USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > Reflections on Royalston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, U.S.A > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
STONES, UTILITARIAN AND ORNAMENTAL.
It is probable that Royalston territory carries about the same variety of min- eral constituents common to New England; but the town has never become noted for the production of any kind of minerals in profitable amounts. Prof. Hitch- cock noted that the water at the Doane Falls descended between high walls of gneiss and granite. Granite is one of the most common and useful of rock forma- tions. Gneiss, some geologists suppose, was originally deposited as sand or mud, and then metamorphosed by the combined action of pressure, heat and water. Gneiss rock usually holds quite a variety of crystalline substance, including quartz, feldspar and mica, often arranged in strata or layers. There can be no question that the ledgy hills of Royalston contain vast amounts of granite and of the mixed gneiss.
But the production of granite commercially has never been undertaken to any great extent. When, in 1857, the great bedstone for the engine at the steam-mill was drawn over from a Fitzwilliam quarry by 12 or 15 pairs of oxen (see page 88), it was not on account of lack of granite in Royalston, but because there were fa- cilities at the quarry for lifting such a block and placing it directly on the wagon.
Fitchburg has a practically solid hill of granite, known as Rollstone Hill, now almost in the center of its thickly settled section, from which many thousands of tons of granite have been quarried. Yet in 1903, when a large grain elevator was
155
Reflections on Royalston
built almost across the river from this hill of stone, the granite for the basement wall and foundation was brought by railroad from the Fitzwilliam quarry. The stone was laid on platform freight cars by the power derrick at the quarry, in slices as large as the cars would carry; these loaded cars were placed on the rail- road track adjoining the site; the foreman marked off the slices into pieces of the sizes desired, and after they were split they were swung by the derrick on the site to their required positions. This was considered a great saving of labor over having the granite brought from Rollstone Hill to the site by teams. Fitchburg's Main Street was once paved with granite blocks brought from Fitzwilliam, which cost less than was bid for those from Rollstone Hill. The Fitzwilliam granite is said to be softer and easier to work than the Fitchburg, and it is probable that human labor can be secured at lower cost in the New Hampshire town than in the Massachusetts city, -two elements contributing to the difference in cost.
I remember that back in the 60's there was a small quarry by the roadside about half a mile from the South Royalston station toward the Center. It is told in the Caswell book that in 1837 a "slab of granite 40 feet long and 6 feet wide was quarried in a ledge a mile distant and moved in two days with 12 yoke of oxen," for the floor of the porch of the Second Congregational Church. It is not probable that Rufus Bullock "imported" the large amount of stone required to build his stone woolen mill in 1834; it must have been quarried in that vicinity. And the long lane leading to one house in South Royalston, fenced on both sides by many closely-set split stone posts, indicates that in former times there must have been considerable activity in the quarrying.
In 1841 Prof. Hitchcock noted the then recent discovery of beryl in Royals- ton, but evidently he was wrong in naming the location of the find at South Roy- alston, for nothing of that kind has been mentioned in recent years, and the talk has all been about the beryl mine in the north-easterly part of the town. The Caswell book devotes considerable space to expatiating this mine and the beauties and value of its product, and states that some of the stones have been sold as high as $100 each, and others have been valued by experts at $300 each. The property is owned by a non-resident; and as this publication is not designed to give either free or paid advertising to anyone, the name is omitted. Perhaps the assessors of Royalston have not lived up to their privileges in rating so valuable a piece of property as the "Beryl hill pasture, 20 acres," which includes the mine, at $400 valuation, as was the case for many years, and $600 later.
CEMETERIES.
The Proprietors of Royalston, realizing that the people whom they induced to inhabit their territory could not live forever, generously arranged for a place for the proper sepulture of their mortal remains. The Memorial gives the history of
THE "OLD CEMETERY" AT THE CENTER.
"The original burial ground was projected by the Proprietors, and occupied the east side of the public square [the Common]. Several interments were made on this ground; but being found very unsuitable for the purpose, it was exchanged for a lot lying south-west of the original plot, and on the south side of the Athol road. Subsequently the town added some acres to this lot and enclosed the whole with a stone wall. It has also a receiving tomb and a hearse house fronting upon the road; and hither, from year to year, for more than a century, have many of the dead of Royalston been borne to their last sleep."
