USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 33
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1 See Appendix XXI.
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seat. Persons were also appointed to receive rags for the paper-mill, as the province could no longer depend on the mother country for its paper. But the most difficult task was the obtaining of saltpetre.
As gunpowder contains seventy-five per cent of saltpetre, the latter article became a great scarcity during the war; and March 4, 1776, an article was inserted in the town war- rant "to see if the town will take any method to encour- age the manufacture of saltpetre; and it was voted that a committee be appointed to set up the making of that arti- cle." On the 18th of that month it was voted that Adam Blackman, Jonathan Capen, Esquire Dunbar, Samuel Os- good, and George Crosman be a committee to set up the making of "solt Peater " and keep an exact account of their charges. The sills of barns that yielded ammonia, at As- pinwall's, Hartwell's, Ruth Billings's, Aaron Wentworth's, were scraped carefully, and the ground in the immediate vicinity of decayed organic matter was dug over.
Elijah Dunbar attacked this problem in deep earnest. He set tubs in his barn, filled them with water, and tended them; he boiled them and it "comes to but little;" he got dirt from under the house and set his leaches; he fetched apple-tree brush, and boiled down saltpetre. On the 6th of June Dunbar, Wheeler, and Blackman began to build a saltpetre house. On the 17th it was raised; bricks for the chimney were brought from Boston, and the boards were procured from May's saw-mill in Pequit valley; but it was not until August or September that saltpetre was manu- factured with any degree of success. It is probable that this article was delivered at the powder-mill when ready for use.
On May 13 the Committee of Correspondence met at Smith's tavern, and on the 17th a fast was held throughout the country. James Endicott went about soliciting cloth- ing for the soldiers; William Shaller visited each house to ascertain the number of male inhabitants capable of bearing arms; Lemuel Gay, William Bent, and Nathaniel Fisher
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
distributed food to the families of the soldiers; they urged upon all the people with whom they came in contact the necessity of supporting the war. Thus was public opinion wrought to such a pitch that when, on the 22d of May, 1776, the freeholders of Stoughton met at the old meeting-house, they voted "that if the Honorable Continental Congress should, for the safety of this Colony, declare us independ- ent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, we, the inhabitants, will solemnly engage with our lives and fortunes to support them in the measure."
Thus stands the record,-a brave, self-sacrificing record; noble words to be followed by noble deeds; words to be read by all men; a record dear to those who look back one hun- dred years and recall the men who were willing to fight for liberty and independence; dear to all who in our ancient town enjoy to-day the benefits of the freedom which the fulfilment of this engagement achieved.
On the day that these resolutions were passed, Benjamin Gill and Thomas Crane were chosen as Representatives to the General Court. The month was ended by all the young men going down to work at Castle William.
On the 13th of June "all hands are preparing to go down and assist in driving ye ministerial ships out of the harbor." On the 14th the company under Captain Endicott, which formed a part of the regiment of Colonel Gill, marched to Moon Island. 1
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was promulgated by the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia. On Lord's Day, August 18, it was publicly read from the pulpit of the old meeting-house by the Rev. Mr. Dunbar, and a copy was entered in the town record-book. Mr. Dunbar preached a sermon on the occasion, being then in the seventy-first year of his age, and had, save one year, completed a ministry of half a century. In this discourse we have an exponent of his own feelings, and undoubtedly the sentiment of the people of his parish and town. He said : --
1 See Appendix XXI.
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" When George the Third had made his little finger heavier than his grandfather's loins, had been making unrighteous laws, taking away our charter, and altering fundamentally the forms of our government, and has been deaf to the many petitions we have addressed to him, and has treated them with disdain and neglect, with insult and injury, and as a true tyrant, has been, and is, using violent and bloody meas- ures to compel our submission and obedience to his, and his parlia- ment's laws, has been and is sending his ships of war to block up our harbors, intercept our trade, to destroy our seaport towns, and his armies of soldiers to waste and destroy our lives, and is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete the work of death, desolation, and tyrany, - by these and many other ways of oppression and tyrany has the King of Great Britain been giving way to his pride and cruelty, and has been exchanging whips for scorpions."
