History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 62

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 62

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It may be proper to state here that a second divi- sion of the lands of the township was made in 1743, the size of the lots being sixty acres, as in the first division. These lots were distributed among the pro- prietors of the place as before. They were located mostly in the north and northwesterly sections of the town, extending along the boundary in that direction as far as what is now the centre of Gardner. The di- vision of the meadows took place about the same date, giving the proprietors about five acres each. A third division took place in 1755, the size of the lots being the same as before, and a fourth and final division in 1767, each lot containing twenty acres. The last two divisions were of territory lying in the west part of the town-mostly in what is now Gardner.

At the time of the incorporation of Westminster the American colonies were in the midst of what is called the French and Indian War, which grew out of the alleged encroachments of the French, who had located along the St. Lawrence and elsewhere, upon the frontier English settlements. Hostilities began as early as 1754, although a formal declaration of war was not made till two years later, and continued in active operation till 1760, when Montreal and all other French possessions in Canada were surrendered to the British Crown. The treaty of Paris, making a definite and final settlement of the questions at issue between the two nations, was not signed, however, till 1763. In this conflict the township in review bore an important part. The names of thirty-eight of its residents appear upon the muster-rolls of the different military companies that went into the service. Of three of these-Richard Baker, Thomas Dunster and William Edgell-the following well-authenticated story is told: At the expiration of their term of ser- vice, the officer in command, for some unknown rea- son, refused to discharge them. Deeming themselves

under no obligations to remain, they decided to take the matter in their own hands, and return home re- gardless of the military authorities. They were in the neighborhood of Lake George, and their only way to their families and friends was over the Green Mountain range, when there were but few roads, and these they resolved to avoid, lest they be captured and made to suffer a deserter's doom. It was in mid- winter, when much snow was on the ground, and the proposed journey across a trackless waste was most. perilous. But they were determined to take it, and, providing themselves with two pairs of snow-shoes-all that they could secure-and two boards, which were to serve for a third pair, together with such provisions as they could obtain, they started on their adventur- ous course. They lost their way among the mountains, wandering about for days without reaching any set- tlement-or any track leading to a settlement-as they had hoped. Their provisions, meanwhile, gave out, and they came near starving. In their extremity they decided that one of their number should be sac- rificed, and his flesh taken to save the lives of the other two. The unfortunate one was designated by lot; but, before putting their awful resolve into exe- cution, the barking of a dog assured them of their nearness to some settlement, and they were spared the tragic deed, reaching safely at last their place of destination. There is a tradition involving a whole company in this affair, but it probably grew out of what is here narrated, which is better fortified than the other.

It is also related that during one of the campaigns of this war Nicholas Dyke, a leading citizen of the town, afterwards a colonel in the Revolution, with a squad of twelve men under him detailed to procure wood for the camp, were surprised and captured by a detachment of French soldiery. On their way to headquarters they stopped to partake of the contents of their knapsacks. In the midst of the meal, when. the captors seemed to have relaxed their watchful- ness somewhat, the prisoners, who had been partially unbound, upon a preconcerted signal from Captain Dyke, released themselves still further, sprang to their feet, seized the weapons near at hand, over- powered their foes, secured them captives and brought them prisoners to the English camp.

The number of resident tax-payers in the township when it was incorporated was 76; of polls, 80; the number of oxen, 53; cows, 170; horses, 52; swine, 35 ; sheep, 176. The estimated population was 300.

CHAPTER CXLIII. WESTMINSTER-(Continued.)

Name -Location-Physical Characteristics-Roads-Industries.

AT whose suggestion the name Westminster was given to the township originally called Narragansett

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

No. 2 does not appear in any records that have come to hand. No name whatever is mentioned in the petition of the inhabitants praying for an act of incor- poration, and no name appears in connection with the passage of the bill through the two branches of the Legislature. In the engrossed copy of the bill furnished the Governor for his signature, there was evidently a blank left by the transcriber where the name should properly appear, and that blank was subsequently filled with the word Westminster in the same handwriting as that of Thomas Pownal, who was then filling the executive chair of the Province It seems probable, therefore, that to the Governor himself the citizens of the town are indebted for the name by which their municipality is designated and known,-a royal name it is, taken, no donbt, from that part of the capital of the British Empire whichi represents, more than any other, the greatness and glory of the country whence the early yeomanry and leading spirits of New England chiefly sprung.

Westminster is situated in the northerly part of Worcester County, and is bounded on the north by Ashburnham, on the east by Fitchburg and Leomin- ster, on the south by Princeton and Hubbardston and on the west by Hubbardston and Gardner. Its lati- tude is 42° 32' north of the equator and 71º 54' west from Greenwich or 5° l' east from Washington. Its central village is about twenty miles in a direct line a little west of north from Worcester and about forty- nine miles west-northwest from Boston and fifty- seven by railroad. Its superficial contents are some- what more than twenty-two thousand acres, or about thirty-five square miles.

