Gilbertville, Massachusetts

A Congregational Society was organized at Gilbertville about 1860, and held its services in a hall, built by Mr. George H. Gilbert, until the dedication of their stone church, September 10, 1874. Towards the construction of this church Mr. George H. Gilbert, who died in 1869, bequeathed the sum of twenty thousand dollars, the George H. Gilbert Manufacturing Company gave twenty thousand dollars and a piece of land with the foundation for the structure, Mrs. Gilbert presented the society with an organ and her children with the furniture and a window as a memorial of a beloved sister. The various pastors and supplying ministers of this society have been Rev. William H. Beecher, Rev. Rufus P. Wells, Rev. Willard D. Brown and the present pastor. Rev. Arthur Titcomb.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

On the 6th of February, 1833, a gore of land lying at "the southeasterly part of Hardwick and adjoining said town, called Hardwick gore, containing about two hundred acres, beginning at a monument in the pond above Anderson's mill, at a place where the westerly line of ^ew Braintree leaves Ware River; thence on the said westerly line of New Braintree south fourteen degrees east one hundred and twenty-two rods to a stone monument; thence south thirty-seven degrees west two hundred and eighty-nine rods to another stone monument, at the southwest corner of New Braintree and northeast corner of Ware ; thence north eighty-seven degrees west thirty-six rods to said Ware River; thence on the said river northerly four hundred and twenty-one rods to the southeast corner of Hardwick; thence sixty-one rods to the place of beginning, together with the inhabitants thereof," was annexed to Hardwick. This last annexation furnished the territory on which the village of Gilbertville is chiefly built, and on which a large part of the population of the town have their residences.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

The industries of Hardwick', aside from agriculture, are chiefly confined to the Page Paper Company, which is in successful operation, and ihe George H. Gilbert Manufacturing Company, engaged in the manufacture of flannels. Until within a few years other paper-mills were in operation, and in earlier times there were forges and furnaces doing profitable work, and employing a considerable number of hands. The George H. Gilbert Manufacturing Company is the successor of George H. Gilbert & Co., and was incorporated May 27, 1867, with an authorized capital of $600,000. On the 1st of April, 1868, it was organized with a capital of $250,000, and George H. Gilbert and Lewis N. Gilbert were chosen president and treasurer. The company operates five mills - one granite mill on the Ware side of the river, where the office of the company is situated, and four of brick, on the Hardwick side of the river, in what ia called Gilbertville. They own besides three or four hundred acres of land and about two hundred tenements, which constitute, with the factories, the most extensive plant for the manufacture of flannels in the United States. George H. (iilbert was born in Brooklyn, Conn., February 15, 1806, and removed to Pomfret, where he lived until he was eighteen years of age. He then went to Sutton, in Massachusetts, and learned the carpenter's trade. From 1827 to 1832 he lived in Worcester, and was engaged in the occupation of a machinist. In 1S32 he removed to North Andover, and was employed as a journeyman in a machine-shop until, as a partner in the firm of Barnes; Gilbert & Richardson, he began the business of manufacturing woolen machinery, to which, finally, Davis & Fnrber succeeded. In August, 1841, he removed to Ware, and, in connection with Charles A. Stevens, of North Andover, bought the property of the Hampshire Manufacturing Company, on the south side of Ware River, including land and woolen-mill, for the sum of $35,000. The business of the mill, carried on by its owners under the firm-name of Gilbert & Stevens, was at first confined to the manufacture of broadcloth and cloakings, with five sets of machinery, but was soon changed to the manufiicture of flannels. In 1846 the firm built a granite-mill in Ware, on the privilege next below the other mill, which was taken by Mr. Gilbert on the dissolution of the partnership, in 1851. On the 1st of July, 1857, Mr. Gilbert formed a partnership with his nephew, Lewis N. Gilbert, under the title of George H. Gilbert & Co. Lewis N. Gilbert was a native of Pomfret, and entered his uncle's office in 1851, at the age of fifteen years, and consequently became a partner at the early age of twenty-one. In May, 1860, the firm bought a water privilege in Hardwick, on the same stream, with a spoke-shop and twenty acres of land, on which several tenements stood, and erected a brick mill. This was the birth of Gilbertville, which has since become so important a part of the old town. In 1863 a second mill was built, in 1864, a third, and in 1867, a fourth. After the death of Mr. George H. Gilbert, which occurred May 6, 1869, Lewis N. Gilbert became president, and Charles D. Gilbert, son of the deceased president, born in Ware in 1846, became treasurer.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., 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 Hardwick Town - it names this place 2 more 2 times.