History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 106

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 106

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About two-thirds of the present territory of West- borough was taken from Marlborough ; so it will be necessary to trace briefly the history of the parent town.

In May, 1656, the following petition was sent from Sudbury to Boston :

To the Hon. Governor, Dep. Governor, Magistrates and Deputies of the General Court now assembled in Boston :

The bumble petition of several of the inhabitants of Sudbury, whose names are hereunder written, humbly sheweth that whereas your peti- tioners have lived divers years in Sudbury, and God hath beene pleased to increase our children, which are now, divers of them, grown to man's estate, and wee, many of ns, grown into years, so as that wee should bee glad to see them settled before the Lord take ns away from hence, as also God having given us some considerable quantity of cat- tle, so that wee are so straightened that wee cannot so comfortably sub- sist as could bee desired ; and some of us having taken some pains to view the country ; we have found a place, which lyeth westward, abont eight miles from Sudbury, which wo conceive might be comforta- ble for our subsistence.

It is therefore the bumble request of your Petitioners to this Hon'd Court that you would be pleased to grant unto us ( ) eight miles square, or so much land as may containe to eight miles square, for to make a plantation.

If it shall please this Hon'd Court to grant our petition, it is farther than the request of your petitioners to this Ilon'd Court, that you will hee pleased to appoint Mr. Thomas Danforth or Lieutennt Fisher to lay out the bounds of the l'lantation ; and wee shall satisfy those whom this Ifon'd Court shall please to employ in it. So, apprebending this weighty occasion, wee shall no farther trouble this Hon'd Court, but shall ever pray for your happinesse.

Edmond Rice. John How.

John Bent, Sen'r. Edward Rice.

John Woods Peter Bent.

Richard Newton. William Ward.

Thomas Goodenow. John Maynard.

Thomas King.

Jolin Ruddocke. Henry Rice.

That this is a true copy of the original petition presented to the Gen- eral Court May, 1656, left on file and thereto compared is

Attested :

per EDWARD RAWSON, Sec'ry.

May 14, 1656, the petition was granted.

In answer to the Petition of the aforesaid inhabitants of Sudbury, the court judgeth it meet to grant them a proportion of land six miles, or otherwise in some convenient form equivalent thereunto, at the dis- cretion of the Committee, in the place desired ; provided it hinder no former grant ; that there he a town settled with twenty or more fam- ilies within three years, so as an able ministry may bee there main- tained.

And it is ordered that Mr. Edward Jackson, Capt. Eleazer Lnsher, Ephraim Child, with Mr. Thomas Danforth or Lientennt Fisher, shall bee and hereby are appointed a committee to lay out the bounds thereof, and make return to the next Court of Election, or else the grant to be void.

This is a true copy taken out of the Court's Books of Records, as

Attests : EDWARD RAWSON, Secr'y.

It was not until May, 1667, that a plan of Marl- borough was made by Samuel Andrews and approved by the deputies. It is now among the State archives.

The southerly boundary of Marlborough extended in a straight line from a point in the Sudbury River, at a stone bound one half mile west of Rocklawn Mills, and passing between Piccadilly and District No. 4 School-house to the hill on which was situated the birth-place of Eli Whitney, now the home of William H. Johnson, and from there in a straight line north- westerly, passing east of the old "Fay Farm," and east of Hockomocko Pond to Lancaster liue. There were a few settlers in the part of Westborough now included in Northborough before there were any in the south part of the town.

John Brigham, the doctor, surveyor, commissioner of the General Court, land speculator, and the most enterprising man in town, obtained a grant of land in 1672 on "Licor Meadow Plain," and built a saw-mill on Howard Brook, near Northborough Village. About that time Cold Harbor Meadows, Middle Mead- ows and Chauncy Meadows were divided into thirty-four lots-probably the number of proprietors of Marlborough.

In 1675, when King Philip's Wars brought destruc- tion and distress to so many English settlements, Marlborough was particularly exposed to attack. In October of that year eight garrison-houses were es- tablished, to which the two hundred or more settlers might flee in case of attack. Twenty-four soldiers were distributed among these fortified houses, none of which appear to have been within the present bounds of Westborough. To thirteen soldiers were assigned the duty of defending the ammunition and supplies for defence. Many of the first settlers of Westborough spent their early years at this exposed froutier post. Except upon the east, Marlborough was surrounded by the wilderness. They were in constant fear of the torch, the tomahawk and scalp- ing-knife of the savages, who were making a united and desperate attempt to rid the land of the aggres- sive foreigners.

