USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts : from the first settlement to the present time, 1643-1879 > Part 3
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27
SPECTACLE POND.
We now come to a cluster of ponds, four in number, on the east side of the Lunenburg road, and lying in a north and south direction, relative to each other, with the excep- tion of the smallest, which is called Oak Hill pond, and is southeasterly from the others. It partly fills a deep bowl, and was probably somewhat larger and much deeper in for- mer times. The map gives it a surface of fifteen acres. It is so completely secluded that none but hunters and fisher- men have known of its existence except by report. Recent- ly however, wood has been cut in its vicinity, and a rough road has been opened on its western margin, by which teams can reach the southeastern corner of Spectacle pond. It is a lovely little gem in a fine setting of emerald.
But among our lakelets, Spectacle pond is queen. The old surveyors give it one hundred and thirteen acres of sur- face ; but as they have utterly failed to represent its shape, so it is believed that they have understated its size. The outlines of the pond as given on the map of 1795, differ much from the present. On the map of 1831, the pond seems to be turned over from north to south, with a regular curve on the northern border, and an indentation reaching from the southern side far into the middle. Several town and county maps multiply the error. The outline on the map in this volume, though not accurate, is a great im- provement on all that have preceded it. It was drawn by an experienced draughtsman, Mr. H. E. Remick, of Boston, after a partial observation, but without the use of instru- ments.
What led the earlier surveyors, who have been followed by the later, with immaterial variations, to give the lake such an outline, is a mystery. My theory was this: that in former times, the two bays, one on the northeast and the other on the northwest of the pond, which form the two glasses of the spectacles, were shallow, and mostly bare in the dry season, thus giving a gentle curve to the northern side of the pond ; and that Loon island, as the narrow cape on the south side
28
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
is called, formerly extended far towards the middle of the pond. But soundings show that there are no shallows to justify this conjecture. The pond is a bowl with a suddenly shelving bank on all sides. In the northern extensions of the pond, the water is full twenty feet except near the shore. A little off from Loon island a line of thirty feet is needed to reach the bottom. It is hard to believe that the surveyors in 1795 and 1831 had no reason for giving the form to the pond which they have left us on their maps ; yet it takes but half an eye to see that their outlines are almost exactly opposite to the facts as they now exist.
But leaving these questions which have delayed us too long, this little lake is a marvel of nature. The far-famed Walden pond in Concord does not combine more elements of natural beauty. Its singular curves and bays which give it a name ; the little coves that break the line of its southern side ; the pebbly shore and sandy bottom, and lucent depths, settling sharply from the margin ; its transparent water and its rim of living green, all unite to please the eye and gratify the taste of the lover of nature.
Little Spectacle of about thirteen acres,* separated by a few rods on the north, has similar features. When the water is high it flows into the larger pond, which is on the same level. The water is said to be deep in the middle, and has the translucent purity which gives a charm to the whole clus- ter of lakes. Passing north, and over the Harvard road, and into the woods a few rods, the gleaming surface of Fort pond comes into view. It is credited with a hundred acres. The old turnpike touched the southwest corner, and gave the traveler a bit of scenery, made up of water, woods and re- flected sky, such as is rarely seen in a summer's journey. These four lakelets in a row, with Cumbery a mile or two distant, -such contrasts to . the ordinary mud-margined ponds and reservoirs-are among the masterpieces of nature. If a railway ran near them they would be thronged by visitors from near and far every season. As it is, their
* See Note at the end of the chapter.
29
NASHUA RIVER.
deep seclusion gives them a heightened grace to those who search for the amenities of nature in their secret haunts.
If these ponds are jewels on the bosom of Lancaster, the Nashua is a silver girdle, reaching from shoulder to shoulder and circling her waist. The north branch rushes from the hills of Ashburnham and Westminster, through Fitchburg, between high banks and over a rocky channel. In Leo- minster the valley spreads into a long intervale, and this feature is preserved as the stream rolls on to the meeting of the waters, where the south branch comes in and makes the main river, and thence to the northern boundary. But the rush and momentum of the branches in their upper channels, crowd the river along the lower and smoother level with a steady force.
