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 52

Author: Heywood, William S. (William Sweetzer), 1824-1905
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Lowell, Mass.: Vox Populi Press : S.W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1082

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 52

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The Post was named in honor of Lieut. Col. Joseph P. Rice, a native of Ashburnham, who was for many years a respected citizen of the town. He was in command of his regiment, the Twenty-first, at the battle of Chantilly, Va., and was killed while leading his men in a charge, Sept. 1, 1862.

Decoration day was first observed by the comrades in 1868, and has been regularly celebrated year by year since, the exer- cises, from 1870 to the present time, consisting of an address appropriate to the occasion, with accompanying devotional, liter- ary, and patriotic services, garlanding the monument with flowers and evergreen, and visiting the several cemeteries where simi- lar tokens of respect and love are shown the graves of departed heroes. The number thus honored in 1868 was some twenty- eight ; in 1888 it was fifty-one, including four in which repose the remains of soldiers of the Revolution, Col. John Rand, Capt. Aaron Bolton, Ebenezer Mann, and Jonas Holden.

At the annual town meeting in 1871 the sum of $25.00 was voted to defray the expenses of Decoration day, to be used under the direction of the Post, and in 1883 the amount was increased to $50.00, with $5.00 additional for the care of the monument grounds, and this appropriation has been continued annually to the present day.

The elm trees about the monument were planted by the Post in 1873, and in 1883 the four cannon in front and at the rear were received and put in place, having been donated to the organization by special act of Congress, through the kindly intervention of Ex-Gov. John D. Long, M. C. The Post has attained an honorable reputation for the fraternal spirit which characterizes its members and the cheerful helpfulness mani- fested not only to comrades, but to their wives and children in time of need. Its charity fund during its existence has been more than $400.00, its expenditure ranging from nothing to $95.00 per year.

A convenient and attractive hall on the upper floor of the town hall building, with desirable anterooms, has been fitted up and furnished for the special uses of the Post. Its walls are

425

G. A. R. AUXILIARIES.

adorned with a large and choice collection of fine photographic portraits of departed comrades and of some of the leading gen- erals of the great conflict, to whom the apartment is in an im- portant sense a fitting memorial.

Sons of Veterans. A subordinate branch of this order was instituted on the 29th of May, 1889, with Frank E. Miller as captain, and Charles L. Mansur, first lieutenant. Its mem- bership is duly indicated in the name it bears. Its object appears to be to honor the name and memory of the fathers of those belonging to it -the loyal and valiant men who perilled life and all for the preservation of the Republic in the time of its great need, to keep alive the fires of patriotism in the breast of the sons, and to help make perpetual on these shores the institutions and blessings of civil and religious liberty. The present commander is Louis S. Miller. Membership, fifty.

Woman's Relief Corps. This body, designated as No. 115, was established Jan. 29, 1890, with Mrs. Hobart Ray- mond as the first president. It is auxiliary to Post 69, G. A. R., its work being chiefly of a benevolent nature, directed to the relief and comfort of needy soldiers and their families. Its membership, which now numbers about ninety persons, is drawn from all classes in the community, any woman above a specified age being privileged to join it. Mrs. J. T. Marshall is the pres- ent president, and Miss May B. Hager, secretary.

CHAPTER XXI.

SUNDRY MATTERS OF PUBLIC CONCERN.

TERRITORIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, ASSOCIATIVE, MORTUARY, ETC. - GALA DAYS AND CELEBRATIONS.

Surveys, Plans, and Maps. The original survey of the township was made in the year 1728 by a committee of the Provincial Legislature chosen for the purpose, under cir- cumstances sufficiently detailed in an early chapter of this work. Upon that survey the grant of lands represented by it to the first proprietors was based. The report of it to the General Court was accompanied by an outline plan, giving measurements and area, still preserved among the State papers at Boston.

A second survey was effected by the dividing committee of the proprietors in the spring of 1734, in connection with their labors in laying out the first division lots. A corresponding plan, giving a view of the work done, was drawn at that time, upon which was duly indicated the second division of lands, made seven years afterward. This plan, preserved by the clerks of the township and town, is still in existence, though in a much worn and mutilated condition. It has, however, been reproduced, and a copy secured for this work.

