Westminster Town (part 1 of 2)

Westminster Town

King Philip's War. - The history of Westminster, which properly includes the causes that led to its original settlement, began in the year 1675, at the opening of that tragic episode in early New England life known as the Narragansett or King Philip's War. More than half a century had passed away since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and more than forty years since the founding of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and peace and good-will had prevailed for the most part between the new-comers to these shores and their aborigin.al occupants. This state of tranquillity and kindly intercourse had been secured and perpetuated largely through the influence of Massasoit, the benignant, just, magnanimous chief of the Wampanoags, an important Indian tribe occupying the territory lying along the eastern borders of Narragansett Bay.

But Massasoit was no more, and his son, Pometacom, otherwise called Philip, a man of very different spirit from that of his father, had succeeded him. Jealous in his disposition and faithless to his promises of friendship and peace, the new chieftain, encouraged and supported by some of his hot-blooded warriors, entered upon a course of conduct well calculated to engender hostility and violence on the part of his subjects and to fill the colonists with anxiety and fear. Nor was it long before the purpose that lay back of all his actions was revealed.

A series of horrid massacres, beginning in the early summer of 1675 and continuing through several succeeding months, told all too plainly not only that war had begun between the red and white men, but that, so far as the former were concerned, it was designed to be a war of extermination. The terrible tragedies at Swansey, Mendon, Brookfield, Hadley and other places dispelled all doubts in this regard. Thoroughly alarmed, the imperiled colonists rose to meet the crisis so unhappily forced upon them.

Commissioners of the .Plymouth, Massachusetts and Connecticut settlements met in November and decided to raise an army of a thousand men and equip them for service under the command of Governor Josiah Winslow of Plymouth, on or before the 10th of December following. The men were enrolled accordingly. The Massachusetts troops mustered on Dedham plain at the date named, ready for an advance into the country of the enemy. Before taking up the line of march, as directed by General Winslow, proclamation was made, in the name of the Colonial Government, to the assembled soldieis that, in addition to the regular pay for services rendered, they, or their heirs and representatives after them, should have a special grant of land, provided that " they played the man, captured the fort where the great body of the enemy was intrenched and drove him out of the country." These troops thereupon proceeded from Dedham, being soon after joined by those from Plymouth, and still later by the quota from Connecticut, when all went on together to the territory of the Narragansetts, on the westerly borders of Narragansett Bay. Thither the various marauding parties, that had b6en roaming abroad through the summer and autumn, committing depredations, burn- ing towns and savagely butchering whomsoever they could, betook themselves, as the cold season came on, and with others, to the number of several thousand in the aggregate, went into winter-quarters on a rising swell of land, some acres in extent, in the centre of a large swamp, in what is now South Kingston, R. I. There they had built a village of six hundred wigwams and surrounded it with an invulnerable stock- through which there were but two small entrances^ protected on the outside by a strong guard. This was the objective point towards which the approaching array was slowly making its way. It had reached a point fifteen miles distant on the 18th of December, where the night was spent. Early the following morning the line of march was resumed in the midst of a snow-storm, which continued through the day. Weary with the jeurney, the swamp was not reached till about two o'clock p.m., when an attack was at once made upon the fort. The guards outside were slain, entrance was gained and a terrible battle was fought, resulting in the complete overthrow of the Indians, of whom, it is said, a thousand were slain or taken captive. The English also suffered severely, losing six of their bravest captains and about eighty men, while one hundred and fifty more were wounded.

This was the great battle of the war and virtually its turning-point, though hostilities and massacres continued in a desultory form, after the Indian fashion, till the following summer. The escaping warriors formed themselves into squads or bands, who went roaming through the country, attacking and destroying settlements and doing all possible harm to the population. New recruits were called into the field by the Colonies and soldiers were sent in all directions to meet and destroy or thwart the purpose of the enemy wherever he could be found. In spite of all that could be done, however, in this way, the Indians were continually perpetrating outrages and barbarities in widely-divided and most unexpected localities, eluding the search of their pursuers and sedulously avoiding an open fight. Lancaster, Medfield and Groton were surprised and burned before the winter was over, and Northampton, Seekonk, Marlboro', Sudbury, Turner's Falls and other places, later in the season. Many persons were slain or taken captive. But the power of the Indians was broken and fast ebbing away. Where Philip was all this time is not known. His men were not only greatly reduced in numbers, but were losing heart and hope. Some had deserted and surrendered to the whites. Others had left the neighborhood and joined other tribes not involved in the conflict. The family of Philip was taken captive. At length he himself once more ajipeared upon the scene, but discrowned and despairing, as a refugee, seeking safety with a few followers at Mt. Ho]ie, R. I. But the place of retreat was known, and a detachment of soldiery under Captain Church surrounded it, sure of their prey. As the investing troops drew nearer and nearer to each other, Philip sprung from his hiding-place^ and seeking to rush through an opening in the rank* of his foes, was shot by one of his own men who had gone over to the side of the colonists. The death of Philip took place August 12, 1676, which was th& virtual ending of the war. The whites had -suffered fearfully in the conflict, but they had gained the victory, and the power of the red man in New England had gone forever.

Land Grants. - In 1685, nearly ten years after the termination of the war briefly outlined above, William Basset, of Lynn, and some forty others in that and neighboring towns, petitioned the General Court of the province of Massachusetts Bay for a grant of land to the Narragansett soldiers, as those engaged in ihe conflict were designated, in fulfillment of the promise made to them at Dedham. On the 4th of June the court granted " a tract of land eight miles scpiare in the Nipmug country ""to the petitioners and others that were serviceable in the late Indian War." Of this action on the part of the Provincial Government nothing came, so far as can be ascertained from the records, the tract having never been located and the parties to whom it was assigned never taking measures to secure what had been given them.

The subject seems to have received no further attention from any one for more than forty years or until a large percentage of those actually engaged in the Narragansett service had gone to their graves, when, in the month of June, 1727, Samuel Chandler and Jacob Wright, " in behalf of themselves and of many others who were personally present at the fort and fight at Narragansett, or descendants of those who were there or in strictest alliance with them," petitioned the General Court for lands substantially as before, " under such restrictions and limitations as the Court shall judge fit." The petition was favorably received and action was taken looking to the granting of the prayer of the petitioners and also to the ascertaining of the names of all persons having claims under the pledge of the government designated. The matter did not come to a definite conclusion, however, until the 15th of .June in the following year, when a committee was chosen to survey and lay out two tracts of land of the contents of six miles square in some of the unappropriated territory of the province for the officers and soldiers who served their country in the Narragansett War, to whom said tracts were to be granted and assigned on condition that the grantees shall " settle sixty families at least in each township, with a learned Orthodoxminister, within the space of seven years from the date of the grant.'' On the 18th of the next December this committee reported " the plan of a town of the contents of six miles square exclusive of the pond near Rutland and Lunenburg." This was the original plan of what was afterward the town of Westminster, and is still preserved in the Archives of the State of Massachu- setts. On the same day a plan of a second township of the same size was reported situated on Souhegan Kiver, which subsequently became Amherst, N. H. Time went on, but no steps were taken in regard to the settlement of these grants. Indeed, the grantees of them were not definitely determined for several years after they weremade. The number of claimants for lands under the pledge given to the Narragansett soldiers increased slowly until it reached the aggregate of eight hundred and forty, whereupon it was maintained that the grants made were much too small to give each person a sufficient amount to satisfy him and answer the demands of justice and honor in the case. Consequently the whole body of claimants, who had duly organized and were holding meetings from time to time in Boston and vicinity for the purpose of conserving their interests in the matter, through a committee chosen for the purpose, asked the coui-t for further appropriations. After a long delay it was finally decided to grant a township of the contents of six miles square to every one hundred and twenty soldiers who had proved their claims satisfactorily to the court, and a grant of five additional towns - making seven in all - was ordered and duly approved by the Governor April 26, 1733. It was not, however, till February 26, 1734, that the last of the plans of these five townships was submitted by the committee chosen to survey and lay them out and finally approved by the General Court and confirmed to the grantees.

The Narragansett Townships. - The several tracts of land granted as before stated were called the Narragansett Townships, being so designated for reasons sufficiently indicated already. They were passed over by the Provincial authorities to the ownership and control of the eight hundred and forty grantees as a body, to be allotted and assigned among them as they might judge best, and to be finally settled by them or through their instrumentality according to the conditions specified in the votes of the General Court api)ropriatiug them to the parties receiving them. To prep.ire the way for the just and proper distribution of them among those to whom they belonged, and for the final disposal and occupancy of them, the grantees in a meeting held at Boston June G, 1733, made a division of their number into seven distinct societies consisting of one hundred and twenty grantees each, among which the townships were to be distributed by some plan of assignment agreed upon by those concerned. In making this division, regard was paid to the location of the members, those residing near together being included in the same society in order to render it convenient for them to meet together for the transaction of necessary business. Moreover, a committee of each society was chosen by the whole body to represent said society, to have charge of its affairs and to act in its behalf. These several committees were given authority and instructed to assign the different towns to the societies at^their convenience.