The average depth of the main river is stated by the his- torian Willard, to be about twelve feet. But this must re- fer to the river when filling the bed to the brim without overflowing. In the summer season the average depth be- tween the Center bridge and Still river is not above three feet. Standing in a boat, when the water is at this stage, a full-grown man can see over the bank, in many places, and look across the intervale. The river, even then, though placid on the surface, moves rapidly, as those will find who attempt to row up stream. When the river is brimming full, the movement is grand ; and when the high freshet, in spring or autumn, swirls along over all the wide intervale, the view is magnificent. Sometimes masses of ice and broken timbers, the debris of mills, dams and bridges, add to the wildness of the scene. But the contents of the swollen river give fatness to the farm-lands, and make the fertile intervale like "the garden of the Lord."
Some value the river for its enriching qualities, and some for its abundant water power, and some because they can idle away their time in catching pout and pickerel. There are some also who delight in it as a "thing of beauty " and a "joy forever." They love to wander on its banks, to
30
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
plunge into its depths and float upon its surface. They re- turn again and again to gaze on its flow when it shimmers in the sun, or is mottled by the rain-drops, or ruffled by the breeze. They are never tired of watching it from some high bank ; mayhap from the summit of the Scars, or crum- bling bluffs, and see it winding back and forth in the broad valley, like the convolutions of a mighty serpent, gleaming in the light with silvery scales.
This description of the scenery of Lancaster may seem extravagant to the stranger, but to one who has followed the eastern slope of George hill, and noticed the changing view given by every succeeding step ; who has stood on the round- ed tops of George or Ponakin or Wheeler hill, and taken in the entrancing prospect ; who has traced the almost innu- merable roads and bridle-paths, and hunters' tracks through the woods of Pine hill and the great northern plateau ; who has reveled in the beauty of the ponds and rivers, and has been delighted with the added charm of cultivated fields, and tasteful grounds and gardens, the words will seem tame and inadequate. Let all be summed up in the words of Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody, a former resident : this is "beautiful Lancaster."
A word must be said regarding the trees which, according to Prof. Silliman, "conceal defects and heighten beauties." The uplands bear the oak, chestnut, pine, birch, beech, ma- ple and other trees common to the region. Wild cherry grows in different places. In the intervales and the uplands are great numbers of stately walnuts of the shag-bark va- riety. Formerly the "walnut swamp" extended from the intervale opposite the Center, north and west by the ancient place of Daniel Stearns, and over the top of Ballard hill. But the elm is the monarch of upland and valley. Some are tall, with limbs expanding at the top like a graceful vase. Others branch out, bold and rugged, like the white oak, and spread their shadow broadly on the green sward. Still others rise majestically from the base, with a mighty bole which curves
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31
MINERALS.
outwardly in thousand greater and lesser limbs,-their leafy tips pendent to the earth - and wave grandly in the breeze. Another variety is covered from base to summit with a growth of twigs, as if made on purpose to adorn the rugged branches. These serve, with the leaves on the branches, to make the tree a mass of foliage and verdure.
The minerals of the town are more numerous than valu- able. None of the "precious metals " are found here. There is an iron mine within our ancient bounds, but now in Sterling, a little north of East Washacum lake. The ore was good, but it long since ceased to be worked. It is now only visited by the curious. In a " Catalogue of American Minerals, by Samuel Robinson, M. D., Boston, 1825," the following facts are given : " Andalusite, reddish brown, in a rolled mass of white quartz, and on George hill in transi- tion mica slate. Marl, abundant on George hill, and else- where. Earthy marl, an extensive bed, in New Boston, so called. Pinite, in clay slate ; also green and purple pinite, fine specimens on George hill in granite. Spodumene, fine specimens in various parts of the town. Fibrolite, abundant in mica slate. Phosphate of lime, on George hill, in small hexahedral prisms, in a spodumene rock, of about two tons in weight. Peat, in the swamps and lowlands in the south- west part of the town." This is now covered in part at least, by the water of Mossy pond.
