History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 113

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 113

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).

THE MARKET-MAN .- This is a class not much on record in town histories. But really they were the connecting link between the town aud the outside world. The market-man took the butter, poultry, eggs, veal and various farm produce. Sometimes he gathered it himself, carried it to Boston, ordinarily in a well-covered wagon with two horses, once a week and return. He probably handled more money than any other man in Berlin. But he was the weekly newsman. He brought the Boston news, much of it verbal, indeed, but he brought the newspaper also. From our earliest town life to 1812-20 so few towns having even a sight of a stage-coach, or mail, each town was interested in the return of the market-man. Tradition relates that a weekly concourse awaited the weekly arrival of Hugh Bruce at the Howe store and tavern, with the Boston Palladium reporting the pro- gress of the war, 1812-15, also the reports of Napo- leon's marvelous feats in Europe. So the slow-trudg- ing market-man was the forerunner of the mail-coach and the locomotive. Pity the town which has no in- terest in the arrival of a daily mail !

The market-man usually brought all the store gro- ceries,-more than all, "New Rum," that is, New England rum, later called Medford rum. We would not record it, only we have proved by other towns that we were not an exception, but sixty hogsheads of rum was the annual consumption in our town of less than seven hundred inhabitants, by estimate, 1825. There were then two stores. I repeat it, we were not exceptional. The market man was sure of a weekly load. The successor of the market-man as news-car- rier was the post rider.

INDUSTRIES .- As to our early industries, the locality of Berlin determined them. A water-power which fails for one-third of the year is just about worthless, except for mere milling. Once the brooks were very useful ; but modern industries demand the rivers, and- rivers that rage and roar. Compare the towus on the Concord River from Sudbury Meadows to Billerica, all on a level, and the towns on the Merrimac. Ber- lin was doomed to agriculture from the start. You cannot organize successful industries.

We have fragmentary records of the early agricul- ture of Berlin to show good thrift of the husbandmen Returns in part of the year 1792 indicate the yiel of good hay at nearly a ton and a half to the acre.

Some farms to-day do less than that. The yield of grain was not equal to that of hay. Cattle-herds

were small. Sheep-folds were smaller. There was no "tariff" on wool then. It was grown for home uses, so of flax. Apples were maiuly of the " natural " stock. But a great change was wrought for Berlin by the good minister, Mr. Puffer. He practiced grafting even for his parishioners, and taught them the art. Few apples are seen to-day superior to those of Barnes Hill in the first decades of the century. The writer of this gathers yearly the "Russet " and "Nonesuch," which Mr. Puffer originated on his own homestead, now a hundred years old. No apples to-day outrank the apples of the Berlin uplands. Less cider is made because of good fruit instead of the natural. From the scant data of 1792, which is our oldest, the product of rye was about 300 bushels ; oats, 400 ; corn, 1,200 ; cider, 250 barrels. Four thou- sand acres improvable land; at the end of forty years, 5,400; at the end of the century 6,918. Say one hundred and twenty farms of sixty acres each.

The first State returns of mechanical industries were made by request, not by law, 1837. We will not quote. But basket-making, employing three men, was the largest business our assessors found time or disposition to report.

The old routine of farming held very constant sway in Berlin up to 1830-40. A deviation was made 1810- 20 in hop-culture. The largest return was six and one-half tons for the town. The price varied from ten to fifteen or twenty cents per pound. Perhaps some years brought in two thousand dollars. Specu- lation set in, and some bad losses were made. It was calculated that "a pound of hops could be raised as cheaply as a pound of pork." From about 1830 hop- yards declined. Only two or three moderate fields can now be seen. Hop-picking was an annual gala day for the girls, in the field.

Berlin had one "South Sea Bubble" in the "Mo- rus multicaulis" epidemic, about 1840,-a shrub of large leaf for feeding silk-worms. We had little scientific farming before 1850-60. A Farmers' and Mechanics' Association was formed, which has greatly advanced gardening and agriculture. The south part of the town is especially adapted to early fruits and vegetables. Well has it been improved. Berlin asparagus has a reputation in Boston. Small fruits receive like attention. Grape-culture, on a brow of the Assabet valley, has been a marked success. An old sand-hill (the ground was accounted) was found to have a clay subsoil of remarkable tenacity for moisture. Perhaps no acres in Berlin are now more valuable.

