History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 112

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 112

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

James Butler was of Woburn and Lancaster. James, Jr., without moving, was of Lancaster, Bolton and Berlin. The name was but a few years on Ber- lin records till recently. Lancaster, Bolton and Leo- minster took in most of them. Their Lancaster homes were west of Clam-shell Pond.

Christopher Banister Bigelow, of the Marlboro' line, so ancient, reared a large family, five or six of whom have reared other families within our borders. One only on our records at present. Abraham Bigelow, of Northboro', is son of Christopher.

The Carter families of Berlin, always relatively nu- merous, are of the Woburn stock. Rev. Thomas Carter was first minister of that enterprising town. The Carters were early settlers in Lancaster, and of the most vigorous blood. A full score of the families have made their homes on Berlin territory down to the ninth generation from Rev. Thomas. Chandler Carter, late benefactor of the town, has a personal record on another page.

Cartwright, Francis James, came from England about 1840, with sons Daniel and Algernon, and daughter Elizabeth. Parents and daughter have de- ceased.

Carley, Job and Silas, were transferred to Berlin from Marlboro' in the construction of the town. Kerley was the original form of the family name, pronounced Karley,-hence Carley. Their home was on the Assabet. The progenitor was William, of Watertown, 1642. He was an original proprietor of lands both in Marlboro' and Lancaster. In Lancas- ter he married, second wife, the mother of Minister

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Rowlandson. His brother Henry's family were killed in the Rowlandson massacre. This brought Henry back to the Assabet, where he settled. The Berlin Carleys were his descendants. Their early connections were in the best families of Marlboro' and Lancaster. Job Carley, the last on our records, died here 1856, not of "small-pox," as put on record. That visitation of the family was fifty years earlier.

Cotting, George A., resident in Berlin, Boylston, now of Hudson, has honored his ancestry in erecting in Berlin's new cemetery a sightly and impressive granite monument bearing the Cotting genealogy of his line from the immigration. Josiah, of Roxbury, 1637, heads the line, later of Lancaster. Others of kin settled in New York City, and appeared under the name of Cutting. Cotting is the original. Josiah, Jr., was a Revolutionary soldier of Sterling; Josiah (3d) was physician of Southboro'; Josiah (4th) married daughter of Capt. William Barnes, of Berlin; George A. is their son.

Coolidge : Many in the region, Bolton and Hudson. John, of Watertown, 1636, is counted as head of the American families. His wife was Mary Had Mary, Sarah, Stephen and Jonathan, and John, Jr., who settled in Sherborn. Berlin families have been Stephen, Moses, Josiah, Caleb.

A branch of the Northboro' Fays, descendants of John, of Boston, 1656, settled in Berlin, 1804. Dexter was deacon of the church. His children and children's childreu still abide. He owned a fine farm on the height of land next to Northboro' line, till of late in the family name. It is now a "gilt edge " butter dairy. The Morse family has been represented in Berlin for fifty years. Aaron Ward, of Marlboro', descendant of Joseph, of Watertown, 1635, settled here 1837; was succeeded by his son Symon on the Assabet, one of the best farms of the region. Wins- low B. Morse, on the old " Brigham place," Old Colony Station, is of a collateral branch. Amory C., de- ceased, was his brother.

Feltons in Berlin are modern and came from Marl- boro' 1830-40. Jacob and sons, Otis and Merrick. Two brothers from Scotland by the name of Fife came over about 1730. They located as neighbors in Lancaster, but territorial divisions left one family in Bolton the other in Berlin. The Berlin branch, by James, became numerous. They were enterprising and scattered themselves in several States. Dr. John William Fyfe, of Saugatuck, Conn., is their genealo- gist. The William Fyfe line, much esteemed, is represented solely by William E. Fyfe, of Clinton, Mass., the fourth William and fourth generation.

The Fosgates for a hundred and fifty years have clung to Gates Pond, in East Berlin. We trace to Robert, sometimes of Marlboro', sometimes of Bolton. Back of Robert the ancestry is obscure. It is the only ancient family among us who still hold their own in a half-score of families.

Five generations of the well-known Goddard family

have dwelt among us; all descended from Edward, a stanch old Puritan in days of the hated Charles I. Edward "lost all things" for his religion. William, his son, lost all by the London fire and speculation in New England investments. Josiah, son of William, made a good farmer in Watertown, and William, his son, made a good miller on North Brook, now South Berlin. One name alone, Marcus Morton Goddard, represents, to-day, in Berlin, all these generations. They were among our earliest and most vigorous families.

