USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Barre > Memorial of the one hundredth anniversary of the Incorporation of the town of Barre, June 17, 1874 ... > Part 11
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" Taken though he was in the midst of his years, he lived long enough to build up a worthy and beautiful character, to achieve a noble reputation, to leave a cherished name, and to instruct us by an example that will not fade out of their remembrance whose grief at his loss was shown by such a signal manifestation on the day when the last offices were paid to his lifeless body."
In connection with these notices of members of the medical profession, let me refer to the institution established here in the year 1848 by Dr. Henry G. Wilbur for the care, comfort, training, and hygienic treatment of children and youth of defective mental organization. The first private asylum of the kind in America, it soon became widely known; and, under the direction of its original organizer and his accom- plished successor, the President of the day, has been
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sustained and commended by a large patronage from almost every State in the Union. Its situation, build- ings, grounds, and appointments of every kind, pre- sent the most attractive feature of our village. Hun- dreds of parents made heart-sick by the coming to them of children, through the divine mystery of hu- man creation, with all the faculties necessary for self- direction and the exercise and expression of thought feeble or wholly wanting, and who knew not what to do, either to relieve their burdened affections or rightly to " order the child," have here found a happy solution of the painful problem. For they have had the gratification, not only of seeing the imbecile tenderly cared for as to the health of his body, but also of witnessing a partial removal, in many cases, of the bandage from the eyes of his mind; a start- ing of the germs of intellectual perception and activ- ity, and even a surprising development of the mental and moral powers. And what a miracle of human- ity is this!
A quarter of a century ago or more, a little girl was brought to the asylum for the blind at South Boston who could neither see nor hear nor smell nor taste: she could only feel. Touch was her only medium of communication with the outward world. But it soon became evident that, pent up in that little cerebral cave, was a mind with various faculties, a soul with germs of a divine and immortal life. But how to get at it, how to open communication with it, how to cultivate and develop it, was a problem
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which seemed utterly insoluble by human ingenuity. Yet, by the help of God, the solution was found. Thought, feeling, desire were collected at this little girl's fingers' ends, and there met the intelligence and love which sought access to her mind and heart. It was a marvellous achievement of physiological sci- ence. I do not, however, depreciate it when I say that here has been achieved a grander triumph. For here boys and girls have come with all their senses · perfect, but connected with nothing within, telegraph- ing no communication to or fro, reaching inward only to dumb inanition. Was there a mind hid away there ? Were there elements out of which a mind could be formed? Was it possible to find a way into that empty space, to pick up the buried germs of mental faculty, if such there were, attach them to the delicate wire of some sense, and thus open a communication between the world within and the world without?
This was the problem which the institution here, with kindred ones in other lands, has, with a sublime faith, attempted to solve; and the result has been such as to fill all observers with admiration. A work has been wrought in our village scarcely less won- derful than the creation of a human mind; forcibly reminding us of that declaration of Jesus : "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; AND GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL HE DO."
Passing down from the lovely eminence on which this institution stands to the Common, the eye is
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attracted by a finely proportioned marble monument erected to commemorate the patriotism and valor of fifty-nine brave sons of the town who fell in the late civil war. It is a sadly grand memento, more im- pressive than funeral oration, more inspiring than song of victory. Let the observer pause reveringly before it, and renew the solemn vow faithfully to maintain what they died to secure.
As he leaves that sacred memorial, let the visitor descend the eastern slope, and there, in the quiet vale below, let him enter the newly consecrated enclosure for the dead, tranquil as a summer's evening, where treasured dust is kept apart; where mourners, moving with measured step, soft and slow, soliloquize their sorrow; where the frequent tear attests a riven heart; and where, unto the listening ear of faith, comes the inspiring whisper: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen ! "
Continuing his walk in the same valley, he will come, in one direction, to a cheerful settlement busy in manufactures of various sorts; and, in the other, to the spacious Fair-grounds and hall where agricul- ture and mechanic arts annually exhibit their choicest products; and competitions for prizes, trials of speed, the inevitable "soap-man," a twenty-score-pound cheese, self-turning, swains and lasses dancing on the sward, an excellent dinner with speeches and toasts but no cider, make up a gala-day which princes might envy.
