USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 9
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The main Polish church is St. Mary's, which was founded in 1903 or 1904, by Rev. John Moneta. It is situated at No. 15 Richland Street. St. Mary's Parochial School for Polish children was erected in 1915, at a cost of $75,000.
St. Anthony's is a French church. The parish was organized in 1904, the church being erected in Vernon Square.
The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is attended mainly by Italians. The parish was set apart in 1906. Father Gioacchino Maffei was pastor of the church from its establishment to 1913.
NOTRE DAME CHURCH, SOUTHBRIDGE
Photo by R. M. Litchfield
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The Church of the Ascension, on Vernon Street, was organized in 1911, the parish being set apart from St. John's. The church was being erected, and on August II, 1912 was dedicated by Bishop Beaven.
The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary is attended by both English and French Catholics. The parish was organized in 1911, by Rev. Gideon Fon- taine, first pastor.
The Church of the Blessed Sacrament dates from 1912.
St. Bernard's Church was founded in 1916, the parish being set apart from that of the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
The Church of Our Lady of the Angels is at the corner of Main and Montague streets. The parish was founded in 1916, with Rev. Michael J. O'Connell as pastor.
Wor .- 31
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Story of Worcester County Transport
(The late Frederick A. Currier of Fitchburg, a painstaking and able student of local history, and a prominent member of the Fitchburg Historical Society, presented to the society in 1894 and 1895 two well prepared papers, the first entitled "Tavern Days and the Old Taverns of Fitchburg," the second "Stage Coach Days and Stage Coach Ways." Both are included in the printed proceedings of the Society. The results of Mr. Currier's research, entertainingly related, have been of great assistance to the author of this history in the preparation of this chapter and several which follow it.)
The history of American inland transportation in regions having no navigable waterways is written in Worcester County. We have had it in all its phases, from the pioneer days, when the traveler went afoot or on horse- back; through the period of the postrider, postchaise and stagecoach, and the canal to the sea, and their eclipse which came with the opening of the railroads ; one through the era of suburban and interurban trolley lines, and their passing with the universal use of the automobile and motor bus and the consequent building of the present-day network of fine highways; to the creation of great fleets of motor trucks as formidable rivals of the railroads in the hauling of freight; and finally to the day of the airplane as a large scale carrier of passengers and merchandise.
To make the background of our narrative more nearly complete, it is well to tell briefly of the transportation system, or lack of it, in the early days, the country over. It had its real beginning, so far as the inland territory was concerned, with the postrider and the stagecoach. In 1789, a population of four million people was scattered over the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Georgia, a distance of some twelve hundred or thirteen hundred miles, while westward farms and clearings reached out a thousand miles. But distance was then measurable, not in miles but in days or weeks consumed in travel.
In the 1790's, express riders, sparing neither horse nor man, covered the road from Boston to New York in ninety-six hours. Ordinarily a stage made little better than thirty miles a day. Even the forty-four miles between Worcester and Boston required two days. Five days were consumed in
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riding from Worcester to New York, and the expense to the traveler was from $25 to $30 including his tavern reckonings. A much longer time was needed by way of Providence or Newport and packet sloop which followed the present steamboat route.
Traveling further to the southward, New York roads were very poor and there were wide rivers to cross, and travel was even slower. The United States mail did the distance from New York to the Potomac in five days, but the stage passenger seldom was lucky enough to cover it in better than ten days. It took three weeks or a month for a wagon-load of tobacco to make the journey from the valley of Virginia to Richmond.
Water communication was used at every opportunity in preference to land. Schooners and sloops plied along the coast and up and down the rivers, carrying passengers and freight, to an extent undreamed of nowadays. Southern Congressmen traveled to New York or Philadelphia by sea. The Hudson Valley had hardly any other means of communication with New York.
The stagecoach was an established institution in Great Britain when Washington was inaugurated as president, for it dated from the days of Queen Elizabeth. But it was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that highways and vehicles had been developed into a smooth running trans- port system. An announcement made in London in 1670 reads :
FLYING MACHINES.
