History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 213

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 213

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Fisher, Gideon.

Richardson, Jonas.

Foster, Samuel.

Goss, William

Priest, Joseph.

Bolton, Ebenezer.

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GARDNER.

been the most common substitute for money, probably because it was most convenient to handle and most sure of a ready market. The precise form of the town's action in this matter shows the then existing condition of things and also what a wise economy required in the management of public affairs. Under date of June 6, 1787, it was voted "that the collector take butter of the persons that are in his rates, pro- vided that they bring the butter by the first of July next, at seven pence per pound, and the collector to provide firkins to put said butter in and to deliver butter to the committee that are to provide nails for the meeting-house when called for. It is expected that the collector put the butter into firkins, well salted, and the butter to be good butter." The pro- vision in this vote for having the hutter received for taxes delivered to the committee who were to procure nails for the meeting house, then in process of erec- tion, indicates the extent to which what was called "barter," the exchange of one article of traffic for another, entered into the commercial transactions of those days when money was scarce and of doubtful worth-a practice which, in country towns especially, continued until within the memory of persons now living.

No data are known to exist by which to determine the actual amount of property in Gardner at the time of incorporation. The tax-lists of that day are not to he found, and whatever statistics may have been pre- pared, if there were any, have disappeared. The earliest available authority relating to this point is the general United States tax-lists made up in the year 1798 hy order of the Federal Government, repre- senting the assessments laid upon the entire country for the purpose of meeting the demands upon the na- tional treasury. From a copy of those lists preserved in the library of the New England Historic-Genea- logical Society, Boston, interesting and trustworthy particulars have been gleaned, some of which in a condensed form are herewith submitted.

At the date named, 1798, there were one hundred and fifty-five tax-paying residents in the town own- ing or occupying real estate, the appraised value of whose property in the aggregate was abont $124,000, or a trifle over $800 each. Seven persons were worth $22,759 or an average of $3,251, ranging as follows: Elisha Jackson, 86,105; William Bickford, $4,710; James Cooledge, $2,634; Ebenezer Howe, $2,538; Seth Heywood, $2,325 ; Simon Gates, 82,274; William Whitney, $2,171. Forty-three persons had between $1000 and $2000 each, aggregating $57,979. The re- maining $43,456 was distributed among one hundred and five persons, giving each one abont $415. Sev- eral lots whose owners were unknown were valued at $186. The actnal taxable property of the town, which excluded all public buildings and common lands, and also the estate of Rev. Jonathan Osgood, was $124,380. No one was taxed for money on hand or at interest, nor for plate or securities of any kind. Of the one

hundred and fifty-five tax-payers in 1798 there were, as far as can be ascertained, thirty-five not liv- ing in town, whose aggregate property was $6,283, which would make the actual amount of taxable property held by residents, exclusive of Rev. Mr. Os- good, $118,097.

Of the citizens of Gardner at the date named, forty- nine with their families occupied dwellings, each of which, with a lot of one-quarter of an acre, was valued at more than $100, or at an average of $260. William Bickford owned the best one, doubtless the brick dwelling now standing at the South Village, which was appraised at $920. Other houses ranged as fol- lows: Elisha Jackson's, built two years before, $720; James Cooledge's, $550; Jonathan Bancroft, Seth Heywood and Ezra Moore, $500 each; Joel Matthews and Joseph Simonds lived in dwellings taxed for $10 each. One hundred and six dwellings, the whole number then standing in the town and deemed of suf- ficient value to be taxed, were appraised at $16,099, an average of $151.87. There were probably a few other rude structures occupied at the time, but of no ratable worth.

