USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts : from the first settlement to the present time, 1643-1879 > Part 14
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
people and discovery of the enemy, and I think to the general satisfaction. I have ordered one man to Mr. Prescott's gar- rison during his attendance at the court. I beg leave farther to acquaint your honor, that the people in these towns appre- hend themselves in great danger, and cannot, in my humble opinion, be in any manner safe with so small a number of men."
A letter dated July 1, refers to an offer made by the gov- ernor, that Fairbank might have the choice of the office of sergeant if he remained at home, in Lancaster, or that of lieu- tenant, if he were willing to serve at Groton, or at Turkey Hill. He chose the latter, and sent out scouts, who found Indian tracks.
On the twentieth of July he was stationed at Groton, and ordered the soldiers under his command to be posted in " some of the most exposed garrisons as often as may be." He felt unable to represent to the governor the "necessities of the people," whose circumstances were very difficult and distress- ing. "The poor people," he writes, " are many of them ob- liged to keep their own garrisons, and part of them employed as guards, while others are at their labor, whose whole time would be full little enough to be expended in getting bread for their families. My own garrison at Lancaster is very much exposed." He concluded by asking leave to post a soldier there in his absence. We shall hear of Fairbank again in arduous service.
The next officer deserving notice was Lieut. Edward Hart- well, who has already been named. On the eighteenth of March, 1725, he sent word to the governor that most of the Lancaster soldiers had been scouting. When they were call- ed to serve under Col. Tyng, and appear on a certain day at Dunstable, with fifty days provisions, the most of them " ut- terly refused to go." He concludes : "Some have enlisted in the scout, and several under Capt. White."
Whereupon Gov. Dummer wrote to Col. Tyng, informing him of the state of things, and urging him to assert his au-
173
HARTWELL .- WILLARD.
thority. The governor evidently suspected Hartwell was at the bottom of the dissatisfaction, and ordered that Tyng should " make strict inquiry," that Hartwell might be dealt with ac- cordingly. In consequence, Col. Eleazar Tyng came to Lan- caster, and found that Lieut. Hartwell was not to blame in the least manner. He wrote in reply ; saying that Hartwell " did all in his power to promote and further the design your honor commanded us to go upon. We marched yesterday and came last night at the mouth of Nessonkeeg brook."
The last service of Hartwell, of which we have record in this war, is reported in a letter which he sent, by the hand of ensign Oliver Wilder, dated August twenty-three, 1725, stating that he had been at Lancaster, inspecting the soldiers under the command of Capt. Josiah Willard. He had re- moved to Turkey Hills, where he had a house and intervale land. Asking leave to live there he assured the governor that he would be in as " good capacity to serve both his king and country."
Capt. Samuel Willard was engaged in the service during the year 1725, as appears by a muster roll, August to Octo- ber, containing several Lancaster names among others ; as Henry Willard, Benjamin Goodridge, Benjamin Richardson, Joseph Phelps, Ephraim Wheeler, Moses Chandler, Barna- bas Tuell. In another company, at the same time, were the following soldiers from Lancaster : Lieut. Oliver Wilder, sergeant Samuel Sawyer, William Stevens, Joseph Whit- comb, John Divoll, Jonathan Bailey. Before the time ex- pired, ensign Lemuel Howard took the place of Divoll. Capt. Willard went on a scouting expedition into New Hampshire, in the months of September and October. The march was long, and the service arduous. No trace of Indians was found, but the fact of such vigilance served to keep the enemy at a distance from this section of the colony. In his Journal, he records that Abel Chapin and Benjamin Atherton were sick ; and that Richard Brick, who had cut his foot with a hatchet, was sent home. The last day's ride of Willard brought him
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
to Lancaster, a distance of forty miles. His men came in by easier marches. They had scouted five hundred and three miles through a wilderness, pathless except where an Indian trail might be struck.
In July of this year Willard went on a scouting-raid in search of the enemy. On the fifteenth his party reached Rutland. Thence they marched north, over hills and through swamps, to the Grand Monadnock, in New Hampshire. Here they camped on the thirty-first. From the towering summit, he saw Pigwacket, far off on the borders of Maine, Winne- peeseoukey, now called Winnepesaukee, and Cosage, or Kear- sarge. In his march he saw signs of Indians, and suffered much from foul weather. At one point he was obliged to weaken his party by sending a sick man home. This officer became quite distinguished twenty years later as a colonel in the old French and Indian war.
