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Ouabaug 1660-1910 
 
 An Account of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth 
 
 Anniversary Celebration Held at 
 
 West Brookfield, Mass. 
 
 September 21, 1910 
 
 Compiled and Edited 
 
 By CHARLES J. ADAMS 
 
 Assistant Professor of English 
 in Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 
 
 Under the Direction 
 of THE 
 
 Committee on Publication, of the Joint Executive 
 
 Committee Elected by the Towns of 
 
 Brookfield, West Brookfield, 
 
 North Brookfield and 
 
 New Braintree 
 
 Davis Press 
 
 Worcester, Mass. 
 
 1915 
 
F7i 
 
 
 Gift 
 
 Author 
 I Ptmn) 
 27 I9fj 
 
COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 
 
 Alfred C. Stoddard, North Brookfield, Chairman, 
 Arthur F. Btttterworth, Brookfield. 
 
 Carlton D. Richardson, West Brookfield. 
 
 D. Clarence Wetherell, New Braintree. 
 Harold A. Foster, North Brookfield. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Since work was first undertaken looking toward the 
 preparation of the following narrative, four members of the 
 Joint Executive Committee in charge of the two hundred 
 and fiftieth anniversary celebration of the settlement of 
 Brookfield have died. To the memory of these gentlemen 
 — Hon. Theodore C. Bates, of North Brookfield, Hon. George 
 K. Tufts, of New Braintree, Rev. Benson M. Frink, of West 
 Brookfield, and Mr. Frank E. Prouty, of Brookfield— the 
 Committee on Publication takes this opportunity to pay its 
 sincere tribute of respect. Three of the deceased — Mr. Bates 
 Mr. Tufts, and Mr. Frink — were members of the original 
 Committee on Publication. Mr. Frink, it is known, had 
 collected much material for an historical account of the cele- 
 bration and had even made a beginning toward the writing 
 of it. But the fire that destroyed his home, not long after 
 his death, consumed all this material. It is believed that 
 both Mr. Bates and Mr. Tufts had likewise gathered together 
 a considerable quantity of valuable data. No trace of their 
 collections, if such existed, has, however, as yet been found. 
 The years that have elapsed since the date of the celebration 
 have made it extremely difficult, if not in some particulars 
 impossible, to reassemble all the facts that it would have been 
 desirable to preserve in permanent form for future reference. 
 Under these circumstances, the compiler dares not hope that 
 the following pages will prove to be devoid of errors or re- 
 
D PREFACE 
 
 grettable omissions. He does, however, most earnestly hope 
 and believe, that they have been reduced to a minimum. 
 
 To the reorganized Committee on Publication, under 
 whose guidance he has labored, he is sincerely grateful for 
 the very efficient assistance and uniform kindness they have 
 extended to him. Without their constant aid, it would, 
 indeed, have been impossible to complete the work at all. 
 
 In conclusion, may he add that it is to him a genuine 
 pleasure to have had a part, however modest, in perpetuating 
 the honorable history of his native district. 
 
 Charles J. Adams. 
 Worcester, Mass., July 1, 1914. 
 
QUABAUG 1660-1910 
 
 An Account of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth 
 Anniversary Celebration Held at 
 West Brookfield, Mass., 
 September 21, 1910. 
 
 THE two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the found- 
 ing of Brookfield was celebrated on September 21, 1910, 
 at West Brookfield, on and around the site of the first English 
 settlement in the Quabaug territory. Elaborate commem- 
 orative exercises were arranged and carried out under the 
 direction of a Joint Executive Committee elected by the 
 towns of Brookfield, West Brookfield, North Brookfield, and 
 New Braintree, the first three of which are included, together 
 with a portion of the fourth, within the limits of the original 
 Quabaug grant. 
 
 Among the various sub-committees named by this body 
 was one intrusted with the duty of preparing for publication 
 a complete account of the celebration, from the inception of 
 the idea in the imagination of a few individuals, through all 
 the preliminary stages, to its successful accomplishment on 
 the appointed day. This committee, having completed its 
 labors, offers the following narrative, in the hope not only 
 that it may serve to revive pleasant memories in the minds 
 of those who were present on the occasion, but that future 
 generations inhabiting the Quabaug townships will find it 
 not without permanent interest as an historical document. 
 
 I. Preparing the Way. 
 
 As the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the origi- 
 nal Quabaug settlement approached, the idea of making it 
 
8 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 the occasion for some sort of celebration was doubtless more 
 or less vaguely present in the minds of many, especially 
 among the older residents of the Brookfields, who could recall 
 the observance of the two hundredth anniversary, fifty years 
 before. The honor of taking the initiative in efforts looking 
 toward the materialization of the idea, however, belongs to 
 the Quabaug Historical Society, a number of whose members, 
 as early as the spring of 1909, had begun in a quiet waj r to 
 consider what could be done. 
 
 One of the most enthusiastic of these individuals was 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink, of West Brookfield, a vice-president 
 of the society, around whom much of the activity connected 
 with the preliminary movement centered. Another of the 
 vice-presidents, Hon. George K. Tufts, of New Braintree, 
 was also deeply interested from the first. "I like the idea 
 of observing the 250th anniversary of the actual beginning 
 of the Brookfields, verjr much, " he wrote, under date of April 
 27, 1909, "not merely on account of the material gain sug- 
 gested, but on account of the sentiment involved in such an 
 observance. Perhaps I am a little old-fashioned, but in 
 these days, when the idea of utility seems to be the prevailing 
 one ; a turning aside to a consideration of first principles, in 
 the way of an observance of the kind suggested, always 
 appeals to me. I can conceive of no fitter instrumentality 
 than the Historical Society, which, if I remember aright, has 
 not met since September, 1907. I do not recall the cele- 
 bration of 1860, as I was in college, but I should be very glad 
 to promote a similar one in 1910." 
 
 The president of the society, Robert Batcheller, had 
 removed his residence, a year or two previously, to the city 
 of Washington. When the suggestion was communicated 
 to him, however, his interest was immediately aroused. On 
 June 5, 1909, he wrote: "I approve of the idea as you outline 
 it, and if it is carried out I will make every effort to be pres- 
 ent. I will be responsible for a subscription of $100 to a fund 
 to carry out a celebration under a good committee. But 
 
PREPARING THE WAY 9 
 
 personally, to my regret, I cannot do much, if anything, 
 because I can be so little in or near Massachusetts. For 
 months I have felt most uncomfortable in my mind, because 
 of my continuing to hold the presidency of the Quabaug 
 Historical Society, when I have by so doing blocked the 
 wheels of its progress. I have decided to resign the presi- 
 dency therefore, and shall write at once to that effect. But 
 my interest will remain, you may be sure, and I will back 
 it up with the amount I have named, and be present if 
 possible." 
 
 Although Mr. Batcheller felt impelled to carry out his 
 threat, and did, indeed, place his resignation in the hands of 
 the society's executive committee shortly afterwards, thus 
 modestly stepping aside and permitting others to reap the 
 full glory for successfully launching the most difficult under- 
 taking ever attempted by the Historical Society, too great 
 credit cannot be accorded him for his part in making that 
 success possible. It is but simple justice to him and to the 
 cause of truth to repeat in this connection the tribute paid 
 him on another occasion by Rev. Joseph J. Spencer in the 
 preface which he prepared for the pamphlet containing Mr. 
 Batcheller's sketch of the organization and work of the 
 Quabaug Historical Society during the first five years of its 
 existence : 
 
 He speaks all too modestly about his own part in bringing 
 this Quabaug Historical Society up to its present flourishing 
 condition. There are many who realize that the largest 
 credit is due him for his unstinted efforts in behalf of the or- 
 ganization. In heat and cold, in fair weather and in foul, 
 his zeal has been unvarying and his generosity unlimited. 
 Without his liberal contributions of time, money, energy and 
 tact, much that has been of most value to us all could not 
 have been brought about. * * * He was the one person pre- 
 eminently adapted to lead in the organization of the society. 
 The unflagging interest of the meetings, the absence of tire- 
 some details of business routine, the careful management of 
 all the affairs of the society and the fostering of the spirit of 
 
10 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 genial good fellowship between the various branches of the 
 organization, have all been due to the personal oversight of 
 the president. 
 
 These are not idle words of courtesy, but express the 
 simple truth. It was with deep regret that the society ac- 
 cepted his resignation, after vainly attempting to persuade 
 him to continue in his office for another year and serve as 
 president of the day on the occasion of the celebration. But 
 while nothing could alter his belief that others were now more 
 fortunately situated to lead in the work which he had begun, 
 the inestimable value of his service through many years 
 should not be forgotten, nor the fact that his pledge of $100 
 was the first pledge of money received in connection with 
 plans for the anniversary. 
 
 After a number of informal conferences had been held, 
 the time seemed ripe for bringing the matter before the atten- 
 tion of the society as a Avhole. The first formal step was 
 taken bj^ Rev. Benson M. Frink, Carlton D. Richardson and 
 Philander Holmes, three members of the executive committee 
 from West Brookfield, who, on June 7, 1909, issued a call for 
 a meeting of the officers of the various branches of the society, 
 to be held in Grand Army Hall, West Brookfield, on the even- 
 ing of June 19. Among those present at this meeting were: 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink, Mr. and Mrs. Philander Holmes, and 
 Carlton D. Richardson, of West Brookfield; Emerson H. 
 Stoddard, of Brookfield; Alfred C. Stoddard, of North Brook- 
 field; Hon. George K. Tufts and D. Clarence Wetherell, of 
 New Braintree, and Daniel G. Hitchcock, of Warren. Rev. 
 Benson M. Frink presided, while Mrs. Philander Holmse 
 served as secretary. At this meeting the proposed celebra- 
 tion was thoroughly discussed and the prevailing sentiment 
 was at the moment in favor of extending it over an entire 
 week, with a separate old home day in each of the five towns, 
 and, on the sixth day, an elaborate joint celebration on West 
 Brookfield Common, not far from the site of the original 
 settlement. 
 
PREPARING THE WAY 11 
 
 Early in August, a second meeting was held at the same 
 place, with seventeen persons attending. The proposition 
 was again gone over, and it was voted as the sense of the 
 meeting "that the Quabaug Historical Society be the in- 
 strument or medium of taking charge of the celebration." 
 
 During the month of September, the executive com- 
 mittee held several meetings at the home of Rev. Benson M. 
 Frink, in West Brookfield, completing plans to bring the 
 entire matter before the annual meeting of the society, in 
 North Brookfield, on October 14. It was in these sessions 
 of the executive committee that the main features of the cele- 
 bration, as it was finally carried out, were gradually evolved. 
 Chief among these features were a parade, a dinner, an ad- 
 dress, and an historical pageant representing the destruction 
 of the first settlement by the Indians during King Philip's 
 War. 
 
 In connection with the historical pageant, it is of interest 
 to note that, twelve or fifteen years previously, such an affair 
 had been discussed with Carlton D. Richardson by the late 
 David F. Lincoln, of West Brookfield. Mr. Lincoln had 
 made a life-long study of the Indian history of the territory, 
 while Mr. Richardson was the owner of the farm on which 
 such a pageant would naturally be held, since the site of the 
 block house in which the settlers fortified themselves during 
 the seige was almost in his dooryard. Mr. Lincoln outlined 
 the general course that the pageant must follow, and arranged 
 many of the details. During his lifetime, no suitable occa- 
 sion presented itself, but the pageant of 1910 carried out his 
 plans so closely that it may be said to have been the work of 
 his hand and brain. 
 
 The whole matter of the proposed celebration was for- 
 mally presented to the Historical Society through its execu- 
 tive committee at the annual meeting, in North Brookfield, 
 on October 14. The principal result of this meeting was the 
 appointment of a committee to invite the co-operation of the 
 several towns. It was further voted, "that this committee 
 
12 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 interest themselves and report at an adjourned meeting, 
 inviting the selectmen of the various towns to this meeting, 
 at North Brookfield, four weeks from to-day, November 11, 
 1909." 
 
 The boards of selectmen cordially responded to the invi- 
 tation, and at the adjourned meeting gave assurance of their 
 desire to co-operate to the extent of their ability. Already 
 the plans, as outlined, were assuming considerable propor- 
 tions. The occasion was felt to be worthy of a most elaborate 
 celebration, and the expenses would necessarily be heavy. 
 As these would have to be met, in large part, if not in whole, 
 by appropriations made by the various towns, and as there 
 appeared to be some question as to the legal rights of the 
 towns to appropriate money for a joint celebration of this 
 nature, it was voted at this adjourned meeting of the society 
 to call special town meetings in each of the towns for the pur- 
 pose of petitioning the Legislature to bestow upon them such 
 rights. Hon. Theodore C. Bates, of North Brookfield, and 
 Arthur F. Butterworth, of Brookfield, were elected a com- 
 mittee to prepare the necessary legal papers. 
 
 The special town meetings were held in the spring of 
 1910. The following extract from the warrant for the meet- 
 ing in North Brookfield adequately represents them all: 
 
 Article 2. To see if the town will vote to petition the 
 General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to 
 authorize the town of North Brookfield to raise money by 
 taxation to aid and assist in paying the expenses that may be 
 incurred by the celebration and observance in the year 1910 
 of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding 
 or settlement of the original town of Brookfield, (formerly 
 called Quabaug), such celebration to be held during the year 
 1910, and to be participated in by the towns of Brookfield, 
 North Brookfield, West Brookfield, Warren, and New Brain- 
 tree, the territory now embraced in the five towns having 
 been formerly, in whole or in part, within the original grant 
 of land in the year 1660, by the Bay Colony of Massachusetts, 
 to constitute the town of Brookfield, and act thereon. 
 
PREPARING THE WAY 13 
 
 On the affirmative action of the towns interested, the 
 petitions were sent to the Legislature, and the desired per- 
 mission was speedily forthcoming. (Acts and Resolves of 
 1910, Resolves, Chapters 16, 17, 18, and 122.) At this point 
 in the proceedings, the town of Warren, feeling that its con- 
 nection with the old Quabaug township was too slight and 
 transitory to warrant participation in the celebration, with- 
 drew. The other towns, however, proceeded at later special 
 town meetings to appropriate money — Brookfield, North 
 Brookfield, and West Brookfield, $300 each, and New Brain- 
 tree, $75 — and to appoint committees, which, combined as 
 a Joint Executive Committee, should have entire charge of 
 the planning for and carrying out of the celebration. These 
 committees were as follows: 
 
 Brookfield: West Brookfield: 
 
 Frank E. Prouty JohnG. Shackley 
 
 Emerson H. Stoddard Albert W. Bliss 
 
 Arthur F. Butterworth Philander Holmes 
 
 William Mulcahy Carlton D. Richardson 
 
 Arthur H. Drake Rev. Benson M. Frink 
 
 North Brookfield : New Braintree : 
 
 Hon. Theodore C. Bates Hon. George K. Tufts 
 
 Thomas G. Richards D. Clarence Wetherell 
 
 Harold A. Foster J. Thomas Webb 
 
 Patrick J. Daniels Charles S. Lane 
 
 Alfred C. Stoddard James E. Barr 
 
 On the permanent organization of this committee, 
 somewhat later, Hon. Theodore C. Bates was elected chair- 
 man, Harold A. Foster, secretary, and Philander Holmes, 
 treasurer. 
 
 To these gentlemen, officers and members of the joint 
 executive committee, is due the warmest gratitude of the 
 towns and the highest credit for the success of the celebration. 
 Their unsparing expenditure of time and energy, their con- 
 spicuous ability, and the absolute harmony with which they 
 labored, often under trying circumstances, in the faithful 
 
14 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 performance of their arduous duties, have written their names 
 high on the list of our towns' efficient, unselfish, and patriotic 
 public servants. 
 
 The first meeting of this committee was held on June 
 27, 1910, in the Selectmen's Room at the Town House in 
 West Brookfield, which town was selected as the committee's 
 regular place of meeting. In the twelve weeks that inter- 
 vened between this date and the day of the celebration, 
 September 21, fourteen meetings were held, at least one of 
 them lasting practically all day. The briefest glance at the 
 records of these meetings suffices to indicate the vast variety 
 and multiplicity of the business transacted. 
 
 The celebration, as it gradually took shape during the 
 deliberations of these gentlemen, was to consist of a parade 
 in West Brookfield village; an historical pageant on Foster's 
 Hill, representing the Indian attack on the first settlement 
 and its burning in 1675; a dinner on West Brookfield Com- 
 mon, and an oration, with other literary and musical features 
 suitable to the occasion. Each of these features was placed 
 in the hands of a sub-committee, while still other sub-com- 
 mittees were appointed to invite notable guests, attend to 
 their reception, provide an exhibit of historic relics, organize 
 a bureau of information, and arrange for other details in con- 
 nection with the events of the day. These committees were 
 made up as follows: 
 
 Literary Committee: 
 
 Hon. George K. Tufts, New Braintree, Chairman. 
 Hon. Theodore C. Bates, North Brookfield. 
 Rev. Benson M. Prink, West Brookfield. 
 Rev. William L. Walsh, Brookfield. 
 
 Committee on Tents and Dinner: 
 
 Carlton D. Richardson, West Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Thomas G. Richards, North Brookfield. 
 William Mulcahy, Brookfield. 
 James E. Barr, New Braintree. 
 
preparing the way 15 
 
 Committee on Music: 
 
 John G. Shackley, West Brookfielcl, Chairman. 
 Alfred C. Stoddard, North Brookfield. 
 Charles S. Lane, New Braintree. 
 Arthur F. Butterworth, Brookfield. 
 
 Committee on Printing Invitations: 
 
 Thomas G. Richards, North Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink, West Brookfield. 
 Emerson H. Stoddard, Brookfield. 
 D. Clarence Wetherell, New Braintree. 
 
 Committee on Inviting Notable Guests: 
 
 Hon. T. C. Bates, North Brookfield, Chairman 
 Hon. George K. Tufts, New Braintree. 
 Arthur F. Butterworth, Brookfield. 
 John G. Shackley, West Brookfield. 
 
 Committee on Parade: 
 
 J. Thomas Webb, New Braintree, Chairman. 
 Philander Holmes, West Brookfield. 
 William Mulcahy, Brookfield. 
 Patrick J. Daniels, North Brookfield. 
 
 Committee on Programme : 
 
 Hon. T. C. Bates, North Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink, West Brookfield. 
 Arthur F. Butterworth, Brookfield. 
 James E. Barr, New Braintree. 
 
 Committee on Locating Tents on Common: 
 
 Carlton D. Richardson, West Brookfield, Chairman. 
 John G. Shackley, West Brookfield. 
 Albert W. Bliss, West Brookfield. 
 Philander Holmes, West Brookfield. 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink, West Brookfield. 
 
 Committee on School Children: 
 
 Emerson H. Stoddard, Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Alfred C. Stoddard, North Brookfield. 
 Philander Holmes, West Brookfield. 
 Hon. George K. Tufts, New Braintree. 
 
16 two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
 
 Committee on Bagdes: 
 
 John G. Shackley, West Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Carlton D. Richardson, West Brookfield. 
 D. Clarence Wetherell, New Braintree. 
 
 Committee on Relics: 
 
 Albert W. Bliss, West Brookfield. 
 
 Bureau of Information: 
 
 Albert W. Bliss, West Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Emerson H. Stoddard, Brookfield. 
 D. Clarence Wetherell, New Braintree. 
 Harold A. Foster, North Brookfield. 
 
 Reception Committee: 
 
 Hon. T. C. Bates, North Brookfield, Chairman. 
 
 The Reception Committee was made up of a large 
 number of ladies and gentlemen from the four towns 
 whose names will be found in Appendix A. 
 
 Committee on Publication of Proceedings of the Day: 
 
 Hon. T. C. Bates, North Brookfield, Chairman. 
 Hon. George K. Tufts, New Braintree. 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink, West Brookfield. 
 Arthur F. Butterworth, Brookfield. 
 Harold A. Foster, North Brookfield. 
 
 Between the date of the celebration and the actual be- 
 ginning of the labors of the Committee on Publication, three 
 of its members — Hon. Theodore C. Bates, Hon. George K. 
 Tufts, and Rev. Benson M. Frink — passed away. Mr. Bates 
 was succeeded by Alfred C. Stoddard, of North Brookfield; 
 Mr. Tufts, by D. Clarence Wetherell, of New Braintree, and 
 Mr. Frink, by Carlton D. Richardson, of West Brookfield. 
 On the reorganization of the committee, Mr. Stoddard was 
 elected chariman. 
 
 One of the first acts of the Joint Executive Committee 
 was the election of its chairman, Hon. Theodore C. Bates, 
 of North Brookfield, as President of the Day, with the fol- 
 lowing vice-presidents: Hon. George K. Tufts, of New Brain- 
 
Hon. Theodore C. Bates 
 
PREPARING THE WAY 17 
 
 tree; Rev. Beuson M. Frink, of West Brookfield, and Arthur 
 
 F. Butterworth, of Brookfield. Hon. Roger Foster, of New 
 York, a descendent of the ancient family from which Foster's 
 Hill takes its name, was secured as the principal orator, while 
 brief addresses were also promised by His Excellency, Gov- 
 ernor Eben S. Draper, of Massachusetts; Congressman 
 Frederic H. Gillette, of Springfield; Congressman Charles 
 
 G. Washburn, of Worcester, and Mayor James Logan, of 
 Worcester. Mme. Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller, the gifted 
 daughter of Hon. Theodore C. Bates, consented to sing, and 
 arrangements were made for a chorus of school-children 
 from the four towns, under the direction of Dana J. Pratt, 
 of Worcester. As chief marshal of the parade, Carlton D. 
 Richardson, of West Brookfield, was elected. 
 
 One of the happiest thoughts of the committee was the 
 invitation extended to the Quabaug Tribe of Red Men, of 
 West Brookfield, to participate as Indian warriors in the 
 sham battle on Foster's Hill, and the cordial co-operation 
 of this organization was one of the chief factors in assuring 
 the success of the pageant. 
 
 Among the gracious actions of the committee, which 
 should be mentioned as affording a pleasant indication that 
 its members were no less appreciative of the courtesies suit- 
 able to the occasion than of such duties as tended merely to 
 efficiency, was the extending of an invitation to Mr. Ezra D. 
 Batcheller, of North Brookfield, the only living member of 
 the executive committee in charge of the two hundredth 
 anniversary celebration, fifty years before, to be the guest 
 of the committee. A similar invitation was extended to 
 Mrs. Lyman Whiting, whose husband, the late Rev. Dr. 
 Lyman Whiting, delivered the oration at the two hundredth 
 anniversary celebration. The invitations were accepted, 
 and both Mr. Batcheller and Mrs. Whiting were present. 
 
 The committee also undertook a strenuous campaign 
 of advertising. Frequent articles, historical as well as of a 
 purely advertising nature, appeared in various newspapers 
 
The dndbrsignbd, a Oomsiittkb elected by thb 
 
 Towns of Bhookpibld, North Brookpield, 
 
 West Brookfibld and New Braintrhe cordially 
 
 invite you with your friends, to join us on 
 
 W EDNESDAY, SePTEMBEB !lfXsT, 1*3X0 
 
 IN CELEBRATING AT 
 
 West Brookfield 
 
 Xwo Hundred and X djtieth Anniversary 
 
 of the Settlement or Founding of the 
 
 Town of Brookfield, (Quabaug,) Mass. 
 
 1660 1910 
 
 i:\ECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 Brookfibld North Brookfibld 
 
 frank e. prouty 
 emerson h. stoddard 
 arthur f. butter worth 
 william muloahy 
 arthur h. drake 
 
 West Brookfield 
 john q. shaokley 
 albert w. bliss 
 philander holmes 
 carlton d. richardson 
 rev. benson m. fr1xk 
 
 hon. theodore c. bates 
 
 Cd\iiiji.i.\ 
 
 hon. theodore c. bates 
 thomas g. richards 
 harold a. foster 
 patrick j. daniels 
 alfred o. stoddard 
 
 New Braintrbb 
 hon. george k. tufts 
 d. clarence wetherell 
 .1. thomas webb 
 charles s. lane 
 james b. barr 
 
 harold a. foster 
 
 Sborbtaky 
 
PREPARING THE WAY 19 
 
 of Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, as well as in the local 
 press. In this work the foremost place was taken by Hon. 
 Theodore C. Bates and Frederick M. Ashby, of North Brook- 
 field. In addition, posters were put up in all conspicuous 
 places and otherwise scattered broadcast throughout the 
 region, circulars were issued, and hundreds of letters written. 
 
 So, all through the summer of 1910, no effort was spared 
 to pave the way for the biggest and most successful celebra- 
 tion ever held in the Quabaug territory. As the plans ma- 
 tured, public enthusiasm steadily increased. On September 
 18, the Sunday immediately preceding the anniversary, 
 special services were held, on the invitation of the committee, 
 in most of the churches of the four towns. At these services, 
 the higher lessons of patriotism, civic morality and religious 
 duty were dwelt upon, and the brave story of the past was 
 employed to inspire profound gratitude in the hearts of the 
 hearers, a deeper faith in the divine leadership, and a more 
 vivid consciousness of personal obligation to advance the 
 nobler ends of living. Through the kindness of the superin- 
 tendents and teachers of the public schools, a day was also 
 set apart for special historical and patriotic exercises in the 
 schools. 
 
 Monday and Tuesday were, for the members of the 
 Joint Executive Committee, doubtless, the most strenuous 
 days of their lives. With a thousand last things to be done, 
 there was scarcely time to crowd in a brief meeting, the last 
 held by the committee previous to the long-awaited event. 
 "Members of the General Committee" — so runs the laconic 
 report of the secretary — "announced that the arrangements 
 for the following day were progressing rapidly; and, as the 
 members were busy making final arrangements, it was voted 
 to adjourn to the call of the chairman. " 
 
 It may be doubted whether the members of the com- 
 mittee went to bed at all that night, or, if they did, whether, 
 with brains still working at fever heat in the vain endeavor 
 to detect a single detail that had been overlooked, they caught 
 
20 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 a wink of sleep. But the other residents of the Quabaug 
 townships, knowing full well in whom of their fellow-citizens 
 they had placed their trust, went calmly to their beds, their 
 only anxiety in the world being some apprehension as to the 
 possible antics of the weather-man. 
 
 II. The Parade. 
 
 If the aforesaid weather-man had been a native of Brook- 
 field and had devoted all his life to practicing the difficult 
 art of producing a perfect day for the celebration of his mother 
 town's quarter-millenium, he could not have compassed a 
 more brilliant success. In the early gray of the morning, a 
 heavy shower of rain cleared the air and laid the dust upon 
 the country roads. No wonder the face of the rising sun 
 beamed with satisfaction, for wherever he looked upon the 
 Quabaug landscape, field and hill, highway and byway, 
 farmstead and village-home, shone clean and fresh from its 
 matutinal ablutions, while his bright rays agreeably tempered 
 the crisp air of autumn. 
 
 In every village, too, he found a profusion of gay bunt- 
 ing; for not only the public buildings, but many of the private 
 residences as well, proudly returned his gaze, as though con- 
 scious of the brave apparel in which the decorator had 
 adorned them. 
 
 From the spires of the four villages, the merry peal of 
 sunrise bells proclaimed the dawning of the gala day. Hardly 
 had they ceased, when from the remotest outposts of the dis- 
 trict each house and hamlet began to send out little groups 
 of pilgrims, all wending toward the center of the day's festi- 
 vities. The scene must have reminded the ghosts of the long- 
 ago dwellers in the land — if any such were lurking in the 
 morning twilight — of that autumn day in 1740, when the 
 roads for miles around were dotted with little knots of folk 
 journeying up to Foster's Hill to hear George Whitefield 
 preach. Here and there, too — in striking contrast with the 
 

THE PARADE 21 
 
 sober appearance of the earlier pilgrims — were gaily decora- 
 ted floats, companies of red-shirted firemen with their shining 
 apparatus, and everywhere bevies of maidens clad in festive 
 raiment that their great-great-grandmothers would have 
 opened wide their eyes to gaze on. 
 
