History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 120

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 120

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This is the story of the grant and purchase of the territory of the town of Northbridge, save abont one- tenth of its present area, which was annexed to it from Sutton, soon after its incorporation.

While this territory belonged to the original forty- four proprietors of Mendon from the beginning, it was not occupied until after the beginning of the seven- teenth century.

April 1, 1707, there was a " Jacob Aldrich farm," one-half mile below the present Quaker Meeting- House, on the eastern side of "the great river." February 10, 1710, he sold this, with the house on it, to his son, Peter Aldrich, who was perhaps the first resident of what is now Northbridge.

Woodland Thompson owned a large tract of land, including what were afterwards known as the South- wick, the Benson and Wing farms, in 1707, and soon after, if not at that date, began to reside on it.

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Benjamin Thompson, brother of Woodland, owned land on both sides of "the great river," south of the Quaker Meeting-House, as early as 1707, and lived on it as early as 1728. These three were all of Mendon, receiving or buying their land of their fathers, also of Mendon.

George Woodward, of Brookline, bought 120 acres in the west part of what is now Whitinsville, in 1712, and occupied it for several years. He was a school- teacher as well as " Husbandman."

John Aldrich, of Mendon, lived south of the Quak- er Meeting-House, on the east side of the river, as early as 1727.

Seth Terry, of Barrington, Bristol County, clerk, · bought at different times and from different persons, in 1725, '26 and '27, 488 acres of land, "with all the water courses, mines or minerals belonging thereto," which included "the Falls" of Mumford River, in what is now Whitinsville, and at once built a saw- mill, perhaps the first in the town, and "Iron works." He began. or prepared to begin, the manufacture of " refined iron." But he remained here only a few months, as he sold all, including the "saw-mill " and the "iron works" and "all other buildings," to Hugh Hall, of Boston, Jannary 10, 1728.

In 1735 John and James Adams came from Ips- wich and bought land and lived at the "Corner" which has so long borne their name.

The same year Christopher Winter, of Mendon, began to reside on the "Winter place," one-half mile north of what is now Rockdale, on the east side of " Great River."

While these earliest settlers of what is now North- bridge were making their homes in the different parts of the town, a change had taken place in their town relations.

For many years the "Inhabitants of the western part of Mendon " had "laboured under great Diffi- culties, by Reason of their Remoteness from the Place of publick Worship in Said Town." They songht and obtained permission for separation from Mendon, and, on petition to the General Court, were incorporated as a town June 27, 1727. The history of Northbridge is now included in that of Uxbridge for forty-five years. It is evident that those living in the part of the town now Northbridge took their part in all town action, bore their share of the bur- dens and claimed their rights and privileges, although somewhat remote from the centre of the town life, in what was then Uxbridge.

The new town secured preaching from the first, and after considerable fruitless negotiations with Rev. Othniel Cambell and Mr. Jonathan Wales, they voted, June 22, 1730, "to follow the advice of ministers, and give Mr. Nathan Webb a call." They voted £100 "encouragement " and £90 salary "good passable money." The call was accepted, and December 31st it was voted to proceed with the ordination, and to build a pulpit for the meeting-

house. All these questions which are now decided by the parish were then decided in town-meeting. In fact, the town was the parish. While the church had the initiative in calling a minister, as now, the town contracted with and supported him, as the parish does now. The town was the legal body. The town began the meeting-honse in 1728, the next year after it was incorporated. Before this the town-meetings and religious services were held in private houses. The meeting-house was occupied for town-meeting the next May, but it was not fully finished before it gave place to a new house, though we find frequent votes to finish it, and committees raised, and appropriations made for that purpose.

