Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 119, 1889

As early as 1738 it is evident that the inhabitants of the north part of Shrewsbury considered themselves sufficient in numbers and in strength to assume the responsibilities of a separate town government, and a bill was introduced into the General Co.urt for the incorporation of the northerly part of Shrewsbury into a separate township. This passed the General Court, but was negatived by Cxovernor Shirley for the reasons that the too rapid increase of new towns was injurious, since each town was entitled to one Representative to the General Court, and every town having one hundred and twenty or more voters to two Representatives. Only Boston, Salem, Ipswich and Newbury, of all the towns entitled to send more than one, availed themselves of the law ; some of the towns did not send any. There were one hundred and sixty towns, and only from one hundred and nine to one hundred and twenty Representatives were yearly sent to the General Court; but in a case of emergency the number could be doubled, and even trebled, and any matter introduced by the King's Governor which met with their opposition would be defeated, and he accordingly recommended the incorporation of precincts and districts without the right of representation. These matters were reported to the Royal government at London, and in>tructions returned to the Governor that no new town should be erected without the King's consent. Thus defeated in their plans to become a separate town, they soon alter made application to the General Court for incorporation as a distinct precinct. In this they were successful, and on December 17, 1742, were incorporated as the North Precinct of Shrewsbury, At the same time the town of Lancaster voted to grant the request of Joshua Houghton and other.s to be joined to them by the following bounds: Beginning at Bolton (now Berlin) line, one and one-half miles from Lancaster (southwest corner); thence to run due west to the Nashua River, to the town line, excluding only the lands of Philip Larkin that might fall within the said lines. By this a strip one and one-half miles wide was given to Boylston. On the 19th of January, 1743, in obedience to a warrant from John Keyes, Esq., "one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace," the first precinct meeting was held, and the following officers were chosen: Moderator, John Keyes, Esq.; Precinct Clerk, John Bush ; Precinct Committee, John Bush, Joseph Bigelow, Dea. Cyprian Keyes, Joshua Houghton and Abner Saw-yer. About the same time they relinquished their rights in the meeting-house to the town of Shrewsbury for £32 10.?., to be paid when the new parish should have erected and covered a meeting-house. At the next meeting, held February 7, 1743, they "voted £26 8«., old tenor, to pay for preaching for eight days past," which probably included each Sabbath that there had been since they were incorporated; also "voted £-50, old tenor, for preaching in the future," and Daniel Hastings, Abner Sawyer and Joseph Biglo (or Bigelow) were chosen as a committee to provide a minister; " voted, that the centre of the North precinct in Shrewsbury, that is, south of the Quinnepoxet River or the nearest convenient spot to the centre, be the place to set the meeting-house on ;" " voted, that Capt. Flagg be the surveyor to find the centre of the North precinct in Shrewsbury," and Jonathan Livermore was chosen " in case Capt. Flagg fails this week." This was Deacon Jonathan Livermore, of Northborough, for many years clerk of that town, and who lived to be over one hundred years old. On the 18th of the same month they voted to proceed to build a meeting-house forty-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and twenty feet between the joints, and that the house should be up and covered with shingles and rough-boarded around the sides by the 1st of the following June. The following year the house was nearly completed. This church stood on the present South Common, and nearly in front of the Old Cemetery, at the north end of which was the " Noon or Sabbath-day house," built in 1772, where the people were accustomed to retire between services for lunch and warmth, no fires being had in the meeting-houses. The stocks, for the punishment of petty crimes, was I'icated near the cemetery gate. The Old Cemetery was purchased about the time of the erection of the meeting-house of Lieutenant Eleazer Taylor, and the first interment was made April 14, 1745, as appears from the following epitaph upon a head-stone near the gate :

September 16, 1751, Dr. Zachariah Harvey, Edward Newton and others, living in the extreme northwestern part of the precinct, at what was known as the " Shrewsbury Leg," and near the present village of Oakdale, in West Boylston, petitioned the Shrewsbury North Precinct that the meeting-house might be moved more into the centre of the precinct, or else that they might be allowed to draw their proportional part of the money granted for precinct and preaching purposes from the treasury, so that they might have preaching by themselves, at least during the winter season. The precinct refused to grant the request, but voted " that the portion of the North Precinct lying between the Quinnepoxet and Lancaster Elvers might become a separate town, district or parish by themselves."

