History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 148

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 148

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Edwin Rice, the son of Shepard, is the subject of this sketch. He received such an education as the schools of his native town were able to furnish supple- mented by that which his native gifts fortunately

enabled him to acquire. After leaving school, with the other boys in his neighborhood he naturally drifted into the shoe establishments of Brookfield, then extensive and flourishing, to learn the business of manufacturing shoes and to prepare himself for active life. He soon, however, found the field into which he had entered too narrow for his restless spirit and on the 20th of April, 1841, he went to Boston and engaged in the retail furniture business in part- nership with David Walker. This enterprise proved unsuccessful and the end of six months found the concern insolvent. The creditors offered a settlement at a large discount on their indebtedness which Mr. Rice refused and after a year's hard work as Sheriff's keeper and in other occupations he liquidated the entire liabilities of the concern and acquired a repu- tation for industry and integrity which he has retained through life.

In 1845 he was appointed constable by Thomas A. Davis, the mayor of Boston, and held that officer's warrant not far from twenty-five years. His prompt- ness in the despatch of business, his accurate and in- telligent methods, and above all his thorough honesty in all his dealings made him a popular officer. Among the leading lawyers of Court Street, Sohier and Welch, Hubbard and Watts, Fiske and Rand, Whiting and Russell, Hutchins aud Wheeler, Whitman and Davis, and other attorneys, too numerous to mention, en- trusted him with their business, and his income from this source enabled him to make investments in real estate, in which he has found a profitable account. In 1851 he was commissioned by Governor Boutwell as coroner, and the business of that office, by no means insignificant, was added to his regular occupation as constable. This office he held about ten years, and he has since devoted his full time to the management of his real estate and other properties of which he has become possessed.

When Mr. Rice came to Boston, in 1841, he settled in East Boston, and during the forty-seven years which have since elapsed he has lived within fifty feet of his present residence iu Saratoga Street. At that time the population of East Boston was about one thousand, and there are now living on the island only four fam- ilies that were living there then.

Mr. Rice married March 5, 1838, Frances L. Muzzy, of Brookfield, by whom he had no children. His sec- ond wife was Abbie E. Brigham of Boston, daughter of Major Franklin Brigham, of Lancaster, whom he married August 13, 1878. He has an only child, Ed- win Brigham Rice, who was born December 5, 1879.

Mr. Rice has never sought political preferment, and has declined all participation in the management of enterprises, in which he did not have a substantial interest. He is a large owner in the Quincy Mining Company, and as one of its directors makes an annual visit to its properties in Michigan. He is an en- thusiastic Mason, an active member of Joseph Webb Lodge of Boston, and also a member of the National

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Lancers. He is connected with the Unitarian Society of East Boston, having been brought up in a liberal faith. His father was active in the settlement of a Universalist church in Brookfield, and from Univer- salism to Unitarianism was an easy transition for the son.

Mr. Rice, at the age of seventy-one, is still active in mind and body, and with the enjoyment of a handsome competence, acquired by his own skill and energy and of a happy home, he has apparently many years yet before him of usefulness and content.

CHAPTER LXXX.

NORTH BROOKFIELD.

BY WILLIAM T. DAVIS.

NORTH BROOKFIELD is substantially the Second Precinct of Brookfield, which was incorporated March 28, 1750. The petitioners for a separate precinct in the northeasterly part of Brookfield having failed to secure an act of incorporation in 1749, presented a petition at the next session of the General Court in 1750, in which they stated as follows :

