USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 15
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The Milford Branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad, connecting that thriving town with the main line at Framingham Junction, was opened for business in July, 1848. For years it served not only Milford, but the people of a large contiguous territory, who reached the Milford terminal by stage or private vehicle, and proceeded on by rail to Boston or Worcester or other destination. The original plan was to continue this line to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, but the influence of the Norfolk Railroad intervened to pre- vent it. Another railroad serving Milford is that built as the Milford & Woonsocket Branch, connecting with the Air Line at Bellingham, which was opened in 1868, and yet another the Hopkinton Railroad, running from Ash- land on the Boston & Albany to Milford, which was opened in 1872. The two latter lines were taken into the New York, New Haven & Hartford system, and are now used exclusively for freight. Milford was formerly convenienced by an electrified line, the special purpose of which was to give railroad facilities to Hopedale, Upton, and West Upton, and running to North Grafton on the Boston & Albany. But this road has been long abandoned for passenger traffic but is used for freight purposes.
Railroads North from Worcester-As to the routes north from Worcester, the Worcester and Nashua, afterward the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester, began running trains in December, 1848. Fitchburg enterprise was responsible for the building of the Fitchburg and Worcester railroad, whose line connected Fitchburg with Sterling Junction on the Worcester & Nashua, which latter road operated the trains between the Junction and Worcester. Finally came the Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad, which opened its line from Worcester to Gardner in 1871 and to Winchendon in 1874. This road was originally chartered in 1847 as the Barre and Worces- ter Railroad, Barre at the time being an important town. In 1847 it changed its corporate name to the Boston, Barre & Gardner, though why this com- bination of names was chosen has never been satisfactorily explained, for the
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line does not touch Barre and is many miles from Boston. One must add to the list of Worcester steam railroads the Worcester and Shrewsbury, a nar- row gauge road only two miles long, operating between Washington Square in Worcester city and Lake Quinsigamond.
As time went on all these railroads were absorbed in larger system. In 1869 the Norwich and Worcester passed to the ownership of the New York and New England Railroad, which in turn was absorbed into the New York, New Haven and Hartford system, as was also the Providence & Worcester. The Worcester & Nashua, after the completion of its extension as the Nashua and Rochester Railroad, became a part of the direct route to Bar Harbor and later to the principal pleasure resorts of New Hampshire and Maine, and eventually became the Worcester, Nashua and Portland Division of the Bos- ton & Maine system. The Fitchburg & Worcester went to the Old Colony Railroad and through it finally to the New York, New Haven & Hartford. The Boston, Barre & Gardner was acquired by the Fitchburg Railroad, and with it was absorbed into the Boston & Maine. The little Worcester & Shrewsbury, more commonly known as the "Dummy railroad," was made part of Worcester's trolley system.
Building of the North County Railroads-Strange as it may seem, a long section of the Fitchburg Division as we know it today, was first con- templated as early as 1829, when not one steam railroad was operating in America, excepting at Bunker Hill. The Columbia Centinel, printed in Bos- ton, in its issue of July 4, 1829, contained a communication signed "Frank- lin" in which it was stated that "a number of respectable citizens of the Commonwealth propose to unite with the various towns to construct a rail- road from Boston to Brattleboro, Vermont, through Watertown, Waltham, Weston, Sudbury, Stow, Bolton, Lancaster, Leominster, Fitchburg, West- minster and Gardner, and such other towns as might be included in the line, and it was expected that landowners along the route would give land five rods wide through which it might pass." But no north county railroad was built until the 1840's.
Most of the credit of building the original Fitchburg railroad connecting the northern Worcester County town with Boston, belongs to Alvah Crocker of Fitchburg, first of the line of Crockers whose names have been associated for generations with the paper manufacturing business and the upbuilding of Fitchburg. It was his tireless energy which overcame all obstacles and put the company on a sound financial basis, and enabled it to be said that during the construction of the road it "never borrowed a dollar, never gave a note, nor had a lawsuit, and met with no accident of any account." Nor did it receive the State aid which was given to some other Massachusetts railroad projects, notably the Western Railroad, as already related.