But our visitor must be getting weary, and begin-
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ning to feel that sight-seeing, like garrulous age, is a bore. Let him have rest.
From the survey which we have taken of our town, two or three characteristics are easily deducible. First, Enterprise. This has been strongly marked from the beginning. There never has been a day when Barre was a dull, lifeless place, looking as though nothing were going on and the people were all " waiting for something to turn up." Something has always been up and going on. The brain of the town has teemed with projects and contrivances. It has been as busy as its hands. Its time and sentiment have not been spent in bewailing the past. It has steadily and bravely, even under many discouragements, kept its face to the future. Enterprise brought our fathers here in the first place. They left their homes in the older and more populous settlements impelled by the spirit of enterprise. And the spirit which brought them hither their sons, in each succeeding generation, have inherited. Their motto has been, " What ought to be done, can be." They could not be diverted from a purpose by obstacles. What were obstacles made for but to be overcome? “ There ought to be a turn- pike from here to Princeton," some one said. " So there ought," the whole town answered. And it was made. "We ought to have a line of daily stages over that turnpike to Boston," said Seth Holden. " So we ought," said enough to form a company with capital to run it. And it was done. "Before I
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take the presidency of the Boston and Worcester Rail- road or go to Congress," said Genery Twichell, “ I want to drive a six-horse stage-coach with twenty pas- sengers daily from Worcester to Brattleborough, via Barre." Barre answered, "Go ahead, and we will back you!" And it was done. How can we get a railroad up here amidst these hills? enterprise has been asking these twenty years. Every year or two a survey of some new route has been made. Money has been freely subscribed. Postponements and de- lays have been courageously endured. Determina- tion has never flagged. The spirit of prophecy has been bold and assuring. Why, two years ago I was promised a delightful trip three times a day, if I chose, over " The Central Massachusetts " to Barre Common, this very summer! I did not come by that route. I missed the train! But we have one railroad com- pleted surely, if the " Central " is not - "The Boston, Barre, and Gardner." We have seen its advertise- ment in all the papers ever so long. I am sorry to say, that that " is a hard road to travel." I wonder if any of you came over it this morning! On the whole, the most satisfactory way of reaching this town by rail yet ascertained - the committee are still hard at work - is to take a two-horse wagon at Hub- bardston; or, as an alternative, to imagine yourselves at Barre when you hear the conductor cry, "The Plains!" At any rate, you may as well get out there. "You might go farther and fare worse." But enter- prise does not doubt. A railroad is sure to be seen
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crossing this high table-land where you sit. Every Barre man believes it ; and, being a Barre man, I believe it.
In the progress of my discourse, before coming to this special topic, I had given pretty free illustration of the enterprise of our people in matters of business. One or two examples of a somewhat different kind ought not to be omitted. The mention of them is due to the truth of history, although we do not claim for them the gratitude of posterity.
During the war of 1812, quite a number of our wide-awake citizens were seized with a strange pas- sion for finding new and untried ways across the line into Canada.
They made paths through the woods of Maine; they went in wagons; they went in sleighs; they went in pungs; they went on horseback, and possibly on foot. There was something mysterious, spoken of in whispers, about their movements. Their "ways were dark " if "their tricks were not vain." It was always observed that when they returned from these distant journeyings certain descriptions of dry goods became cheaper in the market; certain ladies appeared in new gowns; a certain clergyman, being a federalist in politics, shone out in new broadcloth and his wife in a fresh silk. These latter, of course, were presents; and if a minister received a present from one of his parishioners, who will maintain that it would have been polite in him to ask, whether the duty had been paid.
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Such was the hostility to the war and the adminis- tration, that proceedings of this kind were winked at and even applauded. Some of the respectable mer- chants of Boston were in collusion with the smart and venturesome smugglers of Barre.