The first mention of schools in the new town is in January, 1731, when it was voted that the town will have a school dame, for the first seven or eight months to keep a school in each part of the town " propor- tionable." The next year it was voted to employ a schoolmaster, John Read, Sr. At the same meeting it was voted to procure a pair of stocks, and a few months after twelve shillings are voted to John Chilson for making them. After this, votes as to the schoolmaster, with appropriations for his pay and his board, are quite frequent. In 1734 we find the town districted or "Squadroned," and it was voted that each squadron select some woman to teach the chil- dren to read, who should be approbated by the select- men. For many years the schools were under the care of these officers. The pay of these teachers came from the "School Fund." This fund was obtained from Mendon, being their part of the fund granted by the colony to that town. After long negotiation and many conferences of committees, it was voted, March 2, 1732, to accept two hundred pounds from Mendon as their part of the school fund. It was increased in 1736 by a gift of five hundred acres of land from the colony. The land was situated in that part of the State which went to New Hampshire in settling the boundary with that State in 1741, and it was thus lost to the town. It had already been sold to parties in the town, from whom it was repurchased when it went into New Hampshire, and it was replaced by a new grant from the colony and was located by a com- mittee of the town, but the records do not show where. This school fund was loaned to individuals, and sometimes great difficulty was experienced in getting the interest. In 1738 it was voted to build the first school-honse near the meeting-house. In 1761 there was another districting of the town in thirteen squad- rons, containing one hundred and sixty -three families, the names of which are given, which is the first list found. In these families there were five hundred and twenty-eight scholars, an average of somewhat more than three for each family. From this we may sup- pose the population was not far from twelve hundred. In the part now Northbridge, as is judged from the names given, there were but forty-one families, in- dicating a population of about three hundred. This

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is the earliest fact found for any estimate of popula- tion.

In 1764 a new squadron of seven families was voted to have their part of the school fund. The school district system thus early established was continned until quite recently.

The first mention of Quakers in the town is on March 6, 1728, when it was voted "not to free the Quakers," probably from the tax to support the preaching. At the close of the records of 1734, the following list of persons, " called Quakers," ap- pears : Seth Aldrich, Benjamin Taft, Peter Aldrich, Seth Aldrich, Jr., Abel Aldrich, Jr. Samuel Taft-six.

It is difficult to learn when the Quakers first came into what is now Northbridge. Whitney, in his " History of Worcester County," published in 1793, says they came into Mendon, of which Northbridge was then a part, as early as 1703. Of Uxbridge he says, in 1793, "one quarter are Quakers and Ana- baptists." In Northbridge he says there are twelve Quaker families.

Probably the first in Northbridge was Peter Al- drich, who was here in 1709. If not he, then Samuel Aldrich, who was here as early as 1738.

We must suppose the Quakers came up the Black- stone Valley from Rhode Island, their early refuge. Many of them settled in the South Parish of Mendon (now Blackstone), and in Uxbridge, and a few pushed up into what is now Northbridge.

With them also came the Anabaptists, who had, like them, found a refuge in Rhode Island. The limit of this immigration was the south part of Grafton.

The Quakers experienced some difficulty from their peculiar tenets as to religion and war, as is manifest from the town records. The first mention of them is the refusal of the town to "free " them from the minister tax.

In the warrant for the meeting for May, 1762, the fifth article reads, " To see if the town will vote not to proceed any further upon, about, or anywise con- cerning a petition that Cap. Solomon Wood [Repre- sentative] exhibited to the great and General Court, last winter, wherein he complains of the Quakers' hard usage upon the captains, concerning a tax laid upon them in the year 1759, for not sending soldiers into the war." At the meeting it was voted, "Not to act at all, any way on the 5th Article, in the warrant, to pass it over not acted on." From this it appears that the Quakers remained true to their principles as to war and were taxed, but that they did not remain quiet under the infliction. They would not perform military duty, and the town was obliged to hire men to fill the quota, because of their exemption, and they complained that their tax to reimburse the colony was unjust and they were unwilling to pay it.

It is remarkable that this is the only reference, in the records of the town, to the French and Indian War, which lasted from 1754 to 1760. But from the

State archives we learn that the town bore a large burden in this war. From the Northbridge part of the town quite surely twenty-six, and probably thirty- five, persons served for forty-five different terms of six months to almost a year. This for a population of not more than three hundred, with not more than sixty of military age, is a very large number. We have no reason to suppose they did more than other towns, And this suggests to us what it cost our fathers to defend their homes and liberties in those early days. All through these years they kept up their military organizations as they had done from the beginning. They had their "Training Field" and training-days. Thus were they being prepared for the more severe struggle of twenty years later, which did not find them, when it came, all unready for it.