October 9th of the same year Bartholomew Parsons, Mephibosheth Bixby, Daniel Wheelock, Jonathan Foster, Reuben Moore, Daniel Bixby, Josiah Cutting, Zachariah Eager, Daniel Allen, John Parsons, Edward Newton, William Whitney, Ezekiel Newton, Samuel Newton and Dr. Zachariah Harvey renewed the petition, alleging that the distance from the meeting-houi^e was so great as to render their attendance upon divine worship inconvenient. At this time the precinct granted the sum of six pounds to pay the rates of the petitioners. This same year the town of Shrewsbury voted to allow those living on the north side of the Quinnepoxet River, and between the towns of Holden and Lancaster, to be set

Dr. Zachariah Harvey, named in this connection, seems to have been the most prominent resident in that section of the Shrewsbury North Precinct. In 1758 he gave, by deed, to the inhabitants of "Shrewsbury Leg " a lot of land for a burying-place and a school-house lot, and soon after removed into what is now Princeton, where he was the first practicing physician ; and, upon the incorporation of the district of Princeton, was chosen moderator, clerk, selectman, assessor and agent to the General Court. The " Harvey " apple, well known in this section many years ago, was introduced by him.

By an .act of the General Court, passed September 18, 1762, Bezaleel Howe, Josiali Bennett, Levi Moore, Daniel Albert, Frederick Albert, Edmund Larkin, Jonathan Goodenow, Mathias Larkin and Zebulon Rice, with their lands bounding by a line beginning at the northeast corner of the Shrewsbury North Precinct, thence running to the Nashua River on the north side of the house of Daniel Albert, and so on the river to the precinct line at Aaron Sawyer's (now Sawyer's Mills Village), were set off from Lancaster and annexed to the Shrewsbury North Precinct. April 25, 1774, the precinct voted to receive William Dunsmore and others, with their lands, from the First Precinct in Lancaster. About this time the inhabitants of the Shrewsbury North Precinct renewed their original intentions of forming a separate town organization, and at a precinct meeting held January 13, 1772, an article was inserted in the warrant calling the meeting, on the petition of Dea. Jonathan Keyes and others, " to see whether the inhabitants would take the proper and necessary measures to have the precinct, and such of the inhabitants of Lancaster as might be accommodated, erected into a district, and this passed in the negative." At the precinct meeting held April 25, 1774, the matter of separation was again brought before the precinct, when " they signified by vote their minds to be set off from Shrewsbury as a separate town," and a committee, consisting of Capt. Joseph Bigelow, Jr., Lieut. Jotham Bush, Benjamin Fisk, Ezra Beaman and Thomas Andrews, was chosen to present a petition to the selectmen of Shrewsbury for the above purpose, and to see if the town would grant their desire. This, it is supposed, the town refused to do, and in the impending political crisis of the Revolution which followed, all thought of an immediate separation from the parent town seems to have been laid aside. In 1780 Aaron Sawyer, Nathaniel Lamson, Frederick Albert, Silas Howe, John Dunsmore, Jacob Winn, Hugh Moore, Nathaniel Hastings, Oliver Sawyer, Silas Hastings, Samuel Bigsby, Micah Harthan, Joseph Sawyer, Ezra Beaman, Edmund Larkin, Levi Moore, Josiah Bennett, William Dunsmore, John Glazier, Phinehas Howe, Elijah Ball, Robert Andrews, Jr., and Nathaniel Davenport, some of whom resided within the limits of Lancaster, and the others had lands there, petitioned the town of Lancaster that they might be set off and annexed to Shrewsbury. Some of them had already been joined to the Shrewsbury North Precinct, although in Lancaster, for town purposes. This request the town granted June 23, 17S0. The line of division was the present north line of Boylston.