Pursuant thereto, due notice having been given, they met on the 17th of the next October, at the public-house of Luke Verdy, in Charlestown, for that purpose. The townships were distinguished from each other by number, and were called Narragansett No. 1, Narragansett No. 2, etc., which names they severally bore until they Were made a part of the body politic by an act of incorporation from the Legislature, when they assumed those by which they have since been designated and known. In the distribution of the several grants among the different societies of grantees, Narragansett No. 1, on Saco River, which afterwards became Buxton, Me., was assigned to Philemon Dane and company from Ipswich and vicinity, by general consent and approval. It was then decided to dispose of the six remaining townships by lot, but before proceeding to the drawing in accordance with that decision, it was " voted and agreed upon that the Society that should hapen to Draw the Town called No. 2, at Watchusett, should lay out and assign to his Excelency Jonathan Belcher, Esq., five Hundred acres of land in s'd Towne for his Honored Father's Wright." This was the township now under notice, and in the allotment which at once took place it fell to Mr. James Lowden and company from Cambridge and vicinity. In this company there were seventeen grantees from Cambridge, thirty-three from Charlestown, twenty-six from Watertown, five from Weston, eleven from Sudbury, seven from Newton, three from Medford, six from Maiden and ten from Reading, making one hundred and eighteen in all. Of these only twenty had served personally in the Narragansett War; the others being the legal representatives of those who had been slain in the service or subsequently passed away. The remaining townships were allotted in regular order as follows: No. 3, afterwards Amherst, N.H., to Richard Moore, of Lynn and company ; No. 4, which was at fi rst Goflstown, N. H., but subsequently Greenwich, Mass., to Edward Shove and company from Northampton and vicinity; No. 5, incorporated as Bedford, N. H., to Thomas Tileston and company of the neighborhood of Boston ; No.O, Templeton, Mass., to Saml. Chandler, of Concord, and company; No. 7, known as Gorham, Me., to Shubael Gorham and company belonging to Plymouth and vicinity. With the assignment of the several townships to the societies of grantees, who thereby became sole proprietors of them respectively, to hold in their own right and manage according to their own pleasure, the responsibility of the whole body of grantees acting together ceased, and the care and control of each township separately passed over to the particular societ}' to which it had been allotted.

Narragansett No. 2. - Immediately after the townships had been duly assigned, the committee of the grantees living in and about Cambridge who had drawn No. 2 "at Watchusett," called a meeting of those whom they represented, to be held at the house of Mr. Samuel Smith, of Cambridge, " in order to

Before the season was over, the families of the two men were established in their respective homes, facing the fortunes awaiting them in the years ahead. Mr. Moor had a wife and five sons, and Mr. Holden a wife, three sons and two daughters, making a total of fourteen, - the population of Jsarragansett No. 2 in the autumn of 1737. An existing tradition makes the number fifteen ; but the preserved records of the families give but fourteen, though there may have been some temporary resident in the place which would make the aggregate what it is, on the uncertain authority referred to, supposed to be.

These first settlers in Narragansett No. 2 (Westminster) occupy too important a place in the history of the town to be passed by without a more extended notice than has yet been given them. They were men to be remembered and honored for their works' sake by the sons and daughters of the town they founded as long as that town shall have a place in the annals of Worcester County and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And so a brief biographical sketch of each of them respectively is introduced at this point of the narrative in hand.

Fairbanks Moor was a lineal descendant of John Moor, who came from England to this country at an early date, locating first at Cambridge, but afterwards at Sudbury, where he took the oath of allegiance in 1640, soon after its first settlement. This first John had a son bearing the same name, and known as Ensign John, who took up his abode in Lancaster and became a somewhat prominent man in public affairs. One of his sons, a third John in regular succession, married Hezadiah Fairbanks, of whom the subject of this notice was born about the year 1700, receiving the family name of his mother for a Christian name. Fairbanks Moor married Judith Bellows, daughter of Benjamin Bellows, of Lunenburg, and sister of Benjamin Bellows, also an early settler in Narragansett No. 2; afterwards the founder of Walpole, N. H., and the giver of a name to Bellows Falls in the Connecticut Kiver. Fairbanks and Judith Moor had five sons before moving to Narragansett, and one while a resident there, who probably died in 1742, and became the first occupant of the first buryingground in the place. Mr. Moor was somewhat of an adventurer and speculator in landed property. He owned, at different times, some ten or twelve farm-lots in the township ; was an original proprietor of Templeton, and also had possessions in Brattleboro', Walpole and probably other localities in that vicinity. He was a resident of Narragansett No. 2 only about seven years consecutively, though dwelling there at times for several years afterward. He went finally to the valley of the Connecticut, leaving traces of himself at Walpole, N. H., where his son, Fairbanks, Jr., resided, and also at Brattleboro', the home of his son Benjamin. Both he and this last-named son were slain by the Indians in a midnight attack and massacre at Brattleboro', March 6, 17.38. Of the descendants of Mr. Moor no traces have been found, though great pains have been taken to discover them, and it is presumed the family has become extinct.

Jo.seph Holden was the son of Justinian Holden, the immigrant ancestor of the family, who was a proprietor of Watertown in 1634, and Mary (Rutter) Holden, born September 6, 1683. He married Abagail, daughter of William Sbattuck, and had seven children before removing to Narragansett, two of whom died in infancy and a third before his own decease, November 30, 1768. He was one of the most active, influential and highly esteemed of the earlier residents of the township, being deeply interested in the prosperitj' and right ordering of the new settlement, and holding many places of trust and service, to which he was called by the suftrages of his fellow-citizens. He w-as elected the first deacon of the church, which was instituted in 1742, and has always been known by the title thus conferred upon him. His sons after him became highly honored and much respected in their day, as did others of his descendants in later generations. He stands at the head of a numerous posterity, the members of which are scattered far and wide through the land, though a goodly number of them are still to be found in the town of which he, more than any other person, was the founder, as he was the first permanent resident within its borders.

A settlement having been begun in the new township, the way was open for accessions to the little company that spent the winter of 1737-38 in the wilds of Narragansett No. 2, but they came slowly. Only two families, so far as can be ascertained, were added to the original number in the year 1738 - that of Phil ij) Bemis, consisting of nine persons; himself, wife and seven children, of whom one was not his own, but a child of mystery, named Daniel Mountjoy (who lived to be more than a hundred years old), and Thomas Bemis, brother of Philip, who had at the time only a wife. There are no proofs that there were any additions to these four families in 1739. In 1740 Seth Walker and Justinian Holden, from Groton ; Daniel Hoar, from Concord ; Joseph Miller, from Newton ; John and Thomas Stearns, from Watertown, were in the place, and, if not actually settled as residents, were yet clearing up lots, building bouses and making preparations for becoming permanenth- located within its borders.

One of the great needs of these pioneer settlers of this new township was a mill for grinding the corn and other grain which they were beginning to produce. Several attempts had been made to obtain proposals for the erection of such a mill, but for a time none of them proved efiectual. At length, at a meeting held September 10, 1740, a proposition from Mr. Seth Walker, who bad located on lot 22, at the outlet of the pond, was favorably received, and finally accepted. It was to be completed before the 1st of the next July, to be kept in good order for twenty years, and there was to be paid for it " one hundred pounds in the old tenor." This was another important adjunct to the new settlement, and no doubt removed a serious objection to joining it, which would find a place in many minds. The mill stood on the more easterly of the two streams flowing out of the pond, some thirty or forty rods west of the residence of the late John K. Learned. It served the community in its original capacity for nearly a century, its foundations remaining in a good state of preservation to this day.

During the two following years some eighteen or twenty new families were added to the settlement, making nearly thirty in the aggregate. Among these new comers was Eleazer Bigelow, of Watertown, who was accompanied by his aged father, Joshua Bigelow, the only resident of the place that actually rendered service in the Narragansett War. He died February 21, 1745, in the ninetieth year of his age.

