USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Palmer > History of the town of Palmer, Massachusetts, early known as the Elbow tract : including records of the plantation, district and town 1716-1889 > Part 8
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Grantees of the Tract of Land called The Elbow Tract, within the county of Hampshire aforesaid
Greeting :
Whereas a lawful number of the Grantees or Inhabitants of the said Tract of Land, vizt., William Scott, Joseph Wright, Sen., James Mack Elwean, Steward Southgate, James Mack Clelan, John Scott, have made application to me for a warrant for calling & hold- ing a meeting of the said Inhabitants or Grantees at the House of Ebenezer Mirick of the aforesaid place, on the seventh day of August at 9 of ye clock in the forenoon of said day, to Transact on the several Particulars hereafter mentioned, vizt. :
1. To chuse a moderator for said meeting.
2. To chuse a clerk to enter and record all votes and orders of the said Proprietors or Grantees.
3. To make and form all necessary Rules & Orders for Regulating the Settlement, according to the Act and Order of the General Court; and to agree upon methods for calling of meetings for the future.
4. To chuse a committee to lay out necessary roads and highways before any further Surveys are made, or any already made be re- corded ; And order the laying out of a Lot for the first settled and ordained Minister ; And two other Lots, one for the use of the Ministry, and another for a School. Also to see and order the filling up of the complement of such Lots granted, as cannot be laid out in the place and form assigned without interfering uppon other Lots or Grants. Also to see if the said Proprietors will im- power the same committee to form a judgement and make Report to the Proprietors what land may be a complete addition or allow- ance to any of the Lots for land taken up by the said roads or high- ways, or for any other particular damages that the owners of any Lots or Grants may sustain thereby.
5. To pass upon bills or accounts of past charges for allowances, or to appoint a committee to settle and determine the same.
6. To chuse assessors, or suitable persons to assess and apportion such bills as shall be allowed, or ruch other sums as shall be granted and agreed upon by the Proprietors or Grantees.
7. To chuse a collector or collectors to levy and gather in such assessments.
8. To chuse and appoint a surveyor and chairmen to lay out the severall Grants made and selected within the propriety, or to chuse a committee to procure, agree with, and appoint the same.
9. To see if the Proprietors will agree to Regulate the Improve- ments, use the meadows in common, or to lease or dispose of the same.
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HISTORY OF PALMER.
10. To see if the Proprietors will consider the petition or com- plaints of the Grantees of Single Lots only; or to chuse a committee to consider their case and to Report their opinion what may be just and reasonable to be done ; and what methods may be proper for the said Proprietors to take to relieve their case.
11. To see if the Proprietors will dispose of any of the Common Land gratis for past services.
12. To see if the Proprietors will agree upon some method or pass orders for securing & preserving the Timber, Pine, or meadows in common.
These are therefore in his Majesty's Name, To will and require you that you Do (agreeable to the rules and methods prescribed by Law for that purpose) notifie the said Proprietors or Inhabitants, or Grantees that they assemble themselves together at the time and place above mentioned, and to the ends and purposes aforesaid. Herein fail not. Dated at Springfield the 24th Day of July in the seventh year of his Majesty's Reign, anno of Domini 1733.
WN. PYNCHON, Just. Pacis.
Elbows, August 7, 1733. Steward Southgate certifies that he has posted a copy of the warrant at a publick place, according to law and the order of said Warrant.
At a Meeting of the Proprietors or Inhabitants & Grantees of Elbows Tract, convened according to Law. at the House of Ebenezer Mirick in sª Place on Tuesday the seventh Day of August, 1733 :
Voted, That WM. Pynchon, Esq., be moderator of the meeting. Voted, That Steward Southgate be clerk of the said Proprietors and Grantees. Sworn.
Voted, That Lieut. Samuel Doolitel, Samuel Shaw, Joseph Wright, Jun., John King and Timothy Mack Elwain be a com- mittee to lay out necessary roads and highways, and to order the laying of a Lot of one Hundred acres to be to ye first settled and ordained Minister, and two other Lots of the same contents, one for the use of the Ministry and the other for a School, and make return thereof, according to ye Act and Order of the General Court. And also to see and order the filling up of the complements of such Lots granted as cannot be laid out in the place & form assigned, without interfering upon other Lots or Grants. And that the same committee be impowered to form a judgement and make Report to the Proprietors what land may be a complement, addi- tion or allowance to any of the Lots for Land taken up by the said roads or highways, or for any other particular Damage that the owners of any Lot or Grant may sustain thereby.
THE ELBOW TRACT-A PLANTATION, 1726-1752.