This placing of the burial ground on the same public lot that contained the meeting-house was in conformity with a time-honored custom of making the churchyard a burial ground. Shakespeare mentioned "graves in a holy church- yard,"-a sacred place. But the tide of the exploits of the living will not stop at these homes of the dead, but sweeps around and over them; so that, especially in our large cities, there are churchyard cemeteries entirely surrounded by towering buildings and thronged streets, while in many instances these sacred fields have been literally dug up and effaced, to give place to the operations of teeming life.
But this "Old Cemetery" on the Athol road in Royalston has never been in any danger of sharing such a fate; and there has always been plenty of land adjoining
156
Reflections on Royalston
it to enlarge it to meet the needs of several centuries. This land, on one side, was for many years in possession of the Estabrook family; perhaps they made the deal by which the yard was established there; without doubt they supplied the land for the 'enlargement mentioned; and they added a corner which was espe; cially fixed up for a private family lot for them, with a separate gateway from the street.
With this fact of plenty of land adjoining for the enlargement of the "old cemetery," it may not be impossible that the ownership of some of that land by the Estabrook family was a factor contributing to the opening of the "new ceme- tery," recently called
THE "LAWRENCE BROOK CEMETERY."
This "new" or "Lawrence Brook Cemetery," situated about a mile easterly from the Common, on the South Royalston road, and near the Lawrence Brook, was projected not far from 1856, and without question Hon. Rufus Bullock was the projector. Of course there was never any "trouble" between the Bullocks and the Estabrooks, who had been friendly rivals in' trade, and possibly in local and general politics. But when, after but recently having seen two of his sons and a son-in-law laid to rest, Mr. Bullock realized that the time could not be many years distant when he himself would need a final resting place, it was but natural that his mind should turn to a new location in preference to extension of the old well-filled grounds, where the Estabrooks had the best position and must be dealt with for the needed extension. And his almost daily rides between the Center and South Royalston gave him ample opportunity to'consider the merits of lots in that direction and to select the best. And those who know something of Mr. Bul- lock's frugality and economy, will not doubt that the fact of the lower value of the land near the brook as compared with that nearer the Common, would be a strong factor in determining his choice.
The projector found many ready to go in with him for the new location, not only among those who as yet had but little need for burial grounds, but from others who desired larger and better accomodations than the old cemetery gave; and many remains were removed from the old cemetery to the new one.
Mr. Bullock made it obligatory on the Town to properly care for this cemetery by attaching to his legacy of $5,000 for a school fund (see page 97) the provision "that whenever the said Town of Royalston shall neglect to keep, or cause to be kept, in a good state of repair, the new cemetery now being established on the ground recently purchased of C. H. Maxham, that is to say, shall neglect to main- tain in good order and condition the said ground, fence, gate and receiving tomb therein, then this sum of $5,000 shall revert to and be paid over to my children and their heirs by right of representation."
CEMETERIES AT THE WEST PART.
West of the Jacobs hill a burial ground was early provided near the first Bap- tist meeting-house (see page 119). Another early graveyard was placed near the Richmond line, and another near the Warwick line. In addition to these, family lots were established on the Bliss, Hill and Shepardson places.
SOUTH ROYALSTON CEMETERIES.
At South Royalston the first burial ground was established in a location which has now left it right in the heart of the village. Benjamin Blanchard deeded the lot to 18 proprietors in 1790, and the land was then in Athol, being a part of that which was later set over to Royalston (see page 41). But few burials have been made in this yard since the middle of the last century.
"Riverside Cemetery" at South Royalston was established by an association organized in 1842, which, with a membership of 41 persons, -32 residents of Roy- alston, 7 of Phillipston, 1 of Athol and 1 of Princeton, -in 1844 received from Tim- othy Lewis a deed of a tract of land on the Winchendon road, near Millers River, which became the easterly part of the cemetery. Later, Benjamin W. Rich, who owned the land adjoining the cemetery on the west, plotted it into burial lots and sold them, and the fence between those lots and the cemetery was removed; and
157
Reflections on Royalston
finally the cemetery association purchased from the heirs of Mr. Rich the rest of his adjoining land and laid it out for burial lots. The territory thus provided will probably meet the needs of that section of the town for a long time. A writer in the Memorial in 1865, after mentioning this cemetery, said: "The one thing to be regretted about this yard is, that the living tide must ere long sweep over and beyond it, raising the same painful debate, which now exists with respect to the old yard." The writer's fears have not been realized, for South Royalston has shown little if any more growth in population and number of habitations than the Center, since 1865. (See page 53.)
