USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > The history of the town of Royalston, Massachusetts > Part 50
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Only once within my recollection has a stone axe head been turned up by the ploughman near the banks of Miller's River in the South village, a reminder of a race and an age that has long since passed away. Indeed, perhaps we may consider ourselves fortunate that we have no Indian history, for in almost every New England town that does possess it, it is a story of slaughtered settlers, and sacked and smoking homes.
The origin of Royalston as a territorial unit was peculiar and somewhat amusing. She came into being as the result of a genuine "closing out sale." By the middle of the 18th century most of the territory lying east, south, and west of this present township had al- ready been disposed of by grants of the General Court. As early as 1733, Narragansett Number Six, now Templeton, had been granted to certain persons and the heirs of other persons who had done ser- vice in King Philip's War. About the same time, Payquage, now Athol, was granted to sixty proprietors, who held their first meeting at Concord, Mass., in June, 1734. In 1735, Ipswich-Canada, now Winchendon, had granted to sixty persons, fifty-two of whom came from Ipswich in Essex County, hence the early name of the grant. The original Indian name of Warwick, our western neighbor, was Shaomet. It was an English plantation, prior to 1750 and bore the name of Roxbury Canada. Phillipston and Orange had not yet come into existence as separate plantations. They were created later out of the territory of the towns already named. Now came the bargain sale.
It is an almost threadworn story to the person familiar with Royalston's genesis, how in 1752 the General Court ordered that all the remaining lands, not yet granted, lying between Payquage and Narragansett Number Six on the south and the boundary of the province of New Hampshire on the north should be surveyed and sold at public auction. We know this was accordingly done and that the Honorable Messrs. Erving, Freeman, Hubbard, Otis, Royall, Watts, and others bid off this tract of about 28000 acres for the modest sum of £1348, or a little less than twenty-five cents an acre.
The author of our forthcoming town history will tell you later in detail of the Moore, Pierpont, Priest, and Hapgood grants, private tracts within the township which had previously been alloted to indi- viduals and were not included in the sale of 1752. He will also tell
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you of the Royalston "leg," so-called, a sort of a dipper handle pro- jection lying between the northern boundary of Winchendon and the Province line, a tract which had not been included in the grant to the Ipswich proprietors and hence formed a part of the purchase of Messrs. Royall, Otis, and their associates. Always a troublesome appendage, this "leg" was legally amputated in 1780 and annexed to Winchendon, to which town it more naturally belonged.
The early meetings of the proprietors at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, Boston, the laying out of the first sixty-three lots in 1753, the naming of the grant Royalshire in honor of Col. Isaac Royall of Medford, a leading proprietor, the clearing of land and sowing of rye fields by prospective settlers from Sutton,-all these are matters too well known to require more than a passing reference.
But the exciting scenes of the last French War interrupted all this work, and it was not until the early summer of 1762, three years after the capture of Quebec and the close of hostilities on this con- tinent, that a bare half dozen pioneers, probably from Sutton, es- tablished permanent homes within our borders. Two years and a half later, in February, 1765, the town was incorporated under the name of Royalston. Such in brief is the story of our birth.
The dozen years that followed 1762 was a period of rapid settle- ment and growth. Then came the seven years' War for Independ- ence. The approach of this conflict was viewed with great interest by the inhabitants of this township. To the first Provincial Cong- ress held at Concord in 1774 they sent as a delegate Henry Bond, a respected and intelligent farmer, who resided about twenty-five rods east of the present road to South Royalston near the ruins of the Eddy place. To the second Provincial Congress, which assembled in the early spring of 1775, the town sent Nahum Green, whose home was in the valley west of the farm of the late John W. Stockwell. As the Rev. Joseph Lee, who had been ordained as minister of the First Church, 1768, was himself a native of Concord, Mass., a centre in the opening scenes of the Revolution, it may be conceived that he imparted much of his interest and patriotic fervor to the people over whom he had spiritual charge.
