Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-06

lives no longer save In history, and in the memory
it has left of the worth and intelligence ofthose who
commanded for 1t the respect of the town.
In this connection he paid high tribute TO the
venerable DIR. Nelson, saying that while it is well to
honor the catholic spirit which has pervaded the
town, it should be remembered how much of this
harmony is due to him. who for forty-nine years has
been the guide and pastor of the church which was
founded with the town. His influence has been felt
in the prosperity as well as the harmony of the
town, and has added value to every farm and work
shop and mandatory within it. Posterity will
honor his memory, as those who have met him in
his daily walks have honored him.
Another Characteristic incident in the history OF
the town, which he considered remarkable was that
while the people were farmers, with unromantic
habits of life they were ready to take part in the
military enterprises Of the day No accurate record
is accessible, but wherever he had traced the his
tory Of any body of American soldiers he had found
the names of Leicester men. They were at the TAX
ing of Louisburg in l745, when Capt. Brown com.
manded company. They were in the Canada ex-
petition in l147, and with Gen. Winslow in that to
Maine in l754. They were with Gen. Abercrombie
at Crown Point in 1T66, and with Gen. Amherst at
Ticonderoga in 1853, in both of which VIM. Hem
shaw was serving as lieutenant. And more than
thirty officers and soldiers from the town took part
in the conquest of Canada in 1760.
Leicester and Spencer had their men In the battle
of Bunker Hill, and when the company made up OF
these was ordered by the commandant of the regi-
ment to halt at Charestown Neck, in the midst of
the battle they TO man left the column at the COM
mand of their captain and rushed into the thick
est OF the fight and were among the last in the
treat. Nor did the martial spirit of these men flag
for moment till their independence had been
achieved.
AIN addition to those who marched at the alarm of
Lexington and those who enlisted in the first eight
months service, and in addition too 10 more than
thirty who served in the regular Continental army,
the town met during the first five years of the war,
twenty-eight drafts for men, although the entire
number In the town capable of bearing arms in the
year 1871 was only one hundred and fifty-one men.
With such history before him he had looked
with s0lictude at the record of the town in the last
great struggle He found that q son of Leicester
lpd OalIa with no1ff
on the memorable 18th of April 1861, and that,
among the three hundred whom she sent at the call
of the country, her sons were in more than hum
bred battles, more than forty of them were wound
ed, and twentyone of them fell on the field of bat
tie POsterity will do them the justice when it tells
how the spirit of 'l6, which proclaimed tine indie
pendence of the nation was ready, when again APP
pealed to, to vindicate the liberty for which tile
fathers had pledged "their lives and fortunes"
Passing from the review of the part taken by the
citizens of the town in its earlier history, he pro-
ceeded to speak of some of the individuals who from
education and position must have exered a sensible
influence upon the conduct and opinions of Others
promising that but few of the many deserving of
notice could thus be mentioned First among these
stands the name of Judge Minzies. He had been
bred as Scotch barrister, and held the office of
judge of admiralty, which was one of much dignity
and Importance, and brought him in contact with
those engaged in the foreign trade, as well as the
men of influence in the province. His estate was
what is now known as the "Henshaw place." and
he would hardly have failed to exert an influence
over his neighbors by the style in which he lived
personally, in his manners and address.
Of the earliest native born children in the town
he had in his mind two, whom he named in cOnnec-
ton with the problem how that generation could
have acquired the education which is now supplied
by schools. But that they were well educated, by
some means is apparent from the history of the
town, well from the recolections of some still
alive. Thomas Denny was born three years after
the town was organized, and his sister, Mrs Nathan
Sargent three years after that. This was some
years before any school had been established and
the distance at which they lived from it must have
rendered it of little or no use to them when it
in operation. And yet there are those living who
remember Mrs. Sargent as a lady of good culture
and great intelligence, and 1t would be difficult to
name one who could better represent the patriotism
OF the women of the revolution, who were not
whit behind their brothers in spirit and devotion.
1t was of her that the incident has so often been
told, when the company of minute men, of whom
her son was one, were on the march for Lexington,
on the 18th of April 1916 they halted at her door,
and not being supplied with bullets for their cart
ridges, she and her husband took the leaden
weights from their clock and melted them down to
supply the want. 1t told, more than words could
do, that war had indeed begun.
The brother, Mr.. Denny, would have been lead
ing man IN any community by his intelligence, pa
triotism and public spirit He died just before the
breaking out of the war and his loss was felt as a
public calamity in the province, While member
of the general court he was associated with such
men as Samuel Adams, James Otis and John Ham
cock, and is named by Gov. Hutchinson in his his
tory He had taken part in the celebrated con-
troversy with the governor, in III, which was
of the Immediately exciting causes of the revolu-
ton.
