USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Oxford > History of the town of Oxford, Massachusetts with genealogies and notes on persons and estates > Part 97
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Apr. 17. 10. 1.
Apr. 5. 0. 0. Apr. 1. 9.
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July 16. 0.
June 16. 8. 0. June 0. 0. June 0. July Aug. July Aug. Aug. 13. 4. 0. 4. Sept.
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3. 3. 1. 3.
Oct. 3. 1.
Nov. 6. 8. 0.
Capt. WILM HANCOCK . . 5. 11. S.
ASA WALKER
8. AMOS SHUMWAY 94. 10.
JONATHAN PRATT ye 3d
10. EBEN& FISH 29 .* 3.
Lt. EBENR SHUMWAY
GIDEON HOVEY 100.
12. AMASA KINGSBURY Capt LEVI DAVIS 20.
8.
1. JACOB SHUMWAY 85. 13.
BENJAMIN SHUMWAY
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JESSE PRATT 13. 10. SILAS EDDY
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HISTORY OF OXFORD.
same which they refused, and notwithstanding the Selectmen and Committee of Correspondence signed a mittimus to commit me to gaol"-asking relief. 3 Jan. 1777.
A hearing was ordered.
A counter statement is recorded of Jonathan Stone, Lieut., the import of which was that Nichols did not answer the call or offer the money, £10., or provide a substitute in 24 hours.
JONATHAN RICE, Dep. Sheriff.
A County Tax for 1776, was assessed on the following :-
In North Gore.
In South Gore.
Capt ISAAC HARTWELL.
HEZEKIAH BELLOWS.
JOHN RAWSON.
Lt. JOSHUA MERIAM. JAMES MERIAM.
AARON BARRETT.
URIAH STONE.
CORTIS DIXON.
Dea. NEHEMIAH STONE.
JAMES GLEASON, Jr.
Wid. ELIZABETH MERIAM.
JOHN WIGHT.
BEZALEEL GLEASON.
JOSEPH SPARHAWK. JONAS LIVERMORE.
BENJAMIN DAVIS, Jr.
DAVID GLEASON.
JAMES HOVEY DAVIS.
URIAH STONE, Jr.
EZEKIEL DAVIS.
JOHN BOUNDS. JOHN IVES.
The Embargo. PAGE 224. The law of Congress Dec. 22, 1807, closing all the seaports of the country passed in retaliation for spoliations on our com- merce by England and France, which nations were then at war, caused gen- eral stagnation of business, and especially on the seaboard considerable suf- fering among the laboring classes. The North was much agitated over the subject and in the summer of 1808, in response to the request of the select- men of Boston, great numbers of petitions from the towns in the State were presented to the President for relief, one as noted having been sent from Ox- ford. . They were, however, of no avail and the depression continued. The presidential candidate of the opposition party was elected that year, and in March, 1809, the odious law repealed to all nations excepting Great Britain and France.
The petitioners for a town meeting to act on this subject were James But- ler, David Lilley, Abijah Davis, Jeremiah Kingsbury, Jr., John Torrey, Jr., James Gleason, William Moore, Elijah Pratt and Jonathan Harris.
Small-pox. PAGE 227. The following document is without date, but must have been prior to 1781 :-
" To the Selectmen of Oxford.
" Gentlemen,
" With the Leave of Providence My House Shal be cleansed by the middle of Next week So that it will be safe for Any Person-Capt Moore & Wife you may Depend Upon it Shall have the room Cleansed to their Satis- faction & the use of it until their Son Provides for them otherways-I also Give you Gentlemen my word that my Apprentices Shall Not Pass and repass from the Pest House & that the utmost care Shall be Taken that the Infec- tion does Not Spread-Thank God I am So far recovered as to be Able to ride. . .
" I am Gentlem, Yr . " Obdt Servt " ALEX" CAMPBELL." [Town Archives. ]
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NOTES, ETC.
