Worcester City (part 17 of 58)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Xxx

Miscellaneous - Representatives to Congress. - In 1820 and 1822 Benjamin Adams was elected Representalive to Congress and served his district and State with great fidelity and al)ility. He is the only citizen of Uxbridge who ever had the honor of a seat in Congress.

Daley, 1883 ; Michael Eeilly (2d) 1885 ; Daniel W. Taft, 1887 ; Silas M. Wheelock (Senator), 1887, '88. During the next decade Uxbridge will be represented only every third year.

Post-offices. - The first post-office in Uxbridge was established in the village of Ironstone, then the largest village in the town, lii 1810 an office was established in North Uxbridge, in the house of Samuel Read, on the Boston and Hartford turnpike, where it remained until 1852, when it was removed to Rogerson's Village, near the Mills, where it remained until 1885, when it was removed to Chase's Corner, near its original location.

The postmasters of this office have been Samuel Read, George Adams, C. E. Whitin, A. S. Sweet and H; C. Chase, the present incumbent. This office accommodated for many years the towns of Northbridge and Douglas.

In 1825 a post-office was established at the Centre Village, in the brick store then owned by the Messrs. Capron. John W. Carpenter was the first postmaster, and his successors have been Sullivan, Thayer, Thomas Aldrich, R. D. Mowry, Charles B. Rawson, Charles A. Taft and Henry S. Farnuni, the present incumbent. This office is now the principal post-ofiice in the town and pays its postmaster an annual salary of about twelve hundred dollars, an increase of about four hundred dollars in the last eight years.

In 1S72 a District Court for Uxbridge, Blackstone, Northbridge and Douglas was established for civil and criminal business, having jurisdiction of all civil actions, when the ad damnum in the writ does not exceed three hundred dollars. Court is held every week-day alternately in Uxbridge and Blackstone; on Mondays for civil business in Blackstone and on Saturdays for civil business in Uxbridge. A. A. Put nam, Esq., was appointed justice of the court and still presides over it. The associate justices are Francis N. Thayer, Esq., of Blackstone, and W. J. Taft, Esq., of Mendon, the latter gentleman having an office in Uxbridge.

Uxbridge has also had good reason to be proud of its medical profession, for its physicians have been uniformly men of skill and excellent character, who have done much for the health and prosperity of the town. Among them are the honored names of Dr. Wood, the first physician to settle in the town ; Dr. Samuel Willard, Dr. George Willard, Dr. Augustus C. Taft, Dr. Smith, Dr. A. W. Bennett, Dr. J. W. Bobbins, Dr. J. M. Macomber, Dr. Chauncey A.

Wilcox, Dr. Wm. L. Johnson, Dr. L. D. White, Dr. W. L. Sanders and Dr. Benj. Joslyn. Dr. A. W. Fuller and Dr. F. J. Partridge have recently moved into town. It would be a pleasing task to write the biographies of many of these professional laborers of both the professions, but the space allotted to Uxbridge in the history of the county peremptorily demands brevity and condensation ; ao their many friends "must take the will for the deed."

Newspapers, etc. - The first and only newspaper published in Uxbridge was started by Geo. W. Spencer, a printer who had formerly jiublished the Doufihis Herald and conducted a small job-printing office in East Douglas. Mr. Spencer, believing Uxbridge a better field for his labors in the newpaporial line, removed his presses and type to this town, and in August, 1872, issued the fir.st number of his paper, which he called T/ie Worcester South Compendium, Spencer Bros., proprietors. The firm consisted of Geo. \V. Spencer and Charles A. W. Spencer, the elder brother being the editor and general manager of the paper, while the younger took charge of the jobprinting, which soon grew to quite a business. The paper was a well-edited, spicy little weekly, Republican in politics and progressive in its ethics. In 1877 C. A. W. Spencer retired from the firm and Mr. L. H. Balcome suceeded him ; the firm then became Spencer & Balcome. In 1879 Mr. Balcome bought out his partner and became and has since been sole proprietor. In July, 1880, Mr. Balcome finding the old name too long and desiring to make his paper still more a local organ, changed the name of his publication to The Uxbridge Compendium - which name it still retains - and was i.ssued as an eight-page paper. For several years Mr. C. W. Greene was the editor, but Mr. Balcome for the past two years has been sole editor and manager, and, with a good corps of reporters to gather up the news, would have the credit of publishing a good country weekly. The old presses used by Spencer Bros, have been thrown out and new powerpres.ses run by steam-power have been substituted. One of the busiest places now to be found in the centre of the town is the Compendium office. If the increasing businei<s of the office will warrant it. The Daily Coinpendiuta wil! at no distant day be welcomed in every household.

The Uxbridge Water Company was incorporated in 1881, for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants of Uxbridge with pure water for domestic purposes. Its reservoirs, on Lawler Hill, are fed by springs, and will contain half a million gallons. Pipes are laid through the principal streets, and the water supply is excellent and sufficient. A number of hydrants placed at convenient distances furnish adequate protection against damage by fire, and the company is entitled to great credit for its service to the public.

The Judson Memorial. - In the year 1869 Deacon Willard Judson, an esteemed citizen of the town, and a sou of Rev. Samuel Judson, formerly pastor of the Orthodox Church, desiring to manifest his great interest in the town in a quiet, unassuming manner, instructed his attorney, Geo. W. Hobbs, Esq., to purchase of the Howard Watch and Clock Company, of Boston, one of its best tower clocks, and ask the town, at its annual meeting, then soon to be held, to accept the same, as a gift from one who preferred that his name should not be made known until after his decease, imposing as the only condition that the town should keep the clock in running order.

Mr. Judson also desired that the clock should be placed upon the Unitarian Church, as it could be seen more generally than if placed elsewhere. When the matter was brought before the town, great interest was manifested by the citizens, and the gift was accepted without a dissenting voice. The knowing ones, of court<e, knew who gave the clock, and many difierent gentlemen were named, but not a single guesser guessed aright. Mr. Judson died in May, - 1882, and then, for the first time, his name was published by his attorney, as the donor of the clock. For nearly twenty years it has faithfully recorded the passage of time, and its resounding strokes, upon the sweet-toned church bell, marking the hours as they fly, serve to remind the people of their benefactor, and call attention to this unique memorial of a public-spirited citizen.

Farmers' Chih. - In the year 1878 the farmers of Uxbridge and Mendon formed a Farmers' Club, and gavcannual exhibitions forabout five years, when, the Worcester Southeast Agricultural Society, located at Milford, having surrendered its charter, the Farmers' Club was discontinued, and its members applied for, and received, a charter as an agricultural society, to be located at Uxbridge, under the name of the Blackstone Valley Agricultural Society.

The new society purchased extensive grounds, and erected cattle-sheds and pens, and built a track for the trial of farm and family carriage horses only, horse-racing for purses being expressly prohibited.

It has started out with the intention of being a farmers', and not a jockeys' society ; and thus far has proved by its success the wisdom of its plans.

The fame of its fairs, and exhibitions of cattle, second to none in the State, calls to its annual exhibitions the best Hocks and herds in the county, and so great is the demand for space that new sheds and pens must soon be erected. The fall exhibition is always exceptionally fine, and attracts great crowds of visitors. It is an institution of which the farmers of the Blackstone Valley may well be proud.

No other town, of the size and population of Uxbridge, had been more successful in bringing up a large number of active and energetic business men than this. Of those who have left behind them pleasant memories, I may name the following : John Caprou, Daniel Day, Ananias Gilford, Jonathan Whipple, Samuel Read, Ephraim Spring, Alpheus

Bayliss, Frederick Taft, Eastman Taft, Jerry Wheelock, Amariah Chapin, Jonathan Gregory, Abiel Jaques, George Willard, Deacon Daniel Payne, Adolphus Spring, Daniel Carpenter, Cato Willard, Daniel Farnum, Peter White, Manley Scott, Bezaleel Taft, Joseph Thayer, Orsmus Taft, Willard Judson and numerous members of the families of Taft, Thayer, Seagrave, Spring, Wood, Farnum, Thompson, Williams, Wheelock, Sayles and others, whose names are household words. Uxbridge has also sent such men as Stephen C. Greene, Josiah, Royal and Amory Chapin, Jacob, Josiah, Edward and Geo. W. Seagrave, John, Paul, Peter, Moses and Welcome Farnum, Sylvanus Holbrook, Efiingham L. Capron, Asa Newell, Joseph Carpenter, Daniel Day, Royal C. Taft (now Governor of Rhode Island), Caleb Farnum, David F. and Cyrus G. Wood, Geo. T. Murdock, Stephen and Jason Emerson, Newell Tyler, Daniel Seagrave, Dr. William Bayliss, Nicholas Bayliss, Willard Preston, D.D. and a host of others whose names are preminent in the professional and commercial world, and who are proud to acknowledge themselves children of Uxbridge to the manor born.

