DATE DUE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST . m F 74 S8 G8 ^^ -tccyyi "J^yncO^. n cncit^ ^AQRICOLTDV SPRINGFIELD 1636-1886 HISTORY OF TOWN AND CITY INCLUDING An Account of the Quarter-Millennial Celebration At Springfield, Mass., May 25 and 26, 1886 Bv MASON A. GREEN Issued by the Authority and Direction of the City «)F Springfield C. A. NICHOLS & CO., Publishers MDCCCLXXXVm LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSEnS AMHERST, MASS. Co f^y right, iSSS Bv CHAS. A. MCirOLS X- CO. PRESS OF ^lorktofll antJ Clnirchill BOSTON Two years ago to-day all Springfield celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first town-meeting. The committee of fifty, charged with the details of the festivi- ties, who had assigned to the writer the task of preparing the forinal record of the event, also requested him to " collect facts as to the early history of Springfield, and the genealogy of the families of the first settlers, which shall, with the address, and speeches at the banquet, be published in book form." For some months this plan was pursued, but it was found that one vol- ume would not meet the demands, if the usual plan of a local history were followed. Springfield is not a town. It has been an important and indeed controlling factor in the development of Western Massachusetts. There never has been a continuous narrative of the town and city. Several chapters in its career have never been investigated by au}^ writer. To cover these breaks and give the history of the people of Springfield, and at the same time leave space for genealogies and the anniversary speeches, would be impracticable in one volume, and would require several years' research. The historian has, therefore, taken the liberty, after conferring Avith the publication com- mittee, to depart from his instructions, and to leave the prep- aration of the genealogies, the drafts of streets, and the complete lists of office-holders, and much tabular data to some future Avriter. In all probability the three hundredth anniver- PREFACE. sary will be observed with patriotic enthusiasm. If the his- torian of that occasion will supply these features and carry the narrative down the extra fifty years, he will have material enough to make a second volume, which, with the corrections that may be needed in this, will furnish our people with a history more elaborate than that of any city or town in the Commonwealth. There is, indeed, much in these pages of a genealogical and biographical nature, and many old landmarks are identified ; but this material is only used as incidental to the story. It is the history of the people that is here told. A list of the men who have aided the writer during the past two years would be too long to give here. But special acknowledgment should be made to Dr. Thomas R. Pynchon, of Hartford, for his many services in collecting facts. Maj. Edward Ingersoll, James E. Russell, Robert O. jNIorris, Judge William S. Shurt- leff, James Wells, Dr. William Rice, James Kirkham, Dr. F. E. Oliver, of Boston, and scores of others have given their services in recalling the past and furnishing records ; and Judge Henry Morris, before his illness, gave the use of his historical library and manuscripts at all times. The names of the soldiers of the civil Avar and the lists of dead, wounded, and missing were furnished by James L. Bowen. The index was prepared by Dr. William Rice. The publication committee appointed by the committee of fifty were : Edward H. Lathrop, chairman ; Judge William S. Shurtleff, Lewis J. Powers, James D. Gill, and Milton Bradley. This committee placed the whole matter of publishing the history into the hands of C. A. Nichols, of this city, who, it will be seen., has spared neither time nor money in this service. PREFACE. It is a fact worthy of note that the local patriotism which the jNIay celebration stimulated has not died down since then. During the past tAvo years more money has been given for public improvements, more attention paid to the appearance of parks and thoroughfares, and more concern taken in the organ- izations that supplement the work of good government here than for many years before the celebration. Thus the quarter- millennial, which was a tribute to the past, was a pledge also for the future in all things that improve and better our City of Homes. This is our Springfield, — first, a stake in the wilder- ness, then a town, then the mother of towns, then a city, and, with the continuing favor of Providence, the mother of cities. MASON A. GREEN. Springfield, Mav 25, 1888. The Springfield Church, England. INTRODUCTION. When King Charles had dissolved his third Parliament with the avowed purpose of ruling without it, and had made the ritualistic Laud Bishop of Loudon, thus at once putting his heel upon the statute lil^erties of England and the bleeding heart of Puritanism, there lived in an Essexshire hamlet a warden of the established church. He was thirty-nine years of age, of gentle birth, acute, res- tive, and singularly self-assertive. He had seen some of the stoutest men of the realm break into tears when the king had cut off free speech in the Commons ; he had seen ritualism, like an iron collar, clasped upon the neck of the Church, while a young jewelled courtier, the Duke of Buckingham, dangled the reputation of sober England at his waistcoat. A colonial enterprise, pushed by some Lincolnshire gentlemen, had been noised abroad, and the warden joined his INTRODUCTION. fortunes with them, and so became one of the original incorporators mentioned in the royal charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company in America. This was William Pynchon, of Springfield, Essex, England. The P3^nchons seem to have had a sturdy qualit}^ that grows in the fastnesses of Wales, nor were they strangers to the graces of the gentry and the pride of family. Sir William Dugdale in his "Baronage" says that Endo, "with one Pinco his sworn brother in war," came to England with William at the time of the Norman Conquest, and they received, among other returns, for their services, the hamlet of Thorpet in Kirby, Lincolnshire, — " Endo to hold his proportion im- mediately of the king, and Pinco his of St. Cuthbert of Durham." In 1167 Hugh, the son of " Pinco or Pincheun," w^as returned by the Bishop of Durham as " holding of him" seven knights' fees in Lincoln shire. A reference in the records of that da}^ to "Hugh fils Pinch- onis " furnishes us the earliest close approach to the spelling of the name as we have it. Walter de Beke married the daughter of " Hugh Fitz Pincheun," who held the lands in Lincolnshire for some ^^ears. We learn from the History of the town of Horton, in Yorkshire, that a daughter of Thomas Chichele, Northamptonshire, married a William Pynchon, who is spoken of as the ancestor of the Essex Pynchons. This Chichele was a relative of Sir Robert Chichele, Lord ]\Iayor of London in 1411. The-Horton historian speaks of the first William Pynchon as an "opulent butcher," from whom "de- scended a line of important personages whose issue gave off Baronets and Squires of high degree." Coming down somewhat later, it is known that Nicholas Pynchon, who became High Sheriff of Lon- don in 1533, went from Wales to Sussex in the early part of the sixteenth centur}^ and bought an estate in the ancient cathedral town of Chichester. He removed to Essexshire in 1520, where his son, John, married Jane Empson, the daughter of Sir Richard Empson, one of the ministers of King Henry VII. who lost their heads for unprofessional conduct. John's son, William, died at Writtle in 1592 ; INTRODUCTION. and his son, in turn, was the AYilliam Pynchon, of Springfield, Essex- shire, England, who became the founder of Springtield, Massachu- setts, United States of America. The coat of arms of the Pynchon family was : " Per bend argent and sable, three roundles within a bordure engrailed, counter- changed." Although William Pynchon was a man of broad and aggressive thought, he was remarkably complex in character. He loved both money and adventure ; he also loved the gospel in its purity ; he hated political corruption, and, at the same time, he dis- trusted that phase of Puritanism which drifted away from royalty. AVhat was the real motive that led him to leave the quiet walks of his Essexshire estate and to sail for the New World we will leave others to conjecture after reading his history. After Charles Stuart had risen from his bed, where he had fallen in unkingly tears on hearing of the assassination of Buckingham, he resolved to continue the fight for the divine right of kings by adopting two equally memorable policies. The ver}^ month in which the king dissolved the Parliament which had bolted its door against the royal messenger, he signed the famous Massachusetts Bay charter. No one can tell who was more relieved at the signing of the charter, — King or Puritan. The eagerness of his Majesty to be well rid of his Puritan subjects explains the liberal terms upon which the Massa- chusetts wilderness was set over to P^ndicott, Cradock, Pynchon, and their associates. The}^ and their heirs and assigns forever received from the king in the territor}^ of Massachusetts Bay " all landes and groundes, place and places, soyles, woodes and wood groundes, havens, portes, rivers, waters, mynes, mineralls, jurisdiceones, rights, royalties, liberties, freedomes, immunities, priviledges, fran- chises, preheminences, hereditament, and commodities whatsoever," to be held "in free and comon Socage and not in Capite nor by knight service." The main consideration was a payment of one-fifth part of the gold and silver ore " which from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter, shalbe there gotten, had or obteyned for all ser- INTRODUCTION. vices, exaccors, aad demandes whatsoever." It was granted that the officers should be chosen out of the freemen of the company ; that it should be " one bodie politique and corporate," with right forever to appoint its own officers, including a General Court having judicial and legislative functions granted for all time. The only check upon the action of the court was the provision that no law should be con- trary to the statute laws of England ; but the governor not being a royal appointee (after the provisional one named in the charter), and the laws not being submitted for roj'al sanction, the act of incorpo- ration served as a practical warrant of local autonomy. Every person joining the corporation was required to take the freeman's oath, swearing " by the greate & dreadful name of the everlyving God" to " mainetaine & preserve all the libertyes & privileges " of the colou}^ ; nor did the colon}- in turn doubt its right to exclude freemen who developed heretical opinions. John and Samuel Brown, who had got into trouble by using the " Book of Comon Prayer," were summarily sent back to England from Salem, and it was arranged that the dispute should be put out to arbitration. The Browns nominated Mr. Pynchon, among others, to this board, and in the end, it is believed, they were paid a small sum for their financial losses in America. It little concerns us here to follow the transfer of the charter from England to Massachusetts Bay in the early spring of 1630, except to note that Mr. Pynchon's importance in this enterprise is evident from the first. He was not only an incorporator, but was named by the king a provisional assistant pending the regular or- ganization under the charter. He was present at the meeting in England in May, 1629, when he paid his "adventure money" to Harwood, the treasurer, and in October of that year he was placed on the committee to carry out the vote of the company to transfer the historic charter to America. The fleet of four vessels which sailed in April, 1630, bearing the charter with the seal of England attached thereto by strings of braided silk, also bore Mr. Pynchon INTRODUCTION. and his feeble wife with four childreu, Ann, Mary (afterward Mrs. Holj^oke), John, and Margaret (afterward Mrs. Davis). The new- comers generally took their families with them. If the king gave all, the departing Puritans accepted all, and risked all. Pynchon seems to have left a son in England, who subsequently went to the Barbadoes. Mr. P3mchon and his family were aboard the "Jewell," owned by Mr. Newell, one of the patentees. They reached Salem in the New World on the loth of June, 1630, having been thirty- seven da^^s on the voyage from the Isle of Wight. ]Mr. P^mchon first settled at Dorchester. His wife died at Charlestown soon after her arrival. Not being satisfied with the outlook, Mr. Pynchon started a new plantation upon the rocks of Boston Neck. It was " Eocks- bury " indeed. He aided in establishing a church there, and was also active in public affairs. He attended the first General Court at Charlestown, and was made treasurer of the colony. Curiously enough the court fined Pynchon and two other assistants " a noble apiece " for being tardy. He was compelled to cross the river, and probably had an excuse for being late. It is quite likely that Mr. Pynchon made plans at once for an ex- tensive beaver trade, and some little commerce by sea. The General Court authorized him at one time to receive from England certain goods sent by Dr. Wilson as a gift to the plantation, which naturally implies Avharfage facilities. Certainly the Pynchons, in later years, owned a wharf at Boston. Mr. P^^nchon secured a license to trade in beaver skins with the Indians, and in 1635 £5 of the £25 fee was remitted. The trade was disappointing ; nor was the outlook en- couraging for the town of Roxbury. One John Pratt probably ex- pressed the feelings of many when he wrote back to England lamenting the barrenness of the soil. When the Bay authorities heard of it, Pratt was forced to make a public retraction, giving the climate and soil a certificate of good character. Mr. Pynchon had been one of the court chosen to examine and accept Pratt's retrac- tion, and one can fancy the shrewd face of this " gentleman of INTR on UCTION. learuiug aud religion " relax as he signed his name to the acceptance of the retraction in which Pratt said, nnder the counter pressures of truth and necessity : "As for the barrenes of the sandy grounds I spake of them then as I conceaved ; but nowe, by experience of myne owne, I finde that such ground as before I accounted barren, yet, being manured & husbanded, doeth bring forth more fruit than I did expect." The poor condition of the so-called soil at Roxbury, from which even proper husbandry could not, under the circumstances, bring encouragement to the tiller, led to a dispute about taxes levied upon the several towns by the General Court, and indeed, in 1635, Mr. Pynchon actually refused to pay his part of the assessment, as he " alleaged that towne was not equally rated with others." For this resistance he was fined £5. The most curious instance of discipline connected with Mr. Pynchon's name at the Bay rose out of the beaver trade. The laws as to giving fire-arms to the Indians were naturally strict ; but the Indians being good hunters, the temptation to lend them arms for a day or wxek, with perhaps an Englishman to accompany them, was great indeed. ]Mr. P^mchon and ]Mr. Mayhew, in the spring of 1634, applied to the Court of Assistants for a special permit to employ Indian hunters, which was granted ; but on May 14 the General Court expressed its disapproval in this stiff manner : " It is agreed that there shal be X£ fine sett upon y^ Court of Assistants & Mr. ]Mayhew, for breach of an order of Court against employeing Indeans to slioote with peeces, the one halfe to be payde l)y ]\Ir. Pynchon & Mr. Mayhew, offending therein, the other halfe by the Court of Assistants then in being, whoegave leave thereunto." A theological cloud was gathering over the Boston and Salem churches. The Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams schism was destined soon to distract the colony,, and Mr. Pynchon could not but have seen the advantage of a still deeper taste of the wilderness. His resolve to settle in the Connecticut Valley marks the beginning of the history of Springfield. CHAPTER I. — (1G35-1G37.) The Roxbury Settlers. — Causes of their Migration to the Connecticut Valley. — The Probable Route from Roxbury to Springfield. — The " Old Connecticut Path," and the " Old Bay Path."— The First House. —The Dress of the Springfield Pioneers, — Buying Indian Lands. — The First Owners of-House Lots. — The Pequot War. — William Pynchon a Trader. — Rev. George ]Moxon. — The Town Meeting and the English Vestry Meeting. — Owner- ship of Lands in Common. CHAPTER II. - (1638-1639.) William Pynchon and the Indian. — Capt. Mason, of Connecticut. — Pynchon and Mason contrasted. — Origin, of the Charges against Mr. Pynchon. — Corn Contracts with the Indians and the Connecticut. — Capt. Mason visits Agawam (Springfield). — Heated Dispute between Mason and Pynchon. — Mason's Hasty Return to Connecticut. — Mr. Pynchon summoned to Hart- ford, and charged with speculating in Corn. — His Trial and Conviction. — Starving Condition of the Agawam Inhabitants. — Capt. Mason author- ized to trade with the Massachusetts Indians. — Mr. William Pynchon's " Apology." CHAPTER III. — (1638-1639.) The Connecticut Jurisdiction over Agawam. — The Massachusetts Boundary I^ine. — Rev. Thomas Hooker's Spirited Letter. — House built for Mr. Moxon. — Allotments of Land. — Agawam's Act of Secession. — Sundry Town Laws. — Strangers excluded. — Wages of Laborers regulated. — The ToAvn Brook. — Woodcock ^'s. Cable. — Ancient Lawsuits. — A Jury of Six. — Mr. Moxon in Court. CHAPTER IV. — (1640-1643.) Revival of the Charges against William Pynchon. —His Trial before the Windsor Church. — Connecticut claims Woronoco (Westfield). — Massachusetts CONTEXTS. protests. — The Arrival of Elizur Ilolyoke, Samuel Chapin, and Others. — Goody Gregory fined for Profanity. — Fire Ladders. — -John Hobell and ]Miss Burt ordered to be flogged. — Second Division of Planting-Grounds. — Marriage of ]Mary Pynchon. CHAPTER v. — (1644-l(>4o.) The First Board of Selectmen. — Centralization. — Mr. Moxon's Ministry. — The First Meeting-House. — A Long Sermon. — A Tax-List. — Fencing House- Lots. — The " Longe MeddoAve." — Refusal to make Fences. — Planting- Grounds on the AYest Side. — Social Caste. — Marriages of Hugh Parsons and of John Pynchon. CHAPTER VL — (1645-1650.) Connecticut imposes a River Tariff. — Purchase of Saybrook Fort. — William Pynchon refuses to pay the Duty. — The Commissioners of the United Col- onies sustain Connecticut. — Springfield's Case in Detail. — Massachusetts imposes Retaliatory Duties. —^Connecticut removes the River Duties on Springfield Goods. — Floods and Local Incidents. — Taxes. — Miles Morgan. — The Freeman's Oath. — Trouble as to Swine. — Town Orders.- — Pyn- chon's Court. CHAPTER VII. — (1648-1652.) Witchcraft. — Mysterious Lights seen at Night. — Mrs. Bedortha. — Hugh Par- sons's Threat. — Mrs. Parsons condemned for Slander. — Mary Parsons bewitched. — Parsons arrested. — Mrs. Parsons accuses herself of Child- Murder. — Taken to Boston. — Mrs. Parsons sentenced to be hanged. — Death before the Day of Execution. — Pecowsic. — John Pynchon's Growing Importance. — Church Expenses. — William Pynchon's Heretical Book con- demned by the General Court. — Mr. Norton's Reply. — The Doctrine of the Atonement. — The Protest of Sir Henry Vane and the Reply of the General Court. — Pynchon, Moxon, and Smith return to England. CHAPTER VIII. - (1653-1675.) Springfield in the Hands of Young Men. — The Discipline more rigid. — Appor- tionments of Land. — Power of the Selectmen. — Quabaug. — The Vacant Pulpit. — Various Candidates. — Rev. Mr. Glover settled. — How the Meet- ing-House was " dignified." — Hampshire County. — Business of the County Courts. — Numerous Offences against Private Morals. — The Cause. — ■ Tything-Men. — Death of Mary Holyoke. — Death of William Pynchon in England. — The Pvnchon Fort on Main Street. CHAPTER IX. — (1674-1676.) The Indian Situation. — Puritan View of the Savage. — The Agawams. — Eng- lish Laws for the Natives. — Indian Mortgage Deeds. — An Appeal to CONTENTS. Boston. — The Origin of Slavery in New England. — Perfecting Title to the Land. — King Philip's War. — The Attack upon Brookfield. — Lieuten- ant Cooper sent forward from Springfield. — Beers, Lathrop, Mosely, and Treat march to the Rescue of the Connecticut Valley Towns. — The Swamp Fight. — Death of Beers. — Bloody Brook. — Pynchon> Protest to the Commissioners. — The I ndian F ort at Springfield. — The Town burned by King Philip. — Pynchon's Hasty Ride from Hadley. — Death of Cooper and Miller. — Captain Appleton in Command. — Trouble about Military Author- ity. — Winter. — ^J)eath of Elizur Holyoke and Selectman Keep. — The Fight at Turner's Falls. — Heroism of Samuel Holyoke. — JKing Philip's Death. CHAPTER X. — (1677-1703.) Waste Places rebuilt. — Deacon Chapin. — Chicopee. — Fishing Privileges. — The Second Meeting-House. — Troubje about Mr. Glover's House and Lot. — Schools. — Taxes. — Law Breakers, — The Freemen of 1678. — The ,^ilA£cord Tree." — King William's AVar. — Pynchon's Attempts to protect the To\\-nsT" — Sir Edmund Andros in Springfield. — Massacre at Brookfield. — Captain Colton"s Heroism. — Pynchon's Letter to Stoughton. — Death of Mr. Glover. — Suflield. — Enfield. — The Boundary Question. — Brimfield. — West Springfield. — Its Struggle for a Separate IMinister. — Pynchon's Place in the Commonwealth. — His Business Connections. — Beaver Trade with England. — Pynchon's Death. CHAPTER XI. — (1703-1735.) Queen Anne's War. — The West Side Meeting-House. — Longmeadow. — Rev. Stephen Williams. — The Commons. — Visit of Judge Sewall. — Mr. Brewer's Salary. — Parish Matters. — Mr. Brewer's Death. — The State of Society. — The Half-Way Covenant. — A Decline in Morals. — Full List of Tax-payers. — The Church Membership. — Freemanship. — Condition of the Churches. — Call of Rev. Robert B reck. — Charges of Heresy. — Breck's Repl^'-j^JClje First Parish divided into Breck and Anti-Breck Factions. — Meeting of the Hampshire County Association of Ministers at Springfield. — An Exciting Session. CHAPTER XII. — (1735-1761.) The Breck Controversy continued. — Jonathan Edwards^s Position. — The Ordi- '"nnaTTon Council meets at Springfield. — Br'eck's Confession of Faith. — His Arrest and Acquittal. — An Appeal to the General Court. — Breck finally settled over the First Church. — Whitefield. — Great Revivals. — Changes in Church Rules. — Increased Church-Membership. — Springfield Mountains. — Chicopee. — The Third Meeting-House. — Schools. — Loss of Life at Louisburg. — T> B—H-Qbbs_ Figh t. — Crown Point. — Agawam. — Death of Col. William Pynchon and of Dea. Henry Burt. CONTEXTS. CHAPTER XIII. — (1761-1783.) Col. John AVortliington. — Josiah Dwight. — Benjamin Day. — Prominent Doc- tors. — The Small-pox. — -JFTnrioj^ng- pf Sb^^xx^ — The Wait Monument. — Parish Matters. — Jedediah Bliss. — Springfield Mountains. — Stony Hill. — West Springfield attempts to rule the ToAvn. — Is set off as a Separate Town. — John Worthington's Tory Sentiment. — Other Springfield Tories. — Town Officers for 1775. — Lexington. — Springfield Minute-Men.-— Letter from_a_Springfield Soldier. — Revolutionary Soldiers from Springfield. — Moses Bliss. — The Pynchon Family again. — Town Acts and Resolves. — The March to Ticonderoga. — More Revolutionary Soldiers. — The State Constitution. — John Worthington in Growing Favor. — Financial Distress. — Depreciation of Currency. — An Inter-State Convention at Springfield. — Fluctuations in Values. — Warrants of Distress. CHAPTER XIV. — (1783-1787.) The Debtor_J^ln.ss in MassRchnsetts. — Rev. Samuel Ely. — Springfield Jail Broken open. — A Mob at Northampton. — Hatfield Convention. — Commo- tion in other States. — Views of Washington and other Americans on the Situation. — Unsuccessful Attempt to prevent the holding of the Courts in Springfield. — Town Officers. — Warrants of Distress. — Prominent Money- Lenders. — The Town-Meeting on the Situation. — Daniel Shays. — The Court Calendar loaded with Suits against Debtors. — Courts interfered with at Northampton. — The Elections of 1786. — Trouble at Worcester. — • Mobs at Northampton. — Extra Session of the Legislature. — Shays makes a Demonstration at Springfield. — The Town-Meeting again. — General Lin- coln. — Lincoln's March to the Connecticut V.^lley. — General Shepard's Defence of the Springfield Armory. — Shays defeated. — The Towns send in Petitions praying for Peace and Pardon. — The Triumph of Law. CHAPTER XV. — (1783-1800.) Death of Rev. Robert Breck. — Pompey. — The Change in Dress. — Carriages. — Postmaster Moses Church. — Death of Charles Brewer. — Zebina Steb- bins. — Capt. Luke Bliss. — The Dwights. — Merchant Jt)nathan Dwight. — The Old Red Store. — Other Merchants. — A Glimpse at Main Street. — • Zenas Parsons. — Taverns. — Maj. Joseph Stebbins. — Early NeAvsiMpers. — Post Riders. — Samuel Lyman. — Springfield's College Presidents. — The Hitchcocks. — Col. Thomas Dwight. — Daniel Lombard. — Town Offi- cers. — Fourth of July Celebration. — Timber Trade. — More Warrants of Distress. — Town Treasurer's Report. — Canals. — Deserting Soldiers and Lawlessness. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. — (1800-1821.) The United States Armory. — David Ames. — Roswell Lee. — " Toddy Lane." — The Dwight Store again. — Other Buildings of Interest. — Incorporation of Hampden County. — Fight over the Offices. — The Embargo Troubles. — The Hartford Convention. — The Character of George Bliss, First. — Town Acts. — William Ely. — Town Officers for 1808. — Bridges over the Connecticut. — Visit of President Monroe. — Population. — The Spring- field Bank. — Springfield Fraternities. — The Old Academy. — Samuel Osgood. — Baptists and Methodists. — Rev. W. B. O. Peabody. — New Congregational Meeting-House and Court-House. CHAPTER XVII. — (1821-1831.) pA ^'^^ The "Federal Spy "and " HampsMxe Federalist." — Samuel Bowles, the First. New Blood in the Village. — The Characters of William B. Calhoun, John Mills, Oliver B. Morris, and George Bliss, Jr. — Philanthropy. — The Colonization Society. — Population. — Fourth of July Celebration. — Polit- . ical Banquets. — [River Traffic. — River Steamers. — Stages. — Factories. ' — Postmaster Lombard. — Politics. — The Poor-House. — Selectmen from 1822 to 182G. — ■ Destruction of the Pynchon Fort. — Temperance Society. — Jackson's Triumph. — Masonry. — Chapman & Ashmun. — Military Com- panies. — Ancient Trees. — Fire Department. — Lawlessness. — Death of Jonathan D^vight. — Commerce on the River. CHAPTER XVIIL— (1831-1841.) I The Era of Railroad Building. — Canal and Railroad Advocates. /— The Old Western Road. V- A M.tss Meeting at Springfield. — Hartford's Rival Scheme. — Stock Subscriptions. — Seeking State Aid. — Democratic Party Opposition. — River Boats. — Chicopee and Cabotville. — School Districts. -^ — Activity in Real Estate. — A Washington's Birthday Celebration. — Visit of Henry Clay. — William B. Calhoun. — Temperance. — Elliot-Buckland Murder Trial. — Revolutionary Pensioners. — George Bliss in Politics. — Springfield's Bi-centennial. — Fourth of July at Factory Village. — George Bancroft in Local Politics. — The Fifteen-Gallon LaAv. — Marcus Morton. — A Harrison Demonstration. — Slavery. — Dr. Osgood. — Springfield Statistics. — NeAvspapers. — Dr. Joshua Frost. — Churches. — The Fire Department. — Military Companies. CHAPTER XIX. — (1841-1852.) Maj. Edward Ingersoll. — Colonel Ripley. — Military Superintendents. — Pro- test of the Armorers. — Charles Stearns. — Col. Roswell Lee. — The " Stearns Riot." — Long Litigations. — Politics. — Ashmun's Defence of CONTENTS. AVebster. — Liquor Licenses. — Arrival of John Quincy Adams's Body. — Ashmun's Public Career. — The Thompson Riots. — Eliphalet Trask's Posi- tion. — Erasmus D. Beach. — John Mills again. — Chapman as a Statute- Maker. -I Railroads. )— Visit of Charles Dickens. — More River Steam- boats. — The Fire of 1844."~'— Real-Estate Changes. — Proposal for a City Charter. — Deaths of X. P. Ames, David Ames, and Dr. Peabody. — Newspapers. — Churches. — Removal of the Old Cemetery. — Jenny Lind. — Xew Business Enterprises. — ^Militia. — The New City. CHAPTER XX. — (1852-18G0.) The Xew City. — Ansel Phelps, Jr. — Xew Buildings unon Main Street. — The Growth of Holyoke. — Labor Troubles. — The Boston & Albany Railroad. — Kossuth. — Philos B. Tyler. — Retirement of Dr. Osgood. — Gen. Wliitney. — Know-Xothingism. — Mayor Trask. — Dedication of the City Hall. — The Fremont Campaign. — The City Library. — The Home Exliibition of 1853. — Death of Daniel Lombard. — Panic of 1857. — Failure of the Western Bank. — George Bliss and Benjamin Butler. — Politics. — Dr. Chaffee. — Free-Soil Excitement. —John Brown. — The Club. — The Dred Scott De- cision and Springfield. — More Politics. — John Brown's Letter to Chapman. CHAPTER XXI. — (1860-1886.) The War and Politics. — Springfield in the Chicago Convention. — Lincoln's Letter to George Aslimun. — City Politics. — Union Rallies. — Activity in Real Estate. — Various Enlistments. — A Record of Springfield Soldiers who died in Battle and in Hospital. — Fires. — Newspapers. — The Death of Samuel Bowles. — His Character as a Journalist. — Theology at Indian Orchard. • — Rev. James F. Merriam. CHAPTER XXII. — (May 25, 1886.) Preparing to Celebrate the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Found- ing of the Town. — The Citizens' Committee. — Service of Praise at the First Church. — The Loan Exhibition. — Tuesday's Ceremonies. — Band Concert. — Judge Henry Morris's Address. — Judge William S. Shurtleff's Ode. — The Banquet at the Massasoit Hotel. — Interesting After-dinner Speeches. — Letters of Regret. — A Brilliant and Remarkable Occasion. CHAPTER XXIII. — (May 26, 1886.) The Second Day of the Celebration. — The Children's Concert. — The Proces- sion. — Distinguished Guests. — Historical Representations, — The Veterans in Line. — The Trades. — The Grand Ball at the City Hall, which closed the Ceremonies of the Great Celebration of Mav 25-26, 1886. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Springfield Church, Exolaxd . . . • The Koxbury Emigrants Old Indian Deed .......•• Pynchon opposing Captain Mason's Demands The Indian Corn Fleet ....... Old Dutch Map of Connecticut River .... Pynchon's Book burned on Boston Common . Fac-simile Title-page Pynchon's Book .... The Pynchon Tablet at Writtle, England . Interior of Church avhere William Pynchon is buried The Old Pynchon "Fort" or Residence Indians from the Stockade prepare to burn Springfield, Major John Pynchon's Ride ...... Pynchon Coat of Arms ....... Cradle of Pynchon Family ...... The Reading of Mr. Breck's Confession of Faith Parsons Tavern, 1776 . Defending Court-House against Shays's Insurgents . Warming-Pan and Foot-Stove The Dwight Brick Store, as it appeared about 1860 Map of Armory Hill, about 1810 ..... The Old Toll-Bridge ........ The Old Town-House, State Street .... 1675. PAGE vii 7 13 27 37 40 lU 117 121 U5 146 163 167 206 238 249 285 318 330 339 355 372 377 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Bliss Residence Burning U.S. Armory, 182-t .... Archway to the Springfield Cemetery . The Old Elm on Elm Street .... Express Train on Western Railroad Advertisement of Hampden Coffee-House The Old Hampden Coffee-House Revolutionary Pensioners at the Court-House, Map of Springfield, 1836 Depot and Old Railroad Bridge The Corner Bookstore City Hall Tower and Church Spires John Broavn organizing a Secret Lodge among The Wait Monument and Rockingham House Entrance to U.S. Armory ..... The Old County Jail "Agawam" Eerry-Boat Old Ely Tavern and Blake Homestead, Dwight Parsons Tavern as it appeared in 1886 West Entrance to Old Toll-Bridge The Procession. May 26 ..... , 1832 Negroes Street 1851 619, 623, PAGE 385 892 403 405 416 424 425 429 438 479 485 492 505 508 517 521 525 531 541 545 626 STEEL ENCxRAVINGS. William Pynchon, Jonathan Dwight. Rev. B. Howard. Rev. S. Osgood. Oliver B. Morris. Edward Pynchon. George Ashmun. George Bliss. Solomon Warrener. Judge R. A. Chapman. Chester W. Chapin. Dr. David P. Smith. Samuel Bowles. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886 655 — 1657. The Roxbuiy Settlers. — Causes of their Migration to the Connecticut Valley. — The Probable Route from Roxbuiy to Springfield. — The " Old Connecticut Path" and the "Old Bay Path." — The First House. — The Dress of the Springfield Pioneers. — Buying Indian Lands. — Tlie First Owners of House-lots. — The Pequot War. — William Pynchon a Trader. — Rev. George Moxon. — The Town Meeting and the English Vestry Meeting. — Ownership of Lands in Common. In these simple chronicles of Spriugtield there is uo occasion to give in detail the causes that led AYilliam Pynchon and his associates to leave Roxbury, and to settle in the Connecticut valley. The prospect of better trade in the west was no doul)t one motive, and the exacting conditions of government, also, nnist have influenced them. The tendency at Boston to limit the qualitications of freemen, and to expand the prerogatives of those in authority, had alread}^ appeared. The setting up of the '• standing council for term of life " had given rise to serious misgivings in the minds of many. The Bay authorities looked with no little concern upon the first proposals to people the C onnecticut valley. The}^ had dismissed, with some show of impatience, Plymouth's proposition even to join in a western trading expedition ; nor had the adventurous John Oldham endeared himself to the people at the Bay, who frowned upon his " vast conceipts of extraordinary gaine." But it is quite possible that Mr. Pynchon oave Oldham substantial encourao-ement in his SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. work of exploring the Conuecticut valley. When Oldham's estate was settled it was found that he owed Mr. Pynchon £22 19.s'. 9rZ. It has been usually taken for granted that William Pynchon pros- pected in this valley in 1635. It must have been a hasty trip, how- ever, as he was at Boston in March, April, May, June, July, August, and Novem])er of that year. He did not attend the September court, however. The first house on the banks of the Agawam river, which empties into the Connecticut just below Springfield, was built in 1635, the workmen arriving iu time for the spring planting. If Mr. Pynchon himself went thus early he anticipated the action of the General Court, which did not pass the vote authorizing the forming of a new plantation until May. The route taken by the early prospectors and settlers of Spring- field rests under quite as deep a cloud of doubt as the dates them- selves. There is an old romance, written by a native of Springfield, entitled " Letoula ; or, a legend of Springfield; founded on Fact." It contains the following passage : — At the close of a summer evening in 1035. as the sun was sinking in the far west and casting its last brilliant beams through a hedge of willows which bordered the sparkling waters of the lovely Connecticut, a birch canoe, shooting by an opening in tlie willows, approached the shore. A small party of English- men disembarked, and, accompanied by a guide, ascended the hill. They were met at the summit l)y a sachem. avIio conducted them inside the palisadoes. The next morning a council was held, and the strangers made known the object of their visit, which was to purchase land for a settlement. There is probably as much truth in this avowed work of fiction as in some of the professedly historical accounts. A house was already up, and crops growing, iu the summer of 1635, and the parley with the Indians had, of course, taken place before that. The story that the Roxbury part}^ led by AVilliam Pynchon, approached the Connect- icut valley substantially over the Boston & Albany Railroad route, may safel}^ be set down as a piece of visioning. A speaker in an SPRIXG FIELD, 1636-1886. historical address has receutly assumed that the Windsor, Hartford, and Wetherstield parties came down the Chicopee valley, and thence drifted south. Dr. Holland also accepted tradition, and used it in his history, as well as for his purposes of fiction, when he described the approach of the Springfield pioneers from the " Old Bay Path." But the '' Bay Path " was not opened until 1673, nearly forty years later. The Indian situation may eulighten us somewhat upon this sub- ject. The English explorers of that early day found that the site of Woodstock, Conn., was in a rich corn region, where the grain was stored in Indian " barns," or cellars with baked-clay walls. From Woodstock ran old trails in every direction. It was, in fact, an Indian trail centre. Governor Winthrop was supplied with corn in 1630 by Indians, who bore it in skins upon their backs to the Bay. This early supply-traiu proceeded from Woodstock past the site of Dudley, Grafton, Hopkinton, South Framingham, Cochituate pond (Framingham), north bank of Charles river, and thence to Cam- bridge and Boston. Nor did these Indians even then break through an untrodden forest. They took the trail known later as the Old Connecticut Path, the one followed by John Oldham on his way to the site of Wethersfield in 1633. Hooker and Stone took this route in June, 1()36. It had been developed from an Indian trail to an English bridle-path for horses and cattle. No one ever accused AYilliam Pynchon with any lack of business qualities. He was a practical man of afi:airs. It is absurd, therefore, to suppose that he rejected the forest-trail connections of the country, and pushed on with his little company of men, women, and children through a trackless wilderness. We have spoken of Woodstock as a trail centre. One trail ran from thence to the Narragansett country and to Norwich ; another north-west, through Southbridge to 8turbridg-e, there splitting, — one continuing to Springfield, and the other to the Falls on the Connect- icut, at Holyoke. There was still another Indian trail, which left y SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. the Old Connecticut Path at Wesson, and ran through Sud])ury Centre, Nashawa}-, Princeton, New Braintree, West Brookfield, Warren, Brimfield, and Springfield ; but, from Winthrop's Journal, it appears that the English did not know of it till 164'. That Avheras a howse was built at a comon charge which cost G£ and alsoe the Indians demannd a greate some to buye theyr right in the s*^ lands, and alsoe a greate shallope, Avhich Avas requisite for the first plantinge, the valew of Avhich engagements is to be borne by each inhabitant at theyr first entrance, as they shall be rated by us till the s'^ disbursements shall be satisfyed, or else in case the s'^ hoAvse and boat be not soe satisfyed for, then soe much meddowe be sett out about the s'^ howse as may countervayle the sayd extraordinary charge. 6 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. It would be rather a difficult thiug to set apart meadow land about a house that had been pulled down, aud we can safely assert that the original house on the banks of the Worouoco river had not been puUed down in the spring of 163(3, tradition to the contrary notwith- standing ; and it is equally safe to infer that it sheltered, at least, a part of the Roxbury arrivals. The year 1636 was indeed an active aud trying oue for Mr. Pyn- chon. Besides his duties as a member of the Board of Commis- sioners appointed by the Massachusetts Bay General Court, to govern for one year the plantations that might be started iu the valley of the Connecticut, Mr. Pvnchon had to take full charoe of the transportation of his party, and their household goods aud effects, advancing a large part of the money required for that pur- pose. The March session of the General Court was full of excite- ment. The nisecurity felt on account of the restless Indians, the reconstruction of the courts, the establishment of quarter sessions, the special religious meetings of sundry uneasy spirits in some of the churches, the setting up of a standing council from among the magis- trates with life terms, and finally the appointment of the Connecticut commission of eight, were but the most important matters considered at that time. Sixteen hundred thirty-six may be called the exodus year to the Connecticut valley. Parties from the east were pushing to the sites of Hartford, Windsor, Springfield, and Wethersfield all that spring and summer ; and while the men at the Bay could do no less than bid them God-speed, we know that nothing but the stoutest ties that keep just minds to their moorings prevented an open rupture. Governor Winthrop's "Blessing of the Bay" sailed from Boston for the Connecticut river April '2Q, and about this time the bodv of the Roxbury pioneers penetrated the Massachusetts wilderness. A reference to this vessel and its service to Pynchon is made in a subsequent letter to John Winthrop, Jr., in which he writes : — The Roxijlry Emigrants. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Pray accept my Bill of excliang to you by Mr. Peeters for 63 li : & as for the freight of the Blessing formerly, I have a perf ett account of it : hut I have not Avritt with Anthony Dike to confer my notes Avith him, & as for the freight of the Batcheller. I shall make up the tunag with Mr Gose at Vf atertowne ; for thither I have conditioned that she must deliver our goods. I asked Lieftenant Gibbins, before I would hier her, if she might goe as far as Watertowne, & he confidently affirmed she might, & that there is water enough ; therefore I pray give all the furtherance von can. Botli the '^ Blessing '* and the " Batcheller*' carried goods for the Roxbury party, it would seem from this. The first instalment of the Koxbury band accomplished its jonrne}" between April 26 and ]May 14, when the first recorded meeting took place. This instalment in- cluded at least a dozen families. The horse-litter for the aged or indisposed was the only vehicle practicable along the forest bridle- patli to the wild west. Cows and pigs were included in the pioneer procession, while the armed outpost would lead the way over a pine plain or down a forest ravine, in order to clear natural obstructions or prospect for savages. While the colony was upon the verge of a terril>le Indian war, there is no reason to doubt that the Pynchou party was well received at the Indian villages which they passed. jNIr. Pynchon was accompanied doubtless by his bride, Frances Sanford, " a grave matron of the church at Dorchester," wliom he had married not long after the death of the first Mrs. Pynchon. Puritanism was the religion of honest, unaffected, and stalwart simplicity, which expressed itself strikingly in dress ; but the plain garb of those days figures in our nineteenth century eyes as pictu- resque in the extreme. There is a natural curiosity as to the costuming of the pioneers, and a diligent search has served to satisfy this curiosity in part. Most of the troopers and young men wore the customar}- jerkins or waist- coats of green cotton, caught at the waist with either red tape or a leather band. Over tliis some Avould wear a mandiliou, or sleeveless jacket, held at the neck with hooks and eyes, and lined with cotton. SPRINGFIELD, 1 686-1886. 9 As tlie expedition was through a wilderness during a possibly rainy spring, some may have been dressed at times ni the uncomfortal)ly warm doublet and hose of leather Uned with oiled skin, m which case they would abandon their large, conical broadbrims for cooler, red, knit Puritan caps. The half-boot was much worn then, and Mr. Pynchon would wear great boots, — a luxury limited by law to tliose whose estate was at least £200. The broad, white collar of the period would not be demanded upon such an expedition. The women of the band would wear strong, simple kersey gowns, with hoods, caps, high necks, and neckcloths, their home-made gowns falling to the stout boots with the directness of a decree from heaven. The short sleeves and bare arms, ;\nd bunches of green ribbon (not, however, required on such a journey), had been forbidden by the authorities ; but an inspection of the manuscript and printed remains of pioneer life in New England shows that neither the ingenuity of man, nor the dangers of the wild beasts or wilder men, kept the New England woman from reflecting in her attire something of the grace and taste that Heaven sheds upon lier sex ; and, therefore, if during this expedition some yeoman did not discover it a pleas- ure to tramp l)eside his horse that a maid might be the better placed, and her forest-decorated gown appear to better advantage, then Springfield was not at first peopled with the average quality of Puritans. It profits us little to linger over a chapter of history which is founded upon an hypothesis and developed upon slender threads of inference, but one cannot l)ut look twice at the possible scenes along this route to the Connecticut, — the encampment at a hamlet of wig- wams, the fair-faced matron and tlie leather-dressed squaw, the ex- pressions of a mutual s[)irit of concord and curiosity among the soft-voiced strangers in green and black and the natives, the psalm-singing circle about the camp-tire, and the wondering savages before their wigwams. Mr. Pviichon had secured an interpreter named Ahaughton. through 10 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. whom he could coinmiink'ate with the Indians, and, so far as is known, the great journe^^ was accomplished without accident, at least without serious dela3\ It is quite possible that the pioneers turned north-west at Wood- stock, and followed the trail to the site of Springfield ; but as this trail was not a bridle-path for the admission of horses and cattle, and as their goods were sent on boat cia Saybrook and Windsor (for P3mchon had letters to the church at Windsor) , even this supposi- tion is to be doubted. We believe that the pioneers came up the river to the Woronoco, or Agawam river, and were sheltered in the old, original house on the Indian meadows, now forming a part of the town of Agawam, on the south bank, about half a mile from the spot where it empties into the Connecticut. Before the Indian deeds were secured the little company made a formal declaration of their intention to establish a town. They were three days in drawing up this co^•enant, or town constitution, as it may be called. No reference to any colony jurisdiction occurs in this document. They were theoretically under the Massachusetts Ba}^ government, but really formed a part of Connecticut. They began their covenant by sa3nng that the\^ "doe mutuall}^ agree to certa^me articles and orders to be oljserved and kept by us and by our successors, except wee and eveiy of us for ourselves and in oure persons, shall therein meet uppon better reasons to alter our present resolutions," Tliey declared first their intention to procure a minister. The town was to be limited to fifty families ; each inhabitant, that is, head of a famih', to have a house-lot and an allotment of planting-grounds, pasture, meadow, marsh, and timber land. Taxes were to be levied upon land only. William Pynchou, Jehu Burr, and Heniy Smith were given forty acres of meadow-land, south of the " End Brook," to be exempt from taxation on account of the mone}^ paid out by them in found- ing a town. No man l)ut William P3mchon was allowed to have ten acres in his house-lot. The men signing this agreement were, SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-18S6. 11 William Pyuclion, 31atthew ^Mitchell, Henry Smith, Jehu Burr (his mark), William Blake, Edmuud Wood, Thomas Ufford (his mark), and John Cable. The assignments of honse-lots were as follows : — William Blake . IG poles in width. Thomas Woodford (north) 12 Thomas Ufford 14 Henry Smith . . 20 Jehu Burr . 20 William Pynchon . oO John Cable . 11 kC John Reader . . 12 c; MILL KIVER. Matthew ]Mitchell \ Samuel Butterlield \ . . On the Connecticut. Ednumd Wood j Jonas Wood .... South of Mill River. Henry Smith, who was married to Mr. Pynclion's daughter Ann, drew up the agreement ; and he seems to have been a man of great character and reliability. Six weeks after the signing of this agreement Mr. Pynchon was at Roxbury, but he returned in time to meet the local Indians and to receive deeds for the lands previously bargained for. If oui conclusions are well founded, Mr. Pynchon and his associates met the Indian owners of the land in the first house on the banks of the Agawam. July 15, 1636. Eleven days before, Pynchon had been in Roxbury. Several families had arrived since May, and they formed the second instalment which Pynchon led to the val- ley. The scene in and about the little house excites our curiosity ; but time has obliterated all Imt the results of the meeting. Cummucke and ^latanchan, ancient Indians, were there, and a 12 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-I8S6. young warrior, Cuttouas, of whom we will hear more later,' and others, making a company of at least thirteen Indians who put their marks upon paper for the first time. The rights of the squaws to the lands were duly recognized, but they were not allowed to sign. The deed is here transcribed : — Agaam alias AgaAvam : This lifteentli day of July, 163G. It is agreed between Commucke & Matanchan ancient Indians of Agaam for & in the Name of al the other Indians, & in particular for & in y*^ Xame of Cuttonus the right owner of Agaam & Qnana, & in the Name of his mother Kewanusk the Tamasham or wife of AYenawis, & Niarum the wife of Coa, to & with William Pynchon Henry Smitli & Jehu Burr their heires & associates for ever, to truck & sel al tliat ground & muckeosquittaj or medow, accomsick viz : on tlie other side of Quana ; & al the ground & muck- eosquittaj on the side of Agaam, except Cottinackeesh or grou^nd that is now planted for ten Fatham of Wampam, Ten Coates, Ten howes, Ten hatchets, & Ten knifes : and also the said ancient Indians Avith the Consent of the rest, & in particular \\^^ the Consent of Menis & Wrutherna & Napompenam. do trucke & sel to AVilliam Pynchon Henry Smith & Jehu Burr. & their suc- cessors, for ever, al that ground on the East side of Quinneckiot River called Usquajok & Nayasset reaching about four or five miles in Length, from the north end of Masaksicke up to Chickuppe River, for four fatham of AVampam. four Coates. four howes, four hatchets, four knifes : Also the said ancient Indians Doe w*''^ the Consent of the other Indians, & in particular w^'^ the Consent of Machetuhood Wenepawin, ^V Mokemoos trucke & sel the ground & muckeosquittaj, & grounds adjoyning, called Masaksicke, for four fatham of wampam, four Coates, four iiatchets & four howes, and four knifes, And the said. Pynchon hatii in hand paid the said eighteen fatham of Wampam. eighteen coates. IS hatchets, 18. howes, IS knifes to the said Com- mucke & Matanchan, & doth further condition \v''^ the sd Indians, that they shal have & enjoy all that Cottinackeesh, or ground that is now planted : And have liberty to take Fish & Deer, groundnuts, walnuts, akornes. & sasachimmeph or a kind of pease. And also if any of o'" Cattle spoile their corne, to pay as it is worth; & that hogs shall not goe on the side of Agaam but in akorne time : Also the said Pynchon doth give to Wrutherna two Coates over & above the said Particulars exp''ssed. & In Witnes hereof the two said Indians & the Rest, doe set to their hands, this ])'sent lo^'^ day of July. ItlSO. h 'fAt^eiyJc-^^'-'^'' ^ ever, ^f f-^2tt- 0lt7t/^ ^ C^c^'^ Old Indian Deed. 14 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. The Indians signing the above deed were INIenis, Maehetiihood, Cuttonas, Kenis, Cnmmucke, Matanchan, AVessa (or Xepinam), Macossak, Wrutherna, Koekninek, Winnepawiu, Wenawis, and Coa. The Indians, as they crowded about the table, seemed to have no difficulty in hitting upon designs to stand for their signatures. One drew a canoe, one an arrow, another a bow and arrow. The white witnesses of this historic deed were John Allen, Richard Everett, Joseph Parsons, Thomas Horton, Faithful Thayeler, and John Cownes. It is to be noted that these are all new names, and also that two of them, Everett and Cowues, made tlieir marks just as the savages did. The double title to the site of Springfield was now obtained, — the transfers under the king's patent and the Indian deed. The political status and official allegiance of William Pynchon, during this interregunm, is not quite clear. He was a member of the provisional commission that governed Connecticut; and yet, after this commission, he sat, as an assistant, in the Massachu- setts Bay colony. A few weeks after the signing of the Indian deed Mr. Pynchon was once more in Boston, and attended the Court of Quarter Sessions, as well as the General Court. The latter continued until the close of October; but probably Mr. Pynchon was permitted to leave before that, as he appeared at Newtown (Hartford, Conn.) at the opening of the Connecticut court there, November 1. Mr. Pynchon was undoubtedly too busy with the affairs of the plantation to go through the valley to any extent during the first year. He had written to John Winthrop, Jr.: "I will hasten to settle myself there [Agawam] as soone as I can, & then I shall see all the plantations." Pynchon was already at work shipping goods to the younger Winthrop. There are records of '^liver-culler shagg" cloth and " tauny shagg " sent to Winthrop ; and we find this bit of business advice, from Pynchon to his Connecticut SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1 8 86. 15 friend, dated Roxbnry, J11I3' 4, I606 : ''As for using oiild traders to trade for yon, it is not the best way for your gaine : for tliey know how to save tliemselves ; but a trusty man that never was a trader will quickl}^ find the way of trading, & bring j^ou l)est profitt, & so the God of peace be with you ever." ]\Ir. Pynchon said, in the same letter: — I received a parsell of course wampam from you, but I could not trade any of it. because others were furnished plenty of better : l)ut if you will send me a parsell of 100 or 200 fathom of fine white wampan I shall ac- cept it as bever. If 30U sell not this cloth, keepe it in good condition & I will take it again. It would thus appear that Pynchon and Winthrop both were concerned, at first, in trading operations upon a small scale. Mr. Pynchon probably had his house far enough advanced by the closing in of winter, 1636, to afford not onl}^ his immediate family shelter, but possibly others. The pine forests on the great plain east and north of the new village were substantial^ free of under- brush, owing to the annual autumn burnings which the Indians re- sorted to, possibly to facilitate their movements. The oak and chestnut groves were carefully protected from fire, however. The Indian summer of two hundred and fift}^ years ago, with its wild fire climbing from tree to tree up the mountain sides, driving the game before it, or licking up the brush on river banks, and flushing the birds on the plain and in jungles, resembled onl}^ remotely that placid haze, under an exaggerated sun, so seductive to young poets of our day. The company of frontier settlers was unable to secure a minister the first year, and Mr. P3mchon gathered the little flock together, probably at his house, and conducted divine service. He wrote his sermons, and his young son, John, often took abstracts of them. The Agawam Indians, in their fort on Long hill, were pleased to see the English settlino" in their immediate vicinity. It gave them a 16 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. powerful ally against warlike tribes both to the south and the west, audit increased the value and importance of their planting-grounds. The middle meadow adjoining the Agawam meadow was known as Quana. The region at Longmeadow was called Masacksick ; Mill river was called Usquajok ; Springfield, including the Chicopee plains, was Nayasset ; and Westfield was called AVoronoco. John Oldham was killed by the Indians near Block Island a few da^^s after the Agawam deed had been signed, and a terrible struggle with the savages was precipitated. On the following May, 1637, war was declared at Hartford against the Pequots. Pyuchou was not present, but it was voted that " Mr. Pincheons shallopp shal be taken to be imployed in this designe." Mr. Ludlow apologized for this liberty a few days later. The new plantation ])y that time had quite a number of houses along the west side of our present ]Main street, and they were tolerabh^ well fortified. But they lived in constant fear, and if they had been attacked at that time the}^ might easily have been exter- minated. The Agawam and Woronoco Indians showed no disposi- tion to fight. Indeed, they had looked upon the wliites from the start as allies. The 3''ear 1637 was a trying and exciting one, as no one could tell at what moment the whole Indian population would rise and join the Pequots in a war of extermination. House-building and land-clear- ing and the opening of the main street were attended with an ever-present sense of insecurity. It was not until over a year had passed that the first article of the original town compact was carried out, and a minister secured. Rev. George Moxon, of Bost©n, arrived at Agawam in the autumn of 1637. He was a short, stout man of five and thirty, and was a per- sonal friend of Mr. P3mchon. His arrival was an occasion of great felicitation, for the allotments of land and the clearing of the forests were merely the preliminaries. The great work of the settlers was to esta])lish and spread the kingdom of God in the New World. There SPRiyGFIELD, J03G-1S86. 