History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 61

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 61

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NARRAGANSETT NO. 2 .-- Immediately after the town- ships had been duly assigned, the committee of the grantees living in and about Cambridge who had drawn No. 2 "at Watchusett," called a meeting of those whom they represented, to be held at the house of Mr. Samuel Smith, of Cambridge, "in order to

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choose a Clerk and Committee or Committees, if they see cause, and to do and transact such things as shall be needful for the furtherance of the settlement of said town." Joseph Bowman, of Watertown, was chosen moderator of this meeting, and William Willis, of Medford, clerk of the society. A stauding com- mittee was also chosen to have charge of the pruden- tial affairs of the society, and a special committee was appointed to divide the township and lay out the lots as the grantees should direct. At an adjourned meet- ing this committee was instructed to lay the lands out in farm lots of not less than sixty acres each, and when there was an inferior quality of land, to increase the quantity, so as to equalize the value of the lots as they should judge right. All meadows were to be excluded from the division, and all cedar swamps, if any were found. The standing committee was author- ized to superintend the dividing committee in laying out the town, to levy taxes on the grantees, if they saw fit, to petition the General Court in any respect deemed advantageous to the society, and to call future meetings of the grantees. In the exercise of the power thus conferred upon them, the standing com- mittee established the following order in laying out the several classes of lots in the first division of the town, to wit : 1. A farm containing five hundred acres for His Excellency, the Governor; 2. A place for a meet- ing-house, with sufficient land adjoining for a training- field and burying-place, not to exceed ten acres; 3. A lot for the minister, of the usual size; 4. A lot for the ministry ; 5. A lot for schooling ; 6. And lastly, a lot for each of the grantees, agreeably to the vote of the whole body.

The original form of the territory of Narragansett No. 2 was that of an irregular quadrilateral, its eastern and southwestern sides being about six miles long, its northern side nearly nine miles and its southeastern some two and a half or three miles. It measured by estimate of the committee of the General Court, by whom it was first surveyed, twenty-three thousand and forty acres, exclusive of the pond, though actually considerably exceeding that amount. It was a point considerably to the southeast of the actual centre of this large area that was fixed upon by the committee on the first division of the town for the site of the meeting-house, contiguous to which they laid ont lands, to the extent of about six aeres, in a square form, for a training-field and burial-place, as directed. This was an eligible situation on what has always been known as Meeting-house Hill, the general location bearing in later years the familiar name of "the old Common." It is elevated considerably above the general level of the surrounding country, and com- mands fine views of the whole neighboring region, the prospect to the northward, eastward and southward being especially picturesque and delightful. From this area of common land a street four rods wide was laid in a nearly northwest and southeast direction, extending a mile or more each way, on each side of

which ranges of lots sixty rods wide and one hundred and sixty long, with some variations, were arranged, the ends of those of the first range bouuding on the street. Beside the lots included in these ranges, there was a series lying along the eastern side of the town, varying in form somewhat from the others and from the general plan of division. Southwest of the Common, and beyond the second tier of lots, was the Governor's farm, which included what is now called South Westminster and most of the lands to the westward of it as far as Cedar Swamp. This first division of lands covered territory lying in the south- east part of the township, extending northward and westward only about a mile and a halt from the present central village, and comprised only about three-tenths of the entire township, the remainder being subject to future divisions, as will be hereafter noted.

The committee on laying out the town attended to their duties early in 1734. Before entering upon it, however, Mr. Zachariah Smith, of Watertown, and Mr. Edward Jackson, of Newton, two of the grantees, had contracted with the standing committee "to erect a house in the township twenty-two feet long, sixteen feet wide and seven feet stnds, to be built of square timber, framed roof covered with long shingles and having a good stone chimney," for twenty-seven pounds (about ninety dollars). The contract was fulfilled early in the season and the house was occu- pied by the dividing committee while engaged iu doing the work assigned them. This building was retained for the use of the grantees and their succes- sors for seven years, when, by vote of those con- cerned, it passed over to the owner of the lot on which it was found to stand. It was an old-fashioned log house, and was located on the swell of land at the northeastern extremity of the pond, whence, after an opening was made in the forest, the almost entire sur- face of that body of water could be seen.

