USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 9
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Jacob Allen enlisted in 1780 for six months' service. He was in the Continental Army in 1781, 7th Massachusetts regiment, Col. Ichabod Alden, Capt. Rufus Lincoln.
Samuel Allen was in the company of Elias Pratt from April to July, 1779, doing guard duty over prisoners captured from Burgoyne's army and confined at Rutland, Massachu- setts.
James Fuller answered the Lexington alarm as sergeant in Capt. John Prescott's company. (See Elisha Allen.) He was a private in Capt. Manasseh Sawyer's company. (See Daniel Albert.)
Daniel Harris did not move to Clinton territory until after the war was over, but from his prominence and that of his family in its later history, his military record is given. He was in the Continental Army at Ticonderoga from May to December, 1778, in Col. Ezra Wood's regiment, Capt. John Drury's company. He answered the call for troops to de- fend Rhode Island from Sir Henry Clinton in July, 1781. He was a sergeant at West Point, in Capt. Nathaniel Wright's company of Col. Drury's regiment, from September to November 18, 1781.
It is probable that some of the Larkins, one or more of whom answered nearly every call for troops from the Lexington alarm to the close of the way, may have lived across the line from Berlin, within present Clinton limits.
John Prescott, 5th, as captain, led a troop of thirty-two men, to Cambridge, in answer to the Lexington alarm. They served twelve days. He was at this time twenty-five years of age.
Jonas Prescott was one of the minute men who marched to Cambridge. He was in the company of Capt. Benjamin
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SOLDIERS' RECORD.
Houghton, Col. John Whitcomb's regiment. He was a surgeon's waiter in Andrew Haskell's company, Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment, which took part in the battle of Bunker Hill and siege of Boston. He moved to Rindge, N. H., in the early part of the war and served as surgeon in Col. Enoch Hale's (N. H.) regiment in 1778, in Rhode Island service.
Moses Sawyer was second lieutenant in Capt. Joseph White's company, Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment. He went into active service for a short time in answer to the Lexing- ton alarm.
Fotham Wilder ( son of the Jotham Wilder of the French and Indian war), was at the battle of Bunker Hill in the company of Andrew Haskell. He served under the same captain for coast defence at Hull in the battalion of Col. Thomas Marshall. This battalion was raised in April, 1776, and was in service on the following October. In July, 1777, he went to Bennington in the company of Capt. John White, regiment of Col. Job Cushing, for one month and eight days' service. He was at Ticonderoga in Capt. John Drury's com- pany, Col. Ezra Wood's regiment, from May to December, 1778. We find him again in Capt. David Moore's company, Col. John Jacob's regiment, which served in Rhode Island two months from October 1, 1779.
Reuben Wilder enlisted for nine months, June 25, 1779. He was then eighteen years old, and belonged to a lot of recruits of whom Washington said, "A portion of whom I am told are children." He was on duty at Rutland from October, 1779, to April, 1780, in the company of Capt. Ephraim Hartwell. His name is given in a list of six months' men, raised to reënforce the Continental Army in 1780. The bounty given to these men was as follows:
"LANCASTER, June 23d.
"On the 3ª article in ye Warrant, Voted to empower the Committee Chosen to hire the Men therein Mentioned on any Terms they think Proper, and if the sd Committee or
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THE REVOLUTION.
any of them shall contract with any Person to Do the Service Required by the Orders which are the occation of this Vote, that the Town will in all Respects imdemnify and make good to each one of sª Committee severally all Monies, Damages and Expences which they or any of them shall in- cur by performing their sª Contracts, and will also pay them their reasonable Expences and for their Trouble in and about the Premises.
"June 26, at an adjournment-Voted to Accept the following Report of the Committee viz: The Committee engage to each Man that will enlist 1400 £ Law' Money, such Part as each Man may want to be paid Down, the Remainder, when paid, to be made as good as it now is ; or 136. 68 8ª Law] Money to be paid in the Old Way in Corn, Beef and live Stock or any Produce as it formerly used to be sold, or the value thereof in Continental Money. The above Sum offerd is a Bounty from the Town in Addition to the Wages alowd. by the Court. And furthermore the Com- mittee Engage that the Money which may be Due from the State for the Six Months Service the Town will get for each Man that will produce proper Certificates."
He enlisted again in Capt. David Moore's company, in Lieut .- Col. Enoch Hallett's regiment, for three months' ser- vice in Rhode Island in the summer of 1781.
