USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > The story of colonial Lancaster (Massachusetts) > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
The work of rebuilding Lancaster went on slowly during four years. The "deputies" from outside again consented to a proposi- tion that once more all persons and estates should be taxed "in due proportions;" and that steps should be taken to rebuild the church and to secure a permanent minister. During the seven years that the town was without a minister "divers gentlemen" preached here.
Among the names of these gentlemen we find Samuel Carter, a son of Reverend Thomas Carter of Woburn. This Samuel Carter bought the Henry Kerley lands on George Hill, in 1688-the lands long since known as Valley Farm. He was settled later in Groton, and died there in 1693. His widow, Eunice Brooks Carter, married John Kendall of Woburn, the progenitor of many des- cendants in Sterling and Leominster, bearing the Kendall name.
The Carter sons, John, Samuel and Thomas, lived on the paternal estate and their heirs continued to live there until many acres in that section were purchased by the Thayer brothers about 1885. There are still Carter descendants in Lancaster, but none bearing the family name, though the Carters once rivalled in numbers the Willards and Wilders.
Despite all their hardships and their poverty, the people of Lancaster had the courage to invite a minister to settle among them in 1688. At first he was engaged to preach "on probation," but two years later he was asked "to settle in the ministry," and having accepted, was soon ordained. This was Reverend John Whiting who had graduated from Harvard College in 1685, and was twenty-six years of age when he came here. He was the second
48
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
son of Reverend Samuel Whiting, minister of Billerica for fifty- five years. His wife was Alice Cook of Cambridge.
When the Whitings were invited to come here, the town voted to build a parsonage, and at a town meeting in 1690, it was voted that the town should make a conveyance of the house and land to the minister. Tradition tells us this was done in the following manner: "The voters and others in large numbers assembled at the house, walked through the rooms, and after a pleasant and thorough inspection, passed out of the doors and formally gave possession to their minister." Then there was "a feast of fat things and the voice of song and prayer." The house was set in the beauti- ful location, now (in 1936) the grounds of the Bigelow estate in South Lancaster.
Besides this gift, the town "enlarged his accommodations" by the purchase of a piece of intervale land on the west side of the river near the Atherton bridge, which they gave to Mr. Whiting. This house was still standing in the early part of the last century. Mrs. Sally Sawyer Case, who died in 1890, at the age of 101 years, lived in this house as a girl. She described it as a large, unpainted, two-story mansion, facing the south, its rear roof sloping down to within a few feet of the ground. A row of huge buttonwood trees lined the path which led to the road towards the Old Com- mon, then the chief highway. The trees have disappeared long since, but an old well, which supplied the house with water, still marks the location of the house.
It is probable that there was little increase in population in the first ten years of rebuilding the town. Some of the former planters had found permanent homes in other towns and sold their holdings here. New settlers began taking up new claims in the outlying districts to the east. The country still was in an un- settled state.
In 1688 William and Mary came to the throne in England, Dr. Increase Mather had returned from London with a new Charter-an important event in the history of the Common- wealth. The new royal governor was Sir William Phips. He had been named by Dr. Mather as most acceptable for governor because of his hearty sympathy with the colonists. England, however, was at war with France, and this brought the colonists into the fray.
Governor Phips conducted an unsuccessful, even disastrous
49
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
expedition against Canada, in which Lancaster men were enlisted. This excursion was the first of many in which Lancaster soldiers took part in the next hundred years, fighting for the King of England. They were poorly paid: in fact it was fifty years later that land grants were made to the heirs of five Lancaster soldiers who fought in this expedition. They were Joseph Atherton, John Pope, Jonathan Fairbank, Samuel Wheeler and Timothy Wheelock. One of Phips captains was Benjamin Willard of Lancaster. These men were needed at home, for all the outlying towns again were threatened by the savages.
Lancaster was much alarmed. Still on the frontier, its militia was without officers; its garrisons were incomplete. A party of hunters had seen great numbers of Indians gathering around Wachusett. Only too well the settlers knew the red men's inten- tions and remembered the terrors and cruelties in Philip's war.
