USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Reminiscences of Worcester from the earliest period, historical and genealogical with notices of early settlers and prominent citizens, and descriptions of old landmarks and ancient dwellings, accompanied by a map and numerous illustrations > Part 10
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
Lieut. Phinehas Upham's grant, comprising more than the fifty acres originally granted to each settler to build upon, was confirmed to him by the Committee " in consideration of the labor, travel, and activity of said Upham from time to time in advancing and encouraging the settlement of said planta- tion." It was located " in the west squadron or division on the south side of the country road," this road bounding it on the N. N. W., and Mill Brook bounding it on the S. S. E., " being in breadth upon the road to Connecticut about 110 pole, in depthi to Mill Brook 90 pole, the side lines running S. S. E. and N. N. W." Precisely where this location was, is a matter of difficult conjecture.
Hon. William Upham of Spencer, formerly in the Massachu- setts legislature, who married, in 1853, Lucretia H., daughter of William Pope of Spencer, is a native of Sturbridge, son of William Upham, grandson of Joshua Upham, Jr., and great- grandson of Col. Joshua Upham, formerly of Brookfield.
14
CHAPTER VII.
Prominent families-the Flagg family-Grout family-and Perry family.
THE FLAGG FAMILY,
Of whom mention has already been made, are descendants of Thomas Flagg from England, a settler in Watertown as early as 1663, and ancestor of all of that name in this country. This Thomas Flagg (or Flag as originally spelled,) was a prom- inent man of his time in Watertown, and selectman from 1671 to 1678. He died Feb. 6, 1698, and his wife Mary died Dec. 30, 1702, aged 82. Their children were : 1st, John, born June 14, 1643, died Feb. 6, 1697 ; 2d, Bartholomew, born Feb. 23, 1645 ; 3d, Thomas, born April 28, 1646 ; 4th, Gershom, un- certain ; 5th, Michael, born March 23, 1651, died Oct. 16, 1711, one of the earliest proprietors of Worcester in the first attempt at settlement, and married June 3, 1674, Mary Bigelow ; 6th, Eleazer, born May 14, 1653 ; 7th, Elizabeth, born March 22, 1655, married Oct. 20, 1676, Joshua Bigelow, a settler in Wor- cester and afterwards in Westminster; 8th, Mary, born June 14, 1657, married June 3, 1674, Samuel Bigclow, a brother of Joshua and Mary Bigelow, above mentioned, and also of the first Daniel Bigelow of Worcester ; 9th, Rebecca, born Sept. 5, 1660, married Nov. 19, 1679, Dea. Stephen Cook ; 10th, Ben- jamin, (the first Benjamin Flagg of Worcester,) born June 25, 1662, married Sept. 26, 1690, Experience, daughter of Richard Child of Watertown, and was ancestor of five generations of Benjamin Flaggs prominent in our town history, being great- great-grandfather of the present Benjamin Flagg ; 11th, Allen Flagg, born May 16, 1665, died in 1711.
This first Benjamin Flagg, one of the earliest permanent set- tlers here, who died May 3, 1741, aged 79, had nine children, all born in Watertown : 1st, Benjamin, Jr., born August 25,
107
Reminiscences of Worcester.
1691, married, January 25, 1716, Elizabeth, daughter of Na- thaniel Fiske of Watertown, and was captain, school-master and sheriff, as well as selectman; 2d, Experience, born in 1693, married, in 1713, Caleb Ball of Concord; 3d, Abigail, born April 16, 1694, married Judge William Jennison of Worcester ; 4th, Bartholmew, a sea captain, born in 1699, died in Bristol in 1743; 5th, Elizabeth, born in 1700, married Peter King, alias Rice ; 6th, Gershom, born, 1702; 7th, Mary, 1704 ; 8th, Ebenc- zer, 1706; 9th, Richard, born May 20, 1708, lieutenant, set- tled in Holden, where he died November 12, 1799, aged 92, and his widow Grace died there, December 4, 1808, aged 100. Richard and Grace's oldest son, Colonel Samuel Flagg, who was chairman of the board of Selectmen in Worcester for eigl :- teen years from 1790to 1808, and distinguished for his extensive business enterprises, died here, September 24, 1819, aged 83, and his wife, Dolly, died March 11, 1824, aged 85. IIe owned an extensive tract of 240 acres of land on both sides of Green street, including the old "Red Mills" and "Fox Mills" water privileges, and last resided for many years, in the house, op- posite the "Red Mills," afterwards owned and occupied by Col. Artemas Ward, 2d.
