USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > The story of Worcester, Massachusetts (1934) > Part 4
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STORY OF WORCESTER
THE PAINE HOMESTEAD, LINCOLN STREET Now the home of Timothy Bigelow Chapter, D.A.R.
- forced many to recant.
to leave town. Threats of personal violence
The bitter feeling aroused by threats and acts of violence is reflected in the town meet- ings. On March 7, 1774, a majority of citizens in town meeting voted not to buy or sell India tea. Joshua Bigelow, representative to the General Court, was instructed to vote against compensating the East India Company for the loss of the tea dumped in Boston harbor. The Tories, led by James Putnam, attempted to defeat the instructions of the town meeting to Joshua Bigelow and failing, petitioned for
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WORCESTER IN THE REVOLUTION
another meeting. The adjourned town meeting was held on June 20, 1774, and after a long, stormy debate the Tories were again defeated. Fifty-two leading citizens signed a protest against the action.of the town meeting which Clark Chandler, town clerk, and a prominent Tory, spread on the records of the town. When the patriot leaders discovered the protest in the town records, their indignation was so great that Clark Chandler was forced publicly to erase it from the records by dipping his finger in ink and drawing it across the protest several times. The coy little tea plant had brewed plenty of trouble.
During the years 1773-1775 the patriots were very active. In 1773, a committee of correspondence was chosen consisting of Wil- liam Young, John Smith, and Timothy Bige- low. The bolder spirits, of which Nathan Baldwin was the leader, formed the American Political Society. This organization counter- acted royal influence and during the three years of its existence was a powerful agent to carry out the desires of the patriots. Nathan Baldwin was the penman of the patriot party.
For months before the outbreak of hostili- ties, the citizens of Worcester had been
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quietly collecting provisions and ammunition; tents, spades, iron pots, pickaxes, and clothing were secretly stored. Under the command of Capt. Timothy Bigelow, a company of minute men had been drilling on the Village Green. Worcester was well prepared for war. At the town meeting held in March 1775, it was voted "that each of the minute men be- longing to the town, attending drill one half day each week, shall be paid by the town one shilling per man for half day's service."'
The services of these minute men were soon required. On the day of the Battle of Lexing- ton, April 19, 1775, a messenger, riding a white horse covered with sweat and bloody from spurs, dashed through the town crying: "To arms! To arms! The war is begun!" His horse fell from exhaustion but, another horse being provided, he hastened on. The bell was rung, cannon boomed, and the Minute Men were ready at short notice. They were paraded on the Common under Capt. Timothy Bigelow and after prayer by Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty, began their march. Other volunteers under Capt. Benjamin Flagg soon followed. On that day Worcester sent one hundred and ten men on the march to Concord. They were met on the way by messengers who informed them of
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the retreat of the British. The troops then con- tinued on to Boston and later participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
During the spring of 1775, captives from the British army were sent here and the jail was filled with prisoners of war. Some of these were allowed, under parole, to enter the service of the inhabitants.
The disastrous expedition against Quebec began in September 1775, and ended Decem- ber 1775. Among the brave men who marched from Worcester through the Maine wilderness, under General Benedict Arnold, were Major Timothy Bigelow, Capt. Jonas Hubbard, and twelve soldiers. In the attack on the fortifica- tions of Quebec, December 1, 1775, Captain Hubbard was mortally wounded and died in the hospital about two weeks later. Major Bigelow and the soldiers were taken prisoners and confined in prison for nearly a year, when they were exchanged.
The Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Provincial Congress on July 4, 1776, was immediately transmitted to the proper authorities in each town. On Sunday, July 14, 1776, a copy was intercepted on its way to Boston and was read from the porch of Old South Church by Isaiah Thomas. This was the
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first reading of the Declaration of Independ- ence on Massachusetts soil.
The colonies, having formally severed them- selves from political connection with England, began to deal more severely with the Tories.
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ISAIAH THOMAS'S HOUSE
View of house being moved to the rear of the Court House. From a builder's circular of 1838.
From time to time the selectmen of Worcester posted a list of the names of persons whom they esteemed enemies of the United States. These lists contained members of the most prominent families of Worcester. Some were imprisoned, others were exiled, and many lost all their property.