CARE OF CEMETERIES.
After telling the story of the provision made by Hon. Rufus Bullock for the care of the "new" cemetery, the writer in the Memorial said:
"Hitherto there had been no measures adopted for assuring those who 'fall asleep' that their graves, their monuments, and their surroundings, should have
RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, SOUTH ROYALSTON, 1905.
safe and sacred keeping. £ One isolated field of graves after another has been given over to desolation, and the same fate seems little else than a question of time with respect to the rest. It is no pleasant anticipation of the living, though powerfully suggested by passing events, that future generations may stumble upon their graves among the pastures and woodlands, or that their monuments may be endangered by the 'logging' operations of an enterprising future. Hence it is no wonder that anxiety is felt, to look up the title deeds, if there be any, and provide, if possible, for some better keeping of the graveyards."
The provision for the care of the cemeteries, so much desired by the writer in the Memorial, has been made, and it may be said that now, in 1922, probably all of the cemeteries in Royalston are being kept in good condition.
From the best information at hand it appears that the good work began when the Town accepted from members of the Gale and Gates families a trust fund of $1,000, the income from which is used for the care of what is now called the Gale and Gates cemetery, at the west part of the town.
Beginning a little later, the Town has maintained a board of three Cemetery
158
Reflections on Royalston
Commissioners, one of whom is chosen annually, to serve three years. These Com- missioners receive small salaries, and they also have the expenditure of $50 to $100 appropriated annually by the Town for the care of cemeteries.
Since about 1901 the Town has accepted perpetual care endowment funds, provided for by law, and contributed by interested parties, the interest or income to be applied to the care of designated lots. At first the acceptance of such funds was made by vote in town meeting; but later the Treasurer was empowered to accept them at any time.
Some 25 of these trust funds, varying from $50 to $200, have been accepted, up to 1922, providing for the care of as many family lots; and many more will undoubtedly be deposited from time to time. Hillside Cemetery is provided for by a fund of $100; and Maple Cemetery had $483.75 to its credit.
About 1915 the Town assumed the care of the fund of the Riverside Cemetery Association, which in 1921 amounted to $1,750, and the income goes for the care of that cemetery.
The report of the Town Treasurer for 1921 shows the total amount of endow- ment and other cemetery funds in the care of the Town as $6,133.75; from which there was an income of $291.22 in 1921, and $210.10 was expended for care of lots.
There was an unexpended balance of income of $462.97, on Dec. 31, 1921. This is right, and the income should always be administered judiciously, for it is inevi- table that as time goes on there will be calls for extensive expenditure beyond merely keeping the grass looking good.
And there seems to be no good reason why the unexpended income should not also be kept at interest from year to year, to add to the much needed funds.
During a recent stroll through Laurel Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg, my atten- tion was arrested by the condition of one of the lots. It was fenced with solid granite posts, 7 inches square, nicely finished and with rounded tops, and placed at proper distances apart, with granite curbings between, and two rows of iron pipes or rods placed in holes drilled in the sides of the posts. Almost anybody would agree that such a combination would make a very solid, substantial and durable fence. But every granite post around that lot, except one, was split longitudinally at one or both holes, and some were also split vertically. Before my stroll in that cemetery ended I passed a half a dozen or more lots fenced in the same way, and all except one of them had sustained similar damage, but in a lesser degree. This confirmed my suspicion that no other agency than frost was responsible for the damage,-frost, forming around the iron in the holes, had the expansive power to split those solid 7-inch granite posts.
I saw in that cemetery marble headstones which had been broken and mended with straps of iron riveted on them; and others which had been broken and the upper part set down into the bedstone, leaving them only about half their original height. And I saw numerous other things that were out of order which the income from endowment funds might well be used to repair, if there were any.
This Laurel Hill Cemetery is mostly located on hillsides, and is principally a sandbank. A few years since the lower edge of it gave way, threatening to un- earth nearby graves, and requiring the expenditure of many hundreds and per- haps thousands of dollars to correct the trouble.
