History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 58

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 58

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Originally a part of Mendon, the history of the causes which led to its separation from the mother town may not inappropriately be recorded here.

In 1716 it seems that the western part of the town of Mendon and the eastern part had a disagreement about the road to be built to Taft's bridge, over the Great River (Blackstone), which led to the appoint- ment of a committee of conference. This difficulty having been adjusted, the next recorded difference

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which arose was in 1720, when, as appears by the " Mendon Annals," "the inhabitants of the west part of the town (now Uxbridge) began to agitate the question of dividing the town, or of being allowed to be a precinct by themselves; but upon their petition to that effect, the town took no action."

In 1722, October 16th, at a town-meeting held in Mendon, the inhabitants of the western part of the town objecting to being assessed for repairs to the meeting-house, the town "voted, that if they would pay, the town would reimburse them, provided they are set off as a precinct or a town within the space of three years."

December 14, 1726, more than the stipulated "three years " after the last difficulty, the town, "in answer to onr western inhabitants petitioning to be set off as a town or a precinct, voted in the negative." But the said western inhabitants were becoming more deter- mined to secede ; and therefore, at a meeting held in Mendon March 31, 1727, the town " voted, after the reading of the petition of the western inhabitants of the town for a division of the town, that the bounda- ries should be as follows, viz. : Beginning at the south- west corner of the town, at the Province line, thence east four miles with said line; thence turning north and running parallel with the west line of the town, until it comes to a small brook running westerly be- tween West and Misco Hills ; thence down said brook to the West River; thence up said river to Andruss's Brook ; and thence up Andruss' Brook to the town- ship line "

The western inhabitants lost no time in taking the benefit of the vote, doubtless feeling that a reconsid- eration might blast their hopes, if opportunity were given ; for it appears from the records in the Massa- chusetts Archives, " Towns, vol. 113, p. 714," that in an almost incredibly short time, considering the dis- tance to Boston and the roads and conveniences or inconveniences of travel, the petition and vote was presented to the General Court for its approval and the incorporation of the new town. The act of incor- poration passed both houses (i.e. the House of Repre- sentatives and the Council) and became a law June 23, 1727, which is the birthday of the town of Ux- bridge. To show the mode of procedure in such matters at that early day under colonial government, I transcribe the act of incorporation entire:

Anno Regni Regis Georgie Decimo Tertio.

An act for dividing the town of Mendon and erecting a new town by the name of Uxbridge.

Whereas, the westerly part of the Town of Mendon, in the County of Suffolk, is completely filled with Inhabitants, who labour under great difficulties by their remoteness from the place of Public Worship, &c., and have thereupon made application to the said Town of Mendon, and have likewise addressed this Court that they may bo set off as a distinct and separate town and he vested with all the powers and privilege of a town ; and the Inhabitants of Mendon having consented to their heing aet off accordingly;

Be it therefore enacted by the Lientenant-Governor, Council and Rep- resentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the westerly part of said Town of Mendion is hereby set off

and constituted a separate Township by the name of Uxbridge; tho bound of said Town to be as followeth : That is to say, Beginning at the South West corner of the town of Mendon, at the Province South: Line ; thence to run four miles east with the Province Line ; then North a parallel with the West line of the said Town, until that line meets with a sniall Brook that runs between West Ilill and Misco Hill ; then ye said Brook to he the bounds to the West River; then the West River to be the bounds to a brook known by the name of Andrew's Brook, which brook shall be the bounds to the north line of the Township.

And that the Inhabitants of the said Lands, as before described and bounded, be, and herchy are, invested with the powers, privileges and immunities that the Inhabitants of any of the Towns of this Province, are, or ought by law to be invested ; Provided the Grant of the said Township be not construed to Affect the Rights and privileges of any Persons to lands within the same.

Provided also, that the Inhabitants of the said town of Uxbridge, do, within the space of two years from the Publication of this Act, Erect and finish a suitable House for the Public Worship of God, and procure and settle a learned Orthodox Minister of good conversation, and make provision for his confortable and honourable support ; and that they set epart a Lot of not less than One hundred acres of Laod in some con- venient place in said town near the meeting-House, for the use of the Ministry; and likewise provide a School Master to instruct their youth in writing and reading.