Stephen and Titus Wilder served as minute men, in answer to the Lexington alarm, in the company of Capt. Benjamin Houghton, Col. John Whitcomb's regiment.
While the younger men were in the field, the older men at home were furnishing the means to carry on the war, and were bearing the losses resulting from a depreciated currency and accumulating debts.
Ebenezer Allen was on the committee of correspondence and safety, elected in March, 1776. His son, Elisha, was on this committee in the following year. November 24, John Prescott and Frederick Albert were appointed on a com- mittee to oppose the bills of credit issued by the state. In June, 1780, Prescott was one of a committee to hire soldiers. In July, 1780, and again in January, 1781, Ebenezer Allen
IOI
CLOSING YEARS.
was one of a committee for the same purpose. To hire soldiers for the last years of the war was no easy task, and large bounties were paid for men to fill the quotas. The women, too, had their burdens, not only in the anxiety for their absent husbands and sons, but in the deprivations and added work which came from the cessation of commerce, since they were obliged to add to their other labors the preparation of substitutes for so many articles of food and clothing, which had formerly been imported.
The closing years of the war, and those immediately following, must have been full of financial distress to the people of this section. As the currency depreciated, prices rose. Futile endeavors were made to fix the prices of com- modities by law. Ebenezer Allen was one of a committee to prepare a schedule in February, 1777. July 10th, 1779, he was a delegate of the town to a state convention at Concord to regulate prices, and in August, of the same year, to a county convention at Worcester to adopt measures to carry into effect the recommendations of Congress and the state conventions. Ebenezer Allen and John Prescott were on the town committee to see that the measures were enforced. As Congress was unable to purchase food and clothing with its worthless money, it tried to levy contributions directly from the states, which in turn, called upon the towns. We find an undated bill signed by Ebenezer Allen, chairman of the selectmen, with other members, charging the state, among other items, with stockings at £1, 6s. per pair. This would be over four dollars by the present system of money. In March, 1780, the town voted "that the price of Men's Labour be six pounds (twenty . dollars) pr day." The currency had so depreciated in 1780 that during that year the town was obliged to raise a tax of some £350,000 .*
Thus closes the record of the war as far as any par-
* The New England "pound" (£) was not {Sterling, but "lawful money," 6s to the dollar $3.33/3 to the £.
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THE REVOLUTION.
ticulars can be found bearing upon local matters. It may seem a wearisome list of dry details, but for those who can read between the lines, these details are transfigured by the qualities which glow beneath. By the love of liberty, the heroic resistance to oppression, the unyielding firmness in the midst of discouragements, the patient endurance of privations thus displayed, our country of today and all the rich blessings that it showers upon us, were made possible, and while we pay our dues to the great leaders of the war, we should not forget our local debt of gratitude to the Allens, Wilders and Prescotts, who, in a humble way, played their part as nobly.
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Scale, 250 rods :o the inch.
The survey for this map was made "in obedience to an order of the General Court, dated June 26, 1794." The original has been altered only in size and in the lettering of the name, The physical geography of the map is incomplete. and in some cases, of questionable accuracy. The roads leading north, south, east and west from Prescott's Mills, as given in the map of 1830, page 182, were in existence in 1795, although omitted from this map. For convenience in reading names, the southern part of the map is placed uppermost as in the original.
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CHAPTER VII.
CLOSING YEARS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
ALTHOUGH the Revolution was over, the weight of in- debtedness incurred pressed heavily on the people for many years. The credit of the state could be maintained only by increased taxation. This taxation bore most severely upon the owners of real estate. Mortgages grew more and more common, and forced sales were of frequent occurrence.
Lancaster, like all farming communities, was anxious for relief. In 1786, Ebenezer Allen was sent as the representa- tive of the town to a county convention at Leicester which met to consider this question. He attended the adjourn- ment of the same convention which met in Paxton. The convention resolved on a petition to the General Court, but Lancaster chose rather to instruct its representative. Moses Sawyer was one of a committee of seven, chosen for this purpose. While these instructions call for levying taxes by duties rather than by direct taxation, and ask for a decrease in the expenses of government and a change in the courts, yet they condemn in the severest terms any resort to violence. Shay's insurrection found little sympathy in Lancaster. On the other hand, the town furnished a large force of troops for its suppression. Two names of the younger Prescotts, Sergeant Jonathan and Corporal Joseph Prescott, are found on the rolls, and also that of Abel Allen. The insurrection was crushed after a brief and bloodless campaign.
