Uxbridge Town

By George W. Hobbs

On the west the gently-sloping hilh are covered with the fine dwellings of its prosperous citizens, overlooking a diversified scenery of meadows, rivers, ponds and busy workshops. On the east the plains stretcli out to the lofty Mendon hills, whose westerly slopes form the water-shed for the " West River," which furnishes the water-power for the " Wacantuck" and"Elmdale" Mills; while gently meandering through the valley, the "Blackstone" and "Mumford" Rivers beautify the plain and furnish the power for the numerous other mills which add to the business and prosperity of this lively and enterprising town.

Its natural beauty, fine roads, excellent hotel, secluded drives and cool retreats make it a desired haven of rest for the numerous " summer boarders" who, in increasing numbers, annually make their pilgrimage hither. From the pleasant drive on " Lawler " hill, just west of Main Street, away in the dim distance, - thirty miles as the crow flies, - the blue peak of old Wachusett can easily be seen on a fair day, and the view, once seen, is long remembered. From the opposite side of the town, on the hill near the residence of Mr. T. W. Giles, a bit of scenery is unfolded which has no equal even on the canvas of a Turner. As far as the eye can reach, the beautiful valley of the Blackstone is spread out in all its enchanting loveliness. Here and there, above the abundant foliage, rises the spire of some distant church ; the hillsides dotted with neat houses, green fields, teeming orchards, lowing herds; handsome villas, cool groves, glimmering lakes ; rivers looking like threads of silver, lofty hill-tops crowned with perennial pine, rich meadows fragrant with new-mown hay and golden-hued flowers ; farms, villages, factories, tall chimneys, and all the concomitants of a thriving valley meet the eye and fill the mind with a nevertiring pleasure. The native to the manor born, as well as the stranger within its gates, pause upon this favored spot and involuntarily exclaim " How beautiful ! "

A gentleman from Providence, while riding up this hill with the writer, exclaimed: "Stop! In all my travels at home or abroad, I never saw a finer scene than this. I would like to build a house right on this lot before us and have that view always before me." For an hour we lingered, and with a deep sigh, he took his leave with regret, saying : " I did not suppose there was so fine a view this side the White Mountains, and I don't believe your townspeople appreciate it as they ought."

The facility with which this town can be reached by the numerous trains upon that model railway, the " Providence and Worcester," causes such an influx of seekers after rest and ozone, that the hotel and boarding-houses are taxed to their utmost during the vacation season, and those who come one season are pretty sure to engage rooms for the next.

There are several mineral springs near the centre of the town, and the water furnished by iheUxbridge Water Company proves, upon analysis, to be about absolutely pure, being nearly equal to that of the famous Poland Springs, and pronounced by local physicians to be nearly as effectual in the cure of kidney and urinary troubles. At no distant day these springs will be appreciated, and a sanitarium will invite the health-seekers to come and be cured. Uxbridge ranks among the older towns of the county, having been incorporated three years before the county itself.

Originally a part of Mendon, the history of the causes which led to its separation from the mother town may not inappropriately be recorded here.

In 171G it seems that the western part of the town of Mendon and the eastern part had a disagreement about the road to be built to Taft's bridge, over the Great River (Blackstone), which led to the appointment of a committee of conference. This difficulty having been adjusted, the next recorded difference which arose was in 1720, when, as appears by the '-Mendon Annals," "the inhabitants of the west part of the town (now Uxbridge) began to agitate the question of dividing the town, or of being allowed to be a precinct by themselves; but upon their petition to that effect, the town took no action."

In 1722, October 16th, at a town-meeting held in Mendon, the inhabitants of the western part of the town objecting to being assessed for repairs to the meeting-house, the town " voted, that if they would pay, the town would reimburse them, provided they are set off as a precinct or a town within the space of thrre years."

December 14, 1726, more than the stipulated "three years '' after the last difficulty, the town, " in answer to our western inhabitants petitioning to be set off as a town or a precinct, voted in the negative." But the said western inhabitants were becoming more determined to secede ; and therefore, at a meeting held in Mendon March 31, 1727, the town " voted, after the reading of the petition of the western inhabitants of the town for a division of the town, that the boundaries should be as follows, viz.: Beginning at thesouthweit corner of the town, at the Province line, thence east four miles with .*aid line; thence turning north and running parallel with the west line of the town, until it comes to a small brook running westerly between West and Misco Hills; thence down said brook to the West River; thence up said river to Andruss's Brook ; and thence up Andruss' Brook to the township line "

The western inhabitants lost no time in taking the benefit of the vote, doubtless feeling that a reconsideration might blast their hopes, if opportunity were given ; for it appears from the records in the Massachusetts Archives, " Towns, vol. 113, p. 714," that in an almost incredibly short time, considering the distance to Boston and the roads and conveniences or inconveniences of travel, the petition and vote was presented to the General Court for its approval and the incorporation of ihe new town. The act of incorporation passed both houses (i.e. the House of Representatives and the Council) and became a law June 23, 1727, which is the birthdai/ of the town of Uxbridge. To show the mode of procedure in such matters at that early day uuder colonial government, I transcribe the act of incorporation entire: nilerem, the westerly part of the Town of Mendon, in the County of Sufolk, is completely filled with Inhabitants, who labour under great diffloiilties by their remoteness from the place of Public Worship, ic, and have thereupon made application to the said Town of Mendon, and have likewise addressed this Court that they may bo set off as a distinct aud separate town aud be vested with all the powers and privilege of a town ; and the Inhabitants of Mendon haviug consented to their being set off accordingly; lie it therefore enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor, Conncil and Representatives in General Court aasembled, aud by the authority of the same, that the westerly part of said Town of Mendon is hereby set off and constituted a separate Township by the name of Uxbridge ; the bound of said Town to be as foUowelh : That is to say, Beginning at the South West corner of the town of Mendon, at the Troviuce South Line : thence to run four miles east with the Province Line ; then North a parallel with the West line of the said Town, until that line meets with a small Brook that runs between West Hill and Misco Hill ; then ye sjiid Brook to be the bounds to the West River; then the West River to be the bounds to a brook known by the name of Andrew's Brook, which brook shall bo the bounds to the north line of the Township.

And that the Inhabitants of the said Lands, as before described and bounded, be, and hereby are, invested with the powers, privileges and immunities that the Inhabitants of any of the Towns of this Province, are, or ought by law to be invested ; Provided the Grant of the said Township be not construed to Affect the Rights and privileges of any Persons to lands within the same.

Provided also, that the Inhabitants of the said town of Uxbridge, do, within the space of two years from the Publication of this Act, Erect and finisli a suitable House for the Public \Vorship of God, and procure and settle a learned Orthodox Minister of good conversation, and make provision for his comfortable and honourable support ; aud that they set apart a Lot of not less than One hundred acres of Land in some convenient place in said town near the moeting-IIouse, for the use of the Bliniatry; and likewise provide a School Master to instruct their youth in writing and reaiiing.

The amendment referred to by the record as passed by the House was the striking out of the following clause, which, in the act as approved by the Council, was after the word reading, in the last sentence of the act, viz. :

And that thereupon they be discharged from any further payment for the maintenance of the Ministers and Schools in the said Town of Mendon, for any estate lying within the said Town of Uxbridge.

The people of tho^e early days had queer ideas of density of population, when they allege, as recited in the preamble to the act above quoted, " the westerly part of the town of Mendon, etc., is completebj JilUd with inhabitants," etc., for it must be remembered that Mendon township at that time comprised about sixty Ihousand acres, and embraced what is now Mendon, Milford, Uxbridge, Blackstone and Northbridge, with a total population then of some twelve hundred people, and now the same territory is populated by nearly twenty-five thousand people, with plenty of room for more. Moreover, the reason set forth by the aggrieved inhabitants of the west part, that " they laboured under great difficulties, by their remoteness from the place of public worship," etc., indicates that the population of the old town of Mendon was rather scattered, and had plenty of room to spread towards the centre.