At the time the conflict opened there were already two organ- ized military companies in town, Captain Peter Woodbury's "Royal- ston Company," the Ninth Company in Col. Sparhawk's Seventh Worcester County Regiment, and Captain Jonas Allen's Company of minutemen. The roll of Captain Allen's company has been found in the State Archives and a copy is in my possession. That of Captain Woodbury's Company is unfortunately missing. Captain Allen's minutemen, twenty-four in number, responded to the Lexing- ton Alarm in April, 1775, and each is credited with from seven to forty days of service. Thirteen members of that company re-enlist- ed in Captain Abel Wilder's Company of Colonel Ephraim Doolittle's regiment and served with that command during the siege of Boston.
A portion of Captain Woodbury's Company commanded by
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Lieutenant Jonathan Sibley and known as Lieutenant Sibley's de- tachment, responded to the Bennington Alarm in August, 1777, Cap- tain Woodbury himself being at that time in command of the Peter- sham Company, which also responded to the same alarm.
It is impossible within the limits of a brief address to dwell at length on our Revolutionary history. The infant township fur- nished for that conflict nearly one hundred men. In searching the archives of the town and of the Commonwealth I have recently col- lected the names and records ofninety-four men, who unquestionably served on Royalston's quota during some part of the Revolution and twenty-five more Revolutionary soldiers who were post bellum residents of the town. A few served only for brief periods as on the Lexington and Bennington alarms; many had several sucessive en- listments to their credit; by far the larger number had long and honorable terms of service. One would like to speak at length of some of these early heroes, and especially of such men as Bezaleal Barton, who resided on the Col. Willard Newton place, Silas Cutting, who lived on the old Hadley farm near Stone's Mills; Jno. Hutchinson, whose home was on the present F. H. Goddard place, and Isaac Nichols, Jr., who lived on what is now the Charles Chase farm, all of whom had honorable records and died in the service of the young republic.
Following the Revolution, came thirty years of peaceful develop- ment. Farms multiplied and increased in acreage of tilled land. The population steadily grew. Sawmills, grist mills, and tanneries increased in number. Several hatters and shoemakers and one or more clothiers established here. Sheep raising was an important in- dustry. The great bulk of all the commodities consumed were home produced.
Stimulated by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the interference with our commerce incident upon the War of 1812 and aided by the abundance of water power furnished by Miller's River, manufactur- ing soon arose on a larger scale. In 1813, a cotton and woolen manufacturing company was organized and a mill erected at South Royalston. Thus, just over one hundred years ago was the textile industry on a commercial scale established in this town.
Meanwhile exciting events were transpiring near our borders. In 1814, a British army was gathering to invade northern New Eng- land, supported by a formidable fleet on Lake Champlain. In the same year, Essex, Connecticut, several miles up the Connecticut River, was burned and plundered by a British armament and the enemy was still believed to be hovering off our New England coast. In this crisis Royalston was able to furnish a full company of gren- adiers armed and equipped for the public service. In August, 1814, this company was summoned to Boston to be employed if necessary to defend our coast. After listening to an eloquent and appropriate sermon by the aged and reverend Joseph Lee, they started, some with solemn, some with jubilant hearts, on their eighty-mile tramp to the
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capital city of the Commonwealth. Five weeks of camp and garrison duty followed, at the close of which they were all honorably dis- charged and sent home, some it is said to regret to their dying day that no hero blood had been shed but that all came back alive.
This company of grenadiers, organized about 1810, was kept up with periodical trainings and musters until about 1850, and its rolls bear the names of many of our most virile and public-spirited citizens. On its lists were borne the names of four men, Benj. Brown, Willard Newton, Elmer Newton, and Josiah Wheeler, each of whom in turn became Colonel of the Fifth Regiment, 2nd Brig., 7th Div. of the Massachusetts militia, a tribute surely to the military standing of the sons of Royalston.
But to return once more to the activities of peace. The Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company organized in 1813 continued to do business for several years with varying success. Finally, about 1830, the entire plant passed into the hands of Rufus Bullock, who was really the father of South Royalston's woolen industry. The original mill was burned in 1833, and its successor-the stone mill-was destroyed by fire in 1892, after the business had been conducted for many years by Col. George Whitney, aided by his son, who graces this platform with his presence to-day.
Meanwhile, several smaller forms of manufacturing sprang up in town until as early at 1837, besides the woolen mill, Royalston possessed three manufactories of chairs, furniture, and cabinet ware and eleven saw-mills, and the population had increased to 1629. Three years later it reached the maximum of 1667.
