Worcester City (part 11 of 58)

The Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was especially noted for ils proficiency in drill, its staying qualities in fight, and its exceptionally sanguinaiy battle record. The men of Company C sustained its colors, and bore at least their full share of the regiment's glory and bhiod sacrifice. The Clinton men serving in the regiment were seventy-four, all told, of whom, before the Rebellion succumbed, fourteen were slain in battle or died of wounds, three died of disease, and over thirty had received wounds not fatal. Their loss was quite severe at Antietani, September 17, 1862, when five received mortal injuries and twenty others were more or less seriously wounded. At Gettysburg, of the twentyfour in the battle line belonging to Company C, sixteen were hit by rebel missiles, of whom Clinton lost Lieutenant Buss and three others Ivilled and four wounded.

Next in numbers to those of the Fifteenth was the group of Clinton men in tlie Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, thirty-seven in all, including a few recruits enlisted in 1862. These were nearly all German-born, worljmen at the Lancaster Mills, and mostly mustered in Company G. Four of these were killed in battle, five died during the war, and at least sixteen others were wounded. The regiment won an honorable record, serving in North Carolina during 1862 and 1863, and in Heckman's brigade of the Eighteenth Army Corps, chiefly in Virginia, during 1864.

In the Twenty-first Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry were twenty men claimed for Clinton's credit, tour of whom died of wounds received in battle. The regiment suffered severely at Chantilly, Antietam, and in the final advance upon Richmond. Its first experience was with General Burnside's expedition in North Carolina. Five of the Clinton volunteers re-enlisted after their first term had expired.

The three regiments above mentioned left for the front during 1861. Of those who enlisted for the town in 1862, the majority joined the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-sixth and Fifty-third regiments. In the first were sixteen soldiers accredited to Clinton. They performed garrison duty along the Potomac during 1862 and 1863, and had no serious engagement with the enemy. Their valor and endurance were, however, severely tested during 1864, in the nine battles and constant marching and countermarching of the Shenandoah campaign.

The Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry contained thirty residents of Clinton, one of whom, Henry Bowman, was its colonel. It was attached to the Ninth Army Corps, narrowly escaped participation in the bloody work at Antietam, and though present met with no loss at Fredericksburg. In 1863 it was transferred to the West, became greatly reduced in numbers (luring the campaign against Vicksburg by climatic disieases, and passed through the siege of Knoxville with Burnside. Its eventful experience closed in Virginia, whither it returned in 1864 to join in the final grand struggle for the possession of Richmond. But one of its Clinton members fell in battle ; three died in captivity and three of disease.

Twenty-eight Clinton men, with Lieutenant Josiah H. Vose, served in the Fifty-third Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and he, with two others, laid down their lives in battle. Although but a ninemonths organization, its stormy voyage by sea to New Orleans, its adventures along the Mississippi River, and its fiery ordeal of battle at Fort Bisland and in the assault and siege of Port Hudson, comprise a more notable experience than many threeyears' regiments could boast.

The numerous other enlistments to the credit of the town, mostly of a later date, were distributed among many organizations, the record of which can receive no particular mention here.

The action of the town-meetings already noticed was but an earnest of a generous policy pursued through the four years of war, and ever since, towards those who volunteered in their country's service.

The selectmen were given large discretionary powers for the purpose of aiding families dependent for support upon bread-winners who had become soldiers of the Union ; the maximum bounty was paid to citizens enlisting to fill the town's quota ; all soldiers were relieved from the payment of a poll-tax ; and after each successive call for troops Clinton was found registered as furnishing an excess above the number demanded. Private generosity never failed whenever exigencies arose. Large sums were obtained by voluntary subscription for the equipment of the enlisted; for forwarding material aid to the wounded and sick in hospitals ; for sending agents to the field after the great battles, and for other and constantly-recurring calls upon patriotic sympathy where money could avail. For help to families, known as " State aid," during the five years ending with 1865, the town expended $36,171.28; for other war purposes, $14,- 043.19. Nine thousand dollars raised by various private subscriptions were also disbursed in bounties to recruits and for kindred objects.

The buay afternoon of that April Sabbath in the crowded vestry taught the people much concerning woman's mission in war-time, and was suggestive of what could be effected under wise organization. Within a week thereafter an association was formed by patriotic women which, in connection with the parish sewing circles, sent to hospital and field thousands of useful articles of their own handiwork. After a year's experience, the aims of the society taking wider scope, a citizens' meeting was called at the Clinton House Hall, August 1, 1862, and the Soldiers' Aid Society then organized issued a general invitation calling upon all inhabitants of the town to join in the work for the welfare of ihe volunteers. The directors of the association were : Franklin Forbes, president; Gilbert Greene, treasurer ; Henry C. Greeley, secretary ; Mrs. J. F. Maynard, Mrs. Jared M. Heard, Mrs. Charles W. Field, Mrs. Charles G. Stevens. A room was furnished for the society's use in the Bigelow Library Association's building, and kept open during three hours each afternoon six days in the week, for work and the reception of articles contributed. The donations of material and labor made by the society to the patriot cause have been estimated at three thousand dollars in value. Its charitable ministrations did not end until long after the surrender at Appomattox.

The quota of Clinton under the various calls of the government amounted to three hundred and seventyone men for three years' service. Adjutant-General William Schouler credits it with an enlistment of four hundred and nineteen, being a surplus of fortyeight above demands. The enrollment lists of the town fail to account for so many, lacking nearly one hundred of that number after making due allowance for over thirty nine-months' enlistments, and adding the eighteen who paid commutation and twenty for veteran re-enlistments. It may be therefore inflerred, perhaps, that the unknown non-residents hired for the town or assigned to its quota by the State or natipnal authorities, were very numerous.

The population of the town at the outbreak of hostilities was thirty-eight hundred and fifty-nine. Its valuation was $1,690,692, and its debt $14,500. At the end of the war it had four thousand and twenty-one inhabitants, a valuation of $1,860,763 and a debt of $34,190.

The following alphabetical roster of residents who did military service for Clinton during the Rebellion is doubtless not free from errors or omissions, but it is the result of many revisions, and is the best now attainable. Names are followed by the records of service in the following order: the number of regiment, Massachusetts Infantry being understood ,^unles3 otherwise stated), the letter of the company, the age of the soldier when enlisted, date of muster in, experience of soldier.

Clintox Soldiers

by shell at Petersburg, and died July 26, '64 ; credited to Worcester. Bowman, Henry, 16th, C; 26; Aug. 1, '61 ; captain ; prisoner at Ball's out June 21, '65. Patrick, George Henry. (See Lancaster soldiers.) Pease, Henry C, 26th, E ; IS ; Oct. 0, '61 ; transferred to 4th La. as 2d

In July, 1863, eighty-seven citizens of the town were drafted, of whom five served subsequently, five had previously served and the following paid commu:;4don :

Horatio Netso7i Bigeloic - Banks - TotcnSaU - Bigelow Free Library - Soltlicrs^ Monument - Annals of Manufacturing Corporations - Tfie^' Waehoiit" of 1876 - Franklin Forbes - Erastus B. Bigelow.

By what has been said on previous pages it clearly appears that the more important industries of Clinton were founded upon, and made possible by, the inventive genius of one man. But the town, if not its manufacturing iuterests, owes at least as great a debt of grateful remembrance to the older as to the more widely famous younger of the Bigelow brothers; and

Erastus B. Bigelow has feelingly recorded his great obligations to his elder brother for the vast amount of toil and care undertaken by him in building and carrying into operation successively great establishments based upon inventions before untried - for the ability and patience displayed by him in meeting exigencies constantly arising - and for perfecting numerous practical adaptations essential to successful manufacture. He frankly says : " For whatever success has attended the development of my inventions, I am indebted in no small degree to his fidelity, skill and perseverance."

In the building of the town the elder was the master-spirit, and his will, his judgment, his generosity ordered its foundations and influenced its early growth as no other man could. The results of his solicitude for the welfare of his townsmen continue to honor his name, and will long endure to proclaim his prescience and the wisdom of his benevolence.

In the prinie of life and at the height of his usefulness Horatio Nelson Bigelow in 1864 was suddenly forced to yield to others the leadership he had so long held. Thoroughly conscientious and self-reliant, he had ever been unwilling to entrust to other agents any share of the duties which he felt to be his own ; he had never spared himself. Nature, long and heavily overtaxed, at last revolted and compelled a total withdrawal from labor and business cares. A voyage across the ocean failed to repair the broken mental power, and after three years of invalidism he fell quietly asleep on Wednesday, the 2d day of .January, 1868. At the time of his funeral, manufactories, banks and all places of business throughout the town were closed in token of respect for a public benefactor.

Mr. Bigelow was born at West Boylston, Mass., on the 1.3th of September, 1812. His father, Ephraim, the son of Abel, was a wheelwright and a chairmaker by trade, who also cultivated a small farm. The family lived in a very modest way, as became their moderate circumstances. His mother, Polly (Brigham) Bigelow, was awoman of marked character, unaffected piety and native dignity, who brought up her two sons to fear God and love the truth. The father died in 1837 at the age of forty-six, but the mother lived eighteen years in widowhood, most of the time with her eldest son, honestly proud of the esteem and honor which her children won from their fellow-men.

The boyhood of H. N. Bigelow was one of toil, and his schooldays were few - two terms at the Bradford Academy closing his educational opportunities. He therefore owed little to books, but derived valuable lessons from intelligent study of men, and early personal contest with adverse circumstances. In youth he worked upon the farm and in the neighboring mills, and at the age of twenty had so far mastered the ordinary details of cotton manufacture that in 1832, when his enterprising father started a small factory on the Nashun, he was installed as its overseer. September 24, 1834, he was married to Mits

Emily Worcester, and about that time was employed as overseer in the Beaman mill. In 1836 he was called to Shirley to become general superintendent of a cotton-factory there. Thence, at the age of twentyfive, with scant capital and his moneyless but gifted brother as partner, he came to the idle water-power on South Meadow Brook to build a town. In all the positions he had held he had exhibited a restless diligence and confidence in himself, and had developed that exceptional administrative ability which proved invaluable in organizing the giant manufactories which he was called upon to construct and manage until success became assured.

