USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > The story of Worcester, Massachusetts (1934) > Part 2
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effect. Plans for the settlement were drafted on July 6, 1669. It was proposed to divide Worcester, Holden, and a large part of Ward (now Auburn), into ninety twenty-five acre house lots, with reservation for the meeting- house, ministry, training field, schoolhouse and common lands. Provision was also made for erecting mills, opening and repairing roads, and for an equitable division of the remaining lands.
In the meantime the heirs of Thomas Noyes, to whom two hundred and fifty acres had been granted in 1664, sold their grant to Ephraim Curtis of Sudbury. Sometime previous to 1673, Curtis had taken possession of a rich tract of land near the center of the present city. He was the first white settler of Worcester. For more than a year he was alone in the wilderness, with only a dog for a companion. In later times he told that after working all day, he would sit down, look toward Sudbury, and shed tears of lonesomeness. His descendants still live in Worcester.
Not until 1673 were actual settlers enlisted in sufficient numbers to warrant making a plantation. In the spring of that year thirty- two lots were laid out. Probably only six or seven families actually settled. Just where the
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actual original settlement was located is not known. An early map describes this settlement as a "village called Quisigamon in the mid- dle way between Marlborough and Quaboag (Brookfield) consisting of six or seven houses."
However, a beginning had been made, the settlers building "after the manner of a town," when King Philip's war broke out. This was started in Plymouth county in 1675 and spread rapidly. The Indians of the Packachoag village joined him. The frontier towns were abandoned. Brookfield was burned on August 2, 1675. Worcester was in a dangerous position. The nearest towns were Marlborough on the east, Lancaster on the north, Brookfield on the west, and Mendon on the south. The people abandoned their homes and fled to Boston. Quinsigamond village was destroyed by the Indians, December 2, 1675.
During the war, soldiers were stationed at Quinsigamond to watch the operations of the Indians. Captain Henchman's command stopped at Packachoag in April 1676, but found that King Philip had left there several days before. Sagamore John, with nineteen braves, surrendered and was placed in charge of Capt. Thomas Prentice of Cambridge. Some Indians escaped, others were executed, and still
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others were sold as slaves. The treatment of the Indians in this war is a very discreditable chapter in our history. The death of Philip, August 12, 1676, brought the war to a close.
There was no intention of permanently abandoning the Quinsigamond plantation. The committee, in an order dated 1678, directed the planters to return to Quinsiga- mond and "build together so as to defend themselves." The latter preferred, however, the threatened forfeiture of their grants rather than risk Indian warfare. "There was no going," wrote the committee. In October 1682, the proprietors received notice that unless measures were taken to re-establish the plantation, the grant would be forfeited. This threat brought results. On April 23, 1683, Capt. Daniel Henchman, with his pack horses, set out from Marlborough toward "Quin- sighamun" in order to settle a plantation there. Others accompanied him. Log houses were built. The General Court licensed Nathaniel Henchman, son of Daniel, to keep a tavern at Quinsigamond, allowing him to "furnish strong waters to travelers and in- habitants in bottles of pint and quart but to suffer no tippling there." A second settlement was well under way in the summer of 1683.
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The settlers and proprietors entered into a formal agreement dated April 24, 1684. To encourage settlement once more, the proprie- tors divided the township into four hundred and eighty lots, two hundred for the planters, eighty for public use, and two hundred to be laid out in north Worcester, subsequently Hol- den. The plantation was estimated to contain 43,000 acres. Town officers were appointed. William Weeks was chosen constable, Thomas Atherton, fence inspector, and John Wing, town clerk.
Capt. Daniel Gookin was granted one hun- dred acres on the east side of Packachoag Hill and another lot on Raccoon Plain. Daniel Henchman located north of Lincoln Square; John Wing on the west side of Mill Brook, just north of Lincoln Square, where he built the first corn mill. Diggory Sargent settled on Sagatabscot. Probably thirty-five families located here between 1684 and 1703.
There was still danger from the Indians, so provision was made for the safety of the plantation. Land covering a half mile square was planned for a citadel on Fort River (Mill Brook). House lots were to be laid out "at least six rods square for those settling thereon." Two fire rooms were built within the citadel
الياف
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السيد
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"to shelter such as shall come to settle and travellers until there be an ordinary."
