USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > Reflections on Royalston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, U.S.A > Part 26
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Mr. Caswell, in his History of Royalston, told one of his somewhat habitual half-stories, when he stated that the old church building was moved to "near the north end of the Common where it served for many years as a barn or stable for Col. George Whitney." Evidently he was never informed that the building was moved to that location to replace Capt. George Pierce's barn, or of the burning of the Pierce barn, or the Estabrook barn and Pierce house. As Capt. George Pierce acquired the church barn in 1863 and undoubtedly used it for the most of the 29 years up to the time of his death in 1892, and Col. George Whitney died 5 years later, in 1897, it is a breach of historical accuracy to name Col. Whitney only as its user "for many years."
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Reflections on Royalston
The second fire to destroy a dwelling house in the Center village, within my recollection and information, did not come until some 70 years after the burning of the Pierce house. Feb. 15, 1918, the cottage house at the location designated 5NE on the map was burned. It was owned and occupied by a Mrs. Sweezey. It was probably built by William S. Bemis, who was for several years the village black- smith, at the old Wheeler shop.
The Holman furniture shop, located at 30N on the map, was burned, probably, in 1853. (See page 77.)
This completes the list of buildings destroyed by fire in Royalston Center vil- lage, proper, in the 160 years since its beginning; a remarkable record, with only 9 buildings burned-1 church, 2 stores, 2 dwelling-houses, 3 barns and 1 shop. Per- haps there were others; but I have no recollection of having known or heard in any way about them.
But it is not necessary to go far from the Center village to find places where fire has destroyed valuable buildings and other property.
The Woodbury place, the first one south of the Center village, on the Athol road, was occupied by the original settler and descendants bearing the Woodbury name, from 1763 to 1904. In the latter year the place was sold to Emory A. Holden, and he and his family resided there until his death, March 4, 1923. The two dwel- ling-houses on the place were burned about 1910. Mr. Holden partially rebuilt. In 1924 the place was sold to Axel Benson, from Athol, who built a home. His wife died there, July 20, 1924.
A mile or so further south on the Athol road, Benjamin Bragg's mill, on the Lawrence, was burned, in 1850. (See page 62.)
Higher up on the Lawrence, near to the point where the South Royalston road crosses it, what was originally the Prouty saw-mill and shop passed into the owner- ship of Joseph L. Perkins and Franklin H. Goddard. It was burned about 1869. Rebuilt, it was burned again, while under the ownership of Albert W. Merriam, probably in 1877. It was rebuilt again, and Millard W. White was its last owner and operator. (See page 64.)
The old Holman-Partridge-Newton & Davis mill building, at the next privi- lege above on the Lawrence, was burned on the night of July 3, 1905. It was rebuilt the same season, and the building from the White privilege below utilized in part for the purpose. (See page 64.)
The large dwelling-house on the old Chase farm, at the northeast part of the town, which around 1870 was owned by the town and used as a home for the poor, was burned, after it had come into the possession of John Comick.
All of the buildings on the Alvin Freeman Tenney place, at the north part of the town, at the time owned and occupied by I. W. Small, were burned soon after noon on the "Old Home Day" in August, 1907 or 1908.
The old hip-roofed house on the lower part of the Jacobs hill road, perhaps the oldest house in Royalston, was destroyed by fire; and an aged man living there (was it David W. Graves?) lost his life at the time, from shock, perhaps, as it did not appear from the reports that he was seriously burned or suffocated.
A dwelling-house on a Davis place at the west part of the town was burned, probably somewhere between 1908 and 1912. Undoubtedly there were other fires in the west part of the town of which I have no definite information.
In the early settlement of the town Capt. Gad Pierce settled on the bank of the Lawrence, and his father, Capt. William Pierce, and two brothers, Zebulon and Eliphalet Pierce, came at about the same time and settled in that locality. So it happened that when, on Feb. 8, 1766, Selectmen John Fry and Timothy Richard- son laid out the first two town roads, as described in Caswell's History, one of them ran from the Common northerly to Capt. John Fry's house, and the other began "at the Common land near the meeting-house, then leading easterly through the minis- ter's lot by marked trees, so on eastwardly," etc., "to the line of Zebulon Pierce's land, and Gad Pierce's land, then half the road on Zebulon's and half on Gad Pierce's land," etc. This was the Winchendon road, substantially as it is at the present time, probably, and as it is likely to remain for a long time to come.
