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 16
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The Greene, above referred to with whom John Adams boarded, was Maj. Nathaniel Greene, and his residence was on the westerly side of Main street, opposite the present Central Exchange. He was one of the town committee with John Chandler and Luke Brown to see the vote of March, 1852, car- ried into effect in regard to maintaining the Grammar School ; the committee in charge of the other schools in their respective
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localities in different sections of the town that year being John Boyden, on Pakachoag Hill ; Nathaniel Adams, near Lake Quinsgamond ; James Howe ; Robert Barber, in the north sec- tion of the town ; Capt. James Moore, probably near Tatnuck ; and Noah Jones, near Now Worcester.
JOHN ADAMS' DESCRIPTION OF HIS SITUATION HERE.
Immediately after he had taken his degree of A. B. at Cam- bridge, in August, 1755, upon his contracting the engagement to keep the school at Worcester, John Adams had promised his friend, Judge Richard Cranch, of Boston, that he would write him an account of the situation of his mind after he had enter- cd upon his new career as a school-master, and the following letter, in response thereto, from Worcester, is the earliest pro- duction extant of the school-master statesman's pen :
WORCESTER, 2 September, 1755.
Dear Sir :- I promised to write you an account of the situation of my mind. The natural strength of my faculties is quite insufficient for the task. Attend, therefore, to the invocation, O thou goddess, muse, or what- ever is thy name, who inspired immortal Milton's pen with a confusion ten thousand times confounded, when describing Satan's voyage through chaos, help me, in the same cragged strains, to sing things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. When the nimble hours have tackled Apollo's coursers, and the gay deity mounts the eastern sky, the gloomy pedagogue arises, frowning and lowering like a black cloud begrimmed with uncommon wrath to blast a devoted land. When the destined time arrives, he enters upon action, and as a haughty monarch ascends his throne, the pedagogue mounts his awful great chair, and dispenses right and justice through his whole empire. His obsequious subjects execute the imperial mandates with cheerfulness, and think it their high happiness to be employed in the service of the em- peror. Sometimes paper, sometimes his penknife, now birch, now Arith- metic, now a ferule, then A, B, C, then scolding, then flattering, then thwacking calls for the pedagogue's attention. At length, his spirits all exhausted, down comes pedagogue from his throne, and walks out in solemn solemnity, through a cringing multitude. In the afternoon he passes through the same dreadful scenes, smokes his pipe, and goes to bed.
The situation of the town is quite pleasant, and the inhabitants, as far as I have had opportunity to know their character, arc a sociable, generous and hospitable people ; but the school is indeed a school of affliction. A large number of little rantlings, just capable of lisping A, B, C, and troubling the master. But Dr. Savil tells me, for my comfort, " by cultivating and prun- ing these tender plants in the garden of Worcester, I shall make some of them plants of renown and cedars of Lebanon." However this be I am cer- tain that keeping this school any length of time would make a base weed and ignoble shrub of me. Pray, write me the first time you are at leisure, A letter from you would balance the inquietude of school-keeping. Dr. Savil will pack it with his, and convey it to me. When you see friend
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Quincy,* conjure him by all the muses to write me a letter. Tell him that all the conversation I have had since I left Braintree is dry disputes upon politics and rural obscene wit; therefore, that a letter written in that elegance of style and delicacy of humor which characterize all his perform- ances, would come with the additional charm of rarity, and contribute more than anything (except a letter from you) towards making a happy being of me once more. To tell you a secret, I don't know how to conclude neatly without invoking assistance ; but as truth has a higher place in your esteem than any ingenious conceit, I shall please you, as well as myself most, by subscribing myself. Your affectionate friend, JOHN ADAMS. *This was the first Hon. Josiah Quincy.
In his successive entries in his diary, while in Worcester, Schoolmaster Adams notes the manner in which he passed his time, what books he read, his attendance upon the preaching of Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty and others at the Old South Church, then the only church in the place, and mentions his frequent visits at the residences of the leading families, dining, taking tea, spending the evening, etc., at Major Gardner and Col. John Chandler's, James Putnam's, Dr. Nahum Willard's, Maj. Greene's, Mr. Maccarty's and Timothy Paine's,'and especially at Major Gardner Chandler's, with whom he says he was most in- timate. Here is a specimen for the month of February, 1756 :
" Friday, Feb. 13. Supped at Major Chandler's, and engaged to keep school at Bristol, provided Worcester people at their ensuing March meeting should change this into a moving school, not otherwise. Major Greene, this evening, fell into some conversation with me about the divinity and satisfac- tion of Jesus Christ. All the argument he advanced was, that 'a mere creature or finite being could not make satisfaction to infinite justice for any crimes,' and that ' these things are very mysterious.' Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity."