A family of genuine vigor were the Fairbanks. Jonas was a first proprietor of Lancaster. His son Jabez become a terror to all Indians within scouting distance. Jabez, Jr., and a son of his settled on Berlin premises. The Goddards aud Fairbanks joined hands in the marriage of James Goddard, Jr., of the sixth generation, and Keziah Fairbanks, great-grand- daughter of Jabez, Sr., in 1785.

Hartshorn was a name unknown in Berlin up to 1840. Dr. Edward, son of Rev. Levi Hartshorn, who died at Gloucester in early prime, came to Ber- lin after his graduation at Harvard Medical College. He was then the youngest practicing physician in Worcester County. He married a daughter of Solo- mon Howe, Esq., and settled in professional life. Besides laborious practice, he did much to improve the town by various enterprises. He was chairman in committee for building the present tasteful and becoming town-house, 1869.

Dr. Hartshorn was for seventeen years superin- tendent of the Congregational Sunday-school. He sold his professional interests in the town, 1854, and with his two sons engaged in the manufacture of family medicines, which business he removed to Boston and followed with his family, 1871.

Edward Howe, son of Dr. Hartshorn, retained his home in Berlin and succeeded his father as superin- tendent of the Sabbath-school sixteen years. Death severed the connection. He married the daughter of Rev. Wm. A. Houghton, 1869. She died 1876. Sec- ond, he married a daughter of R. S. Hastings. He died June 8, 1887, at forty-four years. He repre- sented his district, embracing Berlin, Clinton and Bolton, in Legislature, 1869; was the youngest mem- ber, save one, in the House. The first marriage of Edward H. Hartshorn and that of his only brother to only daughter of James Maynard, of Clinton, were on the same day ; being the silver wedding of Rev. W. A. Houghton and wife. A great concourse of people were present. The elder brother and the mother of his first two children now lie side by side in the silence of the grave, under the national flag.

Hastings : Four branches of this family of ancient history have given character to Berlin. It is pleasant to know that we have some early blood in America besides the British and the Irish. No doubt the Hastings are true Danes. Mrs. Lydia Nelson (Hast- ings) Buckminster, of Framingham, the family gene-

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alogist, gives us-1664-1864-abont one thousand of the name and three times as many of the blood, hav- ing " homes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to the tropical regions of South America." Thomas, born in Eng- land, 1605, and Margaret Cheney, of Roxbury, are the progenitors. Nathaniel, Jr., of the fourth genera- tion, was first on Berlin territory about 1765. He had a large family. His wife was Elizabeth Goodnow. He was a soldier in the French War-1755-62-also in Revolutionary service.

Ephraim Hastings, of the fifth generation, married Achsah Sawyer, of Lancaster, and settled in Boylston, where his children were born, and where his wife, Achsah, died. He married (2d) Almira, daughter of Rev. Dr. Puffer, of Berlin. He bought the Edward Johnson homestead, where he died, 1855. His only son, Captain Christopher Sawyer, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, thongh exempt by age from military service, voluntarily organized a company and offered himself for service. He was in the battle of Fred- ericksburg, Vicksburg and at the capture of Jackson, Miss. Smitten by the small-pox, he rallied and reached Mound City Hospital, Ill., where he died of malarial fever, September 8, 1863. He was buried with civic and military honors beside his own home- stead, in our new cemetery, which he had done much to adorn.

Captain Hastings was a man of public enterprise, and executed many important trusts of the town. The trees of the highway, from his own domicile to his final resting-place, bear witness to his public spirit. His farm of generous acres, in the hands of his sons, represents, perhaps, the best specimen of mod- ern agriculture and gardening of this vicinity. The family have presented to the G. A. R. Post his life-size likeness in crayon.

Rufus S. Hastings, twenty-five years merchant and postmaster in Berlin, was separated from the other Berlin Hastings families in the third generation. His father, Major Rufus, and grandfather, Colonel Ste- phen, were of the most prominent farmers of Sterling, and just south of Washacum Ponds. Their line con- nected them with the Northboro' Balls of Ball Hill, from Watertown, and with Deacon Jona. Livermore, the centenarian, who lived in three centuries-died 1801. Samuel Hastings, of the second generation, and Sarah Coolidge were their progenitors. Thomas and Margaret (Cheney) Hastings were before these.