For several years subsequently to 1742 the population of the township increased but slowly, if at all. Very . few new families came in, while some previously there moved away. This was, no doubt^ owing chiefly to the breaking out of the war between England and France, known as King George's War. The French, as before and afterward, made friends of the Indians of the back country, and sent or led them forth to deeds of darkness and horror well calculated to revive the long-slumbering memories of the conflict with King Philip. The little settlements that had for several years been springing up in the wilderness became thoroughly alarmed some time before a formal declaration of war had taken place, and the more exposed of them had petitioned the General Court for protection, the inhabitants of Narragansett No. 2 among the rest. A grant of £100 was made to put the township in a condition whereby its people could be easily protected, and a committee was appointed to expend the same. Ten dwellings were converted into fortifications for the common safety. These were distributed throughout the settled districts, so that all the inhabitants of the place could resort to them at their discretion and feel secure against any hostile attack. The same thing was done elsewhere. Moreover, a line of defences, extending from settlement to settlement, through a wide section of country, was established, and a series of alarms devised, whereby the whole population of the inland districts could be aroused, if need be, and made ready to meet and repel an invading foe. No harm was done to the Narragansett settlers during the continuance of the war. Twice were there Indians seen lurking about the place, but the sounding of the alarm, assuring them that they were discovered, and enabling the people to prepare to receive them, caused them silently to withdraw. One of these discoveries was made by Mr. Bowman, while mowing somewhere on the farm of the late George Miles, which he owned, and the other by Mrs. Philip Bemis, while passing through or near the buryingground one Sunday on her way home from meeting. Very likely these or similar occurrences, of which no report is preserved, moved the inhabitants to petition the General Court for a town scout, to keep watch and guard over the young colony, which resulted in the appointment of Thomas Stearns, David Dunster, Joseph Holden, Jr., Stephen Hoklen and Elisha Bigelow to serve in that capacity till the peril was past. According to the muster-roll of Capt. Edward Hartwell's company, dated December 22, 1748, there were enlisted from the place as soldiers in this war Fairbanks Moor, Jr., Abner Holden, William Bemis, Ephraim Dutton, Nicholas Dyke, Ephraim Stevens, Thomas Stearns and several others whose names are not given. The peace of Aix la-Chapelle put an end to hostilities, and relieved the infant settlement from further anxiety or concern on that aacount.

Another cause that may have had an influence in retarding the growth of the township was the inharmony existing between the resident and non-resident proprietors and the unwillingness of the latter, who for a long time were in the majority, to make the improvements necessary to satisfy those whs had already located on the territory, or to induce outsiders to take up their abode there. For ten years this strife was going on. The advantage was all on the side of the non-residents. The meetings of the proprietors, to begin with, were held in and about Cambridge, at points readily accessible to those dwelling in that vicinity. Soon after the settlement was begun an attempt was made by the resident members of the propriety to have them held in the township, but it failed. The same thing was done repeatedly, with the same result. As a consequence, the non-resident members could have everything their own way. And many of the propositions deemed necessary to the comfort and welfare of those living in the township, as well as to its growth and prosperity, were either promptly voted down or granted with reluctant will. This was especially the case with regard to highways, of which due mention will be made hereafter. At length an appeal was sent to the Legislature by the resident proprietors, for redress of grievances in this regard, and it was granted. Meetings were ordered to be held in the township, the first occurring September 12, 1750. Thereafter things were managed more fiivorably for the settlers.

Though not yet numerically in the majority of the entire number of proprietors, still, so few of those living in the lower towns could or did attend the meetings after they were held in the townshi]), that the residents were in the majority there and could do what they pleased for the common good. From that time forward most of the officers of the propriety were inhabitants of the place, as they were not before, and consequence, the settlement was greatly enlarged as time went on. New families came in, and the population, which was not more than one hundred and thirty in 1750, must have been about three hundred and fifty in 1760.

With the increase of inhabitants arose the desire on their part to be free from their relationship to the non-resident proprietors, and to obtain an independent and corporate existence, with authority and power to manage their own affairs, and to exercise all the rights and prerogatives usually belonging to the towns of the province. A petition was accordingly drawn up and signed by Joseph Holden and thirtyone others and forwarded to the General Court, w'hich resulted in the passage of an act of incorporation October 20, 1759, erecting Narragansett No. 2 into a district, under the name of Westminster. This conferred upon the people all the rights and immunities of a town, except that of being represented in the Legislature of the province, and this was granted by an additional act passed April 26, 1770.

It may be proper to state here that a second division of the lands of the township was made in 1743, the size of the lots being sixty acres, as in the first division. These lots were distributed among the proprietors of the place as before. They were located mostly in tlie north and northwesterly sections of the town, extending along the boundary in that direction as far as what is now the centre of Gardner. The division of the meadows took place about the same date, giving the proprietors about five acres each. A third division took place in 1755, the size of the lots being the same as before, and a fourth and final division in 1767, each lot containing twenty acres. The last two divisions were of territory lying in the west part of the town - mostly in what is now Gardner.

At the time of the incorporation of Westminster the American colonies were in the midst of what is called the French and Indian War, which grew out of the alleged encroachments of the French, who had located along the St. Lawrence and elsewhere, upon the frontier English settlements. Hostilities began as early as 1754, although a formal declaration of war was not made till two years later, and continued in active operation till 1760, when Montreal and all other French possessions in Canada were surrendered to the British Crown. The treaty of Paris, making a definite and final settlement of the questions at issue between the two nations, was not signed, however, till 1763. In this conflict the township in review bore an important part. The names of thirty-eight of its residents appear upon the muster-rolls of the different military companies that went into the service. Of three of these - Richard Baker, Thomas Dunster and William Edgell - the following well-authenticated story is told : At the expiration of their term of service, the officer in command, for some unknown reason, refused to discharge them. Deeming themselves under no obligations to remain, they decided to take the matter in their own hands, and return home regardless of the military authorities. They were in the neighborhood of Lake George, and their only way to their families and friends was over the Green Mountain range, when there were but few roads, and these they resolved to avoid, lest they be captured and made to suffer a deserter's doom. It was in midwinter, when much snow was on the ground, and the proposed journey across a trackless waste was most perilous. But they were determined to take it, and, providing themselves with two pairs of snow-shoes - all that they could secure - and two boards, which were to serve for a third pair, together with such provisions as they could obtain, they started on their adventurous course. They lost their way among the mountains, wandering about for days without reaching any settlement - or any track leading to a settlement - as they had hoped. Their provisions, meanwhile, gave out, and they came near starving. In their extremity they decided that one of their number should be sacrificed, and his flesh taken to save the lives of the other two. The unfortunate one was designated by lot; but, before putting their awful resolve into execution, the barking of a dog assured them of their nearness to some settlement, and they were spared the tragic deed, reaching safely at last their place of destination. There is a tradition involving a whole company in this affair, but it probably grew out of what is here narrated, which is better fortified than the other.

It is also related that during one of the campaigns of this war Nicholas Dyke, a leading citizen of the town, afterwards a colonel in the Revolution, with a squad of twelve men under him detailed to procure wood for the camp, were surprised and captured by a detachment of French soldiery. On their way to headquarters they stopped to partake of the contents of their knapsacks. In the midst of the meal, when the captors seemed to have relaxed their watchfulness somewhat, the prisoners, who had been partially unbound, upon a preconcerted signal from Captain Dyke, released themselves still further, sprang to their feet, seized the weapons near at hand, overpowered their foes, secured them captives and brought them prisoners to the English camp.

The number of resident tax-payers in the township when it was incorporated was 76; of polls, 80; the number of oxen, 53; cows, 170; horses, 52; swine, 35 ; sheep, 176. The estimated population was 300.

Chapter Cxliii

No. 2 does not appear in any records that have come to hand. No name whatever is mentioned in the petition of the inhabitants praying for an act of incorporation, and no name appears in connection with the passage of the bill through the two branches of the Legislature. In the engrossed copy of the bill furnished the Governor for his signature, there was evidently a blank left by the transcriber where the name should properly appear, and that blank was subsequently filled with the word Westminster in the same handwriting as that of Thomas Pownal, who was then filling the executive chair of the Province It seems probable, therefore, that to the Governor himself the citizens of the town are indebted for the name by which their municipality is designated and known, - a royal name it is, taken, no doubt, from that part of the capital of the British Empire which represents, more than any other, the greatness and glory of the country whence the early yeomanry and leading spirits of New England chiefly sprung.

Westminster is situated in the northerly part of Worcester County, and is bounded on the north by Ashburnhara, on the east by Fitcliburg and Leominster, on the south by Princeton and Hubbardston and on the west by Hubbardston and Gardner. Its latitude is 42° 32' north of the equator and 71° 54' west from Greenwich or 5° 1' east from Washington. Its central village is about twenty miles in a direct line a little west of north from Worcester and about fortynine miles west-northwest from Boston and fiftyseven by railroad. Its sujjerficial contents are somewhat more than twenty-two thousand acres, or about thirty-five square miles.

Being largely a farming town, its inhabitants are distributed very considerably over its entire territory. It has, however, a village of respectable size and attractive appearance at what is called the (.^entre, containing nearly a hundred dwelling-houses, three stores, three churches, a town hall, a large chair manufactory, an extensive bakery, a bank, several shops and numerous subordinate buildings ; a small village two miles east of this, cal!e<l Wachusettville, where there are paper-mills and about twenty dwellings, and one a mile and a half south of the Centre, of about the same size, in which is a large chair-making establishment, called South Westminster.

