Worcester City (part 10 of 58)

Lancaster has ever been noted for the social refinement and literary tastes of its people. The list of college graduates who were natives of the town, or here resident at graduation, as given below, numbers sixty, of which forty-four were alumni of Harvard College. Its clergymen have almost invariably been college-bred. Among very numerous resident and native authors may be mentioned : Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Rev. John Mellen and his sons (John and Prentiss), Samuel Stearns, LL.D., Joseph Willard, Esq., Capt. Richard J. (Ueveland and his sous (Henry Russell and Horace W. S.), Brig.-Gen. Henry Whiting, William Shaler, Hannah Flagg Gould, Mrs. Caroline Lee (Whiting) Hentz, Rufus Dawes, Hon. James Gordon Carter, Edmund II. Sears, S.T.D., Hubbard Winslow, D.D., Mrs. Mary G. (Chandler) Ware, Prof William Russell, Mrs. Julia A. (Fletcher) Carney, Louise M. Thurston, Mrs. Clara W. (Thurston) Fry, Charlotte M. Packard, Rev. Abijah P. Marvin.

The physicians have been : Mary Whitcomb; Daniel Greenleaf, died 1785, aged 82 ; Jolin Dunsmoor, died 1747, aged 45; Stanton Prentice, died 1709, aged 58; Phinehas Phdps, dieil 1770, aged 37; Enoch Dole, killed 1770, aged 27 ; William Dunsmoor, died 1784, aged 50; Josiah Wilder, died 1788, aged 45; Josiah

The United States Coast Survey locates "Lancaster Church" in 42° 27' 19.98" north latitude, and 71° 40' 24.27'' longitude west of Greenwich. The elevation above the sea level of the grounds about this church is about three hundred and eight feet.

Chapter Vii By Hon. Hicnry S. Nourse

ALTiiouciii Clinton received its name and began its corporate existence so recently as March, 1850, it being the youngest town save one in Worcester County, nearly two hundred years before that date white men were tilling its soil, and bad impressed into their service some part of its valuable waterpower. Its territory, in area only four thousand nine hundred and seven acres, was included in the eighty square miles purchased from Sagamore Sholan by Thomas King, of Watcrtown, in 1642, and confirmed to the Nashaway Company as a township, under the name of Lancaster, in 1653.

The earliest settlers in this river valley were at first clustered along the eastern slope of George Hill and upon the Neck north of the meeting of the two streams which form the Nashua. I5nt for the existence of the falls on the South Meadow Brook, probably neither the pioneers nor their successors would, for many years, have sought homes in that more southerly j)ortion of the town's grant, which now is traversed by numerous streets thickly lined with the residences and marts of ten thousand busy people ; for most of this region, now Clinton, was clad with pine forest ; its numerous hills, from their steepness or the shallowness of the soil, were not well adapted for tillage ; and along the river were no extensive intervales, no broad meadows of natural grass, such as existed on the North Branch and main river, to invite the husbandmen. But the sagacious and enterprising leader of the Nashaway planters, John Prescott, had noted the little cascade where the brook leaped down over the ledge, and recognized it as the most easily available site in the township for a mill.

There was no English settlement nearer than those east of the Sudbury River, and even the carrying of a grist to be ground involved a tedious horseback ride of about twenty miles and back over the devious Indian trail and the crossing of the always treacherous Sudbury marsh. The rude processes of the savages or the laborious use of a hand-rjuern were often resorted to in preparing grain for bread in preference to so dreary a day's journey. A mill was a prime necessity to the settlers, and scarcely had the Colonial Government given formal recognition to the town which Prescott had founded, than, with his usual restless energy, he entered upon the task of compelling the wild South Meadow Brook to aid in the work of civilization. Mills run by water-power were yet rare in New England. The first built was hardly twenty years old, and the skilled mill-wright of Charlestown had scarcely a competitor in his art. Pi'escott's mill-dam w.is the prophecy of the prosperous manufacturing town whose special products have in recent years won a world-wide repute, and with his plucky enterprise the history of Clinton appropriately begins.

By November 20, 1653, Prescott's plans for the mill were so far perfected that he was ready to enter into an agreement with his fellow-townsmen for its erection. This agreement is found duly recorded in the third volume of the Middlesex County registry as follows :

Know all men by tlieso presonis tliat I ,Tohn Prescott blackesmith, hatli Covenanted and barj;iiin<'d with .Ino. ffovinell of Charlestowne for ttie building of a ('urnii mill, witliin liir said Tuwmi uf Lanchasttr. This wilnosseth (hat wee the Tnliabitants of I.atn baster for bis encouragement in so good a worke for the bohoofo of onr Towne, vpon condition that the said intended worke by him or bis aseignes be linlsbed, do freely and fully giue grant, enfeoffe, A contirme vnto the sjiid John Prescott, thirty acres <if intervale Land lying on the nurlh riuer, lying north west of Henry Kerly and ten acres of Land adjoyneing to the mill : and forty acres of Land on the South ejist of the mill brooUe, lying between the mill brooke and Nashawjiy Kiucr in such place as the said .lolin Prescott shall choose with all the priuiledgcs and ai>purtenances thereto ajiperteyning. To bane and to bold the said land and eurie ])arcell thereof to the said John Prescott his heyeres and assignes for ener, to his and their only projjiier vso and behoofo. Also wee do coueuant & promise ti) lend the said John Prescott fine pound, in current money one yeare for the buying of Irons for the mill. And also wee do coueuant and grant to and with the said John Prescott liis beyres and assignes that the said mill, with all the aboue named Land thereto apperteyneing shall bo freed from all common cliar{;es for seauen yeares lu'Xt ensueing, after the first finishing and setting tlie said null to worke. In witnes whereof wee bane herevnto put our hands this liO'li day of the 9""> In the yeare of onr Lord God one thousand six hundred fifty and three, Subscribeil names

Clinton

Josei)li Willard, Esq., upon the authority of a direct descendant of John Prescott, states that the first mill-stone was brought from England. Some doubt is thrown upon this assertion by the fact that the alleged pieces of it, which have lain not far from the dam until modern times, are of a sienitic rock not found in England, but abundant enough in Massachusetts. The first grist was ground in the mill May 23, 1G54.

Prescott probably at ouce removed from his home upon George Hill to a new house built on the slope overlooking the mill. This was the first dwelling above the grade of an Indian wigwam within the present bounds of Clinton. Its exact location was plaiTily marked les* than fifty years ago by a considerable depression, showing where the cellar had been, and by a flowing spring near, water from which was conveyed in a conduit of bored logs to the residence of a later generation of the Prescotts, standing lower upon the hillside. The Lancaster historian, before named, in l.S2(! noted the site as " about thirty rods southeast from Poignand and Plant's factory." It is better defined now as south from the intersection of High and Water Streets, upon the northerly half o( the Otterson lot, Number 71 High Street, and about one hundred and fifty feet from the front line of the lot.

The original building must have been of logs or squared timber, and was fortified doubtless with flankers and palisades; for it appears in early records as " Prescott's garrison" and, although having never more than five or six adult defenders, it successfully resisted fierce assaults made u])on it by a large body of Indians. Prescott's will, written in 1G73, proves that it was then commodious enough to accommodate two families, and had adjacent out-housing for cattle and an apple orchard. The dam probably occupied precisely the same position as that of Frost & Howard's, and the little grist mill stood somewhat lower on the brook than the extensive manufactory now utilizing its water-power.

Four years went by, years in which Prescott was busied not only at mill and anvil, but in various offices for the town. His skill and judgment, nu)rcover, had gained such repute that he was chosen by the colonial authorities to serve on committees to lay out county roads and build important bridges, and even to survey special land grants. Emboldened by the success of his corn-mill and by growing prosperity, he determined upon another enterprise of the greatest interest to the community - the building of a saw-mill. His neighbors were again called upon to further the accomplishment of his purpose by substantial gift of land and temporary exemption from taxation.

Kuow all men by tlieso presents that for as mnch as the Inh.abitants of Lanchaster, or the most part of them being gatlierod together on a trayneing day, the IS"' of the 9"' mo, 1058, a motion was made liy .Ino. Prescott blacllesmitli of the same towne, about the setting vp of a saw mill for the good of the Towne, and yt lie tlie sjiid .Ino. Prescott, would by the help of God set vp the saw mill, and to supply the said Inhabitants with boords and other sawne worke, as is afforded at other saw mills in the contrey. In case the Towne would giue, grant and eontirme vnto the said John Prescott a certeine tract of Land, lying Eastward of his water mill, be it more or less, bounded by the riuer east, the mill west, the stake of the mill laml and the east end of a ledge of Iron Stone Itocks southards, ami forty acres of his owne land north, the said land to be to him his heyrea and assigues for enei-, and al! the said land and curie part thereof to be rate free vntill it be improned, or any pi of it, and that his saws and saw mill shouhi be free from any rates by the Towne, therefore know ye that the ptyes abouesaid did mutually agree and consent eadi with tho other concerning the aforementioned propositions !i« followeth :

Tho Towne lui their part did giue, grant and conlirmo vnto the said lolin Prescott his heyres and assignes for ener, all tile aforeiucntioned tract of laLid butted and bounded jis afoiosaid, to be to hiiii bis lieyres .indtissigues for ener with all the priiiilcdges iiiid appurtenances thereon, atnl thereunto belonging to be to his and their owne proppor vse and heboofe as aforesaid, and the land and eurie part of it to be free from all rates vntil it or any part of it be improued, and also his ssiw, Siiwes ,nid saw-ndll to be free from all towne rates, or minister's rates, proiiided the aforementioned worke be tinisbed and eompleated as abouesaid for the good of the towne in some convenient time after this present contract, covenant and agieeiuent.

