USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 7
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The family record is as follows : Mary, born December 24, 1743, married Phineas Sawyer, of Fitchburg, January 4, 1774. Dorothy, born November 6, 1745, died December 28,
72
JOHN PRESCOTT, 4TH.
1746. Eunice, born November 12, 1747, married February 26, 1772, Jonathan Whitman, who was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill; afterwards married Jonathan Cutting. John, born December 6, 1749, married October 25, 1775, Mary Ballard; died childless, August 18, 1811 (dropsy ). Rebecca, born March 7, 1752, married, September 30, 1789, Josiah Bowers, who was at Bunker Hill. Jonas, born August 6, 1754, married March 31, 1779, Susannah Wilder ; later, he married Ruth Kidder ; he was a doctor in Rindge, N. H., Keene, N. H., and Templeton, Mass .; died July 22, 1798. Ruth, born August 16, 1757, married February 24, 1780, Jonathan Wilder, who was a member of the General Court from 1803 to 1806. Jonathan, born July 4, 1761, married September 7, 1797, Ruth Glazier ; he was a constable in Boston for forty-four years. Joseph, born August 5, 1763, went West, married, and had two daughters. Jabez, born 1765, married November 26, 1789, Abigail Gates ; he was a wheelwright in Ohio; she was buried in Lancaster in 1827.
CHAPTER V.
FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
IN February, 1745-6, "Thomas Goss of Bolton, Clerk, Joseph Wilder Jun of Lancaster, Gent, who had received power of attorney from John Goss, and Mary Goss of Lan- caster," deeded to John Allen of Weston, " in consideration of eleven hundred pounds in bills of the old tenor,"
"land in Lancaster, containing by estimation one hundred and eighty acres, together with the Buildings, Mill, orchard and Improvements thereon." This land was bounded as follows: "South on the Land of John Prescott Jun"; East, it is bounded by ye River; North, it is bounded partly, by Land of Doct John Dunsmoor, partly, by Land of Elias Sawyer; West, it is bounded partly, by a private way that Leads to John Prescott's Mill &, partly, on the Land of said Dunsmoor, and it is the whole of the Land on which John Goss of said Town formerly lived," * * * "Saveing that there is Two private ways Laid through & allowed in said Land, one from Prescott's Mills to Rigbee Brook and the other from said Prescotts to the fordway by where there was a bridge Called the Scar bridge."
This John Allen was a descendant of Daniel Allen, one of the early settlers of Lancaster. Daniel Allen had married Mary Wilder, a daughter of his neighbor, Thomas Wilder. The Allens did not return to Lancaster for more than half a century after the massacre of 1676. Ebenezer Allen, Sr., who had also lived in Weston, bought this estate of his brother, John, December 15, 1746, and Ebenezer
74
FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
Allen, Jr., received a deed of it from his father, June 29, 1756. The estate had meanwhile grown to two hundred and twenty acres. The Allens built a new dwelling place on the west side of the Mill Path about 1764. This house remained standing on its old site until 1879, when it gave way to the present residence of E. A. Currier. Ebenezer Allen, Sr., died in 1770, at the venerable age of ninety-four. His wife, Sarah, had died in 1755, when she was seventy-one.
Ebenezer Allen, Jr., married Tabitha - , and they had two children, Elisha and Tabitha, before they came to Lancaster. They afterwards had seven more, making a total of six boys and three girls .* The Allens lived in better style than most of their neighbors, for they had a negro maid servant, who is recorded to have been baptized in 1760, and a negro man servant, who died in 1761. Whether these were slaves or free is uncertain, as the negro population of the town belonged to both classes.
The southern portion of the Prescott estate, some ninety- seven acres in extent, including a considerable portion of Burditt Hill, as it is now called, and the land west of it on the brook "aboue the forge," was bequeathed by John Pres- cott, 3d, to the five children of his daughter, Tabitha, who had married Joseph Sawyer, May 10, 1731.
* The following list of children was gathered from the Lancaster Records: "Elisha, born in Weston, Dec. 1I, 1745; married Miriam Goodale of Marlboro'. The intentions were declared Feb. 1, 1772. Tabitha, born Jan. 27, 1747; died unmarried Dec. 17, 1833. Mary, born in Lancaster, Jan. 14, 1749; married Titus Wilder, Apr. 21, 1773. (See Wilder Record.) Ebenezer, born Apr. 12, 1751 ; married Mary Henry of Lunenburg. The intentions were published July 30, 1772. Amos, born Aug. 1, 1753; married Rebecca Thurston of Lancaster, July 12, 1781. He moved to Luzerne, N. Y. A church letter was given in 1816. Abel, born Apr. 26, 1756; married Mary Symmons Aug. 11, 1785. He moved to Sullivan, N. H., 1794. Jacob, born Feb. 13, 1758. Thankful, born Mar. 31, 1760; died May 9, 1761. Samuel, born June 28, 1762 ; married Lucy Smith, June 27, 1787."
