USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Holden > The history of Holden, Massachusetts. 1684-1894 > Part 17
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October 16th, 1852, Luther Wright and Alfred Morse pur- chased the property, and October Ist, 1860, by purchase of his partner's share, Mr. Morse became sole owner. The trustee of his estate sold the property, January 5th, 1874, to Milton S. Morse, who died in the spring of 1877. The mill was run under the name of Estate of Milton S. Morse until 1881, when the present style of the Holden Mills was adopted. The death of the widow, in 1881, and the purchase by Stillman F. Morse, January Ist, 1888, of one-third of the property has made the firm for the last five years to consist of George M. Morse, Susan A. Monroe and Stillman F. Morse. Stillman F. Morse, the present agent, took charge of the business December 31st, 1879.
The property consists of a large mill, an office, a boiler house, a store and about twenty tenements. The power consists of a water wheel of one hundred and forty-three horse power and a steam engine of one hundred horse power. The mill
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BUSINESS AND MANUFACTURES.
contains five thousand six hundred and sixty-four spindles, and eighty-six twenty-eight inch, and fifty-two forty inch looms. Seventy hands are regularly employed. The weekly product is twenty thousand yards of print cloth and nine thousand five hundred yards of four-leaf twill goods. This mill has the rep- utation of making the best print cloth which is sold in the Prov- idence market.
Half a century ago the making of boots and shoes was an industry of considerable importance in this town. In 1837, five thousand eight hundred pairs of boots and ten thousand pairs of shoes were made. This industry has been transferred to other places. In spite of this loss, the number of persons employed in manufacturing increased from two hundred and twenty in 1837 to about six hundred in 1885, and the value of the product increased in a much greater ratio.
CHAPTER XIII.
PERSONAL NOTICES.
REV. MELVIN J. ALLEN.
HE Rev. Melvin J. Allen was born in Cincinnatus, N. Y., May 7th, 1852. He studied at the Cortland Normal School, and at the Cazenovia Seminary, and was graduated from Amherst College in 1879, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1882, taking also a post- graduate year at Andover, 1890-91. He has been pastor at Ash- by, 1882 to 1888, where he was ordained November 8th, 1882, at Holden, 1888 to 1890, and at Littleton, N. H., since 1891.
JOSEPH STANFORD AMES, M. D.
Joseph Stanford Ames, son of Lewis and Mehitable For- bush Ames, was born in Marlborough, December 21st, 1828. His boyhood and youth were spent upon his father's farm. He attended the common schools and the Marlborough Acad- emy.
Naturally fond of books and of investigation, his thoughts were early turned to the study of medicine. He accordingly attended the Medical School of Harvard College, and was grad- uated from the Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfield in 1858. He became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1860.
A few months after his graduation he married, January 5th, 1859, Lizzie, daughter of John and Catherine Parmenter Perry, who was born in Sudbury, July 20th, 1835. He be- gan the practice of his profession in Holden in November,
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J. J. Ames.
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
1858, and this has been his home for more than a generation. Their only child, Josephine Stanford, was born July 24th, 1869, and died September 16th, 1891.
He easily secured, by the wide range of his knowledge, by the breadth and the catholicity of his views, and by the upright- ness of his character, the esteem of his fellow citizens as a man ; and by his uniform kindness and courtesy of manner, and his professional integrity and skill, won their confidence as a physician. He has ever been, and still is, an earnest stu- dent of the ever progressive science of medicine, and a wide reader of general scientific and political literature ; and main- tains a most active interest in the great questions, political, social, moral, and religious, so characteristic of the present century.
His tall and erect form, his singularly unaffected manner, his wit, his knowledge of men and things, his interest in the life and welfare of those with whom he has lived, and to whom he has devoted professional skill and ability of a high order, and his unimpeachable honor render him a marked personality in the life of Holden in this generation.
REV. ELISHA ANDREWS.
The Rev. Elisha Andrews was born at Middletown, Conn., Sept. 29th, 1768. At twelve years of age he moved with his parents to Vermont. His father, in his early years, was a teacher and surveyor, and Elisha acquired knowledge with re- markable facility, and was competent to impart all the instruc- tion required in the district schools of that day.
