History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 26

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 26

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tribute to the success of private life, who have been exemplary in the personal and social relations, thus winning respect and confidence, ought not to perish. Among the individuals of this class, few are better entitled to be held in respectful remembrance than the subject of this sketch.

Sołon S., son of Stephen and Silence (Sawyer) Hastings, was born in Sterling, Mass., December 26, 1806. His father was an enterprising and successful farmer, and was one of the early members of the Worcester Agricultural Society, taking an active part in extending the benefits of the organization.

Solon passed his childhood and youth at the farm- honse, becoming familiar with the experiences and incidents peculiar to New England farm life, and, in fact, he remained there until the death of his father in 1840. His educational advantages were of the sort peculiar to the times, attending the district school in the winter months and working on the farm in the summer. He had, in addition to this, a course of instruction at the Leicester Academy, and in his early manhood engaged in teaching winter schools in his native town and vicinity, where, for twelve years, he was known as a successful teacher, frequently teaching for two terms in the same season in different districts. He also was a teacher in a private school in the city of Boston.

He has always been interested in agriculture, and in early life became a member of the same society in which his father was so prominent, as well as in other kindred organizations.

He was actively interested in military affairs, and held the offices of brigade and division inspector, with the rank of major in the brigade and lieutenant- colonel in the division.

1n 1840 he married Lois R., daughter of Edward and Rebecca (Beaman) Goodnow, of Princeton, Mass., to which town he removed in 1841, and where he now resides.

He has held offices of trust and importance in both his native and adopted towns, and discharged the duties thereof with fidelity and intelligence.

For more than twenty-five years he has been a director in the Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the oldest institution of its kind in the county. In 1859 he was the Representative to the General Court for the towns of Princeton, Rutland and Oakham, and was also, in 1864, a member of the Senate of Massachusetts.

He held a clerkship in the Naval Office at Boston under Hon. Charles Hudson, and in 1850 and 1870 was engaged in taking the United States census for his section. He is of a naturally retiring disposition, conscientious and conservative in all his relations, whether religious, civil or financial.

He has always been much interested in educational matters, and a regular attendant upon and supporter of religious institutions.

During these later years, with comfortable leisure

at his command, he has alternated between town and country, spending his summers at his quiet home ir Princeton, directly under the brow of " Old Wachu. sett " Mountain, and his winters in the neighboring city of Worcester.

He had two brothers,-Rufus, twelve years his senior (now deceased), and Aaron S., who died ir childhood.

The family is of Danish origin, and has held pron. inent place in the history of England. In the early days of the British kingdom the Danes made fre quent incursions npon that part of England and Scotland bordering on the North Sea. One of these incursions was made by a Danish chief of this family who landed a large body of his men upon the coast and took possession of Sussex, and the castle and seaport were held by his family when William the Conqueror landed in England, and they held it from the crown for many generations. William de Hastings was steward of King Henry II. Sir Henry and George Hastings were grandsons of the Earl of Huntingdon

The first of this family to come to America was Thomas, from whom Solon S. is in direct line. He settled in Watertown, Mass. (then known as a portion of the Massachusetts Bay Colony), ju 1634.

For further detail see "Genealogical History of Descendants of Thomas Hastings,". by Lydia Nelson (Hastings) Buckminster, published by Samuel G. Drake in 1866.

JOHN BROOKS was born in Princeton, February 22, 1789, being the ninth of fourteen children. His father was a master carpenter, and built fourteen meeting-houses ; the son worked with his father till he was twenty-four years of age, and was a good me- chanic. He went to Boston and was in the broker's business there, at the corner of State and Kilby Streets. The building in which his office was located is still standing. During or soon after the War of 1812 he went to Canada to buy Spanish dollars for the purpose of selling them again for the broker with whom he was in business. He thus earned the so- briquet of " Broker Brooks," by which name he was called for a long time.

