USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 8
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GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE.
few hands at the Prescott and Allen mills and a few working at the trades, the men and boys devoted themselves to farm- ing. Their work was done by hand with rude tools, since modern machines were, of course, unknown. The planting, the haying, the hoeing, the getting in of the grain and other crops and their preparation for food, the care of the cattle, the shearing of sheep, the slaughtering, the salting down of the pork and beef, the cutting and hauling of the wood for fuel, the building of fences and walls, and the repairing of tools filled up the busy hours from sunrise to sunset, from the beginning of the year to the end. Those who were disposed to take things easily would sometimes gather in the village grocery stores and taverns and sluggishly discuss the weather, the prospect of crops, the affairs of the church and town, or maybe the condition of the colony as a whole. Too often they sought excitement through intoxication, and thus intemperance became the great curse of the community and total abstainers were far more rare than habitual drunkards.
The hard-working women not only took care of their houses, prepared food for their large families and cooked it over an open fire or in a brick oven, but they attended to the milk and made their own butter and cheese, their soap for washing, their lard for cooking and their candles for lighting. They dried their own apples and berries, and gathered their own herbs for medicines. They made and filled their straw beds, their feather beds and their pillows. They spun and wove their linen and put together their quilts. As far as their floors were covered, they made their carpets and rugs from rags. They spun the wool into yarn and wove it into cloth, and from this cloth they cut and made garments for all the members of their families. They knit stockings, mittens and comforters, and made for themselves a hundred other things which are today purchased ready for use.
Domestic servants were far less common than they are
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FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
now, and few mothers could expect any aid until their girls were of an age to relieve them of a part of their burdens. As soon as they were old enough, the children had their stints." The girls helped their mothers in the kitchen and in making patchwork or knitting, and especially in the care of the younger children. The boys picked the stones, pulled the weeds, spread the hay and stowed it away, picked the berries, chopped the wood, shelled the corn, shovelled the paths and helped tend the cattle, sheep and pigs. Yet recreation was not wanting. The children enjoyed roving through the woods. Many of the boys had their snares and at an early age learned to use the gun. The ponds and streams gave bathing, fishing and skating. When a little older, both sexes met at the husking, and it is likely that parties for round games and dancing were sometimes given. In their frolics, the old joined as well as the young. The quilting bees, with the supper which followed, gave some variety to the life of the women.
The following inventory of the personal estate of John Prescott, 3d, will give us considerable light upon the con- tracted life which these farmers and millwrights led. The values assigned to articles are very excessive. In all prob- ability, his whole household furniture would be worth less than two hundred dollars according to modern standards.
The inventory of the personal estate of John Prescott 3ª 1749.
£. S. D. a bible-76-Books of divinity & other books-36. 10-00-00 his Cash & notes of hand . 59-07-00 his Quickflock-two small oxen-331 four Cows-
sixty1-a yearling heifer-51-eight sheep 131- 48-a horse 101. I20-04-00 his swine-two fatt Swine & two young shotes 27-00-00 his wearing apparel of all sorts. 72-07-00 a bed in the old Chamber with the bedstead & Covering. 33-15-00 another bed in the same Chamber with the furnishers 25-05-00
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GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE.
a bed in the Little Chamber with the furnishers & Curtains 60-10-00
all the Remainder of the Sheets . 30-00-00 -
- towels and Sundry other Small Linen
Clauths . . . . 06-05-00
two Chests a Spinning Wheel & Sundry other things in Chamber 16-17-00 a Chest a table & other Lumber in Leantoo room . 21-08-06 an Iron box, a Chain old Syghs and other old Iron 12-12-06 a table Iron Pot & Ketle and Sundry other things. 26-10-06 meat tubs, barrels and other Lumber in the Soller. 12-00-06 Chest tub, and other Lumber in old Chamber an anvil & vice & other Smith tools.
19-09-06 44-17-00 his wives wearing aparel of all Sorts
three hives of bees.
99-01-00 07-00-00
a tobacco Knife and other Knives and forks 00-08-00 the Pewter dishes of all sorts 17-02-00 a bed with the Lining & furnishers 60-10-00 Four Chairs I-12-00
an Iron Pot and Ketle : 2-10-00
a box and trammels I-10-00
wooden dishes II-06
Sum total 734-13-02
In the estate of John Prescott, 4th, in 1791, we find a few additional articles, and values are estimated much lower. Three of the items mentioned are :
one looking Glass. . S.
