USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 17
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Most geologists who have studied the chasm-and there have been many such-believe that, geologically speaking, it does not date far back in the past. Certainly it was not there in the Ice Age, for it contains no glacial débris. The logical conclusion, these scientists assert, is that the hill opened in an earthquake of great severity. So tremendous a tension was exerted in the mass, that the "master joints" of the mineral strata were weakened and gave way, causing the cave-in. In no other way can be explained, it is main- tained, the fragments dumped on the chasm floor.
Competent geologists have expressed the opinion that the chasm may have been formed only a few centuries ago. But, so far as recorded, no Indian tradition suggests that the earthquake, or whatever it was, occurred in the history of the Nipmuck tribes which inhabited the region when the English landed on the Massachusetts coast more than three centuries ago. Such an awe-inspiring incident would surely have found a place in the
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legends of a superstitious, savage people, and would have been conveyed by them to the newcomers.
The Doane's Falls Reservation has been authorized by the Massachusetts Legislature, but has not yet been purchased by the county. The falls are situated just below the highway between Athol and Royalston, about two miles south of the latter village. They are impressively beautiful, particu- larly in times of high water. Lawrence Brook comes down through a chain of ponds from southern New Hampshire, and in an eighth of a mile plunges more than a hundred feet. The drop includes two high falls, one from a narrowed shelf, the other, just below it, from a broader brim, and there are steep cascades whose white waters are in sharp contrast to their dark rocky bed. The setting is most picturesque-a deep, forest-bordered ravine, with nearly perpendicular cliffs. Nothing in the county compares with this rush- ing, roaring, tumbling torrent.
Game Birds, Game Fish and Pond Fish-The breeding and distribu- tion of game birds and fish antedated other conservation activities in Worces- ter County, though no great progress had been made twenty-five years ago. The county was the first in Massachusetts to have a fish hatchery, excepting for an experimental station in Winchester, conducted under the private direc- tion of Edward A. Brackett, then Commissioner of Fish and Game.
When the experimental work had demonstrated the practicability of fish culture, the Legislature, in 1890, appropriated $1,000 "for the proper protec- tion and distribution of trout, salmon and shad, and the establishment and maintenance of hatching houses in such places in the Commonwealth as may be deemed necessary."
A site was selected in Wilkinsonville in the town of Sutton, and it was recorded in 1892 that the hatchery was completed, and that there was a stock on hand of "10,000 to 15,000 trout, most of them yearlings, taken from the hatching house at Winchester last spring." Land was purchased from time to time, to a total of twenty-five acres. In 1901 the production of fish of fingerling size was begun, and hundreds of thousands of them were placed in the cold water, perpetual brooks. In 1925 was begun the raising of trout large enough to be caught when planted, and all State plants, as well as that at Wilkinsonville, have been equipped for carrying fish of that size. Most of the effort has been devoted to trout-the native brook trout, the brown trout and the rainbow. But some land-locked salmon have been bred and released, though without conspicuous success in providing sport and food for the fisherman.
In the beginning of the Wilkinsonville station, pioneer work was under- taken in the breeding of grouse, quail and hares, while pheasant raising on a
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considerable scale was carried on. Much good was accomplished in restock- ing the woods and coverts. But in 1912 the breeding of birds was all trans- ferred to other stations, and attention was concentrated upon the fish.
Most interesting and important, and, in a way, novel, is the Pond Cultural Unit established in Sutton, in connection with the Wilkinsonville station. Up to 1920, practically all effort in fish propagation had been directed to the rearing of game fish, and practically all suitable trout waters had been stocked for a considerable period of years. But in addition to sport fishermen there existed in the State, as everywhere, a large body of men who cared nothing for this kind of fishing, but who did enjoy going out and catching a "mess of fish" of the food species, such as are to be found in the ponds of the county. For this element of the fishing public little or nothing had been done. Moreover, there were many bodies of water of a temperature too high for trout, but in which other species thrive. These lakes and ponds and streams, having received no attention, had become nearly barren of fish.
