USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Warwick > History of the town of Warwick, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1854 > Part 8
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12.50.
$30.00.
33
Wm. E. Russell. $72.00. 10.00.
Lemuel Wheelock. $72 00. 12.75.
28
S. Fay & D. N. Smith. $50.00. 9.25.
51
34
Medad Pomeroy. $70.00. 12.75.
Asa Bancroft. $70.00. 8.00.
27
10
Erastus Eddy. $50.00. 12.00.
Joseph Willson. $44.00. IO 75.
Ebenr. Stearns. $60.00. 12.25.
Josiah & C. M. Proctor. $60.00. 8.50.
26
II
Edward Mayo. $44.00. 6.00.
Jas. Goldsbury.
Amory Mayo.
Samuel Blake.
Stilman Barber.
1
| Wmn. Cobb and A. Bass.
Samuel Moore.
J. C. Brown & A. Eddy.
Joseph Ball.
Nathl. G. Stevens.
8.25.
0.00.
Phins. Child.
Rev. P. Smith.
PLATFORM OR DESK.
$35.00 appraisal.
$44.00.
6.75.
$36.00.
5.25.
$42.00.
Henry Hastings.
Joseph Stevens.
8.25.
Greenleaf.
M. Williams.
Justus Russell.
32
6
3
Alexr. Blake.
5.00.
$42.00.
5.50.
6.00.
4.00.
50 35
$44.00. 49 36
$50.00.
$50.00.
25
12
$44.00.
Wm. Cobb and A. Bass. $40.00. 10.75.
48 37
Samuel Moore. $42.00. 9.50.
J. C. Brown & A. Eddy. $42.00. 6 00.
24 13
Joseph Ball.
$40.00.
7.00.
Jasper Leland. $40 00. 6.25.
47
38
Ira Draper. $37.00. 6.25.
Josh. T. Sanger. $37.00. 6.25.
23
14
John Bancroft and Harvey Conant. $40.00. $7.50.
Jas. Stockwell. $30.00. 7.25.
46 39
George Jones. $30.00. 7.00.
David Goddard. $30.00. 6.00.
22
David Ball. $30.00. 5.75.
Dean Penniman. $25.00. 2.25.
45
40
Daniel Johnson. $25.00. 5.50.
Mrs. N. Leonard and Mrs. J. Stockwell. $25.00. $2.00.
2I
16
Ebr. Rich and D. Evans. $25.00. .50.
Elisha Brown. $23.00. 1.50.
44
41
Rufus Knight. $20.00. 3.00.
Caleb Hastings. $20.00. 4.75.
20
17
Leml. Wheelock. $23.00. 1.50.
Samuel Moore. $20.00. 4.25.
43
42
FREE SEAT.
19
18
Samuel Fay. $20.00. 0.00.
Door.
Door.
Stove.
Stove.
Door.
Door.
Interior arrangement of the Unitarian Meeting-House in Warwick. Raised Sept. 8, 1836. Dedicated Jan. 18, 1837. As you enter, in the spaceway are two stoves : the funnels pass into the house over the doors, and enter the chimneys at the opposite end of the house. Also two flights of stairs to the singers' gallery. Inside, the platform or desk is just as high as the tops of the pews : a sofa for a seat, and a table with a curtain, stands on the front of it. The figures in the aisles are the numbers of the slips. The upper figures in the slips are the appraisal ; the lower figures, the sum given for choice. The two sums are the cost of each slip. The appraisal covers the whole cost of the house ($2,526.00), except the bell and some few donations. With the choice-money, which is $407.00, we purchased furniture for the house, such as chandelier, carpets, &c.
S. B.
ء .
II7
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
lawfully bounded by the selectmen by proper metes and bounds ; and a high stone monument with stones about it, and the number of the district on its face at each angle and corner; and the eleventh district altered to ten; and districts No. 3 and No. 9 were united ; and ten permanent districts formed, and ac- cepted by the town.
A dispute about the line between Widow Rhoda Wheelock's thirds and the town-common was this year settled by a reference composed of Richard Col- ton of Northfield, Ozias Roberts of Gill, and Jered Weed of Petersham.
They were chosen mutually by the selectmen and the said Widow Wheelock ; and their award was accepted by the parties, and the north-east corner of the com- mon permanently established.
In 1851 the legal voters of the town were called upon to give in their votes in favor of, or against, call- ing a convention to amend and revise the State con- stitution : yeas, 113 ; nays, 71.
In 1852 they were again called to vote on the same question, when a hundred and twenty-eight voted in favor of calling a convention, and sixty-nine against it.