17 was a belief abroad in those times that America was destined to be a peculiar land, favored of God, and many of the laws so repugnant to modern ideas of freedom and justice were designed to hasten the day when that hope should be realized. The coming of ]Mr. Moxon was propitious also, as it occurred at the season of general thanksgiving through New Enghmd at the overthrow of the Pequots. AVith all their trials and anxieties, there was more blue sky than cloud above them, and Agawam observed October 12, its first day of thanksgiving, with renewed heart and a hope that could not be subdued. The records of many of the lirst town-meetings are unfortunately lost, and it is not until the spring of 1688 that we can secure any definite notion of the course of local legislation. AVe will, therefore, only anticipate at this point enough to say: that one meets continually in these ding}^ I'ecords of the ancient town the reflections of English methods of local government. Local democrac}' and the town- meeting were no invention. Every i)hase of it was more or less a reflection of English civiUzation. Had it not been for the English Church in its relations to the State, the New England town-meeting would n(jt have been what it was. Xew-Englandism was, as it were, an oak-buttressed '^ L " against the great mansion of Pmglish civiliza- tion. One can even go further, and safel}^ assert that if the first settlers had not read the De Moribus or Popxlis Gerniania' of Tacitus, they certainly revealed a contact of some sort with German folk-life and town-life. Even to this day town communism retains its hold upon the Teutonic race. In a recent magazine article on ''Hanoverian Milage Life," we find this passage quite in point: " The tilled land is very minutely subdivided, the pasturage and forest lands being held and used in connnon." The management and allotments of these lands in Hanover are primarily in the hands of the farmers, with, of course, a State supervision. In the English parish of the seventeenth century, whether it had a civil or religious origin, with botli Koman and German marks upon 18 SPRINGFIELD, 1 6.36-1 SS 6. it, we fiud the grouudwork of our New England town-meeting, or rather the ideas upon which onr forefathers worked, and fi-om which they perfected their scheme of local government. The English parish was a church district at the time we treat, organized with sundry privileges of local civil government. The local rates and taxes were imposed by the English parish. Once a 3^ear the English rector would '' perambulate " the bounds of the parish to confirm its limits and to repeat the ancient anathema : " Cursed be he ^vhich translateth the bounds and doles of his neighbor." The vestry meeting was the parish gathering, in which highways, sanitar}^ matters, church and poor rates, Avere all attended to by vote, — a suffrage based up^on material possessions. One of the most impor- tant offices filled by the vestry was that of church-warden, these elec- tions sometimes causing great excitement. A warden was both a civil and religious officer, and from the English conception of this office came the New England " Select Townsman," as one will readil}" see upon comparing the duties of both. Mr. P^mchon was one of the wardens of the parish at Springfield, England, and upon the Agawam and Springfield town-meetings we see resting the shadow of the English vestr}^ meeting. It is a common remark that the advance in civilization is ac- companied by increasingly complicated codes and statutes ; but we will see upon opening a book of New England town records of the seventeenth centur}' that the complexity of our present statute law is technical and incidental, the tendency .all along having been toward simplicity and a broadening of principle. At first, a man could in effect do nothing but what was permitted him b}^ legislation ; now, he can do everything except what is prohibited. This is the case broadly stated. But in reference to Agawam individually it may be said, with some local pride, that the hard rules of the Ba}^ were materiall}^ modified from the beginning. We had here little or no religious persecu- tion, no eastern disciplinary splitting of noses, clamping of the tongue SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 19 with split sticks, no braDcliiigs of the forehead. And yet, the scheme of parental supervision of men's movements was stoutly adhered to. The town-meeting was the source of all local authority. The colonial law imposed a religious test upon all men entering this assembly of freemen. This assembly owned and managed all the land, apportioned it to individuals, filled civil and religious offices, built churches, hired ministers, oi)ened and repaired roads, regulated the walk and conversation of the individual, nominated the magis- trate, the constable, the officers of the training band, elected all town officers, superintended trade between man and man, fixed the price of labor, limited market prices, regulated the forests, determined the rotation of crops in the commons, even fixed the bedtime of the inhabitants, their seasons of worship and their hours of labor. At first there was a disposition to do away with executive officers as much ^s possible in the town-meeting. For nearly ten years there is no evi- dence that selectmen were elected at Springfield. There w^ere sur- veyors to see to the condition of the highways, after the manner of the English vestry, and the town-meeting was continually appointing special committees to perform certain prescribed duties, with fines prescribed if those duties were not attended to, or if the freemen re- fused to accept any office imposed on tliem ; but nowdiere in the records is there, for nearly a decade, any evidence that " towmsmen " were appointed with discretionary powers of governing. There was no need of selectmen, with the whole body of the freemen regularly in session once a month for the transaction of business. CHAPTER II. 1038-1039. William Pynchon and the Iiuliaii. — Captain Mason, of Connecticut. — Pynchon and Mason contrasted — Oii<^in of the Charges against Mr. Pynchon. — Corn Contracts with the Indians and the Connecticut. — Captain Mason visits Agawam (Springfield)^ — Heated Dispute hetween Mason and Pynchon, — Mason's Hasty Return to Con- necticut. — Mr. Pynchon summoned to Hartford, and charged with speculating in Corn. — His Trial and Conviction. — Stai-ving Condition of the Agawam Inhab- itants. — Captain Mason authorized to trade with the Massachusetts Indians. — Mr^ WilKam Pyuchon's " Apology." During the first three years of the Agawam's plantation exist- ence William Pynchon was a great traveller, both in this valley and the Bay country, and his impressive figure and strange garb became a familiar sight to the Indians. This stern horseman riding down a forest bridle-path, attended by a mounted servant, became to the Indians the impersonation of justice. There was another horseman in this valle}^ farther down the river, whose faith in the Indian was rooted to his sword-hilt. Him the Indians feared. The reverence of one and the fear of the other in the savage mind deepened as time wore on. We have nothing to do with the Captain John Mason and the William Pynchon conception of the Indian character, except so far as it aids us in gaining the secret of the Pynchon hold upon the natives. — a hold that outlived that age, and forms an important part of the primitive history of the Commonwealth. The Pynchon and the Mason polic}^ toward the Indian conflicted at all points. While neither had a high opinion of the Indian, the founder of Springfield persisted in taking hold of those ethical elements that are implanted in himian nature even in the rough ; but the Connecticut man was continually crushing through SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 21 theuiitive eoiiceptioii of justice and gaiiiiog his ends as with a cleaver. We do not den}' certain extenuating circumstances favoring Captain ^Mason's policy of force, nor begrudge him one spark of that grim prestige that borrows its radiance from the l)urning Pequot fort and its memorable holocaust ; but we simply marvel that Mason and Hooker and Stone and the rest should have been unable to under- stand the motives and the spirit of AVilliam Pynchon in his dealings with the Indians. No historian lias fully investigated this interesting chapter of New England, nor attempted to state even vaguely the merits of Pynchon's falling out with the Hartford government. It has been too readily and quite unjustly assumed that he was a money-maker, and that Connecticut rebuked him accordingly. " How can you explain away the refusal of 3'our ancestor to supply Hartford with corn ? " asks an historian of our day of a contempo- rary P^mchon. During our quarter-millennial celebration of May, 1886, a Connecticut newspaper took occasion to remark: — Mr. Pynchon -was the tir^;t monopolist of tliis vicinity. As far back as 1038 he was given the sole right to trade in corn with the Indians, on condition of his supplying our [Connecticut] colony with a certain amount at a fixed price. AA^e have no notion of raking up old sores with Springfield at this late day : but it is ;i sad fact that Mr. Pynchon was not very careful to •■ promote the publique good." Human nature in all ages seems to find it pretty hard to resist the op- portunity to abuse such privileges. It will be admitted that the reading of the meagre references in the histories to the charge brought against Mr. Pynchon of specu- lating on the necessities of the river towns might lead to the conclusions above quoted ; but the Connecticut editor is wrong in evei}^ particular of his charge. William Pynchon did not hold a monopoly of the corn trade for Connecticut ; the price was not fixed : he did not abuse his privileges. The controversy is very much in- volved, but as there has never appeared, to our knowledge, a complete statement in print, a good deal of time iias been spent in gathering 22 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. the material together with the hope that it will fill a gap in the aonals of western Massachusetts and vindicate Pynchon, without reflecting ui)on the reputation or motives of the Connecticut leaders. As the controversy is full of bitter personalities, that even outlived the lives^ of the actors, it is simpl}^ the part of candor to say that tlie opinion in New England two hundred and fifty years ago among the ablest men was that a strong arm would do more in a day with the savage than a year of loving-kindness and tender mercy. Mr. Pynchon did not so l)elieve, and hence the conflict between Springfield and Hart- ford. He never designedl}^ violated the Indian's notion of right and wrong, but when he made a bargain with the Indians, he even suffered rather than break it, or allow it to be broken. The question of securing corn for the towns after the Pequot war came up at Hartford during the Fe])ruary session of 1G38 ; Mr. Pynchon was not present. If each man had been allowed to trade with the Indians at will, the price would naturally have been ad- vanced. The court, therefore, ordered that — Xoe man in tliis Kiver nor Ag:nvam shall goe upp l^iA^er amonge the Indians or at home theire houses to trade for Corne or make any Contract or l)aro:aine araonge them for corne either privately or publiquely nppon the paine of os. for every bushell that hee or they shall soe trade. At this court Agawam was assessed £8G IGs. for the Pequot war expenses, and Jehu Burr was appointed collector at Agawam. It is not known why Mr. Pynchon remained away from the February meet- ing of the General Court. He had a written contract witli the Agawam Indians to furnish him during the spring five hundred bushels of corn. March 4 was the first da}^ for the payment of an instalment of grain. The Indians did not keep their word, and Mr. Pynclioil went down the river three days later, feeling very much concerned about it. The court opened on the 8th of March. After .some questions put to ]Mr. Pynchon and Mr. Plum!:) (both members of the General SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 23 Court) iibout simdry punishments intlieted upon Indiuns in their capacity as magistrates, the reguhition of the corn trade came up, and this vote was passed : — It is ordered Avith tlie consent of :\Ir. Pincheon that the saide ^Ir. Pyncheon AvilldeUver att Harteforde goode Marchantable Indian Corne att 5s. p'" bushell as farr as 500 bushells will goe at, if hee can save by that, for tlie residue hee is to have 5s. 2d. p^ bushell. provided also that that proporcon that Windsor is to liave shal ]>e landed there at ]\Ir. Ludlowes. for that proporcon that Wethers- feild is to have they are to it att Harteford. In considercon where of ther is a constrainte of any to go upp the River to trade with the Indians for Corne: as alsoe, if any Indians bring downe any Corne to us wee are not to exceede 4s p^ l)ushell: as alsoe in case of necessity that any family or familyes doe complaine ,.f present necesshies they are to repaire to 3 magistrates which may advise them for the supply, althougli it be to the dispensing of this order; provided also that if the said Mr Pincheon bee inforced to raise the price with the Indians of sixe sixes of Wompom a pecke, then the plantacons are to increase the pay of 5s p>- bushell : if be can abate anything hee will sette of soe much of 5s p>- bushell. This ^^ Mr. Ludlowe " was Roger Ludlow, who liad transactions with ^lY. Pynchou, as appears from this letter to William Pynchon, dated May 17, IGoT : — For your .lebt I am solicitous of. and I think the long before now I was never demanded twice in my life, nehher should this, I hope, if not for the wars that I cannot go into the Bay to settle business to pay your debt which is the greatest I owe in the world. Therefore pray, sir, have patience. In this General Court order it will be seen that Mr. Pynchou was the colony ^,agent to buy corn with discretion as to price over what the ^colony expected to pay. Pynchou would gain noth- ing by an increase of the price. He received his order to trade on the 8th of March, and he returned to Agawam upon the 11th. Three days later (14th) he despatched a messenger to Mr. Ludlow, informing him that corn was very scarce. Mr. Ludlow's reply did not contain any reflection upon Mr. Pynchou. The Connecticut rec- ords are very imperfect, the dates of some of the orders of the Gen- ^^ ' SPRINGFIELD, 2 63 6-1 8S 6. eral Court eveu l:»eiDg omitted. The followiuo- vote at Hartford it may be presumed, was taken after Mr. Pyuclioo's messenger arrived there : — Whereas, it was or.lere.l „cto -he (Mareii) last that there should l,e a re- stramte of tradinge for Corne m regarde of some .... with Mr. Pmcheon to supply the plantacons. uppon consideracon of Mr. Pineheons that hee is some what feareful of supplying the plantacons. and whereas there is a Clause in case of necessity 3 magistrates may dispence with the order. It is therefore ordered that Mr. Ludlowe and Captaine Mason or either of them, takino- likewise such with them as shalbe meete. shall trade to supply tlieire owne necessities and the necessities of some other that are m wante. This order :nay have been dated March lo, 1638. At any rate Captain Mason called upon William Pynchon at his Auawam^home' March 21. He had with him some armed troopers and a Xonotuck (Northampton) Indian. The meeting of these two notable men is nowhere spoken of in the histories, but it is impossilile to understand the events that followed without knowing what happened at tliat time. Captain Mason's exploits in the Pequot war were heralded abroad, and this reputation must have been a source of personal gratification to him as a military commander. He had been an Eno-- lish soldier in the Netherlands, and may have known Pynchon at Dorchester, where they both had first settled in New England. .Alason from the start had had a contempt of the Indian Is a fiohtino- animal. ^ ° William Pynchon, upon the other hand, was a student and law- yer, and a man who believed that only through a primitive code of ethics could amicable relations subsist between the English and the red man. We do not need the testimony of dingy manuscripts to be told that Mason and Pynchon could not agree about the Indian. AVhen Captain Mason had entered Mr. Pynchon's house -the small one that gave way twenty-two years later to the famous Pynchon garrison-house, — the soldier from Hartford said: — SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 25 I am com to trade .^^ome rorne with the Indians, and I have traded some at Woronoco [Westfield]. and 1 had purposed to have you to Xanotack, but I mett Avith one of Xanotack, here at Airaam, and I would have traded some corue with lum yester night, hut lie saitli he dared not without y'" leave, for saide he, he is afraid of you. as alsoe are the Indians on the Riverside, for say they, you re- quire six peeces of cloth of them, whereas they were but two whole pieces stolen, and thirteen coates, but I told him that I thought you were not angry and that you ueyther could, nor Avould have hurte to them. But I pray, tell this Indian of Nannotak that you will n.ot be angry with him, if he trade corne downe the river. ]\lr. P>^iK'lion isaid nt once that he knew no reason why the Nonotnek Indian should fear him. He then proposed that the rest of the conference be carried on apart, as it would not do to let the Indians realize the extent of the English distress for food. "I care not Avho knows them,"' said Mason; but Mr. Pynchon ordered his trader, Kicltard Everett (who, l)y the way, ])elonged to the family of Edward Everett), to open the trading-house door, and the party repaired tiiere. There were at the trading- house C'aptaui ^lason and an associtite, Thomas Dewey, and Mr. Pynchon, with his trader. ''Sir," continued Mason, ''I have l)rought up some cloth and wampam. to trade some corne with the Indians : c^ 1 desire you to deal with them for us, & to Binde them to a bargaine to l)ring it down." To this ^Ir. Pynchon replied, that that was not the way to bind the Indians to a bargain, as they would break their promise if they were paid in advance, '• wiiereu[)ou som anger might fol- low, and then if I had a hand in it, tliey may beare me a grudge; for I feare their treacherous dealinge, we being remote, & but weaker : therefore I will neither niake nor meddle to binde y'" to a bargaine. Hut I will do this. I will propound a rate of H sixes to carry downe their corne, and <; sixes to bringe it to my house, and propound a free trade, and give them choice as before I have declared." The Captain flew into a " greate passion," and exclaimed : '• AVhat 26 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. hurt^an it be to you? I pray, Sir, let me know what hurt can it be to 3'oa, for it is a dark riddle to me." Parson Moxon, who had Ijeen sent for, arrived at the trading- house at this juncture. Mr. Pyuchon explained the situation, and added that Mason had given the AVoronoco Indians wampum in ad- vance, and would have done the same at Nonotuck if Pynchon had not objected. The parties Avere testing Captain Mason's corn-bag when Henry Smith arrived at the trading-house, and the discussion was renewed. Then said Mr. Moxon: " An Indian promise is noe more than to have a pigg by the taile." This, b}' the way, is the first quotation extant of anything Moxon had ever said. Mr. Smith's opinion as to advanced payments in buying corn was in the same vein. He said : — That is the rather to drive them from us, and the worst way to get a supply of Corne ; as we have had late experience about the debt they owe M^ Finchon ; for they kept away from us, and would not come at us because they were held to their promise. Thus, therefore will they deale with him as they have with M''. Tinchon, and afterwards say (by a\ ay of excuse) that they were fools not knowing Avliat they did. Captain Mason at last " beganne to barken to ^V. Pinchon's mo- tion of free-trade, (viz.) six sixes a pecke at his house, and eight sixes to canT it downe," and Pinchon promised to aid him as best he could, he having already made the same proposition to the Indians before Cnptain Mason arrived. '^ Why did 3T)u not say this at first? " asked INIason. " This is all 1 desire of you.'" Thereupon the Nonotuck Indian, who was loitering about, was called up. Captain Mason appearing to be convinced that Mr. P}^- chon's way was the better. Mr. Pynchon addressed the up-river Indian, telling of. " a sachem, one Captaine Mason, that desired to trade corne," that "• it Avas nuicli minuett to give free-trade." and ^^ SPRINGFIELD, 1G3G~1S86. that he would give six sixes a peek for com delivered at Aoawam or eight sixes delivered at Hartford, lint the Indian protested that their corn was mnch of it mined by the snow, and that the river was too high to transport any to Hartford. Mason admitted that the Indian had told him all this the night l)efore. The points to be remembered in this account are that Mason's re- quest to Mr. Pynchon, to remove the fear of the Indian to trade, was while the\^ were in the dwelling-house, but that Mr. Pynchon's re- mark that he would neither ^^ make uor meddle " was while they were at the trading-house, and was in respcmse to ^Mason's request that Pynchon should aid him in making a bargain contrary to Pynchon's habit in dealing with the Indians. This point was ])rought into dis- pute later. Mr. Pynchon had previously given six sixes a peck for corn, as the Connecticut General Court knew, and therefore *it was evident that in the stress under which the English were, the Indians attempted to get more. And besides, the Indians had received eight sixes the year ])efore. This price, then, seemed reasonable : and if corn went up, it went up on the issue of supply and demand, which holds good in all conntries and times. In si)eaking of tiie tronhle in persuading the Indians to trade after Pynchon's conunission from the General Court, Mr. Pynchon wrote subsequently : — I alsoe lyesented to them dayly both clotli and Avampam of the best for corne, if they would bring any to trade : but still they put it off by excuses, on purpose to make me raiae the price, and inileed it would weary any to se what subtill pleadings they nave dayly used for this purpose : as Mr. Moxoii and Mr. Smith liave plentifull experience. But now as to the upshot of the Mason-Pynchon interview upon the 21st of March, 1638. They separated in anything but a cordial spirit. Captain Mason was very mnch dis})leased, and took an abrupt departure. Three days later the Connecticut General Court issued an order for Mr. Pynchon's presence at the next session. A regular trial followed upon very serious charges. The (General Court SPRINGFIELD, 1036-1SS6. 29 of Connecticut, iit that time, was not a well-detined body. It was duriuo- the transition from a provisional to a constitutional existence. The court consisted of magistrates, assistants or connnissioners, and town conmiittees or deputies. Connnissioners were at once assigned to hear the case, and the founder of Springtield, with several wit- nesses and Ivev. George .Aloxon iis his counsel, put in a full defence. Mr. 1^3^nclion Avas completely taken aback at the spirit and extent of the charges. It was an indictment of his ver}^ manhood. He was represented as one who had actually traded on the extremities and privations of the lower towns. These charges were, in brief, (1) that he had deliberately raised the price of corn as between him and Connecticut, and was holding the Indians to their bargains, all to his private gain ; that (2) he refused to lend a canoe to a AVoronoco Indian, who was under contract with Captain iMason to t^ake corn down the river: thaf (3) he kept the Agawam, Woronoco, and Konotuck Indians under abject fear of him, that he might be con- sidered the great English sachem of the Connecticut valley: and, finally, that (4) he induced certain Alohawk runners to sell him some l)eaver skins, which were sent by 3Iohawk chiefs to the Connecticut authorities as presents and assurances of good-will. As to the great and oversliadowing charge of dishonorable and un- becoming speculation, it will be well to note more particularly the condition of Agawam in the spring of 1038. The five hundred bushels that Mr. Pynchon had contracted for with the Indians was not above Agawam's demands, and therefore there was no chance to speculate. In an argument, written out after the trial, Mr. Pynchon said that very little would be left after he, Mr._ Moxon, Smith, and others on the street had been supplied. And, moreover, the distress at Agawam was as great as it was down the river. Wit- ness this testimony of William Pynchon : — In regard to the great straits the whole population was in. both of persons & cattle, for 2 or :3 months together: The wants of the Thuitation were such, that 30 SPRINGFIELD, 1 636- 188 6. som were forced to give malt to piggs to save their lives, and those that had som English meale, & Avould have kept it, were faine to spend it for want of corne, & to give som of It also to preserve the life of swine, & 3 or 4 were in Consultation to leave the Plantation for a while, to earne their bread else- where, till corne might be had heere. Some Weomcn gave their poultry and swine divers times English graine, intended only for seed, & the i)oorer sort professed tliat they desired the price might be raised, that they might hav corne, & they professed it would be noe burden to them soe they might have it at any reasonable price,— yea, though it were at G shilHngs a bushell. Mr. Pinchons wants were often soe great, that divers times he hath not had half a bushell of corne in his house for his family & cattell, & when a Bushell or lesse hath ben brought in to trade, he hath as much prized God's mercy & providence therein, and ben as glad of it, as at other times of 20 Bushells. & the truth is that all the while the Indians were willing enough, to trade, if they might have had their price amended. But they would not because Mr. Pinchon refused to give them the price they asked, and as they hav the years before & If I say I did chiefly forbeare for the publike good, I iy not : ray conscience before God beares me witnesse. Yea. though my family did dayly urge me to raise the price, partly in mercy to my Cattle, & partly to save their lives, they dayly told me that I had lost some cattle already, and I was shure to loose more if some course was not taken to get them corne, & I found their word true to my Cost. Alsoe, my wife, Avalking more amongst my Cattle than I did, professed yt It Avas her dayly grief to see them in that poore starveing condition for the want of corne, and did dayly urge me to raise the price (in pitty to the Cattell), whatever it might cost. Yea, at that time, I wrote the letter for advice about riseing the price, my family, cattle, & Nighbors, had spent our former supply, & I then was hopelesse for the 500 Bushells. And whereas, I depended on the payment of that before, now my hopes were like to a spider's webb. Therefore I wrote for counsell, wliat course I should take with those Indians. ... I neglected myne owne cattle, & family, & suffered that loss w^h mought have been holpeu by God's blessing. As for the trial before the coininissioners, under order of tb,e Con- necticut General Court, Mr. Pynchon was surprised to find that the principal witnesses, besides Captain Mason himself, were the very Agawam Indians with whom he had negotiated for the live hun- dred bushels of corn. Mr. Pynchon might well have felt great SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 31 concern when he looked upon these natives, for they were only too anxious to do anything to be relieved of their bargain with him. The chief accusation in reference to the natives was that Mr. Pyn- chon kept them in continual fear, and the commissioners, in order to test the matter, did what Mason had asked Pynchon to do at Aga- ^y^ni, — desired verbal assurances that he was not angry with the Indians. Pynchon, seeing that such a declaration by him might be interpreted by the Indians as a release ivoiw their bargain, which they had failed to keep, objected so to do until the debt had been fully reaffirmed. After some delay, an appeal was taken from the com- missioners to the General Court, and the point argued, as would appear, by Mr. Talcott, a member of the lower house. The court sustained Mr. Pynchon's appeal, but the commissioner who was push- ing the matter was offended at this episode, and, as Mr. Pynchon subsequently said, repressed his feelings '' with an hy offended spirit, & to the changing of the forme of his visage." After it had been explained to the Indians that the five hundred bushels must be paid, Mr. Pynchon expressed his good-will and cordial feeling to the knot of dusky savages. The next point involving the Indians taken up by the commission- ers was the charge that Mr. Pynchon bought of Mohawk runners beaver intended as presents to the authorities at Hartford, or, to use the ancient words of the charge, "the English Sachims in the River." Mr. Haynes had reminded Mr. Pynchon that the intended gifts had been spoken of to him, and this was made to appear as an aggravation of Mr. Pynchon's offence. We give Mr. Pynchon's defence upon this point in full, as it is an interesting statement, inde- pendent of its immediate connection : — M'". Pinchon answers that when My. Haynes first told him of it that he doubted it was but the givehig of the teUing of such a thing as their dayly prac- tice is, for any advantage of gayne. He could not Imagin that it was come as ^^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. gift, because they mentioned noe sucli thing, hut oaleil for trade. Be.iiles it h their onlenary time in the time of snow i„ ,|:e beginning of Winter t„ trade their skmns & a greate parte of this «-a., sueli skhins and not «tt for a .ift to ..rate Sachims. r was not at home when they came. & thev were in trade before I came home. I repeat that a gift sent to greate Sachim» should be otfered .>■. to begg It. is not honorable. He that told this to W. Haynes was one of them Jhat brought the 7 Sachims locks. & then he was first at my house, & there was alsoe M' Ludlow. & they had an Iiiterpretter. .nd all that they then said was this that the Mohawks did much love the English ; an,i would be in friendshipp wi,h then, & destroy all Pequotts that came in their way. but mentioned noe smd, ,nft it all neither could they in likelyhood cpect such a thing from the .Mowhake Sachims' because these IVquott Sachims were killed 2 days journey on this side thj ilowhakes at Paquiany, and it was but 3 days pas, ,ha, thev were killed, & for thein ,0 go to tlieir Sachims 2 days, & bring such a Message, & then ,ou luust ad 4 days more to come hither, .loth much overgoe that time of n rtavs "herein they kille.l these Pec,u„t,s, & iudee.l thcy were chieflv .Mohegans that did the act. & the Mowhaks had the least hand in it. & had but the least part of the l>-ey. & therefor it is most likely, that their be,er promised, was but as their or- denary manner is, when they would get anything, to gi,e the tellin„ of some pleasin^r thing. ^ • It will not pas.s uuuotioed that iu .n-cler to make a case o„t aoainst Fvnchou they had goue back «evei, or ejoht mo.ith.s ai„I takeir.tp a matter utterly foreig„ to the ease, except as it was a,t assault upou Mr. Pyuchon's general character. But his accusers did more ■ thev used hearsay evidence, pieke.l up ou Agawa.u street. •• I am ready to take tm oath of the Lord hereto." writes Mr. Pvud.ou, i„ hi's "Apology," iu reference to tlie charge of mouev-makiug, -au.l i„ cases as materiall as this, wliere there is but onlv surmises, aud uoe proofe, eau be had, au oath of tlie I.onI, must .letermiue tlie ctmse Exodus, 22. 10. 11." But we will uot linger over tile details of this trial. Fiuallv the coramissiouers, having heard Ma.sou. the lu.liaus, and the rest' called iu Rev. Thomas Hooker aud liev. Samuel .Stoue as experts upoti the ethical question of Mr. Pynchon's conduct. Thev b.,th sai.l tnost eniphat.cally that Pyncliou had broken his oath. Mr. Pvnchou rose SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 33 and explained his mode of bargaiiiiDg with the Indians without ad- vancing wampum, as Mason did at Woronoeo, claiming that " 8 sixes downe & 6 sixes to his house was an equall proportion to alure them." Mr. Hooker replied that " that offer was as good as nothing, for Mr. Pjnchon knew that the Indians being afrayd of him, 'would not bring downe any corne, but that he should have all the trade to him- selfe, & have all the corne in his own hands, and bring all that water to his own mill, and so rack the country at his pleasure." This extraordinary conclusion took Mr. Pynchon completely aback. To be accused by a warrior like Captain Mason mattered little, for a soldier's ways are professionally stiff ; but to be con- demned by the famous ministers. Hooker and Stone, was quite an- other thing. One can well understand the words of the Pynchon ''Apology": ''To this Mr. Pynchon was silent, bemg grieved at such an hard answ^er." The commission found Mr. Pynchon guilty ; and they showed no little prejudice, even construing the defendant's appeal to the court as to the Indians an evidence of a guilt}^ spirit. The Pynchon trial and conviction were probably during the last week in March, 1638. A session of the General Court, at Hart- ford, was held April 5, Mr. P3mchou still sitting in the upper house, and Moxon and Burr, representing Agawam, in the lower house, or the " town committees," as they were called. Either a remarkable amount of business was gone over that day, or the clerk neglected to add the dates of the various orders of the session. Here is the order, recorded after the commission in the P^-nchon case had re- ported : — Whereas there was some eomplainte made against M"". Willm Pincheon of Agawam for that as was conceived & uppon p'f^ app'ed he was not so carefull to p'mote the pubUque good in the trade of Corne as hee was bounde to doe. It is ordered the saide M''. Pincheon shall w"^ all convenient speede pay as a fine for his soe failinge 40*^^ bushells of Indian Corne for the pnblicque & the saide Corne to be deliv'ed to the Treasurer to be disposed of as shallbe thought meete. 34 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. This was pretty severe, and while the court was gracious enough to continue to give Mr. Pyuchou the monopoly of the beaver trade at Agawam, this fine was a crushing blow to Pynchon's influ- ence in Connecticut affairs. The Captain Mason theory of dealing with the Indians, namely, wampum in one hand and the sword in the other, inspired the following order, also passed upon this same 5th of April : — It is ordered that there shalbe sixe sent to Warranocke Indians to declare unto them that wee have a desire to speak with them, to knowe the reasons why they saide they are affraide of us, and if they M-ill not come to us willingly then to compell them to come by violence, and they may have 2 of the English as pleadges in the meane time and to trade Avith them for corne if they can. It is ordered that Captaine Mason, Thomas Stanton, Jeremy Adams, John Gibbes, Searjeant Starnes and Thomas Merricke, and if Thomas Merricke be gone to Aggawam then Captaine Mason to take another Avhom he please, shall goe in the saide service ; and if hee see cause to leave hostages hee may ; if hee see cause to goe to Aggawam he ma\'. The court ought not to have been at such a loss to explain the trepidation of the Indians. The fear admitted in the above order was probably traced to a previous commission given to Captain Mason to " go to Aagawam and treate with the Indians of Waronocke con- cerning the tribute towards the charges of o' warres, to the value of one fathamof Wampom a man. Nawattocke a fatham and a quarter, Pacomtuckett one fatham and a quarter." Here is a question of no small moment. What right had the English to levy a war tribute upon the native tribes, even admitting (which was not the fact) that the Indians in question were inside the boundaries of their jmisdiction ? We know what Mr. Pynchon thought upon this matter, and can well understand why he was not commissioned to collect the tril)ute. He would have refused, as he subsequently refused to cross the line of Indian rights when called upon so to do by the Massachusetts authorities. And it may not be out of place to anticipate events enough to quote from Mr. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 35 Pynchon's letter addressed to Gov. John Winthrop, Boston, and dated " this 5 of the o'" 1648." Winthrop and four magistrates had made a requisition upon jNIagistrate Pynchon for the surrender of three Indians who had committed nuirder at Quabaug (Brookfiehl) and had fled to Nonotuck (Northampton) . The Indian apostle, Eliot, liad also been induced to recommend the requisition, and to follow it up with another letter to Mr. Pynchon, who thus replied to the gov- ernor : — But if thinges be well examined : I apprehend that neether the murtliered are y subjects nor yet y'^ murtherers within y jurisdiction & I grant they are all within y line of y'' pattent, but yet you cannot say tliat therefore they are y'- sul)- jects nor yet within y Jurisdiction untill they have fully subjected themselves to y government (av^'i I know they have not) & untill you have bought their land : until this be done they must be esteemed as an Independent free people. This was bold enough on ]Mr. Pynchon's part, but it was a doc- trine upon which he had acted for twelve years, and (to return to the controversy of 1638) we do not need to be told that Mr. Pynchon did not go among the Indian villages collecting wampum to pay the expenses of the Pequot war. Mr. Pynchon was present April 5, when the General Court fined him the forty bushels of corn, but there is no evidence that he ever again attended the Hartford court. He certainly was not reelected on the January following, and Agawam was not included in the Con- necticut constitution adopted January 14, 1639, which is so famous as the supposed first written constitution. But the break from Connecticut was not precipitated beyond re- covery probal^ly until another very disagreeable chapter had been added to the story of Connecticut and Agawam. Mr. Pynchon, after his conviction, hastily prepared his " Apology," which was circulated among the valley towns. This "Apology" is a complete defence against dishonest speculation, written in strong English, with occa- sional passages of graphic relief, and is, all in all, an invaluable sur- 36 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. vival of seventeenth century composition. We are inclined to believe that the " Apology " was written at Hartford because the court author- ized John Haynes and Thomas Welles to prepare an answer, which they did in a communication dated April IS. This also is too inter- esting a bit of controversial literature to omit, and, as it has escaped the notice of historians, extracts are here 2;iven : — M^- PiNCHON Your apollogy or clef enc av<='^ you published to tlie A-iew of the cuiitry to cleare your self and to condemne the proceedings of the Court, as injurious against you, was lately presented into our hands, in the which although you seeke to vindicate your owne creditt to the dishonor and wronginge the Court, a course very of- fensive and far unbeseeminge on of your quality, therefore as both rule & reason require you should eyther see your mistake or make your chardge good if you think meet theirfore to that purpose to repayer to Court, you may their receave a full answer to what you please to offer therein. . . . You therein [that is in the Apology] say you know no breach of oath or order in anything you did about the matter of corne w^h you thus prove, because you did nothinge therein Avithout counsell and advice of Mr Moxon and your sonn Smith, concluding thence that he w^i^ counsells witli Mr Moxon and your sonn Smith can neither break oath or order . . . but the Court did then & can still make it appear that you transgressed both. . . You declare in your writinge tliat you be- lieved the Indians feared you no more than they feared their owne shadow, and you report in your house that you did and must keep them in feare : or their is no dealinge with them; your practice also declare the same, when in your owne cause you did arrest, impryson & force to composity one. Witness the party who stole the cloath, wherein, hy the way, we cannot forgett the course you tooke in contriving your private gayne contractinge first for Avorapom for your cloath, and then agreeinge to receave corne for your wampom that when you should trade corne to your customers you might requier the greater price, wherein if the wampum had not fell in betwixt the corne & the cloath (though but by way of at- tempt only) you Avould have wanted that way of gayne. You then charge the Capten that he requested you to drive a bargaine av^'^ the Indians for liim and in ansAver to that you stuff up a great part of your work av^i^ he confessett he never propounded to you neither neede he soe to doe, av^'^ Avas also contrary to the commissione given him from the Court, but he sayth his only request to you was to take of the feare from the Indians. . . . And Lastly : your" tennfold if'f llllf!l|!| 38 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Reasons, to prove the Bever brought from the Mowhakes or their confederates could not in any coulor be a present sent to the Sachems uppon the River, are all to short, for they have since confessed they sent it to that purpose ; and to make it really appeare they have since taken away the life of on of the parties that should have presented it for falsifyinge their trust; and whereas you their say a great pt of it was summer bever & little worth, unlike and unraeete for a present, you yourself formerly affirmed it was the best parcel you bought for a longe time. For your complainte of famine and scarcety your Bretheren pitty you. not that they conceave your distress have been great, but for your weake and unapt expressions sayinge you weare forced to give your Eughsh graine corne meale & mault to your hoggs, henns & cattle, especially in such case when you presumed divers hundred bushels of Indian was at hand for supply. We will here leave this controversy, as it comes up later, ouly re- marking, the fear to trade corn with Mason and the wholesome fear of the Agawam settlement that would prevent an outbreak were two very different things indeed. Pynchon was condemned because he was thought to have selfishly raised the price of corn, and yet Captain Mason was counted a hero l)ecause two months later he chartered an Indian canoe fleet, bearing corn, for which he paid twelve shillings the bushel, and was compelled to ride in the canoes in order to make sure that the corn was delivered. There is a direct issue between Pynchon and Mason, as their tes- timony shows, and Mr. Pynchon, after contradicting him point blank, and producing Rev. Mr. Moxon and others as corroborating wit- nesses, says: ''Now if these things may not Justly Question the purport of the Captain's oath, I leave to the Judgment of wise men." CHAPTER III. 1638-1639. The Connecticut Jurisdiction over Agawam. — The Massachusetts Boundaiy Line.— Rev. Thomas Hooker's Spirited Letter. — House built for Mr. Moxon. — Allotments of Land. — Agawam's Act of Secession. — Sundry Town Laws, — Strangers ex- cluded. — Wages of Laborers regulated. — The Town Brook, —Woodcock vs. Cable. — Ancient Lawsuits. — A Jury of Six, — Mr. Moxon in Court, The serious differences between Agawam and the towns lower down the river l^rought our settlers face to face with the stern ques- tion of secession from the Connecticut jurisdiction. The Hartford General Court either held its authority to govern the valley towns from the Massachusetts Bay concessions, or by virtue of an assumed right of self-government. In either case Agawam could be justi- fied in returning to Massachusetts. The conditions at Hartford were intolerable to Agawam. Pynchon had been a trader from the start, and was so recognized at the Bay. His purse was always opened when prospecting expeditions were proposed, and prominent men, both at the Bay and in Connecticut, knew the generous extent of his personal loans. He was one of the few rich men of that day who embarked to New England, and he naturally had been chosen treasurer of Massachusetts. When he settled in the Connecticut valley with his handful of intrepid associates, it w^as but natural for him to expect the handling of the corn and beaver of this section. No one had before accused him of a failure to keep his promises, or of making a penny at the expense of the public. The charges, added to the mam one, of getting a corner on grain (to use modern phraseology), demonstrated beyond a doubt a disposition at Hart- ford to limit Agawam's influence as much as possible ; and as Captain 40 SPRINGFIELD, 163G-1S86. <:k Mason not only was privileged to pass up the river and trade, with a troop of armed men at his back to coerce the Indians, and to visit Agawam ten times a year and drill the training-band, it is not to be wondered at that secession was the unanimous voice of the plantation. But a formal withdrawal from . M Pinser Connecticut was a serious matter. ^--^^^^^^ Mr. P^mchon was now a member of neither General Court ; the town was the most remote outpost, with numerous In- dian tribes in the great back country. Connecticut might refuse to allow Mr. Pynchon to retain the trading-houses which he had built somewhere about Enfield Falls. There is an ancient map placing these houses on the eastern bank of the Connecticut, opposite King's island, which can be seen up the river ^ from the car windows in crossing the bridge at Windsor Locks. The name given on this map is " Versche Riviere," or Fresh River, which was first so called by Adrian Block, the Dutch voyager who coasted along the sound in 1(3 1 4 . Pynchon not only shipped freight in his own sail- boats, but often sent goods to and from the valley in other vessels. It was out of the question to send beaver overland to the Bay. There was no money in it. No meeting-house had yet been built at Agawam. The middle Ferry lane (Elm street) was not yet opened. Tree stumps SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 41 and fallen timber here and there obstructed the one main street, and, what was more discouraging, the plantation was largely made up of men not destined to remain long. Fully one-half of the inhabitants of 1638 only stayed a few years. It will have been noticed that Agawam, unlike most of the towns of that day, w^as founded by a layman, — a devout and well-read Christian, who could preach a sermon or debate theology wdth the ablest divines, to be sure, but a layman for all that ; and w^e can quite understand that this fact may have prejudiced the minds of towns dominated by ministers. Possibl}^ here lies the real expLana- tion of the falling out of Agawam and Hartford. After a thorough survey of the field it was resolved to cut loose from Connecticut, and to trust in the future. No formal declaration was issued for a time, but in July the new^s of Agawam's revolt spread through New England. Shortly after the adjournment of tlie Connecticut General Court Roger Ludlow wrote to the governor and assistants of Massachusetts Bay that John Haynes and others had been appointed to confer with the Bay authorities on certain subjects involving the mutual interests of the colonies. The New England colonies w^ere then agitating a scheme for a confederation as a means of defence against the Dutch and other enemies ; the threatened' withdrawal of Agaw^am also had something to do with the appointment of this commission, which reached the Ba}^ in June ; a long private conference took place betw^een friends of the two colonies, but no agreement w^as reached. The matter came up at the session of the General Court held in Cambridge, and it was voted ' ' that so much of the ry ver of Conectecot as should fall within the line of o"" patent should continew under o"" jurisdiction." The smothered feeling of mutual suspicion between Connecticut and Massachusetts now broke forth. Perhaps the correspondence between Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, and Rev. Thomas Hooker will best show forth the extent of this colonial unpleasant- ness. 42 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. Mr. Hooker's indictment of Agawam was very much in the spirit of his testimon}^ in the Pynchon trial. He argued that Agawam had continued to recognize the jurisdiction of the Connecticut General Court by sending "there for justice" an inhabitant "in Agaam apprehended in some misdemeanor." He continues : — Yea, taking it for granted that it is in each inhabitant's liberty in Agawam to choose his jnrisdiction (-which is to me beyond question), if I was there as an inhabitant, I should judge myself bound in conscience to submit to the juris- diction of this river, and do believe I should make a breach of the eighth com- mand if I sliould otherwise : because in so doing I should steal from mine estate, in that I should rush myself into needless and endless inconveniences ; namely, to cast myself into that condition that for a matter of five shillings (as the case may fall out) I should put myself to unreasonable charges and trouble to seek for justice a hundred miles off in the Avilderness. If Mr. Pynchon can devise ways to make his oath bind him when he Avill. and loosen him Avhen he list; if he can tell how, in faithfulness, to engage himself in a civil covenant and combination (for that he did, by his committees in their act) and yet can cast it aAvay at liis pleasure, before he give it sufficient warrant, more than his own word and will, he must find a law in Agaam for it ; for it is written in no law or gospel that ever I heard. Mr. Hooker w^ent on to say that Connecticut Avould not trouljle itself very much over the loss of Pynchon, because " we know him from the bottom to the brim, and follow him in all his proceedings, and trace him in his priv}^ footsteps ; onl}^ we would have him and all the world to understand he doth not walk in tlie dark to us." But Mr. Pynchon did find "a law iu Agaam," — a law planted there by the Massachusetts colony, and by the king of England him- self. AYe might continue at great length spreading upon these pages the evidences of Connecticut's feeling toward Massachusetts. One more incident w^ill serve our present purpose. At the close of that eventful year William Spencer, who had moved from Cambridge to Hartford, and had promised Governor Winthrop to promote, if he could, a more cordial feeling, wrote his Excellency that he had made but little progress. He added : — SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1SS6. 43 I found a prejudese in the spirrits of some men concerning yo'' state, as thougli you did not really intend sucli a tliinge, but only pretended it, w* laboured to be at offe as much as might be, ingadgeing my self e that for yo"" state m generall [Massachusetts] they did. and doe as really intend their good, as anny of ther neighbour plantacons ; whereupon they propounded some reasons to the contrary, that you only pretended and not intended such a thing. One was this, tliat not w^'standing yoii had said that God by his providents had soe disposed of it. that you and the p'tations uppon tliis river could not bee one body; yet, when it came unto the isue. you would have AggaAvame joyned unto you, or else you would not conclud of the union ; and to that purpose, they say, you have written to dismise the same from them. We now have the depth of the alienation of Connecticut, and it had the serious effect of postponing the project of a New England Confederation for some years. Pending the settlement of the great question of Agawam's politi- cal status, the little plantation did not allow local affairs to go hy default. There had been several additions to the community. Rev. ]Mr. Moxon had been provided with a generous portion of lands upon the condition of permanent settlement, and in the spring of 1638 it had been voted that the expenses of fencing his home-lot on the main street and of building his house should fall in part upon those who might join the plantation thereafter. Upon the last leaf of the account of the tirst town-meeting, but evidently written later, appear some specifications for a structure which we take to be the minister's house, erected about this time (corner Vernon and Main). It was as follows : — ffor a frame of a howse 35 foote longe and 15 foote wide w"i a porch fixe foote out & 7 foote wide wf'i a study over head w^'^ stayrs into cellar & chamber making bords & laving bords for £ s d 18 00 00 44 SPRTXG FIELD, I636-18S6. lower roomes w'^i duble chininys y^ sides of y'' cellar Planked at to Good Burr £ s d 18 00 00 for the thatchinge of y<^ howse to John Alline he to undertak the getting of y^ thatch and all other things belonging to it wth lathing & nayls only y^ cari- adge of thatch excepted. 3 00 00 for y^ sawinge of all y*^ boards & Slitworke 4 locks Av**^ nayls & hooks & hinges for ye doares at to John Cable £ s d 1 1 00 00 for y^ dawbing of y'' howse 6 chimnys underpniing y^" fame making y*^ stack & oven 7 foote high w^'^ laths & nayls at to Henry Smith 8 00 00 There was a rating of £40 agreed iipou Jan. 13, 1639, to meet a portion of the expense of the minister's residence, and we may infer that the above specifications were the ones followed. Here is the record : — The disbursements of the sd 40£ per contra as foHoweth : — John Searle Thomas Horton £ s. d. I 00 00 SPRINGFIELD, 1030-1 SS6. 45 £ s d Thomas Mirack 00 00 John Leonard 12 00 Robart Aslily 00 00 John Woodcock 12 00 Richard Everit 10 00 Jolm Alhne 00 00 John Burt 10 00 Henry Smitli 00 00 Jehu Burr 00 00 WilHam Pynchon 21 00 00 John Cable 12 00 41 16 00 John Cable paid AVoodcock's subscription, Henry Smith paid Allen's, and Mr. Pynchon paid Burt's. There were at least fifteen men in Agawam at this time, neither Mr. Moxon nor Henr}^ Gregory appearing in the above list. The new names are Mirrick, Leonard, Ashley, Allen, and Burt. As the old names in the list of rates are in the order of the house-lots, the others probably are also, which is corroborated by a vote passed in September. 