Worcester (Mass.). Collection, 1686-1941.
Title:
Worcester (Mass.), Records, 1686-1941
This collection was formed originally from papers collected principally by William Lincoln (1801-1843). The son of Levi Lincoln (1749-1829), William Lincoln attended Harvard and was admitted to the Worcester bar in 1825. He was elected to the state legislature in 1835 and in 1838 was appointed a trustee of the State Lunatic Hospital in Worcester. His accomplishments include writing a _History of Worcester_ (Worcester: Moses D. Phillips and Company, 1837), editing the _National Aegis_, and serving as corresponding secretary, 1826-1841, of the American Antiquarian Society. This collection contains legal documents, correspondence, institutional records, maps, and receipts. There are tax records, 1754-1847, including valuation lists, school and highway tax lists, tax collection notices, tax abatement records, and tax record books, including one kept by Samuel Jennison (1788-1860). There are school records, 1738; 1785-1905, including school committee lists and reports, school construction records, school registers, 1830-1845, essays and questions for the Bullock Prize examinations, Thomas Payson's (1764-1844) petition for a monthly salary, and record books of the Thomas Street School kept by Caleb B. Metcalf (1814-1891), and of the Worcester Boys' English School. The collection also contains municipal records, 1686-1857, including petitions and ordinances, minutes of town meetings, 1731-1741, a list of the poor receiving public support, 1733-1767, and road and bridge construction records. There are license records, 1729-1789, census records, 1784-1826, voter lists, 1775-c. 1850s, list of marriages, 1770-1795, three record books with lists of deaths, 1807-1849, and a record book, with a list of women attending an inaugural ball for Zachary Taylor in 1849. The collection contains fire company records, including record books of Engine Company No. 2, and a record book for the purchase of a fire bell. There are militia records, 1762-1865, including records of Crafts' Cavalry Regiment, the Worcester Lancers, the Worcester City Guards, and records and record books of the Worcester Artillery Company. There is a box of Civil War documents, 1861-1865, containing records of the Second Massachusetts Artillery Regiment, the Third Battalion of Riflemen, and Worcester men in other regiments. The box also contains enrollment records and subscriptions to raise enlistment bounties. The collection contains business and institutional records, including records of the following Worcester banks: Worcester County Institution for Savings, Citizens Bank, and State Bank. There is also a speech by Henry Chapin (1811-1878) to the board of directors of the City National Bank. There are miscellaneous business records, 1792-1809, for Thomas's Coffee House, as well as for the Rural Cemetery, the Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the Holden Reservoir, the Worcester Turnpike Company, and a company proposing to build a canal from the Connecticut River to Boston. There are records, 1821-1900, from the following Worcester churches: First Baptist Church, Central Congregational Church, Union Congregational Church, Plymouth Congregational Church, Grace Episcopal Church, and the Worcester Free Church. There are records, 1793-1840, of Worcester libraries, including the Associate Library Company, Worcester Library Society, Social Library, and Military Library Society. There are also records of antislavery societies, temperance societies, the Worcester Music Hall Association, the Liberal Republican Club, and other Worcester organizations and clubs. There are records of events and celebrations, and a record book, 1941, for a mural by Leon Kroll (1884-1975) in the Worcester War Memorial Auditorium. There is an index of Worcester views by Benjamin Thomas Hill (1863-1927), an index to the Worcester Common Burial Ground, and records of land transactions involving the American Antiquarian Society.
ArchivalResource:
six manuscript boxes; two oversize folders (4 items); ten folio volumes; seven octavo volumes
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