And the said John Prescott did and doth by these presents byud himself, his beyrcs and assigues to set vp a saw-mill as aforesaid within the bounds of the aforesiiid Towm\ and to supply the Towne with boords ami other sawue worke Jis aforesaid and truly and faithfully to peiforme futill. iind accomplish, all the aforementioned premisses for the good of the Towne as aforesaid.

Therefore the Selectmen concievilig this saw-mill to bo of great vse to the Towne, and the after good of tho place, Ilaue and do hereby act to rattifie and confirmo all the aforementioned acts, covemmts, gifts, grants and immunilyes, in respect of rates, and what ener is aforcmentituied, on their own* part, and in behalfe of the Towne, and to the true performance hereof, both partyes hane and do bynd tbeliiselves by subscribing their hands, this twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand si.\ livindred ami lilty-nim-.

The township proprietors also granted Prescott leave to cut pines upon any common land to supply his saw-mill. In his will the corn-mill is described as "the lower mill," and a second house and barn are bequeathed to his son .John as appertaining to the saw-mill. It seems certain, therefore, that the first saw-mil! had a dam of its own, and that it was probably sitiuited near where a dam existed early in the present century, a short distance below that of the Bigelow Carpet Company. Somewhere near stood the second house built in this region.

It is possible that about this time I'rescott also made some attempt to manufacture iron from bog ore. In 1657 certain inhabitants of Lancaster and Concord, John Prescott being one, upon petition, oltaiued colonial license to erect iron works in those towns. The forge at Concord was soon after established and for many years had a meagre success. No mention is found in any records of similar works at Lancaster earlier than 1748, when John Prescott, third of the name, in deeds to his son John, speaks of the " forge " and an '' iron mine." The former was upon South Meadow Brook, just below the dam of the Bigelow

Carpet Company. Mine Swamp Brook was so named because of the ore dug in its neijiliborhood for use at this forge. Wlietlier this experimental bloomery was an adventure of the tirst, second or third John Prescott, the supply of ore was neither sufficient in quantity, rich enougli in metal, nor free enough from sulphur to give encouragement for iron manufacture.

Although Indian names remain attached to numerous localities in all the adjacent towns, not one survives in Clinton. Her three great ponds were very early given their present names, - " Clamshell " appearing in records of 1697, " Moss," or " Mossy," in 1702, and "Sandy " not much later. Not a word is found in the annals of the first proprietors that suggests the existence of Indian dwelling-places or planting-fields anywhere near I'rescott's Mills. Perhaps there were none permanently occupied after the coming thither of white men, nearer than Washacum, where the once powerful Nashaway tribe had then gathered its feeble remnant spared by small-pox and the relentless Mohawk warriors. In accordance with their nomadic habits, doubtless, families continued to pitch their wigwams at the fa'ls in the Nashua during the season when the salmon and other migratory fish were making their annual journey up that stream ; and to camp on the shores of the ponds at other seasons for the abundant food supply therein. The considerable <juantity and variety of atone implements found from time to time on the east side of Clamshell Pond indicates the location of an Indian settlement there at some remote period of the past, or of a much frequented camping-ground.

Soon after his coming into the hunting-grounds of the Nasliaway tribe, in ItUS, we find that Prescott had won the respect of the Indiana. This was doubtless largely owing to their need of his valuable craft as a maker of knives, arrow-heads, tomahawks and steel traps. But tradition ascribes it to his stature, giant strength, contempt of danger, skill with the gun, and other heroic attributes ; and especially to his possession of a corselet and helmet, supposed to render its owner invulnerable. Various stories ol his prowess and adventure are extant, wherein probably there lie germs of truth, but wrapped about with anachronistic or imaginative details supplied by the successive narrators. That he was U[)on terms of familiar intimacy with the Sachem Sholan is told by the records, and that his relations with Sachem Matthew and his warriors were also friendly is evinced by his possession of a house and farm at Washacum and his purchase of land adjoining the Indian fort there. When the machinations of Philip aroused a pitiless war of races throughout New England, however, Prescott's property was not spared.

On February 10, 167f), a picked force of warriors, at least four hundred in number, - Nashaways, Quabaugs, Nipnets and Narragansets, - under the leadership of Shoshanim, Muttaump, Monoco and Quanipun, fell upon Lancaster. Prescott's garrison was one of the five resolutely assaulted at daylight. It was heroically defended by the stalwart owner and his sons, aided, perhaps, by two or three soldiers, and the savages were finally repelled. Ei)hraim Sawyer, one of Prescott's grandsons, aged twenty-five years, was slain here in the fight. A young soldier, trom Watertow'n, of Cajitain Wad^worth's company, named Cieorge Harrington, was killed by the enemy a few days later in the same locality. Seventy-five years ago two graves were discernible in the grounds belonging to, and a little to the east of, the mill. These, perhaps, held the ashes of Sawyer and Harrington, though then called Indian graves. With the protection of the troops sent to the rescue, Prescott and his little band withflrew from their perilous situation to join the larger garrison of his son-in-law, Thomas Sawyer. The carnage at the Rowlandson garrison, and the destruction by fire of all the barns and unfortified houses in town, left the survivors so weak in numbers, so disheartened, and so etlectually stripped of all means of subsistence, that, even if there had been no rea.son to fear a renewal of attack by the bloodthirsty foe, the temporary abandonment of the place was unavoidable. Major Simon Willard, on March 26th, sent a troop of horsemen with carts to remove the inhabitants who had not already Hcd to the Bay towns, and for about three years only the millstone and the rusting irons by the dams on South Meadow Brook marked the site of Prescott's Mills.

In 1679, after the red warriors had perished in the flame of the wrath they had kindled, among the first to move to the re-settlement of the town were the Prescotts. The mills were rebuilt on the spot where the corn-mill had stood, and the eldest son, John, assumed their management, Jonas having a mill at Nonacoicus, and Jonathan becoming a resident of Concord. In December, 16S1, John Prescott, Sr., died, being about seventy-eight years of age. His eldest son became possessor of all the estate connected with the mills.

The lands granted by the Lancaster proprietors to the founder of the town for his public benefactions embraced much of the now densely inhabited part of Clinton, extending from a bound forty rods above the first dam down both sides of the brook to the river, while the eastern boundary of the tract was formed by the Nashua, from the brook's mouth to the ledge near the Lancaster Mills, formerly known as Rattlesnake Hill. This domain was largely extended westwardby thesecond John Prescott. A third and fourth John succeeded him in its ownership, and a fifth held the homestead, dying childless.

The first town way to Prescott's Mills was commonly known as the " mill-path," and was recorded in 1658 as " five rods wide from the Cuntrie highway to the mill." This is the main thoroughfare of the present day, between South Lancaster and Water Street. The original record of its location being lost, it was laid out anew in 1811, together with its exten- eion to Sandy Pond, varying in width from two and one-half to three rods wide. The people of Stow^ Marlborough, and even Sudbury, for many years had no mills more conveniently accessible than Prescott's, and the population of Lancaster, after the resettlement, grew most rapidly to the eastward of the Nashua. For all these patrons, the old mill-path was a roundabout road, and at a town-meeting in Lancaster, August 26, 1686, a proposition was entertained for another, the second town road laid out within Clinton lines. The petition was " for a way to Goodman Prescott's Corne-mill, to ly over the River at the Scar." Goodman Prescott " told the Town that if they would grant him about twenty acres of Land upon the Mill Brook lying above his own Land, for hisconvaniancy of preserveing water against a time of drought, he was willing the town should have a way to the mill threw his Land." A committee was appointed " to lay out a highway from the Scar to the mill, threw John Prescott's land," and he was recompensed by the grant desired, which is recorded as lying " on the Mill Brook, near to the South Meadow, bounded north and east by his own land, and south and southeast by common land."

In April, 1717, a town-meeting, upon petition of John Goas and Ihe report of a viewing committee, voted to change the location of the westerly end of this highway, so that it should " lye by the River, - Provided said way be kept four Rods wide from y' Scar bridge till it com to y" Hill from y"^ top of y' River bank, and after it amount said Hill to lye where it shall be most conveniant to y° Town, till it com to said Mill, said Goss to cleer said Rode when that Committy shall stake it out." April 24, 1733, John Goss conveyed to John Prescott eighty acres east of the Mill Brook, " a highway lying through s.iid Land from the bridge that is over the River, a little above the place called the Scarr." The mills had now many rivals, and the current of travel flowed in other directions. In May, 1742, the town voted to move the Scar bridge down the river "to the road that leads from Lieut. Sawyer's to Doctor Dunsmoor's'' - that is, to the crossing of the Nashua, now known as Carter's Mills bridge, where before this there was a fording-place only.

Few traces of the Scar road, though a noted public convenience for more than fifty years, can now be discerned. Close scrutiny reveals signs of the bridge abutments a few rods below the northern end of High Street, and of the raised roadway on the eastern bank of the river. Some time in the eighteenth century there were five or more dwellings located along this highway, of which two or three cellars on the part east of the Nashua are not yet obliterated ; and other similar relics of human habitation upon the west side have disappeared within the memory of the living.

But many years before the abandonment of this route by the Scar, another had probably come into use from the eastward. This, now known as Water

Street, was wholly in the land of the Prescotts and remained their private way until 1782, on April 1st of which year Lancaster accepted it as laid out two rods wide, "on condition that sd Town is not Burdened with the cost of a Bridge." No record is found to prove how long the bridge had then stood at this crossing of the Nashua, but mention is made of a "slab-bridge" in this vicinity about 1718, belongingto the second John Prescott. It was then, doubtless, like many of the bridges of that era, a narrow structure made of puncheons resting upon log abutments and trestles, and perhaps only passable for foot and horsemen. By the surveyors of Lancaster in 1795 the bridge is called " Prescott's," and noted as ninety-nine feet in length. It was not until December 4, 1815, that the town assumed the ownership of it and of the approaches to it from the county road to Boylston, although eight years earlier assistance was voted for its reconstruction. A tew years later it appears in the town records as the Harris bridge.