There are larger and older towns in Worcester County than Uxbridge, but there are none more beautiful, healthy and delighful to live in than this.

With no debt, and light taxes, with pleasant, .sociable neighbors and townspeople ; with fine churches, excellent schools, no license and high morality, surely we may be pardoned for the pride we take in claiming a place in the front rank of Worcester County towns.

Moses Taft

Moses Taft, who is well known as having been, for more than half a century, largely engaged in the manufacture of woolens, was born in Uxbridge, Mass., January 26, 1812, near where Daniel Day, in 1810, built the first woolen-mill in this town.

His father, Luke Taft, the fifth in descent from Robert Taft, the Puritan ancestor, who came from England and settled in Mendon, Mass., about 1680, was born in Uxbridge June 3, 1783, and was brought up as, and followed the occupation of, a farmer till about 1816, when, probably attracted by the hum of the spindle and the thud of the loom of the nearby Day Mill, he was led to procure a jenny of twenty spindles and a hand-loom (there were no others at that time), which he set up in his house and began the manufacture of satinets.

This machinery in the house gave Moses, at an early age, an opportunity to observe some of the processes of manufacturing, and, at the age of seven years, was given his first work in the business, - that of winding bobbins for the weaver. This was the extent of liis manufacturing e.xperience till liis fatlier, in 1821, hired room and power in the Day Mill, when he was inducted into the mysteries of piecing rolls and tending carding-machines.

In 1824 his father bought a water-power on the West River, with land suitable for factory, dwellings and other necessary buildings, and built his dam and canal iu the autumn of that year and his fiictory the next year. The fiictory was put into operation in the fall of 1825, with two sets of cards and twenty powerlooms, - the goods made being satinets.

Moses was here employed in the various departments suitable to his age, attending the usual short terms of the winter schools, with an occasional term in the academy in this town, till 1827, when he received the advantage of a term at the Friends' School, then a popular school, in Bolton, Mass., of which Thomas Fry was the instructor.

The few advantages the district schools aftbrded with those named above, together with the application made by him to obtain an education, and the practical advantages received in the business life he followed in his younger days, has enabled him to discharge, in an efficient and highly satisfactory manner, most important duties, as will be seen as the narrative proceeds.

On his return from Bolton he again took his place in the mill till the spring of 1829, when he took up the occupation of clerk in the store of John Capron & Sons. The business of that company having been closed up by failure, Moses returned to his home, and entered at once upon the business of manufacturing in his father's mill, - making himself expert in every department, from the ability to make a proper selection of stock for the goods that were to be made, to the putting up the finished goods for market.

At eighteen years of age he was competent to take full charge of the mill, after which time his father devoted his time principally to his farm and other business interests.

In 1837 Mr. Taft entered into partnership with his father and brother-in-law, Caleb T. Ohapiu, under the style of " The East River Manufacturing Company."

From this time Luke Taft practically left the business of manufacturing -simply holding his estate and giving his sons the advantage of his advice and credit.

If any manufacturer remembers as far back as 1837, it will be with almost a shudder, as it comes back to him, as to how he lived through that year of trial and failure on all sides of him, and yet contrived to pay one hundred per cent, on all his bills.

This company, though severely tried, as every one was in that year from the integrity of its members, never compromised any of its debts, but paid in full all claims against it.

In 1840 Luke Taft sold one-half of his manufacturing real estate and power to J. Wheolock & Son, and retired entirely from the risks and cares incident to manufacturing, - his son, ]Moses, taking the other half of the property and machinery, - Mr. Caleb T. Chapin giving up his interest in the " East River Manufacturing Company," and taking the superintendency of a cotton-mill in Northbridge.

From this time (1840) till April, 1846, Moses Taft ran his half of the mill successfully. At this last period he sold his share of the estate and machinery to C. A. & S. M. Wheelock.

Soon after the sale to C. A. & S. M. Wheelock, he, in company with Mr. Samuel W. Scott, who had been in his employment several years, hired a mill in Burrillville, R. I., where the present Mohegan Mill stands, and engaged in the manufacture of satinets, under the style of Taft & Scott, which continued till the burning of the mill, in the winter of 1849-50, when the business of this firm was closed up and the firm dissolved.

In 1849 he entered into partnership with James W. Day, a grandson of Daniel Day, the pioneer woolen manufacturer of Uxbridge, under the style of Taft & Day, and hired the Capron Mill, in this town, and commenced there the manufacture of satinets.

After a few years' successful business in the Capron Mill, Deacon Wm. C. Capron became a partner, when the firm took the style of Taft, Day & Co., which was shortly changed to Taft & Capron by the withdrawal of Mr. Day from the company.

The firm of Taft & Capron continued till about 1862, when the business and unexpired lease of the mill was sold to Messrs. R. & J. Taft, and the firm of Taft & Capron was dissolved.

Before selling his interest in the factory built by his father to C. A. & S. M. Wheelock, Mr. Taft had conceived the idea of building a factory on the west side of the Blackstone River, above the dam of the "Uxbridge Woolen Company."

To do this it would be necessary to secure all the interest of the "Blackstone Canal Company," in water and canal together, with a release from each individual owner on the river of the right to divert the water and to procure all necessary land for the erection of factory, tenements and other conveniences required for such an establishment.

Having obtained all the necessary titles and releases to the estate in 1852, he laid the foundation for the mill, which was built the following year, with tenements and other necessary buildings.

This mill, which was known for some thirty years as the "Central Woolen Mill," was leased first to Messrs. Southwick & Sayles, till 1859, then to Messrs. Bradford, Taft & Co., of Providence, R. I.

In 1865 Mr. Taft sold his " Central Mill " estate to Messrs. R. & J. Taft, who, in 1883, sold the property to the " Calumet Woolen Company,'' a corporation that now holds the estate.

Since retiring from the " Capron Mill" Mr. Taft^ has been, and now ia, interested in several woolenmills, namely - the " Caryville Mill," in Bellingham, Mass., with seven sets of machinery ; the " Douglas Woolen Mill," in East Douglas, Mass., with five sets of machinery; the " Chattanooga Mill," in Ashland, Mass., with five sets of machinery ; besides an interest in the " Putnam Woolen Company," in Putnam^ Conn., and the " Calumet Woolen Company," in this town.

Not alone as a manufacturer has Mr. Taft been known. Since 1865 he has been president of the " Blackstone National Bank of Uxbridge, Mass.," besides being a member of its board of directors for several years previous to that date. He has also been president of the " Uxbridge Savings Bank " from its organization, in 1870.

Nor has he been negligent of his duties as a citizen or failed to receive the confidence and honors in the gift of his fellow-townsmen, having been elected and served several years on the Board of Selectmen of the town and as chairman of the board. In 184.') he represented the town in the General Court for that year He has served " Uxbridge Lodge, No. 120, 1. O. O. F.," some fifteen years as its treasurer.

In the parish of the " First Congregational Society " he has often been called upon to discharge the duties of various committees and to assist in matters of great importance.

In all the affairs of business life, in all the various duties of social life, as citizen, as neighbor, as friend, he has been conscientious, faithful and considerate helping where help has been needed, and givinggood advice where advice was the best thing to give.

When Moses Taft is withdrawn (may it be long before itshall be ! ) from the business and duties of life, it may be truly said a man will be missed.

Jerry Wheelock

Jerry Wheelock, born in Uxbridge, Mass., September 19, 1784, was well known in this vicinity (Uxbridge, Worcester County, Mass.) as an ingenious mechanic, both as a builder and operator of woolen machinery in the early days of woolen manufacturing.

He was of the sixth generation from the original immigrant of the race, Ralph Wheelock, who w.is born in Shropshire, England, in 1600. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, was a dissenting preacher, and came from England in 1637, when the tide of persecution ran highest. After remaining in Watertown one year, he removed to Dedham at the time of its settlement, and was active in the formation of the church there ; was a freeman in 1639. He was the founder of Medfield, which waa set off" from Dedham in 1650, and received the first grant of a house-lot in that town.

1741 in Mendon, Mass. The first we hear of Simeon is on a memorandum book kept by him as an orderly at "Crown Point, dated Aug. 4, 1760; then under the command of Christopher Harris, Colonel of the R. 1. Regiment."

He came to Uxbridge probably in 1768, as he appears in the registry November 28, 1763, as declaring intention of marriage with Miss Deborah Thayer, of Mendon.

He was a blacksmith by trade, and bought the land now owned by the heirs of Royal Jefterson and others, a little north of the " First Congregational Society's Meeting-house," of John Harwood in 1768, and built the house now standing there, and where most of his children were born. His blacksmithshop is said to have stood opposite his house, and about where the academy building now stands. He was town clerk of Uxbridge from 1773-77, and was also a soldier in the War of the Revolution.