A contemporary of his, Capt. Josiah Willard, of Lancaster birth and training, was a very active officer. His home was at Turkey Hills. Being summoned on the eighteenth of March, 1724, to be with all the mnen under his command, ready to march from home, with fifty days provisions, he stated that "most of their means were wanting. They will be much exposed." He goes on to say that Capt. White ex- pected soon to go out again, and that the men would soon be ready ; and therefore prayed to be excused.
Willard was not the man to make excuses instead of doing service. He was out scouting all over the region from De- cember 2, 1724, till the next May. The following men were under his command at or near this time, viz. : Henry Wil- lard, Benja. Goodridge, - Richardson, Ephraim Whee- ler, Moses Chandler, Joshua Phelps, Barnabas Tuell, Simon Atherton. He is heard of again in the summer and autumn, from May to November, six months, as engaged in guarding and scouting. He guarded the people while plowing on the uplands, and working in the meadows. Such was life in those troublous times, when nothing but incessant watchfulness
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JOSIAH WILLARD. - JOHN WHITE.
gave security from the arrow and the tomahawk. Willard and his men watched over the farmers while at work on the west side of the river at Quassoponokin, at Plain Meadow, and at Maple Meadow.
In vol. 91, page 190, Mass. Archives, there is a roll of the men under the command of Capt. Josiah Willard, of Turkey Hills. Many of the names are familiar to the student of the early annals of Lancaster.
Capt. Josiah Willard,
Benjamin Harris,
Richard Wiles, Richard Gore,
Lieut. Edward Hartwell,
Samuel Stow,
Aaron Willard,
Uriah Holt,
Josiah Witherby,
Philip Goodridge,
Thomas Russ,
Andrew Watkins,
John Dean,
Daniel Power,
Henry Houghton,
John Holden,
John Goodridge,
Isaac Farnsworth,
Joseph Page,
Benjamin Corey,
Jona. Willard,
Simon Atherton, Thos Fairbanks,
Samuel Davis,
Benj. Rugg,
David Osgood,
John Shepard,
Jona. Fairbanks,
Jona. Pierson,
Richard Rice,
John Heywood,
Edward Pratt.
Samuel Farnsworth, jr.,
Daniel Alberts,
John Wilder, John Wilder, jr.,
James Jewell,
Won, (Indian,)
The name of Capt. John White has already been mention- ed in connection with this eastern war. Of all the brave and intrepid men who represented the town in the field, perhaps no one was more zealous and efficient than White. From a letter dated in July, 1724, it appears that he was already in the service. Writing from Dunstable to the governor, he proceeds in these words. "May it please your Honor : Old Christian, being this morning taken with a violent bleeding, caused our company to stop, and within a few hours he died ; and the other Mohawks are not willing to leave him before he is buried ; and our desire is to march over Merrimac river and there to take a true list of our men's names, and shall march as quick as possible. Who remain still your honor's at command."
In September he was in service at Haverhill.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
The following literal copy of a letter, found in the Mass. Archives, shews the service and the spirit of the man. It is dated May 7, 1725, and was sent to the governor :- " May it please your honor : Being returned home, I thought myself obliged to inform you how that on the fifth of April last, I went from Lancaster to Dunstable, and on the eighth day of April from thence up the Merrimack with thirty men, two of which came back in short time, one of them being taken sick, and the other having scalt himself very badly. I marched up Merrimack about one hundred and thirty miles, and there discovered some signs of Indians. Some old, which we judged were made sometimes this winter ; and one new track on the bank of the river, and we judged had gone but a few days before. I sent out scouts, but could discover nothing further. We then turned off to northward, towards Coos. Marched ten miles the twenty-fourth of April. At evening one of the men, viz. Sam. Mossman, of Sudbury, being about encamp- ing, took hold of his gun that stood among some bushes, drew it towards him with the muzzle towards him. Some twigs caught hold of the cock. The gun went off and shot him through. He died immediately. We went across to Con- necticut river ; came down that to Northfield, and from there across the woods to Lancaster. We got in yesterday, and have endeavored faithfully to attend your Honor's orders al- ready received. And if your Honor hath any farther service for me, I desire your Honor would let me know it. I have not as yet completed my Journal, but hope to finish it in a short time, that it may be laid before your Honor. I am your Honor's most obedient humble servant, JOHN WHITE.
