USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > Reflections on Royalston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, U.S.A > Part 8
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Reflections on Royalston
hands of George Whitney. Later the buildings were diverted to the use of the woolen mill. On Oct. 25, 1904, they were destroyed by fire, together with much other property.
Luther Harrington had a saw-mill in connection with his furniture and cabinet shop, at a point higher up on the river than the others mentioned. It served its purpose, and was long since a thing of the past.
Here we have mentioned locations of 17 old-time saw- mills and 5 grist-mills; it is possible that there were others.
Without giving the matter much thought, our first opinion might be that there must have been something of a rush of the settlers to the mills to get their timber sawed out for new buildings. But when we take into consideration the size of the timber then deemed necessary, the rough roads, and the great distance to the mills in some instances, we may well conclude that much of the timber used in building in the early years of the town never went to the mills. With the axe and the adze-a sort of hoe-shaped axe-the large timbers were flattened on one or more sides, for the large posts and beams, and smaller timbers were likewise flat- tened for floor joists, studding, rafters, and other purposes. But when it came to boards, then the mills must have had something to do, for boards could not be hewn out to advantage.
In 1870 I was keeping store in the old building at the head of the Common (1C on map), and being about to commence housekeeping in the residence connected, which was originally the home of Rev. Joseph Lee, I constructed a woodbox for use in the kitchen thereof. I found in the back room of the store a board which the landlord said had been taken out of the old house when some change was made, aad he gave me per- mission to use it. That board was undoubtedly put into that house when it was built, probably soon after the settlement of Mr. Lee in 1768. The board was of pine, 27 inches wide, and must have been cut out of a tree at least 30 inches in diameter, to get the straight edges. How did they get boards of that width? It is hardly possible that one of those crude up-and-down mills of the early days could have sawed logs of that size; and they certainly did not have the circular saw more than 60 inches in diameter which would have been necessary. Perhaps they split and hewed them out with the axe and the adze. I still have a piece of that board, 27 by 28 inches, in my possession.
Building a house in those olden times was not a matter of nailing to- gether a lot of light stuff, from 2 by 4 inches up, as it is done in this twentieth century. In those days it was considered necessary to have a heavily timbered frame, and it must be well braced and pinned to- gether. It required considerable physical strength and dexterity to set up such a frame. And so it was customary, when the timbers had been hewn, and cut to the proper lengths, and the mortises and tenons accu- rately set, and the braces nicely fitted, and so on, to have a "raising," to which, not everybody, but a large part of the men for miles around, willingly came to do the boosting. They came to help, of course; but perhaps there were other reasons contributory to their coming. There was sure to be a lot of fun-making, and an abundance of good cheer, - doughnuts and cider, and other things good to eat and drink. Hot coffee? Well, I don't know whether hot coffee had been invented or discovered in those early days; but hot toddy had, and there was generally a good supply of that. Toddy was the favorite beverage in those days; and probably no wedding, funeral, raising, or celebration of any kind went by without the use of a generous quantity of it. Many town histories
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contain memoranda of the supplies laid in and paid for by the towns, as shown by the records, for meeting-house raisings and like events; the items usually include a goodly quantity of New England rum, and sugar to sweeten it. Our Royalston historians did not dig up any records of that kind; but their absence does not prove that such conditions did not exist, any more than Mr. Caswell's failure to give the names and records : of members of important families proves that they did not exist.
TANNERIES.
William Brown, the ancestor of the large Brown family of Royals- ton, first settled on what has long been known as the Prouty place, on the road from the Common towards Winchendon (Square 33), and established a tannery there. Brown early removed to the place that for more than a century has been known as the Brown place, in Squares 25-26. He was succeeded at the tannery by Isaac Prouty, and he by his son, William H .. . Prouty. The tannery buildings were burned, probably soon after 1850, and were never replaced.
David Copeland settled west of the road leading south from the Common by the easterly side of the school-house. His place was north"" of the Lawrence meadows (Square 40), and he had a tannery, vestiges of which could be seen as late as 1865.
Samuel Goddard built a tannery in the west part of the town, in Square 12, in which an extensive business was done. He was succeeded by his son Salmon, who enlarged the business, and his son Salmon fol- lowed, and was the only Royalston tanner and currier listed in the Mas- sachusetts Register for 1853, and the tannery was designated on the 1857 map.
