History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 109

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 109

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The following is a list of those who gave up their lives for their country during the war.

. Killed.

Died in Prison.

H. W. Bond.

Minot C. Adams.

Wni. H. Blake.

Win. I. Blake.

Thomas Copeland.

Charles S. Carter.

James Doherty.

George S. Chickering.

Timothy Driscoll.

John Copeland.

JI. IT. Fairbanks.

Francis E. Kemp.

John Flye.

Herbert O. Smith. Irving E. Walker.

W. H. H. Greenwood.

Francis Hanley.

John A. Hart.

Died from Disease.

Abner W. Haskell.

John S. Burnap.

J. W. Marsh.

Wm. Denny.

Daniel B. Miller.

George C. Haradan.

James 1I. Sullivan.

Wmn. C. Loker.

At the first March meeting after the close of the war the town voted "to erect a monument in memory of our soldiers who have fallen during the late war,

1345

WESTBOROUGH.

to be placed in the Cemetery opposite the Town Hall."

It was dedicated three years later, in the spring of 1869.

CHURCH AND PARISH HISTORY .- The Marlborough proprietors, in 1710, had set out a minister's lot for the little village of Chauncy. This lot consisted of " 40 acres of upland and swamp west of Chauncy Pond" and "10 acres at the west end of great Middle Meadow near Horhomoka Pond." After the incorpo- ration of the town, one of their first acts was to ap- point a committee, who, with the committee of the General Court, were "to sett out the Minister's Lott," and who approved of the one already granted.

In October, 1718, the meeting-house was raised with the usual ceremonies of the time. The town furnished to its guests that day "Six Gallons Rhum and a Barrall and a half of Syder." Three months before this date they had a fast, "in which to settle a minister," as Sewall records in his diary, and which he probably attended. If any minister was settled at that early date, it must have been Mr. Elmer, of whom Mr. Parkman writes :

Mr. Daniel Elmer, a candidate for the ministry from Connecticut River, preached here several years, and received a call from the people; but there arose dissension, and though he built upon the farm which was given for the first settled minister, and dwelt upon it, yet, by the advice of an ecclesiastical council, he desisted from preaching here, and a quit-claim being given him of the farm, he sold it, and with his family removed to Springfield in 1724. He was afterwards settled in the min- istry at Cohansy, in the Jerseys, and, I suppose, died there.

Possibly the new church had their religious services in his house, near the place where the meeting-house was slowly going up. Certainly they found somewhere comfortable quarters, for they seem to have taken their own time in finishing the homely little structure, which now would be " raised " and " compleated" in a few weeks. After a great many votes on the subject, they finally, in 1723 (five years after the raising),

Resolved, By a voat, that the Town will proceed to complete the fin- ishing of the meeting-house forthwith.

.When completed, it was a bare wooden building, " fourty foot long, and thirty foot wid and eighteen foot between Joists." There were two doors-one at the west, the other at the east end. A double row of benches was placed in the middle of the house, leav- ing a passage-way between them, which separated the men from the women. All around the house, next to the walls, were the "pew-spots," which the more wealthy members bought and built their own pews. That there was no excessive demand for these pew- spots is shown by the fact that in 1730-31 (seven years after the church had been first occupied) several young men were granted "the Roume in the Long Gallery Behind the Seats to Buld them a pew." This building was near Wessonville, "upon the northeast corner of John Maynard's lot," on an acre of land which he and Edmund Rice presented to the town. This was the only meeting-house for what is now Westborough and Northborough.

After the building was finished, Mr. Elmer, the pastor then preaching, was asked "to setell with them," and, on his decision to leave, the town decided to hear Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, of Boston, and sent Mr. Shattuck to him with a horse for Mr. Parkman's use in coming to Westborough. He spent a little more than a week here, as we learn from his diary, preaching two Sundays, visiting the sick, going hunt- ing for fawns and turkeys and returning with nothing but pigs, and once in the week at least walking to the meeting-house with a pistol in his hand, and receiving a severe fright at seeing a supposed Indian, who, on second sight, proved to be his worthy landlord. A little more than a month afterwards he returned to Westborough, and solemnly dedicated himself to a life-work among its people. He lived in a house very near the church. This house was standing within the memory of many now living, and was the childhood's home of our librarian, Miss Jane S. Beeton. She remembers it as a large, roomy house, with a hall about fourteen feet wide, and stairs mounting by easy stages and broad landings to the second story, where Mr. Parkman, in one of the back cham- bers, had his study. The inside finish of the house was of English oak, handsomely carved in the old country. The wall-paper, too, was imported, stiff and thick, in dark colors. The house at the entrance of the Lyman School grounds was built on the cel- lar of the old parsonage, and many of the old timbers were used in it.