Capt, Benjamin Flagg, (the second one of the name,) who died in 1751, aged 60, was the second sheriff of the county, holding this office at his deccase. His wife died November 30, 1760, aged 77. They had six children : 1st, Elizabeth, born May 24, 1717, married Absalom, son of Jonas Rice, the first permanent settler in Worcester ; 2d, Abigail, married Samuel Hubbard ; 3d, Benjamin, born August 23, 1723, commanded the company of militia, who marched with Col. Timothy Bige- low's company of minute men for Lexington, on the alarm, April 19, 1775, afterwards Colonel in the revolutionary service, filled important town offices, and died in Worcester, October 8, 1818, aged 95, leaving four children, 42 grand children, and 83 great grand children.
This Col. Benjamin Flagg was thus own cousin of Col. Sam- uel Flagg. The latter had a brother Benjamin, who lived in Holden, and the Flaggs there belong to this branch of the fam- ily, the late Dea. Silas and George Flagg, being sons of this Benjamin, and the present Silas and Charles his grandsons.
108
Reminiscences of Worcester.
Col. Benjamin Flagg, whose wife was Abigail, daughter of John Chadwick, had sons, Benjamin, Aaron and Phinehas, and the latter was father of John Flagg, born June 11, 1778; Abel Flagg, born October 31, 1781; and of the present Benjamin Flagg, born June 12, 1790, the oldest male resident, but two, in Worcester, possessing remarkable vigor for a man of his years.
The late Samuel Flagg, machinist, of Worcester, born in Holden in 1784, who removed to West Boylston in 1808, and from West Boylston to Worcester in 1840, where he started an extensive machinist establishment, was son of Jonathan Flagg, who lived in the northwest part of Holden.
The present Dr. Samuel Flagg of Worcester is the only son of Samuel Flagg, formerly a lawyer here, who was the only son of Col. Samuel Flagg. Charles L. Putnam's wife was the doc- tor's sister.
The late Enoch and Elisha Flagg, bakers, who had an ex- tensive bakery establishment in Worcester three quarters of a century ago on the site of the present Flagg's Block, and their brothers, Marshall and Nahum Flagg, were sons of Isaac Flagg of Waltham, who was great-grandson of the original Thomas Flagg of Watertown.
THE GROUT FAMILY.
Jonathan Grout, great-grandfather of the present Jonathan Grout of Worcester, came here from Sudbury in 1744, and set- tled upon one hundred acres of land purchased of James Hol- den on what is now Vernon street, half a mile north of Quinsig amond Village, the same estate having since been in possession of the family for five generations. This Jonathan, born in Sud- bury in 1702, who died in Worcester in 1748, was cousin of Hon. Jonathan Grout of Petersham, a distinguished lawyer, and officer in the French and Revolutionary wars, born in Lunen- burg in 1737, who was the first representative in Congress from the northern district of Worcester County, from 1789 to 1791, and died in 1807. These two cousins were grandsons of Capt. John Grout, (ancestor of all of that name in this country,) who emigrated from England in 1740, and settled in Sudbury, having three sons,-John, who settled in Lunenburg, Jonathan in Sudbury, and Joseph in Watertown.
109
Reminiscences of Worcester.
The first Jonathan Grout of Worcester by his wife Hannah had three children, of whom the only son, Jonathan, was born June 2, 1744, inherited the paternal estate, and married Anna Harrington, sister of Nathaniel Harrington, then just come to Worcester, the latter being grandfather of the present Francis Harrington. This second Jonathan Grout, who died here in 1828, aged 84, had sons, Jonathan and Francis. The former, (who was father of the present Jonathan Grout,) was a long time school-teacher, familiarly known as "Master Grout," car- ried on business as a book-binder and stationer in Millbury, had an excellent taste for mathematics, and compiled and pub- lished a school arithmetic and several devotional books, much used. His brother Francis succeeded to the paternal home- stead, where the latter's son, Jonathan D., now resides. "Mas- ter Grout's" son Jonathan is the well known wealthy real estate owner and former bookseller and publisher of Worces- ter, now retired from active business, whose son, the brave and youthful Lieut. John William Grout, was a lamented victim of the late war, and whose daughter Ellen is wife of Rev. Dr. George H. Gould of the Piedmont Church, Worcester.
