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 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
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HISTORY OF GARDNER.
for what officers the enclosed ballots were east, and at what election, and the same shall be sealed, endorsed and delivered to the town clerk before the adjournment of the meeting at which the ballots were cast : when the right of persons offering a ballot, at any such election is challenged, for any cause rec- ognized by law, the selectmen, if they receive the same, shall require the voter to write his name and residence thereon, and they shall add thereto the name of the challenger and the cause assigned for challenging.
And if such ballot shall be offered sealed, the writing as aforesaid may be upon the envelope covering the same. and the selectmen shall mark and designate such ballot by writing thereon the name of the person by whom it is counted, and at the close of the election, the same shall be returned to the envelope in which it is deposited. If the town clerk is absent the selectmen shall preside ; if there is a vacancy in the office of town clerk, or he is not present, the selectmen shall call upon the qualified voters present to elect a clerk pro tempore in like manner as town clerks are chosen, and shall sort and count the votes and declare the election of such clerk : if by reason of death or removal or other cause, a town clerk cannot per- form the duties of his office. the selectmen may in writing. under their hands appoint a clerk for the performance of such duties ; they shall annually in March or April, appoint certain town officers, should the inhabitants of the town neglect to choose them ; for instance, one sealer of weights and measures. and as many more as the inhabitants at their annual meeting determine, and a gauger of liquid measures ; and they may at any time remove the same and appoint others in their places ; one measurer of wood and bark, and as many more as the in- habitants at their annual meeting may determine. In case any person elected as school committee, after being duly notified, refuses or neglects to accept said office, or if any member of the board declines further service, or from change of residence or otherwise, becomes unable to attend to the duties of the board, the remaining members shall, in writing, give notice of
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the fact to the selectmen of the town, and the two boards, after a week's public notice, shall proceed to fill the vacancy by a majority vote of the joint boards.
The selectmen may appoint one or more persons to superin- tend seales for the weighing of hay ; they may appoint police officers, with all or any of the powers of constables, except the power of serving and executing civil process, who shall hold their office during the pleasure of the selectmen, by whom they are appointed ; they may upon petition of any railroad corpora- tion having a passenger station within the limits of such town, appoint as many as they may deem proper of the persons in the employ of said corporation, police officers, to act as railroad police, to preserve order within and upon the premises and upon the cars of the corporation upon whose petition they are appointed. They shall appoint a suitable person to be officer of the watch established by the town, and direct the manner in which watchmen shall be equipped.
In case of fire, where no fire-wards are appointed, the select- men may direct any house or building to be pulled down or de- molished, when they judge the same to be necessary to prevent the spreading of the fire. When the selectmen of any town consider it necessary for the protection of persons and property in such town, against fire, to take water from any or all pipes or conductors of any aqueduct company running through such town, said selectmen may order the engineers of the fire de- partment in said town to request such aqueduct company to put conductors into such pipes or conductors of said company for the purpose of attaching hydrants or conducting water into res- ervoirs and in such places as engineers shall think necessary to secure the safety of such persons and property against fire. The selectmen shall, upon application of seven freeholders, in- habitants of a proposed fire district, requiring them to notify a meeting of the inhabitants thereof, duly qualified to vote in town affairs, forthwith give notice to such inhabitants in the manner of notifying town meetings, to assemble at some suit- able place within the district, for said purpose, the substance of which shall be expressed in the notification.
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HISTORY OF GARDNER.
In case no board of health is chosen by the town, the select- men shall constitute that board. They may appoint a physi- cian, who shall hold his office during their pleasure. They shall establish the salary or other compensation of such physi- cian. The selectmen shall require and enforce the vaccination of all the inhabitants, and whenever, in their opinion, the pub- lic health requires it, the revaccination of all the inhabitants who do not prove to their satisfaction that they have been sue- cessfully vaccinated or revaccinated within five years. They shall provide a hospital, not within a hundred rods of any dwelling, for the reception of those having small-pox or any other infectious or contagious disease, and make all such regula- tions as they deem necessary for the removal of nuisances and the preservation of the public health, and to give public notice when dangerous diseases exist in the town. The selectmen may determine a suitable place for the erection of a school- house and necessary buildings and proceed to select the same at their discretion, and to lay out a lot or enlargement thereof and to appraise the damages thereof to the owner of such land, in the manner provided for laying out town ways and apprais- ing damages sustained thereby.
The selectmen may lay out or alter town ways for the use of their respective towns, and provide ways for the use of one or more of the inhabitants thereof; or may order specific repairs to be made upon such ways, and shall cause suitable bounds to be erected at the termini and angles of all roads laid out by them. They are to assign limits to surveyors of highways, in writing, before the first of May, to regulate water-courses in the roads ; to determine compensation for damages occasioned by repairs in highways ; to report at town meeting where guide- posts are erected and are needed; they are to determine, in writing, where the posts of a telegraph company shall be placed, the height at which, and the places where the wires may run. They may establish such public drinking troughs, wells and fountains, within the public highways, squares and com- mons of their respective towns, as in their judgment the public necessity and convenience may require.