He was married, in 1818, to Miss Sarah Braser, daughter of John Braser, of Franklin Street, Boston. He went to Princeton in 1824, and took the care of his father's farm and family, the farm being then worth eight hundred dollars, but now it is valued at twelve thousand dollars, the gain being dne to the good management of the present owner, his son, John Brooks. He has served in all the offices of the town with the exception of that of town clerk, and has been Representative and Senator in the General Court. He was president of the Worcester Agricul- tural Society and a member of the State Board of Agriculture, also one of the founders of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of Worcester. He died in Princeton, at the home of his childhood, May 1, 1863. Resolutions were passed on the occasion of his death

John Brook.

Nathan Allen

993

PRINCETON.

by the Worcester Agricultural Society and the State Board of Agriculture, both testifying to his useful life as a citizen and a devoted patriot ; to his culti- vated mind, his courteous manners and his unswerv- ing integrity, together with his ever-active and earnest labors for the advancements of the pursuits of hus- bandry. Rev. W. T. Briggs officiated at his funeral and testified to his high character and useful life, and showed that in the midst of life he was prepared for death, and was ready when the summons came to join that innumerable throng of which the poet Bry- ant so grandly sings.

DOCTORS IN PRINCETON. - Zachariah Harvey, Ephraim Woolson, Henry Bagg, Warren Patridge, Orville Brooks, -- Titus, Henry Eldridge, Luther Allen, Martin Howe, - Brainard, Alphonso Brooks, Chandler Smith, Joseph O. West, W. H. Kelsey, R. H. Mansur.

OTHER MEN OF NOTE .- Edward Savage, horn in the western part of the town 1761 and died in 1817, became a distinguished portrait-painter.

David Everett, born in 1770 and died in 1813, was a noted journalist and author. He was the author of those well-known school-hoy verses, commencing,

" You'd scarce expect one of my age, To speak in public, on the stage."

NATHAN ALLEN, M.D., LL.D .- Nathan Allen was born at Princeton, Mass., April 25, 1813. His pa- rents, Moses and Mehitabel (Oliver) Allen, were both born in Barre, in the same State. The Allen pa- tronymic is borne by numerous families in the Old and New Worlds. That one with which Dr. Allen is identified is lineally descended from Walter Allen, one of the original proprietors of Old Newbury, in 1648, and who died at Charlestown, Mass., in 1673. The early years of Dr. Allen were spent on the pater- nal farm. There he was habituated to hard work till the age of seventeen, and consequently received one of the best kinds of preparation for future activi- ties. After an absence of forty years,-ten of which were spent in continued studies and thirty in pro- fessional pursuits,-in delivering an address at an agricultural exhibition in his native place, which was published, Dr. Allen alluded to his early life as follows :

I wish here to make my public acknowledgments to that overruling Providence which ordered my birth and early training in this place, distinguished no less for intelligence and morality thau for health and devotion to agricultural pursuits. The greatest gift that any human being can receive in this world is that of a sound constitution, which can come alone from parents perfectly healthy in body and mind. The next greatest blessing is that this constitution be early strengthened and developed in accordance with natural laws, while at the same time the mental habits and moral character receive proper training and right direction. To these blessings I confess the strongest possible obliga- tions: first, to the Creator; second, to parents; and third, to the healthy educational and moral influences of this quiet rural town.

At the age of seventeen he commenced academical studies, and matriculating at Amherst College in 1832, he graduated from it in 1836. Having de- cided to study medicine, and wishing to avail him-

self of the best advantages in the country, he went to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1837. Here he pur- sned medical studies and attended lectures till the spring of 1841. During his residence in this city he had the entire charge for three years of the American Phrenological Journal, which proved, in many ways, a valuable experience. Here he learned some things respecting the use of the pen and the power of the press, and also to do his own thinking. He was also brought into contact with a variety of persons, some of them distinguished. Among these were Dr. Charles Caldwell, of Kentucky, the profoundest physiologist of his day; the Hon. Horace Mann, of Massachusetts, who, as an educator, has never been excelled ; and also George Combe, Esq., of Edin- burgh, unequaled as a practical philosopher. From correspondence and personal acquaintance with these men Dr. Allen acknowledges that he obtained most instructive lessons for future life.

In March, 1841, he received the diploma of M.D. from the Pennsylvania Medical College, npon which occasion he presented a thesis upon "The Connection of Mental Philosophy with Medicine." This essay was published in the American Phrenological Journal and in pamphlet form. It attracted much attention at the time and indicated the department of scientific investigation, in which he has since become distin- guished.

