USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Gardner > History of the town of Gardner, Worcester County, Mass., from the incorporation, June 27, 1785, to the present time > Part 2
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466
ILLUSTRATIONS.
W. D. HERRICK
Frontispiece.
MAPS.
MAP OF THE TOWN Following Introduction.
MAP OF THE VILLAGES
End of the Work.
VIEWS OF THE VILLAGES. FACING PAGES
GARDNER CENTRE AND WEST VILLAGE (From Glazier Hill)
32
SOUTH GARDNER VILLAGE (From Kendall IIill) 48
VIEWS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.
TOWN HALL
64
GARDNER WORK HOUSE 240
HIGH SCHOOL HOUSE 456
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
504
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
192
VIEWS OF CHAIR FACTORIES.
CHAIR FACTORY OF PHILANDER DERBY
128
CHAIR FACTORY OF HEYWOOD BROTHERS & Co.
176
PAINT SHOP OF HEYWOOD BROTHERS & Co.
184
PRIVATE RESIDENCES.
RESIDENCE OF LEVI HEYWOOD 144
RESIDENCE OF S. K. PIERCE 168
RESIDENCE OF PHILANDER DERBY 280
RESIDENCE OF SETH HEYWOOD
328
PORTRAITS.
PHILANDER DERBY 160
LEVI HEYWOOD 304
DAVID PARKER, M. D. 400
THOMAS E. GLAZIER 416
JOHN M. MOORE
440
SYLVESTER K. PIERCE 456
HISTORY OF GARDNER.
CHAPTER I.
THE TOWN CONSIDERED AS AN INTEGRANT PART OF THE UNITED STATES.
"God made the country and man made the town."-Cowper's Task.
HERE is much wisdom embodied in the saying of Aris- totle, "that the nature of everything is best seen in its smallest portions." This wisdom is applicable to all who are seeking for a correct understanding of the principles upon which the government of these United States, and the execution of its laws, is based. It is natural for us to inquire into the causes of things, to seek for the source and hidden depths out of which spring those events, which arrest attention and deter- mine the condition of society for succeeding ages. Kane, en- during the rigors of an Arctic winter, in search of an open Polar Sea, Livingston and Stanley, hunting, amid the dangers of African exploration, for the sources of the Nile, are fit illus- trations of a desire in man to make himself familiar with the origin of things. Hence it is, that the student of our United States government, must not content himself in merely viewing it as a central organization, whose power, through its Chief Executive, is felt to the remotest parts of the nation ; he must continue his investigations till he has ascertained the fons et origo from which this power is derived. In so doing he will be fled directly to the source of all power in the nation, as imma-
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nent in the sovereign people. This investigation will ultimately lead him to a consideration of the town as an integrant portion of the nation.
In his " History of New England," Mr. Palfrey remarks that " with something of the same propriety, with which the nation may be said to be a confederacy of republics, called states, each New England state may be described as a confederacy of minor republies, called towns." Tracing our nation to its ele- mentary sources, we reach the town, whose origin and functions are thought to be worthy of some special notice in a work like this.
The word town is derived from the old English word tun, and this from tynan, meaning to enclose. In early times, in Great Britain, the word was used to denote an assemblage of houses having a market and surrounded by a wall. Some- times it denoted an enclosure, containing the homestead or dwelling of the lord of the manor. According to Blackstone the idea of the town is Saxon in its origin, and is allied to the Saxon word tithing, meaning, in ancient law, "a number or company of ten house-holders, who, dwelling near each other, were sureties or free pledges to the king, for the good behavior of each other." Whatever may have been the origin of the term, we find that in New England, from its first settlement, the town was the primary organization. Its existence, though somewhat peculiar to the New England States, seems to have been a necessity to the colonists, in order that they might more conveniently and securely reach the ends for which they sought a settlement upon these shores. No sooner had they made their selections of land, formed their little settlements and builded their rude dwellings, in convenient proximity to each other, than they organized themselves into an independent mu- nicipality, in which every citizen exercised the sovereign right of suffrage.
