~ F 74 Easttiampton's Re Glass. Rook ,t22' REPORT Centennial Celebration EASTHAMPTON, MASS.. Wednesday, June 17th, 1885. EASTHAMPTON, MASS.: L. E. TORREY, PUBLISHER. L885. CONTENTS Page. The Incorporation, - - - - 1 Preliminary, .... 3 Invitation, - - - - - 11 Committees, - - - - 12 Programme, - - - - 15 The Celebration, - - - - 19 The Procession, - - - - 20 Exercises in the Town Hall, - - 34 Opening Address, - - - - 34 Prayer, .... 36 Address of Welcome, - - - 39 The Oration, 42 The Poem, - - - - 64 The Collation, ... 70 After Dinner Exercises, - - - 72 Letter from Wm. Whiting, Esq., - - 73 Address of Gov. Geo. D. Robinson, - - 74 " Col. E. A. Edwards, - - 81 " Mayor B. E. Cook, Jr., - - 83 " E. R. Bos worth, Esq., - - 84 " Judge J. M. Barker, - - - 87 Col. W. S. B. Hopkins, - 89 " Rev. Payson Williston Lyman, - - 93 H. H. Sawyer, M. A., - - 97 Prof J. II. Sawyer, - - 102 Editor H. S. Gere, - - 106 Rev. C H. Hamlin. - - 109 " C. B. Lyman, Esq., - - 111 Letters from Absentees, - - - 113 Centennial Museum, - - - 122 The Illumination and Fireworks, - - - 126 Financial Report, - - - 130 Sermon by the Rev, C. H. Hamlin, - - 131 Erratum.— On page 84, line ~<>, tor "native" read "adopted. THE INCORPORATION. Preamble. ken from Northamp- ton. CHAP. VI. [acts of 1785.] An Act for incorporating a certain Tract of Land lying in the County of Hampshire, being Part of the Towns of Northampton and Southampton, into a District, by the Name of Easthampton. T/1 THERE AS a number of the inhabitants of a ""' tract of land being part of the towns of Northamp- ton and Southampton, in the County of Hampshire, have petitioned this Court to be incorporated into a sepa- rate district, for reasons set forth in their petition; and it appearing to this Court that it is expedient that the said tract of land, with the inhabitants thereon, (except as is herein after excepted) be incorporated: Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the Boundaries authority of the same, That the lands taken from North- of land ta- ampton, described as follows, viz. Beginning in North- ampton, on Connecticut River, at the dividing line be- tween the lots of Abner Barnard and Jonathan Janes, in that part of the common field called Jlog's- Bladder; from thence running in the course of the dividing line aforesaid across Dan,ks\s-Pond; from thence on by the said pond to the dividing line between Joel Hannum and James HurlberVs land ; from thence on the same line to the high-way; from thence on the same highway to the south-side of the lot, in the little division originally laid out to John King, and upon the same line to the dividing line between the Lovefleld and JIatefield tier, in the said division; from thence on the north side of the original lot in the Hdtefield tier, laid out to Captain Clap, to the Westfield road; from thence to the north- side of the lot in the long division, laid out to Nathan- iel Phelps, and upon the same line to Westhampton, and in the dividing line between Northampton and Westhampton to Southampton line; and on the line be- tween Northampton and Southampton to Sj>riugjield line; and on the dividing line between Northampton and Springfield, to the line between the east and west tier of lots in the mountain division in Northa/u/>to/i ; EASTHAMPTCN CENTENNIAL RECORD. Lands taken Irom South- ampton. East h am p- ton incor- porated. Robert Breck. Esq.. to call a meeting. and from thence on the dividing line between the said tiers, to the northerly side of Elisha Janes's land, near the barn of Asahel Parsons; from thence on land of the said Asahel to the south-side of Joel Parsons's lot; from thence to Connecticut- River, and up the said river to the first described station. — And that the lands ta- ken from Southampton — described in the following manner — Beginning on the dividing line between Northampton and Southampton, at the west branch of Munhan- River, between the lands of John Hannum and Elijah Pomeroy ; thence running down the said river to the turn thereof, a little above the bridge; thence crossing the said river to a road; then by the same road to the south-side of Enos Pomeroy's land; then between the said land and the land of the heirs of Joshua Pomeroy, to the south branch of Munhan- River ; then up said river to another piece of land of said Joshua Pomeroy' 's heirs; then by the southwesterly line of the land of Benjamin Clap, between said (Jlap^s land, and land by him sold to William Baldwin, to the highway; then by the said highway to the southwesterly side of the land of said Clap, at Wilton 's meadow; then by the southwesterly side of said land to the land of Aaron Clap; and then by said Aaron Clap's southwesterly line to Westfield road, (excepting that Elijah Pomeroy, Caleb Pomeroy, Moses Bartlett and Preserved Bartletfs heirs, with their lands, are to remain to Southampton; and the lands within the tract aforesaid belonging to Elias Lyman, Elias Lyman, Jun. Joel Lyman, Jonathan Lyman, Samuel Judd, Simeon Judd, John Alvord, Jun. Daniel Masters, Josiah Wait, Abijah Wait, Asa- hel Parsons, Jonathan Parsons and Ephraim Parsons, are to remain to Northampton') together with the in- habitants thereon, be, and they are hereby incorporated into a district, by the name of Easthampton, and in- vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities, that districts in this Commonwealth are entitled to, or do or may enjoy, according to law. And be it furthur enacted by the authority afore- said, That Robert Breck, Esq; be, and he is hereby im- powered to issue his warrant directed to some principal inhabitant within the said district of Easthampton, di- recting him to warn the inhabitants of said district qualified to vote in town affairs, to assemble at some convenient time and place in the same district, to choose all such town or district officers as by law are to be chosen annually in the month of March. [This act passed June 17, 1785.] PRELIMINARY. The first public action looking to the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of East- hampton, was taken upon the following article in the warrant for the annual town meeting in March, 1884. The motion, which is stated in the record of the vote given below, was made by Wm. N. Clapp, Esq. ARTICLE IN WARRANT FOR ANNUAL MEETING. 1884. [Town Records, Page 169.] Art. 36. — To see if the Town will take steps to observe the one hundredth anniversary of its incorporation. VOTE ON SAID ARTICLE. [Page 179.] Voted, That the Town will celebrate in a suitable manner the one hundredth anniversary of its incorpora- tion, which occurs in the year 1885, and that a committee be now appointed whose duty it shall be to prepare an order of exercises for the occasion and present the same to the town for its consideration and action thereon at a future meeting. Said committee to consist of Horatio (I. Knight, William N. Clapp, Lauren D. Lyman, Ansel B. Lyman, Charles B. Johnson, Lewis S. Clark and Edwin R. Bosworth. MEETINGS OF THE COMMITTEE. The first meeting of this committee was held at the house of the Hon. H. G. Knight, on Wednesday evening, June 11, 1884. At this meeting it was voted that H. (J. Knight be made permanent chairman, and C. B. Johnson was made secretary. The chairman and secretary were 4 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. directed to prepare an outline of a celebration which it would seem proper to present to the town for its consider- ation, and to lay the proposed outline before the committee at a future meeting. The second meeting was held on Friday evening, Sept. 12, at the office of C. B. Johnson. The president, from the sub-committee, presented an outline of a plan for the cele- bration, but no definite action upon the details was taken. Wm. N. Clapp. L. D. Lyman and A. B. Lyman were appointed a sub-committee to prepare a list of natives of the town, or former residents now residing elsewhere, to whom it would be desirable to send invitations to attend the celebration. The third meeting was held on the evening of Nov. 28. At this meeting it was voted to request the Selectmen to call a special town meeting on Saturday, the 27th of De- cember, and that an article be inserted in the warrant under which an outline of the celebration could be pre- sented, for the consideration and approval of the town, as voted at a former meeting. ARTICLE IN WARRANT FOR SPECIAL MEETING DEC. 27, 1884. [Page 233.] Art. .'}. — To receive a report of the committee on program for the town's centennial celebration and take such action thereon as may be deemed expedient. REPORT OP COMMITTEE AT SPECIAL MEETING DEC. 27, 1884. [Page 236.] Easthampton, Dec. 27, L884. The committee appointed to prepare an order of ex- ercises for the celebration of the one hundredth anni- versary of the incorportion of the Town have attended to the duty assigned them and now make the following report: The committee agree that the 17th of June is the proper day to celebrate, that being the centennial anni- versary of the date when the act of incorporation was signed, and by a singular coincidence it is the date of the battle of Bunker Hill, and the birthday of Easthampton's most distinguished son, Samuel Williston. It is assumed EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. O that in a matter of such general interest a large majority of the inhabitants will participate in the exercises of the day. Otherwise the celebration cannot be what the oc- casion demands. The town has already voted to celebrate the day in a suitable manner. A celebration both suitable and credit- able to the town will be attended with considerable ex- pense, but in view of present business depression and '"prospective hard times" it may be advisable to omit some things which might otherwise be included in the program. It was easy for the committee to agree upon a general plan for the celebration. The manner of providing entertain- ment for invited guests and others is a somewhat difficult problem to solve. The details of that matter and of various others must be arranged by committees to be ap- pointed hereafter. The principal items of expense will be for an orator, a poet, music, printing, the entertainment and carriages for distinguished guests. A salute although customary on such occasions is not deemed essential. Should a tent be procured for the dinner or collation and the after dinner exercises, that will be a considerable item of expense. A procession representing the various industries and institutions of the town may be made an interesting and instructive feature of the celebration and will not neces- sarily be attended with expense to the town, except for carriages. It is hoped that our public spirited citizens connected with the corporations and other business in- terests will not fail to make this part of the program eminently successful. The Seminary and our public schools should have a prominent place in the exercises. The committee recommend that all non-resident natives of the town and other persons who were formerly residents for any considerable period, be invited to par- ticipate in the celebration. Also that invitations be ex- tended to His Excellency the Governor and other state officials, some members of Congress, our county officers and the officers of adjoining towns and cities, especially the mother town, now city of Northampton. The committee also recommend that there be now D EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. appointed an executive committee who shall be charged with the duty of designating a Chief-marshal, a President of the day, Chaplain, Orator, Poet, a person to deliver an address of welcome and a toast master; also to appoint com- mittees on invitation, reception, decoration, salute, etc., music, procession, entertainment and any other commit- tees or officers that may be required. In estimating the expenses of the celebration, your committee have been aided by the experience of other towns. One town with a valuation and population a little greater than our own, celebrated its centennial at an expense of $2,250, of which $1,500 was appropriated by the town, and $750 was received from other sources, chiefly for collation tickets, concert tickets and admissions to the museum. It is believed that our program can be carried out at an expense to the town not exceeding $1,500. It will be for the town to decide now or at a future meeting what amount it will appropriate for defraying the expenses of its centennial celebration, and committees having charge of the details must govern themselves accordingly. The executive committee should be held responsible for the expenditure of all money raised by the town. This report indicates what the order of exercises should be. A complete program connot be made till the time draws nigh for the proposed celebration. Respectfully submitted, HORATIO G. KNIGHT, LAUREN D. LYMAN, CHAS. B. JOHNSON, ANSEL B. LYMAN, j- Committee. E. R. BOSWORTH. WILLIAM N. CLAPP. LEWIS S. CLARK. VOTE FOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ETC. [Page 240.] On motion of H. G. Knight it was voted: That an executive committee be appointed for the purposes recom- mended in the report, provided said committee shall not incur any expense to the town till an appropriation is made for expenses of a celebration. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 7 On motion of Wm. Hill it was voted that the commit- tee who had the matter in charge be that committee. On motion of Mr. Knight, J. H. Sawyer, E. T. Sawyer, F. H. Putnam and John Mayher were added to the execu- tive committee. ARTICLE IN WARRANT FOR ANNUAL MEETING, MARCH, 1885. [Page 245.] Art. 23. — To see if the town will raise a sum of money to defray the expenses of celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of its incorporation. REPORT OF COMMITTEE. [Page 249.] The centennial executive committee appointed at a special town meeting held in December last, present the following report: At its first meeting, after having made choice of a chairman and a secretary, the committee agreed to a proposition to invite Judge William G. Bassett to prepare and deliver an oration and appointed a sub-committee with authority to engage some person to write a poem to be read on the occasion of the proposed celebration. At subsequent meetings some progress was made in the matter of designating certain officers of the day and appointing special committees: but it was apparent that this work could not be completed, nor was its completion necessary till the town had made an appropriation to defray the expenses of celebrating its centennial. The executive committee desire that the various institutions and industries of the town as well as all the professions, may be properly represented on the special committees by persons of every nationality residing within its limits. The success of the enterprise will depend in a great measure upon the efficiency of these sub-committees. It will be the earnest endeavor of the executive committee with the co-operation of their enterprising fellow citizens to make the celebration both creditable and advantageous to the town and an occasion that will be remembered with satisfaction and pleasure by all who may participate in the exercises of the day. 8 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. They concur in the opinion expressed by a former committee that an appropriation of 81,500 will be sufficient to meet the necessary and proper expenses attending the proposed celebration. Respectfully submitted for the Committee, Horatio G. Knight, Chairman. Easthampton, March 9, 1885. VOTE OF THE APPROPRIATION. [Page 255] William Hill submitted the following motion: Voted, That the sum of 81,500 be and is hereby ap- propriated to defray the expenses of celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, the same or such part thereof as may be required to be expended under the direction of the centennial executive committee who shall be held responsible for its judicious use and shall report thereon to the town at its next annual meeting or at an earlier date. After a lengthy discussion of the subject and a number of motions amending it, stating larger and smaller sums, the original motion was declared carried by the following vote. Yea 110. Nay 27. meetings of the committee. The first meeting of the new centennial committee was held at the office of the Williston & Knight Co., on the evening of Jan. 14. H. G. Knight was again chosen per- manent chairman and C. B. Johnson, secretary. The next meeting was held at the Mansion House on the afternoon of March 14. At this meeting F. H. Putnam and E. Waldo Lyman were added to the committee to look up the names of natives and former residents to whom invitations should be sent. Many of the appointments for the day were made at this time. Voted that Wm. Hill, E. W. Wood, Geo. H. McCandless, L. W. Dower and Emil C. Messerschmidt with others whom they may add. be a committee to provide for the entertainment of invited guests and others. Voted to invite the Principal and Faculty of the Seminary to co-operate in the celebration: also to extend an invitation to the Geo. C. Strong Post of the G. A. R. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. V Next meeting at the Mansion House on the evening of April 7th. At this meeting it was voted that invitations to join in the procession be extended to all the manufacturers, merchants, tradesmen and mechanics in the town; and that the farmers also be invited to have their important interest represented. Also voted that the Grand Army Post and the Fire Department, each, be invited to appear in a body to do escort duty. Most of the remaining committees were appointed at this meeting by the approval and adoption of a schedule then presented. Wednesday evening, May 13th. At the invitation of Mr. Knight the centennial committee took tea at the Mansion House, and afterwards held a meeting to perfect arrange- ments. Voted that the George C. Strong Post be requested to join with the committee in extending an invitation to the Wm. L. Baker Post of Northampton. Voted that H. B. Allen and S. C. Wood from the committee on deco- rations. Dr. F. C. Greene from the committee on toasts and exercises in tent, E. R. Bosworth from the committee on reception, Oscar Ward from the committee on salute, Emory Munyan and J. F. Finch from the committee on vocal and instrumental music, James H. Lyman and Watson H. Wright from the committee on public schools, J. A. Loomis, J. W. Green, Jr. and J. F. Burt from the committee on procession, Wm. Hill from the committee on entertainment, and O. H. Dodge and E. C. Koenig from the committee on illuminations, be requested to call a meeting of their respective committees for the purpose of organ- ization. Next meeting, Saturday evening, May 23d. Voted that the committee on salute be instructed to fire a salute of K) guns, one for each decade since we became a distinct municipality, commencing at sunrise on the morning of the celebration, and that they cause all the bells in the town to be rung, and all the si cam whistles to be blown, beginning at the same hour and continuing twenty min- utes. Voted to inform the George C. Strong Post of this town that if it is their pleasure to invite the Wm. L. Baker Post to attend the celebration as their guests, that the committee will furnish the visiting post with collation tickets the same as other invited guests. Voted that no 10 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. free tickets to the collation be furnished to citizens of the town. Next meeting, Wednesday evening, May 27th. The com- mittee took tea with E. R. Bosworth at the Mansion House. F. H. Putnam was chosen treasurer; E. R. Bosworth, C. B. Johnson and A. B. Lyman were appointed a committee on finance. Next meeting, Saturday evening, May 30th. Voted that the president be requested to make arrangements with the railroad companies for the running of extra trains; that E. R. Bosworth be a committee to procure such police force as may be needed; that the preparation and sale of tickets for the collation be put into the hands of the finance com- mittee and Mr. Wm. Hill. Next meeting, Monday evening, June 8th. Voted that Dr.H. A. Deane, G. H. Pomeroy and A. F. Totman be a com- mittee to collect and arrange a museum of ancient and modern articles, for exhibition on the 17th, to be called the "Centennial Museum." The final meeting before the celebration was held Mon- day evening, June 15th. At this meeting various sub-com- mittees reported their work in a good state of forwardness. John Mayher, E. T. Sawyer and Joseph H. Sawyer declined to serve on the executive committee. The form of invitation sent out is shown on the succeeding page. Return envelopes were sent and a card on which was printed the words "accept" and "decline" for convenience in replying. Invitations were sent out as early as the first of May and the committee continued to send them out as names occurred to them or were mentioned to them till the day before the cele- bration. In all invitations were sent to some GOO persons a majority of whom accepted. The executive commit te realizing that it would be impossible to think of all who were entitled to invitations, caused the following notice to be published in the Hampshire Gazette of June 9th and the Easthampton News of June 5th. "The committee wish it distinctly understood that all natives of the town, who are non-residents ami all who have resided here for a con- siderable length <>f time and are not now residents, are invited and will he entitled to the hospitalities of the town on that day. II' any such have not received a special invitation, it is because of oversight." 1785. 1885. EASTHAMPTON'S CENTENNIAL. You are hereby cordially invited to attend and participate in the celebration of the ONE HUNDREDTH MNIVERSKRY of the incorporation of Easthampton, on Wednesday, JUNE 17TH, A. D. 1885. The order of Exercises is expected to include: — a Centennial Salute at Sunrise, an Address of Welcome, a Centennial Oration, an Original Poem, Vocal and Instrumental Music, a Procession representing the vari- ous Industries of the Town, and a Collation which will be served in a large tent and followed with Toasts and Speeches. As it is desirable to know as early as possible the number of guests to be entertained, you will please report your intention, on or before May 20th, by returning the in- closed card with name or names, written in full, under the words Decline or Accept. A Reception Committee will be in session in the Town Hall at 8 o'clock on the morning of the Celebration, to welcome invited guests, give all needful information and furnish tickets for the Collation and Exercises in the Tent. It is intended to make this a Grand Reunion of Fam- ilies, Old Friends and Acquaintances, and the occasion will doubtless be one of great interest to all who may be present. Numerous trains upon the New Haven and North- ampton and Connecticut River Railroads make Easthamp- ton easily accessible. For the Executive Committee, Chas. B. Johnson, Secy. Horatio G. Knight, ( 'hm. Committee, Appointed Dec. 27, L884: Edwin R. Bosworth, Wm. N. Clapp, Lewis S. Clark. Chas. B. Johnson. H. G. Knioht. Lauren D. Lyman, Ansel B. Lyman. John Mayher, Francis H. Putnam, E. T. Sawyer. Joseph H. Sawyer. 12 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. APPOINTMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. President of the Day, Horatio G. Knight. Chief Marshal, ' Sheriff J. E. Clark. Address of Welcome, Lucius E. Parsons. Oration, Judge Wm. G. Bassett. Poem, Mrs. N. K. Bradford. Chaplain, Rev. A. M. Colton. To Preside at Tables, Rev. W. F. Bacon. Prayer at Tables, Rev. C. H. Hamlin. Committee on Decorations. — H. B. Allen and wife, Thomas Buffum and wife, Justin H. Bassett and wife, Emily C Barron, A. J. Chase and wife, James Clink and wife, E. M. Ferry and wife, F. J. Gould and wife, E. A. Hannum and wife, H. A. Goodenough and wife, Wm. Gordon and wife, PI H. Howland and wife, J. E. Hull and wife, I. H. Lloyd and wife, G. M. Johnson and wife, H, G. Meserve and wife, H. F. Pomeroy and wife, H. A. Parsons and wife, Edward Painter and wife, L. M. Preston and wife, Geo. H. Pomeroy and wife, Chas. S. Rust and wife, Laura A. Rudd, M. D. Strong and wife, S. C. Wood and wife. One fourth of this com- mittee may be a quorum. Committee on Toasts and Exercises in Tent. — Rev. W. F. Bacon, Dr. H. A. Deane, Dr. F. C. Greene, Rev. F. G. Morris, Henry H. Sawyer, L. E. Torrey. Committee on Salute. — Oscar Ward, Crawford G. Ewing, Samuel Phelps, Robert Oliver. Reception Committee. — E. R. Bosworth and wife, A. S. Lud- den and wife, A. E Abbott and wife, L. Preston and wife, J. W. Wilson and wife, Wm. E. Topliff and wife, S. S. Avery and wife, J. H. Bardwell and wife, J. F. Finch and wife, R. P. Keep and wife, E. W. Lyman and daughter, Q. P. Lyman and wife, A. J. Lyman and wife, G. H. Newman and wife, H. Oberempt and wife, L. B. Searle and wife, W. J. Sheehan and wife, Dr. J. W. Winslow and wife, Luther L. Wright and wife. Committee on Vocal Music — Emory Munyan, J. W. Green, Jr., C H. Johnson, L. W. Dower, 0. H. Hill. Instrumental Music. — J. F. Finch, Geo. A. Hill, N. M. Finch, W. J. Bly. Committee on Public Schools. — James H. Lyman, Watson H. Wright, Miss S. E. Chapin, J. H. Willard. Committee on Procession. — E. S. Alvord, L. N. Baldwin, James Keene, J. A. Loomis, Geo. L. Manchester, A. A. Mann, F. P. Newkirk, B. P.Owen, D.J. O'Donnell,. W. L. Richmond, W. J. Sheehan, M. F. Taintor, I. H. Russell, G. H. Leonard, J. W. Green, Jr., D. W. Rust, H. L. Clark, John Mavher, 0. G. Webster, L. N. Dibble, W. F. Alvord, Thomas Buffum, J. S. Smith, J. F. Burt, J. F. Clark, C. E. Ferry, H. T. Hannum, EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 13 J. N. Hendrick, Justus Lyman, Theoren Pomeroy, Calvin 8. Strong, J. S. Stratton, Z. A. Thayer, C. Kaplinger, E. H. Ludden, Mar- tin Rich, N. H. Ranney, John Smith. One third of this com- mittee may be a quorum. Committee on Entertainment, Tents and Tables. — Wm. Hill, E. W. Wood, G. H. McCandless, E. L. Messerschmidt, M. J. Loomis, L. W. Dower. E. D. Smith, F. H. Kimball, Walstein Graves, D. C. Spear, Wm. E. Spooner, Frank H. Pomeroy, H. B. Shoals, Wm. G. Taylor, A. Fairchild, Francis Newton. Committee on Illumination and Fireworks. — H. D. Brierley, H. E. Barnett, Charles L. Blakney, Almon S. Chapman, Charles H. Caswell, Charles Diamond, 0. H. Dodge, E. C. Koenig, A. S. King, Monroe S. Knight, James E. Reece, C.J. Smith, E. H. Sawyer, A. F. Totman, J. H. Ward. Committee on Museum. — Dr. H. A. Deane, G. H. Pomeroy, A. F. Totman. The decoration committee erected three arches, each draped with red, white and blue bunting and each bearing the word "Welcome" in large letters, one across Manhan Street at the top of the hill near the Mansion House, one across Pleasant Street opposite the High school building and one across Union Street toward the railroads from School Street. A large banner of the national colors bearing the word "welcome" was suspended across Main Street near the residence of J. E. Clark. The words "welcome" were displayed outwardly and the three arches and banner covered the approaches of the town, so that no one could enter without passing under some one of them. The outside of the Town Hall, including the tower, was profusely draped with the national colors. On the front of the Hall, above the porch, were the words "Easthampton's Centennial." Inside the Hall, across the passage at the foot of the stairs, was the inscription. "Our Centennial," painted on a handsome arch. The words, "Reception Committee" were displayed over the door to the lower hall, where that committee had their headquarters. The decorations in the main audience room were elaborate and tasteful. The stage was spanned by a very handsome arch of red, white and blue, surmounted by a group of large flags and a stuffed eagle. At each base was the national shield and above them the dates 1785 and L885 respectively. A large bank of flowers, ferns and potted 14 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. plants was arranged in front of the desk with a harp worked in white daisies as a center piece. Wreaths of evergreens and small flags in pairs were hung upon the walls and gallery. Between the street and sidewalk, across the road from the Town Hall tower, a tall liberty pole was erected and two flags, each 36 feet long, were hung over the street by a rope extending from the liberty pole to the tower. The pole was painted of a bright red color, varnished and surmounted with a gilt ball and eagle through the efforts of Mr. L. G. Fales. At the tent five large flags were arranged round each of the center poles and four to six small ones about each of the small standards at the eaves. The houses of private citizens were generally deco- rated with flags, bunting and Chinese lanterns. The committee on entertainment asked for proposals from Boston parties for furnishing the centennial collation, but could find no one willing to undertake the task for less than 75 cents per plate. The committee desired that the dinner should be furnished at so low a figure that the citizens of the town generally would be able to enjoy this part of the entertainment. The way was opened when Mr. Wm. Hill reluctantly consented to provide the dinner at 50 cents per plate. After a particular understanding of what would be furnished and how it would be served, this offer was gladly accepted by the committee on entertainment and the executive committee. A tent 200 feet long and 57 feet wide was hired from James Martin & Son of Boston, and was erected on the Seminary campus. The tables were supported by stakes driven into the ground and were covered with cotton cloth. 1408 plates were set. The plat- form for the speakers was at the middle of the tent on the south side. The tables were arranged crosswise in both ends of the tent, and lengthwise of the tent in its center, opposite the platform. Tickets for the collation were printed and put on sale several days beforehand at conven- ient places. The solid portions of the collation were put up in neat paper boxes, all filled alike. The Conn. R. R. R. company generously transported the tent over their line free of expend ■. PROGRAMME. HON. HORATIO G. KNIGHT, PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. Order of Exercises adopted by the Executive Committee. 1. Salute of ten guns, one for each decade, and ringing of bells at sunrise. 2. Salute of four guns on arrival of the Governor. 3. At 8.30 o'clock, A. M., the procession will form and move at 9.30 over the route given in the order of the Chief Maishal. EXERCISES IN THE TOWN HALL, 12 O'CLOCK. 1. Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. 2. Reading of Scripture by Rev. J. F. Mears. 3. Prayer by Rev. A. M. Colton. 4. Address of Welcome by Mr. L. E. Parsons. 5. Keller's American Hymn. 6. Oration by Judge Wm. G. Bassett. 7. Music by Easthampton Orchestral Club. 8. Poem by Mrs. N. K. Bradford. 9. Dudley Buck's Festival Hymn. Mr. Joseph W. Green, Jr., Director of Music. EXERCISES IN THE TENT, 2 O'CLOCK. 1. Blessing Invoked by Rev. C. H. Hamlin. 2. After Dinner Exercises, at which the Rev. W. F. Bacon* will preside. 3. Sentiments and Responses, H. H. Sawyer, Toast Master. 4. A familiar hymn by the whole assembly, leader, Mr. Emory Munyan. *Absent on account of illness. 16 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 5. Reunion of families, old friends and acquaintances. Music by Easthampton Orchestral Club, A. N. Baldwin, leader. EVENING EXERCISES, 8 O'CLOCK. Fireworks by Hasten & Wells of Boston, and a Band Con- cert near the house of A. B. Lyman on Main Street. MARSHAL'S ORDER. Formation and Order of Procession. The Procession will form at 8.30 A. M. FIRST DIVISION. On Main and Park Streets, the right resting on Union, in the following order: Platoon of mounted police. Chief Marshal, J. E. Clark. Aids: Oscar Ward, Austin Fairchild, J. H. Murray and H. F. Pomeroy. Chief of Division: E. E. Janes. Aids: E. M. Ferry and I. A. Mowry. Easthampton Cornet Band. George C. Strong Post, No. 166, G. A. R. Wm. L. Baker Post, No. 86, G. A. R. Executive committee. Town Officers. President, Orator and Poet of the Day. His Excellency the Governor and staff. His Honor the Lieut. Governor. Members of Congress, Judges of the Supreme, Superior and District courts, Heads of State Departments. County Officials. City and Town Officers from neighboring cities and towns. Invited Guests and Former Residents. SECOND DIVISION. On Center Street, right resting on Park Street, in the fol- lowing order: Chief of Division: E. C. Kcenig. Aids: B. P. Owen and H. E. Barnett. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 17 Public Schools. Band of Passacommuck Indians. Societies. Employes of the Glendale Elastic Fabrics Co. Employes of the Nashawannuek Manufacturing Co. Belding's Band of Northampton. Manhan Engine Co. Manhan Hose Co. Alert Hose Co. Nashawannuek Hose Co. Hook and Ladder Co. Running Hose Team. THIRD DIVISION. On Main Street, right resting on Park Street. Chief of division : 0. G. Webster. Aids: C. E. Ferry, Frank D. Barnes, L. N. Dibble, W. H. Lloyd. St. Jerome Drum Corps of Holyoke. This Division will consist of the Representatives of the Industries of the Town. LINE OF MARCH. The Procession will move promptly at 9.30 A. M. on the fol- lowing route: Up Main Street to Pleasant, down Pleasant to Williston Mills, when the 1st and 2nd divisions countermarch on Pleasant, through Prospect and High to Union, down Union to Cottage, Cottage to Adams, from Adams through Briggs and Franklin, when they will be joined by the 3d division on Clark St. The column will then move through Clark St. to Cottage, through Cottage to Union, Union to Center, Center to Main, Main to Glen- dale, Glendale to Wright, Wright to Main, Main to Payson Lane, Payson Lane to Park, up Park and Main to the Town Hall, where the procession will be reviewed by the official guests; then past the Mansion House to Pleasant St., from Pleasant to Prospect, where the column will be dismissed. The 3d division, after passing the Williston Mills, will go through Ferry and Parsons Streets to Mountain, from Mountain to Clark, down Clark to Franklin, where it will meet the other two divisions. J. E. CLARK, Chief Marshal. 18 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Toward the last it began to be more fully realized that the coming celebration was an event of a hundred years, and an ambition was felt to make the most of it. The enthusiasm became general; emulation was aroused and plans were widened. To meet the unusual demands of business and to get their exhibits ready, taxed the energies of many to the utmost. During the last few days the committees worked unceasingly. The night of the 10th settled down upon a wearied but expectant community, not without forebodings lest a rainy day on the morrow should mar their anticipated pleasures. THE CELEBRATION. At sunrise on the 17th the opening of the second cen- tury of Easthampton was ushered in by a salute of ten guns and the ringing of bells and blowing of steam whis- tles. About six o'clock the clouds grew thick and rain began to fall, causing no little apprehension; but at eight o'clock the rain ceased and the clouds cleared away, leav- ing the dust well laid, without making the streets muddy, and the air cool for the season. It was one of the most perfect of June days. The streets were soon thronged with visitors and with carriages and exhibits and troops of men moving to their places in the procession. The recep- tion committee received the invited guests, as fast as they arrived, in the Lower Town Hall and furnished them with tickets to the collation. His Excellency the Governor, Geo. D. Robinson, and his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, Oliver Ames, and six members of the Staff arrived by special car from Spring- field soon after nine o'clock and were met at the Conn. R. R. R. depot by the President of the day and E. R. Bosworth, chairman of the reception committee. A salute of four guns was fired in honor of his arrival. The party repaired to the Mansion House where an informal reception was held for about an hour, or till the procession was ready to start. The procession was late owing to delay in getting some of the exhibits ready. At LO. 30, Chief Marshal Clark, mounted and stationed near the junction of Main and 20 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Union streets, gave the order to advance and THE PROCESSION .Moved in the following order: — Platoon of mounted police, consisting of deputy sheriffs Ansel Wright of Northampton. Geo. B. Gallond of Amherst. H. M. Potter of Northampton, E. G. Wells of Enfield, L. W. Dower of Easthampton, Chas. S. Robinson of Ware, E. T. Hervey of Northampton, Thomas A. Orcutt of Florence. Fred W. Wright of Northampton, Henry A. Bisbee of Williamsburgh, Henry O'Caryl of Ware, Geo. M. Lindsey of Huntington, David M. Donaldson of South Badley Falls. Reuben Bell of Hadley. and William Burnett of Belchertown. Chief Marshal: J. E. Clark. Aids: Oscar Ward, Austin Fairchild, J. H. Murray and H. F. Pome i(»\. FIRST DIVISION Chief of Division: E. E. Janes. Aids: E. M. Ferry and I. A. Mowry. Easthampton Cornet Band. 20 pieces, J. W. Smith, leader. George C. Strong Post, No. 1(56, G. A. R. with the fol- lowing men in line: — C. E. Ware Commander. A. S. King, ,1 us) us Lyman, Chas. Johnson. Wm. G. Taylor. Alvin Clark. Thos. Connelly, Chas. B. Hendrick. L. C. Nye. John Webber, Stephen Haley. E. A. Burnham. L. L. Wright. Win. E. Clapp, Alfred Shaw. Ferdinand Klinge. Alhin Riedel, Francis Holbridge, John Mahoney, Newman Bart- lett, Nelson Kingsl.y. T. W. Collier. Lewis Frary. A. P. Blanchard, X. A. Aldrich, Otis Witherell. Sylvester Hooper and C. N. Loud. Wm. L. Baker Post, of Northampton, No. 86, G. A. R. Carriage containing E. K. Bosworth, A. S. Ludden and A. Iv Abbott, Selectmen, and Wm. E. Topliff, Assessor. Carriage containing His Excellency, Geo. D. Robinson. Governor of Massachusetts, and two members of his Staff, and Hon. II. G. Knight. President of the day. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 21 Carriage containing His Honor. Oliver Ames, Lieut. Governor of Massachusetts, and two members of the Staff, and Judge Wm. G. Bassett, Orator of the day. Other carriages containing members of the Executive committee, National. State and County officers, and officers of adjoining city and towns, clergymen, former teachers in the Seminary, invited guests and citizens; in all sixteen carriages. SECOND DIVISION. Chief of Division: E. C. Koenig. Aids: B. P. Owen and H. E. Barnett. Belding's Brass Band, of Northampton, 23 pieces. Manhan Engine Company. 23 men. G. S. Buckner, Foreman; John A. Kearns. acting first assistant; Frank Nadeau, acting second assistant. Uniform, red jackets trimmed with dark blue, and dark blue caps, black belts with red panel and name of company in white letters. Hand engine drawn by two horses and spanned by arches of evergreens and flowers, decorated with Mags and the national colors. Between the arches rode a boy, Charles Rust, and a girl, Maggie Hannigan, carrying flags. Manhan Hose Company. 12 men, in uniform similar to the engine company. Hose cart drawn by a horse, and decorated with evergreens, flowers, flags, etc., and bear- ing the name. ••Manhan Hose,'* in gilt letters on a dark ground. A hoy. Charles Gough, rode under an arch, carry- ing a flag. Alert Hose Company. 12 men. Jerry Maloney, Fore- man; John Clair, first assistant: Michael Maloney. second assistant. Uniform, white flannel shirts, trimmed with dark blue, and dark blue caps, black hells with red panel and aame of company in white letters. Rose cart marked •\\. 2.," in gilt, trimmed with evergreens, flowers and flags and drawn by a horse NTashawannuck Hose Company. Rudolph Voigt, Fore- man. \-> men. drawing hose cart with the letter "N" hung from the center of an arch trimmed with evergreens, flowers and flags. Uniform, gray flannel shirts trimmed with red. and dark blue caps, black belts witli red panel and name of company in white letters. 22 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Hook and Ladder Company. 13 men. John Leitch. Jr.. Acting Foreman; Geo. C. Lloyd, acting assistant. Uniform, light bine flannel shirts trimmed with red and white, and black helmet hats, red belts with black panel and name of company in white letters, Hook and Ladder truck, drawn by two horses, and trimmed with evergreens, flags and bunting. Running Hose Cart, drawn by 18 boys in white shirts and red worsted caps. James Coyle, Acting Foreman. Employes of the Glendale Elastic Fabrics Company. Band of Pascommuck Indians, represented by Fred Burt, Milo S. Davoll. Frank Dibble, Lyman Dibble. Frank Martin, Fred Pomeroy. J. A. Smith and Herbert Wright, dressed in Indian costumes. E. H. Howland. Business wagon with load of flower- ing plants in bloom, tastefully arranged; both horse and wagon trimmed with smilax. The team was driven by a boy, Willie Howland, and girl. Edna Russell, both covered with flowers. INI iss Russell carried a floral parasol. The Easthampton News. Two horse team with plat- form and covering, appropriately trimmed. Name of the newspaper marked plainly on each side. Exhibit: type cases and compositor at work, and a press in operation, printing souvenir programs of the day. which were distributed among the bystanders. Doctors H. A. Deane and G. H. Pomeroy dressed in the costume of loo years ago. and riding in an old- fashioned wagon. THIRD DIVISION. ( !hief of Division: < >. < I. Webster. Aids: C. E. Ferry. Frank D. Barnes. L. N. Dibble and W. H. Lloyd. St. Jerome's Temperance Drum Corps, of Holyoke, li pieces. Mi-, and Mrs. ,J. F. Burt in costume of the style worn at the beginning of the century, riding in a chaise of the same period. Dwighl ('. Coleman represented a young farmer of the olden lime, with an old-fashioned ox-cart and hay rack EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 23 loaned by Mr. Watson Wright, and drawn by oxen. On the cart were two old hand fans, two horse pokes, four old- fashioned lanterns of different patterns, an old-fashioned plow, cultivator, harrow and field jug. C. S. Strong and E. E. Wood. Four-horse team. Wagon, with covering of evergreens, carrying a spinning wheel for wool, flax wheel, reel, quiller, bog hoe, sickles, tin lantern, candle mold. etc.. also modern fanning mill and plow. O. C. Burt, dressed to represent a physician of the olden time, riding in a one-seated doctor's gig of very ancient pattern; gig loaned by John Lyman of South Hadley. Wm. N. Clapp. Two horse team, with flax brake, hatchel, swingling board and swingling knife. Mr. Clapp illustrated the breaking, hatcheling and dressing of flax, preparing it for the spinning wheel after the manner in the olden time. Charles E. Ferry. Exhibit of New Model Buckeye mowing machine, in full rig ready for work, mounted on a platform; the whole drawn by two horses with lettered blankets, and ornamented with flags and bunting and covered with advertising signs. R. F. Underwood. Champion Light Reaper, in opera- tion, same as in reaping. Drawn by pair of horses. J. F. Burt. Four-horse team, trimmed with evergreens, and loaded with milk cans, and occupied by his sons, Clinton T. and Robt. W. Burt. The name. "Burt," was worked in large letters of daisies on each side. The blankets on the horses were marked. "1862-1885," the dates between which Mr. Burt had been engaged in the milk business. Wm. F. Bement. Covered milk delivery wagon with decorations and load of cans. Solon Lyman. Milk delivery wagon, with suitable decorations. Hampton Co-opera1 ive Creamery Association. Covered wagon used in collecting cream, containing the large cans used in collecting, a churn, butter boxes, and some of the chests used for packing in large quantities. Drawn by 24 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. two horses labeled •'Hampton Creamery." All decorated with flags. The Manhan Mills, J. T. Thayer, proprietor. Repre- sented by a two-horse team loaded high with grain. [The Manhan Mills occupy the site of the first grist mill built in the territory now called Easthampton. A grist mill has stood on this site most of the time for nearly 200 years. J Williston & Knight Company. Two exhibits. First, two horse team with workpeople showing the old style of making buttons by covering wooden molds with cloth by hand, and others at work with power machines, attached to the wheels, showing the process of covering at the pres- ent time. On the same wagon were shown the operations of cutting covers and carding and boxing the buttons. The wagon w r as prettily trimmed and carried on each side the dates. "1785-1885," worked in white buttons. Second, four horse team, also prettily trimmed, repre- senting the mercantile department. Here were shown the manner of putting up and boxing the different kinds of buttons and a large load of cases directed to customers in the principal cities all over the United States and Canada. Nashawannuck Manufacturing Company. Four ex- hibits. First, two horse team representing the weaving department, in charge of Edward Painter, with a stock of skein yarn and spool yarn ready for the loom, and showing the colors produced at their dye house. A loom was shown in operation converting the yarn into web. Back of the loom a large pyramid of web, of elegant designs, showed the finished work of this section. The wagon was gaily trimmed with material used in the bus- iness. Second, two-horse team representing the leather room. in charge of Oscar Ward, showing the operations of cut- ting leathers, eyelet setting, tin-tipping, and trimming suspenders. Third, four-horse team (with handsome horses weighing 6000 Lbs.) representing the finishing department, in charge of Thomas Buffum. Here wore shown the old-fashioned method of trimming web and stitching by hand ami the modern way of stitching by machinery, also the process of box making and packing suspenders in boxes. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 25 Fourth. Nashawannuck truck team loaded with finish- ed goods in boxes ready for market. The Williston Mills. Three exhibits. First, a team got- ten up by the young men, exhibiting a small cannon, and a brass weathercock formerly used on Williston Mill No. 2. The horse, cannon and weathercock were labeled, "A little less than 100 years old." In this wagon rode a person carrying a flint-lock gun and dressed in costume to repre- sent one of the original settlers. Second, a team representing the yarn business by a beam warper arranged the same as if in actual operation, with operatives in attendance, and filled by . 'Son spools of rod. white and blue yarn. Third and principal exhibit, a representation of the Abbott & Russell spinning frame, then a new invention, recently perfected at the Williston Mills, for converting cotton "sliver" into yarn at one process, and, at that time, already patented in the United States, Canada, England, Prussia. Belgium. France and Austria. In the back part of the wagon rode a lady, dressed in costume, spinning by hand on one of the old-fashioned wheels. A barouche, containing I. H. Russell, agent of the Williston Mills. F. W. Pitcher, treasurer, and Hon. T. T. Abbott of Lunenburg, 87 years of age, inventor of the Abbott & Russell spinning frame. Valley Machine Company. Four-horse team, loaded with nine steam pumps, weighing 2% tons. In the center stood a Valley pump of the largest size, weighing about one ton, with a capacity of 500 gallons per minute. On each side of this stood a Valley pump, smallest size. with a capacity of K» gallons a minute. In otic cud stood three Acme pumps of medium size: in the other, three Bucket Plunger pumps, also of medium size. Over all a sign reading, ••Steam Pumps. Valley Machine Company." Glendale Elastic Fabrics Company. Four horse team currying one of their i'ast looms for weaving gusset web. one large braiding machine for making elastic web and one tipping machine for putting tips on corset lacets and arm lacets. All the machinery was in operation by power derived from the wagon wheels. A roof of striped can- vass rested on six pillars trimmed with Hags and ever- 26 EASTHAMPTOX CENTENNIAL RECORD. greens. On each side near the floor was the firm name lettered on cloth. Over all was a large and elegant adver- tising sign. Glenwood Mills. Webster & King, proprietors. This firm exhibited a complete model of their new silk factory on a scale of one foot to ten, the model being therefore 174- feet long; all neatly trimmed. The horses and harness were decorated with silk ribbons of the firm's own manu- facture. Dibble & Warner. Two-horse team representing the manufacture of suspenders and shoulder braces. The driver was mounted on a pedestal and dressed as a colossal comic figure, the costume including an ancient bonnet. All handsomely decorated. Merritt & Small. Two horse team and covered wagon, highly decorated with sign on each side. "Merritt & Small. Manufacturers of All Kinds of Solid Gold Goods, and Dealers in Watches. Clocks, Jewelry and Silverware" The wagon contained machinery used in manufacturing jewelry and proceeded with rolls, polishing lathe, press and forge in operation. M. J. Ulrich & Co. Exhibit of the Patent Oscillating steam engine in operation. This engine was then a new invention, and designed as a motor for light machinery. E. W. Wood. Six horse team. Store on wheels. Platform 22 by 9 feet, round which hung a strip, oO inches wide, of fine paper hangings. A railing round the plat- form 18 inches high was constructed in three parts, on each side, of package goods, paper hangings and canned goods respectively. Clerks at the counter, extending lengthwise, were busily grinding coffee and putting up groceries, fruits, etc. Overhead hung dry goods, boots and shoes and general merchandise. The second platform, 8 feet above the lower one. was reached by stairs. Here rode the Florence brass band of II pieces. On each side were signs. "1785-E. W. Wood-1885." All profusely decorated. C. J. Smith. Four horses trimmed with American flags, and with blankets inscribed. "Smith's Pharmacy, Pure Drugs. L785-1885, L866 [date of beginning business.] -1885. The large wagon, with cover, was elaborately trim- EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 27 med with bunting and silk flags, and carried a crate of sponges, a rack tilled with patent medicines and fluid extracts, and another with paints and oils. A workman was grinding drugs in a mortar about 100 years old. Another at a counter compounded pills and weighed out drugs. Putnam & McCandless. Four horses, bearing the name of the firm on their blankets, drew a striking dis- play of millinery goods in shapes, ribbons, flowers, etc., and also of ceiling decorations, paper hangings, curtain fixtures, boots, shoes, baby carriages and sowing machines. The wagon was fitted with a canopy top. all profusely ornamented. F. P. Newkirk. Eight exhibits. First, advertising team, a nicely painted wagon, and horse with ornamented harness, and bells. Second, horse rake in operation, drawn by horse. Third, hay tedder in motion, drawn by horse. Fourth, sulky plow, drawn by pair of horses, rider exhibiting method of working levers. Fifth, large truck loaded with lawn mowers and mowing machines and with a fine large advertising ban- ner. Sixth, a wagon loaded high with commercial fertilizers, and drawn by a pair of horses. Seventh, a large truck drawn by four large gray horses with blankets lettered with advertising: the truck loaded with all sorts of agricultural implements. Eighth, the largest wagon in the procession, having a platform 35 feet 8 inches long and 1(>4- feet wide, loaded to represent the store and workshop, with a large assortment of stoves, oil stoves, ranges, wooden ware, pump pump- ing water from a tank, and men at benches at work at piping and general jobbing, the whole drawn by six horses witb lettered blankets. A large quantity of advertising matter was thrown out. American Express Company's team with Load of mer- chandise. -James Keene. A roofed wagon, handsomely trimmed and loaded with pictures, picture frames, toys, fancy goods, etc. representing his variety store. J. A. Loomis rode on horseback in front of his three 28 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. exhibits and carried a large flag and a sign, the sign reading, "Headquarters, Bosworth's Block." First exhibit, two-horse team representing his Union street drug store, the wagon loaded with three cases of drawers arranged with drawers outward, a prescription case, and above this an advertising sign revolving in the wind, and above this still another sign and a large flag. Second, fruit department. A covered wagon with bunches of bananas hanging; the body was provided with sides of woven wire and was filled with oranges and lemons. Above all was a large sign. "J. A. Loomis' is Headquarters for Fruits," reaching from end to end. Third, grocery department. In the front part of the wagon was a neat rack filled with canned goods and sur- mounted by advertising signs; back of this was a coffee mill in operation, grinding Spurr's Revere Java coffee. The coffee as fast as ground was put up in envelopes and thrown to the spectators. In this way L000 packages were distributed. Rust. Wilson & Co. Two exhibits. First, wagon drawn by four horses: white blankets trimmed with red and marked respectively. ••Millinery."' •'Dry Goods.** ••Cloth- ing," "Carpets." In this wagon rode all the help employed in the store, the ladies being dressed in red. white and blue. The four corner posts of the covering were trimmed with Japanese fans and surmounted by Japanese parasols. On the wagon was a large pyramid of carpets and a huge hat to represent the millinery department, while a display of fine Turkish rugs hung over the sides. The covering- was trimmed with bunting, flags, fans and parasols. 2000 ornamented fans and show cards were given away. Second, truck team and huge load of boxes, hand- somely lettered to show the different kinds of goods kept by the firm. Taintor n the platform. < )n the 32 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. front was a brass tea kettle, supposed to be 100 years old. labeled. "1785;" on the other side a kettle of recent make, labeled "1885." On each side was a large potted plant in full bloom. A railing surrounded the top. All ap- propriately trimmed. A blanket on the horse was lettered with the initials of the owner. A large stock of colored glass ware and other small fancy articles was distributed. E. H. Ludden, with a big. white linen frock, driving a new and handsomely painted butcher's cart, trimmed with bunting and flags. D. E. Friel. Tin peddler's cart, trimmed with bunting and flags, and hung about with tin-ware and household utensils. J. E. Clark. Coal delivery team, decorated. E. E. Janes. Coal delivery team, drawn by two horses and tastefully decorated. Oren C. Burt. Coal delivery team, on one side a ban- ner inscribed "From Williston Mills Coal Yard. O. C. Burt proprietor." On the other a banner inscribed "O. C. Burt, Dealer in Fine Coal. See Sample." Horses gaily blank- eted; the whole decorated with flags. W. C. Ferry. Two exhibits. First, fish peddler's wagon, neatly trimmed. Second, open wagon trimmed with lobsters and oyster shells. Workman dressing fish as he proceeded. E. M. Torrey. New wagon with patent duplex gear. loaded with spokes, rims, shafts, paints, varnish, trimming stock and other materials for wagon-making. The pupils of the public schools, to the number of about 700, carrying appropriate banners, were gathered on the Park near the Mansion House, in charge of their teachers and under the direction of Prof. J. H. Willard. Three hearty cheers were given to the Governor upon his arrival. As soon as the procession reached this point the children sang "America" in a grand chorus. At its close. eighteen young lady pupils of the High School, dressed in while, with dainty red, white and blue caps, entered an omnibus and joined the procession, riding immediately ahead of E. II. Howland's exhibit in the second division. The young Indies were as follows: Alice Alvord. Mattie EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 33 Austin, Carrie Bly. Carrie Clapp. Hattie Clapp. Louisa Clark, Belle Goodenough, Susie Kimball, Bessie Leonard, Belle Lyman, Carrie Mayher. Carrie Painter, Carrie Parsons, Susie Ranney, Eliza Shaw, Annie Taylor, Jennie Thayer, and Minnie Webster. Asaph Wait, the only young gentleman in the senior class, carried the class flag, and motto, "Doctrina, non Armis." A pennant was car- ried with the motto. "Years, not actions tell." An interesting feature of the celebration was observed on the porch of Mr. L. G. Fales' residence on Center street, where, during the morning, Miss Ursula Vinton of South Hadley, and Mrs. L. G. Fales, dressed after the fashion of old times, took turns at spinning wool by hand. Old- fashioned household machinery was shown on several lawns along the route of the procession. The procession marched, without accident, over the route laid down in the Marshal's order. The head of the column reached the Town Hall, for the final review, in almost exactly two hours from the time of starting, that is, at about 12.30 P. M. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor and Staff left the procession some time pre- viously and repaired to the Town Hall, where the Governor, standing at the top of the steps, reviewed the procession as it passed. When the carriages reached the Town Hall many of the occupants alighted and joined the Governor's party. EXEECISES IN THE TOWN HALL. At the close of the review, the distinguished guests were conducted to reserved seats in the Town Hall, which was soon crowded, including both the front and rear galleries. On the platform a place was found for the chorus, more than sixty in number, consising of members of the Easthampton Choral Union and others, under the direction of Mr. Joseph W. Green, Jr. They were assisted by Mrs. Win. G. Bassett, pianist, and by the Easthampton Orchestral Club, ten pieces, A. N. Baldwin, leader. It was about one o'clock when the exercises were com- menced by the choir, singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Hon. H. G. Knight had prepared a brief address with which to open these exercises, but it was omitted owing to the lateness of the hour. OPENING ADDRESS OF HON. HORATIO G. KNIGHT, PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. Ladies diid Gentlemen: — My respected associates of the Executive Committee have requested me to preside on this joyful occasion and give some direction to the exercises of the day. This duty is an agreeable one because there is not much for me to say or to do. In the Acts and Laws passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, begun and held at Boston on the twenty-fifth (lay of May, Anno Dom- ini. 1785, we find at the sixth chapter "An Act for incorpo- rating a certain tract of land lying in the Count \ of EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 35 Hampshire, being - part of the towns of Northampton and Southampton, into a district by the name of Easthampton." This Act, a copy of which I hold in my hand, was approved by Gov. Bowdoin, June 17th, and is our warrant for cele- brating- to-day the one hundredth annniversary of our incorporation. While the history of the town extends over only one hundred years, it is the outgrowth of a much older parent settlement, and Easthampton is proud of her mother, Northampton, as well as her sisters, Southampton and Westhanipton. whose citizens have come to join in these festivities. Already you have witnessed a represen- tation, in procession, of the various industries of the town, indicating the enterprise and public spirit of our people; you will soon hear from eloquent lips the story of our early history, and facts both interesting and remarkable con- cerning our later history, which contains some useful les- sons. I cannot give expression to thoughts that are upper- most in my mind without trespassing upon your time and entering upon ground that belongs to those who are to follow me. Our thoughts naturally turn to those — our fathers and brothers — who have left us and passed over to the majority, but who I doubt not, are looking down upon us with a lively interest in the scenes through which we are passing. I do not need to mention names which are engraven on our hearts and living in our memories. "The memory of the just is blessed." We are highly honored to-day by the presence of his Excellency the Governor and other distinguished guests whose voices we shall hear in another place. We are glad to meet on this occasion representatives of many families who have moved from our borders, to whom fitting words of welcome will be addressed by another. I will only express the hope that in the incidents of the day and in what they shall see and hear, they will find something to stimulate their patriotism and strengthen their affection for Easthampton. Without detaining you longer from the good things that are to come, I will now call your attention to Hie tiist thing in the program, which is the Hallelujah ('bonis from Handel's Messiah. The music on this occasion is under the auspices of the 36 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Easthampton Choral Union, Mr Joseph W. Green, Jr.. Director. When the choir had finished singing, Mr. Knight intro- duced the Rev. J. F. Mears. of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who read Psalms XCIX. and C. [Mr. Knight.] Prayer will now he offered by the Rev. Mr. Colton, for many years the beloved pastor of the First Congregational Church. PRAYER BY REV. A. M. COLTOK Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we acknowledge Thee as the adorable Author of all being and all good, and we render unto Thee our hunjble praises. We give Thee thanks for our creation, and preserva- tion, and all the blessings of this present life. We bless Thee for our goodly heritage; for the land Thou gavest unto our fathers, and through them to us, for a possession. We bless Thee for the Pilgrim band; for bringing them to these shores and planting them here; for thy protecting and preserving care over them amid the perils and privations of the early settlements here; for their enlargement and increase, until as now, the little one has become a thousand, and the small one ;i strong nation. We thank Thee for the success vouchsafed our fore- fathers in the great struggle to gain for themselves and tor their posterity a free and independent nation. We have heard witli our ears, God, our fathers have told us. what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm. and the lighl of thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favor unto them. We bless Thee for the founders of our government. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 37 for the wisdom given them of Thee to frame the institu- tions under which we live. We thank Thee for the freedom we enjoy; for the lights of knowledge shining round about us; and. best and most of all. for that brightest, sweetest, and most glorious light from the gospel of thy love and power. We give Thee thanks for great deliverances wrought for us as a people in times of imminent peril; and especially for the patriotism and valor of our soldiers in our late war: for their success in putting down the insurrection and rebellion, and removing the curse of slavery, and thus making us, by surer and happier bonds than ever before, a free and united nation, as it is this day. We give Thee thanks for this goodly town; for the God-fearing ones who came here to find and to found for themselves and for us a home, and by whose coming the wilderness and the solitary place was made glad: and who laid here good foundations of civil order, of intel- ligence, of virtue and piety. We bless Thee that Thou wast to them a strength and shield when they were but a few men in number: yea, very few. and strangers in it; for the growth of the town from those small beginnings to its present measure and stature; for the men of enter- prise and public spirit, devising liberal things for their town, to give it increase, and strength, and beauty; for the continued life and prosperity of the town unto this day; thus affording us the privilege we have, to keep here and now, as we do, joyfully, our centennial anniversary and commemoration. We bless Thee for our advantages, for all good culture and refinement; for our churches, our seminary, our schools, our Sabbath-schools; for our varied industries; for our homes and home-nurture and happiness; for the preva- lent order and quiet; for freedom from oppression, and poverty and fear of evil. But (). Thou bountiful Giver of all good, we cannot count our mercies from thy hand. If we would declare and speak of them, they are more than can he numbered. Our Heavenly Father, we thankfully raise to thine honor our memorial to-day, saying. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. 