History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 110

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 110

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Rev. Joseph Dorr was settled in 1716 at a salary of seventy pounds for the first year, and seventy-five pounds after ; " and for settlement or encouragement, the sum of one hundred and sixty pounds,-one hun- dred pounds in money." He also was a distinguished divine of great discretion, and during the controversies with the East Precinct, which long agitated the town and forced him to self-defence in the town-meetings, he appears to have behaved with great wisdom, and finally to have won general approval. His wife was Mr. Rawson's daughter. His son, Judge Joseph Dorr, Jr., widely esteemed during the Revolution, has been already mentioned. His pastorate continued fifty-two years, till his death, March 9, 1768, and his body lies near that of Mr. Rawson. In 1730 the fourth meeting-house was begun. "Towards the raising," the town voted to " provide a barrel of Rhum." This house was fifty feet long, forty-five feet wide, twenty-four feet high, and remained till 1846. Con- troversies about its location lasted for years, and even after its erection. The opponents to the location, finally established near the old burying-ground, even tried to cut down the frame, and a hundred and six- teen years later the marks of their axes on the south- west corner-post were plainly seen. It was seven years before its final completion, and soon after, in 1741, the East Precinct, doubtless in consequence of differences concerning the new meeting-house, was organized. November 8, 1751, the four pastors, re- spectively settled in Milford, Upton, Uxbridge and Mendon, united in an association which has ever since continued. Mr. Dorr was long its moderator, and apparently its master-spirit. It gradually en- larged its field of work and membersbip, and is now called the Mendon Conference, instead of the Mendon Association, as at first. Toward the close of Mr. Dorr's life, Rev. Benjamin Balch preached in Mendon for a few months on account of Mr. Dorr's disability, but before the end of 1768 he was ordained at the South Parish, "Chestnut Hill," where a new meet- ing-house, still standing, was erected the next year. He was followed in Mendon by Mr. Penniman, Mr. Messenger and perhaps others.

April 17, 1769, Rev. Joseph Willard was settled. He proved to be an earnest, ont-spoken man and a zealous patriot during the war, but difficulties arose between him and his people, and he was dismissed in 1782. Rev. Caleb Alexander was settled from 1786 to

1802. He afterwards became a distinguished writer and teacher in Onondaga, New York. Mr. Alexander disciplined the Mendon Church much more than former pastors, and had many contests in consequence. He died in Onondaga in 1828.

In 1805 Rev. Preserved Smith became pastor over the Mendon First and Third (South) Parishes, and labored till 1812. He had formerly preached in Rowe, Mass., and returned thither, preaching in that place thirty-five years in all. He died 1834 in Warwick, Mass. In his youth he served five campaigns in the Continental Army, and was present at Burgoyne's sur- render. As a minister he was popular and influential, with liberal tendencies in his religious thought.

Rev. Simeon Doggett succeeded him in 1814, and in 1818, after much controversy, led a majority of his people to adopt Unitarian views. Mr. Doggett was dismissed in 1837, and died in Raynham in 1852, aged eighty-seven. He was much esteemed as a teacher, and maintained an academy in Mendon many years. In 1820 the First Parish Church, still used as a house of worship, was built on land given by Seth Hastings, Esq. It was then considered one of the finest in the county.

Rev. Adin Ballou, the venerable pastor, so long set- tled in Hopedale, was the minister in Mendon from 1831 to 1842. Since his service, with the single ex- ception of Rev. George F. Clark, preacher from 1871 to 1883, all the ministers in Mendon have officiated for only brief periods, which, as regards the First Parish, are as follows: Revs. Linus B. Shaw, 1842 to 1844; George M. Rice, 1845 to 1847 ; George G. Channing, 1847 to 1849; William H. Kinsley, 1850 to 1851; Robert Hassall, 1852 to 1856; Stillman Barber, 1856 to 1860; William T. Phelan, 1863 to 1866; Richard Coleman, 1866 to 1868; David P. Lindsley, 1868 to 1871; George F. Clarke, 1871 to 1883; Aaron Porter, 1883 to 1885; James Sallaway, 1885 to 1887; Walter C. Pierce, 1888.

It is noticeable that since Rev. Joseph Dorr's death, in 1768, out of the very long list of his suc- cessors, no minister of the parish has died in Mendon except Rev. William H. Kinsley, who died in 1851.