March 28, 1785, the precinct again voted to take measures to become a separate town, and a committee, consisting of Lieutenant Jonas Temple, Captain Joseph Bigelow and Ephraim Beaman, was chostn to again petition the town of Shrewsbury. This time they were successful, and, at a town-meeting held May 9, 178.5, a joint committee from the two parishes was chosen "to perambulate the line and renew the boundaries between the precincts, as also to settle all matters relating to a separation of .Parishes," etc., and Colonel Job Gushing. Captain Jonah Howe and Major Asa Rice were chosen on the part of the South Precinct, and Lieutenant Jonas Temple, Captain Joseph Bigelow and Major Ezra Beaman were chosen on the part of the North Precinct. At a subsequent meeting, held January 2, 1786, it was voted to set off the North Precinct as a separate town ; and on the 1st day of March, 178G, the town of Boylston was incorporated. It received its name in honor of an eminent family of Boston and Roxbury, two of whom were skillful physicians in succession, and another founded the chair of rhe'oric and oratory in Harvard University. This family, through Ward Nicholas Boylston, Esq., of Princeton, gave to the two churches a large pulpit Bible, communion cup and bell, and in 1799 the sum of forty pounds sterling, directing the town to keep it on interest until it should amount to a sum sufficient to-erect some public building for the use of the town. In January, 1827, he died, and in his last will he directed that the sum of three hundred dollars should be added to that already given> and that the present Town Hall should be built, which was completed in 1830. The first town-meeting was held March 13, 1786, and these officers were chosen : Moderator, Lieutenant Ephraim Beaman ; Town Clerk, Lieutenant Aaron Sawyer; Selectmen, Major Ezra Beaman, Liutenant Jonas Temple, Lieutenant Timothy Whitney, Captain Jonathan Fassett, John Hastings ; Assessors, Ephraim Beaman, Jonas Temple, Edmund Stiles; Town Treasurer, Captain Joseph Bigelow.

June 1-1, 1796, the westerly part of the town, with certain other lands, taken from the towns of Sterling and Holden, were set off and incorporated as the Second Precinct in Boylston, Sterling and Holden. Two years previous, in 1794, Major Ezra Beaman and twenty-seven others, living in this portion of the town, had presented a petition to the town, asking its consent that they might be set off and incorporated, either as a town, district or society. This petition the town had refused to grant, and application had been made to the General Court, which resulted in their incorporation as a precinct. By the terms of the act of incorporation, those persons residing within the territory embraced within the limits of the Second Precinct, who should signify, in writing, to the clerk of the Second Precinct, within six months from the passage of the act, their choice to remain within the First Precincts of the respective towns from which the new precinct was composed, should thereafter be considered as members of said First Precincts. Among those from Boylston to avail themselves of the terms of the act of incorporation was Lieutenant Jonas Temple, who had been most prominently identified with the affairs of Shrewsbury North Parish, and thus far with the affairs of the town of Boylston, while most prominent among the seceding portion were Major Ezra Beaman and Captain Joseph Bigelow, Jr., both of whom had been very active in the affairs of the town and church. The new precinct had already erected their meeting-house three miles westwaid from the centre of the town, where the old church now stands on West Boylston Common. From this time forward the church and parochial affairs of the two sections of the town became separate and distinct.

The pari.sh affairs of the old precinct were separated from the affairs of the town, and vested in the First Precinct in Boylston, which organized September 5, 1796, with the following officers : Moderator, Captain Robert Andrews ; Precinct Clerk, Lieutenant Aaron Sawyer; Precinct Committee, Dr. Samuel Brigham, Deacon Levi Moore, Lieutenant Aaron Sawj'er ; Assessors, Captain James Longley, Lieutenant Jacob Hinds, Jonathan Fassett, Jr. ; Treasurer, Captain Robert Andrews ; Collector, Major Jotham Bush, and were so continued separate from the affairs of the town until the incorporation of the Second Precinct into the town of West Boylston, in 1808, when the parish affairs were again vested in the town, and so continued until 1823, when the organization of the parish was revived. That Boylston was in as prosperous condition at this time as most of the other towns of the period may be seen from the following extract, taken from the " History of Worcester County," published in 1793 by Rev. Peter Whitney, of Northborough. This reverend author says, "It may be styled a rich town, for they are not only clear of debt, but have several hundred pounds in their treasury. There are sure indications of n-eallh and prosperity among them. Here are some large and good farmers as perhaps anywhere in the country, who keep large stocks of cattle. The people raise all kinds of country produce, especially beef, pork and grain, butter and cheese ; vastly more than they consume, and carry more into the market, perhaps, than any town of its size and numbers." Previous to 1808 it is said that not les-s than three thousand bushels of rye, with not less than the same quantities of corn and oats, were produced; and during the winter seasons the farmers carried large quantities of rye meal to Boston, lor which they received $1.25 per bushel. Large quantities of cider were annually made, and at this time there were not less thau thirty cider-mills in the town.

