History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 165

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

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During the summer and fall of 1862 three more regiments were organized in Worcester,-the Thirty- fourth, Colonel George D. Wells ; the Thirty-sixth, Colonel Henry Bowman, both of these for three years ; and the Fifty-first, Colonel A. B. R. Sprague, for nine months. The Thirty-fourth left Worcester on the 15th of August, the Thirty-sixth on the 11th of September and the Fifty-first on the 25th of No- vember. All of these regiments did heroic service. The Thirty-fourth, composed of companies raised in the five western counties of the State, of course, including Worcester, was noted throughout its term of service for the promptness and precision of its movements, the neatness of its quarters and its equip- ments, its endurance of marches and labors and its ardor and prowess in battle. These comprehend all the valuable qualities of the soldier, and it is not ex- travagant praise to say that the Thirty-fourth ex- celled in all of them. It was commanded during most of its service by Lieutenant-Colonel (afterwards Colonel) William S. Lincoln. The Thirty-sixth traversed more miles in its time of service than any other Worcester regiment. It served in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Tennessee, Vir- ginia again and North Carolina. The fortunes of these regiments and others cannot be followed in de- tail. They were all fighting regiments, and did their full duty on such days of carnage and of fate as those which are recalled by the names of Gettysburg, the Wilderness and Cold Harbor. They endured ex- hausting marches and sieges, hunger, disease, wounds and the horrors of rebel prison pens. This is equally trne also of other regiments raised in Worcester, or of which Worcester men formed a part, especially of the Fifty-seventh, whose frightful losses in its first engagement, that of the Wilderness, were only a pre- lude to a service, which, though short, compared with that of some other regiments, was splendidly heroic,

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

and crowded with labors and losses. Nor can I men- tion here the names of many of the Worcester heroes. The officers have their meed of fame in the histories of their respective regiments and in the more elabo- rate histories of the war. The private soldiers, who deserved as well, are too many to be designated by name here. Sergeant Thomas Plunkett, of the Twenty-first, whose arms were struck off by a frag- ment of shell at Fredericksburg, just as he had snatched the regimental colors from the relaxing grasp of the dying color-sergeant, must never be omitted when the deeds of Worcester's heroes are re- counted. But their names are all perpetuated in the roll of honor ; their memories will be fondly cherished for a few years by surviving comrades and kinsfolk and proudly treasured, let us hope, among the most precious family possessions by generations of de- scendants, who will admire and imitate their patriotic devotion.

Besides the regiments which were raised and or- ganized in the city, almost every other Massachusetts regiment had Worcester men in its ranks or among its officers. A large number also in the aggregate served in the artillery, in military organizations of other States, in the regular army and in the navy. It is impossible even now to state with precision the number of men whom Worcester con- tributed to the War for the Union. Governor Bullock, in his address at the dedication of the soldiers' mon- ument, estimates it at " not far from three thousand," and that seems to me a moderate statement. Yet, when we remember that it is more than one in three of the adult male population of the city at that time, the number seems almost incredible. They served in fifty regiments of infantry, five of cavalry and fourteen batteries or regiments of artillery organized under the authority of Massachusetts, and probably in fifty other military organizations. Among these Worcester soldiers were one major-general, by brevet; five brigadier-generals, by brevet; four colonels, three lieutenant-colonels, twelve majors, fifty-two captains, fifty-four first-lieutenants, fifty-three second- lieutenants, eight surgeons, four chaplains. These were all in Massachusetts organizations or received promotion while serving with Massachusetts troops. Of Worcester men serving with other troops there were five brigadier-generals, two majors, a captain and a lieutenant, besides one commodore and several lieutenants and ensigns in the navy.

This brief sketch of the military history of Wor- cester during the Civil War may seem to do less than justice to its subject, as of course it does. A series of volumes, instead of a single chapter, would not exhaust the theme. Names, even of those most deserving of honor, have been mentioned but rarely. It seems in- vidious further to distinguish by special eulogy those whose rank gave them distinction and personal ad- vantage at the time and whose names will be perpet- uated elsewhere, while thousands of obscure men, no

less daring, devoted and unselfish, laid down their lives cheerfully, unnoted, except as units in the great aggregate of patriotic sacrifice. Since the great com- manders will not lack their meed of praise, let us here express our admiration and gratitude for the valor, constancy and devotion of the armies, rather than the prowess of the generals.