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HISTORY OF GARDNER.
The selectmen of any town may make such rules and regula- tions in relation to the passage of carriages, wagons, carts, trucks, sleds, sleighs or other vehicles, through the streets or public ways, as they shall deem necessary for the safety or con- venience of those who travel on said streets or ways, on foot or in vehicles, with penalties for violations thereof, not exceed- ing twenty dollars for one offense. Once in every five years two or more of the selectmen of each town shall perambulate the town, run the lines and renew the marks. Previously to a perambulation, the selectmen of the most ancient of the con- tignous towns, shall give ten days' notice, in writing, to the selectmen of the adjoining town, of the time and place of meeting for such perambulation. The selectmen of the con- tignous towns shall erect, at the joint and equal expense of such towns, permanent monuments to designate their respective boundary lines, at every angle thereof, except where such lines are bounded by the ocean or some permanent stream of water. The monuments shall be of stone, well set in, and at least four feet high from the surface of the ground ; and the initial letter of the respective name of each contiguous town, shall be plainly and legibly ent thereon.
The selectmen of towns bordering on another state, where the lines between the states are settled and established, shall, once in every five years, give notice to the selectmen or other proper municipal officers of such towns in the other state, as adjoin their town, of their intention to perambulate the lines between their adjoining towns. Where such lines are in dis- pute, the perambulations shall be made once in every five years after the lines are settled and established.
The selectmen of any town, when in their opinion the public good requires it, may offer a suitable reward, to be paid by the town, not exceeding five hundred dollars, in one case, to any person who in consequence of such offer, secures any person charged with a capital crime or other high crime or misdemeanor, committed in such place, and such reward shall be paid by the treasurer upon warrant of the selectmen.
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The selectmen, upon the order of the commander-in-chief, shall appoint a time and place of parade for the militia in their town, and order them to appear at the time and place, either by leaving a written notice or orally, and then and there pro- ceed to draft as many thereof, or accept as many volunteers, as are required, by the commander-in-chief, and shall forthwith notify the commander-in-chief that they have performed such duty. The selectmen of towns may annually appoint one or more persons to be inspectors of provisions and animals in- tended for slaughter, who shall receive such compensation as the selectmen may determine. They may annually appoint one or more persons to be inspectors of milk, who shall be sworn.
The selectmen may grant licenses, annually, to persons, whom they deem fit, for the sale of intoxicating liquors, to inn-holders and common vietualers. They may grant licenses for billiard tables or bowling alleys, for hire, gain or reward, upon such terms and conditions, as they deem proper, to be used for amusement merely ; but not for purposes of gaming for money or other property. They may license theatrical exhibitions, public shows, public amusements and exhibitions of every de- scription, to which admission is obtained upon payment of money, upon such terms as they may deem reasonable.
Such are some, but not all of the powers, duties and respon- sibilities devolved upon the selectmen of the towns as executors of the will of the sovereign people, whose duties are defined by the general statutes of the state. They are the embodi- ment of municipal power, in the exercise of which, the town is governed and its interests secured.
It is worthy of notice, how the public official acts of the selectmen of a town, like the many tributaries of a great river, flow into the broader and deeper channels of state and national influence and power. It is through their action, that the will of the township combines with, and expresses the will of the whole nation. There is in this system of popular government by townships, a careful avoidance of centralization of power. in the state or the national administration. The people deter-
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HISTORY OF GARDNER.
mine for themselves, who shall be their servants in carrying out their will, in town, state and nation. If they are not satisfied with their selectmen or representatives in the state or national legislature, they quietly express their disfavor at the ballot box. The ballot is, to them, a noiseless, yet all-powerful means of expressing their political opinions and reaching their political aims.
Town Clerk .- Every town has its town clerk, whose duties are various and well defined. He shall record all votes passed at the meeting at which he was elected, and at all other meet- ings held during his continuance in office. He is to record all reports of committees ; to make a record of his own election and qualification. He shall administer the oath of office to all town officers, who appear before him for that purpose. and shall make a record thereof, and of oaths of office taken before jus- tices of the peace, of which certificates are filed. The names of persons voted for, the number of votes received for each person and the title of the office for which he is proposed, shall be entered in words at length, by the town clerks, in their records. Within ten days after an election for governor, lieu- tenant-governor, councilors, senators, secretary, treasurer and receiver-general, auditor, attorney -general, representative in congress, commissioner of insolvency, sheriff's, registers of pro- bate and insolvency, district-attorneys, or clerks of the courts. town clerks shall transmit copies of the records of the votes, attested by them, certified by the selectmen and sealed up, to the secretary of the commonwealth ; they shall in like manner, within ten days after an election for county treasurer or register of deeds, transmit such copies of the records of the voters, to the county commissioners of their several counties ; and within seven days after an election for county commissioner, transmit such copies of the records of the votes to the clerk of the courts of their several counties.