Originally, the name of the new plantation was "Quansigamond." On September 10, 1684, the General Court granted the request of Daniel Gookin, Thomas Prentice, and Daniel Henchman "that the plantation Quan- sigamond be called Worcester."
From the days of Roman Britain there has been located on the Severn River in England a town named Worcester. The spelling in the "Domesday Book" is "Wircestre," and means the station or camp under the hill. It has suffered tribulation in every terrible epoch in English history. During the Civil War in England, 1642-1649, it was a royalist strong- hold. Here Cromwell defeated Prince Charles, 1651, in a great battle "as a crowning mercy and a defiance to the Stuarts." In the Proceed- ings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for February 1873, Mr. William H. Whitte- more, in an article on the naming of towns in Massachusetts, states that there is a tradition that "the name was given to Worcester to commemorate the battle of Worcester," but he gives no facts. The basis of the tradition seems to be that Daniel Gookin was in England in 1655 and visited Cromwell. Gookin was one of the founders of Worcester, and in his
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enthusiasm for the Puritan cause named the plantation in America to commemorate the battle of Worcester. But towns are very rarely named to commemorate battles and further- more, so far as is known, Daniel Gookin had no personal association with the English city of Worcester.
Daniel Henchman is also credited with giving the new village a name. The General Court, in 1682, gave notice to the committee that the grant would be forfeited unless measures were taken to form a plantation. Accordingly, in April 1683, Henchman set out from Boston to save the plantation. On April 24, 1684, Henchman drew up what he called an "agreement" between the commit- tee on the one hand and "Captaine Daniel Henchman and his co-partners on the other." In this agreement he refers to the proposed plantation as "Quinsikamon (allius Worster)." William Lincoln in his "History of Worcester" states "that the reasons for the selection of the name Worcester cannot now be ascertained. It was probably adopted from the place of residence of some of the committee or planters in England." The ancestry of Daniel Hench- man has not been fully traced, but it is known that the name "Henchman" appears many times in the Probate records of the seventeenth
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century of Worcester, England; and it is very probable, though not definitely proven, that Daniel Henchman was of this family, and because of this connection named the planta- tion in America, "Worster."
While the records of the town from 1686 to 1713 are very meager, one or two events of this time have come down to us and are of thrilling interest. Hostile Indians still menaced the settlement. It was during this period that Samuel Lenorson, Jr. was kidnaped by the Indians. One day in the fall of 1695, young Samuel, a boy of twelve years, was playing in front of his home overlooking Lake Quin- sigamond. He disappeared and nothing was heard of him for nearly two years. On March 15, 1697, the Indians attacked Haverhill, Massachusetts, and tomahawked twenty-seven people. In this raid Hannah Dustin was cap- tured by the Indians. Among other captives were Mrs. Mary Neff and Samuel Lenorson. For fifteen days they were marched through the forest; then the band divided and one company with Samuel Lenorson and Mrs. Dustin crossed to an island at the junction of the Merrimac and Contoocook rivers. Secretly, the captives took counsel together and re- solved to escape. Samuel Lenorson asked "Bambico," one of the Indians, where he
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LAKE TOWER-SITE OF LENORSON HOUSE
Here on the spot marked by the tower stood the Lenorson home. In front of it, Samuel Lenorson was captured by the Indians in 1695. The view shows part of the old trail which ran past this early habitation.
would strike to kill and how to remove the scalp. The Indian pointed to his temple and said, "strike there." He then explained how to take the scalp from the head. On the night of
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March 30, 1697, the camp fires in front of the wigwams blazed merrily. The long journey had so tired the Indians that they slept soundly. It was midnight. Noiselessly, the captives obtained the tomahawks and struck the deadly blow. The Indians were killed and scalped. One Indian boy and an old squaw were all that escaped. Then the captives scuttled all the canoes except one, and in it paddled down the Merrimac river until they reached Haverhill. Samuel Lenorson, Jr. was restored to his parents, who later moved to Preston, Conn. As a reward for their daring exploit, the General Court awarded Mrs. Dustin twenty-five pounds, Mary Neff and Samuel Lenorson twelve pounds ten shillings each. Hearing of their deed, the Governor of Maryland sent presents to each of them.
