USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > The history of the town of Royalston, Massachusetts > Part 41
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On the Common, early in the 19th century, Hon. Joseph Estabrook built a house which was for many years a tavern, where not only the stage coach made its daily visits, but the driver, the teamster and the way-faring man enjoyed its hos- pitalities, and the Senior Joseph Estabrook was the host, and an honored type of ye olden time landlord. Near the south end of the Common was another tavern which stood on the site of the present Congregational parsonage.
STAGE COACHES
The first mail conveyance that Royalston had was on the route established in 1812 from Worcester to Keene, N. H., and the carrier was Jonathan Pierce of Royalston, who at first made weekly trips over the road in an old "one horse shay," which
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
was said to be of the same pattern as the "Deacon's One Horse Shay," and nearly as venerable in appearance. Mr. Pierce was in this service nearly twenty years and was as regular as the sun in his rounds. He is described as a large man of fine physique, quite companionable, of a social turn and calcu- lated to win friends, a host of which he had on his route. He was succeeded by a line of stage coaches put on by Russell Wheeler and Jonas Forristall of Royalston, about 1830. This enterprise was tried a few years, but with indifferent success and was finally given up, and Benoni Ballou of Richmond, con- tinued the carrying of the mail from Royalston to Keene, on the same line with a horse and wagon for several years. Besides carrying some passengers he did errands, now called express business. About 1835 another line of stages for carrying the mail was run under management of Ginery Twitchell, the famous stage coach driver and manager, which continued until about the time of the building of the Vermont & Massachusetts railroad; when the daily mail route over this line ceased, and the days of the old stage coach were passed. The poet expresses the feelings of many when he says:
"Oh, the days are gone when the merry horn Awakened the echoes of smiling morn, As, breaking the slumber of village street, The foaming leaders galloping feet Told of the rattling, swift approach Of the well-appointed old stage coach."
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CHAPTER XXI
OLD CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES
Col. Josiah H. Benton in his book "Warning Out in, New England," says: "No people can break from their past. Bands of custom and heredity, invisible as they may be at, times to all but close students of history, bind every generation of men to their historic past. The fundamental principles of the laws and customs of the people of New England can be traced step by step to the laws and customs of ancient England and .Ger- many and even to the remote villages of the Aryan East."
The early record books of Royalston contain the doings and votes of the town regarding many of these now obsolete cus- toms. The custom of "Warning Out," as it was called, was one of these. The right of inhabitancy, sometimes called the free- dom of the community, existed in the Teutonic townships. Palgrave says: "The earliest notices respecting the Teutonic townships are to be collected from the laws of the Salic Franks. A "villa" was entirely the property of the inhabitants, and no stranger could settle within its boundaries unless with the consent of the whole incorporation. The right of the towns to exclude from inhabitancy within their limits was undoubtedly exercised in the New England colonies of New Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and even in Rhode Island. The increase of population and the desire of persons to move from one place to another in the colony, however, began to make it practically impossible to enforce the rights of towns to exclude new comers from inhabitancy by physically pre- venting them from coming in, or removing them if they did come into the town. New persons came into the different towns and resided therein, and they were entertained, not- withstanding the laws against it, so that the towns became liab'e to the support of persons whom they did not actually admit by vote of the inhabitants or action of the town authori- ties. In this state of affairs, relief was given to the towns by legislation, authorizing them to warn new comers to depart from the towns and providing, that, if they were so warned, their subsequent living in the town should not make them in-
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habitants entitled to support in case of poverty. In Novem- ber, 1692, an act was passed specially providing for warning per- sons who might come into a town to leave it, and for a record of the names of such persons, and a warning to them in court. Warning out was practiced generally by the Massachusetts and Plymouth towns under this legislation down to the Act of Settlement of 1793, when an act was passed repealing all laws as to town settlements and providing how settlements should be thereafter gained, and with this went all provisions for warning out of town, and no such warning has since existed in Massachusetts. The returns of warnings out from the dif- ferent towns in Worcester county from 1737 to 1788, on the records of the Court show that 6,764 persons were thus warned out from forty different towns during that period. In some of the towns, it is said, a large proportion of the inhabitants ap- pear in the list of persons warned, and many of them became prominent citizens in the towns.