75
THE SAWYER FAMILY.
It will be remembered, that the first Thomas Sawyer had married Mary, the eldest daughter of John Prescott, the pioneer, in 1648. Their son, Thomas, seems to have in- herited the enterprise of his maternal grandfather. He built the second mill in Lancaster, at the water privilege in the Deer's Horns District, as early as 1699. It is probable that he may have owned some land within the present limits of Clinton. He, together with his son, Elias, and John Biglo, were captured by the French and Indians, October 15, 1705, and carried away to Canada. Thomas Sawyer was tied to the stake for death by torture, but was rescued by a friar, who held before the Indians a key, and told them that unless they loosed their captive, he would unlock the doors of Purgatory and cast them into its fires. This was, per- haps, a device of the French governor to save the captive, for we find that soon after he employed Sawyer and his com- panions to build, on the Chambly River, the first mill in Canada. This Thomas died in 1736, at the age of eighty-nine.
Little is known of Joseph Sawyer, Sr., who was next in line, but his son, Joseph, who married Tabitha Prescott, May 19, 1731, was the founder of Sawyer's Mills in Boylston, and the proprietor of a considerable portion of the land in the extreme south of what is now Clinton territory. The settle- ment of his property was made in 1753. He had five children. Aaron, the eldest, followed his father at Sawyer's Mills, while Moses, the second son, born January 13, 1733-4, settled upon the seventy-five acres of land received from his grandfather Prescott. This land was valued at seventy-seven pounds, an average of about one pound per acre. Sarah Saw- yer, his sister, received the remaining twenty-two acres, to- gether with other land lying along the river. Moses Sawyer married Mary Sawyer, April 27, 1763. He built what is now known as the Dorrison House on the west side of South Main Street, probably as a home for his bride. He joined the church in 1764. His first wife died in 1774, and three years later he married Betty Larkin. By his first wife
76
FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
he had five children, by his second, eight; in all, seven sons and six daughters .* This family was about twenty years younger than that of either the Prescotts or the Allens, so that we find the name of Moses Sawyer more often asso- ciated with those of the eldest children of John Prescott, 4th, and Ebenezer Allen, Jr., than with those of the parents.
The controversy in regard to the position of the church in 1705, introduces us to the Wilder family, some members of which may have settled within the present limits of Clinton before this date.
Martha Wilder, a widow of Thomas Wilder, of Shiplake, England, came to this country, accompanied by one daugh- ter, in 1638. Another daughter and two sons, Edward and Thomas, probably preceded her. It is likely that they came to escape religious persecution, since the family was one of good standing in the old country and was very earnest in its Puritanism. Thomas settled in Charlestown in 1640, (his tombstone says Hingham, 1641), whence he removed to Lancaster in 1659. He lived on the eastern slope of George Hill, and became one of the leading citizens of the town.
* The record of his family is as follows: "The Burths of the Chil- dren of Mosies and Mary Sawyer-Mosies Sawyer Born May 29, 1764- (died Mar. 12, 1831.) Molley born Jan. 18, 1766-(married Abijah Moore.) Intentions Apr. 17, 1788. Bettey born Apr. 18, 1768-(married Joseph Rice Sept. 19, 1796.) John born Mar. 16, 1770. Sarah born May 10, 1772. Mary Sawyer wife of Mosies Sawyer Departed this Life Apriel 12 1774 in the 33 yer of her age. (He married Betty Larkin Apr. 23, 1777. She died Apr. 21, 1844, aged ninety four.) The Children the sd Mosies hath had by Bettey Sawyer. Artimas Sawyer born Nov. 2, 1777-(graduated at Harvard 1798-died at Marietta, Ohio.) Joseph born Jan. 21, 1780- (died Oct. 2, 1805.) Nathaniel born April 26, 1782-(died Feb. 18, 1788.) Peter born Jan. 25, 1784-(married Mary H. Sawyer May 21, 1807-died June 2, 1831.) Ezra born Decr 6, 1785-(died Jan. 18, 1825, a bachelor.) Lusena born Feby 14, 1788-(married Ebenezer Wilder Nov. 3, 1807-died June 25, 1825.) Katy born Aug. 13, 1790-(married Stephen Wilder May 3, 1807.) Achsa born Decr 25, 1794. (Moses, the father, died Oct. 5, 1805.)"
