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 ■oel 
 
 BOLTON 
 
 Fourth of July, 
 
 1876. 
 
 ■<3€M°I 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED IX THE 
 
 FIRST PARISH CHURCH IN BOLTON 
 
 JULY 4th, 1876, 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF 
 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE; AND ALSO IN 
 OBSERVANCE OF THE ' 
 
 138th Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town : 
 
 By RICHARD S. EDES. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH OTHER PROCEEDINGS RELATING TO 
 THE SAME OCCASION, 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX 
 
 CLINTON : 
 PRINTED BY W. J. COULTER, COURANT OFFICE. 
 
 1877. 
 
-uot- 
 
 O- 
 
 ^/^57^^ 
 
 c ) 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 At a legal meeting of the Town of Bolton, held on Monday, April 
 3d, 1876, it was voted that a committee of five be appointed by the Chair 
 to make arrangements for a Centennial Celebration on the 4th of July, 
 1876; said arrangements to be without expense to the town. 
 
 The Moderator appointed as members of this committee : N. P. Gil- 
 man, R. S. Edes, B. a. Edwards, N. A. Newton, and F. E. Whit- 
 comb. They subsequently organized by choosing N. P. Gilman as 
 Chairman, B. A. Edwards as Secretary, N. A. Newton as Treasurer, and 
 F. E. Whitcomb as Soliciting Committee. (The expenses of the cele- 
 bration, amounting to about one hundred and fifty dollars, were met by 
 a general subscription.) 
 
 At a town meeting held June 26th, Roswell Barrett, J. D. Hurl- 
 but, and Paul Whitcomb were added to the committee. Enoch C. 
 Pierce, Sergt. Co. F, 13th Regt. Mass. Vols., was chosen Chief Mar- 
 shal, and S. ¥. Edwards, Chief Decorator. 
 
 The exercises of the Fourth were held in the meeting-house of the 
 First Congregational Church, at ten o'clock A. m. After the performance 
 by the Hudson Brass Band of suitable music, the President of the Day 
 made a brief opening address, in substance as follows : 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — We meet here to celebrate the festival of our na- 
 tion's birthday. All over our land Americans are today observing the one 
 hundreth anniversary of our country's life. But we are mindful here of a 
 double duty. Our great republic is made up of many little republics ; 
 because of these the nation came into existence. The New England town- 
 ship paved the way for the independence of the whole country in such a 
 degree that " in 1650 the Republic was already virtually established." Of 
 one of these small democracies we now observe, with but a few clay's de- 
 lay, the one hundred and thirty-eighth anniversary. The founders of this 
 town, as well as all who built this nation, were men of a true religious 
 faith. " Our civilization," De Tocqueville has well said, " is the result of 
 two distinct elements, which in other places have been in frequent hostilitv, 
 but here in America have been admirably incorporated and combined with 
 each other, the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty." Our Puritan 
 forefathers did not "make religion twelve and the world thirteen." Re- 
 membering them, remembering the motto on their pine-tree flag, remem- 
 bering the fortunes of a hundred years, we most fitly open our exercises 
 today with an "appeal to Heaven." 
 
 Prayer was then offered by the Rev. Thomas T. Stone, D. D., and 
 the American Hymn sung by a select choir. "That noble Declaration, 
 
IV 
 
 which, written in words whose memory tan never perish, ought to be 
 hung up in the nursery of every king and blazoned on the porch of 
 every royal palace," was read by Rev. B. A. Edwards, and the Star 
 Spangled Banner sung by children from one of the public schools. 
 Introducing the Orator of the Day, the President said : 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — The Tree of Liberty under which we gratefully 
 gather, whose leaves are for " the healing of the nation," has many roots 
 and rootlets. Here among these hills of Bolton, one rootlet fastened 
 itself in the soil, to draw from it sap and sustenance for the parent trunk. 
 In a fertile earth, beneath a kindly sky, the little root did its ncces.sary 
 helpful work. Sustained by it and by a thousand like it, the tree grew 
 and flourished. We are fortunate in having among us a fellow-citizen, 
 whom your committee unanimously chose to address you today, as the 
 fittest person to describe the course of life through which this Bolton 
 rootlet of the American Tree of Liberty has passed." 
 
 The Address followed. L'pon its conclusion, and after the singing 
 of Hail Columbia by the choir, and of America by the audience, the 
 benediction was given by Rev. J. W. Chickekixg, D. D., a former pas- 
 tor of the Hillside Church in Bolton. 
 
 The dinner was laid on tables erected under the trees in front of the 
 church. After clue attention had Ijcen paid to "the physical basis of life," 
 the chairman called the company to order with a few remarks, and then 
 proceeded to call upon gentlemen present to respond to appropriate senti- 
 ments. Responses were made by Rev. Mr. Edes, for Lancaster; by Rev. 
 Mr. Houghton, for Berlin; by J. T. Josli.n, Esq., for Hudson; by A. 
 R. Powers, Esq., for Bolton : by Rev. Dr. Chickekixg, for the churches ; 
 by Rev. Mr. Edwards, for the schools ; by Dr. Robert T. Edes, of 
 Boston, for the Lhiited States Navy; and by F. E. Whitcomb, Esq., for 
 the Farmers' Club. 
 
 Letters were received, and the majority of them read during the after- 
 dinner exercises, from Hon. George Bancroft, Tiios. Wentworth 
 HiGGiNsoN, Waldo Hk;gins()N, Br. Cien. Tiios. Sherwin, Rev. (Jeo. W. 
 HosMER, D. D.. Rev. (^eo. S. Ball, Rev. E. C. L. Brown, Rev. F. L. 
 Hosmer, and Hon. William Stone, Attorney-General of South Carolina. 
 
 Fireworks and a concert on the Common closed this highly-successful 
 celebration of the birthday of the town and the nation. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the town, held March 5th, 1877, it was 
 
 Voted, To raise and appropriate for printing the address delivered on 
 the Centennial Celebration, July 4th, 1876, together with the other pro- 
 ceedings connected with said celebration, the sum of one hundred dollars. 
 
 Voted, That every fimily in town receive one copy of such pamphlet 
 gratis. 
 
 Voted, To send one copy to every non-resident ta.\-pavcr. 
 
 In compliance with this vote, the Address is now presented by the 
 committee to the citizens of the town. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — 
 
 Let us begin bv taking for granted the main fai!:ts of 
 history, down to the binding of the Pilgrim Fathers at Ply- 
 mouth, and down to a period more than a century later. 
 Let- us observe at once, that at the times and in the place 
 to which our attention must be turned to-day, those who 
 went before /is, even as were those who went before them, 
 and as those on the stage now, were "members one of 
 another," catching each others' thoughts, imitating each 
 others' examples, influencing each others' conduiit — not 
 only as so many individuals, but as communities, as towns, 
 and in other large wavs. That ideas circulate like the 
 blood, probablv all will admit. General history is a com- 
 mon multiple, to Vx'hich many local histories may contribute ; 
 and given a general product, and some of its determined 
 factors, the others, comprised in any particular local mem- 
 ories or traditions, are easily to be ascertained. 
 
 Or, to express our thought in another way, if general 
 historv present the larger at^tlon of the piece, the chief 
 a6tors in the drama ; local history may furnish the side 
 lights, and the characters which, though called subordi- 
 nate, may be none the less necessary to the completeness 
 of the whole, to the full workihg out of the plot. Or, 
 leaving the abstracrt, and coming into the concrete, to know 
 New^ England you must know those "little democracies,'' 
 its towns ; and so if you would study to advantage the his- 
 tory of any one town, it may be well to start with some 
 general ideas of the whole of w^hich it forms a frac^tional 
 part. 
 
Impressed with thoughts such as these, which it is need- 
 less to expand, I ask you to go back with me for a brief 
 while, to a litde more than a century and a quarter ago, 
 to A. D. 1738, viz. to the time wdien Bolton become an 
 independent township, — while I sketch, in a very general 
 w'av, a picture of the prevailing condition of things as it was 
 in the small country towns of Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 The country hereabouts had been becoming settled in a 
 sort for a little more than a century : — slowly opening from 
 an utter w^ilderness inhabited only by savages and w41d 
 beasts, and spreading into communities having some of the 
 ruder arts of life, and charac^terized by habits of law and 
 order. But only here and there had clearings been made 
 in the woods, and settlements started. After many con- 
 flicts zvith them, many sackings, burnings and massacres 
 suffered from them — in which this town then a portion of 
 Lancaster suffered with the rest — the aboriginal inhabit- 
 ants were still far from being altogether banished or exter- 
 minated. [Appendix, A]. They lingered about in va- 
 rious localities ; according to their nomadic habits, found 
 their way from place to place ; had special seats assigned 
 them whenever — which was but seldom — they wandered of 
 a Sunday into the houses of worship ; and were quite often 
 to be seen by the kitchen hearth as the housewife cooked 
 her dinner, or sitting by the fire while her babv slumbered 
 in the cradle. Though much enfeebled, in broken rem- 
 nants, consumed under the combined effects of their own 
 improvident habits, wide-spreading pestilences and epi- 
 demics, and the " fn-e water" introduced among them by 
 the whites, the Indians were slowly wasting awav before 
 the march of civilization, like the proud tbrests around 
 them, once all their own. 
 
 The native animals, hardl}' a grade lower in the scale 
 than the savages — the wolves, the bears, the wild cats, the 
 deer — continued to inhabit the woods and the fields, as the 
 salmon and shad did the streams. Their numbers were so 
 
large as to keep the farmer on the alert to protect his flocks 
 and herds, and in his leisure hours, whenever he could find 
 or make them, to furnish him with the exciting, and fre- 
 quently dangerous, pleasures of the chase. If the itch of 
 office overcame him, and he would a6t for the protection 
 of the friendly and valuable creatures, or for the extermi- 
 nation of the hostile ones, he migrht, as deer or lish reeve, 
 or in some similar capacity, as forerunner of the modern 
 field-driver or hog-reeve, assume a badge of dignity among 
 the worthies of the borough, or exercise his forensic powers 
 before the town meeting in calling aloud to arms, to arms — 
 not to be sure against a human foe, but against another, of 
 which some of us learnt in the early Latin exercise "• triste 
 lupus s to bull's.'' 
 
 As to the roads of those times, what were they? Struct- 
 ures of the rudest engineering, and hardly better than to 
 be compared with the paths made by the moose in the win- 
 ter's snow, or by the beaver to the side of his dam ; scarcely 
 more than cow or sheep paths through the woods, and wan- 
 dering over hill and dale, bog and plain, in the strangest 
 fashion. Mails, daily, weekly, or even monthly there were 
 none ; though messengers on horseback with saddle bags, 
 at irregular intervals wide apart, sometimes found their 
 way over the rough and lonely byways, and penetrated 
 from settlement to settlement. Newspapers — if such ex- 
 isted of any but the most diminutive proportions and all but 
 utter poverty of news — were hardly to be seen even in the 
 larger towns ; and back here in the interior settlements must 
 have been the rarest of all rare birds. [Appendix, B] . Very 
 few comparativelv — in the times we are adverting to, in 
 1738 — could make out to read, fewer still to write. As 
 the saw mill driven bv water and superseding the saw-pit 
 and hand sawyer-labor, was coming slowly into use, dwell- 
 ing houses regularly timbered, boarded, clapboarded and 
 shingled, were just beginning to be built — of the material 
 so abundantlv at hand : but a house with proper casement^ 
 
and with windows glazed throughout was to be found only 
 in the larger towns and among the richest of the inhabitants. 
 Franklin, though born, was not as yet signalized by chim- 
 nies that would carry smoke ; nor Rumford to be reckoned 
 among the household gods by the production of apparatus 
 that would heat apartments throughout in cold weather. 
 The parlor of a New England house — if an\' such apart- 
 ment existed — presented every variety of temperature from 
 torrid to frigid, and as to its chambers they were but little 
 if anv better in winter time than ice-houses. At certain 
 seasons of the year as one approached any house of the pe- 
 riod, he would hear the buzz and rattle of the spinning 
 wheel or the loom ; the wife with her assistants spinning 
 and weaving the wool and the flax which the husband 
 raised ; and both they and their children clad in the home- 
 spun which had been woven either at their own home or 
 in that of some neighbor. 
 
 Vehicles for domestic use were hardly known, even at a 
 much later period ; and when Sunday came, both husband 
 and wife mounted the same horse, he in the saddle, she on 
 the pillion behind him, with arm lovingly around his waist, 
 rode otf together (some four, Ave, six, or eight miles as the 
 case might be) to meeting : rode, let us sa}', from what is 
 now Hudson, then a part of Bolton, to what is now Lan- 
 caster, Old Common ; — though not as now, remember, by 
 a direct road through the centre of the town but by the 
 " Bay road "' as it was then and years afterwards called, a 
 winding path which carried them upon Wattoquottoc Hill. 
 [Appendix, C]. 
 
 And as to the churches of that daN' — no that won't do — 
 the "meeting-houses," what rude strui!:tures thev were I how 
 far removed from the luxurious, painted, carpeted, cushioned, 
 warmed, "dimly-religious lighted" stru(!:tures to which we 
 now resort I oftentimes without plastering on the inside, 
 oftentimes without pews, and with rough hewn boards for 
 seats, frequently used for shelter by the passing traveller. 
 
5 
 
 or by the cattle when exposed to the violence of one of our 
 autumnal or ^^'intr^' storms: — no stoves or furnaces for 
 heatinp- — the winds of lieaven admitted freelv throui^h rat- 
 tlincr windows, and many a crack and crevice. And yet, 
 for all that, thev were doubtless as much "houses of God" 
 and "gates of heaven," and furnished as friendly a "shadow 
 of a rock in a weary land" as any of our more stately and 
 adorned modern editices ; and what was wanting in the tem- 
 perature of the surrounding air was made up in the warmth 
 of heart found within the bosoms of the worshippers. 
 
 Not alwavs though, as truth compels the cautious and 
 impartial historian to add. For it would sometimes hap- 
 pen then, even as in these degenerate times, that people 
 would fall asleep, during the services. Paterfamilias, over- 
 come bv week-day labors in the haying-field, or wearied 
 bv his exercises on hard-trotting Dobbin, as in the sharp 
 winter's air he rode to meeting with his wife on the pillion 
 behind him, would sometimes, as seventeenthly or nine- 
 teenthlv was under discussion, find his eyes getting heavy, 
 and — sad to state — at length be caught napping, it might 
 be even snoring. Or mav be, exhausted from the spinning- 
 wheel or the loom, and from being up nearly all night be- 
 fore with little Tommy in pangs of colic from having eaten 
 green apples, materfamilias would be seen with her head 
 bobbing about in a strange fashion from side to side. Or, 
 perchance, 'foresaid Tom, on the sly, in concert with sister 
 Pollv, would be caught catching flies, or building houses 
 with the hvmn-books — for "boys would be boys" in those 
 days, even as men and vv'omen were human then as now — 
 well, whenever any of these things happened, what fol- 
 lowed? The oflenders brought down on themselves the 
 rod of an officer, called a tithing man, often to be found in 
 meeting-houses of the day, an oflScer armed with fearful 
 powers, and a no less fearful weapon to enforce them, to 
 wit, a pole or wand some i\\'tt or six feet in length, with 
 which in teline tashion he stole about the house from seat 
 
to seat, arousing one here, touching up another there, and 
 careful to see that every one was kept attentive, and that 
 the preacher's discourse was not wasted on empty air or 
 drowsv ears. Another ot" his functions was to stop travel- 
 lers passing on the highway on Sunday's and question them 
 as to whether they were journeying on works of necessity 
 or mercy : if not, to detain them till al'ter sundown, or till 
 the sabbath was considered passed. [Appendix, D] . 
 
 The parson of those times, who shall worthih/ describe 
 him? — perhaps the greatest man of all, not even "the 
 "Squire" excepted, — witli his awe-inspiring wig, and no 
 less overwhelming cocked hat, smalls, and cane I And 
 the Sunday services, too, with their sermons extendinor to 
 seventeenthlies or twentiethlies, and judged of, in the order 
 of merit, largely by their length ; — with prayers of equally 
 portentous extent: — all sat and stood through in stove- 
 less houses in winter, in blixdless ones in summer. Who 
 shall attempt — save a Mrs. Stowe — to portray in what 
 spirit of martyrdom and long sutiering they were endured I 
 
 Imagine a New England winter as it was one hundred 
 and thirty-eight or one hundred and til\y years ago I All 
 that should go into the pii!;ture time will not allow me so 
 much as to touch. The solitude, the utter sequestration of 
 the little clearing in the woods I the ariitic cold out o' doors, 
 the great roaring tire of logs in the wide-throated chimney 
 within, the family huddling around it, protei!;ted from 
 draughts of air as much as could be bv the huge settle ; 
 the horses and cows outside the house, without shelter 
 trembling in the keen blast: — in spring, even at a much 
 later period than this, when barns of some sort were pro- 
 vided for them, so weak from eating poor swale hav that 
 they could not lift themselves to their feet without help. Im- 
 agine the feelings of the housewife, when as she v>-as cooking 
 her noontide meal, or in the early dusk preparing the sup- 
 per for her husband when he should return exhausted from 
 labors in the woods, she saw steal in, instead of him, a band 
 
of drunken Indians : and was compelled, in terror of her 
 life, to eive them food, or to minister to their thirst for the 
 dreadful " fire-water " which would make them still more 
 utterly savage and reckless I Imagine this, and many more 
 pardculars bv which this general sketch might be extended, 
 and our idea of the dmes made more complete : but I must 
 remember what is before us, and hasten to strike into, that 
 local history to which what has been advanced is pre- 
 paratory. 
 