Among these "Warnings Out" on the Royalston records are the following:
"WORCESTER, SS.
To either of the Constables of the Town of Royalston in the County of Worcester GREETING :
In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are directed to warn and give notice unto James Bellows, laborer, the widow Sarah Bran, William Foster and Hannah his wife, Jeremiah Woodcock and wife and children, Asa Flagg, wife and children, Silas Chubb, wife and children ;- who have lately come into this town of Royalston for the pur- pose of abiding therein, not having obtained the town's consent, therefor, that they depart the limits of this town with their children within fifteen days from the date hereof. And of this precept with your doings thereon, you are to make return into the office of the Town Clerk of the Town of Royalston in twenty days next coming; that such further proceedings may be had in the premises as the law directs. Given under our hands and seals this 25th day of May 1791.
JOHN FRYE, PELATIAH METCALF, S. HEMENWAY, PETER WOODBURY, SAMUEL GODDARD,
Selectmen.
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OLD MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
Tithing Men. There was one officer who during religious ser- vices stood next to the minister, in importance if not in rank; an officer who was partly constable and partly a corrector of public manners and morals. That was the tithing man. H s duties were on Sunday, and it was his business to prevent all driving except of those who were going to church; and in the meeting house, it would be a mistake to suppose that he was a superfluous church ornament, for it was his special province to look after the sleepers and the boys. The prayers were sometimes long, and so were the sermons, and not unfrequently, but especially on a hot day their soporific qualities were such as to put some of the company to sleep. Then the tithing man went around vigorously poking the male snorers with his tithing rod. At every annual March town meeting two or three of these officers were elected. It would seem that there came a time, early in the nineteenth century when the laws relating to the Sabbath were being disregarded and violated, for we find that a town meeting was called for Nov. 7, 1814, at which the only business was, "to see what measures the Town will take respecting inforcing the laws of this Commonwealth relating to the due observance of the Sabbath, whether by choosing additional tything men or committee, or act anything thereon." Under that article the town chose Deacon Amos Jones, Jr., Deacon Levi Thurston, John Eaton, Samuel Bliss, Stephen Holman, David Taft, John Chamberlain and Deacon Benjamin Allen, tything men.
Pounds. Another institution formerly found in every New England town, now obsolete in most towns, was the Pound for confining stray cattle. Sir Henry Maine says :- "There is nothing of greater antiquity in England than the village pound, it is older than the King's bench and probably older than the kingdom. One of the first things that our ancestors did after their incorporation was to erect a pound. At a town meeting held in Royalston May 2, 1796, it was voted under one of the articles "to build a Pound the present year 25 feet square and 6 1-2 feet high."
The Town of Shutesbury in Franklin County, utilized their Pound at one time by confining their minister Rev. Abraham Hill in the public pound and forced him, it is said, to live upon herrings thrown to him over the fence. Upon the breaking out of the Revolution it was discovered that Mr. Hill was a
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
strong royalist and a committee chosen to discourse with him concerning his views, reported that they had been unable to make him see things in their own light; he was requested to resign and his salary was discontinued. He not only declined to resign but adhered still more strongly to his political prin- ciples; hence his imprisonment in the town pound.
Perambulation of Town Bounds is another custom that has come down to us from our English ancestry, and to this day the law requires that the town lines be perambulated at stated times. The English custom since the time of Elizabeth made it obligatory once a year; and the substantial men of the parish and the boys of the parochial school turned out and walked over the bounds, while the parish beadle and the curate in his cossack read from thé psalm, "Cursed be he which translateth the bounds and doles of his neighbors." Sometimes the boys were flogged in order to impress the precise locality of the land mark on their memories. This work is now done by the selectmen of the several towns.
Sealer of Weights and Measures. The sealing of weights and measures is an old English custom; the government of England made regulations in regard to weights and measures long before the time of Magna Charta; and as early as the time of Henry VIII, Parliament introduced the system of send- ing weights and measures to the chief officers of the town to be proved.
