Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 7: Ci,inton, by Hon. Hicnry S. Nourse, 1889

Chapter 7: Ci,inton, by Hon. Hicnry S. Nourse

ALTiiouciii Clinton received its name and began its corporate existence so recently as March, 1850, it being the youngest town save one in Worcester County, nearly two hundred years before that date white men were tilling its soil, and bad impressed into their service some part of its valuable waterpower. Its territory, in area only four thousand nine hundred and seven acres, was included in the eighty square miles purchased from Sagamore Sholan by Thomas King, of Watcrtown, in 1642, and confirmed to the Nashaway Company as a township, under the name of Lancaster, in 1653.

The earliest settlers in this river valley were at first clustered along the eastern slope of George Hill and upon the Neck north of the meeting of the two streams which form the Nashua. I5nt for the existence of the falls on the South Meadow Brook, probably neither the pioneers nor their successors would, for many years, have sought homes in that more southerly j)ortion of the town's grant, which now is traversed by numerous streets thickly lined with the residences and marts of ten thousand busy people ; for most of this region, now Clinton, was clad with pine forest ; its numerous hills, from their steepness or the shallowness of the soil, were not well adapted for tillage ; and along the river were no extensive intervales, no broad meadows of natural grass, such as existed on the North Branch and main river, to invite the husbandmen. But the sagacious and enterprising leader of the Nashaway planters, John Prescott, had noted the little cascade where the brook leaped down over the ledge, and recognized it as the most easily available site in the township for a mill.

There was no English settlement nearer than those east of the Sudbury River, and even the carrying of a grist to be ground involved a tedious horseback ride of about twenty miles and back over the devious Indian trail and the crossing of the always treacherous Sudbury marsh. The rude processes of the savages or the laborious use of a hand-rjuern were often resorted to in preparing grain for bread in preference to so dreary a day's journey. A mill was a prime necessity to the settlers, and scarcely had the Colonial Government given formal recognition to the town which Prescott had founded, than, with his usual restless energy, he entered upon the task of compelling the wild South Meadow Brook to aid in the work of civilization. Mills run by water-power were yet rare in New England. The first built was hardly twenty years old, and the skilled mill-wright of Charlestown had scarcely a competitor in his art. Pi'escott's mill-dam w.is the prophecy of the prosperous manufacturing town whose special products have in recent years won a world-wide repute, and with his plucky enterprise the history of Clinton appropriately begins.

By November 20, 1653, Prescott's plans for the mill were so far perfected that he was ready to enter into an agreement with his fellow-townsmen for its erection. This agreement is found duly recorded in the third volume of the Middlesex County registry as follows :

Know all men by tlieso presonis tliat I ,Tohn Prescott blackesmith, hatli Covenanted and barj;iiin<'d with .Ino. ffovinell of Charlestowne for ttie building of a ('urnii mill, witliin liir said Tuwmi uf Lanchasttr. This wilnosseth (hat wee the Tnliabitants of I.atn baster for bis encouragement in so good a worke for the bohoofo of onr Towne, vpon condition that the said intended worke by him or bis aseignes be linlsbed, do freely and fully giue grant, enfeoffe, A contirme vnto the sjiid John Prescott, thirty acres <if intervale Land lying on the nurlh riuer, lying north west of Henry Kerly and ten acres of Land adjoyneing to the mill : and forty acres of Land on the South ejist of the mill brooUe, lying between the mill brooke and Nashawjiy Kiucr in such place as the said .lolin Prescott shall choose with all the priuiledgcs and ai>purtenances thereto ajiperteyning. To bane and to bold the said land and eurie ])arcell thereof to the said John Prescott his heyeres and assignes for ener, to his and their only projjiier vso and behoofo. Also wee do coueuant & promise ti) lend the said John Prescott fine pound, in current money one yeare for the buying of Irons for the mill. And also wee do coueuant and grant to and with the said John Prescott liis beyres and assignes that the said mill, with all the aboue named Land thereto apperteyneing shall bo freed from all common cliar{;es for seauen yeares lu'Xt ensueing, after the first finishing and setting tlie said null to worke. In witnes whereof wee bane herevnto put our hands this liO'li day of the 9""> In the yeare of onr Lord God one thousand six hundred fifty and three, Subscribeil names

Clinton

Josei)li Willard, Esq., upon the authority of a direct descendant of John Prescott, states that the first mill-stone was brought from England. Some doubt is thrown upon this assertion by the fact that the alleged pieces of it, which have lain not far from the dam until modern times, are of a sienitic rock not found in England, but abundant enough in Massachusetts. The first grist was ground in the mill May 23, 1G54.

