History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 114

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 114

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In the year 1816 Hon. Aaron Tufts, with John R. Jewett, Mayo Pratt, Harvey Conant and William Robinson, joint proprietors, erected a mill for the manufacture of woolens in the north part of the town, upon a privilege supplied from Gore and Baker

Joseph the Joy

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Ponds. Some person fond of a joke affixed the horns of a ram in a conspicuous place upon the building, and, though the borns soon disappeared, this part of the town has ever since horne the name of Ram's Horn. In 1843, upon the death of Mr. Tufts, Mr. Jewett succeeded to the proprietorship, running the mill till 1864, when it was sold to a Mr. Pond, of Worcester, and subsequently to Lovell Baker, of the same city. In 1868 it was destroyed by fire, and to the present time has not been rebuilt.

In 1887 the West Dudley Co-operative Creamery was established, with a capacity for making two thon- sand pounds of butter per week. It has proved a great help to the dairymen of this vicinity, and its product in balf-pound prints is nearly all sent to first-class hotels in the city of Boston.

West Dudley is on the Quinebaug River, and is a station on the Southbridge Branch of the New York and New England Railroad ; has a post-office and express-office. In 1833 Charles Vinton built a grist and saw-mill here. Six years later, Mr. Vinton having deceased, the property was sold to Allen Brown, who erected additional buildings and manu- factured Kentucky jeans until burned out in 1850. In 1864 the privilege was bought by Messrs. Gleason and Weld, who built a saw and grist-mill, and the following year a paper-mill, and continued the man- ufacture until the time of Mr. Gleason's death, in 1878, when his interest was bought by his partner, C. W. Weld. The grist-mill was burned in 1880, and rebuilt the same year. In 1881 Mr. Weld built a new paper-mill, and soon after sold the same, with half the water-power, to William J. Warren, of Nor- folk, Mass. August 21, 1885, this mill was burnt down and rebuilt the following winter. The varie- ties manufactured are manilla wrapping, mill wrappers, carpet lining and building papers. Average amount of business done, $35,000 per year.

Below on this river is another privilege, developed in 1872 by Mr. Eben S. Stevens, son of Mr. H. H. Stevens, who built the large linen-mill in the east part of the town. Mr. Stevens is engaged in the manufacture of jute goods, and under his personal supervision his business has made steady growth and now gives employment to about one hundred hands. It is near the station of Quinebaug, on the same railroad as West Dudley.

Chairmen of the Board of Selectmen since 1732.

Years.

Joseph Edmunds. 7

Jonathan Day,

George Robinson

John Warren 3

Ebenezer Edmonds

Isaac Lee

John Vinton

Jobn Chamberlain

Benjamin Conant

Aaron Tufts

John Lillie

Thomas Learned,

Joseph Uphanı

Jeptha Bacon

Joseph Sabin ..

William Windsor

Phineas Mixer

John Brown

Ebenezer Bacon

John Eddy

Jedediah Marcy

William Hancock

William Learned

Edward Davis

Geo. A. Tufts

William Hancock. 12

Jonathan Newell

Morris Learned

Benjamin Conant 20

Ahiel Williams

Ezra Conant

Baylies Knapp .. 2

Jedediah Marcy.

Elisha Williams

Edward Davis 2, 15

Angustus T. Allen.

John Eliot Eaton

Lemuel Healy 20

John Chamberlain.

Moses Barnes, Jr 15

Aaron Tufts

Anson P. Goodell 5

Amasa Nichols

Lemuel Healy3

Rufus Davis

BIOGRAPHICAL.

JOSEPH H. PERRY.

Joseph H. Perry, the founder of the manufacturing interest in Perryville, Dudley, Mass., was born Sep- tember 12, 1789, in Thompson, Ct., on the farm of his fatber, which lay partly in Thompson and partly in Dudley. He was the youngest son of Josiah Perry, a native of Watertown, Mass., who removed thence in early manhood to Foxboro', Mass., and removed about the year 1775 to the farm just mentioned.

Joseph H. remained in Dudley engaged in farm la- bor till his twenty-seventh year. At that time, having decided to change his occupation, he went to Uxbridge, Mass., and invested a part of his savings in the stock of the Rivulet Manufacturing Company. He continued to work in the mill until the closing up of its opera- tions, losing his investment, but gaining a knowledge of the details of the woolen manufacture. While at Uxbridge, on the 17th of February, 1820, Mr. Perry married Mary, daughter of Samuel Taft, for many years a prominent resident of the town. Seven chil- dren were born to them, four of whom are now living, one dying in infancy. The eldest son, George W., died in the late War of the Rebellion, and Charles H. was thrown from a sleigh and fatally injured. On the closing of the Rivulet Mill, Mr. Perry went to Woon- socket, R. I., where he was employed for about one year in one of the mills there.

