Oxford Town

Oxford Town

The town of Oxford lies in the southerly part of Worcester County, only separated from the State of Connecticut by the town of Webster. The central village is built on an extensive plain, surrounded here and there by hills, and its main street is a mile long, nearly one hundred and fifty feet wide and lined by rows of thrifty trees. This avenue, perfectly straight and level, gives to the town a generous and wholesome expression - especially attractive to the stranger. The merchant or professional man, weary with work and enfeebled in constitution, could find no spot within the limits of our State where he could rest his body and brain with so much certainty of recuperation as in one of the many cheerful homesteads along this stately thoroughfare. The territory of which the town is composed was originally within the jurisdiction of the Nipmuck tribe of Indians. On the 16th of March, 1682, the Massachusetts Colony Court passed the following order:

This Court having infunnation that some gentlemen in England are desirous to remove themyelves into this colony and (if it may he) to settle themselves under the Slassachnsetts, for encouragement of such persons, and that they may have some from among themselves according to their nature, to assist and direct them in such a design, this Court doth grant to Blajor Rohert Thompson, William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, Esqe., and such others as they shall associate, to them a tract of land in any free place containing eight miles square for a township, they settling in said place within four years thirty families and an able Orthodox minister, and do allow to the said township freedom from country rates for four years from the time above limited.

This grant included about sixty-five square miles of land, of which eleven thousand two hundred and fifty acres were set apart for a village. In January, I 1685, no movement having been made towards a permanent settlement, the court, in response to a petition of the grantees, ordered that -

-' In answer to motion and request of William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, Esqs., on behalf of Major Thompson and themselves, desiring this Court's favor to enlarge the time of their grant of their jilantation, this Court do enlarge the time for settling that plantation therein mentioned the space of three years from this day.

Soon after this extension of the grant a colony of French Huguenots, to the number of thirty families or more, settled on the territory with their minister, Daniel Bondet, and a fiourishing community was the result. The conditions of the grant had been met - a ministry had been established, a meeting-house had been erected, agriculture and even small manufacturing industries had sprung up and every indication of a permanent municipality existed. Upon the appearance, however, of hostile Indians, in 1694, the French residents, unaccustomed to Indian warfare, and seeking peace and comfort, after flying from persecution in the Old World, began to retreat to places of refuge nearer the coast. The colony or town gradually faded away, until, at the close of the century, little was left besides the fort, which its people had built for their defence, to show that it had ever existed. The records of the colony disappeared, and though in 1699 a few families returned, their continuance in the territory was for the most part temporary, and it was only by an entirely fresh resettlement that the town, in 1713, breathed the breath of life. Traces, however, of the old Huguenot settlement are to be found along the whole current of the town's history, and the names of Shnmway and Sigourney on the records of the town show the surrival of at least a portion of tlie old French blood of 1686.

No formal act of incorporation of the town is to be found. The foundation of the municipality is dated by some in 1713, when the first English settlement began. It is probable, however, that the grant of May 16, 1682, and the act of 1693 authorizing the colony to send a Representative to the General Court, were the only legislative proceedings on the subject. It seems clear then that either 1682 or 1693 should be considered the date of the birth of the town.

There appears to have been no further ettbrt made to occupy the lands until 1713, when, a few English families having entered upon them, the original proprietors of the grant, or their heirs, issued the following proclamation :

Oxford

Joseph Dudley, of Roxburj, in the County of Suffolk and province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, Esq. ; William Taylor, of Dorchester, in the same county, Esq.; Peter Sargent, of Boston, Esq., and Mehitable, his wife; John Danforth, Esq., and Elizabeth, his wife ; John Nelson, of Boston, Esq., and Elizabeth, his wife ; and they, the said AVilliam Taylor, Peter Sargent, John Danforth and John Nelson, are the heirs and executors of the Hon. William Stoughton, late of Dorchester, deceased, send greeting :

When-a^, The General Court of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, in the year one thousand six Inindred and sixty-two, granted to said .Toseph Dudley, William Stoughton and their associates, a certain tract of land in the Nipmuck country eight miles square for a township, as may be seen more at large by the recoi'ds of the General Court, pursuant whereuuto, and for the uses aforesaid, the said Joseph Dudley, William Stoughton and their associates, in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-six, brought over thirty families of French Protestants into this country and settled them upon the eastern part of the said tract of land, and reserved, granted and set apart 11,2.50 acres for a village called Oxford for the said families, and bouuded it as by a plat upon record will more fully appear ; but forasmuch as the said French families have many years since wholly left and deserted their settlements in said village and the said lands, as well by their deserting the same and refusing to return upon proclamation made for that end. as by the voluntary surrender of most of them, are now reinvested in and restored to and become the estate and at the disposition of the original proprietors, their heirs and successors for the ends aforesaid.

And miei-eojs. There are sundry good families of her Majesty's subjects within the Province who ofTer themselves to go out and re-settle the said village, whereby they ma.v be serviceable to the Province, and the end and design of the original grant afores;iid be answered and attained :

Nviv know !ie, That the said Joseph Dudley, William Taylor, Peter Sargent and Jlehitable, his wife, John Nelson and Elizabeth, his wife, and John Danforth and Elizabeth, his wife, for and in consideration and to the uses and intents above nu-utioned.