He joined the government forces in suppressing the Shays' Rebellion, and died at Springfield in consequence of injuries received from a fall on the ice in descending Arsenal Hill, leaving a widow and eight children; Jerry, the youngest, being in the third year ,of his age.

The family was left in somewhat straitened circumstances, and the more so from the fact that the father had sold his estate in the centre of the town, and bought a place some three miles away, which, after his death, was found to be mortgaged; and to save what had already been paid, nearly as much more was paid by the widow.

At this time it is evident that Jerry, at the age of a little more than two years, was left to the care of a mother in straitened circumstances, with other children of tender age, who were likewise dependent on the same over-burdened care.

We, whose children find everywhere the best appliances for obtaining an education, can scarcely conceive of a time when the best means for obtaining (irey education was to lie on the hearth before afire of blazing pine-knots with such books as those times aftbrded ; or, when attending the schools of that day for the short time they were kept, to be told

After a discussion in a town-meeting on the subject of appropriating money for educational purposes, in which the writer took a part, his father said to him, and with more feeling than he ever saw him manifest on any other occasion : " Charles, I never want any child told as I have been - ' You pay nothing for your schooling, therefore you must give your seat to , who pays.' "

His education, and it was rjood for the times, must have been principally obtained from his mother, who, from papers in my possession of her preparation, must have had a superior education for a woman of those times.

At a suitable age he learned the trade of a " Set workman," a trade now made entirely obsolete by the large factories that by power machines turn out hundreds of cedar pails and tubs daily.

He next took up the trade of turner, and made bobbins and spools for John Slater. Afterwards he took up the business of chair-making, which he followed for several years.

Jerry Wheelock having married the eldest daughter of Mr. Day, became a member of the manufacturing firm of Daniel Day & Co. Having natural taste for mechanics and tact in the management of machinery, after a few years he left the company and went into the employment of Artemas Dryden, Jr., of Holden, Mass., who was then, and for many years after, noted as a builder of woolen-carding machinas, and was engaged, principally, in setting up and putting into operation machines of his make in various places ; and was setting up machinery in Falmouth, Mass., in 1814, during its bombardment by the British ship-of-war " Nimrod."

In 1814 the association - afterwards incorporated - known as the " Rivulet Manufacturing Company " was formed. Jerry Wheelock became a member of the association, and was the mechanical manager and superintendent of the mill till the spring of 1819, when he gave up the place and returned to his old home and immediately commenced the building of woolen machinery.

This business he continued till 1834. He was well known, not only in this immediate vicinity, but in parts of Connecticut, New Hampshire and the eastern part of New York, as a thorough workman and as making great improvement in the machinery he built, both in its workmanship and in the ease and perfection of its operation.

In 1834 he abandoned the building of machinery and went into manufacturing in company with his sons, which he continued till 184G, when he retired from active business.

Strict integrity and the most perfect workmanship possible with the means possessed for doing work, it is believed, are the characteristics that would be ascribed to him by those best acquainted with him.

Of the former, when advised by his sons that, considering the risks of business and his age, it was best for him to withdraw from business, after considering the matter with regard to reflections that might fall on him in case of failure of his successors, he said to the writer: "Charles, I am not going to shirk any responsibility or have it said I left the business to escape from it ; and I want you to remember all my interest in this property must be considered as much at stake as if my name stood as a member of the iirm."

Fortunately, by good luck or good management, no risk was incurred and no call was made upon his property to make good the failure of his successors.

.Of his workmanship, the greatest fault ever found with it, was that the unimportant with him, was just as important as the most important in the eyes of others ; and at times many careless persons would consider time thus spent to be spent to a useless purpose.

Whether, in view of the great inclination to slight work without regard to consequences that may follow, this should be written down against him as a grievous fault is left for others to judge.

As a citizen he was honored by his townsmen with the various municipal oflices of the town, the duties of which he discharged with the same faithfulness as he did all other works.

Silas Mandeville Wheelock

Mr. Wheelock, well known as a manufacturer and business man for some fifty years, was born in Uxbridge, Mass., November 11, 1817, at the time his father, Jerry Wheelock, was superintendent and mechanical agent of " The Rivulet Manufacturing Company." He has always been a resident of the town of his nativity, and never lived without the limits of the school district of his early boyhood.

He early manifested an ability for the management of affairs, and whatever work he was called upon to perform, he was always able to find playmates ready to assist him in his work while he did the planning and superintending; and it may safely be said, and, as his life will show, this faculty has never been lost.

His opportunity for obtaining an education was very limited. The district school of about ten weeks of a male teacher in winter, and about the same length of time of a female teacher in summer, to which was added three or four terms to a select school in this town, taught by young college graduates, among whom were Mr. E. Porter Dyer, afterward Congregational minister in Shrewsbury, in this county, and Mr. C. C. Jewett, afterward Prof Jewett, librarian of "Smithsonian Institute" and of the " Boston Public Library."

Early in life, in his ninth year, he began work in a woolen-mill at almost the only work that children of that age could be employed, - piecing rolls.

From that time he has been constantly connected with woolen manufacturing in some form, - as workman in its various branches, as superintending in some of its departments, and as manager and financier of private companies and corporations, and in having

In 1846 the business firm of C. A. & 8. M. Wheelock was formeil, the Imsiness being the manufacture of satinets, plaid linseys and tweeds. This business was continued till 1855, when, after making a very considerable enlargement of its factory and putting in steam power, it entered upon the manufacture of fancy cas simeres, giving up its other manufactures. Tliis business has been continued to the present time, now nearly forty-three years, during which time S. M. Wheelock has been the general business manager and financier.

In 1870 he bought the Harriss Woolen Company's property in Putnam, Conn., consisting of a factory, twelve sets of woolen machinery, water-power, onefourth of the Quinnebaug River at this point, together with dwelling-houses and other property.

This purchase, in connection with business men, was organized under an act of incorporation by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut as " The Putnam Woolen Company.'' After an increase of the capital stock in 1880, a second factory with machinery power, one-fourth of the Quinnebaug houses and other property, was bought and added to the previous purchase. S. M. Wheelock was chosen treasurer of the company and business manager, which position he maintained till the fall of 1887, when other business occupied so much of his attention as to make it expedient for him to resign the treasurership of this company.

In 1883 he purchased the Central Mill property in this town, consisting of factory, machinery, power, the whole of the Blackstone River at this point, houses and other property. A company of business men being formed and incorporated under the general corporation laws of Massachusetts as the " Calumet Woolen Company," took the property, and after making extensive repairs and changes and additions, began the manufacture of fancy cassimeres, S. M. Wheelock being the treasurer and principal manager of the company.

In 188(5 he purchased the property known as the Uxbridge Woolen Factory, which included buildings, machinery, power, the whole of the Blackstone River at this point, dwelling-houses and other property. The Calumet Woolen Company, after an increase of its capital stock, took this property, and after making very great alterations and additions, have put it into operation as " The Hecla Mill."

Since this last purchiise and putting into operation of the Hecla Mill, he has continued, as before, the management of the Calumet Mills, and also the Wacautuck Mills, by which name the mills of C. A. & S. M. Wheelock are known.

S. M. Wheelock has manifested but little ambition for political life, although he has discharged the duties of one of the Board of Selectmen of this town for some three or four years, and served on various committees appointed for temporary purposes.

In 1887 his friends thought his age and practical ability fitted him for the discharge of the duties appropriate to a member of the Massachusetts Legislature.

At a Republican convention held for the purpose of nominating a candidate to represent the Second Worcester Senatorial District in the then ne.xt General Court he received the nomination for that position, which was duly confirmed by his election in November following to the Senate of Massachusetts by a majority that showed him and his immediate friends that it was not merely as a partisan he owed his election, but for his qualities as a man of practical ability.

He has this year - in accordance with the general rule of the political parties in relation to Senators - been again elected to the same position by a gratifying majority.

It is not as a politician on which the reputation of S. M. Wheelock is to stand, but as a thorough, practical business man, for which he early in life manifested a striking ability ; for stern integrity in business matters, worth more th.an millions obtained by fraud and chicanery. For more than fifty years of business life, during which time revulsions in business have been encountered that have swamped those apparently the most strongly prepared to endure the storm, he has been able to fulfill all his engagements, never paying less than one hundred per cent. But in doing this it has sometimes been felt as a hardship to be obliged to compete with those who, after settling their obligations for fifty per cent, or less, still continued to meet him in the busine-s mart.