But notwithstanding this slippery condition of the ground, one of the "first families" of Fitchburg,-the one which coined wealth out of business done in that old Royalston steam-mill building (see page 88),-has erected a private mausoleum at about the highest point on this treacherous edge, where its position is main- tained by retaining walls of granite 20 feet high above the ground, with enough beneath to carry the load, and an unprotected declivity of many feet below at a little distance. This mausoleum or tomb above ground is built of granite, and has crypts or compartments for eight bodies on its two sides, with a passway between, a window-door and a window at the back end.
There are reservoirs, one in this cemetery and several below it, in good posi- tion to take its leachings, which once supplied drinking water to Main street and its environs, through pipes laid across the river and the street. But the excava- tion of the street for city water pipes at two pressures, two sewer systems, pipes for gas, telephone, telegraph, fire-alarm and police telegraph, electric light and power wires, and other purposes, has probably eliminated most of those pipes from the founts of aqua pura.
159
Reflections on Royalston
Forest Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg is comparatively level, and additions of adjoining territory made to it are brought up to a reasonable consistency by filling, with ample terracing, so that there is no danger of damage by washouts or land- slides; and there are rows of scores of lots like one vast lawn, undivided except by obscure little posts or pins at the edge.
Recently a concern has been permitted to erect, for profit, a mausoleum in a part of the grounds which it was supposed was to be always kept open and park- like. This above-ground tomb is constructed of Indiana graystone and Vermont marble, with much cement-concrete work, and bronze doors and windows. It con- tains crypts for 480 bodies, and a central chapel for funeral services, with electric lights and heat. The superintendent told me that the cost of construction was about $200,000; and he said that the two bronze front doors weighed 900 pounds each and cost $1 per pound, or $1,800 for the pair. The lowest-priced crypt or berth, at the top of a tier, is $375; others run up, probably, to $700 or $800; while a separately enclosed apartment, containing 5 or 10 crypts, must call for an invest- ment of several thousands of dollars. The land was sold to the concern erecting the mausoleum, which has been collecting money from its patrons; but it is stated that when all of its spaces have been sold it will be turned over to the city to be cared for, with a fund considered ample for the purpose. It is evident that we cannot all be laid on the shelves of this home of the dead, for more people die in Fitchburg in a single year than can be accomodated in its recesses. The great majority will still be laid to rest in mother earth-"ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
The mausoleum gets its name from the tomb erected to Mausolus, king of Caria, in Asia Minor, by his widow, about 350 B. C. Its adoption now seems like a step backward. What is to be gained by attempting to preserve human bodies forever, after the chemico-vital forces and combinations which produce and sus- tain human life have run their course and forever ceased to act? However well they may be preserved, the lifeless human bodies must ultimately perish in decay. How much better it would be if, instead of expensive mausoleums, crematories could be provided at community expense, where bodies might be incinerated, or by chemical action resolved into original elements, instead of keeping them to be "eaten of worms" or to be shrunken into the similitude of mummies.
CALAMITOUS EPIDEMICS.
In 1777 an epidemic of dysentery brought great distress to Royalston, and more than 40 lives were lost by it.
In 1795 Royalston was afflicted by an epidemic of throat distemper, from which there were 66 deaths, mostly of children and young people.
In 1873 Mrs. George Woodbury copied from a gravestone in the old cemetery the following inscription, and furnished it to me for publication. She wrote:
"Time has almost obliterated what was so long ago engraved in love, and it is with difficulty it can now be read. Tradition will soon fail to tell its story, but may it find a place among the early incidents of the town."
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
Miss Hannah Heywood, Betsey Heywood, Grace Heywood, Master Benjamin Heywood, and Miss Sarah Heywood, children of Mr. Silas Heywood & Mrs. Hannah his wife. Benj., died of a fever April 19, 1795, aged 5 years, 9 months; Hannah, May 16, 1795, aged 14 years, 4 months; Sarah, May 22, 1795, aged 2 years, 10 months; Betsey, May 23, 1795, aged 13 years, 1 month; Grace, May 30, 1795, aged 10 years, 3 months. All these amiable daughters fell a prey to the throat dis- temper. So speedily were these lovely flowers cut down in all their bloom of youth, health and cheerfulness, so soon may other children vanish from their parents and friends and enter upon an awful eter- nity. These afflicting instances with 62 more children and youth who died near the same time in this town, of the same painful disease, strikingly illustrates the words of holy Job, Man cometh forth like a flower and is cut down, he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. 'Tis God who lifts our comforts high, Or sinks them in the grave;
He gives, and blessed be his name,
He takes but what he gave.
