USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 13
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The first wagon of the settlers was the clumsily built and clumsy to oper- ate two-wheel cart, which served its purpose on the original rough roads. Probably a four-wheel vehicle would have been impossible to handle. But as time went on the wagons grew and grew, until some of them were of truly monstrous size, broad and high, and covered, and loaded a ton to a horse, and
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sometimes there were ten horses. Some of these were of the general pattern of the famous Conestoga wagons which originated in Pennsylvania and from which developed the "prairie schooner" of the trans-continental migration.
There were other freight carriers-the three-horse wagon called a "spike," the two-horse wagon known as the "podanger," and the one-horse "gimlet." No regular teamster could drive one of these; less than a four-horse wagon was beneath him. Yet there was a camaraderie among them all. The "regu- lars" would good-naturedly help to pull a lesser vehicle out of the mud or snow when the occasion demanded, which was something no stage driver, drover or other self-respecting traveling citizen would do.
No vocation produced sturdier or better men than these drivers. With hardly an exception they were big, hearty, healthy Yankees, blessed with hard common sense and regular habits. Though they seldom were total abstainers, they were never drunkards. Their life was too vigorous for that. They were kind to their horses. The whip was a badge of office and rarely anything more. They had to be good merchants and keen traders, for they must sell to advantage the loads they carried to market for their customers, and buy wisely in carrying out their commissions for the return load. Not only the farmers and villagers depended upon them, but the country merchants relied upon them for their stocks of goods of all descriptions.
A man who remembered these teams of his boyhood told: "When these large teams were hooked to the wagons, the starting word was 'whoo-up,' and the horses would at once place themselves in position. Then 'Order, whope, git! To turn to left, 'whoa, whoa,' softly ; to the right, 'Gee there.' For a full stop, 'Whoa who-oof,' in louder voice, and all would come to a stand- still. It was a fine sight to see six or eight good horses spread out, marching along in each other's steps, and see how quick they were to mind the driver's voice. Good drivers always spoke to their teams in a low voice, never shouted. The teamsters walked beside their teams, twenty miles a day the average. The reins were done up on each horse's hames, allowing them to spread apart with ease, a checkrein from the bit over the hames to keep them where they belonged. You could never teach a horse anything that wasn't checked up. The wagons weighed from eighteen hundred to twenty-two hundred pounds. Some wagons had an adjustable seat called a 'lazy board.'"
With the coming of the winter snows the wagons were housed, and thousands of sleighs, pods and pungs took their place. "The farmer no longer sent to town by wagon and teamster, but carried his produce to town himself, just as his grandfather had in the days of the cart and sled before the Revolution. Winter brought red-letter days to the New England farmer" wrote Alice Morse Earle; "summer and autumn were his time of increase, but winter was his time of trade and of glorious recreation. Friendly word
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was circulated from farm to farm, spread chiefly at the Sabbath nooning, that at stated date, at break of day the long ride to market would begin. Often twenty or thirty neighbors would start together on the road to town. The two-horse pung or single horse pod, shod with steel shoes one inch thick, was closely packed with farm wealth-anything that a New England farm could produce that could be sold in a New England town. Frozen hogs, poultry and venison; firkins of butter, casks of cheeses-four to a cask-, bags of beans, pease, sheep pelts, deer hides, skins of mink, fox and fish-cat that the boys had trapped, perhaps a splendid bearskin, nuts that the boys had gathered, shoe pegs that they had cut, yarn their sisters had spun, stockings and mittens they had knitted, homespun cloth and linen, a forest of splint brooms strapped on behind, birch brooms that the boys had whittled. So closely packed was the sleigh that the driver could not sit; he stood on a little semi-circular step on the back of the sleigh, protected from the cutting winds by the high sleigh back. At times he ran alongside to keep his blood briskly warm.