Richard Sayles was born September 1.3, 1819, at Gloucester, R. I., situated in the northwestern part of the State, in Providence County. Here he lived with his parents, attending school until eleven years old ; he then went to live with a farmer a few miles distant from his home, receiving for the first year a compensation of eleven dollars and board, and during the winter months a few weeks of schooling. Out of this sum he clothed himself and saved nearly one-third of it. He was well liked by his employer and continued with him on the farm until sixteen years of age, each year receiving an advance in wages and saving a large part. At sixteen he left the farm and entered a grocery-store in Providence, R. I., as clerk, retaining the position al>out five years. In 1840 he came to Uxbridge and attended school in the Old Academy building for one year, having earned and saved the money to pay his tuition while a clerk at Providence. He was a diligent student, and, with characteristic energy and industry, employed his time in a ])rofitable manner outside of school hours: in company with a fellow-student of his own age, he hired a piece of land, from which they raised a large crop and disposed of it at a profit, all the work of cultivation being performed out of school hours. At the end of his year's schooling at the Old Academy he entered the employ of the Uxbridge Woolen Company, and remained with them about three years. He then returned to Providence and bought out his former employer in the grocery business, at the corner of Charles and Randall Streets. The business proved successful, and he continued in it three years, and then returned to Uxbridge again and entered the employ of the Uxbridge Woolen Company as bookkeeper, filling the position some six years with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the company, who offered him an interest in their business to remain with them. January 1, 184(), while in the grocery business, in Providence, he was married to Sarah Eddy McBride, who was born at Bolton, Mass., October 14, 1822, at the time of her marriage re.siding at Northbridge, Mass. Her parents were members of the Society of Friends. April 1, 1853, Mr. Sayles entered the employ of Mr. Moses Taft, of Uxbridge, and superintended the building and equipment of the Centreville Woolen-Mill, now known as the Calumet Mill, on the completion of which, in the summer of 1853, he, in company with his brother-inlaw, Mr. Israel M. Southwick, hired the mill, and, under the firm-name of Southwick & Sayles, commenced the manufacture of a fine grade of fancy cassimeres, which they continued successfully until July 1, 1859. They then sold out to Messrs. Bradford, Taft & Co., of Providence, R. I., Mr. Sayles remaining with the new firm in the capacity of agent and superintendent, and Mr. Southwick as mastermechanic. Messrs. Bradford, Taft & Co. were succeeded by Messrs. Taft, Weeden & Co. Mr. Sayles remained with them until January 1, 1864. During a part of the time, from July 1, 1859, to January 1, 1864, - that is, from the breaking out of the War of Rebellion, - the mill was engaged in the manufacture of a fine grade of indigo blue goods for officers' overcoats and suitings, all of the product being contracted direct to the United States (Tovernment, and receiving the highest commendation. Tlie mill for a time was run day and night upon this line of goods, requiring sixteen blue vats for the coloring of the wool. During this period of manufacture for the army the duties devolving upon Mr. Sayles were excessive, often requiring his |iresence at the mill until late at night ; this close application to business proved too severe a strain upon him and resulted, January 1, 1864, in a severe shock of paralysis, from which he did not fully recover for several months. After a partial recovery, having severed his connection with Messrs. Taft, Weeden & Co., he leased, about April 1, 1864, the Laurel Ridge Woolen-Mill, in thetownof Burrillville, R. I., and village of Pascoag, operating it for one year in the manufacture of satinets, residing during the time with his family in Uxbridge. May 28, 1864, in company with David A. McBride, a brother-in-law, he bought of Mr. Chandler Taft the old Rivulet Mill property, situated in the north part of the town. After moderate improvements and repairs, they commenced the manufacture of shoddy, supplying Mr. Sayles' mill, in Pascoag, and also manufacturing for the market. They continued this business successfully for about two years. On February 9, 1866, Mr. Sayles purchased Mr. McBride's interest in the property and sold the same to Mr. Israel M. Southwick, his former partner at the Centreville Mill. Immediately they commenced extensive additions to the property with the intention of manufacturing fancy cassimeres ; but owing to the great depression in the business, which soon followed, the project was given up, and the property remained unoccupied for several months.

November 13, 18t)6, Mr. Sayles purchased Mr. Southwick's interest, and goon after sold it to Mr. Zadock A. Taft, of Uxbridge, a copartnership was formed under the firm-name of Sayles & Taft, and the manufacture of shoddy was commenced on an extensive scale, and was continued with success until July, 1869. They then leased the property to Messrs. E. S. Bradford & Co., of Providence, R. I., who commenced the manufacture of fine and medium grades of woolen yarns ; this firm was succeeded by Messrs. Pierce & Paine, of Providence, and they continued the business until October, 1872, when the mill was burned to the ground, making a total loss. The following year Messrs. Sayles & Taft commenced the rebuilding of the property on an enlarged scale, and when completed began the manufacture of cotton warps and yarns, and continued the business for about one year, and then .sold the cotton machinery and replaced it with machinery for the manufacture of satinets, which business they commenced and continued under the firm-name of Sayles & Taft, until October 1, 1878, when they associated with them Mr. Henry S. Morse, of Uxbridge, the firm-name becoming Sayles, Taft & Co., the manuflicture of satinets being continued. January 1, 1882, Mr. Taft retired from the firm, and Mr. Sayles and Mr. Morse continued under the firm-name of Richard Sayles & Co. The various business interests of Mr. Sayles in his connection with the Rivulet Mills property have proved successful, as is reflected in the appearance of the village, its improved streets and lands, substantial mill buildings, neat and comfortable houses, all of which point to the enterprise, industry and integrity of Mr. Sayles, its projector, who, in every respect, was a self-made man ; broad and progressive in his views, his aim was to have his village and its people surrounded by the best influences, and to that end contributed liberally of his means and effort. Largely to his influence was due the erection of the handsome Baptist Church near his village, he being elected and serving as chairman of its building committee, and contributing generously to its fund and also to its support. In his religious views he combined those of the Universalists and Unitarians: in politics a stanch Republican and strong advocate of protection to American labor and American industries. He several times refused public office, devoting all his time to his business and improvements in his village. He was a strictly temperate man, and a man of very decided opinions, always expressing them in a straightforward and honest manner. As an employer, he was kind and generous, doing all in his power for the comfort and welfare of his employes, always kind-hearted and genial, ever ready to lend a helping hand and speak a word of encouragement. It was a pleasure to meet and converse with him. He was a man in every sense of the word, a man of the strictest integrity and sterling honesty.

May 23, 1887, after several weeks of extremely painful illness, he passed away in the sixty-eighth year of his age, although in appearance a much younger man. He leaves a wife, three sons and a large circle of friends. He was a lineal descendant from John Sayles and Mary Williams, daughter ol Roger Williams. John Sayles was a native of England, and Mary Williams was born at Plymouth, Mass., in August, 1G33.

Esek Sayles, the grandfather of Richard Sayles, was born at Gloucester, R. I., November 20, 1753, and was married, January 9, 1788, to Mary Harris, hi^- second wife, who was born at Gloucester, R. I., October 16, 17G3, by whom he had eight children, - six sons and two daughters, - all born at Gloucester. Amasa Sayles, the oldest child, was born November 18, 1788, and was married November 22, 1811, to Mary Keach, who was born at Gloucester, R. I., January 10, 1794, and were the parents of Richard Sayles, he being the fifth of seven children, - six sons and one daughter, - all born at Gloucester. But two of the family survive - Mrs. Israel M. Soutliwick and Rensselaer Sayles, both residents of Uxbridge.

Daniel Farkum

Daniel Farnum was of the fifth generation in descent from John Farnum, an early settler at the ancient town-seat in Mendon, and a little later in the southerly part of Uxbridge.

The lineage is .John, Moses, Moses, David, Daniel. His grandfather Moses was an eminent minister in the Society of Friends, whose memory is still fragrant in many bosoms. Mr. Farnum lived through all the mature part of his life in Northbridge, near the border of Uxbridge. He was the oldest son of a large family, and is survived only by his youngest brother, Samuel J., now a resident in or near Poughkeepsie.

Daniel Farnum was born with a good constitution, which he preserved well by regular and temperate habits, experiencing but little sickness, and retaining his faculties in remarkable vigor till within the last year of his life. His was emphatically a sound mind in a sound body; he was characterized for sound common sense, a strong sentiment of justice and honesty, insistence on his own rights, and respect for those of others ; economy, simplicity and hospitality in domestic afl'airs ; was provident, faithful and kind in the family circle ; a serviceable, judicious and trustworthy townsman, honored with the principal municipal offices, including those of seleclman and Representative in the Legislature ; a reliable counselor in financial matters ; a lover of his country and its liberties ; a firm opposer of slavery and oppression ; sparing in religious professions, of broad tolerance toward all denominations; liberal in theology, and a steadfast lioper in the final triumph of go(id over evil. These were qualities and characteristics which in Mr- Farnum overshadowed the incidental imperfections common to human nature. He was warmly attached to the interests of the town, and was a constant attendant on town-meetings, the last one he attended being in 1878, when in his ninety-fourth year. Among the positions of public financial tru.st he occupied was that of director in the Blackstone Bank, of Uxbridge, over twenty years. He had been expecting his departure for three years, expressed his entire resignation to the Divine disposal, and passed away in the confident assurance of the life everlasting, December 10, 1879, aged ninety-five years and eighteen days.

