Northborough Town

Northborough Town

came in an instant - June 23, 1888. A strong man, of large ability in mechanics and in business, of unimpeachable integrity, of most friendly spirit, of winning ways and kind action.'

Chapter Lxix By Joseph Henry Allen

NORTHBOROUGH is the youngest in age, the third in size, and the least in population, of the four borough towns (so-called) formerly included in the town of Marlborough.^ It lies on the old county road between Boston and Worcester, thirty-three miles from the former, ten from the latter; the track of the first emigration to Connecticut, in 1(J35, ran through its southeastern corner. Its shape is an irregular polygon, of six or seven sides, with a broad angle thrust out to the southeast ; its dimensions are from four to five miles each way. The larger part of it is valley, lying rather lower than either of the surrounding towns. The A:-sabet River (here a slender stream) rising some mile.-* to the south, flows about three miles of its course, northeastwardly, through the town, and is joined by four brooks, - Stirrup Brook, which is the outlet of Great and Little Chauncy Ponds, making here a course of nearly two miles ; Hop Brook (once fringed with wild hops), which courses the southwest border of the town; Cold Harbor Brook, which flows about three miles from Straw Hollow and Rocky Pond, in the edge of Boylston, and is then joined by Howard Brook, a shorter stream (where possibly a few trout may still survive), which overflows a broad meadow a little farther north. The Assabet, then flowing with considerable force, furnishes large water-power at Hudson, Rockboltom

1 The writer of this history gladly acknowledges his great obligations to the researches of Rev. L. F, Clark and Mr. Charles 0. Bachelor, in the early history of Northbridge. He has made free use of the materials they gathered.

' In the year 165(), on petition of the inhabitants of Sudbury (founded in 1638), the colonial Legislature of Massachusetts Bay made to that town a grant of about forty-tivo square miles of territory to the westward, known as miqjsuppeiiicice, including a reservation of six thousand acres held by the ludians of Ognonikongquamesit. (These names are also written irAyjswJTerodye and Ockoocangametl : the reader takes his choice.) This territory - of which tlie central point is about thirty miles due west from Boston - was, in IGOO, incorporated as a town, under the name Marlborough. lu 1717 the western portion, till then known as Chauncy (a grant of land near Chauncy Pond having been made to President Cbauncy, of Harvard College), was separately incorporated as Westborough. Ten years later the eastern portion was further divided, its southern part becoming Southborougb ; and the North Parish of Westborough, organized in 1744 as a " precinct," was in 1760 incorporated as the "district" of Northborough, becoming a town, with right of representation in the Legislature, under a general law piissed in 1775. Of the four borough towns, Marlborough belongs to Middlesex County, the other three to Worcester.

Topography. - These water-courses have traced the lines of population and business enterprise. The first white settler was John Brigham, who, in 1672, occupied "Licor-meadow Plain," which we understand to be Cold Harbor Brook Meadow, just north of what went as Liquor Hill till 1834, when it took the gentler name of Assabet. Saw-mills and gristmills were early built on all these streams. A fulling-mill was set up by Samuel Wood (who removed from Sudbury about 1750) near where the main road is crossed by the Assabet ; bog-iron was found and worked, and potash was made hard by. A tan-yard was established by Isaac Davis in 1781, near the Assabet, where it makes the boundary from Westborough ; two miles farther down its course a cotton factory was built, in 1814, during the dearth and poverty of the War of 1812 ; and, a little farther still, the "new factory" was built, of brick, by the brothers Davis in 1832. In the south of the town, the Assabet Valley widens into "the Plain," quite flat for perha])s a mile and a half in length by half as much in width. Farther north the surface of the town is very diversified, with stony and rugged hills on the northern and western borders.

The chief elevations are Mount Assabet (before mentioned), which rises about one hundred and fifty feet from the valley, near the geographical centre, a pleasant rounded and wooded eminence ; Edmond, Sulphur and Ghost Hills are bolder elevations towards the north; Tomlin Hill, more low and flat, in the southwest ; Bartlett Hill, a long and handsome oval, near the Boylstou line ; and Ball Hill, broad and stony, over which the town road climbs heavily towards the northwest. In general, the forests are well preserved on the higher ground, and give the town the advantage of a landscape much admired for its picturesque beauty. Solomon Pond (so named for an Indian once drowned there), of twenty-six acres, lies prettily among high sloping banks of pine, toward the northeast; and Little Chauncy, of sixtyfive acres, in the low-lying meadows of the southeast.

The rocks of the northerly hills are mostly gneiss, in strata lying at a dip of 70° to 80°; near their foot are iron and lime, not worked.' At the west is a large amount of micaceous slate, or schist, containing (it is thought) much iron. Hills and pastures are plentifully strewn with boulders, some of them weighing a great many tons. Most of these are of gneiss, and split favorably for building uses. In some parts large garnets are common : I have found one over an inch in diameter, and one of half that size, very clear and perfect. Quartz crystal is sometimes found in very fine specimens. Some of the northerly hills are effectually paved with ledges and boulders.' The general quality of the soil is good, ihough too sandy in the south; with more gravel also, and less clay, than some more productive soiLs. Apples are a good crop, and peaches were, fifty years ago; but pears and quinces have never flourished so well. There are clay-beds, especially one of great value, close to the eastern boundary, where bricks of rarely excellent quality are made, light red and very hard ; these bricks were selected, among other samples, as the best in building the great Cochituate Aqueduct.