2
two pocket hankerChief. I
Two Silver Tea Spoons 6
The schooling of the children was confined to a few weeks in the least busy season of the year. As we have seen, the town paid only about the equivalent of eleven dollars for schooling the squadron at Prescott's Mills in 1792, and a little over eight for the squadron at Wilder's. The schools were probably taught in private houses, as we have no record of any school-house built for either squadron until the beginning of the present century. It may be, how- ever, that the children from this section went over the Rigby
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FARMERS AND MILLWRIGHTS.
Road to a school-house which was built in 1743, opposite the present Deer's Horns school-house. There was a further opportunity for culture in the grammar school which was kept in various central localities at different times in the year, and was usually under the charge of a college graduate.
Apparently the Prescotts had never been characterized by very great earnestness of religious life, even when Puritanism was at its height, and, during the period of religious lethargy with which we are now dealing, we have no reason to suppose that they, or their neighbors, were especially absorbed in caring for the welfare of their souls. Yet most of them probably attended meeting for social, if not for religious reasons, and Sunday was a day of partial rest and friendly communion. The meeting-house at Lancaster Center was fifty-five feet long by forty-five wide. It had galleries on three sides. The deacon's seat was in front of the pulpit and formed a part of it. The wealthier members of the congregation built pews, six by five feet, at their own cost along the walls. The remaining seatings in the centre of the house and in the galleries were so arranged that the sexes were kept apart from each other. A separate location was assigned to the negroes. There were two sermons each Sunday, with an intermission for lunch between. There was doleful singing, without instrumental accompaniment, from the Bay Psalm Book. The frequent baptism of infants gave some novelty to the service. The people from a distance still went to church on horseback or in heavy farm wagons, as, in 1750, there were only "three chaises" in Lancaster.
Timothy Harrington was the pastor in the meeting-house at Lancaster Center. The site at the Old Common had been given up in 1742. He must have exerted a benign and refining influence as a pastor. Mr. Thayer, his successor, said: "In him was discovered a happy union of those qualities which gratify in the man, which please in the gentleman and which delight in the Christian. He could so temper his gravity with cheerfulness, his decision with mild-
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GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE.
ness and his earnestness with moderation, that persons of both sexes and of every age esteemed, respected and loved him. The child looked to him as its father, the young as their friend and conductor, the aged as their companion and brother."
Dr. William Dunsmoor was the physician generally em- ployed in this district. He came on horseback and carried his medicines in his saddle-bags. Bleeding was the favorite method of treatment for ills of every kind. Many of the medicines used had no real efficacy. Dr. Dunsmoor was a man of ability, energetic in action and radical in his views. Although his library of about a score and a half volumes contained only seven works on physics and surgery, yet his shrewd common sense and his intense vitality made him far superior to the average doctor of his time. We shall find him a man of great influence in the community in various directions. Dr. Stanton Prentice and his successor, Israel Atherton, were also employed by some families.
In the houses of the farmers, books were very rare, and almanacs, pamphlets and newspapers, which were beginning to circulate among the more cultured, were seldom seen there. Neither did people have time or means to travel for pleasure ; most of them had little occasion to go on busi- ness. Probably, a large proportion of the women had never been a score of miles from home.
Yet these rude farmers and millers, with their cramped, toilsome lives and narrow privileges, acted worthily their part in some of the most momentous movements in the history of the world. They helped to conquer the French and gain possession of a continent. They helped to resist and overthrow the tyranny of England, the most powerful of nations. They helped to build up order out of anarchy and to organize a government which awakened the ad- miration of all mankind and has ever since served as their inspiration and example.
CHAPTER VI.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR AND THE REVOLUTION.
IN the general struggle between England and France for the control of North America, Lancaster, like other colonial towns, took a deep interest, and did its utmost, both in money and men, to help the mother country.
