History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 52

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 52

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

468

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

in public." When we remember that Gov. Endicott of Salem cut the red cross from the flag of his country, because, as he said, it was "a relic of popery insufferable in a Puritan community," and by a law of the colony anybody found keeping Christmas was fined five shillings, we ought not perhaps to wonder at the alarm caused by the innovation, as it seems to have been in Puritan worship, of reading the Bible.

Enlightened opinion prevails here now as elsewhere. I have lived to see in the parish church of their descendants abundant Christmas evergreens beautifying its walls, and to read of Easter services with floral decorations, the singing of hallowed church anthems by sweet singers, and benches in the alleys to seat the unusual throng of wor- shippers. Thank God, to-day the Bible and Christmas and Easter belong to us all in common !

While the people of the Precinct were attempting to settle the grave questions about ordinances and ceremonial that troubled them, they marched away side by side in the common defence of the prov- ince. In the long French and Indian wars, this precinct furnished its share of men. The rolls at the State House show the names of quite a number of men from this precinct. Among others, Capt. N. Thwing, Eliphalet Wood (probably the petitioner for the Precinct), Daniel Davidson, John Passmore, John Vickery, Capt. Jones (son of the elder), John Thwing, Jos. Cody, Jos. Tenney, Asahel Thayer, John Marsh, J. Hill, J. Gage, Gershom Nelson, G. Chapin, Eben- ezer Cheney, and Caleb Cheney (son of William), as serving in some of the expeditions.

Then came the times of the Revolution. The day of the attack by the British troops on their fellow-citizens at Lexington, two com- panies of minute-men belonging to the Precinct hurried to the rescue. One of them was officered by Capt. William Jennison, who gave the Bible, Lieuts. Caleb Cheney (then the parish clerk), and Samuel Cobb ; the officers of the other, Capt. Gershom Nelson, Lieuts. Jesse Whitney and Josiah Nelson ; and in the ranks, and in the Continental army afterwards, were Precinct men whose names are familiar in its history. On the rolls of those who served in the Continental army, or in the Massachusetts Bay militia during the long struggle, yon will find Albee, Chapins, Cheneys, Corbett, Davis, Haywards, Legg, Nel- sons, Scammell, Thayers, Warren, Whitney, - names and details of service which time does not permit me to mention. The most distin- guished soldier furnished by the Precinct, and serving when the town was incorporated, was Alexander Scammell, who rose to be a gen- eral officer and adjutant-general of the Continental army; was a

469

GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

favorite staff-officer of Washington, and it was said the only man who could make the " Father of his Country " laugh.

In the midst of the war, after nearly forty years' waiting and re- peated defeats, the voters of the Precinct carried a vote through the Mendon town-meeting, by seven majority, not afterwards recon- sidered, to allow them to be set off as a separate town. Gershom Nelson, Jonathan Jones, and Ichabod Thayer, jun., were appointed a committee to procure an act from the General Court, which was granted without opposition, and signed, April 11, 1780, by John Han- cock, speaker of the House, and Gen. Artemas Ward and Samuel Adams, among others of the Council.

At the first town-meeting, Caleb Cheney was chosen clerk and treasurer, and served several years; Lieut. Jesse Whitney, Caleb Cheney, Warfield Hayward, Ebenezer and Stephen Albee, select- men ; Adams Chapin, Capt. Ichabod Thayer, jun., and Moses Cha- pin, assessors. Adams Chapin served several years.

The year in which Milford thus became wholly distinct from Men- don was the year in which the State Constitution was adopted and the famous " dark day " occurred. Milford then had seven hundred and sixty inhabitants, one hundred and twenty houses (only twenty on the entire Sherborn road), and very little public property. Men- don and Milford divided debts and paupers, - not a valuable capital to commence business with ; and Milford got in the trade £1,000 or £2,000 in depreciated money. It had a meeting-house forty by thirty- five, and not one schoolhouse. Such schools as they had were taught in private houses, poor as they were. Alexander Scammell taught in a room in Seth Chapin, jun.'s, house, with planks on blocks for seats, and boards on empty barrels for desks.

