USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Winchendon > History of the town of Winchendon (Worcester County, Mass.) from the grant of Ipswich Canada, in 1735, to the present time > Part 6
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In those days Winchendon was on the frontier. A few settlements were scattered here and there in the wilderness, between this spot and Canada. The greater portion of the land was in the possession of the wild beasts and the Indians. At every outbreak between France . and England, the French and their savage allies poured down upon our outlying towns, laid them waste, and carried their people captive.
Now the United States are a great and populous nation, rich with the accumulations of industry, and the returns of commerce. The wild beasts and the savages have fled before the advancing wave of population, and the military posts of the French, which once were gir- dled around us with the design of strangling, have been swept away, leaving no trace. We can travel westward thousands of miles, and see no territory but our own. Arts, learning, civilization, religion, all have their temples in our towns, villages and cities. We send great armies into the field, and we have one of the most powerful navies that ever floated. God has smiled on the wilderness, and it has become a garden. He has caused it to bud and blossom as the rose.
This town has witnessed and participated in the wonderful change.
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
One hundred years ago it was one of the remote settlements of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. It was nearly all forest, swamp and rock. It was a week's distance from the capital, with which it had no regular communication. Here the Indians fished and hunted. The few earliest settlers were not safe, previous to 1763, unless they slept in fortified houses. But now towns and cities are located on every side, and extend far to the Canada line. That colony itself is now assuming the greatness and the incipient port of an empire. Win- chendon is within two and a half hours of a great, wealthy, populous and highly cultivated metropolis. The forests are turned into farm- lands ; the streams are vocal, not with their native music only, but with the busy hum of industry. Our workshops are full of busy arti- sans ; our schools are filled with happy children, and our homes are the abodes of peace and comfort. If the first settlers could have had a vision of the changes in the land, and in their own home, which were to come, they would have been filled with wonder, and their faith would have staggered at the results which are now accomplished facts.
These remarks are not irrelevant, since there is a reason why 1764 and 1864 are intimately connected in general history, and in the his- tory of this town. There is an historical unity between the two dates, as will be seen at once, when it is stated that the conclusion of the last French and Indian war, in 1763, made it possible for Winchen- don to gain population enough to be organized into a town. Many years had the Proprietors been laboring to bring the soil under culti- vation, and to erect a township ; but successive wars between England and France, in which the colonies and the Indians were always involved, rendered this place, and all the adjacent country insecure. A few per- sons were here previous to the outbreak of the last French war, and they remained through it. Some of the early settlers were probably engaged in that war of liberation, when the foundation of our indepen- dence was really laid. Some followed Wolfe into Quebec, by the cap- ture of which the French power was broken. The war lingered until 1763, when peace was declared, Canada was transferred to England, and all the country between here and the Canada line, was rendered safe for settlement. The people began to move westward and north- ward ; there was an accession to the population of this place. Appli- cation was made for an act of incorporation, which was granted, and in the spring of 1764, Winchendon became a town.
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
The following advertisement, taken from the Massachusetts Gazette, properly comes in here as an illustration of the times.
Notice is hereby given to the delinquent proprietors of Ipswich Canada (80 called) in the county of Worcester, who at their legal meeting held on June the 30th, 1762, did vote and raise 12s on each original right to pay for preach- ing, and 12s for highways and other charges, and £1 for the Rev. Mr. Daniel Stimpson's settlement and £1 for his first year's salary. And at another meeting of said proprietors held on Nov. 17, 1763, did vote £1, 6s, to be raised on the three after divisions then drawn to pay the Committee for lay- ing out the same, and on each original right £1, 10s, towards finishing the meeting-house.
THAT if said proprietors do not pay the said taxes and all arrears unto Abiather Houghton, treasurer for said proprietors, that so much of their lands will be exposed to sale at a public Vendue to the highest bidder, at the house of Capt. Joshua Hutchins inn-holder in Lunenburg, as will pay said taxes and arrears and all intervening charges, on Wednesday, the 18th day of Jan- uary next, at ten of the clock in the forenoon. And said sale to continue from time to time if need be till finished.
Proprietors' Committee,
BENJ. GOODRIDGE, THOMAS WILDER, ABIATHER HOUGHTON.
Sept. 9, 1763.
.
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
CHAPTER III .- ORGANIZATION AND NAME.
" For government, though high and low and lower, Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, Congruing in a full and natural close, Like music." HENRY V.