A by-path very early connected Prescott's Mills with the county highway leading to Washacum and westward. Widened and otherwise altered at various dates, this is yet in use and known as the Rigby road. This name does not appear attached to it in old records, but the brooklet which it crosses in Clinton was called Rigby's Brook before 1718. What connection the cross-road or the stream had with John Rigby, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Lancaster, or with his heirs, has not been discovered. No family of the name is mentioned in the town lists since 1700, but a very old house which stood upon this road in the early years of this century was commonly known as the Rigby place.

In the surprise and massacre by the Indians, September 22, 1697, and in the attack by the French and Indians of July 31, 1704, no loss of life or property at Prescott's Mills was reported, though this, it would seem, must have been one of the six fortified posts said to have been assailed. The men belonging to this garrison in 1704 were John Prescott, his two sons, John and Ebenezer, and John Keyes, the weaver, three of whom were married men with little families. By a report of an inspection of garrisons ordered by Governor Dudley, in November, 1711, we learn that there were at that time but three families at the Mills, including four males of military age, besides two soldiers billeted there - fifteen souls in all. This may be called the earliest census of Clinton. For half a century the householders in this neighborhood had numbered no more, and no less ; for half a century more the accessions hardly trebled this population. Along the roads leading westward, to Leominster, to Woonksechocksett, (now Sterling,) to Boylston, and to "Shrewsbury Leg," farms were cleared, humble dwellings arose, children were born, grew to manhood, migrated, and themselves set up roof-trees farther west ; but at Prescott's Mills all remained apparently as when the fathers fell asleep.

D.'fniel and Benjamin Allen, of Watertown, were among the very early settlers in Lancaster, but abandoned their lands when the Indian raids of 1675 and 1676 desolated the frontier towns, and never re-occupied them. About 1746, however, Ebenezer Allen, of Weston, a son of Daniel, came to Lancaster, acco)npanied by his son Ebenezer, and the two made their homes upon a tract of land containing one hundred and eighty acres, the northerly , portion of which is now in possession of Ethan Allen Currier. This had been the homestead of John Gosa, who bought the property of John Prescott and John Keyes in 1717. Upon the brook which runs through the farm Goss built a mill at the site of the existing dam, and his dwelling and farm buildings stood on the uplands near. -

The deed to John Allen, dated February, 1746, and that of John to Ebenezer, in 1751, speak of the roadway in use through the farm " from Prescott's Mills to a Fordway, where there was a Bridge called the Scar Bridge." The elder Allen sold his whole estate to Ebenezer, Jr., in 1756, including some lands bought on the west side of the mill-path where probably about that date the mansion was built, which was torn down in 1879, to make room for Mr. Currier's present residence. Ebenezer Allen, St., died in 1770, at the age of ninety-four, and Ebenezer, Jr., in 1812, aged eighty -eight years. The farm passed out of the Aliens' hands in 1811, and Moses Emerson became its owner shortly after. The bluff upon the east bank of the Nashua, so often mentioned in town records as the Scar, from the time of his purchase began to be called Emerson's Bank. Mr. Emerson dying in 1822, the estate was sold at auction by the guardian of his children, and in 1825, George Howard, fromPembroke, bought it. At that time no trace of the Goss Mill or the other buildings once standing in the vicinity of the brook remained, but a cart-path led up over the plain to Harris Hill, perhaps the last trace of the long-disused Scar Road.

Along the old county highway which leads from Bolton to Boylston, where it winds about among the rocky hills east of the Nashua in Clinton, a few farms were tilled many years before the Revolution. Here lived Lieutenant Thomas Tucker ; Thomas Wilder, the son of John, and his son Jonathan ; Simon Butler, and the late John Pollard. Philip Larkin and his soldier sons had homes to th« southeast from Clamshell Pond. Thomas Tucker acquired his lands through Capt. Thomas Wilder in 1716, and probably built his house li«re about the date of his marriage, in 1719. He transferretl his iarra to his son William in 1757. In 1788 James Fuller bought the southerly portion of the tract, and in 1798 the homestead came into possession of Charles Chace, from Bellingham, whose descendants have prominent place in the annals of Clinton. The Tucker family had then disappeared from Lancaster. Upon the other farms named, sons built near the fathers, and family names clung to the estates far into the present century. Now, however, but one lineal descendant of any of these old families - the venerable Frederick Wilder - dwells in this section of the town.

Chapter Viii

Tlie Itepohtllon - Tlie "Six Nations" - Immigratimi - The Conib-makers - Faitfiiand & Plunt - Comi»g of the liigdows - Tlie CUnton Company - TJie Lfincattter Quilt Company - The Bigelow Carpet Company - The Lanvof'ler Mith - Clintom-itie, Us Builders and its Enterprises.

When the rallying cry, " taxation without representation is tyranny," rang through the land, and patriots began the organization of rebellion, John Prescott, fourth of the name, was chosen one of the town's Committee of Correspondence and Safety. Like his grandfather, he seems to have been a radical republican in politics, and was especially active in the prosecution of those who sold tea, and all suspected of a leaning towards Toryism.

When the.Lexington alarm-courier summoned the yeomanry to arms on the morning of April 19, 1775, John Prescott, fifth of the name, led as captain one of the six companies from Lancaster which made a forced march to Cambridge. As his command of thirty-two men was mustered neither with Colonel Asa Whitcomb's regiment of militia nor Colonel John Whitcomb's regiment of minute-men, they were probably a mounted troop of volunteers. They served twelve days. Two of his sergeants, Elisha Allen and James Fuller, were residents within the bounds of Clinton ; Moses Sawyer was second-lieutenant in Captain Joseph White's militia company ; Ebenezer Allen, Jr., and Jotham Wilder were in Captain Andrew Haskell's company, which fought in the battle of Bunker Hill ; James Fuller and Jotham, Stephen, Titus and Reuben Wilder served for short terms later in the contest, most of them being at Saratoga. Several of the Prescott family did patriotic service for national independence, but at that date the Prescotts mostly lived upon ancestral lands in Chocksett or elsewhere than in the south part of Lancaster.

The region round about the boundary stone where the lines of Berlin, Boylston and Clinton meet, including sundry farms of each town, was, in the years following the Revolution, known as the "Six Nations," that name attaching to it because families representing half a dozen or more different nationalities were therein resident. The Wilders, Carters and others were English by descent; Andrew McWain, Scotch ; the sons and grandsons of Philip Larkin, Irish; the

Daniel and Frederick Albert, Dutch; and John Canouse was a Hessian, a deserter from the captive army of Burgeyne. Other names and nationalities are sometimes added to the list.

Beyond the mills to the southward, towards Sandy Pond, for a long distance all the lands desirable for tillage or timber had fallen, by original proprietary division of commons or by inheritance, to the Prescotts and their kinsfolk, the Sawyers. The third John Prescott, in 1748, the year before his death, " for love and good-will," gave his grandchildren, Aaron, Moses, Joseph, Sarah and Tabitha Sawyer, about ninety-seven acres of land lying on both sides of a stated highway and of the brook "aboue the forge." These grantees were the children of John Prescott's only daughter Tabitha, wife of Joseph Sawyer. It has often been asserted that Aaron was the founder of Sawyer's mills in Boylston, but the credit of building the first saw and grist-mills in that locality probably belongs to his father, Joseph. Moses Sawyer was the first to reside upon the lands thus deeded to him and his brethren by their grandfather, and his son Moses was the second. Their houses yet remain upon what is now called Burditt Hill, and the latest has long outlived its hundredth year.

From the death of the fourth John Prescott, in 1791, began a subdivision of his landed estate into many lots, and its rapid alienation from the family. He had five sons and four daughters. To the two youngest, Joseph and Jabez, he deeded in 1786 the two mills, upon condition that each should deliver to him or his wife, annually so long as either should live, " five bushels of Indian corn, three of rye, three of wheat, and one thousand feet of boards." Within two years after the death of their father, the sons, with the exception of John, had parted with their patrimony and removed from Lancaster. Captain John, the fifth and last of his name in th.e town, clung to thirty or forty acres of land and the old homestead, where he died, childless, August 18, 1811, aged sixty-two, his wife, Mary (Ballard), surviving him.

In the closing years of the eighteenth century the people were weighed down by debt and taxation - legacies of the long years of the war for independence. Shays' Insurrection had been summarily quelled, for New England common sense recognized the fact that anarchy could afford no relief from the general distress. The yeomanry, however full their barns, held mortgaged lands and empty purses. Everywhere the sheriff was busy with executions, foreclosures and forced sales. The merchants and lawyers mercilessly devoured the debtors ; large estates were broken up and homes changed owners on every hand. Thus Prescott's. Mills and some of the lands around them in 1793 fell into the possession of John Sprague, the Lancaster lawyer and sheriff, and until his death, in 1800, they are sometimes mentioned in records as Sprague's Mills. Several heads of families during this decade fixed their habitations upon land in the vicinity bought for prices that now seem ludicrously small. They were : Jacob Stone, a noted framer of bridges and buildings, whose house, burnt many years ago, was west of Sandy Pond, a mile from any other dwelling, save one at a saw-mill on Mine Swamp Brook, owned by Jonathan Sampson, of Boylston ; Joseph Rice, a basket-maker from Boylston, who married a daughter of Moses Sawyer and lived near him; Nathaniel Lowe, Jr., from Leominster, who in 1795 bought of Moses Sawyer a farm lying between the mills and the river, which North High Street now bisects ; Lieut. Amos Allen, who bought lands of Jonathan Prescott in 1792 and built the first house on the west side of the highway between the mills and Ebenezer Allen's; Benjamin Gould, father of the poetess, Hannah Flagg Gould and the scholar, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, who began a dwelling probably about the same date, which he never found means to finish, on the spot where Deputy Sheriff Enoch K. Gibbs lives ; Coffin Chapin, Richard Sargent and his sons, and John Hunt, who lived at the summit of the hill on Water Street, about half-way between the mills and the bridge over the Nashua ; John Goss, who bought a farm upon the east of the river, near the Bolton and Berlin corner ; Elias Sawyer, who built on the river bank near his dam already mentioned. James Elder lived just outside Clinton bounds.

