History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 212

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 212

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CLIMATE .- The climate of Gardner, situated high above the level of the sea and far away from the modifying influence of oceanic breezes and currents, is exceedingly inconstant and often disagreeable, being subject to sudden changes and great extremes of heat and cold, which determine to a large extent the annual fall of rain and snow, and also the general dryness and humidity of the atmosphere, with its at- tendant sanitary qual.ties, tendencies and effects. The winters are long and severe, characterized a4 they are by high winds and heavy storms, which cause a large accumulation of snow and ice and seriously try the powers of endurance in the human constitution. But the physical conditions and cir- cumstances which subject the place to many of the harsher moods of the winter-time have their compen- sation in the fresh, cool breezes of the summer sea- son, which moderate the otherwise excessive heat, and make that part of the year more invigorating and agreeable. On the whole, the geographical situa-

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GARDNER.

tion of the town and its climatic conditions are favor- able to both bodily and mental health and energy, indirectly, too, of moral soundness and force of char- acter. As a result, the town is an unusually healthful one, and cases of pulmonary or malarial diseases are of rare occurrence among its native-born population. So that among the factors which have entered into the problem of the growth and prosperity of Gard- ner, the influence of its climate is not to be over- looked or underestimated.

" While tropic airs may tropic needs supply, Brave souls are nurtured 'neath a sterner sky."

FLORA .- Of the one hundred and fifty thousand species of plants distributed over the surface of the globe, only a very small proportion can be indigenous to so limited an area as the territory of such a town as Gardner. And what are found within its borders are so like what grow throughout the county that even to name them would be needless repetition. It is not known that, in the matter of forest or fruit- trees, of berry-producing or flowering shrubs or plants of any sort, Gardner has a single specimen which would distinguish it from other towns in the vicinity, though of each and all of these it has a proportionate supply. Enough of wood and timber lots still remain to give pleasing variety to the land- scape, to impart salubrity to the air, to soften the fierceness of wintry blasts and break the violence of summer tempests, and to aid in keeping up the sup- ply of nature's water-fountains, to which the exist- ence of forests so largely contribute, while shrubs of many a kind and name cover many an untilled acre more or less densely, and wild flowers of rich and varied hues in great diversity lend grace and beauty in all directions to the view. Moreover, the introduction of a liberal supply of exotics, especially in the departments of fruit trees and flowering plants, as witnessed in the orchards, gardens and conserva- tories so often seen, has enlarged and enriched very materially this feature of the natural history of the town.

FAUNA .- There is little to be said of the represen- tatives of the animal kingdom, either native or im- ported, in addition to what may appear elsewhere in the pages of this work. The same kinds of wild ani- mals originally prevailed here as in other parts of the county, only a few of the smaller and more prolific of which continue to this day, to vex the fields and gardens of the husbandmen or tempt the hunter through the still existing woods. Of the game birds scarcely one save the partridge remains, though the same winged songsters of the grove and field still make the air vocal with their melody in the spring and early summer as cheered and blessed the solitary way of the early settlers in these then wilderness re- treats. Various other wild birds, with less of music in their voices, are found at the proper season in plentiful numbers, some of them hardly to be de- sired by reason of their mischievous habits in respect

to the early sown or planted grain and corn. Most of these are migratory in their mode of life, coming and going with the warmer portions of the year, though a few remain the twelve-month through, fearless alike of winter's cold and of summer's heat. Of the finny tribes, dwellers in the waters of the town, the original stock still prevails to some extent, though in considerably diminished numbers. The handsome trout still glides up and down the gurgling brook, finding rest only in its most secluded plaues, where it would seem to hide away from the ardent fisherman, or, if pursuing, he seeks his wily victim, tantalizes him with the rareness of a bite. The pride of the olden time in this respect-the pickerel -and its companion residents of the ponds bearing various names, which served the fathers and mothers so well in place of flesh and fowl less easily obtained, have been much reduced in these later days, partly because of the greater search for them and partly by reason of the introduction of foreign fish, some of which appear to be the natural born enemies of the uative denizens of our New England waters, making war upon them and pursuing them with disastrous results, sometimes even to extinction. The experi- ment of bringing in these new tenants of our inland lakes and ponds, though greatly commended a few years ago by certain classes of pisciculturists as of im- mense advantage to the fish-loving public, may be regarded, when judged hy the test of experience, as of doubtful utility, even if it be not brought into utter condemnation. At any rate, the promises made in its behalf have rarely, if ever, been satisfactorily fulfilled. To let well enough alone is sometimes the highest wisdom.