 In general, such was the Massachusetts of 1738 in its 
 more retired pordons ; such a sketch of the condition of 
 almost any one of her small towns : such was Bolton. 
 Worcester was hardlv a hamlet, with a few straggling 
 houses and scarcely no trade : and Boston, now the great 
 metropolitan city of all New England, with paladal ware- 
 houses and numerous lines of travel and modes of industry 
 and schools of art, but a small trading village so far re- 
 moved from the ways and thoughts of the great world as 
 to be as much out of mind as it was out of sight I [Ap- 
 pendix. E] . 
 
 But now observe one most important aspect of affairs. 
 Rough, unsightlv, hardlv reclaimed from the wilderness 
 as the whole countrv was. ignorant as the people in many 
 respects, rude as were "their lives, one lesson was being 
 most thoroughlv learned : learned, doubtless, as it has 
 been learned bv no other people on the face of the earth — 
 the lesson namelv of self-reliance, of self-government. 01 
 the hardv Anglo-Saxon stock, or they would not have been 
 here ; deeplv imbued in the religious faith in its severest 
 tbrm of their old home in England : bringing with them 
 across the seas the heroic virtues of their English and Pu- 
 ritan ancestrv, but cut off by a wide and stormy ocean from 
 all intimate connexion with the "mother country" (or the 
 " fa ^/irr-\ and,"' as now in German fashion we have learnt to 
 sav) : thrown on their own resources ; forced by circum- 
 stances to think, to aiit, to legislate lor themselves: — our 
 
sturdy forefathers were learning in the school of hardship 
 to stand alone, beginning to throw off man}' of the hamper- 
 ing wavs of worship to rank, of blind observance of custom 
 which would have clung to them doubtless if they had staid 
 at the old home : learning many of the mysteries of that 
 great art of government which heretofore was supposed to 
 be entrusted to the hands of a heaven-born few : and to be 
 exercised onlv bv heads which had received a special unc- 
 tion from above. Happy then the wi/ds which brought 
 them this favored knowledge I Blessed the calamities, the 
 hardships, the rough and unattracitive lives which conve^'ed 
 to them and their descendants the glorious revelation from 
 which such mighty results were to come. 
 
 I must not dwell on such points tempting as they may be. 
 Sufficient if we observe them in passing : I must come, 
 without dela^^ to what more particularly concerns us as 
 citizens or friends of this particular town. 
 
 About the time to which we have been adverting, about 
 A. D. 1738. or a little before, the inhabitants of the East 
 Precin6t of Lancaster were beginning to feel that the 
 clothes of early childhood were rather too tight a lit. and 
 could be patched and extended no more ; that they must 
 have an entirely new suit : that the}' could no longer, every 
 first da^■ of the week, take the winding " Ba}' road"" over 
 Wattoquottoc hill to attend meeting on Lancaster Old Com- 
 mon (where the meeting-house then stood) : — so they com- 
 menced the movements of secession, began the work which 
 Berlin and Hudson afterwards repeated towards Bolton. 
 But why should I tell the story for them, \\'hen th^y are so 
 well able to tell it for themselves? Here. then. I open 
 their record-book, and copy portions of the statements I 
 find there. Would that I could cop}' them in a hand-writ- 
 ing as splendid as that of Jacob Houghton their first town 
 clerk — a hand-writing which if it \vere reproduced in our 
 modern Houghton School in competition tor a prize would 
 surely carry off the palm I 
 
A GRANT OF THE TOWNSHIP OF BOLTON 
 
 Whereas the Southeasterly part of the town of Lancaster, is compe- 
 tently filled with inhabitants who labour under great difficulty by reason 
 they live very remote from the place of public worship, in said town : and 
 having addressed this court that they may be set oft", a distinct and sepa- 
 rate township, whereunto the inhabitants of said town by their vote have 
 manifested their consent : — Be it therefore enacted by his Excellency the 
 Governour, Council, and Representatives in General Court assembled and 
 by the authority of the same. — 
 
 That the easterly part of the town of Lancaster be and herebv is set off 
 from said town of Lancaster and erected into a separate and distinct town- 
 ship by the name of Bolton [Appendix. F] , according to the following 
 boundaries, viz : Northeasterly upon Harvard, Easterly upon Stow. South- 
 easterly upon Marlborough, Southerly upon Westborough, and Westerly 
 upon Lancaster, By a line running near a South and North point parallel 
 with the West line of said township of Lancaster at four miles distance 
 therefrom. Agreeable to a vote of the said town passed the first day of 
 March. 1735. 
 
 And that the inhabitants thereof be and hereby are vested with all those 
 powers, privileges, immunities that the inhabitants of other towns within 
 this province arc or ought by law to be vested with. 
 
 Provided that the said town of Bolton shall be liable and subject to the 
 payment of their proportionable part of the town of Lancaster's province 
 tax. and County tax for the present year, as though they were not bv this 
 act separated from it. 
 
 In the House of Representatives June 23rd. 1738. 
 
 Ordered that Mr. John Whitney, a principal inhabitant of a new town, 
 lately erected out of the town of Lancaster, in the county of Worcester, 
 be. and hereby is, fully authorized and impov.'ered. to assemble the Free- 
 holders and other qualified voters there, as soon as may be, in some con- 
 venient place in said town, in order for their choosing a Town Clerk and 
 all other Town Officers, to stand till the Anniversary Meeting of said town 
 in March next. 
 
 Sent up for concurrence, 
 
 J. Ocixc]:v. Speaker. 
 
 In council. June 27. 1738. Read- and Concurred. 
 
 J. Wli.LAKl). Sec'ry, 
 Consented to. J. Belch ek. 
 
 Copy examined. Josl.xii Willaiu). Secr'y. 
 
 Per order, 
 
 jAcon HouciuTON. Town Clerk. 
 
lO 
 
 August 14. 173S. 
 I have executed the within order according to due manner and form. 
 
 John Whitney. 
 Per order, 
 
 J.ACOii H()L"c;htox, Clerk. 
 
 BoLTox, August. 14th. 1738. 
 The inhabitants of .said town being met at the house of Mr. Thomas 
 Sawyer made choice of James Keyes to be their Moderator. 
 
 1. Jacob Houghton was chosen Town Clerk and Sworn. 
 
 2. They voted to choose five Select men. 
 
 3. They chose. Ja( oi". IIolt.hton, James Keyes, Henry Houghton, 
 John Priest, and Catt. Jonas Houghton, Select men. 
 
 4. They chose Uavid Whitcomb, Constable and he was sworn. 
 
 5. They chose Josiah Richardson, and William Keyes, Surveyors 
 
 (in the original, spelt, Survairs.) of Highways, and they were sworn. 
 
 James Keyes, Moderator. 
 Per order, Jacob Houghton, Clerk. 
 
 Having now got our ship oft' the stock.s and fairh' 
 launched : or, as we are speaking of an inland town — in- 
 asmuch as we have harnessed up our team, oiled the wheels, 
 taken on the load, and started for the journey ; — remark- 
 ing the while, what a long stretch of road lies between us 
 and the terminus of our travel, we see it will not do to em- 
 ploy ox, or even horse-power, but must spring into a sort 
 of locomotive balloon, or some other flying machine, and 
 skim along with it as if, high upborne in air, we were scud- 
 ding with the clouds o\'er the face of a continent. As, in 
 the brief time allo^^•ed me for so long a work, to men- 
 tion names or describe individuals connetited with important 
 proceedings, or at any rate many of them, will be out of 
 the question ; or to verify statements by giving dates, or 
 making extracts from the books will be equally so, I shall 
 not often make the attempt, happy if I can but so much as 
 touch the more significant eras and events. [Appendix G]. 
 . Bolton, then, is now started as a separate township ; and 
 after its primary meeting for organization, its ftrst care was 
 to set about building a meeting-house (town and parish in 
 those days were pretty much the same thing, or, in other 
 
II 
 
 words, the town was the municipality considered in its civil 
 and political aspect, while the parish was the same munici- 
 pality in its relations with religious taith and ecclesiastical 
 organization). 
 
 It would take much more time than you would be willing 
 to allow to attempt ans'thing like a full account ot' the meet- 
 ings, the considerings, the reconsiderings, the votes, the 
 counter votes, to which the movement gave rise. Human 
 nature was not so ditTerent then trom what it is today ; or 
 from what it was in the great Savior's day ; nor were the 
 town meetings ot" one hundred and thirty years ago so un- 
 like those ot' A. D. 1876 ; nor the then young town of 
 Bolton so dissimilar from its modern distrii;:t of No. 8, as it 
 was a tew weeks ago, No. 2, as it is now in the present 
 year of grace. It is enough then to say, that while on the 
 question of building a new meeting-house there was no dis- 
 pute, on the point where it should stand there was much 
 diversity' of opinion and feeling ; one party seeming to 
 think that only on this mountain — this little knoll — could 
 the Father be worshipped, while another party, with equal 
 earnestness, contended that solely at some small Jerusalem, 
 a trifle nearer home, ought men to worship. The quesrion 
 was purely one relating to localitv, and had no reference 
 whatever to matters in\'olving religious do6trine or ob- 
 servance. 
 
 Human strifes, however, like all other things human, 
 must have an end ; so that at lengtii it was settled where 
 the new strue:ture should be placed, viz. : just this side of 
 where now runs (runs so that all may read) our now flour- 
 ishing Lancaster R. R. ; just this side of where quite 
 recently stood our old school-house No. i, where now 
 stands the piibturesqiie station-house of the railroad afore- 
 said, so much admired bv all travellers to and from the 
 Tunnel. [Appendix. II]. 
 
 What sort of a house it was mav be inferred from one or 
 two votes havinir reference to it, or discussions concerning- 
 
12 
 
 it of which we find record. Thus from time to time com- 
 mittees were chosen "to seat the meeting-house." as it was 
 called, i. e.. to assign seats where ditierent families or indi- 
 viduals sliould sit. Need I add that this was most ditiicult 
 and delicate duly to j^ertorm : and that the heart-burnings, 
 and jealousies, and small griefs that Ibllowed were legion. 
 Mr. A. felt that his \'el\'et smalls should not have been as- 
 signed to that knotty pitch-pine board; Mrs. B.. the 
 'squire's, or the store-keeper's wite, that her last new linen 
 dress, fresh from England, the envy and admiration of the 
 whole town, should not have been buried in obscurity 
 under the gallery stairs : and the widow C. was justly indig- 
 nant that her becoming weeds were tucked awav on a back 
 seat where they would be completely out of sight. So it 
 happened that the unhappv committee for seating the house, 
 after performing their dut\' could sometimes not find a seat 
 obscure enough nor dark enough wherein to hide their 
 diminished heads : but had to " take it." as the bovs sav, 
 all round. "With the most ardent wishes to please and 
 endeavors to that end," they but seldom succeeded ; too 
 often making the sad mistake — not unknown even in these 
 virtuous times — of allowing moneybags to preponderate 
 over e\-erything else, while a thousand other little N'anities, 
 male and female, so liable to beset " poor human natur," 
 weighed in the balances flew up highlv, and kicked the 
 beam. 
 
 Such was "seating of the meeting-house." one indication 
 ot the times. Another we tind in the question, which 
 comes up in town meeting, shall the meedng-house be 
 plastered on the inside, when it is decided, after some dis- 
 cussion, that it shall not be ; and manv years after that, we 
 get perhaps a larger glimpse of the condition of things, of 
 the occasions which awakened the interest c^ '^eople, when, 
 on the eve of an approaching ordination, a committee is 
 appointed in town meeting to shore up the galleries that 
 thev mav be able to withstand the i^reat weio-ht of the 
 
13 
 
 throng, from far and near, within the compass of thirty 
 miles or more, which it is expe6led on that day will till 
 them. 
 
 The old meeting-house to which these remarks have 
 reference, stood (some ninety years ago) on the little 
 knoll just this side of the railroad crossing on the Ber- 
 lin road; but at length, about 1790, it began to show 
 signs of decay and insecurity ; and the town too began to 
 feel ambitious of a larger and more sightly stru(iture. We 
 must pass the time with barely a glance. The former pro- 
 cess is repeated. Articles appear in the town warrants, 
 shall a new meeting-house be built ? and the question is 
 discussed forth and back, with much feeling, and no little 
 debate is stirred up as to whether one should be built at all, 
 and as to where it should stand when built ; till at length 
 this time all were united in rather a novel and unexpei!:ted 
 way. On a certain Sunday afternoon in the dog-days, 
 when the minister was in the midst of his afternoon's ser- 
 mon, and the drow^sv members of the congregation had 
 composed themselves comfortably to their several naps, a 
 tempest which had some time been gathering suddenly 
 burst forth in furv, the black clouds hung low overhead, 
 the storm pelted, the lightning flashed, the thunder 
 growled, and a powerful gust springing up at the same 
 time, so that "the corners of the house w^ere shaken as 
 with a rushing mighty wind," the timbers of the ediflce 
 cracked and groaned like the ribs of a ship when strug- 
 irlino; in the sea and bufletted In' the waves. Women 
 screamed and fainted, and men and boys, glad of the 
 chance, scuttled out at the door. 
 
 The moral efle^t in the change of feeling, in the recon- 
 cilement of discordant views, was all that could be hoped 
 for. At the next town meeting, a vote to build a new 
 house was procured without difficulty, and thus arose the 
 stru(5ture in which we are now assembled, finished and 
 dedicated in 170.1 : remodelh'd in 1X4^; and let me add — 
 
H 
 
 though repaired at intervals since then, and its whole style 
 chanired, never re-shin^led — nor needino- it from that day to 
 this.. A commentary, this fact, on the solid, faithful work 
 of those times — a commentary no less signiticant on the 
 chara(iter of the contrae^tors and builders. 
 
 Wishing not to mix up topics, I have passed by one, an 
 interesting one, having an important bearing on the future 
 history of the town, in order to give it such place by itself 
 as time will allow. The settlement of a minister, a matter 
 of far more grave import in those times of less light and 
 knowledge, but deeper religious sentiment, than now ; an 
 event preceded bv examinations and fasts and other observ- 
 ances, and enlisting a vastly wider range of sympathetic 
 interest than a modern call and settlement. It is a topic 
 too large for anything like proper consideration on such an 
 occasion as today's, and not suited for a gathering such as 
 brings us together. I take it up in its local aspecit exclu- 
 sively, and shall pass it as rapidly as I can. 
 
 Quite as important as should they build a meeting-house, 
 was the question should they settle a minister. In due 
 time — after having its appropriate share of town meetings, 
 and anxious and sometimes heated discussion, to say noth- 
 ing of conferences with neighboring ministers, together 
 with fasts and so on, and long hearing of the candidate — 
 the question appears to be settled, and Rev. Mr. Thomas 
 Goss (they could hardly, in those days, give tlie minister 
 too many verbal manitestations of respecit, or too much su- 
 gar in his tea) was invited to take charge of the Bolton 
 church and parish. But this, so far as the call was con- 
 cerned, though it appears to be the end of the matter, was 
 not in point of fact the conclusion. Though at a meeting 
 held Dec. 15, 1740, the town had chosen Mr. Thos. Goss 
 to be their minister, and had \'oted that "if the gentleman 
 called to the work of the ministr\' do accept the call, and 
 upon examination bv the ministers of the gospel do appear 
 to be orthodox and (pialilied for the pastoral office, then to 
 
15 
 
 have the sum of £380 in old teiiour .settlement, or that which 
 is equivalent to it" [Appendix, I], and though it had been 
 voted at the same meeting, to give the candidate as a 
 "stated sallery, to be paid yearly, £170 in bills of the old 
 tenour, to be regulated by Indian corn at 8s. per bushel, and 
 Rie at los. per bu., and Beef at 6 pence per lb.,'' il 
 seems, nevertheless, even after having got so far, the people 
 could not agree, and the proceedings of the meetings just 
 referred to were set aside as not legal ; and another meet- 
 ing was held on the 3d Feb., 1741, at which another period 
 of probation was assigned to the candidate ; and it was de- 
 cided on to hear two other candidates, viz. : Mr. Belcher 
 Handcock and Mr. Ebenezer Gay. Meantime Rev. Mr. 
 John Prendce of Lancaster, the Rev. Mr. Israel Loring of 
 Sudbury, and the Rev. Mr. John Gardner of Stow were 
 called in for advice and counsel. The story is a long and 
 wearisome one, and I cut it as short as possible. After ad- 
 ditional proceedings, mixed up with other affairs, the town 
 got so far again on May 19, 1741, as to raise the sum of 
 £120 "for a minister's rate,"' and on June 7th, 1741, at a 
 town meeting then held, at wdiich Mr. Jacob Houghton was 
 moderator, it was put tq vote whether " the town would 
 choose by lott for a minister." It passed in the negative ; 
 and then it Avas voted (I quote the exa^t words) "that Mr. 
 Thos. Goss should be the minister of the town by 44 votes 
 qualified by law." £400 in bills of old tenour were then 
 voted to him for his " encouragement and settlement ;'' and 
 £180 in bills of old tenour or passable bills of credit for 
 "stated sallary." Sept. ist, 1741, finds the town again in 
 town meeting to hear Mr. Thomas Goss, his answer, and 
 for other business. After prayers, the business proceeded, 
 and Mr. Goss's answer was read and put on file, a commit- 
 tee chosen to w'ait on Mr. Goss to " know his mind, when he 
 inclines to have his ordination," and who should be sent for 
 to assist, &c., &c. 
 