Chapter Xxxi Auburn

ToPOORAPHirAi,. - Auburn lies on the map an irregular pentagon in form, its eastern boundary and base line touching Millbury, with Worcester on the north, Leicester on the west and Oxford on the south. Its area covers about 10,000 acres, with a diameter of five miles in its extreme length. The centre, or the Congregational Church, lies five miles distant south by west from Worcester City Hall. The Norwich and Worcester Railroad threads the eastern side of the town, with depots at Auburn and Stone's Crossing ; the Boston and Albany Railroad runs through the western part. It has no station, but Jamesville and Rochdale depots are respectively within a half-mile and a mile of the town line. In 1885 the Webster Branch was opened, whose junction with the Albany road is in Auburn. This branch has a station at West Auburn. Thus railroad facilities are good.

The surface is hilly, though without very high summits. The water-courses, trending northerly and easterly, join their channels to make the southern branch of the Blackstone River. These brooks and ponds are frequented by anglers, and three water privileges serve manufacturing uses and have for nearly a century. Pakachoag Hill extends two miles in the easterly part of Auburn, passing into Worcester, where it is crowned by the College of the Holy

Auburn

Cross. From its broad plateau one gets a fine view of Stoneville, Leicester steeples on the western horizon, Millbury, Grafton and Shrewsbury, Mt. Asnebumskitand blue Wachusett. Grassy Hill bordersou West Millbury, Prospect Hill stretches from West Auburn across the Oxford line. Growl and Beer's Hills rise in the northwest corner. We find our Auburn not the "loveliest village of the plain." The population is fairly distributed, the factory precinct of Stoneville being the more thickly built up. Pondville lies east of the centre. The inhabitants generally are farmers whose great barns show the tons of hay produced and the quantity of stock raised. Towns adjacent have a larger territory and population, and, with the exception of Millbury, a more ancient record. Our history narrates the origin, the doings and the present condition of an average New England rural community.

Civil History

In Council, June 10, 1773, ordered that Gerehom Rice, Israel Stevens, David Bancroft, .Tunatlian Stone, Daniel Boyden, Jacob Stevens, Tliomas Drury, Thos. Driiry, Jr., Henry Gale, Wm Bancroft, Jas. Nichols, Darius Boyden, Jas. Hart, Thos. Baird, Jas. Hart, Jr., Thos. Baird, Jr., Oliver Curtis, Comfort Rice, Elizabetli Boyden, Phebe Bancroft, Jno. Boyden, Daniel Bancroft, Chas. Hart, Jas. Nichols, Peter Boyden, of Worcester - Benjamin Carter, Chas. Richardson, Timothy Carter, Pbiueas Rice, Ben jamin Carter, Jr., Rachel Buck, Daniel Roper, Gershom Bigelow, Gerfihom Bigelow, Jr., Peter Hardy, Daniel Cummiiigs, Charles Richardson, Jr., of Sutton ; Samuel Eddy, Levi Eddy, Peter Jenison, Kuth Stone, Jesse Stone, Isaac Pratt, Abraham Fitts, Alexander Nichols, David Gleason, of Oxford ; John Orowl, Jr., .\iidrew Growl, Jonathan Phillips' John Hart, Thomas Scott, William Yong, Jonathan Stone, of Leicester ; be and hereby are, with their Families and Estates, erected into a Precinct, and shall' enjoy all the powers and privileges which other Precincts in this province by Law etyoy ; and it is further ordered that all other persons (with their Families and Estates) living in the towns of Worcester, Leicester and Oxford, not further than three miles (as the roads are now trod) from the Place hereinafter fixed for building the meeting-house upon, together with all such others in Sutton that live not further than one mile and a half from said place, who shall signify their desire to belong to said Precinct by lodging their names in the Secretary's office within nine months from this date, be and hereby are Incorporated and made a part of the Precinct aforesaid - ordered that the spot for erecting the meeting-house upon be at the following place (viz)., at an Oak stump with stones upon it, Standing on the Westerly side of the County road leading from Worcester to Oxford, near the centre of two acres of Land which Thomas Drury conveyed to Jonathan Stone, Daniel Boyden and David Bancroft ; the said two acres of land lieth on the gore of land that was annexed to the town of Worcester.

These persons expressed their wish to join the new precinct, and did accordingly: Samuel Holman, Gershom Eice, Jr., Israel Stone, Wm. Parker, Joseph Phillips, .Samuel Learnard, Israel Phillips, Jacob Work, Jonathan Cutler, David Stone, John Harwood, Thomas Gleason, William Phips, Isaac Putnam, Joseph Gleason, Jonas Bancroft, Elisha Liverraore, Gardner Chandler (for my land within the limits), Nathaniel Scot, David Bates, Nathan Patch, David Richards.

July 27, 1773, the precinct was organized and chose its officers ; among others, Jacob Stevens, clerk, and Jonathan Stone, treasurer. The freeholders met at the tavern of Thomas Drury, Jr., inn-holder. The principal doings of the South Parish of Worcester, as it was called, will come in review under matters ecclesiastical, which mainly occupied attention during the five years of precinct municipality. One fact, however, deserves notice. On the proprietors' book stands, in the clear hand-writing of William Phips, the Declaration of Independence, with the subjoined order from the Council of Massachusetts:

That the Declaration be printed and a copy sent to the ministers of each parish of every denomination within this State, and that they severally be required to read the same to their respective congregations, aff soon as Divine Service is ended in the afternoon, on the first Lord's Day, after they shall have received it, and the town or district clerks are then required to record the same in their books, to remain as a perpetual memorial thereof.

April 10, 1778, the precinctbecame an incorporated town, named Ward, in compliment to Major-General Ward, the commander of the colonial forces, at Cambridge, till Washington arrived. Heath, Gardner and Warren similarly commemorate other Revolutionary ofiicers. Road-making, parish affairs, with the patriotic furnishing soldiers and supplies for the army, occupied our townsmen. In 1780 a committee reported on the adoption of the proposed State Constitution, favorably on the whole, yet suggesting their decided preference for legislative representation as towns, rather than based on the number of polls, and emphatically disapproving the proviso that the Constitution should not be amended for fifteen years. In 1795 the town voted thirteen to seven in favor of a revision of that instrument. September, 178G, " Voted not to take any notice of the petition or address of the town of Boston ;" but what the metropolis desired of the country cousins, to be treated so curtly, is not apparent.

Ward, like other towns, was considerably implicated in the uprising of Shays' Rebellion. Taxation was oppressive; Middle and Western Massachusetts was in a ferment. A company of armed men from Ward, under Captain Goulding, joined other insurgents, gathered at Worcester to prevent the sitting of the court. Some days later, after a chilling snowstorm, the insurrectionary soldiers indulged quite freely in stimulants from merchant Waldo's stock of liquors, but detected a queer taste that suggested to some the thought of poison. Fortunately, Dr. Green, of Ward, being at hand, relieved their fears and imaginary pains in the discovery that the favorite fluid had been plentifully seasoned with snufl'.

The town addressed several petitions to the General Court, Governor and Council, and Major-General Lincoln, in behalf of their misguided brethren, who became amenable to justice, particularly craving pardon for Henry Gale, under sentence of death as a rebel. He finally obtained life and liberty through the pardon granted by the executive to the condemned insurgents. The town expressly aftirmed "that the hostile measures adopted and pursued by sundry persons to oppose known laws were unjustifiable in their nature and tendency." These

Captain Samuel Pxldy was chosen representative to the General Court in 1787, and in a long document received the explicit instructions of his con stituents. I quote some of them : "The setting of the General Court, in the town of Boston, is a matter which the citizens of this Commonwealth are not generally satisfied with, as in transacting the business of an Infant Nation, irabarassed with debts, it h highly incumbent to study economy and dispatch, for which great purposes the town of Boston is by no means adapted." The next section demanded the abolition of the Court of Common Pleas ; they also asked for a convention to revise the Constitution, and that inn-holders and retailers be licensed by the selectmen of their respective towns. Article thirteen complains " of the pernicious practice of the Law, as tending to the imbarassment, perplexity and expense of the people. If the general prosperity and happiness of the people can be effected by proper checks and restraints on the practitioners of the law, we do not insist upon the total annihilation of the order, but if upon investigation it should appear conducive to the happiness of the people, that the order be annihilated, you will act conformably, for it is better that a few sutler than a People to sink beneath oppression."