This sketch of the geology of the town would not be complete without a notice of the discovery, made November 17, 1884, of a part of the skeleton of a mastodon, on the farm of William U. Maynard, near the Shrewsbury line. The bont s are those of ayoung animal, which had floundered in a peat-bog and there perished. They were found resting on a bed of blue clay, seven feet below the surface of the ground - the peat being four or five feet in thickness. Mo^t of them are deposited in the museum of the Worcester Society of Natural History; the teeth, by which the species was identified, are in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge. This discovery is the single proof of the existence of that animal east of the valley of the Hudson.-

Town Hi.story. - The northerly portion of Westborough had been recognized as a separate "precinct," or parish, with church and minister of its own (the Rev. John Martyn) since 1745.' But its independent corporate life began with the year 1706, when a summons was issued to the inhabitants of the Second Precinct -

To conveain at the meeting HouBe in 2d Precinct on Monday, the thertyetli Day of this instant, January, at one of the clock in tlie afternoon, then and there ... to see if tho Precinct will peticon to the Grate and Jenearal Cort to be Bet of a Destrict or not . . . and see if tho Precinct will chuse a Coniniity or order the Precinct Committee to Preambulnte the Line between the first and second Presencts of Westborough . . . and employ a Servair (surveyor) to Run the Lino and set up Bounds where they cant be fouude [and to see] upon what tairms they would be set of upon ; and it was voted that we should be set of on the same tairms that South Brimtield was, and to have our part of

1 Good old Silas Bailey, who, at past eighty, had just done his day's work with a bush-scythe, told me that when he bought his farm, near the north border, a neighbor more experienced, viewing it, feared at first that it might not have stones enough ; but, being told there were "enough to fence it all into acre lots," was well satisfied with the purchase.

2 An Indian skull was found during the excavation for these remains, but " cannot have been long in the peat," and '* it is evident that it has no a.ssociatiou with the mastotlou " ("Nineteenth Report of the Curator of the Peabody Sluseum," where the skull now is, p. 49a). A pamphlet on the discovery was printed by Fi-anklin P. Rice for the "Society of Antiquity," "SVorcestsr ; a copy is iu the Public Library of Northborough.

3Mr. Martyn was ordained May 21, 1746. ".although the ceremonies of the ordination took place in the meeting-house, yet it appears from the town records that it was in a very unfinished state, having neither pulpit, galleries, glass M'indows, nor even permanent floors. It was not till June, in the following year, that a vote could bo obtained *to glaze the meeting-house and lay the floors,' aud not till the next autunin that the pulpit and gallei-y-stairswei'o built."

erected into a District by the name of Northborough ; and [it was ordained] that the same District be & hereby is invested 'with all the priviledges, powers & immunities the Towns in this Province by Law do or may enjoy, that of sending a Representative to the General Assembly excepted [this right being exercised till 1775, as a part of Westborough] ; their proportion of all monies, arms & ammunition, weights and measures belonging to said town the inhabitants of said District shall have and enjoy, a proportion thereof equal to the proportion they paid of these charges of said Town according the last town tax ; all of which appears to have been amicably arranged. The first corporate act of the district thus created is copied here in full, as a fair specimen of the process of organization in these small political comaiuiiitit-s, then (it will be noticed) under Provincial rule. It is a record of the meeting held M:irch 4, 1766: -

This town covined according to a warriant bearing Date the tenth of February Last Issued oute by Francis Whippele, Esqr., one of his Majesty's Justics of y* peace appointed by the Grate and General Court to issue Dis* Warrant & then proceeded and acted on y^ nrticela follo- Ing : I. Voted & chose Bezaleel Eager Moderator; 2'? Voted & chose Timothy Fay Pis. Clerk ; 3*1'? Voted & chose for Selectmen y ensuing yoare, Josiah Kice, Jacob Rice, Bez^ Eager, Timothy Fay, Jesse Brigham ; 4'? Voted for Assessors for y" yeare ensuing, Jacob Rice, Timothy Fay, Levy Brigham ; 5'y Voted & chose for a Towno Treasurer Jacob Kice ; i'^J Voted & chose for a Constibele y ensuiug yeare William Badcock ; 7'y Voted & chose Wardens ensuing yeare, Josiah Bowker & John Carruth ; giy Voted for Sii'A'iiyors of Highways en8U'° yeure, Saimiel Camwell .jun., Jon" Bruce, Samuel Maynard, Timothy Brigham ; O'y Voted & chi'se for Tithing men yo ensuin yeare. John Ball, Eliphalet Warren ; lUiJ Voted & chose lor Hogreeves y ensuing yeare, llencry Gaschet ; Wj Voted & chose for deare reeve for ye ensuing yeare, Samuel Gamwell ; 12>y Voted A chose for Surveyor forClaboards & Shingles ensuing yeare, Stephen Jenney ; IS't Voted and chose John Martyn for Sealer of Leather ; 14'J Voted & chose Henery Gaschet and Jorge Oak Fence Vewers; 15'? Voted & chose Jesse Maynard Survayor of Whete ; Ifl^-'' it was put to vote to see if Town would let there Swine go at large y« ensuing Yeare, it past in y affirmniitive ; 17^? it was put to vote to see if y town would chuse ye Selectmen to Joyn with y" Town of Westhoruugh as a Committee to divide y« Town Stock according to the act of Court, it past in the afBrmmitive ; 18>y it was put to vote to see if the town would ajourn there meeting to Lew* John Martyn's for fifteen minits; it past in y« atSrmmitive ; then upon y« ajourunient voted that they would reconsider y^ vote of chusing Stephen Ball warden; lO'y voted and chose John Carruth warden, and all y above said otticers have Been sworn to their Respective Oflicirs. Then Dissolved said Meeting. Bezaleel Eagei; Moderator. Attest, Timothy Fay^ Clark.