EARLY HISTORY .- Having made a somewhat de- tailed presentation of the natural features of the town of Gardner, it now seems proper to take up the thread of its history as a distinct body corporate, pos- sessing and exercising municipal right-, powers and privileges under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In doing so, it is not needful to go back of the movement initiated for the purpose of securing the formation and legal existence of the new township any further than to set forth the conditions and circumstances under which that movement was inaugurated and the pre- vailing reasons therefor.

Origin .- Unlike most of the older towns of Worcester County, Gardner was not carved out of the primeval forest nor did its territorial possessions come from any of the unappropriated lands of the Province or State of Massachusetts, but from contiguous portions of the four neighboring towns. Of these Westminster con- tributed, in round numbers, six thousand acres; Ash- burnham, twenty-eight hundred acres ; Winchendon, forty-five hundred acres ; and Templeton, seven hun- dred acres, making in the aggregate the fourteen thousand acres already given as the extent of the town's surface. The early history of those several

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

towns is therefore in part the history of Gardner pre- vious to its incorporation, for the essential facts and incidents of which the reader is referred to the sketches of those towns respectively on other pages of this work, only a few of the more important of them being mentioned in this connection. The townships named were first occupied by the present race of inhabitants at a date sufficiently indicated by the year 1740. As they gradually increased in popu- lation, portions of them far removed from their estab- lished centres, their area being very large, were in dne time taken up and appropriated to purposes of permanent residence.

As this process of extension and settlement went on, it came to pass at length that about sixty fami- lies were established within the limits of what sub- sequently was assigned to the town of Gardner. Sep- arated by long distances from the majority of their fellow-citizens and also from the recognized seat of public activity in their respective municipalities, the heads of these families began after a time to feel that it would be for their common convenience, interest and general welfare to sever the connection which had hitherto existed between them and their colleague townsmen, and unite in the formation of a new township more compact, so far as they were them- selves concerned, than those to which they belonged, the so-called centre of which-where the meeting- house should be built, where trade should be set up, where public business should be transacted and pub- lic gatherings of whatever sort held-would be nearer at hand and the recognized duties of which, as a cor- porate body, could be more easily and readily per- formed.

The desirableness of a change like that outlined, by reason of the many advantages which would na- turally accrue to all parties concerned, became very soon so apparent and so urgent that as early as 1781 a movement was started looking to its consommation. It does not appear, however, that any united and mu- tually concurrent action in relation to the subject was taken until the year 1784 or 1785, when the sev- eral towns liable to dismemberment were petitioned by the portion of their inhabitants favorably interested for leave to be set off with their families and estates, in order that they might join with others in neighbor- ing towns, similarly situated and similarly minded, in the formation of a new town. The prayer of the pe- titioners seemed so reasonable to their fellow-citizens that, with very little opposition or delay, indeed, with remarkable unanimity and cordiality, it was in every instance granted. Aslıburnham led off in a vote favor- ing the measure and granting the request passed Sep- tember 3, 1774; Templeton followed in a vote to the same effect April 6, 1775 ; Winchendon May 16th, and Westminster May 17th of the same year. The gen- erous and honorable spirit which animated the sev- eral towns involved in this movement is duly repre- sented in a report of a committee of the town of

Winchendon, to which the subject was referred, where- in the following passage occurs : "Considering the situation of the petitioners, we think it reasonable a part of said town should be set off when those towns concerned have determined the respective bounda- ries of the district to be so formed as that the same may be properly accommodated." The report was duly "accepted and adopted."

