USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Orange > History of North Orange, Massachusetts : including leading events from the first organization of Orange, 1781-1924. > Part 2
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The same year, Mr. F. E. Goddard gave the Society a clock. The money for placing the clock on the tower was raised by subscription, Mrs. Divine Perry, a former resident of North Orange, kindly contributing $25.
1878. January 5. The Society voted to build a Parsonage. Mr. Nathaniel C. Forrester gave land from his farm for the site of the building. Some members of the Society donated money ($459) towards the expense of the new building. others gave work and still others gave lumber and other building material. The builders,-Dexter and Parmenter,-of Athol received $576.15 for their work. The entire cost of the Parsonage was $939.14. By resorting to different ways of raising money, the Society soon paid its debt.
1878, May 16. Less than one hundred years had passed since this parish began its existence, yet this date notes the third church organization during this period,-the organization of "the Second Universalist Church of Orange," with 18 members, of whom only six are now living,-Mrs. Elsie White, Mrs. Fannie M. Daniels, Mrs. Della Gale Moore, Lucius Johnson of Hartford, Conn., Mrs. Carrie Stowell Jewell and Mrs. Mary Stowell Gourlay, both of Athol.
1879. Exterior repairs including new blinds and a slated roof were made; one half of the expense was generously donated by Mr. F. E. Goddard.
1896, May 25. Women were allowed to become voting members of the Society. In the same year a partition was put across the north end of the audi- torinm in order to make a church parlor.
EIGHT
UNIVERSALIST MINISTERS OF NORTH ORANGE FROM 1843 TO 1905
REV. LEVI BALLOU 1843-1862
REV. WM. HOOPER 1865-18€9
REV. ALANSON SCOTT 1869-1871
REV. J. H. WILLIS 1871-1875
REV. J. E. DAVENPORT 1875-1878
REV. W. H. JEWELL 1878-1879
REV. E. J. CHAFFEE 1879-1882
NINE
REV. O. K. CROSBY 1883-1886
REV. E. B. BARBER 1886-1888
1906, May 11. The church celebrated its one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary, Rev. Charles Conklin, D. D., giving the Historical Address.
1908, July 3. The Martha Albee Fund was received. Mrs. Albee who died in Orange February 9, 1907, was a native and for many years a resident of North Orange, living after her marriage to Admiral Ward (her first husband), in the house now occupied by William E. Blackmer. She was always deeply inter- ested in this Society even after her removal to Orange where she married Mr. Albee. This continued interest is shown by the eighth clause of her will,- "I give and bequeath to the Universalist Society at North Orange in this town the sum of one thousand dollars to be deposited by said Society in some Savings Bank in the state, the income thereof only to be used to pay for preaching ae- cording to the tenets of the Universalist faith."
1913, March 29. It was voted to take the church parlor for a dining-room; also to build at the north end of the meetinghouse an addition to be used as a kitchen. The land for this addition was given by Levi P. Cheney, nephew of Mrs. F. E. Goddard. The cost of building the addition was $481.73.
There are at present 95 members of the Parish, 57 members having died since 1861.
Four ministers have originated from this Parish,-Rev. Jonathan Forrester, D. D., Rev. Sumner Ellis, D. D., Rev. William Ballou, Rev. Clifford D. Newton.
Mrs. C. B. Whittemore, great granddaughter of Abijah Marble, has in her possession the original deed given by John Shepardson, Royalston, to Abijah Marble, Orange, of one "half Pew Situate and being in the Meeting house in Orange aforesaid it being half of the Pew on the lower floor next to the front. door on the West side." The sum paid was five dollars. The other half of the pew was owned by Henry Adams. The deed bears the date September 21, 1812.
The Meeting-house Bell
For years we have heard the bell in the tower above us speak for itself .. It has never been afraid to put in a word on all matters of public importance. Ringing elear, it has summoned the people to meeting, joyfully it has voiced festivity, triumphantly it has pealed for victory, brazenly it has clanged the note of alarm, mournfully it has bewailed the dead and insistently it has "given a tongue to time." Thus closely associated with the most joyous and the saddest feelings of mankind, its tones awaken a throng of memories, so on this day of memories when we come back to find the old thoughts and the old dreams, it seems fitting to review the life of the present occupant of the tower, and that of its two predecessors as well.
