Worcester City (part 29 of 58)

Rev. Joseph Dorr was settled in 1716 at a salary of seventy pounds for the first year, and seventy-five pounds after ; " and for settlement or encouragement, the sum of one hundred and sixty pounds, - one hundred pounds in money." He also was a distinguished divine ofgreat discretion, and during the controversies with the East Precinct, which long agitated the town and forced him to self-defence in the town-meetings, he appears to have behaved with great wisdom, and finally to have won general approval. His wife was Mr. Rawson's daughter. His son. Judge Joseph Dorr, Jr., widely esteemed during the Revolution, has been already mentioned. His pastorate continued fifty-two years, till his death, March 9, 1768, and his body lies near that of Mr. Rawson. In 1730 the fourth meeting-house was begun. "Towards the raising," thetown voted to " provide a barrel of Rhum." This house was fifty feet long, forty-five feet wide, twenty-four feet high, and remained till 1816. Controversies about its location lasted for years, and even after its erection. The opponents to the location, finally established near the old burying-ground, even tried to cut down the frame, and a hundred and sixteen years later the marks of their axes on the southwest corner-post were plainly seen. It was seven years before its final completion, and soon afier, in 1741, the East Precinct, doubtless in consequence of differences concerning the new meeting-house, was organized. November 8, 1751, the four pastors, respectively settled in Milford, Upton, Uxbridge and Mendon, united in an association which has ever since continued. Mr. Dorr was long its moderator, and apparently its master-spirit. It gradually enlarged its field of work and membership, and is now called the Mendon Conference, instead of the Mendon Association, as at first. Toward the close of Mr. Dorr's life, Rev. Benjamin Balch preached in Mendon for a few months on account of Mr. Dorr's disability, but before the end of 1768 he was ordained at the South Parish, "Chestnut Hill," where a new meeting-house, still standing, was erected the next year. He was followed in Mendou by Mr. Pennimau, Mr. Messenger and perhaps others.

April 17, 1769, Rev. Joseph Willard was settled. He proved to be an earnest, out-spoken man and a zealous patriot during the war, but difficulties arose between him and his people, and he was dismissed in 1782. Rev. Caleb Alexander was settled from 1786 to

1802. He afterwards became a distinguished writer and teacher in Onondaga, New York. Mr. Alexander disciplined the Mendon Church much more than former pastors, and had many contests in consequence. He died in Onondaga in 1828.

In 1805 Rev. Preserved Smith became pastor over the Mendon First and Third (South) Parishes, and labored till 1812. He had formerly preached in Rowe, Mass., and returned thither, preaching in that place thirty-five years in all. He died 1834 in Warwick, Mass. In his youth he served five campaigns in the Continental Army, and was present at Burgoyne's surrender. As a minister he was popular and influential, with liberal tendencies in his religious thought.

Rev. Simeon Doggett succeeded him in 1814, and in 1818, after much controversy, led a majority of his people to adopt Unitarian views. Mr. Doggett was dismissed in 1837, and died in Raynham in 1852, aged eighty-seven. He was much esteemed as a teacher, and maintained an academy in Mendon many years. In 1820 the First Parish Church, still used as a hou.?e of worship, was built on land given by Seth Hastings, Esq. It was then considered one of the finest in the county.

It is noticeable that since Rev. Joseph Dorr's death, in 1768, out of the very long list of his sue-, cessors, no minister of the parish has died in Mendon except Rev. William H. Kinsley, who died in 1851.

With the diminution of population the attendance on religious worship has steadily diminished, and few now congregate where so many generations have successively assembled ; but the parish, incorporated separate from the town in 1784 and perfected 1792, still exercises its corporate powers and retains its property.

There were many who did not accept the Unitarian views adopted by Mr. Doggett's followers, and in 1828 they organized the " North Congregational Church," adopting in substance the creed and covenant discarded or modified by the First Church. A meetinghouse was built in 1830 on Main Street, and Rev. John M. Perry was ordained 1831. Rev. Thomas Riggs had preached prior to this. Mr. Perry resigned in 1835 to become a missionary, and soon after he and his wife died in Ceylon of cholera. Rev. Thomas Edwards was ordained 1836 and dismissed 1840. Rev. Andrew H. Reed preached from 1841 to 1848, followed for ahout three months by Rev. Dwight. Rev. Charles Chamberlin was pastor from 1848 to 1851, when Methodist pastors were employed till 18.53, followed by Rev. Demis for a brief period, and the last pastor. Rev. E. Deraond, closed his labors October 31, 1858, after about three years of labor. The last two were Congregationalists.

The records of this church and society are very few. It was always feeble. Their meeting-house was sold in 1865 to the Methodis-t Episcopal Society, which many of the North Church members had already joined.

The weakness of the North Church was so apparent in 1851, that the hiring of a Methodist preacher was generally approved by the society, and thereby much support was gained. In 1853 this plan was abandoned and the Methodists forced to leave. They accordingly held their first meeting June 2, 1853, in the town hall, organizing as a society June 9th. Immediate eftbrts were made to raise funds to build a meetinghouse, and land had been bought and foundations laid before 1855. During that year the walls were raised seven feet, but the material was such that during the winter following, it was greatly injured by the weather.

Financial misfortunes to the manufacturing interests of the place followed, resulting in a loss of population and confidence severely felt by this society, which had but from thirty-five to forty members from the first - and in 1859 its creditors brought a suit, settled only by a sale of its property.

From this misfortune recovery was slow, and it was not till 1865 that they were able to buy the old North meeting-house, which was repaired, remodeled and dedicated in 1866. The church and society did not continue to flourish, though preachers were regularly sent for many years, closing in 1879. The pastors in adjoining towns have, however, from time to time for a few weeks, held services in the church, but not since 1886. The list of Methodist preachers is as follows. Rev. C. S. McReading, located in 1851; Rev. G. L. Hanaford, 1852; Rev. John L. Day, 1853; Rev. Wm. Pentecost, 1854; Rev. G. R. Bent, 1856; Rev. J. Emory Round, 1858 ; Rev. VV. A. Clapp, 1860 ; Rev. L. B. Sweetser, 1861 ; Rev. W. M. Ayers, 1862 ; Rev. Augustine "Caldwell, 1866; Rev. J. Mosely Dwight, 1868; Rev. J. W. Coolidge, 1869; Rev. John L. Locke, 1871 ; Rev. Joseph Williams, 1872; Rev. Elisha Brown, 1873 ; Rev. Phineas C. Sloper, 1876 ; Rev. George E. Hill, 1879. There was no pastor for a part of 1862, and none during most of the time between April, 1874, and April, 1876.

Each of the religious societies organized a Sundayschool in connection with its other work, and some have been formed in diflerent school district-*. That of the First Parish is still doing its work, but there has been no other in town for several years.

The Quakers maintained a meeting in Mendon village from 1729, when their house was built, till 1841. It is indeed likely they had meetings some years prior to 1729. The East Blackstone Friends' Meeting- House, at first known as the South Mendon Meeting- House, was built in 1812. If Quakers were ever persecuted in Mendon, of which there are a few traditions of doubtful authenticity, they appear to have been generally well esteemed and their scruples duly regarded. In 1758 thirty-two were exempted from military duty, in which list we find, among other names well known, Aldrichs, BuflTums, Farnums and Southwicks. In 1742 the town voted to grant the Quakers, for the enlargement of their meeting-house yard, a strip of land two rods wide, to be taken from the tenrod road, and there are other instances on record showing similar regard for them. Moses Aldrich, 1690-1761, was one of their noteworthy preachers laboring at home and abroad. He was a descendant of one of the early settlers and lived and died in Mendon. The old meeting-house was sold, taken down and removed in 1850.

Chapter Lix Educationai, History And Closing Remarks

Early Itecords and Tradition Concerning Schools - Notices of the Earliest Teachers and School-Houses - School-Dames - TJte District System - The Jlitjh'Sclmol - Some Noteworthy Ecents in Slendon^g Recent History and its Pi-esent Status.

1G07, July Hit. At A Generall Town Meetinge Grainted then to Coll. William Crowne and to hi8 assigns and the present fliinister there shares of meadow in that w** is called the Kucke Meadow, it they will hould out, and v/^ is beyond Goodman Moore's Lott ; And the Scoole Meadow is Reserved and soe ordered pte for A Scoole when y" Place is ahle to Blayntaine one, as alsoe that pte w*" is to be sutt out for the Oleeb Lott ia to be there, but that pte of Meadow w^*" is for the scuol is Lieft to be agreed on for ye quantity, and then if y* Coll. and Minister's sharesiu the Rock Meadow want is to be made up here or In the North Meado not exceeding 10 Acors.

In 1672 the town voted that a twenty-acre lot, "with all the privileges that other lots of that size have," be laid out near the ministry lot for the school. In 1674 the school-master's home lot was " laid out between John Aldrich's house lot and the ten-rod highway that leads to the mill.'' The fatal Indian attack soon followed, and no record of importance of the year 1675 is found nor any at all after that date till 1680. Even before 1675 there may have been public school instruction, and it is hard to believe, as some do, there was none in Mendon till 1701.

There is, however, no definite record till the following in that year, which shows that March 3, 1701, the town passed a vote directing the selectmen, with Mr. Grindal Rawson, the mini.-ter, " to treat with Dea- con Warfield, upon his refusal, with some other person whom they shall judge suitable, to be a Schoole Master to teach the children of thetowne to read, and for this or any other person's encouragement in said work the town shall pay ten pounds in good current pay at money price, and each person sending children to schoole to pay one penny a week." Thereupon agreement was made with Deacon Warfield and recorded. He was " to keep scool half a yeare and to begin on Munday ye 14th of April next, and for his pains to have five pounds in good current pay at money price, and one penny a week for every child that corns to scoolle." John Warfield, Sr., and John Warfield, Jr., are both named in list of 1685, and at a later date we know they occupied the lot called in 1774 the " Schoolmaster's home lot." The elder Warfield died April 12, 1692.