During the anxious first years at Clintonville, when the load of responsibility thrown upon him in the establishment of several novel manufactures seemed too exacting of time and onerous for any one man to bear, he found abundant leisure to be solicitous about the well-being of the neighborhood in which he had cast his lot, and the future economy and comeliness of the bustling town, which, with prophetic virion, he foresaw, must, before many years, people the hill-slopes around. His energy hastened the forming of the first church society, and the building for its use of the little chapel in the grove near his residence. In his first manhood he had become a member of the Orthodox Congregational Church, and remained ever zealous in its behalf; but his sectarianism was free from bigotry, and he often gave efficient service and substantial aid to other religious organizations. He urged the erection of commodious school-houses, and a radical improvement of the local school system, liberally contributing land and money to a d in effecting the desired end, and when growing prosperity made it possible, he often persuaded his fellow-citizens, by his own munificent donations, to a more generous support of worthy public institutions and town improvements.

Like the majority of self-made men, so called, he had a vigorous individuality. He often acted upon impulse, and when confronted with unexpected or what he deemed unreasonable opposition he met it with resolute self-assertion. But he was easily placable and prompt to correct any injustice in his own act or speech. He was happy in his home and took great pleasure in its tasteful adornment, but he gave few hours to what men call recreation, and his chief enjoyment of life seemed to be in ceaseless mental and bodily activity. Despite the engrossing care incident to the agency of important corporations, he accepted various public trusts, the duties of which were never neglected. He was the first postmaster of the village, and represented the town at the General Court during the first two years of its corporate existence. He was the first president of the Savings Bat!k, vice-president of the First National Bank, and director in the Worcester and Nashua Railroad Company, the City Bank and the Mechanics' Mutual Insurance Ci^mpany of Worcester.

Mrs, Bigelow has long outlived her husband, residing in the home he built in Clinton. Of four children born to her, two died before his decease. Her SODS, Henry H. and Charles B. Bigelow, inherit their father's administrative talent, and succeeded him in due time as managing agents of the Bigelow Carpet Company.

The First National Bank of Clinton was chartered in April, 18(34, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars. Hon. Charles G. Stevens was chosen president, and C. L. S. Hammond, cashier, both of whom have been continued in office to the present day. The bank was at first located in a brick building on Union Street, but in 1881 and 1882 built the costly brick and marble block on the corner of High and Church Streets. It remained the only general banking institution in town until June 15, 1882, when the Lancaster National Bank transferred its office to rooms leased in Brimhall's Block, Hon. Henry C. Greeley being at the time president, and William H. McNeil cashier. In 1885 the latter secured control of a majority of the stock, elected certain friends of his directors, and placed himself in the presidency, probably in order the better to conceal from the stockholders irregularities in his methods of conducting the business of the bank. At the close of the year he fled to Canada, a defaulter, and the settlement of the bank's affiiirs was placed in the hand of John W. Corcoran, Esq., as receiver. Its creditors have been paid seventy per cent, of their claims, but final settlement has been delayed awaiting the termination of certain lawsuits. The Clinton Co-operative Bank was incorporated in 1887. Daniel B. Ingalls is president, C. A. Woodruff, treasurer, and Walter R. Dame, solicitor.

For over seven years all town-meetings were held in the vestry of the Congregational Church. From November, 1858, the hall connected with the Clinton House was used by the town on public occasions. The erection of a special building for town use was a subject often discussed, and from 1866 began to arouse warm debates in annual town-meetings, [n 1869 a committee was appointed to investigate available sites and consider plans. A location upon High Street was by many considered very desirable, and the lots now covered by Greeley's and the bank blocks were much talked of. That now occupied by the High School building was also advocated by many ; but the more suitable ground upon Walnut and School Streets was fortunately chosen, purchased for four thousand dollars, and thereon the foundations of the present capacious and imposing town-hall were laid, in July, 1871.

The design adopted by the town was that of Alexander R. Esty, a Boston architect. The edifice is of brick, relieved by a free use of Nova Scotia stone in pilasters, beltings and other constructive and ornamental details. On the first floor are various rooms for town ofBcers and Bigelow Hall, sixty feet wide by eighty feet in length. The public library-room is located at the rear of the hall, in a one-storied semi-circular apse of twenty-five feet radius, which has an entrance and vestibule of its own. The upper floor is occupied mainly by Clinton Hall, ninety-five feet by eighty, in which, including the gallery across the south end, about eighteen hundred persons can be seated. A large stage and retiring-rooms attached occupy the space at the rear of the hall. The interior finish of the whole building is of ash, and all the appointments for heating, lighting, etc., are of the best for their purposes.

The building was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies December 4, 1872, when addresses were given by Colonel T. W. Higginson and Hon. Charles G. Stevens. Franklin Forbes, as chairman of the building committee, made a brief speech in delivering the keys to the committee chosen by the town to have exclusive control and management of the building for three years, and George M. Morse, M.D., in response, gave a condensed history of the town from the time of Prescott's settlement on its soil. The building of this important structure added one hundred and ten thousand dollars to the town's indebtedness, bringing the total to one hundred and forty-six thousand. A funding scheme was adopted in October, 1871, which provided for the issuing of bonds to the amount of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, payable in twenty years from January 1, 1873, bearing six per cent, interest ; six thousand five hundred dollars of the principal to be paid annually. These bonds were mostly sold at par. They were exempt from town taxation, and were issued in denominations of one hundred and five hundred dollars.

The Bigelow Frwe Public Library was opened December 6, 1873, Andrew E. Ford being the first librarian. It began its life of usefulness with four thousand four hundred and eight books upon its shelves, which had been donated by the Bigelow Library Association. This nucleus has grown iu fourteen years to fourteen thousand one hundred and eighty-seven volumes, showing an average annual addition of about seven hundred volumes. The association's bequest was made conditional upon the yearly expenditure by the town of at least five hundred dollars for the purchase of books. The annual appropriation, from fifteen hundred dollars in 1874, has increased to twentythree hundred in 1888, besides the amount received from the dog tax and sale of catalogues, usually about six hundred dollars additional. The circulation from eleven thousand eight hundred and forty-two in 1874, has grown to thirty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-two in 1886-87. The management of the library is vested in six trustees, whose term of service is three years, two being elected annually. Miss Charlotte L. Greene is librarian, succeeding her sister. Miss Fannie M. Greene, in 1886. A catalogue was printed in 1887.

An appropriate monument to the memory of the fifty-eight Clinton men who died in the Union service during the Civil War was erected in the summer of

1875, the dedicatory services taking place August 28th. It stands in the southwest corner of the town-hall enclosure, and consists of an architectural base of Concord granite eleven feet in height, surmounted by a bronze figure of an infantry volunteer standing at rest, copying a design by M. J. Powers. The exercises of its dedication were a procession with music, the formal transfer of the memorial to the town by Franklin Forbes for the committee of construction, and patriotic addresses by Hon. Charles G. Stevens, John T. Dame, Esq., and the Reverends V. M. Simmons and W. S. Burton. The cost of the monument was about four thousand dollars, of which sum eight hundred and forty dollars was collected by the women of Clinton in various ways for such a memorial, and the remainder was paid from the town treasury.

During the closing year of the Civil War there began for the Lancaster Mills, as for most manufacturers, a period of great prosperity, during which extensive improvements and additions of buildings and machinery were made year by year. In 1807 the dam was entirely rebuilt, with an extreme length of one hundred and seventy feet, securing a fall of twentyseven feet. At the same time the old breast-wheels were replaced by two turbines of three hundred and fifty horse-power each. In April, 1875, a branch of the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg, now a division of the Old Colony Railway was built to the mills, giving transportation facilities much needed. In 1877 Franklin Forbes, for twenty-eight years manager, died, and George W. Weeks, then superintendent, upon whom very many of Mr. Forbes' original duties had before this devolved, was appointed manufacturing agent.

During the administration of Mr. Weeks, the years 1880, 1881, 1887 and 1888 have been marked by very important extensions of the working plant, the capacity for production having been increased at least seventy-five per cent. The weaving-room, supposed to be the largest of the kind in the United States, if not in the world, has a floor area of one hundred and thirty-seven thousand feet, or three and one-seventh acres, affording space for twenty-eight hundred looms. The carding and spinning departments occupy two brick mills of huge dimensions, one three, the other four stories in height. The whole floor area of the works, including basements, etc., used for storage, and the Sawyer's Mills in Boylston, is about sixteen acres, twelve of which are devoted to manufacture. The company has also about two hundred tenements, nearly all of a class superior to those usually found in manufacturing towns, and three large boardinghouses, each accommodating one hundred persons. An unusually large proportion of the employes have dwellings of their own.

When the recently completed extension receives its machinery, the corporation will require the labor of nearly twenty-two hundred operatives, about equally divided between the two sexes, and its yearly product is expected to reach twenty-eight million yards of twenty-seven inch ginghams ; last year it was nearly twenty-five million yards. Three large steam-engines of Corliss pattern, developing fourteen hundred horse-power, are employed to aid the turbines, while six small engines are in constant use for various purposes. Among the army of workers are skilled mechanics of various crafts, and corps of chemists and designers perform important duties. But a single quality of goods is here made, a high grade of gingham everywhere known for its always reliable colors and exceptional durability. Although combinations of color are restricted to stripes and checks, already about two hundred thousand distinct patterns have been designed.

