USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westminster > History of Westminster, Massachusetts (first named Narragansett no. 2) from the date of the original grant of the township to the present time, 1728-1893, with a biographic-genealogical register of its principal families > Part 36
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About the year 1816 the early military division of the town into two sections, each having its respective company, was virtually abandoned, and a more general system was adopted. In place of the old organizations, a Rifle Company was formed, which, though originally composed of men from the northern section of the territory, at length drew its members from all directions, representing in its own field the entire community. It was in existence some twenty or more years, attaining a high standing and an enviable reputation in military circles abroad, while at home it was regarded with much pride by those inter- ested in the profession of arms. So important a place did it fill in the military annals of the period to which it belonged, that it is deemed due to it and to the memory of those inter- ested in it, to present a full list of its commanding officers, and also, as is understood, of its charter members.
Its several captains were :
Oliver Adams,
Joseph H. Whitney, Major Page,
Nathan Merriam,
Joseph Howard, Sylvester Miller,
Silas Smith,
Aaron Wood,
Asa Brooks.
Jesse Spalding,
Reuben Fenno,
The following is a list of its charter members :
Jonas Cutler, Jonas Winship,
Jonas Miller,
Charles Capen,
John Winship,
Ezra Wood,
Abel Sawyer,
Hayman Wheeler,
Sewall Barnes,
Amos Sawyer,
Jefferson Wheeler,
Samuel Barnes,
Amos Wyman,
Asa Wheeler,
Sullivan Barnes,
Farwell Cowee,
Nehemiah Shumway,
John Woodward,
Aaron Taylor,
Jesse Spalding,
John Taylor,
Benjamin Seaver,
James Puffer,
Jonas Ward,
Moses Mosman,
Stephen Puffer,
John Hadley.
Sidney Smith,
Levi Miller,
The charter was surrendered about 1837.
296
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
After the formation of the Rifle Company, the remaining men enrolled in the militia according to law, effected a some- what loose and irresponsible organization under which they appeared from year to year at May Training and General Mus- ter, so as to meet the requirements of the Statutes and escape the otherwise imposed fine for "non-performance of duty." Their lack of careful drill, their cheap, improvised uniforms, and awkward, grotesque appearance generally, won for them the fantastic sobriquet of "Slam-bangs" or "Silver-heels." They helped to give variety to the conglomerate assemblage accustomed to gather from far and near on public military occa- sions, and made fun for a certain kind of "small boy," and for those of larger growth who had an eye for the fantastic and ludicrous.
With the repeal of the Statute requiring the formal organiza- tion, equipment, and drill of persons duly enrolled and deemed liable to do military duty, according to the custom of former days, and the gradual diffusion and growth of humanitarian and philanthropic principles in the community at large, which characterized the closing years of the first half of the present century, the martial spirit declined very considerably in town, and all associated manifestations of that spirit not only lost their charm to many people, but were regarded with distrust and abhorrence. The bewitching fascination of a well-uniformed soldiery and all the accouterments pertaining to camp life and the horrid trade of human slaughter, had few attractions to those who felt themselves to have been baptized into the spirit of the "Prince of Peace," and who saw, or thought they saw, in the precepts of the Gospel of Christ, prohibitory mandates against all war and all preparations for the wholesale shedding of human blood.
Nevertheless, there continued to be in certain directions a lingering interest in military affairs, and a prevailing desire to revive and re-establish the ancient practice of "playing war" as it had existed under varying forms among different nations of men since the world began. This interest and desire culmin- ated, at length, in the formation, about the year 1843, of a new company, which assumed the name of the "Westminster Guards." It was organized with Joseph H. Whitney, who was chiefly instrumental in getting it up, as captain ; Rufus P. Chase, first lieutenant; and Philander C. Brown and William Edgell, second lieutenants. Its successive commanders follow- ing Captain Whitney, were James R. Bruce, Josiah Puffer, James M. Whitman, Amos B. Holden, and Henry Lucas, under whose administration it disbanded in the year 1857. This corps received little favor or encouragement from the general public at home, though it gained something of a reputation in military circles abroad. It was reported present at a "Corn- wallis" held in Leominster, Oct. 19, 1853, where it acquitted
297
MODERN REVIVAL OF THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
itself with the honor appropriate to the occasion, as was also another "ununiformed" company from town, improvised for special service on that day.