Have fnlly, freely and absolntely, and by these presents do give^ grant and confirm unto Samuel Uagcburn, John Town, Daniel Eliot, Abiel Lamb, Joseph Chamberlain, Benjamin Nealand, BenoniTwitchol, Joseph Rocket, Benjamin Chamberlain, Jr., Oliver Collin, Daniel Pierson, Abram Skinner, Ebenezer Learned, Thomas Leason, Ebenezer Humphrey, Jonathan Tillutson, p]dmuuil Tayloi', Ephraim Town, Israel Town, William Hudson, Daniel Eliot. Ji-., Nathaniel Chanilierlaiu, John Chandler, Jr., John Chandler and others, their associates, and as their number amount to thirty families at least, all that part of the said tract of land herein above mentioned : provided always, that if any of the persons, grantees above named, or any of their iissociates, shall neglect to settle upon and improve the said land with themselves and families by the space of two years next ensuing, or beinj; settled thereon shall leave and desert the same and not return to their respective habitations in the said town upon due notice given, that then in such case it shall and may be lawful to and for the rest of the grantees and their as.sociates, heirs or assigns respectively, or the major part of them, to seize upon and take the Siiid estate or estates of such person or persons so deserting, excepting always and reserving to Gabi'iel Bemon, merchant, the whole of his right, grant or purchase, which made him one of the original proprietors, as by deed oi- record thereof may a]ipear.

Ju M'ituess whereof^ The parties above named to these presents have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals the eighth day of July in the 12th' year of his Majesty's reign Anno Domini 17l:i. [Signed] J. DvDi.Ky.

The mystery attending tlie early settlement anfl history of the town is in no sense cleared up by this instrument. In its text O.xford is calletl expressly a town, showing that there must have been some previous legislative enactment creating it. It is known that in 1G93, when the French colony was at the high-tide of prosperity, an art w.is passed allowing

Oxford to send a Representative to the General Court. It may be fair to assume, on a full consideration of all the facts in the case, that this act was intended as a formal act of incorporation, and that the year 1693 should be adopted as the year of the birth of the town. Oxford was at that time in Suffolk County, and it is said by Peter Whitney, in his bistory published in 1793, that the early records of the town were kept in Boston, and burned in the State House there.

After the re.settlement provided for in the above grant the first town-meeting was held on the 22d of July, 1718, under a warrant issued by John Chandler, one of the justices of the peace for Suffolk County, at which John Town, Benoni Twitchell and Joseph Chamberlain were chcsen selectmen and John Town town clerk.

In 1714 the thirty families .settled on the territory seem to have been represented by the persons named in the above instrument, with John Chandler excluded and with the addition of Isaac Learned, Peter Shumway, Joseph Chandler, John Coller, Joshua Whitney, Thomas Hunkins and Ebenezer Lamb. In that year the head of each family received by lot a tract of thirty acres of land.

On the 29th of July, 1714, it was voted by the town to build a meeting-house on a lot of land a short distance northwesterly of the present Congregational Church. The completion of the house was long delayed, though it was occasionally used as opportunities for preaching were afforded. The pulpit was temporarily supplied and efforts were made to settle a pastor, but without success until March 1,1721, when Rev. John Campbell was ordained. Jlr. Campbell came from the North of Scotland to New England in 1717, and was educated at the university at Edinburgh. His pastorate continued until his death, which occurred May 25, 17til, in the seventy-first year of his age and in the forty -second year of his ministry.

He married Esther Fairchild, of Boston, who died at Oxford in 1777, and his children were Mary, born February 11, 1723, who married Jacob Town ; John, born February 7, 1724; Isabella, born March 27, 1726; Duncan, born March 27, 1727, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomtts Stearns, of Worcester; Isabella, again, born July 26, 1728, who married Josiah Wolcott, of Salem ; Elizabeth, born August 14,1730; Alexander, born February 12, 1732, who married Lydia, daughter of Thomas Stearns; William, born April 2, 1734; and Archibald, born August 6, 1736.

Mr. Campbell was followed by Rev. .loseph Bowman, who was installed November 14, 1764. Mr. Bowman graduated at Harvard in 1761, and, after the short preparation for the ministry, which was common in those days, was ordained at Boston August 31, 1762. He at once began his professional work among the Mohawk Indians, and continuo<l in Indian service until May, 17(i3. He remained at Ox- ford about eighteen years, and was finally dismissed at his own request August 28, 1782. After his removal from Oxford he was settled .«it Bernard, in Vermont, September 22, 1784, and died in 1806.

Rev. Elias Dudley succeeded Mr. Bowman, and was ordained April 13, 1791, and dismissed March 6, 1799. He was a native of Saybrook, Conn., and graduated at Dartmouth in 1788. Rev. Josiah Moulton followed Mr. Dudley, and was ordained March 26, 1805. The ministry of Mr. Moulton continued until April 6, 1813, and with his ministry the identity of the town with the old territorial parish disappeared.

The church proper, which was organized on the 18th of January, 1721, retained all its old functions and powers, but the parish, for the support of which the town had been previously taxed, and for the erection of whose meeting-houses and the support of whose ministers it was responsible, became limited to its actual members. In fact, a severance of church and State had come about, occasioned, doubtless, at that early period, by the unusual number in Oxford of those who had departed from the faith of their fathers.

In 1737 a new meeting-house was erected, the completion of which, like that of the first, lingered for many years. It was probably owing as much to the unsubstantial character of the first structure as to its size that in twenty-five years a new one was considered necessary.

Rev. David Batcheller was installed as the successor of Mr. Moulton February 13, 1816, and remained until his death in 1822. On the 17th of December, 1823, Rev. Ebenezer Newhall was ordained, and dismissed June 19, 1832. Mr. Newhall was a graduate of Harvard in 1818, and numbered among his classmates Sidney Bartlett, the Nestor of the Massachusetts bar; Francis Brinley, now living in Newport, R. I.; Rev. Dr. Samuel Barrett, who died in 1866; Rev. Dr. Frederick Augustus Farley, still living; Rev. Dr. George Rapall Noyes, who died in 1868; and Rev. Dr. Thomas Worcester.