Deacon Warfield, the schoolmaster of 1701 and the first known as such with certainty, held the position till 1709 at least, and, perhaps, till 1712. January, 1709, the town voted to build its first school-house twenty feet by sixteen and seven feet between joints. It stood near Deacon Warfield's home lot, and most likely where is now the George family cemetery. In March of that year Rev. Grindal Rawson offered to board A Latin scoolle master for four years" if the town "would retain him," upon which the town voted " that the towue accept of sd offer " and "to give twenty pounds a year for that service." Whether one was employed or not is not known.

November 12, 1712, the selectmen met in order to procure a " Scoole Master, the Towne being destitute of one," and met again December 13th, when Robert Husse, from Boston, was hired. He came to Mendon December 12th, and was to teach till May 1, 1713, for which " he shall have," says the record, " five pound paid him for his service and his Diet the s'' time, and to begin" (boarding?) "at John Farnum's and ther continue untill the 28th of January."

William Boyce followed in 1717, at twenty-eight pounds a year. He continued till 1728. In 1721 his contract contained the curious provision that he was to keep a " Reading and Wrighting school during the year, unless the Town should be presented lor want of a Grammar School," when he was to " cease keeping at ye Selectmen's order." ' A year later and doubtless thereafter, the town apparently not having been summoned before the grand jury, he continued teaching at four places alternately, viz. : " At the school-house, over the Mill River, at ye south end of the town, and about the Great River"

1 The Province Acts of 161I2-9J fined towns with fifty householders twenty pounds for failure to employ a niMter to teach reading and writing. Those having one hundred householders were required to employ a " grammar-school master," '* well-instructed in the tongues." lu 1721 undoubtedly the selectmen believed there were in Mendon one hundred householders.

Mr. Grindal Rawson, perhaps the first resident in Mendon to graduate from Harvard College, was engaged for six months after October 24, 1728, for a salary of twenty-two pounds ten shillings. He was the eleventh child of Rev. Grindal Rawson, had recently left college and taught in 1729 and 1730. It is probable he was the first to teach more than reading and writing. He was afterwards minister at East Haddam, Conn., dying there in 1777. His cousin, Capt. William Rawson, an earlier graduate of Harvard, taught the Mendon school in the winter of 1729 -30, at the rate of forty-five pounds per year salary.

Samuel Terry taught a grammar school in 1733. May 15, 1732, "School Dames" were authorized "to keep school in the Outskirts of the Town," and thirty pounds were appropriated for the purpose. These were the first of the long list of women who have adorned and elevated Mendon's public schools.

John Field followed Mr. Terry, teaching from 1735 to 1737 ; salary, forty- five pounds per year. He was succeeded by Capt. William Rawson, 1735 to 1742, at fifty pounds ; but after him Josiah Marshall taught at nineteen pounds a year in bills of the " last emission." The fluctuations of the colonial currency, or bills of credit, make the rates of wages misleading.

By vote of the town, no schoolmaster was hired in 1743; but Mr. Mar,<hall taught again in 1744, and it would appear continuously till the spring of 1747, when the town voted not to employ him, and sold their school-house for fourteen pounds, " old tenor." In the autumn they voted to build a new one, the same size as the first, at the north end of the Training Field. This house stood near the present location of A. W. Gaskill's barn, and was completed in 1749.

In 1749 there was also a vote that the Grammar School should not be kept in the new school -house, and the next year there was a nearly unanimous vote not to have Mr. Foster for their teacher, and to have Mr. Dorr's son, Joseph, and Capt. Eleazer Taft s son, Moses, " Keep school by Spells, as they can agree." The same arrangement in substance continued the next year, but with an added declaration in favor of having Joseph Dorr when possible. Both these teachers were Harvard graduates.

Between 1757 and 1760 the town's control of the schools seems relaxed, and signs of a new system appear. The town left the settlement of school matters, heretofore controlled by direct vote, to the selectmen, and in 1760 we discover the existence of eleven school districts, drawing, and doubtless expending, the money they raised for schools under town authority.

As late as 1751 there were but two school-houses, that in the East Precinct (Milford) having been built in that year. But it is clear that the several districts took complete control of their schools after 1771, perhaps a little earlier. Little is to be learned of their progress from that time to 1790. In 1789 a statute made it the duty of the ministers and selectmen to visit scliools and advise and examine the scliolars. Their authority was not well defined, and though they were doubtless interested and useful, their position was one of honor and dignity rather than of direct responsibility. From forty to one hundred pounds were annually raised for schools, and it is quite probable most of the schools were taught in private dwelling-. In 1789 the town voted to sell the old school-house on the " Training Field," and in 1794 voted to raise six hundred pounds to build a school-house in each district. Later this was reduced to a grant of three hundred pounds, for building and repairing school-houses. This was increased by one hundred and fifty pounds in 1795, and that in turn voted down, but finally, in 1797, six hundred and sixty-six pounds were granted for building and furnishing school-houses, committees meanwhile having been chosen to supervise the work, all of which shows a strong probability that before 1800 each district had a school-house. In 1796 the first School Committee was chosen, but it is not plain that the town did this every year after. It was probably preferable for the most part to have the ministers act. They generally had students fitting for college or studying theology under their tuition from 1700 to 1830, sometimes, as in Mr. Doggett's case, maintaining an academy ; and their approval of students and teachers, too, was much desired. Indeed, after 1789, teachers not college graduates must have it before they could lawfully teach.

From 1800 to 1827 from $600 to $800 was annually raised for schools, and from $1200 to $1800 from 1827 to 1844. The income of proceeds of sales of school lands made prior to 1727 had been applied to the support of schools for a period not now known, but it must have been an insignificant sum. After 1837 the income of $6927.64, received from the United States out of the "surplus revenue," was also thus applied till Blackstone was incorporated, in 1845, when only $2118.19 was left for Mendon, and in 1880 this was used to reduce the town's general indebtedness.

The statute of 1826 introduced the effectual control of public schools by the School Committee. They were first paid in Mendon in 1832, when $10.00 was voted them, " providing they are prompt and regular in visiting the schools." The people clung tenaciously to the district system, and jealously reserved all possible control of the schools to the district or prudential committees down to 1869, when the system was abolished by law. Any fancied assumption of undue control on the part of the town committee was likely to be followed by the election of a new board at the next town-meeting.

The school:!, however, progressed steadily, and from the time of Grindal Rawson's graduation, in 1728, Mendon has sent out students who have won scholarly fame from New England colleges. Dr. Metcalf, in his "Annals," gives us the names of ten such graduates, all from Harvard before 1800, and twenty-three graduates of colleges or professional schools between 1800 and 1860. After an apparent lull in educational interest, a new zeal appeared to arise in the winter of 1867-68. It manifested itself in a school, gathered by consent of the school authorities, in the smallest school-house and one of the most remote in situation in town, where some of the more advanced pupils of various and distant schools assembled, and where they enjoyed instruction in studies more advanced than usual in such schools. In view of the progress thus made and the ambition aroused, the town voted in 1868 "to establish a high school for the benefit of all the inhabitants " to be kept in the town hall during the fall and winter following.

Mr. Henry Whittemore, afterwards a successful teacher and superintendent of schools in other towns, achieved such a success here that the school was continued and has been ever since, though sustained by a voluntary expenditure on the part of the town andoften suffering from insufficient support and the errors of inexperienced or ignorant instructors. But the influence of the school, imperfect though it be, has been very great and has decidedly elevated educational standards throughout the town. It may be worth noting that the " Grammar School " of 1729-69, with its instruction in mathematics and " the tongues," outranked the common and " Dame" schools, was for the benefit of the townspeople generally, and ended with or about the time of the advent of the district system. As that disappeared the town again assumed full control, and in its High School restored the ancient Grammar School in a modernized form. The tenth anniversary of the High School was celebrated in 1878, when the public testimony of its former members was strongly in its praise as a power for good in their lives ; later evidence is to the same effect. For the last fifteen years a majority of the town's teachers have been taken from its High School. It is doubtful if, during the ten years prior to its establishment ten of the Mendon pupils of the common schools sought any education in schools of higher grade, while in twenty years since 1868 more than forty entered such higher schools or colleges after taking the opportunities offered in the Mendon High school. Of these at least twenty have taken or will soon take diplomas from such institutions. Among them are graduates from Harvard, Dartmouth, Amherst, the Worcester Polytechnic School, the State Normal Schools and schools of law and medicine.

The names of teachers of Mendon High School and time of service are : Henry Whittemore, 1868-70 ; Daniel N. Lane, Jr., 1870-74; Benjamin F. Harmon, 1872: Ernest L. Scott, 1874-75 ; Parker P. Simmons,

Closely allied to the educational history of Mendon is the story of. the founding of the Taft Public Library in 1881, by Mrs. Susan E. (Lee) Huston, late of Providence, Rhode Island. Born in Mendon, July 17, 1824, and early orphaned, Mrs. Huston had es- ' ceedingly limited opportunities for reading and but little school education. Whatever advance she made in learning she was wont to attribute to the influence and aid of her older half-brother, Putnam W. Taft, late of Worcester, but also a native of Mendon. At his death Mrs. Huston received a share of his estate and unselfishly determined to apply a large portion thereof so that the people of her native town might ever after enjoy what in her early days had been denied to her, - an abundance of good books. To this end she gave the town one thousand dollars to establish a free public library to be at once useful to the living and a memorial of her brother, whose name it bears, and who, in his lifetime, had expressed a desire to do something of the kind. By the terms of the gift the town is to provide a place for the library and yearly add new books to the value of seventy-five dollars, at least. This it has done, and after Mrs. Huston's death, July 4, 1884, unanimously voted to erect a tablet to her memory iu its library building, already adorned with her portrait and that of her brother. The library has received gifts from time to time, and now has over twenty-five hundred volumes, largely standard works. It is very freely used, is greatly valued and its founder held in grateful and loving remembrance.

No sketch of Mendon's history would be complete did not'notice a few events of minor importance perhaps, but which, at the time of their occurrence, attracted great and general interest.

Such was the erection in 1840 of Harrison Hall and school-rooms beneath, and its purchase in 1849 by the town, connected with which many acrimonious contests and more than one lawsuit arose. Happily, though in constant use ever since, the building, with its lot recently enlarged, still remains, is in good repair and useful as ever, while the bitter strifes of which it was the occasion exist as faint memories alone.

