History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 162

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 162

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).

BY J. EVARTS GREENE.

DANIEL GOOKIN was the first person of distinction bearing a military title whose name is connected with the history of Worcester. He was appointed in 1665 chairman of the Committee of Proprietors of Lands near Quinsigamond, to promote their settle- ment. He was appointed in 1681 major-general of the colony, atter holding minor military titles for many years. His services were highly esteemed by his associates, as those of a man so justly eminent in the councils and active service of the colony could not fail to be. He never lived here and his part in the founding of Worcester was of a civil rather than a military nature. But no military history of Wor- cester would be reasonably complete without men- tion of the name at least of this wise, valiant and humane man.

Worcester, like other early New England settle- ments, was at first and for many years a military colony. The need and opportunities of defence

1577

WORCESTER.

against the savage inhabitants of the country were considered in choosing the site of the settlement, and among the earliest buildings were those strong places, fortified against Indian attack, called forts, garrisons or block-houses, built of squared logs so notched or framed at the corners as to fit closely together, and strongly pinned. The entrance was secured by a heavy door of plank. The upper story was made to project two feet or more beyond the lower, with loop- holes for the fire of the garrison, so that an attacking enemy might not take shelter against the walls out of range of the muskets fired from the loop-holes in the lower story. Block-houses so built were proof against arrows or the musketry of that time, and per- fectly defensible against any attacking force unpro- vided with artillery. One of these block-houses was built very early, a little to the north of the pres- ent site of Lincoln Square, and on the bank of the brook which from it was called Fort River. Others were built later, one about a mile farther south on the west side of the Leicester road, another to tbe eastward and still another to the northward of Adams Square. At the last named a long iron cannon was mounted, rather to give the alarm in case of danger than for the effect of its shot upon the enemy.

Scarcely had the first systematic settlement of the town begun, with hopeful prospects, when Philip's War broke out, in 1675. It is unnecessary here to con- sider its origin or detail its incidents, since Worces- ter was the scene of scarcely any of its operations nor did its inhabitants, as such, take part in them. The people, few in number, far from succor and in the immediate neighborhood of the haunts of hostile savages, deserted their new homes and took refuge in the older towns. Some of them, however, performed notable feats of valor and leadership. Captain (afterwards major) Daniel Henchman commanded, in April, 1676, a force consisting of three companies of infantry and three of cavalry, co-operating with a force from Connecticut to scour the forests on both sides of the Connecticut River trom Hadley north- ward, to harass the savages and prevent them from fishing there, as was their custom at that season. Lieutenant Ephraim Curtis, described as of Sudbury, was one of Captain Wheeler's company, who were ambushed near Brookfield and suffered great loss, and the survivors of whom were besieged in that town by several hundred Indians. Curtis, after two unsuccessful attempts, eluded the watchfulness of the ·besiegers and made his way on foot, through the hos- tile country, at great hazard, to summon relief to the beleaguered garrison.

After the sharp lesson of Philip's War the Indians of the neighborhood were no longer formidable, but the frontier settlements were harried and distressed by the incursions of the Western Indians, the Mo- hawks from beyond the Hudson, and in Queen Anne's War by the French and Indians from Canada.

Among the other consequences of the arrogant ego-

tism of Lonis XIV. were the death or captivity of many hapless people in the frontier towns of Massa- chusetts and the wasting of their homes. The feeble foothold which civilization had gained in the for- ests and meadows of Worcester was again relin- quished, because a foolish old man on the other side of the Atlantic insisted upon making his grandson King of Spain. The weariness of Europe brought peace to New England, which was weary enough, too, of alarm, ambush and massacre. The peace of Utrecht put an end to the raids from Canada, and Worcester was replanted.

