History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 65

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 65

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opened his eyes to the light of time in a dwelling still standing within its borders, on the 19th of March, 1773.

But not only has Westminster honored herself and blessed the world through those to whom special at- tention has been directed as having attained some high rank or place of distinction among men, but quite as much perhaps through that much greater number of its children, who, wearing no badge of office or station, in humbler walks and more incon- spicuous ways, have served their Maker and their fellow-men by their simple virtues and unpretending piety, by acting well their part, by honesty and in- tegrity, by pureness and love unfeigned, by the word of truth and righteousness on the right hand and left, by all the graces and powers of a noble Christian character and life. These, no less than the others, are children in whom the good old mother-town may take a just and laudable pride, and for whom she may appropriately weave some of her choicest chaplets. They all alike are a credit to her and give unfading lustre to her name and memory.

A complete history of Westminster is now in pro- cess of preparation by the author of this sketch, and will be issued at no very distant day. It is designed to be thorough and comprehensive, including ex- tended annals of families and biographical notices, with maps and other illustrations, making a good- sized octavo volume of about eight hundred pages.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

DANIEL C. MILES.

Daniel Curtis Miles, son of Daniel Miles and Mary Curtis Miles and a brother of General N. A. Miles, U.S.A., was born June 1, 1827, in the eastern part of Westminster, Mass. His early education was ob- tained partly in the public schools and partly in pri- vate schools. Later he attended the academy at Westminster Centre. This period of school training was supplemented by the not less valuable discipline of teaching, in which Mr. Miles engaged for twelve terms in Lancaster, Westminster and Gardner.

Beginning his active business life upon a farm, Mr. Miles extended his interests to the lumber trade, and also became proprietor of a saw and grist-mill and a factory for the production of chair-stock. Later he took an active part in erecting the chair-factory and connected buildings at South Westminster, and for three and a half years he was a partner with Mer- riam & Holden in the manufacture of chairs and settees. He also owned and operated the Westminster and Winchendon bakeries for three years. Prospering in these enterprises, Mr. Miles went into partnership in the manufacture of cane-seat chairs at North West- minster, under the firm-name of Miles & Lombard, afterwards changed to Miles & Son. This soon be-

came an important industry in that section of the town, giving employment to seventy-five persons.

In the spring of 1875 Mr. Miles became the chief mover in establishing the Westminster National Bank, of which he has ever since been the president. For the past few years he has operated extensively in land, both in Southern California and elsewhere, be- sides holding an interest in a large cattle-ranch near Miles City, Montana. This city was founded by his son, George M. Miles, and was named in honor of General N. A. Miles.

On the 22d of May, 1851, Mr. Miles married Miss Lucy Ann Puffer, daughter of James Puffer and Lucy Jones Puffer, and of this nuion there have been five children-Mary Josephine, George M., Herbert J., Arthur W. and Martha G.

In addition to the numerous and successful busi- ness enterprises which have identified him with the progress and prosperity of the town, Mr. Miles has held many offices of trust and responsibility. He has been auditor of the town's accounts, assessor, member of the School Board, president of the Wor- cester North Agricultural Society two years and trustee fifteen years, superintendent of the Baptist Sunday-school for twenty years and clerk of the Bap- tist Society twenty-six years, president of the Wachu- sett Baptist Association, and justice of the peace for many years.

During the past ten years Mr. Miles has gratified his taste for the acquisition of knowledge by traveling widely, both in the United States and in Europe. These tours of observation include, in this country, besides nearly all the large cities, California, Wyoming Ter- ritory, Oregon and Colorado; and, in Europe, Italy, Switzerland, France and the British Isles.

ARTEMAS MERRIAM.

This gentleman, who is one of the leading citizens, as he is the most successful manufacturer of Westmin- ster, was born in that town on the 21st day of July, 1818. He was the son of Joel Merriam, the well-known and honored deacon of the Baptist Church for many years, and Polly (Farnsworth) Merriam, and a descendant in the seventh generation of Joseph Merriam, the immigrant ancestor of the family, who was an early settler of Concord, Mass. His education was limited to the meagre advantages of the common district school, supplemented by the tuition of a single term at the Westminster Academy. When eighteen years of age he went to work in the cooper-shop of Mr. Franklin Wyman, at the lower part of "the Narrows" (now Wachusettville), where he remained six years, acquiring skill in the use of tools and that practical knowledge of business which have been of invaluable service to him in his later life.