A road from the old Newton and Brown places crosses this Winchendon road near the Lawrence, and a little further on becomes the South Royalston road.
So much, to get a starting point for a little story about fires.
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In 1850, commencing at near the point where this road to South Royalston crosses the Winchendon road, and along on the South Royalston road to the last house before South Royalston village proper is reached, there were 9 farm houses, 7 of which were destroyed by fire, and there are now only 3 houses standing on all the 9 places which formerly had houses.
Somewhere not far from 1855, the house, and probably the barn, on the Paul Pierce place, situated a little easterly of the crossroads mentioned and the Law- rence, was burned.
About 1870, the old Pierce house, situated westerly of the crossroads, then in the possession of Horace Pierce, was burned. The loss was not great, as the building had become dilapidated and almost valueless; while the barn had "gone by" years before, probably. Horace Pierce and Paul Pierce were grandsons of Gad Pierce, mentioned as the first settler in that locality.
Up the hill, on the road towards South Royalston, the next place is the Nichols-Maxham-Neale-Wood place, the house on which was burned about 1904, while the place was in the possession of Henry S. Wood. The large barn was on the opposite side of the road, and was not burned.
The next place, settled by Henry Nichols, then owned successively by David Nichols, Abraham Eddy, Gibbs W. Eddy, and Francis Chase, then came into pos- session of Charles F. Chase, son of Francis. The house, barn and all buildings on the place, with a large part of their contents, were destroyed by fire around the first of September, 1920. The people soon rallied to Mr. Chase's assistance, and collected $1,000 and presented it to him.
Charles F. Chase then bought, for a home, the old Brown place, a mile or so in a northerly direction from his old home place. Although not exactly in the line of fires, but as it came about as the result of a fire, it may be in order to state that by the addition of the Brown farm to his former holdings, Mr. Chase became the owner of more acres of land in Royalston than any other resident tax-payer, the printed valuation list for 1921 crediting him with 67418 acres. Three non-residents are credited with larger holdings: Alfred J. Raymond, Athol, 720 acres; New Eng- land Box Co., Greenfield, 968 acres; E. Murdock & Co., Winchendon, 2,211 acres.
Other manufacturing concerns, public utilities corporations, descendants from Royalston families, and others who hold places for summer homes, have acquired ownership of so much of Royalston's territory, that it figures out that, of the 25,720 acres assessed for taxation in 1921, 13,520 acres, or several hundred acres more than one-half of the entire territory, were owned by non-residents. Of the 77 lots rated at 100 acres or more each, 37 were owned by non-residents, including all of the 6 lots of 200 acres or more each.
The next place south of the one where Charles F. Chase was burned out was settled by Silas Chase, son of Rogers Chase, who was succeeded by his son, Joseph W. Chase, (the initial W. probably standing for Wriford or Wryford, as he was generally called by that name rather than Joseph,) and he settled his son, another Joseph W. Chase, on the place. He died in 1919. His real estate went right on in- creasing in value. In 1918 the assessors listed his land holdings, consisting of 199 acres in 6 lots, at a valuation of $9,700; in 1921 they listed identically the same 6 lots and 199 acres at a valuation of $30,650. The tax on his estate was $671.44,- which was more than the combined tax of the 4 largest resident tax payers, and exceeded by only 2 of the non-resident corporations,-the American Woolen Com- pany $5,307.21, and the New England Power Company (electric) $1,260.04. One of the Joseph W. Chase lots of 16 acres was valued at $9,000, or $562.50 per acre; this was undoubtedly the most valuable land in Royalston, bearing, of course, an excel- lent crop of timber; no other land was valued at anywhere near that rate except a very few small lots of fractional parts of an acre, like "Jolly lot, 18 acre, $100."
This Joseph W. Chase place is the 5th in the line of 9 referred to at the top of this page; houses on all of the other 4 mentioned have been burned, but this place has escaped the devastation of fire, and buildings still remain.
The next place south was settled by Henry Bond, who was succeeded by David Lyon. Then William Eddy had the place, moved the house to conform with changes in the road, built a new barn, and then sold the place to Lyman W. Seaver. The house was burned in 1864, but the barn, on the opposite side of the road, was saved. That house has never been replaced. The barn was used by John N. Bartlett for a
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time, and then moved to the Charles F. Chase place, where it did good service until it was burned with the other buildings in 1920.