Little children, scarce able to go alone, were hidden under tubs and baskets, or in thickets in the woods, and kept as still as little partridges hiding from the hawk, while the war-whoops echoed from the oak rafters and the blood of their parents flowed in their defense.

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WESTBOROUGH.

Dr. Allen, in his "History of Northborough," pub- lished in 1826, gives this account of a raid on Marl- borough :

A second attack was made upon the English settlement of Marlhor- ougli on the 20th of the following month (March, 1676), which, though no lives were lost, was attended with disastrous consequences. It was Lord's day, and the inhabitants were assembled for public worship, when the preacher, the Rev. Mr. Brimsmead, was interrupted in the midst of his discourse by the appalling cry that the Indians were ad- vancing upon them. The assembly instantly dispersed, and, with a single exception, succeeded in reaching the neighboring garrison-house in safety before the enemy came up. But, though they defended them- selves, they could afford no protection to their property, much of which was wasted or destroyed. Their meeting-house and many of their dwelling-honses were burned to the ground, their frnit-trees hacked and killed, their cattle killed or maimed, so that marks of their ravages were visible for many years.

The alarm occasioned by this attack, and the defenseless etate to which the inhabitants were reduced, led them to retire from the place, and to seek shelter in a more populous neighborhood. Shortly after the close of the war, which lasted little more than a year, they re- turned to their farms, and were permitted for many years to cultivate them in peace,

For many years after the death of King Philip the people of Marlborough and vicinity enjoyed the blessings of peace. The Brighams, Rices, Howes and Fays and their numerous descendants cut the meadows on the river banks, planted the uplands with Indian corn, and made shingles from the cedar trees in the swamps. The land was gradually divided up among the different proprietors, and soon nearly all the territory covered by the four borough towns was in the possession of the English.

In 1680 the people in Marlborough, in town- meeting assembled, " Voted to raise thirteen men to go out to cil rattlesnakes-eight to Cold Harbourward, and so to the other place they call boston (now at the northwesterly corner of Westborough), and five to Stony Brookward to the places thereabout. John Brigham to call out seven with him to the first and Joseph Newton four with him to the latter, and they are to have four shillings apiece per day, paid out of the town's rates."

In 1683 the town paid bounties for the killing of twenty-three wolves.

During the French and Indian Wars occasionally incursions were made from Canada by hostile Indians as far as Marlborough and the present Westborough.

The scene of one such raid was, according to tradi- tion, a few rods east of the residence of Christopher Whitney-the hill to the southeast being covered with woods during the memory of persons now living. The records show that Thomas Rice then owned the Whitney estate. The fullest account of this incident is given in Peter Whitney's " History of Worcester County," as follows :

Towards the close of the seventeenth century several families had here seated themselves; and, among others, Messrs. Thomas and Edmund Rice had their families, and were fixed down but a little west of where the present meeting-honse (the "old Arcade ") io West- borough stands.

On Angust 8, 1704, as several persons were busy in spreading flax on a plain abont eighty rods from the house of Mr. Thomas Rice (the first settler in Westborough, and several years representative of the town of

Marlborough in the General Conrt), and a number of boys with them, seven, some say ten, Indians suddenly rushed down a woody hill near by, and knocking the least of the hoys on the head (Nahor, about five years old, son of Mr. Edmund Rice, and the first person ever buried in Westborongh), they seized two, Asher and Adonijah, sons of Mr. Thomas Rice, the oldest about ten and the other abont eight years of age, and two others, Silas and Timothy, sons of Mr. Elmund Rice, above-named, of about nine and seven years of age, and carried them away to Canada. The persons who were spreading flax escaped safely to the honse. Asher, in ahout four years, returned, heing redeemed by his father. This was effected by the kind mediation of the Rev. Mr. Lydius, then minister of Albany. And here, by the way, it should be noted that when the old Indian sachem, Onntassago, the chief of the Cagnawagas, at the conference with Gov. Belcher at Deerfield, made a visit to Boston, he stopped awhile in Westborough ; the before-men- tioned Asher Rice saw and knew him to be one of the Indians who rushed down the hill, as above stated. when he was taken by them. This Mr. Asher Rice married, had a family, and was living but a few years past in Spencer. His brother, Adonijah, grew up in Canada, and married there, first a French, and afterwards a Dutch woman, and fol- lowed the business of husbandry on come land a little way off from Montreal, on the north side of the great river St. Lawrence, and had a good farm there, as we have heen certified. The Iodian name whereby he was called was Assannangooton.