After closing his engagement with Mr. Wyman he spent a few months at Gardner and then began chair and settee-making in a small shop fitted up for his

Astunus Mariann

Geo, Curtis -

Relson Turting

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WESTMINSTER.

use at the place now owned by Mr. Hobert Raymond, where he then resided. There he remained about five years, doing all his work at first by hand, but afterward introducing foot-power for boring and other purposes. In 1848 he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. George Holden, moved to the head of the pond and commenced business under the firm-name of Merriam & Holden, thereby laying the foundations of that constantly increasing and highly prosperous enterprise with which his name has since been identified. The details of the history of the business, from its very humble beginnings in a little old cooper-shop, enlarged somewhat to adapt it to the use for which it was designed, with an insignificant water-power, through the various stages of its devel- opment to its present commanding proportions, have been given in connection with the general industries of the town and need not be repeated. It is sufficient to note the fact that the establishment, as it now stands, consists of a main building one hundred and fifty feet long by forty-five wide, four stories high, with two attached portions, forty-five by twenty feet and sixty by thirty-six feet respectively, three stories high, and also three drying-rooms and a bending- room, while near by is a paint-shop sixty by fifty feet, three stories high, in which is a counting-room and a United States post-office. In the different depart- ments of this establishment there are employed abont seventy-five men, who turn out work amounting to seventy thousand or eighty thousand dollars annu- ally, its capacity of production having more than doubled since it came under the sole control and management of Mr. Merriam, sixteen years ago. Around it and through its influence has grown up the village of South Westminster, consisting of twenty dwelling-houses and a population of about one hundred.

Mr. Merriam is a notable example of an enterpris- ing, wide-awake, self-made man. Whatever he is and whatever he has accomplished are due to his own native energy and persevering effort. It has been chiefly through his agency that the undertaking with which he has been connected for the past forty years has attained its grand and meritorious success. Of strong bodily constitution and a vigorons, active mind, combined with good common-sense and practi- cal judgment, he has made a wise use of the powers . and capacities with which nature and Providence at the outset endowed him. Moreover, his integrity and sense of justice have secured for him general respect and confidence in business circles as well as in the community where he resides, while his social qualities, his kindness and genuine good humor have won him friends wherever he is known and made him a genial, welcome companion among all classes with whom he associates. Domestic in his feelings and tastes, truly democratic in spirit, of benevolent and obliging dis- position, a friend to temperance and all good causes, interested in whatever promotes the general well-

being, frank, open-hearted and genial withal, he may be deemed one of the foremost of the sons of Westminster, not only as a successful business man- ager, but as an honest, high-minded, honorable man.

Mr. Merriam has been several times elected to the office of selectman as a token of the esteem and con- fidence with which he is regarded by his fellow- citizens, and was a representative to the General Court of the State of Massachusetts from the district of which his town forms a part, in 1878. In his religions views and affiliations he is a Baptist, both by early training and by personal conviction, thongh liberal in his interpretation and application of relig- ious truth, and has been for many years connected with the church and society of that faith in town, to the various activities of which he is now, as hereto- fore, a willing and generous contributor.

GEORGE CURTIS.

George Curtis was born in Westminster, Mass., September 3, 1817. His mother was Lydia Gilbert, of Sharon, Mass. His father, Francis Curtis, was a native of Walpole; Mass., and was fifth in descent from the ancestor William Curtis, who came from England September 16, 1632. George was educated in the common schools and academy of his native town. At the age of seventeen he left his home to learn the carpenter trade of William T. Merrifield, of Worcester, Mass. He remained there until twenty years of age, when he went to Boston and commenced working at his trade. He continued (with intervals of teaching school) until the age of twenty-eight, when he engaged in business for himself, in Rox- bury, Mass. Several of the large buildings destroyed by the fire of 1872 were built by him, as were also fine private residences in the towns of Milton, Canton, Stoneham, Waltham, and mills in Malden. He served as an alderman four years before the annexa- tion of Roxbury to Boston ; also as overseer of the poor in Roxbury and Boston nearly a score of years. In 1854, in consequence of an injury re- ceived by sunstroke, he left the building business and entered into the lumber trade, wholesale and re- tail. During the years of 1861 and 1862 he was a Representative to the General Court of Massachu- setts and was connected with several military organi- zations, and was actively engaged in enlisting sol- diers for the war. In the year of 1883 he retired from the lumber business and was succeeded by Cur- tis & Pope. He served the city of Boston as an al- derman in the years of 1881, 1883 and 1884, and was again a Representative to the General Court in 1885.