Lying upon the range of highlands which separate the waters flowing into the Merrimac from those flowing into the Connecticut Kiver, its elevated and exposed situation, while detracting somewhat from its value for agricultural purposes, gives freshness and salubrity to the air and quick movement to its waters, which conduce to vigor and strength of both body and mind, and consequent length of days. Its surface is somewhat broken and greatly diversified. Numerous elevations of considerable altitude are scattered throughout its territory, from which delightful views may be had of the surrounding country. Some of these representations are exceedingly picturesque and beautiful. A pleasing variety of hill and dale, forest and field is displayed on every hand. There are charming drives in all directions, and few towns can ofler more attractions to the pleasure seeker and lover of nature in this regard than can here be enjoyed.

The geological basis of the township is a form of primitive metamorphic rock, somewhat like granite, called gneiss, with an element of iron distributed through it. In some parts a tendency to slate formations appears, constituting what is denominated Merrimac schist. Among the later deposits of sand, gravel and the like there are veins of clay found, which have been utilized in various localities. The soil proper cannot be regarded as specially fertile or desirable for purposes of agriculture, though in some sections it may be made very productive under a judicious system of cultivation. In many places it is deep and strong, but needs to be enriched by outside agencies. The elevated position of the place renders the agricultural season comparatively short, and subjects whatever is raised to high winds, both of which are prejudicial to the interests of the tiller of the soil.

There is considerable difference, however, between the eastern and western portions in these respects, the advantage being on the side of the former. And yet, on the whole, the town may be regarded as quite up to the level of the average of the county, agriculturally considered. It has man}' fine farms, from which abundant harvests of the more hardy and staple products of this section of country are gathered. Apples and pears are raised without much trouble, but the tenderer and more delicate fruits, if grown at all, require watchful attention and constant care.

The forests abound in birch, beech, maple, oak, pine, hemlock and chestnut trees, with some hickory, yielding ample supplies of fuel for home consumption, with quite a surplus for the outside market, as well as considerable lumber for manufacturing purposes.

The usual wild animals indigenous to the region are found here, and exist in about the same proportion and to the same extent as in neighboring localities. The ponds and streams were formerly wellstored with native fish, which have been much reduced in numbers in these later days. The experiment of introducing new varieties has resulted in depleting the original supply without making good the deficiency.

The pastures are generally fruitful of various kinds of wild berries, and large quantities of them are gathered year by year for the ready market, which is found, if not at home and in manufacturing localities near by, yet at Boston and other large places farther away. In many instances these spontaneous products of the earth, not many years since deemed common to everybody, and, wherever found, free to all who might be pleased to gather them, are now regarded as actual individual propertj-, subject to all the conditions of other items of personal estate, and are oftentimes made the sources of very considerable income to those possessing them.

Although the surface of the town is generally high and considerably varied, yet there are no very marked or noteworthy elevations. Several of them, however, are designated by certain names which they have borne, for the most part, for a long time. The reason why they were respectively called by the titles given them is apparent in some instances and may be imagined in others, but not demonstrated. The hill that stands eastward from the centre village, on which the Common is located, was for obvious reasons called Meeting-house Hill. Two miles north of the centre, near to Gardner line, is Beech Hill. More northeasterly and three miles from the centre is Bragg Hill rising quite to the boundary of Ashburnham, the eastern extremity of which, towards Fitchburg, is known as Bean Porridge Hill. A bleak, rocky ridge in the southern part of the town is named Graves' Hill, while a still more rocky and desolate eminence in the southeast is Crow Hill. Still farther to the southeast, near to the Leominster line, is Ball's Hill. The commanding height upon which the well-known VVinship buildings are located has been sometimes appropriately denominated Prospect Hill, the view from it being more extensive, varied and lovely than from any other point in town.

There are but three natural bodies of water in Westminster. The most important of these is Meeting-house Pond, a mile southeast of the centre, in recent years more frecjuently named Westminster Pond or Lake, which contains one hundred and fiftytwo acres and one hundred rods. Wachusett Pond or Lake is a beautiful sheet of water, larger in size, lying under the shadow of Wachusett Mountain, partly in Princeton, but mostly iu Westminster, on the northern and western borders of which several summer houses (private and public) have beeu erected, while ample and attractive picnic-grounds have been laid out and fitted up as a resort for pleasure-parties and temporary sojourners in the summer season. Mud Pond is in the northern section of the town. A large tract of meadow land in the east, lying along the banks of the streams flowing out of the first two bodies of water mentioned, has during the last twenty years beeii kept under water and made serviceable as a reservoir for the benefit of the manufacturing interests below. The same is true of what used to be termed the town meadows, three-fourths of a mile east of the central village, while two or three similar changes have been niade in the western portion of the territory. A few small mill-ponds fill out the number of bodies of water which at jjresent exist in the jilace.

within the limits of Westminster. Phillips' Brook comes from Ashburnham, and runs through the extreme north part of the town ; a stream in the same direction, formerly called North River and sometimes Whitman's Kiver, also comes from Ashburnham, and by a longer course passes into Fitchburg ; a stream rising in Cedar Swamp and flowing just north of the central village empties into the town meadow reservoir named above; and the two streams already referred to from the principal ponds of the town uniting in the Wachusettville reservoir, - these all unite at last within the borders of the city of Fitchburg and constitute the northern branch of the Nashua River, which is the chief tributary of the Merrimac. A small stream in the western section of the town, intercepted in its course by several reservoirs in that locality, flows into Gardner and becomes a branch of the Otter River, whose waters passing through Miller's River reach the Connecticut at Greenfield. Two or three small streams in the southern part of the town, taking their way through Hubbardston, become sources of supply to Ware River, and at length pass into the Connecticut at Chicopee. An interesting fact connected with Cedar Swamp, already spoken of, is, that out of it three brooks flow in three diff'erent directions, constituting the head-waters of three important rivers in the State, - the Nashua River, Miller's River and Chicopee River.

A few special names have in former days been used to designate given localities, some of which have passed or are passing into forgetfulness. Aside from those already noted a few others are worthy of mention. The east village of the town, now known as Wachusettville, was for man}' years called " the Narrows." The valley a mile and a half north of the centre, through which Whitman's River flows and especially the part of it in the vicinity of Lombard's chair factory, was designated as "Scrabble Hollow," while the large tract of brushy, tangled, wet land, half a mile west of the centre, bears the unsavory name of " Tophet." The original location of the Universalist Church, a mile and a half northeast of the centre, is known as " the North Common."

Roads. - It is generally believed that the pioneer settlers of Narragausett No. 2 were obliged to make their way from Lancaster, the nearest settlement, through the intervening wilderness by marked trees, there being no distinctive path or thoroughfare for them to follow. Such, however, was not the case. Four years before the coming of Messrs. Moor and Holden to the place the Provincial Government had caused a road to be laid out and opened for travel from Lancaster to the valley of the Connecticut, near Deerfield, which ran through the south part of the town, entering its borders east of the school-house in what was formerly District No. 7, and passing thence across the northerly end of Wachusett Lake, and up over the hills westward, not far from the residences of the late Cephas Bush and Betsey Bacon, and on in the aame general direction to the Hubbardstou line, south of the dwelling of Mr. Joel Newton, and so through Templeton, Petersham, etc., to its farthest terminus at Sunderland, which gave it the name of the " Sunderland road." Along this thoroughfare, no doubt, the early settlers for several years came to the township, branching oft" from it at such points as would be convenient for them in reaching the various lots on which they had located or proposed to locate. That a way was opened from this road at a point a little east of where it crossed the line of the township to the old Common very soon after the settlement took place is evident from the fact that at a proprietors' meeting held October 31, 1739, it was an item of business to .see if they would clear the road from Crow Hill to the meeting-house. This road was in part the one laid out by the committee who made the first division of the lands of the township, and was, in fact, an extension of the present Main Street of the central village southeastwardly until it struck the socalled Sunderland Road. For a dozen years from the time of the settlement of the place no public roads except this one were made - each man probably opening his own path to his building site when and where he pleased. But in 1750, at the first meeting of the proprietors held, by order of the General Court, in the township, several highways were laid out in different directions, the principal one running from the meeting-house to Lunenburg, which then joined the township on the east, and which had already become quite a settlement. In the year following thirteen additional roads were opened, which furnished the inhabitants at the time all needed facilities for communication with each other, and for reaching the older and larger settlements to the eastward of them. In 1753, a county road was laid from Ipswich Canada (Winchendon) to Lunenburg, running through the extreme north part of the township, and in 17.'>4 another from Lancaster to Quojiaige (Athol). This road crossed thetown boundary near Everettville, and ran substantially where the highway now is to the old Common, thence southwesterly by tbe residence of Mr. Thomas Damon to the old Bigelow homestead, and on in a northwesterly direction through what are now pastures and woodlands to the village of South Gardner. Several other roads of importance were opened in the township before the year 1759, so that at the date of incorporation the foundation and framework of that more complete system of highways which has in later days served the public convenience and need were fully established. As time has gone on, such additions, modifications and discontinuances have been made as seemed, in the judgment of the citizens of the town or of the county authorities, conducive to the common welfare.

la or about the year 1800 the " Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike," extending from Lancaster to Athol, through Westminster, was built by a company operating under a charter granted them by the Legislature of the Commonwealth. It was substantially a new route, and opened very direct communication between the central village and Leominster on the east and South Gardner and Templeton on the w-est. Five years later a " North Branch " of this turnpike was opened from a point near Fitcbburg line, through Scrabble Hollow, to South Ashburnham and Winchendon. In 1829 this " North Branch " was converted into a county road, and in 1832 the main line shared the same fate.

Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad.^ When the project of building a railroad westward from Fitchburg was first agitated in the community, it was hoped by the citizens of Westminster that it would run through or near the central village and conduce materially to the future growth and prosperity of the town. Considerable money was put into the stock of the corporation, under the impression that such would be the case. But the influences which vainly endeavored to turn the main line of the road from the neighboring town of Gardner were more successful in their plans regarding Westminster, depriving it of the facilities so much desired by its people and so necessary to its continued advancement along the lines pursued from the beginning. The result was the location of the road through the eastern and northern parts of its territory, where it has contributed little or nothing to the development of the industrial interests of the community, for which it might have accomplished so much under other, though nowise impossible, circumstances. Numerous attempts have been made in later years to obtain greater advantages of transportation by through lines or spurs of already existing roads, but nothing as yet has been attained in this behalf The station on the Vermont and Massachusetts (now Fitchburg) Railroad, two miles from the Centre, affords all the accommodations which, under existing conditions, can reasonably be expected.

Industries. - Westminster must be regarded as an agricultural town when considered in a general way, and yet there have been many kinds of manufacturing carried on within its borders at different periods of its history. The conditions under which the early settlers took up their abode on its territory made them necessarily tillers of the soil. Established in the wilderness, far away from thickly ])opulated communities, their only means of subsistence were derived directly from the earth, and to the culture of the earth they at once addressed themselves with diligence and resolute good will, employing such agencies in the prosecution of their work as were at their command. They generally had enough mechanical ingenuity and a sufficient supply of the ruder and more common woodworking implements to enable them to erect for themselves the simple structures which served for temporary dwellingplaces, although persons trained to the .various callings reqtiisite to the construction of more elaborate and better fiaished buildings soon appeared among their number. Carpenters, masons, painters, blaclcsiniths, shoemakers and worlcers at other trades came in to supply the demand which a growing population created, so that there was at an early day no lack in any of these regards, and this class of artisans has never died out. Provision, as has been stated, was made, even before a single person appeared in the township as a permanent resident, for the supply of lumber suitable for building purposes, as was also the case soon after with regard to the grinding of grain for domestic and other uses. The need of various kinds of wooden-ware was a stimulus to the introduction of the business of coopering before many years had passed away, and this was followed, sometimes as incidental and subsidiary to the regular work of farming, in the way of furnishing pails, tubs, barrels, etc., for home uses, and sometimes as a distinct and constant vocation and means of livelihood by supplying goods for the general market. With a growing demand from outside for this kind of production, the industry increased until cooper-shops were scattered plentifully throughout the town, some persons carrying on extensive operations in this line of manufacture.

The presence of clay in various localities already alluded to rendered the making of brick feasible, and that business was prosecuted at several different points at different dates, chiefly, however, in the southern section, on the place now owned by Mr. Calvin Baker, where his father had a yard not many years since, and on the two farms east and south contiguous thereto. The manufacture of potash was once an industry in the town, four potash works having been definitely located, while others no doubt existed of which nothing is at present known. As a matter of course, cider-mills were once very numerous, but have mostly disappeared. Not less than five tanneries have been in successful operation, but these have all passed away. The making of hats, carried on to a considerable extent at one time, is now a thing of the past. This is also the case with the production of straw braid for ladies' bonnets, which, for many years, gave employment to a large proportion of the women and children of the community, and was a source of considerable income. The braiding of straw was superseded among the portion of population named by " chair-seating," as it is termed, an industry which came in with the manufacture of cane-seat chairs in the vicinity and which has proved to be of great value in many ways to the community. Though not as remunerative as formerly, it yet is quite extensively pursued and fills an important place among the money-making activities of the town.

About the year 1778 Mr. Edmund Barnard, an enterprising citizen, bought the water privilege in Wachusettville, where now stands the principal paper-mill of Mr. Wyman, with lands adjoining, and, . 73 associating others with him, built a dam and erected works for the production of various kinds of iron goods - nails, scythes, hoes, etc. Mr. Barnard soon sold out and put up similar works on the stream flowing out of Westminster Pond, nearly opposite the present residence of Mr. Kilgore. These works were carried on under varying auspices for a generation or more, but were finally superseded by other industries. At a privilege above the first of those just named, purchased by Mr. Thomas Rand, of Weston, in 1782, a fulling-mill was built, which was subsequently sold to David Wyman, who carried on the business for more than half a century. A similar mill stood for many yeai's a little below the town meadows, in the rear of the residence of the late Abijah Raymond. This was started by one Elisha Hall, who operated it for a while, and was succeeded by several other parties before it was finally abandoned. Mr. Rand, who erected the clothier's shop at Wachusettville, having also purchased considerable property on the stream above, including the Brattle saw-mill, also erected a shop for carding wool and a grist-mill, which served the public in their respective ways until supplanted by other and more important interests, some forty or fifty years ago.

In or about the year 1810 Nathan Corey, of Bolton, bought the iron-works, or forge, as the establishment was called, with land attached thereto, and, at the lower end of the property, erected a factory for the manufacture of woolen goods. This business was carried on for several years, when the building, after remaining unoccupied for some time, was used for the production of chair stock and other purposes connected with the chair manufacture. An oil-mill, erected by Ebenezer Jones, once stood on the north branch of the stream running north of the central village, near where the highway leading to Mr. Albert Howard's leaves the old couiftyroad to Ashburnham. Mr. Silas Perry began cabinet-making in the west part of the central village about the year 1787, and was succeeded by Edward Kendall, Esq,, who was'clerk of the town for more than thirty years, and he, in turn, by his sons, Edward and George Kendall. A similar establishment was carried on by the Cutting Brothers for many years in the same village, and also one with water-power attachment by Mr. Ira Brooks in the extreme north part of the town. Mr. Joseph Minott acquired a somewhat wide reputation as maker of bass-viols. Several individuals followed the wheelwright's trade at different periods, as also that of the millwright. Harness-making was an industry of the town for a long series of years. Cardboards were produced in considerable quantities some seventy or eighty years ago. Combs were for awhile, at a later date, articles of manufacture. One distillery only, so far as is known, ever had a place on the territory, and this was not of long continuance. Happy had it been if the products of no other had ever crossed its boundaries.

Of the thirty-eight mill privileges which have been utilized within the borders of the town from the beginning, some fifteen have been wholly or chiefly employed in the production of lumber for building or other general purposes, and commanded in their day the service of a considerable number of men. But these have all been given up or made subservient to other interests hereafter to be noticed. Of the halfdozen grist-mills that have been erected to supply the needs of the community in that particular, only one remains, that of Mr. Eli Merriam, who has built up an extensive flour and grain business in connection with the production of meal. The building occupied by him was erected in 1856 by his father, Mr. Caleb S. Merriam, for a chair shop, but was subsequently changed to its present uses, and later passed over to the son, who has improved very much the facilities for operating in his line, and greatly extended his trade.

About the year 1845, Mr. Alfred Wyman, now of Worcester, commenced the manufacture of bread in the centre of the town, having erected a shop for the purpose and furnishe I it with the appliances commonly in use at the time. By careful and conscientious attention to his special work, the introduction of the most approved kinds of machinery, the employment of skilled workmen and the adoption of methods suggested to his inquiring mind by study and experience, he built up a business which has proved to be not only a great success in itself, but an important part of the industry of the place. He produced an article of general consumption which rose at once to almost universal favor, and was in great demand not only at home, but in all the surrounding country for a dozen or twenty miles away - in all localities indeed where the " Westminster Bread " was known. His several successors, by making improvements of their own and taking advantage of what has been gained to the art elsewhere, have been able to keep up the reputation of the goods manufactured and their labors have been crowned with almost unexceptional success. E. L. Burnham & Son are the present proprietors of the large and prosperous establishment.

Somewhere about forty years ago Mr. Franklin Wyman, brother of Alfred named above, having come into possession of most of the water-power located in what is now Wachusettville, began there the business of paper manufacturing. The undertaking proving successful, he enlarged these facilities in various particulars to meet the demands of increasing business until he built up one of the most prosperous establishments in the vicinity. Having continued for some years with satisfactory results, he sold out the entire property to other parties and retired in good degree from active life. But after some changes the plant and all its accessories came back to him, when he resumed the manufacture as before. After a fev/ years he retired again, giving up his business to his sons, one of whom subsequently withdrew, leaving it in the hands of the other, who is now prosecuting it advantageously on his own account. He employs about thirty men.

