History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 72

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 72

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Two and a half years later, in May, 1779, the town voted unanimously (forty-five votes) in favor of a new State Constitution. Just a year previous their vote on the same matter was twenty-two in favor and four against. In August, 1779, Capt. Thomas Cowdin was elected delegate from this town to attend the conven- tion held at Cambridge, September 1st, for the pur- pose of framing the new State Constitution. This Constitution, as prepared by the convention, was sub- mitted to the people for their ratification in May, 1780, and Fitchburg voted unanimously (65 votes) in favor of its adoption.

During this period the inhabitants of Fitchburg who remained at home were by no means reclining on beds of roses. It was " hard times" with them. Money was scarce, prices were high and the soldiers and their families had to be provided for.

In 1777 the town began to get tired of the heavy burden. There was much gloom and not a little grumbling; but through it all no word reflecting on the justice of the American cause would be tolerated by the mass of the citizens. Patriotism was put above everything else and persons who did not come up to the mark in this respect were closely watched. "More than one inhabitant of this town was threatened with a coat of tar and feathers, and even with the destruc- tion of his house," says Torrey.

Everybody was called upon to contribute to the good cause, to the utmost of his ability, and the sus- picion and wrath of the citizens fell upon those who did not seem disposed to do their full share.

The people were divided into classes, according to their wealth, and each class furnished soldiers in turn, as they were called for by the government, and had to provide for the bounty money.

In addition to all the money furnished by these classes, the town also expended what amounted to quite a sum in those days. It is difficult to estimate how much the town actually expended during the last five years of the war, because the currency fluc- tuated so much, but it was probably between $7000 and $8000.

It is very easy to see that all these war expenses, combined with the ordinary running expenses of the town, must have taxed the resources of the inhabit- ants of Fitchburg to the utmost. To cap the climax, the Continental currency, issued by the Congress, was counterfeited by the British, and the country was flooded with this spurious paper.

In 1777 the currency began to depreciate and con- tinued to do so in a most alarming and ruinous manner. The government, for some inexplicable reason, made them legal tender for debts due, and the result was that many, who were previously in com- paratively affluent circumstances, were reduced to almost absolute poverty. On the 1st of January, 1780, this currency had depreciated to such an extent that $1.00 specie was worth $32.50 Continental.

The records at that period show that sums of money were voted by the town that would appear fabulous, did we not understand about the deprecia- tion. Thus, in February, 1780, it was voted that the inhabitants should be allowed three dollars (¿ e., about nine cents "hard money") per hour for their labors on the highways. Eight thousand dollars was voted to be raised to assist in supporting soldiers' families. "In July, it was voted to raise $1666.66 to hire soldiers with. In the October following, a com- mittee of the town contracted for four thousand eight hundred pounds of beef, and agreed to pay $26,000 for it, or at a rate of over $5.00 per pound." In 1781 Continental money took a still greater drop, and in March of that year two men who had been elected collector» of taxes in Fitchburg for the ensuing year, and refused to serve, were each fined $900, equal to about $10 specie, the usual fine in such cases. At tbe same time the town voted $20,000 for repairs of high- ways and allowed each person $5 per hour for his labor.

The last, but not perhaps the least, of the troubles with which the town had to contend during this period was that dreaded disease, small-pox, which broke out here in 1776. A hospital for the purpose of inoculation was established in town by Dr. Thaddeus McCarty, of Fitchburg, and Dr. Israel Atherton, a noted phy- sician of Lancaster. It does not appear that there

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were many deaths from the disease. Notwithstanding all these trials and hardships, Fitchburg increased considerably in size during the war, and at the time of the declaration of peace, in 1783, the town had about one thousand inhabitants.

But another trouble was soon to come upon them in the form of

SHAYS'S INSURRECTION .- At the close of the war, trade was stagnant, and there was very little money. The State government, in order to keep up its credit, imposed very heavy taxes on the people. At first the people had recourse to petitions ; but finding that no amelioration resulted from their numerous statements of grievances, they broke out into open rebellion against the State authorities. The leading character in the short-lived disturbance was a man named Daniel Shays, a former captain in the Continental army; hence the name Shays's Insurrection was ap- plied to it.