When the third division of lands was made in 1751, under the direction of John Miles, surveyor, he drew an outline plan of the township, but did not represent upon it the result of the labors of which he had charge, little more than the boundaries and measurements being given. This plan was found among a multitude of loose papers in an old chest at the Town House. Though covering the same territory as did the plan of the Leg- islative committee, there was a marked difference between the two in the length of the boundary lines and in the area of the whole, as the figures plainly show. According to the original survey, the length of the northern side was 2,825 rods; of the eastern, 2,240 rods; of the southeastern, 850 rods; and of the southwestern, 2,340 rods. Mr. Miles made the measurements. respectively, 3,051, 2,436, 1,020, and 2,600 rods. The area, as stated by the committee of the General Court, was 23,286 acres, 85 rods ; as given by Mr. Miles, 28,81 1 acres, 85 rods, - a difference of 5,524 acres, 155 rods.

In the year 1794 the State Legislature passed a resolve re- quiring the several towns of the Commonwealth to cause a

427

SURVEYS, PLANS, AND MAPS OF THE TOWN.

survey of their respective territories to be made by a competent person, who should draw a plan of the same, indicating thereon the general natural features-hills, ponds, streams, forests, etc., -together with the existing roads, mill sites, and other tokens of its condition, to be lodged with the Secretary of the State for permanent public preservation and use. Pursuant thereto, Westminster, Sept. 11, 1794,

"Voted, To give Mr. Silas Beaman {12 to take an accurate survey of the town and return one Plan into the Clerk's office of the town and one into the Secretary's of the Commonwealth."

This vote was carried into effect. The home plan is not to be found; that of the State Secretary is extant and in good condition.

A similar resolve was passed by the General Court of 1830, and on May 3d of that year the town appointed Benjamin F. Wood, Wonder Wears, and Timothy Doty a committee to take charge of the matter and secure the ends proposed. Their action is supposed to have been final, as they made no report of their doings to their constituency. The work is understood to have been done by Arad Moore, son of Joshua, a then recent graduate of Amherst College, an extract from whose field book was copied into the pamphlet history of Westminster, prepared by Rev. Charles Hudson soon afterward, and recopied here.

" Beginning at the point where Westminster corners on Gardner and Hubbardston the line runs as follows :-

COURSE.

DISTANCE.

COURSE.

DISTANCE.

COURSE.

DISTANCE.

Chns.|

Lks.

Chns.

Lks.

Chns.

Lks.

S. 40° E.

367

S. 16° 45' E.

Due South

N. 52° 30' E.

250

S. 74° 15' W.

S. 40° W.

N. 10° E.

193

N. 18º 45' W.

S. 88º W.

S. 78° 30' E.

S. 75° 45' W.

S. 1º W.

N. 10° E.

N. 17º 15' E.

S. 38° W.

N. 74° 20' W.

S. 70° 30' W.

N. 42° 30' W.

N. 81º 20' W.

S. 19° 30' E.

S. 49° 30' W.

N. 56° 20' W.

S. 33° 30' W.

S. 39º 30' E.

N. 65° 50' W.

S. 87º 30' W.

S. 48° W.

N. 67º 50' W.

S. 3º 30' E.

S. 39º E.

N. 10° E.

398

S. 87º E.

S. 51° W.

S. 70° 30' W.

108

S. 39° 20' W.

S. 40° E.

S. 14° 40' E.

Due South

S. 47º W.

S. 73° 50' W.

N. 89° W.

N. 40° W.

S. 16° E.

S. 39° W.

S. 74° 45' W.

N. 2° 30' W.

N. 41º W.

N. 16° 15' E.

S. 85° 30' W.

S. 47º W.

S. 74° 15' W.

A plan or map based on this survey, with much detailed in- formation, is also preserved in the archives of the State.

A survey of the town was made in 1855 by C. M. Hopkins, Jr., C. E., under the auspices of Richard Clark of Philadelphia. Though not mathematically correct, it was sufficiently so for all

428

HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.

practical purposes, and a map executed on a scale of three and a half inches to the mile was prepared from it, which was tastefully mounted and distributed by sale among the inhabitants. Upon it were represented not only the territorial boundaries and the more important natural features -hills, lowlands, streams, ponds, forests, etc., with the highways and school districts, - but the sites of dwellings and occupied water privileges, to which the owner's or resident's names were attached. Also, pictorial views of two churches, several private homesteads and manufacturing establishments. Many of these maps are to be found to-day among the older families of the place.

