/ 
 
 /£> 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 AT 
 
 GRAFTON, MASS 
 
 ORATION 
 
 HY 
 
 REV. E. FRANK HOWE. 
 
? A- P 
 
■735 
 
 1776 1876 
 
 GRAFTON. 
 
 HISTORICAL ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED BYs 
 
 REY. E. FRANK HOWE, 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 GRAFTON, MASS., 
 
 July 4th, 1876. 
 
 Woxtt$ttt: 
 
 PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON, 
 
 311 MAIN STREET. 
 
 1878. 
 
OKATION. 
 
 You have been pleased to call me to discharge to-day 
 the pleasant and important duty of speaking concerning 
 the history of Grafton. I make no attempt to conceal 
 the fact that the invitation, coming so unexpectedly and 
 so heartily, from my native town and the home of my 
 boyhood, to take such a responsible part in the proceed- 
 ings of this day- a day destined to be memorable in the 
 history of the nation as well as of the town— has given 
 to me the keenest gratification. I esteem it an honor of 
 which one may justly be proud— an honor as great as I 
 know it to be undeserved. 
 
 I speak of the duty assigned me as an important one. 
 I esteem it such because of the relation of local to 
 general history. If all the cities and towns in this 
 country were this day to put on record the more im- 
 portant facts and traditions connected with their history, 
 the future historians of the individual states, and of the 
 nation, would have an inexhaustible fountain of material 
 from which to draw. On the title-page of his admirable 
 history of Worcester, Mr. Lincoln has put a quotation, 
 in which it is said, " These local annals are full of little 
 things, names, dates and facts, and rumors of every 
 sort, which seem at first sight almost too small to be 
 noticed. Many of these little things which we speak of 
 are little only in size and name. They are full of rich 
 meaning. They are graphic and characteristic in a high 
 
degree. They suggest far more than they say. They 
 illustrate classes of men and ages of time. They are 
 small but brilliant lights on the walls of the past, pouring 
 floods of splendor from their nitches upon the abysses 
 around them." Such being the relation of local to gener- 
 al history, he who gathers up the recorded incidents, 
 and the floating traditions, connected with any com- 
 munity, has an important trust in hand. And that com- 
 munity which has peculiar facilities and unusually strong 
 incentives for keeping in mind the facts of its own 
 history, is particularly fortunate. Such facilities and 
 incentives Grafton finds in the fact that the centuries of 
 its own age terminate midway the centuries of the 
 nation, and thus it comes to pass that twice each cen- 
 tury, and at nearly equal intervals, the history of this 
 town passes under review, and the more important 
 events are put on record. When he who addresses 
 you to-day was a child of two years, another, of 
 honored name in the annals of this town, delivered, 
 probably very near this spot, the historical oration com- 
 memorative of the completion of a hundred years of its 
 history. And so possibly the child is now born, and 
 perhaps is here present, who, at the ripe age of 60 or 
 65 years, will deliver the address at the celebration 
 which shall mark the completion of two hundred years 
 of the history of Grafton. 
 
 From what I have said you will recall the fact that 
 Grafton is not one of the daughters of the Nation. She 
 was in at the nation's birth, and at that time was a 
 vigorous and sedate matron of nearly a half-century. 
 She witnessed, aye, rather I must say, she experienced 
 herself, a full share of the painful suspense, the alternat- 
 ing of hope and fear, of desire and dread, which precede 
 the birth of nations as well as of individuals; she bore 
 
herself much of the dreadful pain through which the 
 nation struggled into existence; she listened, doubtless 
 with maternal joy, to the new-born nation's first utter- 
 ance, which, instead of an infantile wail, was a manly 
 Declaration of Independence; she watched the new 
 nation with fond pride — a pride at times sadly tempered 
 with anxious fears — during the years of early youth, 
 and she saw it pass on to maturity and take its place 
 among the nations of the earth. And now, when the 
 nation is celebrating its centennial birthday, we, the 
 sons and daughters of Grafton, some of us to the manor 
 born, and some foster children, are met to hear and tell, 
 some for the first time, and a few for the second time, 
 what our alma mater was doing during the years before 
 the nation's birth, and what she has been doing during 
 the century since. 
 
 AVe are able to catch the first faint flickerings of 
 historical light, the earliest hints of the approaching 
 dawn of civilization over these regions, within a month 
 of eleven years after the landing of the Pilgrims at 
 Plymouth. At that time, that is, in January of 1032, 
 Governor Winthrop led an excursion up the Charles 
 River. And he says that, after they had gone up about 
 fifteen miles, they ascended a very high rock, where * 
 " they might see all over ^eipnett, and a very high hillf 
 due West about forty miles off." Here we have the 
 record of probably the very first approach of the white 
 man to this region, of the first glimpse which the eyes 
 of civilized men ever caught of the country hereabout. 
 The name given to a large territory including this town, 
 and extending as far west as the Connecticut River, was 
 the Nipmuck Country. It was nearly four years after 
 
 Wiutlirop's History of New England, Vol. I., p. S3, f Wachusett. 
 
6 
 
 Gov. Winthrop and his party had glanced over this 
 country to the "very high hill due West," and fifteen 
 years after Plymouth Rock had been hallowed, before 
 the feet of the white men pressed the soil here. At that 
 time, in the Autumn of 1635,* a company of emigrants 
 started west. That uncertain and ever-shifting locality 
 named the West, which has now retreated to the shore of 
 the Pacific, was located then in Connecticut. These emi- 
 grants, sixty in number, who had found the land about 
 Massachusetts Bay too straightened for them, passed 
 through this county on their way to Weathersfield. 
 From the time when these emigrants pass through, or 
 near, this place, it is eleven years before we learn any- 
 thing further concerning it. At the expiration of this 
 period, the real history of the town begins; and this 
 beginning of its history is of a religious and missionary 
 character, f John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, 
 had conceived his grand idea of "civilizing and evange- 
 lizing the natives of New England," and had given him- 
 self to this work. In carrying out his plan, he probably 
 came to Grafton, about the year 1646, to preach to the 
 Indians. Thus, in 26 years after the first settlement of 
 New England by the whites, the work, which was des- 
 tined to exert a powerful influence over the character of 
 this town, was begun. The character of New England, 
 that which has made it like leaven in this nation, permeat- 
 ing, and diffusing itself through all sections and classes 
 of this growing and powerful land, is very largely, more 
 largely than to anything else, due to the religious princi- 
 ples of its founders. The early history of this town, as 
 of New England generally, is chiefly a history of the 
 church in it. In fact, the church record, for nearly a 
 
 * Winthrop's History of New England, Vol. I., p. 204. f Gookin, Mass. 
 Hist. Col., 1st Scries, I., 168. 
 
century, is as important as the town record, and the two, 
 to a very great extent, cover the same ground. The 
 beginning of the religious history, and so of the general 
 history of the town, is traceable directly to the preaching 
 of Eliot. So I have named this as the period at which the 
 real history of Grafton begins. It was not, however, till 
 nearly a century later that it was known by the name of 
 Grafton, and it was not until eight years later that even 
 the boundary of the town was definitely settled. At the 
 period of which we are speaking, 1(516, and until 1735, 
 the place was known by the name of Hassanamisco, 
 sometimes, in the earliest recorded allusions, written 
 Hassanamesit. * Probably the latter was the name until 
 it was set off as an Indian town in 1651, when it was 
 changed to the former, f The name signifies " a place 
 of small stones." The appropriateness of the name is 
 apparent to even the most casual observer who passes 
 through the town; and certainly no boy who has ever 
 "rode the horse to plow," or rattled and battered his hoe 
 among the stones to get earth enough, by spoonfuls, 
 to cover corn or potatoes in planting-time, will be at 
 loss for the origin of the name. And, by the way, who 
 knows what part these very stones have had in form- 
 ing the character and in extending the influence of this 
 town ! Courage to encounter difficulties, perseverance 
 under difficulties, unceasing industry and frugality, all 
 were absolutely necessary in order to secure a subsist- 
 ence, and win a competence from the rocky farms of 
 this town. And the miles upon miles of stone fences, 
 some of them with foundations broad and deep, and 
 built far higher than is necessary for the ordinary 
 purposes of a fence, in order to dispose of the super- 
 
 * Wilson's Sermon, p. 4. f Gookin's Mass. Hist. Col., 1st Series, Vol. I., 
 p. 184. 
 
8 
 
 abundance of material, these tell what the town must 
 have been, and of the persevering toil which has been 
 required in removing these "small stones" — and some 
 of them not so very small either. But from these stony 
 farms, and because they were stony, have come genera- 
 tions of daring, persevering, industrious and frugal 
 sons and daughters. And also because the farms were 
 stony, these same sons and daughters have pushed out 
 into the world, giving the talents acquired in early life, 
 or transmitted from parent to child, to other pursuits, 
 and to building up and moulding other communities. 
 Grafton has extended her influence over many portions 
 of this land, and in various walks of life, because, in a 
 certain sense which you will readily understand, so 
 many of her brave sons and fail' daughters have been 
 stoned out of town. It is almost a pity that the old and 
 significant name of Hassanamisco ever gave place to 
 that of the English Duke. 
 