It will be noticed that the enormous increase of production over that of the earliest years of the corporation's life is far in excess of the numerical increase of looms and operatives. In every department new processes and improvements in mechanism have been introduced from time to time, and greater speed of movement attained, until the product per operative is two and four-tenths times what it was in 1850. The average wages have during the same period been increased eighty per cent., and this although the hours of labor per day are now two hours less than in 1850.

The present ofiicers of the company are : S. G. Snelling, president ; Harcourt Amory, treasurer ; George W. Weeks, agent; George P. Taylor, superintendent.

February 18, 1864, the corporation which gave name to the town ceased to exist, its charter being annulled by legislative enactment. The coach-lace looms had been sent to Philadelphia, it had the year before sold its real estate in Boylston, known as Sawyer's Mills, and certain of its looms for weaving checks, to the Lancaster Mills Company ; and its water-rights, factory buildings, tenant-houses and lands in Clinton to the Bigelow Carpet Company. The latter corporation had already made preparations to do its own wool-cleansing and spinning, - for which preliminary processes of its manufacture it had previously been dependent upon other parties, - and to the extensive plant required for these the grounds and buildings of the coach-lace mills were devoted. A large worstedmill was completed in 1866, and the dam was rebuilt and raised to control a flowage of two hundred and thirty-six acres, including Mossy and Sandy, two of the three great natural ponds of Clinton.

Upon the death of Horatio N. Bigelow, in 1865, his eldest son, Henry N. Bigelow, was made superintendent of the new department, and Charles L. Swan held the same position in the weaving-mill. In December, 1871, Mr. Bigelow became managing agent of the company. Under his supervision extensive additions were made in both departments during 1872. A new worsted-mill, three stories in height, two hundred feet long by sixty-five feet wide, was built in 1875, and great improvements were made in the machinery. Upon his retirement, March 26, 1881, he was succeeded in the management by his brother, Charles B. Bigelow. During 1885 the weaving department was very greatly enlarged, and in 1886 and 1887 an extension, two hundred feet in length, was added upon the west, reaching to School Street. In this have been placed newly-invented looms for the weaving of Ax minster carpeting.

The president of the company is James H. Beal, and C. F. Fairbanks is treasurer. The capital, which was two hundred thousand dollars at the incorporation of the company in 1854, has been increased to one million.

The number of looms is two hundred and forty, and when the works are run to their full capacity, twelve hundred persons are employed, whose pay amounts to fifteen hundred dollars each day, and the production is at the rate of one million eight hundred yards per year. About six million pounds of wool are used annually. The company is complete within itself, importing the grade of wool which it requires, and conducting all the operations of its fabrication, - cleansing, spinning, dyeing, weaving, - on its own premises. The floor space occupied amounts to ten and three-fourths acres. Its various buildings are of brick, and very attractive in appearance. The company also owns houses accommodating sixty-three families, and has three boarding-houses.

Three grades of carpeting are manufactured by the Bigelow Company, - Wilton, Axminsterand Brussels. The first power-loom, invented by E. B. Bigelow, thirty years ago won admiration, because with it a single girl wove as much Brussels carpeting in a given time as four men and four boys could do with four hand looms. The perfected loom of to-day has fourfold the capacity of the fiist Bigelow loom.

C. M. Bailey & Son, a few months after the destruction by fire of their property at Sterling in February, 1868, purchased the low-lying land between Sterling Street and the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railway in Clinton, and established thereon an extensive tannery with sixty-one vats, a large currier shop, engine and boiler-house, and other accessories of their business. The capacity of the yard was about twenty thousand hides, and required the attendance of forty men and boys. The junior member of the firm, George E. Bailey, died in 1873, when Bryant & King, by purchase, succeeded to the business. They at once enlarged the works to more than double iheir original capacity, employed about one hundred hands, and were apparently in full tide of prosperity when the breaking of the Mossy Pond reservoir dam in 1876 swept away their large stock of material, demolished their buildings and left them weighed down by too heavy discouragements for renewal of the enterprise. Two years later C. M. Bailey and William J. Stewart rebuilt some portions of the buildings, gave work to twenty-five or thirty men, and continued the tanning business until

Deacon Joseph B. Parker, the veteran machinist of Clinton, died September 1, 1874, at the age of seventy years. He was a native of Princeton, but came here from Providence, R. I., where he had a shop, to organize and manage the machine-'hop connected with the Clinton Company's works. His practical ability and judgment were of great value to E. B. Bigelow in the adjustment and construction of his inventions. He was a pillar of strength in the Congregational Church, a man of thorough independence and originality.

A joint stock company was formed to continue the business of which he was the founder and had been for nearly twenty-five years the manager, which took the title of the J. B. Parker Machine Company. The capital is forty-five thousand dollars, and the yearly manufacture is estimated as fifty thousand dollars in value. A. C. Dakin is president, C. C. Murdock, treasurer, and N. E. Stowell, foreman. From seventyfive to one hundred men are required when the machinery of the shops is fully employed. The special line of work done is the construction of carpetlooms, the Bancroft mule, the Clinton yarn-twister, and other mechanism for wool manufacturers. The buildings of the company are commodious, well equipped with power and tools, and conveniently located beside the tracks of the Worcester and Nashua Division of the Boston and Maine Railway.

Closely allied with and adjoining the machineshops are the new.and admirably appointed works of the Clinton Foundry Company, recently completed in place of the old foundry, built by Oilman N. Palmer, in 1849, which was crushed in during the great snow-storm of March 12, 1888. Major Christopher C. Stone, for many years associated with Colonel Palmer, bought the foundry in October, 1881, and, forming a partnership with the J. B. Parker Company, under the corporate title above named, became general manager of the business. Twenty-six men aie regularly employed here, chiefly upon machine and railroad work, casting daily from a three-ton cupola furnace. The value of castings sold annually is about thirty-six thousand dollars.

Colonel Gilman M. Palmer came to Clintonville from Dover, N. H., in 1847, but was born in Gardner, Maine, December 4, 1812. He was foreman of the first engine company, the first captain of the Clinton Light Guards, lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Militia, vice-president of the Savings Bank, and director of the First National Bank. He served the town as selectman for four years ; was one of the founders of the Unitarian Church, and a member of Trinity Masonic Lodge. He died May 27, 1885. By his will nearly fifteen thousand dollars were left in public bequests.

Upon Sterling Street, near the station of the railway, stand the neat brick workshops of the Gibbs Loom, Harness and Reed Company, which was incor- porated April 1, 1874, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. William H. Gibbs, the president of the company, became in 1865 associated with George H. Foster in the manufacture of belting, loom-harness and roll-covering, and later began making reeds - in which business they had been preceded by Robert Turner. In the autumn of 1868 the partnership was dissolved, and in a division of the assets Mr. Gibbs retained the loom-harness and reed manufacture, and Mr. Foster that of belting and roll-covering. Hearing of an improved heddle machine of English invention, Mr. Gibbs imported one, the first brought into the United States. A rapid increase of orders rewarded his enterprise, requiring more machinery and capital, and the formation of a company followed. It now has in operation thirteen heddle - or heald - machines, giving work to forty operatives, male and female. The ebonized loom-harness is a specialty for which the company have a patent, granted February 1, 1881. The reed manufacture was begun in November, 1884, and has met with such encouragement that but one reed maker in America now rivals this company in yearly production. This success has been attained by superior workmanship. Charles L. Swan is treasurer of the corporation.

About half-past three o'clock of Sunday, March 26, 1876, the people of Clinton and villages adjoining, were startled by loud and long-continued alarm signals from the steam gong of the wire-mill, giving wide warning of an unforeseen and grievous disaster, one that, because of the fortunate hourbf its happening, was not attended with loss of human life, but which forever ruined several useful industries, seriously interrupted others, and utterly destroyed three hundred thousand dollars' worth of capital, buildings, machinery and goods.

A snow-storm, quickly followed by copious rains, had filled the great reservoir of the Bigelow Carpet Company to overflowing. In the Mossy Pond portion of it the water stood higher than in the Clinton basin, the culvert under the Worcester and Nashua Railway, which joined them, proving insufficient to take away the unprecedented flow poured in by the South Meadow Brook. Before danger was suspected, the waters rose so high as to wash over or through an embankment at the northerly side of Mossy Pond, just above the sources of the little brook formerly known as Rigby's. This dam of earth was about forty feet long and ten feet in height, and the ground at either end of and beneath it was porous gravel and sand. The trickling overflow soon grew to a resistless torrent and tore this obstacle from its path, opening a broad gap between the hills down to the level of the marshy ground below.

About sixty rods away the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railway crosses the valley upon a gravel embankment nearly forty feet in height, which dammed the flood for a while, afTording time for the residents of houses upon the meadow below to escape.

In less than half an hour, however, a river nearly one hundred feet in width was rushing through the railroad bank over the vats of Bryant & King's tannery, bearing along the debris of falling buildings and thousands of hides from the extensive yards. Crossing Sterling Street, it spread over the wide, level tract below, undermining several dwellings, the occupants of which barely escaped with such valuables as they could hastily snatth and carry away in their arms. The nest impediment met was the embankment of the Worcester and Nashua Railway. This, being a much lower and older earthwork than that previously burst through, held firm for a time until a great lake had formed behind it, and the water began to pour over the track; but at length it gave way at the little brook culvert, when the mad flood poured across Main Street, w-hirled the old dams and shops built by the early comb-makers, and a house which it had brought from the meadows ^bove, crashing down the ledges into the valley of the South Meadow Brook.

