East Blackstone, Massachusetts

Richardson had land laid out on the lower course of Mill River in 1700 and upon (iuickstream in 1702. Of this man we know nothing further, save the fact that in 1699 he received the usual bounty per head from the town of Mendon for killing five grown wolves. It is probable that this pioneer in the pleasant fields of the coming East Blackstone was accompanied by other proprietors and those who were not proprietors. Two years before, in 1698, the Rehoboth road was laid out down through the Mill River Valley from Mendon town to the Dedham- line, corresponding nearly to the Bellingham line. Elm Street in our days represents this most ancient of our legal highways. By family tradition rather than by any records we know that the founders of the two families of Daniels and Thayer were fairly settled in the northeastern portion of the tow-n about 1710, and owned and occupied the land in that section by proprietor's rights.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

The people of the Mill River section of the Mendon South Parish seem to have been largely Anabaptists and Friends. Until the beginning of the present century the latter had attended the meeting in Mendon village, where the Friends built a meeting-house in 1729. In 1799 Samuel Smith, a well-to-do farmer belonging to the society, conveyed a piece of land to trustees for the erection of a meeting-house on the southern margin of his farm. Here, in 1812, was erected the building still standing, and meetings twice in the week were held here with the greatest regularity for many years. This meeting absorbed the membership from Mendon Meeting when the latter was discontinued in 1841. The Anabaptists were associated with others of that view in the town of Bellingham, and never erected any house in East Blackstone.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

Under date of August 22, 1791, the Mendon records contain the report of a committee of ten who had been appointed to redistrict the town into school districts. This committee reported the bounds of thirteen districts, of which seven appear to have been in the South Parish. The following are the words of the report defining what is now the Five Corner District: "Beginning at the Wid. Margaret Daniel's, excluding her, thence east on the Mill River to where David Handy lives, including him, thence to Hop Brook bridge (so called) on Smithfield road, thence to Benjamin and Nicholas Thayer's, including them, thence northward to the first bound." The East Blackstone and the Harris Privilege Districts were combined as follows : " Beginning at Hop Brook bridge, thence to Anthony Chase, including him, thence to Cumberland line, thence to Bellingham line, thence to Jotham Pickering's, including him, thence to Ichabod Pickering's, including him, thence to Seth Kelly's, including him, thence to first mentioned bound." The Waterford and Blackstone Districts were defined thus: "Beginning at George Gaskill's, including him, thence to Cogswell Chase, including him, thence up stream to the Great River until it comes south of Matthew Darling's house, thence to Jacob Aldrich's, including him, thence to Gideon Thayer's, excluding him, thence to the firstmentioned bound." Millville District was divided in two by the Blackstone River. The southern section is bounded : " Beginning at Uxbridge line, where it crosses the Great River, thence down stream the Great River to the Colony line, thence west on said Colony line to Uxbridge line, thence on Uxbridge line to the bound first mentioned." The northern section was bounded : " Beginning at Uxbridge line diiectly west of the Widow Warfield's house, thence to Benjamin Blake's, excluding him, thence to Matthew Darling's, including him, thence south to the Great River, thence up stream said river till it comes to Uxbridge line, thence to first mentioned bound." The Chestnut Hill District, less extensive than at present, was bounded: "Beginning at Nathaniel Taft's, including him, thence to Col. Joseph Chapin's old house, including him, thence to Uxbridge line to Jacob Taffs, including him, thence to Levi Young's, including him, thence to Jesse Tourtelotte's, including him, thence to first mentioned bound," which appears to be a section of the North Parish. Now Mendon: "Beginning at Timothy Alexander's, including him and Simon Alexander, thence to David Legg's, including him, thence on Uxbridge line until it comes directly west of the Widow Warfield's house, thence to Asa Blake's, including him, thence to Benjamin Blake's, including him and his son, Zaccheus, thence to the first mentioned bound.'' Between the Five Corners District and the district just described was another district now divided between them : " Beginning at Damp Swamp road, where the Parish line crosses, thence to Timothy Alexander's, excluding him, thence to Benjamin Blake's, excluding him, thence to the road south of said Benjamin Blake's house, thence to Gideon Thayer's, includino' him, thence east to Hop Brook bridge, thence up stream said brook to the first mentioned bound." As thus defined the school districts remained until September 2, 1811, when the town accepted the report of a committee, advising the union of the two sections at Millville into one district, and the constituting of the village property of the the Blackstone Manufacturing Company a new district. The first part of this change did not prove acceptable, for on the 5th of June, 1812, it was "voted to set oil" all the inhabitants on the west side of Black^tone River, except Esek Pitts, Daniel Southwick and Nathaniel Capron, as a school district." On the 2Sth of June, 1824, the school districts were again defined, but substantially as already described. Prudential school committees were first chosen on 25th of August, 1827, and on that date the number of districts was unchanged, but at their election, April 15, 1833, two new districts are added - -Pickering's, or Harris Privilege, and Waterford. A few years later we find the whole number of districts in the South Parish to be eleven, and with that number the town of Blackstone began its corporate existence. Both Chestnut Hill and the Five Corners had school-houses shortly after 1790.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Blackstone Town - it names this place 13 more 13 times.