Pleasanter recollections follow the town's bi-centennial celebration in 1867, of which mention has been made. Rev. Carleton A. Staples, one of the town's favorite sons, now of Lexington, was orator of the day, and Judge Henry Chapin, of Worcester, the poet; General J(jhn M. Thayer, of Nebraska; Rev. Adin Ballou, of Hopedale; Putnam W. Taft, Hons. Ira M. Barton, E. B. Stoddard, Judge H. B. Staples, of Worcester; Francis Deane, Esq., of Uxbridge; Rev. Lewis

F. Clarke, of Northbridge; Dr. M. D. Southwick, of Blackstone; Hon. George B. Loring, of Salem, and others, delivered addresses or read poems. There were letters of regret read from Governor A. H. Bullock, General B. F. Butler, Hons. Levi Lincoln, John H. Clifford, George S. Boutwell, Emory Washburn, Stephen Salisbury, Judge Charles Devens and others.

October 31, 1877, some hundreds of people assembled to commemorate the one hundred and seventyfourth anniversary of the death of the pioneer. Sergeant Abraham Staples. Two of his descendants. Rev. C. A. Staples and Judge H. B. Staples, on this occasion dedicated a granite monument to his memory and, with others of this well-known family, delivered appropriate addresses.

There is in Mendon's old burying-ground, where this Staples' monument stands, a stone bearing the name of Deborah Read, and the date 1702, and one with the name of Abraham Staples, and the date October 20, 1704, is next in antiquity. On the authority of Judge Staples there are but five older ones known in the county, all in Lancaster.

Another memorial stone, and very useful, also, in the form of a large watering basin, highly finished, and suitably inscribed in memory of Hon. David Joy, originally from Nantucket, was given to the town by his widow. It stands at the junction of Main and Hastings Streets. Mr. Joy lived in Mendon, for several years and died abroad in 1876. The basin was not fully made over to the town till 1884, since which date the town has kept it supplied. It was set up in 1877.

It is apparent that from the beginning what is now Mendon always had a moderate growth in population. From 1840 to 1875 it was probably about stationary, having not far from twelve hundred inhabitants.

Compelled to rely upon its fertile farms, like similar Massachusetts towns, it has long seen its sons going to swell the population of larger places, but it is still strong in self-respect and is evidently as much respected as ever. Surrounded by the busy towns formerly within its limits, it seems content, in some measure, with thetraditions of its past, and to look on the turmoil around something as a mother on her children .at play, without taking much part in their restless activity. Its population in 1885, numbering only nine hundred and forty-five, is largely of pure New England stock, and it may be doubted if, in any town in Worcester County, the people retain more of the habits and sterling character of their New England ancestors.'

Obadiah Wood

1 In tlie preparation of the foregoing, the " .\nnals of Mendon," compiled by Dr. Jolin G. Metcalf, and published by the town of Mention, IStiO, uUo the published historical discourses of Rev. 0. A. Staples, have beeu freely used.

Berlin

Obadiah. The subject of this sketch married Abey, daughter of Israel Mowry, of Rhode Island, by whom he had nine children. The early life of Mr. Wood was spent as a farmer in the towns of Uxbridge and Jlendon. He then learned the trade of a mechanic, that of a wood-workman. The first of his work in this line was the manufacture of chairs and spinningwheels. After the establishijient of factories along our streams, Mr. Wood found his occupation partly gone. He was next employed in some of these factories in the region where he li^ed in other lines of wood-work. It is claimed for him that he wa- the first bobbin-maker in this country, his orders coming from all parts of the United States as time rolled on. His bobbins also found their way to the South American States, - he was quite successful in this business. While a resident of the. town of Mendon he was honored by being chosen to fill all of the important offices in the place. He was elected to the Legislature from Mendon in 18-35, and again in 1836. While a member of that body he introduced a bill to reduce the number of members to be chosen annually as members of the House of Representatives. The bill was favorably received, and became a law. He was at one time chosen one of the State directors of what is now the Boston and Albany Railroad. Mr. Wood was a man of strong will-power, earnest in what he thought to be right. In politics he was originally a Jacksonian Democrat, but, with the rise of the Republican party, he saw the opportunity to do something to check the advance of the slave power. Believing in equal rights for all men, he united himself with the new party, as the best means to accomplish the end desired.

He was a man of sterling integrity, ever laboring for the public good. All matters brought to his notice were carefully weighed, and his decisions were generally found to be correct, and in accordance with right and justice. He is remembered as a lover of books and as a skillful mechanic, who did much in those early days of our history to advance the prosperity of the towns and county in which he lived, leaving behind footprints not yet effaced.

By Rev. W. A. Houghton

Ik introducing our modest little town to Worcester County we have to say that we ought to have been much larger. A line on the map touching Boston and Albany justifies the scheme of some shrewd capitalists of sixty years ago, of connecting the two cities by canal (d la Erie), which would have divided our town in halves. A speaker of our House of Representatives lately said that had the project been consummated, Boston would have been the metropolis instead of New York. The Central Massachusetts Railroad has, by nature, the pre-eminent " right of way,'' which it has taken through Worcester County. But other considerations besides directness determine such issues. So, too, had Lancaster, when we were a part of it, only accepted the county-seat, how different would we have been, and all the northern Worcester County towns ; great results follow inconsiderate action !

As it is, Berlin is one of the eight towns of the county having less than a thousand in population, and two of these towns join us. Berlin, now bounded north by Bolton, east by Hudson and Marlboro', south by Northboro' and west by Boylston and Clinton, is, territorially, a section of the original " ten miles square" of Lancaster, and the southeast corner of it.

From 1643 to 1738 we were of Lancaster, - almost a century. We had two or three houses on Berlin soil before the massacre of 1676, - one as early as 1665. That was John Moore's, who located southeast of Wataquadock Hill. In the re-settlement of Lancaster, the families clung to the Nashua River. Berlin territory was not inhabited again probably til! about 1700. Garrisons were maintained up to 1720. Bolton had two or three. Our territory had none ; but several families had ventured within our pre-sent bound-i about 1700.

Of early landholders of Berlin, of noticeable extent, were the Johnsons, of Woburn, who settled on the south. Captain Edward Johnson, famous in Woburn as one of its founders, was virtually court surveyor under Governor Winthrop. With two others, he was appointed to supervise the affairs of Lancaster, when not enough " freemen " could be enrolled to do it, not being church members. Hence, probably, his acquaintance with Lancaster lands.

A great-grandson of his settled three sons, Edward, Joshua and Eleazer, on farms which included most of what is now South Berlin. Of these three brothers, two of them married two sisters, daughters of James Ball, of "Ball Hill," and sisters of the first of the three celebrated doctors Stephen Ball, of Northboro'. The other brother married a cousin of theirs, daughter of Nathan Ball, brother to James, on the same hill, Westboro' then, Northboro' now. The Johnsons were prominent in the early history of Bolton and Berlin. They came upon the stage about the time of the separation of Bolton from Lancaster, 1738. Dr. Joshua Johnson, late of Northboro', was one of the last of this family line in this vicinity. The name stood strong in Berlin for a hundred and fifty years. Another branch settled in Leominster. The Lancaster Johnsons were from Watertown. Our line stands Edward, William, Edward, Edward, Jr., who located here his sons.

Samuel Jones, Jr., a grandson of Josiah Jones, of Watertown, progenitor, according to Bond, of the American families of the name, was connected with the Johnsons in Woburn by marriage, and settled near them on the Assabet River, near our Marlboro' and Northboro' lines. The Joneses were a family of like standing, apparently, with the Johnsons. Here the Joneses became more numerous for many years than any other family. Samuel (2d), and third of the line, bought of Benjamin Bailey one hundred and fortyseven acres, 1748, covering all our present centre. One single dwelling of account seems to have been included. This became a hotel, an " inn " in those days. Children and children's children came upon the stage. They established homes mainly upon the first purchase. The third and fourth Samuels raised here their families. The third Samuel was "senior" as to Berlin. The first two were of Concord and Woburn.

Two large families, Samuel (5th) and William, removed to Marlboro'. N. H., 1810 and 1825. They have well maintained the family name and character. At present Mr. Ira Jones is sole male representative of the several energetic founders of Berlin.

Our Samuel, Sr., gave to the town its parish common and ground for cemetery. He was a valiant patriot and " militant '' in any good cause. In the ecclesiastical conflict between Rev. Mr. Goss and the town, who desired to settle Mr. Walley, " Land'rd Jones" was reported as praying that the Lord would " overturn and overturn

On the east of the town Stephen Gates and sons held several hundred acres, including our principal pond, bearing his name. Gates came from England, 1638, by way of Hingham and Cambridge to Lancaster. Our Lancaster historians represent the family as decidedly "tropical" in blood. Daughter Mary confronted the minister in the public assembly. Prose cuted, she shook oti' the dust of her feet and married John Maynard, of Sudbury, and from them came several good-blooded Maynard families to Berlin. But the Gates name subsided. Some settled in Stow. The Gateses were patriots in the wars.

Between the Gates lands on the east of the town and Johnsons on the south came in John Wheeler and John, Jr,, from the Concord Wheeler hive. They have multiplied, " and still increase." The name, of Jate years, has represented more families and persons than any other. Their first home was on the south of Sawyer Hill. Now they have a hill of their own in the north part of the town. They have been connected mostly with the Quakers, whose meetinghouse stands just over the Bolton line in Fryville.

Meadow is named. This of Thomas Henchman, by " John Wheeler, of Concord, son of Obadiah Wheeler, late of Concord, deceased." This John Wheeler died in Marlboro', 1721. His son, John, about that time moved on into Shrew.sbury (now Boylston), where he died, leaving estate to his son John.

On the Marlboro' homestead, now in Berlin, Jonathan, son of John, Jr., Appears with family, 1752. He is the hTead of the Berlin families. George Tolman, of Concord, has made a thorough development of the Concord Wheelers from their immigration, correcting many errors.

Sons Jonathan, Jr., Stephen and Levi settled in Berlin; Perigrine in Richmond, N. H.; Jonathan, Jr. married Mary Buffum, of which blood all her descendants think very much ; they hold a yearly picnic the day after the August " Quarterly Meeting."

