USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Shirley > History of the town of Shirley, Massachusetts, from its early settlement to A.D. 1882 > Part 12
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Shirley is so situated that, for sixty years, it had no direct mail communication with the shire-towns of the county or the capital of the State. Mailed packages were transported by indirect and intersecting lines of stages ; and hence the business of those who had frequent inter- course with the county courts and the State metropolis was seriously embarrassed. Great, therefore, was the change produced by the opening of the Fitchburg Railroad, whose line at first extended from Charlestown to Fitchburg. This occurred in 1845. The railroad crosses the line be- tween Ayer and Shirley at the Nashua River, and having passed up the valley of that river, enters the valley of the Catacunemaug, goes through the village situated on that stream, and passes into Lunenburg at what is called Mount Henry, where there is a cut in the hill forty-seven feet deep.
Both the freight and passenger cars leave and return to town several times each day. The station is in the South Village, two miles from the centre of the town, and is large and commodious.
The first expense of the road and its appurtenances was rising a million of dollars. But, since its original completion, it has received a second track for the entire length of way. It has also been connected with the capital by a bridge across the Charles River, and is ter- minated by a station, built of Fitchburg granite, which combines beauty with architectural strength, and is a
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monument of the enterprise and perseverance of the pro- prietors of the road. The amount of capital stock is $4,950,000. The cost of the road and its improvements has amounted to a much larger sum.
In 1874, just previous to the completion of the Hoosac tunnel, the Fitchburg Railroad Company secured control of the Vermont and Massachusetts railroad from Fitchburg to Greenfield, by a lease of nine hundred and ninety-nine years. In 1880 the same company made an arrangement with the Commonwealth to operate for a term of seven years the Troy and Greenfield road, ex- tending from the latter place to North Adams. By these measures the line from Boston to North Adams is placed under one management; and by arrangements with con- necting roads beyond, a through line is established, called the Hoosac Tunnel Line, whereby the people of eastern and northern Massachusetts are afforded cheap and easy communication with New York State and the West. By taking a seat in a drawing-room or a berth in a sleeping- car, the passenger from Boston, or other point on the Tunnel Line, may make the journey to Chicago or St. Louis with ease and comfort, without change of cars, by a continuous ride of from thirty-six to forty-two hours. The wide contrast between the present facilities for travel and those enjoyed by the people of Shirley but a genera- tion ago may be taken as a striking illustration of the progressive spirit of the age.
Within about four miles of the centre of Shirley is the far-famed union of railroads, once known as Groton Junc- tion, but now bearing the name of Ayer, the new town which has grown up around this nucleus of active agen- cies. Here the cars of the Fitchburg, the Worcester & Nashua, the Peterboro & Shirley, and the Stony Brook (or Boston & Lowell) roads, intersect several times each day. This, facilitates travel through a large extent of country. It enables men who live in Shirley to be en- gaged in daily business operations in the several places connected by the roads here referred to; it also enables .
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persons to attend county courts cheaply and expeditiously, and to accomplish with facility and economy the various communications, social, ecclesiastical, political and finan- cial, which circumstances require in different parts of the Commonwealth and New England.
As time has advanced, the establishment of these roads in the town and vicinity of Shirley has proved an important era in its history, completing a valuable revo- lution in all the business and social relations of its in- habitants. It is true that some of the operations of this revolution have worked injury to society by producing radical and sweeping changes in what appeared to be use- ful and well established customs ;- such as the depletion of farms (a few miles remote from the road ) of their faithful and long-tried generations of owners, and the giving over of these estates to a foreign population ; the inroads made on the progress and life of institutions of learning and religion of venerable age and standing ; and the hasty formation of villages, which are liable to become centres for a population of doubtful moral character from surrounding regions. Yet, when we remember the over- balancing benefits derived from these changes as a whole, the evils are lightly passed over and easily forgotten.
