USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Warwick > Warwick, Massachusetts; biography of a town, 1763-1963 > Part 3
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eastern town line near the southeast corner and again where it crosses the north town line and continues to Winchester.
Northfield was now a well established community with several industries in operation on a small scale, and here most of the few necessities of life could be obtained. Reverend Benjamin Doolittle supplied ministerial services and also engaged in an ex- tensive medical and surgical practice.
One of the conditions imposed on the proprietors of the Ar- lington grant was that they must have 40 families settled within two years. In 1739 they petitioned the House of Representatives to be incorporated as a town, stating that it was "completely fil- led with inhabitants who have built a convenient meeting house and settled an orthodox minister yet labour under divers incon- veniences and difficulties for want of a power to exercise town privileges." As a result the plantation was incorporated as a town with the name of Winchester on June 16, 1739. (Prov. Laws, Vol. II, p. 990)
Thus it is evident that these two communities could be of con- siderable assistance to the early settlers of Gardner's Canada, and this fact doubtless had some effect on the decision of the committee as to where the home lots were to be located. Also it was desirable to have these lots laid out as compactly as possible for mutual defense and assistance. High, dry land was preferable because it was easier to defend and roads could be cleared and built with a minimum of labor. Swamps, of which there were many, were avoided for obvious reasons.
Consequently the committee began its labors along the North- field line. Beginning approximately where the Flagg and Quarry roads meet, they laid out three rows of lots, numbering one to 26, extending north and covering all of Chestnut Hill. Lots 27 and 28 were north of the village on the east slope of Mount Grace. Lots 29 to 35 were located between Moores Pond and Hastings Pond, and from the southern end of Moores Pond north to the foot of cemetery hill. Route 78 runs through Lots 32 to 35, from Arland Day's home to the Dresser home. Lots 41 to 47 lie along both sides of the old Winchester road, beginning at the foot of the hill north of the Athol road and going over the hill to Rob-
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bins Road. The Stevens Old Red House is on Lot 45. Edwin Gillespie owns most of Lot 48 and Roy Felton Lot 49 which started at the foot of Felton Hill. Then starting about 50 rods north of the Royalston road, the old road from Athol to Win- chester runs across the center of Lots 50 to 62, as far north as the Whipple homestead.
One week after the home lots had been drawn, the proprietors met again October 31, 1737 and chose Deacon Davis and Ebene- zer Case to hire surveyors to lay out the second division of lots consisting of 150 acres, "and that it be done this fall or as soon as possible." (Prop. Rec.) No time was lost and on December 26 the proprietors met to draw these lots which varied in size from 100 to 150 acres according to the quality of the land.
Most of these second division lots lay to the south and east of Moores and Hastings ponds, extending east to the Royalston line. The area set off to the district of Orange in 1783 consists entirely of second division lots, plus lots 1 to 9 in the third divi- sion of 75 acre lots laid out in 1762.
In spite of the haste shown to lay out and draw the second division of lots and thus clear the way for the owners to begin the settlement, very little was accomplished in this direction in the spring and summer of 1738. The venture was not one to be undertaken without careful preparation, and without doubt the obstacles to be overcome and the hardships to be faced discour- aged some. Many of the grantees never had any intention of actually leaving homes and means of livelihood and had applied for this bounty only because they were eligible. To sell their land and reap a profit was their only motive. There is no record of a proprietors' meeting until September 20th and then it ap- pears that William Dudley, the Governor's Councilor who had been appointed to assist the Proprietors, called them together.
Under his leadership as moderator the problems that were to be met were discussed. As a result a committee was chosen consisting of Dudley, Samuel Davis and Captain Edward White for the purpose of "finding the nearest way to the township and to agree with some person to make the same passable." Also they were "to receive proposals from any for the erection of
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a sawmill." Dudley, Joseph Heath, Esquire, Captain Samuel Stevens, Deacon Benjamin White and John Seaver were au- thorized to dispose of any lots whose proprietor neglected or refused to pay assessments levied upon them. This committee continued to function under the title of the Standing Committee. The descendants of Captain Gardner's soldiers had become widely scattered in the 45 years that followed the Canada expedi- tion. Only about 20 were still residents of Roxbury and Brook- line, and the remainder found it difficult, if not impossible, to attend the meetings of the proprietors. And so the Standing Committee, all leading citizens from Roxbury and Brookline, became largely responsible for conducting the affairs of the set- tlement. Later as specific tasks had to be performed in the set- tlement, special committees were chosen for each task. These committees usually included men who were settlers but not necessarily proprietors.