Berlin on the west was peopled by Lancaster inhabitants from the Nashua. Philip Larkin, of Irish descent, established our " Larkindale." Singularly there gathered round him othf-r nationalities till the region was known as the "Six Nations." Philip left a vigorous posterity, well represented as yet. But he disappeared in early old age, leaving for Baltimore. No further trace of him from about 1750 till a Berlin soldier came across his grave and tablet in Poolesville, Md., 1862. He owned here several hundred acres of land, which he distributed mostly among his sons. His neighbors suggested tiiat he left to have, at last, the offices of the Catholic Church. There was no such church nearer at that date. The suggestion has reason in it. Tradition has it that Philip, by collusion with the captain of the ship, evaded his military enrollment in the King's army. He found employment with Rev. John Prentice, of Lancaster. On the north, almost the entire section of the town was owned by the Lancaster Houghtons. John Houghton, born in England, was among the first proprietors of the " ten miles square '' of Lancaster. Before the Rowlandson massacre, 1675, he had land three miles from the home settlements. His sons succeeded to the same after his death, 1684. Two of the sons settled on Berlin territory. Some of that land was in the same name for six generations, 1675-1825. The writer of this now alone represents that name in Berlin. The Houghtons vied with the Wilders and Willards in Lancaster as to numbers. John Houghton, second born, 1650, died 1737, was one of Lancaster's most noted citizens. A majority, perhaps, of the Lancaster Houghtons fell into Bolton, 1738. Robert, son of John, Sr., was the progenitor of the principal Berlin line. The foregoing were our earliest settlers.

Some other names will appear in their special localities. In point of time as to settlement. Sawyer Hill is first. Gates Poud lies at its eastern base. Josiah Sawyer, grandson of the famous Thomas Sawyer, Jr., of Indian fame and captivity, who redeemed

Here he reared, and nurtured in all good training, a large family. He was first deacon of the Berlin Church. At last he divided his estate among his four sons, William, Aholiab, Josiah and Silas. The hill is still represented by a great-grandson, Jonas Sawyer. One of the homesteads has of late been the residence of Madam Rudersdorf, the famous teacher of music and voice culture. " Lake Side " she called it, for its view of the lake and many distant mountains. Berlin Centre lies in the valley on the west of the hill. The Sawyer name has ever been largely represented in Berlin, socially and religiously.

William Sawyer, son of Deacon Josiah, was a thorough patriot. He married into the prominent Barrett family, of Bolton. William Sawyer Newton, town clerk of Brattleboro', grandson of Cotton Newton, of the Marlboro' and Northboro' line, an early settler here, represents the Sawyer and Barrett families in Vermont.

Major Oliver Sawyer, deacon of the Orthodox Church in Berlin, and Amos, his brother, deacon of the Unitarian Church, both reared here influential families. They were sons of William Sawyer and Hannah Barrett. Amos, Jr., was thirty years chorister in the same house of worship, also several years a Representative in the Legislature. Two sons of Dea. Oliver also repeatedly served the town in this capacity.

Hon. Henry O. Sawyer, merchant, of West Boylston, and his partner, Walter Barrett Sawyer, are grandsons of Dea. Oliver. Their father, Oliver Barrett Sawyer, was their predecessor in their business.

Wheeler Hill, named from early settlers and continued occupancy, is an offshoot from the Bolton and Indian Wataquadock. It is within bugle-sound of Sawyer Hill and several others partially encircling it, Jonathan Wheeler, Jr., of the fourth generation, was its first occupant, 1778.

Baker Hill is another spur of Wataquadock, more westerly. Hon. Samuel Baker, associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas and fourteen years a Senator, settled on the hill in 1765. The hill is now in occupancy of a great-grandson, Alden Sawyer. Samuel Baker is the only family name in Berlin which we cannot trace back a single link. To us he is a genuine Melchisedec. We can do something with John Smith, but Samuel Baker we surrender; yet his name has honored the town more, perhaps, than any other.

Barnes Hill is our western outlook. A finer view is seldom obtained. Doubtful if any other such fine view of Wachusett and intervening hills can be named. Fortunatus Barnes, of Marlboro', settled on this outlook, 1765. He cleaned up the hill of all squatters, settlers and owners, save one, Phineas Howe, whose great-grandson still "holds the fort," Silas Sawyer Greonleaf. None but these two homesteads have ever had a footing on this most sightly crest. In 1805 the

Hon. Charles Hudson, whose father had lived within musket range, on Ball Hill, partly in Berlin and partly in Northboro', honored the occasion by an address.

Berlin cherishes the names of Fortunatus Barnes of Marlboro' and Persis Hosmer of Concord, both of historic families. They have largely contributed to our character and standing. Their son, Capt. William Barnes, married into the vigorous Goddard stock, then already established on the eastern slope of Barnes Hill- The son did honor to the family name, and maintained the paternal acres in the best order of husbandry till his death, 1851. No fruit to-day excels the product of Barnes Hill.

Artemas Barnes, only son of Captain William and Hannah (Goddard) Barnes, generously erected, 1876, a costly monument to the memory of Rev. Dr. Puffer; also to Lieut. Timothy Bailey, who died in the Revolutionary service. He gave also the site on which our town-house stands. His life-size portrait adorns the Town Hall. He married Nancy Meriamt a lateral branch of the Lexington and Berlin stock. He died in Worcester, 1877, aged eighty years.

Before naming other families, a view from Barnes Hill may give us the best idea of the town territorially. On the west the land rises from the Nashua River, in Clinton, so that it sheds its water not into the river near by, but carries it across the township into the Assabet. The surface is generally uneven, but of a more than ordinary fertility.

Berlin streams are small, except the Assabet, which flows through the southeast border and receives affluents from other towns. The Centre and the South village are not an intervale proper, but from Barnes Hill seem bounded by it and Baker Hill, Wheeler Hill and Sawyer Hill. North Brook, formed by streams from the north part of the town, and Larkindale, divides the lower area, tending to the Assabet. The Centre contains three churches, town-house, school-house, post-oflSce and a store of common variety. A hotel was burned 1883.

This valley, to the Assabet, is dotted with farms, farm-houses and Old Colony Railroad station. South Berlin village, at the south end of the valley, is quite a flourishing part of the town. West Berlin, at the northeastern foot of Barnes Hill, is the most active business point of the town. The Old Colony Railroad has given it life and energy. The C. M. Railroad makes there a junction with it. The iron bridge of the latter, spanning Felton's mill-pond and the O. C. Railroad, is a very fine structure.

Carterville is a cluster of a score of houses, store, &c., just north of the churches. Here, too, is the C. M. Railroad station. Very few localities present such a horizon-view as Barnes Hill in Berlin.

We waited long for the Rail, but it came at last. Four trains for Boston daily and return on the O. C. and three on the C. M. On the latter one hour plus by way of Hudson, Wayland, Waltham, &c. By the game road, within one hour of Worcester, by way of Oakdale and the Nashua, three times daily. The O. C. Northern Division embraces Fitchburg, Leominster, Clinton, Berlin, Northboro', Marlboro', Southboro', Framingham, &c. We look for " Berlin Junction," now partial, at West Berlin. Few towns have better railroad facilities. Very few, within thirty miles of Boston, have more enjoyable scenery. We have also daily stage express to Hudson Station on the Fitchburg.

Returning to family names, Benjamin Bailey, adjoining the Johnsons, and of whom Samuel Jones bought what is now Berlin Centre, owned much besides ; six hundred acres at least. He bought " rights," exchanged and consolidated, till he held in one solid block, apparently, a third part of our jnesent township, and that nearly in the centre. He came in from Marlboro', 1718; was a descendant, probably, of Rev. Thomas Bailey, of Watertown. Rev. Benjamin Bailay, of Portland, Marblehead, now of Maiden, is of the fourth generation from Benjamin, of Berlin, "The places that know them shall know them no more." Sons and sons' sons were many years leading citizens here. For forty years the name has not been enrolled in Berlin, save as adopted by a lateral descendant to keep it up. A brother of Benjamin, Barnabrs Bailey, had a large farm, including, at his door, what is now the Old Colony Railroad Station for Berlin Centre and South Berlin. Col. Silas Bailey v/as a younger brother. His son. Lieutenant Timothy, died in the Revolutionary service. The colonel got somewhat into sympathy with the Shays' Rebellion.

William Babcock, of the Dedham and Marlboro' line, settled here about 1770. He was our only Cincinnatui, so far as we can affirm, who left his plough in the furrow, and hastened to Lexington at the alarm gun fired from the "Jones tavern." The Babcock name has ever headed our list of citizens, the letter A refusing, almost wholly, to serve us till lately. Five generations from William, inclusive, are on our records and still well represented. Reuben Babcock, father of William, lived in Marlboro', Westboro' and Northboro', without moving, near the present Corey farms.

Adam Bartlett, of Marlboro', with wife, Persis Babcock, sister of William,'of Northboro', took possession of the " Stone-house," Baker Hill, about 1808. Sons and daughters were born to them, ten in number, but the one destroyer has left us but one representative, Amory Adam,of the fourth generation. A Sawyer and Bartlett Association hold annual picnic meetings at the Stone-house about the 1st of September.

The name Bassett is modern in I3erlin, but honorably represented. Three brothers came from Richmond, N. H., 185(;, with their venerable parents, of the Society of Friends. Elisha settled on one of our best farms, on the Assabet ; William, in the same vicinity ; Ahaz settled in Hudson. Hon. William

Thomas and Samuel Brigham came in from that most numerous stock of Marlboro', and traceable to Thomas, of Watertown, 1635. Samuel left no son. Thomas and wife, Asuba Babcock, left Thomas and Paul. No son succeeded these. They both lived by the present central station of the Old Colony Railroad.

The Barber mills (Nathan) were a focus of prominent interest from 1777-1812. Later they were the Carter mills, Polland mills, now Felton's, West Berlin. Whence Barber cime is not indicated. The family ceased from our records sixty years ago.