Instead of a stage ride of seven hours to the State me- tropolis, and an absence of two or three days from home, the people of Shirley may now accomplish the journey in a couple of hours, without weariness, devote most of the day to the transaction of business, and return to their homes the same day. And, then, with what ease and economy the farming produce is conveyed to marts of sale and exchange ; how cheaply and readily foreign merchan- dise is brought to our homes and our hearths. Our people at the present day largely use mineral coal for fuel ;- how could this useful article be obtained by the old methods of conveyance ? Indeed, the advantages wrought by the revolution effected through the aid of railroads, cannot be realized by the younger generation,-as the disadvantages of former customs are unknown to them.
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It is now (1882) thirty-seven years since the Fitchburg Railroad Company commenced operations, and they have been years of constant improvement and enlarged facilities of action, on the part of its management, in support of the comfort, convenience and safety of passengers and em- ployes. Their way stations are commodious, well-ap- pointed and well-cared-for establishments; their cars are suitably finished, furnished and warmed; their bridges are built so as to ensure safety in travel; their crossings are carefully guarded against accident ; and what is more, their employes, through all the various departments of their complicated business, must be largely stocked with execu- tive ability, and must cultivate the virtues of amiability, courtesy and patience, in order to ensure to themselves a continuance in their positions. Under these circumstances the road is safely expected to be a remunerative enterprise to the proprietors and a benefaction to the public.
Hence, if the introduction of railroads is a blessing to the community, we may regard Shirley as peculiarly favored by being located in the neighborhood of so many and such varying routes of travel.
Perhaps in this place, better than any other, a space may be devoted to a notice of the physicians who have practised their profession in Shirley. This class of citi- zens, in every town, have occupied a respectable and influential place in society, in accordance with their pro- fessional success, and their moral standing.
WILLIAM WORCESTER was the first physician who had a residence in Shirley. He was born in Bradford, Feb. 4, 1729. He was a son of Moses Worcester, who was a descendant, of the fifth generation, of Rev. Wil- liam Worcester, the first minister of Salisbury, who, with his family, came to this country from England between the years of 1638 and 1640. He is enrolled in Cotton Mather's list of the "reverent, learned and holy divines, arriving such from Europe to America, by whose evangelical ministry the churches of America have been illuminated." Dr. Worcester came to Shirley subsequently to 1769-
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sixteen years after the incorporation of the town-and had removed to Tewksbury before 1773, making his con- tinuance here, at longest, not three years. The place of his residence was unknown to the oldest inhabitants of the town, a quarter of a century since, and of course his medical skill cannot here be delineated. He practised in Tewksbury and other places, as well as in Shirley.
BENJAMIN HARTWELL was the second of the profes- sion who ventured to make this very sparsely settled community the subjects of his professional oversight and care. He was born in Leominster, in 1759. In early life he was engaged in agricultural pursuits, and, though young, took a part in the struggle which secured the inde- pendence of the American Colonies. He was a non-com- missioned officer ; and the evening of his life was cheered with a pension, a reward for the fidelity of those who ven- tured all for the political emancipation of their country and the security of her privileges.
He studied his profession with Dr. Going, of his na- tive town, and commenced its practice soon after the close of the Revolutionary war. For many years he did a large business and accumulated a fair estate. He continued to be called to the sick-beds of those who had known him in earlier life, even unto old age; and, by his timely wit and free converse, would sometimes reconcile to their situation patients whom his prescriptions were powerless to relieve. He died, after a very brief sickness, March 17, 1844, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His widow survived until September 23, 1851, and at her death had lived eighty- nine years.
PHINEHAS LONGLEY was a native of Shirley, and descended from that honorable family of Longleys who early made the soil of Shirley their home, and whose record will more fully appear in the sequel of this history. He studied medicine with Dr. Hartwell; and-what few would willingly have done-commenced practice in town, to the great annoyance of his rival and former patron.
Autoglyph Print, W. P. ALLEN, Gardner, Mass.
AUGUSTUS G. PARKER, M. D.
