Clinton Memorial Volume 1850-1900. 1^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library F 74C59 C64 + Semi-centennial ceebration of the incor 3 1924 028 819 823 . o'in Overs | ^^ Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028819823 CU>vt0X^ AI3.SS. SEMI-CEW TENNIAL CELEBRATION or THE INCORPORATION or THE TOWN OF CLINTON MAR. 14 1850 LINE I7I8I l?00 CLINTON; Printed by W. J. Coulter, . . . Item Office, 1900 INTRODUCTION. WHILE the celebration of the Semi-Centennial- had often been suggested in conver sation, in public speeches and through the press, the first definite action tending in this direction was taken in the Clinton Historical Society, September i8, 1899, when it was voted, on the motion of Andrew E. Ford, " that the chairman, Christopher C. Stone, be instructed to bring before the town the question of the desirabilitj' of celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the Town of Clinton." In consequence of this vote, in a warrant for a town meeting held November 18, 1899, an article appeared: "To see if the Town will take any action in regard to a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation, or make an appropriation of five hundred dollars therefor, or for publication of an account of the proceedings of such celebration, or act in any manner relating thereto." Under this article it was voted, on the motion of Christopher C. Stone, "that the chairmen of the town boards elected by ballot be chosen as a committee to decide whether or not the town" should carry out the provisions of this article, and report at the next town meeting. At a town meeting held December 29, 1899, this committee reported^ recommending "holding a Semi-Centennial celebration on June 14, 1900, and to ask the town to appro- priate not more than five thousand dollars for that purpose." This committee also recom- mended that " a General Committee" be appointed " in charge of the celebration," and that "the present committee be discharged." It was voted on the motion of Charles E.Shaw that the report of the "Committee on Semi-Centennial' celebration be accepted and placed on file, and that the committee be discharged." It was voted on the motion of Patrick F. Cannon, "that the town celebrate its Semi-Centennial, and that the matter of date be left with a committee of twenty-five to be appointed by the chair" (David I. Walsh). It was voted on the motion of Patrick F. Cannon, "that the Town raise and appropriate the sum of four thousand dollars to carry out the recommendations of the Semi-Centennial Cele- bration Committee." David I. Walsh, in submitting the committee of twenty-five to the town clerk for record, wrote: " I have given the matter considerable thought, for it seemed to me that the committee should not only be composed of citizens ready and willing to undertake the work that this event will necessarily entail, but that it should be also a committee representing Clinton's varied interests in its political, social and industrial life." The names of this general committee will be found on a following page. The only change made therein arose from the resignation of Harry B. Merchant, whose place was filled by the election, in the committee, of David I. Walsh to fill the vacancy. It was voted in a town-meeting held April 7, 1900, on the motion of Christopher C. Stone, "that the town raise and appropriate the sum of fifteen hundred dollars to be expended by the Semi-Centennial Committee of Twenty-five for the publication of an account of proceedings of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, and that all moneys derived from the sale of the said account be refunded to the town treasury." Inti-oduction. The first meeting of the General Committee of Twenty-five was held February 8, 1900, in the office of the town treasurer. The committee was organized as stated on page 7, and a sub-committee was appointed to outline a program and report at the next meeting. At a second meeting of the General Committee, held February 13, the program com- mittee reported a provisional program and recommended certain sub-committees to be appointed by the six officers of the General Committee for carrying out the plans embod- ied therein. This provisional program, after "a few amendments had been offered and accepted," "was accepted and adop'ted by a unanimous vote." As afterwards modified by the General Committee and developed by the sub-committees, it became the final program which follows. In as much as the result of the total work of the General Committee and the various sub-committees is to be found in the program, the report of the treasurer and the descrip- tion of the celebration, it seems hardly necessary to relate the steps by which this result was reached. Those who have had experience in arranging such celebrations and known the vast amount of labor involved in awakening enthusiasm, in harmonizing conflicting ideas, in coordinating the departments and in perfecting the endless variety of details, realize something of the work which must have been done to bring the celebration to such a successful issue. Only by the most hearty cooperation of many citizens whose names do not appear on any of the committees could this result have been reached, how- ever great the work of the committee may have been. The celebration as a whole, then, while under the direction of the General Committee and the sub-committees, must be regarded as the universal expression of a community proud of the past, full of local patri- otism in the present and confident of the future. This memorial volume was prepared under the direction of the committee appointed for that purpose. The editorial work has been done by Andrew E. Ford, who is also responsible for all reading matter qot otherwise signed. Obligation is hereby acknowl- edged to the newspaper articles upon the Semi-Centennial and the reports of the record- ing secretary af the General Committee. Many of the photographs from which the half- tones have been made have been furnished without charge. David Dias, Louis G. Beck, George F. Marlowe, Horace A. Thissell, George W. Weeks, Miss Katherine B. Ballou and Thomas Sidey deserve especial mention in this connection. James E. Harvey has been the official photographer of the volume. FINANCIAL REPORT. ' I "HE committee appointed in accordance with the vote of the town, December 29, ■*■ 1899, to have charge of the Semi-Centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Clinton, beg leave to make the following report. The committee have held seventeen meetings, exclusive of the meetings of the various sub-committees which were appointed at the earlier meetings of the General Committee. The General Committee feel that the complete success of the celebration is due in a large measure to the cordial cooperation on the part of the various sub-committees, and we wish to express our thanks for their labors and for the interest they have taken in making this historical event something to look back upon with satisfaction. The town appropriated the sum of four thousand dollars, and the committee realiz- ing in its earlier meetings that there would necessarilj' be some expenditures for features which would not, and could not be free to the general public, and which, therefore, should not be charged to the town appropriation, proceeded to raise an outside fund by subscrip- tion, to cover these expenses. More than enough was raised to meet these bills, and the balance was added to the town appropriation, and the general public got the benefit of it. The financial statement is appended: — Town appropriation $4,000 00 Raised by subscription 306 85 Expended by Committee on Fire-works, Decorations, and Salutes. . Si, 277 96 Parade Committee 892 75 Athletic Committee 224 10 Musical, Literary, and Historical Committee 344 28 Committee on Schools 299 70 Commiitee on Marking Historical Spots 138-89 Committee on Printing 166 71 Committee on Bureau of Information, Registration, Press, and Advertising 1 74 26 Committee on Reviewing Stand 148 00 Committee on Banquet, for Lunch to the Governor and Invited Guests 264 95 Committee on Badges 227 00 Committee on Invitations 84 95 Extra Police Protection 60 00 Miscellaneous expenses 3 27 1,306 85 1,306 82 Balance 03 CHARLES E. SHAW, Treasurer. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction. 1-2 Financial Report. 3 Table of Contents. 4 Illustrations. 5-6 Program. 7-21 1850, March 14, igoo — Semi-Centennial Ball. 22 The Work of Committee on Invitations. 23-26 Decorations. - 26 Bureau of Information, Registration and Press. 27 Sunday Observances. 28-74 St. John's Catholic Church, 28; Church of the Good Shepherd, 33; Methodist Episcopal Church, 37; First Baptist Church, 42: German Church, 49;. First Congre- gational Church, 52; Advent Christian Church, 56; First Unitarian Church, 60; United Presbyterian Church, 6g. School Exercises. 75-92 History of Schools, 75; Graduating Exercises, 82; Address of Hon. Henry S. Nourse at Lancaster Cemetery, 83; Dedication of Memorial Tablets, 85; Address, Judge Christopher C. Stone, 85; Address, Dr. Clarence H. Bowers, 87; Address by Gen. John W. Kimball, 89; Address, Hon. John W. Corcoran, 89; Parade and Lunch, 91. Historic Loan Exhibition. 93-100 The Banquet. 101-126 Speeches: Christopher C. Stone, 103; Alfred A. Burditt, 105; Henry C.Greeley, 105; Augustus F. Howell, 107; John W. Corcoran, in; Charles H. Richardson, 113; Warren Goodale, 114; Wellington E. Parkhurst, 115; Frank E. Holman, 116; Andrew E. Ford, 117; Rev. Edward J. Fitzgerald, 120; C. Frank Fairbanks, Jr., 122; David I. Walsh, 123; Daniel B. Ingalls, 124. Historical, Literary and Musical Exercises. 127-156 Introductory address, Wellington E. Parkhurst, 127; Historical address, Hon. John W. Corcoran, 128; Remarks, Charles T. Tatman, 138; Poem, Andrew E. Ford, 139; Oration, Hon. Merrill E.Gates, 144; Ode, Ellen K. Stevens, 156. The Parade. 157-172 The Athletic Sports. " 173-174 Fireworks. i-e Closing Reflections. i-g ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE I. General Committee. Part I. — Marshal. 7 II. " " Part II. 8 III. Town Hall, with Decorations. 26 IV. St. John's Catholic Church. 30 -V. Church of The Good Shepherd. - 34 VI. Methodist Church and Parsonage. 38 VII. First Baptist Church. 44 VIII. The Clinton Hospital — The German Village. 50 IX. First Congregationalist Church. 54 X. First Unitarian Church. 62 XI. German Church — UrjiTED Presbyterian Church. 70 XII. High School Buildings, 1854, 1885. 76 XIII. Flagg Street School — New Grammar School. 80 XIV. House of John Prescott V. — Grave of John Prescott, the Pioneer. 84 XV. The Clinton Worsted Company Mill. 86 XVI. Loan Exhibition and School Parade. 92 XVII. Early Professional Men of Clinton. 94 XVIII. Wood Engraving, Emory Harris House, (on) 98 XIX. Portraits of Sidney Harris and Edwin A. Harris — Harris Homestead. 98 XX. Wood Engraving, Poignand House, (on) 99 XXI. Portraits of Samuel Plant and David Poignand. 100 XXII. Residences of Horatio N. Bigelow and Joseph B. Parker. 104 XXIII. Portraits of Franklin Forbes and George W. Weeks — Lan- caster Mills. 112 XXIV. The Corners of High and Church Streets. 114 5 Illustrations. XXV. Clinton Homes. - ii6 XXVI. Clinton Wire Cloth Mills, 1890, 1900. 122 XXVII. Contour Map of Clinton, (on) - 129 XXVIII. Map of Southern Portion of Lancaster, 1795, (on) 131 XXIX. " " " " 1830, (on) 133 XXX. Map of Clinton, i8S7- - 134 XXXI. Portraits of Horatio Nelson Bigelow and Erastus Brigham BiGELOw — Town Hall. 136 XXXII. Along the River. - - 139 XXXIII. "The Vale where flowed the Nashaway." 140 XXXIV. Views from Franklin and Central Parks. 144 XXXV. Bigelow Carpet Company Spinning and Weaving Mills. 146 XXXVI. Minor Industries. 150 XXXVII. Estates of Charles Swinscoe and John R. Foster. 154 XXXVIII. Along the River. 156 XXXIX. The Head of the Parade. --- ijg XL. Company K, Ninth Regiment, off to the War — At Camp Dewey. jei XLI. The Central Fire Station -^ Armory — Building of Water Department. 162 XLII. Lower Lynde's Reservoir — Woodlawn Cemetery. 164 XLIII. Shaded Streets. XLIV. Views in Central Park. XLV. Glimpses of the Parade. i-q XLVI. Clinton-Lancaster Driving Park — The Winning Team. 174 166 168 w^ Cha S. Ives W: Andrew GHNHRAL COMMITTEE PART 1. Christopher C. Stone, Chairman. Jehu W. G-ireOiaii, C. Frank- Fairbanks, Jr. ries H. Richardson. Dr. Phillip T. O'Brien. Charles B, Biuelovv. Allace. David 1. Walsh. Walter F. Howard. Warren Goodalt E. Ford. Geor^^e S. Gibson, Marshall. John W. McNamara. H I D rn n o To > o z CO Bureau of Infofmation, Regfisti-ation and Press. about the park, the Court House and all other public buildings on the line of the proces. sion, were decorated with equal taste, though with less profusion. Most of the work on the business blocks and dwelling-houses was delayed to the end of the week, as some of the decorators had used their materials at Framingham; but when the work once began it was pushed forward with the utmost speed. One decorator of long experience said: "I never knew so much bunting to be put up in so short a time." It would be unfair when so many did so much, to pick out a few for special description. One can judge from the limited number of pictures given, the general character of the work. Views of the parade, later on in this volume, also give further decorations. BUREAU OF INFORMATION. REGISTRATION AND PRESS. TT was early realized that systematic arrangements must be made for securing and trans- mitting such information as would be of value to our guests and the members of the press. A committee was appointed for this purpose and headquarters were established at Merchant's Drug Store. An official Semi-Centennial Register was opened, in which all visi- tors were requested to record their names and residence. A list was made of boarding places and of rooms to let for the benefit of those inquiring for such accommodations. Arrangements were perfected for convenient communication by telephone and telegraph. Intelligent clerks were oh hand, always ready to give any information or- assistance desired. Very great pains were taken also to extend every possible courtesy to the members of the press who visited us. A room was provided for their convenience, multiplex cop- ies of manuscripts were made, and refreshments were served. As one of these gentlemen said: " The people of Clinton treated us right and we tried to do the best we could by them." The Globe, Herald, Journal and Post of Boston, The Spy and Telegram of Wor- cester gave in various editions extended and illustrated accounts of the celebration. Many other city papers gave us considerable attention. Our local papers, the Item and Courant, were from the beginning constantly stirring up the people to grea'ter effort, suggesting wiser methods and giving unstinted praise to all patriotic endeavor. The Semi-Centennial Number of the Item was a mine of informa- tion, the highest reach of journalism in this community. Arrangements were made for the ringing of bells, the blowing of steam whistles and the firing of salutes at seven A. M., twelve m., and at sunset on Monday and Tuesday. For the salutes, on account of the accident of March 14, bombs were used instead of the cannon. A souvenir official program was published June 15, and a copy was given to each household in town and one to each invited guest. A modified form of this program is given on pages 7-21. The illustrations were designed by George B. Ford. A badge of the design given on page 7, with bars varying according to the commit- tee of the wearer, was designed for the occasion and made of bronze. It was also printed on silk ribbon for the use of the officers of the committees and others. 27 SUNDAY OBSERVANCES. SUNDAY, the first day of the celebration, opened bright and cool. As the anniver- sary was generally observed by the churches of the town, local patriotism and regard for the memory of our fathers combined with religion to attract the citizens and the many visiting sons and daughters of Clinton to the services. As the hour of the morn- ing service approached the streets were thronged by thousands who quickly filled the churches. On no other day in our whole history have so many people gathered for worship. The interior of many of the churches was beautifully decorated io/ the occa- sion with flowering plants. These combined with the bright hues of the summer gar- ments to give a fitting setting to the joyous thankfulness for a past so full of blessings, which found expression in the faces of the great congregations, as well as in the music, the prayers and the sermons. The program has been given, the historical sermons follow. To complete the true impression of the day we only need to realize the unwonted respon- siveness of the assembled thousands to the spirit of the song and the preacher. When the services were over- there were the greetings of friends long separated to add to the joyousness of the day. In the afternoon the Catholics celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Sol- emn Procession of the Blessed Sacrament about the church grounds and adjacent streets. There were many hundreds in the procession and many thousand spectators. The record of the day would be incomplete without mention of the many family re- unions by which it was characterized. Hence the influences of home, scarcely less than those of the church, helped to hallow it. ST. JOHN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH. . " Fifty Years of Catholicity in Clinton." Sermon by Rev. Edward J. Fitzgerald. The text: — "This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us be glad and rejoice therein." — Ps. iiy, 24.. Today is a glad day for the town of Clinton, marking as it does the public celebration of her first fifty years of life. We as citizens rejoice in the record that is hers. Fifty years of development in every department of her corporate being, fifty years of healthy progress, fifty years of achievement, if not brilliant at least solid and respectable, with the promise of even greater expansion in the golden future which stretches out before her. As Catholics we rejoice likewise in the growth of the Old Church in our town, and there is no conflict between our joy and pride in our town's growth and our rejoicing in our church's progress, for every step in the progress of our church, registering as it does an advance along the moral and social scale for our people, makes likewise an element of strength and solid betterment for the civil body, because it has been proved here in Clinton, as it. has often before been proved elsewhere, that the better Christian a man is, the better citizen he becomes; the more loyal a man is to God and his conscience, the more loyal he is to his country and her laws. 28 . St. JoJin's Catholic Chofch. So today we throw wide open our doors and invite all our fellow-citizens, irrespective of creed, to rejoice with us. For our progress as a church, in which we are justly proud, is likewise an element (and be it said in all modesty, no small or insignificant element) in the town's advancement. Although our church in Clinton, dating her birth from the first time that sacredotal hands offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is some years older than the half century, yet today furnishes a convenient stopping place wherein to pause and look backward, and mine is the pleasant task to unroll the scroll of glorious achievement and briefly recount some of the triumphs that mark her page. Our minds go back in fancy five and fifty years. This thriving town with its busy air, its crowded streets, its solid, substantial business blocks, its varied manufacturing enterprises, its grand churches and spacious schools, fades away and in its stead we see a little country village, hill-embowered, straggling along the banks of the Nashua River. A few houses of wood mark out what is now the business center of our town. Giant trees cast their grateful shadows; green and silver are the prevailing color tones that give life to the landscape, while in the distance grim Wachusett sentinels the valley. As fair a scene as our fair state contains, and all Nature is at her loveliest, tor it is the early sum- mer time, when, if ever, come perfect days in our New England. Over in what is now the California district, a few Irish immigrants — only a score — are assembled about an altar built in the open air, with God's own canopy for a roof tree and God's own glorious sunshine bathing it in a golden glamour. It was no new thing for Irishmen to worship God under the sky, and doubtless it recalled to many a one sim- ilar scenes enacted in the old land in the penal days, when it was a crime to be a Catholic. A tall young man of kingly form and face is standing at the foot of the altar, vested for the Holy Sacrifice. The mass is begun, and soon the tinkling bell tells the kneeling faithful that the great supreme moment has come. With bursting hearts and with bowed heads — aye, with moist eyes I doubt not — they hear those words of awful import, "T'to isjfnybody," breathed for the first time within the limits of the present town of Clinton. An historic scene, this, and had any one with prophetic eye foretold this scene today — that within a short fifty years this churchless congregation would be housed in the grandest church in Clinton and one of the grandest in the state; that the score of wor- shipers would be multiplied two or three hundred fold; that the tall young man of majes- tic mien who served the congregation at infrequent intervals would be succeeded by four resident priests; that the most lordly mansion within the town's limits, then indeed not built, but already conceived in the mind of its owner, would one day be topped by a gilded cross under whose outstretched arms would repose the Eucharistic Lord, his pres- ence marked by the never-quenched lamp; that another cross would likewise point heaven- ward, crowning a building, not indeed glorious in its material make-up, but thrice glorious in what it stands for, Christian education, and thrice glorious in what it shelters under its humble roof, a band of women who have sacrificed their lives to teach religion and science to the children of the parish; your children, dearly beloved, the hope and seed of the church of the next century — he would have been laughed to scorn and his prophecies regarded as the phantom of a heat-oppressed brain. But such is the story. The details perchance are interesting — at least in outline. Father Gibson, one of the pioneer priests of central Massachusetts, was the first priest to say mass in Clinton. But ten years had passed since the first church was erected in Worcester until the zealous priests of that town had extended their missionary zeal to twelve missions, including practically all the center of the state. One of these missions 29 St. John's Catholic Charch. was Clintonville. Of course, to reach all and do the greatest good to the greatest num- ber, to keep alive the spark of faith until more prosperous times would raise up a native clergy, was the aim of the early missionary priests. Driving over the road from Worcester, Father Gibson for two years served the peo- ple of Clintonville well, saying mass about once in six or eight weeks, sometimes even less frequently, in a contractor's shanty conducted by one Michael Fahey. Father Gib- son was not thirty years of age, and his erect figure and active strength must have often- times been taxed by the arduousness of his labors, and when the people of CHnton pray for their benefactors let them not forget the man who planted the seed of faith among them. In 1847, '^he congregation increasing somewhat, Father Gibson saw the necessity of a church, and to this end began to collect funds. His first effort netted but S75, which fact would argue that the congregation had not increased very greatly, since the Irishman is never a niggard toward his priest. In November of this year (1847), Father Boyce was appointed curate to Father Gibson, and seems to have taken entire charge of the Clintonville mission. Mass was said now monthly in a house belonging to the Bigelow Carpet Company, which house still stands, and might well be marked with a memorial tablet by the grateful Catholics of Clinton. After a while mass was said bi-weekly. It was not until 1849 that Father Boyce saw his way clear to establish a permanent church home for his people. Being unable to pur- chase land in the center of the town, he bought a small lot on what is now South Main Street and erected thereon a modest frame church with a seating capacity of about two hundred and fifty, which was afterward doubled by surrounding the auditorium with a gallery. Here for thirteen years did the eloquent Father Boyce and his able co-laborer, Father, afterward Bishop, O'Reilly celebrate mass, at first every other Sunday, finally every Sunday, and often did that modest little church echo to the words of piety and eloquence from the lips of the finest pulpit orator in New England. As yet Clinton had no resident priest. In 1862, the mission of Clinton was cut off from Worcester and a permanent resident pastor. Father Connolly, was appointed. He served this parish less than six months, when Death claimed him for her own. His successor was Father Quinn, who was pastor during the troublous times of the war. Father Quinn was long past his prime when he assumed charge of Clinton. He was, as one of the oldest members of our congregation who knew him well has said, a typical "hedge priest," good and zealous and priestly, but in striking contrast to the pol- ished and eloquent Bo)'ce. Although he did not lead the people to great heights, yet in his own humble way he kept alive the faith and prepared the way to a glorious harvest. At length increasing infirmities told him his days of activities were drawing to a close. His work was done, and retiring from the active ministry, he put his house in order and awaited with an unfaltering trust the coming of his Master. In May, 1868, Father D. A. O'Keefe, a young man of holiest promise, lovable and well-beloved, zealous and of more than the usual ability, succeeded to the office and responsibilities of leader of the Catholics of Clinton. It appeared that it was to be his privilege to develop the young parish and put it- on the stable basis that has made it one of the strongholds of Catholic faith in New England. But it was not to be. He was cut off ere his life of promise had reached its meridian. The old parishioners yet speak in softened tones when they tell of young Father O'Keefe dying in the twenty-ninth year of his age. His body is a sacred trust to the parish and his name and influence still a bene- diction. 30 O > H o O n c Ci St. John's Catholic Chorch. By this time the congregation had outgrown the little church on the hill. It was not central; moreover, its stability had been taxed beyond its strength on the occasion of Father O'Keefe's funeral; some of the supports giving away, a panic was narrowly averted by the cool-headedness of one of the congregation, who in stentorian tones told the frightened congregation to keep their seats. A new church was now imperatively demanded, and the new pastor, Rev. Father Patterson, at once took steps to build a more commodious church and one more befitting the faith and numbers of the Catholics of Clinton. A frame building, familiar to all the parish and town's-folk now as the St. John's School, was erected on Pleasant Street, and with its seating capacity of nine hundred, provided a church home for the Catholics during sixteen years. But the town was growing apace and the Catholic population outstrip- ping it in its growth. Already the old church was inadequate and the growing numbers and the increasing prosperity of the Catholics made the plan of erecting an enduring church, which would be a glory to the God who dwelt therein and an ornament to the town, no longer a. chimera. The year 1875 saw the consummation of this project, when on August 8 the erst- while curate, now the first Bishop of the Springfield diocese, laid the corner-stone of St. John's Church in which we are assembled today. The basement finished, the work lagged somewhat for five years, when by the united efforts of the loyal and generous people of the parish, the superstructure was raised and ornamented, and 1886 saw it dedicated to God with the beautiful ceremonial of our church, the Right Reverend Bishop being sur- rounded by the most dignified members of his clergy, and the lesson of the event being pointed out by eloquent lips. It was the next year that the pastor, seeing the inroads that irreligion was making in our country and desiring to save his people from this scourge, renovated the old church, now no longer needed as a place of worship, into a school building and invited the Sisters of the Presentation Order to assume charge of St. John's Parochial School. The story of their early privations reads like a page from the "Jesuit Relations" or the "Journeyings of DeSmet." But discouragements did not daunt those valiant women. Privation but stimulated them to more zealous efforts, and one of the brightest pages of our parish record will ever be the self-sacrifice of that noble band of twelve, who like apostles regarded all suffering as nugatory if only it was undertaken for Christ. The school work of the parish was started as humbly and under as many privations and discouragements as the early church herself. But already the steady effort has begun to have its effect. Already the children who were nurtured in old St. John's have begun to claim a hearing from the business and professional world. Though the band be small it is worthy and creditable, and it is not rash to say it, that the seed sown in the old red school-house will increase and multiply and bear fruit a hundred fold. No need to speak of the work of Father Patterson in Clinton, which ended with the year 1899. The eloquent words of his old neighbor still ring in our ears and the magnifi- cent outpouring of sympathy and respect that marked his funeral still lingers in our minds. All Clinton testified its respect for the man and the position that he held— the leader of the Catholic body. No scene-has more eloquently bespoken the advancement of the Catholics in this town from a position of insignificance to a position where they have to be dealt with as an influential body, than that funeral. The priest dies, but the priesthood continues. The pastor goes to his reward, but his successor takes up the bur- den. The struggle is ever onward. Since 1871, the pastor of Clinton has been assisted by co-laborers in the priesthood. 31 St. John's Catholic Church. Among the early curates of the parish there came in 1877 a young man, active, zealous and fearless. It was in the month of May that he first walked among the Catholics of Clinton. He labored here for about one year and a half, a considerable part of the time in charge of the parish, the pastor being absent in Europe. When at length he was sent by authority to other fields, he carried with him the respect and good-will of the parish, which had learned to admire and love the fearless young Levite. Years passed away and death made the pastoral ofiSce vacant in Clinton. The needs of the church had become more exigent; difficulties had accumulated and the Bishop, desiring to do the best for the parish, chose this priest, now matured in judgment and age, but still active and zealous, to undertake the labor. He is now in the breach. The silver of twenty-five years of sacrifice have touched his hair — the blessings of twenty-five years of priestly work have mellowed his heart — the wisdom of twenty-five years of ministry have enriched his mind. Under his guiding hand new glories are promised this church. May God give it to him to realize all that promise. Such is in brief the record of the material advance that has been made in our town by the Catholics. There is another record which has never been written in human char- acters, but which is inscribed in glowing colors in the Book of Life. Such advance, such a record could only be accomplished by a people, no one of whom could be called wealthy, through great sacrifice and by great generosity. No man will ever know the heart's blood that has cemented together the walls of this church; no human record will ever tell the blessings that have come to this congregation and this town through the church life which has been so imperfectly sketched; the marriages blessed, the children taught to know God and duty, men reclaimed from paths of vice, earnest souls led on to perfection still higher, young men encouraged to heed the call of God, to take God for their portion and inheritance — all this is of the inner history of this parish which cannot be set forth in sermon or paper. God alone knows the details. That this work has been going on abundantly, the healthy life of our congregation and the experience of every family within its fold eloquently testify. It will be blazoned forth when the veil is drawn aside and we will see no longer obscurely as in a glass, but face to face. One last word: The past is fled. Its triumphs and glories are ours as a memorial, as an incentive, but the mill is not turned by the water that is past. New fields, new triumphs are before us, and encouraged by the noble advance made in the first half cen- tury, we begin the second half of our church's and our town's life with a noble promise. We Catholics of Clinton wheel into the twentieth century under conditions most favorable to our growth and influence. We began life here despised and hated by our brethren of different religious beliefs. Today we are respected by every shade of Christian profes- sion. The people of our town have grown together in the long years in which they have lived together, working and fighting side by side^ Today in our town the only question asked of her citizens is: "What sort of a man is he?" The town demands only good men, and to such men she is willing to entrust her dearest charge — her honor. Let it be our duty to see that we furnish our share of such citizens. We are charged by God with a message to this community. We are a royal priesthood, as the Apostle Paul calls us, and from pulpit, store, mill and home the mes-* sage of peace on earth, goodwill to men, must be preached; not alone by word, but more especially by upright, godly, clean lives; and this done, happiness and success will be the portion of our church and our fair town. May God bless our church and town. May His Spirit dwell with them forever. 32 Church of the Good Shepherd. CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Sermon by the Rector, Rev. Victor M. Haughton. Text : — Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, yea and forever. — Heb. xiii, 8. We live in the future. For the true follower of Christ is, like Saint Paul, longing to be with the ascended Lord, and all of us more or less look forward to the time of the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with power and^great glory. . We live in the present, because today, we who are alive unto God, under the dispen- sation of the Holy Ghost, Who sanctifieth us and all the people of God, try to appropriate the benefits of "his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glori- ous ascension." And we live in the past, because every year, as Christians, we keep and observe events which transpired hundreds of years ago. As each year rolls by we celebrate Christmas day, the anniversary of our Lord's birth so long ago in Bethlehem of Judea; Good Friday, the day commemorative of his crucifixion on Calvary; Easter day, the memorial of his resurrection from the dead; and Ascension day, when He ascended into heaven and sat down on the right hand of God. So that in the Church of God the historical consideration of things comes to us quite naturally. It is our most frequent attitude, some times, be it said, to our disadvantage. We are ever looking backward to Jesus Christ. He is the beginning of things Christian, of lives Christ-like; and it has been a continuous, connected course. There is no divid- ing line between the different periods. There is no rupture in the descent. There is no rent in the continuity. Except for purposes of study and method, there is no such thing as an early Church, a mediaeval and a modern. There is not one Church in the early ages, another Church with different ministry and creed in the middle ages, and another Church at the time of the Reformation with a new and modern liturgy. But it is the same ecclesiastical structure which was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. We have the same creed, the same Scriptures, the same liturgy, the same ministry that had the servants of Jesus Chirst in the first one hundred years. The creed that we repeat at every public service is not the outcome of religious, philosophical and scientific enquiry of the best minds of this great nineteenth century, but goes back to the earliest days of the Church of God. The liturgy that we use in worship is not the results of the devotion of the saints of this materialistic age, but the work of many men' of God, going back to the time of Moses, the great Jew- ish leader. Our Scriptures from which we read at every service are not the products of this very intelligent, progressive day, but are all of them the work of Jewish, Greek and Semitic minds, barely the work of the Christian era. The names bishop, presbyter and deacon, and the threefold number of our ministry go back to the Greek language and to the first one hundred years of Christian history for their origin. These are years of great change, progress and movement. The steps taken by modern civilization are long and rapid ones. We are leaving many ancient customs, laws and habits far behind. Some of us are liable to forget, however, that amid all this ebb and flow of mind and matter, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, yea and forever. Others among us possibly, so intent upon modern discoveries, upon recent advances of science and philosophy, upon today's changes in locomotion, and study, forget what the statesmen of yesterday, lawyers of the past, the churchmen of the earliest days have done, that we are enabled to move at the very quick step at which we are moving. The words we use in daily conversation, the phrases we employ in speech, the names 33 Church of the Good Shepherd. of our rivers, lakes, towns, villages and commonwealths connect us with and bind us to dead languages, destroyed peoples and foreign lands. They take us back to the days of barbarians and savages, to the shores of ancient nations and civilizations. Every letter we direct to Boston must bear in abbreviation or full the name Massachusetts, and that word reminds us of the past, when this country was peopled with many noble, distinguished, if cruel savage redmen; and the thoughts of the large of heart regret the destruction of the Narragansetts, the Mohicans, the Penobscots and their kindred tribes, which have left us hardly a memory of their former existence except in the names of the lovely streams, lakes and mountains of New England and elsewhere, where we roam and camp and fish — Connecticut, Winnipiseogee, Minnehaha. We take the train and hurry to the beautiful hills of Vermont and the gem of inland lakes, Champlain, and the foreign sound of these words recalls to us the fact that at one time this portion of North America saw the gay French cavalier and the richly dressed marquis. The lily of the Bourbons and the flag of France floated over those romantic waters and among those green hills. We go still further, and we ride through Amster- dam or Rhinebeck, Staartsburg, Hoboken, and the names of these places tell us that the Dutchmen from Holland had something to do with their settlement. We wander around the country to Louisiana, New Orleans, La Fourche, Fernandina, Volusia, to San Fran- cisco, to Dublin, and we return to our home quite confused as to the real identity of the American. We find that America is a continent discovered in 1492 by an Italian with a Spanish fleet. The country was settled by Scotch, Irish, French, Spaniards, Ger- mans, Dutch, English and Indians, and the continent itself is named after an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci. These curious names which we meet with in the history and geography of our land warn us that many varieties of mankind have helped to form this great republic, and this fact tells us that we of todaj' are merely the children of these men of yes'terday. We are continuing cities built by them — the Spaniard and Frenchman, the Dutchman and Irish- man. We are standing on their platforms, piers and walls. We are eating grains and fruits gathered from the soil which they prepared for agricultural purposes by first felling the huge primeval forests, But further b^ck still we go to search for our origins. Right here in this building, this morning, we have read translations from the Hebrew, Greek and Latin tongues. Greek symbols are worked into embroidery for ecclesiastical hang- ings. A Latin cross tops the pinacle on the outside of the building, and another stands on the re-table. And all these outward and material things, with the name of our church, point to the one only object of our religion, the Christian religion, Jesus'Christ, a Jew, betrayed by Jews to a Latin ruler, "crucified under Pontius Pilate,'' and the whole under- taking under the watchful care of Roman soldiery. We are linked to the past by ever increasing claims of thought, act, and sentiment. The Magna Charta of England's noble- men in 121 5, the brave, tough warriors of Charles Martel at the battle of Poictiers in 732, the creed of Nicaea in 323, the laws of Justinian, the battle of Marathon, the preaching of the Apostles and the cross of Jesus Christ — all have made us what we are. We may change our customs, our manners, our language; we may alter our modes of locomotion from the sail to the steamboat, from the coach-and-four to the steam engine and the pal- ace-car, but we cannot separate our life of today from the life of the Arabian, the Roman, the Mesopotamian and the Jew of yesterday. It is well to remind ourselves of this feature of our beginnings, because today we cel- ebrate, by appointment, the incorporation of the town of Clinton, and the short history of our church, the Good Shepherd. This we cannot do without doing justice to the past. 34 o c ■Xi n -X. o H o o o c m m ■X, muimr , H|l'H("i, \: /*- *> fir'' Church of the Good Shepherd. The very names of our own and of the towns about us are taken from England— Bolton, Lancaster, Rutland, Worcester and Clinton remind us of those confused days when Eng- land herself was passing through the period of amalgamation— when Angle, Saxon, Dane, Celt and Norman were together building a civilization begun by the widely wandering soldier of the Roman empire, who has left his traces in England in all names of towns ending in Chester. The history of our town is short compared to the centuries that have fled, and Qur church history is shorter still; but we must remember that in this short period of half a century we can trace the influence upon Clinton of the Greek, the Roman and the Jew, whose empires faded away a thousand years ago or more. Way back in August, 1847, Doctor Alexander Vinton, of Saint Paul's, Boston, was visiting Lancaster, and he held a service in Clinton in the Congregational church. It may interest you to know that the choir was composed of Mr. Charles G. Stevens and his sister, and the organist was Mrs. Eleanor Chase Morse, a daughter of Bishop Chase, the first bishop of New Hampshire. In 1853, the Rev. Francis T. Russell, who is at present instructor in elocution in the General Theological Seminary in New York city, endeavored to start a mission and parish in Clinton. Bishop Eastburn, then bishop of Massachusetts, opposed the scheme, be- cause he wished no more weak parishes on his hands, as then All Saints, Worcester, was beginning its church life and did not seem to give promise of success. Bishop Chase urged Bishop Eastburn to reconsider, but to no purpose. After many years, All Saints, Worcester, and Christ Church, Fitchburg, growing strong enough to lend a helping hand to surrounding districts, the effort to start a parish was made again, and February 15, 1874, the Rev. Henry L. Jones, then of Christ Church, Fitchburg, now of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, held a service in Bigelow Hall. The next month, March 22, Dr. William R. Huntington, the rector of All Saints, Worcester, now of Grace Church, New York city, held a second service. Dr. Huntington invited those who were interested in the formation of a parish to remain after the service, and it was then decided to hold regular services, beginning with the first Sunday after Easter, April 12. Various clergymen officiated on the Sundays following, but on the last Sunday in June, the Rev. L. Gorham Stevens, a clergyman in deacon's orders, took charge of the mission under appointment from Bishop Paddock, who had been consecrated bishop of Massachusetts the year before, September 17, 1873. On November 8 of the same year of Mr. Steven.s' coming (1874), Bishop Paddock made his first visitation of the new mission and confirmed twelve persons in Bigelow Hall. The following Easter, March 28, 1875, Mr. Stevens resigned, having been in charge of the mission something less than a year, and the next Sunday the Rev. J. C. Hewlett, now of Argo House, Roslindale, Boston, administered the Holy Communion for the first time to the twenty communicants of the mission, in Bigelow Hall. For a while different clergymen came from Sunday to Sunday; then the Rev. John W. Birchmore took charge, though never residing in the town. In the meantime the Sunday-school was increasing, always being, in one sense, more vigorous and prosperous than the congregation. The Sunday-school had been organized at the very first, April 19, 1874, one month after the mission was established. The place of worship up to the time that the Rev. Mr. Stevens departed had been Bigelow Hall; but later the services were held in the District Court Room, which was then on the second floor in Haskell's Block. Plans for a church building were always more or less in the minds of those interested in the mission, and at the suggestion of the Rev. Dr. Bowers efforts were made to pro- 35 Chufch of the Good Shepherd. cure by gift or purchase the shares, from the shareholders, in the Library Building, the library having been moved to the Town Hall Building. This was done, and on October 28, 1876, the corner-stone of the new church was laid. The following year, April 17, 1877, the building was consecrated. Mr. Birchmore remained with the mission until April 28, 1878, when he resigned and went West. With the exception of a few Sundays, the Rev. N. H. Chamberlain, now of Monument Beach, Massachusetts, officiated until August, and then (1878) the Rev. Henry L. Foote accepted a call. Mr. Foote seems to have been the first settled priest in charge, and on April 14, 1879, a parish organization was formed, two wardens and five vestrymen being elected as officers. Mr. Foote, in July, 1881, after a ministry of less than three years of the Church of the Good Shepherd, left for Holyoke. In September, the Rev. E. T. Hamel took charge. During his encumbrancy, in Jan- uary, 1884, a fire broke out in the church and did some damage. Mr. Hamel started what is known as the Woman's Auxiliary. He was followed in May, 1884, by the Rev. George F. Pratt. Up to this time the parish had received assistance from the Board of Missions to the amount of four hundred dollars annually, but during Mr. Pratt's ministry this was stopped, and the mission then became truly a parish, and her priest in charge then became a rector. The Sunday-school at this time reached i^ts highest mark, I should judge, numbering, according to the accounts, about two hundred scholars. In March, 1888, Mr. Pratt having left the Church of the Good Shepherd (and our ministry), the Rev. Thomas L. Fisher became rector. Plans had been in mind for some time to increase the size of the church, which was now eleven years old, and by Decem- ber 9, 1889, what is now the nave was added, and in 1892, June 10, the chancel was dedi- cated, Bishop Brooks being present and confirming nineteen persons. It was about this time that the Junior Auxiliary was started. Mr. Fisher resigned in January, 1895, ^^'^ the Rev. S. B. Dufifield acted as priest in charge for a year or so, when Rev. Lucien Rogers came to the parish. Mr. Rogers re- signed in the following year, his resignation taking effect Easter, 1897. This is a short, some would say, a dry, laconic account of a history of twenty-five years or so. A few among you present remember those first days. They were trying, and yet interesting times. Sentiment, association, pains, joys, labors abundant, are con- nected with the corner-stone, the consecrations, the baptisms, the confirmations, the marriages, the burials, the communions. About the name of the church, the windows, the aisles, the organ, the pulpit, the Sunday-school and guild-room, the choir and the vestry, the bible and (he prayer-books, have clustered many an incident with sacred memories, all of which you know, and could tell me. Many of us, however, have not these associations. We are new members, usurpers, with other notions and ideals. But we are learning; we are passing from like to love, from acquaintance to friendship. The historical and the traditional of "The Good Shepherd" are interesting to us because they belong to the Christ of yesterday, and they are also interesting to us because they are written on your hearts, and are memories never to be effaced. And all this, like much in the sacred Scriptures, cannot be written or described in sermons. Such stories are for quiet chats and private conversation, for autobiographies, published memoirs and reminiscences. The all-absorbing theme for the pulpit of Jesus Christ is the story of Jesus Christ. How many things would we like to know in the early history of the life of our Lord? What became of Lazarus? Where did Saint Joseph die? What became of the Virgin Mary, when did she die, and where? What became of Saint Paul and Saint Peter? Had Saint Matthew and Saint Andrew no interesting tales Methodist Episcopal Church. to tell like Saint Paul and Saint Peter? Did they not too suffer shipwreck or imprison- ment or torture- or martyrdom? We read of reports and legends of the doings of the other apostles, but what Gibbon or Parkman or Motley will discover the true incidents in their lives and tell them to us in continuous story? I would like to hear Simon of Cyrene also tell us his account of the crucifixion and how it affected him; I would like to listen to the centurion's impressions of the Nazarene, which he must have received as he watched the scenes of that terrible day; I would like to learn from the jailor at Philippi the events of that night when Saint Paul and his companions sang the praises of God; I would like to hear Pilate's account of the trial of Jesus Christ. What became of Simon of Cyrene and the jailor and the centurion and Pilate? Did the memories of those days change their lives? Did they — any of them — become "members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven?" All this and much more besides we shall never know in this world, because the sole object of the church of God is to leave all details to a Boswell and herself to preach Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. He loves today as yesterday the lost sheep; He labors today as yesterday for the wayward, the sinner, the rejected, the outcast; He longs to gather, today as yes- terday, all within one fold, that there may be one shepherd. And what a beautiful name we have for our Church ! What's in a name, do you say? What's in any thing? The legend of Hawthorne tells us how a man was influenced by a stone face. Another legend tells us how Gregory the Great was induced to send mission- aries to Great Britain by the name of the slaves that he saw in the market place, Angles. Report has it that the paintings of Millais are changing the conditions of society. Are there not subtle influences in a white cloud, a blade of grass, and rill of water; in an empty chair, a lock of hair, and a faded leaf; in a word, a phrase, a name? All thanks to the person who suggested the name. Good Shepherd. This characteristic of our Lord's is one of the earliest in ecclesiastical art, in symbol and picture and carving. It goes back to the very first moments of Christian history, and perhaps as much as anything can, makes us aware of the fact that Jesus Christ is indeed the same yesterday, today, yea and forever. He never changes. Men change; their hearts grow cold; their faith grows weak; their ardor dampens; their enthusiasm cools; their strength fails. But somehow or other, after eighteen hundred years of the most terrible and fearful onslaughts from friend and foe, by sword and famine, by the pen and torture, the power of Jesus Christ in the world is greater than ever before. He uses the fickle, the timid, the wicked, the poor, the maimed, the impetuous, the faithless, and still the work goes on and spreads, and will spread until he hath put all enemies under his feet and hath delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and God shall be all in all. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Sermon by the Pastor, Rev. A. Morrill Osgood. Text : — Thou art worthy, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power. — Rev. iv. II. The current ideas of Methodist theology were and are Justification by Faith, Assur- ance, and Sanctification. These doctrines, however, were not peculiar to Methodism. Justification by faith was the prominent doctrine of the Reformation. Its doctrines of the "Witness of the Spirit" and of " Sanctification" had been received substantially by all the leading churches of Christendom. Methodism differed from other religious 37 Methodist Episcopal Chufch, systems in respect to theology chiefly by giving greater prominence, more persistent incul- cation, to truths which they held in common, which were rendered incandescent by its spirit, and effective by its methods. The so called "Holy Club" was formed at Oxford in 1729, one hundred and seventy-one years ago, by John and Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield, who sought personal purification by prayer, watchings, fastings, alms, and Christian labors among the poor. "The Methodists," Wesley insisted, "were raised up to spread scriptural holiness over these lands." "I desire," he writes, "to have a league, offensive and defensive, with every soldier of Christ." The Methodist Church was a revival church in its spirit, a missionary church in its organization, and a philanthropic church in its relation to all the world. During the time from the beginning of Method- ism as a force in 1738, one hundred and sixty-two years ago, to the present time, the denomination has spread rapidly over Great Britain, into Scotland, into Ireland, to Nova Scotia, the United States, the West Indies, France, Africa, India, China, Japan, Mexico, South America and the Cannibal Islands of the Southern Ocean, and numbers today throughout the world twenty million adherents. On the lOth of August, 1760, one hundred and forty years ago, a vessel arrived safely in New York, having on board Philip Embury, a class-leader and local preacher, and a little band of Methodists, including Barbara Heck. Methodism in America began its meetings in the house of Embury upon Barrack Street, now Park Place, New York City, and the first congregation numbered six persons, including the minister. After singing and prayer, Philip Embury preached to them, and enrolled the five, the entire congrega- tion, in a class. He continued to meet them weekly. The little company soon grew too large for Embury's house, and hired a more commodious room in the neighborhood. In a few months there were two " classes," one of men, the other of women, including six or seven members each. No little excitement began soon to prevail m the city on account of these meetings, and they were thronged with spectators. In very much the same way, Methodism began to live in this town. Neighborhood meetings were held in the hpuse of Henry Lewis on North Main Street as early as 1834. At the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the dedication of the church edifice, in 1877, Mr. Lewis said he supposed he was the oldest professor of religion present, being nearly eighty years of age; he claimed to be the pioneer of Methodism in this town as the first Methodist sermon was preached in his own house. He said he had been trying for forty-four years to make an " amendment" to his theology by careful study of the Bible, and urged all to strive to live Christian lives, and to understand God's word, waiting in faith for the second coming of our Saviour. John H. Hall, another layman, formed a class which met regularly for about three years, with occasional preaching by Revs. E. F. Newell, Joseph A. Merrill and Orange Scott. Another enthusiastic layman at that time was John Burdett, Jr., who was of great assistance to the little band of Methodists. After a short time these meetings were resumed in 1842, beginning in the brick school-house on Main Street, built in 1824, and located near Mr. Frazer's coal office. So great oppo- sition arose to the use of the school-house for these meetings, they were in a short time held in private houses. In a few years, as the number of Methodists increased, these meetings were held with greater regularity until 1847, when several Methodists began holding meetings at the house of Mr. Coburn, a Wesleyan Methodist. From that time meetings have been held regularly. Revs. Horace Moulton, D. K. Merrill, C. W. Ainsworth, and Gardner Rice occasionally gave them a sermon. A little later these meetings were held at Charles B. Sherman's, near the old quilt mill bridge, and afterwards removed to L. B. Tinkham's, 38 METHODIST CHURCH AND PARSONAGE. Methodist Episcopal Church. on Nelson Street, and later still to the boarding-house of a Miss Heminway, who assumed temporarily the leadership of the class. In answer to their frequent prayers for a class- leader, George E. Harrington was divinely directed to remove from Lunenburg to Clin- ton, under whose efficient direction their numbers so increased that it became necessary to form a second class. Before the year dosed they numbered thirty. In November, 1850, the first regular Methodist preaching on the Sabbath began, un- der the ministrations of Rev. Philip Toque (Tokdy), a local preacher, appointed by Presiding Elder Phineas Crandall of the Worcester District. These services were held in "Attic," afterwards known as "Burdett's" Hall, corner of High and Union Streets, where a congregation was gathered and a Sunday-school was organized in the autumn of 1850. The names of the original charter members of the Clinton Methodist Church are : Henry Lewis, Charles B. Sherman, Leonard B. Tinkham, and their wives, and Mary A. Harris, afterwards Mrs. Mary A. Butler. The first stewards were George H. Foster, George E. Harrington and James Sherman; and the first trustees were Jonathan Weeks, George E. Harrington, Leonard B. Tinkham, George E. Goodale, Mark Andrews, Estes Wilson, and Francis A. Davidson. In 1851, the Ladies' Benevolent Association was organized. In April, 1851, Rev. George Bowler ^was appointed pastor, when the meetings were removed to Concert Hall on account of the increasing congregation, and this hall was soon filled to overflow- ing. A site was purchased for a church edifice at a cost of five hundred dollars. Although the building of a church edifice was planned during the pastorate of Rev. George Bowler, the actual work of building was done while Rev. T. Willard Lewis was in charge, during the summer and fall of 1852. There were associated with the pastor on the building committee, George E. Harrington and Francis A. Davidson. The cost was tour thousand dollars, and the edifice was completed in December and the dedication sermon was deliv- ered by Dr. Daniel Wise of Boston, editor of Zion's Herald. Rev. T. Willard Lewis also built for a parsonage the same year the house in the rear of the church, now occupied by Mr. John H. Rowell. In 1856, a tenement was constructed in the basement of the church edifice, which remained for twelve years. In 1867, the building was raised and a new foundation placed under it at an expense of thirteen hundred dollars. In April, 1868, a house was placed at the disposal of the society by Daniel Goss, to be used as a parsonage, and the property came into the .possession of the church at his death in 1879. During 1868-9, extensive repairs were completed in the edifice at an expense of three thousand dollars. In 1870, a new organ was placed in the church through the generosity of Mr. Daniel Goss. Further repairs were made in 1876. From 1885 to 1888, several important changes took place. The parsonage property of High Street was sold for seven thousand dollars, and two dwelling-houses on Pearl Street purchased for sixty-five hundred dollars. The tabernacle at»the camp-ground was built at an expense of five hundred dollars, and extensive repairs were made in the church edifice at a cost of thirty-seven hundred dollars. Later, the houses on Pearl Street were sold, a lot purchased and parsonage erected at 162 Water Street. In 1897-1900, sixteen hundred and eighteen dollars were expended in repairs. During the present year a legacy from the estate of Lucy R. Holden has been received, which, according to present indications, will equal nineteen hundred dollars. With an indebtedness on church property of six hundred and twenty dollars, and about two hundred and eighty dollars additional indebtedness, the finances of the church show a balance in the treasury of about one thousand dollars; with real estate consisting of a society house at Sterling camp-ground, a parsonage at 162 Water Street, and a church edifice, all in very good condition. (4) 39 Methodist Episcopal Church. The present membership of the church is two hundred and thirty-eight members in full, and fifty-three probationers. During the nearly fifty years of the history of the church about one thousand have been received as probationers, an average of twenty per year; five hundred and thirty-seven have been admitted to full membership from proba- tion, and five hundred and forty-five have been received by certificate, showing a total number of ten hundred and eighty-two accessions to full membership, an average of over twenty per year. During the same time, five hundred and fifty-nine have been baptized, about eleven per year. True to her nature, the Methodist Church in Clinton has been like the denomination throughout t^ie world — revival in spirit, missionary in organization, and philanthropic in its relation to all the world. Devoted to general participation in prayer and testimony, in neighborhood class and prayer services, the church has been greatly blessed with many consecrated laymen, loyal, conscientious men and women, who have stood by the society amid storm and sunshine. The records tell us of the enthusiasm and power in exhorta- tion and prayer of George E. Harrington, Daniel Houghton, George H. Foster, James F. Maynard, John H. Rowell, Ephraim Hunt and Francis A. Davidson, assisted by their equally devoted wives, and such elect women as Betsy Cutting, Mary Ann Eveleth, Lucy Sawyer, Betsy Flood and Carrie Bixby. Later, came A. B. Turner, E. P. Whitaker, A. W. Lowe, John D. Brigham, and their wives, all of whom were of great service to the church. Some of her sons are ministers of the gospel: Rev. E. S. Lewis of the Cincin- nati Conference, stationed at Columbus, Ohio, and Rev. John Mason of the New England Conference, stationed at South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts. Three of her young men — Edward R. Leslie, Perry H. Murdick and Thomas Harrower — are preparing to enter the ministry. The Sunday-school, as we have seen, was organized in tne autumn of 1850, with George E. Harrington as superintendent, who served for about three and a half years, and was succeeded by the following persons, who respectively occupied the' position of superintendent: James F. Maynard, April, 1854-1865; E. P. Whitaker, April, 1865-1868; George H. Foster, April, 1868-1870; Joshua Freeman, April, 1870-January, 1872; E. P. Whitaker, January, 1872-1873; George F. Houghton, January, 1873-1875; Charles R.' Chamberlain, January, i87S-March 25, 1877; John'F. Keyes, March 25, 1877-December 25, 1880; C. E. Copp, 1880-1885; F. P. Sawyer, 1885-1887; E. S. Butler, January 2, 1887- December 20, 1888; G. D. Gunn, December 30, 1888-April 7, 1889; J. W. Chase, May 12, 1889-December 27, 1891; H. P. Sawyer, December 27, 1891-December, 1893; L. V. Bailey, 1893-July, 1895; B- H. Booth, October, 1895, to present time. The present membership of the Sunday-school is two hundred and ninety-five, including thirty-eight officers and teachers. The Ladies' Benevolent Association was organized, as above mentioned, in 185 1, with Mrs. Ann C. Bowler as president, and has done very efficient service in attending to occa- sional demands for aid in supplying church and parsonage with carpets and furniture; in contributing money for the support of the church; and in sustaining the social activities of the church. Its monthly social gatherings have continued to the present time an occa- sion for very general appreciation. Clinton's wide-awake young Methodists, always a strong force in co-operation with the church and Sunday-school, banded themselves together January 3, 1889, under the name of The Young People's Christian League. A preliminary meeting had been held, however, at the close of the church prayer-meeting, December 26, 1888, looking toward the organization. Loyalty to the church actuated the members of the League then, and 40 Methodist Episcopal Church. the same lofty sentiment inspires the members now. The number of members in the beginning was thirty-eight. Before the society was many months old, the movement uniting in one all the young people's societies in the Methodist Church had created wide- spread enthusiasm among our young folks everywhere; and Clinton catching the inspira- tion, the name of the society was changed to " Epworth League, Flora Chapter 588," taking its name from its president, Miss Flora Toulmin. The League has continued to prosper under the leadership of Dr. A. C. Reed, Miss Flora Toulmin, John S. Allen, Mrs. James Mudge, S. H. Harran, Erastus Pierce, B. H. Booth, S. M. Church, and J. W. Pow- ell, and numbers at the present time one hundred and fifteen active and thirty-seven associate members. The League has a vigorous junior department under the superin- tendency of Mrs. M. A. Osgood. The Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Societies connected with the church have enjoyed a useful and far-reaching influence, in contributions to urgent demands for aid from the home and foreign field, and have proved valuable educators in creating an interest in the cause of Christ in other portions of our own country and in other lands. The following have served the church as pastors, the average length of a pastorate being a little less than two