About the very first vote of the new Town was calculated to throw a wet blanket on the enthusiasm of all persons who contemplated set- tling here : "Voted, to warn all persons out of the town of Milford that have moved in since it was a town, or that shall move into said town hereafter." It was a common black sign against paupers. Pau- perism, with our fathers, was not a very attractive mode of getting a living, any way. Paupers were let out to be kept by the lowest bidder. Current prices for keeping female paupers, as they appear in different entries on the town and selectmen's records, a few years later, were, "3 pecks of Indian corn per week ; " " 4s. per week, and to reduck out for all work she does ; " 75 cents per week, 2 galls. of rum, and 25 cents in brandy or opium. For ten men, women, and children, $5.75 per week. A family of that size cannot be boarded at fashionable watering-places now for that price, certainly.

470

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

The life of people who worked for a living was very different from and much homelier than what it is to-day ; and I am afraid, with our liberal notions of living nowadays, we should think it was very unat- tractive.

Our early fathers had little time for amusements, and didn't believe in them much at that. Most games were tabooed. Dancing was not to be thought of ; horse-racing and theatres forbidden. Horse-racing under the guise of agricultural fairs, and theatres named museums of curiosities, had not then been invented. I am afraid our fathers would have thought the veneer rather " too thin." Times have since changed in Milford. There was very little intercourse then between the people, except on Sundays. The Sunday nooning was the coun- try exchange, when the hour was much too short for discussing doc- trine, crops, gossip, and the fashions, and getting warm before the second long sermon began in the cold meeting-house. A French writer satirized our fathers because their only occupation on Sunday was going to church and reading the Bible.

But the Puritan Sunday, the Bible in the household, and the devout, stirring sermons from the pulpit, gave our fathers the inspiration and the strength that carried them successfully through the trying strug- gle with the mother country, and enabled them to leave to us the institutions that we proudly call ours to-day. There were few luxu- ries in fewer households, sanded floors about the only carpets, Indian corn and milk the principal articles of food. In styles, it was the day of quenes, cocked hats, knee-breeches, and shoe-buckles, for men ; hoop-skirts and hair mountains, for ladies.

The financial condition of the community, and the value of paper money at the time, can be to some extent realized by the votes of the Town. In 1780 it voted £1,000 in paper for schools ; the next year, for the same, £20 in silver. The whole appropriation in 1780 was £77,000 in paper; in 1781 the whole appropriation was £300 in sil- ver. In 1780 it voted $1,000 in paper for each soldier for twelve days' service in Rhode Island ; next year, voted 1,000 silver dollars for ten soldiers for three years. A wheelbarrow load of Continental bills of credit were worth about as much as the same amount of Con- federate bills at the close of the late war.

Peace was proclaimed in 1783, with great rejoicings here as else- where ; but the people had a hard battle still to fight with another enemy, - bankruptcy, - which finally led to Shay's rebellion, though Milford took no part in it. At one time cattle were legal tender.

President Washington, in 1789, honored the town with a visit, and stopped at Samuel Warren's inn (at the Major Chapin place) long

471

GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

enough to refresh himself and his horses. Mr. Frost and others paid their respects to " his Highness," as he was then styled. Mr. Frost died in 1792, after a ministry of forty-nine years. The same year the meeting-house, after a struggle, was enlarged to fifty-four by thirty- five feet.

The bill of rights adopted with the State Constitution continued the Colony and Provincial provision for the maintenance of public worship by common taxation, but allowed members of different sects to pay their parochial taxes for the support of ministers of their own denomi- nations. Soon after its adoption, votes begin to appear on the town- records excepting persons claiming to be Methodists, Universalists, and Baptists, from heing rated to the Congregational Society. The Society of Universalists was organized here about 1785. In 1791 the Town gave them the use of the meeting-house week-days. The Rev. John Murray once preached in it. The Methodists still worshipped in private houses. There was a growing tolerance of changes in public worship. In 1793 the Town " voted to have the singers fetch a bass-viol into the meeting-house on Sundays, and some person to play on the same."