It appears from the records of the old, and the new town that the boundary line, as set forth in the vote of Mendon, and in the act a/oresaid, was rather indefinite and litlle understood even by the parties to the same. P'or at the very first meeting of the new town, a committee was appointed "to run and settle ye Line between Mendon and Uxbridge ;'' and at different dates up to 1754, nearly twe.^ty-seven years afterwards, there were repeated attempts on the part of the two towns to settle the dispute concerning the boundary line ; and it was finally settled to the satisfaction of all parties, after an appeal to the General Court, pending which the two towns came to an agreement ; and the appeal was duly dismissed.

Uxbridge is supposed to have received its name from Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, at the time a member of the King's Privy Council. Its Indian name is Wacantug, or Wacantuck ; and this name is perpetuated by the " Wacantuck House," and the " Wacantuck Woolen-Mills " hereinafter referred to. The first town-meeting in Uxbridge was held at the house of Cornet John Farnum, July 25, 1727. The members of the first Board of Selectmen were Robert Taft, Ebenezer Read, Woodland Thompson and Joseph White. The first town clerk was Edmund Rawson, an accomplished gentleman, an excellent penman, and a methodical recorder of the doings of the new town. To-day, after the lapse of more than one hundred and sixty years, his records of the meetings of the town are as clear and plain as though recently written ; and for brevity and good language would be appropriate models for town clerks of the present decade. Solomon Wood, the first town treasurer, received for the responsibilities and arduous duties of that oflice for one year, the munificent compensation o( Jive shillings ; and at the same time the town voted this compensation, they " voted to pay Lieut. Joseph Taft sei'en shillings for a barrel of cider." The record does not tell for what purpose tlie town purchased the cider, but inasmuch as they, a year or two later, voted that the committee who had charge of building " ye meeting House purchase fifteen gallons of good rum for the raising," it is probable tliat the town fathers were a little afraid to drink the water whicli nature had furnished in such abundance.

The town clerks and town treasurers have been men of such ability and worth, that in the one hundred and sixty-one years of its corporate existence the town has had only eighteen difierent town clerks, and about as many town treasurers. The attraction to these offices could not have been the compensation, for it is matter of resord that, considering the amount of responsibility, the pay of these officials has been, and is to-day, grossly inadequate. That at least one of these gentlemen groaned in spirit under his burdens is manifest from these poetic verses, copied verbatim from the fly-leaf of the treasurer's account-book of 1767. I have called it by the appropriate name :

The Treasurer'S Lament

For nearly one hundred years after its organization Uxbridge remained simply an agricultural town, with the usual amount of such mechanical business as was cairied on in the rural towns of New England. When it w.as incorporated it was a part of the county of Suffolk ; but when Worcester County was created, in 1730, just three years afterward, Uxbridge became a part of it, and is so well satisfied with the connection, that no voice can be heard in favor of severing the old tie, or forming a part of any new county whatsoever. It is a part of the Blackstone Valley, and, with the other valley towns which constitute Worcester South, it has a local pride in the old county, and a desire to remain in it and of it.

The diversified topography of this town is one of its principal charms. Hill and valley, meadow and upland, lakes and rivers all contribute to make the picture perfect. Comprising nearly twenty-eight square miles of territory, with about seven teen thousand acres taxed, with over eighty miles of well-kept highways and town-ways, many rivers and streams crossed by stone, iron and wooden bridges, its handsome churches, fine hotel, imposing town hall and other elegant buildings reared by its thrifty population, now numbering about thirty-five hundred, Uxbridge sends out its invitation to the rest of old Worcester County to present to the readers of the " County History " a better record than she lias made. Her adopted son, who writes this history, regrets that the limited space allowed him, prevents his doing justice to her ; for, do the best he may, the half cannot herein be told.

The rivers of Uxbridge are the Blackstone, the West and the Mumford. Its larger brooks, furnishing water-power, are the Ironstone, the Emer-son, the Rivulet and the Drabble Tail.

The Blackstone River has its source in North Pond, in the city of Worcester. From this pond flows a small but beautiful stream called Mill Brook. This stream, in its course through Worcester, Millbury, Sutton, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge and Blackstone, where it leaves the Slate, receives the waters of several affluents, is called the Blackstone River, and its constantly increasing size and volume furnishes, by the time it reaches Uxbridge, a seldom-failing power, which gives to the town its great prosperity as a manufacturing centre.

The West River has its origin in the town of Upton ; and, although it runs through the easterly part of Uxbridge, it retains the name " West River," which was given it when it was the western boundary of Mendon. It empties into the Blackstone about half a mile south of the Hecla Mills, and about a mile southeasterly of the railway station. Like the

Mumford River has its rise in " Douglas Woods," in Douglas; being increased by streams from Badluck Pond and Manchaug Pond, in Douglas, and by springs and rivulets, and the vast reservoirs in Whitinsville. It enters Uxbridge just south of the Linwood Mills at Whitin's Station ; thence through North Uxbridge, furnishing power to the great cotton-mills there located; thence southeasterly to Uxbridge Centre, joining the Blackstone about threequarters of a mile southeasterly of the railroad station, at what is called the " Forks of the River." The Capron Mills are located upon this river.

The Ironstone Brook, formerly called " Forge Brook," and so designated in the early records of the town, rises in the extreme southwesterly part of the town, near the Rhode Island line ; forms the Ironstone Pond; thence flows under the New York and New England Railroad into the village of Ironstone; and thence about a mile easterly to the Blackstone River. It was very early used for furnishing power for various mechanical enterprises, a dam and forge having been erected upon it nearly one hundred and fifty years ago by Benjamin Taft, one of the original settlers in the town.

The Emerson Brook rises in Douglas, flows easterly, and enters Uxbridge in what is called "' Scadden ; " it thence flows southeasterly, under the various names of " Shove Brook," " Tucker Brook " and " Emerson Brook," until its confluence with the Blackstone, on the farm of Millins Emerson. Its course is about five miles long, much of the way a very rapid, turbulent stream, and has fall enough, if its waters could be stored and used to advantage, to run all the machinery now in use in the town. It supplies the power for Lee's Mills and the mills of Zadok A. Taft & Co., and, in former years, the Shove and the Richardson saw and grist-mills. It is also one of the finest trout brooks in this section, and for several years Seth P. Carpenter, of Milford, an enthusiast in pisciculture, spent time and money in the erection of hatching hou.ses and spawning-tanks; which, since his death, have fallen into "innocuous desuetude" and decay. The old gentleman was sanguine of success, and there is no doubt that if the vandal fishermen and surreptitious hookers of trout had left his breeding trout and hatchlings alone, he would have realized his fondest dreams.

The Rivulet Brook rises in the westerly part of the town, flows easterly through the farm of the late John S. Taft, to the pond at the Rivulet Mills, owned by Richard Sayles & Co., furnishing power for that prosperous establishment, and thence to the Mumford River, a short distance south of the Uxbridge Cotton- Mills. One of the earliest mills in town was built upon this stream ; and the second distillery for the manufacture of gin and cider brandy emptied its nauseous refuse into its waters, on the Taft farm. In 1815 a woolen-mill was erected upon this brook, and since that date it has never ceased to furnish power for some manufacturing euterprise. Drabble Tail Brook is a small stream formed by the union of Croney Brook and Shuttle Brook, two smaller streams, or rivulets, arising from springs in the hills, just westerly of the centre of the town, and runs through the central village, crossing the highway near the Blackstone National Bank, and emptying into the Mumford River just below the dwelling-house of the late John W. Capron. This stream runs the waterwheel at the Shuttle Shop, and is capable of doing more damage in a sudden thaw than all the other water-courses in town. Less than one-eighth of a mile from the Shuttle Shop Pond to its outlet in the Mumford, it has repeatedly overflowed its banks, made a pond of Mechanic Square, a race-way of Main street, and a host of good citizens indignant at the negligence which allows this insignificant stream to kick up such a muss every three or four years. In 1824 excavations were begun for the Blackstone Canal, a project which had been agitated at various times from 1776 to the lime when the Canal Company was incorporated, 1822. This canal was to be the great means of communication and trade between Providence and Worcester, and designed as an avenue for the transportation of heavy freight up and down the Blackstone Valley, which hitherto had been carried, at great expense and delay, by wagonteams. Uxbridge was one of its important stations, and the locks and banks of the old canal can be seen to-day, though the canal ceased to be used in 1848, when it was superseded by the Providence and Worcester Railway.