As he proceeded with the delivery of his discourse, the fires of patriotism warmed within him, and with all the force of his nature he declares the right of the people to free them- selves from the yoke of Great Britain. He draws a parallel between the children of Israel and the colonies, and sustains the late action of the Continental Congress in dissolving the relation between themselves and Great Britain. Toward the end of his sermon he reads the Declaration of Independ- ence, and closes with a solemn exhortation. The patriotic preacher who uttered these words voluntarily relinquished one half his salary during the war, which he believed was not to be avoided save at the expense of honor. He entered vigorously into the shaping of public opinion; he gave to the sentiment of patriotism the sanction of religion. He exhorted his people to be brave and steadfast. He instilled into their hearts a love of liberty, regulated by law, with that untiring energy and indomitable perseverance for which the clergy of the period of the Revolution were so distinguished. Nor was it by word alone that he urged forward the good work; twenty years before he had seen service at Crown Point, and now, an old man, he went again as chaplain with one of the companies that marched to protect the fortifications, and for some time was sta-
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tioned at Meeting-House Hill in Dorchester. He was probably attached to the company of Capt. Jedediah South- worth. He may have been down earlier, for on August 3, 1775, Mr. Dunbar baptized a child of Colonel Robinson at Cambridge. Perhaps this was the first child named for the father of his country, - GEORGE WASHINGTON.
In order to encourage the enrolling of soldiers, the town voted, July 8, 1776, to pay to each of the thirty-eight men who should enlist for the Northern Department in the campaign against Quebec, the sum of £6 6s. 8d., as an addition to their bounty. The persons whose names are hereafter mentioned offered each to pay for five men, that are going into the service toward Quebec, their poll-tax for the above sum that was granted: Colonel Gill, Captain En- dicott, Samuel Tucker, Ezekiel Fisher, Captain Billings, Aaron Wentworth, Esquire Crane, Deacon Holmes, John Hartwell, John Withington, Captain Swan, William Shaller, Deacon Capen, Lieutenant Johnson. On the following day there was a training, and Captain Endicott enlisted a num- ber of men; on the 18th the alarm-list trained, and eight men were pressed.
At a town meeting held July 22, there were only two articles in the warrant, the second of which was to see if the town will raise a sum of money for a further encourage -. ment of the men that are to be raised for the expedition against Canada. It was voted to raise £6 6s. 8d. for each non-commissioned officer and soldier that shall enlist and march to join the army against Canada of the last two regi- ments that are to be raised by taking every twenty-fifth man, if it should fall to those that enlist out of this town to go to Canada; but if they are to march to the works at or near Boston, then they are not to have said sum or any part thereof.
On September 16 every fifth man under fifty years of age was drafted to go to New York. In July the furnace at Stoughtonham sent to the committee of supplies fifteen swivel-guns and nine hundred swivel-shot, which had been manufactured there. In the fall the supply of coal be-
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came short. Within two miles of the furnace there was a large tract of wood, owned by Isaac Royall, Esq., Sir William Pepperell, and George Erving, Esq., -all Tories and refugees. Mr. Nathaniel Guild, at that time in charge of the furnace, petitions the General Court for leave to cut wood from this land, in order to make coal, so that the orders for the State and the orders of General Wash- ington for large quantities of military stores may be com- pleted. The court granted him liberty to cut wood not exceeding one hundred cords, belonging to the Loyalists before mentioned, and also granted sixteen of the men who were employed in the furnace immunity from military duty. This furnace was situated on the stream which flows from Walomolopog Pond into Narragansett Bay, and is now occu- pied by Jeremiah Holmes as a shingle-mill.
At a town meeting held Sept. 30, 1776, it was voted that a committee be chosen to consider and act on the fourth article in the warrant; namely, To hear a resolve from the General Court sent to this town, relative to the formation of a new constitution within this State, and act thereon. It was voted that Messrs. John Kenney, Christopher Wadsworth, Jonathan Capen, Abner Crane, and Elijah Dunbar, Esq., be a committee to draft a vote and lay it before the town. That committee made the following report, which was ordered to be published in the newspapers of the day: -
We, the subscribers, being chosen by this town. at a town meeting legally assembled at Stoughton, on the 30th of Sept. last, a com- mittee to draft a vote upon an article in ye town warrant, respecting chosing ye present General Court, to form a plan of government for this State, have attended to that service and beg leave to report the following resolutions, viz. : -
I. Resolved, That good government is the basis of liberty and abso- lutely necessary to the safety and welfare of a people.