But Captain Francis Nicholson, next in authority to Governor Andros, found some people in Worcester in 1688, for he writes near the end of August in that . year that, finding the people disturbed by fears of In- dian attacks and especially by the gathering of Indians at two forts not very far away, he sent them word not to quit the place, for they might be sure of help. He then went to Worcester, where he found some few men left and directed them to fortify the place and by no means to quit it. Captain Nicholson also visited the Indian forts, finding the Indians there afraid both of their white neighbors and of strange Indians from the West, and he persuaded them to leave their forts and go down "among the English plantations." But in spite of Captain Nicholson's encouragement and the importance of the place as a station on the road to the settlements on the Con- necticut, the settlers here not being strong enough in numbers to defend themselves, again abandoned their homes, and the place lay desolate until the attempt at settlement was renewed in 1713.

Peace prevailed without serious interruption for ahout nine years, but in 1722 a war, not European, but American, in its origin, began. The disturbers of the peace were the Indian tribes on the north and east, the allies of the French in Canada. Five men of Worcester were employed in the defence of the settle- ments as scouts in the company of Major John Chand- ler. Sergeant Benjamin Flagg had two of them under his immediate command in the town ; two others were stationed in Leicester. In the next year seven men of Worcester were enlisted as soldiers in the autumn and served through the winter. In 1724 hostile par- ties of Indians were discovered or suspected in the forests to the north of the town, and the selectmen, representing to the Governor that Worcester, by its position, covering the long interval between Rutland and Lancaster, lay " mnch exposed to the Indian rebels," petitioned for soldiers to strengthen the front garrisons and to scout the woods as a relief to the in- habitants, who were very much disheartened by reason of the present danger they believed themselves to be in. Otherwise they feared it would be impossible for the garrisons to keep their stations. Other urgent petitions for relief were made during the spring of this year, but it was not given until the summer was well advanced, when nineteen soldiers were

1578

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

stationed in Worcester and remained here nntil near the end of October. They had no commissioned offi- cer, but were posted as independent guards under general instructions to keep their stations, watch for the enemy and protect the inhabitants. In the same year Uriah Ward, an enlisted soldier from Worcester, was killed by the Indians at Rutland. No attack was made upon Worcester, though hostile Indians were seen and fired upon by the guard in a garrison- house. In the spring of 1725, again, the people were alarmed by the presence of hostile Indians in the neighborhood and petitioned for succor. Twelve men at least, and perhaps more, were sent by Colonel Chandler, whose military charge embraced this town · with others. Indians were seen, but no attacks were made. Captain Samuel Wright, who seems to have been in command, reports in a letter to Colonel Chand- ler: "We have now taken a method to hunt them with dog-, and have started them out of their thickets twice and see them run out, but at such a distance we could not come at them." The Indian troubles were ended for the time at the close of this year by a treaty made with the Indians.

Since that time no public enemy, unless we may include under that description the force gathered in Shays' Rebellion, has appeared in Worcester. In- stead of begging for help to defend their own homes, the people of the town have contributed largely, ac- cording to their numbers and their means, to the common defence, and never more generously than in the wars with the French and Indians, which were almost continuous from 1744 to 1763. Up to this time the men enlisted or employed as soldiers in Worcester had but short terms of service, and were not trained or instructed to march in compact bodies or to perform those movements and evolutions which are now required of all military bodies, and profi- ciency in which is expected of every soldier, and es- pecially of every officer. Such training would then have been useless or worse. The operations of that time seldom required a large force-never more than a few hundred-and the nature of the country in which operations were conducted, covered with dense forests or thickets and deep morasses, intersected only by narrow paths, made movements in close columns impossible, while the skulking tactics of the enemy would have made such movements or regular formations ineffective and disastrous, as General Braddock found in Virginia. They were rather scouts than soldiers. Their equipment was simple, consisting of scarce anything besides the long king's or queen's arm, with a few spare flints and powder- born and bullet-pouch. Their supplies of ammuni- tion and provisions were carried on pack-horses. All the able-bodied men were enrolled in the militia. Each was required to be constantly provided with a gun in good condition for service and a supply of ammunition. All were practiced in the use of their weapons, and most of them were expert marksmen.

The colonel's command had territorial limits. He was charged with the protection of the towns within lis district or within his regiment, as the familiar phrase was. It was his duty to be vigilant, to keep well informed of the condition of his frontier, to re- pel sudden attacks and to report his doings and news of military importance to liis superior officers. He received, from time to time, as occasion required, authority to enlist, or even to impress men, for par- ticular duty.

