USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > History of Worcester, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to September, 1836 : with various notices relating to the history of Worcester County > Part 32
USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > History of Worcester, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to September, 1836 : with various notices relating to the history of Worcester County > Part 32
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
In March, 1767, Mr. Thomas went from Nova Scotia to Ports- mouth in New Hampshire, and four months afterwards, returned to the employment of Fowle in Boston. Active and enterprising spirit led him to accept the invitation of a ship master to try the fortune of a voyage to Wilmington in North Carolina. Negotiations for an establishment there were frustrated, and he embarked for the West Indies, intending to seek passage thence to London. Again his ex- pectations were defeated, and he repaired to Charleston in South Carolina. After a residence of two years, with impaired health, he retraced his steps, and came again to the home of his fathers. En- tering into partnership with Zechariah Fowle, they published a little newspaper, discontinued in December of the same year. The con- nection was of brief duration. In was dissolved in three months, and Mr. Thomas, having purchased the printing apparatus, issued another paper, bearing the name of its predecessor, ' The Massachu- setts Spy,' March 7, 1771. The early professions of neutrality in the great contest then impending, could not long be maintained against the decided inclination of the conductor to the popular cause, and the print soon became the leading advocate of whig principles. Managed with great ability, in some departments, by Mr. Thomas himself, the strongest of the patriot writers gave the power of their pens to its support, and the Spy became the favorite channel for the diffusion of high toned sentiment. Its influence was felt and feared by the royalists, and they endeavored to avert the danger of a free press. Overtures to the editor, with promises of honors, office,
1 The Philadelphia Journal arrived, dressed with mourning pages ; decoraled with death's heads, crossed bones, and other emblems of mortality ; and announcing its own decease, by a complaint called the Slamp Act. To imitale this patriotic typography re- quired no little boldness. It was done by Mr. Thomas, with equal courage and adroit- uess. The columns of the Halifax Gazette were surrounded with heavy black lines ; the title was surmounted by the skull ; a death's head placed as substitute for stamp ; and a large figure of a coffin laid al the end of the last page ; accompanied by the fol- lowing notice: · We are desired, by a number of our readers, to give a description of the extraordinary appearance of the Pennsylvania Journal of the 30th of October [1765.] We can in no better way comply with this request, than by the exemplification we have given of that Journal in this day s Gazette.'
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patronage, and reward, on espousing the cause of government, were rejected, and threats of vengeance for resistance, disregarded. A man too independent to be bought by gain or controlled by power, must be crushed. The debt contracted for the purchase of the es- tablishment was suddenly and sternly demanded : the aid of friends discharged the sum and defeated the attempt to ruin by pecuniary pressure. 'The publication of a bold essay, written by Joseph Green- leaf, with the signature of Mucius Scavola, afforded pretext for fresh persecution. Mr. Thomas was summoned to appear before the Governor and Council. Obedience to the executive mandate, three times repeated, was as often fearlessly refused. Hutchinson was too good lawyer to issue process for compulsion, where no au- thority existed for its execution. The punishment of the offender, was entrusted to the judical arm, and the Attorney General direc- ted to institute prosecution for libel. Indictment and information, though pushed forward by the united efforts of the officers of the crown, alike failed. The Spy held on its way, vindicating the lib- erty of the press and of the citizen, against ministerial usurpation. Renewed attempts at coertion, only served to call forth testimonials of the ardent interest felt by the leading men of the times for the welfare of the establishment, and pledges of protection and defence. 1 Such course, rendered Mr. Thomas obnoxious to the administra- tion. His name was placed on the list of the suspected : his prin- ting house received the honorary appellation of 'sedition factory,' and threats of personal violence were frequent in the mouths of the soldiery. Having been solicited by the whigs of Worcester, to establish a newspaper, he made contracts and sent out proposals for subscriptions in February, 1775 ; and with the assistance of Col. Big- elow, under the care of Gen. Warren, he privately conveyed a press and cases of types, over the river to Charlestown, thence transported to this town, a short time previous to the Lexington Fight. The movements of the British troops for an expedition into the country, being discovered, Mr. Thomas was active in spreading the alarm, and at day break of the memorable 19th of April, joined the militia in arms against the ' regulars.' Laying aside the musket after the fight, to put in action a more powerful engine of freedom, and journeying almost all the next night, he reached Worcester the following day. The first printing done in any inland town of New England, was
1 It is stated, by Mr. Goodwin, that the celebrated James Otis, ' then withdrawn from active life in consequence of the malady which prostraled the energies of his mighty mind,' proffered his professional services to Mr. Thomas.