Here is another example. Certain British officers, confined as prisoners of war in Worcester jail, effected an escape one night; and the next morning, "by hook or crook," or the virtue of "British gold," they were quietly eating their breakfast at the house of one of our respectable citizens; and after waiting a week or two in an unsuspected place of concealment, were spirited away by some of the daring fellows, who knew neither treason nor contraband, over the new roads they had found to the British possessions in America.
Still another example is brought to my recollection by the recent discussions of Congress and the political press on the question of Inflation. It will be seen that this is no new question. About half a century ago we had a number of shrewd and brilliant inflationists in this town. One of our leading citizens, who was no mere theorist, succeeded in putting a good deal of his irredeemable paper in circulation. But his suc- cess was his ruin. It involved him in difficulties which compelled him to leave the place and make his abode for a term of years in Charlestown! Here he was engaged in the service of the Commonwealth. His duties were laborious and confining, but he per- formed them to the satisfaction of the government, and
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on his discharge returned to spend the remnant of his days in the bracing air of his native hills. Towards the last of life he grew melancholy; tried to get a little comfort out of the Bible and his minister's prayers by his bedside, but died broken in body and mind, protesting that inflation had ruined him. If his fate shall serve "to point a moral," let us be thankful that he did not live wholly in vain.
A second characteristic is a certain liveliness of spirit, inclining to joviality and fun. A churl could never have been comfortable in this atmosphere fifty years ago. A mean man was despised ; and a mean man was one who never laughed, who did not stand up square to an agreement, or to his share in the cost of any so- cial pleasure, or in the support of any good institution. The men found a remedy for fatigue from hard work in a little jollification. Merriment was victuals and drink to them. They enjoyed a practical joke amaz- ingly. A good-natured trick played off by one upon another would perform much more than its original service: the story of it would travel the rounds of the neighborhood, and provoke laughter wherever it went. There were some families who were full of mother- wit, and in whom this turn for jollity was innate; conspicuously the Holdens and Bacons. The mem- bers vied with each other in wit-contests. The sally and repartee were quick and sharp, and created great amusement. Almost everybody had a good story, and there was a good story about almost everybody. Thus an aspect of cheer was exhibited quite generally.
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The taverns were the evening resorts of jokers and story-tellers as well as of men who had business to transact, being, for such, an exchange.
All this flavored social intercourse, of which there was not a little. Small tea-parties, beginning in the middle of the afternoon and ending at sundown, were of frequent occurrence (I speak of fifty or sixty years ago) ; and from harvest through the winter, suppers were given by farmers to as many as their tables would accommodate, at which were served the best dishes the careful housewife could provide, rich, sub- stantial, savory, and abundant. Balls at farmers' houses were common for the young people, the long kitchen, lighted by a blazing fire and innumerable tallow-candles, serving as a dancing-hall; while a white-haired black man of my own name, good old Dick, limbered his elbow for the music. When the occasion was intended to be more than usually brill- iant, the dancing-master, Mr. John White, was em- ployed instead of Dick. In the latter case, each male guest paid fifty cents and in the former twenty-five cents! Certainly not an extravagant entertainment. Once or twice each winter there was a rather aristo- cratic ball at one of the public houses, to which the more opulent and stylish families of neighboring towns were invited. This was conducted on a liberal scale, and had an air of refinement and even elegance which you of to-day could not easily excel. Besides the balls, there came off, at least once in the season, a glorious sleighing-party, composed of thirty or forty
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couples, who drove to Hardwick or Petersham, pos- sibly to Rutland, and there regaled themselves with a hot supper, and danced or played cards to a late hour; careful only to get home before morning. How pleasant to affections which never grow old to recall the charming scenes, the innocent joys, the youthful witcheries, the dear companions of those by-gone days! How redolent of delight the memory of out- door sports of men and boys, in the afternoon of a holiday, - base-ball, quoits, trials of strength by lift- ing, foot-races! And, ah! let tears moisten the recol- lection of the husking-party on the barn-floor, the red ear, the bashful protest, the hot chase, the articulate result!