During the first ten years of this century accessions became more numerous, and among them were some whose descendants have been honorably identified with every phase of Clinton's material progress. Ezekiel Rice purchased the house and farm of Moses Sawyer, Jr., in 1802. John Lowe, a comb-maker of Leominster, in 1800 bought of John Fry fifty acres of land, and in 1804 another lot adjoining, which included the cellar of Benjamin Gould's house and a shop of Asahel Tower's on the brook. Here he built a few years later, and deeded a moiety of land and house to his father, Nathaniel. Nathan Burditt came from Leominster in 1808 and succeeded Mr. Rice in possession of the house built by Moses Sawyer, Jr. John Severy, a Revolutionary pensioner, came to reside on Mine Swamp Brook the same year, buying of Sampson his house, brick-yard and saw-mill. John Goldthwaite, the splint-broom maker, occupied a dilapidated building, the only one on the Rigby Road. Daniel Harris, a Revolutionary pensioner from Boylston, in 1804 and 1805 bought of John Hunt's numerous creditors his substantial house and large farm, which he in later times shared with his sons - Emory, Asahel and Sidney - who, by their industry, thrift and business ability, became leading men in the community.

Next to the saw and grist-mills, the first manufacturing industry to employ any considerable number of workmen was the making of horn-combs, introduced about the beginning of the present century from Leominster, where it had been a profitable employment from the days of the Revolution. John Lowe and Nathan Burditt were the earliest to ply this trade in the town, but they soon taught it to many

At first tlie comb-makers exercised their handicraft in diminutive shops or rooms in their own dwellings, and the women and children helped in the lighter parts of the work. The horns were sawn into proper lengths by hand, split, soaked, heated over charcoal, dipped into hot grease, pressed into required form between iron clamps by driven wedges, stiflFened by cold water, marked by a pattern for the teeth, which were sawn one by one. The combs were then smoothed, polished and tied in packages for sale. The earliest makers carried their own goods to market, and it is told of John Lowe that he often journeyed as far as Albany on horseback, with his whole stock in trade in his saddle-bags.

The use of water-power in the manufacture was not adopted until 1823. Through Lowe's land ran a little brook, which was finally utilized for combmaking by his son Henry, with whom was associated his cousin, Thomas Lowe. The stream had been dammed at least twenty years earlier, and a small shop thereon had been occupied by Asahel Tower for nail-cutting, and Arnold Rugg for wire-drawing. The Lowes were succeeded several years later by Henry Lewis, and he, in 183G, by Haskell McCollum, who built a second shop and greatly increased the business, having as a partner his brother-in-law, Anson Tjowe. E. K. Gibbs built a third shop about 1840.

The age was one when a man was fortunate whose personal peculiarity of form, feature, dress or habit, were not salient enough whereupon to hang some nickname - when many a worthy citizen walked among his fellow-men almost unknown by his baptismal name. The same fashion obtained respecting neighborhoods, every little section of the town gaining some quaint designation fancied to be descriptive of the district or its people. The region about these comb-shops on Rigby Brook became in popular parlance, Scrabble Hollow.

The water privilege on South Meadow Brook in the possession of George Howard was soon turned to use in the horn industry ; at first by lessees Lewis Pollard and Joel Sawtell, later by the owner, who was enterprising and prosperous. But the most extensive makers of horn goods were the sons of Daniel Harris, who learned the trade of Nathan Burditt. Asahel Harris at first conducted the business at his house east of the river, still standing. This dwelling he had bought from Samuel Dorrison, who built it upon a lot severed from the Pollard farm. Mr. Harris built later the brick house upon the height of the hill west of the Nashua, where he introduced horse-power and improved machinery in his work-shop. In 1831 Asahel and Sidney Harris built a dam and shop upon the liver just above the bridge, securing a fall of about six feet. Sidney Harris, in 1835, bought his brother's interest in the water-power and the house above, aud

In 1805 Samuel John Spraguesold the Prescott s.",w and grist-mill, with a house and land, to Benaiah Brigham, of Boston. Thomas W. Lyon soon after bought them of Brigham and acquired other estate in the neighborhood. In August, 1809, Lancaster was stirred with the news that two wealthy foreigners, residents of Boston, had bought the Prescott Mills and were about to erect a factory for the weaving of cotton cloth by power looms. Soon workmen began laying the foundation of the new structure, and the enterprising owners for twenty-five years thereafter were notable citizens of the town. The elder of the two, the capitalist of the firm and president of the corporation afterwards organized, was David Poignand, a dapper, urbane gentleman of French Huguenot descent, born in the island of Jersey. He wore a queue, and carried a gold-headed cane, was both a jeweller and a cabinet-maker by trade, and an exceptionally good workman. He also had made and lost a fortune in the hardware trade in Tremont Street Boston. His partner was his son-in-law, Samuel Plant, an Englishman who had been in America about twenty years as factor for a great cloth manufacturer of Leeds. Mr. Plant had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the manufacture of cotton in England, and secretly brought thence drawings of the machinery necessary for a mill, and perhaps some of the more important parts of certain machines. From these, with the aid of the ingenious machinist, Capt. Thomas W. Lyon, he was able to completely equip the factory and put it into running order. Under the methodical management of Mr. Plant, aided by the skill of the machinist, the difficulties which always attend a novel undertaking of such magnitude were soon overcome, and the success of the enterprise was assured. This factory was one of the earliest of its kind successfully run in America. The town granted the firm partial exemption from taxation temporarily. The embargo and war with England served all the purposes of a high protective tariff for the infant industry. Common cotton cloth which at the building of the factory cost about thirty cents a yard, before the close of hostilities commanded double that price.

A little above the factory, upon the same stream, stood a saw-mill built, probably before 1800, by Moses Sawyer, or his son Peter, but at that time owned by Joseph Rice. It commanded a fall of ten to twelve feet, but had a very limited reservoir. This mill was often, and necessarily, a grave source of inconvenience to Poignand & Plant by causing an intermittent flow of water to their wheel. Mr. Rice's land and water-rights were purchased in 1814, his log dam was replaced by one of stone somewhat higher, and a second factory was built a little below the saw-mill site, to which the looms were moved from the old mill.

The business had grown until it called for more capital than the firm possessed. February 12, 1821, David Poignand, Samuel Plant, Benjamin Rich, Isaac Bangs and Seth Knowles were incorporated with the title of the Lancaster Cotton Company, representing a capital of $100,000. Benjamin Pickman, Benjamin T. Pickman and Lewis Tappan also became stockholders in the company, and the two last named were in succession made treasurers. The old Prescott dam having been broken through by a freshet in 1826, was rebuilt and made one or two feet higher, giving a fall of twenty-nine feet. The square, brick mansion near the lower mill upon Main Street was also built by the company as a residence for the superintendent, Mr. Plant, twenty-five hundred dollars being appropriated for the purpose.

The treasurer was accustomed to drive up from Boston in his own chaise once a month to attend to his special duties, and it was usual for a four-horse team to be sent to the city once a fortnight with the sheetings manufactured. The wagon for its return trip was loaded with cotton bales and goods for the store which Mr. Plant established a short distance from the factory. For several years most of the teaming for the company was done by Nathan Burditt, Sr. In case of any repairs which required a new casting to be obtained, there was no foundry suitably equipped to furnish it nearer than South Boston.

August 28, 1880, while casually at the house of his friend, Johu G. Thurston, in South Lancaster, David Poignand died suddenly. In 1835 the company, finding their business unprofitable because of changes in the tariff" and the superannuated machinery, advertised their property for sale, described as follows: "one hundred and seventy-seven acres of land, one brick factory with nine hundred spindles, one wooden factory with thirty-two looms and other machinery; blacksmith shop, machine shop, eleven dwelling houses and other buildings." The mills with Buch laud and structures as were essential to their operation were finally sold at auction July 26, 1836; and bought by Nathaniel Band, Samuel C. Damon, John Hews and Edward A. Raymond, for $13,974. Their successors in 1837 leased the mills to the brothers Horatio N. and Erastus B. Bigelow, who came from Shirley, where the elder had been manager of a cotton-mill. Mr. Plant removed to Northhampton, and there died in 1847.

The Bigelows had selected this location preparatory to the organization of capital for the developing of some inventions of the younger brother. H. N. Bigelow occupied the Plant mansion, and from this time became a resident of the village and an indefatigable and wise promoter of its best interests, moral, social and material. March 8, 1838, the Clinton Company was duly incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, and the right to hold real estate to the amount of thirty thousand dollars. The incorporators whose names appeared in the legislative act were: John Wright, H. N. Bigelow and Israel Longley. The most notable inventions of Erastus B. Bigelow, at that date perfected, were two power looms: one for weaving figured quilts, the other for the weaving of coach-lace. The upper, then styled the yellow factory, was leased by the Clinton Company for the latter manufacture, and the brick factory was devoted to the making of quilts.

Before this time coach-lace had always been woven by hand looms, and any attempt to supplant human fingers in the complicated manipulation required was scouted at by the weavers as presumptuous. But the lace made by the ingenious mechanism invented by Mr. Bigelow in 1836 and patented in 1837 proved of a very superior quality, while the cost of weaving was reduced from twenty-two to three cents a yard. The manufacturers were rewarded with immediate and ample financial success, which continued for about ten years, when stage-coaches began everywhere to be superseded by the railway train, and coach-lace found no place in the new fashion of vehicles.