On this stream a factory, then the property of the Boyce Brothers, of Boston, a three-story wooden building, over one hundred and fifty feet in length, stood upon the dam directly in the path of the waters. It was quickly lifted from its foundations and borne away upright over the Currier farm into the Nashua, to bring up with a loud crash against the first island. Nearly half of the structure, caught in a swirl, again floated on at terrific speed towards the iron bridge and the mills at South Lancaster. Luckily, the depth of the flood was so great that the main flow poured outside the river banks, and the wreck following it passed down between the cottonfactory and the grist-mill, struck the Lancaster Railroad Bridge a sounding blow as it went under it, toppled over and was torn into fragments. Meadow farms along the river for many miles were deeply inundated, strewn with wreckage of buildings, machinery, furniture, hides, horn goods and great masses of peat from Mossy Pond, and covered with a deposit of sandy mud. The gaps in the railroads had to be bridged, and remained serious interruptions to travel for several days.

The Carpet Company, during the summer, filled the crevasse through which the reservoir had drained itself so disastrously with a solid structure. Tedious lawsuits for damages followed, and the sites of the manufactories demolished are even now marked by ruins and desolation.

No citizen of Clinton everstood nearer the popular heart than Franklin Forbes, the manager of the Lancaster Mills. In 1866 some warning from overtaxed brain impelled him to seek much-needed rest, by a vacation in Europe; but although he soon returned to _his wonted labors nluch invigorated, he began to delegate more and more of his duties to the assistant whom he had trained from youth to be his successor - George W. Weeks, then holding the office of superintendent. After a year or two of visibly fad- ing strength, he died, December 24, 1877, at the age of sixty-six, mourned as an irreparable loss by young and old, in all classes of society, and wherever his genial presence had been known.

Mr. Forbes was born in West Cambridge, Mass., March 8, 1811, but his parents removed to Boston in his early childhood. He was prepared for college at the Latin School, being a schoolmate of Charles Sumner, and was graduated at Amherst in 1833. Thrown upon his own resources, he decided to adopt the profession of teaching for a livelihood, and accepted the position of usher in a Boston school. Scholarly in his tastes and a diligent student, he also po.-sessed the gift of inspiring others wilh his own enthusiasm for knowledge, and his success as an instructor was correspondingly marked. He became master of the school, and was called thence to Lowell, to become principal of the High School in that city. In 1837 he was married to Martha A. S. Gushing, of Lunenburg. He continued to teach for several years after his marri.age, but finding this field of occupation somewhat narrow for his abilities and aspirations, he began to employ his leisure in legal studies. He was not, however, destined to practice at the bar.

The avocation for which his natural powers preeminently fitted him, and in which he subsequently won so honorable repute, was pointed out to him and others during his short period of service for the Locks and Canals Company of Lowell. His peculiar ability in the conduct of large business affairs attracted notice and brought him the offer of the agency of the Lancaster Mills, which he accepted, and on December 1, 1849, assumed his new duties, From that day, for twenty-eight years, Mr. Forbes stood prominent among the foremost citizens of Clinton, a respected leader in municipal and church affairs and social circles, whose breadth of culture, genial and sympathetic nature, unselfishness and strong practical sense, made him not only an intelligent adviser in matters of public concern, but one to whom all were glad to listen.

He believed the true interests of capital and labor to be identical, and his management of the great manufactory placed in his charge was consonant with his theory. His services were invaluable to the corporation, whose annual product increased during his administration from four million to iifteen million yards; but he never forgot the workman's rights or welfare while he successfully labored to secure for the stockholders their proper yearly harvest of profit. Once, in a period of great depression in businesss circles, his innate kindliness of heart prompted him to keep the mills running half-time for several weeks at a probable loss, to save the *age-earners from the privations that would inevitably have followed the entire stoppage of the works. He was ever thinking of his operatives' needs and planning for their elevation. To this end he established evening schools and

His long experience as a teacher and his warm interest in the education of the young made him a valuable inember of the town's School Board, of which he was chairman thirteen years, a service exceeded in length only by that of John T. Dame, Esq. He was for many years president of the Savings Bank, of the Clinton Gas-light Company, and of the Bigelow Library Association. He was the first chief engineer of the Fire Department, director in the First National Bank, and his counsel was sought ou all questions of grave interot to the town. The esteem and respect in which he was universally held were never, perhaps, more conspicuously shown than when, in 1864, he was persuaded to allow himself to be a candidate for Representative of the Eighth Worcester District, then comprising the towns of Clinton and Lancaster. He received every vote cast, save one in Clinton. The Unitarian Society, which he was active in organizing, found in him a generous benefactor and an indefatigable Christian worker. His patriotism was not only fervent and inspiriting, but selfsacrificing. He was president of the Soldiers' Aid Society during the Rebellion, and the volunteers and their families knew no more loyal, no more tenderhearted and cheery friend and adviser than he.

December 2, 1879, Erastus Brigham Bigelow died at his residence on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. His body was, in accordance with his expressed wish, brought for burial to the town which his genius had created, and was there received with public demonstrations of genuine respect and sorrow.

Mt. Bigelow was phenomenal even among inventors for his power of analysis and mental concentration. Some of his inventions consist of very numerous elements in harmonious conjunction, forming the most complex mechanism used in manufacture. But these were all complete mental conceptions, as the author of them himself assures us, fully fashioned and adjusted in his mathematical imagination before draughtsmen attempted to delineate, or workmen wi-ought a single cam or lever of them. Singularly enough, he was no mechanic, handled no tool well, made only rough pencil sketches, and entrusted to others the draughting of his ideas to working scale for the machinists. His extraordinary power was shown very early in life, for he was but fourteen years of age when his little machine for the making of piping-cord was perfected. During the fifty years of his subsequent career he was granted in the United States more than fifty patents, the larger number of them for improvements in textile machinery.

He was a native of West Boylston, Massachusetts, born April 2, 1814. He was obliged to contribute to his own support when a mere boy by daily labor upon the farm, and at the age of thirteen years began work in a cotton-mill. The fortunate earning of one hundred dollars by the sale of the piping-cord machine enabled hin\ to pay for a few terms' tuition at a neighboring academy. He earnestly desired a higher education, but means were wanting, and for a few years, apparently unconscious of his special talent, he wandered from one place and occupation to another with youthful instability - displaying, however, great energy not wholly wasted, inasmuch as varied experience was a part of the preparation for his life's work. At sixteen years of age he is found a clerk in a Boston dry-goods store. Next he became a zealous student of stenography ; even published upon that subject his first book, and earned a little money by teaching the art, travelling with a partner through New England and the Middle States. For a time he then became overseer of a cotton factory at Wareham, and later he taught a writing-school and began the study of medicine. Suddenly he conceived the idea of weaving Marseille.-s quilts bj' power, and abandoned his intention of becoming a physician to build the counterpane loom, having induced a firm of Boston importers to undertake the cost of the experiment. The financial troubles of 1837 interfering with the expected support by the firm, he came to Lancaster with his brother; Horalio bringing to the partnership his moderate savings, Erastus contributing an automatic device for weaving coach-lace by power which the experts declared would not work, but which the brothers were confident would.

Prosperity rewarded jiluck, and did not come with its usual coyness and at laggard pace ; fame followed closely after. Mr. Bigelow had at last evidently found his appointed place in the world's army of workers. He was henceforth to take rank among the creators and organizers of human industry ; a fellowlaborer for human progress with Watts, Arkwright and Eli Whitney. The Lowell Companies employed him at appropriate salary to act as their advising agent, to suggest special improvements in machinery and methods of manufacture. Invention after invention speedily followed. The gingham, the various carpet, the wire and the brocatel looms successively won their victories and extended his reputation. The great English carpet manufacturers acknowledged themselves outdone by American ingenuity, and purchased the new machinery.

It is noteworthy that Mr. Bigelow's aim, both as an inventor and a manufacturer, was ever towards greater perfection in the product. No prospective profit could induce him to cheapen manufacture by allowing the quality to fall below his ideal of excellence. His object was to produce by machinery a fabric every way better than that wrought by hand - the decreased cost of production inevitably following, and the consumers enjoying a double gain. He always perfected his ideas, resolutely laboring until the object sought was consummated, never abandoning the half-wrought for some promising afterthought.

Mr. Bigelow first married Miss Susan W. King. She died in 1841, leaving an infant son, Charles, who survived his mother but six years. He found a second wife in Miss Eliza Means, of Amherst, N. H., by whom he had one daughter, Helen, now the wife of Rev. Daniel Merriman. His stay in Clinton was but brief, though he was a frequent visitor here. His regular residence for most of his life was in Boston, but he owned an estate of two hundred acres at North Conway, N. H., which he named Stonehurst, and there he spent the summers of his later years.

The degree of Master of Arts was bestowed upon him in 1845 by Williams College; in 1852, by Yale; in 1854, by Dartmouth, and in 1861 by Harvard. Amherst conferred upon him, in 1867, the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a member of the American Academy of Sciences, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the London Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In politics he was generally a conservative, never an active partisan, and in later life proclaimed his independence of party. He was, in 1860, nominated by the Democracy of the Fourth District as their candidate for Representative to Congress, but his opponent, Alexander H. Rice, afterwards Governor of the State, secured the election by a small plurality.

Mr. Bigelow's published writings mostly treat of political economy, and are characteristic of the man, exhibiting his analytical skill, and remarkable rather for precision of statement and lucidity than for rhetorical graces. He sent to the press in 1858, " Remarks on the Depressed Condition of Manufactures in Massachusetts, with Suggestions as to its Cause and Remedy ;" in 1862, a large quarto entitled, "The Tariff' Question Considered in Regard to the Policy of England and the Interest of the United States ;" in 1869, an address, " The Wool Industry of the United States;" in 1877, "The Tariff' Policy of England and the United States Contrasted ;" in 1878, "The Relations of Labor and Capital," an article in the Atlantic Monthly.

