USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts : from the first settlement to the present time, 1643-1879 > Part 16
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By a vote of the town in 1732, several roads were opened or altered. One extended from the "Mill on the North river,"- now Shoeshank -starting west of Canoe brook, to Lunenburg. Another, beginning near the same point, east of Canoe brook, was extended through Goatham, and over Quassoponakin hill southerly to the intersection of the Still River road.
Sixty pounds were granted for schools, May 15, 1732, and the selectmen were directed to provide a school-master for the town, and that one master should keep school in each part of the town. Bare hill and Still River districts were in the new town of Harvard, and the master would be limited to the Neck and Wattoquadock, with possibly a school for the southwest section. Jabez Fox, Josiah Swan and Joseph Barbean, had the training of the children.
John Fletcher received thirty-six pounds for five grown wolves and sixteen grown wild-cats killed in and near the town. The ears of these wild animals were cut off in the presence of one or more of the selectmen, and sent to the treasurer of the province as vouchers, when the thirty-six pounds were remitted to the town treasurer. The province was wise in requiring the ears of " full grown wolves and
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
wild-cats," as is illustrated by the anecdote of an old and foxy hunter in New Hampshire. He appeared regularly, as the year came round, at the State treasurer's door with his tale of ears, and took his premium. At length the treasurer inquired why he always brought the ears of small animals. "Why not bring the ears of old wolves?" "Ah," said the old hunter, " then the business would be spoiled."
At a meeting held according to warrant May 16, 1733, to which time two old meetings were adjourned, there was an avalanche of petitions relating to new towns and meeting- houses which must have filled the timid and conservative people with consternation.
The first was a petition signed by Gamaliel Beaman, Eben- ezer Prescott, Benjamin Houghton, Samuel Sawyer, Jonathan Osgood, Fairbank More, Jonathan Bealey, Thomas Ross, Joseph More, Shubael Bealey and John Snow, asking consent to be set up as a new township. The reasons moving them thereunto are worthy of insertion. "Whereas, we the sub- scribers, inhabitants of the westerley and southwesterley parts of the town of Lancaster have, by the providence of God, our habitations fixed at such a remote distance from the place of public worship, that it is with great difficulty, (at some seasons of the year especially) that we attend on the same, and is always attended with more labor, (as we con- ceive) than is proper for a day of holy rest if it could con- veniently be avoided ; and there being already settled a considerable number of families within such a distance of each other, and also with others that are settling among us, that we hope in a little time, by the blessing of providence, we shall be able to set up and support public worship among ourselves, which we hope will prove much for our ease, and comfort and benefit. That which we humbly move therefore is that the following," etc. ; and then they proceed to peti- tion for a separate township, with specified bounds. This petition was negatived ; and though renewed from time to time, was not granted. But a few years later, as will be re-
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BOLTON IN EMBRYO.
lated more at length, in due time, the petitioners were set off as a separate precinct.
Then came a petition from Josiah Wheeler, William Pol- lard, Joshua Moore, Jabez Fairbank, Jonathan Moore, William Keyes, John Whitney, Jeremiah Holman, Nathaniel Holman, Thomas Whitney and William Sawyer, wishing to be set up as a town, or if not, as a precinct. Their paper reads as follows : " setting forth the many hardships and dif- ficulties which we for these many years have undergone in getting to the public worship of God, and in a peculiar man- ner in the winter season. These are therefore to request of you that you put it into your next warrant to see whether the town will set off all the inhabitants on the east side the river to be a separate town or precinct, beginning at Shrewsbury line, and so down said river till you come to Harvard line, excepting the interval lots of land on the east side of said river." The lots specified belonged to Daniel Rugg, Thomas Carter, Samuel Willard, James Houghton, jr., Robert Phelps, Edward Phelps, jr., Joseph Wheelock, Dea. Josiah White, and Capt. John White's heirs. This movement failed for the time being.