The company was fortunate in the time of entering upon its work as well as in the genius of its inventor and the ability of its management. The period was one of great and general prosperity. August 17, 1842, the real estate, hitherto leased, was bought of Samuel Damon, and extensive improvements were begun. In 184,'5 the capital of the company was increased to three hundred thousand, and in 1848 to half a million dollars. Meanwhile the working plant w.as re-enforced by the purchase of Sawyer's Mills, in Boylston, where the water-power was utilized for the making of yarn. Additions were annually made to the original buildings, and new ones were erected. When the demand for their special product began rapidly to decrease, machinery for the making of pantaloon checks, tweeds and cassimeres was gradually introduced.

A large machine shop was connected with the works which, under charge of Joseph B. Parker, turned out nearly all the machinery required in the factory. Horatio N. Bigelow was general manager from the outset, being, however, relieved for three years, 1849 to 1851, by C. W. Blanchard. About four hundred hands were engaged when all the looms were running ; twelve hundred yards of coach-lace and four thousand yards of pantaloon stutfs were finished per day.

Although the brick factory was bought in 1838 for the introduction of the Bigelow quilt looms, owing to financial difficulties the weaving of counterpanes did not begin until 1841. The successive transfers of the property are of interest, as giving the names of those who began the quilt manufacture and as showing the sudden rise in real estate values at that date. Rand & Damon, by purchase of their associates' shares, became sole owners of the cotton-mills in 1837, and in 1838, Rand, having acquired his partner's rights in the brick factory, sold it to E.G. Roberts, who the same day transferred it to W. R. Kelley for six thou- gatid dollars consideration. In September, 1839, it was deeded to Thomas Kendall, the price named being twenty-five thousand dollars. The property, with, of course, additions and improvements, next passed into possession of Hugh R. Kendall in 1842, the alleged consideration being thirty thousand dollars, and in 1845 it was sold to John Lamson for forty thousand dollars. October 1, 1851, Lamson disposed of the property to the Lancaster Quilt Company for one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.

The quilts that came from the new looms were from ten to thirteen quarters in width and of a high grade In quality, equal to those of foreign make for which the importers demanded six to ten dollars each. The Bigelow quilts were soon in the market at less than half those prices. In the quilt loom, as in all his inventions and improvements in weaving machinery, the design and mechanical construction of each machine were carefully perfected under Mr. Bigelow's own oversight, and not more with a view to the saving in cost of production than to attaining the highest standard of excellence in the fabric produced.

February 11, 1848, John Lamson, William P. Barnard, George Seaver and associates were incorporated by the name of the Lancaster Quilt Company, for the purpose of manufacturing petticoat robes, toilet covers, and the various descriptions of counterpanes, quilts and bed-covers, with an authorized capital of two hundred thousand dollars. Thirty-six looms and about one hundred hands were employed and the annual output was over seventy-five thousand quilts. Charles W. Worcester was the managing agent of the works.

The devices harmoniously combined in the coachlace loom were seen by the inventor to be equally applicable to the weaving of any pile fabric. With suitable enlargement and modification of parts the product would become Brussels carpet, or, by the addition of a cutting edge to the end of the pile wire, be given a velvet pile. The adaptation to the carpet loom of the chief novel feature of the lace loom - the automatic attachments to draw out, carry forward and reinsert the wires - was an easy problem for one who "thought in wheels and pinions." The carpet loom, as a conception in the inventor's brain, was soon complete in all its details. The machinists under Mr. Bigelow's eye shaped the conception in wood and metal, and at Lowell in 1845 Jacquard Brussels carpeting was woven upon the power loom. The invention was patented in England March 11, 1846, and in the great London Industrial Exhibition of 1851 specimens of Bigelow'.s carpeting were exhibited which won from a jury of experts the highest encomium. It was declared in their official report that the Bigelow fabrics were " better and more perfectly woven than any hand-woven goods that have come under notice of the jury."

The Bigelow brothers, the success of the new carpet loom thus made certain, bought a building at the south end of High Street, in which Oilman B. Parker's foundry and other mechanical industries had been carried on, raised it and built a brick basement beneath, thereby obtaining a room two hundred feet long by forty-two in width. In this they set up twenty-eight looms run by a thirty horse-power steamengine, and in the autumn of 1849 began the making of Brussels carpet by power. The requisite spinning was done at other mills. About one hundred hands were employed and five hundred yards of carpeting made daily. The day's labor of a skilled weaver on the hand loom rarely brought five yards, while the power loom, managed by a girl, readily produced four or five times as much and ensured superior finish. The works were under the management of H. N. Bigelow. H. P. Fairbanks became a partner with the Bigelow Brothers in 1850, and with added capital, larger and more substantial buildings, year by year crowded the little valley site.

A map of Lancaster, dated 1795, notes the existence of a "falls of about seven feet" in the river ai, the place where now stands the dam of the Lancaster Mills Company. At that time this great water-power was owned by Elias Sawyer, who built a dam across the stream and began a sawmill, which, from lack of means, he was never able to complete, although he sawed considerable lumber here. For a time he lived near by, but the property passed from his hands, and in 1810 was acquired by JamtsPitts, a millwright of Taunton, who came to reside upon and improve his purchase in December, 1815. The narrow, rock-walled valley, and the hills that hem it in, were densely covered with forest, and no public road led thither. A few acres of the bottom lands were soon cleared, and during 1816 Mr. Pitts erected upon the mud-sill of the old Sawyer Dam a new one, thirteen feet in height, and the same year completed a saw and sri-t-mill. Possessing some spinning machinery at a factory in West Bridgewater, he brought it to Lancaster, and began the manufacture of cotton yarn in 1820, gradually enlarging his buildings and increasing his production as success warranted. A small part of his power was leased in 1818 and for a few yeais later to Charles Chace & Sons, who built a small tannery near the mills. Comb-making was also carried on here at a later day, with power leased of Mr. Pitts.

James Pitts, Sr., died in January, 1835, and bis sons, James, Hiram W. and Seth G., continued the manufacture of satinet warps. The saw and gristmill was burned in 1836, but immediately rebuilt. November 12, 1838, the town accepted a highway laid out from the "red factory" of Poignand & Plant - which stood where the Bigelow Carpet Company's spinning department now is - to Pitts' Mills. This was the first public road to that locality, and marks the origin of Mechanic Street. In 1842 the Pitts Brothers sold their entire estate, including about eighty acres of land, to Erastus B. Bigelow, for ten thousand dollars.

February 5, 1844, E. B. Bigelow, Stephen Fairbanks, Henry Timmins and associates were incorporated as the Lancaster Mills Company, with a capital of five hundred tliousand dollars, and at once laid the foundations of the manufactory now famous as one of the largest gingham-mills in the world. It was at first proposed to begin with the manufacture of blue and white cotton checks only, but in view of the liberal pecuniary returns at that time rewarding manufacturing enterprise, and the deserved confidence of the capitalists in the inventive genius of the younger Bigelow, and the rare organizing ability of the elder, it was determined to build a gingham-mill of twenty thousand spindles. Up to this time ginghams had been chiefly made upon hand looms. The processes which this fabric passes through before it is ready for market are in number more than doable those required in the making of plain cloth, and hence the design of the machinery and buildings was correspondingly complex in character. To this novel problem E. B. Bigelow devoted his energy and marvellous constructive skill for more than two years, when his health gave way, under the intense strain of the mental toil and anxiety he had undergone, and he sought rest and found cure in foreign travel. He had, however, perfected all plans and contracts for the essentially new elements of the plant, and his brother, being thoroughly familiar with them, carried the works onward to completion, and put them into successful operation.

H. N. Bigelow continued in management of manufacture until 1849, when he was succeeded as agent by Franklin Forbes, under whose long and very able c >ntrol the company attained great financial success and an honorable name for the unvarying superiority of its products. The various purchases of real estate, - two hundred and thirteen acres in all, - and the construction of dam, mills and machinery ready for operation, cost about eight hundred thousand dollars, and the stock was divided into two thousand shares. Both buildings and machinery were of the highest excellence in design aud workmanship. The dam was built chiefly of stone quarried in the immediate neighborhood, and the town of Lancaster at the time of its construction joined the banks of the river just above with a wooden trestle bridge, and laid out a roadway from it to the county highway. .The water- ])ower was at first developed by three breast-wheels upon a single line of shafting, each twenty-six feet in diameter with fourteen buckets. These were supplemented by a Tufts' engine of two hundred and fifty horse-power. The mills were admirably lighted and ventilated, and neat, convenient tenements of wood were built near them, accommodating seventy families. About eight hundred operatives were required when the works were in complete running order, twothirds of whom were females. Girls earned about three dollars per week above their board. The head dyer, Angus Cameron, was reputed the most skilful of his craft in America. The weaving-room, containing six hundred looms, was the large-st in the United States, having a floor-area of one and one-third acres. Thirteen thousand yards of gingham were finished in a single day - the estimated annual product being four million yards - and the price, which had been sixteen or eighteen cents per yard, dropped at once to less than twelve. In 1849 the capital of the company was increased to one million two hundred thousand dollars.

The prosperity of the Clinton Company and the starting of the Lancaster Mills speedily worked great changes in their vicinity by the constantly-increasing demand for intelligent labor, and the consequent encouragement offered to skill and traffic. The growth of the village was very rapid, yet systematic and substantial. Streets were laid out according to a welldigested plan, reserving prominent sites for public buildings. In this and other work calling for the art of an engineer, the judgment and foresight of H. N. Bigelow were ably seconded by the taste and scientific attainments of the famous civil engineer John C. Hoadley, tlien resident in the Prescott house, at the corner of High and Water Streets. The town of Lancaster in 1848 accepted Church, Union, Chestnut, Walnut, High, Nelson and Prospect Streets as town roads, the expenditure for land and construction having been wholly defrayed by the villHgers. Hundreds of shade-trees were planted, of which the town is now justly proud. Stores and dwellings soon rose in every direction, and owners or lessees hastened to occupy them before the hammer and saw of the builders h.ad ceased work upon them.