Even in Worcester, where courage and loyalty were as abundant as anywhere, voluntary enlistment did not supply all the enormous and exacting demands of the military service. Bounties for enlistment were offered after the first glow of patriotic ardor had cooled a little. No bonnties were paid for the men, about twelve hundred in number, who enlisted in Worcester under the President's call for volunteers in 1861. But in 1862 the city paid a bounty of one hundred dollars for each volunteer. In 1863 the draft was ordered under an act of Congress, and Captain Samuel V. Stone was appointed provost marshal for the Eighth Con- gressional District, with headquarters at Worcester, to enforce it. No disturbances took place here while the draft was in progress. Precautions wisely taken to prevent or suppress disorders happily proved unne- cessary, or so completely successful as to seem super- fluons. Of the men drafted in Worcester, 103 paid the commutation fixed by the law, 53 furnished substi- tutes, 59 enrolled citizens supplied substitutes before the draft was made. The amount paid by the city and by citizens for bounties and recruiting is estimated at nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the sums paid by individuals for commutation and for substitutes under the draft was nearly one hundred thousand dollars more. In order to ascertain the price in money, besides the cost in blood and sorrow, which Worcester paid for the Union, must be added to this the sums contributed to the Soldiers' Relief Commit- tee, to the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and to various other forms of military charities, and the city's share of the State bounties and State aid to soldiers and their families, which still continues under the nobly generous, yet wisely-guarded regula- tions prescribed by State laws ; and lastly, Worcester's contributions to the national revenues expended in the prosecution of the war, the payment of the debt and the annual cost of pensions, of which latter sum alone, Worcester pays, without realizing it, not less than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars annnally. Truly with a great price we vindicated our title to the precious inheritance of national union.

The oldest of the militia companies now existing here is still known by the name given it in its original charter by a special act of the General Court in 1804, the Worcester Light Infantry. It was preceded in point of time by the Worcester Artillery, which ap- pears to have been organized in 1783. Its organiza- tion was maintained until the autumn of 1838, when the last entry on its record is "Company disbanded and officers discharged." Both these companies offered their services in the War of 1812 with Great Britain,

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WORCESTER.

and the town voted bounties for enlistments, but the Governor declined to comply with the President's requisitions for troops, alleging some constitutional objections, and the Worcester troops were not then called to the field. Two years later, however, when the aspect of the war had become more serious, Gov- ernor Strong ordered the militia of the State to be in readiness for active service. Two companies of militia were drafted from the county and served in the forts in Boston harbor, and a little later the Light Infantry, and the Artillery marched to the seaboard, and were stationed at South Boston for about six weeks, being discharged on the 31st of October. The Light Infantry as a company of the Sixth Regiment, promptly an- swered the call of the President, and was among the foremost of military organizations to arrive at the na- tional capital at a critical moment, as already nar- rated. At the end of the three months' service the Light Infantry returned to Worcester. A large num- ber of its members enlisted or were commissioned in other commands.

The City Guards, organized in 1840, was for many years designated as light infantry, but afterwards be- came a rifle company, and was attached to the Third Battalion of Rifles, in the State militia. As such it was called into the three months' service with the battalion. The Emmet Guards, organized as a com- pany of the State militia after the first note of civil war had sounded, were also attached to the Third Battalion of Rifles. The two former of these com- panies, upon being mnstered out of the service of the United States, maintained their existence in some form, and upon the reorganization of the State militia, after the war, were re-established and as- signed to regiments, in which they have main- tained a high reputation for soldierly bearing, dis- cipline and efficiency. The Emmet Guards in 1888 were organized anew and accepted by the Gov- ernor for the State service. They are not surpassed for the exact performance of all military duty and for precision and smartness in drill.