These several water-courses have each and all contributed to the prosperity and comfort of the inhabitants of Uxbridge, and are the source whence has sprung that almost miraculous power which has kept the wheels of local industry in motion. While they have benefited the people, they have also added to thebeauty and attractiveness of the town ; so that they may well claim from the pen of the historian their full meed of praise. Uxbridge, like most other manufacturing towns, is divided into villages; each manufacturing establishment building up around it comfortable homes for the employes, and schools for the education of their children.

As these different villages will be commented upon, in connection with the history of manufacturing, which follows in another chapter, it will suffice for the present to give their names.

Uxbridge Centre (where are located the Town Hall, Unitarian, Trinitarian, Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches, Capron Mills, principal stores, post-office and railway station) comprises about one-third of the population ; North Uxbridge (also a post-office village) contains the Uxbridge Cotton-Mills and the Baptist Church. The next largest village is the

Calumet, for many years known as the " Jv ew Village." Next in size and importance is the Hecla village, formerly known as " Shank-bone," a nickname given to it (more than fifty years ago, it is saiil) on account of the frequency with which shank-beef was served at the mill boarding-house. A letter from Ireland, addressed to an employ6 of the mill, was directed to " Shankbone, Mass., U. S.'' How the postoffice clerks ascertained the location of this village by that name is one of the unanswered conundrums.

Wheelock's village (formerly called " Crackerville," probably on account of crackers being too prominent aa article of diet, on some remote occasion) is the next in size. It is one of the prettiest, best-conditioned villages iu the town, and its inhabitants are justly proud of it, and of the public-spirited gentlemen whose kindly interest in their welfare has made their homes and surroundings so pleasant. Elmdale (formerly Squaw Hollow), one of the oldest villages in the town, situated about half a mile easterly of the Hecla village, is the home of the proprietor and employes of Scott's Satinet Mills. Ironstone (at the south part of the town, three miles from the centre. on Forge Brook) was once the largest village in Uxbridge. In the early history of the town it was famous for the first mechanical business, established over one hundred and fifty years ago. For many years a large business was done there, and it was a post-station and general trading-place for the surrounding country. Ironstone Factory was built in 1815, by a stock company, and was burned in 1832. Subsequently rebuilt, it was operated with varying success by different parties till 1865, when it was again burned, and the projserty and the village have fallen into ruin.

The Rivulet village, on the south side of the old Boston and Hartford Turnpike, owned mostly by Richard Sayies & Co., is an illustration of what the energy and business enterprise of a live, intelligent man can accomplish. When Mr. Sayies took the property, it was sadly out of repair; the -street was narrow and inconvenient for travel; the tenements dilapidated, small and few in number, and the surroundings unpleasant. In a few short years wonders have been accomi)liahed. New houses have been erected, the old ones repaired and enlarged, the street widened, a new bridge put in, the factory buildings enlarged, modernized and improved ; the grounds, lawns and fences made neat and handsome, and the entire village renovated and beautified.

Happy Hollow is the happy name of a small village which has grown up around and in the vicinity of the woolen-mills erected by Zadok A. Taft and D. M. Lee, on the Emerson Brook.

These constitute all the factory villages, but there are several of the agricultural sections of the town known by local names, which can have no general interest, as they are not strictly villages.

small quantities, while quartz, beryl and smoky topaz in crystals are frequently found. Vast quarries of gneissoid granite furni.'~h material for buildings, curbing, monuments and general cemetery work. It is of excellent quality and fineness, and capable of taking a high polish, some of it being in color and quality nearly equal to the imported Scotch granite. The Uxbridge Silver Mine, located in the southwest part of the town, on land now owned by C. R. Thomson and others (formerly the Chileon Tucker farm), was opened about fifty years ago, and for awhile g.ave promise of considerable richness. But after sinking two shafts to a depth of nearly fifty feet, and working a cross-cut on the vein, it was found that the vein, instead of increasing in width, as was hoped and expected, was, if anything, even smaller than at the surface - about three-fourths of an inch of metal, in a hard, refractory gangue of quartzite. The metallic vein was a true galena, carrying a good per cent, of silver, but the immense expense attending its excavation, reduction and purification requiring, in the language of the day, " a gold mine to work the silver mine," caused a suspension of all work, and for about fifty years not a dollar's worth of ore has been taken from the mine. Its shafts are filled with water, and abandoned to the nymphs of the thick woods, whose spreading branches hide the place where fond hopes much expense and bitter disappointment lie buried. There are several small beds of liuionite, or bog ore, and at the south part of the town, near Ironstone, the dark-colored rocks, which there abound, contain considerable quantities of specular iron, so that the stone is called " ironstone," and the village takes its name, " Ironstone," from that fact.

It is believed by some tliat the yellow-colored quartz, which is found in quite large quantities in the western part of this town and the adjoining part of Douglas, contains gold, but if they will take pains to weigh it they will find its specific gravity insufficient to indicate the presence of gold. It is undoubtedly a kind of jasper - an opaque, yellow quartz colored by iron, or ferruginous clay, - possessing no value whatever. The western and southwestern parts of the town are well wooded, nearly every farm having several acres of wood and sprout land, for market and domestic wood. Pine, chestnut, oak and birch are the principal woods, with occasionally a small lot of walnut.

The taxable valuation of the town in 1821 - which is the earliest tax record which has been preserved - was about $113,116 ; the number of polls, 366 ; and the amount raised for State, county and town pur- poses, $1,986.37 ; rate, $1.75 on each $1000 of valua- I tion. In 1830 - nine years later - the valuation had increased to $786,592 ; 483 polls. Amount raised, not including school district taxes, about $4500 ; rate, $2.90 per $1000 of valuation.

years, its walls show no signs of weakness or decay, and its plain roof, without jets or ornamental finish of any kind, is in an excellent state of preservation. The window-sashes contain the same small panes of glass, and the same doors swing on leather hinges, as formerly. The internal .arrangements of the house are also left in their original style, having heen simply kept in repair.

A few years previous the Monthly Meeting had authorized the erection of a meeting-house in Uxbridge, and in 17i>(> one was erected in what was then the north part of Uxl)ridge, and which is now Northbridge, that town having been set oil' from Uxbridge in 1772. This house stood very near the location of the present meeting-house, - about half a mile south from Riverdale in Northbridge.

The meetings held .at Uxbridge and Northbridge were a part of the Smithfield Monthly Meeting, till 7th month (.Inly), 17S3, when the several meetings held in Uxbridge, Leicester, Northbridge and Richmond, N. H., were set oil', and formed a separ.ate Monthly Meeting under the name of the Uxbridge Monthly Meeting, which has continued till the present time, except that the Richmond Meeting has been dropped, and the meeting formerly .at Leicester removed to Worcester. In addition to the above, a meeting at Pomfret, Conn., and one at Douglas have been made a part of the Uxbridge Monthly Meeting.

The apjiroved ministers of Uxbridge Monthly, as far as ascertained, have been Daniel Aldrich, Richard Mowry ; Job Scott, approved 12lh month, 17.S3; Israel 8al)in, approved 1790; and Royal Southwick, Daniel Olapp, Timothy K. Earle, John B. Daniels and Salome C. Wheeler. In addition to the above, the following have moved into the Jlonthly Meeting from other places, viz. : Steidien Cortland, Lydia Haight and Susan A. Gilford.

