History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 127

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 127

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 first act of civil administration (April 1st) ap- pears to have been to build a pound for stray cattle, of stone, twenty-five feet square, with walls five feet high and two and a half feet thick, topped with tim- ber; but this was found too costly, and it was voted (June 18th) "to build the same of timber." A propo- sal to buy a "huering cloth " was negatived ; but provision was made to employ a reading and writing schoolmaster, with committee to provide schooling ; also to raise the school-money, and to provide a jury- list. The sum of £3 16s. was afterwards (November 22d) granted to pay the schoolmaster's board for seven- teen weeks. The rate of a day's wages was fixed at the same date, for men working out their own road- tax, at three shillings for the summer and two shil-

455

NORTHBOROUGH.

lings for the autumn months. The highway rate to repair roads was sixty pounds. For a year's care of the meeting-house was paid 13s. 4d. ; for the day's work of an assessor, eight shillings; for expenses of a delegate to the General Court, £1 Is. 4d.

The following year (July 29, 1767) the district voted-

to joia with the Church in appointiog Thursday, August 13, as a day of fasting and prayer to Almighty God to sanctify His Holy hand in taking away our Pastor (Rev. John Martyu) by Death, and for direction in resettling the Gospel among us again ; and £60 lawful money (are) granted for preaching the Gospel among us. 1

Mr. Martyn had heen settled as pastor of the Second Parish May 21, 1746. He was a son of Cap- tain Edward Martyn, of Boston, where he spent his early life under the care of an excellent mother, who had been left a widow in easy circumstances some time previous to young Mr. Martyn's entering col- lege. He graduated at Harvard University in 1724. For several years after he left college he devoted his attention to secular pursuits, and was for some time an inhabitant of Harvard, in this county. At the age of forty he directed his attention to theological pursuits, and became an able, faithful and useful minister. He possessed, in a large measure, the confidence and af- fections of his flock, was honored in his life and deeply lamented at his death. His age was a little over sixty.

September 21, 1767, the district "concur with the church in giving Mr. Peter Whitney a call to settle as minister and pastor of the church and congregation in Northhorough." The sum of one hundred and sixty pounds was voted " for settlement," to he paid in two installments, at the beginning and end of the first year, and an annual salary was granted of sixty pounds to he paid "in Spanish milled dollars, 6s. each, or in the several species of coined gold and sil- ver," as enumerated. In accepting this proposal Mr. Whitney writes :

I am not insensible of the present scarcity of our Medium, and there- fore I object nothing against your proposed annual support for the first few years, but yet can not suppose it sufficient for my abiding support, and therefore if you are pleased to add to your offered salary the sum of £6 13s. 4d. lawful money, to take place the fifth year from my settling among you, amounting to £66 138. forepeace as a settled yearly support I do then fully accept your invitation, and stand ready to be consecrated to your service (God permitting), when you shall think proper. Gentle- men, I hope (speaking in my fear of God) I have no disposition to build myself ou your Ruins. I desire oeither to be cumbered with abounding riches, nor to be straiteded in my worldly circumstances ; may I hut have what will support me in my office to the honor of Religion.

This manly and straightforward appeal was ac- ceded to ; and it is later recorded, " N. B. what was payed to the Rev. Mr. Whitney before he was ordained is £25 18s. 8d." December, 1779, owing to the de- preciation of the Continental currency, the salary was raised to £2933 6s. 8d .; but was the next year (De- cember 4, 1780) restored to the original amount, pay- able in coin, with the addition of twenty cords of

wood; and the sum of £13 68. 8d. was afterwards (December 27, 1784) voted to cover arrears of loss by depreciation.

Mr. Whitney (son of Rev. Aaron Whitney, the first minister of Petersham) was horn September 17, 1744; graduated at Harvard University in 1762; and was settled as minister of Northborough November 4, 1767. "Distinguished for the urbanity of his man- ners, easy and familiar in his intercourse with his people, hospitahle to strangers, and always ready to give a hearty welcome to his numerous friends ; punc- tual to his engagements, observing an exact method in the distribution of his time, having a time for everything and doing everything in its time, without harry or confusion ; conscientions in the discharge of his duties as a Christian minister ; catholic in his prin- ciples and in his conduct, always taking interest in whatever concerned the prosperity of the town and the interestsof religion, he was for many years the happy minister of a kind and affectionate people. At length, having continned in the work of the ministry almost half a century, he suddenly departed this life Febru- ary 29, 1816, in the seventy-second year of his life and the forty-ninth of his useful ministry."? He was an eager and outspoken advocate of the patriotic ef- forts of '75 and '76, which his father as strongly op- posed, and was the author of a " History of Worcester County," still held in much esteem. Of his ten chil- dren, the most widely known was Rev. Peter Whitney, of Quincy (1800-43, born 1770).

