USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Barre > Memorial of the one hundredth anniversary of the Incorporation of the town of Barre, June 17, 1874 ... > Part 16
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In process of time, the High School reared its noble form in our midst as the crowning glory of our educational system. Time would fail to tell of the streams which have flowed forth from it to beautify all the earth. Let me not forget that private educa- tional institution which has been a blessing to stricken humanity and an honor to the town.
Barre may be proud of her schools, because she may be proud of the men and women who have graduated from them. The schools of our land are the conservators of its peace and prosperity.
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The freer and more universal is education, the more thoroughly will the mind and heart of the people be imbued with the prin- ciples of purity and truth that are a blessing to our homes; of honesty and good faith between man and man which cement the framework of the social compact; of justice and equal rights which are the foundation of national success and national happi- ness. Let me say to the sons and daughters of to-day, Guard your schools with the most jealous care. They are a priceless legacy transmitted from your forefathers. Furnish your school- houses with the comforts, elegancies, and refinements of your homes. Give your children all the apparatus and means needful for a thorough education. Let there emanate from these schools an influence to bless your firesides, your country, - all humanity. These school-houses that dot your hills and valleys are so many sentinels to guard your liberties and to teach the great truth, " Righteousness exalteth a nation."
I should like, Mr. Chairman, in closing, to make some rotund and proper ending ; and I am reminded of a saying of a gen- tleman named David Lee, who said that he believed he could make as good a prayer as any man in town except Parson Thompson, with the exception that he didn't know how to taper off at the end. But perhaps I may best close by simply drawing your attention to a remark made this morning in the finished and splendid historical address, that our thoughts were turned to-day to persons rather than to things. I confess that, for myself, while listening to the speaker my heart swelled most with pride, not while he was speaking of your enterprise, your fair landscape, your material prosperity, but while he was speak- ing of the living men who have gone forth to every part of the world. Allow me, then, to close by expressing the hope that you will give your support to those who, in this materializing world, hold up the truth that mind is higher than matter, that man is greater than the things with which he works, and that all is vain and futile unless it carries us forward in righteousness and peace, and lifts us nearer to God and to heaven.
XII. Scenery of Barre : Though perhaps not strikingly grand, its pictu- resqueness makes an abiding impression of æsthetic pleasure upon all who behold it.
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REMARKS OF MESSRS. ALDEN AND YOUNG.
Mr. ALBERT ALDEN, of Cambridgeport, a former resi- dent of Barre, was cordially welcomed, and said : -
REMARKS OF MR. ALBERT ALDEN.
· It is too late to respond to the sentiment in the manner in which I had intended ; but let me say to the friends and companions of my early years that the hours of this day are rapidly closing upon us. They will soon find place in that great record of the past which no time nor circumstances can change. Those of us who have come back here to extend heart-felt greetings to the living and entwine fresh garlands of affection around the memory of the dead, will soon pass out from these scenes of joy and of gladness and of heart-felt union, to mingle again in the great world of business activity ; but wherever we go, wherever our feet may rest or wander, in this great land or in foreign lands, the recollec- tions of this day will abide with us for ever. When we have passed out of these scenes of gladness and of beauty, and have entered the realms of eternal verdure, in the lines of one who bore my name and who loved this people, -
" There once more we will dwell together, Heart in heart and hand in hand, Pain and death shall part us never In the peaceful spirit-land."
XIII. The Press : The potent organ of public opinion ; the instructor of freemen in their rights and duties ; the conservator of republican in- stitutions ; the ally of education and religion.
REMARKS OF MR. ALEX. YOUNG,* OF THE "BOSTON GLOBE."
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, -It has been said by one of the brightest of American wits and poets, -
" Little of all we value here Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year Without both looking and feeling queer. In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, So far as I know, but a tree and truth."
* A grandson of Eleazar James, Esq.