The following March, 1738 the committee reported a suitable road had been cleared to the township. The proprietors now decided encouragement should be offered to the first settlers, and a bounty of six pounds was voted to be paid to the first 10 settlers who would erect dwelling houses before the first day of January. Dudley, Joseph Heath, Robert Sharpe, Samuel Stev- ens, Samuel Davis, Daniel Weld, Thomas Aspinwall, William Merean, Daniel Dana and John Seaver signified their intention of collecting this bounty. The following year the records show that six houses had been built, and their owners received the bounty. However who these first settlers were is not stated. How- ever we find the first recorded birth in the town records is that of Lydia Rice, daughter of Absalon and Elizabeth Rice, born Nov- ember 18, 1740. Thus to Absalon Rice and his wife goes the honor of proving their claim as among the first settlers in Gard- ner's Canada by the birth of their daughter.
At the meeting on March 26, 1739, Deacon Davis was asked to "mark out a convenient way from Pequag across this town- ship to Northfield." The Rights of three delinquent proprietors who had failed to pay the assessments levied against them were sold at a public auction September 10, 1740 to Captain James
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Jarvis. The average price paid was 34 pounds, but the assess- ments cut this sum in half. Thus we are shown the value placed upon a grantee's right and the heavy costs already to be met by the proprietors before the settlement had hardly begun.
The proprietors did not meet again for two and a half years. Apparently but little progress had been made in the interval. Dudley, who had been the prime leader in the enterprise, died and Captain Joseph Weld and Lieutenant Thomas Aspinwall took the places of Dudley and Deacon Benjamin White on the Standing Committee. Davis reported that he had surveyed the second proposed road to be built across the south end of the township and he suggested two sites for the erection of a sawmill. However rumors of war with France were prevailing and so fur- ther action was postponed. (Prop. Rec.)
Third French and Indian War, 1744-1749
An interval now occurs in the proprietors' records until Jan- uary 7, 1749, and for an explanation we turn to colonial histor- ies. France's colony in America was a single unit under complete control by the French government. It had energetically extended its sphere of influence as far west as the headwaters of the Mis- sissippi and down the Kennebec and Connecticut rivers and Champlain valley. In 1731 they had erected Fort St. Frederick at what later became Crown Point on Lake Champlain, which gave them control of this entire region. On the other hand the English colonies were rivals, jealous of each other, continually quarreling over boundaries and with little cooperation among them toward a defense against their common enemy.
The most visible evidence of French designs was the erection of Fort Louisburg on Cape Breton Island. This fort was a direct threat to the New England fishermen, and provided a safe refuge for French warships and merchant shipping. France declared war March 15, 1744, but it was not until the end of May that the news reached the settlers in Gardner's Canada.
Northfield immediately began preparations for its defense. Four forts, or mounts as they were called, were erected at stra-
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tegic points. The town became a depot for military supplies and soldiers. Fort Dummer at the southeast corner of Brattle- boro was repaired and manned. Several blockhouses had re- cently been built along the Connecticut River as far north as the fort called Number Four at Charlestown, New Hampshire. To the south and east of Gardner's Canada the townships of New Salem and Pequoiag (Athol) erected forts for the protection and refuge of their inhabitants. The Athol fort was located on the hill to the south of the present village of North Orange. Win- chester, to the north of us, had some 44 settled families at this time, and we can only estimate that Gardner's Canada could not have had more than a dozen families well scattered and in no condition to defend themselves.