On the 21st of May the dividing committee re- ported that they had completed the first division of the lands of the township as ordered, and on the 9th of July the grantees met at the house of Mrs. Mary Larned, in Watertown, for the purpose of distrib- uting the lots among them and transacting other im- portant business. Before proceeding to such dis- tribution, however, it was voted that Lot No. 8, which lay to the southward of the "Common," and bordered on the pond, should be assigned to the first settled minister, and that No. 95, which was located on the slope of the hill northwest of the Cowee place, now owned by Mr. Newell Smith, should be devoted to the support of the ministry and known as the Ministerial Lot. Later, No. 94, which was the lot occupied for many years by Deacon Merari Spanld- ing, where the late Mr. Lyman Seaver resided, was set apart for the support of schools, and was there- fore called the School Lot. The remaining lots were then drawn by the grantees, to whose sole and sepa-

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rate ownership and control they were assigned and confirmed. A few persons who were dissatisfied with the lands falling to them were allowed to give them up and select equal tracts in the undivided sections of the town.

The lots having now come into the full and per- manent possession of the grantees as separate indi- viduals, soon began to have a change of ownership, each one having a right to dispose of his right and title as he saw fit, and thenceforward the number of grantees was continually diminishing, while the num- ber of others holding lands in the township was in- creasing proportionally. This changed condition of things necessitated a change in the name given to the owners of lots, and they were thereafter called proprietors, which would include those coming into possession of their estates by purchase as well as those receiving them by grant of the General Court. And correspondingly the whole body of proprietors was called the propriety, as duly appears in the rec- ords.

The township was now in a proper condition for settlement and steps were at once taken looking to that result. The time named in the original grant within which sixty families were to be located in the place-seven years-was rapidly passing away with no prospect of fulfilling the conditions specified, and permission was obtained from the court to reckon the period from June 1, 1734, which was about the date when the grantees came into actual possession of the lands assigned them. The original proprie- tors themselves seemed little inclined to exchange their homes in more thickly-settled neighborhoods, where they were sharing many of the advantages and comforts of civilized life, for a residence in the wil- derness, with all the privations, hardships and disad- vantages attending it, but it was for their interest to induce others less happily situated or more adven- turous and fearless than they were to locate in the newly-acquired territory and help to establish there a compact and orderly community. As an induce- ment to this end, they voted, at a meeting held in May, 1735, to offer a bounty of twelve pounds, or forty dollars, to each of the first fifteen families which should locate in the township before the last day of September, 1736, erect a house not less than eighteen feet long by sixteen feet wide, with seven feet stud- ding, to be well boarded and covered, and also to clear and fence three acres of land fit for mowing or plowing within the same time. At the same meeting arrangements were made with Major William Brat- tle, of Cambridge, who had drawn Lot No. 112, at the head of what is now Wachusettville, on which was a good water privilege, to build a saw-mill on or before the 1st of March, 1736, and keep it in repair twenty years, for which he was to receive twelve acres of undivided meadow land in his own right and the right to flow all the meadows above the said mill from the last of September to the 10th of April each

year indefinitely. No doubt this was designed as an additional inducement to the early settlement of the place, and unquestionably had considerable influence in that behalf at a later late.