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The experience of the earlier railroads promised money-making success. The Boston & Worcester was paying seven per cent. dividends, the Boston and Lowell five per cent., the Boston and Providence seven per cent. The belief proved to be justified, for the Fitchburg Railroad's dividend paid the first year was at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, in the next two years it was ten per cent., and for years afterwards the shareholders received from eight to ten per cent. on their stock.
The project came to a head in 1842, at a convention held at Waltham at which the various towns were represented by delegates, and at which Alvah Crocker was a dominant figure. Of particular interest, in indicating the trend of thought as to the future development of railroads in New England, are resolutions passed at this meeting, as follows: "Resolved, That the suc- cess which has hitherto crowned railroad enterprise in every section of the Commonwealth now sheds its beacon light upon us, and stimulates us to prompt and efficient action to obtain the same glorious results for ourselves that others now enjoy.
"That while we regard with the highest satisfaction the increasing wealth and prosperity incident upon the establishment of our great railroad thor- oughfares in New England, both to our own city of Boston and those sec- tions of country through which they pass, while our lively sympathies and willing aid have been afforded toward the completion of those noble works, common justice would seem to indicate that others, who now enjoy such additional facilities should also accord to us their sympathy and aid.
"That while we are determined (if a charter be obtained) to build a road inferior to none in durability and care in the construction, an imperious sense of duty demands a rigid economy ; and in consequence of the extreme feasi- bility of the route, the public have a right to ask and expect a moderate tariff, not only for passengers and tonnage, but also for branch roads which may enter upon our track.
"That while the Western Railroad must ever be the great outlet to the fertile and almost inexhaustless west; while the Lowell and Concord road now commands and must ever command an immense business on the east side of the Monadnock, Kearsarge and Franconia Ridge, the god of nature has marked and established, by metes and bounds not to be misunderstood, a direct river route, not to Keene and Brattleboro, but following the upper Connecticut and other streams to Whitehall and Montreal.
"That this route almost precisely intermediate between the Lowell and Worcester roads, is the consummation of the routes essentially necessary for the northern country and Boston-the direct route, when finished, for the travel from our Atlantic steamers to Montreal ; and that this first section to Fitchburg is a germ which will ultimate in such fruition."
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These enterprising men could not have foreseen that the railroad they were to build would be the beginning of one of the great arteries of transport between commercial and industrial centers of Massachusetts and the great West, in competition with the Western Railroad and the trunk line which grew out of it.
The committee went immediately to work, with Mr. Crocker as the lead- ing spirit. He made scores of speeches in the various interested towns. With Samuel Willis of Fitchburg and David Wilder of Leominster he was a mem- ber of the first board of directors, and was the company's first president. In 1842 he went to England to purchase rails. The road was open to Acton in December, 1843, to Concord, Massachusetts, in June, 1844, and to Fitchburg March 5, 1845. We find in the advertising columns of the Fitchburg Sentinel that "Up trains leave Charlestown at 7 A. M., 1-12 and 5 P. M. Down trains leave Fitchburg 6-12 and 10 A. M. and 5 P. M. A freight train will run both ways over the road daily."
The Bunker Hill Aurora of March 8 tells of the initial trip: "The train bearing the directors and some of the stockholders left Charlestown at 7 A. M., and received demonstrations of welcome at various points along the route, especially at Leominster, where there was a general turnout of the people, with flags and banners waving, and a welcoming salute of artillery. At Fitchburg, several hundred people were found, and cheers on cheers wel- comed the new visitors. The Fitchburg band had been engaged for the occa- sion, and they added their fine music to the general joy which the event inspired."