The largest landholder in town in 1798 was Wil- liam Whitney, who had three hundred and sixty- eight acres. He was followed by Elisha Jackson with three hundred and sixty-four acres; Wm. Bick- ford, three hundred and twelve acres; Josiah Wilder and James Cooledge, two hundred and fifty acres each. Thirty-four persons had between one and two hundred acres each. Twelve thousand two hundred and twenty acres of land, exclusive of house-lots, were taxed for $104,595, or for less than nine dollars per acre, the average valuation of land in the town generally. The estimated value of land in the village at that date may be learned from the fact that Jonathan Prescott, the first merchant in the place, residing on the site occupied for many years by the late Francis Richardson, Esq., was taxed for three hundred and forty-one dollars on an acre and a half of land, presumably attached to his house-lot, or at the rate of two hundred and twenty-seven dollars per acre.

Taking now the appraisal of the property in Gard- ner in 1798, thirteen years after it was incorporated, and making dne allowance for the probable increase of population and wealth, it can be easily seen, with- out attempting to give the precise figures, with what meagre pecuniary capital the original inhabitants of the town hegan their municipal life. Their brain and muscle were, in large degree, their capital-their principal stock in trade and pledge of ultimate suc- cess. Their enterprise and perseverance, their reso- lute purpose and readiness to labor and endure,

"The iudomitable will and courage never to submit or yield ; "

these qualities, under the circumstances, gave them strength of character and a sort of moral persistence and invincibleness which were full of promise for the

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

years ahead, which made an impress upon the public mind and heart, and became a force in the community not yet exhausted or overcome, the augury still of prosperous fortunes and happy destinies.

In what has thus far been offered to the reader as the opening chapter of this historical sketch of the town of Gardner, he will find a sufficiently detailed presentation of its situation, topography, settlement and incorporation, together with a brief portraiture of its early inhabitants and of the conditions and circumstances under which they started out in their municipal career. He will also find an account of the first town-meeting, at which the town, as a cor- porate body, was legally organized, its officers chosen, and its complex machinery made ready for active service. The line of historic development and pro- gress will be taken up at that point in subsequent chapters and traced down to the present day by a separate consideration of several leading public in- terests in such order as may seem most convenient and appropriate.

CHAPTER CXI. GARDNER-(Continued.)

TOWN AND COUNTY ROADS-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE-RAILWAYS.

PREVIOUS to the time of the incorporation of Gard- ner two county roads had been laid across its territory- one as early as 1754, extending from Lancaster to Quopoage (Athol), and the other in 1759 from Win- chendon to Worcester. The first of these crossed the town-line about half a mile east of the Lewis A. Wright lumber-mill, and followed essentially the line of High, South Main and Kendall Streets to the junc- tion of the latter with Broadway, thence by a varying course, still partially traceable, not far at any point from the present highway, to the Templeton boundary. This was the principal thoroughfare through the place from Boston and other lower towns westward for nearly half a century, or until the construction of the Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike in 1799 or 1800. The other road, built by order of the county authorities, entered the limits of the town near where Chapel Street now strikes them, half a mile east of Ray Hill, and followed the course of said street for the most part till it reached what is now Pearl Street, thence cutting across the in- tervening country in a northwesterly direction to Winchendon Street, and continuing along that street past the present town-farm buildings to Winchendon line. In addition to these, the several towns from which the territory of Gardner was received had caused a few highways to be made for the convenience of the inhabitants in getting to and from the centres of those towns respectively, and for freer communica- tion with each other, but they were little more or better than cart-paths through the wilderness, quite

unlike the well-graded streets of the present day. Aside from these, there were, no doubt, such other ways opened in different localities as might serve the temporary necessities of the settlers, without any formal survey or regard to permanent use.