 It is to be presumed that Rev. Mr. Goss knew his mind 
 
i6 
 
 aUcr tlit'SL- long delays, atul thai the ordination was held in 
 due form and observance, witli the usual accompaniments 
 of feasting and (truth compels me to add) of drinking 
 which belonged to the times ; but I fmd no accoiuit of 
 them. 
 
 At a town meeting held March 2d, 1742, establishing a 
 school for the whole town near the meeting-house ; thank- 
 ing Capt. Osburn tor what he had been pleased to do for 
 the town ; other votes not to plaster the meeting-house, and 
 to choose a committee to divide the pew ground and seat 
 the meeting-house ; and to accept and allow certain ac- 
 counts for providing for the ordination, we may consider it 
 passed at that time, and that the minister has dulv entered 
 on his course and engaged in his work. 
 
 Years roll on, the seasons come and go ; spring-time al- 
 ter spring-time sees the leaves form, and the blossoms 
 diffuse their fragrance on the air, and harvest after harvest 
 gathered ; these are years, to appearance, of prosperity ; 
 new households are Ibrmed : children are born and die ; 
 and many -others, after a protracJrted sojourn, and lives 
 more or less useful, go to their long home — and where 
 were they? We take just a hasty general glance, as the 
 view dissolves before our eves ; and we pass on to some- 
 thing else. 
 
 Imagine much said that has not been said, and told that 
 has not been told ; imagine some thirty vears or so 
 passed over, and that we are now in A. D. 1770. [Appen- 
 dix, J]. A very great change has come over their dream 
 in this town and every town throughout the land — in New 
 England and in all the original colonies. Though they 
 know it not, they are in the birth-throes of a nation ; thev 
 are preparing to drop — ripe or unripe — from the parent 
 stem. The deeper \yoes of unhappy Boston have begun, 
 her committee of correspondence are in communication 
 with sister towns throughout the province and country ; 
 and they, for the most part, are in earnest sympathy with' 
 her. 
 
In the endeavor to keep topics distini^^t, and disentangled 
 from political questions and recitations, however much 
 mixed up as for }ears and years afterwards they were 
 in point of faiit, I shall for a moment continue on this 
 purely local alfair, till it can properh* be dismissed. In 
 the town records many a page is given to it. I desire to 
 dispose of it in as many lines. 
 
 "Patriot" and "Tory" were not then recognized as dis- 
 tintit terms, as they were after\\'ards, nor were persons so 
 designated arrayed the one against the other. But the dis- 
 turbances, the feelings, the political events had begun out 
 of which were evolved the two great parties which after- 
 wards might be distinguished bv those words. 
 
 The minister whose coming was prepared for with so 
 much elaboration, with such taking of counsel, with prayers 
 and fastings, and who was received with such large cordi- 
 ality, had lost his hold tipon the good will and support of 
 most of his people ; lost it, said his enemies, because the 
 spiritiuU influence by which he was moved was supposed 
 to come more from the still than from the heavenlv spheres ; 
 lost it, said his friends, because the views he took and 
 maintained of ministerial, as well as of royal, prerogative, 
 were entirely luisuited to the temper of the times, and the 
 great movement which was everywhere in the air. What 
 measure of truth they either of them had in the allegations 
 made on either side, we will not now take upon us to de- 
 cide. Sufficient to say the minister was jealously watched ; 
 occasions of offence and stones of stumbling, and enough 
 of them, were speedily discovered fas at such times they 
 generally are) ; and then commenced a quarrel and a con- 
 troversy which lasted for years, and left its impress on the 
 affairs of the town, on the generations born and to be born. 
 Meeting after meeting w^as held, council after council 
 called (five in all), pamphlet written in answer to pamphlet, 
 lawsuits instituted, committees chosen to defend, moneys 
 to pay expenses voted ; feelings became deeply embittered, 
 
fathers against sons, ni:)thL'rs-in-la\v aj;"ainst daughters-in- 
 law, families separated from families. But after a while 
 the dismission of tiie minister, so obnoxious to a majority 
 of the society, is procured, and another minister,. Rev. John 
 Wallev, duh' installed in his place. This event, so far 
 from pouring oil on the troubled waters, rather stirred them 
 to redoubled commotion. The town is divided now, not 
 only into Whig and Tory, but into Gossites and Walley- 
 ites. The latter hold tlie church, have preaching there, 
 and consider themselves tlie legal parish ; while the former 
 
 — the Gossites — adhering to the old minister, meet at a 
 private house — that now occupied by the Holman family 
 
 — and have preaching there. From 1770 to 1782, along- 
 side with political affairs, mixed up with them continually, 
 cropping out every now and then, in the most unexpec^ted 
 manner, when one might suppose it all over, the contest 
 continued, like an ae:tive volcano pouring forth its cloud of 
 smoke and rolling down its floods of lava ; and, as a half 
 extiniit volcano, it continued to burn till 1782, when Mr. 
 Goss is dead, and Mr. Walley has taken a dismission, left 
 the town, and removed to Roxbury, the home of his family. 
 
 The effeiSls of this controversy, which for the da}^ of it 
 was one of the most important in New England, were long 
 felt, not only here in this, but in all the neighboring towns. 
 Time allows only this general sketch. 
 
 When Mr. Goss died, his friends, among whom were the 
 neighboring ministers, almost to a man, erec;;ted to his mem- 
 ory a mommient, still standing in our South burying-ground, 
 inscribed in classical Latin and laudatory terms, with their 
 sense of " the many virtues both private and public " with 
 which they supposed him "adorned." When Mr. Walley 
 died at Roxbury, a little while afterwards, he left to the 
 Bolton parish to which he had ministered a small legacy, 
 the good etTei^^ts of which we still receive in Bibles, and 
 other good books, throwing light on the sacred word. The 
 divided sei!:tions of the town, the Gossites and the Walley- 
 
19 
 
 ites, came together again, signed their old covenant, and 
 became anew one church and society. With the general 
 cessation from strite in the country at large, came the local. 
 Discord had done its work ; and now Peace reigned in her 
 stead ; but not until a plentiful harvest had been gathered 
 from the dragon's teeth. Happy if the growth from that 
 thistle seed then sown in Bolton soil has been wholly extir- 
 pated since I [Appendix, K]. 
 
 As has been stated, matters pertaining to the political 
 movements of the period are curiously blended with the 
 Goss controversy ; and one unacquainted with subsequent 
 history, and taking his ideas from the Bolton books, would 
 often be sadly puzzled to tell which of the two were the 
 more important. 
 
 That Bolton was strongly on the patriotic side we find 
 the evidence conclusive ; that she early mingled in the fray 
 we find evidence just as conclusive ; but who of her sons 
 ai^taally armed for the confli6^t and went to the front is more 
 difficult to discover. [Appendix, L]. As a general thing 
 careful lists do not appear to have been kept in those days ; 
 and one searching our books is able to find nowhere a 
 record of those who served in the army. An approximate 
 list of that description — if ever made — will have to be re- 
 covered as it can be from familv traditions, and such other 
 methods as may be open. [Appendix, L]. 
 
 The first local indication of the jjreat storm which was 
 soon to spread over an entire cosmic hemisphere, and bury 
 in gloom a continent, we find in such record as the follow- 
 infj : " The freeholders and other inhabitants of the town 
 of Bolton are reqiured, in his Majesty's namj, to meet at 
 the meeting-house on Mondav, 21st of Mav, 1770," to see 
 (among other questions, one of which relates to the Goss 
 difficulties) whether thev will "abstain from tea and other 
 British Goods imported contrary to the agreement cf the 
 mercliants of the town of I);)slon ; and to pass such vote 
 or votes rel. thereto as the town sliall think proper." 
 
20 
 
 Accordinrrlv, when at the date mentioned a town meetingf 
 was held, John Whitcomb, Esq., moderator, and on the 
 second article the vote was put, " would they abstain from 
 tea and other British Goods?" it passed in the affirmative 
 very unanimouslv ; and Mr. Caleb Richardson, Col. John 
 Whitcomb and Capt. Samuel Nourse were chosen a com- 
 mittee to prepare a written vote to that etlecit — doubtless to 
 be transmitted to Boston. Their written vote reads : Voted, 
 "We highlv approve of the conduct of the merchants of 
 the town of Boston respe6^ting the non-importation of Brit- 
 ish Goods ; that we will none of us, under an}' pretence 
 whatsoever, purchase one single article (except in a case 
 of absolute necessity) of any merchant or trader that has 
 imported goods contrary to the agreement of the merchants 
 of the town of Boston ; and that we shall esteem such pur- 
 chasers enemies of their country, and not fit to be employed 
 in any business of importance. Voted, further, that we 
 will abstain from the use of all foreign teas ourselves, and 
 that we will not suffer it to be used in our lamilies, until the 
 whole of the late revenue atits are repealed. Voted, 
 fourthly, that we will use our utmost endeav^ors to promote 
 industry, frugality, and our own manufactures as the most 
 likely nuans to save our country from slavery, and secure 
 a lasting inheritence to our posterity." 
 
 There is more to the same highly interesting effect. The 
 ball is now fairlv set a-rolling, and blow after blow is given 
 tD it bv the sturdv plavers, till the game is brought to its 
 most exciting stage ; and long before thev were fully 
 aware of the real signiticance of their ac!:ts and of what 
 they were about, they tound themselves plunged into the 
 fearful contest with the mother country, and engaged in 
 the tremendous struggle to become a free and independent 
 people. 
 
 The votes just quoted, you observe, were passed in 1770. 
 Allow four years more to ]")ass, and we find the town in 
 town meetinn- assembled ao'ain in ai'^tion rclatixe to essen- 
 
21 
 
 tialh' the same or similar matters. This time a more tormal 
 report is to be made and a more elaborate document pre- 
 pared, and Mr. Caleb Richardson, Col. John Whitcomb, 
 Capt. Samuel Baker. Capt. Samuel Nourse, and Mr. 
 Joshua Johnson are the committee to prepare it ; two of 
 them, however,— Capt. Samuel Nourse and Mr. Joshua 
 Johnson — do not sign it. The date is March 7th, 1774 — 
 a little more than a year betbre the battle of Lexington and 
 Concord. It is quite a studied argument in justitication of 
 the movements and opinions of the times, in short a sort of 
 forerunner of the immortal declaration, written evidently 
 with painstaking, and occupies three or four pages of 
 foolscap size in a small hand. To quote any considerable 
 portion of it is of course out of the question. A single 
 passage of a few lines will give the llavor of the whole : — 
 "x\s to the assertions advanced (it goes on to sav), that 
 upon the Provincial Plan of taxation there n'ould be ^Jiiipe- 
 n'lini in Lupcrio' a Supreme Government within a Supreme 
 Government, \\e tliink is not stating the \'c\t\. right ; \\e 
 alwavs acknowledging the authority of the British Parlia- 
 ment (without being involved in them) within their just 
 limits, and suppose they have full right and power (without 
 us) to lav a tax of los. (or any other sum) on every lb. of 
 tea before it goes over the capstian of an}' wharf in England 
 for exportation, and the purchaser being there — where 
 such huv takes etie(;:t — must submit to it. But we humbly 
 conceive tliere ma\' be Iiiif>cn'iiiii prctcr Iiiipcn'nni, a 
 o-overnment besides and distinct from another, if said (j-ov- 
 ernm^nt respeil^t ditierent places and constitutions, although 
 one of the same Branch (Sovereign meant) be at the head 
 of both Consdtudons ;" — and so on and so forth much far- 
 ther. As to tea's going over the capstan of a wharf in 
 England or anvwhere else, we suppose any seataring per- 
 son in the audience would see the difficulty and needless- 
 ness of that operation ; but we let that pass. 
 
 We cannot follow the local history along step by step ; 
 
22 
 
 there is too much of it. We will but state that we find 
 notes like these, viz. : one that "the selectmen be impow- 
 ered to collei^t. procure and transmit to our friends of 
 this town in the army, such provision as they shall find 
 necessary:" another, that the "town approves of the 
 proceedings of the selectmen in their furnishing non-com- 
 missioned officers and soldiers with blankets ;"' a third, 
 instruc^ting the constables " to pay the rates in their hands 
 (in other words, funds from the collet:tion of taxes), not to 
 Harrison Grav, Esq., the old treasurer under the royal 
 government, but to Henry Gardner, Esq., treasurer under 
 the new regime. 
 
 Time rolls on, months pass, and a little more than a year 
 after the action of the town last referred to, the British 
 expedition moves out from Boston, and the continuous bat- 
 tle of Lexington and Concord is fought, April 19th, 1775. 
 Whether an\' Bolton men were in it or not, I have never 
 learnt. Certain it is, no Bolton companv was there. The 
 late John Barnard of Dorchester, son of the Dr. Barnard 
 (who as a zealous adherent of Mr. Goss and espousing the 
 unpopular side in the politics of the period then and som^ 
 time afterward fiiJ^ured in our annals), was then living- in 
 town, a boy in his father's family, born on the spot where 
 my own residence now is. He died not many years ago. I 
 was well acquainted with him. He once or twice men- 
 tioned to me his reminiscences of that eventful dav. How 
 he was gathering fire-wood at the foot of a rock in a neigh- 
 boring pasture, how he heard the clatter of the horse's 
 hoofs, as a messenger galloped into town shouting an alarm, 
 how on iiearing the outcrv which this occasioned, he left 
 his work and rushed down into the street to ascertain the 
 cause ; and that he saw much of the arming and equipping 
 and hurrying away which followed. There were other 
 reminiscences of the dav. The late Oliver Nourse, who 
 died among us, a verv old man, in 1855, father of our re- 
 speiited fello\v-citizen, David J. Nourse, once, punningly, 
 
23 
 
 told me he had one reminiscence of the day he could not 
 very easily lose sight of, yiz. : that on the morning in ques- 
 tion, by an accident in the Ayood-shed, he hurt the sight of 
 one of his eyes — an accident he bore the marks of as long 
 as he liyed. 
 
 We are no\y brought do\yn to the year 1776, the year the 
 centennial of \yhich wc particularly celebrate, the year of 
 the Immortal Declaration. In fair and readable, but 
 not particularly handsome \yriting it is recorded on the to\yn 
 records. Without introduction of any sort, in the midst of 
 other matters of petty concernment relating to the locality, 
 on the stained and decaying page dropping to pieces \yith 
 age, there it stands : but as impressiye in its homely guise, 
 as big Avith fate, as rich in thought, as grand in its simple 
 but elegant phrase, as if inscribed in the Capitol of the 
 Nation on tablets of shining brass, or, on the held of some 
 eventful struggle, on a monument to\yering to the skies. 
 Who can read the Declaration and not feel the weight 
 and solemnity of its po^verful diction, and the force \vith 
 which it announces truths once new and startling, but 
 which are now the accepted and cherished principles of all 
 large and emancipated souls throughout the world. Who 
 can hear it read, familiar as it is, in every school-book, and 
 not be thrilled through and through with patriotic enthusi- 
 asm, and stirred to new ardor for the rights of man I 
 
 In those days of provincial feeling, when even the most 
 daring minds scarcely ventured to contemplate so great a 
 thought as that of separation from Great Britain, and an 
 independent national existence for these remote colonies ; 
 when so man^' everywhere — so many of the heretofore 
 respected and respectable citizens of this town — shrunk in 
 utter dismay before the prospect of a conflict in arms with 
 the mother country, how must that declaration have 
 fallen like a meteor from the skies into these quiet and 
 secluded shades I I think I can almost see the trembling 
 hands and the agitated face of the transcriber as he trans- 
 
24 
 
 fers the sentences that shine like gold, but cut like steel- 
 to his books. I think I see the fathers of the town, with 
 anxious gaze and "bated breath gathering round to watch 
 him as he writes. (In those days it was much more a 
 work of time to do so much writing than now, and the 
 copying, very possibl}', took weeks for its accomplishment. ) 
 The copyists, how they look over their shoulders in sus- 
 picion and alarm, as if plotting some piece of outrageous 
 mischief, if any one approaches : how the book is closed 
 in haste and trepidation if any stranger comes too near ; 
 how the book for many a long day afterward is hidden 
 away with extra care, and guarded with redoubled vigi- 
 lance I 
 
 Copies of the document had been forwarded, without 
 doubt (after being passed upon in Congress), to all the 
 Massachusetts towns. On the books of Bolton we find the 
 following record immediately following the declaration, 
 signed by the names of John Hancock, president : Charles 
 Thompson, secretary. Then as follows : — "Ordered, that 
 the Declaration of Independence l)e printed, and a copy 
 sent to the ministers of each parish of every denomination, 
 and that they severally be required to read the same to 
 their respecitive congregations as soon as divine ser\'ice is 
 ended in the afternoon, on the hrst Lord's Day after they 
 shall have received it ; and after such publication thereof, 
 to deliver the said Declaration to the Clerks of their 
 several towns, or distritits, who are herebv required to 
 record the same in their respecitive town, or district, book, 
 there to remain as a perpetual memorial." 
 
