USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Shrewsbury > Old times in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Gleanings from history and tradition > Part 4
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Errors excepted Sam1 Crosby.
The "Mrs. Patty" in the bill was a daughter who was an invalid all her life, though she lived to be seventy years old. There is in the family a silver spoon which belonged to her and with which she used to stir the por- ridge in her silver porringer as she lay on her couch ; nearly one half of the spoon is worn away with the con- stant stirring. This spoon is treasured as a memorial of "Aunt Patty."
Among Col. Ward's papers is the following bill of sale.
" Be it known to all by these presents, that I Nathaniel Henchman of Lynn, in the County of Essex in the Prov-
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March 24th 1 Col Nahen Ward Sel. To Seven Vijfets & Sundry Medicines 20-14-6 - To meds for Ms Patty 0- 0-9 June 24th July 16 The widow M' Martha Ward Det. to & Sift Bleeding g & Med £0-1-1 Evovs Exerted por Sam Profley.
FACSIMILE OF THE DOCTOR'S BILL.
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THE BALDWIN TAVERN AND ITS VARIOUS OWNERS
ince of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Clerk, for and in Consideration of the sum of Seventy Eight Pounds in province Bills to me truly paid and signed by Nahum Ward of Shrewsbury in the County of MiddX in his Majesties Province above sd yeoman have Sold and Delivered to the Sd Ward My Negro Boy Servant named Cæsar for & During the whole term of Sd Boy's Natural Life always hereafter to be and abide to the Sole Use Benefit & Service of the Sd Ward his heirs Executors Administrs & Assigns, & I Do hereby become obliged to Defend my Sd Negro Servt to the Sd Ward against the lawful Claims of any whomsoever. In witness whereof I have hereto Sett my hand and seal this 15th day of No- vember Anno Dom' 1728
Nathaniel Henchman.
Signed and Sealed in ye presence of
Nathel Henchman
Mary Henchman
Seal.
Abagail + Newhalls mark.
The year after the death of Colonel Ward 160 acres of the place, including the buildings, was sold for 540 pounds 13 shillings, to Henry Baldwin, of Pelham, N. H., who opened there a public house, put a bar across a corner of the southwest room, and set up a tall sign post in the yard, upon which it was announced to the way- farer that here was to be found refreshment for man and beast. Near the sign stood the old mile stone, now
1
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
prostrate, proclaiming, by its white letters upon a black surface, that Boston was thirty-six miles away. Henry Baldwin proved himself to be a model landlord ; hos- pitable, genial and attentive to the wants of his cus- tomers, he soon achieved renown in his calling. The handsome tavern, freshened by a new coat of yellow paint, presented an attractive appearance to the weary traveller. who was at once conducted to the bar where the most refreshing drink was offered him, and whether the partaker was too warm or too cold it always put him in proper condition. The bar had a handsome railing of small rods for ornament, and an outside door opened just beside it. One evening old Richard Grimes of Hub- bardston, who had not neglected the bars of other taverns on the way, on drawing rein at this hospitable door, forgot to leave his horse outside, and forthwith into the bar-room came horse and rider for a most un- needed drink. This is the Grimes immortalized in the familiar song, written by Albert G. Green, who lived in the latter part of the last century and the first of the present. It is noticeable that in this curious poem the first two lines of each stanza refer to his character and the last two to his apparel.
OLD GRIMES.
Old Grimes is dead, that good old man We ne'er shall see him more ; He used to wear a long blue coat All buttoned down before.
!
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THE BALDWIN TAVERN AND ITS VARIOUS OWNERS
His heart was open as the day, His feelings all were true ; His hair was some inclined to grey He wore it in a queue.
Whene'er he heard the voice of pain, His heart with pity burned ; The large round head upon his cane From ivory was turned.
Kind words he ever had for all, He knew no fell design ; His eyes were dark and rather small, His nose was aquiline.
He lived at peace with all mankind, In friendship he was true ; His coat had pocket-holes behind, His pantaloons were blue.
Unharmed, the sin which earth pollutes, He passed serenely o'er ; And never wore a pair of boots, For thirty years or more.
But good Old Grimes is now at rest, Nor fears misfortune's frown ; He wore a double-breasted vest, The stripes ran up and down.
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He modest merit sought to find, And pay it its desert ; He had no malice in his mind, . No ruffles on his shirt.