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performed in Worcester. The Spy reappeared, after a suspension of three weeks, May 3, 1775, and was distributed by posts and mes- sengers. The publications of the Provincial Congress were execu- ted here, until presses were put in operation in Cambridge and Con- cord, the places of its session.
Although the acquisitions of five years toil had been abandoned to be plundered, with the exception of the little remnant saved by the fortunate arrangements of early removal, the better capital of indus- try, capacity, and enterprise, was undiminished, and was brought in- to full exertion. He was appointed Postmaster, by Benjamin Frank- lin, Sept. 25, 1775, and the commission was renewed for triennial terms, by Ebenezer Hazard, Samuel Osgood, Timothy Pickering, and Joseph Habersham, the heads of the department in succeeding years. In 1776, having leased his property to Messrs. Bigelow and Stearns, and afterwards to Anthony Haswell, he went to Salein. While on a visit here, the declaration of independence was received, and first read to the citizens, by Mr. Thomas, July 14, 1776, from the porch of the Old South Church. Returning for permanent res- idence, in 1778, he resumed the management of the Spy. At that period, trade was disordered ; in the fluctuating currency, the repre- sentative paper had no constituent specie ; manufactures were in infancy ; materials were deficient ; difficulties sprang up on all sides ; and the print was only sustained through the war, by the unyielding resolution of the proprietor.1 The restoration of peace opened the channels of commerce ; new types and apparatus were obtained, and his business expanded itself on a great scale. Uniting the employ- ments of printer, publisher, and bookseller, establishing the first bindery and building the second paper mill in the county, the re- lations of a business which may well be called vast, as they extend- ed to almost every part of the union, were conducted with that sys- tematic and methodical arrangement which gave successful action to the complex machinery. At one period, under his own personal direction and that of his partners, sixteen presses were in constant motion, seven of them working here; three weekly newspapers and
1 ' In the indulgence of a peculiar poetical fancy his papers were generally ornament- ed with curiously significant devices and appropriate mottos. In 1774, they bore a dra- gon and a snake, the former representing Great Britain, and the serpent this country. The latter was separated into parts to represent the different colonies. The head and tail were furnished with stings for defence against the dragon, which was placed in the posture of making attack. The device extended the whole width of the paper, with the motto over the serpent, in large capitals, JOIN OR DIE.' Goodwin's Memoir in Mass. Spy, April 13, 1831.
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one monthly magazine, issued : and five bookstores in Massachu- setts, one in New Hampshire, one in New York, and one in Mary- land, almost supplied the literary sustenance of the community. One of the most liberal publishers of the age, he produced and distribut- ed works, whose titles formed a voluminous annual catalogue. The great folio edition of the bible in 1791, illustrated with the copper- plates of native artists, was unrivalled, at the period, for neatness, ac- curacy, and general elegance and excellence of execution ; the whole types for smaller copies of the Holy Scriptures were kept standing and often used.
Previous to the revolution, Mr. Thomas commenced the Essex Gazette, at Newburyport, in 1773; in January of the next year, he began the Royal American Magazine, the last of the periodicals of Boston under the provincial governors. After the war, in 1793, he founded the Farmer's Museum, enlivened with the spirit of Prentiss, Dennie, Fessenden and the coterie of wits gathered at Walpole, N. H. ; established the Farmer's Journal in Brookfield, Mass. in 1799; in connection with Ebenezer T. Andrews, junior partner of a house existing thirty one years, he printed the Massachusetts Mag- azine, in Boston, from 1783 to 1795. The Spy was suspended, in consequence of the resemblance of an Excise Act to the Stamp du- ty, for two years. The Worcester Magazine, in 1787, and 1788, supplied the place of that paper. Mr. Thomas was partner of Dr. Joseph 'Trumbull, in the business of druggist in this town for some time after Aug. 31, 1780.
In 1802, Mr. Thomas relinquished a prosperous business at Wor- cester, to his son Isaiah, and retired from the pressing cares of wide concerns to the enjoyment of fortune honorably won and liberally used.