2. Resolved, That as the end of government is the happiness of the people, so the sole power and right of forming and establishing a plan thereof is essentially in the people.
3. Resolved, That as this State is at present destitute of a fixed and established form of government, it is absolutely necessary that one im-
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mediately be formed and established agreeable to the recommenda- tions of the Grand Congress.
4. Resolved, That as the present House of Representatives have passed a resolve, to see if the several towns in this State would em- power them, the said House, together with the Council, to enact a plan of government for this State, it appears to us unadvisable and irrational, and a measure that ought not by any means to be complied with, for these reasons ; viz. that we are totally unacquainted with the capacities and patriotism and character of ye members that compose the said House of Council, excepting our own member ; also, because they were never elected by the people for that purpose, and also be- cause the present embarrassed state of our public affairs calls for the steady attention of every member of said House.
5. Resolved, That it is the duty and interest of this town immedi- ately to choose one or more members to join with the members of the other towns in this State to form and publish a plan of government for said State.
6. Resolved, That in order to carry ye foregoing resolutions into ex- ecution as soon as ye importance of the matter may admit, it appears to us best that the members of the several towns in each County in this State, chosen for ye express purpose aforesaid, should meet to- gether in County conventions, and when so met, should draft a form of government for the whole State.
Then that the members of the several towns of this State should meet together by themselves, or by their Committee, in a State con- vention or Congress, and compare the several forms of government together, whereby tlie wisdom of the whole State may be collected and a form of government may be extracted.
7. Resolved, That it appears to us absolutely necessary for the liberty and safety of this State that the plan of government, when formed and published, should not be established till the people of this State have had time and opportunity of thoroughly examining the same, and shall consent that it be established by the said State Convention or Congress. All of which is humbly submitted by us.
STOUGHTON, Oct. 2, 1776.
The town of Mendon voted to approve the resolves of the town of Stoughton relative to the manner of proceeding in forming a constitutional government. While these matters of state were being attended to at home, Col. Frederic Pope,
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who resided in Stoughton near the Bridgewater line, was far away, crossing the Delaware with Washington, and assisting at the capture of the Hessians.
On the 18th of February, 1777, the question of filling the town quota for three years, or during the war, was dis- cussed in town meeting; and it was voted that any person whether an inhabitant of the town or not, who should enlist before the 5th of March should receive £14 on passing muster. It was also voted that the town hire all the men re- quired to carry on the present war, but if there should be so sudden a call that the committee could not hire them, then the officers shall draft them. One month after, a com- mittee which had been appointed at a previous meeting of the town, March 2, for the express purpose of ascertaining what each man had done, over and above paying his customary tax, toward supporting and maintaining the present war, - either by going into the service, by hiring, or by fines, and to give due credit for the same, in order to make an equal bal- ance of duty, - make the following report: -
" The committee, on their attending the above said perplexing ser- vice, endeavored impartially to act according to the best of their judgment, justly without fear or favor, and to perform the difficult and arduous task by passing the following votes, viz. : -
" I. Voted, that each non-commissioned officer and private soldier now belonging to, and wlio went from the town of Stoughton into eight months' service in the year 1775, be allowed and paid by the town treasurer £2, which small sum, upon mature deliberation, is ascertained to be an equivalent to the aforesaid service ; at same time acknowledging the voluntary service done by our brave and patriotic troops, at that juncture when ye country was in such a defenceless state, is praiseworthy and was attended in many instances with great danger. Yet considering they had a bounty of a cot and blanket, and that labor and the necessaries of life were much cheaper then than they have been since, and on account of their being near home, and having many privileges and advantages that troops in foreign and dis- tant service cannot possibly have, the committee think in justice they cannot be allowed any more than the above named sum.