The discretion that had previously characterized the people of Fitchburg, fortunately prevented them from breaking ont into open rebellion; but their threats were loud and deep, and not all the taxes ordered by the government were collected.

In June, 1786, Elijah Willard was appointed a dele- gate from this town to a convention, held in Worces- ter, to consider the best means of extricating the people from their bnrdensome difficulties. The town voted to defend his property if he should be arrested for attending the convention, " provided he behaves himself in an orderly and peaceable manner ; otherwise he is to risk it himself."

By all means in their power, short of force of arms, did the people of Fitchburg resist all efforts to collect the taxes, and the consequence was that a large com- pany of soldiers was sent here in the fall of 1786, to enforce obedience. This made the citizens exceed- ingly indignant, and there were several occasions when serions strife was imminent. The company was prudently withdrawn to Townsend in the winter of 1786-87. During all their stay in Fitchburg, the sol- diers exhibited great insolence towards the citizens, and when they were ordered to Townsend they put a finishing touch to their impudence by impressing men, horses and conveyances to take them there. A num- ber of the soldiers were taken by Asa Perry, who hated them most cordially, and he managed to tip his load into the snow-drifts several times in the course of the journey. During 1787 the trouble gradually subsided and matters went on with tolerable smooth- ness.

It may be of interest to give a short description of the appearance of the town as it was abont a century ago. In his " History of Fitchburg," Mr. Torrey has given as good and accurate a description as could be written, which is as follows : " A traveler, approach- ing from the east or south, would first behold the tavern of Thomas Cowdin, Esq. Upon the hill to the northwest might be seen a small, yellow and rather

mean-looking meeting-house. In front would appear the 'red store' of Joseph Fox, Esq., and in the rear of that his dwelling-house, with large projecting eaves. The mills and meeting-house of Deacon Ephraim Kimball were just below, and over the bridge were two houses more. Casting his eyes up the hill, he would see the house of Rev. Mr. Payson, where C. Marshall now lives. This was all that could be seen, and all that then constituted the middle of Fitchburg. Thence proceeding westward, over a crooked and rongh road, the traveler would next see the house already mentioned as having been built by David Gibson, and opposite to that, on the right, the baker's shop. He would then come on to the present Common. Here his eyes would be greeted by small, stunted pine trees, and such bushes as grow upon the poorest land. A straggling log fence here and there might serve to diversify the scene. Nothing more was to be seen, unless William Brown had commenced building Captain Z. Sheldon's present dwelling-house, till, passing the swell of ground at Dr. Abel Fox's house, the modest, unassuming honse of Benjamin Danforth would be visible on the right, and his black- smith's shop on the left. Continuing his course onward, over one of the most wretched roads that ever bore that name, and passing over the high bridge -and a crazy one it was-near the bellows-shop of Messrs. Thurston & Battis, no marks of human habi- tation were to be seen till, passing around the hill, he might discern in the distance the solitary cottage of Benjamin Kemp. The river, which is now crowded, so to speak, with mills and factories, then appeared like a useless profusion of water, flowing noisily along over its rocky bed to the parent ocean, unob- structed by a single dam save the one in the Old City. Such, fifty years ago, was the forbidding aspect of what is now the busy and pleasant village of Fitchburg." The reader will bear in mind that the foregoing was written by Mr. Torrey -in 1835 or 1836.

In addition to the middle of the town above de- scribed there was, a century ago, a flourishing settle. ment in the westerly part of the township. The land there was elevated, the soil good and there was no river to cause trouble every spring. This region, now known as Dean Hill, was settled early and became quite prosperous. This locality boasted of two tav- erns, kept by Jacob Upton and Jedediah Cooper respectively, a blacksmith's shop and a doctor, be- sides the houses of many thrifty farmers.