" These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these With sweet succession taught e'en toil to please."
And who, repeating these lines, does not respond to · these other verses of the same charming poet? -
" To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art. Spontaneous joys where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway : Lightly they frolic o'er the vacant mind, Unenvied, unmolested, unconfined."
A third characteristic is local pride and ambition, or a certain esprit de corps animating the people. I am acquainted with no town where this feature is (or was in my early life) so observable. It grew up here spon- tancously. Always to its sons Barre was a great town to hail from. If anywhere in the United States or
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Canada a genuine Barre man were asked, “ Where is Barre?" his face reddened with indignation at the question. Other towns in the neighborhood were well enough in their way. Petersham was indeed beauti- ful for situation; and our little sister, New Brain- tree, was fair and fruitful. As for Dana on the west - now alive and thriving - and Oakham on the east, it was a proverb, " out of this world into" either of those places. And how we laughed at the primitive ways, the small reckonings, the staid and sober manners, of occasional visitors from " below." We regarded them as belonging to an inferior race or an anterior age, and felt that if they would only stay long enough we could improve them, and set them forward a genera- tion or two. This spirit still lives. I really think that if, to-day, it were decided by the General Court that the State-house should be removed to the interior of the State, Barre would have a peti- tion signed by every legal voter by to-morrow night, praying that it might be placed here as alto- gether the most eligible spot, infinitely surpassing any other, and affirming that by trigonometrical meas- urement a certain stake on Robinson's hill marked the exact centre of the Commonwealth! Now, there may be a little romance and exaggeration in this vir- tuous self-estimation, but it is genuine. There is no personal glorification in it; not this or that man or woman, but the town, is exalted. You may say what you please of any man and nobody will be offended to the point of knocking you down; but if you touch
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the good name of the town, wo be to you! We do not mind a little brag; and so, being a Barre man, I ask, Is there another town, of no larger population, in the Commonwealth, that could get up a " Centennial " on such a scale as this? When we set out to do a thing we do it. Why, do you remember what hap- pened here in the year 1840? It was the year of the Harrison campaign, in which "log-cabins " and " hard cider " were potent arguments. The democrats were awake early to the duties of the hour, and determined on a grand party-celebration of the Fourth of July, and to have a first-class orator. In due time it was announced that George Bancroft, the historian, and collector of Boston, would deliver the oration. It was expected, of course, that he would carry all before him. No democrat dreamed that the whigs would have a celebration of their own. But the whig leaders got their heads together, and agreed that if they could secure a certain gentleman as orator they would cel- ebrate too, and spoil the fun of the other side. Ac- cordingly, in a quiet way, a committee of one, Mr. James W. Jenkins, made a hasty journey to Washing- ton, and on his return it was announced in the papers that there would be a whig celebration of the Fourth of July in Barre, for Central Massachusetts; and that DANIEL WEBSTER would pronounce the oration! The democrats were crest-fallen; the whigs elated and crowing. The day came. It was for splendor the queen of days. In the early morning carriages began to pour into the village from all directions.
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They came ten, twenty, and thirty miles to see and hear the most illustrious statesman and orator of the land. Every house was filled with visitors and all the town astir. Bands of music, whig and democrat, filled the air with patriotic strains. Processions were formed by either party and marched to their respec- tive tents. Poor democrats! were they not happy when they were quietly seated out of sight, six hun- dred all told, as the mischievous whig boys, who made the count, reported? The whigs marched three thousand strong, a man for every plate. Charles Allen, then in his prime, presided, and led off in a short pithy speech of singular beauty and power, and closed by introducing the orator of the day. Mr. Webster rose with a never-surpassed dignity of pres- ence to meet the enraptured greetings of thousands who had never seen him before. He was in his full vigor of body and mind, and looked the demigod. He had no notes; but proceeded for nearly two hours, with that directness, cogency of argument, breadth of survey, and grandeur of rhetorical expression, which characterized his noblest efforts. Expectation was fully satisfied. The day was a signal triumph for Barre. The newspapers, far and near, were full of it. " The town had covered itself with glory." It was Saturday. Mr. Webster remained over Sunday, at- tending the Unitarian church in the morning and the Evangelical in the afternoon.