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Now, Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen, it seems to me that Barre on this occasion certainly comes within the rule here laid down. As I look upon this centennial exhibition, it seems to me that Barre does not appear as trembling under the weight of years, a decrepit crone, tottering to receive her guests, but a buxom dame, pretty, blithe, and jaunty as a June morning, wel- coming her children and her children's children to her generous hospitality. I regret, gentlemen, that the press could not have had a worthier spokesman on this occasion. I regret especially that the dispensation of Divine Providence should have called too early to his kindred skies that genial gentleman and most accom- plished journalist, who would naturally have represented the press on this occasion, - I need not say that I allude to the late George B. Woods, of this town. And I may regret also that no one bearing the name of James should have been present to respond on this occasion. The Jameses have gone all over the country ; I don't know that there is any trace of them here ; but, sir, it is a somewhat significant fact, that one of the most gifted of American authors should have given us perhaps the most characteristic of American productions, under the name and as the statement of " Truthful James of Table Mountain."
" I came from Table Mountain, And my name is Truthful James ; I am not up to small deceits, Nor to any sinful games."
I maintain that there, gentlemen, the characteristics of the fam- ily have not suffered.
It is among the pleasantest duties of the press, gentlemen and ladies, to investigate the significance of celebrations like this ; for in our time, as never before, the press has come, while gathering and giving news, to find its highest duty in setting forth the prin- ciples that underlie the events and occurrences of the times. It does not merely record history, but it creates it. The newspaper is now the recognized instrument for the dissemination of the facts of literature, politics, and science ; and it has also, to a large extent, a power in all the great reforms of the day. Lord Mansfield told the Duke of Northumberland, who pleased himself in enjoying the
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REMARKS OF MR. ALEXANDER YOUNG.
newspaper, that the newspapers he was interested in would, sooner or later, write the Duke of Northumberland out of his titles and possessions, and the King of England out of his throne. Said he, " You may not liye to see it, but your descendants will." I think, gentlemen, that the condition of affairs in England point to a no distant day for the consummation which was foreseen by so keen an observer and so solid a statesman as Lord Mansfield.
Certainly the great achievements of the daily newspaper in our day show it is not only taking all knowledge for its domain, but is conducting great enterprises to advance the interests of liter- ature and science, and the laws of social and political reform. How was it, gentlemen, a hundred years ago? A hundred years ago to-day there was a meeting in the town-hall of Boston, called to resist the oppressions of the British crown, and at that time the liberty of the people had no more earnest advocate than the daily papers, and among which were the " Massachusetts Spy," now pub- lished in Worcester, where it was removed some years afterwards, and the " Boston Gazette," to which John Adams and Josiah Quincy were brilliant contributors. By the way, the " Massachusetts Spy" bore at its head this title : "A weekly political and commercial paper ; open to all parties, but influenced by none." There is a good deal of talk nowadays about independent journalism ; but I don't know where you will find a more independent motto than that. I think the " Massachusetts Spy " was the first independent journal that I know of in America. Certainly it showed itself in opposition to British encroachment. About the first of June, you remember, the Boston port-bill took effect. The "Spy" of that day thus says : "Most of the stores along the long wharf are now shut up, hundreds of poor are out of employment, and many who lived genteelly will be reduced to the last farthing. Yet, under these unhappy circumstances, people in general have that fortitude which did honor to the ancient Romans, - ' Undaunted by tyrants, we'll die or be free.'" We will die or be free. The office of the " Spy " was styled the sedition-factory by the royalists ; and, on the third of May, 1775, it was thought prudent to remove it to Wor- cester.
It is a little curious, and illustrates very strikingly the defects in our institutions as they existed at that time, which were trans-
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mitted from the past, that on the very day that that stirring appeal for freedom appeared in the " Massachusetts Spy," as I looked over its musty pages at the Boston Athenaeum, I read there the adver- tisement which, thank God, cannot be read in any paper, North or South, in all this broad land of ours : " To be sold, for want of employment, a strong, healthy negro boy, about nine years of age, who can be well recommended for his honesty." There is one name in connection with the press of that period to which I will refer as that of one of the most striking and brilliant writers of his time, -Joseph Greenleaf. In closing an article in the "Spy," written nearly three years before the Concord fight, he uses these words, certainly significant of the influence of the press at that period : " Let the liberty of the press be once destroyed, farewell the remainder of our rights and privileges. We may hence ex- pect padlocks on our lips, fetters on our limbs, and only our hands left to slave for our worse than Egyptian task-masters, or to fight our way to constitutional freedom." Where can you find an utter- ance better than that in the press of this or of any other country ?
