History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 130

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 130

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It is believed that in an exceptional degree the families of early Worcester have remained and been represented here during a large part of its existence. This fact alone is of no inconsiderable importance. A harmonious union of effort develops strength. An intensified interest and added pride in the home of generations of ancestors come to the loyal descend- ant. In a population of a few thousand its effect upon the whole is more potent and visible than when distributed among greatly increased numbers.

During this period, with its population never above 4,000, Worcester had among its active and prominent men representatives of the following early families : Chandler, Paine, Curtis, Rice, Bigelow, Lincoln, Green, Goulding, Stowell, Allen, Salisbury, Jennison, Upham, Flagg, Grout, Perry, Thomas, Lovell, God- dard, Mower and others. A brief glance at some of the strong men of this period will enable us to appreci- ate the power they must have exerted in shaping events and counseling measures. The services of many were not confined to Worcester, but the nation and the State called them to positions of honor and usefulness.

LEVI LINCOLN, SR., graduated at Harvard in 1772, came to Worcester in 1775, began the practice of law, and became the leader in his profession. Successively judge of Probate, Representative to the General Court, State Senator, member of Con- gress, Attorney-General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Jefferson, Councilor, Lieu- tenant-Governor and Governor of the Common- wealth, and finally, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which latter position was declined, were the fitting reward for his ability and capacity for useful and distinguished service. He was a great advocate and learned jurist, and his por- trait, together with that of his eminent son Levi, finds fitting place in the Worcester Law Library.

His interest was not confined to legal and political duties only. He was one of the original members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

EDWARD BANGS graduated at Harvard in 1777, came to Worcester in 1780, and pursued his profession of the law with success. He entered with spirit and energy into service for the best interests of the town ; was for many years selectman, and served with fidel- ity in other local capacities. He was a stanch and bold advocate of the supremacy of the law at the time of Shays' Rebellion, and was a volunteer in General Lincoln's army. He was Representative, for ten consecutive years, to the General Court; was attorney for the Commonwealth for Worcester County from 1807 till his appointment as associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1811, which position he retained till his death in 1818.

ISAIAH THOMAS, was known as widely, perhaps, as any citizen of Worcester during this period, and hon- ored throughout the land. His service to the home of his adoption from 1778, when he came here for perma- nent residence, till his death, in 1831, was varied and marked. He not only devoted himself to the exten- sion of his business,-to establishing a book-bindery (the first in the country); to the building and operation of a mill on the Blackstone River for the manufacture of paper (the second of the kind in the United States); to the employment of a large number of presses in connection with the busi- ness of book publisher; to the attainment of greater I accuracy and elegance in the printing of books, by which the reputation of his work extended through the country, and attracted to Worcester attention and trade,-but also, by labor, advice and munificence, aided in the extension of the means of education, improvement and culture for his fellow-townsmen. Material advantages were also furnished by him to his town. Lincoln, in his valuable "History of Wor- cester," refers to them as follows: "The site of the County Court-House was bestowed by him, and the building and avenues on the front constructed under his uncompensated direction. No inconsiderable share of the cost of enlarging the square at the north end of the Main Street, and erecting the stone bridge, was given by him. The street bearing his own name, and the spot where the brick school-house has been built were his benefaction to the municipal corpora- tion. In the location and execution of the Boston and Worcester turnpike he assisted by personal exer- tiou and pecuniary contribution, and few local works for the common good were accomplished without the aid of his purse or efforts."

His zeal in the foundation and endowment of the American Antiquarian Society is gratefully remem- bered by every thoughtful student in the land. Ref- erence to his efforts in that respect will be made at greater length in another place.

NATHANIEL PAINE, graduated at Harvard in 1775, and after engaging in the practice of law at Groton, returned to Worcester, in 1785; became county attorney in 1789 and remained such till his appointment as judge of Probate, in 1801, which lat-

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WORCESTER.

ter office he held till 1836. In 1798, 1799 and 1800 he represented the town in the Legislature.

FRANCIS BLAKE, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1789, removed to Worcester in 1802 and re- mained here till his death, in 1817. He was a man of brilliant parts, a distinguished advocate and an orator of great force. In 1810 and 1811 he repre- sented the Worcester District in the State Senate. In 1816 he was appointed clerk of the courts.