 Eliot seems to have been quite successful in his labors 
 here, for I find the following record concerning the 
 General Court of Massachusetts in 1G54: * "At this 
 Court, likewise, Mr. John Eliot, minister of Roxbury, 
 that had heretofore by them been encouraged to go on 
 with preaching the Gospel to the Indians, obtained 
 several parcels of land for the Indians that gave any 
 sincere hopes for their embracing of the Christian re- 
 ligion, as at Hassanamesit, a place up in the woods 
 beyond Medfield and Mendon." From this time, for a 
 period of twenty years, f Hassanamisco seems to have 
 been an important centre of religious influence. There 
 was a school here where the Bible was read and studied 
 in the Indian language, X and young men went out as 
 
 * Mass. Hist. Col., Vol. VL, 2d Scries, page 544. f Wilson's Sermon, p. 7. 
 X Gookin, Mass. Hist. Col., 1st Series, Vol. I., p. 194. 
 
9 
 
 evangelists to the neighboring regions. In 1671,* Eliot 
 formed an Indian church here, the second formed in the 
 state. Three years later, in 1674,f Major Daniel 
 Gookin, having visited this place in company with Mr. 
 Eliot, wrote an account of it. He speaks of it as a small 
 place, and says "It hath not above twelve families, and 
 so according to our computation not above sixty souls. 
 * * * This village is not inferior unto any of the Indian 
 plantations for rich land and plenty of meadow, being 
 well tempered and watered. It produces plenty of corn, 
 grain and fruit; for there are several good orchards in 
 this place. It is an apt place for keeping cattle and 
 swine; in which respect this people are the best stored 
 of any Indian town of their size. * * * Here they have 
 a meeting-house for the worship of God after the 
 English fashion of building, and two or three other 
 houses after the frame mode, but they fancy not greatly 
 to live in them. * * * There are in full communion in 
 this church about sixteen men and women, and about 
 thirty baptized persons; but there are several other 
 members of this church that live'in other places. This 
 is a hopeful plantation." 
 
 In the year 1675, a century before the American 
 Revolution, King Philip's war broke out, and during 
 this war this promising settlement was entirely broken 
 up, J and, though a number of the families returned 
 after the war,§ yet the church was probably never re- 
 established. The Indians themselves were divided in 
 their allegiance, some adhering to the English through- 
 out, and others taking side with Philip, and still others, 
 at first, deserting the English, but afterwards returning 
 
 * Mass. Hist. Col., 1st Series, Vol. I., p. 185. f Ibid. J Ibid., Vol. X., p. 
 134. § Wilson's Serrnou, p. 9. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 to them. It was during this war that quite an impor- 
 tant battle was fought on Keith Hill, the English gain- 
 ing the victory. The day upon which the battle was 
 fought was stormy, and the Indians were not able to 
 use their firearms, while the English, protecting their 
 gun-locks with their garments, thereby gained a decided 
 advantage. In the early part of the war, in order to 
 j)revent the Indians who were favorable to the English 
 from being either destroyed or tampered with and drawn 
 away from their allegiance, and on account of the great 
 distrust felt towards them, all the friendly Indians of 
 the Nipmuck country were confined at Hassan amesitt, 
 and were forbidden to go more than one mile from 
 their wigwams, upon penalty of imprisonment or death, 
 the penalty to be inflicted by any person meeting them 
 beyond these limits.* The hostile Indians, however, 
 came upon this company of friendly Indians with a 
 force of three hundred, and either compelled or per- 
 suaded about two hundred of them to join in the war 
 against the English.f This led to an expedition against 
 the town made up of two companies of English troops. 
 Upon their arrival they found the place deserted, and 
 pushed on to Packachoage, which was situated partly in 
 Worcester and partly in Auburn, formerly known as 
 "Ward. The Indians fled upon their approach, and, after 
 spending a night in the deserted wigwams, and hunting 
 in vain for the Indians, the English returned. A few 
 days after the commander of one of the companies, 
 Capt. Henchman, with a few men returned to Hassana- 
 mesitt, and in the night made an attack upon a company 
 
 * Transactions and Col. Am. Antiquarian Society, Vol. II., p. 450; Gookiu's 
 Hist, of Praying Indians. 
 
 f Ibid., p. 475; Gookin's Praying Indians. 
 
11 
 
 of about forty Indians who were staying in a wigwam. 
 The Indians fought in the darkness with terrible desper- 
 ation, killing two of his men. * The heads of these 
 two men were found the next morning fastened upon 
 crotched sticks, and facing each other, in front of the 
 wigwam; the grim delight of the Indians being thus 
 most characteristically expressed. No traces were 
 found of their own dead or wounded. 
 
 As I have said, a few of the Indian families returned 
 after the war, and the Indians remained the sole proprie- 
 tors of the land for upwards of forty years, or until the 
 year 1718. In that year one Elisha Johnson purchased 
 a tract of land upon condition that he would build and 
 support a bridge over each branch of the Blackstone 
 river. From the location of these bridges, which he 
 supported till 1737,f and from the fact that Elisha 
 Johnson lived in Sutton, I infer that this land must have 
 been in the region of Saundersville. In this connection, 
 I may as well mention a tradition in reference to the 
 first white man who spent a winter in the town. I have 
 not learned either the name of the man, or the time when 
 he was here, but he is said to have come from Marl- 
 borough for the purpose of wintering some cattle upon 
 the hay which had been cut from the meadows in what 
 is known as " The Farms.'' J His hut was built near 
 the present residence of Mr. Seth J. Axtell, and under 
 the shelter of a large rock which is plainly visible 
 from the road. And now that I am speaking of the 
 first white man owning land, and of the first white man 
 spending a winter here, it will be of interest to know 
 
 * Hubbard's Indian Wars, 1st ed., p. 45; Transactions and Col. of Ameri- 
 can Antiquarian Society, Vol. II., p. 480; Gookin's Praying Indians. 
 
 f Proprietors' Record. 
 
 X This district derives its name from the fact that it was originally the farm 
 of a single proprietor. 
 
12 
 
 that the mother of the first white child born here lies 
 in the old burying ground. A few years since Capt. 
 Benj. Kingsbury cleared off the old tombstone, and 
 learned from the inscription upon it, that Mrs. Martha 
 Willard was the wife of Maj. Joseph Willard, and the 
 mother of the first white child born in town; that she 
 died June 3d, 1791, in the 1.00th year of her age, leav- 
 ing 12 children, 90 grandchildren, 22(3 great-grand- 
 children, and 53 of the fifth generation. Some of the 
 latter, as well as of the sixth and seventh generations, 
 and probably of the eighth, are still living in town, and 
 more are scattered elsewhere. So far as the command to 
 " be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth," 
 is concerned, I can see no good reason why Mrs. 
 Martha Willard, and some of her descendants, should 
 not be justified by their works. 
 
 During the ten years succeeding the purchase of land 
 by Elisha Johnson, several persons were allowed to 
 make purchases, so that at the end of that period, in 
 1728,* there were nine English families resident here. 
 In 1724, parties living chiefly in Marlborough, Sud- 
 bury, Stow, and Concord, desiring to purchase this 
 " Plantation," or Indian reserve, petitioned the General 
 Court for the privilege of doing so. A committee 
 having been appointed to visit the town, consult the 
 Indians, and ascertain the value of the land, reported 
 that the Indians were willing to sell, and that it was the 
 opinion of the committee that "the place was capable of 
 being made a small town or village." This was in the 
 month of May. The following December the House of 
 Representatives voted to grant the request of the peti- 
 tioners with certain restrictions. The Council, however, 
 refused to concur, on the ground that the price was too 
 
 * Proprietors' Record. 
 
Jo 
 O 
 
 low. The next May "the petitioners came back again, 
 arguing the importance of having an English settlement 
 here, the advantage which would come to the Indians by 
 means of preaching and a school, and expressing the hope 
 that " they and the [ndian proprietors might, in pro- 
 cess of time, become a small town and be in a capacity 
 to support a gospel minister." Another committee 
 having visited the town and found that "one-half the 
 land is good but very stony; and the other half pitch 
 pine and shrub plain," fixed the valuation, with the 
 proposed restrictions, at £2,500. The matter seems for 
 some cause to have been delayed two years, but in 17*27 
 the petition was granted. As I have said, the petitioners 
 expressed the hope that in time, with the assistance of 
 the Indians, they could support preaching. The Legis- 
 lature was of the opinion that, at the price paid for 
 the land, they could do this without the assistance of 
 the Indians, and at once, and so the petition was 
 granted on condition * that they should build a meeting- 
 house and school-house, and settle a " learned orthodox 
 minister," and that they should "constantly maintain 
 and duly support a minister and school-master among 
 them." The privileges of the school and ministry were to 
 be shared equally with the whites by the Indians without 
 charge. Another condition was that they should make 
 a settlement in the town of forty English families, each 
 of whom should build a good habitable house, and 
 break up and fence at least four acres of land within 
 three years. The Indians were each to have an equal 
 portion of the land with the proprietors, and also one 
 hundred acres to be appropriated to them and their 
 heirs forever. The proprietors were also to build a mill 
 at which the Indians should have their corn ground free 
 
 * Proprietors' Record, White's copy, p. 1. 
 