In the meantime, Worcester raised a great deal of money, far more than her proper share,
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WORCESTER IN THE REVOLUTION
for the Continental army. The women were busy making shirts, stockings, and clothing for the soldiers. The town voted large amounts of money, beef, pork, and flour.
Out of a population of nineteen hundred people, Worcester furnished about four hun- dred soldiers, or more than 20% of her total population. Worcester was represented by her soldiers at Cambridge, Bunker Hill, Quebec, Long Island, Saratoga, Valley Forge, Mon- mouth, and Yorktown.
The Treaty of Paris, 1783, brought the Revolution to a close. The seventh day of May, 1783, was the day on which the return to peace was celebrated. The American flag was displayed, bells rang, and cannon boomed. The leading citizens dined at the Sun Tavern, and in the evening there was a gorgeous ball.
CHAPTER VI
THE EMBATTLED FARMERS
T. HE joy occasioned by the signing of the Treaty of Paris had scarcely subsided when the new nation faced serious foreign and domestic problems. The Articles of Confedera- tion announcing a "firm league of friendship" of the thirteen states remained in force only eight years, and failed to bring strength of harmony into the Union. There was no execu- tive power, there were no national courts of justice, there was no control over commerce, and no power to levy taxes.
Abroad, our government was despised. England sent no Minister to the United States until 1792. France would not recognize the Congress of the United States as a government. The Barbary pirates seized our vessels and went unpunished.
At home the conditions were no better. The states fought with one another over boundaries and commerce. New York and New Hampshire claimed Vermont and often came to blows. Tariff wars among the states were common,
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THE EMBATTLED FARMERS
New York levied duties on farm products imported from New Jersey. Virginia and Maryland quarreled over the navigation of the Potomac.
But all these problems were overshadowed by the threat of civil war in the years 1786- 1787. During these years the United States was suffering from a serious trade depression and nowhere were "hard times" felt so much as in Massachusetts. What were the causes?
In 1786 this state was exporting only one- fourth as much as in the year 1774. Millions of feet of pine and oak boards and tons of shingles, staves, and joists were shipped to Europe before the-Revolution, but in 1786 the ring of the woodsman's axe was seldom heard. Before the Revolution eleven hundred vessels were engaged in cod fishing; after it, scarcely a hundred vessels were so employed. The whale fisheries were equally demoralized. Further- more, British trade laws prohibited the ship- ment of goods to England and her colonies except in English ships. American commerce was destroyed.
The long war cost $135,000,000. Massa- chusetts was without debt at the beginning of the Revolution; at its close the state debt was $10,000,000-a heavy burden on a community
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of less than 400,000 people. Taxes were levied upon polls and real estate. But real estate valuations had shrunk considerably since the war. Not only had valuations shrunk but there were actually fewer houses, barns, horses, oxen, cows, and swine in many towns of central and western Massachusetts. There was less acreage under tillage. In Worcester the land under cultivation had shrunk several hun- dred acres during the Revolutionary period. Fields that had formerly S.Salifbury yielded large crops of grain and vegetables had been SIGN ON OLD SALISBURY MANSION given over to pasture. The familiar story repeated it- self-increased taxes on decreasing valuations.
The burden of taxation was made more serious by the scarcity of cash. Taxes must be paid in cash and there was very little cash in circulation. So serious did this become that whole communities were reduced to the primi- tive system of barter. The Worcester farmers trudged from person to person and from village to village to find a shoemaker who would exchange shoes for wheat, or a black-
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THIE EMBATTLED FARMERS
smith ready to exchange nails for vegetables. Languishing trade, heavy taxation, a decided shrinkage in real property and little cash, meant just one thing-debt; and non-payment of debt meant a term in jail. Distress was universal.
Let us picture the plight of residents of Worcester in 1786. Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Ist, Mr. Daniel Waldo, and many other merchants, not only engaged in selling merchandise but, at the same time, were private bankers. They bought and sold mortgages and loaned money. In almost every instance, however, when the interest came due the debtor had nothing with which to pay. Many pathetic letters, pleading for leniency and time extension, were sent to the creditor, but so great was the number unable to pay that it was impossible to grant these requests to any extent. The penalty for non-payment of debt was jail and so serious did the situation become that hundreds were imprisoned for failure to meet their obligations. Death sometimes released them before their term expired, as in the case of Col. Timothy Bigelow who was "discharged by deth" in 1790. Of course, all this made good business for the lawyers and sheriffs; Sheriff William Greenleaf is recorded as having frequently
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seized the very last piece of furniture even to the only bed, for payment of debt, leaving the poor unfortunate entirely destitute. For the years 1786 and 1787 the Sheriff of Worcester county executed nearly 4000 writs for non- payment of debt. The plight of Worcester's citizens in 1786 can scarcely be imagined.