Cyrus Bassett built a tannery about a mile south-easterly from the: Goddard place; this Bassett place was later long known as the Jarvis Davis place. (Square 22.)
Jeremiah Dean established a tannery about a mile easterly from the" Bassett place, where was the saw-mill later owned by Dexter Under- wood and Leonard G. Moore. (Square 23.) "Daniel Davis, who died in 1912, at the age of 103 years, helped build this tannery.
Nathan Goddard established a tannery in the south-west part of the town, together with his saw-mill and public house. "In 1783 his place became a part of the new town of Orange. The location is shown out- side of Square 29 on the map.
Here we have located the six tanneries mentioned in the Memorial. Perhaps there were others, on a small scale. Very likely some of the settlers tanned their own hides, or, rather, the hides of their own ani- mals, on their own premises. Some of the processes were simple, the first one being the soaking or steeping of the skins in vats of hemlock or oak bark tea for a long time. The vats were usually pits dug in the ground and planked to prevent wastage. Several neighbors might have co-operated in the use of the vats.
The Memorial attributes the inauguration of cider-making in Royals- ton to the Cutlers,-we will not say which one by name, as it is admitted in a supplementary note that one generation had been omitted in the first note. This Cutler settlement was the next one south of the first two Woodbury settlements on the Athol road. The place was long occupied by Nathaniel Wilson Bragg. (Square 39.)
Most of the saw-mills, all of the grist-mills and tanneries, and prob- all of the cider-mills, provided to meet the needs of the people of Roy- alston, are things of the past. Now the Royalston farmer feeds his stock on grain raised at points many hundreds if not thousands of miles distant; and he feeds his family to some extent on breadstuffs and meats brought from similar distant points. And when he builds a house, much? of the material that enters into its construction comes from afar.
1
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INDUSTRIES AT THE CENTER.
Perhaps some of our interested readers may remember that on page 26 I stated that after receiving a letter from Mr. Caswell relating to his "History of Royalston," in my reply to his letter I suggested that per- haps I could furnish him with a chapter relating to the early manufac- turing industries at the Center, and that I never received any reply to that suggestion, from Mr. Caswell. Also, that on pages 28 and 29, I gave a little story of correspondence and hasty conferences with Dr. Adams, which developed a proposition that I submit my matter to Mr. Caswell for pay, and the rejection of my proposition to furnish a chapter to the Committee.
Now, it is possible that I might have been able to write something in the usual conventional form, which, with a little censoring and revision by the Committee, would have been accepted for use. But since the official History, edited by Mr. Caswell, made its appearance, I have been glad that no more of my matter was offered; for Mr. Caswell's methods of editing seem to be very much at variance with my own, and the result might have been distressing to me.
I propose to print something about those early industries at the Center. It will not be a chapter. Chapter divisions and headings, like the blinders on a horse's harness or the plug hat, are more ornamental than useful. It is somewhat aggravating, when you have learned from the table of contents that the story you wish to read is included in a given chapter, to find that chapter spread over a hundred or more pages, through which you must hunt for the matter desired. An alphabetical index, with direct references to numbers of pages, cannot fail to be of assistance in looking over historical matter. It is intended, if this work is completed, to have it provided with a copious alphabetical index, with all parts paged consecutively with Arabic numerals.
THE HOLMAN MILL.
My father, Benjamin Bacheller Bartlett, died in 1852, at the age of 36 years. As I was but a few months more than 4 years old at that time, I cannot build up much Royalston history from my personal asso- ciation with him; but it happens that a couple of old account books used by him have been preserved to the present time, and they contain many entries showing the personality of the business of those times, and how it was done. In one of the books he kept a journal, in which he recorded, among other things, the dates of a number of Royalston events of his- torical interest, the accuracy of which can hardly be questioned, as they were written in in consecutive order with other dates and matters.