"All who desire to pass from London to Bath, or any other place on the . road let them repair to the Bell Savage, on Ludgate Hill in London, and the White Lion in Bath, at both of which places they may be received in a stage- coach every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which performs the whole journey in three days (if God permits) and sets forth at five in the morning."
A crowd gathered to gaze upon the six intrepid passengers who were about to try for the first time travel at the rate of thirty-five miles a day, where twenty miles had been the limit. Knowing the roads as these travelers did, they probably wondered and bethought themselves of the words "if God permits." As it happened, after narrowly escaping upsetting and being shaken almost out of their senses, even before leaving the outskirts of Lon- don, they were held up by the famous highwayman, Claude Duval, who deftly relieved them of their gold and valuables.
In 1678 the six-horse coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of forty-four miles, made the round trip in six days. In the days of Charles II, the Flying Coaches were supposed to be the acme of expeditious and lux- urious travel. Yet a Prussian clergyman, mounted the outside of a "post
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coach" at Leicester, for London, and later described his experience: "I sat nearest the wheel, and the moment that we set off I fancied that I saw certain death await me. . . . . At last, the being continually in fear of my life became insupportable, and as we were going up a hill, and consequently proceeding rather slower than usual, I crept from the top of the coach and got snugly in the basket."
The first coaches to be mounted on springs appeared in 1754. In that year it was considered quick traveling to reach Manchester, one hundred and eighty-seven miles from London, in four and one-half days, and Edinburgh in ten days in summer and twelve days in winter.
But from that time on the British roads were rapidly improved until they were smooth and safe, much higher speeds were maintained, and some degree of luxury was attained. Many families had their private "chariots" and fours, with postillions and gentleman's man and lady's maid in the dickey behind. Somewhat of this was common in parts of America, and to a very limited degree in New England among the rich aristocrats, particularly in the wealthy coast towns. But Worcester County highways were seldom traveled by equipages so magnificent.
In the early days of America, development of transportation facilities proceeded very slowly. They were not greatly needed, except locally, and in our county in contacts with the rest of the Massachusetts Colony. Not until the United States was well established as a Nation did passenger traffic and the movement of goods between the Colonies take on importance. Each lived a self-centered existence, which condition endured during their first years as states of the Union. But once the demand for speedy and safe communica- tion developed, the evolution of the roads and of the public conveyances which traveled over them was, everything considered, a rapid one.
Pioneering Stage Coaching-To go back to the beginning, the nar- row Indian trails gradually widened with use by the settlers and became passable for ox-teams, and finally for horse-drawn vehicles, and new roads were cut through the wilderness as towns were established. They were incredibly rough. Today it is difficult to get an adequate idea of them. Per- haps the nearest approach is a woodroad opened for lumbering operations in the winter, with the surface of the ground untouched, and continued in use through the spring while the ground was still soggily wet and horses' hoofs and the wheels of heavy carts cut deep and uneven ruts.
The vehicles which used the early roads matched them in crudeness. Here in Worcester County, excepting over a few highways, notably the Bos- ton Post Road and the Boston-Hartford Turnpike, it was well toward the close of the eighteenth century before travel, except on horseback, was even
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passably comfortable. The first vehicles that served as coaches had no springs ; their bodies were hung in chains or ropes or leather straps as thor- oughbraces. Passengers must have been in misery as the massive, iron-tired wheels were jerked over stones and outcroppings of ledge and half-buried boulders and stumps, and in and out of ruts and holes.
Weather conditions were at times well-nigh intolerable. In the spring and when the summer rains were heavy, and again in the stormy spells of autumn, the roads were deep with mud. Passengers were often called on to put their shoulders to the wheels and help the horses pull the clumsy wagon from a spring hole or bog. They accepted as a matter of course any labor that would help team and driver. On occasion, the vehicle would bog down to the hubs and there would be a tiresome wait until a yoke of oxen could be procured. In the dry periods of summer, hoofs and wheels would stir up clouds of dust, perhaps to add to the discomforts of intense heat, and in the forests biting insects must have added their full share to the irritating cir- cumstances of travel. And when it stormed, it was impossible to keep out the rain.