Sometimes the town voted not to send a Representative to the Legislature. Two of its ablest men, at the same town-meeting elected representatives, each in turn refused the honor. In 1794 Joseph Stone, surveyor, was empowered to take a map or plan of the town, agreeable to a resolve of the Legislature. Next year the town agreed to help Joseph Stone against a loyalist's claim to certain property. In May, 179(3, "Voted unanimously that, alarmed by the reports current, that ye Treaty lately concluded between the United States of America and the Government of Great Britain, and duly ratified by the Constituted Authorities, meets with impediments and delays in carrying into effect, on the part of these State.s by the Majority of the Hon. House of Representatives of the Federal Congress; it is the wish and desire of this town, that the said Treaty be fully carried into effect without further delay." This vote was sent to the Hon. Dvvight Foster, Representative in Congre.ss.

During Jefferson's administration Ward by vote sustained the government in ordering the embargo, so unpopular in New England. John Clark, Esq., was the delegate to the convention for the revision of the State Constitution in 1820. Fifteen years later manufacturing was starting on a larger scale than the smithies, saw and grist-mills, home-looms and spinning-wheels of earlier times. That fact, with the construction of the two railroads, brought in a foreign element of population which is now mainly Canadian French. Church records chronicle with refreshing simplicity sixty years ago the death of an Irishman, a black woman, a foreigner from Sweden, the merely

The name of our town. Ward, because of confusion with Ware, was changed in 1837 to Auburn, proposed, we think, by Joseph Stone, Esq., who served as town clerk twenty-four years. Indeed, the recording the town's doings fitly belongs to the clan of Stones, the most frequent family name from the first; the present capable town clerk, Emory Stone, having filled that office thirty-two years. In 1850 the Legislature annexed to Auburn certain estates, which, by their owners' choice, in virtue of the act of incorporation of Ward, had paid taxes and exercised suffrage in the towns adjoining. Our growth has been slow but sure, without the rush, inffation, depression and crash that have scathed some communities. Probably more building went on from 1865 to 1875 than in any other decade. The population was in 1790, 473; 1810, 540; 1830, 090; 1850, 879; 1880, 1317. State census of 1885, 1208; the number of polls, 310; and the valuation, $487,421.

Chapter Xxxil

EccLESiASTirAL. - The first settlers took prompt action in church affairs ; for in August, 1773, they voted " to begin Preching as soon as may be,'' and planned to build the meeting-house. The pews were dignified, and taken by families in 1775, though the church was not finished until ten years were gone. It was a nearly square structure, standing more on the Common than at present. The proprietors' book shows the plan of the ffoor with large square pews against the wall, gives the pew-owners' names and prices paid. Various ministers were heard, and three unsuccessfully called. The church was formed with the presence and sanction of Rev. David Hall, of Sutton, Rev. Mr. Maccarty, of Worcester, and Rev. Mr. Chaplin, of Sutton Second Church (which is now the first of Millbury), Thursday, January 25, 1776. Eleven men and as many women made up its original membership. Rev. Mr. Hall officiated at their tirst communion observance, June 9th. The first pastor. Rev. Isaac Bailey, a native of Sterling, graduated at Harvard College in 1781, and was ordained here November 4, 1784. He had studied divinity with Rev. Daniel Emerson, of HoUis, N. H., whose daughter, Elizabeth, he married. His was a useful pastorate of thirty years. He died April 10, 1814, and sleeps with his deacons and congregation in the old church-yard.

March 1, 1815, Rev. Enoch Pond (Brown University, 1813) was ordained pastor, who labored diligently and successfully till 1828. He then became editor in Boston of the periodical Spirit of the I'il- grims ; and somewhat later began his life-work, at Bangor Theological Seminary, where he died, full of years, service and honor, in 1881. This church greatly flourished during his ministry, more than doubling its membership in two extensive revivals. He published sermons, reviews, lectures, beside preparing young men for college. Anecdotes are told by those who remember him showing his pleasant and, at times, jocose disposition and ready wit. His dwelling looks to-day very much as when he abode there, and the long school-room and study, now two chambers, is our veneration, as is Luther's home and study to the residents of Wittenberg.

Rev. Miner G. Pratt preached twenty years. He married Caroline, daughter of M.oj. Thos. Drury, afterward resided at Andover, and died at Rochester) N. Y., 1884, aged eighty-four years. He organized a parish library, and was also postmaster. In 1887 the church building was moved back fifty feet, and the belfry and spire added.

Several clergymen came with shorter terms of stay, among whom was Rev. L. IvesHoadley, a relative by marriage of Dr. Pond. Rev. EInathan Davis, from Fitchburg, a graduate of Williams College in 18.34, began labor in November, 1869. He did noble work as a citizen as well as preacher. The church was raised up, galleries removed and the interior quite remodeled. The church's centenui.al was joyfullj' celebrated in J.anuary, 1876 ; but the only printed record is the newspaper column. Mr. Davis' ministry of ten years greatly strengthened the church. Sincere was the sorrow at his funeral, April, 1881. Rev. N. A. Prince pre.ached two years; and the present incumbent. Rev. S. D. Hosmer, of Harvard, 1850, began his labors January 1, 1883. The chapel near to the church has served at times as a schoolroom. In it hang three portraits of former pastors - Rev. Dr. Pond, Rev. Charles Kendall and Rev. EInathan Davis.

On the town records we catch glimpses of persons not in accord with the standing order ecclesiastically. In 1779 provision was made to supply the deficiency caused by "taxes sunk by being laid on several of the Baptist persuasion in a late Ministerial R.ate." Ten years after the selectmen were empowered " to abate Minister's taxes set to those who bring Certificates of their Congregating otherwheres besides in tliis town, as they may think proper." Liberty was given Elder Rathborn (at the desire of Jas. Hart) " to preach in the meeting-house at any time when they may not have occasion to make use of it themselves." March, 1812, the town "allowed the Dissenters from the Congregational Society the Privilege of occupying the Meeting-House on Week Days for Lectures; when the aforesaid Congregationals do not want to occupy the said house themselves."

A churcli was erected through the efforts of Colonel Goulding and Samuel Warren in West Auburn, next the burial-ground, in 1814. This was the Baptist house of worship. When that society migrated to North Oxford, this building, bought by the Warren Brothers, and moved to the site of their tannery, was used for business purposes till it was burned, about 1863.

The Baptist Church in Sutton called a council of elders and delegates, who met April 9, 1815, and constituted the First Baptist Church of Ward, with eleven male and seventeen female members. Elder Pearson Crosby, of Thompson, Conn., preached the sermon text (Matt. 16: 18), and Elder Thomas L. Leonard, of Sturbridge, gave the right hand of fellowship to the new church. Deacon Jonah Goulding, Samuel Warren, David Hosmer and several persons of the Jennison and Gleason families were original members. Elder Dwinel seems to have been the first pastor, afterward Elias McGregory, and Rev. John Paine was the preacher from 1830 till 1837, when the larger part of the church, which counted near one hundred members, were transferred to become the Baptist Church in North Oxford. Also in 1837 Rev. Jonah G. Warren was chosen to prepare the history of this church. The Oxford Church and congregation to-day are largely composed of Auburn families.

The Roman Catholic Church at Stoneville began as a mission in 1870. It is now under the pastoral supervision of Father Boylen, who lives in Oxford. They have a neat sanctuary on the hill, with a fine view of the Holy Cross College in Worcester, distant less than two miles.

Educational. - In 1779 two hundred pounds were given for schooling, and the town divided into five squadrons or districts, "Each squadron to diaw their money, and it to be a free school for the Town." The first committee chosen in 1780 were Jonathan Stone, Darius Boyden, Jesse Stone, ,Tohn Prentice and Andrew Crowl. In November three thousand pounds were added to the sum granted last year for schooling. It must have been the depreciated currency of the day, for soon after thirty pounds became the annual appropriation. Who were the school-dames or masters then, we know not. Joseph Stone may have been one. In 1784 Ward refused to allot any part of the school-money "to be held in the Center for the sole purpose of teaching Large Scholars." Two years later the committee were seven in number, viz., James Hart, Jr., Joseph Dorr, Esq., Lieutenant Thomas Drury, Jonah Goulding, Levi Eddy, Deacon Ezra Cary and Abel Holman. The apportionment of the school-tax on the lands of nonresidents in 1789 names the Sutton Squadron, Leicester Squadron, North and South Squadrons on Prospect Hill, Bogachoge and Deacon Stone's Squadron. November, 1790, Lieutenant Thomas Drury was annexed to the southeast squadron, provided said squadron shall erect their school-house on the height of land south of Messrs. Cary & Green's

Potash ; and a new squadron was formed ; the families of Abel Holman, Richard Bartlett, Eliphalet Holman and Paul Thurston set oft' from the southeast district. In June of the next year the three western districts were consolidated, and preparations made to build a school-house. A little later forty pounds was the usual annual appropriation. Like other towns fifty years since, a prudential committee looked after the school finances and a visiting cooamittee attended to the literary attainments of teachers and pupils. The pastors have generally served with others on the School Committee, and the town has a few times recognized their merit by placing ladies on the educational board. A report of the School Committee was accepted at town-meeting in 1843 ; but the earliest printed school report I have seen came out in 1851.