Town clerks upon payment of their fees, shall record all mortgages of personal property, delivered to them, in books kept for the purpose, noting therein, and on each mortgage,
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HISTORY OF GARDNER.
the time it is received. They shall also record notice to fore- close, with affidavits of service and notices to pledgers of property, of intention to foreclose, with affidavits of service, and notice of liens on ships. The town clerk shall issue certi- ficates of marriage, upon sufficient evidence that the parties applying for the same are legally entitled to receive them. If he issues a certificate of marriage to a man under the age of twenty-one years, or female under the age of eighteen, having reasonable cause to suppose the person to be under such age, except upon the application or consent, in writing, of the parent. master or guardian of such person, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars; but if there is no parent, master or guardian in the state, competent to act, a certificate may be issued, without such application or consent. For this service, his fee shall be fifty cents, paid by the parties receiving the certificate. He shall also record all births and deaths within the town. He shall make an entry, in a book kept for that purpose, of all money or property, found by any one, to the amount of three dollars or more value, and of all stray beasts, with a description of the color and natural and artificial marks of the beast, for which the finder shall pay him the sum of twenty-five cents.
It shall be the duty of the town clerk of any town, which is authorized to subscribe for any stock of any railroad company, or to loan its credit, or to grant aid to the same, to transmit to the secretary of the commonwealth and to the board of rail- road commissioners, a certified copy of any vote of such town, under such authority, within thirty days, from the day on which said vote shall be taken. Considering these and other duties not here named, belonging to the town clerk, it will be readily seen that the office is no sinecure.
Assessors .- The assessors of a town constitute a board of three or more competent citizens, chosen in annual town meet- ing, who shall take the oath of office, in substance as follows :-
"You being chosen assessors, (or an assessor) for the town of - -, for the year ensuing, do swear that you will impartially, according to
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your best skill and judgment, assess and apportion all such taxes as you are, during that time, directed to assess, and that you will faithfully dis- charge all other duties of said office."
If any person chosen assessor, having notice of his election, neglect to take the oath of office, he shall forfeit a sum not ex- ceeding fifty dollars. The duties of assessors are quite im- portant and well defined by general statute.
Town Treasurer. - The town treasurer shall be chosen by ballot, at the annual town meeting and shall take the oath of office. In addition to this, he shall give bonds, in such sum as the selectmen may require, with sureties, to their satisfaction, for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office ; shall re- ceive and take charge of all sums of money belonging to his town, and pay over the same according to the order of such town or the officers thereof, duly authorized in that behalf. The bond thus required should be given to the town, and not to the seleetmen. The town treasurer is not exensed from pay- ing over money collected by him, because it has been stolen from him without his fault. His sureties are still liable for his failure to pay, on that account. He may in his own name and official capacity, prosecute suits upon bonds, notes or other securities, given to him or his predecessors in office, and when no other provision is specially made, shall prosecute for all fines and forfeitures which enure to his town or the poor thereof.
He shall prosecute for any trespasses committed on any building or enclosure belonging to his town. If appointed col- lector of taxes, he may appoint deputies, who shall give bonds for the faithful discharge of their duty, as the selectmen may think proper. A treasurer so appointed collector, may issue his warrant to the sheriff of the county or his deputy or to any constable of the town, directing them to distrain the property or take the body of any person who is delinquent in the pay- ment of taxes, and to proceed in like manner as collectors arc required to do in like cases. The treasurer shall annually render a true account of all his receipts and payments, and
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other official doings, to the town, and shall receive such com- pensation for his services as the town may determine.
Highway Surveyors .- There shall be in each town, one or more highway surveyors, who, when chosen, cannot refuse to serve, under penalty of ten dollars ; but he shall not be obliged to serve oftener than once in three years. If he neglects the duties of his office, he shall forfeit ten dollars for each of- fense ; and he may be prosecuted by indictment for any defi- ciency in the highways, within his limits, occasioned by his fault or neglect. The powers and responsibilities of this class of town officers, are almost unlimited, so far as they relate to the highways and all that pertain to their management, of which, we cannot occupy space here to speak.
There are also constables, appointed to keep the peace and execute the laws ; field drivers, whose duty it is to take up, at any time, swine, sheep, horses, asses, mules, goats or neat cattle, going at large in public highways, or town ways, or on common and unimproved lands, and not under the care of a keeper ; fence viewers, who have power to determine the legality of fences, between owners of lands adjacent ; and may, when a fence line is in dispute, or unknown, designate a line on which a fence shall be built, and may employ a surveyor there- for if necessary ; surveyors of lumber, measurers of wood and bark, and overseers of the poor.