A later map, claiming to have been made from actual surveys, was prepared for an Atlas of Worcester County by F. W. Beers & Co., New York City, about the year 1870, and can be seen in the principal libraries of the Commonwealth as well as elsewhere. It has plans of the Center and Wachusettville, and the location of dwelling houses, mills, shops, etc., but no names are attached to these as in the one just mentioned. The one appearing in this volume is substantially a reproduction of this, with such additions and emendations as suit it to the present date.

Changes and Divisions. The first departure from the original configuration of the town was made at the time of the incorporation of Gardner in the year 1785, as described on page 198.

On the 28th of September, 1795, the town "voted to admit of Mr. Noah Wiswall and his lands to be annexed to Westmin- ster, provided he is set off from Fitchburg." In the following year Mr. Wiswall presented a petition to the General Court, asking to be transferred as indicated, which request was granted on the 27th of February. Thenceforward the petitioner was regarded as a citizen in good and regular standing of Westmin- ster, being taxed as such, voting, holding office, and acting other- wise in that capacity. As a matter of fact, however, Mr. Wis- wall's farm was never a part of Fitchburg, but was included in that tract of unincorporated land known as "No-town," which was partitioned off to several adjoining towns in 1838, as presently stated. In the map of the town based on the Moore survey of 1831, this property was not represented at all, indicating that it was not considered at that date as belonging to Westminster.

On the 16th of February, 1813, Thomas Miles, who had re- cently purchased an old tavern stand on the Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike in the southwestern part of Fitchburg, with a large farm attached, was, upon his own petition, set off to Westmin- ster. The territory lay to the eastward of the estates of Alonzo Curtis and the late Daniel Miles, and is readily recognized on the map in a nearly square form bounded partly upon the river. Its reassignment to its original municipal belongings has been recently proposed and will, no doubt, be effected at an early day.

429

TERRITORIAL CHANGES.

At a legal meeting of the town held April 7, 1823, the citi- zens were asked to vote upon the question of consenting to have the residences and estates of John Ward and William Barrell, together with certain lands belonging to Ohio Whitney and Sam- uel Whitney, set off to Ashburnham, the two former transfer- ring thither their citizenship. The proposition was met with a decisive negative. Nevertheless, the parties interested, not to be diverted from their purpose, petitioned the General Court, which appointed a hearing of the case. Jonas Whitney, Simeon Sanderson, and Timothy Doty appeared in behalf of the town to oppose the measure, but their efforts were unavailing, and on the 28th of July a resolve was passed making the desired transfer. By this enactment Westminster lost several hundred acres of her territory and two substantial citizens. John G. Woodward and Charles Whitney of Ashburnham now represent the greater part of the transferred landed property, as they do the two families more immediately concerned.

An act of the Legislature signed by Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the House, and Myron Lawrence, President of the Senate, and approved by Gov. Edward Everett, April 10, 1838, divided the unincorporated "No-town" lands into three parts, assigning them to Westminster, Fitchburg, and Leominster, - the entire westerly portion, with two houses upon it, one being the old Wiswall homestead, coming to this town. This tract was described and bounded as follows: Beginning at a large rock at an angle between "No-town" and Westminster, thence S. 68° 12' E., 44 rods to stake and stones; N. 54° 15' E., 88 rods; S. 70° 25' E., 126 rods; S. 17º 20' E., 70} rods; S. 50° 30' E., 100 rods; N. 14° E., length not given, but about six hundred and fifty rods ; N. 78° 40' W., 411 rods ; S. 10° W., 600 rods to the first named point. The area was about one thousand four hundred and fifty acres. A small portion of this territory at the southeast corner, across which a road was laid connecting Princeton and Leominster, was assigned to the latter by the Legislature, April 22, 1870. It is described as "all of Westminster that lies south of the northerly line of the road leading from John W. Hadley's to Leominster." This left the town with the same outline and configuration as it has to- day, 1892.

The Proposed Town of Vernon. The details of a movement on the part of the inhabitants of contiguous portions of Westminster, Fitchburg, Ashburnham, and Ashby in the latter part of the last century, designed to secure the incorpor- ation of a new township, are given on pages 199-202. A sec- ond effort in the same behalf was made in 1815, when a petition was sent to the General Court of similar import to that of thirty years before, asking for an act on the part of that body establishing a municipality bearing the name of Vernon. The document was signed by Jonas Smith and thirty others of West-

430

HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.

minster, comprising most of the voting population residing north of Scrabble Hollow, and sixty-nine from neighboring towns. The petition took its usual course. Westminster was cited to appear and show cause (if any it had) why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted. A meeting was called on May 8th, at which Solomon Strong, Esq., Abel Wood, Esq., and Jonas Whitney, Esq., were appointed a committee to draw up a remonstrance to be presented to the Legislature, which they accordingly did. The town accepted the document, ordered it to be signed by the clerk in its behalf, and chose Dea. Jones White and Alexander Dustin a committee to have charge of the matter before the Court. They were suc- cessful in their efforts; the remonstrance prevailed, and the proposed town of Vernon was never heard of more.