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Between the two disciples of Hippocrates there were con- stant broils, which were terminated only by a long and expensive course of litigation. This created parties in town, and effected rivalries and criminations which were designed, in themselves, to destroy harmony and good feeling throughout the entire community. At length Dr. Longley left the place and established himself in Millbury, Worcester County, where he remained in practice until the period of his death.
AUGUSTUS GRANVILLE PARKER was the next physi- cian in the order of time. He was born in Harvard, in the pleasant village of Still River, Feb. 14, 1796. His father was a physician, and he was the youngest child of a numerous family. He early imbibed a taste for the profession of his father, and while yet a youth began to acquaint himself with the rudiments of the healing art. It is undoubtedly true that his future success was in a great degree owing to that singleness of purpose with which he devoted himself to the duties of his calling. While he was yet a minor his father removed with his family into the State of Vermont, where he passed the remainder of his life.
After the removal to Vermont, the subject of this notice commenced the active duties of his profession in company with his father. He was thus ushered into busi- ness, like many other practitioners of his time, without a public education, and without those other privileges that are now almost universally regarded a passport to the confidence of a patronizing community ;- a condition of things which he regretted more than his friends and future employers had occasion to do. Thrown, therefore, as he truly was, upon his own individual resources, his exertions were untiring to supply the wants that these circumstances created ; and his subsequent success proved that he did not labor in vain.
Abominating every appearance of charlatanry, he applied to the Vermont Medical Society for an approba- tion to practise medicine ; and after the usual preliminaries
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he received a diploma from that institution, which bears date June 10, 1817. Dr. Parker ever regarded this event as the happiest of his life-experience ; as it evinced to him that his self-exertions were rewarded in placing him upon a foundation most congenial with his genius and taste, where his energies could be expanded, and where he could be free to fulfil what he truly considered the mission of his life.
Having thus gone through with a formal initiation into the active duties of his profession, he took up a resi- dence in Harvard, his native town, and formed a partner- ship with Dr. Stone of that place. He remained in this connection but one year when he removed to Shirley, where he passed the residue of his days. In 1827 he received a diploma from the Massachusetts Medical Society. He died June 18, 1843, in the forty-eighth year of his age.
Dr. Parker married Mary Ann Hazen, daughter of Samuel Hazen, Esq., Dec. 20, 1819. They had one son, Stillman S. H. Parker, born June 27, 1821. From early life he gave signs of precocity of intellect and moral virtue, which led his parents to indulge his laudable wishes, all of which seemed to tend to the supplying him- self with the facilities of improvement. As he had been early designed for the medical profession, at the age of , sixteen his father proposed that he hasten to a close of his studies preparatory to a college course, to which sugges- tion he promptly acceded. In pursuance of this plan he was placed in the Groton Academy, where, with un- wearied diligence, he pursued his classical studies ; at the same time, from every other available source, he gathered information of a scientific and general character. His career was destined to be of short continuance. He had, with some difficulty, finished the first term of his second year in the above-named institution when his overworked system gave signs of increasing pulmonary difficulties, which required an immediate suspension of all labor and continued thought. Every day his symptoms became
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more alarming, and seemed to declare that consumption had fixed its grasp upon the suffering patient, and would soon prostrate him in death.
As the chills of autumn approached, Dr. Parker pro- posed to his son to depart with him to the sunny regions of the South, with the hope that the climate might assist to protract, and possibly save, a life so dear to many. In the early part of October this plan was put in execution with the design of going as far as St. Augustine, in Florida. But the health of the young man seemed to require them to stop at St. Mary's, where he lingered till the 18th of January, when his mortal pilgrimage was closed.
The grief of this loss of his promising son-his only child-added to the effects of Dr. Parker's previous un- wearied labors in the calls of his profession, broke down his constitution, and opened the way to his own compara- tively early death.
JAMES OTIS PARKER. See notices of college gradu- ates, page 92.