In winter the roads were often drifted deep with snow. Yet the sledge coaches usually managed to get through ; the driver forced his horses to break a way. There were many delays. When it was very cold, the travelers suf- fered. They had no heat, of course. Ill-fitting side curtains offered small protection against icy winds and penetrating zero air.
There was danger in winter travel through the wilderness. Even in the England of that day, when roads were good and taverns were set at frequent intervals along them, there were tragic happenings. It is recorded that one Christmas eve, when hundreds of coaches filled to the limit with home-bound travelers were on the highroads, a snowstorm with near zero temperature caught many of them out in the open country, where they were soon stalled in impassable drifts. Passengers were badly frost-bitten, and some of those whose seats were atop the coaches were found frozen to death. In the more severe climate of New England, where everything was new and long stretches of virgin forest must be traversed, the hazard was much greater. It was no uncommon occurrence for a coach to overturn, at any season, and some passengers were badly injured, and some were killed.
This dismal picture did not hold true for many years. State and town and individuals united in improving the roads, and the coach builders were not idle. New models appeared, each an improvement upon its predecessor. A better strain of horseflesh was sought after, until magnificent teams were common. Speed of travel increased rapidly. Lighter coaches was hauled by relays of four or six-horse teams traveling at a gallop, where only a few
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years before a plodding, labored walk, frequently interrupted as obstacles were overcome, was the best a driver could ask for. For example, it became no infrequent achievement for a coach to make the forty-four miles from Worcester to Boston in three hours and thirty minutes-an average speed, up hill and down, of better than twelve miles an hour.
The Earliest Stage Lines-There were early, but not, as a rule, enduring attempts to establish regular stage lines in Massachusetts. "Boston, as early at 1716, had a carriage for light purposes to go and come from New- port, Rhode Island, once a fortnight, while the ways were passable," says Felt's History of Salem. The first stagecoach went out of Boston in 1718, to Bristol Ferry, Rhode Island, whence, no doubt, travelers, after crossing the ferry, were transferred in some vehicle to Newport, where sloop or schooner was boarded for New York. The wagons were covered, but were cumbersome and slow.
Within the large towns, and especially in Boston, private coaches were maintained at a very early date. One such was that of Sir Edmund Andros in 1687, and at a funeral in 1732 there were a number of them. An English traveler, Bennett, who was in Boston in 1740 wrote: "There are several fami- lies in Boston that keep a coach, and some few drive with four horses; but for chaises and saddle-horses, considering the bulk of the place, they outdo London. They have some nimble, lively horses for the coach, but not any of that beautiful black breed so common in London. Their saddle-horses all pace naturally, and are generally counted sure-footed ; but they are not kept in that fine order as in England. The common draught-horses used in carts about the town are very small and poor, and seldom have their fill of anything but labor. The country carts and wagons are generally drawn by oxen, from two to six according to the distance, or the burden they are laden with."
Benjamin Staver's announcement of the opening of the Boston-Ports- mouth stage line in 1761 conveys an excellent idea of traveling conditions as they then existed: "For the encouragement of travel between Portsmouth and Boston, a large stage chair, with two horses, well equipped, will be ready by Monday the 20th inst. (April), to set out from Mr. Stavers', innholder, at the sign of the Earl of Fairfax in this town (Portsmouth) for Boston, to perform once a week ; to lodge at Ipswich the same night, from there through Medford to Charlestown Ferry, to tarry at Charlestown until Thursday morn- ing ; so returning to this town the next day, to set out again the following morning. It will be contrived to carry four passengers besides the driver. In case only two persons go they may be accommodated to carry things of bulk and value to make the third and fourth passengers. The price will be twelve shillings six pence, sterling, for each passenger from hence to Boston,
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and the same rate for conveyance back again, though under no obligation to return in the same week in the same manner. Those who would not be dis- appointed must enter their names at Stavers' on Saturdays, any time before nine o'clock in the evening, and pay one-half at entrance and remainder at end of journey.