March 1, 1773, the district takes into consideration a pamphlet circulated from Boston, "in which the rights of this Province are stated, and also a list of grievances and infringements of those rights made by Administration at home; " and it is resolved-

that the rights of this people are very justly stated in said pamphlet, and that the grievances and infringements therein pointed out are real and uot imagenary ones, as too many indeavour to insinuate ; [also] that it is the indispensable duty of all men, and all bodies of meu, to unite and streanously to oppose by all lawful ways and means such uojust and un- righteous iacroachments, made or attempted to be made upon their Just Rights, and that it is our duty earnestly to iodcavour to hand those rights dowa inviolate to our posterity as they were handed dowa to us hy our worthy ancestors ; and that the thanks of this District be given to the Towa of Boston for their friendly, serviceable and necessary intelligence, and that they be desired to keep up their watch and guard against all such nujust invaders aud incroachers for the future.

In fulfillment of this resolve, we find that the next year (November 28, 1774) a hundred weight of pow- der and three hundred weight of lead, with two hun- dred and forty flints, are voted for the general de- fence. Soon after (January 9, 1775). the district re- solves to join in sending delegates to the Provincial Congress, " whenever met or wherever met ;" and on the 10th of April (a few days before the hattles of Lexington and Concord) provision is made "to pay fifty minute-men one shilling each for each half-day they shall meet to learn the military art, for sixteen

1 Provision for the support of public worship was made by the State Constitution a town charge until 1833.

2 Allen's "Topographical and Historical sketches of the Town of Northborough," p. 80.

456

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

half-days, beginning March 27." For these objects forty pounds are appropriated, and fifteen pounds ap- pear as "raised and paid." The fifty minute-men, as soon as the tidings came from Lexington, before one o'clock of April 19th, "were directed, without a mo- ment's delay, to put themselves in readiness to march; and in three or four hours from the time when the news arrived they had taken leave of their families and were paraded in the yard of Captain Samuel Wood's house, whence (the Rev. Mr. Whitney having in a fervent prayer commended them to the protec- tion of the God of armies) they immediately set out on their march for the field of danger and blood." Two months later (June 17th) they took part in the battle of Bunker Hill.1

On the 22d of May, 1775, the district warrant still runs in the old way, "In his Majesty's name." The next day, May 23d, we find a summons, "Greeting in the name of the Government and the People of the Massachusetts Bay." But for an interval of some months that followed there is a sort of interregnum; either the warrant issues from the county authorities at Worcester, or the town appears to be acting by its proper sovereignty. The official title "town" first appears in the constable's warrant of June 6, 1775, when a meeting is called "to appoint and chnse a person, if they see fit when meet, to represent the Town in the Grate and General Conrt or Assembly,2 to be convened, held and kept for the service of the Colony at the meeting-house in Watertown, on Wednesday, the 19th day of July next, it being in observance of a Resolve of the Honorable Continen- tal Congress, directing and advising the same." This warrant, and the first exercise of complete town sovereignty in the appointment of its own Representative, mark the date of coming to its full majority. There follow upon the records, from time to time, a few items which we copy, as illustrating the way these little commonwealths toiled through the dreary and disastrous period till the return of peace in 1783 :-

June 3, 1776. Voted that it is the mind of this Towo to he indepen- deut of Great Britain, in case the Continental Congress think proper, and that we are ready with our lives & fortunes if, in Providence, called to defend the same.

July 8. Voted to assist in raising the men that are sent for.

May 22, 1777. Appointed a Committee of three persons chosen for to prevent monopoly and oppression (apparently the first symptom of strin- gency arising from the debasement of Continental money).