In the autumn of 1841 Dr. Allen settled in Lowell, Mass., and from that time until his death, January 1, 1889, a period of nearly fifty years, he continued to be a most active and successful medical practitioner in that city. Soon after commencing medical prac- tice Dr. Allen's attention was arrested by the great difference in the birth-rate between the native New England women and the English, the Irish, the Scotch, the Canadian French and the German; and also by the small number of children in a New Eng- land family compared to what it was fifty or a hun- dred years ago. From many years of study and ob- servation he became convinced that the "arts of prevention and destruction " were not sufficient in all cases to account for this great difference in birth- rate, but that there must be some other primary cause-that there might exist some difference or change in the organization itself to account for it. This inquiry led to a wide range of studies, such as census and registration reports, works on population, vital statistics and obstetrics. His works were not confined to these matters, but he also published essays ou physical culture and degeneracy, insanity and state medicine, heredity and hygiene, education and temperance, divorces and the family institution. There were over thirty publications of different kinds, and these were in quarterly journals and re- views, and were widely copied by the press, and some of them were published in Great Britain and com- mented on by distinguished scholars. In Frauce and Germany his writings have also attracted attention.

994

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The following is a list of the titles of the various pamphlets that have originated from his pen :

Title. Pages

t. Connection of Montal Philosophy with Medicine 32

2. The Opium Trade between India and China. 80

3. Law of Human Increase. 58

4. Physical Culture in Amherst College 46

5. Intermarriage of Relations. 56

6. Population ; Its Law of Increase

7. Physical Degeneracy 42

8. The Physiological Laws of Increase. 28

9. Foreign Population in Massachusetts 16

10. Address before the Agricultural Club of Princeton 38

11. Changes in Population 8

12. Treatment of the Insane. 20

13. Lessens on Population from Grecian and Reman History. 16

14. Essay on Hereditary Diseases. 16

15. Effects of Alcohol ou Offspring 8

16. Hereditary Influences in the Improvement of Steck 30

17. Law of Longevity 16

18. Medical Problems of the Day 92

19. Report to the Legislature ou Lunacy 80

20. State Medicine and Insanity 32

21. Normal Standard of Woman for Propagation. 40

22. College Sports. 8

23. Changes in New England Population 24

24. Prevention of Disease, Insanity, Crime and Pauperismi. 20

25. Supervision of Lunatic Hospitals 16

26. Divorces in New England .. 16

27. Prevention of Insanity 20

28. Laws of Inheritance.

29. Education of Girls, Connected with their Growth and Develop- ment. 32

30. Medical Profession and Lunatic Hospitals. 24

31. The New England Family 24

32. Influence of Medical Men. 8

33. The Decadence of the New England Family 24

Octavo Pages. 1026

Since this list was published, Dr. Allen has written several other papers, among which was "The Rela- tions between Sanitary Science and the Medical Pro- fession," written and read by him at the fourteenth annual meeting of the American Health Association, October 5, 1886, at Toronto, Canada, also the " Dedi- catory Address for the Goodnow Memorial Building" at Princeton, September 6, 1887. He was also skilled in genealogy and in local history, and at the time of his death was engaged upon a history of his native Princeton for the Worcester County history. In

1872 Dr. Allen visited Europe. He went as a dele- gate, commissioned by Governor Washburn, to the International Congress of l'rison Reform. His repu- tation had preceded him, and secured a cordial wel- come from eminent men in his own profession. In attending a large, public health meeting in London, presided over by Mr. Edwin Chadwick, being called upon to speak, he apologized, after making remarks, saying that he was a stranger, etc., whereupon several gentlemen assured him he was not a stranger, as his name was quite familiar to them by his writings.