Peach-culture, after much fruitless endeavor, now gives promise of success. Our hills are given es- pecially to orcharding, grass and general culture. We have several gilt-edge butter farms on high lands, with choice stock. But the bulk of milk goes off by rail. Many pastures, formerly mowed annually, in " the old moon," now have their own way. Our wood acreage is hardly less than fifty years ago.

396

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The dwelling-houses of Berlin (two hundred and ten) are almost wholly of modern aspect. Sixty years ago one-third, perhaps, were of the long back roofs of one story and two stories front. Our last went down in smoke, 1886. We have no pretentious dwellings. The most impressive one crowns Sawyer Hill, the residence of William Lawson, Esq. The farm is managed, in gilt butter-making, by his brother-in-law, Reed Tyler. Like the Pennsylvania Dutchmen, most of the Berlin farmers are set on having good barns. Nine-tenths of all the houses in Berlin are comfortable homes. We have one which was probably built about 1720 by Jona. Moore, still habitable, "the Sanderson Carter place." Our valu- ation stands at $489,000,-"put up," some twenty years ago, $75,000, to lessen taxes, it was said. The percentage, of course. Southey tells of an old man who used to put on his glasses in eating cherries,-it made them look so much bigger.

The census of 1880 gives us over two hundred voters.

As for early handicraft, some thirty cooper-shops can be recalled by the old people. "Beef barrels," "rum barrels," "cider barrels," all had a good market in Boston sixty years ago. Other wooden-ware,-as churns, pails, "piggins and noggins,"-furnished some employment. Many a two-horse barrel rig started at midnight for Boston. Barrels were made on contract. A good cooper is a natural mechanic. Others need not try.

" Wire-drawing" and card-making were an excep- tional attempt in Berlin, about 1810-20. Caleb Houghton, by a small power on Cranberry Meadow Brook, wrought wire; Solomon Howe, of the Centre, manufactured cards-a losing business to both. Card- setting (inserting the tooth into the punctured leather cardboard) furnished employment for many children ; sometimes for parents. Braiding straw was a like family employment.

ECCLESIASTICAL .- When Bolton separated from Lancaster probably some two hundred of its popula- tion were within Berlin limits. As a part of Bolton, the Berlin fathers lived in good harmony with the worthy town till the ecclesiastical conflict called "the Goss controversy." This item belongs to Bolton his- tory, of course, but reaches Berlin. The minister was suspected of Toryism. In church matters he held and practiced the most arbitrary principles. The on- coming Revolution, 1770, added public importance to a local flame. The minister was charged with intem- perance, also. He seemed to feel self-justification in the assertion, probably true, that he was never so far gone as to be incapacitated for his office. Numberless town-meetings were held,-town and parish were then one. He was dismissed by the ultimate prerogative, the people themselves, council or no council.

The controversy hastened, no doubt, the formation of the South Parish, April 7, 1779; but the agitation went with them. Only male members appear in the

organization of the new church-Gossites and Walley- ites, adherents of Mr. Goss' successor,-so the females, when they came, brought letters from one or the other branch of the Bolton Church.

In the interests of harmony, the council called to organize the Berlin Church advised the brethren to withhold fellowship from the Bolton Church whilst that church should remain in its divided state. That was a fire-brand. The Berlin Walleyites moved for another advisory council on this very matter.

The second council exonorated the first as to in- tended reproof. The reading of the first council certainly implied more than was expressed. The neighboring clergy sustained Mr. Goss, and under their influence the churches declined or renounced fellow- ship with the Bolton Church. To test the case, two of the Berlin opponents of Mr. Goss and one of the Bolton Church presented themselves before the Lancaster Church and asked for recognition in the communion service. The church voted affirmatively. The minister, Rev. Mr. Harrington, said the vote should be recorded, but his negative must be recorded with it. Virtually by the ruling of the times, this was annulling the vote of the church. The applicants were Judge Baker and Ephraim Fairbanks, Esq., of Berlin, and Nathaniel Longly, Esq., of Bolton. No three men in the towns were more prominent or conservative. A similar delegation from Bolton and Berlin visited Sterling. The minister, Rev. Mr. Mellen, refused to administer the communion service. The church was against him, and his claim of the veto power brought upon him and the town just the experience of Bolton. "How great a matter a little fire kindleth !" The simple reason is that it is fire. The spirit of liberty was abroad. Men were asserting personal rights, but patriotism was a bond. In the new life of the United Colonies, now become United States, partisans toned down. A supreme confidence in God and country allayed local animosities. Bolton South Parish be- came a precinct, 1784, virtually a town, by authority of Congress.