That your petitioners nader our unhappy and remote situation from the place of public worship in said towa having often petitioned the town for relief either by building a meeting-house at or near the centre of the town as it now lies or to set us off as a distinct parish as per our former petitions may appear ; but being often denied our request which we thought most reasonable; the town at last made a grant to the inhabitants of the said part of the town that they with such as would join with them-they entering their names or sending them to the town clerk in writing within the space of three months from the date of the grant, should be set off as a distinct Parish-provided they and their possessions did not exceed one-third part of said town for quantity and quality as per the vote or grant of the town may appear ; upoa which vote or grant we agreed to build a handsome frame for the public worship of God ; and in April last we preferred a petition to this Hon- ored Court so agreeable (as we thought) to the town's vote that none would oppose it ; but to our surprise we found such opposition from the town and some of our petitioners that caused us to desist the proceeding i and being willing to do anything reasonable to satisfy our disaffected brethren we covenaated and agreed for their satisfiction to be at the cost of a committee of uninterested worthy gentlemen mutually chosen who have been upon the spot and heard the pleas and viewed the pro- posed parish and have returned their judgment that the house stands just and reasonable to accommodate them as well as ourselves as per their retura and the covenants we entered into may appear. Therefore yonr petitioners pray that this Honored Court will incorporate us who have retnraed onr naaies to the towa clerk agreeable to the vote of the town into a distinct l'arish and invest us with parish privileges; granting also a liberty of others joyneing with us (not to exceed one-third part of the town as abovesaid) for the space of two years or eighteen mouths or as this Honored Court sball think meet; And your petitioners further pray that one-third part of the lands in said town seqnestered to ministry and school nse or the incomes thereof may be set over and secured to us. and also that the town of Brookfield abate or reimburse to your peti- tioners aad such as join with them their proportion of a tax lately assessed on our polls and estates for the settlement and ordination charges of the Rev. Mr. Elisha Harding and the repairs of the old meeting-house amounting in the whole to about twelve hundred pounds old tenor currency more or less. And your petitioners as io duty bound shall ever pray.

This petition was signed by Thomas Hale, Wm. Ayres, Ebenezer Witt and fifty-four others, and the

record of the General Court contains the following order :

That the prayer of the petitionera he so far granted as that they with their families and estates, together with such persons and their estates who shall within three months from this time signify that desire therefor ander their hands to the clerk of the town of Brookfield, he and they hereby aro set off a Distinct Parish and are endowed with all the privileges and subjected to all the duties which the other inhabit- ants of Parishes are by the laws of the Province endowed with or sub- jected to-Provided their possessions do not exceed one-third part of the said town of Brookfield for quantity and quality.

THOMAS HUBBARD, Speaker pro tempore. In Council March 23, 1756, Read and Concurred. SAMUEL HOLDROOK, Dep. Secy.

Consented to

S PHIPPS.

After the incorporation of the Second Precinct the Second Parish was organized at the house of Jabez Ayres, Monday, May 21, 1750, by the choice of Capt. Wm. Ayres moderator, Capt. Wm. Ayres precinct clerk and Capt. Wm. Ayres, Capt. Ebenezer Witt, Samnel Gould, Noah Barns and Benjamin Adams precinct committee. Thomas Bartlett was choseu treasurer, Joseph Stone collector, and Wm. Ayres, Samuel Gould, Wm. Witt, Jason Bigelow and Moses Ayres were made assessors. The frame of a meeting- house was reared April 5, 1749, before the act of in- corporation had been secured, and, though occupied, it was not completed for some years. Rev. Eli For- bush or, as he afterwards called himself, Rev. Eli Forbes, was invited to settle as pastor, and was or- dained June 3, 1752. Mr. Forbes was born in West- borough in 1726, and graduated at Harvard in 1751. During his collegiate career he enlisted in the army to engage in the French war, but returned to Cam- bridge, and graduated seven years after he entered as freshman. During his pastorate he was for a time an Indian missionary, and established a church and school among the Oneidas. He was dismissed at his own re- quest March 1, 1775, in consequence of certain in- dignities resulting from an undeserved suspicion of his disloyalty to the patriot cause. He was installed over the First Church in Gloucester June 5, 1776, and died in his pastorate in that town December 15, 1804.

The next settled minister was Rev. Joseph Apple- ton, of Ipswich, who was ordained October 3, 1776, and died in the pastorate July 25, 1795. Mr. Apple- ton came from a good stock. He was descended from Samuel Appleton, who was born in Little Walding- field, County of Suffolk, England, in 1586, and was the seventh in descent from John Apulton, of Great Waldingfield, who was living in 1396, Samuel Apple- ton came to New England about 1635, and settled in Ipswich, where he had a grant of lands. He married Mary Everard, who came to New England with her husband and probably her children-John, Samuel, Sarah, Judith and Martha. Samuel, the second son, was born at Little Waldingfield in 1624, and during the career of Andros, in New England, he took a de- finite and influential stand against him. He married

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NORTH BROOKFIELD.

