Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 70: Petersham, 1889

LocaJily - Topography - Railway Connections - ntslorical liaowrces - Early Settlement - Petitioners and Proprietors - Sereices in the Indian War - First Meeting - Settlers - RehUions with the Indians - Alarm - Armed Worshippers.

Located in the northwestern part of Worcester County and bounded by AtUol, Phillipston, Barre, Dana and New Salem, with eastern and southern angles connecting with Hubbardston and Hardwick, is found the town of Petersham, the only place bearing the name in the United States. The plantation, as it was originally called, was intended to be laid out six miles square, or containing thirty-six square miles. The four angles of its boundary lines coincided nearly with the points of the compass. A range of hills extends from the extreme northern portion of the town southward, in a position central between the eastern and western bounds. It is said that on these hills is found the highest cultivated land in Massachu<ett3 east of the Connecticut River, the elevation being but a few feet lower than the summit of AV'^achusett Mountain.

On either side of this range of hills may be found streams flowing southward into Swift River, or, in the northwestern part, northward into Miller's River. East and west of these streams hills or elevated ground may be found as the traveller approaches Dana on the western or Hubbardston on the eastern border. A portion of the territory originally belonging to the town has been set off to increase that of Dana-

The railway connections of the place are with the Fitchburg, by stage nine miles to Athol ; the Massachusetts Central by stage, ten miles to Barre. At North Dana, five miles' distant, is a station of the Springfield and Athol Branch of the Boston and Albany, and at Williamsville, six miles eastward, is a station of the Ware River Railway. All of these stations are used to some extent in communicating with the world, that at Athol having been hitherto the chief point.

Historical Resources. - Mention may properly be made of the early town records from 1757-1793, which are specially valuable; also of the early church records, which begin with the organization of the church, 1738. Rev. Peter Whitney, son of Rev.

Aaron Whitney, the first pastor, wrote the first historical sketch of the town, of which we have knowledge, in his " History of Worcester County," which was the first published history of the county. Jared Weed, Esq., prepared an address upon the history of the town, the MS. of which has been in possession of Mr. Joseph Willson, of Bellows Falls, Vt. A bower has twice been built upon the Common and the people assembled to listen to an historical address, followed by festivities appropriate to our national holiday. The first occurred July 4, 1854, which was specially observed in view of the completion, on the 19th of April previous, of a hundred years from the date of the incorporation of the town. Dr. William Parkhurst presided. Rev. Edmund B. Willson delivered a carefully prepared, very full and complete address, presenting the previous history of Petersham. This was published in pamphlet form, with historical appendices, and is the basis of later historical labors relative to the town, furnishing much of the information contained in this article. Reference is made to this address for more full information on many topics than is here contained.

The second historical anniversary was held in pursuance of a resolution of Congress relative to local histories, under a bower on the same spot, July 4, 1876 ; Deacon Cephas Willard, ninety years of age, presided. Lyman Clark, then pastor of the First Congregational Church (Unitarian), delivered the address which was intended to supply some information relative to the earlier period not contained in the previous address, and to add historical facts pertaining to the period of twenty-two years which had passed since the previous celebration. This address was publi-ihed in the Athol Transcript for July 11 and 18, 1876. George W. Horr, LL.B., in tha year 1879 prepared a valuable historical article for a " History of Worcester County." Hon. John G. Mudge has carefully prepared the record of the soldiers of the War of the Rebellion, and furnished much other information. Mr. J. B. Howe has for many years collected materials for the history of the town, many items of which have appeared in the Athol Transcript. A valuable MS. in his possession contains the letters of Captain Park Holland, prepared from a diary kept by him of six years' service in the Revolutionary War, service at (he time of Shays' Rebellion, and surveying tours to the eastern part of what is now the State of Maine. Acknowledgments are made to these various sources of information contained in this article, including courtesies by Mr. C. B. Tillinghast, in charge of the State Library. The preparation of a full history of the town remains for the future. Probably few towns of the State will be found to have more interesting historical resources than are furnished by the annals of Petersham.