The next place south was settled by Nathan Bartlett, who was succeeded by his son, Jonas Bartlett, and his son, John N. Bartlett, was the last occupant of the place. Among the changes in the road which were made to give a more direct route and an easier road between Royalston Center and South Royalston, was one which left the buildings on the Bartlett place a few rods to the west. None of the buildings were burned. John N. Bartlett bought the new Eddy barn mentioned in the previous paragraph, and used it where it stood while he continued to operate the farm; and when he made his home elsewhere, the old buildings were left to die of old age.
The next place south was probably first settled by Daniel Moody; but it has long been best known as the Cutler place. Jonathan Cutler acquired it early in the history of the town; he was succeeded by his son, Tarrant Cutler, and he again by his son, another Tarrant Cutler. In 1869, or near that time, the place went into the possession of Allen Harrington, and it was his home until his death, Oct. 20, 1922. Both the house and the barn on this place were burned, in 1901, probably, and both were soon rebuilt. Arthur A. Harrington, a son, continues on the place.
The next place south was settled by Amos Jones, after having occupied a place further north for a time. Amos Jones was succeeded by his son, Silas Jones, and he by his son, Aaron Jones. The place came into the possession of George M. Lemon, of Gardner, who remodeled the large old farm house into a spacious and attractive summer hotel, said to have contained 38 furnished rooms. This building was burned, in 1908, probably, with a loss placed at $9,000. The large barn was saved, the house was rebuilt on a smaller scale, and the place has remained the property of George M. Lemon.
Here ends the story, proposed at the beginning of page 196, of 9 places almost in a row, the houses, and in some cases other buildings, on 7 of which have been burned, with houses remaining on only 3 of the 9 places.
Coming down to South Royalston, I cannot give anywhere near a complete list of the large number of destructive fires that have occurred in that vicinity, but I can mention several that have come to my knowledge.
One night somewhere along between 1864 and 1867, people at the Center were excited over a blaze seen in the direction of South Royalston, which was so large and brilliant that it was thought that nothing less than the woolen mill could be on fire; and several drove down to learn about it. It was found, however, that the fire was at a barn on the old Silas Hale place, which, being well filled with hay, made a spectacular blaze during the short time required for the flames to destroy it. This place is situated at the junction of the Templeton and Phillipston roads, and was originally a part of Phillipston.
June 15, 1884, the Farrar shops, (described on pages 66, 139 and 140,) together with the paint shop, barn, and two dwelling-houses, were destroyed, and other houses were damaged, by a fire, supposed to have originated accidentally.
Oct. 19, 1884, a building owned by Frederick H. Knight, and occupied by him with a livery stable, and by others with a meat market and a barber shop, was burned, and the Second Congregational Church and the Clark store were damaged. Assistance was asked from Athol to quell the fire, but the local department had it under control before the Athol detachment arrived. This fire was deemed to be of incendiary origin, and considerable legal effort was expended in attempts to place the blame, but no one was convicted of the crime.
Jan. 12, 1885, the brush-wood shop of Caleb W. Day, and the lumber sheds ad- joining (page 142), were destroyed by fire. The loss was placed at $7,000. Although this fire was regarded as the work of an incendiary, no one was apprehended.
The first textile mill, built about 1813, was burned in 1833. (See page 137.) A granite building was erected in its place by Rufus Bullock, and its operation carried on by him until his death in 1858, and then by Whitney and others.
This stone mill building was destroyed by fire Aug. 19 and 20, 1892. The loss was given as $175,000, with $140,000 insurance. For several years the business of the company was carried on in other places, and later a wooden building was erected, on the old location, and the old chair-shop building was used as a picker house in connection with the work of the mill. (See page 138.)
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Reflections on Royalston
On the afternoon of Oct. 25, 1904, my attention was arrested by the "scare heads" in a Boston newspaper,-something about a great fire in Royalston, and then "Half a Million Dollars Property Loss," "Sixteen Hundred People Rendered Homeless," etc. It was a pretty large story for me to swallow, knowing the total population of the town to be not much if any in excess of 900, and that it would be nothing short of a miraculous fire that would destroy the homes of half that num- ber, which might be grouped in and around South Royalston village. Some "enter- prising" correspondent at Athol, probably, "wired" the Boston newspaper that a threatening fire was under way, and the newspaper did the rest, making up a "good story," which with some newspapers is considered of more importance than telling the truth about a matter; and that story was printed and on the way to Fitchburg and Royalston before the results of the fire were known by anybody.