Until the middle forties, the inhabitants belonged almost ex- clusively to the old English Puritan stock. Immigrant laborers were first employed in the construction of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, which was opened for traffic in 1847. Most of these early immigrants came from Ireland, driven from that fair country by famine and hard economic conditions and allured to New England by the prospect of plenty of work and ful Ipolitical liberty. After the railroad was completed, many of these new-comers settled in our midst, obtained employment in the woolen mill, bought farms, raised up large families of children, and were readily assimilated as a part of our population. Their descendants are still among us, most valued and respected citizens.
The years from 1850 to 1860 witnessed marked industrial progress, and then came the thunder burst of the Civil war. Your historian to-day might spend the entire time alloted to him in review- ing Royalston's part in that conflict. With a population in 1860 numbering only 1468, the town is credited with a total of 147 enlist- ments, or ten per cent. of its entire population. Most of her soldiers were members of hard-fighting regiments. Eleven served in the Second Regiment, eleven in the 21st Regiment, thirty in the 25th, twenty-five in the 36th, twenty-seven in the 53d, and the remainder in various commands. Of the 138 separate individual soldiers serv-
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ing on Royalston's quota thirty-five, or fully twenty-five per cent., died for their country. Norcross, Upham, Knight, Vose, Bosworth, Chase, Frye, White,-our hearts call the roll of their names as their faces pass before us in the mists of memory. They sprang not from the circles of stilted aristocracy. Not one of them was rich. They were the sons of the town's yeomanry. They came from the farms on these hill tops and from the workshops in these valleys. They were men of the rank and file. Some came up from lowly homes, performed their alloted service, made the supremest sacrifice that man can make, and laid them down in unknown graves. But by their act they wrote for this town a record that its sons can never forget.
In the past fifty years various changes in fortune have come to us as a town. Among the regrettable experiences, almost every one of our manufacturing establishments have been destroyed by fire, though out of the ashes of one of them has arisen the present well- equipped factory of the American Woolen Company at South Royal- ston, the beautiful and useful samples of whose product are on ex- hibition in our town hall to-day. Again, many of the original families have become extinct. One searches in vain in our list of present day inhabitants for the Woodburys, the Bullocks, the Greg- orys and the Whitneys; the Cutlers, the Joneses, the Hales, and the Batchellors,-all of which names are well remembered by our older citizens.
In the galaxy of distinguished men whom this town has produced several names stand out in my mind pre-eminently. Of four I shall briefly speak in closing,-two statesmen and two soldiers. Each removed from Royalston in youth or young manhood, but each from his first entrance upon public life until the day of his death re- flected honor and credit upon the town of his nativity.
Of Hon. Ashael Peck, a most eminent lawyer, for many years a member of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and at one time gov- ernor of the state, I cannot speak at length, as I have no data to guide me.
One native of this town, the most distinguished in civil life, was born but a stone's throw from this spot. Indeed this very field was a part of his paternal homestead. His grandsire came to Royalston during the Revolution, and his father, the leading manufacturer in this section of the state, at one time or another held almost every office of honor and trust in the gift of this town or this representa- tive and senatorial district. The distinguished son graduated with honors from Amherst College in the class of 1836. For several years preceding and during the Civil war he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and throughout the trying years of 1862, '63, '64, and '65, he was the presiding officer of that body. From the speakership of the House he passed to the govern- orship of the State, in which capacity he served from 1866 to 1869, A man of dignified personality and loftiness of character, he was
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well fitted to serve this Commonwealth in the highest and most re- sponsible positions in which she could place him. A sterling patriot in the nation's most trying times, a princely orator, always loyal to the best ideals and traditions of the old New England life, he graced this platform with his presence, and charmed and instructed an an- dience like this with his eloquence on a similar occasion fifty years ago. As long as the history of this town, or this county, and of this state endure, so long will the name of Alexander H. Bullock be revered and remembered.