June 23. Chose Gillam Bass to take care & lay before the Court the evidence which may be produced against the persons io Northborough who are looked upon by said Town as inimical to this and the United States of America, egreeably to a late directing Act. [The suspected persons are Joho Taylor, Thomas Billings, Silvaous Billings (who made

contrite acknowledgment 8 & was received back into amity hy the Town, May 17, 1781), James Eager, John Eager and Widow Miriam Eager. The estates of four of these were confiscated at the close of the war.]

Jan. 5, 7, 1778. Voted and accepted the Articles of Confederation of the Congress of the United States of America.

April 2 Appointed & Committee to collect clothing for the Continental soldiers (just after the terrible winter et Valley Forge).

April 13. It was voted "to see if they would accept of the form of government [of Massachusetts] as it was settled by the Convention of this State ; and a nnanimons vote passed in the negative."

June 15. It is voted ("according to the secood claws of Warrant") to determine "an everidge of the whole of the publick cost that they have been at, ocationed by the present war, since the 19th of April, 1775, untill this time, and all necessary cost that may in the future arise on account of said war, each one to pay according to bis estate, as in other taxes." The total amount was found to he :

£ s. d. 14 1

Up to June 29, 1778.

.1474

Future costs (estimated) 705

Interest. 42

Clothing 140

Additional, to Sept. 28 .. 222 13 4

Additional, March 8, 1779. 110

2694 - 5

May 17, 1779. It is resolved "that a [State] Constitution, or form of Goveroment, [shall be] made as soon as may be; " and the Town Bepre- sentative is instructed " to vote for the calling of a State Convention for the sole purpose of forming a Constitution."

Sept. 13. Under the pressure of financial distress, the common revolu- tionary expedient is adopted, of fixing a "maximum," or scale of high- est prices to be asked for any commodity : in this scale we find Barley at £4 10 a bushel ; Milk at 2 sh. aquart ; labor of making a pair of shoes, 48 shillings ; other in proportion. As a further indication of the range of prices, we find soon after (Oct. 30, 1780) a grant of " £6000 to pur- chase beef for the army," and (May 17, 1781) "the Town granted the sum of £3300 to pay for three horses " for the public service. Again (March 6, 1780) there is an appropriation of £4000 to be equally divided for the building of a School-house for each of the four " Squadrons."

May 18, 1780. Report of the State Constitution, which is accepted, with the recommendation of four Amendments ; but if these cannot be had, " will accept the Constitution as it stands." [The first of these pro- posed Amendments is that the Governor must belong to some Protestant religious connection ; the others are chiefly certain legal formalities for the ensuring of private justice.]

July 13. Voted & granted the sum of £10,000 to pay seventeen men hired into the service, nine for the term of six months, & eight for the term of three months.

Dec. 28. The town, taking into consideration the hardships undergone by those who had entered into the service of their country, and especially the losses they had sustained by being paid in a depreciated currency, generously voted to raise their quota of meo, and to pay and clothe them at its own expense, allowing them 40 shillings each per month, in hard money, and £21 per year, also in hard money, in addition to their clothes. Six men were called for the following summer, & the Towo granted £122 5s. in hard money ($407.50) to pay' the same ; at this sams time they were required to purchase for the use of the army 3518 lbs. of beef, for which the Town granted £77 in hard money ($256.66). (Previous to June, 1778, it appears that thistown had expended in money and service towards carrying on the war, £1474. 14. 1,-in a Depreciated currency, probably, the precise value of which it is difficult now to de- termine.)

"After the close of the war the embarrassments arising from the want of a circulating medium, when almost all were deeply involved in debt, caused much uneasiness, and led the people to devise measures for their removal." August 7. 1776, Isaac Davis was chosen as a delegate to attend a county convention at Leicester, on the 15th, to whom the following, among other instructions, were given by a committee appointed by the town. The delegate was

1 In this company served as lieutenant "Capt." Timothy Brigham), who had been present, 89 oue of eight volunteers from this precinct, at the attack on Ticonderoga, under Gen. Abercrombie, in 1758. [ remen- ber visiting him with my father, when near his death, at the age of 93. 2 The following are the names of the towo Representatives for nearly fifty years following : 1775-77, Levi Brigham ; 1778, '82, '85, John Ball ; 1779, '80, Paul Newton ; 1783, Seth Rice; 1787-98 (7 years), Isaac Davis; 1800, '01, Nahum Fay ; 1802-26 (18 years), James Keyes.

