History of the Town of Fitchburg Rufus Torey Part 44 1st printing 1836


In the following May, another attempt was made to erect a
house upon the site recommended by this committee.  The vote
stood yeas 45, nays 48.  At this meeting a committee of
twenty-one of the inhabitants was chosen to select and
report to the town a suitble place, on which to build a
meeting house.  This committee reported in favor of the
place selected by the committee of "disinterested persons."
The town then voted to build a meeting hoause on that place,
yeas 61, nays 47.  A town meeting was accordingly called on
the 8th of January, 1795, for the purose of choosing a
committee to purchase the ground selected.  But at this
meeting the town refused to choose any such committee -- and
so ended the project of building a meeting house there.

But the suject was not suffered to remain long at rest; for
on the 26th of the same month, it was voted to erect a
meeting house on the land purchased of Thomas Boynton, and
to model it after the one in Leominster.  It was to be
completed on the last day of December, 1796.  At an
adjournment of this meeting, in the following July, it was
voted to model the meeting house after the one (on the hill)
at Ashburnham.  A road, four rods wide, beginnng nearly
opposite to the red cotton factory, was laid out, passing up
the valley in the rear of Widow Sawyer's dwelling house, to
accommodate the people of the east.  John Putnam Jr. entered
into a contract with the town to build the meeting house.

(Ken's note.  From looking at the maps in The City and the
River, there is a Sawyer property well along Westminster
Hill Road, not far from where Dave Stanke lives today.  Also
judging from these maps, Westminster Hill Road might well be
that road, four rods wide, referenced here.  This makes the
Red Cotton factory, the red brick building at the corner of
Westminster Hill Road and Sanborn St, a block down the hill
from the corner of Westminster Hill Road and Rt 12.  This
meeting house was way to the west of town.)

In September, a committee was chosen to prepare the ground
for the reception of the house, and to level a common before
it.

In October a motion was made in town meeting to locate the
meeting house "at the crotch of the roads near Capt. William
Brown's" This motion was carried, yeas 44, nays 30.  So it
was then decided to place the house where the First Parish
meeting house now stands.  I have been informed that it was
designed to have the house face directly "down street," and
that the underpinning was laid for that purpose, but that
the opposing faction mustered sufficient strength to get it
faced directly to the south, and consequently cornerwise to
the street.

Thus ended a contest of full ten years' duration, respecting
the location of a meeting house.  It was carried on with
much more than the usual degree of zeal, obstinacy and
bitterness of feeing which to often characterize
difficulties of this nature.  Passion got the control of
judgment, and men seemed willing to sacrifice everything to
a desire of carrying their point.  So fiercely was the
contest carried on, that people from the neighboring towns
frequently flocked in to attend a town meeting in Fitchburg.

I have mentioned only a few of these town meetings at which
this subject was the principal topic.  The town record for
these ten years are principally filled with accunts of
them. The number of these meeting I have not taken the
trouble to count, but I have been credibly informed that the
town was called together ninety-nine times on the subject.
Indeed, if any one will take the trouble to examine the
record, he will find nearly an average number of ten meeting
yearly.  The matter was finally compromised.  The people of
the west were allowed to have preaching in their
neighborhood in proportion to the amount of taxes which they
contributed towards the support of the minister.

The meeting house, on its present location was built during
the summer of 1796.  At the "raising," the inhabitants
concluded -- not to bury their griefs beneath the altar --
but to drown them in deep potations of West India rum.  For
on this occasion the town voted -- and it appears to have
been the only vote on this subject which did not give rise
to bitter contention -- to purchase a barrel of West India
rum, with a sufficient quantity of loaf sugar wherewith to
regale and refresh all those who might be present.  So
gravely and systematically did they conduct this part of the
cereminies, that they chose a committee consisting of Deacon
Daniel Putnam, Deacon Kendall Boutelle, Deacon Ephraim
Kimball, Ruben Smith, Joseph Polley, Dr. Jonas Maswhall, and
Asa Perry, to deal out the "grog," with instructions if that
barrel was not sufficient, to procure more at the town's
expense.

The meeting house was finished, and dedicated on the 19th
day of Janyuaryk 1797.  the dedication sermon was preached
by Rev. Zabdiel Adams, of Lunenburg, there being no settled
minister in this town at that time.  (Author's note: This
house is now (Autumn 1836) about to be removed and a new and
more elegant structure to be erected nearly on the same
site.)

(to be continued)

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