USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Holden > The history of Holden, Massachusetts. 1684-1894 > Part 13
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Mr. Gale was greeted with hearty applause, and made the following Presentation Address :
" Mr. President and Friends: Thirty-four years ago, I came to this village to teach the district school. The frame school-house, still standing, and in use, was then new, and was a subject of much interest and pride. The only instruction I received from the school committee as to the management of the school was that I should keep the scholars from marking and scratching the new school-house. I entirely neglected my duty in this respect. At the end of the winter, marks and scratches were very abundant ; and I knew it was all my fault, for no school- master ever had better boys and girls. After thinking over my offense for thirty-four years I concluded the only suitable recom- pense I could make was to give the town a new school-house, which I have accordingly done. I do not say, however, there were no other considerations and more serious, for the enterprise. Here my wife was born and reared; and this, in the opinion of at least her husband, entitles the place to monumental honors. May I also mention especially her brother, the late Dr. Samuel C. Damon, a
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
resident of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, a great-hearted and broad- minded man, with a deep affection for his native town. He it was who first suggested to me the idea of aiding to establish here a public library. It is in memory of him, and of her other kinspeople1 and other friends dear to us both, whose homes have been here in this and other generations, that we have sought to do this town some good thing, so important and permanent that the inhabitants will always kindly remember us.
"Mr. President, I hold in my hands and now deliver, title papers conveying to the town of Holden, from my wife and myself, the new Library and High School Building and grounds. The con- veyance is made in trust and upon the conditions that the town shall, under the law of Massachusetts, organize a Board of Trustees to manage the estate and library ; that the town keep the building in repair and continue the insurance of $10,000 already placed upon it, with premium paid for five years; that the library be also kept insured and that both the building and library shall be restored in case of destruction or impairment ; that the grounds shall be kept in neat and tasteful order, appropriately adorned with flowers; that the town shall maintain a Free Public Library and Reading-room in the building and shall appropriate and expend annually, of its own money, not less than $200 for the purchase of new works for the library ; that the school held in the building shall always be free to the inhabitants of Holden, and shall be at least equal to a High School in grade. I trust these conditions will not seem unreason- able or burdensome. They certainly have been made after much thought, solely to secure to the public the greatest benefit possible from this undertaking.
" At the last, friends, we part with this estate, so interesting has it grown to be to us, with something like reluctance-a glad reluc- tance-as parting with a daughter at the marriage altar. And this is really a nuptial day. This gift is the bride; and she carries with herself to this people our benediction. There is a proverb of three Latin words, 'Qui Legit Regit', 'He who reads is king'. Then let this be your palace royal. Thither, through many, many years, through summer bloom and winter gloom, may the feet of your children turn as to a garden of entertainments. For your young men and young women, I pray you make this the happy,
1 See Genealogical Table of the Damon Family, p. 160.
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THE DAMON MEMORIAL.
wholesome greeting place, till books shall interest them and lure them to stay. For the old, when they come, lead them to the sunniest spot, the easiest chair, and show them the open page. But most of all, for those earnest ones among you, especially if they be poor, who hunger and thirst for books and the better things which books lead up to, keep always the door wide open, the feast spread and the lights burning-all this, till these rugged stones shall crumble and be as dust."
After the applause which followed Mr. Gale's address had died away, Mr. Charles E. Parker, acting as chairman of the board of selectmen, responded for the town in the following Address of Acceptance :
"To Mr. and Mrs. Gale, whose benefaction calls us together to- day, I desire to say that I accept these deeds on behalf of the town. On behalf of the town I thank you. The conditions and require- ments of the deed are reasonable and satisfactory, and I know I can promise a ready and hearty acceptance. The library, containing, as it does, the sum and substance of the life work of many students of the past, and the reading room, with its home-like comforts, supplied with papers and magazines filled with the best of the thoughts of the writers of to-day, are factors of education of immense advantage to the student at school and the community at large.
" This object lesson of beauty ! Who can measure its influence for good? In behalf of the students who shall be inspired by the harmony and beauty to a higher ambition and greater effort, I thank you. Our fathers builded better than they knew when, in the early history of this country, beside the church they planted the school- house, and from time to time perfected the common school system. We all know it to be the corner stone and foundation of the best government on the face of the earth. With all due reverence, I would acknowledge a higher power, and invoke its aid to paralyze the hand that would take one stone from the foundation of our school system. It shall be maintained, and with it shall be kept green the memory of those who make education attractive. If he who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a public benefactor, how much more he, who, adding to the facilities of acquiring knowledge, makes men wiser and better."