In 1795 Arial Bragg came from Holliston into the north-east corner of the town, and went to making calf-boots, employing two men. Making boots did not pay, and he went to making negro-shoes. In the memoirs of himself which he has left, he describes his mode of doing business in Holliston : "Paid $7 for the four calf-skins from which he made twenty-two pairs of shoes ; hired a horse for fifty cents ; bought a bag of hay of John Claflin, sen., paid ten cents ; with his twenty-two pairs of shoes in saddle-bags, and his bag of hay bound on behind him, before the sun had risen was off for Prov., went through Prov. with a pair of shoes in his hand, and the saddle- bags on his back ; sold his twenty-two pairs of shoes for $21.50, and bought six calf-skins." He quotes prices the year after he came here : House-rent, $19 per year ; wood, $1.25 per cord ; rye, $1.25 ; corn, $1 per bushel ; pork, 8c. per lb. ; heef, $5.50 per cwt. ; butter, 1s. per lb .; cheese, 8c .; coffee, 33c .; tea, 30c .; sugar, 11c. per lb. ; making board cost $1.04 per week. He went back to Holliston as the century was closing, and returned here in 1805. Before the century closed, other men appeared on the scene here, who became somewhat famous in the town's history. Col. Benjamin Godfrey kept an inn and store ; was succeeded in the store in 1799, for a short time, by Pearley Hunt. John Claflin, jun., was beginning his career.

In 1801, after trying forty candidates, the town and church settled the Rev. David Long, who ministered to the church forty-three years,

472

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

and lived long enough for a great many of us to remember him to-day with respect. His salary was fixed at £80 per year, and a settlement of $150. Parishioners of his successor at the present day pay more than that amount for a bowl at a fair. His salary was never very much increased, and when he died he is said to have left $10,000.

Other salaries were in proportion. Male teachers were paid $3 to $7 per week ; female teachers, $1 to $2; and board was struck off in district meeting to the lowest bidder, as in case of paupers. The latter practise Arial Bragg was instrumental in stopping. Board of teachers was about fifty cents per week. Appropriation for schools that year, $266.67. Voted to build a schoolhouse 24 feet by 20, and to raise £65.

In 1800 the town had a population of 907, and about 175 voters. Adams Chapin was town-clerk ; Col. Ichabod Thayer, Nathaniel Parkhurst, and James Perry, selectmen ; David Stearns, Nathaniel Parkhurst, and Col. Benjamin Godfrey, assessors; Ichabod Thayer, Col. Samuel Jones, and Lieut. Ephraim Chapin, moderators. In 1803 the Artillery Company, which became rather famous, was organ- ized, with Pearley Hunt as captain, John Claflin, jun., 1st lieutenant, and Levi Chapin, 2d lieutenant. In 1814, during the war with Eng- land, it was ordered to Boston for the public defence, and served two months. The company was then officered, with captain, Rufus Thayer ; 1st lieutenant, Ezra Nelson ; 2d lieutenant, Henry Nelson. The men who served in the ranks are remembered and honored here to-day. When the news came of peace, in 1815, there was a grand illumination, with candles, of the houses here, and a ball, remembered by Mr. Aaron Claflin.

From this date down we have the memory of this living cyclopedia of the sayings and doings of three or four generations of Milford, to which we insist that both he and his brother, Mr. Horace B., still belong. We have also the memory of others living. My time only permits culling a reminiscence now and then. As Mr. Aaron Claflin remembers the Milford of that date, his father, John Claflin, Esq., and Col. Godfrey's farms took up nearly all the land about and near the meeting-house ; Darius and his son Sullivan Sumner's farms, about the whole of the now lower village. Besides Claflin's and Col. Godfrey's houses and stores, and the plastered one-story house of Darius Sumner, the only buildings then on what is now Main Street for the entire length of the two villages, were houses of Amasa and Levi Chapin, William Godfrey, Bennett, Bathrick, White's house and store ; the "Lard House," still standing ; Rufus Chapin's house, metamorphosed from a shop ; the large Sumner House, still standing ;

473

GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

a small store of Sylvester Dean, and opposite Pearley Hunt's three- story house and store, still there ; Nathan Parkhurst's house and mill ; across the river, David Stearns's honse, still inhabited ; Benjamin Gibbs's house and shop; houses of James Barbour, Asa Cheney, Amasa Parkhurst, and Wiswall. North from the meeting-house was Dr. Brighams' house, and the Rev. Mr. Long's one-story house, and a few scattered houses in the outskirts. That's all there was of Mil- ford in 1815. Godfrey, sen., Claflin, White, Hunt, Dean, and Samuel Penniman at So. Milford, were the storekeepers. They kept variety stores.