His worldly goods he never threw In trust to Fortune's dances, But lived (as all his brothers do) In easy circumstances.
His neighbors he did not abuse, Was sociable and gay ; He wore large buckles on his shoes And changed them every day.
His knowledge, hid from public gaze, He did not bring to view ; Nor make a noise town-meeting days, As many people do.
Thus undisturbed by anxious cares, His peaceful moments ran ; And everybody said he was A fine old gentleman.
There were many "fine old gentlemen" of the Grimes stamp frequenting that bar-room, and people of all degrees and trades stopped at the Baldwin Tavern. Tradition whispers that some time in the remote past a dark deed was committed within those walls. A
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THE BALDWIN TAVERN AND ITS VARIOUS OWNERS
certain night two travellers arrived and took lodging in the same room. In the morning one of them was missing and the other was found dead. The blood stains upon the bedstead caused it to be laid aside in the garret where it remained, filling that corner of the garret with spectres to those superstitiously inclined. Who the unfortunate man was, who was his evil dis- posed companion, or to what place he fled, are matters unknown to history and unsung by tradition.
The family parlor was the southeast room, which had no door but the one into the front entry, and the other part of the house could not be reached except through the bar-room.
This was not always an agreeable transit for the young ladies, who sometimes found a way through a window and reached the kitchen by a run outside the house. There were seven daughters belonging to this household; and seven girls will make any house merry; so we must believe that there were few dull hours in the family that lived in the Baldwin Tavern. Only two of
these daughters married Shrewsbury men. Mary mar- ried Elisha Ward, the son of Nahum; they went to live in Petersham. Lucretia became the wife of Jonas Stone, who established the Stone homestead near the church, now owned by Mr. Frederick Stone of Boston, grandson of Jonas and Lucretia, who has repaired and enlarged it for his summer residence.
Before the Revolutionary War, the large yard in front
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
of the Baldwin Tavern was used as a training ground for one of the military companies, formed to accustom the farmers to the use of firearms and prepare them for actual service. Henry Baldwin's mother married a second husband, Col. John Jones of Hopkinton, and after his death came to live with her son, who built an addition to his house for her use; this is the part now standing. It was a snug little home for Lady Jones, two rooms below and one above with a fireplace in each and little cupboards for her china and silver. There by the west window sat the fair dame of one hundred years in her white ruffled cap and kerchief, her spinning wheel in the corner, and by her side a little stand containing a few treasured books. In 1793, on the day when she completed her century of life, the Rev. Dr. Sumner took her to a sleighride, and though we do not hear that she had any robe to throw about her save a camlet cloak, we do not hear either that she came near freezing, or took a dreadful cold, or any such thing, but that she had a real good time and lived to take tea with Mrs. Sumner on her birthday three years later "in good health and enjoying Reason," as Dr. Sumner wrote in his journal. Two years longer she lived in her cosy rooms, reading and knitting and spinning, the neigh- bors' children making the rooms merry with their games -the favorite place for them to hide in playing "hide and whoop" was under Grandma Jones' big apron ; as this mysterious hiding-place was well known
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THE BALDWIN TAVERN AND ITS VARIOUS OWNERS
to all partakers of the game, there was always a rush for it and a great rush away from it, sometimes nearly dislodging the old lady from her chair, who after all enjoyed the fun and laughed with the children while she replaced her spectacles and rearranged her cap. Lady Jones' fireplaces are desolate now and the cranes move on rusty hinges. Instead of children's voices, the winds howl and storms drive through the sashless windows, and blood-stains are upon the floor she once kept so white, and daily sanded with care.
Henry Baldwin died in Nov., 1789, leaving his son Henry in possession of the place. But his reign in the Tavern was short, for the next month he fell from the beams in the barn, breaking his neck. The place then came into possession of Capt. Aaron Smith, whose son Ashbel in time married the widow Baldwin. Capt. Smith for some years kept up the tavern, which had become famous. People far and near had heard of its fame and travellers lengthened or shortened a day's journey that they might see for themselves the glories of the Baldwin Tavern.