In 1853 they chose Samuel W. Spooner a delegate to the convention to be convened at Boston to make amendments to the constitution of the State.
At the November meeting following they were called upon to accept or refuse the adoption of the new constitution as amended, and to be laid before the people : and the votes were, for adopting the same, a hundred and seven votes ; opposed to it, sixty-six votes.
I18
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
The money voted to be raised by the town this year, 1853, viz., is as follows :-
For the support of poor, and other contingent
expenses . .
$1,500.00
For repairing highways
800.00
For schools .
700.00
Total
$3,000.00
School-money received from the State
$48.95
Interest of the Town School-Fund . 30.00 .
Total expended for schooling this year
778.95
Amount of town debts
$1,338.00
Number of ratable polls in town, two hundred and forty- four.
There are now four religious societies in Warwick ; viz., one Unitarian, one Orthodox, one Baptist, one Universalist, and a few Methodists that belong to a society in Northfield.
The Universalist society was incorporated in Febru- ary, 1814: they have no meeting-house. The other three societies have each of them one, situated in or near the middle of the town.
There is no settled minister of any denomination in the town at the present time, There is but one doctor, Amos Taylor, who came here in 1815 or 1816.
There is no lawyer: never had but one, Henry Barnard, Esq. Not many very important or interest- ing events have transpired in the past twenty-two years.
II9
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Public and private affairs have moved on in the current of time, with their usual progressive, but not very exciting, fluctuations. Party spirit has been kept alive, and has marked out its alternate rise and fall of the contending parties.
For the largest share of the time the Democratic party has been in the ascendency, and carried a ma- jority of the votes. At this time the Whig and Dem- ocratic parties are nearly balanced ; and the Free-soil party numbers nearly one-fifth of the votes.
The town has gradually decreased in the number of its inhabitants for thirty years past, as will be seen by the census.
The farms, as a general thing, are not so productive as they were forty years ago. Many pieces of tillage- land are nearly worn out (as we term it). Peach-trees are a complete failure ; and not one-tenth part so many apples are now raised as at that time. The trees have become old and decayed, and but few young ones are set out to replace them, although some attention has been paid to grafting of late. The pasture-lands, which were formerly good, have greatly deteriorated, and are almost covered with noxious bushes, brakes, and ferns ; and they yield comparatively little to their former prod- ucts. The hay is also reduced in quantity as well as quality. Less rye and wheat is raised than formerly, but quite as much Indian corn ; oats less, and barley probably more. The greatest manufacturing interest in the town is its lumber. Large quantities of white- pine timber have been manufactured here in times past : the old growth is becoming scarce, being nearly all cut off. . Considerable quantities of the second growth
5 0 1 1
0
120
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
of pines are now sawed into pail-staves, and other articles of various kinds. The hard wood is worked into chair-stuff, brush-woods, and broom-handles.
There are fifteen saw-mills in the town, which an- nually send to market more than one million feet of lumber. There are three pail-stave shops, and three or four shops with circular saws attached, to cut chair- plank and many other small articles ; one axe-shop, three blacksmith-shops, and three tanneries ; three stores (one of them is a small union-store), one tavern, and one post-office. The decline of population and of business in this town may be mainly attributed to its exclusion from the privilege of a railroad passing through it ; while all the adjoining towns but one have a railroad dépôt to accommodate them, and facilitate the transportation of their productions to market.
Although I know little of geology, I am induced to believe, from the few discoveries that have been made by scientific men, and the many indications so appar- ent on its surface, of mineral productions, that War- wick will one day be rich in her inexhaustible stores of iron and lead and copperas and firestone, and many other valuable and useful articles in manufactures and commerce.
Little, however, has been discovered yet; but that little may authorize us to expect an abundant supply of many of the foregoing articles, and others, perhaps, not now thought of.
I will state, from memory and traditionary lore, some facts and discoveries which I myself have seen, or heard from others. As to iron-ore, that is abundant in many places within the town, I know very well.
I2I
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
As to the extent of the bog-ore I cannot say ; but I can say, that, within my memory, the sound of the trip-hammer was regularly heard from day to day, and iron of the best quality was there manufactured. I have now a small piece of chain which was made from that ore : it is strong, tough, and very malleable. For many years it was used with a draught-chain on the ground to draw logs and timber ; and seldom would a link break in that chain, although not more than half the size of the other.
For want of proper encouragement, or want of funds, or for some other cause to me unknown, the business was stopped. I have heard it stated that the ore failed ; and well it might, as but one little spot was ever opened or searched out to my knowledge ; and millions of tons may now lie concealed above and be- low that place, and may forever lie so concealed, unless some accidental discovery, or some scientific research, is made to bring it to light. The old forge stood about two miles southerly from the centre of the town, and a little below Morse's Pond, near where Dea. George W. Moore's saw-mill now is.