DR. JOHN GREEN, SR., a physician of large prac- tice and great reputation, was deeply interested in the political movements of the time aud actively en- gaged in local affairs. He died in 1799.

DR. WILLIAM PAINE, a graduate of Harvard, in the class of 1768, returned to Worcester in 1793 and remained here till his death, in 1833. He was a man of intellectual tastes and of large culture. He was "fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- ences, member of the Medical, Agricultural, Linnæan, Essex Historical and American Antiquarian Socie- ties."

DR. JOHN GREEN, the second, born in Worcester in 1763, made that his home during life. "He at- tained to a pre-eminent rank among the physicians and surgeons of our country."

LEVI LINCOLN, son of Levi Lincoln, Sr., graduated at Harvard in 1802 and began the practice of law here in 1805. He was elected State Senator in 1812. From 1814 to 1822, with the exception of three years, he represented Worcester in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In 1820 he was one of Worcester's representatives to the Constitutional Convention. In 1822 was Speaker of the House of Representatives; in 1823 Lieutenant-Governor; in 1824 associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court; Governor of the Commonwealth in 1825 upon nomi- nation of both parties, and held the office for nine suc- cessive terms, till January, 1834.

JOHN DAVIS, a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1812, was admitted to the bar in 1815; began practice here in May, 1816, and soon rose to distinc- tion in his profession and to the merited confidence of the public. In 1824 he was elected a Representa- tive in Congress, and by successive re-elections till 1834, when he was elected Governor of the Common- wealth.

JOSEPH ALLEN was clerk of courts for thirty-three years, till 1810; was chosen Representative to the Eleventh Congress and was of the Governor's Coun- cil from 1815 to 1818. He was a man of scholarly attainments, of great probity and force of character.

DANIEL WALDO, STEPHEN SALISBURY, SAMUEL M. BURNSIDE and BENJAMIN HEYWOOD were men of large affairs. The latter was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and his grandson, John G. Heywood, is to-day the only member of the society from Worcester.

DR. OLIVER FISKE was a noted physician and ac- tively interested in public questions.

DR. ABRAHAM LINCOLN and EDWARD D. BANGS were, together with Levi Lincoln, delegates from Worcester to the convention in 1820 to revise the Constitution of the Commonwealth.

REV. DR. JONATHAN GOING, pastor of the First Baptist Church, was earnestly interested in all edu- cational questions and movements.

REV. DR. SAMUEL AUSTIN, minister of the First Parish from 1790 for twenty-five years, was a man of great infinence.

REV. DR. AARON BANCROFT was minister of the Second Parish from 1789 for more than half a century. He was earnestly and actively interested in all meas- ures for the advancement of learning and for the promotion of education. A man of great power and beanty of character, beloved and revered.

Within the limits of this article it is not feasible to mention others and it is not possible to do the remotest justice to those already referred to. In fact, it has not been the purpose of the writer to give any adequate account of those mentioned or to attempt a biography of each : that is done elsewhere by other writers ; but the sole aim has been to indicate, by the briefest mention, some of those who gave to Wor- cester, during this period, their service and their thought. Combined, their power can be better im- agined and more clearly conceived than separated under the heads of lawyers, doctors, clergymen, busi- ness men. benefactors, etc.

It may be doubted if in any town in Massachusetts of from two thousand to four thousand inhabitants, during a similar period of its history, a greater com- bination of intellectual force, business sagacity, emi- nent public service and devoted loyalty can be found.

With such men and such purpose the growth of a town may be expected to be symmetrical, its founda- tions ample and secure.

BROADENING ACTIVITY .- The town soon began to have a more active care for the general well-being of its inhabitants, and for its own good name ; to foster an increasing degree of pride in its citizens, and to contribute more largely to the comforts of life and the ease with which business might be transacted.