March 28, 1728, at one of the first town-meetings of the new town, it was voted "to accept £90 sh. 5, which the General Court had allotted to the town of Uxbridge as their proportion of the £60,000 emitted for the use of the Province," and a trustee was ap- pointed to receive it. It was also voted, "That said money should be let out on good security, not ex- ceeding £5 to any one person." Here is the first mention in our town records of the " Bills of Credit," issued by the province, which were the cause of great derangement in all financial calculations and trans- actions and of the various evils of an irredeemable paper currency. Mr. Joseph Taft strenuously resisted the acceptance of this semblance of money by the town, and entered a written protest, signed by bim- self, Benjamin Taft and Joseph Taft, Jr. Soon the evils of a money that could not be converted into specie began to appear in the larger sums that were voted for town purposes, in the additional sums voted to the minister, in the contributions made for him on the Sabbath. If one wished to mark his contribution it was allowed him in his minister tax, but all un- marked it was voted should be free and clear to Mr. Webb. But it is evident that this gratuity did not make good the depreciation, for presently we see votes to raise from the town additional sums for Mr. Wehb, until May, 1753, when his salary was changed from that first agreed on to £53 6s. 8d., lawful money.

We must suppose this is but a fair example of the derangement and difficulty that occurred in all busi- ness transactions, from the unsettling of nominal valnes.

There are some votes recorded which give interest- ing revelations of the condition of the country, of the customs of the people, and of their feelings on public questions, which seem to be worthy of tran- scription, as

August 15, 1728, it was voted "That unless Mendon be made a shire town as well as Worcester, and have the courts one-half time, they had rather remain in Suffolk Co. as now." They resented the ambition of the new and smaller town of Worcester to have the

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precedence over their older and larger mother town of Mendon.

August 26, 1730, it was voted "The town will not join with County Middlesex in praying for a new county and that they will join in a petition with towns in West Suffolk to make a county there. But all this action is in vain, for Worcester County is con- stituted in 1731, and Uxbridge, then including North- bridge, is a part of it.

September 1, 1730, it is voted to appropriate four pounds to pay for killing wild cats. How long they felt the need of offering this premium for killing beasts of prey we do not know, but May 23, 1751, it was voted not to pay any more bounty for killing wolves.

December 18, 1739, it was voted to raise a commit- tee to see that the law about killing deer be not vio- lated, After this for many years in Uxbridge before the division, and in Northbridge, after it was incor- porated, a " Deer Reave" was chosen with the other town officers. The last was in 1787.

May 28, 1756, it was voted " not to send a repre- sentative (to the General Court) this year." We are surprised at such a vote. But the mystery is cleared when we learn that the town paid the charges of the Representative, and when there was no business of special importance, no town interest to present, they saved the expense and voted not to send one. There are some votes that indicate that in some cases gen- tlemen went to Boston, after a vote not to send a representative, to present to the General Court some interest of the town. These votes are for compensa- tion to certain persons, for what they had done for the town in Boston the previous year. This vote of 1756 not to send a Representative is not the only one; many such follow down into the separate history of North- bridge to 1835. For the first sixty years of this town's history it was voted not to send thirty-seven, and to send twenty-three years. This not sending a Repre- sentative was considered an offence against the colony and Uxbridge was fined ten pounds in 1765 for its first neglect to send one. On petition of the town, on the ground of great impoverishment, by disease, drought and frost, the fine was remitted. Yet we see the neglect frequently occurred in subsequent years.

May 12, 1763, it was voted " that the selectmen for the time being provide a work-house, and a master for said house, and convey all the idle persons there, in case they come to want, and belong to the town." Before this, provision had been made for the poor by boarding them with private families, but this is the first provision for a common house for them with work and a master.

