The 2d Congregational society dropped out of the list in 1851. The last allowance to this society was fifty-six cents. The town report of the year 1853, contained the following and last list of apportionments of parsonage money:
| Congregational society, | $30.09 |
| Union Baptist society, | 19.04 |
| Calvinist Baptist society, | 15.72 |
| Episcopalian society, | 4.40 |
| 1st Universalist society, | 7.57 |
| 2d Universalist society, | 7.10 |
| Methodist society, | 4.18 |
The total of this list was also set down in round numbers as $88.
The above figures are suggestive in presenting a view of the relative strength of the different societies at the specific times stated. It is interesting to note that certain of the societies soon lost all traces of even a nominal existence, after the suspension of the parsonage revenues. For some time they had kept up a show of vitality by making their portion of the parsonage fund a nucleus of an outlay for a few days’ preaching in the year.
In the march of the years, the old peculiarities of local religious life have given place to new features and forms. It is needless to say that some of the old formalities died hard. Innovations were distrusted. The experience in view of proposed changes was substantially uniform in all the churches. Even the staid Episcopalians were ruffled by unaccustomed ceremonies. When, for the first time, the choir of the Episcopal church chanted the Gloria Patri, which before had been read only, an indignant lady abruptly shut her prayer book in unfeigned disgust. The greater jealousy formerly existing between different denominations is well known. It is said this inharmonious feeling was once sought to serve an innovating use. A person prominent in musical circles sought to influence the leading minds of the Congregational church in favor of the purchase of a bass viol. As an extreme argumentative resort he suggested, “The poor, miserable Baptists have got one.” Tradition, however, doesn’t relate the effect of this suggestion.
COMMERCIAL.
The country store of the earliest times was a more emphatic collection of multitudinous varieties of articles, if possible, than the later place of local public traffic. Then, as now, the local store was the principal resort of the great commonalty. Men of special vocations sometimes took a stock of products to the lower country and bartered for goods to bring back and distribute among their neighbors, and the itinerant merchant, or pedlar, reaped a much better harvest than now; but the country store was a popular necessity and well patronized. At first there was less trading in domestic luxuries; the goods in store represented the common necessities. Since the popular idea of necessity does not fully exclude the illusory principle, we have to admit rum, gin, brandy, etc., into the former list of domestic staples. Cash and barter were entertained by every tradesman, to whom the populace largely looked for advantageous exchanges of substance. The progress of the settlement was attended by the extension, and to some extent by the classification, of trade till the time when Hopkinton assumed the commercial importance described in a previous article.
The currency employed in the transaction of business was at first nominally English, though Spanish milled dollars were in circulation. One of the inconveniences of the early settlers of New England was a scarcity of money. The different provincial governments sought to relieve the public financial burdens by the issue of Bills of Credit, a currency mentioned in the records of this town as “old tenor.” Such a circulating medium in such a time could only depreciate in value, but, following a custom obtaining in the old country, the purchasing value of these bills could from time to time be fixed by the local legislatures. About the year 1750, it was established throughout the provinces that £1 in the currency of the Bills of Credit should be equivalent to two shillings and eight pence lawful money, and that six shillings should be equal to one dollar.
The preliminary events of the Revolution involved the establishment of a system of Continental currency. At the time of the first issue of a paper circulating medium, in 1775, the Continental notes were nearly at par with gold, but they soon fell to comparative nothingness in value. The effect of this collapse in monetary matters was amply illustrated in the public transactions of the town of Hopkinton. At a town meeting held in 1781, it was voted that the price of a day’s work on the highway, by a man, should be $30; the price of a day’s work by a yoke of oxen, $30; the price of a plow and cart, $10 each. The salary of the Rev. Elijah Fletcher, second minister of the town, was also voted to be $4000 for the year, but the reverend pastor preferred to accept £70 in gold equivalents, and declined the larger nominal sum. The success of the American cause, and the permanent establishment of the public credit, gave a correspondingly improved aspect to local affairs, and in later times this town has experienced fluctuations in prices in common with the general country.
During the period of Hopkinton’s greater importance as a commercial station, a bank was maintained here for a few years. The institution was known as the Franklin Bank, and was incorporated in 1833. The grantees were Horace Chase, Nathaniel Gilman, Isaac Long, Jr., William Little, Joseph Stanwood, Matthew Harvey, Andrew Leach, Moses Gould, Ebenezer Dustin, Timothy Chandler, Stephen Darling, and James Huse. The operations of this bank seem to have been exceedingly bungling during the short term of its existence, and it finally settled with its creditors at ninety cents on a dollar. The Franklin Bank occupied the building now used by the Hopkinton Public Library.