Everettville. The little hamlet of half a dozen dwelling houses, with lands and betterments, lying just over the south- east boundary of the town, in Princeton, has been largely iden- tified in various ways with Westminster for more than a hun- dred years. For this reason a condensed sketch of the place is herewith presented.

Early in the year 1735 Samuel Kneeland, clerk of the whole body of Narragansett Grantees, a Boston printer, petitioned the General Court of the province of Massachusetts Bay for a grant of land, in recognition and part payment of services ren- dered in helping forward the settlement of certain new town- ships then recently established. The petition was favorably received, and referred to a committee, who soon reported a bill in accordance therewith, accompanied by a plan of a tract of 500 acres lying southeast of Narragansett No. 2, and boundcd partly on that township, partly on Wachusett Pond, and other- wise on common land. The report was adopted, and the lands were conveyed and confirmed to Mr. Kneeland by the approv- ing signature of Governor Belcher, Dec. 29, 1735. Mr. Kneeland remained in possession several years, building a house on the estate and making other improvements, though probably never occupying it as a permanent resident. It was known as " Knee- land's Farm," a name which it bore for a long time. By reason of business embarrassments, Mr. Kneeland was obliged to sell it, and it passed successively through the hands of Samuel Hews of Boston and Edward Wilson of Lancaster to David Osgood, also of Lancaster, who, Oct. 15, 1767, conveyed it to John Bowen of the same town. Mr. Bowen, a man of wealth and respectability, occupied and greatly improved it. Some tokens of his enterprise, skill, and taste are still to be seen there. He was a pronounced loyalist, and when the Revolution broke out he became what was called an " Absentee," having left for parts unknown. His estate was confiscated by the Provincial Government, and sold in 1779 to James Bowers of this town, who, May 30, 1781, resold it to Joshua Everett, also

431

ATTEMPTS TO DIVIDE WORCESTER COUNTY.

a citizen here, in whose family it has, for the most part, since remained. In 1794 Mr. Everett and sons petitioned West- minster for annexation thereto. The town "voted to receive them if they can get set off." The proposition did not meet with favor before the Legislature, and was temporarily aband - oned. In 1799 it was renewed, with a similar result.

Division of Worcester County. The county of Wor- cester was incorporated by an Act of the General Court April 2, 1731. It then covered substantially the same territory as now, except that it included the town of Woodstock, Conn., which, in the final adjustment of division lines, fell within the borders of "the Nutmeg State." On account of the extent of its territory, and the remoteness of certain portions of it from the shire town, Worcester, numerous attempts have been made during its history to dismember it, or make changes which would obviate the inconveniences and troubles occasioned there- by. In many of these efforts Westminster has borne a more or less important part, as the records show, and as is made to appear in the paragraphs below.

As early as July 26, 1763, at a legal meeting of the citizens,

" It was put to vote to see if they will agree to be sett off into a separate County with ye westerly part of ye County of Worcester and easterly part of the County of Hampshire [then covering the entire western portion of the State], and It passed in the Negative."

Here the matter rested till after the Revolution, June 23, 1784, when it came again before the town, which "voted that a Division of Worcester Co. is necessary," and Colonel Rand, Abner Holden, and Elisha Bigelow were appointed a committee to correspond and confer with committees of other towns in re- gard to the measure. While this agitation was going on a counter movement was started farther westward, and a petition was presented to the General Court for a new county to be formed of towns partly in Worcester and partly in Hampshire County, as contemplated twenty years before. The people of Westminster did not take kindly to this project, and sent a lengthy remonstrance to the Legislature against it, concluding what they had to say with a request that the entire northern part of Worcester County be erected into a new county, and that the town located nearest the center of the territory be made the shire town, thinking, as some supposed, that West- minster would be crowned with the honors of that position. But these efforts, one and all, came to nothing. In 1791 the town was invited to join other towns in a new movement of the same character. It did so, but with no better success than be- fore. Dec. 22, 1795, the representative at Boston, Ebenezer Jones, was instructed to oppose the setting off of Harvard to Middlesex County. May 12, 1795, Elisha Bigelow was chosen a delegate to a convention to be held at Templeton, "to take

432

HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.

into consideration the division of the County." Nothing more is known of this attempt.