About the time of the incorporation of the town a third county road was laid and ordered to be built from Royalston to Gardner. As far as can be ascer- tained, it ran along the line of Clark Street from the northwest till it reached the Jonathan Bancroft place, continuing thence, as seems probable, down the val- ley of the Crystal Lake outlet in a southerly direction, and along the general course of Mechanic Street to the Lancaster and Athol Road (now Broadway). The location of this road was not satisfactory to the people of Gardner, especially to those living at or near what had been fixed upon as the centre of the town. Hence at the second town-meeting, held September 6, 1785, it was, pursuant to an article in the warrant calling the same, " Voted, that it is the opinion of the town that the county road ought to go through the centre of the town," and a petition, in accordance with that vote, was prepared and ordered to be sent "to the Court of Quarter Sessions now sitting in Worcester," stating that the road " as it is now laid will not con- vene this town nor the public so well as if it was laid through the centre of the town," and praying that it might extend from near Jonathan Bancroft's "through our centre and come into the county road that leads from Winchendon to Westminster Meeting-house," near Josiah Wheeler's, or where it will best serve the public. The court seemed to accede to the request of the petition and changed the location of the road accordingly. It ran substantially from the original Bancroft place along the course of what are now Park, Central, Pearl and Smith Streets to Chapel Street, near the present residence of Asa F. Smith, and was known, for many years, as the Westminster and Royalston Road. .

No other action appears to have been taken by the town in the matter of roads during that year except to vote, November 7th, to have them, when laid out, three rods wide, and then a week later to reconsider that vote and fix their width at two and a half rods. At the annual meeting in March, 1786, however, the subject of highways was taken up in earnest. The selectmen, who evidently had not been idle since their appointment to office, reported in detail the lay- ing out of thirteen highways in different parts of the town, all of which were accepted and ordered to be built at an adjourned meeting held the following week. At the same meeting sixty pounds (about two hundred dollars) were voted for mending and making highways " this present year." By this action the in- habitants of the town were, for the most part, brought into ready communication with each other, with the Center, and with those larger thoroughfares by which access could be had to the neighboring towns to Worcester, the county seat, and to Boston,

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the capital of the Commonwealth. Thus early in the town's history were laid the first meshes of that com- plex net-work of streets and highways which atter- wards spread over its whole territory, and which has been extended from time to time down to the present day, as the demands of business or the comfort and con- venience of the people at large might seem to require.

cating of roads in the early days of the town may be | advantage by schooling, We, therefore, pray your

An interesting circumstance connected with the lo- referred to at this point, not for its own sake alone, but because it illustrates somewhat the limited finan- cial resources of the town at the time, the motives oftentimes influencing men in their action upon ques- tions of public policy and the peculiar notions then entertained of what the public good would call for in coming years. In view of what has transpired since that date, the account of it is pleasant and suggestive reading. In the year 1793 some alterations were made in the County Road, running through the south part of the town, the principal of which was the straightening of it from near the head of Sawyer Street to a point near the present hotel site. By this change, travel would be diverted from the hilly, cir- cuitous route past the Capt. Jackson place to the di- rect and comparatively level course across the low- lands south of the Bickford Mill, where the turnpike was afterward located. The new part running across the meadow was difficult and costly to build, which fact somewhat embarrassed the town, and it moreover was calculated to affect unfavorably the custom of the tavern at the summit of the hill by taking the princi- pal part of the travel away from it.

Although the road had been so far completed as to be opened for use, yet the town voted, March 25, 1794, to ask for its discontinuance or re-location elsewhere. A petition corresponding to that vote was prepared and ordered to be sent to the County Court. In urging the discontinuance of the piece of road in question, which was the result aimed at, the petitiouers represented that it had been laid " to the great damage of the town and individuals in said town, and we cannot see that the traveler can receive any real advantage by the same, and a great number of them seem to choose the old road, rather than the new one, as it is a good road and has been travelled upwards of forty years," etc. "It will also be of great damage on account of having mills being put up at the lower end of the meadow [where the Bent Brothers' chair-factory now is], which we shall stand in great need of, for the mill at the upper end of the meadow [on the site of the shop of James Sawyer] in some seasons cannot grind for one-half of the town, now it is small, and when we come to have three times our [present] number, and lands cleared up, which will much shorten the water, it will make a wide odds, and we shall have to travel five, six, seven and eight miles for grinding, which will be a very great grievance; it also takes it [travel] from a public-house that has been occupied for that