The final location of the Worcester and Nashua Railroad through the town in 1846 gave new energy to enterprise, again to receive fresh impetus when the road was formally opened to Groton on July 24, 1848, and on November 5th of the same year to Worcester. Before this the travelling public were dependent upon Stiles' stage-coaches for conveyance to Worcester, and reached Boston by patronizing Mclntire and Day's coaches, which at .5.30 and 10 a.m. and 3.45 p.m. started for Shirley Village, there connecting with the Fitchburg Railway trains. A. J. Gibson's rival line also carried passengers to Souh Acton, where the same trains were met.

The Lancaster Couranf, a weekly newspaper, was established by Eliphas Ballard, Jr., and F. C. Messenger, in connection with a job printing-office located on the east side of High Street, in the building of C. W Field. Mr. Messenger was editor of the paper, the first number of which was published Saturday, July 4, 1846. In July, 1850, it was enlarged by the addition of one column to each page and its name changed to Saturday Courant.

The professions of medicine, law and engineering soon had gifted and public-spiriied representatives here, whose honorable careers adorn the town's an- nals and whose wisely-directed influence made its mark upon the town's institutions. Other wideawake young men coming hither to seek fortune and build themselves permanent homes, engaged in trade or plied various handicrafts, and by their worthy ambitions and energy gave a tone to the community notably superior to that which generally characterizes a new manufacturing town.

Postmaster Rand authorized the establishment of a branch of the Lancaster post-oflice at the store of Lorey F. Bancroft, which stood on the corner of High and Union Streets until removed for the building of Greeley's block in 1875. Regular postal privileges were petitioned for and obtained in July, 1846. H. N. Bigelow was the first postmaster commissioned, and located the office in the north end of the Kendall building, placing it in charge of George H. Kendall.

By popular usage the title of the corporation which had been most influential in creating this thriving village gradually became attached to it. It was called Clintonville ; and therefore the reason for the selection of its name by the company in 1838 obtains some historic interest. It must be said that the name Clinton was not adopted for any specially apt significance or with intent to honor any person or family, but simply because it satisfied the eye and ear better than other names that may have been proposed. It was doubtless chosen by Erastus B. Bigelow's desire, and was suggested to him by the Clinton Hotel of New York, which he had found a very comfortable resting-place in his business journeys to Washington.

The Bigelow Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1846. It was an association formed by several of the more intelligent citizens, who proposed to benefit themselves and the community by the support of courses of lectures upon scientific and literary subjects, the collection of a library, the establishing a reading-room and perhaps an industrial sch lol. A reading-room was opened to members and subscribers June 5, 1847, in the second story of the Kendall building, then on High Street,where the Clinton Bank block now stands. A fee of three dollars annually entitled any resident to its privileges. The book fund and expenses of lectures exceeding membership fees and sale of tickets were met by subscription. The introductory lecture was delivered in October, 1846, by Hon. James G. Carter. He was followed by John C. Hoadley, Dr. George M. Morse, Charles G. Stevens, Esq., Rev. Hubbard Winslow, and other educated gentlemen of the vicinity. In later years, through the instrumentality of the Institute, noted lecturers like Horace Greeley, Henry D. Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Josiah Quincy, Jr., etc., were brought to delight and instruct Clinton audiences. Regular monthly meetings of the members were held for conference and the discussion of questions relating to the mechanic arts and manufactures. The finances of the society were never quite commensurate with its ambitious aims, but in its six years' life it was an eSBcient public teacher and accumulated a valuable library of nearly seven hundred volumes.

The first tavern in Clintonville was kept by Horace Faulkner in the old Plant farm-house, which in later years served as a boarding-house for the Lancaster Quilt Company. In 1847 H. N. Bigelow built the hotel known as the Clinton House, Oliver Stone being the contractor for its construction. Horace Faulkner and his son-in-law, Jerome S. Burditt, opened it to the public in Christmas week of that year, and the " house-warming " was a notable occasion in the village. The hall was added in 1850, its completion being celebrated by an " opening ball " October 2d.

In the autumn of 1839 Ephraim Fuller's clothdressing and wool-carding works at Carter's Mills having been destroyed by fire, he purchased of George Howard his water-power on South Meadow Brook, and lands adjacent, where he erected a fulling-mill and carried on a thriving business for many years. His son, Andrew L. Fuller, soon became associated with him, and, as the times favored, fhachinery for the manufacture of every variety of woolen knittingyarn, satinets and fancy cassimeres was introduced. For a time the business employed thirty hands, and si.xty thousand yards of cloth were put upon the market yearly, the mill sometimes being operated by night as well as day.

In the winter of 1S46 Ephraim Fuller dammed Goodridge Brook where it crosses the h'ghway in Clinton and built a shop with a trip-hammer and forge conveniences in the basement. Here Luther Gaylord - who for several years had been engaged in the manufacture by hand of cast-steel tools for farm use - -made all kinds of hay and manure forks, garden rakes, hoes and agricultural implements of similar character, employing from six to ten men. His work was unrivaled in excellence. There being more than sufficient power for his limited needs, the upper story of the building was fitted with a line of shafting and leased to W. F. Conant, a builder of water-wheels, Isaac Taylor, sash and blind manufacturer, and others.

Shortly after the starting of the Bigelow carpetmill, Albert S. Carleton began the making of carpetbags of a superior quality, using Bigelow carpeting made in patterns expressly for his purpose. His work-rooms were in the brick building now the residence of Dr. Charles A. Brooks. The business later came into the hands of James S. Caldwell.

October 16, 1847, Oilman M. Palmer started an iron foundry on land now covered by the weaving dejjartment of the Bigelow Carpet Company, at the southerly end of High Street. In 1849 he transferred this property to the Bigelows, and built upon the site of the present foundry, near the railway station.

Deacon James Patterson introduced in 1848 the manufacture of belting and loom harnesses and the covering of rolls, over the carpenter-shop of Samuel

Belyea, the two occupying one end of Mr. Palmer's foundry. When the building was taken by the carpet company, Mr. Patterson built a shop in rear of his own residence, but sold his business in July, 1853, to George H. Foster, who was located near the railway.

Of any Massachusetts community it needs not to be told that the foundations of school and meetinghouse were among those earliest laid and most promptly built upon ; and that generous provision was always made for the intellectual, moral and religious culture of young and old, rich and poor alike. In 1849 there were already three churches in Clintonville, each with its settled clergyman and commodious house of worship. Though forming two districts in the Lanca-ter school system, the village, under laws of that day, was permitted to manage its schools according to special by-laws of its own, and its prudential committee printed elaborate annual reports. A more complete autonomy was soon acquired.

Chapter Tx

The fourth article of a warrant calling a townmeeting in Lancaster, Nov. 7, 1848, was, "To see if the Town will consent to a division thereof and allow that part called Clintonville to form a separate township, or act in any manner relating thereto." The subject was referred to a committee, with instructions to report at a future meeting. This committee included Elias M. Stilwell, James G. Carter, John H. Shaw and Jacob Fisher, of the old town ; Horatio N. Higelow, Ezra Sawyer, Sidney Harris, Chas. G.Stevens and Jotham T. Otterson, of Clintonville. A citizens' meeting was called in the latter village, Monday, October 29, 1849, to discuss the question of separation, dt which H. N. Bigelow was chairman and Dr. George M. Morse, secretary. Those present, with almost entire unanimity, declared in favor of petitioning for township rights, and a committee was chosen, consisting of Charles G. Stevens, Sidney Harris, Joseph B. Parker, Horatio N. Bigelow and Alanson Chace, "to carry forward to accomplish men t the views of the meeting, leaving the terms and the line of division to the judgment and discretion of the committee."

November 12, 1849, at a town-meeting, majority and minority reports were presented by the committee chosen the year before. They contained such obvious arguments, pro and con, as are usual in the debates preceding town division, and both were tabled, the tone of a brief discussion indicating that no compromise could be readily effected at that time. The citizens' committee of Clintonville, in obedience to their instructions, proceeded to prep.are a petition to the Legi-slature.

The majority report, favoring the division, had gone 80 far as to propose a straight line of separation, to begin "at the town bound between Lancaster and Sterling on the Redstone Road . . . and run (hence S. 75° 42' East to the easterly line of the town, striking the Bolton line at a point 289.56 rods from the town bound which is a corner of Bolton, Berlin and Lancaster." This severed from the old town nearly the whole of the Deershorns School District, and vigorous remonstrance was made by almost every resident therein. Therefore, on February 9, 1850, a meeting was called at the vestry of (he Congregational Society's meeting-house, to consider a proposed line of division, so run as to include little more than the old Districts Ten and Eleven in the new town.

February 15th, at a special town-meeting, the chief article in the warrant was, "To see what action the Town will take in reference to the petition of Charles G. Stevens and others to the legislature of the Commonwealth, for a division ot the town of Lancaster." After some friendly discussion of the matter the assemblage voted that the citizens of the old town should select a committee to confer with a like committee representing the petitioners, and that they should "report as soon as may be what terms, in their opinion, ought to satisfy the town of Lancaster, to consent not to oppose a division of the town." The meeting adjourned for forty minutes, having chosen John G. Thurs(on, Jacob Fisher, Silas Thurston, Dr. Henry Lincoln and Nathaniel Warner to consult with the Clintonville committee already named. Upon re-assembling the unanimous report of the joint committee was adopted, as follows:

1. That all tliR property, both real and personal, owned by the town of Lancaster at the present time, shall beloHR to and be owned by the town of Lancaster after the division shall take place.

2. That the inhabitants of Clintonville shall support and forever maintain those persons who now receive relief and snpport from the town of Lancaster as panpers, who originated from the territory proposed to he set off ; and also forever support all persons who may hereafter become paupers who derive their settlement from this territory.