The house here referred to was the old tavern house, H. 205, a part of which Capt. Elijah Moore appears to have occupied after its purchase by Doctor Campbell.
Bridle Roads. PAGE 111. March, 1752, a road was accepted from John Larned's, H. 72, north through land of Capt. Higginson, and Ebenezer Coburn " to the bridge above Ballard's mill," (the first mention found of a bridge here) and thence, northeast, through land, in 1770 of Rev. Joseph Bowman, to John Shumway's land, H. 183, and through the same to the main road near Turcott's, "to be a bridle road to be passed with convenient gates." After 18 years, in March, 1770, this way was discontinued.
On 12 March, 1753, a way was accepted from Benjamin Davis', H. 23, “ on the side of the Hill on the backside of the Great Meadow," northwesterly, " into the highway that comes from Amos Shumway's (H. 171) to the meeting house. Said Highway to be a driftway." This was voted an " open road " in 1757; in 1758 changed the route in part and voted it be 1¿ rods wide; in 1761 discontinued, and again made a bridle road. A "driftway" was for foot or horseback travel, with gates wherever needed. An interesting point in refer- ence to the location and making of old roads is here suggested. This "way" ran some distance on a hillside. Excavating to much extent to build a road in such a location was thought impracticable, or it was not attempted in early times, and we have here an explanation of the fact that many old highways passed over steep hills. A lateral level grade was a necessity for wheeled vehicles and as this was impossible on a hillside without excavation, when hills stood in the line of a proposed road a long detour was required to pass around them or they must be mounted directly on their front. The latter alternative was usually adopted.
First Bridge over Maanexit River. PAGE 111. Among the early roads laid out in town was that voted 1 March, 1728, to run southerly through Paul Dudley's farm past his house, H. 58, beginning at the 8-rod way on Johnson's Plain, and running " over the bridge." This is the first mention we find of a bridge over the river. This road was accepted May, 1729.
March, 1758, the town voted to build a cart-bridge over the river above the river meadows, where the foot-bridge now stands. In 1759 voted that this bridge be built further up stream and that the road be turned further north.
Bridge over the Maanexit. PAGE 115. June 22, 1807, there was a public " vendue " of the building of the bridge on the present Dudley road (the first at that locality ), at which its construction was sold to the lowest bidder- " on the following Conditions, viz :"
" The bridge to consist of two stone butments each of which to be founded on mud sills 12 inches broad on the top . . . 33 feet from each other,& 17 feet up & down the stream and a streak sill one foot thick on the top of each butment; there to be five string pieces to be locked & pinned into the streak sills to extend three feet at each end into the butment or bank & confined with stone or timber at each end & to be ten inches through at the least end. . . . The plank to be . . . two inches thick & pinned firm with two pins in each plank to the upper string-piece & one pin to the lower one. The top of the bridge to be one foot below the hight of the bank on the east side & to lie level, the west butment to extend to the hard land . . . . "
" Samuel Campbell being the lowest bidder it was struck off to him at fifty- four dollars seventy-five cents."
" Tavern Expense (?) 60 cents not paid."
[Town Archives.]
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HISTORY OF OXFORD.
South Gore Road. PAGE 115. The contractors for building this road Aug., 1801, were :-
Capt. Jerh Kingsbury 90 rods at $54.00.
William Lamson 94 rods at $36.66.
Perry Holley 50 rods at $20.00.
Total, $110.66.
Bridge over Little River. PAGE 115. The two rivers, the Maanexit and Little River, for many years to some extent isolated the southwest neighbor- hood from the rest of the town. From the report of a committee, May, 1827, on a school district west of the river, we learn what has been gathered from no other source, namely, that a bridge early, for many years existed over Little River near its junction with the main stream, over which was a way from the southwest to the mill, and thence to the Meeting-house and to the Plain. This report recommends the establishment of this district, the addition of the Oxford Woolen Village to the same, the building of a school- house on the Coburn farm, a short distance south of Little River, and the building of a bridge " at or near where the old Coburn bridge once stood." The old roadway through the fields south of Howarth's toward this bridge can now be traced. This project for a school district, which seems from the present point of view, most commendable, was not carried out, doubtless on account of the sentiment then prevailing in favor of small schools and small districts.