"The tavern keepers might well have grown rich had all these winter travelers paid for board as well as lodging, but nearly all, even the wealthiest farmers, carried their own provender and food. Part of their oats and hay for their horses sometimes was deposited with honest tavern keepers on the way down to be used on the way home; and there was always plenty of food to last through the journey : doughnuts, cooked sausages, roast pork, rye and 'injun' bread, cheese, and a bountiful mass of bean porridge. This latter, made in a tub and frozen in a great mass, was hung by loops of twine by the side of the sleigh, and great chunks were chopped off from time to time. This itinerant picnic was called in some vicinities tuck-a-muck, an Indian word; also mitchin. It was not carried from home because tavern fare was expen- sive,-a 'cold bite' was but twelve and a half cents, and a regular meal but twenty-five cents ; but the tavern keeper did not expect to serve meals to this class or to such a great number of travelers. His profits were made on liquor he sold and sleeping room he gave."
Tom Cook, Highwayman and "Honest Thief"-There were highway- men in the old days in New England as well as in Old England, but as a rule they paid more attention to thievery than to holding up stagecoaches at the muzzle of a pistol. In Worcester County one of the most notorious was Tom Cook, born in Westboro in 1741, son of the village blacksmith. Legend has it that he was in league with the devil, all because of an incident of his infant days. He was very close to death, and, following the custom of the day, good Dr. Parkman, the village minister, and his deacons prayed earnestly, asking that the Lord's will be done. The mother, Eunice Cook, pleaded
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differently, "Only spare his life and I care not what he becomes." That was the mischief of it.
The baby recovered and as a lad soon showed what his future would be. His evil pranks convinced the people that he had entered into a compact with the devil, perhaps through his mother's agonized words, perhaps by his own pledge.
Finally, the story went, the last year of the devilish agreement came to a close, and Satan appeared to claim his own as Tom was dressing for another day. "Wait, wait, can't you, till I get my galluses on?" he demanded in answer to the imperious call of his visitor, and, this being his last request on earth, the devil agreed. Whereupon, the wily Tom threw his suspenders in the fire and the devil was foiled forever.
Cook became notorious as a most extraordinary rascal, and his name may be found on the criminal records of some of our county towns. He called himself "The Leveller," and the public knew him as "The Honest Thief." He stole from the rich and well-to-do with boldness and cunning, but he gave to the poor with infinite kindness and delicacy of feeling. He stole the dinner from a wealthy farmer's kitchen and dropped it in a poor man's house. He stole grain and meal from passing wagons and gave it away under the owner's eyes. A poor neighbor was sick and her bed hard and cold. Unperceived he entered a thrifty farmhouse, selected the best feather bed, tied it up in a sheet, carried it down stairs and out of doors, and then went to the front door and asked permission to leave his bundle there for a few days. The mistress of the house recognized him as the wicked Cook and forbade him bringing it within her doors. So with a light conscience he went his way and the sick woman lay in comfort.
In Dr. Parkman's diary, now resposing in the library of the American Antiquarian Society, under date of August 27, 1779, is this entry: "The notorious Thos. Cook came in (he says) on Purpose to see me. I gave him what Admonition, Instruction and Caution I could-I beseech God to give it force! He leaves me with fair words-thankful and promising."
Finally he was brought to trial for arson or burglary or robbery or other heinous crime, and was convicted and sentenced to death. He heard the dooming words of the judge, "I therefore sentence you to be hanged by the neck till you are dead, dead, dead," and called back, with a grin on his face, "I shall not be there on that day, day, day." Nor was he. When the wardens went to fetch him to the gibbet, his cell was empty.
This man, who was regarded as master highwayman as well as master thief, though there is no actual record to prove him a true Knight of the Road, is described as good looking, agile, well-formed, well-featured with eyes of deepest blue, and with a piercing though kindly glance. He was adored by
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the children, and his pockets were always filled with toys he had stolen for their entertainment. Rich farmers paid him annual toll to free themselves of the threat against their property.
His one really unfortunate experience was when he was caught roasting in the fireplace of an empty house, a goose stolen from the wagon of a farmer who was on his way to market. He was taken to the village tavern, which was filled with carters and farmers, many of whom had been his victims. He was given his choice between a trip to jail or running the gant- let of the assembled men. He chose the latter, and the whips of these experts paid off many an old score against "the Honest Thief."