THE PERRY FAMILY.
John Perry, great-great-grandfather of the present Capt. Samuel Perry of Worcester, emigrated from London, England, about 1666, and settled in Watertown, he being then 53. Hc is supposed to be a brother of William, a tailor, born in Eng- land in 1606, who was a proprietor of Watertown in 1642. John Perry had a son, John, Jr., who married, in 1667, Sarah, daughter of John Clary of Cambridge, and they settled in Wa- tertown, and had six children : 1st, John, 3d, born March 3, 1670 ; 2d, Johanna, born Nov. 8, 1672; 3d, Sarah, born July 11, 1675; 4th, born Elizabeth, Nov. 2, 1681 ; 5th, Josiah, (great-grandfather of the present Samuel,) born Nov. 28, 1684; 6th, Joseph, born January 17, 1690.
The above named Josiah Perry married, Jan. 12, 1708, Berthia, daughter of John Cutler, and they had ten children, all born in Watertown : 1st, Jonathan, Jan. 7, 1710; 2d, Lydia, born Dec. 8, 1711, married John Ball ; 3d, Josiah, Jr.,
110
Reminiscences of Worcester.
born Feb. 8, 1714 ; 4th, Ephraim, Nov. 1, 1715; 5th, Nathan, (grandfather of the present Samuel,) born May 2, 1718 ; 6th, Berthia, Jan. 31, 1719; 7th, Mary, Feb. 13, 1721 ; 8th, Isaiah, Feb. 6, 1723; 9th, Dorcas, Dec. 2, 1727 ; 10th, Sarah, 1728.
Of the above, Josiah, Jr., married, March 10, 1736, Elizabeth Harrington, and they had Joshua, born Oct. 25, 1741 ; Josiah, 3d, born Sept. 1, 1743 ; and Abel, born Sept. 11, 1745. Eliza- beth, died Sept. 11, 1748, and Josiah, Jr., married, Oct. 17, 1749, Sarah Stowell, sister of Cornelius Stowell.
Nathan Perry, weaver, afterwards deacon, (father of Dea. Moses Perry,) married in Watertown, May 1, 1745, Hannah, daughter of Dea. Nathan Fiske, the latter being grandfather of Rev. Dr. Nathan Fiske of Brookfield. Nathan came to Wor- cester with his father Josiah in April, 1751, and purchased of Elijalı Hedge the estate on Vernon street, now owned and oc cupied by his grandson, Dea. Samuel Perry. Dea. Nathan and Hannah (Fiske) Perry had eight children, the first three of whom were born in Watertown before the parents came here : 1st, Hannah, born in 1747, died in 1749; 2d, Hannah, born in 1749 ; 3d, Nathan, Jr., born March 30, 1751 ; 4th, Sarah, born' Nov. 29, 1752 ; 5th, Josiah, born March 9, 1755 ; 6th, Moses, born April 23, 1757, died in 1759 ; 7th, Mary, born March 1, 1759 ; 8th, Moses, born Feb. 16, 1762, afterwards deacon, and father of Dea. Samuel Perry.
Dea. Moses Perry, who succeeded to the possession of the paternal homestead, married, Dec. 28, 1784, Mercy Clark, who died Oct. 15, 1785, and he married, April 26, 1791, Hannah Hall.
Nathan Perry was deacon of the Old South Church for twen- ty-three years, from 1783 until his death, Feb. 14, 1806, aged 88 ; his son Moses succeeded him as deacon of the same church for thirty years, and of the Union Church for six years, until his death, March 12, 1842, aged 80; and the latter's son, the present Samuel Perry, succeeded his father as deacon for thir- ty-five years, until the recent changes in those offices. This constitutes the remarkable record of 95 years of successive ser- vice as deacons by father, son and grandson, and the hundred years undoubtedly would be completed, had not there been a
111
Reminiscences of Worcester.
change introduced in some of the churches, reducing the term of service of such officers.
Dea. Nathan Perry was many years County Treasurer, suc- ceeding John Chandler, and preceding Samuel Allen, Senior, in 1792. He was also town treasurer and selectman some ten ycars, previous to 1790.