The artillery company known as "Battery B" was formed in Worcester at the reorganization of the mili- tia after the war. It has had a succession of compe- tent and zealous commanders, and has been often complimented by superior officers for proficiency in artillery exercises, the admirable condition of its arms and equipments and its evident readiness for any ser- vice.

Immediately after the departure of the city militia companies for the seat of war in April, 1861, the honorary and past members of the Light Infantry and the City Guards organized each a company by itself as a Home Guard, and with the intention also of maintaining an active list of volunteers, from whom the ranks of the parent companies in the field might be recruited from time to time. These companies performed various service, at military funerals, as es- corts on occasions of public ceremony and as a reserve

force in case of threatened public disorder, until the organization of the State Guard, in June, 1863, under the authority of a law of that year. The State Guard besides the functions of parade and ceremony, which militia companies are often called upon to discharge, performed duties of real valne in preserving the peace of the city, which was endangered, though happily not greatly disturbed, by the elements of discontent and mischief introduced by the bounty and substitute sys- tems of recruiting, and stimulated to an alarming ac- tivity by the example of the draft riots in New York and elsewhere. Members of the Guard were detailed for guard duty under the orders of the provost mar- shal, and the whole company was, in the latter part of July, 1863, on duty for several days at the pruvost marshal's command, guarding drafted men, preserving the peace of the city and escorting a body of conscripts to the rendezvous at Boston. The State Guard ceased to be a part of the militia of Massachusetts by the re- peal, in 1866, of the act under which the company was established. Its existence was maintained, how- ever, as a voluntary organization, and in the next year the Legislature granted the petition of its mem- bers for a special charter, under which the company was maintained for several years and for a time was organized as a battalion of two companies.

Thus we close this outline of Worcester's military history. The community has cultivated the arts of peace with signal success, but has never shrunk from doing its whole duty when honor and patriotism called for the labors and sacrifices of war. Her sons were daring, patient and skilled in military arts. These were their qualities from the times when Eph- raim Curtis, of Worcester, brought relief to the sorely-beset garrison of Brookfield, and when, a century later, Timothy Bigelow, of Worcester, led his command in that terrible winter march through the wilderness of Maine and Canada, and hurled them in a hopeless assault against the impregnable fortress of Quebec, to that time, after almost another century, when Charles Devens, commanding, by a happy coincidence, another Fifteenth Regiment, made his heroic stand on the banks of the Potomac at Ball's Bluff. And while the men of Worcester marched and fought and died, the women of Wor- cester, with a constancy and patience deserving of all reverence, suffering the pangs of anxiety and sorrow, toiled and saved to alleviate the lot of their husbands, sons and brothers. Our people may claim as appro- priate to their own community, the motto of the older Worcester in England, " A City Faithful in War and Peace."

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER CXCI.

WORCESTER-(Continued.)

MANUFACTURING AND MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES.

BY CHARLES G. WASHBURN, A.B.

Early Encouragement of Manufactures-Saw and Grist-Mill -- The Silver- Mine-Potash-Timothy Bigelow-Early Manufacture of Cloth-Puper- Mills-Character of Business prior to 1820-Trades-people Discontented with the Heavy Taxes-Public Men appear in Home-made Cloth-Wor- cester Honorable Society -- The First Echibition of the Worcester Agricul- tural Society.

I am indebted to the American Antiquarian Society for access to its valuable collection of books, pamphlets, newspapers and manuscripts, and to Mr. Edmund M. Bartoo, the librarian, for many courtesies. I have drawn freely from the files of the Spy and make the acknowledg- ment here to save frequeut repetition in the text.

C. G. W.

AFTER the first settlement of Worcester had been broken up by the Indians in King Philip's War, a meeting of those interested was held at Cambridge, March 14, 1679, N.S., for the purpose of considering the expediency of again settling the town.1

As a result of this meeting, it was resolved "to settle the said plantation some time the next summer come twelve months, which shall be in the year of our Lord 1680."

The town was to be built to attain six ends, which were enumerated, chief among them "the better convenity of attending God's worship," and the " better education of their children ;" but provision was also to be made " for the better accommodation of trades-people."