In the year 1763, the Proprietors petitioned the Great and General Court for an act of incorporation, with all town privileges. The pro- ceedings of the meeting which took measures for an act of incorpora- tion, were as follows:
" At a legal Meeting at the house of Gabriel Pouchey in the township. June 22, 1763,
Voted, That the Proprietors will join with the inhabitants in a petition to the General Court, that Ipswich Canada may be incorporated into a town."
" June 23, Voted, That a tax of one penny per acre be laid on all the lands that are already laid out in Ipswich Canada, for the term of three years.
Voted, That Benjamin Goodridge, Esq., and Daniel Bixby, be a committee to draft a petition in order to send to the Great and General Court, that Ips- wich Canada may be incorporated into a town, and the lands taxed according to the above vote."
At the same time, the inhabitants of the township sent a petition to the authorities in Boston in the following terms. The document was recently found among the papers of Hon. Abel Wilder, which are in the possession of his grandson, Dea. Albert Brown. A portion of the sheet is torn off, and the blank cannot be filled. What remains is here given.
" To His Excellency, Francis Bernard, Esq., Captain General and Gov- crnor in chief of His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay : To the Honorable, His Majesty's Council, and House of Representatives of the said Province, in General Court assembled, May, 1763.
The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Tract of land called Ipswich Can- ada, with a number of non-resident proprietors-humbly sheweth :-
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"HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
That the said inhabitants are poor, and their number is so small by the non- settlement of many rights of land there, that they are unable to pay their vari- ous taxes, particularly their quota of the salary of their settled minister ;- That the inhabitants, excepting one or two, are under special obligation to pay all the charges of the whole rights to which the lots they inhabit respec- tively belong, till the said Tract of land shall be made a town or district ;- That the said inhabitants have already paid of such charges more than their lots are worth separate from the improvements made thereon by their labor ; -And that the best ex humbly conceive, to pro said tract of land, is.
_actually subjected to a
-your Excellency and
Whereupon your the said tract of land into a town (by the name of Epesberry, ) and that all the lands of such town may be taxed. for the payment of the said taxes, for the space of __ years ; or otherwise relieve your petitioners as in your wisdom you shall think fit ; and your petitioners shall over pray, &c.
The petitioners, it seems, desired to have the new town styled Epes- berry, in honor of two distinguished men of Ipswich, the Hon. Simonds Epes, and the Hon. Thomas Berry. Why this part of the petition was denied, we have no means of ascertaining, but every inhabitant must be gratified that we are saved from the endless confusion in spel- ling which would have been the result of calling the town Epesberry. Besides the sound of Winchendon is far more euphonious.
And thus the annals of the township, from the first grant as " Ips- .wich Canada," until its incorporation as a regular town, have been recited.
In compliance with the prayer of the above petition, the General Court passed an act on the 14th day of June, A. D. 1764, incorpora- ting the plantation of Ipswich Canada into a town to be called Win- chendon. The Act of incorporation is inserted here.
" An Act for erecting the Plantation called Ipswich Canada into a Town by the name of Winchendon.
Whereas the inhabitants of the Plantation called Ipswich Canada in the County of Worcester, labor under many difficulties and inconveniences by means of their not being a Town : Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and House of Representatives, That the Plantation commonly called and known by the name of Ipswich Canada, in the County of Worcester, bounded as follows, viz : South twelve
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
degrees West, seven miles and two hundred rods on Dorchester Canada ; West eighteen degrees South, two hundred and seventy rods on Westmin- ster ; North thirty-six degrees West, four miles and two hundred and twenty rods on Templeton line; North seventy-eight degrees West, six hundred rods on Templeton line ; North twelve degrees East, four miles and two hundred and sixty rods on Royalshire ; South seventy-eight degrees West-[rather, East twelve degrees South]-six miles on Royalshire line ; be and hereby is erected into a Town, by the name of Winchendon, and that the inhabitants thereof be, and hereby are invested with all the powers, privileges and immu- nities, which the inhabitants of the Towns within the Province do or may enjoy.
And be it further enacted, That there be laid on the lands already laid out in said Town of Winchendon, a tax of one penny per acre for the term of three years.
And be it further enacted, That Edward Hartwell, Esq. be and hereby is empowered to issue his warrant, directed to some principal inhabitant in said Town, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of the said Town, qualified to vote in Town affairs, to meet at such time and place as shall be therein set forth, to choose all such officers as are or shall be required by law to manage the affairs of the said Town."