The first act of civil administration (April 1st) appears to have been to build a pound for stray cattle, of stone, twenty-five feet square, with walls five feet high and two and a half feet thick, topped with timber; but this was found too costly, and it was voted (June 18th) "to build the same of timber." A proposal to buy a " buering cloth " was negatived ; but provision was made to employ a reading and writing schoolmaster, with committee to provide schooling ; also to raise the school-money, and to provide a jurylist. The sum of £3 16s. was afterwards (November 22d) granted to pay the schoolmaster's board for seventeen weeks. The rate of a day's wages was fixed at the same date, for men working out their own roadtax, at three shillings for the summer and two shil- lings for the autumn months. The highway rate to repair roads was sixty pounds. For a year's care of the meeting-house was paid 13s. id. ; for the day's work of an assessor, eight shillings ; for expenses of a delegate to the General Court, £1 Is. 4d.

to joiQ with the Church in appointing Thursliiy, August l:^, as a day of fasting and prayer to Almighty God to sanctify ilis Holy hand in taking away our PMtor (Rev. John Martyu) by Deatli, and for direction in resettling the Gospel among us again ; and £00 lawful money (are) granted for preaching the Gospel among us. ^

Mr. Martyn had been settled as pastor of the Second Parish May 21, 1746. He was a son of Captain Edward Martyn, of Boston, where he spent his early life under the care of an e.Kcellent mother, who had been leit a widow in easy circumstances some time previous to young Mr. Martyn's entering college. He graduated at Harvard University in 1724. For several years after he left college he devoted his attention to secular pursuits, and was for some time an inhabitant of Harvard, in this county. At the age of forty he directed his attention to theological pursuits, and became an able, faithful and useful minister. He possessed, in a large measure, the confidence and affections of his flock, was honored in his life and deeply lamented at his death. His age was a little over sixty.

September 21, 1767, the district " concur with the church in giving Mr. Pei;er Whitney a call to settle as minister and pastor of the church and congregation in Northborough." The sum of one hundred and sixty pounds was voted " for settlement," to be paid in two installments, at the beginning and end of the first year, and an annual salary was granted of sixty pounds to be paid "in Spanish milled dollars, 6s. each, or in the several species of coined gold and silver," as enumerated. In accepting this proposal Mr. Whitney writes:

I am not insensible of tlie present scarcity of our Medium, and therefore I object nothing against your proposed annual support for the tirst few years, but yet can not suppose it sufficient for my abiding support, and therefore if you are pleased to add to your offered salary the sum of £0 138. 4d. lawful money, to take place the fifth year from my settling among you, amounting to £|J6 13s. forepence as a settled yearly support I do then fully accept your invitation, and stand ready to be consecrated to your service (God permitting), when you shall think proper. Gentlemen, I hope (speaking in my fear of God) I have no disposition to build myself on your Ruins. I desire neither to be cumbered with abounding riches, nor to be straitened in my worldly circumstances ; may I but have what will support me in my office to the honor of Religion.

This manly and straightforward appeal was acceded to ; and it is later recorded, " N. B. what was payed to the Rev. Mr. Whitney before he was ordained is £25 18s. 8d." December, 1779, owing to the depreciation of the Continental currency, the salary was raised to £2933 6s. 8rf. ; but was the next year (December 4, 1780) restored to the original amount, payable in coin, with the addition of twenty cords of

Mr. Whitney (son of Rev. Aaron Whitney, the first minister of Petersham) was born September 17, 1744; graduated at Harvard University in 1762; and was settled as minister of Northborough November 4, 1767. "Distinguished for the urbanity of his manners, easy and familiar in his intercourse with his people, hospitable to strangers, and always ready to give a hearty welcome to his numerous friends ; punctual to his engagements, observing an exact method in the distribution of his time, having a time for everything and doing everything in its time, without hurry or confusion ; conscientious in the discharge of his duties as a Christian minister ; catholic in his principles and in his conduct, always taking interest in whatever concerned the prosperity of the town and the interestsof religion, he was for many years the happy minister of a kind and aifectionate people. At length, having continued in the work of the ministry almost half a century, he suddenly departed this life February 29, 1816, in the seventy-second year of his life and the forty-ninth of his useful ministry.'" He was an eager and outspoken advocate of the patriotic efforts of '75 and '76, which his father as strongly opposed, and was the author of a " History of Worcester County," still held in much esteem. Of his ten children, the most widely known was Rev. Peter Whitney, of Quincy (1800-43, born 1770).

March 1, 1773, the district takes into consideration a pamphlet circulated from Boston, "in which the rights of this Province are stated, and also a list of grievances and infringements of those rights made by Administration at home ; " and it is resolved - that the rights of this people are very justly stated in said pamphlet, and that the grievances and infringements therein pointeii out are real and notimagenary ones, as too many indeavour to insinuate ; [also] that it is the indispensable duty of all men, and all bodies of men, to unite and streanously to oppose by all lawful ways and means such unjust and unrighteous incroacbments, made or attempted to be made upon their Just Rights, and that it isonr duty earnestly to indeavour to hand those rights down inviolate to our posterity as they were handed down to us by our worthy ancestors ; and that the thanks of this District be given to the Town of Boston for their friendly, serviceable and necessary intelligence, and that they be desired to keep up their watch and guard against all such unjust invaders and incroachers for the future.