The article continues: "We have so far refrained from mentioning the efforts and labor of Alvah Crocker, Esquire, of Fitchburg, the well-known and indefatigable president of the company,-the sole projector and father of the Fitchburg railroad. In the commencement of the great enterprise Mr. Crocker stood alone; and amid every vicissitude and every species of dis- couragement, he pressed forward with indomitable zeal in his favorite project. Nothing could check his enterprise and no combination of circum- stances cool his zeal. The opposition of interested parties, the lukewarmness of friends and the chilling taunts of some, only had the effect to draw out his energies in the labor of his heart; and the time has now come when he can look with delight and satisfaction upon the completion, so far, of his great enterprise. The most triumphant success in the undertaking is now appar- ent; and the necessity for the road, and the business and travel which he foresaw justified and demanded it, are now made manifest and are now securing to the stockholders the result of a wise and judicious investment of their money."
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Before the Fitchburg Railroad was completed steps had been taken for the organization of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, which was to be the western extension of the line. Again Mr. Crocker was the controlling influence and became president of the company. Work was commenced in September, 1845, and the road was completed to Baldwinsville, in Temple- ton, September, 1847; to Athol in January, 1848; and to Brattleboro in Feb- ruary, 1849. This road was not a financial success, but it had a great destiny as a link of the Hoosac Tunnel line. In 1874 it was consolidated with the Fitchburg Railroad, and ultimately became part of the present Boston & Maine system.
The Cheshire Railroad connecting Fitchburg with Bellows Falls, Vermont, making a junction with the Vermont & Massachusetts at South Ashburnham, was completed to Keene, New Hampshire, in 1848, and to Bellows Falls in the following year.
A line which has rendered an indispensable service to a series of towns across Worcester County is the Massachusetts Central Railroad, now a divi- sion of the Boston and Maine, connecting Boston with Northampton on the Connecticut River, which commenced operating in 1887. It passes through Harvard, Lancaster, Clinton, Sterling, Jefferson in Holden, Rutland, Barre and Hardwick. The Ware River Branch of the Boston and Albany likewise provides communication for villages in Hardwick and Barre.
Drastic Changes in Railroad Operation-A semi-revolutionary change has taken place in the county railroads of recent years, as it has in railroads all over the United States. Their patronage, both passenger and freight, has been materially curtailed by traffic over the highways, which, in their present state of near perfection, offer quick passage by private automobile, motor- bus and motor-truck for freight. The result has been the abandonment or partial abandonment of passenger service on some of the lesser lines, and a curtailment of train service on the main lines, especially between local points. At the same time, highway competition has brought about a marked improve- ment in railroad freight service, in the effort to offset the inroads made by the motor freight transportation companies. There is irony in the situation. Before the days of the railroads the highways were often congested by long lines of freight wagons. Steam drove them from the road. Now the high- ways are congested with endless lines of motor trucks carrying freight which the railroads had considered exclusively their own.
The Coming and Passing of the Trolleys-The golden era of the Worcester County trolleys opened in the 1890's. One after another lines were built, radiating out from the important centers of population, until finally the county was a veritable network of street railway tracks. Pro-
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moters prospered. Capital was quick to enter what seemed to be most profitable field of investment. At first the companies sought only the imme- diate suburbs of the cities and large towns.
There followed the period of interurban building. Some lines of the highest class were established, notable among them that connecting Worces- ter with Leominster and Fitchburg; the Worcester and Southbridge, which gave Worcester fast communication with Southbridge and Webster, and, most ambitious of all, the Boston and Worcester, which ran high speed cars between the two terminal cities and were very liberally patronized. In the aggregate they inflicted large damage to the passenger patronage of the rail- roads, but in express and freight their competition was hardly felt, it was so relatively small.
But the advent of the automobile meant the going of the trolley. The private car encroached rapidly upon the patronage of the street railways. Even before the motor-bus had developed into a comfortable and dependable, as well as a fast mode of public conveyance, the abandonment of the trolley lines had begun. And presently, with bus service organized on a schedule basis, every interurban road was out of existence, its tracks taken up and its poles and wires removed, and every city and town, with the exception of the congested areas of Worcester, was trackless.