In the fall of 1825 he returned to his native place, and, in partnership with Danford Upham, Abner Wyman and Richard Perry, purchased from his older brother, Eliphaz (who now owned the original home- farm), a few acres of land, including a water privilege. He then built a dam and erected a mill and com-

1 The present chairman.

2 Recorded Declaration of Independence.

Theodore Leonard

Daniel Dwight

Asa E. Edmonds. 19

E. P. Mortou ..

Moses Barnes

Ebenezer Davis

Renben Davis

Geo. Tracy

Henry H. Stevens

Moses Barnes 1

Town Clerks.

Years.

Chester Clemens

Lemuel Healy

Morris Learned 5

J. E. Edmonds

Baylies Knapp.

A. D. Williams

Years.

John Lilly

Joel Barnes

3 The present town clerk.

DUDLEY.

Years.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

menced the manufacture of satinets, under the name of Joseph H. Perry & Co. In a few years the other partners had sold their interest to him and Charles Carpenter, he owning two-thirds and Charles Carpen- ter one-third. There was, at the outset, only one set of machinery ; it was eventually increased to four sets. The mill was burned in 1857, and rebuilt the same year. Joseph H. Perry died September 5, 1864; he then lacked only seven days of being seventy-four years of age, but had maintained remarkably his phys- ical and mental vigor, continuing his active interest in and personal management of the business, being at the mill on the day of his death, which was caused by a sudden attack of apoplexy. He was a man of much business ability, of sound judgment, deliberate and careful in the consideration of his plans, but persist- ent in carrying them out. Of few words, when they were spoken it was well understood that he meant just what he said. He took a kindly interest in his employés and in the people of the vicinity, being known familiarly among them as Uncle Hartshorn, and his death was deeply mourned by them and by the business community in which he had been so long and favorably known. His wife survived him twenty-one years, reaching the advanced age of ninety- one years. On his death his two sons, Charles H. and Josiah, bought out the other heirs and the junior partner, Charles Carpenter, continuing the business under the name of Joseph H. Perry's Sons. In a short time they changed the style of goods from satin- ets to cassimeres and suitings, which continued till the death of Charles, which occurred suddenly, Jan- uary 31, 1868. Josiah then became sole proprietor by purchasing the interest of his brother's heirs. The business has since been conducted under the name of Josiah Perry. He has increased its capacity till, at the present time, he is running eight sets of cassimere machinery.

H. CONANT.

The subject of this sketch was born in Dudley, Mass., on the 28th of July, 1827. He was the second son of Harvey and Dolly (Healy) Conant. His an- cestors were among the earliest settlers of that town, his great-grandfather on both sides being residents of the town as early as 1737. His paternal ancestors were farmers and millers located in the north part of the town, near the Charlton line. Hervey Conant, his father, was one of the incorporators and partners of the "Tufts Woolen Manufacturing Company," and at one time was the owner of the village grocery, which stood at the junction of the Dudley and Charl- ton and Oxford and Southbridge roads. This being before the days of railroads, it was quite a commercial point, and did at times a thriving business. But in these latter days that village has become a neglected locality, and the factory, with dye-house and adjacent buildings, only show some straggling ruins which indicate that a large busy factory ever had existence

there. What few buildings are still standing are de- cayed beyond the power of being ever repaired to make habitable again. The house where Hezekiah was born was entirely demolished some years ago, and the foundation and cellar walls only are the si- lent witnesses that the house had an existence. But at the time he was some six years of age he attended school at the old stone school-house, which occupied a place about a mile towards the south, on the road to Dudley Centre, the old foundations still being vi-ible. Being blessed with a quick and retentive memory, he mastered the elements of reading and geography and arithmetic so quickly that he was the pet of the teachers, and his mother thought he might become a minister if he lived. Among other encouragements, they noticed that the peculiar curl of the hair at the top of his head showed them he had three crowns, which was a sure sign that he would eat his bread in three different kingdoms.