One by one the settlers abandoned their farms, so that when Queen Anne's war broke out in 1702, only the intrepid Diggory Sargent was left in Worcester. In spite of the pleadings of the committee, he refused to leave and turned a deaf ear to the settlers of Marl- borough who advised him to move to a safer place. Finally, the committee dispatched Captain Howe and twelve armed men to force him to leave. Night came on, snow threatened, and the soldiers were forced to seek shelter in
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the garrison house near Lincoln Square. Hidden in the cellar were six Indians who had also sought shelter from the storm but had kept their presence unknown. In the morning when the soldiers departed, they escaped. Sargent's house was on Sagatabscot Hill, about a mile from the garrison house. The soldiers arrived there too late, for the Indians had pre- ceded them. The door of the house was broken open, the owner lay dead on the floor, and the family was nowhere in sight. They buried Diggory Sargent at the foot of one of his oak trees and left the place. In the meantime, the Indians, driving Mrs. Sargent and the children before them, ascended the Tatnuck hills. Mrs. Sargent, weak from fear and sorrow, was not able to keep pace with the others, much to the annoyance of her captors; one of the Indians stepped out of line as though looking for something and as Mrs. Sargent passed him, he killed her with his tomahawk. The children were taken to Canada. Later, the oldest daughter returned, married Daniel Shattuck of Marlborough and, after a time, they lived on the farm where Diggory Sargent had met such a tragic death. John and Thomas returned to Boston; Daniel and Mary re- mained with the Indians and adopted their habits.
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CHAPTER III
PERMANENT SETTLEMENT: GROWTH OF WORCESTER
) UEEN ANNE's war, 1702-1713, unloosed bands of Indians who roamed over central and western Massachusetts, burning isolated farm- houses and even attacking towns. One by one the settlers of the second plantation moved to towns nearer Boston. Diggory Sargent alone remained. Upon his death Worcester again reverted to wilderness.
Interest in the plantation, however, had not been lost. Too much time and money had been spent; too many roads had been laid out; and too many grist mills had been erected to abandon the settlement. In spite of the danger from Indians, as early as 1709, a number of men had presented a petition to the General Court requesting the right to re-establish the plantation. But the times were too dangerous.
Determined to settle again in Worcester, Jonas Rice of Marlborough, in 1711, bought sixty acres from the son of one of the second proprietors. A year later his brother Gershom
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bought a similar amount. On October 13, 1713, Jonas and Gershom Rice, with Colonel Adam Winthrop of Boston, presented a petition to the General Court: "to endeavor and enter upon a new settlement of the place they had been driven by war." The committee appointed by the General Court to superintend the new plantation, allowed the claims of thirty-one "ancient inhabitants," and grants were made to twenty-eight other persons on condition that each of them pay twelve pence per acre for their plantings. Lots of forty acres were assigned to each member of the committee.
Even before the report of the committee had been approved by Governor Dudley, Jonas Rice, first permanent settler of Worcester, had built a log house on the easterly slope of Sagatabscot hill. For over a year he was the sole inhabitant of a wilderness of swamps and woods for fifteen or twenty miles around. Neither the fate of Diggory Sargent nor the howling wolves in the night was sufficient to drive him from his home. October 21, 1713, is the date of the final settlement of Worcester. Jonas's brother, Gershom, joined him in December 1714, locating on Oak Hill. Nathan- iel Moore and Daniel Heywood soon fol- lowed, Moore settling near Jonas Rice, and
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Heywood on the site of the present Bay State House. Other settlers from Marlborough, Sudbury, Malden, and Concord followed them; in 1718 fifty-eight cabins had been built. There were between two and three hundred inhabitants at this time.
For protection against the Indians, garrison houses were erected at strategic points. A log fort was built on the western side of Main Street near Chatham. During the first year, settlers in the vicinity slept within its walls. Another fort was constructed by Daniel Hey- wood near the junction of Main and Exchange Streets: In the northeast part of the town, between Prescott and Lincoln Streets, still another was built which served as a shelter for travelers and a protection for the grist mill on Mill Brook. Near Adams Square, a block- house was built on which a cannon was mounted to give alarm in time of danger.