No further movements of this sort were made in Westmin- ster until the slaveholders' Rebellion broke out, revealing the ultimate infamous purpose that lay behind it, when a sense of impending peril and the proclamation of President Lincoln summoned to arms the loyal people of the country in defence of constitutional liberty, and for the salvation of the republic. Of the part taken by Westminster in the fearful struggle thus inaugurated, with all needful comprehensiveness and detail, the reader will learn in due season.
Very naturally the experiences connected with the suppres- sion of the Rebellion were calculated to revive, extend, and intensify the military spirit among all classes of people through- out all the loyal states. And thoroughly aroused as it was, and dominant while the conflict lasted, it could not, even if desired, be remanded to silence when that gigantic conspiracy was over- thrown, and the arts of war once more gave way to those of peace. Memories of battle scenes and valorous deeds, com- bined with other influences, served to keep it alive and to pre- pare the way for an early expression of it in an organized form in this as in other localities. During the year 1866 a company of infantry consisting of sixty-four members was enrolled, mostly through the efforts of veterans of the war. This company was organized by the appointment of E. Abner Drury, who had been commissioned lieutenant in the Federal service, captain ; Ethan W. Holden, first lieutenant; and J. Hervey Miller, second lieutenant, -and was assigned a place in the Massachu- setts Volunteer Militia, and designated as Co. H, Ioth Regt., 3d Brigade, Ist Division. It also bore the local name of " Wachusett Rifle Co." Captain Drury was succeeded in office by Ethan W. Holden, Edward P. Miller, and Edward S. Kendall. The company was disbanded at the time of the reduction of the State Militia in 1876. It was composed largely of veterans, and was deemed one of the best in the Commonwealth by the adjutant general.
Incidental to the existence in any community of military companies, such as have been under notice, forming a part of a general system of organized soldiery, were formerly, as now, the annual reviews or gatherings for field-day exercises, in military drill and display, under the inspection and criticism of duly appointed officers. These occasions, known in old-time parlance as "Musters," were memorable not only as military exhibits, but on account of the crowds of people who attended them, coming, as they did, from every rank and condition in life, and the multiform attractions which characterized them. Added to the pomp and pageantry of the soldiery, with glittering arms, streaming banners, and bands of martial music,
298
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
there were side shows of many a kind and name, museums of monstrosities and nondescripts, hucksters of all sorts of mer- chandise, caterers in eatables and drinkables of the most miscel- laneous nature and quality, and means of amusement as diversi- fied as the tastes and pockets of those to whom they appealed for patronage. And, withal, such a medley of voices and noises as baffles description, if not the imagination, adequately to represent. To one who remembers these occasions, they can be easily reproduced, but to one who has never been present at them, no words can convey any proper idea of what they were in the day of their glory.
As one of the eight or ten towns in the vicinity having mili- tary companies belonging to the same regiment or brigade, Westminster must, of course, in her time and turn act the part of host on occasions of annual inspection and review, and extend welcome and hospitality, not only to the soldiers but to all who might attend. Several localities, aside from the old com- mon, in the vicinity of the central village, may be pointed out where such gatherings were held, perhaps more than once, in former days, around which some marked associations cluster, and memories of times that were but are not, -localities that still retain some flavor of the powder that was burned upon them, some echoes of music that once vibrated in their airs, and that still bear, perhaps, the well-known name of the "Old Muster-field."
Some of these gatherings were attended by incidents or cir- cumstances of a special, and even a tragic, interest. One, occurring Oct. 13, 1819, was called the "Snowstorm Muster" -a sharp snowstorm prevailing the greater part of the day when it took place. At one held June 12, 1804, in the large field crowning the swell of land at the foot of Meetinghouse Pond, Mr. David Burbank of Fitchburg was accidentally killed in a sham fight, the bayonet of a comrade being thrust through the eye into the brain. "A religious service was held June 22d in view of the sad event. A long procession of militia and citizens marched from Capt. Hoar's hotel to the Church. Rev. Mr. Rice prayed, and Rev. Mr. Osgood of Gardner preached. The exercises were solemn and impressive."-Massachusetts Spy, June 27, 1804.