Bride, formerly McBride, is a name first represented here by Alexander, from Ireland and Charlestown, 174-5-50. The families were numerous fifty years ago. Only two at present in Berlin. All the sons- John, James and Thomas - were more or less in the colonial armies.

Bruce is Scotch. Our records have borne the name a hundred and fifty years. They were a family of soldiers, in the Freuch and Indian Wars, also in the Revolution. They came from Sudbury. John and Roger, of Marlboro', jsreceded Daniel, the head of Berlin families. We cannot give the date of immigration.

James Butler was of Woburn and Lancaster. James, Jr., without moving, was of Lancaster, Bolton and Berlin. The name was but a few years on Berlin records till recently. Lancaster, Bolton and Leominster took in most of them. Their Lancaster homes were west of Clam-shell Pond.

Christopher Banister Bigelow,of the Marlboro' line, so ancient, reared a large family, five or six of whom have reared other families within our borders. One only on our records at present. Abraham Bigelow, of Northboro', is son of Christopher.

The Carter families of Berlin, always relatively numerous, are of the Woburn stock. Rev. Thomas Carter was first minister of that enterprising town. The Carters were early settlers in Lancaster, and of the most vigorous blood. A full score of the families have made their homes on Berlin territory down to the ninth generation from Rev. Thomas. Chandler Carter, late benefactor of the town, has a personal record on another page.

Cartwright, Francis James, came from England about 1840, with sons Daniel and Algernon, and daughter Elizabeth. Parents and daughter have deceased.

Carley, Job and Silas, were transferred to Berlin from Marlboro' in the construction of the town- Kerley was the original form of the family name, pronounced Karley, - hence Carley. Their home was on the Assabet. The progenitor was William, of Watertown, 1G42, He was an original j'roprietor of lands both in Marlboro' and Lancaster. In Lancaster he married, second wife, the mother of Minister

Eowlandson. His brother Henry's family were killed in the Eowlandson massacre. This brought Henry back to the Assabet, where he settled. The Berlin Carleys were his descendants. Their early connections were in the best families of Marlboro' and Lancaster. Job Carley, the last on our records, died here 185(5, not of "small-po.K," as put on record. That visitation of the family was fifty years earlier.

Cotting, George A., resident in Berlin, Boylston, now of Hudson, has honored his ancestry in erecting in Berlin's new cemetery a sightly and impressive granite monument bearing the Cotting genealogy of his line from the immigration. Josiah, of Roxbury, 1637, heads the line, later of Lancaster. Others of kin settled in Kew York City, and appeared under the name of Cutting. Cotting is the original. Jo.siah, Jr., was a Revolutionary soldier of Sterling; Josiah (3d) was physician of Southboro'; Josiah (4th) married daughter of Capt. William Barnes, of Berlin ; George A. is their son.

A branch of the Northboro' Fays, descendants of John, of Boston, 1656, settled in Berlin, 1804. Dexter was deacon of the church. His children and children's children still abide. He owned a fine farm on the height of land next to Northboro' line, till of late in the family name. It is now a "gilt edge" butter dairy. The Morse family has been represented in Berlin for fifty years. Aaron Ward, of Marlboro', descendant of Joseph, of Watertown, 1635, settled hers 1837; was succeeded by his son Symon on the Assabet, one of the best farms of the region. Winslow B. Morse, on the old " Brigham place," Old Colony Station, is of a collateral branch. Amory C, deceased, was his brother.

Feltons in Berlin are modern and came from Marlboro' 1830 - iO. Jacob and sons, Otis and Merrick. Two brothers from Scotland by the name of Fife came over about 1730. They located as neighbors in Lancaster, but territorial divisions left one family in Bolton the other in Berlin. The Berlin branch, by James, became numerous. They were enterprising and scattered themselves in several States. Dr. John William Fyfe, of Saugatuck, Conn., is their genealogist. The William Fyfe line, much esteemed, is represented solely by William E. Fyfe, of Clinton, Mas^., the fourth William and fourth generation.

The Fo'igateg for a hundred and fifty years have clung to Gates Pond, in East Berlin. We trace to Robert, sometimes of Jlarlboro', sometimes of Bolton. Back of Robert the ancestry is obscure. It is the only ancient family among us who still hold their own in a half-score of families.

have dwelt among us; all descended from Edward, a stanch old Puritan in days of the hated Charles I. Edward " lost all things " for liis religion. William, his son, lost all by the London fire and speculation in New England investments. Josiah, son of William, made a good farmer in Watertown, and William, his son, made a good miller on North Brook, now South Berlin. One name alone, Marcus Morton Goddard, represents, to-day, in Berlin, all these generations. They were among our earliest and most vigorous families.

A family of genuine vigor were the Fairbanks. Jonas was a first proprietor of Lancaster. His son Jabez become a terror to all Indians within scouting distance. Jabez, Jr., and a son of his settled on Berlin premises. TheGoddards and Fairbanks joined hands in the marriage of James Goddard, Jr., of the sixth generation, and Keziah Fairbanks, great-granddaughter of Jabez, Sr., in 1785.

Hartshorn was a name unknown in Berlin up to 1840. Dr. Edward, son of Rev. Levi Hartshorn, who died at Gloucester in early prime, came to Berlin after his graduation at Harvard Medical College. He was then the youngest practicing physician in Worcester County. He married a daughter of Solomon Howe, Esq., and settled in professional life. Besides laborious practice, he did much to improve the town by various enterprises. He was chairman in committee for building the present tasteful and becoming town-house, 1869.

Dr. H.artshorn was for seventeen years superintendent of the Congregational Sunday-school. He sold his professional interests in the town, 1854, and with his two sons engaged in the manufacture of family medicines, which business he removed to Boston and followed with his family, 1871.

Edward Howe, son of Dr. Hartshorn, retained his home in Berlin and succeeded his father as superintendent of the Sabbath-school sixteen years. Death severed the connection. He married the daughter of Rev. Wm. A. Houghton, 1869. She died 1876. Second, he married a daughter of R. S. Hastings. He died June 8, 1887, at forty-four years. He represented his district, embracing Berlin, Clinton and Bolton, in Legislature, 1869 ; was the youngest member, save one, in the House. The first marriage of Edward H. Hartshorn and that of his only brother to only daughter of James Mayuard, of Clinton, were on the same day ; being the silver wedding of Rev. W. A. Houghton and wife. A great concourse of people were present. The elder brother and the mother of his first two children now lie side by side in the silence of the grave, under the national flag.

Hastings : Four branches of this family of ancient history have given character to Berlin. It is pleasant to know that we have some early blood in America besides the British and the Irish. No doubt the Hastings are true Danes. Mrs. Lydia Nelson (Hastings) Buckminster, of Framingham, the family gene- alogist, gives us - 1664-1864 - about one thousand of the name and three times as many of the blood, having " homes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to the tropical regions of South America." Thomas, born in England, 1605, and Margaret Cheney, of Roxbury, are the progenitors. Nathaniel, Jr., of the fourth generation, was first on Berlin territory about 1765. He had a large family. His wife was Elizabeth Goodnow. He was a soldier in the French War - 1755-62 - also in Revolutionary service.

Ephraim Hastings, of the fifth generation, married Achsah Sawyer, of Lancaster, and settled in Boylston, where his children were born, and where his wife, Achsali, died. He married (2d) Almira, daughter of Rev. Dr. Puffer, of Berlin. He bought the Edward Johnson homestead, where he died, 1855. His only son, Captain Christopher Sawyer, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, though exempt by age from military service, voluntarily organized a company and ottered himself for service. He was in the battle of Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and at the capture of Jackson, Miss. Smitten by the small-pox, he rallied and reached Mound City Hospital, 111., where he died of malarial fever, September 8, 1863. He was buried with civic and military honors beside his own homestead, in our new cemetery, which he had done much to adorn.

Captain Hastings was a man of public enterprise, and executed many important trusts of the town. The trees of the highway, from his own domicile to his final resting-place, bear witness to his public spirit. His farm of generous acres, in the hands of his sons, represents, perhaps, the best specimen of modern agriculture and gardening of this vicinity. The family have presented to the G. A. R. Post his life-size likeness in crayon.

Rufus S. Hastings, twenty-five years merchant and postmaster in Berlin, was separated from the -other Berlin Hastings families in the third generation. His father. Major Rufus, and grandfather, Colonel Stephen, were of the most prominent farmers of Sterling, and just south of Washacum Ponds. Their line connected them with the Northboro' Balls of Ball Hill, from Watertown, and with Deacon Jona. Livermore, the centeuarian, who lived in three centuries - died 1801. Samuel Hastings, of the second generation, and Sarah Coolidue were their progenitors. Thomas and Margaret (Cheney) Hastings were before these.

Thomas Holder, son of Thomas, direct from England married, in Mendon, Sarah Gaskill, 1777, and came to Berlin. Both were effective preachers, of the Quaker persuasion. Four sons honored their name and Christian faith: Daniel and Thomas, of Berlin, Joseph, of Bolton, and David, of Clinton. All are deceased. I find the names Gaskill and Holder among the Quakers in their persecutions in the old Bay Colony. Samuel Gaskill, 1662, married Provided Southwick, daughter of Lawrence and Cassandra.

John Hudson, father of Hon. Charles, preacher and legislator, was a member of Berlin Church, and died here 1799. The Hudsons were a family of patriots, and soldiers as well.

Phineas Howe, of the Marlboro' John Howe line, came in by way of Shrewsbury, then Boylston, about 1760. His daughter Polly, who married Abel Baker, son of Judge Baker, raised, in Concord, N. H., a family remarkable for physical development. One son measured six feet, nine and one-half inches in his stockings. Ata recent silver wedding of Silas Greenleaf, a great-grandson of Phineas, on the ancestral spot, the trait was observable in the sixth generation, grandsons of Mr. Greenleaf.

Solomon Howe, also of Marlboro', came much later, 1803 ; bought of the Joneses most of what is now Berlin Centre. He kept a store, also a public " Inn." It was the dining-place for stage passengers between New Braintree, Barre, Rutland and Boston, 1827-40.