38 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. And now. because Thou hast been our help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will we rejoice. Continue to us thy loving-kindness in all time to come. Command deliverances for us. Be Thou our strong habitation where- unto we may continually resort. As Thou wast with our fathers, so wilt Thou be with us, and with our children. and children's children — the faithful God, our loving Father, Counselor, Guardian, Guide and Redeemer, keep- ing covenant, and remembering mercy unto a thousand generations. Let thy gracious favor be upon us ever: upon the labor of our hands; upon all our industrial interests and pursuits; upon all our possessions and privileges; upon our churches, and seminary and schools. Let our homes be ever bright and pure and sweet. Let our sons be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Bestow, we beseech Thee, thy favor upon our neigh- bors and friends, gladdening us by their presence and gratulations to-day. Bless our beloved Commonwealth. Bless our Governor and his Council. Bless our Lieut. Gov- ernor, and our judges, and members of our General Court. Bless our land, and our soldiers who fought for its liberties and life. Bless the President of the United States, and all others in authority. Grant that all who bear rule, here and elsewhere, may keep sound wisdom and discretion. And now. Lord, what wait we for ? Our hope is in Thee. Deliver us from all our transgressions. Forgive our sins, and do for us, now and in all time, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think; and (), most merciful Father, grant, we beseech Thee, that when days, and years, and centuries, and time itself shall be no more, we all may be found pure and safe in the Heavenly Land, through the merit and mediation of thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And unto Thee will we ascribe all power and dominion, and glory everlasting. Amen. [Mr. Knight.] There arc some present here to-day wlni remember the time when a majority of the people of Easthampton were Clapps, Clarks, Lymans and Wrights. There were also a goodly number by the name of Parsons. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 39 It is not so to-day, and never will be so again. Of those bearing the name of Parsons some still remain, and you will now be addressed by Mr. Lucius E. Parsons, who is a farmer, a soldier, a deacon, and a native of Easthampton. ADDRESS OF WELCOME. Mr. President,— Friends: To address you in the terms that etiquette would require, on common public gatherings, would seem cold and formal on such an occasion as calls us here to-day. I therefore salute all who have gathered here to celebrate the centennial birthday of the incorpo- ration of Easthampton, by the more intimate and social names of Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Kindred, Neighbors and Old Acquaintances. And while I feel a deep sense of my lack of all, save one, of the essential qualifications to perform this most pleasant of duties, acceptably to those I represent and to the edification of you I address, I do confess to no little pride that my fort- une of birth has made me eligible to the honor conferred by this appointment. One hundred years ago. our ances- tors, moved with a desire for the worship of God, and better educational advantages, took the initial steps which secured to them and us, this town, in which we take so much pride to-day. That hundred years has passed into history. What memories are awakened ! What recollec- tions fill the soul ! And what could be more fitting than that we should gather in this grand reunion of families and friends, and revive old associations, and renew old acquaintances and reanimate ourselves with the spirit that inspired our Fathers. To you who have responded by your presence to the call "Come home:" — it is pleasant to look into so many familiar faces, also, so, many familiar only as they repeat and perpetuate the features of kindred, and to grasp the hand, and listen to the words of those (truly of us) who have gone out from us. and made for themselves homes in other parts of our laud, and in those homes have done honor to the home of their birth. But who are these whose hands we clasp in love and esteem to-day? Shall 1 attempt to classify by title? I need not do 40 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. that; doubtless you all feel your royalty. We look upon you as having gone out to contribute in the sphere for which you were best adapted, some larger, some smaller, in the building up of the spiritual, intellectual and industrial interests of our beloved land. But let us be mindful to-day, that to secure joy to each, and contribute to the joy of all, there should be the gracious flowing of benevolence that will encourage confidence, that shall bring all upon a common plane; and as we gather around these altars of sacred associations, let us fire anew our hearts with the love and friendship of former years. Gladly would we have greet- ed more, but were the number less, we should as cheerfully have welcomed them. Many who could not be present have responded by letter, expressing pleasure in not being forgotten, and much regret that they could not mingle with us in the pleasure and interest of this occasion. These contributions will add a cheer to our hearts, as we call to mind the absent ones to-day. Let none of the absent who claim this as their birthplace, be forgotten in our memories here. Methinks some in mind will go out to our western coasts, yes and some even over the broad waste of waters with heart-greetings to dear ones who cannot be with us to-day. I need not speak to you who hear me, of the changes these many years have made; you will witness them on every hand. I will leave this subject for a more gifted tongue than mine, and to the monuments that will speak with an eloquence of their own, many of which will pay a high tribute of praise to the benefactors of our prosperous town, of whom some have passed on to their reward above. And our friends from the sister towns, Southampton and Westhampton: — we feel that you have peculiar interests in us. You hold dear and cherished memories in common with us. We thank you for the sympathy and interest expressed by your number present. We gladly welcome you to join in and rejoice with us in the pleasure of this glad reunion of neighbors and friends. And Northampton. "Our Jerusalem," the mother of us all, "•Whither the trilres go up," sometimes for redress. sometimes for dress parade: — while you come to us to-day with the matronly bearing of a full-fledged city, we would believe you have also come with maternal congratulations EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 41 to your youngest daughter, with the feeling that she is worthy a mother's pride. We extend to you our cordial greeting and a hearty welcome, with a reverence becoming a child of honor, and with the assurance of a filial regard for your welfare and prosperity, hoping ere you celebrate your city centennial, to rejoice with you in the achieve- ment of present ambitions in a new Court House, the extension of the ''Mass. Central" through your city, and a new City Hall that will add another star to your material glory. To his Excellency the Governor of this Common- wealth and his Honor the Lieutenant Governor and members of the Council in attendance: — we feel a special honor conferred by your presence as representing the majesty of State. We thank you for your interest, and welcome you to our festivities and trust the occasion will receive the added grace and honor of your words. Com- rades of the Grand Army of the Republic: — a fraternal greeting to you, and may your presence as our invited guests indicate to all that Easthampton desires to share the honor and festivities of this celebration with the heroes, who, in their country's peril, defended our homes, and preserved to us our sacred liberties. But let none who by a kind providence have been spared to this hour, be forgetful of those whose lives were a sacrifice upon our country's altar, but by the eloquence of the cold granite shaft, the chiseled tablet, the vacant chair and the broken home, be moved to join with the Poet in his tribute of homage. "The land was holy where they fought, And holy where they fell; For by their blood our laud was bought. The land they loved so well. Then glory to that valiant band, The honored saviors of the land." And oui- invited guests who cannot claim birthrighl with us, but who grace this celebration by their presence as representing the high honors of Town, County, Legis- lature and Congress: — as we follow the ascending scale of official honor we feel an added dignitj given this occasion, but will presume that, if such there are who have chanced to bring along a feeling of superiority, they 42 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. will lay it aside and mingle with us in a social freedom. But I need not particularize further, for I trust I have included all. and. in behalf of the committee of arrange- ments, and the citizens of this town, will hasten again to welcome each and every one. Yes. to re-echo from each year of the past century the voice of welcome, a h a ml red times welcome. After the Address of Welcome, the choir sang Kellers American Hymn. [Mr. Knight. J The Orator of the Day is not a native of Easthampton. but he captured, or was captured, perhaps I should say captivated, by one of Easthampton's fairest daughters, and now we claim him as all our own. I have the pleasure of introducing to you Judge Wm. G. Bassett. THE ORATION. Sentiment prompts a practical, busy town to pause and celebrate its centennial day in the leafy month of June. And forces that have nothing more in them than sentiment rule men and communities. Patriotism, that defends a country and supports its interests, is one. Every person has a special fondness for some place; there his patriotism begins and thence it radiates. It is where he has his home. "There is a spot of earth supremely blest. A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest." Every mind is more occupied in recollection and antic- ipation than by present employment. Time, in his flight, ushers Easthampton into her second century, and suggests her completed century as a subject for our thought. This celebration is not chiefly to recount the desirable citizens the town has sent forth to build up other places. While with all her heart Easthampton welcomes hack her children whose interests have seemed to call them away. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 43 many of them people of eminence, and is delighted to see them and know of their success, she makes a prominent feature of what her sons and daughters, by birth and adoption, have accomplished here. "Season your admiration for a while." A brief review of the opportunities, the patriotic use of them, and some of the results, may be a spark to kindle or re-kindle a sentiment, which, growing, may help to further progress. The historical sermon of Rev. Payson Williston, preached fifty years after his settlement as the first minister, the historical sketch of Rev. Luther Wright, the careful history and 4th of July oration, delivered in 1876, of Rev. Payson Williston Lyman, all published, leave little new to call to your attention, and you are to be reminded of things you already know. In 1654 this place was in a wilderness, almost unbroken except by the meadows near the rivers, by grassy glades of the forest and by corn patches. Where the lands had been burnt over to catch game or plant corn there was a growth of high bent grass or thatch. Indians had solely possessed the entire, and then did this part of the Connec- ticut River Valley. Their wigwams are said to have been at Pascommuck and Nashawannuck. at falls, and places where large brooks enter into the Manhan. Springfield, the only town in Massachusetts west of Lancaster, had been settled by the name of Agawam IS years when 24 persons had liberty of the General Court to make a settle- ment at Nonotuck, or Norwottoge. on the Connecticut (Conetiquot) River above Springfield as their own inheri- tance, according to their divisions by estates, and to erect a town there. Their objects were, "furtherance of the public weal, by providing corn and raising cattle, not only for their own but likewise for the good of others — the propagating of the gospel — whereby people may live and attend upon God in his holy ordinance without distrac- tion." The 25 families from Springfield. Windsor, Wethersfield and Hartford, desirous to emigrate, were certified to be "many of them of considerable quality for estates and fit matter for a church." "The bounds of the plantation which the Grande and General Court laid out to the planters of Nonotuck"" are described in the reporl 44 EASTHAMPTCN CENTENNIAL RECORD. of its committee. It extended from a rivulet of the little meadow called Capawonks. in the southerly part of the present town of Hatfield, "to the Great Falls to Springfield- ward" (now Holyoke) and westward 9 miles into the woods from the river; the meadows and uplands to belong to them and such as should come to plant with them, who accord- ing to liberty granted by the "courte" had made "choyce" thereof for themselves and their successors, not molesting the Indians or depriving them of their just rights and property without allowance to their satisfaction. Families moved up in the wilderness of Nonotuck, and 34 years after the landing of the Pilgrims, Northampton, with 64,000 acres of land, became a town. Says Chief Justice Shaw, in a judicial decision. •"The theory universally adopted, acted upon, and sanctioned by a long course of judicial decisions of the highest authority, was, that the Indians found upon this continent had no legal title to the soil, as that term was understood at the common law and among civilized nations, no fee in the land, but only a temporary right of occupancy, for which it was perhaps equitable to make them some allowance. The fee was considered to be in the sovereign by whose subjects it was discovered, and in whose name it was taken possession of. Under this rule this part of North America was claimed and held by the king of England/' In Massachusetts it has recently been held by the highest court, that all conveyances from Indians of their aboriginal title, without the license or approbation of the General Court, are of no validity whatever. Thus, from the crown, through colonial charters and the General Court, acting by committee, came the title of lands, not as some histo- rians tell us from the savages. One reason for forcing Roger Williams to fly into the wilderness in winter, was that he maintained the sinfulness of the patent by which the king had presumed to give away the lands of the Indians. The chiefs of the Nonotuck Indians had the year before the sett lenient of Northampton was com- menced, made their marks to an instrument prepared for them, purporting to release or convey to John Pynchon, '•father of Springfield" and chairman of the committee, any lights the Indians claimed in the land, for ion strings EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 45 of shell beads, used for money and for belts. 10 coats, some small gifts, and the plowing of 10 acres of land on the east side of the river. No individual of them claimed to own a piece of land as the farmer owns his farm, with a right to lease or convey it. or transmit it to his heir. They still exercised all the rights they had chosen to enjoy before: to hunt, fish, have a place for their wigwams and for the squaws to raise corn. In 87 years Southampton and 124 years Westhampton were carved out of Northampton; and in 131 years the Legislature passed an act incorporating a tract of land, being part of the towns of Northampton and Southampton, with the people therein, into Easthampton. The land was bounded largely by following the boundary lines of farms. The northerly line was from the Connecticut River, old bed. in the common field at Hog's Bladder, across Danks' Pond, touching the line between Lovefield and Hatefield tiers of lots, across the Westfield road and long division to Westhampton line near Loudville and the west branch of the Manhan; thence bounded in a south-easterly direction down into Southampton till nearly opposite the northerly end of Springfield, now Holyoke; thence easterly to Springfield line; thence on top of the mountain over Tom and Nonotuck to the Connecticut, and on the river to the place of beginning. Up to this time the history of Northampton and Southampton was their history, and these people had interesting local annals of their own. There were no village streets, but only through roads and lanes or "pent roads"' in the fields, across which gates were maintained. There were dwellings in the north- easterly part; at Nashawannuck, where John Webb, the first white man to live on our soil, one of the eight who alone of the twenty-four petitioners moved up the river eleven years before, commenced a settlement in 1665; at the luniilet of Pascommuck further east; and at Bartlett's mill, down Meeting-house Hill, hack of the Mansion House, a settlement was commenced niter 1705 by Joseph Bartlett, keeper <>l the first public house, who was a bachelor till I 735, with whom lived his nephew. Jonathan ( !lapp, a local celebrity. Bartlett evidently was in earnest. He made provision in his will for the first meeting-house which 46 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. should be built within half a mile of his house, thirty years before there was one. At Bartlett's mill was a saw-mill on Saw-mill Brook, and a corn mill on the Manhan, up to which shad, salmon, and lampreys came and were caught in great abundance. Houses at considerable intervals extended as far north as near Julius Pomeroy's and Park Hill, westerly near Henry T. Hannum's and the Nevins place; and there were houses at Hendrickville. A house where Theoren Pomeroy's is, looked down a straight opening a mile long cut through the woods by Sergeant Ebenezer Corse, now Main Street. Pascommuck and Bartlett's Mills, where Northampton maintained schools, were the nuclei of Easthampton. The former, settled about 1700 by three Janes families, a Jones and a Hutchin- son family, was destroyed in L704 by hungry, roving Indians, who descended upon it from the mountain before light, killed nineteen men, women, and children, and captured others, the Indians escaping and killing the captain of a pursuing company from Northampton village. A maiden. Patience Webb, aroused from sleep, looked out of the window of her father's house and was shot dead. A defense was attempted at a house encompassed with pickets, but they and the house were fired by the use of flax. There were memorable escapes that morning. Benjamin Janes, after capture, made the bed tick load of pork he was compelled to carry an excuse for dropping behind, and escaped over the flooded meadows in a boat; his wife wounded, scalped, and left on Pomeroy's moun- tain, recovered. The wife of John Searle. wounded in the head with a tomahawk, scalped and left for dead, survived. A silver hair pin is preserved by a descendant as a souvenir. She married again and died at ninety-three or ninety-six. wearing ever after that Indian experience a black handkerchief on her head which was not seen bare; blind in her last years, a pious, discreet woman, knew all the Bible and was wont to retire to the lot for secret prayer. Her son Klisha. a lad, was taken by the Indians to Canada, whence he returned a man unable to speak English at first, married here and raised a family. It was again settled eleven years later. Nathaniel Alexander marrying the widow of John Searle who was EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 47 killed at its destruction, Samuel Janes, Jr., taking his father's place. Ebenezer Ferry of Springfield and others coming in later. Nathaniel Edwards, returning with others to Northampton with ox-team loads of flax from School Meadow on the Manhan above Bartlett's mill, or from Pomeroy's Meadow, was shot by Indians in ambush at the brook near W. H. Miller's. The spot where he fell dead and was scalped, at the top of the hill, was marked by a pile of stones for fifty years. His gun was found in the possession of an Indian shot by Capt. Noah Ashley of Westfield. Several houses had been fortified to guard against attack. The Indians, by consent of Northampton on their petition, had a fort at Fort Plain, which is back of the East Street school house, for protecting themselves against Indians from abroad, and some among themselves who afterwards absconded. What the people suffered while the savages lived here, till they left in King Philip's war never to return to dwell, and later, in atrocities and reasonable apprehension, cannot be briefly told. The village of Pascommuck is thus mentioned in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, in the narration of Surprising Conversions. ••Then began to appeal- a remark- able religious concern in a little village belonging to the congregation called Pascommuck, where a few families were settled at about three miles distance from the main biuly of the town. At this place a number of persons seemed to be savingly wrought upon." Familes were large and new settlers came in. Full enumeration is impossible. A few must be named. Joseph Wait and David Bartlett came early. Dea. Stephen Wright and Benjamin Lyman about 1745 settled where Joel L. Basset t and Austin L. Pettis live. This Mr. Lyman was the ancestor of all of us, excepting only those who are not named Lyman, a large fraction of whom are descended from Major Jonathan Clapp, already mentioned. Samuel and Eldad Pomeroy, John and Eleazer Hannum settled where the descendants of the latter now live. A son of Stephen Wright soon crossed over to the plain and built where bis descendant. Watson H. Wright, now lives. Josiah went to Park Hill. Israel Hendrick ami Benjamin Stnmg to Broad Brook. And so four hundred people t<> 48 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 1 start a new town were found here, about sixty-five families in Northampton and fifteen in Southampton. Pascommuck and Bartlett's illustrated the Pilgrim characteristic to make new settlements. The test for a new municipality was answered if it could build a church and adequately support a minister. There was union of Church and State. The town was the parish. An old requirement was, that every body politic should be constantly provided with a public Protestant teacher of piety, religion, and morality. Towns were by statute to vote such sums of money as they judged necessary to settle, maintain, and support the ministry; for schools, the poor and other necessary charges arising within the same town. There was a penalty for absence from preaching on Lord's Day. Fast or Thanksgiving. Every body as every thing was taxed to support public religious worship. Corporations argued that they had no souls to save and should not be taxed, as the chief design of religious instruction was to save souls. But the courts answered that, as far as the community was concerned, public religious and moral instruction was for the prevention of crimes, not the salvation of souls, and a nail factory was in equity and good conscience, as well as in law. held liable to assess- ment for its due proportion of parish expense. Property here being ready to be taxed, and the people anxious to support their own preaching, rather than go to North- ampton and Southampton ''to meeting," and being ripe to rule themselves, the spirit of Northampton, our Alma Mater, who was to lose about one eighth of her population, was truly maternal. Three years before the Revolution Easthampton might go and take £300, "to enable the new town to erect a meeting house and settle a minister." Southampton, with an ability she has never lacked, objected to let her part of the people and lands go, and postponed the measure for twelve years. Northampton was even more generous when the time of separation came, and very handsome in her conduct. Easthampton had the felicity of being born on Bunker Hill Day, a day on which ten years later her most dis- tinguished and most helpful son. Samuel Williston, was horn. It is commemorated annually at Williston Seminary as Founder's Day. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 49 The act incorporated ''the District" of Easthampton. By its terms the inhabitants qualified to vote in town affairs were to choose "town or district officers." There was no difference. The inhabitants might join with Northampton in th§ choice of representatives, who might be chosen indifferently from the two places, the expense thereof to be paid as they should pay from time to time to the state tax. To send a representative alone, which by that very act the mother town ceased to have a right to do. was the only right any town in the state enjoyed Easthampton did not have. It became a separate, independent, and perpetual body politic and corporate by the act passed one hundred years ago to-day, and its character as such remains unchanged. The Supreme Judicial Court two years later held that, whether a municipal corporation is a town does not depend upon the name of town in its act of incorporation, but on the nature and extent of its powers, privileges, and immunities, and on the description of the officers it is by law competent to elect. And the judges say that districts are towns, with the same officers, but without the right of electing a representative. They call attention to the fact that it was formerly the usage of the legislature to incorporate the inhabitants of particular places not only by the name of district with all the incidents of towns except the one mentioned, but also by the name of towns with the same powers, privileges and immunities, and under the same exception. Public attention has been called to an act passed twenty-four years later in which the name town is used, giving this municipality already existing, not creating a new one, the one additional right, she then having votes enough, to send a representative all her own to the General Court; a right since lost by being districted with two other municipalities for that purpose. It is suggested that our first century commenced when we first had that independent right, is still progressing, though the right is lost, and will be completed twenty-four years hence; that as to history making, for the purpose of celebrating, this town from L785 to L809 did "stand at gaze like Joshua's moon in Ajalon." Having been born on an historic day it was her second felicity to hold her 4 50 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. first meeting for the choice of town officers at the house of Capt. Joseph Clapp on the tth of July. The names of some of those officers are familiar — Stephen Wright, Philip Clark, Eleazer Hannum, Obadiah Clark, Lemuel Lyman, Joel Parsons, Benjamin Lyman, Jonathan Clapp, David Chapman, Solomon Ferry, Elijah Wright. The next meeting, called that day, was held at the meeting house frame, then owned by individuals, to adopt it as a place for public worship, to arrange to pay for and complete it. There was no church organization till the next November when one was formed with 72 members from the Northampton and Southampton churches. Thus the town was built around a meeting house, and largely on account of it. It was deemed a matter of importance, which should be present at the christening of the other. The building was fifty-three feet long and forty-two feet wide, without bell or steeple, and stood in the park in front of the hotel; the location of the pulpit being marked by a beautiful tree. It was finished by degrees, after many votes and great effort, the contribution of timber being apportioned. Kindly feeling to Southampton was shown by passing a vote to finish it "in the same form Southampton's house is done." In 1702 joiners were paid for finishing it eighty-five pounds, in wheat, rye. Indian corn, beef, pork, boards, shingles, etc., "A billet being sent to each man of his proportion of the same that he might pay accordingly." That year it was voted to paint the body white, the roof Spanish brown. Town meetings were in the meeting house. The constables warning of common and ordinary meetings was by an out-cry on a "publick day." The fifteen -pounds raised "for the use of schooling" was to be disposed of according to the direction of the men. Their poverty was shown in the allowance of five shillings for the loss of an ox at the raising of the meeting house: and for a wolf's head "the seventh part Northampton allowed the last year for three wolf's heads." Interest in public affairs is shown by sending a man the next year to county convention at Hatfield, at Springfield's instance, 4, to use his influence not to have the county split." The town stood up for its own rights, and appropriated money to support its claim to the correct EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 51 line between it and West Springfield. The town at first hired and then in concurrence with the church "called" Rev. Mr. Walworth as minister. He was offered 200 pounds for "encouragement," seventy-five pounds a year for five years, then eighty, and seventy loads of wood yearly. He declined the call. Later a Mr. Holt was hired to preach. Until the amended bill of rights in L834 the church voted for the minister and the town concurred, the town fixing the salary and providing for his support as by law it was bound to do. He was called the pastor of the church and the minister of the people. Four years after the incorporation Rev. Payson Williston was settled as the minister for life. The town offered 180 pounds "settlement" in four equal annual payments, unless he wished to build, in which case he was to have ninety pounds that year, sixty pounds salary the first year, a pound to be added yearly till it became seventy, and thirty cords of wood for his own consumption. This he thought not a competency, and the salary was commenced at sixty-five pounds and increased more speedily to seventy pounds a year, and the wood increased to thirty-five cords, if he needed it. One 3'ear he was voted twenty pounds in addition to his salary. Two apprentices were by vote excused from paying towards the settlement. Nineteen years after his settlement, first having a committee see if seventy pounds enabled him to live equally with the people, the town added forty dollars and made it per- manent. This settlement was most fortunate. Mr. Willis- ton, a native of West Haven, Conn., was a learned man. and preached orthodox sermons to an orthodox people for nearly fifty years. He was a man of power. Settled at twenty-six, he had taken the course at Yale, studied theology, and been in the War of the Revolution, on account of which he received a pension the last years of his life. He died in L856 at ninety-two. His resignation as minister was accepted when lie was seventy. He was followed by Rev. Wm. Bement seventeen years, Rev. Rollin S. Stone two years. Rev. A. M. ('niton twenty-seven years, when the present minister. Rev. Wm. F. Bacon was settled. It is the same mot her church, though divorced from the town when there ceased to be union 52 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. of '"Church and State." The only record evidence of the presence of any other sect in town in the early years, is that a clause in a warrant for a town meeting concerning opening the meeting house to the Baptists, according to Oliver Clark's request, was passed over. While yet a district in name "a town pound" was built south of the meeting house; "in same method highway work was done." The town government was a paternal one. Every matter relating to money was the subject of discussion and decision in open meeting. Selectmen exercised very limited discretion. There were three regular meetings annually. Some of the votes are entertaining, and show how matters were managed. A layman put in a bill for one Sabbath's preaching, and was refused payment. A man was allowed for three pints of rum for the use of the district. A somewhat careful investigation has failed to disclose the use made of it. Permission was granted to wear hats at a meeting. There were no stoves in the meeting house. Mr. B. was voted for boarding the minister the same Mr. A. had. Again a committee was to hire the minister boarded at the cheapest place, if it be a good place. A person was voted seven shillings to sweep and take good care of the meeting house for a year. At another time it was to be swept once a week for nine months, and the other three once a fortnight, opened on all public occasions, the snow that drove in overhead or any other place cleared out, the road from town road and the horse block cleared from snow on Sundays for 25s. (id. a year. A committee of two was appointed to job the washing of the lower floors and windows of the meeting house. "Estimating the pews" by a committee instructed to make age and valuation the general rule, was a constant subject of town vote. The sexton was to scat according to age and valuation. If any three could agree to sit together the committee was to seat them where their age and valuation would "carry them." It was solemnly voted to leave it with the last seaters to alter the seat of a complaining brother, if they thought it necessary. "The intermission season a Sabbath days" was fixed at one hour and a half. A committee was allowed 6d. for paper used in new -sea ting the meeting EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 53 house, and a man (id. for use of his ladder in painting it. The assessors could fourfold or put under oath those they suspected on good grounds of giving a half list. Indi- viduals named were received as inhabitants by vote. "Warrants were issued to constables to warn persons named therein, who had come to town to abide