years: Rev. Philip Toque, 1850-51; Rev. George Bowler, 1851-52; Rev. T. Willard Lewis, 1852-54; Rev. Augustus F. Bailey, 1854-55; Rev. Newell S. Spaulding, 1855-57; Rev. Daniel K. Merrill, 1857 (8 mos.); Rev. Willard F. Mallalieu, 1857-58 (4 mos.); Rev. William J. Pomfret, 1B58-60; Rev. Thomas B. Treadwell, 1860-61; Rev. Albert Gould, 1861-63; Revs. J. P. Coolidge and W. G. Leonard, 1863-64; Rev. E. F. Hadley, 1864-65; Rev. E. S. Chase, 1865-67; Rev. Frederick T. George, 1867-68; Rev. Joseph W. Lewis, 1868-70; Rev. William R. Braman, 1870-73: Rev. A. C. Godfrey, 1873- 74; Rev. V. M. Simons, 1874-77; Rev. W. M. Ayres, 1877-80; Rev. C. H. Hanaford, 1880-82; Rev. Albert Gould, 1882-85; Rev. J. N. Short, 1885-88; Rev. M. E.Wright, 1888-89; Rev. W. B. Toulmin, 1889-91; Rev. James Mudge, 1891-94; Rev. Harvey H. Paine, 1894-97;, Rev. A. Morrill Osgood, 1897- The official members of the church at the present time are as follows: Resident Bishop, Rev. W. F. Mallalieu, D. D.; Presiding Elder, Rev. J. H. Mansfield, D. D.; Pas- tor, Rev. A. M. Osgood, A. M.; Local Preacher, Perry H. Murdick; Exhorter, Edward R. Leslie; Class Leaders, J. Potter, B. H. Booth, S. M. Church, E. S. Butler, S. H. Harran, W. J. Ferry; President of Epworth League, J. W. Powell; Stewards, B. H. Booth, H. T. Bray, J. R. Stott, N. S. Davis, H. W. Dudley, W. J. Ferry, S. H. Harran, J. H. Rowell, R. W. Flinn, S. F. Hamilton, J. W. Lewis, Mrs. Hattie E. Sawyer, J. P. Watson; Trustees, S. D. Allen, F. S. Barrows, A. H. Dudley, F. C. Harwood, A. W. Lowe, C. H. Peters, F. P. Sawyer, J. M. Sawyer, J. L. Signor. The relations of the church with sister churches in Clinton have been cordial, and she has stood with them shoulder to shoulder against the forces of evil in the community. Her pulpit has uttered no uncertain sound on questions of temperance and reform. When our country required her services during the civil war in 1861 and the Spanish war in 1898, she was represented by some of her noble sons. Her response to appeals for aid from famine-stricken peoples the world over has been generous, and her regular contributions to the various benevolences have been large. At the twenty-fifth anniver- sary of the dedication of the church edifice in 1877, the early experience of the society was summarized as follows: " This church, like all others, has experienced many vicissi- tudes in its history. Sometimes circumstances have been unfavorable and discourage- ments have seemed almost unsurmountable; but a few faithful, heroic ones pushed on 41 First Baptist Chufch. amid the gathering gloom, 'till, with the blessing of the Lord, they came out of the cloud into the sunshine of prosperity." The spirit, organization and practice of Methodism in Clinton have secured for this branch of Christ's church an honorable position in the community. While many who were once connected with the church have passed onward to their heavenly reward, a goodly number yet remain — some efficient members of other denominations, some residing in the different portions of the country, while others, brave, loyal and faithful consti- tute the membership of the church today. Not unto us be the glory, for "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power." FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. Sermon by Rev. Charles M. Bowers, D. D. Pastor 1847-1886. Text: — Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, or apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out. — Job viii, 7, 8. . When manufacturing and business start a new town in Massachusetts our Congrega- tionalist brethren, by a kind of "eminent domain," must needs be first in ecclesiastical possession of the locality. They number now six hundred churches in the Common- wealth, with a grand total of one hundred and forty thousand members. It requires but a small overflow from so powerful a body into any promising district or place to make the church that is first in time first also in numbers, means, influence and attractiveness. Baptists rejoice in the Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers of Ortho- dox Congregationalism in the towns and cities of old Massachusetts. We rejoice in the stability and virility of its doctrinal position and its matchless service in the cause of education and missions in the world. But as long as good and saintly men continue to wear the ancient ecclesiastical clothes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which Paul declared should be wholly laid aside for a better outfit, it will be necessary for a kind of Baptist Congregationalists to follow with a protest and introduce their neighbors to the better garments of a later heavenly make in Christ Jesus. The two kinds of Congregationalists are not far apart, and in Clinton the fact is happily symbolized by their houses of worship being so near together as to be not separated, but united by a school-house, so that if one is bounded on the south by an educational institution, the other is bounded equally on the north by the same, and edu- cation and religion thus put both in happy fellowship. The Baptist Church was the second church organized in the territory now called Clinton, and recognized by Council duly called in 1847, three years before the incorpora- tion of the town. Its distinctive principles are: — The Bible as against all tradition and human authority — The original Scriptures to be honestly translated in missionary fields of foreign lands — Christ head over all things to the church — The church composed of regenerated members — Each separate church independent in itself without the control of any outside power — The church wholly of New Testament origin — The ordinances as administered by inspired apostles — The certainty of infant salvation — The absolute rights of conscience above all laws ecclesiastical or civil — and finally. No forms or ceremonies essential to salvation, however essential they may be to give meaning, direction and efficiency to true church life. Contrary to popular prejudice a Baptist never believes that any kind of baptism is essential to salvation, or that any kind of church membership 42 Fifst Baptist Chufcfi. is. While there are many things important as adjuncts in reaching the best results in certain higher things, this does not necessarily involve any saving quality in them. The Baptist Church might have ranked first in the order of time had it not been for the failure in 1835 of a movement begun in 1816 when a few families of Bapt- ist principles, together with those who revolted against the injustice of be- ing taxed to support the worship of the "standing order" in Lancaster Cen- ter with which they did not sympathize, took measures to be. organized into a religious society to be known as the Baptist Society of Lancaster, and to maintain the "sentiments held by the Warren Association." It would appear from the records of this society that most of the voters of that day in the southerly part of the town must have been at one time or another members of this body. The first meeting of the society was held March 16, 1816, in a school-house south of the Nashua River, when a constitu- tion was adopted and parish officers were elected. Elder Luther Goddard was engaged to preach once a month, and Elder Thomas Marshall once a month. Elder Goddard was a jeweller and repairer of watches in Worcester, and in his preaching expeditions he fre- quently carried home some of the watches of his hearers which were afflicted with back- sliding or watch depravity^ and so aided them with double advantage in keeping better time in the soul and in the watch-pocket. Charles Chace, grandfather of our present brother Charles, was chosen treasurer of the society, and John Burditt, clerk. From that time to 1835, the society held annual meetings regularly, appointed committees on sub- scriptions for preaching, and maintained worship in private houses or school buildings as they could obtain the services of acceptable ministers. The dwelling of Charles Chace was the usual place of the parish meetings, and from 1817 to 1829 the records have no account of any such meeting in a school-house. The records of this now extinct society are valuable as showing how much good men like Charles Chace, Alanson Chace, Cor- nelius Moore, John Burditt, Levi Howard, Benjamin Holt (a son-in-law of the distin- guished theologian and preacher, Dr. Baldwin of Boston), and others attempted to do to establish and maintain evangelical worship in a section of the town, when the original light at the centre had gone out in darkness. An effort was made even to raise money to build a meeting-house, but most of the people in " South Woods," as the district was often called, were of too limited means for such an enterprise. If this plan had succeeded the Baptists would have had the honor of establishing the fiifst church in what is now Clin- ton, as they do have the distinction of being first in organizing a society to maintain Sab- bath worship. The great obligation our present church is under to the true men we have mentioned, for the seed of Baptist principles they sowed with earnest purpose in this locality, should preserve their memory amongst us as a most precious inheritance. To forget the Chaces and Burditts of seventy years ago would be like heartless children for- getting_the parents that gave them being. May the church never lack such names in its roll of membership. When at the close of 1846 our Congregationalist brethren left the chapel they had been holding worship in for their new and commodious meeting-house, the Baptists made a second attempt to establish worship by succeeding to the use of said chapel, and on the first Sunday of January, 1847, '^hey began their new religious enterprise with more faith and works than means, which has finally resulted, as the place grew in population and business, in their present degree of prosperity. The first clergyman chosen as their leader declined the call, but the invitation to another secured acceptance. At this time the Fitchburg church reported a membership of two hundred and forty-eight. West Boyl- ston, two hundred and twenty-two, and Harvard, one hundred and one. These figures 43 First Baptist Church. show what advantage certain churches had in the Wachusett Association in working force over a church in the feebleness of its birth. Our beginning was small enough, for at the constitution of the church, April 24, 1847, o"ly seventeen persons were joined to- gether in faith and fellowship as the First Baptist Church of Lancaster. If the church should bear a human name it would deserve to be called the Burdett Baptist Church of Clinton; for of the seventeen original members nine bore the good name of Burdett. Dr. Burdett, who had settled in the village as a physician, became the first clerk, and contin- ued in this service for about fifty years and to within a short period of his death. It is delightfully fitting that another Burdett should be his successor in the office, and we devoutly pray he may have fifty years of like distinction. Of the seventeen, five still remain on earth, one our venerable brother, Thomas Burdett, another the devoted lover of the church, Mrs. Elizabeth, widow of Dr. Burdett, another our aged sister, Mrs. Har- riet Morgan, in feeble health in Sterling, another, one of the earlier leaders of our choir, Frederic W. Burdett, whose home is in one of the western states, and another, our cheer- ful brother Otis H. Kendall, who has come from California to be with us in the jubilee celebration of the town. Good cheer to him that we greet him once more in his old church home of many years. The first year of the church had hardly ended before the poor accommodations of the chapel made it necessary to think of building a proper meeting-house, but the ques- tion of means was a fearful question. Yet the Lord gave us Alanson Chace and George Cummings to lead in generous subscriptions; others of smaller means were encouraged to follow, and the combined gifts, with contributions from neighboring churches and individuals, provided a neat and comfortable sanctuary at a cost of six thousand dollars, with a seating capacity of four hundred and fifty worshippers. This house was dedicated in 1849. Ill 1867, or eighteen years after, the church had so increased in numbers that a larger house seemed a necessity, and a new structure by reconstruction and addition was obtained, which, with the organ, cost about eleven thousand dollars, and gave sittings for a congregation "of six hundred. The new building was dedicated in 1868. Twenty-five more years passed away, and it seemed in the judgment of many that with a very popular and attractive preacher we should join the attractions of a still better house. Human nature takes very kindly to human nature, and our third provision for worship in less than fifty years resulted in the beautiful, commodious and well arranged house in which we are now gathered. Besides, the church had grown in means as well as human nature. And so we have today not only beauty of form and ornamentation all around us, but some specialties of convenience or inconvenience which surpass the like- ness of anything known before. Our pulpit has left its throne and our large Bible descended to a lower level. Our communion table has retired from sight and speaks no more to the eye of the worshippers. But we do have a fine temple for luxurious worship obtained by a generous outlay of twenty-seven thousand dollars, more than one quarter of which has come from a benevolent and free-hearted officer of the church. May heav- en's blessing abide upon him. It is a rare thing that a church provides for itself three houses of worship in less than fifty years. In the first arrangement of pastor and people extending to two score years save one, the church carried on its work with singular growth and success. Revivals were com- mon, and it was almost uncommon not to have one. In one year the church reported sixty-five baptisms as the result of its work, a thing without parallel among Baptist churches in this region. In ten or twelve of the thirty-nine years more baptisms rewarded the activity of the church than were enjoyed by any other church in the Association, and 44 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. Fitst Baptist Chtti-cli. twice at least in the annual returns the church reported more than in all the other churches together. Three of the four present deacons were brought into our fellowship during that period; several of those who became Sunday-school superintendents were among its converts; three persons were licensed to preach: Charles W. Walker, Charles A. Bowers and Charles Reekie; two sisters went out in missionary service, and four hun- dred and sixty-two souls were added to us by a public confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things are given, not as glorifying the consecration of the church, but only as among the blessed items in its history. And while we had risen from the small- est beginning to the second body in number in the twenty churches of the Association, and though our associational historian, Dea. Bradford of Fitchburg, had done us the honor to say, the Clinton church is the most influential church in the whole Association, yet we humbly confess that up to 1886, we had not done all that our responsibility re- quired in our day and generation. Perhaps a different leader might have aided the church in some way to make its labor even more fruitful. It has seemed a mystery to himself, the church servant of that day, that his life has been continued to speak to you at this hour, instead of having his present address on a little white stone in a cemetery bit of real estate. When in 1886 it became necessary for the church to have a second pastor, the choice fell on Rev. Hiram Kallock Pervear, a minister of fine record in our state, who had with marked ability served in four important pastorates. Three of the pulpits he had filled ~ ranked high in the denomination and had given Brother Pervear a pleasant reputation among his brethren. Dr. Pervear was born in Roxbury, now Boston, July 16, 1831. He studied in Worcester Academy to prepare for college, entered Brown University in 1851, and after finishing the full course of four years, went to Newton Theological Institution to complete his preparation for the ministry. He was ordained in Roxbury in 1857. Of nearly thirty-five years of service in the ministry before coming to Clinton, eight years were given to East Cambridge, eight years to First Worcester, seven years to First Cam- bridge, six and one-half years to First New Bedford. His work has thus been wholly in our state, and that he has served such leading churches honors it with no small distinc- tion. He has proved himself a safe, conservative preacher, a wise expounder of the Word, a hearty defender of sound doctrine and a fine example of the dignity and influ- ence of the .pulpit. In 1899, he received from Acadia College the well merited degree of Doctor of Divinity. During his labors in the churches mentioned he gathered many souls into the kingdom, and one fact deserves special mention, that in one of the years while he was pastor at the First Cambridge he baptised the large number of ninety-three persons, a record which few ministers have the privilege of making. His five years with us brought forty by profession into the church. Our third pastor was the popular and much beloved Rev. Willard Emmet Waterbury. He was born in Hastings, Oswego County, New York, March 7, 1858. His special edu- cation preparatory to the ministry was received in the Collegiate Institute, Elbridge, New York, and the University of Rochester. Before assuming the charge of a church, however, he entered upon Young Men's Christian Association work at Concord, New Hampshire, in which he continued a year and a half. In 1884, he was called to take ' charge of the church in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in which place he was ordained, and where he labored three years. In 1887, he was invited to become the pastor of the Carew Street Church, Springfield, Massachusetts, and with this people he remained in service five years. In 1892, under the pressure of a most urgent call, he came to Clinton, 45 First Baptist Chorch. and in the four and one-half years of his administration in holy things added one hua- dred and forty-six persons to the church by baptism. In 1897, he returned to Springfield to enter again upon Young Men's Christian Association work, from which he resigned, however, in a few months, and then, in the co-operative work of the Baptist churches of the city, became missionary pastor with special appointments at Benton Street and Bel- mont Avenue. In the latter place a church has been organized, and in the remarkable growth and prospects of the work a church edifice will shortly be erected for the greater convenience of the body of which he is now the devoted pastor without any divided min- istration. Brother Waterbury is remarkably gifted with the qualities that ensure success. He is the incarnation of geniality and graciousness. He has a happy gift of ready ex- pression, an aptness to teach and a perfect command of himself on the platform. His manner of address is winsome, his doctrine without severity, and he could even make the ten commandments sweet to the taste. As a public speaker he is agreeable both to see and hear, and as one good woman expressed it, he was the most graceful speaker she ever listened to. In the four and one-half years he labored in Clinton he was a general favorite with all classes. 1 Our fourth and the present pastor is Rev. Archibald Sangster Brown. He was born in Litchfield, Pennsylvania, July i, 1844. After enjoying the advantages of a fine busi- ness education he removed to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1870, where he built up a pros- perous hardware business, and became also an active member of Dr. Crane's church. Developing the qualities that make a public speaker, he heard the call of God in 1881 to give himself to the preaching of the gospel. He took a course of systematic theology in Hartford, and in 1885 became pastor, while still in business, of the Baptist Church in Rockville, being ordained in Hartford, November 4, of the same year. With this people he labored two years, rais'ing funds to build a meeting-house, superintending the work, and largely adding to the membership and the prosperity of the church in all ways. While in the work of church building he received a call to the Carew Street Church, Spring- field, which he did not accept, for he was carrying the double burden of the Rockville Church and his business also. The call from Springfield was shortly again extended and again declined. When he closed his labors with the Rockville Church after two years, he supplied the church in Granville, this state, for a year and one-half, and though invited to become their pastor he did not deem it expedient to do so. He gave up his business, however, and devoted his whole time to their interests, lifting them out of their financial and spiritual depression into great enlargement and prosperity. A revival also was enjoyed, which added a large number to the church. In 1889, he was called to take charge of the First Baptist Church in Norwich, and in a form exceptionally flattering. Connected with the official statement of the call was a roll of one hundred prominent members of the parish, whose signatures emphasized the strong desire felt for his accept- ance. He began his work there in October, which work , during nearly eight years was marked by evident tokens of the divine favor. Over one hundred and fifty baptisms gave fresh strength and cheer to the church. In 1897, April i, we succeeded in winning him from Norwich to become our teacher and leader. He brought with him the great advantage of his business experience, which may have much to do with his reaching men and families in the daily walks of life. He has shown us how one may put effective busi- ness qualities in preaching — a living purpose, persevering labor, the taking hold and never letting go. His ministry is his one particular life during the week and on the Sabbath. Within the period of his service up to date he has led into the church through baptism 46 Fitst Baptist Church. forty-nine souls. His earnestness of effort and untiring devotion to the interests of the unsaved promise most desirable results for the future. No men could be more unlike in general characteristics than the four men who have served the chureh fifty-three years, and we can understand how different qualities and conditions may work to the same end and finely explain the apostle's word, "There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit, and there are differences of administration but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which work- eth all in all." The church has certainly not lacked in the pulpit of the last dozen years the qualities that win souls. Among the things that maybe mentioned as having largely contributed to such pros- perity as the church has been permitted to enjoy, are the following : 1. The good work in our Sabbath-school. This department of our labor has had the vigorous and prayerful leadership of eighteen different superintendents. A history of the various schools in the Association prepared and published sometime previous to 1880, uses the following language in regard to the school in Clinton: "Our school has had in some respects a remarkable history. Of eleven superintendents but three have died dur- ing the period following the organization of the school. In ten of the years we have reported the largest number of baptisms, and that too when in nine years of our history we were united with the schools of the Worcester Association. In more than two-thirds of the years we have rejoiced in some conversions. We have never had in the variety of our gifts a poor superintendent." When it is possible to mention such names as those of Martin, Kittredge, Walker, Smith, Burdett, Dr., Phillips, Greeley, Burditt, A. A., Thissell, Ingalls, Marsh, and later on, Keyes, Stowell, Burdett, Edw., Heighway, Fay, Childs and Estabrook, we have reason for the greatest gratitude for the rich supply of material given us to manage well the trust involved in the Sabbath-school. Nor should it be overlooked that in the grading of infant and junior departments we have had most devoted and effi- cient leaders among some of the sisters of the church. The history of the school is in some respects without any parallel in the Association. 2. Another fact should be mentioned as having contributed to our prosperity, the constant desire of the church for revival blessings. Not that the entire church with any frequency has been lifted to the highest exaltation of prayer for such a manifestation of power, nor that the motive prompting the wish may have been of the purest quality throughout, but very few churches have had the word "revival" with some honest mean- ing to it more in the heart and on the tongue than ours. In this yearning every pastor has sympathized and endeavored to encourage us. It would not have been possible for the church to have had in so short a history nearly seven hundred persons added to it by baptism if there had not been in the portion of the body that makes the real church much fellowship in revival work. 3. Still another point in our church prosperity should be mentioned, the strong re- gard of the ministry and people for the unadulterated word. We have tried to adhere to thev doctrinal Bible of Christ and the apostles. We have not found it necessary to put the speculation of man in the place of the voice of God. Nothing yet that we have heard of has been able to make so Christ-like a man as the exact Christ-like word. Criticism ! Christ is our criticism and interpretation of scripture. We have not called in question Christ's belief in sacrificial salvation, or blood preciousness, or regeneration, or penalty for sin and rejection of the Holy Spirit. It astonishes us that a certain clergyman can teach the need of a new hymnology, a new conception of Christian piety, a new church and new thinkers to guide us; in fact, a change in the whole environment of the 47 First Baptist Church. Christian life, and then employ an evangelist of the New Testament style of belief to preach a different set of views to secure a revival. There never was a church built on a denial of Christ's New Testament that was worth having in the world or that had Christ's way of prosperity. What this church is today is through the New Testament Christ, not some reconstructed Christ of man. Salvation to make a church must all be in Christ. This explains in part our condition today. 4. A further point in the prosperity of the church deserves mention, the peaceful management of all affairs by those who have had an official or controlling influence in the church and society. A people that can hold in service a church clerk fifty years, certain deacons thirty years, a church treasurer thirty-three years, Sunday-school super- intendents in some cases eight or ten years — that never had discordant notes with its various choirs, nor quarreled with any building contractors or janitors — that allowed its ministers to set aside the pulpit and pulpit Bible without a murmur, surely had truly found the blessed way of holding the fort without any conflict or shedding a drop of spiritual blood. We can proudly mention our deacons : Burditt, the honest adventist; Walker, the symbol of sturdy independence; Gibson, the model of meekness; Smith, the unassuming helper; Thissell, the strong example of church loyalty; Greeley, the illustra- tion of calm principle; Ingalls, who dares to be a Daniel on occasions and stop the mouth of lions; and Weeks, the modest, courteous brother, as men who have contributed to keep- ing up a peaceful atmosphere in the church by trying to promote the conditions that make for harmony. We never had any despotic tempers to interfere with the quiet of our Zion. 5. But finally and above all, we have had among the contributions to our prosperity all along in our history a devoted and efficient corps of noble women. They have not been merely members of a church built up by men, they have been largely themselves in the construction. We should hardly have half the strength of today but that our Debo- rahs and Huldahs and Priscillas and Joannas and Brother Philip's daughters have known how to be saints of the hustling order. When the first meeting-house was built it had no lecture room or vestry. Our midweek meetings were held in the ample dining-rooms of the large boarding-houses. In the early days of our worship there was hardly any foreign help in the mills. The operatives were mostly of American birth, daughters of well-to- do farmers, some of good education, some had been teachers of country schools, and nearly all had the best instincts of true womanhood and lady-like refinement. As an illustration of the kind of workers at that time or soon after, three daughters from one family were with us whose father when he died, died leaving an estate of ninety thousand dollars. One of the daughters married a clergyman who was settled at one time in the literary city of Cambridge; another married a gentleman of considerable fortune. I never attended any prayer-meetings of greater interest and power than some of those'in the large boarding-houses. The women showed the intelligence and ability of minds elevated by the Holy Spirit. From the beginning to now we have always been favored with a supply of earnest, intelligent Lydias, and what John calls a kind of "elect lady." To a certain extent women furnish the best life to a church. A church of men would almost degenerate into an ice-house. Paul in the twelfth of Romans tells us he could not have been the same Paul without the remarkable women who were ready to die in his and their work. Christ as a human teacher could not have been the same Christ without woman's co-operation. The Bible is especially woman's book. Pentecost would not have been fully Pentecost without praying women. Many wonders in scripture are the wonders of female men. Dr. Weston once said of a former member of this church who became a 48 German Church. member of his church in Worcester, "She is the best man I have in my church." The Bible says the woman is the glory of the man. When you want an organ call in a woman, or carpets, call in a woman; when you want help in temperance or the Grand Army or the Young Men's Christian Association or in the missionary cause, call in a woman. This church has done a vast deal of good living that way. When God made woman it is said he made her by taking a rib of Adam; when now He makes a great miracle-working man He does it by taking part of a woman's heart to make him of. When He commissioned Samson to do his mighty deeds He made him much like a woman by giving him very long womanly hair. When he lost his long hairy endowment he became Samson minus Samson. The greatest man that ever lived is the Virgin Mary. Church women work in wings, men in their feet, and sometimes lame at that. No woman would ever have made such a mess of it as Peter and Judas and the other ten. The best religion is rather femi- nine on the whole, and by this kind our church has been much increased. We can use with great propriety the poetic word : "They talk about a woman's sphere, As though it had a limit ; There's not a place in earth or heaven. There's not a task to mankind given, There's not a blessing or a woe. There's not a whisper yes or no, There's not a life or death or birth That has a feather's weight of worfh. Without a woman in it." Did time permit it would be pleasant to refer to the influence of the Christian Endeavor Society off church prosperity. The name alone testifies to its value as a helper in church work — "Endeavor;" this with the vigor of youth makes a combination of holy power that has often put a new spirit into a church. Our Endeavor Society has proved a force of special virtue. Then our mission societies and other Christian organizations have contributed their quota of power to the life of the church. The membership of the church June 13, 1900, shows the goodly figure of three hun- dred and ninety-two. Today we are represented all over the country by those who have gone from us with the blessings of the salvation they found while with us. What for the next half century? Shall we be an increasing power here and else- where? Shall we be a church of higher purpose and holier living and closer following of the Master? The Thessalonians were described by Paul as "the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Let us be that and we shall do something towards changing the condition of the whole world. Our responsibility is as glorious as are our opportuni- ties and possibilities. GERMAN CHURCH. Sermon by the Pastor, Rev. F. C. F. Scherff. Text: — The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all. — Prov. xxii, 2. Man as an indivirlual, in family, community or nation, shows the same traits. Like the traveler, who on his ascent of a high, mountainous elevation from time to time stops, looks back and around in order to take in the view, to notice every change and to see how much he has advanced, so also does man on his journey through life in the various relations which he holds in family, community or nation. A child lives in the present, 43 German Chwi-ch. but soon, within a few years, deals in futures, which tendency continues to grow intensely in the young man and woman. But when the height of life has been reached, he begins to look back, and he roams through the years of his life and often draws lessons from the past experiences. This is our case today. We are celebrating today in all the churches, and will celebrate during the week in the community at large, Clinton's Semi-Centennial. To this end I have chosen from Scripture Prov. xxii, 2, on which to base the thoughts in regard to the subject of the day. First. God is in the history of an individual's life as surely as he manifests himself in the history of a community. In scripture and history we find many illustrations for our first thought. It was the individual which found divine recognition and which was made the vehicle to transmit divine favor and blessings unbounded to the many. It is the Christian era which shows forth this truth progressively, more especially from the time of the Reformation. What currents of light and life, the invention of the art of print- ing, the use of steam and of machinery furnished to the human race! Vast and over- whelming were the revolutionizing changes wrought by these events during the last cen- tury, both in the moral and physical sphere of man! America became a refuge and home to the oppressed in all the nations of the earth — a home which, in its various aspects and conditions, radiated forth blessings to the homelands, the end of which is not yet. Clinton is a unit in the sum total; America, home of the nations of the earth by "divine reckoning." Fifty years ago Clinton was a small, insignificant Village with few inhabitants. Since then it has grown to be a town of such a size that it might become a cit}', with city gov- ernment, if that was deemed best. The once sleepy little village has changed into a wide- awake town, at the center of which are enormous manufacturing interests, namely: the Lan- caster Mills, covering about sixteen acres; the Bigelow Carpet Mills and the Wire Cloth Mills, each covering about fourteen acres; to which of late the Rodger's Mill has been added. We ask at this time, by what strange accident has such a marvellous change been brought about? Was it accident? I say no! I believe, and you with me believe, in the all-providing Father above us, of whom it is said in the good book, that He cares for the sparrows but far more for man. At the bottom of this change we find a young man who had an idea in his head, the building of a steam power loom, which before it had been given birth came near wrecking that young inventor in body and mind. Com- ing from out of modest circumstances, he found it exceedingly difficult even after having solved the problem of his invention, to enlist the necessary financial support in order to realize upon it. In his brother, who had the talent of an organizer, was given him a co-laborer most needed to the successful development of the invention. The cap- ital was at last found and the new enterprise launched, which in its natural course brought good returns to the starters, and became also the means to furnish bread to thousands of industrious hands these many years. Also the Germans entered among these many thousands by divine providence. If they came for bread, yet they yielded more to the community than they received. They fur- nished skilled labor, life and blood in the struggle of this land to maintain the Union and helped to increase the wealth of this community. In due time they may, by divine help, furnish more. God's plan to weld the nations of the earth into one nation on this new continent, and to have this new nation stand out boldly before the nations of the earth as an object lesson, means much to me for the Germans, and swells my heart also with hopes for the Clinton Germans. There is a talent entrusted to each nation, and there is 50 THE CLINTON HOSPITAL. THE GERMAN VILLAGE. Gcfman Church. one in the German, and I long to see that feature in them revived which shone forth in the Reformation time. Our second thought is: God makes the rich and the poor to meet together. Much is said and done against the rich, and no doubt much is done by the rich against the poor. It is quite a case, and the solution of it will surely require more than human wisdom. God alone can, and surely God will according to his wisdom and in his time, not before, guide us into the right way. Strife, hatred and selfishness will never bring about the desired end. Love, divine love; love in the heart of the rich, love in the heart of the poor, is the requisite by which divine guidance is understood and submitted to. Great riches are as much, if not even more, of a test of human character than poverty is. Both may not only, but are, in the divine order of the Creator of man. the means to develop the highest order of character. And since it has pleased God's only son, Jesus, to take upon himself human poverty, it is with me a question yet which is the more blessed state, that of the rich or the poor. Indeed, scripture says it is more blessed to give than to take; but lies not there also the greater task? Where is there a single instance in scripture referring to a rich man or woman like that of the widow's mite? Our text teaches us that it is divine intention that the rich and the poor meet together. Who then will undertake to change the order of things? To walk in the appointed way is man's duty. So then it is the duty of the rich and the poor to meet together, not in strife but in good will one to another, according to the golden rule. Clinton's history for fifty years goes to prove that the rich need the poor and the poor need the rich. If the inventor of the steam-power Ibom had failed to meet together with the rich, his family could not have given a large sum of money towards the building of this church. If the poor had been unwilling to meet together with the rich, the town of Clinton with twelve thousand inabi- tants and a.weekly pay-roll in the mills alone of about fifty thousand dollars, with great church and school interests, would not exist. If the rich and the poor had failed to meet together, the civil war with its great issues could not have been fought. A further proof of the truth of our second thought is found in the fact that since the erection of this church, within a small radius of the same, four new streets have been laid out and sixty- three houses, at a cost of at least one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, erected by and many of them belonging to Germans. Of course not all of this property is paid for, but still it represents savings out of the earnings. The last and third thought taken from the text is: "That the individual as well as the community, must be God-fearing if good shall follow them their life long." The industries alone would not be sufficient to explain Clinton's marvellous progress. The man who under God wrought such a change in Clinton's future was a God-fearing man, and by these, his serious convictions, became a power for good in the upgrowing community. Christ says: Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that goes forth from the mouth of God. Man has to consider his spiritual nature, which cannot live on bread, but heeds God. Clinton's prosperous condition of today, the cause of our joy, must not allow us to forget that it was a double' movement by which this community was blessed. There is danger in great prosperity to lose sight of that soberness which was the high- way to prosperity. I think here was the trouble and cause which almost upset our Ger- man church enterprise thirteen years ago. Some of our people were so well satisfied with their material achievements that they scorned the source of all blessings, God. Scripture says: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." True and lasting prosperity is based upon the fear of the Lord. Our church started thirteen and one-half years ago, and was welcomed by many. SI First Congffegational Church. though only very few mustered courage to join it. This same condition in a measure exists today. The First Congregational Church housed us and helped us in a Christ-like spirit with goodwill and means. But more than that must be said, namely: that through- out the community and beyond the limits of this town good people strengthened and upheld this work. Work for God, for the true, most sacred and lasting interests of man, has been, is and will yet be a struggle and severe contest. "We cannot measure the influence of the church by statistics, yet we may get a clearer idea of the work performed if figures are placed before us. A church property of five thousand dollars has been acquired, on which, however, there is still a debt of sixteen hundred dollars. The current expenses — interest, insurance, repairs and improvements, besides a small salary to the minister, have been paid. About three hundred adults have made use of the church during these years; children, two hundred and fifty. Marriages performed during 1887-1900, sixty-four; baptisms, one hundred and eighty-three; con- firmed, thirty-six; funerals, forty-four — twenty-six adults and eighteen children. Sunday- school at the present time: teachers and scholars, one hundred and thirty-five. Some of the sad things and bright as well, no doubt will be told when this church celebrates its semi-centennial, but we dare not touch upon them at this time. May we not fail in the duty of the day. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. Sermon by the Pastor, Rev. William W. Jordan, D. D. Text : — The house of God, which is the church of the Uving God, the pillar and ground of truth. — / Tim. in, 7j. The meeting-house on the green of a thousand New England towns tells the faith of our fathers. Its position is a mute but eloquent witness to that which they held para- mount. When the Hebrews began their national life, God said to their leader, "On the first day of the first month shalt thou rear up the tabernacle of the tent of the congrega- tion." This is the historic record of the first church among men, erected in the begin- nings of a chosen people, and standing in the midst of the camp. The command and the location are alike significant. Israel gathered around it, and it became the local and spiritual center of their life. This was the divine idea, and to this our forefathers were faithful when they gave God's house its prominence among their homes and in all their life. By reason of its office, the church must be the vital center of every community, the heart of its life. This town was true to these traditions in its beginnings. There is an unmistakable significance in these churches gathered around this beautiful park at the heart of this town. And today, as the community celebrates its half century of corpor- ate life, the churches are asked to briefly review their own history. Let us turn, there- fore, I. First, to a historical sketch of this, the first church in Clinton. It was organized on November 14th, 1844, and was, therefore, five years old at the time the town was incorporated. It was the immediate outgrowth of a Sunday-school and preaching service in the school-house on Main Street, of what was then called Clin- tonville, or the South Village of Lancaster. The fiftieth anniversary of our Sunday- school was celebrated March 20, 1890, its organization antedating the incorporation of the town by about ten years. Many of those interested in these services were members 53 First Congffegational Chttfch. of the Evangelical Church of Lancaster, organized in 1839, by those who withdrew from the First Church at the time of the historic Unitarian controversy. But the growth of Clintonville called for the organization of a church, and an ecclesiastical council, repre- senting the churches of neighboring towns, convened at the house of Horatio N. Bigelow and advised the formation of this, as the Second Evangelical Church of Lancaster. Of its fifty-one original members, twenty-six brought letters from the mother church. And of this band of original members six were living at the time of the semi-centennial of this church in 1894, but four of these, weary with the weight of years, have since fallen asleep, and today but two remain : Mrs. Levi Greene of Clinton, and Miss Mary C. Sawyer of Somerville. This church has had virtually but three homes. The first, a chapel on the southwest corner of Main and Sterling Streets, seating two hundred persons. The Rev. J. M. R. Eaton was the first pastor, J. B. Parker superintendent of the Sunday-school, and H. N. Bigelow leader of the choir. Erastus B. Bigelow played the violin, Gilbert Greene and James Burdett the bass viols. The records contain the interesting items: "Voted, that the Society pay rent for the bass viol." Also: "Voted, that the Society would be pleased to have the seraphine played on trial." After several years of increasing religious inter- est, this chapel was outgrown. It was afterwards used by the Baptist Society, then altered for a high school, then, with the restlessness of a building fallen from its original estate, moved near to the present site of Wallace's grain store, and made into a tenement house; and later, to Sterling Street, opposite the wire mill, where it still stands, and is known as the Dunbar, or Lyman house. The second building, the original size of which is unrecorded, was upon the present site on Walnut Street. The church had been trans- ferred, therefore, from a central location in the original village life to that which was destined to be the center of the town and sometime city. This building was dedicated January 1st, 1847, had little beauty, and was at times irreverently referred to as "the Lord's barn." It was enlarged and rededicated February 22d, 1859, a town clock and bell being placed in the new tower. Seating six hundred and fifty persons, with its new organ and furnishings, this magnified edifice was much admired. In 1873, it was once more enlarged, being equipped with wings. Finally, having served its day and genera- tion, if not longer, it was taken down, and the present beautiful building erected and ded- icated June 2d, 1899. Nine pastors have ministered to this parish: Eaton, Corning, Hitchcock, Winchester, Judkins, Clark, Wetherby, Scott, Jordan. As the somewhat lengthy procession passes in review, it is interesting to know that the first one of all. Rev. J. M. R. Eaton, installed in 1845, is still living in California. Three others are alive and in active service. With these names it seems natural to mention that of Rev. Dr. C. M. Bowers, who has minis- tered beside most of them for so many years as to become the spiritual father of this community. Sixteen laymen have served this church as its deacons : Parker, Childs, Morgan, Parkhurst, Hitchcock, Orr, Bigelow, Murdock, Sawyer, Carter, Kittredge, Breed, Patterson, Stickney, Meldrum, Copp, the majority of whom are yet living. Twenty-two have held the important office of superintendent of the Sunday-school: H. N. Bigelow, J. B. Parker, Otterson, W. W. Parker, Kilbourn, Perry, Robinson, Swan, Kendrick, Howell, Hunt, Hitchcock, Leland, Orr, Shaw, Sawyer, W. E. Parkhurst, Carter, Murdock, E. W. Breed, Mayberry, Copp. Many others have rendered important service in an official capacity. From its beginning there has been a constant, if not rapid growth. Many have come to it from across the seas. In i860, there were two hundred members; in 1890, three hundred and fifty members; at present, four hundred and ninety-two mem- 53 First Congfregational Chwrch. bers. Seasons of special religious interest marked the years 1861, '67, '70, '72 and '76, and but few communions have passed without the addition of members. Since its organiza- tion there have united with this church, by confession of faith, seven hundred and six persons^ and by letter, six hundred and thirty-six — a total of thirteen hundred and forty- two; " of whom some remain unto this present, but the greater part are fallen asleep." It is impossible to reckon the many thousands of dollars given for God's work here and elsewhere, and binding this church by invisible bands of influence to the ends of the earth. These, in briefest form, are the principal historical dates and events in the history of our church during this half century. They have been the most remarkable fifty years of human history. This country has grown from a population of seventeen to eighty millions; and it would be impossible to chronicle the changes which have revolutionized human life and given us a new civilization. 2. We turn, secondly, to the influence of this church in the municipal life. Fifty years ago the church occupied a larger place in the life of men. It was a dominant influ- ence in all their life, social and intellectual, as well as religious. It was the guardian of the best interests of the community. Therefore, as the first church of the com- munity, and its largest Protestant church, always containing a number of the town's influential citizens, this church has naturally exercised a large influence in shaping the character and history of the town. This was especially true in the first quar- ter century of its life. We say it not boastfully, nor with failure to recognize the impor- tant influence of other churches, but as a matter of historical fact and proportion. It was the mother church of Clinton. Many now in other congregations worshiped with it until their own churches were organized, and its present goodly fellowship with these other churches is strengthened by these ties of other days. It would be impossible to trace in detail the influence referred to, but we may notice its salient features. The civic life is essentially comprehended under its industrial, educational, social, or political, interests, and in these the men of this parish have always been prominent. Horatio N. Bigelow was the father of this community. Who can say how far the character of this town has been shaped by the large-mindedness, beneficence and force of this single citizen, or how much it owes to the genius of his brother? Associated with them were men of strong personality, like Deacons Parker, Childs, Morgan, and others of that early day, interested in all that concerned the town's well-being. Neither this nor other parishes lacked for that type of manhood out of which were made stalwart and devoted citizens. This church has always been identified with the educational interests of the com- munity. Standing with a school-house on either hand, its pastors for years, and its mem- bers from the beginning, have served upon the school committee; school has been taught in its vestry; and many teachers of the town are always found in its congregation. The men of the parish, in the capacity of agents, owners, inventors or employees, have occupied a large place in the industries to which Clinton owes its origin and prosperity, and which have made it today such a fine example of that noble class of towns, our New England industrial communities. They have contributed largely to the increasing pros- perity of the town through these industries; and a majority of our people today, in some relation of superintendence or employ, are connected with the great industries upon which the fabric of our commercial life is builded. This church, also, has been one of the homes of patriotism, in which love of country was conspicuous. Town meetings on important occasions have been held in its vestry. Anti-slavery meetings were held as early as 1845, ^"^ strong resolutions adopted. There was a thrilling Sunday afternoon in the beginning of the civil war, when the women of 54 T iry T >a Al? y /^^ '' y. ^ :.'^^,^^m^^SW^^^^^::- FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. First Congregfational Church. the congregation met in this and in the Baptist church to sew flannel shirts for the sol- diers. The Clinton Light Guard expected to be called at once to the field. Principal Ford, our town historian, estimates that of the four hundred soldiers from Clinton in the civil war, fully one hundred were from this parish, and these helped to make the peerless rec ord of Massachusetts in the defence of the Union. At the country's call, the Sunday- school superintendent and forty of his scholars enlisted. This was in deed, as well as in name, the church militant. In fact, we feel that these acts were but characteristic of the spirit of this parish, of its loyalty to the town, the country, and to God. They also in- dicate that for many years, this church filled in this community the place of the tradi- tional New England church. It is impossible for us who come after, to unravel the bright colored threads of per- sonal influence woven into the web of life. We cannot estimate, but we can be grateful for, the influence of the many strong, noble characters found in the records of this parish. That influence has been wrought into the fiber of this community never to be withdrawn. Men speak of the sculptors, artists, poets and preachers who were the makers of Flor- ence. Every smallest community has also those who are the architects and builders of its life, nay, who must be truest artists because of the material with which they deal. The men and women who here served God and their fellow men in all the affairs of this "community carried their faith and devotion into that service. They stand out before our memory today like soldiers on the picket line of the horizon, and we thank God for all these devoted, stalwart, godly lives lived here in the years of the past. I cannot name them all, and therefore I will name none, though some of them have come very near to my heart. These lives have been lived; they have left an undying influence behind them; they have had a large part in the development of this community. Men may forget them ; neglect to recognize their place and influence in that development, or pass them by in silence; but they can never withdraw their influence, nor change the records, nor obliter- ate the facts which are indelibly written in the history of Clinton. 3. It remains for us to speak of the distinctive religious life and work of our church. The influence of the church should permeate the entire life of the community, but the force of it will depend upon the vitality of the spiritual life at its center. Upon the Con- gregational House in Boston are four tablets representing the ideals of the Pilgrims: Religion, Education, Patriotism, Industry. To all these this church has sought to be true, but it has ever put first that which is first. It has sought to be not primarily a social, nor an intellectual force, but a religious, a spiritual force. It has had a message to deliveri through preaching and teaching, the message of a historic faith, which crossed the seas in the Mayflower, that truth of God which 'is eternal in Him who is "the same yesterday, and' today, and forever." It would be interesting, if time permitted, to trace the religious changes of these years, the develop- ment and progress, in the midst of which, nevertheless, the essential elements of our faith remain not only untouched, but more vital and vigorous than ever. During the lifetime of this church there has been a marvellous increase in human knowledge, and the kingdom has extended to the ends of the earth. In all these years this church has stood for a strong and vital faith. It has preached a divine Saviour, it has proclaimed a gospel, it has labored to bring men to God, it has sent its life and spirit, like streams of healing, out into the community, its homes, its business, its entire life. It has been "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth." And thus, for half a century, has been, not an intermittent, but a constant, abiding, religious force. There is a profound interest in the way a church leavens, purifies, uplifts, saves the (5) 55 Advent Chfistian Church. community. We look about us today on this beautiful town, and say with pride that we are "citizens of no mean city." And we may know that the most important and benefi- cent influence in its growth and development has been that of the life and truth of God communicated through these churches. Here this church has stood for fifty-five years, holding forth the word of life. To this house of God have come, year after year, men with their sins and cares and sorrows, and from it they have departed carrying hope, inspiration and truth. A multitude have here confessed their faith and become members of the invisible, eternal kingdom of Jesus, the Christ. Here children have been trained for God; the young wedded, the aged buried, and the babe baptized. Life's deepest realities are suggested here, and in the experience of multitudes this has proved "none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven," through which they have had com- munion with the spiritual world, and have gone forth to live more faithfully among men the life of God. In all these years in which its "clock has tolled out the little lives of men," nothing has been such a vital center in the life of this community as the church of God, standing like the tabernacle of old in the midst of the camp. Our prayer is that this influence may increase as the years go by. We are buf pil- grims passing onward. We are like the drops of water in the current of the river, mem- bers of a moving procession, whose front rank is constantly, silently melting into the invisible distance beyond the veil. The years will come and go, and we shall have gone to be with those who worshiped here before us. The same sun will shine upon this church by day, the same stars pass over it by night, but we shall not be here. Others will occupy these places, duties, opportunities. But when there is celebrated the hun- dreth anniversary of this community, may men find this church still serving God here with a far richer record, and a yet more glorious future. And may they be able to say of us, as we here say of those who have gone before us, They were faithful to God and to their fellowmen. "Fight well ! and thou shalt see, After these wars. Thy head wear sunbeams, And thy feet touch stars." ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH. I Sermon preached by Rev. Frank Burr. Text: — What hath God wrought ! — Num. xxiii, 2^. Topic; — "The Historic Past." The march of time is ever onward. Events may occur and be repeated, but the annals of time are never the same. History may repeat itself, but the years that mark events never recur. Humanity may journey in a circle, but the Almighty ever marches in a direct course, "from everlasting to everlasting." The words of our text were spoken when the Israelites were on their journey from the land of bondage to the land of promise. They had turned their backs upon the land of slavery, where the burden of life was too heavy for mortality to endure; where the lash and the wounds were their daily experience, and where hunger and thirst were their con- stant attendants; where enemies were on every side, and friends were few; where the morning sun found them wearied and worn, and the evening shades came upon them in their exhaustion. They had left those sad experiences far behind them, and were now en route among the hills of the land of Moab, and not far distant from the country in 56 Advent Chfistian Church. which they hoped to find repose from wearisome toil and watchful journeyings, and to enjoy a long coveted rest in homes amid the vales and by the streams where their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had dwelt long years before. This Hebrew race, though numbering their millions of people, were yet in a foreign land and among an unfriendly people. The land through which they were passing was the "land of Moab," and the progenitor of its people was the son of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. The Moabites were distant relatives according to the flesh, but no relatives in spirit. They were opposed to the Hebrew race, the Hebrew polity, and to the He- brews' God. Balak, king of the Moabites, feared before the Hebrews, and sought to subvert their plans and to prevent their progress. He employed Balaam, a prophet of those days, who, like Judas the traitor, loved money better than righteousness, and from this covetous prophet the king hoped to secure a curse that should fall upon the camp of Israel, forever blotting their name from the historic record. The prophet was interviewed, and his services sought. He communed with God, and the Almighty bid him send the messengers away. He did so, but they returned, bring- ing with them great promises of wealth and honor. This stirred the covetous heart of Balaam, and again the prophet communed with the Lord and pleaded for liberty to go with the king of Moab. Then the Lord said, "Go . . . yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do." Thus the Lord conditionally consented, but reserved control of the circumstances. The prophet went on his journey to the court of the king of Moab, but his experience by the way revealed the displeasure of the Lord and he should have returned, but his covetousness led him on in spite of all the admonition of the angel of God. A desire for wealth is the ruin of all who submit to its unhallowed impulses. The prophet stood upon the hill-top by the side of the burnt offering, and as he saw the tents of Israel spread out in the vale below, he uttered those words so indicative of God's purpose and so pregnant with blessings from the Almighty's hand : "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? .... Surely, there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought|!" And now, as the generations of humanity have passed by in the centuries since those days, we read of those events recorded more than three thousand years ago, and seeing the records of changes that have come during all the long course of time, we are led to exclaim in accordance with the language of that ancient prophet on the hills of Moab, "What hath God wrought !" Balaam, disobedient to the will of God, was nevertheless under the control of the Almighty, and could speak only as the Eternal One decreed he should speak. And even thus, as we look at the historic record and read the events that have transpired, we read of a world anxious for wealth, for honor, for fame, struggling to act and speak, and yet under the control and management of the great Creator, who said to the waters, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." We are living today in the closing year of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, and in the long periods of the past we perceive the changes that have come over the nations and peoples of the earth; the rise and fall of nations, the building up of cities of renown, and the following desolation and ruin of those same cities; the career of men of power and men of intellect, whose lives were like comets, to shine for a brief time and then to retire; and amid all these mutations we perceive an unseen hand guiding and 57 Advent Christian Church. controlling, and that hand has not for a single moment loosened its grasp, nor relaxed its firm control of humanity. Nay, more than that: even beforehand has the Almighty made known to his people the course of kingdoms and powers, and especially the course of truth as it relates to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ and 'his people. When the time came, kingdoms were overthrown and others took their place; Babylon gave place to Persia; Persia to Greece; Greece to Rome, and Rome must give way to the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. These great realms are in the historic past, yet they came in their order, even as declared in the word of God. Of them it may be said, "What hath God wrought!" The history of modern times is not the history of those mighty empires in their bar- baric strife and bloody career, but rather the record of new realms and regions that have become populous with the voyagers from those ancient realms, who have discovered new continents and even a new hemisphere. But with those voyagers to the shores of this new continent on which we live and which was unknown in the days of those ancient empires, there came also the new religion, or rather the fruit of the ancient religion; and the power and the presence of the Hebrews' God, and of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has been plainly manifested. The mighty cities .and the thriving boroughs of this fair land and countr)' too plainly indicate the overruling Providence that has manipulated and guided the progress of civilization, and given to the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ a high place and lofty position among the cities and people of these United States. Perhaps no more lit occasion could be given for a consideration of the work of our God than such an one as is today the cause of rejoicing to the people of this town of Clinton. And surely, while people of other denominational tendencies rejoice in the grace of God to them in the past and present, the Advent Christian Church may well give praise to "the God of heaven" for the grace bestowed upon us in the few years since we first assembled to worship the Christ, and to look for his return from heaven. Something over fifty years ago, a number of people of the different churches of Clin- ton became deeply interested in the subject of the near personal return of Christ from heaven, and being of one accord, they assembled for worship and to search the prophe- cies relating to the event that so much interested them. There were no records kept of those meetings, yet from those gatherings has come the present Advent Christian Church of Clinton. Elder James Hemenway, a young preacher of much note, held a series of revival services in the year 1848, and the number of believers during those meetings increased from seven to seventy. During many years following, this people held services at stated periods, but no church organization was effected, and not until 1876 was a duly incorporated church organized. The church held its meetings previous to incorporation in different halls in the town, one noted one being on High Street, near where now stands the Associates' Block. The building was erected by Deacon John Burdett, and the hall was specially set apart for religious services, and a course of lectures on prophecy was given. That was fifty years ago. For several years meetings were continued in that hall, but at the time the church was incorporated the people occupied Union Hall, in Greeley's Block, and they soon after removed to Good Templars' Hall. On April 23, 1879, the church was more permanently established in Courant Hall, where it has been located ever since. Elder H. H. Tucker preached the dedication sermon. The church has fluctuated much in its membership. Many of the members were trans- ient people, moving to other towns, and most of its first membership have passed into the S8 Advent Christian Chordi. silent grave. The membership has never been large at any one time, but there has always been enough to keep the altar fires burning, and we can say with a thankful heart, as we consider the past history of this little church, so often torn by dissension like ancient Israel, and yet preserved by the providence of God, "What hath God wrought!" The years of the past in the history of this church and people have given lessons of experience which we trust are not lost upon us, nor will they fail to produce the results designed by the Lord, who has walked with us as like "the form of the fourth" in the midst of the fiery furnace. The interests of the town of Clinton are our interests; its peace is our peace; its thrift is our thrift; its humanity is our humanity; its good name is our good name, and wherein the town of Clinton fails to live up to the standard of purity and godliness, we shall and do most earnestly pray that mercy and forgiveness may be manifested from on high. We desire the salvation of its citizens from the curse of intemperance, from the power of crime, and from evil rulers and evil rule. From our text, and from experience, we may learn, first, that the greatest factor in all beneficent results is the hand of the Almighty. He is the worker of all time, and " every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." There is no undermining of his work nor forestalling his calculations. Men may oppose God, but it makes no difference with him; the difference is with them. He who rows his cockle-shell boat in the front of a steamer will not injure the steamer, but he brings a terrible disaster upon himself. ^ So the man or the state who opposes God in his righteous course only brings destruction upon his own head. How unwise is the man who would pursue a course of opposition to the Lord! Who can oppose the Lord and live? His ways are eternal, and they cannot be turned back. It is as easy to turn back the dial of time and resume the years that are past, as to cause the steps of the Omnipotent to swerve from their onward course. Yet there are many who unwittingly seek to accomplish such a work. They disre- gard the instructions of the Lord, and will not yield to his requirements. To say nothing of neglecting prayer and spiritual devotion, there are multitudes who profane the name of the Almighty, and who, through anger and drunkenness, as well as by disregard to right- eous laws and gospel service, are open opposers of the Eternal Jehovah. Can such pros- per? A government or a town or a person who boldly violates the ways of righteousness and defies decency and goodness, may for a time seem to prosper, but such a career is sure to plunge its followers into ruin sooner or later. He only is prosperous who finally triumphs; not he who for a time lives boastfully and then sinks beyond recall. Another lesson from this text is, that the Lord works his own pleasure among men, yet that pleasure is always a blessing to the obedient. Those who obey the Lord are co- workers with him, and he will surely care for them. Men may put forth an effort to accomplish some desired result, but it is the blessing of God that causes their work to be successful. The Lord works on earth through natural or earthly means, and as people yield to hisrontrol, so their work is God's work, and whatever is accomplished by man- kind is only perfected by the masterly hand of Divinity. The will of God is the highest authority, and the pleasure of God is the greatest bliss. The happiest persons on earth are those who acknowledge God in all their ways and work. No one who is allied to the Lord need worry about work, nor about results, for these both belong to the Lord, and the gracious Overseer will see to it that all his work shall prosper. In the flesh there may be pain and wearisome toil to the co-worker with God, but there will be an abiding peace that gives rest in spirit and joy in heart. Who would not be satisfied with these considerations? Would we work successfully? 