Nothing of a practical kind was done looking to- ward the settlement until the General Court threat- ened to forfeit the grant unless the settlement were made; accordingly, an agreement was entered into April 24, 1684, with that end in view. It was voted that the plantation be divided into four hundred and eighty lots, three of these to be set apart for the maintenance of a saw-mill, and three for a grist-mill.

To the builders and maintainers of works promot- ing useful trades, and for a fulling-mill, when the place is capable thereof, six lots.

The histories appear to agree that Captain John Wing built the first mills in Worcester, some time in 1685, perhaps in the month of March ; he probably had both a saw and grist-mill located on the north of Lincoln Square, on Mill Brook, about where the Nashua freight depot is now situated.

Captain Wing appears to have been a man of con- siderable consequence. He was a resident of Boston, one of the founders of the Old South Church, an offi- cer in the artillery company and kept the Castle Tavern. He was a member of the committee having charge of the plantation of Quinsigamond, and became

a large landholder there, conducting his mill in Wor- cester and his tavern in Boston at the same time. He died in 1702.2

From 1686 till the fall of 1713 no records appear of the transactions which took place in the settlement, and during a great part of that time the country was exposed to the ravages of the Indians, and, in con- sequence, the town was almost entirely deserted.

The third attempt to effect a permanent settlement was made in October, 1713 ; the old saw-mill of Wing appears under the ownership of Thomas Palmer, Cornelius Waldo, of Boston, and John Oulton, of Marblehead.

The next mill to be built was that of Obadiah Ward, which he devised to his son in his will dated December 16, 1717. It was near the upper canal- lock, present site of Crompton's Loom Works.3

Elijah Chase built the first corn-mill, near where the Quinsigamond Paper-Mills were afterwards erected on the Blackstone River. The water privilege, with thirty acres of land at Quinsigamond, was granted by the town to Captain Nathaniel Jones, September 12, 1717, upon condition that he should complete and maintain a grist-mill for twelve years. He built a dam and saw-mill in 1726, but both were probably swept away in the flood of 1728-29, and in 1732 the town took steps to recover the land by reason of the failure of Jones to comply with his contract .* The mills in Worcester at this early period were few in number and simple in character. Saw and grist-mills, with an occasional fulling-mill and trip-hammer shop, were to be found ; certainly the demands of two hun- dred people could not have been very great.

In 1754, according to a description found in Lin- coln's " History,"5 " a vein of metal, which was sup- posed to be silver, was discovered near the head of the valley, about a mile north of the town. A com- pany for exploring the spot was formed by some of the most substantial inhabitants, furnaces and smelt- ing-houses were erected and a cunning German em- ployed as superintendent. Under his direction a shaft was sunk eighty feet perpendicularly, and a horizontal gallery extended about as far through the rock, which was to be intersected by another shaft, commenced about six rods north of the first opening.

"Among the masses which were, within a few years, laid around the scene of operations were specimens of the ores containing minute portions of silver, specks of copper and lead, much iron and an extraordinary quantity of arsenic ; when struck against steel a pro- fusion of vivid sparks were thrown ont, and a pecu- liarly disagreeable odor of the latter mineral emitted. On the application of heat this perfume increased to

1 Lincolo, p. 33.

2 " Early Settlement of Worcester," by Francis E. Blake. 8 Lincolo.

4 " Early Paper-Mills in Massachusetts," E. B. Crane, Proceedings Worcester Society of Antiquity for 1886.

6 Liocolo, p. 294.

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WORCESTER.

an overpowering extent. The company expended great sums in blasting the rocks, raising its fragments and erecting buildings and machinery. While the pile of stone increased, the money of the partners diminished. The furnaces in full blast produced nothing but suffocating vapors, curling over the flames in those beautiful coronets of smoke which still at- tend the attempt to melt the ore.