Hannah Paine, and had Hannah, Judith and Sam- uel. By a second wife, Mary Oliver, whom he mar- ried December 8, 1656, he had John, Isaac, Oliver and Joannah. Isaac Appleton, one of the above chil- dren, born in 1664, married Priscilla Baker, and had Priscilla, Mary, Isaac, Elizabeth, Martha and Re- becca. Isaac Appleton, one of the above, born in Ips- wich in 1704, married Elizabeth Sawyer, of Wells, in the State of Maine, and had Isaac, Francis, Elizabeth, Samuel, Thomas, John, Daniel, William, Mary and Joseph. Joseph, the youngest child, graduated at Brown University in 1772, and was settled in North Brookfield soon after he had completed his studies for the ministry. He married Mary Hook and had the following children, all of whom were born in Brook- field-Phineas, born in 1779, who died in 1800; Jo- seph, born in 1781, and died in 1793; Abigail Ellery, born in 1784; William, Sarah Hook and Mary Ann. William, the youngest son, was born in that part of Brookfield which is now North Brookfield, November 16, 1786, and died in Brookline, Mass., February 15, 1862. He came to Boston in 1807, and after a short career of preparation for mercantile pursuits he ad- vanced step by step until he occupied a place in the front rank of Boston merchants. He was the presi- dent of the Branch Bank of the United States from 1832 to 1836 and a member of Congress from 1851 to 1855, and in 1861-62. He was also president of the Provident Association, and was a large benefac- tor of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was a benefactor also of his native town, and as a memorial of him therefore, as well as of his father, this sketch has been introduced into this narrative. On the 16th of March, 1859, he gave to the church and parish, over which his father had ministered, a considerable num- ber of books and the sum of $5000 for the purpose of establishing a Parish Library. He provided that the sum of $2000 should be kept as a permanent fund, and that the remainder, with the income of the fund, could be expended in the purchase of books and paying the current expenses of the library. The parish accepted the gift, and voted that the library should be called "The Appleton Library." It was also voted that the pastor for the time being and four other persons, chosen by the parish, should compose a board of trustees to have the library in charge. The original board consisted of Rev. Dr. Thomas Snell, the succes- sor of Rev. Joseph Appleton, Rev. Christopher Cush- ing, Charles Adams, Jr., Dr. Joshua Porter, Bonum Nye and Gideon B. Dewing. The chapel was en- larged to receive the library, and, at the present time, there are nearly five thousand volumes on its shelves.

Rev. Thomas Snell, the successor of Mr. Appleton, was ordained June 27, 1798, and continued as sole pastor until September 17, 1851, and senior pastor afterwards until his death, May 4, 1862. His salary, which was objected to by some at the time of his set- tlement as too large, never during the sixty-four years of his pastorate exceeded five hundred dollars. Dr.

Snell was an early and earnest advocate of the estab- lishment of Amherst College, and in .1828 received from that institution the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He was born in Cummington, Mass., November 21, 1774, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1795. He taught an academy at Haverhill one year before going to Brookfield and was licensed to preach by the Tol- land Association October 3, 1797. He delivered an oration at Brookfield July 5, 1813; a sermon on the completion of his fortieth year in the ministry in 1838, with a short history of the town ; a sermon on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination in 1848; an his- torical address containing a sketch of North Brook- field in 1850, and another containing a sketch of his own church in 1852. During his pastorate a new meeting-house was built in 1823 and dedicated Janu- ary 1, 1824. The house was remodeled in 1842, lengthened twenty feet in 1853 and re-dedicated Jan- uary 18, 1854, and again remodeled in 1874.

Rev. Christopher Cushing was installed as colleague with Dr. Snell September 17, 1851, and after his death continued as sole pastor until his dismissal, Septem- ber 17, 1868. Mr. Cushing was born in South Scitu- ate (now Norwell), Mass., and after graduating at Yale in 1844, entered the Andover Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1847. He became secre- tary of the American Congregational Union in May, 1867, sixteen months before his dismissal. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Amherst Col- lege in 1871 and died in Cambridge October 23, 1881.

The successor of Mr. Cushing was Rev. Gabriel H. De Bevoise, who was installed September 17, 1868, and dismissed in 1880. After leaving North Brookfield he was installed at Leominster in 1881.

Rev. Sedgwick P. Wilder, born at Newfane, Vt, May 28, 1847, graduated at Yale Theological Seminary in 1875 and was installed June 24, 1880.