59 Fifst Unitarian Chofch. Then work with the Lord. Would we be free from condemnation? Then accept the union with Christ that brings such a result. Would we triumph at last? Then let us join the company of the triumphant host who will shout victory over every foe, and who, even now, are overcomers by the grace of God. Our text teaches us that God is the successful worker; is our work in the same line? If so, it will succeed. As naught can turn the work of God aside, so nothing can turn aside the work of those who are in his employ. There is "no enchantment against Israel." The laws of God are righteous laws; the ways of God are perfect ways. The people of God may be comparatively few in number, but it matters not. Though multitudes oppose the Lord, they shall all perish, while the single soul that gives himself to the Almighty's service will be crowned with life and glory at last. May this be the case with all who listen to these words. FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH. At the Unitarian Church the pastor. Rev. James C. Duncan, preached on "The Good Citizen," taking for his text verses 1-5 of the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah, and illus- trating his theme from the lives of several prominent members of the parish: Sidney Harris, William Stearns, Gilman M. Palmer and Franklin Forbes. Mr. Duncan explained that on the 29th of July the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Unitarian Society was to be observed. At his request, the historical address delivered on that occa- sion by Jonathan Smith, Esq., is printed in this volume, in place of his own sermon of June 17. ADDRESS. Amid the rush and anxiety of our daily life it is well to sometimes pause and review the past; to recall the incidents of our own lives, compare our todays with our yesterdays; and make note of the joys and sorrows, the defeats and triumphs which have fallen to our lot. At such times we observe how closely we have kept to, or how widely we have departed from the goal to which our youthful ambitions aimed, and can gather up the lessons of experience for present needs and future profit. Just so it is well for an organization like this to set apart days of retrospection; to recall the circumstances which gave it birth, the men and women who made its begin- nings, their motives, their hopes and the success or failure which has crowned their labors. It is a debt we owe their memory and it is a duty we owe ourselves as well. On such occasions there come to us the names of persons we have never seen. We dwell upon ideas and principles which have come down to us from the past. We catch the inspira- tion which comes from the contemplation of the sacrifices and self-denying labors on the part of those no longer living. It takes us out of ourselves and makes us partakers of a higher and nobler spirit. So we are incited to greater efforts and can better preserve the precious heritage of the past, that we may pass it on unimpaired to those who will follow. We meet on such an occasion today. To us and to all, the foundation of a church is of^greater moment than the incorporation of a town, for its functions appeal more closely to the individual mind and conscience. It has to do with the eternal verities of every man's life. Willingly or unwillingly the ministrations of the church touch the heart of all human beings at some period of their lives, and touch it so closely that they are com- 60 Fifst Unitarian diurcli. pelled to pause and listen to its message. Thus it is altogether fitting that on reaching its fiftieth milestone this society should delay for a moment to recount the situation which led to its organization, consider the wisdom and foresight of those who called it into conscious life, and review what it has done to justify the labor and self-denial of those who have preserved it unto this hour. Naturally the discussion of municipal independence turned the attention of Unita- rians in this village to the thought of a new religious society. The population in 1849-50 was larger than that of the mother town. Its industries were rapidly growing, the num- ber of people increasing and a spirit of hope and courage for the future was everywhere prevalent. In that winter the certainty that the new town would be set off was assured, and this strengthened the desire of those of the liberal faith to found a society here which should continue in the new town the ministrations of the Lancaster church. Two Pro- testant societies had already been formed and were having a successful growth. A third was about to organize. But these societies contained some not in sympathy with their creeds, but who preferred to worship with them rather than stay out entirely, on account of the distance and difficulty of attending in the mother town. But many still clung to the old church. They had either been brought up in its fold or were drawn to it by a strong sympathy with its faith, or by the venerable traditions which filled its history. But it was three miles away. A barge indeed did go over on Sunday mornings, but it was not a conveyance of which all could avail themselves. Especially in inclement weather many were precluded from attending. The children could, to be sure, walk the long dis- tance; but their appreciation of its hardships, particularly in wintry weather, was more lively than their sense of duty. These were obvious facts to the Unitarians of Clinton- ville, and strengthened their desire for a church in the prospective town. Under such circumstances the movement had its beginning. It will never be certainly known by whom the plan was first suggested. There is little doubt, however, that it had its origin with some one of four men, namely: Ezra Sawyer, Sidney Harris, William Stearns, and Augustus P. Burdett. Probably the materi- alization came through conferences among all four, with possibly others whom they knew would be in sympathy with it. Of these, the first three belonged to the Lancaster society, and one of them was a deacon of its church. Mr. Burdett, though of the liberal faith, attended one of the Evangelical churches here, on account of the inconvenience of going to Lancaster. The enterprise was the subject of many discussions among these parties through the winter of 1849-50. Meeting with decided encouragement, the advice of Rev. George M. Bartol was sought, who gave to it his hearty sympathy and promise of co-operation. In February, 1850, it was determined to make the attempt, and in the Lancaster Courant of Saturday, February 16, 1850, appeared this notice: "Rev. George M. Bartol will preach in Burdett Hall tomorrow eve at seven o'clock." And in accordance therewith, on the evening of February 17, 1850, the first service of this society was held in the attic hall of the frame building still standing on the southwest corner of High and Union Streets. The movement was a success from the start. The hall was filled by as many as could be comfortably seated. The Unitarians of the village came in, along with many others. Mr. Bartol conducted the service, and Mr. James A. Weeks organized a volunteer choir and furnished the music. The promoters of the plan were so much encouraged that they decided to persevere in the movement. Mr. Bartol continued in charge until the follow- ing October, preaching every Sunday evening after conducting two services in his own 61 Firs^ Unitarian Church. church during the day. As time went on the attendance and interest increased, and in the following June another forward step was taken. On the 20th of June, 1850, articles of association were formally drawn up, whereby the signers agreed to form themselves into a religious society, "subject to such by-laws, and regulations, and to take such name as its members may hereafter prescribe." The names of these signers, twenty-nine in number, may be found in Mr. Ford's history of the town. All are now deceased, except Augustus P. Burdett, who still survives at the age of eighty-three years. Ezra Sawyer's name is first on the roll. They called themselves the "Second Congregational Society of Clinton." July i6th following, a call for a meet- ing, signed by Ezra Sawyer as Justice of the Peace, was issued, addressed to Augustus P. Burdett, directing him to warn the members of the society to assemble at Burdett Hall on Monday evening, July 29, 1850, at half-past seven o'clock, for the purpose of choosing a moderator and all necessary parish officers. At that meeting the society was organized in accordance with the form of the statute. The standing committee were ordered to hire Clinton House Hall for a place of meeting, if it could be had on reasonable terms. The same committee, with Franklin Forbes and Charles M. Worcester added, were instructed to select an appropriate name for the society. On the 7th of the following October the society again met. The first committee reported that they had hired Clinton House Hall for two hundred dollars per annum, and the other, that they had agreed upon "The First Unitarian Society of Clinton" for a name. Both reports were accepted and adopted. The society worshipped in Burdett Hall from February 17th to October 7, 1850, when, it being too small to accommodate the meetings, the change was made to Clinton Hall, where it staid until the new church was occupied. On removal from Burdett Hall to its new quarters the time of service was changed to the usual morning hour. The pul- pit was occupied by different ministers, Mr. Bartol occasionally supplying, until the fol- lowing April, when Rev. L. J. Livermore came. After preaching a few Sundays, he was on the 1st of May, 185 1, hired for a year, and continued in the office until April, 1857, when he retired. He was never formally installed. So much of success had attended the enterprise that about the time Mr. Livermore came the plan of a meeting-house began to be agitated. The first scheme was to build a chapel, to' cost not exceeding two thousand dollars. The shares were placed at fifty dol- lars each, and forty-eight were taken. For some reason this move was abandoned and a new beginning made on a broader basis. To carry out the new purpose a corporation was organized under the name of " Proprietors of the First Unitarian Meeting-house." This was a distinct company from the First Unitarian Society of Clinton, though made up of men from the latter body. The date of the organization was June 12, 1852. The pre- amble says: "Persons belonging to the First Unitarian Society of Clinton having deter- mined to erect a meeting-house for the public worship of God, the subscribers have organized themselves as a corporation for the more effectual management of business," which explains the reason of this action. The shares of stock were placed at twenty-five dollars each. Some ninety shares were subscribed for, to which should "he added many more which the Ladies' Society from time to time took and paid for. Exclusive of the land, the cost of the church was fifty-four hundred and twenty-five dollars. When this was completed and furnished the society found itself in debt to the amount of twenty- six hundred dollars. Mr. Henry P. Fairbanks of Boston gave the land. The deed is dated June 22, 1852, runs to the proprietors, and is subject among other things, to the condition that the 62 THE FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH. First Unitarian Chufch. grantees should build a meeting-house and let it to the First Unitarian Society of Clinton rent free until such time as its income should exceed the annual expenses of the society, and that whenever the grantee or its assigns should pay to the grantor or his heirs the sum of seven hundred dollars, the condition should be void. The proprietors conformed to this condition, the society paying the interest on the debt of twenty-six hundred dol- lars, until November, 1866, when the proprietors conveyed the house and land to the society, subject to the condition in the original deed, and the society assumed the debt, which it afterward paid. The proprietors then dissolved their corporation. The house was completed the following winter and was formally dedicated February 3, 1853, to the great happiness and satisfaction of the people. Mr. Livermore preached the sermon. A description of this first building should be preserved. It was colonial in architec- ture, well proportioned, and attractive in appearance upon the outside. It had but one room, entered through a vestibule on a level with the street. The pulpit stood some twelve feet in front of its present position, with a row of pews facing it on either side. The choir gallery was at the south end of the church, raised about three feet from the floor, and was entered through two doors on either side, opening from the vestibule. The num- ber of pews was sixty-six, and their arrangement, with the position of the aisles, the same as now. The walls and ceiling were frescoed. In this one audience room all the meet- ings of the church, including the Sunday-school, assembled. The expenditures of the society for the first few years were upon a modest scale. Prior to October i, 1850, there is no record. From October 13, 1850, to April 13, 1851, they were three hundred and fifty dollars; for the following year, seven hundred and fif- teen dollars and thirty-five cents, and for the year ending April, 1853, nine hundred and eight dollars. Part of these sums for the last two years was for rent of hall. Up to 1868, exclusive of sums raised for the debt and interest thereon, they did not exceed fifteen hundred dollars, less than half what they now are. This was due in part to the fact that up to 1868 there was no expense for music. In the latter year they voted to pay the organist and chorister fifty dollars each. For the first fifteen years, or until 1865, the music was in charge of Mr. James A. Weeks. It is due to his memory to say that he abandoned the choir leadership in one of the other churches to organize and take charge of this, and only left it when he removed from town in 1865. His services were given without money and without price, and he retired to the universal regret of the people and with the heartiest. goodwill of all his singers. No greater tribute could be paid to his love for the society, nor to the rare discretion and tact with which he discharged his del- icate and responsible duty. The ministry of Mr. Livermore has been twice reviewed, and there is no occasion to re-tell it. In his private diary he thus sums up his work: " I found it," he says, "simply a parish, of forty-five families; I leave a parish of seventy families." In June, 1851, he organized a Sunday-school, which, when he left, numbered fifty-eight scholars. January 23, 1853, he established the church, which had thirty-three communicants when he retired. Though not a brilliant preacher, he was admirably fitted for the work of placing the society on a solid basis. Naturally conservative, he was a man of sound judgment and rare tact, and of a cordial, sympathetic nature. He drew the people to himself and to the society by his earnest, sincere and kindly ways, and had the confidence of his parish- ioners to a degree rarely attained by a parish minister. When he came the society had held services less than a year, and was worshipping in a public hall. Under him, the Sunday-school, the Ladies' Benevolent Society, and church were organized, a house built and nearly paid for, the number of families nearly doubled and the society established 63 First Unitarian Chtirch. on an enduring foundation. In its results it was the most important ministry the society has ever had. After the retirement of Mr. Livermore the parish was without a pastor for more than a year. It is reported that in this interval the gifted Edmund H. Sears was invited to become its minister, but the rumor cannot be verified from the records and papers of the society. However it may be, it was through his influence that Rev. J. M. Heard was called, and on August 25, 1858, he was ordained and installed over the society, Mr. Sears, his intimate friend, preaching the sermon. Mr. Heard was a brilliant preacher and drew large congregations. He gave in the church a course of Sunday evening lectures, which crowded the house to the doors. The prosperity of the society under his ministry is strikingly shown by the fact that in its first years the receipts from pew rents almost doubled, though they fell off somewhat toward the last on account of the strain and stress of the civil war. He entered upon all the new duties and responsibilities which came with the great rebellion with all the earnestness and zeal of the ardent patriot that he was. He wished to enter the military service, and was with difificulty persuaded that he could serve the Union cause more effectually at hone. His disappointment, however, did not prevent his joining an organization of the citizens, formed here in 1862, for the purpose of military drill, and he met and drilled with it as long as it was continued, being the only clergyman in town who did so. His intense interest in and loyalty to the Union had much to do with the extraordinary contribution of this society to the ranks of the armies in the field. He resigned March 17, 1863, to go to a wider field of duty, and soon after- jvard died, honored and loved by all. Only once during its whole fifty years did the society seem for a moment to lose its courage. After Mr. Heard resigned it was without a minister for nearly a year and a half. It was the darkest period of the war. The society had been drained of more than half of its active young men, wages were low, the mills running on short time, and the out- look, both local and national, was- gloomy in the extreme. A meeting was called for November 23, 1863, to consider the financial situation. After listening to the treasurer's report, the parish committee asked instructions as to the propriety of closing the church. The discussions were not reported, but it is evident from the records that the necessity of discontinuing religious services was most seriously debated. Fortunately, however, wiser counsels prevailed, and after an earnest speech by Col. Gilman M. Palmer, urging that religious services be regularly kept up, the parish committee were instructed to con- tinue the pulpit supply. It was shortly after this that the society extended a call to Rev. Francis E. Abbott. He was a man of great ability and wide scholarship, but his theo- logical opinions were far in advance of his time. Fortunately for the society, however, he declined and accepted a call to Dover, New Hampshire, instead. I say " fortunately," for the result of his Dover ministry was one of the most celebrated law cases ever before the courts of this country. The dissenting opinion in this case, which sustained the con- tentions of Mr. Abbott and his friends, was given by Chief Justice Doe, himself an ardent Unitarian, and fills nearly one-half of an entire volume in the New Hampshire reports. It was a celebrity kindly spared this society. Rev. James Sallaway was installed over the society November 9, 1864, and resigned November 9, 1868. He was succeeded by Rev. I. F. Waterhouse, who preached his first sermon as minister January 3, 1869. He was never formally installed. Under his suc- cessful pastorate the society felt the need of more room, and in April, 1872, it was voted to enlarge the building; thirty-five hundred dollars were subscribed for the purpose. The house was raised thirteen feet, twenty-six feet were added to the north end and a transept 64 Fii'St'Unitai'ian Chwrch. for the choir at the left of the pulpit, the number of pews was increased from sixty-six to eighty-eight, and the building was newly furnished throughout. The total expense of the improvements was eleven thousand two hundred and fifty-four dollars and fifty cents. But in addition to this the plans, the frescoing, the carpets and pews, besides many other things, were given through the liberality of different individuals. The new house was first used January 5, 1873, when services were held in the vestry, and this audience room was occupied March 6th following for religious worship. There were no formal dedica- tion exercises. The debt incurred was reduced from time to time until 1884, when the society raised three thousand dollars and wiped it out. Two years later, the heirs of Franklin Forbes, who held a note of seven hundred and fifty dollars for current expenses, generously cancelled the same and gave it to the society, and thus every dollar of the parish debt was discharged. Following Mr. Waterhouse, who resigned May 25, 1873, Rev. William S. Burton was pastor a little over two years, beginning the first Sunday of October, 1873, and retiring January I, 1876. Rev. Charles Noyes was at once engaged to supply for three months, and on the first of the following May became pastor, continuing until August, 1882, when he resigned, to be succeeded by J. Frederic Button, who was installed with the customary ceremonies June 7, 1883. He resigned the office January i, 1886, and on the 17th of the next June, Rev. James C. Duncan was formally ordained and installed, and happily still fills the sacred office, his pastorate being the longest in the history of the church. The eight ministers of the society have served an average of about six and one-fourth years each. This was never a missionary church, though in 1863 the American Unitarian Associa- tion did give it fifty dollars, all that it ever received from that source. In 1853, a formal application to the association for assistance was drawn up, but through the advice of Mr. Henry P. Fairbanks it was r>ever sent, Mr. Fairbanks giving two hundred dollars instead. For several years, back in the fifties, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer was a generous donor to its funds, and one of the sons has often since followed his honored father's example. Otherwise the society has relied upon itself, and has never suffered through lack of public spirit on the part of its members. In 1884, by the will of Gilmah M. Palmer, it was given four thousand dollars and a lot of land of the same value for a parsonage, which was built in 1887. By the same instru- ment Mr. Palmer also gave the Sunday-school one thousand dollars. It was the crown- ing act of a life of generous giving to the church he loved, and it remains a monument to the loyalty and broad public spirit of one who, in this and in his liberal bequests to other charitable institutions of the town, illustrates a special feature of the faith he held. Our kindred organizations deserve liberal place in this narrative. There is no certain date of the beginnings of the Ladies' Benevolent Societj'. The first record is of May 4, 1853, the day of its annual meeting; but the minutes of that date clearly imply that it had been in existence at least two years. It is certain that the ladies of the parish held meet- ings in the summer of 1850. Through that season, while the men were discussing ways and means to place the struggling society on its feet, it was inevitable that the ladies should also be planning methods of co-operation. When was any good cause demanding labor and self-sacrifice ever undertaken in which woman did not contribute more than her share? Its earliest serious work was furnishing the first meeting-house. The, report for 1852-3 says: "The past year has been a season of unusual interest in consequence of the effort made by the ladies to furnish the new meeting-house." "A work," it goes on to say, 65 First Unitarian Chui-cli. " in which it was not only a duty but a privilege to engage." It expended for that object the same year five hundred and sixteen dollars, and assumed and subsequently paid off a debt of sixty-three dollars for the same object. It held its meetings every two weeks, first in the afternoon and later in the evening, gathering at private houses until May 21, 1873, when it met in its new parlors in this building, where it has since assembled. The efficiency of its labors is on record. It did the work of charity which usually falls to such bodies. The first year of the war its meetings were devoted exclusively to the soldiers, and afterward its members, through the Ladies' Aid Society of the town, gave generous and unwearied assistance to that great cause. It contributed liberally to the support of the church, purchased shares in the corporation building the house, helped pay the minister's salary, liquidated coal and other bills, and in nameless other ways and by helpful words and encouraging example aided in support of the society. It has been the silent yet potent influence behind every good word and work of the parish, often con- cealing its own identity, but always contributing largely toward the success of every enterprise in hand. At its annual meeting in June, 1867, it initiated the plan to purchase an organ, and during the year held a fair which netted two hundred dollars for the enterprise. The next winter the matter was further aided by a subscription paper which yielded upward of twelve hundred dollars, and in the spring of 1868 the organ was purchased and set up, at an expense of sixteen hundred and twenty-five dollars. There was left over a debt of one hundred and five dollars, which the ladies paid. It gave the cushions to the recon- structed church building, in 1873, at an expense of six hundred and fifty dollars. It fur- nished its parlors the same year at a cost of over one thousand dollars. It would be a pleasant task to go over the names on its honored roll, and speak of those who, through its earlier and later years, faithfully attended its meetings and devoted every spare moment of their time at home to its interests; and whose words of faith and hope, and active labors have never wearied and never failed through all the changing vicissitudes of this society. Many of you knew them, loved and honored them, and will cherish their memory while life lasts. Their influence has made permanent impressions upon this society and contributed in a large degree to the place it holds as one of the institutions of the town. One other organization must be named — the Franklin Unity — organized in the fall of 1877, through the wise foresight of Mr. Noyes, then the minister. It was worthily named for Franklin Forbes, a leading parishioner. Its active members, at first including the young people only, now embrace all who worship in this place. It immediately took control of the social activities ot the society, bringing the people often together in friendly intercourse, and on its practical side aiding largely in the support of public worship. For several years it had charge of the music. In its life of twenty-two years, after paying all its own expenses and furnishing the vestry with a complete dramatic outfit, it has, directly and indirectly, paid into the treasury of the society about ten thousand dollars up to May 1st, this year. Its entertainments have been of such character as to disarm criticism, and in their general features have been extensively imitated by other bodies. It has drawn to its membership many from other societies. Compare the present social life in the churches of Clinton with what it was twenty-two years ago and note what the Franklin Unity has done in this line of church activity in the town. But better and more impor- tant than all else has been its influence upon the young people of this society. It has shown them the dignity and worth of service, taken them out of themselves, taught them to work and sacrifice for others, led their thoughts and energies toward those great ideas 66 First Unitarian Church. for which this church stands, and made them its earnest and willing disciples. Many of the precepts and admonitions which have fallen from this pulpit may have been forgot- ten, but the training in practical righteousness given by the Unit)' to its members will remain while their lives last. Their proverbial affection and loyalty to this church is in part the rich fruit of its beneficent work. In the task of founding and building up this society two names deserve mention. First of these is Rev. Dr. Bartol, whose gracious presence casts its benediction upon our gathering today. He conducted its first service more than fifty years ago. For months he had charge of its affairs, coming here in the evening after preaching two sermons in his o\vn church. He had the entire care of its pastoral work until a permanent minister was chosen, and was its active and interested adviser through all its struggling years, as indeed he still is. More than eight out of its fifty years this society has been without a pastor, and during all these intermittent periods he has attended the funerals of the parish, acted for the ladies' society, and visited its homes in hours of distress and sorrow as well as joy, as if he had been its settled minister. How much this people owe him for his wise counsels and comforting assistance cannot be easily told in words. And this has contin- tinued for fifty years! Where in the whole history of the denomination can that record be paralleled? Deeply grateful for his presence on this occasion, we all unite in saying, in the words of the old Hebrew prophet: "As he was with the fathers," so "let him not leave us, nor forsake us," while his life is spared. Mr. Forbes was identified with the society from the start, though he did not take a prominent part until aftefTfis family moved here in October, 1850. From that time on till the day of his death he was its most active and zealous friend and helper. Every year he was a member of one or more of its official boards, and how many times he quietly paid the deficiency in the current expenses will never be known. In all his rela- tions as citizen, as churchman and as a friend and neighbor no one so fully typified the true Unitarian as he. At the head of a large corporation, and almost constantly in the municipal employment of the town, he still found time for all the service this society was willing to receive at his hands. He impressed his own character upon it as a factor in the life of the place, and inspired its people with his high ideals of duty and responsibility. To him more perhaps than to any other one man has been due the influence it has had in the best civic life of the town. The eulogy of Hamlet upon his royal father may truly be pronounced upon him: — " He was a man, take him for all in all. We ne'er shall look upon his like again." It would be a grateful privilege to recall others whose generous and self-denying services have contributed to make this society what it is. They deserve as honorable mention as those already named, for they gave of their means and time all they were able, and of noble example and upright character the best they had. No church ever had a more loyal following than this through its whole fifty years. Its vigorous growth has not been watered by the blood of its believers — perhaps not by their tears; but it has been fed and nourished by the labors and devotion of men and women as true and devout as ever adorned any church on this goodly earth. Let us hold their memories in perpetual honor, and transmit the great heritage they have left to those who shall follow us in this place. "Blessed is the nation," says the old proverb, "whose annals are dull." This outline of our history seems tame and commonplace, but it is a framework merely — a framework - 67 Fifst Unitarian Chofch. that has been filled in and upon with a body of good deeds and noble influences which has made it a blessing to its worshippers and a power for good in this town. Its num- bers have been comparatively small, but its public spirit broad and generous. Out of its fold Went thirty-two men to the civil war, more than two-thirds of its young men of mili- tary age, among them one colonel, two captains and five lieutenants. Of these, five gave their lives through bullet or disease to the cause of their country, illustrating that cardi- nal rule of our faith, that "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Its part in civic affairs has been out of all proportion to its relative strength in num- bers. Up to 1875, Clinton had six different town clerks, three of whom were of this society. It had four treasurers, two of them being of this church. Of the thirty-five selectmen, fifteen came from this society, and eleven out of its thirty-five school commit- tee. Of the ten representatives to the legislature for the first twenty-five years, five were also from this people, and ten out of twenty-four trustees of the Clinton Savings Bank first elected. In the great industrial enterprises of the town, in all movements for a higher and purer civic life, in everything looking to the amelioration of the common lot, the wider diffusion of knowledge and the unsectarian education of the people, it has stood in the front rank, and been true to the best traditions of the Unitarian name. It has never been the popular church. Representing the advance guard of religious thought and life, it has stood firmly at the outpost, heedless of the fears and criticisms of its more conservative sisters. It has not sought to attract the multitude by any form of sensationalism, nor have dissensions ever disturbed the even tenor of its way. It has had an even, healthy growth, and a brave, confident constituency. Occasionally some, like Onesimus, "whom we have begotten in our bonds, have departed for a season that other churches might receive them forever," and sometimes others, like that other man of Scripture, "have forsaken us, having loved this present world," to join the great army of the unchurched, but its people as a whole have been steadfast to its interests and to its cause. For fifty years it has led in the best religious thought of the time. Its pulpit has been a free pulpit and the "Itch for inquiry," against which Calvin so solemnly warned Socinus, has never been stifled within these walls. The one obligation this people has laid upon its ministers is that they should speak their sincere and deepest convictions upon all the great problems of duty and destiny. Wisely and intelligently it has adjusted itself to all the changes in religious thought and opinion which the last half century has brought. It has had no quarrel with science or discovery or history, but has welcomed the new light, coming from every sphere of human thought and research, as a fresh revelation from the Deity. It has not sought to be judged by its creeds or agree- ments, but by the character of the men and women it has produced, and by what it has done and has tried to do in this community; and through it all has kept before itself all the obligations and responsibilities contained in these four words of mighty import and vast significance: Truth, Service, Liberty and God. Providence kindly hides from human eye the changes which the future is to bring; but whatever shall come to this church in the century about to open, today it can rest content that " the past is at least secure." 68 United Presbyterian Chwrch, UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Sermon by the Pastor, Rev. J. H. Moorehead. Text:— Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths.— Jeremiad, vi, i6. Today begins the religious exercises in connection with the celebration on Monday and Tuesday of the semi-centennial of Clinton, Massachusetts, one of the most beautiful towns of this cultured and historic state. I wish to preface what I have to say this morn- ing by giving notice of* the fact that if any one has "sought the courts of this house of worship expecting to hear dry abstractions or tedious technicalities of religion discussed, that one has come to the wrong church. When the battle is on between the armies of unfriendly nations, the commanding officers do not sit in the rear discussing the nature of human blood and examining the ingredients of gunpowder. There is no time for such contemptible foolishness, because men are wanted at the batteries, in the trenches, on the flanks, and the presence of the generals is demanded at the front to inspire them to victory. When the God-fearing people of this community have been battling against the forces of evil, when here as well as everywhere the powers of light and darkness are pitted against each other, there is no time for the definitions and the formulas and the conven- tionalities of beliefs. I am not here this morning to parade before you our own denomi- national distinctives, however consistent with the Bible we believe them to be. I do not intend to squander the thirty or forty minutes allotted me today in setting forth a history of our local church when the same can be accurately related in ten. What this occasion demands, in our case at least, it seems to me, is not the treatment of the things aforesaid, but an unflinching application to ourselves and others of the tremendous truth couched in the imperative language of Jeremiah. I assume that we, as United Presbyterians, although without a permanent organiza- tion prior to February 6, 1893, can join heartily in an appropriate recognition of Clinton's fiftieth year of corporate existence. But I have reserved the right to use that style of sermon which I consider not only a fitting religious introduction to this celebration, but one that conveys some practical, helpful, suitable message from God for us at this stage of our local church history. We have had quite enough of some would-be leaders in secular and religious investi- gation, and heard already too much from others. This, however, should never be our attitude toward God and his truth. We should search the Scripture daily with the pur- pose to live the principles they set forth. With the wisdom thus acquired we can look thoughtfully and devoutly on all changes — social, political and ecclesiastical. If we today overestimate our own particular day and generation, we throw ourselves open to the charge of unwarrantable presumption. If we make the manifest error of underestimating the times in which we live, we reduce ourselves to the cold, dark, death- like level of miserable scepticism. In avoiding both of these extremes I do not intend settling down in this quoted text, and from this tenable position hurling shafts of criti- cism. On the other hand, let us wait upon the Infinite One, by whom the world is to be subjugated to its Lord, for that message appropriate to the times in which we live. What sort of men befit such times as these? This is a question that confronts every thinker with considerable force, especially when our intelligence is shocked almost daily by the airing of some horrible crime and made anxious lest still greater montrosities await deliverance. The hopeful souls who flatter themselves that vast progress has been made in the world's condition, and that the end of the nineteenth century and the beginniflg of 69 United Presbytcfian Chatch. the twentieth could present no experience comparable with the crimes and woes, the intolerance and oppression attending the first half of the century now drawing to a close, may well stand aghast as the swift procession of evils march before our appalled and sickened vision without apparent end. We but dimly recognize the portents of what we have already seen, and this is the reason that leads us today to put this momentous inter- rogative, i'What sort of men befit such times as these?" Who are they who get the most good out of, and do the most good in these times? Those who are absorbed in them- selves, who care not what transpires so long as their craft and pockets remain untouched? No! The individuals who are lost in pleasure, whose chief thought is how much gratifi- cation can the extract out of they passing days? No! The cold, passionless votaries of reason, who bring everything to the touchstone of logic, who abolish as unworthy of their consideration all ideas of the supernatural? No! The men who are the shuttlecocks if excitement, driven hither and thither by the latest discovery, the newest theory? No! The men who are the victims of cowardice, who are afraid to say what they believe and feel, who shrink from stemming the tide of fashion? No! What kind of men are the right men for these days; have we got them? If not, can they be gotten? I believe we have in this state and community many men alive to their present needs. I believe that number can and ought to be increased. Men like God's servant Caleb, "who had another spirit with him and who followed the Lord fully." Men like the chil- dren of Issachar, "which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do." They were not like the political and moral incompetents of our day, who are trying to guide the people of 1900 regardless of the time-honored principles of our fathers. They looked at the divine indications not only of their own particular day and century, but the divine signs of every age and century. So ought we to understand our days and times and ages, not only when America was thirteen colonies huddled together along the Atlantic seaboard, but today, when America has become a nation whose each hand dips in an ocean, whose head is bathed in the largest fresh water basin in the world, and whose feet are washed in the thermal waters of the Caribbean. The Lord who rounded this old world centuries ago, and sent his Son to redeem it nearly nine- teen hundred years ago, has yet much to do with this radiant though agonized planet. May God who ruleth in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of men, make us men who have understanding of the times to know what we ought to do. What theme has a better claim upon us today? The treatment of what other truth is more opportune, since we have reached the fiftieth milestone in the history of our beautiful inland town? Let others say, but as for me, I have deemed it eminently fitting that we should stop in the onward rush of business and pleasure and consider what God has revealed for our profit at such a time as this; hence the language of His servant Jeremiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths." I. First of all, I see in this text the bearer of excellent advice. Although it was originally addressed to a wicked king, a worldly aristocracy, a corrupt people and a rot- ten church; although he who uttered it faithfully warned his countrymen, yet like Cas- sandra, the Trojan prophetess, he was not believed; although Jeremiah was dragged by Jewish refugees down to Egypt, and, according to tradition, died a martyr there, still the book that bears his name is with us, and we are persuaded that those who observe its principles to live them, shall not go astray. This being the temper of our mind and heart toward the prophet and his book. His imperative words as used in the text we take to be God's summons to thought and consideration. They are as though the prophet said, "Stop and think;halt and consider; stand still; pause and reflect; look within, behind 70 GERMAN CHURCH. THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. United Pfesbytetian Chorcli. and beJore; do nothing rashly. What are you doing, and where are you going? What will be the end and consequence of your present line of action? Stop and think." Now, to set men thinking is one great object of God and every religious teacher. No instructor, secular or religious, can, afford to minimize, much less omit this significant fact, because where a person begins to think seriously he has taken the first step toward heaven. "I thought on my way," said the psalmist, "and turned my feet unto thy testi- monies." The prodigal son in the parable never would have sought his father's house if he had not "come to himself." It was when he quietly thought over the folly of his con- duct that he became convicted of his guilt and cried, " Father, I have sinned." You see it was this poor outcast taking time to stop and think and consider his ways that resulted in his forgiveness and restoration. The lack of such conduct is the cause why multitudes annually make shipwreck of themselves forever. Men as a rule do not deliberately choose evil and refuse the good, turn against God and serve sin as sin; the major part come to this condition because they began life wrong and continued in its course without a moment's serious thought. " My people doth not consider," is Isaiah's solemn charge against Israel. " I never gave it a thought," is the sorrowful defence which multitudes of men and women make when arraigned on account of their sins. Hosea's words are strictly-true of millions: " They consider not in their hearts." Of all classes of people who get into trouble by not thinking, in short by neglecting the advice given them in the text, I suppose there are none so liable as the young. Full of life and spirit, ignorant of the world, thinking only of the future and forgetting the past, they rush in not seeing their way out, make solemn contracts only to rue them afterwards, choose professions in which years of valuable time are squandered before they see their irretrievable mistake. Esau thought to gratify present needs only, when he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Dinah wished to go out "to see the daughters of the land," and thought no harm of it; but she lost her reputation and imported confusion into her father's house. Lot saw no reason why he should not pitch his tents on the fertile plain of Sodom, but selfishness led him into the city, where he mingled with people who were "sinners exceedingly before God," and there he finally lost all he had, save his two daughters. All these learned the cost of not stopping to consider. "They sowed to the flesh and they reaped a harvest of sorrow and disappointment," because they did not "stand and see" and continue in the "old paths," before approved and blessed of God. We fully realize that these are ancient things about which we are speaking. The critic may say, " You cannot put old heads on young shoulders." But let us remember that the young are not the only class who need the exhortation of the text in these days. The advice of Jeremiah is general and pre-eminently applicable to all classes, conditions and times. Hurry is the characteristic of our age. See how the railroads, telegraphs, telephones and sharp competition oblige Americans to live in a constant, breathless whirl. They are like Jehu, driving furiously after business or politics — no time for a few minutes' calm, quiet reflection about their souls and the world to come; they live in a hurry, and in a hurry they too often die. If there ever was a time when Jeremiah's advice was needed, it is now. Not in far away lands simply, but right here in America, in the State of Massachusetts, and in the town of Clinton. Men and brethren, saint and sinner, I would have you stop and think to-day. I would have you "stand, pause awhile." You must, if you are to see what has been done in this community during the past fifty years — what good has been accomplished and what evil has been wrought. Our audience this morning is not made up of the old resi- 71 (6) United Presbyterian Church. dents of the town; if it was, I might appeal to them to answer the questions: How much better is this town now than it was thirty or forty years ago? True, we have made great strides in industries and education, but my question is, how much better are the citizens of this town in a moral and religious respect than they were a half or even a quarter of a century ago? I admit the progress in all lines of business, and am glad, too; but what about the spirituality of the people? Where are the old time faith in God's word, the full churches, the quiet, restful Sabbaths that once characterized this entire New England country? Where is the simple worship of the Son of God, to have the free exercise of which the Pilgrim Fathers came to our rock-bound coast? Now is the time to stop. You have reached a resting place in your journey toward heaven or perdition. Beware of the infection of the times. Remember the Spanish proverb: "Hurry comes from the devil." Beware of perpetual hurried prayers, hurried Bible readings, hurried church-go- ing, hurried communions. Commune at least once a week with your own heart and be still. Cotton and coal and iron, corn and ships and stocks, land and gold, liberalism and conservatism, are not the only things for which we have come into this world. Death and judgment and eternity are not fancies, but stern realities. Make time to think about them. You will be obliged one day to take time to die, whether prepared for it or not. Remember that the restless high-pressure rush in which we live endangers the very foundation of our personal religion. 2. The particular direction of the command to those addressed. There is no doubt in my mind that Jeremiah meant, when he enjoined his fellow countrymen "to ask for the old paths," the faith in Jehovah that had characterized their fathers for thirteen hundred years. What he wished to recall and re-establish as a chan- nel in which to walk were "the paths of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — the paths of Moses, Joshua and Samuel — the paths of David, Solomon, Hezekiah and Jehoshophat;" the paths wherein the decalogue stood as the guide and rule of life. The paths wherein the law of worship was the elaborate sacrificial system, the essence of which typified the coming King and Savior of men. These were the paths in which Jeremiah exhorted the people to walk — around the standards of a Moses and a Joshua, a Daniel and a Solomon, he would have the people rally. But are we to restrict the application of this principle to the times in which Jeremiah lived? Was his call to " stand and see" and " ask for the old paths" pertinent to his own day alone? Nothing of the kind. The medicine Jeremiah offered for the spiritual dis- eases of his countrymen is exactly what is needed in our own time. This is an old rem- edy, that is true; but what difference does it make when the complaint is the same? Shall I turn my back upon an old cure because it is old? But you say, "Error is old." So is truth; it is always ancient. Men's hearts have not changed in the last six thousand years. What, therefore, cured spiritual diseases centuries ago, will cure them today. I have no other principle to apply to the times in which we live than that incorporated in God's command through Jeremiah, to Israel and to us. Fundamental truths have always been the same; the path by which sinners have reached heaven has always been one and the same; in this respect we want nothing new. What this age needs preeminently is plain, distinct, unflinching teaching about the "old paths," unhesitating inquiry for the old doctrines and the faith of the days that are past. "Give me no modern road of man's invention. Show me where patriarchs and prophets and apostles and fathers and reformers set down their feet, obtained a good report and made a mark on the world." The old way is good enough for me. If the old channels in which walked the fathers of the Hebrew people were owned and marvellously bleesed 72 United Presbyterian Church. by God; if the apostles and early disciples of our King and Redeemer, though "unlearned and ignorant men," were enjoined to continue in the "old paths," what better word have I for you today, and in fact for entire Christendom, than a plea for the old way, from which some have so far deviated and others have deliberately tried to destroy? Oh, my people, if any of you have been trying to set up your own way in place of that set forth in Scripture, I warn you, and beseech you, to retreat from the danger toward which you are headed. Stop, my friends, "stand and see, and call for the old paths," which bridge today, as they always have, the gulf between earth and heaven. They need no mending, for they are as straight and narrow and firm and sufficient as the day God received them from the nail-punctured palms of His immortal Son. But permit me to come a little nearer home. Let us no longer speak of generalities, truth and error, which are common to us all, but let us examine ourselves as United Pres- byterians in this great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in this particular town of Worcester County. Are we doing the work enjoined upon us by Him who " doeth all things well?" Have we departed from the paths of our Protestant reformers in heroic, though once bleeding, Scotland? Have we forgotten the "old paths" always blessed of God in our efforts to walk as Christian men' and women before the people of New Eng- land, or are we intensifying by our inconsistencies, hypocricies, double-dealing and sub- terfuge the moral darkness that is rapidly deepening into night in many cities and towns, as well as in many districts in rural New England? If so, stop it; consider your ways and beat a rapid retreat; reorganize your forces; choose leaders who give no uncertain sound; take up the old banner of the cross that has been disgraced, despised and shot down by the enemy of all righteousness, and plant it not only in the rural places of New Hampshire, where Dr. Gordon spent many a summer vacation reopening for the simple worship of God the closed sanctuaries of his native state, but in the fifteen counties of Maine wherein it is said that almost, if not quite one-half, of the Protestant families have no Sabbath home. But do not stop; carry the cause that has never been successfully resisted into the thirty-one towns of southeastern Massachusetts, wherein it is reported two hundred families have not the word of God, and nearly three hundred families are without any religious books — where forty out of every one hundred families of Puritan extraction have left the house of God and severed all connection with Christianity. The present duty of the Presbyterian Church, though only seventeen thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven strong in this state, and thirty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty-three in entire New England, is to cry aloud and spare not, showing the people their sins and pointing to Him who is willing to forgive and reclaim them as his own. Of course I am well aware that the old paths for which I have been pleading are not popular in some quarters at this day. There may be those who are thinking that the views to which I have been giving utterance are in direct antagonism to much of the so- called wisdom of these times. Some may localize this slur upon the wisdom of God by the heavy fire of such language as "worn-out doctrines," "fossil theology," "old-world creeds," "old-fashioned divinity." These, say they, are not the guiding principles of the leaders and scholars of the present age, these notables who like the Athenians of old spend their time trying to hear or discover some new thing. It is not something new in belief or method of propagating that belief that we wait for, as we pause for a little while at the stone which is to mark our fiftieth birthday as a corporate municipality. Although we as United Presbyterians cannot boast of having a history one-half the age of the town in which we live, still that banner which means so much to us was first unfurled to Clinton's balmy breezes by Dr. Alexander Blaikie in July 73 United Presbyterian Church. of 1878, and again in December of 1882, Rev. P. Y. Smith took it up and called to organi- zation the scattered forces. But not until the 6th of February, 1893, was this time-hon- ored banner of our Scotch and Irish fathers planted upon this beautiful spot we occupy today. During the pastorate of Rev. Albert Flick this old banner held its rightful place, and through the administration of Rev. W. A. McClymonds there was no disposition to surrender it. Is it bigotry to love it? Is it idolatry to hail it as the symbol of all our hearts hold dear? A thousand times no! We do not care to haul it down and replace it by another. The truths, the principles, the doctrines for which it has always stood should be the subjects of our meditation today. The system of civic and religious instruction for which our church stands is not the work of man's hands. May we pause today and consider our heritage in God. Evil may abound and ignorant impatience may murmur and cry out that Christianity has failed; but, we may depend upon it, if we want to do good and shake the world, we must fight with the old apostolic weapons and stick to the "old paths." Men and brethren, respect the logic of facts. GiVe the direction of Jeremiah the attention it deserves; never be ashamed to ask for the "old paths," and do not be afraid to walk in them. Look at them and tal'k of them, but actually walk in them, Let no scorn of the world, let no ridicule of smart writers, let no snare of liberal critics shake your confidence; only try them and you will find them a "way of pleasantness and peace." The nation's need is men; the state's need is men; and Clinton's need is men. "Stand and see" if this is not true, then call for the "old paths" when God gave us men. "A time like this demands strong minds. Great hearts, true faith and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking. Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking; For while the rabble in their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions and tbeir little deeds. Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps. Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps." 74 SCHOOL EXERCISES. A S Sunday had been devoted to the religious history of the community and the cele- ■**■ bration of the Semi-Centennial by the churches, so the forenoon of Monday was given up to the celebration of the anniversary by the schools. Since the history of local education received comparatively little attention in the exercises, it may be briefly out- lined here. There is no record of any school kept in the territory now called Clinton until the beginning of the present century. As it is known, however, that the village about Pres- cott's mills was called School District No. 8, and that east of the river about Stephen Wilder' s, School District No. 9, and as school money was allotted to these districts at least as early as 1791, it is reasonable to suppose that instruction was furnished to the children of these districts under the auspices of the town before the first school of which we have definite record. Such instruction was probably given by "dame schools" in pri- vate houses during a considerable portion of the Eighteenth century. The redistricting of Lancaster in 1801 changed the number of the district about Pres- cott's mills to 10 and that of the Wilder district to 11. The records of the former district were carefully kept and are still in existence. The first entry is dated March 25, 1800. Before this time, a school-house must have been started, for it was voted April 9 at a dis- trict meeting, "that the school-house should be finished where it now stands, yeas 7, nays 2." The memorial tablet dedicated on this Semi-Centennial day, June 18, 1900, approxi- mately marks its location. This school-house was twenty-four feet long from north to south and eighteen feet wide. The door was on the northeast corner, opening to the north. On the same side was the chimney with the great open fire-place where wood four feet in length could be burned. On the other side, against the wall were the seats for the pupils, with benches in front. Sally Sawyer was the first teacher whose name has been preserved. She was paid one dollar per week for her services, and was employed under a vote passed July 30, 1801 : "That a woman school be kept two months from date." Peter Larkin, who taught seven weeks during the winter 1807-8, is the first recorded male teacher. In 1808, after the comb-makers had settled here, there were twenty-six pupils, and from that time on there were both summer and winter terms, each of some six or ten weeks in length. In 1824, on account of the growth in population arising from the development of Poignand & Plant's mills, a brick school-house was erected just south of the present posi- tion of Parson's blacksmith shop on Main Street. Here, as in the other building, the summer school was kept by a woman, and during the winter months a man was employed, either some young collegian or some noted disciplinarian such as Ezra Kendall or Silas Thurston, from the neighboring villages. In 1839, when Factory Village had begun to feel the influence of the Bigelows, there were over fifty pupils in the district; so, in accord- ance with a state law to that effect, an assistant was employed. An old register for the winter of 1843-4, preserved by Dr. George W. Burdett, who was the teacher at that time, has ninety-five pupils enrolled. The oldest was nineteen years of age, the youngest three. 