Now it was literally every family for itself. Little or no help could be expected from others, for all were in constant fear of attack from roving bands of Indians and French. It was the height of folly to remain and risk the lives of their loved ones, and so one by one the settlers packed their few possessions and abandoned their cabins, knowing when and if they returned they would find only ashes to show for their labors.
The remainder of the year 1744 was one of intense prepa- ration and it was free of any attacks from Canada. In the spring of 1745 Major Seth Pomeroy of Northampton recruited a com- pany of men in the Connecticut valley towns and led them in the expedition against the French Fortress Louisburg. This ex- pedition was proposed by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and commanded by Sir William Pepperell. Composed entirely of New England troops, assisted by an English naval force under Com- modore Warren, the expedition succeeded in capturing the fort to the great delight of the colony. Heartened by this signal victory the colonies continued their preparations for the attacks they knew were to come shortly.
These attacks began in the summer of 1745 in the Connecti- cut valley and continued unabated through 1746. There are in- numerable accounts of ambuscades laid for the unwary, of men attacked working in the fields or driving their cattle to or from the pastures. No one dared to leave their homes unarmed, and etern-
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al vigilance was the price of one's life. Frequent attacks were made on forts and blockhouses. Fort Number Four, the most northern outpost, successfully repulsed a siege of two days and then was ordered abandoned as impossible to supply and defend. Fort Massachusetts at Adams was besieged by a force of 800 French and Indians and was forced to surrender. The loss of these two strong defenses left the valley more open to infiltration by roving bands, and there was serious talk that Northfield might once more be abandoned.
At Pequoiag (Athol) the fort erected on the hill near the edge of Gardner's Canada became the refuge of a number of families, one of which was that of Ezekiel Wallingford. Ezekiel's corn- field was only 100 yards from the fort. Hearing sounds from the cornfield he went out to investigate and was surrounded by Indians who shot and scalped him. This incident was a good il- lustration of ever-present danger and the fate that awaited the unwary.
The situation was made more serious by the refusal of the State of New Hampshire to aid in the defense of the valley. Still aggravated by the border dispute with Massachusetts in 1740 the State felt little obligation to defend an area that had been settled by another. They argued that the forts had been built for the protection of Massachusetts and should be maintained by that state.
In the spring of 1747 word was received that France was pre- paring a large army of French and Indians. This was to be sent in bands to raid the settlements in the colonies with orders to kill, burn and destroy. Winchester which had already experienced a raid by 30 Indians the previous summer, was now abandoned due to the withdrawal of the garrison that had been assigned to defend it. Fort Number Four was reoccupied and almost im- mediately attacked March 30th by a large force of the enemy. The attack was ferocious but the defense made by the garrison under Captain Phineas Stevens was determined, and after three days of constant fighting the assault was given up. Part of this force then turned toward Northfield where they waylaid and killed two men in the north end of the town. The following day
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they burned the abandoned cabins at Winchester and the two Ashuelot townships (Hinsdale and Keene). (T & S., Northfield, p. 250)
The attacks and raids continued on into the fall, and only winter brought a lull in the fighting. Spring brought a renewal of warfare with all its horrors. Finally on August 4th word was received that a treaty of peace between France and England was being negotiated. It was signed in October, and gradually quiet settled over the Connecticut valley.
Thus very briefly is told the story of the stirring events that had brought to a halt the settling of Gardner's Canada. But the question remained, was it now safe or wise for the proprietors to proceed? Nothing had been settled! The great fort at Louis- burg, so proudly captured by New England men, was returned to Canada to the disgust and exasperation of the province. Every- thing remained as it was before, Canada with its Indian allies still threatening the existence of the colonies. Was all the blood- shed, destruction of property, the poverty, the cost of war to be in vain? Had they but known the answer, that in only a few years war would once more erupt to be fought to the final de- cision! Perhaps some of those who did not return to their empty clearings in the wilderness realized it was a phony peace, but many did return.