At a session of the General Court held March, 1798, a resolve was passed, directing the Selectmen of the several towns of the county to take measures to ascertain what the views of the people were in regard to a division of the county. The vote of this town was 82 for and 5 against it. In 1800 Abel Wood was chosen delegate to a convention at Templeton called with reference to the subject, and in 1802 Westminster took the initiative in a new effort in the same behalf, enlisting the co- operation of other towns and sending a petition to the Legisla- ture, but without avail. In 1810 and 1811 similar attempts were made with a similar result.

In 1828 a proposition to unite all the northern part of Wor- cester County with Groton, Shirley, Pepperell, Townsend, and Ashby, in Middlesex, was submitted to the citizens for considera- tion. The vote was 132 in favor and 9 in opposition to it, but nothing came of this action. In 1851 the matter was before the town again, when it was endorsed by a vote of 109 to 79, and Dr. John White, the Representative, was instructed to advocate the project before the Legislature. Two years later the subject was again presented to the General Court, and a committee of the Senate sent out a rescript to the towns inter- ested for a verdict upon it. The yeas in this town were 155, nays 91. But a year later this decision was reversed, a vote being passed, 115 to 88, to instruct its Representative, George Kendall, to oppose a division.

In 1856 many of the inconveniences and grievances under which several towns in this vicinity had labored, and of which complaint had been made, were practically removed by the pas- sage of an act of the Legislature making Fitchburg a subordi- nate shire town, in which courts were to be held, and many facilities for the transaction of county business established. This action, followed by the speedy erection of county buildings and the creation in 1884 of a Northern Worcester Registry District, including Westminster, Ashburnham, Fitchburg, Leo- minster, and Lunenburg, with the greatly increased and con- stantly increasing facilities for travel and intercommunication, has probably put the question of a division of Worcester County, so far at least as this section of it is concerned, forever at rest. And it is hardly to be expected that any future attempts at dismemberment, from whatever quarter they may come, will be more successful than those that have heretofore sprung up only to die. So may it be.

Annual Town Meetings. At the first meeting of the freeholders of the district of Westminster for the transaction of business other than the election of officers, held Dec. 24, 1759, it was "Voted that the Annual Meetings be on the first Monday in March." The time thus fixed at the very outset of

433

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES-THE POUND.

the corporate existence of the municipality was observed with unvarying regularity for more than a hundred years. In the year 1867, however, a change of time was made to the second Monday in April. This did not prove satisfactory, and in 1869 the first Monday in April was substituted with a similar result. At length, by vote taken April 5, 1875, the original date was restored, and the first Monday in March, now as formerly, holds sway over the corporate interests and fortunes of the people for the twelvemonth to come.

Weights and Measures. The necessity of having in every community a standard set of these articles for the use of the inhabitants was early recognized by the Provincial Govern- ment, and laws were passed requiring towns to make provision for such necessity. In accordance therewith, Westminster voted to procure the same at the meeting mentioned in the last paragraph, Dec. 24, 1759, and the vote was soon carried into effect. After the separation of the colonies from the mother country, the same policy was adopted by the Commonwealth, and the town has never been without these important expedients by which to hold the people to a strict rule of equity and jus- tice in their traffic with each other and with the outside world.

The Pound. In the warrant for a meeting of the proprie- tors of Narragansett No. 2 to take place Nov. 6, 1754, there was an article

"To know their minds whether they will build a Pound to regulate Creat- ures that are not Regulated as the law Requires and also to prefix a place to set the Same and Committee to build it and a person to keep it."

Upon this article

"The vote was put whether they would build a pound [and] passed in the afarmitive; then it was proposed to build it at the parting of the Roads by Joseph Holden's, Jr. [now Hobart Raymond's ], and put to vote and passed in the afarmitive; then voted Philip Bemis Dea. Miller and Joseph Hol- den Jr. to build the pound, and made choice of Joseph Holden Jr. to Keep the pound [and] voted to build it thirty feet square."

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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 52

Author: Heywood, William S. (William Sweetzer), 1824-1905 Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Lowell, Mass.: Vox Populi Press : S.W. Huse & Co. Number of Pages: 1082

Author: Heywood, William S. (William Sweetzer), 1824-1905
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Lowell, Mass.: Vox Populi Press : S.W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1082