The name Jewett has an abiding- place in Berlin records for a hundred years. Jesse, probably from Rowley, with the Spaffords, settled here 1779 ; married into the Johnson family. The third and fourth generations survive. A son of Jesse, Jr., was major in the New Jersey militia in the late war, suffered a severe wound in the "sword-arm," as he was leading his men in battle.

The Keyes name is modern in Berlin, represented by David, Ziba and their children. Their remotest American ancestor was Robert, of Watertown, 1633. Several of the family name settled in Shrewsbury and Boylston. The Berlin families are of the Shrewsbury branch, Dea. John Keyes. His son Thomas married into the Livermore family, of Ball Hill. Thomas, Jr., was father to David and Ziba.

The Maynards are of most ancient lineage. Our families are traceable to John, of Sudbury, 1638, and Mary Gates, of Lancaster, who confronted the minister. Barnabas, Jotham and Jotham, Jr., were lifelong citizens. Two other Maynard families succeeded them, - George, of Marlboro,' and George W., from Great Bend, Pa. George W. represented his district in the Legislature, 1859.

The Meriams were influential here from 1765 to 184.5-50. Amos, from Lexington, of the well-known Concord family, married into the Danforth family, of "Cambridge Farms." Joseph Meriara, Esq., of New Yiirk City, is their genealogist (manuscript).

Jonathan Moore, of the John Moore line, of Sudbury, 1650, has been followed in Bolton and Berlin by seven generations. Warren E. Moore and brothers, of Northboro', are the later representatives of Bei-lin origin.

James R. Park, of Holliston, descended of Richard, of Watertown, 1636, became the owner of the Goddard mills and other estate in South Berlin, 1790, - a family of respectability and good influence in Berlin for three generations. His son, Colonel Joseph, several years Bepresentative to the Lefrislature, and his only ?on, Russell, returned to Holliston, where the father died.

The Berlin Pollards were of Billerica, and descendants of William and Anna, from Coventry, England, 1638. The Berlin families appear about 1720-30, then a part of Bolton, where a majority have since lived. Anna Pollard, wife of William, was the first female who set foot on Boston soil. She lived to her hundred and fifth year. Her portrait is in the Old South Church, Boston.

Joseph Priest and wife Hannah, born 1GS4, are the eldest born of any in Berlin Cemetery - -just two hundred years before our incorporation as a precinct. He was from W^oburn, and came by way of Lancaster. Had a large family, which was represented in three or four succeeding generations. A son of his, Joseph, Jr., gave the town, by will, five hundred dollars, our first school fund, to be appropriated to schools alone.

Captain Henry Powers, of unknown lineage, was an early settler on Baker Hill, about 1770. Had a large family, but they did not tarry after the second generation. A grandson of his was killed by murderous assault in Grafton, 1840.

Solomon Rathburn, from Rhode Island, settled in Berlin about 1840. His son, Thomas, was the first enrolled soldier of Berlin in the late war ; the first also of Berlin soldiers to die in the high calling. Another son, James, also entered the service. Charles B. is of our progressive farmers on Baker Hill.

Of Southwicks - historic name of Puritan days - we have several families, veritable descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra, the first to suffer persecution here for opinion's sake; more accurately, perhaps, for opposing others' opinions and refusing to conform to the arbitrary laws on religious matters. Lawrence and Cassandra were certainly inoffensive, except in non-conformity. Had the defiers of martyrdom been like them, none would have been hung, defiling the history of the Colony and shaming the Puritan posterity. It is humiliating to read the atrocities inflicted in the name of the law, and sad to know the frenzy of honest souls in the name of religion.

One of the fifth generation - David - and Mary Sweet located on Berlin soil about 1780. They had a most worthy family of thirteen children. Three families of grandchildren of like character abide with us.

The SpaflTord name has stood by us from the first up to date. The name is the oldest, historically, of any on our records. Our Lancaster " Book of Lands" seems to us quite ancient. But the veritable Spafford name is in the "Doomsday Book" of William the Conqueror, of England, lOCG. (See SpafJbrd Memorial, Aphia T. Spofford, Groveland, Mass., 1888.) Rowley was the American family hive, then comprising Georgetown, Groveland and other places. From

1638 to 1888 about fifty-five hundred names are registered. The Berlin line stands, - John, John (2d), Samuel of Lancaster (now Boylston), his two sons, Job and Samuel, settling here in our early town life. Samuel is still represented in grandchildren.

Young is a name duly cherished in Berlin. The Berlin family originated in Phillipston, children of Oliver and Grace (Kelly) Young. Miss Nancy Young, of her own earnings and frugality, bequeathed to our town fifteen hundred dollars as a school fund. She and an unmarried brother died on the old Southwick homestead, now Paul Randall's, who came in from Boltoa.

The name of Tyler is among the more recent in Berlin. They were of Warwick, and connected with the Bassetts. They represent our best stock-raisers and dairying. Their brother-in-law, William Lawson, has erected the finest mansion in the town, on Sawyer Hill, the " Lakeside " home of the late Madam Rudersdorf.

The Central Massachusetts Railroad opened interesting specimens. One was a large vein of graphite. The northwest part of the town is unequaled in boulders short of Cape Ann. A single rocker of many tons lies on a ledge by Clam-shell Pond. Some years ago a woman could put it in motion. Too much rocking has worn it down till only a slight motion can be easily effected. About the pond, on the Larkin lands, numerous Indian relics indicate that some tribe dwelt on the pond borders. Perhaps it was a resort of the Is ashaways.

Water-Ways. - Of water-ways we can claim about a mile of the Assabet River. This we got by grant of the Great and General Court. Marlborough had swooped in seven miles of that stream and its intervales. Lancaster surveyors set their starting-stake too far east, and so run against Marlborough. That made the Lancaster " Square " a trapezoid. Lancaster settlements began len years earlier than Marlborough, but Marlborough was awake and got her stakes down first. She probably thought that Lancaster ought to be satisfied with the '- Nashaway," of which they boasted so much. Several hundred acres of Marlborough, west of the Assabet, were granted to Berlin, crossing the Assabet at Lancaster, southeast corner, because some of our families owned land on the east beyond the river. Assabet has been variously spelled (Hist. Northborough, Joseph Allen, D.D), sometimes Elizabeth, but the Indian name has gained its standing. It affords Berlin no water-power; the only stream that does is a western tributary to the Assabet, with the modest name of " North Brook,'' its sources being in the north part of the town. Earliest deeds call it the "Great Brook." This is the stream that fascinated

AVilliam Goddard, 1727. At much cost, for the day, he established a saw and grist-mill, 1752-GO. The " power '' is better at flood than the supply for the year. Another mill was set up by Nathan Barber, two miles above, 1777 ; another just above that, about 1810, by Thomas Pollard for his son Stephen. Nothing else of permanent water-power has aided Berlin in her industries. Other streams are few and small. Foundations have been laid for another power near Berlin Station, O. C. R. R. Two ponds, "Clarashell,'' at the extreme west, and " Gates' Pond," at the extreme east, are all we can boast in this matter, except that " Gates' Pond," in Fosgate ownership, is the finest summer resort of the region. Several summer cottages have been built on its eastern shore. The pond is the source of the Hudson water supply, at which many Berlin citizens are very indignant. No man Gates was ever drowned in our pond for the sake of giving his name to it. Stephen Gates was its earliest personal owner, with much land about it. Our denizens stoutly refuse the proposal to call it " Lake Assabet," at Madam Budersdorf 's suggestion. " Clamshell '' Pond is its own interpreter.

Roads. - From the beginning Berlin has held one good mark of " civilization " in its roads. Some citizens here, especially the Meriams, caught the spirit and views of Colonel Ezra Beaman, of Boylston. We did not take to " turnpikes," but from the town to its contiguous neighbors, the fathers were ambitious of good highways. Many petitioners for an open road to their own home had to accept a " bridle-way," for the sake of more public liberality. The main roads were open, of course, while we were yet of Bolton, 1738 to 1784.

Favored in respect to bridges, our taxes have not been excessive. The first and only iron bridge has recently been constructed to span the Assabet between South Berlin and Marlboro'.

The town has not settled upon any one method of keeping up the highways. The old "highway surveyor '' has been supplanted - once by a single commissioner. Many still advocate the same, but of late the commissioners are chosen for districts. Berlin is very jealous of concentrated power. The majority are not " Democrats," but all are very democratic. The highway discussions are among the most animated in town-meetings. So they were in the '"twenties."

Roads suggest vehicles, and vehicles adapted to the roads. In 1734 Jonas Houghton, the "Lancaster Surveyor," contracted with settlers on Petersham territory to construct a road over a section of Wachusett, such that four oxen could conveniently carry over it four barrels of cider at once.

Only solid wagons could bear the strains of country roads a hundred years ago. But many statements as to the introduction of easier carriages exaggerate the time. The chaise was in use at least a hundred years ago, spelled "shays." Heuce the old epigram on the Shays' Rebellion :

Says Bober Will, " Well, Shays has fled, And peace returns to bless our days." " Indeed," cries Ned, "I always said He'd prove, at last, ^faUhnck Shays; And those turned over and undone. Call him a worthlene Shaj/s to run.^^ - Ward.

The first iron rail was laid in Berlin, 18G6, the " Fitchburg, Framingham and New Bedford." Two stations, one for the Centre and South Berlin, midway, one for West Berlin. The road-bed of the Massachusetts Central was prepared for grading as far as Holden before a rail was laid. Here it rested till financial reconstruction, as the "Central Massachusetts." The town struggled under the twenty thousand investment some fifteen years. The debt was lifted by the generous donation of Mr. Chandler Carter, 1887.

The Stage-Coach. - Therailroad, in itsday, hardly excited more interest in Berlin than did the first stagecoach, forty years earlier. Berlin was left out in the cold by the greater thoroughfares through Norlhboro' and Bolton.

"The mail-stage" was a wonder to the boys in its early day. Boys and men went miles to see the first four-horse stage in the United Stage, driven by Levi Pease, of Shrewsbury, from Worcester to Boston, 1795. So when a "stage-line" was started between New Braintree, Barre and Boston, by way of Holden, West Boylston, Sawyer's Mills, Berlin, Feltonville (Hudson) and Sudbury, the enterprise created great interest. Jona. D. Meriam was the principal investor of Berlin ; George E. Manson and Daniel Pope, of Feltonville. It was a losing business for the proprietors. But somebody was bright enough to run a line in opposition. The town got its post-office and other advantages.

