USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Franklin > Resident and business directory of the town of Franklin, Massachusetts 1890 > Part 3
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On Dec. 17, 1787, Deacon Samuel Lethbridge, Asa Whiting, and Ensign Joseph Whiting presented the follow- ing report which was accepted, and a larger site for the new building than the Thomas Man's acre was bought :
" We have agreed with Mr. John Adams for the wedge of land lying between the way from the meeting-house leading to the Rev. Nathaniel Emmons and the way from the said meeting-house to Ensign John Adams', being nine acres, at £1 10s. per acre; also thirty-eight rods of land west of said way at the same rate; also one and a half acres in the hollow south of the old meeting-house at three pounds. And of Nathaniel Adams one hundred and forty rods of land east of the way from said meeting-house leading to Mr. Emmons at the rate of £1 10s. per acre. Also a road three rods wide through his improved land, beginning at the road from John Adams', Jr., to go a straight course between his house and well to the land above mentioned, for which he is to receive as a satisfaction eight pounds in money and the acre of land on which the meeting-house now stands, with the road that is now wanted, in by his house, to said acre."
Two years later (1789) fifty-nine and a half rods lying north of the new meeting-house were bought at sixpence per rod. This lot completed the nine acres, of which the present Franklin Common was a part. This land when first bought, was covered with a dense growth of pitch pines, standing with their feet firmly planted among small bowlders. It cost sixty dollars and ninety-one cents to clear this untamed spot and cover it with grass. Three sides of this wedge- shaped nine acres were afterwards trimmed with slender Lombardy poplars. They were planted April 6, 1801, by William Adams, according to a previous vote of the town. Some twenty years afterwards the south end of the Common was sold for building sites, and on the centre lot Dr. Amory Hunting built a house in front of the old gun-house, since removed. After the meeting-house had been moved to its present site and reversed, the town bought the Common of the parish and committed it to the care of a voluntary asso-
29
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
ciation. This association has bordered it with hardy trees, crossed it with walks, and surrounded it with a durable fence.
A plan for the new meeting-house was presented by a committee of thirteen, and accepted by the town December, 1787. Its dimensions were as follows : Sixty-two feet long and forty wide, with a porch at each end fourteen feet square. It had fifty-nine pews on the floor and twenty-one in the gallery, besides the singers' and boys' seats. The centre of the house had at first long benches on each side of the main aisle, afterwards exchanged for narrow pews. The frame still lives, unaltered in size, within a new covering.
The building was carried on with characteristic energy and finished in July, 1788, seven months from the accept- ance of the plan. The cost as rendered by the committee to the town, March 7, 1791, was as follows:
£
s.
d.
f.
Lumber at Boston
57
19
3
0
Carting from Boston -
16
19
3
0
Rum, sugar, molasses, and lemons at Boston
12
6
3
0
Lickquers bought at home
3
3
4
0
Cost of raising the house -
26
S
9
0
Nails and other iron-ware at Boston
15
7
5
0
Nails and other iron-ware at home
25
15
2
0
Painting, tarring, and glazing 1
73
6
5
0
Boards, clapboards, and shingles at home
33
5
0
0
Plastering and whitewashing
18
4
0
0
Underpinning the house
26
12
3
2
Boarding the workmen
81
11
8
0
Door-stones and paving round the house
25
1
3
0
Window-weights
5
18
4
0
Cost of the curtain(behind the pulpit)
3
7
3
0
Expenses of the committee
69
3
7
0
Carpenters work,
233
0
8
0
Total
DONATIONS.
£
S.
d.
t.
Hezekiah Fisher, to purchase the glass
29
4
4
3
Nathaniel Thayer
10
10
7
3
Jonathan Wales
1
16
0
0
Josiah Hawes
14
3
0
0
Nathan Man
1
3
6
1
£ s. d. f. 35 883
(So added in the original)
£ s.d. f. 726 342
-
-
30
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
Total of class tax
293
17
1
1
Received from sale of pews
-
622
11
0
0
Interest on securities for pews
13
17
6
0
From the old house
13
12
6
0
£ s. d.f. 943 18 1 1
Total cost of meeting-house Or, at the then value of paper currency,
1054 9 2 1
$3614.86.