In the earlier portion of the war, there were few soldiers from within the present Clinton limits. When the success of Montcalm at Fort William Henry alarmed the colonists, the militia of Massachusetts set out with all possible dispatch to resist his further progress. Two companies of from fifty to sixty men each, set out under Lancaster captains, from the regiment of Oliver Wilder. When they reached Spring- field, they learned that Montcalm had withdrawn to Canada, and so their services were no longer required. Among those who served in this expedition were Moses Sawyer, who at this time may have lived with his father at Sawyer's Mills, in the company of Capt. Nathaniel Sawyer, and Simon Butler, a trumpeter, in the company of Capt. John Carter.
In the following year, 1758, while successful expeditions were being conducted against Louisbourg on the north and Fort Duquesne on the south, it was the misfortune of the Massachusetts soldiers to be assigned to the expedition of the incompetent Abercrombie, who attempted to take Fort Ticonderoga. As a result of his misjudgment, some two thousand men fell in a useless struggle. Moses Sawyer and Jotham Wilder were in Abercrombie's army. The former
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
was in the company of Capt. Asa Whitcomb, of Col. Jonathan Bagley's regiment, which served from March to December, 1758. Asaph Butler, who was in the same com- pany and among those who were sick, probably lived at that time within present Clinton limits. Although the terms of Jotham Wilder's enlistment are not given, yet it is certain that he was in the army about Ticonderoga in 1758. Three members of the Larkin family, which we have noted as be- longing to the Wilder community, but living just within the present limits of Berlin, took part in this campaign. John Larkin died from disease. Four members of this family took part in one or more expeditions of the war.
In the spring of the following year, Jotham Wilder, with his two neighbors, Daniel Albert, Jr., and Frederick Albert, served under Amherst in Capt. James Reed's company, which was probably attached to Col. Timothy Ruggles' regiment. This expedition took Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point with little fighting, repaired the fortifications and roads, and built a fleet of boats, but the action of Amherst was so dilatory that they failed to carry out the work planned for them and share with the troops of Wolfe the glory of the capture of Quebec.
These same men, after a winter spent at home, probably returned the following year and accompanied Amherst's ex- pedition to Montreal, which led, without any serious fighting, to the final conquest of Canada.
This war, which was so wide-reaching in its general effects upon the history of the world, exerted its greatest direct local influence in arousing a military spirit among the people. The stories which Sawyer, Wilder and their comrades told of their adventures must have formed a central theme of interest in the narrow lives of their relatives and neigh- bors, and the younger generation must have been inspired by them to long for a similar opportunity to see the world and display their daring. Greater attention was given to the militia, and each able-bodied citizen was drilled in military
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THE REVOLUTION.
tactics. Henceforth, for many years, the musters on train- ing days were among the most important epochs in the lives of the people, and military titles were the ambition of every aspiring youth. It was from service in this militia that Moses Sawyer received his much-valued commission as a lieutenant, and that John Prescott, 5th, received from local authorities the title of captain. It is more doubtfully claimed by some that the looseness of life in the camp, and the ex- ample of the English soldiers tended greatly to increase the intemperance and licentiousness of the American troops, and through them of the community at large.
The French and Indan war enlarged the political horizons of men, and the citizens of Lancaster became citizens of the world. The people, no longer needing the help of England against the French, were more free to consider their own needs and rights. Meanwhile, the ill- judged measures of the English government tended to estrange more and more the sympathies of the colonists.
We can well imagine the bitter feelings awakened in the minds of the Prescotts, Allens, Sawyers and Wilders by the Stamp Act, the quartering of troops, and the Boston Massa- cre. How they must have been chafed by the conservative tendencies of the Willards and the other loyalist leaders of the town. How they must have worked with Dr. William Dunsmoor, Aaron Sawyer and other patriotic citizens, to wrest the control in local affairs from Tories whose attach- ment to England was greater than their love for freedom.
The first recorded success of the Whigs came at a town meeting on the first Wednesday in January, 1773. The warrant for the meeting contained an article, "To chuse a Committee to Draw up our grievances and Infringements upon our Liberties and to Lay them before the Town when the Town shall so order." Under this article, a committee of seven was appointed. The three names first on the list were: Dr. William Dunsmoor, John Prescott and Aaron
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OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION.