Only two of the above-named ministers were natives of Uxbridge, and spent their whole lives in the town, ministering semi-weekly to the congregations that gathered in the " Old Brick," viz. ; Richard Mowry, who died Isl month 23d, 1835, aged nearly eighty-six years, and Royal Southwick, who died 11th month 30th, lS4it, aged eighty years. Job Scott, whose ministry w.as approved in 17S3, and whose journal giving a history of his labors in the ministry has been published, spent only a few years of his life in the town, anil Israel Saben lived here in 1770, at the time of his marriage, and for several years afterwards.

There .are now but four .ajiproved ministers of the denomination in the Monthly jMeetiiig ; and only one of these, Mrs. Salome C. Wheeler, is a resident of the town. Her labors in the ministry are usually at the Northbridge Meeting, but her influence in our schools - of which she is one of the Board of Examiners - her interest in temper.ance work, her kind symp.athy and Labors for the sick a.nd afflicted, are all gratefully appreciated by the people of Uxbridge, who are proud to claim her as one of our most respected citizens.

" The laat of liis sect to liis fathers may go, Ijeaving only Lis coat fur some Barn inn to show ; Bnt the trnth will ontlivp liini, and broaden with years, Till tile false dies away, and the wrong disappears/*

The Roman Catholic Church. - The earliest account of any Roman Catholic Church service in Uxbridge is that a service was held for the few Catholics then in town, in 1850, by the Rev. l^atrick McCJrath, of Hopkinton, in one of the laborer's tenements owned by .Joseph Th.ayer, Esq.

In 1853 Uxbridge was erected into a parish by Right Rev. J. B. Fitzpatrick, Bishop of the Diocese of Mass.achusetts, and Rev. E. J. Sheridan was appointed |ia.stor, August, 1853. The parish then included the towns of Grafton, Millbury, Northbridge, Dcmglas and Uxbridge. St. Mary's Church in Uxbridge was dedicated in 1855, the sermon on the occasion being preached by Rev. James A. Healy, afterwards Bishop of the Diocese of Maine.

In May, 18G8, Rev. Dennis C. Moran was appointed pastor, and the church in this town being insufficient to accommodate all the Catholics of Uxbridge and Northbridge, so rapidly hiid their numbers increased, that this pastor caused St. Patrick's Church in Whitinsville to be built in the year 1870, and thus gave relief to the overcrowded St. Mary's.

In 1871, Rev. Henry L. Robinson, a gentleman of great erudition and eloquence, was appointed pastor, and is still occupying that position, loved and honored by his congregation, .and highly respected and appreciated by Christians of other denominations. So highly have his labors in this field been valued by the head of his Church, that the additional title of "Doctor of Divinity" has been accorded to him, and is, we know, well deserved and modestly worn.

In the year 1870 St. Mary's w.as repaired and handsomely frescoed at an expense of over two thousand five hundred dollars. The present parish includes the towns of Uxbridge and Northbridge, with St. Mary's as the p.arish church. Dr. Robinson has charge of both churches .and congregations, and is assisted by a curate. The number of souls belonging to the parish is over two thousand, and its average Sunday attendance is very much larger than any other congregation in the town.

Chapter Xxvii

that there should be maintained public worship, but also required to be maintained " a school-master to instruct their youth in writing and reading." The schools in Uxbridge rest upon this foundation.

In January, 1732, the town voted " that they will sett up and keep a school in ye town of Uxbridge," and "voted to have a sohool-dame for ye 1st 7 or 8 months, to keep a school in each part of the town proportionable," and " voted that ye selectmen shall provide a .school-dame, and state ye places that she shall keep ye school att."

There must have been some ditiiculty in providing a school-dame, for on March 7th the town voted " to make choice of a school-master to keep a school in town, and that John Read, Senior, be the schoolmaster."

Whether some doubting Stephen considered the employment of a school-dame an evasion of the requirement in the aforesaid act, that "a school-?»astobe maintained," etc., and caused the town to reconsider its first vote, or no female teacher could be persuaded to bury herself in the wild-woods of this then thinly inhabited town, is an open question. But it itof record that the first school was taught by John Read. What salary he received, and how many weeks in a year his school was in session, is not recorded. His successor, George Woodward, was chosen May 3, 1733, and the town voted to board him and to give him twenty pounds for his year's services. Mr. Jame- Emer.son boarded the teacher, and was allowed seven shillings a week. January 7, 1734, the town chose Edmund Rawsou teacher, and increased his salary to twenty-five pounds. The same year we find mention made of school districts as " squadrons," and each squadron had the liberty of choosing its teacher - a woman - and the selectmen were to approbate the teachers.

In 173G John Rawson was elected teacher, and was allowed forty-five pounds for teaching school. The expenses of maintaining the schools up to the year 1756 seem to have been met from the income derived from the grants of land made to the town by the General Court, one of which was a grant of five hundred acres, in the northerly part of the province, in what is now New Hampshire; though in what part of that State it is difficult to determine, though it is said to be in Coos County. In the year 1756 the town began to raise money for schools by direct tax, helped out from time to time by sale of the school lands, and the use of the proceeds for school purposes.

The first mention made of a school-house is in the month of December, 1738, when the town " voted to build a school-house." Tradition says the meetinghouse was previously used for this purpose ; but as we have seen, the primitive meeting-house had but poor accommodations for use on the Sabbath, and it is hardly probable that it was made use of for school purposes in its then unfinished and uncomfortable condition. It is more probable that the schools were kept in private houses, as the selectmen were required to open schools in diffisrent parts of the town. The school-house erected in 1738-39 must have been almost as crude and uncomfortable, in many respects, as the meeting-house, for the town voted October 17, 1740, "to allow forty-four pounds, three shillings and three pence for what had been done and for what was to be done to the school-house " - a sum equivalent to a little over two hundred dollars, which in these days of plenty would pay for a very uncomfortable barn, if it was not too large. In 1760 the town voted to divide the town into districts, and each district was to enjoy the privileges of schooling in proportion to the money raised by them. The division took effect in 1761, and the town was divided into thirteen districts'; the children of specified families were to attend specified schools, and each district was to have a sum of money allotted it, in proportion to the number of scholars in that district. The sum of sixty pounds was raised for schools each year from 1762 to 1771, in 1776 forty pounds, in 1777 sixty, in 1778 one hundred and twenty, and in 1779 three hundred pounds, showing by this sudden increase the effect and the purchasing power of the depreciated currency in the time of the Revolutionary War. In 1783-84 the appropriation again fell to forty pounds, the money value of the currency having improved by the emission of a new and better national promise to pay.

In 1788 we find the first mention made of a grammar school, the town having then " voted that three pounds, thirteen shillings and six pence, raised at the last meeting, should be applied to a grammar school the present year." In 1796 the town was redistricted and divided into eleven school districts and substantially remained so divided up to 182.'>. In 1797 the town voted to raise two thousand dollars for building school-houses in the several districts, and in case the inhabitants of the district were unable to agree where their school- house should be placed, the committee were to fix upon a proper site. For a good description of these old school-houses I am indebted to Hon. Charles A. Wheelock, who speaks from personal experience in the following language:

" The old school-bouses ! What queer buildings they were when compared with the modern schoolhouse ! The writing-desk was a plank running round three sides of the room ; the seat was a slab, its flat side uppermost, with holes bored in it in which were driven cart-stakes for legs. The scholar had no back to his seat unless he should turn round and face the centre of the room, when his back might rest against the edge of the plank writing-desk. The big stone fireplace was filled with blazing logs in winter and the child must roast and freeze by turns. The dungeon - that dreadful place - to which the unruly ones were consigned sometimes to regale themselves upon the good things the prudent had brought to sustain themselves in their arduous labors while delving among the mysteries of the three R's, and the heavy

Gradually but surely the expense attending the schooling of the children increased, so that while in the year 1800 the amount appi-opriated was only about four hundred dollars ; in isy.") it had increased to one thousand dollars. With the increased appropriation better school advantages were secured. The average wages of female teachers in 1835 was only $5.73 per month, and male teachers $13.93, exclusive of board. The schools were kept twenty weeks in a year, women teaching summers and men in the winters ; and, therefore, it is to be presumed that the ten weeks of summer school were principally for the benefit of the younger children, while the grown-up sons and daughters, whose labors were essential to the family support in summer, attended school ten weeks in the winter, and were taught by a man, on account of the necessity of having some one who could handle them and compel obedience. As the town increased in population, as it did rapidly after 1835, it became necessary to provide better accommodations for the school-children. The appropriations gradually increased, new school-houses were erected to take the places of those so graphically described by Mr. Wheelock, and more and better teachers were employed.