In Council June 21, 1727. Read. J. WILLARD, Sec'y. Passed to be Engrossed.

In the House of Representatives June 23, 1727. Read a first time ; The 24th-Read a second time and passed in concurrence with amend- ment.

Dele. * Sent up for concurrence.

WMI. DUDLEY, Speaker. Agreed.

The amendment referred to by the record as passed by the House was the striking out of the following clause, which, in the act as approved by the Council, was after the word reading, in the last sentence of the act, viz .:

And that thereupon they be discharged from any further payment for the maintenance of the Ministers and Schools in the said Town of Mendon, for any estate lying within the said Town of Uxbridge.

The people of those early days had queer ideas of density of population, when they allege, as recited in the preamble to the act above quoted, " the westerly part of the town of Mendon, etc., is completely filled with inhabitants," etc., for it must be remembered that Mendon township at that time comprised about sixty thousand acres, and embraced what is now Mendon, Milford, Uxbridge, Blackstone and North- bridge, with a total population then of some twelve hundred people, and now the same territory is populated by nearly twenty-five thousand people, with plenty of room for more. Moreover, the reason set forth by the aggrieved inhabitants of the west part, that "they laboured under great difficulties, by their remoteness from the place of public worship," etc., indicates that the population of the old town of Mendon was rather scattered, and had plenty of room to spread towards the centre.

It appears from the records of the old, and the new town that the boundary line, as set forth in the vote of Mendon, and in the act aforesaid, was rather indefinite and little understood even by the parties to the same. For at the very first meeting of the new town, a committee was appointed "to run and settle ye Line between Mendon and Uxbridge;" and at different dates up to 1754, nearly twenty-seven years

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afterwards, there were repeated attempts on the part of the two towns to settle the dispute concerning the boundary line; and it was finally settled to the satis- faction of all parties, after an appeal to the General Court, pending which the two towns came to an agreement ; and the appeal was duly dismissed.

Uxbridge is supposed to have received its name from Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, at the time a member of the King's Privy Council. Its Indian name is Wacantug, or Wacantuck ; and this name is perpetuated by the "Wacantuck House," and the " Wacantuck Woolen-Mills " bereinafter referred to. The first town-meeting in Uxbridge was held at the honse of Cornet John Farnum, July 25, 1727. The members of the first Board of Selectmen were Robert Taft, Ebenezer Read, Woodland Thompson and Joseph White. The first town clerk was Edmund Rawson, an accomplished gentleman, an excellent penman, and a methodical recorder of the doings of the new town. To-day, after the lapse of more than one hundred and sixty years, his records of the meet- ings of the town are as clear and plain as though reccutly written ; and for brevity and good language would be appropriate models for town clerks of the present decade. Solomon Wood, the first town treas- urer, received for the responsibilities and arduous duties of that office for one year, the munificent com- pensation of five shillings ; and at the same time the town voted this compensation, they "voted to pay Lieut. Joseph Taft seven shillings for a barrel of cider." The record does not tell for what purpose the town purchased the cider, but inasmuch as they, a year or two later, voted that the committee who had charge of building "ye meeting House purchase fifteen gallons of good rum for the raising," it is probable that the town fathers were a little afraid to drink the water which nature had furnished in such abundance.

The town clerks and town treasurers have been men of such ability and worth, that in the one hundred and sixty-one years of its corporate exist- ence the town has had only eighteen different town clerks, and about as many town treasurers. The attraction to these offices could not have been the com- pensation, for it is matter of record that, considering the amount of responsibility, the pay of these officials has been, and is to-day, grossly inadequate. That at least one of these gentlemen groaned in spirit under his burdens is manifest from these poetic verses, copied verbatim from the fly-leaf of the treasurer's account-book of 1767. I have called it by the appropriate name :

THE TREASURER'S LAMENT.