Repairs of Bridges. PAGE 115. In April, 1807, a committee chosen to consider the state of the bridges injured by the freshets of the previous winter, reported :- to repair that near Reuben Lamb's would cost $25; that near James Williams' $15; that near Capt. John Nichols' $10; that near Elijah Pratt's [H. 58, " Great bridge"] $10; that near Thaddeus Hall's [Hawes place, H. 136] $10; that near James Wallis' [East Village] $10.
By reference to page 41, "South Gore land annexed," it will be seen that the name of James Wallis of Dudley was among those whose estates were set to Oxford 6 Feb., 1807. He then owned the water-power, mills, etc., at the outlet of the "Great pond," with contiguous land partly in the South Gore and partly in Dudley, his residence being on the latter portion. So far as appears the dividing line between Dudley and the Gore was direct, from near where the stream issues from the pond to near where it runs into the Maanexit, indicating that none of the territory of the town of Dudley was thus taken off, but that the part of Wallis' estate lying in the Gore only, was included in the act.
Town's Pond. PAGE 2. This body of water has long been known as " Carbuncle Pond," the name having been derived from a popular myth cur- rent many years ago, both in Europe and America, which ran that a carbuncle of large size might at certain favorable hours be seen gleaming from its depths. Crofton Croker, in his Killarney Legends, gives the same story in reference to that celebrated lake. It is undesirable that this name, based on mere fiction, should be perpetuated.
The Town family, perhaps as worthy as any in the English settlement, owned and lived upon the lands surrounding it, and pond and adjacent plain were early in the records uniformly styled " Town's Plain " and "Town's Pond." It is altogether fitting that the memory of so estimable a family,
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which has been many years extinct in Oxford, should be preserved and hon- ored in the name of this, perhaps the most beautiful natural object in the town.
Town Poor. PAGE 222. Receipts in the town archives attest that James Freeland was paid for boarding Margaret Fosdick from 1 Oct., 1776, to 1 April, 1777, at 6s. per week.
A draft of a petition from the selectmen to the General Court-no date- represented that Jemima Tolle was born in Oxford, now Auburn, and mar- ried 20 July, 1786, to William Tolle of Leicester, who soon thereafter enlisted in the Revolutionary army from that town and did not return to his wife, that so far as could be learned he was formerly of Providence, R. I., etc .; that she had become a public charge, asking that she be received as a dependent of the Commonwealth. [Designated as " Widow Tolley." Town archives].
In March, 1801, the town refused to pay £100 to Daniel Wyman for the sup- port of his father and mother [John and wife].
In Nov., 1808, it was voted to instruct the town agent to agree with some person to support Rachel Smith during her life.
Dinah, "a slave." PAGE 44. In the town papers appears the draft of a petition to the General Court, from the Selectmen, representing that " Dinalı a Negro Woman is in the Town of Oxford without any means of support by which reason she has become chargeable to said Town she being Aged and in- firm, by the best information we can get she was born in Sudbury in the County of Middlesex & came into this Town upwards of 30 years ago & at length became a servant of one Charles Dabney who came into this Town from Providence in the latter part of ye year '76 [or a little later] but did not in any wise gain a habitance in sd Oxford, & remained servant to sd Dabney until ye addoption of this State Constitution soon after which time Sd Dabney her master removed back to sd Providence & there soon after deceased & left Sd Negro in Oxford without any means of support by which reason she has become chargable to sd Town. Therefore your Petitioners pray your Honours to take the case into your consideration & [give] us relief by considering her one of this State's Paupers, etc."
