Winchendon History

FREE CONCERT! Happening this Wednesday! Come on by the Old Murdock Senior Center

Maine Drilling & Blasting will be blasting at the W.L. French Quarry/Winchendon Landfill on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 with an alternate date of Thursday, January 25, 2024.

Beautiful evening at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Winchendon tonight.

THE WINCHENDON MUSIC FESTIVAL presented Messe de minuit pour Noël (Midnight mass for Christmas), a mass for four voices and orchestra by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, written in 1694, based on the melodies of ten French Christmas Carols makes for a joyous holiday celebration.

Thank you Andrew Arceci

Come on by to the Toy museum carriage house, 135 Front St and take your festive holiday photos! We are here until 4! The fire truck is waiting!!!

Winchendon Fall Festival has officially been rescheduled for 10/8, 10am-5pm!!

Members of the Gilman C. Parker Post, G.A.R., Winchendon on Memorial Day, 1907.

Left to right: George M, Stern s, David I Marsh, Henry W. Clark, Edward Pollard, Henry F. Partridge, Capt. Theodore K. Parker, Rev. Gastavus W. Jones, George Wilson, Frederick M Brown, Charles Danforth, Capt John C. C***r, Loring Sawyer, Patrick Brabston, Charles Sterns, Charles F. St. Clair, Edward W. Cross, Jerome ***vens, Frank R. Bosworth, Spanish War Veterans: Fredrick W. Russell, Duane C. Sheldon, Andrew Riley, Alfred H. Williams, August Burger, Almon W. Carroll, James Jones, Christopher C. Bump John Demary, Roswell M. Weeks

The Gilman C. Parker Post No. 153, G.A.R. was organized
March 6, 1883, with forty-one charter members. Founded “to
strengthen fellowship among men who fought to preserve the
Union” and to honor those killed in the war, this organization
was active in Winchendon for about forty years. It is interesting
to note that the G.A.R. actually started the celebration of Memorial
Day in the North, and that in 1933, Henry F. Partridge, the only
living member of the G.A.R. in Winchendon, was still taking part
in the line of march on Memorial Day. The following year, when
he was unable to participate, the line of m arch was changed to
pass by his home at 29 Maynard Street where he lived with the
Edgar F. Willson family, so the patriotic organizations could
salute Comrade Partridge. With his passing in 1935 the organization was disbanded.

David Sims was Winchendon's first, and for many years, only resident of color. Little is known about Mr. Sims early life but he was probably born of enslave parents in Washington D. C. around 1841. He is thought to have been a mule driver with the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment and may have come north with the regiment. Another story is he was brought from VA a year after the war by Mr. & Mrs. George Coffin. Mr. Sims lived in the Pequog area of town and was in the employ of Mr. Coffin for many years as a coachman. Mr. Coffin lived in Old Center and in 1868 He purchased the woodenware factory of Rice & Wyman in Pequog and started the Winchendon Woolen Mills.

Toward the end of his life he lived alone in a little cabin on what is now known as Teel Rd. and carried on a chicken and egg business. He died Sept. 11, 1911 at the Town Home where he had been for a short time and is buried in the Old Center Cemetery. He was remembered by many Winchendon people as a very religious man, always attending church, sometimes wearing a high silk hat.(GCC)
Marvin's History tells of Eden London, a slave of Danial Goodridge that received his freedom for taking his masters place in the Revolutionary Army, probably bought for that purpose and it’s unsure if he ever resided in Winchendon . Mr. London is buried in the old graveyard in the Old Center.

Sources: Marvins History, Winchendon Years 1764 to 1964, Archives of the Winchendon History and Cultural Center

Dr. Alvah Godding came to Winchendon in 1826, married Mary Whitney in 1828 and served the community for forty-nine years, eighteen of which found him to be the only practicing physician in the town.

Dr. Godding settled in Old Centre where he built and occupied what was later known as the Coffin House, 80 Old Center. In 1841 Dr. Godding moved to the village, building a resided at the corner of Front and what is now Academy Street, later occupied by Dr. Cross and his wife Grace Converse . Dr. Godding died in 1875 at the age of seventy-eight.