The evening twilight of a day of intense activity was not given to the repose of idleness. Enjoying personal acquaintance with some of the early conductors of the press in this country, familiar by their narrations with their predecessors, himself a prominent actor through an important period, greater advantages could not have been desired for the undertaking, on which he entered, of com- piling the annals of American typography. 'The History of Print- ing,' published in 1810, in two octavo volumes, bears internal evi- dence, in the fulness and fidelity of its narrative, that neither toil, research, nor money was spared for its preparation. Containing notices of the antiquities and progress of the art, the biography of printers and newspapers, the work received the approbation of criti-
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cism, and the rank of standard authority. While this good enter- prise advanced, Mr. Thomas had gathered rare treasures of litera- ture and rich relics of the past. Collected, they were of inestima- ble value : each fragment, if dispersed, would have been desirable, but less precious than if fixed in its place, as a connecting link of the chain of events. With an elevated benevolence, contemplating in expanded view, all the good the present may bestow on the future, he associated others with himself, and became the founder of the American Antiquarian Society. The gift of his great collections and library, the donation of land, and of a spacious edifice, an un- ceasing flow of bounty in continuous succession of benefactions, and ample bequests for the perpetuation and extension of the bene- fits he designed to confer on the public and posterity, are enduring testimonials of enlightened liberality. The institution will remain, an imperishable monument to his memory, when the very materials of the hall reared by his generosity shall have crumbled.
While his private charity relieved the distresses, his public muni- ficence promoted the improvements of the town. 'The site of the County Court House was bestowed by him ; and the building and avennes on the front constructed under his uncompensated direction. No inconsiderable share of the cost of enlarging the square at the north end of Main Street, and erecting the stone bridge, was given by him. The street bearing his own name, and the spot where the brick school house has been built, were his benefaction to the mu- nicipal corporation. In the location and execution of the Boston and Worcester Turnpike, an enterprise of much utility at the pe- riod, he assisted by personal exertion and pecuniary contribution, and few local works for the common good were accomplished with- out the aid of his purse or efforts.
In 1814, he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Darmouth College : that of Doctor of Laws was conferred by Al- leghany College in 1818. He was member of the Historical So- cieties of Massachusetts and New York, and of numerous Philoso- phical, Humane, Charitable, and Typographic associations. The appointment of Justice of the Court of Sessions was made by Gov. Gerry, Feb. 21, 1812 : the office was held until June 7, 1814, when it was resigned. He was President of the Antiquarian So- ciety from its foundation to his decease, April 4, 1831, at the age of 82 years.
While the institution of Freemasonry was prosperous, Dr. 'Thom- as attained its highest honors and degrees, and was long presiding
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officer of the Grand Lodge and Chapter of Massachusetts. He at- tended and bore part in most of the consecrations, installations, and high festivals of the association in the state, during his active years.
The incidents of the life of Dr. Thomas have occupied broad space in these poor annals. His memory will be kept green when the re- collection of our other eminent citizens shall have faded in oblivion. His reputation in future time will rest, as a patriot, on the manly in- dependence which gave, through the initiatory stages and progress of the revolution, the strong influence of the press he directed to the cause of freedom, when royal flattery and favor would have seduc- ed, and the power of government subdued its action ; as an antiqua- rian, on the minuteness and fidelity of research in the History of Printing ; as a philanthropist, on the foundation and support of a great national society, whose usefulness, with the blessing of Provi- dence, will increase through distant centuries.1
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There have resided in Worcester, eighteen settled Clergymen : two Barristers : sixty four Counsellors and Attorneys at Law : and thirty one Physicians. Fifty-nine of the natives of the town have received education in the colleges. Of those born here, fifteen Physicians, twelve lawyers, and ten Clergymen, have gone out to other places of settlement and professional employment.
! Moses Thomas, father of Dr. Isaiah Thomas, married Fidelity Grant of Rhode- Island : Their children were : 1. Elizabeth, born on Long Island, who married and went to the West Indies : 2. Peter, who resided at Hampstead, L. I. 3. Joshua, b. at Boston, March 3, 1745; in. Mary Twing of Brighton, and resided in Lancaster : 4. Susannah, married four times : last to Capt. Ilugh Mccullough, of Philadelphia : surviving him, she died Feb. 28, 1815, a. 69: 5. Isaiah, b. Jan. 19, 1749.