A school of a higher grade was held in the fall of 1875, whose pupils enjoyed the thorough instruction in High School studies of a Yale graduate, resident still in town. We have two hundred and forty children between five and fifteeu years old, six schooldistricts, with seven schools ; the Stoneville building, erected in 1872, housing two schools, with an annual appropriation of $1,300, added to which is the State school fund and the dog- tax.

Rev. Mr. Pond taught a private school some seven years in his own house. He fitted many young men for college, took rusticated collegians into his family, and, with wonderful diligence and versatility, heard lessons, directed his scholars, wrote sermons and articles for the press at the same time. He prepared a new arrangement of Murray's English Grammar. At times there were thirty or forty pupils. Hon. Albert G. Wakefield, of Bangor, Maine ; Rev. Artemas Ballard, D.D., of St. Louis; Virgil Gardiner, from the South ; Mr. Burrill, of Providence, R. I. ; and Rev. Gideon Dana were of those who studied here. Since Mr. Pond's departure selecl schools have at diflferent times been kept in the chapel.

Some of the elders here in their youth attended Leicester Academy, whose centennial was kept in 188-4. At present our youug people take advantage of the nearness and excellence of Worcester's varied institutions of learning.

A paper-covered little book is still preserved with Jonathan Stone's autograph as owner in 1760. His son, Joseph Stone, Esq., who died in 1835, had a good library for the time. Among his varied capabilities he exercised the craft of a bookbinder. Traces exist of a social library about 1880 ; Joseph Stone, Abijah Craig, Oliver Baker and others being share-holders. There was, too, a parish library in Rev. Mr. Pratt's day, of which he was custodian. Mr. William Craig willed to the town one thousand dollars, provided the town added another thousand to establish and maintain a free public library, only the interest to be expended. He was a man eccentric in dress.

econornical in his habits, of bright faculties, quick at repartee, an active Whig. He died in 1871. The library was opened in October, 1872, with two hundred volumes, and was for several years in charge of Miss Hannah Green, at her residence ; thence moved to an ante-room of the town hall. It has outgrown its present quarters. A portion of the library, mostly theological works, of the style read by our devout grandfathers, once belonged to Joseph Stone. The residue (fifteen hundred volumes) are a well-selected collection, diligently conned by the young people of Auburn. Miss Lucy P. Merriam is the trusty librarian. A catalogue was printed in 1885. We need for our library a copy of every book and pamphlet written in or about this town or its vicinity ; and then a commodious hall for their use, preservation and increase. The town also owns a large case, filled with law works and the public documents of the State.

Chapter Xxxiii

Manufactures. - In the last century every housewife was skilled, like Solomon's virtuous woman, in seeking wool and fiax, and deftly handled the spindle and distafi'. The whirr of the spinning-wheel and jar of the loom made the home music. On early records the potash of Dr. Green and Recompense Cary is named as the starting-point of a new road. An official document in 1794 mentions two grist-mills, four saw-mills and one fulling-mill. A wind-mill, too, caught the breezes upon Prospect Hill. Charles Richardson's mill utilized the water privilege, now called Pondville, known as Rice's mills fifty years ago. From Mr. Rice the property passed through several owners to Otis Pond, who changed the business from a saw and grist-mill to the making of yarn. Then, with his brother as partner, it became a satinet-mill. At this time, 1862, Mr. B. F. Lamed took an interest in the business, which, at first with others, and then alone, he sustained till 1883. The Auburn Mill was widely known for its woolen goods, sold through Boston and New York commission houses. By a freshet causing the reservoir to give way, the mill was damaged in 1873. Mr. A. Henry Alden was drowned in the fiume by the bursting in of the bulkhead gates June 18,1879. A six-families tenement-house, ofiice and store-house were built, and a set of cards put in, making five sets in the mill, in the spring and summer of 1880. Three times has the plant been wholly burned, - in 1805 ; August 25, 1870 ; and August 21, 1880. Each rebuilding was a marked improvement. A very pleasant festival and charitable gathering of towns-folk and friends from abroad, with a bright speech by Hon. John D. Washburn and a poem by Rev. E. Davis, celebrated the completion of the new mill in the month of February, 1881. Mr. Lamed sold the property in 1883 to L. J. Knowles & Brother. The mill is now managed under the firm of Kirk, Hutching & Stoddard as the Auburn Woolen Mill.

The Drury family, for three generations, owned a grist and .saw-mill at the outlet of the pond near the Southhridge and Stoneville roads. Colonel Alvah Drury built the house now Mr. Hilton's residence, and prospered in his business. The site afterward became known as Dunn's Mill. Albert Curtis and B. F. Larned bought the water privilege, and Dunn's shoddy mill, owned by B. F. Larned, was burned, with a loss of over four thousand dollars. May 2, 1877. Mr. James Hilton carried on the same business, and liis premises were burned in 1887, but immediately rebuilt and enlarged.

Plows, scythes, wooden-ware for farmers' tools and shoes were made here from 1820 to '40. Ichabod Washburn, the wealthy and liberal wire-maker of Worcester, served his apprenticeship with Nathan Muzzy, whose blacksmith-shop stood behind the church. He received his freedom suit of clothes, made by Mrs. Muzzy, at the expiration of his service.

In 1837 Auburn could show one woolen mill, a paper mill, a card factory, three shingle mills, a lath mill and a sash and blind factory. Daniel Haywood's paper mill, a four-story structure on the stream above Stoneville, was swept away by a flood in 1856. John Warren & Sons carry on the tannery in West Auburn. This industry has been successfully prosecuted on the same spot, and kept in the family since Jonah Goulding started that business nearly a century ago.

In 1834 Jeremy Stone began to improve the waterpower on Young's Brook by erecting a brick m'll and houses for the operatives. He died at the South before his plans were completed, but the village at Stoneville marks his business foresight. Edward Denny, of Barre, next owned the property. About 1850 Mr. A. L. Ackley bought him out, changing the woolen to a cotton mill. John Smith, of Barre, took it in 1858, whose sons, C. W. and J. E. Smith, coined money by .shrewd business operations in the war-period, from 1861 to '65. At C. W. Smith's death, a few years since, the mill lay idle awhile. Mr. George H. Ladd acted as superintendent till the last sale of the property and his removal to Clinton, Mr. Hogg, the carpet manufacturer at South Worcester, is present owner, the business-name being the Stoneville Worsted Company, making yarn for the Worcester Carpet Mill.

When the Lynde Brook reservoir broke loose, the damage at the Stoneville dam and bridge cost the town alone three thousand dollars. The dwellings of the operatives under the maple's shade, the neatlykept pine grove on the near hillside, its height crowned by the Catholic Church and the public school, form as attractive a New England laciory village as you may find.

The Darling Bros. (Messrs. D. W. & J. T.), contractors, reside on the Rochdale road in Auburn. Specimens of their skill, fidelity and success as l)uilders are seen at the Polytechnic, Worcester, and public edifices at Ware and Springfield. Through the influence of James Alger, a veteran engineer on the Boston and Albany Railroad, some twenty of our young men are firemen and engineers on several railroads.

Agriculture. - Rev. Peter Whitney writes of this town in 1793 : " The soil in general is fertile, rich and strong, suitable for orcharding and all kinds of fruit; well adapted to pasturage and mowing, and produces large crops of rye, oats, wheat, barley, Indian corn and flax. It is not very rocky, but affords stone sufficient for fencing in the farms.'" And Major (rookin, a century before, noted the famous crops of Indian corn at Pakachoag, the Indian civil plantation, and translated the significance of the aboriginal word, the village named from " a delicate .spring of water there."

I suppose wool-raising in the olden time was profitably pursued. Different ear-marks of the stockowners are recorded by the town clerk. The minister's glebe counted its acres by the scores, and the good parson, like his congregation, was expert in using the plough, scythe and sickle. There must have been ilouble the amount of woodland. In recent times the supply of railroad ties, and hundreds of trees cut down for fuel, explains the lesser area of the fore«t. For a mile one rode along a shaded avenue a few years since on the Southbridge road ; alas ! that the fact should be but a pleasant memory now. Some farms -till belong to descendants of their first owners. Our yeomen quite generally are busied in supplying milk 10 the neighboring city. Mr. A. S. Wolf conducts a ivell-managed market produce farm, and finds a ready disposal for all he raises. He employs, winter and summer, a number of men, and his fruitful acres remind one of the Arlington and Belmont market- ^.^ardens. Other persons cultivate the small fruits and realize, we hope, the pecuniary profits a well-known novelist gave as his experience on the banks of the Hudson. The yearly harvest exhibition shows an attractive display of flowers, vegetables and fruit.