LT. Gov. DUMMER."
Early in July, orders came to Capt. White, saying : You are " directed to exercise and maintain good discipline and government among your officers and soldiers, and to suppress and punish all disorder, vice and immorality, and to keep up the worship of God in your said company." The expedition he was sent upon, extended to Pigwacket and the Kennebeck,
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CAPT. WHITE'S JOURNAL.
and covered the time of about one month. The following is the Journal of the captain.
"July 6. Mustered at my house at Lancaster. [He pass -. ed through Groton to Dunstable, where he remained with his soldiers three or four days. ]
10. Waited for Capt. Wyman, [probably from Woburn. ] Christian was taken with a violent bleeding, and died about one o'clock. The Canada Mohawk, not willing to go, was left behind.
12. Capt. Wyman overtook us, killed a bear and several rattlesnakes.
14. Thought we heard guns, and sent out scouts. They returned next day, but found nothing.
15. Killed two bears and divers rattlesnakes which pest- ered us very much in our march.
17. Scouted and killed a moose, excessive rain.
18. Took a lame Indian and sent him home. Reached Suncook.
20. Lay still by reason of rain. Several men taken ill.
21. Four of Capt. Wyman's men sent home with two sick men.
22. Several more of our men were taken very ill with a bloody flux, which we suppose was occasioned by excessive rains and immoderate heats. Rained. Lay still, but sent out scouts.
Moved round by Cocheco. Bad weather. Men sick, but none died. And so to Lancaster" by the fifth of August.
The varied labors and sacrifices of Capt. White are set forth affectingly in a petition of his widow, Mrs. Eunice White, addressed to the general court, in 1727. It contains so much general as well as personal information as to insure its insertion without abridgment. The petition brings out a fact not found elsewhere in our local annals, shewing White's connection with the famous Capt. Lovewell. The document is as follows :
12
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
" Your petitioner's husband, in his lifetime in the years 1724 and 1725, as well as at other times, performed sundry marches against the Indian enemy, and did other services for the good of his country, and was active and vigorous in the defence thereof against those barbarous savages, not only hazarding his life, but expending good part of his substance therein, as is well known to some. Few instances whereof your peti- tioner would humbly represent to this honorable court.
" Your petitioner's said husband, although he had divers times the honor to bear command, yet voluntarily enlisted himself under the late Capt. Lovewell, and chose rather to go as an under officer, at that time, because he would do what in him lay to encourage others to enlist, and marched with him at the time when they killed the ten Indians, in which march they were out near forty days.
" Then he performed a march to a place called Cohasse, [Coos ] on Connecticut river, thinking to meet with the enemy there, and came in at Fort Dummer, being out thirty-four days, though they missed of their desired success. Then in about eight days time, he had a company raised, and went to Pigwacket, [Fryeburg] to bury Capt. Lovewell, which he performed in a very difficult season of the year. Then he went to Connecticut, at his own cost and charge, to get a company of the Moheag Indians, in order to go down to St. Francis to take an Indian fort there ; but failing of his aim, he returned home, and there enlisted a company of volunteers and marched, designing for a fort beyond Pigwacket; but was taken sick before he got there, returned home and died, leaving your petitioner his bereaved widow, with seven chil- dren, the eldest about fifteen years old, and four of them very young, and one she then went with who is now living. In all which services your petitioner's said husband cheerfully underwent many hardships and difficulties for the good of his country, and was at considerable cost and charge by sup- plying those that enlisted under him with necessaries which could not be readily obtained elsewhere, purely to make despatch.
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PETITION OF MRS. WHITE.