In fulfillment of this resolve, we find that the next year (November 28, 1774) a hundred weight of powder and three hundred weight of lead, with two hundred and forty flints, are voted for the general defence. Soon after (January 9, 1775) the district resolves to join in sending delegates to the Provincial Congress, " whenever met or wherever met ;" and on the 10th of April (a few days before the battles of Lexington and Concord) provision is made "to pay fifty minute-men one shilling each for each half-day they shall meet to learn the military art, for sixteen half-daya, beginning March 27.'' For these objects forty pounds are appropriated, and fifteen pounds appear as *' raised and paid." The fifty minute-men, hs soon as the tidings came from Lexington, before one o'clock of April 19th, "were directed, without a moment's delay, to put themselves in readiness to march; and in three or four hours from the time when the news arrived they had taken leave of their families and were paraded in the yard of Captain Samuel Wood's house, whence (the Rev. Mr. Whitney having in a fervent prayer commended them to the protection of the God of armies) ihey immediately set out on their march for the field of danger and blood." Two months later (June 17th) they took part in the battle of Bunker Hill.^

On the 22d of May, 1775, the district warrant still runs in the old way, *' In his Majesty's name." The next day, May 23d, we find a summons, " Greeting in the name of the Government and the People of the Massachusetts Bay." But for an interval of some months that followed there is a sort of interregnum; either the warrant issues from the county authorities at Worcester, or the town appears to be acting by its proper sovereignty. The official title *'town" first appears in the constable's warrant of June 6, 1775, when a meeting is called *' to appoint and chuse a person, if they see fit when meet, to represent the Town in the Grate and General Court or Assembly,- to be convened, held and kept for the service of the Colony at the meeting-house in Watertown, on Wednesday, the 19th day of July next, it being in observance of a Resolve of the Honorable Continental Congress, directing and advising the same." This warrant, and the first exercise of complete town sovereignty in the appointment of its own Representative, mark the date of coming to its full majority. There follow upon the records, from time to time, a few items which we copy, as illustrating the way these little commonwealths toiled through the dreary and disastrous period till the return of peace in 1783 ; -

June 3, 1776. Voted thiit it is the mind of this Town to be independent of Great Britain, in case the Continental Congress think proper, and that we are ready with our lives & fortunes if, in Providence, called to defend the same.

May 22, 1777. Appointed a Committee of three persona chosen for to prevent monopoly and ojipreBHion (apparently the first symptom of stringency arising from the debasement of Continental money).

June 23. Chose Gillam IJass to take care & lay before the Court the evidence which may be produced against the persona in Northborough who are looked upon by said Town as inimical to this and the United States of America, agreeably to a late directing Act. [The suspected persons are John Taylor, Tliomaa Billings, Silvanus Billings (who made iln this company served as lieutenant ** Capt." Timothy Brighani, who had been present, as one of eight volunteers from this precinct, at the attack on Ticondernga, under (Jen. Abercrombie, in 17.')8. 1 remember visiting him with my father, when near his death, at the age of 93.

contrite acknowledgment ' & was received back into amity by the Town, May 17, 1781), James Eager, John Eager and Widow Miriam Eager. The estates of four of these were confiscated at the close of the war.] Jan. 5, 7, 1778. Voted and accei)ted the Articles of Confederation of the Congress of the United States of America.

April 13. It was voted "to see if they would accept of the form of government [»»f Massachusetts] as it was settled by the Convention of this State ; and a uuanimoua vote passed in the negative."

Juno 15. It is voted ("according to the second clawa of Warrant") to determine "an everidge of the whole of the publick cost tliat they have been at, ocationed by the present war, Hince the 19th of April, 1775, untill this time, and all necessary cost that may in the future arise on account of said war, each one to pay according to his estate, as in other taxt's." The total amount was found to be :

May 17, 1770. It is resolved "that a [State] Constitution, or f.irm of Government, [shall be] made as soon as may be ; " and the Town Representative is instructed " to vote for the calling of a State Convention for the sole purpose of funning a Constitution."

Sept. 13. Under the pressure of financial distress, the common revolutionary expedient is adopted, of fixing a "maximum," or scale of high est prices to be asked for any commodity : in this scale we find Barley at £4 10 a bushel ; Milk at 2 sh. aquart ; labor of niaking a pair of shoes, 48 shillings; other in proportion. As afurther indication of the range of prices, we find soon after (Oct. 30, 17S(i) a grant of " .iOOKO to purchase beef fur the army," and (May 17, 1781) "the Town granted tlie sum of £3300 to pay for three horses " for the public service. Again (March 6, 1780) there is an appropriation of £4000 to be equally divided for the building of a School-house for each of the four " Squadrons."

May 18, 1780. Report of the State Constitution, which is accepted, with the recommendation of four Amendments ; but if these cannot be had, " will accept the Constitution as it stands." [The first of these proposed Amendments is that the Governor must belong to some Protestant religious connection ; the others are chiefly certain legal formalities for the ensuring of private justice.]

July 13. Vuted & granted the sum of .£10.000 to pay seventeen men hired into the service, nine for the term of six months, & eight for the term of three monthi.