This Act of Incorporation was signed by
J. BERNARD, GOVERNOR.
A few words may be appropriate in this place in regard to the ori- gin of the name. It is English in its origin, and it is not known that there is another place in the United States having the same name. Mr. Hyde, in his History of the Town, says: " It seems that Win- chendon was so called after the name either of a manor or of a small town in England. An English historian states that 'In the month of December, 1706, Her Majesty, Queen Anne, conferred the following honors, viz, Thomas Lord Wharton was created Viscount Winchendon and Earl of Wharton.'" In reference to this subject, Dr. Whiton says, " The name, that of a small town or manor, in England formerly and perhaps now giving title to an English nobleman, Viscount Win- chendon, was probably suggested by the then Gov. Bernard, in com- pliment to some friend or place to whom or which he was partial ; it being quite fashionable at that day, for the royal Governors to compli- ment favorite persons or places in England, by scattering their names over new settled places in the colonies."
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
The above suggestions may be true, but I am more inclined to the opinion that the origin of the name was as follows. Ipswich was set- tled by emigrants, some of whom, as I have somewhere read, were from Upper Winchingdon, in Buckinghamshire ; and it is quite probable that the grantees of this place suggested the name of Winchendon for the purpose of perpetuating a name familiar to their fathers.
During this and the preceding year, about ten new settlers came into the town, among whom we find the names of Bixby, Mansfield, Oaks, Whitney and Spring. There were now about thirty families, and probably two hundred souls in the town. The leading men were Richard Day and Abel Wilder.
It is a matter of interest to know whence many of the early settlers, both before, and some years after the organization of the Town, came. Ipswich contributed the Days, Poors, Tuttles, Darlings and Polands. The Stimpsons and Whitneys came from Weston ; the Hales, Cur- tises, Sherwins, Perleys and Emerys from Boxford ; the Goodridges from Lunenburg; the Wilders from Leominster ; the Paysons, and (probably) the Boyntons from Rowley ; the Murdocks and Hydes from Newton ; the Bemises and Balcoms from Sudbury ; the Tuckers from Milton ; the Rices and Greatons from Spencer ; the Raymonds from Holden ; the Browns, in part, from Lexington ; the Stoddards from Cohasset ; the Bradishes and Grouts from Leicester ; the Green- woods from Sherborn ; the McElwains and Bruces from Bolton ; the Evanses from Reading ; the Farrars from Sterling ; the Tolmans from Dorchester ; the Buttricks and Flints from Concord ; the Bixbys from -, and the Waleses from Braintree.
As a matter of curious information in relation to persons, and also in regard to the way of doing things, in old times, it is thought best to insert, in this place, the proceedings of the two first Town Meetings, in full, as they are found in the Records. The Warrant for the first meeting and the proceedings of the same, have been obligingly fur- nished by Webster Whitney, Esq., Town Clerk.
" Worcester, ss. To Mr. Richard Day of the Town of Winchendon, in the County of Worcester, Yeoman, GREETING.
Whereas I am ordered and impowered by the Great and General Court, to issue my Warrant, directed to some principal inhabitant of said Town, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of said Town, qualified to vote in Town affairs, to assemble in some suitable place in said Town, to choose all neces-
61
HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
sary officers to manage the affairs of said Town, and also to assess, and levy and collect the land tax : These are therefore, In his Majesty's Name, to require you, the said Richard Day, forthwith to warn the inhabitants of said Town of Winchendon, qualified as aforesaid, to assemble and meet at your dwelling-house in said Town, on Monday the fifth day of November next, at one of the clock in the afternoon, then and there being assembled, to act on the several articles heroafter mentioned, viz :
1st. To choose a Moderator for the government of said Meeting.
2d. To choose Selectmen, and all other Town officers for the present year, as the law directs.
3d. To choose a Collector to gather the land tax.
And make due return of this Warrant and your doings thereon. Hereof fail not. Given under my hand and seal at Lunenburg, this sixteenth day of October, in the fourth year of his Majesty's Reign, A. D. 1764.
EDWARD HARTWELL,
Justice of the Peace."
" In obedience to the within written Warrant, I have warned all the free- holders and other inhabitants of the town of Winchendon, to appear at the time and place within mentioned.
Winchendon, November ye fifth, 1764.
RICHARD DAY."
" At a meeting legally warned, November ye fifth, 1764, of the freehold- ers and other inhabitants of Winchendon, to assemble and meet at the house of Richard Day, then and there being assembled, proceeded in manner as follows, viz :
Chose Richard Day, Moderator, to govern said meeting.