This bill was not accepted as readily as the plan had been ; but examination of the charges by an auditing committee, March 10, 1794, showed that £18 5s. 5d. more were due to the committee than they charged. The honest town voted that this balance should be paid, with interest for four years, and receipts in full were exchanged. The bill probably included the cost of preparing the land. In 1806 the east porch was raised into a belfry to receive a clock and bell, which had been given to the parish, costing seven hundred and forty-five dollars. The bell has never told the name of the giver, nor the clock-hands pointed to the time or place of its record, and none of the living know the generous donor or donors.
In 1830, while workmen were painting the belfry, they spattered the bell, whereon some bright genius among them, thinking to better the matter, painted the luckless bell all over. Under this covering the voice of the bell was almost silenced,-it was supposed forever. It was thereupon sent to the foundry at East Medway in exchange for a heavier one. The dumb bell came forth from the fiery furnace freed from the smothering paint and musically toned as ever. It now tells the people of Paxton the times of public assem- blings.
The second house was used for fifty-two years, when it was moved about eighty feet directly north, and turned a quarter round, with its belfry towards the south. The old square pews were exchanged for modern slips, and all the congregation were seated in platoons with their faces towards the pulpit. 1856 the interior walls were frescoed.
Upon the completion of the third and present Congrega- tional meeting-house, the second, which was in its turn the old, was sold and deeded, through Davis Thayer, Jr., to J. L. Fitzpatrick, and by him transferred to the Right Rev. J.
31
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
J. Williams, now archbishop of Boston, for the use of the Catholic congregation. The last sermon in it before its sale was preached by Rev. Luther Keene, the pastor, in which he stated that in his eighty-four years of service there had been 8736 Sabbath sermons preached from its pulpit, which had been in charge of 13 ministers : 900 infants received the rite of baptism ; and unnumbered dead reposed in it while the last services for them were being held before burial.
Before the doors of the old sanctuary are closed after the last service held in it before its alteration in 1840 (which was the funeral of Dr. Emmous), let us reproduce its inter- ior as described by one who remembers it well: " What picture can produce its interior ! Its high box pulpit and impending sounding-board, hung by a single iron rod an inch square ; the two pegs on each side of the pulpit window, on one of which sometimes hung the old pastor's blueblack cloak, and on the other always his three-cornered clerical hat ! By no means omit the short little preacher in the pnl- pit, with clear, sharp eyes, bald, shining head, small, pene- trating voice, and manuscript gesture ; the square pews, seated on four sides, with a drop-seat across the narrow door, and the straight, cushioned chair in the centre for the grandmother, filled every one with sedate faces over which gray hairs usually predominated. The open space before and below the pulpit, where in winter a massive wood stove reared its iron head and opened its square mouth to be filled morning and at noon with blocks of hard wood big enough to hold fire through the following services and keep the circle of old men who sat round it in a sleepy warmth while the unfortunate sitters in the outer corners shivered with cold. To it at noon came the mothers, bringing their small tin hand-stoves, with perforated sides and an iron box within to hold live coals, for a fresh supply to keep their feet warm through the afternoon service. The long balustrades hem- ming the side galleries were crowded with hats against the two stairways, which a puff of wind from the open porch- doors sometimes sent scattering down upon the uncovered heads below. The singers' seats filled the long gallery fronting the pulpit, in which nothing louder than a wooden pitch-pipe for years dared to utter a note. But about 1825,
32
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
a singing-school timidly prepared the way for a violin, which soon introduced a bass-viol for the support of itself and the new singers. The boys had seats in the southwest elbow of the gallery, each boy with one eye on the tithing-man sitting high up in the northwest corner pew and the other eye wan- dering or asleep, while both ears were enviously open to the neighing of the horses in the hundred horse-sheds and the twitter of birds in the Lombardy poplars near by."