Sawyer. It will be noted that all of these were descendants of John Prescott, the pioneer. Ebenezer Allen was also a member of the committee. Thus, the majority of the seven was made up from two men living within present Clinton territory, one who lived just over its northern border, and another from Sawyer's Mills. The resolves presented by this committee, and adopted by the town, were published in the Boston Gazette, May 17, 1773. They were worthy of a liberty-loving people who knew their rights and were ready to defend them. They are as follows:
"I. Resolved, That this and every other Town in this Province have an undoubted Right to meet together and consult upon all Matters interesting to them when and so often as they shall judge fit; and it is more especially their Duty so to do when any Infringement is made upon their Civil or Religious Liberties.
"2. Resolved, That the raising of Revenue in the Colonies without their consent either by themselves or their Representatives is an Infringement of that Right, which every Freeman has, to dispose of his own Property.
"3. Resolved, That the granting a Salary to his Excel- lency the Governor of the Province out of the Revenue unconstitutionally raised from us is an innovation of a very alarming tendancy.
"4. Resolved, That it is of the highest Importance to the security of Liberty, Life and Property that the publick Administration of Justice should be pure and impartial and that the Judge should be free from every Bias either in Favour of the Crown or the Subject.
"5. Resolved, That the absolute Dependancy of the Judges of the Superior Court of this Province upon the Crown for their support would if it should ever take Place have the strongest Tendancy to bias the Minds of the Judges, and would weaken our Confidence in them.
"6. Resolved, That the Extension of the Power of the Court of Vice-Admiralty to its present enormous Degree is a great Grievance and deprives the Subject in many Instances of the noble Privilege of Englishmen Trials by Juries.
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THE REVOLUTION.
"7. Resolved. That the Proceedings of this Town be transmitted to the Town of Boston.
DR. WILLIAM DUNSMOOR
JOHN PRESCOTT
Committee
JOSIAH KENDALL EBENEZER ALLEN
for
NATHANIEL WYMAN
JOSEPH WHITE
Grievances.
AARON SAWYER 7
Attest : DANIEL ROBBINS, Town Clerk."
The delegate to the General Court received instructions in terms no less patriotic.
From this time on, the Whig leaders remained in power, and the measures which they carried placed Lancaster in the front line of the towns which resisted the tyranny of Great Britain. In the same year, Ebenezer Allen and other men of the same stamp, were made selectmen. At a town meeting held September 5, 1774, John Prescott (4th), was chosen a member of the Committee of Correspondence. He had already attended a convention of the Committee of Correspondence of the towns of Worcester County, held in Worcester, August 9. At this town meeting of September 5th, and its adjournments, ammunition and guns were bought, measures were taken to organize one hundred volun- teer minute men and to stop the consumption of English goods. January 5, 1775, we find John Prescott's name at the head of a committee of fifteen appointed to see that all citizens stood by the cause of the patriots. Ebenezer Allen was on the same committee. The nature of the work of this committee may be suggested from the following ad- vertisement which appeared in the Massachusetts Spy:
"LANCASTER, July 17th, 1775.
" Whereas Nahum Houghton being complained of as being an enemy to his Country, by officiating as an un- wearied Pedlar of that baneful herb TEA, and otherwise rendering himself odious to the inhabitants of this Town, and notwithstanding being warned, he did not appear before
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OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION.
the Committee that his political principles might be Known. This therefore (agreeable to a vote of said Town) is to caution all friends to the Community, to entirely shun his Company, and have no manner of dealings or connections with him, except acts of common humanity.
JOHN PRESCOTT, Chairman."
Colonel Willard, after having accepted his appointment of Mandamus Councillor, and having been forced while away from home to promise that he would not either "sit or act with said council," in April, 1775, joined the British in Boston, and never returned to Lancaster. His brother and nephew also went over to the British. On June 7, 1775, we find the selectmen, with Ebenezer Allen as chairman, asking the Provincial Congress what shall be done with the estates of these men. They were ordered to improve them and report to future legislatures. The estates of Abijah and Abel Wil- lard were confiscated.
Meanwhile the younger men were getting ready to fight, and when on the 19th of April, 1775, the Lexington alarm was sounded, they sprang immediately to arms. Six com- panies from Lancaster-with two hundred and fifty-seven men-joined the American lines at Cambridge and possibly took part in the end of the fighting, as, General Heath says : "General Whitcomb was in this day's battle." Among those who answered this first call were nearly all the able-bodied young men from the Prescott and Wilder neighborhoods.