When the new church was built in the present village, Mr. Parkman bought several tracts of land in the vicinity, and built a new residence near the present site of the Dr. William Curtis house. After Mr. Parkman's death it was the home of Hon. Elijah Brigham. Dr. Curtis moved the parsonage to its present location on High Street, just west of the school-house. Mr. Parkman did not wish to have his former home in Wessonville pass into the hands of a mechanic, and retused to sell his seventy-acre farm and buildings to a blacksmith who wished to purchase it. The records of the Registry of Deeds show, however, that Captain Stephen Maynard bought it for £333 48. 8d., and then sold it to the village blacksmith, John Beeton, for the same price, to the chagrin of the former owner.

His salary was to be £80 a year, with a settlement of £150. He was then twenty-one years of age, a graduate of Harvard and a descendant of distin- guished ancestors. He had been married a few weeks to Mary Champney, of Boston. The rest of his long life of eighty years was all spent here; here his sixteen children were born, and here his descend- ants are now living. His grave is in the Memorial Cemetery, marked by a large horizontal slab of slate, resting on brick foundation walls. It bears this tes- timony to his character : "He was formed by nature and education to be an able minister of the New Tes- tament, and obtained grace to be pre-eminently

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS

faithful in the work of the Lord. He was a firm friend to the faith, order and constitution of the New England churches. He was a learned, good, pious man, and full of the Holy Ghost and faith unfeigned, and answered St. Paul's description of a Scripture bishop, being hlameless, vigilant, sober, of good be- haviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach."

The church at Wessonville was used until 1748. Jonathan Edwards twice preached from its pulpit. The relinquishment of the church building was finally brought about by the division of the town into two precincts, when a new church was organ- ized in the North Precinct (now Northborough), and a new building commenced in Westborough, nearer to what was then the centre of the town. This new building is still standing,-the " Old Arcade," and is occupied for stores. For ninety years it was not only meeting-house, but town-hall as well.

This church, like its predecessor, was plain. The pews were of oak, with simple carving, as were the balustrades leading to the galleries. Part of the material was taken from the church at Wessonville. It was a plain, square building, afterwards, in 1773, enlarged by the addition of fifteen feet in the middle, and three porches. The men and women were sepa- rated by a "peticion," which in 1770 they proposed to remove "to ye east end of yt of ye women's seats." At the same time they voted "ye weman's front gal- Jery for ye men to set in, except ye Front pew," indicating thereby that more men attended church than women a hundred years ago. They instructed a committee in 1767 in regard to seating the meet- ing-house as follows: "In the first place to set the for'd seat altogether by age; then, secondly, to seat by age and pay." The three deacons sat together, fronting the audience, in the pew just below the pulpit.

The steeple and belfry were added in 1801, when Mr. Samuel Parkman, of Boston, a son of the first minister, presented the church with a hell. This was cast by the famous Paul Revere, and is now in the Baptist belfry. From 1806 to 1842 the old building was adorned with a clock, which is now on the Town Hall. In 1809 Mr. Gardner Parker, who has given his name to the most park-like bit of landscape in the immediate vicinity of the village, "Parker's Folly," obtained permission to put an organ into the church. This was one of the earliest in use in New England. Only four years before this the deacons were still "lining out" the hymns.

During the early years of the Revolutionary War there were articles from time to time relative to in- creasing Mr. Parkman's compensation. He had then occupied the pulpit for more than forty years. They were generally passed in the negative. One petition is recorded at length as follows :

WESTBORO', Dec. ye 2, 1776. To the town of their meeting by adjournment to-day :

GENTLEMEN,-This is to manifest my very hearty sympathy with you

in the comumnou Distresses & grievous Burdens of the present Dark Day that I have fully performed, according to my utmost ability, all such duty as has been requested of me, in ury office, agreeable to my Age & Circumstances ; so that I have not knowingly given any offence to any person ; and I am still ready to do and to bear, as God shall assist me, whatever may be in any Reason desired of me. I rely upon your Jus- tice and honor to afford me subsistence in your service, as in all equity to be expected But, my Brethren, the Article of getting my ll'ood is utterly beyond my Power, and you was Sensible of this from the begin- ning, and you gave me Reason to depend on you for it. It is plain I must unavoidably suffer unless you will shew me so much compassion as to help me. I don't insist at all upon the manner of doing it, so it be but just and equal & answer the End. Whatever you do about other things, There is Necessity of gitting the Wood or your own selves and Familys will suffer Loss.

