History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 51

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co.
Number of Pages: 1328

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Milford > History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881 > Part 51

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Washington-engine house bore a large scenic painting of a fire, with the stars and stripes looped above it, and flags and shields on either side. Bunting running from the American eagle at the summit of the facade down to the word " Washington," produced a pleasing effect. A string of flags from the building to the Arcade completed the decoration.

Blunt's Block, occupied by S. A. Eastman and Miss E. A. Rich- ards, was decorated with a canopy of tricolor. At the apex was the square and compass, and in the centre a shield bearing the " Minute- Man." The awning-frames were trimmed with bunting.

The Lincoln House was decorated with a dancing " Humpty Dumpty " in the centre of the School-street front, surrounded by a triangle of bunting, whose apex was at the eaves, and the base over the lower windows. Banners were suspended from the attic windows.

D. B. Jenks and Howard & Pierce, in Union Block, had pyramids of bunting running from their awning-frames to the roof of the build- ing. Red, white, and blue was looped up along the awning-frames.

E. J. Prentice's grain-store was decorated with festoons of red, white, and blue, and flying flags over his windows.

The south side of Clement, Colburn, & Co.'s boot-manufactory pre- sented as fine a series of decorations as was seen along the ronte. From the roof was suspended an immense banner, flanked on either side with flags and shields, and surmounted with the "bird of free- dom." Underneath was the motto, "Liberty and Union, One and Inseparable, Now and Forever," and the word " Welcome," in gilded letters. Numerous flags of different nations floated over all, presenting a cheerful and pleasing sight.

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HISTORY OF MILFORD.

Fogg, Houghton, & Coolidge's boot-factory was tastefully deco- rated with an immense American flag between the British and Rus- sian standards, on the front of the building. Over the door was a banner bearing the inscription, -

"STARK, WARNER, BAKER,

PARSON Those noble Patriots who started One Hundred Years

ALLEN. Ago, have passed away. But their memory will grow ETHAN

greener with years, and blossom through the flight of ages."

ALLEN.

Red, white, and blue ran along the balustrade of the stairs leading to the entrance, and lines of streamers floated from the cupola.

Johnson, Rust, & Co.'s factory displayed a group of flags on the Bow-street side. An American eagle over the flag of our country, and the motto, " One Country, one Constitution, one Destiny," with bannerets and flags depending from the windows, made a beautiful series of decorations.

Of the numerous private dwellings that were decorated, the resi- dence of John P. Daniels, on Congress Street, was one of the finest. A canopy of red, white, and blue enclosed the motto, " One Hundred Years Ago" over a tinsel eagle and a life-size painting of George Washington. The roof over the piazza was trimmed with flags and bunting, and American flags over the doorway formed a neat and patriotic design. Flags were suspended from the windows ; and, taken as a whole, the display was most attractive and pleasing to the eye.

The house of Mrs. Angenette Thayer, on Pine Street, was one of the most elaborately decorated residences in that part of the town. The side overlooking Main Street was decorated to represent a camping- ground. It bore a large painting of the "Goddess of War," draped with the American flag. Near the corners were shields with 1780 and 1880 in gilt letters upon them. Over the bay-window was a " Union Jack," with a large shield. From the windows hung flags and a Massachusetts seal. The Pine-street side was decorated with the red, white, and blue over the porch and bay-window. The entrance was trimmed with the " flag of the free," and a large ensign on the lawn completed the decoration. Done by Col. Beals.

The residence of Charles F. Claflin was elaborately decorated. From the roof on the front to the sides, the red, white, and blue was gracefully suspended ; the State seals of Illinois and West Virginia catching it in, from whence it extended around the porch. Over the door was an eagle holding up the tricolor which ran around the bal-

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OUR MUNICIPAL CENTENARY.

cony. On each side of the entrance to the honse the American flags were looped up, and over the balcony a large gilt star added to the decorations. Flags from the roof and the balcony completed the orna- mental designs.

The residence of Hon. A. C. Mayhew made a very tasty display. Over the doorway was an American eagle resting on stands of flags, and American flags curtained the doorway. Each balcony-window was trimmed with pyramids of red, white, and blue, the American flags, and paintings of the "horn of plenty." The other windows were curtained with banners, and lines of flags extended from the balconies to the trees on the lawn.

The house of Bainbridge Hayward, occupied by himself and H. S. Bacon, was ornamented with a canopy of fancy bunting and Ameri- can flags, bearing a picture of the martyred Lincoln at its summit. Red, white, and blue was looped over the doorway, and strings of United States flags extended from the door to the trees.

