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 5
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 5
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On the 23d of August, 1696, a house in Oxford was assaulted by the Albany or Western Indians, and Goodman Levenz and three children of its inmates killed. Mr. Johnson, who was returning to the place, was shot in the road. On the intelligence of these outra- ges and of the appearance of hostile parties near Woodstock, Major James Fitch marched to that town. On the 27th a party was sent out of thirty eight Norwich, Moheagan and Nipmuck Indians, and twelve soldiers, to range the woods towards Lancaster, under Capt. Daniel Fitch. On their march they passed through Worcester, and discovered traces of the enemy in its vicinity. The following letter of their commander gives an account of their expedition.
' To the Rt. Honorable William Stoughton, Esq. Licut. Governor and Commander in chief, &c.
' Whereas we were informed of several persons killed at Oxford on Tuesday night last past, (23d) and not knowing what danger might be near to Woodstock and several other frontiers towards the western parts of the Massachusetts Province : several persons ap- pearing volunteers, both English and Indians, to the number of about 50, (concerning which this bearer, Mr. James Corbin, may more fully inform your Honor,) all which were willing to follow the In- dian enemy, hoping to find those that had done the late mischief; in prosecution whereof we have ranged the woods to the westward of Oxford, and so to Worcester, and then to Lancaster, and are freely willing to spend some considerable time in endeavoring to find any of the enemy that may be upon Merrimack or Penicook Rivers, or any where in the western woods : to which end we humbly request your Honor would be pleased to encourage said design, by granting us some supply of provisions and ammunition, and also by strength- ening us as to anything wherein we may be short in any respect, that so we may be under no disadvantage nor discouragement.
' They may further inform your Honor, that on the sabbath day (28), coming at a place called Half Way River, betwixt Oxford and Worcester, we came upon the fresh tracks of several Indians which were gone towards Worcester, which we apprehend were the Indians
1 Province Records, vi. 210.
35
DIGORY SERJENT.
1696.]
that did the late damage at Oxford ; and being very desirous to do some service that may be to the benefit of his Majesty's subjects, we humbly crave your Honor's favorable assistance. Herein I remain your Honor's most humble servant, according to my ability.
Lancaster, 31 August, 1696.
Daniel Fitch.'
On the commencement of the eighteenth century the peace of the country was again disturbed by renewed outrages of the savages, always capricious in friendship, treacherous in alliance, and unre- lenting in enmity. Although Worcester suffered less in Queen An- ne's war, which began in 1702, by loss of life than many towns, it shared in the alarm and participated in the miseries of the final struggles of the red men to reclaim their possessions and avenge the wrongs inflicted by our ancestors.
When the same danger which had once before pressed on the planters, became extreme, and the Indians again kindled the slum- bering flame of murderous hostility, the second attempt to build a town here was abandoned. The inhabitants fled ; the place of their residence was delivered up to decay ; the traces of cultivation were effaced ; and the silence of ruin was again over the forsaken farms and deserted homes.
Among those who attempted the settlement of Worcester af- ter the first unsuccessful enterprise, was Digory Serjent, who had built his house on Sagatabscot Hill, south eastward of the present town. He was a native of Sudbury, and had been a carpenter by occupation before his removal. A will made by him in 1679 is pre- served on the Middlesex Records. As the list of goods and effects, strangely mingled together, presents example of the humble person- al possessions of former times, and the style affords specimen of quaint peculiarity it will not be uninteresting.
' March, the 17th day, 1696. The last Will and Testament of Digory Serjent.
' I Digory Serjent, being in my health and strength, and in my perfect memory, blessed be the Lord for it ; these few lines may sat- isfy whom it may concern, that I, Digory Serjent, do freely give unto my Daughter Martha Serjent, my house and land with all the rights and privileges thereunto belonging : this house and four score acre lot of land lieth within the township of Worcester : I likewise do give unto her all my goods ; one flock bed and boulster, with one rugg, and two blankets and two coverlets; six froes ; one broad ax and one falling ax and one handsaw; one frying pan ; one shave ; one
36
DIGORY SERJENT.