 Every means of egress to West Brookfield — highway, 
 trolley road, steam railway — poured in its living stream. By 
 eight o'clock, the Common and the surrounding streets were 
 filled with happy throngs. The village was even braver in 
 bunting than its sister villages. Old Glory waved from 
 countless windows, or was twined in various shapes across 
 the house-fronts, while side by side with emblems carrying 
 the mind back to the infancy of the country were banners 
 bearing the portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and the Pres- 
 ident of the hour, William H. Taft. So was the past linked 
 visibly with the present, and the patriotism that looks with 
 pride to a famous history joined with the living love and 
 loyalty that are the truest presage of a future no less glorious. 
 
 Mammoth tents pitched on the northern portion of the 
 Common added their gay decorations to the swelling sym- 
 phony of color. The largest of these, two hundred and fifty 
 feet long, was to be used for the literary and musical features 
 of the afternoon, while two more, each one hundred feet in 
 length, were to house the multitudes at dinner. A smaller 
 one nearby served as the headquarters of the caterer and his 
 little army of assistants. Still another was occupied by the 
 Bureau of Information. 
 
 If the Man in the Moon had dropped down upon the 
 scene at that early morning hour, he might well have felt 
 some bewilderment as to the precise historical era on which 
 he had lighted. In addition to the spectators, there were, 
 to be sure, hundreds of school children, all excitement in 
 anticipation of the coming parade, whose pretty attire was 
 plainly that of the twentieth century. But there were many 
 others who were to take part in the parade as Colonials, and 
 their quaint garments contrasted strangely with the frills 
 
22 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 and gaudy ribbons of the present. The suggestion they 
 afforded of Colonial days was heightened, too, by the pre- 
 sence in the crowd of members of the Quabaug Tribe of Red 
 Men, in full paint and feathers, whose part in the parade was 
 overshadowed by the conspicuous role they were to play in 
 the sham battle afterwards. Finally, the era of the Civil 
 War was represented by the blue uniforms of the Grand Army 
 veterans. Altogether it was a motley throng, whose endless 
 variety added much to the charm of the spectacle. 
 
 Soon after eight o'clock, the parade began to form, and 
 the masterly way in which orderly arrangement was grad- 
 ually wrought out of apparent chaos testified to the com- 
 manding generalship of the chief marshal, Carlton D. Rich- 
 ardson, and his aides. These were: Alfred C. Stoddard and 
 John P. Ranger, of North Brookfield; Walter A. Putnam and 
 I. Walter Moore, of Warren; Judge Henry E. Cottle and 
 George A. Putney, of Brookfield; Charles S. Lane and Charles 
 M. Daily, of New Braintree, and Robert Converse, John J. 
 Mulvey, Dr. Windsor R. Smith, Martin Walsh and Alfred 
 C. White, of West Brookfield. The parade formed at the 
 north end of the Common, on School and North Main Streets, 
 the line extending the entire length of School street and down 
 North Main street to a point beyond the Town Hall. The 
 following description of the procession, based upon a news- 
 paper account of the celebration, preserves a vivid picture 
 of the spectacle. 
 
 The parade was headed by the Chief Marshal and his 
 aides. Then came the Worcester Brass Band, followed by 
 a coach trimmed in purple and white, driven by Leon H. 
 Adams, and bearing the colors of the North Brookfield High 
 School. The coach was followed by seventy-five North 
 Brookfield High School pupils, led by William Mahoney, pres- 
 ident of the senior class. Each pupil carried a purple and 
 white banner. Then came two hundred pupils, dressed in 
 white, of grades 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, North Brookfield public 
 schools. The Brookfield High School Cadets, eighteen mem- 
 bers, followed, under the command of Captain R. S. Clough, 
 
THE PARADE 23 
 
 and behind them were 150 pupils of the graded schools of 
 Brookfield, West Brookfield and New Braintree. 
 
 Following the school children was a float representing 
 the Merriam Public Library, of West Brookfield. It was in 
 the form of a mammoth Webster's Dictionary, which work 
 was originally published in West Brookfield, and on it rode 
 B. S. Beeman and Harold Chesson, trustees of the library. 
 
 The Ezra Batcheller Post, G. A. R., of North Brookfield, 
 twenty-two members, followed, under Commander G. T. 
 Webber, and next were the Sons of Veterans, of North Brook- 
 field, under Captain Colby H. Johnson. 
 
 Then came a carriage, in which rode Edward Haskins, 
 Charles Allen and Joseph Malloy, selectmen of West Brook- 
 field, and Town Clerk Dwight Fairbanks, of the same town. 
 
 They were followed by the Holmes Steamer Company, 
 of North Brookfield, forty-two men in uniform, under Chief 
 Engineer Harold A. Foster, and behind them were two pieces 
 of apparatus, the Holmes steamer, driven by John Mattoon, 
 and the Ezra Batcheller Hook and Ladder truck, decorated 
 in red, white, and blue, and driven by Eugene McCarthy. 
 
 The Brookfield Fire Engineers came next, Edward F. 
 Delaney, Albert H. Bellows and Robert G. Livermore, in a 
 carriage, followed by Steamer Company No. 2, of Brook- 
 field, eighteen men, and the steamer. The members of the 
 company wore dark trousers, white shirts, and red, white 
 and blue neckties, and carried canes. The steamer was driv- 
 en by Eddie Whitney. 
 
 After them came the West Brookfield Fire Department, 
 twenty-two men, under command of Foreman John P. 
 Cregan, and Fire Engineers George N. Sanford and George 
 H. Boothby. The hand-tub "American," of West Brookfield, 
 built in 1855, was driven by W. H. Bruce, while Henry W. 
 Bartlett drove the Fullam Hook and Ladder truck, of West 
 Brookfield. 
 
 The Quabaug Corset Company's float, of West Brook- 
 field, was driven by Nicholas Dickson. It was decorated in 
 pink and blue, and carried twenty-six young women clad in 
 white. 
 
 Next was the float of the Oxford Linen Mills, of North 
 Brookfield, decorated in drab and white. It was drawn by 
 four handsome horses, one pair of which was owned by John 
 J. Brosnihan, while the other was owned by Patrick Delargy, 
 who acted as driver. 
 
24 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 This, in turn, was followed by the grocery float of Ed- 
 son & Woodward, of West Brookfield, driven by Frederick 
 L. Woodward, and bearing on its sides the inscription: " 1660- 
 1910. Committee for the Celebration of the 300th Anniver- 
 sary of the Settlement of Quabaug. " The "committee" 
 consisted of a group of school children, dressed in white, 
 pupils of the first and second grades of the public schools of 
 West Brookfield, taught by Miss Alice J. White. (For the 
 names of these children and the unusual record of their teach- 
 er, see Appendix G.) 
 
 The float of the Sikes Ice Company was driven by Alva 
 Sikes. Behind it came a yoke of small steers drawing a min- 
 iature ox- wagon loaded with vegetables and driven by W. S. 
 Lincoln. Mrs. Homer B. Childs followed, driving a butter 
 and tea wagon decorated with the national colors. 
 
 Next was the float of the E. M. Converse grocery store, 
 decorated with flags and bunting, and driven by Mr. 
 Converse. The Alonzo Gilbert Grain Company's float was 
 driven by Charles Tyler, and that of the White Sewing Ma- 
 chine Company, decorated in tinsel and white, by Joel 
 Richards. 
 
 Then came the floats of the various Granges. That of 
 the Quaboag Pomona Grange was decorated in white and 
 gold, and carried twelve girls dressed in white. It was driven 
 by Arlo P. Parker, of Brimfield. 
 
 The float of the North Brookfield Grange was decorated 
 in white and gold, with trimmings made of vegetables and 
 fruits. It was driven by Albert L. Woodis and carried 
 twelve members of the Grange. 
 
 The float of the Brookfield Grange, driven by Elbert L. 
 Bemis, carried fourteen members. That of the New Brain- 
 tree Grange, decorated in white and gold, and driven by J. 
 Arthur Barr, had thirteen passengers. 
 
 The Warren Grange had a float driven by Charles E. 
 Rice and Nathan E. Ball. It was trimmed with flags, bunt- 
 ing and evergreen, and carried twelve women dressed in 
 white. 
 
 The float of the West Brookfield Grange had upon it a 
 log cabin, in which was seated Keyes Cutler, eighty-eight 
 years old, the oldest male resident of the town. The float 
 was drawn by two yoke of oxen in charge of Asa Walker and 
 Francis S. Beeman. The decorations were of evergreen. 
 The Women's Degree team, of West Brookfield, had a 
 
THE PARADE 25 
 
 float decorated in white and driven by Frank Bridges. 
 
 A carriage decorated with flowers and containing mem- 
 bers of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union came 
 next, and was followed by a wagonette decorated in white, 
 driven by E. D. Allen and containing members of the Dis- 
 trict Nurses Association: Misses Margaret Blair, Marion 
 Blodgett, Mary Campion, Susan Bill, Annie Fitzgerald, 
 Marguerite Fales, Anna O'Day and Florence Benson. Next 
 was a wagonette trimmed with red, white, and blue, and 
 driven by Charles Simpson. It contained Irving Breed, 
 Mrs. Henry Harper, Elsie Bemis, Evie Carlton and Flora 
 Nelson, members of Friendship Lodge N. E. O. P., of Brook- 
 field. 
 
 The float of the Lashawa Tribe, I. O. R. M., of East 
 Brookfield, followed. It was arranged to represent an Indian 
 camp, with wigwam, tripod, kettle and forest scenery, and 
 was driven by Paul Cummings. 
 
 Behind it came the float of the Quaboag Tribe, I.O.R.M., 
 of West Brookfield, driven by Arthur Cutler. Forty mem- 
 bers of the tribe, in Indian dress and fully painted, accom- 
 panied it, and were followed by twenty other members in 
 white duck trousers and black coats and carrying canes. 
 
 Next came a pony phaeton, drawn by a Shetland pony, 
 the property of Charles Shepard, of Warren. In the phaeton 
 were Charles Shepard, Ruth Shepard, Lenthal K. Shumway 
 and Margaret N. Shumway, of Warren, dressed as Indian 
 children, while A. E. Shumway, also in Indian costume, 
 marched at the pony's head. 
 
 The last float in the line was that of the J. A. White 
 Overall Company, of North Brookfield. It was trimmed 
 with purple and white asters and was driven by Edward 
 Ledger, with thirty young women as passengers. 
 
 The rear of the parade was brought up by a lumber 
 wagon, containing an old bedstead and mattress, on which 
 reclined J. P. Morgan, E. J. Ducy, and R. L. Gould, while 
 placards attached to the sides of the wagon read: "Board of 
 Trade," "Not Dead but Sleeping," "We Are Hustlers, 
 What?" and "Oh— hum." Fastened behind the wagon 
 was another containing a hogshead surmounted by an old 
 iron pump. On the hogshead was a placard reading, " West 
 Brookfield Water Works. Pulling the Plug." On this 
 wagon rode Frederick Potter. 
 
26 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Nine o'clock had hardly struck when, prompt almost to 
 the advertised minute, the procession moved. The line of 
 march was down Main Street to Cross street, thence to Ware 
 street, on to Central street, and so back to Main street and 
 around the Common. When the command was given to 
 halt, the line extended in a loop from the Town Hall, around 
 the entire circumference of the Common, back to the Town 
 Hall, a distance of nearly a mile. The line countermarched 
 around the small Common, and effected its disbanding with 
 an entire absence of confusion or congestion at any point. 
 
 III. The Pageant on Foster's Hill 
 
 No sooner was the parade disbanded than the throngs of 
 spectators began to stream across the fields and along the 
 road leading to Foster's Hill, where was made the first settle- 
 ment of white men in the Quabaug territory. Here the most 
 elaborate spectacle of the day was to take place, namely, a 
 mimic representation of the Indian attack upon the fortified 
 block house, and its stubborn defense by the settlers and 
 Captain Wheeler's soldiers, in 1675. Familiar as is the story 
 of that most tragic chapter in the history of Brookfield, a 
 brief survey of its leading features will help the reader to 
 appreciate the significance of the drama played out there two 
 hundred and thirty-five years later. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1675 that the bloody struggle 
 known as King Philip's War broke out. Early in the con- 
 flict, the Quabaug Indians assumed a threatening aspect. 
 In order to discover and thwart their plans and, if possible, 
 to conclude with them a new treaty of peace, Captain Hutch- 
 inson and Captain Wheeler, with a little body of soldiers and 
 three Brookfield men, proceeded to a rendezvous near the 
 head of Wickaboag Pond. This was on the second day of 
 August. As the Indians, however, did not appear, the white 
 men, in the hope of meeting them, marched two or three 
 miles farther up the valley, toward King Philip's camp, which 
 
w 
 
THE PAGEANT ON FOSTER'S HILL 27 
 
 was near the Indian villages. The wily savages, having thus 
 drawn their victims into an ambush, suddenly set upon them. 
 Several of the white men were slain, and the survivors, after 
 a desperate rally, were driven back in disastrous rout. 
 
 "Being got to the town," says Captain Wheeler in his 
 famous narrative of the occurence, "we speedily betook our- 
 selves to one of the largest and strongest houses therein, 
 where we fortified ourselves in the best manner we could in 
 such straits of time, and there resolved to keep garrison, 
 though we were but few, and meanly 'fitted to make resis- 
 tance against so furious enemies. The news of the Indians' 
 treacherous dealing with us, and the loss of so many of our 
 company thereby, did so amaze the inhabitants of the town, 
 that they being informed thereof by us, presently left their 
 houses, divers of them carrying very little away with them, 
 they being afraid of the Indians sudden coming upon them; 
 and so came to the house we were entered into, very meanly 
 provided of clothing or furnished with provisions." The 
 Indians were, indeed, hard on their heels, burning the de- 
 serted houses as they came, slaughtering cattle, and destroy- 
 ing whatever else their hands could find to wreak their fury 
 on. In the siege that followed, several of the defenders were 
 slain. Efforts were made by the Indians to burn the fortified 
 house, and one of these attempts would have succeeded, but 
 for a providential shower of rain. 
 
 On the second day of the siege, as Wheeler tells us, many 
 of the Indians "went to the town's meeting-house, (which 
 was within twenty rods of the house in which we were), who 
 mocked saying, come and pray, and sing psalms, and in con- 
 tempt made an hideous noise somewhat resembling singing. " 
 On the third day, "the Indians fortified themselves at the 
 meeting-house, and the barn, belonging to our house. " The 
 outcome could not much longer have been in doubt, had not 
 Major Willard, unexpectedly arriving from the eastward 
 with reinforcements, put the savages to flight. Says Cap- 
 tain Wheeler: 
 
28 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 When they (the Indians) saw their divers designs unsuc- 
 cessful and their hopes therein disappointed, they then fired 
 the house and barn (wherein they had before kept to lie in 
 wait to surprise any coming to us) that by the light thereof 
 they might the better direct their shot at us, but no hurt was 
 done thereby, praised be the Lord. And not long after they 
 burnt the meeting-house wherein their fortifications were, 
 as also the barn, which belonged to our house, and so per- 
 ceiving more strength come to our assistance, they did, as 
 we suppose, despair of effecting any more mischief against 
 us. And therefore the greatest part of them, towards the 
 breaking of the day, August the fifth, went away and left us, 
 and we were quiet from any further molestations by them. 
 
 Preparations for the representation of this stirring drama 
 had been most carefully made. Chief Marshal Carlton D. 
 Richardson played the role of Captain Hutchinson, while 
 that of Captain Wheeler was taken by Walter A. Putnam, of 
 Warren. The names of those who served as troopers under 
 their command will be found in Appendix B. Alfred C. 
 Stoddard, of North Brookfield, represented Major Willard, 
 and his chief assistant, Judge Henry E. Cottle, of Brookfield, 
 impersonated Captain Parker, of Groton. A list of those 
 who acted as troopers under them is given in Appendix C. 
 
 Willard's party was the first to leave West Brookfield 
 village, at the close of the morning's parade, as this party 
 was to ride by the new road to Brookfield, in order to make 
 its historic dash from the eastward, over the summit of Fos- 
 ter's Hill, to the rescue of the besieged settlers. 
 
 Then those who were to take part, both men and women, 
 as settlers (see Appendix D) stationed themselves in and 
 around the rude structures that had been erected near the 
 crest of the hill to represent the homes of the first inhabitants. 
 The members of the Quabaug Tribe of Red Men, too, who 
 were to participate in the pageant as Indian warriors, (see 
 Appendix F) prepared for the fray. The main body of 
 braves, on horseback, taking the main road toward Brook- 
 field, turned in to the fields at the farm of Sumner H, Reed, 
 
THE PAGEANT ON FOSTER'S HILL 29 
 
 and proceeded toward the top of the hill, whence, at the 
 proper time, they could dash down upon the fortified house, 
 which was erected on the old highway, close by the home of 
 Carlton D. Richardson. They were under the command of 
 Chiefs John J. Fitzgerald, David H. Robinson and William 
 McCune, while a smaller body, on foot, under Chiefs Henry 
 H. Flagg and Clarence W. S. Allen, made ready to trail the 
 troopers under Captains Hutchinson and Wheeler up the 
 old hill road, by which the whites were supposed to be re- 
 treating from the rout above Wickaboag Pond. 
 
 When all was in readiness, the horsemen under Carlton 
 D. Richardson and Walter A. Putnam, representing respec- 
 tively Hutchinson and Wheeler, left the village. At the foot 
 of the hill, however, they encountered an unforeseen obstacle. 
 The roadway and the bordering grass plats, from wall to wall, 
 were crowded with a solid mass of people, afoot and in car- 
 riages, slowly climbing to points of vantage higher up. The 
 proposed wild gallop up the hill would have been, under the 
 circumstances, not merely hazardous, but, for the moment, 
 quite impossible. A glance behind revealed the stream of 
 spectators extending backward into the village as far as the 
 eye could reach. To delay until all these people had climbed 
 the hill would be disastrous and have resulted, probably, in 
 the rescuing party under Major Willard reaching the fortified 
 house before the siege had begun. But Captain Hutchinson 
 — that is to say, Chief Marshal Richardson — was equal to 
 the occasion. At an order from him, the leaders of his party 
 wheeled their horses across the road, interrupting the stream 
 of spectators and holding those behind in check until those 
 in front had advanced so far that it would be safe for the 
 horsemen to begin their desperate flight up the hill. 
 
 Another word from the commander, and the flight was 
 on. As the troopers swept along, the savages, who were 
 skulking behind trees and walls on either side of the road, 
 fired their muskets. The volley was returned by the flying 
 horsemen, and the battle was begun in earnest. From that 
 
30 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 moment until the pageant closed, there was scarcely a moment 
 when the stricken air was silent. Terrified by the firing and 
 the sight of the galloping horsemen, with the Red Men in 
 pursuit, the settlers, hastily leaving their homes, fled with 
 what speed they could, men, women and children, to the shel- 
 ter of the fortified house and of the church hard by, while 
 the Indians, closing in behind and pressing steadily on, paused 
 in their shooting only long enough to set fire to the abandoned 
 dwellings as they passed. Soon the lurid mass of flame and 
 smoke ascending from the top of the hill must have presented 
 from a distance a spectacle almost precisely similar to that 
 of two hundred and thirty-five years before, while the shrieks 
 of besieged and besiegers, rising above the cracking of mus- 
 ketry, added much to the vividness of the presentation. 
 
 By the time the last frightened settler had reached the 
 comparative safety of the church and fort, a new terror was 
 added by the sight of the main body of Indians, who now 
 made their appearance, sweeping down across the field oppo- 
 site, sheltering themselves behind Indian Rock, and showing 
 unmistakably by their actions that they meant no less a mis- 
 chief than an attack in force upon the two buildings within 
 which the Quabaug folk had taken refuge. Thereupon, 
 the church was hurriedly abandoned and the defense concen- 
 trated within the stouter walls of the block-house. 
 
 And now event followed event in swift succession, as 
 within the space of a brief half-hour was played out the dra- 
 ma that history prolonged over the course of three days. 
 The Indians, despairing of taking the fortified house by im- 
 mediate assault, drew closer the lines of the siege. Soon the 
 whites, shut up within the fort, discovered to their dismay 
 that the last drop of water was gone. To relieve their grow- 
 ing distress from thirst, John P. Ranger, impersonating 
 Major Wilson, crept forth from the house in an effort to 
 reach the well. Chief Macuin, crouching behind Indian 
 Rock, spied him, fired, and, as Wilson fell, cried out exult- 
 antly, "Me kill Major Wilson!" 
 
THE PAGEANT ON FOSTER'S HILL 31 
 
 Emboldened by this stroke of fortune, the Indians, who 
 had been constantly drawing closer in around their prey, 
 began a fresh attack from behind the stone wall across the 
 road. Sumner H. Reed, in the role of a savage warrior, 
 attempted to set fire to the house by shooting burning arrows. 
 The effort failed, but it had served to inspire the Indians with 
 a fresh idea. Seizing upon a load of hay that stood in the 
 yard, they fired it, and, pushing the blazing mass against the 
 building, tried in this way to burn the last remaining strong- 
 hold of their victims. It was at this point that, as history 
 relates, a sudden shower came to the rescue of the white men. 
 But as history seldom, if ever, repeats itself, it was left, on 
 the day of the pageant, for the settlers themselves to extin- 
 guisg the flames through the heroic exertions of Captain 
 Hutchinson and his little band of trusty followers. 
 
 And now the last day of the siege was supposed to have 
 arrived. The firing was well nigh incessant and the de- 
 struction of the little garrison appeared imminent. Ima- 
 ginary night drew on, and with its coming the last hopes of 
 the settlers vanished. The Indians, sure now of their prey, 
 grew bolder. But just as they were preparing to make the 
 last fierce rush, that would undoubtedly have carried the 
 fortification, they were startled by the sound of galloping 
 horses. Before they could change their front, the body of 
 rescuers under Major Willard and Captain Parker, imper- 
 sonated by Alfred C. Stoddard and Judge Henry E. Cottle 
 respectively, dashed in from the east, firing as they came. 
 The main body of savages, perceiving themselves now over- 
 matched in strength, wavered, broke, and fled across the 
 mowing and over the hilltop whence they had descended. 
 This flight of the Red Men afforded one of the most vivid 
 touches in the whole pageant, as Major Willard's horsemen, 
 pursuing with an impetuosity that had not been counted on, 
 all but rode down some of the braves on foot, who scrambled 
 over the last dividing wall with an extraordinary display of 
 agility. 
 
32 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Meanwhile, the smaller body of Indians, cheated of 
 their prey, took what vengeance they could by setting fire 
 to the church. Then, with a few parting shots, they retreated 
 — not toward a wilderness, such as swallowed up their an- 
 cestors in the far-off past, but toward the hospitable dinner 
 tents erected in the modern village, whither, the day being 
 saved and many a stomach testifjdng to the approach of noon, 
 they were speedily followed by the victorious settlers and 
 the vast throng of spectators. 
 
 IV. The Dinner. 
 
 The Joint Executive Committee in charge of the cele- 
 bration had done everything within its power to ascertain 
 in advance the number of persons who desire to be served at 
 dinner in the tents. Notices had been enclosed with every 
 invitation, and otherwise distributed, which contained the 
 following paragraph, couched in no uncertain terms: "Every 
 person receiving an invitation to attend this celebration will 
 please promptly acknowledge its receipt, by mail, to the Sec- 
 retary, or to some other member of the Executive Committee, 
 plainly writing his or her name and address, in full, and state 
 how many Dinner Tickets he or she may want reserved for 
 himself or herself and family or friends, so that adequate 
 provision may be made for all." To the failure of hundreds 
 of people to comply with this request, and to this alone, is 
 due the fact that adequate provision was not made. No 
 suspicion of blame can justly attach to the Committee. The 
 provision was ample, indeed, for a considerably greater num- 
 ber than replied to the above notice, but not for so many as 
 expected to be served, when the dinner hour arrived on the 
 gala day. 
 
 The records of the Committee show that 834 dinners 
 were served, in addition to the lunches for the school children. 
 The following excellent menu was prepared and served by 
 Keith, of Warren, at $1 a plate: 
 
THE LITERARY AND MUSICAL PROGRAM 33 
 
 
 Canteloupe 
 
 
 
 Roast Turkey 
 
 
 
 Cranberry Sauce 
 
 
 Roast Beef 
 
 
 Cold Ham 
 
 Mashed Potatoes 
 
 Squash 
 
 Sliced Tomatoes 
 
 Sliced Cucumbers 
 Salmon Salad 
 
 Celery 
 
 Salad Rolls 
 
 French Rolls 
 
 Apple Pie 
 
 Ice Cream 
 
 Assorted Cakes 
 
 Fruit 
 
 Squash Pie 
 
 Coffee 
 
 Quabaug Spring Water 
 
 The hotels and restaurants in West Brookfield did a 
 thriving business, while scores of persons journeyed by trol- 
 ley or automobile to neighboring towns for lunch. The 
 most picturesque feature of the dinner hour, however, was 
 furnished by the numerous family parties that enjoyed a 
 picnic dinner seated on the grass beneath West Brookfield's 
 magnificent shade trees. If not so well served as those 
 within the dining tents, they had, at least, the advantage of 
 being in the fresh air and of watching uninterruptedly the 
 informal pageant afforded by the thousands of merry-makers. 
 
 V. The Literary and Musical Programme. 
 
 The great audience tent, easily accommodating two 
 thousand persons, was filled to overflowing, when, at 1.30 
 o'clock, the following literary and musical programme was 
 begun : 
 
 Invocation Rev. William L. Walsh, of Brookfield. 
 
 Chorus "The Heavens Are Telling" 
 
 ("The Creation") Haydn. 
 
 Address of Welcome 
 
 Hon. Theodore C. Bates. 
 
34 
 
 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Oration 
 
 Songs a. 
 
 b. 
 
 Address 
 Chorus 
 
 Address 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Address 
 
 Address 
 
 "America." 
 
 Hon. Roger Foster, of New York. 
 "Spring" Henschel. 
 
 "Nightingale Aria" Masse. 
 
 Mme. Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller. 
 Flute obligato, Charles K. North. 
 Accompanist, Mme. Maud Paradis-Lane 
 His Excellency, Governor Eben S. Draper. 
 "Hurrah for Old New England" 
 
 Chamberlain. 
 Hon. Frederick H. Gillett, M. C. 
 "The Landing of the Pilgrims" Brown. 
 Hon. Charles G. Washburn, M.C. 
 Hon. James Logan, Mayor of Worcester. 
 
 The special feature of the afternoon was, naturally, the 
 oration by Hon. Roger Foster, nor did the orator disappoint 
 the high expectations of his audience. "No man" — so runs 
 the brief report of the proceedings, prepared by the Joint 
 Executive Committee — "could have been found in the whole 
 country, who could have better pleased our people, and his 
 being a direct descendant of Judge Jedediah Foster, of Brook- 
 field, made it seem to prominent men all over the State, that 
 it was most fitting and appropriate that Roger Foster, Esq., 
 should be the orator of the day on this occasion." 
 
 Hon. Roger Foster 
 His scholarly and eloquent oration follows. 
 
Hon. Roger Fosteb 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 35 
 
 ADDRESS OF ROGER FOSTER OF NEW YORK AT 
 BROOKFIELD ON SEPTEMBER 21, 1910. 
 
 Let me thank you for the pleasure, as well as for the 
 honor conferred upon me by your invitation to speak where 
 my father spoke fifty years ago. It is a joy to me to have 
 an opportunity to return to the old Bay State; to Worces- 
 ter county, the heart of the commonwealth, where I was 
 born; to my old home where I passed my boyhood; to the 
 town of Brookfield, where my forefathers have lived; to 
 Foster's Hill, where the name of my family is still remem- 
 bered, although two generations have passed since they 
 removed. 
 