T. B. Thayer's house was finely decorated with a canopy of the national colors, with a tricolor running around the balcony. Stars and stripes formed curtains over the entrance, which was surmounted with a stand of flags. A banner, bearing " Re-union, Sons and Daugh- ters of Milford," was suspended over the doorway. Bannerets and flags added to the beauty of the decorations.

L. H. Cook's residence was decorated with a pyramid over the front windows. The doorways and windows were curtained with American flags, and shields and banners made up a neat and beauti- ful design.

M. W. Edwards's stable displayed large Union and Irish flags, with streamers of bunting.

Greene Brothers' heel-factory displayed the characteristic motto of "The 'heel' of industry shall stamp out idleness." A canopy of bunting from the out-buildings to an eagle on the roof, over foreign flags, made a very pretty decoration.

B. E. Harris made a good display at his house on Claflin Street. Bunting ran from the roof in the centre of the front around the roof of the piazza, with a large American flag looped up over the entrance.

The decorations on the house of Amariah A. Taft were of a par- ticularly fine design. Around the roof of the veranda was looped the red, white, and blue, with flowing ends, on each side of the entrance. From the corners to the roof was a pyramid of tricolor, beneath which was a large feu de joie. On the front were bannerets and the State seals of Texas, New Hampshire, and Nebraska. The entrance was curtained with flags ; and the motto " Welcome " over a large " Star of Bethlehem," directly over the steps, completed the decorations.

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HISTORY OF MILFORD.

The residence of L. E. Heath and Randall B. Greene was neatly decorated with streamers of bunting, an American flag over the walk, and a British flag over the door.

The residences of James E. Walker and Capt. C. W. Wilcox were patriotically ornamented with United States flags over the doors, while a large campaign flag was suspended between the houses.

J. D. Hunt's house displayed a large flag looped against the front of the house, and the doorway was tastefully decorated with a large American flag.

Mrs. Moulton's house was trimmed with red, white, and blue over the door, ornamented with small American flags.

The residence of I. N. Davis was tastefully trimmed with a canopy of red, white, and blue. In the centre of the front was a large shield, flags, and the date 1780. Large banners depended from each corner of the roof.

P. Gillon threw out American and Irish flags from his place of business.

L. H. Holbrook's lawn was covered with miniature flags, making a novel and striking design.

A. A. Coburn's residence was finely trimmed with bunting and American flags, a large ensign being over the piazza, and banners flying from the windows.

Nelson Parkhurst had a patriotic display of bunting and American flags. The word " Welcome" was in the centre of the front, and small flags depended from the windows.

B. H. Spaulding's residence was nicely decorated with a large can- opy of red, white, and blue. Over the door was "Welcome," and the State seal of Rhode Island, with the seals of Vermont, Wisconsin, and Mississippi, and a large feu de joie, on the front of the house.

From the trees in the high-school yard depended large frames, bearing the words, " Truth, Honor, Country," made of oak-leaves.

At R. L. Darling's residence, opposite the common, there was a fine representation of George Washington, by Master Elmer Stacy in costume, who stood on a platform over the door.

Mrs. Otis Thayer's residence, corner of South Main and Main . Streets, was decorated in a tasty manner. The porch was festooned with bunting, curtains of American flags being over the entrance. Under the windows of the upper story were handsome shields flanked with flags, and from the circular window to the porch was a pyramid of red, white, and blue.

Rev. Oliver S. Dean's house was neatly decorated with red, white, and blue over the doorway. Flags between the upper windows, and inside curtains of bunting, completed the decoration.

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OUR MUNICIPAL CENTENARY.

Irving Block was decorated with a pyramid from the awning-frames to the roof. Over the entrance to the " Journal " office was a shield with banners, and flags surrounding it. Festoons of bunting ran along the awning-frames and over the lower windows.

The Home Bank was decorated with large American flags.

Z. C. Field's house was decorated with red, white, and blue. The word " Welcome " and a large shield over the front doorway, with the State seals of Tennessee and Georgia over the windows, made a particularly neat display.

Over the entrance to the residence of Sullivan S. Jones were the pictures of Lincoln and Washington, surrounded by bunting and flags.

Mr. Allard's residence on South Main Street was prettily trimmed. In the bay-window was an eagle holding the stars and stripes in his talons.

John Wood's house was tastily decorated with bunting made of small centennial flags, and that bearing pictures of the Memorial building. A canopy rose over the porch, and festoons of the same kind of bunting depended from its roof.