Rev. Loren Robbins was installed December 26, 1832, and dismissed June 8, 1836, and waij succeeded by Rev. Horatio Bardwell, who was installed June 8, 1836. Mr. Bardwell continued in the pastorate until June 8, 1864, and died at Oxford May .5, 1866. He was followed by Rev. Samuel J. Austin, who was installed on the day of the formal dismissal of his predecessor, and dismissed November 9. 1868. Rev. Thomas E. Babb was installed September 20, 1871, and dismissed May 1, 1877, to be followed by Rev. Amzi B. Emmons, who was installed October 16,1878. The present pastor is Rev. William N. T. Dean, and the present house of worship was erected in 1829, and dedicated November 3d in that year.

The next religious society in Oxford in point of age is the Universalist Society. It was organized April 27, 1785, and Rev. Adam Streeter was engaged to supply the pulpit. Rev. Peter Whitney says, under date of 1793, " In the town of Oxford there is a society of those who are denominated Universalists (about a fifth of the inhabitants). These, with some families from several neighboring towns, make a respectable society. And they have erected a large elegant meeting-house towards the south end of Oxford Plain, where the road from Connecticut intersects the road from Worcester to Dudley. This house is constructed upon the most modern plan, with a tower and bell. This society have not as yet any settled minister."

The meeting referred to above was held in the school-house on Oxford Plain, and Daniel Fiske was chosen moderator. The following declaration was adopted :

Whereat, A number of professors of the Protestant religion, being principally of the inhabitants of Oxford, together with some persons of the adjacent towns, Iiave, for a number of years past, assembled upon the Sabbath day for public worship, and have attended to the instructions of 'Rev. Adam Streeter and supported him by free contributions from time to time, do now resolve to form themselves into a religious society in conformity with the laws of the Common wealth."

Ezra Conant was chosen secretary, and Samuel Davis, Jr., Collins Moore and Jonathan Davis, of Oxford, Ebenezer Davis, of Charlton, Ebenezer Rich, of Sutton, and Isaac Stone, of Ward, were chosen a committee to issue certificates of membership. Rev. Mr. Streeter died September 3, 1786, and was followed in 1788 by Rev. Elkanah Ingals, of Grafton. On the 19th of April, 1789, Rev. Thomas Barnes succeeded to the jiastorate, and remained until 1793. In 1794 Rev. Michael Coflin, of New York, began to supply the pulpit, and remained tliree years. After 1801 Rev. Hosea Ballou and Rev. Edward Turner supplied for a few years, and were followed by Rev. Jacob Wood. Since Mr. Wood left, the following have ofliciated : Rev. John Nichols, Rev. Richard Carrique, Rev. Lyman Maynard, Rev. Seth Chandler, Rev. John Boyden, Rev. Oilman Noyes, Rev. Alvin Abbott, Rev. Alfred Barnes, Rev. R M. Byram, Rev. Jacob Baker, Rev. Albert Tyler, Rev. H. Closson, Rev. O. H. Tillotson and Rev. George Proctor. At the present time the pulpit is supplied by Rev. Mr. Preble, of Webster. The meeting-house of the society was remodeled in 1845.

The Methodist Episcopal Society of Oxford was organized in 1835. In 1836 Rev. Benjamin Paine was appointed pastor by the New England Conference, and in 1840 a meeting-house was erected, which was succeeded by the present house of worship in 1868. After a long succession of pastors, who have been changed by the Conference after short terms of service, the present pastor is Rev. P. R. Stratton.

As long ago as 1793 Mr. Whitney stated in his history, " There is also a number in Oxford of the Anabaptist persuasion ; they are destilute of any stated teacher."

At a meetiug liekl on the 1st oI'May, 1837, Josiah rjoddard was chosen moderator and William Copp clerk. It -was voted to adopt as the articles of their faith, practice and covenant those which are used in the Worcester Baptist Association. Jennison Barton and William Copp were chosen deacons.

In May the church was recognized by the ecclesiastical council as the North Oxford Baptist Church. The meeting-house of the society was erected in 1837, and among the pastors have been Rev. A. Smith Lyou, Rev. Solomon Gale, Rev. J. N. Hobart, Rev. Joseph Hodges, Rev. J. E. Wood, Rev. C. M. Herring, Rev. Thomas Chapman, Rev. Joseph Smith, Rev. W. H. Shedd, Rev. J. W. Lathrop, Rev. Oliver Ayer. At the present time the pulpit is occupied by temporary supplies.

An Episcopal Church was organized on the 10th of May, 1S64, and in the same year a hand.some stone edifice was erected for public worship which reflects credit on the development of taste in the town. The pulpit, now unsupplied, has been occupied among others by Rev. W. F. Floyd and Rev. Dr. W. H. Brooks.

While attending to the religious improvement of its people, the town was not neglectful of its educational interests. Schools were established at an early date - at first kept in private houses, and soon after provided with houses of their own.

In 1733 the town voted to hire a schoolmaster, and in 1736 a school-house was built. In 1740 Richard Rogers was hired to teach school, with a salary of sixty pounds. In 1751 the town voted to build a house for Mr. Rogers to occupy as long as he remained in the town as a schoolmaster.

After the Revolution, when our peojile began to feel the responsibilities of government resting on them, they were not long in coming to a realizing sense that the permanence and character of their government would depend largely on the education of their youth. Thus au im|)etus was given to the cause of public instruction which has been reinforced in these later years by the volume of the tide of illiteracy sweejiing to our shores, which it has become necessary to meet and overcome. A recital of the progress of common schools in Oxford would be simply a repetition of that made in other towns of the county and narrated many times in these volumes. It must suBice to display the present condition of the schools of the town and the measures adopted for their support.

