History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 143

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

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Francis (or François) Daniels was a Frenchman, from Normandy ; a Protestant, deeply religious. He came to Boston as a " stow-away," and was advertised and sold for one hundred dollars to pay his passage. He was purchased by John Hewes and brought to this town, and not only redeemed himself from servi- tude, but poverty, by his industry and perseverance, breaking up quite a large farm with the rudest imple- ments ; the farm is now owned by one of his descend- ants, and his blood flows in the veins of many of us. You can see here to-day his sabots, or wooden shoes, that he wore when he came to this town.

The first school-house in the town was not more than fourteen feet square. There were on one side three seats running the whole length of the building, except a space at each end to enter. There was an entry just large enough for the door to open and shut without injury to the children. The room was lighted by three windows, one on each of three sides, each containing twelve panes of small glass, six by eight inches. There never was such an article as a desk for the teacher. Private kindness furnished a small table, with a single drawer, and a comfortless chair.

years ago called " Crack Rock." Another branch ; teacher of the summer school was allowed to dispense

A male teacher kept the winter school, and was expected to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, with something of English grammar; but the female with the latter of the " three R's." But she must understand how to knit and sew, for the accomplish- ments of young ladies in that age were the marking of linen, making thread lace, and embroidering mus- lin.

All the people west of Foxborough Centre sent their children to this school-house, which was always full. The children wore coarse homespun cloth, stout leather shoes, and yarn stockings, and the girls had striped shawls pinned beneath the chin. For, as has been said before, the Foxborough people at that early day were very poor, and money was exceedingly scarce.

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The women spun wool and flax, and wove cloth. When the good dame had a few yards of linen, or some spare sheets, she took them to the calico artisan, who stamped them with bright colors for dresses.

Carriages were very rare in the country towns. In 1753 a tax was imposed upon them, for the purpose of encouraging the linen manufacture. In 1757 there were six carriages in Stoughton ; but it may be doubted whether either of these was owned in that part of Stoughton which was incorporated in Fox- borough. Two women often rode on the back of one horse, which they caught, saddled, bridled, and mounted at the horse-block, without masculine assist- ance.

The simplicity and rude fashion of living one hun- dred years ago gave to our fathers

" An undergoing spirit to bear up Against whatever ensued."

In the act of incorporation the motive recited by the Legislature for passing it is substantially as that passed fifty-two years before by the ancestors of some of them, for being set off from Dorchester to Wren- tham,-

" Whereas, a number of inhabitants belonging to the towns of Wrentham, Walpole, Stoughton, and Stoughtonham have represented to this Court the inconvenience they labor under on account of their distances from their places of publick wor- ship in the towns to which they now belong, and have earnestly and repeatedly requested that they may be incorporated into a town, be it therefore," etc.

thus the size of the House of Representatives was increased,-a body that was generally hostile to the king's prerogative,-and so, when absolute necessity seemed to require a new organization, it was conferred in the shape of a "district" instead of a township, without the right of representation, as in the case of Stoughtonham, in 1765, and Mansfield, in 1770. Hence, if Massachusetts had remained a province, the Governor would have been reluctant to organize Foxborough as a district, and pretty certainly would not have assented to its incorporation as a town. Its people were uninfluential, poor, and patriotic. They were such

" As dare to love their country and be poor."

After the expulsion of the royal Governor there was, of course, no longer any objection of a similar character to the incorporation of towns.

But the years 1775-77 were busy and crowded years, full of labors and terrors for both people and Legislature, and in this way it probably happened that Foxborough was not made a town till 1778.

It was not customary, certainly, to incorporate a town or district until it was clearly in a situation to provide " publick worship" for itself.

In almost every such case its capacity to that end had been previously tested as a precinct or parish. Foxborough had not been a precinct, but it had a meeting-house, or an apology for one, supposed to have been erected as early as 1763, perhaps about the commencement of the effort for separate organization.