No other religious society existed in North Brook- field before its incorporation as a town. The Congre- gational Church was the nucleus of the town, and in order to make its sketch complete it must necessarily include that part of its history which lies back of the incorporation. The act incorporating the town was passed February 28, 1812. At a meeting of the parish held in 1810 it was voted to petition the Legislature for an act of separation and a committee was chosen for the purpose consisting of Daniel Gilbert, Jason Bigelow, Luke Potter, Aaron Forbes and Jacob Kit- tredge. Under the direction of this committee the following petition was drawn up and presented :

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled :

The Inhabitants of the Second Precinct in Brookfield humbly pray that they may be set off from the other precincts in said town, and be incorporated into a Township by the name of North Brookfield; and that the territorial limits of such incorporation may be the same as tbese, & hereby tbe said Precinct is now designated.

And the said Inhabitants would beg leave furtber to state that from the extensive limits of said town, it being separated into three distinct precincts, together with the necessary mode of transacting the business of the same by annual rotation in each Precinct, they not only find the

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

distance of travel hurdensome, but in considering the transacting of their parochial concerns a two-fold labor and expeuse ; That the of_ ficers of said town are of necessity distant from the centre, and that from the number of its inhabitants and the multiplicity of the business of the said town the term of one day insufficient for transacting the eame.

This petition not meeting with success, another was presented to the Legislature April 15, 1811, which was signed by Jason Bigelow, Wm. Ayres (2d), Ezra Batcheller, Luke Potter, Daniel Gilbert, Hugh Cun- ningham and Amos Bond, committee. As a result of this second effort, the following act of incorpora- tion was passed February 28, 1812 :

ACT OF INCORPORATION.

SECT. 1. Be it enacted, etc. That all that part of the town of Brook field which has been heretofore called and known by the name of the Second or North Parish (excepting that part of said territory now lying south of the post-road leading from Worcester through Spencer to Springfield), together with the inhabitants thereon, be, and the same is hereby incorporated into a separate town by the name of NORTH BROOKFIELD. And the said town of North Brookfield is hereby vested with all the powers and privileges, and sball also he subject to all the duties to which other corporate towus are entitled and subjected by the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth.

SECT. 2. Be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of the said town of North Brookfield shall be entitled to hold such proportion of all the personal property now belonging to and owned in common hy the io_ habitants of the town of Brookheld, as the property of the said in- habitants of North Brookfield bears to the property of all the inhabi- tants of the town of Brookfield, according to the last valuation thereof.

SECT. 3. Be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of the said town of North Brookfield shall be holden to pay all arrears of taxes due from them, together with their proportion (to he ascertained as afore- said) of all the debts now due and owing from the said town of Brook field, or which may be hereafter found due and owing hy reason of any contract or other matter and thing heretofore entered into, or now ex- isting.

SECT. 4. Be it further enacted, That the said town of North Brook- field shall he holden to support their proportion of the present poor of the town of Brookfield, which proportion shall be ascertained by the present valuation of the town ; end all persons who may hereafter be- come chargeable, as panpers, to the town of Brookfield and North Brookfield, shall be considered as belonging to that town, on the terri- tory of which they had their settlement at the time of passing this act, and shall in future be chargeable to that town only.

SECT. 5. Be it further enacted, That the said towo of North Brook- field shall be holden to pay their proportion of all State, town and county taxes assessed on the inhabitants of the said town of Brook- field, until a new valuation shall be made of the said Towns. Provided, That the said town of North Brookfield shall be holden, until the further order of the Legislature, to pay to the town of Brookfield such proportion of any of the expenses of maintaining the bridges end causeways over the rivers in the town of Brookfield, as a committee of the Court of Sessions for the county of Worcester sball determine; end said Court of Sessions are hereby authorized, on application of either of the inhabitants of Brookfield or North Brookfield, from time to time, to appoint a committee for the above purpose, whose report, made to end accepted hy said court, shall be binding on the said towns.

SECT. 6. Be it further enacted, That any Justice of the Peace for the county of Worcester, upon application therefor, is hereby authorized to issue his warrant, directed to any freeholder in the said town of North Brookfield, requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants thereof to meet at such time and place as shall be appointed in said warrant, for the choice of such officers as towns are by law required to choose at their annual town-meetings.