According to the last report of the School Committee for the year ending February 29, 1888, there were ten schools in the town, one of which was a High School and another a Grammar School. The scope of the instruction sought by the committee to furnish may be learned from the curriculum of the High School, to which the other schools are avenues of approach : and Roman or United States History. 11. Latin or English Analysis, Algebra, Physical Geography, fireek and Roman or United States History. IIL Latin or English Analysis, .\lgebra, Physical Geography, Greek

- Physiology, Civics. II. Ca'sar and Cicoro or French Reader, ('onuuon School Arithmetic, Physiology, Civics. Cicsar and Cicero or French Reader, (Commercial Arithnistic,

As an auxiliary of the 8chool Department of the town, the Public Library should be referred to in connection with the public schools. With a proper foundation of knowledge laid in these schools, a thirst for more stimulated, habits of thought developed, a substantial English education furnished instead of that thin layer of what is called an all-round cultivation of the intellect, which melts away even in the first years of practical life, a public library serves to continue what was only really begun at the school-desk and develop each year more fully the minds of those of mature years. Properly used it must serve to cor-, rect the idea into which our educators have fallen, that education is finished in the school and must, therefore, be crowded with every conceivable branch of study, giving so little time to each that none take root and grow. Give the brain the breath of life, the power of expansion and the ability to think, and no matter whether or not the rule of three, the capitals of Europe and distance of the earth from the sun are included within its attainments, the Public Library will do the rest.

In 1868 Hon. Ira M. Barton gave, by his will, the sum of one thousand dollars to establish a Public Library. The-gift was accepted by the town April 6, 1868, and the library established in 1870. The number of books in the library at the date of the last report was 3535. The financial account of the library with the town was as follows :

Having stated the amounts expended for the support of schools and the Public Library, it may be as well here to present a full list of the expenditures of the town for other departments for the year above referred to. The cost of repairing roads and bridges was $2,198.09 ; of support of the poor, $3,323.71 ; of the Fire Department, $1,316.32; of lighting streets five months, $199.75 ; abated taxes, $13.57 ; cemeteries, $56 ; cistern, $366.67 ; hearse, $32 ; insurance, .$51 ; interest, $694.50 ; legal services, $55 ; Memorial Day, $100; Memorial Hall, $510.15; office expenses, .$105;

The apparatus belonging to the Fire Department includes the following: Hand-engine Colonel De- Witt and hose-truck with five hundred feet of hose, all in fair order; two American hand fire annihilators, one exteasion ladder, thirty-two uniform shirts, twenty-eight uniform belts, eight United States Army overcoats for hosemen, two fire- hats, twelve hosemen's belts, twelve spanners, one hose-brush, three lanterns, twelve lamps.

Huguenot Steamer, No. 1. - Steamer and hose-truck with one thousand feet of hose, one set of double harness, one single harness, six rubber coats, six rubber caps, twelve hosemen's belts, twelve spanners, one hose-brush, three lanterns, twelve lamps, one table - a gift of the company to the town; all in good condition.

As in other towns, away from the seaboard, the people of Oxford in its earlier days were chiefly occupied in agriculture. As a matter of course, since manufacturing industries were started, employment in which is both more agreeable and profitable than that of the field, the agricultural products of the town have not kept pace with its growth. Notwithstanding, however, the immense manufacturing activity of Worcester County, the county still stands high in the list of counties in the United States in the products of the soil.

Products And Property

In later times mauufacturing industries have been introduced into the town and at the present time their list comprises a number of flourishing establishments.

Frederick Thayer is engaged at North Oxford in the manufacture of cassimeres. At the same place S. D. Nye manufactures cotton yarn, Edwin Bartlett manufactures cotton warp and twine, N. E. Taft manufactures satinettes and John Chase & Co. manufacture cassimeres. At Oxford Centre Andrew Howarth & Son manufacture flannels and A. L. Joslin & Co. men's and women's and children's shoes. Another mill, called the Buffum Mill, is not at present in operation.

In the second French and Indian War Oxford took an active part. On the ISth of August, 1758, a company marched from the town to the relief of Fort William Henry, consisting of the following men :

Daring the complications which led to the Revolution, Oxford stood shoulder to shoulder with other towns in supporting the people of Boston in their attitude of resistance to the aggressive acts of the crown. On the 29th of September, 1774, a town-meeting was held, at which it was

"Hesolvedlst. That, as by the late acts of Parliament, we are deprived of the Constitutional laws of the government of Massachusetts Bay, we will endeavor to maintain and keep peace and good order iu this town ; to support and uphold all civil officers in the execution of their offices, so far as they conform themselves to the charter-rights of this government, and assist them duly to punish all offenders against the same laws ; to bear testimony against all riots, as well as against any number of men collecting in bodies together to hurt the person or property of any one.

" 2(i. That we ever have been and will be true and loyal subjects of our most gracious sovereign George III., King of Great Britain, so long as we are permitted the free execution of our charter-rights.

"3d. That, considering the present i alarming and distressed circumetances of this province, it is highly necessary for the military officers of the town to resign their commissions, and therefore do advise the said officers to resign accordingly ; and that the soldiery, as soon as may be, to elect the same officers to take the command of the different companies in this town if they will accept, and the major part of the soldiery shall elect them ; and if any refuse to serve, then to choose others experienced in the arts of war iu their stead."

To advise our representative in the General Court that if the honorable Congress should, for the safety of the colonies, declare themselves independent of Great Britain, to concur therewith ; and the inhabitants of this town do solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to sustain the measure.

The following is as correct a list of the soldiers furnished by Oxford in the Revolution as the writer has been able to obtain from the rolls at the State- House.

The following men belonged to the company commanded by Captain William Campbell in Colonel Ebenezer Learned's regiment, and marched to Cambridge in April, 1775 :

It will be noticed that the two companies commanded by William Campbell and John Town contain many of the same men. The probable explanation is that the two companies were merged, and the rolls at the State-House, from which the above lists have been copied, taken at different times.