About one mile south of this place is Round Moun- tain (so called) : on its north-easterly side there are many striking indications of iron and copperas, the stones slacking when exposed to the light and air, and emitting a sulphurous smell. A little more than a mile south of this place, as I was surveying a piece of land forty years ago, my attention was called by the proprietor of the land to a certain spot where he had dug a hole about a foot or a foot and a half deep, as he said, to find the brimstone; and it smelled very
II
-
-
f
d
122
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
strong of that article. It was of a red or yellowish color. I took a little, and rubbed it in my hands : it not only colored them, but the smell of brimstone con- tinued even after I had washed them thoroughly.
I intended, when Prof. Hitchcock made the geologi- cal survey of the State, to have been present, and shown him, not only this, but several other places and substances that I could have pointed out to him with- in the limits of the town ; one in particular, where a certain kind of earth, or paint, is found, which, as tradi- tion tells the story, a man living near by used to dig, and use to paint his cart-wheels.
The owner of the land, who is now dead, told me that he called it his terre de Seine, as it resembled the earth which is found on the banks of the River Seine in France, from which it derived its name. Black- lead is also found in this town, many rocks being found that have black-lead in their interstices. Iron-ore has been found on Mount Grace ; and also pure lead was found on its north-east lobe (Bennett's Knob) by one of the first settlers : he had the iron-ore experimented on, which resulted in the fact that it was too unmallea- ble and too brittle for common wrought-iron.
There is iron-rock ore on the Daniel Johnson Farm, in the east part of Warwick, near the old turnpike- road that leads to Orange. Many years ago, there were considerable quantities of it dug, and carted to Worcester to be made into emery.
There is also firestone, or freestone, discovered by Prof. Hitchcock when he surveyed the State, and be- lieved to be inexhaustible, situated only about half a
.
123
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
mile from the middle of the town. For a proper de- scription of the two last-mentioned articles, reference may be had to said Hitchcock's Geological Report, in every town-clerk's office in the State.
There is a place on the farm, formerly owned by Mr. Wilder Stevens, where there are several Indian mor- tars, as they are called ; viz., deep and nearly round, smooth holes in the solid rock, and three or four feet deep ; and the largest is perhaps two feet across: they are as smooth as if worn out by water, and similar to some holes that I have seen in the bed of Deerfield River, in a dry time at Shelburne Falls ; and what renders it more remarkable is the fact that they are located on the highest land (excepting the mountain- tops) between the valley of Miller's River on the south and the Ashuelot on the north, near where the water descends each way towards those rivers.
On land formerly owned by Mr. Nathan Hastings, there is a place, under a shelving rock, that was once a bear's den ; and a young cub was caught there, and Mrs. Hastings actually nursed it at her own breast. Not a great distance from that place, on Mr. Thomas Mallard's farm, there is a hole in the ledges, where formerly, if a stone was dropped into it, the stone might be heard to rattle down, down, until out of hearing. Subsequently the boys have thrown in so many stones, that the passage has got stopped up ; and the stones do not now descend far into the cavern.
Mount Grace is situated near the centre of War- wick, and is one of the highest mountains in the State (according to State survey, it is sixteen hundred and twenty-eight feet high). The water runs out of this
e -
e
a
1
sh it 7-
124
. HISTORY OF WARWICK.
town, east, west, north, and south. To the east and south it falls into Miller's River ; to the north into the Ashuelot at Winchester, N.H ..; and west into the Connecticut River in Northfield.
In the year 1830 I surveyed and measured all the roads in Warwick, and made a plan of the town, for a map of the State. There were seventy-six miles of county and town roads at that time ; and there must be about the same now. There have been quite a num- ber of roads laid out and built at great expense since that time, and many have been discontinued.
Among the early settlers of this town, we find the names of Joseph Goodell, Samuel Bennet, Dea. James Ball, Amos Marsh, Solomon Eager, Thomas Rich, Moses Leonard, Col. Samuel Williams, Dea. Silas Towne, Col. Joseph Mayo, Caleb Mayo, Capt. John Goldsbury, Capt. Mark Moore, and Jonathan Moore. Some of the above have descendants still living here ; and others we know nothing of, except from the records.
In the winter of 1832 there were forty-six individ- uals in the town that were over seventy years of age ; twenty-three men, and twenty-three women. I now find, on Feb. 1, 1854, the following list of aged people ; * but not one of them was seventy years old when I then wrote : those forty-six have all died, or removed from town, within twenty-two years.