Not one family of the Nashaways now remained within the limits of old Lancaster or in the haunts of the tribe about Washa- cum or Wachusett. Most of the Nashaway warriors had perished, slain in battle or by being hanged. Their squaws and children had been sold as slaves to sugar planters in the Bermudas.
Some Christian Indians lived at Natick or Nashoba. Occasionally an Indian boy or girl lived as bond servant in some farmer's family. A few had found refuge with the Penecooks in New Hampshire, or with one of the New York tribes. Some were nomads, wandering from one tribe to another. But they had not forgotten the home of their fathers, nor had their hatred lessened, nor their desire for revenge. So in the ten years of King Philip's war, the French never lacked guides to direct them to the weakest point in each frontier town.
50
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
CHAPTER XIV
Fear of Raids-A New Attack-1690-1697
AS FEAR OF ATTACK SPREAD THROUGH THE TOWN, STILL SMARTING under the blows of the massacre of 1676, many of the citizens prepared to leave for safer quarters. Then the General Court passed a special act forbidding removal from outlying towns under severe penalty. One town named in the act was Lancaster.
In order to live it was necessary for the men and boys to work all day in the fields, and this ill fitted them to watch, every second night, against a surprise attack. From past experience they knew they could expect little help from Boston; but there was no way of escape and with the wisdom and heroism which was characteris- tic, they assembled in town meeting and worked out their plans. They nominated Thomas Wilder for lieutenant and John Moore for ensign, and asked for confirmation at Boston. They appointed Ralph Houghton to serve with the Council on the town's behalf when occasion should require, and they asked for twenty soldiers to be sent, well equipped with arms and ammunition, to scout about the woods and observe the enemy's movements and protect the settlers from surprise attacks.
Assistance was asked from Maj. Thomas Henchman, then in command of all the forces in this section and, in April of 1692, he addressed the "Honoured Court," calling attention to the extreme danger and need of assistance in Lancaster and the towns about, that daily were expecting invasion by the savages and "groaning under the burden they lay under from want of soldiers from the Bay parts."
There were now eight garrisons in Lancaster. These could protect about fifty families in case of attack, from which it is in- ferred there were about two hundred seventy five inhabitants at that time.
The garrisons were located at the extreme ends of the town, in the newer allotments for homes which had been made since the rebuilding of the town had begun: Henry Willard's, eight men, at Still River; Ensign John Moore's, eight men, on Wata-
51
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
quadock Hill; Lieut. Thomas Wilder's, thirteen men, on Bride- cake Plain, as the Old Common was then called; Josiah White's, ten men, upon the east side of the Neck; Philip Goss's, nine men, near the bridge over the north branch of the river; Thomas Sawyer's, eleven men, in the center of South Lancaster; Nathaniel Wilder's, eight men, at the old trucking-house site on George Hill; Ephraim Roper's, seven men, a little to the north of Wilders.
It was impossible for the people to stay in the garrisons during the day, as the labor of farm and home must go on. The outlying houses were unfortified, and although the men were never far away from their guns, they often were far from their homes.
The first blow was struck in July 1692, when a small band of Indians surprised the family of Peter Joslin, while he was absent in the field. His home was on the west side of the road leading from the Center to the North Village. Mrs. Joslin, Mrs. Hannah Whitcomb, who was a widow, and three young children of Mr. and Mrs. Joslin were killed. Elizabeth Howe, a young sister of Mrs. Joslin, and Peter, six years old, son of the Joslins, were taken captive. The boy later was killed by his captors.
There is a tradition that Elizabeth Howe was singing at her spinningwheel when the Indians entered; that they admired her so much that they took her away with them. She was ransomed after four years of captivity, and returned, at the age of twenty. She married Thomas Keyes, in 1698.
Things came to such a pass, and the people of the town were so worn out with poverty and fear, "not knowing how to get either food or clothing for themselves or families" that Jonathan Houghton addressed a petition to the Governor and Council at Boston, on behalf of the inhabitants of the town of Lancaster, begging consideration of their condition and asking for a "con- siderable allowance" for money spent in building and repairing the garrisons. In answer to this petition the House of Representa- tives voted to allow them £20-"for encouragement."