As to the other two, Silas and Timothy, they mixed with the Indians ; lost their mother tongue, had Indian wives and children by them, and lived at Cagnawaga. The name by which Silas was distinguished among the Indians was Tookanowras.

Timothy, the youngest, however, was monch the most noticeable per- Bon. The accounts received from thence have uniformly represented him as the third of the six chiefs of the Cagnawagas. This advance- ment was in consequence of the death of his foster-father or master, who had adopted him for a son, instead of a son which he, the former chief, had lost. However (said the Rev. Mr. Parkman, who has the best means of information), Timothy had much recommended himself to the Indians by his own superior talents, his penetration, courage, strength and warlike spirit, for which he was much celebrated, as was evident to me from conversation with the late Sachem Hendrick and Mr. Kellogg, when they were in the Massachusetts; and his name among them the same as we had ever heard, viz. : Oughtsorongough- ton.

The venerable Mr. Parkman, in a manuscript account of these per- sons found among his papers since his death, adds, in respect to this Timothy, in these words: " He himself, in process of time, came to see D8. By the interposition of Col. Lydins, and the captive Tarbell, who was carried away from Groton, a letter was sent me, bearing date July 23, 1740, certifying that if one of their brethren here would go up to Albany, and be there at a time specified, they would meet him there, and that one of them, at least, would come hither to visit their friends in New England. This proposal was readily complied with, and it succeeded.

" The chief abovesaid came, and the said Mr. Tarhell with him, as interpreter, and companion. They arrived here September 15th. They viewed the house where Mr. Rice dwelt, and the place from whence the children were captivated, of both which he retained a clear remein- brance, as he did likewise of several elderly persons who were then living, though he had forgot our language. His Excellency, Gov. Belcher, sent for them, who accordingly waited on him in Boston. They also visited Tarbell's relation at Groton, theu returned to us in their way back to Alhany and Canada. Col. Lydius, when at 'Boston, not long since, said this Rice was the chief who made the speech to General Gage, which we had in our public prints, in behalf of the Cagnawagas, soon after the reduction of Montreal."

At the time of their capture the fate of little Nahor must have seemed preferable to that of the three boys, doomed to barbarism, as well as a life-long captivity. "Blood," however, "will tell," the hardy Puritan stock gained the ascendency over an inferior race, and these Rice boys became the principal chiefs in the most influential "Indian nation" in Canada. When the war for independence was impending and the patriots in Boston were seeking for friends in the neighboring province of Canada, their old enemies,

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the Indians, were the only allies they could secure. The French Canadian gentry offered their services in raising troops for King George. The English settlers were bound by commercial ties to England and re- fused to join in the struggle for independence.

In March, 1775, the British government were plan- ning the overthrow of the rebels, who were arming all over New England, and especially the punish- ment of the town of Boston, the chief offender. Sam- uel Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren were in frequent communication with agents in Canada. Open war was liable to break out at any moment.

At this critical time a letter came from J. Brown, of Montreal, to Samuel Adams and Dr. Joseph War- ren, of the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, showing that the Westboro' captives, like the patri- arch of Old Testament history, not only prospered in the land of their captors, but, like Joseph, remembered their brethren.

The letter is dated March 29, 1775, and shows that these white chiefs were using their great influence to prevent the Indian tribes from resuming their old raids into New England. "The messengers sent to this tribe report that they were kindly received by the Cagnawaga Indians, which were the principal of all the Canadian six nations and western tribes of Indians, with whom they tarried several days.

"The Indians say they have been repeatedly applied to and requested to join with the King's troops to fight Boston, but have peremptorily refused and still intend to refuse.

" They say if they are obliged, for their own safety, to take up arms on either side, that they shall take part on the side of their brethren, the English in New England. All the chie's of the Cagnawaga tribe being of English extraction, captivated in their infancy."

Their brother and sister were living in Northboro' in 1793, and then informed Rev. Peter Whitney that they had heard from their brothers Timothy and Si- las as late as 1790, when the latter must have been over ninety years old.

