History of Eastern Worcester, MA

On the second Saturday of June, 1889, and of June, 1890, respectively, and on Saturday, Aug. 16, 1890, Caleb A. Wall held field meetings, at different historic points on the west side of that ancient landmark, Lake Quinsigamond. At these meetings he gave accounts of the first settlers and their locations along the west shore of the lake, and on Plantation street and vicinity. The first of these meetings was held Saturday afternoon, June 15, 1889, in the pavilion in Lake Park, near the highest elevation of land, where are the remains of three old cellars, indicating the locations of the residences of several of the first settlers in that section of the old town, one of them, probably that of Samuel Leonard, whose son Samuel, Jr., was carried off by the Indians during their depredations previous to the beginning of the permanent settlement of the town.

The second of these three meetings was held one year later, Saturday afternoon, June 14, 1890, the 168th anniversary of the incorporation of the town, on the historic old "Coal Mine Farm" of Elliot Swan, on Plantation street, opposite Wigwam hill.

The last one of these gatherings was held Aug. 16, 1890, in the beautiful grove on James Draper's "Bloomingdale Farm " on Plantation street.

Wall, Caleb A., Eastern Worcester: its first settlers and their locations: historical and genealogical, in three chapters.

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The Old Flagg Estate

The next ancient estate on Plantation street, south or south-west of that now owned and occupied by George Dana, on which the first settler was Capt. Benjamin Gates, above mentioned, was that of the first Benjamin Flagg of Worcester, on which he was the first settler as far back as 1717, and which his grandson, Col. Benjamin Flagg, of revolutionary fame, afterwards owned and occupied, and after him his son, Aaron Flagg. After the latter' s decease in 1836, his heirs occupied and leased the farm for awhile, till they sold it about 1850 to George S. Howe, the present owner. Considering that Col. Benjamin Flagg, at his decease October 8, 1818, aged 95 years, left four children, forty-two grand-children, and eighty-three great grand-children, any one would naturally have supposed that the descendants of this old revolutionary veteran would have longer continued this ancient estate in the family, after it had thus been there one hundred and thirty-one years. Other branches of the family will be noticed when speaking of the sections of the old town in which they settled.