It was some time before any practical response was made to the repeated efforts to obtain settlers in the new townshlp. The year 1735 went by and also 1736, and the silence of the primeval forest was unbroken by any resident's voice or axe. An as yet unbroken wilderness covered all the hills and valleys of the re- gion, stretching miles and miles away on every hand. But the eventful year at length arrived, and a settle- ment was made. Early in the spring of 1737, Mr. Fairbanks Moor, from Lancaster, came to the place with a view of establishing for himself and family a home. He was joined not long after by Mr. Joseph Holden, from Watertown, and the two working side by side for a time made a beginning. How these men reached the place-whether on foot or with some kind of teams, bringing with them food and such imple- ments and utensils as they might need for immediate use-cannot be known. Nor whether they had any previous acquaintance with each other and a mutual understanding in the matter. These and a thousand other things it would be pleasant to be informed about must be left to conjecture. How they lived at first may be imagined, but not definitely described. They occupied for awhile the house of the proprietors, without doubt, and possibly the wife of Mr. Moor came up from Lancaster, not many miles distant, after a little time, to attend to domestic affairs and lend some cheer and show of home life to the scene. Wild game must have been the chief article of diet at the outset, diversified by occasional drafts upon the finny denizens of the waters near at hand-flesh and fish alternating to lengthen out the bill of fare and satisfy the not fastidious appetite.

Neither Mr. Moor nor Mr. Holden was a grantee of the township, though the latter had an interest through both his mother and his wife, who were heirs- at-law of Narragansett soldiers, and through whom he afterwards received two lots by right of inherit- ance. Mr. Moor the previous year had bought No. 19, where Mr. Hobart Raymond now resides, and Mr. Holden No. 1, on which the proprietors' house stood, -the two lying side by side and so convenient to each other. Sites for dwellings were fixed upon and a clearing made at once by the men, and preparations for building at the earliest practicable date were soon begun and pushed forward to completion. Work upon the houses seems to have been carried on simultane- ously and with equal rapidity, both having been raised, it is understood, the same day in the month of June. They were framed houses, covered probably with boards from the saw-mill of Major Brattle, about a mile and a half distant. That of Mr. Moor was on or near the site of the present dwelling of Hobart Raymond, of which it forms a part, now one hun- dred and fifty-two years old. That of Mr. Holden

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stood scarcely fifty rods distant, near where a small cottage is now located, but it long since disappeared.

Before the season was over, the families of the two men were established in their respective homes, facing the fortunes awaiting them in the years ahead. Mr. Moor bad a wife and five sons, and Mr. Holden a wife, three sons and two daughters, making a total of fourteen,-the population of Narragansett No. 2 in the autumn of 1737. An existing tradition makes the number fifteen ; but the preserved records of the families give but fourteen, though there may have been some temporary resident in the place which would make the aggregate what it is, on the uncer- tain authority referred to, supposed to be.

These first settlers in Narragansett No. 2 (West- minster) occupy too important a place in the history of the town to be passed by without a more extended notice than has yet been given them. They were men to be remembered and honored for their works' sake by the sons and daughters of the town they founded as long as that town shall have a place in the annals of Worcester Connty and of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts. And so a brief biographi- cal sketch of each of them respectively is introduced at this point of the narrative in hand.

Fairbanks Moor was a lineal descendant of John Moor, who came from England to this country at an early date, locating first at Cambridge, but after- wards at Sudbury, where he took the oath of alle- giance in 1640, soon after its first settlement. This first John had a son bearing the same name, and known as Ensign John, who took up his abode in Lancaster and became a somewhat prominent man in public affairs. One of his sons, a third John in regular succession, married Hezadiah Fairbanks, of whom the subject of this notice was born about the year 1700, receiving the family name of his mother for a Christian name. Fairbanks Moor married Judith Bellows, daughter of Benjamin Bellows, of Lunenburg, and sister of Benjamin Bellows, also an early settler in Narragansett No. 2; afterwards the founder of Walpole, N. H., and the giver of a name to Bellows Falls in the Connecticut River. Fair- banks and Judith Moor had five sons before moving to Narragansett, and one while a resident there, who probably died in 1742, and became the first occupant of the first burying-ground in the place. Mr. Moor was somewhat of an adventurer and speculator in landed property. He owned, at different times, some ten or twelve farm-lots in the township; was an original proprietor of Templeton, and also had pos- sessions in Brattleboro', Walpole and probably other localities in that vicinity. He was a resident of Narragansett No. 2 only abont seven years consecu- tively, though dwelling there at times for several years afterward. He went finally to the valley of the Connecticut, leaving traces of himself at Wal- pole, N. H., where his son, Fairbanks, Jr., resided, and also at Brattleboro', the home of his son Ben-

jamin. Both he and this last-named sou were slain by the Indians in a midnight attack and massacre at Brattleboro', March 6, 1758. Of the descendants of Mr. Moor no traces have been found, though great pains have been taken to discover them, and it is presumed the family has become extinct.