In 1786 a petition was presented to the town to purchase a fire-engine, which resulted in the town voting, January 4, 1793, to "grant a sum of money to procure a good fire-engine for the use of the town," and shortly after, that an engine-house be built. This action was accompanied by the organization, on Jan- uary 21, 1793, of the Worcester Fire Society, both, doubtless, largely in consequence of the destruction, on Jannary 4, 1793, of the weaver-shop of Cornelius & Peter Stowell. This society was formed in con- sequence of "a sense of social duty, for the more effectual assistance of each other and of their towns- men in times of danger from fire." Its membership was limited to thirty. Its character may be inferred from the names of its original twenty-two members: Joseph Allen, John Nazro, Leonard Worcester,

1438

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Nathaniel Paine, Samuel Chandler, Ezra Waldo Weld, Dr. John Green, Samuel Brazier, Thomas Payson, Edward Bangs, Dr. Elijah Dix, William Sever, Theophilus Wheeler, Dr. Oliver Fiske, John Paine, Samuel Allen, Stephen Salisbury, Charles Chandler, John Stanton, Dr. Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Waldo, Jr., and Isaiah Thomas. It is in ex- istence at the present time and its history is honor- able and unique.

Swine were soon doomed to wander in less conspic- uous places than the Main Street of the increasingly tidy town, and in 1792 it was voted that they should not be permitted to go at large on Main Street. The neater and more aristocratic horse and mule still had their privileges unimpaired till 1800, when it was voted that they should not be permitted to go at large, and at the same time all neat cattle, except cows, were relegated to a more private manner of life, while they were given the freedom of the town between April 1st and November 1st. The principal streets of the town in 1783 were Main, what is now Front, part of Summer, Lincoln, Salisbury, Pleasant, Green and Grafton Streets. New streets followed slowly. Mechanic Street was laid out in 1787, and in 1806 Isaiah Thomas constructed and gave to the town the street known by his name. After the swine and cattle were cared for and banished from the streets, the next most dangerous class, apparently, were provided for, and the children and youth were solemnly warued by vote, in 1811, not to engage in the frivolities of rolling hoops, playing ball, etc., in the streets.

The last liberties accorded to the brute creation, it is believed, were in 1815, when the town voted to al- low new milch cows to go at large in the day-time, but not at night, " the owners thereof having their names branded on the horns of the cows or a strap around the neck with the name marked thereon, that the owner may be found in case of damage." The lines were somewhat tightly drawn, for it was further provided that " no person shall turn his cow into the highway without first having the written consent of the selectmen, and no person shall have the benefit of turning more than one cow to feed in the highway the present season."

Worcester apparently believed in protection to home products, and the rights of the farmer were not to be sacrificed. As late as 1814 the town voted to "pay the sum of one sbilling bounty on crows heads, killed within the town, provided the heads are covered with feathers."

Having thus prepared the way for its new dignity, the town voted in 1814 to name the streets. A gen- eral movement was everywhere manifest.

President Dwight in 1812 gave the following de- scription of the town: "The houses are generally well built, frequently handsome, and very rarely small, old or unrepaired. Few towns in New Eng- land exhibit so uniform an appearance of neatness aud taste or contain so great a proportion of good

buildings and so small a proportion of those which are indifferent as Worcester."

The introduction of water for domestic and public purposes was authorized by the following act of the Legislature, and for the purposes of interesting com- parison with later acts it is given almost entire :

An Act authorizing Daniel Goulding to Conduct Water in subterra- neons Pipes from a Certain Spring in his own Land, within the Town of Worcester, for the accommodation of himself and some other Inhabit- ants of the said Town.

Be it enacted, d.c.

SECT. 1. That Daniel Goulding of Worcester in the County of Wor- cester and his heire and assigna, he and they are hereby authorized and empowered to sink, place, renew, alter and repair from time to time, as may become necessary, such pipes or Conduits of water from the said Spring to such of the inhabitants of the said town as the same may Convene, for the purpose of supplying them with water ; and the said Goulding and his heirs or assigne are hereby anthorized to place the said pipes in the land of such Proprietors as may, hy some proper instrument in writing grant him or them the privilege thereof, as also on and under such public highways, ronde or land as may become necessary for the purposes aforesaid and with the least inconvenience to the public.

Provided nevertheless that the Selectmen of the said town for the time heing may, as they shall judge it expedient, for the purposes uf extin- guishing fire, or as a precaution or a security against the calanutons effecte thereof and noder such regulations as they may think reasonable, from time to time make and place Conductors to any part of the said pipes or conduits, for the purpose of supplying water when necessary for the extinguishiment of fires as aforesaid.