Voted, That Andrew Farrand be added to the Committee ap- pointed to lay out highways, &c., and that any four of them may act on any of the affairs whereunto they are appointed.
Voted, That Timothy Dwight, Esq., William Scott and Andrew Mackee be a committee to prepare and form a Draught or Scheme of Rules & Orders for Regulating the Settlement, according to the Act or Order of the General Court, and that the same be posted up in some Publick place within ye Settlement at least seven days be- fore it be Reported to any meeting of the Proprietors in order for confirmation.
Voted, That if any seven or more of the Proprietors or Grantees agree and shall signifie to the clerk that they judge it necessary that there be a meeting of the Proprietors or Grantees, with the time, place and occasion for holding the same ; that the clerk be thereby impowered to issue out and cause notification thereof to be posted according to law.
Voted, That Steward Southgate, Andrew Mackee and Ebenezer Mirick be assessors or men appointed and impowered to assess and apportion upon all the Proprietors and Grantees, all sums of money granted, allowed and agreed upon, equally and impartially to dis- tribute and proportion the same, according to the order or direction . of the General Court's act or order.
Voted, That all Ministerial payments be assessed and proportioned in Distinct Lists ; and each particular person's sum or proportion to each particular Minister be set in Distinct Columns. And the sum allowed to defray the charges of the General Court's Com- mittee be also proportioned in a Distinct List. And that all other sum or sums that shall be allowed to defray the charges that have arisen, be proportioned in a Distinct List. And that all other sums that shall be granted or allowed to defray other past charges in future shall be also assessed in a Distinct List, prefacing the same with a general account of what the money was expended for.
Voted, That every particular person, Proprietor or Grantee, who has paid his proportion of any particular assessment of past charges, or any part of his proportion thereof, and shall produce a Receipt or certificate of such payment from the Minister or Ministers to whose support and maintenance he was assessed, or other ways make it appear to the assessors' satisfaction, and obtain a certificate thereof from them, such receipt or certificate shall be sufficient to discharge any particular person (for so much as they contain) in any particular List or Assessment to which they relate or apper- tain, and shall accordingly be received and accepted by the col- lector, and from the collector to ye Receiver of money, and shall
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HISTORY OF PALMER.
answer for so much in the Receiver's account with the Proprietors or Grantees.
Voted, That when any particular person, Proprietor or Grantee, has paid more than his due proportion to any particular assessment, and shall make ye same to appear by Receipts or Certificates as aforesaid, the overplus shall answer for so much in any other par- ticular assessment to which they most nearly relate.
Voted, That where any particular person, Proprietor or Grantee, shall have paid more than his due proportion of ye whole of ye as- sessments of past charges, and shall make the same to appear as aforesaid, the overplus shall answer for so much in ye next assess- ment for future Charges, and the assessors are to abate and give credit therein accordingly.
Voted, That the Rev. Mr. Harvey be exempted from paying any part of past Charges.
Voted, That Samuel Frost and James Mack Clelan be collectors of all rates and assessments granted and allowed by the Proprietors and Grantees, and made and assessed by the assessors.
Voted, That Steward Southgate, Andrew Mackee and Lieut. Samuel Doolittle be a committee, impowered and appointed to notify John Read, Esq., and with him, or such as he shall appoint, to renew and perambulate the bounds of the land adjoining the Elbow Tract.
Toted, That the committee for laying out roads and highways, &c., be also a committee to procure and appoint a surveyor and chainmen to lay out the several Grants made and settled within the Propriety by the Act and Establishment of the General Court.
Voted, That Lieut. Samuel Doolitel, Barnard Mack Nitt, Steward Southgate and James Mack Clelan be a committee to consider and examine the bills or particular accounts that shall not be allowed at this meeting, and to Report to ye Proprietors and Grantees what they shall judge is justly due and ought to be allowed thereof.
The following accounts were then exhibited, allowed and ordered to be assessed on the Proprietors : viz:
Account of Four pounds, paid Mr. Robert Killpatrick for five Sabbaths' preaching at 16 s. per Sabbath:
Account of 6 pounds, 1 shilling, 8 pence, paid Rev. Mr. Weld, his board, horsekeeping, &c., for a quarter of a year's preaching:
Account of 43 pounds, 12 shillings, paid Rev. Mr. Benjamin Dickinson, for two quarters of a year preaching, at 21-16-0 per quarter:
Account of two hundred and sixty pounds, paid Rev. Mr. John Harvey, for three years and a quarter preaching at 20 pounds per quarter:
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THE ELBOW TRACT-A PLANTATION, 1726-1752.