HIS DESCRIPTION OF WORCESTER.
Next, he has the following description of the general ap- pearance presented by Worcester, then a town of some fifteen hundred inhabitants :
" I take great pleasure in viewing and examining the magnificent prospects of nature that lie before us in this town. If I cast my eyes one way, I am entertained with the savage unsightly appearance of naked woods and leaf- less forests. In another place a chain of broken and irregular mountains throws my mind into a pleasing kind of astonishment. But if I turn myself round, I perceive a wide extensive tract before me made up of woods and meadows, wandering streams and barren plains, covered in various places by herds of grazing cattle, and terminated by the distant view of the town."
A few days later, under the date of Wednesday, February 18, he pens the following moral and religious reflections in con- nection with a visit made that evening :
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" Spent an hour in the beginning of the evening at Major Chandler's, where it was thought that the design of Christianity was not to make men good riddle-solvers, or good mystery-mongers, but good men, good magis- trates, and good subjects, good husbands and good wives, good parents and good children, good masters and good servants. The following questions may be answered some time or other, namely : where do we find a percept in the gospel, requiring ecclesiastical synods, convocations, councils, decrees, creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and the whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days? "
HIS DESCRIPTION OF HIS SCHOOL.
March 15, 1756, he has the following lively description of his school, with suggestive reflections thereon :
" I sometimes in my sprightly moments consider myself in my great chair at school as some dictator at the head of a Commonwealth. In this little state I can discover all the great geniuses, all the surprising actions and re- volutions of the great world, in miniature. I have several renowned gener- als but three feet high, and several deep projecting politicians in petticoats. I have others catching and dissecting flies, accumulating remarkable pebbles, cockle shells, etc., with as ardent curiosity as any virtuoso in the Royal Society. Some rattle and thunder out A, B, C, etc., with as much fire and impetuosity as Alexander fought, and very often sit down, and cry as heart- ily upon being outspelt, as Cæsar did when at Alexander's sepulchre he re- collected that the Macedonian hero conquered the world before his age. At one table sits Mr. Insipid, foppling and fluttering, spinning his whirligig, or playing with his fingers, as gaily and wittily as any Frenchified coxcomb brandishes his cane or rattles his snuff box. At another sits the polemical divine, plodding and wrangling in his mind about ' Adam's fall in which we sinned all,' as his primer has it. In short, my little school, like the great world, is made up of kings, politicians, divines, LL. Ds., fops, buffoons, fid- dlers, sycophants, fools, coxcombs, chimney sweepers and every other char- acter drawn in history, or seen in the world. Is it not then the highest pleasure to preside in this little world, to bestow the proper applause upon virtuous and generous actions, to blame and punish every vicious and con- tracted trick, to tear out of the tender mind everything that is mean and little, and fire the new-born soul with a noble ardor and emulation ? The world affords no greater pleasure. Let others waste their bloom of life at the card or billiard table among rakes and fools, and when their minds are sufficiently fretted with losses, and influenced by wine, ramble through the streets, assaulting innocent people, breaking windows, or debauching young girls. I had rather sit in school. and consider which of my people will turn out in his future life a hero, and which a rake, which a philosopher, and which a parasite, than change breasts with them, though possessed of twen- ty laced waist-coats and a thousand pounds a year. Methinks I hear you say, This is odd talk for John Adams ! I'll tell you, then, the occasion of it : About four months since, a poor girl in this neighborhood, walking by the meeting-house upon some occasion in the evening, met a fine gentle- man with laced hat and waist-coat and a sword, who solicited her to turn aside with him into the horse sheds. The girl relucted a little, upon which he gave her three guineas that proved three farthings, and the girl proved with child, without a friend upon earth that will own her, or knowing the father of her three-farthing bastard."