The third petition came from the Neck, and South Lan- caster, and related to a new meeting-house. Peter Joslin, Samuel Willard, Hooker Osgood, Jabez Fairbanks, John Prescott, Ephraim Wilder, Thomas Carter, John Buss, John Bennitt, Hooker Osgood, jr., John Fletcher, Amos Sawyer, Joshua Osgood, and Hezekiah Gates, desired the selectmen to insert an article in the warrant to "see whether the town will build a meeting-house on the west side of the river, on the old meeting-house place upon the hill by Mr. Hooker Osgood's ; or upon the school-house hill near where the school-house now stands." [Near the house of Mr. Royce.] This petition, like the preceding, had to wait, but all were sure of success in the course of events.
At the March meeting in 1734 the town directed the select- men to send a petition to the general court, in behalf of the
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
town, with reference to the "building of Block Houses from Dunstable to Fort Dummer." It was thought that a chain of forts along the northern line of the province would serve as a barrier to keep the Indians and French from raiding on the exposed towns.
May 13, a new petition came from Gamaliel Beaman and others, asking to be set free from a part of the minister's rate for the ensuing year, on condition that they subscribed for preaching for one quarter of the year, (in the winter sea- son. ) But the subject was avoided by adjournment.
The subject was kept before the town at meetings held in August, October and December, with the variation that one petition presented the plan of two meeting-houses, one to accommodate the Center, and the other those living in what now comprises Bolton and Berlin, the parishioners of each parish to " pitch upon the place to set said house ; and if the town think best, to build their own houses, separate from other charges."
At various meetings in 1735 the following appropriations were raised. For the minister, £150; for schools, £60; for the poor, £30; for killing wolves and wild-cats, £37. No progress was made in the effort to divide the town.
The warrant for the March meeting, 1735-6 gave the town much to deliberate about, and doubtless the questions were canvassed in every house, by men and women, old and young, as well as in the town meeting. Gamaliel Beaman and others pressed for their new town, at the southwest. John Moor and his allies urged their petition for a new town on the southeast. Their language will be read with interest, at this late day. In spite of their antique spelling, which may raise a harmless smile, there was solid reasoning and a touching pathos in their artless words. "We the petitioners whose names are underwritten for ourselves, and in the behalf of others our neighbors, the inhabitants of the southeasterly part of the town of Lancaster, living so remote from the publick worship, at least a great part of us, which makes the
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BOLTON BECOMES A TOWN.
Sabbath, (which should be a day of rest) to be a day of the hardest labor to us, especeally to our children if they come to meeting ; and we do look upon ourselves bound in duty to promote their futer good and well being as well as our own. And we think it may be a means thereof to bring them whilst young to the public worship ; but while we are at such a distance it is next to imposable to bring them, or many of them. We do therefore request that the town would take it into their serious consideration, and set us off as a town by ourselves, running the line according to the vote of the town passed before Harvard went off, that so we may be providing to build an house that we and ours may worship God in ; and that we may pay as we do now until we have prepared for ourselves, and have the word of God preached with us."
The inhabitants in the southwest part of the town compli- cated affairs still more, by petitioning to have their portion of the school money to spend according to their own discre- tion.
And yet more to " embroil the fray," came the proposition to divide the town into three precincts or parishes, excepting the northwest part of the new grant, which should be re- served for " another precinct [Leominster] when the people are able and ready." Each " parish to pitch the place to set their meeting-house, and to build and finish the same."
These questions were promptly settled on the first day of March, 1736. Gamaliel Beaman and his friends were voted down. A township was not granted, but a vote was passed, in answer to the petition of Benjamin Houghton and others, allowing those living in the southwest, to have their part of the school money, and spend it in supporting a school in " such time and season as shall be just and honest."
The petition of John Moore for a new town on the south- east prevailed, and Bolton went before the general court with the benediction of the old mother town. The act of incor- poration was passed on the twenty-fourth of June, 1738. Berlin was set off in 1784. The church was formed in Bol-
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
ton, November 4, 1741, when the Rev. Thomas Goss was ordained their first pastor. The church was drawn chiefly from the church in Lancaster.
After this vote, the project of forming three parishes, and building meeting-houses for the same, fell to the ground as a matter of course.