Prescott probably at ouce removed from his home upon George Hill to a new house built on the slope overlooking the mill. This was the first dwelling above the grade of an Indian wigwam within the present bounds of Clinton. Its exact location was plaiTily marked les* than fifty years ago by a considerable depression, showing where the cellar had been, and by a flowing spring near, water from which was conveyed in a conduit of bored logs to the residence of a later generation of the Prescotts, standing lower upon the hillside. The Lancaster historian, before named, in l.S2(! noted the site as " about thirty rods southeast from Poignand and Plant's factory." It is better defined now as south from the intersection of High and Water Streets, upon the northerly half o( the Otterson lot, Number 71 High Street, and about one hundred and fifty feet from the front line of the lot.

The original building must have been of logs or squared timber, and was fortified doubtless with flankers and palisades; for it appears in early records as " Prescott's garrison" and, although having never more than five or six adult defenders, it successfully resisted fierce assaults made u])on it by a large body of Indians. Prescott's will, written in 1G73, proves that it was then commodious enough to accommodate two families, and had adjacent out-housing for cattle and an apple orchard. The dam probably occupied precisely the same position as that of Frost & Howard's, and the little grist mill stood somewhat lower on the brook than the extensive manufactory now utilizing its water-power.

Four years went by, years in which Prescott was busied not only at mill and anvil, but in various offices for the town. His skill and judgment, nu)rcover, had gained such repute that he was chosen by the colonial authorities to serve on committees to lay out county roads and build important bridges, and even to survey special land grants. Emboldened by the success of his corn-mill and by growing prosperity, he determined upon another enterprise of the greatest interest to the community - the building of a saw-mill. His neighbors were again called upon to further the accomplishment of his purpose by substantial gift of land and temporary exemption from taxation.

Kuow all men by tlieso presents that for as mnch as the Inh.abitants of Lanchaster, or the most part of them being gatlierod together on a trayneing day, the IS"' of the 9"' mo, 1058, a motion was made liy .Ino. Prescott blacllesmitli of the same towne, about the setting vp of a saw mill for the good of the Towne, and yt lie tlie sjiid .Ino. Prescott, would by the help of God set vp the saw mill, and to supply the said Inhabitants with boords and other sawne worke, as is afforded at other saw mills in the contrey. In case the Towne would giue, grant and eontirme vnto the said John Prescott a certeine tract of Land, lying Eastward of his water mill, be it more or less, bounded by the riuer east, the mill west, the stake of the mill laml and the east end of a ledge of Iron Stone Itocks southards, ami forty acres of his owne land north, the said land to be to him his heyrea and assigues for enei-, and al! the said land and curie part thereof to be rate free vntill it be improned, or any pi of it, and that his saws and saw mill shouhi be free from any rates by the Towne, therefore know ye that the ptyes abouesaid did mutually agree and consent eadi with tho other concerning the aforementioned propositions !i« followeth :

Tho Towne lui their part did giue, grant and conlirmo vnto the said lolin Prescott his heyres and assignes for ener, all tile aforeiucntioned tract of laLid butted and bounded jis afoiosaid, to be to hiiii bis lieyres .indtissigues for ener with all the priiiilcdges iiiid appurtenances thereon, atnl thereunto belonging to be to his and their owne proppor vse and heboofe as aforesaid, and the land and eurie part of it to be free from all rates vntil it or any part of it be improued, and also his ssiw, Siiwes ,nid saw-ndll to be free from all towne rates, or minister's rates, proiiided the aforementioned worke be tinisbed and eompleated as abouesaid for the good of the towne in some convenient time after this present contract, covenant and agieeiuent.

And the said John Prescott did and doth by these presents byud himself, his beyrcs and assigues to set vp a saw-mill as aforesaid within the bounds of the aforesiiid Towm\ and to supply the Towne with boords ami other sawue worke Jis aforesaid and truly and faithfully to peiforme futill. iind accomplish, all the aforementioned premisses for the good of the Towne as aforesaid.

Therefore the Selectmen concievilig this saw-mill to bo of great vse to the Towne, and the after good of tho place, Ilaue and do hereby act to rattifie and confirmo all the aforementioned acts, covemmts, gifts, grants and immunilyes, in respect of rates, and what ener is aforcmentituied, on their own* part, and in behalfe of the Towne, and to the true performance hereof, both partyes hane and do bynd tbeliiselves by subscribing their hands, this twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand si.\ livindred ami lilty-nim-.