77
THE WILDERS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS.
After the massacre, two of his sons, Thomas and John, returned to Lancaster and settled on the Old Common, or Bridecake Plain. These two brothers apparently became the original proprietors of a large tract of land around Clamshell Pond within the present limits of Clinton. John was born in 1646. He is said to have been one of the original proprietors of Worcester, though he is not known to have lived there. He married Hannah -, May 17, 1672, by whom he had six children. As two of these chil- dren, John, born 1673, and Thomas, born 1676, had homes in what is now the southeastern part of Clinton, it is some- what doubtfully asserted that the father moved hither also. It is said, contrary to evidence, that in 1693, he built a house, where the dwelling-place of Edwin F. Wilder now stands on Chace Street, and that a portion of this building is still to be seen in the attic story of the house now located there.
It is very probable that one or both of the sons and, per- haps, the father also, lived in this district during Queen Anne's war. After the attack of 1704, in a petition which was sent to Governor Dudley setting forth the lamentable condition of those living on the east side of the river, it is stated in connection with a record of losses and a petition for relief from taxes, as follows : "Most of ye Inhabitants on yt side have had but little or no help or protection in there Garrisons but have been necessitated to watch & ward a third part of their time at least, besides Ranging the woods after when Rumours & Allarms have hapened so that neere halfe our time is spent in actuall service & when we are about our own work we cannot keep to it, but lose a great part of what we Labour for being forced to get our bread with ye pril of our Lives which hang in Doubt continually & but little peace day or night & many of us have formerly been greatly Im- poverished by ye Indians, & see no probability but if they can againe it will be so for the future, & having lost our meeting house being now burnt by them this sumer which is a Generall loss, & also ye los of our late minister so that we
.
78
FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
are on all accounts as new beginers & under such discourag- ing circumstances that our spiritts are Ready to sink & almost dispaire of subsisting another yeare except we may be under beter circumstances, but still under God Relying on your favorable protection & Relieffe."
It is told of John Wilder, Sr., that when he hoed his corn he was accustomed to place his loaded gun a little distance before him, to work a few hills beyond it, and then place it before him again, and so on. In times of special danger, the people of this section went to the garrison house on the Old Common.
In the controversy in regard to the location of the meet- ing-house, the Wilders were among the foremost of those desiring it on the east side of the river. Both Thomas, Sr., and John, Sr., were selectmen at the time, and their names are appended in their official capacity to the statement made to Governor Dudley regarding the meeting at which the matter was decided by a majority vote of the citizens.
Before the close of the first half of the eighteenth cen- tury, quite a community of farmers seemed to have grown up around Clamshell Pond. John Wilder, Jr., was born May II, 1673. He married Sarah Sawyer. They had five sons and three daughters. It is probable that the family lived where the house of Edwin F. Wilder now stands on Chace Street. We have no record that any of his sons remained on their father's farm. Thomas Wilder was born in 1676. He married Susannah Hunt. He built a house near the spot where Daniel Carville's house now stands. The cellar of this old homestead can still be seen, but will soon be covered by the Metropolitan Reservoir. Thomas Wilder and his wife are recorded to have owned the covenant of the church in 1718, and to have had two sons and four daughters* baptized at the same time.
* The record is as follows: "John, born Sept. 2, 1703; Jotham, born 1710; Rachel, Prudence, Deliverance, Abigail. Later Susannah was
79
WILDERS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS.
While all the inhabitants of this region had served as soldiers in the home guard from the first settlement to the close of Queen Anne's war, the Wilder family have the honor of furnishing the first soldiers from the present Clinton territory for distant expeditions. Lovewell's war began in 1722, and lasted until 1726. John Wilder, Jr., served for four weeks and five days during July and August, 1722, according to the muster roll of Sergeant Thomas Buck- minster of Framingham. Little is known of the nature of this service. Three years later, both he and his nephew, John Wilder, the son of Thomas, served in Capt. Josiah Willard's company from June 3 to November 10, 1725. It is likely that Daniel Albert, who served in the same company, was already a neighbor of the Wilders.
In 1740, England sent out an expedition, nominally in the defense of free trade, against the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. Massachusetts was required to furnish a regiment for this expedition. Capt. John Prescott of Con- cord, a descendant of John Prescott, the pioneer, commanded a company in this expedition. In the rolls of this company is found the name of Daniel Albert. He was probably liv- ing within present Clinton limits at this time in the settle- ment east of the river. A mark is drawn through his name, so it is doubtful if he accompanied the expedition.