Being largely a farming town, its inhabitants are distributed very considerably over its entire territory. It has, however, a village of respectable size and attractive appearance at what is called the Centre, containing nearly a hundred dwelling-houses, three stores, three churches, a town hall, a large chair man- ufactory, an extensive bakery, a bank, several shops and numerous subordinate buildings ; a small village two miles east of this, called Wachusettville, where there are paper-mills and about twenty dwellings, and one a mile and a half south of the Centre, of about the same size, in which is a large chair-making establishment, called South Westminster.

Lying upon the range of highlands which separate the waters flowing into the Merrimac from those flowing into the Connecticut River, its elevated and exposed situation, while detracting somewhat from its value for agricultural purposes, gives freshness and salubrity to the air and quick movement to its waters, which conduce to vigor and strength of both body and mind, and consequent length of days. Its surface is somewhat broken and greatly diversified. Numerous elevations of considerable altitude are scattered throughout its territory, from which de- lightful views may be had of the surrounding country. Some of these representations are exceed-

ingly picturesque and beautiful. A pleasing variety of hill and dale, forest and field is displayed on every hand. There are charming drives in all directions, and few towns can offer more attractions to the pleas- ure seeker and lover of nature in this regard than can here be enjoyed.

The geological basis of the township is a form of primitive metamorphic rock, somewhat like granite, called gneiss, with an element of iron distributed through it. In some parts a tendency to slate forma- tions appears, constituting what is denominated Mer- rimac schist. Among the later deposits of sand, gravel and the like there are veins of clay found, which have been utilized in various localities. The soil proper cannot be regarded as specially fertile or desirable for purposes of agriculture, though in some sections it may be made very productive under a judicious system of cultivation. In many places it is deep and strong, but needs to be enriched by outside agencies. The elevated position of the place renders the agricultural season comparatively short, and subjects whatever is raised to high winds, both of which are prejudicial to the interests of the tiller of the soil.

There is considerable difference, however, between the eastern and western portions in these respects, the advantage being on the side of the former. And yet, on the whole, the town may be regarded as quite up to the level of the average of the county, agricul- turally considered. It has many fine farms, from which abundant harvests of the more hardy and staple products of this section of country are gath- ered. Apples and pears are raised without much trouble, but the tenderer and more delicate fruits, if grown at all, require watchful attention and constant care.

The forests abound in birch, beech, maple, oak, pine, hemlock and chestnut trees, with some hickory, yielding ample supplies of fuel for home consump- tion, with quite a surplus for the outside market, as well as considerahle lumber for mannfacturing pur- poses.

The usual wild animals indigenous to the region are found here, and exist in about the same propor- tion and to the same extent as in neighboring locali- ties. The ponds and streams were formerly well- stored with native fish, which have been much re- duced in numbers in these later days. The experi- ment of introducing new varieties has resulted in depleting the original supply without making good the deficiency.

The pastures are generally fruitful of various kinds of wild berries, and large quantities of them are gathered year by year for the ready market, which is found, if not at home and in manufacturing localities near by, yel at Boston and other large places farther away. In many instances these spontaneous pro- ducts of the earth, not many years since deemed com- mon to everybody, and, wherever found, free to all

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who might be pleased to gather them, are now re- garded as actual individual property, subject to all the conditions of other items of personal estate, and are oftentimes made the sources of very considerable income to those possessing them.

Although the surface of the town is generally high and considerably varied, yet there are no very marked or noteworthy elevations. Several of them, however, are designated by certain names which they have borne, for the most part, for a long time. The reason why they were respectively called by the titles given them is apparent in some instances and may be imagined in others, but not demonstrated. The hill that stands eastward from the centre village, on which the Common is located, was for obvious reasons called Meeting-house Hill. Two miles north of the centre, near to Gardner line, is Beech Hill. More northeast- erly and three miles from the centre is Bragg Hill, rising quite to the boundary of Ashburnham, the eastern extremity of which, towards Fitchburg, is known as Bean Porridge Hill. A bleak, rocky ridge in the southern part of the town is named Graves' Hill, while a still more rocky and desolate eminence in the southeast is Crow Hill. Still farther to the southeast, near to the Leominster line, is Ball's Hill. The commanding height upon which the well-known Winship buildings are located has been sometimes appropriately denominated Prospect Hill, the view from it being more extensive, varied and lovely than from any other point in town.