The residences of Herbert Oliver, A. C. Jones, H. C. Skinner, E. A. Fisk, Ezra Holbrook, Gilbert Chapin, Eugene Chamberlain, Milo Sad- ler, William L. Sadler, G. W. Howe, T. C. Eastman, Charles John- son, Mr. Macy, South Main Street ; Milton Aldrich, Owen O. Wales, M. A. Blunt, A. T. Wilkinson, Dr. Russell, E. B. Washburn, A. H. Adams, Dr. Pratt, P. P. Parkhurst, and A. J. Sumner were more or less elaborately decorated ; but the lateness of the hour at which they were completed forbids a more extended report of the details of their ornamentation.

AT THE TENT. MUSIC, MIRTH, AND FESTIVITIES.

The procession arrived at the tent about one o'clock ; and as soon as the company were seated, Hon. A. C. Mayhew, president of the day, called the assembly to order.

Rev. Martin S. Howard of Wilbraham offered a prayer.

MR. MAYHEW'S REMARKS.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, - We have assembled to-day to com- memorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the town of Milford. On the eleventh day of April, 1780, the charter of the town was granted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth ; and now we welcome you, one and all, to the festivities of the day. Our only regret is, that every native of Milford now residing in distant lands

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HISTORY OF MILFORD.

could not be here to join us in the celebration of the day. It is not my purpose to detain you by any speech of my own, but to leave it to the orator of the day to tell the history of the town, -its growth, enterprise, and business prosperity. I will now introduce to you Samuel Walker, Esq., one of our long-tried citizens, who will extend to you an address of welcome.

Samuel Walker, Esq. of Milford, delivered the following

ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FORMER CITIZENS OF MILFORD, - Welcome, thrice welcome, to the land of your nativity, the home of your childhood. In behalf of our native-born citizens, I welcome you ; in behalf of our adopted citizens, I welcome you to our town to-day. The fire may have gone out on your native hearth- stone ; the loving hearts that gathered at the parental home and around the family board may have ceased to beat; you may miss the old familiar faces that so often gathered there ; the old homestead may have passed into other hands, only a laudmark here and there to remind you of what it once was ; new and strange faces may meet you at every turn, old and familiar ones left only here and there like shocks of grain that have escaped the reaper's sickle ; the hum and din of business may have taken the place of our once quiet streets ; you may feel that you are "strangers in a strange land ; " but the same hills surround us; the same rivers wind their way to the ocean that did one hundred years ago; the same heavens are over our heads, the same earth beneath our tread. But where are those men whose names are so familiar to us, who contributed so largely to the early history of Milford to make it what it now is? They have gone ; their work is done. The morning and evening bells upon the church- steeple reminded us of their departure long since. But their chil- dren's children are here to welcome you to their homes to-day. We extend to you the right hand of fellowship. We offer to you the heart and hand of the chief magistrate of our State, who is here to welcome you.

A kind, beneficent Providence has brought us together this cen- tennial day. " He has taken the garments from before the sun, and caused it to shine with all its brightness before us."

Let us, in common, rejoice and be glad. Let our sorrows be num- bered with the past, putting our whole trust in Him who orders all things well. And when a few more days have passed over us, let us hope a more joyous re-union awaits us where the flowers fade not, and friends do not grow old.

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OUR MUNICIPAL CENTENARY.

DINNER. Dinner was served by A. E. Nash of Boston, there being two thousand plates. The following comprised -

THE MENU.

ROAST.

Turkey, Chicken,

Cranberry Sauce, White Sauce.

Rib-beef.

COLD.

Tongue, Salmon Salad,

Ham, Lobster Salad.

VEGETABLES.

Potatoes, Boiled Bermuda Onions, Lettuce,

Radishes,

Stewed Tomatoes, Marrowfat Squash, Cucumbers.

RELISHES.

Mixed Pickles,

Worcestershire Sauce,

Cheese.

Apple,

Meat,

Custard. Washington Pie, Vienna Rolls.

DRINKS.

Tea,

Coffee.

FRUIT.

Oranges, Apples, Strawberries and Cream.

At the conclusion of the dinner the American Band of Providence played a centennial overture arranged for this occasion. Secretary of State, Henry B. Pierce, then read the Act of Incorporation from the original manuscript. [Text omitted. See it as given Chap. IV.