1638, as follows : — There is granted to John Searle by y^ consent of the rest of the inhabitants an house Lott of 8 rod broade & in length from the brooke to the greate river w^h lyes neere y*^ pyne swampe w'^ y'" meddow before his lott of the same breadth y' Ms house lot is. Next to y*" Lott of John Searle upwards lyes the Lott of Thomas Horton 8 rod in breadth w"^ the meadow over agaynst it of y^ same breadth & \^ length of it as the former, also on y^' other side of Conecticot river over agaynst the s'^^ lott is granted him a lott of meddowes of 8 rod broade and 80 rod in length reserving through y^ & all other lotts there a cart way of 2 rod breadth wher it may be seene convenient. And again : — It is agreed y* John Searle and Rich: Everit shall measure out tAventy fowre acres of mowing marish ground afore y*^ house of M^ William Pynchon and 46 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. soe much upland ground adjoyning as shall make his howse lott wth ye gfi marish fifty and f owre acres according to an order in ye first devission of howse Lotts. There was also granted to William Pynchon " a Lott of upland ground adjoyninge to y^ mill of ten acres and alsoe Seaven acres more in Lew of the marish ground y^ is before every mans Lott it is alsoe agreed y' this Lott is to lye in Breadth from the mill river upwards in breadth twenty rodd and in length upwards by y^' mill river till the number of y*^ acres be up." The vote for a meeting- house lot was passed January 16, 1639: — It is ordered that the three rod of ground y' lyes betwixt John Woodcock's pall and Goodman Grigory's Lott shall be appropriated 2 rod of it to Goodman Grigory and one rod of it to Rich: Everitt reserving 40 rod for a place for a meeting-howse, wcii is to be allowed out of Goodman Grigory's Lott. It was necessary, from the amount of unapportioned common land, to devote much time to its regulation. The rich meadows on the west side of the Connecticut, from opposite the upper ferry to the present York street, were first devoted to grass and planting only. The Agawam river at that time had but one mouth, which emptied into the Connecticut near the South-end bridge. Each inhabitant was permitted, after harvest time (November), to '* put over horses cowes or younge cattell on y^ other side of y^ river." But the time had come for Agawam to put forth a formal decla- ration as to its allegiance. This important document was drawn up eleven months after the Pynchon trial, the date given below being Old Style : — feebruary the 14^^, 1638 We the Inhabitants of Agaam uppon Quinnettecot, takings into consideration the manifould inconveniences that may fall uppon us for want of some magistracy amonge us : Being noAv by Godes provedence fallen into the line of the Massachusets Jurisdiction : & it being farr of to repayer thither in such cases of justice as may often fall out amonge us doe therefore SPRIXGFIELD, 2636-1886. 47 tliiuke it meete by a generall consent & vote to ordaine till we receive further direction from the Generall Court convening in the Massachuset Bay Mr. William Pynchon to execute the office of a magistrate in this our plantation of Agaam viz: [etc.]. The usual magistrate's powers were giyeo Mr. Pynchon, inchiding authority to summon juries of six instead of twelve for small offences, pending any action that might be made at Boston. The boundary lines of the plantation had been verified meantime, a committee having reported in January that the "bounds of y'' Plantation up the river on y"^ other side of y^ river" were " at a brooke above y^ greate meddowe w*'^' is about a qrt of a mile above y^ mouth of Chiccapee river." The first town meetings were probably held in the house of Mr. Pynchon, as it was the largest. This body of local legislators is an interesting study from almost any point of view. The orioinal Massachusetts plantations were as near a democratic communism as has ever been under extended trial in our history. The nature of this common proprietorship in land and local political prerogative will be apparent by glancing through the town acts. It was a smion-pure democracy, not even a selectman standing between its inhabitants and their desires. They met once a month at least, and with the simple election of a moderator and clerlv the machinery of government was complete. In October, 1638, the town voted that " noe trees shall be cut downe or taken away by any man in y^ compass of grownd from y^ mill river upward to John Readers Lott, w^^ parsell of ground is appoynted for howse Lotts." No inhabitant was permitted to sell his canoe to outside parties. An infringement of this order on the part of Henry Gregory, John Leonard, and Robert Ashley brought down upon them a reprimand, but they were finally given five months to " redeem and bringe y'" into the Plantation agayne." A " foote path and stiles " were ordered to be built " at every 48 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. man's lott end next y'^ greate river." In January, 1638, we find tliis important decree : — It is ordered and voted w*'^ y^ Joynt consent of ye Plantation yt no man yt is posesed of a Lott by y^ dispose of y*^ Plantation, shall after sell it to another of y^' Plantation, yt hath a Lott allready : nej'ther shall any man posese tAvo mens Lotts, w*'i out y*^' consent of y^ Plantation or such as shall be appoynted, till they have bin inhabitants 5 years in y^ Plantation ; But if any desire to sell his Lotte, he may to a stranger, pvided y*^ sd Plantation shall not disalowe of y^ sd stranger : But in case they shall not alowe y*' admission of y^ sd stranger, then ye Plantation shall bye y^ sd Lotte as indifferent men shall apprise you : But if y^ Plantation shall delay y^ sd purchase twenty dayes then ye sd seller shall have his Liberty to take his chapman and y'^' Plantation shall be bound to take notice of such a purchase yt is ppounded to fower of the cheife Inhabitants togeather : If y« sd 4 men shall hold theyr peace and not oppose it in ten dayes then it shall be esteemed y^ y^' Plantation doth allowe of y^* sd purchase. It will be observed that the town owned all the laud in fee simple. Its title was twofold : First, from the colony, which received it from the king ; and, second, from the Indians. The town, in turn, did not sell, but apportioned lands to the various inhabitants, it reserving the right to take the land back after paying for improvements thereon. No inhabitant, upon taking a lot from the town, paid any money for it ; the parcel of land was simply " aloted " to him. The above order was modified after the town ])ecame large enough to require selectmen, and for many years the order stood as follows upon the records : — For the prevention of sundry evils, that May befall tliis Township, through ill-disposed persons, that may thrust themselves in amongst us, agaynst the lik- inge, and consent of the generality of the inhabitants, or select Townsmen, by purchasing a lott, or place of habitation, &c. It is therefore ordered & declared, that no inhabitant, shall sell, or in any kind pass away his house lot or any part of it, or any other of his allotments to any stranger, before he have made, the select Townsmen, acquainted, who his chapman is. and they accordingly allow his admission, under penalty, of paying Twenty shillings for every parcell of SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 49 land, so sold, or forfeitinge his land, soe sould, or passed away. But if the select ToAvnsmen, see grounde to disalowe of the admission, of said chapman, then the Town, or Inhabitants shall have 30 days tyme to resolve, whether they will buy the said allottments, which said alottments they may buy, as indifferent partys shall apprise them. But in case the Inhabitants shall delay to make a purchase of the said lands, above 30 days after the propounding of it to the select Townsmen, then the said seller shall have his liberty to take his chapman and such chapman, or stranger shall be esteemed, as entertained or alowed of, by the towne as an Inhabitant. To illustrate the practice under this rule, here are added a few of the special orders passed : — William Hunter was admitted an Inhabitant of this town and John Riley & John Harrison doe bind themselves, their executors & administrators to y® Town Treasurer & Selectmen or eyther of them in a bond of thirty pounds to secure the Town from any charge that may arise to y«^ Towne from the said William Hunter or any of his family. Henry Gregor}", whose wife seemed materially to add to the ills this pioneer was heir to, finally concluded to sell, and his son Judali presented the case to the town meeting. The vote runs : — Henry Gregory being purposed to sell his lott and ppoundinge it to y*" Plan- tation by his Sonne Judah accordinge to order, Richard Everit beinge his Chap- man The Plantation gave ye voate wherin they disalowed y^ Chapman ppounded and resolved to buy y*^ lott. It must not be inferred from this action that the town reflected in any way upon the " chapman," Richard Everett. The two men had adjoining lots, and it was against the policy of the town to allow the inhabitants to add to the size of their home lots. One fancies that the plantation was not slow in buying Mr. Giregory's property. He appears to have been peculiarly unsuited for the life of the wil- derness, which was only tolerable by an infusion of both Christian faith and stoic endurance. 50 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. In April, 1641, John Cable, who had concluded to seek his fortune at Windsor, proposed to sell his real estate for £40. The town bought it back, paying £10 down, and the balance in instalments. A portion of this was paid in corn delivered at Windsor. Again, anticipating a few years for fuller illustration of this point, we find that in January, 164"), it was ordered, — By y^ Joynt consent of y^ Plantation their is leave granted (notw'i^standinge a former order dated March 17*'' KUl to y*^ contrary) unto William Vaughan to lett out his land to Rise Bedortha for y*' space and terme of six yeares to be imp'ved by him. There is here much more than a hint of the land theories that obtain in certain quarters in the present age. Not only was the land tenure .and proprietorship grounded in a rule of communism, but the hand of the town democracy was upon the shoulder of every man in his daily work and walk. At the close of the year 1639 is this vote : — It is alsoe agreed for y*^ ordering of Laborers wadges y' carpenters shall have for 9 months 2s 6d p day & for 3 months from y« lO*'* of Novembr to y*^ 10*'^ of ffebr : 2s p day ; mowers shall have 2s (3d p day sawers Os 6d p they to fall & hewe & the owner to bring to y*^ pitt. Alsoe for husbandry or any ordinary labor to have 2s for 9 months, only from y*" 24*'^ April till the 24*^ June they are Left to theyre Liberty as men can agree w*'^ them & for the other 3 months viz from November 10''^ till Frbr lO''^ to have 18d p daye. The town was laid out in a peculiar manner for New England, where a twenty-rod road was the usual rule. This was incidentally of service to a community exposed to the Indians. It could be stockaded, and cattle could be safely pastured on the broad street. But the original Agawam seems to have had no such street. The plantation was housed upon the narrow plateau that stretched between the great river and the swamp at the foot of a sharp bluff. There has been time out of mind a brook running along Springfield's business street, and the presumption is that the planters found it there SPBINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 51 in 1636. It ran along the east side of the street, and in the first records it is called a " ditch." It served as a drain for the marsh, and originally was a small affair, for there are frequent references to work upon it. Thus in November, 1639, the town voted that '' all y' have a ditch by y*" high waye before theyer doores, shall keepe it well scowred for the ready passadge of y^ water y* it may not be pent up to flowe the meddowe." This ditch was insisted upon, as appears by a formal vote two years later (Dec. 24, 1641) : "It is ordered y' every inhabitant shall scower & make a ditch y^ bredth of his lott before his doore w''^ is to be done by y^ last of may next on y*' penalty of 5s for every defalt y^ way." The inhabitants were often remiss in keeping this ditch open. The fines due in 1645 were suspended, and an extra month allowed in which to clean out these ditches ; " & if any be there defective y^ penalty is to be [paid] to Goodman Prichard." It may, therefore, be doubted whether there was a natural brook along the course of what has since been known as the Town brook. The lowest ground was certainly nearer the bluff, under what is now Chestnut street. A fence was built in front of the houses on the west side of the street, and no buildings were allowed between it and the ditch. Training day came once a month. Henry Smith was the first " Serjant," and he was given power to name the day of meetings, and to " choose a Corporal." Men absenting themselves " shall forfeite twelve pence," so the record reads, and " all above 15 yeares of age shall be counted for soldiers." No person was allowed to sell or give powder to the Indians. The community of interests and common proprietorship did not have the effect to reduce frictions between man and man. The right to quarrel was exercised from the start. William Pynchon as magis- trate writes : — November 14 1639. A meetinge to order some Towne affaires & to try causes by Jury. The Jury Henry Smith Henry Gregory Jo: Leonard Jo: Searle Samuell Hubbard, Samuel Wright. The Action. John Woodcocke complains 52 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. against Jo Cable in an action of the case for wages due to him for certaine Avorke he did to a house that was built on Agawam side for the Plantation. The verdict. The Jury findes for the defendant : But Avithall they find the p'mise that Jo Cable made to the plaintif to see him paid for Ms work firme & good. But as for the 5 days in Coming up with John Cal)le we find that not due to be paid for he came not up purposely but in his coming he aimed at a lott w^i end of which he did attain. Moreover we agree that Jo Cable is engaged to the plain- tif for work done about the house, yet wee also judge that Jo Woodcock is fully satisfied, in regard he hath had the use of the ould ground & of the howse all that sommer as far as Jo Cable had himselfe. Upon the same day (Nov. 14, 1639) was tried a suit by William Pynchon against Thomas Mirrick for ''not delivering back the Boards he lent him," the jury deciding that the defendant should " make good 3 such like boards as we find not 3^et delivered with the rest." In Deceml)er, 1(339, came up Mirrick's suit against Thomas Horton, for " 3 boards that he said Merick wantes." Mirrick secured a verdict of 3s. in money. There is a ver}' curious and interesting record in the Pynchon book concerning a suit for slander, brought by the minister against Wood- cock, throwing, as it does, light upon the legal methods of that time. Jurisdiction '*in the river "means the Hartford jurisdiction. The date is December, 1639, in which year Jolin Cable was constable : — Jo : Woodcock beinge summoned by warrant to answer Mr. George Moxon in an action of slander for reportinge that he tooke a false oath against him ; The said John desyred that this difference might be tried by a private heeringe below in the Kiver : Mr. Moxon referred himself to the Judgment of y^' plantation present whether it were fitter to be heard by a private refference below in y^ River, or tryal here publikly by a Jury. The generall voat of the plantation is that seeing the matter is publik it should be publikly herd & and tryed her by a Jury : Liberty is granted to John Woodcok to produce his Avitnesses against this day fortnight being the 26 of December. Also at the said tjme Jo: Wood- cok is warned to answer for his langhuege in sermon tyme : this day at the Lecture. This case was postponed from the 26th to January 2, 1640. Tiie SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 53 alleged false oath was at Hartford, and Mr. Moxoii demanded £9 19s. damages for the slander. Owing to a paucity of men in the planta- tion, three of Mr. ^Nloxon's witnesses — Robert Ashley, Henry Smith, and Samuel Hubbard — were also upon the jur}'. The minister scored a verdict of £6 13.s. Ad. A warrant was at once issued, and when Mr. Moxon gave it to the constable, Woodcock exclaimed that he owed " Mr. Moxon no money, nor none he would pay him." There must have been quite a scene, for Mr. Pynchon took down Wood- cock's declaration that he was read}" to repeat his offence. The absolutism of the town-meeting could not ])e better illustrated than m this case. It here performed the offices of judge, grand juror, and legislator. As judge, it decided not to order a change of venue ; as grand juror, it presented the man for trial ; as legislator, it decreed, as it had before, that the case should go to a jury of six, instead of twelve, as the colony laws decreed. It might be wondered what there could be left for the magistrate to do under such an all-pervading democracy. William Pynchon was always moderator of the town- meeting, and thus the lines of his political and judicial prerogatives were often blended. As moderator at this meeting of the town, he would put the question proposed by Woodcock, that the case go to Hartford for private reference ; while, as magistrate, he would sum- mon the jury to try the case, administer oaths, and receive and record verdicts. The plantation had now been nearly a year independent of the Con- necticut authorities, and AVoodcock's proposal to refer the case there was undoubtedly in keeping with his character as a querulous and irrepressible man, who delighted in irritating and annoying his neighbor. CHAPTER IV. 1 640-1 G4:^. Revival of the Charges against William Pynehon. — His Trial before the "Windsor Church. — Connecticut claims "Woronoco (Westfield). — Massachusetts protests. — The Arrival of Elizur llolyoke, Samuel Chapin, and others. — Goody Giegory fined for Profanity. — Fire Ladders. — Woodcock vs. Gregory. — Price of Labor. — Second Division of Planting-Grounds. — Marriage of Mary Pynehon. Imperfect records prevent the rehearsal in detail of the second trial of William Pynehon upon the old charge of speculation in trade to the detriment of the public. The charge M^as brought b}^ certain members of the church at Windsor, Conn., the object being to withdraw from him tlie right hand of Christian fellowship. The date of the appearance of Mr. Pynehon at Windsor has not yet been discovered. Indeed, none of the historians speak of this trial at all, even the AYindsor church records making no mention of it. It is only through a correspondence that followed Pynchon's second trial that we can get any idea of the proceedings. One wonders what jurisdiction the Windsor church had over Mr. Pynehon that warranted a summons to appear there. The natural conjecture is, that the friends of Cap- tain Mason — who, by the way, was a member of the Windsor church — had attempted to make a demonstration against the Agawam magistrate, for its moral effect. There was a close con- nection between Agawam and AVindsor during the first few years, and it is known that Mr. Pynehon took a letter from the Roxbury church to the Windsor church. We propose to give in full the ver- dict of the Windsor church. It reached Agawam Sept. 21, 1640, and has never before appeared in print. Any one is at liberty to draw conclusions : the account of the lirst Pynehon trial already given will make further explanations unnecessary. SPRINGFIELD, 1636~1SS6. 55 Sept. 6, 1640. The Church beinge assembled, to determine Avhether M^ William Pinchons answers were satisfactory to v^' brethrens offence, at his fay- linges in y'' trust of tradinge corne, for y^ supply of y^ country, contained in 5 Articles p'sented to him by y*^ said brethren, resolutely as followeth. To y^ first Charge that he made show yt corne could not be procured at the price mentioned in y*' order, when y^ Capt at y^ same time traded under, w^h is interpreted as a declining in y^ Service. M-". Pinchon answered, y^ he could not gett any quan- tity, at the price in y- order, to wc^ the Church replyed, he could not resolve soe great a matter, soe soone as in one or two dayes experience, soe as to write about ye alteration of y*' price. 2. That he was bound certainly for 500 bushells at yi« rate, though he should not save by it. To w^'^ his returne was, yt his servant left at home wth instruc- tions to trade what he could, did informe him in what he wrote, & also affirmed yt the 500 bushells was subject to y« proviso in y^ one of y« order, yieldinge him power to rayse the price of that also. Concerninge w^h answere, & rephes, y« Church determined y' they were not satisfactory, for yt first, his servant in ye intrim of his beinge at Court, could not act w^h respect to y^ countrys neces- stvs, nor his bargaine, certaine for 500 bushells, & so could not informe him sufficiently to bottome what he wrote. And secondly, the words of the order beinge directly ag^t his reply, & the Magistrates being confident, y* the bargaine was certaine for 500 bushells, we see no reason, to rest in his private apprehen- sions to ye contrary. Thirdly, his direction being, to certify ye Magistrates how corne came in only, he added a clause of ye alteration of ye price also, wch to us is an appearance of his declining in ye trust and contract. 2. That when Capt Mason, w^^ others, came up to trade corne ficcordinge to ye power reserved in ye order he refused to further them w"^ these words, I will neither meddle nor make. To wch, when M^ Pinchon answered ye Captaine came not up according to ye order, the Church then read and showed him ye Capts order in ye Record - and it appeared to agree wti the exception m M-" Pinchons Order. 1. Against well m-" Smiths testimony was produced, witnessinge, that amongst the orders & rolles in ye gen'all Co'te, he found an order authorizinge Capt Mason to trade as before to wch were most of ye Magistrates, & many of y'^ Comittees hands together w^^ M^ Hookers, M^ Stones, & M^ Whitinges, for y this order seemed not to proceed from ye Magistrates, but from ye gen>all Co-'t, or rather from neither. Concerninge wch the Church determination is, y^ M-" Pinchons answers, backed w^i^ M-" Smithes testimony, doth not take off y« charge, for that uppon due examination of ye said rolles, & orders, off y'' gen'all Co^t, it ^^^ SPB TNG FIELD, 1 636-1886. appears M- Smitl. was mistaken, for yt was ye originall order, warrantinge ye C'apt, wch ,vas after recorded in tlie booke, & it was granted bv 5 Magistmtes only, & whereas some Comittees, & the other brethren hands are to y^ said order yt was, to testify one clause i,i ye order, respectinge ye Countrves Complaintes & necessityes only; & not to ye warrant granted, for wd. we.^ haveinc^e their oaths offered, doe beleeve wt is here answered ; soe yt ye Capts authority bein^e approved, we cannot justify M^ Pinchons refusall, to further r Couniryes service. 3. To the 3d article, That wliereas the Captaine desired him to take awav the Indians feares, he found tliat after his private Conference wti> tlie Indian the Indian was more unwillinge to trade than before, to wch, when M^ Pinclion answered, the Indian was unwillinge fr- ye begininge, tlie Cluircli replved oath was made to ye Co^t yt the Indian was willinge, & and that liis cominge to ^ett leave, argued his willingnesse to trade w"^ leave. * Unto we.> M- Pinchon returned, yt he did not disco-age, nor dissuade ye Indian to trade one way or other, otherwise than what he might gather bv their me.s- uremg ye baskett, & other like passages, & then correctinge himselfo bv that time, ye register had written his answers, & read it to him, he said lie did n^t dis- co-age nor dissuade the Indian from tradings in his own wav; but for disco'a.- inge or dissuadeinge in the Capts way-he answered not. Concerning wch tlie Church determines, yt his answere is not satisfactory for vt tiiey judge the Capts way lawfull, though M'" Pinchon thinkes otherwise. And M- Pinchon not denying ye charge of disco'ageinge ye Indian in tradinge wti^ the Capt in the CHpts way, falls under the charge; for yt the Church hath noe reason to put the plaintife to prove ye charge, untill it be denied bv the defendant 4. To ye 4th charge that he Used disco'age-t to Goodman Stebbins & others, whoe were said to trade, wf. power to take one of liis servants w-i^ them & lie seemed unwilling yt his servant should goe, & said if he went, he should doe them little good, & said also, that there was little corne to be hadd at Pacomtuk, &that wch .-as, was promised him; & otlier like thinges ; whereas they found his man did them little good, & also that there was ver^ much corne at that place, & traded much in that place. To wei. M'- Pinchons answere was, yt he remembered not tliese words con- cerninge his mans doinge them noe good, & yt he might seeme unwillinge to send him he beleeveth, for yt there was a clause in their warrant, concerning tribute, & a compelling way of trade, w^h ,,ere against his jud-nt & t,,^^ ^-^ likely he might ingage the Indians to promise him corne. beinge imploved therein for ye country. Concerninge w^h the Church determinatii^n is vt Yis SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 57 answere concerninge the corne promised liini, & otlier things, as the Indians being from .... is satisfactory. But Concerninge y^ of his servants doeinges tliem noe good, tlie Church iiavinge but one witnesse, doth demur, & cannot determine furtlier. To y'^ 5"^ charge that notw^'^standinge, lie could not but take notice of y"^ necessity es of y*^ country, l)y y*" Gen' all complaints, & comissions granted to severall persons, he yet omitted y^ trust comitted to him, by order of Co'te, & did not satisfy the intent of y^' said trust, first or last. To Avch jvir pinchon answered. 1. yt it Avas nuicli to his greife, that he could not ansAvere the necessityes of liis brethren ; but he Avas hindered therein by others that ingrossed y^ trade, by goeinge a Avay of power, av^Ii interrupted a free trade. And 2'y that he takes himself discharged of his trust, by y^gen'-all Comis- sions, granted unto others. Concerninge av^^ the Church's determination is, yt the Answeres doe not take off the charge — for yt 1, M'" Pinchon was obliged certainly to bring in 500 bushells, that Av'^h j^^ presumed to have A\">in his power, Avhen he made y^ con- clusion. 2"^i for y' y^ substance of corne yt Avas procured by these Comissions Avas soe procured about the middle of May, & his order made, in ye beginninge of March. Soe yf for 2 monthes space, he Avas little hindered by those Comis- sions. And lastly, for y* A\ee judge his judg^"' Avas not soe sound, resolveinge by noe means to alter liis former Avay of trading to Avitt, in stayinge, till the Indians brought downe their corne ; for Ave deeme liis brethrens necessityes Avas a ground, sufificient to alter the Avay of trade, as Ave see, it seemed afterwards to ^I' Pinchon, & his friend^s, beinge pressed thereunto, by their owne necessitye, Avhen yet their brethrens necessityes did not soe farre, prevayle av^i them. Jonx Warham Ephkaim IIlitt John Witchfeild III y*^ name of y^ Chiuxh Rec'd this ansAvere & Ire 21 Sept. 1G40. M'- Huitts IrG Avti^ it dated Sept. 15. 1G40. :Mr. Pynchon took from the middle of September until October 24 to prepare a protest against the above decision. It was a good specimen of special pleading, and showed what his published works show, — a keen and logical mind, and a sense of justice which not 58 SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1SS6. even the ill-will of a whole province could shake. After reviewing the evidence he sums up by saying : — So then as I made it plaine to the Co't, w* I payd to y*' Indians, viz., sixes a peck. & asked noe increase of that price uppon tl'.e country, soe, also, the Co'^t manifested tlieir desire, y" I sliould not loose ; & therefore it is added, if I were forced by the Indians to rayse tlie price, then the Country must rise so much. Yea the Co^t did cut off all hope of raysinge anytliinge into my purse, though I were forced to rayse the price w^'^ the Indians, because I am used to receive a certain sett sum for my labo"" in tradinge (viz. 43 p bushell in Wampam at 3. a penny) as a servant, & not to rayse any further gaines into my purse, as a Merchant. In short, Mr. Pynchon could not make any money by raising the price of corn under the contract ; therefore, the charge against him fails to give a motive for his alleged short-comings. Mr. Pynchon's first letter to Hartford, informing the authorities of the unwillingness of the Indians to bring in corn, had given great offence, because it contained a recommendation or suggestion as to what policy to pursue. This recommendation also figured against Pynchon at Windsor. '' Can a church or any else," adds Mr. Pyn- chon, " deny me liberty to expound my own thoughts by way of advice to the magistrates ? " The case reduces itself to this : Agawam was situated upon the border of the planting-grounds. Mr. Pynchon was the natural man to furnish Connecticut with corn ; he made a contract with the river towns by which he could receive no commission or speculative gains whatever the price might be ; he found that the conditions were difficult to fidfil. Captain Mason, the warrior, was then sent up with an armed force to trade, and there was trouble, of course. We will content ourselves with but one more extract from Mr. Pynchon's protest, detailing, as it does, the results of Captain Mason's excursions : — If the Capt liad gone in a way of trade only to the Indians, at Messaco & Paquannuk, & other places neare yot"*" townes w^h whome I had noe tradinge SPRrXGFIELD. 2636-1 8S6. 59 in come, it had beene more tolerable. This had been dispensinge av"' the proviso in the order. But after this he A\ent to Woronoco, & amongst our Indians, & he Avould alsoe have traded w"' tliem at Ivamotuk & Pacomtuk. such Indians w"' whome my trade mainly lyes, & from wliome I expected what I Avas likely to trade for ye Country. Is this not a plaine turninge mee out of the saddle, to take the Markett out of ni}- liands eytlier by tradinge w* corne the Indians have to trade, or else (w<='' is as bad), cominge in the name of the English Sachems, laying open to the Indians, the wants of the English, & puttinge Wampam uppon them on trust, to put the Indians uppon such new thoughts & consid- erations, y*^ I can have no more Corne from them, to speak off : flfor now I tooke notice that uppon the capt cominge upp among ye Indians, there was such a hubbub, or strange alteration among all of y^ neighbour Indians, that they would not trade soe much corne w^'i mee as might supply ones owne necessetyes. which were as great if not greater than yours. My trader, divers of my familye, & Sundry others of our plantation, felt the smart of this alteration amonge the Indians, & hadd good cause to remember it, as well as my self e to this day. The conditions uppon w^h I made my bargaine wth the Co''te and Country, was, (besides tearmes of price) that the Avants of the Country might be kept secrett. 2. The price kept downe. 3. that none by cominge upp to, or amongst the Indians to trade corne, should forestall my Markett, the order represses two of these, & includes the third, & yett all these conditions were broken by the Capt and that Assembly that sett him on Worke. I do verily thinke this, (jet I should be gladd to see any grounds to alter my thoughts), that the plaine and true English of the matter about sendinge up the Capt l)y that Assembly then is this : When they received from mee that letter, about well sucli adoe is made, through mistakinge, if not pervertinge my mean- inge, they entertained a prejudice ag*^ mee & my faythfulnesse, about the trust reposed in mee. This prejudice brought their minds into a hurry w* Course to take for y^ Countryes supply, and their minds beinge in a hurry, they intended not the true intent of the contract w*'^ me, cast off great parte of their hopes of supply from mee, siipposinge mee not faythfull & carefull enough, seeking mine owne ends, not the public. Uppon tliese suppositiones, & jealousies, they con- sider it needful to appoint another gen'all trader y* might more speedily and diligently supply the Countryes Avantes, and soe not attending the first contract Av^h mee, according to the true intent of the proviso, nor yet alloAvinge due & convenient time, to try av^ I could & A\ould have done, for performance of the bargaine. they ran into such disorder & injustice as I now complaine off. 60 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. After the Windsor church had condemned Mr. Pynchon, he ap- pealed to Mr. P^liot and the l\oxbury church. There are indications that he and his witnesses were at Koxbury at the time that several Con- necticut men were at Charlestown. At any rate, the Roxbur^^ church notitied ]Mr. Pynchon's accusers when they were at the Bay tliat the charges were being examined by the Koxbury church, which after a thorough examination completely vindicated Mr. Pynchon. Thus the Connecticut General Court and the Windsor church condemned Mr. Pynchon, and the Massachusetts General Court and the Rox- bury church stood by him. It was at the town-meeting of April 16, KUO, that the important vote was passed changing the name from Agawam (which was the Indian name for meadow) to Springfield, after Mr. Pynchon's Eng- lish home. The spelling as it stands on the record is '' Spring- feild." But we are not yet done with the complications which feelings of mutual distrust had precipitated between Springfield and Connecticut. The latter showed a disposition to lay claim to lands over the Massa- chusetts line, and a veritable tempest was roused by the Connecticut court, which passed an order that '' Ed: Hopkins, Esqr. now Gover- uour, shall have the benetitt and liberty of free trade at Woronocoa & att any place thereabout, uppon the River, and all other to be re- streyned for the terme of seaven yeres, and the land to be purchased for the Comonvvelth." This region, which is the site of AVestfield, was in the heart of the beaver grounds. As soon as communication could be established with the Bay the matter was full}^ ventilated, and this letter to Connecticut was drawn up by the Massachusetts General Court : — It is greivos to us to meete w^i^ any occation tliat might cause difference to arise betweene yo'' people & us, standing in so near relation of friendsliip, neigh- V)orliood, & Cliristianity, especially : therefor o'' study is (when any such arise) to labor the removeing of them upon the first appearance. Now. so it is, that wee have here certified that you have given leave to some of yo''^ to set up a SPRINGFIELD. 1636-188G. 61 trading house at Woronock, w^'^ is known to bee vathin o"" patent, lying as much or more to the north then Springfeild. Wee heare also, that you have granted to Mr. Robrt Saltonstall a great quantity of land, not far beneath Springfeild, wO^ wee conceive also to belong to us. AYee desire you to consider of it, as that w^h Me apphend to bee an injury to us, & do us such right in redresse hereof as you would expect fro us in a like case. Wee suppose wee shall not need to use other argum'* ; wee know to whom wee wright. Wee have thought meete upon these occations to intimate further unto you that wee intend (by God's help) to know the certeinty of o*" limitts, to the end that Avee may neither intrench upon the right of o'' neighbors, nor suffer o'selves & o'' posterity to bee deprived of what rightly belongeth unto us, Av^h wee hope wilbee without offence to any; & upon this wee may have some ground of p'ceediug in o'' further treaty w^^ y^y^ about such things as may concerne the welfare of us all. Governor Hopkius and jNIr. Saltonstall were becoming extensive traders, and, under favor of the Connecticut colony, were in a fair way to isolate Springfield ; and the above protest from tlie Bay did not appear any too soon. With a warehouse built b}^ Hopkins at AVoro- noco, and with Saltonstall enjo3'ing grants of land " neere to the falls " (Enfield Falls) , the plan to bring the trade of the valley to the door of Hartford was well under way. Considering the ill-feeling at this time, one may well be impressed at the diplomacy that strove to loosen the tension of strained relations, by way of deference, shown in the expression, " wee know to whom wee wright." After the secession from Connecticut, an elaborate paper was drawn up by the Massachusetts General Court, in response to a humble petition sustaining the course. The petition from Springfield had been read in open court and referred to a committe, whose report in favor of Springfield was accepted. The close lines of argument on which this controversy was drawn, appear in this reply (June 2, 1641) to the Springfield petition. "Said commission " spoken of is the one giving power to Koger Ludlow, Pynchon, and others, in 1635, to govern Connecticut for one 3'ear ; the "recitall" refers to the letter of the Connecticut commission to the Massachusetts Bay authorities : — Q2 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. It is hearby declared, — 1. That the said passages in the said comission (as they are expressed in the petition) are misrecited, so as the true scope and intention is thereby altered; as, 1. Whereas the words in the comission are, they are resolved to transplant themselves, in the recitall it is, to jjlant themselves. 2. In the comission it is said that those noble parsonages have interest in the ryver, & by vertue of their patent do require jurisdiction there; in the recitall it is, that wee confesse it be- longeth to their jurisdiction. 3. In the comission it is pi'vided this may not bee any pjudice to the interest of those noble etc. : in the recitall it is, that nothing should bee done or intended to the pMice of the lords, or their intendments. 2. That the said comission was not granted upon any intent either to dismise the psons fro us, or to determine anything about the limits of jurisdiction, the interest of the lands & o'" owne limits being as then unknowne ; tlieref ore it Avas granted onely for one yeare ; & it ma}^ rather appeare, by o"" granting such a comission, & thier accepting of it, as also that clause, viz. Till some otlier course were taken, by mutuall consent, etc. that wee intended to reserve an interest there upon the ryver, & that themselves also intended to stand to the condition of the first licence of dejjarture given to the most of them, W^'' was, tliat they should remaine still of o'' body. 3. For those argumts w^'^ tliey draw from those articles certified in the peti- tion, wee answer, that they Avere proijounded and drawen out onely by some of the magistrats of each party without any order or alowance of this Court ; and therefore (whatsoever those magistrats might intend thereby) the intend of the Court cannot be gathered from anything therein ; but in those articles w<^'^ Avere agitated and brought to some issue in o' Genrall Court, in the 4^'' mo 1638, when their commissioners Avere present, Springfeild, then called AgaAvam Avas claymed by the Court (though by occasion of some private speach &c) to belong to us ; and it was then agreed by the Court, and yielded unto by their commissioners that so much of the ryver of Conecte'^"' as should fall w^'' the line of o"" patent should continew Avithin our jurisdiction (and it was then taken for granted that Springfeild Avould fall to us Avithout question) and those articles had then beene fully agreed on betAveene the Court and their commission'*, had there not beene some question about them granting us free passage up the river, in regard of the lords' interest (as they alledged). It is noAv hearby ordered, that Willi: Pinchen, gent, for this yeare shall hear- by have full power and authority to govern the inhabitants at Springfeild ; and to heare and determine all causes and offenses, both civill and criminall, that reach not to life, limbs or banishment according to tlie lawes lieare established, etc. SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 63 This decree stood practically imdisputed, but it left the question of river commerce opeu as a fruitful source of further contention . During the two years subsequent to Springfield's declaration of in- dependence from Connecticut, it had little connection with the Bay. Its position had been unique ; it was not included in an}- tax-rates levied at Boston, and was not represented at the General Court by deputies or by the presence of a magistrate. Mr. Pynchon was not elected an assistant until 1643, and there is no evidence that he at- tended court even that year. Springfield did not figure in the official list of towns included in the four shires of Massachusetts. Mr. Pynchon continued to be annually reelected an assistant from KMo until the troublous times of 1650. Mr. P3'nchon w^as also regularly chosen magistrate, as appears by this vote, passed in September, 1643: — Commission was granted Mr. Willi: Pincheon, gent., for this yenv ensuing, & till y*" Co't take further order, that hearby hee shall have full power to goVne, according to former order in IG-tl, onely to try causes by a jury of 6 men, if 12 cannot conveniently bee had. Mr. Pj^nchon had not abandoned the beaver trade. He paid a license to the General Court for special trading privileges. One would say there had been some discussion about the amount of the license from this order at the September session of 1643 at Boston : " Mr. Pinchen is ordered to pay for his beaver trade from the time of the runing of the line." This evidently refers to the line betw^een the two colonies, which was shortly after the order of 1641. For some reason still unexplained, it was not until the latter part of 1647 that Springfield was included in any of the official lists of Massachusetts towns, and this, curiously enough, was for brands on horses for each town, "ordered to be set upou one of y^ nere q^'trs." There wxn*e five towns in the colony then beginning with "• S," and the Springfield brand was a monogram composed of a small " s" and " p." 64 SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886. Mr. Pynchou's influence over the local Indians was never lost, although he did not have an exalted idea of the stability of the savage. In a letter to Governor Winthrop about this time, he says : — My advise is that neather you nor the river [Connecticut] should do anytliing else but use dilatory meanes, for I perceive the nature of the Indians is uppon every Hke occasion to be much provoked with the desyer of revenge, but if meanes of delay be used but a while, the edge of their revengeful desyer will soon be cooled. I perceive they are carefull of this, not to begin first with the English, but they make account, if the English begin first with them, to doe great matters. Thanks to Mr. Pynchon's sagacity, the Indian portion of our narrative is uneventful for some years. The relations of the Con- necticut towns with the savages were not so assuring at this time. A short time before this letter of Mr. Pynchon, the General Court at Hartford (September, 1G42) began an enactment with the words, '^ Forasmuch as the Indians growe insolent and combyne themselves togather." During the years 1640-43 a dozen or more new men arrived at Springfield, the most notable of whom being Deacon Samuel Chapin and Elizur Holyoke. There were also in this list Thomas Cooper, Rowland and Thomas Stebbins, and William Warriner. Samuel Chapin became very prominent both in town and church. A man of affairs and a typical Puritan, he was frequently made ;-^elect- man, held positions of trust, and was the founder of a line of deacons running even to our day. Thomas Cooper also was a useful man, a good fighter, and was held in great esteem in this valley. His personal influence witli the natives was great, and it was his over-confidence in their fidelity to Springfield which eventually cost him his life. EHzur Holyoke was a young man, but he soon developed the sterling qualities that have been transmitted to a family of great importance in New England. The second immigration to Springfield during this period was the SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. (J5 determiuing event in our plantation history. The first arrivals out- side of Mr. Pyncheon's immediate family and personal friends were ignorant and adventurous. Both John Cable and John Burr, as we have seen, soon gave up the struggle and drifted down the river, and new blood was an imperative necessity. This period was full of the smaller complications of pioneer life, and was, upon the whole, anything but propitious. It is recorded in February, 1640, that Goody Gregory, the wife of Henry Gregory, who had only been connected with the settlement about a year, was accused by John Woodcock of ''swearing before God I could break thy head." She did not attempt any defence, and was fined 12c/., in default of which she was to sit three hours in the stocks. The fine was much below^ the amount prescribed in the colonial laws for this offence. One of the new arrivals, Samuel Hubbard, was licensed to keep an ordinary, the vote being passed in town meeting. He was also commissioned to ^' lay out all lotts" in the plantation. John Leonard (March, 1640) was appointed surveyor to " See y^ high wayes cleered and kept m repayer of all stubbs sawpitts or tymber." Henry Smith and Thomas Mirrick were given power (April, 1640) "to restrayne y^ Indians from breaking up any new grownde or from planting any y^ was broaken up y« last yeare, alsoe for y^' swampe that is in y^ neck they are to pitch up stakes y' soe y*^ Indians may be limited & restrayned from enlarg- ing y"^selves in y^ swamp. Mr. Moxou is desired to joyne witli you in this acte." The importance of the marsh was further magnified by the opening of a highway in the spring of 1640 across " y^ hessekey meddowe betwixt Richard Everits Lott & y' w^'^ was Thomas Woodford Lott the way to be 2 rod in bredth." This, we take it, was State street. It had been voted, in 1638, that laud for a highway be reserved "out of the Marish ground of Thomas Woodford's Lott." The provision about canoe trees was broadened in 1640 by an order that none should be bold to parties outside the plantation. In GQ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. December, we find tluit ''There is leave gninted to Mr. IIoU}^- oke, William Wai-rener & Henry Burt to seeke oat for y' use each of them a Caunoe Tree." Warriner made bad use of this permit, and was subsequently fined for selling his canoe. In 1641 orders were passed requiring fire ladders with "16 rungs or steps. at least" at each house, and against carrying fire uncovered through the streets. It was during this year that the irrepressible John Wood- cock scored a nominal victory over Henry Gregory in two suits for slander about some hogs, the damages being 40-s. and costs. Upon hearing the award Gregory was very indignant at the figures, and exclaimed : '" I marvel with what conscience the jurj^ can give such damages ; seeinge in the case of John Searles I had of him but twenty shillings for three slanders." Mr. Moxon interfered, charg- ing Gregory to "take heed I take heed I " This case was tried before a jury of six, with Mr. Pynchon as magistrate ; and in a community where the means of diversion were few, Pyuchon's room probably contained a goodly number of absorbed spectators. The informality which permitted the interference of the minister to pro- tect judge and jury from the outburst of an angry suitor-at-law is only equalled in interest to us by the effect of the admonition upon the offender. He ceased complaining that the market value of scandals had gone up, and humbly acknowledged his fault. Running along for some years appear evidences of a close attention to business and labor. On the part of the town wages were re- peatedly changed to meet the conditions. In 1642 we find that — It is ordered by y^' Joynt consent of y^ Inhabitants of y*^ Plantation for y*^ orderinge of Sayers wages that workmen of y* nature shall sawe henceforth at 3s 8d per for boards & 4s 5d p for slitworke, y^ tymber to be brought home toy«^ pit hewen & made ready & if y*^ sd workmen shall sawe tymber & sell y"^ boards they shall not exceed y^ price of 6s 6d p pvided y* if y*^ Pit be made within y space of distance y^ is betwixt Mr Pynchon's house & Sam: Wrights it shall be accounted as in y*" towne. A little later is this provision : — SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 57 Whereas ther was a clawse in a former order dated December 24, 1641, alow- inge husbandmen or ordinary laborers for 4 montlis in y- winter pt of y^ yeare 18d p day it is therefore y^ day above so ordered by ye generall voate yt all such husbandman or laborers shall not exceede 16d p day for tyme to come & to Avorke 8 bowers as in y former order exp'"essed. These towu acts remind one of the McFingal couplet : " Or triumphs at town meeting made On passing votes to regulate trade." One of the first baildiugs put up after the pioneers had been housed was a saw-mill on Mill river, a temporary bridge being thrown across the stream. In the spring of 1643 this was substi- tuted for a more substantial one. The order was passed at the March meetmg : — It is ordered that there shall be a bridge & high way made to ye mill for ye passadge of Carts & Cattell those r ^^^ere wantinge in y^ worke of y- former ])ridge to make it up in ye & then to goe through ye towne every man his day & what is done by every man to he kept on account & to be made even when they make ye Avay over }'e meddowe. In January, 1(542, a second division of planting-ground was decreed. The apportionments ^' p'vided that those y' have broaken up ground there shall have allowance for it as 2 indifferent men shall Judge equall. Single persons are to have 8 rod in bredth maryed psons 10 rod in bredth, bigger familys 12 rod to begin upward at y^ edge of y« hill " (Chestnut street) . Here i« the list : ~ Rod Bredth John Woodcock S Wid: Searle 10 Robrt Ashly 08 John Deeble OS Rowl: Stebbiues 10 Tho: Stebbiues 8 68 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. Rod bredth. Sam: Hubbard 10 Tho: Mirack 10 Sam: Wright 10 Hen: Burt 12 Hen: Smith 20 10 of wch is for Mr. :\Ioxon Will : Warener 10 Kich: Sikes 10 Wid: Horton 10 John Leonard 10 Hen: Grigory 8 Eliz: Hollyoke 10 One year later (Jan. 26, 1643), Henry Smith, Elizur Holyoke, Henry Burt, Samnel Cbapin, Richard Sikes, and Thomas Mirrick were chosen to lay out the lands, "both of upland and meddowe on y^ other side of y"" greate river where y^ Indians live and all y'' meddowe on Aggawam soe far as shall amount to an hundred & fifty acres, alottinge to every p'sent Inhabitant his p'portion of these meddowe grounds and in y" uplande for 'M) familyes of plantuige ground to be distributed to every pson his pportionable quantity as shall be by y*" chosen psons thought sutable to y'' psons et estates of y'^ psent Inhabitants, soe farr as y^' discresion of y'" s'^ psons shall lead y'"." It was also voted " y' foresd 6 men shall see Mr. Pynchon satisfyd for f purchas of y"^ lands of y" Plantation before any man is possessed of them." This allotment was finally com- pleted and reported to the town April 6, 1643. The record reads : — A list of y Alotraents of planting lotts as they Avere cast wti' ye order how men doe fall, beginniuge at y ends of y' SO rod lotts y^ face to y^ greate River Mr. Moxon is to have yf first by consent of y' Plantation. Ac- res. .Mr :\[oxon l.s Tho: Cooper ~, Tho: Steb1)ins ri lott 2 lott SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Acres. Tho: Stebbins 74 Good Bridgmau 11 Sam: Cliapen 104 Kich Sikes 08 Kowl; Stebbins 11 Sam Hubbard 05 Eli: Hollyok 8-t Hen: Burt lot ^Ir Pynclion 80 Kobt Ashly 17 Jno Leonard 09 Sam: Hubbard m Will: AVarener 8i Alex: Edwards 11 Hen: Smith \oh Tho: Mirack 121 Jon Dover 05 Sam: Wright 131 Jno Deeble 01 Roger Prichard 05 69 This allotment was soon •' disanulled agayne." One cause of trouble may have been the taking into consideration the estates and importance of the inhabitants in apportioning these lands. The wonder is that this rule worked at all. There are certain expressions occurring a little latef, such as, " as the lotts doe fall," which lead to the belief that the planters finally '• drew cuts," as the boys say, for their laud ; but certainly in this year the rule was " Unto him that hath shall be given." On the page following the above-given list are two apportionments which seem to have stood the test of the ages. They are as follows : — Lots casts for meddow grownd on Agawam side wliere is 2 pts of y quantity to be divided. SPRINGFIELD, 1 630-1886. 2 lot 2 lot Acres. Mr Moxon 8 Ell: Holyoke 14 Mr Pynchon 32 (alowance 8 acres) "Will Wareiier 02 2 acres Sam: llul)bar(l 01 Rich Sikes 01 Hen Smith 17 Sam: AVright n Tho: Mirack 04 Rowl: Stebbins 024 Th: Stebbins 014 Jno. Dober 01 J: Bridgman 03 Alex: EdAvards 03 Jno: Deeble 01 Jno: Leonard 02 Hen: Burt 02 Sam: Chapen 01 Ro: Ashly 04^ Tho: Cooper 02 Tho: Stebins 01 Sam: Hubbard 02 108 Letts on ye other side of y'^ greate river for meddow Acres. Rowl: Stebbins 14 Rich: Sikes 1 Will: AVarener 1 Robt: Ashly 2\ Mr Pynchon 16^ Tho: Cooper 01 Hen: Burt 01^ Alex: Edwards 014 Sara: Hubbard 2 lot 004 Tho: Stebbins 2 lot 00| John Leonard 01^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1 SS 6. Acre:?. Sam: Hul)bar(l 01 Hen: Smith 01) J: Bridgman 02.^ Jno: Deeble 01 Tho: Mirack 01^ Jno. Dober oo.i Sam: Wright ou Tho: Stebbins 00.