After holding the office of delegate to these conventions
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CLOSING YEARS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
called to consider financial troubles, Ebenezer Allen does not appear prominently again in public service outside of local affairs. In addition to offices already mentioned, he was often moderator at town meetings. He was foremost in the movement for settling Rev. Nathaniel Thayer as a col- league to Rev. Timothy Harrington in 1793, and was for half a century a leading member of the church. He lived to see the country for which he had labored so earnestly and so wisely, firmly established and well started on its prosperous career. He died in 1812 at the age of eighty-eight. His wife survived him some years. In "Fletcher's Reminis- cences," as quoted by Rev. A. P. Marvin, we find the follow- ing picture of the old lady and her maiden daughter, Tabitha. "Her, I saw several years after her husband's death. She was then about ninety-three years old, and her daughter, Tabitha, was near seventy-five, and at that age, she talked to her daughter just as though she was only a child. They had always lived together, and the relation be- tween mother and child had never been broken. We were shown large hanks of linen thread that Aunt Allen had spun that summer on her little wheel."
Ebenezer Allen's farm was broken up before his death. The record remains of liberal portions given to three of his sons before the close of the eighteenth century. May 7th, 18II, ninety-four acres of land, with the buildings east of the road (now North Main Street), and five acres west of the road, with buildings, were sold by Ebenezer Allen to Aaron S. Bridge and William Bridge, of East Sudbury. These men did not occupy this estate, for we find that they we're still residents in East Sudbury when they sold it, January II, 1813, to Moses Emerson.
Of the sons, Amos and Samuel Allen only remained in this section long after they reached their majority. In 1782, Amos received from his father ninety acres of land, and built a house on the west side of North Main Street. His lot extended as far south as the Rigby Road. He was a
105
THE PRESCOTTS.
resident of Berlin in 1785, and had sold his farm here to Abijah Pratt. The house and a part of the farm passed through the hands of Jonathan Wheelock, Samuel H. Haynes, Benjamin Wheelock, Benjamin Thomson and Thomas W. Lyon. The latter bought in ISO1, and sold the house and a few acres of the land to Nathan Burdett in ISIO. In ISI4, Burdett sold to Robert Phelps. Amos Allen returned to this district in 1789, and bought of Jonathan Prescott a farm of seventy-five acres on what is now South Main Street. In 1795, Allen sold this to John Fry, and in IS00, John Fry sold to John Lowe. This was afterwards known as the John Burdett farm. Apparently, Amos Allen left town again in 1795. In 1816, he received a letter of dis- mission from the church in Lancaster to the church in Luzerne, New York.
Samuel Allen evidently cared for his aged father, and sometimes their real estate transactions were closely com- bined. He lived on the old estate, probably in his father's home. He owned various large pieces of land in his own name between Rigby and Goodridge Brooks. Ebenezer Allen owned an estate on the road leading from the mills to South River (at Harrisville), from ISO8 to ISII. Tradition states that Samuel lived here, at the present northwest corner of Chestnut and Water Streets. Ebenezer Allen sold this to T. W. Lyon, and Lyon sold, with additions, to Emory Harris in 1812. Samuel Allen lived at a later time on George Hill.
In 1779, John Prescott, 5th, sold to Moses Sawyer, sixty acres of land along the river, which he had bought of the heirs of Hezekiah Gates. In 1790, he sold forty-two acres along Rigby Brook to Benajah Brigham. February 21, 1783, John Prescott, 4th, sold to his son, John Prescott, 5th, one hundred and thirty-three acres of land "with buildings." If Prescott Street was extended until it met the river on each end, the land included between it and the river would
106
CLOSING YEARS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
have belonged to this farm. It is probable that the house, afterwards known as the Harris house, on the site of the present Tyler house, at the northwest corner of Cedar and Water Streets, was built by the father at about this time for his son. In 1790, this house and farm were sold to Joseph Haynes of Princeton, together with eighty acres east of the river, for four hundred pounds. Haynes apparently lived here until 1796, when he sold to John Hunt of Uxbridge. John Prescott, 5th, at the time of sale in 1790, went to live in his father's house.