When about seventeen, he removed to Galway, N. Y., where he followed teaching and surveying for several years, residing during this period with a pious aunt, through whose godly counsels he received such convictions as ultimately led him to the Saviour. At nineteen he commenced to preach, and in 1793 he was ordained pastor of the church in Fairfax, Vt., where he remained until the winter of 1796, when he located in Hopkin-
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
ton, N. H., for about a year, and then transferred his residence to Nottingham West (now Hudson). Early in 1800, he be- came pastor of the church in Templeton. At that time this church had members in twelve or fifteen towns. For fourteen years he had regular appointments at Holden, twenty miles distant ; at Barre, about twelve ; at Athol, about ten, seldom passing and repassing without preaching at the intermediate stations. He visited Holden once a month for fourteen years, except once on account of sickness ; he was equally regular, though less frequent, in his visits to Barre and Athol. At least twelve churches now occupy the ground over which his pas- toral labors extended during the first ten years of his residence in Templeton, and he is still remembered in that region as the Apostle of the Baptists.
In February, 1816, Mr. Andrews removed to Hinsdale, N. H., where the Baptist Church was the only one in the town, and where for several years he ministered to Baptists and others. Afterwards he preached at Princeton, Leominster, Templeton and South Gardner, where he gathered a church, and again at Hinsdale, where he was regarded as the senior pastor until the close of his life, February 3d, 1840.
Mr. Andrews possessed great native ability, and his theologi- cal information was remarkable. He received the honorary de- gree of Master of Arts from Brown University in 1803. He was frequently invited to preach upon public occasions, and was honored over New England as one of the purest and most use- ful men in the Baptist denomination.
As a writer, Mr. Andrews was known chiefly among those of his own denomination, and as a defender of their faith. Some among his published writings are, "The Moral Ten- dencies of Universalism," " Strictures on the Rev. Mr. Brooks' Essay on Terms of Communion," " A Vindication of the Dis- tinguishing Sentiments of the Baptists," " A Review of John Wesley's Tract on the Falling from Grace," " A Review of Win- chester's Dialogues on Universal Restoration."
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
SAMUEL WALLACE ARMINGTON.
Samuel Wallace Armington was born in St. Johnsbury, Vt.,
1 February 11th, 1837. When about two years of age his par- ents came to Holden, and made their home in the west part of the town on what was then known as the Davis farm, where his father engaged in farming and in the wood and lumber business.
His boyhood days were spent on the farm, in the wood lots and in attendance upon the common schools of the town. When about sixteen years old he went into a store as clerk and from that time until 1861, except a year passed in Vermont at his native place, he was in stores in Holden and Worcester.
Though desiring very much to enlist in the early part of 1861, he did not because his parents and friends thought him not sufficiently strong to endure the hardships of a soldier's life.
He did not enlist until the call was made, after the disaster at Ball's Bluff, for men to fill up the Fifteenth Regiment, a regiment than which few in the Army of the Potomac saw harder service. He was with the regiment during 1862 and 1863, and, in spite of the long marches and various hardships of army life, was present and took part in nearly every battle in which his regiment was engaged.
He was twice wounded, once at the battle of Fair Oaks, and again at Fredericksburg, but in each case only slightly. At Mine Run, Va., November 27th, 1863, he with others was taken prisoner, and was kept for more than a year in the pris- ons at Belle Isle, Andersonville, Charleston and Florence.
While larger and stronger men than he broke down under the strain, Mr. Armington, of more slender build, showed bet- ter powers of endurance. Still, so great was the change wrought during those months that few would have recognized him when his release came, December 16th, 1864.
Before he had sufficiently recovered from the effects of his prison life to do a soldier's duty, the war closed. He did not
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
return to his regiment, and was discharged from the service in June, 1865. Besides Mr. Armington, two of his brothers were in the army, both of whom lost their lives, and are buried in unknown graves : Alonzo C. Armington, Third Vermont Reg- iment, who was killed at Savage Station, in one of the Seven Days' Battles, and Henry C. Armington, Ninth Maine Regi- ment, who was killed in front of Petersburg at the blowing up of the fort.
After partially regaining his health, Mr. Armington returned to mercantile business, and took charge of one of the stores in Holden Centre.
Three years later, in 1868, he bought the store, and carried on business for himself until 1877. Since then he has lived at what is known as Pine Grove Farm, a place that under his man- agement has become one of the pleasantest resorts in the re- gion for summer visitors from the cities. He was married October 8th, 1865, to Harriet Shaw of Dresden, Me., who died May 22d, 1884. They had two daughters, May Jose- phene, who was born May 28th, 1868, and died December 13th, 1877, and Fannie Louise, who was born June 11th, 1872.
