History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 196

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 196

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David McFarland, late of Worcester, and Eliza, resid- ing with her brother, Rev. Daniel P., in Melrose; 9. Rebecca, born November 13, 1778, married Lebbeus Turner, from Bennington, Vt., and had in Leicester, Stillman, now deceased, Jernsha, now in Spencer- town, N. Y., Caroline, wife of Dexter Converse, and Roxana, wife of Thomas Wall, all now deceased.

Salem6 and Nancy (Walker) Livermore had in Leicester these nine children :

1. Mary, born August 25, 1795; died September 6, 1841; married Jonathan Warren, and had, in Lei- cester, Jonas L. Warren, formerly railroad station agent at Rochdale; now in Shirley.

2. Sarah, born Angnst 31, 1797; died May 1, 1827 ; married, Angust 10, 1823, Samnel Bottomly (his first wife), and had a danghter, Sarah, who married a Schofield.

3. Nancy, born October 13, 1800; died December 27, 1875; married, first, Moses Rockwood, of Grafton, and had John, Angeline and David Rockwood; married, second, February, 1837, Stephen Adams, and had in Paxton, Maria, June and Aaron Adams.

4. Hannah, born May 21, 1804; died July 29, 1836; married, Jannary 9, 1828, Samuel Bottomly, and had, in Cherry Valley, Cornelia, Sarah, Levinah and Nancy Bottomly.

5. Thomas, born September 7, 1805; died vonng.

6. Salem, Jr., born April 23, 1809; died in Roch- dale Village March 4, 1865 ; married, November 26, 1833, Roxa Darling, their only child being their son, Thomas Salem Livermore, born July 22, 1836 ; mar- ried, September 26, 1871, Mary Symons, daughter of John H. and Sarah (Crossley) Symons, of Rochdale, and owns and occupies the homestead erected by his father in Rochdale Village, nearly opposite the rail- road depot.

7. Seraph, twin of Salem, Jr., born April 23, 1809; married James Hollingsworth, and died April 4, 1832.

8. Tamason, born May 28, 1812; married Liberty Beers, and died February 8, 1840.

9. Moses, born March 11, 1815; died June 20, 1854; resided on his grandfather's old place, near Auburn.

Rev. Daniel P. Livermore, son of Daniel5 and Betsy (Packer) Livermore, of Leicester, is a Uni- versalist clergyman in Melrose, ordained in 1841. He married, May 6, 1845, Mary, danghter of Timo- thy and Zebiah Vose (Ashton) Rice, of Boston ; since that time distinguished as an eloquent lecturer and speaker on temperance, women's rights and other reforms. Their two surviving children are: Mary Elizabeth and Henrietta W., the latter wife of John Oscar Norris, master of East Boston High School.

Dexter and Caroline (Livermore) Converse resided in Leicester, near Charlton, where they had a family of twelve children, among their sons being Edmund, Harrison and Lebbeus T. Converse, of Worcester.

Salem 7 Livermore, Jr., like his father and grand- 47₺

father before him, was a carpenter, as well as a thrifty and industrions farmer and operator in real estate, in which kinds of business Salem, Jr., is well repre- sented by his son, Thomas S. Livermore, who suc- ceeded to and improves upon the five hundred acres of land in Leicester, Oxford and Auburn, including the homestead at Rochdale Village, on which he re- sides with his mother. Jonas5 Livermore, Jr., was originally a Baptist, one of the pillars of the old Greenville Church; his son, Salem, Sr., was a Uni- versalist, as well as the latter's brother Daniel, and Salem, Jr., was a member of the Episcopal Church at Rochdale.

Thomas S. Livermore has a specialty in the musical line, having officiated in a choir since he was fourteen years of age, and for the past few years he has been chorister and organist of the Unitarian Church at Leicester.

CHAPTER XCV.

CHARLTON.

BY HON. RUFUS B. DODGE.