Account of one pound ten shillings, paid for a Town Book of Records:
Account of nine shillings by John Kilburn, for boarding Rev. Mr. Benjamin Dickinson :
Account of five pounds, two shillings, paid for a cushion for the pulpit:
Account of two pounds, fifteen shillings, expended at Boston on Publick affairs, by Thomas Little:
Account of five pounds, eighteen shillings, paid Capt. Pynchon, by Robert Thomson, for drawing and entering petition to General Court:
Account of thirteen pounds, five shillings, three pence, expended in 1729, by James Mack Elwain, in a journey to Boston with a petition to ye General Court:
Account of eleven pounds, fifteen shillings, six pence, the charge and expenses of Samuel Shaw and Joseph Wright in a journey to Boston with the last Petition:
Account of five pounds, six shillings, nine pence, the charge and expenses of Steward Southgate in a journey to Boston last Novem- ber, to revive and prosecute the affair of the last petition:
Account of sixty-seven pounds, eleven shillings, nine pence, the charge and expenses of the General Court's Committee, viewing the Elbow Tract, &c., as per the Court's Act appears:
Account of eleven pounds, eleven shillings, three pence, the charge of Steward Southgate, attending upon the General Court and the Court's Committee in the establishment of the Grants of the Elbow Tract:
Account of three pounds, paid for a Law Book and this book of Records, by Steward Southgate.
A true record, STEWARD SOUTHGATE, Clerk.
At a meeting of the Proprietors & Grantees of the Elbow Tract, held September 24, 1733, it was Voted, that the sum of 67 pounds, eleven shillings and nine pence granted and allowed at ye last meeting to defray the charge of the Hon. General Court's Com- mittee be paid in by the collector, and account thereof cleared at or before the tenth day of Oct." next."
SOME EARLY VOTES AND RULES .- " The committee who were appointed to consider and examine bills, presented several bills and . Reported thereon, as follows, vizt. :
"A bill of Thomas Litel's of 15s. paid to Mr. Samuel Shaw, to- wards a Petition which he said was never sent. The committee
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HISTORY OF PALMER.
Report thereon, that they had agreed that no part of the bill ought to be allowed by the Proprietors, but that Mr. Litel be re- ferred to settle account with Mr. Shaw. Voted, that the Report be accepted.
"A bill of Aaron Nelson of 15 pounds, 16 shillings of past charges to ye Minister, and Petition, & to labor &c .- The commit- tee Report that the sum of 10 shillings towards committee charge, and 5 shillings towards the Pulpit cushion ought to be allowed of said bill. Proposed whether the Report be accepted, and it passed in ye Negative.
"A bill on account of Mr. Collins of twenty shillings for Preach- ing one Sabbath-The committee Report, that nothing of said bill ought to be allowed by the Proprietors, but that the clerk write to Mr. Collins that the Particular man who imployed him ought to pay him. Proposed whether the Report ought be accepted, and it passed in the affirmative.
"A bill of James Mack Elwean of eight pounds, seven shillings and nine pence, for attendance upon the Generall Court upon the Elbows' business-The Committee Report that the said bill should be referred to Wm. Pynchon, Esq., for his judgment what ought to be allowed thereof ; and Esq. Pynchon being present reported that in his judgment, about one pound seven shillings ought to be cut off from ye said bill and ye rest allowed. And the question was put, whether ye sum of seven pounds should be allowed in full discharge of ye said bill, and it was passed in ye Affirmative.
" Voted. That every Non-resident Proprietor of a full Right, or one Hundred acre Lot with Draughts, that has built no House thereon, do build a House not less than eighteen feet square, and brake up four acres of land and clear and fit three acres for mow- ing, and include the same in a good and sufficient fence. And that every Non-resident Proprietor of a Fifty acre Lot with Draught (excepting the owner of the Fifty acre Right that was granted to John Brooks) do build a House on his Lot not less than sixteen feet square, and brake up two acres of Land, and fit three acres for mowing, and include the same in a good and sufficient fence ; and that the said Right granted to John Brooks be freed from these conditions of settlement."
" Voted, That no Proprietor or Grantee do suffer or permit his or their swine to go at large, on the Commons, without sufficient and lawful yokeing and ringing, from the first of April untill the last of October yearly ; and that three men be chosen & empowered as Hogg Reeves to take care that the Province Law be put in execu-
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THE ELBOW TRACT-A PLANTATION, 1726-1752.
tion respecting swine as fully as in any of the towns of this Pro- vince ; and that William Sloan, Isaac Magoon, Jun. and John King, Jun. be the three men to execute the office of Hogg Reeves.