u 
 
 of toll, and to set apart twenty acres of land for school 
 purposes.* The purchase was made upon these condi- 
 tions, and the deed signed March 10th, 1728. At once 
 the purchasers set about fulfilling- the conditions. In 
 less than a month, on April 9th, a meeting of the pro- 
 prietors was held, at which they voted first, to " take a 
 survey of the Plantation of Hassanamiseo, * * to 
 find the centre plot of the Plantation;" and second, 
 " that the meeting-house should be set up at or upon the 
 centre of said Plantation, in case the land at the centre 
 be accommodable; otherwise at the nearest accommo- 
 clable place to the centre." f This meeting was held in 
 Marlborough. J Ten days later, and just one month after 
 the deed was signed, on April 19th, the proprietors 
 met on the ground to fix the location for the meeting- 
 house. Upon repairing in a body to the spot found to 
 be the centre, which is about thirty rods East and a 
 little to the North of the centre of the Common, the 
 place was found not to be " accommodable," being too 
 moist. Consequently the present Common was fixed 
 upon, and four acres were set off for a school-house, a 
 pound, a meeting-house, and a training field. The 
 pound was in the South-east corner of the Common; 
 the school-house was separated from the pound by a 
 driveway, and the meeting-house was in the centre, 
 within the portion now enclosed. Thus it was, that in 
 accordance with the principles and practice of the 
 Fathers a century before, the first buildings planned for 
 and erected, were the meeting-house and the school- 
 house. Here, where we stand to-day, these grave and 
 sober, earnest and godly men met, not under these trees 
 
 * This land was located just East of the Common, and was sold in 1783 and 
 the proceeds formed a permanent school fund. (Town Records. Mr. Brig- 
 hara's Address, p. 25). f Proprietors' Record. J Ibid. 
 
15 
 
 which * some of our hands have helped to set, but 
 under the trees of the primal forest, to mark the spot 
 where God's house should stand, and, perchance, at the 
 same time, to fix the location of the school-house. The 
 house for the worship of God, and the house for train- 
 ing the intellect of man, were placed side by side; and 
 so religion and education were made the chief corner 
 stones of the new town, as they were of all New Eng- 
 land. f Mr. Wilson, in his sermon, says, "We seem to see 
 them now, a little company of less than half a hundred, 
 passing about among the tall forest trees, which stood all 
 over these places that are now covered with human 
 habitations. 1 ney were asking where shall be laid the 
 foundations of a Christian temple, before yet the 
 worshippers are come whose prayers and solemn praise 
 are to consecrate it. Their own dwellings are not yet 
 to be seen. The stakes are not set to mark the places 
 where they are soon to rise. These things are to come 
 after. Their Sabbath home first — their week-day tents 
 in good time. To-day the wants of the soul — to-mor- 
 row the needs of the body." 
 
 The meeting-house, which is still standing, though 
 removed a few rods, J was 50 feet by 40, and 22 feet in 
 height " between joynts," and had porches one story and 
 a half high on three sides, and in the porches were stair- 
 ways by which to pass to the galleries on each side of 
 the house. Two of these porches are ingeniously put 
 together so as to form a dwelling-house, which stands 
 at the foot of Millbury street, the last house on the 
 North side. The great feature of this house, especially 
 in the eyes of children, was the huge sounding-board 
 above the pulpit. § One who has often wondered at it, 
 
 * Common was fenced and trees planted in 1844. f Wilson's Sermon, p. 10. 
 % Proprietors' Record, White's copy, p. 14. § Capt. Benj. Kingsbury. 
 
1(5 
 
 while Ms elders were absorbed in the eloquence of the 
 preacher, or soundly sleeping, says, "to a boy it looked 
 like an island suspended in air. To him it was an 
 object of wonder and admiration, and in spite of the 
 wise lessons from the pulpit, that sounding-board, with 
 its paintings, its panelling, its gorgeous trimmings, the 
 brilliant tassels hanging down from it, was the great 
 and central power of attraction. And during service 
 he busied himself by contemplating, in imagination, the 
 ruin which would ensue if it should break from its 
 moorings and come down with a crash upon the head of 
 the preacher!" And if he chanced to take a nap, it 
 would have been easy for him to have dreamed that this 
 had really taken place, when, at the close of the prayer, 
 the seats in the pews, which were hung with hinges and 
 turned up during the prayer, were let down with a 
 crash, which it is said could be heard a half-mile away 
 when the windows were open. * The school-house is 
 also well remembered, for some here present who are 
 yet hardly fifty years of age, began their education in 
 it, and played at recess on the walls of the old pound. 
 
 The original proprietors were 40 in number. f The 
 upland was divided into eighty lots of forty acres each, 
 to which was added an equal amount of meadow land, 
 and these portions were assigned to the proprietors by 
 lot. A few years after, more land was divided among 
 them, about thirty acres to each proprietor. J 
 
 * This school-house was removed from the Common about 1832, and was 
 used by Mr. Geo. Clapp as a carpenter's shop, and is now the wood-shed of Mr. 
 John Whitney. The house was 21 feet by 16, and 7 feet " between joynts," 
 and was completed in 1731. (Proprietors' Record, White's copy, p. 29). 
 
 f Proprietors' Record. 
 
 I The names of the proprietors areas follows: James Watson, Benjamin 
 Willard, Joseph Willard, Joseph Rice, Jonathan Morse, David Harrington, 
 Samuel Biglo, Samuel Stow, Zerrubabel Eager, Samuel Brigham, John 
 Sherman, John Warren, Nathan Brigham, Sen., Charles Brigham, Jeremiah 
 
17 
 
 The meeting-house being completed in 1730, steps 
 were immediately taken to secure the " learned orthodox 
 minister."* A Fast was appointed and kept,f and the 
 next day after it, they voted to call Mr. Solomon 
 Prentice of Cambridge. They offered Mr. Prentice a 
 salary of " ninety pounds of passable money, or bills of 
 public credit as money now passes from men to men or 
 as the valuation of money shall be from time to time, or 
 as said money rises and falls." This offer was afterwards 
 increased to one hundred pounds, J and accepted by 
 Mr. Prentice. The Congregational Church was organ- 
 ized, with twenty members, on the 29th day of De- 
 cember, 1731, and Mr. Prentice was ordained the day 
 following. Thus, in almost exactly a century from the 
 time when the first white men cast their eyes over this 
 region, we find them in full possession, with their church 
 organized, their pastor settled, and their school-house 
 built. The covenant § of the church, which I have not 
 time to quote in full, was of that simple, broad and 
 unsectaiian character which marked the covenants of 
 nearly all the early 'New England churches, and to which 
 there is a strong tendency to return; one clause in this 
 covenant was, "to use the Holy Scriptures as their 
 platform, whereby they might discern the will of Christ, 
 and not the new found inventions of men." 
 
 Barstow, Elizabeth Harrington, Samuel Chandler, John Hunt, Joseph 
 Merriam, Eleazer Flagg, Jacob Taylor, Ebenezer Wheeler, Joseph Barrett, 
 Benjamin Barrett, Samuel Hall, Simon Gates, Nath. Hapgood, Phineas Rice, 
 Simon Gates, Jr., John Collier, William Rogers, William Hogers, Jr., Jona. 
 Rice, Richard Tayler, John Jones, Jonas Houghton, John Davis, Thomas 
 Weeks, Thomas Pratt, Nathl. Wilder. 
 
 The names of the Indians giving the deed are: Ami Printer, Andrew 
 Abraham, Moses Printer, Ami Printer, Jr.. Peter Muckamug and wife, 
 Christian Misco and Joshua Misco. (Suffolk Deeds, lib. 42, folio 207). 
 
 * Proprietors' Record, White's copy, p. 42. f Ibid., p. 43. J Ibid., p. 44. 
 
 § Quoted in full in Mr. Wilson's Sermon, pp. 12, 13. 
 
 a 
 
18 
 
 At the time of Mr. Prentice's settlement there were 
 only nine pews in the meeting-house, the remaining 
 space being filled with benches. The pews were large 
 boxes, almost square, 4^ by 5 feet, with seats on three 
 sides, and so high that when the people sat down they 
 could not see each other, but could only see the preacher 
 who towered above them in his high pulpit, and poured 
 the gospel down into these "pits," as they were not inap- 
 propriately called. The fashions could only be studied 
 while the people were standing during prayer. Mr. 
 Prentice * filled the requirements concerning a minister, 
 being a graduate of Harvard College, and so "learned," 
 and thoroughly Calvinistic, and so "orthodox." He 
 seems to have been a man of deep piety, of great purity 
 of character, of a kind spirit, and yet very earnest and 
 independent, as well as somewhat impulsive. When 
 Whitefield was in this country Mr. Prentice at once 
 entered heartily into the new movement, and it is 
 said that Whitefield preached in his pulpit. Out of this 
 movement, or perhaps more accurately, out of the 
 religious controversy which followed this movement, 
 trouble arose which finally resulted, after several Coun- 
 cils had been held, in the dismission of Mr. Prentice, at 
 the end of a pastorate of sixteen years.f The house in 
 which he lived is still standing. It is located on Oak 
 street, and is owned by Mr. James B. Stratton, and true 
 to its first purpose, is still a minister's home, being 
 occupied by Rev. Mr. Hussey. After leaving Grafton 
 he preached in several other places but finally returned 
 and died here, May 22d, 1773. I have said that he was 
 "orthodox," and yet he could hardly have been up to 
 the standard of the times on the Sunday question, for it 
 
 * Extended account of Mr. P., in Genealogy of Prentice Family, f Church 
 Records; Mr. Brigham's Address, p. 27; Mr. Wilson's Sermon, p. 17. 
 