Peace came also to the churches. But the contest was a hard one, and in advance of its day. The min- istry seemed unduly tenacious of power and dictation. The Bolton Parish fought a good fight. It broke the spell under which churches had felt themselves to be bound. Ecclesiastical liberty made a stride in the conflict. No doubt, indeed, errors were committed on both sides. But the case, and result, became a standard of appeal for the liberty of the churches. Harvard and Yale contain the published pamphlets as documents of historical importance. A layman, not known, was the virtual victor. Later tradition affirms that he was a clergyman. Ebenezer Chapin. Rev. Zabdiel Adams, of Lunenburg, defended the arbitrary power.

The act of incorporation of Bolton South Parish bears date April 13, 1778, and Samuel Baker, Esq., is empowered to issue a warrant " to some principal iu-

397

BERLIN.

habitant" to call a meeting for permanent organiza- tion. Signed, Joseph Warren, speaker; John Avery, deputy secretary.

Samuel Baker issues the warrant to Samuel Jones, inn-holder. At his house the inhabitants are sum- moned to meet. On that spot our town was virtually born. Samuel Jones' tavern stood fronting our North- boro' road, on the north side of the road to Hud- son.

Samuel Baker was chosen moderator; Jonathan Meriam, clerk ; James Goddard, Abijah Pratt, Joshua Johnson, parish committee; Jonathan Meriam, Tim- othy Jones, William Sawyer, Jr., assessors.

One week later the parish took measures for build- ing a meeting-house ; voted to locate it on "the little hill on the north side of the road that leads from Samuel Jones' house to Samuel Rice's shop in the crotch of the roads."

There was no Common then. The road to Bolton turned by our present town-house. The shop was probably some back part of the present " Bullard House." Samuel Rice never appears again. David Rice, probably his father, owned lands in connection with James Goddard, which included the old black- smith-shop where A. A. Bartlett now lives. This shop went with the Meriam farm. Perhaps it was the one alluded to.

Berlin denizens of to-day may wonder where that " little hill " was. It was, and is not. The old church stood on it, considerably in front of the present edifice. Esquire Meriam could not persuade the building committee of the new church to set it so high as it now stands. He was not the man to "sur- render." He conspired with Wm. A. Howe, and in the night they secretly lifted the standards one full foot. Look at the Common and the height of the underpinning of the church, and you will see what be- came of that "little hill."

The first meeting-house was twelve years in build- ing. It is enough to make one weep, to read of the hundreds of pounds in depreciated money which were voted from time to time, all along in the war, to build that humble house of prayer.

The frame was "raised " June 16, 1779, by aid, as usual, of "rum," "cider" and "spike poles." The "pew grounds " were sold 1780 "at public vendue," each man to build his own pew. The build- ing committee were Jonathan Meriam, Fortunatus Barnes, James Goddard, Sr., Timothy Jones, William Sawyer ; second Committee, Fortunatus Barnes, Jacob Moore, Barnabas Maynard, Henry Powers, William Babcock.

In the mean time " candidates " were heard-Rev. M. Stearns, Foster and Edmunds. November 14, 1780, voted to hear Mr. Reuben Puffer. March 12, 1781, Mr. Puffer was " called." "No objections." " Ordination to be out of the meeting-house if the weather permit." The church records have it that the services were held in the meeting-house. All

the "old folks" declare against it. The ordination took place November 26, 1781.

Certainly there is something inspiring in the faith and labors of the fathers, under the depression and uncertainties of war, to press forward in their circum- stances, not to say poverty, to establish the ordinances of religion.

The council for ordination consisted of the churches in Sudbury, East Sudbury, Westboro', Shrewsbury, Northboro', Lancaster, Bolton and Stow. Rev. Mr. Bigelow, of Sudbury, Mr. Puffer's pastor, preached the sermon.

Mr. Puffer's presence and ministry scemed to be quite helpful to his struggling parish. No church- meeting was called for nearly two years. Records indicate peaceful progress. In the same year of the ordination the parish petitioned the town of Bolton, also the General Court, to be set off as a town, but it took three years to reach it.

