Wendell — Early Settlement

Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.



      The earliest settlers of Wendell are said to have removed thither chiefly from the towns of Lancaster, Sterling, Westminster, Leominster, and Lexington, in the counties of Middlesex and Worcester, Mass. Thomas Osgood, Richard Moore, and William Larned, of New Salem, settled in the north part of the town as early as 1754, upon that portion known as Ervingshire. A settlement was made shortly after near Wickett Pond, then in the north part of Shutesbury, by James Ross, _____ Locke, Silas Wilder, Lemuel Beaman. Benjamin Glazier, John Wetherbee, _____ Hamilton, and others. The settlers upon Ervingshire looked upon themselves belonging, after a fashion, to Shutesbury (or Roadtown), and did belong at first to the ecclesiastical organization of that town.
      One of the most prominent men among the early settlers was Judge Joshua Green, a native of Boston, and a graduate of Harvard in 1784. He settled in Wendell in 1790, and from that period until 1830, continued for forty years to serve the town uninterruptedly as selectman, treasurer, assessor, or representative to the General Court. Failing health alone caused his retirement to private life, and after an extended, useful, and honored existence, he passed away in 1847. Daniel Porter, mentioned as one of the first physicians in Wendell, served as town clerk for thirty-five successive years, from 1788 to 1823.
      Few descendants of the early settlers of Wendell remain in the town at this day. Among them may be noted Joseph Wilder, aged ninety, the Drurys, Stones, Needhams, Austins, Deaths, and Caswells.
      Previous to 1784 marriages in this town averaged about three per annum, and the births about fifteen.



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18 Jun 2005