Capt. John Prescott (fifth of the name) led a troop of horse, and with him went Sergt. Elisha Allen and Sergt. James Fuller. Eben Allen rode in the troop of Capt. Thomas Gates. Among the foot soldiers marched Lieut. Moses Sawyer, Jonas Prescott and Abel Allen. Stephen and Titus represented the Wilder family, and Larkin Corner sent all who could carry a musket.
Most of these troops came back at the end of two weeks to attend to the planting, but some re-enlisted in Andrew Haskell's company of Col. Whitcomb's regiment, which took
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THE REVOLUTION.
part in the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th. Among these were Corp. Ebenezer Allen, Jr., Abel Allen and Jonas Pres- cott, surgeon's waiters, and Jotham Wilder. The Prescott family was further represented by Corp. Josiah Bowers, hus- band of Rebecca Prescott, and by Jonathan Whitman, the husband of Eunice Prescott. The latter was killed, and thus the family offered its sacrifices for liberty. This regi- ment took part in the siege of Boston in the brigade of Gen. Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island, which was reputed to be the best clad and best drilled in that ill-disciplined army of farmers, who wore their varying suits of homespun and offered only a slack obedience to the orders of their com- manders.
It is fitting, also, to recall that Col. William Prescott, the commander of the day at Bunker Hill, was a descendant of John Prescott, the pioneer, and that he may have drawn the noble qualities, which he displayed, from his ancestors who lived on Clinton soil. Col. Abijah Willard, his brother-in-law, well knew the blood that was in him, when he replied to Gage, asking if he would fight : "Prescott will fight you to the gates of hell."
It is not our province to follow the events of the siege until the withdrawal of the British, nor to trace the later course of the war until, after seven years of alternate defeat and success, freedom was established. The men from this section, for the most part, entered service only when some special demand for soldiers came from some point near at hand, and as soon as the special need was over they returned to their homes. Burgoyne's campaign called out a consider- able number of our men in 1777, and this section was repre- sented in the Rhode Island campaigns of 1778 and 1781. The following record will show the individual service of men from this section as far as the statistics have been preserved. While it will be seen that most of the actual fighting occurred in the campaign against Burgoyne, yet we must remember that in the Revolution, even more than in our
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SOLDIERS' RECORD.
Civil war, men were injured by exposure and questionable diet more than by battle. Disease was far more destructive than arms. Small-pox, especially, was the dreaded scourge of the American army in the early years. Although there are few casualties for us to record, yet there were doubtless many lingering disabilities incurred, of which we know nothing :
Daniel Albert, probably a resident at the time within present Clinton limits, served one month and fifteen days from August 1, 1778, in the company of Capt. Manasseh Sawyer, Col. Josiah Whitney's regiment, in the Rhode Island campaign.
Abel Allen, enlisted in the Continental Army. Was in the company of Andrew Haskell, Col. Asa Whitcomb's regi- ment, as a surgeon's waiter at Bunker Hill and siege of Boston. Served one month and eight days in Capt. John White's company, Col. Job Cushing's regiment, on Benning- ton alarm in July, 1777. He enlisted for nine months in June, 1778, under Capt. Andrew Haskell, and went to Fish- kill. He is also recorded as doing duty near Boston from April I to July 2, 1778, Capt. John White's company, Col. Abijah Stearn's regiment.
Amos Allen was with his brother, Abel, in Capt. John White's company on Bennington alarm, and in Continental Army, from May to December, 1778, in Capt. John Drury's company, Col. Ezra Wood's regiment, at Ticonderoga. In 1782, he was at home, and was spoken of in a receipt for bounty, as Lieut. Amos Allen.
Ebenezer Allen, Jr., served for twelve days in answer to the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775, in the "Lancaster Troop," a mounted company under command of Capt. Thomas Gates. He was at Bunker Hill, in the company of Capt. Andrew Haskell, as corporal.
Elisha Allen, Serg't, was in the company of Capt. John Prescott (undoubtedly mounted), and saw active service for
S
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THE REVOLUTION.
the twelve days after Lexington alarm. He enlisted again in July, 1776, and served as sergeant in the company of Capt. Samuel Sawyer, regiment of Col. Jonathan Smith, until December Ist. The company was engaged in the affair at Kip's Bay, September 15th.
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