 Before considering the work of the settlers of Brook- 
 field, let us honor the Puritans from whom they came; let 
 us praise their courage and fortitude in facing danger and 
 discomfort for the sake of founding a commonwealth where 
 they and their children might worship in accordance with 
 their own conscience and not be obliged to observe practi- 
 ces which they considered to savor of idolatry. They left 
 the homes of their fathers and severed the ties of kin and 
 country. They incurred the perils and discomforts of un- 
 known seas, where for two long months they were at the mer- 
 cy of the winds without the aid of steam: to land upon an 
 unknown and rocky coast unassisted by a chart, to settle 
 upon a soil which they knew from the Plymouth pilgrims 
 to be less fertile than that of their native country, and to 
 undergo the rigors of a climate which, in summer as well as 
 in winter, was far more oppressive than that of England. 
 They risked imprisonment when they sailed. Several of 
 their ships were embargoed, held against their will in the 
 English ports. Some became discouraged and abandoned 
 their enterprise. Even brave spirits then went back, 
 amongst them Oliver Cromwell; but our forefathers persisted. 
 And after the agony of voyages in small sail boats, with no 
 fresh meat — preserved fruit and vegetables being then un- 
 
36 TWO HTJNDBED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 known — living on salt pork and hardtack, in badly ven- 
 tilated quarters, suffering the untried tortures of seasickness 
 and the danger of scurvy, at last they landed near Ipswich 
 and founded the State to which we, their descendants, feel 
 that we still belong, even those of us who now live in other 
 parts of the country or of the world. They were a rugged 
 race, strong in mind as well as in body, and their history has 
 been the subject of much criticism as well as praise. 
 
 Special objection has been made to their alleged relig- 
 ious intolerance. And it is often said, that they should have 
 given to others the liberty of conscience which they de- 
 manded for themselves and have permitted throughout the 
 Commonwealth the free exercise of all religions. It is easy 
 for those who live in a time when the exercise of freedom of 
 thought and speech in religious matters is never the subject 
 of punishment, to condemn, in academic phrases, those who 
 did not then permit religious liberty. It must be remem- 
 bered, however, that unbridled abuse of those in command 
 can never be permitted in a garrison during a siege nor upon 
 a ship during a storm. The punishments which they imposed 
 because of religious differences were not founded upon non- 
 conformity nor upon free thought kept to itself. They 
 punished those only who publicly attacked the form of wor- 
 ship which the Puritans had emigrated to maintain. They 
 were encompassed by hostile savages aided by the Catholic 
 French. They were threatened in England by the power 
 of the Church that was there established and which for gen- 
 erations afterwards practiced religious persecution. Had 
 they allowed the Church of England to maintain a footing 
 in Massachusetts, inevitably but a short time would have 
 elapsed before a bishop of that diocese would have been 
 created and an ecclesiastical court established. Had they 
 permitted their religious meetings to be disturbed by public 
 attacks upon the doctrines which were promulgated, the 
 consequent dissensions would have enfeebled them in then- 
 defense against the attacks daily threatened by their hostile 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 37 
 
 neighbors. We who have passed laws forbidding the immi- 
 gration of anarchists and who have excluded from our coun- 
 try Asiatics, should hesitate before we blame them for their 
 endeavors to keep the land for the use of those who were in 
 sympathy with the religious opinions of the first settlers. 
 The traits of character which they brought here from 
 England and those which were developed upon this soil, can 
 be traced in most of their descendants. The power to resist 
 equal severities of heat and cold, the patience and industry 
 required to wring support out of a rocky soil, have developed 
 in New Englanders a capacity for endurance and hard work 
 which makes them succeed in any climate and under all cir- 
 cumstances, no matter how adverse. The nervous strain 
 of the climate and the necessity for continuous labor in order 
 to earn a living, left them no time for those elaborate cour- 
 tesies and polish of manners which do so much to soften the 
 asperities of life, which are, almost invariably, the accom- 
 paniment of a leisure class in any country and are practiced 
 by all living in a warm climate. Their descendants as well 
 as themselves are consequently justly criticised for coldness 
 of manner and abruptness. And that love of truth, which 
 is inculcated by the traditions of the Anglo-Saxon race, as 
 well as by the Puritan religion, makes these, too, abstain from 
 compliments. Their hatred of the adornment of cathedrals 
 by pictures and statuary, which they considered brought 
 about the worship of idols, and their dislike for the perform- 
 ance of a ritual which tended to obscure the meaning of a 
 prayer, gave them a prejudice against the fine arts and even 
 a contempt for these, which still lingers among their children. 
 Those of us who have reached middle age can still remember 
 the time when a love of music was considered to be effemi- 
 nate and men boasted of the fact that their acoustic organs 
 were so deformed that they could not recognize a tune. New 
 England has given birth to a few great singers, but they were 
 women and have passed most of their lives in other States 
 and countries. The greatest painter that was born in Mass- 
 
38 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 achusetts accomplished all his work in Europe. Architects 
 wc have produced, for their work a practical man recognizes 
 as useful, but of what sculptors or musical composers can 
 we justly boast? The life of melancholy, enjoined by 
 their religious precepts ever teaching them to dread the hor- 
 rors of hell, enhanced by physical troubles due to insufficient 
 knowledge of the laws of health and lack of prophylactics, 
 made them fear lest they were committing wrong whenever 
 they lingered in, or gave expression to, the pleasure derived 
 from the enjoyment of the good things that have been 
 created for this world. This was, moreover, heightened by 
 a spiritual pride which has left even us of this twentieth 
 century often ashamed or afraid to pluck the roses that are 
 by our path. The fact that they were protesters among the 
 Protestants, confident of their own judgment as to right and 
 wrong and deeming it a duty to follow the dictates of their 
 own consciences, has made the children of New England 
 ready to brave public opinion in support of a cause that is 
 unpopular and to sacrifice themselves for an ideal; qualities 
 without which the progress of humanity is impossible, al- 
 though, alas, too often accompanied by intolerance of the 
 dissent of others. 
 
 With the history of Brookfield you are better acquainted 
 than am I. You have heard its traditions at the knees of 
 your grandmothers. You have had the documents and the 
 events explained to you by scholars on previous occasions. 
 Yet now that two centuries and a half have passed since the 
 foundation of the town, it has seemed fitting that you should 
 be briefly reminded of them. 
 
 It was founded at a time when the citizens of Mass- 
 achusetts might well have looked towards the future with 
 a terror that would have discouraged any attempt to extend 
 the colony. In 1660, the republic in England had been de- 
 stroyed. The monarchy had been restored. Those of the 
 leaders in the Great Rebellion who survived, some of whom 
 had lived in Massachusetts, were about to be punished by 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 
 
 39 
 
 executions, the disgusting horrors of Avhich make the imagi- 
 nation revolt. The King of England was a pensioner of 
 France, which was ruled by the Grand Monarch whose wars 
 strengthened Catholicism and depressed the Protestants 
 throughout the continent of Europe. He was already in 
 possession of that part of Canada now known as Ontario 
 and Quebec and had formed the design to include in his do- 
 minions the whole of North America. The diplomacy and 
 self-sacrifice of the Jesuits had given them such a power over 
 the Indians in Canada that these, at any time, could be 
 united in an attack upon Massachusetts. The Mississippi 
 had not been discovered. No European had sailed on the 
 Detroit River or even the Great Lakes beyond it. French 
 explorers soon travelled in that direction, and within a few 
 years Louis XIV again obtained control of Acadia on the 
 northeast of New England, and upon the Island of Cape 
 Britain build the fortress of Louisburg, which seriously 
 threatened our fisheries and commerce. The inhabitants 
 of New England had good cause to fear success in his at- 
 tempts at conquest over them and their subjection to perse- 
 cution by the Church of Rome. The Hudson River and 
 Manhattan Island, together with that part of the Atlantic 
 coast including what are now the States of New Jersey and 
 Delaware, were under the control of the Dutch; and when, 
 four years later, New York was acquired by England, 
 Charles II granted it to his brother, who was a Catholic. 
 Pennsylvania and Georgia had not been settled. The Pro- 
 testants of Germany trembled before Louis and were unable 
 to give any assistance to those of their religion in any other 
 country. Poland was still unpartitioned and independent, a 
 great Catholic power, one of the bulwarks of Christianity 
 against the Turks; disputing with Russia for the ascend- 
 ency of oriental Europe. 
 
 At that time the first settlers in Brookfield came here 
 from Ipswich in order that they might obtain more land for 
 themselves and their children, since the pressure of popula- 
 
40 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 tion upon the coast had begunto make it more difficult for 
 them to support their families. The selection of the place 
 was due to reasons of state, as well as to those which lead a 
 farmer to choose a home. There was need of a place of rest 
 for travellers upon the trail between Massachusetts Bay and 
 the Connecticut River, where already was situated the town 
 of Springfield. Foster's Hill afforded a convenient location 
 for such a post. The Indians of that neighborhood were 
 Quaboags, a branch of the Nipmuck tribe, who seem to have 
 been unconnected with any of the powerful leagues. They 
 were consequently often the subjects of attack and oppres- 
 sion by other savages ; and for that reason, if not because their 
 minds were so cultivated as easily to appreciate his argu- 
 ments, they listened to the sermons of the Apostle Eliot and 
 were not indisposed to an alliance with the whites. A " pray- 
 ing town" of Indians had shortly before been established by 
 him in the neighborhood. The adjoining valley seemed to 
 offer good opportunities for agriculture. It had been used 
 by the aborigines to raise their corn and for a meeting-place to 
 celebrate their yearly festivals. The bottoms were good pas- 
 tures. The primeval forest had been long destroyed by the 
 autumnal fires of the natives. Horseback travel was prac- 
 ticable in all directions. There was plenty of timber in the 
 swamps and on the heights. Deer and turkeys abounded 
 around the hills, whence they could be seen a mile away. 
 Cattle were within sight of the hilltops at a distance of three 
 miles. The Quaboag River was full of shad and salmon at 
 the proper seasons. Trout, hornpout, perch, pickerel and 
 other fish filled the streams and ponds throughout the year. 
 Yet it required bold hearts to make the move. There 
 was no white settlement within thirty miles. Springfield 
 was the nearest place from which the help, often sorely 
 needed, could be obtained. Lancaster was the next village 
 on the east. Worcester was then a swamp and the woods 
 covered Leicester hills. Wolves and bears lurked around 
 them. Rattlesnakes coiled in the rocks. Tribes of the 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 41 
 
 pagans often made raids in the neighborhood and the tem- 
 per of the praying Indians had not long been tested. 
 
 About May 20th, 1660, several of the inhabitants of 
 Ipswich presented a petition to the General Court, as is still 
 the official title of the legislature of Massachusetts. This 
 recited: 
 
 "Forasmuch as it is found by Dayly experience 
 "that the common Lands of this Towne are overburdened 
 "by the multiplying dwelling houses contrary to the true 
 "intent and meaning of the first Inhabitants in their 
 " granting of house lotts and other lands to such as came 
 "amongst them, to the end such inconvenience may be pre- 
 sented — " and prayed a land grant. On May 31st, the 
 General Court made the following grant, described in the 
 margin of the public record as "Ipswich New Plantation." 
 "At a Great and General Court of Election held at 
 "Boston the 20th of May, 1660. 
 
 "In Ans r to the peticon of severall the Inhabitants 
 "of Ipswich, this Court Judgeth it meete to Graunt the 
 "petitioners sixe miles square or so much land as shall be 
 ' Contejned in such a Compasse in a place nere Quoboag 
 "ponds, provided they have twenty family es there resi- 
 dent within 3 years, & that they have an able minister 
 "settled there within the sajd terme, such as this Court 
 "shall approve, and that they make due provision in 
 "some way or other for the future, either by setting apart 
 "of land, or what else shall be thought meete for the Con- 
 tinuance of the ministry amongst them: And that 
 "If they shall faile in any of these particulars above men- 
 "tioned, this Graunt of the Court to be voyd & of none 
 . "effect." 
 
 In the summer of that year John Warner, John Ayres, 
 William Prichard, and perhaps another of the petitioners 
 went to Quabaug to select the place for the new settlement 
 and chose Foster's Hill as the site of the village. A raid by 
 the Moheegans upon the Quabaugs in the spring of 1661 
 
42 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 prevented further progress till 1665, when three or four fami- 
 lies moved there and steps were taken to acquire peaceably 
 a title from the Indians. A bargain was made on behalf of 
 the settlers by Lieutenant Thomas Cooper of Springfield. 
 He bought Foster's Hill, all the valuable meadow lands with- 
 in the six mile square and the greater part of the other land 
 there, excepting two Indian villages with their appurtenant 
 fisheries and planting ground, for the sum of 300 fathoms of 
 wampampeage, Indian money composed of beads of white 
 sea-shell, 360 pieces in a fathom, worth five shillings a fath- 
 om; the price for the land aggregating £7.5, about $3(35. 
 Considering that the whole of Manhattan Island was bought 
 in the year 1626 for only twenty-four dollars, the sum seems 
 not inadequate. The grantor was Shattoockquis, an Indian 
 chief, who subscribed as his mark the sign of a beaver. 
 "Mettawomppe an Indian witness who challenging some 
 "interest in the land above sold received part of ye pay 
 "and consented to the sale of it all," also subscribed a 
 sign resembling in part a rattlesnake. The instrument was 
 acknowledged before John Pynchon, Assistant. Eight 
 years afterwards, another Indian made a claim for part of the 
 land covered by the grant and proceedings were instituted 
 for an amicable settlement with him. The interest acquired 
 by the deed was not formally transferred to the settlers 
 until 1673. The limitation of three years contained in the 
 proviso by the General Court had expired before the Indian's 
 deed, and the few families who had settled there petitioned 
 for the security of their title. On May 15th, 1667, it was 
 resolved: "In Ans r to the petition of the inhabitants at 
 " Quabaug : This Court, having perused the grant which the 
 "Generall Court made anno 1660 to the first undertakers 
 "for that place, doe finde that 1. By their non observance 
 "of the condition of their grant, the same is altogether 
 "voyd, & that now the ordering & disposing thereof is 
 "wholly in this Court's power. 2. Considering that 
 "there is already at Quabauge about sixe or seven family es 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 
 
 43 
 
 "& that the place may be capable of receiving many more, 
 "this Court will readily grant them the liberty of atoune- 
 "ship when they shall be in a ffit capacity. 3. In the 
 "meane time this Court appoints Cap. John Pinchon, John 
 "Aires, W m Prichard, Richard Coy & John Younglow 
 "or any three of them, whereof Capt. Pinchon to be one 
 " of the three, who shall have power to admitt inhabitants, 
 "grant lands, & to order all the prudentiall affayres of the 
 "place in all respects, untill it shall appeare that the place 
 "shall be so farr settled with able men as this Court may 
 "judge meete to give them the full liberty of a touneship 
 "according to lawe. 4. Because the inhabitants of 
 "Ipswich made the first motion for that plantation, & 
 "some of them have binn at charges about it, although 
 "by their remisse prosecution they have now lost all their 
 " right, yet, such of them as shall setle there by midsummer 
 "come twelve moneth, they shall have an interest in the 
 "lands there in proportion with others; but if by that time 
 "they shall not be there setled, they shall then loose their 
 "lands, & all their charges which they have been at upon 
 "y e place. 5. They are to take care for the getting & 
 "mayntayning of a godly minister among them, & that 
 "no evill persons, enemjes to the lawe of this commonweale 
 "in judgment or practise, be receaved as inhabitants. 
 "6. For promoting of the aforesajd plantation, & incou- 
 "ragement thereof, this Court doeth now grant that plan- 
 tation seven yeares freedom from all publick rates & 
 "taxes to the country, provided those inhabitants of 
 "Ipswich which intend to inhabit at Quabauge by mid- 
 " summer come twelve month doe engage to give security 
 "to the above-sajd committee, within three moneths after 
 "the date hereofe that they will performe accordingly, that 
 "so others that would settle there may not be hindred." 
 All of the committee thus appointed were residents of 
 the settlement, with the exception of Captain John Pynchon 
 of Springfield, who was usually known by his later titles of 
 
44 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 major and colonel. He was the first patron and protector 
 of the town. Without his aid undoubtedly it would have 
 perished. As the leaders of the community in subsequent 
 generations were among his descendants, a few words con- 
 cerning him and his family seem not to be out of place. He 
 was born in Springfield, England, in 1621, the son of the 
 founder of the city in Massachusetts, the name of which in 
 1640 was changed from Agawam to Springfield as a com- 
 pliment to William Pynchon, who in accordance with the 
 wishes of its inhabitants was appointed by the General 
 Court its magistrate with full judicial powers. The latter is 
 famous in the history of Massachusetts, not only for his fair- 
 ness and diplomacy in negotiations with the Indians, but also 
 for the liberality of his theology. In 1650, he published in 
 London a book entitled "The Meritorious Price of our Re- 
 demption, " which was so opposed to New England Calvinism 
 that it received the compliment of being burned by the public 
 executioner on Boston Common. He wrote other books in 
 a similar vein, one of which also advocated a liberal obser- 
 vance of Sunday. He had too much influence to be molested 
 by the divines, although it was probably by reason of his 
 antagonism to them that he moved from Boston to the Con- 
 necticut River in 1636 and that in 1652 he returned to Eng- 
 land, leaving in the colony his son John and his son-in-law 
 Elizur Holyoke. In the following year, they and Samuel 
 Chapin were appointed by the General Court, magistrates in 
 charge of the government of Springfield. Colonel John 
 Pynchon also succeeded his father in the confidence of the 
 Indians, whom he managed with great diplomacy. He was 
 known as "The worshipful Colonel Pynchon," and founded 
 on land bought from the natives Northampton, Hadley, 
 Deerfield, Northfield and Westfield. In 1660, he built the 
 first brick building in Springfield, which was in existence as 
 late as 1831. It was bullet proof, and during King Philip's 
 War saved the inhabitants from massacre by the Indians. 
 He was assistant to the governor of the province and member 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 45 
 
 of his council for almost thirty years, holding the latter 
 office until- his death in 1703. 
 
 According to the book kept by Pynchon as recorder, of 
 which a few attested extracts still remain, homesteads were 
 allotted upon Foster's Hill and allotments also made of up- 
 land meadow and plain. A large common of undivided land 
 was used for wood and pasturage. A flour mill was built 
 by him on the east branch of the brook entering the head of 
 Weakaug pond. There was some sort of a meeting house 
 where John Younglove preached until the first settlement 
 was destroyed. The most important industry of the new 
 settlement was the tavern kept by Sargeant Ayres for the 
 use of travelers. 
 
 On October 10th, 1673, the inhabitants petitioned 
 "that this much Honno rd Co rte would be pleased to grant 
 " us the Priviledge & libertyes of a Township whereby we 
 "may be the better inabled to carry on our owne matters 
 "w th out too much distraction. And yo r Petition 1-8 shall 
 "ever pray for yo r prosperity If Yo r Honno 1 " 8 please let 
 "y e Name of y e Place be Brookfeild." 
 
 Mayor Pynchon also wrote: "I have long desyred to 
 "be discharged from being one of the Committee for 
 "Qvabaug: in regard to my many occasions & remote- 
 "ness having bin little serviceable to y 331 : I doe vtterly 
 "decline y e worke, & desire their motion for being allowed 
 "a Towne may be accepted & granted by y e Honored 
 "Court, hoping it may p r ve beneficial to them and the 
 "Publike." 
 
 "In ans r to y e peticon of the Inhabitants of Quabaug 
 "The Court Judgeth it meet to grant their request i. e. 
 "the liberty and priviledge of a Township and that the 
 "name thereof be Brookfeild Provided they Divide not the 
 "whole land of the Towneship till they be forty or fivety 
 "familyes, in the meane tjme that their Dividings one to 
 "another exceed not two hundred acres apeece to any 
 "present Inhabitant." 
 
46 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 The county records show signs of the spread of civilizar 
 tion and increase of prosperity. In 1675, Brookfield was 
 taxed £5-0-6 and upon this was a credit of £5 for killing ten 
 wolves. On March 30th of the same year, "Thomas Wilson 
 "of Brookfield was presented by the grand jury for cursing 
 "Samuel Warner of the same town. And the town of 
 "Brookfield was presented for defect in the bridge over 
 "the swamp at Richard Coy's Son; and for the want of 
 "a common pound." 
 These indictments were never tried. The work of the 
 first settlers was soon destroyed. In that year began King 
 Philip's war. So friendly had been the relations between the 
 Quabaugs and the inhabitants of Brookfield that the latter 
 believed those Indians would give Philip no assistance. The 
 Quabaugs planted their cornfields as usual and their chief 
 disclaimed in writing any intention to help that king. Two 
 reports, however, made by Ephraim Curtis of Sudbury, 
 showed that there was danger of a disturbance among them, 
 and for that reason Captains Edward Hodgkinson and 
 Thomas Wheeler of Concord and Curtis as guide and inter- 
 preter, were sent with a party of about twenty horsemen to 
 demand an account of the Nipmuck Indians of certain 
 grievances: u so desiring the Lord's presence with you & in 
 "prosecution of this affayre if you should meet with any 
 "Indians that stand in opposition to you or declare ym- 
 " selves to be yor enemies then you are ordered to ingage 
 "with them if you see reason for it & endeavr to reduce ym 
 "by force of Arms." The Indians promised to meet the 
 troop for negotiations upon a plain within three miles of 
 Brookfield on August 2nd. Three men of Brookfield accom- 
 panied the soldiers to the appointed place, but the Indians 
 did not appear there. By the advice of the Brookfield men, 
 who had such confidence in the peaceful intentions of the 
 Quabaugs that they came unarmed, the colonists proceeded 
 to a swamp where they heard that the Indians were. The 
 place has been identified by antiquarians as a ravine near 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 47 
 
 Meminimissimet meadow and the line between New Brain- 
 tree and Brookfield upon the old Pepper farm, not far from 
 the comer of the Boston and Worcester road, which, within 
 the memory of a recent generation, was known as "Death 
 Valley." The way was so bad that the English could only 
 march in single file between a rocky hill on the right and a 
 thick swamp in which there were about two hundred Indians; 
 some in the morass, the rest in the brush upon the hill. The 
 soldiers had not proceeded more than seventy rods when they 
 were surprised by volleys of musketry from both sides of 
 them. More than a third of their number, eight including 
 Sargeant Ayres, Sargeant Pritchard and Corporal Coy, the 
 inhabitants of Brookfield, were killed. Five more were 
 wounded. One of their Indian guides was captured. The 
 escape of the rest was due to the fidelity and sagacity of the 
 other two guides, who took them back to Brookfield on a 
 by-trail avoiding the woods, with the warning that the road 
 by which they came would be lined with sharpshooters, in 
 accordance with the Indian art of war. This was the first 
 victory by the Indians over white soldiers in New England 
 and greatly encouraged them in the war. The refugees, who 
 carried the wounded with them on their horses, and the rest 
 of the inhabitants, gathered in the tavern of Sargeant Ayres. 
 There, in no more than four rooms, protected only by wooden 
 walls fortified with nothing but feather beds and a few logs, 
 eighty-two men, women and children withstood a siege by 
 several hundred Indians for three days. The horrors they 
 underwent, it is impossible adequately to describe, or, in the 
 conditions under which we live, fully to appreciate. It was 
 in the heat of the dog days. They were closely packed to- 
 gether with little ventilation except the holes made by the 
 bullets that were fired through the house. Without medical 
 aid or sanitary conveniences, seven wounded men, two on the 
 point of death, were nursed, and two women delivered from 
 the pangs of labor. Food was scanty. The water needed to 
 slake their thirst had to be used to put out the repeated fires 
 
48 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 set in the roof and walls by burning rags soaked with brim- 
 stone and shot with arrows, by balls of "wildfire," by stacks 
 of their own flax and hay piled against the house and burned, 
 a fire cart and by two fire wagons with shafts extending fourteen 
 rods in length built by the Indians. A fresh supply could 
 only be obtained from a well in the yard, to reach which 
 exposed a man to more danger than was risked by the three 
 followers of David who brought him water from the well 
 outside the gate of Bethlehem. "Abroad in the yard, one 
 "Thomas Wilson of that town, being sent to fetch water 
 "for our help in further need, (that which we had being 
 "spent in putting out the fire) was shot by the enemy in 
 "the upper jaw and neck, the anguish of which wound was 
 "such at the first that he cried out with a great noise, by 
 "reason whereof the Indians hearing him rejoiced, and 
 "triumphed at it; but his wound was healed in a short time, 
 "praised be God. There was but one man wounded 
 "within the house, viz: — the said Henry Young, who 
 "looking out of the garret window that evening, was mor- 
 " tally wounded by a shot, of which wound he died within 
 "two days after. There was the same day another man 
 "slain, but not in the house; a son of Serjeant Pritchard's 
 "adventuring out of the house wherein we were, to his 
 "father's house not far from it, to fetch more goods out of 
 "it, was caught by these cruel enemies as they were com- 
 "ing towards us, who cut off his head, kicking it about 
 " like a football, and then putting it upon a pole, they set 
 "it up before the door of his father's house in our sight. 
 "The night following the said blow, they did roar against 
 "us like so many wild bulls, sending in their shot amongst 
 "us till towards the moon rising, which was about three of 
 "the clock; at which time they attempted to fire our 
 "house." 
 The belief, that they were God's chosen people and that 
 He would suspend the laws of nature by special providences 
 in their defense then, as it always has among adherents to 
 
o 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 49 
 
 that faith, gave great courage to the garrison. A summer 
 rain which they believed to be a token of divine favor helped 
 quench the flames. When some were obliged to venture 
 out to stop a fire, Simon Davis, one of three in charge as 
 substitutes for the two wounded captains, encouraged them 
 as well as those firing upon the Indians from within by shout- 
 ing "'God is with us, and fights for us, and will deliver us 
 ; out of the hands of these heathen ' ; which expressions the 
 Indians hearing, they shouted and scoffed, saying: 'now 
 'we see how your God delivers you, or will deliver you,' 
 'sending in many shots whilst our men were putting out 
 ' the fire. But the Lord of Hosts wrought very graciously 
 : for us, in preserving our bodies both within and without 
 the house from their shot, and our house from being 
 consumed by fire, we had but two men wounded in that 
 attempt of theirs, but we apprehended that we killed 
 divers of our enemies. The next day being August 3d, 
 they continued shooting and shouting, and proceeded 
 in their former wickedness, blaspheming the name of 
 'the Lord and reproaching us, his afflicted servants, scof- 
 fing at our prayers as they were sending in their shot 
 upon all quarters of the house and many of them went 
 'to the town's meeting house (which was within twenty 
 ' rods of the house in which we were) who mocked saying, 
 come and pray and sing psalms, and in contempt made 
 an hideous noise somewhat resembling singing. But 
 ' we, to our power, did endeavour our defence, sending our 
 shot amongst them, the Lord giving us courage to resist 
 ; them and preserving us from the destruction they sought 
 'to bring upon us." This reads like a passage from the 
 Book of Samuel. Can it be that, when the pious Captain 
 Wheeler wrote the narrative a few months later, after his 
 recovery from his wound, his memory was affected by his 
 daily reading of the Scriptures? 
 
 On August 4th, the Indians were driven off by Major 
 Willard with a troup of forty-seven white men and five 
 
50 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Indians. They, while on a march to repel an attack threat- 
 ened further west, heard at Marlboro the news of the danger 
 at Brookfield, which had come from travellers who had seen 
 the flames or heard the shots. The rescue arrived an hour 
 after dark while the Indians were engaged upon their fire 
 engines. When Willard forced his way to the house there 
 was danger of a fight between his men and those rescued, 
 since, in the darkness, each thought the other party was 
 composed of Indians, he not knowing that any white men 
 had escaped. And they were on the point of firing upon 
 each other until the major gave a command in English. 
 Captain Wheeler then ordered the trumpet to be sounded 
 and all fired in the direction of the enemy. The cattle had 
 followed Major Willard's horsemen to the house and in the 
 darkness made their number seem much larger. This fright- 
 ened the savages, who fled after they had set fire to the only 
 remaining houses and barns, except the tavern. 
 
 The first settlement was ended. The survivors of the 
 original inhabitants moved with the little property that they 
 had left; mostly back to the towns from which they came; 
 in a few cases to other parts of the colony, where they were 
 for some time the objects of public and private charity. 
 "The English were not in a capacity to look after Their 
 "dead but those dead bodies were left as meat to the Fowls 
 "of heaven, and their flesh unto the Beasts of the earth, 
 " and there was none to bury them. " After this abandon- 
 ment the tavern was burned by the Indians, of whom some 
 had lurked about the ruins and wounded one of the men 
 looking for horses. 
 