There are but three natural bodies of water in Westminster. The most important of these is Meet- ing-house Pond, a mile southeast of the centre, in recent years more frequently named Westminster Pond or Lake, which contains one hundred and fifty- two acres and one hundred rods. Wachusett Pond or Lake is a beautiful sheet of water, larger in size, lying under the shadow of Wachusett Mountain, partly in Princeton, but mostly in Westminster, on the northern and western borders of which several summer houses (private and public) have been erected, while ample and attractive picnic-grounds have been laid out and fitted up as a resort for pleasure-parties and temporary sojourners in the summer season. Mud Pond is in the northern section of the town. A large tract of meadow land in the east, lying along the banks of the streams flowing ont of the first two bodies of water mentioned, has during the last twenty years been kept under water and made serviceable as a reservoir for the benefit of the manufacturing inter- ests below. The same is true of what used to be termed the town meadows, three-fourths of a mile east of the central village, while two or three similar changes have been made in the western portion of the territory. A few small mill-ponds fill out the num- ber of bodies of water which at present exist in the place.

Several streams of water, affording privileges for manufacturing and other purposes, are to be found

within the limits of Westminster. Phillips' Brook comes from Ashburnham, and runs through the ex- treme north part of the town ; a stream in the same direction, formerly called North River and sometimes Whitman's River, also comes from Ashburnham, and by a longer course passes into Fitchburg; a stream rising in Cedar Swamp and flowing just north of the central village empties into the town meadow reser- voir named above; and the two streams already re- ferred to from the principal ponds of the town uniting in the Wachusettville reservoir,-these all unite at last within the borders of the city of Fitchburg and constitute the northern branch of the Nashua River, which is the chief tributary of the Merrimac. A small stream in the western section of the town, inter- cepted in its course by several reservoirs in that locality, flows into Gardner and becomes a branch of the Otter River, whose waters passing through Mil- ler's River reach the Connecticut at Greenfield. Two or three small streams in the southern part of the town, taking their way through Hubbardston, become sources of supply to Ware River, and at length pass into the Connecticut at Chicopee. An interesting fact connected with Cedar Swamp, already spoken of, is, that out of it three brooks flow in three different direc- tions, constituting the head-waters of three important rivers in the State,- the Nashua River, Miller's River and Chicopee River.

A few special names have in former days been used to designate given localities, some of which have passed or are passing into forgetfulness. Aside from those already noted a few others are worthy of men- tion. The east village of the town, now known as Wachusettville, was for many years called "the Narrows." The valley a mile and a half north of the centre, through which Whitman's River flows and especially the part of it in the vicinity of Lombard's chair factory, was designated as "Scrabble Hollow," while the large tract of brushy, tangled, wet land, half a mile west of the centre, bears the unsavory name of "Tophet." The original location of the Universalist Church, a mile and a half northeast of the centre, is known as " the North Common."

ROADS .- It is generally believed that the pioneer . settlers of Narragansett No. 2 were obliged to make their way from Lancaster, the nearest settlement, through the intervening wilderness by marked trees, there being no distinctive path or thoroughfare for them to follow. Such, however, was not the case. Four years before the coming of Messrs. Moor and Holden to the place the Provincial Government had caused a road to be laid out and opened for travel from Lancaster to the valley of the Connecticut, near Deerfield, which ran through the south part of the town, entering its borders east of the school-house in what was formerly District No. 7, and passing thence across the northerly end of Wachusett Lake, and up over the hills westward, not far from the residences of the late Cephas Bush and Betsey Bacon, and on in

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the same general direction to the Hubbardston line, south of the dwelling of Mr. Joel Newton, and so through Templeton, Petersham, etc., to its farthest terminus at Sunderland, which gave it the name of the "Sunderland road." Along this thoroughfare, no doubt, the early settlers for several years came to the township, branching off from it at such points as would be convenient for them in reaching the various lots on which they had located or proposed to locate. That a way was opened from this road at a point a little east of where it crossed the line of the township to the old Common very soon after the settlement took place is evident from the fact that at a proprietors' meeting held Octoher 31, 1739, it was an item of busi- ness to see if they would clear the road from Crow Hill to the meeting-house. This road was in part the one laid out by the committee who made the first division of the lands of the township, and was, in fact, an extension of the present Main Street of the cen- tral village southeastwardly until it struck the so- called Sunderland Road. For a dozen years from the time of the settlement of the place no public roads except this one were made-each man probably open- ing his own path to his building site when and where he pleased. But in 1750, at the first meeting of the proprietors held, by order of the General Court, in the township, several highways were laid out in differ- ent directions, the principal one running from the meeting-house to Lunenburg, which then joined the township on the east, and which had already become quite a settlement. In the year following thirteen addi- tional roads were opened, which furnished the inhabit- ants at the time all needed facilities for communica- tion with each other, and for reaching the older and larger settlements to the eastward of them. In 1753, a county road was laid from Ipswich Canada (Win- chendon) to Lunenburg, running through the extreme north part of the township, and in 1754 another from Lancaster to Quopaige (Athol). This road crossed the town boundary near Everettville, and ran substan- tially where the highway now is to the old Common, thence southwesterly by the residence of Mr. Thomas Damon to the old Bigelow homestead, and on iu a northwesterly direction through what are now pas- tures and woodlands to the village of South Gardner. Several other roads of importance were opened in the township before the year 1759, so that at the date of incorporation the foundation and framework of that more complete system of highways which has in later days served the public convenience and need were fully established. As time has gone on, such addi- tions, modifications and discontinuances have been made as seemed, in the judgment of the citizens of the town or of the county authorities, conducive to the common welfare.