As late as 1711 the danger of Indian excursions was so great that the one hundred and thirty-four fam- ilies in Marlborough were assigned to twenty-six gar- rison-houses, of which but two were within the pres- ent limits of Westborough. These were the garrisons of Thomas Rice (with John Pratt and Charles Rice) and of Edmund Rice (with David Brigham, Isaac Tomblin and David Maynard.)

Before passing to the incorporation of Westborough the history of some of the outlying grants now in- cluded within the town limits will be given.

Governor Theophilus Eaton, of Connecticut, was one of the original patentees of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was a prominent merchant in Eng- land, agent of King James at the court of Denmark, and Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1639 till his death.

He landed at Boston in 1637 and founded the New

Haven Colony in 1638. The following is the inserip- tion on his monument in New Haven :

" Eaton, so meek, so famed, 87 just, The Phoenix of our world here hides his dust, This name forget, New England never must."

He advanced fifty pounds for the use of the Mas- sachusetts Colony, but failed to have a grant of land located during his lifetime.

June 11, 1680, this entry appears on the court rec- ords : "In answer to the petition of Capt. Lawrence Hamond on behalfe of Willjam Jones, Esq., the Court judgeth it meet to grant to the heirs of that worthy gent", Theophilus Eaton, Esq., five hundred acres of land in any part of our jurisdiction, free from former grants and not prejudicing plantations."

May 16, 1683. In answer to Mr. Jones' motion in behalf of the children of Theophilus Eaton, deceased, ye five hundred acres is allowed and confirmed as laid out, provided that it exceed not fivety acres more than the five hundred granted them, and that the same be reduced to a square or rhomboyds, and doe not prejudice any former grants."

October 10, 1683, the plan and survey made by John Haynes were confirmed to the heirs of Mr. Eaton, although the farm was laid out neither in the form of a square nor of an oblique parallelogram. In fact, the eight-sided polygon enclosed a space not yet named by the mathematicians, but famous in later years as Eaton's, and then as Fay's farm, although the Fays at no time owned the whole of it. When annexed to that part of Marlborough now Westborough it projected into what is now Shrews- bury so far, that the district included between the farm and Sutton was known as "The Shoe," and necessitated the annexation of the people and farms there located. It included, perhaps, the best farming- lands in School District No. 6-the greater portions of the farm now owned by J. P. Vinal, the two farms of M. and J. E. Henry, part of the Whitney farm now owned by Wm. H. Johnson, the whole of the farms of Geo. E. Ferguson, J. M. Kimball, James McTaggart, and parts of several other farms. It extended one mile on the old Marlborough line, north- erly from the Eli Whitney Hill. From the corner of the wall, a few rods behind the house now occupying the site of the birth-place of the great inventor, the old Sutton north line can be followed with the eye about a half-mile, running south westerly in line with the stone wall, separating the Whitney pasture from the pasture of Geo. E. Ferguson. It also includes some of the best and most extensive meadows along the upper " Elisabeth " River, which had been kept free from brush and trees by the annual fires of the aborigines.

How " Mr. Jones, of Connecticut," succeeded in getting this grant, which appropriated the best uplands and the most desirable lowlands of the region, and which projected for more than a mile into " country land," approved as a " square or rhom-

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WESTBOROUGH.

boyd," cannot now he ascertained. Possibly he put up at the best inn of the "town of boston" and gave a dinner to the Great and General Court.

In less than two years John Brigham, with his brother Thomas, and John and Samuel Fay, the children of his sister Mary, hought the Eaton farm, paying but twenty-five pounds for it. The two former each owned one-third, and divided the farm between them and their nephews by deed.

Within the memory of persons now living, the Fays owned a large part of the farms in this section of the town. James Fay, on the Vinal place; Ben- jamin Fay, perhaps the wealthiest man in town in his day, in the house opposite his son James ; An- tipas M. Fay, in his " mansion " (now the home- stead of the Henrys); J. B. Fay and John G. Fay, on the North Grafton Road; Otis Fay, on the S. B. Ferguson place; David Fay lived in the Goodell house. His extraordinary doings and eccentric say- ings have served to entertain our older residents, his contemporaries and their descendants till the present day. After indulging somewhat freely in the "rhum," then dispensed in country stores, he is said to have ridden into the house now standing, and made a complete circuit of the rooms around the large chimney.