An indorsement on this paper is dated 1807.
Dinah, as appears, was for many years after Dabney's removal a faithful domestic in the family of Josiah Wolcott.
"Warning out of Town." By a law of 1692 every person coming into any town and being there received and entertained for a period of three months, not having been warned to leave, was to be reputed an inhabitant, and if brought to want was to be supported by the town, unless a father or grandfather, mother or grandmother, child or grandchild was of sufficient ability, then such relative should relieve such poor person as the justices of the peace of the county should assess. In 1700 the time in which said warn- ing might be given was by law extended to one year.
We find no evidence that the custom of warning out of town prevailed in Oxford prior to 1789. At this date the finances of the town were in a low state, the number of indigent persons had largely increased in conse- quence of the Revolutionary war, and public burdens were oppressive. In Dec., 1789, a man with a family from Sutton, and a " spinster" from Ward were officially ordered to leave town, they " having come . ... for the pur- pose of abiding therein not having obtained the town's consent therefor." In Feb., 1792, seventy-eight, in the following June, twenty-three, and in Dec.,
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1793, forty-two persons were thus warned. This wholesale warning indicates either a widespread destitution among the people, or an over solicitude on the part of the authorities as to the town's possible pecuniary liabilities.
In the division of the dependents, March, 1833, between Oxford and Web- ster, after the setting off of that town, the following, " as a full fourth part of the persons chargeable to Oxford," were set to Webster: Rebecca Mellen, Polly Mellen, Jemima Tolley, Ezekiel Davis, 2d, and David Rich, his wife Polly and 12 children.
Appraising and dignifying the Pews. PAGE 86. In this subject there comes to light a very interesting phase of old-time life. Little in reference to it appears on our records, but it is not probable that Oxford was excep- tional. It would not apparently be a difficult thing to give to each locality in the Meeting-house its proper " dignity," and this duty was at times assumed by the towns, as when in 1715 Framingham voted "As for dignity of the seats, the table and fore seats are accounted the two highest." Those at the " table" were probably under the pulpit facing the audience, and for the wives of those sitting here it was voted a pew should be made in the north corner of the house. Furthermore, it was voted "the front gallery is accounted in dignity equal to the second and third seats in the body of the house, and the side gallery . .. to the fourth and fifth . . . in the body of the house."
But the seating of the people was an entirely different affair. Committees were chosen for this purpose and we may well believe the position was not one to be coveted. The criterion was to some extent fixed by the towns, but much was left to the discretion of the committee. In Medfield in 1732 it was voted " that the committee shall place persons in the meeting house by age and estate, that is to say : to balance one year of age with one pound of real and personal estate . . . excepting such persons as are 50 years of age and upwards it is left in the judgment of the committee to advance as they please." In Sutton the committee were " to go by age and rate and offices ; Heds not Regarded." Wives ranked with husbands but sat on the opposite side of the house. A certain committee was instructed to " consider of what men have paid toward building, what charges they now bear, what they are likely to pay for the futer, and to have respect to persons." In some
instances towns seated individuals. In 1738 Framingham voted that two cer- tain persons should be seated in the deacon's seats; another in the second seat in the body seats, and a third in the front seat in the side gallery.
That much ill-feeling resulted from this usage cannot be doubted. In a certain town it was ordered that the inhabitants "rest silent, and sett down satysfyed" with the committee's decision ; in another, individuals were chosen to " take special notice of all disorderly persons on the Lord's day that do not keep to their own seats appointed for them, but keep others out of their seats, whereby the sabbath is profaned."
As time progressed the "mens and womens seats " in the body of the house were displaced by pews built by persons who had permission from the town thus to occupy space, and the practice of seating by committees gradually declined.