Under the State militia system a few citizens of Westmin- ster rose to regimental honors, among whom were
Thaddeus Bond, commissioned Colonel, 1795.
Abel Wood, commissioned Lieutenant-colonel 4th Regt., 2d Brigade, 1802. Edward Bacon, commissioned Major 4th Regt., 2d Brigade, 1808. Arna Bacon, commissioned Major 5th Regt., 2d Brigade. 1808. Nathan Raymond, commissioned Major 4th Regt., 2d Brigade, 18II. Horatio G. Buttrick, commissioned Major of artillery Regt., 1814. Asa Bigelow, commissioned Lieutenant-colonel of cavalry Regt., 1819. Asa Bigelow, commissioned Colonel of cavalry Regt., 1820.
CHAPTER XVI.
INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS AND ENTERPRISES.
THE LAW OF LABOR-AGRICULTURE THE MOST VITAL CALLING -- MECHANICAL AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS.
LABOR is an essential condition of existence upon the earth. It is, moreover, a condition of health, prosperity, honor, virtue, happiness. Man was made to work, as a means not only of prolonging his physical life, but of developing his inner and higher nature, - his intellectual, moral, and spiritual energies, - and of making him, in fact, as in the infinite plan, the noblest product of the divine handiwork. Only by the wise and orderly use of his faculties and powers-only by work, well-chosen, properly directed, faithfully performed, can he rise to the full stature of his best possibility, or answer the end for which God gave him being. The familiar maxims commending habits of industry and condemning idleness and sloth are rooted in a true philosophy of existence, and justified by sound reason and the facts of human experience in all periods of the world's history. Indolence, want of occupation, lack of an aim in life, having nothing to do, begets not only thriftlessness and penury, but physical, mental, and moral imbecility, eating the heart out of men and of nations ; while labor, self-effort, the orderly activ- ity of one's native powers, imparts vigor to the bodily frame, develops the hidden energies of the mind, gives strength and nobleness to personal character, builds up communities, states, and nations into a high form of civilization, and carries the race onward and upward towards its divinely appointed destiny.
The people of Westminster from the beginning have been industrious, hard-working, and self-dependent. They have eaten their bread in the sweat of their brow, and honest labor, the habit of diligence, a definite trade or calling, have always been regarded by them as virtues and tokens of respectability and honor, rather than otherwise. The field and the meadow, the shop and the mill, the kitchen and the laundry, have wit- nessed to the activity, skill, and thrift which have characterized those who have dwelt within its borders. A great number and variety of trades and vocations have come into vogue and pre- vailed for a longer or shorter time during its history, as required by existing needs and demands at home or abroad, or as suited to the capacity, the inclination, and taste of different individ- uals or classes of the population.
300
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
Farming. By the very necessities of the case, the first settlers were tillers of the soil. Their lives depended upon what, by their own personal toil and care, they could evoke from the not over fertile bosom of mother earth. It was the concern and practice of every one coming here, with scarce an exception, to take up a given section or lot of land secured to him and his heirs after him, in fee simple, and, having made a little clearing and erected a rude shelter for himself and his dependent ones, to break the sod at the earliest possible date, prepare the mold, and plant the seed of coming harvests. Scattered throughout the extensive territory of the town were these early residents, established on their respective farmsteads of sixty acres each, founding homes for themselves and their children after them, converting the wide forest wastes into fruitful fields, orchards, and gardens, and causing the solitary places "to bud and blos- som as the rose." In these rustic labors, each husbandman found in his wife a partner of his fortunes in the most literal sense-a helpmeet often in the processes of growing and har- vesting the products of the earth, and always a helpmeet in preparing those products for the supply of household needs, and in making the home, humble and rude though it might be, a resting place for the weary, and an abode of contentment, harmony, peace, and joy. Thus it was that each family became at once largely self-supporting and independent -a little com- munity by itself, as well as a constituent element of the growing settlement and community at large. Thus it was that the town entered upon its career-beginning at the bottom, as it were, and building itself up from the ground literally, and upon the primary and most fundamental industry of human society, by slow but sure means and methods, into a fuller, freer, more varied and complex, and consequently more all-sided and perfect life.
