USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Ware > History of Ware, Massachusetts > Part 10
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From the church records we learn that "the Rev. Samuel Ware was ordained to the pastoral watch and care of this Church and people in Ware, Oct. 31, 1810."
Mr. Ware proved a useful minister for more than fifteen years, and gathered 197 into the church, 177 by profession, and 20 by letters from other churches. He was dismissed in consequence of ill health in 1826, and the following vote of the town indicates the respect in which he was held:
Voted unanimously, that agreeably to his request, we dis- miss and cordially recommend the Rev. Samuel Ware, as an exemplary Christian, and an able, judicious and faithful minister of the gospel.
During Mr. Ware's ministry, in 1815, it was " Voted to call this branch of the Church Universal in Ware, ' The Church of Christ in Ware.'"
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REV. AUGUSTUS BROWN REED and his wife MRS. MELINDA BOR- DEN REED From an old painting. Mr. Reed was installed in the First Church July 19, 1826, and died in 1838. The present parsonage was built during his pastorate.
Ware 45
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PARISH LIFE AND GROWTH
The same Council that, at his own request, dismissed Mr. Ware in 1826, ordained as his successor Mr. Augustus B. Reed. The invitation to Mr. Reed to settle in Ware, a docu- ment of very considerable length signed by a committee of fifteen members, together with Mr. Reed's answer, is found in the Town Records, also a full account of all arrangements for the ordination, together with a list of fifteen neighboring churches invited to take part in the exercises. This is the last affair of the kind to occupy the attention of the citizens assembled in town meeting. In 1833 the State Constitution was altered, separating Church and State and making the support of religion voluntary.
Mr. Reed was a native of Rehoboth, and graduate of Brown University. Tradition describes him as a man of great dignity of bearing. He continued as minister of the first parish until June 5, 1838, when he retired on account of failing health. He died September 30 of the same year, aged nearly 40, and was buried in the old cemetery at the Centre.
It may be recalled that twenty dollars of the minister's salary was described as "annually due from said town of Ware to the minister." This was the income from the "Ministerial fund," which as has been told, came to the town treasurer for investment in 1789. On April 1, 1833, a com- mittee was chosen to investigate the subject of the fund, and to take legal advice in regard to it. The committee recommended that the town treasurer give a note for $333.33 in behalf of the town to the deacons, provided the deacons as trustees give a discharge to the town from further claims. The recommendation was adopted, and the follow- ing receipt was entered upon the records:
Received of Horace Goodrich Treasurer of the Town of Ware $333.33 in full for the Glebe lot deeded by John Read and others to Jacob Cummings and John Davis Deacons of the first church in Ware and their successors in office as trustees, which lot was afterwards appropriated to the use of the Town by order of the Legislature and in April 1833 reclaimed by the said Trustees.
Ware, Feb. 6, 1834.
Eli Snow Enos Davis
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HISTORY OF WARE
The year of Mr. Reed's settlement was also the year of the formation of the Second Congregational Society in the east part of the town commonly known as Ware Factory Village. From this time the strength and influence of the First Church begins to wane. The old church building continued to be the town-meeting house for a number of years, but even that glory was to depart with the building of a Town Hall at the village in 1847.
Little more remains to be told.
The Rev. Harvey Smith served the church from 1838 to 1840.
Rev. William E. Dixon, of Enfield, Conn., a graduate of Williams College, was ordained Jan. 14, 1841, and dis- missed May 26, 1842.
Rev. David N. Coburn, from Thompson, Conn., a grad- uate of Amherst, was ordained Sept. 21, 1842, and served until April 17, 1854. In 1843 the church building was re- modeled in its present form.
Rev. Seth W. Banister served the parish from May 23, 1855 to June 1, 1857.
Rev. Ariel P. Chute, installed Sept. 22, 1857, served until May 21, 1861.
Rev. Wm. G. Tuttle, installed Oct. 10, 1861, served until April 12, 1887. During this pastorate, - the longest in the history of the church, - 157 members were added.
Rev. Edward S. Huntress began his pastorate May 1, 1888. He resigned May 29, 1889.
Rev. Jasper P. Harvey began as pastor March 2, 1890, and resigned Jan. 3, 1896.
Rev. Edward L. Chute began service April 4, 1896, and closed his work Nov. 25, 1906.
Rev. Fred E. Winn became pastor Jan. 1, 1907, remaining until Sept., 1909.
Rev. Roland D. Sawyer, the present pastor, began his work Dec. 1, 1909.