 But the outpost was of too great value to be permanently 
 abandoned. The trail between the bay and the great river 
 must be protected. It was also important that travellers 
 should have a resting place where they could obtain refresh- 
 ment. Although for a short time the garrison was broken 
 up by the recall of Major Willard, a few months later it was 
 re-established in temporary quarters; but only one of the 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 51 
 
 old families, that of Sergeant Ayres, ever returned. The 
 fields lay waste for nearly ten years. Gradually, however, 
 a few young men from the neighboring towns and soldiers 
 who had seen the advantages of the situation while in garri- 
 son or on the march, began to form another settlement. 
 
 In 1686, James Ford, a soldier, petitioned the General 
 Court "to appoint and impower some prudent and able 
 "persons as a Committee to admit Inhabitants, and order 
 "the Affaires of the place, in forming y e Towne, granting 
 "Lotts, & directing & ordering all matters of a prudential 
 "Nature till such time the Place be settled, and a compe- 
 "tent number of Inhabitants & persons of discretion to 
 "order the affaires thereof. " His preamble said: that the 
 ancient inhabitants had wholly deserted Brookfield but 
 that "some are already seated and others would be willing 
 "to settle the said place againe were there some encourage- 
 "ment from the Hon l Council, and some to guide & order 
 "the prudential Affaires for such a Plantation. " He sug- 
 gested as members of a committee, the names of four of the 
 former settlers, including Pastor Younglove. But the au- 
 thorities in Boston did not have confidence in their discre- 
 tion. On November 9th, the Council appointed Major 
 John Pynchon and five other citizens of Springfield "a Com- 
 "mittee for the settling of the town of Quabaug, & the 
 "Petition of the said Town is granted, and the aforenamed 
 "Gentlemen are to receive the claimes of the old Inhabi- 
 tants, grant Lotts to others, & give necessary orders for 
 " the more orderly settlement of the said Towne. " Under 
 Pynchon's care, the settlement was again placed where it 
 remained until his death in 1703, when his son John, who was 
 also a colonel and a judge, succeeded him. It remained in 
 charge of a committee for twenty-two years. During that 
 time its chief importance was for the purposes of a garrison. 
 The land grants were conditioned upon the settlement and 
 the continuance of the grantees there for specified periods. 
 The inhabitants were in great distress from attacks by the 
 
52 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Indians, the continued terror that these inspired and the 
 difficulty in supporting themselves. In August, 1688, the 
 news of the murder by Indians, some of them Quabaugs, of 
 three men, two women and a girl of fifteen at Northfield, 
 so terrified the Brookfield settlers that they prepared to 
 abandon the place. They were prevented by Major Pynch- 
 on, who sent six soldiers "ordering and requiring their con- 
 "tinuance, only I sent to fetch off such women as desired 
 "to come away. " His account book shows that, at differ- 
 ent times, he sent them provisions and guns as well as rein- 
 forcements, and that in September of the same year he sent 
 men who were occupied about five days in building a forti- 
 fication containing barracks sufficient to house all the in- 
 habitants in case of danger and surrounded by a stock- 
 ade. This saved many lives. In 1693, a band of about 
 forty Indians from Canada or Northern New York lay in 
 ambush for six days at a distance from this fort and then 
 suddenly attacked three of the outlying families. They 
 killed Thomas Lawrence, Joseph Mason with his eldest boy 
 and Joseph Woolcot's wife and two daughters. Woolcot's 
 family had accompanied him to his work, since the women 
 feared to be alone. They found, when they returned for 
 dinner, that the Indians had been in the house and had stolen 
 his gun and other property. Shortly afterwards, they saw, 
 at some distance, a savage approaching. Joseph immediately 
 sent his wife and girls to hide in the bushes. Then taking 
 his little son under one arm and his broad axe in the other, he 
 went out with his dog against the enemy. The dog's attack 
 was so fierce that the Indian was obliged to shoot at him. 
 Woolcot then put the child down and chased the Pagan, who 
 loaded while running, until he heard the bullet roll down the 
 gun. He then turned back, snatched his child and escaped 
 to the swamps, where he was concealed until able to make 
 his way to the fort and warn the garrison which consisted 
 of only five men. His wife lost control of her nerves and 
 shrieked from her hiding place until she was caught, and 
 
HON. SOGER FOSTER 53 
 
 with her daughters killed by the same Indian. The Mason 
 family were attacked at dinner. After the man and boy 
 were killed, the woman and an infant, together with Daniel 
 Lawrence, a youth of eighteen, were carried off by the In- 
 dians, who, after a journey of about ten miles, found the 
 baby an encumbrance and knocked it on the head. John 
 Lawrence meanwhile had applied to Major Pynchon for 
 help. The major, himself then too old for active service, 
 sent to aid the garrison Captain Colton at the head of a troup 
 of thirty horsemen, which, on its way, was enlarged by vol- 
 unteers. The Captain left sixteen to protect the town and 
 on July 29th, two days after the attack, at the head of forty- 
 two, started in pursuit. They followed the tracks of the 
 savages through the long grass, finding the body of the baby 
 and horses killed during the flight. On that day the troopers 
 covered about thirty-seven miles and reached the place where 
 the enemy had lodged the second night finding the camp 
 fires still burning. The ground beyond was impassable for 
 horses because of swamps, rocks and brush. Captain Colton 
 with twenty-three picked men, leaving the rest behind, 
 "lightening themselves of their coats and without Victuals 
 "hastened away that if possible they might come upon the 
 "Indians before — or discover them in the — Night;" but 
 after a march of about eight miles he was forced by the dark- 
 ness to camp without food or protection against the damp. 
 At dawn, he continued his pursuit about a mile and a half, 
 when, about sunrise, he discovered the enemy in a thick 
 wood, hearing them laughing while not more than three or 
 four rods away. With the ten in his van, he surrounded the 
 enemy, four times their number, hiding his troopers behind 
 bushes which they cut. The ten then fired upon forty armed 
 savages; and the remaining thirteen, hearing the volley, 
 charged and also fired at such as they could see. The 
 Indians ran leaving their two captives with their ammunition, 
 most of their guns, tomahawks and cutlasses. About seven 
 savages were killed. Others were wounded, but escaped. 
 
54 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 None of the rescued was injured. What act of heroism has 
 excelled the courage shown by Captain Colton and his 
 followers in this pursuit? 
 
 The settlers asked the advice of Major Pynchon whether 
 they should remain or abandon their homes. He persuaded 
 them to stay and obtained a reinforcement by the addition 
 of eight or ten soldiers to the garrison. In the following- 
 year, John Lawrence, whose family had suffered in the pre- 
 vious attack, with Samuel Owen, was killed by Indians while 
 in the woods searching for a man who was missing. During 
 Queen Anne's war, in 1708, when John Woolcott, a boy of 
 about twelve, was riding in search of cows, the Indians fired 
 at him and took him prisoner. There were then, besides 
 Gilbert's Fort, several fortified houses in Brookfield: one, 
 known as Jenning's Garrison, on Foster's Hill, near the site 
 of the Ayres Tavern; another, Bannister Garrison, on the 
 old road between what is now the village of South Brookfield 
 and the Woolcott House. Marks' Garrison had also been 
 built near the southwest end of Wickaboag pond on a knoll 
 below the Quabaug River. Goss Garrison stood west of 
 Wickaboag pond near the house once occupied by Isaac 
 Gleason and later by Charles H. Fairbanks. All these seem 
 to have been constructed between 1704 and 1706. They 
 were merely bullet proof houses with heavy wooden frames, 
 linings of logs or planks and occasionally a few bricks, heavy 
 plank doors and window shutters that could be closed from 
 within. When those in Jenning's Garrison heard the shots 
 at the boy, they concluded that Bannister's Garrison was 
 attacked and six men went out for assistance; but were way- 
 laid by the Indians. There was no safety in retreat. Abijah 
 Bartlett, who took to his heels, was shot dead. The other 
 five, strengthened by the current belief that an Indian could 
 not look an Englishman in the face and take a right aim, 
 stood their ground; presenting their pieces, without firing, 
 whenever they saw a heathen. The savages kept shooting 
 and wounded three. They were saved by the approach of 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 55 
 
 a large dog, attracted by the noise, which he thought indi- 
 cated a hunt. One, to encourage his friends and frighten 
 the Indians, called out: "Captain Williams is come to help 
 us. See his dog." This frightened away the enemy, who 
 had a wholesome respect for Williams and believed that he 
 had brought reinforcements. The Woolcott boy was carried 
 back with them to Canada, where he remained six or seven 
 years, learned the Indian language and was so satisfied with 
 his treatment that, after the peace, he was for some time 
 unwilling to return. During the same war, in 1706, the 
 widow Mcintosh, together with Judah Trumble of Suffield, 
 was shot and killed while she was milking. Thomas Battis 
 was killed near the site of Belcher Town. And in August, 
 1709, John Clary of Brookfield and Robert Grainger of 
 Suffield were killed by Indians while walking along the 
 Brookfield road. 
 
 You are all familiar with the massacre of the six men who 
 were making hay in the meadow on July 22nd, 1710. The 
 story of one of them, John White, whom they had taken 
 prisoner and who was shot while trying to escape, has been 
 described in verse by the graceful pen of Miss Frances Bart- 
 lett. This was the last calamity of war that befell the town. 
 The discipline which the inhabitants received during those 
 times that tried their souls and the traditions of the courage 
 which they then displayed, moulded the character of the 
 succeeding generations, so that the men of Brookfield have 
 always been not only willing but able to render their country 
 great service in every later war. Let us honor the men who, 
 during those troublous times, protected the path between the 
 river and the bay. 
 
 But let us give greater honor to the women of Brookfield. 
 They underwent severer hardship and did more work than 
 the men. They discharged their household tasks. They 
 attended to the dairy, the weeding and other incidental 
 labors of the farm, which are more fatiguing than the plow; 
 without the excitement of the trap, fishing and the hunt. 
 
56 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 For many years, they nursed the sick without the aid of a 
 physician. They had no time for nervous prostration, nor 
 to be troubled by the question whether their characters were 
 thoroughly understood by their husbands. They bore and 
 reared large families of children, whose ministrations were 
 the comfort of their old age. One, who was alive when the 
 haymakers were killed, survived until after the Revolution 
 to the age of ninety-one. She had then two hundred and 
 thirty-two living descendants : children, grandchildren, great- 
 grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and great-great- 
 great-grandchildren, all of whom down to the fifth generation 
 arose and called her blessed. The Brookfield women in- 
 curred the same dangers as the men, with equal or greater 
 fortitude. One was killed by Indians while attending to the 
 cows. When the savages threatened the feebly fortified 
 house where the wife of Joseph Marks was alone, she donned 
 her husband's great coat, wig and hat and with his gun 
 patrolled the roof, calling. "All's well, all's well," until she 
 saved the building with the town's ammunition and supplies 
 by frightening them away in the belief that the garrison was 
 there. 
 
 During those "August days, whose grim renown, 
 A hallowed spot this crumbling hill has made;" 
 when eighty-two were besieged for three days, crowded to- 
 gether in four small rooms; with water scarce and not even 
 the crudest sanitary conveniences; with no medical care; 
 six wounded men to nurse, some of them dying; bullets flying 
 through the walls and the roof often on fire; the head of one 
 of their murdered neighbors on a pole under the windows; 
 their houses burning around them ; two wives gave birth each 
 to strong twin boys and in less than a month's time carried 
 them on foot to Boston. 
 
 In 1693, savages from Canada killed Joseph Mason and 
 his older boy with others before his wife and carried her away 
 with a babe in her arms, taking also Daniel Lawrence, a 
 youth of about eighteen. After a ten-mile march, finding 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 57 
 
 the child an encumbrance, they killed it before the mother's 
 eyes, and abandoning its body traveled three days with the 
 two prisoners, nearly fifty miles through the wilderness, until 
 the rescue by the soldiers sent by Colonel Pynchon. These 
 found the young man "tired, amazed and dull," but the 
 woman's spirit was unquenched. She said: "They were 
 "cowardly afraid to meddle with her; that if she had any 
 "weapons she thinks she might have made her escape." 
 The shock of her bereavement and the pains of the journey 
 had not kept her from employing her time in acquiring and 
 memorizing information that could aid her and her friends. 
 And all this she told her rescuers. They reported her as 
 "a trusty and intelligent woman." 
 
 Margaret Otis and her mother, when the child was three 
 months old, were carried to Canada by Indians who killed her 
 father and sister in an attack on Dover, where she lived in 
 1689. She was educated in the Roman Catholic faith and 
 at the age of sixteen married a Frenchman, Le Beau. When 
 she was about twenty, he died, leaving her with three chil- 
 dren. In 1714, Captain Thomas Baker came to Canada with 
 a party to redeem the prisoners who had been carried there 
 during the last quarter of a century. He was then the rich- 
 est citizen of Brookfield, a large land owner, and when the 
 meeting house was built bought the best pew. He was its 
 first representative in the Legislature, its only representative 
 until the election of Joseph Dwight twelve years after Baker's 
 term. When he met her, Captain Baker was about thirty- 
 two and had had a distinguished military career, during 
 which he had been captured; twice recaptured after two 
 escapes; preparations for his burning made by the Indians; 
 ransomed by a Frenchman, who paid five pounds to save 
 him from the fire, and on his third escape, with three others, 
 reached home half starved through the wilderness, after a 
 journey without gun or provisions, fed only by roots, nuts, 
 buds, bark and such small beasts as could be killed with 
 stones and sticks. The priests told the English prisoners 
 
58 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 stories, some of them probably not exaggerated, concerning 
 the intolerance of the Protestants and the hardship of life 
 in the New England towns. Most refused to return; but 
 Captain Baker persuaded Margaret Le Beau to come back 
 and marry him. Her mother and her confessor remon- 
 strated; the French authorities insisted that her children 
 should remain in Canada and that she should forfeit all her 
 propertj' there; but she yielded to the call of the blood. She 
 was admitted to a Protestant church in Northampton, was 
 married to Captain Baker and received a small land grant 
 in Brookfield, conditioned upon her marrying and remaining 
 in the province. Repeated attempts by the "mother to 
 obtain the possession of her three children failed, although, 
 in 1722, she and her husband made a journey to Canada 
 for that purpose. She bore seven children to her second 
 husband, all but one of whom married and seem to have left 
 descendants. About twelve years after she came to Brook- 
 field, her husband, Captain Baker, quarrelled with one of 
 its leading citizens, sold his land there and left the town. 
 By the insolvency of the principal purchaser before the day 
 of payment, he lost almost all his property. He first moved 
 to Mendon and then to his wife's native town in New Hamp- 
 shire. Her energy was not weakened by this new misfor- 
 tune. She had obtained, in the province of Maine, a land 
 grant held in trust for her by Colonel William Pepperell. 
 Within a few months after they had arrived at Dover, she 
 obtained from the General Assembly of New Hampshire, 
 a statute authorizing her to keep a tavern there. She 
 opened this, thus supporting her younger children and her 
 husband until he died, eighteen years afterwards. She sur- 
 vived until the age of eighty-four. Such were a few of the 
 women of Brookfield. 
 
 But other anxieties than fear of the savages depressed 
 the citizens. They were unable during the early wars to 
 give such devotion to agriculture as could compel the land 
 to furnish them with support. The colonial records are full 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 59 
 
 of frequent petitions by them for aid and for fourteen years 
 or more after the second settlement they were treated as 
 soldiers and received rations and pay in that capacity. The 
 following petition is one of a number that might be quoted: 
 
 "Brookfield, Dec. 14, 1704. 
 "To His Excelancy, etc. 
 
 "we hues names are underwriten do Humbly beage 
 "your Excelancy's favor and that you wod consider our 
 "weke condishone: the favor we beg is that we all ov us 
 "not that such of us as find that are under such disad- 
 vantages that they cant subsist there might remove in- 
 "to some other towne where they may worke for there 
 "liveinge. by the deficulty of the times we are reduste 
 "to such p'verty that we cant subsist except your onors 
 "wil plese to grant us wages as solders & pay for our diat 
 "for we raize litle or none of our provision by rezen of 
 "our being drawn so frome our improvements of Lands, 
 "our families are so large and our means are so small that 
 "we cant live without sume other imploye than any we 
 "have at presant. and if the honoured Cort se coaus to 
 "put us in as solders we will as we do account it our duti 
 "conform to the order of authority — but we rather if it 
 "may be granted chuse to remove into other towns, 
 "and we humble intrete that the onors of the Corte 
 "would plese to grant us pay for our diat for the time we 
 "have searve [d] as soldears. no more presant but we 
 "remain youars as followeth." 
 
 They were also obliged to petition for spiritual suste- 
 nance. The Reverend Younglove after the breaking up of 
 the first settlement and the refusal to appoint him on the 
 committee, did not return. The loss on that account was 
 probably not large, since he was subsequently often directed 
 by the Court to stop preaching. The new settlers could not 
 support a pastor, nor even organize a church. For about 
 twelve years, the annual stipend of £20 was voted by the 
 
60 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERWARY 
 
 General Court for the payment of a chaplain to the garrison 
 at Brookfield. The third chaplain that was appointed also 
 received the grant of a homestead with the accompanying 
 lots both in plain and meadow. On October 30th, 1706: 
 "The Humble Address of the Inhabitants and Soldiers 
 "of Brookfield. 
 
 "Showeth our grateful acknowledgements to your 
 "Honours, in that you did so consider our low condition, 
 "in so much as your Hon ra did the year past grant a 
 "considerable suply of Moneys toward the maintaining 
 "a Minister to preach the Gospel to us in this place. 
 "We now humbly begg the gracious continuance of your 
 "Hon™ goodness and bounty to us for the insuing year, 
 "els we shall starve & pine away for want of that spiritual 
 "food with the which throw your Honours liberality we 
 "were the last year so plentifully fed with." 
 All of these chaplains were selected by the committee 
 and the inhabitants, the latter sometimes contributing to 
 their support. There was no established church at Brook- 
 field until 1717. Those who wished to become church 
 members were obliged to go to Northampton and a special 
 act of the General Court in 1691 authorized "Mr. Joseph 
 Hawley of Northampton to joine persons in marriage at 
 Brookfield." 
 
 The massacre of the haymakers was the last action on 
 the soil of Brookfield that markedly distinguished its history 
 from that of other towns of Massachusetts. Until the Peace 
 of Utrecht, a garrison was kept there, at least while the 
 leaves were on the trees; sentinels were posted to guard 
 workers in the meadows and the worshippers at meeting, 
 and nearly all the men were paid as "standing guards." 
 
 Shortly after the close of the War of the Succession in 
 Spain, they organized a church, began the building of a 
 meeting-house and employed a pastor. The meeting-house 
 was forty-five by thirty-five feet with a gallery. Every 
 inhabitant contributed labor or money toward its construe- 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 61 
 
 tion. They voted the minister "for his salary 52 pounds 
 "yearly for 3 years and to rise 40 shillings a year until it 
 "comes to 70 pounds and there to stay"; besides a land 
 grant fit for orchard and meadow; a house and barn to be 
 built for him, he to provide the glass, nails and iron; twenty- 
 five cords of wood a year and the right to require each man's 
 work for one day yearly for six years. This seigniorial 
 privilege was afterwards commuted. He accepted the 
 town's house, which was already built opposite the place of 
 the siege, allowing a credit of thirty pounds upon his salary, 
 in return for the increased accommodation which this afford- 
 ed and for six appurtenant acres, and the inhabitants dug 
 and stoned for him a well, in return for a release of his right 
 to have a new dwelling built him and to compel the yearly 
 work from his parishioners. In October, 1717, the church 
 was organized and the Reverend Thomas Cheney was or- 
 dained after a day of fasting and prayer, set apart by what 
 is described as "full and clear votes of the town to implore 
 "God's presence with us in this solemn and weighty 
 "matter." The meeting-house was not yet finished. Be- 
 fore its completion, the delicate matter of the distribution 
 of the seats was arranged at a town meeting, held within two 
 months of the creation of the town. The two best pews, 
 each eight feet square, were given to Captain Thomas Baker 
 and Thomas Gilbert; the former paying three pounds, the 
 latter two pounds, for his pew. Pew room was granted 
 subsequently to others, apparently in return for money or 
 labor upon the meeting-house. The pew rent was forty 
 shillings a year. A ministry pew was ordered on the right 
 of the pulpit, and upon its left another "to be for Deacons' 
 "wives, and said wives to sit in the pew during their 
 "natural lives." The occupants usually furnished their 
 own straight backed cane bottomed chairs, many of which 
 are still treasured by their descendants. The rest of the 
 meeting-house was filled "with strong plain seats." And a 
 committee was appointed to assign the same, with instruc- 
 
62 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 tions "to have regard to age, where it is honorable, and 
 "to estate; taking the list that Mr. Cheney's Rate was 
 "made by as a rule; having also regard to men's service- 
 " fulness in the town." It was solemnly voted "that the 
 "foreseat in the front gallery shall be equal in dignity 
 "with the third seat in the body; and the fore seat in 
 "the side gallery shall be equal with the fourth seat in the 
 "body of the house." The irreverent may smile at the 
 punctiliousness that our ancestors observed in arranging 
 their stations while they worshipped God together ; but many 
 of us still remember when the possession of a pew near the 
 front of the centre aisle was considered to be a sign of quali- 
 ty. The daughters of the Puritans seem to have exercised 
 a disturbing influence upon some of the younger worshippers ; 
 for, in 1733, there was a vote of a town meeting "that the 
 "women that set in the front gallery in the meeting-house 
 "be seated in some other convenient place in said house, 
 "the pews only excepted." The men's eyes, like those of 
 Jeremiah, were troubled by the sight of the virgins. 
 The year after the organization of the church, the fol- 
 lowing petition was presented to the General Court: 
 
 "We undersigned, the Committee for Brookfield, after 
 "many Disappointments by warr and otherwise which 
 "for a long time the people have laboured under, by the 
 "good providence of God are now so increased that they 
 "are now near fifty families in the place, have near finished 
 "a very convenient meeting-house, have settled a church 
 "and ordained an orthodox & learned Minister — We 
 "humbly propose that they be made a Township, to order 
 "all the affairs of a Township, according to the directions 
 "of the Law by themselves, & said Committee released, — 
 "which we submit to the Court's determination." 
 
 On November 12th, 1718, it was "Read and Ordered, 
 "That the prayers of this Petition be granted: and that 
 "the Inhabitants of the Town of Brookfield be invested 
 "with all the powers, privileges and authorities to direct, 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 63 
 
 "order and manage all the affairs of the said Township that 
 "other towns are or ought to be invested with; And that 
 "the Committee be dismist from their care of them with 
 "the thanks of this Court for their good & faithful service. 
 "The said Town to lye in the County of Hampshire." 
 At the first town-meeting, when business of any impor- 
 tance was transacted — that held January 5th, 1719 — pro- 
 vision was made by land grant for a school. Liberal provi- 
 sion for education was made from time to time throughout 
 the history of the town; although, up to the close of the 
 Eighteenth Century, children learned to write on birch-bark 
 paper, with quills plucked from the Brookfield birds, in 
 home-made ink of alderbark. The inhabitants of Brook- 
 field were not behind the other citizens of the State in their 
 devotion to the public schools, which are the crowning glory 
 of New England. Yet, when the first school was founded 
 they were still in great poverty. Only, during the first of 
 the twelve years succeeding the town's organization could 
 they afford to send a representative to the legislature and 
 the money for his salary was not collected till more than three 
 years after his term had expired. 
 
 During Father Rasle's war, said to have been instigated 
 
 in 1722 by the Jesuit in Maine whose name it bears, the 
 
 inhabitants were continually on guard; but they were not 
 
 molested, although the tracks of Indians were seen near the 
 
 village and their hunting-guns often heard. The pastor 
 
 wrote on May 25th, 1725: "I would by these humbly entreat 
 
 "y r Honour would think of our Poor afflicted Town, and 
 
 "that you would please to grant our Town some garrison 
 
 "soldiers. I would beg y r Honour not to be Troubled 
 
 "that I take upon me to request this favour of you to my 
 
 "people, for their interest and welfare in a great measure 
 
 "is mine; and if they can't have some help, by reason of 
 
 "the danger of the enemy, they will not be able to improve 
 
 "their lands, and so not to be able to live themselves nor 
 
 "to pay me my sallary. " 
 
64 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 He thus secured the detail of a garrison of ten men from 
 the upper county. When the Indians attacked Rutland, 
 Brookfield men marched to its relief. And for thirty years, 
 a citizen of Brookfield boasted that he had taken part in 
 "Lovell's fight," when only half a band of rangers escaped 
 from an Indian ambuscade. 
 
 Long after the extension of the frontier relieved the 
 
 settlers from daily dread of the tomahawk, they were still 
 
 surrounded by the wilderness and in danger from wild 
 
 beasts. Bears were killed in the township as late as 1747. 
 
 In 1734, a bounty of forty shillings was offered for grown 
 
 wolf heads. And in 1741, it was voted "that whoever 
 
 "within 20 days shall kill any rattlesnake, and shall bring 
 
 "the last joint of the tail thereof to the selectmen, and 
 
 "shall solemnly declare that the said snake was killed in 
 
 "or near our town shall have 3d. reward." 
 
 But they more feared the enemy of souls. The most 
 
 important event in the half century following the meadow 
 
 massacre, the one which, of all that subsequently happened 
 
 in the town, lives most strongly in the recollection of the 
 
 inhabitants, was the preaching by the great Methodist from 
 
 the stone on Foster's Hill, which still bears his name. Happy 
 
 is the village where life contains nothing more dramatic than 
 
 a sermon! The great preacher was then only twenty-six 
 
 years old; but his voice and gestures had roused thousands 
 
 to religious enthusiasm, from Georgia to Massachusetts, as 
 
 well as in England. The force of his eloquence is proved 
 
 by the testimony of the most competent judges, including 
 
 the unconverted sceptics, Bolingbroke and Hume. The 
 
 following story is told by Franklin concerning Whitefield's 
 
 charity sermon in support of the endowment of an orphan 
 
 asylum at Savannah: "I did not disapprove of the design; 
 
 "but, as Georgia was then destitute of materials and 
 
 "workmen, and it was proposed to send them from Phila- 
 
 "delphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been 
 
 "better to have built the house at Philadelphia and 
 

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HON. ROGER FOSTER 65 
 
 "brought the children to it. This I advised; but he was 
 "resolute in his first project, rejected my counsel, and I 
 "therefore refused to contribute. I happened soon after 
 "to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I 
 "perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I 
 "silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had 
 "in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four 
 "silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded, 
 "I began to soften, and concluded to give the copper. 
 "Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, 
 "and determined me to give the silver; and he finished so 
 "admirably that I emptied my pocket wholly into the 
 "collector's dish, gold and all. At this sermon there was 
 "also one of our club, who, being of my sentiments re- 
 specting the building in Georgia, and suspecting a col- 
 lection might be intended, had by precaution emptied 
 "his pockets before he came from home. Towards the 
 "conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong 
 "inclination to give, and applied to a neighbour, who 
 "stood near him, to lend him some money for the purpose. 
 "The request was fortunately made to perhaps the only 
 "man in the company who had the firmness not to be 
 '' affected by the preacher. His answer was, ' At any other 
 "time, friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely; but 
 "not now, for thee seems to be out of thy right senses.'" 
 In London, men rose at four o'clock on winter mornings 
 to hear him preach in a tabernacle lighted by lanterns carried 
 by thousands. He had a voice so strong that it could be 
 heard by thirty thousand when he spoke in the open, and yet 
 so soft that it was said he could move congregations to tears 
 merely by the pronunciation of the word Mesopotamia. 
 Like the ancient orators, his wholy body was in action. He 
 emphasized by stamping with his feet, as well as by the 
 motion of his arms. The leading actors studied his gestures 
 in the hope of being able to reproduce them on the boards. 
 He was not wont to write his sermons; but he often repeated 
 
66 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 them to different congregations. And Garrick said that his 
 art was such that they improved until the fortieth repetition. 
 He would single out individuals and compel them to answer 
 expressing their assent to his doctrines; at the same time 
 keeping control of the whole assembly. His appeals affected 
 scholars and men of the world, as well as those who could 
 neither read nor write. No man of that century prided 
 himself so much as Lord Chesterfield upon the control of his 
 emotions. Yet, when he heard Whitefield's description of 
 an old blind man who had lost his dog, wandering nearer 
 and nearer to a precipice, the earl started to his feet and cried : 
 "Good God, he is gone." When the preacher spoke at the 
 collieries, the tears of the miners made white lines down the 
 coal dust on their cheeks. Such of his sermons as can now 
 be read make it impossible to understand his power. This 
 is usual with oratory that affects the multitude. To make 
 the written word effective requires far different art from that 
 which charms when it is spoken. The repetitions which are 
 usually necessary for a mixed audience, often changing, 
 whose recollections of previous portions of the argument 
 needs frequent jogging; the homely local and timely allusions 
 which a tactful speaker uses with the greatest force fall flat 
 upon the printed page and are usually omitted from the 
 publication. Omissions of much that, to the reader, seems 
 requisite for artistic symmetry, must often be made by a 
 speaker who would avoid suggestions that to some peculiari- 
 ties in his audience might be offensive. The voice of White- 
 field, as it ran the gamut from whispered pleading to thun- 
 derous indignation and melting emotion; the play of his 
 features; the emphasis of his gestures dignified by his wig 
 and gown; can be no better reproduced on paper than can be 
 the convulsions he inspired in his hearers. The last were 
 also heightened by his reputation and by the contagion of 
 religious enthusiasm among them. On a day appointed 
 for him to preach, a woman threw herself upon the ground, 
 rolled over and over in the mud. shrieking: "Oh! Lord save 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 67 
 
 me, save me." When she had recovered her breath, she 
 said to a bystander: "What a great exhorter Mr. Whitefield 
 is." "That is not Mr. Whitefield," said the other; "He 
 has not preached yet. That is the minister who comes 
 before him." "What," said she, "is not that Mr. White- 
 field? Then I have dirtied myself for nothing." The 
 Reverend Mr. Cheney resented the attempt of another 
 pastor to feed his flock and at first refused to open the meet- 
 ing-house for the itinerant preacher. The people, however, 
 were resolved to hear Whitefield, who then said he would 
 speak in the open air. When the force of public opinion 
 compelled Mr. Cheney to offer him the use of the pulpit, a 
 crowd had collected too large to be received in the meeting- 
 house. So the preacher spoke on October 16th, 1740, from 
 the place which has since been known as the Whitefield rock. 
 The tradition of what he said, although distorted, enables 
 us now to ascertain his text, which, curiously enough, has 
 not been discovered by the scholarly speakers who have 
 preceded me. I am so much indebted to their learning that I 
 cannot resist the temptation to claim credit for my sole con- 
 tribution to the town's religious history. It was from the 
 verse preceding the Biblical story of Paul's discourse upon 
 Mars' Hill; that famous sermon, the authenticity of which 
 divines calling themselves Christian ministers had not then 
 attacked. "And some said, what will this babbler say? " l 
 That was the period of the Great Awakening. 
 