"Voted, That no Proprietor or Grantee of any Land in this set- tlement shall hire, or take in for hire, any dry cattle (vizt. cattle to fat or young cattle) into the Settlement to summer feed, to devour the herbage of the Commons, under the penalty of ten shillings for every oxe & steer of three years old and upwards, so taken or hired in, and five shillings for all young cattle of three years old and under, so taken or hired in; to be recovered of such persons or person by an assessment to be made on their lands by the assessors of the Settlement, upon complaint made to and con- viction thereof before any two of the said assessors, and to be col- lected by either of the collectors, by warrant from the assessors, and paid in to the Proprietor's Receiver for the use of the Proprie- tors and Grantees; and that these orders continue in force untill the settlement be sett off and invested with the powers and privi- leges of a Township.
"Voted, That Steward Southgate be empowered as our agent on our behalf to apply to the General Court at their next session, on the publick affairs of this settlement."
" Voted, That our said agent shall enter a complaint to our General Court against all such Non-resident Proprietors and Grantees as have been returned Delinquent in settlement of their Lots, or in payment of their Rates by the committee appointed to take account of such delinquencies (except such as have or shall give satisfaction forthwith for settlement thereof, according to orders), and to pray that either a forfeiture may be taken of such Delinquent Rights and they otherways disposed of, or that the Proprietors' assessors be empowered to make sale of them, for payment of such Rates and Charges as have been assessed on them by order and authority of the General Court.
" Voted, That every Proprietor of a Hundred acre Right, who has not fulfilled the condition of settlement, and will be under an obli- gation of 150 pounds, with condition that he or his order or assigns shall pay as much yearly to all publick Rates in this Town for the space of seven years next coming as by order of the Law will be as- sessed upon a twenty pound ratable estate, besides poles; or so long at least as till his Improvements on his Right will amount to so much: That then no complaint shall be entered against him to the General Court for not settling, but shall be accepted by us as settled. And every Proprietor of a fifty or sixty, or seventy acre
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HISTORY OF PALMER.
Right, to be under proportionable obligation to pay proportion- able Rates, as aforesaid. And that Steward Southgate be appointed as a Trustee, to take the said bonds, and to be accountable to the town for them." [The creation of this "Trust " was the occasion of no end of trouble to the Plantation and trustee, He was accused of malfeasance in office ; and suits at Law, and counter suits followed ; and from being the most trusted man of the Settle- ment he became the most distrusted. His accounts were finally adjusted to his satisfaction ; but at no distant day he removed from town.]
"Voted, For the better regulating of the Settlement and the affairs thereof, that this Rule be established, viz: That all sworn officers of the Proprietors and Grantees shall be fully empowered to execute and complete their respective offices, after the Inhabi- tants are vested with the powers of a town, as fully as before; especially when any accounts remain unsettled, and are not ad- justed or cleared up, as well as any matter or thing relating or pertaining to their respective offices which was begun and not finished."
" We the subscribers being appointed a committee to take an ac- count of the Delinquencies of the Non-residents and other Pro- prietors and Grantees, with respect to the settlement of their Lots, or payment of their Rates, Do Report as follows : vizt, that we find the widow Bailey and heirs delinquent, both as to settlement and payment of their rates. That James McQuiston is delinquent in part as to settlement and payment of rates.
That James Dorchester is delinquent in part as to settlement and payment of rates.
That Peter Backus is delinquent as to payment of rates.
That Robert Dunlop is delinquent as to payment of rates.
That Jeremiah Olmstead is delinquent as to payment of rates.
STEWARD SOUTHGATE SAMUEL FROST, Committee.
JAMES MCCLELAN.
" At a legal meeting of the Proprietors held on the second day of June 1735, the above Report was read and accepted."
" November 28, 1733. Voted, That Andrew Mackee and Ebenezer Mirick be a committee or agents to call ye collectors or receivers of money granted to account, and fully impowered in the name of the Proprietors and Grantees, to hasten and inforce payment thereof when it is unreasonably delayed : and to sue for to recover ye same or any part thereof that is or may be privately embezzled,
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THE ELBOW TRACT-A PLANTATION, 1726-1752.
withheld or misapplied, contrary to the grant or order of the Proprietors and Grantees ; and upon recovery, to pay the same according to the Grant ; and to render an exact and true account thereof."