In 1855, it having been ascertained that the town had a population sufficiently large to bring it within the provisions of the statutes requiring a high school to be kept, the town voted that the School Committee should procure a place and open such a school, and six hundred dollars was appropriated for the support of the school until the next March meeting. The committee .subsequently employed Mr. Nathan Goldthwaite as principal of the school, which was opened in the old academy building on the northerly end of the town's common. This "old academy building" was erected in 1819 by Solomon's Temple Lodge of Free Masons and the citizens of the town by contribution, the citizens building the lower story and the Masons the upper. In February, 1819, this article appeared in the town warrant : " To see if the town will permit the erection of a private school-house on the north end of the Common, between the cartway leading to widow Fanny Willard's back-yard, and the wall south of where the old blacksmith shop stands ; provided said building can be erected by private munificence."

On March 3d (annual town-meeting) it was voted that liberty be given to build a school-house on the town common - of certain specified dimensions - provided it be built within three years from this date. The Masonic Lodge, recently formed in the town, which had been holding its meetings in the hall at the Spring Tavern, in the north part of the town, desired better accommodations and eiiected an arrangement with the committee of citizens by which the Masons and the citizens should erect the building at joint expense, the Masons completing and occupying the upper story and the citizens the lower part for private school purposes. The building was of brick and was so far completed December 25, 1819, that the JSIasons occupied their new hall. The private school, which was afterward known as the " Uxbridge Academy," was opened by Mr. Abiel Jaques, a Harvard graduate, in the fall of 1820, and was used for an academy and select school for young ladies under several different teachers of both sexes, until about the time the town took it for a high school room in 1855.

In 1865 a three years' course of study was arranged for the high school, which, in 1869, was changed to one of four years. The schools and school system of Uxbridge have always been its especial pride. The town has freely voted its money for their support, and, notwithstanding the carping criticisms of a few, who, if they knew more about the schools, would use better judgment, they are excellently and economically managed, and aie producing grand results. The wages of teachers at the present time average as follows : Female teachers, thirty-five dollars per month ; male, high school only, one hundred and ten dollars, for ten months only. There are now seventeen common schools and the high school, and the average length of the schools is thirty-three weeks for common schools, and thirty-eight for the high school.

In 1869 the Massachusetts Legislature passed a law abolishing school districts, and requiring the towns to take possession of all the school-houses and other school property owned by the several districts in their corporate capacity, within one year thereafter, and pay the districts for the same such sum as a committee agreed upon by the town and the districts should appraise the property at - the same to be paid to the several resident and non-resident taxpayers of the districts, in proportion to the amount of property liable to taxation therein, by deducting from such tax-payer's annual town tax for that year the amount apportioned to hira for his interest in the school property.

By this law Uxbridge bought of the several school districts property aggregating, by the appraisal of the committee, something over $23,000. Since 1870, therefore, the school district system has ceased to exist, and all the schools and school property is in the charge and control of the general School Committee, consisting of twelve members, and imstead of repairs and expenses attending the buildingof new houses being now paid by direct tax upon the inhabitants of the district, where the school-house may chance to be located, as was formerly the case, all the school expenses, inclusive, are assessed in one sum to the inhabitants of the town, as other town charges are assessed. This, of necessity, makes the per cent, of increase of money raised for town purposes since 1860 appear larger, in proportion to the increase of the previous period referred to in the first chapter, thiin it otherwise would ; for the amount of money usually required annually for repairs of school-houses is quite an item in the list of school expenses, iind liable to mislead the careless critic who attempts to show the extravagance of school management to-day over the management of twenty years ago. A careful examination of the records and the other items of town expenses will show conclusively that the percentage of increase in school expenses has only kept pace with the increase in population, valuation and general progress of both town and State.

No town in the county can show better schools or better accommodations for the scholars for the amount expended. The grading of the schools is comparatively higher than obtains in many of the neighboring towns, and applications are frequently received from pupils iu adjoining towns for leave to attend the grammar and high schools iu Uxbridge. The schools for the past three years have been under the charge of school superintendents, whose personal attention to the minutest details of grading, instruction and discipline has done much to produce the good results obtained. Cheap, unskilled labor in any business is dear at any price ; and a poor teacher, more than a poor laborer in any other vineyard, can do immense damage, and should never be intrusted with the education of the young, even though she is willing to work for small wages. The success of a .school, like the success of a woolen-mill or a machine shop, <lepends upon the degree of .skill possessed by the managers, and the consensus of public opinion is in favor of that kind of management which produces good results and makes the business a success.

We have neither time nor space to give an account of the different private schools which, since the inauguration of Uxbridge Academy, have met with varying success. At the present writing not a single private school is in existence in the town, nor has there been for several years. The broad and liberal instruction given in the public school seems to meet the requirements of all classes, and no occasion offers for the establishment of schools for private emolument and gain.

From small beginnings, under most discouraging and disheartening circumstances, the public-school system of Uxbridge has constantly advanced, until it has become one of the proudest monuments to the good sense, sagacity and philanthropy of her people.

lAbraries. - The earliest circulating or public library iu this town, of which there is any record, was called the " U.vbridge Social and Instructive Library," and was kept and managed by George Southwick, who was .born in 1747, and died in 1807. A book was found many years ago by Jonathan F. Southwick, which contained the name Uxbridge Social and Instructive Library, with the number lO.S, and the date 1775. Mr. Southwick (now deceased) said that he remembered a meeting of the stockholders, for the purpose of dividing up the books, and closing the affairs of the library.

It is not easy to trace the history of libraries in the town, prior to the establishment of the " Uxbridge Free Public Library," by vote of the town in April, 1874; as they, and the records concerning them, have passed out of existence. Hon. C. A. Wheelock remembers that there was a "Social Library" in the town in 1821, and how much earlier he is unable to tell. As its name was " Uxbridge Second Social Library," it is very probable that it began its existence soon after the year 1812 - the date of dissolution of the Uxbridge Social and Instructive Library.

Another library was formed as early as 1830 or 1831, which continued to live with varying degrees of usefulness until the establishment of the " Fi-ee Public Library." As many as a thousand volumes may, at one time, have belonged to it, as we have seen volumes which were numbered as high as nine hundred and fifty. In the forty years of its existence it was used by a large number of |iersons. From a report of the Hon. Benj. Adams, dated .lauuary 1 1, 1830, it appears that this library was formed in January, 1828. In 18fi5 the name of this library was called " Uxbridge Library Association," and for several years the writer of this history had charge of the same as librarian, it being then in the room occupied by him as an office in the Union bnilding. In the spring of 1873 the Library Association offered the books belonging to the association to the town as a nucleus for a public library ; provided the town will establish such a library. About the same time the " Uxbridge Agricultural Library Association," an association of farmers, who for sever.al years had been contributing books and funds for an agricultural library, and who owned a few hundred volumes and pamphlets, made a .similar offer, with the same condition.

At the aiunial town-meeting in Jlarch, 1874, there being an article in the warrant for the consideration of the subject, the town voted to establish a Free Public Library, appointed a commiitee to report a plan, etc., of the same at an adjourned meeting to be held in April, and voted to appropriate the " Dog Fund," amounting to about $27") to the uses of the library. At the adjourned meeting, April 0, 1874, the report of the committee and its recommendations and rules for the management of the public library were accepted and adopted, and a board of trustees was chosen, as provided by law.