On a Sunday in the autumn of 1695, Abraham Wheeler was mortally wounded while on his way to his home near the river from the Sawyer garrison. In this state of continual suspense and fear the people passed weary days and nights for two years before the next blow fell. It was on a September day in 1697. The men were working in their fields or at their homes and the garrison gates were open. A band of Indians dashed from the forests
52
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
upon the western part of the town. Their plan was to assault the garrison of Thomas Sawyer, but a strange occurrence changed their plans. Jabez Fairbanks was riding from his own house to the garrison and dashed at full speed through the open gates. The Indians, thinking that they had been discovered, turned upon those working in the fields and in the defenceless houses, attacking the families of Ephraim Roper, the widow of John Rugg, Jonathan Fairbanks, John Scate and Daniel Hudson, murdering, capturing, or wounding nearly all of them, then burned their houses and barns.
The Indians came upon the minister, Rev. John Whiting, returning from the fields about noon, and attempted to take him captive: but "he chose rather to fight to the last." He was killed and scalped.
Nineteen settlers were killed that day; eight were taken captive, but of these, five eventually returned; two others, badly wounded, recovered. Those who were killed, besides the minister, were Daniel Hudson, his wife and two grandchildren; John Scate and wife; Mrs. Hannah Rugg, who was a widow and daughter of John Prescott, also her son Joseph Rugg, his wife and three children; Jonathan Fairbank, his daughter and son; Ephraim Roper, his wife and daughter Elizabeth.
Two daughters of Daniel Hudson were captured and one or both were slain. Those who eventually returned were Mrs. Mary Fairbank, Ephraim Roper, Jr., a son of the Ephraim who was slain, Mary Glazier, and a son of John Scates. The fate of the widow Tabitha Wheeler is unknown, and a captive girl, Hannah Rugg, had not returned fifteen years later.
Ephraim Roper was the same man who escaped from the Rowlandson garrison in the massacre of 1676, and was a son of John Roper, killed that year. Hannah was his second wife and was the widow of that Stephen Goble who was hanged for the murder of Indian women and children in the excitement that followed the massacres.
Captain Thomas Brown pursued the enemy with a party of fifty men for two days, but there is no record of any losses by the Indians.
Again the valley of the Nashaway was deep in gloom. The people were wholly discouraged and disheartened. They were forbidden to leave. Their garrisons were inadequate and there
53
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
was no money. Their minister had been slain. Their courage was almost gone.
Again Lancaster appealed to the authorities for more soldiers for their garrisons, for aid in securing a minister, and for exemption from taxes. Once more £20 was bestowed upon them by the English authorities in Boston, whose indifference towards these settlers, their privations and sufferings, becomes more and more apparent as time goes on.
54
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
CHAPTER XV
French and Indian Attacks-1697-1704
OBVIOUSLY, THE LOCATIONS ON THE WEST OF THE TOWN WERE the ones most likely to a surprise attack. As one bloody raid after another destroyed the homes of the earliest settlers, new home lots were chosen east of the river. Some of those who had settled on George Hill and the Neck abandoned their home lots for new sites upon their "second division" lands on the high lands to the east, where the natural lookouts gave a clear view towards the hiding places of the hated enemy, and of the smoke rising from their campfires. At Still River, around the Willard garrison, the sons and grandsons of the pioneers were taking up lots. Henry Willard was the fourth son of Maj. Simon, and had nine sons, all of whom married. Most of them spent their lives within the old town bounds. Joshua Atherton had a hundred acres extending down the west slope of Still River hill to the Nashaway river. John Priest and John Warner had special grants of thirty acres on the easterly side of Bear Hill. Bridecake Plain was a nearer location and soon attracted the grandsons of the pioneers as a place for homes. Upon Wadaquadock hill and to the east there were three garrisons. Homes were springing up to the east of Prescott's mills. Soon after the turn of the century there were in all eleven garrisons. These included seventy-six families, or a population of about 425, of which two-thirds now lived east of the rivers.
For this widely scattered population there was but one church and one inn. The inn was kept by Nathaniel Wilder and was on George Hill, where he had held a license "to sell beer, ale, cider, rum, etc.," for twenty years.