Two of the leading citizens of Leicester, Colonel
William Henshaw and Hon. Joseph Allen, lby their
relations to the leading men of that day in Boston,
formed an important medium by which the spirit OF
Adams and Otis and Warren was widely dlffused
throughout this community. Mr.. Allen was
neighbor of Samuel Adams and removed here in
177l and did much, by his pen andihis personal nu
ence, to give right direction to his sentiment
which animated the people; Col. Henshaw was in
the cause from the first. He was the adjutantgen-
eral of the American army until the arrival of Gem
eral Washington at Cambridge, and acted in that
capacity for months after He was of the council of
war and recommended the occupation of Bunker
Hill, which led to the battle of the 18th of June.
He was afterward lieutenant-cOlonel in the Cont
mental service, and fought in of the seyerest
engagements during the war. He was long type
OF that courtesy which distinguished the gentlemen
who had been trained in the military school Of the
revolution.
But in speaking of individuals, he said he was at
loss when to stop, for all in their several spheres
did their full duty towards building up the town
and sustaining the nation in its struggle The farm
ers supporting church and school from their scanty
earnings caring for the families of absent soldiers,
and going in turn themselves when needed, to fill
the ranks of the army, and their wives and daugh-
tiers who with more than Grecian or Roman heroism
trained their children in the ideas of the true digni
y OF manhood, inspiring within their sons desire
for that learning which their own limited oppor-
tunities had denied to them in their youth, were
worthy of the highest honor.
In this connection he said if he had any claims
to the place with which he was honored to-day, he
owed it to the lessons of mother, who, coming
from a neighborng town, had never enjoyed the
advantages of school beyond single week. A
history of these days would show that the mothers
and daughters were as much in earnest as the sons
and fathers. And, living as we do in an age of
progress the thought starts up in spite of the gray
ity of the hour how, after bringing up their chill
dren to honest lives and generous purposes, the
mothers of that age went down to their graves in
bssful ignorance that they had BEEN all their DAYS
cheated out of their rights in never having voted
at the hustings or made speech at a caucus.
Though, if it would not be turned against us in the
coming contest, ought in frankness confess that
the country would have been quite well off If the
ballots ofhaf the men who did vote had been writ
ten for them by their DISTINGUISHED sisters who
denied the privilege.
In speaking of the causes which have helped to
give character to the town, he said the influence of
the Academy should not be forgotten. 1t was
founded in 1888, by Colonies Crafts and Davis who
should ever be honored, together with those who
from time to time have been its patrons.
But while the town, from the causes referred to,
was able TO sustain an honorable rank orderly
and intelligent community, there were other causes
adverse to its material growth and advancement
Its soil was hard and unsuited to profitable agrcul-
ture. 1t was remote from market, and its isolated
situation had little to attract new settlers. He well
remembered the man whom he knew in early life who
rode post" as it was called, during the revolution
between Boston and New York. The journey was
made on horseback, and it took entire fortnight
to accomplish it. The first stage between those two
points was established in l7sS and the town was
other causes the growth of the town was exceed
ingly slow.
It's original territory embraced portion OF Pax
ton and Auburn, but, including these for the first
forty years after its settlement there were added
less than hundred families to the town. During
the period of the revolution it made no increase
and in 1850 it had added only seventy-one to what
Its population was when the war began. And
down to 1920, while the state, exclusive of Maine,
had increased more than eighty per cent Leicester
between these periods, had added but two hundred
and f0rty-seven, or less than twenty-five per cent
In the meantime she had been sending her sons and
daughters to help people Vermont, Maine, New
York, Ohio and Virginia, and wherever they went
they carried with them the habits of thrift enter
prise and good order in which they had been
trained.
But while this had been going on, an element of
prosperity and growth had been developed The
manufacture of cards begun here soon after the
revolution, but that of wooden cloths was inaugu-
rated In 1914, by one whom, at the ripe age of
eighty-nine years, he welcomed here to-day as the
pioneer in that great of the prosperity of the
town. Never he said, has there been more signal
illustration of the value of home industry or of the
wisdom Of encouraging home manufactures than is
here exhibited in the changes through which the
town has passed, during the life of single indi-
vidual. Art has literally triumphed over nature
and turned the itfu brooks which ran to waste
between drought and reshet into perennial sources
Of enterprise and wealth. Since his own birth the
population has increased from HOB to 216S and the
valuation has grown from $4,000 to S2,000000.
Nor is there any secret in regard to the manner of
this change, when the statistics of the industry of
Massachusetts, for 1866 show that the wooden
goods and cards manufactured here in a single year
exceeded in value $1,000 900, employing capital of
half million, and the services of almost half as
many hands as there were people in the whole town
at the close of the revolution Political economists