February 20, 1818, the Legislature passed an act to provide for the repeal of the fifth section of the above act, as follows :

Be it enacted, that Austin Flint, of Leicester, Nathaniel Jones, of Barre, and Joseph Cummings, of Ware, are hereby appointed a commit- tee to hear and consider the claim of Brookfield on the one part, end uf North Brookfield on the other ; and finally to determine whether the

town of North Brookfield ought in future to pay any part of the ex- penses of maintaining the bridges and causeways in the towo of Brook. field. . . .

SECT. 2. Be it further enacted, That from and after the time the re- port of said committee, shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the said fifth Section of said Act incorporating the town of North Brookfield, shall be repealed ; and the duties and li- abilities of said North Brookfield, resulting from the said section, chall altogether cease. .. .

The first town-meeting was held on Tuesday, March 10, 1812, and Daniel Gilbert was chosen moderator, and Moses Bond town clerk. The destruction by fire of the town records renders it impossible to either present in this narrative a list of selectmen and moderators of town-meetings and other officers or to make such extracts as would be desirable in portray- ing the life of the town. The first town-house was built in 1833. Before that time town-meetings had been held in the Congregational Church, as was the universal custom in the early days of New England towns, when the town and the parish were one and the same. Indeed, the meeting-house derives its name from the fact that it was the general meeting- place of the people. The first town-house in North Brookfield was not built by the town, but was owned by a company called the North Brookfield Town- House Company, and occupied by the parish and the town for town-meetings, schools and other purposes. This house was burned in the winter of 1846, and in 1847 a town-house was built by the town which was burned October 14, 1862, with all the records of the town and the books of the North Brookfield Savings Bank, whose treasurer, Hiram Knight, was also the clerk of the town. In 1863 the present building was erected at a cost of ahout twenty thousand dollars.

Though we are unable to furnish a list of town officers and thus show who, in the different genera- tions, have been the men to whom the municipal in- terests have been confided, the following list of repre- sentatives to the General Court, covering for the most part a period when offices sought the men and not men the offices, will, to a considerable extent, make np the deficiency. It is taken from the State Register and the manual of the General Court, and is believed to be correct,

The following persons have represented North Brookfield in the General Court wholly or in part since its incorporation in 1812:

1813. Thomas Hale.

1829. Wm. Adams.

1814. Noue.

1830. None.

1815. None.

1831. Tyler Batcheller.

1816. None.

1832. John Bigelow.

1817. Thomas Halo.

1833. Junathea Cary.

1818. None.

1834. Eli Forbee.

1819. None.

1835. Tyler Batcheller.

1820. Daniel Gilbert.

Oliver Ward.

1821. None.

1836. Wm. Adams.

1822. None.

Joseph A. Moore.

1823. Charles Henshaw.

1837. Kittredge Hill.

1824. None.

1838. Chauncey Edmunds.

1825. None.

Pliny Nye.

1826. None.

1839. Joseph A. Moore.

1827. Eli Forbes. Freeman Walker.

1828. Wm. Adams.

1840. Freeman Walker.

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NORTH BROOKFIELD.

1841. Ezra Batcheller.

1850. Charles Adams, Jr.

1842. None. 1861. Charles Adams, Jr.

1843. None. 1852. Charles Adanis, Jr.

1844. Hirami Edson.

1853. John Hill.

1845. None.

1854. None.

1847. Noue.

1855. A. L. Poland.

1848. Amasa Walker.

1856. Levi Adams.

1849. Amasa Walker. 1857. Warren Tyler.

By an amendment of the Constitution adopted by the Legislatures of 1856 and 1857, and ratified by the peo- ple May 1, 1857, it was provided that a census of the legal voters in the Commonwealth on the 1st of May, 1857, should be taken and returned to the Secretary of the Commonwealth on or before the last day of June, on the basis of which the Legislature should provide for the creation of representative districts. Under this arrangement North Brookfield and Brook- field constituted the twelfth Worcester Representative District, and were represented as follows:

1858. Amasa Walker, of North Brookfield. 1859. Luther Stowell, of Brookfield.

1860. J. H. Jenks, of North Brookfield.

1861. Charlea Fales, of Brookfield.

1862. Charles Adams, Jr., of North Brookfield.

1864. Edward J. Russell, of North Brookfield.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 148

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