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Thursday, April 15, he has the following entry concerning the religious views of one of the most distinguished men of that time in Worcester, with whom he had spent the evening :
" Drank tea, and spent the evening at Mr. Putnam's, conversing with him concerning Christianity. He is of the opinion that the apostles were a com- pany of enthusiasts. He says that we have only their word to prove that they spoke with different tongues, raised the dead, healed the sick, etc."
In his autobiography occurs the following passage concern- ing his relations with Mr. Putnam, with whom he afterwards boarded, while studying law here :
" At breakfast. dinner and tea, Mr. Putnam was commonly disputing with me some question of religion. Although he would argue to the extent of his learning and ingenuity to destroy or invalidate the evidences of a future state, and the principles of natural and revealed religion, yet I could plainly perceive that he could not convince himself that death was an endless sleep."
Sunday, April 25, his youthful mind gives vent in his diary to the following religious and philosophical reflections which show that the future president, while of a strongly religious and conscientious turn of mind, had very decided convictions in opposition to the old time Calvinistic theology :
" Astronomers tell us with good reason that not only all the planets and satelites in our solar system, but all the unnumbered worlds that revolve around the fixed stars, are inhabited, as well as this globe of earth. If this is the case, all mankind are no more in comparison with the whole rational creation of God than a point to the orbit of Saturn. Perhaps all those differ- ent ranks of religious beings have in a greater or less degree committed moral wickedness. If so, I ask a Calvinist whether he will subscribe to the alternative, ' either God Almighty must assume the respective shapes of all these different species, and suffer the penalties of their crimes, in their stead, or else all these beings must be consigned to everlasting perdition ?'"
His disposition for revision and prompt self-correction, when deemed necessary, is seen in the following penned the next day :
" MONDAY, April 26. The reflection I penned yesterday appears upon the revision to be weak enough, for in the first place, we know not that the in- habitants of other worlds have sinned. Nothing can be argued in this man- ner till it is proved at least probable that all these species of rational beings have revolted from their rightful sovereign. When I examine the little pros- pect that lies before me, and find an infinite variety of bodies in one horizon of perhaps two miles diameter, and consider how many millions of such pros- pects there are upon the surface of this earth, how many millions of globes there are within our view each of which has as many of these prospects upon its own surface as our own planet ; how natural appears the exclamation of the Psalmist, " Great and manifold are thy works, O Lord !" etc.
Under date of July 21, 1756, he has the following entry, giv- ing the key note to his studious and methodical habits :
23
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" I am now entering on another year, and I am resolved not to neglect my time as I did last year. I am resolved to rise with the sun, and to study the Scriptures on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, and to study some Latin author the other three mornings. Noons and nights I in- tend to read English authors. This is my fixed determination."
Under date of Sunday, Aug. 22, 1756, he entered in his diary the fact of his contracting with Mr. Putnam to study law, with his reasons for that determination, in the following words :
" Yesterday I completed a contract with Mr. Putnam to study law, under his inspection, for two years. Necessity drove me to this determination, but my inclination, I think, was to preach. However that would not do. But I set out with a firm resolution, I think, never to commit any meanness or in- justice in the practice of the law. The study and practice of law, I am sure, does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion ; and although the reason of my quitting divinity was my opinion concerning certain disputed points of theology, I shall not give reason of offence to any in that profession by imprudent warmth."
On the following day, August 23d, he records that he " came to Mr. Putnam's, and began the study of the law" with him. During his remaining two years' residence in Worces- ter, his time was so closely occupied with his double devotion to his law studies and to his duties as a school-master, that he found no time to give to his diary. During the last portion of his first year, he boarded with Dr. Nahum Willard,* whose re- sidence was on Park street, the old house now standing in the rear of the French Catholic Church, the site of which it then occupied. In his autobiography, John Adams speaks of Dr. Willard and his relations with Mr. Putnam, as follows :
" This physician had a large practice, a good reputation for skill, and a pretty library. Here were the works of Dr. Cheyne, Sydenham and others, and Van Sweten's commentaries on Boerhaave. I read a good deal in these books, and entertained many thoughts of becoming physician and surgeon. But law attracted my attention more and more ; as I attended the courts of justice, where I heard Worthington, Hawley, Trowbridge,t Putnam and others, I felt myself irresistibly impelled to make some efforts to accomplish my wishes. I made a visit to Mr. Putnam, and offered myself to him. He received me with politeness and even kindness, took a few days to consider of it, and then informed me that Mrs. Putnam had consented I should board
* Dr Nahum Willard was son of Col. Abijah Willard of Lancaster, and removed, soon after the beginning of the revolution, to Uxbridge, where he died April 26, 1792, aged 59. He was father of Dr. Samuel Willard, and grandfather of the late Dr. George Willard, who died in 1846. Father, son and grandson were successively distinguished practising physicians in Uxbridge.