CHAPTER XL. The Story of Worcester County Transport (Continued )
The Blackstone Canal, connecting Worcester with tidewater at Provi- dence, Rhode Island, and opened for transportation in 1828, was doomed to certain financial failure by the impending advent of the railroads. Had its promoters waited only a year or two, they could have foreseen the steam locomotive providing a freight service with which a canal could not compete. It might give lower rates on some classes of bulk freight, but in the New England climate, with ice-bound waters in the winter, and floods and the low waters of drought in the open months, it could not operate continuously and dependably. Those who invested their money in the enterprise were losers. But in the decade of the active operation of the canal, opening in 1828 and 1829 the territory which it served reaped most substantial and enduring benefits.
Worcester was a rapidly growing manufacturing center, and also an important distributing point, serving a large farming country and a consid- erable number of thriving mill villages. The Blackstone Valley had already become an important manufacturing district. In the forty-five miles of its length, wherever there was a fall of water, a cotton mill or woolen mill had been established. The problem of transportation was one of vital considera- tion. The overland hauling of raw materials for the industries and of the finished products to the seaports, whence most of them were shipped to market, was too great an item of costs. An actual canvass by the commis- sioners who controlled the canal showed that the yearly transportation for Worcester County alone totalled twenty-five thousand tons. Of this, as experience proved, the Blackstone Canal got the lion's share.
The saving to shippers was enormous. In Worcester, for example, the freight charge was reduced $3.80 on every ton brought into the town. Bos-
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ton wholesalers were mightily disturbed. They saw their inland trade slip- ping from them, the importance of their own city dwindling as that of the rival port of Providence increased. They were even forced to route Boston shipments to Worcester by way of Providence and the canal. A typical instance was a lot of iron for Worcester foundries and forge shops carried by water from New York to Boston, for reshipment overland. Instead it was sent by vessel to Providence, and transferred to a canal boat, and hauled from the towpath the forty-five miles to its final destination. Even after this roundabout journey, there was a saving to the consignee of $2.28 a ton.
Reckoned from twentieth century standards of freight volume, the busi- ness done by the canal may seem small. Yet in 1835, the year of the opening of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, the little boats, hauled by plodding horses, carried 810 tons of iron, 3,590 bales of cotton, 3,15I bales of wool, 292 tons of leather, 810 tons of coal, 43,137 gallons of oil, 8,618 bushels of corn, 16,278 barrels of flour, and 18,223 bushels of salt. And, naturally, there was a considerable tonnage of miscellaneous freight. Nor was this the largest year in the canal's brief history. It was close to the average.
But looking over the amount of tolls collected, in other words the money taken in, one wonders that the Blackstone Canal was able to do business even in the years of its greatest prosperity, for there must have been an annual deficit, or, at the best, no better than an even break between receipts and operating expenses. One of the important reasons why shippers found canal freightage so economical may have been that rates were too low. Here are the total tolls collected in the period from the beginning of operations in 1828 and including 1836: 1828, $1,000; 1829, $8,606; 1830, $12,016; 1831, $14,945 ; 1832, $18,907; 1833, $17,545; 1834, $16,464; 1835, $14,433; and 1836, $11,500. From that time until the last toll was collected in 1848, receipts declined steadily. There is wide variation between these figures and the $45,000 net earnings which would have been required to pay six per cent. on an investment of $750,000.
No one will dispute the words of the late Henry Chapin of Worcester and Uxbridge, written many years ago, when he characterized it as "a magnifi- cent enterprise. Every town along the line of the canal is deeply indebted to it for its present growth and prosperity." And it is an important list of towns in Worcester County alone-Worcester, Millbury, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Millville, Blackstone, and the various villages which have grown up about their mills.
The pity of it all lies in the refusal of the Massachusetts Legislature to grant a charter for the Blackstone Canal when it was originally petitioned for in 1796. John Brown of Providence, whose merchantmen first carried Rhode Island trade to China and the Indies, was the initial mover in the
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ambitious project. It was his brother, Moses Brown, who, in 1789, invited Samuel Slater to emigrate to America and bring with him his knowledge of cotton manufacturing, which resulted in the establishment of the country's first cotton mill at Pawtucket, and not many years later the founding of the great Slater Mills at Webster. The petition prayed for sanction for opening a water highway from the navigable waters near Providence to the interior parts of Worcester County, and, if feasible, on to the Connecticut River.
