History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 103

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 103

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Slavery, then, in this State, no longer existed. Some families had previously given their slaves their liberty, or tacitly acknowledged that they were free. After their freedom the negroes, in some cases, re- mained in the houses of their former masters, but worked wherever they desired or could find employ- ment. Others formed homes in a little colony by themselves, and a number took up their abodes in the west part of the town, whence arose the name of Guinea, or Guinea Corner, which name is even now sometimes applied to old School District No. 10. Quork remained in town, and died here at an advanced age.

It is related that Jennison took the younger portion of his slaves to Connecticut and sold them there, and that one of them, Prince Walker, a brother of Quork, escaped and returned here; by some means he obtained some land in the east part of the town, where he lived and died. He married here and reared a large family. He died April 21, 1858, aged eighty-four years, as is supposed ; a stone with his name and supposed age inscribed thereon marks his grave, by the side of which are five other graves of members of his family ; the land, which passed out of his possession before his death, now belongs to the heirs of the late Larned Rice. "Stip," another slave, died here about 1845, supposed to be nearly ninety years of age. Annis Ring, another former slave in this town, died in Boston early in the present century. She married Pompey, who had been a slave in the family of Jonathan Allen; Pompey died in 1812, a decrepit, broken-down old man, breathing his last in a field in the north part of the town, from which circumstance the field is still known as the " Pomp lot."

In accordance with the laws of the Province, early attention was paid to education. These laws provided that this education should include the ability to read the English language and a knowledge of the principal laws, and that religious instruction should be joined therewith. Here was a three-fold system-intellectual, political and moral or religious-any one branch of which was within the power of the early settlers to cherish and promote. As the district or town was large or small, so far as relates to the number of its inhabitants, so were the requirements for schooling graded ; a town of fifty families was required to fur-

1 See " Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society," 1855-58, also 1874, January to June.

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nish instruction in the elementary branches only, while one of a greater number of inhabitants was required to maintain a grammar school, or one of a high grade. That the proprietors were aware of these aws, and were disposed to observe them, is evidenced when, at their meeting in 1733, they voted to assign a ot for a school. What was done in the matter of ustruction from that time until 1749 is not on record, and after 1749, when the district passed out of the proprietors' possession, until 1763 there are no records, hey having been destroyed in a fire which consumed the house of John Caldwell, the clerk of this Rutland District. But that schools had been established and supported previous to 1763, is manifest from the following vote of the district, passed April 11th of that year : "Voted that £26-13-4 be assessed on said District for the present year, and that the school be kept at the same places and in the same manner that it was the last year."

Here is evidence of the early establishment of methods of instruction, and that at least one building had been erected and used as a school-house is shown by the proceedings of the district the following year, as they voted "that school be kept in ten places this present year," and specified the places where the school or schools should be held, all but one being located in or near certain dwellings, that one to be " at the school-house," and forty pounds was raised by tax for their support.

It is not on record how long a term of instruction was given; the schools were not always held at of near the same dwellings, each year the district decid- ing on the number there should be, and where they should be held, and thus the various sections of the district were accommodated from year to year.

Individuals in certain localities had erected or ar- ranged small buildings on their premises as temporary school-houses, for, in the vote above quoted, one school was to be held at or near John Fessenden's house; in 1766 forty pounds were raised for the sup- port of the school, which was to be kept at six places, as in the preceding year, one place at the Centre school- honse, one at John Caldwell's school-house, so-called, one at Asa Hapgood's school-house, one at Joseph Robinson's house. There were not as many different teachers as there were schools authorized, so that it would appear that a teacher, after holding a school a certain number of weeks in one locality, was then transferred to another place, the length of the terms depending somewhat upon the valuation of the par- ticular locality in which they were held.

The first record we have of the town proposing to build a school-house is in May of 1783, when it was voted "to sell the school-house that stands on the Common near the meeting-house and that the center quarter have liberty to set up a new school-house on the [same] ground." This school-house stood where the town-hall now stands. .