The consent of the towus having been obtained as stated, a petition signed by Mr. John Glazier, then of Westminster and abont thirty others, was sent to the Legislature of the State at what was called its May Session, in 1785, praying that certain specified por- tions of the towns of Winchendon, Ashburnham, Westminster and Templeton, with the inhabitants thereof and their estates, might be set off from those towns respectively and erected into a new township bearing the name of Gardner. An appropriate map indicating the changes proposed accompanied the petition, and is still preserved among the State archives at Boston, though the petition itself is no- where to be found. The result of this appeal to the Legislature is clearly attested by its action, which culminated, on the 27th of June, in the passage of an " Act of Incorporation," of which the following, with the omission of the boundary lines, is a copy :

An act for erecting the westerly part of Westminster, the south west- erly part of Ashburnham, the southeasterly part of Winchendon and the easterly part of Templeton in the county of Worcester, into a town by the name of Gardner.

Whereas, the inhabitants of the westerly part of the town of West- minster, the southwesterly part of the town of Ashburnham, the south- easterly part of the town of Winchendon and the easterly part of the town of Templeton in the county of Worcester, have represented to this court the difficulties they labor under in their present situation and request that they may be incorporated into a separate town, and it ap- pearing to this court proper to comply with their request :

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled and by the authority of the same : That the westerly part of the town of Westminster, southwesterly part of the town of Ashburnham, southeasterly part of the town of Winchendon and easterly part of the town of Templeton in the county of Worcester (bounds omitted) be, and they hereby are, erected into a town by the name of Gardner, and the inhabitants thereof hereby are invested with all the powera, privileges and immunities which the inhabitants of other towns withiu thia Com- monwealth do or may enjoy.

And be it further enacted : That where the lots that are now settled ara cut by the above lines, every owner of such lot shall be holden to pay taxes for the whole of such lot to the town in which his house now stands. Provided, nevertheless, If any owner of such lot shall return a certificate into the secretary's office within aix months after the pass- iug of this act, expressing his desire to belong with his said lot to the other town, such lut and the owner thereof shall forever afterwards be holden to pay taxes to the uther town accordingly.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid: That the inhabit- ants of the said town shall pay their proportion of all taxes already granted to be raised in the several towns from which they were respec- tively taken.

And be it further enacted : That Nicholas Dyke, Esq., be, and hereby is, empowered to issue his warrant directed to some principal inhabitant, requiring him to warn and give notice to the inhabitants of the said town to assemble and meet at some suitable time and place in said town to choose all such officers as towns by law are required to choose at their annual town-meeting iu the month of March.

SAMUEL PHILLIPS, JR., Prest, of the Senate. NATHANIEL GORHAM, Speaker of the House.

Approved by the Governor,

JAMES BOWDOIN.

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GARDNER.

Agreeably to the provision contained in the last clause of the above enactment, Nicholas Dyke, of Westminster, a justice of the peace, did, on the 3d day of August following, issue his warrant in proper form to Mr. Peter Goodale, one of the inhabitants of the town of Gardner, requiring him

to warn all the inhabitants of said town to meet at the honse of Mr. John Glazier in said town, on Monday, the fifteenth day of August present, at nine o'clock forenocn, to act on the following articles, viz .:

1st. To choose a moderator to govern said meeting.

2d. To choose all town officers as the law directs at annual March meetings.

3d. To know the mind of the town whether they will grant money to defray town charges.

4th. To see what method the town will come into to collect taxes or to transact any matter or business as they think necessary.

Pursuant to the requirements of this warrant, the inhabitants of Gardner came together and were called to order for the transaction of business by Justice Dyke, who was present.

Captain Eli-ha Jackson was chosen moderator of the meeting, and the following-named gentlemen were elected as the first officers of the town, respectively : Clerk, Seth Heywood; Selectmen, Elisha Jackson, Samuel Stone, John White, Simon Gates, John Glazier, who were instructed to act as assessors ; Treasurer, Seth Heywood ; Collector, Elijah Wilder, who agreed to collect the taxes for four pence on the pound and give satisfactory bonds for the faithful dis- charge of his duty. Subordinate officers were chosen in due form, and the oath of office, where required, was administered by Esquire Dyke. No other busi- ness was done and the meeting dissolved.

The town of Gardner was now legally organized agreeably to the provisions of its act of incorporation, and had entered upon its career as one of those primary little republics which go to make up the good old Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Before proceeding to sketch the details of that career, how- ever, it seems to be desirable to dwell somewhat at length upon the conditions and circumstances at- tending the town's birth and its first starting into life.