160
Reflections on Royalston
MORTALITY AND LONGEVITY.
Royalston has long been considered as a "healthy" town, where the people on the average live to a great age and where the death rate is comparatively low. I had expected that statistics would support the latter proposition, but in truth- fulness must admit that they do not.
The number of deaths reported in the printed annual reports of the town of Royalston for the 10 years from 1912 to 1921, inclusive, is 134,-an average of 13.4 per year. Allowing that the population of the town during that time was 850, and multiplying the 13.4 by 1000 and dividing the product by the 850, we find that the average annual death rate per 1000 of population (which is the usual way of figuring it) has been 15.76.
Comparing these figures with those of other places, we find that the death rate of Fitchburg for the 10 years from 1911 to 1920, inclusive, averaged 13.59 per 1000 of population per year. The rate of Boston for the year 1920 was 15.44 per 1000. The average rate in the United States registration area (which in- cludes about 77 per cent. of the population of the country) for the 10 years from 1910 to 1919, inclusive, was 14.39 per 1000.
One reason, and perhaps the principal one, why the death rate in Royalston is approximately high, is because so many of the young people, born and brought up in the town, strong and healthy, and developed by special education, go away to "better their fortunes," leaving the aged, the feeble and sickly, to augment the mortality. A few stay on the farms and "make good;" but the majority hear and heed the call to a more promising life elsewhere.
Two residents of Royalston have passed the century mark in age. Mrs. Su- sannah Carpenter, who was the mother of one of the early settlers, died at the age of 105 years. Daniel Davis, born in Royalston Feb. 4, 1809, died on the place on which he was born, in the west part of the town, March 30, 1912, aged 103 years.
The Memorial gives a list of names of 32 persons who died at ages between 90 and 100, and 110 between 80 and 90, during the first century of the town; and states that it was not possible to give a complete list.
Probably a canvas of the records of the half century since the Memorial was issued might reveal quite as large a ratio of deaths at advanced ages. From the reports of only 11 years I have culled the names of 7 who died between the ages of 90 and 100, as follows : Clarissa Russell, in 1900, aged 95 years; Lucretia Y. Stimson, 1911, 93; Laurinda W. Davis, 1912, 92; Eliza M. Brown, 1913, 92; Lucy Ann Rice, 1915, 90; Caleb Weeks Day, 1919, 91; Nancy Kendall Gale, 1921, 90. And of those near 90: Anstres W. Tenney, 1900, 89; Elijah Reed, 1902, 87; David P. Foster, 1903, 87; Elizabeth M. Gerry, 1915, 87; Leonard Byam, 1916, 87; Stephen Frye, 1918, 87; Solon Densmore Goodale, 1919, 88; John Francis Leathe, 1919, 87. And in the reports of 15 years I find 38 names of those who died be- tween 80 and 90. In 1915, of 17 deaths recorded, 9 were of persons over 80.
GRAVE ROBBERY.
A case of grave robbery is mentioned in the 1865 Memorial, as follows:
"There has been one instance in Royalston, and but one, to our knowledge, of grave-robbing. In July of 1823, Mr. Jarvis Weeks, while passing through the belt of woods which skirts the south-east shores of Little Pond, came upon a newly- made booth, which excited his suspicions. He. called upon Mr. Peter Woodbury, and returned with him to make examination. They found a grave robe, and frag- ments of a human body. Going thence to the graveyard they found cause to sus- pect that the newly made grave of Daniel Forbes had been disturbed. It was opened, and the body was not there. At this time several medical students were studying with Dr. Bacheller. Two of these were arrested; and two made good their escape. A set of human bones, lately prepared, was found in the possession of one of the former. His companion turned state's evidence; in process of time he was convicted of disinterring the body of Daniel Forbes, and due penalty awarded him. This outrage produced great excitement, and for a long time the new graves were watched with painful anxiety. A brother of Daniel Forbes gathered up the bones that had been thus feloniously taken from their grave and secretly buried them in the yard below the hill, carefully concealing all indications of their locality."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.