Dudley Town

Dudley Town

Dudley, located in the south central section of the county, between the French River upon the east and the Quinebaug upon the west, comprising about thirteen thousand acres, was named in honor of the Dudley family, first English proprietors of this territory, descendants of Governor Thomas Dudley, one of the patentees of the Massachusetts Colony. This township is part of the land west of the Kultatuck (now Blackstone) River, conveyed by deed February 10, 1681, from the Nipmuck Indians to ^VHliam Stoughton, of Dorchester, and Joseph Dudley, of Roxbury, agents of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in consideration of the payment of fifty pounds, current money of New England. This deed contained the following reservation: "Reserving always unto ourselves, our heirs and assigns out of the above said grant a certain tract of land five miles square, at two such places as we shall choose, to be wholly at our own use and disposal."

This reservation was selected and surveyed in October, 1684, to " Black James " and others. One section extended from Lake Chaubunagnugamaug (now in Webster) to the west of Dudley Hill or the Centre Village, and nearly all subsequently became the property of Hon. Joseph Dudley, which, together with other grants from the province, he retained title to until his decease, April 2, 1720, when they became the property of his ijons, Chief Justice Paul and the Hon. William Dudley, and were soon offered for sale by them. These sales, beginning in 1721, are recorded in the records of Suffolk County, in which they were located previous to the erection of Worcester County in 1731. The earliest purchasers and settlers of these lands were John Healy, Jonas Clark, Philip Newell, William Ward, Benjamin Newell, Nathaniel Ramsdell, Samuel Newell, Joseph Putney, Clement Corbin, Benjamin iSabin, Daniel Williams, Joseph and Ebenezer Edmonds.

In 1731 a petition was presented to the General Court for a grant for a township, the motive being apparently a religious one ; for in the act of incorporation we find the following : " Whereas there are many inhabitants in a tract of land lying between the towns of Woodstock and Oxford, in the county of Worcester, who, together with others, lately settled in the southwest part of Oxford and very remote from any place of public worship of God, ... Be it enacted," etc.

That these early settlers were exceedingly fervent in religious sentiment may be inferred from the fact that upon the records of the town may be found a vote unanimously passed, " to hold a day of fasting and prayer to God for direction in the great and mighty affair of calling and settling a minister."

By authority of the General Court, Joseph Edmonds issued a warrant calling the inhabitants qualified to vote to meet at the house of William Carter (now the property of Deacon Daniel Dwight), June 20, 1732, to vote for all the necessary officers for organizing the town as by law is required.

The meeting was then adjourned to the 29th instant following, when the following business was transacted (Moderator, James Corbin) : " Voted, to have a minister, and to raise the money for his support by a tax upon improved lands and stock, and that William Carter's house be the place to meet to hear the gospel preached."

The selectmen were authorized to procure a minister. Jonathan Newell was appointed to set the psalms in the public worship and Joseph Payson to read them.

A vote was passed to give Rev. Isaac Richardson, the minister, one hundred and fifty pounds, together with one hundred acres of land donated for this purpose by the Hon. William Dudley, and a further salary of eighty pounds the first year, with an increase of five pounds per year until it reached one hundred pounds, which was to be the maximum, and the day of ordination appointed ; but it is the popular belief that the ordination did not take place.

Dudley

A vote was passed valuing all the land in town at twenty shillings per acre and to remain at that value seven years. Also, a committee was chosen to apply to the Legislature to permit a tax on all lands as here voted. At thi.s time none but improved lands could be taxed, unless su authorized by the General Court.

The preliminary acts of the British Government, which excited the colonists and produced the War of the Revolution, did not have much effect upon the people of this town until the closing of the port of Boston .

At a tovvn-meetiug, held on Sept. 20, 1773, it was voted not to act upon the letter received from the Boston Committee. This letter set forth the unconstitutional character of all acts of the English Parliament in framing laws for taxing the Colonies, on the ground of non-representation. But the port of Boston closed, the people lost all indifl'erence, realized that war was inevitable and prepared for the contest.

A Committee of Correspondence and Safety was chosen June 30, 1774, consisting of Capt. John Courtis, Lieut. Timothy Foster, Joseph Vinton, Archibald Jewell and Elisha Corbin.

Sept. 19th the town voted to add to its stock of ammunition, and chose Col. Thomas Cheney to represent the town in the Provincial Congress at Concord. Nine days later the town instructed its constable to collect and keep the province money in his hands till further orders, the town to hold him harmless ; and chose a committee " to settle and establish minutemen."

Dec. 17th it was voted to appropriate the province money in the hands of the collector to buy guns and bayonets ; to adhere to the doings of the General Congress in all matters whatsoever, and to conform to the non-importation agreement.