Aaron Smith was a noted man in these parts ; he was an intrepid soldier, having been engaged in the expe- dition against Canada, and was one of the few Shrews- bury men who fought at Bunker Hill. Having scented the battle from afar, he evaded the sentry at Charles- town, and was firing away with all his might at the British from behind the hay fence, when a negro at his
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OLD TIMES IN SHREWSBURY
side became so crippled by a ball from the enemy that he could not rise to discharge his gun, but he could load his own as well as Smith's while the latter fired them both off until the ammunition was expended. Smith then took the negro on his back to carry him off the field, but the enemy's balls coming thick and fast, one of them shattering the gun in his hand, he was obliged to leave the negro to his fate, only saving himself by a hasty retreat. He lived to fight under Lafayette when they had "such a terrible time in the Jarseys," and com- manded a company of men in the time of the Shays rebel- lion, of which we shall hear more in another chapter.
The stories which he related in his old age of his many adventures were listened to with great interest, but being then unwritten are lost to us except the few fragments which we have by tradition.
When Lafayette came to Worcester in 1824, the Shrews- bury Rifle Company was accorded the post of honor in his escort. Many gray-haired soldiers pressed forward in the crowd to greet their old commander, and among , them Aaron Smith, who in his eighty-ninth year walked from his home to see him. Lafayette at once recognized him and most affectionately embraced him. Captain Smith presented him with a cane which he had carved from a grape-vine brought from the Jerseys, which he accepted with pleasure. Smith was a famous carver of canes and there are some specimens of his skill yet in existence. He was anticipating much satisfaction in
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being present at the laying of the corner stone of Bunker Hill monument in 1825, but the old man died without the sight on the ninth of the May previous.
Some years before his death he removed to the west- erly part of the town, having sold the Baldwin place to Mr. Samuel Bullard, who kept the tavern open a few years, then closing his doors upon the public sold no more comforting drinks from the bar and took down the sign from the tall sign-post by the milestone near the road. Then travellers instead of taking the well known turn into the yard, guided their horses by, looking sadly at the old place and thinking of the jovial times in the by-gone days, with a sigh drove on to Haven's, a mile beyond, or to Pease's, in the other direction.
The house still wore the friendly look, but the sign- post looked forlorn, at least so thought the neighboring boys, who one night decorated it to their satisfaction and in the morning when the owner took his stroll under the elms, he saw a great yellow pumpkin swinging from the hook which once held the sign. This was the last day of the tall sign-post ; before night it had been lev- elled to the ground, Samuel Bullard wishing to have no more boy's pranks played upon it. It was incorporated into the frame of the yellow barn now standing. He once told a neighbor that there was a large sum of money buried upon the farm, that no one would ever find should he die suddenly. Not long after, while driving in his wagon around the corner by Haven's
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tavern, his horse became frightened at a curtain blowing from a window and, starting suddenly to run, Mr. Bullard was thrown out injuring his neck so seriously that he died soon after. It is not known that any discovery was ever made of the buried money. Samuel Bullard's son Jason inherited the place which had been the scene of so many and varied experiences, and at his death it passed into the possession of his children, who are still the owners. It was in 1864 that the house was torn down. For many years it had given unmistakable evidence of decay ; its late owners had not kept it in repair and winds and storms had played with it un- molested. The timbers were settling at the corners of the rooms and breaking away from the chimneys, the board partitions were warped, and the floors sinking in the middle, in some places broken through and the entire structure going to ruin, except the part built for Lady Jones, which was quite secure, and in it the Bullard sons (the only ones of the family remaining here) took up their abode before the demolition of the ancient part took place. This was a more formidable task than had been anticipated, for although it had such a dilapidated look, there was yet great strength in the wooden pins that held the beams together, and that for some time refused to yield to the united efforts of several pair of oxen to break them apart, for Nahum Ward had built his house to last. The great chimney required more than a steady pull from the oxen to lay it prostrate ; it was
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THE BALDWIN TAVERN AND ITS VARIOUS OWNERS
firm as the pyramids of Egypt, until a battering ram was in some way constructed and the masonry attacked with it. This proved successful, and the chimney with its fireplaces which spoke of warmth and comfort, soon became the pile of stones which Nature has so gracefully concealed with her vines and spreading elms.