The township proprietors also granted Prescott leave to cut pines upon any common land to supply his saw-mill. In his will the corn-mill is described as "the lower mill," and a second house and barn are bequeathed to his son .John as appertaining to the saw-mill. It seems certain, therefore, that the first saw-mil! had a dam of its own, and that it was probably sitiuited near where a dam existed early in the present century, a short distance below that of the Bigelow Carpet Company. Somewhere near stood the second house built in this region.

It is possible that about this time I'rescott also made some attempt to manufacture iron from bog ore. In 1657 certain inhabitants of Lancaster and Concord, John Prescott being one, upon petition, oltaiued colonial license to erect iron works in those towns. The forge at Concord was soon after established and for many years had a meagre success. No mention is found in any records of similar works at Lancaster earlier than 1748, when John Prescott, third of the name, in deeds to his son John, speaks of the " forge " and an '' iron mine." The former was upon South Meadow Brook, just below the dam of the Bigelow

Carpet Company. Mine Swamp Brook was so named because of the ore dug in its neijiliborhood for use at this forge. Wlietlier this experimental bloomery was an adventure of the tirst, second or third John Prescott, the supply of ore was neither sufficient in quantity, rich enougli in metal, nor free enough from sulphur to give encouragement for iron manufacture.

Although Indian names remain attached to numerous localities in all the adjacent towns, not one survives in Clinton. Her three great ponds were very early given their present names, - " Clamshell " appearing in records of 1697, " Moss," or " Mossy," in 1702, and "Sandy " not much later. Not a word is found in the annals of the first proprietors that suggests the existence of Indian dwelling-places or planting-fields anywhere near I'rescott's Mills. Perhaps there were none permanently occupied after the coming thither of white men, nearer than Washacum, where the once powerful Nashaway tribe had then gathered its feeble remnant spared by small-pox and the relentless Mohawk warriors. In accordance with their nomadic habits, doubtless, families continued to pitch their wigwams at the fa'ls in the Nashua during the season when the salmon and other migratory fish were making their annual journey up that stream ; and to camp on the shores of the ponds at other seasons for the abundant food supply therein. The considerable <juantity and variety of atone implements found from time to time on the east side of Clamshell Pond indicates the location of an Indian settlement there at some remote period of the past, or of a much frequented camping-ground.

Soon after his coming into the hunting-grounds of the Nasliaway tribe, in ItUS, we find that Prescott had won the respect of the Indiana. This was doubtless largely owing to their need of his valuable craft as a maker of knives, arrow-heads, tomahawks and steel traps. But tradition ascribes it to his stature, giant strength, contempt of danger, skill with the gun, and other heroic attributes ; and especially to his possession of a corselet and helmet, supposed to render its owner invulnerable. Various stories ol his prowess and adventure are extant, wherein probably there lie germs of truth, but wrapped about with anachronistic or imaginative details supplied by the successive narrators. That he was U[)on terms of familiar intimacy with the Sachem Sholan is told by the records, and that his relations with Sachem Matthew and his warriors were also friendly is evinced by his possession of a house and farm at Washacum and his purchase of land adjoining the Indian fort there. When the machinations of Philip aroused a pitiless war of races throughout New England, however, Prescott's property was not spared.

On February 10, 167f), a picked force of warriors, at least four hundred in number, - Nashaways, Quabaugs, Nipnets and Narragansets, - under the leadership of Shoshanim, Muttaump, Monoco and Quanipun, fell upon Lancaster. Prescott's garrison was one of the five resolutely assaulted at daylight. It was heroically defended by the stalwart owner and his sons, aided, perhaps, by two or three soldiers, and the savages were finally repelled. Ei)hraim Sawyer, one of Prescott's grandsons, aged twenty-five years, was slain here in the fight. A young soldier, trom Watertow'n, of Cajitain Wad^worth's company, named Cieorge Harrington, was killed by the enemy a few days later in the same locality. Seventy-five years ago two graves were discernible in the grounds belonging to, and a little to the east of, the mill. These, perhaps, held the ashes of Sawyer and Harrington, though then called Indian graves. With the protection of the troops sent to the rescue, Prescott and his little band withflrew from their perilous situation to join the larger garrison of his son-in-law, Thomas Sawyer. The carnage at the Rowlandson garrison, and the destruction by fire of all the barns and unfortified houses in town, left the survivors so weak in numbers, so disheartened, and so etlectually stripped of all means of subsistence, that, even if there had been no rea.son to fear a renewal of attack by the bloodthirsty foe, the temporary abandonment of the place was unavoidable. Major Simon Willard, on March 26th, sent a troop of horsemen with carts to remove the inhabitants who had not already Hcd to the Bay towns, and for about three years only the millstone and the rusting irons by the dams on South Meadow Brook marked the site of Prescott's Mills.