 It may have been due to the early influence of the 
 Pynchons that the records of Brookfield are free from illus- 
 trations of the ill effects of religious bigotry. The Half 
 Way Covenant, which afforded certain privileges to those 
 who had conscientious scruples against professing all the 
 
 1 The address of Dr. Lyman Whiting on the Two Hundredth Anniversary of 
 the Town Settlement contains the following passage: "The wonderful preacher 
 began, kindly saluting them. He was glad to see them; and then passed to enquire 
 for the motives drawing them there. 'Some of you come to hear what the babbler 
 will say,' is a sentence remembered by a hearer who went to her rest during the 
 ministry of Rev. Dr. Phelps." See Acts. XVII. 18. 
 
68 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 tenets of the dominant religion, was early permitted and 
 allowed, at least in the church of West Brookfield, until the 
 Nineteenth Century. It was the usual practice in the Con- 
 gregational churches of Massachusetts to decide all important 
 matters by the "silentius vote." 2 No question could be 
 considered without the consent of the minister. He presided 
 at all meetings and put the motion in a form which required 
 only a silent assent. No count of those for or against the 
 motion was usually made. This gave the divines powers 
 over matters of doctrine, discipline, the admission and exclu- 
 sion of members whose share in the civil government was 
 then usually dependent upon their right to communion, in 
 comparison with which the powers of the speaker in a legis- 
 lative house of our era seem infinitesimal. On January 
 30th, 1753, at a meeting of the Second Church of Christ at 
 Brookfield, "The Question being asked whether any thing 
 "short of a hand vote should be looked upon as valid in 
 "said church — it passed in the negative." The leaders 
 of Brookfield were men of affairs, not ecclesiastics. And it 
 is to the credit of the ministry there that its incumbents 
 seem, in most cases, to have cheerfully acquiesced in that 
 situation. As to others of the Puritans, the rites and sym- 
 bols — even the words — that had been used in the exercise 
 of Christianity for centuries, were repugnant to them as 
 savoring of Romanism and the Church of England. The 
 place of worship was a meeting-house, not a church. A 
 church consisted only of the organized body of believers. 
 A crucifix, or even a cross, would have been no more suffered 
 there than in a mosque of the Mohammedans. Many even 
 refused to kneel during prayer; genuflexion was an attitude 
 
 1 The silentius vote was exercised in Worcester County as late as 1771 by Mr. Goss, 
 pastor of the Church of Bolton, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent his dismissal for 
 drunkenness; and by Mellen, pastor of the Second Parish in Sterling, who thus pre- 
 vented members of the church which had dismissed Goss, from taking of communion 
 at his meeting-house. (See a sermon by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, delivered in Worcester 
 on January 31st, 1836, published at Worcester by Clarendon Harris in 1S36, pp. 7, 
 10; and an unpublished article entitled " Illustrations of Ecclesiastical Usages in Mass- 
 achusetts, " by Samuel Swett Green.) 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 69 
 
 that seemed inconsistent with the character of a free Pro- 
 testant. He stood when speaking to the Almighty. The 
 ancient appellations of ecclesiastics were so eschewed that 
 by long disuse they became incomprehensible to the inhabi- 
 tants. At the end of the Eighteenth Century, Captain John 
 Potter of the Lower Village was the watch-maker and the 
 only skilled mechanic. A traveller asked the landlady of 
 the tavern: "Who is your clergyman?" She did not know 
 the meaning of the word; but as the watchmaker was the 
 jack of all trades, she thought he must be the clergyman if 
 they had any, and answered: "Captain Potter." The 
 franchise was not confined to members of the church. With- 
 in eight years after the organization of the town, it was 
 voted "that all persons that are freeholders and of age to 
 "act for themselves shall or may be voters in the town 
 "meeting." Although as late as the early part of the 
 Nineteenth Century, there was a reputed witch in Brook- 
 field, no prosecutions for witchcraft disgrace our annals. 
 They are free also from punishment for heresy or blasphemy. 
 The only two attempts in that direction were inspired by 
 the warmth of politics rather than religious bigotry. Such 
 were the indictment of Thomas Wilson "for cursing Samuel 
 Warner," which was never tried, and that which caused 
 Captain Baker to leave the community. In September, 
 1727, he was tried at the Court of Assizes in Springfield upon 
 the following charge: "There being a discourse of God's 
 "having in his Providence, put in Joseph Jennings, Esq., 
 "of Brookfield, a Justice of the Peace, Captain Baker 
 "used the following words — 'If I had been with the Al- 
 "mighty, I would have taught him better.'" Jennings, 
 who was a deacon, during the previous spring, procured an 
 accusation against Baker of blasphemj' and compelled him 
 to give bail to the amount of £200. The accused petitioned 
 the governor, saying "however the evidences might strain 
 "and misconstrue his words, yet in conscience he really 
 "had no design to reproach the Deity"; and prayed that 
 
70 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "he might be 'discharged from his recognizance, or ad- 
 "mitted to a trial." The jury found a verdict of not 
 guilty. 
 
 Only one case of religious cruelty is recorded. From 
 the beginning of the settlement, it was the custom of the 
 inhabitants to begin the weekly day of rest at sun-down. 
 They followed the Hebraic custom, as well as the words of 
 Holy Writ, which say that the evening and the morning 
 were the first day. All work of man and beast upon the 
 farm ceased Saturday afternoon, an hour before sunset. 
 The men then shaved and made the other necessary prepara- 
 tions for the sacred time and the women finished making 
 ready the Sunday food before the sun went down. No other 
 work, except that of absolute necessity and indispensable 
 mercy — not even bed-making or sweeping— was permitted. 
 The resource of a hired Gentile from without the house, 
 which the later Rabbis allow to the Jews for the supply of 
 ordinary comforts upon the day sacred to the Creator of the 
 good things of this life, was denied them. Until 1818, there 
 was no stove in the meeting-house. A few hot stones 
 brought in by the more luxurious pewholders were the sole 
 means of artificial warmth. The winter temperature of the 
 meeting-house at North Brookfield in 1798 is well described 
 by the Reverend Thomas Snell, who preached there for 
 more than fifty years, to the great satisfaction of the parish : 
 "The age and infirmities and consequent coldness of your 
 "former house of worship, without any means of warming 
 "it in severe weather, together with the distance of dwell- 
 ing houses (except two or three) rendered the condition 
 "of the people on a cold Sabbath, every thing but toler- 
 "able; and the labors of the minister wholly useless, unless 
 "to afflict his hearers with a long discourse for not pro- 
 "viding a warmer house. When almost every one was 
 "anxiously looking for the close of service that he might 
 "thaw out from his morning's freeze, and that desire was 
 "to be read in the countenance without danger of mistake, 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 71 
 
 "you may well imagine that the feelings of the speaker 
 "could not be of the most pleasant sort, especially when 
 "he had spent half the week, day and night, in preparing 
 "his discourse." Yet men in the saddle and women on 
 the pillion rode miles to attend the two Sunday services, 
 allowing themselves an intermission of not more than an 
 hour in winter and in the summer months an hour and a half. 
 As the Lord's Day in their opinion, based upon the language 
 of the Bible, ceased with sunset, they thought it not wrong 
 to have a little mild social recreation during the ensuing 
 evening. On October 23rd, 1816, the Reverend Eliakin 
 Phelps was ordained as associate pastor of the church in 
 West Brookfield. He thus describes what he inflicted upon 
 his parishoners: "The people of Brookfield when I went 
 "among them, were in the habit of observing Saturday 
 "evening as holy time, or rather not observing Sabbath 
 " evening. Their custom was, as they were dressed in their 
 "go-to-meeting suit, to spend Sabbath evening in social 
 "chat among the neighbors. It was easy to see that what- 
 ever of seriousness might have been impressed on their 
 "minds by the services of the day, was almost sure to be 
 "banished and destroyed by the gossip of the evening. 
 "To meet this state of things, I determined to try the 
 "effect of a third service for the evening. It worked well. 
 "It finally grew into a custom, and for the greater portion 
 "of my ministry I had three services on each Sabbath." 
 The congregation submitted; but within a few years 
 stoves were put in the meeting-house and the pastorate of 
 Mr. Phelps lasted a single decade, when he became a school- 
 master at the head of what was then known as a female 
 seminary. Let us rejoice that in this Twentieth Century, 
 it is understood that religion can exist apart from melan- 
 choly. 
 
 Upon the unfortunate dispute which resulted in the 
 formation of the third parish; the riotous destruction of the 
 old meeting-house; the remonstrance and appeals to the 
 
72 TWO HUNDEED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 General Court, which ordered a stay of proceedings in the 
 construction of the new house of worship on Seth Banister's 
 Hill, and the retirement of the Reverend Elisha Harding, the 
 benefit of whose services each of two parishes sought to sur- 
 render to the other; we need not dwell. It is more refreshing 
 to quote the Reverend Daniel Foster for seventeen years 
 pastor at New Braintree. Some of the older members of 
 his congregation objected to his preaching, because he avoided 
 subtle points of technical theology; approved cheerfulness, 
 rather than spiritual penance by ordinary sinners, and was 
 believed to be too liberal in his doctrinal views. Having 
 failed in their attempt at his removal, they left his congre- 
 gation, and some of them requested a recommendation to 
 another church. He said at the church meeting: "Breth- 
 ren, tw r o of us desire to go to Heaven by way of North Brook- 
 field. Is there any objection?" It is not surprising that 
 when he died, after a pastorate of seventeen years, he was 
 buried at the expense of the town and the younger men w r ore 
 badges of mourning for thirty days. His successor was the 
 Reverend John Fiske. It was thought not indecorous to 
 close the services upon his installation with a ball. It is 
 possible that this aided the church quite as much as a fast 
 would have done. 
 
 Those who believed that the sacrament of baptism 
 should be administered in the form in which it was received 
 by Christ and in accordance with the practice of the original 
 apostolic churches and of that sect whose other rites most 
 closely conform to those of the primitive Christians, had the 
 benefit of the ministrations of travelling ministers as early 
 as 1748; but it was not until November 14th, 1786, that the 
 first Baptist Society was formed in Brookfield. They 
 worshipped in barns and private dwellings for nine years. 
 In 1795, a meeting-house was erected by them. 
 
 In spite of the impression made by Whitefield, the first 
 mention of a regular Methodist exhorter that I can find in 
 Brookfield concerns the Reverend Elijah Bachelor, who 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 73 
 
 preached on circuit in the house of the Widow Crowell on 
 Ragged Hill. He converted her son Joshua, who preached 
 Methodism for fifty-seven years, but not in Brookfield. In 
 1829, Erastus Otis was appointed to the Brookfield Circuit 
 by the Conference. In May, 1830, Nathaniel Smith, for- 
 merly a free-will Baptist, obtained a license and exhorted a 
 class gathered in his own house. Other preachers were later 
 appointed to the Circuit and at first held services during 
 the summer at five o'clock on Sunday afternoons at the old 
 Congregational Meeting-House, which they had bought. 
 
 Those whose intellects refused to accept the doctrine 
 that a benevolent Almighty could condemn his creatures 
 to everlasting punishment for yielding to the temptations 
 that he had placed about them were incorporated in a Uni- 
 versalist Church in 1812. Upon the schism that was caused 
 by the converts to the Unitarian doctrines and the bitterness 
 that it occasioned, this is not the time to dwell. It is not our 
 function to compose such quarrels. It seems, however, 
 proper to refer to the fact that the right of the Unitarians to 
 use the old meeting-house and church property when they 
 constituted a majority of the parish was adjudicated in a 
 case that arose in the year 1827 in the Third Church of 
 Brookfield. Samuel M. Burnside of Worcester was one of 
 the counsel for the successful Unitarians. His wife was born 
 in Brookfield. It is pleasant to remember that, although 
 her brother, Alfred Dwight Foster, was strongly opposed 
 to the new doctrines, no odium theologicum disturbed the 
 harmony of that family. 
 
 The oldest and the most powerful of all Christian 
 churches, which has since founded an institution of learning 
 that is one of the ornaments of Worcester County, held no 
 service in North Brookfield until June, 1851. The sacra- 
 ments were at first administered to the Catholics 
 here in a mission by priests from Webster and afterwards 
 by those attached to the church at Ware. St. Joseph's 
 Church was not finished until July, 1867. 
 
/4 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 But Brookfield acquired more renown in military affairs 
 than in those which were ecclesiastical. It was always 
 known as the fighting town of Massachusetts. And when- 
 ever their country was in danger, Brookfield men and Brook- 
 field boys shouldered the musket. Great service to the 
 colony and to England was rendered by its citizens during 
 the war with France, declared in 1744. Although the town 
 was no longer on the frontier and not attacked by the enemy, 
 there were many Indians in its neighborhood, and at least 
 one new fort was built for its protection. This was after- 
 wards known as the "old French fort," standing at the top 
 of Coy's Hill on the "Rich Land" north of Power's place. 
 It was connected with Rich's Tavern and was what was then 
 called a mount; a heavily timbered building about twenty 
 feet square, two stories high, with a covered lookout on the 
 roof surrounded bj^ a balustrade. 
 
 The leading citizen of the community, to whom all look- 
 ed for the protection and assertion of their rights, was then 
 Colonel Joseph Dwight. He was a son of Captain Henry 
 Dwight of Hatfield and Dedham; a judge of the Common 
 Pleas in Hampshire County, and a member of the com- 
 mittee that ruled Brookfield before it was incorporated as a 
 town, who had bought 1400 acres there. He was graduated 
 from Harvard in 1722 at the age of nineteen, and four years 
 later married Mary Pynchon, the granddaughter of the 
 former patron of the town. In order to protect the land 
 belonging to the two families, he moved from Springfield 
 to Brookfield in 1722 and settled on Foster's Hill, where, 
 in 1735, he built the old Foster House, destroyed by fire 
 November 11th, 1901, a landmark in this county for more 
 than a century. Within two years of his settlement, he 
 was placed on one of the important committees in charge 
 of the town's lands. A year later, when twenty-eight, he was 
 elected representative in the General Court and thus served 
 the town for eleven years, during one of which he was speaker 
 of the house. He was admitted to the bar when thirty and 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 75 
 
 six years later was made Judge of the Court of Common 
 Pleas. 
 
 The only triumph of the British cause in the War of the 
 Austrian Succession was the capture of Louisburg by the 
 New Englanders. The recommendation of Governor Shirley 
 to attempt the siege was disapproved at a secret session of 
 the House. But one of the representatives at his family 
 prayers beseeched divine guidance as to his vote and the 
 secret leaked out through a servant or member of his family 
 present at his devotions. Since the commerce and fisheries 
 seemed to be at the mercy of the fortress, public opinion 
 strongly sustained the governor and petitions sent to the 
 legislators from the coast towns obtained a reconsideration 
 and the approval of this recommendation by a majority of 
 one. There was great enthusiasm in support of the expedi- 
 tion. Whitefield furnished a legend for the regimental 
 colors, "Nil desperandum, Christo duce." At least one of 
 his disciples among the soldiers carried a hatchet, in order 
 that he might have the pious pleasure of using it in destroy- 
 ing the works of art in the churches of Cape Breton. William 
 Pepperell, who received a baronetcy for his services, was 
 commander-in-chief. The success was largely due, however, 
 to two citizens of Worcester County, one of them from Brook- 
 field. Joseph D wight volunteered and was commissioned 
 colonel of the Ninth Regiment. Several citizens of Brook- 
 field were officers as well as privates. They and the other 
 soldiers were thus described by a contemporary, who is cor- 
 roborated by the diary of a soldier, which has been preserved: 
 "They were not the scum of the land, idle, worthless crea- 
 "tures, given to profaneness and intemperance, and de- 
 bauched in their manners, but, for the generality, they 
 "were men who had upon their minds an awe of God, and 
 "who feared an oath; they were men industrious in their 
 "callings, and well able to provide for themselves and 
 "families; in a word, they were men of life and spirit, 
 "animated with love to their King and country, and will- 
 
76 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "ing to venture their lives, not so much to serve themselves 
 "as to promote the public good. 'T is a rare thing for so 
 "many men of such a character to be employed in such an 
 "enterprise." This describes the soldiers of New Eng- 
 land in every war. 
 
 Before the siege began, Colonel Dwight 3 was promoted 
 to the office of Brigadier-General and placed in command of 
 the artillery. 4 To the successful management of this the 
 capture of the fort was due. In order to bring the cannon 
 of the New Englanders within range, they had to be dragged, 
 in plain view and within gunshot of the walls of the fortress, 
 over a swamp where oxen and horses could not be used. He 
 led his men across, by night and in fogs, harnessed to their 
 guns with straps across their hearts, sinking up to their knees 
 in the mud. The ancient and honorable artillery of Boston 
 then did yeomen's service. During the siege, which lasted 
 forty-nine days, fifteen hundred shot and shell were thrown 
 into the town, leaving not a single house uninjured and not 
 
 a Brigadier Joseph Dwight was described by a contemporary as " a man of com- 
 manding, dignified deportment and of singular veracity. All who knew him speak of 
 this virtue with enthusiasm." 
 
 4 "Brigadier Dwight here stands in Honour high, 
 
 Col'nel o're Train of the Artillery. 
 
 Expert in use of Arms, and martial skill. 
 
 Directs each hostile Posture to Fulfill. 
 
 Col'nel also Commissioner is, and stands. 
 
 Ready to Act, in Regimental Bands. 
 
 He with'a Lieutenant Thomas, grace the Plain, 
 
 In hostile Fields, the Gallic's do disdain: 
 
 With Courage Bold, undauntedly Pursue, 
 
 The Conquest great, which then was had in View. 
 
 With them, their Major Gardner acts his part, 
 
 From warlike mind and Country's good at heart." 
 A brief and Plain Essay on God's Wonder-working Providence For New England, 
 In the Reduction of Louisburg, and Fortress thereto belonging on Cape Breton. With 
 a short hint in the Beginning on the French Taking and plundering the People of 
 Canso, which led the several Governments to unite and Pursue that Expedition. 
 With the names of the Leading Officers in the Army and the Several Regiments to 
 which they belonged. By Samuel Niles. " Non Magis est quaerere, quam Tucri." 
 If ye forsake the Lord, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that 
 he hath done you good. Josh. XXIV 20. The victory that day was turned into 
 Mourning, unto all the People. 2 Sam. XIX 2. N. London. Printed and sold by 
 T. Green, 1747. 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 77 
 
 more than three or four fit for habitation. The service of 
 Brigadier Dwight received special commendation from Gen- 
 eral Pepperell, who three days after the surrender of the 
 town appointed him Judge of the Court of Admiralty. 
 During the war, a number of cannon had been deserted by 
 the French, who spiked them in the belief that they would 
 thus be rendered useless; but the besieged were circumvented 
 by the Yankee ingenuity. Lieutenant Edmund Bemis of 
 Spencer, one of the armorers, built wood-fires around the 
 breeches of the guns, so dilating the metal about the touch 
 holes that the spikes could be driven in without injury and 
 the cannon used with telling effect against their former 
 owners. For this he received a bounty. 
 
 Later service was performed by the citizens of Brook- 
 field upon the frontier of Massachusetts. This is illustrated 
 by the following letter from General Dwight, written July 
 16th, 1748: "We have constant accounts of the enemy 
 "their lying upon our borders in great numbers, killing 
 "and captivating our people; and we suffer ourselves to be 
 "a prey to them and through cowardice or covetousness, 
 "or 1 know not what bad spirit in officers and men we can't 
 "so much as bury the slain. It appears to me high time 
 "for the Government to exert its Power and give more 
 "effectual directions to officers posted on our frontiers; 
 "and if need be to raise half the militia of the Province: 
 "But I beg we may have 1000 men to drive the woods and 
 "pursue the enemy even to Crown Point. If it be worth 
 "while to send parties into the enemy's country, and give 
 "at the rate of £1000 per scalp— Why when they are so 
 "numerous on our borders should we lie intirely still and 
 " do nothing — Can't some troops of horse be sent and many 
 "riot commissions be given to such as will inlist a number 
 "of Volunteers and by one way or other so many men 
 "raised as will a little discourage our enemy — I doubt not 
 "I can find many who would undertake (even without 
 "pay) for the Honor of the Country and do good service." 
 
78 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 He thus procured orders that a sufficient guard be raised to 
 protect the exposed garrison. The brigadier himself raised 
 one hundred men, at the head of which he marched against 
 the Indians. Forty-eight Brookfield men, headed by Cap- 
 tain Thomas Buckminister, were placed in Fort Dummer, 
 above Northfield, which had previously been under the 
 command of Captain Joseph Kellog, also of this town. The 
 treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle providing for peace was signed 
 October 7th of that year, but the news did not reach Boston 
 for sixth months. 
 
 In the last French and Indian War, which began six years 
 later, Brookfield again furnished soldiers and supplies. In 
 their marches through the wilderness, nine of them ate noth- 
 ing for many days but berries, beech buds and beech nuts; 
 some were obliged to boil their belts, powder horns and ball 
 pouches for food; others, like Jonathan, appeased the pangs 
 of hunger by sucking the end of a rod dipped in honey, and 
 when that was exhausted ate the flesh of their only dog. 
 General Dwight, then more than fifty-three, raised a regi- 
 ment and took part in an expedition against Crown Point. 
 Captain Jeduthan Baldwin, who was later a member of the 
 Provincial Congress and colonel in the Continental Army, 
 served throughout this war. General Rufus Putnam served 
 as a private; part of the time with a company of rangers, 
 who wore Indian dress, with bare thighs, defenseless against 
 the insects of the woods. He has left a journal containing 
 an intersting account of his experiences. In that war also 
 fought five of the seven famous Waite brothers, sons of the 
 tavern-keeper, all of whom later served in the Revolution, 
 when four of them were officers and two, Joseph and Thomas, 
 were killed. They sprang from a race of Indian fighters. 
 Some were at Bunker Hill; others at Bennington. Waite's 
 River in Vermont is named after Joseph, who was an ensign 
 and later a captain in this last French and Indian War; 
 because after his company had fed upon a deer which he had 
 killed, they hung the remains upon a tree, carving his name 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 79 
 
 upon the bark, for the relief of their starving friends who 
 followed. Three of them were at "Rogers's Slide." Ben- 
 jamin enlisted when he was only eighteen. He was taken 
 prisoner two years later and was made to run the gauntlet; 
 but he snatched a gun from the nearest Indian and laid 
 about right and left with such force that he opened the lines 
 of the savages and escaped without injury, applauded by 
 the old men, who enjoyed the confusion of those who were 
 younger, and at the end of the race he was invited to her 
 house by a French woman who protected him until his 
 escape. 5 Before he was twenty-four, he had engaged in for- 
 ty battles without a serious wound. He boasted that when 
 he was twenty-three, in a winter's march, when other men 
 were so exhausted by the cold that they begged to be shot 
 for relief, he revived them by flogging, and at icy fords he 
 would shoulder a couple of the little fellows and carry them 
 across. When colonel of the Vermont Militia, he received a 
 wound in the suppression of Shay's rebellion. From him 
 Waitefield is named. Richard enlisted in 1762, when he was 
 only seventeen, with the consent of his guardian, Jedediah 
 Foster. He and two others were Green Mountain boys. 
 The experience the men of Brookfield thus acquired was of 
 great value to their country during the Revolutionary War. 
 
 Brookfield soldiers took part in the capture of Quebec, 
 and at least one of them there lost his life. Preparations to 
 take that city had long before been made here and snow- 
 shoes, gathered for that purpose, were stored in the old 
 Foster House then occupied by General Dwight, whence 
 some years after the fort was captured they were borrowed 
 for use at a funeral. Eighteen of the unhappy Acadians 
 were quartered in Brookfield for support. They belonged 
 to two families, which were not divided. 
 
 After the conquest of Canada, General Dwight moved 
 to Stockbridge, in 1752. He was there, for several years, 
 
 8 His story is reminiscent of the tale of Captain John Smith and Pocohontas. It is 
 not impossible that he was as skillful with the long bow as with the Queen Anne musket. 
 