His father, having sold out his interests at the Tufts village, removed to Webster, Mass., where he resided four years, from 1835 to 1839, but in the lat- ter year removed to Dudley again and occupied the farm formerly owned by Major Lemuel Healy, his maternal grandfather. Young Conant, having ar- rived at an age when he began to be able to do light work about the farm, was trained to be of use, and worked in the field at such occupations as suited his strengtlı, and in the winter months he attended the common school, and later had the advantage of sev- eral terms at the Nichols Academy.

In the month of May, 1845, he, by much importu- nity, persuaded his father to let him accept a posi- tion in a Worcester printing-office as a roller-boy in reply to an advertisement. His mother had died some years previous, and he disliked the monotonous life of agriculture, and wanted to get into some trade where he could use his thought and skill, which he believed to be superior to his not very strong muscu- lar system. He served as apprentice for about two years in the office of the Worcester County Gazette, published by Estey & Evans, when the concern failed, and he then obtained employment at the office of the National ÆEgis, which was owned at the time by T. W. & J. Butterfield, but soon passed into the hands of Mr. S. V. Hicox, of New York, with Ed- ward Winslow Lincoln as editor-in-chief. While with Estey & Evans the Daily Transcript was started by Julius L. Clarke, and Hezekiah had the honor of rolling off at the backside of the old Washington hand-press the first edition of this first daily of the city of Worcester. He remembers that the old Quaker, Hon. John Milton Earle, was the editor of the Massachusetts Spy ; Mr. John S. C. Knowlton edited the Palladium ; Mr. Goodrich run the Worces- ter County Cataract ; Thomas Drew was a young man just fledging as a reporter in the Spy office; and Mr. Spooner owned and run a power-press, turned some- times by horse-power and sometimes an Irishman

7. Comment .

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DUDLEY.

took the crank. Henry J. Howland carried on the business of book and job printing, and old Mr. Car- lisle run a press (hand) that had a patent roller-boy. It was believed at that time that if the very best press-work was wanted, there was nothing that could exceed the work turned off the hand-press.

Some time during the year 1848 he left the printing- office and entered the employ of Woodburn Light & Co., to learn the machinist's business. This was much more to his taste and made the hours of his work much more regular, and the calculations of gears and screws had a fascination for him. In the year 1850 he had saved enough of his earnings to give himself a year's schooliug at Nichols Academy, and in 1851 he went into the shop again, this time at the locomo- tive-shop of the Union Works at South Boston, which were owned then by Mr. Seth Wilmarth, afterwards chief at the Charlestown Navy Yard. In the fall of 1852 he had drifted to Hartford, Conn., where he found employment at Lincoln's Machine Shop, and he worked at Roberts & Son's a short time, where he became acquainted with Christian Sharps, Esq., the inventor of the Sharps rifle. He was employed by him to make some drawings for machinery for mak- ing proje tiles, etc. Sharps leaving Hartford and going to Philadelphia, left him unemployed again, when he entered Colt's establishment as a tool-maker and was employed in constructing special tools to make the iron-work for the large armory that was afterwards built down on Colt's meadows, its present. site. The following year he left the shop and applied himself to the business of drawing and constructing special machinery as parties in need applied to him. He contrived and constructed some very useful appa- ratus for Williams Brothers, at South Glastonbury, the celebrated soap manufacturers, invented and patented an improvement in the Sharps rifle known as the " gas check." About this time he met with severe affliction in the death of his wife, and the breaking up of his home. In the year 1856 he was at Slater's establishment at Webster, Mass., where he contrived and built a sewing-machine for sewing the selvages on the pieces of goods made in the woolen mills, and which was in operation at last accounts. Next he was employed by Mr. Slater to construct some thread-dressing machines which dressed the goods in the skein ; but although the machines were all right, the later style of dressing it from the bob- bin in a single web superseded the skein process About the year 1857 he commenced the construction of a machine to automatically wind sewing thread of two hundred yards length upon spools, and was very successful. He sold one-half of it to the Willimantic Linen Co., and entered the service of that company for a term of three years under a written contract. He commenced this new arrangement on February 1, 1859, and remained with them nine years.

During this time he made several new inventions, the most important of which was the "ticketing

machine," which is now used to affix the small labels on each end of the spools of thread, which it accom- plishes at the rate of one hundred spools per minute. He superintended the establishment for three years, when he resigned, terminating his connection on February 1, 1868. In the year 1864 he visited Europe and examined many of the factories in the Lancashire district and in Scotland iu the cities of Paisley and Glasgow. His expenses were borne by the Willimantic Linen Company, and he believes that a substantial benefit accrued to that coupany from information obtained on this trip.