So attention was directed to devising some method of raising these species in quantities. The best possibility seemed to be what is known as the pond cultural method, which consists of introducing brood stock into ponds so arranged that they may be drawn off to permit the collection of the annual crop of young for distribution and the return of breeders to the home waters.
About this time Superintendent Arthur Merrill of the Wilkinsonville Hatchery called attention of the possibilities for this sort of fish culture in the so-called Stockwell Ponds in the western part of Sutton. These con- sisted of four bodies of water formed by dams located on a mile of the main ditch of what had been a cranberry bog. The area provided a well- ordered tract of land which covered the necessary flowage, and having ready- made dams, ditching and grading, so that no great expense was involved in preparing an ideal system of pond culture.
The area of eighty acres was leased, and the breeding was begun with eight hundred two-year-old blue-gills from Pennsylvania, where a similar work had already been started. Over the years, the Merrill Pond System, as it has been officially named, has developed, extended and improved, until it now comprises nine ponds with from one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifteen acres of water, where are produced great numbers of yellow perch, pickerel, and horned pout of the native species, and blue-gills and crappie, aliens which have taken kindly to the warmer waters of the county. These are distributed annually, with the result that the man who likes to go out and catch his "mess of fish" for the family frying pan is happy again.
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and the minds of lawyers are habitually trained to controversy, which is the basis of the profession and its science. And just as the development of that science has progressed as the result of the recorded history of private litiga- tion under our system of reported opinions which are studied and criticized by the bar, so this controversial training results naturally in concentrating the imagination and critical faculties (both positive and negative) of lawyers upon the study of the recorded history of principles of liberty, more closely and keenly than those of other men. This accounts for the prominence of lawyers at every stage of development in our democracy. It also accounts for a considerable amount of the prejudice against lawyers, for while they are so trained to controversy that they accept it as one of the conditions of life and do not take it too seriously, yet many people dislike controversy and are irritated by it, and incidentally with the bar, which is a necessary incident of it.
It is not a thing that is peculiarly to the credit of the bar, although many individual lawyers, some of whom will be described in this story, deserve special credit. The credit belongs to the training necessarily incident to the profession, the main value of which is to serve the public by sharpening the faculties of men for those controversies which are a part of the lot of human- ity. Accordingly the prominence of lawyers is not necessarily to be deplored. It is not to be regarded as a matter of personal or "class" privilege, in spite of all the complacent remarks which find their way into the mouths of after- dinner speakers of the profession from time to time. The thing should be studied and understood and, when it is so studied, the fact which stands out in bold relief is that the prominence of lawyers in a democracy is the result of an absolutely impersonal force which cannot be avoided. The force is the training needed to study and understand, and apply principles as law. Accord- ingly, the more the community realizes the essential importance and the useful possibilities of this force of training in the study of principles in its highest development, the more public service and value will the State get from the bar, and the more confidence will be shown in allowing competent judges on the bench to give the best service of which they are capable instead of being restricted by petty rules inspired by distrust.
If one desires to go back to the lower stones of the foundation of the judicial system upon which the county of Worcester was set up, and of courts and law in our Commonwealth, one must go as far as the charters under which the Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled. The patent granted by King James, on April 20, 1606, and the new one issued to Sir Ferdinand Gorges and his associates needs no discussion here, any more than those of June 21, 1621, to John Pierce and associates in trust for the Plymouth Colony, and still others to the Gorges of December, 1622, and March 19, 1626-28. The latter-named is important as being the charter of the "Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England" which gave legal status to the land on which Worcester County is located. Matthew Cradock was named by the King as Governor of the Colony, until 1630, when he became Local Governor. Cradock was named by the King as the Governor of the
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company. John Endicott was the Governor of the Colony until 1630, when he became Local Governor. On October 20, 1629, a "Generall court holden in England at Mr. Goffe the Deputyes House." John Winthrop was chosen Governor and John Humphrey, Deputy Governor; and as members of the assistants, Sir R. Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, John Endicott, Mr. Noell, William Vassall, Sam Sharpe, Edward Rossiter, Thomas Sharpe, John Revell, Matthew Cradock, Thomas Goffe, Mr. Aldersy, Nathaniel Wright, Theoph Eaton and Thomas Adams. The first Court of Assistants is said to have been held on the Winthrop ship Arbella in Charlestown Har- bor, August 23, 1630. The next meeting at the Governor's house on Sep- tember 7, and a third, at the same place, on September 28 of that year. This was the origin of government in New England, which took on more of the characteristics that now are found in it, at the first General Court, held on October 19, 1630, in Boston.