The Free Public Library thus established went into operation for the delivery of books .lanuary 20, 1875, and had on its shelves six hundred and eighty-nine volumes. In thirteen years the library, under the judicious management of Hon. Chas. A. Wheelock and his associates on the board of trustees, and the generous annual appropriations of the town, has become one of the best in the county; is patronized by all classes of society, has a catalogue containing nearly Jive thousand volumes of the best literary and standard works, suited to all ages and conditions of life, and has so nearly outgrown its present quarters in the north end of the new town hall that, at no distant day, it will be necessary to move to a building by itself, which we hope some public-spirited citizen will build, and pi'esent to the town for that purpose.

The advantages of a Free Public Library cannot be overestimated - it reaches the homes of the poor as well as the rich, and furnishes the means of a home education and culture, otherwise unattainable by many. To the scholars in the public schools, who have frequent occasion to consult the valuable reference hooks and encyclopedias ; to the mechanic and the farmer, seeking scientific demonstration of their respective theories ; to the professional man, and the average reader, it has proved a real blessing and source of constant gratifieation and enjoyment. If it adds something to the burden of taxation, all pay it cheerfully, feeling that it is money well invested, and its rapid growth and constantly increasing use proves that the projectors of the " Free Public Library" made no mistakes when they induced the town to take its action of 1874. At the present rate of increa.se, averaging some four hundred volumes per year, the " Uxbridge Free Library " will soon be entitled to honorable mention on the records of the National Library at Washington.

Luke Taft operated the mill alone, until his son Moses Taft was taken into the concern, about the year 1833. In 1840, J. Wheelock & Son - C. A. Wheelock - bought one-half of the Luke Taft Mill, taking into the business Silas M. Wheelock, making the firm J. Wheelock &Sons. The other half of the mill was run by Moses Taft, till he sold out, in 1846, to C. A. & S. M. Wheelock, Mr. Jerry Wheelock, the father, retiring from the business. The mill originally built by Luke Taft was burned in the winter of 1837-38, but was immediately rebuilt upon a larger scale, and supplied with new and improved machinery. C. A. & S. M. Wheelock named their mill, which they greatly enlarged and improved, "the Wacantuck Mills," the name Wacantuck being the Indian name of the town. They manufactured satinets and plaids until 1852, when they also made cassimeres. Since 1855 they have made cassimeres exclusively, and have ever since continued to produce an excellent quality of these all-wool goods, which find a ready sale in the market, and keep this mill constantly at work. Many of the help at this mill have grown gray in its service and, like the proprietors themselv&s, take great pride in the success of the mill and the beauty of its village. Several of the employes own their homes, and, as a rule, all the employes are well-paid, contented and happy, and have an unbounded respect for their neighborly employers.

In 1852, Moses Taft laid the foundation for the mill formerly known as the Central Mills, now the Calumet. It was completed the next year, and leased to Israel M. Southwick and Richard Sayles, under the name of Southwick & Sayles, who continued to operate the mill till 1859, when they sold out their lease to Bradford, Taft & Co., of Providence, R. I., Mr. Sayles continuing to superintend the mill and act as agent till January 1, 18ij4. Daniel W. Taft then took charge of the mill as superintendent, and continued in charge until betook the lease in his own name in 18t)9. Mr. Moses Taft sold the mill to R. & J. Taft in 18(i6, and these gentlemen made great additions and improvements thereto, and by building a new dam at Rice City, in the northerly part of the town, and flowing about one hundred acres of land, greatly increased the water-power, and made it more permanent. These enterprising gentlemen also put in an eighty horse-power steam-engine as extra power in dry weather, and thus became sure of constant operation of the mill in all seasons. At the conclusion of Mr. D. W. Taft's lease, in 1883, the Calumet Woolen Company was incorporated, with Isaac Fenno, of Boston, for president; S. M. Wheelock, of Uxbridge, treasurer; and Arthur Wheelock, agent and general superintendent, and purchased of Messrs. R. & J. Taft, all the mill estate, inclusive, and of Mr. D. W. Taft certain machinery and fixtures owned by him. This corporation immediately expended over twenty thousand dollars in new j machinery and improvements, widened the canal, raised its banks and increased its capacity largely; and are to-day turning out handsome, high-grade cassimeres, the best ever manufactured in the town. As hereinbefore stated, this corporation also owns and operates the Hecla Mill, about one-half a mile easterly of the Calumet ; the two mills being connected by telephone and under the charge of Arthur Wheelock, agent and general manager. The purchase and enlarging of these two mills by this corporation, at an expense of over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, has given an impetus to the prosperity of the town which it has never known before. Employing more help, the population of the town has increased from three thousand and fifty in 1880 to three thousand five hundred in 1888. The weekly payments of the corporation amount to about twenty-five hundred dollars, and this amount is added to the trade accounts of all the retail dealers in town, making business in all branches correspondingly better. About one-third of the capital stock is owned by residents of the town, so that the town not only gets the benefit of the large tax upon the real estate, but also gets a large return from the State, in the shape of corporation taxes, returned to the towns in which the stockholders reside. The gratitude of the town is due to Hon. S. M. Wheelock, by whose efforts this corporation was established and located in this town.

In 1864 Richard Sayles and D. A. McBride bought of Dea. Chandler Taft the old Rivulet Mill and waterpower, which had been idle for a number of years, made extensive repairs, and manufactured shoddy till 1866, when Mr. Sayles purchased Mr. McBride's interest, and soon after sold it to Israel M. Southwick, taking Mr. Southwick as his partner. The next fall Sayles & Southwick put in steam-power, enlarged the property, and fitted it up to receive new machinery, on an extensive scale, for the manufacture of shoddy. In November, 1866, Mr. Southwick sold out to Mr. Sayles, and Mr. Sayles soon after sold one-half interest in the property to Zadok A. Taft ; and Messrs. Sayles & Taft put in the shoddy machinery and ran the mill till 1869, when they leased the mill to E. S. Bradford & Co., of Providence, R. I., for the manufacture of knitting yarn, and it was run on this work until the mill was burned in October, 1872, a few weeks before the great Boston fire. It was rebuilt the next year in a much improved manner. At first cotton machinery was put in, but it soon gave place to woolen machinery, with which Mr. Sayles was better acquainted. Messrs. Sayles & Taft ran the mill until October 1, 1878, and then leased the mill and machinery to Sayles, Taft & Co., the company being Henry S. Morse; then in January, 1882, Taft left the manufacturing firm, and it became Richard Sayles & Co. These gentlemen operated the mill with great success until the death of Mr. Sayles, in 1887. The property is now owned by the Ihree sous of Mr. Sayles, who carry on the manufacture of satinets under the same name as the old firm - Richard Sayle.s & Co.

About tlie year 1834 Alvin Cooke purchased a small building on the Emerson Brook, which was formerly used for a cabinet shop. He enlarged it, and put in woolen cards, spinning machinery and looms, but no finishing machines. He operated the mill under contract for Ellingham L. Capron, who was then operating the Capron Mill, making satinets. In 1837 Mr. Cooke was obliged to succumb to the financial pressure, and never again engaged in manufacturing. From 1837 to 1879 the mill has been practically idle and unoccupied. Since 1880 Mr. D. M. Lee has utilized it for the purpose of a shciddy-mill. Mr. Lee has greatly improved the property, built a new dam and reservoir on the stream, and is determined to make it a success.

In 18l!5 or '66, Mr. Zadok A. Taft bought the property on the Emer.son Brook which was formerly known as the Leonard Taft Saw and Grist-Mills. These mills had not been used for many years and had fallen into decay. Mr. Taft erected a new mill, into which he at first put machinery for making cotton warps. Subsequently he removed this and substituted satinet machinery. Mr. Taft operated the mill for several years and then leased it, and it has been operated by several ditlcrent firms for that purpose till the present time.