Joseph Holden was the son of Justinian Holden, the immigrant ancestor of the family, who was a pro- prietor of Watertown in 1634, and Mary (Rutter) Holden, born September 6, 1683. He married Aba- gail, danghter of William Shattuck, and had seven children before removing to Narragansett, two of whom died in infancy and a third before his own decease, November 30, 1768. He was one of the most active, influential and highly esteemed of the earlier residents of the township, being deeply interested in the prosperity and right ordering of the new settlement, and holding many places of trust and service, to which he was called by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens. He was elected the first deacon of the church, which was instituted in 1742, and has always been known by the title thus conferred upon him. His sons after him became highly honored and much respected in their day, as did others of his descendants in later generations. He stands at the head of a numerous posterity, the members of which are scattered far and wide through the land, though a goodly number of them are still to be found in the town of which he, more than any other person, was the founder, as he was the first permanent resident within its borders.

A settlement having been begun in the new town- ship, the way was open for accessions to the little com- pany that spent the winter of 1737-38 in the wilds of Narragansett No. 2, but they came slowly. Only two families, so far as can be ascertained, were added to the original number in the year 1738-that of Philip Bemis, consisting of nine persons; himself, wife and seven children, of whom one was not his own, but a child of mystery, named Daniel Mountjoy (who lived to be more than a hundred years old), and Thomas Bemis, brother of Philip, who had at the time only a wife. There are no proofs that there were any additions to these four families in 1739. In 1740 Seth Walker and Justinian Holden, from Groton ; Daniel Hoar, from Concord ; Joseph Miller, from Newton ; John and Thomas Stearns, from Watertown, were in the place, and, if not actually settled as residents, were yet clearing up lots, building honses and making preparations for becoming permanently located within its borders.

One of the great needs of these pioneer settlers of this new township was a mill for grinding the corn and other grain which they were beginning to produce. Several attempts had been made to obtain proposals for the erection of such a mill, but for a time none of them proved effectual. At length, at a meeting held September 10, 1740, a proposition from Mr. Seth Walker, who had located on lot 22, at the ontlet of

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the pond, was favorably received, and finally accepted. It was to be completed before the 1st of the next July, to be kept in good order for twenty years, and there was to be paid for it " one hundred pounds in the old tenor." This was another important adjunct to the new settle- ment, and no doubt removed a serious objection to joining it, which would find a place in many minds. The mill stood on the more easterly of the two streams flowing out of the pond, some thirty or forty rods west of the residence of the late John K. Learned. It served the community in its original capacity for nearly a century, its foundations remain- ing in a good state of preservation to this day.

During the two following years some eighteen or twenty new families were added to the settlement, making nearly thirty in the aggregate. Among these new comers was Eleazer Bigelow, of Watertown, who was accompanied by his aged father, Joshua Bigelow, the only resident of the place that actually rendered service in the Narragansett War. He died February 21, 1745, in the ninetieth year of his age.