[1702.
drawing knife ; one trunk and a sermon book that is at Mrs. Mary Mason's, widow, at Boston ; with one pewter pint pot ; one washing tub; one cow and calf; one mare ; three iron wedges; two beetle rings : And if in case the Lord should see good to take away the said Digory Serjent by death, then I, the said Digory Serjent, do leave these things above written unto George Parmeter of Sudbury, to be disposed of as he shall see good, to bring up the said Digory Serjent's child : and if in case that this child should die likewise, then I do freely give my house and land with all the goods above mentioned unto George Parmeter forever, and to his heirs, to look after these things and to dispose of them as he shall see cause. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the day and year above named. There is one gun too. Digory Serjent.
Witnessed by John Keyes, John Wetherby.'
Having afterwards been married to the sister of Parmeter, (as I think,) his family became more numerous, and afforded more vic- tims to be involved in the miseries of death and captivity.
Long after the other planters had fled from the perils of the con- flict that raged around them, Serjent remained with his children, the solitary occupants of the town, resisting all importunity to seek safe- ty by desertion, and resolving with fearless intrepidity to defend from the savage the fields his industry had redeemed from the waste.
During the summer of 1702,1 his residence was unmolested. As winter approached, the committee, alarmed by his situation on the frontier of danger, sent messengers to advise his removal to a place of security. As their admonitions were disregarded, they at length dispatched an armed force of twelve men under Capt. Howe, to com- pel compliance with the order. At the close of day the party arriv- ed at a garrison near the mills. Here they halted for the night, which grew dark with storm and snow, and kindling their fires, laid down to rest, while one of the band watched the slumbers of his comrades. In the morning they went onward, and reached the house of Serjent on Sagatabscot, at the distance of nearly two miles from the post where they had halted. They found the door broken down, the owner stretched in blood on the floor, and the dwelling desolate. The prints of many mockasins leading westward, still vis- able through the snow, indicated that they had been anticipated by
" This is the date given in the brief account in I Mass. Hist. Col. i. 112, copied by Whitney and subsequent writers. It is probable the death of Serjent was in 1703 or 1704, at the period when Northampton, Lancaster and other towns were attacked by the French and Indians.
37
DIGORY SERJENT.
1702.]
a short time only in the object of their mission. Having pursued the trail of the murderers a little way, they returned and buried Ser- jent at the foot of an oak, long since decayed. On retracing their course to the spot of their repose, they found the prints of feet going from the fort towards Wachuset. After the war was ended, the In- dians, when they revisited the settlers, declared that six of them had entered the building for shelter from the tempest, when the near ad- vance of the English was discovered, too late to permit escape from a force so considerable, and they secreted themselves in the cellar. The soldiers had spread their blankets and laid down over the trap door, thus securing their foes, until the morning march gave oppor- tunity for flight.
It was soon found that the children of Serjent were living in Can- ada. On the release of the eldest, she related the particulars of the fearful catastrophe they had witnessed. When the Indians, headed by sagamore John, as is said, surrounded the house, Serjent seized his gun to defend his life and was fired on. As he retreated to the stair way, a ball took effect and he fell. The savages rushed in, with their tomahawks completed the work of death, and tore off the scalp from his head, as the trophy of victory. They seized the mother and her children, John, Daniel, Thomas, Martha and Mary, and having discovered the neighborhood of the white men, commen- ced a rapid retreat westward. The wife of Serjent, fainting with grief and fear, and in feeble circumstances, faltered and impeded their progress. The apprehension of pursuit induced the Indian to forego the terrible pleasure of torturing his victim. As they ascen- ded the hills of Tataesset, a chief stept out from the file, and looking around among the leafless forests as if for game, excited no alarm in the exhausted and sinking captive, and awoke no cry of horror to betray their course. When she had passed by, one merciful blow from the strong arm of the sachem removed the obstruction of their flight. The children, they carried away, reached the northern fron- tier in safety, and were a long time in Canada. Daniel and Mary, preferring the wild freedom of their captors to the restraints of civ- ilized life, adopted the habits and manners of the Indians. They never again resided with their relatives, although they once made them a visit, when Miss Williams, taken at Deerfield, was restored.
In 1715, Thomas was at Boston. John had been liberated in 1721. Martha was probably redeemed earlier than her brothers. She married Daniel Shattuck, and returned to dwell on the spot so fatal to her family, as may be inferred from the following order, to the
33
INDIAN HOSTILITIES.
[1709.
commissioners appointed in 1721, to make partition of the inherited lands in Worcester.