Thomas Holder, son of Thomas, direct from England, married, in Mendon, Sarah Gaskill, 1777, and came to Berlin. Both were effective preachers, of the Quaker persuasion. Four sons honored their name and Chris- tian faith : Daniel and Thomas, of Berlin, Joseph, of Bolton, and David, of Clinton. All are deceased. I find the names Gaskill and Holder among the Quakers in their persecutions in the old Bay Colony. Samnel Gaskill, 1862, married Provided Southwick, daughter of Lawrence and Cassandra.

Johan Hudson, father of Hon. Charles, preacher and legislator, was a member of Berlin Church, and died here 1799. The Hudsons were a family of patriots, and soldiers as well.

Phineas Howe, of the Marlboro' John Howe line, came in by way of Shrewsbury, then Boylston, about 1760. His daughter Polly, who married Abel Baker, son of Judge Baker, raised, in Concord, N. H., a family remarkable for physical development. One son measured six feet, nine and one-half inches in his stockings. Ata recent silver wedding of Silas Green- leaf, a great-grandson of Phineas, on the ancestral spot, the trait was observable in the sixth generation, grandsons of Mr. Greenleaf.

Solomon Howe, also of Marlboro', came much later, 1803; bought of the Joneses most of what is now Ber- lin Centre. He kept a store, also a public " Inn." It was the dining-place for stage passengers between New Braintree, Barre, Rutland and Boston, 1827-40.

Berlin Howards are of Shrewsbury-Timothy, Tim- otby, Jr., and sons.

The name Jewett has an abiding.place in Berlin records for a hundred years. Jesse, probably from Rowley, with the Spaffords, settled here 1779; married into the Johnson family. The third and fourth gene- rations survive. A son of Jesse, Jr., was major in the New Jersey militia in the late war, suffered a severe wound in the "sword-arm," as he was leading his men in battle.

The Keyes name is modern in Berlin, represented by David, Ziba and their children. Their remotest American ancestor was Robert, of Watertown, 1633. Several of the family name settled in Shrewsbury and Boylston. The Berlin families are of the Shrewsbury branch, Dea. John Keyes. His son Thomas married into the Livermore family, of Ball Hill. Thomas, Jr., was father to David and Ziba.

The Maynards are of most ancient lineage. Our families are traceable to John, of Sudbury, 1638, and Mary Gates, of Lancaster, who confronted the minis- ter. Barnabas, Jotham and Jotham, Jr., were life- long citizens. Two other Maynard families succeeded them,-George, of Marlboro,' and George W., from Great Bend, Pa. George W. represented his district in the Legislature, 1859.

The Meriams were influential here from 1765 to 1845-50. Amos, from Lexington, of the well-known Concord family, married into the Danforth family, of "Cambridge Farms." Joseph Meriam, Esq., of New York City, is their genealogist (mannscript).

Jonathan Moore, of the John Moore line, of Sud- bury, 1650, has been followed in Bolton and Berlin by seven generations. Warren E. Moore and brothers, of Northboro', are the later representatives of Berlin origin.

James R. Park, of Holliston, descended of Richard, of Watertown, 1636, became the owner of the God- dard mills and other estate in South Berlin, 1790,-a family of respectability and good influence in Berlin

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for three generations. His son, Colonel Joseph, sev- eral years Representative to the Legislature, and his only son, Russell, returned to Holliston, where the father died.

The Berlin Pollards were of Billerica, and descend- ants of William and Anua, from Coventry, England, 1638. The Berlin families appear about 1720-30, then a part of Bolton, where a majority have since lived. Anna Pollard, wife of William, was the first female who set foot on Boston soil. She lived to her hundred and fifth year. Her portrait is in the Old South Church, Boston.

Joseph Priest and wife Hannah, born 1684, are the eldest born of any in Berlin Cemetery-just two hun- dred years before our incorporation as a precinct. He was from Woburn, and came by way of Lancaster. Had a large family, which was represented in three or four succeeding generations. A son of his, Joseph, Jr., gave the town, by will, five hundred dollars, our first school fund, to be appropriated to schools alone.

Captain Henry Powers, of unknown lineage, was an early settler on Baker Hill, about 1770. Had a large family, but they did not tarry after the second genera- tion. A grandson of his was killed by murderous assault in Grafton, 1840.

Solomon Rathburn, from Rhode Island, settled in Berlin about 1840. His son, Thomas, was the first enrolled soldier of Berlin in the late war; the first also of Berlin soldiers to die in the high calling. Another son, James, also entered the service. Charles B. is of our progressive farmers on Baker Hill.