75 School Excfciscs. The average age was about ten. The subjects studied were reading, spelling, writing, grammar, geography, natural philosophy and book-keeping. As has been noticed, the district had already felt the influence of the new industries started by the Bigelows,.and from this time on for five years, the growth in the population and in the schools was phe- nomenal. In 1844, a new house was erected just north of the brick one for the youngest pupils. During the forties, the average duration of the two school terms combined was over thirty weeks. Meanwhile, a school had also been maintained east of the river. At first, it was kept in private houses, but in 1809, a school-hOuse was built a little west of the Carruth house. From this time on, the history of this district was similar to that of No. lO. In the schools of these two districts, elementary education was imparted to children who in their after life deeply influenced the fortunes of our own community and the world at large. The names Burdett, Stone, Lowe, Gibbs, Rice, Sawyer, Plant, Harris, Pitts, Chace, Wilder and Pollard, all prominent in local history, are of most frequent occurrence in early times upon the school registers. In 1847, the two districts were united into one under the name of District No. 10, and a graded system of schools was established. At this time, graded schools were known only in the largest communities in the state. There were three grades in Clintonville. Besides the brick house and the primary school house, which had been moved to the north part of the district, there was a school-house on the "Berlin Road" and another on Oak Street. The second school in this section was made necessary by the starting of Lancas- ter Mills. In 1846, a private school of a higher grade had been established by Horatio N. Big- elow and other citizens. It was kept by Miss Adolphia Rugg in a building erected for the purpose at the southwest corner of Walnut and Church Streets. This school became the nucleus of the Third School, of which George N. Bigelow was the first teacher. The agreement was made that he should be employed by the district to teach the Third School in the winter, and should have the use of the building at the corner of Walnut and Church Streets for a private school during the rest of the year. The growth of the school was such that, in 1849, "the chapel" near the corner of Main and Water Streets was hired for its use. The building at the corner of Walnut and Church Streets was given up to the Second School. Clintonville had one or more members on the school committee of Lancaster from 1846 to 1850. While this committee managed the intellectual side of education, the School District No. 10 managed its own finances, and was the political unit out of which the town of Clinton grew. Trouble in regard to the maintenance of a high school in Clintonville was one of the causes which led to the separation of Clinton from the mother town March 14, 1850. No radical changes were made in the school system when the new town was incor- porated. In 185 1-2, a school-house was built on Beacon Street and District No. 5 estab- lished. This house was moved to Main Street in 1855. I" the same year, 1851-2, a new school-house. No. 3, was built in McCollumville or Scrabble Hollow. From this time on, the length of the school year was forty weeks or more. The High School building at the corner of Walnut and Church Streets was completed in the spring of 1854, at a cost of six thousand dollars. It was at first called the Gram- mar School building. Here the Third and Second Schools were united under one princi- pal. George N. Bigelow had resigned in 1852, after a most successful administration of five years. He had proved a man peculiarly fitted by his calm temperament, his judicial 76 HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING 1885. ""-^'-r***! HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING 1854-1885. School Exercises. mind, his varied knowledge, his genial nature and his aptitude for teaching, to give the initial impulse to our system of secondary education. He was followed by S. W. Board- man, who at the end of a single term was succeeded by Charles W. Walker. In 1854, Josiah S. Phillips, a man of scientific tastes, was made the first principal of the combined Third and Second Schools, henceforth known as the Grammar School. Here he remained until the winter of 1858-9, and his excellent work exerted a great influ- ence on the educational life of the community. Henry S. Nourse of Lancaster finished his uncompleted term. The gentle Frederic A. Fiske and Elizabeth S. Owens were prin- cipals in succession in 1859. During this year, the Senior Grammar School, by which name the department which corresponds to our present High School was then known, had an assistant for the first time. From i860 to 1862, the jovial Dana I. Jocelyn was in charge of the school; from 1862 to 1864, the precise Rev. Milan C. Stebbins. It was through the work of these two principals that the first regular course of study, tending toward a diploma, was established. Helen F. Morgan, Harriet C. Morse and Isadore Parker completed this course in the summer of 1864, and were the first graduates. Mr. Stebbins had studied deeply into the theories of education, he was devoted to his pro- fession, accurate in his scholarship and methodical in his management of the school. Josiah H. Hunt, a strict disciplinarian and a most thorough instructor, was principal from 1864 to the spring of 1873, when Andrew E. Ford, the present incumbent, was employed. The most notable changes during his administration are: the addition of a year to the Grammar School course in 1874, and the consequent raising of the standard of admission to the High School; the construction in 1885, at a cost of sixty thousand dollars, of the new High School building, which in the simple dignity of its architecture and the perfec- tion of its appointments has^few superiors; the increase from 1885 to 1898 in the number of assistant teachers from one to five, with the greater specialization of work rendered possible thereby; the introduction of new branches of study, such as type-writing, sten- ography and German, together with the broadening of subjects previously studied; the constantly increasing preparation of students for higher institutions of learning; the change from two sessions to one in 1895; the quadrupling of the number of pupils. The following is a list of assistants in the High School, in the order of service: Martha A, Stearns, Lucinda Foster, Harriet A. Rice, Mary H. Stone, Charlotte L. Greene, Sarah E. Richardson, Ellen L. Burdett, Minna Rawson, Alice M. Allen, Nina E. Brown, Ella F. Averill, Nellie F. Tilton, Lillian E. Downes, Edith J. Ayres, Nellie Kent, Clara A. John- son, Helen A. O'Connor, Nellie A. Houghton, Helen E. Day, Henry A. Potter, Alfred B. Clement, Eunice R. Pierce, Frederick A. Carpenter, Agnes A. O'Brien. When the High School building was constructed at the corner of Walnut and Church Streets, the little wooden building, which had previously stood on its site, was moved between the churches on Walnut Street and was used for a Primary School. In 1856, it gave way to the present No. 4 brick building. The next year, a two-roomed brick school- house. No. I, was erected near Lancaster Mills bridge. On account of the hard times and slow growth of the town during the Civil War, there was no more building until 1867, when No. 6 was constructed on Pleasant Street, at a cost of over fourteen thousand dol- lars, a sum largely in excess of that spent for any previous building. The next year came No.' 2 on Water Street, and three years later, a second story was added to No. 5. The Chestnut Street Grammar School building, erected 1873, cost thirty-eight thousand dollars. The Intermediate grades, as they had previously been called, were moved to this build- ing from Pleasant Street. The Woodlawn Street house, Ko. 7, in 1876; the Berlin Street and Franklin Street houses, Nos. 9 and 8, in 1879; each at a cost of between six and seven School Exercisest thousand dollars, form the next group. Then came a long break in the erection of houses for lower grades. A new and improved model was adopted for the buildings made in the nineties. The Water Street building of 1892, the High Street building, No. 11, of 1894, and the Flagg Street building. No. 12, of 1898, are very much superior in beauty and convenience to the houses used by these lower grades in earlier times. The " Grammar School" building which has just been completed on the site of the "Old High School building" at a cost of about fifty thousand dollars, will also be used in part for Primary school work. This building with its ideal accommodations and equipment, crowning the work of previous years, gives to Clinton a school property costing as a whole over a quar- ter of a million dollars, and makes it the equal of any community in the state in the material facilities offered for education. » The first truant officer, John D. Brigham, was employed in 1871. David H. Hayter held this office 1873-5, Abijah Brown in 1876, and Edward F. McCaffrey 1877-1900., Music in the higher grades of schools was placed in charge of a special teacher in 1871. Later, special instruction was given in all the grades. George Gardner was employed 1871-8, Eben H. Bailey 1879-83, Jennie A. Burgess 1883-4, Isabella A. Holland 1884-1900. Anna H. Whitney became the first teacher of drawing in 1874. She remained until 1879, when Mary E. Noyes took up the work. She was followed in one year by Alice Hunt, who remained until 1883. 'There was no special teacher from 1883-1891; then William L. Judkins was employed. He has remained to the present time. In its school committee, the town has been peculiarly fortunate. For thirteen years previous to 1877, Franklin Forbes was a member of the school committee, and for twelve of these he was chairman. The development of our school system during the first half of our municipal existence was due to him more than to any other citizen. His broad culture, his extended experience as a teacher in the best schools of the state, his keen insight of human character, his great business ability developed by the management of the affairs of an immense corporation, his freedom from bigotry, his warm sympathies, his love of children, all united to make him the ideal man to control the educational inter- ests of a new town. John T. Dame was a member of the school board for seventeen years, during fourteen years of which, he was chairman. Although, in other town matters, he was conservative in expenditures, he believed in the most liberal appropriations for the schools. He demanded from teachers the same thoroughness of scholarship by which he himself was characterized. Every one connected with the schools felt that they could rely implicitly on his justice. For the last twenty-five years, John W. Corcoran has been a member of the board, and for sixteen years he has been chairman,_exceeding in length of service as a member and as chairman any of his predecessors. Th.e fact that he was reelected to this office during the present year by the unanimous vote of both par- ties shows the estimation in which his work for the schools is held by his fellow-citizens. Thus these three men have guided the course of the schools during forty-two out of the fifty years of the town's existence. Joshua Thissell served as a member of the board almost a quarter of a century, and as secretary for sixteen years. Thus he performed during nearly half of the period preceding the establishment of the superintendency, many of the duties which now fall to that department. Charles G. Stevens and his son, Edward G. Stevens, the one of whom preceded and the other followed Mr. Thissell, were secretaries during most of the remaining time. Among others who have served on the board nine years or more, we note the names of Rev. Charles M. Bowers, eleven years, chairman one; C. F. W. Parkhurst, thirteen years, chairman one; Henry C. Greeley, thir- teen years, chairman one; Wellington E. Parkhurst, sixteen years; Alfred A. Burditt, 78 School Exercises. nine years; Dr. Philip T. O'Brien, eleven years; John McQuaid, nine years. These thirteen men together, including the four previously mentioned, have served an aggregate ot one hundred and seventy-three years, and all other men combined have served only one hun- dred and twenty-seven years. Clinton has been blessed in the character of the members of the school committee no less than in their length of service. There have always been members on the board who have had college training. There have been eleven clergy- men, eight doctors of medicine, thVee lawyers, six who have been agents of some one of our great corporations, and many of our most prominent men of business. Every citizen, no matter what his position, has felt it an honor to be a member of the board, and those who have been in service have given freely of their time and energy.* A great change was made in our school system in 1883 by the appointment of a superintendent to have direct charge of our educational interests. Able and faithful as the work of our school committee had been, yet it was evident that men, absorbed in business and professional life, could not give to the schools the attention they demanded. S. Arthur Bent became the first superintendent, and to him fell the work of unif)'ing our system and of bringing it into accord with the most advanced theories. It was during his administration that the free text-book law came into force, and he perfected the details of its local application. To him also are due many of the excellent qualities of our High School building. After three years of service, he was succeeded by William W. Waterman, a man of broad experience in school work and one who was recognized as their peer by the foremost educators of the state. The establishment of the parochial schools in 1889 and the consequent withdrawal of four hundred pupils from the public schools, gave to him the difficult task of re-adjusting the equality of numbers between the different schools. In 1889, he was followed by Charles L. Hunt, who has fortunately remained with us. He has directed the work of the schools for the past eleven years, and their present position, of which we are so justly proud, is largely the result of his efforts. The providing of increased accommodations, the beautifying of the school-rooms and grounds and the enrichment of the course of study by nature work, literature and aesthetics, are among the most striking features of his administration. Of the work of the teachers, it is impossible to speak except in the most general terms. It has of late been the policy of our school committee to employ as teachers those residing in the town, whenever it could be done without detriment to the best interests of the schools. The fact that so large a proportion of our teachers have lived at home has *Rev. William H. Corning, 1850-2; C. W. Blanchard, 1850-1; Dr. George W. Burdett, 1850-3; Rev. Charles M. Bowers, 1850-1, '52-6, '58-66; Charles L. Swan, 1850-1; William W. Parker, 1850-1, '52-4; Augus- tus J. Sawyer, 1850-2; Franklin Forbes, 1851-2, '54-5, '56-61, '68-76; John T. Dame, 1851-2, '53-4, '56-7, '62-8, '74-77/78-84; Horatio N. Bigelow, 1851-2, '53-5, '56-8, '59-60; Albert S. Carleton, 1851-2, '54-5, '56-7; Rev. William D. Hitchcock, 1852-4; Rev. George Bowler, 1852-3; James Ingalls, 1852-3; Dr. Preston Chamber- lain, 1852-3; Rev. Leonard J. Livermore, 1853-6, '57-8; Rev. T. Willard Lewis, 1853-4; Artemas E. Bige- low, 1854-60; Dr. George M. Morse, 1854-5, '56-7; Rev. Warren W. Winchester, 1855-6; Rev. Augustus F. Bailey, 1855-6; C. F. W. Parkhurst, 1855-6, '62-74; Charles G. Stevens, 1856-62; Josiah H. Vose, 1857-62; Henry C. Greeley, 1857-9, '67-78; Daniel W. Kilburn, 1859-60; Eneas Morgan, 1860-6; Dr. George W. Sy- monds, 1860-3; Joshua Thissell, 1861-85; Rev. William Gushing, 1863-7; Rev. James Sallaway, 1866-8; Charles L. Swan, 1866-7; Geo. Weeks, 1867-70; Alfred A. Burditt, 1868-77; Wellington E. Parkhurst, 1869-78. '82-84, '88-92, '98-99; John W. Corcoran, 1876-1900; Edward G. Stevens, 1877-83, '84-90; Samuel McQuaid, 1877-81; Rev. Charles Noyes, 1878-82; Rev. Henry L. Foote, 1881; Henry N. Bigelow, 1881-8; Philip T. O'Brien, 1883-9, '95-1900; John McQuaid, 1884-95; Frank E. Holman, 1885-90; Edward W. Burdett, 1889- 96; Walter R. Dame, 1891-93, '97-1900; Abram W. L. Booth, 1892-6; Dr. Edwin L. Harris, 1892-5; Dr. John F. Worcester, 1895-6; Anton W. Wiesman, 1897-1900; Dr. Parley P. Comey, 1897; A. Burnham Allen, 1898-9; Dr. Clarence H. Bowers, 1898-1900; Dr. Charles L. French, 1899-1900. 79 School Exercises. tended to a better acquaintance with tiie conditions surrounding the schools, more local patriotism, greater permanency, and a more complete unity of aim in the teaching force. The fact that liberal salaries have been paid and special talents appreciated has also tended in the same direction. Several of our teachers have served for over a quarter of a century. At the close of last year, 1899, leaving out the three departments recently added to the High School, the eleven remaining teachers in the High and Chestnut Street build- ings had served as teachers in Clinton schools an average of over twenty years each. The law recently made that all candidates for teachers' positions must have a normal school diploma, will give the advantage of more complete professional training. The average number of scholars to a teacher has been between forty and fifty. Some fifty teachers are now employed. Nowhere can be found a body of women teachers with loftier ideals, with greater aptitude for imparting instruction, with more tact in management, with more devotion to the interests of their pupils and with higher results to show for their kibors. The appended list* of the names of teachers will awaken in more than one pupil of former days, memories of work and of mischief, of dull catechising and of inspiring direction, of * List of teachers below the High School. The names are put in the order of the year of beginning service, those who have served ten years but less than twenty, in italics ; those over twenty, in capitals : Artemas E. Bigelow, M. A. Price, Jane A. Daniels, R. F. Priest, Sarah A. Colburn, M. A. Boynton, E. M. Lovering, Harriet F. Whitcomb, Eliza Crane, Jonathan L. Butler, Emma L. Reeves, Urania E. Ingalls, Lucy M. Holman, Perley B. Davis, Levi S. Burbank, Rev. Leonard J. Livermore, Sarah C. Miner, Sarah A. Nichols, Mary F. McCoUum, Mrs. C. M. S. Carpenter, Sara A. Cobb, Ellen F. Colburn, Julia J. Haven, S. Angenette King, Ellen A. Wright, Celinda P. Gates, Elizabeth L. Gibbs, Louisa L. Swain, Sarah W. Ba- ker, Maria F. Hills, Frances A. Lovell, Beulah A. Park, Martha E. Hale, Lucretia S. Morgan, Mira J. Sawyer, Victoria E. Gates, Mary F. Stearns, P. A. Barnes, Martha A. Wallace, Abbie H. Stowe, Anna S. Harrington, Marietta Jewett, Emma S. Whitcomb, Annie B. Cutter, M. T. Bush, Carrie A. Brigham, Mary E. Pease, Lydia J. Derby, Martha A. Stearns, E. Frances Campbell, Lydia S. Willard, Sara C. Woodbury, Mary E. Downes, Frances E. Burdett, Mary J. Abbott, Harriet M. Haskell, Carrie E. Goodale, Susan H. Hartwell, Elizabeth C. Stearns, Sarah A. Fawcett, Celinda M. Cppp, Mary H. Stone, Mary A. Cameron, Abbie E. Dame, Ellen A. Maynard, Fannie A. Damon, Sarah Houghton, Mary E. Felton, Sarah A. Childs; Mary L. Holman, Lydia A. Bates, Ellen Forbush, Sarah A. Colburn ; Helen M. Stearns, Harriet C. Morse, Sarah M. Maynard, Catherine E, Harlow, Ella J. Freema7i, Cornelia V. Bowers,'Mary E. Burdett, Nellie M. Rice, Harriet M. Bowman, Henrietta E. Parker, Lucina M. Day, Emogene M. Jenkins, Ella M. Palmer, Mary G. Whitcomb, Emily J. F. Stewart, Janet Martin, Lena M. Day, Helen E. Day, Nellie L. Burdett, Flora A. Hayward, Mary A. Day, Lillian A. Washburn, Marion A. Gordon, Vesta A. Gray, Agnes R. Dame, Isabel N. Jackson, Mary A. Wright, Helen M. Gordon, Emily E. Schumaker, Hattie E. Turner, Addie C. Chace, Olive Bastian, Lilla J. Harris, Nellie A. Houghton, Ella M. Austin, Annie E. Stone, Sarah L. Martin, Fannie M. Heighway, Alice M. Houghton, Vianna C. Greene, Ada L. Carter, Celia A. Dooley, D. R. Lewis, Clara F. Case, M. £. W. Jones, Helen A. Thissell, Marion Wiggin, Nannie E. Parsons, Adelia G. Shcehan, Eliza J. Lawler, Alice J. Parsons, Sarah A. Corcoran, Minnie L. O'Brien, Lillian E. Sibley, Alida L. Gibbs, Lucy A. Russell, Lizzie E. Winch, Susie M. Thatcher, Etta M. Brov/n, Harriet M. Ruggles, Mar- tha B. Burgess, Ina V. Austin, Jessie A. Morgan, Clara L. Shattuck, Grace G. Gage, Mary L. Blenus, Mag- gie E. Quirk, Genevieve Allen, Arabella A. Somes, Edith Parsons, Clara Ticknor, Charlotte M. Battles, Mary McCann, Hannah M. Walsh, Sarah E. Laird, Cora B. Wheeler, May Parsons, Rose A. Cullen, Ella M. Wells, May E. Thomson, Nellie A. Fielding, May E. Tandy, Catherine W. Larkin, Idaho P. Foster, ^ Alice A. Grady, Hortense Wiggin, Nellie M. Carter, Annie S. Arno, Alice B. McNab, Isabella Burns, Mary McLaughlin, Martha O'Connor, Eva M. Amsden, Lena E. Schmidt, Kate A. Glynn, Eva D. Hall, Susan E. Amsden, Ella L. Needham, Nellie Kent, Ellen A. Draper, Edith S. Dunn, Alice G. Hosmer, Addie M. Nod- ding, Catherine E. O'Toole, Honora A. O'Toole, Sarah C. Watson, Julia M. Walsh, Mary F. Tonry, DeliaM. Wellington, Mary P. McQuaid, May B, Fairbanks, Julia T. Mclntyre, Annie A. Dervin, Leonora Teasdale, Bertha L. Gibson, Bridget Hoban, Agnes F. Carr, Delia J. Killeen, Lillian M. Field, Annie C. Johnson, Elnora Sutherland, Celia Carlisle, Bridget M. Padden, Annie O'Malley, Agnes A. Finnerty, A. Florence Field, Elizabeth F. Grady, Catherine E. Heagney, Margaret J. Tonry, Catherine L. Burke, Helena C. Nugent, Clara A. Fisher, Emma M. Gallagher, Nellie Paine, Charlotte A. Clifford, Alice G. Grady. 80 -A uJ L 1 THE FLAGG STREET SCHOOL-HOUSE. THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE. School Exercises. sharp reproof and of persuasive sympathy, of discouraging failures and of the joyful reali- zation of newly discovered powers. Running through all these memories will be a deep consciousness that the teachers were working earnestly and as a whole wisely for the welfare of their pupils. One of the best measures of the quality of a school system is to be found in the desire of the pupils for further education. If the pupils in general leave school at the earliest possible moment, something is wrong; but if the training has seemed so attrac- tive and profitable that parents and children feel that great sacrifices should be made in order that schooling should be continued, then the school system must have some good qualities. Measured by this standard, our schools surely show progress. There has been a continued increase in the proportion of members actually attending school to the num- ber required by law to do so. Notwithstanding the greater requirements for promotion, the numbers in the upper grades have increased more rapidly than those in the lower. In the last twenty-five years, the period covered by approximately the same requirements for admission to the High School, the average attendance of pupils in the nine lower grades has increased about one hundred per cent. During the same time, the average attendance in the High School has increased over four hundred per cent. This could never have happened if the school had not been made so attractive and profitable to the pupils in the lower grades that they desired to continue their connection with it, and their parents were anxious that they should do so. Meanwhile, the number who complete the course in the High School has increased five hundred per cent. The number entering colleges and technical schools this year is in excess of the total number entering during the first ten years after diplomas began to be given at the High School, 1864-1873, and the number entering the Normal Schools is equal to the total number for the first twenty years, 1864-1883. During the first ten years, 1864-1873, only eight graduates in all entered colleges, technical and normal schools, and less than half of these had completed their preparation in the public schools. In I9c5b alone, fourteen have been admitted to such institutions, all of whom had completed their preparation in the public schools. Every school system should be judged by its fruits. The noble record of the pupils of earlier years fill many pages of this volume, and their speeches will make up no incon- siderable portion of its contents. What work may be done by the pupils of more recent times cannot be foretold. But no one who is acquainted with the spirit they have dis- , played in preparing for that work can doubt that their lives will be full of worthy service.* Our day-school system is supplemented by a system of evening schools. The first evening schools were kept in Burdett Hall in 1878. Andrew E. Ford was the first prin- cipal of the school for males, and is credited by the committee with doing the general work of organization. Rev. Charles Noyes was principal of the school for girls, kept on alternate evenings with that for males, and William S. Dana of an overflow school for males in the Library Building. After several years of fluctuating fortunes, these schools finally settled down to regular work four nights in a week in the old High School build- ing, and later, in the new High School building. Andrew E. Ford has been principal of the united male and female schools for many years. These schools are now in session about eighteen weeks in a year. By a state law, all minors employed in our mills who are unable to read and write the English language, are obliged to attend. By constant immigration the number of such illiterates is usually kept above fifty. Many immigrants who are not minors take this opportunity to study English. In 1899, seven nationalities * Note. — For further development of the same theme, see response to the toast, " Our Schools,'' at the banquet. 81 School Exercises. were represented. Many attend to make up deficiencies in their early education, espe- cially in the direction of arithmetic and book-keeping. There are also classes in various departments of High School work. The evening drawing school, which is independent of the other evening school, was established in 1880. It is now under the charge of William L. Judkins. It is of special value to the mechanic and is liberally patronized. No account of the educational system of Clinton would be complete without a word in regard to the Bigelow Free Public Library. It is not necessary to dwell upon the his- tory of the Bigelow Mechanics Institute, started in 1846, or upon that of the Bigelow Library Association in which it was merged in 1852. By 1873, this private association had accumulated a library of four thousand four hundred and eight volumes. In this year, 1873, this library was given to the Town of Clinton under certain conditions. It was transferred to rooms prepared for it in the Town Hall buildings where it has remained to the present time. The board of directors chose Andrew E. Ford as the first librarian, and by him the library was arranged and catalogued and the system of circulation inaug- urated. He was followed as librarian by Fannie M. Greene in 1874. Charlotte L. Greene succeeded in 1886. The library has been liberally supported by the town, and now has about twenty-four thousand carefully selected books and an annual home circulation of fifty thousand, besides that of the reading room. Such in brief is the educational system of Clinton. If it is surpassed by that of any other town in the state, it is through no fault of the citizens, for they have always given freely all that was asked of them and have taken as their rule of conduct the words of Franklin Forbes: "Let us never abandon to a niggardly support, these distinguished institutions of New England, .the public schools and free libraries; let us endow them well and keep them in charge of the best teachers and best directors the town can find." The graduating exercises of the Clinton High School were originally arranged as a part of the Semi-Centennial celebration, but the crowded condition of the program made it desirable that they should take place at an earlier date. Occurring, as they did, on the evening of June 15, they furnished a fitting prologue to the great anniversary. The beautifully decorated hall was filled to overflowing. Principal Andrew E. Ford presided, introducing David I. Walsh, Esq., president of the Alumni, as the first speaker. He welcomed the members of the class to the ranks of the Alumni. He eloquently urged them to be in the future as in the past, tolerant in spirit, free in thought and action. Let them strive to appreciate the sacrifices made by their parents for their education and to repay the debt. Let them through their labors fulfill the hopes which have been enter- tained for their future, and hand down unimpaired the blessings which they have enjoyed. Professor Edwin A. Grosvenor of Amherst College, a descendant of John Prescott, the pioneer, was the orator of the evening. His theme was "The He/itage of the Ameri- can Citizen." In his introduction, he emphasized the thought that the best fruitage of municipal life is to be found in the manhood and womanhood it produces, and that, therefore, the graduating exercises of its schools might well be considered the most char- acteristic part of a town's anniversary. He asserted that though our land was great and beautiful and our material wealth was boundless, yet these were as nothing compared to the heritage of ideas which have become the working principles of our lives. To teach these ideas is the chief work of the schools. After touching lightly upon the heritage of ideas which our forefathers brought with them from the Old World, such as representa- tive government, trial by jury and the supremacy of law, he discussed the six great ideas 82 School Exercises. which have 'been developed in America and handed down to the present generation as a birthright. These ideas are the distinctive characteristics of our people. They are: political equality; freedom of thought, expression, personality; the recognition of the prin- ciple that government of the people must be by the people and for the people; the har- monious coordination of Church and State in distinction from their unity; the assimula- tion and consequent elevation of immigrant races; the mission of spreading throughout the world the civilization which we enjoy. All these thoughts were enforced with great wealth of illustration, cogency of reasoning and keenness of wit. Hon. John W. Corcoran, chairman of the school committee, spoke of the long suc- cession of classes to the members of which it had been his duty and privilege to give diplomas. "If it were possible," he said, "to arrange a procession of all these pupils who have received the benefits of our schools through the half century of Clinton's existence, this would be the noblest feature of the Semi-Centennial celebration, and would exhibit, as no other feature can do, the result of our municipal life." He congratulated the class of igoo on being the largest, forty-three in number, that had ever received diplomas, and briefly pointed out the ways in which the graduates might be of the greatest service to their town and to the world. On Sunday evening, the skies were lowering and it was feared that on the following day the weather would be such as to render it impossible to carry out the program planned; but when the morning came, the heavens were unclouded and the air was cool and bracing. It was a perfect day. At eight-thirty a. m., a delegation of some two hun- dred students from the High and Grammar Schools went in electric cars and on bicycles to the grave of John Prescott, the pioneer, in the Old Lancaster Cemetery. A large coachload of scholars from the Parochial School had preceded them. The simple beauty of the cemetery, with its outlook on the river intervale and the hills beyond, with its nat- ural groups of trees and with its greensward dotted with ancient gravestones telling the story of the distant past, added effect to the words of the speaker, as he so clearly por- trayed the life of one who was sleeping there. ADDRESS OF HON. HENRY S. NOURSE. Youth of Clinton : It seems to me a highly appropriate feature of Clinton's Semi- Centennial commemoration exercises, that you, who are the hope and the promise of the town's future progress and prosperity, should come to this humble grave to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of John Prescott, the pioneer, who built the first home upon Clinton soil. John Prescott, the founder of Lancaster, Cromwellian soldier, blacksmith, farmer, surveyor, builder of bridges, roads and mills, was also preeminently the founder of Clinton, and you rightly honor him as such. Two hundred and fifty-five years ago, a few days earlier in the summer than this, a little group of English people bade farewell to their home and neighbors in Watertown, and set out westward through the wilderness towards Wachusett to build a new home. At the head of the group strode the stalwart father, a man forty years of age, stern of visage, with fierce determination written in eye and mien, for such was John Prescott as tradition paints him. Leaving England for conscience sake, he had first sought a dwelling 'place in Barbadoes, then later in Watertown, and now he had bought lands in the pleasant valley of the Nashaway of the Indian sagamore, Sholan. Following the father came the mother riding upon a horse, with an infant in her arms, and behind with other horses came four girls, aged six, eight, thirteen and fifteen years, and a boy of ten. They wended 83 School Exercises. their way through the woodland by the blind Indian trails, until they canie to the broad and treacherous Sudbury marsh and its little river ; and here their journey came near ending in tragedy. The river was swollen by a freshet so that the horses had to swim, and the mother and j'oung girls were barely saved from drowning. At last, they safely reached this valley. Their iEew household goods and chattels had been sent thither upon horses' backs a few days before. The Prescotts placed their new hearthstone in a log cabin on the slope of the George Hill range, where now stand the Maplehurst stables of Col. Thayer, and there they lived for eight or nine years, and many other pioneers gath- ered about them. This broad intervale which you see before you was Prescott's field, and here the first year of his coming he planted corn. This river which flows through it, in the spring time, then abounded in salmon, shad and alewives. The salmon and shad were valued for human food. The smaller fish were chiefly used. as a fertilizer. In every hill of corn was planted, after the Indian fashion, an alewive, and it made the grain grow luxuriantly. Thus the pioneers had for food, plenty of fish from the streams, plenty of game from the for- est, and plenty of corn from their planting ground for bread. But that corn had to be parched and pounded into meal in hand mortars, or carried all the long forest journey upon horses' backs to the Watertown mill to be ground. Prescott resolved that Lancaster should have a mill of its own. He saw that the little falls of the South Meadow brook, where now the Clinton Worsted Mill stands, was the most available site for a water mill in all this valley. There, a very short dam would secure an ample reservoir and a fall of more than twenty-five feet. There in 1654, he built a grist-mill, and on the hill slope near by set up his new roof tree, the first in Clinton's territory. There he died, respected of all, in 1681. Prescott's hearthstone w'as the foundation of Clinton. You look here upon his very humble grave. Its headstone is but a rough fragment of some slate ledge. Upon it was scratched, with blacksmith's hammer and chisel probably, the words : John Prescott Debased. The footstone is shattered and gone. It was so when I was a child. Upon that, doubtless, was inscribed the date of his death, as was usual at that time. You have noticed that over this grave, as well as over the other ancient graves about it, there is a huge flat slab of slate. These, it is supposed, were so placed to prevent the wolves, which were; then not rare, from digging up the bodies. And now, you may ask, was this miller and blacksmith who was laid in so lowly a grave, a great man, that you should be enjoined to honor his memory. He was, first of all, z. good man. We know that, for John Eliot, "the Apostle to the Indians," was his friend. He was also in some true sense a great man. He did not lead armies like Caesar or General U. S. Grant ; he did not rule a nation like Washington ; he wa^s not a public orator like Cicero ; nor did he write immortal poetry like Tennyson or Longfellow. No, he was great because he simply labored unselfishly and honestly for the public good when the opportunity came to him, with never any fear of man, but always in the fear of God. After the address was over the scholars could linger but a moment, and they soon passed out through the quaint gateway from the seventeenth century, with its stern, rude struggle for existence, to the electric cars and bicycles, so typical of the closing years of the nineteenth. It was already ten o'clock, when the ,delegation reached the High School building, so it was necessary for them to form immediately into line for the dedication of the .memorial tablets. The order of the program was strictly followed and need not be 84 ^ijS^^^^ " "^iKgSgT -^;x-':a;»»a^gg^-^^3fa?a'asg HOUSE OF JOHN PRESCOTT. GRAVE OF JOHN PRESCOTT, THE PIONEER. School Exercises. repeated. The Salem Cadet Band, which had arrived on morning train, furnished music such as is seldom heard in Clinton. After the police, the marshal, the band, the carriages, came the classes of the High and Grammar Schools in order, with that of 1900 first. The girls of this class of 1900 wore the cap and gown. These were of black, with a tassel of the class colors, nile green and white, upon the cap. A reporter stated that on account of their black garb and dignified bearing some of the spectators called them "the widows," a title which they "indignantly repudiated." The class of 1901 wore uniforms of the school colors, purple and white. The uniforms of the class of 1902 were red and white, those of the class of 1903 were yellow and white. The girls of the Grammar grades were in white. The girls of the Parochial School were in white and blue. The schools car- ried banners and flags which added to the variety of the color effect. The schools all marched well, having been previously drilled by Lieutenant Martin J. Healey and other members of Company K. Some of those in line, as they marched along in time to the swelling music, doubtless felt the full significance of the event. It was the Clinton of the future paying its tribute to and learning its lesson from the Clinton of the past, while the Clinton of the present looked on in glad approval. It was our second half-century clasping hands with the first. Near the site of the first Prescott Home, the long line was formed into a compact body, with the band and carriages in front. The bronze tablet erected here is twenty- three inches by fourteen, with the inscription as follows : 1654 NEAR THIS SPOT STOOD THE HOUSE BUILT BY JOHN PRESCOTT IN 1654. BURNED BY THE INDIANS IN 1676. 1900 DEDICATION ADDRESS OF JUDGE CHRISTOPHER C. STONE. I consider it a privilege as well as a pleasure to say a few words to you this morning in regard to the first home established within the limits of the town of Clinton. Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago the stalwart blacksmith, John Prepcott, whose grave you have visited this morning, built a log house near where this tablet has been placed. The precise spot is unknown, but it matters not just where it stood or what its exact surround- ings were. It was the humble home to which John Prescott, then a man about fifty years of age, brought his wife and family. There were seven children, the oldest twenty-two years, the youngest six. For a moment contrast this home with the comfortable ones you enjoy. It was surrounded by a dense forest. No roads, no schools, no churches, and Indians and wild beasts roamed the forest at will. The nearest white neighbors were more than a mile away. Two families of the Nashaway tribe of Indians lived beside the 8S School Exercises. brook just above the village of Duck Harbor. They were their nearest neighbors, and so far as we know they lived in peace with each other. Here for twenty-two years the founder of Lancaster lived. His children grew up about him. The daughters married and left for homes of their own. In February, 1876, the Indians, led by King Philip, attacked this home, now grown to become a garrison house, and although the attack was success- fully resisted, the destruction of Lancaster was so nearly accomplished that Prescott aban- doned his home and the Indians completed the work of destruction. Three years later, John Prescott having a strong attachment to this location, returned, rebuilt his house and mill, and died here in 1681. To me, for I have watched the growth from my boyhood of the many pleasant homes in our beautiful town, the dedication of this tablet erected in memory of the first home is an inspiring ceremony. When I contrast that rude and humble house with the beauti- ful ones that now adorn our streets and hillsides, I feel an admiration amounting almost to reverence for these hardy pioneers who laid sure foundations for the Clinton of today. For nearly one hundred and fifty years, the Prescott family was the leading one in this part of Lancaster, and to their persistent energy was largely due the early development of the industries which have since made Clinton so widely known. The last John Pres- cott, fifth of the same name, died childless in the old home, standing in the rear of the brick block opposite, and the estate passed into the hands of strangers. Now, the thought I wish you might take away with you this morning is the value and influence of the home, and may I trust that in your mature years, the homes and welfare of this town will become as dear to you as they have been to me for a long lifetime. Accompanied by the band, the schools sang, "The First of our Homes" to the tune of "Fair Harvard." This song and the three others that follow were written for these exercises by Andrew E. Ford. The first of our homes has made sacred this ground; Here the fire on the hearthstone first burned; Here hearts first by ties of close kindred were bound; Here the lessons of love were first learned: The mother's affection, the father's stern care, And the filial devotion repaid; The joys which the brothers and sisters all share. And the confidence never betrayed. Oh dawning and type of the blessings of home! With what radiance shines their clear light, How they beam o'er our pathway where ever we roam, How they cheer us with memories bright! They save from temptation, from evil reclaim; They allure to the lovely and true; They glow in our hearts like an altar's pure flame; Tinge the present with heaven's own hue. The line of march was then resumed. It soon passed the spot where Prescott's grist- mill had stood. The crowded condition of the narrow street with its line of electric cars made it undesirable to mass the scholars at this point for dedicatory exercises. Here a tablet of the same size as that at Prescott's first home had been placed upon the office building of the Clinton Worsted Company, which now occupies the site of the ancient grist-mill. 86 H m O o z O CO H ro D O O > School Exercises. 1654 THIS TABLET MARKS THE SITE OF THE FIRST GRIST MILL IN WORCESTER COUNTY. BUILT BY JOHN PRESCOTT IN 1654. 1900 It is to be remembered that this mill-yard is not only the site of the first grist-mill in Worcester County, but also of the first cotton mill in this section of the State, and one of the first in America where cotton cloth was entirely made under a factory system, also of the first mill in the world where counterpanes were successfully woven by power other than that of human muscle; also, that it is now the site of the most thriving of the indus- tries recently started started among us. The location of the first school was only a short distance beyond. Here, the open square gave abundant opportunity for the grouping of the scholars in the' .same manner as at the first home.^ As there was no building at this point to which the tablet could be attached, a suitable stone had been set in the curbing of the sidewalk. This tablet is eighteen inches by ten and one-half. 1800 SITE OF FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE ERECTED IN CLINTON APRIL j, 1800. LANCASTER DIST. NO. 8. 1900 Dr. Clarence H. Bowers, a member of th'te school committee, made the dedicatory address. Mr. Chairman, Students and Scholars of the Public Schools : We have viewed with interest the place, and heard with satisfaction the fitting words of our fellow-citizen where was established the first home. We have noted with like interest the site of the founding of the first characteristic industry. We now come to what might fairly be called the third foundation stone of our social and municipal life and growth, the first school. The Home, the Industry and the School ; in this triple basis lay the foundation for the building of a large and prosperous community. It is somewhat remarkable that the same division of time which accords our town fifty years of incorp- 87 (7) School Exercises. orate life, also marks the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of our schools. The initial act which brought into existence a structure representing and devoted to the cause of public education, occurred in March, 1800. Upon that date, through an urgent appeal of the early settlers, a meeting of the voters of the school district was called. A grant of two hundred dollars was allowed, afterward supplemented with an added appropria- tion of twelve dollars and seventy cents. With this modest sum, a modest structure was erected — ^modest, indeed, in its outline and substance — a small beginning, measured by the standard of today, but in its relation to the growth and development of later times, who can measure its significance and import? Here, in that structure and upon this spot were laid the foundations of a system whose history and expanding growth has been the history and growth of this community ; has covered the valleys and crowned the hills of one of the largest towns of our county and state with spacious, ornamental and substan- tial structures, forming a creditable part of that greater system which has made for Massachusetts a glorious name and a reputation world-wide for the Commonwealth. In the fruit of our looms and various manufacturing industries, we take deep interest, a just and pardonable pride. In the products of our schools, we see a more glorious fruitage in the manhood, womanhood, intelligence and public spirit of its sons and daughters. These are products in which we take just pride, a return of many hundred fold for the cherishing care of its public servants and liberal investment of public funds. Today, we read in the fulfillment of the promise of the past a re-echoed promise of a broader, grander future for the children's children of our fair town. Thus fitting to the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the town, and the centennial of our public schools, gathered here as scholars, citizens and representatives of the town, we dedicate to the cherished memories of the past and a sacred place in the heart of every future loyal son and daughter of our public schools, on this historic spot, this tablet of bronze and endur- ing monument of stone. The song, "The First of Our Schools," sung to the tune of America, followed : For Thy protecting care. We raise our grateful prayer. Our hearts are Thine. Here first a youthful band, Gathered by Thy command. Drew wisdom from Thy hand. Father divine. Oh, bless the common school. And all its counsels rule, Make straight its way. To truth its students guide ; Let love prevail o'er pride; May all in Thee abide The perfect day. As the line reached the Town Hall on its return march, an immense crowd was found waiting to receive it. The exercises here opened with the singing of "Clinton Fair," to the tune of "Maryland, My Maryland." For thee, our hymns of praise we bring, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! With joy in th-ee, our voices ring, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! School Exercises. From thee our greatest blessings spring ; To thee in love, thy children cling ; As now with grateful hearts, we sing, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! Weave thou unfading wreaths of fame, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! For all from whom thy glories came, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! Sing forth their praise with loud acclaim. Who wrought in peace thy spotless name Or served in war with hearts aflame, Clinton fair! Our^Clinton fair! To thee, we here devote our might, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! For thee, we'll work ; for thee, we'll fight, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! May God make all thy future bright, Illume thy pathway by His light, And keep thee ever to the right, Clinton fair! Our Clinton fair! Standing near the Soldier's Monument, General John "W. Kimball, now state auditor, addressed the scholars and surrounding multitude on the relation of the Town to the Nation. It was peculiarly appropriate that he should do so, as he had been associated with so many Clinton soldiers in the Civil War. As an officer of the old Ninth Regiment, he had seen the patriotic zeal of the men, while waiting for their summons to the §eld. As as officer of the Fifteenth, he had been with them during the days of preparation at Camp Scott in Worcester, and during the watch on the Potomac at Poolesville. He had tried to avert the disaster at Ball's Bluff, whence so many Clinton men were taken pris- oners to Richmond. He had participated in the Peninsular Campaign, and as commander had led in the gallant fight at Fair Oaks, in the return to the Potomac to head off the advancing forces of the enemy, at Antietam, with its glorious heroism and terrible losses, and in the forward movement to the Rappahannock. Here, he had left the regiment, being called to other fields, but he followed it in sympathy through all 'its later cam- paigns. He had also been the colonel of the Fifty-third, in which so many Clinton men had enlisted, during its whole nine months of service in the torrid heat along bayous of Louisiana, and in the siege of Port Hudson. No one was better fitted than he to tell the grand story of these Clinton patriots, or to urge upon the youth before him the duty of answering as nobly as their fathers the call of country, either in war or peace. The speech was such as might be expected from such a man on such an occasion. Unfor- tunately it was extemporaneous, neither was it taken by a stenographer at the time of delivery, therefore, as he cannot reproduce it, we are obliged to forego the pleasure of entering it here. The school sang "To Thee, O Country;" "Union and Liberty." As a representative of the Town and of the School Committee, Hon. John W. Corcoran spoke as follows : My Young Friends : I congratulate you upon the good fortune that gives you the opportunity of par- ticipating in these exercises. It has never fallen to the lot of other scholars of the public 89 School Exercises. schools to take part in the celebration of the birthday of their town, and I desire not only to congratulate you upon the opportunity to celebrate, but upon the splendid contribu- tion you have made to the exercises of the morning. Your costumes, in varied colors, your alignment in the procession, and your orderly conduct, must bring pride and pleas- ure to your parents and towns-people. I know I speak the uniform sentiment of the school committee when I assure you of the gratification they feel in your performance. I trust, however, that you will appreciate the fact that the ceremonies which you have attended furnish lessons full of patriotic instruction and suggestion. The tablets which mark the first home, the first mill and the first school-house ought to teach of the virtues, the industry and the desire for learning of the founders of Clinton, the advantages of whose labors you have so fully enjoyed. The little school-house, with its hard benches and scanty furnishings, ought to remind you, by contrast, of the splendid edifices and generous accommodations afforded by your town for your training and advancement. It was for no idle purpose that the first school-house was built. The early settlers, few in number and widely scattered, realized that education was essential, not only for the prac- tical affairs of life, but likewise for the faithful performance of the duties of citizenship. In a town like ours, where every citizen is entitled to all the privileges that the munici- pality affords, it is essential that he should be educated in those qualities of head and heart which will teach their uses and obligations. These lessons were taught to their children at much sacrifice, and under trying difficulties; but the end justified the means,- and the results to be obtained warranted the outlay. The importance of training and education as qualifications for citizenship and for the performance of the other duties of life can never be over-estimated, and, I fear, is seldom fully appreciated. Your lines have fallen in pleasant places. You are exceedingly for- tunate to be children of this beautiful town, with its wealth of natural scenery, its spacious streets, handsome school-houses, and attractive public buildings. In addition, you have the charming park behind you, where you can rest, and the beauties of nature upon which to feast your eyes. In a word, you have everything to make your lot enviable, so far as your town is concerned, and I sincerely hope you will appreciate every opportunity, real- ize every possibility, and in your patriotic efforts emulate the example of its founders. This part 'of the exercises closed with the singing of "Clinton Marches On," to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." With peal of bells and roar of guns Call forth the happy throng; Let our streets be decked with beauty, Let our hearts be full of song; For God has blessed our dear old town And made her great and strong. And Clinton marches on. Chorus. — Glory, glory hallelujah! Glory, glory hallelujah! Glory, glory hallelujah! And Clinton marches on. We glory in the record grand, Of men who wrought of old To lay the deep foundations Which our civic life uphold, 9P School Exercises. And every noble deed of theirs, We'll write in words of gold, As Clinton marches on. — Cho. Through faith some conquered nature And withstood their savage foes; Some fought with tyrant England; Some repulsed the Southron's blows; For country, some gave up their lives Where tropic sunshine glows. And Clinton marches on. — Cho. Thank God for flying shuttles. Throbbing engines, busy mart, Free schools, true homes, pure churches, Growing mind and loving heart. Thank God for all the blessings Which to us he doth impart. As Clinton marches on. — Cho. The music was all under the direction of the music teacher, Miss Isabella A. Hol- land. Although the pupils had not been able to rehearse with the band before the exer- cises, yet such had been their previous training, and they sang with so much spirit, that their enthusiasm became contagious, and the audience was swept along with the full tide of song. As the procession moved up Church Street to Chestnut, its number was increased fourfold by the addition of the lower grades, which hjd been waiting in Central Park. At the intersection of these streets, the procession was reviewed by General John W. Kim- ball, who expressed the highest admiration for its appearance and the spirit by which its members seemed to be animated. The line of twenty-four hundred pupils, though march- ing compactly by fours, was over a half mile in length. It was a revelation to some of our people, who had never seen the school children together before. More than one exclaimed: "It is no wonder there is a call for more school-houses." The little folks especially entered into the affair with great enthusiasm, and doubtless many parents, proud of their children and rejoicing in their pleasure, found this the most delightful part of the celebration. To the thoughtful, it surely had the deepest import. The march was so short, through Chestnut, Water, Walnut and Union Streets, that though the movement was slow enough to accommodate the youngest, yet it was soon over and the lined filed into the picnic grounds. The use of these had been generously given by Patrick F. Cannon, Patrick F. Coyne, the St. John's Parish and the Presbyterian Society. The younger children grouped themselves at once by schools under the more distant trees, while the older students sung one more song, "Praise ye the Father." Then, the Grammar School pupils found their places of rest, while the scholars of the High School prepared to serve a lunch to the others. The girls of the High School had previ- ously solicited cake or money from the families of the town and had met with a most liberal response. As a result, an abundant supply of cake and bananas had been pro- vided. It had seemed to those who had been at work since early morning cutting the hundreds upon hundreds of loaves of cake which the boys were bringing in, that they could never be eaten, for these loaves were most generous in size and rich in quality. Some seventy girls or more, each took a large market basket, heaped to the handle with this cake, among the waiting children. In ten minutes, they came back with scarcely a 91 School Exercises. crumb left. Then, they carried out baskets of bananas. In the meantime, some two hun- dred and fifty gallons of lemonade, in the making of which, three boxes of lemons had been used, were distributed by the High School boys, till the last drop was gone. Then a souvenir, a jar of opalescent glass, rich with gilding, bearing the dates 1850-19OO, and the words "Clinton Semi-Centennial," and ornamented with a half-tone picture of the High School building, was presented to each pupil, and this part of the celebration was over. A lady who had watched the children on the picnic grounds voiced the sentiments of many when she said: "It was the most pleasing sight I ever saw." The words of Tenny- son may be fitly applied to it: " For all the sloping pasture murmured, sown With happy faces and with holiday." A Boston Transcript editorial note says: "That was a good idea of the people of Clinton in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of municipal- existence, of having the chil- dren of the place take a prominent part in the exercises of the day. The dedication of memorial tablets will mean much more to the future citizens of Chnton than it does now, and it is fitting that the children should have a hand in the erection of these permanent memorials of Clinton's past." The Boston Globe, in a three-column article on these exercises, states: "Today has been devoted almost exclusively to a proper consideration of Clinton's most precious jewels — her children, and they have been made particularly happy by the prominence given them in the program for the observance of the jubilee, and most creditably did they carry out the somewhat arduous duty assigned them. * * * The parade of the chil- dren was one of the prettiest spectacles ever witnessed in this region, and they were repeatedly applauded by twenty thousand enthusiastic spectators as they marched over the route." The Worcester Telegram was no less complimentary: " It was the day of the schools, and the rising generation rose to the occasion and covered itself and the town with glory. The pupils turned out in a mass and marched well, and made the hearts of their parents and big brothers and sisters swell with pride as they marched past the crowd on the side- walks. * * * The line of twenty-five hundred school children, enough to fill up a brigade as the companies are formed in times of peace, stretched out for a long distance, but the marching was good, and the smallest child in the line marched as if the appear- ance of the whole Semi-Centennial rested on his devoted shoulders." 