The town had increased in population, and in ac- 23

cordance with the laws of the Commonwealth, better facilities for instruction must be provided.

In November, 1784, two articles appeared in the warrant for town-meeting,-one to see if the town would provide and maintain a grammar-school, the other to see if it would build one or more houses for a grammar-school or schools, and make any alterations in the school districts by enlarging or forming anew ; the matter of establishing a grammar-school was passed over, but a committee was appointed to con- sider in regard to erecting school-houses; this com- mittee reported that eight buildings should be erected, the dimensions of each of which were specified and their locations named. The usual term applied to each district was "squadron."

The war was now over, and the need of a return to a peace basis was weighing heavily upon the inhabit- ants and the distracted and uncertain condition of the country claimed their attention. With these weights upon them the matter of building the houses was postponed to a time in the future. Nothing more was done in regard to the houses until 1790, when it was voted to divide the town into eight squadrons and to build a house in each and their locations were again assigned, but if the residents of any of these districts were dissatisfied with the site, and they could agree upon any definite place, permission was given to locate the building on the spot agreed upon ; other- wise a committee should locate the house wherever, in their judgment, would best serve the interests of the people. After the town had been divided into dis- tricts and the building spots assigned, complaints were numerous; after these had been discussed in town- meeting the voters ordered that the house in the Centre should be erected immediately and should be thirty feet square. This was done, but its dimensions were changed to twenty-nine feet hy thirty-two feet ; house No. 2 was built at or near where the correspond- ing one now is; No. 3 was in the east part of the town on an old road leading to Hubbardston, from where the Silas Harding farm-house now stands; No. 4 was "about twelve rods southerly of David Under- wood's dwelling house " (this dwelling was afterward known as the Marcus Spooner place, and has lately disappeared) ; No. 5 was nearly opposite where the present No. 5 house stands; No. 6 was where the present No. 6 stands; No. 7 was located on an old road leading to what is now known as the Williams place, and about midway between there and the pres- ent residence of Mr. Franklin Babbitt; No. 8 was located about fifteen rods easterly of the bridge over the Ware River at Barre Plains and on the north side of the present highway. The inhabitants of District 7 objected in vigorous language to the loca- tion of their house. After much talk a vote was passed in town-meeting to notify them to agree by a majority where the house should stand. This build- ing was at length erected southerly of the place assigned ; but this location was not satisfactory and

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afterward the town gave the inhabitants permission to move it. In 1791 the town raised four hundred pounds to erect these houses and notified each tax- payer in the varions districts to bring on to the grounds their proportion of the building material, they being credited in the tax-list for the value of the material furnished. The houses were soon erected, but the cost had been more than was anticipated. In 1792 the selectmen were requested to employ "a grammar-school master and direct him to the several districts in rotation " and to hold a school in each district so long as the proportion of the school funds should be sufficient to pay the expense. In 1796, the population of the town having increased, additional schools were needed and another district was estab- lished, being what is now known as No. 9. In after years other districts were formed, in some instances by dividing the former districts and in other cases by establishing new ones in the remoter parts of the town, and houses were erected in some central location. These buildings were small and of one story, usually about twenty-five feet square, built plainly and with- out regard to any rules of architecture, and not a great protection from storms or cold. They answered the purpose for which they were intended and were proba- bly in keeping with the quality and quantity of in- formation imparted. From 1763, which is as far back as our records of Rutland District extend, annnal appropriations were made for the support of the schools, usually forty pounds, until 1775, when the energies of the people were otherwise concentrated and the schools were passed by. After that year the appropriations were resumed and increased each year until in 1781 tbe amount appropriated was three thousand pounds. Large as this seems, it was but little larger than some of the preceding grants, as the currency had so depreciated in value that it was equivalent to not more than seventy-five pounds when we compare its value with that of the Spanish milled dollar. In 1782 the amount appropriated was sixty pounds, and from then until 1803 the amount varied from sixty to two hundred pounds. In 1804 the grant was seven hundred dollars, this being the first year that our national word, or character for, dollars was used in our official capacity as a town.

