was made to the Meeting House; it now presented a singular appearance, with three gable ends. 1770. Singing schools first commenced in town. This event was followed by a bitter and protracted controversy, respecting the proper modes of singing, and the relative rights of pastor, church and people. We shall notice it more fully in a subsequent chapter. It had been the practice for one of the Deacons to read the Psalm or Hymn from the old New England version, and for another Deacon to pitch the tune; after which, the whole Congregation united with unharmonious jargon, in the "celestial colloquy sublime." It was the wish of the people of taste and lovers of harmony, to introduce a better style in sacred music, but they were sturdily opposed by most of the Deacons with their friends. The controversy was in a few years ingulfed in the greater contest concerning the liberties of the country, and since that period, no place has been more famed for the excellence and purity of its sacred music.* 1775. As this place then formed a part of Lancaster, we are unable to state from the records, their public sacrifices in the war of Independence; but few people did more according to their ability. A great proportion of the young men entered into the service. Under the pension act of 1818, seventeen of the inhabitants brought themselves within the provisions of this law, so far as to obtain this merited bounty of the government. There were but five or six royalists in the place, and none of those united with the enemy. One individual was treated with great rudeness, accompanied with severe threats, but he had so long enjoyed the affections and confidence of the people, that they were restrained from any personal violence. He was a magistrate of great respectability and was honored with the confidence of his neighbors until his death. The place furnished its due proportion of officers, as well as its quotas of soldiers. Col. Asa Whitcomb commanded one of the Continental Regiments in the expedition to Crown Point and Ticonderoga.t *The first school was kept by three singing masters, to wit, Ashley, Hastings and White. The Minister favored the innovation, which drew down upon him the resentments of the people. + This is the same Col. W. of whom an humorous anecdote is related in Thatcher's Journal. At the commencement of the war, he was one of our wealthiest citizens. He was for many years entrusted with the most important and responsible offices, was Deacon of the Church from 1760--Repre 1781, April 25. The long controversy between this people and their neighbors at Lancaster, was now happily terminated by the incorporation of this part of Lancaster into a town by the name of Sterling, so called in honor of Lord Sterling of N. Jersey. The town withheld their consent to the separation for a long time. It was contended that the new town should share with the old parish in support of some of their expensive bridges and numerous paupers. This was resisted. The crisis was hastened by an injudicious attempt on the part of the old parish to exclude the Chocksett people from any participation in the town offices. This induced a trial of the relative strength of the parties, when the west parish outpolled their neighbors of the ancient territory. The conquerors followed up their victory by engrossing to their own citizens all the offices, and by ordering all the town meetings to be held at their Meeting House. By this time the Pharoahs were willing to let the people go. The incorporating act was assented to withont much reflection. The line of demarcation was arbitrary, passing through the finest farms, and severing them into the most inconvenient forms.* The poor then actually supported were to be equally divided, but as no provision was made for returning paupers, they all fell into Lancaster. These difficulties were amicably adjusted by an additional act, passed in 1793, wherein a line was established, including every man's farm in the town where his dwelling house fell, by the former line. This accounts for the great number of angles in the easterly part of the town. It was further provided, that the poor should be supported by that town on whose territory they dwelt sentative from Lancaster before the division, and Justice of the Peace, besides his various military stations. Such was his zeal in the cause of liberty, and so great his confidence in the patriotism and integrity of his countrymen, that he pledged his whole fortune upon the faith of the paper currency, and consequently became bankrupt. He removed to Princeton, where he died at an advanced age, in a state of abject poverty; sustained by a conscious integrity, that never departed from him, and an exalted piety that elevated him above the ills of life. His farm is now owned by Rufus G. Amory, Esq. of Boston. * See Stat. 1780, ch. 27. The line ran east, 21 south, one hundred and sixty rods; then south 8 west, eight hundred and twenty rods; then south 18 west to the foot of the Scar, and extending on that line to Shrewsbury. Many places were known by the name of the Scar, (or Scaur, it being an obsolete Scotch word, signifying a precipitous bank or side hill, divested of vegetation, by the sliding down of the earth, generally caused by the current of a river) on this occasion the scaur, next below Sawyer's Mill, was fixed upon as the boundary. when they gained their settlement.* Since that period the inhabitants of but few towns have lived in greater harmony, or have been more assiduous in the interchange of kind offices than those of Sterling and Lancaster. 1786. Some of the inhabitants were infected with the spirit of rebellion, that led to the unhappy insurrection of this year; but none of them proceeded to violence or united themselves with the Shays army. A large majority was attached to the Government, and a considerable number entered into the service, and were with Gen. Lincoln at his triumphant entry into Petersham. This year is also memorable as a period of unusual pestilence. The dysentery prevailed to an alarming extent. The number of deaths was forty eight, being treble of the average number for many years. The mortality was principally confined to children. 1787. This was one of the small minority of the towns of the County, that approved the adoption of the Federal Constitution. They chose a delegate, Capt. Ephraim Wilder, who voted in the affirmative, upon that momentous and interesting question. 