See Appendix, page 198.
125
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
CONTINUATION
OF THE HISTORY OF WARWICK FROM 1854 TO 1872, BY DEACON HERVEY BARBER.
August, 1854. - The town voted to instruct the town-agent (James Stockwell) to ascertain whether a new trial on the Murdock case can be had ; also voted to pay the expense of transporting the bag- gage of the Warwick Light Infantry to and from the place of encampment the present year.
May, 1855. - The town voted upon the several amendments to the Constitution of the Common- wealth, passed by the last two legislatures, as fol- lows : -
Art. I, yeas 31, nays 3 ; Art. 2, yeas 34, nays o ; Art. 3, yeas 34, nays o; Art. 4, yeas 34, nays o; Art. 5, yeas 34, nays o ; Art. 6, yeas 34, nays o.
March 17, 1856. - Article 4 in the warrant for a town-meeting is as follows : "To see if the town will vote to purchase or hire a farm for the purpose of supporting the town-paupers, or act thereon." Also voted that the selectmen be a committee to receive proposals for a town-farm, and report at an adjourned meeting.
Voted to adjourn this meeting until two weeks from this date, to hear said report.
At the adjourned meeting, the selectmen made the following report : -
II*
I 1
od
Le
Ist
le IS
2S n e.
e
the
le
I26
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Received proposals from Asa Bancroft for his home-
farm, with the buildings thereon, at . . $2,700 Of Dea Sylvanus Ward for his home-farm and build- ings, at . ·
2,000
For his Ashbell Ward place and buildings . 1,000 From Daniel Felton for his home-farm and buildings, 1,700 From S. T. Delvee for his home-farm and buildings, . 1,500
They also report, that, in their opinion, the town can save $300 per year by purchasing Dea. Ward's home-farm, or Asa Bancroft's ; and recommend to the town to choose a committee to investigate the subject, and authorize said committee to purchase such farm as they may think proper.
IBRI BAKER,
CLARK STEARNS,
Committee.
H. G. MALLARD,
WARWICK, March 31, 1856.
Voted to lay the report on the table : afterwards the town voted to purchase a town-farm.
Also voted to choose a committee of seven persons, including the selectmen, to purchase a farm on which to support the paupers of the town.
Voted and chose the selectmen by nomination.
Voted, and chose Edward Mayo, James Stockwell, S. N. Atwood, and Hervey Barber, by ballot. Said committee, after examining the farms in the above report, and Ezekiel Ellis's, Joseph W. Phillips's, and Kimball Whitney's, and conferring with the owners, and considerable consultation among themselves, voted, six to one, to purchase the Bancroft Farm. A few days after, said committee purchased of Asa
.
I27
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Bancroft his home-farm and a wood-lot adjoining for the sum of $2,700. They soon purchased stock, tools, and furniture sufficient for the use of said farm and house, for $1,300 ; and early in May following they hired a man and his wife to take charge of the estab- lishment, under the superintendence of the selectmen, for the sum of $175.
Our town-farm has been improved, and nearly all of the paupers have been supported in that manner, from that time to the present (1872), to the satisfaction of a large majority of the inhabitants of the town. Our paupers have a comfortable home, without the continued suspense of removal from year to year, as was the previous custom, when their maintenance was contracted for by the year to those that were willing to take them the cheapest ; and even under that form of support, for some years previous to maintaining an almshouse, it cost the town over six hundred dollars per annum : but, since we have adopted the present system, the largest expense per annum has been but a little over three hundred dollars, and some years less than one-half that amount ; and one year the cost to the town was only twenty-four and a half cents per week for each person supported, including interest on money invested, labor, clothing for paupers, doctor's bills, and all other necessary expenses for the year, - the growth of stock and the products of farm paying all the other expenses. And we have supported from eight to twelve persons during all these years, all be- ing old and feeble people, able to perform but very little labor, - a larger number than would be the aver- age for as many years previous to the purchase of the town-farm.
I28
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Aug. 31, 1856. - Voted to give School District No. I leave to build a schoolhouse on the common, near where the old meeting-house stood. During the au- tumn, the present schoolhouse was built on the spot where it now stands.
May 1, 1857. - The inhabitants met and voted upon the following amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, that were agreed upon by the legislatures of 1856 and 1857: Art. 1, 48 yeas, 34 nays ; Art. 2, 36 yeas, 46 nays ; Art. 3, 44 yeas, 38 nays. Also voted to raise $1,000 for the purpose of paying off the town-debt.