A strong Desire pervades the 'spiring Mind,

To their own care to have this book assigned ; But whosoever shall this book obtaine, Will find the profit pays not half the paine. I long have labored on this servile Charge, I've found the profits small, the trouble large, With true exactness all accounts I trac'd,

And then the Names & sums in order plac'd ; But all the methods I could e'er invent, Ne'er to my Neighbors would it give content. So I'm resolved, I'll soon this book forsake, That those who long have sought, may now partake.

For nearly one hundred years after its organization Uxbridge remained simply an agricultural town, with the usual amount of such mechanical business as was carried on in the rural towns of New England. When it was incorporated it was a part of the county of Suffolk; but when Worcester County was created, in 1730, just three years afterward, Uxbridge became a part of it, and is so well satisfied with the connection, that no voice can be heard in favor of severing the old tie, or forming a part of any new county whatso- ever. It is a part of the Blackstone Valley, and, with the other valley towns which constitute Worcester South, it has a local pride in the old county, and a de- sire to remain in it and of it.

The diversified topography of this town is one of its principal charms. Hill and valley, meadow and upland, lakes and rivers all contribute to make the picture perfect. Comprising nearly twenty-eight square miles of territory, with about seventeen thousand acres taxed, with over eighty miles of well-kept higb- ways and town-ways, many rivers and streams crossed by stone, iron and wooden bridges, its handsome churches, fine hotel, imposing town hall and other elegant buildings reared by its thrifty population, now numbering about thirty-five hundred, Uxbridge sends out its invitation to the rest of old Worcester County to present to the readers of the "County History " a better record than she has made. Her adopted son, who writes this history, regrets that the limited space allowed him, prevents his doing justice to her ; for, do the best he may, the half cannot herein be told.

The rivers of Uxbridge are the Blackstone, the West and the Mumford. Its larger brooks, furnish- ing water-power, are the Ironstone, the Emerson, the Rivulet and the Drabble Tail.

The Blackstone River has its sonrce in North Pond, in the city of Worcester. From this pond flows a small but beautiful stream called Mill Brook. This stream, in its course through Worcester, Millbury, Sutton, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge and Black- stone, where it leaves the Slate, receives the waters of several affluents, is called the Blackstone River, and its constantly increasing size and volume furnishes, by the time it reaches Uxbridge, a seldom-failing power, which gives to the town its great prosperity as a manufacturing centre.

The West River has its origin in the town of Upton ; and, although it runs through the easterly part of Uxbridge, it retains the name " West River," which was given it when it was the western boundary of Mendon. It empties into the Blackstone about half a mile south of the Hecla Mills, and about a mile southeasterly of the railway station. Like the

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Blackstone, it contributes power to run the machinery of several factories, which will be described farther on.

Mumford River has its rise in " Douglas Woods," in Douglas ; being increased by streams from Bad- luck Pond and Manchaug Pond, in Douglas, and by springs and rivulets, and the vast reservoirs in Whi- tinsville. It enters Uxbridge just south of the Lin- wood Mills at Whitin's Station; thence through North Uxbridge, furnishing power to the great cot- ton-mills there located; thence southeasterly to Uxbridge Centre, joining the Blackstone about three- quarters of a mile southeasterly of the railroad station, at what is called the "Forks of the River." The Capron Mills are located upon this river.

The Ironstone Brook, formerly called "Forge Brook," and so designated in the early records of the town, rises in the extreme southwesterly part of the town, near the Rhode Island line; forms the Iron- stone Pond; thence flows under the New York and New England Railroad into the village of Ironstone; and thence about a mile easterly to the Blackstone River. It was very early used for furnishing power for various mechanical enterprises, a dam and forge having been erected upon it nearly one hundred and fifty years ago by Benjamin Taft, one of the original settlers in the town.