One of those old account books of my father's, although it does not contain a word about any such deal, shows to me conclusively, that for the three years from March, 1843, to March, 1846, he operated the old Holman grist-mill on some sort of a lease. Perhaps he paid a certain amount per month or year for the use of the mill, or possibly the owner, . Seth Holman, received a certain fixed share of the proceeds for the use of the mill, the miller receiving the balance for performing the labor. The old day-book, to many pages of which reference is made in connec- tion with the charges on the ledger which I have, was probably destroyed a half a century ago. That might have told the story of the amount of grinding done, for whom it was done, and the remuneration received.
This ledger contains no reference to cash transactions, except in the way of payments on open accounts; every account opens with a charge for grain which was not paid for when it was taken.
The law of that time, and it may be in effect now, allowed the miller to take two quarts, or one-sixteenth part of each bushel of grain ground, as "toll" or payment for doing the grinding; and if it was cob corn, he
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took another quart as payment for cracking the cobs so that they could be ground. Whether he was required to do so by law, or not, probably the miller would ordinarily be willing to receive money in payment for grinding on the basis of the cash value of the "toll."
This Holman grist-mill was the most centrally located mill in the town. It was the mill to which most of the thrifty farmers of the north and east parts of the town would carry their grain to be ground. But the account book makes little mention of the numerous thrifty farmers who must have been patrons of the mill. Why? Because these thrifty farmers brought their bags, and wagon loads and ox-cart loads of grain to the mill to be ground, and the "toll" was taken to pay for the grind- ing; or if perchance the farmer was short on grain, he paid for his grinding in money. The record of this "spot cash" business done by the mill was undoubtedly kept, but it has not come down to us.
LONG CREDITS COMMON.
The record in the book which has fallen to us is entirely of those who bought grain at the mill on credit. Of course, if the miller received his pay for grinding in grain, he would have grain to sell. The thrifty farmers from whom much of it was taken in the way of "tolls" would not, as a rule, buy it back. It is probable that some of it was sold for cash; but a large part of it was sold on credit to people who were not only short of grain but apparently short of money as well.
And so we find that the old ledger shows that the miller had running accounts with about 50 people during the three years in which he carried on the business in the manner heretofore indicated. He sold these credit customers many hundreds of bushels of grain and waited for his pay. There was a great deal of barter trade in those days, and the miller ac- cepted other things than cash on his accounts. Nathaniel Greeley prob- ably manufactured chairs, not in big carload lots, but in the good old slow way of that time, largely by hand; and very likely he peddled his product, and occasionally took something besides cash in exchange for his wares, -articles which he could use or turn over to others. And that may explain why the miller credited him with "1 rocking chair, $1.75; 1 glue-pot, $1.00; 1 frock coat, $6.00, and 1 barrel flour, $5.25." James Hubbard was credited with 412 pounds of turkey at 8 cents a pound, and another with 6 bushels of potatoes at $2.00 for the lot. One who ran in debt for 15 bushels of corn in the winter and spring squared his account with 12 bushels of rye in the fall. Two accounts were settled "by cash received from Rufus Bullock," and one "by order on Joseph Estabrook." Several were turned for payment by Seth Holman, and one by Jonathan Shepardson. The names of Dr. Stephen Bacheller, Jr., Dr. Isaac P. Willis and George F. Miller are among those who bought the materials for their rye and Indian brown bread and johnnycake and let the miller wait for his pay. At the end of the three-year period, March 1, 1846, the miller had a sort of closing-out sale, and charged George Peirce with 97 bushels and 10 quarts of cob corn and 6 bushels of shelled corn; this was paid for in April; it represented "toll" taken on more than 1100 bushels of grinding.
That it was the custom to take pay for grinding by "tolling" is plainly shown by two charges made in one day. One was for 2 bushels southern corn, "ground without tolling," with the price made a few cents higher than it was in other cases where it was obviously "tolled." In the other case the customer was charged "for grinding 712 bushels barley, 30 cents." These are the only cases in the whole three-years' record where any mention is made of grinding or "tolling."
It is not probable that the mill handled a very large amount of grain that was not grown in or near the town. Willard Holman was credited "by drawing 36 bushels corn from Northfield, $2.97;" and there were
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frequent charges for southern corn and a few for broom corn; showing that even then the farmers were raising less corn than was needed; or, possibly some of them were selling a part of their product out of town. But the time had not come when the farmers could say, as some of them did a decade or two later, that they could not afford to raise corn, as the corn from the west was sold at less than the cost of raising it in Roy- alston.