For many years they bore their burdens with patience though hicl Wal naturally with resentment. The 56 Worcester town meetings had discussed these grievances in long and bitter debate. Conventions FIRE BUCKET belonging to Daniel Waldo, Senior were held in many towns to dis- cuss the heavy and inequitable taxation, public and private debts, scarcity of cash, and exorbitant legal fees. Petitions were poured into the General Court, but all to no avail.
In 1786 the pent-up bitterness burst in all its fury on the legal profession and the courts. Since everybody was in debt, in jail, or on their way to it, the people naturally looked upon the lawyers with hatred. Anonymous articles at- tacking them appeared in the Massachusetts Spy, the Worcester newspaper of that day. So numerous were the lawsuits, that the offices and
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THE EMBATTLED FARMERS
grounds surrounding them of Levi Lincoln, Sr. of Worcester, Dwight Foster of Brookfield, and John Sprague of Lancaster, principal lawyers of the county, were so thronged with
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THE TRUMBULL HOUSE
The house is now No. 6 Massachusetts Avenue. Originally the Second Court House, situated on Court Hill.
suitors that they presented the appearance of a public holiday.
There was also much complaint against the courts. The Court of Common Pleas enforced the collection of debts and thus incurred the wrath of the people. The expense of conducting the courts was very great and the Worcester county convention, held in September 1786,
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STORY OF WORCESTER
petitioned the General Court to reduce the expense of the courts. The State Legislature, however, turned a deaf car to all such petitions. There was still a class government. When the unfranchised soldier of Washington's army returned home he found himself as politically ineffective as before the Revolution. Property and religious qualifications were such that only one adult male in. six could vote. The farmers and laborers were not represented.
The crisis was reached in the summer of 1786. In August of that year fifteen hundred maddened farmers prevented the Court from sitting in Northampton. This was repeated in Great Barrington, Concord, Worcester, and in several other towns. On Monday, September 5, 1786, a large body of men, under command of Adam Wheeler of Hubbardston, seized the Worcester Court House. On that day the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, headed by Chief Justice Artemas Ward, slowly made their way to the Court House from the United States Hotel on Main Street, only to find their way blocked by a file of rebels. For two hours Ward parleyed with Wheeler but to no avail. They were not allowed to enter the Court House.
The week of December 3, 1786, was a stirring one in Worcester history. The Court
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THE EMBATTLED FARMERS . 93
was scheduled to meet on December 4. Long lines of rebel sentinels were stationed along Main Street and the surrounding hilltops, examining all who passed, determined to stop the Court. But the friends of the Government were not idle. Two companies of militia were enrolled under Capt. Joel Howe and on Mon- day afternoon marched slowly down Main Street. The rebels with sprigs of hemlock in their hats, the emblem of the rebellion, blocked their progress. It looked like civil war. In both camps were veterans who had learned their tactics from Steuben and had fought at Bunker Hill and Saratoga. The rebels here gave a vivid demonstration of loyalty. Rather than bring matters to a crisis, they retired to Court Hill.
It was at this time that Daniel Shays, the leader of the rebellion, first appeared in Worcester. Shays had rendered distinguished service in the Revolution. Lafayette had pre- sented him with a sword. When the rebellion broke out, he was living quietly in Pelham, Massachusetts. Here in the old Conkey Tavern he met with Luke Day of Springfield, Eli Parsons of Pelham, Henry Gale of Prince- ton, and other kindred spirits. Here over a mug of "flip" they sang:
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STORY OF WORCESTER
Huzza, my Jo Bunker, no taxes we'll pay,
Here's a pardon for Wheeler, Shays, Parsons, and Day,
Put green boughs in your hats, and renew the old cause,
Stop the Courts in each County, and bully the laws.
And here they planned the details of their campaign.