The principal manufac'.uring interest of the town at this present time, as for more than half a century past, is that of chair-making. At what date, where and by whom this industry was introduced to the attention of the community has not been definitely ascertained. Fifty or sixty years ago there was a considerable number of small chair shops scattered in different localities over the territory, the work being theu done wholly by hand. It was not long, however, before some twelve or fifteen factories with water-power attachment were erected, mainly for the purpose of getting out chair stock, though many of them were afterwards used for the manufacture of chairs. These flourished for a time with varying degrees of success, employing a large number of men, until the tendency to concentrate prevalent in later days gradually reduced their numbers to the verge of extinction, leaving in their place the more imposing establishments which now represent the industry in the community, and which it is proper to notice in their separate capacity and character.

In 1857 two of the older sons of the late Edmund Nichols, associating with themselves two other persons, bought the property where the extensive factory of the Nichols Brothers now stands and lands adjoining, and, after erecting a small shop and duly furnishing it, commenced operations in chair-making. They went on for some years making such additions and improvements as the growing enterprise demanded and their means would allow. After several changes the entire property passed into the hands of Charles and Marcus M. Nichols, the youngest sons of the said Edmond Nichols, who are still in possession and doing a large and successful business. They were burned out in 1881, but immediately rebuilt larger than before, to meet the increasing demand for their goods. By their enterprise and thrift they contribute largely to the life and prosperity of the town. They have a small shop in a lumber region in Princeton, which is an adjunct to their main factory and employ, in all, about seventy-five men.

Mr. Artemas Merriam and his brother-in-law, Mr. George Holden, began chair-making in what is now South Westminster in 1848. An old cooper shop somewhat enlarged and a very small water-power furnished them a starting-point for what has proved t,o be a large and important undertaking. A new shop, with a steam-engine, became a necessity in 1853. Four years later another enlargement of both room and power took place. Business increased and new facilities were introduced. In .1858 Joel Merriam, brother of Artemas, came into the firm. All went on well until 1869, when the factory and its contents were destroyed by fire. Mr. Daniel C. Miles was then admitted to the partnership and a new factory was at once erected, furnished and put into operation. Early in 187H Mr. Miles retired, and before midsummer both Joel Merriam and George Holden died. Since that time Mr. Artemas Merriam lias been sole owner and manager. Increasing prosperity has attended the establishment, its capacity for business having doubled under the present administration. Seventy-five men are employed and a business is done of from sixty to eighty thousand dollars a year.

Mr. Franlflin Lombard came to Westminster in 1839, and located in the north part of the town, near the Forbush Hotel. Purchasing a chair-shop and saw-mill, he began to get out chair-stock, but gradually worked into the manufacture of cliairs, wliich he has continued to the present date. He has done a moderate business with satisfactory results and has the honor of running the oldest ciiair-making establishment in town.

Of the number of persons engaged in trade in Westminster since the beginning, it is impossible to speak with assurance. Stores for miscellaneous traffic have, at different times, been opened at no less than thirteen dilierent localities, though several of them were in operation but a short period. For fifty years three in the central village and one temporarily in Wachusettville have been sufBcent to supply the needs of the community, the larger places near by attracting considerable custom from the general public There are fourteen hotel sites within the town's boundaries, only one of which, however, has been used as a public-house for a quarter of a century. This is the old stand at the Centre, now under the efficient management of Mr. Emerson N. Goddard.

At the head of a line of twenty-five physicians who have practiced in the town stands Dr. Jeremiah Everett, a descendant of Richard Everett, of Dedham, the common ancestor of a family of wide and honorable repute in the State and nation. The first lawyer in the place was Solomon Strong, from Athol, afterward Judge Strong, of Leominster, who was also a member of Congress. His successor was Alexander Dustin, who traced his descent from the celebrated Hannah Dustin, of Indian warfare memorv. For thirty years the town lias been without a member of the legal profession.

Chapter Cxliv

Education. - Nothing seems to have been done for the public instruction of the children of Narragansett No. 2 before its incorporation as the district of Westminster. Several attempts were made to establish schools, but they proved ineffectual. The principal reason of this was, no doubt, that for twenty or more years after the settlement of the township there were very few children in it of a school-going age, and they were so widely scattered as to render it difficult, if not impossible, to bring them together for any common purpose, and hence whatever instruction was given to those needing it in those days was given in the home, probably by the parents or older members of the household. The first effective action of the citizens upon this subject was taken December 24, 1759, when they " voted that they will have a Reading and Riting School for three months in the middle of the town," and also " that £0 (twenty dollars) be assessed and levied on the inhabitants of the District of Westminster for the use of the Schoole in s'' District." In March, 17G1, £8 (twenty-six dollars) was appropriated for the same purpose. In January, 17G2, the same amount was granted, and, instead of having a single school in the middle of the town, it was voted " to have a moving school," and " that the school be kept at Mr. Nathan Parker's house, and Mr. Philip Bemis's, and at Capt. Daniel Hoar's and at Lieut. Thomas Stearns'," "an equal part of the time at each place." The appropriations increased from year to year, slowly, and the schools continued to be " kept " in different localities at private houses. In 1765 the District was fined for not maintaining schools, as required by the statutes of the Province ; hence in 17G6 it was, among other things, voted "to keep a school five mouths in the middle of the town according to law." At the same time it was also voted " to build one school-house and to build it at the pound," - that is, near the Fenno corner, opposite where the barn of Hobart Raymond now stands. The site was afterward changed " to the Northeast corner of the Meeting-house lot," and it was accordingly erected there, and remained till within the memory of some now living. October 15, 1767, the district voted "to keep school in the School-House till the first of March next." At the same meeting the citizens "allowed Abagail Whitney £1 3». ip. for keeping school eight weeks, lacking four days." About the same time Moses Stearns was paid £1 18s. Ip. " for keeping school." In the treasurer's records is the following item: "Feb. y<= 1, 1768, Payed two pounds eight shillings for Mr. Samuel Hoar keeping school hear." This Samuel Hoar was the grandfather of Senator Hoar, and a son of John Hoar, one of the early proprietors of the township and a sometime resident within its borders.

In 1768 the District was divided into four squadrons for promoting educational interests, and in 1772 a re-division was made whereby five "squadrons" were established, to wit: one at the Centre and one at each of the four parts of the outlying territory, indicated by the four cardinal points of the compass. During the same year houses were ordered to be erected in these outlying squadrons, and the order was duly executed. The five school-houses accom- modated the greater part of the population, hut a few families in the extreme north and a few in the extreme west part of the District being still far distant from any school building, were allowed for some years to draw their proportion of the school money and expend it as they saw fit. Various redistrictings of the town took place from time to time as the increase of the scholars and the general convenience seemed to require, until there were twelve in number in 1848, when they reached their maximum.

Up to the year 1806 the schools of the town had been under the charge of no special superintending committee, only as the Constitution of the State made it the duty of the ministers of religion to visit them from time to time and exercise advisory power over them in the interest of good morals and the general welfare. The selectmen and prudential committee of each district together managed the more external affairs pertaining to their operation. But a law had been passed by the Legislature requiring towns to elect annually a committee of inspection for the public schools, and they were first chosen in the year mentioned. In 1871 the town purchased the old academy building on the westerly brow of Meetinghouse Hill, in which the older children had enjoyed the privileges of a select school for a number of years, and fitted it up for high school purposes, to which it was afterward devoted as a part of the equipment of the public school system until it was burned, in the early part of 1888. The schools of Westminster have always maintained a good standing in the general community, and have sent a creditable number of those receiving their earlier tuition in them to higher institutions of learning and to useful and honorable callings and positions in life.

The Westminster Academy was established in 1829, when the structure just referred to was erected and furnished with facilities for a more advanced and wider range of studies than was at that date supplied by the common schools. It had a successful run for some thirty years, being especially prosperous during the decade of 1840-50, and was a valuable accessory to the cause of education in the town and vicinity. Owing to the increase of high schools in neighboring towns, interest in it after a time declined, and it was finally given up, the building being dis. posed of as just now stated. A reunion of its old students was held in the summer of 1884, when over six hundred of them gathered from all parts of the country to exchange kindly greetings, indulge in reminiscences, revive old associations beneath the

A Social Library was established in Westminster near the close of the last century, which had a wide patronage, and exerted a healthy intellectual and moral influence upon the community for more than a generation. After it was abandoned, and its books were sold, other similar means of culture were instituted, with more or less successful results. At length a collection of books, purchased by the Farmers' Club, and one belonging to a Young People's Literary Society, were united to form the nucleus and foundation for a Free Public Library, which has been in existence for some years, and is a means of great usefulness. It contains a choice selection of the best literature of the times, is well patronized and promises well for coming years. There are in it about 2500 volumes, and the yearly circulation is some 5000 volumes. Mrs. S. E. Warner is the accomplished and eflncient librarian.