Jan. 2, 1775, Col. Thomas Cheney was again chosen Representative to the Provincial Congress, this time to be holden at Cambridge. Col. Thomas Cheney was then in his sixty-eighth year; he died two years later, April 30, 1777, and lies buried in Sturbridge. He was a great-grandson of William Cheney, who emigrated from England, with his wife, two sons and two daughters, in 1685, and settled in Roxbury. Col. Thomas was born in Cambridge, 1708 ; held a commission in the Colonial Army ; was present at the taking of Louisbourg, 1745. ("April 21, 1746, Gov. Shirley issued orders to Capt. Thos. Cheney, of Dudley, to march with his Company of GO troopers to Northfield. Indians were lurking in the neighborhood, and men had been murdered a short time before." - Temple and Sheldon's " History of Northfield.") He came to Dudley about 1735, and settled near the present village of West Dudley. The home which he here established has ever since remained in the possession of direct descendants.

News of the battle of Lexington, April lit, 1775, spread like wild-fire and before the close of the next day the following minute-men were on their way to Boston under the command of Capt. Craft : Jonathan Day, John Blood, Eben Amadon, Nat. Clark, Elisha Corbin, Lemuel Corbin, Benj. Edmonds, Jonas Fairbanks, Wm. Learned, Stephen Sly, Eben White, Jr.

The following were minute-men in Capt. Nathaniel Healy's company in Col. Ebenezer Learned's regiment, who, immediately after the battle of Lexington, with his regiment, reported for service at Cambridge, and with Colonels Prescott and Warren ordered to join General Thomas at Roxbury : Capt. Nat. Healy, Lieut. David Keith, Ensiga Saml. Healy, Sergeants Timothy Foster, .fohn Bacon, Eleazer Jackson, Asa Curtis, Corporals Mark Dodge, Jacob Chamberlain, John Vinton, Joseph Marcy, Drummer John Edmonds, Privates William Jordan, Jeremiah Haskell, Ephraim Corbin, Nathan Inman, Benj. Upham, Ebenezer Griggs, Timothy Vinton, Asa Robinson, Jesse Sabin, Moses Jewell, Joseph Healy, David Haskell, John White, Benj. Kidder, Ira Green, Amasa Marshall, Ebenezer Jewell, Geo. Robinson, Ebenezer Edmonds, John Mason, Ezekiel Hovey, Ichabod Kocks, William Carter, Jonathan Foster, Benj. Inman, Shadrach Smith, Stephen Edmonds, Stephen Healy.

From a muster-roll of a subsequent date we take the following names, members of the same company, omitting such as have been already given : Sergeant William Corbin, Corporal Amos Hooker, Fifer Stephen Healy, Privates John Phipps, Ebenezer Dodge, .lames Brown, Elijah Couvers, Jonathan Willard, Lemuel Edmonds, Richard F. Hunt, Aaron Wakefield, John Dodge, Joseph Cody, Asa Edmonds, Nathan Fletcher, Samuel Hibbard, Samuel Kidder, Amos Commins, Amos Wakefield.

Upon a roster of Capt. Courtis' company, same regiment, are found the following names of men from this town : Nathaniel Corbin, Benjamin Havens, Joseph Peagon, Gideon Sabin, Thomas Carroll, Samuel Peagon, Caleb Kidder ; also in Captain Lemuel Corbin's company from Dudley, detached for Rhode Island on alarm of July 13, 1780 : Lieut. Joseph Keith, Sergeant William Wasson, Corporals William Smith, John Heath and Wm. Foster, Privates Aaron Albee, Ichabod Chamberlain, Hosea Howard, Jesse Jewell, Thomas Morris, Russel Smith, Simeon Upham, Solomon Wakefield, John Comstock, Wm. Westcott, William Brown, Ebenezer Hibbard, Lemuel Healy, Joel Lee, Nathan Sly, Nathan Fitts, Stephen Wood, Obed Warren, Joseph Foster.

A return of the mnle inhabitants from 10 years oUi and upwards and also the men engaged in the Continental service in the county of Worcester, with the nuniherand deficiency of each town, in obedience to an order of the Great and General Court passed the 3d Feb., 1778.

Dl'DLEV, April 18, 1781. We, the suhscril)ers, having recJ., each of us. One Hundred Pounds in money and sureties of silver money at the rate of six shillings and eight pence per ounce for our engaging in the Continental service for three years. We say received each of us.i

Sir : - Agreeable to your direction, I have raised three men for the 9 months' sei-vice in the Continental Army. Their names are as follows : Zarana Smith, of Dudley, in Col. Holman's Eegiment and Capt. Healy's Company - 6 feet 7 in., well set; age, 24 years; light complexion.

Thus we observe this town sent at least fifty-three bona fide citizens into the Continental army, a number equal to one-fourth its total male population above sixteen years of age; and when we consider the heavy burdens endured in furnishing bounties and supplies for the army we may gain an idea of what it cost to plant the tree of American liberty and independence ; for the history of this town during that unprecedented struggle is but the history of others. I The spirit which animated our patriots of 76 found I a ready response in '61, and that early cry echoed back with one hundred and seventy-three enlistments, besides the incurring of a debt of twenty thousand dollars. Upon memorial tablets in Academy Hall are inscribed the names of twenty-seven Dudley heroes who sacrificed their lives upon fields of battle, in prisons and impaired health, in defense of that heritage of right, ireedom and unity established and handed down to them by their fathers.