The attempt to raise Mr. Prentice's stated salary was con- stantly negatived, but a motion to add £50 to his salary, this year, raising it to £150 prevailed. It may be stated here, that when the church was formed in Harvard, in 1733, the proprietors of Lancaster gave the minister, Rev. John Sec- combe the two islands in Bare hill pond. At the same time they granted to the town of Harvard thirty acres of land on Pin hill " to set a meeting-house upon, and for a training field, and for a burying place."
At a meeting held May 17, 1736, a rate of £150 was granted for repairing bridges over the Nashua, the North, the Penacook, and Still river, and for mending highways and byways.
The Records have no account of the annual meeting on the first Monday of March, 1737, but a regularly called meeting was held two weeks later. An entry in the Records of the proprietors, dated March 7, probably explains the mystery. It is there stated that there was a " great flood," and in con- sequence the proprietors' meeting was adjourned two weeks, that is to the twenty-first of March. Doubtless both meet- ings were called the same day, and on account of the small number present, no business was done. The proprietors ad- journed. Perhaps the town meeting was not even called to order. The few who came to the meeting-house, soon hastened home, or wherever they could mitigate the ravages of the flood.
At the meeting held March 21, another appeal for division was presented to the town. This was a petition from certain residents in the northwest part of the town, or the northern half of the "additional grant," and is dated, February 11,
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SETTING UP OF LEOMINSTER.
1736-7. In the History of Leominster, by David Wilder, it is said that the petition to the general court, for the incor- poration of Leominster had been lost. Perhaps it may be in- teresting, in such case, to see the petition to the town of Lan- caster, especially as it defines the boundaries of the pro- posed town, except on the northern line. The petition was in these words :
" To the selectmen of the town of Lancaster,-Gentlemen : We the subscribers who are inhabitants of the additional grant of land made to said Lancaster, and we who are proprietors in said land, and we that live in the old township of Lancas- ter near or adjoining to the northerly end of said additional grant, desire and humbly request that this our petition be put in the next warrant that you shall put out for calling a town meeting, so as that the town may consider, conclude, act and do what shall then be thought proper to be done in answer to our request and desire, which is as followeth, viz. : that the town by a vote would set off the northerly end of said ad- ditional grant to said Lancaster, so far as four miles southerly from the northwesterly corner of the old township, and there to make an angle and run a line westerly over the southern- most Wecapacit hill, and so over the Rocky hill, extending said line to the westerly line of said grant ; and that the whole of the said additional grant lying to the northerly side of the aforesaid line that runneth over said hill, may be made into a separate township, in such time as the great and general court of this province shall think that the people inhabiting the land requested for shall be able to support a minister and maintain the word of God, so as that it may be constantly preached among them. Also to grant that so many as live in the old township as desire to be added and annexed to said additional grant for a township as aforesaid ; and as aforesaid we pray." Signed by Jonathan Houghton, Thomas Hough- ton, Jonathan Carter, Thomas Wilder, William Divol, Jona- than White, Jonathan Wilson, Joseph Wheelock, jr., John Wheelock, Benj. Whetcomb, Noah Beman, John Goodridge,
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
Gardner Wilder, William Sawyer, Joseph Brooks, Ebenezer Dakin, Jacob Houghton, Jonathan Sawyer, John Wilder, Ebenezer Wilder.
The petition seems to have been granted on its first presen- tation. This may appear singular, inasmuch as the petition- ers who lived in the south part of the additional grant were defeated from year to year. But some of the reasons which led to the result, are obvious even at this late day. The center of Leominster is seven miles from Lancaster, and a long, high hill lies between. There were but few settlers on any of the roads which led from one town to the other. Con- venience demanded that there should be a new center. Again, some of the petitioners were influential men who intended to remain in the old town, but having children and land in the new one, favored the movement. Besides, the projectors of the new town made no extravagant and inadmissible claims, in the way of territory, while the inhabitants of Chocksett in- sisted upon having their easterly line moved a mile into the old township. Here are reasons enough, without seeking for others, why there was such a different reception given to the two petitions. It may be added here. that the petition for the proposed town was favorably heard by the general court, after persevering effort, and after satisfying the court that among other conditions, they could and would " maintain a godly minister." The act of incorporation was passed June 23, 1740, and the town contained something over twenty-five square miles.