GRIST MILL .- One of the necessities of the settler, and usually one of the first enterprises undertaken in a new settlement, was the erection of a grist mill. Fortunately for the early comers to the Elbow Tract, such mills were in existence, within their reach, though at somewhat inconvenient distances. Pynchon's mill at Springfield was built (or re-built) soon after the close of Philip's war. Hayward's mill, on the old Hadley Path in Brookfield, was set up before 1708. A grist mill was put in at the falls in what is now Warren about 1720. Capt. Jabez Olmstead built a grist mill at the falls in Ware Village in 1729 or '30. This was on the Hol- lingsworth Grant, which was included within the territory of the Elbow Tract. The first mention of a grist mill in our plantation records is in the grant by the General Court's Committee in 1733 of a hundred acre lot to Steward Southgate "on condition of his erecting a good and sufficient grist mill for the service of the peo- ple, within the space of two years." The records show that he did not build the mill; but that just at the expiration of the two years Robert Farrall and Thomas Harmon set up a grist mill on Ware river. The records are as follows: "November 13, 1736. To see if the Proprietors will accept the Grist Mill built by Robert Far- rall and Thomas Harmon as a good and sufficient mill for their purposes, and in full satisfaction of the conditions injoined on Steward Southgate by order of the General Court. Voted, That the grist mill built by Robert Farrall & Thomas Harmon be ac- cepted as a good and sufficient mill for our service, and as a com- plete satisfaction of the condition enjoined upon Steward Southgate by Act of the General Court."
About a year later Southgate set up a corn mill near his saw mill, which "first went Jan. ye 2, 1737-8."
The Farrall mill was destroyed within a couple of years, as appears from the following record :
Mar. 10, 1740-1, a petition was presented "To the Proprietors of the Common and Undivided lands of ye Elbows-The Petition of ye subscribers for lyberty to take up and lay out ten acres of land, as part of ye First Division of ye grist mill Right originally granted to Steward Southgate, one acre thereof upon Ware River, including ye spot whereon ye late grist mill stood, built by Robert ffarrall and Thomas Harmon; and nine acres on ye Pine plain
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HISTORY OF PALMER.
adjoining to ye lot granted & laid out to Thomas ffarrand, includ- ing ye Little Pond on ye said Pine plain.
And yor granting this Lyberty will oblige to thankfullness Yor Petitioners,
STEWARD SOUTHGATE
ANDREW FARRAND ROBERT FARRALL
Elbows, March 10th, 1740-1.
The foregoing petition was granted.
SAW MILL .- The concise history of the first saw mill built for the use of our people is thus given in the Records :
"On Thursday the eighth day of September, 1730, the founda- tion of the Dam at the northeast corner of Potaquatuck Pond was laid.
"On the 14th day of October, 1730, Potaqnatuck Saw Mill was first raised ; and on the fifth day of March next after the saw mill first went.
"On the 13th day of December 1732, the sd Mill was burnt down; and it stood after it was raised two years & two months, lacking one day ; after it first went, it stood but one year, nine months & eight days.
" The second Saw Mill at Potaquatuck Pond, Rebuilt on ye same spot, viz. was raised on the 8th of October, 1733, and first went on the 6th day of November, 1734; and on the 29th of April 1736, it was undermined by ye water and Broke down, after it had stood two years, six months & 21 days ; and after it first went one year, 5 months & 23 days.
" The third Saw Mill at Potaquatuck Pond, was built on a new spott, viz. it was raised on Monday the twentieth day of Septem- ber, 1736, and first went on ye 5th day of May 1737."
For other grist and saw mills, see chapter on Palmer Industries.
PUBLIC WORSHIP AND PREACHERS .- One of the important reasons given by the Committee of the General Court why the Elbow Tract should be incorporated into a plantation was thus stated : "We find settled there the Number of eighty persons, the most whereof are families, who have built Houses and made considerable Improvements ; and are now and have constantly for more than three years past, Been supplied with a Minister to Preach the Word of God unto them; who has been supported by a free con- tribution."
At the first legal meeting of the Proprietors they proceeded to
THE ELBOW TRACT-A PLANTATION, 1726-1752.
audit and allow the several preachers' bills, and to order an assess- ment to remunerate the sums heretofore paid by individuals, and exact their proper porportion of such as were dilinquent or had borne no part of the burden. This was in accordance with a con- dition named in the act of incorporation-"That they and each of the aforenamed grantees do pay their equal part of all Past Charges to the support of the Ministry, etc." Probably the "assessment " was really an "equalization," and when a man had paid his just and full proportion of these charges he was credited for the same on his tax bill. And it is from these audited bills for services rendered that we learn the names of the early preachers, and the length of their several terms of labor.
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