19 
 
 is said * that, on his way to the church one Sunday 
 morning, seeing a bear in a tree, he returned to his 
 house for his gun, and shot the prowler. He may have 
 excused himself on the ground that it was a " deed of 
 necessity or mercy;" but if he was a good shot, as he 
 seems to have been, the strength of the temptation alone 
 would seem a sufficient excuse. This incident, which is 
 well vouched for, shows so much good sense, and such 
 an amiable weakness, that I have never been inclined to 
 credit the tradition that he refused to baptize a child 
 because it was born on Sunday. 
 
 Mrs. Prentice seems to have been a woman of learn- 
 ing and independence of thought and character.f It is 
 said that "she was so conversant with the Bible that she 
 could repeat any part of it, and could write a good ser- 
 mon." I find it stated that when Mr. Prentice " courted " 
 her, they sat on a trunk of a tree in the woods, and he 
 proposed to her in the language of Naomi to Ruth, and 
 she accepted him with Ruth's reply. But the course of 
 true love did not always run smooth. In her independ- 
 ence she adopted religious views of her own, one of 
 which was that immersion was true baptism, and during 
 the absence of her husband, was immersed. On his 
 return the theological war, which was already raging in 
 the parish, broke out in the household, and during it, as 
 tradition says, he exclaimed, "Ah, it's water, it's water 
 is it that you want ? Well, you shall have water," and 
 he dashed a pailful over her. This was probably but a 
 temporary affair, a sudden domestic storm which soon 
 passed and left the skies clearer and brighter than ever. 
 At all events, in his will he provided most carefully for 
 her, J making provision that " his wife Sarah is to live 
 
 Genealogy of Prentice Family, f Ibid. J Ibid. 
 
20 
 
 in his house, and have all his household goods and 
 furniture and indoor movables; his riding chair and 
 horse, which is to be well kept for her, summer and 
 winter, and replaced if he fails; her fire-wood cut at her 
 door; as much cyder as she shall have occasion to use 
 in the house ; full and free liberty to put up a friend's 
 horse or horses, to hay in winter and grass in summer, 
 when they come to visit her, &c. : all to be provided by 
 Solomon for her sole use and benefit during her natural 
 life. £ 1 6 to be paid her annually by my sons." Both 
 sleep, side by side, in the old burial ground here, and 
 doubtless the result of their labors in these early years 
 has been more potent upon the character and welfare of 
 this town than any of us can know or think, for com- 
 munities, as well as individuals, owe much to early 
 influences. 
 
 But in speaking of Mr. Prentice, I have passed one 
 of the most important events in the history of the town 
 — an event of no less importance than its birth. When 
 the church was formed and the pastor settled, there was 
 no town, nor was there for some four years after. * In 
 1734 a committee was appointed to prepare a petition 
 to the General Court to incorporate it as a town. The 
 petition was presented in April of the next year, and 
 was granted, the bill being signed by Gov. Belcher, 
 April 18th (O. S.), 1735. 
 
 I have had considerable curiosity in reference to the 
 origin of the present name. I find that various princi- 
 ples governed in the selection of names for the new 
 towns. Early, the towns were named after places in 
 the old country — not always however out of any partic- 
 
 * Proprietors' Record, White's copy, p. 59. A committee was appointed 
 in 1732 to consider the propriety of such a step. See Proprietors' Record, 
 White's copy, p. 49. 
 
21 
 
 ular affection for the places thus honored. For exam- 
 ple,* the battle of Worcester was, what is quaintly 
 termed, Cromwell's " crowning mercy," and so the name 
 was chosen for our neighboring' city in defiance of the 
 king, f From 1724 a custom arose of complimenting 
 distinguished Englishmen- by naming towns for them. 
 Up J to 1732 it was the custom for the incorporators to 
 select the names, but after that period the acts of incor- 
 poration passed both Houses of the Legislature in 
 blank, and the name was put in by the Governor. So 
 Grafton is indebted to Gov. Belcher for its name. 
 Charles Fitz Roy, Duke of Grafton, was a member of 
 the Privy Council. lie was a grandson of Charles II., 
 and held many high offices. He died May 6, 17 ~)7. 
 
 The act of incorporation imposed upon the inhabit- 
 ants the same obligations concerning school and preach- 
 ing free of charge for the Indians, which the origi- 
 nal proprietors had been under, and when the prop- 
 erty was conveyed to the town it was upon condition 
 that the town should relieve the proprietors from their 
 obligations to the Trustees for the Indians. § But the 
 bond for that purpose was not given until 1773, || or 
 nearly thirty-five years after the property was conveyed 
 to the town. There is too much reason to fear that this 
 unaccountable and inexcusable neglect is indicative of 
 the loose manner in which the business relating to the 
 Indians was generally conducted. Unfortunately the 
 record in relation to the Indians is not altogether such 
 as we could desire, though perhaps the State authorities 
 are more at fault than the officers of the town. The 
 price paid for the land, £2,500, was held by trustees 
 
 * Essay on names of towns in Mass., by Win. Henry Whitmoi'e, p. 16. 
 f Ibid., p. 7. J Ibid., pp. 19, 20. § Proprietors' Record, White's copy, p. 91. 
 || Ibid., p. 141. 
 
22 
 
 appointed by the State, in trust for the Indians. Of 
 this sum, which the State received in gold and silver 
 coin, $1,330.89 were lost by substituting therefor 
 depreciated paper currency in 1745. Between the 
 years 1772 and 1796, the trustees having permitted one 
 of their number to become indebted to the fund on his 
 own personal obligation, to the amount of $1,327. 19£, 
 this sum was lost. And then prior to July, 1841, the 
 small remnant of the fund, together with some that had 
 been added by sale of other land, was invested in " such 
 securities that neither principal nor interest was ever 
 paid." * It certainly seems as if the descendants of 
 these Indians, a few of whom remain, have good 
 ground of complaint against somebody. 
 
 After the incorporation of the town, the next impor- 
 tant events in its history are connected with the 
 f French war in the years 1753 to 1762. During this 
 war the inhabitants exhibited the same self-denying 
 patriotism which has been characteristic of the town 
 in all its subsequent history. When news came of the 
 advance of Montcalm upon Fort William Henry, Graf- 
 ton and Upton at once turned out a company, of which 
 thirty-six of the members were from this town. During 
 the entire war, Grafton bore its full share of the burden, 
 as will be readily seen in the fact J that, out of a popu- 
 lation of seven hundred and fifty, it lost, by disease 
 and in battle, eighty men, — more than one in ten of 
 its entire population. At different times this town, in 
 common with the State generally, had in the service 
 
 ♦Report to Governor and Council on Indians, under act of April 0, 1859, 
 p. 90. (Senate Doc., No. 90, 1SC1). 
 
 f For extended account of Grafton's part in this war, see Mr. Brij>ham*s 
 Address, p. Hi, &c. 
 
 J Mr. Brigham's Address, p. 17; Manuscript Records of Mrs. Wheeler in 
 possession of Mr. Joua. D. Wheeler. 
 
23 
 
 a large portion of her able-bodied men. Mr. Brig-ham 
 says, and doubtless with exact truth, that this French 
 * war was the school in which the heroes of the Revolu- 
 tion were educated; and that without the preparatory 
 discipline which it afforded, independence would not 
 have been gained. 
 
 The only other incidents of importance before the 
 Revolution, were the changes in the ministry, and these 
 were always of importance. In 1750, nearly three 
 years after the dismission of Mr. Prentice, Mr. Aaron 
 Hutchinson was ordained second pastor of the church. 
 He also was "learned," having been educated at Yale, 
 and "orthodox" in the extreme. Having been called 
 to sit on a Council at Newbury,f he was invited to 
 preach on an intervening Sabbath at Kewburyport. 
 The Council had been called on account of the sup- 
 posed defection of the pastor from Calvin, and Mr. 
 Hutchinson's sermon was aimed at this heresy, and was 
 probably rather more " orthodox" than any sermons 
 preached in these days. At all events, it resulted in a 
 warm controversy carried on in sermons and pamphlets. 
 All the accounts of Mr. Hutchinson make mention of 
 his extraordinary memory, of which he seems to have 
 had a little natural pride himself. He would sometimes 
 enter the pulpit and conduct the entire service without 
 opening a book, read or repeat his hymns, naming the 
 verses to be omitted, and in the same manner the scrip- 
 ture lessons, shrewdly adding at the end of the lesson, 
 that he might be mistaken, and therefore it would be 
 well for his hearers to look the passage over at home 
 after service. There is a tradition that he claimed that 
 he could re-write the entire ISTew Testament if it should 
 
 * Mr. Brighain's Address, p. 16. f Mr. Wilson's Sermon, p. 22. 
 