Lieut. Thomas Tucker obtained land near Clamshell Pond of Capt. Thomas Wilder of the Old Common in 1716. It is likely that he built there within a few years after the pur- chase, as we find that he married Mary Divell, May 25, 1720 -21. They had four children, whose births are recorded : Admonition, William, Mary and Josiah. His homestead was on what is now Chace Street, on the site of the old Chace House. The question of straightening the road past his house to the Old Common gave rise to several entries in
baptized Jan. 26, 1720-21. Titus was baptized March 8, 1723-4. Another Prudence was born Jan. 2, 1729-30."
80
FARMERS AND WHEELWRIGHTS.
the records in 1721-3-4. On his death, September 19, 1768, his son William received the estate. William married Mary Kendall in 1755. His recorded children are Rebecca, Thomas and Sarah. There is a church record of his removal to Westmoreland, N. H., February 28, 1796, and at the same time, his son, Thomas, disposed of the estate for fifteen hundred dollars.
Philip Larkin was a neighbor of the Wilders and Tuckers, but he lived just outside the present limits of Clinton to the southeast of Clamshell Pond. There is good reason to ·believe that some of the families of Butlers, as well as those of the Alberts, may have been living near by the Wilders on the winding road leading from Bolton to Boylston. not far from the middle of the eighteenth century. September 5, 1753, John Moore of Bolton, sold Asaph Butler of Bolton, forty-two acres of land, bounded northerly on the Wilder farm, and bordering on land of Philip Larkin, with buildings thereon. October 23, 1759, Asaph Butler of Lancaster, sold the above, with buildings, to James Butler. In 1781, James Butler sold part of the same, with buildings, where "James Butler now dwells," to Simon Butler. Simon Butler added to this, farm land bought of the heirs of Hezekiah Gates and of Jotham Wilder. This estate is now known as the Woods' farm.
Jotham Wilder, the second son of Thomas, followed him in the possession of the homestead. He married Phebe Wheeler, of Leominster, in 1746. Before 1769 they had eight children, four boys and four girls .* He and his family
* Jotham Wilder entered intentions of marriage with Phebe Wheeler of Leominster October 3, 1746. Children :- Stephen, born Feb. 26, 1747. Intentions of marriage with Betty Sawyer of Harvard were entered June 9, 1770. She died July 14, 1814. Titus, born Dec. 4, 1749 ; married Mary Allen Apr. 21, 1773 ; Phebe, baptized Dec. 31, 1752; Susannah, born Dec. 3, 1753 ; married Dr. Jonas Prescott of Rindge, N. H., Mar. 31, 1779; Jotham, born Feb. 19, 1759; married Lucy Moor of Lancaster. Intentions were entered Sept. 14, 1780; Reuben Wheeler, born July 6,
SI
GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE.
on account of their prominence and from the fact that fuller details of their life have been preserved, may be considered as representative of the little hamlet of half a dozen farmers who were living, during the period we are about to enter, on the east of the river within present Clinton territory.
The Allens, Prescotts. and Sawyers, to the west of the Nashua, and the Wilders, on the east; these are the four families about which our history will center during this last half of the eighteenth century. We no longer deal with the record of a single family, but must try to untangle all the confused threads which unite the members of these four families with each other and with the world outside. Let us try to form some general idea of their lives before we enter into the details.
During the century following the foundation of the Prescott mills, the better portion of the original forest near- by, had been felled for the use of the mills, but a new growth had for the most part been allowed to take its place, so that the open spaces of the district had been increased much less than is commonly supposed. Until the close of the first hundred years after the settlement, a bounty of thirty shillings per head was paid for the killing of wolves, but they had not yet been exterminated. Once, after Moses Sawyer had settled on what is now Burditt Hill, he noticed bear tracks near his cornfield. He set a trap, about twenty rods northeast of the present reservoir, and caught a young bear, and soon after he shot the mother coming to the assistance of her cub. We are told that deer were frequently seen from the Sawyer house. The rattlesnake was still feared, and wild cats were common.
In the midst of this wilderness, there were two small saw
1761. Intentions of marriage with Eunice Bailey of Sterling were entered Dec. 28, 1782 ; Abigail, baptized May 12, 1765 ; Sarah, baptized April 10, 1768.