92 HISTORIC LOAN EXHIBITION. lyrONDAY, at two-thirty p. m., a concert was given by the Salem Cadet Band on the ■^ ■*■ lawn of the Town Hall and Unitarian Church. Hundreds listened to the music from the neighboring Park, while hundreds more took the opportunity of visiting the Historic Loan Exhibition in the vestry of the Unitarian Church. A reception to invited guests, especially to former residents, was held here during the afternoon. The place was well fitted for such a reception, since the returning sons and daughters of the town found here not only many of the living friends of earlier days, but also, in the portraits and the relics, they found abundant reminders of the past. The person wandering about the rooms would get bits of conversation like these: "Your maiden name was , but I can't recall whom you married." "That big fellow your son! You don't say so! I suppose you try to make him think you were a saint when you were a boy? I think I will give him a few points that will open his eyes a bit." " If that isn't a picture of Philander Morse! I haven't thought of him for forty years." "Say, Joe, have you noticed this pho- tograph of in this Company C album? He looks exactly as he did five min- utes before he was shot at Antietam." The story of the Loan Collection is like that of many other features in the celebra- tion, in that it began with indifiference except on the part of a very few. This indifference gradually gave way to enthusiasm and earnest work until a success was realized which amazed the people who began by saying: "A loan collection may be well enough for an old town like Lancaster or-Framingham, but Clinton is a new town and has no history. There are no old families here to provide material for such an exhibition." These peo- ple little knew what twenty-five determined women could do. If they had found no past, they would had created one. When the committee was first organized, all was uncertainty. No one knew where the best articles for exhibition were "to be found. An appeal was made through the press that those who had such articles in their possession should make the fact known. Then the town was divided into districts which were carefully canvassed. Valuable treasures were often unearthed where it was least expected they would be found. All were ready to loan whatever they had and to give every assistance in their power. The Unitarian Society gave the use of their vestry and ladies' rooms for the exhibition. These were perfectly adapted to the needs of the committee in location, size and arrange- ment. The show-cases used in the Worcester East Fair were also freely loaned. Only those who helped to collect, arrange and return the articles exhibited can realize the immense labor involved, but this was done with such care that no article was injured or failed to be returned to its owner. Although Clinton is essentially a town of the present and future, yet as a community it has a record that will compare favorably with that of many towns of boasted antiquity. To the observant mind instructed in its history, this exhibition helped in a remarkable degree to recall and illustrate this record. Here was a portion of the first millstone of Worcester County, upon which John Prescott ground the corn of all the neighboring coun- try almost two centuries and a half ago. Here was a picture of the house of Ebenezer 93 HistOfic Loan Exhibition. Allen, the Revolutionary patriot, who played such an important part in the course of events at home, while his six sons served in the army. It is probable that slaves were kept in this house also, as the Aliens had a negro man-servant and maid-servant who may have belonged to this class. In this house lived near the beginning of this century, Moses Emerson, the aristocrat, who "kept his coach," and here settled the first of our line of Howards in 1825. In the collection were to be seen many portraits and relics of the comb-makers, the Burdetts, Lowes, Harrises and many others, whose products first brought this district into commercial relations with the rest of the country. , Here was the key of the first school-house of District No. 8, afterwards No. 10, and the picture of the old brick school-house which followed it, where so many of those who helped to mould the destiny of our town received their early education. Here was the table of Poignand, the Huguenot. We can easily imagine the "urbane gentleman" in his queue and antique garb, seated beside it, discussing with his son-in-law and partner, the Englishman Samuel Plant, the affairs of their cotton factory near by on South Meadow Brook, one of the first, as has already been noted, in America. Perhaps by this table sat Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, who was afterwards for more than a third of our nation's history our consul in London, whither he carried as his bride the daughter of this David Poignand. The exhibition abounded in specimens of our early manufactures made on the first power looms for weaving such goods that the world had known. Here was coachlace, which revived not alone the memories of the old "yellow mill," but also of the days of coaches, when John C. Stiles used to set out with his merry load for Worcester. Here were coun- terpanes, suggesting the boy, Erastus B. Bigelow, examining the hand-woven fabric under which he slept and working at his first great invention. Here is the first piece of Brussels carpeting evfin woven on the new power loom. With what pride, John J. Boynton used to tell how he wove it! Here was the first post-office box used in Clintonville, when Horatio N. Bigelow was postmaster. Here were the books of Company C of the Fifteenth Regi- ment, which followed from Ball's Bluff to Petersburg the fortunes of as brave a body of men as any town ever sent to the service of the country. Here was a machete, a relic of no less valiant service in recent years. If we lingered to note every article and the mem- pries it awakened, our volume would be filled. "No history!" Let the captioUs critic remember that history is not measured by years, but by deeds tending toward human progress, and name, if he can, any town having memorials of more interesting or worthy contributions to civilization. The collection of the portraits of old residents were the most valuable part of the exhibition from the standpoint of local history. It is difficult to resist the temptation to pause and study these faces, and search out in them the characteristics of those men and women who have made our town what it is. There were one hundred and sixty-three of these portraits in all, a wonderful collection to be made in so short a time. The list of these is appended, together with some stanzas written by Fannie A. Damon : OLD PORTRAITS. From walls of parlor and study. From every corner and nook; They are brought, these portraits olden, On which we delight to look. The young in the pride of manhood, The grey-haired sire and wife, Who have passed from out earth's shadows, To the light of heavenly life. 94 Early Professional Men of Clinton JOHN T. DAME, ESQ. CHARLES G. STEVENS, ESQ. GEORGE M. MORSE, M. U. GEORGE W. BURDETT, M. D. REV. RICHARD J. PATERSON. CHARLES M. BOWERS. D. D. Historic Loan Exhibition. And for these, who have cleared the pathway, In which, we walk today, We would twine a wreath of remembrance And garland their brows with bay. For they were the brave, strong hearted, The founders of our town; Who strove not fgr honor or glory. Or to win the world's renown. Who boasted not of their conquests; Who gloried not in the fall Of the leading ones in power; But who labored each and all To raise a goodly structure. One that would long endure. Perfect in its proportions, In its foundation, sure. Lovers of law and order, They strove to sow with care The seeds of truth and temperance, Within their borders fair; That they might yield a harvest. For future hands to reap, A store of richest treasure, That would forever keep. Alexander, Josiah Barnard, Capt. Jeremiah Beaven, Samuel Bemis, Daniel H. Bigelow, Artemas E. Bigelow, Erastus B. Bigelow, Horatio N. Bigelow, Mrs. Polly Bowman, Simeon Boyce, Father John Boynton, John J. Brigham, Davis Brigham, Mrs. Davis Brigham, Miss Frances Brimhall, Elisha Brown, Herbert J. Brown, Joshua R. Brown, Mrs. Joshua R. Burdett, Dr. George W. Burdett, (Deacon) John Burdett, Nathan Burdett, Mrs. Nathan Burdett, Nathan, Jr. Burdett, Mrs. Nathan, Jr, Burdett, William Burdett, Mrs. William Butler, Amos Butler, Mrs. Amos Buzzell, John P. PICTURES. Buzzell, Mrs. John P. Bynner, Edwin Chamberlain, Dr. Preston Chenery, Seth Clifford, William Clough, James Clough, Mrs. James Coolidge, Ira Coolidge, Mrs. Ira Crossman, A. W. Crossman, Mrs. A. W. Dakin, Archelaus C. Dinsmore, George W. Dinsmore, Mrs. George W. Eaton, William Eaton, Mrs. William Eddy, Henry Field, Charles W. Finnic, James B. Finnic, Robert J. Fisher, Dexter ' Forbes, Franklin Foster, John R. Freeman, Mrs. Mehitabel Fuller, Lieut. Andrew L. Goodale, William Goodale, Mrs. William Goss, G. Walton Greene, Charles F. 95 Greene, Gilbert Greene, Levi Greene, Mrs. Levi Hamilton, William Harris, Asahel Harris, Christopher Harris, Daniel Harris, Edmund Harris, Mrs. Edmund Harris, Edwin A. Harris, Emory, Sen. Harris, Mrs. Emory, Sen. Harris, Emory, Jr. Harris, Mrs. Emory, Jr. Harris, Frederick Harris, George H. Harris, George S. Harris, Levi Harris, Mrs. Levi Harris, Sidney Harris, Mrs. Sidney Haskell, William H. Heard, Rev. Jared M. Heard, Mrs. Jared M. Hemenway, Henry Holder, William P. Holder, Mrs. William P. Howard, George F. H-oward, Mrs. George F. Historic Loan Exhibition, Howe, Ebenezer Howe, Horatio B. Howe, Jonas Hunt, Jonas Hunt, Mrs. Jonas Ingalls, James Ingalls, Mrs. James Jackson, Mrs. Abby Morgan Jenkins, Sampson Jenkins, Mrs. Sampson Jerauld, Albert A. Jewett, Milton Jewett, Mrs. Milton Jewett, Theodore Jewett, Mrs. Theodore Johnson, James N. Johnson, Mrs. James N. Kendall, Ezra Keyes, Henry F. Kilburn, Daniel W. Knight, Alfred Knight, Mrs. Alfred Low, Mrs. Mary Burdett Maynard, Camden McQuaid, Thomas A. Miller, Charles Miller, Mrs. Charles Miller, Oscar Miner, Mrs. Eliza B. Morgan, Philip L. Morse, Philander O'Connor, Dr. Thomas H. Otterson, John A. Palmer, Col. Oilman M. Palmer, John Parker, Deacon Joseph B. Parker, Mrs. Joseph B. Parkhurst, Charles F. W. Parkhurst, Mrs. Charles F. W. Patterson, Father Richard J. Pevey, Amos A. Peirce, William N. Pitts, James Pitts, Hiram W. Pollard, Gardner Pollard, Mrs. Gardner Pratt, Capt. C. Alden Pratt, Mrs. C. Alden Rice, Abel Rice, B. Franklin Rice, Edwin A. Rice, George F. H. -Rice, Joseph Sargent, Stephen Sargent, Mrs. Stephen Sawyer, Mrs. Eli Sawyej-, Ezra Sawyer, Mrs. Ezra Sawyer, Oscar Sawyer, Thomas Smith, Albert H. Stearns, Deacon William Stevens, Charles G. Stone, Mrs. Eliza Stone, Capt. Oliver Swan, Charles L. Tyler, Samuel" W. Waters, Charles H. Weeks, James A. White, Oren Wilder, Frantlin Wilder, John Wilder, William G. Winter, Deacon Waldo Wishart, William Worcester, Charles "W. Vose, Lieut. Josiah H. The exhibit of the Bigelow Carpet Company was peculiarly interesting to the student of Clinton history. The books of the Clinton Company and the early books of the Car- pet Company are a perfect mine of information. Bigelow Carpet Company. — Picture, H. N. Bigelow; picture, E. B. Bigelow;, carpet picture, George Washington; picture, "Carpet Weaving, 1776:" picture, Jacquard; pic- ture. Monument to Jacquard; Roll of coach-lace; Brussels picture, "Japanese Picnic;" Record Book, Clinton Company; Pay-roll, 1845-1848; Pay-roll, machine shop, 1845-1849; Pay-roll, Brussels Carpet Mill, 1849-1855; Pay-roll, Bigelow Carpet Company, 1855 to i860; Case gold and silver medals won by carpets from these mills; First and last pieces carpet made in mill. The Lancaster Mills and the Clinton Wire Cloth Companj' also made valuable exhibitions. The War Relics attracted much attention. The books of Company C, Fifteenth Regiment, and the pictures of our Clintbn soldiers in the two wars were of greatest value, but there were canteens and knapsacks, bayonets and bullets, housewives and cartridge- boxes, hard-tack and other things innumerable, many of which were connected with the story of Clinton men in the Civil War, while a Krag-Jorgensen rifle and a Phillipine flag, with other relics of our last war, reminded us that this too is an age of heroes. Not all the exhibition dealt with local history. Whatever would serve to illustrate the life of former generations was sought. The lovers of old books dwelt with delight on the many ancient volumes displayed. The oldest was the "Works of Calvin," 1536. There were six of the following century; "Bible," 1626; "Exposition of the Cpmmand- ments," 1632; "Directory for the Public Worship of God," 1644; "Book of Common Prayer," 1660; "German Bible," 1670; Surgical Work, 1693. Those of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth were very numerous. There were one hun- 96 Historic Loan Exhibition. dred and ninety-five bound volumes, besides many pamphlets, almanacs, newspapers, scrap-books, manuscripts and deeds. Many of the visitors were most attracted by the furniture, the dress, the needlework, the china, the silver of olden times. A great abundance and variety of these articles were on exhibition in the cases of the main room, with the exhibits previously mentioned. Here too, on the platform, sat a woman, working at a spinning-wheel. Two rooms, a kitchen and a parlor, were arranged to represent old methods of fur- nishing. In the kitchen was a fire-place with its andirons, crane, kettle, bellows, tin kitchen, warming pans, and a shelf above bearing candlesticks, snuffers and lantern. Over all hung an old musket. The sink had a pail and gourd, and on the shelf above, a mortar and pestle. The dresser was loaded with an especially fine collection of pewter, teapots, platters and plates, and porringers such as our grandfathers ate their hasty pud- ding and milk from. Above was a sword. In " grandmother's corner," the window was filled with old-fashioned plants, and on a nail near by hung a bonnet of drawn silk. By a rocking-chair there was a stand with knitting work and spectacles; a table against the wall was set for a meal. There was a cradle for a child and another for a doll; a huge braided rug was spread on the floor. Each article in the room had a history of its own, which the attendant was ready to give. In the parlor, the most noticeable article was a beautiful desk, which was brought to this country in 1630, and had been in one family five generations. There was the com- munion table of the old Hillside Church; a work-table of Mrs. Horatio N. Bigelow; a rare table with inlaid work, bearing an astral lamp and an urn; Mrs. Poignand's table; a chair with a seat worked by Mrs. Polly Bigelow, and other ancient chairs; a tapestry screen, upon which a man worked for ten years; a flax-wheel; a dulcimer, made in Clinton; samplers; a mourning piece; a picture, embroidered in silk; a high-boy and a cabinet, each filled with china, which delighted the soul of the antfquarian; Clinton-made quilts, coun- terpanes and blankets of various patterns were gathered here. In all there were about fourteen hundred articles, loaned by some two hundred peo- ple. The thought was often expressed that so valuable a collection should be made per- manent in as far as possible, as many who loaned articles offered to donate them, if pro- vision could be made for exhibition and safe keeping. The Worcester Telegram speaks thus of this exhibition : "At no place in Clinton today was there more genuine enjoyment than at the historic loan exhibition. From the time, it was opened at nine o'clock this morning till it was closed at six o'clock to-night, there was a crowd looking at the articles of olden times, which were loaned the committee by their owners in Clinton and elsewhere. Everything conceivable was in the cases, which were placed in the vestry for the exhibition. * * * There was a story to go with every bit of these relics, and somebody present to tell it. * * * This was the place where the true spirit of the Semi-Centennial was, and it will be strange if the recollections of the pleasant reunions today and tomorrow in the basement of the Unitarian Church are not carried through life by many of the visitors to the Clinton celebration." SOME WORTHIES OF FACTORY VILLAGE. Lines Suggested by Loan Collection. Just as the present century began, There came a change in labor. Man with man, All through our land by bonds of trade was knit. As work was specialized and made to fit 97 Historic Loan Exhibition. More widely part to part. No more a ball, Complete in self, was man, but each for all, And all for each, they worked. The final goal To which they tended, was the perfect whole. Our farmers for a while still raised their crops For their own needs, but worked in little shops For other men. Our work was making combs. •From Maine to Georgia, in a thousand homes, Our village product smoothed the rumpled hair; It gave to comeliness a look more fair; It cleared the snarls while little urchins whined. And did detective work, — the fine-toothed kind. 'Tis said the trade was started by John Lowe. To him, his sons, and sons-in-law, we owe The shops in " Scrabble Hollow." Uncle Nat, As he was called, John's brother, owned the flat, Since dubbed "The Plain." Two brothers of John's wife. Found homes on Burdett Hill. Each spent his life Upon the hill to which they gave their name. Men of the Burdett blood have helped to frame Through generations three, our growing town, And raise to higher levels its renown. How potent is that blood we surely own. Since it has made our chairman of a Stone. The gr-eat comb-makers were the Harris clan. The farmer, Daniel Harris, led the van Of settlers of that name. He had three sons Who learned the comb trade, as the story runs, From Nathan Burdett. Step by step, they grew In skill and wealth, till rivals none, they knew. Of them, t'was said exalted was their horn Above the head of all of women born. Why speak of Pollards, Howard or Sawtell, Comb-makers all? Their names you know full well. You know the sturdy mill-wright, Joseph Rice, And Jacob Stone, the builder, whose advice Was sought for far and wide. The first Charles Chace, The tanner, and his sons. If we retrace 98 PORTRAIT SIDNEY HARRIS. PORTRAIT EDWIN A. HARRIS. THE HARRIS HOMESTEAD. Historic Loan Exhibition. The record bright of all who sowed the seed Whence Clinton sprung, whole volumes we should need. A narrow life they led, these men of yore, They had embarked, but still they hugged the shore; They worked for others, sent their goods abroad, But still they trod the ways their fathers' trod; Knew little of the world and cared still less; To live content, by them was thought success. They had no daily papers; all their news Was passed by word of mouth; the current views Of men and things were rooted in the past, With here and there some rude iconoclast. They had great families. They raised the birch. What the connection? We leave you to search. Of^e _cf Ttit ATTIC./ f OIGN AND HOUSE. (Drawn by Charles A. Lawrence for Semi-Centennial.) 99 Historic Loan Exhibition. The fathers of that day thought it their part To do their best to make their children smart. They drank hard cider, loved a wrestling bout, They went to meeting, some were quite devout. Their blessings with their neighbors they would share. But all-absorbing piety was rare. They were coarse-grained and rough in jolly jokes. As tough in fiber as the knotty oaks. From vigor such as theirs our virtues spring. Do we such vigor to our children bring? What antique form in this, so quaint and rare. Which comes upon the scene, most debonair. With queue, knee breeches, buckles, ruffles, cane, A gentleman, both dapper and urbane? 'Tis David-'Poignand, born on Jersey Isle, French Huguenot, a tradesman, yet his smile. His jaunty grace, his courtly compliment, His love of honor, show his high descent. With him, there comes his partner. Mister Plant, The title Mister, none ere failed to grant. Each word was uttered with such accent nice, He was so dignified, so straight, precise; He never stumbled, never made mistakes; He never hurried, never put on brakes; An Englishman by birth and strong of will, In business keen, of great mechanic skill. They built a cotton mill and spun and wove, They centralized the work and so they throve. The Frenchman furnished means, his partner, wit; The Frenchman, prudence, and his partner, grit. 'Tis said no private house in all the state. Contained so many books. At any rate, Both men were eager students, loved to read; They loaned their books and scattered learning's seed. Their wives excelled in every social grace, Were "to the manor born," like all their race. Their gracious deeds arose from purest love. Which made their homes a type of that above. So while their husbands taught the textile art. They taught refinement, born of loving heart. "Ifc ^"^ % 1^^,^^ ■^'^;^^'P^^:y^'^'''^^ % ■ %, r H ■X 7, m H H m ■n j^^^^^^^^^^B CO > ^ ^Hf^^B^B^^ ' ''^ m ^. .. . .,..JDI^^,,.; '^ "'.,:/..:■■• : •^, -0 r- > 2 H ^- -■ •,;*^ ■>• - ■ -^M :M .'itf ^ # P *^ ^ # ^ ^ fi'^' "^ ^ J^ P ^' &>. J^ -0 O :^ H > O -n D > < ~a O O 2 > 2 D * THE BANQUET. No feature of the Semr-Centennial gave rise to more discussion tlian the banquet. To what degree should it be self-supporting? Where and when should it be held? What should be the price of tickets? How many should be invited as guests? Who should be the caterers? Should the speakers be distinguished men from abroad, or would it be bet- ter to rely on home talent? The sub-committee originally appointed grappled with these questions, and after they had settled them in accordance with their own judgment, and obtained the sanction of the general committee, tickets were offered for sale. One hun- dred and seventy-five seats were engaged at two dollars per plate, but as a guarantee of three hundred was required by the caterer, the committee did not feel justified in going further, and reported that it seemed inexpedient to hold a banquet on the lines proposed. In accordance with the desire of the chairman of the committee, this report was accepted. It seemed best, however, to the general committee that another attempt should be made, so a new committee was appointed to lead the forlorn hope. This committee, after a careful investigation, decided to follow out the plans proposed by the original committee. The sense of responsibility for the banquet was so awakened among the members of the general committee, and the Semi-Centennial- in all its phases was finding such growing favor among the citizens, that this part of the celebration was carried to a successful issue by the new committee. Considerably more than the three hundred tickets required for a guarantee were sold, and the Town Hall was none too large to accommodate those who were anxious to attend. It was decided that it would be wise to set the banquet at an early hour, so that people might come with fresh appetites. By six-thirty, Bigelow Hall, which had been tastefully decorated for the occasion, began to be filled by the arriving guests. There was a half hour of merry greetings and of conversation, with pleasing reminiscence as its central theme. Meanwhile, the Salem Cadet Band added to the cheer by its excellent music. Shortly after seven, those assembled marched to the hall above. The scene was one of enchantment. Through the art of the decorators the ceiling and walls, with their flowing streamers and graceful folds were one mass of glowing color, in which red, white and blue, with their emblematic significance, predominated, while touches of yellow and green were tastefully intermingled. From the center hung a great bell. To the illumi- nation of the incandescent lights above was added that of the candelabra, with fairy lights on the tables below. One table, for the speakers and their friends, was placed parallel to the stage where the band was stationed. Seven others were arranged at right angles to this. These tables were lettered C-L-I-N-T-O-N, and each seat was numbered. The tables were tastefully set and decorated with flowers. The variegated colors of the menu made them still more bright. These, bound as they were in varied patterns of Lancaster ginghams, were not only pleasing to the eye, but also suggestive of our greatest industry. Prayer was offered by Rev. A. Morrill Osgood. According to the record books, three hundred and twenty-six were seated at the tables. The menu was as follows ; lOI The Banquet. MENU. Clear Consomme, Breadsticks. Boiled Fresh Salmon, HoUandaise. Cucumbers, French Dressing. Green Peas. Olives. Chicken Croquettes, Green Peas. Apricot Fritters, Glace. Frozen Tom and Jerry, in Cases. Roast Filet Beef, Mushroom Sauce. Delmonico Potatoes. Fresh String Beans. Salted Almonds and Pecans. Tomato and Lettuce Salad. Assorted Fancy Cake. Frozen Pudding. Neapolitan Ice Cream. ^ Fancy Ices. Strawberries. Thin Crackers. Young America Cheese. Apollinaris. Coffee. T. D. Cook & Co. were the caterers, and gave universal satisfaction as regards the individual courses, their relation to each other, and the manner in which they were served. The beauty of the hall, the excellence of the music, the appetite of the guests, the per- fection of the feast, the spirit of good-fellowship which prevailed, the inspiring idea of local patriotism, which lay at the basis of the celebration, and found here its fullest expression,, all contributed to make this the most notable social gathering in the history of our town. Judge Christopher C. Stone, the president of the evening, briefly introduced in a most happy manner as the toastmaster, Rev. James C. Duncan, who conducted the remaining exercises. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Neither length of years nor place of birth entitles me to the honor which you have conferred upon me tonight. If nature made any mistake in making me a Scotch- man instead of a Yankee, I have done my level best to rectify that error, for not only have I become American by adoption, but you know as well as I do that much the bet- ter half of me was born and bred in your midst. How much I owe to the town of Clin- ton for furnishing me with my other and better self, no words can tell. Suffice it to say that in the fourteen years, yesterday, while I have been going in and out among you, Clinton has come to mean to me all that is implied in the word home. This is a family gathering. Here we are all brothers and sisters. Some have been away from home for a longer or a shorter time, and tonight you have come from far and near, as on Thanksgiving Day, to sit around the family table and listen to the old familiar voices and to some that are neither so old nor so familiar as they will be when our cen- tennial celebration comes round. We are a young town and have all the assurance of youth, for our banquet committee deemed it unnecessary to go out of town for a supply of eloquence. Why should they? Look at the names on the program and you will see that there was no need of importing foreign goods. However it may be with the viands for the table, or orchestra music, when it comes to wit and wisdom, we know nothing better than the home-made article. I can say this without laying myself open to the charge of conceit, for however much I may itch to speak tonight, for it is seldom that a The Banquet. minister has such an opportunity, I am here not to make a speech but merely to call upon others to respond to the sentiments suggested by your committee. We have a long program and it behooves every speaker to keep within the limits of his time. Your toast-master, with the advice and consent of the committee, reserved the right to call down the transgressor, and lest I should myself be the first offender, allow me the privilege of denying myself the pleasure of saying more than that I am glad to be a citizen of Glinton, glad to be here tonight and glad to be of the slightest service on this occasion; and now, sir, since you were so kind as to do me the honor of calling me to this place, allow me to return the compliment by inviting you to reply to the toast, "Clinton's Past," for " No past is dead for us, but only sleeping." To you, Mr. President, we look to wake the past from its slumbers. " Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, Make us young again, just for tonight." Clinton's Past — Judge Christopher C. Stone. . Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: I presume I am honored with the invitation to respond to this toast because I was born, and have always lived, within the limits of this good old town whose fiftieth birth- day we are celebrating tonight. Clinton, though young as a corporate body, has a his- tory running back nearly two hundred and fifty years. In 1654, John Prescott, a man about fifty years of age, and said to have been a soldier in the army of Cromwell, came here and built a house, and a mill for grinding corn on the beautiful stream of water run- ning through the valley below us, afterwards known as SouttiT Meadow Brook. Four years later, he built a saw-mill near by. For twenty-two years, so far as we know, the Prescott family was the only one living in this vicinity, and they gained their subsistence by grinding corn and sawing logs for the people for many miles around. On account of the impending troubles with the Indians, the Prescott house was made one of Lancaster's garrisons and, perhaps, some soldiers were stationed here. In February, 1676, this house, with several others in Lan- caster, was attacked by the Indians, and so many of the homes were destroyed that the settlement was abandoned and the Indians completed the work of destruction. This closed the first chapter in our history. For three years, all was desolation; then Prescott, with some of his sons, returned and rebuilt house and mills. Five generations of the Prescott family successively owned and managed these mills before they passed into other hands. Meanwhile, other mills had been built in this section — one on Mine Swamp Brook, one at Fullerville and one on the Nashua River. In 1809, Poignand & Plant purchased the Prescott property and erected a mill for the manufacture of cotton cloth. Later on, James Pitts built a cotton mill on the Nashua River where the Lancaster Mills now stand. The Messrs. Harris and others engaged in the manufacture of combs. These bare facts simply show that from its earliest origin Clinton's life has been nourished by its manu- facturing industries. Time will not allow me to trace the development of the business life in Factory Village, -as it was then called, before the coming of the Bigelows in 1838. They initiated new life and energy into the industries of the place, and it was soon evident that master minds were controlling the business of our little village, and from that time The Banquet. on, its growth was phenomenal. We were soon known by the more pretentious name of Clintonville. In 1848-49, the question of a division of the town of Lancaster was agitated, and on March 14, 1850, we became the town of Clinton with a population of twenty-seven hun- dred and fifty-six. It was the smallest town in the state in area, but large in its number of men and women of enterprise and ability. Its wonderful growth attests the truth of this statement. An occasion like this brings mingled feelings of sadness and pleasure. My memory naturally reverts to the many who have taken an active and an honorable part in the life and growth of our town, who have passed on to a higher life. The roll is a long one and I will not lend sadness to this occasion by attempting to enumerate them. They will find recognition at other and abler hands during our anniversary exercises. Not a member of the first board of town officers is now living, but the by-laws and the regulations for the conduct of our public schools bear witness to the ability and efficiency of these first offi- cials, and our churches, our schools, our roads, and the many pleasant homes are monu- ments to the public spirit, the integrity and the thrift which characterized so many of our early citizens. The first ten years in our history as a town were uneventful; then came the Civil War and many of our bravest and best young men responded to their country's call. Some died on the battlefield, some of disease, some in the prison pens at Andersonville; others came back to their homes, but many of them have since passed on to the silent majority, but whether living or dead, they should all be held in grateful memory. From the close of the Civil War to the present time, the growth of Clinton has been uniform and steady, until today, it is one of the most flourishing manufacturing towns in our good old Com- monwealth. The memories of the last fifty years crowd thick upon me, many pleasant and affec- tionate ones of the men with whom I have been intimately associated during a long life- time. The few hard and bitter memories are fast fading out. While differing widely at times in our views as to the management of town affairs, we have all been honestly work- ing, I trust, for the best interests of our town. The past with its successes and failures is behind us. We older men are fast laying aside the burdens and responsibilities. With you younger men and your successors rest the future welfare and honor of our beloved town. May they be guarded so zealously that when the city of Clinton shall celebrate its one hundreth anniversary, she shall be renowned not only for her material prosperity, but for her honest government and the morality of her citizens. When a man has lived almost three-quarters of a century in a town only half a cen- tury old, he is supposed to know something of its early settlers. " Peace to the reverend dead; The light that on their head The passing years have shed Shall ne'er grow dim." It gives me pleasure tP present to you an honored member of one 0^ pur typicg.1 fapi: jjies— Mr. A. A, JBurdjltJ, . ■ •' }9/^ RESIDENCE OF HORATIO NELSON BlGE[.OW. THE PARKER HOUSE. The Banquet. The Early Settlers — Alfred A. Burditt. Mr. Toastmaster., Ladies and Gentlemen: To reply to the sentiment assigned me takes me back more than sixty years to my childhood. At that time there were only four public streets in what is now Clin- ton — Main, Water, Rigby and Chace Streets. To commence at the south end of Main Street, on the estate, now called Leadbetter's Farm, stood a house owned and occupied by Jacob Stone, who had a large family of children. Proceeding north, we come to the house of Widow Moses Sawyer, occupied by herself.and"Samuel Dorrison. The residents upon this street in successive order were James Stone, the father of our Judge Stone; Nathan Burditt, my father; Nathaniel Rice, Joseph Rice, John Burditt, John Burditt Jr.; David Holder, a Quaker, occupying the boarding-house of the Lancaster Manufacturing Company; Roswell Bliss, who was also a Quaker; Samuel Plant, Mrs. David Poignand; William Toombs, at the "Farm House;" Robert Phelps, Anson Lowe, John Lowe, opposite whom stood the first store in Clinton, kept by Frank Lowe; Henry Lewis, Henry Lowe, Franklin Brigham, and last on Main Street, George Howard, whose house stood on the site where E. A. Currier now lives. Mr. Howard owned a comb-shop on what is now Stone Street, near which was a house occupied by Joel Sawtell. The only house on Rigby Street was one occupied by Eben Pratt. Commencing at the west end on Water Street, near the present intersection of Water and High Streets, was the house of Amory Pollard; following this were those of Emory Harris, where Charles M. Dinemore's house now stands; the brick house of Asahel Harris; the "old red house," in which lived Daniel Harris. We then cross the river to Chace Street; we reach the house of John Goss,*where Frank G.Sawyer now lives; nearby there was an old house occupied by a Mrs. Larkin; next came that of Sidney Harris; then in order those of Gardner Pollard, Mr. Wilder, Alanson Chace, Myrick Sargent. South of what is now the Berlin road lived three families by the name of Wilder. South of Clamshell Pond lived Baxter Wood and William Larkin. Several dwellings were located near " Pitts' Mill," where the Lancaster Mills now stand, which were reached by private ways from Main and Water Streets. Here lived James Pitts, Hiram White, Stephen Sargent, Joseph and Amos Butler. South of Sandy Pond lived Levi Howe and Artemas Harrington; on the brook east lived Peter Sawyer, in what is now called the Kiesling Place, which was also reached by a private way. All these were dwelling-places in what is now Clinton. There are many experiences of these early settlers of which I would like to speak if time would permit. Among the early citizens of this town none are more worthy of remembrance than her traders. We are honored tonight with the presence of the man whom our historian describes as "the recognized leader among the merchants of Clinton." I have the pleas- ure to call upon the Hon. H. C. Greeley to tell us something of the early merchants of the town. The Early Merchant — Hon. Henry C. Greeley. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a pleasing privilege given me to speak for the traders, and especially for the early traders, of Clinton. It was with them and from them, I received my business edu- cation. JVJprcJiaijJ:;? ^j-g ^ neqessar^ part of every civili?g^ pompiunity. They aj-e thp agents The Banquet. of advancement from savage squalor to a home life of comfort, education and refinement. They bring to our doors the products of every clime. No sea is so wide or land so dis- tant as to restrain them in their search for what may add to the comfort and pleasure of living. A land without traders is a moral desert of want and ignorance. In order that a people may be elevated, they must first of all be inspired to desire something better than their present condition. When wants begin to multiply, then there is a casting off of the old. The trader comes in with his helpfulness, life broadens, ambitions and aspirations are engendered and foundations laid for the advancement of education and religion. A merchant to be successful requires intelligence, enterprise and honesty. He must wisely comprehend the needs of the community he desires to serve. He must be active in obtaining what his good judgment tells him will be appreciated, and he must be honest, that he may obtain and hold the confidence of his patrons. Lacking in either of these, failure is quite sure to close his career as a merchant. It has been sneeringly said that traders are sordid, often sacrificing integrity and principle to pelf. There may be such, but as a class their goods are for sale, but not their principles. As a part of the community they are most liberal in the support of municipal improvements, in contributing to the calls of charity, education and religion, and in the support of business enterprises which promise prosperity to the town. Clinton's first merchants will not suffer when tested by this high standard. They gave thirty-six inches to the yard and sixteen ounces to the pound. My allotted time is too limited to dwell at any length upon their characteristics. Those who desire can find more extended particulars in Ford's "History of Clinton," a work which will be increas- ingly valuable as years roll by. Of the old merchants, we have two remaining with us. One is the genial A. A. Burditt, who has so interestingly told us the story of the early dwellers • in the south village of Lancaster, now Clinton. He was the village druggist, and his pills and powders have assuaged untold suffering. The other is Charles Bowman, the dealer in tin and hardware, whom Father Time seems to have overlooked. If we may judge from appearances, he will be found at the old stand with the emblem, "Established 1850," displayed at Clinton's Centennial. Of the others who were in business here in 1850 or soon thereafter, most have passed beyond the bounds of earthly activities. Many of them left enduring impressions on the young town. All were worthy citizens. The trading business was early located at the south end of High Street. At the cor- ner on the east side, in the old Bancroft Building, where Greeley's Block now stands, William A. Harlow sold groceries, and after him, Josiah Alexander, Jr., followed in the same line. Next north was the tailor-shop of Charles W. Field, who later added the ready-made clothing business, which is still in the family name. Next northward was Kendall Block, which was removed to Church Street to make room for the Bank Build- ing. Here the restless George H. Kendall and the polite _fames W. Caldwell, as "Kendall & Caldwell," did a dry goods business. Albert A. Jerauld had a tailor-shop in the same building. At the corner on the west side, next Union Street, was the new block built for A. P. Burdett's dry goods business. He continued here but a short time, seeking a larger sphere. He is still living in Boston. Horatio S. Burdett was his most popular clerk, who, later, was a leading member of a large Boston clothing house. He resides in Brookr line. Next was the small building now occupied by Richard Bourne as a shoe store. A boot and shoe business has always been done here, by Benjamin Tyler, Waldo Winter, and others. Then came the original Greene's Block, built of wood, and occupied by GiU bert Greene for the sale of jewelry and watches. The fine brick block lately completed will perpetuate bis naroe. His tact in telling a story, together with the correctness of his >p6 The Banquet. time, made his store a popular resort. Next was the new wooden block built for George P. Smith, for the sale of dry goods and groceries. He was an upright man and very par- ticular to give good value to his customers. Orlando A. Smith, his brother, was his clerk, but early in the fifties he left him and went into the dry goods and music business, first in the Clinton Hall extension, and later succeeding A. P. Burdett, where William L. Hub- bard is now located. David Holder, the spectacled Quaker shoemaker, had a small shop on Church Street, and L. D. Lyon had a shoe store, first in the house of Dea. John Bur- dett, and then in Clinton House Block. I must not close this very brief and incomplete reference to Clinton's early business houses without making mention of the millinery establishment of Mrs. C. D. Davis, which was located in Kendall's Building, and later moved across the street to Smith's Block. Mrs.' Davis was a large, dignified lady of pleasing manners, who employed many assistants and was the accepted authority as to what was the proper style for ladies' head-wear. She soon had a competitor in Miss Ellen S. Killenger, who took rooms in Burdett's Block. She married Charles W. Worcester, a prominent Clinton mill agent, and is now living in Clinton, I might justly extend this enumeration and include the names of others who were here in business for longer or shorter periods, but my time has passed. I will conclude with this sentiment: May enterprising American traders carry the products of American skill and labor in our own ships over all seas, and may the leaven of our free institutions work among the inhabitants of the islands of the south, the east and the west, and add to the sum of human happiness by the advancement of freedom, education and religion. We have with us tonight one who remembered that he was a boy with the boys. He has the faculty of making the aged forget their years and laugh as if they were boys again. "Has there any old fellow got mixed with the Soys? If there has, take him out, without making a noise. Hang the almanac's clack and the catalogue's spite! Old Time is a liar! We're twenty tonight." Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! The stars of its winter, and the dews of its May! And when we have done with our life-lasting toys. Dear Father, take care of thy children, The Boys." I take pleasure, sir, in presenting a former Clinton boy, Mr. A. F. Howell. Reminiscences of Former Clinton Boys — Augustus F. Howell. Mr. Toastmaster and Fellow-citizens: After hearing the able and eloquent speakers who precede me, I fear that you will be somewhat disappointed in my ability to meet the demand and cope with the sentiment allotted to me. I feel somewhat like the man who was introduced at a colored conven- tion, by the chairman, after the more important speakers had concluded, "If dere is any uder gem'man as wants to expose hisself, now is de chance." This is, in part, owing to the fact that I was not apprised of my subject until about an hour previous to this feast of reason and flow of wit. The impromptu speech which I have labored assiduously over for this occasion, airily conceived and so delicately expressed that in an unguarded moment the respirations of frolicsome evening zephyrs, might readily have born it away to ecstatic realms, is now null and void. When I look around me and see the radiant smiles of lovely woman, I con- 107 The Banqwet. gratulate myself that I was not borne away likewise. Unlike the speaker who preceded me, and who claims to have come here in 1847, but not to stay, finally settling here in 1849, I waited until 1852 and then, owing to my tender age, came to stay until my parents moved to Worcester in 1865. It is useless at this time for us visitors to the old home of our boyhood days to indulge in platitudes about the subtle art of hospitality of our townsmen of today, for it would surely seem like gilding refined gold, or adding perfume to the rose, and might be construed into a bid for local adulation, professionally. There was something seductive in the invitation and we came to claim a share of the genuine hospitality. The task imposed on me is a light one, as I have been given to understand that no extended remarks were expected, or necessary, with the numerous bright, local lights who were prepared, around me. I regard this day as one of the most auspicious in the history, not alone of Clinton, but of our beloved old Commonwealth, and of the best country on earth, now recognized by the world in all questions of national import, even by the far distant Orient. This morning before leaving Boston, the boom of guns from the war-ships of the North Atlantic squadron, peacefully anchored in our harbor, and from the guns of the Navy Yard battery; the countless salutes of small arms, firecrackers, etc., in the hands of the patriotic boys; the parade of numerous state militia and naval troops, with civic societies, trades and artistic floats, told to the hundreds of thousands of Boston and suburban citizens that the valiant deeds of America's embattled farmers of 1775, were being celebrated on this the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, by representatives of state and nation. We can therefore, tonight, glory in the wonderful advance of town, state and nation, which even in the past fifty years is so full of interesting history to future generations. We cannot help being proud of the growth that has marked our town in the past five decades, and which makes it practically the largest township in the state today. Not alone are the present younger citizens to be congratulated on its prosperity, so marked on every side, but also the older ones, whose honest business methods, rugged soul and persevering struggles in the many years of glorious work and achievements, made it possible. Congratulation is due, also, to the mothers, whose earnest Christian char- acter, forbearance and loving interest in home instruction to the boy and headstrong youth, made able thinking men, moulding their minds and so their habits, on a higher plane of thought and action. What greater immortality can a faithful mother desire than to have so imprinted pure motives and principles upon the character of her boy, that he may say in the filial spirit of Abraham Lincoln, "All that I am and all that I hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." How then can I speak of the "Reminiscences of the former Clinton boys" without referring to the girls of that decade, the mothers of today? They were our well-spring of delight and without them no excursion was complete. They were with us in the senti- mental spring search for May-flowers over on the hills beyond "Scrabble Hollow;" our modest companions in the more prosaic summer berrying parties to Berlin or the old church in Bolton, or to other suburban pastures with their blue and black fruit; in the rollicking autumn nutting rambles beyond Burdett Hill, or Harris Hill, and later, at the noisy "huskin' bees," dodging the "red ears;" in the healthy winter skating parties on old Counterpane, Coachlace and Mossy Ponds, and the Nashua River, where now the new dam damns that section, as well as on those much anticipated sleigh-rides, all bundled up in robes, when a turkey supper awaited us at either Fitchburg, Leominster, or Sterling. They were only debarred from our vacation, Indian trail parties, over the Maynard farm, 108 The Banquet. where High Street now extends, through the woods beyond, across Stony Beach or Steep Banks (cow trails), where the only daily ablutions of many an early Clinton boy were often taken, to the worriment of anxious mothers — as also to the boy at times, when dis- obedience of parental instructions in this regard resulted in condign punishment. How well I remember the first party of any account, of my boyhood, in one of the scattered homes near the site of this very hall. How I looked forward to the event and how, on that evening when I was waiting my turn to be "shown up," I wondered if the charmer of my younger years would notice that my trowsers lacked some two inches of connecting with my red front boot-tops. It was not long, however, before all this was forgotten, as she and I measured off three yards of tape and cut it, as was the custom then, with a kiss squarely swopped. This in the nature of a forfeit game. My jealousy was soon aroused, however, by a rival, who raised her five times from a well, in order to extricate her, he being foxy, each effort being rewarded with a lingering osculation. How different, but a seemingly few years later, when in long skirts, she gently, but firmly, refused to acknowledge the penalty of a "red ear" in her pile at a "huskin' party," explaining that she had, since last we met, taken a different view of the "duty of her sex" in promiscuous osculatory exercises. No one has yet mentioned the early women of the town, nor among the sentiments do I find one in any way alluding to man's unselfish, as a rule, helper and sympathizer. The banquet without a toast to woman's worth is like a home without children — rather selfish. Say what we please, the strongest and most subtle "pull" this world as yet con- tains, is the undercurrent of a woman's influence. The Russian in "The Last Word", says "A woman can do anything with a man, providing there is no other woman." When a woman will, she will; when she wont — well, she will if you tell her not to. Man is con- stantly imposing on woman, but she, dear creature, always thinks he doesn't mean it. The woman who worries, as a rule has a husband and several daughters who will not worry at all. Then we find men who act as if they had done their wives a great favor to marry them. There are some women who feel that this earth would surely again be an Eden if men would only do as women think they ought, forgetting at times that Adam was made first and woman after him, and that she has been after him ever since until by good for- tune she has " caught him'' and they are made one, when she is equally first with him. But to be more serious. How forcibly the recollections crowd upon me, as I today look upon the little brick primary school-house, standing as it has for some fifty years — - Baptist on one side and Orthodox on the other — of the true, earnest women who taught the young ideas of the fifties and the sixties how to shoot: Lucretia S. Morgan, Lydia J. Derby and Susan H. Hartwell. The latter it was who punished the troublesome girls by sit ting them beside the worst acting boys, and I don't know which enjoyed it the most. Then, when we passed around the Orthodox Church to the grammar grades, we came under the able and advanced instruction of Maria F. Hill and that other noble woman, whose life has been unselfishly devoted for nearly a half century to the advancement of the morale of the youth of this town, to its own advantage and that of every other where they may have found a home, and to whose worth and fidelity there should be some last- ing memorial, either in the form of a bust in enduring stone, placed in a niche in the new school-house, or some testimonial from her former students, that she may prize during the remainder of her years — Sara C. Cobb. As boys we may have judged harshly and with prejudice of the strictness of her discipline, but we all owe her a debt of gratitude for her forbearance and indomitable will, for the teaching of ennobling principles, devel- 109 The Banquet. oping the highest traits and qualities of manhood, and so benefitting the community in which we live. We can never fully repay her in this life. I might go on and name some of the early boys of the town, as the previous speakers have the early settlers and merchants, but at such short notice I know I cannot do justice to my old schoomates, and any distinction given to a few who may come to my mind on the spur of the moment, might prove invidious, and so I will only generalize. The friendships formed in our school-days are many of them life-long, while many others of the boys are lost to our view, both the dead and the living. Some have remained in dear old Clinton and helped in its advancement, some are making their mark in the great cities of the country. But in my numerous business and professional tours through the country in the past twenty years, from Canada to the far South and West, I have failed to learn of a Clinton boy that was not a credit to the town, and many have risen to high positions of trust in business and professional life. As boys we were probably as mischievous as any of that day, but as men we have put away childish things, and now look back upon the years that are past without regrets, but still with a yearning for the lost opportunities. It is a fact, however, that the man who rises above his circumstances is the one who does the best under them. To the boys and young men of today, let me say that it will do you no harm to look back on the lives and experiences of the former boys of Clinton. Don't hesitate to take a little good, practical advice. Napoleon nearly succeeded. He failed because of bad advice. The peasant who guided him at Waterloo said that there was no road or ravine at a certain point. The charge was ordered and the gully was discovered too late. Horse and rider of that vast squadron of the world's finest dragoons were piled in an agonizing, strugglingj dying mass. St. Helena, a small island, then became historical. That little bit of bad advice, or misinformation, changed the history of the world. Likewise a sin- gle mistake, if it is large enough, will wreck a business. A little bad advice may bring a big misfortune. We should also so direct the footsteps of our fellow men that they will thank us for the kindly advice and helping hand, and with their advancement in life, we shall reap our reward in the sincerity and value of their friendship. It is told of a certain traveller who was much given to mountain climbing, that one day in picking his way over the rugged cliffs, he heard a voice calling him from a treach- erous crag below: "Lookout, father, that you keep in the right path, for I am following you." Those words fell on his ears as" a dread admonition, and he paused a moment to consider whether he shoulcj turn about and seek the valley below, but his better judgment said: "No, keep in the right path and his future will be made, for as I lead he will fol- low.'' So iniour daily life let us look well to our partner in business, to our neighbor, to our own sons, all of whom are watching us as we climb in the years of life, and let them see no faltering in the path selected among the pitfalls, straight up to the summit of our nobler principles. Urge them to follow, and fail not to place such information in their hands as will satisfy them that you are on "the right path," and that they can follow with impunity. In closing, let me give you this sentiment: "May our one hundreth anniversary prove as rich in the fruition of our honest ambitions as has the fiftieth; may the boys of today- merit our earnest godspeed in their efforts to perpetuate its business honor and integrity." "Oh! the pleasant days of old, which so often people praise! True, they wanted all the luxuries that grace our modern days; Bare floors were strewed with rushes, the walls let in the cold; The Banquet. Oh! how they must have shivered in those pleasant days of old! Oh! those blessed times of old! with their chivalry and state; I love to read their chronicles which such brave deeds relate; I love to sing their ancient hymns, to hear their legends told — But, heaven be thanked, I live not in those blessed times of old." As our Quaker poet has so beautifully said: "All of good the past hath had Remains to make our own time glad. God's love and blessing, then and there. Are now and here and everywhere." It is out of no lack of appreciation of the character and achievements of the men and women who settled and organized this town that we turn our attention from the past to "the present. While we gather inspiration from the memories of the fathers, we would be untrue to their spirit did we not give our attention to the duty of the present hour. Every generation has its own life to live; and that our descendants who shall gather in this hall fifty years hence to celebrate the centennial birthday of the town may find our names not unworthy of a place beside those of the Bigelows, the Harrises, Nathan Burdett, Joseph B. Parker and Franklin Forbes, let us, since the past is gone, seize today. We have with us this evening-, to use the words of another, "The one man among ou^ Clinton citizens who above all others has represented the progressive character of his race." He will tell us not to brood over the past or dream of the future, but to seize the instant and get our lesson from the hour. What words can better express the sentiment of this toast than those of our Semi-Centennial ode by our estimable citizeness, Miss Ellen K. Stevens: O, Clinton, noble in the past. Be nobler yet today! Uphold the right, redress the wrong, March on thy destined way. To reply to this sentiment I have the honor, sir, of inviting the Hon. John W. Cor- coran. Clinton — Its Present — John W. Corcoran. Mr. Toastmasier, Ladies and Gentlemen: I gratefully appreciate the compliment of being called upon to speak to the senti- ment, "Clinton in the Present." This town has been the only home I have ever known. In it, I have spent my childhood, boyhood and manhood, and ever enjoyed its ample advantages. Out of its opportunities have come whatever of success I may have attained. Because of this, I deem the response to this toast a great privilege, but one which, never- theless, carries with it some embarrassment. I cannot bring to my task the wisdom of seventy-three years, nor the experience of half a century, like the gentlemen on my left, responding to their toasts; nor am I able, like my youthful friend on my right, to go back in reminiscent mood to the conquests made in the early fifties. Time, however, may relieve me of these embarrassments. It would be difficult, indeed, to speak of the Clin- ton of the present without adverting .to the Clinton of the past, for the one is but the complement of the other. Were it not for the wisdom of the founding, we never could have enjoyed the benefits of the building. Clinton, past and present, was strikingly blessed by Nature. Though small in area, it is richly endowed with natural conditions and attractions. It lies at the foot of great water-sheds, whose streams and brooks furnish natural attractions to the manufacturer. The Banquet. Its rivers lend picturesqueness to its scenery, and its hills and slopes provide healthful and handsome homes for its people.' Situated in one of the greatest counties in the coun- try, a model of order and progress, our town is surrounded by neighbors who, in a marked degree, illustrate the virtues of thrift, good order and generous intercourse. Its indus- tries are second to none of their kind, its products are found in every mart, and it is today, in the best and truest sense of the word, the largest town in the Commonwealth. In making this statement, I am not unmindful of the fact that there is one other which'^ houses a larger population; but, unlike the population referred to, Clinton's is a real pop- ulation, made up of men, women and children who live, toil and have their being upon its soil, the greatest tribute that can be paid to the founders and builders of the town. They paid the price of its municipal independence. They organized its government, made its streets, erected its public buildings, and furnished every equipment necessary for local government. From the sweat of their brows came all we possess, including the great industries which are the monuments of its growth and progress. Its people are orderly and industrious. They have been the architects of their own fortunes, and thei builders of their own homes. In their social lives, they illustrate, as fully as any other population, the virtues of the home and the fireside. Its people are heterogeneous in race, and homogeneous in character. Their sentiments are broad, their views liberal, and their thought tolerant. The growth of the town has been steady and healthy. Beginning with a population of approximately three thousand in 1850, it can show to the world in 1900 a population of upwards of thirteen thousand busy, thrifty and prosperous people. Its public build- ings are unsurpassed by those of any of its sister towns. Its school-houses are ample in equipment, generous in accommodations, and stately in appearance. With its trained fire department, efficient sewer system and water-works that are its pride and its boast, it offers for a home every promise and attraction that modern civilization can suggest. I take the greatest pride in presenting this picture to you who have enjoyed the priv- ileges and the blessings to which I have adverted, and likewise to those former Clintonians who have come back to their old home town to join in the celebration of its birth. I know it cannot disappoint their expectations, and I feel that they will share with us the gratification we feel in its achievements., Its history is a pride to its children, whose love Will preserve it without stain, and whose loyalty will protect the integrity of its institu- tions. When Clinton was still a child of three summers, and not yet entirely free from her mother's apron strings, still owing several of the ten thousand dollars she had to pay to the town of Lancaster for her freedom, our honored townsman, Horatio N. Bigelow, was invited to attend the banquet held in connection with the celebration of the two hun- dredth anniversary of the founding of the town of Lancaster, and reply to the sentiment : "Our Youngest Daughter, Clinton ; although she has the pride of youth, she is industrious, and, like the mothers of old, is not ashamed to spin and weave." To this toast, Mr. Bige- low replied. In the course of his remarks, he said that: "Having bought our time, and cut loose from the old lady's apron-strings, we have gone on our way rejoicing, increasing our manufactures, until we now produce ginghams, quilts, coach-laces, carpets, machinery, machine castings, combs, hay-forks, carpet bags, and many other small wares; the aggre- gate amount of all our manufactures being annually more than two million dollars, — our population, in the mean time, having attained to about thirty-five hundred." Today, sir, when the census report reaches us shall we not see that we have quadrupled our popula- FRANKLIN FORBES. GEO. W. WEEKS. ■js. "^th "fr"' ■^"- ' > Jr / fff^ / LANCASTER MILLS. The Banquet. tion and more than quadrupled the value of our products? To tell us something of our industrial development allow me, sir, to call upon the agent of the Lancaster Mills, Mr. Charles H. Richardson, who will take for his text these words : "In every rank, or great or small, 'Tis industry, supports us all." Our Manufacturing Industries — Charles H. Richardson. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been asked to say a few words concerning the "Manufacturing Industries of Clinton." I approach the subject with a great deal of diffidence, from the fact that there are those present, who from their long connection with, and intimate knowledge of these industries, would be much more apt to interest you. The founders of these industries builded wide and deep, and it speaks volumes for their farsightedness that we have today within our borders three corporations which are at least among the leaders, if they are not, indeed, the very leaders in their separate lines. Fall River, Lowell and other cities may scramble for the honor of being the " Manchester of America," but our beautiful little town of Clinton is knpwn around the world for the excellence of its manufactures in at least three separate departments. To take these concerns in the order of their incorporation : we have first the Lancas- ter Mills, incorporated in 1844, and turning out their first product late in 1846. They at once took and have since held a leading position as manufacturers of staple ginghams in America. Starting more than fifty years ago, with five hundred and fifty looms, they have constantly added all the latest improvements in machinery, in science, and in art, until today they have a magnificent plant of more than three thousand five hundred looms, driven by what is probably the largest steam generated electric plant used for textile manufacturing in the country, if not in the world. They were the first to apply steam generated electricity in a large way to the manufacture of cotton cloth ; today there are forty mills which are eithei; using or preparing to use electricity generated in this way. The number of employees in 1850 was five hundred and fifty-two, and the average pay was four dollars and fifty cents per week;' the employees today number something more than two thousand, and the average pay, exclusive of salaries, is about eight dollars and fifty cents. The total product of the mill for the year 1847 was one hundred and eight thousand pounds. The product for last week was one hundred and twenty-seven thousand pounds, or nearly twenty thousand pounds more than for the entire year 1847. These mills are turning out cloth today at a rate of something more than eight miles per hour, and if necessary could put a band of gingham clear around the world in less than one year. The Bigelow Carpet Company was incorporated in 1854, and at once took and has always held a leading position in the carpet trade, using nothing but the best material and highest skill both in the organization and management. Their goods have always been in demand by the consuming public, who are willing to pay a good price for what they know to be the very best of their class. The Clinton Wire Cloth Company was incorporated in 1856, and for several years did business in but a small way. Today, however, they, like the Lancaster and Carpet, stand at the head of their class. Here, as in the other concerns mentioned, the highest skill is utilized to produce the largest quantity and the very best quality of goods. I said in the beginning that the founders of these industries builded wide and deep, and it is to their lives that the young men of today may look for a lesson and take cour- 113 The Banquet. age for life's work. When we think of the Bigelows, of Amory, of Fairbanks, of Forbes, we are reminded of fair dealing, of honesty, integrity, and perseverence, and these qual- ities are the foundation of every successful life. These men were not perfect. They had their faults and foibles, which were undoubtedly eagerly seized upon by their contempor- aries, but today their names are spoken with respect and veneration. Their memory comes down to us surrounded by a halo of arduous duties well performed — of opportuni- ties embraced, and of strong lives well lived. After goods have been produced they have to find their way into our homes. This transfer of the manufactured article to the consumer constitutes what we call business, commerce or trade. We have in Clinton a lively and influential business men's or mer- chants' association, and the popular president of that association is with us. He will be pleased, I am sure, to tell us that — To business that we love we rise betimes And go to it with delight. It gives me pleasure to present Mr. Warren Goodale. Our Business Interests — Warren Goodale. Mr. Toasttnaster, Sons and Daughters, Friends and Invited Guests of Clinton: We are standing today upon the threshold of another half century of the incorpor- ate life of Clinton, and as we enter its portals, glistening with the successes of the past, let us pause for a moment and consider the cause. The men who laid the foundations of our industries and conceived their possibilities were endowed with an inventive genius and business sagacity that has placed the manufactured products of Clinton in the mar- kets of the world. To this fact we owe in great measure the success of our business inter- ests. The honor is theirs, and we would not misplace it. The business interests of a community are its life blood, its very vitality. Its pulsat- ing influence enters every home, and is the theme of general comment by its people. Wherever the adventurer or pioneer has wandered and built his rude habitation, whether it be on a bleak New England coast, in the far West, in the cold and frigid atmosphere of a sunless sky, or under the burning rays of a tropic sun, under whatever circumstances and conditions, wherever are offered the opportunities for supplying the necessities and comforts of life, there you will find the business man. The same spirit which prompted John Prescott to build upon the banks of the South Meadow Brook a mill for the grinding of corn, setting in motion the wheels of industry, catering to the wants of the early pioneers of this locality, is characteristic of the business men of today. It is this spirit of business and developing the opportunity for business that has made the British nation what it is today. It is this same spirit coursing in the blood of the American people that one can safely predict will make ot these United States a greater factor in the business world than any nation upon the face of the globe. In this era of prosperity and progress in which we are living, the methods of doing business have kept pace with the progressive spirit of the nineteenth century. If the busi- ness man were to adopt the methods in vogue fifty years ago in the conduct of his busi- ness, he would find failure and disaster his only customers. The country store, a once familiar landmark in this vicinity, has ceased to exist. Here gathered the village folks, and each contributed his share to this bureau of general information. Here no problem was too difficult to solve, no scheme so complex as to escape detection. Its shelves contained 114 o z ts> O O ■X. > 2 D n n m m The Banquet. the requisites of life, and an order given was not expected to be filled in a hurry. Out of all this have evolved the stores and markets of today, with their costly and elaborate furnish- ings, a wealth of stock, and a system of minutest detail in the conduct of business. We are a manufacturing town; upon the activity of the shuttle depends our commer- cial prosperity. Trade fluctuates with the hum of machinery. Whenever the wheels of industry revolve with alacrity and enthusiasm, when orders accumulate in the counting- room, then business is good. But when from any cause the market becomes depressed, the wheels of industry cease their activity, a general season of hard times prevail. Allow me to read a list of names of some of the business men of Clinton: Poignand & Plant, Hunt, Thurston, Bancroft, Kendall, Worcester, Alexander, Greene, Harlow, Flagg, Knight, Haskell, Butterfield, Howard, Carter, Bowman, Blair, Peirce, Howell, Churchill, Atkinson, Rice, Tyler, Wilder, Field, Ballard, Messenger, Boynton, Burdett, Faulkner, Smith, Stearns, Foster, White, Ring, Sweat, Warren, Brimhall, Holden, Dun- bar, Lyon, Maynard, Burbank, Ashley and Winter. There are others, but time prevents my giving you their names. Many of these names are familiar upon our streets today, but the original proprietors are gone, and are counted in that army in whose ranks we some day shall be numbered; and let us hope that in the summing up the balance sheet of life's work their balances were on the right side. They were men whose influence helped to mould the sentiments and acts of this community. I am pleased to stand here tonight and say a word for the business men of today. It is with pleasure I speak of their honesty, integrity, and their devotion to business. I could say more, but you know them as well as I, consequently I will leave it for some speaker in the future, who can with rhetoric and eloquence better than mine, speak of that body of men who- serve you. The next "Item " that I "Spy " on the program is " Our Newspapers.'' When I think of the lines I had chosen to read in connection with this toast, and remember that there "Are chields among us taking notes. And faith they'll print them;" remembering, also, who it is that is to respond to it, I am seized with a great trembling of the spirit. For woe betide the man upon whom falls the mighty weight of the Press. " How shall I speak thee, or thy power address, Thou god of our idolatry, the Press? By thee religion, liberty, and laws, Exert their influence, and advance their cause; By thee, worse plagues than Pharoah's land befell. Diffused, make earth the vestibule of hell; Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise. Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies, Like Eden's dread probationary tree. Knowledge of good and evil is from thee ! " I have the great honor, sir, to be the " Herald " of the best editor on the " Globe," Mr. Wellington E. Parkhurst. Our Newspapers — ^W. E. Parkhurst. Mr. Chairman: If I had been asked to indulge in reminiscences, I might have invited this company to renjenij^er ol^-tirrj? ^yprjljies ; Philander Morse, whose persist^qt yisjt^tiotjs ip our "5 The Banquet. homes resulted in extensive sales of pins, needles and thread, — or Jack Coburn, the col- ored man who honestly shaved the earlier citizens of Clinton ; I might have alluded to John Jennings, who, bourne on the shoulders of his admiring fellow-citizens, made a memorable speech on our common, — or to Caleb Carruth, who peddled " Garden Royal " apples from his royal 'garden, — with a complimentary reference to Richard Galley, who "sawed wood " under a fly-tent, and improvised a tub-sprinkler, thus becoming the founder of the Street Sprinkling Association. But I am called out to say a word for the news- paper, and after my thirty-five years' connection with the local press I shall venture the proposition that the paper of today is a very different affair from what it was fifty years ago. In the olden time, the newspaper was heavily laden with elaborate articles penned for the edification of a people who had the time to read, one, two, or three-column editor- ials appearing in every issue ; in these later years, the rush of social and business life requires that such articles as are written to be read must come out in a severely con- densed form, and short discussions and brief paragraphs now gain more credit and more readers than those which are long-drawn. Space writing is becoming a lost art. Fifty years ago, personal'items were not allowable, and in a southern state an editor was driven from town for daring to describe the dress of the bride at a public wedding, Then, the mention of a visitor from Connecticut, or of a trip to New Hampshire, the pur- chase of a farm or the building of a piazza-annex, usually elicited hints from angered cit- izens that the paper was indulging in that which was "none of its business." The city, as well as the country press, now recognizes modern requirements, and Sunday editions teem with secular paragraphs of a purely personal nature, all eagerly read, excepting in those rare instances wherein very sensitive and very modest souls vig- orously object to the use of their own names in the making up of local history. Changes have come in the construction of newspapers, as in all other departments of life and service. Short articles and personal paragraphs now adorn the columns of every up-to-date sheet; and they have come to stay, because of a popular demand for condensed and personal literature. As you have asked me to speak for the Press, I conclude with the sentiment : " The Readers of the Press — wise, sensible and happy, because they know where to go for wis- dom, sense and good cheer.'' Without good and happy homes a town cannot amount to much; and without a good woman home cannot be. Woman makes the home, the home makes the town, and the town makes the nation. Clinton rejoices in being a town of happy homes, of good wives and mothers and sisters. No one is more familiar with the homes of Clinton than that veteran in the ministry. Dr. C. M. Bowers, and we had hoped to call upon him to reply to the sentiment: "The women of our homes, in whose hands lie the destiny of the town and the country." Unfortunately he has been obliged to leave us, and we must turn else- where. Some years ago, one of our business men betook himself to the metropolis of the country. In New York, as in Clinton, he is what we all' know him to be, a whole man. I am sure we shall all be pleased to hear again the voice of Mr. Frank E. Holman. Mr. Toasimaster : I see about me many prodigal sons and daughters who, like myself, have returned to their native town tonight, still loyal in spirit and affection. I infer that we all are in a reminiscent mood on this occasion. Memories come floating in and mental pictures pass before us with such kaliedoscopjc rapidity as to almost confuse the mind and sense. Measured by the life of th? indiv»d»al, fifty years seenjs a long period; to spme of ps who if6 The Banquet. have not yet reached the half century mark, so varied has been the experience of life, the journey has seemed long and the mile-stones far apart. How different, sir, with cor- porate municipal existence ; measured by the history of commonwealths and municipali- ties, fifty years, how brief! And yet, how much has been accomplished by an aggregation of effort and unity of purpose! Many of us remember the picturesque village, its rapid growth to the more pretentious and active town, which gradually lost a certain provin- cialism, and in more recent years has naturally and rightfully assumed the airs of a young metropolis. Every citizen, whatever his condition or circumstances, has contributed his mite, until today Clinton outranks many of her older sisters in the Commonwealth in population, wealth and industrial enterprise. As has been said, we owe much to the pioneers and early town fathers, whose cour- age and sagacity .gave us the foundations for this beautiful town and its industries, but, sir, we owe equally as much to the sons of those men who, resisting the allurements of distant city and broader spheres of commercial and professional activity, have remained in your midst, loyally assuming the duties laid aside by their fathers and faithfully labor- ing to promote the industrial, moral and religious welfare of the community; and, sir, I would not forget the larger number of our citizens who, although born beyond the limits of Clinton, have cast their lot with you, and with their money, labor, and in a spirit of enterprise have contributed so much to the prosperity of the town. All are citizens and sons of Clinton tonight, and loyal to her interests. Mr. Toastmaster, in conclusion allow mc»to express the hope that fifty years hence, when the citizens of Clinton meet to celebrate the centennial, may they have reason to be as proud of the achievements of the next fifty years as we tonight have of the record of the fifty now past. "Who loves not knowledge? Who shall rail Against her beauty? May she mix With men and prosper! Who shall fix Her pillars? Let her work prevail." No one who witnessed the magnificent spectacle of the school children as they wended their way through the streets this morning, can doubt that Clinton has a bright prospect before her. These thousands of children are in our schools, not alone gathering facts of nature and history, but they are becoming imbued with the spirit and principles of citizenship and patriotism. No one is better qualified to speak for our schools than the honored principal of our High School. As a sentiment to this toast let me quote the words of the present President of the United States of America : The Public School. — " It is better than garrisons and guns, than forts and fleets. It is the gateway to progress, prosperity and honor — the best security for the liberties and independence of the people." Allow me, sir, to present Mr. Ford. Our Schools — Andrew E. Ford. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen : What is the chief glory of the town whose anniversary we celebrate to-night? We may well be proud of its industrial record, with its first grist-mill in Worcester county, with its stalwart race of farmers and miU-wrights, with its sturdy comb-makers, ijvhose products were distributed throughout the land, with its earliest cotton factory of flji? regipn^, 9i}e cjjE tl^e ^r^t in America, with the tfiilk ^f^rt^d b^ the JJigelows^ j;|l>e fifsj The Banquet. in the world where coach lace, counterpanes, ginghams, Brussels and Wilton carpeting and wire cloth were successfully woven by power. We may rejoice, too, that our commu- nity has given to the world without, more than it has received from it, in the product of labor. There have been few drones in this busy hive, few that lived without labor, either upon charity or inherited wealth. The settlement had its origin in a public need rather than in selfish aims, as is attested by the liberal grants given to Prescott for founding his grist- mill, and from his day to this, our community has been not a sewer, but a continual fountain of industrial energy. We may glory in the fact that Clinton is a town of independent homes. When our corporations first began their labors, a considerable number of boarding and tenement houses were built, but few have been added since that time. Our workmen, to a degree almost without precedent in our mill towns, own their own dwelling places. This has given an exceptional opportunity for the development of the home life with all the bless- ings that it brings. We may boast of the service our community has rendered the country in her hours of need. At the time of the Revolution, it was the Sawyers, Prescotts, Aliens and Dr. Duns- moor, all inhabitants of the southern part of Lancaster, who led the patriot cause and forced the tories of the central part, either to withdraw or aid in freeing the colonies from the British yoke. In the Civil War, Clinton furnished more men to the Union armies, in proportion to her population, than any other town of the old Bay State, the foremost state of all the land. And in what regiments they fought! They were in the Fifteenth, which stood fifth among all the Northern regiments in the list of losses ; in the Twenty- fifth, which lost in the battle of Cold Harbor more qien than any other regiment lost in a single engagement in the whole war ; in the fighting Twenty-first, the Thirty-fourth, the Thirty-sixth, the Fifty-third, and many other noble regiments. Wherever the danger was greatest, wherever blood flowed most freely, wherever the most daring deeds were done, there upon the perilous edge of battle, Clinton men were found ready to meet the issue. And in the Spanish-American War, point to a town in New England if you can, that gave her sons more liberally or suffered more severely than this same Clinton. Yet if we were making tonight a crown for the fair brow of our beloved town, while we might find the golden basis of this crown in our industrial record, while we should give a prominent place to the ruby of home life, glowing with the warm tints of affection, while the diamond of patriotism should be set where it might flash its lessons in every eye, and other gems "of purest ray serene" should add to its beauty, yet the central place should be reserved for a pearl, a pearl of great price. What is this pearl? Wliat is the chief glory of Clinton? It is the vital, seminal Spirit of Progress which animates our town as a whole, and its citizens as individuals. We have never been content with the present, but always pressing on to something higher. Out of this spirit have grown our industrial triumphs, our independent homes, our record of service to the country, and whatever else has been most noble in our history. This spirit of progress has been our greatest glory in the past, and it is our main hope for the future. As a result of this spirit, Clinton is a better place to live in than it was ten years ago. The average man of Clinton is superior to his parents, superior in material prosperity, superior in physique, superior in mental ability, in knowledge, in breadth of view, superior in character, in self-restraint, in integrity, in brotherly love, in compassion, superior in that pure and undefiled religion which visits " the fatherless, and the widows in their affliction," and keeps itself "unspotted from the world." This is true, both of those who have for generations enjoyed the privileges of New England, and of those who haye The Banquet, come from lands where there have been fewer opportunities of culture. I am filled with amazement, when I consider the changes which a single generation has wrought for good in the character of our people. This statement is not derogatory to our parents. Far otherwise, for what parent is there here tonight, who would not consider it his greatest honor, that he has made it possible through his labors, for his children to become superior to himself ? Why is it that this spirit exists in such a preeminent degree in Clinton? It is due in part to the natural character of the people, in part to institutions through which the forces existing in individuals have been disseminated through the community. The church, the home, the town has done much, but, as each of these delegates many of its functions to the schools during the most formative period in the lives of the youth, it may surely be claimed that no small part of this progressive spirit is developed there. The power of the schools in developing the spirit of progress has come in a considera- ble measure from those who have had them in charge, from such men as Franklin Forbes, John T. Dame, the present chairman of the school committee, and their associ- ates. Major James M. Ingalls, who taught our gunners how to batter down the power of feudal Spain, which was crushing out the life of the fair islands of the tropic seas, told me yesterday, "I well remember the interest Franklin Forbes took in my studies and the encouragement he gave me." How many other sons of Clinton in whose deeds we glory tonight could say the same! There was enough yeast in the character of Franklin Forbes alone to leaven the whole town. This spirit of progress has been nourished by our teachers who have devoted their best energies to inspiring ambition and directing it into proper channels. Who can measure the influence of such a teacher as Sara C. Cobb, who through nearly half a century, by the accuracy of her scholarship, the firmness of her discipline and the rigidity of her requirements, stiffened the backbone of two generations of Clinton youth and trained them for the strenuous, progressive life? Yet she is only one of many earnest workers. If time allowed, it would be interesting to study the progress of our school system itself in equipment, in aims and in method. This is impossible, but one word must be said further about the results, although it was with this topic we began. For the Clinton schools^ have not only nourished the spirit of progress in those who have helped to develop our own town, but in those also who have been a great influence for good in the country at large. Who laid the first railroad in the Valley of the Mississippi and started the great flouring mills of the middle West? School boys from District No. lO.* Who was it acted as president of Brown University in the hours of greatest stress, and for years so conducted the charities of Rhode Island as to lead the world to nobler ways of reform? A school boy from District No. ii.f Who in the time of worst corruption was made mayor of Chicago that he might cleanse the polluted city of its sin? A Clinton school boy.J Who from the pulpit of our great metropolis challenged the rampant powers of evil and forced them to seek their lurking places in shame? A Clinton school boy.§ We find Clinton school boys irrigating the arid deserts and making them blossom like the rose, II building and managing great lines of communication, controlling mighty indus- tries, enriching the life blood of new states, teaching the science of war, leading soldiers to victory, urging reform upon the platform, making the world more beautiful through their art, sowing the seed of progress, spreading enlightenment through the press, healing dis- * George P. Plant and brothers. t George Ide Chace. X John A. Roche. § Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst. II Actual Clinton pupils were in mind in each of these phases of work, but the list is too long to print. 119 (9) The Banquet, eases, establishing justice, fighting from pulpit and altar the powers of darkness. And we find Clinton school girls, as mothers, as wives, as leaders in society, as teachers, doing no less than their brothers for the progress of the race. Let me close with this sentiment: Our common schools, the nurseries of the spirit of progress, may they continue their work until sloth and ignorance and narrow-minded- ness and bigotry shall disappear, and all men shall work together, wisely and righteously, as brothers, for the common good. Though a town had mills and stores and offices and homes and schools without num- ber, but no temples for the worship of ideal Being, it would be like a body without a soul; for when all is said, it is love of God, not lust for gain or thirst for knowledge, by which a town really prospers. We are privileged in having with us tonight a representa- tive of the Christian Church, and I have the happiness to invite him to reply to the sen- timent: Our Churches — the guardians of the spiritual principle in man by which alone he is delivered from secularism and animalism, and dedicated to moral worship and social service. The Rev. Edv^ard J. Fitzgerald. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: To speak for the clergy of Clinton personally would be an impossibility for me since I am a comparative stranger among you, and hence I must conceive my toast in a broader spirit and speak for the clergy of our country — for the American clergy. Even concerning my toast on these broad, general lines, I am still confronted by a serious difficulty. I represent but a single church — the oldest, 'tis true, but still a single church — and I am called upon to speak for my brethren of every denomination, of every stripe of Christian belief. I must speak for John Carroll, the friend of Washington, who in the dark days of '^6 stood firm and steadfast in defence of the colonies, the country of his adoption; I must speak for John Hughes, who when our country was again in the throes of an awful strife, whose outcome was to settle her fate for aye, was one of the strongest voices raised in defence of the grand old doctrine, "Union and Liberty;" I must speak for John Ireland, that matchless type of patriot gentleman and churchman; I likewise represent John Eliot, who vied with the men of my church in carrying the message of peace and good-will to his red brethren, who devoted his life to civilizing, by the gentle arts of religion and brotherly kindness, the aboriginal settlers of our Massachusetts; for a Dwight Moody, whose great-hearted and magnificent energy has been stilled but so lately in death; for a Philips Brooks, that noble type of everything high and lofty, that model and inspirer of the young men of our state, whose wholesome influence still speaks to the country through the students of our oldest University, in the Memorial Building which grateful hearts have raised to his memory. These are but some of the names, taken at random from the catalogue of the American clergy, who have made a place for themselves in the hearts of the American people and in the history of the greatest of the American republics. To speak for all and yet say no word that would be unwelcome to any, to frame a message that would embody the teaching of men so widely divergent in religious belief and profession, is the difficulty that confronts me. And yet, in fact, I believe that underlying all these different creeds there is a fundamental virtue or characteristic which marks the clergyman, whatever be his professed belief. This The Banquet. characteristic may work itself out in various ways; may find a widely divergent expres- sion when formulated, but at bottom the same desire marks a man of the clerical voca- tion everywhere, viz: a desire to devote his life to the betterment of his fellows, individ- ually or in society. I do not mean to say that creed does not count, that dogma may be eliminated from the Christian lite, that one religion is as good as another. I do not say this; I do not believe such a doctrine; but I do believe that the motive which leads the young man to devote his life to the noble task of making his generation better men and citizens, as well as better Christians, is common to all clergymen, and whether we follow them to the end or not, such altruism demands our respect and admiration, and offers a platform broad enough for all clergymen to stand upon as brethren in Christ. The clergy is the great conservative principle in our life. In a country like ours, which has made and is making great strides in every line of thought and work, where the tremendous hurry of affairs bewilders us, where the will of the majority is the law of our national being, we need a fearless, conservative element to play the part of watchman in Israel and tell us "what of the night." This the clergy does. How important a part it is a moment's reflection will convince us; how nobly, how honorably the clergy have ' realized it, a glance over our country's history will assure us. There has been no reform, no great moral movement undertaken, no great crusade preached without the clergy, either initiating it or supporting it, sustaining it and carrying it out to a triumphal conclusion. The clergy is altruistic — it works for men, not reward. No monetary interest has fitted a collar about the neck of the clergy; the clergy is no man's thrall; no political party has put its iron heel upon the neck of the clergy; the clergy is no party's slave. Clergymen may have sold themselves, clergymen may have forgotten their high vocation, clergymen may have prostituted their influence and pulpit to unworthy ends, but the clergy, never; for the clergy is God's herald in the world; the clergy speaks for God and in God's name; the clergy can speak no lie. Massachusetts began its political life as a mitigated theocracy. Men have said that the pulpit has declined in vigor and influence in our day. Such men have not read the times aright. The clergy no longer govern with the iron hand of colonial times, but they still lead public opinion on questions of right and wrong, private or national, and public opinion rules our free land. I rejoice then that I am of the clergy, and I am honored that on such a day, before such a brilliant, representative audience, I should be selected to speak for the clergy. The message I bring is no new one; it has rung out from every pulpit; it has resounded in every hall — it has spoken to the millions in every issue of the press: Be true men; valiant, upright, Christian: Be true women; pure, inspiring, helpful. This is the message of the clergy preached by word and example from the hour when Columbus took posses- sion of our land in the name of God and under the shadow of the cross. Then here's to the clergy; may their wholesome, inspiring influence never wane; may their lofty aim never be lowered; may the American people never lose faith in the guidance of the American clergy. Having glanced into the past and scanned the present, we are now to face the future. We no more doubt that we are to have a future than we doubt that we have had a past. As Thomas Carlyle so truly says: "Yesterday and tomorrow both are!' We have listened to the stories of the past; we have been made familiar with the conditions of the present; we are now to listen to the prophet's burning words. I have the honor, sir, to call upon Mr C. F. Fairbanks, Jr., who is to tell us that "The best is yet to be." 121 The Banqwet. Clinton: its Future — C. Frank Fairbanks, Jr. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is with pleasure that I respond to the toast, "Clinton: its Future," a pleasure mingled with pride, for, if I mistake not the conditions, if I read aright the signs, the future of Clinton is most promising. Its influence is destined to be more widespread, its growth more extensive, its institutious more numerous. In a word, the young men of Clinton are not going backward in the path marked out by those who have gone before us. A memorable record of fifty years confronts us. The great development in the industrial, educational and civic life has been marvellous — a growth that few communi- ties in this or any other commonwealth can boast of. No wonder, when we contemplate the first work and the results of the band of pioneers who settled here and built up the Clin- ton of today, that we realize ours is a great responsibility. This public building within whose walls the men of Clinton have exercised their greatest prerogative for years; the monument in front of this building; yonder public park and magnificent churches; the beautiful school buildings, and the pleasant homes, bespeak a tribute to the noble work of the men of the past. You ask me, what of the future? I answer, young men, in our hands tonight is placed a standard. How shall we carry it? Fifty years hence we shall stand here as these gray-haired veterans do, and our children will then testify to whether we have been false or true to the high standard that we receive today. Let the past inspire us to greater effort. Let the stream that first brought life and energy through the mill-wheel to Clinton, that now turns wheel after wheel, that has brought up industry after industry along its banks, be symbolical of our progress as the years flow on. Better than all else, let us continue the prosperity, the happiness and the contentment that the Almighty destined should be ours when he gave us the Nashua and its tributaries, out of which the founders of this community brought forth a town. Let us learn the lesson of advancement and development from the fact that within our borders — the community in which the first cotton mill was erected in the country — now stand three of the largest industries of their kind in the world. We may not be able fifty years hence to point with pride to the part we took in mak- ing the village of 1850 the Jargest town in the county in igoo; but we can strive to make the city of 1950, if not the largest in population, the largest in contribution of manhood and womanhood, of patriotism and loyalty to the nation. I know of no better testimony in support of the assertion that the good work of the past has inspired the younger gen- eration, than the spectacle you witnessed on these streets about two years ago. I refer to the young men who went out at their country's call to represent her where danger, disease and destruction threatened them, and at a time when the country's honor was at stake. They responded, these Clinton boys, promptly and proudly, because their coun- try needed them. So, in the future when Clinton needs loyal sons and daughters to rep- resent her in the legislative hall, in her local government, in her professional, business or industrial life, she will find them, as in the past, ready and waiting. I should be unworthy to represent the toast that is mine, did I not caution young men against one danger — a danger that has already impaired the growth and true influence of Clinton. To speak plainly, I refer to the political strife, the rank partizanship that has characterized our deliberations in the past. I have no party or person to blame, but in the future we must protest against it; for I believe it sucks at the very life-blood of the town. Let us learn to place Clinton's interests above party and above individual. Let o o m n c H r r C/) o o o ^> ex o IkM % The Banquet. our watchword be "Advancement," mindful that no good results ever came from narrow partizanship, religious bigotry, or political jealousies. Mr. Toastmaster, I believe I can pledge for the young men that the standard of excellence and of progress that Clinton has today reached will be handed down to future generations not only unstained and untarnished, but broadened and developed in every direction and in every department. While this is distinctly a family gathering and we have indulged a good deal in blow- ing our own horn, we would not be unmindful that we form but a unit in a still larger family. We rejoice to belong to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There sits at t_aJ3le with us one who knows something about what is going on in the councils of the state. He is a young man, but he has managed already to make quite a noise down about Boston; and unless all signs fail, before we celebrate our centennial anniversary he will make a louder noise still. Not inappropriate upon his lips would be the apostolic words: "I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up." Mr. Walsh, arise and stir us up by replying to the sentiment: The State of Massachusetts: The pioneer of civil and religious liberty, public educa- tion and justice to all her citizens. May her sons and daughters never cease to stand for freedom, intelligence and righteousness. Massachusetts — David I. Walsh. Mr. Toastmaster^ Ladies and Gentlemen: We do well in the midst of these exercises, commemorative of our town's anniver- sary, to pause and pay tribute to the mother of that town, the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts. Every word of praise uttered tonight in behalf of Clinton is applicable to Massachusetts, for the town is part, a necessary part, of the state. But Massachusetts needs no orator to speak for her. Plymouth Rock, Bunker Hill, Fanueil Hall, Lexington, Concord, speak for her through the ages, silently to be sure, yet how forcible! Forever they tell the story of her past glory and wonderful achievements, the noble and loyal services of her founders and their descendants. Can we suppress our admiration when we recall the sufferings, the hardships and privations"bf those early emi- grants who, driven from home and native land, willing " To bear within their breasts The deep, unutterable woe, Which none save exiles feel," landed on these shores and laid the foundations of the world's greatest government? What emotions more strongly aggitate the human heart than those which arise when we contemplate the early struggles and final triumphs of those children of Massachusetts, who fought and died that we, their descendants, might enjoy those liberties, civil, relig- ious and political, which were denied them in the old world! Truly, ours is a precious remembrance. What are we to do with it? Are we simply to enjoy it? No, inheritance implies responsibility. We must preserve the liberties and institutions that are the pride of Massachusetts and that have been handed down to us with their original lustre undimmed and unstained by time. I know of nothing that has impressed me more forcibly with the debt of gratitude we owe to Massachusetts and her departed sons than that simple yet eloquent memorial which I first saw when I swore allegiance to her as a representative to her General Court. 123 The Banquet. Encircling the dome of the House chamber, like stars in the firmament, stand out that galaxy of glorious names, her illustrious sons. An inspiring roll! Here, surely, can any servant of our Commonwealth draw inspiration unfailingly to assist him, to encourage him, to elevate him. To the memory of one of the noblest women of ancient history the Romans erected a monument which bore this inscription: "To Cornelia, the Mpther of the Gracchi." The story of her devotion to country is one of the most inspiring in history. She it was who, when her jewels were demanded, proudly turned to her sons and cried out, "These are my jewels." If Massachusetts could speak, think you she would hesitate to proclaim her patriotic sons and daughters, her jewels? Mindful, then, of the glorious record of the past, inspired by the devotion of her heroes and statesmen, let us strive to make the Massachusetts of tomorrow what she has always been, first in war, first in peace, first in the uplifting of the great mass of citizens, who look to her for education, freedom, virtue and protection against tyranny and oppression. These streamers floating over our heads remind us that we belong to a yet larger political household. No one can recall that he is a citizen of these United States without being conscious of a new dignity, for he is made aware that he is a part, the seventy- millioneth part, it may be, nevertheless a part, of a nation pledged to freedom, justice and brotherhood. Our revered citizen, the Hon. Daniel B. Ingalls, will respond to the sentiment: The United States of America: The land of liberty, equality and fraternity. May these eternal principles for which our fathers lived and labored and suffered and died be maintained bright as the stars forever. The United States of America — Dr. Daniel B. Ingalls. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is said that Leigh Hunt was accustomed to go out of his way even while very tired, in order to walk through Gold Street where Dryden had lived, and thus give him- self "the shadow of a pleasant thought." It is a pleasure to meet this representative gathering of the Clinton of today, and especially so under the circumstances that call us together. This celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the legal establishment of our common home will become a his- toric event in the annals of the town, and therefore is of interest to all of us. The question to which I am asked to speak tonight gives me the shadow of many pleasant thoughts, "Clinton and its relation to the nation." It calls to mind the men that were prominent in the business, social and political gatherings of the past, men who were active in laying the foundations of the coming town, and who builded so wisely that they were enabled to leave to their successors one of the most beautiful towns in the Commonwealth, and an example of public spirit that will ever adorn its history. Clinton started at an opportune time in the history of the nation. In 1850, the United States had a population of about twenty-three million, and a valuation of over seven billions. Ten years later, i860, there was thirty-one million population and sixteen billion valuation, and a much larger proportional increase in the amount and value of manufactured goods. We were at the parting of the ways between hand work and machine work in many departments of labor, and Clinton proved herself no mean constituent in the growing republic, and made its mark in the industries of the nation. Early in the historj' 124 The Bai\quet. of the village went forth from the little mill on Water Street where now stands the growing plant of the woolen mill of Mr. Rodger, the Clinton counterpane, and in those days it was the ambition of every housewife that one of these should adorn the bed in the guest chamber. Through the inventive genius of the founders of Clinton, there was a contribution to the aesthetic education of the nation by giving it the Clinton coach- lace, with which public and private coaches were trimmed, as well as the cars of those days. The Bigelow Brussels and Wilton carpets are household words throughout the civilized world, and have adorned not only the palace but the home in all lands. Clinton has emphasized her position in the nation by clothing the millions with her ging- hams and giving to the world the fact that a machine can handle six or more shuttles with greater accuracy than the human hand. Since the power-loom was started in Clinton that used wire as easily as threads of cotton are used, the use of wire has manufactured more wants and satisfied them in more waj's than any invention of modern times. It has revolutionized the culinary utensils of our home, it has taken the place of other fences upon our farms, it is made use of in defensive war, and is taxing the ingenuity of many men to find some new form in which to bend it to meet a coming or a present want. It is only necessary to mention those lines of industry that were started by the inventions of Mr. Erastus B. Bigelow. They were not only the cause for the existence of the town, but the permanent character of the inventions and the utility of the product has devel- oped a natural growth in those early started industries that remain with us, that keeps pace with and largely controls the growth of the town. Industrially, Clinton holds an enviable position in our own and other nations of the world. Patriotically, Clinton has a good record in a state that occupies no mean position in our past history. Early in the history of the town Clinton was represented in the militia of the state, and when the unpleasantness that had long existed between the North and the South ripened into rebelliom, Clinton was not unprepared. Two months before the firing upon Fort Sumpter, the Clinton Light Guards notified the governor that they were ready to go to the front, and more than a month before open hostilities the town voted one thousand dollars to pay for service uniforms for the men. The action of the town was without authority, but Clinton carried the standard forward, and the legislature brought the law up to it and legalized the act. And as far as we know, Clinton was the first municipality to vote money looking toward the putting down of the rebellion. The town has an honorable standing in the history of the war. The records at the State House give Clinton a surplus of forty-eight above the demands of all calls. We were equally fortunate in being prepared for the late Spanish-American War, and Clinton was well represented in the various conflicts. Clinton, in her patriotism as well as in her industries, has been true to the American ideal of government for an industrious and patriotic people. Clinton has more than kept pace with the growth of the whole country, in population as well as in valuation. She started with a valuation of one million two hundred and forty thousand, and we have been rated as having a debt at that time of four dollars and a half, and we have more than held our own. Clinton has not only contributed to the industry of the nation in general, but in the personnel of her citizens, they have been ambitious as well as industrious. It u.sed to be said by those visiting here that Clinton was the most unsatisfactory place to loaf in to be found anywhere, everyone seemed to be so busy. Such a condition of things brings its reward. Clinton has furnished from her trained workmen, men to carry their industrious habits and enterprise to other parts of the country, to superintend the building of industries in the South, and to manage large interests in other states. 125 The Banquet. If we have only contributed Patriotism and Industry to the general store that goels to make up the ideal nation, we have come short of the demand that is made upon munici- palities as well as npon individuals. There is an ethical side to a government as well as to an individual life that needs cultivating by education. Without trespassing upon grounds allotted to others, we will simply call attention to the fact that Clinton has sent out representatives from her churches and her schools who have been recognized by the nation as teachers of men, and are doing good work in their several fields of labor. Clinton is just now being brought into peculiar publicity by the gigantic works being constructed in our midst by the State of Massachusetts, to furnish water for the Metro- politan district. And in this we have attained a height of self-abnegation for the good of others that places us ethically very near the Divine standard. When they said, "We want your river," we said, "Yes, take our river, and take our territory, too, and take what- ever else you need, and we will rely upon your kindness for future reciprocation." As a town, we reached a height of sublimity unknown to mortals before. The command, "If they take your coat, give them your cloak also," would seem to be the Divine standard of condescension for human intercourse. As a town we come so near to it, that in all the annals of human history there could not be found a people with whom to share the honor of making such a contribution without a protest. When the United States said to Spain, "You- must stop your oppression and cruelty in Cuba; before we will allow it to go any farther we will go to war, to save those poor, starving women and children, understanding the uncertainty and woe that is contained in that fearful word, war," the world applauded the position we took. To come back to our sentiment, "Clinton's relation to the Nation," in our relation with the general gov- ernment in the coming years there will be a contest over the question, "To which, the Town or the Nation, belongs the honor of giving to the world the most disinterested example of philanthropic benevolence?" The exercises closed with the singing of "America," in which all heartily joined. The central thought which prevailed in these exercises cannot be better presented than in the words of a sermon preached on the following Sunday by Rev. James C. Dun- can, the toastmaster : "The recent celebration, with its resurrection of the past, its laudation of the present and its prophecies of the future, has created a clearer consciousness of our municipal unity. And in this sense of a united life, we realize the futility, the uselessness, the sense- lessness of a bitter party spirit. The celebration taught us that beneath all differences of creed and party, there exists a platform upon which we can all take our stand. Seldom have I taken part in a more inspiring occasion than the banquet last Monday evening. With all reverence, I can speak of it as our municipal sacrament. There we were, citizens of every ecclesiastical and political shade of opinion, gathered around the same table breaking bread together out of a love common to us all. Every one present must have felt, though they did not stop to analyze and name the feeling, that a real bond of union cemented all the citizens of the town into one family. If the celebration shall have done nothing else than create in us the consciousness that we are all one; one community, one town, one municipal family, and that our happiness and prosperity consist in cooperation, \n working together, in subordinating personal and party interests for the welfare of the whole town, it will have amply justified itself." 126 HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND MUSICAL EXERCISES. ' I 'HE celebration culminated in the literary, musical and spectacular exercises of Tues- ■•• day. This was the day on which the greatest expense was lavished, the greatest crowds were gathered, and the greatest enthusiasm was shown. In order that the spectac- ular exercises may be treated together and that those of a historical and literary character may be more closely joined to those of the preceding day, the latter, though occurring in the afternoon, will be first presented. The music was in charge of the Clinton Choral Union. For the past six years the musical interests of the community have centered in this organization. In its weekly rehearsals, our singers have had a much prized opportunity for enjoyment and for vocal culture, and in its concerts, all lovers of good music have found a source of great delight. It furnished for this occasion, a chorus of eighty voices and secured for accompaniment and the rendering of instrumental selections, the Semi-Centennial Orchestra, made up of seventeen pieces from the Symphony Orchestra of Boston. Eugene Buzzell, who has been the conductor of the Choral Union during its entire existence, and to whose able leadership it owes much of its prosperity and efficiency, arranged the musical program. Jules Jordan, whose experience in such matters is unsurpassed, spoke of this program as one of "remarkable excellence." Doubtless, in the elevation of sentiment by which the selections were characterized, some of the audience found a more complete expression of the feelings which the day awakened than in the words of the speakers. The instrumen- tal concert by the orchestra formed the prologue to the exercises. It was supposed that this part of the program would be given while the audience was gathering, but such an appreciation of good music has been developed by the efforts of the Choral Union, that the hall was well filled before the first note was sounded. It is unnecessary to speak of the perfection of the rendering of these selections, for nothing less is ever expected of the members of the Symphony Orchestra. The numbers, though no less classical, were somewhat lighter than those which followed. In the chorus singing, in addition to the faultless accompaniment, the harmonious adaption of part to part and the finished tech- nique which are the result of years of careful training, there was a heartiness and a depth of feeling which only such an occasion could call forth. After the overture, "Jubel," which closed with the singing of "America" by the chorus and the audience, Wellington E. Parkhurst, president of the day, spoke as follows : Citizens of Clinton, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Invited Guests : "Our year of jubilee" has come, and it gives me pleasure to welcome you to this festival, and to offer you the literary program of the hour. Publicly and privately, our town has enjoyed laudation and compliments without stint during these three days of our anniversary. Our guests and our returning sons and daughters have been lavish in their expressions of admiration of Clinton, seated, like old 127 Historical Address. Rome, upon her seven hills, and decked in her choicest robes ; they have been charmed by the sight of our many and prosperous manufactories, which, from our municipal infancy, have been the strength and life of the town; they have enjoyed our elm-embow- ered streets, and our gem of a park, agreeing with us that there is no fairer embryotic city in the geographical triangle, whose apices are the Berkshire hills, the rock-bound coast of Essex, and the sand dunes of the Cape. But it is not the busy wheels, modest hills, verdant lawns, lovely lakes nor meander- ing brooks which demand and receive our superlative appreciation. We admire our nat- ural scenery, but our heartiest homage is paid to the founders of our town, whose fore- thought and sagacity made possible the Clinton of today. There is no heritage like an intelligent and virtuous ancestry. We may invest in stocks and bonds, and we may, or we may not, receive our dividends, but a wise and patriotic ancestry is an investment which is always at or beyond "pa," yielding dividends which moth cannot corrupt nor thieves break into and steal, and subject to no fluctuations among the bulls and bears of Wall Street. With profound gratitude to the men who so well wrought on the foundations of our municipal superstructure, and in faith that the men and women of 1950 will esteem us as we esteem our predecessors of 1850, we now launch our ship of state on the waves for another voyage, chartered and well freighted for a centennial port. Rev. Charles M. Bowers, D. D., who has walked among us as a servant of God during the whole fifty years of our corporate existence, gave utterance in- prayer to our gratitude for the Divine favor which has thus far attended our way, and besought that our course in time to come might be worthy of the continuance of the blessing of heaven. HISTORICAL ADD,RESS. HON. JOHN W. CORCORAN. The event we celebrate is the most notable and important in our local history. It marks the birth of independent government on this soil, and commemorates a splendid contribution to the municipalities of the Commonwealth. While it is of consuming inter- est to the citizens of this town, may we not assure ourselves that it is of considerable con- cern to the people of Massachusetts? The individual is the unit of the political family we call the town; but the town is the unit of the political family we call the state. Proud of the success that has attended half a century of municipal life; proud, like- wise, of the material progress achieved; prouder still of the beautiful town which the fathers founded and the sons builded; Clinton proclaims to the world its fiftieth birthday, and invites friends and neighbors to its homes and firesides. The story of its birth, its growth and its development is most fittingly told in the recital of accomplished facts. To do justice, however, to the narrative, it will be neces- sary to turn back a few pages in the history of the mother town — a history rich in honors and dignities earned by her children. In every sense of the word, Lancaster is a remark- able town — the prolific mother of all our neighboring towns. In peace, honored by the civic virtues of her sons; in war, distinguished by their martial deeds and prowess. It is not for us to appropriate a single page of this splendid history; but may we not look to the family record for the story ef Clinton's origin and development? 128 y/%r ?/"¥/* 'Tf'^ ¥^^zi' ^i2.'5.7' H'Z6'- ^'a?^ m''/-'- CONTOUR MAP. Contour interval 20 feet. Datum sea level. As the height of the water in the Metropolitan Reservoir is to be 395 feet, the boundaries will be between the 400 ft. and 380 ft. contour lines. The dotted lines indicate boundaries of ledge rock. There is some granite bordering on the quartzite on Burditt and Harris Hills which cannot be shown in the map. The slate is found in the whole region northwest of these nills. Histofical Address. I go back to John Prescott, the pioneer and founder, because he was the man who laid the first stone in the foundation of Clinton's possibilities. Whether in the Indian wars or in the pursuits of peace, he was a leader among men, and impressed the power of his individuality on his times and his fellows. He built the first mill in this region, and its site was that now occupied by the Clinton Worsted Company. It was a corn-mill, and to its grindings was brought the product of the yeomen of a large portion of what is now Worcester and Middlesex Counties. I advert to this enterprise," because it was the forerunner of events that made Clinton possible, and because, as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, it noted physical conditions which, in the nature of things, made another division of Lancaster inevitable. Prescott knew nature as he knew men. He studied her laws, and informed himself of her forces. To his penetrating eye, the restless stream that flowed from the forest slopes through the verdant meadows — the brook that we know as "South Meadow," — was something more than the waterway of an idle valley. In it, he saw the untamed energy that made the mill, turned the wheel, and founded the town. This brook, rising in the wooded hills to the west, gathering in volume as it ran its course, generating power as it made its way, settled the character and fixed the destiny of this section. Prescott appreciated this great gift of nature, and made it his willing servant. The part played by this little waterway in making history has no parallel in the annals of the town through which it flowed. It gave Clinton industrial life, and has been a mighty agency in pro- moting its development. Not long after building the grist-mill, with his wonted energy, Prescott erected a saw- mill, locating it not far from the present site of the Bigelow Carpet Company's dam. The two mills were the only ones of any kind in this region, and were the precursors of the mighty industries that now stand upon their sites. At the time of which I speak, there were few habitations of any kind in this locality, certainly none that could be called a house, in the modern acceptation of the term. The dwellings of that day were of logs — indeed, Prescott's own house was constructed of this material. It was known as "The Garrison," and was fortified by flankers and palis- ades against attack by the savage tribes, whose frequent 'incursions kept its inmates in constant danger, and called for the constant exercise of the prowess and daring for which Prescott was noted. It was located on the east side of High Street, on the "Old Otterson Place," so-called, near the site of a new building now being erected, and was yesterday marked by a tablet. Then, there were no roads in this region, and the patrons of the saw-mill and grist-mill from far-away Sudbury, even from the heart of Middlesex, made their journey thither over narrow and circuitous paths, attended with many risks and dangers. The patronage which the mills attracted increased to such an extent that a highway became a primal necessity. Public action was thereupon taken, and the thoroughfare now known as Main Street, from South Lancaster to Water Street, was laid out. It was said by the ancients, "All roads lead to Rome;" with equal truth it might be added that, at one time, all roads led to Prescott's mills. But this little community was not destined to long enjoy the advantages which the skill and energy of its founder- had provided. A general Indian uprising occurred. The little garrison — the Prescott house — was furiously assailed, but was stoutly and success- fully defended by its gallant inmates. Though succeeding in saving his home, Prescott witnessed the destruction of the mills, which were fired by the savages and reduced to ashes. All the families that escaped the massacre which followed betook themselves to the coast towns for protection. With them went Prescott, leaving behind nothing but 130 Historical Address. SOUTHERN PORTION OF LANCASTER, 1795. Scale, 250 rods to the inch. The survey for this map was made "in obedience to an order of the General Court, dated June 26, 1794." The original has been altered only in size and in the lettering of the name. The physical geography of the map is incom- plete, and in some cases, of questionable accuracy. The roads leading north, south, east and west from Prescott's Mills, as given in the map of 1830, page 133, were in existence in 1795, although omitted from this map. For convenience in reading names, the southern part of the map is placed uppermost as in the original. 131 Histoi-ical Address. junk and foundation-stones to mark the scenes of his ambitions and the sites of his blasted hopes. A few years later, he returned and rebuilt the mills near their original locations. This closes the first chapter in the story of Clinton's industrial life. The period that followed the return of Prescott, while full of interesting events, dis- closed nothing of importance so pertinent to Clinton's history as to call for special men- tion. The years rolled 'into decades, and decades into centuries, before the settlement showed new life, or took on unwonted activities. It must be that the observant eye of Prescott had discovered in the Nashua valley the natural conditions that would furnish a series of valuable water privileges; but while we find records of conveyances of lands in that valley to his descendants, no evidence is discovere'd of any attempt on the part of that family, so distinguished as millwrights, to develop these possibilities. The possessions and privileges of which I speak passed from John Prescott, 5th, and, through several successors in title, became in 1810 the property of James Pitts. It may be of local interest to know that the house in which he made his home upon taking possession of this estate is now known as No. i Chestnnt Street, and is a familiar structure to the eyes of the present generation. Elias Sawyer, as tradition tells, began the construction of a dam on the premises subsequently bought by Mr. Pitts, which he never finished. It was, however, rebuilt and completed on new lines by the latter, and a saw and a grist-mill were erected below it, where operations were begun in 1816. These were converted, in 1820, into cotton-yarn mills. They stood upon the land now occupied by the Lancaster Mills, and were the fore- runners of that splendid industry. In 1809, the lands and privileges of the first Prescotts, north of Water Street, passed by purchase into the hands of Poignand & Plant. This purchase overshadowed in impor- tance and consequence any event that had taken place in this district since the founding of the original mills. The new owners were men of ability and experience. One was an eruHite Frenchman, and the other a cultivated Englishman. They brought to their new home a refinement and culture that made a profound impression upon their plain and simple neighbors. In 1810, they began the erection of a brick mill fifty-seven feet by thirty-eight and one-half feet, three stories in height. This, one of the most historical of the landmarks of Clinton, constituted the western end of the yarn mills that stood upon that site until their recent reconstruction. This enterprise aroused the greatest activity and enthusiasm. It was the most successful of its kind in Massachusetts, and Poignand & Plant are undoubt- edly entitled to the credit of being among the first to spin yarn and make cloth under one roof, by the factory system. Time and its vicissitudes, it is sad to relate, brought adversity to the firm, and busi- ness troubles, followed by the death of Poignand, caused this plant to pass into the hands of strangers. This firm, one member wealthy, the other experienced, attracted the atten- tion of the adventurous capital which subsequently built the great industries of the town. In tracing the industrial life of the town, it would be a flagrant oversight to pass by in silence the contribution made to its prosperity by the early comb-makers. Like many of those who added to the rise and progress of Clinton, they came here strangers, but brought with them willing hearts and hardy hands. This industry, established by the Lowes and the Burdetts, prosecuted by the Gibbses and McCoUums, attained the acme of its success under the management of the Harrises, father and son. The business was first carried on, rather as a family venture, in the little shops adjoining the homes of its 132 Historical Address. promoters. Subsequently, factories were erected, and the territory along Rigby Brook, east of Main Street, became dotted with the little red shops that marked its growth until they were swallowed up in the devouring waters that burst their borders at Mossy Pond . c->>.7<.->t SOUTHERN PORTION OF LANCASTER, 1830. CoDied from map of Tames G. Carter published in 1831. The surveys were made by Jacob Fisher, Esq.., in 1830. ^ Scale, 150 rods to the inch. 133 Historical Address. on that fateful day in 1876, and in their wild and resistless course carried destruction to factory and fireside. The Harrises were to the manor born, and prosecuted their industry at one time in the brick house and adjacent buildings at the foot of Prescott Street. Enterprise and energy broke these narrow limits and brought them down to the river where the Harris mills now stand. There they bnilt the largest factory and carried on the largest business of its kind, in the country. Their thrift and ability were justly rewarded with one of the largest fortunes made within these limits. The comb-shop has disappeared, but the influ- ence of its founders remains. Their memory will be held in grateful recollection. No biographical sketch of Clinton could be written without giving the greatest prom- inence to the men who, beyond all others, brought to its development the splendid gifts of head and heart of the Bigelow brothers. Erastus B. was undoubtedly the greatest inventive genius of his time. No mechanical requirement was so complex as to overtax the infinite variety of his resources. By mechanical device, he made the weaving by power of the counterpane, with its raised figures, as practicable as, by the same means, he made it possible to make the ornamental coachlace upon the loom. It was his great mind that first conceived the mechanism that, with taste and intelligence almost human, produced the Brussels carpet. It was his, likewise, to devise, with marvelous ingenuity, the loom that made the Lancaster gingham, in all the variety of its coloring. This staple made Clinton the center of that industry for upwards of a generation. A splendid sup- plement to his great work in the development of this town was the invention of the wire loom, which stroke, like that of the magic wand, produced the wire mills, one o'f the mightiest industries of the times. Next to his marvelous mind, the greatest of the fortunes bestowed upon Erastus B. Bigelow was his talented brother, Horatio N. The day the two brothers walked together on the banks of the Nashua, prospecting for a site for the new enterprise being formulated in the mind of the great inventor, was a day pregnant with fate for the little village that since has expanded into Clinton. The streams and waterfalls that have been the boon and blessing of the town, settled the matter in its favor. The brothers determined to build, and the Lancaster Mills, then only a conceit of the brain, sprang into a visible and practical reality. Horatio N. Bigelow was essentially a man of affairs. He combined the faculty of organization with a strong power of execution. His mind was broad in its conceptions, and orderly in its methods. He was the successful manager of the various Clinton enter- prises that were born of his brother's inventions. While not a Clinton man by birth, he became such by adoption, and lavished upon his new home a wealth of patriotic love that found its expression in munificent gifts and the advocacy of every public improvement. The beautiful park which adorns the center of the town speaks, with charming eloquence, of his generosity. This was his gift to his towns-people, and under his devoted care it was laid out and improved. Time has added to its beauties and has multiplied its attrac- tions; but it has not staled the gratitude felt toward its liberal donor. To his foresight and his judgment we owe the regularity and spaciousness of our principal thoroughfares. To his interest in the welfare of Clintonians is largely due the Bigelow Free Public Library, an enduring monument to his worth and fame. The coming of the Bigelows and the success of their enterprises wrought not only stupendous industrial changes, but created new conditions, political and economic, out of which sprang the new town, the Clinton of our homes and our hopes. "Factory Village," as Clinton was called after the building of the cotton mills, had 134 Scale 200 feet to the incli. AtAP OF CLINTON, 1857. Drawn by J. Thissell. Historical Address. experienced no great change in population or enterprise during the twenty years preced- ing the coming of the Bigelows. At the time of their advent, its industries consisted of two cotton mills and about half a dozen comb shops, employing less than three score operatives. The entire population did not exceed three hundred souls, whose wants were supplied by two country stores. That portion of the population not engaged in the fac- tories and shops found employment on scattered farms, where they sought to woo a liveli- hood from an unwilling soil. The building of the Lancaster Mills in 1845 stimulated every energy and aroused every activity, and with a single bound the population leaped from three hundred to three thousand. The lethargic village had become a hive of indus- try, to whose service the native and the imniigrant were alike invited. The population rapidly took on a cosmopolitan hue. In the shops and mills, above the humming of the spindle and the shooting of the shuttle, could be heard the commingling dialects of the Teuton, the Scot, the Briton and the Celt. In a few years, every social and industrial condition had completely changed. "Clin- tonville" ceased to have anything political in common with Lancaster. The yeomen of the mother town had no community of feeling or sentiment with the factory operatives. Largely natives of the soil which they tilled, contented in agricultural pursuits, conserva- tive in thought and action, the men of Lancaster did not readily appreciate the political necessities of the manufacturing district that had so suddenly sprung upon their vision. Differences as to appropriations — a prolific source of difference — divergent views as to what the public convenience required, inability to reach a common understanding on matters of public policy, increased and multiplied, until the citizens of both sections of the town appreciated the necessity of a separation. The men of Clintonville, realizing that "School District No. 10," as their section was then called, contained far more than half the population of the town, and much more than half its wealth, felt that a policy adapted to a farming people was not suitable for a flourishing and enterprising manufac- turing community. For these, and for other reasons not profitable to mention, there began in Clintonville, in 1848, an open agitation for separation and local self-government. Under an article in the warrant for a town-meeting held November 7, 1848, a committee was appointed to consider the subject. The majority reported in favor of separation; the minority reported adversely. Wise counsels, however, prevailed, a basis of separa- tion was fixed, and without opposition the town of Clinton was incorporated by an act of the legislature, approved by the governor March 14, 1850. Thus was given to-Massachu- setts one of the fairest towns within its borders. Clinton started corporate life, according to the census of that year, with an enrollment of three thousand one hundred and eighteen, and the task of organizing a government and providing municipal equipment. It was without roads, bridges, public buildings or schools adequate to its imperative necessities. Its most apparent possession was an indebtedness to Lancaster of ten thousand dollars, the price of its independence. It was fortunate, however, that the men who conceived the plan of independent government, the promoters that brought the separation to a successful issue, had the energy and the ability requisite to solve the problems and deal with the difficulties confronting the new town. The success which crowned their efforts was immediate and remarkable. School- houses were built, a fire department created, a cemetery provided and an almshouse established with a rapidity which demonstrated the capacity and resources of the new municipality. A system of streets and sidewalks was early adopted, which were laid out on a plan that has done much to heighten natural attractions. New houses were being built in every direction to provide homes for the constantly increasing population; 135 (10) HistoMcal Address. business buildings sprang up in answer to the demands of trade and traffic. The church arose, and places of worship for all denominations followed the coming of their respec- tive adherents. Along such lines the new town grew and thrived, until the storm of civil strife threw its baneful shadow over its prospects. The youngest of the towns of the Commonwealth, one of the smallest in area and population, one of little experience and limited public opportunity, found itself at the breaking out of the Civil War, confronted with the great- est public duty that can fall upon any community. The integrity of the Union was at stake. The patriotism of hamlet, village and town was sorely 'taxed. But Clinton, though young in years and poor in resources, made a splendid contribution to the cause of human liberty and the preservation of freedom's institutions. In the early days of the war. Company C, with martial stride and flying banners, marched to the front and made an enviable record in the camp and on the battlefield, the memory of which, and of the gallant men who followed them to the field, is perpetuated in the enduring granite and heroic brass which ornament our greatest public building. The depression consequent upon the war retarded the growth of the town and checked its development. The dawn of peace, however, revived our languishing industries, and Clinton once more experienced the vivifying influence of old opportunities and new pos- sibilities. The waters of the Nashua, flowing down from the exuding hills, seemed to carry a greater force and whisper to the industries on its banks the wisdom of renewed afforts and increased energy. The Lancaster Mills, always in the forefront of enterprises, added to its plant, and seemed to grow with the days and the weeks. The Bigelow Car- pet Company seemed to heed the suggestion of its faithful brook, the " South Meadow," and increased and multiplied its output. The Wire Mill and the other shops and factories seemed to follow the inspiration ot the older industries, and increased their activities and products. Under these happy conditions, the Town Hall, a splendid municipal monument, was built. The liberality that provided for it is one of the greatest tributes that can be paid to the pride and public spirit of the town. Business blocks of modern architecture and stately proportion seemed to rise on the foundations of old and antiquated structures. The tenement house of the corporation gave way to the modest and comely home of the employee. The residence of the business man put on a new pretention. The churches raised loftier spires, and the schools presented more imposing fronts. Everything indi- cated the prosperity that was made manifest by increasing population and accumulating wealth. But one untoward occurrence blighted this picture, the breaking away of Mossy Pond, on that memorable Sunday afternoon twenty-four years ago, when its destructive flood devastated the valley from its outlet to its confluence with the Nashua. This dis- aster was survived and soon forgotten, and despite the misfortune, the town continued to grow until it reached its present splendid proportions. Its wealth has accumulated; its population has increased; its social, industrial and political importance has magnified. New streets and commodious sidewalks are being constantly built; a system of water- works, perfect in every equipment, furnishing by gravity the sweetest and purest of water, is one of the town's chief possessions. A sewer system, ample and generous, pro- vides unexcelled sanitary accommodations. Electric lights, generously and judiciously located, illuminate the town with an effulgence that would dazzle the eyes of its founders. A fire department of thorough efficiency and capacity guarantees protection to person and property against conflagration. A public park of spacious proportions, variegated 136 HORATIO NELSON BIGELOW. ERASTUS BRIGHAM BIGELOW. TOWN HALL, CLINTON Historical Address. flowers and luxurious shrubbery, with all attractions that art and nature can offer, invites the citizen to peace and recreation. A high school of imposing architecture, a grammar school of impressive appearance, a series of school buildings attractive in every feature and appointment, are the proof and promise of the broad and liberal education which the town offers to its children. But time does not permit of further expatiation upon the beauty of the town or the attraction it offers to the stranger or the citizen. Its growth has been uniform; its gov- ernment has been orderly and methodical; its business methods are clean and honorable; its social life is pure and healthy. Varied by hill and dale, its natural charms are unsur- passed. Its beauties are enhanced by babbling brooks, and its scenery made picturesque by the busy river that divides its hills. This is the Clinton of today — the Clinton that the fathers loved, the town that their children cherish. The heritage which the sons have enjoyed should be transmitted unim- paired, with all its possibilities and opportunities. No effort should be spared and every energy should be bent to make the future as attractive as the past. The foundations are broadly laid, and the superstructure should be continued in generous proportions. The industrious hands which built the factory and the mill have not lost their cunning; the intelligent heads that controlled their operations have not lost their capacity. The capa- ble merchant, who successfully guided his business affairs, has not lost his shrewdness. All these are but the forerunners of others who will take their places, and who will work their part in the destiny of a town possessed of every gift that nature can bestow, and every advantage that man can provide. The past is secure in its splendid accomplish- ments. The future invites all to lofty effort and noble achievement. It will be the ambition of Clinton's worthy sons to emulate the virtues of the fathers in their enterprise and in their selfless devotion to the public interest, the ambition of each being to surpass his neighbor in protecting the institutions whose blessings he has enjoyed, and to trans- mit, without stain or impairment, the heritage with which he has been blessed. No Clintonian would do justice to this occasion who failed to congratulate his towns- men upon the presence of so many of the fathers of his town. The gratification we feel in congratulating them upon the consummation of their fondest hopes, is tinged with a single regret — the absence of many of their co-workers, the men who struggled with them in founding the municipality whose privileges have been a blessing to them and their children. To the founders who are with us, grateful appreciation is extended; to those who have passed away, reverential affection is pledged. . It would be invidious, perhaps ungracious, to select names for special mention, when all deserve the highest praise and enconiums. I think I bespeak the sentiment of this people when I say our gratification would be complete if we could present to the founders who have gone to their just reward the beautiful town on the hills and in the valley, bisected by the stream they loved — the stream which created the great industries of the town they founded— the stream which brought into being the monuments of its growth and prosperity. I should disappoint another popular expectation, if I failed to call attention to the splendid part taken by Clinton in the Spanish War — a part that has brought lustre to its name and placed a laurel upon its brow. The boys who, in lusty youth and vigorous manhood, responded to duty's call and offered all that is dear in life in the service of their country, possess the enduring love and the lasting gratitude of their town. The page they have written in Clinton's history glistens with valiant deeds and heroic sacri- fices. For what they did and what they suffered Clinton will cherish Company C and 137 Remarks by Charles T. Tatman. Company K with the sentiment of the Roman mother, who, with maternal pride, pointed to her children, saying, " These are my jewels." To the venerable founders of the town, to the soldiers and sailors who fought and died in its name, to the children who have distinguished it by their works and honored it by their virtues, Clinton gives its benediction — the Clinton that filled the conception of the poet, who sang: "A bright, cosy town of valleys and hills. All thriving with school-houses, churches and mills; Where green drooping branches arch over the street, And industry shines on the faces you meet; Where houses are homes, where childhood is gay. And Order and Honesty ever hold sway."