THE town of Charlton is situated in the south- westerly part of the county, about thirteen miles from Worcester, and may with good reason be called one of the "hill towns." The surface is very uneven, and it has within its limits the highest land in the south part of the county. The Boston and Albany Railroad runs through the north part of the town, and the highest point on that road is a short distance east of Charlton Depot. The highest land in the town is the summit of the hill called Little Mngget, a short distance southeast of the depot. The large hill east of Charlton Centre, known as Mngget, and formerly called Mashey Mngget, affords a better view of the surrounding country, and has for that reason, perhaps, been considered by many higher land. There are several other hills in the town nearly as high as the ones mentioned, and a uumber of broad, deep valleys. About three-fourths of the present territory of the town was formerly a part of Oxford, and was set off from that town in 1755. The re- mainder was a part of a tract of land adjoining the town of Oxford on the north, said to contain ten thousand acres, of which no persons had obtained a grant, and that had not been included in any of the adjoining towns when incorporated and called the "Country Gore." About seven thousand acres of this tract was annexed to Charlton in 1757. The part taken from Oxford contained about twenty-three thousand five hundred acres. In 1788 abi ut three hundred acres, aud in 1807 about forty acres were taken from the southeast corner of the town and set to Oxford. In 1792 a small tract of land was taken from

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the southwest corner of the town and set to Stur- bridge; and in 1816 about three thousand acres were taken from the same part of the town to form a part of the town of Sonthbridge. On this latter tract was valuable water-power afforded by the Quinebang River. No alterations have since been made in the town lines, althongh in 1831 an attempt was made to have a large tract from the east part set to Oxford. The project met with strong opposition from a large majority of the inhabitants of the town and was de- feated. According to a survey made since the last tract was set off the town now contains a little over twenty-seven thousand acres, and is exceeded by few, if any, of the towns of the county in area of terri- tory.

It has been said that the soil of the part taken from Oxford was considered as inferior in quality, and for that reason did not attract settlers, but the manner in which the land was held accounts sufficiently for its tardy settlement.

All the land formerly belonging to Oxford had been granted in 1683 to Daniel Cox and others. Abont twelve thousand acres on the east part of the grant was allotted to settlers and called the village; the remainder was re-erved by the proprietors .. In 1788 Daniel Cox and Robert Thompson, of London, Joseph Dudley, of Roxbury, William Stoughton, of Dor- chester, John Blackwell, of Boston, and Thomas Freake, of Hannington, England, were the owners of all the grant lying west of what was called the village line. In that year a survey and division of the land was made. According to this survey, the tract con- tained thirty thousand acres. By the terms of the deed of partition, Joseph Dudley took six thousand acres on the south side of tract, extending from the village line on the east to Sturbridge on the west. John Blackwell took an equal quantity of land north of and adjoining Dudley's lot. William Stoughton took a like quantity of land north of Blackwell's. North of Stoughton's land Blackwell took a second lot of about seventeen hundred acres. North of Black- well's second lot Daniel Cox took about twenty-six hundred acres. North of the lot taken by Cox, Thomas Freake took abont seventeen hundred acres. Robert Thompson had the remaining let, which contained six thonsand acres, and lay between Freake's lot and the "Conntry Gore." When Dudley was incorporated, in 1731, the six thousand acre tract of Joseph Dudley was included in that town. All the other tracts, with the exception of a strip of each, one mile wide, bor- dering on the village line, were taken from Oxford to form the district of Charlton. Mary Wolcott, of Salem, became the owner of the Freake land, and in 1730 sold it to Edward Kitchen, of the same place, who cansed the land to be divided into one hundred acre lots, and soon commenced disposing of his land to settlers. In October, 1733, Ebenezer McIntire, of Lynn, and Obadiah McIntire, of Salem, each por- chased one of these lots, and they were probably the