Of the five sons of Dea. Moses and Hannah (Hall) Perry, three were clergymen, viz., Revs. Baxter, David, and Clark, the only surviving brother being Dea. Samuel, born in 1796, now vigorous and active in his 81st year, who married Han- nah, sister of Francis Harrington, their ten children be- ing : 1st, Hannah H., married Elisha Stone of Auburn ; 2d, Mary S. ; 3d; Joseph S., married Lucy Ann Day ; 4th, Julia M., married Wm. J. Baker ; 5th, Nathan F., married a daughter of Jasper Tucker ; 6th, Lydia, married John W. Jordan ; 7th, Harriet N., married George L. Robbins ; 8th, David Brainard, Principal of an Academy in Nebraska ; 9th, Samuel Payson, married a daughter of Sylvanus Harrington, and resides on Pakachoag Hill ; 10th, Moses, married a sister of George L. Robbins.
-
2003
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST CHURCH.
The founders of Worcester made early provision for religious instruction and the education of youth, in accordance with the requirements of the law, although they were jealous of any de- parture from their own established Puritanic belief and method of worshipping God. Soon after the beginning of the third or permanent settlement, a church was organized in 1716, and a house of worship, rudely constructed of logs, was built in 1717, a few rods south east of the Common, near what is now Trum- bull Square. In 1719 a more commodious structure was erect- ed on the site of the present meeting house on the Common. This had at first no tower, or finishing of the interior, except the flooring, and simple benches served for pews. In 1723, a pulpit was set up, and long seats provided, and soon after, gal- leries were put in. In 1733, it was voted "that the front of the gallery, the pulpit, and pillars be colored and varnished, and the outside of the doors and windows ; and the town thankful- ly accepts the £5 offered by Col. John Chandler towards the same ; and being informed that Daniel Gookin, Esq., [then sheriff of the county,] has been pleased to say he would give something towards said work, voted that a committee be ap- pointed to ascertain of him what he would give towards said coloring and varnishing." In 1737, Col. (afterwards Judge) John Chandler, the most distinguished citizen of the town and member of the church, donated a full communion service, a portion of which is still in use by the society, after a lapse of
Ye Plan of ye Lower Floor of ye Meeting-House, 1763.
No. 21. Robert Barber.
No. 20.
No. 19.
PULPIT.
No. 17.
No. 16.
No. 15.
No. 14.
No. 13.
Jacob
Francis
Josiah
Daniel Ward.
Tyrns Rice.
Elisha and Robert Smith.
Daoiel aod Abel Heywood.
Hemmen way.
Harrington.
Harriogtoo.
Seat for the Aged and Deaf. 1
No. 22.
No. 48.
No. 49.
No 50
No. 45.
No. 46
No. 47.
Joshua
Jacob Chamberlin.
JamieR
Daniel
Town's Pew.
Deacoo's Seat.
MeFarland.
MeFarland.
No. 23. Elisha Smith, jr.
No. 11. Nnth'i Moore.
No. 51. John Curtis
No. 44 Thos, Stearnes.
No 10.
Isane Gleason. ,
Nathan Perry.
No 52.
No. 43. John Boyden.
No. 9
Samuel Miller.
Josiah Clark.Jr.
No. 58.
No. 42. Daniel Boyden.
Entrance through South Porch.
No. 26.
No. 8
Josiah Peirce.
No. 38.
No. 39.
No 40.
No. 41. James Nichols.
Thomas Rice, John Chadwick.
David
Samuel Curtis.
Goodwin
Bancroft.
No. 27.
Ezekiel How.
No. 58.
No. 59
No. 60. Jons. & David Fish.
No. 61. Robert Gray, Jr.
No. 34.
No. 35. Axa Moore.
No 36. John Mower.
No. 37. Thomas
Lovell.
Palmer.
No. 28. Samuel Hunt, Assignee of Thomas Cowcho.
No. 6.
.Joho Mahan.
No. 29. Israel Jennison.
No. 30.
No. 31.
No. 32.
No. 83. Timothy Paine, Esq.
No. 1.
No. 2.
No. 3.
No. 4.
No. 5.
Nathaniel
Gardoer Chandler, Esq.
James Browo.
Thomas
John Chandler, Esq.
Adams.
Wheeler.
-
1
No. 54. William MeFarland.
No. 55.
No 56.
Benja Flagg
Mathew Gray.
No. 57. James
No. 7. John Chandler, Esq. Assignee of Asa Flagg.
Isaac Moore.
Joseph Blair.