The old Hadley farmhouse, now deserted and tenantless, was the home not only of Silas Cutting, a Revolutionary martyr, but of one son of Royalston, who in later years, after occupying many posi- tions of dignity and usefulness in civil life, as the crowning act of his manhood's service died on the field on honor. Charles Cummings, son of Joshua and Hephzibah Cummings, was born here February 26th, 1821. In boyhood he attended the schools of his native town. Later he studied medicine, receiving his degree as M. D. in 1847. Three years a physician in Fitzwilliam, N. H., twelve years the editor of a leading newspaper in Brattleboro, Vt., four years, from 1858 to 1861 inclusive, holding the high and responsible position of Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont, before his military career began, Charles Cummings had devoted some of the best years of his life to the public service.
In 1862 he enlisted as a private in the 11th Vt. infantry. Be- fore leaving his adopted state, he was commissioned successively First Lieutenant' in the Eleventh Vermont regiment, Major of the Twelfth, and Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixteenth. With the last named regiment he served through the summer campaign of 1863, his command bearing an important part in the repulse of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. Made commander of the Seventeenth Ver- mont Regiment in the early part of 1864, in May of that year he was wounded in the head at the battle of the Wilderness, but refused to leave the field. Compelled by failing health to take a leave of ab- sence in August, 1864, early in the following month he hastened back to his regiment, only to fall wounded in its very next engage- ment, at Poplar Grove Church, Sept. 30th. He died in Confederate hands, but as one of the amenities of war his body was restored to his regiment and returned to Brattleboro for burial. I cannot more fittingly close a sketch of this hero son of ours than by repeating the last command which he ever gave upon the field of battle: "Boys! save the colors!"
And there is one other son of Royalston whose story will not be told unless I tell it, nor unless I sing it, will his soldier song be sung.
First, friend, I shall ask you to forget this present hour and this festive occasion and transport yourself with me to a little mound or hillock on the south side of a rough, stony road, three miles west of Centreville, Virginia. The road which stretches from east to west at our feet is the Warrenton pike, the main thoroughfare between
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Warrenton and Alexandria. At this point it is a somewhat sunken road, and beyond it to the northward rise the rolling fields and wooded hills of the Douglas farm. It is near the close of a sultry Au- gust day. From our elevated position we can see as we glance north- ward what the pedestrian as he toils along the pike cannot see,-the camps of Taliaferro's and Ewell's divisions of Stonewall Jackson's corps. The gray clad soldiers lie sweltering in the heat, and corps and division commanders themselves are seeking on hour's rest in the corner of a worm fence under the trees.
But look! Of a sudden there is confusion in the camp. Ex- cited couriers are seen darting hither and thither. Black throated guns are deep shotted and wheeled into line. Five brigades of in- fantry, among them the famous "Stonewall" brigade itself, take position in front of the guns. The men lie prone upon the earth. The muzzles of ten thousand death dealing tubes are turned toward the pike. They are watching and waiting. We, too, watch and wait. After what seems an age, we hear far away to the westward the sound of martial music. Clearer and clearer come the inspiring strains until finally our eyes detect in the distance the flutter of banners, the glint of guns and the forms of marching men. Soon they are passing the very hillock on which we stand. It is King's Division of Pope's Army of Virginia, Hatch's brigade of four regi- ments in advance, then a wide interval, then Gibbon with the Nine- teenth Indiana and the Second, Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin, regi- ments that shall make for themselves a name this day that shall never be forgotten while American History endures. At the head of the Sixth Wisconsin rides a gray-bearded colonel, who in his boy- hood days was no stranger to these Royalston hills.
The last regiment of Hatch's Brigade has disappeared in the dis- tance to the eastward, and Gibbon's men are this instant passing un- der our eyes, when there is a sudden movement among the Confed- erate batteries. The gunners spring to their feet. Swords gleam in the mellow rays of the setting sun. A dozen,-two dozen puffs of smoke fleck down the line of Wooding's and Poague's and Carpenters' guns. Boom !- Boom ! Boom !- Crash Crash !- and the peaceful pike with its lines of jolly marchers is filled with the hell of exploding shells. For nearly every regiment on which that tornado fell it was its first baptism of fire. And yet what miracle is this! They do not flee. Above the din of conflict we hear the short, sharp orders of the gray-bearded commander of the Sixth. "Left front into line! Load! Load a't' will! Load! ! " And not until every musket is loaded and rammed and capped does he follow with the order, "Lie down!" The Second and Seventh and Nineteenth regiments take inspiration from the gallant leader of the Sixth, though they themselves are bravely led.