The written accounts indicate that at the end of the three-years pe- riod there was a change in the arrangements between the owner and the miller. A page is devoted to an accoont with Seth Holman, covering a year, from March, 1846, to March, 1847, showing plainly that the miller worked for that year for wages, or on a salary. Mr. Holman is credited with grain, meats, milk and other supplies, and some cash. March 1, 1847, there is a credit by house rent, probably for one year, $20; March 8, by cash, 1412 cents; March 16, by cash, $10. March 18, there is a charge, to one year's work, $240. And these credits fill the page: March 18, by note, $100; April 9, by cash, $50; April 24, by cash, $5; Jan. 26, 1848, by cash to balance, 98 cents.
THE LOW COST OF LIVING.
How a man could care for a family and keep even with the world on $240 a year, receiving only about a third part of that in anything until his year's work was done, and then accepting a note for more than 40 per cent. of his earnings for the year, will have to be accounted for on a predication of thrift, economy, and the low cost of living.
From the second old account book previously mentioned we gather information. Uuder the head of "Memoranda of Expenses, " an account covering the year from March, 1846, to March, 1847, gives some interest- ing items bearing on the cost of living for the miller and his family. Milk at 3 and 4 cents a quart; butter at 15 to 162/3 cents per pound; sugar 7 to 11 cents; 2 dozen eggs 27 cents for both; 1/2 barrel biscuits (crackers) $1.37; 1 peck beans 33 cents; 1 salt fish 14 cents; 1 cheese 44 cents; flour $6.50 per barrel; wood $1.75 per cord; 1 pair shoes 50 cents, 1 pair shoes 37 cents, 1 pair boots $4.121/2, 1 pair shoes 58 cents, 1 pair shoes 50 cents, 1 pair India rubber shoes 92 cents. For meats they had 171/2 pounds veal at 5 cents a pound, 24 pounds veal at 5 cents, 159 pounds pork at 6 cents, 71/2 pounds mutton at 5 cents, 110 pounds beef at 5 cents.
. These meats, especially the pork, bought from the farmer in the half or whole hog in cold weather, and the beef in the half or whole quarter, when properly cut up, frozen, cured, salted, smoked and pickled, gave the family a variety of meats for the year around. The frozen pieces, if properly wrapped and kept well packed in shavings, bran or straw, would furnish fresh steaks, roasts and stews until spring, while the other parts, plus the labor of the housewife, would furnish delicious ham, bacon, spareribs, sausages, souse, pickled pigs-feet, mince-pie meat, corned beef to cook with cabbage and greens, and salt pork for beans.
WAR PRICES IN 1918.
I do not know whether a copy of this brochure will be in existence a half a century hence, or whose eye this may meet on the way. Having given some of the prices of nearly three-quarters of a century since, I will here embalm a few of the prices of current time, for comparison by any one interested. I do not wish to begin to describe what may be- come known as the World War with Germany. The United States joined in it, and, because the articles were needed for the armies as well as by the nations suffering the devastations of war, our government attempted to restrict and regulate the sale, use and prices of certain commodities, among foodstuffs the most notable being meats, wheat flour and sugar.
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The war was halted and perhaps ended by an act of amistice which ap- plied on Nov. 11, 1918. I will quote prices as advertised by the principal stores of Fitchburg in the Fitchburg Daily Sentinel of Nov. 22, 1918, - the Friday before Thanksgiving. Best tub butter 60 cents a pound; print butter 64; cheese 53; beef from 12 for boiling pieces to 38 for sir- loin roasts; native pork from 10 for neck bones to 45 for loins; native veal from 20 to 38; lamb from 12 to 38; western turkeys 52 to 58; fancy Vermont turkeys 62 to 68; beans 13, or $1.95 a peck; flour $12.50. Other prices around that time were, for standard granulated sugar 11 cents; fresh eggs $1 per dozen; potatoes $2 per bushel; 4-foot hard wood $14 per cord; shoes $3 to $15 per pair.