Dec. 28. The town, taking intoconsideration the hardships undergone by those who had entered into the service of their country, and especially the losses they hiid sustained by being paid in a depreciated currency, generously voted to raise their quota of men, and to pay and clotlie thorn at its own expense, allowing them 4o shillings each per month, in hard money, and £21 per year, also in hard money, in addition to their clothes. Six men were called for the following summer, & the Town granted £122 5«. in hard money ($407.50) to pay the same ; at the same time they were required to purchase for the use of the army 3518 lbs. of beef, for which the Town granted £77 in hard money (^256,06). (Previous to June, 1778, it appears that this town had expended in money and service towards carrying on the war. £1474. 14. 1, - in a Depreciated currency, probably, the precise value of which it is ditficult now to determine.)

"After the close of the war the embarrassments arising from the want of a circulating medium, when almost all were deeply involved in debt, caustd much uneasiness, and led the people to devise measurts for their removal." August 7. 177G, Isaac Davis was chosen as a delegate to attend a county convention at Leicester, on the 15th, to whom the following, among other instructions, were given by a committee appointed by the town. The delegate was to use his influeace " that the Convention petition his Excellency, the Governor & Council, to call the General Court together in the month of October next at fartherest ; and that the Convention present a humble and decent petition to the General Court to set up & establish a Mint in the Commonwealth, &c." Complaints were also made of the salaries of the civil list being i-o high, and of various other grievances under which the people labored. The delegate was also to use his influence " that the whole order of Lawyers be annihilated, for we conceive them not only to be building themselves upon the ruins of the distressed, but said order has increased, & is daily increasing, far beyond any other set or order of men among us, in numbers and affluence; and we apprehend they may become ere long somewhat dangerous to the rights & liberties of the people." "There was nothing, however, of the spirit of rebellion or insubordination in the resolutions that were passed at this meeting, or in the conduct which followed ; and though it appears from the representations of all, that the people generally were reduced to the greatest straits, yet only three or four individuals were found willing to join in the rebellion [Shays'] of that year, and to seek redress by measures of violence." '

It is likely that this town had its fair share of the suffering of that dismal "critical period of American history " between the close of the Revolutionary War and the adopting of the United States Constitution. But of this there is less evidence on the records than we might expect, excepting those troubles from expansion of the currency hinted above. The problem of pauperism, however, now comes up ; and for the first time (November 9, 1789) we hear of a proposal " to see if the Town would vendue the poor oflto the lowest bidder." This was negatived, probably from compunction at the novelty of it. But six months later (May 10, 1790) " the same passed in the affirmative, and that there be a notification put up and the names of the poor put in, that are to be vendued," - that is, boarded at the town's expense, where they could be boarded cheapest.^ The ordinary rate was from seventy-five cents to a dollar a week. I remember being present at such a " vendue; '' it would be about sixty years ago. In 1835 the town adopted the more humane and decent method of providing a " poor-farm " for those unable to maintain themselves, - not " foreign paupers," but native citizens fallen into poverty or distress. And the number of those so dependent was very small, unless in such exceptional periods as that following the Revolutionary War ; thus, in 1826, " only two persons have been a

2 In March, 181", " Mary Rice was put up at vendue," and struck off to Joseph Carruth at 88 cents, clothing and doctoring to be found by the town.

The wounds of war, and of the years that followed, were at all events soon healed, to judge from a sermon preached June 1, 1796, by Rev. Mr. Whitney, in which he says : " The great increase of our members [since 1767, from 82 families to upwards of 110], the remarkable growing wealth and prosperity of this people, must be ascribed to the peace, union and harmony which has subsisted among us. In considering the number of inhabitants (not far from 800), the extent of territory and the distance from the capital, I know not a more wealthy place."^ Mr. Whitney's ardent hope, which he expresses in the same sermon, of a new and "respectable meetinghouse," which, as he says, " proclaims the opulence of the place and encourages population," was fulfilled twelve years later, in 1808, when the present "First Parish" meeting-house was erected, at a cost of eleven thousand five hundred dollars, a large sum and a handsome building for its day.

Churches. - Throughout Mr. Whitney's term of service, of forty-nine years, and for more than fifteen years afterward, "the ministry had not only a permanent, it bad also a secular character, which it has greatly lost. In a sense easily enough understood, though not at all familiar, the Town was the parish ; the town's peojile were the congregation. In a harmless and neighborly way. Church and State (in those narrow boundaries) were one.'* So little were modern sectarian differences felt, that in the choice of Mr. Whitney's successor, in 1816, although the liberal movement in theology was well j:)ronounced, only eleven votes out of one hundred and eight were cast against the settlement of the candidate chosen, who was understood to be in full sympathy with that movement. This was Joseph Allen (Harvard University, 1811, D.D. 1848), whose ministry, as sole or senior pastor, lasted more than fiftysix years, till his death, February 23, 1873. For eleven years of this period the parish was undivided. In 1827 a Baptist Church was gathered ; * and in 1832 " the Second Congregational Society was formed (under Rev. Samuel Austin Fay) by those of stricter orthodox or evangelical faith : the original members were Asaph Rice and 34 others.* And the next year, that is, on the 11th of November, 1833, the old ' Third Article of the Bill of Rights ' was repealed ; the citizen was relieved from all legal ob-

3 Copied in a discourse by Rev. A. S. Galvin, of Worcester, on occasion of erecting a memorial (ablet to Peter Whitney, in the First Parish nieeting-honso of Northborough, May 20, 1888.

^ From a memorial discourse by the present writer, given in the First Parish meeliug-house on occasion of erecting a tablet to the memory of Joseph and Lucy Cl.xrk Allen, October 30, 1887.