With the diminution of population the attendance on religious worship has steadily diminished, and few now congregate where so many generations have suc- cessively assembled ; but the parish, incorporated separate from the town in 1784 and perfected 1792, still exercises its corporate powers and retains its property.

There were many who did not accept the Unitarian views adopted by Mr. Doggett's followers, and in 1828 they organized the " North Congregational Church," adopting in substance the creed and covenant dis- carded or modified by the First Church. A meeting- house was built in 1830 on Main Street, and Rev. John M. Perry was ordained 1831. Rev. Thomas Riggs had preached prior to this. Mr. Perry re- signed in 1835 to become a missionary, and soon after

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he and his wife died in Ceylon of cholera. Rev. Thomas Edwards was ordained 1836 and dismissed 1840. Rev. Andrew H. Reed preached from 1841 to 1848, followed for about three months hy Rev. Dwight. Rev. Charles Chamberlin was pastor from 1848 to 1851, when Methodist pastors were employed till 1853, followed by Rev. Demis for a brief period, and the last pastor, Rev. E. Demond, closed his labors October, 31, 1858, after about three years of labor. The last two were Congregationalists.

The records of this church and society are very few. It was always feeble. Their meeting-house was sold in 1865to the Methodist Episcopal Society, which many of the North Church members had already joined.

The weakness of the North Church was so apparent in 1851, that the hiring of a Methodist preacher was generally approved by the society, and thereby much support was gained. In 1853 this plan was abandoned and the Methodists forced to leave. They accordingly held their first meeting June 2, 1853, in the town hall, organizing as a society June 9th. Immediate efforts were made to raise funds to build a meeting- house, and land had been bought and foundations laid before 1855. During that year the walls were raised seven feet, but the material was such that dur- ing the winter following, it was greatly injured by the weather.

Financial misfortunes to the manufacturing in- terests of the place followed, resulting in a loss of population and confidence severely felt by this society, which had but from thirty-five to forty members from the first-and in 1859 its creditors brought a suit, settled only by a sale of its property.

From this misfortune recovery was slow, and it was not till 1865 that they were able to buy the old North meeting-house, which was repaired, remodeled and dedicated in 1866. The church and society did not continue to flourish, though preachers were regularly sent for many years, closing in 1879. The pastors in adjoining towns have, however, from time to time for a few weeks, held services in the church, but not since 1886. The list of Methodist preachers is as follows. Rev. C. S. McReading, located in 1851; Rev. G. L. Hanaford, 1852; Rev. John L. Day, 1853; Rev. Wm. Pentecost, 1854; Rev. G. R. Bent, 1856; Rev. J. Emory Round, 1858; Rev. W. A. Clapp, 1860; Rev. L. B. Sweetser, 1861; Rev. W. M. Ayers, 1862 ; Rev. Augustine Caldwell, 1866; Rev. J. Mosely Dwight, 1868; Rev. J. W. Coolidge, 1869; Rev. John L. Locke, 1871; Rev. Joseph Williams, 1872; Rev. Elisha Brown, 1873; Rev. Phineas C. Sloper, 1876 ; Rev. George E. Hill, 1879. There was no pastor for a part of 1862, and none during most of the time between April, 1874, and April, 1876.

Each of the religious societies organized a Sunday- school in connection with its other work, and some have been formed in different school districts. That of the First Parish is still doing its work, but there has been no other in town for several years.

The Quakers maintained a meeting in Mendon vil- lage from 1729, when their house was built, till 1841. It is indeed likely they had meetings some years prior to 1729. The East Blackstone Friends' Meeting- House, at first known as the South Mendon Meeting- House, was built in 1812. If Quakers were ever per- secuted in Mendon, of which there are a few traditions of doubtful authenticity, they appear to have been generally well esteemed and their scruples duly re- garded. In 1758 thirty-two were exempted from military duty, in which list we find, among other names well known, Aldrichs, Buffums, Farnums and South- wicks. In 1742 the town voted to grant the Quakers, for the enlargement of their meeting-house yard, a strip of land two rods wide, to be taken from the ten- rod road, and there are other instances on record show- ing similar regard for them. Moses Aldrich, 1690-1761, was one of their noteworthy preachers laboring at home and abroad. He was a descendant of one of the early settlers and lived and died in Mendon. The old meeting-house was sold, taken down and removed in 1850.

CHAPTER LIX.

MENDON-(Continued.)

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY AND CLOSING REMARKS.