It is worthy of remark here, that the town as an integral portion of the state and the republic, is an institution in great degree, peculiar to New England. Here the towns existed
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previous to the counties and the state. Subsequently the towns were formed into counties. But in the southern portion of the country there are parishes instead of towns. The town is an independent municipality, and is a direct result of the principle of popular sovereignty. "The doctrine of the sovereignty of the people," says De Tocqueville, " came out of the townships, and took possession of the states. Political life (in New Eng- land) had its origin in the townships ; and it may almost be said, that each of them formed an independent nation. When the kings of England afterwards asserted their supremacy, they were content to assume the central power of the state. They left the townships where they were before ; and although they are now subject to the state, they were not at first, or were hardly so. They did not receive their power from the central authority ; but on the contrary, they gave up a portion of their independence to the state. The townships are subordinate to the state, only in those interests which I shall term social, as they are common to all others. They are independent in all that concerns themselves alone ; and amongst the inhabitants of New England, I believe, that not a man is to be found who would acknowledge that the state has any right to interfere in their town affairs. The people reign in the American political world, as the Deity does in the universe. They are the cause and the aim of all things; everything comes from them and everything is absorbed in them.
" In America the principle of the sovereignty of the people is neither barren nor concealed, as it is with some other nations. It is recognized by the customs and proclaimed by the laws ; it spreads freely and arrives without impediment at its most re- mote consequences. If there be a country in the world where the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people can be fairly ap- preciated, where it can be studied in its application to the affairs of society, and where its dangers and its advantages may be judged, that country is America."
From the foundation of the colonies, the social condition of the American people has ever been increasingly democratic. From
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the beginning, there has ever been a jealousy of superiority and a steadfast aiming at equality in all political rights. In New England, the germs of aristocracy were never planted. Farther south they obtained ground in the earliest history of the nation. It was this hatred of arrogancy of power, in New England, that made our fathers intolerant of all priestly domination and urged them to expel from their midst the representatives of the estab- lished church of England. In the words of Rev. John Wise of Ipswich, " Democracy is Christ's government in church and in state. The pew and the pulpit had been educated to self- government." Said Lord Chatham, in his celebrated letter to the king, " They left their native land in search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a thousand forms of policy and religion, there is one point in which they all agree; they equally detest the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop."
Some idea of this independence of early American democracy may be seen in a print executed in those times, entitled " An attempt to land a bishop in America." The scene is at a wharf, at which is lying a vessel into whose rigging is climbing a bishop, clothed in his vestments, out of whose mouth are pro- cecding the words of good old Simeon, " Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." The colonists are represented as pelting him with works entitled, " Locke," "Sydney on Gov- ernment," " Calvin's Works," " Barclay's Apology," while above their heads are floating banners surmounted by the cap of liberty and bearing the exclamations, " Liberty and freedom," " No lords spiritual or temporal in New England," " Shall they be obliged to maintain bishops, who cannot maintain themselves !" Thus with the reselnte exertions of the colonists aided by pikes, the vessel is pushed from the wharf, on whose deck is seen the bishop's carriage with the wheels off; the crosier and mitre hanging in the rigging, while " the saint in lawn" seems quite glad to be put on his voyage to a land whose soil and climate are more congenial to the growth of bishops, than that whose shores he leaves behind. The motto of the colonists was, "A
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HISTORY OF GARDNER.
church without a bishop and a state without a king." This scene is introduced here to show the spirit of independence in which American democracy had its birth and early nurture. It was this love of sovereignty, this spirit of independence, and self- government that early manifested itself in the townships of New England, which began their existence as early as 1650. From this time forward, our fathers began most clearly to verify the saying of Aristotle that, " Man is by nature a political being." They possessed an independence in some degree, " scornful of experience and jealous of all authority." They began, in their New England towns, to show to the world that, " a democracy more perfect than antiquity had dared to dream of, started in full size and panoply from the midst of an ancient feudal society."