The Bible command reads: "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron. And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue, and beneath on the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates and bells of gold between them round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord and when he cometh out." From biblical times when Aaron and other priests wore golden bells suspended from their robes, onward to the present, bells have been associated with religious ceremonies and have thus acquired a kind of sacred character.
For many years after the introduction of bells into Europe, bell foundries there were set up in religious houses, and, as the abbots, priors and frequently the bishops were the master-manufacturers, a religious character was given to the process of bell-founding. The brethren stood ranged round the furnaces, we are told, the 150th Psalm was chanted and the Almighty was invoked to overshadow the molten metal with His power and bless the work for the honor
REV. C. L. PADDOCK 1889-1891
REV. GEO. H. HARRIS 1891-1892
TEN
REV. C. CONKLIN, D. D. 1892-1893
REV. DONALD FRASER 1894-1897
of the saint to whom it was dedicated. Indicating the high standard which has always been these bell-founders', are the following lines from Schiller's poem, "The Casting of the Bell":
"The thoughtless man we must despise, Who disregards the thing he shapes. This forms a man's chief attribute, And Reason is to him assigned, That what his hand may execute, Within his heart, too, he should find."
After the casting, the bell was named. Just as children were christened, so the bell was christened. It was taken to the font, sprinkled with water and covered with a white garment. The service was attended with great pomp and ceremony. In later years Protestants abolished this usage and at one time swung to the other extreme for they, at the festival observed when new bells were hung, fixed the bell bottom upward and filled it with punch.
Although the existence of the bell has been continuous from early days, the development of the ancient small bell into the modern large tower bell, was slow. Not until centuries after biblical times were bells introduced into Christian churches and even then only portable hand bells were used. But they increased in size and their use spread from the continent of Europe into England and thence to New England.
The first mention of any church bell in Massachusetts occurs in the history of Cambridge in 1632. Salem had a bell as early as 1638, but most Massachu- setts towns were without a bell during many years of their early settlement. The privilege of being called together by a bell was highly esteemed by the people,
even, if, as happed in Hamilton, the bell had to hang on a pine tree near a corner of the church while the belfry was being prepared for it after its arrival from London.
In most of the towns of western Massachusetts, during their bell-less years, various methods were used to summon the people to public worship. In Green- field and Northfield a drum gave the signal for meeting, the drummer being appointed and paid by the town. If the drummer were absent, a flag was hung out. In Montague, Shelburne and Deerfield a conch shell was blown. We wish we knew how Orange people were summoned to meeting before 1833 in which year, the Parish of Orange voted to "hang a bell in the deck of the church." The records are silent as to how the money to buy the bell was raised, but at a Parish meeting held April 19, 1834, a committee of three men,-Josiah Wheelock, Moses Morton and Nathan Ward,-was appointed to solicit subscriptions for ringing the bell, also to secure a suitable person for ringing the bell and taking care of the church for a year.
The life of this bell was short. Two years after it was hung, the records note that the broken bell together with the sum of $63.62, was exchanged for a new bell 25 pounds heavier than the old one. The charge for conveyance of the broken bell to Boston and that of the new bell from Boston to Orange, use of ropes and other charges amounted to $11.50, making the total money cost of the new bell $75.12. $77.37 had been subscribed,-$2.25 more than was needed, -- but, it was doubtful if some of the pledges would ever be paid. The committee looked over the list of subscribers and concluded that $3.00 would cover the doubtful ones and that the $2.25 over-subscribed, if they got it, would not more than pay for collecting it, but of how the small deficit was raised, no record is
REV. A. N. BLACKFORD 1897-1904
REV. L. L. GREEN 1905
ELEVEN
made. Perhaps doubtful subscribers would have quickly responded if they could have seen inscribed on the bell these lines on a chureh bell in England:
"At proper times my voice I'll raise, And sound to my subscribers' praise."
At this time, 1835, ringing the bell and caring for the church for a year, were let out to the lowest bidder. The bid of Moses Morton, the lowest bidder, was $15.00.
Probably church bells were at first used to summon the congregation. Later the duties of the bell became threefold, according to the old rhymes,
"To call the fold to church in time, We chime. When joy and mirth are on the wing, We ring. When we lament a departed soul, We toll."