Ebenezer
Jacob Ilolmes.
Samuel Mower.
John Chandler, Esq.
Entrance by Front or West. Porch.
James Putnam, Esq.
Gershom and Comfort Rice.
Jonathan Stone.
Whitney.
No. 24.
No. 25.
Josiah Brewer, Esq.
North Entrance thro' the Tower.
Luke Brown.
No. 18. John Chaodler, Esq.
No. 12.
Entered from ye Original and Compared therewith, Pr J. Chandler, Town Clerk.
113
Reminiscences of Worcester
140 years. In 1743 a small steeple was added to the structure, and a bell weighing 300 pounds, and costing £140, was hung in it. This bell, previously owned jointly by the county and town, had been suspended, for a while, from a tree midway between the Court House and meeting-house, for county as well as town use, and the same bell was undoubtedly used for a time in the next meeting house built, the present one.
September 3, 1749, a vote of thanks was unanimously ex- tended by the church and pastor " to Hon. John Chandler for his present of a handsome folio bible for the reading of the Scriptures," which is another of the valuable relics preserved by the society.
Some idea of the size and interior construction of the old house, which was torn down when the present one was put up, on its site, may be inferred from the subjoined description of the location of the different occupants of seats. May 30, 1733, soon after the edifice was fully completed, inside, Deacons Nathaniel Moore and Daniel Heywood, Lieut. Henry Lee, James Howe, Capt. Palmer Goulding and Major Jonas Rice, who had been "appointed a committee to seat ye meeting house, pursuant to instructions, reported the following appoint- ments," designating a seat for each person named, and his family :
SITTINGS OF THE OLD MEETING HOUSE, 1733.
In ye fore section of ye body-Gershom Rice, John Gray, Benjamin Flagg, John Stearns, Caleb Johnson, John Adams.
In ye second section of ye body-Thomas Haggitt, Wm. Gray, John Smith, James Hambleton, Andrew McFarland, John Clark, Robert Peables, Jacob Holmes.
In ye third section of ye body-Matthew Gray, Alexander McKonkey, Wm. Caldwell, Jolm Duncan, Wm. Gray, Jr., Matthew Gray, Jr., Andrew McFarland, Jr., John Gray, Jr.
In ye fourth section of ye body-David Glise (or Gleason), Abraham Wheeler, Moses Harper, James Thornington, John Battey, Omphrey Tailor, Oliver Wallis, Robert Blair.
In ye fifth section of ye body-James Furbush, John Alick- sander (or Alexander), Wmn. Mahan, John Stimson, Duncan Graham, John McFarland, Joseph Clark.
15
114
Reminiscences of Worcester.
In ye sixth section of ye body-John Smith, Jr., John Pat- rick, James Glasford, Wm. Brown, Wm. Nichols, John Star- ling (or Sterling), Hugh Calso (or Kelso).
In ye fore section of ye foremost gallery-James Holden, Moses Rice, James Moore, Thomas Moore, Thomas Stearns, Daniel Ward, Jotham Rice, Solomon Johnson, Joseph Crosby, Thomas Gleason.
In ye second section in ye foremost gallery-Samuel Gray, Zebadiah Rice, Joseph Rugg, Eliakim Rice, Matthias Rice, Thomas Hambleton, Matthew Clark, Wm. Temple, Isaac Ward.
In ye fore section of ye long gallery-Richard Ward, Wm. McClellan, Charles Adams, Isaac Moore, James McClellan, Ephraim Rice, Tyrus Rice, Phinchas Rice, Jonas Rice, Ebenezer Flagg, Thomas Adams, Daniel Bigelow, Thomas Parker, Elijah Cook, John Cishiel, Obadiah Ward, Benj. Gates, Robert Barber.
In ye second section in ye long gallery-Patrick Peables, Ed- ward Knight, Jeremiah Rice, Wm. Harris, John McKonkey, Robert Marble, John Peables.
There were thus six sections in the body of the old structure, seating from six to eight families cach, or about forty-six fam- ilies in all on the first floor ; a foremost or front gallery of two sections, seating eighteen families, or nine in each section ; and a long gallery of two sections, seating twenty-six families. The seating arrangement as thus arranged, was for eighty-nine families, of whom about one-half were provided for in the gal- leries. As the names of the deacons are not included in the list, it is presumed they had seats of honor, specially provided for them, in front.