It being the fact then, that American democracy had its birth and early development in our New England townships, it will be a matter of interest, to consider the town, in its corporate capacity, as a miniature of this great republic. In doing this, we shall become better acquainted with the important position which these little municipalities hold, and the mighty influence they exert in controlling the destinies of the nation, " whose government is of the people, by the people and for the people." If then society governs " itself for itself," centering all power in its own bosom, there must be some well established method by which the sovereign will of the people shall find fitting ex- pression. And, since the freeman's ballot is the most approved method of expressing his will. politically, he must have some convenient method by which to do this. He cannot visit. as often as his vote is sought. the capitol of the nation, or the state. This necessity he avoids through the provision he has made, for his convenience, in the laws which he has enacted for the government of the town. It is here, at home, and among his neighbors, that as often as he may be required, he exercises the right of suffrage. Here it is that he declares who shall fill the chair of the Chief Executive of the nation, for the confing four years. Here, also, he determines who shall serve him in
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the nation's house of representatives, and indirectly through his representative in the state legislature, who shall occupy the high and responsible position of United States senator. Here, also, he chooses the governor of the commonwealth and all those officers whose election to positions of " honor and trust " is secured by the votes of the people. Here, also, he chooses the officers of the county in which his town is located.
Thus, within the limits of his own township, the American citizen wields the sovereign power by which he controls the destinies of the nation and the state, of which he proudly re- gards himself as a constituent portion. But while the Ameri- can citizen thus remotely and indirectly shapes the character of the state and national governments and their administrations, yet, nowhere does he exercise his power so immediately as in the choice he makes of town officers. In matters of state and national concern, he acts through those whom he chooses to represent him, while in the selection of town officers, the exer- cise of his sovereign right, as a freeman, has its immediate effect.
As an individual member of that great organic whole, called the nation, " every man," as Blackstone says, " when he enters into society, gives up a part of his natural liberty as the price of so valuable a purchase." This " giving up a part of his natural liberty," the American citizen cheerfully does, that he may aid in constituting a government which shall not only con- trol himself, but guarantee to him the protection of life, liberty and property, which find their security only in a wise and be- nevolent general government. "The end of the state," says Aristotle, " is not merely to live, but to live nobly." " The state," says Hegel, " is the realization of freedom and it is the absolute end of reason that freedom be real." The American citizen understands the value of free republican government, in which is realized the axiom, omnes homines, natura aquales sunt, all men are by nature equal. He willingly subjects himself to the abridgment of his own liberty, that he may enjoy the high- est liberty, which is liberty under law. He believes with Mil-
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ton that, " a nation ought to be as but one huge christian person- age, one mighty growth or stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue as in body, for look, what the ground and causes are of single happiness to one man, the same ye shall find them to a whole state ;" or as Burke says, " The state ought not to be considered as a partnership agreement to be taken up for a little temporary interest and dissolved at the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with reverence, be- cause it is not a partnership in things subservient to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science ; a partnership in all art ; a partner- ship in every virtue and in all perfection."
This wisdom of these sages, the sovereign people of our re- public cheerfully subscribe to, while at the same time, they do not ignore their peculiar rights as citizens of their respective townships. Within these limits they allow no state interference beyond the bounds which they have fixed through their repre- sentative in the state legislature. It is here, within the town- ship that the student of American democracy, must begin his studies of American institutions. It is here, in the American town meeting that he will find democracy not only in its germ, but as having what Lord Bacon calls, "springing and germinant accomplishment " in the wider ranges of state and national af- fairs. Here every man, the rich and the poor, the native born, and he who is born in other lands, having become naturalized. deposits his ballot without fear of challenge or intimidation, and one man's ballot is as valuable as that of another. To the dem- ocratie citizen of our New England township, the town meeting is an institution of incalculable importance. Here more than any where else he feels the bracing atmosphere of liberty and equality before the law. Here he discusses and determines great state and national issues, and with fervid and voluminous argumentation, and the practice of those mysterious arts, in which he is so well trained, he wins his political victories or suffers his political defeats. Here he chooses from his fellow citizens, those officers of the town, in all their gradations, who
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shall act as the agents through whom the popular will shall find expression. Thus the town meeting becomes an educator of American youth and the promoter of American democracy. " Town meetings," says De Tocqueville, " are to liberty, what primary schools are to science ; they bring it within the people's reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it." At the ballot box, all men, with few exceptions and restrictions, patent to all, are placed upon an equality. This privilege educates men in the value of human freedom, so long withheld from the masses under oligarchal, monarchical and feudal forms of government. Along with the ballot, dropped from the free- man's hand, comes to him a higher sense of manhood and per- sonal worth. It is here that the young man takes his first les- son in the dignity of political sovereignty.