The controlling suggestion then was the inconven- ience of the petitioners in attending "public wor- Nehemiah Carpenter and Jeremy Hartshorn gave the land for a common, on which to build the church, and for a burying-ground. ship." Probably some of them lived at least ten or twelve miles from the meeting-house, the stated ser- vices of which the law compelled them to support, It was centrally located, but was covered with rocks, shrub-oaks, and bushes, with a few sterling oaks, that should have been spared. The building was spacious enough, but the people were too poor to finish it. At the first town-meeting it was voted " to choose a com- mittee of three persons to provide for the laying the floor and making the doors of the meeting-house, and to provide for the glazing so many of the windows as the committee shall see fit." and which alone they had a right to attend, save by a courtesy, then rarely expected or extended, for it must not be forgotten that until 1833 all tax-payers were compelled by law to support public worship in the towns where they resided. In that town and no other did they pay, or could they pay, for preaching. There, and nowhere else, had they a right of property therein, or felt themselves at home. There was no shrinkage of creed to fill the pews. To transport the large It had been used for religious services without doors or windows, as a mere shelter from the storm. It was better than worshiping on the naked hills or under the shrub-oaks. It was many years before the ceiling or walls were plastered or the most ambitious thought of painting it. It grew dark with exposure, and seen on the plain by the traveler, from north or south, it looked like a black cloud. family of those days over such roads as then were, twenty or twenty-five miles, to meeting and home again, was indeed a Sabbath-day's journey. It was an intolerable grievance. It was so great a griev- ance in the Foxborough case that the earnest and re- peated request must have been effectual long before probably, but for a reason about to be given. It ap- pears that as early as 1757 the royal policy was adopted " What house is that ?" asked a stranger. " It is of opposing the incorporation of new towns, because | the Lord's house," answered the citizen. " Ah, I

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thought it was the Lord's barn," retorted the irrever- ent stranger.

All the town-meetings were held in the meeting- house, as was customary ; indeed, everywhere the town was the parish, and immediately took upon itself (as indeed the law obliged it) the care and ex- pense of providing for "publick worship." The meeting-house was for many years the only public building in the town, and scarcely any town-meeting occurred in which there was not something done about it. " Pew spots"-i.e., flooring upon which to erect pews-were many times sold to obtain money for necessary repairs or improvements, as (March 2, 1799) "will purchase stuff enough to finish of ye meeting-house." No committee on public buildings ever had more thought or care. Plans of improve- ments were submitted, pews were constructed in the galleries, a porch was built on one side, and long after on the other side. " The town voted to sell the two hinder seats on the floor at publick vendue." The town chose a committee to seat the singers in the meeting-house. In 1788 it was voted that "Serviors clear the bushes from around the meeting-house, and allow the men the same price for their labor as they worked on the highway." Aaron Everett got six- pence half-penny per square in 1790 for mending the windows. In the same year leave was granted to build horse-sheds, and, long after, to erect a horse- block " the fore side of the meeting-house, they de- fending the same," and so on, again and again. Clearly the town thought it owned the meeting- house ; and perhaps, legally, it did, as well as the land under it. But the town had not originally built the building, as it was erected before any town was incorporated. In 1821, Rev. Thomas Williams, being about to leave the society, offered it five hun- dred dollars (the amount of his original settlement) if it would erect a new meeting-house. The offer was at once accepted by a bare majority.

The work of tearing down the old building began the next morning by volunteers, amid wild excite- ment, and denunciation by some.

Dec. 22, 1821, the selectmen, by their warrant, warned the town to assemble at their meeting-house on Monday, the 4th day of January, 1822, " to see," among other things, " if the town will repair their meeting-house, or do or act anything relative to the premises." The record of this town-meeting mourn- fully commences : " Pursuant to the foregoing war- rant the town assembled on the spot where the meet- ing-house stood. Voted, to direct their treasurer not to prosecute any person or persons on account of the parish taking down their meeting-house."

The town's " meeting-house" had disappeared, and they certainly never had any other. They were not permitted to use the new brick meeting-house, built in 1822, and taken down in 1855 or 1856, and for many years a place was hired for the transaction of the town's business.1

A hundred years ago the minister was the most important and influential person in a New England town. Foxborough was not fortunate. A strong pastor would have given stability to the people and been a natural leader, in temporal as well as spiritual things. Rev. Mr. Britt supplied the pulpit, perhaps before as well as after the incorporation, and for many years the town chose a committee to procure preach- ers. Several clergymen declined overtures for settle- ment, apparently on account of a want of harmony in the proceedings. Rev. Mr. Kendall was ordained in 1786, with great unanimity, and dismissed with greater unanimity in 1800. Then the Rev. Daniel Loring was called by the casting vote of old John Shepard, when near one hundred years of age, and in two years dismissed, serious disaffection having meanwhile occurred. The only useful and successful man among the early ministers was Rev. Thomas Williams, before alluded to, who came from Provi- dence to Foxborough. Church psalmody made the usual dissension in Foxborough, and the peace-loving Mr. Williams found it necessary to employ the diplo- macy of a Talleyrand in introducing music to the choir.