NELSON CURTIS.

The subject of this sketch was born in 1809, and left this town a poor and almost penniless boy and went to East Bridgewater, Mass., to learn the trade of a mason. He remained here but a short time and

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

then went to Boston. He soon evinced extraordinary shrewdness, business capacity and enterprise, and at eighteen years of age he left other people of less natu- ral ability to carry the bricks and lay the mortar, and with assistance from a prominent person who appre- ciated his energetic qualities he undertook a big and profitable contract ; this was the initial step to a very successful business career. Mr. Curtis became one of the largest contractors in this part of the country. In some sections of Boston, especially in the direction of what is known as the Highlands, he erected great clusters of buildings. He contracted for the building of the Boston Museum, the Fitchburg Depot, United States Hotel and many of the Catholic churches of Boston.

His immense possessions of real estate were of the best-paying class; in the latter part of his life he be- came heavily interested in valuable stocks, particu- larly in the Boston and Albany Railroad and Rox- bury Gas Company.

He was for many years an alderman in Roxbury and director in the People's Bank. Mr. Curtis was always a friend to the deserving poor, and has been the means of many men securing homes for them- selves and families. He died September 16, 1882, at his home in Jamaica Plain, Mass. His widow, Mary S., still survives him.

CHAPTER CXLV.

HARVARD.

THE town of Harvard is located in the eastern part of the county and is bounded as follows: on the north by Ayer; on the east by Littleton, Boxbo- rough and Stow; on the south by Bolton ; and on the west by Lancaster and Shirley. This town was originally a portion of Lancaster,1 and was incorpo- rated January 29, 1732, and named in honor of John Harvard, founder of Harvard University. Portions of Groton and Stow were subsequently added to the town.

Among the early settlers were the names of Hough- ton, Willard, Sawyer, Hutchins, Atherton, Whit- comb and Priest. There were two garrisons here in 1704-one at Bear Hill, for the families of John Priest (Sr. and Jr.), John Walker, Caleb Sawyer, James Atherton (Sr. and Jr.) ; and the other proba- bly on Pine Hill, for the Willards, Athertons, Hough- tons, Hutchinses, Smiths and Hapgoods. After the white settlements the Indians roamed throughout the town, but committed no depredations and had no homes here.

Like other New England towns, one of the first movements of the people, after they had secured a habitation and a name, was to provide for religious

worship. The first preacher was Rev. John Secombe, who settled here in 1733. He remained until 1757. The church divided in 1821, and what is now known as the Orthodox Church was formed.

The Baptist Church was organized as early as 1776, and doubtless services of this denomination had been held previous to that time. The first pastor was Rev. Isaiah Parker, D.D.

The ".Shakers" have a large property in the north- eastern part of the town. They are an industrious, frugal and enterprising people. "They have a neat village and a tract of finely-cultivated and productive land."

As early as 1724 the town of Lancaster voted that there should be school at "Still River or Bear Hill eighty-two days."

The town has always manifested a deep interest in schools. The Bromfield School was founded in 1877 by Mrs. Margaret Bromfield Blanchard, widow of Ira Blanchard, former pastor of the Unitarian Church. The school. was organized September 17, 1878, with Charles W. Stickney as principal. Mrs. Blanchard left about one hundred thousand dollars for the found- ing of this school. The school has several thousand dollars' worth of apparatus, which, besides the large endowment fund, affords facilities for the best in- struction.

The Public Library building and library owe their ex- istence to the same spirit of benevolence that founded the Bromfield School. The library building was erected at a cost of about ten thousand dollars, all of which, except thirty-nine hundred dollars, raised by the town, was given by former citizens of Harvard. The largest amount was a legacy left by Mrs. Hannah W. C. Sawyer, principally from the estate of her hus- band, A. J. Sawyer. a citizen of Harvard. Warren Hapgood, Esq., of Boston, generously contributed twenty-six hundred dollars, and W. Channing Whit- ney, of Minneapolis, architect, presented the plans and specifications.

Mr. Edward Lawrence, of Boston, also left a legacy of five thousand dollars to the library. Mr. Lawrence was a native of Harvard.