Chapter Xii

When, in the latter days of the Revolution, it became necessary to resort to a draft to fill the quotas demanded for the Continental service, towns in Massachusetts were usually divided into districts called squadrons, in such manner and number as were suggested by neighborhood convenience and the number of men to be raised. An exactly similar plan seems to have obtained at the same time, if not earlier, for the distribution and use of school money. A law of 178S made this custom as applied to sl-IiooIs general iu this Commonwealth, and at this date Lancaster was divided into thirteen squadrons. Two of these, known as Prescott's Mills and South Woods, were within the bounds of Clinton. Judging from the share of the town's appropriation received, they were among the smallest districts in population. In succeeding years the limits of the squadrons and their number were frequently changed, but these two remained essentially unaltered until 1846, being generally called Districts Ten and Eleven.

Each squadron provided its own school accommodations, whether a special building, or, as was often the case, a room in a dwelling house, or an unused shop. The earliest school house known to have been built upon Clinton soil was that at Prescott's Mills, in 1800 - a cheap, frame structure located upon a slight elevati6n in the woodland on the southwest corner of the intersection of the Kigby Road (now Sterling Street) with the main highway. On each of three sides it was lighted by small windows, placed high above tlie floor and protected on the outside with board shutters. The room was about eighteen feet square and had a plank seat running around the three windowed sides, with long heavy writing-desks before it. To the front of the desks were attached board seats for the abecedarians. On the fourth side was a fire-place broad enough to take in cord-wood. The South Woods School-house, or Number Eleven, was similar in style, but less capacious, and situated entirely out of sight of any other building on the old county road east of the Nashua, about half-way between Bolton corner and Bo}'lston line.

With the incre.ise in population and wealth brought by the enterprise of Poignand & Plant, the pride of the " Factory District " - as Prescott's Mills began to be called - demanded larger and better school accommodations, and in 182-1 a brick edifice was built upon Main Street, about fifty rods southerly from the old one, its cost, four hundred and twenty dollars, being assessed upon the property of the district. This was planned by James Pitts, Sr., and the scholars' seats all faced in one direction, being arranged in tiers gradually rising from front to rear. This building served in the cause of education for about twenty-five years. The first teacher in the old school-house was Miss Sally Sawyer, who was paid one dollar per week, and boarded with Captain John Prescott, who was paid five shillings per week by the district. In 1808 there were twenty-seven scholars coming from twelve families. Those who sent children were expected to contribute wood, cut fit for use, the amount being prescribed by the prudential committee and apportioned according to the number of scholars. There were never but two terms of schooling in the year - a summer and a winter session, each of seven to ten weeks. Titus Wilder, Silas and Charles Thurston, and Ezra Kendall were for many years the winter teachers of Number Ten, noted disciplinarians all, who sucessfuUy guided the youthful generations of their day along thorny path< of learning, according to the often-quoted Hudibrastic Version of Solomon's proverb. Titus Wilder, in 1808, received four dollars and fifty-eight cents per week for his instructions, and " boarded himself

The whole population in both districts, during even the prosperous days of Poignand & Plant's mills, probably did not reach two hundred and fifty souls, and the schools were small. Upon the opening of the new industries the old school-rooms were soon filled to overflowing, and a primary school for Number Ten was established in 1844. A so-called high school was started in Clinton ville by private enterprise during 1846, kept by Miss Adolphia Rugg. She was soon succeeded by George N. Bigelow, an exceptionally successful instructor, who was called away to become principal of the State Normal School at Framingham, in 1855. There were in 1847 about two hundred and thirty children of school age in Clintonville, and the citizens, with commendable zeal, combined to establish graded schools, elected a prudential committee, a board of overseers and treasurer, and authorized the borrowing of thirty-five hundred dollars for the building of the needed school-houses. The South Woods District was abolished and the whole territory divided into four sections. New houses were erected at Lancaster Mills and Harris Hill, the central brick house was refurnished, and the northern section was provided with a suitable room by the enlargement of the primary school-house. The third grade, or grammar school, at first occupied the chapel of the Congregational Society at the corner of Main and Sterling Streets, and was generally known as the high-school. The establishment of a high school as distinct from the grammar school dates from 1874.

Clinton has now eleven school buildings, all but two being substantial brick structures. Thirty-six teachers - all females but one - and a general superintendent are employed, besides eight engaged in the evening schools. The various schools are thus graded : one high, ten grammar, twenty-two primary - all open ten months in the year. In 1888 twenty-seven thousand dollars were appropriated for their support, and the pupils attending them numbered fifteen hundred and ninety-four. The number of children between five and fifteen years of age is now nineteen hundred and sixty.

The first high school building, which also served for the centre grammar school, was built at the corner of Church and Walnut Streets in 1853. The present handsome structure at the corner of Chestnut and Union Streets, one of the most finely appointed in the Commonwealth, was completed in 1885, from plans of J. L. Faxon, at a cost of sixty thousand dollars. It is of brick and Long Meadow sandstone, and con- tains eight rooms above the basement. The princi. pals of the high school have been as follows : George N. Bigelow to 1853; C. W. Walker, one year ; Josiah S. Phillips to 1859 ; Henry S. Nourse, temporarily to fill out Mr. Phillips' term ; Rev. Frederick A. Fiske one year; Miss Elizabeth A. Owens, one year; Dana I. Joscelyn, one year; Rev. Milo C. Stebbins, 1862 and 1863; Josiah H. Hunt, eight years; Andrew E. Ford, from 1873 to present time. Mr. Ford is a graduate of Amherst College, a member of the class of 1871. The superintendents have been : Samuel Arthur Bent, 1883-85 ; William W. Waterman, 1886-89.

There are now nine organized religious societies in Clinton, seven of which own capacious and comfortable meeting-houses. The residents preceding the advent here of the Bigelow looms were a God-fearing and church-going people, most of whom regularly attended the Sabbath services in Lancaster, tsvo or three miles distant. When members justified it, the managers of the C'lintonville corporations and other leading citizens organized neighborhood meetings, which were usually held in the brick school-house. November 14, 1844, a church of the Orthodox Congregational denomination, called the Second Evangelical Church of Lancaster, was formed, having lifty-one members, and occupied as their place of worship a chapel built upon or near the site of the first school-house at the corner of Main and Sterling Streets. The first pastor, Joseph M. R. Eaton, was engaged at a salary of five hundred and fifty dollars, and ordained January 9, 1845. The society hired the bass viol used in the choir, but the performer upon the instrument was one of its moEt prominent members. In September, 1847, signs of a change in the fashion of church music appeared, by a vote of the parish that they " would be pleased to have the Seraphine played on trial." The society rapidly increased in numbers and prosperity, and January 1, 1847, dedicated a new bouse of worship upon Walnut Street. This building, much enlarged in 1859 and again in 1871, it continues to occupy. Mr. Eaton was dismissed April 11, 1847. His successors have been as follows: William H. Corning, ordained December 8, 1847, dismissed October 2, 1851 ; William D. Hitchcock, ordained October 21,1851, dismissed July 16, 1853; Warren W. Winchester, ordained March 23, 1854, dismissed June 17, 1862 ; Benjamin Judkins, Jr., acting pastor, December 1, 1862, resigned December 1, 1867; DeWitt S. Clark, ordained November 11, 1868; dismissed December 12, 1878 ; Charles Wetherbee, installed April 30, 1879, dismissed July 31, 1884 ; Darius B. Scott, installed January 14, 1885.

So early as March, 1816, several families of the Baptist faith formed themselves into a society and held meetings, sometimes in the South Woods Schoolhouse, sometimes at the house of Charles Chace, and engaged various preachers to visit them on stated

Sabbaths. Elders Luther Goddard and Thomas Marshall were thus hired for some time. The leaders in the society were mostly residents of School Districts Ten and Eleven, and included Charles and Alanson Chace, John Burditt, the Lowe and Sargeant families. Deacon Levi Howard, Joel Dakin, Abel Wilder, Benjamin Holt, etc. In 1830, when the Hillside Church was established, many of these joined that society. The second church organized in Clintonville was called the First Baptist Society, and dates from April 24, 1847. For two years its meetings were held in the chapel on Main Street vacated by the Congregational Society. In 1849 it removed to the present house on Walnut Street, the capacity of which, however, was greatly increased in 1868. The land upon which the meeting-house stands was a gift from Horatio N. Bigelow. The first pastor of the church, Charles M. Bowers, D.D., resigned March 28, 1886, after thirty-nine years of faithful ministry. He was succeeded by Rev. Henry K. Pervear.

A chapel for Roman Catholic worship was built upon Burditt Hill, on Main Street, in 1849, by Rev. John Boyce, occupied as a mission church, and called St. John's. Clintonville had then been for about four years a mission station, a priest from Worcester coming on one Sunday of each month to say Mass at the house of some parishioner. Rev. J. J. Connelly succeeded Father Boyce in 1862, residing in Clinton, and the next year the town became a parish, with Rev. J. Quin as pastor. He was followed in May, 1868, by Rev. D. A. O'Keefe, who died in October of the same year. Rev. Richard J. I'atterson, the present pastor, was ordained a priest December 22, 1866, and came to Clinton in November, 1868. The chapel on Pleasant Street was built by him in 1869. The corner-stone of the new Gothic church building at the corner of Union and School Streets was laid August 8, 1875. This is by far the largest and most costly of Clinton's houses of worship. It is solidly built of brick and cut Fitzwilliam granite, according to plans of P. W. Ford, of Boston, and can accommodate a congregation of three thousand persons. It was formally dedicated June 27, 1886.