After the tragic death of Rev. John Whiting the church was four years without a pastor, and during that time had temporary supplies. Then Andrew Gardner, a Harvard graduate of the class of 1696, was invited to preach; and in September of the year 1701, he accepted a call to become the settled pastor. At this time a change was made whereby all inhabitants were taxed to pay the
SITE OF THE FIRST TWO MEETINGHOUSES BOTH DESTROYED BY THE INDIANS
55
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
minister, being assessed as for other taxes. Mr. Gardner at once was given the house and lands of his predecessor, Rev. Mr. Whit- ing, which his widow had sold to the town for £60. The state treasury gave £20 towards the payment of a minister.
Again black clouds were hovering upon the horizon, and again the blow fell west of the rivers. A large force of French and Indians, under "Monsieur Boocore" had planned to destroy Northampton. When they found that place prepared for attack, part returned to Canada, but about four hundred rallied for an attack upon eastern towns and, on Monday, July 31, 1704, fell upon Lancaster. The first attack, as usual, was made upon the garrison on George Hill, where Lieutenant Nathaniel Wilder was mortally wounded. Re-enforcements came promptly, under Capt. Tyng and Capt. Howe, and the enemy was driven off with heavy losses. Three of our soldiers were killed. The enemy lost a French officer, which enraged them, and in revenge they burned the meetinghouse, and destroyed many cattle and outbuildings. The dwellings of Ephraim Wilder, Samuel Carter and Thomas Ross upon George Hill were burned as was the home of Philip Goss, upon the site of the Rowlandson garrison.
Bands of hostile Indians continued to prowl around the settle- ment and every year surprised some farmer at his work in the fields or some lone traveler upon the road. Every man kept his musket close at hand, even on his way to church, and every man of military age took his turn with the scouting parties sent out to look for signs of the enemy.
This was an anxious and unprofitable time. The expense of keeping up the garrisons, the time lost in scouting, inability properly to plant or harvest the crops, all told upon the finances and the nerves of the people. Mothers, sick with fear over the safety of their children, had little to encourage them in daily tasks.
Fathers and sons at work in the fields never knew when they might be shot from ambush, or what they might find when they returned to their homes. The strength and courage given them to carry on seems little short of miraculous. Their Puritan belief was that the more they suffered in this world the more sure they could be of corresponding joys in the world to come. Then great will be their reward.
The parsonage at the crossroads in South Lancaster escaped destruction at the time of the burning of the second meetinghouse.
56
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
However, a great grief came to the parish, when a tragic occur- rence cut short the life of the young minister.
The Indians had been doing great mischief in the outlying districts, and had been seen lurking within the boundaries of the town. The citizens were dreading a fresh attack. Scouting parties had gone out from the minister's garrison on that second day in October. They returned at nightfall, tired with watching and tramping. The minister "being a very careful as well as courageous man, concluded to watch that night by himself," and give his scouts a much needed rest. He took up his post in the little watch house over one of the flankers. Late in the night he started down out of the upper flanker, presumably to warm him- self. Samuel Prescott was the sentinel on duty that night. He saw and challenged the minister, mistaking him for an Indian spy. He challenged again, then, thinking he received no reply, he fired a fatal shot into the breast of the minister.
Rev. Mr. Gardner regained consciousness and asked who fired the shot; and upon being told the circumstances, declared he knew it to be entirely unintentional, and begged his people to forgive Prescott, as he had already done. He lived but a few hours.
Samuel Prescott was entirely exonerated but could not bear up under his burden of regret. His own house was across the street, too near the scene of his mistake for comfort. He soon sold his house to the new minister who succeeded Rev. Mr. Gardner and moved to Concord.
57
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
CHAPTER XVI
Meetinghouse Controversies-1704-1707
REV. JOHN PRENTICE SUCCEEDED TO THE MINISTRY OF THE PARISH, coming from Newton. The next year he married Mrs. Mary Gard- ner, the widow of his predecessor.
With the coming of Mr. Prentice the series of long pastorates began for which this parish has been noted: his ministry ended with his life, forty-three years later.