80 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 trustee of Indian schools, and from 1753 to 1761 was Chief 
 Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Hampshire Coun- 
 ty. He moved to Great Barrington in 1758; and on the 
 formation of the new County of Berkshire, in 1761, he be- 
 came Judge of Probate and Judge of the Berkshire County 
 Court, holding these offices until his death there in 1765. 
 As he had succeeded to the influence held by his father- 
 in-law, Pynchon, so did the leadership of the town pass from 
 him to his own son-in-law. Jedediah Foster was born Oc- 
 tober 10th, 1726 at Andover, the son of Ephraim, a black- 
 smith; the descendant of Reginald Foster, who emigrated 
 from Exeter, England, in 1636, upon one of the embargoed 
 ships. He was graduated at Harvard in 1744, at the age of 
 seventeen; and he then removed to Brookfield in order to 
 assist General Dwight, and married Dorothy Dwight in 1749. 
 From him Foster's Hill was named and he occupied during 
 the greater part of his life the house built there by Brigadier 
 Dwight, which was known to posterity by his name. Fifty 
 years ago, the Reverend Doctor Whiting said of him: 
 "The perusal of records will show that no man has ever 
 "dwelt among us, who held so many local trusts, — lived 
 "in such intimate sympathy with the people, cared for 
 "and served them so abundantly and excellently, — and 
 "yet so far excelled them in station and character. He 
 "projected and carried through more that is to be prized 
 "in our town life, than could be recounted. * * * 
 "We esteem that to be the highest style of citizen man- 
 "hood which gains and holds the affectionate confidence 
 "of the worthiest of the common people through all the 
 "tests of every-day life; and at the same time finds high 
 "position given to it among eminent statesmen, jurists 
 "and scholars of the times. Few men more completely 
 "unite these conditions than Judge Foster." And the 
 Reverend Samuel Dunham, a lamented pastor of the First 
 Church: "Through his life, he enjoyed the confidence of the 
 "inhabitants of this Town and County, perhaps beyond 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 81 
 
 "any man who ever lived here, unless it be his own son, 
 "the Honorable Dwight Foster." 
 He held military offices from the position of captain and 
 major, to which latter position he was appointed by Governor 
 Shirley September 20th, 1756, during the last French and 
 Indian War, to that of colonel during the Revolution. He 
 was appointed Justice of the Peace by the same Governor 
 in 1754, holding that place until 1775, when he was appointed 
 Judge of Probate for Worcester County. And on March 
 20th, 1776, he was appointed Judge of the highest Judicial 
 Court of the State, the Superior Court of Judicature. Ten 
 years after his father-in-law closed his legislative career as 
 speaker of the House, he was elected representative from 
 Brookfield to the General Court, held 1761. He was re- 
 elected for fourteen successive years, until 1776, when he 
 accepted his position on the highest bench. And he was 
 again elected for the year 1779. In 1774, he was one of two 
 members chosen to represent the province at large upon the 
 Governor's Council. But he and twelve others were com- 
 plimented by rejection by Governor Gage, for the reason, 
 as has been said by a contemporary: that "he had been one 
 "of the memorable ninety-two, so greatly celebrated, who 
 "refused to rescind the Vote for the circular Letter, and 
 "had always in the General Assembly, and their Com- 
 "mittees of which he was often a member, opposed the 
 "measures of Bernard and Hutchinson for abridging 
 "the Liberties of the Country." 
 
 He was a leading member of the Provincial Congress 
 during 1774 and 1775. In July of the latter year, he was 
 elected a member of the Council; but he resigned this posi- 
 tion when he was appointed to the Superior Court, his letter 
 saying: "It has for many years been a prevailing opinion that 
 "a seat at the Honorable Council, and on the Superior 
 "Court Bench ought not to be held by the same Person 
 "at one and the same time: An opinion I think founded 
 "on the Highest Reason, and should be supported in a 
 
82 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 " free Constitution. " During the darkest hours of the 
 Revolution he never expressed a doubt of his Country's 
 success. Upon the dispersion of the Congress at Philadel- 
 phia, General Washington inquired upon what men in Mass- 
 achusetts he could rely. He was told that Mr. Foster of 
 Brookfield was the one in the centre of the State, in whom he 
 could place implicit confidence, and from whom he could 
 expect unwavering patriotism and fidelity. He died during 
 the early part of the Revolutionary War from a disease con- 
 tracted in military service, while he was also discharging the 
 duties of important civic offices. Had he survived to the 
 age allotted to men by the Psalmist, he would undoubtedly 
 have left a national reputation. Two of his sons were at the 
 same time in the Senate of the United States, sent there by 
 different States. 
 
 His first conspicuous action in the town affairs took 
 place in 1753, during the dispute that resulted in the division 
 of the First parish into two. He drew the petitions and re- 
 monstrance and other papers, which set forth the arguments 
 in the support of the position then taken by his neighbors. 
 In 1759, he was elected Deacon of the Second Church, now 
 the First Church in North Brookfield. The records state: 
 "Suspended his answer till ye church consented to intro- 
 "duce Tate and Brady's Psalms upon trial; then gave it 
 "in the affirmative." It was part of the diaconal duties 
 to line out and tune the psalms sung by the congregation. 
 The ravages of small pox were checked by his example and 
 that of William Ranger. Not long before the Revolution, 
 they were inoculated at a hospital in Esopus, New York, 
 where they had the disease and returned in good health. 
 The practice of inoculation was then introduced into the 
 town and hospitals were established for that purpose. Pa- 
 tients came from the neighboring villages, even from Wor- 
 cester. In fair weather, when convalescent, the}' were al- 
 lowed to visit the cave and ledges on Slate Hill and even, 
 it is said, although the}' were descendants of the Puritans, 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 83 
 
 to play cards there. House parties were formed by young 
 men and women for that purpose and courtships were con- 
 ducted during the incubation of the microbe. Sweethearts 
 were forced to meet among sad surroundings in those 
 serious times. Lovers' Lane was in the burying-ground. 
 Matches were often made while a pair were watching the 
 dead. 
 
 But the town was soon obliged to attend to diseases of 
 the body politic. In May, 1773, Jedediah Foster was mod- 
 erator of a meeting which approved "a Letter of thanks 
 "to the town of Boston for their care in Stating a list 
 "of the Infringements and Violations, of Rights * * 
 "made by the Court and Parliament of Great Britain, 
 "and to show that the town fully concur with the "Town 
 "of Boston in Sentiment." The letter was written by 
 him, although he did not serve upon the committee that 
 reported it. It declared: "This Town will be ever ready 
 "to assist, and in every legal and proper way maintain 
 "those Rights and Liberties for our children, which with 
 "so much Labor, Blood and Treasure were purchased 
 "by our ancestors, whose memory is and ought to be 
 "esteemed by us." On December 27th, a town meeting 
 considered two letters from the Boston Committee of Cor- 
 respondence and a committee of five. Judge Foster and 
 Captain Baldwin were chosen to report resolutions concern- 
 ing the importation of tea "and such other matters as are 
 "proper for this town to do at this difficult time." In 
 about an hour, the committee reported resolutions, drafted 
 by Judge Foster, the chairman. These were adopted as 
 follows: "We think it our indispensable duty in the most 
 "public manner to let the world know our utter abhorrence 
 "of the last and most detestable scheme, in the introduc- 
 "tion of Tea from Great Britain, to be peddled out a- 
 "mongst us, by which means we were to be made to swal- 
 "low a poison more fatal in its effects to the national and 
 "political Rights and Privileges of the People of this 
 
84 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "country, than ratsbane would be to the natural body." 
 
 In the following May, covenants providing for a boycott of 
 
 obnoxious imports from Great Britain were voluntarily 
 
 signed by many. A committee of six was chosen "to inspect 
 
 "the Traders of this Town and see that they do comply 
 
 "with the covenants and to see that every person has the 
 
 ''offer of signing the covenant and also to take care that 
 
 "pedlars do not sell any goods in this Town." 
 
 In August of that year, a convention of the committees 
 
 of correspondence and delegates of the several towns in 
 
 Worcester County was held at the tavern held by Mrs. Mary 
 
 Stearns in Worcester. There were present from Brookfield, 
 
 Judge Foster, Captain Baldwin and Captain Upham, the 
 
 moderator, clerk and treasurer of the town. After several 
 
 adjournments in order to obtain representation from some 
 
 towns in the county which had elected no committees of 
 
 correspondence nor delegates, on the 10th the convention 
 
 passed a number of resolutions, amongst others the following : 
 
 " Resolved, That an attempt to vacate said charter, by 
 
 "either party, without the consent of the other, has a 
 
 "tendency to dissolve the union between Great Britain 
 
 "and this province, to destroy the allegiance we owe to the 
 
 "king, and to set aside the sacred obligations he is under 
 
 "to his subjects here. 
 
 "Resolved, That it is the indisputable duty of every 
 "American, and more especially in this province, to unite 
 "in every virtuous opposition that can be devised, in order 
 "to save ourselves and posterity from inevitable ruin. 
 "And, in the first place, we greatly approve of the agree- 
 "ment entered and entering into through this and the 
 "neighboring provinces, for the non-consumption of British 
 "goods. This, we apprehend, will have a tendency to 
 " convince our brethren in Britain, that more is to be gained 
 "in the way of justice, from our friendship and affection, 
 "than by extortion and arbitrary power. We apprehend 
 "that the balance of our trade with Britain has been 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 85 
 
 "greatly in their favor; that we can do much better with- 
 "out it than they can; and that the increase of such trade 
 "heretofore, was greatly occasioned by the regard and 
 "affection borne by the Americans to their brethren in 
 "Britain. Such an agreement, if strictly adhered to, will 
 "greatly prevent extravagance, save our money, encour- 
 "age our own manufactures, and reform our manners. 
 
 "Resolved, That those justices of the court of general 
 "sessions, and common pleas, for this county, who, in a 
 "late address to his excellency Governor Gage, aspersed 
 "the good people of this county, have thereby discovered 
 "that they were destitute of that tender regard which we 
 "might justly expect in our present distressed situation. 
 "Voted. That we most earnestly recommend it to 
 "the several towns in this county, (and if it should not be 
 "thought too arrogant,) to every town in the province, 
 "to meet and adopt some wise, prudent, and spirited 
 "measures, in order to prevent the execution of those 
 "most alarming acts of parliament respecting our consti- 
 tution." 
 On August 26th, delegates from the counties of Wor- 
 cester, Middlesex and Essex, met at Boston the committee 
 of correspondence of that city and resolved: "That all such 
 "officers or private persons as have given sufficient proof 
 "of their enmity to the people and constitution of this 
 "country, should be held in contempt, and that those who 
 "are connected with them ought to separate from them: 
 "laborers to shun vineyards; merchants, husbandmen, and 
 "others, to withhold their commerce and supplies." 
 Our ancestors did not shrink from enforcing obedience 
 to public opinion by these methods, which their descendants 
 condemn when practiced by trade-unions. 
 
 On August 31st, the convention resolved at the Worces- 
 ter County Court House: 
 
 "Whereas, the charter of this province, as well as laws 
 "enacted by virtue of the same and confirmed by royal 
 
86 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "assent, have been, by the parliament of Great Britain, 
 "without the least color of right or justice, declared in 
 "part null and void; and in conformity to an act of said 
 "parliament, persons are appointed to fill certain offices 
 "of government, in ways and under influences, wholly 
 "unknown before in this province, incompatible with its 
 "charter, and forming a complete system of tyranny: and 
 "whereas, no power on earth hath a right, without the 
 "consent of this province, to alter the minutest title of 
 "its charter, or abrogate any act whatsoever, made in 
 "pursuance of it, and confirmed by royal assent, or to 
 "constitute officers of government in ways not directed 
 "by charter, and as we are assured that some officers of the 
 " executive courts in this county, have officially conducted 
 "in compliance with and in conformity to the late acts of 
 "parliament altering our free constitution; and as the 
 "sittings of such courts may have a tendency to affect 
 "the good people of this county, in such manner as may 
 "insensibly lead them to submit to the chains of slavery 
 "forged by our enemies; therefore, 
 
 "1. Resolved, That it is the indispensable duty of the 
 "inhabitants of this county, by the best ways and means, 
 "to prevent the sitting of the respective courts under 
 "such regulations as are set forth in a late act of parlia- 
 "ment, entitled, an act for regulating the civil government 
 "of the Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 "2. Resolved, That in order to prevent the execution 
 "of the late act of parliament, respecting the courts, that 
 "it be recommended to the inhabitants of this county, 
 "to attend, in person, the next inferior court of common 
 "pleas and general sessions, to be holden at Worcester, 
 "in and for said county, on the sixth day of September next. 
 
 "3. Resolved, That it be recommended to the several 
 "towns, that they choose proper and suitable officers, and 
 "a sufficient number, to regulate the movements of each 
 "town, and prevent any disorder which might otherwise 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 87 
 
 " happen; and that it be enjoined in the inhabitants of each 
 "respective town, that they adhere strictly to the orders 
 "and directions of such officers. 
 
 "4. And whereas, the courts of justice will necessarily 
 "be impeded by the opposition to the said acts of parlia- 
 "ment, therefore, Resolved, that it be recommended to the 
 "inhabitants of this province in general, and to those of 
 "this county in particular, that they depute fit persons 
 "to represent them in one general provincial convention, 
 "to be convened at Concord, on the second Tuesday of 
 " October next, to devise proper ways and means to resume 
 "our original mode of government, whereby the most 
 "dignified servants were, as they ever ought to be, de- 
 pendent on the people for their existence as such; or 
 "some other which may appear to them best calculated 
 "to regain and secure our violated rights. The justice 
 "of our complaints and the modes of redress, we submit 
 "to the determination of our sister colonies, being, in our 
 " opinion, the only just tribunal we can appeal to on earth. 
 
 "5. Resolved, That it be recommended, that such 
 "innholders and retailers, who shall be approbated by the 
 " selectmen in their respective towns, continue and exercise 
 "their respective functions; provided, they strictly adhere 
 "to the law of this province respecting innholders and 
 "retailers. 
 
 "6. Resolved. That it be recommended to the several 
 "towns, that they indemnify their constables for neglecting 
 "to return lists of persons qualified to serve as jurors. 
 
 "7. Resolved, That as the ordinary course of justice 
 "must be stayed, in consequence of the late arbitrary and 
 "oppressive acts of the British parliament, we would 
 "earnestly recommend to every inhabitant of this county, 
 "to pay his just debts as soon as may be possible, without 
 "any disputes or litigation. 
 
 "8. Resolved, That as the dark and gloomy aspect of 
 "our public affairs has thrown this province into great 
 
88 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "convulsions, and the minds of the people are greatly 
 "agitated with the near view of impending ruin; we 
 "earnestly recommend to every one, and we engage our- 
 " selves, to use the utmost influence in suppressing all 
 "riotous and disorderly proceedings in our respective 
 "towns." 
 
 It was also "Voted, That if there is an invasion, or 
 "danger of an invasion, in any town in this county, then 
 "such town as is invaded, or being in danger thereof, shall, 
 "by their committees of correspondence, or some other 
 "proper persons, send letters, by express posts, imine- 
 ''diately, to the committees of the adjoining towns, who 
 "shall send to other committees in the towns adjoining 
 "them, that they all come properly armed and accoutred 
 "to protect and defend the place invaded. 
 
 "Voted, That it be recommended to the towns in this 
 "county, to pay no regard to the late act of parliament, 
 "respecting the calling town meetings, but, to proceed 
 "in their usual manner; and also, that they pay no sub- 
 " mission to any acts altering our free constitution. 
 
 "Voted, That it be recommended to each town of the 
 "county, to retain in their own hands, what moneys may 
 "be due from them severally to the province treasury, 
 "till public tranquility be restored, and more confidence 
 "can be reposed in the first magistrate and his council. 
 "Voted, To postpone the consideration of the petition of 
 "Doct. William Paine, respecting the establishment of 
 "a hospital for the small pox, to the adjournment of this 
 "meeting. 
 
 "Voted, That each member will purchase at least two 
 "pounds of powder in addition to any he may have on 
 "hand, and will use all his exertions to supply his neighbors 
 "fully. 
 
 "Voted, That the members and delegates endeavor to 
 "ascertain what number of guns are deficient to arm the 
 "people in case of invasion." 
 
; 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 89 
 
 On September 6th, a convention met at the house of 
 
 Mr. Timothy Bigelow. It was " Voted, As the opinion of this 
 
 "convention, that the court should not sit on any terms. 
 
 " Voted, That the several committees inform the people 
 "of their respective towns, of this vote of the convention, 
 "and, that they choose one man from each company, as a 
 "committee to wait on the judges to inform them of the 
 "resolution to stop the courts sitting, if the people concur 
 "therein. 
 
 " Voted, That the body of the people in this county 
 "now in town, assemble on the common. 
 
 " Voted, To choose a committee of three persons to 
 "inquire of the committees of the towns, how long it will 
 "be before they make the determination of the body of the 
 "people respecting the courts, known to the judges, and 
 "to inform the convention thereof. 
 
 " Voted, To adjourn to the green beyond Mr. Salisbury's, 
 "where the convention proceeded. 
 
 "Voted, That a committee of three, viz.: Capt. Man- 
 "dell, Deacon Rawson, and Mr. Samuel Jennison, be a 
 "committee to inform the grand jurors of the determina- 
 "tion of the county as to the courts being held. 
 
 "Voted, to adjourn to the court house at two o'clock, 
 "P. M. 
 
 "Afternoon. 
 
 "Met according to adjournment, and again adjourned 
 "to the green, to attend the body of the people. 
 
 "Voted, To choose a committee of three persons to 
 "proceed to wait on the committees of the towns, to inquire 
 "the occasion of the delay of the judges in making their 
 "appearance before the body of the people. 
 
 " Voted, That three persons be chosen a committee, to 
 "acquaint John Chandler, Esq., and the other protesters, 
 "that they must follow after the judges through the ranges 
 "of the body of the people; that they go immediately 
 "after the judges, and read their recantations." 
 
90 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 At that time, the people from Brookfield, New Braintree 
 and other towns of the county, to the number of about six 
 thousand, had assembled on the green. The town companies 
 were under officers of their own election and marched in 
 military order. The people then formed in two lines and 
 the royalists, justices and other officers were forced to pass 
 between them, stopping at intervals to read the following 
 declaration : 
 
 "Worcester, Sept. 6, 1774. 
 "Worcester, ss. The justices of the inferior court, and 
 "justices of the court of general sesssions of the peace, 
 "for the county of Worcester, to the people of the county, 
 "now assembled at Worcester: 
 
 "Gentlemen: — You having desired, and even insisted 
 "upon it, that all judicial proceedings be stayed by the 
 "justices of the court appointed this day, by law, to be 
 "held at Worcester, within and for the county of Worces- 
 ter, on account of the unconstitutional act of the British 
 "parliament, respecting the administration of justice in 
 "this province, which, if effected, will reduce the inhabi- 
 "tants thereof to mere arbitrary power; we do assure you, 
 "that we will stay all such judicial proceedings of said courts, 
 "and will not endeavor to put said act into execution." 
 The protestors, who were forty-three royalists of Wor- 
 cester, had persuaded the town clerk to enter on its records 
 their protests to some of the previous resolutions. At a 
 subsequent meeting, the clerk was obliged to obliterate this 
 entry. After he had drawn his pen through the line and it 
 was found that they could still be read, his fingers were 
 dipped in the ink-pot and rubbed over the page until it 
 became absolutely illegible. At the meeting on the green, 
 the convention further "Voted, That it be recommended to 
 "the military officers in this county, that they resign their 
 "commissions to the colonels of the respective regiments. 
 " Voted, That the field officers resign their offices, and 
 "publish resignations in all the Boston newspapers. 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 91 
 
 " Voted, That it be recommended to the several towns of 
 "the county, to choose proper officers for the military of 
 "the town, and a sufficient number. 
 
 " Voted, That it be recommended to the several towns 
 "and districts of this county, that they provide themselves, 
 "immediately, with one or more field pieces, mounted 
 "and fitted for use; and also a sufficient quantity of amrau- 
 "nition for the same; and that the officers appoint a 
 "suitable number of men, out of their respective com- 
 "panies, to manage said field pieces. 
 
 " Voted, To take notice of those justices of the inferior 
 "court of common pleas and general sessions of the peace 
 "of this county, who aspersed the people in a late address 
 
 "to Gov. Gage." 
 
 * ******** * 
 
 " Voted, That it be recommended to the officers of each 
 "company of the people assembled, to keep good order; 
 "enjoin it on their men not to do the least damage to any 
 "persons' property; but to march quietly home: and 
 "that the convention have nothing further to lay before 
 "them. 
 
 "Voted, That Deacon Rawson, Mr. Asa Whitcomb, and 
 "Doct. Crosby, be a committee to wait on a number of 
 "justices, to give them an opportunity to sign the decla- 
 ration, which has been signed by the justices and officers 
 "of the inferior court." 
 
 On September 7th, a number of judges were brought 
 before the convention and made to sign the following declar- 
 ation: "Whereas the committees in convention have ex- 
 pressed their uneasiness to a number of the justices of 
 "the common pleas and general sessions, now present in 
 "the convention, who, in an address to Governor Gage, 
 "at their session in June last, aspersed the people of this 
 "county; those justices, in the presence of the convention, 
 "frankly declare that they precipitately entered into the 
 "measure; they are sorry for it; and they disclaim an 
 
92 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "intention to injure the character of any; and were the 
 "same measure again proposed they should reject it." 
 On September 8th, a meeting of the blacksmiths of the 
 county, to the number of forty-three, was held. They 
 formed and subscribed resolutions, saying that they " sol- 
 emnly covenant, agree and engage to and with each 
 "other, that from and after the first day of December, 
 " 1774, we will not, according to the best of our knowledge, 
 "any or either of us, nor any person by our directions, 
 "order or approbation, for or under any or either of us, 
 "do or perform, any blacksmith's work, or business of any 
 " kind whatever, for any person or persons whom we esteem 
 "enemies to this country, commonly known by the name 
 "of tories, viz.: all councillors in this province appointed 
 "by mandamus, who have not publicly resigned said office, 
 "also every person who addressed Governor Hutchinson 
 "on his departure from this province, who has not publicly 
 "recanted; also every officer exercising authority by virtue 
 "of any commission tending to carry any of the late op- 
 pressive acts of parliament into execution in America: 
 "and, in particular, we will not do any work for Timothy 
 "Ruggles of Hardwick, John Murray of Rutland, and 
 "James Putnam of Worcester, Esquires: nor for any person 
 "or persons cultivating, tilling, improving, dressing, hiring, 
 " or occupying any of their lands or tenements. Also, we 
 "agree to refuse our work of every kind, as aforesaid, to 
 "all and every person or persons who shall not have signed 
 "the non-consumption agreement, or have entered into a 
 " similar contract or engagement, or that shall not strictly 
 "conform to the association or covenant agreed upon and 
 "signed by the Continental Congress lately convened at 
 "Philadelphia." 
 The first pastor of the Second Precinct of Brookfield, 
 Eli Forbes, whose former name was Forbush, was, to say the 
 least, too lukewarm in his patriotism. Some of his parish- 
 ioners hooted him as a tory, threw stones at his chair and one 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 93 
 
 night, left a pot of tar and a bag of feathers upon his door- 
 steps. He took the hint and resigned. 
 
 On September 21st, the county convention "Resolved, 
 "That as the ordinary courts of justice will be stayed, in 
 "consequence of the late arbitrary and oppressive acts 
 "of the British parliament, we would earnestly recommend 
 "to every inhabitant of this county, to pay his just debts, 
 "as soon as possible, without any dispute or litigation, 
 '"and if any disputes concerning debts or trespasses should 
 "arise, which cannot be settled by the parties, we recom- 
 "mend it to them to submit all such causes to arbitration; 
 "and if the parties, or either of them, shall refuse to do so, 
 "they ought to be considered as co-operating with the 
 "enemies of the country." 
 
 "Voted, That it be recommended to the several towns 
 "in this county, to choose proper military officers, and 
 "a sufficient number for each town, and that the captains, 
 "lieutenants, and ensigns, who are chosen by the people 
 "in each regiment, do convene, on or before the tenth day 
 "of October next, at some convenient place in each regi- 
 "ment, and choose their field officers to command the 
 "militia until they be constitutionally appointed, and 
 "that it be recommended to the officers in each town of the 
 "county, to enlist one third of the men of their respective 
 "towns, between sixteen and sixty years of age, to be 
 "ready to act at a minute's warning; and that it be recom- 
 " mended to each town in the county, to choose a sufficient 
 "number of men as a committee to supply and support 
 "those troops that shall move on any emergency." 
 
 " Voted, That it be recommended to the company officers 
 "of the minute men, to meet at Worcester, on the 17th 
 "of October next, at ten o'clock of the forenoon, to propor- 
 tion their own regiments, and choose as many field officers 
 "as they shall think necessary. 
 
 " Voted, That it be recommended to the justices of the 
 "county, that they liberate any persons confined in jail 
 
94 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "for debt, who are entitled to such liberation by the laws 
 "of the province." 
 And a remonstrance to General Gage was prepared and 
 sent on December 6th : " Voted, To recommend to the sev- 
 "eral towns in this county, to give it in charge to their 
 "constables and collectors, on their peril, not to pay any 
 "public moneys to Harrison Gray, Esq., late treasurer of 
 "this province, and to indemnify them for paying it where 
 "the towns shall order them to pay. 
 
 "Voted, That the inhabitants of each town in this 
 "county, order their assessors not to return any certificates 
 "of the lists of assessments made by them, to Harrison 
 "Gray, Esq., late treasurer of the province, and that 
 
 "they indemnify them therefor." 
 
 * ******** * 
 
 "Voted, To choose a committee of nine persons, any 
 "two of whom to go to the field officers of the county of 
 Worcester, to know the reason why they have not resigned 
 "their commissions to the governor, and published such 
 "resignation in the Boston newspapers, agreeably to a 
 "vote of this convention at a former meeting, and demand 
 "a categorical answer, whether they will comply or not 
 "with said requisition, and make report to this body at 
 "their next meeting." 
 
 On January 27th, the following: "Whereas, Isaac 
 "Jones of Weston, in the county of Middlesex, innholder 
 "and trader, has, by his conduct of late years, in various 
 "instances, manifested a disposition inimical to the rights 
 "and privileges of his countrymen: therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to all the 
 "inhabitants of this county, not to have any commercial 
 " connections with said Isaac Jones, but to shun his house 
 " and person, and treat him with that contempt he deserves, 
 "and should any persons in this county be so lost to a sense 
 "of their duty, after this recommendation, as to have any 
 "commercial connection or dealings with said Jones, we 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 95 
 
 "do advise the inhabitants of this county to treat such 
 "persons with the utmost neglect." 
 On May 31st, 1775, when Captain Baldwin of Brookfield 
 was clerk pro tempore: "Resolved, That a committee be 
 "appointed, to take into consideration the subject of allow- 
 ing those who are inimical to the country, to exercise the 
 "right of voting in town meetings." 
 In September, 1774, Captain Baldwin and Captain 
 Phinehas Upham were elected delegates to the Provincial 
 Congress, to be held at Concord in October, and Judge Foster 
 to represent the town at the General Court at Salem in the 
 same month, which, upon the proclamation by Governor 
 Gage revoking his call of this assembly, resolved itself, with 
 the delegates specially elected for that purpose, into the First 
 Provincial Congress. They with others were also chosen a 
 committee of correspondence. In December, Judge Foster 
 was elected delegate to the Provincial Congress, to be held 
 at Cambridge the next February. At the same meeting, it 
 was "Voted unanimously that this town do fully approve 
 " of the association of the Continental Congress, and that 
 "they will strictly adhere to the same in all respects." 
 "Minute or Picquit-men" were organized. Brookfield 
 soldiers marched to Lexington, fought at Bunker Hill and 
 served their country throughout the Revolutionary War; 
 some at Valley Forge. Two of the most distinguished engi- 
 neers in the Continental Army were General Rufus Putnam 
 and Colonel Jeudethan Baldwin, who had acquired their 
 education in the last French and Indian War. New Brain- 
 tree and the other towns of Worcester County then also 
 rendered great services to the country. 
 