At a town meeting held Nov. 8, 1779, it was "Voted to have a set of Weights and Measures provided for a Town Standard," and a Sealer of Weights and Measures is now a town official either elected at town meeting or appointed by the selectmen.
SOUTH ROYALSTON PARK
Hi
FITCHBURG RAILROAD STATION, SOUTH ROYALSTON
SOUTH ROYALSTON
CHAPTER XXII
DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL
The territory now comprised in the village of South Royals- ton was originally a part of Athol and Gerry and became a part of Royalston in, 1799 and 1803. Located in the extreme south- east corner of the town four miles from the Centre and the seat of local town government, this village has been a community by itself almost as much as a separate town, in its social relations, its churches, schools and business, many of the people going to the Centre only at the annual town meetings and on some great event or celebration, and in treating of the families, churches, business and organizations of South Royalston it would seem most fitting and appropriate that they should be described to- gether as a community instead of forming a part of the general history of the town.
Here Millers River makes a bend as it comes from Winchen- don, and for a mile or more flows through this corner of Royals- ton furnishing water-power for the manufacturing plants that have made this the active and enterprising industrial village that it has been for more than three quarters of a century. Situ- ated in the narrow river valley, the homes of the people are built from the river and railroad up the sloping hillside on either hand to the higher lands above, from which locations, fine views are obtained of the winding river and country around.
So far as we are able to ascertain the first person to develop the water power of what is now South Royalston, was one Ben- jamin Blanchard, who in 1785 purchased of Josiah Wait, one acre and sixteen rods of land lying along Millers River. This land was then in Athol and Benjamin Blanchard is described as being a millwright of Athol. The Royalston Memorial of 1865 says that he built the first saw mill in South Royalston near the S. S.
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
Farrar shop. He must have invested largely in South Royalston land for the same account of him says that he owned a large tract of land including most of what is now covered by South Royalston Village and on nearly to Winchendon line. He was quite a mechanical character; invented a wheel with a register for measuring distances on the roads and was often seen testing his wheel upon the highways. He died Oct. 17, 1808, at the age of eighty-three years. In addition to a saw mill Mr. Blanchard also built a grist mill, and sold other mill privileges to parties as shown by a deed given by him to Edward Cambridge of Temple- ton, dated Jan. 16, 1795, which gives the following description : " A certain privilege on Millers River, so-called, southeast of said Blanchard's mills, for a fulling mill and a privilege of a shop and tender lines on a piece of land east of land now belonging to Josiah Wait, beginning at a stake and stones easterly fifteen rods, northerly three rods, westerly fifteen rods to said Wait land, on his line three rods, to the first bound mentioned N. B. The said Cambridge is to build and keep in repair one-fifth part of the dam or dams for said mills and not to obstruct the water from the Grist Mill in a drought."
The Royalston Cotton and Wool Manufacturing Company was incorporated by Chapter 114 of the Acts of 1812. The Act reads as follows: "An Act to establish the Royalston Cotton and Wool Manufacturing Company."
Sect. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That Benjamin Davis, Isaiah Fairbanks, Eliphalet Chase, Silas Hale, Francis Twichell, Daniel Fairbanks, Francis Fletcher and Ebenezer Blanding together with such others as have already or may hereafter associate and join with them, their successors and assigns, be hereby made a corporation by the name of the Royalston Cotton and Wool Manufacturing Company, for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and wool in the town of Royalston; and for that purpose, shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and requirements contained in "An Act defining the general powers and duties of manufacturing corporations," passed the third day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine. The Act allowed the corporation to hold and possess real estate to the value of twenty thousand dollars, and personal estate not exceeding the value of fifty thousand dollars. The
WHITNEY STONE WOOLEN MILL, SOUTH ROYALSTON Destroyed by Fire Aug. 20, 1892
......