21 
 
 be lost. Besides preaching, he combined the occupa- 
 tions of farmer and teacher. He fitted young men for 
 college;, and in order to economize time, was accustomed 
 to have his pupils follow him at the plow and recite 
 their Greek and Latin. All accounts of him contain 
 hints of peculiarities. There are many traditions indi- 
 cating the nature of these peculiarities. One of the 
 least objectionable of these was his habit of riding 
 from door to door in his parish and inquiring the bill of 
 fare for dinner that day, and, selecting the one that best 
 suited his taste or fancy, inviting himself to partake. 
 He seems not to have been possessed of the most refined 
 table manners- often appropriating to himself the larger 
 portion of any dish which pleased him. At one time, 
 when a company of ministers were at the table, one 
 began helping himself to pudding from the plate of Mr. 
 Hutchinson, and when remonstrance was made, declared 
 that he always cut from the largest piece. The stu- 
 dents who boarded in his house are said not to have 
 been afflicted with any of the diseases which result from 
 over-eating. In order to avoid the inconvenience and 
 additional expense of having his neighbors' swine 
 respond to his calls, he resorted to the ingenious and 
 eminently successful artifice of calling his own in the 
 Latin language. The fact that Mr. Hutchinson remained 
 pastor of the church twenty-two years, is evidence that 
 he must have been possessed of worthy qualities of mind 
 and character which, in the judgment of his people, far 
 outweighed that which was disagreeable in his conduct. 
 After he was dismissed by the church, according to 
 the advice of a council, and at his own request, the town 
 voted not to concur and refused to release him, and the 
 town never did by vote consent to his dismission. Many 
 were dissatisfied with the action of the church. When 
 
25 
 
 the town was afterwards asked to join in a eall to his 
 successor, Mr. Abner Temple, a sort of wag - , made the 
 objection that "the church has not informed the town 
 what is become of their old minister." This Abner 
 Temple is the man, who, in building his house, had the 
 foundation stones dressed on both sides, and in reply to 
 a question as to his reason for this unnecessary labor 
 and expense, indignantly asked the questioner, if he 
 supposed he would be a hypocrite? 
 
 After Mr. Hutchinson's dismission in 17T1, three 
 years passed before a successor was found. Until within 
 a few years of this time, there had been but one church 
 in the town. In Mr. Prentice's time there was a sect 
 which was called " New Lights," probably from the fact 
 that they claimed to possess some superior inward 
 illumination in reference to truth or duty. These were 
 succeeded by a strange sect, which had its head-quarters 
 in this town, known as the " Live Forevers." I am told, 
 upon what I deem excellent authority,* that the general 
 impression that these people believed that they would 
 not die, is a mistake. They believed that they would 
 die and rise again after three days, as Christ did. 
 Consequently when the leader of the sect, a man by the 
 name of Ireland, died here, his friends and followers 
 kept the body so long that the authorities interfered and 
 ordered his burial. Then the Shakers were accustomed 
 for a time to hold public meetings in this town. In 
 1707 the Baptists had acquired such strength here and 
 in the neighboring towns, that, by uniting they were 
 able to form a church, f This church however did not 
 have a long life, being dropped from the Warren Associ- 
 ation in 1788, for heresy on the part of the pastor and a 
 
 * Capt. Benj. Kingsbury, f Records of Warreu Association. 
 4 
 
2G 
 
 majority of its members. The present Baptist Church 
 was organized in 1800. 
 
 During the year 1774, the successor of Mr. Hutchin- 
 son, Rev. Daniel Grosvenor, was ordained third pastor 
 of the Congregational Church. This brings us to the 
 stirring events preceding the Revolution. The en- 
 croachments of the British Government upon the rights 
 of the colonists had created great dissatisfaction. The 
 inhabitants of Boston, under the leadership of Samuel 
 Adams, had voted to appoint a " Committee 1 of Corres- 
 pondence, to consist of twenty-one persons, to state 
 the rights of the colonists, and of this province in 
 particular, as men, as christians, and as subjects; and to 
 communicate and publish the same to the several towns 
 and the world, as the sense of this town, with the 
 infringments and violations thereof that have been, or 
 from time to time may be made." As early as February 
 1st, 1773, Grafton,' 55 ' in town meeting, responds to one of 
 the letters of this committee, by resolving unanimously 
 "that they would defend their rights at all hazards; that 
 they would not suffer their property to be taken from 
 them in an unconstitutional manner, and that they were 
 ready to co-operate with their brethren in Boston, and 
 other places, in any measures to obtain a redress of 
 grievances." During the latter part of this same year 
 came the excitement concerning the destruction of the 
 tea in Boston harbor. A town meeting was held, and 
 a committee appointed to "look into a letter sent from 
 Boston." Said committee reported January 4, 1774. as 
 follows: "The town of Grafton, taking into considera- 
 tion the unhappy circumstances that this country are 
 
 *The statements concerning the .action of the town at various times before 
 and during the Revolutionary war, are made upon the authority of the Town 
 Records. 
 
27 
 
 involved in at this crisis, attempts repeatedly being 
 made infringing upon our rights and privileges, which 
 we consider justly alarming to all the true friends of 
 our happy constitution, which hath been so dearly 
 purchased and which we esteem to be onr most invalu- 
 able interest and rights as Englishmen, which we have 
 ever gloried in; more particularly at the glaring injus- 
 tice of that of the East India Company being allowed 
 to send tea to America, while subject to a duty payable 
 in America, which we view as subversive of our rights 
 as christians, as subjects, and as loyal subjects of our 
 most gracious King George, whose name and person 
 we ever desire to view as sacred. Therefore, Resolved, 
 as the people of this town, that any one individual, or 
 any body of men, that shall encourage, aid or assist, in 
 importing or receiving any such tea, or any other article 
 while subject to a duty, the sole purpose whereof is to 
 raise money to appropriate to any sordid measure, or 
 any use whatever contrary to our just rights of distribu- 
 ting our own property, wherewith God and nature hath 
 made us free, can but be viewed as criminal to our 
 country, as well as to the mother state, and must be so 
 viewed by us. Resolved, that this town are in duty 
 bound to join with and assist our sister towns and 
 colonies in this our common cause, so as we may be 
 instrumental under God of handing down that liberty 
 to our posterity which hath been kept so long inviolate 
 and preserved by our worthy ancestors." Then follows 
 a resolution approving the stand taken by Boston and 
 other towns. These resolutions certainly have a ring- 
 ing sound which, unless the hint contained in them is 
 heeded by the mother country, fortells the coming of the 
 Fourth of July, three years later. During this same 
 year the dark cloud of war is seen rising on the distant 
 
28 
 
 horizon, a cloud it may be, almost ridiculously small, no 
 larger than one field-piece with powder and bullets to 
 match, and yet one which is destined to spread over the 
 entire land, and hang* long and low, but finally to be 
 dissipated by the glorious sunlight of liberty. The first 
 indication of arming is in the action of the town, Sep- 
 tember 28, 1774, when the record says, " Voted to pro- 
 cure a good field-piece, called a six-pounder." " By vote 
 chose ^Nathaniel Sherman to procure a supply of bullets 
 and shot to load said field-piece." " By vote chose 
 Thomas Davidson to command said field-piece." " Put 
 to vote to see if the town will choose a committee to 
 provide for the soldiers of Grafton in case they are 
 called to battle. Passed in the affirmative." These 
 are the mutterings of war which were heard more than 
 six months before the battle of Lexington. The collect- 
 ors of taxes were directed to pay none of their receipts 
 into the treasury of the Province. The following Feb- 
 ruary, the 22nd, it was " voted to pay minute men for 
 the time in training in learning the military art." 
 Action was also taken about this time to encourage 
 home manufactures, and so become independent of 
 England. March 6th, 1775, it w T as " Voted to recom- 
 mend to each inhabitant of this town to be careful to 
 save their rags suitable for y e paper manufactory; that 
 they endeavor to their utmost to supply Henry Prentice 
 and Timothy Fletcher, collectors of y e same; and in 
 general support our own manufactories by preferring 
 them to foreign ones." The crisis approaches. A war- 
 rant for a town meeting is issued on April 1 7, the meet- 
 ing to be held the 21th. It was customary to have 
 these meetings called by the constable, who notified each 
 voter in the town. In this instance the constable made 
 return that he had notified all but two or three, "which 
 
29 
 
 by reason of the special alarm then existing - he was 
 prevented opportunity to complete/' 
 
 The eventful 19th of April came. Already the little 
 community, in common with all others in the State, was 
 in a condition of feverish anxiety, in hourly expectation 
 of a call to arms. About noon a horseman dashes 
 into town bringing intelligence that the British troops 
 are marching on Concord to destroy the military 
 stores accumulated there. Having delivered his mes- 
 sage, and perchance exchanged his horse for a fresh 
 one, he dashes on to the next town, at every isolated 
 home on the way, without stopping, declaring the fear- 
 ful news which banishes every lingering hope of a 
 peaceful solution of the steadily increasing troubles. 
 There is " mustering in hot haste." Messengers fly 
 over the town; the people come flocking to the Com- 
 mon. Men, women, children are there. There are pale 
 faces, and tearful eyes, but none waver. Bold defiance 
 speaks in eye, tone, gesture and deed. Ere the sun 
 goes down nearly every able-bodied man in the town, 
 from the youth in earliest manhood to the gray headed 
 patriarch, is on the march to Cambridge. Nearly a 
 hundred are there of them. Among the number and 
 marching side by side in the ranks with the common 
 soldier, and bearing his musket, was the young and 
 popular pastor of the church who had been ordained 
 just six months that very day. So early in the history 
 of our town did religion and politics, religion and 
 patriotism, go hand in hand, the preacher himself declar- 
 ing his faith by his works. * Says Mi'. Brigham, in 
 alluding to this day, " To those of us who have never 
 witnessed the horrors of war, it is hardly possible to 
 realize, even in imagination, the scene which their 
 
 * Mr. Brig-ham's Address, p. 20. 
 