Of Southwicks-historic name of Puritan days- we have several families, veritable descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra, the first to suffer persecu- tion here for opinion's sake; more accurately, per- haps, for opposing others' opinions and refusing to conform to the arbitrary laws on religious matters. Lawrence and Cassandra were certainly inoffensive, except in non-conformity. Had the defiers of mar- tyrdom been like them, none would have been hung, defiling the history of the Colony and shaming the Puritan posterity. It is humiliating to read the atrocities inflicted in the name of the law, and sad to know the frenzy of honest souls in the name of religion.

One of the fifth generation - David-and Mary Sweet located on Berlin soil about 1780. They had a most worthy family of thirteen children. Three families of grandchildren of like character abide with us.

The Spafford name has stood by us from the first up to date. The name is the oldest, historically, of any on our records. Our Lancaster "Book of Lands" seems to us quite ancient. But the veritable Spaf- ford name is in the "Doomsday Book" of William the Conqueror, of England, 1066. (See Spafford Me- morial, Aphia T. Spofford, Groveland, Mass., 1888.) Rowley was the American family hive, then compri- sing Georgetown, Groveland and other places. From

1638 to 1888 about fifty-five hundred names are registered. The Berlin line stands,-Jolin, John (2d), Samuel of Lancaster (now Boylston), his two sons, Job and Samuel, settling here in our early town life. Samuel is still represented in grandchildren.

Shattuck, Elijah C., representative 1875, is our ouly citizen of the name.

Young is a name duly cherished in Berlin. The Berlin family originated in Phillipston, children of Oliver and Grace (Kelly) Young. Miss Nancy Young, of her own earnings and frugality, bequeathed to our town fifteen hundred dollars as a school fund. She and an unmarried brother died on the old South- wick homestead, now Paul Randall's, who came in from Bolton.

The name of Tyler is among the more recent in Berlin. They were of Warwick, and connected with the Bassetts. They represent our best stock-raisers and dairying. Their brother-in-law, William Lawson, has erected the finest mansion in the town, on Sawyer Hill, the " Lakeside " home of the late Madam Rudersdorf.

The geology of Berlin has never been scientifically stated. We surrender, for prudential reasons.

The Central Massachusetts Railroad opened inter- esting specimens. One was a large vein of graphite. The northwest part of the town is unequaled in boulders short of Cape Ann. A single rocker of many tons lies on a ledge by Clam-shell Pond. Some years ago a woman could put it in motion. Too much rocking has worn it down till only a slight motion can be easily effected. About the pond, on the Larkin lands, numerous Indian relics indicate that some tribe dwelt on the pond borders. Perhaps it was a resort of the Nashaways.

WATER-WAYS .- Of water-ways we can claim about a mile of the Assabet River. This we got by grant of the Great and General Court. Marl- borough had swooped in seven miles of that stream and its intervales. Lancaster surveyors set their starting-stake too far east, and so run against Marl- borough. That made the Lancaster "Square" a trapezoid. Lancaster settlements began ten years earlier than Marlborough, but Marlborough was awake and got her stakes down first. She probably thought that Lancaster ought to be satisfied with the "Nashaway," of which they boasted so much. Several hundred acres of Marlborough, west of the Assahet, were granted to Berlin, crossing the Assabet at Lancaster, southeast corner, because some of our families owned land on the east beyond the river. Assabet has been variously spelled (Hist. North- borough, Joseph Allen, D.D), sometimes Elizabeth, but the Indian name has gained its standing. It af- fords Berlin no water-power ; the only stream that does is a western tributary to the Assabet, with the modest name of "North Brook," its sources being in the north part of the town. Earliest deeds call it the "Great Brook." This is the stream that fascinated

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

William Goddard, 1727. At much cost, for the day, he established a saw and grist-mill, 1752-60. The "power " is better at flood than the supply for the year. Another mill was set up by Nathan Barber, two miles above, 1777; another just above that, about 1810, by Thomas Pollard for his son Stephen. Nothing else of permanent water-power has aided Berlin in her industries. Other streams are few and small. Foundations have been laid for another power near Berlin Station, O. C. R. R. Two ponds, " Clam- shell," at the extreme west, and "Gates' Pond," at the extreme east, are all we can boast in this matter, except that "Gates' Pond," in Fosgate ownership, is the finest summer resort of the region. Several sum- mer cottages have been built on its eastern shore. The pond is the source of the Hudson water supply, at which many Berlin citizens are very indignant. No man Gates was ever drowned in our pond for the sake of giving his name to it. Stephen Gates was its earliest personal owner, with much land about it. Our denizens stoutly refuse the proposal to call it " Lake Assabet," at Madam Rudersdorf's suggestion. " Clam- shell " Pond is its own interpreter.