Dr Gooding's son Dr. William Whitney Godding married Ellen Murdock, daughter of Elisha Murdock and sister of Sophia Murdock Whitney. He went on to become a noted expert on insanity and head of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington D.C

Winchendon Springs (Spring Village) gets its name from a mineral spring which for a great many years gushed from the ground at the foot of what is now called Mill Circle. In the early days, thousands of gallons of water a day supposedly flowed from the “virtuous spring.” It had a widespread reputation as a “heal­ing spring,” and people constantly drove to it to fill up their jugs while those living in the neighborhood used the spring regularly until town water was piped to every house.

Rev. Abijah P. Marvin, in his History of the Town of Winchendon, states that the Indians supposedly had trails from east to west through what is now Winchendon Springs and used the water of the “Yellow Spring” for medicinal purposes. As early as 1805 there was a small house over the spring, but there were no dwellings in the immediate vicinity. Today there is no evidence of the once-famous spring as an artesian well dug near its outlet interrupts the flow of the spring which has given its name to the neighborhood.

WILLIAM B. WASHBURN - 28th Governor of Massachusetts

William Barrett Washburn was born on January 31, 1820 in Winchendon, Massachusetts, to Asa and Phoebe (Whitney) Washburn. His father was a hat maker from a family with deep colonial roots.

Washburn won election to the Massachusetts Senate in 1850 and served two years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855. In 1862 Washburn ran for Congress as a Republican, winning election to the 38th Congress against no opposition. He was reelected four times, winning each time by wide margins. In 1871 Washburn ran for Governor of Massachusetts. and he won the general election by a 13,000 vote margin over John Quincy Adams II and a labor candidate. He was reelected to further terms in 1872 and 1873, the former despite dissension in Republican ranks. The major event of 1872 during Washburn's tenure as governor was the Great Boston Fire of 1872, which destroyed 65 acres (26 ha) of prime commercial real estate in the city on November 9.

When United States Senator Charles Sumner died in March 1874, the state senate, which then chose the state's senators, met to choose his replacement. After a long and contentious debate, involving thirty-three ballots, Washburn was chosen to succeed Sumner. Washburn then resigned the governorship. He served from April 17, 1874 until the term ended on March 4, 1875, and refused to run for reelection.

Washburn died in Springfield, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1887 while attending a session of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), of which he was a member. He was buried in Green River Cemetery in Greenfield, MA.

In 1867 Winchendon’s ambition for its first town-built high school was realized when the Brick School was erected on Oak Street opposite the end of Academy Street. Used as a high school with a three-year course of study, it contained six classrooms, cloak and book rooms, and basements. The cost of the Brick School was around $24,000. In 1904 the school was named Wheeler in honor of Reverend Charles G. Wheeler (Unitarian Church), who served on the School Com­mittee for a number of years. Wheeler School was closed in 1961 and torn down in the late 60's.

Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet was a British colonial administrator who served as governor of the provinces of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay. His uncompromising policies and harsh tactics in Massachusetts angered the colonists and were instrumental in the building of broad-based opposition within the province to the rule of Parliament in the events leading to the American Revolution. But we owe our towns name to Sir Bernard.

In 1764 the residents of Ipswich Canada petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for the right to incorporate with all town privileges. At that time they applied for the name of Epesberry, honoring two distinguished gentlemen from Ipswich, Simonds Epes and Thomas Berry. No one knows why this part of the petition was denied, “but every inhabitant must be gratified” says Marvin in his history, “that we are saved from the endless confusion in spelling which would have been the result of calling the town Epesberry.”

Incorporation took place on June 14, 1764, and Winchendon became a town. Like many towns settled about this time, this township received an English place-name and it is established beyond reasonable doubt that Governor Francis Bernard of the Colony of Massachusetts named Winchendon in honor of a town in Buckinghamshire, England, in which he had an heir’s interest. In late 1771 Bernard was bequeathed the manor at Nether Winchendon upon the death of a cousin to whom he had been close since childhood.

Sources: Marvins History, Winchendon Years 1764 to 1964, Archives of the Winchendon History and Cultural Center

Webster Tucker

Captured in 1844 as he is about to leave for school, young Webster (1834–1872) pauses at the door, cap in hand. With his slightly unruly hair and perhaps a faint smile, he stands in the corner before what appears to be a fireplace mantel, and upon a colorful yet fairly common Venetian carpet. While probably true to life, the size and shape of the boy's head may reflect the nineteenth-century interest in phrenology, a pseudo-scientific belief that the shape of the skull could indicate intelligence and character. Here, Webster's broad forehead sculpted in light may have been intended to suggest the boy's astute and moral nature.