Not only was the irrepressible boy from the first looked after by the tithing men, chosen " to take care of ye children, to prevent their playing in meeting," but in May 1791, another duty was laid upon these same officers. "May 1791, on complaint that divers persons have from time to time behaved in a very unbecoming manner by standing in the porches of the meeting-house of this town, on the Lord's Day, and otherwise conducting in a manner not only incon- sistent with the purpose for which they professedly assemble, but highly unbecoming a person of good breeding or the character of a gentleman. Voted, that such conduct ought to be highly reprobated and discountenanced by every sober man, and they will hold them as scandalous and infamous persons ; and the tithing-men are to take their names and publicly expose them next town-meeting, and post up this vote and the names of all future offenders." Absentees had to justify themselves for their absence. Even after the con- gregation were all safely in their pews, and under the vigilance of such sentinels, the minister could not always control their attention. It is said that on one July Sunday, 1790, when the audience was unusually torpid and sleepy, Dr. Emmons closed his manuscript, took down his three cornered hat, came down from the pulpit, and went quietly home, leaving his comatose congregation to finish their naps or dismiss themselves without a benediction. After giving them a fortnight to consider their ways and be wise, he explained the reasons of his conduct, and his penitent church voted : " 1. It is reasonable the pastor should insist upon having the proper attention of the people in the time of public worship. 2. It is reasonable the church shall desire and endeavor that proper attention be given in'the time of public worship and discountenance all inattention."
33
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
As a result of the alterations and modernizings of 1840, the top of the old sounding-board lighted upon a well-house in Ashland; the old pulpit ended a long journey in the lecture-room of the Chicago Theological Seminary. At the same time, also, the long rows of horse-sheds were demol- ished, save a very few moved to the rear of the new site. The noon-houses had disappeared some years before 1840. They had been built for a resort in the intermissions on cold Sundays. They were four-square, with a seat on each side with a narrow floor in front. A large stone hearth filled the centre, on which a fire was built in a pile within reach of the cold feet aimed at it from the four sides, while the smoke found its way, when ready, through a wigwam-like hole in the roof.
HOME LIFE .- In these early colonial towns the meeting- house was as literally their social as geographical centre The families settled on their farms in concentric circles to the outer limit of the territory, and being busy all the week at home, the Sunday-noon intermission spent in the horse- sheds and noon-houses were their only opportunities for interchange of family greetings and friendly gossip. The rude connecting roads were too long, rugged, and lonely to be traveled for evening gatherings, and the young folks had to supplement their Sunday talks by the few weeks of the winter school. The town industries were home industries among the stumps and rocks of the slowly civilizing acres and at looms in the attics. A corn-mill and a saw-mill were their only external necessities. These they had to build as soon as possible,-the meeting-house first, and then the corn-mill. Then both soul and body could be equipped for other work. Most of their daily food was raised at home, and they clothed themselves in homespun cloth made from the flax of their fields and the fleece of their flocks, whose body they ate. A rare visit to Boston secured what their farms could not supply. The country grocery was an inven- tion of a later age and a larger liberty.
The population of the town increased slowly, from less than one thousand at its incorporation in 1778 to seventeen hundred and seventeen in 1840. The first sixty-two years its town life showed less than six per cent. increase.
34
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
For many years after the war for liberty the chief business of its town-meetings was discussions of town boundaries and laying out of roads. On March 23, 1795, the selectmen were directed to erect the first guide-posts.
MILITARY AFFAIRS .- The military spirit, first called forth by the stern service of the Revolutionary war, did not die out with the close of the eighteenth century, but revived at least on two days of the year,-of the May training of the two military companies, the North and the South so called, and of the fall muster of the regiment to which they belonged. The May trainings were the times for a public comparison of these two companies, when they both manœuvred at oppo- site ends of the Common, marched around Davis Thayer's store and Dr. Emmon's house, and halted in front of Joseph Hill's store under the poplars, and when the voices of the captains and the drums and fifes were heard through the town. A troop of cavalry was enrolled, mostly within the town, and the horses, fresh from the plow and harrow, pranced and danced at the unwonted music of the bugle among the sweet ferns at the south end of the Common. But greater was the excitement, especially among the boys, when the Franklin Artillery appeared in all its brazen majesty on the same Common where its gun-house, cannon, tumbrels, and harnesses were kept. The dark-blue uniforms, the Bonaparte chapeaux with their long, black, red-tipped plumes, the flashing long swords, the slow march to the dirge-like " Roslyn Castle," as the lumbering brass four- pounders were dragged over the tufts of grass and bushes by dragropes, angling outwards like wild geese lines reversed, were always followed by a crowd. But the climax of mili- tary excitement was reached when, about 1825, the Franklin Cadets made their first public appearance. Their white panta- loons, blue coats, abundantly buttoned and silver-laced, black shining leather caps crowned with black-tipped, white perpendicular plumes, and above all their new glinting muskets, made each boy wish himself a man and a cadet. Many of the after prominent citizens of the town were proud to be called captain of such an admirably-drilled corps. The Franklin Cadets, the Wrentham Guards, and the Bellingham Rifles were the flower of the old Norfolk County regiment.