The performance of the last mentioned duty was a product of the superstition that devils lay in wait to battle with good angels for the soul at the moment when it eseaped from the body. It was believed that the "passing bell,"-a bell tolled for one who was dying,-together with a peal rung immediately after death, would defeat the evil spirits in their purpose and frighten them away. Gradually this eustom was given up. Tolling, however, continued, but after death instead of before. A short peal was rung to signify that some mortal had put on immortality, then followed two strokes,-the signal for the death of a man, or three for a woman, or four for a young person; lastly the age was tolled.
It was in tolling the age of an old resident that the second North Orange bell eracked. "Too bad he lived so long," said one who eounted the strokes, "for it has broken our bell to toll his age."
Thus another change was necessitated and in 1859, the second bell, after twenty-two years of faithful serviee, was replaced by the one in present use.
While in California a few years ago, Mr. Dexter learned that the cracked North Orange bell had also made a trip to the Pacific coast and was at that time in Riverside, California, in the possession of a man whose hobby was the eollec- tion of antiques, especially old bells.
Until about forty years ago this third bell was tolled after a death; then the custom ceased. There is with us today, at least one bell-ringer, Fred Worrick, who well remembers the frigid temperature of his lofty position, when in the airy belfry on a cold winter day, he tolled the age of some departed resident, or after the funeral serviee, struck the measured strokes that marked the departure of the funeral procession from the church.
For a number of years the bell was rung at 9 o'clock at night, perhaps not to admonish the people to keep good hours at night, but in observance of the original custom when the bell-man used to ring a bell at night and cry, "Take care of your fire and eandle, be eharitable to the poor and pray for the dead."
The bell was also rung at 12 o'eloek noon and on one occasion gave North Orange people a foretaste of Daylight Saving. One day the bell-ringer, a elerk in Worriek's store, glanced at his watch so hastly, he mistook the hour of eleven for twelve, and promptly rang the bell. As its iron tongue pealed forth the far- mer's weleome call, "Come to dinner," the men came from their work on the farm to their homes. Then great was the hurrying and scurrying among the good housewives who eoukl not understand how they had lost an hour.
In 1876 the practice of noon and night ringing of the bell was discontinued for in the tower was placed a elock,-the gift of Franklin Goddard, the expense of
putting in the elock, -$150 being met by the combined contributions of town and parish and a gift of $25 from Mrs. Devine Perry. Then the bell's iron tongue ceased to warn of the flight of time, for the clock albeit so modest in demeanor that it always keeps itshands before its face, yet speaks with a loud voiee as it measures the hours through day and night.
Thus one after another some customs in bell-ringing have been discontinued, but there are many others, the practice of which brings the bell into frequent use and whether the North Orange bell peals for merriment and happiness, for truth and right, or for faith in God and faith in man, may it ring clear for many a year.
DISTRICT OF ORANGE
Action towards forming a town quickly followed the organization of the church. As early as August 30, 1781, at a parish meeting, Benjamin Wood, Nathan Goddard, Hananiah Temple, Elijah Ball and Jonathan Ward were chosen a committee to plan the new town. In October of the same year Warwick voted "to set off 4060 acres of land (as exhibited on a plan shown by Elijah Ball) with the inhabitants on the same, to be incorporated into a town with other lands from Athol, Royalston and Erving's Grant." In Athol an innovation in the custom of singing, had brought to the Athol church discord in place of the previous harmony. This want of concord increased until it led to the dismissal of the pastor, Rev. Mr. Humphreys, caused some members to withdraw from the church and so alienated a part of the town that it was ready to be separated from the parent town; the settlers in the eastern part of Erving's Grant aspired to town privileges. Did Royalston hold aloof for a time? The only occasion for this query is the record of a parish meeting held February 25, 1782 when John Ellis, Edward Ward and Jonathan Goddard were made a committee to request Royalston again to vote for part of their town to be incorporated into a town with part of Athol, Warwick and Ervingshire. Later Royalston set off several thousand aeres for the proposed town and, in accordance with the petition of the inhabitants of the traets mentioned above, the north-westerly part of Athol, the south-westerly part of Royalston, the south-easterly part of Warwiek and certain common lands called Ervingshire were on October 15, 1783, incorporated not as a town, but as a district, named Orange in honor of William, Prinee of Orange. District incorporation was probably a result of England's jealousy aroused before 1753 by the increase of towns in Massachusetts, for increase in towns meant increase in representation in the Legislature and consequently "an eneroachment upon the authority of the crown." To put a stop to this, the home Government (England), instructed the Governor of Massachusetts to eonsent to no establishment of a new town in the province without restricting its power of sending a representative to the General Court. For many years after this, new plantations were incorporated as districts. Thus, Orange was made a distriet having all the powers of a town except the power of individual representation. It might vote for a representative by joining with another town and Warwiek records read,-"Voted. That the new plantation (Orange ) called South Warwick be districted to the town of Warwick with the privilege of joining with us in the choice of a representative, but to act with us in no town affairs whatever."