For four mortal hours the blazing rifles of those raw Union levies ring back the challenge coming from the veterans of Taliafer- ro's and Baylor's and Starke's and Lawton's and Trimble's Confed-
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erate Brigades. Across the fields of the Douglas farm the muskets blaze at each other in the gathering darkness until both Confederate division commanders are shot from their steeds, in the "Stonewall" brigade alone three colonels are killed or disabled, while in Gibbons' command the brave colonel of the Second Wisconsin is killed, the three ranking officers of the Seventh are all desperately wounded, while the gray-bearded colonel of the Sixth with white and com- pressed lips still holds his men to the desperate work though he him- self has felt the Rebel lead and one of his boots is soaking with blood. But the brigade, of which his regiment formed such an honorable part, has gained for itself an everlasting name, for it shall be known in our history forever as "The Iron Brigade."
Time fails us this afternoon to follow our hero colonel through the succeeding three years of his soldier history-to the hills of Pennsylvania where the men of Cutler's Brigade fired the opening infantry shots at Gettysburg, to the Wilderness where Cutler him- self passed to the command of Wadsworth's division of the Fifth Army Corps. We see him leading his men in person through those terrible thickets where death lurked and there is blood on the snow white beard. Again at Spottsylvania and yet again on the Weldon railroad, south of Petersburg,-and here once more the snowy beard is crimson-stained,-he commands the same noble division, in which is the same gallant brigade and the same brave Wisconsin regiment as Colonel of which he received his first baptism of fire at Groveton in August, '62.
Friend, if you chance to drive to South Royalston this evening to take your train eastward, as you pass on your left the large barn and newly-painted farmhouse of Allen Harrington, remember that was once the Cutler farm and that near the clump of lilacs on the right of the road was born Lysander Cutler, the honored and beloved commander of the Iron Brigade.
When we reflect on all that Royalston has contributed to the public welfare, on how much virtue and strength have gone out of her in the sons and daughters whom she has sent forth, is it any won- der that they came back by hundreds on this, her natal day, and that representatives of state and nation come with them to show her re- spect and to do her reverence.
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MARY (PIERCE) TURNER
Mary Pierce, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William and Sally (Work) Pierce was born in Royalston, March 5, 1800. She at- tended New Salem Academy when 14 years of age, and after several years of clerking in the store of her father, and teach- ing school, she returned to the Academy for a later course of study. She then engaged in teaching, and was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of New York and Massa- chusetts for a number of years, her last school being in Lunen- burg, Mass. She married Leonard R. Turner of Phillipston, June 25, 1834. They had two daughters, Mary, who died in infancy, and Martha Gale, who married Joseph T. Nichols of Royalston, and is the mother of Frederick C and Leonard Nichols. Mr. Turner died Sept. 13, 1846, and Mrs. Turner lived for nearly half a century thereafter, dying in September, 1892, at the age of ninety-two years. She was skilled as a nurse and spent many hours in the sick room. She was also skilled in the use of the needle and left many beautiful speci- mens of her work in lace and embroidery. She was a great reader and lover of books, and never lost her interest in public affairs. The records refer to her as "Mrs. Turner of blessed memory." See portrait on Page 269.
LUTHER E. STEWART
Luther E. Stewart, for many years a prominent citizen of Royalston, was born in Sudbury, Mass., a son of Mr and Mrs. James Stewart. He enlisted in hte 21st Mass. Regiment of Vounteers at the outbreak of the Civil War, and served nearly four years ; at the expiration of his term of enlistment he re- enlisted and was transferred to the 36th and 56th Massachu- setts Infantry. He was twice wounded in battle, first at Antietam, where he received a wound in the face, and later at Cold Harbor, when it was found necessary to amputate one foot. He married Susan Steele Shepardson, daughter of Eri and Elvira (Bemis) Shepardson of Royalston, April 10. 1878, and was a resident of this town nearly a third of a century. He had three children, two daughters and one son, Eri S. Stewart, born April 8, 1887. He was a member of Hubbard V.
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