Abel Wilder, Town Clark. Theos. Mansfield,
Bennony Boynton, & Selectmen. Ephraim Boynton,
Richard Day, Constable.
Nathaniel Bixby, Town Treasury. Daniel Goodridge. Collector of the Land Tax.
Silas Whitney, Church Wardens. Ruben Wiman,
John Darling, Tythingman.
Daniel Bixby, Deer Reaf.
Aaron Hodskins, Fence Viewer.
William Oaks, Timothy Darling, Amos Spring, Abel Wilder,
Surveyors of
Highways.
Jonathan Foster, Sealer of Weights and Measures.
Silas Whitney, Surveyor of Boards and Shingles.
Ruben Wiman, Field Driver. Nathaniel Bixby, Sealer of Leather. Stephen Choate, Stave Culler. Nathaniel Burnam, Fire' Ward.
These officers were chosen and sworn as the law directs.
A true Record, per
ABEL WILDER, Town Clerk."
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
The record of the first annual meeting shows some changes in the disposition of the various offices, and several new names appear. It will be noted also that by vote of the town all freeholders were allowed to vote.
" At a meeting legally warned of the freeholders and other inhabitants of Winchendon, to assemble at the public meeting-house in said town on Mon- day the 11th day of March, 1765, Then and there being assembled, proceeded in the following manner, viz :
1st. Chose Theos. Mansfield, Moderator for the government of said meeting.
2. Voted, That all freeholders shall be allowed to vote in said meeting.
3. Proceeded to the choice of town officers and chose
Abel Wilder, Town Clerk.
Theos. Mansfield,
Nathaniel Bixby, & Selectmen. Benoni Boynton, Ephraim Boynton, Constable.
Reuben Wyman, Timothy Darling, Abner Hale, Fence Viewers. Jonathan Foster, Silas Whitney, Hog Reeves.
Samuel Titus,
Richard Day, Town Treasurer. Jonathan Foster, Wardens.
Theophilus Mansfield,
Daniel Bixby, Samuel Crage, John Darling, Samuel Titus,
Tithingmen.
Daniel Bixby, Sealer of Leather. Richard Day, Sealer of Weights and Measures. Joseph Stimson, Field Driver. Bartholomew Pearson, Surveyor of Boards and Shingles.
Jonathan Stimson, William Oaks,
Surveyors of Highways and Collectors of Highway Rates.
Daniel Goodridge, Collector of the Land Tax.
The officers for the present year were chosen and sworn as the law directs. Attest, ABEL WILDER, Town Clerk."
In making these citations, the different modes of spelling the same names and words, have been followed, as they are found in the Records. At these first meetings of the town, no Overseers of the Poor were chosen, and no provision was made for the poor. Probably there werc no paupers in the town to be provided for by law. It is possible, though not certain, that the following proceedings of the town authorities were taken for the purpose of ridding the town of a family which might become a public burden. In those early days, when new settlers were eagerly welcomed, there must have been strong reasons to induce the Selectmen to take such action as is indicated in the following extract from the Records.
Deer Reeves.
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
" Worcester. ss.
To Richard Day, Constable in Winchendon, GREETING.
You are, in his Majesty's name, required forthwith to notify and warn Joseph Kneeland and Abigail his wife, Joseph Kneeland, Jr., his son, and Sarah Pierce Bigelow, and Elizabeth Bigelow, her daughter, who came last from Harvard, and Hannah their daughter, who was bound at Fitchburg, all to depart, and leave this town forthwith, or suffer the penaltys of the law in such cases maid and provided.
Hereof fail not, but make due return of this Warrant with your doings thereon, to me as soon as may be.
Given under my hand and seal, this fourth day of January, in the fifth year of his Majesty's Reign, A. D. 1765.
By order of the Selectmen,
ABEL WILDER, Town Clerk."
" Worcester. 88.
WINCHENDON, January ye 7th, 1765.
By virtue of this Warrant within written, I have warned.the within named Kneeland and family forthwith to depart out of this town to the place from whence they last came.
RICHARD DAY, Constable of Winchendon.
A true Record,
per ABEL WILDER, Town Clerk.
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
CHAPTER IV. - CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE.
" View them near
At home, where all their worth and pride is placed ; And there their hospitable fires burn clear,
And there the lowliest farm-house hearth is graced With manly hearts, in piety sincere, Faithful in love, in honor stern and chaste,
In friendship warm and true, in danger brave,
Beloved in life, and sainted in the grave."