The division of the town into parishes did not, however, restore the harmony expected, and much opposition was continually manifested between the two sections of the town until 1807, when a petition, signed by Ezra Beaman, Jonathan Plyrapton, Paul Goodale and William Fairbank, as agents in behalf of the parish in Boylston, Holden and Sterling, was presented to the General Court, asking that body that "they might be incorporated into a District by some proper name and vested with all the powers and privileges which by law appertained and belonged to districts." This petition was received by the General Court January 2.S, 1807, and referred to the committee on towns, who thereupon reported an order that the petitioners serve the towns interested in the proposed district with a copy of the petition and order at least fifty days before the first Tuesday of the first session of the next General Court, which date was assigned as the time for the hearing of the petition and any remonstrances that might be brought against it. In reply thereto, Captains James Longley and Robert Andrews and Aaron White, Esq., appeared as agents on the part of the town of Boylston, and protested against the prayer of the petition, provided the proposed district was to be annexed to the town of Boylston. Another remonstrance agaijist annexation was also presented to the Legislature by Jonas Temple and sixty-one others. Some time afterwards the agents of the town and precinct met and signed articles of agreement, the first of which was that "the precinct might be incorporated into a town," and January 30, 1808, an act passed the General Court to that eflect, and the Second Precinct of Boylston, Holden and Sterling became a town by the name of West Boylston.

The history of the town of Boylston during the first century of its existence was, like that of most country towns of its size and situation, quiet and uneventful. As a part of Shrewsbury it took an earnest and active part in the events of the Revolution, and, with the exception of a very few, its inhabitants were ardent patriots and well-wishers for the independence of the colonies ; and the North Precinct of Shrewsbury sent its full quota of soldiers into the Continental service. The town of Boylston was well represented in the War of 1812, and on its town records are spread some able memorials and papers relating to national aflairs for the period between 1790 and 1812. It sent eighty soldiers into the War of the Rebellion, which was a surplus of one over all demands made upon it, one of whom was a commissioned oiBcer. The first recorded action of the town relating to the war was taken April 29, 1861, when it was voted that "whereas the President has called upon the loyal States for men to defend the integrity of the Union, therefore, it was the duty of all good citizens, forgetting all past ditferences, to rally and unite as one man to sustain the government and put down rebellion." A committee consisting of Captain Lambert Lamson, A. W. Andrews, and David T. Moore were chosen to consider the matter of providing uniforms for all persons in the town who should volunteer to form a military company, and that each volunteer should be furnished with a Colt's revolver and bowie-knife and be paid one dollar a day by the town while in the United States service and one dollar for every half-day spent in drilling previous to being mustered into service. It was also voted to raise the sum of two thousand dollars to carry above objects into effect. July 28, 1862, the town voted to pay a bounty of one hundred and five dollars to each volunteer who should enlist before the 5th of August to fill the quota of the town. August 25, 1862, this bounty was increased to one hundred and twenty-five dollars. August 15, 1864, the town fixed the sum of one hundred and twentyfive dollars as the bounty to be paid each volunteer enlisting to the credit of the town. The amount of money expended by the town for war purposes, exclusive of State aid, was ten thousand six hundred and fifty-seven dollars. The amount of money paid for State aid during the war to soldiers' families, and repaid by the Commonwealth, was $6520.46.

At the annual town-meeting in March, 1886, the town voted to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of its incorporation, and a sum of money was appropriated to carry this vote into eflect. At a special meeting in month of April following the proper committees were chosen to carry out the proposed centennial gathering. The 18th of August was selected as the date. The day prove'd unusually pleasant and the features of the celebration were most successfully carried out. Very many of the residences in the town were elaborately and appropriately decorated and it was estimated that nearly five thousand people were present. A salute of one hundred guns was fired by Battery "B," Light Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, under Captain Fred. W. Wellington. The music was furnished by the Worcester Brass Band. The address was given by Henry M. Smith, Esq., of Worcester, Mass., a son-in-law of Rev. Wm. H. Sanford, a former pastor of the Boylston Church, and the poem w.os read by Hon. William N. Davenport, of Marlborough, a native of the town. Hons. Phinehas Ball and Charles B. Pratt, both exmayors of Worcester and natives of the town, were respectively president and chief marshal of the day. An interesting feature of the occasion was the presentation of a tablet erected in the town hall to the memory of the soldiers who fell in the War of the Rebellion by George A. Cotting, Esq., of Hudson, a former citizen of the town. This tablet is of Italian marble and bears the following inscription in gilt letters :

This Tablet, erected on the One nundredth Anniversary of Boylsfon, by George A. C'otting, is in rommemoriilion of tlie valnr of its citizens wlio died in Ibe great civil war of 1801, to preserve tlie unity of our country.