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Vol. 5, No.1 - 1 July 2003. Circulation: 100 and growing!
(C) 1999 Boylston Historical Society and Museum
7 Central St., PO Box 459, Boylston, MA 01505
boyhisoc@rcn.com 508-869-2720
Editors: Betty L. Thomas and Judith Haynes
Boylston Historical Society and Museum Web Page:
http://users.rcn.com/boyhisoc/
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the PotpourrEmail, or
to submit information to be included in the PotpourrEmail,
e-mail info to: boyhisoc@rcn.com

CONTENTS. Welcome; "The History of Boylston 1642-1741";
Tidbits; BHS News; On The Web; Humor

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Welcome to our Email newsletter! For those of you who are not
members of BHS and don't receive the snailmail newsletter, it is called
The Potpourri. Sooooo, we thought the appropriate name for this version
would be PotpourrEMAIL. This Email version is not meant to repeat or
copy the snailmail version, but to complement it, with the addition of
topics of interest to those with computer and web capabilities. If you
have a story to tell, information to impart, a good joke, computer
or web genealogy info, a Boylston genealogy query, or anything that would
be of interest to our readers--please Email us at:
boyhisoc@rcn.com

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"The History of Boylston 1642-1741"

The following is from Vol.II of the Historical Series.
This book is no longer available for sale, but there are bound
copies of all the Historical Series books in the Museum's Fuller
Research Library, the Boylston Public Library, the DAR Library and the
Allen County Public Library [Fort Wayne, IN.] There are drawings,
sketches and photos in the book that we cannot include
in this Email.

"The History of Boylston 1642-1741"
A Critical Edition of the Papers of George L. Wright
by William O. Dupuis
Volume II in the Boylston Historical Series
Revised edition 1978

Chapter 3
"The Mother Town of Lancaster"
by George L. Wright


Lancaster Settlers Set-off to Shrewsbury

Soon after the formation of the Shrewsbury North Precinct in 1742, and the gathering of its
church in 1743, certain of the inhabitants of the southerly part of Lancaster asked that they
might be set off to the Shrewsbury Precinct for religious purposes and church attendance,
alleging as their principle reason, the distance from the Lancaster Meeting House, and the
inconvenience and difficulty in attending Divine Worship there. The consent of both the
Lancaster and Shrewsbury churches having been obtained, the request was granted, and
by Act of the General Court passed in September 1762, Bezeliel Howe, Levi Moore, Daniel
Albert, Edmund Larkin, Jonathan Goodenow, Mathias Larkin, and Zebulon Rice, with their
lands bounding at the northeast corner of the Shrewsbury North Precinct and running to the
Nashua River on the north side of Daniel Albert's house, and so on to the river at Aaron
Sawyer's Mill, were set off for the purposes of religion, remaining a part of the town of
Lancaster for municipal affairs. On April 25, 1774, the Shrewsbury North Precinct voted to
receive William Dunsmore and others, with their lands from the First Precinct in Lancaster.

In 1780, Lieutenant Aaron Sawyer, Nathaniel Lamson, Frederick Albert, Silas Howe, John
Dunsmore, Jacob Winn, Hugh Moore,Nathaniel Hastings, Oliver Sawyer, Silas Hastings,
Samuel Bigsby, Micah Hartwell, Major Ezra Beaman [21], Edmund Larkin, Deacon Levi Moore,
Josiah Bennett, William Dunsmore, John Glazier, Phineas Howe, Elijah Ball, Robert
Andrews ,Jr. , and Nathaniel Davenport, some of whom resided within the limits of
Lancaster, and the others had land there, petitioned the town of Lancaster that they might
be set off from that town, and annexed to the town of Shrewsbury. Some of them within the
Lancaster bounds had already been joined to the Shrewsbury North Precinct for parochial
purposes. This request the town of Lancaster accepted and granted June 23,1780, and
was confirmed by an act of the General Court.

This line became the division line between Lancaster and Shrewsbury, and was made the
boundary line between Lancaster and Boylston, when the latter town was incorporated in
1786, and is the present town line between Boylston, West Boylston, Sterling and Clinton.
There was a long, narrow strip of land in the extreme northwesterly part of Shrewsbury,
known as the "Shrewsbury Leg," which lay northerly of the present village of Oakdale in
West Boylston. In 1751 the town of Shrewsbury voted that the families in this section, or as
the records say "those living on the north side of the Quinapoxet River and between the
towns of Holden and Lancaster might be set off and annexed to Lancaster." The
annexation, however, did not take place until 1768; when the town of Sterling was
incorporated in 1786, this section, or the northerly part of it became a part of that town, and
upon the incorporation of West Boylston in 1808, some of it went to that town.