The schools were held in different parts of the town in terms of various lengths, each year a committee being chosen to lay before the assessors a list of all the ratable polls in each district, the valuation and number of polls being used as a basis for determin- ing the number of weeks of school that should be held in each district. Instruction was not limited to ages ; in the same room would be found scholars varying in age from five or six years to, in some in- stances, twenty-five years ; the older ones appreciated the value of the meagre instruction of the day, and efforts were made to extend the school facilities.

In 1798 the necessity of an academy was freely and fully discussed in town-meeting ; while this plan was

finally postponed, it had the effect of placing before the people the sitnation of educational matters and the unsatisfactory condition in which the schools were, exhibiting the autocratic form of government and the lack of uniformity in the methods of teaching.

The laws of the Commonwealth were defective; there was no supervision of schools, parents seldom visited them, and each was conducted according to the plans or fancies of the teacher, who, in many in- stances, had obtained the position for other reasons than for proper qualifications. The defects of this system were soon made apparent, and the necessity of uniformity in instruction and proper qualifications on the part of the teacher began to be realized.

In 1798 a committee was chosen, for the first time, to visit the schools and have supervision of them. This committee consisted of Rev. Josiah Dana, Seth Caldwell and Jonas Eaton, men of education and energy, and under their guidance and by their influ- ence the cause of education was advanced. This committee received no compensation for their ser- vices, but freely and willingly gave their time for this purpose; but the people were not yet fully edu- cated to the plan of choosing a School Committee annually, for no other board was chosen until 1804, although an article on this subject had been each year inserted in the warrant.

In this year Rev. James Thompson and Samnel Bigelow were chosen, and each subsequent year the office was filled, some years consisting of but two members, and, at other times, in connection with Rev. Dr. Thompson, who was chairman of the board for nearly forty years, one from each district was chosen. In 1810 the district, or "school ward," in the west part of the town was established, which was designated No. 10, and thirty dollars was appropri- ated for building the school-house.

Under the efficient management of the School Committee and the fostering care of the people, the cause of education was elevated, and as better and additional facilities were needed, the number of dis- tricts was increased until, in 1845, they numbered sixteen.

Previous to 1815 the schools had been entirely under the control of the town as a unit. In that year an agent in each district was chosen " to certify money which shall become due." The explanation of this vote is that the people in the various districts were taking more interest in educational matters, and were desirous of bringing their schools more directly under their control and regulating the length of the terms. While they should remain under the general supervision of the regular school Committee, it was believed that some local authority would be more conducive to their interests. This was the beginning of a plan which was adopted in later years, both here and elsewhere. In 1828 the town voted that each district should chose its own agent or prudential

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committee. This agent had authority to engage the teacher and regulate the contingent expenses of the district in regard to the school, subject, however, to some control by the general committee.

The friends of education did not rest in their en- deavors to improve the common-school system. Its wants and defects were closely observed and studied. In 1838 Rev. Mr. Fay, pastor of the Evangelical Church, who took a deep interest in the schools, and entered with much enthusiasm into all plans for their improvement, ably seconded the efforts of Rev. Dr. Thompson and others in this direction. The improve- ment of the schools of the Commonwealth had been agitated by Hon. Horace Mann, secretary of the State Board of Education, and, as one of the results of this movement, a convention of the friends of education was held in this town, at which were present, as active participants, Rev. Dr. Thompson, Rev. Mr. Fay, Rev. Luther Wil-on, of Petersham, Rev. Josiah Clark, of Rutland, and many others, and from this and similar meetings in various parts of the State there resulted the establishment of Normal Schools, the second of which was opened here in September, 1839; this school occupied the second story of the town-hall building, which had been in process of construction for about two years, and had been completed the pre- vious winter. Its principal was Rev. S. P. Newman, a professor in Bowdoin College. On account of the location of the town, access to which was then diffi- cult, it was not well patronized, and was suspended in 1841, greatly to the regret of the people.