The early settlers experienced no very great annoyances at the hands of their aboriginal neighbors. These had been visited in 1673 by the Kev. John Eliot, and again the following year ; the object, as stated by Gookin, was to travel amongst them, confirm their souls in the Christian religion, to settle teachers, and establish civil government among them, as in other praying towns. During this visit a warrant or order was published empowering the constable, " Black James," " to suppress drunkeness, Sabbath-breaking, especially pow-wowing and idolatry." Their first teacher was one Sampson, who strove diligently to civilize and elevate his native brethren, and half a century later the swarthy descendants of his charges donate the land upon which is built the first meeting-house erected in the town of Dudley, conditioned with a right for them to occupy convenient seats in the same.

The soil in the valleys of the French and Quinebaug Elvers is generally of a porous nature, and requires frequent tillage and a liberal application of fertilizers to produce good crops ; but as the centre of the town is approached the subsoil becomes more and more of an argillaceous nature, yielding finer crops with much less labor. As a whole, this township is regarded as a region charmingly interspersed with handsome hills, verdant valleys, rivulets, fine forests and beautiful ponds. A ridge of gneiss of excellent quality, commencing at a point a short distance from the French River, extends in a northwesterly direction in an almost unbroken line, and enters the town of Charlton on its southern boundary, and is quarried for building and street-curbing purposes.

Owing to the uniformly good yields of grass, grain and vegetables which this locality afforded, population increased rapidly until the beginning of the Revolution, when it remained about stationary until the establishment of manufacturing industries in 1812.

During this decade - 1810 to 1820 - population increased thirty-two per cent., notwithstanding that a considerable portion of its western border was set off to form the town of Southbridge, 181(>. During the next decade the increase equaled thirty-four per cent., its inhabitants numbering 2155. During the next decade, in the year 1832, all its territory east of the French River was incorporated as part of the town of Webster. By this act of the Legislature the town of Dudley lost thirty -seven per cent, of its population and the most valuable part of its productive resources, and received a check from which it did not recover till 1870. Its population, according to the census of 1885, is 2742. Its agricultural productions aggregate a value of $155,395. Among the three hundred and forty-eight cities and towns in this Commonwealth, it ranks 130 in point of population, and 115 for agriculture, while for textile productions its rank is 22. In all manufacturing industries 82.

Though a majority of the people are engaged in mechanical pursuits, agriculture has not been neglected, and as a consequence Dudley contains many beautiful farm homesteads. An active Farmers' Club was established several years ago, which during its existence afforded its members many social and pecuniary advantages. Its principal feature con.sisted in the reading of original essays upon agricultural and allied topics, following by general discussions supplemented by music, readings, etc. This organization the past year (1888) merged into a subordinate grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, and is in a very prosperous condition, with a membership of seventy-five.

Dudley ruralists are readers, and upon the tables of many a farm home may be found the leading periodicals of the day. Lyceums and district libraries have been established, and in all directions efforts are made to keep step with the march of civilization.

Dudley Hill, before the introduction of railroads, was the centre of trade for all surrounding villages, and before the building of the Norwich and Worcester line a large business was developed here. This line located its depot on the east side of the river in Webster, which side possessed topographical advantages superior to those of the west side. With an increase of population, brought about by the introduction of the shoe manufacturing industry and the enlargement of the mills in that section, the centre of trade has changed.

Owing to this fact, and that there has always existed the closest harmony and feelings of good fellowship between the citizens of Dudley and Webster in this direction, Dudley has developed nothing above the village store. Indeed, outside their crporate aft'airs, both towns may be regarded as one community. Many of their citizens worship before the same altar ; citizens of one town are owners of real estate in the other; church and bank officers are chosen without regard as to residence ; members of the Grand Army, Sons of Veterans, literary, benevolent, temperance, Masonic and Odd-Fellow confraternities meet and labor in perfect concord, unbiased even in thought by territorial considerations. The owner of the largest woolen manufacturing establishment in town resides across the river, and one corporation - the Slater Woolen Co. - has gone so far as to span the river- and, under cover of its roof, one may enter upon the Dudley side, and, passing along amid the hum of busy machinery, leave it to step upon Webster soil.

Ample provision is annually made for the support of public schools, four-tenths or nearly one-half the annual appropriations being devoted to this purpose and various means adopted to secure to them the most advanced methods of public school instruction. By a wise provision, at a cost of twelve thousand dollars, and an annual payment of one thousand dollars to the trustees of Nichols Academy, this town is entitled to all the advantages this, the best equipped institution of its kind in the country, affords as a preparatory school. Amasa Nichols was its founder. He erected the first structure in 1815 entirely at his own expense at a cost of ten thousand dollars. Unfortunately, his first building was burned when nearly completed, April 11, 181G. With a perseverance worthy of much praise he proceeded with the work of rebuilding and in the latter part of the year 1818 opened the scoool. Soon after it was incorporated as a regular academy, managed by a board of fifteen trustees, viz. : Esquires Amasa Nichols, Jonathan Davis, John Spurr, Isaiah Rider, John Kettell, Rev. Thos. Jones, Rev. Paul Dean, Dr. Daniel Lamb, Benj. Russell, John Brown, Luther Ammidown, Benj. Gleason, Rev. Hosea Ballon, Rev. Edward Turner, Dr. Abraham R. Thompson.