1733, John Bennet, Jeremiah Perley and sixtyfive others petitioned the General Court for a grant of land six miles square. The proposed grant was to be located from a point beginning six miles from the northwest corner of Rutland, the southern line running westerly six miles. The reason urged in favor of the grant by the petitioners was previous service in the Indian Wars under Captain Lovell, of Dunstable, and Captain White, of Lancaster. Two previous petitions had been sent to the General Court without avail. This petition was acted upon favorably on the 2.5th day of April, 1733, the General Court having excluded nine of the petitioners and added five new names, making seventy-one proprietors. The grant was at the average rate of three hundred and twenty-four acres per man, or about twice the amount now allowed under the bounty laws of the United States, and may be thought a generous recognition of the " Hardship and Difficult marches they underwent " . . . " after the Inden Enemy and Into their Country,'' which were humbly assigned as reasons for the grant.

It is probable that those marches had at some time led the petitioners over the lands which they thought desirable for a plantation, and that thus the location was fixed in their minds. Some of them were men of means, thus giving the enterprise of establishing a plantation responsible endorsement. The petitioneri lived chiefly in the northwestern part of Middlesex and northeastern part of Worcester Counties. The towns of Lancaster, Boxford, Harvard, Lunenburg, Concord, Groton, Dracut, Haverhill, Billerica, Grafton, Rutland, Sudbury, Worcester, Amesbury, Exeter, N. H., Bedford, Chelmsford and other places were represented among the proprietors.

Farnsworth, Edward Hartwell, Ruben Farnsworth." The five of these petitioners who were excluded by the General Court were: Edward Hartwell, Joseph Wright, Joseph Whelock, Robart Phelps and Jonathan Houghton, Jr.

Nine persons required to be admitted among the proprietors were : Thomas Farmer, Henry Coulburn, Jonathan Farrer, Samuel Shaddock, Samuel Trull, Jacob Corey, Joshua Webster, Abiel Foster, Samuel Tarbol. Thus the names of seventy-one proprietors were recognized in the grant, many of whom never became settlers, but transferred their lands to children or other assignees. In a subsequent report of the names by the proprietors' clerk, the name Aaron Ried appears instead of Aron Rice, and Sam" Terrill in place of Samuel Trull. It may be deemed mare likely that the true names were Ried and Terrill, an imperfect signature possibly explaining the early error, which was corrected by the proprietors' clerk after ample acquaintance.

Samuel Willard appears to have borne the military rank of major; Jeremiah Perley and Jonas Houghton, that of captain; John Bennet and Samuel Tarbol, that of lieutenant.

Services in the Indian War. - The following statement is made by Willson, in his address at the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, of the services referred to in the petition of the proprietors. " What proprietors of this town rendered services under Captain White, of Lancaster, or what the particular services rendered were, it is out of my power to tell ; but we have the means of identifying above forty oftheseventy-oneproprietorsof this town, as having been volunteers under the famous and redoubtable Captain Lovell, of Dunstable, on the last but one of his marches into the Indian country, - they constituting about three-fourths of his whole force. This was the expedition in which a camp of ten Indians was surprised, and the whole number exterminated." It is not easy to pass this allusion without expressing a sense of humiliation in view of the fact that this warfare against the Indians was carried on in pursuance of an ofl'er by Massachusetts of a bounty of one hundred pounds (sterling money) each for the scalps of the Indians. The scalps were brought in and the bounty paid. Aside from the barbarism of this warfare on the part of the whites, which the (>ctitioners shared with the people of Massachusetts, the character of the original proprietors, as thus indicated, is of interest when considered in connection with events which took place at the time of the Revolutionary War. Their martial service was the occasion of a designation of the town, which sometimes appears in the early records as Volunteer's Town, or, by abbreviation, Voluntown. The name borne by established usage from the date of settlement to that of incorporation, 1^54, was Nichewaug. This name

The proprietors held their first meeting in Lancaster, May 10, 1733 ; the second in Groton during the autumn of the same year. At this meeting, in Groton, it was voted that a meeting-house be built. It will be noted that Groton is central between Lancaster, Dunstable and the neighboring towns, from which the recruits for the companies of Captains White and Lovell were enlisted.