The government regulation kept the profiteers from boosting prices as high as they would have made them if not restrained; but it did not prevent the interests from making stupendous profits; nor did it keep the coal magnates from selling a huge amount of refuse at high prices.
To get back to the Holman mill. Besides the grist-mill there was the saw-mill and wood-working department. Complete chairs were at one time made there, and I am in possession of chairs said to have been made by my father while employed there. Later, however, this com- pleted work was dropped, and the output, in addition to rough and planed lumber, consisted of sawed and turned parts for chairs, tubs and pails, and a large variety of wooden ware, most of which found a market with large factories at Gardner, Winchendon, and elsewhere. The genesis and exodus of these mills is referred to on pages 62-64.
THE SAWYER FAMILY.
Captain Joseph Sawyer, son of Abraham and Experience Sawyer, was born in Templeton, Aug. 5, 1773. His intention of marrying Jerusha Blanchard of Royalston, (probably the daughter of Benjamin Blanchard, who is credited with once having owned a large part of the land on which the village of South Royalston now stands,) was published Nov. 16, 1820, and they were lawfully married at Royalston, Dec. 26, 1820. They had a son, Sylvester Sawyer, born in Templeton, Nov. 28, 1822. Sylvester Sawyer married Esther Bigelow, of Athol, intention published in Royalston, June 14, 1843; she died March 11, 1846, and he married, second, Minerva Symonds, of Royalston, Oct. 22, 1846. They had a son, George Sawyer, born Oct. 10, 1848.
Sometime, between the time when Sylvester Sawyer was born in Templeton, and May 22, 1840, when Captain Joseph Sawyer was chosen deacon of the First Congregational Church in Royalston, these Sawyers took up their abode in Royalston, -presumably a number of years before the latter event; for we can scarcely believe that the conservative peo- ple of Royalston would have elevated the captain into the high and holy office of deacon until they had tested his qualifications and witnessed his goings in and out before the Lord for a few years, at least.
It is possible that these Sawyers had more than one location in Roy- alston, but I have never learned of their occupancy of any other place than the one at 36N, at the crotch of the roads, and adjacent lands, as indicated near the top of the map on the opposite page.
I have a suspicion that Joseph Sawyer bought a number of acres of land around the spot indicated at 36N, from Willard Holman, who, I was told, once owned all the land from the Holman mill place up to and in- cluding the Ashbel Goddard place at the foot of the Common, 66C on the map, to which reference has been made on pages 53 and 58.
Whether Joseph Sawyer found the house on the plot at 36N, or built it, I cannot say; but I am sure that he built the house at 35N, and other things worth noticing.
At the upper left-hand corner of the map may be seen something which resembles a schoolboy's picture of a salt codfish or a polliwog.
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Reflections on Royalston
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Reflections on Royalston
But that is not what it is intended to represent. The Memorial states that "Joseph Sawyer, by diverting the waters of Little Pond from their natural outlet, and leading them around by means of a canal, to the hollow, north of the Common, procured water power," etc.
While this is quite true, it is also true that before he performed this diverting act, Sawyer endeavored to procure water power in another way. There was, and is now, of course, a little brook running down the valley between the two roads leading from the Center towards the north part of the town. This brook runs through that "hollow north of the Common" mentioned by the Memorial, and Sawyer built a dam across it where it crossed his land, and that splotch in the northwest corner of the map is intended to represent the dam that Sawyer built and the pond behind the dam that Sawyer built. This dam was in evidence in my boy- hood days, say about 1853, but the timber and plank flume intended to regulate the flow of water, while still in sight, had become useless, and no water was held in the pond. Whether Sawyer built a shop near this dam and attempted to utilize the water power there I cannot state; no traces of it remain in my remembrance.
The turbine water wheel, which, when set low beneath a dam, de- velops great power through water pressure, had not then been invented; but some of the saw-mills and other shops were operated by a type of wheel depending for power on the depth of water in the pond above, ac- cording to the laws of hydraulic pressure. No doubt, at certain seasons of the year, when the ground was frozen, the sun and the rains sent an abundance of water from the watersheds on the adjacent broad hillsides into the little brook and on down to the Sawyer pond. I have seen a rushing torrent coming down that brook. But it would be a poor de- pendence for all-the-year work.
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