How little we realize the blessings of postal service at public expense ! It is all modern, really. When the Puritans came to America, England had no complete mail service. In 1655 a post was established between London and Edinbugh, " to go night and day," and make return route within six days. Boston was then five years old. Lancaster had no post-office for one hundred and fifty years. As late as 1820-30 every store and bar-room was a kind of post-office. As advertisements now adorn the stores, so letters to adjoining and even distant towns were thus posted. A letter in Berlin directed to Worcester or Westboro' would be taken in hand by any one going to Northboro', leaving it there for the next self-constituted letter-carrier. All Berlin mail-matter was left in Bolton post-office up to 1827. So much for a mail-stage. Then, too, Berlin was the midway town between Barre and Boston.

The Howe Tavern of Berlin was the dining-place. " Esquire Meriam " was the first driver. He obtained a mail contract and post-office for the town, and became our first postmaster, though the superintendence of it devolved upon Wm. A. Howe, of the store and tavern. Eventually Mr. Howe succeeded to the ap- pointment. Every letter sent or received was registered, with amount of postage, before it could go out or before it could be delivered on arrival. A number of letters to Boston or elsewhere would be done up in one package with one bill of registration. A single letter must also be done up as a paclcage, with its record and the town or city superscribed. Six and a quarter cents, ten cents, twelve and a half cents, eighteen and three-fourths cents, and twenty-five cents the rates of postage. Times have clianged.

The MARKET-irAJT. - This is a class not much on record in town histories. But really they were the connecting link between the town and the outside world. The market-man took the butter, poultry, eggs, veal and various farm produce. Sometimes he gathered it himself, carried it to Boston, ordinarily in a well-covered wagon with two horses, once a week and return. He probably liandled more money than any other man in Berlin. But he was the weekly newsman. He brought the Boston news, much of it verbal, indeed, but he brought the newspaper also. From our earliest town life to 1812-20 so few towns having even a sight of a stage-coach, or mail, each town was interested in the return of the market-man. Tradition relates that a weekly concourse awaited the weekly arrival of Hugh Bruce at the Howe store and tavern, with the Boston Palladium reporting the progress of the war, 1812-15, also the reports of Napoleon's marvelous feats in Europe. So the slow-trudging market-man was the forerunner of the mail-coach and the locomotive. Pity the town which has no interest in the arrival of a daily mail !

The market-man usually brought all the store groceries, - more than all, " New Rum," that is. New England rum, later called Medford rum. We would not record it, only we have proved by other towns that we were not an exception, but sixty hogsheads of rum was the annual consumption in our town of less than seven hundred inhabitants, by estimate, 1825. There were then two stores. I repeat it, we were not exceptional. The market-man was sure of a weekly load. The successor of the market-man as news-carrier was the post rider.

Industries. - As to our early industries, the locality of Berlin determined them. A water-power which fails for one-third of the year is just about worthless, except for mere milling. Once the brooks were very useful ; but modern industries demand the rivers, and rivers that rage and roar. Compare ihe towns on the Concord River from Sudbury Meadows to Billerica, all on a level, and the towns on the Merrimac. Berlin was doomed to agriculture from the start. You cannot organize successful industries.

We have fragmentary records of the e.arly agriculture of Berlin to show good thrift of the husbandmen Returns in part of the year 1792 indicate the yiel of good hay at nearly a ton and a half to the acre.

were small. Sheep-folds were smaller. There was no " tariff on wool then. It was grown for home uses, so of flax. Apples were mainly of the " natural " stock. But a great change was wrought for Berlin by the good minister, Mr. Puffer. He practiced grafting even for his parishioners, and taught them the art. Few apples are seen to-day superior to those of Barnes Hill in the first decades of the century. The writer of this gathers yearly the " Russet " and "Nonesuch," which Mr. Puffer originated on his own homestead, now a hundred years old. No apples to-day outrank the apples of the Berlin uplands. Less cider is made because of good fruit instead of the natural. From the scant data of 1792, which is our oldest, the product of rye was about 300 bushels ; oats, 400 ; corn, 1,200 ; cider, 250 barrels. Four thousand acres improvable land ; at the end of forty years, 5,400; at the end of the century 6,918. Say one hundred and twenty farms of sixty acres each.

The first State returns of mechanical industries were made by request, not by law, 1837. We will not quote. But basket-making, employing three men, was the largest business our assessors found time or disposition to report.

The old routine of farming held very constant sway in Berlin up to 1830-40. A deviation was made 1810- 20 in hop-culture. The largest return was six and one-half tons for the town. The price varied from ten to fifteen or twenty cents per pound. Perhaps some years brought in two thousand dollars. Speculation set in, and some bad losses were made. It was calculated that "a pound of hops could be raised as cheaply as a pound of pork." From about 1830 hopyards declined. Only two or three moderate fields can now be seen. Hop-picking was an annual gala day for the girls, in the field.

Berlin had one "South Sea Bubble" in the "Morns multicaulis" epidemic, about 1840, - a shrub of large leaf for feeding silk-worms. We had little scientific farming before 1850-60. A Farmers' and Mechanics' Association was formed, which has greatly advanced gardening and agriculture. The south part of the town is especially adapted to early fruits and vegetables. Well has it been improved. Berlin asparagus has a reputation in Boston. Small fruits receive like attention. Grape-culture, on a brow of the Assabet valley, has been a marked success. An old sand-hill (the ground w.is accounted) was found to have a clay subsoil of remarkable tenacity for moisture. Perhaps no acres in Berlin are now more valuable.

Peach-culture, after much fruitless endeavor, now gives promise of success. Our hills are given especially to orcharding, grass and general culture. We have several gilt-edge butter farms on high lands, with choice stock. But the bulk of milk goes off by rail. Many pastures, formerly mowed annually, in " the old moon," now have their own way. Our wood acreage is hardly less than fifty years ago.

The dwelling-houses of Berlin (two hundred and ten) are almost wholly of modern aspect. Sixty years ago one-third, perhaps, were of the long back roofs of one story and two stories front. Our last went down in smoke, 1886. We have no pretentious dwellings. The most impressive one crowns Sawyer Hill, the residence of William Lawson, Esq. The farm is managed, in gilt butter-making, by his brother-in-law, Reed Tyler. Like the Pennsylvania Dutchmen, most of the Berlin farmers are set on having good barns. Nine-tenths of all the houses in Berlin are comfortable homes. We have one which was probably built about 1720 by Jona. Moore, still habitable, " the Sanderson Carter place." Our valuation stands at $489,000, - " put up,'' some twenty years ago, $75,000, to lessen taxes, it was said. The percentage, of course. Southey tells of an old man who used to put on his glasses in eating cherries, - it made them look so much bigger.

As for early handicraft, some thirty cooper-shops can be recalled by the old people. " Beef barrels," "rum barrels,'' "cider barrels," all had a good market in Boston sixty years ago. Other wooden-ware, - as churns, pails, " piggins and noggins," - furnished some employment. Many a two-horse barrel rig started at midnight for Boston. Barrels were made on contract. A good cooper is a natural mechanic. Others need not try.

"Wiredrawing" and card-making were an exceptional attempt in Berlin, about 1810-20. Caleb Houghton, by a small power on Cranberry Meadow Brook, wrought wire ; Solomon Howe, of the Centre, manufactured cards - a losing business to both. Cardsetting (inserting the tooth into the punctured leather cardboard) furnished employment for many children ; sometimes for parents. Braiding straw was a like family employment.

Ecclesiastical. - When Bolton separated from Lancaster probably some two hundred of its population were within Berlin limits. As a part of Bolton, the Berlin fathers lived in good harmony with the worthy town till the ecclesiastical conflict called " the Goss controversy." This item belongs to Bolton history, of course, but reaches Berlin. The minister was suspected of Toryism. In church matters he held &nA practiced the most arbitrary principles. The oncoming Revolution, 1770, added public importance to a local flame. The minister was charged with intemperance, also. He seemed to feel self-justification in the assertion, probably true, that he was never so far gone as to be incapacitated for his office. Numberless town-meetings were held, - town and parish were then one. He was dismissed by the ultimate prerogative, the people themselves, council or no council.

The controversy hastened, no doubt, the formation of the South Parish, April 7, 1779 ; but the agitation went with them. Only male members appear in the organization of the new church - Gossilea and Walleyites, adherents of Mr. Goss' successor, - so the females, when they came, brought letters from one or the other branch of the Bolton Church.

In the interests of harmony, the council called to organize the Berlin Church advised the brethren to withhold fellowship from the Bolton Church whilst that. church should remain in it^ divided state. That was a fire-brand. The Berlin Walleyites moved for another advisory council on this very matter.

The second council exonorated the first as to in'- tended reproof. The reading of the first council certainly implied more than was expressed. The neighboring clergy sustained Mr. Goss, and under their influence the churches declined or renounced fellowship with the Bolton Church. To test the case, two of the Berlin opponentsof Mr. Goss and one of the Bolton Church presented themselves before the Lancaster Church and asked for recognition in the communion service. Thechurch voted affirmatively. The minister. Rev. Mr. Harrington, said the vote should be recorded, but his negative must be recorded with it. Virtually by the ruling of the times, this was annulling the vote of the church. The applicants were Judge Baker and Ephraim Fairbanks, Esq., of Berlin, and Nathaniel Longly, Esq., of Bolton. No three men in the towns were more prominent or conservative. A similar delegation from Bolton and Berlin visited Sterling. The minister, Rev. Mr. Mellen, refused to administer the communion service. The church was against him, and his claim of the veto power brought upon him and the town just the experience of Bolton. "How great a matter a little fire kindleth ! " The simple reason is that it is fire. The spirit of liberty was abroad. Men were asserting personal rights, but patriotism was a bond. In the new life of the United Colonies, now become United States, partisans toned down. A supreme confidence in God and country allayed local animosities. Bolton South Parish became a precinct, 1784, virtually a town, by authority of Congress.