Immediately on the termination of his connection at Willimantic he went to Pawtucket, and attached himself to the shop of Messrs. Fales & Jenks, and proceeded to apply himself to making improvements in machinery for spinning cotton. In the fall of the same year, however, it was proposed to start another thread-making concern, and enough capital was immediately subscribed to make up the sum of thirty thousand dollars, and a charter was asked and obtained of the State Legislature. A small factory was built of wood, one hundred feet long by forty feet wide, and two stories high. This was the No. 1 Mill of the Conant Thread Company. Mr. Conant's acquaintaince with Lancashire spinners enabled him to buy cotton yarn; readily, and twisting and winding were started ; but the way being opened to consolidate with Messrs. J. & P. Coates, of Pais- ley, Scotland, the capital stock of the company was gradually raised to a large amount, and one building after another of colossal size was erected till the plant consists of four enormons brick structures, fitted with the best machinery and operated by Corliss engines amounting to nearly tonr thousand horse-power, and representing an outlay of nearly four millions of dollars, and giving direct employment to nearly three thousand workers. Mr. Conant's time and attention is devoted at present to the management of these works, and he has prospered both for himself aud his associates ; and yet he considers himself a working- man, and feels a satisfaction in doing what he can to help others in life, and believes in doing good. In accordance with this impulse he has rebuilt and built additional buildings for the Nichols Academy in his native town, and enlarged the Common and regraded it, and laid walks and assisted the people in fixing up the town in various ways. He has a large number of friends, and no man thinks of friends or valnes them more highly than he. He declines political office, but he has accepted the position of president of the Pawtucket In-titution for Savings, and sits as a direc- tor at the several banks of that city. He is a mem- ber of the Congregational Church of Pawtucket, and practices what he believes. He advocates that condi- tion of political economy that rewards the worker with good wages, as he believes that working people are the largest class in this country, and they have the first claim on the attention ot the legislators in

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Congress. He believes that their interests should be protected, not only as consumers, but as producers. He has visited Europe several times, and on his last trip he took his family with him and made the tour of the Continent, and he has seen the condition of factory life in Mulhouse, in the district of Alsace- Lorraine, and in the Lancashire district of England. He thinks the accident of the war tariff and the re- sumption of specie payments had as much to do with the permanent establishment of good wages in the United States as any other circumstance, and recom- mends the voters who have any regard to the present elevated conditions of working people to not imperil this advantage with experimental legislation.

CHAPTER CLXIX.

ROYALSTON.

BY WILLIAM T. DAVIS.

ROYALSTON, until its incorporation, was called Royalshire. The lands composing it were obtained partly by grants from the Provincial Court, and partly by purchase at sales held nnder the court's authority. Before the year 1652 four grants, comprising in all twenty-three hundred acres, had been made-one to Joseph Priest, one to Thomas Hapgood, one to Pier- pont and others, and a fourth to Benoni Moore, Joseph Pattey and Robert Cooper. The grants to Priest and Pierpont were probably made without any special reason. That to Hapgood was made in 1742, "in consideration of services in the war with the eastern Indians, and his sufferings by reason of wounds received from them, whereby in his advanced age he was disabled from labor for the support of himself and family." The fourth grant was made December 15, 1737, and included a territory about four hundred and eighty rods long, and two hundred rods wide. It is stated in the Royalston memorial that Mr. Benoni Peck satisfied himself that this grant was made in consideration of services rendered by the grantees, Benoni Moore, Joseph Pattey and Robert Cooper, "in burying the bleached bones of certain soldiers who, led by Capt. Beers, were marching from the river below to the assistance of Northfield, but fell into an ambuscade and were slaughtered by the Indians." The Pierpont grant was in the northeasterly part of the town, the Priest grant next to it on the east, the Hapgood grant still farther east, next to the Winchen- don line, and the fourth grant on the easterly line of what is now the town of Warwick.

The purchased lands comprised twenty-eight thou- sand three hundred and fifty-seven acres, and were sold by order of the General Conrt, December 21, 1752, under the direction of a committee composed of John Chandler and James Minor, of the Council, and

Thomas Hubbard, the Speaker, and John Tyng and William Lawrence, of the House of Representatives. The total number of acres constituting Royalshire was thirty thousand six hundred and fifty-seven, and this was the number at the time of the incorporation of the town. Subsequent changes in the boundary lines of the town have reduced the territory of Roy- alston to about two thousand six hundred acres.