In 1866, he was appointed postmaster of Holden and held that office until 1885. He was re-appointed in 1889, and is postmaster at the present time, and also proprietor of one of the stores in the Centre. He was the first commander of Post 77, G. A. R., of Holden. Mr. Armington has served his town in the following offices : Town clerk, 1868, 1869, 1873 ; Town Treasurer, 1873, 1874, 1875, and Selectman, 1881. He was also chosen to represent his district in the State Leg- islature of 1887.
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
WALDO E. AUSTIN.
Waldo E. Austin was born in the town of Franklin, Vt., on the 3Ist day of August, 1839. His parents were David Brown and Rebecca Hunt Austin. During his early boyhood his father, a country blacksmith, carried on business in a shop just over the Canadian border, but moved to the center village of the town when he was about ten years of age.
His education was such as the district schools afforded, sup- . plemented by a course at the Franklin Academy, and his ex- periences in his father's shop where he assisted in the manu- facture of all kinds of farming tools, such as axes, hoes, and forks, and in such other work as belonged to the blacksmith's art of that time.
Leaving home in the spring of 1858, he spent a year in Can- ada West, near the city of Brantford, going from there to Rock- bridge, Wis., where he resided for three years, teaching school winters, with farming and shop work during summers.
Returning to Vermont in 1862, he worked in a wagon shop . until winter, when he again taught school, gaining his first ex- perience in " boarding around."
In January, 1864, he came to Holden and soon entered the employ of Ira Broad, in the mills where he has since spent so many busy years. The work being too heavy for his strength he gave it up, and in the autumn entered the employ of Howe & Jefferson, where he remained two years. Office work prov- ing too confining, he then entered the service of Theron E. Hall, and had charge of his mill in Sutton for the season. Re- turning to Holden he again worked for Mr. Broad until 1868, when he removed to Somerville, where he carried on his busi- ness of contractor and builder for three years. Ira Broad hav- ing died in the meantime, and the mill property being in the market, his attention was called to it by his former employers, Howe & Jefferson, and, returning to Holden, he, with them, purchased the property and carried on a general sawmill and
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
lumber business, which soon included building also, until 1877. Since that time he has continued his business alone.
During all these years he has manifested a live interest in whatever tended to the material, moral, and educational wel- fare of the town, serving on various committees and in the dif- ferent boards of town officers.
On the 13th day of October, 1862, he married Abbie Pris- cilla Chase, daughter of Aaron and Mercy Harris Chase. They have three children :
Herbert Austin, born September 14th, 1866; graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1890, and is Professor of Nat- ural Sciences at the Maryland State Normal School, Baltimore, Md.
Susie Lillian, born June 8th, 1868; a member of the class of 1895, Vassar College.
Waldo Edward, born March 18th, 1873.
REV. JOSEPH AVERY.1
Rev. Joseph Avery was a son of Deacon William Avery, South Parish, Dedham, and was born October 14th, 1751. Be- fore the close of his sixteenth year he entered Harvard Univer- sity. During his junior year his mind was deeply impressed with the subject of personal religion, and to such a degree that for a season he was unable to pursue his regular studies. Dur- ing the four years of college life he was an uncommonly exem- plary and conscientious student. He has been heard to remark that at one time he was the only undergraduate of the univer- sity not addicted to the use of tobacco. He graduated in the class of 1771, with much honor. With some of his fellow stu- dents he carried forward a friendly correspondence long after leaving the hallowed retreats of Cambridge. Dr. Tappan,
1 The sketch of Mr. Avery in the Damon History was rewritten by Dr. Da- mon, and was published in its modified form in the Massachusetts Spy in 1875. Every word of the above sketch has been taken from these papers of Dr. Damon, although neither form of the sketch has been unvaryingly fol- lowed.
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
Hollis Professor at the University, was an intimate friend and correspondent.
He was ordained and settled over the church in Holden in December, 1774. Rev. Jabez Haven of Dedham preached the ordination sermon, which was published. In December, 1777, he was married to Miss Allen of Worcester, niece of the cele- brated Samuel Adams of Revolutionary memory. The inter- course of Mr. Avery with his family was uniformly character- ized by kindness and affection. The temporal and spiritual welfare of his children was a subject of great solicitude.