Early Records and Tradition Concerning Schools-Notices of the Earliest Teachers and School-Houses-School-Dames-The District System-The High-School-Some Noteworthy Events in Mendon's Recent History and its Present Status.

THE early records in regard to schools are scanty. The first is as follows :

1667, July 14th. At A Generall Town Meetinge Grainted tben to Coll. William Crowne and to his assigns and the present Minister there sharee of meadow in that wh is called the Rocke Meadow, it they will bould ont, and wh is beyond Goodman Moore's Lott ; And the Scoole Meadow is Reserved and soe ordered pte for A Scoole when ye Place is able to Mayn- taine one, as alsoe tbat pte wb is to be sott ont for the Gleeb Lott is to be there, but that pta of Meadow web is for the scool is Lieft to be agreed on for ye quantity, and then if ye Coll. and Minister'a shares in the Rock Meadow want ia to he made up here or In the North Meado not exceed- ing 10 Acors.

In 1672 the town voted that a twenty-acre lot, " with all the privileges that other lots of that size have," be laid out near the ministry lot for the school. In 1674 the school-master's home lot was " laid out between John Aldrich's house lot and the ten-rod highway that leads to the mill." The fatal Indian attack soon followed, and no record of im- portance of the year 1675 is found nor any at all after that date till 1680. Even before 1675 there may have been public school instruction, and it is hard to be- lieve, as some do, there was none in Mendon till 1701.

There is, however, no definite record till the follow- ing in that year, which shows that March 3, 1701, the town passed a vote directing the selectmen, with Mr. Grindal Rawson, the minister, "to treat with Dea-

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

con Warfield, upon his refusal, with some other per- son whom they shall judge suitable, to be a Schoole Master to teach the children of the towne to read, and for this or any other person's encouragement in said work the town shall pay ten pounds in good current pay at money price, and each person sending children to schoole to pay one penny a week." Thereupon agreement was made with Deacon Warfield and recorded. He was " to keep scool half a yeare and to begin on Monday ye 14th of April next, and for his pains to have five pounds in good current pay at money price, and one penny a week for every child that coms to scoolle." John Warfield, Sr., and John Warfield, Jr., are both named in list of 1685, and at a later date we know they occupied the lot called in 1774 the "Schoolmaster's home lot." The elder Warfield died April 12, 1692.

Deacon Warfield, the schoolmaster of 1701 and the first known as such with certainty, held the position till 1709 at least, and, perhaps, till 1712. January, 1709, the town voted to build its first school-house twenty feet by sixteen and seven feet between joints. It stood near Deacon Warfield's home lot, and most likely where is now the George family cemetery. In March of that year Rev. Grindal Rawson offered to board A Latin scoolle master for four years" if the town "would retain him," upon which the town voted "that the towne accept of sd offer" and "to give twenty pounds a year for that service." Whether one was employed or not is not known.

November 12, 1712, the selectmen met in order to procure a "Scoole Master, the Towne being destitute of one," and met again December 13th, when Robert Hnsse, from Boston, was hired. He came to Mendon December 12th, and was to teach till May 1, 1713, for which "he shall have," says the record, "five ponnd paid him for his service and his Diet the sª time, and to begin " (boarding?) "at John Farnum's and ther continue untill the 28th of January."

Martin Pearse was hired by the selectmen, in 1714, to keep school at seventeen pounds for one year, with " board and Dyett."

William Boyce followed in 1717, at twenty-eight pounds a year. He continued till 1728. In 1721 his contract contained the curious provision that he was to keep a " Reading and Wrighting school during the year, unless the Town should be presented for want of a Grammar School," when he was to " cease keep- ing at ye Selectmen's order."1 A year later and doubtless thereafter, the town apparently not having been summoned before the grand jury, he continued teaching at four places alternately, viz. : "At the school-house, over the Mill River, at ye south end of the town, and about the Great River."

Mr. Grindal Rawson, perhaps the first resident in Mendon to graduate from Harvard College, was en- gaged for six months after October 24, 1728, for a salary of twenty-two pounds ten shillings. He was the eleventh child of Rev. Grindal Rawson, had re- cently left college and tanght in 1729 and 1730. It is probable he was the first to teach more than reading and writing. He was afterwards minister at East Haddam, Conn., dying there in 1777. His consin, Capt. William Rawson, an earlier graduate of Har- vard, taught the Mendon school in the winter of 1729 -30, at the rate of forty-five pounds per year salary.