The Lancaster Line

The original Lancaster and Shrewsbury line ran considerably south of the later lines, so that
of the territory constituting the town of Boylston, about three-fourths came from Shrewsbury
and one-fourth from Lancaster. The original Lancaster and Shrewsbury line ran through the
present town of Boylston in a southeasterly direction from a point on or near the division
line between the farms of Nathaniel Lamson and Capt. Robert Andrews,Jr., across the
Nashua River to a point just northerly of the house of Phineas Howe, now the place owned
by Chester E. Greene.[22] It is said that the line ran so near the building on this farm, that the
house standing on the southerly side of the road was in Shrewsbury, while the building,
known as the Cider Mill, on the opposite side of the road was in Lancaster. Thence the line
ran on through East Woods to a great heap of stones southerly of the Lieutenant Elijah Ball
place, which was last occupied in the name Ball by Alonzo and Allard A. Ball, and is now
owned by Pietro Chiarelli.[23] It is said that Lieutenant Elijah Ball had a habit when clearing his
mowing land of stones in the spring of the year, of dumping around this bound, or as he
expressed it, of renewing the Lancaster bounds. The Ball house and the Houghton house,
now the home of Charles Britton[24], both stand on land once Lancaster Territory. While not
so much of the Lancaster territory was taken to form the town of Boylston as was taken
from Shrewsbury, and the relations and affairs of the early Boylston settlers were not so
intimately connected with Lancaster as with Shrewsbury. It is never-the-less a source of
pride and satisfaction to the people of Boylston to know that the town was once a part of
the first famous town of Worcester County.

21. Ezra Beaman; born Bolton, MA, October 16, 1736. An interesting biography of this prominent North Precinct settler may be found in the Boylston Centennial Book, pages 93-98.
22. Located at 30 Cross St.
23. Presently owned by Charles Draper on Mile Hill Road.
24. Located at 330 Linden Street, presently owned by Ernest Savoie.

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Tidbits

Tidbits section will be on vacation this summer....unless some of you readers out there have some tibits to share! If you do send them to me at boyhisoc@rcn.com and I'll copy & paste them right here next month!
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BHSM News


2003 - 2004 PROGRAMS and EVENTS
All Programs open to the public and
held at the Society (unless otherwise noted).
7 Central St., Boylston
Donations at the door are gratefully accepted!
------------------------------------------------
September -
        Sun. 14 - Opening of "We Were There" exhibit - 2-4 pm
        Exhibit focuses on three Boylston soldiers in World War II
October -
        Sat. 4 - Appraisal Day - 10am-2pm, at the Townhouse
        Paul Royka of Fitchburg will be doing appraisals

        16-19 - Civil War Encampment - BHSM and Hillside
        watch for more info!

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Visit the gift shop
http://www.ultranet.com/~boyhisoc/gift.htm

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On the Web ...for the month of July

4th - Independence Day
http://www.fourth-of-july-celebrations.com/
http://www.holidays.net/independence/

4th - Death of President Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tj3.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjhome.html

5h - Birthday of P.T. Barnum
http://www.barnum-museum.org/orig/html/barnum.html
http://www.ringling.com/explore/history/ptbarnum_1.asp


8th - Last major bare-knuckle boxing match [1889]
http://www.lib.usm.edu/~archives/m271.htm
http://www.all-sports-posters.com/historyofboxing.html
http://www.hotboxingnews.com/1899_-_pre.htm

14th - Bastille Day
http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~rdale/bastille.htm
http://www.hightowertrail.com/Bastil.htm

15th - Birthday of English architect Inigo Jones [1573-1652]
http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Inigo_Jones.html
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/inigo-jones.htm

22nd - Birthday of Rev. William A. Spooner [1844-1930]
http://www.lunaeterna.net/popcult/spooner.htm
http://www.fun-with-words.com/spoonerisms.html

30th - Birthday of Henry Ford [1863-1947]
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/
http://www.henryfordestate.com/

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Humor - from Carla Thomas

Great writer

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire
to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said,
"I want to write stuff that the whole world will read,
stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level,
stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"

He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.



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PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from PotpourrEMAIL is granted
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Written by -author's name, e-mail address, and URL, if given-
Previously published by PotpourrEMAIL,
PotpourrEmail, Vol. 5, No.1 - 1 July 2003. Please visit
Boylston Historical Society and Museum's main Web page at
http://users.rcn.com/boyhisoc/
This newsletter is distributed monthly, on the first day of the month,
to all Boylston Historical Society members (who have Email!), genealogists,
and friends who have a special interest in the history of the town of
Boylston.
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boyhisoc@rcn.com
508-869-2720
Boylston Historical Society
PO Box 459
Boylston, MA  01505
Web Page:  http://users.rcn.com/boyhisoc/