The rebellion spread rapidly. All the New England states were infected. The Courts in New Hampshire and Vermont were impeded. Fully 15,000 men were under arms. Washing- ton became alarmed. "I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over- the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country," he wrote to Henry Lee.
The exciting events in western Massachu- setts forced Governor James Bowdoin to act. General Benjamin Lincoln was ordered to raise a force of 4000 men. On January 22, 1787, he marched through Worcester on his way to Springfield where Shays had made an attempt to seize the arsenal. Shays failed and Lincoln followed him into the wilderness around Pelham. Suddenly Shays retreated to Peters- ham where, on the third of February, Lincoln dispersed the main body of the rebels. Shays
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THE EMBATTLED FARMERS
fled to Vermont and finally settled in Sparta, New York.
Eighteen of the rebels were convicted of treason. Among them was Henry Gale of Princeton who was sentenced to death. On June 21, to the roll of muffled drums with hundreds of people looking on, he was escorted to the gallows on Worcester Common by a file of soldiers. The noose was placed about his neck, when suddenly a courier with a reprieve from Governor Hancock stopped the execution.
Gradually the grievances of the rebels were remedied. In time the right to vote was extended. But the immediate effect was to drive hundreds of rebels into the wilderness of Vermont. The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was influenced by the disorder in New England to adopt a very conservative constitution. Daniel Shays may not be the actual father of our Constitution, but he cer- tainly had a great deal to do with hastening its adoption and its final form.
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THE EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE AND GENERAL STAGE OFFICE Formerly known as the United States Arms
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CHAPTER VII
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
W ASHINGTON had been inaugurated in the midst of a depression ; civil war had been barely averted at home, and abroad he was con- fronted by delicate problems, for France and England were at war and threatened the peace of the new Republic. To insure the success of the "new deal," Washington made a good-will tour of New England. He arrived in Worcester on Friday, October 23, 1789. No event since the establishment of peace in 1783 gave so much joy to the people as the honor of this visit. He was escorted from the Leicester line by a company of forty leading citizens and on arriving before the Old South Church was saluted by eleven cannon, symbolical of the number of states then in the Union. To gratify the desire of the people to see him, Washington left his coach and rode along Main Street on horseback. He breakfasted at the "United States Arms" and then resumed his journey seated in his coach, along Main Street, across the upper end of Lake Quinsigamond and into
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Shrewsbury. On the two hundredth anni- versary of his birth a pageant reproduced this trip through Worcester and a tablet was un- veiled at the City Hall commemorating his birth.
For two decades after the death of Washing- ton there is little of importance to chronicle in the history of Worcester except its attitude toward the War of 1812, which was most unsympathetic. The Embargo Act had ruined the commerce of New England. So intense was the feeling that a convention of delegates from forty-one towns in Worcester county met in Worcester to urge the shortening of the war and to exhort the friends of peace to withdraw all voluntary aid. The Treaty of Ghent in 1814 came just in time to prevent New England from seceding from the Union.
An age of transition followed the war. The most profound revolution in history was chang- ing the western world from the hoof, sail, and handcraft into the railroad, steamboat, and manufacturing age. The Industrial Revolution transformed Worcester from a small, homo- geneous, and agricultural town into a large, heterogeneous, and manufacturing city. At the beginning of these changes Worcester was outranked by Brookfield and Mendon both in
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
population and wealth; the revolution made Worcester the third city in New England.
Three factors have been mainly responsible for the growth of Worcester: a location in the geographical center of Massachusetts, a com- plete transportation system, and a long suc- cession of inventive geniuses. The first step
TERMINUS OF BLACKSTONE CANAL
which connected Worcester with the sea was undertaken in 1826 when the first spadeful of earth in the building of the Blackstone Canal was dug near Thomas Street. The canal, com- pleted in 1828, was forty-five miles long, sixty- two locks easing the 451 feet of descent to Providence. On October 7, 1828, the first boat, the Lady Carrington, was towed by two horses from the Thomas Street basin. Under the rules of the company no boat could travel more than four miles an hour-to prevent racing. A large crowd assembled to witness the
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formal opening of the canal at which Pliny Merrick, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, delivered an address congratulating the pro-
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WORCESTER, OCTOBER 8, 1828.
7
SHIP NEWS For the Port of Worcester.