Finally, by the Great and General Court, March 16, 1784 (Samuel Adams, president of the Senate, Tristram Dalton, speaker), the precinct was duly in- corporated, and Judge Baker was again instructed to empower some principal inhabitant to call a meeting of the South Precinct in Boltou. This time he con- ferred the honor on Fortunatus Barnes. Again Sam- uel Baker was the first moderator and Jona. Meriam again clerk ; Selectmen, James Goddard, John Tem- ple, Jonah Meriam, William Sawyer, Barnabas May- nard.

Now Berlin had all the prerogatives of a town except personal representation in the Legislature. Any citizen of the precinct might as well represent the town as a citizen of the town the precinct. But Bolton never saw it in that light.

So matters stood till 1812. Fortunatus Barnes was now authorized to empower some principal citizen to call the first town-meeting. He committed the trust to Ephraim Babcock. The meeting resulted in the choice of Fortunatus Barnes moderator.

Such was the origin of a quiet New England town. Its inception was in time of war. It came to maturity in time of war, just in a full generation from its beginning. Thirty-five years from this date brought it to its centennial.

In the completion of their house of worship, the settlement of Mr. Puffer and the adjustment of com- plications with Bolton, the little town of Berlin, in- stead of " Norrage," as once proposed, seemed to have respite and rest. The leading meu, however, who had borne the brunt of the war, with its antecedent and subsequent excitements, dropped out of the race very early,-Captain Samuel Jones, Judge Baker, the Baileys, the Meriams, Ephraim Fairbanks, Esq., Gen. Sawyer and others, whose names were towers of strength.

The central figure henceforth in Berlin character was their minister.

The Puffer ancestry, Appleton says, is obscure

398

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

But a record stands that "the town of Boston," 1640, not yet ten years old, grauted twenty acres of land at Wollaston Heights to George Puffer, "five heads." A line from George is traceable to Sudbury, George, James, Richard, Jabez and Reuben, the Berlin pas- tor. Some count in another Richard. The present Puffer homestead, whence Reuben came, is now in Maynard. The will of Jabez shows that Reuben was the pet of his heart. He certainly grew in the esteem of Berlin people and all the region. Every congre- gation was pleased to see him ascend the pulpit-steps. It was not a day for enticing away favorite ministers, but it was understood that he had inviting overtures. His sermons were not especially arousing, hut sol- emnly impressive.

In 1803 he preached the annual sermon before the Governor and Legislature. An anecdote concerning him was first published in print in the Lancaster two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. The writer of this is responsible for its appearance in type. He gave it verbally, that morning, to the speaker who gave it in response for Berlin, in the after-dinner speeches. Judge Brigham, of Westboro', had procured the ap- pointment of Mr. Puffer to the service. His son-in-law, E. M. Phillips, Esq., of Westboro', gave the anecdote to the writer, personally. According to custom, Mr. Puf- fer had all parts of his service written, even the prayer. In offering it he lost his bearings. He tried to regain his ground, but only stumbled. The suspense was awful. A fellow-member of the Legislature gave Judge Brigham a nudge, whispering, "That is your minister, is it?" The disconcerted minister had the courage to desert his written prayer and to throw him- self into the occasion, and the suspense of the assembly quickly gave way to rapt attention and delight. His own people, better than any others who did not hear him on this occasion, could tell what the effect was. He lifted his learned and dignified audience to exalted views of their position and duties, to the State and to God. The prayer ended, Judge Brigham returned the nudge of his neighbor, responding "That is my minister."

Berlin ever had great satisfaction in " Dr. Puffer " abroad. His church records show that he ranked with foremost ministers in councils far aud near on difficult cases.

To this day friends and dissentients, as to religions tenets, revere the " man of God." His face, his fea- tures and form and manner are fast passing ont of remembrance. "Shall we know each other there?" Not even a profile remains; much less the tones of his voice and impressive pulpit services ; a few of the venerables yet talk it over understandingly.

Some yet live who have seen him and can readily believe what has been related. But the most vivid impression which we septuagenarians have of the man is that of his pulpit devotions. Daniel ? Solo- mon ? Elijah ? No, Bethel and Jacob. As with awe he lifted up his face heavenward, and bowed again

his whole body in reverence, incense from the altar above seemed to pervade the assembly.

" Heaven seemed bending, earth to rise, And all seemed floating in the upper skies."