* * It is interesting to note that the lines with which the address concluded, although they have not been previously acknowledged, were written by Ellen K. Stevens, the odist of the day. REMARKS BY CHARLES T. TATMAN, Member of General Court of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: As I am only a substitute* for a substitute for the gentleman who was expected to address you, I am sure you will be glad if I make my remarks brief, which I purpose doing. The Commonwealth greets Clinton and congratulates her upon this the fiftieth anni- versary of her incorporation. Massachusetts is proud of Clinton, the busiest and thriftiest town within her borders. When the thirsty thousands in the eastern half of the state cried out for relief, the Commonwealth smote the rocky hills of Worcester County, and there gushed forth the streams of pure water which were the natural inheritance of Clinton and the other towns, but which they gave up willingly and generously to the cities and towns of the Metro- politan district. And when Clinton raises her voice in behalf of the majesty of the law, Massachusetts is not deaf. When Clinton points out the prostrate form of helpless labor, Massachusetts is not blind. The conscience of the state responds quickly to feelings of truth and righteousness. And the message from the state today is that justice shall be done. God bless Clinton, and God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! *Mr. Tatman was asked only a few minutes before the exercises began, to speak in behalf of the State, as the gentleman who was expected to speak was unavoidably detained. 138 ^j JOHN PRESCOTT, THE PIONEER. ANDREW E. FORD. Three centuries ago the morning light, As it arose from Wataquadock's height, Shone o'er a charming valley, lone and still. Where now are many towns with noisy mill And busy farm and thickly crowded mart, And nature is controlled by human art. To northward far Monadnock, faintly seen, A hazy blue across the forests green. To westward calm Wachusett, stern and grand, A fitting guardian of a promised land. To southward, lower hills close in the view. By morning touched with ever shifting hue. Upon the eastern foot-hills rose a stream Which sought the Assabet with rippling gleam, But elsewhere through the valley, hill and glade, Their sparkling tribute to the Nashua paid. The South Branch, born from Quinnepoxet Brook, Its winding course through rugged uplands took. Until it reached the spot where now its tide Is forced within the rocky hills to hide. It then, the plain in eager rapids gained, A place of ease where peace and quiet reigned. Henceforth, it flowed through open intervale. Where grew the graceful elm and poplar pale Or gnarled beech leaned o'er the waters edge Or sycamore rose ghost-like from the sedge. From western tree-clad slopes and gem-like lakes. The streamlets came through swamps and tangled brakes. And thus throughout the valley's wide extent, Where'er the river or its branches went, They fed the springs of life, gave beauty birth And changed to Paradise the thirsty earth. T'was then a wilderness, without an eye The wondrous charm of nature to descry. Primeval forest, where no foot had trod Save the fierce Indian's, heedless that his God Had spread before his sightless eyes a feast To feed a poet's soul, — less man than beast. Beside Washacum's shore, his wigwam stood. And thence his trails wound through the silent wood. In spring, he speared the salmon or the shad, Which leaped in river rapids. He was glad To chase the game, but he was gladder yet When with the Maqua's blood his hands were wet. 139 John Pfescott, the Pioneer. The weak Algonquin feared his stronger foe Who oft had laid his stricken kinsmen low, And vengeance, seldom won, was dearly bought. Besides, the pestilence its havoc wrought, 'Till all the tribe was wasted, worn and spent. Awaiting for their doom from Heaven sent. While they decayed, across the ocean brine A nobler race was formed by plan divine To use this vacant land for lofty ends; A race, that in its complex nature, blends All forces tending since the birth of time To raise humanity to heights sublime. Whoever sought for truth with sincere heart. He who created beauty through his art. He who for others gave himself in love, And he who saw through faith the One above. From all, that race its heritage received. And labors worthy of its lot achieved. E'en from that race, so blessed, a chosen seed Was picked in freedom's struggle, fit to lead To higher issues. Planted in a soil Untried and unexhausted, by their toil. Their patient faith and their unbending will. Fated to grow until the earth they fill With their own spirit ; make the world one state, With freedom, equal laws for small and great. You know the glory of our Pilgrim sires And how the Puritans their altar fires Enkindled ; how for home and common weal They prayed, they worked, they fought with holy zeal. Scarce twenty years had passed, since first they sought These wild New England shores, ere some had thought Their towns too crowded, wished unstinted lands And so pushed westward in brave little bands Along some winding, hidden Indian trail. To build new homes. The beauty of the vale Where flowed the Nashaway had oft been told. For daring traders had been there of old. Chief Sholan begged in fear the white men's aid Against the Maquas. Careful plans were laid To found a settlement. By Prescott led, A score of men the untamed forest thread. Construct the cabin, clear the future farm Cheered on by hope, but filled with deep alarm. Their logs they hew, their corn in mortars bray; The nearest mill is many miles away. 140 NASHUA RIVER FROM HIGH BRIDGE. NASHUA RIVER SITE OF RESERVOIR. John Pi-escott, the Pioneer. But Prescott, wise, sagacious, such a man As old Ulysses, ready with his plan, From nature's power, energy divine. Drew force for human needs. 'Tis ever thine O man of genius, thus to realize dreams And use the strength, God pours in living streams, Through all the realm of matter and of mind, Awaiting will to seek, the eye to find. The art to use for comfort or to make Our life more pure, to higher purpose wake. Just where you see today across the brook Our worsted mill, John Prescott power took To turn his mill-stone. There upon the lea. Our town was born in sixteen fift)'-three; At birth so strong, — the story seems a jest, — She fed her mother from her infant breast. And now she has become so rich and great She satisfies the thirst of half the state. ' John Prescott's home upon the hill-slope rose Where still the level plots the place disclose. Some five years later, higher up the stream. He built a saw-mill, and he had a scheme For forging iron. His neighbors felt a need. He acted, and their will became his deed. The years passed on. Old age had set its seal On Prescott's brow, when there began to steal Upon the Indian tribes a bitter hate For those, who by the fixed decree of fate, Survival of the fittest, nature's law. Were gaining all their lands, and they foresaw That they must perish or drive out the race Which made their hunting grounds its dwelling place. In hordes, the Quabaug and the Nashaway Poured down on Lancaster. In wild dismay The people seek the block-house for defense And wait for succor there in deep suspense. They hear the war-whoop's sound, the demon yell, The musket roar, the shriek, the groans that tell Of final anguish, see the rolling blaze And smoke from burning homes and, sight to craze The strongest intellect, their loved ones slain By torture, while they pray for help in vain. And now the house itself is wrapped in fire ; Some, weak with wounds, within the flames expire. And some rush forth where fiendish Indians wait To send them to their death by direr fate. 141 John Pfescott, the Pionee*. The hellish work of fire and blood is done, The town destroyed, the savage triumph won. John Prescott waited for the death-crazed foe In his own dwelling. Waited for the blow Undaunted, trusting in his God to save, And God preserved him from the yawning grave; For soldiers came, the Indian hosts withdrew. And he was left, one of the stricken few For ruined hopes to mourn, the dead to grieve. The last sad rites to pay, and then to leave His home, his town to desolation drear And live apart from all he held most dear. A spark that age and exile could not quench Still lived within his soul. He dared to clench With fate and meet the issue. He returned. Led back his townsmen. Where their homes were burned They build anew, their ruthless foe defied, And here, still striving, old John Prescott died. But, nay, immortal vigors filled his soul, He could not die, but while the ages roll. He still must struggle, struggle without rest, His one delight, the satisfying zest Of conflict, progress for himself and all Whose needs for his untiring labors call. He did not die, his soul went with his blood. In his descendants fired the ruddy flood. When England tried by means of unjust laws To bind the colonies, the patriot cause Found few more eager to maintain the right. Either in council or by test of fight. Than Prescotts, Sawyers, Dunsmoor, offspring all Of him, whom nothing human could appal. In stern resolves, which rang throughout the land They called for justice, firmly took their stand For freedom, boldly gathered men and arms, And swiftly answered to the first alarms. Just after Concord, by a Prescott led, Our eager troop of horse to Cambridge sped. All through the war until the dawn of peace Our village, through his offspring, did not cease To strive by sacrifice, in word and act, To make our liberty established fact. Not only here, but elsewhere, there were found Brave men of Prescott's blood. Their names resound Where'er the tale of liberty is heard Or hearts by noble deeds are deeply stirred. 142 John Prescott, the Pionccf. Who was it led the troops at Bunker Hill? 'Twas William Prescott, man of stubborn will. When General Gage, exulting in his might, Asked of his Tory friend: "Will Prescott fight?" Abijah Willard, as the stories tell, Replied : " He'll fight you to the gates of hell ! " He fought so well, 'till he was forced to pause, That though he lost the day, he saved the cause. And who today stands forth amid the throng Of venal demagogues arch foe of wrong? Who is this modern Cato, pure and stern. This unmoved star, round which all others turn? It is our senator, from Prescott sprung. Whose spirit warns our nation through Hoar's tongue. He must not die; His spirit ever lives In all who follow him. Today it gives To Clinton zeal for action, love of deeds. Which holds a noble life above all creeds. It gives us hope and dissipates the gloom With which the pessimists our town entomb. E'en now, perchance, from out some higher sphere, He looks in joy upon his fruitage here, — And calls : " If ye be men, our town will rise To height o'er height; but if your courage dies, Then nobler men shall dare, where you have quailed. The golden prize shall win, where you have failed. Away with feeble will and sickly moan ! Go on ! go on ! the future is your own." Today we strew our flowers on thy grave, O, Prescott, much enduring, stalwart, brave ! Thou man of shrewd device and common sense. Of purpose fixed and force of will intense; Thou pioneer by nature, leader born, Who scattered darkness, ushered in the morn; Thou citizen ideal, whose constant aim Was public good; thou heart with love aflame, As long as rivers to the ocean flow. Thy name our Prescott shall in honor grow. 143 ORATION. THE TOWN-MEETING AND OUR NATIONAL LIFE. HON. MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., L. H. D., EX-PRESIDENT OF RUTGERS COLLEGE AND OF AMHERST COLLEGE. Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of Clinton: One who listens today to your historians must feel that your town has been singu- larly fortunate in its past. All who saw the civic parade reviewed by the Governor of our Commonwealth in your streets this morning, must congratulate you not only upon those great leading manufactures which have carried the names of Clinton and Lancaster around the world, but also upon that local pride in the varied local manufactures and occupations of your town which was so manifest and so interesting as the long parade filed past us. To a friend on the reviewing platform near me, I expressed the wish, as the procession passed, that it could be seen in all its features in those towns and districts in our South- land which are just awakening to the value of varied manufacturing interests, and are just beginning to understand the possibilities of their own surroundings in the midst of cotton, coal, water-power and cheap labor. In the exhibits of such a day as this, and not in mili- tary parades, one sees the secret of the strength of New England in our national life. And your schools and your public library prove that the secret of your success is found in busiest activity that recognizes the value of intelligence and education. Indeed, when historians and poets have recounted your local history, interpreted your local traditions, and given utterance to )'our local ambitions and your grounds for local pride, one cannot resist the feeling that you have been exceptionally favored by nature. If you had been a town in the life of ancient Greece, it would have been said of you: "The local divinities have favored you." Your poet tells us that the presiding genius of the streams marked out for you the situation of your earliest homes and your first manufactures. According to the veracious historian of this afternoon, the streams themselves gave warning of impending disasters, and by their own voices and their chang- ing courses directed the location of your mills and factories. " Favored of the river-gods" would have been the Greek phrase for your marked and continuing good fortune as a community on the banks of abundant downward-rushing streams. And translated into modern ideas and nineteenth-century language, that means that you have taken full advantage of a favoring environment. God in nature gave you favorable surroundings; and as you took advantage of these surroundings by steady enterprise and patient effort, He made you feel the truth that "God helps those who help themselves." Let no such town as yours, which has enjoyed the ample opportunities and the con- tinued security which are afforded to all who are under the protection of our American institutions and our government and laws, ever fail to ascribe to our form of government, to our inherited institutions, much of the prosperity which the town has known. And the constant recurrence of sentiments of patriotism in the words of all who have addressed you, as well as the omnipresence of the flag we love in all your decorations, attests your loyalty, and your appreciation of the debt of love and gratitude which the town owes to the central government — to our Country. I want to speak to you of the debt which our central government, our whole country, and the world, owes to the town — to that self-governing political unit, the old New Eng- land town — and to the distinctively New England institution, the town-meeting. 144 <'-i» rft-ESI&SUl*^ Orati ion. When that distinguished man of letters and man of affairs, Mr. John Morley, visited the United States, thirty years ago, in commenting upon our pubh'c school system he said: "I could not help noticing that the history classes of their public schools all began their work with the year 1776. The teaching assumed that the creation of the universe occurred at about that date!" Whether or not this criticism was deserved at that time, it would not now be just. Our school children have become familiar with the thought that the roots of our life strike back into the history of Europe. We no longer boast of our form of government as an entirely new idea — as in all its features a product of our soil. We know that the roots of our common law, and many of our political customs and institu- tions, are to be found in England. But perhaps many who admire the New England town-meeting and think of it as the most distinctively American institution for the per- petuation of democratic forms in local self-government, do not remember how the cus- toms which are retained in our town administration, the names and functions of our town officers, and even the time of year at which these "spring town-meetings " are held, prove our indebtedness to other lands and other centuries. Talk of our youthful Republic and our new system of local self-government! Why, in the loins of its father, the town-meeting, our system of government was thriving while Athens was still the leader in arts and eloquence, and before Rome had reached the acme of her political power! Our town pound-master holds an office that is older than any monarchy in Europe! Even that humblest town officer, the "hog-reeve," has a name that reminds us of the days when herds of swine fed on the mast of the primeval forests, . were so numerous that every German, every English town as a matter of course chose an officer to supervise the care of these herds of hogs. Hog-reeves were stationed at the doors of cathedrals during the hours of service, to prevent the intrusion of these omniv- erous and omnipresent quadrupeds; and Edgar the Saxon, only a century before the Nor- man Conquest, was obliged to proclaim a law that no animal of this species should be allowed to enter a church "if it could possibly be prevented-" When Rome's great historian, Tacitus, saw Rome's future conquerors, the Germans, in the first century of our era, he said of them, "they live apart, each by himself, as wood- side, plain or fresh spring attracts him." It seems a picture of our New England farm- ing settlements; and our New England village "common" is a sign-patent of our direct descent from the German villagers whom Tacitus saw, and described as gathered into communities more or less compact, but always small, "enjoying their lands according to some system of common ownership which left the chief pastures and the principal water supply open to use by all, and reserved only the arable land to separate use by individu- als" — a separate use which individuals enjoyed, however, subject to the control of the community. The old by-laws and town votes of our earlier settled towns in central and western Massachusetts {e.g.. Old Hadley), fixing the date in the spring at which cattle must be shut out from the common, the day after which the common must be reserved as a meadow for the common crop of hay, and the day in the autumn after which it might be used again as a common pasture in which each villager was entitled to definite and limited rights, remind us of the original significance of our New England village-greens. In the study of the phenomena of social life, we have learned much within the last thirty years through the marvelous development of biology under the guidance of the theory of evolution. No one of us who are old enough to remember the first appearance of Darwin's books upon the Origin of Species and the Descent of Man, can forget the feeling of surprise and indignant annoyance with which we first read the array of evidence which is marshalled about that little "tucked-in point" at the upper part of the human I4S ' Oration. ear! Placed where he placed it in his argument, in line with other well-marshalled facts, it was impossible to ignore the lesson which that evidence seemed to teach. Unless our early ancestors' bodies had been close akin to the bodies of animals that have erect and pointed ears, why that little infolded remnant? And as we study in social and political institutions our relation to civilized generations or tribes of men, we have learned from biology two great lessons : First, we are not ashamed of our humbler relatives; we do not seek to dissociate our town institutions from all earlier forms of social and politi- cal life. The idea that nothing can^be valuable in our American political life unless it is "new," and that nothing is to be treasured unless it is "original," is the mark of the piti- fully superficial, the painfully self-conscious mind. We have learned not to ignore our kinship with less fully developed races and nations. And, second, we have learned from the methods of biological study, that we must judge a growing organism not by what it is at the moment of observation, but by what it is to become, as its growth goes forward. We have learned to see the man potentially present in the growing boy. And above all, from biology we have learned the importance of the germ-cell and the wonderful capacity for growth into new forms which lies infolded in the early stages of an apparently simple organism which has in it life-power and the possibility of devel- opment. Such a political germ-cell was the town-meeting. In the study of political science, and of the history of human institutions (and who that knows the joy of study can fail to reckon this among the highest objects of human research — the study most fruitful of good for the future of the race?), we are learning that nothing is of today alone, that all our institutions are rooted in the past. The roots of our life strike back into the history of Europe. Evident as are the peculiarities of devel- opment, political and social, which mark our American life, we have learned that in order to know our own national life thoroughly, we must know more of the old customs and laws of England, and of the Teutonic races on the continent of Europe. We have out- grown that provincialism in time-relations which regarded our nation's first century as a period of time quite by itself, unrelated to any social or political past. We no longer look upon our American political system as entirely self-originated, autochthonous, aris- ing by special creative act from the soil of our new continent, without debt to the past or responsibility for the future. We have come to understand that the social germ-cell from which have been developed the representative democracies of the modern world, is the town-meeting of farming communities, with its historic roots running back to England, and to the village community of Germany. Something of the local interest and some- thing of the national importance of the town-meeting, especially as it has been developed in the western part of your state of Massachusetts and in the Connecticut valley to which western Massachusetts belongs, we wish to consider together this afternoon. We are not so far in time from some of these peculiar local customs as to put them beyond the memory of men still living among us. When each New England town had its public stocks where men were fastened by the ankles and exposed for petty misde- meanors, and its wooden open-work cage upon a platform in the common, in which the prisoner was locked while exposed to the public gaze and to public disgrace, it was nat- ural that the man who had been seen in the town-cage should be known as a "jail-bird." In Northampton fifteen years ago (and for aught I know it may still be the case), tithing- men were annually elected. While I was a citizen of Massachusetts, I daily met men who have told me that they remember distinctly the reign of the tithing-men in the differ- ent churches of the town where they resided. Some of you remember the last tithing- man in the churches when you were children, with his imperious rap upon the pew, and 146 Srmni"" (^ARrET (o. ^^-'■'ii-'w •'Tiinini BiOEL"' (|ii\to^/V\a,53 Oration. the grim gesture with which he pointed out the offending boy whose restlessness called out the reproof. These tithing-men are first cousins of the constable; and it is a mistake to suppose that they take their name from their imagined duty of collecting tithes for the parish church, in England. Their name comes to us from the time when our ancestors in the Saxon English town had as their primary political organization, a group of ten neigh- boring families over whom this "tenth man," or tithing-man, had certain duties of admin- istration, and exercised the powers of the petty constable in matters judicial and political as well as ecclesiastical. "Hay-wardens" are still elected in many New England towns. They are survivals of the local officers in the old German and English towns to whose numbers and to the importance of whose duties the English surname, Hayward, bears witness in so many fam- ilies. And the name of this old town officer leads us to the consideration of the nature and the organization of the early English and German town, the lineal ancestor of our New England town with the annual spring town-meeting. The Haywards were not charged with the protection and distribution of the hay of the meadow land. They were wardens of the " hege," the hedge which surrounded the common lands of the settlers in the early town. This " hege " divided their allotments, too, when they began to hold land in separate tenure, as individuals. This word "hege," meaning first a hedge, and then the space inclosed by a hedge or wall, an inclosure, is honorably commemorated in the well-known Dutch capital, " The Hague," the inclosed town par excellence. Its German equivalent, the ancestor of our word town, is "zaun," which means a hedge; and it is the old German word for the town settlement, the village surrounded by its hedge or ditch, or by both. The hay-wardens, then, were the inspec- tors of these hedges or boundaries. They are referred to in the local records of every New England town. We know them now, with restricted duties, as "fence viewers." They had the supervision of common lands, boundaries and fences, e.g.; in the records of Hatfield Side, on January 14, 1660, it was "agreed and voted at a side meeting, that there shall be a common fence made from Goodman Fellows to the landing-place, each man fencing the end of his lot and Isaac Graves to fence his part next to Goodman Bool's meadow lot — the rest to be done in common." This idea of the separation of the town from surrounding territory underlies the ety- mology of the word, town. Will you not be interested in considering for a moment the definitions, from'the English point of view, of some of the words for smaller settlements which are often used by us with but vague ideas of the real distinction implied in the English use of the terms? The word town itself (Old English tun, Anglo-Saxon tun), means, first,'an inclosure; then, an inclosed village or town. In English use, a hamlet is a collection^of . houses too small to have a parish church; a village has a parish church, but has no market (understand the force of the English "market," with its right to hold stated sales) ; a town has both a market and a church or churches, but it is not, and has not been at any time, the seat of a bishop; a borough is an incorporated town (also a town which sends members to parliament), which is not and has not been the seat of a bishop; a city in England may be, and in most cases is, much less populous than are many boroughs or towns; but without reference to size, an English city, technically, is an incorporated borough ^or a town, whatever its population, which now is, or in the past has been, the seat of a bishop. So much for English nomenclature. In America, we "use the word township more commonly to designate the territorial divisions of a county or a state. This is the^case particularly in those states where the town-meeting system is not fully developed. In 147 Oration. New England, and in those of the Western States which have followed most closely the New England town system, the expression, "the town" is used to denote the terri- tory of the town, but more commonly it means the people of the town regarded as a polit- ical unit. "The town will do" so and so. And before we speak of the special signifi- cance, in our political system, of our New England town-meeting, let us look at the his- torical development of the town-meeting from its beginning among the Germanic races. Remember always that the town-meeting in the early English village communities, and in the New England villages, meant the "sovereignty of the people." It is the peculiar glory of the town system as developed in Western Massachusetts and in Connec- ticut, that in their relations to the state, they have steadily emphasized the importance of representative government, and not merely the democratic and local sovereignty of iso- lated local units. Through the system of a legislature of two houses with equal repre- sentation for the several towns in one house, the Connecticut valley towns first struck out the great American idea of a strongly federal and centralized government which should still respect local feeling and guard local rights by the equal representation, in one of its legislative bodies, of political units whose population was far from equal. In the German settlements, two thousand years ago, we find the beginning of this popular local govern- ment, with a tendency toward representative government as the popular assembly grows too large for the practical consideration of local affairs. But the idea of equal represen- tation for local units of differing size did not prevail. Wherever men have lived together as reasonable beings, they have lived under some form of government. The greatest social and historic fact in the record of our race is the existence of the State — of society organized however rudely for the maintenance of jus- tice. The man who feels an interest in his fellow-men as individuals, or in the prospects of the race, sooner or later but inevitably is drawn to an interest in political science; for political science is the study of the nature, the origin, and the conduct of the State — of society organized to maintain and protect rights, and to enforce duties. If your interest begins with the biographies of distinguished men, you find at once that the individuals whose lives are of interest to j'ou, must be set in an appropriate background in their own nation and their own generation. The influence which these men exerted over their fel- low-men is that which gives interest to their lives; and the study of that influence brings you at once into relation with the history of nations and of states. And while the terri- tory of different nations has undergone many and sweeping changes, and the conception of the state has passed through changes hardly less sweeping, the stable element in the idea of the state has always been, the maintenance and enforcement of justice . "The state," says Cousin, "is justice established by a constitution" and in institutions. "The state," says Professor Burgess, "is a particular portion of mankind viewed as an organized unit." But no definition is better or more suggestive than is that of Aristotle, who wrote more than two thousand years ago (in book three, chapter nine, of his " Politics"), "The state is a society of people joining together, with their families and their children, to live nobly for the sake of a perfect and independent life." Two impressive figures loom up before our vision time after time, as we look back toward the earliest history of the state. "The King and the Popular Assembly are found side by side in a great number of the societies of mankind as they first show themselves on the threshold of civilization." They appear side by side, and in their work they are related to one another; yet are they sharply contrasted; and in the development of the state, one inevitably gains power at the expense of the other. Over against the king as political chief is the Popular Assembly as the ultimate depository of political power. 148 Oration. The king as military leader stands over against the host — the men of his people regarded as the fighting force which he leads, but by whose willing support alone can vic- tories be won. The king as judge sits over against the people assembled in the great popular court for the administration of justice by a popular vote. "The assembly of the people seems to be older than the king," says Sir Henry Maine, the foremost student of early institutions. But there has always been difficulty in hold- ing the people up to their political duties in the Popular Assembly. Even in the walled towns, the compact city-states of Greece, you remember how painfully this difificulty was felt. You recall the long rope drenched in vermillion dye with which the officers swept through the Agora at Athens, driving the mass of voters before them to the Popular Assembly, with the penalty of a fine for all those who lagged behind until the red rope touched them and left a stain upon their garments. This disinclination to take time for the discharge of one's political duties as a free man, has not disappeared. One of the first by-laws passed by the colonial settlers of Plymouth fixed a fine of a shilling for absence from the town-meeting, and a fine of sixpence for the man who came late or left early. But notwithstanding this tendency to evade his political duties on the part of the freeman in towns and cities — a. neglect which in our time has given us the terrible tyranny of "bosses" in our municipal government — the steady tendency in thickly settled com- munities was for the Popular Assembly to grow strong and the King to grow weak. From the fountains of mystery and awe, the greater authority of the kings must be constantly supplied if the Popular Assembly was to yield to the will and choice of one man. {E. g., the millions of Russia crowding to see the czar) and Sir Henry Maine suggests that awe and mystery were destroyed, these fountains were dried up by the familiarity with the person of the King, by that publicity of his life which was the natural consequence of his dwelling with the multitudes shut up in a town. On the other hand, in more thinly settled territories, the tendency was uniformly for the King to grow strong and the Popular Assembly to grow weak. The hardship of traveling long distances to the place of the Popular Assembly told constantly against a general attendance. History teaches us that democracies are converted into aristocra- cies, because only a few will attend to their political duties. And in our time, the great danger that threatens us in our land is that popular government will be converted, not into an aristocracy( which properly means government by "the best") but into a contempt- ible oligarcy, a government by a few, a government by the "machine" and the "boss" — because the free voters of our land will not take the trouble to discharge their political duties. But while "the primitive kings of communities confined within walls, like the old Athenian and old Roman kings, soon dropped out of sight, the more barbarous kings of the more sparsely settled communities spread over wider territories, kept traveling about" that at stated intervals they might see their subjects in every part of their realm and administer something of justice at all the little centers of population. No commercial traveler goes from village to village more incessantly than did King Henry H and King John of England in their administration of justice. Our "circuit courts" are traces of this systematic moving about of the king in circuitous route, to different centers of the realm, that he might hold court at each important point. And the kings who thus trav- eled about their realms for the administration of justice, outgrew in power the more sta- tionary kings, and assumed the functions of the popular assemblies whose courts of farmers would not take the trouble to assemble. One of the notable points secured by 149 Oration. Magna Charta from King John himself in 121 5, was the concession that "the pleas shall no longer follow the king." Up to that time, the man who had a lawsuit had been com- pelled to follow the king about through the realm in order to get a day for the hearing of his suit. Between June 15, 1215 (when Magna Charta was so unwillingly signed by King John at Runnimede) and July 1 5, King John, as we know from laws and acts signed by him at different places, made his way over the whole of southern England and north as far as Oxford; but in that notable month the court of Common Pleas for England began to hold its sittings at Westminster, and there it continued to hold them for six hundred and fifty years. Our New England town-meeting has its roots in the Popular Assembly of a thinly settled country, but in an assembly that did not "confront a king." Time out of mind, among our Teutonic ancestors, men had governed themselves as families and small com- munities, before they were governed as nations. For our Germanic ancestors, from the time when they came into view in history, the village was the seat of political life. They scarcely knew a national organization except for war. Kingship was little more than an honorary title with them. The freemen of each community in times of peace directed their own affairs in absolute freedom in the village meeting. "A very fierce democratic temper seems to have held, in the politics of that rough time," says Woodrow Wilson, "and the hardy pirates," Angles, Saxons and Jutes who were invited (or who forced their way) into Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, brought with them the hereditary ten- dency of the democratic town-meeting toward local self government. And they had known little of kingship! The necessity of their position in Great Britain demanded military leaders with greater power than any village head-man could have, however, and they founded little Saxon kingdoms in England. There kingdoms were afterward gathered into one king- dom, in which royal power was real and pronounced. But by the hereditary instincts and the earlier training of these races, the administration of justice and of local government still proceeded as of old, from the meeting of the village freemen. These Teutonic ancestors of ours settled in England as groups of kinsmen. The old clannish ties led brethren, cousins and kin to settle near each other. The Wellings, tak- ing land together, had their own "tun" or hedged-in village, of Wellington; while the Harling family settled together in Harlington, and losing their "H" as they became gen- uine Englishmen, gave us our Arlington. The termination "ton,'' in such names, is simply town; and the final syllable, "by," in Rokeby, Northby, Rugby, etc., has the same signifi- cance. Our word by-law^ meaning primarily a special law for a particular town, is from the same word. The Nuttings settling together formed the village or town of Notting- ham, the "hame" or home of the Nottings. But the tie of blood which at first bound together those who formed a common village community, was gradually replaced by the tie of contiguous land. Residence upon neighboring pieces of land, and the common use of certain portions of the land, now bound neighbor to neighbor. "The land was rather the sign or voucher for the freedom of its possessor, than the basis of his rights," says Stubbs. It is probable that with separate buildings and home lots like those of the New England farming town, there was also in every case a considerable portion of the wood-land, pasture-land and meadow which was left undivided. A belt of forest or waste land parted each town from its fellow villages; and all within this boundary, or ' " mark," was protected by a rough trench or fence. It is significant that one of the -early laws of the colony of Massachusetts Bay declares that the boundary of Massachusetts towns shall be "a greate heape of stones or a trench of six foote long & two foote broade." ISO Industries. STERLING WORSTED CO. W. A. FULLER LUMBER CO. CLINTON WALL TRUNK CO. GIBBS LOOM & HARNESS CO. CLINTON FOUNDRY CO Oration. When grass began to grow fresh in the spring, the cattle and swine were shut oyt from the fenced-in common of meadow-land; and perhaps it was sub-divided into grass fields, one for each household in the village. When hay harvest was over, fences and divisions were thrown down again. The old votes in Hadley and Hatfield and other Massachu- setts towns, fixing the date in the spring at which cattle were to be shut off from the common — when it should become meadow-land — are proof of our kinship with these early Saxon towns of England. After the plough-land was allotted in equal shares, corn and grain-land, and fallow-land were assigned to the families of the freemen. And this plough-land was subject to fresh division as the number of claimants grew greater or less. The sovereignty of such a community resided in the body of freemen whose holdings lay around the hill or the sacred tree where from time to time the community met to deal out justice and to make its own laws. Here, new settlers were admitted to the freedom of the township; "by-laws," town-laws, were framed, and head-men and tithing-man were selected (our "selectmen") for its governance. In this town-meeting plough-lands and meadow lands were divided into shares, in due lot, by the villagers; and field and home- stead, when sold, passed by transfer before witnesses, from man to man, by the symbolic delivery of a turf of sod cut from the soil. This custom of a symbolic delivery of pos- session, in the sale of land, crossed the Atlantic with our Massachusetts ancestors. In 1695, in Salem, John Rock granted a homestead to his son Thomas before witnesses. As a part of the act of conveyancing; he took hold of a twig in the garden, saying, " Here, son Thomas, I do, before these two men, give you possession of this land by turffe and twigge." And in the primitive town-meeting the differences of opinion between farmer and farmer, the' inevitable clash of claims, was settled according to the " customs" of the township as its elder-men stated them. And four men were chosen to go with the head man, or "elder-man," to the "Hundreds Court," or to war. Well might Montesquieu declare, one hundred and fifty years ago, in his epoch- marking book, "The Spirit of the Laws," that the origin of the English constitution was found in the forests of Germany. The families who settled in towns were grouped into " hundreds" in the Saxon kingdoms of England, as they had been in Germany. At first it is probable that the Hundred was fixed by count and included precisely one hundred families who may have resided in several different and contiguous towns. Afterward, "Hundred" became the territorial sub-division of a "shire." This term is preserved for us in the territorial sub-divisions called "Hundreds," in Maryland, and in "Chiltern Hun- dreds," the name of an estate belonging to the crown of England, lying on a chain of chalk hills in Buckinghamshire. "The stewardship of Chiltern Hundreds" is a merely nominal office under the crown, with an annual salary of twenty shillings; and when a member of Parliament wishes to vacate his seat, instead of resigning (a process not pro- vided for in the English constitution), he applies for the "stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds," and by accepting this office under the crown he becomes disqualified as a member of Parliament unless his constituents re-elect him. The "hundred-moot" was the court in which at first the judges were the whole body of the freemen who lived within the hundred. The president of the court was elected and bore the title of thingman or "thungenus." Regular attendance upon this court proved burdensome for farmers, and it ceased to be a popular assembly and became rep- resentative. The parish priest, the reeve or elder-man (our city "aldermen" preserve the name), and four other men were sent to represent each town in the hundred-moot. Here we have the beginning of that form of representative government which now dominates the civilized world. Neither Greece nor Rome ever attained to the conception of a rep- 151 ' (II) Oration. resentative democracy. The representative court is the prototype of that system of town-meetings and higher representative assemblies, which seemed to spring up sponta- neously under the new conditions of life in our New England colonies. And now, with an awakened sense of its far-reaching historic relations, we are ready to turn again to the consideration of the New England town-meeting in its effect upon our American national life. Hear what Bryce says of it: "The town-meeting has been the most practical school of self-government in any modern country." "Of the three or four types or systems of local government which I have described, that of the town or township with its popular primary assembly is admittedly the best. It is the cheapest and the most efficient; it is the most educative to the citizens who bear a part in it. The town-meeting has been not only the source, but the school of democ- racy." "It is the small organisms, the towns, that are most powerful and most highly vital- ized," in American life. "In adopting the township system of New England, the northwestern states have borrowed some of the attributes of the middle states county system. The middle states have developed the township into a higher vitality than it formerly possessed there. Some of the southern states are introducing the township and others are likely to follow as they advance in population and education." From an article by Edward Everett Hale on the town-meeting, let me read you a paragraph or two: "A town-meeting is a solemn matter for the day long, perhaps for two or three days. All business stops on that day. The General Court of Massachusetts itself adjourns for one or two days in March, so that its members may be present at the town-meetings of their towns." But " there is no power on earth which can say to a New England town that it must meet on this day or on that day. The town will meet when it chooses to." "In Massachusetts we do not dictate to' our sovereign." (But our Massachusetts law says, "Annual meeting in February, March or April." These spring months are desig- nated because we follow the traditions of our Teutonic farming ancestors who in town meeting planned for the planting of the "common-land" at this time of the year.) "Whatever the day is, everybody comes. There is no decent boy over fourteen years old who would not be ashamed if he could not go to the town-meeting, to sit on the back benches, and hear Nahum Smith cross-question the 'squire or throw in his doubts about the sidewalk; or to join the applause at the discomfiture of the chairman of the school committee. There is no possible 'ring' where there is a town-meeting. There is not a 'boss' in this world who has brass enough to stand the interrogatory of that grand jury when it is in session. When the selectmen have made their report about that business of crossways, what has been done and what has not been done, then Nahum Smith may rise, whoever he be, and put the fatal question, ''I should like to be informed why the select- men took the stone from the Red Hill quarry, and did not take it from the Crossroads quarry, which was nearer? ' If there is any cat beneath that meal, that cat will appear. The town-meeting opens all eyes and all ears, and we must all be ready to give an account of ourselves, of what we have done and what we have not done." ^ Throughout the South, the county with its spacious and isolated plantations became the unit under the state; and the township system had no life. New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania adopted certain features of the county system and attempted to incor- porate with them certain features of the town system. But the popularly democratic 152 Oration. assembly of all voters of the town from once to three or four times in the year, for the electing of local officers, the imposition of all taxation for all local purposes and for the general direction of all local affairs of education, sanitation, etc., has never been fully developed in these middle states. In the states of the West and the Northwest, the influ- ence of the township system is to be clearly seen as predominant in certain states, that of the county system in certain other states. Ohio, Indiana and Iowa have no town-meet- ings. On the other hand, in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the town sys- tem has been strongly developed. The two tendencies are well illustrated in the history of Illinois. First settled in its southern part from the Southern States, Illinois at first fol- lowed their example and adopted the county system. But as settlers from New England poured into the center and the north of the state, they fought against the county system and advocated the New England town system. In the constitutional convention of 1848 and again in 1870, they were successful in carrying a provision which permitted every county of Illinois to adopt a system of township organization, "whenever the majority of the legal voters of the county voting at any general election shall so determine." More than four-fifths of the one hundred and two counties of Illinois have adopted the town- ship system, and with the best results for the local government and the town and village institutions of the state. Among the states further west, Nebraska and the Dakotas have been strong advocates of the town system and in their local development have well illus- trated the advantage of this local unit of self-government. Throughout New England, the town was the political unit. The organization of the county has been little more than a formal judicial district for convenience in transacting the business of the courts. Between the town and the state, no organ of government has intervened. The three Massachusetts towns which emigrated westward to the Connecti- cut developed the town system to the full, and early established in the legislature of that state the system of a popular representative house and a smaller and more conservative house representing equally all towns, large or small. And it was chiefly through the influ- ence of Connecticut in the constitutional convention in 1787, that the township system of New England, at the critical point in the formation of our national government, gave decisive and permanent form to the government of the United States, and in the Senate, with its equal representation for great Virginia and little Rhode Island, stamped our sys- tem with that combination of central authority with local self-government, which has made it the ideal of the civilized world in the political reforms of the last century. If the sole significance of the New England town-meeting lay in its effect upon the town itself, and in this alone, we should accord it much less of respect and love than it now commands. It is true that the New England town-meeting perpetuates the old Ger- manic idea of personal freedom as opposed to the Roman conception of universal domin- ion. It is true that the New England town-meeting dignifies local self-government and that "in the town-meeting of New England there is bred a stout spirit of self-sufficiency." (Thwaites.) But the richest fruitage of the town-meeting is found not in the rugged independence of the individual citizen and not in a churlish claim for self-sufficiency and independence on the part of a town, but in the cultivation of that political fitness for national life — for self-government upon a large scale — which has characterized the sons of New England within her own borders and in all the more western states which they have settled. Truly did De Tocqueville declare: "The doctrine of the sovereignty of the people came out of the townships and took possession of the states." The effect of the town system in New England upon the general government of the ynjted States h?i§ been most marked, Oration. The ideal that led to the colonization of New England and the moral and religious qualities of the picked men who founded these commonwealths, have been so frequently and so justly the subject of eulogy that I purposely say nothing along this line today. But I want to call your especial attention to the fact that in the art of government, as in every other art, right method is of the greatest value. There came a crisis in the history of the effort to form from the thirteen colonies one nation — the United States of America. In the prolonged debates of the constitutional convention of 1787, the influence of the political ideals which had been developed in the New England town-meetings of the Connecticut River valley was decisive. The political ideals and methods shaped in these New England towns at that time fixed one of the most distinctive features of our federal system, and carried the constitutional convention out of the dead-lock which threatened to be fatal and into a course of development which has proved at once progressive and wisely conservative. You are too familiar with the history of the foundation of the Commonwealth of Connecticut to listen patiently were I to rehearse that history. Its essential point for us today lies in the fact that the town-meeting has found its fullest scope and its most pow- erful influence through the colonists from Massachusetts who settled in our Connecticut Valley. As Professor Alexander Johnston has said, it was a Massachusetts town system "let loose in the wilderness," that grew to be Connecticut! You remember that three fully organized Massachusetts towns and churches, with their pastors and with most of their town officers, transferred themselves bodily to the valley of the Connecticut, and outside the jurisdiction of any Commonwealth, proceeded to build up a Commonwealth of their own. The seal of the State of Connecticut bears the figure of three vines which represent these three towns; and above them a hand from the heavens displays the legend, "Sustinet Qui Transtulit:" "He who transplanted them will sustain them." The peculi- arity of Connecticut lies in the fact that the state was the product of these towns. The towns were not the creation of the Commonwealth. In Connecticut, the town is the nat- ural political unit. The towns are the residuarj' legatee of all the powers of government which are not expressly delegated to or conferred upon the Commonwealth. The con stitution of Connecticut, adopted by a popular convention of the freemen of these three towns in January, 1638, in its essential points remained in force until 1818. It was "the first written constitution (in the modern sense of the word constitution, as a permanent limitation of governmental power) known in history — the first written constitution, and certainly the first American constitution to embody the democratic idea. In the struggle that was going forward at Boston in that decade between the party of popular rights and the more exclusive and aristocratic party, the Massachusetts towns had found themselves persistently shut out from that participation in law-making which the Massachusetts Bay charter had promised them. In 1634, deputies from the towns, two from each town, had gone up to Boston to get a sight of the charter that they might vindicate for themselves, as representatives of the towns, the place and the power designed for them in the "Great and General Court." While this struggle for representation was pending in Massachu- setts, the three towns which emigrated to Connecticut seem to have carried with them the strongest advocates of popular representation in the legislative branch. Hooker's letter to Winthrop contains the clearest and most definite statement of this theory which I have seen from the pen of any man of that time. Cotton had said of the early Massachusetts. system — and Cotton was the spokesman of the dominant class in Massachusetts — "Democracy, I never did conceive that God did ever ordain, either for Church or for Commonwealth." Hooker says, in his letter to 154 RESIDENCE OF CHARLES SWINSCOE. ESTATE OF JOHN R. FOSTER. Ofati ion. Winthrop, " In matters of greater consequence, which concern the common good, a gen- eral council chosen by all to transact business which concerns all, I conceive, under tavor, most suitable to rule and most safe for relief of the whole." The inhabitants and residents of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield established a constitution which, neither in its text nor in forms for the oaths for governor, magistrate and constable, which form its appendix, has the slightest reference to royal, parliamentary or proprietary authority. The towns are the fountains of political power. " There was no attempt to define the powers of the town," says Johnston, "because they had all the powers which were not granted to the Commonwealth." The towns made the state, not the state the towns. Each town was to choose, annually, four deputies to the General Court, or Legislature. Each year, on the second Thursday of April, there was to be " a court of election" to choose a governor and six magistrates. The six magistrates were the germ of the future senate of the Commonwealth. In case the six magistrates and the governor should attempt to exercise legislative functions without calling together the deputies of the towns (as had been attempted in Massachusetts), the constitution of Connecticut provided a way by which the Deputies of the towns should have power to meet and organize as a legislature, without the governor or the senate. " It was a system of complete popular control, of frequent elections by the people, and of minute local government." Well might the political historian of the state, Pro- fessor Alexander Johnston, declare, " The spirit of this constitution was the first breath of that atmosphere now so familiar to us." The system of complete local liberty with a limited but concentrated power undet which the Connecticut River towns had filled out their boundaries" — a system which had maintained " the substantial equality of the townships in at least one branch of the gov- ernment" — " for a century and a half had been maintaining the rudimentary form of that mixture of the national and federal elements which are now united in our federal govern- ment and give to it its strength." In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when there was no government of the United States, it was the efforts of the three representatives of Connecticut, and the suc- cessful example of this system as it had existed for a century and a half in Connecticut, that led the convention out of the dead-lock between the large states and the small states, and into the plan by which representation in the House of Representatives is in propor- tion to population, while in the Senate all states have an equal vote. The town-meeting system — the representative democracy with its bi-cameral check, recognizing the federal principle in the higher of the two legislative chambers with its equal vote for each feder- ated unit, " has passed into a wider field than state life, and is the central principle of the greatest federal union the world has ever seen." It has had a world-wide success. And so, from our consideration of the local interests of the town, our thought goes out with love and patriotic fervor toward that Government which symbolizes the united life of the entire nation. May it always be true that the citizens who are trained to an interest in local affairs and to a share in local politics, in our town-meetings, by their love of what is just and right between man and man in the political organization which is nearest them, and by their active participation in the duties of local self-government, may be led to a deeper interest in the affairs of the entire nation, to a stronger love for that union of the states in which is our national life, and to such a loyal regard for national justice and integrity as shall make our nation always a mighty power among those great- est personalities of the race, the national states of our time. 155 SemisCentennial Ode. ODE. BY ELLEN K. STEVENS. O, Queen of countless whirling wheels, Of busy heads and hands, Thy throne amid the circling hills. And verdant valleys stands! Thy fifty years of honest toil Have wrought thee fair renown; May future fifties only add New jewels to thy crown! Thy sons who nobly served and died To them we bare the head. We shed no tear, but hold them dear. Our roll of worthy dead. Some served thee well in ways of peace. And made thee fair and strong; And others gave their loyal lives To right a nation's wrong. O, Clinton, noble in the past, Be nobler yet today! Uphold the right, redress the wrong, March on thy destined way. A higher life is thine to live, A better, broader aim, So children's children shall arise To bless thine honored name. IS6 THE PARADE. ' I "HE parade of Tuesday was the most attractive feature of the celebration. Early in ■•• the morning the people began to assemble on the streets. The steam railroads had given reduced rates and the incoming trains were crowded. Although the number of cars on the electric lines had been greatly increased, yet they could scarcely accommo- date their patrons. Hundreds of carriages of every variety, from the elegant equipage of the millionaire to the worn-out cart of the poverty-stricken farmer, brought a multi- tude from the neighboring towns. Bicyclists and pedestrians came by hundreds. Besides these, there were the guests who had come to enjoy the Semi-Centennial as a whole. Few of the inhabitants of Clinton failed to see the procession. It is impossible to esti- mate how many thousands were upon the streets, but it is certain that the number was • largely in excess of any that had ever gathered in Clinton at any previous time. These many spectators, however, moved little from place to place, and were so distributed that there was no crowding at any particular point. The orderliness of this immense throng and the courtesy universally displayed gave most impressive evidence of the high character of our citizens and visitors. Indeed, through the celebration as a whole, although a large additional force of special police was on duty and a considerable number of the state police gave their services and several city detectives were employed, yet the precautions seemed entirely unnecessary and the officers had nothing to do except to direct inquiring strangers. Even in this, every citi- zen was as eager to offer assistance as they. The hotels and restaurants had made all possible preparation for the day. Special accommodations had been provided at the skating rink for the serving of meals; lunch boxes were for sale; hospitality was dispensed with a free hand from many private houses; so all guests were abundantly satisfied according to their tastes. Arrangements had been made for the governor of the Commonwealth to come by the regular train over the Central Massachusetts Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The reason for choosing this road was the desire that His Excellency should have an opportunity to see the work of the Metropolitan Water Board. As he arrived with three members of his staff, Congressman George W. Weymouth and others, just before ten o'clock, he was welcomed by the governor's salute of fifty guns. Accompanied by Wellington E. Parkhurst, chairman of the 'committee on the Reception of the Governor, the party passed along the new highway, where a fine outlook could be obtained of the basin being prepared for the great reservoir, and by the site of the proposed dam, to the Lancaster Mills Bridge. Here, Company K of the Ninth Regiment and the Salem Cadet Band were waiting, and they escorted the governor and his party to the head of the pro- cession. Meanwhile, organizations and individuals had been making ready for the parade. One after another, they had appeared at the appointed place of meeting and had been assigned to their positions by the marshal, George S. Gibson, his staff and aides, the mar- shals of the divisions and their subordinates. The marshal had made especial efforts to have a large number of mounted men in the parade and had succeeded so well that this was its most noticeable feature. As will be seen from the accompanying picture giving the head of the procession, the mounted police, the marshal with his staff and aides made a most imposing appearance. Eli Forbes, marshal of the First Division, with his staff and aides, followed. Then came 157 The Parade. Governor Crane and other invited guests, and past and present town officials, in carriages, with Company K of the Ninth Regiment as their escort. At first in this part of the procession, and later at the reviewing stand were represented those four units of govern- ment of which we are citizens, the Nation, the State, the County and the Town. The nation was represented by Congressmen John R. Thayer and George W. Wey- mouth, who recalled the long line of statesmen who have served in the national coun- cils the successive congressional districts to which Clinton has belonged. Later, at the reviewing stand, Hon. Merrill E. Gates, Secretary of the Indian Commission, represented the Executive Department of our Nation. How Clinton has stood on the great questions affecting our country can be judged from the subjoined table.