Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 115, 1889

Relations To The State And Nation

The spirit of patriotism and of loyalty to those principles of civil and religious liberty which are embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and which underlie both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the American Republic, has from the beginning animated the hearts and actuated the lives of the sons and daughters of this representative New England town. If at any time it has seemed to slumber or grow cold, it would, on occasion, revive again, and burn and glow with renewed ardor and zeal, ready to meet bravely any emergency, to stand fast in any lot, and to endure any hardship or sacrifice for liberty's sake, to vindicate the honor of the old Bay State or to save the imperiled country.

Gardner was not incorporated until after the signing of the treaty of 1783, whereby the English colonies in America were acknowledged and declared by the mother country to be free and independent, - until the thunders of the Revolution had died away upon the air. Nevertheless, a goodly number of its early citizens had taken part in the great struggle, and had shared, with those better known to fame, the honors and rewards with which a h.ird-won but glorious victory had been crowned. Thirty-five of the early ciiizens of the town are known to have been connected with the Continental Army in one capacity or another.

or to have contributed by personal service in some difterent form to the mighty achievement which broke forever the bonds of colonial allegiance to despotic power, and it is more than probable that several others whose names are not found on any existing records belonged to the same triumphant patriotic category. The list of Revolutionary soldiers, as derived from trustworthy authorities, is as follown :

Several of these were commissioned officers, though it does not appear that any of them ro.'*e to a higher position than that of captain. Elisha Jackson had command of a company of minute-men raised by order of the Provincial Congress, and with those under him hurried away to Cambridge on receiving tidings of the battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. William Bickford and Josiah Wheeler had been soldiers in the French and Indian Wars. Ebenezer Bolton and David Foster were at the battle of Bunker Hill, the latter helping to carry the body of General .Joseph Warren from the field. Jonathan Bancroft, Benjamin Eaton, Reuben Haynes and Samuel Stone were at the taking of Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 17, 1777, the most important of all the victories of the seven years' contest.

It was about a year after the incorporation of the town that the general feelino; of unrest and disquietude in the central and western parts of Massachusetts arose, which ripened later into that episode in post-Revolutionary history denominated "Shays' Rebellion.'' The citizens of Gardner at the outset sympathized very fully with the prevailing dissatisfaction caused by excessive taxation, a depreciated currency, and other conditions of political and social life consequent upon a long and costly war, which, combined with the poverty of the masses of the people, made the public burdens " heavy indeed, and grievous to be borne." They therefore, with commendable heartiness and dispatch, responded to a call for a convention, to be held at Paxton on the 26lh of the following November, for the purpose of consulting upon the existing grievances, and of finding some way of relief from the disabilities and burdens to which all classes of the population were subject, and at a legal town-meeting chose Captain Samuel Kelton as delegate thereto, and instructed him in regard to his action at its sittings. It cannot be learned from the records that the delegate made any report of his mission, or of the doings of the convention, or that the town took any further action in the matter. It is but reasonable to suppose that the citizens, seeing to what extremes the master-spirits of that and kindred gatherings were inclined to go, and that there was violence and treason in the movement as it was manipulated, could not find it in their hearts to have anything more to do with it. Their sense of justice and of patriotic duty would not allow them, probably, to be parties to the bloody designs of the leading agitators, and so quietly allowed the whole subject to go by default, so far as they were concerned. By this course they fortunately escaped becoming involved 10 any extent in those measures which led speedily on to open insurrection or mad defiance of the State government, and which came to their tragic culmination at Springfield on the 25th of the following January, 1787, when five of the insurgents were killed by the United States troops stationed there, in an insane attempt to capture the arsenal of the Federal Government, and its military stores. The repulse of the assaulting party on that occasion virtually put an end to the whole wicked and foolhatdy aflfair.

Although the town, in its corporate capacity, appears to have been absolved from all complicity with the rebellion, yet there were several individuals who were so far implicated as to be required to go before a justice of the peace, take and subscribe to aa oath of allegiance to the State and National governments, and deliver up such fire-arms as might be in their possession. Certificates from magistrates attesting to the fact that at least three persons conformed to that requirement, and so may be judged guilty of some act of disloyalty in connection with the revolt, were received by the town clerk in the spring of 1787, and were copied in full into the records. The impartial historian, looking through the vista of more than a hundred years, sees some justification for the discontent which prevailed during the critical period under notice, even while pronouncing emphatic condemnation upon those violent, blood-thirsty spirits, who would not only have sacrificed human life to an indefinite extent to gain their ends, but imperiled all those precious interests which the recently-closed Kevolutionai-y War had been waged to secure.