 There it has remained, on tlie books of tliis town, a 
 "perpetual memorial," until this Centennial vear of grace, 
 1876 ; but there it cannot much longer remain unless some- 
 thing b.e done to make more secure its preser\'ati()n. 
 
 I find nothing more of special interest relatino- to the 
 events of the time excepting what has alreadv been recited. 
 The war went on, through all its varying phases, the sons 
 
of Bolton, like other men good and true elsewhere, shed 
 their blood in it ; its evils were felt here in care, distress, 
 impoverishment, as in other towns ; scenes of violence and 
 riot were enacted, as citizens of opposing factions, with 
 passions heated, met each other; till at length — the long 
 and almost utterly exhausting struggle over — peace, smil- 
 ing peace, was once more restored ; and here, as elsewhere, 
 people settled down, with all their political relations 
 changed, in circumstances of uncertaintv, gloom and much 
 doubt to the new order of things. 
 
 I must overleap a period of something like forty or tiftv 
 years. Commerce, meantime, has spread her ample wings, 
 though she has not as yet developed the new and gigantic 
 power which has recently come into existence. Other 
 marvellous changes have been made, wondertul discoveries 
 in the arts and sciences are adopted ; steam is introduced 
 for travel on the land, and to a more limited extent on the 
 water ; other improved methods of transportation have been 
 in use some time ; the post office and the cheap postage 
 system is thoroughly established and becomes one of our 
 most important and leading institutions ; news'oapers are 
 become a necessity of life ; the whole art of living shows 
 a great advance ; in short, a new era has dawned, and 
 made a considerable advance towards even its perfe6t day. 
 
 Political changes, quite as great as have taken place 
 among us. have occurred in other realms and nationalities. 
 With us. an ele(itive President has taken the place of an 
 hereditary King. Distinctions of rank are abolished, and 
 though the teatures of the landscape may be the same as 
 thev were before, the whole order of society has been 
 almost altogether reconstru cited. The story has been often 
 told and is tamiliar to us all. I shall not repeat it. Time 
 compels to a rapid resume of some of the leading events of 
 this intervening period. The purely local ones are those 
 onlv I shall notice, till once more we strike down for a nio- 
 mentary pause, tor a few words, before we close, relative to 
 our recent war of 1861-65. 
 
Bolton, at the close of the war of the Revolution, was 
 doubtless, relatively, more of a town than now. In common 
 with other Massachusetts agricultural towns, it has under- 
 gone a process of dwindling and diminudon, the causes of 
 which we cannot stop to explain. As yet Hudson was not, 
 nor for many and many a year afterwards : Clinton was 
 not; Fitchburg, though existing as a township, was of no 
 importance, but like any other of our small country towns ; 
 Berlin was a part of Bolton (its south precinft, though in 
 some respec^rts almost independent of Bolton even then); 
 and Lancaster, the mother town, was much nearer on the 
 same level with her daughter towns than at present. I 
 might go on, but must not dwell where so much else is to 
 be said. [Appendix, M]. 
 
 It becomes discovered, as the country is explored and its 
 resources developed, its capabilities more exa6dy ascer- 
 tained, that some of the great roads to parts of this and 
 condglious states, must be laid through this region where 
 we dwell. These roads are construc^ted, inns and taverns 
 spring up all along the line ; a great inland trade in catde, 
 sheep, horses and swine, wooden ware, furniture and other 
 goods is developed, and for a season, much prosperity, 
 depending on this trade, is enjoyed along the route. Im- 
 mediately among ourselves some new kinds of business are 
 introduced, the comb manufacture from horn, the lime kiln 
 at the east part, which for many vears supplied all the 
 neighboring region with its lime. But with the introduc- 
 tion of railroads, and the opening of new lines of travel, 
 nearly all this prosperity was turned awav from us. and 
 bestowed elsewhere. 
 
 Meandme, too, let us not fail to nodce, with the intrc- 
 du6don of Whitney's cotton gin into the South, leading to 
 such marvellous and unlooked for results, socially and 
 politically, the manufaLHure of another kind of gin. with 
 kindred iluids, becomes much extended in New England, 
 and other parts of the country ; and the danger is becom- 
 
27 
 
 ing every day more imminent that this nation of freemen 
 will become a nation of drunkards : and the perception of 
 this danger, and the dread of it. leads to one of the great- 
 est and most magnificent moral reforms the world has ever 
 seen ; but, like storms in the natural world, it is accom- 
 panied with terrible convulsions, and while the general 
 result is far extended and deep planted good for the whole, 
 the partial result is often, for individuals, sut^ering and loss. 
 
 Recalling to your recollection what was said in the 
 earlier part of this address relative to controversies and 
 troubles which had arisen between minister and people, 
 and changes which had occurred, brought about by the 
 march of events and the great political convulsion which 
 had been passed through ; let us look around us, and see 
 where we are at about A. D. 1825, or a little before, or a 
 little after. In 1780, Mr. Goss, the tirst minister, died ; 
 and with him died, as a separate organization, the little body 
 of his " adherents."' Mr. Walley, his successor, considered 
 by most the legal minister of the town, soon afterwards 
 took a dismission : and in 1782 the two divided portions 
 reunited, and formed anew one church and society. Rev. 
 Phineas Wright, a native of Westtbrd, was the next minis- 
 ter, remaining at his post some fifteen or twenty years, and 
 after a quiet, and on the whole, prosperous service, dying 
 here while sdll minister of the parish. He was followed 
 bv Rev. Isaac Allen, from Weston, good old man, father 
 indeed in the spirit if not in the flesh, who also lived and 
 died among you, remaining forty years, through a period 
 which manv of you freshly remember, but of which we 
 cannot now pause to speak more particularly. [Appen- 
 dix, N]. 
 
 We pass on to say that, about A. D. 1826 or '7, a new 
 
 religious i^ocietv, claiming to hold more closely to the faith 
 
 .of the Fathers, was formed, under the special auspices cf 
 
 the late S, V, S. Wilder, an influendal and wealthy citi-^ 
 
 zen, who then, and years before and after, lived among us. 
 
28 
 
 exercising a princely hospitality, and who entertained at 
 his elesfant abode the beloved La Favette when on his visit, 
 about that time, to the United. States. Mainly by the 
 instrumentalitv ot' our lellow-citizen just referred to, a spa- 
 cious and handsome church. was built on the hill-side 
 within his estate, near the Lancaster line, a congregation 
 of goodlv size trom this and neighboring towns gathered, 
 and a succession of pastors settled. Customs and usages 
 chancrinu\ however, with ad\'ancini{ time, its members, 
 finding the arrangement inconvenient and dispersing into 
 other congregations nearer home, the enterprise was aban- 
 doned, and tor se^•eral \ears — forsaken, dismantled, and 
 appropriated to other uses — its edilice has stood, like one 
 of the romantic ruins of the old world, a monument of 
 that vicissitude which belongs to all things human. One 
 of its respeiited pastors, whom manv rejoice to sec in our 
 assemblies once more, is with us at this time, and will 
 participate in the obser\'ances of the dav ere thev close. 
 [Appendix, O]. 
 
 In 1832 the Baptists, who for several years had been 
 a growing commvuiion in all the neighboring region, 
 organized in this town : and iVom that da}' to this, their 
 ministers and members ha\e been among our respe6ted 
 and useful citizens^ doing cordiallv their appreciated good 
 work, for the temporal as well as spiritual welfare of our 
 community. Their gem of a church adorns our principal 
 thorougiitare, and their respee^ted clergyman is chairman 
 of our school committee, and is ac^tive in everv enterprise 
 for the public benefit. [Appendix. P] . 
 
 As to the Friends or Qi^uikers, their local historv, it is 
 believed, is coeval or nearlv so with the historv of the 
 town. They have produced some of the best material for 
 usefulness, for promoting tlie general welfare and that of 
 the rising generation we have ever had, and raised tome of 
 the- best scholars that have adorned our schools. 
 
 x\bout A. D. i860 or '61, a Methodist societv was tbrmecj 
 
in town and maintained its established ministry, having tor 
 their clergyman a young man who seemed to have the 
 hearts ot' his people, but who was early taken trom them 
 by death. Finding easy access to churches of their taith 
 in neighboring towns, they did not long condnue their sep- 
 arate organization, but either formed ecclesiastical ties out 
 of town, or dispersed into other societies of this. In short, 
 one disadvantage has always attended us, this, namely, to 
 form a religious connection it is just as easv to go out of 
 town, in many instances easier, as it is to stav in. As 
 regards the general interests of the town, the result ot this 
 condition of things, as mav be supposed, is far from favor- 
 able. [Appendix, Q^]. 
 
 Till a very recent period, the town has never been with- 
 out one or more physicians, most of whom, according to 
 the ideas of their time, have been well read in their pro- 
 fession, worthy of the respe6t and esteem of the community ; 
 and some of them, on account of tried and acknowledged 
 skill, in demand for their services in all the region round 
 about. [Appendix, R] . 
 
 Lawyers have not locally flourished among us ; but 
 Teachers have. Among them were men who. in their later 
 career, adorned the bar, the pulpit, and the halls of learn- 
 ing, but who, on taking their tirst start in the great work 
 of life, wielded the ferrule or the birch, or ruled by milder 
 sway in our school-houses. A mere list of them would 
 occupy a large space, and if made must be reserved tor 
 another place. [Appendix, S]. 
 
 About A. D. 1849, one of our cidzens, who by the exer- 
 tions of an honest and industrious life had amassed a more 
 ample competency than usually tails to the lot of farmers, 
 on his death-bed left by will a large legacy to the town 
 ($12,000), to be used lor the establishment here of a high 
 grade school, where such " academic instruction " should 
 be given as the voters should decide on. Thus was founded 
 the "Houghton School,'' an insdtution which has gener- 
 
30 
 
 erally prospered, which introduced a new and elevating 
 influence amono-st us, and which has done not a little 
 towards forming the chara6ter and furnishing with their 
 first mental outfit for the start in life most of the younger 
 portion of our citizens, male and female, who have grown, 
 or are growing up, to take their place in societv. [Appen- 
 dix, T]. 
 
 And at a period a little later, viz., in 1856, a public 
 Library, free to all our inhabitants, was set on foot, and 
 has continued steadily to increase since. Its healthful, 
 cheering and improving influence has been felt throughout 
 our community, with old and young, with male and female ; 
 and, as the vears roll on, continues to exercise its kindly 
 efle^ts more and more extensively. [Appendix. U]. 
 
 Thus, omitting much I would cheerfully notice were 
 there time ; passing hv without so much as a glance topics 
 in themselves of interest and importance ; rushing over the 
 rail at a rate of speed which allows hardly half a minute 
 of speech to a year of local historv : the glimpses we gain 
 of the landscape, as we hurry on. can neither be very 
 minutely surveyed bv the eve, nor deeply impressed in 
 detail for the memorv. But, with \'our permission, indul- 
 gent friends. I will for a moment slacken speed, and pause 
 for a while at a place in our local histor}', and in that also, 
 of our whole people, of such interest and importance that 
 you would not forgi\'e me if I passed it with barelv an 
 allusion. 
 
 The war of 1861-65, how well worthv of being remem- 
 bered, and its lessons deeplv impressed on our souls I As 
 we have seen betore, what sons of Bolton served in the 
 great struggle of the Revolution, in which our fathers 
 engaged, \\t cannot tell with accuracv and "precision ; what 
 scenes of service the\' saw, wliether l^unker Hill, with 
 Putnam. Prrscott. and Warren : or Brandvwine, with 
 La Fayette ; or Rhode Island, with Rociiambeau ; or 
 Trenton, Princeton and Yorktown, with Washington and 
 
,1i 
 
 Lincoln. A list of names, a catalogue of soldiers, officers 
 and men, rather sad to say, was not kept, and an}- omis- 
 sions in that way, if ever partially remedied, can only be 
 supplied through defecitive traditions already fading out, 
 and through such papers and reminiscences of persons and 
 families as may chance to be recovered. [Appendix, V]. 
 
 The record of our last grand struggle for National Life 
 — for the great Ideas and Institutions which our lathers 
 established — for the Deliverance of those, once Bondmen, 
 but now our Fellow-Citizens — that, thanks for every noble 
 and grateful thought coming from above, for benefits re- 
 ceived I — has been kept, and kept with a taithfulness worth v 
 of all acknowledgment. By the pious care of both our 
 national and state governments, and bv the enthusiasdc 
 efforts of several of our most able and cultivated writers 
 and thinkers, we have the most elaborate, the most careful 
 and minute record of all relating to that most eventful time. 
 All names, with particulars, impartiallv registered : everv 
 poor soldier's gra\'e marked, whether in national cemeterv 
 or village church-yard : his name preserved on marble tab- 
 let or costh- monument in hall or public square : his widow 
 assisted, and his children not left unpro\'ided for : all this 
 and much more. 
 
 But I come to our own more particular and local partici- 
 pation in these deep memories. When the warning voice 
 of the great storm was first heard ; when the mighty struggle 
 was about to beffin. which, before it was ended, was to 
 make four million freemen out of four million sla\'es ; this 
 little town, nestled among the hills, obscure and humble 
 though it was, was not found either indifferent or asleep. 
 Though no telegraph poles dot over our roads, and no 
 trains roar through our valleys, our nerves, nevertheless, 
 tingled as quicklv as those of any more favored community 
 in the bodv politic. When the alarm was sounded in our 
 modern streets, as prompdy as on the eventful 19th April, 
 '76, a hundred and more years ago, those summoned were 
 
32 
 
 found readv : and, leaving plough and last, hammer and 
 saw, took their place — yes, and mantully maintained it — 
 in the serried ranks ot" war. 
 
 And when the call came again and }et again, with what 
 celerity and zeal it was met I The teacher threw down his 
 hooks, the school-bov forsook his desk, the farmer left his 
 plough a-tield, the Hudson shoe-hand forgot his faO;tory, 
 and turniniT back (m home, on wite and children, on sweet- 
 heart and friends, and all that was dear, hurried to the 
 fearful strife, which was to be '"the last of earth" to how- 
 man v of them vonder tablets tell. A thrice-told tale, so 
 t'amiliar in all tt)wns, in all ears. I need not dwell on it at 
 length. 
 
 Otir bovs could say — each one almost with a different 
 experience — "much oi this I saw. and part of this I was."' 
 The Peninsular, the Seven Days Retreat : we were there 
 with McClellan. The second Bull Run : we were there 
 too, and some of our number never came back. Freder- 
 icksburg, Chancellor\-ille. Gettysburg : yes. we heard their 
 thunders, and mingled in the thickest of their fights. 
 When the bombs t'ell crashing into Forts Jackson and St. 
 Phillip, when Farragut cut the chain, and passed up the 
 river to New Orleans : when, tied like a target to the mast, 
 he run the batteries and anchored his vessels in the bay, of 
 Mobile, we were there : Sherman's March to the Sea saw 
 us : and when the great earthquake throes came in the 
 Wilderness and around Petersburg and Richmond, with 
 our brave comrades from all over the land, we were found 
 ready to pour forth our blood, and yield up our lives. [Ap- 
 pendix, W]. 
 
 How much there was to signalize the great struggle, and 
 make it a most interesting, as well as affecting, period in 
 our annals I I wish I had time to tell. How deeply our 
 women were interested in it: how, all through the eventful 
 time, they met. week after week, to sew. to knit, to cook, 
 to put up hospital stores and other comforts for tlie dear 
 
33 
 
 absent ones, away and exposed to such hardships and 
 dangers ; how package after package, and box after box 
 was sent by them to the Sanitary Commission, and thence 
 to the front at the seat of war. I might speak of distin- 
 guished citizens from abroad, like Dr. Loring, John C. 
 Park, Esq., and others, who visited us during the time 
 referred to, and hibored among us to keep the sacred fire 
 of patriotism burning brightly in our souls, and to stir up 
 the minds of our young men to enter our armies ; I might 
 speak too of the dedication of the tablets which now grace 
 so proudly the neighboring hall. [Appendix, X]. All 
 these topics, so rich in themselves, on which one would be 
 inclined to dwell with how deep an interest, I merely 
 glance at and leave ; concluding with the statement that 
 Bolton sent in all about one hundred and thirty-five men to 
 the war, about a dozen of whom (and they towards the 
 very last) were substitutes and hirelings, and that of her 
 own sons a little more than one-sixth never came back. 
 