A few words regarding the music of the church may be of interest to some.
March, 1785. The town voted "to adopt Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns to be sung in the congregation. Voted that they begin next Sabbath."
Previous to this, Tate and Brady or Sternhold and Hop- kins had been used. The change was made during the re-
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PARISH LIFE AND GROWTH
vival services of Rev. Jeremiah Hallock, probably through his influence.
The whole congregation joined in the singing, the deacon "lining out" the psalm.
March, 1790. "Made choice of Doctor Rufus King & Solomon Bush, & Mr. George Breakenridge, Queristers for the year Insuing."
"Voted that the Deacon Read one Verse or more at a time according as the tune may Require."
1796. "Voted to allow Silas Thompson £3,,17,,6 for teaching singing school."
Solomon Howe, "a celebrated teacher of music" came to Ware in 1789 or 1790. He is one of those men ordered to leave town within 15 days in 1790 (the order being after- wards revoked), and is described as "Solomon Howe, from the County of Worcester, Singing master."
1798. John Jenkins, Dr. King and George Breakenridge were elected Queristers.
Dec. 1799. "Voted the contents of an obligation which the town holds against Solomon Bush be appropriated for a singing school." A Committee was appointed to hire a singing-master and arrange for the school.
1800. Solomon Bush, George Brakenridge, John Jenkins, John Gardner and John Steel were elected Queristers.
1805. "Voted $50.00 for singing school, which is to be held in different parts of the town."
1807. "Voted $4.00 toward paying Mr. Silas Thomson for teaching singing school."
1810. "Voted to raise $50.00 for the instruction of singers."
"That those who belong to Mr. Burt's Society 1 receive their proper proportion of said $50.00."
1814. "Voted $50.00 to support singing in the meeting house."
One cannot contemplate without emotion the changes that have passed over the town and especially the First Parish; its small beginnings amid a poverty that was pro- verbial, its growth in strength and numbers through almost a hundred years, an increase such that the last minister called before the division exclaimed in words of Scripture on accept- ing the call, "Who is sufficient for these things! " and finally
1 The Baptist Society just over the line in Hardwick.
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HISTORY OF WARE
its decay, none the less tragic because inevitable. The old church stands today in its smiling valley, peaceful as the green fields that surround it, a landmark, witnessing to a period that never can be revived when coaches daily passed its doors, and the militia trained in its shadow, and it was in every sense the centre of life for the community. In the church-yard sleep a great multitude who knew and loved the church as their spiritual home, and for it made sacrifices that we can scarcely appreciate
A new generation, almost wholly of alien parentage, fills our streets today. But the thoughtful among them, what- ever their religious affiliation, cannot but feel respect and honor for the Mother Church of their adopted town.
VI
SECULAR MATTERS
IT has been seen that Ware was created a parish and pre- cinct on Dec. 7, 1742. This meant independence in reli- gious affairs only, though the inhabitants of the parish were permitted to choose such local officers as fence-viewers, highway surveyors, hog-reeves and tything men, besides the necessary assessors, collectors and committees for parish and precinct expenses. The people, however, were still under the selectmen and constables of the town to which they belonged.
A misunderstanding in regard to the parish limits was set right by the General Court, and the parish given definite bounds in 1750. But our inhabitants were not satisfied for long with district and parochial rights only. They desired full independence in all local matters as soon as they felt themselves strong and numerous enough. The warrant issued Feb. 6, 1761, for a meeting to be held March 9, following, contained the following article: "To see what Corse you will take in if you will agree to git town priva- leages; " and at the meeting held March 9, they "Voted to Send A Petition to the General Cort to see if they will Allow us Town Privaliges, and Jos. Foster to see that it is Dun." Later, at a meeting held Oct. 2, of the same year, "Voted to Allow to Joseph Foster for gitting the Parish set off as a town, one pound Eight Shillings and Eight pence; " "Voted to grant one pound Sixteen Shillings & Eight pence for further Charges in giting the parish sot of as a Town."
Among the State Archives we find the following con- cerning the erecting of Ware into a District 1 under date of June 2, 1761:
1 General Court Records, Vol. XXIV, p. 16.
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HISTORY OF WARE
A Petition of Joseph Foster Agent for the Inhabitants of Ware River Parish Praying they may be invested with the Priviledges of a Town or District.