In 1825 the Legislature donated to the academy half a township of Maine wild lands, which the trustees sold for two thousand five hundred dollars and received by individual subscriptions one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars more.

Mr. Nichols founded this school with the view of making it a college for the use of the Universalists, and when, in 1823, the Hon. Geo. H. Tufts and Col. William Hancock, Trinitarian Congregationalists, were elected to the board of trustees, Mr. Nichols immediately resigned.

The school now became non-sectarian. Col. Hancock later in life gave to the institution six thousand dollars, known as the Hancock Fund, and in a letter to a friend expressed the " hope that others hereafter may do better." Joseph Congdon, at his decease, in 1883 bequeathed two thousand dollars.

But Hezekiah Conant, of the Conant Thread Company, Pawtucket, R. I., born in Dudley, July 28th, 1827, an alumnus of Nichols Academy, has been its most munificent benefactor, surpassing in his gifts the most sanguine expectations of its past or present friends. The three brick buildings and their equipments now occupied by the school, with the extensive improvements of the grounds, have all been completed at his expense since 1880.

The Academy School building of Grothic architecture is believed to be unsurpassed in convenience, and contains the large and pleasant recitation rooms, rooms for apparatus, and Academy Hall, capable of seating five hundred persons.

The " Conant Library and Observatory " contains the library of over two thousand volumes, the readingroom, the instruments of the United States Signal Service - made by Casella, of London, and Draper Company, of New York - the telegraph office and the tower for the telescope. The six and a half inch aperture reflecting telescope, equatorially mounted, was imported expressly for this institution.

James Coates, of Paisley, Scotland, has presented a celestial and terrestrial telescope of four and a half inch aperture, made by A. Clark & Son, of Cambridge, Mass.

A right ascension clock, designed by Mr. Conant and constructed by E. Howard & Co., of Boston, furnishes the standard and the sidereal time, as well as the exact right ascension of the sun for any instant. It has attracted much attention from experts, and one who has mastered its uses may be considered a practical astronomer. It is a duplex, differential instrument - duplex, because it is composed of two separate independent clock movements, each of which will run of itself, as it has a weight and pendulum of its own, whether its fellow is in motion or not; it is differential, because the two movements are so connected to a third train, that a difference in their rates of speed induces motion in this third which records said difference second by second as fast as any is established.

The transit instrument and the chronographer, both made by Fauth & Co., of Washington, D. C, were placed in position July 4, 1888. The former is well adapted for extra meridian observations, and is located in latitude north 42° 02' 40.84'', longitude west 71° 55' 58.78". The observatory is the best equipped of any in New England outside of the colleges, and affords the fullest opportunity for practical work.

The boarding-house was first occupied in September, 1885, and contains rooms for the principal, assistants and forty students, and. is fitted and furnished throughout in the best manner.

By the provision of Mr. Conant the number of instructors was increased in 1886 and the courses of study extended, so as to thoroughly prepare students for the best colleges and technical schools, and instruction is successfully given in mechanical and free-hand drawing, practical surveying, astronomy and experimental chemistry.

The alumni hold annual meetings of great interest to the public, having a special address, poem, dinner and graduating-class exercises, with tree-planting and distribution of diplomas.

The Congregational Church was organized in 1732, and in the first town-meeting held after the organization of the town provision was made for its support, and William Carter's house, now the residence ot Deacon Daniel Dwight, appointed as the place to meet to hear the Gospel preached. The frame of the first meeting-house was raised October 23, 1734, upon land donated by the Indians for this and other public purposes.

The first settled minister was Rev. Perley Howe, of Killingly, Conn., ordained June 12, 1735; graduated at Harvard Universitv, 1731. Charles Gleason was ordained in 1744, and died here in May, 1790 ; he was from Brookline, Mass., and graduated at Harvard, 1738. Joshua Johnson installed December, 1790, was dismissed May, 1796. He came from Woodstock, Conn., and graduated at Yale, 1775. Abiel Williams, of Raynham, Mass., was ordained June 12, 1799, and dismissed March 16, 1831 ; graduated at Brown University, 1795. James H. Francis was his successor, and was ordained August 24, 1831, a graduate from Yale, 1827, and was from Wethersfield, Conn. Walter Follet was installed November 2, 1837, came from Williston, Vt.; graduated from Middlebury, 1825. Joshua Bates, D.D., installed March 22, 1843 ; died here January, 1854 ; a native of Cohasset, born March 20, 1776 ; admitted to the sophomore class in Harvard College, 1797, aged twenty-one; graduated in the autumn of 1800, and became assistant teacher in Phillips Academy, and commenced at the same time his theological studies under Kev. .Tonathan French, where he continued two years. He was licensed to preach by the Andover Association in April, 1802, was invited soon after to preach at Dedham, and was installed there March 16, 1S03. Hon. Fisher Ames was a parishioner in his society. He resigned this charge in 1818, and in March the same year became president of Middlebury College, Vt., and the same year was honored with the degree of D.D. from Yale College. After twentytwo years at the head of this college he resigned in 1840, aged sixty-four, and the following year held the office of chaplain in the United States Congress. Soon after he preached a short time at Portland, Me., and for two years at Northboro', Mass., and from thence came to Dudley. Dr. Bates' labors for the church in Dudley were attended with marked succe.-s. Through his efforts its debts were canceled and the society reorganized on a sure basis, and the renewed activity he aroused in the church endeared him to those seeking its best interests. While on a pastoral visit in December, 1853, he met with an accident to his carriage, and by his exertions took a severe cold, which brought on the disease that terminated his life January 14, 1854. The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. William B. Sprague, D.D., of Albany, from the text Isaiah liii. 1-2, which has since been published by the request of the church.