^ Ell: Holyoke 07 Sam: Chapen 00^ Mr Moxon 04 71 57^ The year 1640 closed with Spriugfield's first recorded marriage, the new arrival, Eliziir Holyoke, leading to the altar ^lary Pynchon, daughter of AVilliam Pynchon. Holyoke was a man of no ordinary force of character, and the event must have made an impression upon the swains of the valley. AVithin a few^ months after his arrival he had won the most lovely maiden of her day, if tradition is accepted, and the match carried with it sundry considerations of a worldly nature. Holyoke was about twenty- two years of age. He had been born near ••Tamvrorth Tower and town," in Warwickshire, Eng., and had come to New England with his father, Edward Holyoke. His marriage was followed Iw the assignment of a very desirable lot (between AVorthington and Bridge streets). His father-in-law's large lot bounded him on the north, and Henry Smith, who had married Ann Pynchon before the settlement of Springfield, was on the south. Holyoke also received, according to custom, allotments of meadow and upland opposite his lot on the east side of Main street, as well as land on the w^est side of the Connecticut, and planting-grounds elsewhere. It was a happy event, and hundreds of descendants iu America hold in reverence the Elizur and ^lary Holyoke, who, in a d;irk hour of SpringfiekVs history, refused to return to England and 72 SPRINGFIELD, 163G-1886. give up the struggle for mastery iu this valley. Their bones now rest iu our beautiful cemetery. It is well written upon Mary Holyoke's tombstone : — Shee yt lyes lieere was while she stood A very glory of womanhood. CHAPTER Y. ]P,44-1()45. The First Board of Selectmen. — Centralization. — Mr. Moxon's Ministiy. — The First Meeting--Hoiise. - A Long Sermon. —A Tax-List. — Fencing House-Lots. — The " Longe Meddowe." — Eefiisal to make Fences. —Planting-Grounds on the West Side- — Social Caste. — Marriages of Hugh Parsons and of John Pynchon. The provisional and experimental elements begin to give wa}^ to a certain regularity in the methods of government. In September, 1614, the town-meeting took the important step of intrusting the management of affairs to a committee. For eight years the town had been governed without selectmen. The names of the first board were : Henry Smith, Thomas Cooper, Samuel Chapin, Eichard Sikes, and Henry Burt. These townsmen were given power for one year to " prevent an37thing they shall judge to be to y*^ damage of y" Towne, or to order anything they shall judge to be for y"^ good of y^' town ; & in these affairs they shall have power for a yeers space ; " to these five or any three of them was given power to " serv complaintes, to Arbitrate controversies, to lay out high waves, to make Bridges, to repayer High waies, espe- cially to order y*^ making of y^ way over y'^ Marshie meddow, to se to y^^ scowering y^' ditches, & to y*^ killing of wolves, & to y' training of y« children in some good caling, or any other thing they shall judge to be y*" p'fitt of y*" Towne." The new selectmen, unless we except Henry Smith, were compara- tively young and poor, so far as having any estate, independent of the lands voted them by the town, was concerned. The placing of so much discretionary power in the hands of any set of men shows the working of a tendency that grew rapidly and naturally out of the prin- 74 SPRINGFIELD, 2GS6~1SS6. ciples of democracy, under the most favorable conditions known in history. The masses may protest against centralizing the functions of government ; but when they assume those functions themselves, the very first tendency that is developed is this self-same drift toward the centre. Town rates in 164.5 were based upon house-lots onl}-. The town met the last Thursday in each month, and notices of special meetings given on lecture day were considered legal warnings. The penalty for absence, or for leaving town-meetings during the session without a permit, was " halfe a bushell of Indian corne for every such defect." Numberless instances of caution on the part of these primitive publicists abound in tlie record-books. Every householder was re- quired to '^ carefully attend y sweepinge of his chmmey once every month for y'^ winter tyme, and once in two months in y"" summer tyme." If a man neglected this injunction, the town swept the chimney for him at his expense. Mr. Moxon's ministry had proved a great success. Not that he was notably a man of parts, but he seemed to have just the elements which kept iii check the uneasy spirits that Tvere inevitably drawn into adventuresome enterprises of this sort. He was educated at Cam- bridge University, Eng., graduating from Sidney College in 1623, and he was at Dorchester for a while before moving to Springfield. There is a passage in a letter from Mr. Pynchon to Governor Win- throp, written in 1644, that has a genuine flavor of devout faith in the cause of the gospel, winch is added here the more readily because the concerns of business and trade have been connected so continu- ously with Pynchon's name, that one might fancy that his grand mo- tive in coming to New England was simply to pluck plums of gold. He says : "I praise God we are all in good health e^- in peace in our plantation ; e^ the Lord hath added some o or 4 yoiige men out of the River, that are godly, to us lately : & the Lord has greateiy blessed M'. 3Ioxon's ministry, to the conversion of nianv soules that are lately added to our church, c<: hetherto the Lord hath preserved SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1SSG. us in peace from enimies." Mr. P3^nclioii, in simple faith, waited for the grace of God to have its perfect work upon such of his associates as were not members of the church ; we know how the}^ of the Bay were continually giving the divine agency an impetus by way of punishments visited upon those not disposed to hasten into the fold. The Boston authorities, in their attempt to stamp out heresy by clos- ing the mouth of P^rror, had onl}' invited an ill-feeling which often came out at the public meetings, and sometimes found expression in harsh words against the ministers themselves. For these offences a fine was imposed, and upon a repetition of the same it was decreed that the offender should stand " two howers openly upon a blocke of fower foote high on a lecture day, with a paper fixed on his breast with this : A AVanton Gospellek, written m capitall letters, y* others may feare & be ashamed of breaking out into the like wickedness." This law was over Springfield like other ^Massachusetts towns, but it is not known that the plantation took advantage of its privileges. Probabh' nothing in tlie history of the plantation caused deeper grat- ification than the definite prospect of owning a house of worship, — not thatched like maii}^ of the houses on the street, but a veritable framed and windowed temple in the wilderness. It was in February, 164.3, that the contract was made in open town-meeting for the building of the first Springfield meeting-house. Each inhabitant was to furnish twenty-eight days' work, " when he shall be required by him who shall undertake y*" buildinge of it." No inhabitant could be forced to work more than six consecutive days. Thomas Cooper contracted with the town for the Avork, and it was satisfactoril}^ performed. The building was 40 X 2;3 feet in size, " 9 foote betwixt joynts, double studded," and had two large windows on either side, and a smaller window at each end. There was a large door on the south side, and two smaller doors elsewhere. Joists were laid for a gallery when it could be af- forded. The roof was shingled, and was broken by two towers, one for a bell and one for a "• watch-howse." The underpinning was stone " dawbed " in the old style. Cooper received "fower score 76 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. powiids," which was paid in quarterly iiistahnents of '^ wheate, pease, porke, wampain, deptes," and hibor above the twenty-eight days re- quired of each inhabitant. Mr. Cooper had until Septeniber, 1646, to fulfil this contract, but the last stroke was done by the March previous. AVilliani Pynchon and Henry Smith signed in February, 1644, this document : — AcL'ordinge to trust imposed on us, the party s undernamed h\ y plantation : we have treated w^u Tliomas Stebbins and ffrancis Ball, for the purchas of a parsell of grownd of them in theyre house lotts next the river. W^'i ffrancis Ball we have agreed for one acre of grownd. and to give him two acres for it, in recom- pense, in hi8 second lott on the other side of the river : with Thomas Stebbines we have agreed for one acre and an halfe, of w^ii Ave have conditioned to have 2 rod in bredth to y^ meeting house : and in recompense of this acre »& halfe, Ave agree to give him 3 acres of land adjoyning to his third greate lott on y-' other side of y^' greate river. We do not know of any early local scene that so challenges our curiosity and cordial sympathy as this when the pioneers gathered in their new house, with :Mr. Pynchon sitting under the pulpit and Mr. Moxon offering thanks ; while the voice of praise rose from a full- hearted though small congregation. Thei'e can be counted in that mem- orable gathering no less than sixteen men, founders of families, and from them have come thousands of descendants, through each line of which run the distinctive traits of mind and heart that were the mak- ing of Springfield. It had l)een said at Boston and it had been said at Hartford tiiat the Agawam settlement wouJd not hold out ; and it did take nearly a decade of lonely toil to secure a footing. ]Mr. Moxon's connection with tlie witch excitement of Springfield has led to the erroneous conclusion that he was a weak and a super- stitious person. Those who have deciphered his sermons and have examined the meagre traces ot liis teachings come to a far different conclusion. He was what might be called an exhaustive preacher. He alwa3's followed out an elaborate scheme of sermonizing, covering about all that could be said upon his subject, dividing and subdividing SPRING FIELD, 1636-1886. 11 his topic with reckless prodigality of time ; and, if the sermon hour closed before the sermon did, he simply announced that the discourse would be continued upon the Sabbath following. It had happened back in 1640, when William Pynchon was at loggerheads with the Windsor church, and the heavens hung low witli clouds spiritual and temporal, that he felt called upon to fortify the position of his little congregation by the text : " Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work" (2 Thess. ii, 17). Here was a vast subject. It touclied both the doctrine and deeds of men. Loyalty to the gospel, the fate of individual souls, and the future of the plan- tation itself seemed to hang upon the voice from the pulpit. He began that sermon P\dn'uary IG, and finished it March 15, wheu the church probably felt refreshed in more senses than one. His exhortation to be " settled in well doing and to be stable in sound doctrine " was hammered into the mettle of ever}' soul present. The nature of the satisfaction granted to .Air. Pynchon for the sup- plementary purchase of the Indians of land on the banks of the Agawam seems to be furnished by the following rating, recorded May 6, 1644. It was Mr. Pynchon's habit to furnish a large percentage of the funds necessary for any project of public concern, and then later to secure himself by a formal rating, which, by the way, was not always paid promptly. £ Mr: Pynchon -t Mr: Moxon 1 Ell: Holyoke 2 Tlio: Cooper Hen: Smith - Sam: Chapen John Dober Kich: Sykes Will: Warener Tho: Stebbines Era: Ball Robt: Ashlv s d 08 08 01 08 00 00 11 00 0(5 00 O.s 10 07 iM 01) {Yl 10 0(1 08 00 07 06 15 00 78 SPRTXGFIELD, 2636-2886. Jno: Leonard Tho: Mirack James Bridgeman Alex: Edwards Sam: Hubbard Jno: Beeble Morgan John liowl: Stebbines 8am: Write Henrv Burt Jno: Harman Kodger Prichard £ s d lu 04 18 03 () 12 0(J () 11 10 10 09 8 05 3 00 u 11 OG <) 1L> 05 12 07 OS 10 () () 06 Total! 19 18 0-1 For some reason to us unknown this nione}^ was not paid, and in January, 1647, tlie rating was declared null and void. In the spring of 1644 we find this record: '^ It is ordered / those Lotts from Roger Prichards downward shall have theyr 2d alotments below Agga- w^an River mouth every man to have 5 acres apeice to runn m length 80 rodd theyr lotts to abutt agaynst y^ greate river." Shortly after this it was specially ordered that Samuel Chapin should have his second allotment next to Mr. Holyoke, and that John Dober should have the lot next below him. Thomas Cooper's second lot abutted his old one, and next aboxe came Rogei- Prichard's second lot. The settlement of disputes by the '^ arbitrament of two Indifferent men " relieved the magistrate of nmch labor, but the town-meeting continued to feel the burdens of its fence and land supervision. In September, 1645, it was voted : — It is also further ordered, that if any neighbor from ffrancis Balls lott to Goodman Coolys shall desire to encdose his yard w^^' a garden or an orchard : if his next neighbor refuse to Joyne for ye one half of the s'l fence : he may compell his neighbors on each side of his lot to beare y one halfe of his fence, pi-vided he compell them not to joyne for above 20 rodds in length, and in case his neighbor shall refuse to doe his share of the s'l fence wHn 3 months after SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-ISS6. 79 demande : He sliall be lyable to pay damages as two IndifEerent men shall a^vard, wch shall he chosen by the partyes m Controversy : or m Case they agree not then upon Complainte, y^' magistrates shall appoynt them : p'-vided alsoe yt y^- s in makinge a fence to save theyr neighbors harmeless : Therefore it is or- dered that all the sayd Inhabitants shall Joyne togeather in a sufficient Generall fence, every man bearinge a pportionable share, accordinge to each man's quan- tity of acres : and in case any Cattell breake through any part of s^ generall fence : Then two indifferent men shall be chosen by y^' partys in Controversy, to vew y^ s'l fence and trespass, and he whose fence is found defective, shall beare y*^ damadge as two indifferent men shall award : And in case y^ any cattell breake in out of mens particular y cards, They shall pay such damadges as y^two Indifferent men shall award, and they shall amende theyr fences as the s^^ indif- ferent men shall order and appoynt. And if y ])artys in controversy do not ^0 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. agree in yedioyoe of ytwo Indifferent men, tlien uppon complavnt veMa-istrate shall appovnt them : And this generall fence is to be finished bv ye fi^st of Aprill next, or else they will be lyable to pay damages as ye s^' two Indifferent men shall award; alsoe ye end next y^ River is to be rayled, leaving out a sufficient highway next ye River. A few months before this (May U, 164.>), the plantations had been deep in another matter that occasioned much uneasiness, — the third apportionment of common lands. The unanimous action finally reached was this : — It is ordered witli y Joynt Consent of all ye Plantation at a publique meetino-e after sufficient warninge : That whereas there was formerly a 3d Alotment of Plantinge grounde granted to all ye Inhabitants fro Rodger Pritchards lott & upwards. The s^ Inhabitants are now freely content to lav downe ye s^' 3d alotments, and are content to stand to ye determination and alotment of seaven men chosen by ,.• .-hoU assembly for ye appoyntinge of 3d and 4th alotments to ye wholl Towne: viz: Henry Smith : Elizur Holyoke : Sam: Chapen : Tho- Cooper: Tho: Mirack : Rich: Sykes, Hen: Burt: who are to divide ye towne m equall parts for estates and persons : and soe halfe ye Towne downward oc- cordnige to an equall division of estates, and as in discretion thev shall Judge fit and Just, are to have theyr third and 4th alotments m ye Longe meddowe and one ye other side of r River over agaynst ye Longe nied.lowe : And ye upper part of ye towne are to have theyr third and 4th Alotments in ye pkyne above v^ 3 corner Brooke and one ye other side ye greate river at ye end of ye five acre lotts. And all with one consent doe freely p"-e to stand to r aforesd determi- nation and alotment : and all former orders about the 3d alotments to be nullified. These apportionments were, of course, town-meeting affairs, and so in form were the acts regulating the various common fields ; and in the latter branch of legislation it will be noticed that in every town or.ler it is expressly stated that the immediate proprietors of the common fields concurred tJierein. The importance of this will appear later. The following vote, taken September 23, 1645, may pass as a good instance in point : Whereas the Plantinge of Indian Corne in ye meddowe Swamp on ye other side of Agaam river, hath occationed a long stay after moowinge tyme before SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 81 men can put over tlieyr Cattell thither : Therefore, it is ordered (with the con- sent of all those that have plantinge ground there) that no more Indian corne shall be planted, neither in ye meddowe nor in y^ Swampes, that so the Cattell of all those that have alotments there may be put over by y^ 15th of September : provided they take a sure course to keepe theyr Cattell from goinge over ye river by a Keeper in ye day tyme, & by keeping y^ in some fenced place in the night tyme : only Calves may be put over thither by the 14th of August. Complaynt beinge made that divers that keepe teames on the other side of y^ River in ye springe tyme to plough them, have formerly much damnifyed other men by theyr Cattell, in eating the greene corne, and ye first sprout of mens meaddows : It is ordered, therefore, yt ye g.i teames of Cattell shall be kept in some howse or yeard till y- first of May, and if any keepe them longer there, they are to pasture them uppon theyr OAvne ground, or uppon ye Comon, or uppon ye 3^^ lotts, not beinge meddow nor imp'ved to tilladge, soe they bind y™ w"^ a sufficient keeper. In the last week of October of the year 164o the Springfield community was called upon to witness two marriages within three days of each other ; and while at that time there appeared no con- nection between the two events, they stand to us for two sharp lines of divergence running down our local history, and to group them together here may serve to retain the impression of a social dis- tinction which not even a Puritan democracy could obliterate. Caste is seen in the apportionments of land to the inhabitants, in the dress which was regulated by the State, and in the assignment of seats in the meeting-house. The marriages of 1645 in question were upper and lower class events. There had come to Springfield, some time before the year 1645, a married woman by the name of Mary Lewis. Her husband was a Roman Catholic, but she had not lived with him for seven years. It can well be imagined that if Mrs. Lewis had lived at Boston, where a governor had taken his sword and cut out the cross from the British flag because it was a hated papal emblem, she must have had a very dismal career there, and may have sought Springfield as a place of refuge. She was evidently a woman of a highly nervous organization. INIrs. Lewis was compelled either to 82 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. work or marry, and she chose the latter lot. There was in Spring- field at that time a bricklayer, of somewhat voluble disposition, by the name of Hugh Parsons, — a " queer stick," one would say, and a man quite unworthy to be matched with a woman of Mrs. Lewis's tempera- ment. It was known in Springfield that ]Mr. Lewis was a Roman Catholic, but she claimed that the seven years' abandonment by her husband gave her the privilege of marrying again under the laws of England. Mr. Pynchon was in great doubt what to do, and he wrote to Boston for advice, explaining that Mrs. Lewis had " f alen into a leauge of amity with a bricke-maker." She was in great haste for an answer, and Pynchon urged upon John AYinthrop an immediate decision. A favorable reply was sent, and on October 27 Hugh Parsons, the brick-maker, and Mary Lewis Avere married. It was, however, the union of necessity with opportunity, and promised no good either to them or to the village. Three days later there was a wedding in Connecticut which delighted the heart of the founder of the town. His son, John Pynchon, destined to cut even a more prominent figure than he had in public affairs, had sued and won the hand of Amy, daughter of Governor George Wyllys, of Connecticut, the famous Governor HaA^nes performing the ceremony. John Pynchon was about twenty-three years of age, a quiet, thoughtful young man, who really had had no boyhood, the Puritan convulsions in Europe and the migration to the wilderness having turned the spirit of youth into the prematurely serious disposition of the pioneer. The father did not attempt to conceal his delight at this alliance, and he even wrote to the governor of the colony expressing his satisfaction that the young man had concluded to live at " my house where he may continue as long as he finds it for his comfort & beuefitt." John Pynchon was weU educated, and seems to have been under the influence of a lawyer. Possibly he formed his legal habits from his father, who was trained in the ways of the law ; but John Pynchon was an entirely different kind of man from the founder of Springfield. CHAPTER VI. 1645-1600. Counecticut imposes a River Tariff. — Purchase of Saybrook Fort. — William Pyuclioii refuses to pay the Duty. - The Commissioners of the United Colonies sustain Con- necticut.— Spriuofiekl's Case in Detail.— Massachusetts imposes Retaliatory Duties. - Connecticut removes the River Duties on Springfield Goods. - Floods and Local Incidents. — Taxes. — Miles Morgan. - The Freeman's Oath. - Trouble as to Swine. — Town Orders. — Pynchoii's Court. Outside affairs again demanded tlie attention of the frontier plan- tation ; and he who had antagonized the colony down the river was again placed wliere he must renew the battle or retire from the valley. During the five years beginning with 1645 Springfield and Hartford kept up a running sword-play over the custom duties on the Connect- icut river. It was the first tariff war in New England, and finally involved all of the colonies. It would not be candid to charge that Connecticut was urged into this contest by a special hostility to Springfield ; because the colony was nursing a commercial ambition, and was bound to further her material interests by all legitimate means. However, it will be seen by the temper of some of the charges formulated at Hartford that the bitterness was not lessened by a neighborly feeling towards Springfield. Near the close of the year 1644 Connecticut had bargained for the fort at Saybrook, Mr. Fenwick, the owner, agreeing to accept certain duties, including '2d. per bushel upon exported grain passing the fort, and 6d. per hundred upon biscuit. There was also an annual tax put upon hogs and cattle, to be paid to Fenwick ; all of these tributes to continue ten years, when the fort was to become the abso- lute property of Connecticut. Officers were stationed at Windsor, 84 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. Hartford, and Wethersfield, to give clearance papers to masters of out-going vessels, and these papers were presented to Fenwick's agent at SaA^^rook. Connecticut at once concluded to bring Springfield, which was doing a good business with Boston, under the tariff. But the Hartford government had not secured the jurisdiction of the mouth of the river with the prospective ownership of the fort. The dut}^ upon exports was the purchase-money for the fort. Springfield was thus being asked to aid in this payment ; if she had yielded, and paid the duty, she would have had no proprietary interest in the fort itself. In fact, Springfield was being forced to help secure for Con- necticut a title to the very fort that might prove a menace to its own commerce. The Massachusetts General Court, when informed of the Connecti- cut tariff, voted that ''none of ours" shall pay the tribute. Mr. Pynchon was threatened with utter ruin in a business way, and he at once gave direction to his sailors to pay no attention to the order, and to refuse to file invoices, or to ask for clearance papers. His order was disobeyed for some unknown reason, and one cargo of corn was entered under the tariff provision. ^Ir. Pynchon appears to have been very nmch annoyed at this, and he said at once : " If they would arest our goods, I had rather they should doe it now than another tyme." His next ship passed the Saybrook fort in defiance of the Connecticut officer ; but the little cannon which constructively swept the river did not o[)en fire. Pynchon wrote to Governor Winthrop at Boston in July, 1040 : " But if we should be forced to such a thinge [payment of duty] this plantation will be deserted. I think no man will dwell here to be brought under such payments. I desyre your advise, whether we were best to enter our goods or no. My owne apprehensions are that we ought not to doe it, & so Jehovah cause His face to shine uppon you ever." The commissioners of the United Colonies, which had now been in existence for three years as a sort of itinerary Congress, met at Hartford two months later to adjust this matter. They heard many SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 85 arguments, the most important one being that the maintenance of a fort at Saybrook was as important to Springfield as to Hartford ; but Mr. Pynchon was not present. No definite action was taken by the commissioners at the Hartford meeting, possibly on account of the in- tense feeling ; but the Massachusetts General Court, in November, 1646, made a full declaration of its position ; and, it may be here added, carried out its programme to the end. The court held that Hart- ford had no legal right to force an outsider to buy a fort for the Con- necticut colony, that the Saybrook fort was no protection to Spring- field, and that a tariff dispute hindered the confederation several years before, and that now to. resort to it would "put us to new thoughts." " If Hartford jurisdiction," continues the General Court, " shall make use of their power over any of o'"s, we conceave we have y*^ same pow^" to imitate y"" in y^ like kind, av'^^ we deesier may be for- borne on both sides." This strong language brought the commis- sioners of the United Colonies to Boston in special session, in July, 1647. Deputy-Governor Hopkins and Captain Mason were the com- missioners from Connecticut. Mason was thus confronted by his old antagonist of Springfield, and the struggle that followed turned very much upon the old lines. Captain Mason had a short time before been given the military conunand at Saybrook, — an act of discretion only, as the fort, OAving to a recent fire, was little short of a military expression. The Massachusetts commissioners were Thomas Dudley and John Endicott. The resolutions of Massachusetts passed in November were read. Mr. Hopkins was given time to reply in detail, which he did, with much vigor, on the 27th of July. He argued in the first place that, provided the tax were just, '-it concernes not the party that payes " what is done with the money, his point being that the tax was justifiable because a fort at Saybrook had been, was and would be useful to Springfield. He claimed that it was five rather than teu years that any delay in forming a confederation was caused by the discussion of a river tariff. The Massachusetts General Court i^Q SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. had said it was very hard for those in the Massachusetts jurisdiction to weaken their estates by being '^ forced to such a bondage," and Hopkins replied that "if weakeninge of estates be a sufficient plea to free men from payinge of taxes, we know not who will pay, for all such payments doe weaken men's estates." Mr. Hopkins continues: Nor can we yeild a ready beleefe to what is affirmed, that if they (Springfield planters) had foreseen the present imposition Avonld have been required, they Avould not then have planted, for the thing carryeth that evidence of equity with it that M'". Pinchon, while he looked upon himself as a member of that jurisdic- tion, aeknoAvledged the same & yielded upon a motion made by himself to M''. Fenwicke (as we have it from this testimony deserving credit) that the trade of beaver upon the Eiver, Avhich is the greatest tiling now stuck at, ought in reason to contribute to the chardg of the forte ; besides the incouragement given by ]VI^ Pinchon under his owne hand to others to the gentlemen interested in 8ea- brooke forte, which might well draw out from them an addition to the former expense, there seems to deserve some weight of consideration in the present case. Mr. Pynchon had said in his written protest that he did not propose to be taxed by two governments, even if he had said that a Saybrook fort was a good thing for the colonies. There was a principle of government involved in this unfortunate affair which did not appear in its true light to the disputants. A fort was useful to all the col- onies, and its maintenance, like the war charges, should have been a burden on all. The commissioners of the United Colonies were not able to grasp the full notion of federated unity. They chose rather to stand by Connecticut. The debate was at first carried on by the Connecticut and Massachusetts members of the commission, and it was some time before Mr. Pynchon himself was called in ; but he simply referred to the action of the Massachusetts General Court as reflecting fully his views. The commissioners, in spite of the fact that no duties were imposed upon the Dutch trading vessels, passed a vote in which it was said that " it is no hnpeachment of any liberty granted by patent to the Massachusetts that Springfeild, seated upon the River of Connecticut, doe be are a moderate & equall parte of SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 87 charges, whether of scouring any parte of that River, or River's mouth (if there shouhi be occasion) or in making or mainetayning such a fort as is in question to secure the passage to and fro." The river tariff was therefore approved. The report was signed by the Ply- mouth and Xew Haven commissioners only. This decision, failing as it did to receive the signatures of all the eonnnissioners, only added to the difficulties of the situation. Mr. Pynchon bluntly refused to pay Id. per bushel on grain. There has been recently discovered a copy of an undated letter of Mr. Pynchon upon this subject, which was evidently written shortly after the action of the commissioners of the United Colonies. It is here tran- scribed, except certain incomplete sentences : — Goodman Johnson my ancient & much esteemed friend as you hav bin my faithf ull Agent in all Inisinesess of importance so it is not y*^ least y* I have com- mitted unto your care y^ movinge y (xenerall Court to take into serious consid- iration \^ jurisdiction of y^ Ri^-ers mouth, for if Ave should be brought ur.der such a jurisdiction not only our comfortable sittuation will be spoyled but also y^' liberties & privileges of y*^ pattent in all their Western pte — for what is all y** you have in yo'"" ptes good for, if you cann have ffree passage of Con- notticutt River. The Generall Court of y*^ Bay hav declared their Reasons both against y« purchase. & also against y^ custome of y*' Rivers mouth for they plead both these tlunges, to bring us under imposition — 1. Mr. Hopkins letter to me (w^'i I sent you by my sson) doth hould forth that we must pay 2^^ y«^ bushell & 20 y^' ... of corne as our due share towards ye purchase of y«^ said fort — 2. I gather from Mr. Dudlies speech to me. that M'. Hopkms doth expect y^ said rates as a custome, for M'". Dudly tould me y-'^ he demanded of M'". Hopkins whether they would expect y^ like rates of any other plantations that might be planted above us y^" said forte to y*" head of y^ River. 3. Heere it is evident that they expect y^ said rates of us as an imposition of custome, for if it had bin intended for purchase only then when a certain sume had bin paid, they could expect no more — but it seemes they expect y^ like rates of all other plantations that may, in few yeeres, be planted above us. Is not this unlimited, sence titter to be called custome y-'" purchase — 88 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 4. In this confused, mixed case, y*" Commissioners of y^' United Colonies hav interposed their power, & have ordered that y^ subjects of y^' Bay Jurisdiction, that live uppon y^ River, shall pay y*^ said rates to y'^ Rivers mouth : but Avhether we must pay it in y^" name of purchase, or in y*^ name of custome. I know not as yet — If they have ordered our payment in respect of y purchase, then ye con- troversy must lie betweene y*^ Generall Court (who have declared against it) , and M"". ffennick, for he is the only Block, — but if y^" Commissioners hav ordered us to pay it as a custome to y'' River, then y'' controversy Avill lie betweene y" two jurisdictions. Let y'" justice of both these suits be examined. . . . Then what have y^ Commissioners to doe in y*^ case, for their commission runs thus — If any controversy doe arise betweene any of y*^ two United Colonies, then ye other Commissioners have poAver to determine y^' matter — but M>". ffenick AN'tii whom ye controversy is (about our payment to y^ purchase) is not a Colonist, is but a private man, therefore ye Commissioners in that case have no power ex- offlcio to determine. Therefore, ye late order is of no power to bynd us to obey it. But, 2dly. If they have ordered us to i)ay ye said rates as custome to ye River, then I tliink ye Generall Court knows how to deal w^'i them in ye same kind. The Rivers are buyers and no sellers, therefore, they cannot attach our goods in ye name of purchase, except they do it in M'. ffenick's name, to bring us to a dew tryall in law — l)ut I think no justice can make us pay to any pur- chase unlesse we have l)iu first made acquainted w"' it, & so consenting to ye bargain we'^ we disclaim. In l)riefe, ye wliole l)iisines8e doth seem to me to be such an odd kind of jumbled businesse y' I cannot tell how to distinguish their meaning. M'. ffenicke sees ye laAves and ye power of government, and yet he doeth condition y' ye Generall Court must put out their power to take such an imposition of ye subjects of ye Bay jurisdiction for y^' use of his private purse only — for ye inhabitants of ye River prof esse that they shall have no benefit by it. I Avonder by Avhat justice ye Bay can lose their right of their passage in ye River, for ye Bay can hav a right to export and import goods up and downe, yet never to any pt of their pattent there situated. Before even ye River or M''. ffenicke had any pattent thereof ; and how then can they lose the free use of that river except by their owne consent : they had consented to ye said rates for ye said purchase. Can ye late sale of their pattent justly deprive us of our an- cient rights and privilege — If ye Dutch hav bought ye said pattent of jNI'. ffenick they could not de Jure have made us pay anything to their purchase. If they had done it . then they must have been dealt Avith all in ye said line. M^ Hopkins doth plead SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 89 y' we ought, in justice, to pay our share to y"" purchase of y^' said fort, because Ave snare in y^ benefit. I answer, no ; except we had his consenting as pur- chasers, never like to be of any benefit, namely to keep open y^ Eiver against malignant shipps or pinaces for 1. How can we have y^ said benefit by a fort Av^!' is but a fort in name only, being no fort indeed — 2. If ye State Avere able to make and maintain them, avCi ^^ey ^^.^ j^^^ ^y^^^ ^^ ^^^ Av^^out their utter undoinge, yet there is no necessar}^ use of a fort there to keepe out malignant shipps . . . M'". Winthrop Avrites me Avord y* you have not as yet Aveighed w* I wrote you about this businesse. I entreat you make haste to doe before he state y^ case & send it for England — for if God be pleased to assist, he is resolved to state y^ case & send it for England. Remember my best respects to M'\ Dudly & his wife, to M'. Eliot & his Avife, to Elinor Heath, to Deacon PoAvers, &c., ct pray God yt all peace ])e with you — ever. Your affectionate lovinge friend and brother, ever, AV. Pynchon. In the uote-book contaiuiiig this interesting letter of William Pynehou, is a more elaborate argument of the case, which may be the draft of the document that subsequently formed the basis of the action of the Massachusetts Bay General Court. " Saleant " or " salient " was a legal term, and stood for " assailant " or plaintiff. The argument is as follows : — Obj. 1. — The Saleant by his Agent does object to y^ said River plantation — y' although he did not desire their concurrence w^'i y^' said combined jurisdiction, before yf said purchase Avas fully ended & concluded, yet he thinks y^^ in com- mon equity, they ought to pay an equall share av^'i y^' said combined Jurisdiction, towards y^ said purchase, liy paying such rates as they pay uppon ail such goods, as you do, that shall passe out at y' Rivers mouth, for y^' said upper plantation have as much benefitt by y« said fort as they, for y^" said fort Avas at y" first, built for ye securinge of y^ River against malignant shijjps & pinaces, and, therefore, as you knoAv, in y^ benefit, y^ in equity they ought to share in y^ charge of y^ said purchase. Ans. 1. If Ave of tlie upper plantation should grant y' y*^ said fort Avas as great a benefit to us as can be spoken, yet Ave see not by Avhat justice y^ Saleant can receive any thing uppon our goods on the name & notion of joynt pur- chasers Avth ye combined jurisdiction, except he can prove, yf lie liad our consent 9 SFR IXG FIEL D , 1 63 6-1 88 6. to y^ said purchase. For y*^ Saleant did not compell y*^ said combined jurisdic- tion to pay such & such rates to hnu for y*" said purchase, untill every inhabitant in y^' said combined jurisdiction, had fully agreed uppon ye summ & manner of payment. They all gave consent, for they all had liberty to choose their depu- tyes, to transact tlieir bargains wf' y«" Saleant in their Generall Court; but y<^ Saleant cannot challenge y^' like consent of us. he cannot, therefore, in justice challenge us to be joynt purchasers av"i them, & therefore he cannot compell them to pay an equall share av"^'^ them of all such goods as passe out of }'*" Elvers mouth. 2. We answer, y' thi-re is not any one inhabitant in y' combined juris- diction, but by their deputyes, y^ have a contimied right to advise & vote in their Generall Court touching y well ordering of y*^^ said pattent & fort — namely, how all things shall be governed, maintained, repayred. or demolished, as y^' major part of y*^'" shall thinke best. This benefit y-' Saleant cannot give to us, for we being freemen of another jurisdiction, can have no right in their courts to give any advise & vote — therefore, in equity he cannot compell ns to i)ay as joynt purchasers av"^ y'' combined Jurisdiction. 3. We answer y' if any of y*" subjects of y com1)ined Jurisdiction shall find themselves over rated to y^' said purchase, or other wise shall find themselves aggreived about y government or maintenance of y'' said patent or fort, they have by their deputyes a continual right to transact such greivances. by avC^ meanes their greivances ma}' easily & speedily be amended in a familiar orderly way, but y'' Saleant cannot give us y^ like riglit full l>enefit in your courts to transact our greivances; therefore, if we shall joyne w'' them in y^ said pur- chase, they being a jurisdiction, & we but a little plantation nothing comparable to them, they may impose a charge uppon us, ad infinitum for we have no right in their Courts, & therefore we have no orderly meanes to help ourselves, but as they please, uppon our petitions, hi an arbitrary way — & therefore except y<^ Saleant can put us into an equall right of vote w*'* them, in y*^ ordering of y^' said pattent & fort, we cannot see by Avhat justice he can possesse himself of any of our goods against our consente — Obj. 2. ¥«= Commissioners of y" United Colonies doe think it good justice to order y*^" said upper plantation to pay unto y' Saleant such & such rates as y*^ combined Jurisdiction have agreed to pay; for they judg y said upper planta- tion to have equall benefit av^'i them, by y^ said fort. & yet, av''^ all, y*^ said Com- missioners have ordered by Avay of moderation & restaint, y^ y" purchasers of y'^' combined jurisdiction shall not overtopp y*^ said upper plantation, by impos- ing any other charge uppon y*^ said upper plantation, for & toAvards y*= said fort; SFRIXGFIELD. 26S6-18S6. and therefore, y"-' said upper plantation being thus secured by y^ Commissioners order need not to flore their charges uppon y''" ad infinitum — Ans. 1. — We answer y^ this clause of moderation in y'^ Commissioners order, iloth not satisfie us — We hould it no better y" a sturdy shohonne in w^^'i y^ forte is draAven y^' more easily into a pinching shoe, if once we doe but yield ourseh'es to be joynt purchasers w"^ y"^ combined jurisdiction — We can hardly expect y' they will free us from other charges — It may be y*^ Commission Avill cease in tyme, & then they may rule us in as joynt jjurchasers to other charges, or it may be they may find out some flaw in y"^ Commissions order in y*^ point of legality — they may say they had no power, by virtue of their Commission, to order us to pay only our share of y^' purchase to y^ Saliant. They may think that by as good right we ought to pay our share of all other charges. We cannot tell what they, being a great body, may easily overtopp us, & force us to pay what they please towards y^' continuall Government maintenance, and Repara- tions ; & yet we have no other means to help ourselves, but by way of petition in an arbitrary Avay. 2. We ansAver y* in case we should be p^suaded to joyne w^'^ them in y^ said purchase, according to y'' Commissioners order, yet then we shall be at a losse how to find out y^' Reason, Avhy they do order us to pay an equall share w^'^ them of all such goode as passeth out at y*^ Rivers mouth. Seeing they have not only yc said fort & appurtenances, but y^ pattent also, Avith y*' said purchase — by w^h pattent they have a legale right to govern & order all y^ King's Subjects that shall inhabit Avt'nn that large tract of land, — as it is specified in y^' said pattent. Is not this power of government to be esteemed as a chiefe p' of y^ said pur- chase, — seeing y' power of government av^'i they had before, stored but uppon their OAvn combination. Therefore, hoAv can y^ Commission, by y*' rule of equity, force us to pay equal rates av"^ them; y«" said pattent & fort, & yet never give us any legall right in y^ ordering either of y*' said pattent or fort. Obj. 3. It may be it Avill be objected y* they doe not esteem y^ pattent at any value at all, and therefore hould it good justice to make us pay equall rates w''^ them of all y"^ passeth out at y"^ River's mouth. Ans. 1. We can hardly think y' either y" Commissioners or purchasers do so much undervalue y^ said pattent as to esteem it as nothing ; but in case they do esteem it as nothing, yet seeing Ave do judg it to be of some value, Avhy shall not Ave, if Ave be joynt purchasers w''^ them, make what benefit Ave can on it; for we regard not ye purchase of ye rotten palisade, so much as y*' pattent. If y*^ Saliant had had no pattent, could he ever have given such a rate for a rotten SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1886. palisade, w^h at y^ most, w^h all y^ appurtenances, was not, in our estimation, worth a quarter part of those rates yt y^ Saliant doeth expect to give with his purser. If so, what justice is it to make us pay so greate a share for so like a comedy, especially if we be deprived of our right (if ever we be purchasers) in y*' ordering of y^ said pattent? Obj. \. We judg yt yc upper plantation hath a common benefit by ye fort, for it was built for y^ securing of all y^^ River against an enemy. Ans. 1. We denie not but yt y^ first intent of building y^ said fort, might be, to secure y^ Ri^^er against malignant shipps & pinaces, but this must be re- membered, yt it Avas made in haste, & therefore, it was but a pahsade, & but y like forme at first ; but when it was purchased, it was utterly ruined ; neither is there like to be any fort there of sufficient strength in haste — therefore, we judge yt such kind of fortification will rather be a dangerous snare to y^ River than a benefit. We judge such kindes of fortes to be rather an advantage y" a disadvantage to an enemy. Tlierefore, if ever we be forced to have any right or interest in y^ purchase of y^ said pattent & forte, we shall, in likelyhood, give our votes to have it demolished, with all speed that may be — 2. We answer y' there is no need of any fort here to secure y^ River against malignant shipps or pinaces. 1. For ye Rivers" mouth is naturally barred wt'> a sand bank all over, w^h is sufficient to terrific all malignant shipps from coming into y^ River, more than any fort there can doe. 2dly. A fort there is needlesse against maUgnant pinaces, for such as are of small burden may easily passe in and out, eyther by day or night, without any great damage of a fort, y^ passage there is so broad. 3. If malignant pinaces shall at any tyme attempt any mischief against y^ River, yet we are fearlesse of danger, for no pinace can come nigh us by 15 or 16 miles. Therefore y^ said forte is not of y^ like use to secure us, as it is to secure you. Therefore, in equity, y^ combined jurisdiction should not expect us to pay an equall share wf'> them of all that passeth out at y^ Rivers' mouth. At the meeting of the United Colony Commissioners at Plymouth in 1648, Massachusetts made another attempt to win the commissioners over, but without avail, and consequentl}^ when the General Court met at Boston in May, 1649, it was in no temper to rely longer upon the moral force alone. Solemn indignation characterized the speeches of the members, and a vote was passed rehearsing the facts of the situation, how Springfield was taxed to maintain a Connect!- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 93 cut fort, aud how the Boston fortifications had never been made a charge upon the other colonies. Then, witli equally solemn indig- nation they imposed tariff duties, both import and export, upon all goods carried past " the castle " in Boston Bay by any inhabitant of Plymouth, Connecticut, or Xew Haven. A turbulent meeting of the commissioners at Boston two months later, and formal remonstrance against retaliatory duties on all the New England colony goods, had not the slightest effect upon the Bay people. The tariff" war, thus begun, threatened to ruin Connecticut, and of course would have set all New England back in its struggle for existence. The response to the retaliatory duties was quick. Pl3nnouth and New Haven were grieved and Hartford irritated ; but they all gave way, nevertheless, and Mr. Pynchon's goods passed down the river unchallenged-. Massachusetts, with equal promptness, in May, IG.K), suspended the customs duties onl}'' too gladly ''upon the petition of the inhabitants of Boston," after being '' credibly in- formed " that Connecticut had done likewise. In spite of local excitements, the minds of these remote pio- neers continually turned to P^ngland, and even in the wilderness they felt a kind of security that England was a stranger to at this time. Mr. P^^nchon wrote, in 164(5, after hearing of the struggle in the British Parliament over religion and the form of disci- pline to be adopted : "• The Scotts say that their fourme of presbu- terian government is the only way of Christ and the Independents say that their fourme of discipline is the only way of Christ. But the Par- liament say that neather of them is the onh^ way of Christ, & there- fore they have ordained Commissioners to supervise the conclusions of the presbuterian Courtes. But truly where zeal of God's glory & godly wisdome are joyned together ; a world of good hath bin done by godly ministers, even in England, that have held no certaine fourme of discipline : on the contrary, w^here a could spirit doth rule in ministers, though they may have a good fourme of government, there people may be said to have a name to liA'e, & yet be dead 94 SPRINGFIELD, J636-18S6. Christians. " This is a fair expose of the spirit at the bottom of Mr. Pynchon's warm polemics. The attempts both in England and this country to secure an iron-bound form of religion as handmaid to the State had set him to philosophizing. The attempt to secure liberty of conscience had the effect to drive him into more conservative lines of thought, and even led him to sa}' : '• I perceive by some godly min- isters that have wrote into this country, that this is not a tyme of reformation, but of liberty of conscience. I beleeve by the tj^me the}' see a little more of the lawlessnesse of liberty of conscience, they will change their judgmentt, & say that liberty of conscience will give liberty to Sathan to broch such horrid blasphemous opj)iuions as were not the like in an^'^ age." The open winter of 1640-47 was followed by terrible floods and in the following autumn an epidemic of sickness. During the previous summer also caterpillars had appeared in such numbers, to the great damage of the wheat, that it may be called a plague. The settlers had many natural enemies. The pigeons in overwhelming flocks assaulted the crops and the wolves made free with sheep. A bounty of lOd. was paid for every wolf killed within five miles of the town. The building of the meeting-house added to the solenmit}' of the Lord's-da}' observances. John Matthews, as we have intimated, was ordered to " beate the drum for the meetings for a yeares space at 10 of ye clock on the Lectures days and at 9 o clock on the Lord's days in the forenoon onl}', and he is to beate it fro M'. Moxon to M': Steb- bins house & ye meetinge to begin w*''in halfe an hower after, for w'^'' his paynes he is to have 6d. in wampam of every family in the towne or a peck of Indian corne if they have not wampam." A bell was procured a few years later, and Richard Sikes rang it and swept the house for Is. a week. In March, 1646, the town voted for " y'' remayninge 40£ due to Thomas Cooper for y*^ compleatinge of y^ meeting house, 30£ of w*^** is to be payed into him b}' y*^ last of this month, y" other 10£ to rest SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. 95 in y"" Towns hand till an opportiinitv appears for p'curinge glass or till y^ howse be tinislied." The town-meeting usually specified the kind of property to be taxed. Thus the wolf bounty was raised from a tax upon " all sorts of cattell," which included horses. The tax for Mr. Moxon's main- tenance, in 1647, had been raised upon '' all lands and goods." Coop- er's meeting-house debt was met by a tax upon '^ uplands (meddows excepted) and living stock." A special connnittee made out the val- uation and assessment. Wheat was accepted for taxes at os. \0d. per bushel. Indian corn at 2^. M. and peas at 3cL per bushel. The tax for the £30 due Mr. Pynchon '^ for y'^ purchas of -s"" land of y'' Plantation of ye Indians " was rated "wholly on lands." The latter list is here given in full as it furnishes the names and landed importance of the settlers at the opening of the year 1647. There were then forty-two lot-owners and six vacant lots, some of them having been bought back by the town. We miss the names of Jehu Burr, John Cable, John Woodcock, and others of the first settlers. These men drifted to the Connecticut plantations, and were frequent parties in lawsuits for some 3^ears thereafter. The list is as follows : — Acres. £ s. d. liowland Thomas 294 08 02 John Stebbins m 07 08 Miles Morgan 's\h 09 0(> James Osburne 40 11 00 Tho: Cooper 41 11 04 Mr Wih: Fyuehon 237 3 05 06 Mr Elhz: Holyoke 125 1 14 06 Henry Smith 148 2 00 08 Mr Moxon 67 18 08 Sa: Chapen 43 12 00 Tho: Keeve 32 08 10 Rich: Sykes 394 11 00 Will: Warener 404 11 02 Tho: Stebbm 34 09 05 96 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. Acres. £ s. d. ffra: Ball 33 09 02 Robt: Ashley 51 14 04 Joliii Leonard Mh 09 06 Tho: Mirick 46 13 00 J: Bridgeniaii 41 11 04 Alex: Edwards (>oi 16 09 Jno: Clarke 36 10 00 AYid: Deeble 22 06 00 Katherine Johns 19 05 04 Kov.l: Stebbin 'i>ih 10 08 Sa: Wright 4U 11 06 Hen: Burt 474 13 04 Jno: Herman 33 09 02 Koger Pritchard : 28 07 Oi) Nat: Bliss oU 14 04 Wid: Haynes 40i 11 02 Tho: Tomson 56i 15 10 Kich: Exell 404 11 02 Jos: Parsons m 11 09 Jno Matthews 31 08 08 AVill: Branch 274 07 08 Geo: Colton 61 16 09 Grif: Jones 364 10 00 Keioe Bedortha 20 05 06 Will: Yahan 6 01 08 Benj: Cooly 404 11 02 Hugh Parsons 374 10 04 Jno: Lutnbard 25 06 10 Vacant Lott 25 06 10 2 Vacant Lotts 40 11 00 8 Vacant Lotts al>ove 60 16 06 21784 30 11 02 In Jauiiary, 1646, Miles Morgan and George Colton were commis- sioned to " get a Smith for y'' towne," and we find that in the following September "A bargaine was driven the day above s'^ betwixt the towne SPRTNGFIELD, 1636-1886. 97 of Springfeild and ffrancis Ball for a shopp for a Smith w^'* is to be 1 2 foote wide, 16 foote in length, five foote stodd betwixt Joynts, a chim- ney for the forge rungd, to be boarded both roof and sides, to make a doore and windows in the end w"' a beam in y^ middst." It is difficult to tell just when Miles Morgan came to Springfield, but he had probably been a resident several years before the date of the above order. Comparative!}^ little is known of Miles Morgan's early life. He was born in England, lived for a while at Bristol, and in 16o6 came to this country when a young man, being accompanied by two brothers. The story that Miles ^Morgan accompanied the Eoxbury pioneers to Springfield is utterly untrue. His house-lot was on the south side of Ferry lane (Cypress street) , the site of Dr. Chauncey Brewer's residence. During the voyage to America young Morgan made the acquaintance, and, we ma}' infer, won the heart, of a Miss Gilbert, who upon landing settled with her family at Beverly. After Morgan had built him a house in Springfield he pressed his suit with the Beverly maid, — not by letter, as is stated, for the simple reason that Miles could not write. The negotiations were e\ddently carried on by mutual friends, and Morgan, after his offer was accepted, made the journey to the east in about 1643, taking with him two neighbors and an Indian, duly armed. We are told that Miles and his three attendants walked back all the way from Beverly, while the bride and ^'some household stuff" were carried by the only horse at the dis- posal of this unique bridal party. Morgan was a butcher for many years, when his farming operations permitted. The selectmen chosen in the autumn of 1645 were Lieutenant Smith, Richard Sikes, Samuel Chapin, Thomas Cooper, and Henry Burt. The selectmen for 1646 were Henry Smith, Elizur Holyoke, Samuel Chapin, Henry Burt, and Benjamin Cooley. That year Robert Ash- ley was licensed to keep the ordinary. Henry Burt's house was on south Main street, near Broad. He was a very active man, and one of his sons became the Deacon Burt of the First church, who was so much honored in later years. 