"As gentlemen and ladies are often at a loss for good accommodations, for traveling from hence, and can't return in less than three weeks or a month, it is hoped that this undertaking will meet with suitable encourage- ment, as they will be wholly freed from the care and charge of keeping chairs and horses, or returning them before they have finished their business."
Here is another of the quaint announcements of this early stagecoach period, of date of March 8, 1759: "Philadelphia Stage Wagon and New York Stage Boat perform their stages twice a week. John Butler, with his wagon, sets out on Mondays from his house, at the sign of the 'Death of the Fox,' in Strawberry Alley, and drives the same day to Trenton Ferry, where Francis Holman meets him, and the passengers and goods being shifted into the wagon of Isaac Fitzrandolph, he takes them to the 'New Blazing Star,' to Jacob Fitzrandolph's, the same day, where Rubin Fitz- randolph, with a boat well suited, will receive them, and take them to New York that night. John Butler, returning to Philadelphia on Tuesday with the passengers and goods delivered to him by Francis Holman, will again set out for Trenton Ferry on Thursday, and Francis Holman, etc., will carry his passengers and goods with the same expedition as above to New York."
It must have taken a sharp-witted traveler, or one intimately acquainted with the region, to have unraveled this intricate plot until he actually traveled over the route.
As the years passed by, other routes were laid out, highways improved, and faster time was made. In 1776 we read that "Any Gentlemen and ladies that want to go to Philadelphia (from New York) can go in the stage and be home in five days, and be two nights and one day in Philadelphia, to do business or to see the market days."
In the published account of the travels of John Melish, a Scotchman, who made a tour of the United States in 1795, we find an account of his journey from Boston to New York: "Having taken my leave of a number of kind friends in Boston I engaged passage by the mail coach to New York, and was called to take my place at two o'clock in the morning. It is the practice here for the driver to call on the passengers before setting out, and it is attended by a considerable degree of convenience to them, particularly when they set out early in the morning.
"The mail stages here are altogether different in construction from the mail coaches of Britain. They are long machines, hung on leather braces,
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with three seats across, of a sufficient length to accommodate three persons each, who all sit with their faces towards the horses. The driver sits under cover, without any division between him and the passengers, and there is room for a person to sit on each side of him. The driver, by the post office regulations, must be a white man, and he has charge of the mail, which is placed in a box below his seat ; there is no guard. The passengers' luggage is placed below the seats, or tied on behind the stage. They put nothing on the top and they take no outside passengers.
"The stages are slightly built, and the roof suspended on pillars, with a curtain to be let down or folded up at pleasure. The conveyance was easy and in summer very agreeable, but it must be excessively cold in winter. I took my place on the fore seat with the driver. It surprised me to observe how well informed this class of people are in America. In my journey through the New England states, I was highly gratified by the prompt and accurate answers which they made to my questions; and I resolved to follow the same plan of obtaining information throughout my tour."
Describing a journey from Boston to New York over the post road, late in the 1700's, President Quincy of Harvard College wrote: "The carriages were old and the shackling and much of the harness made of ropes. One pair of horses carried us eighteen miles. We generally reached our resting place for the night if no accident intervened, at ten o'clock, and after a frugal sup- per went to bed, with a notice that we should be called at three next morning, which generally proved to be half-past two, and, whether it snowed or rained, the traveler must rise and make ready, by the help of a horn lantern and a farthing candle, and proceed on his way over bad roads, sometimes getting out to help the coachman lift the coach out of a quagmire or rut, and arrived in New York after a week's hard traveling, wondering at the ease as well as the expedition with which our journey was effected."
The traveler Weld, in 1795, wrote that the bridges were so poor that the driver always had to stop and arrange loose planks ere he dared to cross, and that "the driver had to call to the passengers in the stage to lean out of the carriage first on one side then on the other, to prevent it from oversetting in the deep ruts in which the roads abound. 'Now, gentlemen, to the right,' upon which the passengers all stretched their bodies half way out of the car- riage to balance on that side, 'Now, gentlemen, to the left,' and so on."