Rev. Dr. Bates was succeeded by Rev. Henry Pratt, who graduated at Williams College 1850 and East Windsor Seminary 1853, and continued in the pastoral charge till October, 1869, fifteen years. Since that time there has been no one settled. The following preachers have been engaged temporarily; Rev. F. E. M. Bacheller, one year; Rev. William H. Wolcott, from 1873 to 1880 (he was from Shoreham, Vt.); Rev. Edwin S. Tingley, 1882 to 1887; Rev. S. C. Kendall, 1887, and still remains.

The Baptist denomination formed an organization at an early period in the history of this town and labored under many difficulties through the power granted by law to the "standing order,'' but as there are no records that services were ever held by this denomination within the present limits of the town we omft further mention.

After the organization of the Universalist Society at Oxford, in the year 1785, several persons from Dudley joined in attending and supporting that organization for many years. Not until the year 1829 was there a distinct organized society of this denomination within the limits of this town. Amasa Nichols, founder of Nichols Academy, was a zealous adherent to the tenets of Universalism, and when he erected the first academy structure had specially in view a place to hold meetings, and made in it a neat auditorium for this purpose. Mr. Nichols had hoped to make his church and school one, and insisted that none but Universalists should be elected as trustees of the academy, and when, in 1823, his wishes were disregarded he immediately resigned from the board and as secretary, and never afterwards seemed to take any interest in either church or school. The first step towards organization was by a petition signed by Samuel C. Butler, Tyler Simpson, Rowland Perry and thirty-seven others, directed to one of the justices of Dudley, who issued his warrant calling the meeting at the house of John Congdon, Jr., May 9, 1829, when the petitioners were legally organized as the "First Universalist Society of Dudley.'' Meetings were held mainly in Academy Hall till 1833, when the society joined with the Methodists and erected a Union Meeting-house, which was dedicated April 30, 1834. The condition of the union was that each party should hold services upon alternate Sundays. This mode of conducting religious aftairs did not prove satisfactory to either party, and the following year the Universalists bought out the interest of their Methodist friends and held continuous services till near the time the house was sold to the trustees of Nichols Academy.

The preachers were: Rev. Gilman Noyes (1829), four years ; Rev. John Boyden, Jr., five years; Rev. .Joshua Britton, two years ; Rev. William H. Griswold, died here March 8, 1844, two years; Rev. Joseph O. Skinner, one year; Rev. Samuel Brimblecome, one year; Rev. Albert Tyler, one year; Rev. Cyrus Bradley, three years; Rev. James H. Burnham, one year; Rev. Phineas Hersey, one year; Rev. William Bell, one year; Rev. Joseph Barbour, six years, who was the last settled preacher for this society. For a time alternate services with the Webster Society were had, and in 1867 the meeting-house was sold.

In the year 1823 Samuel Henderson, John Mc- Causland and several others organized a Methodist Episcopal Society, and in June, 1829, their first church edifice was dedicated, located in the east part of the town (now Webster). In 1833, one year after the incorporation of Webster, a second building was erected about a mile farther east. The Methodists here then withdrew frini the society and for a time united with the Universalists, but in 1845 built a meeting-house and establiehed preaching on Dudley Hill. Their preachers since 1843 have been: Nathaniel J. Merrill, one year; William B. OUls, two years; J. L. Hauaf'ord, two years; David K. Merrill, one year; David Kilbuni, two years; William B. Olds, cue year; William R. Stone, two years; Nathan A. Soule, one year ; Jonathan L. Estey, one year ; Erastus B. Morgan, six months ; Daniel Dorchester, one year and six months ; Daniel Atkins, two years ; Thomas J. Abbott, two years; M. Emory Waight, two years; Moses P. Webster, one year ; Thomas B. Treadwell, two years ; Thomas Powers, six months ; Samuel F. Cushman, four months ; William B. Lacount, two years; John Noon, two years; C. Deming, one year; F. M. Miller, two years ; William B. Lacount, one year; G. W. H. Clark, one year; Lewis Dwight, one year ; John Lewis, one year ; Charles E. Davis, one year.