The first bass-viol was manufactured by Marcus Everett, as to the wood-work, and finished by George Holbrook, a bell-maker by trade, and a famous music- teacher. It cost four dollars, and was an excellent instrument. When it was brought into the choir the old Frenchman, Francis Daniels, was horrified. In vain did some learned in Scriptures reason. There might be biblical authority for the harp, and even the viol, but certainly none for the bass-viol; and the only compromise attainable was that he should quit the church when the profane performance began and return when it was over.

The first intruding denomination was the Baptist, next the Universalist, and lastly the Catholic.

The first Baptist meeting-house was located near the entrance of the road to " Witch Woods," and the

1 Jan. 4, 1822, to Nov. 14, 1836, town-meetings were held in Union Hall, over the school-house, which was built in 1793, near where the Baptist Church now is; then in Sumner's Hall (where Union Building now is) ; from March 1, 1847, to April 7, 1856, in Cocasset Hall; April, 1856, to March 29, 1858, in American Hall (now Knights of Honor Hall); since then in town hall.

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house now occupied by Ashael Dean was the parson- age. It was removed early in May, 1843, to the site of the present town hall or house, and enlarged and otherwise improved. When their present church was built it was sold at auction, and was converted into a box-manufactory, which was destroyed some two years since by fire.

The Catholics have built their third house of wor- ship, the others having been destroyed by fire.

In the early part of the century the Foxborough Female Benevolent Society, afterwards the Ladies' Charitable Society, was established, and became the source of much good. Dues were paid either in money or straw braid.

After some years George Stratton became owner of the iron-foundry. He also kept a store at Fox- borough Centre, and his son kept the tavern, once conducted by Benjamin Comey. From Stratton the foundry passed into the hands of Gen. Leach, of Easton, and at his death to those of Martin Torrey and Otis Cary.

In the first years of its organization, being the last of the war, the town suffered severely from the State and Continental charges and burdens. Papers in the Massachusetts archives show that the town was more than once relieved from excessive and disproportion- ate rates and quotas. Like other towns, it in vain attempted to regulate the "price of things," con- stantly rising with the depreciation of the currency. To show how great that depreciation was we need only give one or two illustrations. In 1780 the town voted £4068, or more than $20,000, for mending the highways and bridges, paying some $60 per day for labor. In 1776 it voted $1100 for highways and bridges. In 1780 the State tax of Foxborough was £16,411, or more than $80,000. Sept. 4, 1780, the town voted to raise £21,000, or more than $100,000 ; but afterwards reduced the amount to £16,000. Oc- tober 9th, Voted to levy £15,000 to procure beef on a requisition for the army, and to defray other town charges. But the following year there was an attempt to resume specie payments, for it was voted to raise " 100 Spanish milled dollars for highways."

The truth is, the depreciation was such that a hun- dred paper dollars were worth about one dollar in specie.

For three different years the town treasurer of Dor- chester paid out thousands more than he received,- so rapid was the downfall of currency. May 18, 1781, the town treasurer owed Foxborough £13,679. In 1782 the rate of Eleazer Fisher was remitted ; rate, £124 10s. ; silver rate, £0 11s. 4d. It will not be attempted at this time to produce much from the

town records. A futile attempt was made as early as 1782 to support preaching by voluntary contributions : " Voted, To have contributions every Sunday after divine service is over, to pay ministers." The plan has often failed since.

There was frequent legislation against crows and blackbirds. There was a town defaulter as early as 1785, and to settle the defalcation the town took a farm and traded the same for preaching. In 1794 the selectmen were voted a committee to open a sub- scription for the relief of sufferers by fire in the town of Boston. As will be observed, Foxborough early adopted many popular measures. In 1798 the town voted " to allow 66 cents for eight hours' work, and $1.33 for eight hours' work of a man and a team suf- ficient to carry a ton weight." This was an eight-hour law.