The chorus sung the following original hymn, written by Rev. Martin S. Howard of Wilbraham : -

With hearts that beat in one accord, And hopes that reach beyond our fears, We children of the fathers meet To celebrate a hundred years.

Squash, French Rolls,

PASTRY.

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HISTORY OF MILFORD.

The graves of generations gone, With flowers perennial we strew; Recall the vanished days of old, And count the ages as they go.

Upon the pinnacle of Time We stand, and view the hoary past, And with unclouded faith survey The future as it thickens fast.

From small beginnings here we trace The growth of enterprise and toil, And glory in the honest work That garners in so rich a spoil.

God of our fathers and their sons, Thy hand in our success we own: Thy mercy blest our earlier time; We still will hail thee God alone.

And when another hundred years Shall roll its chariot-wheels around, May History write as fair a page As this with which the last is crowned.

CENTENNIAL ORATION BY GEN. A. B. UNDERWOOD OF NEWTON.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, - To-day we are to try and live over a hundred years. In these few short hours that we have set apart in this leafy month of June, to commemorate the incorporation of our native or adopted town, just a century ago, this year we are to recall, if we can, the Milford of the past ; to people once more these places, which, in our brief turn, we call ours, with the successive generations which have owned and inhabited them for the century gone ; go about these mutually familiar bills and valleys with them ; call them by the honored names that have come down to us; note where they have lived, how fared, how busied themselves, and what accomplished ; what they liked and disliked ; hear their story, and compare notes. And we have but a summer's afternoon to do it in.

In the history of the world, a century seems but a short period. To our old mother earth, hoary with her six thousand historic years, one small hundred seems very little ; with its myriads of centuries, according to the men of science, one is but a grain of sand on the seashore. In this universe of worlds a century, as Wendell Phillips says of the career of man, " is as an hour's flare of a torch ; while

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GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

serene and immortal gleam down upon us Mars and Saturn, Orion and the Pleiades." But to us children of men, a century is a majes- tic period : none can hope to live it, except as a marvel. One cen- tury witnesses the labors of five new generations of men ; and think what five generations of busy men accomplish ! Think, or . attempt to think, for a minute, what the five last have accomplished in the world at large, and how much it has lived in a century. A century ago, for instance, when this town was incorporated, George III. was King of England, and reigned for forty years afterwards ; Louis XVI. reigned in France, and kept his head a dozen years more ; Frederick the Great was still fighting his wonderful battles ; Joseph II. still ruling the German Empire of the middle ages ; the bloody French Revolution, and a half a dozen others in France ; the career of the first Napoleon, and his marvellous campaigns ; the battle of Waterloo ; the long struggle between Prussia and Austria, to head a new German empire, - all have happened within a century, and our fathers heard the news when it was only a few weeks old. Burns, Byron, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Campbell, Wordsworth, and Moore have all written their delightful works within the century ; and our fathers had the pleasure of reading them as soon as they crossed the Atlantic. Macaulay and Dickens are of yesterday. A century ago the world had not a railroad, a steamer, a steam printing-press or power-loom, a suspension bridge, a railroad tunnel, a cotton-gin, the telegraph, a daguerrotype, a photograph, or any application of electricity ; a rifle-gun, a breech-loader, an iron or iron-plated vessel, much less to-day's ocean cables and the telephone, the sewing-machine, pegging- machine, and a multitude of other inventions which our fathers had to do without. This is but a suggestion of what man's busy hand and busy brain have worked out in a century. To attempt to go through the catalogue is an appalling task.

Our fathers here were as bnsy in their smaller theatre as the rest of mankind ; and to attempt in an hour's time to sum up all they did in a hundred years, besides telling who they were and how they lived, is about as hopeless an undertaking, -yes, in a century and a half or two centuries, if we reckon from the Precinct charter, or the settlement. Yet, to suitably honor our ancestors and predecessors to-day, it seems fitting and requisite that we should attempt, in such manner as we best may, to think over who and what manner of men they were, and what they have left to us to remember them by and thank them for. As I am your unworthy voice for the time, that task is mine. With great diffidence, I undertake, however, to give only a hasty ontline of the principal events, and to roughly sketch

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HISTORY OF MILFORD.

the Milford of different epochs, leaving the filling in of details to the historian. Fortunately, a complete history, with accounts of the principal actors, will soon be in your hands, I hope, already carefully prepared by my venerable and honored namesake, the Rev. Adin Ballou, who for nearly half a century has done as much at least as any one else to make, and to render honorable, the history of this town, which he so worthily chronicles. For such references to the history of Milford as I venture to make, down to within the memory of the living, I rely principally upon his manuscript and the authori- ties referred to by him.