The officers sanctioned by the charter in addition to Governors and the eighteen assistants were, a treasurer, secretary of the court, major-general, admiral at sea, and commissioners of the United Colonies of Massachusetts, to be chosen by freemen (voters in good religious standing) on the last Wed- nesday in Easter. At the first General Court held, the power of the voters was limited to choosing assistants, but on May 9, 1632, "it was generally agreed upon the erection of hands that the Governor, Deputy-Governor, assistants should be chosen by the whole court of the Governor, Deputy- Governor, assistants and freemen." Other laws laid down in the early years of the General Court were: May 14, 1634, "none but the General Court hath power to choose and admit freemen." "None but the General Court hath the power to make and establish laws, to elect and appoint officers . . . or to remove such under misdemeanor, as also to set up duties and powers of said officers." That "none but the General Court hath the power to raise monies and taxes and to dispose of lands." Possibly the most important ruling was one sanctioning the choosing of the voters ( freemen) of representatives "who shall have the full power and voice of all said freemen . . .. for the making of laws, granting of lands, etc." The two divisions of the court were deputies and assistants, both meeting together until 1644. At this time the two met squarely as the Court of the Assistants, and the Court of the Depu- ties. It is from this model that the court of today was patterned. The first meeting of the deputies assembled May 14, 1634. What is now Worcester County was the scene of the movements which in that day wrought out a system of government which with comparatively few changes controls the affairs of the Commonwealth three hundred years later.
Until 1636 the whole judicial power rested with the Court of Assistants, but by this time the legal and judicial business of the Colony exceeded the
WEBSTER'S MUNICIPAL GROUP Office building in foreground, Junior High School and Bartlett High School at the rear
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ability of the court to fulfill. At this time it was "ordered that such of the magistrates as shall reside in or near Boston, or any five, four, or three of them, the Governor or Deputy to be one, shall have the power to assemble together upon . . . . to hear and determine all civil causes whereof the debt or trespass or damages, shall not exceed twenty pounds, and all criminal causes not extending to life or banishment . . . and to summon juries out of the neighbor towns, and the marshal or necessary officers are to give their attendance as at other courts." The limitation of the powers of these courts was much the same as that about Boston, the right of appeal being expressly given.