This was Barre's greatest performance. Its effect on the election was not of much consequence in
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Massachusetts, the majority being so decidedly on the whig side; but to every son of the town, as showing what Barre could do when aroused, it was of much moment. The gibes of the whigs at their opponents were generally received with good nature, and re- turned with such retaliatory compliments as they were capable of.
Having glanced at the prominent characteristics of our town, and at many of the more important events and incidents of its history; having also called up before you the images of those ruling spirits who con- tributed largely to the moulding of its character, I leave the unfinished tale to the annalist of 1974! What the present generation is, -its pursuits, the ideas that bear sway in it, its devotion to science and art, its boundless philanthropy, its zeal in education, its freedom in religion, - is so fully disclosed in our various literature that no great labor of research will then be requisite. Whilst he will discover much in our social and political life to call forth animadver- sion, - much extravagance, profligacy, corruption, and crime, - he will perceive, at the same time, that this is not an idle generation; that it is not dozing in un- ambitious content; that in all departments of thought and activity it is reaching forward eagerly; that, hav- ing destroyed Slavery at a terrible cost of blood and treasure, it is now solemnly demanding, through the leading organs of its opinion and influence, the ex- tinction of abuses in government, a higher style of
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character in public men, greater independence of party-dictation, more strenuous endeavors for raising the standard of intelligence and morality throughout the land, and, finally, the granting to Woman all the social rights and opportunities claimed by her, to the end that, possessing equal advantages for education and the use of her talents with the other sex, she may advance pari passu with it in all that gives beauty and strength to personal character, or that ministers knowledge, virtue, and grace to society. Thus it will be manifest to him that the Present is not wanting in benign and gratifying auguries.
With all modesty, yet without fear, we submit our- selves and our works to the calm judgment of that far-off reviewer. When he shall come to walk amongst the grassy mounds that will cover our dust, and to scrape the moss from our gravestones that he may read our names and epitaphs, let him know this: that we, of this generation, lived with faith in God and in man, - in the Infinite compassions of the One and the measureless possibilities of the other; that we rejoiced in the nurture of the Christian Church, and held in reverence that Divine Word which is " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; " that, not- withstanding any materialistic tendencies of philo- sophical speculation, we constantly affirmed, in the words of Jesus, that " God is spirit," not matter; that man, being the child of God, as he bears "the image of the earthly shall also bear the image of the heav- enly; " that eternity is the measure of his existence
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and not time; and that " all things," whether on the earth or under the earth or above the earth, "work together for the good of them that love God."
Advance, ye generations that are to occupy our places! Come, with your ampler knowledge of nature and of the Divinity that breathes through all its parts ; with your fuller experience of the wonder-working providence of God; with your worthier conceptions of man and his destined end; come, and enter into our labors and glorify your inheritance by whatso- ever you can add to its riches. What fields shall ripen for your harvesting in the vast unexplored domains of science; what improvements in the arts that utilize nature or minister to the love of beauty shall enhance the comfort and happiness of your life; what truths in the realms of philosophy and of faith not dreamed of by us shall reveal themselves to your apprehension, we vainly strive to imagine. But all our reflection on the past assures us that your course will be marked by great advantages beyond our lot through the increase of knowledge and virtue; and that whoever shall stand in this place a hundred years hence will thankfully trace the manifold proof of a marvellous progress, - our fairest visions more than realized, our boldest imaginations far outrun. And as we are now showing unto the children what we " have heard and known and our fathers have told us," we enjoin it as a sacred duty on you, our suc- cessors, that on the 17th of June, 1974, assembling yourselves together, you take up and carry on the
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