Religion. - One of the first things to engage the attention of the proprietors of Narragansett No. 2 after the actual settlement within its borders, as required by the original grant of the Provincial Legislature, was the erection of a suitable house of worship and the employment of an Orthodox minister of the Gospel, to lead in its service and have charge of the spiritual interests of the people. On the 23d of November, 1737, less than nine months subsequent to the coming of Fairbanks Moor and Joseph Holden to the place, when only fifteen persons were residents there, the proprietors voted " to proceed as soon as they conveniently can to build a Meeting- House," and "to have it suitable for occupancy June 1, 1739.'' At the same meeting a committee was chosen to carry these votes into effiect. In September, 1738, when there were but three families on the territory, £30 were appropriated "to secure some suitable person to preach the Gospel to the 1st of June next." Later an equal sum was added, and £60 ($200) a year, was appropriated thereafter till a minister was permanently settled. On the 6th of June, 1738, the meeting-house, which had been enclosed and shingled, was formally dedicated to God. It was a plain structure, forty-five feet long and thirty-five wide, with twenty feet posts, having no architectural or other ornamentation whatever. It was located on Meeting-house Hill, on the north side of the street, a little eastward of the centre of the plateau. On the 4th of August, 1742, the proprietors extended a call to Mr. Elisha Marsh, of Cambridge, a native of Hadley, Mass., and a recent graduate of the college, to become minister of the township. He accepted, and was ordained on the 20th of October. At the close of the services a church was instituted, with Joseph Holden and Joseph Miller deacons. Mr. Marsh was to have £300 old tenor for a settlement, a house-lot of sixty acres and a salary of £45 ($150) annually. The relation between

Mr. Marsh and the people did not prove to be a very harmonious and happy one. He was troubled about their payment of his salary. They were troubled about the quality of his preaching. They were slack and inconstant in meeting their obligations. He was un-Orthodox and latitudinarian in matters of doctrine. After fifteen years, during most of which time there was friction and mutual discontent breaking out in two or three lawsuits, the connection was dissolved, to the relief, no doubt, of both parties.

The successor of Mr. Marsh was Rev. Asaph Rice, a returned Oneida Indian missionary, who was installed, after an interregnum in the pastorate of about seven years, October 16, 1765. The distracted state of the church and township, caused by the troubles that existed between Mr. Marsh and the people, rendered it difficult to obtain a new minister until time had softened somewhat the existing asperities and healed the alienations that had been created between the members of the church and congregation. Mr. Rice proved to be a satisfactory pastor and a worthy and highly-esteemed citizen. He remained in his office, faithfully discharging its duties, till obliged to suspend them by failing health, which resulted in his death, in March, 1816. He was in active service nearly fifty years.

During the ministry of Mr. Rice the meetinghouse, built by the proprietors in 1738, becoming dilapidated and insufficient to accommodate the increasing population of the town, was superseded by a new one, located a little to the west of the one whose place it was to fill. The new structure was sixty feet long by forty-five wide, in the usual rectangular form, with fourteen feet porches at the two ends. It was two stories in height, with ample galleries, large square pews, after the fashion of the times, and a high pulpit, over which hung a large sounding-board, always a wonder to the youthful mind. The work of building was done in 1788, and the dedication took place January 1, 1789. In 1807 a belfry was erected, at the west end of the house, of respectable proportions and reasonable height, adding much to the external comeliness of the structure, and giving to it a more imposing, as well as a more ecclesiastical, appearance. In 1820 this house of worship passed from the ownership of the town to that of the First Congregational Society, by whom it was occupied till the erection of their present neat and commodious edifice on Main Street in 1837, soon after which it was taken down.

The Rev. Cyrus Mann was installed as colleague of Rev. Mr. Rice in 1815, and continued his labors till 1841, when he gave place to Rev. Stephen S. Smith. For five years Mr. Mann was minister of the town, but afterward of the First Congregational Church and Society, which was organized at the time of the abandonment of the control of religious affairs by the citizens-at-large and the adoption of the voluntary system in 1820. Since Mr. Mann there have been ten pastors, settled and acting, of this church and society, including the present incumbent. Rev. Charles M. Palmer. The changed condition of things in regard to the tenure of the ministerial office is shown by the fact that three pastorates filled up the almost entire period of the first hundred years of the town's history, while there have been ten during the past fortyeight years.

About the year 1812 a number of individuals, mostly in the northern part of the town, interested in the doctrines and polity of the Methodist denomination, united with others in adjoining towns in the formation of a society representing that form of Christian faith. A small house of worship was erected on the road to South Ashburnham, near the town line, in 1817, which stood till 1832, when it was sold, the proceeds going into a newchurch at Ashburnham Centre, where the Westminster Methodi.sts have since worshipped. It does not appear that any regular Methodist minister was ever stationed in the place, the pulpit being supplied by itinerant clergyman and local lay preachers.

In 1816 a society of Universal Restorationists was established, although they had no regular minister and no house of worship for some years. They built a church on the North Common, a mile and a half from the Centre, in 1820, and Rev. Levi Briggs was installed as pastor two years later. He was succeeded by Rev. Charles Hudson in 1824, who continued in the ministerial office till 1842, when he exchanged the clerical for political life. The meeting-house of this society was moved to the central village in 1835. Since the retirement of Mr. Hudson fourteen ministers have been regularly employed in rendering pastoral service to this society and the church connected with it, though there have been intervals when no religious service has been maintained.

A Baptist Society was organized in 1827 and a church of a corresponding faith three years afterward. A plain brick meeting-house was erected in 1829, being located, for obvious reasons, on a rise of land near the foot of the pond. In 1863 this building was abandoned, and the present more conveniently located and attractive one in the Centre took its place. , Rev. Appleton Morse was the first minister, serving in both Westminster and [Princeton at the same time. He has had fourteen successors, the Rev. Lyman Partridge being now the pastor.

During the years 1842 and 1843 considerable interest was awakened among certain classes of the population in the views promulgated by one William Miller respecting what was denominated the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the World, which was represented as being then near at hand. Meetings were held ; converts were made ; much excitement prevailed, and for a brief period more religious zeal and activity seemed to be manifested in connection with the acceptance and promulgation of those views than in any other direction. But time passed on; the world still kept up its accustomed movements, showing no signs of age or decay; the excitement died out, and the religious concerns of the community received due care and consideration by the established societies and churches, as before, and 80 continue to this day.

Philanthropy and Reform. - While the people of Westminster have given due consideration to the general interests of the community, and have been willing and ready to foster and promote whatever in the ordinary trend of things seemed calculated to advance the common welfare and happiness, they have not been indifferent to the great reform movements which have characterized the last fifty years of American life, and to those causes inaugurated and carried forward either for the purpose of resisting and overthrowing some of the existing evils of society or of ameliorating the condition, in some positive, effectual way, of their needy, unfortunate and suffering fellow-men. The cry of outraged, sorrowing humanity has not been sounded among them in vain. When the appeal of the Southern bondman went forth through the land, there was a goodly number, representing both the radical and conservative types of anti-slavery activity, who boldly and openly " stood up and were counted " on the side of those who sought to circumvent the designs of the oppressor and secure the enfranchisement of the oppressed. And so it has been in respect to the mighty evil of intemperance. Suffering as the town has done with all others by reason of this devastating scourge, yet have its ravages and threatenings been met with an earnest and vigorous opposition, expressed both in personal influence and by organized efforts which have been productive of striking and gratifying results. The use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is essentially abandoned among all the better classes of its population, and the traffic in .such liquors, which in bygone times brought so much death and woe into the community, has, for many years, been placed under the ban of public opinion by the vote of the citizens, and thereby also under the ban of the statutes of the Commonwealth. It has been, and still is, the same proportionately with other good causes and enterprises having in their keeping the improvement and progress of mankind.

Care of the Poor. - The town under review has never been indiflerent to the condition and righteous claims of the unfortunate and needy among its population. Early in its corporate history Jonas Winship and others were paid for keeping Hannah Mead and supplyin; her with the necessaries of life, at the rate of " three shillings per week when she was well, and six shillings when she was ill." At the annual March meeting in 1765 twenty pounds were voted for the support of the poor, the first appropriation made for this purpose. Agreeably to both provincial and State law, most new-comers were " warned out" or "cautioned," as the process was sometimes called, whereby the persons involved were cut off from all claims upon the town for support or help, provided they should ever become dependent or destitute. For many years the public poor were let out for keeping and care to the lowest bidder, but subsequently the selectmen or overseers of the poor were authorized to arrange for their proper sustenance in a more reasonable. Christian way. In 1803 an effort was made to induce the town to purchase a farm, with suitable buildings and furnisfhings for the care of tlie poor, but it failed, as did several others in succeeding years. In 1829, however, a farm was procured, and properly fitted up at an expense of about three thousand five hundred dollars. It was on Beach Hill, two miles from the central village. After using it for about forty years it was exchanged for the Abner Whitney place, near the North Common, where ample accommodations have since been provided for the unfortunate class of people under notice, and where every reasonable provision is made for their need, their comfort and their happiness.