I am your Affectb,

E PARKMAN.

Read to the town and passed in the negative.

In 1777 Mr. Parkman's salary was increased on ac- count of the depreciation of money, and they voted to give him thirty-five cords of wood. Each man could pay his share in wood delivered at Mr. Parkman's " Dore," or in money at the rate of £1 48. per cord.

After Mr. Parkman's death, in 1782, the church for six years was without a pastor, but January 14, 1789, Mr. John Robinson was ordained. He was dismissed in 1807, after having made much trouble among his flock. He was succeeded by Mr. Elisha Rockwood, D.D., who was the last town minister.

In 1825 the first society was formed, and the minis- ter ceased to receive his salary from the town. About 1830 the society was divided by a difference of belief, and four years later the church and society separated. The church, with a new society, left the old building in the possession of the old society and built them- selves a new place of worship, still in use, on the cor- ner of Main and Church Streets. This church since that date has been called the Evangelical Church. Its pastors have been, since Mr. Rockwood's dismis- sion in 1835, as follows : Barnabas Phinney, 1836-37 ; Charles B. Kittredge, 1837-15; Henry N. Beers, 1847- 49; Daniel R. Cady, 1849-56; Luther H. Sheldon, 1856-67; Artemas Dean, 1867-69; Heman P. De Forest, 1871-80 ; Frederick A. Thayer, 1880-82; Wil- liam Mitchell, 1883-84; Walcott Fay, 1888 -.

The old society-the first Congregational Society- installed a Unitarian minister, Rev. Hosea Hildreth, in October, 1834. He remained with them until April, and with the close of his pastorate the Arcade ceased to be used as a church. It was stripped of its steeple and porches-each of the latter being made into a small house-one on Heath Street, the residence of D. W. Arnold, another on Boardman Street, the resi- dence of Mrs. Martha Wilson, while the third was re- moved by Mr. Gardner Parker, when the steeple was erected, to the land just back of his house, on Main Street, now occupied by Miss Witherby, and used by him as a shop in which to manufacture clocks. It was the hope of obtaining a water-supply sufficient for this work that induced him to build the dam at Parker's Folly, which proved so expensive and useless an undertaking. The railroad which was built at that

1347

WESTBOROUGH.

time rendered the location undesirable, and the Uni- tarian Society, in 1849, dedicated their present house of worship. In the mean time they met with the Bap- tist Society. The ministers of this society have been : Hosea Hildreth, 1834-45; William O. Mosely, 1850; Nathaniel Gage, 1851-57; H. A. Cook, 1858 ; Benja- min Huntoon, 1859; Gilbert Cummings, 1860-63; George N. Richardson, 1864-68; W. G. Todd, 1869- 70; J. L. Hatch, 1871; C. A. Allen, 1872-75; C. W. Emerson, 1875-76; Granville Pierce, 1877; J. P. Forbes, 1878-82; E. C. Abbott, 1884-86; E. A. Coil, 1888 -.

In 1796 two men were baptized by immersion in Chauncy Pond, and a few Baptists from that time held meetings together. One of the most influential men having these sentiments was Dr. James Hawes, who had been a deacon in the Evangelical Church from 1780 till his resignation in 1813. His son, James Hawes, Jr., was largely instrumental in having a Baptist Society, and it was in his parlor, in the east end of his father's house, now standing on East Main Street, that the new society was organized and the new church held its first communion. After this they met in the unfinished upper story of Mr. John Bee- man's house, on the Flanders Road. Dr. Hawes gave them a tract of land adjoining his house, where the green-house of F. Lundberg now stands, on the condition of their using it to build a church upon. The little church, now in Woodville, was the first Baptist Church built here. When the church was moved, and the new one built in 1835, on the site of the present one, this land reverted to Dr. Hawes' beirs. The present.church was erected in 1868.

The pastors have been : Thomas Conant, 1814-16 ; William Bowen, 1831-33; Alonzo King, 1835; Otis Converse, 1836-38 ; Adiel Harvey, 1839-45; Silas Bailey, 1845-47; William L. Brown, 1847-51 ; Na- thaniel Hervey, 1851-53; William H. Walker, 1855- 58; A. U. Arnold, 1858-64; J. A. Goodhue, 1864-67; C. W. Flanders, 1868-70; S. H. Stackpole, 1871-73; B. A. Greene, 1875-82; J. H. Parshley, 1883-84 ; N. Newton Glazier supplied the pulpit from 1884-86; George F. Babbitt, 1886.

