and admonition were alike disregarded.  At last, early in the winter of 1702, an armed force was sent to compel him to depart.  They marched with due expedition, but, being detained overnight by a severe snow-storm at a blockhouse about two miles from his residence, they arrived too late to attain their object, and found his body, scarcely yet cold, lying on the floor, and his family carried captive by the Indians.  Thus terminated the second attempt at a settlement on this spot, which was again given over for several years to desolation and decay.

[Illustration:  St. Paul’s church.]

The principal seat of the Indians in this vicinity was Pakachoag Hill, a little south of where now stands the College of the Holy Cross.  They were called Nipmuck Indians, and consisted of about twenty families, numbering about one hundred persons, under Sagamore John.  Another tribe, of about the same number, dwelt on Tatnuck Hill, under Sagamore Solomon.  John Eliot, the famous apostle to the Indians, with General Daniel Gookins, visited these tribes in 1674; but he did not fully reclaim them to peaceful habits, although many of them professed Christianity.

[Illustration:  Chair manufactory of E.W.  Vaill.]

[Illustration:  The new Central church.]

In 1713 the inhabitants, not discouraged by their former experience, one after another returned again to take possession of their property; and this time they returned to stay.  They were joined by others, and the population began to increase.  In 1722 Worcester was incorporated as a town, and henceforth assumed its share of responsibility with the other towns in adopting measures for the general welfare, and contributed its proportion of men and supplies for the common defence.  Through the stormy period preceding the War of the Revolution, the public sentiment of Worcester sustained the rights of the Colonies, and when, on the 19th of April, 1773, the messenger of war, on his white horse, dashed through the town, shouting, “To arms! to arms! the war is begun,” the response was immediate; the bell was rung, cannon fired, and the minute-men, true to name, rallied on the Common, where they were paraded by Capt.  Timothy Bigelow.  At about five o’clock in the afternoon they took up their line of march.  Capt.  Benjamin Flagg soon followed, with thirty-one men,—­a total of one hundred and eight men.  Capt.  Bigelow having halted at Sudbury, to rest his men, was met by Capt.  Flagg, when they both pushed on to Cambridge, where the organization of the army was being made.  Timothy Bigelow, whose abilities were at once recognized, was appointed Major in Col.  Jonathan Ward’s regiment.  On the 24th of April another company, of fifty-nine men, all from Worcester, enlisted under Capt.  Jonas Hubbard.  During the seven dark years that followed, this town never wavered in its devotion to the cause of liberty,