The library building was dedicated June 22, 1887.

The keys were delivered by Warren H. Fairbank, chairman of the Building Committee, and accepted by Alfred A. Sawyer, chairman of the selectmeu. Addresses were delivered by Warren Hapgood, Esq., and Rev. A. A. Miner, D.D., of Boston, and Rev. A. H. Barber, of Meadville, Pa.

In the French and Indian Wars and the Revolu- tion the town did noble service. During the War of the Rebellion it responded nobly in men and means, and its record is one of old-time loyalty and patriotism. As early as April 29, 1861, it was " voted to appropriate four thousand dollars for equipping and paying a bounty to soldiers who may volunteer their services to suppress the present rebel- lion."

1 See page 11.

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BOLTON.

This meeting voiced the sentiment of the town as follows :

" Resolved, That it is the duty of all good citizens to frown indignantly upon, and to follow with uncompro- mising hostility every individual among us, if any there be, who shall express sentiments disloyal to the Government of the United States, or who shall sympathize with the plotters of treason and blood- shed."

The selectmen during the war were E. A. Holman, John Blanchard, Wm. K. Harlow, Caleb S. Gerry and Andrew Fairbank. The town furnished 125 men and expended $17,009.15 for war purposes. The State paid $5,174.09 to families of soldiers, and over $1800 was raised by private subscriptions, making a total of $23,983.24, certainly good for a "hill town."

Fifty years ago there was some manufacturing car- ried on in Harvard, but this has now subsided, and it is a quiet agricultural community.

CHAPTER CXLVI.

BOLTON.

THE town of Bolton is located in the eastern part of the county and is bounded as follows : on the north by Harvard, on the east by the towns of Hudson and Stow, on the south by Berlin and Hudson, and on the west by Clinton and Lancaster, Bolton originally formed a portion of Berlin, and was incorporated as a district of Berlin in March, 1738. It was incorpor- ated as a town February 6, 1812, and named in honor of Charles Powlet, third Duke of Bolton.

The first town-meeting was held August 14, 1738, and the following officers elected : Town Clerk, Jacob Houghton ; Selectmen, Jacob Houghton, James Keys, Henry Houghton, John Priest and Captain Jonas Houghton; Constable, David Whitcomb; Surveyors of Highways, Josiah Richardson and William Keys.

The town retained its original boundaries until 1868, when about two square miles of the most popu- lons portion of Bolton was annexed to the town of Hudson, in Middlesex County. The inhabitants of the annexed portion continued to vote in this town in State and national elections until 1876.

Bolton was early settled by a sterling class of people, who have left the impress of the strong New England character upon their posterity. Among the early settlers are the names of :

Atherton, Amsden, Babcock, Ball, Baker, Bacon, Barrett, a once large and influential family that settle 1 on Long Hill, from which is descended Roswell Bar- rett, Esq. ; Barnard, Bayley, Bigelow, Brooks, Bruce, Butler, Burnam, Carter, Caswell, Cooledge, Chaplin, Chase, Clark, Danforth, Davis, Divoll, Daikin, Ed- wards, Ellis, Ellinwood, Fairbanks, Farnsworth, Faulkner, Farwell, Fife, Fuller, Fosket, Foster, Fry,