35
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
The fall musters, however, condensed the highest interest, They came after the sowing and reaping of the year were done', and all were glad for a holiday. The following de- scription of an old-time regimental muster from a frequent participant will be entertaining :
" The day before muster a detailed squad of men marked out, by a long rope and with the heads of old axes, a straight and shallow furrow as a toe-line for the regiment, which they generally adhered to until afternoon. A boundary was also roped along the eastern side next the road, which marked the limit for spectators. On this side were built rough booths for the sale of vegetables and drinkables and gewgaws to the crowd of the coming day. With the earliest daylight came noisily-driven teams into town, bringing soldiers and civilians, lads and lassies from far and near. Tents and marquees were hastily pitched around the meeting- house and along the west side of the Common. Lucheon- boxes and extra garments were stowed in these, guards were set, and at six o'clock the long roll from a score or less kettle drums called the companies together. Drills, evolu- tions, and marchings displayed the skill of the captains and astonished the fast gathering crowds until nine o'clock, when, at the vociferous shouting of the adjutant, the musical squads headed their companies up to the toe-line. The musicians were then gathered at the head of the regiment, near the gun-house, to receive the colonel and his staff when- ever they should emerge from the tavern near at hand. On their appearance and reception, the wing wheeled into an inclosing square with the officers in the centre, while the chaplain, on horseback, prayed for the country and protection of life and limb. On straightening out again, then came the march of the single fife and drum down and back the length of the line, the official inspection, the regimental manœuvre- ings, and the dodging of the line of guards by the spectators.
At one o'clock came dinner, in tent booth, on the grass, anywhere, hilariously moistened,-possibly with venerable cider at least, until three o'clock a big gun and a solemn cavalcade of colonel and staff with chaplain and surgeon called the scattered bands into line for the grand finale-the sham fight. Sometimes the infantry tried to capture the
36
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
guns of the artillery ; sometimes, divided into two equal bat- talions, they furiously bombarded each other; sometimes a tribe of pretentious Indians rushed from behind Dr. Pratt's barn with indescribable yells upon the cavalry, only to be ignominiously chased back to their invisible wigwams. Sometimes the whole regiment formed a hollow square, facing outwards, with a cannon at each corner in defense of their officers,and banged away at unseen and unanswering enemies, while the cavalry dashed in all possible directions to repel imaginary sallies. Trumpets blared, drums rattled, horses reared and snorted, children screamed, ramrods, forgotton in the hurried loading, hurled through the poplars, till a cloud of villianous saltpetre enwrapped in suffocating folds soldiers, spectators, booths, and landscape, and until catridge-boxes were emptied and military furore was satiated. The hubbub subsided about five o'clock into an occasional pop from tardy muskets, and the wounded-by pocket-pistols-were picked up in the booths and along the poplars, and the crowd took their winding-to some very winding-way to their supperless homes.
THE POOR .- It was not until 1799 that public provision had to be made for their poor by this thrifty town. Then there were but five persons. They were at first boarded by the lowest bidder, who must be approved by the select-men, and was held strictly to take good generous care of them, furnishing everything except clothes and medical care. These were separately supplied by the town. If he failed in any respect, he was to remove his charge elsewhere, at his own expense. In 1835 the dwelling-house and farm of Alpheus Adams were bought for an almshouse at a cost of three thousand dollars. In 1868 the house was burned, but another was speedily built a few rods farther east. At no time since 1835 has the number of its inmates exceeded twelve. The appropriations for 1883 was four thousand dollars.
BURIAL GROUNDS .- Land was set apart at the beginning of the settlement for the burial of the dead. "One God's acre " was at Stop River, now the City Mills Cemetery ; the
37
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
other at the Centre. Both of these are still used for the same purpose. They were open and uncared for until 1768, when they were fenced by stone walls. In 1793 committees were chosen to repair the fences, choose sextons, and fix the fees for burial. These cemeteries have been enlarged from time to time as needful, and the dead of to-day are laid near where the forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
In 1864 November 8th a third burial ground was bought and approved by the town. This is called the Catholic Cemetery, and lies some one hundred and fifty rods west of their church.