The officers of his regiment-major, captains, lieutenants and ensigns-were expected to look after the military interests of their respective neighbor- hoods, to take command according to their rank in case of attack and to report to the colonel all mili- tary information. The soldiers specially enlisted, when not employed in expeditions against an enemy in force, were posted at the garrison-houses of the frontier towns, often only one or two at a house. Their duty was to be constantly on the alert, to sconr the woods in their front, so as to detect the presence of hostile Indians and, in case of at- tack, to form a nucleus of defence, to which the in- habitants might rally when the alarm was given. The officers were chosen by the men of their com- mands. The system, except the substitution of popular election for inherited rank, has a certain re- semblance to the feudal military organization, and the duties of the colonel in charge of his portion of the frontier were not unlike those of such mediæval officials as the "Count of the Saxon shore " or the much later "Warden of the marches" on the Scot- tish border.

Henceforth Worcester, needing no immediate de- fence, was to contribute to aggressive military op- erations and to distant expeditions. In the latest Indian war the towns of Worcester, Leicester and Rutland had screened Brookfield and Mendon, which, in Philip's and Queen Anne's Wars, had suffered as frontier towns. Now the frontier had been pushed forward to Concord, New Hampshire, and Charles- town, on the Connecticut. In Massachusetts only Northern Berkshire was exposed to attack from Canada and the Northern Indians. The first of the distant expeditions in which men from Worcester were employed was that of 1745, projected by Gov- ernor Shirley and commanded by Sir William Pep- perell, for the reduction of the fortress of Louisbourg, Cape Breton, esteemed the strongest place on this continent, described by Bancroft as "the key to the St. Lawrence, the bulwark of the French fisheries and of French commerce in North America." Its walls were forty feet thick at the base, and from twenty to thirty feet high, surrounded by a ditch eighty feet wide.

Massachusetts sent for the conquest of this fortress more than three thousand volunteers. Worcester's share, in proportion to her population at that time, would have been, perhaps, eight or nine men. How

1579

WORCESTER.

many of her townspeople enlisted for that enterprise it is impossible now to ascertain, but it is known that the first-born of her native inhabitants, Adonijah Rice, was one, and that another, Benjamin Gleason, died in the service before the surrender of the place. Here our townsmen first saw and formed part of an army, though it was small, scarcely more than four thousand men, and shared in the labors and dangers of a siege.

In this war, too, there was Indian fighting after the old fashion. Eight Worcester men were of the garri- son of Fort Massachusetts, in the winter of 1747-48. This fort stood where Williamstown now is. It was the extreme outpost and had been taken by the French in the year before. The next summer fifty-three Worcester men formed a part of the force of two hundred, under Brigadier Dwight, which took the field to repel an incursion of the French. The enemy retired before them, and the campaign lasted but sev- enteen days. The officers of the Worcester contingent were Daniel Heywood, major ; John Stearns, captain ; Tyrus Rice, lieutenant ; Richard Flagg, ensign.

The war was bronght to an end, in 1748, by the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, because England and France were just then tired of fighting, and their Colonies in the New World were also well content to rest a while. But, as the treaty settled nothing, and left all the old causes of complaint and quarrel, hos- tilities were soon resumed-this time for the final death-struggle between England and France for do- minion in North America.

In 1754 thirteen Worcester men, under Captain John Johnson, served in Maine, as a part of the gar- rison of the forts on the Kennebec River. In the next year John Walker, of Worcester, a soldier of ex- perience in the service of the Province, was commis- sioned captain in the Royal Army. Seventeen men from Worcester served in Nova Scotia, this summer, in the force commanded by the Massachusetts gen- eral, John Winslow, and, we must presume, took part in that shameful business-the removal of the Aca- dians from their homes, which that hard-hearted commander executed with every aggravation of de- ceit, treachery and cruelty. One thousand of these wretched exiles were distributed among the towns of Massachusetts, and eleven were assigned to Wor- cester. "These families," says Lincoln, in his "His- tory," "torn from their homes, reduced from com- parative affluence to desolate poverty, thrown among strangers of different language and religion, excited pity for their misfortunes. Their industrious and frugal habits and mild and simple manners attracted regard, and they were treated here with great kindness."