The Emerson Brook rises in Douglas, flows easterly, and enters Uxbridge in what is called "Scadden ; " it thence flows southeasterly, under the various names of "Shove Brook," "Tucker Brook " and " Emerson Brook," until its confluence with the Blackstone, on the farm of Millins Emerson. Its course is about five miles long, much of the way a very rapid, turbu- lent stream, and has fall enough, if its waters could be stored and used to advantage, to run all the ma- chinery now in use in the town. It supplies the power for Lee's Mills and the mills of Zadok A. Taft & Co., and, in former years, the Shove and the Rich- ardson saw and grist-mills. It is also one of the finest trout brooks in this section, and for several years Seth P. Carpenter, of Milford, an enthusiast in pisciculture, spent time and money in the erection of hatching houses and spawning-tanks; which, since his death, have fallen into "innocuous desuetude" and decay. The old gentlemau was sanguine of suc- cess, and there is no doubt that if the vandal fisher- men and surreptitious hookers of trout had left his breeding trout and hatchlings alone, he would have realized his fondest dreams,

The Rivulet Brook rises in the westerly part of the town, flows easterly through the farm of the late John S. Taft, to the pond at the Rivulet Mills, owned by Richard Sayles & Co., furnishing power for that prosperous establishment, and thence to the Mumford River, a short distance south of the Uxbridge Cotton- Mills. One of the earliest mills in town was built upon this stream ; and the second distillery for the manufacture of gin and cider brandy emptied its

nauseous refuse into its waters, on the Taft farm. In 1815 a woolen-mill was erected upon this brook, and since that date it has never ceased to furnish power for some manufacturing euterprise. Drabble Tail Brook is a small stream formed by the union of Croney Brook and Shuttle Brook, two smaller streams, or rivulets, arising from springs in the hills, just westerly of the centre of the town, and runs through the central village, crossing the highway near the Blackstone National Bank, and emptying into the Mumford River just below the dwelling-house of the late John W. Capron. This stream runs the water- wheel at the Shuttle Shop, and is capable of doing more damage in a sudden thaw than all the other water-courses in town. Less than one-eighth of a mile from the Shuttle Shop Pond to its outlet in the Mumford, it has repeatedly overflowed its banks, made a pond of Mechanic Square, a race-way of Main street, and a host of good citizens indignant at the negligence which allows this insignificant stream to kick up such a muss every three or four years. In 1824 excavations were begun for the Blackstone Canal, a project which had been agitated at various times from 1776 to the time when the Canal Company was incorporated, 1822. This canal was to be the great means of communication and trade between Providence and Worcester, and designed as an avenue for the transportation of heavy freight up and down the Blackstone Valley, which hitherto had been carried, at great expense and delay, by wagon- teams. Uxbridge was one of its important stations, and the locks and banky of the old canal can be seen to-day, though the canal ceased to be used in 1848, when it was superseded by the Providence and Wor- cester Railway.

These several water-courses have each and all con- tributed to the prosperity and comfort of the inhabit- ants of Uxbridge, and are the source whence has sprung that almost miraculous power which has kept the wheels of local industry in motion. While they have benefited the people, they have also added to the beauty and attractiveness of the town ; so that they may well claim from the pen of the historian their full meed of praise. Uxbridge, like most other manufacturing towns, is divided into villages; each manufacturing establishment building up around it comfortable homes for the employés, and schools for the education of their children.

As these different villages will be commented upon, in connection with the history of manufacturing, which follows in another chapter, it will suffice for the present to give their names.

Uxbridge Centre (where are located the Town Hall, Unitarian, Trinitarian, Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches, Capron Mills, principal stores, post-office and railway station) comprises about one-third of the population ; North Uxbridge (also a post-office vil- lage) contains the Uxbridge Cotton-Mills and the Baptist Church. The next largest village is the

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Calumet, for many years known as the "New Vil- lage." Next in size and importance is the Hecla village, formerly known as "Shank-bone," a nickname given to it (more than fifty years ago, it is said) on account of the frequency with which shank-beef was served at the mill boarding-house. A letter from Ireland, addressed to an employé of the mill, was directed to "Shankbone, Mass., U. S." How the post- office clerks ascertained the location of this village by that name is one of the unanswered conundrums.