1796. A new parish was formed, by the name of the Second Parish in the towns of Boylston, Sterling and Holden. The parish was formed not for any difference of opinions in religious speculations, but to accommodate those inhabitants that resided at too great a distance from the places of worship. This year the Canker Rash (Scarlatina anginosa) prevailed as an epidemic; eight children died of the disease. The mortality was greater than in either of the ten preceding years. The principal physician, Dr. Israel Allen, published a treatise upon the disease with its concomitants, in an interesting pamphlet of sixty pag Stat. 1792, ch. 55. + This gentleman died 1805, aged 72. He was Representative of the town for some years, and has left many very respectable descendants. Of all the ancient Lancaster families, there is no one that has sustained so many impor tant offices as this. Thomas Wilder came hither from Hingham in 1659. After his death his estate was divided between his three sons, Thomas, John and Nathaniel, in 1668. This last was a Lieutenant and was killed by the Indians in the great battle in 1704. Harrington 17. His son, Capt. Ephraim Wilder, died 1769, aged 94. He was wounded in the Indian fight of 1707. Ibid 18. His son, also, Capt. Ephraim Wilder, father to the subject of this notice died 1770, aged 62. A more minute notice of this family will be found in the subsequent history of Lancaster. Stat. 1796. ch. 10. es. 3.* As in the year 1786, it was followed by a malignant dysentery, that proved fatal to many children. It may be not unworthy of remark, that these epidemics generally return at intervals of ten years. 1799. The Meeting House having fallen to decay, and not being sufficient in size for all the inhabitants, a new one was built upon the site of the old house. It was dedicated on the first Sunday of the year 1800. The cost of the building was $8,500, and although not very faithfully built, it was for many years the most elegant and costly structure of the kind in the County. Since its erection, great improvements have been introduced in the construction of churches in this part of the country, discovering more economy, less profusion of ornament, and a better taste than are displayed in this edifice. The number of pews upon the lower flower is 94, and there are 38 in the galleries. It is ornamented with a lofty steeple and a bell. The proceeds of the sales of the pews exceeded the cost of the house by more than $2,000, the excess was remitted to the purchasers of the pews. On this occasion great labour and expense were bestowed in levelling the common or public square. The stable lots were at this period sold, by vote of the town, and is the only title by which the proprietors hold their estates. In the course of a year or two, the Town House was built upon the southerly side of the Common. It is believed, this was the first edifice erected in this County, for the purpose of holding town meetings. It is a decent building of 38 by 28 feet, with a porch in *In this work, Dr. Allen expresses doubts whether the Canker Rash is contagious, as when it entered a family it would often happen, that all the children would not be infected, and many had it, without being near a diseased person. The symptoms likewise were not always uniform, it was not always denoted by efflorescence upon the skin, nor by canker, but sometimes by a sore throat only. The most dangerous periods were those of the accession and recession of the eruption. The methods of cure were various according to the symptoms. It is a subject of regret that our learned physicians, do not oftener publish to the world, the causes, progress and cure, of those endemial diseases, that so often prevail among the children of our villages. The first bell was made by Doolittle of Hartford, weighed 879 lbs. It broke Oct. 1821, and was replaced by that now in use, Dec. 1, 1821, made by J. W. Revere of Boston, the weight of which is 1017 lbs. The pews in the old M. H. were never sold; every spring they went through the process of seating the meeting-house, as it was called. The man who paid the highest tax, had the first choice, and so on in succession. The changes in property caused by the revolution,after which some of the best farms were occupied by tenants, gave to men in humble life, the foremost seats, to the great discomfiture of some of the patrician families. This probably accelerated the building of the new Church. front. The upper story is used for a district school house for the Centre ward. The land upon which it stands was granted by Ebenezer Pope,* and the town have but a limited use in the lot.t The several district school houses were generally built about the same time, all at the expense of the town, but are repaired by the individual districts. 1808. That part of the town that belonged to the second parish in Boylston, Holden and Sterling, was incorporated into a town by the name of West Boylston. It included thirty one families, being about one eighth part of the population and territory, and one eleventh part of the taxable property of the whole town. An equitable division was made of the town property, and the poor then chargeable were to be supported in the proportion last named. The act of incorporation being unskilfully drawn, an additional act was found necessary to explain one of the provisions of the first statute, to enable the town of Sterling to obtain their equal rights. This was resisted by West Boylston, but passed the Legislature.‡ 2 POPULATION.-Before the adoption of the Federal Constitution, there were enumerations of the inhabitants, at very great intervals for certain purposes. But such were the superstitious prejudices against numbering the people, that no great dependence can be placed upon the returns. The most accurate, probably, is that of 1764: It is noted in the church records, that there were at that time 151 families in this parish. In the town of Lancaster there were 328 families and 1862 inhabitants, making to a family 5, consequently in Sterling in The number of rateable polls at different periods is as follows, 1810 422 455|| This gentleman was for more than 40 years, a respectable trader in town. He descended from the ancient family of that name in Danvers: was nephew to Gen. Putnam by marriage.-He died in March, 1825, aged 73, leaving a considerable estate. † Deed recorded, book 168-page 61. Stat. 1807, ch. 48, and 1810,ch. 7. This diminution may be attributed to the loss occasioned by the setting off thirty one families, containing about 200 inhabitants, to West Boylston. These are the numbers set to the town in the State valuations. The polls actually taxed, it is believed never exceeded 410. It has always been the fate of this town, to be severely doomed, in this particular. |