Worcester County's First Stage Line-The first stage line to serve Worcester County was that established by J. & N. Brown, to cover the route from Boston to New York, over the Post Road through Worcester. The first trip was made June 24, 1772, and the intention was to run a stage once a fortnight. In the Boston Evening Post of July 6, patronage was solicited
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and it was promised "that gentlemen and ladies who choose to encourage this new, useful and expensive undertaking may depend upon good usage, and that the coach will always put up at houses on the road where the best enter- tainment is provided." Notice was given that the coach would start on its next trip July 13 and arrive at New York on the 25th, making thirteen days from one city to the other. But the experiment was not successful, and in 1773 no record is found of the continuance of the line.
The next attempt was made, tentatively, in 1782, when an advertisement appeared in the Massachusetts Spy stating: "A gentleman from Boston, having a genteel coach and a span of horses would be willing to be concerned with trusty persons, capable of driving a stage between Worcester and Boston." But nothing came of the suggestion.
In the meanwhile, stage lines were being established along the coast. Mills and Hicks' British and American Register, published in Boston for the year 1774 tells us : "Between Boston and Providence, three stagecoaches pass and repass twice a week. Between Boston and Portsmouth a chaise passes and repasses three times a week."
Boston to New York Via Worcester-Levi Pease of Shrewsbury was the real pioneer of the stagecoach lines of Worcester County, for he was the original projector, for some time the sole proprietor, and long a principal owner of the stages which ran regularly between Boston and New York, traversing the county on the route. He was well and favorably known when he entered upon the undertaking; his record in the Revolutionary Army was a long and honorable one. He was unassisted in his new enterprise, nor did he receive even encouragement from his friends. His plan was considered visionary and ruinous, and "the most judicious minds regarded his effort as at least a century in advance of the public wants." One substantial citizen of Boston said to him: "The time will come when a stage to Hartford will pay, but not in your day." But he commenced business October 20, 1783, with two substantial wagons, one leaving Boston from the Sign of the Lamb on Washington Street (where the Adams House stood for many years) every Monday morning at six o'clock, stopping over night at Martin's in Northboro, passing through Worcester on Tuesday and reaching Rice's in Brookfield that night, and on to Somers, Connecticut, Wednesday, and to Hartford, Thurs- day. The other wagon, leaving Hartford also on Monday, reached Boston in the same four days. The fare was four-pence a mile.
From Hartford a two-horse carriage made the entire trip without chang- ing horses to New Haven, occupying the whole day, and there passengers transferred to sloops which plied between that port and New York, the time of the voyage depending upon wind and weather. Isaiah Thomas remarked
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in the Spy: "Should these carriages be encouraged, it will be of great advan- tage to the public, as persons who have occasion to travel between, or to and from either of these places, may be accommodated on very reasonable terms, and will not have the trouble and expense of furnishing themselves with horses." Pease and Reuben Sikes, who became associated with him, were men of enterprise, and they won the patronage of the traveling public by good service rendered. They personally served as drivers and conductors. They improved the accommodations. Their stages ran in fair weather and foul, in gale of wind and blizzard of snow, with passengers and without passengers, punctual as may be. Within two years their stage-line was established as a substantial going business.
Captain Pease persuaded the townships through which his stages ran to repair and improve the roads, and procured better horses and more com- fortable wagons. The extent of his operations may be gleaned from his advertisement in the Massachusetts Spy and Worcester Gazette of January 5, 1786:
"Stages from Portsmouth in New Hampshire, to Savannah in Georgia.
"There is now a line of stages established from New Hampshire to Georgia, which go and return regularly, and carry the several Mails, by order and permission of Congress.
"The stages from Boston to Hartford in Connecticut, set out, during the winter season, from the house of Levi Pease, at the Sign of the New York State, opposite the Mall, in Boston (on the site of the present St. Paul Cathe- dral) every Monday and Thursday morning, precisely at five o'clock, go as far as Worcester on the evenings of those days, and on the days following proceed to Palmer, and on the third day reach Hartford; the first stage reaches the city of New York on Saturday evening, and the other on the Wednesday evening following.
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