30 
 
 departure presented." Unfortunately, it is only too 
 easy for us who have been familiar with the horrors of 
 war, to realize, to its fullest extent, the experiences of 
 that day. May God forbid that he who comes after me 
 fifty-nine years hence, shall be able to speak to a people 
 whose experience tells them aught of war and its 
 horrors. Hut knowing how yourselves, your sons, and 
 husbands, and brothers marched to the conflict of arms, 
 you have a bond of sympathy with the patriot soldiers, 
 parents, wives and sisters of 1775. 
 
 In-om this time, the records of the town bear a strik- 
 ing resemblance to those which have been made in our 
 day. Committees are appointed to "deal out their fam- 
 ily blankets to supply the soldiers." It is voted "to 
 order the town treasurer to give notes upon interest, at 
 twenty pounds each man, to the number of twenty-four 
 men, that shall enlist for the expedition for New York," 
 also " to give twenty pounds to each man who shall enlist 
 for the northern expedition." A vote is passed "to give 
 thirty pounds to each man that shall enlist into the army 
 for three years or the war." A committee was appointed 
 to collect money and clothing for the continental soldiers, 
 and the report of said committee, with list of donors, 
 and of amounts and articles donated, follows. The last 
 warrant issued in the name of his majesty, was that of 
 April 17, 1775, of which I have already spoken. A 
 month later the warrant was " in pursuant of a resolve 
 of congress," and in May, 1770, it was "in the name of 
 the Government and people of Massachusetts Bay." 
 June 7, 177(5, it was voted to *" comply with the resolve 
 
 * Massachusetts House of Representatives, > 
 
 May 10, 1776. S 
 
 Resolved, ;is the opinion of this house, that the inhabitants of each town 
 in this colony ought, in full meeting warned for that purpose, to advise the 
 person or persons who shall be chosen to represent them in the next General 
 
31 
 
 of the House of Representatives concerning independ- 
 ence from the kingdom of Great Britain." This was 
 only a month before the declaration of independence. 
 The articles of confederation were assented to January 
 23, 1778. In April of that same year the town refused, 
 by a vote of sixty-six to one, to approve of a state 
 constitution submitted by the Legislature. *The same 
 constitution was rejected in the State by a vote of 
 10,000 to 2,000; Boston voting against it unanimously. 
 
 We find traces of disaffection however in these days, 
 and, if Grafton did not have actual tories, there were 
 some suspected characters. In April, 1777, a member 
 of the committee to hire men for service in the Continen- 
 tal army, was dismissed by vote of the town, because 
 "not firm and friendly to this state." The following 
 July however, he was restored to his position upon his 
 own petition. They also had their financial troubles, 
 and tried the ever popular and never successful experi- 
 ment of seeking relief in legislation. An act was passed 
 to "prevent monopoly and oppression," in other words 
 to keep down prices, which, as demand increased and 
 production diminished, and paper money fluctuated in 
 value, manifested a strong upward tendency. In accord- 
 ance with this act, the selectmen and a committee, 
 f "met to affix and settle the price" of all articles in 
 general use. The extent to which this was carried, is 
 seen, e. g. in this record, " Phlip, made of the best New 
 England rum at 8d. per mug, and made from West 
 India nun lOd." "A meal of victuals of their best kind, 
 
 Court, whether that, if the honorable congress should, for the safety of the 
 said colonies, declare them independent of the kingdom of Great Britain, 
 they, the said inhabitants, will solemnly engage, with their lives and fortunes, 
 to support the Congress in the measure. SAMUEL FREEMAN, Speaker. 
 (Journal of the House of Representatives. — Note). 
 ♦Barry's History of Mass., 3d period, p. 175. f See Appendix. 
 
32 
 
 not to exceed Is. 6d., and common kind 8d." The list 
 embraces all kinds of farm produce; all kinds of labor; 
 hotel bills; in fact, it was evident!} 7 intended to cover 
 whatever was in any way in the market. Their financial 
 troubles are manifest also in the expedients resorted to 
 in settling the bounties of the soldiers; but I must not 
 dwell upon this period. 
 
 Although victory crowned our arms, and peace was 
 finally established upon the basis of perfect political 
 independence of the mother country, yet the trials were 
 not over. Dark days followed. The debt was enor- 
 mous, the currency was depreciated, industry was 
 paralyzed, and property was sacrificed. In our own 
 State a powerful party arose which complained that the 
 governor's salary was too high, the senate aristocratic, 
 the congress extortionate, and taxes too burdensome to 
 bear; they demanded an issue of paper money, and the 
 removal of the General Court from Boston. This party 
 finally resorted to arms and the movement is known 
 as " Shays' Rebellion."' The insurgents prevented the 
 holding of courts in Worcester and Springfield, and 
 attempted to capture the arsenal at the latter place. 
 The inhabitants of this town seem to have sympathized 
 with this movement, and probably some of them 
 actually took up arms. At all events, a company of 
 Shays' men, inarching through the town, were enter- 
 tained with supper and breakfast by Col. Jonathan 
 Wheeler. That this sympathy was general appears 
 from the instructions given to their representatives to the 
 General Court the next year after the rebellion was 
 quelled, which are in favor of almost every change 
 urged by the insurgents. In these instructions, direc- 
 tion is given to the representative "to use his utmost 
 exertion to obtain a general pardon for all that aided or 
 
33 
 
 assisted, or have taken up arms, in what the Governor 
 and General Court styled rebellion &c." 
 
 This crisis safely passed, the town, in common with 
 the country in general, gradually entered upon a career 
 of growth and prosperity. * The population, which, dur- 
 ing the Revolutionary war, was between 800 and 900, 
 had increased, in 1810, to 916; in 1S20, to 1,15-1; in 
 1830, to 1,889; and in 1835, to 3,036.f Manufactories 
 sprung up along the river courses, and important and 
 nourishing villages were the result. In 1835 the town, 
 then evidently experiencing great prosperity and rapid 
 increase, celebrated the completion of the first century 
 of its history, and a most admirable and exhaustive 
 historical address was delivered by Hon. William Brig- 
 ham, an honored son of the town. Meanwhile another 
 church, the Unitarian, had been organized. This was 
 in the year 1832, August 5th. 
 
 Nothing of particular importance occurred till the 
 breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861; audi hardly 
 need detain you to tell the part that Grafton played in 
 that terrible conflict, for there are many here present 
 who, with old Aeneas can in truth say: " Quaeque ipse 
 miserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fid" What 
 scenes of misery I saw myself and those in which I 
 bore a principal part. 
 
 *In 1765, 
 
 houses 109, 
 
 families 109, 
 
 males 371, females 371, 
 
 colored 
 
 21; 
 
 total 763. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 whites. 
 
 COLORED. 
 
 WHITES. 
 
 COLORED, 
 
 In 1776, 
 
 
 861 
 
 
 In 1840, 2,943 
 
 
 19 
 
 1790, 
 
 
 872 
 
 
 1850, 3,904 
 
 
 12 
 
 1800, 
 
 
 985 
 
 18 
 
 1860, 4,317 
 
 
 16 
 
 1810, 
 
 
 946 
 
 12 
 
 1870, 4,594 
 
 
 
 1820, 
 
 
 1,154 
 
 12 
 
 1875, 4,442 
 
 
 
 1830, 
 
 
 1,889 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 75, number 
 
 ■ of houses 716, number of families 951. 
 