In or about the year 1800 the " Fifth Massachu- setts Turnpike," extending from Lancaster to Athol, through Westminster, was built by a company oper- ating under a charter granted them by the Legisla-

ture of the Commonwealth. It was substantially a new route, and opened very direct communication between the central village and Leominster on the cast and South Gardner and Templeton on the west. Five years later a "North Branch " of this turnpike was opened from a point near Fitchburg line, through Scrabble Hollow, to South Ashburnban and Win- chendon. In 1829 this "North Branch " was con- verted into a county road, and in 1832 the main line shared the same fate.

VERMONT AND MASSACHUSETTS RAILROAD,- When the project of building a railroad westward from Fitchburg was first agitated in the community, it was hoped by the citizens of Westminster that it would run through or near the central village and conduce materially to the future growth and pros- perity of the town. Cousiderable money was put into the stock of the corporation, under the impres- sion that such would be the case. But the influences which vainly endeavored to turn the main line of the road from the neighboring town of Gardner were more successful in their plans regarding Westminster, depriving it of the facilities so much desired by its people and so necessary to its continued advance- ment along the lines pursued from the beginning. The result was the location of the road through the eastern and northern parts of its territory, where it has contributed little or nothing to the development of the industrial interests of the community, for which it might have accomplished so much under other, though nowise impossible, circumstances. Numerous attempts have been made in later years to obtain greater advantages of transportation by through lines or spurs of already existing roads, but nothing as yet has been attained in this behalf. The station on the Vermont and Massachusetts (now Fitchburg) Railroad, two miles from the Centre, affords all the accommodations which, under existing conditions, can reasonably be expected.

INDUSTRIES .- Westminster must be regarded as an agricultural town when considered in a general way, and yet there have been many kinds of manufactur- ing carried on within its borders at different periods of its history. The conditions under which the early settlers took up their abode on its territory made them necessarily tillers of the soil. Established in the wilderness, far away from thickly populated com- munities, their only means of subsistence were de- rived directly from the earth, and to the culture of the earth they at once addressed themselves with diligence and resolute good will, employing such agencies in the prosecution of their work as were at their command. They generally had enough me- chanical ingenuity and a sufficient supply of the ruder and more common wood working implements to enable them to erect for themselves the simple structures which served for temporary dwelling- places, although persons trained to the various call- ings requisite to the construction of more elaborate

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WESTMINSTER.

· and better finished buildings soon appeared among their number. Carpenters, masons, painters, black- smiths, shoemakers and workers at other trades came in to supply the demand which a growing population created, so that there was at an early day no lack in any of these regards, and this class of artisans has never died out. Provision, as has been stated, was made, even before a single person appeared in the township as a permanent resident, for the supply of lumber suitable for building purposes, as was also the case soon after with regard to the grinding of grain for domestic and other uses. The need of va- rious kinds of wooden-ware was a stimulus to the in- troduction of the business of coopering before many years had passed away, and this was followed, some- times as incidental and subsidiary to the regular work of farming, in the way of furnishing pails, tubs, barrels, etc., for home uses, and sometimes as a dis- tinct and constant vocation and means of livelihood by supplying goods for the general market. With a growing demand from outside for this kind of pro- duction, the industry increased until cooper -shops were scattered plentifully throughout the town, some persons carrying on extensive operations in this line of manufacture.

The presence of clay in various localities already alluded to rendered the making of brick feasible, and that business was prosecuted at several different points at different dates, chiefly, however, in the southern section, on the place now owned by Mr. Calvin Baker, where his father had a yard not many years since, and on the two farms east and south con- tiguous thereto. The manufacture of potash was once an industry in the town, four potash works hay- ing been definitely located, while others no doubt existed of which nothing is at present known. As a matter of course, cider-mills were once very numer- ous, but have mostly disappeared. Not less than five tanneries have been in successful operation, but these have all passed away. The making of hats, carried on to a considerable extent at one time, is now a thing of the past. This is also the case with the production of straw braid for ladies' bonnets, which, for many years, gave employment to a large propor- tion of the women and children of the community, and was a source of considerable income. The braid- ing of straw was superseded among the portion of population named hy "chair-seating," as it is termed, an industry which came in with the manufacture of cane-seat chairs in the vicinity and which has proved to be of great value in many ways to the community. Though not as remunerative as formerly, it yet is quite extensively pursned and fills an important place among the money-making activities of the town.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 62

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