+These were the leading lawyers of their time in the State. Edmund Trowbridge, attorney-gen- eral from 1749 to 1767, and a judge from 1767 till the revolution, was brother of James Trow- bridge, who came to Woreester in 1740, and settled in Trowbridgeville, his son Dea. Wm. Trow- bridge succeeding him in the manufactuing business there, and giving the name to the village, (see page 43.) Joseph Hawley, (of Northampon,) was a distinguished member of patriot commit- tees in revolutionary times, of the Provincial Congress, General Court, &c. James Putnam was attorney general from 1769 to 1775.
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in the house, that I should pay no more than the town allowed for my lodg- ings. and that I should pay him a hundred dollars when I should find it con- venient. I agreed to his proposals without hesitation, and immediately took possession of his office. His library at that time was not large ; but he had all the most essential law books. Immediately after I entered with him, however, he sent to England for a handsome set of law books and for Lord Bocon's works. I carried with me to Worcester Lord Bolingbroke's ' Study and Use of History,' and his 'Patriot King.' These I had lent him, and he was so well pleased with them that he added Bolingbroke's works to his list, which gave me an opportunity of reading the posthumous works of that writer in five volumes. Mr. Burke once asked, 'Who had read them through ?' I can answer that I read them through before 1758, and that I have read them through at least twice since that time, but I confess without good. His argument relative to the Christian religion is impious."
Some two months later, he unbosoms himself in the follow- ing letter, written to a particular friend and classmate, Charles Cushing, giving the reasons for his choice of a profession, con- trary to the advice of his friend, recommending him to the ministry :
WORCESTER, October 19, 1756.
My friend :- I look upon myself obliged to give you the reasons that in- duced me to resolve upon the study and profession of the law, because you were so kind as to advise me to a different profession. When yours came to hand, I had thoughts of preaching, but the longer I lived, and the more ex- perience I had of that order of men, and of the real design of that institu- tion, the more objections I found in my own mind to that course of life. I have the pleasure to be acquainted with a young gentleman of fine genius, cultivated with indefatigable study, of a generous and noble disposition, and of the strictest virtue ; a gentleman who deserves the countenance of the greatest inen, and the charge of the best parish in the province. But with these accomplishments he is despised by some, ridiculed by others, and de- tested by more, only because he is suspected of arminianism. And I have the pain to know more than one, who has a sleepy, stupid soul, who has spent more of his waking hours in darning his stockings, smoking his pipe, or playing with his fingers, than in reading, conversation, or reflection, cried up as promising young men, pious and orthodox youths, and admirable preachers. As far as I can observe, people are not disposed to inquire for piety, integrity, good sense, or learning, in a young preacher, but for stu- pidity (for so I must call the pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces), irresistible grace, and original sin. I have not, in one expression, exceeded the limits of truth, though you may think I am warm. Could you advise me, then, who you know has not the highest opinion of what is called orthodoxy, to engage in a profession like this ?
The students in the law are very numerous, and some of them, youths of whom no country, no age, would need to be ashamed. And if I can gain the honor of treading in the rear, and silently admiring the noble air and gallant achievements of the foremost rank, I shall think myself worthy of a louder triumph than if I had headed the whole army of orthodox preachers.
Your friend, JOHN ADAMS.
This may seem rather strong language, but it must be recol- lected that John Adams was a remarkably positive, as well as strong man, naturally, and the prevailing theology of that pe- riod was very different from the orthodoxy of the present time.
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Oct. 1, 1758, John Adams finished his contract with Mr. Putnam in the study of the law, and with the town of Worces- ter in school-teaching, and was that day admitted as an attor- ney at the then session of the Superior Court of Judicature in Worcester, and soon after began practice in Boston. His sub- sequent fame as a public man, the world over, contrasts strange- ly enough with the expressions which he penned in his diary at his chamber in Worcester, April 24, 1756, after noting his ar- dent desires for more knowledge :
" But I have no books, no time, no funds. I must therefore be contented to live and die an ignorant obscure fellow !"