^The fii-st meeting-house of this society, on the Boylston Road, is now occupied by the "Allen Home School," under the charge of Edward A. H. Allen. Their present commodious and handsome building, in the village, was erected in 184ti.

ligation to pay for the support of any church, and the voluntary system, as we have it now, came into full play." Since then, to meet the wants of the increasing Roman Catholic population (partly French Canadian), a succession of " visiting clergy'' hegan in 1850, which resulted in the building of St. Rose's Church, a handsome edifice, which was dedicated May 3, 1885.'

Much the longest pastorate was that of Rev. Joseph Allen, which extended over fifty-six years. He was born in Medfield, Mass., August 15, 1790. His early home was on the farm that for five generations, since 1648, had been owned and tilled by his ancestors ; his grandfather, a man of note and of amazing bodily strength, had held a King's commission in the colonial militia; his father had enlisted as a boy of sixteen in the Continental army, and endured some of the hardships of the later Revolutionary campaigns and of Shays' Rebellion. From a constitution impaired by early studies, prudent regimen had built him up to an even and active condition of health, which kept sound till past the age of eighty. His ordination as '' minister of the town" was October 30, 1816. He married, February 3, 1818, Lucy Clark, daughter of Professor Henry Ware, of Harvard University, to whose intelligent and devoted co-operation much of the character of his ministry was due. His work was especially effective in the department of public and general education. His deiith was on the 23d of February, 1873. A tablet was erected by his children in the parish meeting-house to the memory of both their parents, and dedicated October 30, 1887.'

The next longest of the later pastorates was that of Rev. Samuel Stanford Ashley (b. May 12, 1819; d. October 5, 1887). He was born in Cumberland, R. I., the elde.st of eleven children ; educated at Oberlin, Ohio ; settled first in Fall River, Mass., and, in 1852, in Northborough. In 1864 he engaged in the army-service of the United States Christian Commission. In this capacity he was noted for absolute fearlessness in his humane service on the battle-field. At the close of the war he was employed by the American Missionary Association to serve among the freedmen at Hampton, Va., and afterwards in North Carolina, where he was a member of the Constitutional Convention and Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1881

1 The present pastors of tlie above ctiurclies are, First Parish, Obed Eldridge, settled in 188 J ; Baptist, Kev. C. D Swett, settled inlS84; Second Congrefiational, Edward L Chnte, settled in 1885; St, Rose, James McCIosltey, appointed November 1, ISSfi.

he was appointed acting president of Straight University in New Orleans ; but, suftering here from yellow fever, returned to the North. From 1874 to 1878 he was in the employ of the Missionary Association in Atlanta, Ga. ; but failing health obliged him to return to country life and occupation in his former home. Here he resided as a useful, honored and public-spirited citizen, actively interested in the town library, the public schools, and the cause of temperance, until his sudden death from heart complaint, in 1887. He was, says a warm and grateful testimonial of the library trustee-i, " in health or 8ickne.ss, in season or out of season, unfailing in his eff'orts for the interest of the charge given him." '

Schools. - Before the public provision, made in 1766, private instruction had been maintained in the precinct by voluntary contributions (see below). In 1770 the district (not yet a town) was divided into four " squadrons " for school purposes ; and, in 1780, an appropriation of £1000 was made to each squadron for the erection of a school-home. The whole sum (which was extremely "soft") amounted in hard money to only £52 6s. 8d., made up afterwards to £163 13s. 4d. There were afterwards six school districts ; and, sixty or eighty years ago, there was no gieat disparity of numbers among them; now, probably, more than half the population are gathered about the centre. In 1837 a two-story brick schoolhouse was built for the central district. Again, about 1865, more definite steps were taken towards the system of graded schools, and, in 1878, a neat high school building was erected on the Common near the meeting-house.

The ministers of the town have taken from the first the active lead that was their duty in the matter of public instruction, and have had in it the full confidence of the public. Dr. Allen, for example, "served as chairman of the school committee for fifty-one successive years, omitting only a season of two years, when a change was tried that seemed likely to do better without his aid." To this task he gave especial zeal and energy, the more efficient from the hold he had by natural temperament upon the affection of the young. The " district school as it was " - that is, with the advantage as well as disadvantage of bunging together pupils all the way from five to twenty for the winter's school-companionship - held, as is generally claimed, exceptionally high rank in Northborough : there was one season, for example (1831-32), when the five district schools were manned by five very distinguished students from Harvard College, including three of the four highest scholars of the senior class and the first junior scholar (now Professor Bowen). Under such a dispensation it may be fairly claimed that the district school, in its three summer and three winter months, and relieved in the interval by all the variety of country occupations, had a far higher educational value than the more perfect mechanism that has taken its place. The old way, it is true, had become outgrown and impossible through the change in population and manners of life; but the change that came about has brought with it some regrets. ^ The country school has had the merit, among other things, of training and sending out a large number of young men and women to the work of education elsewhere, many of them to advanced instruction in the State Normal Schools. I have a list of twenty-one of these puoils (female) of the Normal School which was established successively at Lexington, West Newton and Fraraingham.^

In tlie Law8 of Maesuchusetls it is enacted (1641) that " If any do not teach their children iind apprentices so much learning as nmy enable them to read perfectly the English language, [they shall] forfeit 20 shillings; and the Selectmen of every Town are required to know the state of the families," etc. In 1770 there wore 85 families in N'orihhorough. These were divided into four "squadrons," and a vote was passed to build four school-houses, which cost each in our currency ^150.40. Cue of these earliest school-houses is described aa "roughboarded, without plastering or paint, with one door, a very large chimney in one corner, three small windows, and furniture to currespontl ; yet from this building graduated a Recorder of the City of New York, and here was partially educated a missionary to India, who was also a Founder of the college in Georgetown, D. C, and a Doctor of Divinity."