SECT. 2. Provides remedy for destroying or interfering with said pipes or water works.

SECT. 3. That nothing in this Act shall be considered as an excuse for any unnecessary exposure, damage, delay, disturbance or inconvenience to passengers, carriages or cattle, passing or re-passing over any of said highways or public land, but the same shall be considered as a nuisance or trespass in the same manner as if this Act had never been made.

Passed March 2, 1798.

The town in its corporate capacity and individuals forming a joint stock company, aided by the town, combined to maintain suitable schools. In 1784 Dr. Elijah Dix, Hon. Joseph Allen, Hon. Levi Lin- coln, Sr., Nathan Patch, Dr. John Green, John Nazro, Palmer Goulding and others procured a lease of land on the west side of Main Street and erected a building known as the Centre School-house, and opened two schools-one for instruction in the elemen- tary studies and the other for the higher branches ot academic instruction. The latter had as instructors many who became distinguished as educators, theolo- gians, lawyers, etc.

The town appropriated in 1799 the sum of one thousand dollars for the maintenance of schools and twenty-five hundred dollars for school-houses, which, by the way, was the first time that the annual appro- priation was made in dollars-having been in pounds prior to that time, except in a special appropriation of October 8, 1798. In 1800 ten school-houses were built in various parts of the town. In 1823 a revision of the educational system was made under the thoughtful judgment of Rev. Dr. Bancroft, Rev. Jona- than Going, Hon. Samuel M. Burnside, Levi Lincoln, Otis Corbett and Samuel Jennison.

In 1806 two thousand dollars were appropriated for the construction of a poor-house.

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WORCESTER.

In 1816 a new fire-engine, at an expense of five hundred and fifty dollars, was procured.

A Town Hall was provided for the growing needs of the town, which was dedicated May 2, 1825, with an address by Hon. John Davis. In other ways than by corporate action the town gradually became pre- pared to enter upon its future career.

Iu 1804, March 7th, an act was passed by the Leg- islature incorporating Daniel Waldo, Isaiah Thomas, Daniel Waldo, Jr., Benjamin Heywood, William Paine, Stephen Salisbury, Nathan Patch, William Henshaw, Francis Blake, Nathaniel Paine, Elijah Burbank and others as the president, directors and company of the Worcester Bank, with an authorized capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which at once began business and was the only bank incorporated in the State at the time west of Boston, except one at Northampton, incorporated a few days previous.

More, perhaps, than any other agency which con- tributed to the highest culture of the town and fos- tered a spirit of scholarly research and attainment was the American Antiquarian Society, which owed its existence and largely its maintenance to Isaiah Thomas. In consequence of the petition of Isaiah Thomas, Nathaniel Paine, William Paine, Levi Lin- coln, Aaron Bancroft and Edward Bangs to the Legis- lature, representing that they, "influenced by a desire to contribute to the advancement of the arts and sciences and to aid by their individual and united ef- torts in collecting and preserving such materials as may be useful in marking their progress not only in the United States, but in other parts of the globe ; and wishing also to assist the researches of the future historians of our country, in their opinion the estab- lishment of an antiquarian society within this Com- monwealth would conduce essentially to the attainment of these objects," the society was incorporated Octo- ber 24, 1812. Its library and treasures have always been open to the public, and its influence from the first upon the people of the town must have been potent.

The laudable spirit of the citizens and the foresight with which the bases of business were laid is seen also in the application for the incorporation of the Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company. It was incorporated February 11, 1823. Manufactures were slowly increasing and seeking firm foothold. The town only needed closer relations of traffic and inter- course with larger centres of population and business to begin a rapid ascent in wealth and influenee. The opening opportunity came with the construction of the Blackstone Canal.

POLITICAL SENTIMENT AND SERVICE .- The con- stant and earnest interest which the town manifested in national political movements, the bitter animosities caused by party struggles, are not peculiar to Wor- cester, and an entrance upon them is perhaps un- necessary and undesirable. A brief mention of one

or two important events, typical in their nature, must suffice.