The present membership of the church is two hun- dred and ninety.

The first independent Methodist Church in this town was established in 1858. For fourteen years previous it had existed as a branch of either the church in Holliston or that of Hopkinton. The first meetings after the organization of the society were held in the lower story of the high school house. In 1864 the present building on Milk Street was erected. In 1885 the parsonage on Church Street was built. The membership of the church is one hundred and eighty-five. The pastors have been : J. E. Cromack, 1858-59; W. P. Blackmer, 1860-61; S. B. Sweetser, 1862-63 ; J. B. Bigelow, 1864-65; W. M. Hubbard, 1866-67; W. A. Nottage, 1868-69; B. Giel, 1870-71; B. Judd, 1872-74; J. S. Day, 1875; Z. A. Mudge,

1876-78 ; J. H. Emerson, 1879-81 ; E. A. Howard, 1881-84 ; John R. Cushing, 1884-87; A. W. Tirrill, 1887.

About 1850 the Roman Catholic Church-St. Luke's -was formed; but it was not until twenty years after that it had resident priests, clergymen from other towns holding services here in the mean time. In 1868 it purchased the old Baptist Church and moved it to Milk Street. This building was destroyed by fire in 1886. Since then they have built a new church on the corner of Main and Ruggles Streets. The Catholic population of Westborough is one thou- sand five hundred. The pastors have been: R. J. Donavan, 1870-73 ; P. Egan, 1873-78; C. J. Cronin, 1878-82; R. S. J. Burke, 1882-87; J. J. McCoy, 1887. For eight years the priests had an assistant, M. H. Kittredge and P. E. Purcell filling that office. At present there is no assistant.

There is a small Advent Society in town, organized in 1859. They occupy a chapel on Church Street.

The first burial in town was that of Nahor Rice, the four-year old boy who was killed by the In- dians at the time of the raid of 1704. He was buried in what is now called Memorial Cemetery, opposite the Town Hall. This was used for more than a hundred years, being set apart for that pur- pose by the proprietors of Marlborough. A powder- house at one time stood upon it; also the first school-house for District No. 1. The boundaries have been changed and the lot enlarged. Here many of the men most instrumental in forming the history of Westborough are buried. Here is the Soldiers' Monument and the cenotaph to Eli Whitney.

Part of the time this was in use, and before the division of the town there was another cemetery half-way between Westborough and Northborough, near the Northborough road, on the first road to the right after crossing the river. This is now over- grown with trees ; a cart-path leading into the woods on the left, if followed a few rods, brings us to the few graves still marked by slate-stones, engraved with curious conventionalized cherubs, and the names of Holloway and Wheeler. There are five graves now plainly marked with headstones, and foot- stones, and the name is always inscribed on each.

In 1810 a new burying-ground was bought be- tween School and South Streets, which is known as the. Midland Cemetery. This lot was small, and in 1844 the land was purchased on South Street for the Pine Grove Cemetery.

The Roman Catholic cemetery-the St. Luke's- is on the same street, a little more than a mile from the town. This was first used in 1871. These two last-mentioned cemeteries, within the last year, have been improved by handsome gates at their en- trances, both the gift of the late Dr. William Curtis.

There was no hearse in town until 1801, when the town paid twenty-five dollars for one. They

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

built a house for it at an expense of fifty dollars ; paid thirteen dollars for harness and two dollars for having the hearse painted. Thirty years before this they had voted to buy two "burying-cloths," which were to cost two pounds apiece. The cof- fins were made by the village carpenter, varying in price from $1.25, for a child, to $3.50, for a man. Among the papers in the town vault is an order from the selectmen of 1783 to the town treasurer to pay to Paul Lawson "thirty-three shillings, which sum is in full for his making a coffin for the Rev'd Ebenezer Parkman and one for Samuel Jones."

EDUCATION .- As early as 1708 the population of Marlborough had become so scattered that the new teacher, Abraham Coffin, was required to keep school in different parts of the town. " He was to teach all children, male and female, and such others of most growth to read and write and cast accounts." He received twenty-four pounds for teaching the first year. The school was moved to different places out- side the central village, including Stony Brook (Southborough) and Chauncy.

Amid the hurry and daugers of frontier life the education of children had at times been neglected, and we find numerous instances of persons of both sexes " making their mark " when signing deeds and wills."

