Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-05-03

The HISTORY OF LEICEsTER.-Those who
read carefully Ex-Gov. Washburn's history OF
Leicester, will find it full of interest The
beautifully situated estate in that town, known
as Mount Pleasant, is sketched in the book,
which has also well engraved view of it
as it appeared in 1894, copied from print
which appeared in the Massachusetts Mag
azine" of that year The farm at that
time consisted of two hundred and twen-
ty acres. This estate had always been
famous. In 1895 it was purchased by Maj.
James Swan of Boston, gentleman of sump
tuous tastes and expensive habits of life, who
was supposed to be very wealthy. Gov.
Washburn's account of this gentleman affords
some useful lessons, and is therefore worth
careful study
"The extent of his estates, and the STYLE of
magni6cence in which he lived, rendered the
removal of Major Swan to Leicester a memoir
able event in its history. In all these he so
far exceeded any thing which had been before
familiar to the people, that he was the object of
general interest and attention; and fabulous
stories of the wealth he displayed were told for
many years after his brief reign of magnifi-
cence and admiration had passed by. He had
been major Of a regiment of artillery in the
continental service, commanded by Col. Crafts,
in which Capts. Todd and Henshaw, and
Lieut. John Southgate of Leicester, had held
commissions. He may have been led to think
of this as place of residence from his ac-
quaintance with these gentlemen, but more
probably from the attractiveness of the estate.
He at one time must have owned some seven
or eight hundred acres OF land in a body; en-
bracing, besides the homestead, the farms
known as the Calvin Hersey estate the John
A. Denny estate; the Moore farm, afterwards
of Col. Henry Sargent; the William Sylvester
farm, and parts Of several other farms. There
are persons living who remember the marks
of liberal culture and tasteful arrangement |
which this estate presented in many of its parts,
enclosed by firm and substantial walls and |
gates, but whose productive moving fields and |
tillage lands, after few years of neglect, were
changed into rough and unsavory pastures,
covered with brush, and rendered little better
than Improbable wastes. l speak principally |
Of the homestead; the buildings and fences of
which were, after the removal of Major Swan |
suffered to go to decay and remained in that
condition till its late proprietor, by judicious
skill and labor, did much to restore the soil to
its productiveness, and the dwelling house to a
pleasant and comfortable homestead.
l am unable to state how long Major Swan
occupied this estate but apprehend it was
for few years only. He seems to have been
a man who lived in a style beyond his actual
wealth, or by some revulsion of fortune was
induced to retire to France, where his credit
ors endeavored in vain to coerce the payment
of their debts. find the following notice in
the Worcester Spy of the 18th September,
1880 "A letter from DIR. Niles, now at Paris,
mentions, that, on July %, St. Pelagie 1.-THE
debtors prison in Paris) was opened and that
among the liberated was Mr.. Swan, an Ameri-
can citizen formerly of Leicester), who has
occupied the same room thirty-two years and
one day."