During his forty-eight years' residence in Lowell Dr. Allen was always prominent in local and State affairs. He served on the School Committee in 1851, and in the Common Council in 1867, and was city physician in 1864 and '65. He was ihrce terms on the Board of Health, and was at one time a nominee

for State Senator. He was a prominent member of the Massachusetts and the North Middlesex Medical Societies. He was secretary of the medical staff of St. John's Hospital for over twenty-five years, for over twenty years president of the City Institu- tion for Savings, president of the Board of Physicians at the dispensary, president of the Amherst Alumni Association of Lowell, and not long since his alma mater conferred on him the degree of LL. D. 1n 1856 he was chosen by the Legislature a trustee of Amherst College, and took a leading part in establishing the department of physical culture in that institution. Dr. Edward Hitchcock, professor of hygiene in the college for over twenty-five years, pays Dr. Allen a high compliment, in which he calls him the god- father of this department.

In January, 1888, the Amherst Alumni Association, of Lowell, presented to the gymnasium a life-size oil portrait of Dr. Allen.

Dr. Allen was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the Massachu- setts Medical Society, and was one of the founders of the American Social Science Association, and the National Conference of Charities, and frequently wrote papers and reports for those bodies.

Dr. Allen sustained concussion of the brain as the result of a serious fall at his home, December 16, 1888. By means of his vigorous constitution and great vitality he lingered in an unconscious condition for two weeks, but just at sunset, on the first day of the new year, he breathed his last, and we know that he has gone to his reward, and that he will long be "remembered by what he has done." 1

SUMMER GUESTS OF HIDE AND SEEK TOWN .- Hide and Seek town, as Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson so aptly christened the Princeton of to-day, is most charmingly described in a delightful sketch written by her for Scribner's Monthly, and published in August, 1876. In this sketch the real name was not revealed, and very likely it was this mysterious veil- ing of the town's identity that gave so much interest to it. But the summer guests whose good fortune it had already been to have traversed its hills and dales, and tasted of its delicious and invigorating air, re- cognized at once its alluring descriptions, and its quaint and truthful illustrations. Very likely this sketch did much in its way to advertise the town's attractions, and so increase its annual influx of sum- mer guests. It is said that "the quiet hill town of forty years ago has become each season the popular New England summer Mecca for eight or nine hun- dred seekers of health, and pleasure." Although Princeton has long been known to the outside world as a healthy summer resort, it is only within the last fifteen or twenty years that it has become widely enough kuown to attract any large number of people.

1 By Annie Louise Allen.

995

SOUTHBRIDGE.

In the centre of the town the " Wachusett House " is the largest hotel, and also the oldest established ; its proprietor and owner, Mr. P. A. Beaman, may be called the pioneer in the summer hotel business, having been connected with the Wachusett Honse for over thirty years. When he first took charge of the hotel it was simply a country tavern, probably an old-time " tavern-in-the-town," open all the year ; but although having more guests in the summer, probably there were not more than one-tenth of the number who now annually spend their summers there. From time to time improvements were made to this house, and its capacity increased. It now accommodates from one hundred and fifty to one hun- dred and seventy-five guests, and for a period of over a month, during the last summer the guests numbered nearly two hundred. During the last twenty years the Howard House, Mount Pleasant House, Linden House, Forrest House, and Princeton House have been opened for the accommodation of summer com- pany. Additions were made to the Wachusett House, Prospect House and Mountain House, which now accommodates one hundred and fifty, and is so delight- fully situated several miles from town, nestling close to the mountain's side and commanding a most ex- tensive and beautiful view of the surrounding country for miles around. Its latch-string is always open, and its hospitable proprietor and owner, Mr. M. H. Bull- ard, is ever ready to " welcome the coming, speed the parting guest." Several farm-houses have also made themselves known to city families, and, indeed, it seems as if every man, woman and child in the place were only too glad to welcome the city travelers and share with them their privileges.

A comfortable and attractive house has been built on the top of Mount Wachusett, and this, together with the ease of traveling to the summit over a fine road, has drawn an immense number of tourists. The present Summit House, which is kept by Mr. G. A. Derby, was built in 1884 by Beaman & Son, of the Wachusett House.

They came into possession of the whole mountain about the year 1880, buying it from a land company who had built the road to the summit a few years before.

The number of visitors to the top of the mountain is now estimated at ten thousand to fifteen thousand yearly, and some two thousand horses go over the road.