The Boundaries of the New District were as follows :
Beginning on the west line of the town of Athol at Millers River, thence on said line to the road that leads from Ruggles' farms to West Hill, so-called; thence bounding on the said road ineluding the same to the county road leading from
TWELVE
Athol to Warwick; thence easterly on the said road to the south line of Sherebiah Baker's land; thence on the said south line and to extend the same course to Tully River; thence northerly to the east branch of the said Tully River to Royalston line; thence easterly on said Royalston line to southeast corner of lot No. 23; thence northerly on the cast line of the same lot and lot 22 dividing lot No. 26; thence westerly on the south end of lot No. 20; thence northerly on east line of lot No. 6; thence westerly on north line of same lot; thence westerly on south line of lot No. 11 to the west line of said town of Royalston; thence northerly on said town line to the northeast corner of lot No. 45 in the second division of Warwick; thence westerly to northwest corner of same lot; thence southerly to northeast corner of lot 34 to the northwest corner of the same; thence southerly to the northeast corner of lot 15; thence south including lot 13 to Warwick south line; thence south 10 degrees west, across the land of John Erving. Esq .. to Miller's River; thence easterly on Miller's River to bounds first mentioned.
West Pequoiag Hill on which stands the Sentinel Elm, was the first settled part of the Distriet. On either side of that first long street running north and south, small lots were laid out and between 1736 and 1742 were occupied to such an extent that there was quite a compact settlement comprising families bearing the familiar names of Smith, Morton, Marble, Ward, Adams, Holden, Harrington, Dexter and Wheeler.
"In 1752 a tract of 325 acres of land lying on the west side of Pequoiag, (Athol) was granted by the General Court to Rev. Benjamin Ruggles of Middle- boro." This grant came within thelimits of Orange District. The first settler on this tract was Joseph Lawrence who, after the French and Indian war, sold his farm to Benjamin Dexter. Previous to buying this farm which in recent years became the property of Amasa Dexter and Sylvester Davis, Benjamin Dexter had lived on the Jesse Worrick farm where he settled in 1769, at which time tradition asserts there was no house between Dexter's and the Connecticut. River. In the same year, (1769) Jacob Hutchins was living on the farm adjoin- ing that of Joseph Lawrence. Samuel Ruggles settled on the west side of this grant in 1776 and his brother Lemuel settled near him in 1780.
In 1770 Joseph Metcalf of Milford, land agent for John Erving and for Erving's heirs as well, bought of John Erving 500 acres of land lying east of Fall Hill and settled on what has been called in recent years the Red Stock farm. Saville Metcalf, Jacob French and his sons Joseph and Jacob, Capt. Job M. Macomber, Elisha White, Daniel Thayer, David and William Legg, Jonathan Jones and his son Jonathan, all from Milford, Samuel and Asa Aldrich from Northbridge, Samuel Briggs from Berkley and Solomon Johnson from Warwick also settled on Erving's grant and named the settlement "Goshen". Many of these settlers cannot be traced at this date, but the cellar holes scattered over this tract prove that it was well-populated in early days. Would you conjure up a mental picture of the beginning of the settlement of Erving's grant, read first the old Court Record of 1751, April 11, which says, "Each settler to build a house 18 feet square and 7 feet stud and to bring to 5 acres of land fit for mowing, and upon their performing the conditions aforesaid the lands to be confirmed to them, their heirs and assigns forever."
In the northern part of the district, Elisha Johnson was living in 1776; Ebenezer Cheney of Milford settled on the present Fred Johnson farm in 1776 or 1777 and became an extensive land owner ; Hananiah Temple in 1771 on Temple Hill; Alexander Wheelock on the present Geddis Hitchcock farm; Zina Goodell on the Goodell place; Ebenezer Foskett on the Williams farm. Levi Cheney is said to have bought 800 acres of land about 1777. He built a log house near the house now occupied by Charles Nylander. About 1772 Edward Ward built the
house now occupied by John Holston and about the same time Benjamin Mayo opened a public house where Rollin White now lives.