3 He "ownes that he was nofriendly in not bringing Caleb Green to justice, who was a potorions villio aod an enemy to his country."

457

NORTHBOROUGH.

to use his influence "that the Convention petition his Excellency, the Governor & Council, to call the General Court together in the month of October next at fartherest ; and that the Convention present a humble and decent petition to the General Court to set up & establish a Mint in the Commonwealth, &c." Complaints were also made of the salaries of the civil list being so high, and of various other grievances under which the people labored. The delegate was also to use his influence "that the whole order of Lawyers be annihilated, for we con- ceive them not only to be building themselves upon the ruins of the distressed, but said order has in- creased, & is daily increasing, far beyond any other set or order of men among us, in numbers and af- fluence; and we apprehend they may become ere long somewhat dangerous to the rights & liberties of the people." "There was nothing, however, of the spirit of rebellion or insubordination in the resolu- tions that were passed at this meeting, or in the conduct which followed; and though it appears from the representations of all, that the people generally were reduced to the greatest straits, yet only three or four individuals were found willing to join in the rebellion [Shays'] of that year, and to seek redress by measures of violence." 1

It is likely that this town had its fair share of the suffering of that dismal " critical period of American history " between the close of the Revolutionary War and the adopting of the United States Constitution. But of this there is less evidence on the records 1han we might expect, excepting those troubles from ex- pansion of the currency hinted above. The problem of pauperism, however, now comes up ; and for the first time (November 9, 1789) we hear of a proposal " to see if the Town would vendue the poor off to the lowest bidder." This was negatived, probably from compunction at the novelty of it. But six months later (May 10, 1790) "the same passed in the affirm- ative, and that there be a notification put up and the names of the poor put in, that are to be vendued,"- that is, boarded at the town's expense, where they could be boarded cheapest.2 The ordinary rate was from seventy-five cents to a dollar a week. I remem- ber being present at such a " vendue; " it would be about sixty years ago. In 1835 the town adopted the more humane and decent method of providing a "poor-farm" for those unable to maintain tbem- selves,-not "foreign paupers," but native citizens fallen into poverty or distress. And the number of those so dependent was very small, unless in such ex- ceptional periods as that following the Revolutionary War; thus, in 1826, " only two persons have been a

town charge, the whole expense of maintaining whom, for a year, is less than one hundred dollars."

The wounds of war, and of the years that followed, were at all events soon healed, to judge from a sermon preached June 1, 1796, by Rev. Mr. Whit- ney, in which he says: "The great increase of our members [since 1767, from 82 families to upwards of 110], the remarkable growing wealth and prosperity of this people, must be ascribed to the peace, union and harmony which has subsisted among us. In consid- ering the number of inhabitants (not far from 800), the extent of territory and the distance from the capital, I know not a more wealthy place."3 Mr. Whitney's ardent hope, which he expresses in the same sermou, of a new and "respectable meeting- house," which, as he says, " proclaims the opulence of the place and encourages population," was ful- filled twelve years later, in 1808, when the present "First Parish " meeting-house was erected, at a cost of eleven thousand five hundred dollars, a large sum and a handsome building for its day.

CHURCHES .- Throughout Mr. Whitney's term of service, of forty-nine years, and for more than fitteen years afterward, "the ministry had not only a permanent, it had also a secular character, which it has greatly lost. In a sense easily enough under- stood, though not at all familiar, the Town WAS the parish ; the town's people WERE the congregation. In a harmless and neighborly way, Church and State (in those narrow boundaries) were one."* So little were modern sectarian differences felt, that in the choice of Mr. Whitney's successor, in 1816, although the liberal movement in theology was well pro- nounced, only eleven votes out of one hundred and eight were cast against the settlement of the candi- date chosen, who was understood to be in full sympathy with that movement. This was Joseph Allen (Har- vard University, 1811, D.D. 1848), whose ministry, as sole or senior pastor, lasted more than fifty- six years, till his death, February 23, 1873. For eleven years of this period the parish was undi- vided. In 1827 a Baptist Church was gathered; 5 and in 1832 " the Second Congregational Society was formed (under Rev. Samuel Austin Fay) by those of stricter orthodox or evangelical faith : the original members were Asaph Rice and 34 others.6 And the next year, that is, on the 11th of November, 1833, the old 'Third Article of the Bill of Rights' was repealed; the citizen was relieved from all legal ob-

1 The paragraphs marked as quotations are from Dr. Allen's History of Northborough ("Sketches ").

2 In March, 1817, " Mary Rice was put up at vendue," and struck off to Joseph Carruth at 88 cents, clothing and doctoring to be found by the town.