I have referred somewhat to the functions of the press as a great power in all reforms of the day, and I think it will be well illustrated by a few examples of what it has done in recent years. It is not a great many years ago, only a few, that the " London News" sent one of its correspondents into Warwickshire, at the time of the great strike of the agricultural laborers, to live in the cabins of these poor men, and share their scanty fare, living as they did with hardly enough to keep themselves alive. In that magnificent country, set with the charm of English poetry, where every thing seems fit for human enjoyment, that correspondent went and lived with those wretched people, enduring their suffer- ings, and, in fact, exposing his life in showing up the enormities of that system of which Joseph Arch has lately been the earnest and faithful rebuker. This is one example. Another is that of the correspondent who went into the slums of London to reveal the horrors of life in the suburbs of the great metropolis.
But to pass from what English journals have done, let us see what we have done. I know of no more legitimate feat of jour- nalistic enterprise than that of the " New York Herald," in send- ing Stanley to search out the African traveller in those desolate
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REMARKS OF MR. ALEXANDER YOUNG.
wilds where the English government expedition had failed to find him; but Stanley, who literally took his life in his hand, we know what he accomplished for the cause of science by the dis- covery of one who, alas ! has since become its martyr.
But to pass on to another achievement of journalism, which I consider not certainly among the least of what has been done in late years, of a great journal of New York, which dragged from his heights of infamy, from the palatial grandeur of his resi- dence in New York, the corrupt head of the ring that had so long misgoverned that metropolis, and was the means of bring- ing him where he is to-day, in convict garb, a warning to those who would buy courts and corrupt judges in a republican government.
One reference more, gentlemen, and I have done. I think the power of the press has never been more strongly shown than in very recent days, when the utterances of the journals of this coun- try in defence of national faith and of national honor nerved the President of the republic to take the stand he did for the protec- tion of American credit. I don't know any thing that the con- queror of Lee has ever done ; I don't think, sir, that the victory at Donaldson, Vicksburg, or the fall of Richmond will shed more lustre upon the career of President Grant than that act; and, sir, I realize in that act the truth of the statement, that, in the hands of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword. I thank you for the attention you have given me and for the pleasure I have received on this occasion.
There were several sentiments of a local character pre- pared, to which the responses were omitted on account of the lateness of the hour ; but as the subjects discussed have a permanent interest, the addresses are herein inserted.
XIV. The Farmers of Barre : Their industry and honest toil has made the wilderness and solitary place glad, and fruitful fields take the place of the forest and marsh. Though not, as a class, rich, they abound in all the essentials of a true civilization.
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REMARKS OF MR. ADDISON H. HOLLAND.
Mr. President, - It would be interesting if we could look back and see and examine the work done here at different periods since the settlement of the town by farmers, and note the changes that have occurred, and understand the feelings, incentives, and objects of those who have been concerned in what has taken place. It is to be regretted that there are so few statistics relating to these matters, the more because that, perhaps, with the labors of no occupation is time more unsparing than with those of the agri- culturist. Lands once " flowing with milk and honey" are now barren wastes. Here the great farms and house-lots have been parcelled out ; forests, and log-houses, with their magnificent fire- places, have disappeared ; and there is much that we have received, and now enjoy, of which we cannot estimate the labor or the cost. It may excite a smile, perhaps a sneer, but I think it worthy of remark, that of the material monuments erected by Barre farmers the most costly are, like those of the Chinese, stone-walls. These, unsightly as they appear, are suggestive of forethought, industry, stability, and good neighborhood.