In 1832 the Ironstone Mill - built in 1814 asa cottonmill - was burned. It was rebuilt by Jonathan F Southwick, fitted with woolen machinery, and operated by Fairbanks & Messinger for the manufacture ol Kentucky jeans. In 1865 fire again visited this property and destroyed the factory. Subsequently a roof was put over the basement walls, which remained standing, making a one-story mill, which for several years was used by Joseph C. Keith & Co. for a shotldy mill. It afterwards passed into the hands of Abijah Esty, of Millville, and at his decease it ceased to be used for manufacturing purposes, and the mill and the brick tenements and store-houses which once denoted a prosperous village are fast becoming dilapi<lated ruins. About the year ISSU Mr. ('harles C. Capron erected in the millyard of the Capron Mills a well appointed shoddymill, and in a few years his largely increasing busine-s occasioned the building of another mill near to the other, into which he put, in addition to shoddy cards and pickers, two sets of yarn machinery for making woolen yarn for carpets. This i)art of the business was subsequently given up, and the entire plant devoted to the manufacture of shoddy. In addition to the water-power of the Mumford River, these mills and the Capron Satinet-Mills are supplied with

The old Shuttle Shop on Drabble Tail Brook was at one time devoted to manufacturing purposes, cotton yarn and shoddy being among its principal productions. The machinery was operated by Zadok A. Taft and B. Stetson, and afterwards by J. C. Keith.

One of the principal industries of Uxbridge from an early date was the manufacture of cotton goo<ls. The first factory erected I'or that pnipose was erected in 1810, by Forbes & Benjamin Clapp, at what is now known asRogerson's Village, in North Uxbridge. They sold out in 1815 to Harvey & Mellen, and they soon after sold to Robert Rogerson. The mill was a small building, which was afterwards removed and converted into a factory tenement-house. There they manufactured cotton thread until about the year I8IG7 when the venture proved a failure. They had been stocked by Mr. Robert Rogerson, who was at that time a merchant in Boston, and upon the failure of Harvey & Mellen the property passed into his hands. Mr. Rogerson continued the business then until about the year 1825, when he removed the Clapp Mill and began the erection of his first stone factory. Near it, and in accordance with his original plan, he erected a second stone factory, and the two mills have since been united. He expended thus, in buildings and machinery, the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He laid out a village, which at that time had more of the quality of perfection than almost any other manufacturing village in New England. It is laid out with great taste, and the stone work of the dams, canals, bridges and arches under the mill are marvels of good workmanshiii, which constant use of more than fifty years has not detracted from. These mills and this beautiful village will long stand, built as they are in lasting stone and brick, a fitting monument to the genius and public spirit of Robert Rogerson. In the financial troubles of 1837, Mr. Rogerson was obliged to give up the property, and it passed into the possession of the nujrtgagees. A new corj^oratlon was formed, called the Uxbridge Cotton-Mills, and the mill is still called by that name, although the original incorporators have nearly all died or sold their interest in the property. In 1851 the Whitin Brothers, of Northbridge, were the princii)al owners and managers of the corporate stock and property, and under their excellent management, which has continued to the present time, the property has continued to improve, and is now a first-class cotton-mill in every respect. This is the only cotton-mill in town, and with the single exception of the mill at Ironstone, originally built for a cotton mill, is the only one ever erected here solely for cotton goods.

There have been several other manufacturing establishments started, continued lor a short time and then given up ; which, as they did not contribute materially to the prosperity of the town, will not be noticed at length. Among these were the Uxbridge

Card Clothing Co., the Bay State Arms Co., and the Wilder Screw Machine Co., neither of which met with success, and none are now in exi.stence.

One of the industries of the town, of which brief notice should be given, was the carriage manufactory of Theodore B. Whiting, in Mechanics' Square, on Drabble Tail Brook. About the year 1850, Mr. Whiting purchased the cluster of buildings formerly used for a tannery and cooper shop, etc., in rear of Union Building, and began the manufacture of carriages and harness, and also did a general wheelwright and blacksmithing busine-ss. Many excellent carriages were made by Mr. Whiting, and they were so well made that some of them are in use to-day, after more than thirty years of service. The style, of course, is somewhat antiquated, but the carriages are good for the balance of the century. A thoroughly good and honest man himself, his reputation sufl'ered no injury from his handiwork. It needed no warranty, and none was asked by those who knew the genial, upright, dignified gentleman who received their orders. At his lamented death, which occurred in ISfiil, the business was divided, the wheelwright, the blacksmith, the painter, and the harness-maker each striking out for himself; and as a result, the business of manufacturing carriages soon became a business of carriage repairing. Prentiss Whiting several years before had started a carriage factory at the Rivulet, but it did not prove a success, and a man named Gardner is said to have manufactured carriages for awhile in the old shop now owned by Merrill Greene, on North Main Street.

Banks. - The Blackstonc Bank was incorporated August 27, 1825, with a capital of $100,000, divided into one thousand shares. It was originally, and until 18B5, a period of forty years, a State bank, and was the only bank of discount and circulation in this part of the Blackstone Valley.

In 18<i5 it became a National Bank, under the banking-laws of the United States, and its name was changed to the Blackstone National Bank. Its capital remained the same, and, under its excellent management, it has always had a surplus, so that its capital stock has seldom been obtainable in the market for less than $120 per share. It has had but four presidents since 1825, and only three cashiers - Jonathan Gregory being cashier from 1825 to 1830, E. W. Hay ward from 1836 until his death, in 1875, a continuous service of nearly forty years. Moses Taft, Esq., has been president of the bank since 1865, and, although nearly eighty years of age, is hale and hearty and a shrewd and capable financier. The bank occupies a room in Robert Taft's block, under a very peculiar lease. The advantage of having a bank in Uxbridge was of such moment to the then owners of the old brick store, which has since been remodeled into the modern business block, that, as an inducement for it to locate here, the room was fitted up, and a long lease given, in which the stipulated rent was " one barley-corn per year,'' and this singular rent fs all that the bank has been required to pay for the use of its banking-rooms to this date. Whether the rent has actually been handed over each year, and what the landlord does with it, are open questions, which no one seems able or willing to answer.

In the eighteen years of its existence this bank has grown in the confidence of the people, and its deposits now amount to over $335,000. As its management is rather conservative and its loans made at low rates of interest, its diviflends are not, as a rule, quite up to those paid by city banks, but are generally satisfactory to depositors. A little more public spirit exhibited by the management, in the way of a banking-house built and owned by the bank, would give it better facilities for doing business, and, as an investment, would pay full as well as loans on mortgages at five per cent., and the general public would be highly gratified.

A good first-class business block on the site just south of the National Bank, arranged for stores, banking-rooms and oftices, would supply a muchneeded want, and would be occupied at good rent as soon as completed.

Chapter Xxix

The Revolution. - In the year 1774, on the 6th day of July, the town, at a meeting called to consider the difficulties existing between the colonies and the mother country, passed a vote to appoint a committee of nine citizens and freeholders, "to correspond with committees that now or shall be chosen by any towns in this province for the purpose, on any matiir that may respect the present difficulty, that now or may subsist between Great Britton and North-a/Kccjca."

In October, 1774, it was voted in town-meeting, "to purchase five barrels of powder, and as much shot as was proper; " and a committee was chosen " to provide for soldiers who may be called to march." In January, 1775, the town voted " to carry the resolves of the Continental Congress into execution;" and a committee was appointed " to see them strictly adhered to in this town." At this meeting Mr. Benjamin Green was elected a delegate to the Provincial Congress to be held at Cambridge; and in May, of the same year, Mr. Abner Rawsou was chosen to attend the Provincial Congress at Watertown.

The fires of patriotism now burned brighter and steadier, and the increasing military ardor of the citizens of this town, was made manifest, in the unanimity with which they voted to stand by the action of the Continental Congress.