The people living in this region had to pay their proportion of the taxes for the annnal repairs of bridges and highways in the middle of the town. To free themselves from these heavy and, in their opinion, unjust taxes, they determined to be set off as a sepa- rate town; and in the warrant for the annual town- meeting March 7, 1785, was an article " to see if the town will take into consideration the request of Mr. Jacob Upton and others, to see if the town will set off the inhabitants of the northwesterdly part of

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Fitchburg, with their lands and privileges, free and clear from said Fitchburg, to join the extreme part of Westminster with the northeasterdly part of Ashburnham, to be incorporated into a town, to have town privileges as other towns."

The people in all other parts of the town were unanimously opposed to this project, doubtless fear- ing that, in case this prosperous and growing portion were set off and ceased to contribute to Fitchburg's town expenses, they would be utterly swamped by the taxes necessary to repair the damage done by that grievous nuisance, the north branch of the Nashua. So the article was promptly voted down.

The people in the west, by no means discouraged by this defeat, went to work immediately to gain their point and contrived a very shrewd scheme worthy of "Yankee ingenuity." The time had come when all were agreed that there was need of a new meeting-house in a more central locality. This commonly acknowledged fact was made the basis of a petition brought before the town by the people of the west in May, 1785. The substance of this petition was that a mile or more in width of the northerly part of Westminster, with the inhabitants thereon, be annexed to Fitchburg, these proposed new inhabitants "to be convened with others of the inhabitants of said town, for the public worship of God and to be vested with all other privileges with said town in public mat- ters, to join with the inhabitants of said Fitchburg to build a meeting-house on Ezra Upton's land," etc.

This, at first glance, seemed like a perfectly fair proposition. If adopted, territory would be added to the township and the location of the proposed meet- ing-house would be quite near the centre of the town. But the men of the east were Yankees, too, and dust could not be thrown into their eyes. Tney saw the point so speciously concealed by the meeting- house scheme. They saw that if the petition were granted and the new territory annexed, the inhabit- ants of the new acquisition, combined with the people in the west, would then be strong enough to control the town-meeting, would vote to be set off as a separate town and thus leave the remainder of the town of Fitchburg in the lurch. . So the petition was negatived, doubtless much to the cha- grin of those who had hoped to pull the wool over their neighbors' eyes.

Nothing more (except complaining of the distance they had to travel to go to meeting) was done by the people of the west until March, 1786, when they very modestly requested of the town, " that Rev. Mr. Payson have liberty to preach some part of the time in the year in the westerly part of the town." This privilege was also denied them, "the town thinking that by yielding an inch they would open a door through which they might unwillingly be thrust a mile," as Mr. Torrey aptly expresses it.

The wrath of the west was now fully aroused. They were bound to have their rights recognized, and

to have a new meeting-house as near them as they could get it. At this time began a controversy concerning the location of the meeting-house, which lasted over ten years, and required ninety-nine town- meetings to settle. An account of this controversy will be given in the ecclesiastical history.

The town records during this period (1786-96) contain but little that does not refer to the contro- versy. Two events, however, occurred in the course of these years that are worth noting in this section. One was the census of 1791, from which it appears that Fitchburg's population at that time was one thousand one hundred and fifty-one, showing that the town had grown very slowly during the previous eight or ten years.

The other event was the appearance of Rev. Peter Whitney's "History of Worcester County," pub- lished in 1793. It may be of interest to give a few of his impressions about Fitchburg as it was then. After a very brief account of the incorporation of the town and a description of the character of its surface and soil, he says: "Most of the people live in comfortable and easy circumstances, possessing all the necessaries and many of the conveniences of life. They are industrious, and, having a good soil to la- bor upon, live independent, and, for an inland town, several families among them may justly be deemed rich. The people near the meeting-house are settled pretty thick, and there much business of various kinds is performed; for here runs, a few rods south of the meeting-house, the north branch of Nashaway River. One part of this river comes from Ashburn- ham, the other part from Watchusett Pond; these unite a little west of Fitchburg Meeting-House. After this junction, and just below the meeting- house, there is one corn-mill, one saw-mill, one fulling-mill, one clothier's works, one trip-hammer and works for grinding scythes. These occasion a great resort of people there to transact their various concerns." Further on he states that it is a flourish- ing place, and thinks that "if they continue in peace and unity they will still greatly increase in numbers and wealth." He adds: "They subsist chiefly by husbandry ; there are, however, the usual mechanicks and a few dealers in European, East and West India goods."