Of the rank of Barre, agriculturally, it may be said that the statistics of 1865 show that it was then the leading town in the State in the production of hay, and in dairying. Any statement in regard to dairying would be unjust and incomplete if reference to the women in connection therewith was omitted. I apprehend that but few women fifty years hence will have any real concep- tion of the "industry and honest toil," and hardship too, which dairying, as carried on here previous to the introduction of cheese factories in 1864, required of farmers' wives.
What a gratification it would be if many of the farmers, who were once prominent in their calling, and for other reasons, could be seen now as some of them were seen by us in our younger days. We should desire, also, that they should manifest those peculiarities by which some of them were best known, and will be longest remembered. Men like the Rices, - Earl, Jotham, and Charles, - fond of good stories and jokes, but with always an eye to the main chance in matters of business; the Harwoods,
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REMARKS OF MR. ADDISON H. HOLLAND.
industrious, frugal, and observing, rather easy to take offence, and quick and sharp in their resentments; Perry Johnson, known everywhere as "Uncle Perry," tall, slim, shrewd, witty, and re- puted to possess just enough of the infirmity of deafness for profit ; Peter Fessenden (the second by that name), whose aptness of tongue often proved better to him than scrip. When advanced in years, he sold most of his farm, and, to piece out a short crop, would turn his " old meer," as he called his horse, into the high- way. She seemed to know what her owner could say for her, and satisfied her wants in grain fields or wherever else she pleased. The losers sometimes complained and were angry, but the old man invariably recompensed and sobered them by saying some- thing that would cause them to be laughed at by the whole neighborhood. It is related that the "old meer " once got into a neighbor's pasture and remained there some time before the owner of the lot knew of it. The man was impulsive though generous, and when the facts came to his knowledge he went to Mr. Fessenden and called him hard names, threatening to " kill" his horse, &c., if he found her there again. Mr. Fessenden re- ceived the lecture very coolly, but, as he was not in the habit of speaking out of time, he said but little. Reflection induced the owner of the pasture to regret saying what he had, and, meeting Mr. Fessenden shortly after, acknowledged that he had done wrong, and concluded by telling the old man to put his horse " back into the pasture." "I haven't taken her out yet," was the old man's quiet response. Charles Sibley, whose presence indi- cated one of nature's noblemen, and prompted a regret that he was lacking that ambition which would have enabled him to have reached and done honor to high places of public trust. Mr. Sibley had a part in the capture of the British officers in this town. There was no organization among the captors, and when the officers came out of the house, one of them, who ap- peared to be the chief, a man of Herculean size, and resolute, drew a pistol and demanded to know who was the leader of the party. It was one of those occasions when men are not often emulous of rank, and there was no reply. But the suspense must be broken, and Mr. Sibley told the officer that he was the leader. The officer then advanced and presented his pistol to Mr. Sibley's
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breast, who told him to " fire, if he dared," but that there would be "enough left to take care of him."
There was one, the late Mr. Elias Ayres, whose memory should be cherished for the inestimable service he rendered by the introduction of the famous short-horn cattle, some forty years ago. To appreciate the enterprise Mr. Ayres exhibited in this, we should consider that at that time there were but few agricultural newspapers in the country, and these were regarded with suspicion and contempt by many who were successful farmers ; that the oldest of our agricultural societies had hardly begun their work ; and that it was only about a dozen years after those pioneers, Col. Jaques and Gorham Parsons, made their first importations of short-horn stock. It is a noticeable fact that that period marks the beginning of a new era agriculturally here and throughout the country. Chemists tried more successfully to utilize their knowledge by its application to the problems of soils and crops ; the perfected iron plough had just come into general use, to be fol- lowed by the horse-rake, mowing-machine, tedder, cheese facto- ries, &c. Mr. Ayres was a stout, thick-set man, and ambitious as a farmer. He finally sold his farm in Barre, and removed to Vir- ginia to occupy a part or the whole of the estate of ex-President Monroe, where, during the rebellion, he was suspected, plundered, and imprisoned by both Confederate and Federal.
