Page:History of Gardner, Massachusetts (1860) - Glazier.djvu/18

 

The early inhabitants of the town were from the State of Massachusetts; from thirty different towns, and mostly from the counties of Middlesex and Worcester. They were distinguished as a class of people for their independence, persevering enterprise, intelligence, industry and probity.

They were subject to many hardships and privations. Without roads or carriages, or even beasts of burden; their own shoulders bore their grain to the distant mill, with no other guide than marked trees. With the lofty forests frowning upon every side, it was their mission to "go ahead" with their iron powers of locomotion, and make glad "the wilderness and the solitary place," while "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."

We would not regard it as a calamity that we have in this department so little that is allied to fame; it is but the common lot of humanity. While it is true that few of our citizens have