It is related of Pearley Hunt, that it was his great pride to keep such a variety that no one could ask for any thing he did not have ; and that one day, to try him, a wag called for a medium-sized pulpit. The 'squire promptly replied that he believed he had one left. He really had one, bought at some auction. Peter Rockwood was wheel- wright. Ebenezer Hunt had a factory, at what is " Bungy." Arial Bragg was here making shoes, employing half a dozen men. He was so prosperous, that, in 1819, he built a shop 30 feet by 20, two stories high, costing $260. Rufus Chapin was making sewed boots, employ- ing a few hands ; his shop was then only 12 feet by 10. He began business here in 1812, - the first to manufacture boots in Milford as a steady business. He was energetic, and bound to succeed, as he did. His daughter, Mrs. Angenette Thayer, gives us his account of his first trip to New York. "After an affecting farewell to his family, he went by stage from some point in the county to Albany; then down the Hudson by sail-boat to New York; from there by sail-boat to Providence, where his man and team were three days waiting for him. He was gone three weeks. When Pearley Hunt went, it was the common talk of every man, woman, and child for weeks. My father, Orison Underwood, remembers that when he came to town, in 1822, besides the two pioneers, Bragg and Chapin, the latter's shop being en- larged to 36 feet by 15, Ammon Cobb and John Mason made a few calf- boots. Lee Claflin was manufacturing brogans, Oliver B. Parkhurst and Schuyler Reading making shoes, and Carmel Cheney a few boots. All of them peddled their boots and shoes in Boston or Providence themselves, or sent to Boston by Ezekiel Jones, or to Providence by Otis Parkhurst, the two marketmen, the expressmen of the day, who did a good deal of shopping for the people here; Jones's specialty being ladies' dry goods and knick-knacks ; Parkhurst's, groceries and West-India goods. Ziba and Stephen Parkhurst were running a factory here. Esquire Hunt, he remembers vividly, had the first four- wheeled chaise, which he had to borrow, as the last resort, to go to a

474

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

party, the other young men having taken up all the two-wheeled chaises. He did not think his turnout was quite up to the rest."

In 1822 he had to turn out with the old militia company, as every man between eighteen and forty-five years of age had to, twice a year, who did not belong to the volunteer artillery company, composed, from its organization, of the picked chivalry of the town. This old infantry company was an institution not to be overlooked when we are recalling the past. It had come down from just after the close of the Revolu- tion, and, with the regiment to which it belonged, had given titles to most of the leading men of the town. Colonels Ichabod Thayer, Samuel Jones, Samuel Nelson, Benjamin Godfrey, Ezekiel Jones, Arial Bragg (after twenty-nine years' service), Sullivan Sumner, and Major Hachaliah Whitney had been officers in them. Captains Syl- vester Dean, Rufus Chapin, and Col. Leonard Hunt had been, or were soon after. Each man in the ranks must be armed and equipped as the law directed. The guns, cartridge-boxes, and accoutrements must be in good order, and pass a rigid inspection : but the uniform was not prescribed ; and it might be of any style or material, from " heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth ; " and all the kingdoms - animal, mineral, and even the vege- table - were levied upon to furnish odd and striking outfits. All the wars, from the French and Indian down, were represented by pieces or shreds in the uniforms. The variety of colors in some exhausted the spectrum, and Joseph's coat of many colors would have seemed rather tame in comparison. One of the most striking sights impressed upon my boyish memory was that line of "The Continentals," as they used to be called, standing in front of Col. Sumner's tavern, just before or just after a drink there, - probably both. Whenever I see the 4th of July processions of " Antiques and Horribles," I am reminded strikingly of the now departed " Rang de dangs," which was another name for them. They had many martial virtues, but, like mankind, their weaknesses. They were a bibulous army. One of the favorite marches then was to the tavern beyond the elder John Claflin's place, near the Holliston line, called " Granny Littlefield's ;" and the objective of the expedition was uniformly the same, - to " drink him dry." With that " war-cry " they were uniformly vic- torious, captured the garrison by a combined assault, confiscated all the stores, and wrecked the magazine ; and the booty was always paid for, when the company had recovered its equilibrium, by a levy of not over thirty cents per man. The relative increase in the cost of such luxuries nowadays will be noted by those interested.

In 1819 began the famous war, as it may appropriately be called,

475

GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

between Town and Parish, which lasted longer than either war with England, and interested the people here much more. Many of my hearers were living here when it began ; many more remember, as I do, the bitter party feeling which it caused. It has happily long since died out ; and we sons or grandsons of the two fighting factions can now talk it over in the peace of these years, and smile over it as a bit of curious history in the past.