The Methodist Episcopal Society was organized in October, 1851. Regular meetings had been attended previously by those attached to this faith, in Burdett's - then known as Attic Hall, and were continued in Concert Hall until the dedication of their present meeting-house on High Street, December 25, 1852. The basement of this edifice was added and finished as a vestry in 1856, and the whole building was renovated and improved in 1868. A parsonage which stood until this year upon the opposite side of the street was the gift of Daniel Goss, of Lancaster. In 1887 the church building was again remodeled and enlarged. The pastors have been as follows: - Philip Toque, October, 1850 to March, 1851 ; George Bowler, one year; J. Willard Lewis, two years; Augustus F. Bailey, one year, 1854; Newell S. Spaulding, two years; Daniel K. Merrill, eight months, 1857; Willard F. Mallalieu, four months; William J. Pomfret, two years; Thomas B. Treadwell, one year, 1860; Albert Gould, two years; John W. Coolidge, hired for a brief time; William G. Leonard, four months; E. F. Had- Ipy, fourteen months; Edwin S.Chase, one year, 1866; Frederick T. George, one year, 1867 ; Joseph W. Lewis, two years; William A. Braman, three years; A. C. Godfrey, one year, 1873; Volney M.Simons, three years; Watson M. Ayers, three years; Chas. H. Hanaford, two years, 1880-81; Albert Gould, three years; John H. Short, three years; M. Emory Wright, 1888.

The First Unitarian Church was organized June 12, 1852, though services had been regularly held in Burdett and Clinton Halls, by its members, during the two previous years. The meeting-house upou Church St. was dedicated Feb. 2, 1853. Twenty years later it was raised, greatly enlarged, and the basement fitted up for use as a vestry and church parlor. A bequest received from the estate of Colonel G. M. Palmer has enabled the parish to build a spacious and comfortable parsonage upon a valuable lot on the corner of Walnut and Water Streets. The pastors have been as follows: - Leonard J. Livermore, began preaching April, 1851, resigned September, 1S57; Jared M. Heard, ordained August 25, 1858, resigned in 1863; James Salloway, installed November 9, 1864, dismissed Decembel-, 1868; Ivory F. Waterhouse, began preaching January 3,1869, resigned May 25, 1873; William S. Burton, began preaching October 5, 1873, resigned December, 1875; Charles Noyes, began preaching May 7, 1876, resigned August 13, 1882; J. Frederick Dutton, installed June 6, 1883, resigned November 24, 1885; James Cameron Duncan, ordained June 17, 1886.

The Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) was established as a mission in 1874. Regular services began April 12th of that year, in Bigelo .v Hall. On the last Sunday of June, Rev. L. Gorham Stevens assumed charge of the mission, and remained until the following April. After a brief interval he w.is succeeded by Rev. John W^. Birchmore, who, however, never became a resident of Clinton, but was in charge of the mission until April 28, 1878. October 28, 1876, the foundations of a chapel were laid on TJnion Street and the building was consecrated on the 17th of the following April. Rev. Henry L. Foote was settled as rector in August, 1878, and a parish organization was effected April 14, 1879. In July, 1881, Mr. Foote was called to the parish of Holyoke and Rev. E. T. Hamel, an Englishman, became rector in September, 1881. He was followed by Rev. George F. Pratt, in May, 1884, who resigned aud was succeeded by Rev. Thomas L. Fisher, April 1, 1888.

The Second Advent Society meet in Courant Hall, The organization dates from 1871, but no minister has been settled. Isaac Barnes is the elder.

The German Church, Rev. F. C. F. Sherff, pastor, has recently built a neat Gothic meeting-house at the corner of Haskell and Birch Streets. Services in the German language had been held for about a year previous to its dedication. May 20, 1888, in the vestry of the Congregational Society.

The post-office, in its present spacious and convenient quarters, occupies nearly the same site as when established in 1846, by H. N. Bigelow, the first postmaster. The second postmaster, John T. Dame, Esq., served from September 7, 1853, to April 6, 1861, when he was relieved by Deputy Sheriff Enoch K. Gibbs, who held the office until August 1, 1870. His successor, Charles M. Dinsmore, clo.sed his service January 3, 1887, when John McQuaid, the present postmaster, received his commission. From the date of the removal of the office from Kendall's Block, in 1853, to its return to High Street upon the completion of the Bank Block, April 9, 1882, it occuj.ied the western end of the Bigelow Library Association building, on Uuion Street.

Under the law of 1858, creating trial justices, John T. Dame, Esq., was commissioned and held office until 1864. Daniel H. Bemis, Esq., succeeded to the office, and was superseded by Christopher C. Stone in 1871. The Second District Court of Eastern Worcester was established in July, 1874. It took the place of the trial justice, and includes in its jurisdiction the towns of Berlin, Bolton, Harvard, Clinton, Lancaster and Sterling, its sessions being all held at Clinton. Hon. Charles G. Sievens was appointed the first standing justice, Major C. C. Stone, special justice, and Frank E. Howard, clerk of the court. September 7, 1880, Major Stone was confirmed as justice in place of Mr. Stevens, who declined further service, and Jonathan Smith, Esq., was commissioned special justice on September 14th. In January, 1886, Mr. Smith resigned, and Herbert Parker, Esq., was appointed to succeed him January 27, 1886.

The Saturday Courant's early history has been told in u former page. With its restricted local circulation becoming unremunerative when the war prices of paper and labor were encountered, it was discontinued with the number for December 13, 1862. In July, 1851, Mr. Messenger had withdrawn from both editorship and partnership, to be succeeded by Edwin Bynner, who with genial versatility figured at the same time as editor, painter, poet, town-wit, auctioneer and station-master. November 1, 1853, the publishing office was moved acro-s High Street to rooms under the Clinton Hou.-e hall, where it remained fur fifteen years. Mr. Bynner abandoned the enterprise July 1, 1854, finding it not sufficiently profitable, and was replaced temporarily by John P. Davis. January 1, 1855, Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was given editorial charge of the paper, which he retained until September 5, 1857, when he removed to Lexington. Rev. Charles M. Bowers then acted as editor for twenty months, but did not permit his name to appear as such. Thenceforward for about three years the paper was nominally under the direction of "an association of gentlemen." March 22, 1862, Horatio E. Turner essayed the task of editing it, but at the end of four months enlisted in the Thirty-fourth Infantry, to give his life for country. Wellington E. Parkhurst performed the editorial duties from August 16, 1862, to the farewell number.

Upon the muster-out of the Union forces. Lieutenant William J. Coulter, a skilled printer, who had been employed upon the Salurdny Courani, r&solved to resume its publication. Mr. Parkhurst was chosen as editor, and September 30, 186.5, the first number of the Clinton Courant appeared from the old office. The venture proved promising enough to warrant enlargement of the paper in 1866, 1867 and 1870. In January, 1869, the office of publication was removed to Tyler's Block, then just completed, and October 10, 1872, to its present location on Cliurch Street, Its managemeot remains unchanged. The Courant ha? maintained from the outset an independent position in politics and religious matter.^, but is not weakly neutral, nor reticent in expression of opinion upon any topic of public interest. It is now twice the size of the original sheet of 1816, has a wide circulation for a paper of its class and is growing in deserved popularity. A smaller sheet was imblished as an experiment, on Tuesdays from September, 1880, for one year, in connection with the Saturday issue, and called the Clinton Advance. The unique file of the Courant preserved in the Bigelow Public Library is an invaluable record of Clinton's progress.

The Courant has had an active competitor for public favor during the last ten years. The Clinton Recurd was first published by John W. Eilam September 1, 1877. Its editors were E. A. Norris and E. M. Le Poer. This newspaper was bought by Trowbridge & French, and its name changed to the Clinton Times, November 13, 1882. Mr. Trowbridge soon sold his interest to his associate, George French, who, in April, 1884, disposed of the paper to George W. Reynolds, from Melrose. During 1883 the Times also appeared in semi-weekly form. It was Republican in politics and advocated prohibition. It was published Wednesday afternoons irom a printing-office in Greeley's block. Its publication ceased March 24, 1887. Meanwhile a third candidate for the people's favor had appeared.

The Clinton Enlerj^rise, published bj'Wood Brothers in Greeley's block dates from Friday,. May 14, 1886. M. E. C. Hankes was its firat local editor and manager.

For the first thirty years after its incorporation the town's people were wholly dependent upon wells and rain-cisterns for water required for domestic purposes. The larger manufacturing companies, by means of their steam pumps, supplemented by reservoirs upon high ground, protected their works from fire and supplied their tenants. The question of the introduction of water for general use was often agitated, but it was not until November 22, 1875, that definite action favoring such introduction was taken by a townmee.ing. On that date the report of a special watersupply committee, of which Hon. Daniel B. Ingalls was chairman, was adopted, and the committee instructed to obtain the necessary legislation for the furtherance of their recommendations. April 4, 1876, an act was approved authorizing Clinton to take the waters of Sandy Pond, or any other pond or brook within the town limits, for domestic and fire purposes, and to borrow the sum of one hundred and twentyfive thousand dollars for the construction of works. During the subsequent five years, however, nothing resulted save surveys, estimates and warm discussion. Upon petition the Legislature revived and extended the act February 4, 1881, for three years. During that year a reservoir, with a capacity of two million gallons, was constructed upon the summit of Burditt Hill, and the main pipes were laid connecting it with the principal streets.

The water of Sandy Pond is of great depth and purity, covering an area of about fifty acres, and so situated as easily to be guarded from external contamination. The supply from it can be cheaply increased by bringing to it the flow of Mine Swamp Brook; but its elevation is insufficient to obviate the necessity of a costly pumping-station. Explorations were, therefore, extended into the adjoining towns, in the hope of obtaining a re-ervoir at sufficient height to supply the town by a gravity system. Investigation of the sources of Wickapeket Brook, begun by Jonas E. Howe of the committee, disclosed such unusually favorable conditions that the scheme for using the waters within the town bounds was abandoned, and a petition met the Legislature of 1882 asking authority to take water from (Sterling. An act gave the desired privilege, and also authorized the issuing of additional water-bonds to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. This legislation was accepted by the required two-thirds vote of a townmeeting March, 1882, and by January 1, 1883, the main works were completed.