REL.4.TI0N.S to the REVOLUTION. - The founders and early residents of the town of Westminster were thoroughly imbued with the spirit that animated the New England fathers in coming to these shores, and fully established in those principles of civil and religious liberty upon which they sought to build the new civilization that was to realize to them their long-cherished dream. They were jealous of their inborn rights, and watched with tireless eye and resolute heart the encroachments of the mother-country upon her dependent colonies from the beginning. At the very first indications of trouble between the two they planted themselves squarely in opposition to all attempts of the parent government to impose unjust and oppressive burdens upon its subjects this side of the sea. And they were prepared, when the proper time came, to join with Boston and other towns in protesting against, and finally in openly resisting the tyrannical measures by which England undertook to enforce her demands against those who, for freedom's sake and for conscience' sake, had established themselves at great sacrifice and peril in the new world. The chapter in the " History of Westminster," covering the entire Revolutionary period, including the preliminary steps leading thereto, is rich in incident and accomplishment, and exceedingly interesting. Only a few facts detailed from it can be given in this review. When Great Britain laid heavy imposts on goods sent to this country for consumption, Westminster, with other towns, voted not to use imported articles any further than was absolutely necessary, and to encourage, in every possible way, home industry and hame manufactures. When the Provincial Governor dissolved the General Court because it would not co-operate with the British ministry in the execution of unjust enactments, but sought to parry the blow with which the Crown would smite the colonists by counter-legislation, the inhabitants of Westminster chose its leading citizen to represent it in a convention called by Samuel Adams, James Otis, Joseph Warren and others, to meet in Faneuil Hall to consider and take action with reference to the usurpation. This was in 1768. In 1772 a Committee of Correspondence was chosen to encourage and support the town of Boston and the popular branch of the Legislature in their conflict with the royal Governor Hutchinson, whose rule in the interests of the King and his court was most obnoxious to the patriotic and liberty-loving portion of the people. As the ditficulties deepened and the probability of an open rupture between England and the colonies increased, the citizens of the town almost without exception signed a compact, still preserved, pledging their fortunes and their lives to the maintenance of the cause of the colonies against the crown. When Governor Gage cancelled the order convening the General Court, and refused to issue a new one, Westminster was represented in the House of Representatives, which met in spite of the Governor's action, and which resolved itself into a Provincial Congress, claiming to act, not in the name of the Crown and Court of England, but in the name of the people, whose agents they were, thereby inaugurating tlie new era in American history. Wlien tlie Provincial Congress recommended the enrollment of twelve thousand soldiers as minute-men, ready to respond without delay when in any possible emergency a call might be made for their service, the inhabitants of the town immediately formed three companies in accordance therewith. And these men, nearly a hundred and twenty in number, under their respective captains, Elisha Jackson, John Estabrook, and John Miles, upon hearing of the battles of Concord and Lexington, April 19, )775, marched at once to Cambridge to engage in any service where they might be needed. No further outbreak occurring, they were discharged at the expiration of seven days, though twenty-seven of the men enlisted immediately for further duty, and were probably among the reserve forces at the battle of Bunker Hill. Subsequently a company of fifty-four men was raised by Captain Bemis, and took part in the siege of Boston. When tlie war was fully inaugurated and the people saw the nature and magnitude of the conflict, the citizens of Westminster rallied, witli great courage and unanimity, to the support of the cause of the Colonies. For a time there were voluntary enlistments sufficient to meet the exigencies of the case, and when the town was called upon to act in its corporate capacity it did so with promptness, liberality and patriotic devotion. Westminster men were to be found in nearly every campaign of the war and in many of its important battles. By a careful and extensive search through the military rolls preserved at the State House in Boston and elsewhere, it appears that during the entire struggle two hundred and four Westminster men enlisted in the service, while sixty-two served as minute-men and went to Cambridge at the time of the Concord and Lexington alarm, making two hundred and sixty-six men in all who were engaged in the Revolution - a goodly proportion of the inhabitants, when it is remembered that the entire population of the town at the time was only about eight hundred. Besides these, to make out a certain quota at a certain date, the town hired eight men, which would make her full representation in the conflict two hundred and seventy-four men. Two of the citizens of the place rose to the oflice of colonel - -John Rand, who had command of a regiment in New York at the time of Burgoyne's invasion, and Nicholas Dike, who was stationed with the men under him at Dorchester Heights, for the I)rotection of the city of Boston.

During the uncertain period which followed the Revolution, when the responsibility of laying the foundations and shaping the features of a new government for the emancipated Colonies weighed heavily upon the patriotic mind and heart, and taxed to the utmost the wisdom, the patience and the statesmanship of the leaders in political affairs, the people of Westminster evinced not only a sublime devotion to the truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, and an enthusiastic spirit of selfsacrifice for the public welfare, but a sagacity and practical judgment in the consideration of questions of public policy that seems truly surprising. They were ready to do their full share to aid in establishing the National Government upon a sound and permanent basis ; and when the first draft of the Federal Constitution was submitted to them for consideration they discussed its several features with an understanding of fundamental principles, a clearness of political vision and a force of argument which must have contributed in due degree to the final and satisfactory results which were at length achieved in this regard. All honor to the fathers for their wisdom, constancy and loyalty in " the times tliat tried men's souls."

In the Rebelliok. - When the slave power, in order to maintain its supremacy in the national councils and to perpetuate its cherished system of injustice and oppression in the land, inaugurated the reign of civil war, the town, true to its ancient.record of loyalty to the principles of liberty and to the national banner, rose to meet the emergency with commendable alacrity and zeal. Its citizens proved that " as were the sires so were the sons," and that they believed that what their fathers had secured of freedom and independence in the former days at immense cost of blood and treasure was worthy of being preserved at still further cost, and to its preservation they were ready to pledge " their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." On the 29th day of April, 1861, in response to the call of President Lincoln for seventy-five thousand men to suppress the insurrection which had arisen in the Southern

States, issued two weeks before, the town, at a meeting convened for the purpose of considering what it would do for the defence of the country, voted to raise a company of volunteers and uniform them for the public service and also pay each man a dollar a day in addition to what he received from the government. At the same meeting money was appropriated wherewith to make good the promise which those votes implied. This is but a specimen of the town's action in this behalf while the conflict lasted. It sent more than a hundred and thirty of its sons into the conflict, encouraging and supporting them with hearty financial and moral backing to the last. Of these, thirty-four never returned, some being slain in battle, some dying of wounds or of disease contracted in the service and several of starvation and ill-treatment while incarcerated as prisoners of war in Libby Prison and Andersonville. A granite monument, with marble tablets, on which the names of these departed heroes are inscribed, attached to the four sides of its main shaft, occupying a conspicuous position in the central village, commemorates their patriotic services and sacrifices. In addition to those who were properly enlisted as Westminster soldiers, there were many others, natives or former residents of the town, who, though joining the ranks elsewhere, were yet in a measure proper representatives of its loyalty and heroism in the great crisis of the Kepublic. And it is but fitting that mention be triade in this connection of one son of Westminster, who, moved by patriotic enthusiasm, enlisted in the service at an early period of the war and rose rapidly through the various grades of promotion until he attained the high position and distinguished honor of Major-General of the Federal Army. Since the termination of hostilities Gen. Nelson A. Miles has honored himself and his native town by displaying in his intercourse with and treatment of the Indian wards of the nation as a military commander, a degree of common sense, practical wisdom and Christian principle rarely found among his contemporaries, for which he deserves the heartfelt gratitude of every generous, patriotic, high-minded citizen of the Kepublic and friend of humanity.

The military spirit has prevailed somewhat extensively in the town independently of those special manifestations displayed in connection with the great crises in the history of the country to which reference has been made. As early as 17G1 a company of soldiery had been organized, of which Nicholas Dike was commissioned captain and Benjamin Butterfield lieutenant. Ten years later there were two such companies - one in the north part, with John Rand, captain, and one in the south part under the command of Captain Nathan Whitney. The territory seems to have been divided into two military districts by the first county road from Lancaster to Athol, which division was practically continued some years into the present century, the companies enlisting from the different sides of that road taking the name of the North and South Companies respectively. In the year 1816 the North Company, which had belonged to the infantry, was reorganized as a rifle company and continued in that capacity for some twenty five years. It attained a high standing in military circles, and was the pride of those people in town interested in the profession of arms. After the formation of the Rifle Company the South Company disbanded and thenceforward the former had the whole field, to itself. Subsequently to the dissolution of that organization an infantry company called the Westminster Guards was chartered, but it had only a brief existence. In 1868 the " Wachusett Rifles'' was enrolled as a part of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia and continued for ten years, being thrown out when the State forces were reduced in 1878. A company of cavalry, composed of men from Westminster and neighboring towns, existed for many years after the Revolution.