* The chief servants of the general government in Clinton have been the postmasters. The post-office was established in 1846, and was first kept in Kendall's Block where the Bank Block now stands. Horatio N. Bigelow was the first postmaster, but George H. Kendall and his clerk, John F. Caldwell, did the work. John T. Dame was commissioned as postmaster September 22, 1853. His office was in the Library Building. Enoch K. Gibbs received the office April 6, 1861, and served until 1870, when, on July 11, he was succeeded by Charles M. Dinsmore. April 29, 1882, the post-office was removed to the Bank Block. Later postmasters have been: December 2, 1886, John McQuaid; January ♦Presidential Vote of Clinton from 1850 to 18 Republican Prohibition. Democrat Scattering . Totals Increase Increase per cent. Majorities Per cent, of total vote Pluralities Population 1852 o e. C/1 o 200 82 100 382 Whig 18 4-7 100 1855 i860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 *fl 353 * c o a 3 54 Un- ionist 3 5' o o 0* 346 410 28 7-3 Rep. 2g6 72 299 M '3. w 71 7 Bell, Pc. II 435 6.1 Rep. 257 59 275 3859 334 84 418 Rep 250 60 250 O 443 107 550 "5 25 Rep 336 61 336 524 O 298 822 272 49 Rep 226 27 226 577 482 1059 237 28 Rep 195 18 195 O r682 Dow I' 7 p a o o 513 Wea- ver I 1203 144 13 Rep. 161 169 8039 5' 603 Stf John 16 Q < n p* 9 683 Butler 42 1371 168 14 Dem. 22 1.6 80 in p •I 3. 871 Fisk SO n p a 1810 439 ^32 Dem. 18 S 920 Bid- well 26 * n re < p* a 941 Wing 12 Weaver 1901 91 Dem. 1896 o '307 Lovering 8 p 648 Matchett T, , 73 Palmer 53 2089 188 0.9 Rep. 525 659 Population in 1850, 31 13; in 1855,3636; in 1865, 4021; in 1870,5429; in 1875,6781; in 1885, 8945; in 1890, 10,424; in 1895, 11,497. » Elected. 158 H rn rn > D b H > > D m T 't ^ -..t3, ^ ^ S! « © (iS* a s^ «i "^ !ss? f\ «* !» @^ COMPANY K NINTH REGIMENT. OFF TO THE WAR. AT CAMP DEWEY. The Parade. 27, 1891, Henry A. Burdett; March i, 1895, John W. McNamara; April i, 1899, Charles L. Stevens. On July i, 1899, the post-office was removed to the Bank Annex. Many who saw Company K marching along so steadily thought of that morning two years before when amid music and cheers and sobbing farewells this same company set out to help defend the nation's honor and the liberty of man. Some of the same soldiers were still in the ranks, but how many were missing! To such as remembered that day the company seemed no longer simply a body of men performing escort duty, but, through consecration of its services and its losses, it had become a symbol of nationality like the flag that floated above it, a living type of patriotism. Only a few members of E. D. Baker Post 64, Grand Army of the Republic, followed the carriages, for many of them have already passed to a better world, and of those who remain, few were able to endure so long a march, on account of infirmities arising from hardships incurred in service or from increasing age. But, small as the remnant was, it brought to mind the struggle in which our Union was saved and our nation cemented together by the blood of patriots. For the glory of their record the pages of history must be consulted. The Sons of Vet- erans and the youthful Columbia Cadets gave promise that the nation could depend upon the sons of Clinton in the future no less than in the past. The predominance of the national colors in the decorations also showed that Clinton could not rejoice in her own anniversary without attesting her devotion to country. The chief magistrate of the Commonwealth, Winthrop Murray Crane, rode in a barouche drawn by four coal-black horses. By his presence, the State of Massachusetts with all that it stands for in the world's history, Pilgrims and Puritans, Concord Bridge and Bunker Hill, overthrow of slavery and defence of Union, manufactures and com- merce, education and religion, or to sum up all in a single phrase, enlightened, righteous, organized liberty, was paying a deserved honor to her most populous and not least worthy town. Clinton has had her fair share in the government of the state, and her representa- tives in the different departments of that government have been of such ability and char- acter that their influence for good has been great.* Our militia companies have been primarily state organizations, and through them our town has served Massachusetts. The state has often recognized the high quality of this service by its enconiums. An armory was built by the town for the use of Company K, 1895-7, at a cost of about four- teen thousand dollars. ' *In the following list of the men who have served from Clintonville or Clinton in various state offices, the date given is that of service rather than that of the November election. R., signifies Republican; D., Democrat; W., Whig; A., American. Legislature, Lower House:— Ezra Sawyer, W., 1848, 1849; Horatio N. Bigelow, W., 1851, 1852; Andrew L. Fuller, W.. 1854; James Ingalls, Native American Party, 1855; Horace Faulkner, Native American 1836, R. 1857, unanimous, R. 1858; Jonas E. Howe, D., i860, 1879, 1872, 1887; Rev. Jared M. Heard, R., 1862; Franklin Forbes, R., 1864, every vote except one; Rev. Charles M. Bowers, R., 1865, 1866; Charles W. Worcester, License D., 1868; Elisha Brimhall, R., 1871; Lucius Field, R., 1878, I882; Dr. Daniel B. Ingalls, R., 1880; Edward G. Stevens, R., 1881; Alfred A. Burditt, R., 1884; Jonathan Smith, R., 1886; Frank E. Holman, R., 1888, 1889; Wellington E. Parkhurst, R., 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893; Charles G. Bancroft, R., 1894, 1895; Walter F. Howard, R., 1896, 1897, 1898; S. Ives Wallace, R., 1899; David I. Walsh, D., 1900. Senate:— Charles G. Stevens, R., 1862; Henry C. Greeley, R., 1870, 1871; Elisha Brimhall, R., 1876, 1877; Daniel B. Ingalls, R., 1881, 1882; Lucius Field, R., 1890. Governor's Council:— Henry C. Greeley, R., 1885, 1886. Governor's Staff and other departments:— Edward G. Stevens, R., 1876, 1877, 1878. John W. Corcoran, D., served as judge advocate general 1891, 1892; he resigned May, 1892, to accept position as associate justice of the Superior Court; he retired from this position November 22, 1893. In 1893, he was president of the Massachusetts Board of Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition. Henry C. Greeley is a trustee of the State Industrial School at Lancaster and the Lyman School at Westboro. WeUington E. Parkhurst is a trustee of the Sanatorium at Rutland. IS9 The Parade. In the carriages that followed, Worcester County was represented by some of its officers, and the neighboring cities and towns, most of them within the county, were rep- resented by their mayors and the chairmen of their selectmen. Although there is less of patriotism felt for the County as a unit of political organization, than for the Nation, the State or the Town, yet our county, from the charm of its physical aspects and the close- ness of association which exists between Clinton and the adjoining district, touches more evidently upon the lives of our citizens. Clinton is especially bound to Lancaster, the mother town, by ties of relationship. Many of the people of these neighboring towns are connected by ties of kindred with the people of Clinton; some work in our mills and stores; some attend church here; some belong to Clinton societies; some send their chil- dren to our higher grades of schools; they are called here by matters connected with the district court and the bank;, here they find a place for the disposal of the products of their farms and a source of supply for general merchandise. The people of Clinton find in the beauty of the neighboring towns a source of unalloyed delight. Clinton is associ- ated with the region about in political districts, both of the state and nation, and in various organizations, such as the hospital and Worcester East Fair. The Metropolitan Water Supply has given us many common interests; our own water supply and sewerage systems associate us with two of the neighboring towns, while in many matters of courts and roads the whole county acts as a unit.* The Town, as a unit, will be considered in connection with the Second Division, and therefore may be passed over here. The various fraternities were also placed in this division. Only a portion of these was represented, as the members appeared in many cases in other parts of the procession. The Irish, German, Scotch and English societies showed the composite nature of our population and called to mind the storied past of these lands from which so many of our citizens have derived the noble qualities which they are using so devotedly for the upbuilding of the land of their adoption. If space allowed, an analysis of the sources of our population with the investigation of the story of the immigration and subsequent advancement of its various elements and the means which they have used in these socie- ties and otherwise to keep alive the memories of the past and their intimacy with each Pluralities in Clinton on vote for governor, with year of service; — 1851, W., 68 1861, R., 267 1871, R., 95 1852, W., 74 1862, R., 166 1872, D., 64 1853, W., 44 1863, R., IS9 1873, R-. 144 1854, W., 126 1864, R., 182 1874, D., 167 1855, A., 94 1865, R., 251 187s, D., 69 1856, A., 20 i866, R., 273 1876, D., 108 1857, A., 2og 1867, R., 309 1877, R., 76 1858, R., 142 1868, R., 102 1878, R., 24 1859, R., 178 1869, R., 300 1879, R., 29 i860, R., 148 1870, R., 123 1880, D., 35 * Among the Clinton men acting as officers in the county or limi with matters of law, may be mentioned: Dr. Preston Chamberlain and Joshua Thissell, who held court as justices of the peace; John T. Dame, who was made trial justice in May, 1858; Daniel H. Bemis, who was commissioned trial justice in 1864; Christopher C. Stone, who became trial justice May 4, 1871, associate justice in the Second District Court of Worcester County, established in 1874, and who has been for so many years the justice in the same court; Charles G. Stevens, who was the first justice of the Second Dis- trict court; Jonathan Smith and Edmund A. Evans, special justices; Frank E. Howard, clerk of the court; Enoch K. Gibbs, Abbott A. Jenkins, Thomas Murphy and Charles A. Bartlett, deputy sheriffs. There have also been notary publics, justices of the peace and other officers. 160 881, R., 165 1891, D., 197 882, R., 141 1892, D., 218 883, D., 113 1893, D., 153 884, D., 34 1894, D., 42 885, R., 29 1895, R., U9 886, D., 128 1896, R., 23 887, D., 199 1897, R., 699 888, D., 163 1898, R., 455 889, D., 72 1899, R., 217 890, D., 122 1900, R., 16 ted districts thereof, in connection The Patade. other, would be a most interesting study. The benevolent and social orders completed this portion of the procession, and by the significance of their floats, contributed one of its most interesting features. The history of these bodies cannot even be touched upon, for they are so many in number and their influence has been so great that volumes would be needed to tell their story. Especial attention was attracted by the "initiation goat" of Lancaster Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the bag-piper of the Scotch Orders, the gymnastic feats on the Turners' float, the ancient coach of the Pilgrim Fathers with the attendant Indians, and the float of the Ancient Order United Workmen, illustrating the blessings of insur- ance. The Second Division was made up of the various departments of the town govern- ment, and was under the^ marshalship of Charles Frazer. It was preceded by the local Turner Brass Band. As the School Department had devoted its energies to the parade of Monday, and as many departments of the town government were scarcely susceptible of pleasing presentation in such a procession, in all cases except that of the Police. Department and Fire Department, we must look upon this part of the parade as sugges- tive, rather than complete. In order that the display of the Town may be considered together, the representa- tives of the Town officials past and present who rode in the First Division are referred to here. They were few in number compared with the long succession of citizens who have served the Town on its various boards, but they were of such a character as to sug- gest that through the whole fifty years of our history the ablest and best of our citizens have been glad to give their time and work to the service of the community.* The Town Hall, the home of our general town government, was built in 1871-3. Town meetings had previously been held in the Clinton House Hall, and at a still earlier time, in the vestry of the Congregational Church. The building committee consisted of ♦Selectmen for Fifty Years. — Ezra Sawyer, 1850-1; Samuel Belyea, 1850, 1856; Edmund Harris, 1850; Calvin Stanley, 1851; Oilman M. Palmer, 1851-4, 1856, 1868; Nelson Whitcomb, 1852; Alanson Chace, 1852; Jonas E. Howe, 1853-4, 1858-9; Abel Rice, 1853-5; Josiah Alexander, 1855; Horace Faulkner, 1856, 1858; David Wallace, 1857; Joshua Thissell, 1857-60; Gilbert Greene, 1857, i860; James F. Maynard, 1859- 62; Charles W. Worcester, 1861-3, 1865-7, 1872; Philip L. Morgan, 1861-2, 1868; Elisha Brimhall, 1863-4, 1873: Alfred A. Burditt, 1863-5; B. R. Smith, 1864; George S. Harris, 1865; Charles Bowman, 1866-7; Otis B. Bates, 1867; Charles L. Swan, 1868, 1875; Jonas E. Howe, 1869, 1877, 1879, 1883-6; George W. Symonds, 1869-71; Charles H. Chace, 1869-71; Henry C. Greeley, 1870-1; Thomas A. McQuaid, 1872-4; George F. Howard, 1872; Christopher C. Stone, 1873-4, 1879-81; Achelaus C. Dakin, 1874, 1878; Eben S. Fuller, 1875; Charles C. Murdock, 1875; Samuel W. Tyler, 1876-7,1882; Alex. Johnston, 1876; JohnSheehan, 1876-7; Eli Forbes, 1878; Alonzo S. Davidson, 1878; Sidney T. Howard, 1879-81; James C. Parsons, 1880-2; George W. Morse, 1882-4, 1891-3; Henry N. Otterson, 1883-5; C. C. Cook, 1884-7; Anton Wiesman, 1884-5; William H. Nugent, 1885-90; P. J. Quinn, 1886-8; Herman Dietzman, 1886-8; C. A. Vickery, 1887-91; Milton Jewett, 1888-90; Walter P. Bowers, 1889-91, 1895-7; Warren Goodale, 1889-91; William Hamilton, 1891-3; Perley P. Comey, 1892-4; Frank F.Wallace, 1892-5; Thomas H. O'Connor, 1892-4; Walter R. Dame, 1894-6; Horace H. Lowe, 1894-6, 1897-9; Martin Murphy, 2d, 1895-7 ; Henry Richter, 1896-8; Charles H. Shedd, 1897-9; Philip J. Philbin, 1898-1900; PhiUp T. O'Brien, 1898-1900; William Rodger, 1899-1900; Clarence H. Bowers, 1900; George Krauss, 1900. Town Clerks.— Albert S. Carleton, 1850-2; Charles S. Patten, res., 1853; Artemas E. Bigelow, 1853-9; Henry C. Greeley, 1860-9: W.E.Parkhurst, 1870-2, 1878-80; Lucius Field, 1873-7; Martin J. Costello, 1881-4; John F. Philbin, 1885-93; Samuel W. Tyler, 1894-1900. Treasurers.— Sidney Harris, 1850, 1855; Alfred Knight, 1851-4, 1856-65; Elisha Brimhall, 1866-70; Edwin N. Rice, 1871-4; Alfred A. Burditt, 1875; Wellington E. Parkhurst, 1876; Henry O. Sawyer, 1877; G. Walton Goss, 1878-88; Edward G. Stevens, 1888; Lucius Field, 1889; William F. Heagney, 1890-4; Wil- liam Hamilton, 1895; Joseph E. Harrity, 1896-8; Charles E. Shaw, 1899-1900. i6i The Parade. Franklin Forbes, Joshua Thissell and George M. Morse. The cost of the building was one hundred and six thousand eight hundred and forty-four dollars and sixty cents. It has one hall capable of seating twelve hundred; another with a seating capacity of four hundred; rooms for the Bigelow Free Public Library, and rooms for the various depart- ments of town government. The accompanying pictures* give ample evidence of the dig- nity of its architecture. Some of the departments, such as the Schools, Police, Fire and Water Departments, now have special houses of their own; yet the number and needs of the other departments have so grown that the smaller hall must soon be divided into rooms for their use, or some other accommodations must be furnished. The Selectmen, besides having charge of the Town Hall, have the management of the armory, the parks, the Police Department, the street lights, the Pauper Department, etc. All of these, except the Pauper Department, may be better considered elsewhere. The poor farm was established in 185 1. It is west of Woodlawn Cemetery, and originally contained thirteen acres of land. The house which was first built cost less than three thousand dollars, but it has been added to and remodelled from time to time according to the needs of the department. The Metropolitan Water Works have added largely to the expense of the department, and caring for tramps makes no inconsiderable part of its labor. In 1899, from a total appropriation of ten thousand dollars, about two-thirds were spent for the outside poor, and about one-third at the almshouse. There was an expense for lunatics not considered under the Pauper Department of about four thousand dollars. The Police Department of the Town was well represented in the parade by the chief, Oren B. Bates, with a mounted force. This first appears as a special department of the Town in 1866. For some years after this, the work of the department was very light and the annual expenses were less than one thousand dollars. January 14, 1871, a lockup, the first one worthy of the name in town, was completed, at the fire engine house on Church Street. It had four cells. In 1883, the old bank building which had been bought the previous year was fitted up for a court room and police station. The office of chief of police was established in 1884, and Abbott A. Jenkins, appointed. During the past year, this building has been so re-modelled, at an- expense of sixty-one hundred dollars, as to better adapt it to our increasing population and the needs arising from the work upon the Metropolitan Water System. According to the report of 1900, there are now six regular patrolmen, nine Metropolitan officers paid for by the State, but acting under the chief of police, and twenty-eight reserve officers. The annual net cost of the force to the town, apart from building, during recent years has been about six thousand dollars. The order- liness of the community attests the efficiency of the force. Chief engineer, Horace H. Lowe, and the assistant engineers, rode in carriages at the head of the Fire Department. The eight companies followed according to the program. The noble horses, the excellent apparatus with its fresh paint and polished metal, and above all the bearing of the men themselves, made this portion of the display one of which the town might well be proud. Some, filled with the historic spirit, recalled the fifty years of effective service which the department, always changing yet ever the same, had rendered. There was a private company connected with the mills of Poignand & Plant in early times, and the mills under the control of the Bigelows had done something in this direc- tion. There had been considerable talk of raising a village company just before Clinton was set off from Lancaster. Indeed, the difficulties met with in organizing such a com- * See opposite pages 26 and 136. 162 THE CENTRAL FIRE STATION. THE ARMORY. THE BUILDING OF WATER DEPARTMENT. The Parage. pany under the auspices of the Town of Lancaster, was one of the causes of separation. At the second Clinton town meeting, held April 15, 1850, five hundred dollars were appro- priated for the organization of a fire department. August 5, of the same year, a thousand dollars more were appropriated for the purchase of a hand fire engine, which came to town in December. The Torrent Engine Company, Number i, was the first started, and the engine-house was built on the school-house lot on Church Street. It was March, 1 85 1, before the requisite act of the legislature was passed for the legal establishment of the department. The first company was composed of some of the leading business and professional men of the town. They started in with great enthusiasm, but when the first fire occurred in the winter of 185 1-2, the box of the engine was found half full of ice, so the machine could not be used. The company was soon after reorganized with only working members. In 1853, there was a fire at the comb-shops of Sidney Harris, with a loss of five thousand dollars. The first payment given for services was in the year 1854-5. For the first nine years, Franklin Forbes was the chief engineer. It was on June 17, 1853, that the Cataract Company was organized, and its hand engine came June 21. The Franklin Hook and Ladder Company was formed July 7, 1858. Its headquarters and those of the Cataract Company were in the "Old Brick School-house" near the foot of Church Street. In 1866, an engine house was erected on the site of our present Central Station. The first steamer was bought in 1870, and the Clinton Steamer Company was organized September 3, 1870. In 1872, reservoirs were built on corner of Church and High Streets and on North High Street," and in 1879, on the Acre and on Burdett Hill. March, 1880, it was voted to locate a fire engine house on the Acre. The introduction of Wekepeke water in 1882 made a great change in our fire system and gave vastly better facilities for extinguishing fires. The use of the Cataract hand engine was given up and the Torrent hand engine was handed over to the Cataract Com- pany, which was then established on the Acre. The Torrent Hose Company had two light hand hose reels. A new hook and ladder truck took the place of the old Franklin truck the same year. In 1884, both hand engines were sold and a four-wheeled hose car- riage bought for the Cataract Company. In 1885, the Gamwell system of fire alarm was introduced. The first trial of this was on July 13. In 1888, a house was built on Beacon Street to accommodate Hose Company Number 3. This was afterwards known as the G. Walton Goss Hose Company. One of the Torrent Company hose carriages was given this company, while a new one was provided for the Torrent Company. From 1893 to 1898, Howard Brothers' barn was used by the Fire Department as a central station. In 1896, one thousand dollars was appropriated for a hose house on Woodlawn Street, and the same sum for a hose house on Water Street. A new steamer was purchased in 1897 at a cost of thirty-eight hundred dollars. A central fire station on Church Street was completed at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars, in 1898. This station in all its^ appointments will compare favorably with any in the State. The Fire Department moved into this station on Thanksgiving day. In three cases, death has resulted from fires in Clinton. September 5, 1854, David Haskell, a prominent merchant, was so burned by an explosion of a barrel of patent oil that he died the following day. February 5, 1858, in a fire at the O'Malley house in the California District, three persons were burned to death. The fire in the Brigham Block, April 12, 1875, caused the death of Mrs. George B. Dinsmore and Warren B. Burrell. The fire at the wire mill April 19, 1893, was the most striking incident in the history pf the department. The alarm was sounded at nine-ten a. m. The report states; "Almost 163 The Parade. as soon as the fire was discovered the immense tower used for painting and drying wire cloth was a sheet of flame." It was a wonderful sight, that great pillar of flame rising nearly three hundred feet in the air. The strong west wind scattered the still burning embers for a mile through the most thickly settled portion of the town, and the utmost precaution was needed to prevent a general conflagration. Aid was asked and received from the neighboring cities and towns. The greater portion of the wire mill was saved, and the fire was prevented from spreading to the other sections of the town by the noble efforts of the firemen. The loss was estimated at one hundred and forty thousand dollars, but the corporation was well insured and quickly rebuilt on a larger scale. The central portion of the town was seriously threatened by two other fires within the following year. November 2, 1893, ^t ten-forty p. m., an alarm was sounded for a fire at the barn of the Murphy Brothers. The work of the department in checking this fire was highly praised by the insurance inspectors. In regard to a fire at Woodruff's Skating Rink, February 24, at two forty-five a. m., the report says: "This was the coldest morning of the winter with a strong west wind blowing, and only the pluck and persistence, with the determined stand taken by the firemen, when they looked more like icicles than men, saved the surrounding buildings." At three fiftj'-five p. m., December 4, 1899, an alarm was sounded for a fire at the Opera House. The fire started in the basement and found its way so quickly through the ventilating shafts that it was soon beyond hope of control. The wooden buildings adjoining the Opera House on the north and south, went with it. It was only by the remarkable efficiency of the Fire Department that the fire was kept from spreading much further. The loss was estimated at ninety-six thousand four hundred and seventy-eight dollars, but there was ample insurance, and most of the buildings have been already replaced. As was most appropriate, the Water Department followed the Fire Department in the procession. This was represented by two teams: one with an old well-sweep, sug- gesting former methods of obtaining water; the other, illustrative of the Wekepeke sys- tem and its appliances. The introduction of a water system arose from the urgent necessity of water for fire purposes. Calls were made by the Fire Department for action in this direction almost from the incorporation of the town. April 5, 1875, a committee was appointed to "take the water question into consideration." This committee consisted of Daniel B. Ingalls, Elisha Brimhall, John T. Dame, Christopher C. Stone and Martin Murphy. May 24, 1875, five hundred dollars was appropriated for preliminary surveys. November 22, 1875, the committee made a full report, including a report from Marshall M. Tidd, engineer. This report, after considering Washacum Pond, Clamshell Pond, Fitch's Pond, the Nashua River and Sandy Pond as possible sources of supply, recommended that water should be pumped from the latter into a reservoir to be built on Burdett Hill, after an appeal had been made to the legislature for authority to construct a water system for fire, domestic and other uses, and to borrow money to the amount of one hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars therefor. This authority was granted by an act approved April 4, 1876, on condition that such action should be approved by two-thirds of the legal voters within three years. March 5, 1877, the same committee made a report on a system of sewerage, recommending that no immediate action be taken in this direction, as the exis- tence of a water system did not render a sewerage system necessary. There was not sufficient agreement among the voters of the town to secure the action necessary to intro- duce water under the act therefor within three years, but June 19, 1880, a committee con- 1(^4 LOWER LYNDE'S RESERVOIR. WEKEPEKE WATEF^ SYSTEM. The Parade. sisting of Messrs. Ingalls, Bigelow, Weeks, Brimhall and Greeley, was appointed to con- sider the introduction of water for fire purposes. A report was made November 13, 1880, and on the same date it was voted to petition the legislature for a renewal of the act of 1876. This petition was granted by an act of approval February 4, 1881. April 2, 1881, the entire committee reported in favor of introducing water for fire purposes, and ten thousand dollars were appropriated. April 23, 1881, it was voted to issue fifty-five thou- sand dollars in water bonds. Jonas E. Howe, John W. Corcoran and Samuel W. Tyler served as the first board of water commissioners. With Marshall M. Tidd as engineer, work was begun in the summer of 1881, on the Burdett Hill Reservoir, and on piping some of the streets. It was at first the intention to take water from Sandy Pond, but it was discovered that Wekepeke Brook in Sterling would furnish by gravity alone a sufficient supply of excellent water for all uses, and through an act of the legislature appproved February 9, 1882, permission to take this stream was granted. March 6, 1882, the town voted to take water for fire and domestic purposes from Wekepeke Brook, and appropriated one hundred thousand dollars therefor. On January i, 1883, the Wekepeke water system was completed. March 27, 1884, an act was approved authorizing Clinton to furnish water to Lancas- ter or any corporation therein, and issue bonds to an amount not exceeding fifty thousand dollars. Authority has been given by the legislature to incur further indebtedness as follows: 1890, fifty thousand; 1892, one hundred thousand, for bringing water from Washacum; 1896, fifty thousand. This gives a total of four hundred and seventy-five thousand, or not including the hundred thousand of 1892, which was never borrowed as water has not been taken from Washacum Lake, three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The actual amount of bonds issued is three hundred and fifty thousand. There was also a tax levy of twenty thousand, making a total cost of three hundred and seventy thousand dollars. To meet the indebtedness, there was in the sinking fund February i, 1900, nearly one hundred thousand dollars. At the same date, Clinton owned some one hundred and twenty-three acres of land in Sterling and had laid over thirty-one miles of pipe. It is impossible in this brief account to give particulars in regard to water privi- leges secured, basins constructed in Sterling and other matters of detail, but these may be found in the annual town reports, especially in those of February, 1897 and 1900.* In the water commissioners' report February i, 1900, from which many of the above facts have been gleaned, is found the following statement: "During the period that the department has been in operation the sum of four hundred twenty-five thou.sand four hundred thirty-two dollars and twenty-nine cents ($425,432.29) has been collected from water rates and turned over to its treasurer. These figures, including those previously given, are the history of the inception, construction, growth and success of the Water Department. In completeness of construction, and in the quality of its appliances, it is second to none in the commonwealth. It is a matter of congratulation to the people of Clinton that it has been theirs to enjoy a quality of water rarely furnished to a munici- pality, and that it has come, through the laws of nature, in priceless abundance." After the death of Jonas E. Howe in 1892, the report of the water commissioners stated: "Jonas E. Howe was the father of the Clinton Water Works, the author of the ♦Use of Water.-tiSqS, 219,023,210 gals.; 1899, 198,614417 gals.; 1900, 235,397,200 gals. Services, 1,624; meters, 770. Public hydrants, 168; private hydrants, 74; total on system, 242. Water Commissioners. — Jonas E. Howe, 1881-92; John W. Corcoran, 1881-1895, 1898-1900; Samuel W. Tyler, 1881-2; G. Walton Goss, 1883-8; Horace A. Thissell, 1889-91; William H. Nugent, 1892; Walter R. Dame, 1892-4; Horace H. Lowe, 1893-6; Charles G. Bancroft, 1895-7; George S. Gibson, 1896-8; Perley P, Comey, 1897; William G. McGlinchey, 1898-99; Edward W. Burdett, 1899-1900; Albert S, Fuller, igco, 165 The Parade. present system and the designer of every addition and extension. He was a member and chairman of the Board from its creation till his death, during which time he super- vised the laying of every pipe in its lines and superintended the construction of every basin and structure that was made a parcel of its plant. He was devoted to the town and this department, and his fitting epitaph would be: ' Here lies the man who conceived and constructed the Clinton Water Works.' " It will be seen from the foregoing that John W. Corcoran has been a member of the Board during some eighteen years of its existence, and to him must be assigned some of the honor which he has so generously given to Mr. Howe, of securing popular sympathy for the system of organizing and directing it. The exhibit of the Road Department came next, with four teams with tools and implements for road building. With this was the superintendent, Loren B. Walker, who has for so many years had charge of our streets, and to whose practical knowledge of the art of road-making their excellence is largely due. As the Road Department has charge of the sewers, it may be well to note this system first. In early times, little attention was paid to sewerage here or elsewhere in small com- munities. As the village developed, the hills and the streams gave a natural drainage which, in connection with cess-pools, was for many years deemed sufficient for our needs. As has already been noted, the question of a sewerage system was referred to the com- mittee on the introduction of water and an adverse report was made March 5, 1877. A plan of surface drainage prepared by Phineas Ball, engineer, was adopted April 7, 1883. In 1884, the town voted not to petition the legislature for the right to build a sewer sys- tem, but August 31 of the following year, a committee was appointed to make such a petition. The right having been granted, March 7, 1887, the road commissioners were instructed to prepare sewer-system plans. It was May 6, 1889, before a plan of sewers made by Phineas Ball was adopted. During this year, an "intercepting sewer" was built from Union Street to the Nashua River, near the intersection of High and Allen Streets, at a cost of about twenty-two thousand dollars. An injunction was granted against enter- ing the sewerage into the river on account of the objections urged by Lancaster, but this was finally removed. The plan of sewer assessments by which abuttors pay the cost of construction apart from main sewer was adopted March 3, 1890. Year by year, the sewer system has been extended until now nearly all the thickly settled portion of the town has been connected. By January i, 1900, over sixteen miles of pipe had been laid. During a large part of the time since the sewer system was adopted, Martin J. Kane has been superintendent of construction. Through the desire of our pe»ple to take advantage of everything that will better their condition and the wise suggestions of the Board of Health, a large portion of the buildings in town have most thorough systems of plumbing. The taking of the water of the South Branch of the Nashua River by the Metropoli- tan Water Board required a new system of sewerage disposal. Such a system has been constructed by that board. In September, i8g8, a contract was made for filter beds and appurtenances at a price of about twenty-one thousand dollars. These beds were built on a sand terrace in Lancaster, just beyond the bridge over the Nashua on the extension of High Street. The total area of these filter beds is twenty-three and one-half acres. These beds have been constructed according to the most approved plans and have thus far been successful in operation. The cost of the intercepting sewer, reservoir and pump- ing station foundation was about thirty-five thousand dollars. The superstructure of the pumping station and the pumping engine cost nearly twelve thousand dollars more. The pumping station is on the south side of the Nashua, near the High Street bridge. 166 The Parade. The other precautions taken by the town in accordance with the laws of the state for the health of its citizens deserve notice in this connection. The first specialization of this branch of government may be said to have begun with the appointment of a town physician in 1883. The establishment of a Board of Health in 1885 carried this speciali- zation still further. The appointment by the Board of Health of an inspector of plumb- ing and general health officer in 1893 was another step in advance. The recent provisions made for the collection of garbage tends in the same direction. Through the action of the Board of Health and its agents, infectious diseases have been kept within more nar- row limits; many nuisances have been abated and many errors dangerous to health have been avoided, and" through its suggestions many reforms have been inaugurated. Since 1893, ^n inspector of milk, provisions, etc., has been appointed by the selectmen: thus another menace to the lives of our citizens has been removed. When we reflect that within the period of twenty years, pure water has been substituted throughout our com- munity for that of doubtful quality; a system of sewerage with plumbing, guarded by r-igid laws, together with a careful system of garbage collection, has taken the place of a most careless disposal of sewerage and garbage; that much of our food as well as our water is subject to skilled inspection; that infectious diseases are controlled, and that free med- ical attendance is given to all who are unable to pay therefor, it seems marvellous that so much could have been done in so short a time. The Clinton Hospital, although it is not a municipal institution, deserves mention here as a supplement to those institutions for the public welfare which are under the auspices of the town. Nowhere can better nursing, better medical attendance, better surgical attention be secured than in this hospi- tal, and it is given without charge to all who are needy. Water Street, with Rigby Road as its continuation; South Meadow Road, only a small portion of which is within the present limits of Clinton; Main Street, and the old Boylston Road from the South Lancaster Common, were the only public thoroughfares in this community before 1838. In 1838, a road was built from Main Street to the Lancaster Mills site. In 1844, a road was built to Bolton; one from Harris Bridge to Berlin and Boylston in 1845, ^^^ another to Boylston by Sandy Pond two years later; another to Boylston was built from East Village. In 1848, a road was constructed from Lancaster Mills to the Harris comb-shops. Under the direction of Horatio N. Bigelow, John C. Hoadley made plans for a system of streets in the center of Clintonville, which were accepted by the town of Lancaster, July 29, 1848. This vote included Prospect, Church, Union, Nelson, School, High to Water, Walnut and Chestnut Streets. The present "Ber- Un Road" was built in 1852, the Sterling Road in 1853-4, the present "Boylston Road" in 1860-1. High Street extension was made through the Plain in 1870-2. Not a year has passed without the addition, the prolongation or the improvement of our streets. The first Board of Road Commissioners was chosen in 1873.* Before this time, the roads had been in charge of the selectmen. Our roads have been treated in a most scientific manner on account of this specialization, and are today justly esteemed equal to any in the Commonwealth. L *LiST OF Road Commissioners.— Jonas E. Howe, 1873-8; Joshua Thissell, 1873-4; Henry N. Bige- low, 1873; John H. Rowell, 1874-6, 1881-3; Nathan Burdett, 1875-7; Anton >Viesman, 1877-9; Charles Frazer, 1878-80, iSg^igoo; John Sheehan, 1879-81, 1883-6; William E. Fyfe, 1880-2; Eli Sawyer, 1882-4; Herman Dietzman, 1885-7; Henry McGown, 1885-6; Thomas O'Toole, 1887-8; Samuel Anderson, 1887-9; Henry W. Welch, 1884, 1888-90; Leonard H. Parker, 1889-91; Charles C. Sanderson, 1890-2; Horatio Ball, 1891-3, 1896-9; David H. Maynard, 1892-4, 1897-1900; Walter F. Howard, 1893-5; Martin Murphy, 1894-6; S. Ives Wallace, 1895-7; H. J. Brockelman, 1898-1900. 167 (12) The Patade. The first concrete sidewalks were laid in 1875, and have been added to year by year, until they are found on all of our business and many of our residential streets. The first systematic lighting of the streets under the management of the town began in 1870, when some five hundred dollars were paid to the "Chnton Gas Light Company for posts, pipes, lanterns, labor, etc.'' Until 1887, gas was used. Electric arc and incan- descent lights have been used since that year. In 1893, the Clinton Street Railway, afterward known as Leominster and Clinton, was opened. In 1898, the Worcester and Clinton Street Railway began to run its cars, and in 1900, the Clinton and Hudson Railway was completed, so that today Clinton is connected with all towns to 'the north, south and southeast by electric lines which have secured franchises from the town. As we are connected by the Boston and Maine, and New York, New Haven and Hartford steam railroads with all points north, south and east, our facilities for communication are remarkably good. Until 1898, our shade-trees which add so much to the beauty of Clinton, wefe under the same management as the roads, but for the last two years they have received special care from a tree warden. As early as 1852, many of the trees in and about the Common and the adjacent streets were set out by the town, through the influence of Horatio N. Bigelow. Some of these trees, the elms and maples especially, have grown to great proportions and completely over-arch the streets and Walks. From time to time, trees have been set out elsewhere until our town today stands preeminent for its tree-shaded streets. Our Central Park of four acres, the gift of Horatio N. Bigelow, accepted in 1852, with its magnificent fountain, given by John R. Foster in 1890, its charming landscape gardening, its perfect greensward, and above all, the trees to which each year of the past half century has added its store of beauty, was considered by all our Semi-Centennial visitors as the most pleasing of the material possessions which Clinton had to show. Franklin Park, the gift of Sidney Harris and Charles G. Stevens, is scarcely inferior in beauty, and has the advantage of a wonderful view, extending for a score of miles down the valley of the Nashua. Woodlawn Cemetery has been treated with equal care and good taste by the town, and our citizens have felt that no higher tribute could be paid to the dead than to add to the loveliness of their last resting place. We cannot leave this subject without a word upon the beauty of Clinton considered as a whole. We are peculiarly blessed by nature with a picturesque and diversified river valley, with broad terrace plains and lofty hills whence most charming views can be obtained. Under the auspices of the town, art has added to nature by the planting of trees, the laying out of parks and the construction of public buildings of architectural merit. The religious societies, the corporations and other organizations have done their part to help on the good work by the edifices which they have erected. Private citizens, have assisted by the good taste they have displayed in their business blocks, residences and grounds, and the care they have expended so lavishly upon them. It seemed to be the universal expression of our visitors that the beauty of Clinton was unsurpassed by that of any town they had seen. The public schools were represented in the procession by three floats: that of Grade IX was a colonial interior, the home of Prescott; that of the classes of 1901, 2 and 3 of the High School, dealt with scientific education, showing the goddess of science, her children, and the blessings she has brought to the world; that of the class of 1900 dealt with, classical education and presented a picture of the nine muses conferring a wreath of laurel upon the student. The Parochial School float, the sciences and arts pay- 168 :#^' ■' 'V^ii^'''"''''^--' CENTRAL PARK FOUNTAIN. CENTRAL PARK. The Parade. ing homage to religion, was the most elaborate in the whole parade, and if space allowed would be worthy of a detailed description. This brief outline of the history of our municipal life which has been suggested by the display made in this parade and that of Monday, must not be closed without a com- prehensive glance at the development of Clinton as a whole. This can best be gained from a study of the statistics of its population, wealth and expenditures.* It will be seen from an examination of such statistics that Clinton has grown in population from three thousand one hundred and thirteen in 1850, to about thirteen thousand eight * Table of Valuation, Taxes, Rate of Taxation and number of Polls since the incorporation of the town in 1850: 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855. 1856 1857' 1858. 1859- i860. i86i. 1862. 1863. 1864- 1865- 1866. 1867. 1868. 1869- 1870. 1871. 1872. •873- 1 874. 1875- 1876- 1877. 1878. 1879- 1880. 1881 1882. 1883. 1884. I88S-, 1886. 1887. 1888. 1889- 1890. 1891. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. 1898. 1899- VALUATION jSi, 262,803 00 1,184,931 00 1,312,460 00 1,254,700 00 1,558,840 00 1,607,990 00 1,736,823 00 1,766,181 00 1,655,723 00 1,610,051 00 1,690,692 00 1,722,532 00 1,686,242 00 1,715,653 00 1,871,000 00 1,860,763 00 1,981,417 00 2,144,063 00 2,256,139 09 2,664,020 00 2,952,568 00 3,045,670 00 3,197,765 00 3,237,186 00 4,219,088 00 4,340,919 00 4,494,641 00 4,198,576 00 4,260,318 00 4,274,567 00 4,444,937 00 4,823,592 00 4,907,472 00 4,970,450 00 5,125,543 00 5,143,726 00 5,198,174 00 5,366,074 00 5,531,811 00 5,841.43s 00 6,044,017 00 6,258,940 00 6,520,391 00 6,789,051 00 6,927,124 00 7,035,987 00 7,108,869 00 7,148,067 00 7,260,598 00 7,469,363 00 AMOUNT RAISED BY TAXATION H0S9 33 10.660 88 11,307 50 22,320 94 11,929 90 14,428 06 18,029 18 16.661 39 14,988 67 14,886 25 14,851 92 15,969 54 16,868 18 20,320 18 22,115 00 27,776 68 29,735 28 38,120 26 44,275 64 38,542 67 49,942 34 48,271 04 58,965 14 78,828 00 77,016 04 71,088 II 83.951 03 50,997 05 65,292 60 58,541 53 67,336 60 78,396 66 77,784 00 81,384 27 90,261 40 96,501 06 97,588 13 101,151 33 104,636 60 104,557 95 101.029 01 111,920 80 136,120 32 109,167 84 121,017 83 125,625 58 151,173 58 133,925 51 139,217 99 142.030 53 RATE OF TAXATION $7 00 8 00 ' 50 17 7 7 9 00 00 70 70 8 80 8 20 8 so 8 00 8 50 9 00 1 1 00 11 00 14 00 14 50 16 80 18 70 13 60 16 10 15 00 17 60 23 50 17 50 16 00 18 00 12 00 14 50 13 00 14 30 15 40 15 00 15 50 16 85 18 00 18 00 18 00 18 00 17 00 15 80 17 00 20 00 15 20 16 60 17 00 20 40 17 80 18 20 18 00 POLLS S7S 593 577 643 674' 712 788 745 782 781 879 88s 846 724 767 863 1017 1050 1 140 1156 1203 1251 1347 1402 1591 1614 1754 1682 1759 1728 1887 2056 2122 2171 1948 1957 2010 2281 2532 2626 2766 2747 2853 2987 3013 3006 3076 3336 3536 3791 169 The Parade. hundred in igoo. This growth has been steady, with no backward steps. While the growth in population has been fourfold, that in wealth has been almost sixfold, and apart from the corporations, yet more than this. Meanwhile, the amount raised by taxa- tion for the public good has increased twelvefold. It is hard to estimate the value of public property, but if the water works, the sewerage, the sinking fund, the public build- ings, the books, the furnishings, the apparatus, the horses, etc., be reckoned at cost prices, allowing for injury from use, if the land be estimated at a value equal to the market price of adjacent lots, if a price equal to land value and present price of construction be put upon the streets, the assets of Clinton as a municipality must be many hundred thousands in excess of its liabilities. In other words, we have been paying mo.st liberally in taxes for permanent improvements, or investments as in the case of the water works, from which future citizens will derive as much benefit as we. All this will tend to make the future taxes in Clinton less in proportion to benefits enjoyed, than in towns where the assets are less in proportion to liabilities.* Warren Goodale was marshal of the Third Division of the parade. The Leominster Brass Band furnished music. This division represented our manufacturing and commer- cial industries. Inasmuch as the history of the development of manufacturing in this community has been so ably and as amply treated in the historical address and banquet speeches, there is no reason to discuss it here. In our mills lies the material basis of our town's prosperity. The four thousand or more operatives who work in them, support by their earnings all but a small fraction of our population, and it is their trade which makes the mercantile, the building and the professional industries possible. The three great corporations — the Lancaster Mills, the Bigelow Carpet Company and the Clinton Wire Cloth Company — have each invested so much capital in their plants that their permanent *The following appropriations for 1899 are in about the usual proportions. The extraordinary expenses, i. e. assessors's maps, notes and electric bell, would naturally be replaced by others in following years :^ Paupers jSio.ooo co Lunatics 4,000 00 Street lights „ . . . 10,500 00 Town Hall 2,500 00 General expense 11,000 00 Memorial Day 200 00 Fire Department 11,500 00 Police Department 7,800 00 Library Dog tax and sum to equal 2,600 00 Hydrants 5,010 00 Cemetery 2,500 00 Soldiers' relief 700 00 Board of Health 500 00 Abatement 1,200 00 Schools 41,500 00 Armory 5°° °° Central Park goo 00 Amount brought up $112,910 00 Franklin Park 500 00 Assessors' maps 1,000 00 Streets and sidewalks 19,000 00 Interest 6,500 00 High Street extension note (2) 2,000 00 General expense note 1,200 co Pauper note 1,000 00 Steamer note 1,285 66 Discount 7,000 00 Electric bell for Fire Station 500 00 County tax 8,146 00 State tax 3.975 oo $165,016 66 Estimated receipts 22,986 13 Total tax levy $142,030 53 Amount carried up $112,910 00 Liabilities December 31, 1899. School-houses • $14,600 00 Other public buildings ■' 27,400 00 Water Works 347,oco 00 Sewerage 73i7So 00 Highways and bridges ii.3So 00 Trust funds ..- 4.038 00 Other debts I4.SS7 00 $492,695 00 170 UMP5EJ oj f he The Parade. stay within our limits seems firmly assured, and their steady development in the past gives the promise of continued growth. The Clinton Worsted Company, under the direc- tion of William Rodger, has had phenomenal success. Year after year, additions have been made to its facilities, until now it may fairly claim a place among our greater indus- tries. The smaller concerns have plenty of profitable work and add their share to the sum total of our prosperity. All of the great manufacturing industries and many of the minor ones were repre- sented in the procession. The Lancaster Mills had a float drawn by four horses. On this were two intersecting arches and a huge revolving globe made of varied patterns of ginghams arranged for color effects. On a belt about this globe was the inscription: "LANCASTER MILLS GINGHAM USED ROUND THE WORLD." The Bige- low Carpet Company had four floats. On the top of the first there was a living sheep. Below, arranged in the most artistic mariner as the accompanying illustration shows, there was wool in the various stages of manufacture, from the fleece to the completed worsted. The second float showed the finished carpets. At the four corners there were rolls, while two art squares of beautiful designs, fully displayed, formed the sides. On the third were rolls of carpet with a pattern-cutting device and cards. The last float was bright with yellow yarns of different tints tastefully shading into each other. On this float were twelve young ladies dressed in white, with yellow sashes and parasols of such shades as to harmonize with the body of the float. The Clinton Wire Cloth Company had two floats. The first showed silver-finish netting, inclosing a hen-yard; the second, electrically welded wire, inclosing a sheep-pen. The Clinton Worsted Company had one of its looms in operation on its float, together with an attractive exhibit of its finished cloths. The floats of the Clinton Foundry Company, the Keyes Wagon Company, Calvin H. Hastings, carriage-maker, the blacksmiths and harness-makers, showed one or more of the operations in the respective industries, and the finished products. The huge horse- shoe of Parsons & Finan was especially noticeable. In Walter W. Wright's float the blacksmith wore an apron that had been worn in a trades procession at the coronation of Queen Victoria. In the commercial portion of the parade, certain branches of business, such as those of the grocers and provision dealers, were abundantly represented, while other important branches were entirely missing. Yet there were some seventy-five teams and floats, illus- trative of our commercial life. It would be invidious to pick out for special mention particular firms, when all made so good a display, and the program gives the list of entries on page i8 of this volume. As the story and present condition and spirit of our business interests has been presented in the banquet speeches of Henry C. Greeley and Warren Goodale, the reader who would appreciate this phase of Clinton life is referred to these speeches. In order to complete the idea, however, he should visit our stores and make a comparison between them and those of neighboring towns and cities. Such visits and comparisons would convince anyone that nowhere in Worcester County are the merchants more discriminating and tasteful in selecting goods, more shrewd in buying them, more enterprising in bringing them before the public, more honest and courteous in showing them, more anxious to satisfy the desires of customers, more ready to accept reasonable profits — in short, to hold such relations to their patrons that they shall have unfailing confidence in their ability, their integrity, and their recognition of the fact that the merchant no less than the clergyman, the physician or the teacher should serve his fellow men in the spirit of brotherly love. 171 The Parade. The reviewing stand had been erected on Church Street near the corner of Walnut, just north of the new grammar school house. Here, Governor W. Murray Crane reviewed the procession. With him on the stand were Adjutant-General Samuel Dalton, Surgeon- General Robert A. Blood, Major Charles A. Proctor, of his staff; Congressmen 'George W! Weymouth and John R. Thayer, Hon. Merrill E. Gates, Secretary of the Indian Com- mission, and Major James M. Ingalls, representing the United States; High Sheriff Rob- ert H. Chamberlain, County Treasurer Edward H. Brown, and Howard M. Lane, special County Commissioner, representing the county; many mayors of neighboring cities and chairmen of boards of selectmen in the surrounding towns, and Clinton officials, includ- ing members of the Semi-Centennial Committee. The guests were full of praise of the procession and the beauty of the streets through which it had passed, and the evidences of thrift everywhere manifest. There was a reception held at Bigelow Hall to the Governor and other invited guests immediately after the parade. A lunch was served by C. D. Cook & Son, caterers. This reception and lunch were informal, as the Governor was obliged to hasten away. The officers of the parade, many of whom were at the reception, received hearty congratula- tions on every hand for the remarkable success which had attended their efforts. 172 THE ATHLETIC SPORTS. ' I "HE athletic sports were held at the Clinton-Lancaster Driving Park, Tuesday after- *■ noon. These grounds have been developed by the Worcester East Agricultural Society for its autumn fairs. They offer many advantages for athletic sports and excel- lent facilities for observing them. Notwithstanding many were worn out by the parade of the morning, many were resting for the fireworks of the evening, and the " Historical, Literary and Musical Exercises" occurred at the same hour, several thousand people gathered to witness these events. Dr. Minot V. Bastian had direct charge of the meet, acting under the authority of the athletic committee. The Salem Cadet Band furnished music. The teams contesting in the events were: that of the St. John's T. A. & M. A. Society, which won the banner offered to the team gaining the greatest number of points; that of the Clinton High School Athletic Association, which stood second, and that of the Clinton Turn Verein. There were also a few entries of individuals unconnected with any society. Among the teams, the St. John's and Turn Verein excelled in field events, while the.C. H. S., with its lighter team, won most of its points in the races. Souvenir prizes were given to each individual winner. The hundred yards' dash, which was the first event, was begun about two o'clock. There were four heats and a final heat, with the finish in the following order: First heat: Paul D. Howard, C. H. S.; John F. O'Toole, C. H. S.; John Gaughan, St. J. Time, ii 3-5 seconds. Second heat: Edward Bond, St. J.; William Rodger, C. H. S.; Charles H. Steven- son. Time, 11 4-5 seconds. Third heat: Anthony Grady, C. H. S.; E. C. Coughlin, St. J. Time, 11 1-5 seconds. Fourth heat: George S. Howard, C. H. S.; J. E. Grady, St. J.; M. Wahl. Time, II 3-5 seconds. Final heat: Anthony Grady, C. H. S.; Edward Bond, St. J.; Paul D. Howard, C. H. S. Time, 10 4-5 seconds. Second event — Running broad jump. Entries: Ludwig Baer, John Trautner and F. C. Wahl, Turners; William Rodger, C. H. S.; S. T. Grady and M. F. Groden, St. John's. Won by M. F. Groden, i8>^ feet; John Trautner, 2d; Ludwig Baer, 3d. Third event — Putting 16-pound shot. Won by Herbert H. Parker, 42 ft. 8 in.; Ed- ward Matthews, 2d; P. J. Reilly, St. John's, 3d. Fourth event — Half-mile run. Entries: John Neubauer, Turners; P. H. Kelly, St. John's; Charles H. Stevenson. P. H. Kelly won; time, 2 min. 12 2-5 seconds. C. H. Stevenson, 2d. Fifth event — Half-mile bicycle race. Entries: C. F. Leighton; Gilman Miner; J. G. Rodger; Robert Finnic, C. H. S.; G. S. Harris. Won by C. F. Leighton; time, i minute 19 1-5 seconds. Gilman Miner, 2d; J. G. Rodger, 3d. Fifth event — Running high jump. Entries: S. T. Grady and M. F. Groden, St. John's ; John Baer, John Trautner and Fred C. Wahl, Turners. Won by M. F. Groden, 5 ft. i in.; S. T. Grady, 2d; John Baer, 3d. 173 The Athletic Sports. Sixth event — 220 yards dash. There were four heats and a final heat, with the finish in following order : First heat: P. J. Kelly, St. John's; Paul D^ Howard, C. H. S. Second heat: Edward Bond, St. John's; John F O'Toole, C. H. S.; John Gau^han, St. John's. Third heat: George S. Howard, C. H. S. Fourth heat: Anthony Grady, C. H. S. Final heat: Paul D. Howard, C. H. S., time 25 2-5 seconds; Anthony Grady, C. H. S.; Edward Bond. Seventh event — One-mile bicycle race. Entries: Robert Finnie, George S. Harrisj C. H. S.; John G. Rodger; Gilman Miner. Won by Robert Finnie, C. H. S., time 4 4-5 minutes. Gilman Miner, 2d; George S. Harris, 3d. Eighth event — Half-mile relay race between St. John's and C. H. S., won by latter. Run as follows: First lap, Anthony Grady, C. H. S., and P. J. Kelly, St. John's; second lap, William Rodger, C. H. S., and J. Grady, St. John's; third lap, Paul D. Howard, C. H. S., and M. J. Groden, St. John's. Ninth event — Pole vault. Entries: John Baer^ John Trautner, Turners; S.T.Grady, M. F. Groden, St. John's; F. A. Stewart. Won by S. T Grady, 9 feet; John Baer, 2d; F. A. Stewart, 3d. Points Won by Contesting Teams.* St. John's. C. H. S. Turners. 100 yards dash 3^ 5 - Running broad jump 5 - 4 Putting 16-pound shot I - - Half-mile run 5 - - Half-mile bicycle race - - - Running high jump 8 - i 220 yards dash i 8 - One-mile bicycle race - 6 - Half-mile relay race 3 5 - Pole vault 6 - 3 32 24 8 *The Item account of the athletic sports, which was endorsed by Dr. Minot V. Bastian as correct, has been taken as the basis of the foregoing report. 174 THE CLINTON-LANCASTER DRIVING PARK WORCESTER EAST FAIR. THE FIREWORKS. /'"Considerable difficulty was experienced in choosing and securing a place for ^-^ the fireworks. An ideal location would have been one which was near to the center of the town, free from danger in setting fire or causing injuries from rocket sticks, so ele- vated that the spectators could be near at hand on a lower level. A location on the northern slope of Burdett Hill was regarded as unsafe, and it was not found practicable to make arrangements for one on the bluff above Currier's Flats. A field at the corner of Greeley Avenue and Highland Street, on the southeastern edge of the terrace plain, was selected, but was abandoned at the last moment because there were patients in the Clinton Hospital whose condition was such that they ought not to be exposed to the excitement which might come from having the fireworks close by. It was finally decided to have the exhibition on the Base Ball Grounds off North High Street. As regards nearness and safety the location was excellent, but the set pieces could have been seen to better advantage if they had been on ground more ele- vated above the spectators. This disadvantage was in part remedied by raising them on artificial supports. Before sunset, the crowd began to gather, and long before the display began the open space on the grounds, the surrounding fields and streets and hills were packed with an eager but good-natured multitude of many thousands. It seems strange that in so great a mass of humanity, especially when so many horses and carriages were crowded together, there was no accident of any kind. Promptly upon the hour the fireworks began, and without the slightest break, the attention of the spectators was closely held to the end by the magnificent and ever vary- ing pyrotechnic display. The absence of the long spells of waiting, which usually detract so much from such an exhibition, the abundance and the "quality of the supply, the good taste shown in the selection and arrangement of the pieces, the unerring skill with which they were set off and the great number of special devices, some of them of local signifi- cance, united to make this display far above any ever before seen in Clinton. The suc- cessive novelties filled the spectators with curiosity and surprise, and the dazzling cor- uscations of light and gorgeous combinations of colors by which the sky was constantly illumined elicited from the spectators exclamations of astonishment and delight. Among the devices the Falls of Niagara was the most splendid, the performing ele- phant the most ludicrous, the grist-mill of John Prescott in full operation, the portrait of Horatio N. Bigelow and the town seal the most characteristic of the occasion. When the last sparks of the final "Good-night" expired, the Semi-Centennial Celebration was over and the tired, but satisfied crowd, made its way slowly homeward. I7S CLOSING REFLECTIONS. F^ID it pay to have a Semi-Centennial Celebration? If we consider the cost to the munic- *-^ ipality alone, looking at the matter from the lowest point of view, we may say that it provided a series of musical, literary and spectacular entertainments lasting through three days for its fourteen thousand inhabitants at a cost of about thirty-six cents per capita, and at the same time offered its hospitality to its former citizens and the people of neighboring towns and cities. Clinton received a large amount of advertisement through the newspapers and was able to display its advantages as a place of residence and trade to many visiting strangers. Many of the features of the jubilee had an educational value along general lines. Musical, literary and especially historic culture came from it. Our people seldom have the chance to hear such music as was given so abundantly by the Salem Cadet Band and members of the Symphony Orchestra. A perusal of the sermons, speeches and addresses contained in this volume will convince the reader of their literary value. Most of the people of Clinton knew something more of general history and much more of local his- tory after the celebration, than they did before it. The celebration tended to bring some of our citizens who are seldom in the habit of acting in sympathy with each other into closer relations, and such a gathering as the ban- quet revealed the fact that those who are most divergent in creed, politics and social ideals still have broad, common grounds of union. The chief value of our recognition of the Semi-Centennial of Clinton is to be found in the tendency of such a recognition to foster the spirit of local patriotism. It is impos- sible to measure the development this spirit may have received from this celebration, but it is surely not too much to say that many of our mature citizens were for the time being at least, lifted out of their absorption in selfish pursuits and had higher ideals of their rela- tions to the town and a strong desire to strive toward those ideals; and the young, as they heard the story of our early days, received impressions which will have a lasting influence in helping them to become the worthy successors of those whom the town delighted to honor. 176