His habits as a country parson were exceedingly methodical. He devoted certain days to farm labor, and others to study in the preparation of his sermons. His sermons were usually written. He numbered his sermons until 1816, when No. 2180 was found written upon one of them. The latest date, however, when a sermon was written, was in the year 1822, two years before his death. It is not known that any of his sermons were ever published, although he is known to have written frequently for the press. His style was remarkably pure and chaste, and in doctrinal views he was Evangelical and Calvinistic. Dr. Thomas Scott was a favorite commentator.
It is a noteworthy fact that Mr. Avery carefully examined the marginal references of Isaiah Thomas' quarto Bible, while it was going through the press at Worcester.
This edition of the Bible, I have the impression, was the first edition in English printed in America. It was printed and pub- lished in Worcester in 1791. Eliot's Indian Bible had been previously printed in the seventeenth century. Mr. Thomas re- marks in the editor's preface to this edition, " The marginal notes and references to the quarto edition were all previously examined and compared with the text by the minister of Hol- den ; every sheet of the text, before its committment to the press, by the clergymen of Worcester."
It was during the later years of the pastorate of Mr. Avery, that the great Unitarian controversy prevailed throughout the eastern part of Massachusetts, and, perhaps, in no part of the State was the controversy more rife than in the vicinity of
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
Worcester. In several of the neighboring towns a division of the church was the unhappy result, while in Holden no such schism occurred. This was, doubtless, owing in a great meas- ure to the mild, yet strictly gospel style of Mr. Avery's preach- ing, devoid of controversy.
During his long pastorate of half a century, he ever exhib- ited the conduct of a peace-making minister of Christ. He was styled a "peacemaker." Enviable title! Proud distinction ! He was never heard to complain of his arduous labors as a pastor. When some of his parishioners desired him to re- linquish his pastoral charge, the tears were seen to course his cheeks, furrowed by age. He loved the people of his charge, and his love was abiding until the close of his life.
"Nor e'er had chang'd, nor wished to change his place.".
He appeared in his pulpit until within two weeks of his death, which occurred March 5th, 1824.
REMINISCENCES OF MRS. MARY AVERY.1
It has been thought that a few reminiscences of Mrs. Mary Avery, the city-bred young woman who came to share the lot of the poor country minister, may be of interest to the de- scendants of those among whom her husband labored, and that these recollections may have a historical value as well, in show- ing the difference of the customs and manners of a hundred years ago from those of the present time.
She was born in 1755, and lived in what is now the city of Boston till some years after the death of her parents, passing the latter part of her sojourn there in the family of her mother's brother, Samuel Adams, so widely spoken of as the " Father of the American Revolution." She was, as might be supposed, well imbued with the patriotism of that eventful period of our country's history, and often, in advanced age, would regale the
1 By Mrs. Mary A. W. Davis, a granddaughter,
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
ears of her grandchildren with accounts of the sayings and doings of the " high sons and daughters of liberty," whom she held in high esteem.
Referring to the Boston Massacre, she would tell them of the consternation which filled every heart, when a mounted horseman rode furiously through the streets, shouting at the top of his voice : " Our brethren are lying like slaughtered sheep in King Street !" She would also speak of a class of young ladies of " high rank," who were associated together to be taught the art of spinning flax on the little wheel, under the auspices of those same " high sons and daughters of liberty," and of an ex- hibition of skill at the close of the term of instruction, given in Faneuil Hall, when a prize was presented to the most suc- cessful pupil. Great was her satisfaction in saying that it was adjudged to Miss Polly Allen, and with quite an air would she declare that, "The value of the prize (a laurel wreath) was in- significant in itself, but the honor !"
How the poor country minister met and fell in love with this fair maiden, was on this fashion. She had left Boston, and was living with her elder brother, Joseph Allen, then of Leicester. He had buried his wife, and Polly came to fill the place of housekeeper to him, and to care for his two motherless children. In pursuance of a custom then and afterwards in vogue, for prominent members of the congregation to invite to dinner any stranger exchanging with their own pastor, Mr. Allen on one occasion welcomed Mr. Avery as a guest. The young minister was at once smitten with the charms of his hon- ored host's sister, and in due course of time sought her in mar- riage and received her December 10th, 1777.