April 6, 1801, " Voted, To admit the use of instruments of music in public worship."

In 1803 it was " Voted, Not to let the swine run at large," but the pigs had influence enough to procure a reconsideration of this vote, and ran at large some time longer.

In 1804, " Voted, That the Selectmen vendue Lemuel White and wife, two of the town's poor, or support them the best way they can devise."

May 5, 1804, " Voted, to purchase a hearse." The town had already bought " a grave-cloth," and it was soon voted to build a " herse-house," to be under the care of the Selectmen, and March 2, 1812, voted to paint the " herse-house."

Jan. 9, 1826, " Voted, That the Selectmen be instructed to remove Daniel Dassance, as soon as convenient, from the House of Correction, at Dedham, and build a cage and place it within his mother's house, and him the said Dassance therein, under the care of the Selectmen."

Dassance was a poor, insane person, whom the town was treating according to the custom or necessity of the time, who was afterwards provided for in the hos- pital at Worcester.

May 3, 1830, " Voted, That in our opinion the wearing of mourning apparel ought to be discontinued."

Jan. 7, 1833, " Voted, The town express their cordial appro- bation of the sentiments contained in President Jackson's Proclamation."

Hard drinking was almost universal when Fox- borough was incorporated. Rum raised a meeting- house or a barn, or built a bridge. Every employer furnished it; every workman drank it. The only mechanical interest was the iron-foundry. It was a densely-wooded region, and the great specie-raising industry was charcoal-making. It was said that " the only export was charcoal, but that the imports were threefold,-molasses, codfish, and New England rum." Ruin fell upon the best men in the towu, and the town itself. Distress was universal. The straw man- ufacture, then in its infancy, somewhat mitigated suf- fering ; for by its aid the mother and little children,

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whom the husband and father had abandoned, were enabled often to keep the " wolf from the door."

Rev. Mr. Williams, Melatiah Everett, Esq., and Stephen Rhodes are entitled to great credit, not only because they clearly appreciated the necessity of re- form, but had the courage to undertake it against dis- couragement and fierce opposition. The movement to suppress intemperance began in 1817, much earlier than in most cases, and was triumphant. Rum had conquered New England ; but the manliness of her people overthrew the tyrant, as it is to be hoped it will yet again.

Perhaps increasing prosperity had much to do, also, with the improved tone and increased self-respect of the people of Foxborough.

We have just alluded to the straw manufacture, of which it is now possible to speak only in the briefest manner. The honor of being the first American manufacturer of straw bonnets is ascribed to Betsey Metcalf, of Providence, R. I., who imitated an im- ported Dunstable. She then was a girl of twelve years ; but, as Mrs. Baker, she afterwards carried on the business, at first as a monopolist, but soon with competitors. It is said that Eunice, daughter of Aaron Everett, made the first bonnet in Foxborough. Soon after, Sally Mann made one. The straw was at first cut with a pair of scissors.

Straw bonnets soon became common in Foxborough and Wrentham, where Amariah Hall, who kept store, took them, paying in goods. Cornelius Metcalf, coming to Foxborough, married Hepsebeth Sumner, and bought the place formerly occupied by the first minister, Mr. Kendall. Mrs. Metcalf had great skill in making the straw bonnets. She adopted several children, took apprentices, and carried on the business in a small way. Metcalf Everett first made straw goods for the New York market. Elias Nason then kept a store, paying for straw goods partly cash and partly in other goods. Nehemiah Carpenter was afterwards associated with Nason in this business. Daniels Carpenter and John Corey afterwards sepa- rately manufactured straw goods on a much larger scale, paying cash for labor.

John Corey was lost in the burning of the steamer " Lexington," on Long Island Sound, in the winter of 1840.

The Sumner brothers, under the firm-name of J. E. Sumner & Co., manufactured largely of straw goods, and sold imported stock to smaller manufacturers.

Foxborough Foundry on Mill Street (usually called Cary's Foundry) has been in operation more than one hundred years, having been built in 1781 by George Stratton, Uriah Atherton, Joseph Hines, and John Knapp.

Pond's box-factory and saw-mill was started in 1850 by Daniels Carpenter, Lucius Pond, J. Fisher Pond, and V. S. Pond.