Nothing daunted by former rebuffs, and perhaps stimulated by the success of the people of Leominster, the residents in the southwest section renewed their request that the select- men would call a town meeting to consider their claim to be a new town, and to take off from the old town a tract far longer and broader than had sufficed the ambition of their neighbors on the north. They wished to cut into the town one mile deeper than Leominster, and that through the whole length from north to south, about six miles. The town said
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AMBITIOUS CHOCKSETT.
" No," perhaps with an emphasis, on the ninth of November.
At the May meeting, 1737, the office of representative to the general court " went a begging." Ephraim Wilder was chosen, and refused to serve. Then Josiah White was chosen : he refused. Finally Jabez Fairbank was elected and con- sented to attend the legislature.
At the same meeting £60 were added to the salary of Rev. Mr. Prentice, in " bills of old tenure." The following sin- gular article was in the warrant: "To see what the town will alow for the relief of the widow Golsbery, or for her being improved as a School Dame in the east part of the town." The voters gave her five pounds instead of " improv- ing " her as the teacher of their children.
The question about a new meeting-house was up again, . Ebenezer Beaman and others desiring the town to consider their'" difficulty in getting to the public worship," and asking that a house might be built upon the Neck, or some other con- venient place. The Old Common was now on the eastern edge of the town, and no longer convenient for the majori- ty of the remainder of the town.
December 19, motions for a new meeting-house near the Center, and for a separate town, in the southwest, were con- sidered and negatived.
The irrepressible Gamaliel Beaman, and his allies demand- ed a hearing again, and on the fifth day of February, 1738-9, three questions were presented to the town. First, would the town agree to their forming a new township, including the half mile on the westerly side. The answer was in the negative. Their demand, it seems, was somewhat abated. At first, they asked for the southern part of the "additional grant," and a mile in breadth on the west side of Lancaster. And this strip is known as " the Mile " in the old Records. The question now was whether the town would allow the peti- tioners to cut into the town a half mile on the north end, and so run the east line of their new township as to take in a mile at the south end. This did not meet with favor.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
The next question was to see if the town would agree to the original petition, with the condition that the new town would keep in "good repair forever Nashua bridge, so call- ed, or that bridge that crosseth the river nearest the meeting- house." This was the Atherton bridge, half way between the Old Common and South Lancaster. The town would not entertain the proposal.
Then the town granted the petition so far as it related to the " additional grant," and that the corner of the proposed town might be located half a mile east of the Leominster corner, and from thence "run a line southerly into the line petitioned for due west from Jonas Fairbank's house, and from thence with a straight line to the Scar on the river, and so to the town line ; " with the condition that the said town should maintain and keep in " repair forever a cart bridge over the South river in Lancaster-that is in the road next above the meetings of the river." The bridge referred to is now known as the Atherton bridge, which is next above the meeting of the rivers. This vote reveals one spot where the " shoe pinch- ed." By the incorporation of the new town, Lancaster would be left with all the bridges on its hands, with the exception of the Scar bridge at the extreme south, and perhaps a small one east of what is now Clinton. Nothing came of this vote, probably because the petitioners could not get all the land they wanted and were not willing to be saddled with the cost of a bridge "forever," outside of their bounds.
The November meeting, voted for the salary of the minis- ter £192; and £80 for the support of a school. At the same time the town refused to free Leominster from the ministe- rial and school rate. Probably the religious and educational forces were not yet in working order in the new town.
On the thirty-first of December the town chose Joseph Moor and Jonathan Wilson to " prosecute such as should kill deer unseasonably."
At a meeting held May 4, 1740, the minister's salary was fixed at £212 for the year, and £80 were voted for a school. £100 were granted to be " wrought ought on the Hiwais."
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TWO MEETING-HOUSES?
It was difficult to suit Gamaliel Beaman and his friends, who came before the town, October 27, 1740, and tried to be set free from their part of the minister's rate "for one year, or for one-half thereof, or for so many months in the year as we shall have preaching among ourselves." The petition was negatived, but as it had a foundation in right, the town voted that " twenty-four pounds be payed out of the town treasury to enable the south part of the additional grant to support preaching in the winter season."