In 1742 a new sclu'ulhouse was built in the North District (to take tho place of the old one, destroyed by fire), at a cost of 8ol7.9D ; the annual cost of the school was here 8S6. " The wood was furnished by individual;?, and cut by the boys, who made the tires. The teacher was at his desk as often before as after sunrise, ruling the book*, setting copipR, mending the goose-quill pens, and preparing practical sums for the scholars to work out and copy into their manuscripts. School kept five am! a half days in the week, with 15 minutes' recess forenoon and afternoon, and 3U m. for dinner; the rest of the time was devoted to

1 Another illustration of " how we did it " in those days may be not out of place here. It is in a letter from the admirably skilled and successful master of a singing-school : "I think it was fifty-two years ago this coming fall (1888) that 1 attended a singing-school here [in his native town]. Your father sent for me to do his chores and study, I went, and, being interested in music, I commenced to teach the boys in the study from the blackboard. The boys from the town heard of it. and, by your father's advice, I adjourned to the vestry [in the basement of the town-house], where I had about fifty pupils, and taught twenty four evenings, charging nothing. The pupils paid for the lighting. It was thought to be a success." This teachtr (Joseph A. Allen, of Medfield) was afterwards superintendent of schools in Sy?acuse, N. Y., where he had high reputation as an instructor ; and he was for some years the superintendent of the State Heform Schoid at AVestborough.

- A list is mentioned by Dr. Allen "containing the names of fifty-seven teachers, male and female, whose education was obtained princi, ally in our public schools, who found employment as teachers, in this and other places, during the first thirty years of the present century." Since then "tho number must liave Iieeu much larger, as more than thirty have graduated at our Normal Schools, most of them at the one in Bridgewater."

A brit.'k school-house was built in 1837 for the Centre District (established in 1811), at a cost of S2230 (afterwards repaired and refurnished at an expense of 8l"0(i)- The entire cost of school building* for lOU years, not including repairs and incidentals, was S-4,2G2. The appropriations in the same time for schools, including the above, amounted to 8S3,9i;8.

As supplementary (it would seem) to the public pchools, to secure more advanced instructmn, there was organized, in May, 178U, by private subscription, a " Seminary," at a cost of ninety-six pounds, sixteen shillings, three pence and three farthings, wliich sum was divided into 35 shares ; shareholders to have their children's education at an assessed rate, and others to pay 4s, per month for each scholar. At a meeting of the Proprietors, held Monday, December 4, 1781, it was "Voted to give Master Flint five pound per month for the following tliree months." The Seminary building was " upon the common near the pond-hole." How long the plan was continued does not appear.

About 1825 or 1826, courses of public lectures began to be given by the minister of the town, on astronomy and similar topic.-*, supplementary lo the common school course of popular education. The neat townhall, built in 1822 (near where the high school now stands), gave convenient accommodation, and the lectures ripened into a "Lyceum "* (organized in 1828), one of the first in the country, where for more than thirty years free lectures were given and debaies in the earlier years were held once a wtek in winters. The coming together of so many college-men as teachers added greatly to the interest of these debates, which brought out, too, no little native talent. Mr. John C. Wyman, that prince of story-tellers, now of Boston, would probably say that some of his earliest lessons in oratory were received in unr modest town-hall. The Lyceum, in course of time, degenerated to courses of paid lectures, as in other places; but in its day it was a much-prized adjunct to the district ^chool.

A Juvenile Library was created by annual contributions in 1824; and a "Social Library," founded aa early as 1792, was incorporated with the Parish "Free Library," in 1828. A Public Library, established in 1800, by uniting seven existing libraries, and with the aid of a donation of one thousand dollars from Hon. Cyrus Gale, is kept in the new and commodious townhall (built in 1867), and now contains something over seven thousand volumes.

1S23, Nov. Votedy " not to permit Asaph Rice to use the School-house for religions meetings." Fo/erf, *' to provide moans to warm the meeting-bouse, [for the first time !] by a stove or otherwise."

1824, May. ''Chose a committee of 13 to investigate means to suppress the great and growing evil of intemperance ; and that a committee of G be chosen to assist the Selectmen in selecting intemperate persona to be posted up, according to law." In the same year a new hearse is bouglit, at a cost of 2^8.82 ; and the sum of S3U0.3(i was paid for a furnace for the meeting-house.

1826, March. At the request of Joseph Davis and others, a committee was chosen to see if the town will purchase the several libraries, and have a Town Library. A School Committee was for the fiist time appointed, the charge having hitherto been born by the minister and selectmen.

call the rich and bold tone§ of Mr. Mason^s fine tenor voice in the village choir. We iind it later (1829) " recommended that ^0 be appropriated as compensation to Mr. Tliaddeus Mason as leader of the singers for one year, and 519 to Ansou Rice for using his viol for one year."

1828. Tlie First Report on Town-Schools speaks of their "high reputation in past years," but says their '* multiplication of studies is a very serious evil," that " more attention should be paid to writing," and th.it good order should be maintained "by persuasive and gentle measure, so far as may be practicable. ' The next year the number of pupils reported is 349.

1829. It is voted " that the Northborough Branch of the American Lyceum may hold their meetings in the town hall ; " also, *' to refund to the members of the Baptist society their proportion of expenses of painting the meeting-liouse, the singing, &c,; " to procure a map of the town ; and "thiitit is inexpedient for the Town to take measures to become a Parish."