During the reign of Queen Anne, the English Parliament prohibited the importation of cat- tle, meat, and cheese from Ireland into England. The woolen manufactures were ruined by a law which burdened wool with heavy duties. The same was true of the Irish linen. Accompanied by their pastor, a large number of Scotch-Irish left northern Ireland and landed in Boston on
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August 14, 1718. Some of these settled in Worcester. Presbyterian in faith, they aroused the hostility of the Puritans. The Scotch-Irish began the erection of a meetinghouse just north of the "Oaks" on Lincoln Street. The framework was scarcely completed when it was destroyed by a mob. A few Scotch-Irish then left Worcester and founded Pelham, Massachusetts; still others journeyed to New Hampshire and founded Londonderry. Those who remained soon became members of the Old South Church. Matthew Thornton, who as a delegate from New Hampshire to the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, as a child resided among the Scotch-Irish settlers of Worcester.
The increasing population soon necessitated a town organization. On July 14, 1722, Worcester was incorporated as a town, and on September 28, 1722, the first town meeting was held. Jonas Rice was a member of the first Board of Selectmen.
Worcester was then in Middlesex county. In 1731 Worcester was created the shire town of the new county of Worcester. The location of the capital of the new shire was the occasion of much debate. Sutton, Lancaster, Mendon, and Brookfield, according to population, ranked
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higher than Worcester. Finally the choice lay between Lancaster and Worcester, but the good people of Lancaster were fearful that their morals would be corrupted if that town were the capital, for in colonial days the ses- sions of the courts were the occasion of holi- days. Exhibitions of wrestling, fisticuffs, and horse racing were held. The race course in Worcester ran along Main Street and often much disorder occurred. The establishment of Worcester as the shire town gave it great impetus. From that time the leading lawyers made it their home.
From the meager records of the time we are able to draw a general picture of Worcester about the time the shire was created. Dense forests of pine and chestnut were broken by the scattered clearings. The dwellings were log structures one story high with a lean-to in the rear. Barns and out-houses were equally primitive. But love's hand had planted mari- golds, evening primroses, and canterbury bells about the doors, and here and there apple trees had been set out. In the clearings the men were busy hoeing squash and corn. Milk pans hang- ing on the door posts glistened in the sunlight. Occasionally an Indian stopped for a drink of water. High overhead a lone hawk soared as
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the cattle were driven slowly home. It was a tranquil settlement.
The peaceful development of Worcester, however, was often broken. In 1722 the Indians went on the warpath in what was later known as Lovell's war. Lurking in the forests and swamps they made it dangerous to gather the harvests. Small bands of Indians fired upon the settlers from the concealment of the dense forests. Dogs were employed to track them down. Finally, the selectmen appealed to Governor Dummer and soldiers were stationed to guard the settlers.
Worcester soldiers served in King George's war, 1744-1748, and in the French and Indian war 1754-1763. Adonijah Rice, the first white child born in Worcester, served in the siege of Louisburg. During the year 1758, Worcester was the rendezvous of troops to be mustered in the service and a depot of supplies was established here. About five hundred Worces- ter soldiers served in the French and Indian wars, where they received valuable training and experience for later service in the Revolution.
The horror of those Indian wars is reflected in the removal of the peaceful Acadians from their homes, immortalized in Longfellow's "Evangeline." In the fall of 1755 eleven
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Acadians were assigned to Worcester to be provided for by the town authorities. The people of Worcester treated them kindly, per- mitting them to cultivate land, and manufac- ture wooden implements. The aged died broken-hearted; the survivors returned to Canada in 1767, the town helping them to pay expenses.
EARLY CHURCH HISTORY
The founders of Worcester were men of energy, courage, vision, and deep religious convictions. They believed that education and religion were the foundations of the state. Within a year or two of the establishment of the permanent settlement they erected a log meetinghouse. Courage was needed for settlers from widely scattered cabins to attend the House of Worship. Indian war whoops from outside often mingled with the Psalms from within; and not infrequently were accom- panied with arrows fired through the loop- holes which served as windows. It was on account of the dangers from the Indians that the law required every man attending meeting on the Lord's Day to carry a gun, and during service it stood at his side ready for immediate use.