 Brookfield had great influence in the Provincial Congress 
 of Massachusetts. Jedediah Foster served on the commit- 
 tees appointed by the First and Second Congress to "take 
 into consideration the state of the province"; upon the com- 
 mittee "to consider what is necessary to be done for the 
 defence and the safety of the province"; upon that to receive 
 
96 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 returns from the town committees of correspondence of 
 Worcester County; upon the one that provided a method for 
 the collection and payment of outstanding taxes, the pay- 
 ment of which to the former Treasurer had been forbidden 
 because that officer was in sympathy with the Crown ; upon 
 one to take into consideration the expediency of establishing 
 post offices and riders ; and upon others to prepare a form for 
 the currency and to supervise the engraving, with authority 
 given him to countersign the larger notes. His experience 
 in preparing resolutions and reports of Brookfield meetings 
 and in the General Court, caused his constant selection to 
 prepare and revise resolutions, reports and other documents, 
 including an appeal to the Continental Congress; to prepare, 
 for the use of the delegation to the Continental Congress, 
 statistics of the population of the province and of the amount 
 of its exports and imports; to select such resolves and orders 
 of the Provincial Congress as were proper for publication; 
 and to prepare for publication, a narrative of the excursion 
 of the King's troops, which occasioned the fight at Lexington 
 and Concord, together with depositions in support of the 
 same. His reputation for diplomacy was the cause of his 
 appointment as one of the two delegates to repair to Con- 
 necticut, to inform that colony "that we are contemplating 
 "upon, and are determined to take effectual measures for 
 "that purpose," security and defense, "and for the more 
 "effectual security of the New England colonies and the 
 "continent, to request them to co-operate with us, by 
 "furnishing their respective quotas for general defence." 
 The fact, that he was from Brookfield and his experience 
 there in equipping the troops for the French and Indian War, 
 secured his appointment upon all of the important commit- 
 tees concerning military affairs, including the organization of 
 the artillery and the recommendation of a form of military 
 exercise. A resolution drawn by him was adopted, recom- 
 mending "to the inhabitants of this province, that in order 
 "to their perfecting themselves in the military art, they 
 
X 
 
 C 
 
 ra o 
 
 £ 2 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 97 
 
 "proceed in the method ordered by his majesty in the year 
 " 1764, it being, in the opinion of this Congress, best cal- 
 culated for appearance and defence." He was also a 
 member of committees to prepare the oath of office to admin- 
 ister to generals, and the commission for General Artemas 
 Ward, and during the recess of the First and Second 
 Provincial Congress, to prepare a plan for the regulation and 
 discipline of the militia. He brought to the Third 
 Congress some mineral earth, discovered in large 
 quantities in Brookfield, which contained matter use- 
 ful for the production of nitre, and an officer was 
 sent to the town to make experiments there. On June 12th, 
 1775, he and two others were appointed "to repair to the 
 "fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake 
 "Champlain, to inquire into the importance of holding 
 "those posts, and also into the method by which they are 
 "maintained; to establish there, in the pay of said colony, 
 "so many men to defend the same posts as they should 
 "judge necessary, not exceeding four hundred; and the 
 "said committee were also, by said Congress directed, 
 "when they should have made themselves fully acquainted 
 "with the situation and importance of said posts, respec- 
 tively to signify their thoughts thereon." Ticonderoga 
 had, a short time before, been surrendered to Ethan Allen, 
 upon his demand "in the name of the great Jehovah and the 
 Continental Congress." A serious difficulty had arisen be- 
 tween him and Benedict Arnold, in which Arnold claimed 
 the right to command under orders of Massachusetts and 
 Allen under the authority of Connecticut. The Continental 
 Congress had recommended that the stores at Ticonderoga be 
 removed to the southern end of Lake George. The colony 
 of New York was in favor of this. But in New England, it 
 was considered of vital importance that the command of 
 Lake Champlain should be retained. A delicate and difficult 
 situation consequently met the committee, which was 
 heightened when they reached the ground by the refusal of 
 
98 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Benedict Arnold to serve under a Connecticut officer as 
 directed by the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, his 
 resignation, his order for the disbandonment of the men 
 whom he had raised; and by their threatened mutiny. The 
 committee guaranteed these men their pay and enlisted four 
 hundred to defend the lake. They reported accordingly to 
 the Provincial Congress, with a schedule of the military stores 
 which they had found. 
 
 "Your committee are of opinion, that the maintaining 
 "of those ports is of the utmost importance to the security 
 " of the colony of New York and the New England colonies, 
 "which was a sufficient inducement to the committee to 
 "continue in the pay of this colony the number of men 
 "before mentioned. The fortresses not being at present 
 "tenable, then there must be a sufficient number of men 
 "to command the lake, and prevent the enemy from land- 
 "ing. Your committee are of opinion, that the best 
 " security of those posts in their present state, is by armed 
 "vessels of various construction, to be kept constantly 
 " cruising on the lake, and small boats with swivel guns to 
 "act as scouts, which will effectually prevent the army 
 "from sudden surprise. Your committee have, agreeably 
 "to their instructions, advised the Hon. American Con- 
 "gress, the Hon. Convention of the Colony of New York, 
 "and the Governor of Connecticut, by respectfully signify- 
 ing to them, their opinion of the importance of the main- 
 "taining those posts, and the measures for effecting the 
 "same." The report was unanimously adopted and the 
 committee received the thanks of the Congress for their 
 services. Their work resulted in preserving the control of 
 Lake Champlain for two years. 
 
 In a town meeting May 22nd, 1776, the question was 
 
 passed in the words of a resolve of the General Court: 
 
 "That this Town would support the Honorable Con- 
 
 "gress in the measure, if they for our liberty should see 
 
 "fit to declare the colonies Independent of Great Britain." 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 99 
 
 In March, 1777, a town meeting established the price 
 of articles and labor. Amongst other items, "Farming 
 "labour from the 20th day of June to the 20th day of 
 "August, shall not exceed 3 shillings per day, and from the 
 "20th day of Nov'r to the 20th day of Jan'y, shall not 
 "exceed Is. 6d. per day. Indian corn meal shall not 
 "exceed 3s. per B'., good grass-fed beef 2j^ pence per lb., 
 "stall-fed do., 3d. Good butter, 934 pence per lb., firkin 
 "do., 834 per lb. Good yard wide Tow cloth 2s. per yard. 
 "Striped y'd wide flannel 3s. 4d. * * * A good meal 
 "of meat victuals of the common sort shall not exceed 
 "9d. * * * For making men's shoes shall not exceed 
 "2s. 8d. per pair. * * * A Doctor shall not exceed 
 "6d. (six pence) per mile in his charge in travel to visit 
 "his Patience. * * * For men's common boarding 
 "by the week shall not exceed 7s." In April, 1777, it 
 was voted : " that the inhabitants of this town will not only 
 "strictly adhere to and observe the act of the General 
 "Court called the Regulating Act, But also use our ut- 
 "most endeavors to detect and bring to punishment those 
 "unfriendly selfish persons who at this important crisis 
 "shall have the effrontery to counteract the good and 
 "wholesome laws in this State." By that time, the re- 
 venue was so exhausted in the enlistment and equipment 
 of soldiers and care for their families, that the town was 
 obliged to vote "to raise no money for schooling." Four 
 years later, the citizens were unable to collect money to pay 
 the thirty-three soldiers which the town had been directed 
 to supply. The men were allowed to select any citizens, 
 whom they might choose, as security for the performance of 
 its promise by the Second Precinct. And the greater part 
 of their pay was given in cattle; twenty three year olds "of 
 middling bigness," to be the equivalent of £90. One-seventh 
 of the ablebodied men in North Brookfield had volunteered 
 or been drafted for military service. Such were some of 
 the sacrifices which our ancestors of that generation 
 
100 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 suffered for the freedom and prosperity we now enjoy. 
 Notwithstanding the overthrow of the established 
 government, order was generally observed. But the two 
 crimes which most disgrace the memory of Brookfield were 
 committed during those troublous years. On the evening 
 of March 11th, 1778, Joshua Spooner, while returning from 
 Cooley's Tavern, was killed and his body thrown into his 
 own well by three former soldiers, living in the house, who 
 were hired to commit the crime by his wife Bathsheba. The 
 four were tried and found guilty at the April term of the 
 Superior Court of Judicature in Worcester before a jury and 
 a full bench consisting of Chief Justice Cushing and his 
 associates, Foster, Sargent, Sewell and Sullivan. The only 
 report is printed from the notes of Judge Foster. The 
 criminals were hung at Worcester on July 2nd of the same 
 year, in the presence of thousands of people. The condition 
 of the woman made her execution the subject of monstrous 
 horror. In the following year, Robert Young, a Brookfield 
 laborer, was convicted and hung at Worcester for a crime 
 in this village, of such a character as is now usually punished 
 by Lynch Law in the South. 
 
 On May 25th, 1778, a town meeting voted "to accept 
 
 "of the Confederacy of the Continental Congress and to 
 
 "enjoin it to our Representatives that they consent to the 
 
 "same." The same meeting, by a vote of eighty-four 
 
 to twenty, concurred with a majority of the towns in this 
 
 commonwealth by rejecting the State constitution proposed 
 
 by the legislature. The chief cause of dissatisfaction with 
 
 that proposition by the legislature was the apportionment 
 
 of the members of the two houses; but there were other 
 
 objections, many of which were formulated in proceedings 
 
 of the Essex County Convention, held at Ipswich, April 
 
 29th, 1778; the report of which, although now little read, 
 
 deserves careful study by all who would understand our 
 
 system of constitutional law. 
 
 In the following year, Brookfield approved a State 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 101 
 
 convention, for the sole purpose of forming a new constitu- 
 tion and elected Jedediah Foster delegate to the same. He 
 was appointed by the convention upon the committee to 
 draft the instrument, subsequently adopted by the people. 
 The town tradition, handed down from generation to 
 generation, seems to establish the fact that although valuable 
 assistance may have been given by John Adams, the draft of 
 that great State paper in the form nearest that finally or- 
 dained, was written by Judge Foster's hand in the Foster 
 House on Foster's Hill. 6 That State constitution, more 
 than any other, was copied by the Federal Convention in 
 framing the Constitution of the United States. The doc- 
 
 6 The grandson of John Adams with commendable filial piety has inserted in the 
 former's works the first draft of that Constitution, together with the claim that it 
 was entirely written by John Adams. There is no mention of this in the diary or 
 autobiography of Adams, nor in any contemporaneous publication. No manuscript 
 draft or copy by the second President has been found. The sole authority for the 
 statement is an unpublished letter by him to W. D. Williamson, dated February 5th, 
 1812, and not included in his works, nor ever published, so far as the writer can ascer- 
 tain, This was written when the Ex-President was seventy-seven; when his memory 
 as to what occurred in the Convention was impaired, as is admitted by Charles Francis 
 Adams in another connection. (John Adams' Works, IV, p. 216); and when, as is 
 often the case at that period of life, he was not inclined to excessive modesty concerning 
 his earlier achievements. John Adams himself complains of the inaccuracy of his 
 memory in several instances. (See, for example, his letters to Mrs. Mercy Warren of 
 June 10th, 1813 and July 15th, 1814; Ibid. X, pp. 41, 99.) Moreover, in a contem- 
 poraneous letter, written to Benjamin Rush November 6th, 1779 (Ibid. IX, p. 617). 
 John Adams expresses regret that the committee did not adopt his wishes as to the 
 composition of the legislature. He is undoubtedly entitled to full credit for the inser- 
 tion in the draft of an extraordinary clause giving to the governor the right to an 
 absolute veto, the power which had long since become obsolete in England. (See 
 Defense of the Constitution of the Government of the United States of America, Vol. 
 I, Ch. III.) 
 
 On the other hand, the tradition of Brookfield that the draft of the instrument 
 was written by Jedediah Foster is corroborated by the statement in the Boston Gazette 
 of November 9th, 1779: that his death was hastened by his labors upon that instrument. 
 
 Both John Adams and Jedediah Foster were members of the Committee of Thirty 
 selected by the Convention to draft the Constitution. There is no record of the pro- 
 ceedings of that committee, except the draft contained in their report, which was first 
 published in 1832 and was afterwards reprinted as part of the Works of John Adams. 
 Judge Foster died October 17th, 1779, eleven days before the report was presented to 
 the Convention. John Adams sailed for Europe November 13th, 1779, two weeks 
 after the presentation of the report, while it was still under discussion. 
 
 It is believed that to any dispassionate mind acquainted with the writings of both, 
 the style of the document will appear to resemble that of the older more nearly than 
 that of the younger statesman. It is smoother than the authentic writings of John 
 Adams. 
 
102 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 trine of the separation of the three powers, the Judicial, 
 Legislative and Executive; the modification of the royal 
 veto, so as to authorize it when exercised by the governor, 
 to be overruled by two-thirds of each legislative 
 house; the express ordinance that revenue bills should origi- 
 nate in the lower house with power in the Senate to amend 
 the same; that concerning the suspension of the writ of 
 habeas corpus and other provisions, were there before they 
 appeared in any other written constitution of the world. 
 The declaration "to the end that this may be a government 
 of laws not of man," which was borrowed from Harrington, 
 has become an imperishable maxim of constitutional juris- 
 prudence. This is said to have been Brookfield's contribu- 
 tion to the constitutional history of the world. 
 
 Jedediah Foster did not live to see his final work ratified 
 by the people. While engaged upon his mission on behalf 
 of Massachusetts to Fort Ticonderoga, he had crossed Lake 
 Champlain in an open boat during a storm and received a 
 chill, resulting in an illness from the effects of which he never 
 recovered. His illness was increased by the confinement, 
 necessitated by his labor upon the constitution. And he 
 died October 17th, 1779, at the age of fifty-five. 
 
 His leadership passed to his third son, Dwight, then 
 only twenty-two years of age, who was graduated at Brown 
 University five years before and after teaching school at 
 New Braintree and elsewhere and military service in the 
 defence of New England was then practicing law at Provi- 
 dence. Immediately upon his father's death, he returned 
 to Brookfield. He presided at the town meeting in the 
 following May to consider the new constitution. He was 
 elected to succeed his father as delegate to the Constitution- 
 al Convention, and in the State Legislature. He was a 
 member of the Lower House of Congress for seven years, 
 1793-1800, during the second administration of Washington 
 and the administration of John Adams. He was in the 
 Senate of the United States during four succeeding years, 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTP^R 103 
 
 1800 to 1803 inclusive, at the end of which he resigned because 
 of his ill health. He was high in the councils of the Federal- 
 ist party; but on friendly terms with Thomas Jefferson; who, 
 however, in his Ana, says that they became estranged be- 
 cause of a conversation in 1801, during the Presidential 
 election by the House, when Judge Foster, who was then a 
 Senator, inquired as to Jefferson's intentions as to the navy, 
 the public debt and the removal of Federal officeholders. 
 While he represented Massachusetts in the Senate, his 
 brother Theodore sat in the same body as Senator from 
 Rhode Island. The latter became a Democrat. One of 
 them was known by his colleagues as "Foster the Wise"; 
 the other as "Foster the Foolish." The tradition of Brook- 
 field is that the former term was applied to the Senator 
 from Massachusetts. What is the tradition of Rhode Island 
 on this subject, my researches have not enabled me to ascer- 
 tain. No other citizen of Brookfield has been a member of 
 the Senate of the United States. Jabez Upham, a son of 
 Captain Upham of the French Wars, who later served in 
 the House of Representatives, is the only other that has 
 been a member of Congress. After Dwight Foster's return 
 from the Senate, he served for ten years as Chief Justice of 
 the Court of Common Pleas. He was also a member of the 
 governor's council and held other State and local offices. 
 He died April 29th, 1823, aged sixty-six. During his youth, 
 he kept a journal; and later while in Congress, it was his 
 custom by every mail, in a letter to his wife, to describe what 
 he had done and seen. These manuscripts have been pre- 
 served, but have not been printed, although they afford 
 much valuable information concerning the manners of his 
 time. Such of the records as remain show his constant 
 interest in the affairs of the town. He usually acted as 
 moderator at its meetings. He was also the source from 
 which his neighbors drew advice, practical as well as juridical. 
 Tradition says that during the latter part of his life, whenever 
 he was strong enough to see his neighbors in the ell added to 
 
104 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 the old house by his father, for an office, Foster's Hill was 
 black with carriages. 
 
 In May, 1780, by a vote of one hundred and forty-three 
 against eleven, the town ratified the new constitution, upon 
 which he and his father had labored. At the following 
 election in September, only one vote was cast against the 
 Federalist, John Hancock for governor, although there was 
 a tie between the candidates for the State Senate. 
 
 Brookfield has been always a believer also in a strong 
 national government. In 1784, its representative in the 
 General Court was instructed "if we mean to support our 
 "dignity as a nation every effort ought to be used to 
 "strengthen the union and render the bonds indissolu- 
 ble." During the same year, Brookfield celebrated 
 the Fourth of July for the first time. There was a barbecue 
 of an ox, roasted with hoofs and horns, on West Brookfield 
 plain. It was served with bread and plenty of rum and 
 water, accompanied by the successive explosions of thirteen 
 large chestnut logs. 
 
 But the town's sacrifices to secure independence left 
 the citizens in a condition of great poverty after the success 
 of the Revolution. Money was so scarce that cattle were 
 used for currency, as was the custom in prehistoric times. 
 Beef was rarely eaten, and when cooked was boiled, since the 
 waste of its juice on the spit or gridiron was considered a 
 ruinous extravagance. A dish of hash at an evening party 
 was a great luxury. Bean porridge was the usual food and 
 white bread was rarely seen. In one family, it did not appear 
 on the table during ten years. In 1798, there was but one 
 brick house in Brookfield. No vehicle was driven from 
 Boston to Springfield until the end of the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury. Till then, no more than four two-wheeled chaises 
 were owned there; an increase of but one in fifty years. 
 And before 1812, no wagon here had springs. It is therefore 
 not unnatural that Shay's Rebellion, which opposed the 
 collection of debts, had some supporters here and in the 
 
Thomas G. Richards Patrick J. Daniels 
 
 Alfred C. Stoddard 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 105 
 
 adjacent towns. Daniel Shays, after whom the movement 
 was named, was once a hired man of Daniel Gilbert in North 
 Brookfield and is said to have there married Abigail Gilbert. 
 Captain Francis Stone, whose father was killed at the siege 
 of Quebec under General Wolfe, and who himself acquired 
 a reputation in the War of the Revolution, furnished most 
 of the brains and wrote the proclamations. A large company 
 of Brookfield volunteers, including Dwight Foster, under 
 Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin, transported on sleighs, aided 
 in the suppression of the revolt. Jonathan, the brother of 
 Francis Stone, also took arms in support of the government. 
 In December, 1786, while this war was on, a town meeting 
 sent to the governor a prayer for an act of indemnity. Dur- 
 ing the next month, ninety-six of the inhabitants sent him 
 a protest against this vote. When the decree of amnesty 
 was finally signed by Governor Hancock, Captain Stone 
 returned from Vermont and enjoyed the respect of his neigh- 
 bors, although he never expressed regret. His controversial 
 spirit passed to one of his descendants, Lucy Stone, his 
 grandaughter born in West Brookfield, in 1848, who was 
 well known as an advocate of abolition and of woman's 
 rights. 
 
 During their financial distress, the investments of 
 the town funds were not always such as would be approved 
 by modern financiers. In March, 1791, the Second Precinct 
 voted that the proceeds of the continental money in the 
 hands of the treasurer be invested in tickets in the Massa- 
 chusetts Monthly State Lottery. What practices that we 
 now pursue without the slightest scruple will be condemned 
 as immoral by succeeding generations? What acts that we 
 now condemn as immoral will they consider not only per- 
 missible but commendable? 
 
 While the inhabitants of Brookfield were in the con- 
 dition of poverty that has been described, no one was poorer 
 or less respected or with less apparent education, than a 
 girl of seventeen, who lived there in the year 1794. She 
 
106 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 afterwards became one of the richest women in New York. 
 She is said to have been the cause of the death of Alexander 
 Hamilton. She married a man who had been Vice-President 
 of the United States and she died in 1865 well known as 
 Madame Jumel. 
 
 During the first twelve years of the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, little happened here that is worthy of note. North 
 Brookfield, which comprises the northeast corner and about 
 one-third of the original town, was incorporated into a 
 separate township by the act of February 28th, 1812. Pub- 
 lic opinion was divided as to the expediency of the new 
 corporation; but, after two years agitation, the petition for 
 separation succeeded through the support of a political 
 party, which hoped to increase its strength by the separate 
 representation of this district. They were defeated, how- 
 ever, at the first town election. Although the population 
 of the town was largely Federalist and opposed to the War 
 of 1812, the Brookfield Light Infantry Company marched 
 to the defense of Boston and camped in the Rope Walk at 
 South Boston for nearly two months in 1814. 
 
 On March 3rd, 1848, the western part of the old town, 
 consisting substantially of the first parish and including the 
 original settlement on Foster's Hill, received a second incor- 
 poration under the name of West Brookfield. The third or 
 south parish in the southeast of the old town, including 
 East Brookfield village, retained the original name of Brook- 
 field. The original square of six miles had, by the act of 
 December 3rd, 1719, been increased to an area of about 
 eight miles square with an addition of 300 acres to the south 
 side, which forms the rectangular piece jutting into Stur- 
 bridge. Subtractions had been made of the territory trans- 
 ferred to Warren, formerly called Western New Braintree 
 and Ware, in 1742, 1751 and 1823 respectively. 
 
 In the long struggle that resulted in the emancipation 
 of the slaves, Brookfield, true to its traditions, early took 
 a position in support of freedom. Through the influence 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 107 
 
 of the Reverend Moses Chase, pastor of the First Church, 
 Deacon Josiah Henshaw on January 26th, 1843, was excom- 
 municated because of his advocacy of abolition. This was 
 a not unusual practice in New England churches at that 
 time. Like most ecclesiastical organizations, they were 
 conservative. But as was said by an eminent and scholarly 
 pastor, who later occupied the same pulpit: "It is unneces- 
 sary to say that the cause of religion languished here; 
 "the heart of this people 'waxed gross'; their ear grew 
 "'dull of hearing'; and the Lord's chosen became 'an 
 "astonishment and a hissing,' in the community — until, 
 "at length the state of things became so intolerable that 
 "the church, failing to secure the concurrence of the pastor 
 "in the calling of a Mutual Council, was obliged to resort 
 "to the extraordinary measure of an Ex-parte Council, 
 "by whose advice Mr. Chase was dismissed October 28, 
 " 1843, after a dreary pastorate of twenty-one and a half 
 "tempestuous months." He organized a secession and 
 for a short time expounded in Mr. Lampson's hall the doc- 
 trine that the the slavery of the descendants of Ham was 
 an essential element of Christianity, basing his argument 
 upon the words of Noah: "Cursed be Canaan, a servant 
 "of servants shall he be unto his brethren." But the 
 town was rid of him before December of the following year, 
 when his followers returned to the original flock under the 
 new pastor, Leonard S. Parker. Within a month of the 
 latter's installation, on January 16th, 1845, the church 
 adopted resolutions condemning slavery as "a flagrant sin 
 in the sight "of God, and an enormous injury to man." 
 
 The organization of the Union Congregational Church 
 at North Brookfield in 1854 was principally due to the 
 sympathy that most of its members felt with the advocacy 
 of abolition. 
 
 Although mention is made of a few bigots and time- 
 servers who were a disgrace to the cloth, let there be no sug- 
 gestion that may reflect upon the ministry of Brookfield. 
 
108 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Some of them were scholars, to whose industry we owe the 
 preservation of much of the town's history. And if the tra- 
 ditions of their congregations are to be believed, of nearly 
 all can it be truly said: 
 
 "For Christes lawe and his Apostles twelve 
 "He taught but firste he followed it himselfe." 
 Throughout our Civil War, the citizens of the Brook- 
 fields proved that they had inherited from their forefathers 
 devotion to the cause of liberty and union. In the war for 
 the liberation of Cuba, they again made sacrifices to give 
 others that independence which they themselves enjoyed. 
 To describe the rise and fall of the industries upon 
 which the prosperity of these towns have depended, to 
 enumerate the leaders in business, politics, religion, war, and 
 social life, whose presence has been an honor to their fellow 
 citizens, during the last hundred years, would trespass too 
 much upon the time of this patient audience. It would be 
 invidious to make selections from so many who deserve 
 honorable mention, some of whom I see before me. To 
 make such selections adequately and judiciously would be 
 beyond the powers of a speaker whose family left Brookfield 
 nearly a century ago. Still you, who were his neighbors in 
 his boyhood and his old age, must join with me in the regret 
 that this address is not delivered by him who was the most 
 distinguished citizen of Brookfield during the last fifty years, 
 Daniel H. Chamberlain, lieutenant and captain during the 
 Civil War; Attorney General and Governor of South Caro- 
 lina; who displayed all the virtues of the Puritan. He was a 
 soldier, a lawyer, a scholar, a statesman and, above all, a 
 patriot. 
 
 The sons of Brookfield are not confined to the town 
 limits. They are found throughout the nation. As its 
 empire has extended from a narrow fringe on the North 
 Atlantic, to the Gulf, across the Great River, to the coast of 
 the ocean discovered by Balboa, even to the islands of Asia, 
 of which no Englishman had heard when this town was 
 
Carlton D. Richardson John G. Shackley 
 
 Rev. Benson M. Frink 
 Albert W. Bliss Philander Holmes 
 
HON. ROGER FOSTER 109 
 
 founded, they and the other children of New England have 
 led the way. The problems which they face, where the 
 west meets the east, are in some respects not dissimilar to 
 those with which their forefathers grappled. The Puritan, 
 however, has learned sympathy and religious tolerance 
 through the lapse of generations. And the most savage of 
 the natives of that archipelago have received and will receive 
 more humane treatment— however strong the provocation 
 to cruelty — than was afforded to the Indians of Massachu- 
 setts. The problems upon this continent which must soon 
 be solved are far different from those that confronted the 
 Puritans. The divine right of kings is dead. The struggle 
 for representative institutions is over. They have spread 
 as far as the empires of the Sublime Porte and the Shah. 
 The Church can no longer persecute. Its weapons are no 
 more than sufficient for the defense of its temporal estate 
 throughout the world. The persecution that is suffered 
 in the Twentieth Century is exercised by corporations which 
 are not ecclesiastical. Oppression by an aristocracy has 
 ceased, but democracy has a more powerful enemy in plu- 
 tocracy. Aristocracy was controlled by the traditions of 
 the past, which established a code of honor that, although 
 in many respects false, still recognized some obligations to 
 magnanimity and generosity. A plutocracy which is igno- 
 rant of the names of its grandfathers and is ashamed of the 
 fact that its fathers used a pick and shovel, does not under- 
 stand the meaning of the word tradition, respects no code 
 except that enforced by the criminal law and does not have 
 the right to be called democratic, because it is vulgar. The 
 time has passed when a duke had the power to force a man 
 out of an English county. A Captain of Industry who, by 
 unfair trade and legislative corruption, has usurped the 
 control of a branch of manufacture, can now drive an ob- 
 noxious competitor out of business in the United States. 
 He can destroy the prosperity of a city by the removal of a 
 factory or by a discrimination in the price of carriage. He 
 
110 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 can compel the subservience of its citizens by the threat of 
 his displeasure. Monopolies are no longer granted to the 
 flatterers of kings. They exist, however, in this republic, 
 built up by statutes procured from the people's representa- 
 tives by corruption and drafted in deceptive and fraudulent 
 language by counsellors of high repute. The highwayman 
 no longer infests our roads and the robber baron does not 
 exist to levy toll upon passing merchandise. Those who 
 withhold cars from the manufacturer, keeping him from 
 fulfilling his contracts and forcing him toward bankruptcy, 
 until he gives them a share in his profits, reap a richer harvest 
 The stories told in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 
 of the extortions and extravagances of the farmers of public 
 revenues, are insignificant beside those of the controllers of 
 public utilities that we daily read in the financial reports 
 and the society columns of our newspapers. The rules of 
 our criminal law, which developed in the struggle by the 
 judges to protect the weak from oppression and to save the 
 innocent, are now obstacles against the conviction of the 
 powerful who are guilty and the strong who are oppressors. 
 To remedy these evils; to prevent violence and fraud from 
 continuing to amass huge bulks of riches, which exceed the 
 dreams of the avarice of former generations; to check the 
 oppressive use of wealth after its acquisition; without at 
 the same time destroying property itself, or removing the 
 incentives that alone preserve most of mankind from in- 
 dolence and improvidence, without weakening the founda- 
 tions of society, upon which civilization has grown from 
 barbarism : this is a task that will require all the intelligence, 
 courage and devotion of the descendants of the Puritans. 
 Their hereditary obedience to conscience, regardless of a 
 public opinion that they deem to be perverted, should make 
 them face unperturbed the storm of sneers, obloquy and 
 abuse from hired advocates and a subsidized press. The 
 patience and courage that enabled their ancestors to conquer 
 the wilderness and refound this town after its destruction; 
 
MME. BATCHELLER — GOV. DRAPER 111 
 
 to endure the miseries and discouragement of Valley Forge; 
 to brave uncrushed the enormous weight of public disappro- 
 bation, in the exercise of which the respectable class of the 
 community even denied the hope of religious salvation to 
 some of the abolitionists; should prevent their sinking in 
 the slough of despond, after the repeated failure of their 
 earlier efforts. For the encouragement of traits of character 
 like these, not because of vainglorious living in the past, 
 it is right that the deeds and virtues of our forefathers should 
 be honored at stated anniversaries. The descendants of 
 the citizens of Brookfield may fitly say: "One generation 
 
 "shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy 
 
 "mighty acts." 
 