Samuel Terry taught a grammar school in 1733. May 15, 1732, "School Dames" were authorized "to keep school in the Outskirts of the Town," and thirty pounds were appropriated for the purpose. These were the first of the long list of women who have adorned and elevated Mendon's public schools.

John Field followed Mr. Terry, teaching from 1735 to 1737 ; salary, forty-five pounds per year. He was succeeded by Capt. William Rawson, 1735 to 1742, at fifty pounds; but after him Josiah Marshall taught at nineteen pounds a year in bills of the "last emission." The fluctuations of the colonial currency, or bills of credit, make the rates of wages misleading.

By vote of the town, no schoolmaster was hired in 1743; but Mr. Marshall taught again in 1744, and it would appear continuonsly till the spring of 1747, when the town voted not to employ him, and sold their school-honse for fourteen ponnds, " old tenor." In the autumn they voted to build a new one, the same size as the first, at the north end of the Training Field. This house stood near the present location of A. W. Gaskill's barn, and was completed in 1749.

Mr. Marshall taught but four months in 1748, and that in the old school-honse.

In 1749 there was also a vote that the Grammar School should not be kept in the new school-house, and the next year there was a nearly nnanimons vote not to have Mr. Foster for their teacher, and to have Mr. Dorr's son, Joseph, and Capt. Eleazer Taft's son, Moses, "Keep school by Spells, as they can agree." The same arrangement in substance continued the next year, but with an added declara- tion in favor of having Joseph Dorr when possible. Both these teachers were Harvard gradnates.

Between 1757 and 1760 the town's control of the schools seems relaxed, and signs of a new system ap- pear. The town left the settlement of school matters, heretofore controlled by direct vote, to the selectmen, and in 1760 we discover the existence of eleven school districts, drawing, and doubtless expending, the money they raised for schools under town au- thority.

As late as 1751 there were but two school-houses, that in the East Precinct (Milford) having been built in that year. But it is clear that the several districts took complete control of their schools after 1771, perhaps a little earlier. Little is to be learned

I The Province Acte of 1692-93 fined towas with fifty householders tweoty pounds for failure to employ a master to teach reading and writiog. Those having one hundred householders were required to employ a " grammar-school master," "well-instructed in the tongues." Iu 1721 undoubtedly the selectmeo helieved there were in Mendon one hundred householders.

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of their progress from that time to 1790. In 1789 a statute made it the duty of the ministers and select- men to visit schools and advise and examine the scholars. Their authority was not well defined, and though they were doubtless interested and useful, their position was one of honor and dignity rather than of direct responsibility. From forty to one hundred pounds were annually raised for schools, and it is quite probable most of the schools were taught in private dwelling -. In 1789 the town voted to sell the old school-house on the " Training Field," and in 1794 voted to raise six hundred pounds to build a school-house in each district. Later this was re- duced to a grant of three hundred pounds, for build- ing and repairing school-houses. This was in- creased by one hundred and fifty pounds in 1795, and that in turn voted down, but finally, in 1797, six hundred and sixty-six pounds were granted for building and furnishing school-houses, committees meanwhile having been chosen to supervise the work, all of which shows a strong probability that before 1800 each district had a school-house. In 1796 the first School Committee was chosen, but it is not plain that the town did this every year after. It was probably preferable for the most part to have the ministers act. They generally had students fit- ting for college or studying theology under their tuition from 1700 to 1830, sometimes, as in Mr. Dog- gett's case, maintaining an academy; and their ap- proval of students and teachers, too, was much de- sired. Indeed, after 1789, teachers not college gradu- ates must have it before they could lawfully teach.

From 1800 to 1827 from $600 to $800 was annually raised for schools, and from $1200 to $1800 from 1827 to 1844. The income of proceeds of sales of school lands made prior to 1727 had been applied to the support of schools for a period not now known, but it must have been an insignificant sum. After 1837 the income of $6927.64, received from the United States out of the "surplus revenue," was also thus applied till Blackstone was incorporated, in 1845, when only $2118.19 was left for Mendon, and in 1880 this was used to reduce the town's general indebted- ness.