September 1, 1766, it was voted "to allow the Representative to vote to make good the Lieutenant- Governor's damage, lately sustained by the mob in Boston, if he thinks proper upon the best information he can get." This refers to the destruction of Lieu-

tenant-Governor Hutchinson's house in Boston, when the attempt was made to enforce the Stamp Act. It was the first rumble of the storm so soon to burst upon the colony and the land. We notice how the question is referred to the town. Seldom did the General Court act on any important matter, especially one that involved resistance to the oppressive acts of the mother country, without consulting the towns. The people were the sovereigns ; they must support the action of the court, and it is referred to them, if possible, for decision.

We notice, too, how they trust to the discretion of their Representative, saying. "If he think proper upon the best information he can get."

Now for forty years had Uxbridge grown and pros- pered, and in this growth and prosperity the northern portion (now Northbridge) had shared. Others beside those already named came to live here.

Nathan Park came from Newton 1728, and settled near the Quaker Meeting House, and was one of the largest landholders in town and very prominent in town affairs. He was the grandfather of Professor E. A. Park, of Andover Seminary. John Spring settled in the southern part of Northbridge, on the west side of "Great River" in 1736, and was also prominent in town affairs.

Nicholas Baylies, of Cumberland, R. I., and his brother Thomas, of Taunton, who was a " Forger," leased the " Iron Works" at the Falls of Mumford's River, for twenty-one years, of John Merritt, of Bos- ton, in 1739, and resided near their works, which, for many years, went by the name of " Baylies' Forge,"

Andrew Dalrymple settled in what is now Whiting- ville as early as 1743.

Andrew Dunn, " a wheelmaker," lived near Rock- dale in 1743.

Daniel Read settled in the Inman district in 1740.

Thomas Emerson, who came into the neighbor- hood as early as 1751, purchased the water privilege and land at Rockdale in 1765.

The privilege at Riverdale was purchased hy James Nutting, of Grafton, in 1753, and improved by him by the erection of two grist-mills and a saw-mill.

Josiah Wood settled on the "Farnam " place in 1757.

Samuel Goldthwait came from the northeastern part of the colony in 1759, and purchased four hun- dred acres of land between Whitinsville and the Hill, and in the adjacent parts of Sutton, and settled upon it.

Nathaniel Cooper, from Grafton, settled in the part of the town which has since borne his name, in 1763.

David Batcheller, Jr. (Major), came from Upton, in 1767, and settled on Northbridge Hill.

Thus were the several parts of what is now North- bridge settled.

It will be noticed that but few of the families, afterwards prominent in the town, were of the Men-

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don stock. The Mendon migration spent itself mainly in what is now Uxbridge, a few of its fami- lies, as the Aldriches and Winters, coming up the valley of "Great River," into what is now North- bridge, which was so easily accessible. But the more distant parts of the town, as the upper valley of the Mumford, and the high land near Sutton, waited for immigrants from more distant places.

There is evidence that for some years the north part of Uxbridge had had separate interests from the south part. It had come to be called by its own name, "The North End." In 1736 a constable was appointed for the " North End."

In 1753 we find a collector of the minister's tax for each end of the town. We may suppose the desire for a separation had long existed before it secured its object. The expression of this desire was occasioned by the difficulty as to the building of a new meeting- honse.

In June, 1766, an article appears in the town war- rant to see if the town will build a new meeting- house, but it was passed over. Before it comes up at the meeting in October a new difficulty appears. It is manifest that if it cannot be placed in the centre of the town, so as to accommodate those at the " North End," they of the North End do not wish to help in building it, but to be set off as a separate town. To such a division the town will not listen, and the new meeting-bouse must be set near the place of the old one. Nor would the town excuse the North End from their share in the expense of building the new house, nor listen to their petition to be relieved from bearing their part in the support of the minister. After repeated failures to secure their desire from the town, they of the "North End " apply to the " General Court" for relief. Their petition was pre- sented July 1, 1771, praying, on the ground of their distance from the meeting-house, " that they with their families and estates, may be made a separate District, and that they may be entitled to their pro- portionable part of the ministry money, and the Lands granted by the General Court to said Town for their extraordinary expense in building bridges." Uxbridge answered the petition by a committee, but the petition was granted, and, Uxbridge consenting, the North End was incorporated as a " District," with the name of Northbridge, July 14, 1772, and fourteen years later, in 1786, it became a Town, by State law. Though called a " District," it had all the rights and performed all the functions of a Town, except that they were to choose a Representative to the General Court with Uxbridge. The Representative might be from Northbridge or Uxbridge. It was a town in reality, if not in name. Thus Northbridge began its separate life with a population of between four and five hundred, as we infer from the fact that the State census four years later gives four hundred and eighty- one.