 Mme. Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller 
 
 Mme. Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller received an ovation, 
 as, at the close of Mr. Foster's oration, she rose to sing. Her 
 highly cultivated voice and the artistic perfection of her 
 singing made her appearance one of the most delightful fea- 
 tures of the afternoon. She graciously responded to an en- 
 core with a charming rendering of "The Last Rose of Sum- 
 mer." 
 
 Governor Eben S. Draper 
 
 When His Excellency, Governor Eben S. Draper, ap- 
 peared upon the platform, the audience rose to its feet with 
 a cheer that could have left him no doubt of their hearty 
 support. He said: 
 
 "What a great relief it is to stand up once in a while at 
 a ball game. The same, I suppose, applies to the recent 
 courtesy you extended me, and on that account I am glad 
 you showed me that mark of respect. 
 
 "Coming here today, I am not expected to give a talk 
 concerning historic Brookfield. That has been done by the 
 
112 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 previous orator far better than I could possibly do. The 
 history of your town for 250 years is the history of the Com- 
 monwealth. Any town that has been incorporated this 
 length of time has been through experiences well illustrating 
 the story of the Commonwealth and its growth. 
 
 "Your town went through the Indian wars; massacres 
 were abroad in the land; women, men and children were 
 ruthlessly destroyed with frequency, and existence was a 
 continual battle. This warfare developed one great prin- 
 ciple, that of depending on each other. No family could 
 hope to withstand the onslaughts of the savage foe, or con- 
 tend successfully with the Indians by itself. 
 
 "Later the people, as a result of their combinations 
 against their foes, came into a closer union. When the col- 
 onies found they had grievances against their lord and king, 
 they discovered that they must combine to get their rights. 
 These independent States, which found they had no inter- 
 dependence, combined for the common foe. The colonies, 
 as they then were, fought to a successful issue the War of 
 Independence, and finally a union in embryo was born. 
 
 "From the first, State rights were considered most im- 
 portant. Each State was jealous of giving up any rights, 
 and it was long a mooted question whether the union was a 
 nation or a confederation of sovereign States. The Civil 
 War settled the question of whether this is a nation or not, 
 in the affirmative, once and for all. 
 
 "The War of 1812 found us a homogeneous people. 
 The citizens came at that time from European countries 
 having common traditions and language, and with the same 
 aims. 
 
 "The question of slavery later arose and was settled. 
 When I go to a gathering of this sort and see so many men 
 wearing the button of the Grand Army, living veterans of 
 that notable struggle, the greatest war in all history, I realize 
 that I stand in the presence of men connected with the 
 grandest event in American annals. I revere all of them. 
 
Frank E. Prouty Emerson H. Stoddard 
 
 Arthur F. Butterworth 
 Arthur H. Drake William Mulcahy 
 
GOV. DRAPER — CONG. GILLETT 113 
 
 "Today we have no war, but the questions before us 
 as a nation are all the more important on that account. You 
 are a New England people. You know the problems of to- 
 day which you will have to settle are vastly different from 
 those of our forefathers. Now all our immigrants come 
 from a world-wide sweep, they speak all tongues, are of all 
 religions and all degrees of intelligence. Many of them do 
 not know what freedom means. They think liberty is li- 
 cense, not having learned the lesson that all liberty must be 
 founded in a respect for law. 
 
 "I agree with the previous speaker on the dangers of 
 plutocracy, and in my opinion it must be settled by the proper 
 training of the youth of our land, as the citizens of the future. 
 
 "This mass of humanity being dumped upon our shores 
 must be made to imbibe the true spirit of liberty, before we 
 can teach them to be intelligent American citizens. I am 
 an optimist, not a pessimist. There are no terrors of mind 
 to be called up by the conditions we have before us, but we 
 must face the issue, just the same. We may have a little 
 trouble in settling our difficulties, but a people, which has 
 been through as much trouble as we have need not fear some 
 more of the same sort. 
 
 "You must settle this question through your children 
 and their training. See that they are brought up to know 
 the pride of being an American citizen. You have a duty to 
 see that they are worthy of you and your fathers. 
 
 "Then Massachusetts will stand, as she does today, in 
 the lead of the greatest procession of States on God's green 
 earth. " 
 
 Congressman Frederick H. Gillett 
 
 Congressman Frederick H. Gillett commenced his re- 
 marks by quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes on the transi- 
 toriness of most things after the lapse of a hundred years. 
 Brookfield, he said, appeared to be one great exception to 
 
114 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 the old adage that aged things run slowly and finally decay. 
 He continued: 
 
 "I cannot help contrasting the condition of our ances- 
 tors, as pictured by the orator of the afternoon, and our con- 
 dition of life today. There are certain traits of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers from which we are glad to escape. They were crus- 
 ty, and no doubt the Pilgrim mothers had much to endure 
 from them, in addition to the rigors and privations of the 
 New England settlement. 
 
 "The Pilgrims and the Puritans would be amazed and 
 bewildered at the changes which the years have wrought. 
 Much as we are disposed to grumble at the high cost of living, 
 and other modern conditions, yet, looking back, we have 
 much to be thankful for. Compare the conditions in Eng- 
 land at the time the Colonists came from that country with 
 the conditions that surround the humblest workingman and 
 cottager today. The greatest nobleman of two hundred 
 and fifty years ago would stand in envy before the cottage 
 comforts we now possess throughout our land. 
 
 "We live better now than we did in those days. We 
 have our hot and cold water, and the countless little things 
 that go to make up the comforts of the modern house, and 
 little thought is given to the progress that has been made. 
 The Puritans would say that this age gives to the humblest 
 laborer a better living than they ever received or than ever 
 was given the wealthiest plutocrat of ancient times. Let 
 us be thankful. 
 
 "The Pilgrims might consider us frivolous, but they 
 would decide that we had maintained their fundamentals of 
 public schools and education, which in every State are the 
 cornerstones of civil and religious liberty." 
 
 Hon. Charles G. Washburn 
 
 Hon. Charles G. Washburn of Worcester spoke without 
 notes; the following brief abstract will indicate the trend of 
 his remarks: 
 
HON. C. G. WASHBURN — MAYOR JAMES LOGAN 115 
 
 He spoke humorously of his regret in not being permitted 
 to represent West Brookfield in the revised Congressional 
 districting. He dwelt upon the austere and somber qualities 
 of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, in whom were to be found 
 the incarnation of conscience, an influence that had leavened 
 the whole lump of our National life. He spoke of the vast 
 scale upon which we are demonstrating in this country the 
 success of a democratic form of government, and in this 
 connection referred to the Oriental method — conquest 
 without incorporation; the Roman method — conquest with 
 incorporation but without representation; the Teutonic, or 
 English method, which was based upon the principle of 
 representation, the only form of government which can 
 achieve national unity on a large scale without weakening 
 or destroying the sense of local independence. He said that 
 while he had no quarrel with a broad federal spirit, we should, 
 with our enormous foreign immigration, insist upon inde- 
 pendence in local affairs so essential if the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of a democratic form of government are not to be sub- 
 verted. 
 
 Mayor James Logan 
 
 Mayor James Logan, of Worcester, was the last speaker. 
 He said: 
 
 "The towns that surround the city of Worcester have 
 contributed their full share to the wonderful material growth 
 of the city. They have sent and are still sending their 
 brightest and best, the young men and women of sterling 
 worth, on whom the world can lean, and lean hard, the pro- 
 duct of the godly home and the hill-town Christian church. 
 It is from such springs of virtue, integrity, and ambition, 
 rising far up in the hill-towns of the country, that the great 
 reservoir of city life has been fed. 
 
 "It is because of the new blood which has been poured 
 into the cities from the country towns during all these years, 
 that the body politic has been kept strong and healthy. 
 
116 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "So I say it is fitting and proper, on an occasion like 
 this, that the chief executive of the city of Worcester should 
 be given an opportunity to look into the faces of the men and 
 women, fathers and mothers, many of whom have given to 
 the great city their sons and daughters, who have helped to 
 make a city over which any man might thank God and be 
 reasonably proud that it was his privilege to preside and 
 serve. 
 
 "So I come to you today, not alone to extend the greet- 
 ings of the city of Worcester, but to return thanks for the 
 services rendered by the men and women who have done 
 their part to create the Worcester that now is, thus laying 
 deep and broad the strong foundations of the Worcester that 
 is yet to be. 
 
 " In the language of some countries there is no word that 
 corresponds with our word 'home'; that word, with all its 
 sacred, tender memories, is ours. Some languages have no 
 word that corresponds with our word 'citizen.' The word 
 that they must use corresponds with our word 'subject,' and 
 there is a vast difference between being a subject and being 
 a citizen. 
 
 "In like manner, no nation on the face of the globe has 
 a word, with perhaps the exception of 'Christmas,' around 
 which there cluster so many sad, sweet and joyous memories 
 as cluster around the word 'Thanksgiving,' and today in the 
 Brookfields we are having an Old Home Week and Thanks- 
 giving combined in one. 
 
 "Those days come to us who have been reared in New 
 England, with the sweet fragrance of the piney woods of our 
 dear old New England hills. They come to us laden with 
 the best traditions of the noblest section of this land we love. 
 
 "On this day the fire burns brightly upon the old hearth- 
 stone and the thoughts of sons and daughters far away over 
 land and seas turn lovingly and longingly toward the old 
 fireside in Brookfield. 
 
 "Those who have been permitted to return to this good 
 
MAYOR JAMES LOGAN 117 
 
 old town have been living over again the days of long ago. 
 We have been meeting old-time friends and acquaintances, 
 and though our hair has been whitened by the years, once 
 again we are boys and girls together. 
 
 "In imagination we have visited the old swimming- 
 hole, where we learned to swim; we have stood on the rocks 
 where as boys we used to sit to dry off, and untie the knots 
 which the other fellows had tied in our shirts. 
 
 "We have recalled the promises made to fathers and 
 mothers to come straight home from school, and not go into 
 the water; and we remember the nights when we were being 
 put to bed and our dear mothers discovered that our shirts 
 were on inside out, or wrong side on, and yet, unmindful of 
 the awful fate which befell Ananias and Sapphira, we would 
 not own up that we had even been near the water. 
 
 "In imagination we have crawled under the fence and 
 secured the material for a corn roast in the woods. What 
 wouldn't we give today for corn that would taste as that 
 did! 
 
 "We have visited the old cider mill and have sucked the 
 cider through a straw, but we remember no more the aches 
 and pains we had after the visit in days of yore. 
 
 "We have once more in imagination smoked that first 
 cigar. We did not in those days have those nasty little ciga- 
 rets to lead us up to the cigar. Those were heroic days and 
 we started in on what they called a 'long nine,' and it cured 
 some of us, so that that one smoke in forty years has been all 
 we wanted. 
 
 "We have wandered down the road to Drake's melon 
 patch, and after innocently looking around to see that the 
 coast was clear, we have inspected the melons, simply to 
 determine whether Drake was maintaining the standard. 
 
 "We have been out skating on the pond, and through 
 the forty-odd years of memory there comes to us the thrill 
 that went through us as we skimmed over the ice holding 
 those dear little hands in Mollie's muff. 
 
118 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 "We have in imagination been out riding on the West 
 Brookfield road. Oh, those delightful rides down to the 
 Kissing Grove on those beautiful country roads where the 
 branches of the trees formed an arch over the road just wide 
 enough for one team, and in those days the horses were well 
 trained. They did not need to be driven, they just went; 
 not too fast, but fast enough. That was before the day of 
 State highways, and on those beautiful roads there was ab- 
 solutely no danger that anyone would drive past and look 
 back into the carriage, and we were never disturbed by the 
 'honk, honk' of the modern Juggernaut which notifies us in 
 these days to get off the earth. 
 
 "Why shouldn't we love dear old Brookfield? What 
 memories cluster about her! When we think of her, we can 
 appropriate and make our own the words from our National 
 hymn: 
 
 I love thy rocks and rills, 
 Thy woods and templed hills, 
 My heart with rapture thrills, 
 Like that above. 
 
 "This occasion is great, because of the purpose for which 
 we have come together. Two hundred and fifty years of 
 eventful and honorable history lie behind us today, and two 
 hundred and fifty years is a long time, as men count time, 
 even in the life of a nation. 
 
 "In 1660, some of the men and women who landed at 
 Plymouth Rock were still living. This takes us back to the 
 time when the Indians roamed over these beautiful hills and 
 valleys, back to the beginning of things in this country, for 
 we need to remember that that was long before the day of 
 the United States. 
 
 "The seed from which was to grow the mightiest Re- 
 public on earth had but just been planted in the New World. 
 In the Providence of God this virgin soil had been kept until 
 the time was ripe for planting the tree of liberty. 
 
 "During all these two hundred and fifty years, by a 
 
MAYOR JAMES LOGAN 119 
 
 devious path God has led this nation, sometimes through the 
 dark valley of defeat, but having passed through the valley, 
 we have come out into the open beyond, where with a vision 
 clarified by suffering and sacrifice we have been enabled to 
 behold the larger truth. And thus, in His own way and in 
 His own good time, there has been wrought out for us a truer 
 victory and a larger truth. 
 
 "Only 168 years before the founding of this town, Co- 
 lumbus and his motley crews, seeking to find a sea route west- 
 ward to India, sailed away over the uncharted seas; but, as 
 often happens in our search for one thing, we find another; 
 and so, as these men searched the wide waste of waters, they 
 found, not the route they sought, but they found the new land 
 which must needs arise to offer an unstained abode for the 
 new ideals of human progress. 
 
 "The powers of the middle ages were intolerant; at the 
 same time they quite unconsciously permitted the discovery 
 of a new land destined to be used, under God, for the creation 
 of a new order of society that was to put an end to intoler- 
 ance, and which was to dedicate this new continent to a 
 modern democracy which had not yet been born. 
 
 "The crews of Columbus were typical of the history of 
 migration to the new world that lay unseen before the great 
 discoverer. His crews were prophetic of the cosmopolitan 
 character of the population of our country, for among his 
 one hundred and twenty men were Italians, Spaniards, Por- 
 tuguese, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Irishmen, Swedes, Moors, 
 and Jews. 
 
 "On that October morning, only one hundred and sixty- 
 eight years before the founding of this town, the men with 
 Columbus saw upon the shore the light which told them that 
 a new continent had been found, and four hundred years 
 later, on this same continent, two great Republics, then un- 
 born, united in rearing a colossal figure of the Goddess of 
 Liberty in bronze, to symbolize an idea of which, in 1492, 
 men did not even dare to dream, 
 
120 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 'The idea of human liberty.' 
 And so there stands in the harbor of New York, the gateway 
 of this great nation, this colossal figure symbolizing liberty, 
 holding aloft in her hand a torch, to light from sunset to sun- 
 rise the great channel through which flows the stream of 
 human life, which, blended into one, makes the American 
 people. 
 
 "From all quarters of the world we have gathered here 
 to make our homes; the blood of all the families of mankind 
 mingles here in a National life-giving stream, which flows 
 forth into the civic life of America, and while the great Father 
 of us all ordained that among the nations of the earth the 
 language of the lips should be different, he also ordained that 
 the language of the heart should be the same. 
 
 "God has implanted in the breast of the entire human 
 family a love for the land that gave them birth, and the near- 
 er we get to the common people, the stronger that love seems 
 to be. It matters not how wild, poor, desolate or down- 
 trodden, the flame of divine love of country burns brightly 
 in the hearts of her sons and daughters. 
 
 "Someone has said that the only purpose of such a gath- 
 ering as this is that it gives some people an opportunity 
 to boast of their native land or of their ancestors, and there 
 may be just a grain of truth in the criticism; but if it serves 
 no better purpose than to create in each of us a stronger love 
 for the country of our birth or of our adoption, and if it lift 
 up in our estimation the ancestral name, so that there may 
 be created in us the determination that no act of ours shall 
 ever tarnish the good name of country or of kin, it will be 
 time wisely spent, for we need that kind of a tonic in this day 
 and generation. 
 
 "The true purpose of such a gathering as this will be 
 altogether lost, if it shall fail to impress us with a deeper and 
 purer love for those eternal principles represented by the 
 flag for which our brothers died; and if other men were will- 
 ing, yes, if need be, glad to die for those colors, ought not we 
 
James E. Barr J. Thomas Webb 
 
 Hon. George K. Tufts 
 Charles S. Lane D. Clarence Wetherell 
 
CONCLUSION 121 
 
 to be willing to live for them, and so to live that we will do 
 our part to make a country worth dying for. 
 
 "Some years ago, Henry Van Dyke was homesick in 
 London, and longing for the land he loved, he gave expression 
 to this sentiment which we Americans ought to cultivate: 
 
 'Oh, London is a man's town; there's power in the air, 
 And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair, 
 And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study 
 
 Rome, 
 But when it comes to living, there's no place like home. 
 
 Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me, 
 I want a ship that's westward bound to plow the rolling sea, 
 To the blessed land of room enough, beyond the ocean bars. 
 Where the air is full of sunlight, and the flag is full of stars.' " 
 
 VI. Conclusion. 
 
 After the exercises in the main tent were over, a concert 
 was given on the Common by the Worcester Brass Band. 
 An hour later, the throngs that all day long had crowded 
 West Brookfield as the little village had never been crowded 
 before in the whole course of her existence, had melted away, 
 and when the ringing of sunset bells in the four Quabaug 
 townships announced the close of the great celebration, the 
 mother district had resumed her customary calm. 
 
 It is estimated that no less than 12,000 persons were 
 present in West Brookfield during some portion of the day, 
 and that at least 7,000 witnessed the battle on the hill, while 
 the great audience tent was filled to the limit of its capacity 
 during the exercises of the afternoon. The way in which 
 the crowds were handled, so as to avoid the slightest sem- 
 blance of disorder, was the subject of much favorable com- 
 ment. The local police force was augmented by a squad of 
 four policemen from Worcester, while a number of the State 
 force mingled in plain clothes among the throngs. But 
 
122 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 there was little for them to do. The thousands of visitors 
 were easily handled, while, if any crooks were present — as 
 almost invariably is the case on such occasions — the pre- 
 cautions taken to guard against their operations proved 
 ample. 
 
 There was a total absence, too, of disorder due to liquor, 
 and the fact that not a single intoxicated person was seen 
 upon the streets reflects the highest credit upon all in author- 
 ity. Nor did the slightest accident occur to mar the day's 
 celebration. The Joint Executive Committee has every 
 reason to congratulate itself upon the perfection of its ar- 
 rangements and the complete success with which they were 
 carried out. 
 
 In the evening, the Worcester Brass Band gave a second 
 concert, upon the grounds of the Merriam Library; but, with 
 few exceptions, only the villagers themselves and their own 
 private guests were there to hear. At an early hour the music 
 ceased ; one by one the lights in the houses were extinguished, 
 and, with the breath of the night air through the deserted 
 streets, came a mysterious rustling sound, as though old 
 Father Time were folding down another leaf in the ancient 
 tome of Quabaug history. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 List of the ladies and gentlemen who served as a Reception Com- 
 mittee under the chairmanship of Hon. Theodore C. Bates: 
 
 Brookfield. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Henry V. Crosby Mr. and Mrs. Edwin D. Goodell 
 
 Mrs. John L. Mulcahy Mr. and Mrs. William B. Hastings 
 
 Edward F. Delaney Mr. and Mrs. Warren E. Tarbell 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. William F. Hayward 
 
 West Brookfield. 
 
 Mrs. Susan F. Fullam 
 Mrs. George H. Fales 
 Miss Alice J. White 
 Mrs. John G. Shackley 
 Mrs. Sumner H. Reed 
 Mrs. Nellie J. L. Canterbury 
 Mrs. James D. Farley 
 Mrs. Benson M. Frink 
 Mrs. Philander Holmes 
 Mrs. Charles H. Clarke 
 Mrs. Arvilla Makepeace 
 Mrs. Nellie D. Makepeace 
 Mrs. Eh M. Converse 
 Mrs. Chauncey L. Olmstead 
 Mrs. Nellie Coffin 
 
 Miss Mary Lynde 
 
 Mrs. Elisha Webb 
 
 Mrs. Allen Jones 
 
 Mrs. Harold Chesson 
 
 Mrs. Charlton D. Richardson 
 
 Miss Marianna Blair 
 
 Charles O'M. Edson 
 
 Dr. Charles A. Blake 
 
 Dr. Frederick W. Coles 
 
 Dr. Clifford J. Huyck 
 
 Dr. Clement E. Bill 
 
 George H. Coolidge 
 
 John A. Conway 
 
 Dwight Fairbanks 
 
 John J. Mulvey 
 
 North Brookfield. 
 
 Hon. and Mrs. Theodore C. Bates 
 Mr. and Mrs. Alfred C. Stoddard 
 Mr. and Mrs. Harold A. Foster 
 Mr. and Mrs. Charles E.Batcheller 
 Mr. and Mrs. Herbert T. Maynard 
 
 Mrs. George R. Doane 
 Miss Bertha Collins 
 Miss Katherine Doyle 
 Mrs. George A. Whiting 
 Horace J. Lawrence 
 
 Ward A. Smith 
 New Braintree. 
 Hon. and Mrs. George K. Tufts Mrs. James P. Utley 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Webb Mrs. Edward L. Havens 
 Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Barlow John Bowen 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Lane Charles H. Barr 
 
124 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Troopers who rode in the Pageant under Carlton D. Richardson, 
 who represented Captain Edward Hutchinson: 
 
 Walter A. Putnam of Warren, representing Captain Wheeler. 
 
 John P. Ranger, of North Brookfield, representing Major Wilson. 
 
 Alfred C. White, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Bowman S. Beaman. of West Brookfield. 
 
 Lewis K. Bruce, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Elmer Perry, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Martin Walsh, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Francis McReavy, of West Brookfield. 
 
 I. Walter Moore, of Warren. 
 
 George Freeman, of Warren. 
 
 Myron Rice, of Warren. 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Troopers who rode in the Pageant with Alfred C. Stoddard, who 
 represented Major Simon Willard: 
 
 Henry E. Cottle, of Brookfield representing Captain Parker. 
 
 George A. Putney, of Brookfield. 
 
 Windsor R. Smith, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Philander Holmes, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Ralph M. Buffington, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Fred B. Walls, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Howard Foster, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Lewis Richardson, of West Brookfield 
 
 William M. Richardson, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Harold Risley, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Daniel McReavy, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Edmond Smith, of West Brookfield. 
 
 John J. Mulvey, of West Brookfield. 
 
 Robert Converse, of West Brookfield. 
 
 G. Lincoln Smith, of North Brookfield. 
 
 H. Stanley Smith, of North Brookfield. 
 
 Milo D. Childs, of North Brookfield. 
 
 Harry K. Woodis, of North Brookfield. 
 
 George O'Brien, of North Brookfield. 
 
 Maxey C. Converse, of North Brookfield. 
 
 Archibald D. Melvin, of North Brookfield 
 
 Charles S. Lane, of New Braintree. 
 
 Charles M. Dailey, of New Braintree. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 125 
 
 Fred O'Brien, of New Braintree. 
 Charles H. Fales, of New Braintree. 
 Charles W. Ross, of New Braintree. 
 A. W. Bliss, of Warren. 
 Milton H. Lathe, of Warren. 
 George E. Rice, of Warren 
 Harry 0. Rice, of Warren. 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 Individuals who represented settlers in the Pageant: 
 
 Lindsey Smith 
 
 Miss Louise Hazen 
 
 Miss Dorothy Smith 
 
 Miss Maud Beauregard 
 
 Carlton P. Tyler 
 
 Miss Martha Canterbury 
 
 Miss Emma B. Tyler 
 
 Miss Marguerita Fales 
 
 Miss Stella Tyler 
 
 Edward J. O'Day 
 
 Miss Myrle E. Dodge 
 
 Miss Theresa O'Day 
 
 Miss Alice E. Babbitt 
 
 Miss Catharine B. O'Day 
 
 Miss Charlotte Thurston 
 
 Miss Anna O'Day 
 
 Miss Margaret Blair 
 
 George A. Whiting 
 
 Miss Grace Whiting 
 
 David B. McKerley 
 
 Miss Dorothy Makepeace 
 
 Miss Nettie Allen 
 
 Stanton Furguson 
 
 Miss Edna Allen 
 
 Miss Eleanor G. Bill 
 
 George Boothby 
 
 Miss Susan Bill 
 
 Alfred Mundell 
 
 Miss Marjory Cutler 
 
 Miss Jennie Mundell 
 
 Miss Esther Mulvey 
 
 Miss Angie Mundell 
 
 Miss Nellie Mulvey 
 
 Miss Carrie Allen 
 
 Miss Hazel A. Anderson 
 
 Miss Marion Allen 
 
 Miss Dora M. Allen 
 
 Miss Grace Allen 
 
 Miss Gladys E. McKerley 
 
 John J. Mulvey, Jr. 
 
 Alfred R. Allen 
 
 Miss Mary Gilmore 
 
 Miss Jennie Hocum 
 
 Arthur Brigham 
 
 Miss Ruth Green 
 
 Miss Ruth Warfield 
 
 APPENDIX E 
 
 Gunmen in the Pageant: 
 Alva Sikes, of West Brookfield. 
 Warren Davis, of West Brookfield. 
 George E. Allen, of West Brookfield. 
 Frank W. Baker, of West Brookfield. 
 
126 
 
 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Henry W. Ayres, of North Brookfield, a descendant of Sergeant 
 John Ayres, killed in the fight with the Indians at Wenimesset, and of 
 Joseph, 4, the only son of Sergeant John to return at the re-settlement 
 of Brookfield, was to have acted as one of the gunmen. But, although 
 present throughout the day, he was prevented by the condition of his 
 health from taking an active part in the proceedings. 
 
 APPENDIX F 
 
 Members of the Quabaug Tribe of Red Men who represented 
 Indian Warriors in the Pageant: 
 
 John J. Fitzgerald 
 Clarence W. S. Allen 
 David H. Robinson 
 William Macuin 
 Henry H. Flagg 
 
 Arthur R. Stone 
 
 CHIEFS. 
 
 William Letendre 
 Frank A. Brown 
 Frank E. Brown 
 Frank Macuin 
 Otto Olmstead 
 
 Edward M. Houghton 
 
 Sumner H. Reed 
 Levi Flagg 
 Louis Brown 
 Louis Baily 
 Charles Stone 
 Charles Wine 
 William Dane 
 John Nelson 
 B. A. Conway 
 Edward Davis 
 R. T. Allis 
 R. D. Olmstead 
 Alfred Brigham 
 Richard Young 
 George Canterbury 
 
 8COUTS. 
 
 Arthur H. Bates 
 
 WARRIORS. 
 
 Arthur Bell 
 Harold Babbitt 
 Ralph Clark 
 A. E. Shumway 
 Robert Walker 
 William Foster 
 Frank Mahoney 
 Joseph Clark 
 Paul Grondine 
 Bert Shepherd 
 John Morgan 
 W. Potter 
 Roy Haskins 
 Frank Griffin 
 Charles Brigham 
 
 APPENDIX G 
 
 Members of the first and second grades of the West Brookfield 
 Public Schools who rode in the parade as the "Committee in Charge of 
 the 300th Anniversary Celebration": 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 127 
 
 Alberta Delpech 
 Eleanor Morgan 
 Harriet Boothby 
 Mary Mulvey 
 Helen Flagg 
 Gladys Pratt 
 Millie Wright 
 Helen Canterbury 
 Edith Greene 
 Winifred Woodward 
 Lena Sankosky 
 Mary Begley 
 Earl Smith 
 
 Philip Tolman 
 Donald Duggan 
 Francis Flagg 
 Alonzo Gilbert 
 Norman Smith 
 Burton Smith 
 Elliot Guertin 
 Milan Lynch 
 Ralph Chapin 
 Milton Richardson 
 Richard Kent 
 Edward Morgan 
 Walter Gould 
 Francis Barrett 
 
 Miss Alice J. White has taught these grades in the West Brookfield 
 schools for thirty-three years. She is a descendant of Peregrine White, 
 and also of John White, who was killed in the Brookfield meadows, 
 during the early years of Brookfield history. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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