For several years subsequently to 1742 the popu- lation of the township increased but slowly, if at all. Very few new families came in, while some previously there moved away. This was, no doubt, owing chiefly to the breaking out of the war between England and France, known as King George's War. The French, as before and afterward, made friends of the Indians of the back country, and sent or led them forth to deeds of darkness and horror well cal- culated to revive the long-slumbering memories of the conflict with King Philip. The little settlements that had for several years been springing up in the wilderness became thoroughly alarmed some time be- fore a formal declaration of war had taken place, and the more exposed of them had petitioned the Gen- eral Court for protection, the inhabitants of Narra- gansett No. 2 among the rest. A grant of £100 was made to put the township in a condition whereby its people could be easily protected, and a committee was appointed to expend the same. Ten dwellings were converted into fortifications for the common safety. These were distributed throughout the set- tled districts, so that all the inhabitants of the place could resort to them at their discretion and feel se- cure against any hostile attack. The same thing was done elsewhere. Moreover, a line of defences, extending from settlement to settlement, through a wide section of country, was established, and a series of alarms devised, whereby the whole population of the inland districts could be aroused, if need be, and made ready to meet and repel an invading foe. No harm was done to the Narragansett settlers during the continuance of the war. Twice were there Indians seen lurking about the place, but the sounding of the alarm, assuring them that they were discovered, and enabling the people to prepare to receive them, caused them silently to withdraw. One of these dis- coveries was made by Mr. Bowman, while mowing

somewhere on the farm of the late George Miles, which he owned, and the other by Mrs. Philip Bemis, while passing through or near the burying- ground one Sunday on her way home from meeting. Very likely these or similar occurrences, of which no report is preserved, moved the inhabitants to petition the General Court for a town scout, to keep watch and guard over the young colony, which resulted in the appointment of Thomas Stearns, David Dunster, Joseph Holden, Jr., Stephen Holden and Elisha Bigelow to serve in that capacity till the peril was past. According to the muster-roll of Capt. Edward Hartwell's company, dated December 22, 1748, there were enlisted from the place as soldiers in this war Fairbanks Moor, Jr., Abner Holden, William Bemis, Ephraim Dutton, Nicholas Dyke, Ephraim Stevens, Thomas Stearns and several others whose names are not given. The peace of Aix la-Chapelle put an end to hostilities, and relieved the infant settlement from further anxiety or concern on that aacount.

Another cause that may have had an influence in re- tarding the growth of the township was the inhar- mony existing between the resident and non-resident proprietors and the nuwillingness of the latter, who for a long time were in the majority, to make the im- provements necessary to satisfy those who had already located on the territory, or to induce out- siders to take up their abode there. For ten years this strife was going on. The advantage was all on the side of the non-residents. The meetings of the proprietors, to begin with, were held in and about Cambridge, at points readily accessible to those dwelling in that vicinity. Soon after the settlement was begun an attempt was made by the resident members of the propriety to have them held in the township, but it failed. The same thing was done repeatedly, with the same result. As a consequence, the non-resident members could have everything their own way. And many of the propositions deemed necessary to the comfort and welfare of those living in the township, as well as to its growth and prosperity, were either promptly voted down or granted with reluctant will. This was especially the case with regard to highways, of which due mention will be made hereafter. At length an appeal was sent to the Legislature hy the resident proprietors, for redress of grievances in this regard, and it was granted. Meetings were ordered to be held in the township, the first occurring September 12, 1750. Thereafter things were managed more favorably for the settlers.

Though not yet numerically in the majority of the entire number of proprietors, still, so few of those living in the lower towns could or did attend the meetings after they were held in the township, that the residents were in the majority there and could do what they pleased for the common good. From that time forward most of the officers of the propriety were in- habitants of the place, as they were not before, and

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public improvements were multiplied rapidly. As a consequence, the settlement was greatly enlarged as time went on. New families came in, and the popu- lation, which was not more than one hundred and thirty in 1750, must have been about three hundred and fifty in 1760.

With the increase of inhabitants arose the desire on their part to be free from their relationship to the non-resident proprietors, and to obtain an independ- ent and corporate existence, with authority and power to manage their own affairs, and to exercise all the ·rights and prerogatives usually belonging to the towns of the province. A petition was accordingly drawn up and signed by Joseph Holden and thirty- one others and forwarded to the General Court, which resulted in the passage of an act of incorporation October 20, 1759, erecting Narragansett No. 2 into a district, under the name of Westminster. This con- ferred upon the people all the rights and immunities of a town, except that of being represented in the Legislature of the province, and this was granted by an additional act passed April 26, 1770.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 61

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