At a meeting of the inhabitants held in May, 1776, in the spring previous to the Declaration of Independence, an article of which the following is a copy was voted almost unanimously in the affirmative: "To see if the town will vote, if the Honorable Congress should, for the safety of the United Colonies, Declare themselves Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, whether that they will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support them in the measure."

In July, 177G, it was voted, "to grant six pounds to each person who shall Enlist in behalf of this town to go to Canada, or the Northern Department agreeable to the late act."

In May, 1777, there were evidently some Tories living in Uxbridge; for the town chose, "by written votes," Seth Read "to procure and Lay before the Court the evidence that may be had of the Inimical disposition of any Inhabitant of this town towards this or any of the United States, who shall be charged by the freeholders and other inhabitants of said town, or if their residence within this State is looht upon to be dangerous to the public peace and Safety."

That the inhabitants of Uxbridge had pretty determined ideas as to what sort of government the new nation needed and should liave, is apparent from the fact that in said meeting they voted "to instruct our representative not to vote for the proposed form of constitution and form of government;" but as the record gives no information as to the form of Constitution and government they did desire, we must suppose, in view of their very decided opposition to Great Britain, that the form of government, etc., proposed by Congress was not sufficiently antagonistic to the mother country.

In March, 1778, it was voted "to send to the soldiers now in actual service in the Continental Army, in behalf of the town of Uxbridge for three years or during the war, two shirts, one pair of tow breaches, two pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes;" and "that a committee be chosen to procure s'd cloathing and a man to earn- it to them;" this last being no slight undertaking, when it is remembered that there was no public conveyance of any kind, and a journey of even a few miles was attended with great danger and fatiguing labor.

In 1778 two thousand pounds were raised " to provide for soldiers in the Continental army," and in the same year "men were sent to Rhode Island, and men as guards to Rutland."

The sendingof substitutes into the army was allowed, for in January, 1779, the warrant for the town-meeting contained this article : " To see what sum of money the town will give or allow to such Persons as have Procured a man to do a turn for them in the Continental Service for three years, or during the war." No action appears of record upon this article. In April, 1779, two thousand five hundred i)ounds were appropriated "to carry on the Continental War." In June, 1779, the town voted "that the Committee for Hireing Soldiers for s'd Town be Directed to Engage to Such Soldiers as they may hereafter Procure to Engage in the present war, in Consequence of orders Received for that purpose (for the Hire of such Soldiers), either Continental Currency, or the produce of the land Raised amongst us, Acting Defcrentionarily \i\ Engaging either Money or produce as to the sum of Money or Quantity of produce, and at what price as they with such soldiers may agree."

In November, 1780, one thousand pounds were raised to supi)ly the army with beef; also in January, 1781, twenty-three thousand pounds (probably Continental currency) were appropriated for the same purpose ; also fifteen "hard dollars" (probably silver) were voted to hiring " Continental men." and on August 28, 1781, the town voted " to raise one hundred and fifty pounds ' hard money ' for the supply of beef called for by the General Court."

The following is a true copy of an original document now in the possession of the writer. The paper is yellow with age, but the writing and the original signatures of the members of the committee are as plain and legible as though recently written :

Committee Chamber, Boston, March IHi These Coiiifle tliiit Nathan Tyler Sr. and Others Selectmen of Uxbridg Procnrod for the Use of this Coranionwealth, in the year 1779 :

The signatures are the genuine signatures of the members of the Committee of the General Court of 1784, so that it is probable that the account, which was allowed in March, 1780, was not paid to the selectmen until after a renewal of the approval in 1784, as above set forth. Money, or what represented money, was of such small value in 1780 that we may suppose the delay was occasioned by a disagreement as to the kind of money the bill allowed was to be payable in To show how great a depreciation must have taken place in the value of the currency, the town records state that in November, 1780, the town, at a regular meeting held to provide for town charges and expenses, " voted to raise (25,000) twenty-five thousand pounds, to defray town charges," and the same year they voted the sum of ten thotisand pounds to buy beef for the army.

The records of the town do not contain a list, or anything that purports to be a list, of its citizens who served in the Revolutionary army. But from actual votes passed and recorded, I find the following names referred to as having served in the different divisions of the service as volunteers or substitutes. It is probable that there were many others.

An interesting episode of the Revoluionary period was the visit of General (jcorge Washington to Uxbridge, in the year 1780, on his journey from Boston to Hartford. General Washington, then President of the United States, passed a night at a tavern kept by the father of Warner Taft, at North Uxbridge, and was so well pleased with the attention he received, that at Hartford, on the 8th of November, 1789, on his way home, he wrote the following letter to Mr. Taft, near Uxbridge, ]\Iaas. :

Sir, - Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and called another after Mrs. Washington's family, and being moreover much pleased with the modest and innocent looks of your two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece of chintz ; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Washington, and who waited on us more than Polly did, I send five guineas with which she may buy herself any little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner mure agreeable to herself. .\s T do not give these things with a view to have it talked of, or even to its being known, the less there is said about the matter the better you will please me ; but that I may be sure the chintz and money have got safe to hand, let P{itty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof, directed to "The I*re.sident of the United States, New York." I wish you and your family well, and am your himible servant. G. Washington.

This house is still standing, and in a good state of preservation, retaining its same style as when the father of his country honored it with his presence. It is now owned and occupied by some of the heirs of Warner Taft, and should be long preserved for its historical associations. A desk once owned by the Tafts, and at which Gen. Washington is said to have sat and written a dispatch or letter to be sent to Boston, is now owned by the writer of this history, and is most highly prized.

The Civil War. - The record of Uxbridge in the War of the Rebellion was one of which she may well be proud, having furnished two hundred and ninety ('2'M) soldiers, seventeen more than her quota, as called for by the State. The first " war meeting " was held in the ba,sement of the Unitarian Church, then occupied for town-meetings, on the 11th day of May, 1861, which was addressed by several spirited and eloquent speakers. At the close of the speaking it was unanimously voted to give each volunteer belonging to the town twenty-one dollars a month while in service,

I and one dollar a day for drilling previous to enlistment, not exceeding twenty days of eight hours a day. Fifteen hundred dollars was appropriated to purchase uniforms, and one hundred dollars to defray the expenses of forming a company of riflemen. On May 3, 1862, the town appropriated two thousand five hundred dollars to pay State aid to families of the volunteers, and a committee was chosen " to ascertain the names of the soldiers belonging to thetown, that their names may be preserved to posterity, by causing the same to be entered upon the records of the town." On July 23d the town voted "to give a bounty of one hundred and fifty dollars to each volunteer for three years, who should be accredited to the town's quota." On August 23d the same amount was voted to those who entered the service for nine months, to be paid when the town's quota was full ; if not filled by volunteers and a draft was made, then no bounty was to be paid.

March 2, 1863, the town voted to raise four thousand dollars for aid to be paid to the families of volunteers during the year. September 28th the aid was extended to the families of drafted men.

On May 2o, 1864, a bounty of one hundred and iwenty-five dollars was voted to be paid to the three years' volunteers who should enlist upon the quota of the town, whether residents of Uxbridge or otherwise. As before stated, the town had no difficulty in filling its quota at these liberal bounties, and the voters were not sorry that the number furnished was so many in excess of the calls.

The whole amount of money expended for war purposes was twenty thousand two hundred dollars ($20,200) ; for State aid to families about fourteeo

I thousand six hundred dollars ($14,600). About ten thousand dollars was contributed by citizens in addition to the above. Large quantities of clothing, stocki ings and shoes were also contributed by the Ladies Soldiers' Aid Society and other patriotic workers, and

] down the Rebellion and preserving the Union, who enlisted as residents of Uxbridge. The list does not include, therefore, those who helped to fill the quota, but who resided in other towns ; as their names are no doubt honored in a fitting manner by the towns

' which were honored by them. Those whose names are marked with a (*) died either in actual service or as prisoners of war. Let all unite to do honor to these brave sons of old Uxbridge !