Elisha Livermore served as a bombardier three months, in 1776, in Captain William Todd's company and Colonel Craft's artillery regiment, and Nathaniel Wyman in the same year served a little more than a month in Captain Aaron Guild's company and Colonel Whiting's regiment.

The following, in 1777, were members of Captain Jeremiah Kingsbury's company and Colonel Jonathan Holman's regiment, and marched to re-enforce General Gates : years within three days, $125 to those volunteering within a week and $100 to those volunteering after that time. On the 27th of August it was voted to give a bounty of $150 to all volunteering within a week, and on the 15th of June, 1864, it was voted to continue the payment of bounties to the extent of $125 to each man for any term of service required by the Government. The whole amount of money expended by the town for war purposes was $42,595 21 of which the sum of $20,223.12 for State aid was paid bLck by the State. Of the 293 soldiers in the service, the names of the following, who lost their lives, are inscribed on tablets at the entrance of the town-hall :

In the War of the Rebellion, according to the statement of William Schooler, who was, during the war, the adjutant-general of the Commonwealth, Oxford sent 285 privates and eight officers into the field. At the time the war broke out the population was 3034 and the valuation $1,156,411. On the 6th of May, 1861, it was voted in town-meeting to raise the sum of $4000 to equip a military company, and Alexander De Witt, George Hodges, Jr., Samuel' C. Paine, William E. Pease, Charles A. Angell, Ira Harrison and Elisha M. Smith were constituted a committee, with the selectmen, to carry the vote into effect. On the SOth of July,- 1862, it was voted to give a bounty of $1.50 to those volunteering for three

In order that some idea may be obtained of the representative men in the various generations, the following list of Representatives to the General Court is added :

The twenty-fir.st article of the amendments of the Constitution was adopted liy the Legislatures of 1856 and 1857 and ratified by the people in 1857. Under the apportionment made in accordance with that amendment, Oxford, Sutton and Millbury constituted the Twenty-fifth Representative District of Worcester County and were represented, until the next apportionment, as follows :

Under the apportionment of 1866 the tnwns of Douglas, Webster, Dudley, Oxford and Millbury constituted the Sixteenth Worcester County District, and until the next apportionment were represented as follows :

Under the apportionment of 1876 the towns ot Spencer, Charlton, Southbridge and Oxford constituted the Thirteenth Worcester District and were represented, until the next apportionment, as follows:

Under the apportionment of 1886 the towns of Webster, Oxford and Auburn constituted the E^ighth Worcester District and have been represented as follows :

Besides the above, there are some who were connected with the town in its earliest years, or who have been its native or adopted sons, of whom special mention should be made. The original grantees in 1682 were Major Robert Thompson, William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley. Major Thompson was a member of the first corporation established in England for the propagation of the Gospel among the Indians in New England. He was the third president of the corporation and thus became especially interested in New England affairs. It was through his influence that the emigration from England of the French refugees took place, and through him that the French settlement in Oxford was made. He received a grant of five hundred acres of land from the Massachusetts Province in acknowledgment of his friendship for the colony. This grant was laid out in the territory east of Woodstock, which afterward became the north part of Killingly in Connecticut, and in 1731 the General Assembly of that province granted to Joseph Thompson, the grandson of Robert Thompson, two thousand acres near the grant of his grandfather. The name of the North Parish of Killingly was first called Thompson's Parish and finally incorporated as Thompson.

William Stoughton, one of the grantees with Major Thompson, was born in England in 16.31, and died in Dorchester, July 7, 1701. He graduated at Harvard in 16.50, and after studying theology went to England and was a fellow of New College, Oxford, but ejected at the restoration. He returned to New England in 1662, and entered with spirit into public affairs. From 1676 to 1679 he was an agent of the Massachusetts Colony in England, and in 1692 was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature, a position which he held until 1701. He was also Lieutenant-Governor from 1692 to 1701, and acting Governor during the absence of Sir William Phipps in England. He was a benefactor of his alma mater, one of whose dormitories, named after him, was built at his expense.

Joseph Dudley, the third grantee, was a son of Gov. Thomas Dudley, and was born in Roxbury July 23, 1647. He graduated at Harvard in 166.3, and after studying theology, entered on a political career. In 1686 he was appointed -President of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but when superseded by Andros, soon after went to England, and after his return, in 1690, was appointed chief justice of New York. At a later date he was appointed Lieutenant- Governor of the Isle of AVight, in England, and in 1702 Governor of Massachusetts, which office he held until November, 171.5. He died in Roxbury, April 2, 1720.

The Frenchman through whom the grantees secured the immigration of the Huguenots to New England, and their settlement at Oxford, was Gabriel Bernon, from Rochelle, in France. He was born in that city April 6, 1644, and was a man of large estate.

He was imprisoned two years on account of his religious opinions, and afterwards went to Holland, from whence he came to New England. It seems to have been through his exertions that the colony at Oxford secured a foothold, and with his means that a gristmill and saw-mill and wash-leather mill were built on the territory. Mr. Bernon lived at various times in Boston and Newport and Providence, in which last place he died February 1, 1736.

Mr. Barton was born in Oxford, October 2.5, 1796, and graduated at Brown University in 1819. He studied law with General Bridgham in Providence, Hon. Levi Lincoln in Worcester, Sumner Barton in Sutton, and at the law school in Cambridge, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1822. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1822, and represented his native town in the General Court in 1830, 1831 and 1832. In 1833 and 1834 he was a member of the Senate, and in 1836 was one of the commissioners for revising the statutes. In the last year he was appointed judge of probate, and removed to Worcester. In 1844 he resumed the practice of law, and died in Worcester, July 18, 1867.