He delivered the Dudlean Lecture at Harvard Col- lege, 1808. His pecuniary circumstances being made known, his address was published and sold among the students, rich men's sons subscribing largely to in- crease the income. They also gave him a good suit of clothes. (REV. DR. ALLEN.)

Another anecdote in his ministry reveals the minis- terial tone of the day. A neighborhood of Balls, on Ball Hill, in Northboro', had special regard for Dr. Puffer; also, it would seem, some disaffection for their own minister. An especially afflictive death occurred in one of the families. One of the deacons of the Northboro' Church, by request of the family, came for Dr. Puffer to visit them, as also to attend the funeral officially. Mr. Puffer demurred; but under the appeals of grief he assented, being assured by the deacon that the Northboro' pastor would not take it offensively. The deacon did not know his man, nor the ministerial prerogatives of the day. The services were held at the house of sorrow. A few days brought a note from the Northboro' bishop demanding expla- nation and apology, else no more ministerial inter- course. We smile; but the parties did not. Mr. Whitney was magisterial. Mr. Puffer was timid. The correspondence is animated, if not animating. The offender did uot cringe. He did apologize, and in words and temper that made him the victor.

The matter did not wholly die at that. A deceased sister of the Balls was wife of Dea. Livermore, of the Northboro' Church. He was one hundred and one years old at his death. Renewed application was made for Mr. Puffer's service at his funeral. Mr. Puffer confirmed his apology by respectfully declin- ing. The Balls would not have the Northboro' parson ; so the centenarian, deacon of the church, town clerk and, in certain sense, the public notary of the town, was buried without a funeral.

There was another element of irritation in the Northboro' Church. The good deacon's second wife was for some reason debarred from its communion. She applied for the privilege in Berlin, but ecclesias- tical courtesy would not allow her request.

Dr. Puffer was no controversalist. He was even timid before his own people. It is well attested that he wept in the face of some who opposed his social prayer-meetings, then new. The compromise was that they should all be held at his own house. He was among the last to renounce or to forego exchanges with the "liberal " clergymen of the region. He foresaw coming events in his own parish. On one occasion he was so overcome in the reading of an ex- pressive hymn that he ceased reading and sat down.

This was in the old, first-consecrated sanctuary, where the man of God had prayed and taught, "with many tears," for forty-five years. Humble as the old

399

BERLIN.

structure was, every line of it was sacred in his eye and heart. It was soon to be taken down. Himself was "three-score and ten." His farewell sermon shows how the heart of a good man may be moved by. that which is inanimate, and really without beauty. The old pews, which went into various and undig- nified uses, were for years looked upon with venera- tion by the older people. A successor, of twenty-five years, has found and gilded the old wooden pine- apple, with tin leaves, which surmounted a plain scroll over the old pulpit. "There are sermons in stones." The farm barn across the cemetery, made of the refitted timbers of "the house of prayer," has yet a voice to some passers-by.

The Massachusetts ecclesiastical rupture of 1820-30 was pressing upon this quiet town before steps were taken for a new house of worship. But no tongue moved against the minister. Yet it was intimated that the new church would have a new order of things when he should resign or cease from his labors. The pastor foresaw more than his people expressed. He hardly expected to escape the rupture in his lifetime. But he lived to dedicate the new church, 1826, and to preach and pray there till near his death, August 29, 1829, at the age of seventy-three years.

The church, in August same year, united in choos- ing Rev. Moses B. Church as Dr. Puffer's successor. The parish dissented, and following the Dedham decision, as others had done, chose another man, Rev. Robert Folger Walcut, of Nantucket, and graduate of Harvard. The Folgers were a prominent family in Nantucket.

Mr. Walcut was a cultured and scholarly man. He won the good-will and esteem of all citizens. He resigned November, 1833.

On the action of the parish, overruling the church, they withdrew almost unanimously, leaving but one male member and three females constituting the church.

The seceding members built a moderate house of worship the same year, and called Rev. Abraham C. Baldwin, a graduate of Bowdoin College, and student in theology under Dr. Lyman Beecher, who preached the ordination sermon, October 26, 1830. In Mr. Baldwin's ministry of two years, forty-six were added to the church. He had more than ordinary qualities as preacher and pastor. Had he been quiet to remain, very many have felt that he would have re-united the town effectively. His succeeding pastorates were in Springfield and New Haven. But if any man can unite a thousand people of one township, is he not more useful then in holding a like number gathered here and there from a city ?

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 113

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