Settlees. - More of interest attaches to the names of the early settlers than to those of the proprietors as such, many of whom never located in the town, but disposed of their rights to others. In pursuance of action by the General Court, Thomas Adams, proprietors' clerk, prepared, December 14, 1750, a report of the names of forty-seven settlers, with the proprie tor's right on which they were located. This affords a means of distinguishing this number of settlers by the names which follow : John Stowill, Jacob Wheeler, Jonas Farusworth, Sam" Willson, Nath' Sanderson, Nathan Goddard, Isaac Wardj^Christ'' Page, Isaac Hilldrake, Nath' Stevens, Salvenas How, Joseph Marble, David Stone, Simeon Houghton, David Page, John Wilder, Junr., Dan" Mills, George Dobbins, Sam' Willard, Jun., Esq'., Aaron Allen, Ephraim Rice, Joseph Willson, Sam" Whittemore, William Negus, Sam" Marble, James Clemence, Ebenezer Davis, Thos. Robbins, Dan" Owen, Benj° Chandler, Nath" Wilder, Zedekiah Stone, Ebenez' Hill, David Lawson, Thomas Rogers, Daniel Fisk, Edmund Bingham, Edward Allen, Jon° Marble, David Lawson, Jun'., Sam" Gats, David Sanderson, Dan" Dunkin, Charles Wilder, Aaron Wilder, Dan" Spooner, Eleazer Sanger.

The report closes with this statement : " There are Divers others settled on Devisions belonging to the same Rights that are here settled, but the time being so short since I saw the act in the Prints that I am not aljie at present to give an exact account what particular Rights they are settled on and convey the same to the General assembly by the time appointed; but the number of families in said Township are Sixty-one."

This report dates from four years previous to the incorporation of the town, 1754. The fir.^t census, taken in 1765, showed a population of seven hundred and seven.

Tradition reports that the first two houses in the settlement were built by Joseph Willson and Simeon Houghton, the question of precedence not being determined.

Relations with the Indians. - The proprietors of the town of Petersham acquired by purchase, in addition to the grant of the General Court, an Indian claim upon the land. Probably this contributed to the peaceable relations of the settlers with the claimants, no death by savage violence having ever been reported as occurring within the town. We have a glimpse of the early time in the following description, by Captain Park Holland, whose father came to the town from Shrewsbury in 1752, of an alarm at the time of the French and Indian War, 1756: "I recollect as distinctly as if but yesterday when the inhabitants were called upon to be ready to defend themselves. We were at church when news came that the enemy was near. The services were immediately ended, and each man seized his gun, which he had left at the door, hastened home to be ready to march in the morning. I well remember one of our neighbors coining to borrow a darning-needle of ray mother to mend her husband's stockings, which I very much wondered at, it being Sunday, not exactly seeing how the expected approach of the French and Indiana could lessen the sin of working on that holy day. I was then probably four or five years old." As this was an alarm it appears that their habit was to take their guns to church, which at a later date has not been thought to be in good form. Horr quotes Whitney to the same eflect in the following passage : "Although the prospects from the soil were very promising, and settlers moved in fast, yet they laboured under many and exceeding great di.>-:advantages, being then so remote from any white people, from whom they could procure the necessaries of life, or derive any aid or support. While in its infancy and struggling for life, a French war broke out, and the Indians, being always in the interest of the French, became hostile, and began to commit depredations in various parts of the land, which occasioned the few inhabitants great fear and danger, obliging them to build forts in different parts of the town, round certain houses, into each of which a number of families moved for safety and defence, and soldiers were stationed there as a guard to the inhabitants, and to reconnoitre the country. The people used to labor on their lands in small parties, changing work with one another, having their guns by them, and these, also, they were for a long time obliged to carry with them whenever they went to the House of God for religious worship, and also to place sentinels at the doors."