without the consent of the district, to depart the limits thereof within fifteen days. Committees were appointed to take up collections for people in distressed circumstances, which, if inadequate, were to be pieced out by the selectmen. A man was voted "sumpthing" for carrying a stranger to Hatfield, with a committee to report the amount. Geese evoked local legislation. They were not to run within forty rods of the meeting house on penalty of six cents a head for every goose found within that limit, and a goose committee of three was appointed. The bass viol was not a subject of the most perfect harmony. It was voted to introduce it into the meeting house, and that it be used in singing, the two middle singings excepted; again that it should not be brought into the meeting house on the Sabbath. The price to be paid for killing both old and young crows was a source of difference of opinion. Once it was nine cents per head for young and seventeen for old crows. Again it was, a part of the year, twelve and a half cents for old, and six and a quarter for young, "to be brought in in time, head and all, to the selectmen."' The subject once resulted in a vote that each man might kill his own crows. Public lands were constantly sold through committees. Committees settled disputes between people as to land. A committee of three from North- ampton, Southampton and Old Hadley was chosen to accommodate the inhabitants of Pascommuck with a road, their judgment to be abided by. Samuel Williston is first mentioned in the town records in isi'.i. when Eldad Smith, Thaddeus Clapp and he were a committee to regulate Sunday schools: the first one having been held only shortly before in the school house situated on the north end of the Library park between Main and Park Streets. The other large towns in the comity are of earlier origin. The census of 1790 found To inhabitants. It was the 54 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. smallest municipality in population in the county. During the next decade it increased 129, the next 74, the next 52, the next 33, and the next, ending in 1840, the decrease was 28. It had heen an agricultural town almost pure and simple. Home-made cloth had been "fulled" in a part of the old grist mill, and also colored and dressed in a mill on Broad Brook, below the present upper group of mills, and satinet made in the Shoals tannery building. Here was a little town, small in area, as well as popula- tion, nestling between the Mt. Tom range and Pomeroy's Mountain, with landscapes of marvelous beauty, but with so little fertility, so much of its soil uninviting to till, that it failed to keep its 745 souls of L 830 and commenced L840 with 717. Only one town in the county had less. They were intelligent people of the highest character. It was a religious community, strictly so. To the little church, we are told; they resorted "almost as constantly as tiie Sabbath returned." Dr. Williston has left his testimony that "It was their delight to meet and together to pray and praise, and to think and talk of Heaven." "Along the cool, sequestered vale of life, They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." While agriculture had planted a permanent, moder- ately prosperous lown here, other employments were needed to stimulate progress. Agriculture needs a market. It has been said that the growth of the mechanic arts was the life of New England. To furnish a modern, progress- ive, model New England town, there is needed a judicious combination of agriculture and manufacture: farmers with their sterling ••staying quality." and kind, enlightened manufacturers conducting business in a manner to live and let live. That combination resulted in a community here which has also felt the leavening influence of a flourishing school of high grade with cultured teachers and their fam- ilies as a part of it. Religion did not go out when prosper- ity came in. The moral and social virtues and religious influences which cemented society here when the descend- ants of the Pilgrims protected themselves and each other from hostile Indians, and down to the prosperous days, have remained the dominant influences. On a recent Sab- bath nearly one hundred, mostly young people, joined the EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 55 two Congregational churches. It has been playfully remarked that church going is Easthampton's only dissipa- tion. Exacting people and strong pulpits have remained in our churches. The change in other respects commenced when the WATER FALLS OF BROAD BROOK were made profitable by Samuel Williston. The story is well known how. beginning with Mrs. Williston about L827, button making by hand extended till work was put out into LOOO families in and between Hatfield and West Springfield, Granby and Peru; how Mr. Williston. with the Messrs. Hayden, commenced making buttons by machinery at Haydenville, where, on the 4th day of July, historic and auspicious day again, in 1834, the first button was covered by machinery; how Mr. Williston bought and brought the business to Easthampton in 184? and '48 and built his but- ton factory on Broad Brook. Then Samuel Williston, the poor minister's son, disappointed student, kept from the ministry by bodily ill. commenced his life work in his native town in successful earnest. He. with Mr. Horatio G. Knight at first, and they later with Mr. Seth Warner, conducted the business. The firm of Williston, Knight & Co. became well known and of high standing in New York where it sold its own goods, as well as here where it manu- factured them till 1865, when the National Button Co.. a corporation now existing under the changed name of Wil- liston & Knight Co., was formed with Mr. Williston presi- dent and Mr. Knight treasurer. In 1848 the making of suspender webbing was begun, which grew four years later into the Nashawaimuck Manufacturing company, with Mr. Williston as president and Edmund H. Sawyer, then a rising man, as treasurer, to be followed by Geo. H. New- man, its present treasurer, both aided by such experienced and able men as Granville H. Leonard, the manufacturing agent, and other efficient assistants. This company man- ufactured cotton yarn and rubber thread for its webbing, till Mr. Williston took the vara business, and the East- hampton Rubber Thread Co. was organized, first with Seth Warner, later and now with E. T. Sawyer as treasurer, and its product the standard of the market. It is pleasant to note that the government buys the suspenders for the army 56 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. of the Nashawannuck Manufacturing Co. , and stipulates in the contract that the rubber they contain must be that of the Easthampton Rubber Thread Company. These three companies have been just objects of town pride. Each has been and is the leading establishment of its kind. The amount of business each has done is very large. The year of the close of the rebellion Easthampton manufacturers paid the government $100,000 in revenue taxes. They have earned princely sums. The money has been largely ex- pended at home, where the managers and most of the owners of the stocks have lived. Where manufacturing capital is employed in a town to get all the money possible for non-resident owners the condition of that town is poor indeed. It illustrates Ireland with English landlords. Experience here has been the other way. Churches, schools, library, public buildings, mansions, cottage homes' in the town, and colleges, seminaries and great charities away, have arisen from or been fostered by these fine busi- ness successes. Liberality commenced as soon as pros- perity dawned. Dr. William Allen, at the close of the second century of the settlement of Northampton in 1854, in his address much resorted to for local history, in noticing Easthampton as one of Northampton's three children, spoke of her first minister. Payson Williston, D. D., a venerable servant of God then living at the age of 91, of the founding of a large and nourishing academy by the liberality of that minister s son at his sole expense, bestowing an equal amount upon Amherst College, which he characterized as an almost unequaled benefaction to literature and charity. Thus early, when money was not plenty or fortunes large, had Samuel Williston commenced to distribute sums that amounted to handsome fortunes. He never ceased to give, and at his death did not disappoint those who might expert to share his estate. His intimate business associates. Knight, Warner and Sawyer, each had "A hand Open as day for melting charity." These gentlemen and their associates constituted a fine circle of business men. and were so spoken of by the public press when Mr. Williston died in L874. It has not EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 57 escaped general attention that it has not always been easy in the history of manufacture, to get from capital its expected annual return, and leave labor ''prosperous, rewarded and contented." The character of the employers and the high character of the skilled helpers and laborers employed, while contributing naturally to success in these mills, have brought about exceptional harmony and friendly regard. Williston Mills, a great corporation with fine buildings, has not always had the success which is hoped for it. In its mills has recently been perfected an invention which promises a revolution in the man- ufacture of cotton yarn. The Gas Company, while lighting our streets, buildings and houses, has not failed to make heavy the pockets of its stockholders. The Glendale Elastic Fabrics Company, in efficient hands, J. W. Green, Jr.. being treasurer, has rendered its greatest service to the community, in maintaining a body, mostly Germans, of skilled mechanics and good citizens. New enterprises have come; the Valley Machine Co., makers of steam pumps, managed by John May her; the Glenwood Mills, by Webster & King, to manufacture silk. Each, with its brick mill and prosperity assured, has come to stay and grow and help. Easthampton is widely known through WILLISTON SEMINARY. Here is an institution with all the essential elements of a great school — the leading institution of its class: — loca- tion, buildings, apparatus, munificent endowment, trust- ees, conspicuously successful men as college professors, from business and professional life, experienced and able instructors, and a fine history. Its tradition is that practi- cal, efficient, creditable men, scattered in different communities in the land, one in the President's cabinet, were in their youth essentially helped to establish the manly character and gain the practical wisdom and learning that make them the men they are, while they were at Williston. The record in the War of the Rebellion illustrates this. 9 generals, 10 colonels. 11 majors, 13 chap- lains, 27 surgeons. 36 captains, 41 lieutenants, and 23(1 non- 58 EASTHAMPTCN CENTENNIAL RECORD. commissioned officers and privates are known to have been of her alumni. Her students have in a marked degree discovered the spirit and bearing most becoming and helpful. Fashionable society is not believed to be an essential aid to instructors in starting youth in their career, and Easthampton has it not. Almost everyone here is earnest, business-like, and successful. The example can not be harmful. This people follows with personal interest and genuine pride the gentlemen who go from the Seminary with the earnest of success upon them. Incor- porated in 1842, the first building of wood had been followed by the Middle Hall of brick, when it was burned down and replaced by the South Hall of brick. Then came the fine Gymnasium, the North Dormitory, and the Astro- nomical Observatory. The buildings are more ample and complete than those of any other similar school. It has always commanded the services of a man of distinction for its principal. Luther Wright, a native of the town. Yale graduate, of fine personal presence, friend of Mr. Willis- ton's youth, made it successful from the first. It was he who overcame Mr. Williston's fear that pupils would not come to Easthampton, and induced him to locate the school here; the only argument in its favor seeming to be accessi- bility: it being on the Hampshire and Hampden Canal. Josiah Clark seemed made for the place he filled. The testimony of his grateful pupils, of those who observed his influence, and the effect of his instruction, as also that of his neighbors, is. that he was the ideal principal and gentleman. His term of fourteen years was followed by that of Marshall Benshaw for twelve years. Possessed of high scholarship and the faculty of bringing about the same result in others, he left the school successful. He was approved by the founder, and remembered in his will. The fascinating diction and fertility of thought of James M. Whiton, distinguished as a brilliant scholar of the classics, you cannot forget. Joseph W. Fairbanks came from success as a teacher, and left all the inhabitants his friends. Without a principal, the school is not without ability, experience, and success in its management. The standing of the institution among educators was shown at its quarter centennial celebration in L867. Its learned and EA8THAMPT0JS CENTENNIAL RECORD. 59 distinguished friends, who took part, included Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, former teacher; Dr. Wm, S. Tyler, now its president; Rev. Dr. N. Adams. Presidents Woolsey and Stearns from Yale and Amherst, Prof. Cyrus Northrop, Mr. C. H. Sweetser and Gen. Francis A. Walker, then a teacher. All was commendation of the school and its founder, and there was no occasion for detraction. From 1840 to 1850 the population nearly doubled, and reached 1342. People remember when there were only seven painted dwellings in town, and when mulleins grew in the street. The old unpainted Clapp tavern has been so recently removed from the grassy slope below Mrs. Jane F. Hannum's that most remember it. My Lord Coke's nason for keeping the fences of the burying grounds in good repair was. to protect the burials of those whose bodies were, or might have been, during their lives the temple of the Holy Ghost. This excellent reason did not prevent the ruin of the fences, and the removal within living memory, of the old ■"church yard." where the Bank and Methodist Church stand. Prosperity in manufacturing brought with it a market for the farmers and the mer- chants. The appearance of thrift became so general, that to strangers it seemed that there were no poor people here. The present First Church had been built where the North Dormitory stands, two years, when Dr. Williston, on August 18, 1839, preached the semi-centennial sermon already alluded to. It was a fine and costly church for a town whose population was about 700, to build, though Mr. Williston. whose prosperity had begun, contributed liberally. Time has dealt kindly with it. and the people who have worshiped in it for nearly half a century have been greatly blessed. It gave up 100 members in 1852, and they formed the Payson church, and dedicated their new church structure that year. In two years it was destroyed by fire, and when partially rebuilt, was with the parsonage again destroyed, both times uninsured. The present church, completed the next year, was changed somewhat after the spire fell, crushing into it. in L862. Liberality was the builder. Mr. Williston paid for the church struc- tures. Mr. Knight the organ, and Mr. Warner the hell in each; the parish being asked only to furnish it. The 60 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. church with a large congregation, besides the students, has been prominent and prosperous: its able ministers being Rev. Rollin S. Stone 11 years. Dr. Samuel T. Seelye 13 years. Rev. Alexander R. Merriam 6 years, and since last January Rev. C. H. Hamlin. The Methodist society built its tasteful church in 1866, and has been a zealous agency for good. The Catholic society has had misfortunes similar to those of the Payson society. The burning of two churches has not discouraged its devoted people or its reverend Fathers, as the fine church of the Immaculate Conception and parsonage now attest. The St. Philip's Episcopal Church has grown strong enough to commence a chapel. The mention of all these churches, with the fact that they are well sustained, sug- gests the need of them in the varied growth of the town. The German population and our Scotch and Irish fellow- citizens, and others foreign born, who have cast their lot here, and their American children, have taken the spirit and helped the progress of the community of which they are so large a part. They earn and spend and save a large sum every year. In speaking of the town they need no separate mention. The public spirit and ability shown in church building early manifested itself in many ways. Miles of concrete sidewalks, built before they were as much in fashion as now; the Town Hall with Memorial Tower, best hall in Hampshire County, costing more than $65,000, and erected by our honored townsman, Edwin R. Bosworth; High School and twelve other school buildings, Union Chapel, church chapels, water pipes and water sup- ply, sewers, gas-lighted streets, excellent stores, hotel conducted with so much of enterprise that to people accustomed to city comfort it is an acceptable home in winter as well ns summer, the work of the Village Improve- ment Society, ami general march of improvement. This division of the railroad to New Haven was secured by Easthampton enterprise against much opposition, Mr. Williston. its first president, sinking $35,000. It is com- monly called Canal Railroad, a name needless to perpetuate indefinitely the memory of thai unsuccessful canal enter- prise, the remains of which our soil incorporates with itself with apparent reluctance. One of the recent and one EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 61 of the best accessions is the Public Library. The associa- tion owes its being to Edmund H. Sawyer, whose untimely death robbed the town of a man whose habit and pleasure it was to confer benefits on others and the public. The beautiful, appropriate, enduring building is the gift of Mrs. Williston. The books, furniture, and other valuable property are largely from the Sawyer family, Dr. Seelye, the president, and other generous friends and donors. The town fosters the institution that pays so richly in return by an annual appropriation. A museum inspired by those antiquaries. Deacons Johnson and Lyman, has a promising start. The seal of Easth.am.pton, with the bold, bare western face of Mt. Holyoke, (which recalls the beautiful violet tint so often seen at rest at sunset) a mill and water wheel, philosophical instruments, with a scroll, and the motto, "Industry and learning united with virtue," is fittingly suggestive. The town does not say, with ancient Pistol. "'Base is the slave that pays." All she owns is paid for, and she is out of debt. And yet here, as everywhere, compromise of what is desirable must be made with what is possible. As from a work of art the mind turns back to the artist, so from the contemplation of a beautiful, well equipped town, where people are passing life profitably and agreeably the mind turns back to the builders. It has been said that our venerable fathers adjourned from England to America, to found in Massachusetts towns republican models for states. A writer, in estimating them somewhat by comparison, has placed these founders of towns on a godly basis before inspired builders of cathedrals in all ages. A glance takes in the English settlers, men of "individual dignity and utility," pushing out here from the more settled part of the mother town, hewing down the forest primeval, erecting their modest houses, tilling the soil, and raising flocks and herds. These were the days of checkered shirts and homespun short breeches; of the petticoat, short linen gowns, check- ered aprons, and sunbonnets. and when women were fined in court in Hampshire County for wearing silk. The women were helpmates, caring for the house, the milk, making butter and cheese, drawing, spinning and reeling flax, making linsey woolsey and other fabrics, knitting, 62 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. cutting, making, dyeing the garments, doing the doctoring, and bringing up the the children. However well men are spoken of it is understood there is a "better half."' No exception in Easthampton, long ago, or now ! Public burdens were not wanting. This people took part in wars with Indians and the French and with the other ountry. At least 14 who lived on this soil were engaged in the Revolution, of whom four died in the army. They strug- gled through the depression following, contributing many to quell and only one person to help on Shay's Rebellion. They built the church, their own, and established the local government "of themselves, by themselves, for themselves;'' a constituent unit of a suscessful common- wealth. Eighteen of them took part in the war of 1812. Some own the homes and fields where toiled grandparents whom they remember; excellent types of those who came to this land because they valued conscience and duty more than comfort. Here strength and beauty, health, plenty and peace abound. No farms or homesteads have been abandoned in this as in many towns. Besides the worthy descendants of the old time occupants others have come in, lured by the advantages of the place, all con- tributing their full share to church, and schools, and state, and all public spirited enterprise. The change, the growth, the Rebellion and the sacrifices — made subject of special annual memorial— cannot be kept out of memory on a day like this. The factories, the mercantile business, the monied institutions, the library, an enterprising news- paper, are managed, the pulpits supplied, the schools taught, the professions adorned, the homes filled by those whose enlightened capacity would make them creditable people anywhere. Perfection for them is not claimed. "They say best men are moulded out of faults.'' Not without recognition in the election of officers to high stations, she has honored the offices in turn with such men as Wilfiston and Sawyer in the state Senate, and Clark, the present high sheriff of the county. The county has had no higher executive officer for many years than lieu- tenant governor of the commonwealth, and within the present decade that office has been filled by four successive elections of Gov. Knight, native and life-long resident of EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 63 the town, who had been two terms in the Council and two in the Senate. Fortunate as she has been in keeping her own for herself, and attracting others, she has yet furnished workers and honored citizens for other and distant places, and fields of Christian usefulness. Her successes have not been all for greed. The most successful men have had influence, but been of too large a pattern to wish the town to revolve around them. Their power has been "that respectable power which men willingly grant to the remembrance of a life spent in doing good before their eyes." They deserved and received the benedictions of gratitude. These men have always spoken well of the town; and it is expected that one will speak well of a person or a town he is deeply interested in and has benefited, and will speak ill of one to whom he has done a wrong or is conscious of an unrequited debt. Her great glory is in her general not special progress. This is a town of equality. Not as a past but a present dwelling place, in this fair valley, our village is "a gem of purest ray serene." Not alone useful to herself, in self-development, while enacting this transformation scene, in the live-and-let-live business done, she has been helpful to the neighboring towns, the county, state and nation. Her improved agri- culture, manufactures, educational facilities, and improved living admonish that her agriculture can be yet advanced, that the majority and best of her water power in Saw-mill Brook and Manhan River, is not yet developed, and so with all the rest. She has had, among her neighbors, by reason of her exceptional and equable growth and public spirit, the standing of a brilliant municipality. What Montesquieu says of government is true of our beautiful town: "Like all other things in the world; to preserve it, it must be loved." If the type of men and women of this closed century shall be repeated in the next, with the same local pride and purpose, a hundred years from to-day, in this memorial hall transmitted to them, not any of you, but your posterity and successors may celebrate two centuries of progress. May all Easthampton's years abound in - "sun- shine days." 64 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. After the Oration, the Orchestral Club played an overture from the Bohemian Girl. [Mr. Knight.] You are now invited to listen to a poem by Mrs. N. K. Bradford, of Washington, which will be read by Mr. A. C. Hand, a teacher in Williston Seminary. THE POEM. 'Tvvas June, the birds sang, and the air was sweet On Nonotuck's fair breast. Her feet Were dipt in yonder stream, that in its flow Through meadows green, laid soft its silver bow. The fragrant air trembled with sunny wings. The green soil swarmed with merry living things; And over all, one hundred years ago, Sprung the same arch of blue that spans us now: The tired plowman 'neath yon branching tree, Ate his coarse meal, mid nature's harmony; The while perhaps, a child from neighboring home. Some Benjamin from out the fold would come To bring some comfort or supply some need, And (favoring time,) would for a story plead. No fairy tales for those New England youth, But those more w 7 elcome tales of simple truth, And listening ears would never get their fill. Of Concord. Lexington, or Bunker Hill. Too near those fathers to those stormy days; Too late their feet had trod those rugged ways; And later still, the scalping-knife had come, And flashing tomahawk had smitten dumb, Lips, whose last blessing fragrance still retained, Stricken loved hands, whose grasp yet warm remained. All! there were giants in those ancient days, Men who prepared for us these pleasant ways; Strong men who "builded better than they knew," Broke the stern soil, and drove the furrow through, Planted the blue-eyed flax, and waving maize, And walking steadfastly in Wisdom's ways. Built with their loyal hands, while hearts were true, EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 65 A temple for the only King they knew. And when the week with sternest labor closed, How sweetly at the sunset all reposed; Waiting with open book, or song of praise, To cross the threshold of the best of daj^s ! Not always smiled the elements upon The labor of their hands, but one by one, The temples which those pious hands had reared, 'Mid flames' devouring wrath quick disappeared; Or angry tempest with its rudest blast, To earth their holy place in ruins cast ! Oh, man of God, whose ministrations rare, Sustained those people in their life of care, Whose youth, and prime, and ripened age were given, To comfort saints, and sinners point to heaven, Green be thy memory — all thy labor done — Down all the centuries. — sainted Williston ! Oh, worthy son of such a sire ! Thy birth To-day we celebrate. Thy course on earth Is finished, but thy works do follow thee, As we witn gratitude to-day may see. Thou didst arouse yon rivulet from sleep, And rippling from its bed with joyous leap, It gladly hastened at thy call to come. And tuned its merry music to the hum Of restless spindles, and its unknown strength Taught mighty wheels their mission, till at length Hampton's fair vale resounded with the tread Of those who sought and found their daily bread, In new-tried paths of labor; and to-day, Not only through our land, but far away On foreign shores, thy name alone is proof Of perfect fabric, made in perfect truth. But, e'en before thy anxious mind had planned What motive power could do the work of hand, We know that facile fingers, young and fair, Had lightened by their skill, thy life of care; Had sewed bright hopes on many a tiny mold, And woven happy visions, in a fold Of cloth, that at the market's eager door, Passed for a covered button,— nothing more ! And we rejoice to-day, that she who shared The toil of all thy early life, was spared To see thy triumph, and in mellow age, EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. To close life's well and closely written page, And lay her whitened temples calmly down, Beside thine own, to wait their promised crown ! And left us, also, by thy gen'rous hand, Are learning's halls, which down the years shall stand, A noble witness to thine honored name, More fair than sculptured marble, and thy fame Women and men shall speak throughout our land, To whom the key was given by thy good hand, To open wisdom's treasures, and we bring To God for all thy life, thank offering ! Full fifty years, sweet Peace with bounteous hand, Scattered her blessings o'er this favored land; Covered with brooding wing the mellow soil, While plenty smiled upon the sons of toil. The fathers' swords in scabbards long had slept, Their rusty muskets, children's children kept; When lo, a war-cloud, small at first 'tis true, Yet hiding all the old flag's white and blue, (Its emblematic truth and purity), Left only blood-red bars for us to see ! A war-cloud over Sumpter's sunny head, Woke all the memories of the noble dead, And sons of sires who once at Concord fought, Must well protect the liberties they bought. Thousands were called for at a single stroke, And through these hills and valleys men awoke To the stern conflict, and the April days Found them no more in their accustomed ways, As with moist eyes they said, (and tried to smile), "Farewell, 'tis only for a little while." Spring, Summer, Winter, passed, and Spring again Heard the sad call,— "Three hundred thousand men," And many a home this lovely valley knew. Which gave its sacrifice, — its "bov in blue !" Alas, some went away who came no more; Some sleep on Mississippi's verdant shore. Virginia, also, on her blood-stained breast, To many others, gave their final rest; Some came for loving hands their eyes to close, And some, alas, in nameless graves repose ! And when the struggle ended, to the arts Of peace again, with tender, trustful hearts The people turned them, sweet once more to till The grateful soil, or in the busy mill To guide the spindles, which had multiplied EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. From little loom on Manhan's sunny side. To where, in scarcely more than one decade, "The National" had swiftly, surely made A name, and from his mighty, tireless hand, More than a million buttons o'er the land He daily tossed, while by his noisy side, Fair "Nashawannuck" sat in stately pride, Ready to brace her sons for all their need; And other sister tried to amply feed Her eager throat, and spinning yarns the while, Did many a weary hour for both beguile. With songs of buoyant hopes in early days, Of sad reverses, when in pleasant ways A quicksand lay beneath, or dashing wave Had buried hopes within a watery grave ! Or tales of trial, when 'twas sadly said Life hung suspended by a feeble thread; But rising from her ruins, fair as May, She tells the same old story yet to-day. And while fair Nashawannuck proudly sits, And dainty hues and textures deftly knits, "Glendale" in rustic beauty wings the feet Of modern Mercurys at her country seat, Her sister, scarcely younger in the town, Serenely views her ways without a frown, Threads with elastic steps the neighboring hills, Wearing upon her bosom dainty frills Of her own weaving, while her happy song Floats on the merry breeze, the whole day long. Nor heeds she, in her charming equipoise, Her neighbor of the ' ' VaUey" and his noise ! She knows, though lacking grace, his heart is kind, And with his plunging pumps no fault will find; For in Centennial year, dressed in their best, He, and the sisters went with all the rest,— Grave National, and Nashawannuck too, And showed to all the world what they could do ! And when their peaceful homes again they sought, Each one a shining medal proudly brought ! And where once noisy sow-mill wheezed its way, Mt, Tom's young namesake, for awhile at play Sat, stringing spools and bobbins, well content, With steam sufficient for his nourishment. But whether 't was a careless, trusted nurse, 67 68 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Or negligent young parents — vastly worse — None ever knew the cause of fate so dire. The child met death by falling in the fire ! One more of all the happy, useful train, "We chronicle, and though men deem her vain As clad in Silken robes she coyly smiles And Twists her glossy tresses, she beguiles All hearts through youth and beauty — all forgive Dear, happy " < 7/< nwood" — long, long may she live ! Lo what a change a century's dial shows ! How great the coming changes, no one knows. Where once our fathers used with patient toil, The wooden plough to turn the stubborn soil. Behold the blade of steel, which deftly cleaves The earth, now yielding, nor on entering, leaves, Until, inverted quite, in clear cut rows, A scene of beauty quick before us grows ! And where with curving scythe the mower swept In graceful waves the verdant grass, and kept Time to his own strong heart-throbs, see to-day The horse and rider on their conquering way ! And in the father's care to sow the seed. They thought but little how they were to feed The yielding earth, and in return obtain From year to year the same rich crops again: But nature ever teaching in her school. The noble lesson of the golden rule. Soon taught (and docile pupils were our sires) That what they ask of her, she too requires. And now behold, enriched, the teeming soil, Which yields an hundred fold for all man's toil. We count to-day these shops, these schools and spires, Newspapers, railroads and electric wires. Point t<> the Library. Gymnasium, Hall; And show the arts and trades, professions all. The names of Hampton's sons, who long and well Graced legislative halls, we proudly tell. We mourn the loss of some now passed away. And greet with cheer those with us here to-day. And though the feet that once this valley trod. Sandalled in living light now walk with God, Heroic souls are left and now as then Walk forth among the people, noble men ! Still sillg the birds as sweetly as the\ sanj; One hundred years ago, when music rang EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 69 Through all the forest trees. No touch of time Pales the bright sunshine in his changeless prime ! Sparkles the stream on meadow's breast, still clear As when without affright, the timid deer Came to its silver brim and drank his fill. Are old days lost? Lo, all about us still. Nature's sweet music — Each succeeding year Wakens to life new beauty grand and dear ! With rev'rent head we stand to-day, before Another century's just opened door. Not ours the tongue that at its close shall bring In speech or song our grateful offering. Science yet holds within her charmed hand More than our highest thoughts can understand, And mystic carbon pencil shall anoint Eyes that see now but dimly, and shall point To paths we now but dream of, and fulfill More than our highest hopes and God's great will. The old. the new are His — the great, the small — Whose own broad arms of love encircle all ! Ellen Knight Bradford. At the close of the Address of Welcome, the audience showed their pleasure and satisfaction by a burst of spon- taneous and hearty applause. The Oration and the Poem were received with equal evidences of approval. The exercises in the Town Hall were closed with the singing of Dudley Buck's Festival Hymn, by the choir. THE COLLATION. The exercises in the Town Hall occupied almost two hours, or till near three o'clock. Very soon after the close the signal for dinner was given by Samuel McKeraghan, standing on top of the porch of the Town Hall, and blow- ing on the identical CONCH SHELL with which it was the custom to call the worshipers together to the first meeting house in town. The people entered the dinner tent and surrendered their tickets at two doors on the north side. A feature of interest was the old Clapp Tavern sign, which was hung between the two doors. This sign was used by Major Jonathan Clap when he kept the public house that formerly stood on Manhan Street, near the Dresser place. The sign bore the device of a panther. As soon as all were seated Mr. Knight said: Ladies and Gentlemen : — Will you preserve silence while the divine blessing is invoked by the Rev. C. H. Hamlin. PRAYER AT THE TABLES. Our Father, who art in Heaven, we give Thee thanks I'm' this dav. and for the glorious memories under which we can assemble. We ask thy blessing upon us in the enjoy- ment of that which has been provided for us, for Christ's sake. Amen. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 71 The hum of sociahility and merriment and the busy, hurrying waiters made a scene of animation not soon to be forgotten. The people had by this time good appetites and did justice to the substantial collation, which included ice cream and lemonade in addition to the contents of the boxes already mentioned. Five hundred and five persons took dinner as guests of the town, and six hundred and ninety-six at their own charges, making one thousand two hundred and one in all. It is needless to add that at the price asked, the receipts barely met the expenses, leav- ing the caterer little or nothing for his labor and trouble. A dinner was also served during the day by the ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at their parlors, and more than four hundred people took dinner with them. No account of the Celebration would be complete without mention of the good work done by the Young People's Temperance Union, who built an inviting booth, trimmed with evergreens and flags, on the lawn between the Town Hall and the Methodist Episcopal Church, and served ice water free to the crowd during the day. The following appropriate and breezy lines, from the pen of Oliver Wendell Holmes, were nicely painted on a strip of canvass and hung over the speaker's stand. "Come back to your Mother, ye children, for shame, Who have wandered like truants for riches and fame! With a smile on her face, and a sprig in her cap, She calls you to feast from her bountiful lap." AFTER DICKER EXERCISES. The sides of the tent were rolled up in token of welcome, admitting a full flow of light and of the balmy summer air, which seemed to unite with all the other circumstances of the day to make it a time of lively inspiration and pleasure to the speakers and to all. Mr. Knight rose and said : — Ladies and Gentlemen:— I am sorry that it becomes necessary to inform you, and you will be sorry to hear, that the Rev. Mr. Bacon, who was expected to be present this afternoon, and to preside in these after-dinner exer- cises, is seriously ill, and unable to be present. I con- gratulate you, however, that we have present with us to-day several distinguished gentlemen who will speak to you. We feel highly honored by the presence of the Governor of the Commonwealth, a Judge of the Superior Court, and other distinguished gentlemen, some of whom you have had the pleasure of seeing and hearing before, and some of whom are, perhaps, strangers to you. My neighbor and friend, Mr. Henry H. Sawyer, has consented to assist in these exercises. He will read the various sen- timents which have been prepared by the committee on toasts, and we shall call upon some gentlemen to respond to the same. THE TOASTS AND THE SPEECHES. The United States of America.— The brightest star in the galaxy of nations. May the glory of her light never be dimmed. May the liberty loving the world over ever find in her as now the day star of hope. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 73 LETTER FROM WM. WHITING, ESQ. [Omitted for want of time.] Holyoke, Mass., June 16th, 1885. My Dear Si)': — Your favor inviting me to respond to the toast, '"The U. S. America, etc.,"' comes to me only a day or two before the celebration, and gives me no time to prepare an adequate response to so interesting, and far-reaching a subject. If I had the time I would gladly respond in per- son, but a few words on paper must do. Celebrations such as you propose are useful, for they serve to remind us of -the virtues of the fathers, who were noted for their devotion to religion, to education, to economy, and to enterprise, and these characteristics are the crowning glory of a man or of a' nation. So strong was their character, and so enterprising, that they have had a great influence in molding the institutions of the most important sections of the West, and the power of a nation is overwhelming when industry, and education, and religion are the qualifications of her citizens most highly prized. If our educational institutions are main- tained at the highest standard of excellence, and the teachings of the fathers of the Republic are observed, we may look with confidence to attaining a higher position than any nation of which a record exists, and progress in the future will be even greater than it has been in the past. That your enterprising and flourishing town may partake of the prosperity which is sure to come in the great future is the wish of Yours Sincerely, Wm. Whiting. To Henry H. Sawyer, Esq., Sec'y, Easthampton, Mass. Our Commonwealth. — As in the past, so in the future, may her iiulus trial, educational, social and religious influence remain a sovereign powei throughout the sisterhood of states. [Mr. Knight.] Massachusetts has been justly proud 74 EASTHAMPTGN CENTENNIAL RECORD. of her long line of able governors. In all the history of the commonwealth we have never had one who enjoyed to a greater degree the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens, than our present chief magistrate. I have the pleasure and the honor of introducing to you his Excellency. George D. Robinson. ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY. GEORGE D. ROBIN- SON, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS. Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: — The Commonwealth brings in my presence to-day a most cordial and abundant greeting to the town of East- hampton. The whole state is but the combination of the towns and cities within her borders, and they of the people dwelling in them. There would be and could be no Massachusetts of which we should have the right to have any pride, if it were not in the good order and the intelligence, in the loyalty, in the true manhood and womanhood of the people. You know, ladies and gentlemen, that when perchance you fall into the company of one who is quite advanced in years, nothing that you can say to him will so much delight his heart, as to assure him that he looks at least twenty years younger than he really is. [Laughter. J His step is lighter; it is firmer, and longer by several inches afterwards, and he is quite a young man again, as frisky as the colt that prances over the hills. You people of Easthampton may think that it is my duty to tell you to-day that I suspect that you are not really so old by *twenty-four years as you claim you are. [Laughter.] *It will be observed (See page 1.) that Easthampton was incorporated in 1785 as a "district." From this circumstance a question rose whether the one-hundredth birthday as a town docs not come at a later date. To test this question, and it' possible prevent the use of public funds for the celebration, a petition signed by fourteen tax-payers was presented at the April term of the Supreme Judicial Court, Judge Charles Allen presiding, averring that Easthampton was incorporated a town on the 16th daj of June, 1809 (the date when Easthampton was first admitted to the privilege of sending independently a representative to the General Court) and that the centennial anniversary of said event will he on the 16th day of June. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 75 Possibly you did not begin until 1809, and you think you did in L785. [Renewed laughter.] Now what are you here for to-day? Why didn't you wait twenty-four years? For my own part. I am delighted that you did not; because with the mutations of politics, and the aspirations of our people all around, there is certainly great danger that the present chief magistrate would not be able to be here then. [Laughter.] As it has been my privilege to-day to ride along your pleasant streets, finding thrift, and convenience, and comfort, and happiness on all sides; to look down the ranks of the people as they came in from the towns all about the county, aye, all over the land, it may be; seeing there a familiar face, here a well-known look, there an intimate friend of times past, I fell to thinking whether, after all, the announcement that I read in the morning paper, that the governor of Massachusetts was to be here to-day, was not a mistake. I looked to see if I could see him anywhere, but I have not put my eye on him. [At this point a person said, '"There he stands, the man who signed the Metropolitan Police Bill."] I have always found that in some enterprises a partnership is a good thing. [Laughter and applause.] Take my friend in. He and I together can run this speech to a great success. [Laughter.] All we ever want in any dish is a little spice. It makes it go better. If you have any to spare, and I seem a little dull, toss some of yours in. The speech will be all the more sprightly. [Applause and merriment.] To resume, as the clergymen say. [Laughter.] The feeling was one rather of a person than of an official, of one acquainted with the persons, 1909, and praying that the selectmen and others might lie enjoined from incurring expense in any way to the town for the celebration. Lawyers David Hill. J. A. Wainwright and A. J. Fargo were the counsel for the petitioners and Judge Win. (i. Bassett for the selectmen, town treasurer, and chairman of the centennial executive committee, who were made respondents. A hearing was had April 21st. Seven days later the petition was "dismissed with costs.** The counsel for the petitioners appealed to the Full Bench of the Supreme Judicial Court, who will hold their next session for Franklin ami Hampshire counties at Greenfield. Sept. 1-lth. See also reference to the subject on pages 34, 35 and 49. 76 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. and with scenes that were familiar. And yet, Mr. President, the sentiment that has been read in my presence here, now awakens me to a sense of my responsibility, brings me to the consciousness that I am in some way to speak for Massachusetts. Now, no man, whoever he may be, can utter her voice. She has always spoken for herself. She is most eloquent in her own acts and history. She has an abundance of speech in the wealth, in the manhood, in the integrity of her people, in their development, in their fidelity, and in their character. It is too much to ask any one to declare the sentiments of our good and ancient commonwealth. We celebrate to-day anniversaries of several notable events. In yonder city, the metropolis of the state, in that part formerly a city by itself, is celebrated an anniversary associated with the early struggle for the independence of this country. You meet upon the same day here. You bring to recollection the act of the men in 1785 who caused the governor of the commonwealth at that time to sign his approval to the bill which brought into existence the town of Easthampton. You also step forward in your imagination and recollect ten years from that time, and you come to the birthday of a man who was identified most closely with the development of this community, and who stamped his character and placed his influence here, so that, not only on the people of his generation, but everywhere, even to the limits of the world, the good effect was felt. Rarely does a town have the opportunity on the anniversary of its birthday to bring together so many precious and salutary associations. Yesterday I took into my hand the old charter of this town, signed by Governor James Bowdoin one hundred years ago this day. To be exact in the matter of history, you should bear in mind that it was not the act of the people of Easthampton that was transacted upon that 17th day of June, L785, but the approval of the act by the governor of the commonwealth. What interest attaches to such a document as that to which I have alluded ! written in fair round hand, in yet clear and legible letters throughout upon the sheet of parchment, signed by the speaker of the House then, and the president EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 77 of the Senate, and approved by the governor of the commonwealth. What man of those could ever for one moment have anticipated what was to flow from those acts? There is more significance in the connection of Governor Bowdoin with the development of this town than may be at first imagined. You know very well, if you are familiar with the accounts of his life, that he was a gentleman of high and liberal education, that he was loyal and liberty loving, and that he was devoted, according to his highest instincts, to the safety of the commonwealth and to the advancement of the United States. You will recall the fact, in addition, that during his administration, he called in the strongest manner the attention of the Legislature and the people to the dependence of our countrymen upon foreign products, impressing upon them that in order to secure their independence, and maintain their stability, they should at once establish home industries. And he and the lieutenant governor then, and a large portion of the Senate and of the Council signed a solemn agreement that they would wear nothing but homespun articles. He argued that it would surely bring up the development of the commonwealth, if the people, who were giving their attention solely to agriculture, could find employ- ment in some of the other pursuits. He advocated the establishment of manufactories in Massachusetts; that alongside of the farm should be the mill and the shop; and that by that diversity of employment, by that variety of interest, a great development among the people, and the advancement of the state would take place. If you will examine the history of that time, you will find how assiduous he was in impressing, in enforcing that idea. He approved the bill for the establishment of this town. This community, then of four hundred and fifty-seven persons, as has been said by the Orator of the day. only a little fraction even of the then small population of .Massachusetts, was devoted entirely to the business of farming. So it continued down into the decade that followed. Then there comes into being the man who afterwards brought here to this place the employment that the governor of that time urged should be for the 78 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. advantage of the whole people. Moreover, institutions in behalf of religion were not only patronized here, but received the attention, care and support of the officials of the commonwealth. Educational institutions were carefully supported. And you have here in the develop- ment of this town worked out those leading principles and thoughts, those purposes to which Governor James Bowdoin seemed to be most actively devoted, You have given attention here to the establishment of the church, to the maintenance of its organization, and not only to keep up its organization, but to keep up its attendance, which is better still. You have provided not only for the instruction of all within the borders of the town, but for whomsoever will come. And there has sprung up here a system of manufacturing, an application of manufacturing industry and pursuit, that has challenged the admiration even of the busy people of Massachusetts. To-day you come forward with, instead of four hundred and fifty-seven people in these borders, forty -five hundred. And is it the fact, as some complaining men sometimes say, that here and now, to-day, the people are less free than they were when they tilled the soil only, or when they numbered the scanty hundreds? No. With all the advantages that have multiplied on every hand, and they are almost beyond number and appreciation, with the great advance made from 1785 to 1885, one stands challenged to produce anything in the world elsewhere that shall surpass the development made here. And yet, there is not a citizen of Easthampton, no matter what his standing may be, poor or rich, high or low, as people call it, that has not his liberty as safe in this year of 1885, aye, and more so than in 1785. There isn't any occasion for gloom or despondency. The sun has not yet set. There is a bright look ahead, not only for the town, but for the county and the state. We are taking new elements into the population, moulding them over, assimilating them, working them into an intelligent and loyal free citizenship, and no one need fear that the strength of American citizenship and institutions is to be broken. The page of history over which we have lingered to-day may be turned down as a portion of the EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 79 record of the past; but history we make, every moment; and what shall be written in the future is largely for the people of the present to say, who as fellow citizens have been pleased to attend here to-day, and to con- template so much that gives real delight and encourage- ment. If the men and women who have lived in the past hundred years had been faithless to their duty; if the steady and sober people whose very acts have for the time being provoked in us a smile, had, after all, been more lax in the observance of the principles that make for good order, and peace, and sobriety; if, after all, they had been less appreciative of the rights of humanity that every man enjoys with his fellows, would we have had to-day so goodly a heritage? I tell you, no. Nor did the virtue all depart at the death of those men, nor did patriotism cease to exist when they died. Men now live who gave their all that the country might live. Men now are before us who have our honor and our veneration for their sacrifice and loyalty, as fully as the men in the time of the Revolution. What I see in the present time, what I look forward to in the future, is the continued fidelity of the people to the high prin- ciples that underlie the safety of the government of the commonwealth, and of the whole country. This day's sun will soon set, but the exercises of the day will impress themselves upon every person who has been present; and not only upon these few hundreds that sit here, but everywhere, all over the land, persons are at this moment thinking, "How goes it in Easthampton to-day?" In the eyes of many of you I detect now the expression of kindly sympathy, and affection, and love for those who were here, and are not now with us. The salutary effect of such associations can never be over-estimated. It will improve the measure of joy that some of you have felt as you have come upon this soil to-day, after the lapse of many years, to reach out your hand in cordial greeting to some friend that you have not seen for many years. You, father or mother, that have thrown open wide the door to-day, to let the boy or girl born under your roof tree come once more and sit at your table. You all have warm and open hearts for those you love. 80 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. We all love those that are devoted to the same things that we are, and we are benefited by the indulgence of that affection. Yes, maintain the church, keep alive the school, reverence the flag that is the symbol of our liberty, but gather in those blessings which are so closely associated with the associations of home. Next to the Church I put the Christian home. And you show me the man or woman that stands faithfully by that, and I will show you the person who has a firm regard for what is high, and true, and noble, and honorable, and who is not ashamed to confess his manhood and to declare his presence anywhere. You and I will not be here a hundred years hence to consider the record of the next century. But others will come, a multitude manifold. And they will look back to to-day, examine the record of this hour, compare what the past has brought with what they have, our future having ripened into their past, and put their verdict upon the fidelity of the people of 1885. Ladies and gentlemen, I detain you no longer but to bear to you my most hearty testimonial of gratitude for your cordial attention, to express my appreciation of the success that has been accomplished here to-day, and to say that he who appreciates the welfare of Massachusetts, or in any degree professes to stand for her, must always have the most intense satisfaction at gatherings of the people in orderly, in inspiring, in ennobling purpose, such as has been visible here to-day. Our County. — Renowned for its rural beauty, the thrift of its towns ami, villages, the stability and honesty of its inhabitants. May the legacy of the fathers, enlarged and ennobled, be the inheritance of the children. [Mi-. Knight,] Ladies and Gentlemen: — It is my pleas- ure to introduce to you a gentleman who for a term of eighteen years has served the county of Hampshire with ability and fidelity and to the satisfaction of all its inhabi- tants. Colonel E. A. Edwards of Southampton. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 81 ADDRESS OF COL. E. A. EDWARDS. Mr. President. Ladies and Gentlemen: — What shall he say who comes after the king ? The gentleman who has preceded me, our most excellent Governor, one whom we all respect, represents a large state, while I, being called upon second for a speech, represent but a very small part of that state. I am called upon to respond to the senti- ment which you have just heard, our county, the county of Hampshire. First I shall speak of the county of Hampshire as it was. In 1662 the county of Hampshire comprised what is now the four western counties of the state. In ninety- nine years thereafter, or in 1761, our county was divided by a line running north and south, the western portion taking the name of Berkshire. In 1811 our county was again divided by a line running nearly east and west, the northern portion taking the name of the county of Frank- lin. In the year following, that is, in 1812, the county was again divided, the southern portion being set off, and named the county of Hampden. Thus, you see, we whol are here to-day retain the name of Hampshire, the origina name of the large county, which at present altogether comprises more than a hundred towns and cities. The county of Hampshire as it is to-day is a small county in comparison with many of its rich neighbors. The county of Hampshire has within its borders a fertile soil. It is noted for its mountains upon the east of us, and for the Pomeroy Mountain upon the west, which is coming into prominence as a beautiful place from which to view the landscape o'er. We have the largest river in the state, passing through it and cutting it in two nearly equal parts. We have an abundance of crops in kinds without number. But best of all, and greater than all, we have the men and the women that are equal to. if they do not surpass, their fathers who have gone before them. Southampton, my native town, celebrated its centen- nial forty-four years ago, a hundred years after it was set off as the first precinct of Northampton. Easthampton joined with us at that time in celebrating that great event, great to us, as this is great to you. Easthampton was 6 82 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. formed a hundred years ago to-day. The act passed the Legislature, as our Governor has told us, and which history tells us. One hundred years ago the northern line of Southampton was not far from where we now are. The line was just north of the old meeting house which used to stand out here on the park, as I am told. So, you see that Northampton alone cannot claim the motherhood, for a large part of Easthampton was for more than half a century, a part of Southampton. Southampton is entitled to some credit in that direction. The Orator of the day told us that Southampton was loath to part with a portion of her territory, but the State, the Legislature and the Governor were greater than Southampton, and they took it from us. I said a minute ago that the people were greater than all the other surroundings, our beautiful land, our rivers and valleys. Hampshire County has educated more men in proportion to her inhabitants, perhaps, than any other county in the state. Our ministers have gone abroad, and followed the injunction, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Our students are in our high schools. We have the lawyers; we have had governors that originated in Hampshire county. We have members of congress of both houses that were born and raised in Hampshire County. Easthampton to-day is entitled to a great deal of credit. Easthampton is the smallest in territory of our twenty-two towns and one city; little, but smart, as is evidenced by her numerous factories; and all these have been built since my remembrance. Well it might be called smart, when Easthampton numbered only seven hundred and thirty inhabitants forty-five years ago, while Southampton, one of the mother towns, num- bered at that time thirteen hundred. So that you see we claim the credit in part of your success to-day. That is, we of Southampton are represented here largely, to-day, as relatives of your own citizens. I am obliged to you for listening to me so long. [ Applause. ] Our Mother Town, — Still honored and respected, although having exchanged her usual walk and conversation for that of a metropolis. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 83 [Mr. Knight.] Ladies and Gentlemen: — It gives us very great pleasure to see here to-day so many persons from the Mother Town. Not only have we present with us to-day the mayor and aldermen of the city of North- ampton, but we are also glad to welcome many other cit- izens of the infant city. I will call upon his Honor, Mayor Cook, to respond to the sentiment that has just been read. ADDRESS OF MAYOR B. E. C()( )K, JR. Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: — Represent- ing Northampton, the mother of all the Hamptons, I am most happy to be with you to-day, and to extend our heartiest congratulations upon the success of your centennial cele- bration. It has been an occasion worthy of the liberal and public-spirited people of Easthampton. As it often happens that the youngest is a favorite in the family, so it is that Northampton has always been proud, and is prouder to-day than ever, of her youngest, her handsome daughter, Easthampton. Although North- ampton has a history of nearly two hundred and fifty years, yet we must remember that many of the men who helped make that history were residents of that portion of the old town now comprised in the territory of East. West and Southampton, and as we read the names inscribed on the tablets in our own Memorial Hall, of the old heroes in the colonial and revolutionary wars, we find a good proportion of them were residents of the same territory. The change from town to city government in North- ampton was looked upon with misgivings by many of our citizens, and even now they regret giving up the old-fash- ioned town meeting with all its attractions. But there is the consolation of knowing that if the longing to witness the old scenes becomes too strong to be resisted, we can visit our neighbor, Easthampton, at least once a year, and see the original article in undiminished vigor. It is a fact to be proud of that Easthampton lias so many public improvements and no funded debt. We have some of the improvements in Northampton, but in common with all the other cities of this commonwealth. 