Twelve years later Lady Jones' kitchen became the scene of a tragedy which is still remembered with horror. Ever since that dreadful night in October, 1876, when the whole village was startled by the cold-blooded murder of John Bullard, a peaceable, inoffensive man, the house has stood empty, save as it has been a shelter for squirrels, bats and owls and for homeless cats-or for passing tramps who take refuge there for a night. People who favor ghost stories say that the place is haunted ; be that as it may, it is certainly dismal and forlorn enough by day, and in the moonlight when the wind rattles the loose boards, sets the doors groaning on their rusty hinges, howls up the deserted stairway and the cold chimney, it is uncanny-a place for hags to rest awhile from their broomstick rides and chat with the bats and owls and cats, while they search out the blood-stains upon the floor ! But we would rather leave the witches with their weird companions to their mid- night mutterings, and think of dear old Lady Jones in the far-away years rocking and knitting and singing her psalms.
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"The leaning barn about to fall Resounds no more on husking eves : No cattle low in yard or stall, No thresher beats his sheaves.
"So sad, so drear ! It seems almost Some haunting presence makes its sign That down yon shadowy lane some ghost Might drive his spectral kine !"
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THE LAST OF MRS. JONES' CHAIRS.
DR. SUMNER AND THE CHURCH.
A BOUT the middle of the last century, eight young men set out on horseback from their native town Pomfret, Conn., for Yale College, Oliver Gros- venor, a young lad of ten years and brother of one, going with them to bring back the horses. This novel procession attracted much attention as they passed through the village, and a lady from Massachusetts who was visiting in Pomfret asked what was to be done with all those young men. The laughing reply was "We are going to send them as missionaries into Massachu- setts." The answer was prophetic, for six of the eight were afterward settled over churches in this state.
The death of the Rev. Job Cushing left the Shrews- bury church without a minister. To obtain another was a serious matter, and a day of fasting and prayer was appointed by the church, to the end that the Lord would guide them in their choice. The one whom they finally chose was Mr. Joseph Sumner, one of the eight young men from Pomfret. He in the meantime had graduated
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from. Yale College with honors, in the class of 1759, had taught school the next winter in Charlton, Mass., and in the spring had commenced preparing for the ministry with his pastor, Rev. Aaron Putnam, in Pomfret.
During the summer of 1781 he preached here accord- ing to request, but declined to remain longer, as he did not desire an early settlement. In March the next year, the church again sought him, and sent him a formal call, which he accepted.
His long and successful pastorate shows that their choice was well made. The salary agreed upon was sixty-six pounds a year, six pounds more than his prede- cessor, Mr. Cushing, received. Mr. Sumner in preparing for his new work, and in accordance with his ideas of propriety, had his hair cut short, and put on a wig in honor of his ordination, never appearing in public after that without one.
The day decided upon for the ordination was the twenty-third of June, 1762, and the day being fine, people from the surrounding towns came in large num- bers to witness the ceremony. It was thought unwise to crowd the meeting-house, which was small and too old to be secure. Consequently, when the preparations for the occasion were made, a platform was erected out- side, upon which the services were conducted.
The council consisted of nine ministers with their delegates, and it was voted to observe the day solemnly, as a day of fasting and prayer. And so it is to be
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THE SUMNER HOUSES AND THE CHURCH AS IT STOOD BEFORE 1834.
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DR. SUMNER AND THE CHURCH
supposed that they had their ordination, and that the council got no dinner !
The next year Mr. Sumner bought for his residence the house and land owned and occupied by Artemas Ward, then Colonel under King George. When he had all things in readiness, he went to Pomfret to marry Miss Lucy Williams, a worthy young lady of great refinement and intelligence, from an ancient and noted family, and he writes in his note book June 8th, "We came to live at our own house." Mr. Sumner was not long in winning the favor of his parishioners and he was, in all respects, a man to whom they could look up. Mentally he was strong, calm, and equal to all emergencies. Physically he was tall, with a com- manding figure, which he carried with great dignity, his height of six feet and four inches making him a Saul among his people.
The majesty of his appearance, with his white wig, and his three-cornered hat, from underneath which shone a pair of dark, piercing eyes, sent a feeling of awe through the young, and the boys never failed to take off their hats when they met his venerated form on the street.
A child seeing him for the first time ran into the house and told his mother that he had seen God ! To his dig- nity there was added that courtly and saintly grace, that showed him to be a gentleman and a Christian; and beneath all was his large, kind heart that had room for
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all his people. His kindly sympathy carried comfort to the homes he visited, and his genial good nature made him everywhere welcome. He was a busy man with his farming, his visiting, and writing two sermons a week, sometimes three, and on Saturday afternoons hearing the school children recite their catechisms.