As the second meetinghouse had been destroyed by the savages, services were held for a few years in the parsonage. Again the people of Lancaster were facing the building of a house for worship.
The older people were in favor of rebuilding on the old site. Not so the younger generation. The center of population was changing and Bride Cake Plain was fast becoming a popular sec- tion for homes. This name was first spoken of in the records of a town meeting in 1704, and retained that name for a hundred years before the "Common" which we now call "Old," was fenced in.
Bolton and Harvard still were a part of the mother town, and their people attended service every Sunday. In fact, two-thirds of the citizens of Lancaster now lived east of the rivers. After the burning of the second meeting-house in 1704, £40 had been granted by the general Court towards the building of a new one. The money was to be paid upon the erection of the frame. At a town meeting it was voted to place the new building on the east side of the river, on Bride Cake Plain and the frame accordingly was set up. The new location raised a storm of disapproval in the town.
The argument for relocating the church on the old spot was set out in the following statement:
Your petitioners dwell on the west side of the river, fronting towards the enemy, and having suffered very much, and are diminished in their numbers, several heads of families having been cut off within these few years, and when the enemy were there about seventeen or eighteen months ago they burned down the meetinghouse, which always stood on the west side of the river. Now so it is, that those inhabitants who dwell on the east side of the rivers use all their endeavors to have the meetinghouse
53
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
built on this side, whereas the meetinghouse ground, and the ministerial land and meadow are both on the other west side and moreover should the meetinghouse be built on the east side the enemy might come when the inhabitants are at meeting and destroy the whole western part and seize the bridge, so that no- body should be able to resist them, but the meetinghouse being built upon the exposed side-as it used to be-the inhabitants are a guard to the other side as well as to themselves.
This "other side" had something to say. In a short time they sent in a petition to "His Excellency, Joseph Dudley, Esq., Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief" in which, at great length, they gave an account of the discussion. They gave as their reasons for wanting the church built on the east side of the river that "the very thing cared for in the first covenant and agreement of the plantation" was "about a meetinghouse, that it might be sett in the most equall and convenient place that may be advised by them:" and again, that "having lost already burnt on that side therefore think it not prudence to build there againe, it being apprehended a very dangerous place." They added that there were "neere two thirds of them that live on the east side of the river, and neere two thirds of all public charges are borne by them." They prayed the "Great and General Assembly to put a final end to this affair which has been very troublesome and expensive."
Another argument which the people living on the west side of the river might have used was the position of the bridges. There were but two; one over each branch of the river. Unless they used wading places or canoes, people living north and west of the river must follow the roundabout road to reach the "Plain."
The governor appointed four men from outside the town to look over the situation and advise as to which side was to be preferred. Then this committee disagreed-two were for each side-so that nothing was done.
Then it was ordered that both sides should be represented at a hearing before the General Court in Boston. After the hearing the decision was for the west side, "where the old Meetinghouse stood, and has been twice before built"-but there was a comment attached-"Read and not agreed."
In June 1706 the petitioners got the decision for the east side but this again was set aside. The frame for the church which had been set up before the controversy waxed hot was by this time "considerably damnified by the weather."
59
THE STORY OF COLONIAL LANCASTER
Finally John Houghton sent in a petition for the east-side inhabitants. It was read before the House of Representatives of which he was a member. There is no doubt that his influence brought about a decision, as he was then and for years to come, one of the prominent men of the town.
The majority had its way. The petition was granted by the House and signed by the Governor. The "damnified" frame was covered in by Robert Houghton and his assistants. After a long season of bickering, peace reigned once more in the parish. Thomas Wilder gave the land across the road for a church yard and burial ground.
It must have been a trying time for the young minister, preach- ing in the inadequate parsonage to a divided and excited parish. He probably had some difficulty in holding his people together, but he held their esteem and lived to see his church enlarged, and later rebuilt in another location, and ended his days in their service. Holding the parish together was an easier matter in those days than now for the Law stepped in to help. All were compelled to attend church on Sunday. Absence from services soon brought a visit of investigation, and "in His Majesties name" delinquents were given warnings to appear on the following Sabbath, or give good reasons for being absent.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.