HALLECK.
Having completed the annals of the town from the coming of the first explorers to the date of its organization, it may be well to pause here, in our chronology, and take a glance at the character of the in- habitants, their manners, and their social life. In this sketch, the author is indebted to the manuscripts of Dr. Whiton, and to tradi- tionary information derived from aged people, and children of the original settlers.
The early settlers were an enterprising, industrious, temperate, har- dy and God-fearing people. Some of them were men of property, like Richard Day, while others were poor ; some were men of strong sense and capacity for public business, like Abel Wilder ; while others were plain farmers, and some, undoubtedly, were merely workmen, or " hands," in the employ of others. But as a class, they were capable of subduing the wilderness, introducing the arts of pastoral Aife, tak- ing care of their families, founding a town, and setting up a church. None but the enterprising and hardy would be disposed to find a home in such a wilderness ; none but the industrious could live and thrive here. That they kept the Sabbath, and worshiped the God of their fathers, is fully proved by the fact that they immediately made pro- vision for public worship, as if they felt it to be one of the necessities of society. The state of morals was good. The church was enlarged from time to time, and the ministry was held in great respect, and honorably supported.
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
The people, in that early day, were strangers to many of the con- veniences and comforts of more recent daily life. "Their dwellings were without glass, and ill-fitted to exclude the cold. Had it not been for the roaring fires, kept up in winter in huge fire-places, fed contin- ually with great logs, which the owners were glad to get rid of, and thought they could not burn up fast enough, the inmates must have suffered severely. Noble pines that would now be valued at more than fifty dollars, were unsparingly burnt as nuisances. Those immense fire-places were large enough to allow, at one end, a path- way to the oven, and also a location for a wooden bench, on which sat, in cold winter evenings, a row of boys and girls eking out a perhaps scanty supper of bean porridge, by parching corn and roasting potatoes in the embers."
" Their farming utensils" continues Dr. Whiton, " were clumsy ; indeed we should deem them intolerable. Homespun and coarse, yet durable was their clothing; the men wore tow shirts, striped woolen frocks and leather aprons ; the best suit of coarse woolen was reserved for Sundays and special occasions, and lasted year after year, the wearers giving themselves very little concern about the mutations of fashion. Great coats and surtouts were rare ; boots very rare. Many a man would have rejoiced in the ownership of a pair, but felt unable to buy them. In winter they wore shoes, excluding the snow by woolen leggins, fastened over the mouth of the shoe by leather or tow strings. Neither men nor women wore shoes in summer at home; on Sundays, the women, to save the wear, sometimes carried them in their hand, walking barefoot, or perhaps wearing an old pair till they came near the meeting-house, when they would stop a few moments and put on the meeting-shoes of thick, coarse leather."
In confirmation of this statement, the author was told, by an old lady living in the south-western part of the town, whose golden wed- ding he attended a few years since, that she and her companions, when girls, were accustomed to carry their shoes in their hands, nearly three miles, and when near the meeting-house, they stopped at a certain place, and put the shoes on their feet. Customs differ. The ancient Hebrews were accustomed, when entering a sacred place, to put their shoes from off their feet, because the place on which they stood was holy ground. . Our ancestors, on the contrary, were in the habit of covering their feet when drawing near to the house of God.
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5
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HISTORY OF WINCHENDON.
" When engaged in their domestic work," continues Dr. Whiton, " which was nearly all the time on week days, they were clad in a short gown and petticoat, of coarse material, with a striped apron ; cal- icoes being thought an article too expensive and dressy for common wear. Candles being scarce and oil hardly known, the women carded and spun, and the men shaved shingles or read a little by the light of blazing pine-knots, or pitch-pine splints. The household furniture was rude and scanty ; the cupboard exhibited an array of wooden and pew- ter plates, and pewter spoons. Stools and blocks of wood oft served instead of chairs ; carpets, sofas and pianos were unheard of; instead of them were the spinning wheel, both great and small, and the loom ; articles, if less ornamental, certainly more indispensable. Tea, coffee, and other foreign luxuries were scarce known, or at any rate, seldom used. Broths of various kinds-corn, barley, and the far-famed bean broth, milk when it could be had, brown bread, journey [or johnny] cakes, hasty-pudding, boiled and fried pork and potatoes, baked and boiled beans, were the great staples of living.
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