The petitioners renewed the charge on the second day of February, 1739-40, and tried the town on three questions. Taking it as a settled thing that Lancaster would not yield the demand for a mile on the north end of the line, Ephraim Sawyer and others inquired if the town would " build two meeting-houses,- one to accommodate the south part of the additional grant and the Mile, so called ; the other to accom- modate the remaining part of the town ; each society to build and place their own meeting-house ; as also to settle and main- tain their own minister." Or second, that the town would set off the "petitioners to be a Precinct, so that they may build for themselves - the bounds of said Precinct to be agreeable to a vote of the town made in the year 1738-9, to make them a separate township." Thirdly, they inquired if the town was "still free and willing that the petitioners be set off as a separate township," agreeable to the vote, February 5,1738-9.
The town voted down the proposition about two meeting- houses ; and also that relating to a precinct ; but assented to the plan of a new township. But this failed to satisfy the inhabitants of the " additional grant," and the Mile.
But now the movement assumes a new aspect, and as it illustrates the times, the case will be given, for the most part, in the words of the Records. It seems that Ebenezer Beaman and friends, in October, 1741, petitioned the select- men to bring before the town a proposition in regard to meet- ing-houses; and that the fathers of the town ignored their
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
petition. Ebenezer Beaman and Gamaliel Beaman were seeking different objects. The former lived on the Neck, and wanted a meeting-house in the Center. The latter lived in Chocksett, and wanted a new town, and a meeting-house in that section. Both had rights and pluck, and more than an ordinary degree of the "perseverance of the saints."
" Worcester ss. To Mr. Aaron Willard, one of the con- stables of the town of Lancaster, within the county of Wor- cester, greeting. Whereas complaint hath been made to me, the subscriber, one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Worcester, by Ebenezer Beaman and Benja- min Ballard, both of said Lancaster, yeoman, who complain and say that they, together with about sixty of the freehold- ers and inhabitants of said town, did by a petition by them signed, bearing date October the nineteenth, 1741, setting forth the necessity of two meeting-houses being built within the said town, etc., and signified to the selectmen of Lan- caster, their desire that they should insert their petition in the next warrant that the said selectmen should issue for the calling a town meeting, etc. ; and notwithstanding the select- men are required by law so to do, yet unreasonably denied, against the law of this Province, in that case made and pro- vided .- These are therefore, in his Majesty's name, to will and require you, the said officer, upon sight hereof, to notify and warn all the freeholders and other inhabitants qualified according to law to vote in town meetings to vote within your precinct in Lancaster aforesaid, to meet at the public meeting-house within said town, on Friday, the twenty-ninth day of January instant, at eleven of the clock in the fore- noon, then and there being duly met, to act on the several particulars hereafter mentioned.
1. To choose a moderator for the government of said meeting.
2. To see if the town will proceed to build two meeting- houses within said town; one of them to accommodate the body or northerly part of the town, and another to accom-
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TWO MEETING-HOUSES.
modate the southerly part of the additional grant, and the Mile, so called, who labor under great difficulties by reason of their great distance from the place of public worship.
3. To conclude of what bigness or dimensions each meet- ing-house shall be of, and how they shall be finished, and when.
4. To vote where each meeting-house shall be set up or stand.
5. To grant a tax or rate for the building of said meet- ing-houses, and how much of said rate or tax shall be ap- plied to each meeting-house for the building thereof, and when paid, and by what invoice made.
6. To choose a collector or collectors for the gathering of said rate or tax if need be.
7. To choose a committee or committees to let out said houses to workmen, or to agree with some person or persons to build said houses, and finish the same.
Lastly, to see what particular gentlemen will give gratis to so good a work.
And make return of this warrant, with your doings there- in, unto Dea. Josiah White, one of the selectmen of your town, at, on or before the time appointed for said meeting. Hereof fail not as you will answer it at your peril. Given under my hand and seal at Lunenburg, this twentieth day of January, in the fifteenth year of his Majesty's reign, anno- que Domini, 1741. EDWARD HARTWELL, Justice of the Peace."
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