A town was not required to maintain a public school " until the Lord hath increased them to fifty householders," but it is not to be supposed that dur- ing the first nine years of its history the children were generally left to grow up in ignorance. The boys and girls doubtless learned at the fireside from parents and older brothers and sisters the rudiments of edu- cation-reading, writing and a little arithmetic. Spelling was not regarded of much importance, a- early records and documents clearly indicate.

The history of the Westborough public schools begins nine years after the incorporation of the town. October 3, 1726, the. town voted to have a school for the next six months. A committee of two was appointed "to provide a Sewtable Schoolmaster for ye Town, to teach children to read, write and Sipher, and to provide entertainment for sd schoolmaster Dewring the sd six months, and all so to provide a place or places for the school to be kept in." Occasionally a man entered " his decent against paying to ye school," but generally the appropriation was cheerfully voted. They gave Mr. Joshua Townsend at first eighteen pounds, he " paying for his diet." He was " fetched" from Brookfield for the sum of ten shillings. Mr. Townsend continned for more than twelve years the town schoolmaster. He boarded a few months at a time in different families, usually the best families in the district where he was then teaching, and the town voted to pay his board bill.

In 1753 they chose a committee "to make answer at the next February Courte to a presentment now lying against this town for not having a lawful

schoole," there being more than a hundred families in town and no grammar school.

In 1765 a committee was appointed for " squardder- ing out the schools in this town," whose report, "after sum Debate," was accepted. A few years later the town was again divided into school districts.

The following table, compiled from the "Select- men's Book " of 1793, shows the number of families in town and their distribution :

The districts, with the exception of No. 9, were in the parts of the town now known by those numbers, although the district system of schools was abolished in 1867. District No. 9 included families on the Northboro' road and in that vicinity. There was no village of importance in town. The largest number of families was in No. 6, which was composed en- tirely of farms, while the three points of greatest business interest, viz. : Piccadilly, Wessonville and the present centre of the town, were as thinly set- tled as the other districts. The whole expense of supporting schools in nine districts was less than four hundred dollars for a year,-

Name of teacher.

No. of dis.

Amt. paid

teachers.

Amt. paid for

board of

teachers.

ations.

No. of families

in district.

Betty Forbes

2 19

1 0 16

Phineas llaskell, Jr., {

1 13 0 8 19

Hannah Woodward,

Polly Gront,

Seth Grout,

Betty Forbes.

7 10 0 2 18 0 8 7

Master Corrnth, 1

Benj. Whitney.

5 19 0 1 19 74 7 15

Hannah Hawes,

James Hawes, Jr.,

7 9 0 1 10 8 12 10

8 21

Polly Grout,

Asaph Warren.

71 4 12 0 4 18 8 10 14 10

David Batrick, Jr., }

7 12 0 1 4 0 8 7 2

Josiah Bond,

9 5 19

| 5 19

9 7 15 3 13

d. .

€

x. d.

£ s. d. .

59 6 10 17 18 2 80 0 0

In 1800 the school appropriations was $460.66. In this year District No. 6 had still the largest number of families,-having twenty-four,-while the next largest, No. 1, had only twenty-two. About this time we find that the women teachers received a dollar a week, while the men had nearly three dollars a week. In 1803, District No. 1 had the largest number of families, having twenty-five, one more than No. 6.

In 1854 the High School was established, and two years later is the first printed report of the School Committee. In 1856 the appropriation for schools, including the amount received from the State School Fund, was $1461.44. Of this eight hundred dollars was voted for the use of the High School, and the rest divided in proportion among the districts. They paid the teachers this year from $2 to $6.50 a week besides their board bills. The High School teacher received for the four terms, $626.88, and had an

1 No. 7 paid £4 s. 2d. rent for the use of a private house.

H. Fessenden

tricts.

Appropri-

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WESTBOROUGH.

assistant part of the time, who was paid forty-two dollars.

In 1870 the High School was graded. Since then all the schools in town have been much improved. Better houses, with better means of heating and ventilation, are now provided. The schools are system- atically graded, and the standard of scholarship and instruction compares favorably with the same grades in city schools. With less than double the number of scholars in town over thirty years ago, the appro- priation for schools is seven times as large.

From 1866 to 1876 Dr. J. H. Hero kept a boarding- school for young ladies in the old Wessonville tavern. This building had been previously used for school purposes by the Westborough School Association. Before the High School was established private schools were kept in the centre of the town for those desiring more advanced instruction than that afforded in the district schools. The old Armory Building on South Street and the Town Hall were rented for this purpose.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 109

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