a once numerous family, principally among the "Friends " or "Quakers"; Fletcher, Gardner, a name which did not come in with the first settlement, but which belonged, at a comparatively early period, to one of the most influential men the town has ever had, Stephen P. Gardner ; Gates, Gibbs, Goss, God- dard, Greenleaf, Goodnow, Gould, Hale, Haven, Har- ris, Hemenway, Hastings, Holder, Howe, Houghton, a numerously represented family in all periods of the town's history, and associated with some of Bolton's most valued institutions; Holman, a family which has produced individuals who have exercised a most marked influence in all the affairs of the place, among whom were General Silas and his son, General Amory ; Howard, Jacobs, Jewett, Johnson, Jones, Keys, Knight, Kimmens, Larned, Lawrence, Longley, a family which produced several highly useful citizens among whom were three of our town clerks, grand- father, father and son, who held office successively after each other; Maynard, Marble, Meriam, Mac- Bride, Mac Wain, Moore, a name largely represented in several families, remotely, if at all, connected with each other, which has been borne by three of our town treasurers, a father and two sons, one of whom was C. C. Moore, treasurer for more than thirty years; New- ton, two or three distinct families ; Nicholls, Nurse, modernized into Nourse; Oaks, Osborn, Pierce, Par- ker; Pratt, Pollard, Rice, Richardson, Reed, Russell, Ross, Robins, Sawyer, Stearns, Sawtell, Stiles, Swan, Stone, Stratton, Tinney, Townsend and Tombs; Whit- comb, of whom were Colonel John, his son Jonathan, and his grandson, 'Squire Edwin A., and many more; Wolcott, Whitney, White, Welsh, Wheeler, Wood- bury, Wood, Wetherbee and Wheeler.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY .- The attention of the people was early given to ecclesiastical affairs, and even after the inauguration of the town a meeting- house was built, which stood until about 1790. A new church was erected in 1793 and remodeled in 1844. The calling of the first minister was a matter of much import, in which the whole town generally participated. The first minister called to the Bolton Church was Rev. Thomas Goss. May 19, 1741, it was voted to raise the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds " for a minister's rate," and on June 7, 1741, at a town-meeting then held, at which Mr. Jacob Houghton was moderator, it was put to vote whether "the town would choose by lott for a minister." It passed in the negative; and then it was voted "that Mr. Thos. Goss should be the minister of the town by 44 votes qualified by law." Four hundred pounds in bills of old tenor were then voted to him for his "encouragement and settlement;" and one hundred and eighty pounds in bills of old tenor or passable bills of credit for "stated sallary." September 1, 1741, finds the town again in town-meeting to hear Mr. Thomas Goss, his answer, and for other business. After prayers the business proceeded, and Mr. Gos,' answer was read and put on file, a committee chosen

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to wait on Mr. Goss to "know his mind, when he inclines to have his ordination," and who should be sent for to assist, etc., etc.

Mr. Goss remained pastor until 1770, " when," in the language of Rev. Richard G. Edes, 1 " the minister whose coming was prepared for with so much elaboration, with such taking of counsel, with prayers and fastings, and who was received with such large cordiality, had fost his hold upon the good will and support of most of his people; lost it, said his enemies, because the spiritual influence by which he was moved was sup- posed to come more from the still than from the heavenly spheres ; lost it, said his friends, because the views he took and maintained of mini-terial, as well as of royal, prerogative, were entirely unsuited to the temper of the times, and the great movement which was everywhere in the air. What measure of truth they either of them had in the allegations made on either side, we will not now take upon us to decide. Sufficient to say the minister was jealously watched ; occasions of offence and stones of stum- bling, and enough of them were speedily discovered (as at such times they generally are); and then com- menced a quarrel and a controversy which lasted for years, and left its impress on the affairs of the town, on the generations born and to be born. Meeting after meeting was held, council after council called, pamphlet written in answer to pamphlet, lawsuits instituted, committees chosen to defend, moneys to pay expenses voted ; feelings became deeply embittered, fathers against sons, mothers-in-law against daughters- in-law, families separated from familes. But after a while the dismission of the minister, so obnoxious to a majority of the society, is procured, and another minister, Rev. John Walley, duly installed in his place. This event, so far from pouring oil on the troubled waters, rather stirred them to redoubled commotion. The town was divided into Gossites and Walleyites. The latter hold the church, have preaching there, and consider themselves the legal parish ; while the former-the Gossites-adhering to the old minister, meet at a private house-that now occupied by the Holman family-and have preach- ing there. From 1770, alongside with political affairs, mixed up with them continually, eropping out every now and then, in the most unexpected manner, the contest continued till 1782, when Mr. Goss is dead and Mr. Walley has taken a dismission, left the town and removed to Roxbury, the home of his family.

"The effects of this controversy, which for the day of it was one of the most important in New Eng- lond, were long felt, not only here in this, but in all the neighboring towns.

" When Mr. Goss died his friends, among whom were the neighboring ministers, almost to a man, erected to his memory a monument, still standing in

our South burying-ground, inscribed in classical Latin and laudatory terms, with their sense of 'the many virtues both private and public' with which they supposed him 'adorned.' When Mr. Walley died at Roxbury, a little while afterwards, he left to the Bolton parish to which he had ministered a small legacy, the good effects of which we still receive in Bibles and other good books, throwing light on the sacred word. The divided sections of the town, the Gossites and the Walleyites, came together and signed their old covenant and became anew one church and society."

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 65

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