Editor’s note: The
following is the text from the official state proclamation of West
Boylston Day, presented to West Boylston officials in Boston by
Governor Deval Patrick, state Representative James O’Day and state
Senator Harriette Chandler last week.
Whereas, incorporated in 1808, West Boylston was created from parts
of Shrewsbury, Boylston, Lancaster, Sterling, Holden; and
Whereas Ezra Beaman, known as the “Father of West Boylston,”
unwilling to travel to the Congregational Church in Boylston for
church services and town meetings, led thirty families to construct
a church three miles west of Boylston on the site of the present
common in West Boylston; and
Whereas, throughout the 19th Century, West Boylston prospered. By
1890, it contained 3,000 residents, five churches, 10 schools and
many mills and factories which included the Warfield Saw Mill, L.M.
Harris Cotton Mill, West Boylston Manufacturing Company of thread
&Wire, the Cowee Grist Mill, the Clarendon Mill and Holbrook Mill,
where Erastus Bigelow learned about looms and invented the technique
to improve carpet manufacturing; and
Whereas, due to the availability of waterpower, West Boylston was
selected as the site for the Wachusett Reservoir. From 1896 through
1905, West Boylston endured the building of the reservoir and the
destruction of its mills and farms, including the Beaman farm and
its famous Beaman Oak, four churches and eight schools as well as
acres of fruit trees; and
Whereas we congratulate the town of West Boylston and its citizens
upon the 200th anniversary of its incorporation and extend greetings
as they gather to celebrate this important milestone in their
history,
Now, therefore, I, Deval L. Patrick, governor of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, do hereby proclaim March 5, 2008, to be West Boylston
day, and urge all the citizens of the Commonwealth to take
cognizance of this event. |