"QUIMICO. 5 1
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ARRIVED YESTERDAY, At the head of navigation for this port, PACKET BOAT LADY CARRINGTON, .
moters of the canal. As the crowd cheered and cannon roared, the Lady Carrington, loaded with butter, cheese, and coal, began the long descent to Providence. The coal was mined near Lake Quinsigamond and for some time was an article of export. As a result of the opening of the canal the population of Worces- ter increased from 3560 in 1828 to 6624 in 1835. For some years the canal was profitable, but the development of the railroad brought to an end an era of picturesque transportation by canal boat and stagecoach and in 1848 the canal was abandoned.
In the early days of the canal the stage driver was a notable figure in the town, rival- ing the doctor, postmaster, and innkeeper in
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
the affections of the people. Genery Twichell was the most friendly and respected of all Worcester stagecoach drivers, as well as the most distinguished stagecoach proprietor of this period. At one time he owned two hundred horses, and until the opening of the Boston and Worcester railroad his stage lines were the chief means of transportation in several New England states. His stagecoaches were seen on every road. From his headquarters in the Central Hotel, stages departed daily for Boston, Hartford, New York, Providence, Springfield, and Keene, N. H. The feat which made him famous was his ride on January 23, 1846, brought about in this way:
CENTRAL HOTEL
The question of the title of the Oregon country was being debated in Congress. Both Great Britain and the United States claimed
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STORY OF WORCESTER
THE UNRIVALLED EXPRESS RIDER
the vast territory extending from 42° to 54°-40' north latitude. The dispatches which settled the controversy were carried on the Hibernia, sailing from England to Boston. James Gordon Bennett, editor of the New York Herald, had secured the exclusive right to the quickest means of transmission. He made special arrangements by which the dispatches were to be carried in a special engine over the Boston and Norwich railroad which connected by boat with Long Island, thence to New York City. The only condition by which other New York newspapers could secure such direct means was that the engine they chartered should leave Boston fifteen minutes after that of the Herald. Genery Twichell scooped the
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
news after this fashion: When the second engine reached Worcester he seized the dis- patches, and spurred his horse for the long sixty-six mile journey to Hartford. The tem- perature was low, the snowdrifts were high, but he reached Hartford in three hours and twenty minutes, in time to get a train to New Haven, a distance of thirty-six miles, and then on another seventy-six mile journey to New York. The Tribune and Journal of Com- merce had their papers on the street announc- ing the settlement of the Oregon question be- fore the dispatches to the Herald reached New
THE LOCOMOTIVE "LION"
Afterwards called "Brookline" and still later the "Farming- dale." Built in Liverpool in 1835. Used 32 years by Boston and Worcester Railroad, running over 700,000 miles.
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STORY OF WORCESTER
York. The picture, "The Unrivalled Express Rider," tells better than any written descrip- tion the story of this dramatic ride.
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BOSTON & WORCESTER STATION, FOSTER STREET NEAR NORWICH
Genery Twichell was the last of the noted stage drivers. The age of steam had begun. The Boston and Worcester railroad was the earliest incorporated road in Massachusetts, receiving a charter in 1831. The first train of twelve cars drawn by two wood-burning loco- motives arrived in Worcester July 4, 1835. The whole town turned out to see the novel sight. "It appears like a thing of life," wrote Chris- topher C. Baldwin, librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, in his diary. The Spy relates that an inmate of the Asylum remarked
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STORY OF WORCESTER
that "he never saw a critter go so fast on such short legs." Locomotives were personalities. The most famous of them was the "Lion," built in England in 1835 and in use on the Boston and Worcester railroad for thirty-two years, traveling 700,000 miles during its life- time. The depot was located on Foster Street. Later, the Norwich and Worcester railroad used the same depot, as did the Providence and Worcester which began operating in 1847.
This period was Worcester's "Golden Age" of talented men. Call the roll: Levi Lincoln, 2nd, nine times Governor of Massachusetts and the first Mayor of Worcester; Isaac Davis, lawyer and philanthropist; Stephen Salisbury, 2nd, benefactor of his native city; Clarendon Harris, booklover, horticulturist and the friend of man, whose very presence was a benediction ; Dr. John Green, founder of our Public Library; William Lincoln, author of the first "History of Worcester"; Charles Allen, great jurist and founder of the "Free Soil" party in Massa- chusetts; Eli Thayer, founder of Kansas; and others of note.
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