It may be of some interest and importance, both to the general public and to the present inhabitants of the town, to have indicated those portions of the territory which were taken from the towns con- tributing thereto, and where the boundary lines of such towns originally ran. The northwesterly line of Westminster formerly extended from the present northeast corner of Gardner, nearly a mile southeast of Ashburnham Junction, in a south westerly direction, crossing Glazier Hill just south of the reservoir, thence in a direct course through the central village, cutting the town-house lot into two nearly equal parts, and so along the southerly bounds of Lynde Street straight on to the westerly corner of Gardner near the old hotel below East Templeton, which was, in the old time, the westerly corner of Westminster. All the territory south of that line originally belonged to that town. The line between Ashburnham and Win- chendon, running straight from the northward along 52

Stone Street, passed between Green Street and Crystal Lake, and met the Westminster boundary a little east of the junction of School and Lynde Streets. The lands to the eastward of this line were from Ash- burnham, those to the westward from Winchendon. Those derived from Templeton lay west of a line ex- tending from a point in the original Westminster boundary near where the railroad crosses it, north- westerly till it met the present northernmost bound- ary between Gardner and Templeton, of which it was the continuation. It will thus be seen that the first meeting-house site, (now occupied by the First Congregational Church), the old burying-ground and the public common were on the Ashburnham territory, together with the north part of the central village, while Crystal Lake and the north part of West Gardner are on that coming from Winchendon. All of South Gardner village, the principal railroad sta- tions and the southern part of the other villages are on territory originally belonging to Westminster.

At whose suggestion or hy whose means the name Gardner was given to the town cannot be ascertained, but it was in honor of one of the most gallant and heroic patriots of ante-Revolutionary times, who fell a martyr to his country's liberties at the battle of Bunker Hill. Thomas Gardner was son of Richard of Cambridge and a descendant of the fourth genera- I tion from Thomas of Roxbury, the first of the name iu the country, who died in 1633. He was born in 1724, and early in life began to display those traits of character which in later years won for him the con- fidence and high regard of his fellow-citizens and qualified him for the important part he was to play in the stirring events of his time. He was of strong mind, of great practical judgment and unusual ex- ecutive ability, a natural adviser of men and leader in public affairs. He was called to fill important civil offices in his native town, and entering military life, rose rapidly to a station of honor and command. As colonel of the First Middlesex Regiment he was at the battle of Lexington, but did no effectual ser- vice by reason of the unsoldierty conduct of his men. Greatly chagrined thereat, he resolved to retrieve himself from disgrace at the first opportunity. En- listing in a regiment of the Continental Army, he was commissioned colonel June 2, 1775. On the morning of June 17th he was ordered from his station on Prospect Hill to Charlestown Neck as a reserve in the expected battle, and about noon ad- vanced to Bunker Hill, where, by command of Gen. Putnam, he with his men was engaged in throwing up earthworks for the protection of the patriot forces in case they should be driven from their intrench- ments in front of the enemy. Twice had the British made attack and twice had they been repulsed with great slaughter. On the third advance, the ammuni- tion of the Colonial troops giving out, Gen. Putnam rode in hot haste back to Col. Gardner and ordered him to the scene of conflict. Obeying, he hur-

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ried forward, but before reaching the place of action was struck by a musket-ball which felled him to the earth. Being raised from the ground, he shouted to his men, "Conquer or die," and was carried from the field. He lingered till July 3d, the day when Wash- ington took command of the army, one of whose first orders, issued the following day, was: "Col. Gardner is to be buried to-morrow at three o'clock P.M., with the military honors due to so brave and gallant an officer, who fought, bled and died in the cause of his country and of mankind." Such was the man whose name the town of Gardner perpetuates. May her children keep his memory green to many genera- tions hy emulating his spirit of self-forgetting, patri- otic devotion to the principles of civil and religious liberty and to the inborn rights of man.

It is to be regretted that no complete list of the families resident in the town at the date of its incor- poration is to be found among the generally well-pre- served records of the time. But by referring to the histories and records of the several towns, from which its territory was taken previous to that period, and to the books of the town clerk of Gardner, relating to what transpired immediately after, a table of such resident families has been prepared, which may be regarded as substantially correct. As nothing of the kind has ever been put in print before, it is herewith presented in full, to wit :

Adams, John.