These names give us an idea of who were the principal re- sidents here at that period-the then " solid men of Worcester." Col. John Chandler, son of the first Judge, was then a resident here, being then chairman of the board of selectmen as well as occupant of several county offices, and he was probably given a seat of honor with the deacons.
THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE.
In 1763 the present meeting house was erected on the same site as the previous one. It was originally seventy feet long by fifty-five feet wide, with twenty-eight feet posts, and
THE FIRST PARISH OR OLD SOUTH CHURCH AS IT APPEARED IN 1871.
115
Reminiscences of Worcester.
had a tower on the north, surmounted by a spire. 130 feet high, the whole cost being £1542. The pulpit was on the east side, and there were galleries on the north, south and west sides. There were sixty-one square box pews on the low- er floor, that considered the best, or the pew of honor, on the right and almost under the high pulpit, valued at £9, being assigned to Judge John Chandler as an acknowledgment of his donation of £40, the largest sum contributed by any single in- divdual, toward the building of the structure. Immediately in front of the pulpit was a long pew for aged and deaf persons, and just in front of the latter another pew for the deacons, the central aisle leading therefrom to the main entrance on the west side. On each side of the central aisle, midway between the pulpit and main entrance, were seven slips for free seats for those unable to pay, those on the south side for the men, and those on the north side for the women. The sixty-one square pews were all appraised, and the choice of them offered to the people in the order of the amount of taxes on their real estate, respectively, beginning with the highest, the proprietors of the pews thus comprising the wealthiest and leading citizens of the town. The prices paid ranged from £9 to £4 1-2 each.
Though the principal entrance was on the west side, fronting on the "country road," now Main street, there was also an en- trance through a porch on the south end toward Park street, and another through the tower on the north end, there being a door on each of the three sides of the tower. The porch at the main entrance had wide double doors in front and a single door on each side. This latter porch gave access to both the floor of the house and the west gallery, and it was from its roof, as his rostrum, that Isaiah Thomas, on the fourteenth day of July, 1776, read to the people, the first time it was proclaimed on Massachusetts soil, the immortal Declaration of Independence, just then received from Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was in session, that document (in a printed copy of the Philadelphia Gazette) being intercepted here by Mr. Thom- as, while on its way by express messenger through Worcester to the headquarters of the Provincial Army at Boston, ten days having been occupied in the journey hither from Philadelphia.
116
Reminiscences of Worcester.
The building committee of the church, chosen May 17, 1762, consisted of the leading citizens of the time: Judge John Chandler, Attorney General James Putnam, Joshua and David Bigelow, Jacob Hemenway, Capt. John Curtis, Samuel Mower, Josiah Brewer, Daniel Boyden, James Goodwin and Elijah Smith. The building was begun June 21, 1763, and the work prosecuted with such energy toward completion that the first public religious services were held in it on the eighth day of the following December, the day assigned for the annual thanks- giving in the Province, when an appropriate historical discourse was delivered by the pastor, Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty, from 1st Chron. 29 : 16, 17.
The framer of the church was Daniel Hemenway of Shrews- bury, a noted church-builder of his time, who also constructed the first meeting-houses in Shrewsbury and. Northborough. He was assisted by his brother, Jacob Hemenway, also a carpenter, and a prominent member of this church, whose pew was at the left of the pulpit, a door opening directly therefrom into a cup- board or store-room under the high pulpit, to which Lieut. Hemenway held the key, and in which, though a good temper- ance man, he kept for the accommodation of the congregation, at noon time, a home manufactured beverage from the choicest products of his orchard. His residence was on a farm of 210 acres on the north side of May street, in the vicinity of Beaver Brook, afterwards owned and occupied by Joseph Patch. His brother Daniel was grandfather of the late Edward H. Hemen- way and of Mrs. Dr. Wm. Workman of Worcester.
It is a matter of tradition that the timber for this house was taken principally from the woods, then standing south-east of the Common in the direction of what is now Union Hill, and some of it from Tatnuck.
The old meeting house remained exactly the same for twenty years till 1783, when the first alteration was made in the inte- rior, by taking out four of the back free seats, two on each side of the main aisle, and putting in four new pews in their places, to supply the increasing demand for pews. The work was done under the supervision of a committee of the town, consisting of Hon. Timothy Paine, Hon. Joseph Allen, and Joseph Wheeler,
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.