" The shrewd foreigner, in whose promises his asso- ciates seem to have placed that confidence which honest men often repose in the declarations of knaves, became satisfied that the crisis was approaching when it would be ascertained that the funds were exhausted and that stone and iron could not be transmuted to gold. Some papers which exist indicate that he pre- tended to knowledge in the occult sciences as well as skill in the art of deception ; however this may be, he assured the company that the great enemy of man had been busy in defeating their exertions, making his presence redolent in the perfume of sulphur and arsenic. He obtained the sum of $100 and made a journey to Philadelphia to consult with a person ex- perienced in mines and their demons, for the purpose of exercising the unsavory spirit of the crucible. He departed with a barrel full of the productions of the mine, but never returned to state the results of his conference.

"The proprietors abandoned the work when they were awaked by the reality of the loss from the dream of fortune, and afterwards destroyed the rec- ords of their credulity.

"The spot is easily found. Follow the Nashua Railroad north on foot from its crossing on Mill Brook till you pass the two-mile post. The deserted shaft is about twenty rods to the northeast of this spot. It is readily found, as a pile of slate and stones still lie where they were thrown out by the miners on a slight eminence in the meadow." 1

And yet the German superintendent may have been more superstitious than knavish. The mineral which baffled him, whose arsenical fumes almost suffocated his miners and confirmed his belief in the supernatural, was cobalt, a name derived from Greek Kobalos, German Kobold, a little devil. German folk-lore is full of the diabolical pranks of the Ko- bold, and of pity for the unfortunate beings who suf- fered from the tortures which he inflicted to prevent incursions upon his subterranean dwelling.

POTASH .- In 1760 the manufacture of potash ap- pears to have been carried on quite extensively in and about Worcester ; indeed, it was a thriving in- dustry throughout the country. By reason of its scarcity in England, Parliament remitted the duties in 1751, and encouraged its importation from the colo- nies, where, wood was plentiful. Numerous pamphlets upon the desirability of this branch of manufacture

to the colonies, and upon the best methods of making potash, were at this time published.

Its manufacture was urged on the ground of af- fording the colonies an article of export with which to pay for the manufactures imported from Great Britain, and the North American plantations were thought to be well adapted to the manufacture of potash by reason of the abundance of wood suitable for the purpose. A writer upon this subject, in 1767, makes the following recommendations:

It is supposed that each set of works for carrying on the manufacture of potash will have a range of teo miles round for its supply, less than which would not be sufficient ; and I would here, by the way, cantion such who may undertake to erect works for this purpose, that the place they fix upon be at least twenty miles distant from any other works of the like kind, lest they only iujure their enterprise by thus cutting off the prospect of a sufficient supply of ashes.

Each set of works under such advantages of obtaining stock will, I presume, at the least, annually produce twenty tons of good potash, which, at the lowest rate it has ever been sold for, oamely, £25, would amount to £500 sterling, and if twenty of these works were to be erected within the limits of the province of Massachusetts (which I think a moderate number), there might be annually exported out of the province alone 400 tons of potash, which, at the before-mentioned low rate, would amount to £10,000 sterling.ª

The process of manufacture was simple, and con- sisted in treating wood-ashes with water until the potash contained in them was exhausted, and from the lye thus made a salt was obtained by evaporation. The woods chiefly employed in making potash were hickory, oak, beech, birch, elm, walnut, chestnut and maple. Woods like evergreen, or that abound in turpentine, were avoided.

Worcester appears to have been well supplied with wood, and works for the manufacture of potash were established in different parts of the town. Pleasant Street was at one time known as Potash Hill. Lin- coln, in his history, says : " Works for making potash were first established in the north part of the town about 1760; buildings for similar purposes were placed on the west side of Lincoln Street, a little above the old Hancock Arms Tavern, by John Nazro, about ten years after; four more were established at much later periods."

Peter Whitney, in his history, published in 1793, says: "The first complete ton of potash was sent to market from the neighboring town of Ashburnham, where it was made at the time of the settlement in 1735." In 1788 there were about two hundred and fifty potash works in Massachusetts. Governor Bow- doin, as a remedy for the distress then prevailing, had recommended in a message to the General Court, 1785, that the farmers in towns where there was an abundance of wood to be cleared away, should devote themselves to the production of potash and pearl-ash, and the ashes should be deposited with the State agent, who should sell them and use the money to pay the taxes of the men who brought them.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 165

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