. Clark being nearly full; besides there are no avennes in this acre, and the graves are so close together and the headstones so numerous that the small part of it farthest from the road, which is not used for burials, is not easily approached by a funeral cortege. In 1818 the town voted to buy the land now used for a cemetery at the centre of the town, then owned by Rev. David Palmer, Deacon Daniel Adams and Richard Warner, Esq., each of whom had an angle of land needed to make the ground eligible, both in distance from the meeting-house and quadrangular in form, and this cem- etery was inaugurated this year.

In 1854 the town chose a committee, consisting of the selectmen, to buy land at the east of their new burial-place, in order to enlarge the same. The east line of the land, bought in 1818, commenced near the site of the receiving-tomb; thence southerly in a line nearly parallel with the west line of the cemetery. This committee bought about six acres of land of Richard Warner, at the east of this line, enclosed it with a picket fenee, and took up the east line fence of the original plot. This burial-place has, broad ave- nues, the natural surface of the ground has been properly graded, the lots are kept clear from grass or weeds, and it contains many substantial specimens of monumental art.

In 1836 Mr. Levi Warren set apart a tract of land for a cemetery, on the south side of the road from West Townsend to Ashby. Two or three bodies were buried here; but, for good reasons, he altered his mind about the location, and had the bodies moved, in 1838, at his own expense, to the village cemetery, now at the north of the river, and then gave the town a deed of the land. For the few years past this eem- etery has been kept in a neat and orderly manner, and there are some expensive monuments here.

MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES. - The first mill in Townsend was built at the Harbor by John Stevens and John Patt, by mutual agreement in writing, each binding himself, his heirs and executors, to the other, his heirs and executors, " to furnish one-half of the labor, timber, stone and iron necessary for the erec- tion of said mill for sawing boards ; and to keep the same in repair for twenty years." This agreement, drawn in a neat, bold hand, worded in a scholarly manner, and legally binding on both parties, is now in possession of the Ball family, which was connected

by marriage with the Stevens family: The signatures of these men and that of the two witnesses to the in- strument would be particularly noticeable for good penmanship in a collection of autographs. John Patt owned the land on the north side of the river, and John Stevens on the south side, where the mill was built, which stood about twenty rods easterly of the location of the bridge at the Harbor. This was exc- cuted in January, 1733, and the mill was built before the 30th of the following November. A dam, suita- ble in height, was thrown across the river at or near where the stone dam now stands, which stopped the water mueh farther up the river than was agreeable to the engineering of these two men. A meeting of the proprietors was called in August of that year, when it was voted to allow Ephraim Sawtell " an equiva- ient for such land as may be flowed by the raising of the dam." A grist-mill was soon put in this building. This mill was sold by the builders a few years after it was built, including the privilege and a certain amount of land, to John Conant, who was the owner and occupant for a long time.

About 1768 a mill stood on the south side of the river at West Townsend, near the west side of the stone bridge at that village, which was known, in its day, as " the Hubbard mill," but whether William Hobart or Israel Hobart built it is unknown, as it was burned about 1790. In 1790 Hezekiah Richard- son made the canal leading easterly from this stone bridge to the spot where the leather-board mill now stands, and made a mill for sawing and grinding at that locality. Here has been a saw and grist-mill, a wool carding and clothier's mill, a stocking factory, a machine shop and a leather-board mill, the last being the present business. James Giles had a saw-mill where the A. M. Adams kit- mill was burned as early as 1780, and before that time Major Samuel Stone, of Ashby, built a mill on Willard's Stream, in the fork of the two roads leading to Ashby. Afterwards this mill was owned by Eben Butler, from whom, in 1819, Benjamin Barrett and son bought this property. They demolished the old mill, made a stone dam and the second mill at this place. Quite recently a mill three stories in height, and rather capacious, was built here; and in 1871 another stone dam, farther up the stream, was made for reservoir purposes, by which the privilege was much enhaneed in value, and within a year an engine was put in this mill to secure power any day in the year. All kinds of lumber and coopering stock are made here and the property is owned and occupied by Clarence Stickney.

In 1817 Daniel Giles erected a mill on the spot where the grain elevator now is at Townsend Centre. This mill has not passed through many hands, but it has been enlarged and improved at different times. Adams & Powers were the next owners, and now the property belongs to Union S. Adams. For the last half-century this saw and grist-mill, in connec- tion with the coopering business, and on account of

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 160

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034