In the House of Representatives; Ordered that the Pe- titioner notify the nonresident Proprietors of the Lands in said Parish with a copy of this Petition together with this order by inserting the substance thereof in one of the Boston news Papers three weeks successively that so they shew cause if any they have, on the first Thursday of the next sitting of this Court why the Prayer thereof should not be granted.
Also, under date of Nov. 17, 1761:1
A petition of Joseph Foster Praying as entered 2nd June last. In Council Read again and it appearing that the Petitioners had pursued the orders of Court with regard to Notification. Ordered that the Petitioners have liberty to bring in a Bill for erecting the Parish of Ware River into a District.
In the House of Representatives Read and Concurred.
Herewith is given the act itself 2 for erecting Ware River Parish, so called, in the County of Hampshire, into a District by the name of Ware.
Whereas the inhabitants of Ware River Parish, so called, in the County of Hampshire, have represented to this Court the great difficulties and the inconveniences they labor under, in their present situation, and have earnestly re- quested that they may be incorporated into a District, - Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council & House of Representatives, -
(Sec. I) That the said Ware-River Parish, so called, bounded as follows; vizt. Southerly, upon Palmer, including that tract of land in said Palmer which is the property of the heirs of Isaac Magoon, deceased; easterly, upon West- ern & Brookfield; northerly, upon Hardwick & Greenwich; & westerly, upon Swift River, be & is hereby incorporated into a District by the name of Ware; and that the said Dis- strict be & hereby is invested with all the privileges, powers & immunities that Towns in this Province, by law, do or
1 General Court Records, Vol. XXIV, p. 109.
2 Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. IV, p. 86.
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may enjoy, that of sending a representative to the General Assembly only excepted.
And be it further enacted, -
(Sec. II) That Eleazer Porter, Esq' be & hereby is di- rected & impowered to issue his warrant, directed to some principal inhabitant within said District, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of said District, qualified to vote in Town affairs, to assemble at some suitable time & place in said District, to choose such officers as are necessary to manage the affairs of said District.
Provided, nevertheless, -
(Sec. III) The Inhabitants of said District of Ware shall pay their proportionable part of all such Town, County & Province charges as are already assessed, in like manner as though this act had not been made; and that part of the Province tax which is the proportion of the said Magoon's farm,1 shall hereafter be abated the district of Palmer, and be borne & paid by the said District of Ware. (Passed November 25; Published Nov. 28) (note) signed Nov. 28th according to the record.
Thus Nov. 28, 1761, is the date of the incorporation of Ware. It is called a "District " rather than a Town; the only difference between the two being that a Town possessed the right of sending a representative to the General Court while a District did not.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Aug. 23, 1775, an omnibus act of the General Court admitted Ware, together with many other districts, to full town standing. The clause of the act referred to is as follows:
And be it further Enacted and Declared by the author- ity aforesaid, That every Corporate Body in this Colony, which in the act for the Incorporation thereof, is said and de- clared to be made a District and has by such act granted to it, or is declared to be vested with the Rights, Powers, Privileges or Immunities of a Town, with the Exception above mentioned, of chusing and sending a representative to the Great and General Court or Assembly, shall hereafter be holden, taken, and intended to be a Town to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever.
1 The Magoon tract was set off to Ware from Palmer in this same year, and that is what is referred to above.
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HISTORY OF WARE
A study of the early records of the town throws much light upon conditions of life and the interests of the people. Religion evidently stood first in importance, and the meet- ing-house was the centre of the town in more senses than one. Here not only religious meetings were held, but public meet- ings of all sorts. It was the Town House, built by and for the people. At times it was in demand for secular meetings nearly as often as for religious. The number of town meet- ings held in a year was astonishing, no less than seventeen meetings and adjourned meetings being recorded for a single twelve months. The occasions were evidently regarded as public holidays, and broke the monotony of an isolated existence. Temporary adjournments were made to the neighboring tavern, or to the home of some accommodating citizen, where a barrel of cider or a keg of apple jack gave welcome refreshment in the midst of the toils of settling knotty problems in regard to abatement of taxes, redemp- tion of counterfeit bills, providing for the poor, or repairing the meeting-house. With such interruptions the meetings were sometimes rather protracted. A former generation enjoyed many a laugh at the expense of a group of citizens dwelling in the east part of the town who returned to their homes late one night with the report that the spring freshets had carried out the bridge over Muddy Brook. They had forded the stream after fruitless search for the accustomed crossing-place. The morning light, however, revealed the bridge still standing in its accustomed location.