Alexander De Witt was born in New Braintree, April 2, 1798, and bore the family name of Witt, which was changed by statute to the name by which he was known during the whole of his public life. His school education was exceedingly limited, and most of the time during the first fourteen years of his life was spent about his home and on the farm. At the age of fifteen he entered the employ of the Merino Manufacturing Co. in Dudley, and remained four years. In 1818 he went to Franklin, and entered, as clerk, the office of a cotton manufactory, and in 1819 formed a partnership with Nathaniel Miller in the manufacture of cotton thread. In 1820 he leased a mill in Foxboro', and continued in the same business, keeping at the same time a country store. In that year he married Mary, daughter of William Makepeace, of Franklin, and, in connection with his father-in-law, a third mill was built by him, and run with success until 1823. In that year he removed to Oxford, and, in connection with his three brothers, Stearns, Hollis and Archibald, built a thread-mill, and carried on the manufacture of thread for twenty years. He was afterwards engaged in both the cotton and woolen business. In 1837 he removed to Boston, where he carried on for three years a commission business in cotton and woolen goods, still holding his interest in the mill erected by himself and brothers. In 1840 he returned to Oxford, and by this time had established a reputation for ability, honesty, shrewdness and good judgment in business affiiirs. Originally a Democrat, he had become a Whig after the removal of the deposits by Jackson, and in 1842, 1844 and 18.50^he represented

Oxford in the General Court. In 1851 and 1869 he was Senator, and in 1853 was a member of the Con- Htitutional Convention. In 1856 and 1857, as a Kepublican, he represented the Worcester vSouth District in Congress. Few men have been connected, in responsible positions, with more institutions, financial and industrial. For twenty-six years he was a director in the Merchants' and Farmers' Insurance Co. of Worcester; for twenty -seven years a director in the State Mutual Life Insurance Co. ; for twenty years either president or trustee of the Mechanics' Savings Bank of Worcester; twenty-one years connected with the Oxford Bank, and five years its president ; twenty-five years connected with the Worcester and Nashua Kailroad Company, and three years its president; seventeen years a director of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company, and twenty-five years director in the Norwich and Worcester Railroad Company. The writer of this sketch knew him, and remembers him well as one of the most striking personages within the range of his acquaintance. A man of large frame, somewhat ]>ortIy, with a florid complexion, a good head and a freedom of dre-^s, he resembled Colonel Thomas H. Benton in appearance, and, like him, attracted attention in every assembly of men of which he was one.

The territory of Oxford, originally containing forty-one thousand two hundred and fifty acres, has been enlarged and contracted at various times until, at the present date, it measures not far from fifteen thousand acres. In 1732 Oxford South Gore was annexed, and in 1735 a tract known by the name of the Paul Dudley farm was taken within its boundaries. The next change in the boundaries of the town was occasioned by the incorporation of the town of Charlton. The following petition was the basis of the act incorporating that town :

To His Excellency, William Shirley, Esq., Oovernor nnd ruiumsinderiD-Chiuf, the Honorable Council and the House of Representatives iu General Court assembled at lioston, the 27''* day of March, 1754.

The petition of thesubscrihei-s inhabitants of the town of Oxford in the County of Worcester, niosthuniblyalieweth that yourpetitioners being in the west part of Oxford aforesaid, labor under great difflculties, by reason of the distance wy live from the place of public worship; it being more than ten miles from the meeting-house to the west bounds of the town and about two miles from the east bound. Some of ns attend public worship at Dudley and some at Sturbridge on Lord's day, and have no privilege from Oxford on this account, and are yet always taxed to all the charges of tho town and liave been for more than sixteen years past; but to encourage us in getting a town or district of the west part of the town, they voted at a town-meet'ng on the nti- of May, 1750, to set off the west part of Oxford within two miles of the village line, in case a number of those residing in the Gore wonhl join with us.

The success of Samuel Slater, in the early part of this century, in constructing and operating machinery for the manufacture of cotton goods, attracted the attention of men with capital to enterprises of that nature.

Richard Gluey had accumulated a considerable fortune in the West India trade in Providence, and prior to 1817 he and other associates, citizens of Providence, had built and thereafter operated a cotton factory at Douglass, and doubtless his interest in this enterprise was the reason of his removal to that town.

Here Wils(m was employed for a time in and about the mill; and one winter, when he was but seventeen years old, he taught school in one of the neighboring School Districts.

In after-life he remarked, with reference to his school-teaching experience, that some of his scholars were older and larger than their teacher.

In 1819 the family removed from Douglass to Oxford, where his father had bought the tavern property and adjoining store, situate in the centre of Oxford Plain, on the site where the hotel and brick store now are.

Soon after becoming of age he started out for Iiim. self, and, leaving home, obtained a position in a store at Providence, and afterwards was similarly employed at Hyde Park, Dutchess County, N. Y., and subsequently at Little Falls, near Paterson, N. J., where he remained till 1829, when he returned to Oxford at his father's request, to take a place in the countingroom of the Oxford Woolen Company. This company had been established in 182-1, Richard Olney being one of the original stockholders, and thereafter acquiring a controlling interest in the enterprise.

Wilson remained in the counting-room of the company till 1831, when he engaged in trade, with Samuel Dowse and Benjamin F. Campbell as partners, under the firm-name of Dowse, Campbell & Olney. This firm and its successors (of which he was a member) continued in business at the store premises, next south of the present bank building, till 183l3.

In 1832 he married Eliza L. Butler, third daughter of Mr. Peter Butler, a well-known and highlyrespected citizen of Oxford. His marriage was in all respects most fortunate and happy. In 1836, having sold his interest in the store in Oxford, he removed with his family to Louisville, Ky., where he engaged in the dry goods business, his former partner, Dowse, having an interest in the venture. He resided in Louisville till 1842, when he returned to Oxford.