 Such is a glance, taken only here and there as at a 
 building of goodly appearance and size, seen through 
 enveloping mists, we have been able to take of the history 
 of of our town. Like other human histories, it is not with- 
 out its pages which one would wish removed ; nor without 
 passages which, if fidelity to truth would allow, we would 
 be glad to have expunged ; but on the whole it is a worthy 
 and honorable, if not a proud record : and the sons need 
 not feel ashamed of the fathers, nor the daughters of the 
 mothers. We are, it is true, among the small towns of the 
 state, of little importance socially or politically ; but faith- 
 ful historv enables us to say, we have done our share of 
 good work, however comparatively insignificant, and made 
 our mark on the Centurv, though it may be but a mere 
 scratch. 
 
 Fellow-citizens and Friends, wc have cast a retrospective 
 glance into the afiairs of our fathers ; may we not, before 
 w'e close, take another glance into the future, with regard 
 
34 
 
 to our own prospects? Our opportunities, are they small? 
 Our position, considered either geographically, with refer- 
 ence to the great centres, or in relation to trade, or climate, 
 or the market — is it untavorable? Is there any good rea- 
 son, in the nature of things and the prospecrts that are 
 dawning upon us, why the best spirit of our times — these 
 times of mental aiitivity, of enterprise, of philanthrophy — 
 should not circulate like life-blood through our veins? 
 May not all that is unfriendh' to good manners and morals, 
 and pure religion, and to the best interests of our race, be 
 gradually eliminated from our spiritual soil, as pests are 
 destroyed from the crops? Why should not the year of 
 Grace, 1976, see Bolton, if still an agricultural town — as 
 in all human probabilit}- it doubtless will be — behold it 
 also a town of which maybe said, everything healthful for 
 man, and not much that is evil, grows there, as in the gar- 
 den of the Lord ; a spot of this fair earth of which the 
 Great Father may say : " It is abundantly watered with my 
 blessing and is fruitful and beautiful?" 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 For the Centennial obser\'ances, not onlv was the Chief 
 Decorator ably assisted in ornamenting the church with 
 bouquets of flo^^'ers, as well as bv flags and streamers, bv 
 the Misses Newton : but the town hall also was adorned bv 
 him in a similar manner. Messrs. Barrett, Hurlbut and 
 Whitcomb — to whom the preparation of the banquet was 
 assigned — assisted by their wives and other ladies, entered 
 zealously into their share of the duty ; and a heartv return 
 of thanks is due to them for the satisfacStorv manner in 
 which it vs'as performed. The displav of fire-works in the 
 evening, under the superintendence of F. E. Whitcomb. 
 Esq., was appreciatingly received: as was also the caval- 
 cade and procession of \'oung men and school children in 
 the morning. On account of its length, several pages of 
 the address were omitted in the deliver\'. and one or two of 
 them taken from the text and transferred to the appendix. 
 
 [A. Page 2.] 
 
 See Address in Commemoration of the Two-hundretli Anniversary of 
 the Incorporation of Lancaster, Mass., by Joseph Willard (1853). 
 
 See Bi-Centennial Discourse delivered in the Meeting-house of the 
 First Parish, Lancaster, on Sunday, Fel). 2otli, 1876, in Commemoration 
 of the Destruction of the Town bv thj Indians. P^eb. 21, 1670. Bv Rev. 
 A. P. Marvin. 
 
 A curious relic of the olden times, a •• pocket-book," as it is called, 
 found among the papers of the first clerks of the town, has been preserved. 
 It contains, among other items and jottings down, the fragment of a diary 
 kept by a party on the "war-path," out in pursuit (through what is now 
 New Hampshire) of a band of Indians, v,-ho are escaping with their spoils 
 from some scene of violence in territory (as it is now) of this town or of 
 Lancaster. The date is altogether uncertain. The figures in the left-hand 
 margin refer to days of the month. Leaves from the beginning, which 
 would indicate bv whom written, arc missing: 
 
36 
 
 g. We traveled 14 miles and camped at the nonvest corner of winlpi- 
 socket pond. 
 
 10. We traveled 16 miles, and camped at the north side of Cusumpe 
 pond. 
 
 1 1 . We traveled 6 miles N by E from Cusumpe and there camped — 
 and sent out scouts, and some of our scouts thought they discovered 
 smoke. 
 
 12. We sent out scouts, and they discovered nothing. 
 
 13. We lay still and sent out scouts, and to strengthen us to go far- 
 ther we sent home 29 men. 
 
 14. We traveled 10 miles towards pigwackett, and then came upon a 
 branch of Saco river, and sent out scouts. 
 
 15. W^e lay still and sent out scouts and discovered nothing. 
 
 16. We traveled 6 miles and came upon an Indian wigwam — the 
 Indians being gone we left 16 men with our packs and th." rest pursued 
 them till dark and stayed there all night. 
 
 17. We followed their track till eight o'clock next day and then we 
 came back to fetch our packs, traveled the remaining part of that day and 
 the night ensuing six miles. 
 
 18. We traveled 20 miles and camped at the great pond upon Sawco 
 river. 
 
 19. We traveled 22 miles and camped at a great pond. 
 
 20. We traveled 5 miles and came to a wigwam where the Indians had 
 but lately gone from, and then we pursued their track about 2 miles far- 
 ther and discovei'ed their smoke and then tarried till about two o'clock at 
 night and then came upon them and killed 10 Indians which was all there 
 was . 
 
 21. We traveled 6 miles. 
 
 22. We lay still and kept scouts upon our back tracks to see if th^re 
 would any pursue. 
 
 23. We traveled 30 miles and camped at Cocheco. 
 
 The diary ends abruptly. How old the book is, no one can tell. 
 After the minutes we have given, it is filled up with various entries of one 
 sort and another, some relatincr to recent and iM'ivate alTairs. 
 
 [H. Page 3.] 
 
 The first newspaper in North America was set up in Boston about A. 
 D. 1690. It was a small sheet of four 410 pages, one of which was blank. 
 It contained a record, very poor and meagre, of passing occurrences for- 
 eign and domestic. One number only of this paper is known to be in 
 existence, in the state paper office in London. It bears date Sept. 25, 1690. 
 
 On Monday, April 24, 1704, "The Boston News Letter"' appeared, 
 printed on a half sheet of paper, I2x3 inches, made up in two pages folio, 
 with two columns on each page. It had but feeble support and limited 
 circulation. After struggling along for years, in 1768 it was united with 
 another paper called the " Boston Post Boy & Advertiser,'' and became 
 the official organ of the government. Passing through several hands and 
 becoming meantime strongly Tory in its politics, as events moved on, it 
 continued to be published through the siege of Boston, till about March, 
 1776, when with the termination of the siege it was discontinued, 
 
37 
 
 Other papers were the '•Boston Gazette," begun 1719; the ••New 
 England Courant," conckicted by James, brother to Dr. Benj. FrankUn, 
 commenced in 1721 ; the " Boston Gazette & Country Journal," published 
 by Edes & Gill, begun April, 1755, the chief organ of the Whig leaders, 
 which lasted through the war, and for some years afterwards ; the " Massa- 
 chusetts Spy,"' conducted b\' Isaiah Thomas at Worcester, which did not 
 commence its issues till July. 1770. — Ihtcking/iain's Reminiscences, Vol. i. 
 
 [C. Page 4.] 
 
 These statements relative to the " Bay Road" are made not only on 
 authority of the records, but also of traditions still current in the families 
 of Mr. Marshal W . Houghton and hi? sister Mrs. Sarah S. Learned, Mr. 
 Joel Sawyer, and others familiar with the localities of the region, and who 
 have had access to the early papers and documents of the town. 
 
 [D. Page 6.] 
 
 Why an officer exercising such functions should be called a '• tithing 
 man "does not appear. Perhaps, originally, an officer, some of whose 
 duties were the same, or similar, was collector also of tithes. Did the 
 office, along with its designation, come as a Puritan institution from Old 
 England ? 
 
 [E. Page 7.] 
 
 Boston, in 1722, less than a century from its first settlement by eight 
 years, and si.xteen before the incorporation of Bolton, occupied not much 
 more than a half of the old peninsular; without bridges, which were not 
 built till many years afterwards, its sole connection by road with the main 
 being over "the Neck," which was so narrow that the tides, when high, 
 approached nearly to the road-way on either side. In population it was 
 about I2,0D3. It contained 11 churches, had 42 streets, 36 alleys, and 
 nearly 3000 houses, about one-third of which were of brick, and the 
 remainder of wood. It had been eight times swept by fires, and six times 
 severely visited by small-pox, by which disease large numbers of the 
 inhabitants lost their lives. 
 
 * To indicate somewhat their relative importance at the commencement 
 of the war of the Revolution, we give the amount of taxes paid in to the 
 government of the Province, by several of the towns, most of them in 
 Worcester countv. in the vear 1770: 
 
38 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Boston, 3,083 9 3 
 
 Roxbury, 335 o 8 
 
 Dedham, 235 12 9 
 
 Woodstock, then considered in Massachusetts, . . 218 o 4 
 
 Lancaster, . • 209 7 3 
 
 Leominster, 63 9 9 
 
 Worcester 166 2 2 
 
 Harvard, • . . 91 9 i 
 
 Bolton, 87 I 6 
 
 Princeton 20 2 8 
 
 Leicester, 8112 2 
 
 Northborough, 45 2 4 
 
 Fitchburg, 18 11 5 
 
 This list of course might be greatly extended : but enough is given to 
 show the important changes which have since taken place. The territory 
 now Clinton, at the time indicated and for many years afterwards, was an 
 obscure corner of Lancaster, with only a dozen or so of inhabitants, with 
 none of its large facilities for manufacturing purposes •• evolved.''" which 
 have since been put to use. 
 
 [ F. Page 9.] 
 The town was named — according to tradition — after Charles Powlet, 
 third Duke of Bolton, who was long a member of the council. 
 
 [(;. Page 10.] 
 
 In lieu of citing names of individuals from the old records, as they 
 occur in connection with special action of the town, or in other ways — 
 which from the quantity of the ground to be gone over, and the frequent 
 occurrence of such mention would be impossible, within our limits — we 
 have thought best to copy in alphabetical order, per the books, a list of 
 names of the earlier settlers, with such running commentary as we can 
 find space for. 
 
 Atherton was one of those early names, and later, Amsden, Babcock, 
 Ball, Baker, Bacon, Barrett (spelt also Barrott and Barrat, a once large 
 and influential family that settled on Long Hill, from which descended our 
 present Town Treasurer, Roswell Barrett, Esq.), Barnard, Bayley, Bige- 
 low, Brooks, Bruce, Butler, Burnam, Carter, Caswell, Cooledge (Coolidge), 
 Chaplin, Chase, Clark, Danforth, Davis, DivoU, Daikin, Edwards, Elli^, 
 Ellinwood, Fairbanks, Farnsworth. Faulkner, Farwell, Fife (Foife, Fyfe), 
 Fuller, Fosket, Foster, Fry (a once numerous family, principally among 
 "the Friends" or " Quakers," which produced some of our ablest men), 
 Fletcher, Gardner (a name which did not come in with the first settlement, 
 but which belonged, at a comparatively early period, to one of the most 
 influential men the town has ever had. the late Stephen P.), Gates, Gibbs, 
 Goss, Goddard, Greenleaf, Goodnow, Gould, Hale, Haven, Harris, Hem- 
 
39 
 
 enway, Hastings, Holder, Howe, Houghton (a numerousl}- represented 
 family in all periods of the town's history, and associated with some of our 
 most valued institutions), Holman (a family which has produced individu- 
 als who have exercised a most marked influence in all the affairs of the 
 place, among whom Genl. Silas and his son Genl. Amory), Howard, Ja- 
 cobs, Jewett, Johnson, Jones, Keyes, Knight, Kimmens, Larned, Lawrence, 
 Longley (a family which produced several highly useful citizens, among 
 whom were three of our town clerks, grandfather, father and son, who held 
 office successively after each other), Maynard, Marble, Meriam, MacBride 
 (a name now confined pretty much to the neighboring town of Berlin), 
 MacWain (a name v/hich has also entirely disappeared here), IVIoore (a 
 name largely represented, in several families remotely, if at all, connected 
 with each other, which has been borne by three of our town treasurers, a 
 father and two sons, one of whom was C. C. Moore, Esq,, treasurer for 
 more than thirty years), Newton (two or three distinct families, to one of 
 which belongs Nathaniel A., Escj., our present highly respected representa- 
 tive in the legislature), Nicholls, Nurse (modernized into Nourse, a once 
 numerous family, divided into many sub-families, and which has left its 
 impress as well as name, on all our local affairs for two or three genera- 
 tions). Oaks (a name now wholly unknown here), Osborn (Osburn, a name 
 years ago one of the most familiar, but now borne by but one individual). 
 Pierce, Parker, Pratt, Pollard (once the name borne by many in town, 
 now confined to a few). Rice, Richardson (an influential name that has 
 now wholly disappeared amongst us). Reed, Russell, Ross, Robins (of 
 which names the same may be said). Sawyer (a name which, frequently as 
 it appears elsewhere, is getting to be comparatively infrequent here. It 
 has been often a name of weight and influence, however, as well as of fre- 
 quency. The late "Squire Joseph, Capt. John and others, who bore it, are 
 represented in others, their decendants, still with us). Stearns, Sav/tell, 
 Stiles, Swan, Stone, are names which, as borne by members of the old 
 families of the town, have disappeared, though the last mentioned is still 
 heard in our every day speech, as borne by an honored representative, a 
 much more recent comer. Stratton is still among us. The letter T finds 
 its representatives in Tinney, Townsend, and Tombs (the first and last of 
 which are no longer living names within our lines). U and V^ have no 
 representatives, while W is the most fruitful and best represented letter in 
 the alphabet. Whitcomb is the large name under that, with numerous 
 representatives in this and earlier generations. There were Col. John, his 
 son Jonathan, and his grandson "Squire Edwin A., quite a prominent man 
 among us, only recently deceased, and very many more. Other names 
 under W : Walcott, Whitney, White, Welch, Wheeler (of which, in one 
 of the families, the late Col. Caleb was the last representative), Wood- 
 bury, Wood, Wetherbee. The name Wheeler among the Friends is 
 represented in our influential fellow-citizens, Jesse P>. and Thomas A., 
 and others. 
 
40 
 
 Our list has swelled to large proportions : and, even if incomplete, 
 must be discontinued if we would have room for other topics. 
 
 Other names, now familiar, the bearers of which are for the most part 
 still living, and many of them among our most worthy citizens, are of, 
 comparatively, recent introduction. Such as Bailey, or Bayley, Barker, 
 Bagley, Bellows, Brigham, Campbell, Carpenter, Collins, Cunningham, 
 Dow, Edes, Felton, Forbush, Gilman, Grassie, Hamilton, Harrington, 
 Heywood, Hurlbut, Rollins, Robinson, Searle, Sloper, Wallace, Wallis 
 (this last is represented in John S. Wallis, Esq., for some years of our board 
 of Selectmen, and who represented the town in the legislature of 1861) ; 
 and, probably, others we do not now recall — of persons, very likely, who 
 removed years ago out of town. The Higginson family, of which Col. T. 
 W. Higginson is a son, for some years owned and occupied the estate 
 afterwards S. V. S. Wilder's, and where Mr. Forbush now resides. 
 
 Until quite recently there were no persons of Irish descent in town. 
 Now they are quite numerous, represented by such names as Broderick, 
 Butler, Coyne or Kine, Doyle, Dugan, Haggarty, Murphy, Shaunessy, 
 Sullivan, &c. 
 
 [ H. Page 1 1.] 
 The paragraph relative to Hoosac tunnel and the elegant station-house 
 — it may be as well to state for the information of distant readers — was 
 written in an ironical vein. Lancaster railroad, built to connect Hudson 
 and South Lancaster, the old Fitchburg road and the Worcester & Nashua, 
 between the valley of the Assabet river and that of the Nashua, and run- 
 ning with a somewhat curved course through the centre of Bolton, though 
 very nearly completed years ago, has never been quite finished, and used 
 by the public. No buildings have been erected in connection with Lan- 
 caster R. R., and consequently no structure at the place indicated in the 
 address. The writer spoke rather of what should be, of what he would 
 be glad to see, than of that which actually was. A note relative to this 
 matter will be inserted at another place, viz. : at M, farther on. 
 
 [I. Page 15.] 
 
 In the early settlement of the country, and for two centuries after- 
 wards, it w^as customary, on extending a "call" to a candidate for a 
 parish, to make him an offer of so much for annual salary, and so much 
 for "encouragement,''' or, as it came to be phrased afterwards, so much 
 " for a settlement." This encouragement or settlement money was sup- 
 posed to be used by the new minister in paying off old debts contracted 
 for his education, in purchasing necessary books for his library, or in pro- 
 curing articles of furniture for his household. 
 