The Andalusite mentioned above, is a singular mineral, in its appearance. There is quite a variety in form and col- or. The mineral is intensely hard, and susceptible of a fine polish. Buttons, studs and other ornaments are wrought from it. The author has a specimen, presented by the late Prof. William Russell, which has a regular cross at the end, and is precious for the sake of the giver, for its beauty, and for the sacred emblem which it bears. And here an anecdote finds its place. Mrs. Mary G. Ware had specimens, one of which was specially fine. After a visit from a friend it was missing ; but in time that friend, Mr. George B. Emer-
32
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
son, returned it as the chief part of a ring set in gold, with this inscription, "Qui saxum crucem fecit." He who made the stone bore the cross.
It was a common thing in former years, for students in mineralogy to come hither from great distances in search of minerals, and especially the Andalusite, of which tons have been carried away. The principal of the high school, Mr. LeRoy Z. Collins, has made a large collection, and supplied many applicants for specimens. According to him, the min- eral is found here, not merely in boulders but in the ledge, on the west side of George hill, and in Sterling. A large stone at the side door of the writer's house is supposed to be full of the Andalusite forms.
More than a century since, a Mr. Flagg found a slate quarry in the northeast part of the town. "The slates were in use as early as 1752 or 1753," says Willard, and " after the revolutionary war, were sent in great numbers to Boston, and the Atlantic states, and formed quite an article of commerce." It was sometimes called the Shaker quarry, though never a part of their property. Perhaps the name was given because the Shakers, in the latter part of the cen- tury, were employed to take them to Boston with great ox teams. The Hancock house, on Beacon street, and occupied by Gov. Hancock, which was taken down a few years since, was shingled with slates from this quarry. So was the Old State house, and many another building in Boston.
The quarry was worked more or less for fifty years. Mr. Whitney, author of the History of Worcester County said in 1793, " great numbers of them - the slates - are used in Boston every year." Facilities of transportation enabled other quarrymen to undersell the owners, and the work ceased more than fifty years since. The mine filled with water and so remained till the past year, 1877, when a Welsh- man, Mr. Griffith, reopened it, and found it to be one of the best slate quarries in the world. The quality is superior, the color good and durable, and the supply abundant. It is
33
BIRDS AND FISHES.
hoped that the quarry will now be worked, as two railroads within two miles, or less, of the site, furnish ready commu- nication with Boston, New York, and other cities less re- mote.
Of birds little need be said. The kinds common to this latitude are numerous, and fill the shade trees, orchards and forests with their songs. Dr. J. L. S. Thompson, a skillful taxidermist, has a large and beautiful collection. In gather- ing them he has had the aid of the gun and the knife of a young adept in hunting and taxidermy, Albert Harriman.
The wild animals with which the woods once were filled, and which preyed upon the flocks of the early settlers, have long since disappeared. During the first century premiums were paid for the destruction of beasts and birds of prey. Now a fee is willingly paid to get a sight of them in some traveling menagerie, or natural history collection.
Shad and salmon formerly came up the Nashua, but none of the living remember the time. The dams at Nashua and Pepperell are an effectual bar, or the pollutions from the factories fill all decent fishes with disgust. Efforts have been made, of late years, to stock the river and some of the ponds with black bass, trout and other desirable fish, with partial success. Perhaps it will be found quite as easy to raise the fish as to guard them from the hooks of dep- redators.
Such is a brief and imperfect description of Lancaster as a township. The first settlers valued it as a goodly possession. They stopped not on the eastern hills, but hastened into the broad and fertile valley with its uplands and plateaus, on either bank of the Nashua. They found here the wild love- liness of nature, and they made it more desirable for their children. The soil was naturally good. In some places they exhausted it, but the overflowing of the river has kept up the fruitfulness of the intervale lands, and a better culti- vation has enriched the uplands. Though the north part of the town has been made poor, except in spots, by unthrifty 3
34
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
farming, yet the lands there might be speedily restored. The hand of skilled industry would soon cover the fields with lush grass and heavy crops, and the happy farmers would reclaim the waste places where once were happy homes. Let the sons of the soil improve their goodly heritage ; then the fields all over the town would smile with rich harvests.
