Rowe — Extracts From The Town Records
Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.
At the April meeting, 1785; £130 was voted to defray town charges the ensuing year.
"Voted to hire preaching two months the ensuing year:
"Voted to choose a committee to provide a candidate. Chose Asa Fowler, Dr. I. Ward Clary, and Isaac Langdon.
"Voted that Ambrose Potter, Asa Foster, and Nathaniel Merrill he a committee to build a pound at the northwest corner of the meeting-house, thirty feet square, with poles."
Oct. 2, 1786.—"Voted to choose a committee of safety to inspect any disorder that may arise in this town at this juncture of time, in which civil law is much disturbed, and to suppress criminality as much as possible; and to choose Deacon Jonas Gleason, Nathan Foster, Eldad Corbet, Joseph Nash, and Nathaniel Merrill the committee."
1788.—"Voted to give John Wells £5 9s. for entertaining the, ordaining Council and the Rev. Preserved Smith's friends, at the time of ordination."
In 1791 the building of a new house of worship occasioned a good deal of discussion, and the appointment of a number of committees to select a site, whose reports were usually rejected by the town. A committee of gentlemen from the surrounding towns was then chosen, who reported, October 19th, as follows:
"We, the subscribers, being assembled as a committee for the purpose of appropriating a spot of ground for the inhabitants of the town of Rowe to build their meeting-house, are unanimously of the opinion that the properest and most convenient place for that purpose is where the old meeting-house now stands, or as near as the ground will admit.
"Benjamin Maxwell,
"Hugh McClellen,
"Samuel Taylor."
In 1793 a final committee, composed of Edmund Longley, William Kittridge, and David Hoyt, reported that they had selected a meeting-house spot, and in their report expressed the hope that their work would be acceptable and that the people would "perfectly harmonize in erecting a house, one important design of which was to promote mutual benevolence and peace."
Jan. 10, 1796.—"Reported by the committee that Deacon Gleason be allowed for damages sustained by his oxen being taken for a town debt £1 15s. 6d.
"Moses Streeter,
"Ariel Thomas,
"Benjamin Brown,
"Nathan Foster."
In 1878 the town appropriated $1200 for contingent expenses, $700 for highways, and $700 for schools. There was a debt of $6000, and the rate of taxation was $2 per hundred.
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