In the same year seventeen other Worcester men were stationed at Fort Cumberland; two were in the expedition against Crown Point, and fourteen others volunteered for enlistment in September, when Colonel Chandler was directed to impress men for the rein- forcement of the army.

Fifty-five men of Worcester, therefore, appear to have been in the military service in that year. That was the year in which, of the four great expeditions planned against the French, three (that of Braddock for the conquest of the Ohio Valley, that of Shirley against Fort Niagara, and that of Johnson against Crown Point) came to a disastrous ending, and only the operations in Nova Scotia were successful.

The year 1756 was a time of great military activity in the colonies, activity of preparation, that is to say, for little was accomplished by the incompetent com- manders whom the English Government had sent. Worcester saw more of martial display than it had ever seen before. Colonel Chandler established his regimental headquarters here, and the town was des- ignated as the rendezvous for troops to be mustered into the service. A depot of munitions was made for the arming of the levies as they gathered here to he forwarded to the seat of war, on the western frontier. Detachments of troops arrived, camped for a while on the hills about the town, received their marching orders and were succeeded by others. One company of forty-three men was raised in the town and forty- four others were borne on the rolls of Colonel Rug- gles' regiment. Many died of disease in the course of the campaign, and three were made prisoners and detained in captivity at Montreal, until the exchange in 1758. After the disastrous surrender of Fort Os- wego, Lord Loudoun, commander-in-chief, fearing an attack from the French, now " flushed with suc- cess," ordered a levy of the militia for the reinforce- ment of his army, and the companies of Worcester, under the command of Major James Putnam, marched as far as Westfield, when Lord Loudoun, having got over his fright, countermanded his orders and they returned.

But the spirit of the colonies was not broken by the disasters of that year, and the mother-country was resolved upon the conquest of Canada. On the 20th of July, 1757, Colonel John Chandler, Jr., com- manding the First Regiment, made the following report of the condition of his command, which is of interest, as illustrating not only the military demands upon our town, but also the militia system of the time :

Agreeably to an order of the honorable his majesty's council, of the fifth of July last, requiring me to take effectual care that every person, both upon the alarm and train-band lists, within my regiment, and the ser- eral stocks in said regiment, be furnished with arms and ammunition according to law, if not already provided ; immediately on the receipt of said order, I forthwith sent out my warrant requiring a strict view into the state of the respective companies and town stocke in my regi- ment, and returna have since been made to me that they are well equipt.

And agreeable to an order of the honorable, his majesty's council of the 6th of June last, requiring me, in case of an alarm being made, or notice given of the approach of an enemy by sea, to cause my regiment to appear complete in arms, with ammunition according to law, and each man to be furnished with seven days' provision of meat, 1 also sent ont my warrant, requiring the several companies, in such case, with the utmost expedition to march to Boston, and further to act agrea- ably to such orders as they shall receive. Agreeably to the order afore-

1580

IIISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

said, return has been made from the respective companies that they are ready to march at an hour's warning.

JOHN CHANDLER, Jn., Colonel.

Colonel Chandler's regiment, with its Worcester companies, was soon called upon to test its readiness for service. Montcalm, with a force of French and Indians, besieged Fort William Henry, at the bead of Lake George. General Webb, who was within sup- porting distance with a sufficient force, and had actu- ally left the fort, with a large escort, just before the place was invested, hesitated and dawdled, and at length sent a letter advising the commander to capit- ulate. The stout-hearted Colonel Monro held the fort until half his guns were burst and his ammuni- tion was nearly exhausted, and then, on the 9th of August, surrendered. Loudoun, the commander-in- chief, and General Webb were terrified by the pros- pect of attack from the victorious French army, and Loudoun even talked of retreating to Long Island and there making a stand for the defence of the continent. Colonel Chandler was ordered to march with his regi- ment to the western frontier. All the militia of the town promptly answered the summons. One company of fifty-six men had for Captain, James Goodwin ; for Lieutenant, Noah Jones ; for Ensigu, Daniel Bancroft, and Nahum Willard as surgeon. The other company, numbering fifty-four men, was commanded by Captain John Curtis, and Luke Brown and Asa Flagg were lieutenant and ensign respectively. With them marched Colonel Chandler and Major Gardner Chandler. But by the time the regiment had reached Sheffield General Webb's terror had abated, the French made no further advance, and the regiment was disbanded on the 18th of August. Eight Wor- cester men, in a troop of horse commanded by Lieu- tenant Jonathan Newbold, of Leicester, were in General Webb's army at Fort Edward. Ten from this town, regularly enlisted, served during the cam- paign.