In addition to their knowledge of agriculture, which was often- times crude and limited, these pioneers had, generally speaking, some practical acquaintance with mechanical principles and the use of such tools as were employed in the more essential styles of handicraft, enabling them to erect their own rude dwellings, the log cabin or frame house, as well as all other structures which necessity or convenience might require, and to manufac- ture their various implements of husbandry, together with most articles of household furniture. Moreover, there was usually to be found among the female members of a family enough native aptitude or acquired talent for the proper fashioning and fitting of the several portions of personal apparel to leave unsupplied no real want in that regard. Indeed, there were few, if any, of the absolute needs of life but that the ingenuity and tact of these ancestors of ours could readily make provi- sion for, and no doubt there were more of the conveniences and comforts of existence at their command than might without reflection be supposed.
301
AGRICULTURE THE LEADING INDUSTRY.
For nearly a century farming may be regarded as having been the leading occupation of the inhabitants of Westminster, and even to the present day it may be considered as holding that place in a general way, though during the last fifty years its relative importance as a definite calling and means of a liveli- hood has greatly declined. But for more than half the period of the town's history it was essentially the one industrial interest of the community, -the most central and commanding of all the vocations which engaged the attention and employed the ener- gies of the people. Other callings, trades, and professions were, as a rule, dependent upon or tributary to this, the chief concern of all classes and conditions of society. Fathers trained their sons to the arts and habits of the husbandman, and the sons, true to their parental discipline, usually succeeded to their father's calling and estate, each man's landed property being distributed, with rare exceptions, among his children. Mothers trained their daughters to the arts and habits of good house- keeping, and housekeepers, in the capacity of farmers' wives, they generally became. Generation succeeded generation in these honest and honorable ways, not only gaining an ade- quate livelihood, but securing a competency sufficient to pro- vide, with rare exceptions, for the contingencies of misfortune and the disabilities of advancing years. The soil, yielding none too readily or liberally to the solicitations of the agriculturist, has yet, for the most part, rendered fair returns for wise invest- ments made; and in not a few instances has been a source whence, by small but steady gains carefully husbanded, have been derived moderate fortunes, affording the possessor a large measure of freedom from anxious care, of personal and domestic comfort, ease, and independence.
And while, as just now suggested, this important interest has relatively declined during the last half century, it yet, under the shadow of more attractive and imposing manufacturing and commercial activities in this and neighboring towns, and despite the competitions created by the superior productiveness of the vast prairie lands of the mighty West intensified by the ease and rapidity of transportation which renders their products so accessible to eastern markets, maintains a respectable place in the catalogue of useful industries, and is worthy of meritorious mention in this review. This is clearly evidenced by the highly creditable displays of farm products made at the annual fairs which have been held for many years past in the autumn-time, and by the fact that some of the most prosperous, substantial, and honored citizens of the town are still followers of the plow and keepers of flocks and herds. The demand which the con- stantly increasing number of persons engaged in various kinds of manufacturing carried on in this and especially in neighbor- ing towns makes upon the agriculturist for all sorts of fresh vegetables and fruits, is an ever-present stimulus to which he
302
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
is in nowise indifferent, as attested by the improvements wit- nessed in his department of the great industrial hive. To show what has been accomplished in this behalf from the beginning to the present time, a few quotations have been taken from reports made at different dates to the Secretary of the Com- monwealth, as by the public statutes authorized and required, and assigned to their appropriate place in the chapter of this work devoted to statistical information and kindred topics, to which the reader is hereby referred.
" The early settlers of the town, in addition to their skill and efficiency in clearing away the forests and cultivating the soil, had, as already stated, sufficient mechanical ingenuity to enable them, with the common wood-working implements of which they usually had a supply, to serve existing needs in that respect. But persons trained in the various arts necessary to the construction of more elaborate and better finished products of human skill soon appeared, supplementing the common call- ing of husbandman with that of carpentering, masonry, and other kinds of handicraft, wherewith to meet the calls that might arise for such service in the growing settlement. In their turn and time, too, came blacksmiths, painters, glaziers, shoemakers, and all the artisans, of whatever sort or name, inci- dent to civilized society. Of these the town has never been in want.