First : the decision of the court that declared slavery abolished in Massachusetts, was made at Worcester in the case of Nathaniel Jennison vs. John and Seth Cald- well, in which the, elder Levi Lincoln was counsel with Caleb Strong for the defendants, and presented the argument that was sustained by the court. The suit was brought for enticing away the plaintiff's slave "Quock" Walker, was tried in the Court of Common Pleas and judgment rendered for the plain- tiff for twenty-five pounds; appealed to the Supreme Court and tried at the September term, 1781, and judgment for defendants on the ground that since the adoption of the Constitution in 1780 slavery did not exist in Massachusetts. The judges who presided at this trial were Justices Sarjeant, Sewall and Sullivan. An indictment was found at Worcester against the above-named Jennison for assault on Walker, which was tried at the April term, 1783, of the Supreme Court before all the justices, including Chief Justice Cushing, and the view adopted by the court in the first-named case was confirmed by the whole court and forever set at rest the question of the existence of slavery in Massachusetts. The census of 1790 contains no return of slaves in this State.

Second : The protest against the War of 1812 .- A convention, consisting of delegates from forty-one towns, was held at Worcester on the 12th and 13th of August, 1812, to protest against the continuance of the war.

Worcester was represented by Hon. Benjamin Hey- wood, Hon. Francis Blake and Mr. Elijah Burbank. Hon. Benjamin Heywood was chosen chairman. A committee was appointed to " consider and report what measures the Convention ought to adopt, in the present perilous situation of our Country, to mitigate the calamities of the present War with Great Britain, to avert the further evils with which we are threat- ened, to accomplish a speedy and honourable Peace and to arrest the course of that disastrous policy, which, if persisted in, cannot fail to terminate in the destruction of the rights and liberties of the peo- ple."

The committee consisted of Andrew Peters, Esq., Hon. Francis Blake, Rev. John Crane, Hon. Solomon Strong, Aaron Tufts, Esq., Benjamin Adams, Esq., General James Humphrey, Rev. Jonathan Osgood, Nathaniel Chandler, Esq., John W. Stiles, Esq., and Colonel Seth Banister.

This committee made a report on the 13th, which, after dealing at great length with the causes which led to the war, the, measures undertaken to continue it, the state of commerce resulting from it, continued as follows :

We earnestly embrace the present occasion to express for ourselves and in behalf of our constituents a strong aud ardent attachment to the Union of the States, and indignantly to disclaim every imputed design to aid in any project which may teod to procure a separation.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

To shorten the duration of the present most impolitick and destruc- tivo War, we earnestly exhort the friends of Peace to withhold from the Government all voluntary aid and to render no other assistance than is required of them by the laws and the Constitution.

They proceed to say, that if double duties or direct taxes are laid, "we do not, like some men, now in high authority, advise our Constituents to refuse the payment of them and to rise in opposition to the authority by which they are imposed. But if our rulers, afraid to hazard their popularity by the im- position of taxes, request of the citizens to enable them to prosecute this unrighteous War by loaning money to replenish the treasury, we entreat them, as they value the Peace and welfare of their Country, to remember that we have as yet no French emperour among us to force a loan at the point of the hayonet and to refuse the smallest contribution for this un- warrantable purpose."

Third: The opposition to the extension of Slavery .- Missouri applied for admission to the Union, and in December, 1818, the Missouri question formally ap- peared in Congress. In the House of Representa- tives a motion was made to amend the act by provid- ing that "the further introduction of slavery be prohibited in said State of Missouri and that all chil- dren born in the State after its admission to the Union shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." The House adopted the amendment, but the Senate rejected it, and the House refusing to recede, the bill was not passed at that session.

A strong sentiment against the extension of slavery was aroused in the free States, and Worcester and Worcester County were determined to be heard. A convention of the opponents of slavery extension was held in Worcester December 9, 1819.

The following account of the Anti-Slavery Exten- sion Convention appeared in the Massachusetts Spy of December 15, 1819:

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE !

On Thursday, the 9th of December inst., agreeably to previous notice, a large number of respectable citizens of the County of Worcester as- semibled in the Court House in this town, for the purpose of expressing their opinioo upon the propriety of preventing the further introduction of slavery jato such States as may hereafter be admitted into the l'ed- eral Union.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 130

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