Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 30, 1889

Miscellaneous - Representatives to Congress. - In 1820 and 1822 Benjamin Adams was elected Representalive to Congress and served his district and State with great fidelity and al)ility. He is the only citizen of Uxbridge who ever had the honor of a seat in Congress.

Daley, 1883 ; Michael Eeilly (2d) 1885 ; Daniel W. Taft, 1887 ; Silas M. Wheelock (Senator), 1887, '88. During the next decade Uxbridge will be represented only every third year.

Post-offices. - The first post-office in Uxbridge was established in the village of Ironstone, then the largest village in the town, lii 1810 an office was established in North Uxbridge, in the house of Samuel Read, on the Boston and Hartford turnpike, where it remained until 1852, when it was removed to Rogerson's Village, near the Mills, where it remained until 1885, when it was removed to Chase's Corner, near its original location.

The postmasters of this office have been Samuel Read, George Adams, C. E. Whitin, A. S. Sweet and H; C. Chase, the present incumbent. This office accommodated for many years the towns of Northbridge and Douglas.

In 1825 a post-office was established at the Centre Village, in the brick store then owned by the Messrs. Capron. John W. Carpenter was the first postmaster, and his successors have been Sullivan, Thayer, Thomas Aldrich, R. D. Mowry, Charles B. Rawson, Charles A. Taft and Henry S. Farnuni, the present incumbent. This office is now the principal post-ofiice in the town and pays its postmaster an annual salary of about twelve hundred dollars, an increase of about four hundred dollars in the last eight years.

In 1S72 a District Court for Uxbridge, Blackstone, Northbridge and Douglas was established for civil and criminal business, having jurisdiction of all civil actions, when the ad damnum in the writ does not exceed three hundred dollars. Court is held every week-day alternately in Uxbridge and Blackstone; on Mondays for civil business in Blackstone and on Saturdays for civil business in Uxbridge. A. A. Put nam, Esq., was appointed justice of the court and still presides over it. The associate justices are Francis N. Thayer, Esq., of Blackstone, and W. J. Taft, Esq., of Mendon, the latter gentleman having an office in Uxbridge.

Uxbridge has also had good reason to be proud of its medical profession, for its physicians have been uniformly men of skill and excellent character, who have done much for the health and prosperity of the town. Among them are the honored names of Dr. Wood, the first physician to settle in the town ; Dr. Samuel Willard, Dr. George Willard, Dr. Augustus C. Taft, Dr. Smith, Dr. A. W. Bennett, Dr. J. W. Bobbins, Dr. J. M. Macomber, Dr. Chauncey A.

Wilcox, Dr. Wm. L. Johnson, Dr. L. D. White, Dr. W. L. Sanders and Dr. Benj. Joslyn. Dr. A. W. Fuller and Dr. F. J. Partridge have recently moved into town. It would be a pleasing task to write the biographies of many of these professional laborers of both the professions, but the space allotted to Uxbridge in the history of the county peremptorily demands brevity and condensation ; ao their many friends "must take the will for the deed."

Newspapers, etc. - The first and only newspaper published in Uxbridge was started by Geo. W. Spencer, a printer who had formerly jiublished the Doufihis Herald and conducted a small job-printing office in East Douglas. Mr. Spencer, believing Uxbridge a better field for his labors in the newpaporial line, removed his presses and type to this town, and in August, 1872, issued the fir.st number of his paper, which he called T/ie Worcester South Compendium, Spencer Bros., proprietors. The firm consisted of Geo. \V. Spencer and Charles A. W. Spencer, the elder brother being the editor and general manager of the paper, while the younger took charge of the jobprinting, which soon grew to quite a business. The paper was a well-edited, spicy little weekly, Republican in politics and progressive in its ethics. In 1877 C. A. W. Spencer retired from the firm and Mr. L. H. Balcome suceeded him ; the firm then became Spencer & Balcome. In 1879 Mr. Balcome bought out his partner and became and has since been sole proprietor. In July, 1880, Mr. Balcome finding the old name too long and desiring to make his paper still more a local organ, changed the name of his publication to The Uxbridge Compendium - which name it still retains - and was i.ssued as an eight-page paper. For several years Mr. C. W. Greene was the editor, but Mr. Balcome for the past two years has been sole editor and manager, and, with a good corps of reporters to gather up the news, would have the credit of publishing a good country weekly. The old presses used by Spencer Bros, have been thrown out and new powerpres.ses run by steam-power have been substituted. One of the busiest places now to be found in the centre of the town is the Compendium office. If the increasing businei<s of the office will warrant it. The Daily Coinpendiuta wil! at no distant day be welcomed in every household.

