Joseph Payson

Joseph Payson, a housewright on Foster’s Wharf, while living in Roxbury, MA, was one of the men who disguised themselves as an Indian and participated in the Boston Tea Party December 16th, 1773. Payson served in the Revolutionary War and was one of the original signers of the petition to incorporate Gardner, Massachusetts as a town in May of 1785. After the Revolutionary War, Payson came to what would become Gardner, from Framingham and was both a farmer and a shoemaker. Joseph Payson was married a total of four times and had eight children. He died peacefully on April 13th in 1833.