Hill, Moses. Holland, Joseph.

Bacon, Joseph.

Baker, George.

Howe, Ebenezer.

Baker, Jolın.

Jackson, Calel.

Baldwin, Josiah.

Jackson, Elisha.

Bancroft, Jonathan.

Kelton, Edward.

Beard, Andrew.

Kelton, Samuel. Kendall, Benjamin.

Bickford, William.

Keyes, Ebenezer.

Boyden, Joseph.

Kneeland, Timothy.

Brown, Jonathan.

Matthews, John,

Childs, Daniel.

Merriam, Nathan.

Clark, Benjamin.

Moore, Ezra.

Clark, Joseph.

Nichols, David.

l'omee, David.

Parker, -

Conant, Josiah.

Partridge, Jabez.

Cooledge, James.

Payson, Joseph.

Eaton, Ebenezer.

Perley, Allen. Pratt, Ephraim.

Eaton, John. Eaton, Jonathan. Edgell, Samnel.

Priest, -.

Fairbanks, Levi.

Putoam, John. Rice,-

Fisher, William Foster, David.

Sanderson, Samuel. Samson, -- -.

Gates, Simon.

Sawyer, Jude.

Glazier, John.

Simonds, Elijah.

Goodale, Peter.

Stone, Samnel. Temple, Ephraim.

traves, -. Green, Israel.

Upton, Oliver. Wheeler, Joel.

Green, Nathan,

Wheeler, Josiah.

Greenwood, Jonathan.

Whitcomb, Jonathan.

Hadley, Joseph.

Whitcomb, Jonathan P.

Haynes, Reuben.

White, John.

Heywood, Seth.

Whitney, Joshua.

Hill, Asa.

Wilder, Elijah.

Hill, Bezaleel.

Wilder, Josiah.

Hill, Jesse.

Wood, Elijah.

Hill, Maverick.

Wright, Joseph.

The above, with rare exceptions, are old New Eng- land names, and suggest those substantial and exalted

qualities of mind and heart and character which dis- tinguished the founders of New England and that great class of people in the mother country whence they sprang, of whom the eminent and brilliant Lord Macaulay said they were "the most remarkable, per- haps, the world ever produced." By a study of those names through their ancestral lines the interested in- quirer will notice how directly the town of Gardner stands connected in the order of historical continuity with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay settlements, and how closely related were her early citizens to the Pilgrim and Puritan immigrants to these shores. Such a study will show, moreover, how naturally it occur- red that what are recognized and honored as New England ideas and principles characterized the earlier life of Gardner and helped to shape, in a large degree, its whole subsequent history. The distinctive type of civilization which was brought from beyond the sea in the " Mayflower " and " Isabella " was the type that presided like a good genius over the birth of all the older settlements of this whole region of country, finding expression alike in the character and habits of the people at large and in the social, civil, educa- tional and religious institutions they established and sought to make perpetual. The town of Gardner was no exception to the general rule in this regard. In its most striking features, in what is most creditable and honorable in its career, it is but the outgrowth of the influences that prevailed at the beginning of its existence, the product of the seed sown by the hands of those brave, devoted men and women who first cleared the forests, tilled the fields, built the homes, and lighted the altar-fires within its borders.

In portraying the earlier history of the town, for the purpose of bringing into notice some of the prom- inent characteristics of its original inhabitants, together with the difficulties which they encountered at the outset, it is proper to call attention to the lim- ited resources then available for the varied uses of life. What goes by the general name of property, or material possessions, consisted almost wholly of real- estate farm stock and the implements and utensils required for domestic and agricultural purposes, with a few tools and appliances for the simpler and more indispensable forms of mechanical handicraft. Very little money, of any sort, was in circulation, and what there was, being in the shape of Continental or Colo- nial scrip, was of uncertain value at the best and often wholly worthless. Government bonds, railroad stocks and other securities were not in those days at the command of the sturdy pioneers, whose available funds were chiefly the bones and sinews of their phy- sical systems, subject to the control of a resolute and unconquerable will. It was at times impossible for them to obtain sufficient current funds with which to pay their taxes, and the town was frequently placed under the necessity of receiving various farm pro- ducts as an equivalent therefor, the price of which was determined by public vote. Butter seems to have

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 212

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