Cloth Making. One of the earliest industries claiming the attention of the founders of the town was the manufacture of textile fabrics for purposes of personal apparel and the gen- eral uses of the family. To this end, most of the farmers were engaged in keeping sheep and also in raising hemp and flax, whence requisite material could be derived for supplying the demand in this regard in the home and neighborhood. Instruments and contrivances for the proper manipulation of this material constituted no unimportant part of the outfit of a household in those days. The swingle and hatchel for working hemp and flax, card-boards with their sets of serried teeth for making rolls of wool, spinning-wheels and looms, were as essen- tial articles of indoor use, as were the axe, the plow, the hoe, and scythe for the proper equipment and tillage of the farm. Most of the goods from which the clothing of both men and women as well as children was cut, was not only home-spun, but home- woven, as the garments themselves were home-made-profes- sional tailors, dressmakers, and milliners, coming in to ply their respective trades at a more modern date. Variety of color or shade to relieve the hueless monotony of the original material and please the eye and taste, could be secured by the use of dyes derived from different plants and woods readily found in forest or in field. The wives and daughters in those days were as familiar with all the arts and implements which these things involved, as were the husbands and sons with those employed in
303
CLOTH MAKING AND KINDRED CALLINGS.
the multiform activities of outdoor life. Little time for idle hands or minds on the part of either male or female was there when the grandparents and great-grandparents of the present generation were doing their best to keep the wolf from their door, to furnish shelter, food, and raiment for themselves and those they held most dear, and to provide for any and every contingency of coming need - laying in that way the founda- tions of a prosperity for their town in which those succeeding them to the latest period of time might abundantly rejoice.
The invention of the power loom and its introduction into this country early the present century, resulting in the estab- lishment of what has come to be an immense system for the production of all kinds of woollen, cotton, and other goods, put an end, after a time, to the slow and laborious processes of do- mestic manufacture, and ultimately consigned all the parapher- nalia thereof either to destruction or to the garrets of the older families and the museums of the antiquarian. It is now some fifty years or more since that special form of industry disap- peared essentially from the community, leaving here and there a few memorials or tokens of itself in the shape of hatehels, spinning wheels, reels, and the like, to arrest the attention of the curious and remind the present generation of what was "in the good old days of yore."
It is proper to observe in this connection that about the year 1812, Nathan Corey, having purchased "the Forge" property, so called, in the lower part of what is now Wachusetville, erected a factory and filled it with machinery for the produc- tion of cotton cloth. He carried on the business, however, but a few years, when the plant passed into the possession of Won- der Wears, who, it is thought, continued the same kind of manu- facture. The establishment was afterward run by Robert Wood from England, but the industry it was designed to promote was not of long continuance. The building later on was converted into a chair factory, but finally gave place, some forty years ago, to more important and remunerative business interests. Benjamin and Franklin Wyman also made satinet a year or two in the Carding Machine Building, soon to be mentioned.
Fulling Cloth. As an aid to the manufacture just noted, and to give proper finish to the cloth produced, a fulling mill was built at Wachusettville, in the year 1791, which soon came into the possession of David Wyman, who, with the exception of one or two years' partnership with Elisha Hall, carried on business by himself until the decline of the industry upon which it was based left him with nothing to do. After the dis- solution of the partnership referred to, Mr. Hall purchased some half a dozen acres of land a little below the outlet of the Town Meadows, on the east side of the road, running past the residence of Willard Battles, and erected thereon, besides a
304
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
dwelling house, another fulling mill at or near a point in the stream more recently occupied by the chair shop of Edmund Nichols and his sons. After running it a few years the prop- erty passed successively to the ownership of Ethan A. Green- wood, Reuben Bond, Jesse Stone, and Elias Evans, the last three of whom continued there the cloth finishing business, which finally came to an end some time before that of Mr. Wyman, and for the same reason.
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