The estate owned a large interest in the Oxford Woolen Company and its property, and, by the terras of this will, the executors were authorized for a time to continue the business of the company ; accordingly Mr. Olney, being one of the executors, took part in the management of the business, and made his residence at the company's village, in the westerly part of the town.

In 1846 the mill and other property of the company were sold to the late George Hodges, Mr. Olney, however, retaining an interest in the property, and forming a partnership with Mr. Hodges for continuing the business. This partnership lasted till 1853, when Mr. Olney sold his interest to Mr. Hodges, and, buying the premises then known as the " Barbour Place," near the northerly end of the Main Street in Oxford, he removed there with his family in 1853. In the following year he, with Charles E. Daniels as partner, was engaged in the shoe manufacturing business. In 1855 he was elected cashier of the Oxford Bank. This position he held for nearly twenty years, till obliged by ill healtli to relinquish it a few months prior to his death.

His discharge of his ofiice of cashier of the bank was marked by that strict fidelity to duty which distinguished his conduct in every relation of life.

In politics he was a stanch Whig, so long as the Whig party existed, but in the latter years of his life he uniformly acted with the Democratic party.

The sincerity of his religious faith was exemplified by the purity of his daily walk and conversation, and by the consistent Christian character he ever maintained. The scrupulous honesty, strict integrity and uprightness, which marked his dealings with all, commanded at all times the respect and confidence of all who knew him.

While he was sincere and firm in his convictions, and ever faithful to the obligations of duty, yet his nature was kindly, his impulses generous, and his judgments of others most charitable. In personal appearance he was tall, erect, with a well-proportioned figure, and manly and dignified in feature and bearing. He died at his home in Oxford in February, 1874, leaving his wife, four sons and a daughter.

At nine years of age he was left an orphan, and thereafter made his way in the world unaided, in the face of adverse and discouraging circumstances. He was, in boyhood, employed in the mills at Slatersville, and, at fourteen years of age, was efficient as a cotton weaver. Being inclined to habits of sobriety and economy, he, at eighteen years of age, had saved sufficient means to begin business on a small scale for himself. He had a desire to enter mei'cantile life ; but circumstances not being favorable, his first venture was in tlie manufacture of felt hats for the New York market. In this he was only moderately successful ; and an opportunity offering to enter the store of Mr. Esek Pitts, a manufacturer of satinets at Millville, he availed himself of it.

Here he won, by his faithfulness and efficiency, the confidence of his employer, and, after two or three years, married his daughter and was received as his partner in the store, and also in the manufacturing business. The operations of the firm continued successfully until 1834, when Mr. Pitts died. Mr. Buffum then assumed the affairs of the company, and in addition took the agency of several other small mills in the vicinity, which he managed ably, developing excellent business talents. For several years he was prospered, and began to realize something of his hopes pecuniarily, when misfortune overtook him.

His first severe reverse was the burning of his mill, in 1849. He had not fully recovered from this loss, when, through the failure of a friend, whom he had assisted financially, he met with another disaster, and saw, within a short time, the results of his earlier business life nearly all swept away.

At the age of fifty-two, with his means thus materially reduced, he, in 1852, came to Oxford, having that year purchased, of Mr. Charles L. Harding, the estate in the westerly part of the town, since known as Buffumsville, having associated with him in the transaction Mr. Edward Thayer, of Millville. Here they began the making of fine black woolen cloths, in which they were prosperous.

In 1855 the partnership expired by limitation. Mr. Buffum then bought out his partner's interest, and by his wise and cautious management carried on the business successfully - his sons, Moses H. and Charles H., being associated with him a few years later - until his decease, in 1874.

Mr. Buffum possessed not only native sagacity and tact, but a hopeful temperament, which led him to persevering and constant effort under all circumstances. Nothing changed his purpose, but quietly and untiringly he pursued his way until success rewarded his endeavors.

He had strong moral convictions and strict integrity ; was considerate of the rights of all with whom he had intercourse, and possessed the esteem of the community. He was early an anti-slavery man, and a free-soil voter, and later a decided Republican.

He had no ambitions for public promotion. While living in Millville he served five years in the State militia, and, after filling the offices of lieutenant and captain, was, on June 17, 1830, commissioned as colonel of the Second Regiment, First Brigade, Sixth Division of Massachusetts Infantry, which office he held until July 20, 1832, when he was " honorably discharged at his own request," and was thereafter known as Colonel Buffum. He was a prominent Freemason, and in social and domestic life was genial and true. Through the long and painful illness which preceded his decease he exhibited the higher virtues which marked him as a man of uncommon fortitude and strength and amiability of character. He died Nov. 20, 1874, and was buried with Masonic honors, in Rural Cemetery, at Worcester, Mass. Moses Buffum may be numbered among the most successful business men of the town of Oxford. He married, July 24, 1823, Louisa Pitts, of Millville, who died, aged seventy-nine, on Jan. 13, 1885, at Oxford. They had eleven children, six of whom survive - two sons and three daughters residing in Oxford, and a daughter who married George Mason, in Washington, D. C.