" 2. Voted, that each non-commissioned officer and private soldier who were in twelve months' service be allowed and paid by the town
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treasurer the sum of £16, which large sum, considering their having no bounty when they enlisted, and being obliged to press in uniform at their own expense, and on account of their long and tedious marches, their enduring the inclemencies of extreme heat and cold in different sections of the year, their many and hazardous battles, their frequent and disagreeable retreats, their loosing of packs and clothing, and finally their being obliged to expend almost all their wages for the comfortable support of life, the committee think in justice is no more than adequate to their incredible fatigues, and dangerous and hard services.
" 3. Voted, that each non-commissioned officer and private soldier who were in the two months' service in February and March, the last year belonging as above said, be allowed and paid by the town treas- urer ye sum of {1, which sum the committee judge is an equivalent for said service, considering they had the advantage of being near home, although it is granted they had no bounty and that their duty was attended with fatigue and great danger on Dorchester Hills, and for that reason they are allowed the above said sum.
" 4. Voted, that each non-commissioned officer and private soldier who were in the four months' service last year to Ticondaroga belong- ing as aforesaid, £1, 10, which sum is thought reasonable to be al- lowed to them on account of their long and tedious march in extreme hot weather, and their being obliged to carry their own baggage a considerable part of the way or leave it behind them, notwithstand- ing their having a large bounty of £13 6, 8 for their going ; yet add- ing both together, the Committee think in justice they will be amply rewarded for that service.
"5. Voted, that every 25th man being a non-commissioned officer or private soldier, who was drafted by order of Council or voluntarily went into the service to make up that quota upon the lines near Boston for four months the last year, be allowed and paid by the Town Treasurer the sum of £4, on account of their wages not being equal to what they could get at home, which sum is estimated to be an equivalent for that service by the committee, and those who paid their money for that service be allowed the sums they actually paid.
"6. Voted, that those persons that were drafted by order of ye Gen- eral Court to go to Horse-neck or New York, not being military offi- cers, that went in person, that hired or paid their fines, be allowed and paid by the town treasurer the sum of {10 each, in consideration that men could not be procured under that sum at that time for some
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cause or other, and as fines and hiring with the same sum is voted by the town to be allowed, the committee in justice estimate personal service in the same campaign to be equal to those that paid their money.
" 7. Voted, that those persons drafted for the last three months' campaign be allowed and paid as aforesaid fro for the reasons last mentioned.
"8. Voted, that the Captains and Lieutenants who were in ye twelve months' service in the year last past, belonging to the town, be allowed and paid by the town treasurer, to each of them, f10 on account of their great expenses, their good services, their many fatigues and dangerous enterprises they have necessarily and unavoidably been called to in course of the last year.
" 9. Voted, that those Ensigns who were in ye twelve months' service, belonging as aforesaid, be allowed and paid £12 each, in considera- tion of the aforementioned reasons, and on account of their wages being small in proportion to their expenses.
" 10. Voted, that the Captains and Lieutenants in the eight months' service in 1775, belonging as aforesaid, be allowed and paid £1, 10 each, which sum is allowed in consideration of their patriotic and good services.
" 11. Voted, that ye Ensigns in last mentioned service belonging as aforesaid, be allowed and paid £2 each, in consideration of the last mentioned reasons, and on account that their pay was then very small.
" 12. Voted, that the Captains and Lieutenants in ye two months' service in February and March, be allowed and paid £0, 15 each, on account of their extraordinary danger on Dorchester Hills, and to the Ensign in that service for ye aforesaid reason and small pay, £1.
" 13. Voted, that the Captain who went to Ticonderoga the last year be allowed and paid {10, in consideration of his answering for one of the town quota of men, and on account of his leaving his business, having no bounty, his long march, and extraordinary expenses ; and the Ensigns in that service £12 each, for the aforesaid reasons and small pay.
" 14. Voted, that the Captain, Lieutenant, and Surgeon who went to New York in the two month's campaign, be allowed and paid £7, 10 each, for the aforesaid reasons.