The actual fire, though modest in comparison with the newspaper report, was more far-reaching and covered more territory than any fire that had ever touched South Royalston. Beginning in the old chair-shop building, then used as a picker house for the woolen mill, that building was soon a mass of flame, which, blown by a strong west wind, attacked the wooden covered bridge across Millers river, near the picker house, the Second Congregational Church, and the school building, which also contained Mechanics hall, all of which were destroyed; and the store building near the church and several dwelling-houses were seriously damaged, the loss being estimated at $40,000 or more. Assistance in fighting the fire was asked from Athol and Baldwinville, and a steam fire-engine was promptly sent from each place; and without their assistance the results would have been vastly more disastrous.
The post-office store at South Royalston, then owned by George Everett Pierce, was destroyed by fire, probably in 1862.
For many years South Royalston has had some sort of a fire department, con- sisting principally of men employed in the mill and shops, who have responded to alarms with the apparatus provided, and with water pumped from Millers river have stopped and held back fires which, but for their service, would have destroyed an immense amount of property. A power-driven force-pump has been maintained at the woolen mill, which has been of great service in fighting fire at the mill and on adjacent territory.
Until somewhat recently the Center village has had no organized arrangement for fighting fire. There was the little "engine" that was housed in the building provided for it, in front of the horse-sheds at the church. Probably no one now living can tell when or why it was procured. But it seems reasonable to suppose that it was secured after the church was burned in 1851, with a view to having something for protection against fire. Not very far distant from the church was a well, at a point somewhat north of the center of the wide part of the Common. There was once a pump in that well, and I have a sort of vague remembrance that back in my early school-days, around 1853 we will say, I saw that pump; but per- haps my mind has pictured it from what I was told rather than from what I saw. Anyway, the old pump "went by," and probably the well "run dry."
I have seen an old picture of a fire scene in old New York, that reminded me of that old "engine" and old pump. In the picture, some of the Knickerbockers, all uniformly clad in three-cornered hats, coats, knee-breeches and buckled shoes, were industriously pumping water and pouring it into the receptacle of an "engine" that might have been a twin of the one at Royalston, while others at the cranks were making the thing go, and one standing on the top was steering the resultant stream toward a low one-story building from which smoke was issuing. That exciting scene brought to my mind the query whether the men might not have done quite as , effective work by throwing the water directly from their buckets onto the fire.
Once, I remember, perhaps it was in 1855, some of the men at the furniture, blacksmith and palmleaf shops pulled that Royalston "engine" down to the shop pond where there was plenty of water, and tried to make it work. The tank was so dried up and leaky that water ran out at the bottom almost as fast as it could he poured in at the top. The net result of the experiment was a stream hardly adequate to extinguish a hen-house fire. That "engine" was never of any practical use. It was kept as a relic until Nov. 20, 1923, when it was destroyed in the fire which consumed the old church-barn that housed the Center's modern fire-fighting outfit. (See page 194.)
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Reflections on Royalston
About 1910, or possibly a little earlier, the Town of Royalston provided a chemical engine for the Center, and a company of 8 or 10 men was organized to handle it. Arrangements were made for quarters for it and an outfit of ladders, tools and necessary paraphernalia, in the old church-barn on the Common, and it was kept there until the building was destroyed by fire, Nov. 20, 1923.
The Town appropriates an amount annually, which has increased from $100 in 1911 to $700 in 1924, for fire department purposes; from which the men of the com- panies at South Royalston and the Center have been paid modest amounts for at- tendance at roll-calls, (enabling them to keep acquainted with their apparatus,) and expenses incidental to the care and up-keep of the apparatus have been met. No salaries have been paid to firemen, but the annual town reports show that the men who have rendered service at fires have been paid modest wages, from the fire de- partment funds or under the head of miscellaneous charges.
The town report for 1913 gave a list of people throughout the town to whom 86 hand chemical fire extinguishers had been loaned. These chemical extin- guishers, kept properly charged, in the hands of people capable of operating them effectively, are often the means of quelling fires in their early stages.