The year 179-t was a year of great discontent and excitement throughout the entire country. There were various causes for this unfortunate state of the public mind. The trouble with the Indians of the great Northwest, the so-called Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, which at one time assumed threatening proportions and called for the intervention of the general g )vernmeut, the complications growing out of the conduct of the minister of the new French Republic, and, perhaps, most of all, the growing feeling that England was not fulfilling the terms of the

Treaty of 1783 honestly and in good faith, arousing in many quarters a disposition to let loose upon her again the dogs of war - all these things served to unsettle the public mind and to jeopardize the public welfare. The wisdom and statesmanship of President Washington were taxed to the utmost to avert threatening ills and guide the Ship of State safely through the troubled waters to serener and safer seas. Pending eftbrts to secure by peaceful means and in quiet ways assumed-to-be-invaded rights, to allay popular disquietude and to promote public order and tranquillity, he deemed it wise and prudent to put the country in a state of defence and to prepare it for whatever emergency might arise. Measures were instituted to that end. State governments rallied to the support of the National authority, and seconded its methods and plans of action. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued a call to all the towns to raise certain quotas of men, who should be ready at the shortest notice for any service to which they might be called. Gardner responded with loyal good will. In town-meeting it was voted " to give a bounty of twenty shillings to men who should enlist, when they were called into service, and to make up their wages to ten dollars per month." A military company was formed, with William Bickford captain, which was kept under drill till the crisis was passed and the statute requiring its formation repealed.

Upon the issuing of the proclamation of war against Great Britain, in 1812, by President Madison, the people of Gardner were evidently largely in sympathy with the so-called Federal Party of the country, the members of which were disposed to regard the action of the Chief Magistrate with disfavor, and to look upon the conflict which such action was designed to inaugurate as not only unnecessary and unjustifiable on general principles of national polity, but as hostile to the best interests of the Kepublic. Under this prepossession, they were moved to join with their fellow citizens of other towns and localities in creating a movement or state of public sentiment which should have a tendency to terminate hostilities even before they had fairly opened, and avert the calamities which it was claimed by the Federalists would inevitably result from a continuance of the struggle. They accordingly sent Eev. Jonathan Osgood a delegate to a convention held at Worcester on the 12th day of August, only a few weeks after war was declared " to consult upon the alarming condition of our country " and " to petition the President of the United States to bring about a speedy and honorable peace with Great Britain. '

But the efforts of the opponents of the war were without avail. The national administration was fully committed to its declared policy, and was not to be dissuaded from its purpose to urge it forward with all possible vigor and efficiency. Seeing that there was no alternative in the matter, and deeming the cordial support of the regularly constituted govern- ment a token of loyalty to the nation, the citizens of Gardner, or at least a reputable proportion of them, responded to the call for enlistments in the public service. A company of militia was organized under the name of the Gardner Light Infantry, which was soon ordered to repair to South Boston for Ihe defence of the metropolis of New England against any possible attacks from British cruisers that were looking for vulnerable points all along the Atlantic coast, and there it remained on duty until the cessation of hostilities, early in 1815. The ofiicers of this company were: Ephraim Williams, captain; Samuel Sawin, lieutenant; Joel Cowee, ensign; Ebenezer Bolton, Charles Hoar, Benjamin Stone and Reuben Wheeler, sergeants. The organization was maintained for some twenty years, but, fortunately, there was no occasion for its being called again to swell the ranks of horrid war.

But there are duties which the patriotic citizen owes his country in times of peace as well as when commotion fills the air, and armed foes threaten the public welfare and the nation's life. And these the people of Gardner discharged with more or less of constancy and fidelity, according to personal conviction or party preference, for nearly half a century, little apprehending the fiery ordeal through which they were to be called to pass. But it came nevertheless, and they rose to meet it with wonderful unanimity and alacrity, - with characteristic and praiseworthy loyalty and zeal. When the mutterings of secession first arose, after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States in the autumn of 1860, and when, in the following April, by the firing upon Fort Sumter, open and armed rebellion against both the constituted authority of the nation and the Republic itself in the interest and for the perpetuation of chattel slavery was inaugurated, they girded the loins of their strength about them, and, in the name of outraged justice and an insulted flag, they rallied to the support of the Federal Government, and furnished men and means to repel the domestic invader and suppress the unwarranted and traitorous revolt.