The town records contain very little of interest during the last few years of the century. February 12, 1796, a small part of the southwesterly portion of the township was annexed to Westminster. In 1798 the town laid a tax on " Doggs," and the next year voted to abate it. The tax appears to have amounted to fifty-three dollars. In the fall of 1797 it was voted " to build a pound with stone two rods square within the walls." The contract wasgiven to Thomas Cow- din (son of Captain Thomas Cowdin, who died in 1792), for thirty-three dollars and fifty cents, with the privilege of taking stone off the town's land. The old stone pound still stands in the woods, close

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by the Ashburnham hill road, and looks desolate and forsaken. Whether it has been rebuilt or not since 1796 the writer cannot state; but its appearance would indicate that it had not.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. FITCHBURG-(Continued.)

HISTORY FROM 1800 TO 1872.

THE year 1800 found the town in a tolerably flour- ishing condition. The population had increased to one thousand three hundred and ninety. The people had recovered their equanimity on the meeting-house question, and the new house of worship was much appreciated on Sundays, and often called into use on week-days for town-meetings, its first use for this pur- pose being on September 17, 1798. A clock had been put into it, for which the town, for some reason un- known, seems to have been rather unwilling to pay.

In 1801 there appears to have been a revival of the desire of the people in the west to be set off; for, at a town-meeting February 23, 1801, there was an article in the warrant " to see if the town will vote to set off all the inhabitants in the northwestern part of the town of Fitchburg, who wish to be set off as a town, agreeable to a plan formerly drawn by some of the inhabitants of the towns of Fitchburg, West- minster, Ashburnham and Ashby." It was voted to pass over this article.

During the following five years there seems to be nothing of special interest entered upon the town records. In September, 1806, the town voted to choose a committee to provide plans for a powder- house, select a location for it and ascertain, " as near as they can," the expense. The committee made a favorable report, and the town voted March 7, 1808, to build the powder-house, and chose a committee of three to attend to it. This powder-house was located near the bend in the present Central Street, and is well remembered by many of our older citizens. It stood there for a considerable number of years.

In 1808 the town concluded a satisfactory agree- ment with the town of Lunenburg, "respecting pau- pers, public lands and taxation," matters that for some time had been in dispute. It was the custom in Fitchburg, as in most towns at that time, to let out the poor to the lowest bidders. Regular public auctions were held every year for this purpose: and some of the conditions upon which certain of the paupers were " let out " are worth noting. Thus, for example, one L. W. was bid off by a citizen "to lodge and board and mending for the said L.'s work, till she is otherways disposed of, the town to cloathe her and doctor her in sickness if need. In regard to one of the town charges it was always stipulated that

the person who bid him off "resk his conduct if he should be at freedom and be answerable for all dam- age done by him."

In April, 1808, a certain pauper " was struck off at a public vendue, at 26 cents a week,-all running charges excluded, viz., sickness and clothing." The prices bid ranged from nothing to a little over a dol- lar a week, according to the capabilities of the pau- pers to work and the amount of care necessary to look after them. In 1820 a new method was begun, all the paupers, thirteen in number, being let out together to Jacob Upton, for the year, for three hun- dred and nine dollars and seventy-five cents.

In May, 1810, there was an article in the warrant " to see if the town will raise a sum of money to pur- chase an engine." There seems to have been a fire just previous, but the people could not have been very greatly alarmed, as no action was taken on this article.

During the first decade of this century the town was only moderately prosperous. The population had increased somewhat, being one thousand five hundred and sixty-six in 1810. People were un- doubtedly deterred from settling here on account of the high taxes necessary to keep the roads and bridges in repair and to build new ones. Moreover, there was bitter dissension among the people in re- gard to theological matters, which will be referred to later. It began early in 1801 and continued until 1823, when the two societies mutually agreed to dis- agree, to live and let live, and a final separation took place.