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
At the conclusion of his address of acceptance, Mr. Parker called upon the audience to thank Mr. and Mrs. Gale for their gift, and all unanimously arose, The Prayer of Dedication was then offered by Rev. David F. Estes. Mr. Learned then intro- duced the orator of the day, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higgin- son, as being " a resident of Cambridge and of Holden".1 Col. Higginson spoke in part as follows :
" Fergusson, in his History of Architecture, says that ' wherever we see any work of man truly worthy of admiration, we may be quite sure that the credit of it is not due to an individual, but to thousands working together through a long series of years.' He is speaking of the great cathedrals of Europe, which are undoubtedly the greatest visible work of man, when we consider both size and beauty ; which were all built practically within a single century, the thirteenth, and nearly all, in France at least, within the sixty years from 1180 to 1240. When the traveller approaches one of these great buildings he has in one respect the same impression produced on many visitors by the building we dedicate to-day. The cathedral
1 Col. Higginson was for part of three years a resident of Holden, occupying during the summer "Pine Grove Farm," the residence of Samuel W. Armington. In presenting to the Gale Free Library a copy of his volume of Essays, "In a Fair Country. Illustrated by Irene E. Jerome", Col. Higginson wrote, "Some of the illustrations were drawn in Holden, while Miss Jerome was visiting us there." From a pine grove in Holden came also the suggestion for his poem-
THE SNOWING OF THE PINES.
Softer than silence, stiller than still air,
Float down from high pine boughs the slender leaves. The forest floor its annual boon receives That comes like snowfall, tireless, tranquil, fair. Gently they glide, gently they clothe the bare
Old rocks with grace. Their fall a mantle weaves Of paler yellow than autumnal sheaves, Or those strange blossoms the witch-hazels wear. Athwart long aisles the sunbeams pierce their way ; High up, the crows are gathering for the night ; The delicate needles fill the air ; the jay Takes through the golden mist his radiant flight ; They fall and fall, till at November's close The snowflakes drop as lightly-snows on snows.
1
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THE DAMON MEMORIAL.
dwarfs everything around it, and seems, at first sight, almost disproportionate, both in size and dignity. In going towards Cologne, for instance, or York Minster, you are impressed with the fact that, instead of drawing near to a town, you are approaching a cathedral. The building looms in the distance, large, stately, solid, glittering in the light or dim with shade, very much as in crosssing Kansas and approaching Colorado, you see Pike's Peak on the one hand, and the Spanish Peaks on the other, the far off prediction of wonders yet to be revealed. When you reach those mountains, you find towns already encamped around their feet, and so when you reach York or Cologne, you find the town encamped around the feet of the cathedral. Even so, fifty years hence, will the village of Holden be seen clustered around these solid walls, which enshrine its library and its high school. It will doubtless affect the other buildings to be hereafter erected in the town; they will be more solid, tasteful, appropriate, for having this building in their midst ; but the Damon Memorial will be the center of the town, as it should be, for it will be the source and center of its intellectual life.
" The parallel holds in other ways. Nothing comes so near the great impulse which built, within less than a century, the vast Euro- pean cathedrals, as the impulse which is dotting our land with pub- lic libraries. We mistake if we suppose that those mediaval glories of the world came from a religious enthusiasm alone. They repre- sent a great peaceful uprising of the people against the feudal sys- tem, an impulse of which the French bishops skillfully availed themselves to strengthen themselves against the feudal lords on the one side and the religious brotherhoods on the other. Before the period of cathedral building, all the great ecclesiastical buildings were monastic ; the people had no part in them; but in the cathe- drals the laity bore most of the expense and shared, in at least an equal degree, their ownership and purposes. In the previous build- ings the laity had no rights, and took no part in what was done there ; but in the cathedrals, the people were at home. There the popular assemblies were gathered, the local governments organized, that were to make a stand against the feudal lords ; in the cathedrals the courts and markets were held, and not merely religious shows took place, but even popular farces and wild buffooneries. When the commune, or local muncipality, of Noyon, for example, was to be organized, the bishop called together in the cathedral the men of
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
property, the professional and business men and the skilled artisans, and presented to them a charter, which created for them a popular government (corps de bourgeois). Thus the cathedrals were not merely religious but public buildings ; they had a democratic origin, and the very oldest of them, as that of Laon, have rather the air of municipal structures than of churches. They were not only larger buildings than had before been consecrated to religion, but they spoke a new language, that of the people; and thus the whole people joined to build them.