In closing this chapter a brief reference will be made to some of the big elms of the past and the present. Willard speaks of several which are now dead, though the stumps of two of them remain. The one he mentions as standing west of Atherton bridge, measured twenty-six fect at the roots. This was stript of its last limbs by a furious tem- pest on the twenty-first of July, of the present year. He refers to another near to the Old Common cemetery which was twenty-five feet five inches at the roots, eighteen feet at two feet from the ground, and fourteen feet ten inches at four feet from the ground. The diameter of the area covered by its branches was ninety-eight feet. A third stood between the road and the barn of Caleb T. Symmes, and was twenty-four feet at the roots, and fifteen feet at four feet from the ground. The stumps of these last two trees still remain. The last mentioned is covered by a creeper. It is said that Col. Abijah Willard, in his boyhood, nearly one hundred and fifty years since, took it up and planted it here. Another tree, southeast from Center bridge, and near the old Neck bridge, was twenty-six feet six inches at the roots, and twenty feet at four feet from the ground. This has left no vestige.
But an elm standing near the same spot, a view of which is here presented, equals if it does not surpass all the above- mentioned. Measured ou the twelfth of July, 1878, its girth was as follows. Two fect from the base, twenty-seven fect, cight fect above the base, twenty-five feet. Below the point of measurement, the roots spread fast, and above cight feet high, the bole begins to branch. The diameter of
35
GREAT ELMS.
the branches is fully ninety feet. The symmetry of its proportions is seen in the sketch. This tree stands close by " Lovers' Lane " on the land of Charles L. Wilder. Another nearly as large is a few rods west of his barn. The elms that formerly arched the path of Dr. Thayer, and before him, of Mr. Harrington, still wave their stately branches. An immense elm, of faultless shape, towers over the intervale of Frederick Johnson, near the river.
The great elm on the south side of the house of Mrs. Nancy K. Carleton was set out between eighty and ninety years ago. When the late Dr. Thayer was married he did not im- mediately move into the house where most of his life in Lan- caster was spent, as Mr. Harrington was then alive ; but took his wife to the house now owned by Mrs. Carleton. When walking out one day Mrs. Thayer pulled up an elm sprout, brought it home, and with her own hands set it where it now stands. To guard it from harm she placed sticks around it. What a graceful monument ! To preserve the now stately tree, Mrs. Carleton has recently bound the great branches together with iron bands.
The large trees of Lancaster are not confined to the elm variety. Near the Central Station is an immense wild cherry, that has few equals in the country. At the old Barnes place, where Mr. Jewett now lives, is a huge white oak. On the farm of the country home of J. E. Farwell, Esq., of Boston, on the top of Ponakin hill, is an oak tree which, at eighteen inches from the ground, is fifteen feet and a half in circumference ; and at three feet from the ground, fifteen feet in girth.
The trees above-mentioned are some of the most conspicu- ous among hundreds which line the road sides and adorn the lowlands of Lancaster.
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NOTE TO PAGE 28 .- On the map made in 1831, the Little Spectacle pond is marked "twenty-seven acres." An accurate survey made in July of 1878, gives 13.13 acres,
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
or thirteen acres and twelve rods. How can the discrepancy be accounted for? It is not credible that the senior Capt. Fisher, who made the earlier survey, more than doubled the surface of the water. The following statement will partly if not wholly explain the matter. In former times the brook which is west of the Lunenburg road, and runs south- erly into the North branch of the Nashua, was turned into Little Spectacle. At the same time, the outlet of the larger pond was closed by a dam which raised the water four or five feet. The water thus raised, flowed back from Spec- tacle to Little Spectacle pond, and raised its surface above the present margin. The writer has recently circumnavi- gated the pond, and found, in some parts, broad spaces which a moderate rise of the water would cover. It was esti- mated by two men with him in the boat, that ten or twelve acres would thus be added to the size of the pond.
The greatest length of Spectacle pond is about one hundred and seventy rods, and the greatest breadth not far from one hundred and fifty rods. Recent soundings show a depth of fifty-five feet. Probably the water is deeper in some places.
M
HELIOTYPE PRINTING CO.
GREAT ELM -LOVERS LANE.
CHAPTER II.
THE PURCHASE AND SETTLEMENT OF LANCASTER.