Increased population and settlements, on May 10, 1673, led to the estab- lishment of shires or counties. It was provided by law that "there shall also be county courts held in the several counties by the magistrates living in the respective counties or any other magistrates that can attend the same, or by any magistrates that the General Court shall appoint from time to time, together with such persons of wealth, where there shall be need, as shall from time to time be appointed by the General Court (at the nomination of the freemen of the county) to be joined in commission with the magistrates so that there may be five in all, three whereof shall keep a court provided there be one magistrate; everyone of which courts shall have full power to hear and determine all causes civil and criminal, not extending to life, member or banishment (which with causes of divorce are reserved to the Court of Assistants) and to make and constitute clerks and other needful officers, and to summon juries of inquest and trials out of the towns of the county." These county courts retained what had been held by the inferior courts prior to the formation of the shire. Causes concerning trespass, damage, etc., "that doth not exceed twenty shillings" were also to be cared for in the county. And in 1647 and 1649 laws were enacted that enlarged the jurisdiction of the county courts whereby the amount involved was raised to forty pounds. Pro- vision was also made for the appointment of commissioners by the Court of Assistants or the county court, who could carry out many of the legal provi- sions, limiting them however to such cases as did not involve imprisonment Many difficulties were refused airing in the county court until considered by these commissioners, or some magistrate, from whose decision an appeal had been made. The judicial system then up to 1685 was: A General Court with legislative powers and a limited appellate jurisdiction from the Court of Assistants ; the General Court of Assistants, or the Greater Quarter Court, with the exclusive jurisdiction in all criminal cases involving life, member, or banishment, and concurrent jurisdiction with the county courts in civil cases not involving more than one hundred pounds, and appellate jurisdiction from
Wor .- 36
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the county courts; the county courts or the inferior quarter courts, with jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, except those involving divorce, life, member or banishment, having power to summon grand and petit jurors and appoint its own clerks and other necessary officials; to lay out roads ; license taverns ; see that a proper ministry was supported ; and have the general con- trol of probate matters; prove wills; grant administration papers; record deeds and mortgages; and have the appellate jurisdiction from the Commis- sioners' Courts ; Strangers' Courts held at first by the Governor or Deputy Governor and two magistrates, or in their absence, by three magistrates with the same jurisdiction as the county courts as far as the stranger was con- cerned, and whose judgment was final ; Commissioners' Courts ; lastly, Select- men's Courts.
What might be termed the third series of attempts to populate what was to be Worcester County, was well on its way to an ultimate success when a most important step was taken in the development of a body of laws. This was the issue of a new Charter, on October 7, 1691, but which did not reach Boston until May 14, 1692. It was known as the Charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England. Under its provisions the government consisted of a Governor, Deputy Governor and Secretary, appointed by the King and Councillors chosen by the General Court, and a House of Repre- sentatives, chosen annually by the people. The General Court was empowered to establish courts ; the Governor and Councillors to appoint judges and all other officials of the courts. Control over probate was delegated to the judges of the county courts. The General Court was no longer judicial, but creative.
The first enactments of the General Court were to keep in force the local laws for five months, after which an act was passed establishing judicatories and courts of justice within the Province (November 25, 1692.) This act was repealed in 1695. In 1697 an act providing for a trial by a twelve-man jury was passed, but repealed the next year. Three acts were passed of prime importance June 26, 1699. The first established a Court of General Sessions of the Peace to be held annually in the county by justices of the peace, who were empowered to attend to all matters concerning the public peace, and to punish offenders. Second the Inferior Court of Common Pleas to be held in the county by four commissioned as justices who were to consider and decide all civil matters where the amount concerned was not more than forty shillings, except where freehold was concerned or an appeal had been made. Third, the Superior Court of Judicature, consisting of a chief justice and four others, who should hear all pleas of the Crown, and take cognizance of all pleas. The Court of Chancery, first set up November 25, 1692, was reestablished in 1693. Finally, there was the Court of the Justices of Peace, reestablished in 1697, with the power of judgment in matters of debt, tres-
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pass, etc., where title of land or amounts exceeding forty shillings were con- cerned. Changes were made and powers enlarged or diminished from time to time. Another court was reestablished at this period, the Probate Court, the powers of which rested with the Governor and Council, but which power they delegated to judges appointed by them. There was no regularly estab- lished Court of Probate until March 12, 1784.