The Uxbridge Water Company was incorporated in 1881, for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants of Uxbridge with pure water for domestic purposes. Its reservoirs, on Lawler Hill, are fed by springs, and will contain half a million gallons. Pipes are laid through the principal streets, and the water supply is excellent and sufficient. A number of hydrants placed at convenient distances furnish adequate protection against damage by fire, and the company is entitled to great credit for its service to the public.

The Judson Memorial. - In the year 1869 Deacon Willard Judson, an esteemed citizen of the town, and a sou of Rev. Samuel Judson, formerly pastor of the Orthodox Church, desiring to manifest his great interest in the town in a quiet, unassuming manner, instructed his attorney, Geo. W. Hobbs, Esq., to purchase of the Howard Watch and Clock Company, of Boston, one of its best tower clocks, and ask the town, at its annual meeting, then soon to be held, to accept the same, as a gift from one who preferred that his name should not be made known until after his decease, imposing as the only condition that the town should keep the clock in running order.

Mr. Judson also desired that the clock should be placed upon the Unitarian Church, as it could be seen more generally than if placed elsewhere. When the matter was brought before the town, great interest was manifested by the citizens, and the gift was accepted without a dissenting voice. The knowing ones, of court<e, knew who gave the clock, and many difierent gentlemen were named, but not a single guesser guessed aright. Mr. Judson died in May, - 1882, and then, for the first time, his name was published by his attorney, as the donor of the clock. For nearly twenty years it has faithfully recorded the passage of time, and its resounding strokes, upon the sweet-toned church bell, marking the hours as they fly, serve to remind the people of their benefactor, and call attention to this unique memorial of a public-spirited citizen.

Farmers' Chih. - In the year 1878 the farmers of Uxbridge and Mendon formed a Farmers' Club, and gavcannual exhibitions forabout five years, when, the Worcester Southeast Agricultural Society, located at Milford, having surrendered its charter, the Farmers' Club was discontinued, and its members applied for, and received, a charter as an agricultural society, to be located at Uxbridge, under the name of the Blackstone Valley Agricultural Society.

The new society purchased extensive grounds, and erected cattle-sheds and pens, and built a track for the trial of farm and family carriage horses only, horse-racing for purses being expressly prohibited.

It has started out with the intention of being a farmers', and not a jockeys' society ; and thus far has proved by its success the wisdom of its plans.

The fame of its fairs, and exhibitions of cattle, second to none in the State, calls to its annual exhibitions the best Hocks and herds in the county, and so great is the demand for space that new sheds and pens must soon be erected. The fall exhibition is always exceptionally fine, and attracts great crowds of visitors. It is an institution of which the farmers of the Blackstone Valley may well be proud.

No other town, of the size and population of Uxbridge, had been more successful in bringing up a large number of active and energetic business men than this. Of those who have left behind them pleasant memories, I may name the following : John Caprou, Daniel Day, Ananias Gilford, Jonathan Whipple, Samuel Read, Ephraim Spring, Alpheus

Bayliss, Frederick Taft, Eastman Taft, Jerry Wheelock, Amariah Chapin, Jonathan Gregory, Abiel Jaques, George Willard, Deacon Daniel Payne, Adolphus Spring, Daniel Carpenter, Cato Willard, Daniel Farnum, Peter White, Manley Scott, Bezaleel Taft, Joseph Thayer, Orsmus Taft, Willard Judson and numerous members of the families of Taft, Thayer, Seagrave, Spring, Wood, Farnum, Thompson, Williams, Wheelock, Sayles and others, whose names are household words. Uxbridge has also sent such men as Stephen C. Greene, Josiah, Royal and Amory Chapin, Jacob, Josiah, Edward and Geo. W. Seagrave, John, Paul, Peter, Moses and Welcome Farnum, Sylvanus Holbrook, Efiingham L. Capron, Asa Newell, Joseph Carpenter, Daniel Day, Royal C. Taft (now Governor of Rhode Island), Caleb Farnum, David F. and Cyrus G. Wood, Geo. T. Murdock, Stephen and Jason Emerson, Newell Tyler, Daniel Seagrave, Dr. William Bayliss, Nicholas Bayliss, Willard Preston, D.D. and a host of others whose names are preminent in the professional and commercial world, and who are proud to acknowledge themselves children of Uxbridge to the manor born.

There are larger and older towns in Worcester County than Uxbridge, but there are none more beautiful, healthy and delighful to live in than this.

With no debt, and light taxes, with pleasant, .sociable neighbors and townspeople ; with fine churches, excellent schools, no license and high morality, surely we may be pardoned for the pride we take in claiming a place in the front rank of Worcester County towns.