Excerpt from Centennial Discourse, Delivered September 9, 1850, Before the First Church and Society in Athol: At the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Organization of Said Church The settlement was commenced here by the five pioneer spirits under discouraging circumstances. They were alone with their families in an entire wilderness, which, on account of the abundance of fish and wild game that this locality afforded, was a familiar haunt for the Indians. Of necessity the settlers were destitute of most of the usual comforts of life and the common implements of husbandry, obliged to journey on foot more than thirty miles through the pathless woods for all the means of sustenance which the gloomy wild of the forest did not afford. But they were men of resolute spirits, and were joined with helpmeets resolute as themselves, able and willing to share their trials. The prospect of new and early paren tal responsibilities was before them, but did not deter them from their enterprise. They had drawn their house-lots here, and here they were resolved to fix their habitations and rear their families. It is probable that they located their dwellings and spent the first winter together, about a mile south of the present site of the middle of the town, on what is now called the Street. Richard Morton, it is said, built the first log hut, on the place subsequently occupied by his grandson, Joel Morton, near the house in which Mr. Lynde Smith now lives. Doctor Joseph Lord settled on the place now owned by Mr. J. Harvey Hum phrey, near the spot on which the Old Humphrey House now stands. It is probable that, if other houses were built the first winter, they were in the immediate vicinity. On that loca tion, without doubt, was commenced the first settlement of the town. Near this place, after the arrival of other settlers, they built their fort and their meeting-house. Previously, however, to the erection of the meeting-house on the Street, a house for public worship had been raised on a little rise of land just east of the Old Burying Ground, about sixty rods southeast of the present railroad station, on the bank of Mill Brook, near the saw-mill now owned by Ethan Lord and Samuel Newhall. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.