OLD CHAIR SHOP OF COL. GEORGE WHITNEY AT SOUTH ROYALSTON
CHAIR SHOP HANDS, SOUTH ROYALSTON, 1885
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DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL
Company erected a Mill on the site now occupied by the Mills of the American Woolen Company. The business did not prove to be a success, and the different members of the Company dis- posed of their interests, until finally the whole property came in- to the hands of Silas Coffin and Rufus Bullock. This original mill was burned in 1833 when Mr. Bullock became the sole pro- prietor of the privilege and all the property belonging to it. In 1834 he built the stone mill; put in four sets of woolen machin- ery and continued to run the business until his decease in 1858. On the death of Mr. Bullock, George Whitney with Daniel Day of Royalston, bought the mill, and for a few years carried on the manufacture of cassimeres. After Mr. Day went out of the business Rufus S. Frost of Boston, was associated with Mr. Whitney, and after him James Phillips, Jr., of Fitchburg. From 1886 to 1889, Mr. Whitney was alone in the business, and with his son, George E. Whitney, had the sole ownership and man- agement of the establishment. The mill was totally destroyed by fire on Aug. 20, 1892. At that time forty-five looms were running, employing one hundred and seventy-five hands in the manufacture of woolen cloths.
Two or three years before Rufus Bullock built the old stone mill in 1834, Salmon S. Farrar came as a poor boy from Win- chendon to South Royalston. At first he worked by the day for J. M. Upham, and then commenced the manufacture of shoe- pegs with Leonard Wheeler. Their business did not prove a success, and they soon disposed of it, and in 1836 Mr. Farrar built a shop and engaged in the manufacture of "nest" or dry measures, boxes, sleds, etc., and as the business increased he built additions to the shop and a saw mill, and for more than forty years he carried on a flourishing business.
The quarter of a century commencing with 1833 witnessed the rise of South Royalston from a little agricultural hamlet to an enterprising manufacturing village. In 1833 when the first woolen mill was burned, South Royalston contained ten dwelling houses, a saw and grist mill and a factory in ashes. In 1865 when Royalston celebrated its Centennial anniversary a new factory had risen, surrounded by thronging mills, shops and business operations, while two meeting-houses, two stores, a depot, public house, livery stable and seventy-eight dwelling houses had put South Royalston on the map as one of the most vigorous and promising New England villages. Here were blended the two
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
great powers of modern times, which contro! both business and population-water power and the railroad. In 1847 the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad was built through South Royals- ton, and the first passenger train drawn by the locomotive "Wm. Penn," went through the village on the 22d day of De- cember, 1847, to Athol. There was some delay in opening the road owing to an accident to the first train which consisted of two cars loaded with forty tons of railroad iron that had been sent from Baldwinville to Athol for the purpose of testing the bridges, and which broke through what was known as the first bridge between Royalston and Athol, causing the death of seven persons, who were on the train and the destruction of the lo- comotive "Athol." Soon after the opening of the road, Elisha F. Brown was given the position of Station Master, which he held until 1863 when he was appointed in charge of the Athol station.
Royalston attained its greatest population during the decade from 1840 to 1850, and it was during this time that the manu- facturing business of South Royalston was in a most flourishing condition : The Rufus Bullock woolen mill was employing about seventy-five hands; Salmon S. Farrar's wooden ware and lumber business employed about twenty hands; the Whitmore & Bruce saw mill and lumbering business close to the woolen mill was purchased by George Whitney and was soon merged into a chair shop, which gave employment to a good number of workmen; Luther Harrington had a mill and manufactured pine furniture, employing some ten hands; another shop occupied by Bemis & Jones in the manufacture of shoe pegs in one part, had ten or more workmen, while in the upper part of this building Beck- with & Stockwell manufactured pine furniture, employing six or eight men, and in another shop, close by the dam, the brush wood and furniture business employed twelve hands or more. At the time the Millers River Bank of Athol was organized, it would have been located in South Royalston if Rufus Bullock would have consented to take the office of President of the bank, and Hiram Albee, who married Mr. Bullock's daughter, was slated for cashier; Albee had a store, was the village post- master and Trial Justice, and used to hold court in the school house on the hill.
Only a few years after Salmon S. Farrar came to South Royalston, another poor boy, Caleb W. Day, came from War- wick, Mass., walking from his home, a distance of fourteen
2
PLANT OF THE AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY AT SOUTHI ROYALSTON
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MERCANTILE AND INDUSTRIAL
miles, with all his belongings done up in a bandana handkerchief, and went to work in the woolen mill, After about five years he engaged in the manufacture of shoe pegs with others, and in 1862 bought out the whole business, later he bought out the pine furniture business of Beckwith & Stockwell, and was also en- gaged n the brush wood business, under the firm name of Up- ham & Day. He was engaged in manufacturing in South Roy- alston until 1884, when his shops were destroyed by fire.