The inns figured largely in the early life of the town. John Downing was licensed as an innholder in 1754,1 and from that time continued to dispense hospitality for thirty-one years at his tavern on the bluff just beyond where West Street crosses Muddy Brook. Downing's was a famous tavern in its day. It is mentioned in many annual issues of Low's Almanac as the stopping-place in Ware for stages plying be- tween Boston and Albany.2 In 1763 Jonathan Rogers also
1 Court Records, Northampton.
2 John Downing died in 1791. His widow survived him many years. She farmed the poor, as is learned from frequent payments by the Selectmen, thus making a livelihood. She is constantly referred to as the Widow Downing in the records, but was popularly known as "Old Granny Downing." The following story was current seventy-five years ago.
After the death of the widow the house fell into decay. One day a party of
THE GOULD TAVERN AT WARE CENTRE
REV. EZRA THAYER'S HOUSE Built soon after 1759. It was bought by Deacon William Paige in 1777, and was known for years as the Paige Tavern. It stands on the south side of the road, about half a mile west of the Centre.
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SECULAR MATTERS
was licensed. His tavern was in the south part of the town, and the house is said to have been located on the Palmer Road a short distance below the Golf Club House, on the opposite side of the street. His license was recorded last in 1796, giving him a period of thirty-three years as inn- holder. The County Road Commissioners made this house their headquarters in 1769.
Downing and Rogers are mentioned in the almanacs. That of Nathaniel Ames first mentions Rogers' tavern in 1765. In 1766 he gives Downing and Rogers, "on the upper Post Road to Brookfield." For twenty years these two names appear. Bickerstaff's Boston Almanac also mentions them.
These are the only licensed inns recorded in pre-Revolu- tionary times - so far as the Court Records show us the situation.
While the Revolution was at its height, in 1778, three new innholders appear upon the scene; Ebenezer Nye, James Lammon and Joseph Patterson. Patterson's license is recorded for but a single year. That he was longer in the business, however, is shown by the fact that his inn is men- tioned in Ames' Almanac for the year 1774 and 1775 as on the road from Northampton to Boston. His place cannot be located with absolute certainty, but probably stood on a part of the old Hadley Road long since discontinued, about half a mile north of the Babcock Tavern. Patterson pur- chased a place in that locality in 1769, holding it until the foreclosure of a mortgage in 1782. Lammon was licensed six years in succession. As his farm was on the Boston Post Road west of the schoolhouse in District No. 3, it is reasonable to locate his tavern in that quarter. The farm remained in the Lemon family until recent times.
Ebenezer Nye's tavern is no less famous than John Downing's. His license ran from 1778 to 1788, omitting '83 and '86, and is again recorded in 1791.1 It was to his
young men who had been hunting were overtaken by a thunderstorm when near the house, and ran to it for shelter. One of the boys stepped up to the bar, which stood in the great living-room, and rapping loudly upon it cried, "Granny Down- ing, bring us out a hot toddy." Instantly there was such a rattling of toddy- sticks that the whole party took to their heels, preferring rain to ghosts.
1 It is by no means certain that the County Records are complete.
1
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HISTORY OF WARE
tavern that town meetings were frequently adjourned; sometimes, as in 1789, for fifteen minutes, more often for the remainder of the session. Nye's tavern stood on what, in his day, was the main road from the meeting-house to Brook- field and New Braintree, a little below "Crowell's orchard," 1 near where Miss M. R. Howard now lives. A still, the foun- dation stones of which are yet to be seen, stood opposite on the north side of the road. Nye owned a farm of about 200 acres extending easterly from Flat Brook.
He was elected pound-keeper in 1781, the pound adjoin- ing his land.
Isaac Pepper was licensed as retailer from 1781 to 1804. His house now forms the back part of the Gould Tavern. Pepper put up the frame of the main part, but never finished it. Capt. James Cargill is said to have bought the place and completed the house. John Osborne kept tavern here before the property went to Seth Gould about 1825.
The wood-colored house on the corner by Flat Brook is still sometimes referred to as the Crowell Tavern. Joshua Crowell 2 held an innkeeper's license from 1811 to 1817, and a retailer's license to the end of 1827. John Shaw dispensed hospitality in this tavern a good many years before Crowell bought the place.
The year 1782 shows no less than eight taverns within the town limits; the four already mentioned, and one kept by John Quinton, one by Lott Whitcomb, one by John Bullen, and one by Phille Morse.