The statute of 1826 introduced the effectual con- trol of public schools by the School Committee. They were first paid in Mendon in 1832, when $10.00 was voted them, "providing they are prompt and regular in visiting the schools." The people clung tenaciously to the district system, and jealously re- served all possible control of the schools to the dis- trict or prudential committees down to 1869, when the system was abolished by law. Any fancied as- sumption of undue control on the part of the town committee was likely to be followed by the election of a new board at the next town-meeting,

The schools, however, progressed steadily, and from the time of Grindal Rawson's graduation, in 1728, Men- don has sent out students who have won scholarly fame

from New England colleges. Dr. Metcalf, in his "An- nals," gives us the names of ten such graduates, all from Harvard before 1800, and twenty-three graduates of colleges or professional schools between 1800 and 1860. After an apparent lull in educational interest, a new zeal appeared to arise in the winter of 1867-68. It manifested itself in a school, gathered by consent of the school authorities, in the smallest school-house and one of the most remote in situation in town, where some of the more advanced pupils of various and dis- tant schools assembled, and where they enjoyed in- struction in studies more advanced than usual in such schools. In view of the progress thus made and the ambition aroused, the town voted in 1868 "to establish a high school for the benefit of all the inhabitants " to be kept in the town hall during the fall and winter following.

Mr. Henry Whittemore, afterwards a successful teacher and superintendent of schools in other towns, achieved such a success here that the school was con- tinued and has been ever since, though sustained by a voluntary expenditure on the part of the town and often suffering from insufficient support and the errors of inexperienced or ignorant instructors. But the in- fluence of the school, imperfect though it be, has been very great and has decidedly elevated educational standards throughout the town. It may be worth not- ing that the "Grammar School " of 1729-69, with its instruction in mathematics and "the tongues," out- ranked the common and " Dame" schools, was for the benefit of the townspeople generally, and ended with or about the time of the advent of the district system. As that disappeared the town again assumed full con- trol, and in its High School restored the ancient Gram- mar School in a modernized form. The tenth anni- versary of the High School was celebrated in 1878, when the public testimony of its former members was strongly in its praise as a power for good in their lives; later evidence is to the same effect. For the last fif- teen years a majority of the town's teachers have been taken from its High School. It is doubtful if, during the ten years prior to its establishment ten of the Mendon pupils of the common schools sought any education in schools of higher grade, while in twenty years since 1868 more than forty entered such higher schools or colleges after taking the opportunities of- fered in the Mendon High school. Of these at least twenty have taken or will soon take diplomas from such institutions. Among them are graduates from Harvard, Dartmouth, Amherst, the Worcester Poly- technic School, the State Normal Schools and schools of law and medicine.

Such a record shows the town has not fallen back in ambition or achievement in the line of educating its children.

The names of teachers of Mendon High School and time of service are : Henry Whittemore, 1868-70 ; Dan- iel N. Lane, Jr., 1870-74; Benjamin F. Harmon, 1872: Ernest L. Scott, 1874-75; Parker P. Simmons,

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

1875-76; Frank C. Meserve, 1877-78; F. A. Holden, 1878-79; Walter M. Wheelock, 1879-80; J. A. Joy, 1880-81 ; John C. Worcester, 1881-82; Walter S. Bosworth , 1882-83; S. W. Ferguson, 1883-84; N. Currier, 1884-85; O. C. B. Nason, 1885; Volney B. Skinner, 1886; J. Q. Hayward, 1886-87 ; Hill Wil- liams, 1887-88; Wendel Williams, 1888.

Closely allied to the educational history of Mendon is the story of the founding of the Taft Public Libra- ry in 1881, by Mrs. Susan E. (Lee) Huston, late of Providence, Rhode Island. Born in Mendon, July 17, 1824, and early orphaned, Mrs. Huston had ex- ceedingly limited opportunities for reading and but little school education. Whatever advance she made in learning she was wont to attribute to the influence and aid of her older half-brother, Putnam W. Taft, late of Worcester, but also a native of Mendon. At his death Mrs. Huston received a share of his estate and unselfishly determined to apply a large portion thereof so that the people of her native town might ever after enjoy what in her early days had been denied to her,-an abundance of good books. To this end she gave the town one thousand dollars to es- tablish a free public library to be at once useful to the living and a memorial of her brother, whose name it bears, and who, in his lifetime, had expressed a desire to do something of the kind. By the terms of the gift the town is to provide a place for the library and yearly add new books to the value of seventy-five dol- lars, at least. This it has done, and after Mrs. Hus- ton's death, July 4, 1884, unanimously voted to erect a tablet to her memory in its library building, already adorned with her portrait and that of her brother. The library has received gifts from time to time, and now has over twenty-five hundred volumes, largely standard works. It is very freely used, is greatly valued and its founder held in grateful and loving re- mnembrance.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 110

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