The cast-iron main is sixteen inches in diameter, and about five and three-fourths miles in length. The water is of unsurpassed purity, abundant for all probable needs, and reaches the hydrants in High Street with a pressure of about eighty pounds to the square inch, having a head of over one hundred feet. At the mills the hydrant pressure is one hundred and ten pimnds. During 1883 Lynde Brook and Pond were taken into the reservoir system. The first basin had a capacity of three million gallons; Lynde reservoir has a capacity of ten million gallons. An act, approved March 27, 1884, and accepted by a town vote, permits the additional sum of fifty thousand dollars in water bonds to be issued, and authorizes the selling of water to the inhabitants of Lancaster along its main line, and to the Lancaster Water Company, provided the needs of the inhabitants of Clinton are first supplied. The water bonds authorized have not all been issued. They yield four per cent, interest, payable April and October 1st, and run for twenty years. Work has recently begun upon an additional reservoir of thirty million gallons capacity.

In connection with the subject of water supply, that of public sewage was given to the consideration of the committee of 1875, and a report was made to the town March 5, 1877, advising that no action be taken at that time looking to any plan for a general system of drainage. The little reservoir of the Clinton Yarn Company, known as Counterpane Pond, had already become seriously polluted by the foul matter constantly poured into it from the carpet-mills and various other sources, and, being in the heart of the town, was a fruitful cause of complaint, especially from those dwelling in its immediate vicinity. A plan for a system of sewers was obtained from the noted engineer, Phineas Ball, in 1883, and a petition for authority to construct a sewerage system was presented to the Legislature of 1886. The petitioners, however, preferred to be given leave to withdraw rather than accept any bill prohibiting the discharge of unfiltered sewage into the Nashua River, a restriction which was demanded by the inhabitants of towns upon that stream below Clinton. The subject continues to be persistently debated, but the multiplicity and importitnee of the interests involved, and the cost of an efiicient and comprehensive system, have, thus far, prevented the adoption of any but a luake-shift policy. Pipes for house drainage are now being laid through the main streets.

The period of the town's life, thirty-eight years, has been one of almost uninterrupted prosperity, exempt from those episodes of great depression and financial disaster which frequently visit similar manufacturing towns. This is, doubtless, in part due to the high grade and great variety of the products of its mills and workshops, but greatly also to the friendly relations which have been sustained between labor and cajtital. It speaks much for the intelligence of its working citizens as well as for the liberal spirit of those who have managed the capital here invested, that the harmony which should exist between the employer and the employed has never been very seriously nor generally disturbed.

In the hard times of 1857 the larger manufactories, for several weeks, were run on half-time or less, and, but for the sympathy of the managers with theworkers, would have been closed. The tact, energy and unselfishness of Franklin Forbes were brought prominently into view during the trials of this critical period. The shares of the older companies gradually fell in the stock market to half their par value. The stock then, as now, was largely in the ownership of non-residents, a fact preventing any strong personal bond of sympathy between the wage-payer and the wage-earner. But the managers, though firm in the control of their great trusts, were tender of heart and heedful of the needs of the toilers for daily bread. The commercial stress, though long continued, therefore created little hitler antagonism. New inventions, and improvements of the old, were brought forward by E. B. Bigelow, cheapening manufacture, and when the clouds of civil war began to lift, a new era of prosperity dawned, surpassing that of earlier days.

In 1879 a reduction of wages was found necessary at the Lancaster Mills to compensate for a great depreciation in the market for ginghams, and was accepted without unusual demonstrations of dissatisfaction. In March, 1880, the old rates were voluntarily restored, when the manager was met by a demand from some of the weavers for an additional and large increase. This was firmly refused, as the petitioners were already receiving larger daily wages than given at other mills in New England for the same or similar labor. A portion of the weavers struck work, and for several days the community was excited by fears of trouble and loss. The cause of the disaffected, however, signally failed to win public sympathy, and, after about a month of idleness, the deserted looms were all manned again.

A similar difficulty arose in April, 1886, at the carpet-mills, when seventy-seven dyers, being refused demands deemed unreasonable, resolved to leave their work. Upon the attempt to fill the places vacated with workmen procured elsewhere, threats and abuse were used to intimidate the newcomers, and riotous demonstrations were made in the vicinity of the mills by certain sympathizers with the strikers. The manager at once closed the works, announcing that they would remain closed until the company's property and employes were safe from mob violence and insult. A strong special police force was organized, a few arrests were made, order was at once restored and in a few days the machinery was again set in motion.

These two short-lived disturbances, participated in by comparatively few, and those for the most part the least responsible, are all that blot the industrial annals of the town.

Associations for benevolent, charitable and social purposes, as well as mutual benefit societies, are exceedingly numerous in Clinton. Besides many more or less closely connected with the several churches, the following distinct organizations exist:

Odd-Fellows - having a hall in Greeley's Block : Lancaster Lodge, No. 89, organized 1846; Clinton Encampment, No. 29, organized 1883; Germania Lodge, No. 42, Daughters of Rebecca, instituted October 31, 1884.

Numerous nationalities are here represented. The Germans have a neat village by themselves, known as Germantovvn, with a house of worship and a capacious Turnverein Hall. The Irish are in the majority in three or four localities - notably the "Acre," "Duck Harbor" and "California." By the last census, the native-born numbered 5547, and the foreign-born, 339S, altliough three-fourths of the population are registered as of foreign parentage.

Of those born aliens, 2097 came from Ireland; 465 from Germany ; 295 from Scotland ; 257 from England ; 24S from various British provinces in America ; 9 from France ; 8 from Austria ; 4 from Italy, and 1 from China.

Of the one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in six per cent, bonds issued at the building of the town hall in 1872, twenty-seven thousand five hundred dollars remain unpaid, six thousand five hundred dollars of the amount having been annually called in. The school-house four per cent, loan, which was fifty-four thousand dollars in 1886, has been decreased six thousand dollars annually. Of the four per cent, water bonds, two hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars are outstanding, and nine thousand dollars in amount have been bought for the sinking fund. Most of the principal is due in 1901 and 1906.

The amount annually raised by tax.ation has grown from $9059 in 1850, when the tax rate was seven dollars to the thousand, to $104,598 in 1888, the rate being eighteen in a thousand.

The following citizens have served the town as Representatives in the Legislature: Horatio Nelson Bigelow, 1851-52; Andrew Lowell Fuller, 1854; James Ingalls, 1855; Horace Faulkner, 1856-58; Jonas Elijah Howe, 1860, 1870, 1872, 1887 ; Rev. JaredMann Heard, 1862; Franklin Forbes, 1864; Rev. Charles Manning Bowers, 186.5-66 ; Charles Whiting Worcester, 1868; Elisha Brimhall, 1871; Lucius Field, 1878, 1882 ; Daniel Bowman Ingalls, 1880; Edward Godfrey Stevens, 1881; Alfred Augustine Burditt, 1884; Jonathan Smith, 1886; Frank Edward Holm m, 1888-89. Charles Godfrey Stevens, Esq., was delegate in the State Convention of 1863.

Treasurers in order of service : Sidney Harris, one year; All'red Knight, four years; Sidney Harris, one year; Alfred Knight, ten years; Elisha Hriinhull, five years; Edwin N. Rice, four years; Wellington E. Parkhurst, one year; Alfred A. Burditt, one year; Henry O. Sawyer, one year; G. Walton Goss, ten years.

George Ide ("hace, born in Lancaster, February 19, 1808, son of Charles and Ruth Chace; graduate at Brown University, 1830; tutor of mathematics, 1831; l)rofessor of chemistry, 1834; of physiology, geology, etc., 1836 ; LL.D., 1853 ; president ad interim, 1867; professor of moral philosophy, 1868; died at Providence, R. I., April 29, 1885.

Chapter Xiii Masonic History.'

Trinity Lodce. - The charter of Trinity Lodge was dated January 30, 1778. It was issued by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, of which Joseph Warren was appointed the first (Jrand Master. Trinitv Lodge's charter was signed by Joseph Webb, Grand Miuster; Moses Deshon, Deputy Grand Master; Samuel Barrett, Senior Grand Warden; Paul Revere, Junior Grand Warden. It was addressed to Michael Newhall, Edmund Heard, James Wilder, Jonas Prescott and Richard P. Bridge. No previous dispensation had been granted these Masons to erect a lodge and initiate candidates ; but, as was often the case at that period, the charter was issued, in the first instance, upon application of the brethren. All the charter members were residents of within what are now the limits of Lancaster, except James Wilder, whose home was in the Squareshire District in Sterling. Newhall came from Bolton, and Heard from Worcester ; but neither had lived in Lancaster very long, nor did either of them die there. Newhall went to Leominster some time after 1800, and Heard removed to Lower Canada about 1793. Their places of death are unknown. Jonas Prescott was a descendant of John Prescott, one of the first settlers of the town. He always lived in Lancaster and died there. Of Richard P. Bridge very little is known. If a resident of Lancaster at all, he lived there but a short time and his name does not appear in the records after December, 1783. It is not known where any of the charter members received their Masonic degrees, though it was most probably in Boston, as at that time (1778) there was no lodge existing nearer than Boston and Newbury port.