"Pew-ground." In 1781 there was a demand for more pews and on the report of a committee, 19 July, it was voted to " sell pew-ground in the Men's and Women's Body Seats" for building pews, as follows : No. 1, on Women's side to Anthony Sigourney for 20} hard dollars; No. 2, on Men's side to James Butler for 20 hard dollars; No. 3, on Women's side east alley to John Dana for 17 hard dollars; No. 4, on west side of Men's seats to Jesse Jones
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(the tanner) for 16} hard dollars. [Jones sold 4 March, 1782, to Nathaniel Hamlin.] The proceeds of these sales were voted to the support of soldiers' families and the town's poor.
In April, 1805, it was voted to sell " pew-spots " at the east and west ends of the "Body seats," one each, and also one in each side gallery, indicating a prosperous condition of ecclesiastical affairs.
Repairs of Meeting-house. PAGE 87. May, 1793, the town granted the "east and west enteries " of the Meeting-house and the ground occupied by the present stair-cases to erect pews on, to the individuals who had under- taken to build a porch to the said house.
Gratuity. May, 1765, the town voted that Dea. John Willson and his wife, for service he has done the town, be allowed to sit free in the pew on the west side the broad alley in the Meeting-house.
Adherents of Rev. Joseph Bowman. PAGE 58. The following stood by Mr. Bowman in his time of need, and Feb., 1782, signed an obligation to be taxed according to their valuation for his support. It was an unsuccessful endeavor as not a sufficient number subscribed.
Edward Davis. Jason Coller. John Larned, Jr. Nathaniel Hamlin.
Amos Shumway. Samuel Harris.
Joseph Hurd.
Zaccheus Ballard. Richard Coburn.
Daniel Gleason. Philip Amidown. John Shumway.
Ebenezer Humphrey. Peter Shumway. Jeremiah Kingsbury.
William Nichols.
William Hancock. Jedediah Barton.
Jonathan Harris. Allen Hancock. Joshua Meriam.
John Davis.
Jacob Shumway. David Newcomb.
Preaching. On 27 Oct., 1788, the town gave its promissory note for £4. 16s. to John Taylor for preaching four sabbaths at 27s. per sabbath. There was also paid for him 1 Nov., 1788, for horse hire to Coventry seven shillings, six pence.
Rev. Josiah Moulton's Memorial. PAGE 63. The refusal of the town to aid in supporting Mr. Moulton drew from him the following note, dated March 1, 1813 :-
" To the freeholders of the Town of Oxford in Town meeting assembled .- Gentlemen, Whereas the raising of my annual Sallery by general taxation upon the whole Town is attended with considerable inconvenience and seems to have been made the occasion of no small disturbance, and whereas I am not disposed to be the instrument of discord and contention in society, it is therefore my desire and request that the contract formed between me and the said Town, A. D. 1805, respecting sd Sallery be dissolved and cease from and after 27th of March, inst. : the above is respectfully submitted by the subscriber. JOSIAH MOULTON."
Upon this the town voted that the said contract be dissolved. Two weeks later the Congregational Society was formed.
The first Centre School-house was a building of more than ordinary histori- cal interest, not only from its prominence among the public buildings of the town (it having been between 1748 and 1793 the only public edifice on the
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Plain), but from the fact of the Universalist Society having been formed in it. It stood on the north side of the Sutton road about 15 rods east of the present railroad track, and was in size about 16 by 20 feet. The outer door was at the southeast corner, where was an entry about four feet square, against which was a large stone chimney, the fireplace of which easily received four-foot wood as fuel. At the northeast corner was a small closet, which with the chimney and entry filled the east end. The school-room was therefore about 16 feet square, and on the south, west and north attached to the sides of the room were the desks of the larger scholars, who sat facing
the walls. Inside of this outer tier was a line of low benches without desks or backs on which sat facing inward the smaller portion of the school. The teacher's table occupied some convenient spot in the middle of the room. This building in 1803 was much dilapidated, weather worn and moss covered. In Nov., 1803, a meeting of the district was held to consider its condition, at which were present 18 persons, of whom two declined voting, four favored repairing the old house and 12 voted to build anew. A tax list appears dated Dec., 1803, assessing on the district the sum of $253.03 for building a new school-house. This stood on the Charlton road near the site of Dr. Rawson's present house, and was built probably in 1804. It was more pretentious than the old house and was in size 24 feet square with hip roof and a porch or entry about six by eight feet. It is now standing about a fourth of a mile west of its original position and has been many years used as a tenement.