Oct. 5, 1758, he records that he arrived at his father's home in Braintree, from Worcester, and gives the following interest- ing account of circumstances transpiring here during his three years' residence in Worcester, which embraced the most ex- citing period of the French and Indian war, resulting in the conquest of the Canadas from the French, by the British, du- ring which war, lasting from 1748 to 1763, the town of Wor- cester furnished 453 men for the service :
" While I was at Worcester, three great personages from England passed through that town. Lord Loudon was one ; he traveled in the winter from New York to Boston. The relations we had of his manners. and conduct on the road gave us no great esteem of his lordship's qualifications to conduct the war, and excited gloomy apprehensions. The young Lord Howe, who passed from Boston to New York, was the very reverse, and spread every- where the most sanguine hopes, which, however, were soon disappointed by his melancholy but heroic death. The third was Sir Geoffroy Amherst, af- terward Lord Amherst, and commander-in-chief of the British army. Am- herst, who had arrived at Boston from the conquest of Louisburg, marched with his army of four thousand men across the country, and halted a few days at Worcester, having encamped his army on the hill behind the Court House. Here we had an opportunity of seeing him, his officers and army. The officers were very social, spent their evenings, and took their suppers with such of the inhabitants as were able to invite them, and entertained us with their music and their dances. Many of them were Scotchmen in their plaids, and their music was delightful ; even the bag-pipe was not disagree- able. The general lodged with Col. Chandler the elder,* and was very in- quisitive concerning his farm, insisting on rambling over the whole of it. The excellent order and discipline observed by these troops revived the hopes of the country, which were ultimately fully satisfied by the entire conquest of Canada, with the help of the militia of the country, which were sent on to their assistance with great confidence.
At the time when Fort William Henry was besieged, there came down al- most every day depatches from the general to the New England colonies,
* This was the Judge Chandler who died in 1762, his residence and farm of 500 acres being east of Lincoln Square, (see pages 68 and 69.
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urging for troops and assistance. Col. Chandler the younger* had sent so many expresses that he found it difficult to get persons to undertake the jour- nies. Complaining of this embarrassment one evening, in company, I told him I had so long led a sedentary life that my health began to fail me, and that I had an inclination to take a journey on horseback.
The next morning, by day-break, he was at my chamber door with des- patches for the Governor of Rhode Island ; he said a horse was ready. With- out hesitation I arose and was soon mounted. Too much despatch was nec- essary for my comfort, and I believe, for my health ; for a journey so fatigu- ing, in a man who was not on horseback more than once a year on a short visit to his parents, I cannot think, calculated to relieve a valetudinarian. Arrived at Providence, I was informed that Mr. Greene was at Newport with the General Assembly. I had then to ride through the Narraganset country, and to cross Conanicut to Rhode Island. In the woods of Narraganset I met two gentlemen on horseback of whom I took the liberty to inquire whether the governor was still at Newport. One of them answered he was not ; but the gentleman with him was the governor. My despatches were delivered to him, and he broke the seals, and read them on the spot. He said he believed the French were determined to have the country.t He asked of me many questions, and also gave me many polite invitations to return with him to his home, which, as he said he had no answer to return by me, and as I was determined to see Newport, I civilly declined. Pursuing my journey, I found great difficulty to get over the water, as the boats and men were gone upon their usual employment. One was found after a time very tedious to me, and I landed on the island, and had a good opportunity to see the whole of it, as my road to Bristol lay through the whole length of it. To me the whole island appeared a most beautiful garden, an ornamented farm ; but hostile armies have since degarnished it of a principal embellishment, the noble acres and plantations of trees. Crossing over the ferry to Bristol, I spent a night with Col. Greene whose lady was a Church, and a sister to Mrs. John Chandler. Here I was happy, and felt at home. Next morning I pur- sued my journey to Worcester. The whole was accomplished in four days, one of which was Sunday. As I was obliged to ride all that day, I had an opportunity of observing the manners of Rhode Island, much more gay and social than our Sundays in Massachusetts."
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