Street car service in the county was first established in Worcester, when the Worcester Horse Railway Company began running horsecars through Lincoln Street from Harrington Avenue, Lincoln Square and Main Street to New Worcester, better known nowadays as Webster Square; in Front Street and Grafton Street, from Main Street to the Union Station, and in Pleasant Street to West Street. The project was a failure and was abandoned, to be revived in 1869 under new ownership. In 1885 the Citizens Street Railway Company, a rival, laid tracks in various other streets which entered Main Street, and in 1887 the two corporations were consolidated as the Worcester Consolidated Street Railway Company.
The county's one other horse railway was established in Fitchburg in 1886, its line running from West Fitchburg through the heart of the city and on to the Fitchburg Park at the Lunenburg line.
Electrification began on a large scale in the early 1890's. In the central and southern county were organized and built the Worcester, Leicester and Spencer Street Railway in 1891, the Worcester and Millbury in 1892, the Worcester and Marlboro in 1897, the Worcester and Clinton and Worcester and Webster in 1898, the Worcester and Southbridge in 1902, the Worcester and Sterling to Fitchburg in 1906 and the Boston and Worcester in 1903.
Eventually, in the middle of the 1900's, all of these lines, with the excep- tion of the Boston and Worcester, were merged into the Worcester Con-
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solidated. This company was controlled for some years by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, and later by the New England Investment and Security Company corporation which the railroad company dominated. Finally came a receivership and a reorganization in 1932 as the Worcester Street Railway Company.
The Leominster Street Railway Company was organized in 1901 and began operations as a trolley system in the same year. In 1902 the property was sold to the Fitchburg Street Railway Company, which today has the distinction of operating the only trolley bus line in central Massachusetts, which is the connecting link between the two northern cities. The Fitchburg and Leominster extended its system into the suburbs, including the line to Whalom Park, one of the most frequented amusement resorts in the county.
CHAPTER XLI.
The Conservation Movement in Worcester County
History has marched rapidly in the last twenty-five years in the conserva- tion and expansion of the natural resources of Worcester County. When the century came in almost nothing had been done to renew the cut-off wood- lands and to utilize waste lands and the abandoned farms which had been permitted to go wild; to insure the perpetuation and increase of the game birds and the deer; to protect the songbirds and the other birds which are useful to man ; and to keep the streams and lakes well stocked with fish. But once the movement for conservation was started, it quickly acquired a momentum which has never lagged. Powerful influences came into being, standing squarely behind it, and they have never lost their deep interest.
Massachusetts established a Department of Conservation, with sub-divi- sions of forestry and fish and game. Under its direction State Forests have been created in various sections of the county, having a total area of more than ten thousand acres. Through the influence of the Massachusetts Forestry Association, Town Forests have been established in many of the towns. Other communities have planted woodlands on the protective areas about their reservoirs. Harvard University has developed the great Harvard Forest in the township of Petersham, conducted as an experiment station, from which has come much practical scientific knowledge as to the planting of forests and their care under conditions as they exist in the county. Great State reserva- tions and bird sanctuaries have lent themselves easily to forest development. Country clubs and many owners of private estates have entered upon the same work with much enthusiasm. We have told elsewhere of the vast areas of new forest created about the Wachusett Reservoir and the plans of the Metropolitan District Water Commission for the conservation and creation of woodlands on the watersheds of the Ware and Swift rivers.
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In the beginning the establishment of new forests had as its only purposes the more complete storage of the rainfall, and the beautifying of the land- scape. But in recent years a strong utilitarian motive has entered into much of the planting. The idea is that in the rather distant future, when trees which are now saplings shall reach maturity as commercial timber, they will be cut off, not ruthlessly, but in an orderly manner, to yield a profit to their owners, whether these be private individuals or corporations, or the Common- wealth or a municipality. The Harvard Forest is showing the way in this respect, for it is a self-supporting enterprise which each year yields a profit above all expenses.