1858. - At a legal town-meeting, the town voted and chose Henry G. Mallard agent to take charge of the pauper case, commenced against the inhabitants of Warwick by the town of Northfield, with instruc- tions to manage the case as he thinks will be for the best interests of the town. This case was prosecuted to final judgment ; the result being that the pauper (Miss Adeline Phelps), an insane person, was as- signed to the town of Northfield for her future sup- port.
March I. - Voted to notify all future town-meetings by posting an attested copy of the warrant at the post- office, and another at Scott's store, and a notice at each meeting-house in town, seven days previous to the meeting.
March 7, 1859. - Voted that a copy of the warrant be posted at the hotel, instead of Scott's store.
May 9, 1858. - The inhabitants of the town met at a legal town-meeting, and voted upon the amend- ment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth,
r
129
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
agreed upon by its last two legislatures, as follows : Yeas, 6 ; nays, 36.
Oct. 2, 1858. - The funerals of Lemuel Scott and Henry G. Mallard were attended from the Unitarian church ; a large audience being present, and in full sympathy with the afflicted families, as two young men in the midst of their usefulness were suddenly stricken down by typhoid-fever, causing a sadness not often experienced by the people of the town since its first settlement.
May 7, 1860. - The inhabitants of the town met at a legal town-meeting, and gave in their votes on the amendments of the Constitution agreed upon by the last two legislatures of the Commonwealth, as follows : Article 1, 18 yeas, I nay ; Article 2, 8 yeas, II nays.
The whole number of persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five enrolled in the militia, May, 1860, was 145.
March 2, 1861. - The whole amount of indebted- ness of the town, as per report of selectmen, over and above resources, was $2,527.03.
Nov. I. - The selectmen of the towns of Orange and Warwick met, according to appointment, and erected stone monuments on the town-line, beside each of the highways running between said towns, as provided by chapter 84 of the Acts of 1861 ; and the selectmen of Northfield and Warwick performed the same service on the line of their towns Nov. 13 of the same year ; also the aforesaid town-officers of Winchester performed the like services on the line of said towns Nov. 15; and again those of Royalston
I30
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
and Warwick did the same between their towns Nov. 16.
During the first year of the war, the town in its corporate capacity did not take any action in the matter : but July 28, 1862, the town voted to instruct the selectmen to offer a bounty of $100 to each vol- unteer to the number of thirteen ; also voted to instruct the selectmen to petition the next General Court to pass an act legalizing the assessment of said bounty upon the polls and estates of the inhabitants of the town.
Aug. 25, 1862. - Voted to authorize the selectmen to offer a bounty of $100 to each person who shall volunteer and be accepted to fill the quota of the town on the last call for 300,000 men by the Presi- dent.
Voted to authorize the selectmen to borrow money for the before-named purpose.
Also voted to instruct the selectmen to petition the next General Court for the assessment of the same upon the polls and estates of the inhabitants of the town.
December, 1862. - The town received the present of a bell from Col. McKim (his wife is a daughter of Col. Lemuel Wheelock, a former resident of this town). Said bell was suspended from the dome of the village schoolhouse, as wished by the donor, and dedicated by a public meeting, with appropriate speeches from several of the citizens of our town, expressing their gratitude to the giver for his valuable and very useful gift .*
See Appendix, page 190.
I3I
HISTORY OF WARWICK.
Feb. 17, 1863. - Deacon Hervey Barber gave a lecture in the evening, giving some of the more im- portant events in the past history of the town (it being the centennial anniversary of its incorporation), in the Unitarian church, which was heard by a large and attentive audience. March 2. - The town voted to empower the treasurer, with the approbation of the selectmen, to borrow money to be expended as aid to families of volunteers. Amount paid to twenty-two volunteers previous to March 2, 1863, $2,202.78. April 2. - The town voted on the fol- lowing amendment to the Constitution of the Com- monwealth ; viz., " No person of foreign birth shall be entitled to vote, or shall be eligible to office, until he shall have resided within the jurisdiction of the United States for two years subsequent to. having received his naturalization-papers, and shall be other- wise qualified as required by the Constitution and laws of this Commonwealth." The votes being re- ceived and counted, there were 40 yeas ; nays, none.
Dec. 12, 1863. - Voted to authorize the selectmen to procure volunteers for the United-States service.
April 6, 1864. - Voted to raise the sum of $1,500, to be assessed, or as much of the same as the select- men shall deem necessary, to be expended in the payment of bounties to soldiers who have volunteered or shall volunteer on the town's quota.
June 13, 1864. - Voted to raise the sum of $624 to indemnify the selectmen for moneys expended in furnishing recruits for the United-States service, the same to be assessed the present year ; also voted to instruct the selectmen to fill by enlistment of recruits
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