"During the two summers while I have watched this building rise, I have been constantly struck with the fact, that it represents the same great popular impulse in the nineteenth century that the cathedral represented in the thirteenth. The ancient cathedral and the modern town library alike stand for the spirit of their age. Now, as then, a single benefactor often gives the whole financial means for the great work; we meet to-day to express gratitude to such a donor; but he himself would be the first to admit that he represents the great impulse of enlightenment, which is providing every town in Massachusetts with free libraries. In a wholly illiterate community such an enterprise would be wasted, and the donor of this building was working unconsciously for it just as much when he taught one of your schools in his youth, as when, in his prosperous maturity, he feeds the demand he helped to create. And every one who, in this town, or elsewhere, has ever worked for public school or public library, has been one of the thousand who, as Fergusson said, have helped to prepare the way for every great work of man. As I have watched this building go up, it has seemed to me to rise,-as was said, by a mediæval writer, of the cathedrals- 'built of the money of the rich and the prayers of the poor.' Men of almost every occupation in this town have been employed about this building, and have worked, as they did in the middle ages, with a zeal not measured only by the day's wages. Those who did not work with their hands have watched the laying of every stone, and have contributed, without charge, sympathy enough to encourage any contractor, as well as good advice enough seriously to embarrass him. I am confident that no European cathedral ever had a larger share of discussion and counsel to the square inch than the Damon Memorial ; and it may be said of it, as of the great mediaval cathedrals, that it has been 'built of the money of the rich and the prayers of the poor.'
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THE DAMON MEMORIAL.
" And it must always be kept in view that this is but one contri- bution to that vast movement which is covering our state with public libraries, as Europe was covered with cathedrals.
" One of the favorite heroes of that eloquent man, [Mr. George William Curtis, ] I remember, is Sir Philip Sidney, and it is Sir Philip Sidney who says in his 'Defense of Poesy' that 'the ending end of all knowledge is virtuous action.' Action is higher even than thought. On this principle there have been two great days in the history of Holden within my memory. One was the day, (April 20th, 1861,) when the summons went out from the state house calling upon the Holden Rifles to go, at a few hours notice, to the defense of Washington ; and they went. That was Holden's greatest day ; this is the next; and it is pleasant to think that among those who worked upon this building were more than one of those who then rallied at their country's call. Yes, action is higher than thought ; deeds than words. The poet Keats, the most ideal of all poets, says in one of his letters that 'fine thinking is, next to fine doing, the top thing of the universe.' It is the mission of a school- house and a library to bring about not merely fine thinking but fine doing.
" I should like to see around the walls of the Holden Free Library some such inscription as used to delight me in boyhood, on the handbills of an old bookstore I used to frequent in Boston : ' Here you may range the world with the magic of a book, and cheat expectation and solitude of their weary moments.' And there will surely remain in that hall, with or without a portrait, the memory of the benefactor-may I not say of the two wedded benefactors ?- through whom its pleasures and its advantages have been provided for coming generations of those whom they have never seen."
After an hour spent in social greetings, and in the examin- ation of the edifice, a procession formed under the direction of Chief Marshal Edward W. Merrick, and marched to the large dining tent, which had been spread on the Damon grounds, nearly opposite the Memorial building. Dinner was served to
*
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
about six hundred, After the conclusion of the dinner, Mr. Learned introduced Hon. Henry W. Warren as Toastmaster. He presented as the first sentiment, " The Commonwealth of Massachusetts," to which Hon. George B. Loring of Salem, Minister of the United States to Portugal, responded at length. " The City of Worcester" was spoken for by Hon. Samuel Winslow, Mayor of the city. Nathan Allen, M. D., of Lowell, then presented a sketch of the life-work and character of Samuel C. Damon, D. D .; Mr. Samuel S. Green, of the Worcester Public Library, spoke to the sentiment, " The Library, Gar- nered Wisdom of Centuries"; a poem entitled "New England Granite," was read by Mr. Solon P. Davis, of Hartford, and Albert P. Marble, Ph. D., Hon. P. Emory Aldrich, Gen. Augustus B. R. Sprague of Worcester, and Henry A. Stimson, D. D., of St. Louis, a former pastor of Mrs. Gale, also made brief addresses. The following Ode by Mrs. Georgia Allen Peck was sung by the entire assemblage.
" Gazing on this massive splendor, Stately, changeless, fair to view, Fain our grateful song would render, Gracious donors, homage due. Let glad voices Sound the note of praise anew.