The Federal and State governments have undertaken the never ceasing task of protecting the forests against plagues of destructive insects and even more destructive blights. A generation ago the chestnuts were stricken with a disease with which science was unable to cope, and in all Worcester County, in fact in all the eastern United States, not one tree remains of the countless number which formerly contributed much to the lumber supply, and, by their nutritious nuts, to the food supply. But other plagues have been checked. Relentless warfare has kept the browntail moth and the Gypsy moth under control. The Massachusetts Department of Agriculture and town foresters, working hand and hand with the United States Biological Survey, are keep- ing the white pine blister rust from running amuck through the timber stands. The tree doctors and pathologists and research scientists have kept the afflictions of the forests and orchards and shade trees within bounds.
Guarding Bird Life-A great work has been done in the county in the encouragement and protection of useful bird and animal life. In fact, the movement has been much more general than that for the forests, as measured by the individual interest and activities of the people as a whole. It took a long time for the scientific naturalists to establish as popular knowl- edge that most birds, and some mammals, have a vitally important place in nature's scheme of maintaining a proper balance between useful and destruc- tive wild life. Farmers, for instance, to whom the insect and seed-eating birds mean more than to any other people, were formerly, as a class, wholly indifferent to their welfare. Birds were just birds, pleasant to listen to of a June morning or at the approach of night. They ate a few worms and bugs and weed-seeds, to be sure, but were of little importance about the farm. Every hawk was dubbed a "hen-hawk" which threatened the poultry yard. Owls of every species were a threat. Every creature was either a nonentity or an enemy. Nowadays, such has been the change of mind, the progressive farmer recognizes the songbirds as among his best friends. In summer, the more nests there are about the place the better he likes it. In winter, the
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presence of birds means to him the destruction of the eggs and larvae of insect pests and the dormant insects themselves.
The lesson of the birds of prey has not been learned so easily. Owls and hawks have been held in evil repute so long that it has not been easy to over- come the prejudice against them. Some of them deserve the hatred of the farmer. Others have been proved beneficent, because they kill great num- bers of mice and other destructive small animals, and eat great quantities of insects. Gradually the farmers, especially those of the younger generation, have learned to distinguish between their feathered enemies and their feath- ered friends, and are profiting by their knowledge.
Many organizations have shared in establishing the new understanding of the birds. Among them have been the granges, the Massachusetts State Col- lege, Harvard University in connection with its Petersham Forest, the United States Biological Survey, the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts, the Bird Clubs, the Village Improvement Societies, the Audubon Society, the Natural History Societies, the Woman's Clubs, through their conservation committees ; the teachers in the State Normal Schools and the Public and Private Schools; the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, particularly through the State Ornithologist, first Edward Howe Forbush, now Dr. John B. May ; the Public Libraries, through their distribution of books bearing on the birds; the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Worcester County Farm Bureau, now the Worcester County Extension Service; and private enthusiasts of whom a striking example is John E. Thayer of Lancaster, in whose wonderful museum in that town every native bird and every migrant may be studied from mounted specimens or from skins. Countless individuals have each contributed their mites in the campaign of education. The list is a long one, yet doubtless it is incomplete. We are including it to show why the seem- ingly impossible task was accomplished in a quarter of a century, of con- verting, in the public mind, the familiar bird from something pretty to see and pleasant to hear, into a living, ever-active friend of mankind and an instrument of civilization.
Looking backward, the change in the attitude of the people is really most extraordinary. The wild birds are actually pampered. Each spring nowadays, we find lively rivalry between neighbors as to who shall have the most nest- ing birds about the home place. Shrubbery is chosen for its berries, that the birds may have them to feed upon. Every residential neighborhood is dotted with bird boxes, most of which have their nests. Every other yard has its bird-bath. In winter the county has thousands of feeding stations, each con- ducted by an intelligently interested family, who keep the feeding shelves constantly supplied with the things the winter birds like and require. All
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