On the 30th of April, in response to the proclamation of the President declaring the existence of an armed rebellion in the slave holding States, and calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to meet the rising foe and overthrow the conspiracy, a special town-meeting was held for the purpose of taking appropriate action in the way of meeting the demands of the crisis. At that meeting it was unanimously

Voted, That the Belectmen be and hereby are authorized to purchase, at the expense of the town, clothing or uniforms (suitable for wear in actual service) sufli-ictit for the members of a volunteer militia company, which may be raised by enlistment of the citizens or inhabitants of the town, and be organized agreeably to the laws of the Common. wealth, on or before the first day of June next. Provided, that said company shall pledge themselves to enter the service of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or of the government of the United States, to defend and sustain said government against the traitors and rebels, which now or may hereafter threaten its destruction, if called -for by the proper authority or authorities for that purpose at any time within one year from the date of the organization of said company. Also provided that, if an entire company cannot be raised in the town of Gardner, the selectmen are hereby authorized to furnish uniforms or clothing, as aforesaid, to such citizens or inhabitants of said town as shall enter the service of their country for the purpose aforesaid.

Voted, That the selectmen pay to the order of the several members of a militia company, which may be raised from the citizens of the town, or to the order of their families in their absence, the sum of one dollar per day, payable monthly, for three months from the commencement of actual service.

The same spirit which is manifeated in these initial votes of the town was displayed throughout the entire four years of the war, prompting corresponding action from time to time as the exigencies of the country required. In illustration of this fact, a few instances of what was done, and a few only, are here referred to. On the 23d of July it was " Voted, that the selectmen be and hereby are authorized to offer a bounty of one hundred dollars (in addition to the bounty now offered by government) for each and every volunteer who may enlist into the service of the United States on or before the fifteenth of August next as a part of the quota of forty men to be furnished by the town of Gardner under the late requisition of the Governor of Massachusetts, and that the sum of $4,200 be and hereby is appropriated by said town for the purpose of carrying the same into effect." A month later the same bounty was again voted, and the sum of six thousand dollars was appropriated accordingly. By vote of the town passed June 27, 1863, the selectmen were authorized to draw on the treasurer at their discretion for funds to render "the necessary aid to the families of those who have been or may be engaged in the military service of the United States." On the 4th of April, 1864, one hundred and twenty-five dollars was voted to " each recruit under the recent call of the President." Similar votes were passed at several successive dates during the remaining period of the conflict.

According to a carefully prepared list of the number of men sent by the town to aid in the suppression of the slave-holders' rebellion, there were two hundred and ninety -one in all, of whom one hundred and eighty-five, including half a dozen re-enlistments, were citizens or residents, the others being engaged from outside to fill the required quotas. Of those belonging to the place, seven were slain in battle, three died of wounds, seventeen were victims of various diseases incident to the fortunes of war, while a number of others, returning home, sunk slowly into their graves as the result of ailments contracted while connected with the army ; others, yet living, have been sufferers from maladies or disabilities incurred in the same way.

It has been estimated that the whole amount of money expended by the people of Gardner during the four years of the war, for the purpose of prosecuting it and carrying it to a successful issue in the complete suppression of the Rebellion, was sixty-two thousand two hundred and sixty-niue dollars, according to the following itemized statement:

This sura, according to the census of 1860, would be nearly twenty-four dollars to each man, woman and child in the town, or at the rate of almost six dollars a year, which may be regarded as the actual annual cost of the Rebellion to every inhabitant during its continuance. Aside from this vast expenditure, there has been paid what is called State Aid, which comes primarily and substantially from the citizens of Gardner, being included in the State tax. The amount of this at first was twenty -three hundred and twelve dollars, but has been reduced to about six hundred dollars a year. And this payment is to continue, though in constantly diminishing figures, as time goes on, indefinitely, or until the last man in Gardner who heard and answered his country's call during those years of her distress and threatened overthrow, 1861-65, shall have passed beyond the realm of all earthly conflicts and of all mortal needs, when it may be said of him :

Since the close of the war the citizens of Gardner have been content and happy in following the pursuits and fulfilling the obligations of their common every-day-life, in guarding and fostering their domestic and social interests, in providing for the general needs of the community, in giving encouragement to both private and public morality and piety, in promoting the growth and prosperity of the town, all of which things sustain definite relations to the national welfare, and in discharging the more quiet but highly iniportant duties of good citizenship in the spirit of true loyalty to those principles and institutions of civil and religious liberty which the republic properly regarded represents and was founded to maintain and perpetuate. Their patriotism, though it may not display and report itself in those more open and striking forms assumed in the time of the great uprising, is nevertheless, as may be believed and hoped, burning, a steady, never-dying flame, within their breasts, ready as of yore to respond to any call of the country for brave defenders in the hourof peril, should it come again, and for true and noble men and women always and forever, in whom alone, with the favor of God, is to be found its assurance of permanent prosperity and of unfading glory.