 
 
 t Address 
 
 of 
 
 Mr. Brighara, Appendix 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
34 
 
 You remember well the 19th of April, 1861 — a day as 
 memorable for the pain it brought, and for the patriot- 
 ism it evoked, as the 19th of April, 1775; a day, the 
 deeds of which called forth proof that the sons then 
 resident in Grafton, were worthy sons of worthy sires, 
 — proof of which was rolled up day after day, month 
 after month, and year after year, during those terrible 
 five years. ~Not as in 1775, from lips of a horseman 
 dashing into town with foaming steed and clattering 
 hoofs, came the tidings of war actually begun ; but on 
 the morning of April 20th, over the silent wires Hashed 
 the news that the sons of Massachusetts, who had 
 promptly responded to the nation's call for defenders, 
 had been shot down, the day before, in the streets of 
 Baltimore. Again flew messengers over the town. 
 Again from all quarters came flocking the citizens to 
 consult concerning the public safety. You remember 
 that meeting, in the hall, held at 4 o'clock in the after- 
 noon, and presided over by one of Grafton's worthiest 
 and wisest sons, then in all the vigor of mature man- 
 hood, and since gone to his rest, Col. Charles Brigham. 
 Some of you will never forget the earnest words he 
 uttered, in a voice tremulous with emotion; nor how 
 afterwards, you came to wonder at the exact compre- 
 hension which he seemed to have of the situation, and 
 of what was to come. On the platform with him sat 
 that veteran of the Revolutionary war, Mi*. Benjamin 
 Smith, then in his 98th year,, the one surviving link 
 which united April 19, 1775, to April 19, 1861. The 
 intense solemnity and earnestness of that meeting are 
 deeply graven on the memories of very many, perhaps 
 the most of you. Steps were taken to form a company, 
 and a full one was organized that very day. A legal 
 meeting of the town was called at the earliest day 
 
35 
 
 possible, April 29th, the warrant for it being issued the 
 same evening. You remember well the almost wild 
 enthusiasm of that meeting; how it was voted to appro- 
 priate $4,000, as a fund for organizing the company; 
 and that each member should receive one dollar per 
 day while engaged in drilling, and, when called into 
 active service, was to receive from the town the same 
 monthly pay as from the government. This latter 
 provision could not be carried out on account of legal 
 objections, but the vote shows the liberality, and patriot- 
 ism, and enthusiasm of the citizens. The company, 
 which was immediately formed, became Company G of 
 the Fifteenth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, 
 and was sent to " Camp Scott," in Worcester. You 
 remember well — it is impossible to forget — the scenes 
 presented in two of these churches, the Sunday before 
 the company departed, when it marched in a body into 
 them to listen to sermons addressed particularly to 
 the members. In the morning, the soldiers' true 
 friend, and afterwards companion, Rev. Mr. Scandlin, 
 addressed them in the Unitarian Church; and what an 
 impression was made, as, in the midst of a terrible 
 thunder and hail storm, he gave out that prophetic and 
 cheering hymn, reading to the music of rattling hail 
 and rolling thunder, the following words: 
 
 ♦'Through night to light! And though to mortal eyes 
 
 Creation's face a pall of horror wear, 
 Good cheer ! good cheer ! The gloom of midnight flies : 
 
 Soon shall a sunrise follow, mild and fair. 
 Through storm to calm! And though his thunder-car 
 
 The rumbling tempest drives through earth and sky, 
 Good cheer ! good cheer ! The elemental war 
 
 Tells that a blessed, healing hour is nigh." 
 
 In the afternoon, he who ministered in the pulpit of 
 the Congregational Church for upwards of thirty years, 
 
36 
 
 and whose eloquence there are none to question, Rev. 
 Mr. Biscoe, delivered to " the boys " a most eloquent 
 and impressive sermon from the text " Quit you like 
 men; be strong." Perchance you can now see the little 
 girls, like white robed angels, moving among that band 
 of soldiers after the sermon, and giving to each member 
 a copy of God's Word of Truth. What stories these 
 Bibles would tell if now gathered and permitted to 
 speak ! And you cannot have forgotten how, just 
 before starting, solemn religious services were held 
 upon the common, nor that the company was then 
 escorted to Worcester by the selectmen and citizens, on 
 horseback and in carriages. That parting at the camp, 
 when the soldier-bo} T s were left behind, and loving and 
 honoring relatives and friends returned home to begin 
 the painful watch for tidings, who, but they who were 
 there can tell its pain, its hopes, its fears ? Cursed be 
 war, and thrice cursed be the evil cause that creates the 
 necessity for it! From that early day to, the end of the 
 fearful strife, — and many were the dark and disheart- 
 ening days when evil tidings came, — Grafton never 
 faltered in her patriotic devotion. Only one less than a 
 round four hundred men, out of a population of about 
 four thousand, did she send to the war, a number larger 
 by nearly half a hundred than all demands upon her.. 
 On the base of yonder beautiful monument are in- 
 scribed, in letters which the patriots coming after us 
 for centuries will keep clear and legible, the names of 
 the fifty-nine victims whom Grafton gave — rather who 
 gave themselves — for the nation's life. These names 
 will be read by children, and children's children, for 
 generation after generation; and, as they are read, 
 voices will come from the scattered graves of the dead, 
 bidding those who read, to love, to honor, to cherish, to 
 
37 
 
 defend the institutions for which they laid down their 
 lives. 
 
 But while men constitute the most valued treasures 
 given to the nation, yet it must not be forgotten that 
 Grafton was generous with material aid also With a 
 valuation of property amounting to. little more than a 
 million and a half dollars, she paid, for war purposes, 
 the sum of thirty-nine thousand three hundred and fifty 
 dollars, exclusive of State aid. Bearing in mind that, 
 in addition to its other burdens of taxation, Grafton 
 freely poured out of its material treasures nearly forty 
 thousand dollars during the war, and gave one in ten of 
 her entire population to stand in the ranks of the army, 
 and generously surpassed all demands upon her for men, 
 all will agree that it was a well earned compliment which 
 Governor Bullock paid the town, on the day when that 
 monument was dedicated, as he said, *"I feel bound in 
 truth and justice, to say that no other town appeal's to 
 have contributed to the late war a larger proportion 
 than yours of its treasures and its men." And to-day, 
 pointing your eyes to that beautiful monument, I say to 
 you in the words of the beloved and honored Scandlin, a 
 worthy successor in the ministry of the patriotic Grosve- 
 nor of 1775, f "I rejoice in the public spirit that could 
 rise above the pressure of taxes and the burden of debt 
 — faithful to its plighted word — true to those who have 
 honored the town by deeds of daring, by the offering of 
 life." In behalf of the hundreds of Grafton's sons, 
 whose homes are no longer on your grand and beautiful 
 hills, nor in your deep and fertile valleys, I say, in all 
 honesty, and with the deepest fervor, we are proud of 
 your record during the war, and in our homes in other 
 villages and cities, and on western prairies, we will teach 
 
 * The Worcester Daily Spy, October 14th, 1867. f Ibid. 
 
38 
 
 our children to honor the place of their fathers' nativity 
 because it has honored itself by a record so grand and 
 glorious ! 
 
 And speaking of these absent sons reminds me to 
 say in closing, that it is not a matter of special regret, 
 much less of reproach, that latterly your increase has 
 not been more rapid. It is true that forty years from 
 1835 have added only about fourteen hundred to your 
 population. In this country where thriving towns and 
 even large cities leap into commanding positions in a 
 few years, this growth seems slow. But, mark you, 
 growth does not necessarily indicate or measure power. 
 " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth." Many a 
 New England town, even decreasing in population, or 
 at a stand-still, is exerting a greater power through its 
 very decrease, or lack of increase, than tenfold larger 
 towns and cities are exerting by their boasted growth. 
 Go where you will in this broad land, East or West, 
 North or South, and where you find, to an unusual 
 degree, thrift, and energy, and enterprise in business, 
 you are very sure to find New England brains behind 
 them. Go into the schools and colleges of the older 
 portions of the country, and of the new, and you find 
 that the majority of the founders, supporters, and 
 instructors of these institutions of learning are sons of 
 New England. Go into the churches, and among 
 clergy and laity, you trace constantly the power of 
 New England. And whence came these scattered 
 thousands of New England business men, educators, 
 preachers, and christian philanthropists ? They came 
 from the country towns of New England, and these 
 towns are checked in their growth because their sons 
 are elsewhere exerting their power. These towns give 
 their offspring active brains, physical strength, educa- 
 

 
 39 
 
 tion, habits of industry and frugality, and then send 
 them forth to use these sources of power in moulding- 
 other communities. It is true that a nest forsaken of 
 its young, is a dreary thing to look at, and yet these 
 forsaken nests, so many of which it is easy to find at 
 this season of the year, tell of myriads of trees in 
 forest, and field, and around the shaded home, and 
 along the highway and by-way, which are bright and 
 beautiful with the plumage of wings which have borne 
 the young hence ; they tell also of the rich melody of 
 song which swells, and fills the air miles and miles away. 
 So, too, the garden, gone or going to seed, may present 
 an unsightly aspect, when contrasted with that which 
 offers its ripening fruit and vegetable for present use. 
 And yet, how much richer in promise is the former than 
 the latter, when we remember that these seeds make 
 sure, or possible, a hundred other gardens rich in the 
 best of their kind ! It is wise to honor the seed-bed 
 with the greatest care. Better, and more worthy of 
 pride and care, the New England town kept weak by 
 scattering its sons and daughters well trained in thrift, 
 intellectual acquirements, moral and religious principles, 
 to lay the foundation of other towns like itself, than the 
 " smart village," or thriving city, that puts its sons into 
 the money-making treadmills at home, or pets and 
 pampers them in idle effeminacy. Who cares for the 
 growth of New England so long as it can continue to 
 give principles, and institutions, and men to the nation ? 
 Who cares for the growth of New England if the 
 entire nation becomes New Englandized ? 
 