Peace came also to the churches. But the contest was a hard one, and in advance of its day. The ministry seemed unduly tenacious of power and dictation. The Bolton Parish fought a good fight. It broke the spell under which churches had felt themselves to be bound. Ecclesiastical liberty made a stride in the conflict. No doubt, indeed, errors were committed on both sides. But the case, and result, became a standard of appeal for the liberty of the churches. Harvard and Yale contain the published pamphlets as documents of historical importance. A layman, not known, was the virtual victor. Later tradition affirms that he was a clergyman. Ebenezer Chapin. Rev. Zabdiel Adams, of Lunenburg, defended the arbitrary power.

The act of incorporation of Bolton South Parish bears date April 13, 1778, and Sanuiel Baker, Esq., is empowered to issue a warrant "' to some principal in-

Samuel Baker issues the warrant to Samuel Jones, inn-holder. At his house the inhabitants are summoned to meet. On that spot our town was virtually born. Samuel Jones' tavern stood fronting our Northboro' road, on the north side of the road to Hudson.

One week later the parish took measures for building a meeting-house ; voted to locate it on "the little hill on the north side of the road that leads from Samuel Jones' house to Samuel Rice's shop in the crotch of the roads."

There was no Common then. The road to Bolton turned by our present town-house. The shop was probably some back part of the present " Bullard House." Samuel Rice never appears again, David Rice, probably his father, owned lands in connection with James Goddard, which included the old blacksmith-shop where A. A. Bartlett now lives. This shop went with the Meriam farm. Perhaps it was the one alluded to.

Berlin denizens of to day may wonder where that " little hill " was. It was, and is not. The old church stood on it, considerably in front of the present edifice. Esquire Meriam could not persuade the building committee of the new church to set it so high as it now stands. He was not the man to "surrender." He conspired with Wm. A. Howe, and in the night they secretly lifted the standards one full foot. Look at the Common and the height of the underpinning of the church, and you will see what became of that "little hill."

The first meetjng-house was twelve years in building. It is enough to make one weep, to read ot the hundreds of pounds in depreciated money which were voted from time to time, all along in the war, to build that humble house of prayer.

The frame was "raised" June 16, 1779, by aid, as usual, of "rum," "cider" and ".spike poles." The "pew grounds"' were sold 1780 "at public vendue," each man to build his own pew. The building committee were Jonathan Meriam, Fortunatus Barnes, James Goddard, Sr., Timothy Jones, William Sawyer ; second Committee, Fortunatus Barnes, Jacob Moore, Barnabas Maynard, Henry Powers, William Babcock.

1781, Mr. Puffer was "called." "No objections." " Ordination to be out of the meeting-house if the weather permit." The church records have it that the services were held in the meeting-house. All

Certainly there is something inspiring in the faith and labors of the fathers, under the depression and uncertainties of war, to press forward in their circumstances, not to say poverty, to establish the ordinances of religion.

The council for ordination consisted of the churches in Sudbury, East Sudbury, Westboro', Shrewsbury, Northboro', Lancaster, Bolton and Stow. Rev. Mr. Bigelow, of Sudbury, Mr. Puffer's pastor, preached the sermon.

Mr'. Puffer's presence and ministry seemed to be quite helpful to his struggling parish. No churchmeeting was called for nearly two years. Records indicate peaceful progress. In the same year of the ordination the parish petitioned the town of Bolton, also the General Court, to be set off as a town, but it took three years to reach it.

Finally, by the Great and General Court, March 16, 1784 (Samuel Adams, president of the Senate, Tristram Dalton, speaker], the precinct was duly incorporated, and Judge Baker was again instructed to empower some principal inhabitant to call a meeting of the South Precinct in Bolton. This time he conferred the honor on Fortunatus Barnes. Again Samuel Baker was the first moderator and Jona. Meriam again clerk ; Selectmen, James Goddard, John Temple, Jonah Meriam, William Sawyer, Barnabas Maynard.

Now Berlin had all the prerogatives of a town except personal representation in the Legislature. Any citizen of the precinct might as well represent the town as a citizen of the town the precinct. But Bolton never saw it in that light.

So matters stood till 1812. Fortunatus Barnes was now authorized to empower some principal citizen to call the first town-meeting. He committed the trust to Ephraim Babcock. The meeting resulted in the choice of Fortunatus Barnes moderator.

Such was the origin of a quiet New England town. Its inception was in time of war. It came to maturity in time of war, just in a full generation from its beginning. Thirty-five years from this date brought it to its centennial.

In the completion of their house of worship, the settlement of Mr. Puffer and the adjustment of complications with Bolton, the little town of Berlin, instead of " Norrage," as once proposed, seemed to have respite and rest. The leading men, however, who had borne the brunt of the war, with its antecedent and subsequent e.xcitements, dropped out of the race very early, - Captain Samuel Jones, Judge Baker, the Baileys, the Meriams, Ephraim Fairb.anks, Esq., Gen. Sawyer and others, whose names were towers of strength.

But a record stands that '' the town of Boston," 1640, not yet ten years old, granted twenty acres of land at Wollaston Heights to George Puffer, " five heads." A line from George is traceable to Sudbury, George, James, Richard, Jabez and Reuben, the Berlin pastor. Some count in another Richard. The present Puffer homestead, whence Reuben came, is now in Maynard. The will of Jabez shows that Reuben was the pet of his heart. He certainly grew in the esteem of Berlin people and all the region. Every congregation was pleased to see him ascend the pulpit-steps. It was not a day for enticing away favorite ministers, but it was understood that he had inviting overJ;ures. His .sermons were not especially arousing, but solemnly impressive.

In 1803 he preached the annual sermon before the Governor and Legislature. An anecdote concerning him was first publi.-hed in print in the Lancaster two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. The writer of this is responsible for its appearance in type. He gave it verbally, that morning, to the speaker who gave it in response for Berlin, in the after-dinner speeches. Judge Brigham, of Westboro', had procured the appointment of Mr. Puffer to the service. His son-in-law, E. M. Phillips, Esq., of Westboro', gave the anecdote to the writer, personally. According to custom, Mr. Puffer had all parts of his service written, even the prayer. In offering it he lost his bearings. He tried to regain his ground, but only stumbled. The suspense w.is awful. A fellow-member of the Legislature gave Judge Brigham a nudge, whispering, "That is your minister, is it?" The disconcerted minister had the courage to desert his written prayer and to throw himself into the occasion, and the suspense of the assembly quickly gave way to rapt attention and delight. His own people, better than any others who did not hear him on this occasion, could tell what the effect was. He lifted his learned and dignified audience to exalted views of their position and duties, to the State and to God. The prayer ended. Judge Brigham returned the nudge of his neighbor, responding "That is my -minister."

Berlin ever had great satisfaction in " Dr. Puffer" abroad. His church records show that he ranked with foremost ministers in councils far and near on difficult cases.

To this day friends and dissentients, as to religious tenets, revere the " man of God." His face, his features and form and manner are fast passing out of remembrance. "Shall we know each other there?" Not even a profile remains ; much less the tones of his voice and impressive pulpit services; a few of the venerables yet talk it over understandingly.

Some yet live who have seen him and can readily believe what has been related. But the most vivid impression which we septuagenarians have of the man is that of hij pulpit devotions. Daniel ? Solomon? Elijah? No, Bethel and Jacob. As with awe he lifted up his face heavenward, and bowed again

He delivered the Dudlean Lecture at Harvard College, 1808. His pecuniary circumstances being made known, his address was published and sold among the students, rich men's sons subscribing largely to increase the income. They also gave him a good suit of clothes. (Rev. Dr. Allen.)

Another anecdote iu his ministry reveals the ministerial tone of the day. A neighborhood of Balls, on Ball Hill, in Northboro', had special regard for Dr. Puffer ; also, it would seem, some disaffection for their own minister. An especially afflictive death occurred in one of the families. One of the deacons of the Northboro' Church, by request of the family, came for Dr. Puffer to visit them, as also to attend the funeral officially. Mr. Puffer demurred ; but under the appeals of grief he assented, being assured by the deacon that the Northboro' pastor would not take it offensively. The deacon did not know his man, nor the ministerial prerogatives of the day. The services were held at the house of sorrow. A few d.ays brought a note from the Northboro' bishop demanding explanation and apology, else no more ministerial intercourse. We smile ; but the parties did not. Mr. Whitney was magisterial. Mr. Puffer was timid. The correspondence is animated, if not animating. The offender did not cringe. He did apologize, and in words and temper that made him the victor.

The matter did not wholly die at that. A deceased sister of the Balls was wife of Dea. Livermore, of the Northboro' Church. He was one hundred and one years old at his death. Renewed application was made for Mr. Puffer's service at his funeral. Mr. Puffer confirmed his apology by respectfully declining. The Balls would not have the Northboro' parson ; so the centenarian, deacon of the church, town clerk and, in certain sense, the public notary of the town, was buried without a funeriil.

There was another element of irritation in the Northboro' Church. The good deacon's second wife was for some reason debarred from its communion. She applied for the privilege in Berlin, but ecclesiastical courtesy would not allow her request.

Dr. Puffer was no controversalist. He was even timid before his own people. It is well attested that he wept in the face of some who opposed his social prayer-meetings, then new. The compromise was that they should all be held at his own house. He was among the last to renounce or to forego exchanges with the " liberal " clergymen of the region. He foresaw coming events in his own parish. On one occasion he was so overcome in the reading of an expressive hymn that he ceased reading and sat down.

This was in the old, first-consecrated sanctuary, where the man of God had prayed and taught, " with many tears," for forty-five years. Humble as the old structure was, every line of it was sacred in his eye and heart. It was soon to be taken down. Himself w.as " three-score and ten." His farewell sermon shows how the heart of a good man may be moved by that which is inanimate, and really without beauty. The old pews, which went into various and undignified uses, were for years looked upon with veneration by the older people. A successor, of twenty-five years, has found and gilded the old wooden pineapple, with tin leaves, which surmounted a plain scroll over the old pulpit. "There are sermons in stones." The farm barn across the cemetery, made of the refitted timbers of " the house of prayer," has yet a voice to some passers-by.