Transportation methods evolved rapidly for Grafton’s settlers

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In less than one hundred years, transportation in Grafton evolved from horse-drawn wagons and coaches to trains, then trolleys like the one pictured here during the early 20th century, and then to buses and automobiles. Photo/Courtesy of Grafton Historical Society

In less than one hundred years, transportation in Grafton evolved from horse-drawn wagons and coaches to trains, then trolleys like the one pictured here during the early 20th century, and then to buses and automobiles. Photo/Courtesy of Grafton Historical Society

GRAFTON – Before Grafton was purchased from the Native Americans in 1727, there were nine “English families” living in the town of Hassanamisco (now Grafton). One of those families was Samuel Cooper and his wife Sarah. When the town no longer belonged to the Native Americans, the ball got rolling on a “civilized” way of life, as the settlers saw it. Samuel Cooper, though not one of the original proprietors of Grafton, participated in several roles that were important to the new and growing town.

According to town records, in 1732, Cooper became a deacon of the First Parish church. In 1738, he was paid three pounds and 40 shillings to be school keeper, and in 1739 he served as the town clerk. Samuel and Sarah would have four children between the years 1720 and 1729, who were all born in Grafton.

Some of their children stayed in Grafton. A notable character of the Cooper family was Samuel’s great-grandson, Abner Cooper of Northbridge, who was a deacon, a farmer and a delivery man. Abner would experience unexpected developments of transportation during his career, including being the first man to deliver the mail from Worcester and Providence in the early 1800s by horseback and later by a wagon pulled by two horses.

This allowed Abner to not only deliver the mail, but he could also carry passengers from one place to another. The journeys were long, but he took good care of his horses. He was known to carry oats and when it was feeding time for the horses the passengers were expected to wait while they were fed and had a much-needed break.

The horse and wagon method was used until 1812 when the stagecoach line was established by a man named Henry Richardson. A stagecoach was multifunctional, transporting mail, including packages and people far distances. This was a more prestigious form of transportation for people and typically pulled by two to four horses.

The evolution of public transportation for the settlers happened fairly quickly. During that time, people believed that the human body could not travel at high rates of speed. The speeds at which trains could travel were foreign to people and no one knew what to expect. In 1847, the Blackstone Canal, a common way to transport people and goods, was superseded by the Providence and Worcester Railroad, which also ran the same route as the canal.

The Grafton Centre Railroad came along in 1874 and in 1887 expanded into the Grafton & Upton Railroad, as we know it today. By the early 1900s, a trolley line replaced the passenger service on the Grafton train line until 1928 when the Johnson Bus Line took over transporting Grafton residents. Also in the early 1900s, automobiles were becoming available and more affordable for the average family to purchase.

Early settlers like Samuel Cooper of Grafton and his great-grandson Abner would experience tremendous changes over the course of their lives. Abner experienced many developments in the mode of transportation during his life, which cost him his job. He did however become a notable character in the story of local travel by being the first to connect two new places and devising much-needed efficiency to his work. He would be the beginning in our long history of transportation.

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