 The writer has found it difficult, with such references as he has at 
 hand, to ascertain the value of pounds, shillings and pence in the provin- 
 
41 
 
 cial currency of that period, 1741. He can only state in general it was 
 very much less than that of the same denominations in English money. 
 
 [J. Page 16.] 
 
 All the towns of the Colonies, as afterwards in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion, furnished their share of stores and funds, and their contingent of 
 men, for the French and Indian wars, which broke out shortly after the 
 middle of the last century was passed. This town, accordingly, bore its 
 part, and contributed its quota of men to that struggle, which inaugurated 
 by the ill-fated expedition and disastrous defeat of Genl. Braddock in 
 Pennsylvania, culminated at last in the banishment of the French power 
 from America, in the capture of the Canadas, and in the conquest of 
 Montreal and Quebec. Traditions relating to that period have, however, 
 pretty much died out, overshadowed by others of much greater interest 
 pertaining to a later time ; and the record which refers to the era of that 
 war is of the most meagre description — not a line v.hich adds anything 
 either to our local or general knowledge of the events which then occurred. 
 But our books are not wholly without items which significantly point to 
 the period; as, for instance, the following: "Charles Holman, born in 
 Concord, Feb. 24, 1727, slain in the Army at Lake George." (This — as 
 appears from evidence found elsewhere — was in August, 1758, when there 
 was a camp at Lake George.) 
 
 But when, some weeks after our Centennial Celebration, search was 
 made in families of the town for writings and documents relating to the 
 Revolutionary period, and before, it proved, in some instances, unexpect- 
 edly successful. At the house of Mr. Paul Whitcomb in a drawer of old 
 papers, supposed of little or no value, was found a small 4to MSS. volume, 
 bound in hog-skin, with a peculiar brass clasp, which contained, along 
 with other items, the " Orderly Book" of his grandfather. Col. John Whit- 
 comb, a military diary of the times of which we are speaking. We give 
 in brief such little account of it and abstract from it as our space will 
 allow. 
 
 Col. John Whitcomb of Bolton — as appears from his title — was in 
 command of a regiment ; and, at one end of the book (several pages 
 being lost out) is recorded a list of the companies comprising the regi- 
 ment. The first seven companies are missing: but, beginning with the 
 8th company, we have a list of the rest, officers and men, to the i8th and 
 last. Then, turning the book, we have, at the other end, with many 
 quirks and flourishes, in a handsome hand, the following: " Col. John 
 Whitcomb's Orderly Book. August nth, 1760. For the total Reduction 
 of the Canadas ;" and from the date just given to the following, Nov. 9th. 
 we have the record of the places of encampment, pass-words, and orders 
 of the day, till, as we suppose, the army was disbanded, and Col. Whit- 
 comb returned to his home, where we find him afterwards, serving in a 
 civil capacity. 
 
4^ 
 
 The army for the reduction of the Canadas, it seems, was composed 
 of three divisions: ist, "the Regulars" (trained British soldiers) ; 2d, 
 "the Provincials;" and 3d, the Indian allies. We give, as specimens, 
 one or two extracts (dropping the old-fashioned spelling). The first 
 entry is as follows : — 
 
 "Camp on Lake Champlain, nth August, 1760. 
 " Parole Amherst. P'or the day, tomorrow, the Regulars, Major Camp- 
 bell, Col. for the day. Provincials, Col. Ruggles, of ; for the 
 
 piquet, this night, Lt. Col. Saltonstall. The reports of the Regulars to 
 be made to the field officers of the Regulars. The reports of the Provin- 
 cials to Col. of the Provincials, who are to make their reports to Col. 
 Haviland. It is expected for the future, that the boats are kept more 
 regular in their columns, and that they observe the order of rowing ; two 
 bateaux abreast, and that a careful lookout is kept for signals, when the 
 army encamps. When the army encamps 'near the enemy, their tents 
 must be in three lines, leaving an interval between each company. In 
 case the army lands, on the passage, as few tents as possible to be brought 
 on shore, as most of the men will find room to lay in their bateaux. When 
 it is thought fit the army should embark, orders will be given to the Roy- 
 als to beat the gencrale, and t/ie assemblee half an hour afterwards. The 
 other corps to take it from them, and wait in their boats until the signal 
 is made for sailing." * * " * 
 
 At date of Sept. i, 1760, under " moving orders," is the following: 
 
 "As the army is now going into the inhabitable part of the country, it 
 is ordered that none of the inhabitants be plundered or ill used, on any 
 pretence whatsoever. Whoever is detected disobeying these orders will be 
 hanged. Milk, butter, provision, or anything else must be regularly paid 
 for. This to induce the inhabitants to stay in their villages ; and good 
 usage will prevent their men from joining the French army." * * * 
 
 At camp before Montreal, on Monday, Sept, 8th, 1760, we find the 
 following : 
 
 " Genl. Amherst's Orders, Parole, King George in Canada. The grena- 
 diers and light infantry to parade at the grenadiers' encampment, where 
 they will be joined by a 12 pounder. Col. Haldeman will take command 
 of these corps to take possession of the city of Montreal. The oldest 
 ensign in the army to go in to take charge of the colours. Col. Halde- 
 man will not permit any one to go in or out of town, except the guard and 
 those in public offices and officers of all the departments, for the care of 
 all kinds of stores. A list of names of all these will be given him. 
 
 " The General sees with infinite pleasure the success which has crowned 
 the indefatigable efforts of his Majesty's troops and faithful subjects in 
 North America. The Marquis Voudrial has capitulated ; the troops in 
 Canada have laid down their arms, and are not to serve during this war; 
 the whole country submits to the dominion of Great Britain. On this 
 occasion the three armies are all entitled to the general thanks. And the 
 General assures them that he will take the first opportunity of acquainting 
 his Majesty of the zeal and bravery which has always been exerted by the 
 officers and soldiers of the regular and provincial troops, and also by his 
 faithful Indian allies. The General is confident, that when the troops are 
 informed this country is the King's, they will not disgrace themselves by 
 the least appearance of inhumanity, or by an unsoldierly behaviour in 
 
43 
 
 taking any plunder, — that the Canadians, who now become British sub- 
 jects, may feel the good effects of his Majesty's protection.'' 
 
 Col. John Whitcomb, from whose orderly book the above extracts were 
 taken, served, from fifteen to twenty years afterward, in the Revolutionary 
 armies. His residence, when at home in Bolton, was at the East end ; 
 and he was proprietor, or one of the proprietors, of the lime-kiln. From 
 him it was handed down to his decendants, one of whom was "Squire 
 Edwin A. Whitcomb, the last who applied it to any use. Many years 
 afterwards lime from other parts of the country could be got out at so 
 much less expense, the working of ths Bolton rock was discontinued. 
 
 [K. Page 19.] 
 
 Mr. Goss, as is mentioned in the address, was dismissed in 1771. 
 Some of our readers will like to know the "conclusion of the whole mat- 
 ter." After the dismission, Mr. Longley, the constable, was instructed 
 (probablv by advice of legal counsel) to prohibit him from going into the 
 meeting-house: and "on the succeeding Lord's day by violence did pre- 
 vent him from entering the desk." This done, Mr. Goss then said that 
 "he should continue his labore in the gospel as usual, that those of his 
 friends who wished to hear him might proceed to his house, that he should 
 keep on preaching as heretofore." He had built and was then living in 
 the house since occupied by Generals Silas and Amory Holman. After 
 the dismissal, and being forbidden the use of the desk at the meeting- 
 house, he held forth, Sunday after Sunday, in his own house : a consider- 
 able minority following him thither, while the major part of the old 
 congregation occupied the meeting-house, and listened to the ministrations 
 of the Rev. Mr. Walley. 
 
 The manuscript from which we have derived the greater part of these 
 facts-, ends with this sentence : " Bolton church was the first to withstand 
 the power supposed to be vested in the clergy ; thus did triumph the true 
 principles of liberty in ecclesiastical affairs.'' 
 
 But it was a triumph purchased with a price, and that no small one, as 
 our narrative shows. The movement was altogether in advance of the 
 times, and was too audacious and high-handed a measure to be passed 
 over lightly and without signal marks of reprobation. Accordingly, the 
 neighboring ministers, sympathizing with Mr. Goss, refused Bolton church 
 ^members permission to come to the communion table in their churches : 
 and in every way, so far as their power extended, and it was not very limi- 
 ted in those days, sought to excommunicate them. The controversy, for 
 its day, was a noted one, and several pamphlets, advocating the views of 
 one side or the other, were published. Many of these pamphlets, we are 
 told, are in the libraries both at Harvard and Yale. 
 
 The law-suits for the recovery of Mr. Cross's salary, protracted year 
 after vear, lasted, carried on hv liis executors and heirs, till some timcj 
 
44 
 
 after his death. We have spoken of the handsome Latin inscription on 
 his tombstone. There are some who would lil<;e to see a translation. We 
 subjoin one : 
 
 " Sacred to the memoiT of Rev. Thomas Goss, A. M., Pastor of the 
 church among the Boltonians, who for upwards thirty-nine years, having 
 exercised the sacred office, departed this life Jan. 17th, 1780, in the 63d 
 year of his age. A man adorned with piety, hospitality, friendliness and 
 other virtues both public and private : somewhat broken in body, but 
 endowed with wonderful fortitude ; he was the first among the clergy in 
 these unhappv times to be greviously persecuted for boldly opposing those 
 who were striving to overturn the prosperity of the churches, and for 
 heroricallv struggling to maintain the ecclesiastical polity which was 
 handed down by our ancestors. Friends erected this monument." 
 
 See " Sermon (text and notes) on the Termination of Fifty Years of 
 his Ministry, Jan. 31, 1836," by Dr. Bancroft, of Worcester. 
 
 See " The Worcester Association and its Antecedents: a History of 
 Four Ministerial Associations, &c.," by Dr. Allen, of Northborough 
 (1868). 
 
 See, also, pamphlets before referred to. 
 
 See a MSS. Account of the Goss Difficulties, by S. S. Houghton, of 
 Bolton. 
 
 See Sabine's Royalists of the American Revolution. 
 
 After the death of Mr. Goss, and Mr. Walley had resigned his pulpit 
 and left the place, in September, 1783, a call was extended, by the church 
 and parish, to Mr. Levi Whitman (H. U . 1779), to settle with them, "in 
 the work of the gospel ministry." The call was accepted, and prepara- 
 tions made for his ordination, the following churches being invited to 
 constitute the council, viz, : Church in Lancaster, Rev. Mr. Harrington ; 
 church in Chelsea, Rev. Mr. Payson ; 2d South Church in Boston, Rev. 
 Mr. Everett (father of Hon. Edward Everett) ; 3d church in Bridgewater, 
 Rev. Mr. Angier ; 2d church in Pembroke, Rev. Mr. Hitchcock : West 
 Church in Boston, Rev. Mr. Howard ; church in Harvard, Rev. Mr. Gros- 
 venor ; church in Stow, Rev. Mr. Newell : the 2d church in Bolton (now 
 Berlin), Rev. Mr. Puffer. But Mr. Whitman's health was so much im- 
 paired as not to allow of his being settled, and he never became a citizen 
 of the town. 
 
 [L. Page 19.] 
 
 In prosecuting inquiries, some weeks after the Centennial celebration, 
 we learned, from several sources, that the following persons belonging to 
 Bolton served during the War of the Revolution : — 
 
 Oliver Barrett (lieutenant, and ancestor of the Barretts on Long Hill) 
 was at the Concord fight ; Benjamin Bailey, William Bigelow, Benjamin 
 Hastings, Abraham Houghton, Jonas Houghton (afterwards major), Jona- 
 than Houghton, Joseph Houghton. Carter Knight. Nathaniel Longley 
 
45 
 
 (captain). Dr. Abraham Moore (surgeon). Sewell Moore, Haven Newton. 
 David Nounse (captain), Benjamin .Sawyer, William Sawver. Jonas Welsh, 
 John Whitcomb (colonel), Israel Woodbur\ . 
 
 Among receipts, orders for marching and for mone\-, and other scraps 
 found among the papers of Capt. David Xourse (which were kindly loaned 
 us by his grandson. D. J. Nourse). were lists of names of men who served 
 under his command. There are several of these lists — too manv to be 
 copied. We gi\e as a specimen the following: — 
 
 "The Men that 1 was called to pa\' money to in .Mav, 1777 (not 
 signed or dated, but in Capt. Nourse's handwriting) : Amos Meriam, 
 Abijali Pratt. Joshua Johnson, David Rice, .Samuel Rice, Nathan Jones, 
 Isaiah Cooladge. Isaiah Bruce, Elijah Foster, Ammeziah Knight, John 
 Nurse, Jonathan Nurse, John Powers, Silas Howe, Silas Houghton, Bar- 
 nabus Bayley, .Samuel Stanhope, Jonatlian .Moore, Thomas Pollard, 
 Thadeus Russell, Eleazer Johnson, 'Fimothy Bailey, Hezekiah Gibbs, Jr., 
 Jabez Fairbank, Nathan Johnson, Benjamin Bruce, Joshua Hemenway, 
 Samuel Jones, Jr., James Townsend. Jonathan Meriam. David Rice. For- 
 tunatus Barnes, James Fife, Jr." 
 
 There are other lists, with other names in them, for which see Bolton 
 books (volume lettered "Births," page 193. and following). The above 
 list is the largest one. Among the collection of old papers referred to are 
 some which seem to show that " l)ounty jumping" and procuring of sub- 
 stitutes were not arts which had to be learned at a later day. Such as the 
 following : — 
 
 "Jos. How and Eliakim Atherton recei\ed ^30, lawful money, for 
 negro servant named York, enlisted and passed before James Barrot of 
 Concord, for three years in Capt. Ashley's company in Col. Badeson's 
 regiment. Continental armv — said York to do a turn for Bolton in Conti- 
 nental armv. Waltham, Mav 2d, 1777. " 
 
 We find that this " doing a turn " for others was not of very infrequent 
 occurrence. To find in what ways the " Continental " soldiers received 
 their pay, take receipts like this : - For whole amount in full of our Con- 
 tinental wages, mileage, monev home, sauce-money, and also our prize 
 money, for service in the winter campaign beginning Dec. 13th, 1776, 
 ending March 26th, 1777, belonging to Capt. David Nurse's company of 
 militia, in Col. Jo.siah Whitney's regiment, of the State of Massachusetts 
 in New England," so much and so much. For these and many other 
 interesting and curious papers, we again refer as above, or to the originals, 
 which ought to be deposited among the archives of some of our public 
 libraries. 
 
 An almanac of the year 1776, in a good state of preservation, is among 
 the papers we have mentioned. Its title page is as follows : " .Astronomi- 
 cal Diary and Almanac for the \ear of the Christian Era, 1776. By 
 Nathaniel Low, Massachusetts Bay. Printed by Isaiah Thomas, in Wor- 
 cester, B. Edes in Watertown, and S. & E. Hall in Cambridge. Price 6 
 coppers single, and 20 shillings the do^en." It contains ".An .Address to 
 
46 
 
 tlie Soldiers of the American Army," signed by Nathaniel Low, dated at 
 Ipswich, Sept. 22d, 1775 ; and also "An Account of the Commencement 
 of Hostilities between Great Britain and America, in the Province of 
 Massachusetts Bay; by the Rev. Mr. William Gordon, of Roxbury, in a 
 letter to a Gentleman of England." Tiie article gives a detailed account 
 of the stores destroyed at Concord. 
 
 [.M. Page 26.] 
 
 Berlin (formerly a district of Bolton) was incorporated as District of 
 Berlin in March, 1784; as a town, Feb. 6th, 1812. It did not form a 
 separate religious society until after tiie Goss troul)les in Bolton. See 
 Berlin Centennial E.xercises, and Address of Rev. \V. A. Houghton, in 
 Clinton Courant for July Stii, 1S76. 
 
 Clinton, now a wealtiiy and flourishing town, engaged in various kinds 
 of manufacture, such as carpet weaving, wire-cloth making, the gingham 
 fabric, &c., was taken from Lancaster, named after DeWitt Clinton, and 
 incorporated in March, 1850. It adjoins Bolton on the soutii-west. and is 
 connected with it by good roads. After the tlrst start, it rapidly out- 
 stript Lancaster, the mother town, and othei" purely agricultural towns in 
 its vicinity. 
 
 Hudson, which touches Bolton on the soutii-east, a tiourisliing town, 
 employing many of the Bolton people, male and female, in its factories, 
 for the most part engaged in the shoe manufacture, was taken mainly from 
 Marlborougii, and incorporated in March. 1866. But. in the sj^ring of 
 1868, about two square miles of the most populous and best ta.\-paying 
 portion of Bolton, was annexed to it. Till the presidential election of 
 1876, the inhabitants of the annexed portion continued to vote in this 
 town in State and Ihiited States elections. The tov.n is now wholly 
 within Middlesex county. Its close proximity is in most respects a great 
 advantage to Bolton, in others an injurv. Lik? Clinton, it is connected 
 with this place by excellent roads. 
 