3 ROXBURY CANADA, 1749-1762
NOW LET US RETURN to the Proprietors' Book of Records. We find the first meeting since 1743 was held January 7, 1749. No comments were made regarding the lost five years. The pro- prietors prepared to repair the damage done. Captain Joseph Weld, Deacon Samuel Davis and Lieutenant Daniel Weld were sent with instructions to hire Seth Field, surveyor and leading citizen of Northfield, to renew the lines of the first and second divisions of lots as they were originally run. They were to choose a site for a sawmill and agree with the owner of the land to have
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the mill built during the summer for the benefit of the proprietors, the latter assuming one half of the cost. All things considered it was quite an order. "In order to encourage a speedy settlement" a bounty of 20 pounds (old tenor) was voted to be given to the "first ten proprietors who shall actually move on the premises and begin the settlement next summer." Ten pounds were to be given at the end of the first year, five pounds at the end of the second and third years.
The meeting was adjourned to the 27th of June but three blank pages in the Proprietors' Records give no clue as to what took place during the next two years. Apparently the General Court finally put pressure on the Proprietors to resettle the town- ship. This resulted in a meeting being held on March 27, 1751. The first item of business was to vote to increase the bounty to 30 pounds and the settler receiving it no longer need be a pro- prietor. Moreover "if any other good and able men" would set- tle in the township they would not only receive the bounty but 50 acres of land laid out by a sworn surveyor adjacent to one of the original home lots.
No report is made by the committee as to what progress had been made. From this fact and the desperate efforts of the pro- prietors to encourage settlers it is apparent that great difficulty was being found in enticing men to face the dangers that were still all too evident.
In the State archives at Boston we find preserved the original petition made to the General Court in answer to their inquiry about the settlement by the proprietors' clerk four days after the meeting. He tells their troubles as follows: "And the said Gran- tees notwithstanding the grant proved to be mountainous and very rocky were at great expense to lay out the first and second division of lotts in order to a settlement and had built several houses there on, but the war coming on soon after they were dis- couraged in making further progress at that time, and as soon as the late peace commenced they renewed their resolution of settling their lotts and soon found that the time of the war and the frequent burning of those woods had defaced the lines of their lotts that they were obliged to run and mark them out anew
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which they did the last summer in order to settle them as soon as possible and are now going upon them. . . and have likewise given great encouragement in the public prints to any (that are not grantees) that will settle with them ye year currant. As the said Capt. Gardner's company was principally raised in Roxbury and Brookline and all lost saving the above Samuel Newell and as said grant (though it may be made a settlement with great charge and industry) has the name of a very poor township of land, the grantees can have no temptation to delay settlement with design to sell out and thereby make advantage to themselves as may have been the case with some other grantees, they there- fore humbly rely on the favorable indulgence of the Honorable Court. By order of said grantees, Roxbury, March 31, 1751. Joseph Heath, Proprietors' Clerk."
The General Court gave an extension of the time allowed the Proprietors to fulfill the conditions of the original grant. But with the ending of hostilities it was anxious to encourage all the settlements to become firmly established before the inevitable showdown with Canada should break out.
The only remaining large area of land not included in any township grant lying south of Northfield and Gardner's Canada on both sides of the Millers River was sold to a group of men in 1751. They in turn sold the land to the Honorable John Erv- ing the following year. Eventually that part of Erving's Grant south of the river was to become part of the town of Wendell. The strip lying along the north side of the river became the township of Erving.
Late in the fall of 1752 a meeting of the proprietors was held at Alexander Thorp's Inn in Roxbury but so few attended that no action was taken. However at a meeting February 13, 1753 the grantees found that no sawmill could be built on the pre- vious plan and they voted 50 pounds (lawful money) to be spent to build one. A bounty of two pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence in lawful money was to be given the first 60 proprietors who would settle in the township without delay.
It should be explained that the province was passing through a financial crisis during this period. From 1690 the province
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(when faced with great expenditures usually due to war) had issued Bills of Credit. These were to be paid from future taxa- tion and if peace had prevailed it might have been possible. But another expensive war followed, and more bills were issued, pay- able at the end of two years, then at the end of three years, then at more distant times. The bills soon began to decrease in value and the hard money for which it was a cheap substitute disap- peared from the country. In 1743 the province issued new bills of credit, called new tenor, and fixed their value at six shillings and eight pence for an ounce of silver. When England reim- bursed the colony for the cost of the Louisburg expedition in gold and silver it became possible for the province to redeem the bills and once more have a solid currency. Bills prior to 1743 were known as old tenor and had declined to one tenth the value of the new tenor or "lawful money," so the value of the new bounty offered the settlers in 1753 was equal in value to the 30 pounds (old tenor) previously given.