I have been told of two cases in which hand chemical extinguishers were used with good results, probably before they were furnished by the town. Benjamin Hammond Brown was able to smother a fire, which had started from an upset lan- tern in the hay in his barn, with an extinguisher. When an overheated chimney threatened the destruction of the parsonage, Dr. Adams made an incision with an axe and cured the malady by injecting the contents of an extinguisher. But for the availability of the extinguishers, both of these fires might have resulted very dis- astrously, as neither water nor any other fire retardant were at hand.
Fires at the homes of Charles H. Brown and Franklin H. Goddard have been mentioned, which the chemical engine and extinguishers probably kept from being disastrous. And there may have been others.
It is not always necessary to have water or chemicals to extinguish a fire. In one case where a lighted lamp had fallen onto a carpeted floor, while others were running for water and the firemen, I saw a man reach down and yank up a corner of the carpet and slowly and quietly lay it over the blaze, entirely smothering it. Quite in contrast with another case, where a man who had dropped a lighted lamp in his house, left it and ran out to ring in a fire alarm, with the result that his house was gutted; whereas if he had given his attention to smothering the incipient blaze with his coat or anything at hand, the damage would have been small. A bucket of dry sand, kept available, is a good fire extinguisher. A little lively work with a dust pan, wash dish, coal hod, garbage can, anything, used in throwing common earth, snow or ice onto a fire in its infancy, may prevent a bigger blaze that might destroy thousands of dollars in property. Better spoil a good rug, carpet or gar- ment in smothering a blaze than let it get headway and destroy everything.
ELECTRICITY IN ROYALSTON.
About 1907, the corporation then known as the Connecticut River Power Com- pany, which built an immense concrete dam across the Connecticut River at Vernon, Vt., to provide power for generating electricity, began to make arrangements for a right of way for its wires for transmitting the product to points far distant from its source, and that right of way ran directly through Royalston.
It is sometimes said that "corporations have no souls," which evidently means that the persons forming the corporations will tolorate performances in the names of their corporations which they would not care to be responsible for as individuals. Corporation lawyers and experts are employed, who study out ways of taking ad- vantage of all laws, and the innocent ignorance and gullibility of the people, and perhaps securing new laws for the benefit of the corporations.
It happened that when the agents of the power company proposed to allow the land-owners of Royalston $5 for each "pole" set, in payment for the right of way, many of them, probably having in mind something like telephone poles, readily accepted the proposition and "signed up," to learn later by observation and experi- ence that the "poles" were large metal towers, and that with the right to place them they had also given rights to clear off timber and maintain a wide way of
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approach to all of the equipment, leaving them little but the ownership of the land, manifestly greatly damaged by the presence of the equipment, and the burden of paying the taxes on it forever.
One owner of land in Royalston, Charles H. Goodell, who had a scrap that was in the course laid out for the company, and who was posted on the methods of cor- porations, refused all offers for "right of way" over his lot, and the company then bought it of him, and has since paid annual taxes on $200 on it,-the only piece of land in Royalston on which the company has ever paid taxes.
Some of the owners whose lands were crossed moved for a re-adjustment of the price, and perhaps all were finally satisfactorily remunerated. Not until the equipment begins to give out from deterioration will its full burden be realized. One death, at least, has resulted from the presence of the wires; but the company was in no way responsible for it, and has probably taken all reasonable means to safeguard and caution against danger.
If the voters of Royalston had known more of the ways of public utility cor- porations, perhaps they would have insisted that the electric power company make arrangements to furnish current for use in the town on terms corresponding with those made for other places, in return for the valuable privilege of crossing the town with its towers, cables and wires. The larger towns and cities have learned the wisdom of such procedure. In order to reduce the enormous voltage of current carried on the main cables down to the amount required for practical use, reducing stations are established and operated at advantageous points. Had Athol needed electric current from this company's lines, probably a reducing station would have been located in Royalston, from which both Athol and Royalston could have been served. But Athol was well provided for from another source; and presumably the cost of maintaining a reducing station for Royalston alone would be all out of proportion to the income from the limited number of consumers. An alternative would be to bring the current from some reducing station at a distance,-Gardner, perhaps. The company would probably have done that, if necessary, to get the very desirable and valuable right of way across the town.
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