Men are sometimes unconscious actors in great events. Proba- bly neither of the Barre farmers, Mr. Jennison or Mr. Caldwell, when acting to bring about the abolition of slavery in Massa- chusetts, comprehended the magnitude of the work they were doing. And though matters of the past claim our attention to-day, it is difficult to resist the temptation to glance at the future. The present prime minister of England is reported to have said recently, that he had noticed that it was usually the " unexpected that happens." It may be so here. The changes that have occurred during the last twenty-five years have had an important bearing on the farming interests of our town. There has been much to stimulate exertion, and much that has been disturbing. The fascinations of wealth, sud- denly and apparently easily acquired in other pursuits, and
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REMARKS OF HON. EDWARD DENNY.
the advantages it gave for culture and refinement, could not be regarded with indifference. It is too true that our farmers are " not, as a class, rich." But whatever uncertainty may be felt in regard to the future, we may be sure there is no occasion for despondency. With new and redirected efforts, all responsibilities and obligations will be met, and the much-needed mental and · social culture, with contentment and happiness, will be secured. The great fact, however, must be kept in mind, that-
" He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive."
XV. The Manufacturers of Barre : Their enterprise has added new means of employment for the surplus labor of the town, increased its pop- ulation, and furnished a valuable home-market for its surplus products of agriculture, while the fabrics they have produced have given an honorable name and standing to the town throughout the county wherein John Smith's cotton cloth, or Phineas Heywood's woollen frocking, or the broadcloths of the Wadsworth Woollen Co., or the wagons of Charles Rice have gone.
REMARKS OF HON. EDWARD DENNY.
Please accept my thanks, Mr. President, for the complimentary manner in which you have called on me to respond to the toast which has just been announced. After listening to so many able and eloquent speakers as we have heard to-day, on subjects of intense interest to all who have come here from far and near to celebrate this day, and to receive and impart a mutual interchange of greetings and congratulations, the like of which no one present will ever have another opportunity, I fear that it will seem to you too much of a fall to come down from the highly intellectual entertainment which we are all enjoying so much, to listen with any degree of complacency to the dull and commonplace subject of manufactures ; and I regret that some one besides myself could not have been selected to inflict this punishment upon you. But I will endeavor to be as brief as possible ; and I hope you will hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear, - not that I love manufactures less, but that I respect the feelings and enjoy- ment of this audience more.
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Barre - located as she is in the centre of one of the best agri- cultural districts in the Commonwealth - can more justly claim to be essentially an agricultural rather than a manufacturing community ; her broad fields, her fertile valleys, and her flocks upon a thousand hills, are ample evidence of her superiority as an agricultural centre. Here the farmer can enjoy the fruits of his industry in an eminent degree ; the fluctuations of the markets have no terrors for him ; he has no notes to go to protest ; and if he did not read the journals of the day, he would never know when a panic in financial affairs commenced or when it ended : his mind is not always upon the rack. and he escapes the thou- sand annoyances and perplexities to which manufacturers are constantly liable. But for those who prefer the more exciting. dangerous, and uncertain pursuits of manufacturing. the facilities in that direction are of more than ordinary importance in Barre at the present time. and she has within her limits the means of increasing her facilities in the immediate future to an extent that will place her wellnigh in the front rank. The water-power of Barre, when fully developed and occupied, will far exceed that of Ware at the present time. This power will be supplied sub- stantially from Ware river and Prince river. Ware river, within the limits of Barre, commences at what is called Barre Falls, where an immense power will be created at no very distant period. From there to Smithville there are a succession of falls, nearly all of which will be occupied for extensive manufacturing pur- poses. The cotton manufactory at Smithville, which is favorably known to many of us, is now doing a large business ; and there is no doubt that the enterprising proprietors will, when the water- power to which I have alluded is developed, and our railroad facilities are completed, double or treble the amount of business now done. Then comes the powder-mill privilege, which will be capable of doing an extensive business. This power is at present lying idle, but from indications there is a prospect that it will soon be occupied.
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