first settlers of the town. Daniel McIntire and Eleazer McIntire both purchased land of Kitchen soon after- wards. The two tracts of land that Blackwell had by the division were sold by his heirs, in 1720, to Captain Peter Papillion, of Boston. In 1727 they were divided into lots of suitable size to sell to settlers, and in 1738 were divided, by commissioners appointed for the purpose, among the heirs of Papillion. In 1735 Richard Dresser, of Thompson, bought one of the lots, and was probably the first person to settle in the south part of the town. The land purchased by Richard Dresser was part of the well-known Dresser Hill farm. His brother, John Dresser, soon afterward bought land lying west of Richard's. Isaiah Blood, Richard Blood and Nathaniel Blood, from Belling- ham, at about the same time purchased land, on which they settled, lying sonth of Dresser Hill.

In 1750 probably thirty families were in the west- erly part of Oxford, and two-thirds of that number had settled in the Gore. In that year a petition was presented to the General Court, signed by seventeen of the inhabitants of the westerly part of Oxford and by nine of the inhabitants of the Gore, requesting "to be erected into a separate township." The petitioners met with opposition and were defeated. The inhab- itants of the easterly part of Oxford, as appears by a vote passed in town-meeting, were willing the west- erly part should be set off by a line one mile farther west than the line insisted npon by the petitioners.

In 1754, William Alton and thirty-six other inhab- itants of the west part of Oxford presented a petition to the Governor, Council and Honse of Representa- tives setting forth the difficulties under which they labored on account of the distance they lived from a place of public worship and by reason of be- ing taxed for schools from which they received but little benefit, and from other canses stated in the petition. "They therefore prayed that his Excel- lency and the Honorable Court would be pleased to take their distressed circumstances under their wise consideration and erect them into a town or district, or otherwise relieve them as in their wisdom they should think best." A committee reported in favor of the petitioners and an act for making a district of that part of Oxford lying west of a line running parallel to and one mile west of the village line, and that part of the Gore lying north of the part of Oxford to be set off; but the act as finally passed included no part of the Gore in the district. The act passed January 10, 1755, and was as follows:

" Be it enacted by the Governor and Council and House of Representatives that the inhabitants with their lands on the westerly part of Oxford, beginning on the south side of Oxford, one mile west of the village line, so-called, thence running north parallel with said village line to Oxford north line, be and hereby is set off and erected into a separate district by the name of Charlton, and that said district be invested with all the privileges, powers and immuni-

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ties that towns in this province do or may enjoy, that of sending a representative to the General Assembly only excepted, and that the inhabitants of said dis- trict shall have full power and right from time to time to join with said town of Oxford in the choice of a representative or representatives, who may be chosen either in the town or district in which choice they shall enjoy all the privileges which by law they would have been entitled to if this act had not been made."

By virtue of a warrant from Moses Marcy, of Stur- bridge, issued by order of the General Court to John Dresser, a principal inhabitant of the district, "the freeholders and other inhabitants" were warned to meet at the house of Ebenezer McIntire on the 12th day of March, 1755, to choose such town officers as the law required, and to see if the district would let swine run at large. At this meeting Richard Dresser was chosen clerk ; William Alton, treasurer; Richard Dresser, Lieutenant Obadiah MeIntire, Jonathan Ballard, John Dresser and Ebenezer MeIntire, select- men ; Samuel Streeter, tything-man ; Isaiah Blood, constable; Ebenezer McIntire, clerk of the market ; Ebenezer Lamb and Edward Chamberlain, fence- viewers; Nathaniel Blood, Nathaniel French and Nathaniel MeIntire, surveyors of highways. Hog- reeves, deer-reeves and a brander of horses were also chosen, but no assessors. The name of the moderator was not recorded. On the 24th of May, as recorded, the selectmen of the town of Oxford and the select- men of Charlton, with William Young, surveyor, and Captain Elisha Moore and John Nichols, chainmen, mutually agreed upon and sworn, run the dividing line between said Oxford and Charlton. On the 27th day of March of the same year, the second district- meeting was held, at which eight pounds, lawful money, was voted for schooling, and six pounds thir- teen shillings and four pence for necessary charges. In April following it was voted "that the centre of the district should be the place to build a meeting- house upon, if a convenient place, and if not, the nearest convenient place to the centre should be the place to build upon." At the same meeting it was voted that the schools should be kept in two places- one on the north side, the other on the south side of the district. At this time there were no inhabitants of the district living farther north than the north line of the Kitchen land, which ran just north of the house now owned by Wm. S. Wakefield, at Charlton Centre- Between the Kitchen land and the Gore lay the Thompson land, on which there were no inhabitants. This land had been divided in 1749 amongst the de- visees of Joseph Thompson, but at the time the dis- trict of Charlton was established none of the land had been purchased hy settlers, and, in 1760, when a tax of two-pence per acre was granted by the General Court on the lands of the non-resident proprietors toward paying for building the meeting-house, sixty acres of the land were sold to pay the tax on three