THE POST-OFFICE .- Franklin had no regular post-office until 1819. Letters and papers were few and far between. These were left at Wrentham by the carriers, who passed three times a week between Providence and Boston. Any one who chanced to visit Wrentham brought them to the owners. In 1812, Herman C. Fisher, then a lad of fifteen, was hired by a few families to go on horseback Saturdays to South Wrentham and bring the mail to Nathaniel Adams', afterwards Davis Thayer's store. His route was through Wrentham and Guinea to the old tavern of the Boston and Providence turnpike. About 1815, David Fisher, keeper of Wrentham tavern, was appointed postmaster. This brought the Franklin mail much nearer ; but letters for the northern part of the town were brought from Medway village. About 1819 the stone store at City Mills was built by Eli Richard- son, who secured a post-office there. For a while Mr. Richardson brought the letters and papers for Franklin Centre to meeting in the box of his sulky every Sunday, and H. C. Fisher carried them to the store of Maj. Davis Thayer to be distributed. But after two years the Centre people began a movement for a post-office of their own. In 1822 they succeeded in securing a regular office, of which
Maj. Thayer was postmaster. His successors have been Spencer Pratt, Theron C. Hills, David P. Baker, Cyrus B. Snow, Charles W. Stewart, David P. Baker again, A. A. Russegue, assistant, Smith Fisher, and J. A. Woodward, the office moving with the appointment from place to place. Mr. Woodward held from 1871 to May 14, 1883, when a fall from a scaffolding of his house caused his sudden death, to
38
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN,
the grief of the whole community, with whom he was held in the highest respect for his uniform urbanity and kindness. His successor, was Oliver H. Ingalls ; assistant, Laura E. Blake. The present postmaster, is J. M. Freenan. The income from the office at first was not more than thirty dollars per year ; but it gradually increased till in 1882 the salary was raised to seventeen hundred dollars. It is now rated in the third class of post-offices.
TEMPERANCE .- Most of the people in the olden time drank liquors to some extent and without scruple, under the im- pression that they were healthful and strength-giving. There were some who on special occasions would get so thoroughly drunk that good people cast about for some external check upon the appetite. When said strength be- came too frequent and dangerous to the home-peace, their names were posted by the select-men so that the dealers, " who in regard of their remoteness from Boston had liberty to sell strong waters to supply the necessity of such as stood in need thereof," should not sell to such under a penalty. But the evil habit of drinking increased in spite of church and minister. As early as 1825, after a lecture given in the Popolatic school-house by a son of Dr. Lyman Beecher, Caleb Fisher, Elisha Bullard, and several others not only signed a pledge, but refused to furnish liquor to their men at work. The example spread, and Franklin became and still is a temperance town. It has always voted no license, and now has three active temperance organizations,-Sons of Temperance, Good Templars and Cadets of Temperance.
EARLY INDUSTRIES .- Sawing or splitting the forest trees into boards for their houses and grinding the corn raised on their cleared land were the first necessities of the new settle- ment. The first corn-mill was built in 1685, by John Whiting, on the site of the present Eagle Mill, at the foot of the long and formerly steep hill of that name, and about midway between the two communities. This mill was owned by Whitings for more than a century. In 1713 the North Precinct settlers sought for mill privileges nearer home, and Daniel Hawes, Jr., and Eleazer Metcalf associated with others to utilize the falls in Mine Brook for a saw-mill.
39
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
The following is the contract which they signed :
" Wrentham Feb. the 7, 1713.
" We hose names are hereunto subscribed doe agree to build a saw mill at the place called the Minebrook: Daniel Hawes wone quarter, John Maccane wone quarter, Eleazer Metcalf and Samuel Metcalf wone quarter, Robert Pond Sen. wone quarter. We doe covenont & agree as follows :
"1" We doe promis that we wil each of us carry on & doe our equa proporchon throught in procuring of irones & hueing framing of a dam & mill & all other labor throught so faire as the major part shall se meat to doe then to com to a reckoning.
" 2 We doe agre that all of us shall have liberty for to work out his proporsion of work & in case aney wone of us neglect to carry on said work till it be done & fit to saw & he that neglects to carry on his part of said mill shall pay half a crown a day to the rest of the owners that did said work.
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