At a meeting held Nov. 2, 1789, the town voted "to erect a new meeting-house on the land purchased of Thomas Boynton," and a committee was chosen to take the matter in charge. Two weeks later the town voted to reconsider all former votes; so that at the end of four years the town was in the same position regarding this matter as when it began operations, with the exception of owning twenty-two and a half acres of real estate. The cause of this singular action was the culmination of the move on the part of the west, alluded to above. The people of the west, together with portions of Westminster, Ashburnham, and Ashby, had presented to the General Court a powerful petition for an act of incorporation into a town.
"This petition set forth in glowing colors the delightful situation of the contemplated town—how nature had lavished all her skill upon it—how admirably adapted for a township by itself was the noble swell of land—and that nothing in nature or in art could exceed the grand and imposing spectacle of a meeting-house towering from its summit, while beneath the said swell was a region of low, sunken land which almost cut off the petitioners from intercourse with the rest of mankind.[B]"
This meant business, and the inhabitants of Fitchburg drew up a spirited remonstrance, in which they were joined by the people in those portions of the three adjoining towns not included in the proposed new township. In this remonstrance every statement of the petitioners was denied, and the whole thing denounced as visionary. This matter engrossed the attention of both parties during 1790, and the result was that the General Court refused to incorporate the new town.
After such a vigorous contest a brief breathing spell was necessary; but Sept. 7, 1791, the town voted, forty-one to twenty-three, "to erect a new meeting-house in the centre of the town, or in the nearest convenientest place thereto." This double-barrelled superlativeness shows that the spirit of the people was by no means cast down by the fruitless struggle of five years. At this meeting a committee was appointed to plan a new house. Oct. 10, this committee reported to the town "to build a house sixty by forty-six feet, with a porch at each end twelve by eleven feet, with stairs into the galleries." There were to be forty-six pews on the ground floor, and twenty-five in the galleries, to be sold to the highest bidders, and three years were to be allowed in which to build the house. This report was accepted at a meeting held Nov. 14, 1791. A committee was also chosen to clear a site upon the land purchased of Thomas Boynton and build the house. Dec. 27, 1791, the town with its usual consistency voted "to dismiss the committee chosen to build a new meeting-house from further service." Thus the matter again stood as at the beginning.
For nearly three years thereafter the pot continued to boil, but nothing more was done about church affairs in town meeting, except that on May 17, 1793, the people showed their obstinacy by refusing "to repair the meeting-house windows, and to paint the outside of the meeting-house."
Sept. 3, 1794, operations were again renewed by voting "to erect a meeting-house in the centre of the town, or in the nearest convenientest place thereto, to accommodate the inhabitants thereof for divine worship." Three disinterested individuals, Joseph Stearns and David Kilburn of Lunenburg, and Benjamin Kimball of Harvard, were chosen by ballot as a committee to discover that much-to-be-desired spot, "the nearest convenientest place to the centre." They found the centre to be a little less than a quarter of a mile north-east of the pound, but considered the most eligible location for the house to be about a half a mile south of this point, which would have placed it near the present junction of Main and River Streets. Oct. 21 a meeting was called to hear their report and it was rejected 36 to 29. So the opinions of interested and disinterested persons seem to have been considered of about equal value—as good for nothing.
Nov. 21, 1794, a motion "to place the meeting-house on the spot where the committee out of town proposed" was negatived, forty-eight to forty-five. A committee was then appointed to select a suitable place. Dec. 1 this committee reported in favor of "setting the meeting-house near the high bridge, under the hill" (the place the out-of-town committee had proposed). This report was accepted, sixty-one to forty-seven. A town meeting was therefore called Jan. 8, 1795, to choose a committee to purchase the land agreed upon; but at the meeting the town refused to choose such a committee, and so ended the plan of building a meeting-house there.
Jan. 26, 1795, the town voted "to erect a meeting-house on the town's land they purchased of Thomas Boynton, about five rods south-west from a large white oak tree, and to pattern it after the Leominster meeting-house." It was to be completed by the last day of December, 1796.
Feb. 9, 1795, the town chose a committee of three "to view Ashburnham meeting-house, and take a plan of the inside, and consult with Asa Kendall of Ashby for the mode of finishing the inside, and laying a plan for building the house." A week later the report of this committee was heard and accepted, and it was voted to pattern the new house after the one in Ashburnham. "Likewise voted to have the length of said house sixty-two by forty-eight feet, the posts to said house to be twenty-seven feet in length, and that the undertaker to build the house give bonds, with good bondsmen, to fulfil the contract." The contract was given to John Putman, Jr. Then followed other town meetings which regulated the size of joists to be used, and other minor matters that need not be here dwelt upon, Sept. 1, 1795, a committee of five was chosen "to stake out and oversee the clearing and levelling of the meeting-house spot for the underpinning on the town land." At this meeting it was also voted "that the Selectmen lay out a four-rod road in the best place to accommodate the travel to the new meeting-house spot."
At this time plans seem to have been perfected, and the prospect of a new house on the town land tolerably assured; but Oct. 19, 1795, everything was completely upset. On that day a meeting was called "to know the sense of the town whether the former vote in placing said meeting-house should be altered." After some wrangling, it was decided by a vote of forty-four to thirty "to place the new meeting-house at the crotch of the roads, near Capt. William Brown's house" (very near the present junction of Main, Mechanic, and Academy Streets). This decision was final. It is rather difficult to see how it happened to be, for this site was a little east of the town land. The opposition put in one final blow in this way. It was designed to have the house face directly "down street" and the underpinning was laid with a view to this, but the opposition party mustered enough strength to change the plan so that it should face the south and "stand cornerwise to the street."