In 1852 a High School was established, and since then has been well maintained, being well-attended and in charge of well-trained and conscientions teachers. The languages, higher mathematics and kindred studies are pnrsned ; young men have been fitted for our colleges, and besides imparting instruc- tion to the youth of our own town, it is patronized to some extent by scholars from other municipalities.

In 1869 the district system was, by State enactment, abolished, the school property appraised, and the amount remitted to each district ; since then the gen- eral School Committee have had the control of the whole system.

As we look back to the schools of the early settlers, with their limited instruction, and an annual appro- priation of £40 or less, and then turn to our system of to-day, with its division into grades, from the pri- mary to the high, with an annual appropriation of nearly five thousand dollars, and where all can obtain an education according to their taste or inclination, we can truly say, "Our lines are cast in pleasant places," and we fully realize the necessity of sustain- ing this system, and of making all possible advance- ment, so that the writer of our history, a century hence, shall say of us, as we record of our predeces- sors, " Well done."

The most noted and worthy establishment in town is the Private Institution for the Education of Feeble-

Minded Youth. This was established here in June, 1848, by Dr. Henry B. Wilbur, a graduate of Am- herst College, and of the Berkshire Medical College, who had practiced medicine in Lowell previous to his coming to Barre in 1845, from which time he con- tinned the practice of medicine.

At this time there was no provision in this country for a class deemed incapable of improvement ; but Dr. Wilbur, becoming deeply interested in efforts of European philanthropists, resolved to join their ranks, a resolve in which he was ably seconded by his young wife, a woman of great tact and untiring energy and self-devotion. Dr. Wilbur was a man of versatile genius, broad intellectual attainments, and a believer in the divinity that presides over the feeblest humanity. Gifted with large enthusiasm, and possessor of an indomitable will, he won success in spite of the obstacles that ever oppose a novel undertaking. Called in September, 1851, to preside over an experimental State School in Albany, N. Y., he left his Barre pupils in a dwelling on the corner of Pleasant and High Streets, under the care of Dr. George and Mrs. C. W. Brown.

The increasing number of pupils soon requiring more house-room and ground for ont-door living, the residence of Mr. Willard Broad was purchased, en- larged and adapted to special needs, and the institu- tion removed to that location in January, 1853. Since that date its growth has been continuous, comprising now seven dwelling-houses, with a fine gymnasium, stables, &c., surrounded by about two hundred and fifty acres of land. These cottages, sufficiently con- tiguous for supervision, have ample grounds for each classified group of pupils, and all financial receipts have been devoted to making attractive homes for these unfortunates. For some time the only private institution in the country, still the largest, pupils have been received from all parts of the United States, Canada and the Sandwich Islands, whilst ap- plications have come from South America and Ans- tralia. To the upbuilding of this institution Dr. and Mrs. Brown, assisted since 1884 by their son, Dr. George A. Brown, have given their undivided efforts, personal supervision and mental ability, making the standard of family organization, as to care, mental improvement and æsthetic surroundings, high enough to receive from a European specialist of wide expe- rience the title of an " Ideal Institution."