The aforesaid series of courts were in effect when an act incorporating Worcester County was passed by the General Court of the Province in 1731, in which provision was made for four annual terms of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, and of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and for an annual session of the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery. The jurisdiction of the justices of peace and of the judges of probate supplemented that of these more formal tribunals, and the whole constituted a system of judicial machinery which served the needs of the community until the adoption of a State Constitution. With several changes of name and some amplification to adapt it to the increased business and complexity of interests in modern highly organized society, its chief features persist in the system of today. The Superior Court of Judicature was replaced, in title principally, on February 20, 1781, by the Supreme Judicial Court. Says Grinnell, "With the creation of this court the development of a 'government of laws and not of men' may be said to have begun, and while there were at first very few trained lawyers, either on or off the bench, grad- ually a bar began to appear in the eighteenth century, and by 1760 there were a number of lawyers of marked ability . ... The year 1761 may be said to mark the beginning of the intellectual history of our modern American doc- trine of constitutional law which emerged from the Revolution." By one of the ironies of history, this "intellectual history" started in a case defended by James Otis who, while he argued that Legislatures and Kings must be below the law, did so that he might protect the smuggling practiced by some of the foremost citizens of the Province.
The Superior Court was composed of a chief and four associate justices, but until the Revolution no resident of the Worcester County section was appointed to its bench. The first session in Worcester of this court was held on the fourth Wednesday in September, 1731, the judges sitting on Septem- ber 22, and adjourned the next day to meet in October of the following year. The first session of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas was held on August 10, 1731. This court was composed of Chief Justice John Chandler, of Woodstock, who was continued in office until his death in 1743; Joseph Wilder, of Lancaster, who served until 1757; William Ward, of Southboro, 1745; and William Jennison, of Worcester, who died in 1743. The first ses- sion of the Worcester Court of General Sessions, was also held in August,
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1731, but a sort of court of probate is reputed to have been held by Judge John Chandler, on July 12, of that same year, and would therefore have been the first judicial body to act in the new county. The General Commission for the Peace for the county of Worcester was signed on June 30, 1731, and thirteen justices of the peace were then appointed. These were : John Chand- ler, Joseph Wilder, William Ward, William Jennison, Daniel Taft, John Chandler, Jr., Benjamin Willard, Samuel Wright, Josiah Willard, Samuel Dudley, Henry Lee, and Nahum Ward. Four of these were also appointed justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, as has already been noted. Chief Justice Chandler also presided over the Court of General Sessions of the Peace.
Since the Court of Sessions was short-lived, but the parent of the County Commission, a word may be inserted here concerning its further history. Established in 1692 it continued very much in its old form until 1807 when an act was passed providing that it consist of one chief justice and associates appointed in the counties by the Governor ; these justices to act as a General Court of Sessions instead of county justices of the peace. Only one of its number was required to be "learned in the law." In 1807, Pliny Merrick, a lawyer of Brookfield, was Chief Justice and his associates consisted of Oliver Fiske, Jeremiah Robinson, Abraham and John W. Lincoln, of Worcester, John Whiting of Lancaster, Moses White of Rutland, John Spurr of Charl- ton, and Jonathan Davis of Oxford. It is worthy of note that although this court and its members were held in slight esteem by legal circles, the magis- trates as a whole were among the leaders in their various localities, men who rose high in many spheres of endeavor. On June 21, 1811, the jurisdiction of the General Court of Sessions was turned over to the Court of Common Pleas, and the administration of county affairs remained with this court until 1819, when the powers were returned to the Court of Sessions, the formation of which had been slightly changed. In 1826, March 4, the jurisdiction over highways was given to a board of "Commissioners of Highways," four in number, appointed and commissioned by the Governor. The first Worcester board consisted of William Eaton of Worcester, Aaron Tufts of Dudley, Jared Weed of Petersham, and Edmund Cushing of Lunenburg. On March II, 1854, the present form of elective county commissioners was established.
Joseph Wilder succeeded Judge John Chandler, in 1740, as Chief Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and was in turn succeeded in this post by John Chandler, Jr., 1754-62, Timothy Ruggles, 1762-74, when the court was closed. General Artemas Ward, of Shrewsbury, was Chief Justice from the time of the resumption of the court's activities, October 17, 1775-98, John Sprague of Lancaster, 1798-1801 ; Jonathan Warner, 1801, and Ben- jamin Heywood, of Worcester were the last appointees, prior to June 21,
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