For a few years past regular preaching has not been sustained. Prayer-meetings are held tri-weekly, in which much interest is mahifested. Rev. Mr. Stratton, of the Oxford Church, has occupied the pulpit occasionally.

Roman Catholics, though quite numerous in the eastern section of the town, have not to the present time built a church of their own within the limits of Dudley. In 1853 they joined with the Catholics of Webster, and built a church in that town with a seating capacity of eight hundred, since which time this denomination has made steady growth, and now owns three churches, with a seating capacity of twenty-seven hundred, in charge of three parish priests, with the aid of two assistants.

The most important and extensive manufacturing establishments are the Stevens Linen Works, which occupy the site of the Merino Wool Factory, incorporated February 13, 1812. The corporators of the original company were Learned Corbin, Jeptha Bacon, Aaron Tufts, Phineas Bemis and William Learned. In 1817 it was purchased by Messrs. Joseph Schofield> Nathaniel Lyon, Chester Mann and John Mallalieu. During the time from 18:^5 to 1837, Major John Brown and Samuel H. Babcock, of Boston, were interested, the latter as principal capitalist. In 1846 Mr. Henry H. Stevens, of North Andover, Mass.i bought the property. The first lot of flax machinery was received in May, 1846, and Mr. Stevens began the manufacture of crash and burlaps from Americangrown flax. In 1855 he commenced a general improvement of the property, building dams, new water-wheels, etc., and in 1862-65 erected the fine building which now constitutes the main mill. It is built of blocks of stone, five stories high, with an attic, each story being sixteen feet high. It is 207 feet long, by 70 wide, with an eastern extension 83 feet by 70, and an east wing 210 by 40 ; a west one, 80 by 24 feet, containing consultation and other rooms for specific purposes, besides counting-room. By much native energy and perseverance Mr. Stevens built up a large business in a hitherto unoccupied field, and the concern is to-day much the largest in the country devoted exclusively to the manufacture of crash. The act of incorporation was passed in 1807, and Mr. David Nevins, Sr., was the first president and largest stockholder. In January, 1877, Mr. Stevens retired. The present organization is Mr. M. T. Stevens, of North Andover, president; Henry S. Shaw, treasurer, and E. P. Morton, agent. Capital stock, .fiaSO.OOO. Three hundred and fifty looms, with a capacity of six million yards of crash per year.

A short distance below, upon the French River, are the mills of Messrs. John Chase & Sons, near the site originally occupied by the Dudley Cotton Manufacturing Company, incorporated February 8, 1816. This plant was destroyed by fire June 1 1, 1855. John Chase, Esq., of Burrillville, R. I., bought the privilege in 1857, and in 1860, with his sons, Oscar F. a'ld Frederic T., as associates, laid the foundation of the present extensive works, and commenced the manufacture of cassimeres. The business has continued with marked success, and is now conducted by tlie youngest son, Frederic T., as chief proprietor, who has greatly increased its capacity, and built up a neat and pretty village, which bears his name. Additions to the mill were made in 1870, '78 and '82. Sixteen sets of cards are now in operation, consuming three thousand pounds of scoured wool per day, and, with one hundred and six looms, about seventeen thousand yards light and heavy-weight goods are produced per week.

On the same stream in the southeast part of the town is Perryville, named in honor of the Perry family, which has held its possessions upwards of a century. Mr. Josiah Perry purchased land and settled here in 1775. In the year 1825 his sons, Joseph H. and Richard Perry, and two associates, built a log dam, erected suitable buildings and machinery and commenced the manufacture of satinet. In 1832 Richard withdrew and built a carding and spinningmill upon a side privilege a short <listance away, ever since known as the Perry Stocking- Yarn Factory, and is now used for the manufacture of yarns for rubber-shoe linings. The business is carried on by a grandson, Lemuel Perry, and the present year the plant was increased to double its former capacity. Both of these establishments are now owned by Josiah, a .son of Joseph H. During the past few years the business has been considerably extended, and modern and improved machinery for making a higher class of goods has been introduced. The works since they were established have been developed eight-fold.

In the year 1816 Hon. Aaron Tufts, with John R. Jewett, Mayo Pratt, Harvey Conant and William Robinson, joint proprietors, erected a mill for the manufacture of woolens in the north part of the town, upon a privilege supplied from Gore and Baker

Pouds. Some person fond of a joke affixed the horns of a rara in a conspicuous place upon the building, and, though the horns soon disappeared, this part of the town has ever since borne the name of Ram's Horn. In 1843, upon the death of Mr. Tufts, Mr. Jewett succeeded to the proprietorship, running the mill till 1864, when it was sold to a Mr. Pond, of Worcester, and subsequently to Lovell Baker, of the same city. In 1868 it was destroyed by fire, and to the present time has not been rebuilt.