The Quinton or Quentin farm was west of Beaver Lake, and it is probable that the tavern was near where the road from the Centre entered the Turnpike. John Quinton was followed by Thomas Quinton, the two men covering the period from 1782 to 1800.
John Bullen, on the Turnpike, and Lott Whitcomb figured
1 Some manuscript notes of the late Miss Cornelia Gould have helped in deter- mining the location of this most interesting tavern.
2 In 1812 Joshua Crowell received an order for $1.85 from the Selectmen "for spirits for Aseneth Winslow's infant." One of the choice bits of tradition to shock modern sensibilities relates how "Priest," Ware's chore-boy, used to go down to the store of Joshua Crowell, our pioneer Methodist preacher, with two jugs, one for molasses, the other for rum. Storekeepers were not allowed to sell liquor to be consumed on the premises. Now it happened that Joshua Crowell's store en- croached on the Common, so when Crowell held only the retailer's license, thirsty patrons used to buy their rum, and drink it in the corner that stood on town land.
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WWWY OP WAILS
I He Could Turnera
THE BABCOCK TAVERN
Before its alteration in 1890. When the old chimney, twelve by fourteen feet, was removed, five Hibernian coppers were found, one under each corner and one under the centre.
The Post Office occupied the projection in the middle foreground, and the door at the extreme left entered the bar. The tap-room occupied the ground floor of the L and the ball-room the floor above.
Jrook s
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U
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as tavern keepers but a short time. Phille Morse was licensed but two years. His house was on the Brookfield road, just south of Howard's Grist-Mill. Phille Morse owned a large apple orchard on the slope of Coy's Hill. It is said that he brought the young trees from Rochester, New York, on horseback. Fifty to a hundred casks of cider a year were made from the orchard when in its prime.
The next innholder of importance was Joseph Cummings, who had a license from 1785 to 1792 inclusive. Cummings appears in 1784 as a retailer "to sell at retail out of his house there to be spent out of doors only."
Mr. Benjamin Cummings, who died in 1876 in his 100th year, was a son of Joseph Cummings. In a page of recol- lections taken down by the late Dr. Yale we read that "Mr. Cummings' father kept the only store at Ware in his house, near a large tree between the houses of Lewis N. Gilbert and J. Beaman, and sold coffee, tea, molasses, rum and sugar. His mother, whose name was Temperance, did the retailing mostly, excepting when considerable rum was to be drawn, when Ben was sent up from the field to help her."
Samuel Patrick and Deacon William Paige received licenses in 1791, and John Shaw in 1794. They continued in the business for varying periods.
Paige's tavern was at the Holbrook place, now known as the Buffington place, nearly a mile west of the meeting- house. Mr. Hyde in his Address says that this was the house formerly occupied by the Rev. Ezra Thayer. Here in 1787 the Ecclesiastical Council that dismissed the Rev. Benjamin Judd was entertained; said Council consuming six gallons of rum at the town charge.
William Doane secured a license for the single year 1800, and Isaac Magoon, 2nd, for 1801. Joshua McMaster, Lott Dean and Royal Tyler all tried at innkeeping for short periods.
Archibald Babcock first comes before us as innholder in 1807, remaining in the business twenty years. The Bab- cock Tavern is one of the landmarks of the town. Here the first post-office was established, in the year 1815, and Timothy Babcock was appointed postmaster. The Bab- cock Tavern, and the Gould Tavern at Ware Centre, mark
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HISTORY OF WARE
the transition from ancient to modern conditions. Seth Gould kept the inn just west of the meeting-house the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century.
But conditions were changing. As the village grew in importance the Centre waned. Ware was ceasing to be a merely agricultural community. Then the building of railroads robbed the country tavern of its chief useful- ness. And the habits of the people were changing too. It is remembered by one of the oldest inhabitants that when Seth Gould gave up tavern-keeping he declared that "cold water had killed him." 1
Alpheus Demond (of Muddy Brook fame) in 1814 built the "Old Tavern House " in the village where Hitchcock's Block now stands.
Here2 it was that Lafayette visited, and Mrs. Cynthia Loomis, now living on Bank St., and her sister, Mrs. Elmira Whittaker, who resides on Palmer Road, were among those who met him and took him by the hand. Mrs. Loomis is now 86 years old, but she retains all her mental activity, and tells of Lafayette's visit, and of her meeting with him with evident pleasure. She recalls the fact that at the time he took her hand, he said to her and her companions, " I re- joice to see you, my children, enjoying the liberty for which we fought."
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