The privilege of voting in town meeting, has a direct ten- dency to produce in men a deeper interest in all that relates to the welfare of the community, the state and the nation. He feels that upon him, as a voter, rests in some sense the weal or woe of the social fabric of which he is part. Says De Tocque- ville again, "In the American townships, power has been dis- seminated with admirable skill, for the purpose of interesting the greatest possible number of persons in the common weal. Independently of the voters, who are from time to time called into action, the power is divided among innumerable function- aries and officers, who all in their several spheres, represent the powerful community in whose name they act. The local ad- ministration thus affords an unfailing source of profit and in- terest to a vast number of individuals. In this manner the ac- tivity of the township is continually perceptible ; it is daily manifested in the fulfillment of a duty or the exercise of a right, and a constant though gentle motion is kept up in society, which animates, without disturbing it. The American attaches him- self to his little community for the same reason that the moun- taineer clings to his hills, because the characteristic features of his country are there more distinctly marked ; it has a more striking physiognomy. The native of New England is attached
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to his township, because it is independent and free; his co- operation in its affairs insures his attachment to its interests ; the well-being it affords him, secures his affection ; and its wel- fare is the aim of his ambition, and of his future exertions. He takes a part in every occurrence in the place ; he practices the art of government in the small sphere within his reach ; he ac- customs himself to those forms without which liberty can only advance by revolutions ; he imbibes their spirit ; he acquires a taste for order; comprehends the balance of power and col- lects clear practical notions on the nature of his duties and the extent of his rights."
There is nothing connected with the working of our muni- cipal and state governments, which strikes the foreigner with more surprise and interest, than the absence of all show of ad- ministrative authority. He enters one of our towns and, perhaps lives in it, for many days or months, but fails to discover the source from which procceds the direction and control of its pub- lic affairs. He sees no pompous or fussy official, clothed in the insignia of his office, and swelling with a consciousness of his brief authority ; no gens d'armes nor mounted policeman, busy in keeping the peace and executing the laws. He would pos- sibly be at considerable inconvenience, to find the source of au- thority, in town matters, should he so desire. And yet, authority is not wanting. If the municipal machinery moves thus quietly. there is a power that moves it. This moving power will be found to reside in a class of men, elected at " the annual town meeting " called town officers, whose duties are clearly defined by state enactment. These officers, in whom resides the ad- ministration of town affairs, deserve mention in the present chapter, and since the selectmen, more than any other town officers, embody and express the popular will, special attention will be paid to their duties and powers, while other town officers will have only a brief mention.
Selectmen. - Every town at its annual town meeting shall choose from the inhabitants thereof, a board of officers, called selectmen. This board shall consist of three, five, seven or
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nine men, chosen by ballot. According to Massachusetts Gen- cral Statutes "every person elected selectman, who enters upon the performance of his duties, before taking the oath of office, shall forfeit for such offence, a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. The selectmen shall be assessors of taxes and over- seers of the poor, in towns where other persons are not spec- ially chosen to those offices, and when acting as assessors, they shall take the oath required of assessors."