In 1780, "John Adams and others," with their

lands, were received from Sutton, they seeking the change because they were so much nearer to North- bridge for religious privileges and town duties. In 1801, Jacob Bassett and others, with their lands, were also received from Sutton. In the act of incorpora- tion it was provided that David Draper and seven others whose homes and lands were included in the given bounds of the "District " of Northbridge, with their heirs, shall be permitted to remain in Uxbridge as long as they so choose. If they desire to become citizens of Northbridge, they have only to notify the authorities of Uxbridge in proper form and they are transferred.

Several of these transfers .took place, creating no little confusion as to town lines. These families were in the "North End " of Uxbridge, and desired their rights as to the new meeting-house in Uxbridge, but they did not desire to be set off as another town or district, and were allowed to remain on these above-stated conditions. Uxbridge let go her hold on the " North End " very reluctantly, refusing Nov., 1772, to remit any of the £40 assessed on them for the support of the minister the year they were set off, and refusing to grant to the "District of Northbridge their proportionable part of the ministerial and town money and lands granted to the town of Uxbridge."

CHAPTER LXIII.

NORTHBRIDGE-(Continued.)

THE NEW TOWN.

THE territory thus set off from Uxbridge, with the few additions afterwards received from Sutton and Uxbridge, is an irregular quadrangle. Its extreme length north and south is about five miles. Its ex- treme breadth, at the southern end, is about five miles. At the northern end it is less than three miles, the eastern line running northeast and south- west. It contains 10,551 acres, a little more than six- teen square miles. The Blackstone River runs through it about one mile from its eastern border. The Mum- ford runs through the southwestern corner. The valley of the Blackstone is from one-half to a mile in width, of desirable intervale land, easy of cultivation and having those natural meadows so much coveted by the early settlers. The land gives quick response to cultivation, but is not strong. The valley of the Mumford is of a similar character, but has less inter- vale for cultivation. A branch of the Mumford runs about one-half mile from the western border of the town, with its deep, narrow valley.

Between these two rivers rises Northbridge Hill, really a broad ridge, with its highest point at the centre, falling off somewhat at the north, but still quite high land. The northern portion of this ridge

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is good, strong farming land, and has been well used for agriculture from the early days of the settlement. These two rivers give several natural water privileges, which have been used from an early day, and have been much improved by the building of reservoirs.

The granite which so abounds, often appearing on the surface as boulders and ledges, has furnished abundant materials for building purposes. The town had a dense growth of wood, and the parts unfavora- ble for tillage are still thickly wooded.

Now legally independent, the people began to care for their own affairs. Their first fourteen town- meetings were at private houses. At the first, at the house of Joseph White, about one mile southeast of the present Northbridge meeting-house, Jonathan Bacon (2d) was moderator, and all the usual town officers were chosen. They early provided them- selves with the ordinances of the gospel, voting, in April, 1773, £20 to hire preaching, to be one-half the time at David Batcheller's, one-half at Amos White's. Soon they plan for a suitable place for public worship, and for the transaction of town busi- ness. " At a meeting of the town, held on the Ist of February, 1773, it was voted to build a meeting-house on the height of the hill." In regard to the location of the meeting-house there was much feeling; some wished to have it on the plain, near the local centre of the town, others wished to have it located near the crossing of the roads, northwest of the residence of Joseph White. Another party maintained that it ought to be "on the height of the Hill." They claimed there was a probability that "a mile and a half of Sutton would come off to Northbridge, and then the Hill would be near the local centre of the town." The hill party carried their point, but at the cost of losing some of the other party in all partici- pation in church life, as they always continued to worship in Uxbridge.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 120

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