Five-sixths of the territory which is now Milford was included in the eight miles square purchased in 1662 for the plantation of Men- don ; price, £24. The other sixth was the three square miles of land purchased by the Mendon settlers in 1692 at the northward, and from that time called the " North Purchase," the bounds running across the Massachusetts, now Charles River, up on to Magomiscock Hill, the Indian for Bellevue, now Silver Hill, and along Maspenock, now North, Pond. It seems a pity that these Indian names have not been retained. Settlers came to the territory gradually. Before King Philip's war, Benjamin Alhy owned a corn-mill on the river, which it probably named Mill River ; but King Philip cleaned out the mill. About the beginning of the new century, 1700, and of the reign of good Queen Anne, Seth Chapin of Mendon, John Jones of Hull, Ebenezer and Joseph Sumner of Milton, and William Cheney - my respected maternal ancestor - from Medfield, and afterwards Mendon, settled here in the fertile valley of Mill River, and the hills that overlook it; soon after them, Benjamin Wheaton, two Jona- thans and a William Hayward, Thomas White, Obadiah Wheelock, Dr. John Corbett, and Jonathan Thayer, - names familiar through their descendants. In 1730 twenty-eight voters from the Mill-river Valley, and their sympathizers, signed a remonstrance against the building of a new meeting-house in Mendon, and secured a vote of the Town, that if they should be set off as a "particular town " within ten years they should he re-imbursed the money they were now as- sessed for building it. The next year they petitioned to be set off from Mendon. Thus early the enterprising Mill-river people felt they were founding a new town, and were determined to have it ; showed a pugnacious spirit and a gift for fighting for what they wanted that was characteristic of their descendants ; kept up a vig- orous fight for a separate existence as a town or parish, and made things warm in Mendon for ten years. In the spring of 1741, "ye brethren of the Church of Mendon who were styled aggrieved," being

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GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

most of the settlers here and their sons, organized themselves into a church. In September following, a vote was carried in the Mendon town-meeting allowing the Mill-river people to be set off as a sepa- rate town, and on the strength of it sent a petition to the General Court. But Mendon afterward reconsidered her vote, like Pharaoh, and " would not let the people go." So, as a compromise, appar- ently, they were chartered as a separate precinct by act of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Dec. 23, 1741. The names of the petitioners, headed by John Jones, besides most of the members of the church, were Samuel Scammell, Joshua Underwood (probably from Holliston), James Godman, Moses Gage, William Legg, Icha- bod Thayer, Dearing and Nathaniel Jones, James and Joseph Sum- ner, Amos Binney, Thomas Chaddock, Nehemiah Nelson, Josiah Chapin, Eliphalet Wood, Ebenezer Boynton, Benjamin Hayward, sen.

When they organized themselves under the Precinct charter, Wil- liam Cheney, jun., was chosen clerk ; Daniel Lovett, Nathan Tyler, Nathaniel Nelson, Jonathan Heywood, jun., and John Jones, jnn., a committee to call meetings, de facto selectmen. A meeting-house was built, and the Rev. Amariah Frost was settled as minister, at a salary of forty pounds a year, and an extra sum of one hundred dol- lars for settlement. What sort of an establishment he kept on this munificent salary, has not been recorded. He was a Harvard-Col- lege graduate, and became distinguished in the community. For a while affairs proceeded in the Precinct with the utmost harmony. By and by a few of a new sect, followers of Whitefield and John Wesley, who had been preaching on this side of the water, began to appear at the North Purchase, and staid away from Mr. Frost's services, which caused anxiety and dogmatic discussions that make very funny reading, especially calling the old church, theologically, " Babylon," and a band of "thieves and robbers."

A few years later Dr. William Jennison, who had been parish clerk, innocently enough caused the Precinct church no end of trouble by presenting it a book for the use of the minister. Yon would sup- pose to-day, from the commotion that it cansed, that it was at least a gift copy of the Koran. It was only onr dear old Bible, - the solace of us all in our sorrows, and our dearest friend in our joys, if we would make it so, -now on every altar, prayer-desk, and pulpit in this and every Christian land. This is the church record : " After the use of said Bible some time, there arose some dispute among some members of our society, as though it was too much of a con- formity to the practice of the Church of England, and for peace' sake . . . it was omitted for the present ; viz., the reading of said Bible

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History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 51

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co. Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co.
Number of Pages: 1328