In 1887 the West Dudley Co-operative Creamery was established, with a capacity for making two thousand pounds of butter per week. It has proved a great help to the dairymen of this vicinity, and its product in half-pound prints is nearly all sent to first-class hotels iu the city of Boston.

West Dudley is on the Quinebaug River, and is a station on the Southbridge Branch of the New York and New England Railroad ; has a post-office and express- office. In 1S33 Charles Vinton built a grist and saw-mill here. Six years later, Mr. Vinton having deceased, the property was sold to Allen Brown, who erected additional buildings and manufactured Kentucky jeans until burned out in 1850. In 1864 the privilege was bought by Messrs. Gleason and Weld, who built a saw and grist-mill, and the folldwing year a paper-mill, and continued the manufacture until the time of Mr. Gleason's death, in 1S7.S, when his interest was bought by his partner, C. W. Weld. The grist-mill was burned in 1880, and rebuilt the same year. In 1881 Mr. Weld built a new paper-mill, and soon after sold the same, with half the water-power, to William J. Warren, of Norfolk, Mass. August 21, 1885, this mill was burnt down and rebuilt the following winter. The varieties manufactured are manilla wrapping, mill wrappers, carpet lining and building papers. Average amount of business done, $35,000 per year.

Below on this river is another privilege, developed in 1872 by Mr. Eben S. Steven.^*, son of Mr. H. H. Stevens, who built the large linen-mill in the east part of the town. Mr. Stevens is engaged in the manufacture of jute goods, and under his personal supervision his business has made steady growth and now gives employment to about one hundred hands. It is near the station of Quinebaug, on the same railroad as West Dudley.

Biographical Joseph H. Perky

Joseph H. Perry, the founder of the manufacturing interest in Perryville, Dudley, Mass., was born September 12, 1789, in Thompson, Ct., on the farm of his father, which lay partly in Thompson and partly in Dudley. He was the youngest son of Josiah Perry, a native of Watertown, Mass., who removed thence in early manhood to Foxboro', Mass., and removed about the year 1775 to the farm just mentioned.

Joseph H. remained in Dudley engaged in farm labor till his twenty -seventh year. At that time, having decided to change his occupation, he went to Uxbridge, Mass., and invested a part of his savings in the stock of the Rivulet Manufacturing Company. He continued to work in the mill until the closing up of its operations, losing his investment, but gaining a knowledge of the details of the woolen manufacture. While at Uxbridge, on the 17th of February, 1820, Mr. Perry married Mary, daughter of Samuel Taft, for many years a prominent resident of the town. Seven children were born to them, four of whom are now living, one dying in infancy. The eldest son, George W., died in the late War of the Rebellion, and Charles H. was thrown from a sleigh and fatally injured. On the closing of the Rivulet Mill, Mr. Perry went to Woonsocket, R. I., where he was employed for about one year in one of the mills there.

In the fall of f825 he returned to his native place, and, in partnership with Dan ford Upham, Abner Wyman and Richard Perry, purchased from his older brother, Eliphaz (who now owned the original homefarm), a few acres of land, including a water privilege. He then built a dam and erected a mill and com- menced the manufacture of satinets, under the name of Joseph H. Perry & Co. In a few years the other partners had sold their interest to him and Charles Carpenter, he owning two-thirds and Charles Carpenter one-third. There was, at the outset, only one set of machinery ; it was eventually increased to four sets. The mill was burned in 18.57, and rebuilt the same year. Joseph H. Perry died September 5, 1864; he then lacked only seven days of being seventy-four years of age, but had maintained remarkably his physical and mental vigor, continuing his active interest in and personal management of the business, being at the mill on the day of his death, which was caused by a sudden attack of apoplexy. He was a man of much business ability, of sound judgment, deliberate and careful in the consideration of his plans, but persistent in carrying them out. Of few words, when they were spoken it was well understood that he meant just what he said. He took a kindly interest in his employes and in the people of the vicinity, being known familiarly among them as Uncle Hartshorn, and his death was deeply mourned by them and by the business community in which he had been so long and favorably known. His wife survived him twenty-one years, reaching the advanced age of ninetyone years. On his death his two sons, Charles H. and Josiah, bought out the other heirs and the junior partner, Charles Carpenter, continuing the business under the name of Joseph H. Perry's Sons. In a short time they changed the style of goods from satinets to cas.simeres and suitings, which continued till the death of Charles, which occurred suddenly, January 31, 1868. Josiah then became sole proprietor by purchasing the interest of his brother's heirs. The business has since been conducted under the name of Josiah Perry. He has increased its capacity till, at the present time, he is running eight sets of cassimere machinery.