3. That clintonville, or the town of Clinton, if so incorporated, eball pay to the town of Lancaster the sum of ten thousand dollars in consideration of the large number of river bridges and paupers that will remain within the limits of the old town ; the same to he paid in ten equal payments of one thousand dollars, with interest semi-annually on the sum due, the first payment of one thousjtnd dollars to be made in one year after the separation shall take place. And the amount shall be in full for all the town debt which Lancaster owes.

4. That the line of division shall be the same as this day proposed by Charles G.Stevens, Esq., as follows: Beginning at a monument on the east line of the Town, 289.50 rods northerly from a town bound, a corner of Bolton, Berlin and Lancaster ; thence north 65° 30' west 488.11 rods to a monument near the railroad bridge at Goodridge Hill ; thence south 48° 30' west 783 rods to a tow n bound near the Elder farm, so called ; thence by the old lines of the Town to the 7)lace of beginning.

The act incorporating the town of Clinton in accordance with tills agreement was signed by Governor Briggs, March 14, 1850. The main eastern boundary of the nc^ town had been fixed by the formation of Bolton out of Lancaster territory by an act passed June 27, 1738. The southern boundary had been determined by the act of February 1, 1781, which annexed about six square miles of the southerly part of Lancaster's original grant to Shrewsbury. The western boundary was defined in the act of April 25, 1781, incorporating the Second Precinct of Lancaster as the town of Sterling. The irregular intrusion of Berlin at the southeast corner was created by an act of February 8, 1791, setting off Peter Larkin with his family and estate from Lancaster to Berlin, then a district of Bolton.

The new town took from the old very nearly twothirds of her population, although but one-fifth of her acreage, and a similarly small proportion of the public roads and pauper liabilities. Of the ten bridges crossing the Nashua, eight were left to Lancaster, all being of wood and mostly old, demanding large annual expenditures for repairs, even when spared serious damage by the spring freshets, and sure to require rebuilding within twenty years. The debt of the town was about three thousand dollars. It was in view of these facts that the pecuniary consideration paid the mother town was by the fair-minded men of both sections held to be, perhaps, no more than justice demanded. The liberal concession at least silenced the loud-voiced opposition which at first met the proposal for division, and so confirmed the bond of friendly feeling between the two communities that nothing has since been able seriously to weaken it.

Clinton began its corporate life with a population of thirty-one hundred and eighteen, according to the United States census of that year ; although but twenty-seven hundred and seventy-eight by an enumeration made for the assessors in June, 1850. It had a debt of about four and a halfdollars and a valuation of over four hundred dollars per head of its inhabitants. It could, with good reason, boast itself in many respects a model manufacturing town. Its territory and population were compact, nine-tenths of the citizens dwelling within a sinjrle square mile. It was burdened with few and short roads and bridges. Though not ble-^sed with a productive soil, it was surrounded by towns possessing rich farming lands and chiefly devoted to agriculture. Its industries were widely diversified, there being already well established manufactories of gingham.-i, Brussels carpets, coach-lace, counterpanes, tweeds, cassimeres, combs, carpet-bags, agricultural tools, sish and blinds, castings, machinery.

At the head of its chief corporations stood managers who wore not only generous and public-spirited, but gifted with qualities more rare and valuable - taste and foresight. Wliile studying the true economy of machinery and manufactures, they looked less to penny-wise saving than to enduring reputation. They and their sucoes<ors built comfortable, detached homes for their employes, instead of huddling them in cheap blocks, and thoughtfully planned for ample light, fresh air, convenience and safety in the workrooms, believing that health and contentment in the workmen largely conduce to the employer's profit. Without undue expense they made the architecture and surroundings of their works attractive. The influence of this policy, which has been permanent and followed very generally by private enterprise of the townspeople, is not only to be seen in its external and sesthetic results, but felt in the social life, the atmosphere of content that pervades the place.

Tlie first town-meeting was held in the vestry of the Congregational meeting-house on Monday, the 1st day of April, 1850, at 9 o'clock a.m. A citizens' caucus had previously nominated a list of town ofiicers, which the voters did not fully endorse. Albert 8. Carletou waschosen town clerk, and Sidney Harris, treasurer and collector. The selectmen elected were Ezra Sawyer, Samuel Belyea and Edmund Harris ; the assessors, Alfred Knight, Joseph B. Parker and Ira Coolidge; the overseers of the poor, James Ingalls, Alanson Chace and Nathan Burditt. The school committee, who were elected at an adjourned meeting April 15th, were Rev. William H. Corning, Rev. Charles M. Bowers , C. W. Blanchard, Dr. George W. Burditt, Dr. George M. Morse, F. C. Messenger and James Patterson. The three last named declining to serve, Augustus J. Sawyer, William W. Parker and Charles L. Swan were chosen in their places. The sum of eight thousand two hundred dollars was voted for the year's expenses, including two thousand dollars for schools, and five hundred for a Fire Department.

Certain pressing wants called for early public action. There was no place for the burial of the dead within the town limits, although a cemetery association had been organized October 3, 1849. About ten acres of land, admirably suited in position and character for a public cemetery, were soon purchased, laid out with taste and judgment, and named Woodlawn. Near by a small farm was bought of Sumner Thompson for an almshouse. Upon it were a small house and barn ; to this were added three acres obtained of Joseph Rice, and a dwelling of eleven rooms was at once built. The twelve acres and improvements cost $3859.71.

A volunteer fire company, called Torrent, No. 1, was organized September 18, 1850, its members being the chief business men of the town. A Hunneman fireengine was procured, for which one thousand dollars bad been appropriated, and on March 10, 1861, a Fire Department was established by legislative enactment. Franklin Forbes was chosen chief engineer. A second company, the Cataract, No. 2, was formed June 17, 1853, and a third, the Franklin Hook-and-Ladder Company, July 7, 1858. Organizations bearing the same titles yet exist, but the engine companies were disbanded and re-organized as hose companies after the introduction of water for fire purposes, eacli liaving in charge six hundred fcPt of hose. A fourth company, formed in 1870, has care of a steam fireengine, one of Cole Brothers' manufacture, and twelve hundred feet of hose. The firemen have alwaj's received liberal support from the town, are supplied with every modern appliance for use in the extinguishment of fires, and provided with comfortable and attractively furnished halls, in the upper stnries of the neat structures in which the apparatus is stored. The Gamewell electric fire-alarm system was adopted in July, 1885.

May 15, 1851, Franklin Forbes, Albert 8. Carleton, Charles G. Stevens and associates obtained incorporation as the Clinton Savings Bank, and were authorized to hold real esiate not to exceed ten thousand dollars in value. H. N. Bigelow was elected the first president of the bank. In this office he was succeeded by Franklin Forbes. The first treasurer, Charles ly. Swan, is now president, and C. L. S. Hammond has been treasurer since 186'1. For several years deposits were received by the treasurer at the office of the Lancaster Mills and by the president at his office in the Bigelow Library building; later, by the treasurer at the office of the Bigelow Carpet Company. Since 1864 the business of the bank had been conducted in the rooms of the First National Bank. Its deposits now amount to 81,123,109, the number of depositors being about four thousand. The total deposits since organization have been over five million dollars, and the total number of accounts over fourteen thousand.

At the woolen-mill upon South Meadow Brook, Andrew L. Fuller succeeded his father, who retired from tlie business in 1850, just as their special manufactures of yarns and cloths began to be unremunerative. Mr. Fuller was a man of great business capacity and energy, shrewdly watchful of the market, and he gradually introduced new machinery for the production of goods for which there was a better demand. When fashion decreed that hoop-skirts should be an essential article of female apparel, he filled his workrooms with tape-looms and braiders for covering hoop-skirt wire, and soon developed a very successful business. In 1865 he more than doubled the capacity of his main building, added two hundred braiders to the two hundred and fifty he had previously run, and increased the number of his tape-looms to forty. Nearly one hundred hands were given employment. September 10, 1867, Mr. Fuller died, but the manufacture was continued by his partner, Everett W. Bigelow, until change in fickle fashion destroyed the sale for such goods, and bankruptcy followed in 1870. N. C. Munson, of Shirley,' under mortgagee rights, took possession of and sold the property to Boyce Brothers, of Boston, iu whose ownership the mills were when destroyed in 1876, as narrated hereafter. The industry has never been resumed. The waterpower is now in possession of George P. Taylor, who, in 1885, built a neat, one-story brick mill here, which was for a time leased to the Ridgvvay Stove and Furnace Company, but is now unoccupied.

In 1852 the Bigelow Library Association, a joint stock company, assumed the functions and received the assets of the Bigelow Merhanics' Institute. It began its career under far more favoring auspices than its predecessor, having, beside the capital rerived from its stock subscription, generous donations from various citizens, including the sura of one thousand dollars given by Erastus B. B'gelow. A substantial brick building was erected upon Union Street, giving ample accommodations for the use of the society and several rooms for rent. Here a choice libr«ry was gradually gathered, and the association became a prominent factor in the literary life of the town. When, in 1873, the town resolved to maintain a free public library, the association placed in its charge the four thousand four hundred volumes which it had accumulated. It then sold its remaining effects and real estate, and its twenty years' career of usefulness and beneficence closed.

A lot of about four acres in the heart of the village, bounded by Walnut, Chestnut, Church and Union Streets, was, in 1852, given to Clinton by H. N. Bigelow, with the stipulation that it should be laid out according to plans of J. C. Hoadley, that no permanent structure of any kind should ever be built upon it, and that it should be suitably embellished and cared for forever as a public square. The town accepted the gift April 5, 1852, and at once appropriated one thousand dollars for its improvement. This has now become a tree-shaded park, and is the most u-eful of Mr. Bigelow's many and wise benefactions to the town which he did so much to found, and was ever striving to improve and adorn.

Joseph B. Parker, who for twelve years had been superintendent of the Clinton Company's machineshop, built, in the summer of 1852, near the railway station, a shop fitted with steam-power and tools for the manufacture of machinery. Having associated with him Gilman M. Palmer, he began work here on the 1st of January, 1853. The firm of Parker & Palmer was dissolved October 31, 1857, and two years later A. C. Dakin was taken into partnership.