Artist Deacon Robert Peckham, Westminster MA (1785–1877)
oil on canvas 116.8 x 83.8 cm (46 x 33 in.)

Webster Tucker was born in Winchendon in 1834, and married Bethridge Parker there in January 1857. Webster's parents were Seth Tucker of Winchendon and Valonia Harvey of Chesterfield, Cheshire, New Hampshire. The family for whom the portrait was commissioned was one of the earliest to settle in Winchedon, Massachusetts. The year 1831 found sixteen houses in the village. One of these, the home of Seth Tucker located a little north of the present Fire Station, was considered far out in the country. Later Seth Tucker built a homestead on the corner of Maple and Central Streets. All of the property referred to for many years as “Tucker Hill” was at one time part of Tucker’s farm along with the property we know as Ingleside and Tucker sold the land for Baxter Whitney to build his dam.

Two of Seth Tucker’s sons, Joshua and Elisha, “conferred honor” on their birthplace when they became well-known dentists in Boston. Dr. Joshua Tucker was also an accomplished artist and today one of his watercolors is in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Collection in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Also the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, owns a steel pen drawing signed by Tucker.

By 1848 there were "within the limits of the village, 640 inhabitants, 92 dwelling houses, three meeting houses, 1 Academy, 1 school house, 1 large hotel, 9 stores, 1 woolen factory, 1 iron foundry, 1 machine shop, 1 grist mill, 2 saw mills, 1 large bobbin factory, 1 tannery, 1 tub manufactory, 1 pail manufactory, 2 livery stables,... 4 blacksmith shops, and various other shops for manufacturing and mechanical purposes, occupied by carpenters, coopers, wheelwrights, turners, shoemakers, harness-makers, tailors, and other mechanics... In this thriving economy, an artist with Peckham's talents would have readily found a place.
Deacon Robert Peckham, Fitchburg MA (1785–1877)

Saturday March 9, 1895

Very pleasant. Baked bread, pies, and made doughnuts. Elmer went to school meeting in PM. It was bad walking. I stayed at home from there. Hazel and I went into Mrs. Sargents. Mr. Converse and Mr. Eastman came for medicine. Mrs. Ed Wellington reelected our school board. Warren Wetherbee here in evening.

Throughout the year of 2021 we will be posting a daily entry from the journal of Julia Fosgate. We will be posting photos with the entries. These are items from the time period but not her personal belongings, unless otherwise noted. Follow to read along.

Tuesday March 5, 1895

Rain March day but clear. Finished ironing. Elmer went to see Mrs. Hardeson in forenoon, and to West A. and Mr. Jowders in p.m. In evening he attended a temperance lecture by Rev. A.J. Wheeler of Concord, Sec. of Law and Order League. Read and mended in p.m. Hazel didn’t have a nap so I couldn’t go in evening.

Throughout the year of 2021 we will be posting a daily entry from the journal of Julia Fosgate. We will be posting photos with the entries. These are items from the time period but not her personal belongings, unless otherwise noted. Follow to read along.

Hello All! We hope you are doing well. As things are "starting" to trend back to normal, it is now time for us to ramp up our activities. We hope you are enjoying the daily journal posts. We thank Amy Scott for all her hard work on this project. We also hope you are enjoying the history posts which have been posted by Guy Corbosiero. They certainly are a great glimpse into the days gone by. Things like this (and many other things) are what we are all about - BUT it takes volunteers to get us there. We NEED members - especially in a year when we had virtually NO fundraising efforts! The support of our members keeps us going. I'm asking you to consider becoming a member. You will get reduced rates on our activities as well as renting out the museum for functions. Click on this link below and use a credit card, or print out the picture attached and mail it to us: https://www.winchendonhistory.com/membership/new-or-renewal

Do you have a project or idea that especially interests you? Let us know and we can help to get it going! We are desperately in need of resource room volunteers and tour guides as well. Come join us. We are LOTS of fun!

Don ONeil - President WHCC