In 1760 Nathan Goddard was living on the present Rich farm and carrying on business with a saw mill and tannery. Among other settlers of this eastern section were Jason Harrington east of Tully Mountain, while in the primitive wilderness west of the mountain lived Daniel Harrington on the present Euroy Harrington farm. On the northwest slope of the mountain was Asa Albee's house, the location of which has been marked only by a birch tree in a cellar hole, for nearly half a century. On Tully meadows lived John Ellis in a house opposite the one now occupied by Mr. Denno. North of the Ellis farm was the large farm of Sylvanus Ward who lived nearly opposite the house of the late Presson Ward.
With hardy muscles, hopeful hearts and strong purpose these pioneers began their battle with the wilderness from which they were to win a town.
1783, November 24, the first district meeting was held, Saville Metcalf, elerk, and Saville Metcalf, Nathan Goddard and Elijah Ball were chosen selectmen. District meetings were held in the meeting house in accordance with Article 3 of the agreement drawn up January 1, 1781, "that whenever there shall be a Town, District or Parish set off by the General Court in this place then the said House shall be free for all the inhabitants thereof to hold all their legal Town, District or Parish meetings in". This old Puritan plan of carrying on all matters ecclesiastical and civic in the Parish, was followed for a number of years. The records of district meetings show the retention of many English customs that created offices now in disuso. Besides clerk, selectmen, treasurer and assessors, there were also chosen constable, surveyors of highways, tything-men, wardens, pound-keepers, sealer of weights and measures, fence-viewers, hog-reeves, deer- reeve, measurers of leather and viewers of shingles and clapboards. The old enstom of sealing weights and measures is still retained, but that most ancient of English institutions,-the Pound-is now obsolete. In order to protect the inhabitants of "Towns and Precincts" against loss of cattle or damage to crops, an Act of the General Court had provided strict surveillance of cattle. By this Act every town had to maintain one or more pounds for confining stray "Swine, Cattle or Sheep." By vote at a district meeting, swine were "allowed to run at large if yoked and ringed according to law"; hence hog-reeves were chosen to impound swine found at large, unringed or unyoked. Stray cattle were impounded and the owner notified if he were known; if unknown, a notice containing a description of the straying animal, was posted in some public place. One such notice reads thus on the town records, " Taken up in my enelosure a black cow with a white face 7 or S years old. Edward Ward, March 22, 1798." A pound necessitated a Pound Keeper whose duty it was "to guard the pound against breach, to see that the cattle were properly fed and watered until such time as they should be replevined, and to collect from the owners the fees and (lamages." 1784. March 15. Benjamin Mayo was chosen " Pound Keeper" and it was voted "to improve the yard of Benjamin Mayo," at present Rollin White's yard, "as a Pound for the present." On the highway nearly opposite the resi- dence of John Blaekmer, there remains a pound with walls of rough stone, a relic of the past.
The neighboring town of Shutesbury furnishes the only known instance of the impounding of a human being. There, just as the Revolutionary War began, the Rev. Abraham Hill, pastor of the church for many years, was found to be a strong Royalist. He was, therefore, asked to resign. He not only refused to resign, but expressed publicly his views. For this he was confined in the pound and given only water and herrings to live upon.
THIRTEEN
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THE PATH TO HOME
By EDGAR GUEST
There's the mother at the doorway and the children at the gate, And the little parlor windows with the curtains white and straight. There are shaggy asters blooming in the bed that lines the fence, And the simplest of the blossoms seems of mighty consequence. Oh, there isn't any mansion underneath God's starry dome That can rest a weary pilgrim like the little place called home.
Men have sought for gold and silver; men have dreamed at night of fame; In the heat of youth they've struggled for achievement's honored name; But the selfish crowns are tinsel, and their shining jewels paste, And the wine of pomp and glory soon grows bitter to the taste. For there's never any laughter, howsoever far you roam, Like the laughter of the loved ones in the happiness of home.
So where'er a man may wander, and whatever be his care, You'll find his soul still stretching to the home he left somewhere. You'll find his dreams all tangled up with hollyhocks in bloom, And the feet of little children that go racing through a room. With the happy mother smiling as she watches them at play- These are all in life that matter, when you've stripped the sham away.
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