An important agency in every town, in carrying out the wishes of the people, regarding public education, is the school committee, who are chosen at the annual town meeting, by ballot, whose duty it is to have the charge and general superin- tendenee of all the public schools in the town. They shall consist of any number divisible by three, one-third to be elected annually, and to serve three years, unless the town otherwise determines, at its annual meeting ; the school committee shall seleet and contract with the teachers of the public schools, and shall require full and satisfactory evidence of the good moral character of all instructors, who may be employed, and shall ascertain, by personal examination, their qualifications for teach-
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ing, and capacity for government of schools. They shall re- quire the daily reading in schools, of some portion of the Bible, without written note or oral comment ; but, they shall require no scholar, to read from any particular version, whose parent or guardian shall declare that he has conscientious scruples against allowing him to read therefrom, nor shall they even direct any school books, calculated to favor the tenets of any particular sect of christians, to be purchased or used in any public school.
They shall direct what text books shall be used in the public schools, and shall prescribe, as far as practicable, a course of studies and exercises to be pursued in said schools. If any change is made in text books, each pupil then belonging to the public schools and requiring the substituted book, shall be furnished with the same, by the school committee, at the ex- pense of the town. They shall give notice in writing, to the assessors of the town, of the names of the pupils, thus supplied, of the books so furnished, the prices thereof, and the names of the parents, masters or guardians, who ought to have supplied the same, that the assessors may add the price of the books to the next annual tax of such parents, masters or guardians, that the amount may be paid into the town treasury, in the same manner as town taxes.
Thus all parents, masters and guardians are compelled to furnish children under their charge, with the means of procur- ing a common school education. The school committee may also appoint, if the town so vote, a superintendent of public schools, and fix his salary. If a superintendent is appointed by them, they shall not be entitled to a compensation for their services. They shall make an annual report to the town and to the secretary of the board of education, of the common- wealth, and perform all other duties specified by law.
From this survey of the town, in its self-governing capacity as a constituent element of the state, and through the state, of the nation, we may obtain some higher appreciation of its im- portance. We find it to be a little municipality, existing under
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well defined laws, admirably adapted, through the agency of town officials, to secure its highest ends. There is in it, no permanent superiority of one individual over another, for which, the Pilgrim Fathers had no love, but an intense hate. The original settlers were men who regarded themselves as stand- ing upon perfect equality. They were men of poverty, "and there are," says De Tocqueville, in speaking of these men, " no surer guarantees of equality, among men, than poverty and misfortune. Born in a country which had been agitated, for centuries, by the struggles of factions, and in which all parties had been obliged, in their turn, to place themselves under the protection of the laws, their political education had been per- fected in this rude school, and they were more conversant with the notions of right, and the principles of true freedom, than the greater part of their European contemporaries.
"At the period of the first emigrations, the township system, that fruitful germ of free institutions, was deeply rooted in the habits of the English, and with it, the doctrine of the sover- eignty of the people, had been introduced into the bosom of the monarchy of the house of Tudor." We find that the township, " that fruitful germ of free institutions," has had a wonderful development in the progress of years. We see the gerin of it, clearly manifesting itself in the Plymouth Colony, as early as 1621, when, as the historian tells us. in speaking of the Pilgrim Fathers, "after they had provided a place for their goods. or common store and begun some small cottages for their habita- tion, as time would admit, they met and consulted of laws and orders, both for their civil and military government, as the necessity of their condition did require." Here first " the sin- ple democracy, the earliest instance of New England town meeting government, proved itself equal to the need of the little republic." Here these sturdy men, in their little town meeting, deliberated on the means of defending themselves against the attacks of the aboriginal savage, who hung with hostile intent upon the borders of their little settlement. Here it was, that upon " a very fair and warm day," April 1st. 1621,
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" while they were deliberating on public affairs, in town meeting, Samoset came, the third time and four others with him, to visit the pilgrims." It was here, on the second day of April, 1621, that they completed their " military orders " and made those laws which seemed necessary in their " present estate and con- dition." Here they re-elected Carver as governor of the colony, with indefinite powers, but always responsible to " the whole company." Here in this early stage of their colonial existence, they had occasion to test the powers of their new government, when John Billington, who had been " shuffled into their com- pany," showed his dislike of Captain Miles Standish, when in " opprobrious speeches," he manifested his " contempt of the captain's lawful commands." This " profane and worthless fel- low," was " convented before the whole company," and for his offense, was sentenced "to have his neck and heels tied to- gether." This unfortunate member, however, under " military orders," "humbled himself and eraved pardon," in view of which, his penalty was remitted.
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