98 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. The first Tuesday of November was settled upon for the regular annual town-meeting, which was quite a change from the early habit of holding monthly town-meetings. The fine for absence from town-meeting, or for leaving the meeting before " y*" blessinge is desired," was raised in 1646 to one bushel of Indian corn. But centralization invited suspicions. Two months after the election of the second board of townsmen in was voted in town- meeting that they should publish their orders " after Lecture or at any trayninge day or any other publique meetinge." In case the town within a week did not pass a ' ' negative vote " the selectmen's order was to stand as the act of the town. Having made this pro- vision the town put into the hands of its selectmen the duty of as- signing meadow lands to those entitled to a share under the rules then prevailing. The townsmen began keeping a record of their acts in April, 1647. Thomas Cooper was this year substituted for Holyoke upon the board. Francis Ball and Miles Morgan were surveyors for the upper part of the town, and John Clarke and John Herman for the lower part. Their special instructions, besides keeping the highways in condition, were to open " a Horse way over the meddow to y*" Bay path," and a " Bridge over the 3 corner Brooke into the plaine." In 1648 the following were made freemen : John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke, Henry Burt, Roger Pritchard, Samuel Wright, and William Branch. The year before the Greneral Court had authorized William Pynchon to administer the freeman's oath at Springfield to " those that are in covenant & live according to their p'^fession." The word- ing of the vote — " liberty was granted M' Pinchon to make freemen" — would seem to imply that he was the judge of an inhabitant's qualifications for freemanship. No change was made in the townsmen until 1650, when John Pynchon, Henry Smith, Samuel Chapin, Henry Burt, and Thomas SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 99 Cooper were chosen. John Pynchon now began to figure promi- nently in local affairs, being elected the town treasurer. Much trouble was in those days occasioned by breaches of the town order as to swine, and it was specially decreed, in 1646, that : — All swine that breake into any mans come ground or meddowe y* is sufficiently fenced against yoked hoggs : in case men let y"" Swine run abroad unyoked if they breake in and doe any man Trespass, then ye master of the sayd Swine shall be lyable to pay all damages as two indifferent men shall Judge ye damadge to be : but if Swine be yoked and runge then they are free from damages. The townsmen took the matter up the year following, and ordered that : — All SAvine that keepe about his howse or neere any corne ground belonging to the Plantation and not under the hand or custody of a keeper, shall be suffi- ciently yoked and runge, according to the age and bigness of the swine : And in case any Swine that are above the age of six months shall be found in the streete or about any of y^ Common fences of the corn fields with out yoke & runge : It shall be lawfull for any person soe findinge them, to drive them to the pound (w^i^ may be any mans privat yard or out howse in y® present defect of a comon pound) p' vided alsoe \^ he give the owner of the sayd Swine notice of his im- poundinge them with in 24 hours after it is soe done, etc. We have transcribed several notes of passing interest. Ordered by the town in November, 1646 : — That Jno Clarke or those that shall Joyne with him in ye burninge of Tan- shall have liberty to gather candlewood in ye playne in ye Bay path : p' vided they come not to gather any in tliis side the great pond and ye swamps that point out from it to Chickopee river and the Mill river w^'i is Judged to be about five miles from the towne. Ordered by the town in September, 1647 : — Y*^ no person shall gather any hops that grow in ye Swamps or in the comon grounds untill this p'"sent day yearly upon payne of forfeitinge what they shall 100 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-18S6. soe disorderly gather, & 2s. 6d. for breach of order. The forfeiture to y'' in- former & ye penalty to y^ town treasury. Ordered by the town in January, 1640 : — Y' if any trees be feld having no other worke bestowed on y'" above 6 months from this day forAvard in y^' Comons, it shall be lawfull for any man to take them, but any tymber yt is cross cutt, or firewood y' is cut out & set on heapes, or rayles, or clefts for pales, no man may take any of these till it have lyen twelve months after it is soe cross cutt or cloven. The townsmen then declared it unhiwful to transport outside the town limits any " buildinge tymbers, board loggs or sawne boards or planks, or shingle tymber or pipe staves." The tow^nsmen also decreed that " Whereas it is judged offensive and noysome for flax & hempe to be watered or washed in the Brooke before mens doores, y*^ is of ordinary use for dressiuge meate : Therefore it is ordered that no p^°" shall hence forth water any flax or hempe in the sayd brooke " on pain of a 6s. 8d. fine. April, 1649: — Henry Smith & Samuell Chapen were chosen to seal up our ffreemens votes for magistrates & to send them sealed up to John Johnson of Roxbury, who is chosen for our deputy to y*^ Generall Court. William Pynchon held court four times a year, all breaches of the peace being presented by a grand jury of two men. In April, 1648, Thomas Mirrick was mulcted in 126-. d>d. for abusing the child of Alexander Edwards. It is believed that Mr. Moxon usually opened court with prayer. The town-meetings now were held in the meeting- house. In later years taverns were sometimes utilized for that purpose. CHAPTER VII. 1648-1652. Witchcraft. -Mystei-ious Lights seen at Night. - Mrs. Bedortha. - Hugh Parsons's Threat. — Mrs. Parsons condemned for Slander. — Mary Parsons bewitched. — Par- sons arrested. -Mrs. Parsons accuses herself of Child-Murder. - Taken to Boston. — Mrs. Parsons sentenced to be hanged. - Death before the Day of Execution.— Pecowsic. — John Pynchon's growing Importance. — Church Expenses. — William Pynchon's Heretical Book condemned by the General Court. — Mr. Norton's Reply. - The Doctrine of the Atonement. -The Protest of Sir Henry Yane and the Reply of the General Court. - Pynchon, Moxon, and Smith return to England. The task of recording the storj of early New England is made embarrassing by an amiable disposition to remember a people by their virtues only. While the stalwart devotion of our forefathers to their faith makes an irresistible appeal to us, their superstitions are continually intruding themselves and making it impossible to forget that they were the children of an ignorant and somewhat unreflecting age. They were self-assertive, brave, and biblical, rather than intui- tive. Up to Jonathan Edwards's time one looks in despair for any con- scious or serious attempt in New England to verify the teachings of the gospel in reason. With close interpretations of texts they weie content to rest ; the terrors of witchcraft came constructively within this interpretation, and formed a part of the belief of the age on both sides of the ocean. The witch was not the invention of the Puritans. The belief in a veritable devil of ponderable shape was general in the seventeenth century. The Bible accounts of devils dwelling in earthly habitations were its justification. Men and women, it was believed, made a league with familiar spirits, entering into secret compacts with them, and for the price of their souls secured for a time a diabolical control over the laws of nature. These persons 102 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. were called witches. Personal ugliness was a characteristic of the witch in the popular mind. When the Shakespearean Gloucester said to Queen Margaret : " Foul Avrinkled Avitch, what makest thou in my sight?" he linked a current superstition of personal ugliness to a deed of blood. Witchcraft was a statute crime in England, where no less than thirt}^ thousand lives had been sacrificed upon the gibbet and at the stake to crush it out. The league of Mephistopheles and Faust, which was poetry to the Germans, was to the English a vulgar offence against law. In the lower part of Main street, which in 1648 must have resembled somewhat a forest road, with clearings on the river-side to make room for log-cabins, barns, and young orchards, lived Rice Bedortha and his wife Blanche. They had as neighbors upon the Mill river side, Benjamin Cooley, Jonathan Burt, Hugh Parsons, and John Lombard ; while to the north dwelt Griffith Jones and John Matthews. Five doors above was George Langton. In this remote part of the town the witch fever started. These houses were situated on the border of the wet meadows, and it is quite likely that at times marsh lights were seen after dark. Mrs. Bedortha, at any rate, so asserted ; and there were things happening in that part of the town, mysterious things, that were enough to make the cold moisture stand upon the brow of the bravest. Skulking lights at dead of night out on the marshes were not the worst. Blanche Bedortha told all along the street how Hugh Par- sons, her neighbor three doors below, had called at the house one day to see her husband about some bricks. While the two men were talking she joined in the conversp.tion. " Gammer," exclaimed Par- sons sharply, " you needed not have said an3^thing. I spake not to you ; but I shall remember you when you little think on it." Mr. Bedortha was naturally offended at Parsons's outburst, and declared SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 103 that it was " no good speech." The situation was in no way extraor- dinary. A woman says an unnecessary thing, a man retorts with feeling, and things get involved. The men probably soon forgot the circumstance, but Mrs. Bedortha did not; she treasured the threat of Hugh Parsons. She thought of it at her work ; she told of it when out among her neighbors ; and she trembled with secret fear when she retired at night. " I shall re- member 3^ou when you little think on it ! " These were the words that rang in her ears. One night, as she was retiring, she was star- tled by three flaslies of light. They appeared to come from the inside of her red shag cotton " waistcoat," which she had just taken off and was about to hang upon a peg. She quickly held up the garment between her hands a second time, but there was no flash. A double Indian mat was between her and the fire, so that no light could have been cast from that. For several nights she held up the red waist- coat, but no flash of light was seen. A month later Mrs. Bedortha was delivered of a child. Before her recovery she became afflicted in a strange, mysterious way. She felt upon her left side sharp pains as though pierced b}^ knives in three different places. "Suddenly after," she said, "my thoughts were that- this evil might come upon me from the said threatening speech of Hugh Parsons. I do not apprehend that I was sick in any other part of my body, but in the said three places only, and by the extremity of these prickings only." Those who are familiar with Cotton Mather's elaborate accounts of how the little "gentleman in black " was in the habit of pinching and pricking people, will at once see the drift of such e^^dence. Her nurse was a widow, Mrs. Marshfield, Avho had once lived at Windsor, herself a character not free from rumored connection with witchcraft. It is within the possi- bilities that the widow at once went all through the neighborhood, and while the good matrons were carding or spinning (for it was then win- ter) described the prickings as well as the threatenings of Hugh Par- sons. And it is not at all improbable that Mrs. Parsons (Mary Lewis) 104 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. heard of the reflections upon her husband's character with high re- sentment. Widow Marshfield and Goody Parsons at any rate fell out. "There are divers strange lights seen of late in the meddow that were never seen before y*" Widdow Marshfeild came to towne," said Mrs. Parsons by way of a home-thrust at Mrs. Marshfield. Mrs. Parsons also went along the street and elaborated her case against the widow Marshfield. She charged that the widow envied every child born at Windsor until her daughter became a mother, but that the child soon died, — a-nd so did her cow! "It was publicly known," whispered Goody Parsons, "that the devil followed her at her house in Windsor, and for ought I know follows her here." This talking match between the two goodies culminated in a suit for slander, brought by Mrs. Bedortha's widowed nurse against Mrs. Parsons ; and William Pynchon, after due deliberation, con- demned Mrs. Parsons to twenty lashes, to be administered by the constable after lecture, or to pay to Mrs. Marshfield £3 damages " towards the reparation of her good name." The payment of this fine to the widow was in Indian corn, twenty- four bushels, and when it was offered Hugh asked her to abate one- third ; but she refused, because , Hugh had said after the trial that her witnesses had given false testimony. Thereupon Parsons ex- claimed in his usual recklessly mysterious way, " Take it I " and he added, " It will be but as wildfire to this house and as a moth to your garment I'll warrant you, and make account it is but lent you ! " Mrs. Marshfield secured her corn, but with it the fatalitv of some overhanging machination. Mrs. Marshfield, who was the sister of Samuel Marshfield, so often figuring in our early history, was continually on the watch. Her daughter was presently taken with fits. The threats and the fits ran hand in hand all over the excited plantation. They visited every household, and frightened the godly folk half out of their wits ; but no one seemed called upon to secure the arrest of Parsons. Martha Moxon and her sister, daughters of the minister, had previous to this SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 105 also been taken down with fits, and the reverend father at once recalled the fact that Parsons had grumbled because compelled to build his chimney according to contract, and had even made a mysterious re- mark that the bricks would do Moxon no good. Public opinion now rjiu strongly against the Parsonses. No devi- ation from the dead prose of life could take place, but it was mys- teriously connected with the quarrelsome family in the lower part of the street. Whenever the red coat of Hugh Parsons appeared, women trembled and clung to their children. The terrible fact was whispered in every kitchen, — Springfield had a witch ! Five months after the Marshfield-Parsons slander case the wife of Hugh Parsons gave birth to a child, which lived but a year. The mother's condition now became serious. Her husband was calcu- lated by nature to irritate and annoy her. When he was about the house frequent disagreements occurred, and his long absences she considered heartless neglect of his family. These strained relations, the eye of suspicion and the finger of the gossip turned upon them by the community, and finally the death of the child, worked Mrs. Mary Parsons's highly-strung organism into a flighty, hysterical con- dition. She was Being pushed down one more step in the long stair- case that led her from vivacious maidenhood to the level of a social outcast and the inmate of prisons. Sarah, the wife of Alexander Edwards, added to the fear of Hugh Parsons by telling how he had called at their house for milk, and how, after she had refused to give him more than a pennyworth, the cow almost '' dried up," and the next day the milk was as " yellow as saffron," and each day it turned to some other '' strange odd color." Neighbor Griffith Jones, not to be outdone in the relation of wonders about the doings of Parsons, told the Bedorthas, who lived next door, that upon the Lord's day he had left his wife at a neigh- 'bor's house after the first sermon, and gone home. He proceeded to " take up " his dinner and to put it " on a little table made on a cradle head." He then looked for a knife, he having two, but they 106 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. were both missing, and so he was compelled to use at dinner an old rusty knife in a basket " where I had things to mend shoes withall." After clearing away his dinner dishes he laid the rusty knife on the corner of the table " to cutt a Pip of Tobacco w*^all," fed his pig, which had come up close to the door, and returned, only to find three I'uives on the table, " w*''' made me blush!" He had presence of mind to cut his pipe of tobacco, however, and at that very instant Parsons came in and asked if he was ready to return to the meeting- house. They smoked together, and Jones told all through the neigh- borhood that Parsons had bewitched the knives. Anthony Dorchester, employed by Parsons, had one-fourth interest in a cow wliich when killed was divided, his employer owning another one-fourth. Both wanted the tongue of the animal, but it fell to Dorchester, and subsequeutl3% when cooking it, it m^'steriously dis- appeared from the pot. It was the work of a witch, of course. George Lankton slipped a pudding out of a bag one day after it was cooked, his wife Hannah being indisposed, and the pudding parted from end to end as though cut with a knife. Lankton had previously refused to sell Parsons some hay. Parsons made a bargain for a piece of land of Thomas Miller, and ^Miller immediately thereafter cut his leg while chopping. Men heard strange noises at night like filing of saws. Blanche Bedortha's child, now two years old, cried out one day that it was afraid of Parsons's dog : Parsons had no dog. Parsons was at Longmeadow at work when he heard of the death of his second child. Several people were near him and heard him sa}^, " I will cut a pipe of tobacco before I go home." The speech was in everybody's mouth before the day was done, and when appealed to for an explanation for this unfatherl}^ placidity, he re- plied, " I was very full of sorrow for the death of it iu private, though uot in public." Even the worthy Henry Smith could not with- stand the infection. He had once refused to sell Parsons some peas, and in the summer of 1648 it was remembered that two of his chil- dren had died. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 107 The effect upon ]Mr«. Parsons was pitiable. She was ah-eacly in a decline, suffering from consumption. Her ever}- movement was watched. Disgrace followed close upon her heels, and her wavering- mind invited a subtle suspicion : Was not her own husband really a witch? The traged}^ had begun, — Mrs. Parsons was becoming in- sane. The suspicion that her husband was in league with the devil became a mania. She watched him with cat-like tenacity. When he lay asleep she would search for the little black marks which in those days the devil was supposed to put upon those making a covenant of witchcraft. She did not find the devil's sign-manual upon his body, but he talked wildly in his sleep, and had satanic dreams, which he narrated upon waking. So time wore on. The death of Mrs. Parsons's second child, Joshua, took place March 1, 1651. She was now ready for the worst, and she went before Magistrate P^aichon and made oath that her husband was a witch, and was the cause of the death of her infant. Parsons him- self had been under legal examination some time before. ''Ah, Witch! Ah, Witch ! " cried Goody Stebbins as Constable Mirrick took Parsons past her door, and she fell down in a fit. Miles Morgan had been visiting Thomas Miller when the dreaded man had approached a short time before, and he saw Miller's wife fly into a passion and cry, '' Get thee gone, Hugh Parsons I Get thee gone ! If thou wilt not goe, I will goe to M^ Pynchon and he shall have, thee away ! " and she too fell prostrate upon the ground. The red coat of Hugh Parsons was the nightmare of the \'illage. The examination before Mr. Pynchon only added to the conster- nation of the community. Jonathan Taylor, after listening to Mrs. Parsons's evidence against her husband, saw in his dreams three snakes on the floor, and one of them with black and yellow stripes bit him on the forehead. He then heard a solemn voice cr}^ out, " Death ! " That voice was like the voice of Hugh Parsons. " Death ! That is a lie ! " shouted Taylor ; " it was never known that such a snake killed a man." But Taylor was by this time shaking so that he 108 SPRING FIELD, 1636-1886. roused his wife, who did everything to rescue him from his unseemly dreams. After Mary Parsons had made oath to the witchcraft of her husband she was placed in the hands of Thomas Cooper for safe-keeping, and as Cooper watched the wretched, unnerved woman, he could not refrain from asking her questions, either from curiosity, pity, or a desire to extract new evidence. Here is the record of Mr. Cooper's remarkable testimony : — I said to her why do you speak so of y' Husband ; methinks if he Avere a witch there would some apparent Signe or Mark of it appeare upon his Body, for they say Witches have Teates uppon some p' or other of their Body, but as far as I heere there is not any such apparent Thinge uppon his Body. She answered, it is not always so; but, said she, why do I say so. I have no Skill in Witchery; but, said she, why may it not be with hira as it was with me ; that Night I was at Goodman Ashhes : tlie Devell may come into his body only Uke a Wind, and so goe forth againe, for so the Divill tould me that night (for I think I should have bin a Witch afore now but that I was afraid to see the Divill, lest he should fright me.) But the Divill tould me that I should not Feare that (I Avill not come in any Apparition, but only come into thy Body like a Wind, and trouble thee a little While, and p^sntly go forth againe ;) and so I conseiited ; and that Night I Avas with my Husband and Good wife Mericke and Besse Sewell, in Goodman Stebbinges his Lott; and we were sometymes likeCatts, and sometymes in our owne shape, and we were a plodding for some good cheere ; and they made me to go baref oote and mak the Tiers, because I had declared so much at M"". Pvnchon's. Wretched woman ! She had been made victim to every relation of life, whether as wife, inhabitant, or church member. Her first mar- riage to a Roman Catholic had brought her into bad odor ; her second marriage to a talkative, happy-go-lucky, pipe-smoking bricklayer, who evidently had a way of appropriating other people's goods on occasion, and maliciously resenting all reflections upon his character, drew her down to a level of life where even her strong points but made fuel for the fires of persecution. This highly-strung creature was forced to lose, first, respect for her neighbors, then respect for her husband, and finally respect for herself. Then her mind gave SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1886. 109 way, but not her self -consciousness ; for her final terror came upon her with all the force of remorse. She had charged her husband with murder and witchcraft. This was her remorse. " They made me to go barefoote, and mak the fires, because I had declared so much at M^ Pynchon's." These words give the full force of her remorse. Her husband had been carried to Boston (about March 20, 1651), but more evidence was being taken against him at Springfield, to be for- warded to the Bay. Madness and remorse brought a change in the burden of her talk, and Mrs. Parsons finall}^ confessed that the blood of her child was upon her own hands. She w^ent farther, and declared herself to be under the influence of vSatan. Her wild words were ac- cepted for the sober truth, and she too was conveyed to Boston under arrest for both murder and witchcraft. If her distracted brain re- sponded in any degree to an appreciation of the situation, she at least had the sad relief of knowing that the same tongue which had placed her husband under the shadow of the gallows had undone the mis- chief in part by putting her by his side, or rather in his place. Mrs. Parsous's jury in Ma}" accepted her crazy confession of child-murder, but refused to believe her a witch. The General Court confirmed the verdict ; she was sentenced to be hanged, and the death watch was placed over her. Upon the morning named for the execution she was too feeble to be moved from her cell, and she was respited. The second da}" of doom came, but Mary Lewis Parsons lay dead upon her couch. She is as much a martyr to be held ni commiserating memory by us, as many others who fell by the way during the making of Springfield. The trial of Hugh Parsons in June ended in conviction, but in May, 1652, the General Court refused to confirm the verdict, and he es- caped the gallows. He left Boston, and probably Massachusetts, and was never seen in Springfield again. While the machinery of local government w^ent steadily on, there are not wanting indications of an unsettled spirit in the community. Many of the inhabitants had shown a decided preference for " the 110 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. longe meddowe," and, foreseeing that that part of the town was des- tined to grow in importMUce, a request was lodged for a permit to surrender the planting-grounds upon the river-bank, and to take lands back upon the next plantation. This request was granted in 1648. Three years after, lands were apportioned at Pecowsic and Mill river as follows : — The names of such as have meddow granted y™, & how they are to ly, by lot. On Pacowsick beginning at y"^ lower end. Benj'^ Cooly lys 1st who hath 3 acres Anthony Dorchester 2d •1 acres Widdow Bhss 3d 3 Koger Prichard & ^ John Lumbard j 4th 1 &^ Nath Pritchard 5th 4 John Harmon 6th H On y*' Mill River beginning lowermost on y« south east branch, & so going ip to y*" litle brooke & then upward to y ^-IQ- acres, and so on to ye North- iranch and y« upper end & then come downward & lasth ' toy e lake or pond. Wm Clark 1st 4 acres Nath Bhss 2d 2 Miles Morgan 3d 2 Jno Leanord 4th 2 Rich Exell 5th Ih' Jonathan Burt 6th Ih Sam Marshfield 7 1 Benja Mun 8 1 James Bridgman 9 2 Mr Moxon 10 2 Jno Drembleton 11 4 Henry Chapen 12 4 Robert Ashly 13 3i John Lamb 14 5 Tho: Mirick 15 3 Henry Burt 16 3 Wm Warinar 17 1 Rice Bedortha 18 1 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Ill Tho Cooper 19 1 Jonath Taylor 20 1 Sam Chapen 21 1 Robert Ashley's section was given on condition that he keep an ordinary, but it was to be surrendered in case he failed in this respect. The fact that John Pynchon was becoming an extensive trader and business man was probably due to the encouragement of his father, who felt that he himself was not destined to spend his closing days in Springfield. The son was pushed forward in both public and private affairs, and soon gained the confidence of the community. In the winter of 1650 we find that, "It is agreed by the Towne that if ]VP. John Pynchon will make a chamber over the meeting-house and board it : he shall have the use of it entirely to himself for Ten years," when the town could secure it by paying the expense of building it. A year later a dispute arose between John Pynchon and the town over this chamber. The young man used the chamber for storing- corn ; many feared that the grain would come down upon their heads, and he was limited to 400 bushels at one time, unless he " underprop y^ floor." The town finally bought the chamber outright. There is not a line of manuscript of this period extant that can be pointed to as evidence that the course of Mr. Moxon's teachings was not in full accord with the orthodox views of the times, and yet it is more than probable that he differed with the great divines down at the Bay. One wonders what was the occasion of this action, taken Dec. 27, 1649: "It is alsoe ordered y* y^ select Townsmen ^Y^^ y® Deacons shall in y'' behalfe of the Towne draw up & send down to y^ elders a letter desiring y"" to explaine y^ cleere meaninge of y voates concerninge M'. Moxon's maintenance." In 1652 John P^^nchon headed a committee to bargain with Mr. Moxon for all of his Springfield real estate, which, after due delibera- tion and several meetings, was brought about, the agreement being that 112 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. his home-lot aud buildings, and all of his meadow, wood, and plant- iog-oTounds should '' Remaine for ever to y^ use of y'' Inhabitants of Springfeild." In 1655 a formal vote was passed dedicating this property for the perpetual use of the ministry. The price paid Mr. Moxon for his property was £70. This was about what he received as a yearly stipend, but there had been some uncertainty even about this, as can be inferred from a clause in the following treasurer's account, approved Jan. 30, 1651 : — M'. Moxon's maintenance ........ M^ Will. Pynchon for the Bell for M"". Moxon wch he pd for y*" Towne npon y^ close last yeare, M^ John Pynchon for a harrell of powder for a towne stock 1 qr 11 lbs muskett bullets & ye caske ..... 50 L of match &c ......... . for y*^ cartway to y*^ foot of y'' falls ...... for charges about repayringe the meeting liowse, hanging the bell & other charges ......... for killinge 5 wolves ......... Totall 129 03 04 It is agreed and ordered that the prices of corne for payment of all these rates shall be wheate at 3s lOd per bg. pease at 3s per bg. Indian at 2s 6d per bg. only M'. Moxon's rate we are to agree with him. The purchase of the Moxon property was a wise move upon general principles, but it meant also that the poor plantation was about to suffer a great loss. The May session of the Massachusetts Bay General Court of 1651, which confirmed Mary Parsons's death- sentence, was furnished forthwith a matter of still greater importance in the eyes of the great men of that day. The waters of tribulation had gathered about the great, clear-visioned founder of Springfield. He had reached Boston from Springfield in compan}^ with Henry Smith, the deputy, and a number of citizens ready to swear in the £ 70 00 05 00 10 00 07 12 6 01 17 G 01 13 4 10 00 21 03 4 18 00 00 05 03 04 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 113 Parsons cases. He had not been elected assistant as in former years, because a cloud hung over his head touching his theology. Mary Parsons lay in jail awaiting her execution ; her husband had not yet had his trial. Mr. Pynchon was also oppressed by the "present troubles of his family." Some of the brightest minds of Boston were set at work to win Mr. Pynchon back to an orthodox belief. It was his hour of humiliation, and unless one can realize the terrible weight of a despotic popular sentiment, it will be useless to attempt an explanation of Mr. Pynchon's almost heroic retreat from settled theological convictions. The solemn court had just con- firmed the sentence of death upon Mary Parsons when Mr. Pynchon's retraction was presented and considered. Here it is, as set forth in the records of the Massachusetts Bay colony : — According to the Court's advice. I have conferred Avith the Rev. M'-. Cotton, M'' Norrice and M^ Norton about some poynts of the greatest consequence in my booke, and I hope have so explayned my meaninge to them as to take off the worst construction ; and it hath pleased God to let me see that I have not spoken m my booke so fully of the price and merrit of Christ's sufferings as I should have done, for in my booke I call them but trialls of his obedience, yet intend- inge thereby to amply fy and exalt the mediatoriall obedyence of Christ as the only meritorious price of man's redemption ; but now at present, I am much inclined to thinke that Ms sufferings were appoynted by God for a further end, namely, as the due punishment of our sins by Avay of satisfaction to divine justice for man's redemption. This document was signed, "Yo"" humble servant, in all duty full respects, William Pinchon." It will be out of the limits set for this history to follow the steps of this fierce theological controversy, ex- cept so far as it affected the Springfield plantation. Mr. Pynchon had found time to discuss somewhat philosophically and intuitively the doctrine of atonement, and he had gradually come to the con- clusion that Christ's mediatorial obedience was a more important element in the agency that secured man's redemption than His suf- 114 SPRING FIFA. D, 2 636-1 886. ferings. He had written quite a pamphlet iipou this subject, and had sent it to England for publication. It was the now famous " Meri- torious Price of our Redemption." It reached Boston during the Pyxchon's Book burned ox Boston Common. session of the October court, 1050, and produced the most profound consternation. Gall was as vital as grace to the Boston divine ; without any unnecessary ceremony the book was ordered to be burned in the market-place after lecture, and the distinguished Mr. Norton^ of Ipswich, was subsequently chosen to prepare and publish a reply to Mr. Pynchon's book. Mr. Norton was just the man for such a commission. He had been a brilliant student at Cambridge, was set against Arminianism, and was one of the politico-theologians who SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. II5 ruled New England. John Cotton, in his last days, when much con- cerned about a successor to his pulpit, dreamed that he saw Mr. Norton coming into Boston on a white horse. It fell out (so Cotton Mather claims) that Mr. Norton, when he entered Boston to take charge of John Cotton's church, did ride upon a white horse. Tliis was tlie advocate appealed to by Massachusetts to give battle to AVilliam Pynchon over the doctrine of the atonement, and it will be found upon reading Norton's reply and Pynchon's second book that our honored pioneer was quite the equal of the university student as a logician, and much his superior in the reasoning that is based upon the inspiration of a catholic heart and a broad mind. We can make this claim without casting reflections upon the Boston scheme of gov- ernment, which for that age was a protest against the worldly for- malism of the English Church. The cautiously worded retraction which Mr. Pynchon felt justified in submitting did not quite reconcile the authorities at the Bay. In a frigid manner they snnply voted that he was " in a hopefull way to give good satisfactio^," and allowed him to return home, but bound him over to answer still further at the next session. Henry Smith was at once substituted as magistrate at Springfield, however. a bit of stern discipline which Mr. Pynchon deeply felt. The merits of Mr. Pynchon's conviction as to the real nature of the atonement would take a chapter to detail. He claimed, in short, that Christ's obedience was set over against Adam's disobedience ; that if He had died unwillingly, the sacrifice would not have been sufficient. " His divine nature," argues ]\Ir. Pynchon, '' was the altar upon which He sacrificed His human nature. Yet His meditorial death was a miraculous death. The devil and his agents had power to bruise Him, and to nail Him to the cross. But they had no power to separate His Soul from His body. So His death was not passive but active ; and, therefore, a part of his meditorial obedience." Those familiar with the long course of the discussion over the phi- losophy of the atonement, and the old Puritan tenets, will understand 116 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. why Pynchon's book fed the flames on Boston Common, and why the General Court hastened to draw up a protest to send back to England in a vessel that was ready to weigh anchor. At that time the Pynchon book had not been read, but was condemned by its title-page alone. The death of Governor Winthrop had given the more orthodox in New England greater freedom to work out to the full their beliefs. Sir Henry Vane, like Winthrop, had been a warm personal friend of Mr. Pynchon, and he wrote the Massachusetts authorities from Eng- land, in the spring of 1652, advising them to deal with Pynchon in a brotherly way, and to encourage him to remain longer in the service of the churches. Sir Henry's letter brought this reply : — Honoured sir. AYe received your letter bearing date the l.jth of April. 1(;52, written in the behalf of M"" William Pincheou. who is one that we did all love and respect. But his book and the doctrine therein contained Ave cannot but abhor as pernicious, and dangerous; and are much grieved, that such an erroneous pamph- let Avas penned by any New England man. especially a Magistrate amongst us, wherein he taketh upon him to condemn the judgment of most, if hot all, both ancient and modern divines, who were learned, orthodox and godly in a point of so great weight and concernment, as tend to the salvation of God's elect, and the contrary, which he maintains to the destruction of such as follow it. Neither have we ever heard of any one godly orthodox divine, that ever held what he hath written; nor do Ave knoAv any one of our ministers in all the four jurisdic- tions that doth approve of the same; but all do judge it as erroneous and hereti- cal. And to the end that Ave might give satisfaction to all the Avorld of our just proceedings against him. and for the avoiding of any just offence to be taken against us, Ave caused M' John Norton, teacher of the church of IpsAvich, to answer his book fully. Avhich, if it be printed, we hope it Avill give yourself and all indifferent men full satisfaction. M'. Pincheou might have kept his judgment to himself, as it seems he did above thirty years, most of Avliich time he hath lived amongst us Avith honour, much respect, and love. But Avhen God left him to himself in the publishing, and spreading of his erroneous book here amongst us, to the endangering of the faith of such as might come to read them (as the like effects have followed the reading of other erroneous books brought over into these parts). Ave held it our duty, and believed Ave were called of God, to proceed against him accordingly. And this we THE MERITORIOUS PRICE O F Our Redemption, luftification , c^r. Cleermg it fromfome common Errors ; And proving , ri. That Cbriftdid notfufferforus thofe unutterable torments of \\ Gods wrath, that commonly are called Hell-torments, co r&- ^ I.N deem our follies from them. a. That Chrift did not bear our fins by Gods imputation, and therefore he did not bear the curfc of the Law forthem. 3, That Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfc of the Law (not fuffcring the faid cutfe for us, but^ by a fatisfadory price of onemcnt; t/Z-c. by paying or performing unto his Father that PartlL^ invaluable precious thing of hi* Mediatorial! obcdience,whcrof his Mediatorial! Sacrifice of attoncment was the mafter.piecc. 4. A finncrs righteoufnefic or juftification is explained , and clec- rcd from fome common Errors* By WiliUm Pimhift, Gentleman, in New England, The Mediator faith thus Vo his Father in Pfal 40.8^ 10. » I delight to do thy rciU my God,yea ihy Latcii vitbin my hnrt ; (vi^.) I delight to do thy will, or Law, as a Mediator. I have not hid tby righteoufneffeivitbin my heart, T have declared thy faithfnlnejfc , and thy fatvatioji: Namely,! have not bid thj^ righreoufn«fl'e, or thy way of makin''- iinncrj ri-^htcous, but have declared it by the perfornvwicc of my Mediaforiall Sacrtfice of at- tonemenr, as the procuring caufc of tby attonement, to tbc great Con<»rcgaiiou f^r their everli{\ing rigbtecufnefle. L N T> N Pcintcd by ^. .SW. iox Cjeorge U^ictivgcon, and ■famesMoxon, aad'arc to be fold at the bine Acchoi in Cora-hill neer the Royall Exchange. 16 So. Title-page, Pvxchon Book. 118 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. can further say, and that truly, that we used all lawful Christian means, with as much tenderness, respect, and love, as he could expect, which we think he him- self will acknowledge. For Ave desired divers of our elders such as he himself liked, to confer with him privately, lovingly and meekly, to see if they could pre- vail with him by arguments from the scriptures, which accordingly was done ; and he was then thereby so far convinced that he seemed to yield for substance the case in controversy signed Avith his own hand. And for the better confirm- ing of him in the truth of God, M"". Norton left Avith him a copy of the book he Avrit in answer to him ; and the Court gave him divers months to consider both of the book, and what had been spoken unto him by the elders. But in tlie interim (as it is reported) he received letters from England, Avhich encouraged him in his errors, to the great grief of us all, and of divers others of the people of God amongst us. We therefore leave the author, together Avith the fautors and maintainers of such opinions to the great Judge of all the earth, A^^ho judgeth righteously and is no respector of persons. Touching tliat a\ hich your honoured self doth adAise us unto, viz. not to censure any persons for matters of a relig- ious nature or concernment, we desire to follow any good adA'ice from you, or any of the people of God. according to the rule of God's Avord. Yet Ave conceive, Avith subemission still to better light, that Ave have not acted in M''. Pincheon's case either for substance or circumstance, as far as Ave can discern, otherAvise tlian according unto rule, and as Ave believe in conscience to God's command, Ave Avere bound to do. All Avhich Ave hope will so far satisfy you as that Ave shall not need to make any further defence touching this subject. The God of peace and truth lead you into all faith, and guide your heart aright in these dangerous and apostatising times, Avherein many are fallen from the faith, giving heed to errours, and make you an instrument (in the place God hath called you unto) of his praise, to stand for his truth against all opposers thereof, Avliich Avill bring you peace and comfort in the saddest hours, Avhich are the prayers of. Sir, Your unworthy servants, 20 October, 1(;52, John Endicott, Gov'r Past by the Council. Tho Dudley Dep'ty Rich. Bellingliam Increas NoAvell Simon Bradstreet Wm Hibbins Sam. Simonds Robt Bridges John Glover SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 119 After Mr. Pyuchon had signed his retraction, and the General Court had not considered it full enough to warrant their continuing him in his position as magistrate at Springfield, Pynchon returned home with his son-in-law, Henry Smith. No one can say why Smith should accept a mark of favor which was a rebuke to his father-in- law, and no one can really say that he did. For two years after the burning of Mr. Pynchon's book the magistracy book is blank. If Mr. Smith acted as local judge, he left no record of it. As Pynchon rode for three or more days westward, what must have been his thought? — loss of public confidence, an object of hatred by the General Court, relieved of office, disgraced, and set upon by busy tongues I The whole Commonwealth was shaken with an uneasy, unsettled feeling. Witchcraft and heresy seemed, in the eyes of the Boston divines, to be walking hand in hand. Springfield rested under a cloud, and the names of William Pynchon and Hugh and Mary Parsons were in the minds of the stern soldiers of the gospel when they recorded the following solemn decree: "This Court, takeinge into cousid- eracon how farre Sathan pvayles amongst us in respect of witchcraft, as also by drawing away some from the truth to the pfession & prac- tise of straung opinions, & also consideringe the state & condition of England, Ireland & Scotland, & the great thinges now in hand there, conceive it necessary that there be a day of humiliation throughout o"^ jurisdiction in all the churches." Mr. Pynchon's feelings can best be inferred from his acts. He did not appear at the October term, according to the direction of the court. Mr. Smith attended the court, but after remaining a few days he was granted special leave to return. When it became known that Mr. Pynchon was not to be present during the session, the court voted that it "is willinge, that all patience be exercised tow- ards M"" Wm Pinchon, that, if it be possible, he may be reduced into the way of truth, & that he might renounce the errours & haeresies published in his booke ; & for that end doe give him time to the 120 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. next General Courte in ^lay more thoroughly to consider of the s*^ errors & haeresies in his s^' booke, & well to weigh the judicious answer of M"". John Norton thereto." The penalty of non-appear- ance was £100. The distress at Springfield over the strange tilings was great. Mr. Pynchon had determined to go back to England and stay there. If his retraction was not sufficient, then he could never meet the demands of the Bay authorities. But who in Springfield were to go with him, and who to stay? Young John Pynchon decided to remain, as his wife naturally ob- jected leaving her family in Connecticut. But Elizur Holyoke and his wife .Alary had no such ties. Would they go with her father? And Henry Smith and his wife, — what would they do? Here was the parting of the ways, and on the decision hung the fate of the western Massachusetts of that generation. The young men saved Springfield. John Pynchon and p:hzur Holyoke stood by the planta- tion, but Henry Smith accompanied the retiring party. Rev. Mr. Moxon. too, gave up his parsonage, his new church, and the hopes that had gathered around them, and joined Mr. Pynchon's party. " William Pynchon suffered the usual fate of men who are ahead of their age, and if he had elected to remain in Massachusetts he would have been banished, without doubt, as Roger Williams had been a short time before. His career in New p:ngland was personally a trying one, most of the time antagonizing the tendencies of govern- ment here. We in our day can recognize the broad spirit that moved him, and, at the same time, we can understand the motives of State that dominated the earnest men of the P^ay. They had fled from a corrupt civilization to the forest, and their loss of physical comfort and the continued association with pioneer perils was the price they were willing to pay for the privilege of reading and preaching the word of God. The Roger AYilliamses and the William Pynchons are sure to get entangled in the meshes of such a scheme. Roger Wilhams had watched the Pynchon controversy, and had written to an The Pyxchon 'i ablkt at Wkittle, J^xcland. 122 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. acquaintance deploring tlie lack of liberality on the part of the province toward the Springfield man. William P3^nchon, Henr}' Smith, and Rev. Mr. Moxon were at Hartford in July, 1652, on their way to England; and in May, 1653, Pynchon met, at London, his brother from Bedfordshire^ who had gone up to greet him. Mr. Pynchon settled at Wraisbury, on the Thames. He might have gone to Writtle, where now exists an elegant marble memorial of the Pynchon family ; but he preferred to settle where he could see from his window ]Magna Charta island and Windsor castle. There is a tradition in the Pynchon family that Mr. Moxon was silenced upon his return to England, and was reduced to the position of servant to a tradesman. It is not likely, however, that ]Mr. Pynchon would have permitted his old friend to suffer in this way. It has been understood by the American branch of the Pynchons that William Pynchon bought of the government, upon his return to England, some lands, valued at £1,100 sterling, Avhich he lost at the Restoration. He certainly lived at Wraisbury, upon an estate of the Pynchons. Bulstrode Whitelocke, the great Parliamentary lawyer of Crom- well's time, was a relative of Pj-nchon through the Empsons ; and when the returning Puritan reached Wraisbury he was near his Bul- strode relatives. Mr. Pynchon's second wife died October 10, 1657. People from many towns about Wraisbury attended the funeral. Pynchon's daughter, Mary Holyoke, had died that year, and he writes feelingly : " I am the more solitary as Son Smith is of a reserved melancholy disposition, and my daughter is crazy." William Pynchon founded Roxbury, the mother of fourteen New England towns ; he founded Springfield, the mother of thirteen New England towns and god-mother of quite as many more. Roxbury has named a street after him ; so has Springfield. Beyond this, William P^^nchon has no public memorial in this countrv. chapti:r VIII. 1653-1675. Springfield in the Hands of Young Men. -The Discipline more rigid.- Apportionments of° Land.— Power of the Selectmen. - Quabaug. — The Vacant Pulpit. — Various Candidates. — Rev. Mr. Glover settled. — How the Meeting-House was " dignified." — Hampshire County. — Business of the County Courts. — Numerous Ofifences against Private Morals. - The Cause. — Tything-Men. — Death of Mary Holyoke. — Death of William Pynchon in England. — Tbfe Pynchon Fort on Main Street. The town of Springfield had tonched its low-water mark with the departure of its founder, it's minister, and its scribe. One needs no evidence of tradition to be convinced that the young men left to take up the burdens and responsibilities of the plantation thought seri- ously of abandoning the work and going down the river. Nothing but the most heroic coiu-age and faith could have induced the depleted community to hold fast to the lands already cleared. They were poor, unprotected from the dangers of the great wilderness west and north, and separated /rom the jurisdiction of the Bay l)y a 100-mile forest, and were unable for a long time to secure a minister. The man of the hour was John Pynchon. He was methodical, naturally given to the details of business and government, and was a wiser man than his father in avoiding annoying compUcations. He had a technical mind, and was more of an executive officer, but less of a thinker. He wrote a better hand, and was a natural student ; but he could not take in with his eye, as could William Pynchon, the sweep of a new government, and determine the principles that make for permanence in the State. John Pynchon was not the man to found a town, and WiUiam Pynchon was not the man to build one up. John Pynchon and his young associates, Elizur Holyoke and Sam- 124 , SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. uel Chapiu, took the oath as magistrates, Nov. 22, 1652. It was the turning-point in everything that makes Springfield a stronghold of regular government in local affairs. John Pynchon was only thirty-one years of age. The business of administration was more closely attended to; the ''presenter," or grand juryman, was in- structed to seek out offences against the laws of the colony. The regular court days came in March and September, and while private in- terests continued to figure in court as before, public causes multiplied. Richard Sikes is fined for smoking on a hay-cock ; Goody Griffith is punished for carrying fire uncovered in the streets, and in a multi- tude of ways it became evident that a strong governing hand had taken hold of the helm. When Mr. Smith sailed for England late in the autumn of 1652 he left his wife here, probably on account of sickness and death in his family ; the General Court did not think best to confirm his elec- tion as captain of the Springfield trainband, " untill he shall return from England." But the elections of John Pynchon as lieutenant and of Elizur Holyoke as ensign were at once approved. And it might be here remarked that every officer, from hog-reeve to magis- trate, was first elected by the people, the General Court only using its prerogative of ratification. Mr. Pynchon secured from the General Court in 1652 the loan of a " great gun" for the protection of the town. It was ordered from Boston that " Samuel Chapin be joyned with M^ Pinchon & M^ Holy- oke for the dividinge of the townes." The division referred to was at " Noatucke " or Northampton ; the commission was duly performed, and approved by the Bay authorities in 1654, and the year following the Northampton commissioners w^ere ordered to take the oath before the Springfield commissioners. The latter court was also sometimes specially called upon to try cases in the infant plantation, as appears from the vote passed in May, 1656, that John Pynchon and Elizur Holyoke shall try Robert Bartlett, charged with committing " a great misdemeanor in attemptinge to force the s'^ Smith's wife." SPBTXG FIELD, 1636-1SS6. 125 In 1653 the town appropriated a tract of land on Chicopee plain to snpport a schoolmaster. The custom of subsidizing the innkeeper has already been spoken of. This was a custom brought from Eng- land. At a later date Samuel Ely was released from duty on train- ing days if he would agree to keep an ordinary. The young blood upon the judge's bench began to produce results. Daniel, a Scotch servant, gets twenty lashes for profaning the Sab- bath ; Joane 3Iiller is summoned to answer the charge of calling her husband a ^' foole, toad, vermine, and threateninge him ; " Samuel p:iy is fined for selling cider to the Indians ; Aquossowump, an Indian, is flogged for theft ; and Goodwife Hunter is gagged and made to stand half an hour in the stocks for sundry '' exorbitancys of y" toung." The town-meeting showed a like infusion of new life. Its reduced numbers were not followed by reduced financial burdens in town expenses. Money for .Aloxon's real estate was provided for, which ran the tax-rate to £107 12s. 6d. in 1653. They paid that year £35 on the Moxon purchase, £50 for Rev. Mr. Horsford, with the hope that he would remain with them, and l.s. M. for an hour-glass, which latter ensured them full measure of preaching on the Sabbath. In 1653 John Pynchou was dropped from the board of townsmen, probably because he was a magistrate and recorder of deeds. The new board of selectmen were George Colton, Robert Ashley, Thomas Cooper, Benjamin Cooley, and Thomas Stebbins. This was quite a change, and a change, too, in the direction of the small landholders. The importance of the selectmen was lessened by the vote of October, 1664. In defining the powers of the new board it is expressly said that " giving out of y^ land belongs to y^ towne." On the previous May John Pynchon's lot on Long Hill had been increased by the town, upon the condition that he would buy a fiock of forty sheep, and sell them as he might to the inhabitants. In 1666 Mr. Pynchon proposed to spend £200 in building a new mill, and a stormy town- meeting took place on account of a proposition to refund this money. The proposition was voted down. A private subscription was then 1^6 SPRINGFIELD, 163 6 -188 6. taken up, and Mr. Pynchon concluded to go ahead. Subsequently the town voted Pynchon one-twelfth part of a bushel for all the grain ground in the new mill. A few days later he was voted some land, if he would also build a saw-mill. Pynchon's slaves, ''Harry" and " Roco," worked on the first mill put up at Suffield in 1672. From the mass of orders in town-meetings, as to small matters, the following is selected as a sample : — Ordered that the ye gate at the higher wharfe shall be set in repaire a^t ^e spring of ye yeare & yt ye gd g^t^ shall be kept in repaire and well hung fro yeare to yeare & after fences be made up in ye spring yearely the s^ gate shall be always kept shut till all ye fields about it be broken up. And if an3^ person shall throw open or leave open the s'l gate fro the tyme of making up fences in- ye spring till liberty of laying ye fields commons he shall forfeit a fine of 5s. About 1662 the old road along the brow of the hill (Maple street), through the pines to the dingle, was laid out, and on it the house of correction was buHt. It was found convenient, also, to build a pound on the west side, at the "hay place," which was probably not far from the old upper ferry, opposite Cypress street. The board of townsmen of 1654 consisted of Thomas Cooper, George Colton, Robert Ashley, Henry Burt, and Benjamin Cooley. The following year. Cooper, Ashley, and Cooley were reelected, and Miles Morgan and John Dumbleton chosen in the place of Colton and Burt. The three members reelected refused to serve, and they were fined 20s. apiece, while George Colton and Thomas and John Steb- bins were chosen to fill their places. Lieutenant Cooper was evidently a brisk, outspoken man, which sometimes made it diflScult to get on with him. Some years later he was appointed by the County Court to aid in laying out a highway, but the judges finally substituted another man on account of his refusal to serve The new board of townsmen, with John Pynchon and Samuel Chapin, were constituted a conunission to allot the common lands. The new plan was followed for several years, but we find that in 1663 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 127 the po\Yer to grant allotments of land was again taken from the select- men and given to Captain Pynchon, Ensign Cooper, Benjamin Cooley, George Colton, Rowland Thomas, Miles Morgan, and Eliznr Holyoke, '^ for the present." A brisk apportionment of lands foUowed. We cannot but think that behind these sliort orders, changing the privilege of dividing and assigning lands from the town-meeting to the selectmen, then back to the town-meeting, then to the selectmen aided by a committee, and finally to a special land board, is an inter- esting chapter of our annals that is lost beyond all hope of recovery. Certain it is that, for some reason, a rebellious spirit rested upon the local waters. Men sometimes absented themselves wilfully from the town-meeting. In April, 1665, the following persons were fined for this offence : Henry Chapin, Griffith Jones, Edward Foster, William Branch, Deacon Chapin, Robert Ashley, Thomas Mirrick, Anthony Dorchester, Jonathan Burt, William Brookes, Joseph Crowfoote, John Leonard, Ensign Cooper, Benjamin Mun, John Clarke, and Nathaniel Burt. It was in 1655 that the base of assessment of taxes was changed from the number of acres to the value of the lands. Stock was, as before, included in the ratable property. Men without any property were taxed 56' . per annum for the support of the ministry. The town-organizing genius of John Pynchon showed itself in January, 1656, when he and others received power to assign lands at Woronoco (Westfield) to settlers. The final apportionment was not made, however, until 1664. Pynchon was authorized, with others, to apportion land at Squakheag (Northfield) for a plantation, in 1672. The struggling conununity at Quabaug had all along been under the fostering care of Springfield. As early as 1655 Eliznr Holyoke had been a member of a legislative committee to lay out four thous- and acres for some Indians near Quabaug ; and, ten years later, the plantation applied to Springfield to secure for them the Indian title to the lands they occupied. Lieut. Thomas Cooper performed that service, Eliznr Holyoke and Samuel and Japhet Chapin witnessing the deed. 128 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. In 1667 John Pynchon beaded a provisional committee, appointed at the Bay, to lay out lands, admit inhabitants, and complete the town organization at Quabaug. Thus it happens that the first records of Brookfield are in Major Pynchon's handwriting. In 1673 Pynchon refused absolutely to serve on the provisional committee, and Qua- baug was at once incorporated as a town, under the name of Brook- field. John Pynchon was on the commission appointed in 1664 to receive the surrender of New Amsterdam (New York) from the Dutch. It is believed, however, that he only went part way upon his journey when news reached him that the surrender had been made. Pynchou's church, judicial, military, and political duties pressed heavily upon him, but his business-like habits enabled him to carry a load which might have overcome a stronger man. Rev. Mr. Horsford was a disappointment, and when Rev. Mr. Thomson came to Springfield to preach as a candidate, he was given (November, 1655) the '' towne house " or parsonage, situated between the lot of Thomas Cooper and Deacon Chapin, Thomson to keep the house in repair. For some reason the new minister did not occupy it, and the town had to undertake repairs at its own expense. In March, 1656, Mr. Thomson had " deserted this Plantation," and Deacon Wright was chosen to supply the pulpit. In February follow- ing INIr. Holyoke and Henry Burt were called upon to carry on the public services. Deacon Chapin being substitute. In 1657 services were conducted by Pynchon, Holyoke, Chapm, and Burt, and My. Pynchon was even authorized to read his '^ owue meditations." Wealth did much for John Pynchon, to be sure ; it may have put him on the board of selectmen, or secured his election as an associate in the Great and General Court ; nay, it may have contributed toward placing him upon the bench ; nothing, however, but his gifts of mind and heart could have induced the Springfield towu-meeting to open the pulpit to his " owne meditations," with Deacons Chapin, Burt, and Wright sitting in the pews. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 129 It was Dot until February, 1659, that the struggling inhabitants renewed the hope of settling a minister ; but he, Mr. Hooker, son of the famous Thomas Hooker, of Connecticut, who had been drawn into the controversy with William Pynchon, remained a few months only. There seemed to be some fatality about securing a minister ; but after a vacancy of over nine years, the right man appeared. Nearly two years after Mr. Hooker's candidacy, a young minister named Pelatiah Grover preached here, and in September of the year follow- ing, 1661, he was settled over the Springfield church. He was some- what of a student, and was well calculated to take up the line of theology abroad in the valley. He was a worthy instrument in the hand of Providence for the advancement of the community. The dark interim had closed, and the people must have felt the old con- fidence return with the renewal of the stated means of grace. They were not able to give Mr. Glover a liberal support in money, but they made free to supply him with valuable landed property. Here is the list of lots made over to him, and it is incidentally interesting as in- dicating the various sections subject to allotments. The town com- mittee having the matter in charge did not record their deeds until the spring of 1665, for the following parcels of land : — (1.) House-lot, 7 acres from Main street to river, 14 rods wide. (2.) Wet meadow, 4 acres, corresponding to house lot on East side of Main Street. (3.) Wood-lot, 7 acres, abutting the Wet meadow to the East. (4.) Meadow, 7 acres, AVest side of Connecticut river opposite home lot. (5.) Meadow, 5 acres, second division, 80 rods West of river. (6.) Lot in 3d division. West of river, 16 acres. (7.) Lot on the plaine above the End brook, 16 acres. (8.) Meadow, in the " house meadow," 9 acres. (9.) Meadow in Indian fields on Agawam river, 4 acres. (10.) Lot on East Branch of Mill river, 2 acres. Year after year the selectmen and deacons, or some committee cliosen in town-meeting, assigned the pews or " dignified " the 130 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. meeting-bouse, aud their arbitrary duties often caused heart-burnings quite as intense as tliose resulting from assignments of hmd, since the rule followed was woiidl}^ condition and social importance. In the winter of 1663 Deacon Chapin and the selectmen, consisting of Thomas Cooper, Robert Ashley, John P3nichon, Benjamin Cooley, and Samuel Marshfield, distributed the seats as follows, no mention being made of Mr. Pynchon, as he probably owned a seat : — Goodwife Chapiu is to sitt in the seate alonge with M*"*. Glover and M'«. Hollyocke. Tn ve fiT-ct ootr. ^ Kobert Ashly; Benja. Coolv ; Tho: Cooper; Geors^e Colton, 111} ni.st..eatc^ & Eowld Stebbens : In ye 2d seate j Xatlianell Ely ; Rich Sikes, Tho Mirick, & WiUni Warriner : -r e ., 1 ^ f Serja Stebbins ; Serja ; Morsran : Benj Munn : John Leonord ; > -^^i ^t^a^« (^ Antli. Dorchester ; Saml Marshfeild : In v^ 4th ^e-ite ' ^^'^J^ Parsons ; Jonatli Burt ; Wra Brancli : Eeice Bedotha ; ' (, Jo Dumbleton ; RoA\ Id Thomas : Tn vf ^Hi ^ooto * John Matthews ; Jo Clarke ; John Lamb : Lawr Bliss ; Tho in y otn seate ^^ ^j. ^^^^ . ^^^^ ^^^^_ . T,i -..e rtK coo+o ^ John Lombard : Griffith .Toanes ; X. Pritcliard : Rich Exsell; in > btii seate .^^ r^.^^ ^^^^^ . ^^^^ ^^^_ . In v« "th ^e- te i Jonath Taylor ; Tho: Bancroft; Jolm Scot; Xath Burt; John ( Stewart ; Wm Brooks : Tv, ,.e c+u -.^ ^-^ i Jer Horton; Jo Bacf; Jo Rilev : Lvman Beamon: Abell in yt bth seate nr • w . . i Wriglit : In ye 9th seate j Joh Henryson ; Saml Terry ; Obadi Miller ; Hugh Dudley : In ye 10th seate ' '^^ Crowf oote ; Edwr ffoster ; Charls ffery ; James Osborne ; ^ \ Wm Hunter ; Peter Swinck : In ye forseate of y^ gallerj' : In ye upper part above ye Pillars on ye North side — Henry Chapin ; John Bliss ; Jo Keef e : In ye upp pf alcove ye Pillars on ye South side — ffraunces Pepper ; James Warrinar ; Saml Bliss : Below ye Pillars on ye North side — Saml Holyoke ; David Ashly; Jonath Ashly; Japth Chapin; Tim: Cooper; Isack Colton; Obadi Cooly : On ye South side below ye Pillars — Tho Cooper Jun ; Jos Warrinar; John Leonord ; Jolm Harmon ; Saml Harmon ; Increase Sikes ; John Dorchester : In ye seate in ye Gallery w*^ faces agt ye minister, — Ephraiin Colton ; Eliakim Cooly ; Jonath ]Morgan : Saml Stebbins ; James Dorchester : SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 131 111 y*^ Backer seate of y^ Gallery on y North side at ye upp end of it — James Taylor ; John Horton ; Hugh Mackey ; Wm Morgan : In y^^ South side at y^ upp end of y^ Backer seate — Jonath Ball ; Sanil Ball ; Jos. Harmon ; Nathanell Sikes ; Tho: Thomson : In ye Backer Seate (a break) the Pillars on the North side — John Hitchcock ; Jo Clarke ; Jon Lombard ; Sam Bliss : On the South — Jos Thomas; Tho Stebbins ; Jos Bedortha. Those of the present generation having ancestors in this congrega- tion, and being curious to learn their social importance, can entertain themselves by studying the above list ; and, if the family vanity is not flattered by ancestral assignments to '^ y*^ Backer seate," let it be remembered that the good people of that day were themselves often quite as much disturbed at the way they were ranked. This trouble became so serious in 1666 that the selectmen were compelled to inter- fere ; many having refused to sit where they were assigned, and hav- ing acted " with a high hand," it was ordered : — Whosoever of this towneship shall not fro tyme to tyme in respect of their sitting in y^ meeting house submit y'"selves to the ordering of y^ Select men & Deacons or such as are impowered to seate & order psons in y^ meeting house : All such Persons as shall refuse or neglect to attend unto order as aforsd shall forfeite as is hereafter expressed viz : Hee or She that shall not take his or her seate ordered y'" from Tyme to tyme But shall on y^ days or Tymes of Gods Publike worsliip Goe mto & abide in any other seate appointed for some other ; Such disorderly pson or psons for y^ first offence shall forfeit Three shillings foure pence toy^ Towne Treasury, avCi ^\x^\\ be exacted by warrant fro y^ Select- men directed to y^ Constable to Levy ye same, And if afterward Hee or Shee shall still psist in such disorder, they shall pay sixe shillings eight pence as a fine to ye Towne to be exacted as aforesd ; & if a od tyme they shall still psist in such obstinacy, such pson to pay Ten shillings to ye Towne ; to be exacted as aforesd ; And if afterwards they shall still psist in such obstinacy, ye selectmen are hereby ordered to complaine of such pson to ye magistrate or county courte to deale with them as they shall Judge meete : And whereas the Seate w^'i was made by ye Towne at a common Town charge (formerly called the Guard seate) is now appointed by the selectmen (Avho only have ye disposing of that Seate) for Boys to sit in ; & y^' Selectmen having de- 132 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. clared that the smaler Boys should sit there, that they may be more in sight of y*' congregation & having warned all men out y*^ said seate, both maryed & other growne psons, some whereoff doe still continue to sit there, & seem as if they did it wth a high hand ; It is therefore hereby ordered that uoe Persons of this Towneship above y*' age of 15 or 16 yeares shall sit in y^ seate aforesd formerly called ye Guard Seate, unless he be ordered to sit there to looke to y^ Boys, etc. The selectmen promulgating this order were John Pynchon, George Colton, Benjamin Cooley, Samuel Marshfield, and Lawrence Bliss. This vigorous action seemed to have a sobering effect ; but it did not pave the way for a permanent peace among the young people in the gallery. Some years later (1669) Miles Morgan and Jonathan Burt were stationed " up in y'' gallery to give a check to disorders in youth & young men In tyme of God's worship. Anthony Dorchester to sit in y'' guard seate for y^ like end." The time had come for some more definite arrangement on the Connecticut than pett}^ justices at the infant toAvns of Northampton and Hadley, and recourse to the Springfield judicial connnissioners, by special orders of the General Court : '' It is ordered by this Court & authority thereof," so runs the ancient record, ^'that henceforth Springfield, Northampton, and Hadley shall be & hereby are consti- tuted as a county." The county ran from the Connecticut line to indefinite points, not more than thirty miles from any of the towns. This would bring the county into what is now Vermont and New Hampshire. Springfield was made the shire town, the court sitting alternately at Springfield and Northampton. The colony tax was to be paid in cattle or corn. A county government, however, had been practically in operation for two years. At tlie May term of the General Court, 1659, the inhabitants of Springfield had presented a petition for some form of shire government, and '' Capt. John Pinchon, Left: Elitzur Holiocke, and Mr. Sanuiel Chapin " were chosen for one year to hold court, " Northampton to be referred to Springfeild in reference to County Courts." These courts, it was decreed, "shall in all respects have the power and priviledges of any County Courte SPRINGFIELD, 26S6-1886. 133 till this Court shall see cause otherwise to determine." Thus, during the years 1660 and 1661 we had a provisional count}' court. Mr. Pynchon took the oath in open court at Boston, and subsequently administered it to Mr. Holyoke and Mr. Chapin. After the formation of Hampshire county, in 1662, the count}' taxes collected by the constables were ordered to be delivered to the county treasurer at Springfield or at AVindsor, each town to pay for trans- portation. In 1664 the commissioner and selectmen of all the towns were summoned before the County Court for not making out the tax assessment on time. Ensign Cooper, tax commissioner, who was specially sunmioned to appear, was fined 6s. d>d. for not responding. For several ^^ears the judges seemed to have the greatest difficulty in making the town and county officers do their duty. The court being- somewhat of a legislative body, as we will see, found the burdens of administration of justice very severe. A Hadley man who was chosen to carry the votes for magistrate to Boston, neglected to do it, and w^as fined. Anthony Dorchester, of Springfield, constable, failed to make returns of warrants for jurymen in 1666, and was fined. Springfield had been previousl}- fined bs. for having a defec- tive pound, and was subsequently before the court for not choosing a " gager for cask." It will be remembered that Springfield was freed from paying a portion of the colon}^ taxes when AVilliam Pynchon was magistrate. On account of special hardships at the time of the formation of the county, another attempt in that direction was made, and with what success this vote of Aug. 14, 1662, at Boston shows : — In reference to y*^ order of \ •' Gen' Cort last May that yf Inhabitants of tliese Townes on Qoonectticot should pay there come to y*" countey Rates not as ye court sets y^ price yearly but at such price as it passes among themseh^es : The Towne concieving it more hard for us than for other Townes in y^ Collony and not to be according to law, voted to send a Petition to y*' next Gen^ Court for easing y*^ Paymt & that it may be accordinge to Law. And M"". Holyyke is appointed to draw it up. 134 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1SS6. The fence question, which, from the first settlement in this valley, was a constant source of trouble, came under the eye of the County Court, and it is interesting to note how the judges handled a matter that was the despair of local legislators. We quote from the records of the Hampshire County Court, held at Springfield, in September, 1664. It is to be remembered that Pjmchou was a member of the court, and upon the jurj^-list were Robert Ashle}^ John Dumbleton (who had been a servant of a Mr. Whiting, at Hartford, and had lived awhile at Windsor before coming to Springfield), and Rice Bodortha : — Jolm Dumbleton & Thomas Miller of Springfield were presented by the Jury to this Courte for y*" breach of a law of this Jurisdiction for not attending their office for viewing the fences on the West side of the River at Springf eild : This Courte Freeth John Dumbleton for that he pleadeth y* he would have attended it but could not gett liis partner to joyne wth him in ye service but Thomas Miller Mas fyned in y^ summe of 28 to y^ use of y^ County. Robert Ashley & Jonathan Burt were presented for the like offense in not viewing the fenses on y«' East side of y^ River (at Springfeild) being chosen for ye work : But Robert Ashley pleaded y^ he had not warning y* he was soe chosen & it beinge not proved y^ he hadwarninge; The Select men are fyned 20s. a peese for the use of the Towue according to y^ laAv except they can cleare y'"selves that they did give warning to y^ viewers, w^'' Capt. Pynchon is ordered to examine & determine, vizt whether he had Legall warning, and if he fynd Robert Ashley had Legall warning y'"of then the Select mens fynes are to be remitted & he is to pay as a fyne 20s. for the use of the County. Anthony Dorchester & Rice Bedortha surveyors of y** high wayes for Spring- field Avere presented to this Courte for neglecting their work in the Season allotted by their Town Order Avhereby the ways Avere very bad & dangerous ; therefore they are by this Courte fined 5s. peese. The jury also presented Capt. Pynchon & Jno. Scott for not maynteyning their fenses on the West side of ye River A breach of the Law of this Jurisdic- tion : The Courte uppon hearing the cause and perusinge y^ aggreemts between Capt. Pynchon & Jno. Scott did judge y* y*" blame of not repayring the fenses lyes uppon Scott because though Capt. Pynchon were to alloAv for making the SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886. 135 f enses yet Jno. Scott Avho improoved the land was to repairs thera & therefore doe judge y^ Jno Scott shall pay his fyne to the towne awardinge to y^ Town Orders in Springfield according to Law. The County Court had likewise jurisdiction of the common lands, and man}^ cases are reported for damages to crops by cattle. These disputes, in the earlier years of the plantation, were brought up in town-meeting, and often put out to " two indifferent men." In 1664 John Leonard, of Springfield, was fined five Imshels of Indian corn, to be paid to Thomas Mirrick, for letting his cattle loose in the common corn-field. There was, of course, much regular count}- business, as we under- stand it to-day. In March, 1674, our old friend, Anthony Dor- chester, was authorized to keep a ferry on the Connecticut, below the Agawam river, and to make these charges: "Horse and man, 8d. ; foot passengers, 2d. ; troopers of training days, 3d." Mr. Pynchon himself, as well as Mr. Holyoke and George Colton, were presented b}^ the jury for selling unwashed wool, contrar}^ to law, but they were not fined, as the wool was not in bales, and the prices were reduced on account of its condition. The minister, Mr. Glover, was in coiut in September, 1672, as thus appears : — Mr. Glover complaynes agt Robin the Indian for steafing 3 or 4 gold rings & 2 half half crownes English money knives and a search being made the rings were found in his wigwam the money he had sold to Goodm Ely, all are restored to ]M'. Glover, And the Indian being apprehended & put in prison he made escape from y*^ Gaylor before other punishment could be inflicted on him. The court as well as the town authorities kept a sharp hold upon church members in matters of discipline. In 1665 the Count}' Court had Walter Lee before it for threshing corn on the Sabbath at AVo- ronoco. We learn by the record that Lee was a hard case. It runs : — AValter Lee being presented & complayned of to this Courte for his passing the Lords dav at Worronoco this Last Winter in that he threshed corne on the 136 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Sabbath av*='^ act he acknowledged to be soe for liis calling Isaak Sheldon a mem- ber of Old Nick & a member of the Devill And for his contempt of the Au- thority in Springf eild in saying he thought he might as well believe his boy (when he said Springfeild commissioners threatened him with y^ Stocks & pmised him some new clothes) as the said Commissioners in declaring w' his boy said ag* him : This court judged the said to pay as a fyne to y^ Courte the summe of 20s. John Webb was before the same court. John AVebb Senr, being presented by \^ Jury for abusing y*" Constable in ex- ecution of his office in Elizur Holyokes case in saying of the Constables he would make it too hott for him if he lay there. &. his neck so stretch before the morrow if he tooke any harme by his lodging there ; also for that he said he could afford to thumb both y^ Constables and his man that attended him & for his contempt- uous behavior toward Xorthampton Commissioners, he is fyned to y^ county by this Courte in j^ summe of 40s. Ministers and judges alike shared the ill-will of those unruly spirits. In 1668 our bibulous acquaintance, John Matthews, was led to the post and severely flogged for the ofl:ence referred to below : — John ^lattheAvs of Springfield being by Capt. Pynchon bound over to this Courte to answer for his exceeding contemptuous behavior towards M'" Glover minister of y*' AVord : the sd Matthews appearing at this Courte & the evidences pduced & read, it appeareth that his carriage was very odious & shamefull to wards M"^ Glover in a very vile manner much after the custome of y«^ Quakers reviling M"^ Glover as by the testimon3"s more at large appeareth : This Courte therefore doth judge the sd John Matthews to be well Avhipped on the naked body with fifteen stripes & that he be bounde in y^ summe of tenn pounds for his good behavior till the Courte at Springfield in Sept next & that he pay costs of Courte vizt 20s for Courte charges. Execution also was pformed according to y*" sentence. It is sad to relate that the duties of beating the drum for divine service did not have a more salutary influence upon Matthews. This reference to the Quakers brings up a subject not quite in the line of SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 137 our narrative, except as it was one of the causes of anxiety on the part of our forefathers, who hated heresy quite as cordially as Catholicism itself. In March, 1673, a Westfield Quaker was dealt with, but by no means so severely as the Bay authorities would have done. The case was as follows : — Geo. Filer of AVestfield being presented by the Jury for diverse disorders and being examined firstly, for entertayning of Quakers Last summer : he ownes he did entertayne them being necessitated thereunto because none else would as he sayes. George Filer sayth he shall before the World own that he is one of them whom y*^ world calls Quakers : Also he is presented for absenting liimselfe from Gods pubhke worship on y^ Sabbath he ownes he has gen^lly absented himself geni^lly last winter, his speeches have been contemptuous of the Ministers of the Word and their Avork vizt that they turne over 20 or 30 Authors in a week to patch up an bourses discourse or two on the Sabbath : And tho he would pretend that he meant not the ministry in that Town or of N England, yet by the testi- monyes it appeares otherwise : He seems to be a very seminary of corrupt & hereticall opinions tending to poysoning & corrupting the minds of them w^^^ w™ he hath to do : And in speaking of the rehgion of the Quakers (he speaks of it as distinct from that pfessed by our Nation in this countrey) he calls it Our religion- that is his own & such as hee. Filer was simply reprimanded for his opinions, but £5 fine " or be well whipped" was imposed for his " speaking against the ministry." We will not leave John Matthews without transcribing a very cu- rious and interesting record found at Northampton, where the County ' Court sat in September, 1678. While it is a few years beyofid the limits of the period dealt with in this chapter, it can best be given here : — ^ John Matthews of Springfield being be y^ Grandjury Presented to this Courte for his Scandoulous vile revileing of his Neighbor Jon^i^ Burt and appeareing in Courte & being examined according to his Presentmt he did acknowledge his fault f ulhe according to y« testimony given in against him. This Courte Weighing his ungodlie unseemelieness of his sin as it stands odiouslie Circumstanced under ye Considerations of a hoarie heade which Ought above Others to be f ounde in y^ way of Righteousness and his long Profession & standing in Christeanitie Could 138 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. doe noe less As alsoe would Beare due testimony agst such Scandoulous ungod- lieness They adjudge y^ Old man Professor to be well Whipt on y" naked back with ten Stripes Butt upon y^ Motion of some of his Neighbors & y^ Intreatie of y^ Delinquente y^ such severe Punishment might a while mitigated or respitted Promising y' Lenitie or liopeing y' Lenitie may Pather y" such Severitie may gaine y^ deUuquent to reflection on his vile course & amendment. This Courte likes well of this motion & Being agreived in there thoughts to smite old age, doe recall the judgemt from being justly executed on y^ old man & delinquent for ye triall of his good behaviour. Matthews was bound over in £5 to keep the peace ; but he for- feited his bond by not appiearing as ordered at the next court. Four years later Matthews was put under a guardian, and his child main- tained by the town. The above record is an invaluable and pre- cious bit of evidence of the working of the true and enduring spirit of forbearance that follows in the path of strict justice. We asso- ciate so continually the iron in the dispensations of New England jurisprudence that the other side of the picture rarely appears. But directly upon the heel of this and like attempts to reform as well as punish offenders in the same breath come some truly Spartan exhibi- tions of justice. We ma}- not applaud the law, but must admire its impartial application. The colonial laws regulated the subject of extravagant dressing, and our Hampshire court was awake to its duty. The County Court first took notice of this class of offences by summoning before it the selectmen of all the towns for not assessing '' forbidden apparel " at its full value, and this not leading to a ref- ormation the extravagant women were duly proceeded against under the colonial law. In many cases, when women were summoned be- fore the court on a charge of w^earing silks or finery, their husbands were forced to apologize for their absence. It was a very difficult thing to bring women into court. In September, 1673, it is re- corded : — Diverse women at Springfeild presented at y<^ Courte in March last for that being of meane estate they did weare Silkes contrary to Law vixt Goodwife SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 139 Labden Goody Colton Goody Morgan Goody Barnard Mercy & Hephzibod Jones Hunters wife & Daughter & Abell Wrights wife, & warned to this Courte the six former app^'ing in Courte they were admonisht of their extravagancyes & disraist. The Goody Morgan referred to was Mrs. David Morgan. Three years later the following persons were "presented by y' Grandjury to y^ Courte at Northampton March 26 1676 some for wearing of silk & yMn a flonting manner & attire for Long haire & other extravegan- cies, Contrary to honest & Labor Order & Demeanor not Becoming a Wilderness State at Least y^ Profession of Christianity & Religion." In the list of offenders were the following from this village : " Wife of Henry Rogers, Lidia Exile, Hanah Morgan, Sarah Gilburt, Hanah Leonard, Nath'^ BUss, Thos Stebbins & his wife, John Bakers wife, Jonth Stebbins, Henry Chapin, Corporal Holyoke, Mary & Sarah Colton, Sarah Cooley, Meriam Merricke, Sarah & Mary Dumbleton." Warrants arrived in Springfield in 1661, from the Bay, for the arrest of the regicides Goffe and Walley, but it may be inferred that as both fugitives passed through the town, the vigilance of the author- ities was not of a remarkable order. Before following the course of legislation and administration of justice during this period, we Avill dispose of the numerous offences against private morals by saying that the records show that for many years, indeed, until the eighteenth century, the local authorities and the country magistrates had as much trouble in enforcing the laws in this regard as those of theft and of assault and battery together. Ail that need be attempted here is the quotation of speci- men cases. We find the following in the court record, under date of September, 1660, at the Springfield session : — John Stebbins of Northampton beinge bound to presente Robert Lyman of the same Towne for misdeameaninge himselfe towards his, the said John Stebbins wife : he the said John Stebbins complaines to this courte that the said Robert 140 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. f requentinge the said Johns house did use very evil & unseemly behavior towards his the said Jolnis wife enticeinge her several tymes that he might ly wth her, takinge lier m liis amies & other^\^se venting liis unchast desires. Lyman was tlued £10 and bound over to keep the peace. Some years later a Hadley Indian was caught in compromising relations with Rebecca Allen, of Northampton. He was committed to " two able young men" to be conve3^ed to Springfield, but "as they travelled he used means to loose his bond and escaped, notwith- standing their utmost endeavors to take him." The girl was con- demned to twenty stripes, the court believing that she did not resist him as she should have done. The punishment was deferred until after the birth of her child. Ebenezer and Hannah Miller confessed in open court to improper relations before marriage, and were fined 40s. Masters often flogged their slaves for immoralities, and in at least one case the court ordered a father to whip his boy on the naked back in the presence of the constable, or to pay a fine, for his relations with a negress. The boy had told the judges that he had been tempted by the negress, and might have fallen, " if God had not kept him." The court refused to accept his word. In 1673 Hannah, the unmarried daughter of Thomas Mirrick, accused Jonathan Mor- gan, son of Miles Morgan, of the paternity of her child. Miles and David Morgan went his bail. The following year Jonathan, who made a stout fight, and appears to have won over many to the belief in his innocence, was forced by a decree of the court to pay 2s. M. weekly for the first four years toward the support of the child. The witness whose word settled the doubt in the minds of the court was Mrs. Elizur Holyoke (his second wife). She received from Hannah a full confession, and the girl was condemned to pay £7 or receive twenty stripes. Even at this late stage Jonathan was not content to let the matter drop, and brought a suit for slander against Thomas Mirrick, Hannah's father, for circulating charges against him. Jonathan lost his case. Eight years later, Miles Morgan was in SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. 141 trouble over another child. His daughter Lydia worked in the family of Samuel Gaines, of Hartford, who became the father of her illegit- imate child. The suit of Mr. Morgan against Gaines resulted in a decree of maintenance of the child against the latter. In passing a sentence of " ten stripes " upon a man for immoral conduct and li\ing "apart from his wife," the judges declared their ' ' greate Cause to Lament and bewaile y^ sore hand of God agst us in suffering such ^dle inormityes to Breake out amongst us w'^'' as a Flood doe threaten to overwhelme us." Griffith Jones, who figured in the witchcraft case, was given fifteen lashes on the bare back for low conversation among young people ; and there is reported a case before Mr. Pynchon, where it was decreed, in reference to the disposal of the illegitimate child of two negro slaves, that " the masters of s"^ negroes be joynt & equall in the charge of s*^ child either in paymts or otherwise till s*^ child attaine y® age of nine years & then to have a joynt & equall propertie in s*' child of value thereof to be divided between y"^, or one of them taking the child the other to have paymt of full one half of y® valine of s*^ child from him who hath y® child." Both negroes were flogged, the woman receiving fifteen lashes before, and fifteen lashes after her sickness. Francis Hacklinton, of Northampton, while furnishing brick for Pynchon's new house, found time to act scandalously toward Pyn- chon's domestic. Hector Bliss, and Mrs. Samuel Ely circulated evil reports about them. Hacklinton sued Mrs. Ely for slander, but lost his case. It goes without saying that these sad exhibitions were the result of the lack in the Puritan polity of proper provision for innocent amusement, sports, or pastime. To remark that Springfield life was an unrelieved struggle with Satan and the wilderness is only admit- ting that it was a worthy member of the Massachusetts family of towns. There was a despotism of theory and practice that regulated the movement of evervbody, from the magistrate and minister to the 142 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. slave, and family government was a part of the grand scheme which began in town-meeting and ended in paradise or the bottomless pit. Fancy the spirit of the age which made it possible for a court to order a man to flog his son upon the bare back in the presence of the town officers and possibly a gaping crowd ! The Count}" Court kept a sharp eye upon the home, and was quick to enforce the parental authority. Samuel Ball was ordered to be flogged because he used abusive language to his father-in-law, Ben- jamin Munn, saying that he respected him "no more than an old Indian," and exclaiming, "A father! There's a father indeed!" Here is a specimen vote of this period touching the management of children: "This Courte doth ord"" Capt. Pynchon w*^ y^ Select men of Springfield to dispose of James Osborne's eldest son, there being complaynt made to this court y* the said Lads t3"me is spent very unprofitably." Whenever a town showed any signs of relaxation in family govern- ment the court would sharply reprimand the selectmen, who were in general ordered to " regulate & settle young p'sons under Govern- ment according to law." This meant family government, of course. In March, 1675, the County Court lamented "much idle expense of Precious time," and prohibited tavern-keepers from selling liquor to any but " Governers of families of Sober Carriage, y^ intent of this order being y^ such Persons y* have y^ liberty should use y^"" but to prevent a trade of Drinking & Drunkenes amongst us." The children of the town were brought into very close relations to the ty thing-man, and at all times were made conscious that the eye of authorit}^ was upon them. The ty thing-men for Springfield, appointed at the March term for 1678, were as follows : — I To Inspect ye upper pt of y' Town all Families from y*^^ uppermost I House to M"" Glover's House inclusiA-elie. n ^ ,, ( To Inspect all v'' Famielies from M' Glovers to Jno Clarks House Sam" Ball < I mclusivehe. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 143 ( To Inspect all y'' famielies from thence to Obadiali Coohe.s in- Increase Sikes , I cluesivelie. Israel Colton . To Inspect all \^ Famielies in y^" Long Meadow. Jno Barber senr | ,, . ,. . ^ ., , - All \^ famielies on ye West side of y"? Kiver at Sprmgfeild. James Taylor I ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ The court added the following order, which, it may be remembered, is not in the phraseology of the colony laws, and technically, at least, is in the nature of legislation : — All w<='> Persons as aforesd being Authorized y^ Tithing men for y^ severall Townes as aforesd are hereby required faithfullie to act in inspecting of y" Neighbors, so as y*" sin & disorder be prevented & Suppresd in there severall Precints, & as occation may be to assist One another & act in One anothers Precints dischargeing ye office of tithing men, according to y^ law made Noy 1675, May 1677, Oct' 1677 they haveing Refference thereunto — And Further this Courte doth now Comend to these tithing men & require y'" dilegenthe to take Care y*^ y*^ Sabbath be not Prophaned by Youth or elder Persons sitting or standing abroad out of their Meeting houses in ye time of Gods Publique AVorshipp whereby they are exposed to many temptations & divertions. But y' they do Check all such Persons & soe deale with y™ as therebj'^ to enforce them to goe in Avithin there Meeting Houses where they may attend better and be in sight or otherwise to present there names in Case such doe not reforme, to y*' Magestrates Comissors or other authoreeties in ye severall Towns to proceed against such Persons y* shall remayne refrectory according as they shall see Cause. As alsoe to have a vigelent eye upon such Persons y' shall without just and necessary Cause be unseasonablie abroade in ye Evenings from yi'" parents & Masters Famielies all Persons being to repaire to their Lodgings or homes by Nine of ye Clocke at Night or rather Before, And what Persons soe ever they find faultie herein in being abroade unseasonablie or othrwise faultie they are to admonish & hasten to y''" oun proper places of aboade Avheather they are to repaire w" it draws towards Nine of Clock at Night. Under the shadow of this supervision the ^^outh grew ; but one finds a singularly Roman spirit of administration of the law. AYhen the lad Samuel Holyoke was caught with other boys making a dis- 144 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. turbance one Sabbath day, and was brought, with the rest, before the court of which his father was a member, no parental consideration prevented the imposition of the regular fine. The boy subsequently became the lioted Indian fighter, Samuel Holyoke. It was some time after the first meeting-house was put up that glass was secured for the windows, and the natural curiosity of the children went to the usual lengths, and some of the windows were broken. The selectmen at once laid down a rule that a child caught at any sports about the meeting-house should be fined, and in case the governors or parents refused to pay the fine the children should be duly whipped in the presence of the board. Having run beyond the date of this chapter, we will go a step farther and add some orders passed in 1680 : — Wher as there liave ben for a longe tyme great disorcUr in our asembly by many young persons flocking out of the meeting hous before the blessing is pronounsed many of them canot be thought to have any nesesyty so to do and thare being a Cuntry law that doth comend it to the select mens care and it being a grief to seryous minds, we doe declare and order that no person so doe ex- ceptin thare shall be a nesesary ocasyon : and we doe request and order Increse Sickes to keepe the east doore and Isaack Gleson and Benjamen Thomas to looke to the South doore. And we doe request Liftenant Stebins to apoynt on of the gaurd to see to the youth there about etc. It is also ordered by the Selectmen that all persons or boys under the age of twelve years of age sit on that seat under the Decons seat and also on that seat against it and on the stars, only they must not Block up the stars when Mr Glover coms. The death of Mrs. Mary Holyoke, October '2Q, 1657, may be called a sad sequel of her father's practical banishment. Her sister, Mrs. Henry Smith, as we have seen, finall}^ went crazy, but whether as a result of her father's persecution is not known. John Pynchon was called to England in 1664 by the death of William Pynchon, which took place at Wraisbury, October 29, 1662. His body was not carried to Writtle, where many of his family are buried, but he lies in SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 145 the church-yard at Wraisbury, an interior of whose church is given in the accompanying illustration. When ^Yilliam Pynchon returned Interior of the Church where ^VILLIAM Pynchon is Buried. to England ten years before, Oliver Cromwell was at the head of affairs, and Mr. Pynchon sank into his grave just after the merry King Charles II. had set at work undoing the work of the Revolution. John Pynchon' s estate was materially enlarged by his father's will, and he himself, in November, 1663, made a will, before sailing for 146 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. England, in which he speaks of his warehouses at Boston, his wharf, and land adjoining. He found upon reaching Wraisbury that his father had left him several hundred acres of land besides much per- sonal property. But John Pynchon Avas a rich man for those times before this enlargement of his estate. In about 1659 John Pynchon had planned to build the finest house in New England outside of Boston. He made it at once a garrison, a residence, and a court-house. He bargained with Francis Hack- lington, a Northampton man, for the brick, — in all 50,000, for which he paid a little over $2,000. This building was probably com- pleted in 1661, and was situated where Fort street now is. It was the most important structure in this valle}^ for man}^ years, and re- mained a historic landmark on our Main street until well into the present centur}", when it was pulled down in spite of ardent protests, and for no good reason that business or propriety can suggest to us. The Old Pynchon "Fort" or Residence. CHAPTER IX. 1674-1076. The Indian Situation.— Puritan View of the Savage. — The Agawams. — English Laws for the Natives. — Indian Mortgage Deeds. — An Appeal to Boston. — The Origin of Slavery in New England. —Perfecting Title to the Land. — King Philip's War. —The Attack upon Brookfield. —Lieutenant Cooper sent forward from Springfield. —Beers, Lathrop, Mosely, and Treat march to the Rescue of the Connecticut Valley Towns. — The Swamp Fight.— Death of Beers. —Bloody Brook. — Pynchon's Protest to the Commissioners. —The Indian Fort at Springfield. — The Town burned by King Philip. — Pynchon's Hasty Ride from Hadley. — Death of Cooper and Miller. —Captain Appleton in Command. — Trouble about Military Authority. —Winter, — Death of Elizur Holyoke and Selectman Keep. — The Fight at Turner's Falls. —Heroism of Samuel Holyoke. — King Philip's Death. For forty years Springfield was happily free from the scenes of fire and blood that usually attend the occupancy of a savage wilder- ness. If we have read the town's story aright, there was reason for this exceptionally good fortune. The first planters never occupied a foot of ground without paying for it, and the Pynchon rule of even justice toward the Indian was known to the tribes hundreds of miles away. The Pynchons were famed in all the wigwams from Quabaug to the Mohawk country for their justice and fair play. The Indians often brought their disputes to Springfield for settlement, and they were justly dealt with, even when the authorities in Connecticut and down at the Bay were antagonized. Looking at the question broadly, it will baffle philosophy itself to analyze the workings of the Puritan mind when confronted by the savage ; but what can be said of the results of the contact of English, Indian, and negro? The subject seemed of little moment in those days, but, measured by the result, is of vital importance. The very 148 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-ISS6. charter of the Massachusetts Bay colony imposed upon the incorpo- rators the duty of extinguishing the Indian title and making the native a convert to the gospel. The general sense of the early set- tlers was that the Indians should receive fair treatment ; and in a de- gree the}^ did. At the same time we see in the Puritans from the start an insidious element working against the native. The Puritans did not flee from sin ; the}^ hated, pursued, and fought it ; the heathen were children of sin, and the Indians, heathen. This is the simple chain of unconscious logic that prevailed in New England. The inevitable tendency of a strong race to make headway against an inferior one was apparent right here in Springfield. William Pynchon soon found, in dealing with the Indians, that they were lazy, unreliable, and quick to take offence. Their vengeful disposition, coupled with their secretive ways and their long memor}^ of slights, soon caused P^^nchon to avoid employing them as much as possible. He even refused to use them as messengers and scouts, when white troopers were within call. Indians would loiter b}^ the way, and were not above breaking their word. Nor did they come up to the English standard of personal tidiness ; if they had not been probed b}^ the sharp rod of the white man's law, the}^ would have been con- tent to stroll about these streets and live off alms at the back doors of this plantation. Our Agawams and our Woronocos, like all the Algonquin tribes, were accustomed to subjugation. They gave tribute to the Six Nations, and no doubt looked upon the whites as a relief, and they preferred to pay out their wam[)um to a race more worthy of it. The Agawams were numerically inferior to the Pocomtucks at Deerfield, who were the leaders of the local tribes. The English regard for the Indian, therefore, was the regard of the strong for the weak, the shiftless, and the unreliable. The red man of the forest, in whose richly bronzed bosom beat all the nobility God ever breathed into a hero, did not reside in Springfield, at least in the seventeenth century. We have seen in the deeds executed and signed by Indians and in SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 149 the records of the town-meethigs, that while the natives retained sundry hunting and fishing privileges they were continually brought under restrictions in tlieir personal movements. The following hnportant deed, secured in 1652, furnishes an instance in point : — This Indenture made tlie fourteenth Day of April : 1(552 : between Coe (or) Coa. one of the Indians of Agawani, who is the clieife & y*^ proper owner of al the Land below the Long medow brooke, in the East side of Quinnecticot River, down to the Falls, on the one party, And John Pynchon of Springfeild on the other party Witnesseth that the s'l Coe the Indian, for & in consideration of one broad Essex shag Coote of 1. yard & 3 quarters & more to him in hand paid, liath bagained, sold & granted, & by these p'"sents doth sel give & grant to the said John Pynchon a certaine parcel of wet medow upon the head of a River, Running into the great River, above the fals, comonly called by the English Freshwater River which River is by the Indians called Asnuntick at y^' mouth of it & a little higher Is called Allows, & at the head of said River is called Sick- compsqu, where the said Avet medow lyes, the which medow is called by the Name of Quellicksqu. Also the said Coe doth sel give & grant free & ful Liberty for the English to gather & make use of Candlewood, called by y'" weakshackquock, in all the grounds adjoining thereto, & from the Long medow brooke downward, & also free Liberty for Cattle to feed fro the spring til winter, in al the s^ grounds, for & in consideration of one yard 3 quarters of Red Essex shag cloth to him by the s'^ John Pynchon in hand paid : Al the s'^ p'"niises y*-' s'^ Coe doth Condition as the True owner that the said John Pynchen shall absolutely clearly & for ever enjoy al the said p'mises, to him his lieires and assignees for ever. Submitted, this Uth of April, 1652. The notable point in this deed is the privileges granted the P^nglish in regions still held by the Indians, who were thus establishing prece- dents dangerous to their interests. Among the many innovations which English rule brought about was the gradual observance of the Sabbath, in form at least, b}^ the Indians. In 1(369 the County Court had occasion to admonish a con- stable for roughly handling some Indians found abroad upon the Lord's day : — 150 SrRrXGFIF.LD, 1636-1886. Certayne Indians being found at Worronoco travelling on y^ Sabbath & carry- ing burdens, vizt bringing apples wci^ they said they had from Windsor & OAvn shooting a Gun when he came to the house there, the Constable there seized 4 guns & one of them called (name omitted) to appear at this Court to answer the offense. The w^h being prooved & owned the Courte judges the Constable striking the Indian and the dog biting him he should be only admonished. There was no end of trouble in keeping savage bauds off from portable property. They wouhl dodge into Idtchens and steal food, cider, and any articles in reach, and they would also run off cattle. In 1668 it was recorded in the County Court that " Whereas the In- diaus called INIagnaws made Spoyle among the Cattell or swine of these 3 Townes of the county neere about 2 yeere synce And there being gayned from those Indians 20£ w"^'' being sent to ]M^ Bryan is in y^ hands of Lyman Lolxlell of Springfeild in Leather," it was or- dered that this sum l)e distributed. Springfield parties received £5 of this. The selling of liquor to the Indians was strictly forbidden ; but the natives were continually securing drink on the sl}^, and this class of cases was very common before the magistrates. Indians were some- times put under bonds to keep away from liquor, wampum being de- posited as security. The mill of Preserved Turner was robbed in about 1664, and the Indian AVenawen was caught and put under bonds, a companion named Sopos and another Indian l)ecoming his sureties. At the next court, in 1665, Wenawen did not appear, and the propert}^ of the bondsmen was levied upon for 406'. each. There was given the Indians, in 1666, a conviucnig proof of the sense of justice among the whites. The town paid fifty fathom of wampum to satisfy a claim set forth in an ancient document, which opens as follows : — This writing witnesseth That Xeesahegan alias Squomseat & Kepaquomp alias Squinnamoh for themselves, & in behalfe of an old woman called Potucksisg af- firming, that the English at Springfeild never bought tlie Lands over Agawam SrRJXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 151 River in the higher medoAvs, that is to say. the Lands between the middle medow, & so round the lulls, fro that pond by tlie uudle medow to Ensigne Coopers House, & so to Agawam River, & yet acknowledging that the midle medow & house medow called Quana & Agawam, Avere Long since bought by the English; etc. The first laud transaction with the Indians was carried on by a committee or agent for the town, as lias been noticed bat eventnall}' private parties secured the Indian titles directly from tlie natives. This was a long step forward, and clearly contrary to public policy. The occasion of these private transfers was the habit of running in debt among the Indians. They were not satisfied with their arrows after they had seen the blunderbuss, and while the lending of flint- locks or snaphances, like the selling of fire-water, to the Indians was prohibited, it did not break up the practice. The}^ also secured blankets, food, and agricultural tools on credit often, and thus the mortgage sj^stem grew up as naturally as garden weeds after a rain. The Indians also hired the English to plow their planting-grounds, and sometimes planted English land on shares. To meet these obligations security was demanded. A very in- teresting specimen of this is found in our probate records, inider date of April 2, 1661. A mortgage was made by Coa, Menis, Cuttonus, and other Indians, who figure in our first Indian deed to William Pynchon and his associates, and is made out to that active land spec- ulator, Samuel Marshfield. The mortgage which is here given was duly approved by the selectmen, however : — Severall debts wch^vee owe Samuil ^Larshfield for goods already received avcIi Avee did ingage to pay in bever, & we doe still ingage to doe the same if Ave can gett it, any tyme this summer, or else Ave soe ingage to pay him in Corne at 2s per bush by lieape or if in Avampum, then to alloAv the said Samuell six fathom for every five fathom due unto him, or if Ave can gett mooseskins or otter or good deare skins, then to pay them unto him at a reasonable rate, or guns av^'^ the fore said Samuell hath in his hands, av^'' if he doe Lend to any of us, Avee ingage to return them to Him Avhen he shall call for them : and if Ave doe not pay the aforesaid Samuell in any of these prises, to his coutent by Michelmas next en- 152 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636~18S6. suing the date thereof, then we give the aforesaid Samuel full power to ceaze on all our lands & corne as his proper right, and if that we Indians Avhose Names are above Avritten, doe ingage that if wee & the aforesaid Samuel cannot aggree about the price of any of the aforementioned pay, then wee will stand to av* Captayne Pynclion, 8c Lieutenante Holyoke sliall appoynt. ^ Cuttonus figured occasionally in the records. He Avas fined in 1660 for not keeping up his " water fence." He owned lands on the west side of the " Greate Ryver," and had previously sold some planting- grounds to Ensign Cooper, who, the year following the above mort- gage, secured a record of this transaction. Cooper had himself ob- tained Indian lands by the foreclosure process. He had taken from a Woronoco Indian, named Amoacusseu, a mortgage in 1660, and in 1664 he received an absolute deed npon the Indian's failure to pay. John Pynchon also foreclosed, in 1666, upon a large tract of land in Woronoco, mortgaged by an Indian and his squaw. Mr. Cooper was before the General Court in reference to the Amoacussen transaction. It was claimed by Allignot, Neemp, and AVallump, sachems of ^'Pochosick near AVestfield," that Amoacussen was not the sole owner of the lands deeded to Cooper. These Indians appealed, as they had a right to do, to Boston, and the General Court referred the case to the Hampshire County Court, which compelled Cooper to give the sachems due satisfaction. It cost Cooper one hundred and ten fathom of wampum to get out of this scrape ; but he doubtless made money even at that. We transcribe the following deed of Westfield land : — These present Avritings Dated September the 29th in the yeere One six hundred Sixty-ffiA'e showeth y' Avee Spanosa & Poxonock both of us joyntly & seA-eraly haA'e upon a A-alluable consideration to us secured & by these presents doe alien- ate & Sell unto Daniell Clark & Samuel Marshall of AVindsor their heirs & as- signes one pcell of meddoAv Land lying at Woronoco on y^' South Side of y^ RiA-er part Arhereof hath been already planted avcI» pcell of MeddoAv is in quantity fforty acres, such pcell of meddoAv Land, it shall be LaAvfull for the Said Daniell & Samuel their heirs & assigns to enjoy & possess & inheritt forcA^er. And for SPRINGFIELD, 2636-J8S6. 153 tlie more full assurance of the said Land unto y<^ Said psons wee the Grauntors doe hereby morgage or fully engage that if we make not the title of the Land good to these two grantees, then Samuell Marshall is to have our little Daughter now about ffonre yeares old to enjoy her cj- dispose of her as his own estate. And w ee the Said Grantors doe hereby promise & oblige our selves unto the said Grantees that when we be minded to make Sale of the other of our Land at Worronoco they the said Grantees shall have the right tending to them to take or refuse uppon such termes as we shall aggree unto. The following entry is found in the records of the County Court held at Springfield in September, 1665 : — There being presented unto y^ Gen-' Court at Boston in May last a Petition to consider of the complaynts of the Indians of Springfeild agt Samll Marshfeild who hath gotten the lands of the Indians into his hands by virtue of a deed of mortgage from y'' Indians Avhereby they are impovished haveing little or nothing left to plant but are constrayned to hire of ye English & The said Gen^^ Courte referred the said business of y^ Indians complt to y^ County Court of this shire , This Court therefore upon agitation of the business advised Samuel Marshfeild & the Indians to accord amongst themselves & also advised the said Samuell for ye making of fynall issue of all complaynts & trouble from y^ Indians about the Land that he hath of them to allow the said Indians some of the Land w^h before y^ Courte he manifested himselfe Avilling to doe : Whereupon the Courte appoynted John Dumbleton & Miles Morgan to go OA-er ye River with Samll Marshfeild & the Indians to see w* land the said Samuell Marshfeild Avould allow & how far it might be to y^ satisfaction of y^ Indians : And the said Persons returning w^^ y^ Indians to y^ Courte they made report yt Samuell Marshfield according to y*" Indians desire shewed the Indians where ihey should have fifteen acres of land to themselves for ever : that is to say twelve acres in one place & three acres in another place : And the Judges ex- pressed themselves Avell satisfied thereAvith. It will be asked whether Mr. Marshall would have held the Indian girl in slavery in case he had been compelled to insist upon the bond as indicated by the instrument as executed in September, 1665. Most certainly, but he would not necessarily have kept her as a bond-ser- vant in his family. Indians became slaves in New England, it would l'')4 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. seem, in three ways, — through life sentences for crimes, through captivity in war, and through legal process as security for loans, as above shown. The Pequot war seems to have led directly to slavery. Merchants sent captive Indian maidens and boys to the West Indies or Africa and traded them off for negroes. AVe now have the necessary facts of the coming together of the three races, and the enlargement of one at the expense of the other two. New England practised negro slavery Ijy and through its own- ership in Indian flesh and blood, and Springfield shares in the unen- viable distinction of contributing to its extension. The claim to the land was still in many points defective, and the "worshipful major," with his usual business thrift, made haste to perfect tlie title. The tract bounded on the south by an east line at Freshwater river, near Enfield Falls, on the east by the mountains, on the north by the Chicopee river, and on the west by a line running through the Five-Mile pond, was considered at this early day a part of the town ; but the Indians refused to admit the claim, and calculated upon a liberal payment of wampum therefor. The land in dispute was claimed by Wequogan, Wawapaw, and Wecombo. After a good deal of trouble Mr. Pynchon assembled these Indians, probably in his garrison-house on the main street, and succeeded in negotiating a sale, there being also present Ehzur Holyoke, George Colton, Benja- min Cooley, Samuel Marshfield, and Anthony Dorchester, the town committee authorized to receive the Indian deed. There had been many informal meetings, and apparently a good deal of dickering, the Indians proving apt scholars in the science of making bargains. The price fixed upon was one hundred and eighty fathoms of wam- pum, and it was left to Mr. Pynchon to draw the deed and deliver the money. This he did ; but curiously enough he delivered the wam pum before the deeds were signed, tlius breaking his revered father's rule, and by this means getting into trouble. The Indians came to him one by one to affix their marks to the instrument, but ]Mr. Pyn- chon followed an ancient custom calculated to impress upon the sav- SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. 