It was a new and unaccustomed field that opened before her, but she nobly acquitted herself, in the midst of many depriva- tions and unwearied toil. It was the darkest period in our Revolutionary war, and all felt it in their homes in scantiness of supplies. Mrs. Avery mentioned, as one fruit of the efforts of the kind parishioners to provide for their pastor, the specta- cle of twenty frozen spare-ribs which adorned the attic rafters on her arrival at her new home.
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
As illustrating social style and customs prevailing, and her ignorance of the difference between city and country, she re- lated that, being informed that the wife of a prominent pa- rishioner had come to make a bridal call, and possessed with a strong desire to show proper respect to her visitor, she deliber- ated whether she should array herself in a blue silk or a crim . son paduasoy, but finally decided upon the latter, as being the least pretentious. On descending from her chamber she was surprised to find her caller dressed in clean every-day ap- parel in what was called a "long-short skirt" (more of the short than the long), with a short sacque above, and with distaff in hand to improve the time of her call in spinning. The minister's new wife knew better the next time than to appear in silk. It may be noted in passing that she had an unusually large supply, because silk dresses descended by inheritance from mother to daughter, and Mrs. Avery, like her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, was an only daughter.
It is not to be forgotten that domestic duties were in some respects more severe at that time than now. All the cloth used in the family or for personal wear, was, in well-appointed house- holds of the middling class, woven in the house, and the tailor and the shoemaker were accustomed to go from place to place to do what was needed to set forth their customers properly for another season.
The minister was expected hospitably to entertain his trav- eling ministerial brethren. Having at one time kindly fur- nished ample provision over night for man and two beasts to a perfect stranger hitherto, when the year came round he pre- sented himself to the lady of the house again, quoting the pro- verb, " ' One good turn deserves another,' and having been so well served once, I have come again." She did not like it. She was in the habit of saying to the good man of the house, as they sat down to the table : "Take off, as you serve, some of the best pieces of the meat and put them on a plate ;" and then arranging vegetables on the same dish, she would cover it and set it in a warm corner of the old-fashioned fireplace, for any
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
chance arrival after the family had dined. Seeing this proc- ess gone through with on three successive days, and an unex- pected guest each day to partake of the provision thus pru- dently made, a new and young assistant inquired if she always had some one come for a dinner after the family was through. From this account it will not create surprise unbounded to learn that the incumbent of the Holden pulpit bore a burden of debt, incurred for his education and some little "setting out " for his daughters as they grew up and went to fill other homes, till the death of his eldest son. The untimely death by accident of this son, who had accumulated, as a bookbinder, by untiring industry and economy, what in those days entitled him to be called " well off," relieved his aged father, as partial heir, from debt near the close of his life.
Order and neatness were striking characteristics of Mrs. Avery's reign, which was supreme in her own household, and she became an accomplished, though somewhat exacting house- keeper. Her mind was well stored with hymns and poems, learned in her youth, and, possessing in a remarkable degree the power of aptness in quotation, she was interesting in con- versation ; and with the wheels all running smoothly in house- hold affairs, it was a delightful home, and much enjoyed by the young ladies of the town and others. She survived her hus- band eighteen years, and died in 1842 in the home of her el- dest daughter, Mrs. Aaron White of Boylston, with whom a large portion of her widowhood had been passed.
None of the descendants of this worthy couple became permanent residents of Holden, but some of the grandchil- dren are still living in advanced years, who recall their visits there, while they add :
" "Tis now become a history little known,
That once we called that past'ral house our own."
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
REV. THOMAS EARLE BABB.
The Rev. Thomas Earle Babb, son of William George and Anna Earle Babb, was born in Orange, N. J., August 21st, 1840; fitted for college at New York University Grammar School ; was graduated from Amherst College in the class of 1865 ; studied at Bangor Theological Seminary 1865 to 1867, and was graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1868. He was ordained at Eastport, Me., January 19th, 1869, and has been pastor at Eastport, Me., 1868 to 1871; Oxford, 1871 to 1878 ; of the Presbyterian Church at Victor, N. Y., 1878 to 1883 ; at West Brookfield from December Ist, 1883 to Decem- ber Ist, 1889; of the Third Congregational Church, Chelsea, from December Ist, 1869 to June Ist, 1892; since then at Holden.
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