September 7, 1853, John T. Dame, E-q., received a commission as postmaster, and removed the office from the Kendall store to the Bigelow Library Association's building on Union Street. During the .'^ame year a nesv road from Clinton westward through Lancaster, now known as Sterling Street, was laid out by the county commissioners and constructed. October 19th of this year a noteworthy celebration of the surrender of CornwiiUis, the last in this part of the State, brought to Clinton fifteen hundred regular and irregular militia and an immense crowd of people. The time-worn comedy of the sham fight was manoeuvred to its historic issue on Burditt Hill, with more smoke and noi«e than the town has ever experienced before or since, and the traditions of former days were outshone in the farcical evolutions and grotesque accoutrements of the "Continentals."

March 8, 1854, H. N. Bigelow, Franklin Forbes and Henry Kellogg were constituted a corporation, with the title of the Clinton Gas Light Company, and authorized to hold real estate to the value of thirty thousand dollars, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Buildings had been erected the year before in rear of the carpet-mill. Mr. Forbes was elected president, and C. L. Swan, treasurer, of the company. Milton Jewett became superintendent, and yet holds that position. The Schuyler Electric Light Company began building works in town, March, 1886, and in July were authorized to furni.sh a few street lights. Their plant and privileges were soon after sold to the Gas Light Co. April 17, 1887, legislation was obtained authorizing the corporation to increase its capital to two hundred thousand dollars, and to hold real estate to the value of seventy-five thousand dollare. By the same act its corporate privileges were extended to include the town of Lancaster,

The little steel forge upon Goodridge Brook was lost to Clinton in 1852. Mr. Gaylord, being unable to find a near market for his products in competition goods of inferior grade, accepted inducements to remove to Naugatuck, Conn. The water privileges and buildings, owned by Ephraim Fuller, were for several years leased to various parties, chiefly for the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds. Christopher C. Stone then bought the mill and carried on that business here for three years. In 1859 Eben S. Fuller bought out Mr. Stone, and in 1867 supplemented the water-power with a steam-engine, when large additions were also made to the buildings. The establishment now embraces a saw-mill, which turns out about three hundred thousand feet of native lumber annually, planing and various other wood-working m.achines, a large shop for the manufacture of all kinds of wood-finish used by builders, and an extensive lumber and wood-yard. About twenty men are kept constantly employed in its various departments, and a small village has grown up about it.

The first loom to succe>sfully weave wire cloth was an invention of Erastus B. Bigelow's, and upon its success the Clinton Wire Cloth Company was founded in 1856. Charles H. Waters, of Groton, was chosen to assist H. N. Bigelow in superintending the erection of the original works, and in the summer of 1857 began manufacture. He was made general manager, and served as such with marked ability until March, 1879, when he became president of the company and Charles B. Bigelow manufacturing agent. Buildings of large area have from time to time been added to the first mill, located at the intersection of the railroads - notably in 1863, 1865, 1870, 1872, 1876, 1880 and 1887 - and now the works cover about six acres. The looms and other machinery have been often improved by new inventions or adaptations, mostly those of Mr. Waters, whereby numerous difficulties attendant upon the weaving of so stubborn a material as wire have gradually been in large measure overcome. At the death of Mr. Waters, March 13, 1883, James H. Beal became the president of the company, and Charles Swinscoe was made manager in 1885, when Mr. Bigelow was called upon to assume the duties of manufacturing agent for the Bigelow Carpet Company.

The capital of the Wire Cloth Company is four hundred thousand dollars, and it is claimed to be the largest manufactory of woven wire goods in the world, turning out fifty million square feet in a year. The mills are of brick, very substantial in construction, and possess attractive architectural features. The most prominent structure in the town, one that earliest engages the attention of every one when approaching it from any direction, is the tower used for the drying of painted wire cloth. It is one hundred and eightyfive feet in height, eighty by thirty-six feet in horizontal section, having room for twenty-five tons of cloth suspended in webs of about one hundred feet in length. The chief products of the works are : hexagonal netting of every width and variety, jiainted window-screen cloth, wire lathing, locomotive sparker cloth, malt-kilu flooring, sieve and bolting cloths, etc. An extensive galvanizing plant has been erected a short distance from the main works beside the Worcester and Nashua Railway, where a special process, peculiar to this company, is used for the protection of iron goods; the zinc being chemically united with the iron, instead of simply forming a mechanical coating upon it.

Sidney Harris, who began the making of horn combs by hand in a small way in 1823, continued the business until his death, November 21, 1861, when his shops on the Nashua supported from twenty-five to thirty workmen. His sales sometimes amounted to twenty thousand dollars a year. Mr. Harris was the youngest son of Daniel, and born in West Boylston. He was one of the most enterprising and thrifty citizens of Clinton, prominent in church and municipal affairs, and every way worthy of the public esteem in which he was ever held. He was among the earliest and mo.st outspoken advocates of the temperance cause. His sons, George S. and Edwin A., continued the fabrication of horn goods, retaining the partnership title of Sidney Harris & Sons, and greatly enlarged the shop'? in 1866. The elder did not long survive his father, and Edwin, by purchase of his brother's interest, became sole proprietor of the factory, and so remained until his death, in the spring of 1875. August 9th, of that year, a joint-slock company WHS organized to continue the bujines<, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, called the S. Harris' Sons Manufacturing Company. Eliaha Brimhall,

Daniel B. Ingalls and Henry E. Starbird were by turns presidents of the company, which gave work to about eighty hands, and finished goods to the value of from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars per year, chiefly dressing and fancy-back combs. The enterprise won no financial success, and in November, 1881, the whole stock of the company, having much depreciated in value, was bought by Mrs. Edwin A. Harris, who has since managed the manufacture under the corporate title, giving work to fifty hands. The present production of the factory is about forty thousand dollai-s' worth of staple goods, chiefly toilet combs, yearly.

The original incorporators of the Lancaster Quilt Company were succeeded in May, 1859, by James Reed & Co., and the mill changed hands more than once thereafter, though the business was always conducted under the name of the first corporation. The firm of Jordan & Marsh finally controlled the property, and in 1869 started the Marseilles quilt manufacture as a specialty. A few months later the weaving of crochet counterpanes was begun, but the adventure not proving sufficiently profitable, the making of quilts was wholly abandoned in January, 1871, the looms were sold to the Bates Company, of Lewiston. Me., and machinery for weaving other styles of goods took their place. In the autumn of 1871 the works were closed.

William E. Frcst and Sidney T. Howard, forming a partnership under the title of the Clinton Yarn Company, purchased the factory for twelve thousand five hundred dollars March 28, 1873. They fitted it anew for the spinning of cotton, and began manufacture in April. The houses and remaining lands of the Quilt Company were sold at auction the following June for forty-three thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. The Clinton Yarn Company has employed from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five hands, aud used annually from seven hundred to one thousand bales of cotton ; selling products annually to the value of about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Both partners have deceased, and the mill is now run by John R. Frost as agent. Bleach and dye works are connected with the factory, and seven thousand spinning and thirty-five hundred twisting spindles are run. The power from the twenty-nine feet fall in the South Meadow Brook has been used until recently, assisted by a Wheelock steam-engine of one hundred and fifty horse-powder.

did the spirit of patriotism - so fervent everywhere in Massachusetts - flame forth soonfr, or with more genuine fire, than in Clinton. In the Presidential election of 1860 four votes out of her every five were cast for Abraham Lincoln. As the plans of traitors gradually disclosed themselves and armed secession tore star after star from the flag, not four-fifths, but the whole community as one man declared for the maintenance of the Constitution at even the cost of civil war. In hall and street, mill, shop and home, the national peril was the dominant topic of thought aud speech. To the military organizations of the Commonwealth the people naturally looked for the call to action.

The second and third oflicers of the Ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Militia were Clinton citizens - Lieutenant-Colonel Gilman M. Palmer and Major Christopher C. Stone ; and of that regiment also was the Clinton Light Guard. This company, which dated its existence from May 12, 1853, was composed of some of the best manhood of Clinton and vicinity, and had been efficiently disciplined under the direction of its successive commanders : Captains Gilman M. Palmer, Andrew L. Fuller, Henry Butterfield and Christopher C. Stone. It was now led by Henry Bowman, who, in accordance with a vote of the company in February, 1861, signified to Governor Andrew its readiness for immediate service in defence of the national government. It was supposed that the Ninth Regiment might be sent to the front at once, and the stir of hurried preparation was seen on every hand.

In the annual town-meeting, March 4th, the sum of one thousand dollars was voted for the purpose of furnishing the Guards with a service uniform. Thus Clinton was the first town to anticipate by actual appropriation of money the expected call for State troops. Such expenditure of public funds being, however, beyond the authority delegated to towns, a special act of the Legislature was invoked and passed April 2d, sanctioning such action when ratified by twothirds of the members present and voting at a meeting legally called for the purpose. The company soon after paraded in new suits of gray.

Sunday, April 21st, there came a dispatch from the Governor calling upon the Light Guard to be ready to move at twenty-four hours' warning. Notices were read from the pulpits in the morning, and in the afternoon the vestry of the Baptist Church was thronged with earnest women workers, busily making flannel underclothing for the volunteers. At a townmeeting, the next day, generous provision was voted for the care and protection of soldiers' families in the absence of their natural guardians. But the anxiously expected summons was long delayed, and it was not until June 28th that the volunteers, preceded by the cornet band and an escort of citizens, marched to the railway, and amid the tearful farewells of near friends and the cheers of the multitude assembled, were borne away for Camp Scott, Worcester, to join the Fifteenth Massachusetts, to which regiment they' were assigned as the color company, C. Just four months later they had passed through the te:rible defeat of Ball's Bluff, and the captain, with thirteen other Clinton men, were prisoners at Richmond, five were wounded and two had lost their lives.