Wheelack's village ( formerly called "Crackerville," probably on account of crackers being too prominent an article of diet, on some remote occasion) is the next in size. It is one of the prettiest, best-condi- tioned villages in the town, and its inhabitants are justly proud of it, and of the public-spirited gentlemen whose kindly interest in their welfare has made their homes and surroundings so pleasant. Elmdale (for- merly Squaw Hollow), one of the oldest villages in the town, situated about half a mile easterly of the Hecla village, is the home of the proprietor and em- ployés of Scott's Satinet Mills. Ironstone (at the south part of the town, three miles from the centre, on Forge Brook) was once the largest village iu Ux- bridge. In the early history of the town it was famous for the first mechanical business, established over one hundred and fifty years ago. For many years a large business was done there, and it was a post-station and general trading-place for the sur- rounding country. Ironstone Factory was built in 1815, by a stock company, and was burned in 1832. Subsequently rebuilt, it was operated with varying success by different parties till 1865, when it was again burned, and the property and the village have fallen into ruin.

The Rivalet village, on the south side of the old Boston and Hartford Turnpike, owned mostly by Richard Sayles & Co., is an illustration of what the energy and business enterprise of a live, intelligent man can accomplish. When Mr. Sayles took the property, it was sadly out of repair; the street was narrow and inconvenient for travel; the tenements dilapidated, small and few in number, and the sur- roundings unpleasant. In a few short years wonders have been accomplished. New houses have been erected, the old ones repaired and enlarged, the street widened, a new bridge put in, the factory buildings enlarged, modernized and improved; the grounds, lawns and fences made neat and handsome, and the entire village renovated and beautified.

Happy Hollow is the happy name of a small village which has grown up around and in the vicinity of the woolen-mills erected by Zadok A. Taft and D. M. Lee, on the Emerson Brook.

These constitute all the factory villages, but there are several of the agricultural sections of the town known by local names, which can have no general interest, as they are not strictly villages.

The minerals of Uxbridge are iron, lead, silver, in

small quantities, while quartz, beryl and smoky topaz in crystals are frequently found. Vast quarries of gneissoid granite furnish material for buildings, curb- ing, monuments and general cemetery work. It is of excellent quality and fineness, and capable of taking a high polish, some of it being in color and quality nearly equal to the imported Scotch granite. The Uxbridge Silver Mine, located in the southwest part of the town, on land now owned by C. R. Thomson and others (formerly the Chileon Tucker farm), was opened about fifty years ago, and for awhile gave promise of considerable richness. But after sinking two shafts to a depth of nearly fifty feet, and working a cross-cut on the vein, it was found that the vein, instead of increasing iu width, as was hoped and expected, was, if anything, even smaller than at the surface-about three-fourths of an inch of metal, in a hard, refractory gangue of quartzite. The metallic vein was a true galena, carrying a good per cent. of silver, but the immense expense attending its excava- tion, reduction and purification requiring, in the language of the day, " a gold mine to work the silver mine," caused a suspension of all work, and for about fifty years not a dollar's worth of ore has been taken from the mine. Its shafts are filled with water, and abandoned to the nymphs of the thick woods, whose spreading branches hide the place where fond hopes much expense and bitter disappointment lie buried. There are several small beds of limonite, or bog ore, and at the south part of the town, near Ironstone, the dark-colored rocks, which there abouud, contain con- siderable quantities of specular iron, so that the stone is called " ironstone," and the village takes its name, "Ironstone," from that fact.

It is believed by some that the yellow-colored quartz, which is found in quite large quantities in the western part of this town and the adjoining part of Douglas, contains gold, but if they will take pains to weigh it they will find its specific gravity insufficient to indicate the presence of gold. It is undoubtedly a kind of jasper-an opaque, yellow quartz colored by iron, or ferruginous clay,-possessing no value what- ever. The western and southwestern parts of the town are well wooded, nearly every farm having several acres of wood and sprout land, for market and domestic wood. Pine, chestnut, oak and birch are the principal woods, with occasionally a small lot of wal- nut.

The taxable valuation of the town in 1821-which is the earliest tax record which has been preserved- was about $113,116 ; the number of polls, 366 ; and the amount raised for State, county and town pur- poses, $1,986.37 ; rate, $1.75 on each $1000 of valua- tion. In 1830-nine years later-the valuation had increased to $786,592; 483 polls. Amount raised, not including school district taxes, about $4500 ; rate, $2.90 per $1000 of valuation.

In 1860, thirty years later, the number of polls had increased to 818; the valuation to $1,566,458-a gain

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 58

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