155 age mind the solemnity of the act, and refused to allow them to sign separately, insisting that they should come in a group. Thus mat- ters drifted on through the whole year, and in fact until the spring of 1675, when the plantation entered upon a terrible chapter in its history. The Indians never signed the deed, and this strip of farm- ing land has never been technically relieved of its Indian claim. The title may not be called clouded, but it rests upon Mr. Pynchon's oath, made in 1678, declaring that while the Indians never signed the deed, they showed a '^ readiness to come altogether & subscribe." Springfield was now about forty years old. Many of the first set- tlers had passed away. The children had grown up and assumed public burdens. Rev. Mr. Glover, a man of great energy and stu- dious application, had contributed materially in the direction of the town's activities. There were scores of Agawam Indians Avho had never put on war-paint nor remembered the time when the whites had not dwelt here. They had prattled in the door-yards of the white man, had followed the deer and elk, and trapped beaver with them, had planted and harvested with them, and had come to look upon our people as just, humane, and friendlike. The feeling of trust among the whites was quite as deep-seated. One generation had grown up and another started, and no outbreak had disturbed the cordial rela- tions of the two races. It is therefore not to be wondered at when the Pokanoket country became disturbed, and the ambitious and treacherous King Philip undertook to stampede the New England tribes into a war of ex- termination, that the local plantation had little fear that the Aga- wams and the Woronocos would listen to him. This cordial feeling had even led some squaws of Nonotuck to divulge the secret that Springfield was to be attacked, but the same feelmg prevented the whites from believing it. The Indians up the river — so John Win- throp, Jr., tells us — had '' assured Major Pynchen of their fidelity to the English." The Indian situation m Massachusetts in 1675 needs no extended l-'^'^ SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1886. description of this place. Enough to say, the gentle-mannered Lev- erett was governor. The general worldly condition of the colonies was good, and in the main the Indians had been bettered by their contact with the whites : but the Narragansetts, Pokanokets, and Mohegans had resisted the Christian missionaries. The Pokanoket sachem, Massasoit, had died in 1660. The Plymouth authorities gave the name Alexander Pokanoket to one of his sons, and Philip to the other. Alexander soon died, and Philip became sachem in 1662. His suspicious actions, indicating hostility to the English, resulted in his enforced signature to a document acknowledging that he was a subject of the English king. King Philip was a natural leader and good fighter, in whom distrust of the English, however, was deeper than his word given under duress. He was repeatedly forced to sign pacific treaties with the English, but this never obliterated the English fear of him. In 1674 Sausamon, a praying Indian, made definite charges of treason against King Philip. In June of the following year Sausamon was murdered, and three Indians executed for the crime. Philip kept himself constantly armed, and the forests were filled with his runners. In June, 1675, he partially burnt and plun- dered Swanzey. While forced to evacuate Mount Hope, he was able to send bands to plunder the Plymouth towns. The English secured an alliance with the Narragansetts and Mohegans. Philip made a dash for the Nipmuck country. On August 3, by the light of the moon, the Nipmucks set fire to a fortified house atBrookfield, the only settlement between the Connecticut river and Lancaster. This mode of attack the English had taught them in the Pequot war. Arrows with burning brands as well as fireballs were thrown upon the roof, but quickly extinguished. The house was besieged for three days, when it was relieved by a company of troopers from the east, conmianded by the white-haired Major Simon Willard. Philip arrived just as the Nipmucks had been driven back from Brookfield, and he refreshed their tired spirits by presenting the sagamores a peck of wampum. When the Nonotuck (Northampton) Indians, who were connected SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 157 with the Nipmucks by marriage, heard of the Quabaug fight, they gave ^' eleven triumphant shouts " for the number of the English killed. The moment the news of the attack upon Quabaug reached Spring- field Major Pynchon sent forward Lieut. Thomas Cooper with twenty-seven horsemen and ten Indians, reenforced by a company from Hartford, under Capt. Thomas Watts ; but the danger was over before their arrival on the 7th. After scouring the surrounding country Cooper returned to Springfield three days later. Willard pressed on to Hadley, which had been selected as the head-quarters of the English commander, and after a stay of a fortnight returned east. Captains Richard Beers, of Watertown, Thomas Lathrop, of Ips- wich, and Samuel Mosely, of Boston, as Avell as Major Treat, of Milford, Conn., with some Mohegan Indians, were hurried towards the Massachusetts towns in the Connecticut valley. Beers and Lathrop made a stop at Brookfield, and Pynchon sent Lieut. Samuel Wright to hold Xorthfield. The whole country was searched for Indians to no purpose. The Indians, in their fort a little below Hatfield, towards Northampton, caused great uneasiness. They were in a sullen mood. Watts, Lathrop, and Beers had massed their men at Hatfield on the 23d, and, perceiving the temper of the Indians, had demanded a sur- render of their arms. Night came on before anything was done beyond hurried negotiations. Deep in the night an order was sent to North- ampton for a force to cut off the Indians if they escaped in that di- rection, while the Hatfield men were to watch the northern approaches to the fort. The Indians meantime had been holding a powwow ; the young warriors were for war ; there was no time for deliberation. An aged sachem opposed war. He was struck dead in his tracks, and the whole party made a dash for the forests ; they hastened north before daybreak, and the dreadful valle}^ campaign opened. Lathrod and Beers hotly pursued the fugitives, and on the "ioth engaged them in battle in a swamp in the town of Hadley and drove them back, losing nine men, and killing about twenty-five. It was six days later, accordins; to a tradition in Governor Leverett's 158 SmrNGFIELD, 1636-I8S6. family, that an attack upon Haclle}^ took place during meeting-time, when the outlawed regicide, Colonel Gotfe, emerged from his hiding- place, gave the alarm, and led the men to battle and victory. The incident was used by Sir Walter Scott, but is now discredited, owing to the investigations of George Sheldon, of Deerfield. Northampton, Hatfield, Deerfield, and Northfield were hastily garri- soned. September had opened in blood, as has been noted, with attacks upon Hadley and Deerfield. Captain Beers fell dead, with twenty-one of his men, near Northfield, September 4, while attempting to relieve that place. The Indians lost twenty-five, but the survivors became drunk from the rum found in one of the English casks. ]Major Treat, at Hadley, who had sent Beers to the north w^ith an in- adequate force, burdened with an ox-team, to carry away the effects at Northfield, hastened forward with one hundred men, September 5. As the}' approached Squakheag (Northfield) they discovered a range of twenty high poles, on which were stuck the ghastly heads of the Beers party. After the Indians had drunk liberall}^ of the rum found in the ox-cart they phmged into a perfect death revel, even to burning two or three at the stake and hanging a man alive to a tree, with a chain hook caught in his jaw. We have it on good authority that this disaster provoked in the minds of the strug- gling yeomen of that time not so much the instant vows of revenge common to poor human nature, as a fear that the hand of God had set up these bloody impalements as a warning to the people to turn aw^ay from pride of rich dress and long hair and the frivolities of a sinful world. Treat pushed on and brought away the terrified families from Northfield, and upon the return was met by Captain Appleton. There was a small force at this time, at Deerfield, under the command of Captain Mosely, and Lathrop, with ninety of the best fighters, was sent up there to thresh and bring away the grain. The savages, fully aware of the importance of this supply of grain, gathered their forces in the vicinity, and upon the morning of September 18 the supply SPRINGFIELD, 1GSG-ISS6. 159 train started for Hadle}^. Lathrop seemed to think that his Essex troopers were equal to any emergency which the savages might pre- cipitate. In crossing a brook in South Deerfield the soldiers were attracted by some wild grapes, and at this unguarded moment 600 savages made a murderous attack. An ancient oil painting of this event represents the soldiers in the trees gathering the wild grapes, their guns having been put aside. The short story of that day is one of the most revolting in our valley history. Barely seven men es- caped. Mosely hastened on from Deerfield ; Treat, with 150 soldiers and Indians, arrived later in the day and drove away the savages from this dreadful slaughter-place. The bodies of these men, includ- ing Lathrop, were buried the next day on the bank of the brook w^here they fell, and the murmuring waters of '' Bloody Brook" still tell the grim story of that day of death Avhich sent a piteous cry to heaven from every town in New England. Northfield and Deerfield had been extinguished and 128 lives taken within two months. Almost a panic prevailed in the valley. While King Philip nowhere showed himself in battle, his cunning hand was felt. His runners kept him well informed of the movements of the whites, and his own forces moved in comparative obscurity. It is difficult to tell how much military authority Major Pynchon had at this time, although he was nominally in command. The United Colonies commissioners seemed to think it was their province to give minute directions as to the defence of the valley. After the Bloody Brook fight the commissioners renewed the order that the army be kept together, even if some towns were left ungarrisoned. Pynchon did not approve of this, but was unable to meet the emer- gency as a genuine soldier might have done. The game of hide-and- seek in the wilderness w^as just what King Philip wanted, and Pynchon knew it. He distrusted the friendly Indians, and by that time even the bravest feared extermination. Pynchon wrote to the governor September 8th in a thoroughly dis- turbed state of mind. ' ' Is the Lord about to ruin us ? " he asks, ' ' and to 160 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. leave us to be distroyecl ? It is matter of lamentation ; some of our people speak of breaking up, and will be gone, and discouragements enough are on all." Meantime Major Pynchon's desire to be relieved of the duties of a commander-in-chief took the form of a formal request to the council of Massachusetts for a permission to withdraw ; he wrote a private letter to Boston from Hadley, September 30, 1675, in which he said : It is to much y' I should still troble you wt'* my Continued desires for a rebate for ye charge you have laid on rae w*^'* I am necessitated to doe y* y*" worke may not miscary by so much & unable a manager. It were for better some more thorough & meete Instrument were imployed in y^ service & I discharge upon y* very acct : But besides (not to mention some scruples upon my spirit) The dis- tressed state of my affaires at Hom, y<^* sorrows & afflictions my Deare wife un- dergoes, & her continual calls to me for releife & succor, slie being almost over- whelmed with greife & Troble, & in many straites & pplexitys, w^h would be somewhat holpen & alleviated by my presence there. Mr. Pynchou had written his more formal request the day before, and in answer to this he was relieved of his uiilitary command Octo- ber 4, and Captain Samuel Appleton chosen as his successor. Before this change was announced at Hadley stirring events had taken place. Our Agawam Indians had up to this time remained quietly in their wigwams on the river-side, and in their fort that overlooked the beautiful bend of the river. This fort was situated upon what is known as the Storrs lot, on the old Long Hill road, below Mill River. The owner of this property sixty years ago (Chester Osborne) named it Fort Pleasant, and took much interest in identifying the Indian landmarks. A little plateau on a prominent spur of a hill, with abrupt declination shaped like a sharply truncated cone, afforded natural advantages for a fort. There is a deep ra- vine on the south side, which was probably the fortified approach to the fort. Many stone arrow-heads and hatchets have been found in this ravine, and on the plateau pottery and pestles for bruising SrRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 161 corn have been turned up by the plough. It has been assumed by some that only a part of this plateau was included in the fort. The capacity of the fort, liowever, was suflicient to shelter at least four hundred Indians, and as the rule of the Algonquins was to build a pali- sade of sufficient size to admit the putting up of rows of little round wigwams made by concentring poles, covered with skins or bark, it is fair to conclude that the whole brow of this hill was surrounded by a stockade. The neck joining it with the main land was but a few rods wide, and a living spring in the ravine furnished an abundant supply of water. Upon the north side of the hill stands to this day an ancient chestnut-tree. Its gnarled limbs, hollow trunk, and rugged bark indicate an antiquity quite sufficient to have been flourishing at the time of King Philip's war. Artists have painted it, tourists have climbed the hill to look at it, and it is withal a sacred though speech- less monument of the local past. The inhabitants of tliis section were now thoroughly roused to a sense of danger. " Our English," wmte Major Pynchon from Hadley, as far back as September 30, " are weak and fearful in scouting and spying, though we do the best we can." Two weeks before that the Massachusetts council, recognizing the danger of a contagious panic, had written Major Willard, at Brookfield, to ride over to Springfield, and " give Major Pynchon a visit and encourage Inm and the people in those parts." It was only after the whole valley was aroused that any definite precautions were taken against the Agawams in the shape of hostages, which were exacted and sent to Hartford for safe keeping. There were at the beginning of the war communities of praying Indians, who refrained from going on the war-path. John Eliot, in a letter dated December 10, 1675, says : " Another great company of our new praying Indians of Nipmuck fled at the beginning of the war, first to Connecticut, offered themselves to M'^ Pinchon, one of our magistrates, but he (though willing) could not receive them. They fled from thence to Unkas (who is not in hostility to the English) 162 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. and I hope they be there." The Agawams could not be called pray- ing Indians, but faith in them was quite as strong at first. On Monday morning, October 4, 167;"), Major Pynchou, following the direction of the commissioners, rode at the head of a company of troopers to Hadley, where he proposed, with others, to arrange for a hot pursuit of the enemy. But King Phili[) was not longing for a pitched battle. He undoubtedly knew of this move, and may have been waiting for it, as over two weeks had passed in silence since the Bloody Brook fight. But the Agawam Indians had been secretly prevailed upon to join in the war of extermination. At the dead of night a large num- ber of warriors stole into the fort of the Agawams on Long Hill. Historians doubt very much whether King Philip commanded this expedition in person. Closely said at the time that he did, but upon what evidence is not known. The fort may have been filling up for some nights, or runners may have brought the news before, for some Agawams had been down to Hartford and effected the escape of the hostages held there. Upon their way back the word was passed amOng the Indians that Springfield was doomed. Toto, an Indian living with a Windsor family, became agitated on the night of the 4th, and the famil}^ succeeded in extracting from Ihni the terrible secret. It was long after dark when Toto made the confession, and in post-haste a man was sent to carry the news to Springfield. He rode into town at the dead of night, and roused the inhabitants, who were doubly terrified, the soldiers having gone off on the Hadley cam- paign. The alarm was sounded at every door in the village. What few men there were seized their guns and ammunition, and with all haste escorted the women and children to the three garrison-houses of the place, which had been recently repaired and fortified. It was a night of dramatic consternation. Among the men known to have been in Springfield at that time were the disabled Deacon Chapin, Jonathan Burt, Rev. Mr. Glover, David Morgan, Lieutenant Cooper, and Thomas Miller. Messengers were at once despatched to Pynchou, i>;DIA.NS 1 RUM THE SxoCKADE PREPARE TO BURN SPRINGFIELD, 1675. 164 SPRINGFIELD, 1630-1SS6. at Hadle}', and to Captain Treat, then at AVestiield. ]Mr. Glover succeeded in transferring his ^' brave" library to Mr. P3'uclion's house, and Tuesday's sun rose with a community of empty houses, — all but three, and those uncomfortal)ly full. With the morning meal, and possibl}'^ soirie religious services in the three forts, courage re- turned, and Lieutenant Cooper went so far as to discredit Toto and his frightful secret. Mr. Glover was easily convinced, and carried his library back to the minister's house, and very likely others paid visits to their homes in order to complete their dressing, made in such undignified haste during the night. Lieutenant Cooper knew b}^ name every Indian of the Agawams, he having been for over a quarter of a centur}^ a familiar figure among them. Sometimes he would apprehend one of them, as an officer of the law ; sometimes he would aid them by loans of seed or utensils. He had, personally, no fear of the Agawams, and he induced Thomas INIiller, who was always ready for adventure, to accompany him to the fort quite early in the morning. In less than half an hour from the start the horse of Cooper returned on a full run up the village street from Mill river. Upon his back was his bleeding master clinging in the saddle. The horse ran directly toward the Pynchon house from which he had started, and when he stopped at the door Cooper fell to the ground dead. Miller was killed at the first volley from the Indians, just as they were entering the woods this side of Mill river. The dreadful secret was out. Springfield had indeed been set apart for fire and slaughter. The Indians were already making the air dismal with their yells. Some of Mr. Pynchon's mills at the South End were soon in ashes. The wife of John Matthews who lived at the South End was probably found at her home and there butchered. The torch was applied to the deserted houses by the excited savages that poured through the street in great numbers. At the head of the horde the astonished planters saw the old sachem of the Springfield Indians, the friend of the whites, — Wequogan, whose SFRTXG FIELD, 1636-1SS6. 165 name figures in the unsigned Indian deed referred to at the opening of the chapter. He was sometimes called Wrutherna, a name at- tached to the original Indian deed of 1636. If it was the same person who knew William Pynchon and had been the recipient of his liberality, if not his bounty, the sachem's treacher}" was all the more marked, and it may be here said that he was probabl}^ killed in battle a year later at Dedham. One party fired the house of correction on the hill, and after the flames were leaping from thirty-three liouses and from twentj'-five barns, the savages seemed determined on more blood, but the three houses were too well built and defended for the Indian mode of attack. An importunate savage having secured a pewter platter held it before him and marched toward one of the houses, but it onl}^ served as a guide to the bullets that pierced his heart. This platter, with two bullet-holes, was owned by Joseph Ferre, but a domestic sold it to a junk-dealer about thirty years ago. The Indians secured rich plunder but little blood upon this dread- ful 5th of October. Edmund Pringrydays was fatally wounded, and about noon David ^Morgan received a bullet wound in his neck, while attempting with others to lu'ing over some of Major Treat's soldiers who had arrived in great haste on the West Springfield bank. The Indians had little trouble in keeping the reenforcements at bay, but three hours later Major Pynchon and Captain Appleton with 200 troopers rode into Springfield on a dead run all the way from Had- ley ; but all that was left for them to do was to scare off the In- dians, who had no notion of joining battle. The}^ were heavily laden with plunder. The ashes of the town was the evidence of their wrath, and oft' the}^ went into the forest. The Indians retired with their booty to Indian Leap (Indian Orchard), built up twenty-four fires on that naturally fortified spot, overhanging the waters, slept in perfect security, and awoke in triumph ; but Springfield slept in smoke and danger, and awoke in fear. The town never knew a darker day- 186 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. An Indian squaw was captured by the P^nglish, and she said that there were 270 warriors in the attack upon Springfield. It is prob- abl}^ nearer the truth tlian tlie GOO wliich some writers claim. Rev. Mr. Russell, of Hadley, even considered 270 too high. The captured squaw said that King Philip intended to burn three towns in one day, and his divided army makes the smaller estimates as to the force at Springfield seem more probable. This squaw, by the way, had a terrible fate, according to Mosely, who writes: "This aforesaid Indian was ordered to be torn to peeces by Doggs and she was soe dealt Avithall." Mosely was a typical Indian-hater. We decline to believe that this was done by the order of the English, who received too much valuable infonnation from captured Indians to kill them after such service. If the squaw had returned to her people and suffered death for serving the English, that story might be believed. The opinion was general, at first, that Springfield had received its death-blow. Winter was approaching and retreat seemed inevitable. Mr. Pynchon so wrote the ^Massachusetts authorities. Not a house nor a barn was standing between Round Hill and ]\Ir. Pynchon's house, except that of AYilliam Branch. While P^mchon's garrison-house was saved, the Indians had levelled his barns and out-buildings, thus destroying much hay and grain. Many of Pynchon's neighbors owed him money, and this, with mills and property outside destroyed, almost bowed him down with sorrow. There were a few houses standing about the old meeting-house, but otherwise there was a blackened district between that and Mr. Pynchon's, the losses in- cluding the minister's house and Mr. Hitchcock's. From Mr. Mir- rick's place to the garrison-liouses in lower Main street was another burned district. Mr. Pynchon had quite a property in that part of the town, — grist and corn mills, four tenement-houses, — all de- stroyed, with possibly one mill, aud with them much corn. " X^ Ld shew mercy to us," writes the down-hearted magistrate, "I see not how it is Possible for us to live here this winter If so the sooner we were holpen off y*" Better." There were left standing fifteen houses Maj. John Pyxchon's Ride. 168 SPRIXGFIELJ), 16S6^JSS6. ou the street, and in all, with those in the ontskirts and over the river, about forty- five survived the attack. That is, fort^'-five occu- pied houses had to accommodate forty families more, as well as a garri- son of two hundred soldiers. They were in great need of medicine for the wounded, and provisions were scarce. Several whose houses were saved lost their goods in other houses, whither they had carried them on the night of the 4th. The soldiers, many of them from the east, complained that there was no bread to be had, but meat seemed to be plenty. ^lajor Treat was called upon by the Connecticut authorities to hasten south for the defence of the towns below. The "Worshipful Major " was alive to the unmilitary move in leaving Springfield undefended, and in his report of October 8 to the liay authorities he takes occasion to refer to his calling oft" the soldiers to Hadley, "leaving none to secure y"" Towne bee y*" commissioners order was so strict." He was not aware at this time that he had been superseded in command, and he says : " To speake my thoughts, all these Townes ought to be Garrisoned, as I have formerly hinted & had I bin left to my selfe I should I think have done y^ w*^^'' possibly might have prvented this damage." The loss of Lieutenant Cooper was severely felt. For man}' 3'ears he had been a wheel-horse in the town aft'airs. He was auditor of the selectmen's accounts at the time of his death. His various accom- plishments showed how wide were the demands ui)on the early dwellers. He was a practising attorney before the County Court ; he was a practical carpenter and farmer ; he was a bone-setter and a surveyor ; he had been a deputy at the General Court, and townsman, and had been an invaluable agent in dealing with tlie Indians. His descendants may well place him beside the good and iioble Deacon Samuel Chapiu as a pillar of the town. His deeds fully warrant it. Thomas Miller was constable of the town when shot. It is one of the admirable traits in the meu of these times that they did not for a moment lose an abiding faith in the religion the}^ had come here to spread. They might think of abandoning the SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-IS86. 169 plantation, but not the gospel ; and the words of .Pynehon to his son Joseph, written October 20 of this dreadful year, were the words of Springfield: "How sweet is our interest in Jesus Christ in these distracting tyraes ! " John Pynehon was of a sensitive nature, and he was a great suf- ferer, personally, under this aflfliction. When he first began his ap- peals to Boston to be relieved of his military post, he had referred among other things to the " lashes of the tongues of men" against him, and his sharp sense of the foolishness of the Hadley expedition was not a bit lessened by the plea that he had done a rash thing even though under strict orders. A bolder man — his father, for example — would have chosen rather to stand the ordeal of explaining to his superiors how he saved the town by disobeying orders. Captain Appleton received from Lieutenant Upham the news of his promotion to the command of the valley forces, and on the l-2th re- turned to Hadley, where he wrote Governor Leverett that he proposed to use his own judgment about garrisoning the towns. He spoke feel- ingly of ^lajor Pynchon's misfortunes, but opposed the idea of aban- doning Springfield. He continued : "As to the state of poor desolate Springfeild, to whose relief we came (though with a march that had put all our men into a most violent sweat, and was more than they could well bear) too late, their condition is indeed most aflaictive . . . I have in regard to y^ present distress of y' poor people, adventured to leave Capt. Sill there, to be ordered by the Hon. Major until further order be received. AYhat hazard I run, I am not insensible, but do rather choose to adventure hazard to myself than to the public, and so throw myself on your worship's mercy in so doing ... In the account of Springfeild houses we only presented the number of them on the East side of the river, and that in the town flatt ; for in all on the AVest side, and in the outskirts on the East side, there are about sixty houses stancling, and much room in and about them : which coming into the Indians' hands will yield great support to them. We had been considerino- the makino- of a boat or boats, and find it not de- 170 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. sirable ; first, because the river is not navigable, and so none made here can be had up. Secondly, should we make any above the falls, there must be an army to guard the workmen in the work : — Thirdly, we find exceedingly hard, by any provision, to secure our men in the boats by reason that the high banks of the river giving the enemy so great advantage of shooting downward upon us." Three days after the above letter was penned Edward Eawson wrote Major Pynchon, by order of the Massachusetts Council, explaining that the order of the Commissioners concentrating the troops did •' not, in the least, obstruct your quartering of soldiers in such wise as may be for your greatest security, nor did it enforce your drawing them off to so great a disadvantage as hath happened." This attempt to escape the responsibility of the burning of Spring- field reads very strangely in face of express military orders, and Major Pynchon's frequent protests against such a policy. Still, Pynchon should share the blame of the disaster, as he ought to have taken the responsibility of using the natural means of self-defence within his reach. The General Court, immediately after the burning of Springfield, issued a military manual for the government of the army in the field. This was the first provision of the code : "Let no man presume to blaspheme the holy & blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, upon payne to have his Tongue bored w*^ a hott iron." Appleton was a man of pronounced character. Indeed, he had lost his seat in the General Court because he had signed in 1666 the peti- tion from Ipswich recommending submission to the King's order to send agents to his Majesty at once. The mark of favor shown him after being so long under a cloud did not lessen the courage of his convictions. He deplored the commissioners' plan of defending the valley by concentrating troops. He followed out the declarations in his letter to his superiors, and distributed his little army in a way to protect all the towns. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 171 Hartford sent up some ammimition to Springfield just in the nick of time, the stock up the river being very low. The destruction of the mills forced Springfield to go to Westfield for flour, which was a very dangerous journey at that time, and the withdrawal of Treat and his Connecticut soldiers added to Appleton's embarrassment. Appleton sent to Hartford calling upon the author- ities once more to send himreenforcements. It appears that besides the alarm over a reported advance of savages in that colony, there was a disposition to look out for number one, because Plymouth had neglected to send its quota of troops. Scouts were sent in all directions from Hadley, to secure some trace of the enemy. The men were affected with " timorousness," as they had been when Major Pynchon was in command, and nothing came of it. After two days Appleton became very uneasy. On the 14th of October, Mosely at Hatfield, and Seeley at Northampton, were or- dered to report at Hadley for action. Mosely, with his company, were soon on the ground, and Seeley came alone and doubted the le- oality of the order. A new^ one was made out, to appear on the loth. That night he sent a message from Northampton to Hadley, saying that Major Treat had ordered him to remain at Northampton until further orders. Seeley was a Connecticut officer, and his force Con- necticut men. Here was a conflict of authority, growing out of the apparent refusal of Connecticut to fight in Massachusetts because Plymouth had failed to respond. On the 16th Appleton started w^ith some Massachusetts troops for Northfield, but a messenger overtook him with word that the In- dians had appeared on the west side of the river. He immediately crossed, marched to Hatfield, and pushed on north by night. The report of a gun showed that the enemy was near. Appleton proposed to advance to Deerfield. Mosely did not want to get so far from the towns. A thunder-storm finally forced them back to Hatfield. It seemed that Philip was at Deerfield, and that his scouts were lurking about Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton, watching a chance for an l''^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. attack. On the evening of the 17th Appletoii, then at Hadley, was beset with couriers. Seeley sent from Northampton for aid, as the enemy had been seen there ; Mosely reported the Indians within a mile of Hatfield ; and word came from Connecticut that troops would be sent up the river at once. Detachments were sent to Hatfield and Northampton that night. The Indians failed to attack, but on October 19th the forces of the great Pokanoket chief, flushed with the destruction of four towns and almost unlimited plunder, closed in upon Hatfield with a large force. Mosely and Poole bravely de- fended the town, and Appleton, hearing the sound of battle from Hadley, dashed to the rescue. The Indians ontnumbered tlie whites three to one, but the place was saved. Only about nine of the English fell. The fighting season was now over. The winter closed in enrly, and many Springfield families probably were forced to live in closed cellars and dug-outs. Some of the Indians went east ; many, especially the aged, wintered above Northfield ; and Philip, with a band of about five hundred, pushed over to the Hudson river. He was a sick man, and although he survived to do much harm, his career was drawing to a close. The second year in King Philip's war is in the main but re- motely connected with Springfield. The new board of selectmen were Ensign Cooley, Jonathan Burt, John Keep, John Hitchcock, and Eli- zur Holyoke. The winter was passed in a state of practical impris- onment for fear of skulking Indians. Mr. Pynchon visited Westfield, where the mills were, with Goodman Dumbleton and two young men, and three men were killed by Indians. Mr. Pynchon attended the .^lay General Court, and was chairman of a committee to consult with Captain Mosely as to the military situation. A new valuation for Springfield was ordered on account of the fire, and later in the year £150 was taken from the colony tax on account of Springfield's losses. In February the town met to elect a select- man, " God having taken away Captain Holyoke." Samuel Marsh- SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 173 field was elected to fill his place. The brave Samuel Hol^^oke was made " Clarke of y'" writts." The Loiigmeadow settlers were not able to visit the village oii Sim- day to attend service. In March a party attended by a guard ven- tured to make the journey. They were attacked by eight Indians, and Selectman Keep, his wife and child, killed, and several wounded. There was a story told at Boston at the time that the guard took to their heels the moment the Indians fired. Major Pynchon pursued the savages with a company of horse, but to no purpose. Anthony Dorchester was chosen as Keep's successor. The snow suddenly disappeared in the latter part of January, and a kind Providence gave the planters a mild winter and early spring. The discovery of the treachery of the Narragansetts and the destruc- tion of their fort, with slaughter far more dreadful than that of the Pe- quot fort, sent hundreds of savages again into the Connecticut valley, who met the desperate King Philip. In the latter part of March Ca- nonchet, together with Sancumachu, a Nonotuck sachem, to whom the Agawams had acknowledged sovereignty, were with Philip a few miles above Northfield. Canonchet lost his head while attempting to bring seed-corn from the Narragansett country ; but the maid of Quiunapin, who undertook the errand, was more successful, bringing away a peck and a half of seed. They then scattered into planting and fishing parties to provide against famine. Hatfield, Korthamp- ton, and Hadley were garrisoned. An Indian attack on Northampton in the middle of March was successfully resisted. The Massachusetts council renewed its advice about the concentration of forces, sug- gested Springfield as the best place to fortify, and directed the aban- donment of Westfield. Protests were sent to Boston from the various towns ; AYestfield in town-meeting voted that the inhabitants were ready to go down the river if properly protected by soldiers, but re- fused to remove to Springfield, although they would like to do it for the "worshipful Major Pynchon's sake." The assertion of some Avriters, that Westfield did not want to go to Connecticut, but 174 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. made the threat in order to secure aid from Boston, is now discred- ited. On May 18, Captain Turner, of Boston, attacked the Indians while yet asleep at what is now called Turner's Falls, killing over three hundred. Another party of Indians hastened to the rescue and forced the whites to retire down the river, our Captain Samuel Holyoke pro- tecting the rear. Samuel had seen a little fighting, and was gaining a name for Indian warfare. Upon the retreat Holyoke was brought into hand-to-hand contests with the savages, five of whom he ran through and killed with his sword in the morning fight. Holyoke's horse was shot from under him, and, as he fell, numbers of Indians closed upon him. The first was killed by Holyoke's pistol, and the captain's men saved him from death ; he was but twenty-eight year^ old. Turner had been shot in Greenfield meadow, and young Hol- yoke, assuming command, succeeded so well in checking what was slU most a panic, that he arrived at Hatfield with one hundred and forty men. He had taken charge of a rout, and converted it into a mili- tary retreat. But it cost him his life. He never recovered from the exhaustion of those two days, and in October he sank into his grave, and was buried beside his father, Elizur Holyoke. Philip made a desperate effort on the 30th of May to overpower Hatfield, but he was repulsed with considerable loss. He was equally unsuccessful June 12, when he attacked Hadley. His army was now forced to scatter. A party passing Westfield towards the Hudson were pursued, and lost sixty in killed and wounded. Philip was sur- rounded August 12 in a swamp near Mount Hope. An Englishman aimed at Philip and missed, when a friendly Indian shot him, and he fell upon his face in the mud and water with his gini under him. His hands were exhibited at Boston, his head at Plymouth, and the beasts of the forest fed upon his mangled trunk. The famous Indian was dead, the Connecticut valley was at peace, and Springfield was m ashes. CHAPTER X. 1677-1703. Waste Places rebuilt, — Deacon Chapin. -Chicopee. — Fishing Privileges. — The Second Meeting-House.— Trouble about Mr. Glover's House and Lot. — Schools. — Taxes. — Law Breakers.— The Freemen of 1678. — The "Accord Tree."— King William's War. — PynchoiPs Attempts to protect the Towns.— Sir Edmund Andros in Springfield.— Massacre at Brookfield.— Captain Colton's Heroism.— Pynchon's Letter to Stoughton. — Death of Mr. Glover. — Suffield. — Enfield. — The Boundary Ques- tion. — Brimfield. —West Springfield. — Its Struggle for a Separate ISIinister.- Pyn- chon's Place in the Commonwealth. —His Business Connections.— Beaver Trade with England. — Pynchon's Death. The first thought of Springfield was safetj^ and the second the restoration of the street to its former condition. The men upon whom the first steps of the burden of the rebuilding rested were Selectmen George Colton, John Dumbleton, Benjamin Parsons, John Dorchester, and Henry Chapin. The venerable Deacon Chapin had sunk into his grave amid the desperate confusion of war. It would have indeed required that faith which removes mountains to have died in a serene hope for the future of Springfield. The larger faith in the gospel and the Christian commonwealth we know he did have. Samuel Chapin is supposed to have been a Huguenot, possibly one of about 150 families that reached these shores shortly after the Massachusetts Bay settlement. The Chapin name had an honorable place in France so far back as the tenth century, when a Frenchman won a coat of arms and the sobriquet " Capinatus," from a cut in his head received during a fight. The cap with a cut in it and sword lying across it became the coat-of-arms of the family, and this 176 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. heraldic device 1ms come down in the American l)ranch. It is supposed that Samuel Chapin's father fled first to Holland. After marrying Cicely, a P^rench maiden, Samuel went to Dartmouth, England, and migrated with several children to Xew f:ngland, settled first at R ox- bury about 1635, and finally, 1642, or a year or two later, arrived at Springfield. As a deacon in tlie ancient Springfield cluirch he will always stand in solenm relief in this connnunity : as the i)rogenitor of a large and important family his name is perpetuated in many cities and towns. The selectman Henry Chapin of 1677 was the deacon's son. Henry and his brother Japhet had become interested in the Chicopee part of the town. Henry about this time built a house in what is now the lower end of Chicopee street, and Japhet at the upper end. They became veritable patriarchs. Henry begat five children ; Japhet begat ten children. Of these, eiglit were boys ; and these eight boys begat eighty-seven children. George Colton, who stands at the head of the list of selectmen, was the well-known Quartermaster Colton, father of Longmeadow, as some have called him, and the head of the numerous family of Col- tons in this country. Benjamin Parsons was the Deacon Parsons of Mr. Glover's ministry, who also became somewhat of a patriarch. Other officers chosen in the winter of 1677 will excite more than an idle interest. John Pynchon was moderator of the town-meeting, as usual. The officers elected in addition to the selectmen were : Clerk, John Holyoke; measurer for land apportioned, Samuel Marshfield ; constable, Rice Bedortha; surveyors of liighways on the east side of the river, Nathaniel Prichard and Joseph Ashley, west side, John Petty ; haywards for the common fields,— for house-lots on east side of the river. Goodman Clark: for Longmeadow, Ephraim Colton ; for west side, Henry Rogers ; Agawam mead- ows, James Stevenson; Chicopee plain, Samuel Bedortha. The street must have presented a dismal appearance at this time, with its extemporized shelters, roofed cellars, fortified door-ways, and even barricades extending into the street. It was proposed at first SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 177 to run a street parallel to the main street through the house-lots (Water street) in order to bring the planters together ; but the scheme was abandoned. Garrison soldiers were quartered in the town at times for some years, and the skulking Indians in the forests made every journey out to the commons for wood or over the river or to the land above the Three-Corner brook, a little military campaign. Disorderly appearance of the main street may be inferred from this order of the selectmen as late as the winter of 1679 : — That no persons hencefortli without liberty fro y^ Towne doe dig or cumber ye highway or streete fro y" upper wharfe to y^ bridge of Obadiah Cooleys w'h firewood, clay, timber onto it before his building or fencing and that such as have filled the streete or Lanes wth clay, wood, Timber & remove not the same by the middle of June next shall be Lyable to forfeit the same, as also that no Persons dig holes or pits in the streets without leave upon the penalty of 5s. About a dozen men received allotments of laud in 1677, and in a short time, it will be here remarked, the custom of taking money for these apportionments sprang up. The house of correction and jail, to supply the place of the one burned in 1675, was located on Main street (corner of Bliss), and was built under the direction of Major Pynchon. The town voted in 1677 that " Goodm: Lamb, Sergeant Morgan, Joseph Crowfoot, John Clarke senior, Charles Ferry with such others as they shall take in with them" be given a license to fish '' from y^ falls in Chicuppi River where the wadeing place is, down to y^ mouth of that River, provided they enter not upon any man's Lands or proprietyes." The scale of prices fixed for them was as follows : Fresh salmon at the river, M.^ in village, M. ; fresh shad, half penny at river. Id. in village ; salt fish, ^' to the Town twelve pence p*" Barrel for al that shal be transported." The year 1677 did not pass without an attempt to come to an understanding with the Indians, but after some negotiations at North- ampton the hope of cordial relations was abandoned. 178 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. The meeting-house was old and small, — not equal to the demands of the congregation, even with benches in the aisles. Before the Indian troubles the contracted quarters occasioned much inconven- ience. The selectmen in 1674 had proposed additions to the house ; but the town w^anted a new building. Finally various motions for a new^ house, including that for a building committee, headed by John Pynchon, were passed '•w^'^ alacrity w'^'out contention." The site at first selected was Sergeant Stebbins's lot " on the hill," he to have in exchange four acres north of Round Hill. A tax was not levied until the winter of 1675, but the division of opinion about location delayed the work until King Philip's war. Even in August, 1676, the people, overwhelmed w4th loss of property and men, w^ere bold enough to vote with a faith that commands our admiration : — Ordered That Ensigne Cooly & Sam Marshfeild be added to y^ committee for ye meeting house affaire ; some of y'" being Dead : These are a supply & w^^ ye rest remaining, to act as formerly. The s^ comittee or any 3 of y°i to treate w^^ John Allyns And (in regard to y^ Towne's Poverty by reson of y^ warr) If he will stay for his pay Then to get him to Raise y« Meeting house as soone as may be. During the following summer the second church edifice of Spring- field was put up. The old building was evidently not removed until the new one, situated just west of it, was consecrated ; and then it was disposed of for £5. The meeting-house yard was enclosed by a five-rail fence, except in the rear, where a hedge was built. The total cost of the building itself, so far as can be figured out from the records, was £400, which was not all paid until 1688. It had a turret, but a beU was not put in for nearly ten years. The deacons had a seat by themselves, and there are references to the great pillars, banisters, posts, friezes, " benches in the alleys, rods &c for the canope," and so on. They kept the children away from the windows this time, but some dogs managed to break 3s. worth of glass. Here are some items in the accounts of the building committee : — SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 179 Eaising the piilpit floor frame 15^ Two quarts of drinke for Jno Gilbert when lie made y^- glass 4s, Hands to raise the Ladder, 1 qut of Rum 2s. Slitworke used about the pulpit 10s 9d The meeting-house was fortified against Indians, the paling or stockade being made of foot-logs ten and a half feet long. The same fortification was put up about Mr. Glover's house. The town's accounts for 1(379 included the foUowino- items: — The Towne is debtor To the ministry or minister, To the Comittee for ye new meeting house, To the comittee for Mr. Glovers house, To the Schoolmtr, 6£ for ye Towne; and 6£ 10s for Chicupi, To ye sweep of the meeting To Sam: Ely for expences at liis house & 1 qu: rum for Per- ambulators, To G. Parsons for his team for ye Flanker, To making ye votes, To Jon: Sikes for a flanker. To Sam: INIarshfield, for making v^ lockes. ;;80 00 00 50 00 00 06 00 00 12 10 00 02 10 00 1 13 06 05 00 20 1 00 06 05 00 The Towne is creditor b^^ a vote made for Mr Glover Ct by a vote made for ye new meeting house To a Towne rate Ct by ye sale of the old meeting house Ct by ye boards of ye same house Ct by ye Town Land at Chickuppi : 6, 10s 80 00 00 50 00 00 20 00 00 5 00 00 1 00 00 06 10 00 The perambulators were men who were appointed to make the rounds of the town limits and see that the surveyors' marks remained intact. We have no local traditions like those in England about whipping boys at these corners in order to aid their memories for the benefit of future generations ; but the ceremony was not without its 180 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. attraction, especially to young men who joined the excursion and repaired with the officials to the tavern for the comforts of the inner man. In 1678 Rowland Tliomas, Joseph Bedortha, and John Dor- chester were the perambulators on the Snffleld and Westfield sides of the town, and it is said that they performed their duties " with divers men of both those Townes." The " flanker" was a fortification that prevented side attacks. They may have flanked the main entrance of the church. The town gave (1G78) Major Pynchon a special per- mit to " set up a flanker in the street at the east end of his new house y* is now building on the north side of his own house-lot the which flanker he desires he may have liberty to set into y'' streete five foot broad ten foot in length." The item about Mr. Glover's house calls up another interesting subject. Mr. Glover was a man of great tenacity of purpose, and was as quick to defend his personal rights as his religious tenets. In June, 1669, Mr. Glover had produced the deepest consternation by the announcement that he had about concluded to leave Springfield on account of the smallness of his stipend. A town-meeting was called, and a committee, headed by :\Iajor Pynchon, was sent over to the minister's house, while all the inhabitants waited in painful sus- pense. The most Mr. Glover would say was that he would not decide definitely what to do. The trouble blew over for a time, but broke out again after the burning of lii^ house by the Indians. The meeting that voted to go ahead with a new meeting-house (January, 1677) decided to continue the building of the new^ residence of Mr. Glover with the understanding that the town, and not the minister, should own and hold the property. The lot, it will be remembered, had been deeded absolutely to Mr. Glover at his settlement, in spite of the fact that, at :\lr. :Moxon's departure, it had been voted not to part with the ministry lot. Here arose a serious dispute, which carried a trail of disquietude for at least twenty years. The planta- tion regretted having given Mr. Glover a deed in fee-simple, since his desire to leave threatened them with the burden of voting away SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 181 another valuable lut of property to a new minister. What was wanted was a permanent ministry lot, and a powerful faction was determined to have one, even if it increased the financial burdens of the struggling plantation. George Colton (August, 1676) headed the committee charged with the rebuilding of Mr. Glover's house. Mr. Glover was displeased to hear that the new house was for his use only, and the dispute was re- ferred to the selectmen and building committee. Therefore, in order to secure the minister's " contentful continuing with us," it was di- rected (June, 1677) that Mr. Glover should own absolutely the new house ; but the motion was opposed by Samuel Marshfield, Henry C'hapin, Luke Hitchcock, George Colton, and many others. Before the work on the house was completed it was found that the vote was illegal ; the dissidents subsequently carried the day, and secured the control of the ministry lot, attempting to placate Mr. Glover by vot- ing him £100 in lieu thereof. This was not so blinding an offer as might at first appear, seeing that the inhabitants were far in arrears to Mr. Glover on his regular £80 stipend. But the town-meeting ac- companied the appropriation with a direction to the deacons to col- lect the ministry rates and deliver them to Mr. Glover personally. Peace was not purchased even at that price ; they were subsequently (February, 1679) burdening themselves with material for fortifying Mr. Glover's house against the Indians. Mr. Glover proposed an appeal to the General Court to determine the title to the ministry house and lot, which was agreed to ; the General Court (October, 1681) decided that the property belonged to Mr. Glover, and that the latter should be paid its full value ; the town offered (March, 1682) to give Mr. Glover satisfaction in land elsewhere ; but this not being to Mr. Glover's liking, other land was eventually set apart for the ministry (1683) by the dubious vote of 27 to 23 ; and thus mat- ters stood at Mr. Glover's death in 1692, which was a signal for an- other attack upon the Glover property. Mr. Glover's son stood out as best he could, but finally gave way. He offered to sell for £700 ; 182 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. tliib proposition was declined, and the matter was given out to arbi- tration, when the purchase price was fixed at £350. The payment of this sum, mainly in land, was another source of trouble ; but that does not concern us. The town had attained their end, and estab- lished a permanent residence for the minister, whoever he might be ; but, frankly, the means employed to recover the house of Mr. Glover was no credit to the community. Victory Sikes was the contractor of the house, and the cost was about £100. One would fancy that the burdens of rebuilding the town would have crowded the matter of education to the background. It cer- tainly did not crush it out. In 1G77, " admittance & entertainment" was granted to AVilliam ^Madison, schoolmaster, " he taking three pence of those p weeke whom he teaches to read English, ^ four pence p weeke of those he teaches both to read & write, also four pence of those whom he teaches writing wholh^ : the Parents or Per- sons being to allow not more : But the Town for this j^ear as an en- couragment to Him in the work doe agree to allow him y^ Rent of y^ Town land In Chickupy." Daniel Benton began his teaching here the year following, his stipend being £20. They temporarily set apart the " watch house to y^ New meeting house " for his school-room. Mr. Benton taught domestics as well as children at this time. In June, 1679, Thomas Stebbins, Jr., contracted to furnish timber for a school-house, 22 x 17 feet, framed, clapboarded, shingled, and fur- nished with a '' mantle-tree " and a '^ rung chimney." A court-house was built later. That was the order, — first the meeting-house, then the school-house, and finally the court-house. It had been voted in May of 1679 that " there should be an house erected for that noble designe & use of Learning the youth in those so necessary pieces or parts of Learning : Videl : reading & writing." The site of the school-house was subsequentl}^ ordered to be '' somewhere in the lane going to the upper wharf e " (Cypress street) . The watch-house seemed to dis- appoint expectation, and the schoolmaster gathered his flock of chil- dren and servants in Goodman Mirrick's house. Goodwife ^lirrick SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 183 was somewhat of a teacher herself. When the frame for the school- house was being put up, all the young men to be found assisted at the work, after which they repaired to Ely's tavern. The town footed the bill. John Richards was schoolmaster here in 1683, and two years later the town bought the house built by Edward Stebbins, and sold to Samuel Ball for a school-house. Fines were imposed for neglect to send children to school, and all were enjoined to send both children and servants. The County Court in session at Springfield in September, 1690, entered the following: — The selectmen of the town of Springfeild being presented to y^ Last court at Northampton for y^ want of a School to teach children in their town & on ap- pearing in Court & informing that since they have gott an able schoolmaster & that ye affairs goe on to advantage soe they were discharged. In January, 1694, the town empowered the selectmen to hire the schoolmaster, a circumstance worthy of note, as it was no unusual thing to elevate to the position of selectmen men who could not write. Miles :\rorgan was an example. His " mark " was a rudely drawn anchor. Were we making a special study of taxation and tlie adjustment of public burdens, much iuteresting matter would be found at this period. The town's " country " tax was often paid in corn, it being forwarded in 1680 by water at a cost of about £3. It seems that five years later money was insisted upon at the Bay ; but Springfield and Suffield secured a special permit to continue to pay in corn at a re- duction of one-third of its market value. But the court, in granting this concession, took occasion to rebuke both towns for '^ sundry expressions " in their petition which " doe deserve sharpe reproafe." Springfield was an applicant again in 1684 for a corn-paid tax, and the following year the town voted : — Whereas the Town did pass a Vote to pay Sam" BHsse Jun^, Constable the Country money Eate in Corne at Country price, wth an addition of halfe so 184 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. much more, & accordingly did pay the money Kate to s"^ Constable, that is the Major Part of the Town did so pay, & principally in Indian, w^^'^ at prsent is extrearae Low at the Market : It is voted & concluded that Each man do again receiAe his Corne paid upon s'' Account. & that the Town Avill save harmless said Constable from the Country treasurer by reason of any Warrant fro him, & the Constable to appoint to redeliver the Corne \^^ as aforesd. The county continued to have trouble in adjusting its tax rates. The tax-assessors at one time allowed the tax to dwindle down by abusing their prerogatives in striking from the lists men in ill-health or extreme poverty. The court was, in consequence, forced to order (1691) that " all y*" rateable heads in this County by y*' Selectmen & Constable in y*" severall towns bee layed upon as others except such as are verry poor & impotent that be at the selectmens judgment for the discharging of the sum or sums of money or other pay," etc. The smaller towns were frequently in distress about the way the taxes were imposed. Westfield protested (1()92) against its public burdens, but the County Court turned a deaf ear. Suffleld was un- easy under a land tax (1691), and the court included cattle and per- sonal property ; Sutfield was still unhappy, and wanted a repeal of the order (1692), but the judges would not yield. The court at this time was perplexed about a highway through the western meadow across Agawam river to Suffield, and after appointing a committee (1691) from the various towns to lay out the road expressed a hope that this would be the last heard of the dispute. At this session also a ferry was established over the Connecticut, *' against y'' house of J no Alline of Suffleld," the latter to be ferr^'uiau, and to charge 4c?. per horse and 2cl. per man as toll. The County Court by this time had become the dispenser of liquor licenses, the licenses being granted upon recommendation of the selectmen of the various towns. The court kept a sharp eye u^jon these taverns, and it is sad to relate that Nathaniel Ely was a sufferer thereby. Having been convicted of selling cider to the Indians, it was recorded (1681) : "The Courte taking notice of his Ingenuity in Confessing his fault & being de- SrRIXGFIELD, J6S6-1S86. 