" Now, forasmuch as the sickness of which your petitioner's said husband died, was in all probability occasioned by means of the difficulties he underwent in the public service, and that he never in his lifetime had an opportunity of asking your honors' favor for his past services, but was taken away in the strength and vigor of his life, without receiving anything from the public more than two shillings, six pence per day for the marches he performed as aforesaid ; And in regard your petitioner is left a disconsolate widow, with several fatherless children to bring up, who stand in daily need of relief and support, your petitioner finding it very difficult to provide for them ;
" She therefore most humbly implores your honors' pity and compassion to herself and children, and that as you have been pleased, in like cases, to reward those that have served the Province, and the representatives of those that have lost their lives in the public service, so that she may experience of the bounty and goodness of this honored court to her in her dif- ficult circumstances, and that you will be pleased to grant her two hundred and fifty acres of the unappropriated lands of the Province, that she may dispose. of the same for the education and bringing up of her aforesaid children; or that your honors would otherwise relieve her, as in your great goodness and compassion you shall see meet."
EUNICE WHITE.
The general court, instead of land, granted her one hun- dred pounds in money.
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CHAPTER IX.
ROADS AND BRIDGES. SWARMING TIME.
TIME is the element which rules in regard to the size of towns. Daily and weekly recurring wants require a conven- ient center which can be reached without consuming more than a small portion of daylight. In the new states, about five miles square are allotted to a township. In New Eng- land the original towns were often much larger; but these have been broken up into lesser sections, in the exigency of events. Sometimes new villages have required a re-adjust- ment of old boundaries, but the one thing which above all others, has determined the number of square miles in a town, is time. As soon as the large spaces of the earlier towns were occupied by settlers in sufficient numbers to make a respectable municipality, the process of disintegration began. Some of the lower towns have been divided again and again. The same is true of the towns in the interior. A large part of the county of Worcester, at first, was included in a few townships. Lancaster, Brookfield, Sutton, Worcester and Rutland comprised nearly the whole of it, except a strip at the north and south ends. Lancaster contained more than a hundred square miles, and Rutland was twelve miles square.
These towns were settled at and near the center. In pro- cess of time, as remote sections became peopled, they were formed into new towns. This was the case with Lancaster, and in the year 1730, the first movement was made for the formation of a new town from her ample domain. The pro- cess went on until eight towns, in whole or in part, were or- ganized.
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BLANK IN THE RECORDS.
Before relating the story of the swarming, it will be well to finish up the history of the united town, to the date of exci- sion, and then dismiss the history of the new towns, except so far as they are connected with the "Propriety," or origi- nal owners of the soil of Lancaster, and their successors, who still held possession of many tracts of land in the new town- ships.
For it should be kept in mind that the government of the old town was a duality. The propriety or associated propri- etors, by purchase of the natives, and by grant of the general court, owned all the land. This was sold or given according to discretion. When the town met as a propriety, it made grants of land for highways and byways, and for other pur- poses. When the town met in its municipal capacity, it chose officers, and appropriated money for religious, educa- tional and general purposes. And sometimes when assembled at a muster, it entered upon town business, though perhaps informally. Thus it came to pass, that for nearly three quar- ters of a century, the records of the town and of the propri- ety are in the same book. From 1653 till just before the massacre in 1676, the records of the meetings alternate, ac- cording to the dates. Then, between 1674 and 1716, there is an entire blank -hiatus valde deflendus- in the records. In 1716 the records begin again, and we find town meetings and proprietors' meetings in succession, though the latter were far more frequent. This continues to the years 1726-7, when the records of the two bodies were separated. By de- grees the business of the propriety became less important as their lands were divided, and sold, while the affairs of the town became more important with the increase of population and wealth. And thus it came to pass that the whole records of the propriety are contained in one book, while the records of the town fill several huge volumes.
A few items from the Records will show the progress of affairs, from year to year, until the time of division.
In 1716-17, February 4, [O. S.], a proprietors' meeting
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
was held, when it was voted that " the first Monday of March next be the meeting for choosing town officers." No record of the meeting is given, but a proprietors' meeting was held on the same day. The interest of the people was more in their lands, highways and bridges, than in merely town affairs. Action was taken in relation to the " stated common" on the west side of the river. No boundaries are given, but this common seems to have been a half mile wide as it reach- ed towards the North river, and to have extended southerly on the west side of South Lancaster. There was a " common" also on the Neck, including the land in the neighborhood of Mr. Stowell.
The following vote shows the value of land in former times. " Granted eighty acres of land to John Houghton for serv- ing as clerk and making of rates, lying above the Red Spring if found out of the stated common."