ACCORDING to Gov. Winthrop, the first movement to- wards the settlement of Lancaster by white men, was made in 1643. Watertown seems to have been a hive from which successive swarms went out to form new homes. Referring to a case of this kind, he says: " some of the same town be- gan a plantation at Nashaway, some fifteen miles N. W. from Sudbury. At this time the whole territory in this region, as far west as the Wachusett, and perhaps farther, was ruled over by Sholan or Shaumauw, sachem of the Nashaways or Nashawogs," whose capital -a wigwam, or cluster of wigwams, - was near the Washacum, or Wesha- comb lake. Sholan sometimes went down to Watertown, probably for the sake of barter, where he " became acquainted with a trader, Mr. Thomas King." Perhaps he thought it would be a convenience to have the place of trade in his own neighborhood. In that way, he and his tribe would be freed from the necessity of making long journeys to exchange their peltries for the trinkets and the more useful articles kept in a country store. Whatever was his motive, the Indian chief recommended his valley, with its streams, lakes, hills and plains, as suitable for a plantation, and invited the English to become his neighbors .-
In consequence, King was induced, probably after per- sonal inspection, to unite with others in purchasing the land of Sholan. The tract was eighty square miles, or ten miles
37
38
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
by eight. The English agreed not to molest the natives in their fishing, hunting or planting places. This deed was sanctioned by the general court.
It is not certain that any of the associates, viz. Thomas King, John Prescott, Harmon Garrett, Thomas Skidmore, Stephen Day, Mr. Symonds, and perhaps Jonathan Chan- dler and goodmen Gill, Walker and Davies, came to Nasha- way in the year 1643. But probably some persons under the authority of King were on the ground before the season closed. "The first building was a trucking house, erected by Symonds and King," on the southeast side of George hill. Mr. Willard, in his History of Lancaster, [Worcester Magazine, Vol. II, No. 5,] places this trucking house about a mile southwest of the meeting house of the first parish, and near the corner of the roads southwest of the house of the late Col. Francis B. Fay. But there is an unbroken tra- dition that the first trading place was on the side of George hill towards the southeast. Jonas Goss, who has long lived at the foot of the hill, informs the author, that on land formerly owned by him, which he sold to George A. Parker, is a place called in his boyhood the "Indian Camp Pasture." He further states that there was formerly a stake which marked the site of an ancient building. This spot, [A on the map,] is perhaps, in its own amenities, and in the pros- pect, near and remote, which it commands, the most beauti- ful in the whole region.
King never became a settler, notwithstanding the pleas- ant fact stated by Rev. Mr. Harrington, that Sholan " had a considerable friendship for him." He sold his "interest to the other proprietors, who covenanted with each other to be- gin the plantation at a certain time. In pursuance of this covenant, and to make their purchase sure," they sent up three men, Richard Linton, Lawrence Waters and John Ball, to whom lots were given. These pioneers were directed to begin the settlement without delay, and " make preparations for the general coming of the proprietors." Winthrop,
Heliotype Printing Co.
220 Devonshire Street, Boston.
SITE OF THE FIRST TRUCKING HOUSE-GEORGE HILL.
39
THE SETTLEMENT DELAYED.
under date of May, 1644, gives the following item in rela- tion to the settlement. "Many of Watertown, and other towns, joined in the plantation at Nashaway; and having called a young man, a universal [University, ] scholar, one Mr. Norcroff, [Norcross] to be their minister, seven of them, who were no members of any churches, were de- sirous to gather into a church estate ; but the Magistrates and elders advised them first to go and build them habita- tions, (for there was yet no house there, ) and then to take some that were members of other churches, with the consent of such churches, as had formerly been done, and so pro- ceed orderly. But the persons interested in this plantation, being most of them poor men, and some of them corrupt in judgment, and others profane, it went on very slowly, so that in two years they had not three houses built there, and he whom they had called to be their minister, left them for their delays."
The account of the same event, by Rev. Mr. Harrington, differs in some respects, but need not be understood as irre- concilable with it. Referring to the act of the proprietors in sending up three men to prepare the way for the rest, he says : "before the time for their general appearance, their minister, to whom they had committed their mutual obliga- tion, (whether by reason of his own aversion to the place, or by the instigation of such of the proprietors as were un- willing to come up themselves, is uncertain,) forsook them, carrying with him said mutual obligation. And in conse- quence of this all the associates, except Mr. Prescott, re- fused to fufill the contract, but yet held their interest. So that for the space of seven years very little was done to for- ward the plantation."
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