Aaron Greenwood (1813-1897): Early Gardner Surveyor

Aaron Greenwood was born in 1813 to Walter and Rebecca Greenwood and, as a child, Aaron grew up in the house built by his grandfather, Jonathan Greenwood. This house still stands at 310 High St. in South Gardner. Originally, the house was used as an inn. Then, when the Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike was established along the present Route 2A, Jonathan Greenwood relocated his inn to the house that stands at 378 East Broadway.

As a child, Aaron attended the town’s public schools. Then, after completing his education, he worked in his father’s chair shop which was located next to his grandfather’s inn on East Broadway. Even though Aaron would work in the chair shops for the rest of his life, he did develop a vocation that not only added to his own sophistication, but also had a great influence on the development of the community.

At 10 years of age, Aaron observed a surveyor from Hubbardston working for his father. It appears that this incident must have influenced the young man because, while in his early twenties, Aaron began to study surveying on his own. When he had learned all that he could from available books and equipment, Aaron Greenwood went to Boston and purchased his first set of professional surveying instruments.

At first, Greenwood’s surveying projects were for his father. However, as his expertise became known, he not only began receiving requests throughout Gardner, but also from the towns of Hubbardston, Templeton, and Westminster. Eventually, he was called upon from all of the surrounding towns to do surveying. While the bulk of Greenwood’s surveying entailed wood lots, this was not all he surveyed. Companies applying for insurance had him survey their building for the policy. He also laid out a large number of roads, mainly in Gardner but also in Westminster and Templeton. He even surveyed many of the town boundaries when a conflict between towns dictated such a survey was necessary.

During his long life, Aaron Greenwood contributed to the civic affairs of Gardner. Between 1859 and 1883 he served as assessor (with the exception of only one year). Greenwood also served as a selectman in 1860-1861 and as an overseer of the poor for the same period. Beyond these posts he also held, for various lengths of time, the positions of fence viewer and surveyor of lumber. In addition to these duties, Greenwood served on South Gardner’s volunteer fire company, the Cataract Number One. Further, he was one of the first trustees of the Severy School Fund which was established in 1854 and still exists today. The fund was established with monies provided by Abijah Severy for the purpose of educationally benefiting the residents of South Gardner.

One would think that surveying projects, working in the chair shops, and numerous civic projects would have pretty much occupied Aaron Greenwood’s time. Yet, in 1852, at the age of 39, Greenwood began keeping a daily diary in Pitman shorthand. For the next 36 years, he kept a record of events that directly affected him and the community in which he lived. Altogether, Greenwood wrote 28 volumes, the first 21 of which have become lost over the years. The remaining seven volumes are in the possession of the Levi Heywood Memorial Library, and they now provide an excellent primary source as to what life was like in Gardner between 1857 and 1888.