18al. Veiled to accept the Gassett Donation, - a sum of 5i,000, "presented to the Town by Henry Gassett, Esq., of Boston, - one of its provisions being that after the income hsxs reached a certain amount, fifty dollars shall be bestowed, once in three years, upon " the most worthy and best Mother, to be selected by five mothers and five fathers chosen by the Town," A portion of the income is devoted to the support of the Firat Parish Church. Also to expend 840.10 for school apparatus; to purchase a Poor Farm ; and not to grant a petition that the Schools be under the sole control of the people of the several districts, according to law ; so the schools are left in charge of the general town committee.

1832. Voted not to grant the use of the town-house for public worship, and the following year the First Parish pay 820 rent for its use as a *' vestry," or lecture-room.

1836. The committee in a long report recommend the establishing of a nigh School ; measures are taken looking to this, but the plan is abandoned in 1837, when a school building is erected in the centre district for two schools, a hif;Iier and a lower. In 1837 it is also " voted to purchase four acres of land of Lowell Holbrook for a burying-ground," - the beginning of the present cemetery of about ten acres (the old burying-ground of about 3 acres was laid out in 1729, and cleared of wood in 1S04). A poor-farm was purchased for $1150. In 1S38, number of paupers, 16; in 1840, 20.

Health, &c. - When the "Second Precinct" of Westborough was organized iu 1746, there appear to have been forty families in the place.' In the autumn of this year, and for seven years following, particularly in 1749-50, " this society was visited by a very mortal sickness among children, by which the growth of the society must have been very sensibly checked, and which must have been attended with circumstances of peculiar distress. The sickness in the earlier season ajipears to have been dysentery ; the later, throat distemper, better known now as scarlet fever. Sixty children out of a population which could not have much exceeded three hundred were victims of the di.sorder. Still, in 1767 the number of families had increased to eighty-two, and in 1796 to one hundred and ten. In 1810 the census gives the entire population as seven hundred and ninety-four, and in 1820 as ten hundred and eighteen, which seems to have been a slight over-reckoning.

Since the mortality of 1749-50, the general health of the town has been exceptionally good. For fortysix years, beginning with 1780, the deaths were lour hundred and fifty, not quite ten a year (less than one

1 The householders, who were also church members, were the following: Epbraim Allen, Samuel Allen, John Carruth, Gershom Fay, Silas Fay, Jonathan Livermore, John McAllister, Mathias Uice, Jacob Shephard, Joshua Townsend. (May 21, 1740), and a half per cent, of the population), more than half of them from old age. I recall a succession of years when (if my memory is right) the annual deaths did not exceed seven in a population of full one thousand. The growth of little manufacturing centres, with their varieties of a crowded foreign population, has, of course, much changed this ratio. Some seasons of scarlet-fever epidemic (especially one short but severe in 1839), and scattered cases of typhoid, have affected the health list, but have not altered the general good reputation of the town. Increasing fiequency of drought^ and low wells had begun to be felt as a serious inconvenience; and in 1882-83 (in good part by the urgency and liberality of Mr. D. B. Wesson, a wealthy Springfield manufacturer of fire-arms, and of Hon. Cyrus Gale, an aqueduct was laid from a reservoir constructed at Straw Hollow, just over the Boylston line, at a cost of $58,150.44, and since then the village has been amply sujjplied with pure and wholesome water. The engineer's report gives the following description of the work : -

The length of the dam on top is 625 feet, the greatest height in tho middle 20 feet, in the area of the pond created about nine acres. The greatest depth of water is 15 feet, and the total stfu-ago capacity is approximately 30,000,000 gallons, or a supply for your population equal to at least si-x months' consumption. Tber waste gate was closed early in December, 1882, and the pond was first f<dl to high-water mark on June 14, 1883. This level gives a head of 145 feet at the railroiid track, which is sufficient to throw fire-streams at that point 80 feet high. The head at Woodville is 193 feet, and at Chapinville 205 feet. Fire-streams can be thrown at these points 100 feet high.

In regard to the nature of the water secured by your plan, your peojile have already expressed satisfaction with its soft qualities, and undoubtedly storage in the reservoir will tend to remove its slight color. On sanitary grounds, its use should become general for domestic purposes, as no well-water in your village will be found to be its equal in purity. Percy M. Blake, Civil Eiujineer.

Physicians. - The first physician of the town was Stephen Ball (born about 1730), descendant of one of the early settlers of Concord, Mass. His son Stephen ("Old Dr. Ball," 1767-1850) had a wide and longcontinued practice in Northborough and its vicinity, and was a physician of high repute; he married (about 1800) Miss Lydia Lincoln, of Hingham. The second of their thirteen children, " young Dr. Stephen " (born 1802), settled here about 1825, earning special reputation as a surgeon ; he removed to Boston in 1837, where he continue! an extensive and succesiful practice till his death, in 1871. A younger brother, Abel (1810-76), was also a practitioner in Boston. In 1836 Dr. Joshua J. Johnson (1809-84) settled here in practice, removing afterwards to Worcester (1857) and to Keene, N. H. (1858), returning to Northborough in 1865, having married (1840) the eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Allen. Their only surviving child, Mrs. William H. Johnson, lives in Westborough. In 184.'<, Dr. Henry Jewett became a resident of this town,

2 The most formidable drought recorded is one of three months, from March 20 to June 20, 1826. The coldest season known was that of 1816, when there was frost in every month, and the corn froze uin-ipened in the ear.