thousand five hundred and seventy-seven acres, still owned by non-residents.

The Stoughton land, in 1718, was purchased by Samuel Brown, of Salem, and was afterwards owned by his son, William Brown. Elizabeth Danforth, Sam- uel Danforth, Elijah Dunbar and others became part owners, but no division was made nor any part of the land disposed of to settlers until after the right and interest of William Brown had been con- fiscated by the General Court in 1782. An agent was appointed to ascertain the right and interest of said Brown and to make and execute division deeds, so that the Commonwealth as well as the other pro- prietors might hold their several rights in severalty. A division of the land was made and the part taken by the Commonwealth was sold at auction in 1785 hy a committee chosen by the General Court, Caleh Ammidown, of Charlton, being one of the commit- tee. Ebenezer Davis bought eight hundred acres of the confiscated land, Jacob Davis three hundred acres, Ebenezer Crafts three hundred acres; James Wolcott, Erasmus Babbitt and others were also purchasers. After this time 'the lands of the Danforths, Dunbar and others were gradually disposed of.

The land of Daniel Cox descended to his heirs, and was surveyed and divided into lots in 1751. Before this time some of the land had been sold for taxes, but no sales appear to have been made by the heirs for many years afterward. Most of the land was taken possession of and improved, and finally the occupants claimed ownership and refused to give up the lands. A suit-at-law, lasting several years, finally settled the matter in favor of the heirs, and the lands were sold by an agent or attorney.

In December, 1755, Edward Chamberlain and Na- thaniel French were chosen a committee to provide preaching, and in January, 1756, a grant of seven pounds for the support of the Gospel was made. In June ; following the district voted seven pounds to provide a stock of powder, bullets and flints, and also voted that the schools should be kept in three places, but refused to allow any part of the money granted for schools to be laid out for hiring a school-dame in summer, as petitioned for by some of the inhabitants. March 14, 1757, it was voted that the district's stock of ammunition should be kept at Richard Dresser's, and, from a list reported by the selectmen, selected the names of such as they judged most suitable to serve as jurors. The persons selected were Obadiah MeIntire, Nathaniel Blood, John Dresser, Eleazer McIntire, Samuel Streeter, Ebenezer Twiss, Isaiah Blood, John Stevens, Ebenezer Foskett, Joseph Twiss and Ebenezer Chamberlain. As soon as the district was organized the work of building a place of public worship and of providing schools was undertaken, but beyond deciding that the centre of the district should be the place to build a meeting-house upon and making slight provisions for schools nothing was accom- plished. Timber for a meeting-house had been pre-