 In the first part of the address, mention is m.ade of the •• Bay Road." 
 which -'wound its slow lengtli " over Long Hill as wcd! as over Watto- 
 cjuottoc, and was tiie principal tiioiouglifare to Lancaster, on the one side, 
 and to the lower towns and Boston, on the other. At what time it became 
 disused and a considerable portion of it discontinueil, does not precisely 
 appear. As the "lay of the land"' was more studied, however, and engi- 
 neering experience increased, it was seen to be unnecessarily winding and 
 long, as well as needlesslv hilly : and it was abandoned for tlie much more 
 level, more short and convenient road which now traverses the middle of 
 the town. That, too. in its turn, has been two or three times straightened 
 in certain portions, since its tlrst construction. 
 
 Within the fu'st quarter of the present century, a new road connecting 
 the town witii the North \'illa"e of Lancaster was constructed, and run 
 
47 
 
 many ye.ir.i. by a corporation, as a turnpike road. ?'or a series of vears. 
 it was much traxclcd and paid trood dividends. But witii the introduction 
 of raih'oads. and the great change in tlie trafiic througli this town which 
 followed, its value as a turnpike sjieedily dwindled, and it was thrown 
 open as one of the public highways. For convenience merely, it still 
 retains with many its old name of " Lancaster turnpike."' 
 
 With the si^ringing up into im])ortance of the new town of Clinton, 
 with the construction of the Boston, Clinton &■ Fitchburg railroad, and 
 the improvement of some of the fine farms on Wattoquottoc Hill for resi- 
 dences of wealth and elegance, it was perceived that the old, narrow, 
 precipitous, rocky and crooked road over that elevation, would no longer 
 answer. Accordingly, about 1867. a new road was made over that hill, 
 connecting by a much shorter route Bolton centre with the B. C. &F. rail- 
 road station, and the village of Clinton. .Said road was well engineered, 
 and though it surmounts a quite lofty summit, the ascents and desents on 
 both inclines are graded and easy. It is one of the most picturesc|ue 
 roads in the countrv. conducting through some of the most lovely scenery 
 in New Kngimd. and situations for summer resorts must ultimately be in 
 much recjuest on or near its route. .S. H. Howe. Escj., has occupied one 
 of the most eligible of these, for .some years. Mr. Thomas .S. Brackett, 
 now of Still River, Mr. Daniel S. Bryant, since of California, Mr. Dwight 
 Bovden. first landlord of the 'Fremont House in Boston, and several others 
 had owned and occupied the place previously. 
 
 In 1808. as a])pears tVom the papers and documents to which reference 
 has two or three times been made, a Fourth of July celebration was held 
 in town : the onlv one of which we have heard mention made, or at least 
 the onlv one in which the whole town participated, and at which they had 
 a regular " oration." in the approved canonical fashion which was torm- 
 erlv observed. The oration was jMinted. and the title page reads thus: 
 "An Oration delivered at Bolton. July 4th, i8o3. By Abijah Bigelow, 
 Counsellor at Law." Its motto is, •• Be mindful of your ancestors, for the 
 example thev have left } ou calls for your utmost ardour." This oration 
 was "published by request." To indicate its quality, we give one 
 quotation : 
 
 •• The preservation of a blessing requires as much care, as much wisdom, 
 as great exertions as the attainment : * * * as well might we commit 
 the Constitution to the flames, as to the hands of ignorant and uni)rinci- 
 pled men." 
 
 We avail of the opportunity furnished liythis note to add several items 
 which will be of interest to some of our readers. 
 
 In 1854, or thereabouts, it was found expedient to have the old regis- 
 tration records of births, marriages and deaths sorted out. arranged in 
 alphabetical order, and copied. By vote of the town, the work of arrang- 
 
48 
 
 ing and copying was accordingly done : and our books of the kind referred 
 to can now be used as readily and easily as a dictionary. 
 
 The war of 1812. with Great Britairi. was very unpopular, we learn, in 
 all this region. Nobody was willing to volunteer to serve in it. There 
 was, however, a draft made : and the result was that Mr. Elbridge Sawver. 
 father of our esteemed fellow-citizen. Joshua Elbridge Sawyer, and the 
 late Mr. Asa Houghton, wjre drafted, and afterwards served several 
 months as soldiers in one of the forts of Boston harbor. So unused had 
 our people become to anything of the kind, that the drafting caused, we 
 have been told, great commotion, which did not readily subside. 
 
 One of our most popular and useful institutions is the Farmers' Club, 
 started about 25 or 30 years ago. It is now in a highly effective and pros- 
 perous condition : and has done not a little in reviving an agricultural and 
 horticultural interest throughout the town, and in promoting housewifery 
 operations, as well as farming improvement. It has held three fairs and 
 cattle shows, at which the displays of live stock, fruit, and needle-work 
 .iltogether exceeded expectations. On these occasions, there were public 
 dinners, at which addresses were made by popular speakers interested in 
 agricultural affairs. By these means and others, an impulse Jias been 
 given to all matters relating to rural economy and progress, that probably 
 will not soon subside. 
 
 Another enterprise, in a somewhat different direction, has also met 
 with good success, viz. : the Fish Club, an organization formed for stock- 
 ing what considerable fresh water ponds there are in town, with improved 
 varieties of fish. This association has been in existence now about three 
 years, and has competently stocked Little Pond and West's Pond (the one 
 a little under and the other a little over twenty acres in extent) with black 
 bass. These fish in our ponds — it is said by those who have taken 
 observations — have increased in numbers, are in good condition, and in 
 fulness of time are expected to make a sizeable yield for the frying-pan. 
 
 Nor have we been without our associations for mental and spiritual 
 improvement. Not to mention various temperance organizations which 
 have existed at ditTerent times, lyceums. delating societies — all of which 
 have been fully reported elsewhere, by other ways and means — we will 
 merely record that there have been formed in town, in years past, clubs 
 gathered for the express purpose of taking together publications of the 
 day of one sort or another. Not one such club — to our knowledge — 
 has failed in its objects, though some of them have been dissolved in 
 course of time by death of members, their removal from town, and like 
 causes. One such club, taking quite a number of our best magazines and 
 periodicals, is now in existence, and is doing well. 
 
 One other topic touched u])on in a former note, we must return to for 
 a moment before we pass on to something else. viz. : Lancaster railroad. 
 Begun in the early spring of 71, Lancaster R. R. was brought nearly to 
 
49 
 
 completion in the fall of '-2,- Then, owing to the alleged illegality of 
 certain proceedings, it was driven into bankruptcy bv a number of its 
 creditors ; and there, through the years '74' '75- '76. and thus far into 
 April or May. 'jj. it has Iain. Certain arrangements being made and 
 papers signed, and the road released from bankruptcy, it was hoped, this 
 spring, our eyes would be gladdened by the renewal of work upon it. and 
 by its being opened for travel and traffic. The spring is passing awav. the 
 summer is near at hand, and that hope is not realized. But our note M 
 has already far exceeded the limits intended for it, and we must pass to 
 other topics. 
 
 [X. Page 27.] 
 
 Rev. John Walley, the second minister established in their pulpit bv 
 the town, was great-grandson to Rev. Thomas Walley, one of the earlv 
 ministers of Barnstable : and his grandfather. Major John Wallev, took 
 an active part in the expedition against Canada in 1690. Mr. Wallev. 
 born Oct. 6, 17 16. graduated at Harvard College 1734. married Elizabeth 
 Appleton, but had no children: preached at Portsmouth. N. H. — not as 
 settled minister — in 1744: was ordained in Ipswich in Nov.. 1747. and 
 remained there till Feb., 1764: after which, preached for the French 
 Huguenots in Boston, till called to settle in Bolton, in June. 1773: where 
 he remained till he left early in 1783. He died in Roxbury, March. 1784. 
 His will, by which he left, "as a token of his love to the congregation in 
 Bolton," a small legacy, the income of which was to be devoted to the 
 purchase of bibles — leaving a similar one to the parish at Ipswich — is 
 recorded in Suffolk Registry of Probate. Liber 84. 
 
 He was succeeded by Rev. I^hineas Wright, born in Westford. June. 
 1747 : graduated with the first honors of his class, at Harvard College, in 
 1772: ordained here Oct. 36. 1785. Rev. Dr. Cummings. of Billerica, 
 preaching the sermon: married. May. 1787. .Susanna, daughter of Rev. 
 John Gardner, of Stow: but he. too. died without leaving any children. 
 His ministry came to an abrupt termination by a paralytic stroke, in Dec. 
 1802. See Allen's History of the Worcester Association, &c. 
 
 We find on record the following : 
 
 "At a regular meeting of the Church of Christ in Bolton, held at the 
 meeting-house on the 30th of January. 1803. voted unanimously to set 
 apart a dav for fasting and prayer, to humble ourselves before Cod, under 
 the rebuke of Divine Providence in the sudden removal of our late be- 
 loved pastor by death : and to supplicate the divine blessing, that in due 
 time we mav have an alile and faithful minister of Christ, jirovided and set 
 over us in the Lord, and that we may continue in i)eace and harmony, and 
 be preserved in Christian affection among ourselves." 
 
 Rev. Nathaniel Thaver was invited to preach the sermon at the pro- 
 posed fast : and Rev. Reuben Puffer of Berlin, and Rev. Stephen Bcmis 
 of Harvard. " to join in the services of the day." Mrs. Wright, on the 
 
50 
 
 death of her husband, did not leave town, but Hved with his successor in 
 the ministry till her death. 
 
 Rev. Isaac Allen, born in Weston, 1771, graduated at Harvard College 
 in 1798, was the successor: and was ordained here March 14th, 1804, at 
 a time when there was an immense body of snow on the ground, and the 
 travelling was difficult and dangerous. Rev. Dr. Kendall of Weston 
 preached the sermon at his ordination. By an accidental fall on the ice, 
 when a boy, he was a cripple, having ever afterwards a dislocated, and at 
 times very painful, hip : and he remained always a bachelor. He was, 
 however, a person of remarkably even and cheerful temperament ; of lively 
 wit, excelling in repartee ; of sound common sense ; competently, but not 
 deeply, versed in the lore of his profession ; and, though frugal in his 
 habits, spending very little money for books or in any other way, one of 
 the most kind hearted and hospitable of men. His benefactions in hum- 
 ble but very efficient ways were numerous : such as loaning money to 
 young men that needed it, giving small sums to repair roads, or to e.xtend 
 schools. By these means, by his constant activity and never failing sym- 
 pathy, as well as by his ministrations in the pulpit, he had here, on the 
 whole, a hapjjy ministry. He died in March. 1844, a few days over the 
 fortieth anniversary of his settlement : leaving the whole of his propertv, 
 real and personal, amounting to about $20,000, e.xcepting one or two 
 small gifts to others, to the j^arish "of which hs had so long been 
 minister."' 
 
 Mr. Allen's successors in the ministry of the First Parish were as fol- 
 lows : Richard S. Edes, B. U., 1830, Camb. Div. School 1834 (previously 
 settled at Eastport, Maine), from the spring of 1843 to the winter 1848: 
 John J. Putnam, of Chesterfield, N. H. (previously settled at Lebanon, 
 N. H.), from Sept., '49, to June, "52, afterwards of Petersham and Bridge- 
 water: Thomas T. Stone, D. D., Bowd. College 1820 (for several 3-ears 
 in the Orthodox ministry at Andoverand East Machias, Maine, and in the 
 Unitarian ministry at Salem), from 1852 to i860: Nathaniel O. Chaffee, 
 Meadville Theo. School, ordained at Montague, and settled in Bolton 
 about two years: Edwin C. L. Browne, Meadville Theo. School 1861, 
 ordained at Bolton, April 1863, and remaining here about six years, after- 
 wards in the ministry at Keokuk, Iowa, and at Charleston, S. C, where 
 he still resides: Ezekiel Fitz Gerald. Tufts College (once of Shirley 
 Village, afterwards of Chelmsford and Montague), here from two to three 
 years: and lastlv, Nathaniel P. (Oilman, Camb. Div. School 1871 (some 
 time minister at Scituate), who is the present pastor. 
 
 [O. Page 28.] 
 The Hillside Church was organized in April, 1830, with a membership 
 of eighteen males, eighteen females. It was in the contemplation of the 
 principal mover in this religious enterprise to bring together a congrega- 
 
51 
 
 tion from five towns, viz, : Berlin, Bolton, Lancaster, Harvardand Stow. 
 While the novelty and first enthusiasm lasted, he was entirely successful. 
 The spot chosen for a church edifice was a fine one, and the octagon 
 structure erected on it was a sightly, as well as a most convenient one, 
 having all appliances of rooms, closets, boxes and drawers for holding 
 luncheon and articles of clothing, such as were not often found in churches 
 of that day. In summer and pleasant weather, tlie rides on the Sabbath 
 to and from service, over good roads and througii the lovely landscape, 
 must have been delightful : but in v.inter and foul weather, just the reverse. 
 As stated in the address, after some years trial of the plan, and the settle- 
 ment of four pastors, viz., J. W. Chickering, D. D., Mr. Peabody, Mr. 
 Davenport, Henry Adams (Mr. Wilder in the meantime having sold his 
 place, and retired to another state), it was abandoned. Dr. Chickering 
 was afterwards for several years pastor of a church on High street, I'ortland, 
 and Mr. Adams went into the ministrv of the Protestant Episcopal Cliurch 
 in the West. 
 
 The new Baptist church, to which reference was made, was dedicated 
 in 186-, during the ministry of Rev. Kili^urn Holt. The ministers of that 
 societv were as follows : Elder (loddard, 1832-6; Levi M. Powers, 1836: 
 Isaac C. Carpenter, 1843: John Walker, 1814: P. S.Whitman, 1846: 
 Asaph Meriam, 1868; W. K. Davey, B. U., 1856: J. H. (ules, from 
 England, 1858; J. H. Learned, i860; Kilburn Holt, Colby Ll^niversit) 
 1863; Joseph Barber, 1868; Benj. A. Edwards, B. U., the present min- 
 ister. 
 
 [ P. Page 28.] 
 
 The Friends of this locality reside for the most part, in the towns of 
 Bolton and Berlin, forming to a certain extent a community by themselves ; 
 but they by no means isolate themselves from their fellow-citizens of the 
 town or state. Thev take as great an interest in general public measures 
 as do others ; and some of their members are, and have been in former 
 times, among the most active and leading men in town meetings. 
 
 The Bolton society — previously organized before then, as it appears, 
 as a " Preparative Meeting," containing twenty-two families and about one 
 hundred and tiiirty members, and •• having a meeting-house and rchool- 
 house near it" — was erected, we gather from their records — into a 
 " Alonthly Meeting'" in April, 1799. Their first acknowledgetl ministers 
 were Thomas Holder, Sarah Holder, Tliomas Watson, and .Miei Hougi.- 
 ton; their elders, John Frye, Lydia (Jates. Others, male and female, too 
 many for mention, from that day down to tiiis. 
 
 [ O. Page 29.] 
 The members of the Methodist society commenced their meetings, 
 assembling at the town hall in Bolton, about 1859-60. They had full at- 
 
52 
 
 tendance, but their paying members were few. Warren C. Brown, a 
 young man of promise, was their minister, and the spirit prevailing was 
 excellent. Mr. Brown, however, sickening and d\iiig of pulmonarv con- 
 sumption, after a residence here of about two years, the society disbanded, 
 and is now scattered into other societies of this or other towns. 
 
 [K. Page 29.] 
 
 The physicians, who have made Bolton their home, and practised here, 
 were — so far as can now be recalled — Dr. John liarnard, at about the 
 period of the Revolution : Dr. Abraham Moore, who served in tlie Revo- 
 lutionary armies ; Dr. Levi .Sawyer: Dr. Amos I'arker ; Dr. Leonard, 
 since of East Boston: Dr. Hall Davis, who served during the late war, 
 first as "contract surgeon," afterwards as surgeon in 38th L'. .S. colored 
 troops: Dr. Winsor H. Bigelow, who also served as assistant surgeon in 
 the 32d Massachusetts, l)eing present at Antietam and Fredericslmrg ; 
 Dr. Ambrose Eames, who was private in a Massachusetts regiment during 
 the war, but came here as a practioner two or three years afterwards, on 
 decease of Dr. Bigelow. There were other pliysicians. we believe, who 
 resided here for a time, but their stay here was so short that no trace of 
 them was left on our books. 
 
 [ S. Page 29.] 
 