The plucky and pugnacious spirit of the pioneers, and of their descendants of the Revolutionary days, seemed to have died out in the thrifty farmers and mechanics of the new century, who were meckly raising corn and sheep and making brooms and boots and shoes, and leading a humdrum life generally, when all at once the old spirit which they inherited broke out in a first-class fight, - as if that quarrelsome spinster to whom Homer ascribes the origin of all strife in this world, the Goddess of Discord, had looked down upon this pastoral and happy circle, and thought it was about time to have a rumpus in it ; and so she tossed down an apple ont of her barrel. It was one of her biggest, for the apple of discord in this case was the meeting-house ; and it was the same old apple question that put the Greeks and Trojans by the ears. Whose was it, -Town's or Parish's ?

Everybody still voted in town-meeting on parochial affairs, but under the bill of rights only stated worshippers in the parish meeting- house could be taxed for Mr. Long's support. The Universalists and Methodists now outnumbered them, formed an allied opposition, and voted parochial appropriations only on condition they should be re- leased from paying.

In this state of things the members of Mr. Long's church and the worshippers there, in 1815, acting under the advice of Seth Hastings, Esq., of Mendon, organized themselves into a separate parish, re- suming, as they claimed, all the rights of the old precinct before the incorporation of the town ; in 1818, voted to build a new meeting- house and to move away the old one, which they claimed belonged to them as successors of the precinct. The members of the other denominations denied the claim, believed that the town, not the new parish, was heir to the precinct, and inherited the meeting-house in which the town-meetings had always been held, and protested against moving it. The members of the resuscitated parish threw down the gauntlet, and made preparations, notwithstanding the protest, to move it. On old Election Day, in 1819, which was a holiday, as usual, a large and curious crowd gathered to see Elihu Perry put the old hal- lowed place of worship on rollers and move it off, - partly a jolly and

476

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

partly a cross crowd, as they belonged to one party or the other. Esquire Claflin's tavern was near at hand : the staple of New Eng- land flowed freely according to the custom of the times ; and before nightfall many of the crowd of witnesses became mellower in their views, and forgot which side they were on.

The Town party immediately appealed to the law. The selectmen that year were Pearley Hunt, the chief; Arial Bragg, the next best man of the Town party in the long struggle ; and Amasa Parkhurst, father of Nelson. Suit was brought against Col. Benjamin God- frey, John Claflin, jun., the recognized old and young leaders of the Parish, and Joel Howard. It was three years before this lawsuit was decided.

The Parish went ahead, meanwhile, in the building of the new meeting-house on the site of the old one. The members of the church set apart a season for special united prayer " in view of the unpro- voked opposition and devices raised by many out of the Parish against building." Mr. Long saw " Divine Providence visible," as he re- cords it, in the safe removal of the old building without accident ; the Town party probably did not see it. In the same pious spirit the building proceeded. The workmen, before they drove a nail in the morning, had prayers at the frame ; and when they knocked off work at night, joined in a prayer and a hymn. After the building was fin- ished, the sale of pews was opened with devotions. As it proceeded, there were opportunities for refreshment in the vestibule, which were not slighted. The bidding, from various causes, was spirited. The sum realized paid for the house and put $3,000 surplus in the treas- ury. Parishes groaning under a debt may possibly find something of interest in studying this case. The building was solemnly dedicated. After all, there was a dedication ball. This is a picture of the times. As another illustration of a similar sort, at the funeral of Mrs. Long, in 1824 or 1825, Mr. Claflin says he carried to the parsonage two quarts of rum and two quarts of brandy, and the requisite loaf-sugar, as his father's quota of the contributions. One of the features of the meeting-house that I remember so well were the figures "1819 " in the keystone over the high pulpit.

Esquire Hunt and his selectmen, the defenders of the Town's rights, now averring that these trespassers had carried off the town-house, and refusing to accept as a favor a hall finished off in the old meeting- house, called a town-meeting in June, mustered their forces, and car- ried a vote to build a new town-house on a spot of ground opposite Darius Sumner's house, which he in open meeting gave for a town- house and common, appropriated $1,000, and appointed a building

477

GENERAL UNDERWOOD'S ORATION.

committee. Before the year 1819 closed, the brick town-house was finished, which is still standing. Henceforth the town-house became the headquarters, and the common and its neighborhood the camp, of the Town party ; and as no headquarters could be complete without a base of supplies near at hand, a tavern was opened there that year by Col. Sumner.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 52

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