The names of the purchasers were Samuel Watts, Thomas Hubbard, Isaac Freeman, Joseph Richards, Isaac Royal, Caleb Dana, James Otis, Joseph Wilder, Jr., and John Chandler, Jr. Most of these were prominent men. Thomas Hubbard was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Isaac Royal gave his name to the town. James Otis, it is enough to say, was the James Otis of the Revolution, and John Chandler, Jr., was judge of Probate of Worcester County. Isaac Freeman and Joseph Richards seem to have disposed of their interest to Thomas Hancock and John Erving, the former of whom died in 1764, leaving his heir, John Hancock, one of the proprie- tors, and the latter of whom is remembered by the Massachusetts town bearing his name.

Isaac Royal was born in Medford, and, besides giving his name to the town and twenty-five pounds sterling towards building its meeting-house, also gave two thousand acres of land, most of which was in Royalston, to Harvard College, to found the law pro- fessorship which bears his name. He was a member of the General Court of the Province, and twenty-two years a member of the Council. In 1774 he was ap- pointed one of the mandamus councilors, but was one of the twenty-six not sworn in. He adhered to the King at the breaking out of the Revolution, and went to England in 1776. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished, and died in England in October, 1781.

John Chandler, Jr., another of the proprietors, was a loyalist. He was born in New London, in 1720, and at the age of eleven removed with his father to Worcester. He was a colonel in the militia, a soldier in the French War, and afterwards sheriff, judge and treasurer of the county. In 1774 he was compelled to retire to Boston, and in 1776 went with the British army to Halifax. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished, and his estate, valued at £36,190 1s., was confiscated. He died in London in 1800, and was buried at Islington. His son, Rufus Chandler, also a loyalist, died in London, in 1823, and was buried by the side of his father. Four other sons, Clark, Gard- ner, Nathaniel and William, an uncle Thomas and a brother Gardner were more or less committed also to the loyal canse.

The proprietors held their meetings in Boston, at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, at the corner of State and Kilby Streets, a part of whose sign, a gilded bunch of grapes, is or has recently been in the temporary pos- session of the Bostonian Society, in Boston. At the first meeting, in 1753, it was decided to name the territory Royal-shire, and at that time Isaac Royal

1371

ROYALSTON.

promised the gift for a meeting-house, to which refer- ence has been made. At this meeting the land was laid out into sixty lots for settlers, and three others for the minister, for the support of public worship and for the support of a school. In 1765, however, three hundred and thirty-one acres were set apart for the first minister, four hundred and twenty-four acres for the ministry, and four hundred and twenty acres for the school. The proprietors' meetings were held until 1787, at which date it is presumed that the lauds had all heen disposed of and become the property of individual holders. The sixty settlers each received from the proprietors the free gift of one hundred acres, with the condition that a clergyman should be settled, six acres of ground be cleared and a house built. In 1764 a meeting-house was built, and in 1765 such con- ditions existed as rendered the formation of a town desirable. In response to a petition presented to the General Court the following act of incorporation was passed February 19, 1765 :

WHEREAS, the proprietors of the land lying north of Athnl, within the county of Worcester, known by the name of Royalshire, have pe- titioned this Court that, for the reasons mentioned, said land'may be incorporated into a town and vested with the powers and authority he- longing to other towne, for the encouragement of said settlement.

Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and House of Representa- tives-

Sect. 1. That said tract of land hounded and described as follows, viz., beginning at a piller of stones on the province line, the northwest corner, and from thence running south hy the east line of Warwick five miles and two hundred and ninety-three rods to a pillar of stones the southwest corner ; and from thence running east with the north line of Athol five miles and two hundred and sixty-five rods to a red oak and heap of stones, the northeast corner of Athol; and from thence south by the east line of Athol one mile and one hundred and ninety rods to a stake and stones, a corner of Templeton ; and from thence east three degrees eouth one mile and eighty-six rods hy said Templeton to the southwest corner ; and from thence north twelve degrees east five miles and eighty rods on the west line of Winchendon to a heap of stones, the northwest corner of said Winchendon; and thence east twelve degrees south six miles and sixty rods by the north line of said Winchendon to the northeast corner thereof; and from thence north twelve degrees east by the west line of Dorchester Canada two hun- dree and ninety-five rods to the province north hounds; and from thence by the province line fourteen miles and two hundred and eighty- five rods to the corner first-mentioned, he and hereby is erected into a town by the name of Royalston ; and the inhabitants thereof shall have and enjoy all such immunities and privileges as other towns in this province have and do by law enjoy.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 114

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