 The town, throughout its whole history, has been highly fortunate in 
 the teachers it has had. To say nothing of those from among its own 
 citizens, who have met with as good success as any, such as the P^-ves, the 
 late Thomas, his sons John I^., Thomas K. and his daughter ALary Ann ; 
 the Barretts, the Holmans, the Jewetts, the .Sawyers, and among ladies 
 the Misses Barnard, Brigham, Newton. Nourse, l\arker, Osborne, Sawyer, 
 Whitcomb, and many more, of whom it was impossible to keep record ; we 
 may mention, among those who tried their •■"prentice hand"' in our 
 schools, two presidents of Harvard, the late Jared Sparks and the late C, 
 C. Felton : and others afterwards distinguished as educationists, or in pro- 
 fessional life, such as George B. Emerson, afterwards head of a school for 
 young ladies, the best perhaps Boston has ever had : "Squire Wood, a 
 well known lawyer and politician, late of Fitchburg: Rev. Nathaniel 
 Whitman: Rev. Nathaniel (Jage: Judge Henry Chapin of Worcester ; 
 John A. Coodwin of Lowell, a few years ago Speaker of the House — a 
 list that might be extended, but we remember what else remains to be 
 said, and forl)ear. 
 
 Our list of Houghton School teachers, however, which has been care- 
 fully kept, we will copy, as it is one which many will like to preserve for 
 reference. Those marked thus * deceased: 
 
53 
 
 1. Edward B. Cliaml)erlin, Univ. \'ermont. afterwards cleri-vman. 
 
 2. Henrv F. Munroe. H. U.. afterwards teaclier in Hin>.'ham. and at 
 
 the West. 
 
 3. *Moses I)url)ank. Water\ ille Col., afterwards su]X'rintenilent of schools 
 
 in \'erniont. 
 
 4. (leo. W. Chaml)erlin. rni\. W-r.. hnvyer. sul)st;(|uentl\ . in one of 
 
 the Western states. 
 
 5. Phineas Allen, H. I'., a teacher the most of his lite. 
 
 6. John M. Rice, 15ridi;ewater Norm. .School and B. S. Harv. .Scientific 
 
 School, professor afterwards at U. S. Naval Acad, at Annajjolis. 
 
 7. Warren T. Cc^peland. Brids^ewater Normal School, a protessionai 
 
 teacher. 
 S. William H. Swit't. Williams College, teacher afterwards in Bittstield. 
 9. Henry Stone, Bowd. Col., clergyman, during war confidential clerk 
 
 on staff of late Major (ien. Thomas, and now in office of the 
 
 Railroad (iazette. New York citv. 
 
 0. David Bentley, Ihidgewater Norm. School, professional teachei-. 
 
 1. Thomas Sherwin, Jr.. H. If., during war adjutant and then colonel 
 
 of Mass. 22d. During his administration tiie war broke out, and 
 he and several of his scholars enliste;!. Now Collector of city 
 ■ of Boston. 
 
 2. Henry S. Nourse, H. U., afterwards adjutant in the v^ar and com- 
 mi.s.sary of musters in U. S. \'ols. 
 
 .Minot (i. ()age, H. U., afterwards clergvman at Nashua. N. II., and 
 (rloucester, Ca])e .Ann. 
 
 Frederick L. Hosmer, 11. {'.. since clergvman at Northhoro", and 
 Ouincy, 111. 
 
 Edwin T. Home, H. U., since teacher in Boston (Dorchester Dist.). 
 
 -Stephen W. Clarke, Dart. Col., since teacher in Portsmouth, N. H. 
 *Henry L. Colhy, Dart. Col., died soon after leaving town. 
 '■Wddison (iilbcrt Smith, H. U., professional teacher. 
 
 .Sidney A. Phillips, Dart. Col., now lawyer at .South Framingham. 
 
 tieo. L. Chandler, Bowd, Col., since tutor in Bowd. College. 
 
 Edwin R. Cohurn, Dart. Col., now law-student in I'.oston. 
 
 Theodore C. (ileason, H. C, since clergyman. 
 
 .Samuel W. Dollinger, since teacher and law-stutlent. 
 
 David A. .Anderson, Dart. Col., has continued a teacher. 
 
 .Alfred Newell Fuller, H. U., since clergvman. 
 
 James Frank Savage, Dart. Col., since law-student. 
 
 Albert C.ray, Bowd. Col., now teacher at Northboro'. 
 
 Frederic S.' Cutter, fl. C. teacher at date. 
 
 [T. Page 30.] 
 Iose]3h Houghton, who lived where his son. ()uinc\' A. Houghton, i^ 
 now li\ing. and who died .Now y[h. 1M47. having be(|ueathed to the town 
 of Bolton *^ 1 2.000 to establish a school "to be kept near the centre of 
 said Bolton, in which such Ac.ADKMiCAi- Instkic 1 i(i.\ shall be given as 
 said town shall decitle to be nu)st useful.'" and also •• eigiily rods of land" 
 (describeil) on which to build a school-liouse ; and the town luuing ac- 
 cepted the legacN , and built the school-house as recpiireil to do : — a school 
 of the character above indicated, and named after its founder Hoi (.irroN 
 ScHooi,, went into operation in Octolier. 1849 — first in the town hall. 
 
54 
 
 and, shortly afterwards, when tlie building was ready, and certain quef.- 
 lions temporarily disposed of, in the school-house itself. From a journal 
 kept bv the teacher and scholars (still extant and portions of it copied 
 into the School Records), it appears that twentv-tue scholars, whose 
 names are given, were at the first session, which number was soon added 
 to, and the whole new undertaking was started off with much enthusiasm, 
 and every assurance of success, which expectations were largelv realized. 
 There was one unhapjn' drawback, however. Nine tamilies. named, with 
 their descendants, were excluded, for a centurw b\' th.e pro\ isions of the 
 testator's will from attending the school. This kept out several \er\- prom- 
 ising scholars then li\ing. whose fathei's had ])een taxed for buikling liie 
 school-house: and would. moreo\er. prcnluce a condition of tilings threat- 
 ening consequences in the coming time much to l)e deprecated. ISv an 
 amicable arrangement, the difficulty v.as adjusted, and the question of the 
 exclusion of the nine families carried before the Supreme Court. That tri- 
 bunal, after maturely considering the whole matter, liearing tlie arguments 
 ot counsel. &c.. &c.. decided that the exclusixe clauses of the will couhl not 
 be maintained, and accordingly set them aside, thus o]jening the school, 
 as a free school, witliout invidious distinctions, to all properlv qualified 
 scholars, children of •• iiiJiahitauis''' of the town. Thus commencing, the 
 school has continued to flourish till this time, and its lienefits ]ia\e been 
 enjoyed by a large number of our younger citizens. .See Cushing's Re- 
 ports, volume 8th, ])age i ith. Xourse vs. Merriam. See also full extracts 
 from the will relating: to tlie school. Holton School Kecoi'ds. page gth. 
 
 [r. Page 30.] 
 Before the question of establishing a Frk!". Pit.lic LimiAuv was 
 brought up in town meeting, it had been discussed in j^rivate circles for 
 months; and when it was formall\- inti'oduced for action b\- the tov.n. it 
 found most NOters fully pre])ared tor ii. and f.nor.ibh' disposed towards it, 
 To Mr. Menry Jewett, then one of our citizens, but since of Lexington, be- 
 longs the credit of introducing the tjuestion before the town. •• in town 
 meeting assembled.'" .Mo\ement to the etfect contem])lated at once began ; 
 a library was started with(nit dela\-. and has continued to increase in num- 
 ber of books and in efticienc\- to this time. It has man\ users, antl h:io 
 proved a means of imjiroNcment antl h.ip])incss of ihe hiiihest order. 
 
 [V. i'age3..] 
 Lists of those who served in the last war. or that of iS6;-f)5 — town, 
 state and national lists — have been kept in \arious forms: and those in 
 future generations making inquiries as to who serveil. and when and where, 
 and from what places, will be at no difficulty to lintl out. i:\ery town in 
 the state was required by law to keep its own i>roper record of xclunteers 
 enlisted to its credit, and a book for the purpose was furnished by ;:tate 
 
55 
 
 aiithorit}-. In addition, at tlic Adjutant (Jcncral's office, the roster of 
 every regiment in the state service was copied, as manv interesting partic- 
 ulars added as could be, tlie whole with immense labor made as complete 
 as possible, and then printed in two thick 8vo volumes. These books 
 were sent to all the towns, and given the largest circulation. Not to be 
 outdone, the General (lovernment. while the war was still going on. not 
 only established National Cemeteries for interring the bodies of the fallen, 
 but has since i)ublishei,l in se\eral Nolumes. under the general title of 
 •' Roi.i.s OF Honor,"" detailed Catalogues of the names of all soldiers 
 whose bodies aje known to be buried in an\ of the cemeteries aforesaid, 
 and along with these to gi\eall the information practicable respecting the 
 niunerous graves of ••unknown"" there to be found. Hereafter, even 
 centuries hence, whoever is looking up facts and dates relating to our 
 recent war will lie at no loss where to find them. 
 
 [W. Page 32.] 
 Those wlio ser\ed during the war. to the credit of the town ot Bolton, 
 were as follows (the names under each heading being arranged in alpha- 
 betical order). The names of those who died during the war. and which 
 are on the tablets in the town hall, are printed in italics : 
 
 13111 ivegiment. in which were those who first went out. — Ezekiel \V. 
 Choate. I^edra A. Cooledge. Silas A. Cooledge. *.Samuel M. Haynes, 
 Edward A. Houghton. Francis M. Kimmens, Charles McOuillan, Enoch 
 C. Pierce, sergeant, William A. Newhall. Rolla A'h/io/as, Henry Whit- 
 comb, captain, John Thos. Whittier. orderly sergeant. [*Subsec]uently. 
 soldier from Berlin.] 
 
 2d Regiment. — Henry Learned. 
 
 15th Regiment. — John Fahee, 'riiomas Jlast/ii^s. Nelson I'ratt. Thos. 
 .Sherwin, Jr. (captain of a company, but company disbanded he went into 
 22d as adjutant; teacher of Houghton .School on breaking out of war). 
 John .S. Williams, afterwards in 4th cavalr_\- : John Wood. 
 
 1 6th Regiment. — (Jeorge A. Barnes. Albert C. Hou^^htoiu Uli\er L. 
 Nourse, sergeant. 
 
 19th Regiment. — William Stone, major. 
 
 20th Regiment. — 'riiJinas Whitman . 
 
 2 1st Regiment. — W'iUard A. liowers, (ieorge \i. Burgess. Charles R. 
 Haven, James Kennedy. Luke Ollis (claimed and held by Lancaster, his 
 name on Lancaster tablet). 
 
 22d Regiment. — Ucoixr A'. Ldo/:. C/iarlcs .1. l-'ry. Joseph S. Hildrelh. 
 I\ul'iis 11. Williams (claimed and held l)y Berlin, name on Berlin tablets). 
 
 23d Regiment. — .\mos B. Jarvis. 
 
 32d Regiment. — Windsor H. Bigelow. assistant surgeon. 
 
 33d Regiment. — Edward L. Edes. 
 
 36th Regiment.— Henry H. Bartlett. Theodore H. Bartlett. Edwin 
 Barnes. Hiram P. Beane. Reuben Cla]:)]), Esra Crocker. Eraiikliii Eariis- 
 tuort/i, Andrew J. Houghton, Josia/i /loiii^/doii, Walter Kennedy, John 
 Lake, George H, Patrick, George F. Sawyer, f Joseph H. Sawyer, orderly 
 
sergeant, (icorge H. Thoinns, Asaliel C. A\'etherbec. Henry I\f. Wethtr- 
 bee, Reuben. L, Wetherbee. (jeorge S. \N'ilIi.>. hUijali //. \\'o:}dbiirv. 
 [jDiecl a year or two after the war ended.] 
 
 38th Regiment. — Gcon^c //. Stone. 
 
 47th Regiment. — Burges.s Taylor. 
 
 57th Regiment. — James J. Mc\'ey, ( jeorge Willis. 
 
 5th Regiment, Co. I (Nine Months Men). — ''Echnund 1!. liabeock, F. 
 R. Bennett, \Gcjri:,c' A. Corscr. James F. Despeau. Lvnian (iibl)s, W'm. 
 (iibbs, JAmory S. Haynes, James D. Hurlbut, James jillson. Wilham IF 
 Larabee, Charles \\. Newton, captain, "'Francis M. Newton. Andrew I,. 
 Nourse, William D. Pierce, JAndrew A. Powers, lieutenant, JJohn H. 
 .Sawver, sergeant, Isaac C. Stratton, Augustus H. Trowbridge, Charles 
 H. White, Henrv Wood, Henrv A. Woodburv. [*Reenlisted in 4t]i Cav.. 
 sergeants, f Reenlisted in 2d Heavv Artillerv. JReenHsted in Hundred 
 Days Men.] 
 
 5th Regiment. Co. I (Hundred Days Men). — .Vdditional names. Jos- 
 eph A. Bryant, Lyman 15. (iates, Christopher C. M. Newton, Amos P. 
 Powers, .Stephen F. .Smith. 
 
 Nim's Batter\". — Francis Murphv. 
 
 First Heavy Artillery. — Edwin J. Brown. Charles !•". (ietchell. I'.da'in 
 k'Hln/ni Holt, Baldwin Houghton, Warren Houghton, Stephen //. Unnt- 
 ///i^'. Charles W. Nourse. (ieorge W. Pratt. Eugene -Smith. Francis H. 
 Whitcomb, William W. Wheeler. 
 
 -Second Heavy Artillerv. — .Ide/ 'Jiu/ies Coil/ns. iOdward \l. Houghton. 
 Charles B. Newton, (leorge E. -Sargent. Charles (',. Wheeler. 
 
 Third Cavalry, .McCee"s. — Francis E. Floward. 
 
 Fourth Cavalry. — Besides names alreadv mentioned, Waldo E. Kim- 
 mens, Joseph L. Marston. Abner M. Nutting. William L. O.sgood. 
 
 Fifth Cavalry. — Thornton Ilayden. colored. 
 
 Fifth Cavalry, regular C S. A. — John B. -Stanley. 
 
 -Signal -Service. — George Edwin Woodbury, jjrevioush in First Ca\alrv. 
 for Leominster. 
 
 Provisional Guards. — lia A. Dulton. 
 
 Thomas (Jra.ssie, chaplain, with io8th N. N". \'olunteers: Reulien M. 
 Whitcomb and Charles A. Wheelock. suttlers. with the 36th : Hall Davis, 
 surgeon. 38th LL -S. colored troops. Ambrose Fames, 51st Regt., both 
 phvsicians in Bolton after the war : Mary Eliz. Haynes, nurse in hospitals. 
 
 Regular U. S. Navy. — Robert T. Edes, assistant surgeon in Farragut's 
 fleet at New Orleans, in the flag ship •• Black Hawk," Com. I'orter. on the 
 Mississippi, and passed assistant surgeon on the ■•Colorado:" John 
 Henrv Hapgood, seaman, in the " .North Carolina," the " Potomac." and 
 the gunboat " Union." 
 
 \'olunteer Navy. — Henr\- Rockwood. ;issistant surgeon with Farragut's 
 fleet at Mobile, in the ■• Itasca," the " .Monongahela," and the •• Poca- 
 hontas." After the war. jilnsician in Bolton. 
 
 N. B. — John C. Haynes. 36th: /.///•(• Ollls. 21st: claimed by Lancas- 
 ter, and their names on Lancaster tablet. Charles Wood. ]\., claimed by 
 Harvard, Several now citi.^ens of Bolton ^;erved as soldiers in the f|uotas 
 yf other towns. 
 
[X- l'a,U^c33.] 
 
 The memorial tablets erected in the town hall to the mcmorv of de- 
 ceased soldiers were dedicated nn tlie eveiiin;^ of Dec. 20th. 1866. with 
 appropriate ohser\ar.ccs. Solomon M. Howe. l'".sf|., was I'lTsident nf tlie 
 evening. I'raver was offered h\- Thomas 'I". .Stone. I). D. ISiographical 
 Notices read hv R. S. I'".des. .\n ( )ration delivered h\- Dr. ( ieo. I!. l,or- 
 ing. A Poem, written h\' Amos W. Collins, was read h\' Addison d. 
 .Smith, teaciier of tlu- Houghton Scliool. .Suitable nnisic. including the 
 singing of an original ofle b\' Mrs. Marv I). \\"hitne\ of lioston. was per- 
 formed b\' the Hudson hand, and b\ a select choir under the direction of 
 H. F. Haynes. 
 
 .See ])amphlet. "Oration delivered at ISolton, Mass.. Dec. 20th. 1S66. 
 at the Dedication of the Tablets," i\;c. : 1867. |)ub!ished from the office of 
 the Clinton Covu'ant. 
 
 N, 1). — To the names of •• i-ccent introducticm." unrlcr iiotc ('.,afld 
 the following: Hlood, ISowers, Cook, C.iaves, Larkin, Towers, Kich. 
 .Sampson. A Blood familv in the earlier histor\- of the town: but no 
 member of it has resided here for man\ ye;\rs. 
 
 That no errors or important omissions haw crept into 
 the iore_o-oing appendix, is hardl}' to he expected. It is 
 hoped thev are not ntimeroiis. Indulgent readers are 
 befrged kindh' to excuse them, as lliese sheets were re\ised 
 under circumstances renderino- a careful scrtitin}- \ery 
 dillictdt. 
 

 
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