EBENEZER P. HILLS. He was born in Newbury, in 1804. In his early life he was engaged in the mechanical operations of his father, who was a joiner, painter and glazier. But early cherishing a desire to engage in the physician's calling, he commenced a course of study that might prepare him.for that position. To obtain the means of pursuing his preparatory studies, he devoted a part of each year to the arduous work of school-teaching. He taught ten distinct terms, and was regarded as well adapted to this work. He was engaged as teacher in the towns of Leominster, Lunenburg, Shirley and Townsend. His professional studies were partially pursued under the direction of Dr. Silas Pearson of Westminster, and Dr. Peter S. Snow of Fitchburg. He attended a single course of medical lectures at Pittsfield, but received his doctor's degree from Brunswick, Maine, in 1825.
He then established himself in Townsend, and offered his professional services to the public. On the
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death of Dr. A. G. Parker of Shirley, he came to this town, and remained here until his death, which occurred March 22, 1854, in the fiftieth year of his age.
Dr. Hills received a diploma from the Massachusetts Medical Society, May 28, 1845. He was three times married ;- his first and second wives were sisters, from Lunenburg,-Misses Perkins,-who left three children at their deaths, one of whom preceded his father to the tomb. He married for his third wife Miss Sophia Gerrish of Townsend, Sept. 15, 1841, by whom he had four children, one of whom died before her father. Two others have since died. They died young, and yet their good quali- ties rendered them universally respected by their ac- quaintances. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
CHARLES* C. DOWSE lived and practised medicine for a few years in Shirley. He was born in Brighton, and in early life was engaged as a store and count- ing-room clerk. He pursued an academical course of study at the Wesleyan institution in Wilbraham. He studied medicine for a time in the office of Dr. Bates in Barre, and obtained his doctorate from the Boston Medical College. He began his practice somewhere in Connecti- cut, but removed to Shirley in 1845. Here he remained some four years, when he established himself in Clinton, where he resided about six years. Then he removed to Waltham, where he continued his practice until his death.
JOSEPH H. STREETER also practised medicine for a few years in Shirley. He came in 1845. The place, however, was so crowded with M. D.'s-led hither after the death of Dr. Parker, through the influence of that distinguished man's success-that Dr. Streeter removed to Roxbury, where he still lives and is engaged in the duties of his profession.
DARIUS A. Dow" succeeded Dr. Dowse, and prac- tised medicine about three years in Shirley, when he
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removed to Westford, in which place he is yet engaged in the work of his calling.
ASAHEL PLYMPTON succeeded Dr. Dow, establish- ing himself in Shirley in 1852. He studied, for a time, in the office of Dr. Gilman Kimball, of Lowell. Afterward he attended courses of lectures in Hanover, New Hamp- shire, and in Woodstock, Vermont, and received his medi- cal diploma from the last-named institution, in 1843. He began his work in Hebron, Connecticut, where he re- mained only a few months, when he went to Monroe, Maine, where he continued several years. He then came to Shirley and has been in successful practice unto the present time, [1882] more than thirty years.
NATHANIEL KINGSBURY came to Shirley in 1857. It was not his purpose to practise his profession, but rather to seek retirement from what had been his life-calling. He did not refuse the occasional solicitations of those who desired his advice and attendance, yet he sought no custom. He graduated at the Bowdoin institution in Brunswick, Maine, in 1829. He practised his profession for a time in Georgia, but passed the longest period of active public duty in Temple, New Hampshire. He left Shirley in 1865, and has since died.
The great comparative importance attached to the practice of medicine at the present day, marks-to a cer- tain extent-the changes that have occurred in the habits and wants of society since the period at which this history commenced. Then, a large majority of the educated men sought the pulpit or the bar as their arena of operations ; now, a large part of the scholars resort to the healing art, as an equally honorable and far more lucrative sphere of labor. Then, very few physicians were classically educated ;- many of them served what they termed an apprenticeship with some established practi- tioner, and thus acquired a knowledge of the remedies for human diseases, as the artisan acquires the secret of his
-
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craft ;- of course but few of the faculty were received to other posts of public trust. Now, our ablest writers, states- men, legislators and rulers, are fully represented by mem- bers of this profession. Then, the habits of the population were simple, industrious, hardy,-inured from childhood to healthy physical training, and standing in little need of frequent medical treatment. Now, we live in an age of fast men, where fashion supersedes prudence, and excess enervates physical strength ;- where, indeed, the general habit of gross living and careless action wears down the physical system, to such an extent that the artificial aid which a physician can proffer is in frequent requisition. A little more care and prudence would, in the way of pre- vention, save many a hard-earned penny to meet the sub- stantial wants of a healthy existence,-and save the evil of many a pain which doctors and drugs may vainly attempt to eradicate and cure.