Here, in youth's unsullied morning, Eager for life's golden ore, Dead to sloth, and folly scorning, Lo, at wisdom's mystic door, Youth and maiden Glad shall garner priceless lore.
Here the treasure of all ages, Poet's dream, and fancy's flight, Science, art and wealth of sages In grand symphony unite. God hath spoken- Echo all, let there be light !
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THE DAMON MEMORIAL.
Onward points the tireless finger ; Progress knows nor halt nor stay,
Suns shall in their orbit linger, Time's swift sands their course delay, Ere her footsteps Falter in their upward way.
Spirits thrilled and hearts o'erflowing, Giver of all good, to thee Each rich gift of thy bestowing Consecrated here shall be ; Now and ever, Consecrated, Lord, to thee !"
At a legal town meeting, held September 26th, 1888, the acceptance of the Damon Memorial upon the conditions and requirements contained in the deed of gift, was formally voted. The following expression of thanks was also adopted :
"The Town of Holden in town meeting assembled formally accepts the " Damon Memorial" Library and High School Building, and the books presented by Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Gale of Minne- apolis, and desires at the same time publicly to express and place on record its appreciation of the good-will, generosity and even munifi- cence of these gifts. To the natural pride, which we have felt as our former fellow citizens in the worth and prosperity of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Gale, is now added gratitude for their remembrance and helpfulness.
" The building most amply supplies needs already felt, and that on a scale which indicates the large heartedness of its donors, while the strength and dignity of its architectural structure makes it at once an ornament to the town and a constant lesson to its citizens.
"The town pledges itself to the fulfillment of the wise and fit conditions imposed by its donors, to the careful preservation of the property, to the enlargement of the Library, and to whatever may make school and library better subserve the purposes of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Gale, and better honor their large and wise liberality."
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE DAMON FAMILY.1
Samuel Damon,? = Abigail Penniman. 1755-1813.
1754-1842.
Penniman, 1739-1867.
Abigail, 1783-1838.
Samuel, = Aloney Chenery. 1786-1857. 1788-1863,
Susan A. 1810-1831.
Aloney A. 4 1813-1882.
Samuel C. 1815-1883.
Isaac,=Mary A. Hartwell, 1817. 1816-1867.
Charles F. 1826-1860.
Augustus F. 1828-1861.
Susan A.5 1833.
*
Helen, 6 1831-1878.
Mary A.7 1844-1878.
Marion V.8 1850.
Harry C. 1853.
Annie C. 1856.
1 This Table is intentionally incomplete. 2 Removed to Holden, 1779. 3 Married Ignatius Goulding. 4 Married Charles L. Knowlton. " Married Samuel C. Gale. 6 Married James M. Shute. 7 Married Emory Rogers. 8 Married Frank Shute.
CHAPTER X.
MILITARY AFFAIRS.
COLONIAL CAMPAIGNS. - REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS. - MILITIA OFFICERS. - THE BOYS IN BLUE. - THERON E. HALL POST G. A. R.
ILITARY affairs interested the early inhabitants of Holden, not so much from choice as from necessity. The early settler's gun was his constant companion, and the farmer, at an hour's notice, turned militia- man and soldier.
May 22d, 1744, the Town " voted that the Some of Thirty- three pounds old Tener money be Assesed upon poles and Estates and passed into a rate to provide powder and bulits and flints for a Town Stock and for the transport of Sd Stock."
In a great share of the campaigns that preceded the revolu- tion, Holden was represented. The ancient muster rolls still testify to the public spirit which sent the early settlers from their scarcely built homes and still uncleared fields into the service of their county. In 1747, Jonathan Metcalf and Jotham Rice served at New Rutland. In 1755, Ephraim Ben- nett served in a Lancaster company, commanded by Asa Whetcomb, on the Crown Point expedition, and died in active service. Samuel Estabrook also served in 1755. In 1857, Sergeant William Fisher, Richard Flagg, Samuel Boyd, John Boyd, Benjamin Allen and Jacob Lindsey were out three weeks to serve with the forces at Lake George. Samuel Bigelow
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
served in 1757, and Henry Rice, Job Harris, Jedediah Esta- brook and Ebenezer Fletcher in 1758. The same year the following muster roll was made out :
" A muster Roll of a Detachment of men from Capt John Biglo Company of Holdin of Colo John Chandler Jr. Regiment that marched on the Late alarm for the Relief of fort William Henry under the command of John Biglo as their Captain who marched from Holdin to Sheffield being 113 mile out."