" The powers and duties of selectmen are not fully defined by statute. Many of the acts usually performed by them, in be- half of towns and which are recognized as within their appro- priate sphere, have their origin and foundation in long continued usage. The management of the prudential affairs of towns, necessarily requires the exercise of a large discretion, and it would be quite 'impossible, by positive enactment, to place defi- nite limits to the powers and duties of selectmen, to whom the direction and control of such affairs are intrusted. Speaking generally, it may be said, that they are agents to take the gen- eral superintendence of the business of a town ; to supervise the doings of subordinate agents and the disbursement of moneys, appropriated by vote of the town, to take care of its property, and perform other similar duties. But they are not general agents. They are not clothed with the general power of the corporate body, for which they act. They can only exercise such powers and perform such duties as are necessarily and properly incident to the special and limited authority conferred on them by their office. They are special agents, empowered to do only such acts as are required to meet the exigencies of ordinary town business. They are not authorized to institute or defend suits, where the town is a party, without special power given them by the town."* There are, however, certain duties made imperative by statute upon selectmen. The Gen- eral Statute declares that the annual meeting of each town shall be held in February, March or April; and other meetings at
* Herrick's Town Officer, p. 63.
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such times as the selectmen may order. According to state au- thority, every town meeting shall be held in pursuance of a warrant, under the hands of the selectmen, directed to the con- stables, or some other persons, appointed by the selectmen for that purpose, who shall forthwith notify such meeting in the manner prescribed by the by-laws, or a vote of the town. The selectmen may, by the same warrant, call two or more distinct town meetings, for distinct purposes.
The warrant shall express the time and place of the meeting and the subjects to be there acted upon ; the selectmen shall in- sert therein, all subjects which may, in writing, be requested of them, by any ten or more voters of the town, and nothing acted upon shall have a legal operation, unless the subject matter thereof, is contained in the warrant. They shall, at least ten days before the annual town election and at least ten days before the Tuesday next after the first Monday in Novem- ber, annually, make correct alphabetical lists, of all the persons qualified to vote for the several officers to be elected at those periods ; and shall at least ten days before said election, cause such a list to be posted up in two or more public places in their respective towns. According to an act of the legislature of 1877, the selectmen of each town, shall make and keep a record of all persons entitled to vote therein, at any election for town, coun- ty, state or national officers, which shall be known as a Register of Voters. Said register shall contain the names of such voters, written in full, the street or place in town where each resides at the time of registration, each voters occupation, and such other specifications as may be necessary to fully identify the persons named, and the date of registration. No name shall be added to a voting list in any town, until it has been recorded in said register, and none shall be added to a list of voters in use at any election, after the opening of the polls, except to correct a clerical error or omission, and all names on voting lists shall be written or printed in full. The selectmen shall be in session at some convenient place, for a reasonable time, within forty-eight hours next preceding all meetings for the election of the officers
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aforesaid, for the purpose of receiving evidence of the qualifi- cation of persons, claiming a right to vote, in such elections, and correcting the list of voters.
They shall hold this meeting for one hour, at least, before the opening of the meeting, on the day of the election. Notice of time and place of holding the sessions, shall be given on the posted list. The selectmen shall enter on such list, the name of any person known to them to- be qualified to vote, and shall erase therefrom the name of any person known to them not to be qualified ; they shall, before entering upon the lists the name of a naturalized citizen, require him to produce for their in- spection, his papers of naturalization, and be satisfied that he has been legally naturalized ; they shall decide whether national, state, district and county officers shall be voted for on one bal- lot, or at the same time on separate ballots, and shall give notice thereof in the warrant calling the meeting. They shall preside at town meetings for the election of national, state, dis- triet and county officers, and shall have all the powers which are vested in moderators ; they shall procure of the secretary of the commonwealth a sufficient number of self-sealing enve- lopes to supply each voter, in the town, bearing the arms of the state, and shall allow no other to be used at the polls ; they shall receive, sort and count all votes cast for national, state, county and district officers, and make public declaration thereof in open town meeting ; when a vacancy occurs, in a represen- tative district, upon notification of the same from the speaker of the house of representatives, fixing a time to fill such va- caney, the selectmen shall issue their warrant to fill such va- caney ; they shall give a certificate of election to a person voted for as representative to the general court, in accordance with the declaration of the vote, in open town meeting, or forfeit three hundred dollars for their offence; at every election in towns, for officers other than town officers, the selectmen shall cause the voting on check lists and all ballots given in, after having been counted, declared and recorded, to be secured in an envelope and sealed, and they shall endorse on such envelope,
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