Dr. Isaiah Thomas, married Mary, d. of Joseph Dill, of the Isle of Bermuda, Dec. 25, 1769 : Their children were, Mary Anne, b. March 27, 1772: was three times mar- ried ; last to Dr. Levi Simmons : 2. Isaiah, b. at Boston, Sept. 5, 1773; m. Mary d. of Edward Weld of Boston: he was educated as a printer, and succeeded his father in business ; he removed to Boston, where he died, June 25, 1819, His chil- dren were : 1. Mary Rebecca, m. Pliny Merrick, Esq. of Worcester : 2. Frances Church, b. Aug. 12, 1800; m. William A. Crocker of Taunton. 3. Augusta Weld, b. Aug. 1, 1801 ; d. Aug. 19, 1822, at Taunton: 4. Caroline, b. Sept. 26, 1802; m. to Samuel L. Crocker of Taunton. 5. Hannah Weld, m. June 14, 1825, to Samuel L. Crocker of Taunton ; d. November 22, 1827; 6. Isaiah, b. Dec. 11, 1804; d. Oct. 14, 1805: 7. Isaiah, merchant in New York: 8. William, merchant in Boston : 9. Edward Weld, b. Feb. 15, 1810: d. Oet. 5, 1810: 10. Edward Isaiah, merchant in New York : 11. Benjamin Franklin, lawyer in Worcester.
Dr. Thomas was married a second time to Mrs. Mary Fowle, d. of William Thomas of Boston, b. June 9, 1751 ; d. Nov. 16, 1818, aged 67 : and again married, Aug. 10, 1819, to Miss Rebecca Armstrong of Roxbury.
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PUBLIC OFFICERS.
Worcester has furnished good proportion of those who have held civil and judicial offices.
Of the natives or citizens of the town, previous to the war of in- dependence, were : one Attorney General of the Province : three members of His Majesty's Council : one Mandamus Councillor : three Judges of the Court of Common Pleas : two Judges of Pro- bate : three Clerks of the Courts : four Treasurers and four Sheriffs of the County : one Judge of the Supreme Court of New Bruns- wick : one Councillor, and one Clerk of the Assembly of that Pro- vince.
Since the Revolution there have been ; two Governors of Mas- sachusetts and one Governor of Maine : two Lieutenant Governors : two Speakers of the House of Representatives : six Councillors and eleven Senators of Massachusetts : two Senators of New Hamp- shire : one Secretary of the Commonwealth : one Treasurer of New York : one Attorney General of the United States : one acting Se- cretary of State : one Senator and eleven Representatives in Con- gress : one elected member of Congress under the Confederation : one appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States who declined the commission : one Judge of the Supreme Court of Mas- sachusetts : three Justices of the Court of Common Pleas of this state and one of Alabama : three Judges of Probate and one Judge of the Orphan's Court of Alabama : two Justices of the Court of Sessions : two County Commissioners : eight Clerks of the Courts and eight County Attorneys : one District Attorney ; two Sheriffs and three Treasurers of the County : five Justices throughout the Commonwealth ; thirty-eight Justices of the Quorum; and eighty- one Justices of the Peace.1
I This estimate of the offices of the worthies of Woreester, accurate so far as it ex- tends, is necessarily imperfeet. Many emigrants from this town, who have held honor- able stations in other states, have not been included in the enumeration.
Of those natives of the lown, not educated in the colleges, who emigrated, and practised as Physicians, before unmentioned, were : SAMUEL RICE of Athol, son of Samuel Rice: WILLIAM YOUNG of Ipswich, son of William Young : JACOB HOLMES of Leicester, son of Jacob Holmes : WILLIAM BARBER of Mason, N. H. son of James Barber : and JAMES MCFARLAND of Rutland, son of James McFarland.
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STATISTICS AND HISTORY.
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CHAPTER XV.
Education. Common Schools. Centre District Schools. Private Instruction. Man- ual Labor High School. Mount St. James Seminary.