In 1679, after the red warriors had perished in the flame of the wrath they had kindled, among the first to move to the re-settlement of the town were the Prescotts. The mills were rebuilt on the spot where the corn-mill had stood, and the eldest son, John, assumed their management, Jonas having a mill at Nonacoicus, and Jonathan becoming a resident of Concord. In December, 16S1, John Prescott, Sr., died, being about seventy-eight years of age. His eldest son became possessor of all the estate connected with the mills.

The lands granted by the Lancaster proprietors to the founder of the town for his public benefactions embraced much of the now densely inhabited part of Clinton, extending from a bound forty rods above the first dam down both sides of the brook to the river, while the eastern boundary of the tract was formed by the Nashua, from the brook's mouth to the ledge near the Lancaster Mills, formerly known as Rattlesnake Hill. This domain was largely extended westwardby thesecond John Prescott. A third and fourth John succeeded him in its ownership, and a fifth held the homestead, dying childless.

The first town way to Prescott's Mills was commonly known as the " mill-path," and was recorded in 1658 as " five rods wide from the Cuntrie highway to the mill." This is the main thoroughfare of the present day, between South Lancaster and Water Street. The original record of its location being lost, it was laid out anew in 1811, together with its exten- eion to Sandy Pond, varying in width from two and one-half to three rods wide. The people of Stow^ Marlborough, and even Sudbury, for many years had no mills more conveniently accessible than Prescott's, and the population of Lancaster, after the resettlement, grew most rapidly to the eastward of the Nashua. For all these patrons, the old mill-path was a roundabout road, and at a town-meeting in Lancaster, August 26, 1686, a proposition was entertained for another, the second town road laid out within Clinton lines. The petition was " for a way to Goodman Prescott's Corne-mill, to ly over the River at the Scar." Goodman Prescott " told the Town that if they would grant him about twenty acres of Land upon the Mill Brook lying above his own Land, for hisconvaniancy of preserveing water against a time of drought, he was willing the town should have a way to the mill threw his Land." A committee was appointed " to lay out a highway from the Scar to the mill, threw John Prescott's land," and he was recompensed by the grant desired, which is recorded as lying " on the Mill Brook, near to the South Meadow, bounded north and east by his own land, and south and southeast by common land."

In April, 1717, a town-meeting, upon petition of John Goas and Ihe report of a viewing committee, voted to change the location of the westerly end of this highway, so that it should " lye by the River, - Provided said way be kept four Rods wide from y' Scar bridge till it com to y" Hill from y"^ top of y' River bank, and after it amount said Hill to lye where it shall be most conveniant to y° Town, till it com to said Mill, said Goss to cleer said Rode when that Committy shall stake it out." April 24, 1733, John Goss conveyed to John Prescott eighty acres east of the Mill Brook, " a highway lying through s.iid Land from the bridge that is over the River, a little above the place called the Scarr." The mills had now many rivals, and the current of travel flowed in other directions. In May, 1742, the town voted to move the Scar bridge down the river "to the road that leads from Lieut. Sawyer's to Doctor Dunsmoor's'' - that is, to the crossing of the Nashua, now known as Carter's Mills bridge, where before this there was a fording-place only.

Few traces of the Scar road, though a noted public convenience for more than fifty years, can now be discerned. Close scrutiny reveals signs of the bridge abutments a few rods below the northern end of High Street, and of the raised roadway on the eastern bank of the river. Some time in the eighteenth century there were five or more dwellings located along this highway, of which two or three cellars on the part east of the Nashua are not yet obliterated ; and other similar relics of human habitation upon the west side have disappeared within the memory of the living.

But many years before the abandonment of this route by the Scar, another had probably come into use from the eastward. This, now known as Water

Street, was wholly in the land of the Prescotts and remained their private way until 1782, on April 1st of which year Lancaster accepted it as laid out two rods wide, "on condition that sd Town is not Burdened with the cost of a Bridge." No record is found to prove how long the bridge had then stood at this crossing of the Nashua, but mention is made of a "slab-bridge" in this vicinity about 1718, belongingto the second John Prescott. It was then, doubtless, like many of the bridges of that era, a narrow structure made of puncheons resting upon log abutments and trestles, and perhaps only passable for foot and horsemen. By the surveyors of Lancaster in 1795 the bridge is called " Prescott's," and noted as ninety-nine feet in length. It was not until December 4, 1815, that the town assumed the ownership of it and of the approaches to it from the county road to Boylston, although eight years earlier assistance was voted for its reconstruction. A tew years later it appears in the town records as the Harris bridge.