Action was taken at an adjourned meeting, April 22, 1717, relating to a new way to Prescott's mill. It was to be " moved and lie by the river, provided said way be kept four rods wide from the Scar bridge till it come to the hill from the top of the river bank."
At subsequent meetings, highways were petitioned for, ex- tending to the " Plumtrees," and to Washacomb, and from the " Slab bridge " to Prescott's mill. The "Harrises " or brothers Harris obtained a " highway proposed for, " provid- ed they would " clear the old burying-field, and keep it well subdued five years." They accepted the condition, and satisfied the town. This was the " old burying-field " east of the railroad and south of the river. Probably the burying- ground on the Old Common was chiefly used at the time, and the first yard had been neglected. It was voted to have a town meeting for the choice of officers on the third of March following, 1717-18.
Doubtless the meeting was held, but it has left no trace in the Records. On the next Monday, however, March 10, the " inhabitants of Lancaster " met at the meeting-house on the
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THE NECK BRIDGE.
Old Common, in " order to consider about building the Neck bridge by Knight's pasture." The record is historical, and will throw light into the darkness of the past. John Hough- ton was moderator. "Then discoursed about the dementions of said bridge, and concluded it should have five trussels, and to be a foot higher than before to make good Butments ; and to be 13 feet wide between the posts, which are to be of sound oake ; and so the caps and braces ; and to brace into the posts above the caps, and down into the mudsills, which are to be 40 feet long, and to cover said bridge with good plank or logs, as they who build it shall count best." Voted £35 to the builders, the town to help raise the bridge.
There is room for doubt about the date and the location of the bridge across the main or Penacook river. The " wading place " of the first settlers was at South Lancaster, near the Carter mills. The place where the "herds do cross," was the shallow some twenty rods northwest of the present Sprague bridge. The place of crossing the Penacook, or main Nash- ua river, was somewhere east of Charles L. Wilder's residence. The Indians had a fish wear thereabouts. At times the water there is very shallow. Mr. Wilder remembers crossing there on foot, in shoes, without wetting his feet. But the channel changes, and there is considerable depth of water at present. Moreover, the tradition is that the river formerly ran three hundred feet farther west of the present channel, and came near to the bank at the turn of the road between the houses of Mr. Wilder and Mr. Bemis. Probably the first crossing was at this place, on foot, or by boat. Later the crossing place was farther up stream, as the existing causeway shows. Later still, it was nearer the site of the present Center bridge, as the vestiges of an old bridge bear witness.
There is no record or tradition to show where the first bridge was built, in this locality. Willard supposed that there was no bridge here for two or three generations until he found the record of the meeting above cited, which, on the twenty- first of March 1718, N. S. says that the new bridge was to
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
be a "foot higher than before." My own belief is that a bridge was set up near the bend of the road, by the first gen- eration of settlers. The reasons are brief but cogent. In the first place, this was the crossing place for all travel to- wards Concord and Groton. The principal road from the town, going east and north, extended from South Lancaster, across the North river bridge, and easterly by Dr. Thompson's and Charles L. Wilder's, to the Penacook. Crossing here, one road ran directly across the interval, and over the north end of Wattoquadock hill towards Concord. The other branch of the road, after crossing the river, turned sharply to the north- east, and extended diagonally over the intervale, and so on to Still River, Harvard and Groton. Concord was the shire town, and probably there was more travel in that direction than by the Carter's mills route to Marlborough and Sud- bury. There was therefore great need of a bridge.
Again, all the landholders on the east side of the Neck, besides others in other parts of the town, owned land on the intervale east of the Penacook. This land was cultivated and pastured. There was daily need of a bridge, because not only spring and fall floods would make fording impossi- ble, but frequent summer showers would impede travel. It is therefore quite difficult to believe that the inhabitants would be content to live without a bridge where it was so urgently needed.
The probability that the bridge was built early in the his- tory of the town, is strengthened by the fact that there was no greater obstacle to building here, than at the crossing of the North river. The river is wider, but not more rapid. The bridge might require "five trussels," instead of three or four trestles.
The most probable conjecture is that the crossing place was near the bend of the road. Perhaps the first bridge was lo- cated there. As said above, the Neck road, in time, was run up stream, several rods, and the bridge was built opposite to the long row of trees which extends from the east bank of
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