January 25, 1785, John Prescott, 4th, sold to his son, Jonathan, ninety-eight acres of land on both sides of the road from the mill to Moses Sawyer's. This would include the land from above the present location of Pleasant Street to Union Street and at some points beyond, from Mossy Pond to Prescott Street extended and to the river. It is probable that Jonathan Prescott built the house afterwards occupied by Amos Allen, John Lowe and John Burdett. He sold out his farm to Amos Allen in 1789.
John Prescott, 4th, was already a worn-out old man, when, in 1786, he gave the mills and two hundred and seven acres of land to his youngest sons, Joseph and Jabez,* with the condition that each should furnish yearly to him or his wife, as long as either of them should live, "one load of hay, five bushels of Indian Corn, three of rye, three of wheat and one thousand feet of boards."
Jabez seems to have been his father's chief reliance. In 1788, the father sold to this son for three hundred pounds, thirty-five acres of land, with buildings, northwest
* The land given to Joseph and Jabez Prescott, jointly, was divided October 8th, 1787, so that Joseph kept the northwest portion and Jabez the southeast portion. In 1790, the fifty acres of the land and the saw- mill given Joseph, went by judgment of the courts to Joseph Turnbull of Petersham, apothecary, for a debt of eighty-five pounds.
107
THE PRESCOTTS.
of the farm of John Prescott, Jr. In this decd, the old "sullor," evidently that of the ancient Prescott house, is mentioned. The price paid, and the subsequent transfers of the property, more or less modified, show this to have been the house standing on the present site of C. M. Dinsmore's house, the northwest corner of Water and Chestnut Streets.i
The wife of John Prescott, 4th, died in 1788, but he lived to see the constitution adopted, and to cast his vote for Washington. He died in 1791, in his seventy-ninth year. It is possible that his estate became involved in the financial difficulties of the times, or it may be that none of his children had the disposition to follow the business of their father, or they might have been lacking in ability to manage it successfully. However, it may be explained, it is certain that after one hundred and forty years of possession by five successive generations of the Prescott family, in 1795, the mills were in the hands of John Sprague, the Lancaster law- yer, and were for some years from this time known as Sprague's Mills.
Joseph and Jabez Prescott both removed to Ohio, the
tOne hundred and twenty acres, including this lot, with build- ings, were sold by Jabez and his father to Benajah Brigham, of Berlin, and by him to Richard Sargent of Mendon in 1795. Through the hands of G. B. Newman, who had foreclosed a mortgage on it, the estate passed in 1805 to Jabez Lowe, of Leominster ; from Jabez Lowe, "of Lancaster," in 1807, to Ephraim Brigham in part, and to J. Sawyer in part. J. Sawyer had eighty-seven acres of the land, which he sold to Calvin Winter. Ephraim Brigham sold the house and the rest of the land to Ebenezer Allen in 1808. Jabez Prescott sold to Moses Sawyer, sixty-seven acres northeast of the mill. in 1791. We shall see how this land was sold four years later to Nathaniel Lowe. In 1793, Obadiah Fry, of Bolton, bought fifty acres of Jonathan Prescott.
¿In 1793, Jabez Prescott sold to John Sprague about fifty-four acres of land, and one-half grist-mill, £100. April, 1793, John Prescott sold to John Sprague, one-half saw-mill, £45. August, 1795, John Ballard sold to John Sprague, one-half grist-mill, and one-half saw-mill, £166. This gives a total of about a thousand dollars.
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CLOSING YEARS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
then distant West. Jonas had become a doctor in Rindge, N. H., as early as 1776. After five years he moved to Keene, N. H., and thence to Templeton, Mass. Jonathan was a constable in Boston, so that Capt. John Prescott, fifth of the name, was the only one that remained near the mills. He lived in the house afterwards known as the Hoadley and the Evans house, now standing back of the buildings at the corner of High and Water Streets, and owned by Harold Parker. The old homestead of the Prescotts must have been destroyed or moved before 1788, when the old "sullor hole" is mentioned, but no record remains of its disappear- ance. Only a small amount of land was left to John Pres- cott, 5th, and later this was reduced to fourteen acres by the sale of several pieces east of the river. Meanwhile, mort- gage after mortgage was put on the little that remained. John Prescott was an active member of the Trinity Lodge of Free Masons, and the records that have been preserved of that organization show that he was often labored with for his bibulous habits, and on one St. John's day, he was for- bidden to attend the exercises, "as he had repeatedly appeared to be intoxicated at our public celebrations."