A by-path very early connected Prescott's Mills with the county highway leading to Washacum and westward. Widened and otherwise altered at various dates, this is yet in use and known as the Rigby road. This name does not appear attached to it in old records, but the brooklet which it crosses in Clinton was called Rigby's Brook before 1718. What connection the cross-road or the stream had with John Rigby, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Lancaster, or with his heirs, has not been discovered. No family of the name is mentioned in the town lists since 1700, but a very old house which stood upon this road in the early years of this century was commonly known as the Rigby place.

In the surprise and massacre by the Indians, September 22, 1697, and in the attack by the French and Indians of July 31, 1704, no loss of life or property at Prescott's Mills was reported, though this, it would seem, must have been one of the six fortified posts said to have been assailed. The men belonging to this garrison in 1704 were John Prescott, his two sons, John and Ebenezer, and John Keyes, the weaver, three of whom were married men with little families. By a report of an inspection of garrisons ordered by Governor Dudley, in November, 1711, we learn that there were at that time but three families at the Mills, including four males of military age, besides two soldiers billeted there - fifteen souls in all. This may be called the earliest census of Clinton. For half a century the householders in this neighborhood had numbered no more, and no less ; for half a century more the accessions hardly trebled this population. Along the roads leading westward, to Leominster, to Woonksechocksett, (now Sterling,) to Boylston, and to "Shrewsbury Leg," farms were cleared, humble dwellings arose, children were born, grew to manhood, migrated, and themselves set up roof-trees farther west ; but at Prescott's Mills all remained apparently as when the fathers fell asleep.

D.'fniel and Benjamin Allen, of Watertown, were among the very early settlers in Lancaster, but abandoned their lands when the Indian raids of 1675 and 1676 desolated the frontier towns, and never re-occupied them. About 1746, however, Ebenezer Allen, of Weston, a son of Daniel, came to Lancaster, acco)npanied by his son Ebenezer, and the two made their homes upon a tract of land containing one hundred and eighty acres, the northerly , portion of which is now in possession of Ethan Allen Currier. This had been the homestead of John Gosa, who bought the property of John Prescott and John Keyes in 1717. Upon the brook which runs through the farm Goss built a mill at the site of the existing dam, and his dwelling and farm buildings stood on the uplands near. -

The deed to John Allen, dated February, 1746, and that of John to Ebenezer, in 1751, speak of the roadway in use through the farm " from Prescott's Mills to a Fordway, where there was a Bridge called the Scar Bridge." The elder Allen sold his whole estate to Ebenezer, Jr., in 1756, including some lands bought on the west side of the mill-path where probably about that date the mansion was built, which was torn down in 1879, to make room for Mr. Currier's present residence. Ebenezer Allen, St., died in 1770, at the age of ninety-four, and Ebenezer, Jr., in 1812, aged eighty -eight years. The farm passed out of the Aliens' hands in 1811, and Moses Emerson became its owner shortly after. The bluff upon the east bank of the Nashua, so often mentioned in town records as the Scar, from the time of his purchase began to be called Emerson's Bank. Mr. Emerson dying in 1822, the estate was sold at auction by the guardian of his children, and in 1825, George Howard, fromPembroke, bought it. At that time no trace of the Goss Mill or the other buildings once standing in the vicinity of the brook remained, but a cart-path led up over the plain to Harris Hill, perhaps the last trace of the long-disused Scar Road.

Along the old county highway which leads from Bolton to Boylston, where it winds about among the rocky hills east of the Nashua in Clinton, a few farms were tilled many years before the Revolution. Here lived Lieutenant Thomas Tucker ; Thomas Wilder, the son of John, and his son Jonathan ; Simon Butler, and the late John Pollard. Philip Larkin and his soldier sons had homes to th« southeast from Clamshell Pond. Thomas Tucker acquired his lands through Capt. Thomas Wilder in 1716, and probably built his house li«re about the date of his marriage, in 1719. He transferretl his iarra to his son William in 1757. In 1788 James Fuller bought the southerly portion of the tract, and in 1798 the homestead came into possession of Charles Chace, from Bellingham, whose descendants have prominent place in the annals of Clinton. The Tucker family had then disappeared from Lancaster. Upon the other farms named, sons built near the fathers, and family names clung to the estates far into the present century. Now, however, but one lineal descendant of any of these old families - the venerable Frederick Wilder - dwells in this section of the town.