3 Cupied io a discourse by Rev. A. S. Galvin, of Worcester, on occa- sion of erecting a memorial tablet to Peter Whitney, in the First Parish meeting-house of Northborough, May 20, 1888.

4 From a memorial discourse by tho present writer, given in the First Parisb meeting-house on occasion of erecting a tablet to the mem- ory of Joseph and Lucy Clark Allen, October 30, 1887. .

5 Church reorganized, and its present bouse of worship built, in 1860. 6 The first meeting-house of this society, on the Boylston Road, is now occupied by the " Allen Home School," under the charge of Ed- ward A. H. Allen. Their present commodious and handsome building, I ia the village, was erected in 1846.

458

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ligation to pay for the support of any church, and the voluntary system, as we have it now, came into full play." Since then, to meet the wants of the increasing Roman Catholic population (partly French Canadian), a succession of "visiting clergy " began in 1850, which resulted in the building of St. Rose's Church, a handsome edifice, which was dedicated May 3, 1885.1

Much the longest pastorate was that of Rev. Jos- eph Allen, which extended over fifty-six years. He was born in Medfield, Mass., August 15, 1790. His early home was on the farm that for five genera- tions, since 1648, had been owned and tilled by his ancestors; his grandfather, a man of note and of amazing bodily strength, had held a King's com- mission in the colonial militia ; his father had en- listed as a boy of sixteen in the Continental army, and endured some of the hardships of the later Revolutionary campaigns and of Shays' Rebellion. From a constitution impaired by early studies, pru- dent regimen had built him up to an even and active condition of health, which kept sonnd till past the age of eighty. His ordination as " minis- ter of the town " was October 30, 1816. He mar- ried, February 3, 1818, Lucy Clark, daughter of Professor Henry Ware, of Harvard University, to whose intelligent and devoted co-operation much of the character of his ministry was due. His work was especially effective in the department of public and general education. His death was on the 23d of February, 1873. A tablet was erected by his children in the parish meeting-house to the memory of both their parents, and dedicated October 30, 1887.2

The next longest of the later pastorates was that of Rev. Samuel Stanford Ashley (b. May 12, 1819; d. October 5, 1887). He was born in Cumberland, R. I., the eldest of eleven children ; educated at Oherlin, Ohio; settled first in Fall River, Mass., and, in 1852, in Northborough. In 1864 he en- gaged in the army-service of the United States Christian Commission. In this capacity he was noted for absolute fearlessness in his humane ser- vice on the battle-field. At the close of the war he was employed by the American Missionary Asso- ciation to serve among the freedmen at Hampton, Va., and afterwards in North Carolina, where he was a member of the Constitutional Convention and Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1881

he was appointed acting president of Straight Uni- versity in New Orleans; but, suffering here from yellow fever, returned to the North. From 1874 to 1878 he was in the employ of the Missionary Asso- ciation in Atlanta, Ga .; but failing health obliged him to return to country life and occupation in his former home. Here he resided as a useful, honored and public-spirited citizen, actively interested in the town library, the public schools, and the cause of temperance, until his sudden death from heart com- plaint, in 1887. He was, says a warm and grateful testimonial of the library trustees, "in health or sickness, in season or out of season, unfailing in his efforts for the interest of the charge given him." 3

SCHOOLS .- Before the public provision, made in 1766, private instruction had been maintained in the precinct by voluntary contributions (see below). In 1770 the district (not yet a town) was divided into four " squadrons " for school purposes ; and, in 1780, an appropriation of £1000 was made to each squad- ron for the erection of a school-house. The whole sum (which was extremely "soft ") amounted in hard money to only £52 6s. Sd., made up afterwards to £163 13s. 4d. There were afterwards six school dis- tricts ; and, sixty or eighty years ago, there was no great disparity of numbers among them; now, proh- ably, more than half the population are gathered about the centre. In 1837 a two-story brick school- house was built for the central district. Again, about 1865, more definite steps were taken towards the sys- tem of graded schools, and, in 1878, a neat high school building was erected on the Common near the meeting-house.

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 127

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