' If D. Shattuck's hovel, made of the stuff of the said deceased's old house, needs consideration, his brother John must allow for it, if you in your good discretion, think good : and also for any labor which the said Daniel has done on the mother lot : it proves equal that he should have for this year liberty to enjoy the fruits of his own labor : so do what is right and equal, as you must be sworn.'
' Francis Foxcraft, J. Pro. for Middlesex.'
The approach of Capt. Howe's party, whose night's rest was at the expense of lives and suffering, probably prevented the conflagration of the house and the destruction of property. A full inventory of the goods and effects collected, was returned into the Probate Office by George Parmeter, who seems to have taken administration by vir- tue of the will, although its provisions were inoperative.1
Although the power of the savage was crushed, predatory bands visited the town. In August, 1709, Elisha Ward, sent on an express from Marlborough to Hadley, having stopped to examine his deserted farm, was killed. After the permanent settlement in 1713, no lives were lost, but the quiet of the inhabitants was frequently disturbed. On one occasion, three Indians were discovered lurking near the stream below the upper canal lock. The alarm was given and the townsmen extended themselves along the meadow, then a dark and tangled swamp, and explored its thickets. One of them discharged his musket at an object he supposed to be an Indian, but as the company who gathered to the spot discerned no trace of a foe, it was concluded that he had been deceived. It was afterwards ascer- tained that the shot took effect, and that the knee of one of the war- riors was broken by the ball. Being on the margin of the brook he dropped down the bank, and crawled into an opening fortunately large enough to conceal his person. When the pursuit was over, his companions returned and carried him into the heart of a deep morass west of Pakachoag Hill, where they built a wigwam to shel- ter him until his wound healed, and renovated strength enabled them to depart forever from the land of their ancestral heritage.
Tradition tells that William Taylor, a bold and fearless man, dis- covering an Indian approaching his house, shot him to death. The
1 Relation of Thomas Rice. Rev. Dr. Bancroft's Sermon, 11. Davis's Address, 15. Whitney Hist. 26. 1 Mass. Hist. Col. i. 115. Middlesex Probate Records. Proprie- tors' Records.
39
PLANTERS' PETITION.
1709.]
son watched an opportunity of revenge. He was observed by Tay- lor, stretched beliind a log on the margin of the field he cultivated, and the same gun which had been fatal to the father sent a bullet to the heart of the descendant.
The last of the race who here died by the hand of the white man, is said to have fallen on the plain, north of the first mill place.
Fortunately, none of the posterity of the Indian here remain to contrast their degradation, with the lofty and in some points noble character of the ancient tribes.
The following Petition was presented to the Legislature in 1709, by those interested in the township, for aid in the resettlement.
' To his Excellency Joseph Dudley, Esq. Capt. General and Gov- ernor in chief in and over her Majesty's province of the Massachu- setts Bay in New England, and to the Honorable the Council and Representatives in General Court assembled :
' May it please your Excellency and Honors. We, the subscribers, presuming that the resettlement of Worcester would be beneficial to the Province, have taken the boldness to trouble your Excellency and Honors with a few lines, humbly informing that if we may have a firm foundation of a settlement laid and a fort built, and needful protection, we are willing to inhabit and settle the place. We humbly intreat your Excellency and Honor's approbation and direction in the matter; that so we may take such proper methods as are needful, and as you shall direct us unto : And that your Excel- lency and Honors would promote this business speedily, before the season be past, and so the settlement be deferred till another year. Thus, in short, we take the boldness to subscribe, your Excellency's and Honor's most humble servants.
Joseph Sawyer, Thomas Barrett,
Richard Wiles,
William Ward, James Caly, Benjamin Headley,
John Perry, John Wheeler, James Atherton,
Benjamin Bellows, Thomas Smith, John Sawyer,
Jonathan Whitcomb, Ebenezer Perry,
Abiel Bush.'
Elias Sawyer,
The Council ordered, that Elisha Hutchinson, Samuel Sewall, and Nathaniel.Paine, Esquires, should be a Committee to consider the expediency of granting the request, and the course to be adopted. The House refused to concur, as the disturbed condition of the times rendered the enterprise too dangerous to be sanctioned by leg- islative approbation. 1
1 Province Files, 1709. Province Records, ix. 5.
40
THIRD SETTLEMENT.