OLD SOUTH MEETINGHOUSE (1763-1887)
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In 1719, the first real church was erected and was known as the "First Old South." This served the needs of the community until 1763 when the historic "Old South Church" was built on the Common fronting on Main Street; "of Weymouth pine, the handsomest; the oaks of four different kinds": trees which so im- pressed Lord Amherst as he encamped here with his army on the march to relieve Aber- crombie during the French and Indian war.
From the tower hung the bell which now hangs in the new Old South Church and bears the quaint inscription,
The living to the church I call, And to the grave I summon all.
The clock in the tower was topped by the weathervane which was of great importance. A porch graced the front of the building and from this vantage point Isaiah Thomas, on July 14, 1776, read the Declaration of Inde- pendence for the first time in Massachusetts.
Pews were sold to the worshippers, the price depending on the amount of taxes paid on real estate; the "solid" citizens thus occupied the choice seats near the pulpit. Above the pulpit was a sounding-board on which was engraved the dove of peace with the olive branch of hope. Below the pulpit was a cupboard; here stim-
ISAIAH THOMAS
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ulating beverages, home manufactured from the choice fruits of orchard and vineyard, were kept under lock and key until the close of the morning service when they were served to warm the members of the congregation chilled from sitting for hours in the unheated, bleak New England Meeting House. In addition to the time consumed in the opening and closing of service, the average length of the sermon preached was from one to two hours. This church was served by many eminent divines among whom was the Rev. Isaac Burr who "lived as he taught and taught as he believed."
The Puritans were jealous of their estab- lished church and form of worship, and opposed all attempts to establish churches not in accordance with their views. During the last illness of the Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty, pastor of the Old South Church, and for a short time after his death, the Rev. Aaron Bancroft was engaged to serve this people. His doctrines, however, caused much dissension in the church and, eventually, a number of influential mem- bers withdrew and organized the Second Unitarian Congregational Society. This seces- sion split the town into two factions which were reflected in the bitter political and social controversies of the day. Up to this period in
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the history of Massachusetts, the boundaries of each parish were marked off and the people within the prescribed area were compelled to unite with the church and pay taxes toward its support. Church and town were indivisible. Voluntary associations were illegal. The incor- poration of the Second Society in 1787 was a bold innovation and marked another step in the long and painful march toward religious liberty.
For many years there were very few mem- bers of other religious sects in Worcester. Prior to 1800, there were only three avowed Baptists. During the period from 1795 to 1812 meetings were held in the home of the Father of Worcester Baptists, James Wilson, an Englishman who settled here in 1795. During the War of 1812 the Rev. Samuel Austin, then pastor of the Old South Church, offended many of his parishoners by his violent attacks on President Madison. Many of his members left the Old South Church and affiliated them- selves with the Baptists and organized the First Baptist Church. Further accessions, secured from the increasing population, soon necessi- tated the building of a church on Salem Square.
For over a hundred years after the founding,
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Worcester was a Protestant community. The first mention of a considerable body of Catholics may be found in the old parish records of 1826 which read: "Catholics first came to the town of Worcester." These people were mostly Irish immigrants who came here to work on the Blackstone Canal.
In 1834 in response to a request from these newcomers, Bishop Fenwick appointed Father Fitton, then a pastor at Hartford, to minister to them once a month. Christopher C. Bald- win's diary of April 7, 1834, reads: "Mr. Fitton yesterday assembled the Catholics now in town and with those who came from the factories of Clappville and Millbury he had about sixty. He was subjected to some diffi- culty in finding a convenient place to hold a meeting but at length obtained consent to hold service in the new store erected by Mr. Bailey and stands on the north side of Front Street, on the west bank of the Blackstone Canal. I believe this to be the first Catholic sermon ever preached in the town." Father Fitton was so impressed with the zeal of his small flock that he planned to build a church for them but found it difficult to buy land. Three prominent men in the town came to the assistance of Father Fitton. William Lincoln, brother of the
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