On the map of "Channcy," prepared for the use of the General Court in connection with the petition for the formation of the town of Westborough, no hill bears any name. Near the southwest boundary of the new town are the words-" Jack Straw's Hill at Sutton." At this time there were no white settlers at that place. In 1728 Jack Straw's Hill and other farms in that vicinity were annexed to Westborough. With the exception of the Sudbury River, this was the only geographical feature now in the town which bore any name on the map. One of the most strik- ing peculiarities of this town is the number of rounded hills, of which the highest is Fay's Moun- tain, seven hundred feet in height. These hills have been for many years excellent pastures.

Most of them change their name to that of each successive owner-Fay's Mountain, Boston Hill and Jack Straw's Hill seem to be exceptions to the general rule.

Jack Straw's Hill is on the east side of Ruggles Street, about a quarter of a mile beyond the house of N. M. Knowlton. An old cellar on the summit of the hill, a few rods from the street, indicates the spot where, within the memory of our oldest inhabitants, stood a small deserted house. Through the valley on the east flows Jackstraw Brook, which has been consid- ered as a possible water supply for the town.

The history of this spot, and of the famous In- dian whose name it bears, indicates the reason why this hill, so inconspicuous among the larger eleva- tions about it, has retained its name for more than two hundred years. Nearly a half-century before white people lived there, it named the country

around, so that a grant of three hundred acres of land was said to be "in a place called Jack Straw's Hill."

It bears the name of the first Christian Indian in the English Colonies, a man for several years in the service of Sir Walter Raleigh, and baptized by his order-one of the two Indians presented by that gallant explorer to the Virgin Queen Elizabeth, to- gether with a large pearl, as illustrations of what the newly-named Virginia could produce.

Made king of a petty domain near Roanoke, N. C., "always faithful " as scout, interpreter and guide " as an Englishman," his Indian name, Manteo, is now borne by that county-seat of Dare County, N. C., and is situated on Roanoke Island. After the aban- donment of the Roanoke Colony by the English, he appears to have left his home, and served as inter- preter for traders and explorers along the coast as far as Maine. The other Indian, Wanchesi, who accom- panied him on his voyage to England, returned to Roanoke, and within a year joined a party of hostiles, who killed one of the settlers, named "Master Howe."

The friendly Indians were desirous of gaining English names for themselves and their children, but they did not always understand their significance.

In 1623, " not long after the overthrow of the first plantation in the Bay, Capt. Lovit came to ye contry." At the time of his being at Pascataway (near Portsmouth, N. H.), he and Mr. Tomson, who were exploring and trading along the coast, engaged two Indians. A spectator, perhaps observing the re- sponsible duties assigned them, said : "How can you trust these Salvages. Call the name of one Watt Tyler and ye other Jack Straw after ye names of the two greatest Rebells that ever were in England." So Jack Straw received his English name, not realizing, probably, that his namesake was one of the leaders in the socialistic rebellion in the fourteenth century, whose head was affixed to a pike in the city of London, so recently in his power.

The exact time when he located here is not known. About 1650 the apostle to the Indians, Eliot, had gathered the scattered Indians of this vicinity into the villages of Marlborough, Hopkinton and Grafton. This hill was not far from the earliest Indian trail which was the only highway from Connecticut to the Massachusetts Bay, and called the "Bay Path." Some traces of it are now visible.

In 1631 a company of Connecticut Indians traveled from near Hartford to Boston, to secure the aid of the English settlers against their powerful Indian enemies, and to secure a colony on their river. An historian says they secured the services of Jack Straw and Sagamore John, as the former Indian spoke English, and the latter lived between the Charles and Mystic Rivers.

The following is Governor Winthrop's account of their visit :-

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

April 4, 163], Wahginnacut, a sagamore upon the river Quonehtucut, which lies west of Naragunset, came to the governor at Boston, with John Sugnmore & Jack Straw (un Indian, who had lived in England and had served Sir Walter Raleigh, and was now turned Indian again) and divers of their sannops and brought a letter to the governor from Mr. Endicott to this effect : That the said Wahginnacnt was very desirous to have somo Englishmen to come plant in his country and offered to find them corn, and give them yearly eighty skins of heaver, and that the country was very fruitful &c. and wished that there might be two men sent with him to see the country. The governor entertained them at dinner, but would send none with him. Ho discovered after that the said sagamore is a very treacherous man, and at war with the Pekoath (a far greater sagamore). His country is not above five days' journey from us by land.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 106

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464