service upwards of twenty years, and of late has been at great expense for buildings to serve the public ; and as we have three county roads through this little town, and almost all our roads are new and very bad to make, and but a little while since our incorporation, and have had a meeting-house to build, and of late a minister to settle, and have school-houses to build, before we can reap any great honors to take our case into your wise consideration and discontinue the new laid road, . . and to keep the old road as it is now travelled, which is but two tallies further than the new one, which, had there been a full bench, we cannot think would have been accepted." Nevertheless, the County Court did not see good reason for reversing their previous ac- tion, but re-affirmed it, and the road was in due time finished to the satisfaction of that body. Almost a hundred years of experience in the use of this piece of highway, whose value at the outset was so stoutly questioned, have vindicated the action of the parties in authority in this matter beyond all doubt or per- adventure. Few roads in all the town have rendered more important service to the general public, or con- tributed more to the convenience and needs of the community.

Space will not permit a detailed statement con- cerning the different highways and streets that have been constructed since the opening of the present century. They have multiplied with the growth of the town until they number, at this present date, over one hundred, without taking into account numerous alleys and by-ways, opened for public or private convenience.

In 1870 the town instituted measures for causing the different roads and streets throughout its territory to be designated by name, which resulted in the ac- complishment of the end sought before the expira- tion of the year, and in directing the selectmen "to cause sign-boards to be put up at the termini of each street in town," which was accordingly done. More recently considerable has been brought to pass in the way of having side-walks laid along the more fre- qnented streets of the different villages, partly by public and partly by private funds, the town for sey- eral years appropriating a thousand dollars or more for that purpose. These are of great convenience to pedestrians, while the carriage-ways generally, not only at the business centres, but in the suburbs, are kept in excellent repair, rendering them suitable both for the heavier kinds of transportation and for the ordinary purposes of journeying or pleasure-driv- ing. The annual expenditure of the town for high- ways and bridges is about seven thousand five hun- dred dollars.

THE FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE .- To- wards the close of the last century the custom of forming private companies for the construction of important thoroughfares arose in the State of Massa-

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

chusetts, and prevailed quite extensively for a score or more of years, or until public roads became so common and so good that the others failed of neces- sary support, and so had to be abandoned or trans- ferred to public management.

These companies operated under an act of incor- poration received from the Legislature of the Com- monwealth, which act fixed for them the location of their roads, and gave them power to establish tax or toll-houses at given distances along their routes. whereat to demand and receive tribute, at fixed rates, of the traveling and teaming public for the construction and maintenance of the same. Such roads received the general name of turnpikes from the turning-bar or gate, set up at the toll-houses to stop those desir- ing to pass until the stipulated fee was paid.

Among those receiving a charter at the date named or thereabouts was what was called the Fifth Massa- chusetts Turnpike, its name indicating the place it occupied in the series, running through the South Village of Gardner. Its eastern terminus was Jonas Kendall's tavern, Leominster, whence it extended "through Westminster, Gardner, Templeton, Phil- lipston, Athol, Orange and Warwick, to Capt. Elisha Hunt's, in Northfield," with a branch "from Athol, through Montague, to Calvin Munn's tavern, Green- field."

The corporation, under whose auspices this road was built, was composed of gentlemen of influence and property along the line, who obtained authority in the matter by an act of the Legislature passed March 1, 1799. It provided for the construction of a road " four rods wide, the path to be travelled not less than eighteen feet wide in any place," and for "the erection of five turnpike gates convenient for collecting the toll." One of these gates was located in Gardner, near the line of Westminster, but changed afterward to the Elijah Foster place, and finally to South Gardner Village. This road was a great improvement on what had previously existed, being very straight and well-graded, and for many years it formed the principal thoroughfare from Brat- tleboro', Greenfield and Albany to Boston, the amount of passenger and freight traffic over it being very large. This corporation continued till 1832, when it transferred its franchise to the county of Worcester, and dissolved.