H. Conant

The subject of this sketch was born in Dudley, Mass., on the 28th of July, 1827. He was the second son of Harvey and Dolly (Healy) Conant. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of that town, his great-grandfather on both sides being residents of the town as early as 1737. His paternal ancestors were farmers and millers located in the north part of the town, near the Charlton line. Hervey Conant, his father, was one of the incorporators and partners of the "Tufts Woolen Manufacturing Company," and at one time was the owner of the village grocery, which stood at the junction of the Dudley and Charlton and Oxford and Southbridge roads. This being before the days of railroads, it was quite a commercial point, and did at times a thriving business. But in these latter days that village has become a neglected locality, and the factory, with dye-house and adjacent buildings, only show some straggling ruins which indicate that a large busy factory ever had existence there. What few buildings are still standing are decayed beyond the power of being ever repaired to make habitable again. The house where Hezekiah was born was entirely demolished some years ago, and the foundation and cellar walls only are the silent witnesses that the house had an existence. But at the time he was some six years of age he attended school at the old stone school-house, which occupied a place about a mile towards the south, on the road to Dudley Centre, the old foundations still being visible. Being blessed with a quick and retentive memory, he mastered the elements of reading and geography and arithmetic so quickly that he was the pet of the teachers, and his mother thought he might become a minister if he lived. Among other encouragements, they noticed that the peculiar curl of the hair at the top of his head showed them he had three crowns, which was a sure sign that he would eat his bread in three different kingdoms.

His - father, having sold out his interests at the Tufts village, removed to Webster, Mass., where he resided four years, from 1835 to 1839, but in the latter year removed to Dudley again and occupied the farm formerly owned by Ma;jor Lemuel Healy, his maternal grandfather. Young Conant, having ar-' rived at an age when he began to be able to do light work about the farm, was trained to be of use, and worked in the field at such occupations as suited his strength, and in the winter months he attended the common school, and later had the advantage of sever.al terms at the Nichols Academy.

In the month of May, 1845, he, by much importunity, persuaded his father to. let him accept a position in a Worcester printing-office as a roller-boy in reply to an advertisement. His mother had died some years previous, and he disliked the monotonous life of agriculture, and wanted to get into some trade where he could use his thought and skill, which he believed to be superior to his not very strong muscular system. He served as apprentice for about two years in the office of the Worceder County Gazette, published by Estey & Evans, when the concern failed, and he then obtained employment at the office of the JVatinnal jEgis, which was owned at the time by T. W. & J. Butterfield, but soon passed iato the hands of Mr. S. V. Hicox, of New York, with Edward Winslow Lincoln as editor-in-chief. While with Estey & Evans the Daily Transcript was started by .Julius L. Clarke, and Hezekiah had the honor of rolling off at the backside of the old Washington hand-press the first edition of this first daily of the city of Worcester. He remembers that the old Quaker, Hon. John Milton Earle, was the editor of the Massachusetts Spy ; Mr. John S. C. Knowlton edited the Palladium ; Mr. Goodrich run the Worcester County Cataract; Thomas Drew was a young man just fledging as a reporter in the Spy office ; and Mr. Spooner owned and run a power-pres°, turned sometimes by horse-power and sometimes an Irishman took the crank. Henry .1. Howland carriod on the business of book and job printing, and old Mr. Carli.sle run a press (hand) that had a patent roller-boy. It was believed at that time that if the very best press-work was wanted, there was nothing that could exceed the work turned off the hand-press.

Some time during the year 1848 he left the printingoffice and entered the employ of Woodburn Light & Co., to learn the machinist's business. This was much more to his taste and made the hours of his work much more regular, and the calculations of gears and screws had a fascination for him. In the year 1850 he had saved enough of his earnings to give himself a year's schooling at Nichols Academy, and in 1851 he went into the shop again, this time at the locomotive-shop of the Union Works at South Boston, which were owned then by Mr. Seth Wilmarth, afterwards chief at the Charlestown Navy Yard. In the fall of 1852 he had drifted to Hartford, Conn., where he found employment at Lincoln's Machine Shop, and he worked at Roberts & Son's a short time, where he became acquainted with Christian Sharps, Esq., the inventor of the Sharps rifle. He was employed by him 10 make some drawings for machinery for making projectiles, etc. Sharps leaving Hartford and going to Philadelphia, left him unemployed again, when he entered Colt's establishment as a tool-maker and was employed in constructing special tools to make the iron -work for the large armory that was afterwards built down on Cult's meadoW'S, its present site. The following year he left the shop and applied himself to the business of drawing and constructing special machinery as parties in need applied to him. He contrived and constructed some very useful apparatus for Williams Brothers, at South Glastonbury, the celebrated soap manufacturers, invented and patented an improvement in the Sharps rifle known as the " gas check." About this time he met with severe affliction in the death of his wife, and the breaking up of his home. In the year 1856 he was at Slater's establishment at Webster, Mass., where he contrived and built a sewing-machine for sewing the selvages on the pieces of goods made in the woolen mills, and which was in operation at last accounts. Next he was employed by Mr. Slater to construct some thread-dressing machines which dressed the goods in the skein ; but although the machines were all right, the later style of dressing it from the bobbin in a single web superseded the skein process About the year 1857 he commenced the construction of a machine to automatically wind sewing thread of two hundred yards length upon spools, and was very successful. He sold one-half of it to the Willimantic Linen Co., and entered the service of that company for a term of three years under a written contract. He commenced this new arrangement on February 1, 1859, and remained with them nine years.