Princeton now has an extra summer population of over six hundred people, and probably twenty-five hundred tourists visit the town every summer, exclu- sive of those already mentioned as going to the moun- tain top. Of course nearly all of these twenty-five hundred make the trip to the top of the mountain during their stay in the town, and so the number who visit the summit-ten thousand to fifteen thousand- may be taken as the estimate of the guests who yearly visit Princeton, Before the opening of the Boston,

Barre and Gardner Railroad, in 1869-70, the difficulty in reaching Princeton kept away many people. Then the summer guests were obliged to ride seven miles by coach from the nearest station to Princeton Cen- tre, while now the iron horse ploughs his way to within a mile of the Centre hotels. Formerly the visitors to Princeton went with the intention of re- maining through the entire season ; but now the town is so easily reached from Worcester, Boston and the other large cities, that people come and go to a much greater extent, and during the course of the season the number of guests is greatly increased. These guests go from Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Providence, New York, New Haven, Fall River, Philadelphia, Baltimore and many other places. In fact, the repu- tation of' Hide and Seek town is now so well estab- lished that, while other resorts complain of a lack of patronage, no such report comes forth from Princeton. For the summer visitors soon learn to love the quaint old town, and their days spent there are long remem- bered, and amid the chilling blasts of winter their memories and fancies go back to the happy summer time, and they commence then to plan their next summer's visit to gain new strength and life.1

CHAPTER CXXXI.

SOUTHBRIDGE.

BY LEVI B. CHASE.

SOUTHBRIDGE is situated in the southwestern part of the county of Worcester. It has Charlton on the north, and Dudley on the east; southward it is bounded by the State of Connecticut, and west by Sturbridge. The centre of the town is in latitude 42° 5', and the distance from the court-house in Worcester is seventeen and one-half miles. For- merly the great route of travel from Worcester to the southwest was through Charlton and Sturbridge. The connection with the shire-town is now by the New England Railroad to Webster, and thence by the Norwich and Worcester line. There is direct railway connection with Boston through Webster, Blackstone, etc., by the New England Railway. The number of square miles in the town is about nine- teen, and the number of acres is twelve thousand and seventy-four.

The surface of the town is much broken by hills and valleys. The hills rise northward and south- ward from the valley of Quinebang River, some of them gradually, and some with abrupt and rugged sides. Hatchet Hill, in the south part, near Con- necticut line, is sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, and the summit furnishes an extensive prospect.

1 By Annie Louise Allen.

996

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The main river is the Quinebaug, which comes in from Sturbridge on the west, and runs across the township north of the middle in an easterly and southeasterly course. The river is fed by Globe, Cady and Mckinstry Brooks on the north, and Hatchet, Cohasse and Lebanon Brooks on the south, all of which empty within the limits of the town. The valleys of these streams greatly diversify the scenery.

From west to east the Quinebaug River has its course, furnishing the power for various and impor- tant industries. This river has been the principal factor in the building up of this wealthy and enter- prising town. Hence it is fitting, in procceding to a partial description of some of the prominent features that strike the eye of a casual observer, to begin with the entrance of the Quinebaug.

The Quinebaug flows quietly through the valley of Sturbridge, then turns eastward through a gorge be- tween rocky hills. Before it quite passes the narrow valley, one-half of the width of it, by lines estab- lished, becomes included in the territory of South- bridge. Then it flows unhindered through the ruins of the old dam at Westville, past the old mill foun- dation, the bridge and the little village that has seen better days. Immediately afterwards, being con- fronted by a large hill, it turns squarely to the north, imparting power, as it passes, to the Litchfield Shut- tle Shop, and beyond glimmers brightly along a secluded valley, beautiful in its varied scenery of wooded grove and dell, level intervale, sloping field and hill-side pasture, ending abruptly, north ward, at a high rocky precipice. In ordinary times the river flows shallow in this valley. When all between the towns of Brookfield and Woodstock was a soli- tary wilderness, a path or road from one place to the other had its crossing here. It is inferred from facts known that this was the fording-place of the great trail of the Indians, from Narragansett and Wabba- quassett to the Quabaug towns and the Connecticut River at Hadley and above. Pursued by Captain Henchman and Oneco, son of Uncas, it was here that King Philip and his feeble following hurried across, the 3rd or 4th day of Angust, 1675. As will be seen further along, the first settlers had a fordway here.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 26

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