"All served 17 days closing Aug. 19 1758."
John Bigelow, Captain, Samuel Hubbard, Ensign,
Samuel Thompson,
Thomas Greenwood,
Samuel Boyd,
John Child, Sergeant, Joseph Greenwood, Sergeant, Isaac Smith, Sergeant,
Elisha Mirick,
Thomas Dryden,
Simon Davis, Sergeant,
William Barber,
William Flagg, Corporal,
Benjamin Allen,
Andrew Smith, Corporal,
Job Harris,
Ebenezer Goodnow,
Paul Raymond, Corporal, Moses Wheeler, Corporal, Ebenezer Fletcher, Gideon Fisher,
Jedidiah Estabrook,
Isaac Thompson.
In 1759 the following served nearly nine months each : First Lieutenant Ebenezer Fletcher, Sergeant Samuel Bigelow, Samuel Estabrook, Jedediah Estabrook, Job Harris, Samuel Hubbard, John Murphy, Henry Rice and Samuel Thompson. John Woodward and Ebenezer Goodnow also served the same year. In 1760, "Richard Miles, born in Ireland, 36 yrs" enlisted for the reduction of Canada. In 1761, there served in "Thomas Cowdine's Co." till December 2d : Noah Cotton, enlisted June 20th; Thomas Cotton, June 30th ; Thomas Crage, June 18th ; James Crage, June 18th ; William McMaster, June 18th, and Robert Train, June 30th. Isaac Whitney served from June 29th to November 17th. In the same com- pany the next year, 1762, Sergeant Job Harris, was mustered in March 17th; Nathan Bigelow, March 22d ; James Cutler, March 24th, and Isaiah Sprout, March 22d; the service of
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MILITARY AFFAIRS.
all ending November 10th. In 1766, Ithamar Goodenough served in Captain Fay's Company.
When "the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world," its echoes roused two companies from Holden, both of which marched April 19th, 1775.
" Roll of Major Paul Raymond Company of Militia who marched from Holden in the County of Worcester to Cambridge on the 19th of April A D 1775. Said Company belongs to the first Regiment in said County."
Paul Raymond, Major, Nat. Harrington, Lieutenant, John Child Jr., 2d Lieutenant, Ebenezer Estabrook, Sergeant, Elisha Mirick, Sergeant, Samuel Chaffin, Sergeant, Jonathan Rice, Moses Wheeler,
David Winch, John Potter, David Potter, John Symond, David Smith, Amos Hubbard,
William Flagg,
Zillai Stickney, Valentine Harris,
Jason Gleason, Jesse Allen, Joseph Fletcher,
John Mack, John Willington,
Thomas Kimball,
Israel Davis, Jr.,
Aaron Broad, Amasa Holt, Asa Lovell,
Daniel Black,
Samuel Estabrook, Jr., David Perry,
Amos Lovell,
Josiah Stratton,
William Raymond,
Amos Raymond,
Timothy Morse,
Amos Heywood, Charles Heywood, David Fisk.
"Roll of the minute company in Holden Capt. James Davis, in Col. Doolittle's Reg. Marched April 19th 1775."
Noah Haven, Corporal, Seth Snow, Corporal,
James Davis, Captain, Samuel Thompson, Ist Lieut., Samuel Hubbard, 2d Lieutenant, Artemas Dryden, Fifer, Francis Willson, Sergeant, Thomas Davis, Elisha Hubbard, Sergeant, Ephraim Smith, Daniel Grout, Corporal, Samuel Row, Jacob Black, Henry Taft, Corporal,
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
Nathaniel Sheppard, Simon Stickney, Joshua Gale, Thomas Hurd,
Peter Hubbard, James Cheney, Bartholomew Stearns, Jonathan Howe, John McMullen, Jonathan Fisk,
John Oben,
Thomas Dryden,
John Winch,
Isaiah Cheney, Jr.,
Aaron Wheeler,
Isaiah Brown,
Nathan Wheeler,
Edmund Hall,
Jesse Partridge,
Elijah Rice, Jr., Judah Wright.
Holden soldiers served constantly and everywhere during the whole Revolutionary war. The number serving in the Continental Army was sixty-five, and ninety-seven others served for a larger or shorter time as militia.
The list of soldiers in the Continental army was as follows :
Abbott, John, Allard, Andrew,
Flagg, Jonathan,
Flagg, William,
Bailey, John,
Foster, Elisha,
Bartlett, Jonathan,
Fuller, Jeremiah,
Blake, Jeremiah,
Gay, Amasa,
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