Royalston's only manufacturing business of any extent is that of the American Woolen Company, which is located on the same site as was first occupied by the Royalston Cotton & Wool Manufacturing Company in 1812. The plant was tak- en over by the American Woolen Company in 1908, and dur- ing the general depression of business that occurred about that time the mills were idle about two years. In 1910, the Company made extensive additions to their plant, erecting buildings on the south side of the river, about two hundred and thirty feet in length, which with the mills on the north side of the river, some two hundred and fifty feet in length, forms a plant of large dimensions. This was equipped with a complete manufacturing outfit of seventy-five looms. It was run a year on fancy suitings, when the product of the mill was changed over to bed blankets, which are now being manufac- tured by the Company in large quantity and of a fine quality. The plant is now equipped with nine sets of cards, has 2976 spindles and 82 looms. The mill at the present time (1916) is being run to its full capacity, and is now employing one hun- dred and fifty hands. This is only one of a large number of plants of the American Woolen Company, of which William M. Wood is president, and Samuel R. Haines is superintend- ent of the woolen division. The managers of the local plant are J. J. Henderson, agent, and J. H. Henderson, superin- tendent.
CHAPTER XXIII
CHURCHES OF SOUTH ROYALSTON
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
The Second Congregational Church of Royalston was organized Feb. 22, 1837, with twenty-four original members, and was located in the village of South Royalston.
Governor Bullock in his Centennial address refers as follows to this church:
"In 1837 a Second Congregational Church was organized at South Royalston, in a large degree by amicable dis- missal from the first. The quite rapid modern growth of that village under the stimulation of its water power on Miller's River had rendered essential better local conveniences for religious fellowship and worship.
"And now again the dying counsels of Father Lee, the counsels of peace, ruled the hour; and the first parish with Mr. Perkins, its pastor, co-operated heartily in the enterprise."
The church building, was erected in 1837 and cost $6,481. Luther Harrington was the architect and boss carpenter of the building, which was occupied in 1838 free of debt. The floor of the porch was one slab of granite forty feet long and six feet wide, was quarried in a ledge a mile distant and moved in two days with twelve yoke of oxen.
There were many generous and self-sacrificing givers to the church, one Silas Hale mortgaging his large farm to meet his share of the building fund. The first pastor of the church was Rev. J. F. Stone who only served during 1837 and 1838. The second pastor was Rev. S. H. Peckham who served from 1838 to 1844; he was a prominent minister of the denomina- tion in the State and was identified with the Abolition party. There have been three hundred and ninety members of the church since its organization, and thirty-eight acting pastors, of whom twenty-five served one year or more. The longest pastorates have been those of Rev. Francis J. Fairbanks, the last pastor, for seven years and three months, Rev. S. H. Peck-
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SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
ham, the second pastor from 1838 to 1844, and Rev. Walter Rice from 1868 to 1874. During the pastorate of Rev. Charles Kendall, 1854-6, fifty-eight persons united with the church. The largest membership was in 1878, during the pastorate of Rev. C. L. Twomblin, when there were 124 members.
There have been seven clerks and ten deacons.
Hon. Rufus Bullock on his death in 1858 remembered this church in his will, the Fifteenth clause of which reads as follows: "I give and bequeath to the Second Congregational Society of Royalston, at South Royalston, so called, the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars ($2500) to be held as a fund, the income of which shall be appropriated annually or semi-annually to the support of Gospel preaching in said Society; and it is my will that a committee, to be chosen by said Society, for such purpose, shall act in concurrence with my Executors in the investing of said sum, provided, that whenever, if ever, said Society shall fail to support preaching, or to maintain a regularly organized Society at South Royalston, or whenever, if ever, that part of Royalston now known as South Royalston, shall be set off from said town of Royalston, then this sum of twenty-five hundred dollars shall revert to and be paid over to my children or their heirs by right of representation."
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