 But though I speak in this strain, it is not because I 
 see about me here evidences of decay; though Grafton 
 has not rushed forward as rapidly as some towns, yet 
 she has made constant and healthful progress. She has 
 
40 
 
 increased the number of her inhabitants, and on all 
 bands, in public improvements, and in the air of comfort 
 and taste which pervades her homes, both in the villages 
 and on the farms, there is abundant and pleasing evi- 
 dence of thrift and progress. * Mr. Brigham, in his 
 address, speaking of the evidences of progress, asks 
 what our ancestors would have thought had they been 
 told, among other things, "that across the northern 
 section of the town iron rails would be laid, over which 
 would pass with the rapidity of the wind, a wonderful 
 machine, belching forth lire and smoke, and moving by 
 an internal power, dragging in its train car after car, load 
 after load, and never tiring ? " And now we ask, what 
 would he have thought and those to whom he spoke, if 
 they had been told that, in forty years, besides an addi- 
 tional set of iron rails across another section of this 
 town, there would be a set laid to the very summit of 
 this hill, and that many times each day, that " wonderful 
 machine" would come puffing and blowing and scream- 
 ing across the pastures up the hill ? AVhat would he 
 have thought if told that, when, in forty-one yea:s, the 
 town would desire to celebrate the Centennial of the 
 nation, it would send for one of its sons a thousand 
 miles distant, and that he would be able to leave his 
 home early Monday morning and be here on Tuesday in 
 ample time for the celebration ? What would he have 
 thought if told that, on the coast of the Pacific, three 
 thousand miles, away, there would spring up, within 
 that forty years, one of the richest, and most populous 
 and powerful States of the Union ; and that, within 
 these forty years, also, the iron rails should span all the 
 distance thither, and that, on this Centennial year, one 
 of these trains should fly across the continent in three 
 
 * Mr. Brighara's Address, p. 32. 
 
41 
 
 and a half days? What would he have thought, if 
 told that the means of communication would be such 
 that the politician might sit in his own private office in 
 Washington, and direct, each moment, the action of his 
 friends in a convention a thousand miles away ? That 
 the editor in New York might write his editorials after 
 the close of the public activities of the day, and have 
 them all printed before daylight in Cincinnati. What, 
 if told that, in case the God of Day were to turn gossip, 
 and attempt to tell upon his arrival over New York, 
 what he saw or heard on rising over England, the news- 
 paper reporters would cut him short with the assurance 
 that they had heard of that five hours before ?* What, if 
 told that the great city in that new and far-off Western 
 State, on the shores of the Pacific, began each day's 
 business with a perfect knowledge of the business 
 transacted to the close of business hours that same day 
 in London ? 
 
 Bat I may not detain you longer with these curious 
 questions. As old Galileo said of the world, so say we, 
 " It does move," and that too in more senses than 
 Galileo intended, and in more ways than I have time to 
 recall. In Science, in Art, in Philosophy, in practical 
 morality, and in religion, there have been, at least in 
 certain directions, leaps forward, almost as unexpected 
 and as wonderful, as in the methods of transportation 
 and communication of which I have been speaking. 
 
 And this occasion especially reminds us that in gov- 
 ernment too there has been progress. The experiment 
 of a government by the people is an assured success. 
 Through all the ever-changing and trying scenes of a 
 hundred years; through the dangers of war, in repelling 
 
 * Actual feats of travel, communication, and newspaper enterprise per- 
 formed during the year 1876. 
 6 
 
42 
 
 foes from without, and in the more difficult and danger- 
 ous work of quelling rebellion within; through the 
 dangers which years of national prosperity bring — for 
 in peace and prosperity lurk dangers hardly less to be 
 dreaded than those which attend upon war and adver- 
 sity — through all these the government, founded by our 
 fathers, the germs of which were in the compact signed 
 in the cabin of the Mayflower, and the cardinal 
 principles of which were applied in the founding of 
 these New England towns and churches, this govern- 
 ment by the people, has remained unshaken, and to-day 
 is stronger, more healthful, and more promising than at 
 the beginning of any one of the hundred years since its 
 birth. The future is full of promise. That flag, with 
 which the winds have now played for a hundred years, 
 and which, during those years, has won or forced 
 respect from every nation on earth, guarantees to our 
 children, as it has secured for us, the full and free 
 enjoyment of all the rights, and the exercise of all the 
 powers, with which God has endowed us. Its great 
 glory is that it permits and assists every man born 
 under it, to make the most of himself. It is the flag of 
 the people, of all the people. Like the sunlight and the 
 rain, like God himself, it is no respecter of persons. It 
 floats with equal promise, over hut, cottage and palace, 
 and bids all the sons and daughters of this land, irre- 
 spective of birth and rank, a hearty welcome to any 
 position for which, by genius or industry — often these 
 are but different names for the same thing — for which, 
 by genius or industry they may be fitted. To that flag, 
 and to the principles taught in these free churches, — to 
 that flag and to the Bible, we are, as individuals, as a 
 community, and as a people, in debt for much that we 
 prize highest in what we have, and in what we are, and 
 
43 
 
 in that flag, and in the Bible, kept in jnst the relations 
 which they have occupied in the past, centre also our 
 highest hopes for the nation and for our children. And 
 here to-day, to both the flag and the Bible, we solemnly 
 and earnestly swear eternal loyalty. 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 [Extract from Town Records.] 
 
 "In 1777, agreeable to act of Court entitled 'An Act to prevent 
 
 monopoly and oppression,' the Selectmen and Committee of the 
 
 Town of Grafton have met and affixt and settled the price of 
 
 articles hereafter mentioned, viz : — 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Wheat Good and merchantable at 6/8 per bushel . 6 8 
 
 Rye Good and merchantable rye 4/4 4 4 
 
 Indian Corn and merchantable at 3/2 3 2 
 
 Wool Good and merchantable at 2/ per lb 2 — 
 
 Pork Fresh Pork well tatted and of good quality 
 
 at 4 d per pound 4 
 
 Pork Salt good midlings at 8' 1 ; 2d quality in 
 
 proportion 8 
 
 Beef good well fatted grass fed at 2 d 3 qua per 
 
 pound 2f 
 
 " 2d quality in equal proportion 
 
 Beef Stallfed well fatted 3 d 3*" per pound 3f 
 
 Hides Raw at /3 per pound and Raw Calf at 
 
 /6 d per pound 3 
 
 Cheese good of the first quality at /5 d 2 q " a 5^ 
 
 Butter at /9 pr single pound, — by the firkin /8 
 
 pr pound /8 
 
 Pees good at 7/ pr Bushel 7/ 
 
 Beans good at 5/ per Bushel 5/ 
 
 Potatoes good in the fall at 1 / per bus., in spring 
 
 l/4 d 1/ 1 
 
 Stockings best yarn at 6/ pr pair 6/ 
 
 Shoes men's made of neats leather at 7/6 7/6 
 
 Barley good at 3/8 d '. 3/8 
 
 Oats good at 1 /9 per bushel V ^ 
 
 Innholders for a meal of victuals of their best kind 
 
 not to exceed 1/ 6 
 
 And of common kind 8 d /8 
 
 Phlip made of the best New England rum at 
 
 /8 d pr mug /8 
 
 And made from West India rum not to 
 
 exceed /10 d /10 
 
46 
 
 Half a gill of W. India at /2 d \ a gill of New 
 ] d 2'' r 
 
 For keeping a horse 24 hours 1/3' 1 1/ 3 
 
 " " Oxen 24 hours 1/6 1/6 
 
 For lodging a single person over night /3£ 
 
 Mutton Stall fed at 3 d 2^ r /3£ 
 
 Veal good from Dec. 1 st to May 1 st at /3 pr lb . /3 
 
 Lamb good at /3 d per pound /3 
 
 Milk New by grass at /l d 3 qr by Hay at /2 d 
 
 per quart /If 
 
 English Hay best kind 2/6 per hundred 2/6 
 
 Barrels good heart barrels at 3/4 3/4 
 
 Cider by the barrel 3/ Cash at the press 3/ 
 
 " Spring and Summer 6/ 6/ 
 
 Shoes for making men's and women's shoes at 2/6. 2/ 6 
 
 For shoeing a horse plain 4/4 d 4/ 4 
 
 P'or ploughshares, Chain, Crowbars and Hoes, 
 Cythes and all other Smith's work ac- 
 cording to the former custom, making 
 proper allowance for the extraordinary 
 price of Iron and Steel. 
 
 Charcoal delivered /3 d per bushel /3 
 
 Ox labour 1/6 pr day, horse 2 d per mile. 
 
 Men's Labour from June to loth of Aug. 3/ per day, from Aug. 
 to the last of Sept. 2/ per day, and Mar., Ap. and Nov. 1/8, 
 Jan. Feb. 1 /3 per day. 
 Onions at 3/ per bushel. 
 
 Carpenters labour from 1st of April to Oct, 1st at 3/3 d per day to 
 be found as usual, and so in usual proportion at other seasons 
 of the year." 
 
 [1777 page 304J 
 " Masons and Masonlabour the same as Carpenters at all seasons 
 
 of the year. 
 Tanning. For tanning hides not to exceed 1/2 per pound and 
 
 skins in proportion. 
 Cloth Yard wide tow cloth at 3/2 pr yard. 
 Maids' wages at 2/10 d pr week. 
 
 Mci i tailors work 2/2 d per day, and womens work at Tayloring 
 10 d " 
 
X 
 
o<oor-/j.