When the original committee of settlement secured the support of the worship of God, they made provision for the education of youth. At their first meeting, in 1669, when the untrodden wilder- ness spread over the territory of Worcester, it was agreed that a lot of land should be ' appropriated for the maintenance of a school and school master, to remain for that use for ever.' In the contract with Daniel Henchman, in 1684, this determination was affirmed ; and it was enjoined, ' that care be taken to provide a schoolmaster in due season.' When surveys were made, after the permanent set- tlement, a tract of forty acres was granted for the promotion of this object.
The circumstances of the first planters long prevented the com- mencement of public instruction. The earliest municipal action on the subject, was April 4, 1726. In pursuance of a vote of the town, ' the selectmen agreed with Mr. Jonas Rice to be schoolmas- ter, and to teach such children and youth as any of the inhabitants shall send to him to read and write, as the law directs,'1 until the 15th of December. On the expiration of this term, it was pe- remptorily voted ' that the town will not have a school.' The pe- riod succeeding the commencement of the last century has been well
1 The Great and General Court of the Colony, in May 1647, stating as inducement, that, 'It being one chief project of Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in unknown tongues, so, in these latter times, by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers : to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers, in church and com- monwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors,' ordered that every township within the jurisdiction 'after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders' should maintain a common school, and each town of 100 families should keep a gram- mar school. A penalty for neglect of these wholesome provisions, for quaint reasons, was established in 1671, increased by the statute of October, 1683.
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escribed by one of the most discriminating of our local antiquari- ns, 1 as the ' dark age' of Massachusetts. Every hand was busy n converting the forest into farms. A fluctuating currency scarcely erved for the supply of the necessities of life. The planters of Worcester, feeling the burden of sustaining elementary education without immediately realising the resulting benefits, failed to give practical operation to the enlightened views of the founders. In this espect they could have shown the example of elder and more weal- hy neighbors in extenuation of the negligence. Few towns about hat time, escaped fine for contempt of wholesome laws. The grand hry admonished Worcester of its omissions of duty by present- hent, and the sum of £2 &s. Gd. was raised in 1728, to defray the harges of a prosecution, for want of schools, suspended on promises f amendment. Benjamin Flagg, directly after, was employed as choolmaster, and &14 granted for the annual stipend. In April, 731, considering ' that many small children cannot attend in the cen- re of the town by reason of the remoteness of their dwelling places, nd to the intent that all may have the benefit of education,' districts vere formed. Division lines, drawn from the middle of each exte- ior boundary, separated the town into north, south, east and west uarters, surrounding the central territory. The mild sway and heap services of females were sought, and the selectmen instructed, to procure a suitable number of school dames, not exceeding five, or the teaching of small children to read, to be placed in the sever- I parts, as may be most convenient, and these gentlewomen to be aid such sum, by the head, as they may agree.' The terror of the aw, in September following, produced a vote, ' to maintain a free chool for a year, and to be a moving school into the several quar- ers.' In August, 1732, Mr. Richard Rogers was engaged as teach- r, and continued in that relation about eight years. The instruc-
or of those days was migratory, revolving in his circuit round a cen- re not then fixed to a particular location. Directions similar to this f 1735, abound; ' Voted, that Mr. Richard Rogers repair to the ouse of Mr. Palmer Goulding, there to keep school till further or- ers' The inconvenience of temporary arrangements, induced the nhabitants, after long consideration and debate, and great doubt of he expediency of the measure, to resolve, May 15, 1735, ' that a chool house be built at the charge of the town, and placed in the entre of the south half, or as near as may be with conveniency, aving regard to suitable ground for such a house to stand on, where
I Lemuel Shattuck, Esq. in the History of Concord. 38
:
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land may be purchased, in case it falls on any particular property, provided the purchase may be made on reasonable terms.' The sur- veys of Col. John Chandler, commissioned to measure under these instructions, and afterwards employed with new directions to find the intersection of a central line with the country road, not having indicated acceptable points, after five years of deliberation, it was de- termined to ' set up' the first school house of Worcester 'between the Court House and bridge, below the fulling mill.' An humble edifice was reared at the north end of Main street, and nearly in the middle of the present travelled way, 24 feet long, 16 feet wide, and with posts 7 feet high, which remained beyond the close of the rev- olutionary war. In 1740, &100 was granted for the support of schools, one half to be appropriated for the centre, and the other half divided among the quarters, 'provided the body of the town keep a grammar school the whole year, and save the town from present- ment, and the skirts do in the whole have twelve months schooling of a writing master.'
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