His sermons were attractive, not being so long as to be wearisome, but always containing that which was not only worth listening to, but which was also well worth remembering. Though not gifted with great fluency of speech, his language was eloquent, and his words convincing.
Four years passed away, and the old meeting-house was found to be far too small to accommodate the large audiences that flocked to hear Mr. Sumner preach. It was the custom for every one to go to church; the town was growing, the inhabitants were enterprising, and ambitious to have their town as progressive as others about them, and they voted in town-meeting to build a new and more commodious meeting-house. Where it should be erected was a serious question and caused quite a dissension between those who lived on Rocky Plain and the more remote dwellers in the south. The north precinct had been set off as a separate parish and called Boylston. Those in the south still travelled four miles every Sabbath day to the meeting-house and having done this for twenty years or more, they requested the town to place the new meeting-house
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DR. SUMNER AND THE CHURCH
nearer to them and thus equalize the distance to it from all parts of the town. If this could not be done they wished to set off as a separate parish like their northern brethren. Feeling hurt that little attention was paid to their protests and entreaties, a lengthy petition was sent to the legislature, in which their woes were set forth and redress prayed for. For some reason they with- drew this petition and the new house was erected on Rocky Plain very near the old one. In those times preaching was supported by the town, and consequently a general interest was taken in the new house of wor- ship. A building committee was chosen, whose pur- pose was to have the work well and thoroughly done, and home labor was to be preferred to any other. The timbers were all selected from the Shrewsbury forests and hewn by the sturdy owners; Shrewsbury black- smiths made the nails and the architect himself, Mr. Daniel Heminway, was a Shrewsbury man and a famous church builder. All things being ready, the town voted to raise the building on the thirteenth of May, to provide a good supper and to send to Boston for a barrel of rum, probably the latter to keep up the spirits of the workmen and because it was a day to be remembered to all gen- erations. We are not told that there were any corner- stone ceremonies, or that the supper provoked any after speeches. That was an entirely practical company of men who wiped the drops from their faces that warm afternoon, and sat down to refresh themselves with the
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sumptuous repast which the willing hands of the wives and sisters had prepared while the work was going on. The men were weary; all day since six o'clock in the morning they had labored hard to fit the mighty timbers into their places and fasten them together with the strong oaken pins that were to hold them for an un- known number of years. The work for that day was finished and they viewed it with great satisfaction as they were eating their supper on the common in the fresh breeze of the early evening. The setting sun threw a glory over the newly hewn timbers, on that day raised to a new honor, as if the blessing of Heaven were descending upon the labor of their hands.
The sturdy yeomen may have felt this, for they had done their work faithfully and well, as the structure itself testifies that has stood through the storms and tempests of more than a century, that even the lightning stroke failed to destroy and is in 1892 apparently good for a hundred years to come. Mr. Sumner in his journal says " July 7, 1766, The old House was taken down. July 13, 1766, Being Lord's Day we met ye first time in the new House, upon wh. occasion I preached from Genesis 28 chapter & ye 17 verse-'This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.'" The new meeting-house, forty-five feet wide and sixty long, had at first no steeple or bell-they waited forty-two years for those ; the ornamentation, though simple, was artistic both inside and out, and all was painted white.
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DR. SUMNER AND THE CHURCH
Although the color of the inside has several times been changed, the white church remains yet a landmark to all the country round. The style of architecture belonging to that period may be seen in a few other buildings in town, the Haven Tavern being one. There were porches on the east and west ends, and a larger one on the south side. This was the main entrance and opened on to the broad aisle, which extended back to the pulpit on the north side. The aisles from the east and west porches met at the broad aisle and there were lesser aisles lead- ing from these to the different pews. A gallery ran around three sides of the house, in the south part of which sat the choir. It was in 1765, the last year of the old meeting-house, that "Jedediah Tucker and Jonathan Wheelock were chosen by the clrk. to set the psalm in public worship." Stoves were at that time unknown and the new house was as cold as the old one. Old ladies had their foot-stoves which they carried filled with live coals and replenished at the minister's fire- place at noon, while they sat there to warm themselves, eat their luncheon and talk over the morning-sermon, speculating meanwhile on what the subject for the after- noon might be. The pews were built after the old his- toric pattern, square with high backs and seats on three sides, and doors that might be closed in cold weather to prevent a circulation of air and the escape of heat from the foot-stoves. If the pews were crowded, and there were boys in the family, one of them must sit in the
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