84 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. we answer the boy's description of his father's new house, ending up with the statement that there was a cupola on the top and a mortgage on top *o that. The tendency of debt, public and private, is to destroy independence. I believe the advice of Robert Burns about money is the best we have: "To get money, not to hide it in a hedge, nor for a train attendant, but for the glorious privilege of being independ- ent." As we survey the hundreds of prosperous homes, farms, and places of business in Easthampton. this queen of New England towns, we know the advice of Robert Burns has been followed here. With its beautiful situa- tion, charming scenery, pure air and water, and intelligent people, if one cannot find comfort and happiness here. I know not where on earth to look for it. It was the intention of the chairman during the exer- cises at the tent to have called upon a member of the Board of Selectmen to respond for the Town of Easthamp- ton. Our much respected citizen, Edwin R. Bosworth. under whose plan and superintendence nearly one half of all the factories, business houses and dwellings of the village have been erected, when apprised of his selection for the occasion, modestly declined to fill the appointment unless he might read the response. The records of the day would hardly be complete without Mr. Bosworth's tribute to his native town, omitted from rehearsal on Centennial Day for want of time. ADDRESS OF E. R. BOSWORTH. ESQ. An officer of the town some seven years, associated with officers more efficient, always realizing our obligation, with careful watch we have guarded its interests, fought its battles and cared for its weal. Myself under a painful realization of inefficiency, and a grateful appreciation of the forbearance of my fellow townsmen, accepting in then- good natured indulgence w T ork so imperfectly done. But on no occasion in my official life have I felt so keenlv my EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 85 own imworthiness as here to-day, under orders as Chair- man of the Selectmen, to answer for the Town of East- hampton, the dear old town whose one-hundredth year of life we now celebrate. We look around and see the fields burdened with richest yield, the meadows heavy with the wealth of cereal production, the streams that wind their graceful way to the long river, all guarded by the beautiful circle of moun- tains surrounding the western view, giving us in its varied light and shade, — indebted as it is to the rich valley at its feet, — a picture that no art could rival or pen de- scribe. A rich possession ! A princely inheritance ! No tribute is demanded for the view, save in the raising of admiring eyes we all pay reverential tribute to the good Father in Heaven for such rich bestowal. More attractive yet, is the eastern picture, with its varied coloring, precipitous frontage, and bold and lofty presence. The view stirs up our pride in the beauties and grandeur of scenes our mother Nature has so lavishly showered upon us. Towering old Mount Tom ! — Frowning only on evil deeds, it shines approval on us to-day. At such a, time as this, I cannot forbear offering a tribute of affection to our honored dead, that are so closely allied with all our public and private interests, Hon. Samuel Williston and Hon. Edmund H. Sawyer. The former, possessed of great wealth, made the town richer and happier by his beneficence. The latter, with heart o'erflowing with love for his town and townspeople, endeared himself to all with such affection as silence alone can express. Death is likened unto a pebble thrown into the sea, — a ripple only, and the waters subside; we cannot accept this simile, for our tears are yet fresh. These friends who have passed away will live and live on in our affections in such full measure as not to admit of possible change. Our industries, too, must have fitting place in this memorial. Our factories representing spindle, shuttle and loom, producing fabrics of the most delicate nature, imitating with their hum and buzz the bee, whose busy life they typify. The ponderous machinery that molds with its gigantic power the most unrelenting substance 86 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. and forms it into elastic and yielding manufacture, re- minds us of another important factor which contributes its full share to the town's prosperity. The click, click, click, of machinery earliest heard among us. cunningly devised, and made perfect by careful study and application, for many years furnishing to the world a product indispen- sable. — the pioneer of the industries of Easthampton and the key to its prosperity. We do reverence to it as being the enterprise that laid the foundation of our success as a business community, and not less the establishment of an educational institution of which we are justly proud. The mechanic arts, too, are represented in no mean degree. We hear the sound of the trip-hammer that fashions the crude iron into wieldy forms, and with the assistance of finest machinery turns unshapely bars, as if by magic, into pumps and engines. Williston Seminary, — worthy in eulogy the pen of an Everett or a Curtis, I dare undertake only its caption >and will leave its story to more fitting hands to render to it just praise and place it with the proudest educational institutions of the land, where it deserves to be. I could with propriety mention in detail other institu- tions and industries, such as our banking facilities, our public library, our farmers, merchants, tradesmen. — craftsmen of varied mechanical skill, — and many other interests, that would be appropriate, did time allow, but 1 have already taken more than my share. So let us bid God speed to the welfare of the town whoso day we celebrate, praying that it may grow in grace and honor, and that its prosperity may ever be assured. May its next centennial be even brighter than the present. We who are here to-day will be roaming over other fields then. God grant they may be elysian. Th, Judiciary. — Like their patron deity, blind <>r eye and ilinty of heart, a terror to evil doers, the confidence of the upright. [Mr. Knight. | 1 have the honor of introducing to you Judge J. M. Barker of the Superior Court. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 87 ADDRESS OF JUDGE J. M. BARKER. Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: — I suppose if the second part of the toast read be true, that I must have been selected to address you at this time because, contrary to the practice and almost universal custom of judges, if I am not blind of eye, I am certainty flinty of heart. Yes, the ancients personified Justice as not blind, but blind-folded. She could see, but that she might do justly and rightly, she forbore the exercise of that privilege of sight, and blinded her eyes, that she might not be influenced by any consideration which ought not to influence her. She held in her hands the scales of justice evenly balanced. She held also within reach the sword that executed her decrees. I believe, Mr. President, that in this commonwealth, whoever has been called upon during all the time that it has been a commonwealth, to respond for the judiciary of Massachusetts upon such an occasion as this, could do it proudly; for he could do it because he felt and knew that the people of the common- wealth had always reposed, and felt that they could safely repose confidence in their judiciary. It is some- thing which one who was brought up. as I was. in a town of Massachusetts, accustomed in boyhood, when attending school, to watch the assemblages of its citizens, and study as well as he could human character, it is, as I say, a privilege for one to look in upon and take part in such an assembly and celebration as this has been to-day. As we go through the commonwealth, upon our circuits, we watch the people of the common- wealth, and endeavor to see whether there is progress toward that happy state of things when courts shall perhaps be only empty forms, when the office of judge may be one which will administer itself: and I am happy to say that in this county to-day there seems to be but little call for the execution of the criminal laws. We are just finishing a term of the Superior Court, for the transaction of criminal business, at which but three cases have been tried, and the term is substantially closed. That is not quite as favorable a showing as in one county in the eastern portion of the commonwealth in which 88 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. it was my fortune to attend court, where there was no criminal matter to be passed upon, and no indictment was found by the grand jury. That is a county where the descendants of the Pilgrims have dwelt since 1640, and where they seem to keep up evenly and completely the traditions of the past. But, Mr. President, his Excel- lency the Governor is gone. It is not always pleasant to say anything that is other than complimentary to the town. But I had, if he were here, a little charge to bring against Easthampton; not a serious charge; but not a breath of suspicion should be allowed to be felt in the course of the administration of justice. It was stated in the speech of the Orator of the day, one of the most eloquent men at the bar of our courts, and upon the judiciary of Massachusetts, that in the time of Shays' rebellion there were many Easthampton men ready to suppress the rebellion, and only one who was in favor of or acted in advancing it. But one of the objects of the Shays Rebellion, was the suppression of the courts. I must say it rather seems to me, that while not in actual rebellion, this town of Easthampton upon this day has not attempted to suppress the court merely, but has actually suppressed it. For. Mr. Chairman, there ought to be now sitting in Northampton, the county seat, two terms of court. But when they were opened about two weeks ago, the sheriff mildly intimated that an anni- versary was to be celebrated on the 17th of June, and it would be very difficult for him to be in court. And we said there were the deputies; but the answer was that the deputies also would be needed, though why deputy sheriffs should be needed in such an assembly as this, or anywhere about this place, no one could tell. And when the jurors were drawn, it was found that the East- hampton jurors would not be happy if they were kept away from home on that day. There was the same trouble about witnesses. Yesterday afternoon we wanted a witness from Easthampton, but it appeared that he was in charge of the men who were watering the struts. Whereupon we had to adjourn those terms of court, and Easthampton has now suppressed the courts [laughter], temporarily only let us hope [laughter], because, if I EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 89 remember rightly, Easthampton has upon the docket of this very term a suit, and when that suit is tried, let her expect and hope that Justice if not the judge be blind. [Applause. J Our Soldi* rs uml Sailors. — The pride and guardians of the nation, invin- cible as defenders, peace loving and law abiding as citizens. [Mr. Knight.] Ladies and Gentlemen: — Colonel Hop- kins, who is always received here gladly, is with us to-day, and with us. as I believe, at considerable personal incon- venience. He once wrote that he would come. Then he informed us that he could not come. But we had the great pleasure of hearing this morning that he would be with us this afternoon. I now have the pleasure of presenting to you Colonel W. B. S. Hopkins of Worcester. ADDRESS OF COLONEL W. B. S. HOPKINS. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I am most happy to be in Easthampton to-day, and those of you, and there are a great many of you who are included, who know me, know I tell the truth and natter not when I say so. I have never, since I sought my home in other parts of this commonwealth, failed, so far as I can recollect, when summoned, to come back with joy to the old Connecticut Valley; and when summoned by one of the children of old Northampton to come to its freedom day (for I take it that Easthampton is among the towns of the commonwealth that are now of age) nothing could restrain me. I am called upon, sir, to respond to a toast upon which I feel it a great pleasure and compliment to be asked to say a word. You have not called upon me to address this assemblage upon military renown, upon the topic of heroism or of strategy, upon the history of war or of the generals of the world. You have called upon me to speak for our soldiers and sailors. Now there is an immense sermon that is contained in or might easily be 90 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. preached from that one word our, taken in that connection. It is not the soldier and the sailor who in the history of our race have fought the battles of despotism. It is not the soldier or sailor, brave, courageous, chivalrous though he may be, who under commission from foreign nations, or as knights errant of old, fought for the glory of arms. It is our soldier and our sailor of whom you ask me to speak. Therefore it is not the soldier and sailor of the regular army and navy: because during the more than one hundred years during which our nation has existed in all its strength, and has grown to such magnificent pro- portions as it now presents before the nations of the earth, the regular army of the United States has been substan- tially a handful of men only. So that when you ask your fellow-citizen, whoever he may be, to respond for our soldier, you do not ask him to speak the praises of the regular army of the United States. Let me not seem, however, to slight so noble a body as that which constitutes the professional soldiers among us. The Regular Army and its military academy gave to us every general of eminence who achieved any wholly inde- pendent successful campaign in the late war; and the citizens of Easthampton ought ever to bear in affectionate remembrance the memory of Major Gen. Strong of the Reg- ulars, an Easthampton boy. a brave, broad gentleman of a soldier, whose name the Grand Army Post here did well to assume. You mean, however, by the term, "our soldiers and sailors," the citizen soldier and the citizen sailer who has fought for liberty in this country, from the days of 1.776, and the days of L812; to the days of 1861-65. Any man may well be proud to be asked, in this presence, to say a word for the citizen soldier of the American republic. This army that has so lately risen among you and gone out again among you, this army that was the marvel of the time and the marvel of the world, this army that performed acts of heroism, individually and in organized bodies, such as any army that any leader ever Led ftiight well be proud of, and then disappeared again among the people to resume the duties of citizenship, without any shock to society; this great, grand army of the republic. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 91 in the days of '61 and '65, is what is present in your minds when you ask me to respond for our soldiers and sailors. Now I have but one or two words to say in relation to the army with which you were all so familiar. It was an army that was made up from the people. It carried the musket, and it drew the sword, inspired by the brain and the conscience of the American people; and for that reason it was an army never to be feared except by its enemies, always to be trusted by the lovers of right throughout the world. It was an army that so far as an injury to the nation was concerned could do no wrong, and so far as an injustice to the nation was concerned could brook no wrong. It was the people, and in its keeping the people's liberties were safe. It was not an army of men who, had they been handled by some skillful and ambitious leader, might possibly, haying accomplished the purpose for which it was organized, have been led to the enthrallment of the nation which organized it. Not Sheridan in the day of his brilliant flush of success, when he rode to the bat- tle twenty miles away; not Sherman when he was crowned with laurels after the march through Georgia; no, not even that great silent soldier, in whose last days we witness, around his sick bed. the homage of a nation, as its tears and prayers in turn arise and fall; no general, however brave, however able, could have turned the American army against the institutions of American government; because the army was the people, and the institutions were the institutions of the people, founded by their fathers, and cherished and protected by the sons. Your toast calls my attention for a moment to the duties of the soldier after he has returned from the field of battle, and resumed his place at home; a few words in regard to the duty of the returned soldier to his country, and his country's duty to him. The people of the United Slates, I believe, are profoundly grateful to the army Unit saved the nation in the civil war. I believe they look upon its heroism, not only with the ordinary pride that follows military achievement, not only with the affection that comes from the heart of kindred and friends; but I believe they look upon them as men who at the crisis of the nation sacriticed position, sacrificed perhaps their lives 92 EASTHAMPTGN CENTENNIAL RECORD. without laying them down upon the battle-field, for the sake of the sustaining of the national flag, and the integ- rity of. the national government; and they have the gratitude, profound and deep, of the American people. But, fellow soldiers and fellow citizens, there is no man after all who ought to have so truly at his own heart the welfare of the country and the welfare of the people, as the man who fought to save it in the day of danger. There is no man who ought in his inmost heart to cherish more warmly the good of the nation than the man who was ready to lay down his life for it. It is those things that we work for, it is those things that we sacrifice for, it is those things we are ready to die for, that we love. So it was, that the soldier, when he came back among his fellow citizens, and resumed his position in his family and as a citizen, a tax-payer, a farmer, a professional man, no matter what his calling, had a great stake and should feel a vital interest in the welfare of the government. I believe our fellow citizens are always ready to recognize the claim of the soldier. And I believe that the good soldier wants nothing more than is due him as a man. He needs no exemption from the lot of humanity in general. He wants what is due him as a man only, and what he has proved his title to. [Applause. ] I ought not to detain you. You have been through long services to-day, and you have other gentlemen to hear from, upon whose time I must not trespass. However, I want to say a single word in Easthampton in regard to what has always seemed to me to be one of the chief glories of the town, and that is its happy, well-cared-for, well-supported, honorable laboring population. I do not believe that within the whole of the New England States, and if not in the New England States, then nowhere on this broad footstool could it be found, I do not believe there has been a town that has had the history during the last fifty years that Easthampton has had, as the home of contented and happy labor. I cannot go from here with- out referring to that, because it is within the scope of my own life, your neighbor as a boy and your neighbor as a young man. that this marvelous development has taken place here which has built up this beautiful, this Christian, EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 93 and this enterprising community, upon this little tract of soil that was only one hundred years ago set off from Northampton. It is a hundred years that has worked a miracle. And we may hope from the present character of the Easthampton population, and from every promise of the future, that another hundred years will simply work another miracle. But when I think of her noble yeomanry, when I think of her educational advantages, when I think of her Christian standing, and when I think of the enno- blement she has always meted out to labor. I have this to say, that even should adversity overtake you, should the sweet be turned to bitter, and Easthampton at some un- known, and God grant it may be distant, time, receive reverses, enough has been accomplished during the first hundred years of her life to transmit a noble heritage to the children of your children's children. [Great applause.] Our Returned Suns arid Daughters: — With regret we hade them adieu. with joyful hearts and outstretched arms we welcome their return. [Mr. Knight. J The Rev. Payson Williston Lyman will be called upon to respond to this sentiment. Mr. Lyman, will you be kind enough to come forward and take a place upon the platform. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. Payson W. Lyman of Belchertown, a native of Easthampton. ADDRESS OF REV. PAYSON WILLISTON LYMAN. Mr. President, Friends, and Fellow- Citizens: — I con- sider myself to have been called, by the master of these ceremonies, to a most pleasant duty. Show me a man who does not take delight in speaking the praise of the mother who bore him. who nursed him in his infancy, and who guided his footsteps up to manhood, and I will show you one who "is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." And the same in substance, I take it. may be said of him in whose heart the fires of patriotic devotion burn low. 94 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. "Breathes there the man. with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own. my native Land ! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned. As home his footsteps he hath turned • From wandering on a foreign strain I ?" In only less degree the same sentiments prevail toward one's native town, as toward his native land. Therefore it is that, to one whose family history in this place runs back almost to its settlement, antedating - the organization of the town by nearly half a century, whose boyhood and youth were spent here, who enjoyed your manifold social, educational and religious advantages, and who is still loyal to the old town in every fibre of his soul, no task could be more grateful than to speak, in the name of her returned sons and daughters, to you who to-day represent the dear old mother, and who have spread for us this festal board. Speaking in the name of the Clapps and Clarks, the Lymans and Wrights, in the name of the Janeses, Parsonses, Hannums, Ferrys, Pomeroys, and the rest of the troop who have come at your hearty call, I tell you of our joy, of our rejoicing, in all the past years, as we have witnessed the progress of this good old town, our mother, that cherished us in our infancy. We must claim, citizens of this town, a common share with you in the interest of this occasion, and in the fair fame and good name of Easthampton. None of you who are to-day making her history can, as it seems to us, love her better than do we. Many are the ties that bind us to the spot that gave us birth. The tender memories of childhood and youth which come thronging about us to-day have in the past bound, and do still bind us to this town as with "hooks of steel." Here are the graves of a sainted ancestry ; and here are now the homes of many whom we love. These holy memories and blessed associations attract us hither, and will continue so to attract. There- fore we have watched the approach of this anniversary, and have anticipated that, as the time drew near, the good old mother would set her house in order, kill the fatted calf, spread her table, and call her children home. And we have not been disappointed in our anticipations. You have called us and prepared for us EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 95 a royal welcome. In our love for our early home, and for the people who were boys and girls with us. we have come hither, from near and from far, to review the days gone by, to contrast the infancy of the place with its present, to congratulate you on its growth, to rejoice with you in its present and in its prospective standing, as a hive of busy agricultural and manufacturing industry, as an educational center, as the home of a patriotic and Christian people. We rejoice in all that we have seen, in the grand display of your industries, in the growing beauty of the town, in its evidently prosperous homes. But this is not the town, altogether, from which many of us departed. I, indeed, have been so located that I have kept track of its progress. Nevertheless I see plainly enough that it is not the town of my boyhood. Many of the farms are in the hands of people that are strangers to us who return. We find that other men own the stores and grind the grain and cut the lumber and saw it; other men mend the shoes of the boys and girls, and mend the shoes of the horses, and attend upon the sick; other men sit in the chairs of instruction in the seminary; other men preach the Word of Life to the people; other men bear the official and business responsibilities of the place. The hills indeed are here; the valleys that we love; the rivers and streams along whose banks we fished; the fields we cultivated; the highways we traversed; the mountains we climbed. Ah that mountain, Mount Tom ! Well may you engrave its rugged, weather-beaten, flinty face on your seal and banner. You may go far before you will find another such mountain as is this, when seen from this point. We who are far from you have carried that picture in our memory, and shall carry it to our graves. The charming natural scenery we recognize and it carries us back to the days of our child- hood. And here and there we find something familiar, besides the natural scenery. I read this morning, or might have read, the sign "L. Preston, Tailor." It was there when I was a boy. I remember that man (whom I saw in your procession this morning as escort of some of the honored guests) not so much because he cut our clothes, as because he was the custodian of the old library, 96 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. whose stores fed my youthful mind, — the library provided by our fathers for the culture of their households, that has a history running far back in the century now under review, its records long kept by the cultured and godly village pastor, "Father Williston," whose name I am proud to bear. That library, in reality the progenitor of the present noble institution, was as creditable for its day and for its supporters as is the library in whose benefits you now rejoice. In the post office we find another well remembered face. The administrations of Postmaster Bardwell and of Capt. Ferry, his immediate predecessor, cover forty -three of the sixty-four years since the town had an office. The chaplain of the day, long the loved pastor of some of us, what recollections, rich and precious, do that face and that voice evoke ! I cannot remember the time when the honorable President of the day was not a prominent factor in the affairs of the town. Thus some things remain, but more are changed. Pastors Williston and Bement, Deacons Clapp, Clark and Hannum, Samuel Williston, Edmund Sawyer, Luther Wright, Solomon Lyman and Josiah Clark, have ceased from among men. Under the inspiration of this historic review we recall these and many other men who in their day bore the honors of the town and carried its varied responsibilities, and as well the noble women who graced our public assemblies, and fashioned our home life. They are gone. They are gathered unto the fathers. We conjure you who remain, not only to honor the history of the past, but also to carry your civic life into the future, in the spirit of the fathers who are fallen asleep. You will not indeed be here a century hence. But it is yours to inaugurate the century, which will then pass in review before the minds of your children's children. In taking my seat, I offer you, in behalf of those who to-day return, this sentiment: The town we love, our honored and yet youthful mother. May her course be onward and upward as the years roll away. May her returning sons and daughters ever find hearts as warm as those which have greeted us on our return. May they ever find the tires of patriotism, of intel- lectual aspiration, and of Christian faith burning brightly on these ancestral altars. [Applause.] EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 97 [Mr. Knight.] Ladies and Gentlemen: — We have received a large number of letters, some of them of very great interest. We have letters from Senator Hoar, Senator Dawes, the Rev. Rollin H. Stone, General Samuel C. Pomeroy, ex-Governor Rice, the secretary of the commonwealth, the auditor of the commonwealth, the Hon. Oliver Warner, Dr. Edward Hitchcock, and many others. None of these letters will be read. Some of them will appear in the published record of our pro- ceedings. One sentiment prepared by the committee is : The Manufacturers, Mechanics and Business Men of the Past. — Our man- ufacturers, God-fearing and man-loving, having ability and wisdom to plan, with courage to execute. Our mechanics, inventive and practical, skilled and faithful. Our business men, of sound integrity and liberality. May the temper, example and legacy of the beginners be ours for all time. My friend, Mr. Sawyer, has prepared a response to this sentiment, but on account of our limited time he waives the privilege of speaking, and what he would say will appear in the published proceedings of this occasion. RESPONSE BY H. H. SAW T YER. The life and prosperity of our village so interlink with the history of our manufactures that to suggest the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the business man, at once brings us to the sentiment of the day. For this reason it is with humble diffidence that I make response. Thirty-five years ago there was little save the academy yonder to distinguish Easthampton from other villages in the western part of our commonwealth. In those days the farmer sowed his crops, reaped his harvest, piled up the logs for the long winter, attended strictly upon the Sabbath service and town-meeting, and for amusement and variety indulged in an occasional horse-trot down the Main Street of an evening. The younger portion of the community grew up in aiding their fathers and mothers upon the farm and at the fireside. They attended the select school at stated periods and amused themselves with turkey-shoots and simple games now long since consigned to oblivion. 7 98 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. There was for us then no telegraph, no railroad and not always a daily mail. Not having been incorporated into loom and frame, the shuttle and spindle were still in the hands of the busy housewife, whose adornment it was that she could spin yarns well. A little prior to 1850 began the incorporation of those industries that have made us what we are, and as we to-day knot the thread of memory and set the centennial mile- stone in village history, listen a moment to the record. If I am not greatly mistaken, in the valley yonder you will find four manufacturing establishments whose annual product exceeds in value those of any other single manufactory operated for the same purpose in this or any country. To the Button Company, the Nashawannuck Sus- pender Company, the Glendale Elastic Fabrics Company, and the Rubber Thread Company, belong the acknowl- edged distinction of leadership in the quality, quantity, and value of their manufactured product. To the majority of us here, to-day, who may be in modest ignorance of the position occupied by these corporations, let me cite a few figures. Beginning in the order of their establishment, but not antedating 1850, it is carefully estimated that the National Button Company has manufactured and sent into the world 20,000,000 gross of buttons, valued at $7,500,000, and have paid for labor upwards of $2,000,000. The Nashawannuck Man- ufacturing Company have made sales of suspenders, welts and frills, aggregating $9,000,000, and paid for labor $2,750,000. The Glendale Elastic Fabrics Company, organ- ized in L862, has already furnished a product of $8,000,000, and paid the laborer $1,750,000. The Williston Mills have a product of nearly $7,000,000 in value and have paid for labor some $2,250,000. The Easthampton Rubber Thread Company have sold no less than $4,500,000 of rubber thread and paid $450,000 for labor. The Valley Machine Company have sent out $800,000 worth of pumps and paid the laboring man some $450,000. The Mt. Tom Thread Company have made some $600,000 in thread value, and paid for labor $200,000. The Glenwood Mills, of more recent origin, have produced $350,000 of manu- factured silks, and paid for labor $70,000. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. <)<) In the period of our manufacturing prosperity since 1850, our little village averaging less than 4000 inhabitants, has purchased annually, raw mater:;. 1, and given the world $40,000,000 of completed fabrics, and during the same time paid $10,000,000 to the laborer. Think, for a moment, of our varied industries. While the villages in New England are often known distinctively by the especial lines of their manufacture, Easthampton sends to South America for the rubber manipulated by her Rubber Thread Company. She lays hands on Japan for the raw silk used in her silk fabrics. Her cotton mills have made use of the growth of Egypt and the far-off islands of the sea, to improve the fibre and strength of her yarns. The Button Company draws upon England for the Taggers iron which she covers with the products of France and Germany. Since 1850 no less than 21,000,000 gross of buttons have left our village and over 30,000,000 pairs of sus- penders; surely for the past thirty-five years we have buttoned and braced a continent. In the Capitol at Washington, by the waters of the Nile, at Alexandria, on the sugar plantations of Cuba, and in the mines of Mexico, throb for Easthampton. the pumps that never fail of a first premium when exhibited. These industries, however, did not spring from Minerva's head ready made, but were the product of the manly, enlightened, united energy of virtuous men, and for them I am reminded I am to speak. We give to-day the glory to the beginner, but although times and circumstances change, forget not that the same principles that influenced the conduct of our predecessors are immutable to the end of time. Who rides behind the buckskin horse in yonder chaise ? A man of commanding figure and courtly presence, who made money to leave it in Easthampton; a man who gathered about him a little circle of advisers, that the results of their united wisdom and vigor might supplement his wealth and foresight and bring prosperity and activity to the village he most loved. Often has Samuel Williston been spoken of by the multitude who knew him, and no word of mine can add to his repute. 