" Here boys and girls have come with all their senses perfect, but connected with nothing within telegraphing no communication to or fro, reaching in- ward only to dumb inanition. Was there a mind hid away there ? Were there elements out of which a mind could be formed? Was it possible to find a way into that empty space, to pick up the buried germs of mental faculty, if such there were, attach them to the delicate wire of some sense and thus open a commu- nication between the world within and the world without? This was the problem which the institn-

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tion here, with kindred ones in other lands, has, with a sublime faith, attempted to solve; and the result has been such as to fill all observers with admiration. A work has been wrought in our village scarcely less wonderful than the creation of a human mind." 1

At the opening of the present century the popula- tion of the town had increased from thirteen hundred and twenty-nine in 1776 and now numbered nineteen hundred and thirty-seven. Farming still continued the chief occupation, attention more particularly being given to raising such crops as wheat, potatoes, corn,. flax and hemp. Whitney, in his "History of Worcester County," published in 1793, says, "here they have many and large dairies, and it is supposed that more butter and cheese is carried annually into market than from any other town of the same extent." A circu- lating medium was almost unknown, a majority of the inhabitants seeing no currency, or only at rare inter- vals, and rather as a curiosity than otherwise. Such articles of food as were not produced on the farm were obtained at the small country store in exchange for home products. Their clothing was made at home, the wool shorn from the sheep's back, carded by hand, spun into yarn and woven on the old lumbering loom, or the flax was pulled in the field, hetchelled, and finally made into garments or bed-linen, most of this work being done by the women of the household, the men attending to the out-door and more laborious duties. Considerable flax and hemp were raised, aud were considered so important crops that inspectors were annually chosen to decide as to its quality and value, as in such a time of exchange and barter it was deemed necessary that disinterested parties should affix a value. Although the people were struggling for a livelihood and were dependent one upon an- other, yet a spirit of sociality prevailed, notwithstand- ing the question of their existing required hard and long hours of labor. Mills for grinding their corn and wheat had been built in several places, but all of these were of the old colonial style. The construct- ive and inventive faculty which this town so fully ex- hibited at a later day was here, and early began to manifest its outgrowth.

The raising of flax, to be more profitable, required mills to return to the people the full benefit of the crop, and two were soon established for crushing or grinding the seed and obtaining the linseed oil; one of these was on Prince River, at what is now Heald Village, and the other was in the east part of the town. With this oil and pigments their houses were kept neatly painted; clothier's mills, as they were termed, were established and tanneries erected in various parts of the town ; the manufacture of brick, which had been pursued previous to 1800, had been abandoned, the yards near where now live Nathaniel Holland and the heirs of Lysander Crawford having become " worked out," while the one near Charles S.

Holland's present residence was closed. About 1828 this industry was resumed at the latter yard, and in the south part of the town, at the Plains, a new yard was opened. These yards were worked for about ten years, when the business again ceased.

Saw-mills had been established as early as 1753, but from their rough construction had continued but for a short time. In the latter years of the last cen- tury and early in the present one a number of these mills were erected on the various streams. Perhaps the most business enterprise existed in the south part of the town, this being favored and promoted by the abundant water-power in that section.

There was a saw-mill at what we now term the Powder Mills early in the century. At the Plains Seth Pratt conceived the idea of diverting the water from the Ware River by means of a canal and form- ing a pond, throwing a dam across the river from land on the south side, now owned by Mr. A. F. Adams. This canal was excavated in 1808; subse- quently the dam was moved farther up the river and the canal extended.

In 1810 Phineas Heywood, who, with his father, had come here from Shrewsbury, and who was a son- in-law of Pratt, having previously obtained consider- able land in that vicinity, sold land and water-rights for manufacturing purposes. In addition to the grist-mill and saw-mill, which had been for a year or more in operation here, two tanneries were built by Parker & Pratt, and in the same year Phineas Hey- wood commenced work in a clothier's mill; nearly all the grinding of grain and the fulling and finishing of the woolen cloth was now done at the Plains. This clothier's mill continued the business, with changes adapted to the times, until about 1870, the manufacture of yarn aud coarse woolen cloth having been adopted a number of years previously. Hey- wood, who was of an ingenious and inventive turn of mind, succeeded in operating, in a crude way, a cot- ton-spinning machine about 1814 and a woolen-card- ing machine about 1816. In 1827 he erected a larger mill; this has been moved from its original site and is now used for other purposes.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 103

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576