[1713.
CHAPTER IV.
1713 to 1722. Third settlement lo incorporation. Petition, 1713. New Committee. Report. 1714. First Settlers. James Rice. Gershom Rice. Nathaniel Moore. Garrisons. Mills. Roads. View of the town, 1718. Grants lo proprielors. Scotch and Irish emigrants. Town incorporat .d. 1722.
More favorable prospects having opened in 1713, the proprietors, undiscouraged by former failure, attempted to rebuild the town. On the 13th of Oct. Col. Adam Winthrop, Gershom Rice and Jonas Rice of Marlborough, addressed the General Court in behalf of then- selves and others interested ;1 They represented their desire 'to endeavor and enter upon a new settlement of the place from which they had been driven by the war,' and prayed ' for the countenance and encouragement of the Court in their undertaking : for such di- rections and regulations as should be thought fit to make them de- fensible in case of a new rupture with the Indians : and for a proper Committee to direct in ordering the prudentials of the plantation till they come to a full settlement.'
The prayer of this petition was granted, and Hon. William Tay- lor, Col. Adam Winthrop, Hon. William Dudley, Lt. Col. John Bal- lantine and, Capt. Thomas Howe were appointed a Committee.
On the 14th of June, 1714, a detailed report was presented by this Committee of their proceedings in adjusting the claims of the for- mer settlers and promoting the prosperity of the future plantation. After giving notice to all interested, and making a journey to Wor- cester, they had allowed thirty one rights of ancient inhabitants, and admited twenty eight persons more to take lands on condition of paying twelve pence per acre for their planting or house lots only, being the amount collected of the original planters, and of building and dwelling on each right whether acquired by purchase, grant or representation. It was recommended that the provision made for sup- port of the ministry and schools be accepted instead of the reserva- tion to the Commonwealth in 1668.
The Committee asked, as they had spent much time in receiving claims for grants of lands, made journeys to effect adjustment of con- troversies, advanced sums of money, and expected to have the care and trouble of the affairs of the town for many years, that a lot of forty acres should be assigned to each, with just proportions in future divisions, as compensation for services.
1 Prop. Records.
41
FIRST SETTLERS.
1713.]
This report was accepted, and received the approval of Gov. Dudley, June 14, 1714.
Jonas Rice, who had been a planter during the second settle- ment, returned October 21, 1713. From this day is dated the per- manent settlement of the town. He built on Sagatabscot hill, and his farm included some of the lands once cultivated by Serjent. The se- lection of residence was probably made with reference to fertility of soil, proximity to extensive meadows, and it may be, from prior oc- cupation by himself. 1 He remained with his family alone in the forest, the solitary inhabitant of Worcester, until the spring of 1715.
The union of cool intrepidity and resolute firmness with good sense and integrity in the character of Mr. Rice, commanded the respect and secured the confidence of his fellow citizens when the town he had founded rose from its ashes in renovated beauty to com- mence that steady progress of prosperity which has brightened its ad- vance. IIe was often elected to municipal offices, was frequently representative to the General Court, and was one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas at the time of his decease, Sept. 22, 1753, at the age of 84 years.
The first male child born in Worcester, Nov. 7, 1714, was Adon- ijah, son of Jonas Rice. On arriving to manhood, year after year, his name is entered on the rolls of the provincial troops during the French wars : after each summer campaign was finished, he returned to his home, and the quiet of domestic and agricultural life. He re- moved to Shoreham, Vt. where he died, Feb. 1802, aged 83.
'The second settler appears from the records to have been Gershom Rice, who came in 1715, to join his brother Jonas, the hardy pion- eer of population, maintaining his post for nearly two years unsup- ported by assistance and uncheered by associates. 2
The third settler was Nathaniel Moore, of Sudbury, a man of ex-
1 Jonas Rice's house stood near that of his descendant, Mr. Sewall Rice, on the town way between the Sutton and Grafton roads.
2'These families of the Rices removed from Marlborough. Their distant ancestor Rich- ard, was one of the early proprietors of Concord in 1635. Edmund, admitted to the freeman's oath in 1640, was, in that year, representative from Sudbury and one of the petitioners for the grant of Marlborough.