ROADS .- From the beginning Berlin has held one good mark of "civilization" in its roads. Some citizens here, especially the Meriams, caught the spirit and views of Colonel Ezra Beaman, of Boylston. We did not take to " turnpikes," but from the town to its contiguous neighbors, the fathers were ambitious of good highways. Many petitioners for an open road to their own home had to accept a "bridle-way," for the sake of more public liberality. The main roads were open, of course, while we were yet of Bolton, 1738 to 1784.

Favored in respect to bridges, our taxes have not been excessive. The first aud only iron bridge has recently been constructed to span the Assabet between South Berlin and Marlboro'.

The town has not settled upon any one method of keeping up the highways. The old "highway sur- veyor " has been supplanted-once hy a single com- missioner. Many still advocate the same, but of late the commissioners are chosen for districts. Berlin is very jealous of concentrated power. The majority are not " Democrats," but all are very democratic. The highway discussions are among the most animated in town-meetings. So they were in the " twenties."

Roads suggest vehicles, and vehicles adapted to the roads. In 1734 Jonas Houghton, the "Lancaster Surveyor," contracted with settlers on Petersham territory to construct a road over a section of Wachu- sett, such that four oxen could conveniently carry over it four barrels of cider at once.

Only solid wagons could bear the strains of country roads a hundred years ago. But many statements as to the introduction of easier carriages exaggerate the time. The chaise was in use at least a hundred years ago, spelled "shays." IIence the old epigram on the Shays' Rebellion :

Says sober Will, " Well, Shays bas fled, And peace returus to bless our days." "Indeed," cries Ned, "I always said

He'd prove, at last, a fall back Shays ; And those turned over and undone, Call him a worthless Shays to run."-WARD.

The first iron rail was laid in Berlin, 1866, the " Fitchburg, Framingham and New Bedford." Two stations, one for the Centre and South Berlin, mid- way, one for West Berlin. The road-bed of the Mas- sachusetts Central was prepared for grading as far as Holden before a rail was laid. Here it rested till fi- nancial reconstruction, as the "Central Massachu- setts." The town struggled under the twenty thousand investment some fifteen years. The deht was lifted by the generous donation of Mr. Chandler Carter, 1887.

THE STAGE-COACH .- The railroad, in its day, hardly excited more interest in Berlin than did the first stage- coach, forty years earlier. Berlin was left out in the cold by the greater thoroughfares through Northboro' and Bolton.

"The mail-stage" was a wonder to the boys in its early day. Boys and men went miles to see the first four-horse stage in the United Stage, driven by Levi Pease, of Shrewsbury, from Worcester to Boston, 1795. So when a "stage-line" was started between New Braintree, Barre and Boston, by way of Holden, West Boylston, Sawyer's Mills, Berlin, Feltonville (Hud- son) and Sudhury, the enterprise created great inter- est. Jona. D. Meriam was the principal investor of Berlin; George E. Manson and Daniel Pope, of Fel- tonville. It was a losing business for the proprietors. But somebody was bright enough to run a line in op- position. The town got its post-office and other ad- vantages.

How little we realize the blessings of postal service at public expense! It is all modern, really. When the Puritans came to America, England had no com- plete mail service. In 1655 a post was established between London and Edinbugh, "to go night and day," and make return route within six days. Boston was then five years old. Laucaster had no post-office for one hundred and fifty years. As late as 1820-30 every store and bar-room was a kind of post-office. As advertisements now adorn the stores, so letters to ad- joining and even distant towns were thus posted. A letter in Berlin directed to Worcester or Westboro' would be taken in hand by any one going to North- boro', leaving it there for the next self-constituted let- ter-carrier. All Berlin mail-matter was left in Bolton post-office up to 1827. So much for a mail-stage. Then, too, Berlin was the midway town between Barre and Boston.

The Howe Tavern of Berlin was the dining-place. " Esquire Meriam " was the first driver. He obtained a mail contract and post-office for the town, and be- came our first postmaster, though the superintendence of it devolved upon Wm. A. Howe, of the store and tavern. Eventually Mr. Howe succeeded to the ap-

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pointment. Every letter sent or received was reg- istered, with amount of postage, before it could go out or before it could be delivered on arrival. A number of letters to Boston or elsewhere would be done up in one package with one bill of registration. A single letter must also be done up as a package, with its record and the town or city superscribed. Six and a quarter cents, ten cents, twelve and a half cents, eighteen and three-fourths cents, aud twenty-five cents were the rates of postage. Times have changed.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 112

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