RAILWAYS,-As time went on, the common high- way and the old means of travel and transportation became insufficient to meet the increasing demands of business and trade, in this section of country as else- where. The railway system came in to supply the existing and growing need. It had been tried in different localities with satisfactory results. Several lines in the State were in successful operation. The "Fitchburg Road" had been chartered, and was approaching completion, when the project was started looking to its extension westward to the valley of the Connecticut. It took form, with Brattleboro' for a

terminus in that direction, under the name of the Vermout and Massachusetts Railroad, and was duly chartered March 15, 1844, though it was not built and opened for through traffic till 1850.

This road, so far as Gardner is concerned, has a unique and interesting history. The prime mover in its behalf was Hon. Alvah Crocker, a prominent citizen of Fitchburg, largely associated with the industrial development of that place, somewhat known to the general public, and afterward a member of Congress from his Representative District. To him, no doubt, its construction at the tiure was due. Thor- oughly interested in the enterprise, he enlisted some of his responsible fellow-townsmen as co-workers with him, and visited most of the towns along the proposed route, holding public meetings and inter- viewing leading citizens for the purpose of calling attention to the matter, awakening interest and secur- ing at last subscriptions to the capital stock required. All this was done under the assumption that the road was to go through the towns where encouragement was solicited, to their very great advantage, and that the route was entirely feasible and suitable to the end in view. Gardner, which was at that time beginning to be animated with new life, and to give promise of future growth and prosperity, was strongly appealed to on the grounds named, and responded liberally. Of course, this was done with the full understanding and expectation that the road would run through Gardner in such a way that it would greatly benefit the rapidly-growing manufacturing interest of the community by furnishing more convenient as well as greatly increased facilities for transportation. It was greatly to the surprise and indignation of those more immediately concerned, therefore, to learn, some time after they had pledged their co-operation, that Mr. Crocker and others acting with him were laying plans to have the road laid through Winchendon instead of Gardner, thereby depriving the latter place of the chief benefit hoped for and promised hy its construc- tion. So determined were the parties interested in these plans of turning the road away from Gardner, that before the Legislature of the State was called upon to grant an act of incorporation authorizing the building of the same, they had caused to be located and graded at their own expense what was called the eleventh section, lying between Ashburnham Junction and Winchendon village, apparently for the purpose of influencing the members of the General Court in their behalf. But they were doomed to disappoint- ment. By the intervention of influential gentlemen in Gardner and Templeton, for Templeton was also to be cut off from railroad facilities hy the devices referred to, the original hill for the chartering of the road, drawn in accordance with the wishes of Mr. Crocker and his friends, was so far amended as to locate it "through the north part of the town of Gardner to Otter River, thence down Otter River to the village of Baldwinsville, in the north part of

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GARDNER.

Templeton." Mr. Crocker, dissatisfied with this result, petitioned to have Baldwinsville taken ont of the charter, and appealed to the County Commis- sioners, who had anthority to act in the matter, to change the location of the road in accordance with his wishes. The citizens of Gardner were now thor- oughly aronsed to a sense of the danger that threat- ened them, and at a town-meeting held July 22, 1845, chose Levi Heywood, Samuel S. Howe and Edwin E. Glazier a committee to contest the appeal of Mr. Crocker before the commissioners, and to oppose the proposed alteration of the charter before the General Court, with power to employ counsel if deemed necessary. This committee, acting in hearty co- operation with gentlemen representing Templeton in the matter, succeeded in thwarting the designs of their opponents, and in preventing a change of the charter in the interest of those opponents. Finding them- selves defeated, the managers of the corporation, with Mr. Crocker at their head, resolved to secure by indirect means what they had lost in open and fair fight. They asked for and obtained an extension of the time for building the road, apparently with the hope that something might transpire, or that some new way might be found, whereby their cherished purpose might be realized. But such hope, if it existed, proved delusive.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 213

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