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

pared before the separation from Oxford. The war- rant for a meeting to be held December 8, 1755, con- 'tained an article as follows: "To see if the district will agree to build a meeting-house, and if so, to agree upon the bigness to build the same;" and also the following: " To see if the district will choose a committee to take care of the timber that was hewed some time ago for a meeting-house, as also to provide materials for the same as may be thought most con- venient if the district agree to build a meeting-house." At the meeting held under this warrant it was voted to take no action on these articles ; and at a meeting held February 7, 1757, it was voted to raise no money either for schools or for the support of the Gospel, for the reason probably that it was expected that the petition that had been presented to the General Court for the annexation of the Gore would be granted. The inhabitants of the district had become satisfied that they were not in a condition to carry on the affairs of a town or district, and, judging from the tenor of their petitition, did not consider their situa- tion had been improved by their separation from the town of Oxford. The district had voted, January 1, 1756, not to accept the Gore or join in a petition that it might be added to the district. A different spirit soon prevailed.

The petition was as follows :

To the Governor, Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled at Boston, January, 1756 :

The petition of the subscribers inhabitants of Charlton and a place called the Gore Humbly shows, That the inhabitants of Charlton are now very sensible that it is wholly impracticable if not impossible for them to carry on the affairs of a district or in any measure support the charge necessarily arising from setting the Gospel amongst them. That the inhabitants of the Gore are so situated that they can't be laid to any town with the least advantage and are so small as oot to be fit for a dis- trict by themselves, but if they were added to Charlton they would make a good town or district and be able to support public charges. And as they lie very handy to be laid to Charlton, they humbly pray that the land called the Gore with the inhabitants thereof lying westward of a line extending from the northeast corner of Charlton, northerly the same course as the east line of Charltoo till it meets the south hounds of old Leicester, he added to the district of CharIton, there to do duty and enjoy privileges as other inhabitants of said district do enjoy. And as in duty bound will ever pray, etc.

The petition was signed by Solomon Harwood and thirty-three others of the district of Charlton and by Jonathan Wheelock and twelve others of the Gore. John Chandler and twelve other non-resident owners of real estate joined in a request that the petition might be granted. June 8, 1756, the answer of Jon- athan Tucker, Nathaniel Jones and others was read with the petition, and the matter referred to the next fall session and further notices ordered. June 3, 1757, a committee having considered the matter, reported that the petition ought to be granted. "The report was read and accepted, and ordered that the inhabi- tants of the said Gore and the land within the bounds petitioned for, be, and hereby are, annexed to the dis- trict of Charlton and made part thereof, to do duty and enjoy privileges as the other inhabitants of said district do or by law ought to enjoy." The territory

added to the district was about six miles in length and one mile in width on the east line and nearly three miles in width on the west line. All the " North Side " village, except the few houses on the road to Charlton Centre south of the school-house, is on the Gore territory. The number of persons taxed in the district of Charlton in 1756, as shown by the tax-list for that year, was fifty three, and they were: William Alton, Richard Blood, Isaiah Blood, Nathaniel Blood, Jonathan Ballard, Jobn Ballard, Edward Chamber- lain, Joseph Clemence, Jonathan Clemence, Philip Clemence, Philip Clemence, Jr., Richard Dresser, John Dresser, John Davidson, William Coburn, Lem- uel Edwards, Ebenezer Foskett, Nathaniel French, Benjamin Hobbs, Solomon Harwood, Adam Johnson, Ebenezer Lamb, James Lamb, Obadiah McIntire, Ebenezer McIntire, Eleazer McIntire, Eleazer Mc- Intire, Jr., Daniel McIntire, Thomas MeIntire, Thomas MeIntire, Jr., Nathan McIntire, Joseph McIntire, Philip McIntire, Ezra McIntire, Noah McIntire, Zebulon McIntire, Robert McIntire, Nathan Moore, John Oaks, Jacob Parker, Elisha Putney, George Pike, Paul Rich, Samuel Rogers, Obadiah Sabin, Samuel Streeter, Samuel Streeter, Jr., Samuel Scott, John Stevens, Ebenezer Twiss, Joseph Twiss, Joseph Twiss, Jr., John Warfield.