It was during this decade that the first cotton-fac- tory was erected in Fitchburg. It was also one of the earliest (the third) built in this State. This factory, known among us for more than half a century as the "Fitchburg Woolen Mill," was built in 1807 by a corporation of some thirty individuals, for the pur- puse of trying the then novel experiment of spinning cotton. It was successful for a time, but later was converted into a woolen-mill. In 1887 it was pur- chased by the Parkhill Manufacturing Company ; thus, by a singular coincidence, the first factory built in Fitchburg was, after many years, restored to its original industry. A detailed account of this old landmark will be given hereafter. On " Election Day," 1810, Capt. Martin Newton put in operation two spinning-frames in a building near the present "Stone Mill."

Paper-making was begun in town in 1805, in a mill built on the site of the Rollstone Machine Company's works, by Thomas French. The dam built there the year previous was the third across the Nashua. Up to the year 1810 nothing in the way of manufacturing enterprises, other than those mentioned above, had been established in Fitchburg as permanent industries of the town. Scythes, bellows, hats and a few other articles were made here then on a small scale, but are now no longer among the industries of Fitchburg.

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In March, 1811, the town made another unsuccess- ful attempt to raise money ($100) for the purchase of a fire-engine, and July of the same year chose Paul Wetherbee, Johu Thurston and Samuel Gibson a com- mittee "to raise a contribution for the relief of the sufferers of Newburyport by a late fire."

The War of 1812 does not seem to have had much effect on town affairs here. The war was unpopular in New England, but Fitchburg appears to have borne her part without any murmuring. In the war- rant for a town-meeting in May, 1812, was an article "to see if the town will offer any reward, by way of bounty or wages, to such soldiers as may volunteer, or be detached, to supply the number of troops re- quired by the commander-in-chief from the infantry and cavalry of said town." It was voted that the town make up the soldiers' wages to twelve dollars a month while in actual service.

In May, 1815, it was voted "that Z. Sheldon and others have liberty to erect a liberty pole at their own expense."

For some years previously there had been an article in the town warrants, from time to time, to see if the town would sell the twenty-two and a half acres of land purchased of Thomas Boynton in December, 1788, for the meeting-house site, but never used. The town had not as yet been able to come to an agree- ment about it. In 1813 there was an article to see whether it should be sold to Jonas Marshall, Jr., and the proceeds applied to the purchase of a bell for the meeting-house, on condition that Mr. Marshall "will give $100 more than two or three men, that shall be agreed upon, shall appraise the land to be worth." The article was not acted upon. In March, 1817, it was finally voted "to sell the town's land bought of T. Boynton, reserving a piece for the pound," and a committee of three was chosen "to sell it to the best advantage." The members of this committee seem to have accomplished their work, and in March, 1818, it was voted that the conveyance be made by the town treasurer and "to appropriate the money arising from the sale of the town's land to repair the bridges car- ried away by the freshet;" but this vote was reconsid- ered and it was agreed to appropriate the money "as any other." The spring of 1818 seems to have been particularly disastrous to the bridges.

August 21, 1820, the town voted on the question, "Is it expedient that delegates should be chosen to meet in convention for the purpose of revising or al- tering the Constitution of Government of this Com- monwealth?" The vote was unanimously in favor of choosing such delegates (eighty-five votes). October 16, 1820, the town chose Calvin Willard and John Shepley as delegates to attend a convention held for this purpose in Boston, on the third Wednesday of November, 1820.

During this decade the population of the town in- creased very little, being one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six in 1820. In these ten years three more

cotton-mills were built in town-the first being New- ton's cotton factory, built in 1812 by Captain Martin Newton and Solomon Strong. To accommodate this factory the town, in September, 1812, laid out a "town road and private way, two rods wide, to a stake oppo- site the northwest corner of the new Factory." This "way " (now known as Newton Place) passed through the land of Oliver Fox, "whose damage," as the records say, "is appraised at $101, which Newton and Strong are to pay, as also all expenses of making and keeping it in repair." The second factory was the "Red Mill" (where Pitts' mill now stands), built in 1813, and the third was built on Phillips' Brook in 1814 by a company which failed soon after the close of the war, but was later put into operation as a cotton factory by other parties.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 72

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