Dr. Gardner Peck, formerly a successful physician in Foxborough, engaged in the manufacture. Thus gradually the business grew and developed, until, in 1844, Oliver, Warren, and E. P. Carpenter, as asso- ciates in business, built what then was considered a marvel of a straw-factory, or works.

It was what is now the " Verandah House," used as a boarding-house. The business increased rapidly, and after several additions and alterations the first works were found altogether too limited, and in 1853 the Union Straw-Works were established; but the growth of the business made it necessary to enlarge its limits, which was done in 1856. The business in- creased from $75,000 in 1844 to nearly the amount of $2,000,000 in 1865. Foxborough has made, through its straw business, a name that in many for- eign places is known better than the city of Boston itself.

Certainly to this business Foxborough is indebted for her modern prosperity.

On the 29th of June, 1778, the inhabitants of Foxborough first assembled in town-meeting, in pur- suance of the warrant issued by Benjamin Guild, a magistrate of Wrentham, at the request of Benjamin Pettec, Swift Payson, Nehemiah Carpenter, Jacob Cook, Jacob Leonard, Amos Morse, and Samuel Baker. Josiah Pratt was moderator of the meeting ; Swift Payson, clerk; Josiah Pratt, John Everett, Benjamin Pettee, Daniel Robinson, and Joseph Shep- ard were chosen selectmen; Nehemiah Carpenter was chosen treasurer, and John Comee, constable. They " Voted to adjourn the meeting for one hour and a half, then met" and chose five surveyors of highways, three for a committee of correspondence, five assessors, two tithingmen, two fence-viewers, two field-drivers, one sealer of leather, two hog-reeves, -a full comple- ment of town officers.

The 29th of June, 1778, was a period of gloom Edson Carpenter and Milton, John E., and Henry H. Sumner, sons of John Sumner, afterwards carried n payment for goods. and doubt in the Revolutionary struggle. But our immediate ancestors were ready to play their part like on stores, where straw braid and bonnets were received ; men. In 1780 they said, in their petition to the General Court, " We are willing to sacrifice our all in the common cause, if it should be necessary."

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CHAPTER LVII.

FOXBOROUGH-(Continued).

MILITARY RECORD.

The Heroes of Three Wars-War of the Revolution-1812- War of the Rebellion-List of Soldiers, 1861-65-Patriots of 1776-Soldiers of 1812-Roll of Honor, 1861-65-Veterans of the War-Militia, 1796.

THE territory of Foxborough was made up from parts of Wrentham, Walpole, Stoughton, and Stough- tonham (now Sharon). Wrentham was incorporated in 1673 ; Walpole, in 1724 ; Stoughton, in 1726 ; Sharon, in 1765; Foxborough, on the 10th of June, 1778. It was born, therefore, amid the throes of the Revo- lutionary period. Lexington, Bunker Hill, the siege and evacuation of Boston, were memorable deeds already quite passed by in the rapid rush of events. Washington had occupied and evacuated New York ; Long Island and Staten Island had been lost to the enemy, who had, moreover, taken the forts upon the Hudson River, and overrun the Jerseys, occupying Philadelphia. The fame which Washington won by the brilliant engagements at Trenton and Princeton had been somewhat dimmed by the indecisive or dis- astrous engagements at the Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth Court-House ; but the failure of the | Gates and Conway intrigue to displace him from the chief command demonstrated what a strong hold he already had upon the affections and respect of his countrymen.

In the North the patriots had been more fortunate. At Bennington, on the 16th of August, 1777, the sturdy Stark had defeated the Hessian Colonels Baum and Breyman, in the glorious battle of Ben- nington.

This victory reanimated the people of New Eng- land and New York, and prepared the way for the · overthrow and surrender of the proud army of Bur- goyne, Oct. 16, 1777.

The finances of the United States were in a most deplorable condition. The liabilities contracted by Congress amounted to $40,000,000; Massachusetts alone owed $5,000,000. The entire debt contracted for the war amounted to at least $65,000,000.

Continental money depreciated to at least six for one in New England, and eight for one in the South. At a later period the money wages, for one year, of Ezra Carpenter, here in Foxborough, upon the farm of Benjamin Pettee, now owned by Daniels Carpen- ter, was only sufficient to buy him a pair of cowhide shoes.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 143

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534