The number of persons living on the Gore land that were assessed a tax the spring after it was set to Charlton was thirty-nine. They were: Joseph Bald- win, James Blanchard, David Brown, William Cum- mins, John Convers, Nathaniel Dewey, Nathan Dennis, Samuel Eustis, Nathaniel Eustis, Philip Gage, Aaron Gleason, Ebenezer Hammond, Jonas Ham- mond, David Hammond, Nathaniel Jones, Henry Merritt, Ephraim Morey, Joseph Parker, Thomas Parker, Thomas Parker, Jr., Malachi Partridge, Wil- liam Parker, Nehemiah Stone, Jonathan Tucker, William Tucker, John Thompson, Ebenezer White, Josiah White, Daniel Weld, Job Weld, Noah Weld, Daniel Williams, Benjamin Ward, Urialı Ward, Jona- than Wheelock, Paul Wheelock, David Wheelock, Peter Sleeman and Jonathan Upham. Of the persons above named who were prominent in public affairs, and whose names appear frequently on the records, Jonathan Tucker, Daniel Williams and the Welds were from Roxbury, Nehemiah Stone and the Ham- monds from Newton, the Wheelocks from Mendon, and the Wards from Roxbury.

A committee was chosen by the General Court in 1719 to sell the Gore land, and it was divided into lots of three hundred acres, but, so far as the records show, no person living on the land at the time it was annexed to Charlton became an owner prior to 1735. In that year Jonathan Tucker, of Roxbury, deeded to his son Jonathan one-half of three hundred acres in the Gore, and the same year Jonathan Wheelock bought one hundred and fifty acres, and they were probably the first settlers in the north part of the town. The Hammonds bought land adjoining Tucker's on the

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CHARLTON.

west in 1739, and Nehemiah Stone became the owner of land in 1746 that was afterwards owned by his son Nehemiah, and by his grandson, Nehemiah B. Stone. Although Charlton, after the Gore was added, con- tained a larger population than many of the towns in the State, it remained a district, without the right of sending a Representative to the General Court, until a law was enacted in 1775, making all districts in the Commonwealth towns.

With the addition of population and resources secured by the addition of territory, the inhabitants considered themselves in a condition to carry on suc- cessfully public affairs. Accordingly, July 28, 1757, a meeting was held, and the district voted ten pounds, lawful money, for the support of the Gospel, and thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence for the support of schools. Ebenezer McIntire, Jonas Hammond and Isaiah Blood were chosen a committee to provide preaching, and Ebenezer White, Ebenezer Hammond, John Stevens, Eleazer McIntire and Nathaniel Blood, School Committee. The district also voted "to build a meeting-house at the centre of the district, if a convenient place ; if not, at the nearest convenient place thereto." The district before the Gore was annexed had passed a similar vote, but the large addition of territory made it necessary to select a new location, but failing to agree as to where the centre of the district was or the nearest convenient place thereto, at a meeting held November 22, 1757, a committee was chosen, consisting of Dea. Thomas Wheeler, of Worcester, Samuel Chandler, Esq., of Woodstock, and Col. Hezekiah Sabin, of Thompson, "to state a place for a meeting-house." The district voted to pay Richard Dresser six shillings eight pence for entertaining the committee, but refused to accept the "place stated." An article in the warrant for a meeting held January 16, 1758, was as follows: "To see if the inhabitants of the district will vote that the meeting-house shall stand at a stake that is set up north of Ebenezer McIntire's house, and if not, to see if the inhabitants of the district will agree in sending to the General Court for a committee to find the centre of the district, and to state the place for the meeting-house." At this meeting it was voted "to build the meeting-house at the stake a little north of Ebenezer McIntire's house." 1 It has been stated that a committee from the General Court staked out a place for the meeting-house; but if the district records are to be depended on, the statement is incorrect. As recorded, the vote for accepting the place was six- teen to nine. Ebenezer MeIntire gave the district an acre of land, but it was stated in the deed that it was for the use of said district " for the meeting-house to

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 196

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