Powerful opposition immediately developed. Boston took alarm. She had gained control of the Middlesex Canal, which followed the Merrimac River and gave water connection between Boston and Lowell and intermedi- ate points. Her merchants were greatly disturbed that the region of central Massachusetts, constantly growing in importance, might divert its trade to the rival port of Providence. A counter plan was projected, and the Legisla- ture was petitioned for a charter for the Boston and Worcester Canal. Prob- ably its promoters were sceptical of the practicability of the route they advo- cated, but their obstructionist tactics prevailed, and both petitions were rejected. It was a disheartening incident. Quoth the National Aegis of Worcester : "The failure of this undertaking from which would have flowed the most signal advantages to our county during a long period, was the topic of frequent lamentations." The words were well chosen. Had the Black- stone Canal been opened at the turn of the century, it would have had forty years of useful operation. Beyond all doubt, the industrial development of the country through which it passed would have been much more rapid.
John Brown's canal plan failed, but the idea survived, though dormant, for a quarter of a century, until the early years of the 1820's. He had died in the meanwhile but another generation was now ready to take up his project. Business expansion demanded it. Meetings were held in Providence and Worcester, and in the valley towns, and in the spring of 1822 a committee of investigation was appointed, and a survey completed. Acts of incorporation were passed in both states, and two companies were organized, which sub- sequently were merged as the Blackstone Canal Company. Three commis- sioners were appointed from each State-Edward Carrington, Moses B. Ives and Stephen Smith of Rhode Island and John Lincoln, Sylvanus Holbrook and John Davis of Massachusetts.
Rhode Island had a particularly deep interest in the canal, as was indicated by the generous subscriptions of her people, who furnished $500,000 of the $750,000 which it cost to construct and equip it. Providence had large com- mercial advantages to gain, and great benefits were in prospect for the mill- owners on the river within the State. Everything considered, however, Worcester County, with its quarter of a million dollars, contributed its fair share.
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Building the Blackstone Canal-The Blackstone Canal was forty-five miles long, and its ascent from sea level to Worcester more than 450 feet. Sixty-two locks were required, all of which were built of hammered stone and the average cost was $4,600. There was a vast amount of expensive construction of culverts, aqueducts, and bridges, which last had to be of the high arched type to give overhead room for the passing boats. There were dams to be built, as the levels of various ponds on tributary streams were raised to provide ample storage of flood water for use in times of low water in the river itself. Then there was the biggest task of all, the digging of the ditch itself. One cannot wonder that four years and more elapsed from the time the first earth was removed to the day the canal was open to navigation from end to end.
The long ditch and all its engineering works followed specifications laid down by Holmes Hutchinson, after a survey which he conducted for the committee of investigation under the supervision of Benjamin Wright, chief engineer of the middle section of the Erie Canal. In his report he stated : "I find the ground remarkably favorable; soil easy to excavate; very little solid rock to be removed; aqueducts not numerous or expensive. On view- ing the country intended to be benefited by the canal, taking into considera- tion the probable future growth and increase of trade, I have come to the conclusion that a canal thirty-two feet wide at the top and eighteen at the bottom and a depth of water of three and one-half feet would be the proper size to be built. Locks seventy feet between gates and ten feet wide would be sufficiently large for trade intended, bearing in mind a proper economy in the use of water and erection of locks."
The engineer's survey was by no means superficial. He made a careful calculation of rainfall and evaporation, and a study of the means for con- serving the spring floods for summer use, all with a view to maintaining a uniform flow of the river "that the drain for lockage might not injure the great hydraulic works erected on the Blackstone and her branches"; that Long Pond in Worcester (Lake Quinsigamond), Ramshorn Pond in Mill- bury, and Manchaug and Bad Luck Ponds in Douglas, and others be used as reservoirs ; and that the river itself in some places be used for navigation. On April 24, 1829, the canal was open for its full length. It was found that the spring freshets had caused no serious effects upon embankments or locks. Business increased rapidly, and there was much enthusiasm. Men talked of extending the canal to Fitchburg. It seemed that a new era had arrived. And indeed it had. Worcester County no longer had to depend exclusively on overland freight carriers.