The Auburn Grange, No. 60, P. of H., was organized July 2, 1874, with twenty-three charter members. It now numbers over one hundred, and is in a flourishing condition. A few years since the grange spent a bright May-day, before Arbor Day was recognized, in the adornment of the public green by setting out thrifty young maples to grow beside the half a dozen lofty elms, the bequest to us of our thoughtful predecessors a century ago.

A sentence from the town's instructions to its rej) resentative, in 1787, might serve well as a grange motto: "The industrious husbandman, on wliom this cominonvvealth will prolialily ever depend for its greatest strength.'' True of the United States to-day, though not as applicable to Massachusetts as when originally penned.

Chapter Xxxiv

Military Affairs. - Military titles abound in the names of the first residents. Some had seen service in the French and Indian Wars. The commission of Comfort Rice as first lieutenant in the Third Company of Foot, Micah Johnson, captain, in the regiment of militia in Worce.ster County, whereof John Chandler is colonel, signed by Governor Hutchinson, June, 1773, is yet preserved. Two companies marched from Worcester on the Lexington alarm, April, 1775. Captain Timothy Bigelow led the minute-men. A few in his company and one certainly in Captain Flagg's were from this South Parish. The State archives contain the muster-roll of Captain John Crowl's company from this place, twenty-six men in all. They were attached to Colonel Larned's regiment, and marched to Roxbury in the alarm of April, 1775. They were paid for a hundred miles' travel and from six to twelve days' service. Total amount allowed for this company and receipted for by their captain January 24, 1771), £28 2s. 7\'l. When the parish became a town its records attest its earnest loyalty to freedom, in ofl'ering good bounties for army recruits, in forwarding beef, grain and clothing to the soldiers in service. The following document is a sample:

To Capt .lobn waight, .\gont for Solrler clutliing for the county of Worcester, we the Selectmen of Ward have apprised and sent the following artikels, viz. :

The part Ward took in Shays' Rebellion has been already told. October, ITM, a quarter of a pound of powder was allowed each soldier for the muster at Oxford that shall bear arms on said day. Next year the records state, " Voted to give One Dollar to each of the men called for from the military Company in this town, who shall be Volunteers to fill the Levy; also to such of the Cavalry and Artillery, who are inhabitants of this Town, who may be detached from their respective Corps, in proportion to the Levy on the Infantry ; also that the town will make up the pay to each and every of said Soldiers, including whatsoever they shall be entitled to receive from the public equal to $10 per month they may serve, after they shall be called into actual service, consequent to said Levy."

The town's powder was stored in the attic of the church until a powder-house was built on the hill-top south of the old burying-place. Men still living, in their younger days trained with their townsmen on the Common, or went through the military evolutions in a field near Major Drury's house ; marched to Leicester, Oxford or Worcester, joining other companies for regimental review. Gradually the military spirit died out in the piping times of peace, till the black war-cloud looming up on the Southern horizon summoned the citizen soldiery of the North. Auburn enlisted seventy-seven men ; three of these entered the navy. The Twenty-fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia received the most of these of any one regiment, but Auburn had soldiers also in the Fifteenth, Twenty-first, Thirty-fourth and Fifty-first, and scattered individuals in yet others. A few joined the Heavy Artillery. Three were killed; four more died of wounds or sickness in the hospitals. On the soldiers' monument, raised in 1870, are inscribed the names of fifteen soldiers, deceased. The little fluttering flags mark the resting-places of these and others since mustered out from life's march and bivouac.

John A. Logan Post, No. 97, G. A. R., was organized with thirty-six comrades and was largely efficient toward the erection of the soldiers' monument. But so many of its members left town that after three years the post disbanded. No uniformed soldier is met on our quiet streets ; the nearest approach to the stormy times of '63 is the distant boom of the holiday salutes of Battery B in Worcester or the crack of the sportsman's rifle intent on shooting sly Reynard or a harmles'i rabbit. The grandson of the first pastor became distinguished as Prof Jacob Whitman Bailey at West Point. Would that one of our tall forest trees might stand as a flag-staff on the Common to display on fit occasions the Stars and Stripes above the greenery of those towering elms.

Cemeteries. - In January, 1775, a committee was chosen " to pick upon a buruing yeard." They reported " upon a Diligent and faithful tryal of y'

Ground near the Senter of the parish, the most Salable place on the Rode from the meeting-house to oxford, on the Southerly Corner of Mr. Thomas Drury's Cleared Land," eleven rods each way, containing three-quarters of an acre. This old burying-ground joins the Commou and is thickly planted with the memorial stones of our predecessors. The oldest bears the date April 13, 1777 - the stone of Mrs. Deborah Thurston, aged nineteen years. The epiUiphs chronicle the family genealogies of the town to a large extent, as for forty years here was the only burial spot, and till 1846 the principal one. Our forefathers' tomb-stone poetry was usually alarming in its address to the living; but these lines on the stone of a fouryears-old child answer darkly the mooted question. Is life worth living?

An ancient graveyard beside the thronged city's street seems terribly out of place, only interesting to some Old Mortality of an antiquarian ; but in the country the open fields around, singing birds loving its tree-tops, wild flowers and creeping vines bordering its stone walls, the sunset glow of a summer evening lighting up its glades, give a tranquil beauty and serenity better felt than told. The poet's matchless elegy could have been written only of a country church-yard.

For seventy years the graveyard near School -House Number Four has been the burial-place for the west part of Auburn. The first interment was that of Mr. Gleason in 1S14. Colonel Goulding's tomb is here. A small enclosure on Prospect Hill near the Oxford line has one monument and several graves. It belonged to the Cudworth fomily. The Burnap field, on land of Thomas S. Eaton, is where that family buried their dead, but the stones have been all removed.

The new cemetery, laid out in 1846, occupies about six acres midway from the church to the depot. A simple plinth and marble shaft, resting on a granite base, the soldiers' monument, crowns the crest of the slope opposite the gateway. For forty years this garden of the dead received the faithful care of, and nearly every grave was dug by, the sexton, John G. Stone, from whose broad acres this land was purchased. Our town name recalls the designation of that first extensive garden-cemetery, Mount Auburn near Boston. As our necropolis has never been named, from its fair prospect over the near water to the distant hills, let us designate this beautiful spot our Mt. Pisgah.

The Old Tavern. - The residence of Otis Pond, at the Common, is perhaps as old and as little changed as to the interior, as any house in town. This was the tavern, with swinging sign-board between the two supporting timbers, suggesting accommodation for man and beast. It was kept by mine hosts Drury, Hturtevant, Cary and Wiser, and not on a temperance platform, as stories of the older inhabitants assure us. Here reined up the stages from Worcester to Norwich, which, in 1831, left Worcester every Wednesday and Saturday at 3 a.m., the passengers reaching Norwich the same afternoon, and, by the steam packet "Fanny," New York the next morning. The summer arrangements for 1838 read ; Monday, Wednesday and Friday the stage leaves for the Norwich boat at 6. .30 a.m., but on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday on the arrival of the first train from Boston. The Southbridge stage also passed through this town. A town-meeting, awaiting a committee's report, would take a recess at the inn so accessible. The first parish-meeting convened there, and its best room, I fancy, witnessed Sabbath worship, till the church was ready for use. Dr. Pond speaks of a memorable ball at the tavern, which was the precursor of a great revival. The post-oflSce and store were at the Common, but years since left the geographical centre of the town for its travel centre - the depot. But the sign " Groceries " remains, - an epitaph on business departed, perhaps capital buried beyond resurrection. Like an old palimpsest, too, it carries an older inscription of the store-keeper's name, easily decipherable beneath the last-painted word.

Personai, Sketches. - We glance at a brief outline of some whose lives have shaped our local history. All that occurred before 1773 belongs to Worcester's chronicles or the other mother towns. Yet a word of some then active where now lie our farms may not prove amiss.

September 17, 1674, Rev. John Eliot and his coadjutor, Major Daniel Gookin, visited Pakachoag (Lincoln's " History of Worcester" gives thirteen ways of spelling that name), preached and appointed civil officers among the Indians. John Speen, a Natick convert, had already preached and taught here two years. Gookin locates this Indian village seven miles from Ha.ssanamesit, - i. e., Grafton, - and three miles from the Connecticut Path, which led westward. That way ran just north of Lincoln Square, in Worcester. Wattasacompanum, as ruler among the Nipmucks, aided Eliot and Gookin. But next year the wily Philip seduced the natives from their loyalty to the English, when they burned deserted Quinsigamond, and were present at the Brookfield disaster. Wattasacomj)anum, or Captain Tom, as he is called, paid the penalty of his weakness at his execution on Boston Common. Matoonas, who had been chosen constable at Packachoag, met a similar fate.

Col. Timothy Bigelow, who served in the French and Indian War;- and led Worcester's company of minute-men on the Lexington alarm, was born in what was Worcester, but soon became included in Ward. His beautiful memorial column on Worcester Common records his soldierly service.