82
FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
mills and grist mills, and less than a dozen farms, each with a few acres cleared for tillage and pasturage. There was a population in 1750 of less than fifty souls on both sides of the river. This was all that this section of Lancaster had to show for the first century of its slow development.
Meanwhile, the other sections of the old town had been growing much more rapidly, and one after another the villages had sought independence. Harvard was incor- porated in 1732; Bolton, including nearly all of what is now Berlin and a part of Hudson, in 1738, and Leominster, in 1740. A section to the southeast of the town, includ- ing a part of what is now Berlin,* was given in 1742 to a new precinct of Shrewsbury, the Boylston of the future. Chocksett, also, now Sterling, although it had been unable to secure full separation from the mother town, had become a precinct with a meeting-house of its own.
Lancaster, including what has since become Sterling and Clinton, is estimated to have had a population of fifteen hundred in 1751. During the next fourteen years, there was considerable increase, so that we find, according to the census of 1765, on the same territory, a population of one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine. In 1776, the popu- lation in the same territory, with the addition of Shrewsbury Leg, a thinly inhabited district, which had been added to Lancaster on the south in 1767, was two thousand seven hundred and forty-six. In 1780, the southern section of Lancaster, including Sawyer's Mills, was set off to Shrews- bury, and, in 1781, Sterling became a town.
In 1784, Sterling had four hundred and forty voters, while Lancaster had only three hundred and seven. By the census of 1790, however, the population stood : Lancaster, fourteen hundred and sixty, and Sterling, fourteen hundred and twenty.
* The irregularity in the southeastern boundary of our town originated from the fact that the Larkin farm was joined to the part set off from Lancaster to Shrewsbury.
83
GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE.
As the school squadron about Prescott's mill was assigned £3-Is-Iod out of the £100 that might be raised for the support of schools in 1792, it may be supposed that its population at this time was not far from fifty souls. The Allen family, and, perhaps, some of their neighbors, were at this time reckoned in the "New Boston" squadron. The amount assessed to the Wilder squadron was £2-9-8d, which would give it about forty souls. It is also possible that some living within present Clinton territory may have been included in the Deer's Horns squadron, and some may have attended the Boylston schools, so that we can safely estimate the total number in the community, as a whole, as not far from one hundred.
In 1800, the population of Lancaster had reached only fifteen hundred and eighty-four. When Worcester County was established in 1731, Lancaster exceeded all the other towns in population and wealth, and it was long before it lost this distinction, notwithstanding so many new towns were set off from her territory. The community with which we are dealing must be looked upon as made up of a few outlying farms and mills, belonging to a town prosperous and wealthy according to the standards of those days, but small and only fairly prosperous according to the ideas of the present.
The industries of the citizens can be judged from the following statistics taken from the census of 1771, before Sterling was set off :
Polls 595
Dwellings.
339
Shops and stores
Grist and Saw Mills 61
Horses I7
383
Oxen .. 529
Other Neat Cattle 1,124
Sheep
2,310
Swine. . 623
Grain, annual product (bushels) 26,905
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FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
Cider, annual product (barrels) 2,689 6
Slaves between 14-45.
If we compare the number of horses, oxen, other neat cattle, sheep and swine with the number of dwelling-houses, and, if we note that there were about ten bushels of grain, mostly Indian corn, and a barrel of cider to each inhabitant, and, if we add to these the fruits, the root crops and the products of the kitchen garden, which must also have received consider- able attention, we can get some idea of the extent to which grazing and farming must have been carried on. The supply of grains, meats and dairy products must have exceeded the needs of the inhabitants, and this excess was used more or less directly by way of exchange to satisfy their few remain- ing wants. The wool from the sheep was woven into home- spun cloth for garments. The hides of the domestic animals must have more than sufficed for foot gear and for the leathern breeches and aprons which were so generally worn by the boys and men. During the Revolution, the number of sheep greatly increased, as the importation of foreign woolen goods practically ceased. The saw mills prepared lumber for buildings from wood cut from the native forests. The grist-mills ground the grain. It is probable, too, that the farmers of neighboring towns still depended to some extent upon these mills in Lancaster. Although most of the shops and stores must have been very small, yet their large number shows that they must have had considerable trade from outside of town limits. Rum and molasses were the two principal imports. The store, at which the trade of most of the people of this section was done, was kept by Willard & Ward at the cross-roads of South Lancaster. Willard sometimes went to England to buy goods.
The Clinton district, which during the first century after its settlement had depended especially on its mills, during this period became more essentially a farming region than at any other time in its history, for while the mills decreased in prosperity, the farms increased, With the exception of a
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