Now 18 years after the grant had been given the settlement began to move rapidly toward fulfillment. During the remainder of the year 1753 the proprietors met frequently. New names appear on the records as settlers (few of whom were original proprietors) began to be authorized by the grantees to perform various tasks designed to advance the settlement. Ebenezer Locke was given the contract for the erection of a sawmill. It was agreed to "lay out and clear a highway from the Royalshire line to the Northfield line" provided those townships would build roads to meet it. Soon after a second road was authorized to go from the sawmill at the pond southeast to Pequag and to meet the road from Royalshire to Northfield.
Twenty shillings (lawful money) was levied on each pro- prietor for the purpose of erecting a meeting house 35 feet long, 30 feet wide and 19 feet post. Thomas Aspinwall, William Merean and Ebenezer Seaver were entrusted to "appoint the spott" and have charge of its erection. As a result of their efforts Perry and Mason agreed to build the frame of the meeting house for 26 pounds, 13 shillings and four pence, and would have it ready to raise October 1. The proprietors would defray the cost of the raising entertainment.
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Captain Caleb Dana submitted a bill of six pounds, 12 shillings and eight pence for his services in laying out and clearing high- ways. The proprietors decided that "Dana hath exceeded his trust and greatly overcharged for his time." He was given 45 shillings and accepted it.
Back in April, 1752 the General Court had passed an act that ordered all grants that had not fulfilled the terms of their grants at the end of 18 months to be sold to the highest bidder. Doubt- less it was this action that had spurred the proprietors to the furious efforts which began at that time. Over two years had passed and the conditions of the grant were far from having been met. Faced with the danger of losing all they had invested, the proprietors asked Captain Joseph Williams, Ebenezer Pierpont and Captain Samuel Stevens to apply to the General Court for additional time. As a result on November 12, 1754 a year's ex- tension was granted. (A & R, Vol. XV, p. 216)
The treaty of peace between France and England now proved, as many had prophesied, a delusion for the settlers. It was well known that the French were carrying on their colonization en- ergetically. They had continued advancing westward and south down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. However Colonel Will- iam Johnson of New York had become very influential with the Indian tribes in that state and had succeeded in winning their loyalty for the English. This knowledge lulled the province of Massachusetts and the people in the Connecticut valley to a belief that future battlegrounds would be remote. The four mounts or small forts at Northfield had been torn down, con- sidered no longer necessary. Many families had settled in the new townships to the north on both sides of the Connecticut River. With no warning the storm broke in August, 1754, when a band of Indians captured the Johnson family at Charlestown, New Hampshire.
Last French and Indian War, 1755-1763
The settlers flocked to the protection of the towns, the block- houses and forts already in existence. Northfield at once rebuilt the mounts, and additional blockhouses and forts were built at
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strategic points in many townships. The towns above the border of Massachusetts now held grants from New Hampshire but that state still refused to assist in their defense and Massachu- setts was obliged to garrison the forts here for her own protection.
Hostile Indians were considered by the majority of the colonists as no better than wild animals to be ruthlessly exterminated. Massachusetts offered a bounty of 50 pounds for all male Indian prisoners delivered in Boston; for every scalp of such Indians 40 pounds; for every female prisoner of any age or boy under twelve 20 pounds, and for every scalp of such female or boy 20 pounds. (T&S, Northfield, p. 286)
At Gardner's Canada Samuel Locke had finally commenced work erecting the sawmill, and Perry and Mason had cut from 20 to 30 logs and were having them shaped for the framework of the meeting house when men appeared from neighboring Northfield. They were "advised to leave the place if they had any regard for their lives, for the Indians had done mischief at Number Four (Charlestown) and in divers places." So the work was abandoned and they "came away."
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