Maiden Voyage of the "Lady Carrington"-The long voyage to Worcester was by no means the maiden trip of the Lady Carrington. She had been completed and launched in the spring, and the lower reaches of the
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canal were completed, and canal boat excursions to Scott's Pond, six miles up the river, became fashionable. Evidently she was intended as a canal boat de luxe, on which passengers might enjoy every comfort. She was of maxi- mum size. In fact, if the dimensions as given are accurate, she must have fitted over tightly in a lock ten feet wide, for her width was nine and one- half feet. Her maiden trip on July I is described in the Rhode Island Ameri- can as follows :
"At about 10 A. M., the Lady Carrington started from the front dock above tidewater opposite the jail on Canal Street. A salute of artillery announced her departure, seconded by cheers of those on board and the shouts of hundreds of spectators who crowded the banks and surrounding eminences to witness this novel spectacle. The boat is of the largest size that can be admitted into the locks, being about 70 ft. long, 91/2 ft. wide, and as high as will admit a safe passage under the bridges crossing the canal. She is cov- ered on top, having below a cabin nearly the whole extent of the boat con- veniently and neatly arranged. Her draft when filled with passengers does not exceed eight or nine inches. Among the passengers were his Excellency the Governor, two of Rhode Island's commissioners and fifty citizens. The boat was drawn up the canal by a tow line attached to two horses that traveled with rapidity on straight levels of which there are very beautiful ones before you come to the Blackstone River. She might be conveyed with ease at the rate of four or five miles per hour. Between tide water and Albion factory nine granite locks of most substantial masonry were passed. Just before entering Scott's Pond, a beautiful basin of deep water, there are three continuous locks by which you ascend an elevation of 24 ft. The novelty of ascending and descending is peculiarly gratifying to those who never before witnessed the operation.
"The boat glides into a solid iron box, so to speak, in which she is enclosed by the shutting of folding gates. The water is then admitted through wickets in the upper gates, and the boat is rapidly raised to the level she is to ascend. The upper gates are then opened and she passes on. In descending the lock is filled and the boat glides in on a level and the upper gates are closed and the water drawn from the lower gates until the water is depressed to the level below. This operation occupied in passing up about four minutes, and in descending about three minutes. The average height of the locks is about IO feet. There are men hired for lock-tenders whose duty it is, for the boats ascending, to see the lower gates open, and after the boat glides into the lock, to close the lower gates, and draw the water from the upper level until the lock is full, and then open the upper gates and let the boat pass out on the level ; and when boats are descending the locks are to be filled and the upper gates opened so the boat will glide in."
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July 4 found the Queen of the Fleet carrying excursions to Scott's Pond "amid great rejoicings." It became a common custom to use these boats for parties. The Valley Quakers chartered one at times to take them to the meetings at the Friends' Meeting House at North Uxbridge, and return them in time to attend the quarterly meeting at Newport. Special boats with spe- cial rates carried those who attended Brown University commencements, which were then held in the autumn.
The story of the picnic of the Congregational Society of Uxbridge in which it joined with the society of Waterford, over the Rhode Island line, is still told down the valley. The Uxbridge people, men, women and chil- dren, chartered a canal boat for the occasion. It was festooned with ever- greens, and with bannerettes which were known as Gideon's Lamps; why, no one knows today. A spur of the canal entered the town and up this the boat came, and everyone went aboard. The progress to the picnic place was slow, and at times members of the party stepped ashore and walked. Only once was peril encountered, when the boat rounded the sharp turn from the spur into the main channel, when she nearly upset.
One thing the voyage accomplished. It left everyone with a keen and eager hunger. The Uxbridge people, being guests, had supposed the Water- ford folk would provide the lunch. They were in error. Nor did the hosts offer to share what they had brought for themselves. So William Capron of Uxbridge endeared himself to all by buying a barrel of crackers and an adequate supply of cheese and everybody had a plenty.
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