Edwin Baetlett

The progenitor of the branch of the family to which the subject of this sketch belongs removed, according to tradition, from Salem or vicinity to Cumberland, R. I., where Zephaniah, the grandfather of Edwin, was born. He was a farmer and a blacksmith, and removed about 1795 from Cumberland to Thompson, Conn., where was born, February 9, 1810, Asa, the father of Edwin. He spent his early boyhood on the farm, and at twelve years of age began service at Slater & Howard's woolen-mill in Dudley (now Webster) entering the carding-roora. Here he made good progress, and from time to time was promoted, until he was placed in charge of the department as overseer, which position he filled ably until his decease, in 1885, having been in this place for the term of sixt3'-three years. He was a man of character and influence, and although not professedly religious, was a constant attendant on public worship at the Baptist Church. He married Matilda, daughter of Samuel Kingsbury, who belonged to one of the staid old families of southern Oxford, and who served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. They had three children - Edwin, Amos and Harriet. Amos was captain of Co. H, in the renowned Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment, iu the late war, and is now, 1888, superintendent of the Slater mill, in which his father spent so many years. Harriet married A. J. Bates, a well-known citizen of Webster, and died in June, 1887. Edwin was born October 25, 1833, at Webster, attended the public schools of that town and at Wilbrahaji Academy, and later at a commercial school at Worcester. In his boyhood he worked under his father in the mill. At about sixteen years of age he was apprenticed to learn wool sorting, and was employed after the expiration of his apprenticeship as journeyman at Slater's until he came of age, in 1S54. He then went to Philadelphia, where he obtained a situation iu a wool-store, and continued there for one year. In 1855 he returned to Webster, and spent the year at the old business ot wool-sorting. In 185(5 he accepted a situation as book-keeper at tlie millof Russell Phelps, at West Fitchburg, where he remained for five years, until his engagement, in 1861 at North Oxford, as accountant for Messrs. Ohamberlin & Burrough. After two years here at book-keeping he became superintendent, continuing during 1863 and 1861. In 1865, Ohamberlin having previously sold to Burrough, Mr. Bartlett bought a half-interest in the concern, and the firmname became Burrough & Bartlett, and continued thus until 1870. Down to 1865 their operations had been limited to the wool manufacture, at the two lower or " Huguenot " mills. That year the "Sigourney " and " Rockdale '' mills, both cotton, were added by purchase. In 1870 Oscar F. Chase became a partner, and the firm-name was thereafter 0. F. Chase &Co.

In 1874 Burrough sold out to Cliase & Bartlett, who continued together until 1880, when the firm dissolved and a division of the estate was made, Chase taking the woolen-mills and Bartlett the two upper mills. These he has since operated successfully to the present time, 1888, on cotton-yarns, the principal product being satinet-warps, which he supplies to many small mills in Oxford and surrounding towns.

Mr. Bartlett married, in 1859, while residing at West Fitchburg, Miss Sarah L. Eddy, of Webster. Their children were Harriet, born 1863, who married E. T. Hallowell, and resides at North Oxford ; Josephine, born in 1868, and Edwin N., born in 1872, who both reside, 1888, at home.

Mr. Bartlett has been considerably in office in the town, having been for seven years and now (1888) is selectman - for six years chairman; several years school committee, and moderator at town-meetings. He is public-spirited and favors advanced methods in municipal aff'airs; and the appearance of thrift, which his mills and village present, gives evidence of his liberal disposition. He is one of the principal supporters of the Baptist Society at North Oxford, having, with his wife, become a member of the church in 1887.

Andrew Howarth

Andrew Howarth is probably better entitled to the distinction of a manufacturer of textile fabrics "to the manor born " than any other man of the town, past or present, his grandfather, John, and his father, Charles, having both been flannel manufacturers at Rochdale, Lancashire, England. Andrew was six years old when his father and mother, Elizabeth (Lord), emigrated to America, and settled at Andover, Mass. There the father, in partnership with his brothers, James and Isaac - James being the eldest and the head of the firm - began the first manufacture of fine-dressed flannels in the country. Andrew was educated in the common schools at Andover, finishing his course at Phillips Academy. In early life he entered his father's mill, going through its various departments, and by years of experience there fitted himself for the supervision of the entire manutacture of first-class goods.

In 1844, at twenty-four years of age, he went to Keeseville, N. Y., where he had charge of weaving in the mill of Arnold & Keese. He remained there two years, and in 1846 removed to Waterville, Vt., where, for a year and a half, he was overseer of weaving in the factory of John Herren. Here he was married in September, 1846. He next removed, early in 1847, to Bellingham, Mass., and was, for about six months, in the employ of Kittredge & Loring. In August of that year he had an application from the Virginia Woolen Manufacturing Company to go to Richmond, which he accepted, and began service there as overseer, and later was superintendent, remaining seven years, until 1854, when, by the burning of the mill, operations ceased at that place. Returning North, he accepted a position as overseer of the weaving-room at George Hodge's mill in Oxford. After having been there about four months, a promising situation offering at Little Falls, N. Y., in the establishment of the Saxony Woolen Company, he, in 1855, removed thither, filling the position of overseer until 1859, when he was promoted to the agency, and ably managed the aflairs of the company for thirteen years.

In 1872 he terminated his services there, and having, by prudence and economy, accumulated adequate means, he bought a mill of two sets of machinery at Northfield, Vt., where he settled down and laid the foundations of his present prosperity. Ten years of successful business enabled him to become the purchaser in 1882 of the establishment at Oxford formerly owned by George Hodges. During ]882, 1883 and a part of 1884 he operated the two mills, his son, Francis A., having had charge at Oxford until the sale of the Northfield concern in 1884, when both father and sou were associated here, and in 1888 still continue.

Mr, Howarth married, September 26, 1846, at Waterville, Martha Moorcroft, who died in April, 1877, at Northfield. Since her decease he has resided with his son. This son, Francis A., is the only surviving child, and was born in Richmond, Va., in 1849; was graduated in 1872 at Brown University. He married Bertha A. Husy, of Hoboken, N. J., and they have one son, - Andrew P., born in 1874 at Northfield.

As may be inferred from the foregoing, Jlr. Howarth is a man of good business ability, closely observant of the minutest detail of his manufacturing, cautious and consequently successful financially. He is pleasing and social in manner, and decided in his opinions. As a citizen he has liberal ideas as to public afl'airs, and has the respect and confidence of the community in general. Of his mill and village too much cannot be said in praise with reference to situation and general aspect. It will be difficult to find in Massachusetts a like establishment for which nature has done more than for this beautiful spot.