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Report of a School Committee, 1810. "To the Freeholders and Voters in the Town of Oxford in Town meeting assembled. Gentlemen, your commit- tee chosen to inspect the several schools in sd Town beg leave to report-
" Ist your committee in company with the Rev'd Josiah Moulton and the Gentlemen Selectmen of sd Town have attended their Duty and find the several Schools with the exception of Mr. Harwood's ward, viz. No. 2, in a flourishing State being Surplyd with Able Teachers and Actuated with a Laudable Ambition to Excell-the reason of your committee's making an Exception of Mr. Harwood's ward is that a large part of the Parents and Guardians in sd ward are opposed to haveing there schools Inspected and keep there children at home, which Practice in the Opinion of your Committee is very Injurious as it tends to Sap the first principals in Society and frustrate every necessary regulation.
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"2ly in regard to the Grammar taught in the Schools it is the Opinion of your committee that Murry's Grammer has the preference and that each ward would do well to have no other taught.
" 3ly it is the Opinion of your committee that the Town would do well to grant fifty or an Hundred Dollars more for Schooling in sd Town, all which is respectfully Submitted.
" AMOS SHUMWAY, Jun. JER'H KINGSBURY, Jr. PETER BUTLER.
Committee."
This report appears to be in the handwriting of Rev. Josiah Moulton.
Approbation of a School-master.
" OXFORD, Dec. 19th, 1769.
" Whereas the Sqardron att the South Part of Oxford have Chosen Mr. Samuel Harris to be their Schoolmaster for their term of Schooling we the Subscribers approve of him for a Schoolmaster and Recommend him to be qualfyed as the Law directs for a Reading and Writing.
"EDWARD DAVIS, " HEZA. STONE, " EPH'M BALLARD, " WILLIAM WATSON, Select Men of Oxford."
[Town Archives. ]
Rev. Jacob Wood. PAGE 76. Mr. Wood, then Universalist minister, aided in inspection of schools in 1816.
Licensed Retailers of Spirits. From the County Records.
Duncan Campbell, 1750, '54, '55, '58, '61, '63.
Richard Moore, 1750.
Ephraim Ballard, 1752, '54, '58, '68.
Jacob Pierce, North Oxford, 1767 to 1769.
William Campbell, 1768 to 1776.
William Phips, Oxford, now Auburn, 1770 to 1773.
James Freeland, store, North Oxford, 1773 to 1778.
Levi Davis, 1776.
John Wolcott, 1776, '79, '81, '83, '84, '85, '87.
Jonathan Learned, physician, 1792, 1802 to 1809.
Andrew Sigourney, store, 1787 to 1815.
William Lamson, store, 1801 to 1804.
William T. Fisk, physician and store, 1802 to 1808, 1818.
Aaron McIntire, store, 1804. Timothy Lamson, store, 1806 to 1809.
Peter Spaulding, store, 1806.
Rufus Moore, store, 1808, '09, '14 to '18.
Amos Hudson, store with Dr. William T. Fisk, 1809 to 1817.
Sylvanus Pratt, store, 1811, '12.
Jedediah Taylor, 1811, '12. Abijah Davis, store, 1812 to 1817.
Abisha Learned, store, 1813, '14.
Bela Tiffany, store, South Oxford, 1813.
Charles Cleaveland, store, North Oxford, 1814.
Richard Moore, store, 1816 to 1819.
William Sigourney, store, 1816 to 1835.
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John Wetherell, store, 1818 to 1835.
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