It will be remembered that he had married Mary Ballard in 1775, but they had no children. A child lived with them, however, for whom he paid at the district school. He was for a year committee man of School District No. 10. As he died of dropsy in 1811, at the age of sixty-two, it is highly probable that his general health was poor for a long time. He surely lacked either the character, the energy or the opportunities of his ancestors, for, outside of his position as *captain at the time of the Lexington alarm, we find little to record of public service or private enterprise. His widow survived him, but the house and the lands which remained with it were sold by the administrator at auction, except the right of widow's dower. In April, 1814, Poignand & Plant bought out the rights of Mary (Ballard ) Prescott.
With the death of John Prescott, 5th, the direct line of
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THE SARGENTS.
the Prescott family, although existing in its former vigor elsewhere, passed out of the history of this section. In this family, Clinton finds its origin, and for the first century, its record was the history of the town. For another quarter of a century, the family held a most prominent position in the slowly growing community, and it was not until after a century and a half had passed since the setting of the first mill-stone, that its immediate influence ceased to be felt.
From 1795 to 1809, when the mills were pulled down, they were successively known as Sprague's Mills, Brigham's Mills and Lyon's Mills, although the title of Prescott's Mills was still somewhat used. During the ownership of the Spragues, the mills were in charge of Richard Sargent, by whom, they were probably rented. When Richard Sargent came to town in 1795, he sold out a large farm in Mendon. We have seen how he bought the house and one hundred and twenty-five acres of the land afterwards owned by Emory Harris. Tradition states that he was a Quaker, and attended the church in Bolton. It has been said that his re- mains rest in the little burial ground near this church, but our search there for his headstone proved fruitless. Margaret Darling, his granddaughter, who lived in his household, be- came the wife of Nathan Burdett. Mr. Sargent's business as a miller was evidently unsuccessful, for he was obliged to mortgage his homestead in 1800 and again in 1801. The last record which we find of Richard Sargent is the sale of the privilege where the Lancaster Mills' dam now is to Daniel Aldrich in 1805. This had fallen into his hands through a judgment against Stephen Sargent.
The part of the farm of Amos Allen, which was on the northwest corner of Rigby Road and Main Street, was sold by Abijah Pratt to Jonathan Barnard in 1790. Barnard sold to Jabez Prescott in 1793. Prescott sold to Coffin Chapin, "with buildings," in 1794. Chapin lived here for a short time. Daniel Aldrich also lived here. The land and build-
IIO
CLOSING YEARS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
ings passed through the hands of John Sprague, Richard Sargent, Jr., who died after being here a few years, Benajah Brigham and Stephen Sargent, who bought in IS01 for six hundred dollars, and sold in 1813 for thirteen hundred dol- lars. It is probable that Sargent erected new buildings on this lot or greatly improved the old ones. In the early times of Poignand & Plant, there were several buildings on it, the chief of which is still standing in a modified form in the lumber store of W. A. Fuller. When Stephen Sargent sold this estate, he immediately bought of Edward and Solomon Fuller the farm near Clamshell Pond now known as the Car- ruth farm, for fifteen hundred dollars. This Stephen Sar- gent married Mary Temple of Boylston, in 1801. They had eight or more children. His estate passed through the hands of Joseph Butler, Emory Harris and Ephraim Car- ruth to Charles E. Carruth.
In February, 1792, Benjamin Gould bought eight acres of land of Jonathan Barnard on the east of the road and north of Rigby Brook, where the house of E. K. Gibbs now stands. This land was immediately transferred to Elizabeth Gould of Topsfield. This Benjamin Gould was born in Topsfield in 1751. He led thirty minute men from his native town to the battle of Lexington. He bore upon his cheek through life a prominent scar caused by a bullet wound received there. He was made a captain and was the last man to leave Charles- town Neck when the Americans withdrew from Bunker Hill. He was at White Plains, Bennington and Stillwater. He was in command of the main guard at West Point at the time of Arnold's flight and Andre's capture. After the war, he was unsuccessful in business, and evidently began to build on his lot near Rigby Brook without any reliable prospect of finding means to complete his house. The cellar was dug, and in a corner of it a temporary structure was finished off, and here he and his family lived for some years. Novem- ber 9, 1802, Elizabeth Gould sold the land, with buildings, to
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