The incompetent and faint-hearted English com- mander-in-chief was recalled, and Pitt, the new minister, infused fresh spirit and energy into the councils of his country. He invited the colonies to raise armies for the conquest of Canada, promising that England would provide everything except the levying, pay and clothing of the men, and that the King would strongly recommend to Parliament to make proper compensation for these expenses. Massa- chusetts answered promptly and generously to this summons. Nine soldiers from Worcester were in the army which General Abercrombie, in the summer of 1758, foolishly wasted in his rash and blundering assault upon Ticonderoga. After his failure, General Amherst, having taken Louisbourg, marched from Boston for the West, with an army of forty-five hun- dred men. He halted in Worcester, September 17th, for a day, and was here joined by Captain Samuel Clark Paine, with his company, mostly men of Wor- cester, and having Dauiel McFarland for lieutenant,

and Samuel Ward, of Lancaster, for ensign. This company served with the army during the winter and through Amherst's successful campaign of the next year, in which he reduced the fortress of Ticonderoga, and recovered for the English the control of Lake Champlain. In Captain Paine's company were twenty- three non-commissioned officers and privates from Worcester, and fourteen more were in other companies of General Ruggles' regiment. Besides these were William Crawford, chaplain of Colonel Willard's regiment, and Benjamin Stowell, lieutenant in Captain Johnson's company. Captain Paine died in December, 1759, and Lieutenant McFarland succeeded him in command of the company. William Ward was made lieutenant, Ensign Samuel Ward having been pro- moted to the rank of adjutant of Colonel Willard's regiment. Thomas Cowden, from Worcester, was lieutenant in Captain Jefferd's company, which had the names of twelve Worcester men on its rolls. Cowden was made captain in the following year, 1761, and twenty-five Worcester men were in the army in that year. In the last year of the war, 1762, Wor- cester appears to have had, so far as is known, only nine men iu the military service. The population of the town at this time was probably not far from one thonsand. From this number she gave to the provin- cial service between the years 1748 and 1762, accord- ing to Lincoln, who made a careful study of the rolls and other records at the State House, which it was not in my power to make, one colonel, one lieutenant- colonel, two majors, six captains, eight lieutenants, seven ensigns, twenty-seven sergeants, two surgeons, one chaplain and one adjutant, besides about four hundred and fifty privates. These numbers do not include those-of whom there were certainly some, but how many cannot be known-who enlisted in the royal army, nor the militia called into service for short terms of active duty. To furnish so much of strength, valor and enterprise required great exertions and sacrifices, and the military rank which so many of its sons attained implied great honor to a little and poor town, which saw but few years of settled peace since its establishment. While sending one-third, at least, of their effective men into the field, the people of Worcester, in common with their fellow-citizens of other Massachusetts towns, were taxing themselves for war expenses to an extent that would be deemed ruinous and intolerable in these days. The tax in one year was, says Bancroft, thirteen shillings and four-pence on the pound of income, besides various excises and a poll-tax of nineteen shillings on every male over sixteen. Such was the martial temper, and such the generous public spirit of our ancestors.

The people of Worcester, and of other towns of New England, were prepared for the great military struggle of the Revolution by almost continuous warfare since the founding of the colony. The Indian wars taught them self-reliance, vigilance, mastery of their weap- ons, endurance and prompt and strenuous action in

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 162

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