" 15. Voted, that the Lieutenant to New York for three months for the above reasons be allowed and paid £7, 10.
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
" 16. Voted, that those who went on alarms to Bunker Hill and Wey- mouth be allowed and paid {0, 6 each, for each service, on account of their having no pay allowed them by the Court.
" 17. Voted, that none of the aforesaid sums be paid to any person unless to those who are taxed and shall pay their proportion to the rate now immediately to be collected for ye purpose of making an equal balance of duty in this town respecting the burden expenses of the present war, excepting the heirs of ye deceased who have done duty in the war ; and this last vote was passed in consideration that a number of men are now enlisted who can not be obliged to pay the tax. All of which is submitted, &c."
The town at its May meeting chose Thomas Crane as its Representative, but desired to go on record as standing by its former resolutions, and desired that its Representative should take no part in forming a plan of government.
The scarcity of salt throughout the country had impelled the people to take active measures to obtain a supply. On the 21st of May, 1777, a committee, consisting of James Hawkes Lewis, Adam Blackman, and Deacon Capen, were appointed by the town, to manufacture salt and " make trial as soon as possible." They visited Squantum, leased a piece of land of Joseph Beale, procured bricks, timber, etc., and in August began operations. For the next eighteen months, wood was carted from Stoughton to the landing at Milton, and was there measured by Phineas Pain, transferred to lighters, and floated down the Neponset River to Squantum; the salt-house was built where the improved sewer leaves the mainland for Moon Island. When the salt was ready, it was brought up to Stoughton in barrels or hogsheads. During 1779 the committee paid out £958 19s. 4d. and received £929 135. 4d. In 1783 the kettles, pails, trays, baskets, etc., were brought back to Stoughton, and sold at auction at the house of Lieut. Robert Capen.
Nov. 3, 1777, the second article in the warrant was "to see if the town will choose a committee to provide for the families of those who are now in the Continental service." It was "voted that John Withington, Peter Talbot, James Endicott, Recompence Wadsworth, and Elijah Dunbar be
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a committee to provide for the families of them that are in the Continental service, agreeable to a Resolve of the General Court."
The following is the report of the committee chosen to examine the accounts of the Committee of Supplies : -
STOUGHTON, March 12, 1778.
We, ye subscribers, being chosen a committee to examine the ac- counts of the committee of supplies of ye town, have this day attended that service ; and beg leave to report that said committee have opened accounts with the families of the Continental soldiers, and have fairly and accurately set down their receivings and payings ont ; and upon adjusting the accounts we find that they have received of ye Continen- tal families and of the town ye sum of £183, 17, and have delivered out to said families to ye amount of £132, 4, 2, 2, so that there re- mains in said committee's hands ye value of £51, 12, 9, 2, which we find consists in the following articles, viz., corn, nine bushels valued at £9, 18, and 533 1-2 of pork, which together with ye salt to salt ye same, ye expense of bringing it from Boston, and a pail to put ye hog's fat in, amounts to £41, 14, 8, so that there remains in said com- mittee's hands f0, 1, 2, - all which is submitted by us.
SAM'L BLACKMAN, BENJ. GILL, ROBERT SWAN,
Committee.
During the year 1777, the Committee of Correspondence, which consisted of James Hawkes Lewis, John Withington, Isaiah Johnson, Capt. Abner Crane, and Capt. Samuel Payson, met frequently at May's tavern, at Smith's tavern, at Noyes's in Sharon, and at Johnson's, to regulate the prices of goods, and to ascertain what was being done to carry on the war. They were also raising men to go to Rhode Island, hiring men, and paying them with hired money; trainings were con- stantly taking place. On the 31st of July Colonel Gill set off, his troops having started on the 27th; on the 28th of October they were heard from. Burgoyne had met them, and they had captured him; and a number of the citizens rejoiced at Stone's over the glad tidings.
During 1775 the Continental currency remained nearly at
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
par. In 1777 it was at a discount of fifty per cent, or, as we should say, gold had risen to two hundred. In 1778 specie was worth four times as much as paper, and at the end of the year 1779, forty times as much. The following bill will show the depreciation of the currency in 1780: -
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