CHAPTER VIII.
Town Hall-Legacy of Hon. James P. Whitney-Do- nations of Thomas and George A. Whitney- Laying the Corner-stone-Proceedings and Report of Building Committee-Dedication of the Hall- Village Hall-Liberality of its owner, etc.
During the early periods of our New-England settle- ments the pecuniary condition of the people compelled them to study and practise economy in all matters of both public and private interest. And, as they could not afford buildings to be separately devoted to secular and sacred uses, they were so far bound to sanction a "union of church and state" as to appropriate one and the same edi- fice to all the public requirements of the town,-religious, military and municipal. On Sunday the spacious aisles ยท and pews were occupied by those who sought the good that cometh from the sanctuary. On "training days" the
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children of Mars were found threading their way through the same alleys, armed and equipped for the deadly strife of war; and on days of municipal duty the same temple thoroughfares were made to resound to the coarse tread of many feet not accustomed to seek that place for purposes of spiritual devotion. At the communion altar the moder- ator and clerk were stationed, to direct and record the doings of the assembled freemen, while the people ac- commodated themselves as well as the conveniences of the place would allow by grouping together in the neighbor- ing pews and avenues. There was an inconvenience attending this miscellaneous use of the meeting-house, and yet it was the best arrangement that could be made under the circumstances. It surely could be no desecration of a sacred locality to have it occasionally used for purposes of secular requirements ; and we are proud to believe that many a country church became a "cradle of liberty" in the stormy days of '76.
From the incorporation of the town, in 1753, to the building of the first meeting-house, in 1754, meetings for municipal purposes were conducted in private houses. From that time to 1839, about seventy-five years, as has been observed, the meeting-house was the general rendez- vous for the proceedings of the body politic. During the year last named, the first meeting-house,-which was now legally claimed by the First Congregational Society,-un- derwent such changes and repairs as to render it incon- venient to open it for any other than religious purposes ; its doors were therefore closed to all secular gatherings and objects. The necessities of the people soon directed attention to the subject of erecting a town hall,-yet no decisive steps were taken to that end for the space of six years.
At the town-meeting in April, 1847, a communication was made to, the town to the following purport :
"TO THE SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF SHIRLEY :
" Gentlemen :- Our late brother, James P. Whitney, made certain bequests to the town which will fully appear
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by the following extracts from his last will and testament, viz : 'I give and bequeath to the inhabitants of the town of Shirley the sum of five hundred dollars, to be appropri- ated towards the building of a town-house, with a commo- dious hall for holding town meetings, and suitable rooms for the safe keeping of records, books and papers, belong- ing to the town, and for the transaction by the Selectmen, and all other town officers, of all the town business ; pro- vided, however, that said town-house shall be located in that part of the town now considered the centre thereof, but not placed near the south side of the land which be- longed to my late father, bordering on the Training Field, so called, without the consent of the owner of said land ; and provided, also, that the same shall be built within three years of the time of my decease; and in case of failure on the part of said inhabitants to comply with the pro- visions aforesaid, I then give and bequeath the said sum, with all the interest that may have accrued thereon, to my said daughter, Henrietta Parker Whitney, or whoever may be my heirs at law.
"""I also give and bequeath to the inhabitants of said town of Shirley the sum of one hundred dollars, the interest of which is to be annually expended in ornament- ing the burying-ground now belonging to the town, by the cultivation of trees and shrubbery, and otherwise improv- ing the same; and the principal sum may be appropriated towards the building of a handsome fence around the same whenever the town shall so determine.'
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