These families were remarkable for longevity. The father of Gershom died at the age of 70 : his mother 84 : They had 14 children : three died in infancy : the others lived to advanced age: 1, Peter 97 : 2, Thomas 94 : 3, Mary 80 : 4. \athanie! 70 : 5, Ephraim 71 : 6, James 72 : 7, Farah 80: 8, Frances 96 : 9, Jonas 84 : 10, Grace, 94 : 11, Gershom died Dec. 29, 1769, aged 101 : his wife died at the age of 80: they lived together in marriage nearly 65 years and left seven children, some of whom, on the decease of their father, were upwards of 70. Boston Gazette, 1769
6
42
GARRISONS.
[1718.
emplary character, who was deacon of the first church from its foun- dation. He died Nov. 25, 1761, aged $4 years. 1
Capt. Thomas Howe and Lt. David Haynes were appointed by the Committee to give certificates for such of the inhabitants as had built upon their lots and performed the conditions of their grants. On the 23d of April, 1718, they returned a list which has unfortunately perished in the lapse of time. The record of surveys, made in the same year, partially supplies the deficiency, and enables us to deter- mine the progress of settlement. Well authenticated traditions, pre- served in the memory of descendants of carly planters, connected with, and confirmed by this source of information, afford materials for delineating a picture of the condition of Worcester, which though imperfect, may be considered as presenting a faithful outline of the prominent objects.
'The first labor of the inhabitants had been to erect a garrison house, on the west side of the Leicester road, not far distant from the old south church. It was reared by the united labors of all, and those residing near, gathered by night to its walls, during the first year.
Another of these fortresses of logs was near the head of the street called Columbian avenue, [1836] constructed by Deac. Daniel Hey- wood. A patriarchal pear tree, planted by him, still stands, at the end of a century, on ground he once owned, a venerable example of vegetable longevity.
The third of the wooden castles, was a large building on the Con- necticut road, north of Lincoln square, affording shelter to the trav- eller and defending the mills erected on the stream.
Eastward from the intersection of the Lancaster and Boston roads, near the modern Adams square, in the north part of the town, was a structure which exhibited marks of fortification until an advanced old age.
1 IIis son, Nathaniel Moore, came into the town at the age of three months. He lived respected, and died July 24, 1811, aged 96 : The following notice of his character is from the Massachusetts Spy.
' fle was a man of exemplary piety and benevolence. He resided in Worcester more than 95 years, being a member of the third family that began the settlement of the town. He lived in the marriage state with the same wife nearly 69 years, bul left no descendants.
' Ile saw this town rise from a state of uncultivated nature to its opulent improve- ment ; witnessed the ordination of five ministers of the Gospel within the town, four of them over the same society in succession : saw three houses erected for public worship ; three court houses rising on the same spot, one after another, for the administration of justice, and three gaols as a terror to evil doers. Thus has ended the life of an honest man, the noblest work of God.'
43
VIEW OF THE TOWN.
1718.]
A regular block house was placed north of Adams square, where a long iron cannon was subsequently mounted to give the alarm of coming danger. During the French war, this gun was removed to the green near the meetinghouse. On the commencement of the revolution, it was posted west of the Court House, and its voice call- ed our citizens to arms when the tidings of the march to Lexington roused the land. Since, it has rested with the other artillery of the town.
Many of the scattered houses were protected by outworks, as well as guarded by the bold spirit of the inmates. Joshua Rice held his garrison a mile westward of the old mill place, where a cellar still remains to carry back the memory to days when a man's house was literally his castle, when the musket was laid on the plough beam, and the sword was by the side while the hand was on the sickle. From the remote position of Jonas Rice and his brother planters of Sagatabscot hill, it is probable some fortified structure there afforded them security.
On Mill brook, over the western sluice, where the stream is parted by the little island above the bridge, was a saw mill erected by Capt. John Wing, then owned by Thomas Palmer and Cornelius Waldo of Boston, and John Oulton of Marblehead, copartners of ex- tensive commercial business, and proprictors of wide tracts of land. The pond, overflowing the valley above, extended its eastern mar- gin to the present Boston road.
Obediah Ward had built a saw mill above the works long known as the Red Mills, near the upper canal lock, which he devised by his will, dated Dec. 16, 1717, to his son Richard.
The first corn mill was erected by Elijah Chase, near the Quin- sigamond Paper Mills, on the Blackstone river. For many years it was the only accommodation of the kind.
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