Trinity Lodge was numbered six, but was the fifth in order chartered by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge. The Lodge of St. Andrew, of Boston, was number one, and was chartered November 30, 1756, though it had done some IMasonic work for two years or more, receiving its charter from Sholto Charles Douglass, Lord Arbedour, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland. By the concerted action of St. Andrew's and three traveling lodges, which were holden in the British army, then stationed in Boston, a commission was obtained from George, Earl of Dalhouse, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, apjiointing Joseph Warren Grand Master of Masons in Boston and within one hundred miles of the same, upon the receipt of which the brethren of the above-named lodges proceeded to organize the Massachusetts Grand Lodge. The first charter issued by this Grand body was to Tyrian Ijodge, of Gloucester, March 2, 1770. Then followed Massachusetts Lodge, of Boston, May 13, 1770; St. Peter's Lodge, Newburyport, March 6, 1777; Berkshire Lodge, Stockbridge, March 8, 1777 ; and Trinity Lodge, January 30, 1778. There were other Masonic Lodges in the >State, at the time Trinity was organized, which received their cbarlcrs from the St. John's Grand Lodge of Boston, a body chartered by Anthony, Lord Viscount Montague, Grand Master of Masons in England, in 1733. St. John's Grand Lodge issued charters for lodges in Boston, Nova Scotia, Philadelphia, Rhode Island and other States, and claimed jurisdiction over all the Masons in America, while the Massachusetts Grand Lodge had jurisdiction of Masons in Boston and within a hundred miles thereof only. The agitation which grew out of the existence of these rival bodies found its way into Trinity Lodge.

While the two grand bodies did not unite until 1792, yet as early as April, 1786, it was voted in Trinity Lodge, " to chuse a Comity of three to Consider of our Situation as a Lodge and Connection there is between us and the Massachusetts Grand Lodge or any other order of Antient Masons with their opinions of the proceedings necessary for us to take to render our

Situation More Eligable." And in the following June it was " voted to Acknowledge the Supremacy of the present Grand Lodge of Massachusetts on Condition our Quarterage take place from the present Date." There is no further allusion to the subject on the records of the lodge, and the union of the two grand bodies six years later created no disturbance in its relations to the Supreme Masonic authority of the State.

In its first years Trinity Lodge exercised jurisdiction over a wide territory. Applications were received and acted u|ion from Merrimack, Medford, Barre, Worcester, Oxford, Brookfield, Amherst, N. H., and even from Lower Canada. But the founding of new lodges, which proceeded rapidly after the close of the Revolutionary War, and notably the organization ol Morning Star Lodge in Worcester, in 1792, narrowed its jurisdiction, and during its last years in Lancaster itcovered a territory no larger than that now embraced in the territory of the present Trinity Lodge of Clinton.

Its records up to 1783 and subsequent to 1800 arc missing, and but little of its history, except between those dates, is known. Michael Newhall was the first Master, and he was succeeded by Timothy Whiting, Jr., and probably by Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, though this is not certain. Thomas was a member up to about 1792, and among the very earliest of the existing records is described as a Past Master. In 1783 the listof officers was as follows : Edmund Heard, Master; James Wilder, Senior Warden; Ephraim Carter, Junior Warden; Joseph Carter, Treasurer; Moses Smith, Secretary; James Wyman, Senior Deacon; Samuel Adams, Junior Deacon; Jonas Fairbank, Senior Steward ; John Prescott, Junior Steward.

There was evidently considerable interest in the order prior to 1800, notwithstanding the hard times following the Revolution. The records show a good attendance at the meetings, and that on every meeting night, from 1783 to 1801, through summer and winter, the lodge was regularly opened with a full set of oflicers and a liberal representation of the brethren. The number present varied from twelve to fifty at each communication, and in the eighteen years following 1783 one hundred and forty candidates received their degrees.

The first hall occupied by the lodge in 1778 was in a building once standing on the site of the house now owned by Daniel Howard, in South Lancaster.

as the Ballard House. When it was torn down, man_\ years ago, there could still be seen at one end of the north front chamber the platform and other indications of the lodge's tenancy. Some trouble afterwards grew up between the lodge and Edmund Heard over the lodge's occupation. AVhen Heard purchased the property he borrowed of the lodge £224 43. 6rf. (£35 7s. 2d., reduced scale) with which to pay for it. Matters run along until 1788, when, after repeated efforts on part of the brethren, a settlement was had, at which Mr. Heard presented a long bill for sundry repairs on the house and hall, and for care of the lodge-room and property. The matter was finally settled by Heard's giving the lodge his note for £56 lis. 4rf., at the reduced scale, and a lease of the " hall with the chamber adjoining, with the usual privilege the Lodge have heretofore had in the house from time to time, and at all times so long as the Lodge shall continue as a Lodge." But the lodge did not always remain there. In February, 1799, a committee was appointed " to make provisions for a suitable hall for Trinity Lodge," and in the following February another committee was chosen to " contract with Brother Merrick Rice to furnish a suitable and convenient hall for the use of the Lodge." But when it removed to the new quarters, and how long it there remained, are unknown. One of the houses then owned by Merrick Rice is the same now occupied by Mrs. E. M. Greene, in the Centre Village, and it is probable, but not certain, that it was to this house the lodge removed in 1799. Afterward, the lodge occupied a hall in the Lancaster Hotel, and as the order grew unpopular, about 1826, the furniture was removed to a private room in the house of some one of the brethren, where the faithful continued to assemble until the organization became finally extinct.

The meetings were on the first Monday of each month, lasting from four o'clock p.m. until eight o'clock, uj) to September, 1787, when the dates were changed from four o'clock on the first Jlonday of every month until six o'clock p.m. on the first Tuesday of August, October, December, February, April and June. But in February, 1790, the dates were again changed to the first Tuesday of every month, from six o'clock to ten p.m., and so continued, though in 1792 the hour was changed back to four o'clock.

The brethren faithfully observed the feast days of the order. The festival of St. John the Eivangelist (in December) was celebrated in their hall, only members of the craft being admitted. But the feast of St. John the Baptist (June 2-1 th) was public, and often an imposing affair. All the brethren were summoned, and the clergy in the neighboring towns, whether Masons or not, were formally invited, and one of them, by special request of the lodge, preached a sermon. The brethren assembled at their hall at nine a.m., transacted any business that came before them, and at eleven a procession was formed which marched to the church to attend a religious service. Sometimes, as at the celebration in 1790, they were escorted thither " by a well-disciplined company of cavalry in complete uniforms,'' and were preceded by " a band of music playing Entered Apprentice Song." The services were interspersed with singing by selected choirs, and were listened to by large audiences, " whose attention and decency of behavior manifested an unfeigned approbation of the animating truths delivered." After the service tlie bretliren, witli tlie clergy and invited guests, returned to the hall, where a grand bantjuet was served. At the festival in 1790 the following toasts were drank :

Among the clergymen who jjreached on these occasions were Kev. Mr. Sumner, of Shrewsbury, in 1789; Rev. Phineas Whitney, of Shirley, in 1790; Rev. Peter Whitney, of Northboro', in 1792; and Rev. Wm. Emerson (father of Ralph Waldo Emer.son), of Harvard, in 1793. After 1792 Trinity and Morning Star Lodges often united in the observance of this feast, meeting alternately in Worcester and Lancaster. On these occasions the programme was very elaborate, and was successfully carried out to the great pleasure and, be it hoped, to the edification of all the brethren.

The meetings of the lodge were occasions of refreshment, as well as labor. A suggestive fact is the amount of the steward's bill, which was presented at the close of every meeting and promptly ordered paid. In 1 793 a committee was chosen " to accommodate the Hall with a conveniency for mixing liquors," and at another time it was voted, " That the Treasury furnish some brother with money to purchis 2 Dozen Tumblers ;" and as a preparation for one of their June festivals, they ])rocured five dozen tumblers for the banquet. But no intemperance or excess was tolerated ; for at one of the meetings a committee was intemperate habits. The admonition did not cure the appetite, however, for subsequently the lodge, by a formal vote, debarred the erring brother from the privilege of celebrating the approaching Feast of St. John's with them. But, with all these festivities, the records show that the lodge was fully alive to its duties to the '' poor and distressed," and to their widows and orphans. They buried their dead brethren, relieved the widows, made liberal donations of money to those in misfortune, and, in many other ways, extended sympathy and help to those in need in a manner which made it a society dear to its members and sincerely re.spected by the community,

In those days Washington was regarded as the most illustrious i)atron of the order in America. At all Ma.sonic festivals his health was drank and his virtues eulogized in speech and song. His death wfis the occasion of a memorial service by Trinity Lodge. At a special communication held .lanuary 11, 1800, the lodge voted to meet on the 22d of the following February, " for the purpose of testifying in a public manner the sorrow we feel on acct. of the decease of the greatest and best of men, Br. Geul. George Washington." The hall was draped in black and all the brethren summoned to be present. Rev. Nathaniel

Thayer was invited to i)reach the .sermon. There was a very large attendance, and citizens and soldiers joined in the procession to the church. "The discourse," .says the record, " delineated in a comprehensive manner the virtues and excellencies of the deceased, and enjoined it on all the Brethren to imitate, as much as i>ossible, his great and unequalled virtues." After the services a banquet was held at the hall of the lodge. In the records a memorial page is given to Washington, as follows :

Bkother Geoegb Washington

Among those holding the office after 1800 were Joel Pratt, Luke Bigelow, John G. Thurston and Calvin Carter. The dates and length of their services are unknown.

The year in which the lodge ceased to hold meetings is in doubt. It was not represented in the Grand Lodge after 1824, and it ceased to exist as an active organization about 1832. The Morgan excitement and the political agitation arising therefrom were the principal causes of its decline. The society became unpopular. The hall was given up and a small room obtained, where, for a time, the faithful of the craft continued to meet. At last even this was abandoned, and the lodge property was taken in charge by Johti G. Thurston, one of the members. A part was stored in his attic, where it was found twenty-five or more years later, and the altar, pedestals and some other articles were i)ut into his barn, and were never recovered. Neither the charter nor any of the furniture or regalia were surrendered to the Grand Lodge. When the lodge was reorganized in Clinton in 1858, the old charter, a portion of the records, the jewels, seal and many papers belonging to the Old Trinity Lodge were recovered, and are now deposited in the archives of the new organization, where they still remain as interesting relics of the elder Trinity Lodge.