100 EASTHAMPTCN CENTENNIAL RECORD. He, by reason of his sterling character, his rare conscien- tiousness to do his duty at all tinies, and his exceptional success was pre-eminently the manufacturer of the town and section. He sleeps in yonder cemetery, but his works live after him, and those whose hands carry forward the business industries he so wisely inaugurated, still cling to the temper and wisdom of his methods. In the promotion of almost every industry of promi- nence in our village, I find three names coupled together in their acts of incorporation: Samuel Williston, Horatio :55 the Boston Latin School, the parent of all classical academies in Massachusetts, was established, one year before the establishment of Harvard college. Before the next college, Williams, was established in Massachu- setts, four classical academies had come into being, and Williams college began as a classical academy. In quick succession they came, until the classical academies of. Massachusetts numbered more than a hundred. Tyler, in his history of American literature, notes the fact that the colonists at Boston had among their own number men amply capable to instruct any school outside of Harvard college, without going back to England for professor or teacher. So well did the academies do their work that they preserved this standard of education among the de- scendants of the original colonists, and they carried such a sentiment for the schools among the other peoples who 104 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. came here to mix with these people, that the high school was brought into existence, in the hope that the advan- tages of these academies might be brought to the door of the humblest and the poorest of the land. The academy, then, has done its work, and continues so to do. The high school having come into existence, many of those acad- emies found their work so well done by the high school that they have ceased to exist. Only here and there is one still managed as an academy, and these are the institu- tions that have been heavily endowed. Therefore, when Samuel Williston. thinking there was occasion for another academy in this valley, and perhaps foreseeing that West- field, Mountain, Hopkins and Amherst academies, and others, lacked the endowment that was sufficient to main- tain their standard and thereby meet the increasing de- mands of education, he here laid a foundation which so far as can be foreseen, is adequate to all the demands of edu- cation as they shall be developed during the next fifty years at least. What may be done after that, or what may be demanded, is not for the concern of this generation. Others will then care for it. Schools are not simply en- dowed. They are not simply built, but, my friends, they have to grow. Williston Seminary has had to grow; and it is to-day not simply what it was when Samuel Williston laid its foundation, but it is what it is by all the gathered strength of all the labor of all these men during all these years. It is like a tree which has gathered into itself all the life and the inspiration and the strength of devoted laborers. The possession of such an institution in a town is a most valuable possession. It is an item of its wealth which can hardly be estimated. But the academy not only gives to the town; the town must give to the academy. If the academy grows, it is affected in its growth by the vicinity in which it is planted, by the circumstances which surround it. So while this institution owes something to Easthampton, Easthampton owes something to the institu- tion. I responded most heartily to some of the closing words of the Orator of the day, where he said in substance that the past is secure, hut for the future we must lie ourselves re- sponsible. It rests with the town of Easthampton to see to EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 105 it that in the time to come, as in the time that has gone by, this vicinity shall continue to be a tit place for the abode of an institution of Christian training and nurture; I doubt not it will continue to be a fitting abode. A people who live by the honest toil of their hands, who are simple in their ways of life, who pretend to be no more than they are. who earn every dollar they have by honest toil, and mean to spend it frugally and wisely, such a people will, I am persuaded, furnish ample support and encouragement for the institution in years to come. In a very few years we will be gone. But then I hope some other master of cere- monies shall be able to utter a toast similar to that which has been uttered to-day: and that this seminary of learning shall then appear, still successful, still gathering within its influence many sons and daughters. ( ). may the time never come when it shall sit here as a weeping, childless Niobe, but throned on her height of usefulness may she still receive the homage of those whom she has blessed and at the close of the next century, rejoice as she does to-day in the possession of many loyal sons. [Great applause.] The Press. — Often the exponent, sometimes the author of public opinion. A power for good or evil. May its patriotism be pure, its counsels wise, its voice uncompromising iu support of every good word and work. [Mr. Knight.] In many of the homes, I may say in most of the homes, of Hampshire County, the Hampshire Gazette rinds a place upon the table, with the family bible and the hymn book, and other books that are worthy of such company. And what is true of Hampshire County I have found to be true in other sections of the country where I have had occasion to go. In the Western states, and in the Southwestern states, and even in foreign lands. I have found the Hampshire Gazette read and prized, almost as highly prized as the Bible itself. The editor of that paper is with us, and I will call upon him to respond to the sentiment which lias just been read in your hearing —Henry S. Gere, Esq., of Northampton. 106 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. ADDRESS OF EDITOR HENRY S. GERE. Mr. President, , and to a little more than four thousand now. rested upon some solid foundation. And I draw this conclusion from all the facts presented: that the success of this com- munity rests upon these things: the observance in the business and in the life of this town, of industry, of economy, of sobriety, and of a strict adherence to the highest moral rectitude. These fundamental principles underlie all success in all communities. Without them, this community would not be what it is. Without them, these New England towns and villages and counties would not be what they are, nurseries of men and women who go out to people and build up the great cities and the great commonwealths of the Union. And if in the next hundred years Easthampton is to maintain the prestige that it now holds, if it is to continue the solid prosperity in morals and in business which it has maintained in the last hundred years, it must continue to practice and to build upon this solid foundation. There is" no other way. There is no royal highway to success for communities, for states, for nations, or for individuals. That must come through the hard and rugged way of working it out in obedience to these solid, fundamental principles. Individuals fail, communities fail, states and nations fail, through the non-observance of these great principles. Rome fell through its extravagance and riotous luxuriance, and this country, if it ever falls, will fall through its extravagance and its luxuries. W T e stand to-day upon a pinnacle of time. Go upon yonder mountain, that beautiful range, whose western slope, fresh-wooded and green, gilded by the golden rays of the setting sun. as now on this beautiful afternoon in June, presents one of the most charming pictures to be seen any where in New England. Upon that mountain summit, looking northward, over field and meadow, over forest and stream, over church spires and college towers, over foothills and mountain tops, in the far distance, far as eye can stretch, we see RIonadnock, towering above all its fellows, piercing the clouds. Other mountains round- about it are great, but this one stands among them, a king 108 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. of kings. So we to-day, standing upon this eminence of time, this height of a hundred years, above the petty strifes and contentions of the time, in the clear atmosphere that follows the wind and the storm, and looking back over your century of trials and struggles, your defeats and triumphs, your disasters and great prosperity, see one object, towering above all others — the name, and fame, and deeds of Samuel Williston. That remarkable man— so modest, so unassuming, so gentle and courteous, yet so energetic in action, and so far-seeing and wise — needs no eulogy on such an occasion as this, in the midst of the grand evidences of his triumphs. The words of the orator arc soon gone. They fall upon delighted ears for a time, and then pass away and are lost. But deeds remain, and institutions live on. He who erects factories, who rears churches, who establishes seminaries and endows them, who is the benefactor of colleges, who is the*friend and patron of great charities and missions, such a man moves people in masses and by decades and generations. His name and his deeds, confessedly great in their day. will rise higher and appear larger and even more illustrious as the years increase and the results of his wise planning and liberal giving are more fully developed. Just as we, standing at the base of your noble mountain, and looking at its bare ledges and ragged and uneven sides, from very nearness see not the full beauty of its colors, nor the charm of its outlines, nor the majesty of its size ; but, viewing it from a distance, with breadth of vision, we discern with clearness, and with fullness, and with increas- ing admiration, the rich splendor of its verdure, the rare symmetry of its proportions, and the grandeur of its elevation. .Mi-. President, and ladies and gentlemen: 1 thank you for your attention, and 1 congratulate you again upon the splendid success of this day. I congratulate you upon this beautiful day. upon this splendid weather, upon this pure and invigorating air. upon this bright and cheery sunshine, upon all the good things that have come to you through this day's exercises. The pleasing impressions which you have made to-day will go with us all through many a year. They will be an uplifting force to all of us; and as the EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 109 years roll on, we shall look back to this centennial celebra- tion in Easthampton, with a joy which shall be an elevating power and a refining influence. [Great applause.] The Ministry. — Representing that godly principle which must underlie public as well as private virtue. None others have known as fully the individual life of the people and none have striven more zealously for that which makes for righteousness. May the memory of those who have gone from us join with the work of those remaining and to come, to bless the coming generations. [Mr. Knight. ] To respond to the sentiment which has just been read in your presence, I shall call upon one who has resided with us but for a brief period, but who has al- ready found a large place in our respect and affection, the Rev. Charles H. Hamlin, pastor of Payson Church. ADDRESS OF REV. C. H. HAMLIN. Mr. Chairman . Ladies and Gentlemen: — I was in some consternation when I was asked if I would speak upon this toast, for I had supposed it would be necessary to be hu- morous; but I asked our toast-master if that would be a necessity, and he said it would not; and when I learned that I might serve the toast dry, I concluded I would do it. It would be so much like a dry sermon that it would be quite in my line. In the next place, your marshal has said that I have been in the place but a very short time. I have a suspicion that that was the very reason why I was selected, that is, because I know so little about the subject. I thought at first it might be an objection to my speaking, but I remem- ber that the less a man knows about a matter, the more fluently he can speak, and so I was the more encouraged. And now I might say a great deal. I have here one of Rev. Payson Williston's old sermons [exhibiting] ,— don't grow pale, I shall not read it. It is all in this small space. You will observe from this small size that this sermon was evidently written upon paper that was made before paper 110 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. mills were established in Holyoke. Paper was a scarce article in those days, and the people had to economize to make it hold out. The writing here is very fine, and I should think the preacher would have had to hold it near his face, as 1 hold it near mine, and read it painfully. It is dated 1793, and this is the stamp of sermon which was preached in the year 1793. And now there are matters of which I could speak briefly with regard to the social life of the town at that time. But all the good things that Rev. Payson Williston did for this town, his godly preaching and godly living, seem to me to have been less than he did when he brought forth that family of sons, N. B. Williston, J. P. Williston, S. Williston. It is not necessary that I should speak of these men. You know them, and their lives speak for themselves. It is a great thing to write good sermons. It is a great thing to have lived, as Payson Williston did, an honorable, godly life in this place for so many years. But. it is a far greater thing to have sent into the world three men of original force, energy and uniform success. In the days of old there was a fable told of the hare taunting the lioness because she brought forth but one at a birth, and the lioness haughtily replied, "one, but a lion,'' and Payson Williston might have said to the same purpose of his sons, "three, and a lion every one." They were the lions brought forth, and it was they who did his greatest work, and it was Samuel Williston who made Easthampton what it is. Other men have had wealth, but it was he who, having wealth, showed the inspiration of charity which used that wealth, the inspiration which he received when in his father's house. So that I may say, speaking for the ministry of Easthampton, that over and above his godly life and godly sermons, Payson Williston did his work when he trained up Samuel Williston to live the life of charity, which made this place what it is to-day. And having spoken thus briefly, I ask you- to remember that brevity is the soul of wit, and that if I close now, I may, at least, have done so much wittily. [Laughter and applause. J .EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Ill [Mr. Knight. J Ladies and Gentlemen: In looking over this assembly I observe several gentlemen whom I should be very glad to call upon to speak. We did hope to hear from Westhampton and Southampton. I do not see any one present to respond for Westhampton, but there is upon the platform one of the selectmen of Southampton who has kindly consented to speak to us, Mr. Charles B. Lyman of Southampton. ADDRESS OF C. B. LYMAN, ESQ. Forty-four years ago this coming July, Southampton celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of its foundation as a town, its centennial year of existence, and separation from the good old mother town of Northampton, and the setting up of housekeeping for herself. Its past history was then sung and repeated, in poetry and in prose. Also the hardships and struggles which the earlier settlers had to contend with, in subduing the forest and making for themselves a home in the wilderness, and of the men who took part in the fights with the Indians and lost their lives; of those who took an active part in the Revolution, both in the field and in the councils of state, and their sacrifices to build a church and support an educated ministry; the establishment of schools so that Christianity and education should go hand in hand; and of the many men who had been educated and gone forth to preach the gospel of peace and good-will, and others to positions in civil life. And now, to-day, nearly a half century later, we are here by your kind invitation to help you celebrate Easthampton's one-hundredth anniversary, the centennial year of your separation from the mother town and starting out for yourselves. We are also glad to meet here to-day the representatives of the good old mother town, and that other sister, a happy family group. As we have listened to the words of the address and heard of your prosperity and influence in religious, educational and civil life, we rejoice with you and are proud to have you as one of our family. Up to the time of Southampton's centennial, she was the larger place and the more prosperous, but since then 112 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. it has happened, as it frequently does, that the younger has outstripped the elder in the race. We are with you to-day to congratulate you on your success and greater prosperity, also on the kindly feeling that has always existed between the sister towns, that no rivalry, or jealousy, or bickerings have come between us. We rejoice with you in your prosperity, in higher educational privileges, in your manufactories and other industries. We reap the advantages of being your neighbor, as many of our young men who have had, and others who are now having the advantages of Williston Seminary, can testify, and also for the marked facilities which your industries afford. Although you have drawn some of our citizens away to our disadvantage, we feel also indebted to you for some of your townsmen who have been a great help to us. One in particular who has made high attainments in culture and scholarship and who has occupied one of our pulpits on the Sabbath for several years, and who has taken a leading interest in whatever concerns the welfare of the town. And also the venerable Chaplain of the day, to whose earnest words of wisdom we have been permitted so often to listen with pleasure, and we hope with profit. And many others I might mention if time would permit. And now we thank you for the privilege of meeting with you to-day in these rejoicings, hoping that your prosperity may continue to be as great in the future as it has been in the past. [Mr. Knight.] " The time has come when it seems proper that these exercises should be brought to a close. This evening there will be a display of tire-works, as you will have observed by the programme, accompanied with music by our local band, and Belding's band of Northampton, who will spend the evening with us. It is stated upon the programme that these exercises would close with the singing of a hymn. It was proposed to sing the hymn. "Great God of nations! now to thee Our hymn of gratitude we raise;" etc. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 113 but we have thought best to postpone the singing of this hymn until the next centennial; and will close these exercises by uniting — and let us all unite — in singing to the tune of Old Hundred. "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." Let all rise and join in the singing. The audience rose and sang, reverently and from the heart, the words of praise indicated. Thus ended the literary exercises of the day. the hour being .about six o'clock. Everything had been carried out most pleasantly, in good order, and all on time except for the hour's delay in starting the procession, which made the exercises an hour late through the day. This delay was owing to the morning's rain, many of the exhibits being of a kind that could not be taken out in the rain without injury. For the full and accurate report of the exercises in the tent here presented, the public are largely indebted to the skill in stenography of the Rev. F. G. Morris, as many of the speeches were in whole or in part unwritten, and but for his service it would have been impossible to reproduce some of them. To make the report still more satisfactory, the speeches have since been carefully revised by the authors. LETTERS FROM ABSENTEES. From the large number of letters received, the fol- lowing representative ones were selected for publication. LETTER FROM HON. SAMUEL C. POMERoV. Washington, D. C, May 4, 1885. Centennial Executive Committee of EASTHAMPTON: — Please accept my sincere thanks for your very kind invitation to be with you on the *'17th of June." While 114 EASTHAMPTCN CENTENNIAL RECORD. I cannot make a positive "acceptance," I will say it will be such an interesting occasion to me, that I hope to be able to attend. It will be depriving myself of a great pleasure if I am not able to so arrange my business, as to come. Please accept assurances of my very high esteem. I am very cordially and truly, S. C. Pomeroy. LETTER FROM HON. HENRY L. DAWES. Pittsfield, Mass.. May 11, 1885. My Dear Sir: — Lam in receipt from your Committee of a kind invita- tion to attend the exercises of Easthampton's approaching Centennial. Will you do me the favor to make my acknowledgements to them for this invitation, and to express to them my regret that I shall not be able to participate in so interesting ceremonies. I leave this week for the Indian Territory in the discharge of a duty required of me by the Senate, and my absence will extend beyond the date of your anniversary. I envy those who will be present on that occasion so full of interest and instruc- tion to those who believe, as I do, that the town organiza- tion of New England, is the basis of its power and influ- ence in our republic. I am truly yours, H. L. Dawes. Hon. Horatio G. Knight. LETTER FROM HON. AMASA NORCROSS. PaiJis. France, June 4. L885. It would give me great pleasure to be present on Wednesday, the L 7th, at Easthampton's first Centennial. in compliance with your kind invitation; but this is not possible. I wish simply to say that rightly to measure the value and importance of our New England town EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 115 life, is to feel the eminent propriety of the celebration you propose. May every success attend it. Very sincerely yours. A. Norcross. LETTER FROM HUN. ALEXANDER H. RICE. Boston, June LO, L885. My Dear Governor: — I received a few days since, in Rochester, N. Y., where I have been visiting during the last fortnight, your kind invitation to the celebration of "Easthampton's Centennial," for which I cordially thank you. I have engagements which forbid the hope of my being able to be with you, but I send my best wishes. Very sincerely, Alexander H. Rice. Hon. H. G. Knight, Easthampton, Mass. LETTER FROM GEN. LUKE LYMAN. Montreal, P. Q.. June 1. 1885. C. B. Johnson, Esq., Sec* v. My Dear Sir: — I received an invitation to attend and participate in the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Easthampton on the 28th ult. In reply, I wish I could write the word ''accept" and join with my many friends in Easthampton in the pleasures of the day, but my engagements are such that I cannot, and therefore must use the other word suggested in your circular, '•decline. "- - There was no card enclosed with the invita- tion sent me, therefore must decline in this informal way. Please accept for yourself personally, and for each mem- ber of the committee, my kind regards, with the earnest desire that you may have pleasant weather for the day. so much of success depends upon that. With good weather I feel sure that you will have a "glorious time." Very truly yours. Lukk Lyman. 116 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. LETTER FROM COL. W. S. B. HOPKINS. Worcester, June 15, 1885. Hon. Horatio G. Knight, My Dear Sir: — It is with extreme regret that I find myself unable to keep my promise to attend the centennial anniversary of the Town of Easthampton. Every recollection of the days of my boyhood in the mother town of Northampton, and of my early manhood when I took a wife from among your citizens, and of the many flattering evidences of consideration I have always received among you, induce me to join you on that day. But I am aware that the wealth of Easthampton and of its flourishing educational institution in honored sons of their own. makes it evident that my absence will hardly be noticed. Pressing business engagements detain me. Among the old and young towns of that glorious Connecticut Valley, which none who ever lived there can ever forget as the very garden of New England, Easthampton occupies a position of proud pre-eminence, as the home of many of its most respected and patriotic yeomen, and of model institutions both educational and industrial. I know of no record more proud, or which presents a fairer page, in the long and honorable history of old Hampshire. May your celebration meet with the great success which it surely deserves, and may the future of Easthampton fulfill every promise which its brilliant past inspires. Very cordially yours, W. S. B. Hopkins. LETTER FROM PROF. WM. S. TYLER, D.D., LL. D. Amherst, June 5. L885. Hon. H. G. Knight, Chairman, Dear Sir: — 1 have delayed answering your polite invitation to the Centennial celebration at Easthampton till I could see EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 117 whether it would be possible for me to attend. It is now clear that I shall be unable to be present. Will you then permit me to express through you my best wishes for the town and the good people of the town with all their insti- tutions and interests. May its growth and prosperity in the coming century far exceed those of the century that has now come to a close. And as the life-long friend of Mr. Williston, permit me to give you the following senti- ment : The business men of Easthampton — may they ever be the worthy successors of Samuel Williston in the prin- ciples and profits of their business, in their moral and Christian character, and in their public and philanthropic spirit. Yours very truly, W. S. Tyler. LETTER FROM MARSHALL HENSHAW. D.D.. LL. D. Amherst, May 15, L885. Thanks for your kind invitation. It is not probable that I can leave my work here, and it is doubtful if any of my family can join your celebration. Wishing you a grand celebration and another century of greater prosperity, I am Very truly yours, Marshall Henshaw. LETTER FROM PROF. EDWARD HITCHCOCK. Amherst, Mass.. June 16, L885. Dear Mr. Knight: — Up to this moment 1 had expected to go with Mrs. Hitchcock to Easthampton to-morrow. Fait unexpected duties in college have sprang upon me and I must stay here, I hope you will all have i\ very good time, as I should expect to, had I been able to go to the festivities. Cordially, E. Hitchcock. 118 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECOKD. LETTER FROM THE REV. ROLLIN S. STONE. Chatham, N. J., May 4, 1885. Gentlemen of Committee: — It would give me great pleasure to accept your invitation and be with you on that occasion, were it not for circumstances beyond my control, and which compel me reluctantly to decline. Trusting that you will never- theless have a grand good time, I remain Respectfully yours, Rollin S. Stone. LETTER FROM THE REV. SAMUEL JACKSON. Lynn. May 4. 1 885. Gentlemen: — Your invitation to attend the Centennial of East- hampton on the l?th of June next, I have just received. I desire to express my thanks for your kindness in including me among the number of non-residents of your town, whom } t ou have invited to participate with your own citizens on such an interesting occasion; but I deeply regret that engagements already made for thai day will prevent me from being present. • Very respectfully yours, S. Jackson. ( Vxtennial Committee, Easthampton. Mass. LETTER FROM THE REV. EDWARD R. THORNDIKK. To Centennial Executive Committee, Easthampton, M ass.. Dear Sirs: — Receive my hearty thanks for your kind invitation to be present at the important event in the history of your beautiful town. May the coming century witness gueater achievements because of what the past renders possible, and though you will not be able to join in celebrating its close, may you have as large a place in the esteem of your EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 119 posterity as those of the past century will have in yours. June 17th. I hope to then be with you, inhabitants of the God-built City, in a better country even than the fair Con- necticut now flows through. With regards, E. R. Thorndike. LETTER FROM JUSTIN SNOW, ESQ. Cleveland. Ohio, May U. L885. To the Centennial Executive Committee, Easthampton. Mass., Gentlemen:— We are pleased to acknowledge receipt of your invitation, and regret exceedingly that it is not possible for us to accept. We cannot claim to be classed with the "old inhabitants,'* but we do look back with pleasure to our residence among them, and it would be a great satisfaction to "meet our friends once more'* and join with them in the celebration of the one-hundredth anni- versary of the good old town planted by those sturdy families who looked upon the school and church as indispensable elements in the real prosperity of a com- munity. And we rejoice to know that in all the changes that have come over the place, the church and school have not been crowded out, but have grown with the growth of business, and still hold a controlling influence. With the hope that this influence may never grow less, and repeating our regrets, we remain Yours truly, Mr. and Mrs. Justin Snow. LETTER FROM EDMUND WRIGHT, ESQ. St. Louis, Mo.. May 12, L885. Hon. H. G. Knight, Chairman Executive Committee. My Dear Sir: — I was glad to get the circular relating to the "East- hampton's Centennial;'" and should love to be with you 120 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. on the 17th of June, and share the joys of the hour with many friends whom I so well remember; I cannot forget the many other friends gone to their final home, and among these, my paternal grandfather, Elijah Wright, born in 1738 and my maternal grandfather, Jonathan Clapp. born in 1735; also my dear pastor, Rev. Payson Williston, who married my parents in 1801; and whose presence at our home gave us joy: memory loves to linger among these scenes of the distant past — but I forbear. Wishing the proposed ••Centennial" a full measure of success, with my kind regards to any remem- bered friends, I am now (as in our boyhood). Truly yours, Edmund Wright. LETTER FROM CLARK MARBLE. ESQ. Burlington, Iowa, May 28, 1885. Centennial Executive Committee, Gentlemen : — Pardon me for the seeming negligence in responding to your kind invitation to be with you at your first Centennial on the 1 7th Prox. , for which accept my thanks. The "Committee on Ways and Means" have had the matter under advisement, and I have awaited their report. In fact I have been deliberating whether to accept your invitation to this Centennial, or wait until the next one. I should count it one of the greatest felicities of my life to be with you on that occasion, indeed I should consider myself a traitor to the memory of the mother who bore me (and whoso name 1 bear), who was born in East- hampton in 1700, as well as to the memory of a beloved sister, and two of my own "little ones." who sleep in your cemetery — to the memories of the happy days 1 spent in your town as well as to the memories of the members of your committee who were my class-mates, "companions of my toil." and last (not least), to the memory of your esteemed chairman who was my Sabbath School teacher and later my near neighbor and highly esteemed friend, should I decline your invitation. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 121 "Breathes there the man. with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said. This is my own. my native land !" Most graciously then. Gentlemen, do I accept your kind in- vitation, with profound thanks that after an absence of nearly two and thirty years, and a separation of more than a thousand long miles, there are yet among the living some who "miss me at home." And now. Gentlemen, if within the range of human possibilities. I will be with you,— but should an overruling Providence otherwise order, I shall be with you in spirit. Wishing for you every success, rest assured, Gentlemen, of my highest regard for you, as well as for the many noble ones whom I rejoice to call Friends. Yours truly, Clark Marble. P. S. ' ' A feeling of sadness conies o'er me As the clouds return after the rain,*" when I remember that the day you celebrate is the birthday of that noble man, whose memory I revere, and to whom and to that more than noble woman, who so recently passed over the river, your town is indebted for a great measure of its growth and prosperity. They need no encomium from me. Their works praise them. Respectfully. C. M. LETTER FROM EDWIN F. WARD. ESQ. New York. May 23, L885. Charles B. Johnson, esq.. Secretary Executive Committee. Dear Sir: — Your kind invitation lias revived, in both Mrs. Ward and myself , many pleasant recollect ions of Easthampton 3 and a host of highly esteemed old friends there, and it is with much sincere regret, and an increasing feeling of disappointment, that I enclose our names on the decline half of the slip received from von. being com- pelled to do so. by the demands of a business which is wholly personal, and which only lets go of me during 122 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. the month of August. We fully appreciate the com- pliment of remembrance, and thank the committee for it. Very truly yours. Edwin F. Ward. 33 W. 36th St. CENTENNIAL MUSEUM. At a late day a committee, consisting of Dr.H.A. Deane, Geo. H. Pomeroy and A. F. Totman, was appointed to collect a museum of curiosities both ancient and modern, as is frequently done at centennial celebrations. They secured the Natural History room in the Town Hall, and began the collection. The enterprise was undertaken with considerable hesitation, fearing those who would come to the celebration might find so many other things to occupy their time and attention that they would pass it by. But as the event proved, it was a gratifying success. If the committee had commenced a week earlier and given a more general notice that articles were wanted, and then if they could have devoted more time personally to arranging the articles brought in systematically, a splendid show could have been made. As it was, with the limited time given to it. visitors were much interested in the exhibit. Among the articles was a tall old-fashioned clock, formerly belonging to Joel Parsons, and having been an heirloom in the Parsons family since an unknown date, now owned by Dr. Pomeroy; a large family Bible printed in 1744 placed in a case: two pairs of large brass andirons— fine specimens too — belonging to Dr. Pomeroy; a pair of ancient Hint-lock horse pistols with holsters and a Revolutionary flint-lock gun, belonging in former years to Capt. Jonathan Warner of Mountain Street in Williamsburgh, which Dr. Pomeroy obtained through Francis Warner, a grandson of Capt. Warner, t wo or three years ago. There wore two old swords, date unknown, but going hack unquestionably to Revolutionary times, or earlier, which are now the property of Dr. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 123 Pomeroy; another sword belonging to Mr. Totman; also a confederate sword, made in England, that undertook to run the blockade and got caught, now the property of C. B. Johnson; an ancient flint-lock gun belonging to Mr. Totman and a '"Queen's Arm" now owned by C. H. Johnson. Dr. Pomeroy had an ancient sampler worked by a girl of 13 in 1757. There was also shown a pair of eye- glasses, the glass made large and round, used by a lady who was born in 1693 and died in 1791, showing that eye-glasses are not a modern invention, as some suppose; a Bible printed in 1618, which is now the property of Byron Smith of South Hadley; also a very large cow bell, said to be 200 years old (this also is the property of Mr. Smith); a china tea pot, known to be 95 years old, belonging to Mrs. G. W. Bemis of High Street. Mr. Horace Matthews presented a portrait of Capt. Ebenezer Hunt and his wife of Cummington. Mr. Hunt, as "'post rider," carried the Hampshire Gazette to the hill towns for a long term of years half a century or more ago. There was a portrait of a Unitarian clergyman of Boston, who was a very intimate friend of the late Stephen Brewer of Leeds, agent of the woolen mills in that village, who was drowned in the Connecticut River while out in a boat with a party of friends, in August, 1842. The portrait used to hang in the private office of Mr. Brewer in the counting room in Leeds the latter pari of Mr. Brewer's life. It is now the property of C. B. Johnson. There was also the old tavern sign of Caleb Johnson, painted about 1812, when Mr. Johnson began keeping a tavern in Haydenville, at the place where Dexter Tower now lives; a collection of some ninety pieces of ancient Pewter, embracing nearly all the articles found in families a century ago. when pewter platters and plates, cups, porringers, basins, spoons, mugs, and pitchers, were the common articles of table furniture, and supplied the place of crockery and glass ware now. This collection is probably the largest of its kind in the State and has been collected by C. B.Johnson. There was also a pair of silver-plated snuffers and snuffer tray, 124 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. formerly the property of Mrs. Sigourney, the poetess of Hartford. In the show case was a collection of American cents from 1.793, when the present series was begun, to the present time, and a considerable number of bronze medals of distinguished men. A lot of ancient manuscript sermons was an interesting feature to those who care for such things. There was a sermon preached by Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, who was pastor of the First Church from 1072 to L729; two or three of the Rev. Benjamin Trumbull, the historian of Conn. One of these was the sermon preached at the funeral of the Rev. Noah Williston. of West Haven, grandfather of Samuel Williston. who died Nov. 10, 1811. This sermon was printed, and is one of a volume of printed sermons owned in town. There was also one of father Williston's sermons. As he left a large collection of his sermons at his death, many of his friends and former parishioners have secured one or more of them. Another manuscript, was a sermon written in a fine, clear hand, dated 17o4. supposed to have been preached at ''West Division.*' now West Hartford, by the father of the late Dr. Nathan Perkins, the long time pastor of the Amherst East Street Church. A. F. Totman had a well preserved foot stove, such as the ladies used to carry to church to keep them com- fortable, before churches were warmed. He also had some fine specimens of crockery, some dating back near a century, and some, such as was common from 50 to 75 years ago. A three quart tumbler, and a pair of wine glasses, that belonged to his great-great-grandmother, were interesting relics. Other rare articles belonging to him. were a pocket pistol, that was carried in the Revolution, and a fowling piece, said to have been made by the late Gamaliel Pomeroy of Southampton. Dr. Deane and C. B. Johnson each showed specimens of ancient china, seine el' it dating back for a century or more. There was a map of Northampton, including Bast- hampton and a part of Southampton. This map was made in L831, and showed the mother town, now a city. at a period before she dreamed of wearing city honors. EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 125 The map was brought in by Mrs. G. H. Leonard. There was a flax wheel, or "little wheel.** as they were commonly called, such as was found in nearly every family in ancient times. This, now the property of C. B. Johnson, was formerly used in the family of the late Dea. E. W. Hannum. A wooden mortar was shown, such as all good housewives used in former days to pound the spices for the family, before spice mills enabled our merchants to keep such articles ready prepared. This ancient article had been tastefully painted and gilded by some modern hand. Another hand mortar in the collection, made of lignum vita?, had been used in the Williston family for generations. Fred W. Clark contributed a military cap worn by his father, Fred A. Clark of Northampton, who was for years a member of the Northampton Artillery Company, and who wore the cap some forty years ago, when he was a major. These articles with others which have doubtless escaped recollection, were mostly owned by people in town, and largely the property of three or four individuals. None of the collection in the museum belonging to the Public Library was used, and with more time and a wider notice, a much larger collection would have been secured, for it is well known that there are many articles of rare historic interest, possessed by individuals and families, that might have been secured, when interest was once aroused. An admission fee of five cents was charged to begin with, until a sum was collected sufficient to pay for fitting up the room and the cartage of the articles, for the Centennial Executive Committee had no funds left for such a purpose, and then the doors were thrown open to all who chose to come. Some L200 or L500 persons must have visited it. 126 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. Of the number of visitors present at one time or another during the day we have no means of judging even approximately, but they must have numbered many thousands. It may not be out of place here to record the fact that there were persons present who could remember the last of the native tribes who used their reserved rights of hunting and fishing in this locality. Up to within 55 or 60 years ago, several Indians were in the habit of visiting the town every spring to catch lamprey eels in the Manhan River below the dam by the grist-mill. They lived at such times in a hut which they built near by on the north side of the river. There were those present, too, who could well remember many of the men who were influential in forming the town. THE ILLUMINATION AND FIREWORKS. The celebration closed with an exhibition of fire- works, on the meadow near the house of Dea. A. B. Lyman, a place admirably adapted for the purpose, as the crescent-shaped hill-side there forms a natural a in pi i i theatre of large proportions. Main Street from the Mansion House to Dea. A. B. Lyman's was illuminated willi torches at frequent intervals, consisting of Large balls of cotton waste saturated with kerosene and sup- ported some ten feet from the ground by pieces of iron pipe. The meadow near Mr. Lyman's is a place of historic interest, being part of the *"School Meadow*" grant. The pauses in the exhibition were enlivened with music by the Easthampton Cornet Band. The display was witnessed by a concourse of many thousands, and comprised the following features: *This tract of 100 acres more or less — 80 acres above the grist mill on the Manhan, and 20 below it —was set off by Northampton for school purposes in the early history of the settlement here. In 1745, Benjamin Lyman and Stephen Wright bought all the grant above the dam, and came here and settled on their purchase. Mr. Lyman building his house where Joel L. Bassett now lives, and Mr. Wright on the high ground to the west, near the house of Austin EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 127 An illumination of red, green and blue fires in alter- nate colors, accompanied by a series of rocket flights, exhibiting- a variety of colored stars, serpents and meteoric golden rain. Japanese and parachute rockets of new design and combination. THE FLORAL CHAPLET. A hexagonal, horizontal wheel of brilliant and jasmine colored fires, which changed into a beautiful bouquet of" flowers of many colors. A variety of French vermillion rockets in different colors, representing bird flights. THE MAGIC CIRCLE. A circle of sparkling flame moving rapidly round opaque centers, which were suddenly filled with belts of interchanging fires, decorated with rich colored jets and rosettes. L. Pettis. This Benjamin Lyman and Stephen Wright were the progenitors of all the Lymans and Wrights in the town. In the division of the School Meadow land, after the death of the original purchasers, the land where the fireworks were sent off, fell to Ben- jamin Lyman. Jr.. son of the tirst owner, and it has remained in the hands of his lineal descendants from that day to this, a period of forty years beyond the century we celebrated. It was an interesting thought to some, who knew the fact, that the fireworks, which was the closing act of a day tilled with thronging memories of the past, were sent off on land, and the hill-side where people sat to witness them, was a part of that School Meadow purchase, and had been uninterruptedly in the possession of the Lyman family for 140 years. The original deed to Mr. Wright and Mr. Lyman of the School Meadow purchase, is now in the museum of the Public Library. This Dea. Benjamin Lyman, Jr., above mentioned, is the one to whom the warrant of Moses Breck of Northampton was directed, requiring him to warn the citizens to assemble, to hold their first meeting as a district, for the choice of officers. This meeting was held July 4th in the old Clapp House, recently taken down. — [Hampshire Gazette, June 30, 1885.] It is related of Benjamin Lyman. Jr.. that he discovered in the •'School Meadow" one Sunday morning a bear from whose depredations lie had suffered severely, but his regard for the Sabbath would not allow him to shoot the intruder on that day. The bear was. however, seen the following Monday, and shot by him. The gun which he owned at that time, and probably the one with which the bear was killed, is now in the possession of Ins great-grandson, Mi-. Alpheus .1. Lyman. Mr. Lyman also shot and killed one of the last deer seen in town on his premises some time early in the century just closed. 128 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. A display of shells, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, fired from mortars, consisting of colored star-shells, serpents and streamers, golden rain, chain lights, parachutes, Japanese and common hombs, exhibiting combinations and effects novel to the season of 1885. THE SUN BURST. A brilliant sun opening with a crimson flood of light from its center, changed to the morning star in five points, and burst into the sunrise, with a loud explosion as it disappeared from view. A display of colored Bengal lights at different points in crimson, green and blue fires, in heavy cases, large sizes. THE KALEIDOSCOPE. A combination of wheels, and flyers, vertical and contra-revolving, producing constantly changing angles and figures in many colored fires. A display of lights in groups of four and six, fired from mortars. A continuous display of rockets of different varieties and colors, followed by the art piece called the POLKA DANCER, A revolving piece consisting of four arms bearing at each extremity brilliant revolving polkas producing the design indicated. A display of rockets in colored and silver fires; a salvo of artillery shells from four to six inch mortars. Volleys of Roman candles fired in three sections at intervals. A flight of rockets, followed by the art piece called the CENTENNIAL SCROLL, Commencing with revolving belts of jasmine fires encircling in rapid motion centers of different colors, which are filled with scrolls of crimson, and green. A display of floral shells from. mortar guns, embracing all the best old and new varieties and combination colors. Followed by the STAR OF AMERICA. This commenced with a zone of brilliants garnished with emerald and crimson fires: these form star points interspersed with wheels. The star forms a brilliant EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 12!) display, while the wheels revolve on the several points. A brilliant illumination in crimson, green and blue fires, at the close of which the grand finale was displayed, consisting of the motto, flags, etc., as described, viz.: — THE CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE. Two beautiful columns of silver lance work entwined, supporting an arch of diamond points, with a silver glory over-arching the same; in this arch appeared the motto, "Easthampton, June 17." The base of one column contained the date 1785, the other 1885, in fires. Under the arch and between the columns was disclosed the shields and flags of the Union in their appropriate colors and designs. Volleys of colored stars, bursting bombs and flights of rockets, including some six pound shells of new design w r hich exploded into serpents and falling rain of beauty and brilliancy, closed the evening's display. ( hi the Sunday following the celebration, the Rev. C. H. Hamlin, Pastor of the Payson Church, preached a sermon, inspired by the occasion, which was highly esteemed by those whose privilege it w T as to hear it. This sermon forms an appropriate appendix to this work. FINANCIAL REPORT Of the Centennial Executive Committee. $144 15 - 35 50 164 90 125 50 120 00 110 49 295 90 44 00 29 86 15 76 150 00 275 48 $1,540 00 RECEIPTS. Appropriation, - - - $1,500 00 Sale of materials used for decorations, 40 00 EXPENSES. Cloth and flags for decoration, Flags for Public Schools, Music, Carriages, ... Use of tent. Tables, Collation (tickets and sundries), Poem, ... Printing, Postage, - Fire-works, Masten & Wells' bill, Labor and sundries, ,511 54 Balance for town treasury, $28 46 The committee estimated $50 for the oration, but Judge Bassett generously declined to accept any remuneration for his important contribution to the exercises of the day. SERMON BY THE REV. C. H. HAMLIN, PASTOR OF THE PAYSON CHURCH. Preachedat tin Payson Church, Easthampton, Mass., June 21st, 1SS5. Psalm XLV, 16. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. The thoughts to which I ask your attention this morn- ing are not a sermon in any strict sense of the word, but I venture to present them because they so ask for utter- ance. The text is a stanza of a marriage song in which the daughter of a foreign prince, becoming the wife of Israel's ruler, is exhorted to lose her longing for her father's house in joy in her own children and in her opportunity to establish them as princes in all the earth. It is the way of life — the same everywhere to-day as then in oriental palace. Love for parents fills the hearts of children, but maturity is stirred with new impulses. The youth leaves father and mother to cleave unto his wife. The bride forsakes her home to follow her husband to the ends of the earth. She sheds some inevitable tears. but in the plan of God regret for the old is overborne by joy in the new. The earlier affections are not lost, but they are overgrown by interests more recent, and the longing for parents blends with the love for husband and children. It is the plan of God that sorrow for the past should vanish in the joy of the present and the hope of the future. Men having served their generation fall on sleep, but their highest service to their generation is the production and development of their successors; and it is a thought suggested by the text that the con- solation for a generation that is past, is the promise in 132 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. the generation that is to come. We require just that consolation. The past weeks have combined to remind us of a past generation, of the spiritual parentage we have lost. First, there was the memorial service of Mrs. Williston, which I heard one among you call the passing of the last shadow of that family which had so long- been a vital center in the town. All may remember that the baccalaureate of last Sabbath was the first in which neither of the founders of the Institution could share our earthly interest. The exercises of the past week have recalled many formerly with and of us, but they have reminded us of far more who shall not return forever. The graduates of last Friday were told that with the departure of the founders, the weal of the school must hereafter depend upon the gratitude and wisdom of its alumni. Everything has concentrated our attention upon the fact that the generation which devised liberal things, which founded and built and enlarged, has gone. The proper consolation for a noble generation past, is the promise of the generation to come. We are heirs of the responsibilities of those who are gone. If sound reason can discern in us the promise that their work shall be continued and extended, then we may comfort ourselves with the hope of the future, but if otherwise, then indeed the glory has departed. We have become what we are because there was loyalty here to the command. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Wealth was not sought for luxury and self-pleasing, but that it might be used to the benefit of the bodies and souls of men. There are those to whom it is inconceivable that any one who can make wealth, will gain it for others than himself. If he has won it. they expect him to use it upon his own pleasures. and spend it at his own discretion; but you know that such are not the men who built this town. They were indus- trious, and that they might be generous to others they were frugal to themselves. Ere now. father! have complained that the preaching of charity by the clergy, developed in the boys a spirit of reckless prodigality. They were told that it was good to be generous, but EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 133 they were allowed to remain ignorant of the fact that generosity is always made possible by a previous and necessary frugality. You must be economical to your- self if you would be liberal to others. The founders of this town were so, and you know how this nobility in the leaders evoked an equal nobility in the followers. Only a millionaire can endow a school, but many a poor lad has graduated here who could not have held on but for the assistance whicli came from smaller means, and humbler persons. In the economy of the kingdom of God, the widow's two mites and her all are quite as indispensable as the copious benefactions of wealth. It was the general consent to be laborious, economical and God-fearing, which advanced us. With indifference to duty and God, the same profits would have been wasted in dissipations that would have enfeebled strength, enervated the soul, and ultimately crippled the power of production. It has been because a past generation sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that it was possible for him to add unto us other things also. Coming newly among you, I am aware of a spirit which makes this town different from others. I know of nothing akin to it save in some of those West- ern towns, which have been founded in order to establish such colleges as ( )berlin and Tabor. They have been built by men of limited means, who sometimes have given half or more than half their small competence to their scheme of education. Where such men are pioneers, form society and give it tone, it is distinguished for sobriety, economy and generosity. I recognize so much of it here, that I feel that this town shares in all the excellence of the best towns there are, and thai we enjoy an atmosphere which is spiritually tonic with the inspiring example of a godly generation. Does enough of this spirit remain to allow the continuance of the blessing? Is your consecration of your wealth to God as deep and honest as that of those who preceded you ? Are you as firmly resolved not to live for self- pleasing, as clearly decided to seek the spirit which comes from above and pleases to do right? Is your disposition as much as theirs, a disposition God can 134 EASTHAMPTCN CENTENNIAL RECORD. bless ? Your answer to that question conditions your future. Great factories do not make a town, nor large endowments a school. There must be a living spirit in the wheels. When Christ rebuked his disciples' admiration of the great stones in the temple foundation, with the prophecy that not one should be left upon another, he emphasized the fact that character is the cement of society. When Jerusalem was best in archi- tecture she was worst in character, and therefore he prophesied that the depravity of her people would undermine the foundations of her temple, and it came true, and has been repeating itself in human history ever since. We have had a glorious past: whether we are to have a future will depend upon whether there is character enough here to deserve it. If the generation that is, equals the frugality and generosity of the generation that was, then God can bless it, and we may console ourselves for the passing of the fathers by our hope in their successors. From the somewhat abundant self-gratulation to which I have listened in the past week, I might infer that you felt no doubt of your equal standing. I accept the testimony, but the praise of the legacy of the past, is but the acknowledge- ment of the obligation of the present; now let us see it realized in fact. But no sober mind will feel that we are so advanced as to be beyond improvement. Every reasonable soul covets growth, and I invite your thought now to the real hope for our future, which derives from those inspiring influences which are the precious legacy of our predecessors. It is a noble thing to live where memory is a holy influence. Noble memories are the peculiar inspiration of that temple of the English speaking world, the great Abbey of Westminster. Wherever there are cathedrals, groined arches echo the reverberations of music, and painted windows transmit a many colored sunlight, but nowhere else as over the bones of I he men honored because on the whole they sought the good of England, does sacred architecture become vocal, and whisper that for him who tries nobly, there is forgiveness for every fault and glory for every EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. 135 virtue. Who may count the cost of a cathedral, rising like coral island by the toil of ages, by patient labor of the artisan, receiving consecration by slowly gathered dust of noble dead ? But commensurate is its worth, for only angels may declare the mausoleum's eloquence, as it stands a "gospel in stone," and testifies to every fainting heart, that for whomsoever attempts nobly, there is oblivion for every failure, and immortality for all his victory. Happy he who in hour of weakness, can hear the echoes of Westminster; happy also you, who though parted by thousand leagues of ocean from the great abbey, need but the discerning eye, the understanding ear, to feel a similar influence here in the atmosphere of your own home. Right here in our plain New England fashion, is the same lesson taught till all the atmosphere breathes worship. Half a century ago this was a wholly agricultural and decadent hamlet; to-day it is in the van of the best progress of the century. Elsewhere there are factories, but not too often factories like these whose walls were laid not for personal avarice, but to secure a wealth which might open minds to the divine wisdom, and hearts to Christian love. As there is a gospel in stone, so there may be also a gospel in brick, and I envy not the eye which sees in our factories only the brick in their walls, nor the ear which, forgetful of their noble purpose, hears in the hum of these spindles only the drone of machinery, and does not discern in their music a sacred symphony and holy psalm of praise. As the earning, so the spending; public hall, library, yonder buildings that shelter Christian learning, the endowment that sustains their operation, all repeat the lesson, and assert that the generation past lived with God and its country. But as he who is thrilled by the eloquence of the great abbey, thinks less of echoing arcades and colored windows, than of the lives whose praise they testify; so here the still small voice is less in that which human hands have built, than in the content of that sacred memory, the noble purpose of the builder's toil. It is not only the few who did great things, but all those who wrought with them, and these lives still abide and surround us with an influence 136 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. which, though we were dead, must -vitalize us unless we withstand it. Reproduction is a law of life, as true of spiritual life as of all other. "As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." "The first Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." This Christly power of communicating life is in Christian life, in whatever soul it is. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Unto us is committed "the ministry of reconciliation." If Christ's life is in us, fruit must be borne by us, for God's word is in us and it is not consistent with its divine power that it should return unto him void. It will accomplish the thing whereunto he hath sent it. So far as they lived for noble purposes, a spirit from God was in the generation past; and so far as our hearts are sensitive to it, the vitalizing sunshine of that influence warms every day of our lives. Unless we resist it, we cannot fail to grow in Christian stature until we become even as they. The memory of every economy for charity's sake, on the part of a former generation, rebukes extravagance in us. The remembrance of every new enterprise, undertaken to enlarge the town, and secure ampler means for benevolence, comes to us as a moral imperative, "Go thou and do likewise." The thought of every parental devotion, of all the labor and interesl of instructors and teachers, comes to us as a holy obligation saying, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Human charity to coerce the lazy, must often harden its heart, and allow suffering to do its perfect work, until it has brought forth action, self-support ami competence. But God deals with us as more noble, and appeals to our sense of responsibility by loading us with benefits. Honesty cannot receive talents without feeling an obligation to use them. He who inherits wealth is conscious of disgrace unless he enlarges his inheritance- He who inherits a great name, feels it as a burden, until his own achievements have justified it. Even as vital an orator as Henry Ward Beecher has confessed that the shadow of his father's reputation darkened his EA8THAMPT0N CENTENNIAL RECORD. 137 youth. So God appeals to us by the liberality of the blessings with which we are crowned. We have in this church, the memory and example of many noble lives, and each life is an appeal to each of us. Trafalgar was won because each man did his duty. The time is past when this church can be upheld by the large gifts of a few; if it is to continue its benevolent course, it must be because each individual is loyal to his personal duty and privilege of benev r olence. Will you be inferior to your fathers ? Do they not seem to ask: "Shall our exertions only serve to reveal by contrast the unworthi- ness of your lives, instead of lifting you above our limitations, over our obstacles, into a fuller light, until through our help your achievements shall exceed all that was ever possible to. us? This is the eloquence of every noble life that memory preserves, and what shall be your answer to the grand appeal, and the voice which calls from Heaven? We have but time for a swift glance at two of the motives which commend obedience. The desire for action is irrepressible. We must direct our force some- where, and it is the noble ambition of strong hearts to leave something that shall endure for those who come after them. If we live for food and raiment, they perish with the using, and we leave no memorial behind us. If we incorporate our life in great buildings, these also disintegrate: the most solid structure, the most enduring granite crumbles at the last, and unless the life has wrought in some less perishable substance no memorial endures. But he who moulds a soul, does a work which shares the eternity of the material in which he toils. Build your life into souls, and so shall you lay up treasure in the everlasting habitations. Permanence for your work is your first motive to obey the influence of the past. It is also required by honesty. It is your glory that as a town and as a church you tolerate no debts. I may well believe that not one of you acting as a trustee, would fail to account honestly for all committed to your care. Now into the hands of this generation God has put this town, precious in its material prosperity, ye1 more valuable in its bequest of moral earnestness and 138 EASTHAMPTON CENTENNIAL RECORD. spiritual devotion. You rejoice that you have received it. By acceptance of it you make yourselves liable for the obligations of it. If you are dishonest, you may squander it like prodigals, but if you are honest each individual among you will feel his personal duty to maintain and enlarge the bequest of the fathers. Some are bound to follow the example of generosity with their wealth, others of faithfulness in labor, all of the high aim to direct their lives to bless others as much as them- selves. Honesty demands this debt. Have you acknowl- edged it ? Are you trying to meet it ? Strong is the obligation of these lives upon us. When an earthquake moves the ocean floor, that force is transmitted through all the waters till it dies away on beaches shaded by the palm, and in the frozen fiord of the poles. Mightier than any material force are those lives which have departed from us. It is ours to transmit their vital force, that it may traverse the whole ocean of time, and cease alone upon the eternal shore. This is the monument due from us to our fathers. Nor granite shafts, or structures builded, or endowments gathered, can memorial- ize lives like theirs. That honor can be done only as to the end of time they reproduce other lives as noble as their own. They toiled, but their reward depends upon our faithfulness. "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." ^J~~\ l