185 siroiis to enconrige others to such ingenuit}^ doe Dot fine hmi ; " but they admouished him to do better. Ten years later Springfield desh-ed another retailer of strong drink, and Lu!:e Hitchcock secured the privilege, on condition that he refrain from selling to " children, servants & extravagant Persons, & expecting & requiring that he take effectual care that no customer do git tippling in his house & be circumspect to prevent al abuses of the creature/' Sanniel Bliss was also in court for selling Avithout a license. Speaking of drunkenness at this time, the judges remarked, " av^'' sin abounds." John Dor- chester offered, in 1684, to act as ferryman upon condition that he be allowed to sell strong drink and be freed from military training. This was not granted him. The ferry Avas opposite his own lot. Cases of Sabbath-breaking continued to appear. One offender was discovered emerging from the Avoods with a deer on his horse one Sabbath afternoon, and he ansAvered for the offence before the solemn justices. Another man Avas presented at the court " for Neglecting y*^ Publique "Worship of God & hee Petitioning this court pleading his sickness Weakness and Avant of Cloaths this Cold Winter this court ordered y^ the Avorshipful Coll Pynchon to send for him before him & admonish him," etc. Here are added tAvo extracts from the county records of special cases. The first is dated September, 1685 : — Mark Gregory, one of y*^ Robbers that were soe troublesome & injurious to this Countie hist summer appeareing in this Courte & it being evident that diverse charges are to be satisfyed for by sd Gregory viz 30s to M^. PeUvtia Glover Jur for the cureing of his wounded heade & 2£ 12s to Fearenot King for sundry things stolen out of his house & to diverse other persons thier charges, this Ceurte being desirous to use all encourageing Clemency tc s'^ Gregory have adjudged sayd Robber Mark Gregory to be sold for 12£ to defray such charges or damages as he hath occasioned, etc. The second extract is from the record of the County Court held at Springfield in September, 1691 : — 186 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. In Sept Court 1691 at Springfield Michal Towsley & Mary his Wife & their (laughter Mary being all presented to this Courte for diverse missdemeanors & all appearing and each of them haveing beene examined before the Worship'^ CoU'^ P\'nchon & the diverss examinations, witnessess & testimonys being read in Courte, the Courte doe judge them all to be guiltie accordding to y*^ Respective testimonys of the crimes Avitnessed against them viz of lying of stealing & of killing creatures or some creatures of some Neighbors & of threatening some of tlieir neighbors or expressing such things as that their Neighbors are afraide of grievious Mischiefs to be done to y'^ by ye s^ presented partys. This Courte there fore to Beare due Witness against such Spitefull, dangerous & to be ab- horred practices due ajudge as ffolloweth, & first since they finde y^ y^ Daughter named Mary is guiltie of lying especially in that she charged her father before authoritie as killing & stealing & teaching her to steale & againe denying her confession before this Courte, the Courte do adjudge her to be well whipt on y^ Naked Body Avith eight lashes Avell laid on & otherwise the Courte doe order yt the Selectmen of Suffield doe take effectaal care to have s^' Mary put out to some meete person to service with whome she may be Avell educated the child herself saying that she cant doe better or reform while she continues with her parents or father ; & as to y^ Woeman wife of s^ Townsley the Courte doe finde her Guiltie of desperate speaches & threatening burning to her Neighbors to the great disquietude of y'" & doe ajudge her to be Avell whipt on y^ Naked Back Avith ten lashes. And to Michael Townsley this Courte finds him Guiltie of felo- nious practices taking away his neighbors goods and in particular killing some swine or one swine at Least this Courte doe adjudge him to be well Avhipt on y^ naked Body with 15 lashes & that he pay all charges respecting y^ prosecuting him for his heyneous crimes & particularly y* he pay James King 20s & EdAvard Burlinson 20s & y'' Courte further ajudge the s^^ Michael ToAvnsley & Mary his Avife to be bound in y^ sum of ten pounds apiece for their good behavior during the pleasure of the Courte. There was just one local touch of witchcraft which at this time was settling like a black cloud on the eastern shores of the colon3^ Mary Randolph, of Northampton, was put under bonds to appear and answer the charge of being a witch ; but this is the last that was heard of her case. There are occasional references to slaves. One, known as " Jack," escaped from Wethersfield, was caught and lodged in the Springfield jail in 1680. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 187 Nathaniel Burt, of the board of selectmen of 1678, resigned in July because he was not a freeman, and his l)rother, Jonathan Burt, was chosen in his place. The record as to this matter begins : "It was pprounded y' being some scruple made concerning the Selectmen's Acts, because the Major part of y"^ are not freemen according to order, Avhether y*' Town would not rectify y'' same." The General Court, ui obedience to the royal proclamation of April 27, 1678, ordering all subjects to take the oath of allegiance, directed the various magistrates to administer \ it forthwith ; accord- ingly John Pynchon performed that duty to the following inhabitants of Springfield on December 3, 1678, and January 1, 1670 : — Pelatiah Glover, Robert Ashley, Samuel Marshfield, Benjamin Parsons, Jr.. Lieut. Thomas Stebbint John Lamb, Japhet Chapin, Thomas Day. John Stewart. Samuel Bliss, John Scott, Jonathan Ashley, James Dorchester, Joseph Leman. Thomas Colton, Nathaniel Sikes, John Bagg, John Barber. Jr., William Brook, Samuel Bliss, Edward Stebbius, John Holyoke. George Colton, Thomas Mirrick, Jonathan Burt, Miles Morgan, William Branch, Nathaniel Burt, Samuel Eh , James Warriner. Jonathan Taylor, John Ha r man, Joseph Ashley. Thomas Cooper, Isaac Colton, Increase Sikes, James Sikes, Obadiah Miller, Charles Ferry, John Matthews. Thomas Stebbins, Benjamin Stebbins, Daniel Denton, Anthony Dorchester, John Duml)leton, Rowland Thomas, Henry Chapin, John Clark, Rice Bedortha, Nathaniel Pritchard, John Hitchcock, John Bliss, John Petty, John Dorchester, Edward Foster, Ephraim Colton, Victory Sikes, John Riley, John Barber, Samuel Ferry, Abel Wright, Joseph Stebbins. In order to avoid disputes about laud titles a vote was passed in January, 1685, that " al former grants of Land w"Hu this Township 1^^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. of Springtield to each & every singular Person in this Town have been, were & are to them & their heirs for ever." This was passed in order to put the town grants upon the same legal basis as a deed. This was a death-blow to the system of land communism. After many disagreements, Springfield and Northampton, in April, 1685, settled upon a pine-tree south of Stony Brook near the " upper greate Falls " about forty rods from the river to mark the east and west line between the towns. The tree was inscribed with an " SP,'* '' Nt," and an "A," and was long known as the "Accord Tree." By the colony records we learn that the line, by agreement, ran to the " great barr of the ffalls, — that is, about the first great barr, — next to Northampton." From here the line ran west two and a half miles, south half a mile, thence west to a point nine miles from the river. Northampton was given liberty to fish at the " lower great fall, in the Springfield bounds, without any molestation from Springfeild men," as well as use of the highway to the boating-place below the falls. In February, 1685, there was a general apportionment of lands on account of an extra land-grant by the General Court. Liberal amounts were first reserved for the ministry and the schools. Mr. Glover was remembered in the list of apportionments. The land was made up in divisions, and it was ordered that it " shal be by Casting of Lots." The land divisions were by estates and polls, wliich were " esteemed In the Rate at twelve pounds p Pole & that al Male chil- dren under age be valued as Ratable Poles : viz : 12£ p Pole." The list of lots, including the portions for the ministry and the school, comprised 125 names. This is known to the surveyors as the " Out- ward commons." The license for the "fishing Places on Agawam River & Chi- kuppi River" were given in 1685 to Deacon Burt, Miles Morgan, Thomas Mirrick, and several others. In 1687 Henry Chapin headed the list of those specially pri%ileged to fish m Chicopee river so far as " Schonungonuek fal or Bar." They could make also " Wards for catching of Fish." Henry Chapin's brother Japhet was interested SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 189 with John Hitchcock, Nathaniel Foot, and others, in a saw-mill which the town authorized them to build at Schouungonuck falls, ^'provided they came not on y" Town side of a straight Line drawn from the Head of Hog pen dingil to dirty Gutter." There were scores of minor doings touching town affairs, the nar- ration of which would prevent a reference to more important matters. Every mhabitant was required (1680) to keep at least three sheep. No one could employ an Indian on his farm (1686) without a special permit. The premium was finally (1688) taken off of wolves and put upon bears, which had been making sad work with the swine. The selectmen were authorized to choose hay wards in 1684, as well as a ferryman ; and in the following year they were prohibited from making any public contract above £20, without consulting the town. A fine was imposed upon persons who prepared tar not " marchant- able." The accession of William and Mary to the throne of Great Britain, in 1689, precipitated a war with France. The French, aided by many Indians, made excursions into New England, and King William's war, which in reality began before the death of King James, was at- tended by many harrying scenes. In the latter part of July, 1688, five friendly Indians were killed at Spectacle pond, about ten miles east of Springfield. Deeds of blood were also reported up the river, and toward the east. John Pynchon was kept pretty busy sending aid to exposed points, as the following entries made by him show : — Aug. 17, 1G88. Being y'^ same day y' tidings came to me which was yt North- field A^as invaded, I sent Post to Quabaug. viz. Tho. Powell -which is 2 days & Horse. Aug. 17. I sent away Lieut. Tho. Colton with IG soldiers from Springfield to Northfield, to surprise & take y^ Indians & pursue y'" etc, who were upon y« ser- vice 6 days - which is 96 days 96 horses. The Lieut, is besides himself & Horse 6 '^ 6 Aug. 19. I sent 6 men Quabaug, y« people there being about to remove, or- dering^and requiring their continuance, only I sent to fetch ofe such women as 190 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. desired to come away. The men sent were Tho. Powell, Eben GraAes, John Stiles, James Petty, Joseph Petty & Tho. Gilbert, who were in y^ service 2 days apiece and horses Avhich is 12 days 12 horses. I sent 2 lbs. Powder & 6 lbs. Bullets to Quabaug. Aug. 3. Hezekia Dickinson Post from Brookfield with Caj)t. Nicholson's sec- ond letter : one day coming Oif one day back, & y*^ extremity of y^ wet made it a day more, so he is to be allowed for his horse & himself which is 3 days 3 Horses. Sept. 4. To entertaining a Post, and to quartering of tAvo soldiers sent from Quabaug for provisions, them selves and horses. Sept. 5. I sent to Quabaug 5 bushels of Indian corn etc. Sent two firelock guns to Quabaug etc. Sept. 11. Joseph Marks Avas ordered to Northfield for 1 Aveek, & Avith 4 fire- lock guns. Pynchon, ten days later, seuta company, nnder command of Henry Gilbert, to the relief of Brookfield, with provisions and arms. Early in October Sir Edmund Andros started from New York for Boston, Avhere he Avas destined to have a taste of what an American crowd with a notion of colonial rights could do when put to it. John Pynchon had held for nearly three years the position of counsellor by Andros's appointment, and Sir Edmund arrived at Springfield about the 12th of the month. There was a conference between the two men, but nothing is known of the business transacted between them. Sir Edmund visited Northampton before proceeding to Boston and his fate. We will speak presently of John Pynchon's negotiations with the Indians, but will here mention that his past experience as a negotiator caused his selection to head a commission to visit Albany and ar- range a treaty with the Macquas. The party, ten in number, left for the spot in August, 1689, and were gone one month. A treaty was duly made. Another invasion of the Canadian French and Indians, in New Eng- land, in the summer of 1693, threw western Massachusetts into a SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886. 191 state of excitement again. Six persons were massacred by the In- dians, at Brookfield, July 27. John Lawrence started for Springfield with the news, arriving there late that very night. John Pynchon remained up all night, and by morning had a force of twenty-eight troopers, under the command of Captain Colton, on the road to Brook- field. Soldiers from up the river followed later in the day. Colton started north in hot pursuit from Brookfield, through thick forests and marshes, and in his eagerness finally selected a score of good fighters, lea^4ng the rest to bring on the exchanged horses, and over- took the savages at breakfast. He made the attack ; killed half a dozen or more, and captured nine guns, twenty hatchets, and about twenty horns of powder, as well as recovering a captive man and woman. Although Mr. Pynchon in his official report said of this exploit, " 'Tis God, not our 20 men, that hath done it," it will not be amiss to say that Captain Thomas Colton, with almost an Indian's instinct in following trails, and indomitable pluck, was a worthy in- strument in the hands of Providence in saving the town from greater disaster. The plunder was divided among Colton's men, the State adding £1 for each soldier, and £10 to the valiant Captain, in recog- nition^ of ser^'ices rendered. It is said that an Indian in ambush once took aim at Colton, but finally concluded not to shoot, fearing that he might not hit the Captain, and thus be despatched himself in short order. Just before this fight two Indians in the prison-house at Spring- field, situated on the main street, made good then- escape, to the as- tonishment of every one. Pynchon sent out twenty men m fruitless pursuit. These Indians were from Deerfield, where they had com- mitted murder. They had, in some way, secured a file, and the clever manner in which they cut their handcuffs and gained their liberty was the talk of the village for some time. Pynchon kept a garrison at Deerfield and Brookfield for some time. In December, 1694, he wrote Isaac Addington, a member of the Council at Boston, about " continuing or quitting y^ garrisons at 1^2 SPRINGFIELD, I6S6-I886. Dearefeild and Brookefeild," saying, "I am loath upon my owne head to discharge y'", least — If anything fal out not well I should deservedly be Blamed." In March, 1695, Pynchon learned that the Governor had deter- mined to withdraw the soldiers from Deerfield. This caused great uneasiness ; and, in a letter to Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton (now m the possession of Charles P. Greenough, of Boston), Pynchon explains the danger, and adds: "I have therefore ordered Capt Partrig & Capt Clap out of Those 2 Towns viz Northampton, o. & Hatfeild, 3. to make a Present supply & assistance to DearefeUd upon U Holis- ter's drawing of his men, If they wil not stay Longer w^^^ I have motioned & desire, but almost despaire of it. . . . Dearefeild being a large Fortification cannot wel be secured under 32 men, w^^^ are more then can wel be afforded out of this Regimt & to many m my opinion, so f I humbly offer it agame to y^ Honors consideration & resolve of sending some men from y"" more Plentiful pts, & y- supply- ing & securing of Brookf eild who also have been minding me of their need of some help now spedyly." He soon writes agaui m his anxiety for Brookfield : — To Lieut Gov X Stocghtox Springfeikl March 22^1 169^ Honb^k sr I have already trebled y Honor to much wth my scrawls, having (besides former lines) writ two letters of this import wth in a Fortnight, so yt I am asliame to Inculcate ye same thing. But ye Importunity of my neighbors at Brookfeild who are now at ray house. Three of them overcome me & enforces me (at this time) to lay these lines before you, in their behalf only, whom (if they may not draw off) are irgent for speedy succours by men Placed there for their security, reckening themselves in apparent hassard of ye enemy & fearing their app^ch every day, now ye weather is open, & truly I am sensible yt ye enemy may have spite at ye place, & that they may need men there out of hand : wc^ though they Importune my sending now along w^h ym, yet I decline it for present, hav^e- ing applied to y Honor for y^ direction & orders, weh waiting for. I acco* it not Prudence to anticipate or act upon my owne head wthout ye same, since as I SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 193 have requested, so I am in expectation of y' more judicious determination there- abouts, concerning av^i I crave leave to say upon most serious thoughts (& dis- course wt'i y^' Quaboug men) that such a number as may maintaine y'' Place & secure y'", is needful, & whether less then men with a good discreate commander may be sufficient for y^ Purpose If an enymy assault y"^ deserves due con- sideration wich is wf' y Honor to conclud & direct in, & what ever that way comes to me, fro y honor, I shal Indeavor my best attendance unto, adding only yt for y Omitting of y™ at Quaboug I have told y'" y* I hope they wil have men sent y"i & a Garrison started there by y^ begining of April fro those pts By y Honors Countenance & authority, w^^ is as much — If not to much as ai present is needful, from Y' Honors humble Servt John Pynchon In a fortnight Pynchon writes that the Brookfield men desire that " my son may be the commander, & set over y^ Garrison there," which request is a " surprise " which " startles " him. Peace was not decLared between England and France until 1697, and it was sometime later when hostilities ceased in the New World. Armed men were stationed in each town to defend them in case of attack. "We know Indians are lurking about," writes Pynchon in September, 1695, " for besides some seen at Northampton, as also at Hadley, there have been some about Springfeild : tmce one hath been seen. But, upon any appearance, we range all the woods about : besides that, our daily scouting out 4 men aday on horses by Towns," etc. And this state of things continued even after the mother countries had returned to the paths of peace. The death of Rev. Pelatiah Glover, in March, 1692, left the Spring- field pulpit vacant for two years. Every effort was made to secure Rev. John Hayues, but without success, except for a few months ; and in November, 1693, Captain Thomas Colton and Sergeant Luke Hitchcock were ordered to go to the Bay to see Rev. Increase Mather, president of the '• colledg," and the '• reverend elders " at Boston, as to a minister. In January, 1694, it was voted to offer Rev. Daniel Brewer £70 a year and use of the ministry property, and in May Mr. 194 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Brewer began his ministry. He was barely twenty-five, and was from Roxbur}^ The strife between the town and the son of Pelatiah Glover did not end in any loss of respect on either part, as the son appears as a selectman in 1694, the others being John Dorchester, Joseph Steb'Oins, Nathaniel Bliss, and David Morgan. The town clerk was John Hoi- yoke, and the constables were James Warriner and Henry Burt. The selectmen had been empowered to nominate moderators at the town-meeting, and among the new offices that had crept into the town system were a sealer of leather, a clerk of the market, and a packer, ganger, and culler. The plantation of Springfield had been for a long time foster- ing settlements, which were gradually growing m importance. The southern belt of the old limits of Springfield was destined to be cut up into towns. Suffield, now a part of Connecticut, was first known as Stony Brook (1660), then Southfield (1670), then Suffield (1674). It was in 1670 that Captain Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke, Lieu- tenant Cooper, Quartermaster Colton, p:nsign Cooley, and Rowland Thomas were chosen a committee to lay out the site of Suffield for set- tlement. This committee furnished the usual rules for plantations, with which the reader is familiar. The Indian wars interrupted the plan of settlement, but the work of taking up hind was renewed after the declaration of peace, and in October, 1681, the Springfield committee was authorized by the Massachusetts General Court to convene the qualified voters, and to organize a town; the last meeting of the provisional committee was on January 2, 1682. Major John Pynchon conveyed the Indian title to the inhabitants for £40, in 1684, which was £10 more than he had given the Indians. Several members of Springfield provisional committee received lands in Suffield in pa}^- ment for their services in organizing the plantation. The great island m the Connecticut at Enfield Falls was given to Rev. Ephraim Huit, of Windsor, who at his death returned it, and in 1681 Massachusetts gave it to John Pynchon. In 1713, when it SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 195 was arranged that Massachusetts should retain jurisdiction over Suffield, Enfield, etc., the southern boundary of Suffleld was con- sidered the colony line, and Massachusetts deeded 105,793 acres of wild land in Pelham, Belchertown, and Ware in reparation. Con- necticut sold this tract in 1716 for £683, and gave £500 of it to Yale College. Before describing the cause of the little break in the boundary be- tween Massachusetts and Connecticut, it will be more convenient to speak of the settlement at Enfield, directly south of Springfield. In 1674 a committee, consisting of John Pynchon, Samuel Marshfield, Thomas Stebbins, Jonathan Burt, and Benjamm Parsons, were ap- pointed to apportion lands about Freshwater Brook. The Indian title was extinguished in 1680, by the payment of £25 to Totaps, alias Nottatuck, the sachem. The land ran from '' Asnuntuck, alias Freshwater river, on the north, down southward along by Connecti- cut River side, about three or four miles, to the brook below the bed of stones, wdiich brook is called by the Indians Poggotossur, and by the English Saltonstalls Brook, and so from the mouth of said Sal- tonstalls alias Poggotossur, to run from the great river Connecticut directly east, eight full and complete miles to the mountains." The part of p]nfield north of Freshwater river had been previously bought of the Indians, none of whom lived inside the purchase. The land granted by Springfield near Freshwater river had not been occupied up to this time. In answer to a petition submitted to the Massachu- setts General Court in 1683, this '^end" of Springfield was erected into a town under the name of Enfield ; and the above committee, headed by John Pynchon, was authorized to manage the town atf airs, until further notice. This committee delegated selectmen's powers to John Pease, Isaac Meacham, Jr., and Isaac Morgan in 1684, by which device home rule was practicall}^ vouchsafed to the new planta- tion. Andros refused to ratify this arrangement, and Enfield there- upon assumed charge of its own affairs. A town-meeting was held in 1688, but after the downfall of Andros the original Springfield 196 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. provisional committee resumed its f mictions over Enfield. In 1692 this committee, or rather John Pynchon and Jonathan Burt, its onl}^ surviving members, surrendered the books and records to Enfield, with their best wishes for the success of the new town. In October, 1684, John P3mchon had granted to Isaac Meacham the privilege of building a fullmg-mill at the mouth of Freshwater brook, a part of the consideration being the " yearly wel fulling & thickening of five and twentie yards of Cloth." The survey of the boundary line between the two colonies, made in 1642, and known as the Woodward and Saffery line, placed Enfield in Massachusetts. In 1648 Massachusetts ordered that all the land east of the river at a point twenty poles below the warehouse belonged to Springfield. It was many years before the dispute as to jurisdiction was settled. In 1713 it was agreed that each colony should retain jurisdiction over the towns they had settled, and that the boundary should run due west from the Connecticut river, from the Wood- ward and Saffery line, and that reparation should be made by con- veying by deed unimproved lands, in cases where one colony gained from the other. It was found that Massachusetts had appropriated over 100,000 acres of Connecticut lands by this survey. The survey was wrong, but Massachusetts paid upon that basis for many years. The towns of Woodstock, Somers, Suffield, and Enfield continued to protest against being under the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and even appealed to the king ; they finally gained their point. H. S. Sheldon, of Suffield, speaking of the break in the boundary', as appears now upon the map, says : — Simsburv and Westfield retained their ancient boundaries, being first incor- porated, leaA^ng west of the mountain a strip of land about one mile in Avidth be- tween the two. for Suffield. Our proprietors mourned the loss of that part of their grant secured by Simsbury, as it was supposed to be rich in mines of copper and iron. They were consoled by the Massachusetts Court, in 1732, granting them a township six miles square (now Blandford) as an equivalent. They sold it to Christopher J. Lawton, of Suffield, receiving but little therefor. SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886. 197 Our bounds, with Simsbury (now East Granby and Granby), settled in 1713, and perambulated in 1734, were reestablished in 1883. That part of Westfield pro- jectin,^ into Connecticut between the top of the mountain and the ponds was an- nexed to Suffield and Connecticut in 1803. The remainder (now SouthAvick), containing the ponds, is in Massachusetts, causing the curious notch in the boundary line between the two States. BriDitield was settled mainly by Springfield people. Colonel Pyn- chon headed a provisional committee appointed by the General Conrt in 1701 to lay out the town of Brimfield, and this committee, accom- panied by a party of twenty Springfield men, soon after visited the place for the purpose of settling upon a house plot ; but nothing defi- nite was decided upon. After Pynchon's death his son John took his place upon the pro^^sional committee. The town was not incorpo- rated until 1731. We have spoken of the part taken by Springfield in the organiza- tion of a town at Brookfield. The Indian wars broke up the settle- ment for a time. In 1686 we find John Pynchon once more at the head of a provisional committee to manage the town affairs at Brook- field, and they apportioned land the following spring. West Springfield had in 1695 thirty-five families, numbering two hundred and ten souls. The first petition from the west side for a minister was signed by John Dumbleton, John Barber, and Josiah Marshfield ; but nothing came of it. Upon the renewal of the peti- tion in 1696 a distinct disavowal of a determination to become a sep- arate town was made. It was signed by John Barber, Benjamin Leonard, Joseph Leonard, Jonathan Ball, Joseph Bedortha, Nathaniel Dumbleton, Ebenezer Jones, Josiah Marshfield, Isaac Frost, and Thomas Cooper. The latter, a large tax-payer, left Sprhigfield that year, and this was urged as a reason, among others, why a minister should be settled, as it promised to break up the west side settlement. The answer of the Centre w^as that the pine plain to the north was "mean land," that while the house-lots were on the east side, the rich lands were on the west side. To the argument that crossing the 198 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-ISS6. river to Sabbath worship was an imdue resort to labor, the petition continues : — Wee say most of them (west-siders) theire house lots do butt upon the greate River almost in opposition Avith our Town plott. As for theire Travell ; sure necessary Travell is Lawful on the Sabbath. As for servile labor : We count it as Lawful to Row in a Boate, or paddle a Canoe, or bridle and saddle an horse. Works of necessity, are works of the Sabbath. Where as they say it occasions unevitable discourse which they Judge inconsistent with the holynes of the day : We say if they find them selves guilty they must mend as fPast as they can and not bringe theire ffaillings for an Argument in matters of this nature. They say theire Children Canot enjoy gods ordy nances, but are under great temptation to rudenes &c the heads of ffamilies being absent &c. We say heads of ffamilies must see better to farailie goverment. In still another communication from the east side that year (1696) it was maintained that " The whole precinct of this town is as truly ours as the land of Canaan that was divided to the tribes of Israel was theirs." The petition of the west side was allowed in December 1696. The Ma}^ court, 1698, was again troubled with this matter. Persons renting lands on the west side and living on the east side refused to pay for the maintenance of the west-side minister. Again, when Mr. Brewer was settled, the town agreed to give him £100 in addition to his annual stipend. This the west-siders would not pay, after they had been given permission to maintain a separate minister. These matters went up to the General Court, and the west side was directed to pa}^ its share of the £100, while all tenants on the west side were directed to pay their ratings for the west-side minister and church. The figure of John Pynchon stands out in the latter part of the eighteenth century like a fair monument in a rude land. While the hardest worked man in western Massachusetts, not a word reflecting upon his honor has come down to us. He had a placid disposition, a dignified bearing, and yet was as tender-hearted as a woman. He was a town organizer, a maker and administrator and interpreter SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 199 of laws, and a student of trade and commerce. When John Pynchon visited Boston he took his place among the assistants in the General Court ; when he entered the Count}^ Court room, either at Springfield or Northampton, his seat was at the head of the bench of judges ; the town magistrate's chair was his chair ; and at the town-meeting he was always moderator, and upon training day he was captain of the company. He was Springfield's most distinguished citizen, and his services were in demand in intercolonial affairs as well. When it became evident (1680) by the repeated attacks of the Mohawks upon the peaceable Indians of Massachusetts that something decided must be done, it was John Pynchon to whom the Massachusetts authorities turned. Pynchon went to Albany to meet Sir Edmund Andros, and to deal with the Macquas Indians. He frankly rebuked them for breaking treaty agreements, and then made thera presents of blankets, shirts, rum, and tobacco, which " sweetened the hard speech" of the major. ^'Brother Pynchon," the savages said, " wee are glad that wee see you heere againe, like as wee did see yow four yeers past." A cordial understanding was secured, by which the treaty of 1677, at Albany, was reaffirmed. The General Court, in gratitude for the success of the commission, gave Mr. Pynchon twelve pounds, besides his expenses. The feeling of friendship, under Pynchon's personal influence, must have been deep, causing as it did these Romans of all the native tribe to say through an interpreter four years later (1684) : " Wee doe plant here a great tree of peace, whose branches do spread abroad as f arr as the Massachusetts colony, Virginia, Maryland, and all that are ni friendship with us : and lie in peace, unitie & tranquilitie under the shade of said tree." In 1870 an ancient oak fell in Longmeadow, under which, tradition says, John Pynchon used to hold conferences with the local Indians. Mr. Pynchon headed the committee for running the boundary line between Massachusetts and Connecticut (1680), for which service he was granted the " smale island in Connecticut Ryver, at & toward the foote of the ffalls below Springfield" (King's Island), was chair- 200 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. man of the committee appointed by the General Court to inquire into the condition of things in Maine (1681), was made one of the Massa- chusetts council of King James TI. (1685), was authorized to re- settle Northfield, and, as we have seen, usually headed provisional committees in the organization of neighboring plantations. But it is with reference to commerce and business that we are to see best the lines Pynchon's mind worked in. While making money for himself, he labored in a way to build up the town. He was the village merchant, the beaver trader, the land speculator, the farmer, the stock raiser, the mining prospector, the banker, and the importer and exporter of merchandise. A vote passed in April, 1693, by the town-meeting, excites the curiosity sufficiently to justify investigation. Encouragement was formally extended to a certain '-man that wee hear would set up Iron workes in our Town." It seems that John Pynchon never abandoned the notion that the hills guarding this river of ours were rich in minerals. This belief came from his father, who spent much money in prospecting. John Pynchon thought he had found lead near Westfield, and secured lands there. He was also so confident he had found valuable ore - nere to Millers River, above Dearefeild," that he and some associates in 1685 secured a grant of one thousand acres near by, upon the superimposed condition, how- ever, that they would form a settlement there with reasonable speed. As late as 1697 Mr. Pynchon was full in the faith that Springfield was to develop the iron wealth of the valley. In the winter of that year he made sundry proposals in town-meeting in reference to the " setting up & carrying on an Iron mill for the produceing of iron." The town gave Pynchon and Joseph Parsons of Northampton liberty to take and work "whatever Iron Ore may bee found anywhere w*Hn our Township." These two men made arrangements forthwith to build an iron mill on Mill river. The commercial aggressiveness which John Pynchon developed and one may say systematized here is of great moment, as it traces to its root-source a character and a reputation for which this community is SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 201 justly proud. Let us go outside of our calendar for a moment in or- der to pick the thread of business running through John Pynchon's hand for half a century. Pynchon had a warehouse in this town as early as 1660, where his goods were delivered on arrival from Hart- ford. We believe that this trading-house was near Mill river, upon the banks of the Connecticut. He had also a regular country store here . Almost every person, from minister to tlie hired hands, kept running ac- counts at the Pynchon store, and farmers and merchants from North- ampton to New Haven were in the habit of paying off men by drawing orders upon Pynchon for merchandise. The phraseology of these orders was by no means monotonous. Sometimes it was, '' I desire you to help y*^ bearer to provisions ; " or, " This is to order you to pay to ; " or, " Be pleased to pay unto my debtor," and so on. Brother Glover opened an account at the Pynchon store, and not only traded out Mr. Pynchon's ministry rates, but anticipated the money due from others by the congregation, which, it is sad to re- late, Avere often allowed to go unpaid until the town stepped in and made the minister good. Mr. Glover buys at one time ten bushels of " barley mault " for £2 5s., at another 9 J yards of lace at 7s., a firkin of soap, some " manchester beys," " dinity," ''locrane," and so on. Deacon Chapin's taste went to red shag cloth. Kersey cotton, and calico, and he paid for his merchandise in ox-hides, meal, corn, hay, candles, peas, carting stones, etc. Rice Bedortha buys among other things an Indian coat, a sickle, some cards, and so on, for which he ''daubed" ^Nlr. Pynchon's chimney, and performed other jobs. Thomas Cooper's bill ran up at one time to £681 6s. M. In 1659 Mr. Cooper received at Mr. Pynchon's hands a bale of goods directly from England, for which he agreed to pay £17. He failed to meet the bUl, and it seems some misunderstanding had arisen. Deacon Chapin and Mr. Holyoke arbitrated the matter, and tlie bill, somewhat reduced, Avas paid in 1661. Cooper was continually de- livering to Pynchon beaver, moose, and deer skins. He also aided in the handling of these skins, did some miscellaneous carpentering. 202 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. handed in wild honey, and drove hogs to the falls below. While their accounts mounted into the hundreds of pounds, they once went to law over a little matter of 17s. 9cZ., and the constable collected it of Cooper and delivered it to Pynchon. Mr. Holyoke was a more care- ful man, and kept his bills down to manageable proportions. Jona- than Burt met his account in part In^ drawing timber and stone, and by carpentering. Thomas Mirrick was often employed by Pyn- chon to cart goods from Hartford, and there are references to " sev- eral voyadges to Hartford " which were credited to Mirrick. Much the same thing may be said of Henry Burt. Miles Morgan bought from tnne to time shag cotton, calico, venison, razors, lace, raisins, sugar, " 1 qt of Sack," gunpowder, while the balance was struck b}' the sergeant by carting, slaughtering cattle, and sellmg produce. Miles killed as many as twenty hogs for Pynchon at one time. Sam- uel Marshfield delivered many beaver and moose skins at the Pynchon store during the year. Anthony Dorchester carried lumber, boated some, transporting hay and stuff across the river. Griffith Jones could tan hides, Samuel Ferry (or wife) could weave, and make ditches and fences, Francis Pepper could tend sheep and thresh wheat ; and so it went. Mr. Pynchon was a wholesale merchant as well. He sent hun- dreds of poiindVof merchandise to Joseph Parsons, of " Nalwatogg," and received back beaver skins, wampum, wheat, etc. Pynchon had accounts also with David Wilton, of Windsor, who would order £20 worth at a time, and pa}^ in agricultural produce, liquors, beaver, etc. Jonathan Gilbert and Philip Davis, of Hartford, and Edward Elmer, of Northampton, were his customers. Pynchon bought flour, wine, raisins, beaver, butter, etc., of James Rogers, of New London, and seems to have made up a cargo of wheat to offset it. Pynchon was a large purchaser of lands on the Mystic river, the Norwich side. He and Rogers at one time owned 2,200 acres of land in that region. We find also that Zachariah Field, of Northampton, William Clarke, of Hartford, and many others stocked up from the Pynchon cargoes. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 208 The trade in pelts, both from domestic and forest animals, formed the profitable basis for Mr. Pynchon's business. We will content ourself with one extract from the formidable beaver account : — Beaver packed for England & sent to M-- Henry Ashburst & M-- Nicolas Grigson. July 24th f I packed a lihd. of Bever qt as in my old booke : this Bever 1657. \ was most of it p"! according to my order into my father as p acct *- returned 1G58. r Packed 1 hhd of Bever marked T. M. No. 1 conteineth as f olloweth I 203 Bever skins (I thinke y^ Number is so) weight is 273 lb. (about Aug. 10th. J 30 lb. of this is Bad Bever : 14 otter skins : 32 Musquashes & Minks : 1659. 45 fox skins & racoone skins & a psell of Bever Cods weighing 11 lb. This hhd father had y'^ mony & it is charged to y^ acct betwixt him & mee. Mr. Pynchon was continually letting out cattle to his neighbors for a share of the returns and increase. He rented, sold, and bought lands. He took land and goods for debt, but was known to go as long as seventeen years before bringing suit on overdue accounts. And the suits were not always favorable to him either. In 1690 Pynchon sued Abell Wright for trespass, and moving and carrying away his grass ; jury found for defendant. He sells Deacon Chapin a house for £13 in wheat. He lets out to John Lamb '' that black cow of mine at his house for two yeares for w'^^ he is to allow me sixe shillings each yeare." He hires out his colored " maid Elizabeth Waite " to Samuel Ely, for two years, and his oxen " Collier" and " Russler" to Anthony Dorchester for one year. He owned cider- mills, saw-mills, grist-mills, wharves and warehouses, canoes and boats, and was also a ship-owner. He had tenement-houses on both sides of the river, and was always ready to sell, buy, or rent. Now he pays Deacon Chapin for " worke & Bacon to y"^ lead mines ; " then it \^ £8 " to John Bagg (by Mr. Winthrop his order) for 2 months work at y^ Mine ; " and John Matthews, who could turn his hand to coopering, gathered in £3 14s. for twenty-six barrels " for y' Lead." 204 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. With all these business and public activities Major Pynchon did not neglect his growing family. Joseph and John, his sons, were in Harvard College at the same time, as appears by a Harvard College monitor's bill, probably for the year 1664. Joseph graduated in 1664, but his brother John remained but two years. The monitor's bill is not very flattering to the Pynchon boj's, so far as attendance is con- cerned. Out of fifteen days Joseph was absent from three morning and three evening prayers. John was tardy four times and absent twice ; but both young men were present on the Sabbath. Joseph settled at Boston, and in 1678 his father deeded him one thousand acres of land on the west side of the Connecticut, in Springfield, Hat- field, and Deerfield, as well as all of his real estate in Wraisbury, England. The revocation of the colony charter, in 1684, was a seri- ous matter for Harvard College, but we find that Major Pynchon attended the meeting of July, 1686, when Josepli Dudley and the council appointed Increase Mather rector. The major was in those days accompanied to the General Court by Joseph, who was elected town deputy from time to time. As the major grew old and infirm, some special provision was made as to his safety in journeying to Boston, as appears from this vote, passed in the spring of 1693: "• The worshipful Major Pynchon Esqr being chosen the Towns Representative for the general Courte, for this year, It was voted to leave it with the Selectmen to se that he have a man to accompany him to Boston according as there shal be necessity." Pynchon continued each year to take the oath of office as judge. Here is a specimen of the record: " Court at Springfield Sept. 29, 1691 ColF Jno. Pynchon Esqr being by y^ Gen'^ Courte May 20 '91 invested with majestraticall power toke y'' C>ath in Courte." But the fulness of time had come, and the worshipful Major John Pynchon was gathered to his fathers. He died at da^'break, after a lingering illness, January 7, 1703, at the age, it would seem, of eighty- two years. There was an imposing funeral. A com})any of troopers w^ere employed by the Pynchon family to do escort duty. Several 9 6 2 9 8 2 1 8 5 (J 5 9 6 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 205 hundred dollars were spent upon this occasion, and sundry funeral meats and drinks, in those days allowable at the expense of the estate, were not neglected by the mourners. Hence the items in the accounts subsequently tiled : — p Downing, John Downing, John Barber, John Miller, 2d, Moses Miller, Timothy Cooper, Wm. M'Intire, Jr., Ebenezer Leonard, Dr. John Leonard, Abel Leonard, John Remington, John Worthington, Joseph Ball, Joseph Leonard, Lt. Jos. Leonard. Sen. (Deed estate). Moses SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 221 Leonard, Samuel Leonard, Josiah Leonard, Josiah Leonard, Jr., Joseph Bodur- tha, W'». M'Intire, Lamberton Cooper, Tilly Mirrick (Dec'i estate), Ebenezer Cook, Nathaniel Bancroft, Samuel Bancroft, Ens. Jos. Colton, John Barber, Jr., Jonathan Ball, Jr., John Stevenson, John White, Samuel Mirick, Eliakim Copley, Isaac Frost, John Frost, Abraham Frost, Benj. Bodurtha, Jonathan Bodurtha, Daniel Cooley, Daniel Cooley, Jr., Benajah Stevenson, John Fowler, Christopher Fowler, John Fowler, Jr., John Pengilly, David Smith, Capt. Jos. Winchell, James PhiUips, Thomas Smith, Luke Day, Joseph Sheldon, Abel Leonard, Jr., Benj. Sheldon, John Miner, Nathan Phillips, John Dorchester, Benj. Leonard, Thomas Bancroft, Rebecca Evans, Abel Marley, Abraham Adams, Daniel Ash- ley, Eldad Barker, George Miner, Jonathan Purchase. The highest tax-payers were Col. John Day, Ebenezer Leonard, Dr. John Leonard, and Lieut. James ]Mirrick. Constable Colton's list for Longmeadow property : — Capt. Isaac Colton, Isaac Colton, Sen., Ebenezer Colton, William Colton, Sam- uel Keep, Jr., Lt. John Colton, Ens. Samuel Keep, Ens. Thos. Colton, Samuel Colton, Lt. Eph. Colton, Thomas Hail, Jonathan Hail, Thomas Hail, Jr., Noah Hail, Capt. George Colton, Wid. Hannah Burt, David Burt, Sen., Samuel Crow- foot, John Burt, 2nd, Joshua Field, John Bliss, Thos. Bliss, 2d, Eben-- Bliss, 2d, Nathaniel Bliss, Nathaniel Bliss, Jr., Eph: Colton, Jr., Simon Colton, Dea. Jonath" Ely, Dea. Nathaniel Burt, David Burt, 2d, Eben'" Bhss, Sen., Thos. Bliss, Sen., Sam' Stebbins, Stephen Stebbins, Wid. Ab: Stebbins, Jonath" Stebbins, Aaron Stebbins, Timothy Nash, Ens. W"^ Stebbins, Joseph Cooley, Dr. Jos. Pynchon, John Steel, Eliakim Cooley, Josiah Cooley, Corp. Sam^ Cooley, Israel Cooley, Jolm Cooley, Thomas Field, Jonath" Cooley, Henry Wol- cott, Amos Stiles, Wid. Ab. Cooley, Joshua Atchinson, Ed: Pynchon, Joshua ^NIoseAvell, John Hail, Jr. The largest tax-payers were Capt. George Colton, Samuel Colton, Ensign Samuel Keep, Lieut. John Colton, Thomas Field, Dea. Nathaniel Burt, Shnon Colton, and Ensign Thomas Colton. We have printed the members of the Springfield church in the above lists in italics, so that it will be seen at a glance how large a proportion had kept out of the fold. Among the slave-holders of that 222 SPRINGFIELD, 1636 -1886. day were several members of the Pyncbou family, as well as Samuel and Ephraim Coltoo, of LoDgmeadow, and Capt. John Day, Lieut. James Mirrick, John Ely, and Benjamin Ball, of West Springfield. From the first parish records it appears that there were upon the rolls between 1736 and 1738 only the following in full communion. Quite a number in the list had withdrawn from the Springfield church in 1638, a majority of them going to Springfield Mountains, which eventually became Wilbraham. Alvord, Mrs. Noah, Ashley, Joseph, Bartlet, Hannah, " Jonathan and wife, " Miriam, Bliss, Mrs. Pelatiah, " Widow, " Mrs. William and daughter, Brewer, Charles, " Isaac, " Nathaniel, Burt, Dea. Henry, wife and daughter, " James, " Mrs. James, " James, Jr., and wife, " John, Jr., and wife, " Joseph's daughter, Chapin, Abel and wife, " Benjamin and wife, " David, wife and daughter, David, Jr., " Elisha, " Esther, " Hannah, (widow) " Henry, '' Mrs. Isaac, " Japhet and wife. Chapin, Jonathan, wife and daughter, '' Jonathan, Jr., " Jonathan and wife (of King- ston) " Josiah, " Thomas, Mife and three daugh- ters. Crowfoot, Mrs. John, " John, Jr., '• Thomas, Dorchester, Mrs. Benjamin, Eerre, Gersham, " John, " Samuel and wife, " Thomas, Foot, ]Mrs. Thomas, Hancock, Mrs. John, Harmon, Mrs. John, Hitchcock, Aaron, " Ann, " Mrs. Ebenezer, " John and wife, " Luke and wife, " Luke, Jr., and wife, " Nathaniel, " Widow, Horton, Benjamin, Jr., and wife, " Thomas's daughter, SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. 223 IngersoU, Mrs. (widow), Jones, David and wife, Kellogg, Widow K.'s daughter, Knowlton, Benjamin and wife, Miriam, Lamb, Hulda, Lombard, Mrs. Ebenezer and daughter, Marshfield's negro servant Dinah, Miller, Mrs. John, " John, Jr., Mirrick, Mrs. Capt., Morgan, Ebenezer, Munn, Nathaniel and two daughters, " Nathaniel, Jr., Parsons, Aaron, " Widow Abigail, " Mrs. Daniel, Mrs. Daniel, Jr., Pierce, Jonathan, Pynolion, Mrs. Col. William and daugh- ter, Sanderson, William, Sikes, Mrs. Benjamin, " Increase, " Mrs. Increase, Jr., " Samuel, Jr., '' Widow Thankful, Smith, Simon, Stebbins, Ebenezer, John, Jr., ' ' Joseph, " Mrs. Joseph, " Thomas, Stevinson, Mrs. Jonathan, Taylor, Elizabeth, Thomas, Sarah, Vanhorn, Elizabeth, Warner, Mary, Samuel, wife and daughter, " Sarah, Warriner, Mrs. Benjamin, David, " Mrs. Ebenezer, " Elizabeth, '' Joseph and daughter, Martha, " Mary, " William and wife, Webb, Cornelius and wife, Wliite, Mrs. (widow) and daughter, Williston, Joseph and wife, Williston, Joseph, Jr., Worthington, John and wife, Wright, Mrs. Henry. " Mrs. Henry, Jr. Waiving the names of the dead, and of those who had withdrawn from the church, less than sixty were church-members. Thus, much less than half the land-owners on the east side were in full communion, and they, too, not including the most important names in the com- munity. Men held office here who were not church-members in full communion, and these long lists we will be justified in transcribing, if it illustrates more fully the change that had come over the spirit of Springfield's dreams. The Pynchons and the Glovers were not rep- 224 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. resented od the male side, and even the wife of the minister, Eunice Breck, daughter of the previous minister, as well as her mother, were not members. Some of the best people in the community neglected to take the covenant. But how had the status of the freeman changed during these years? Jn the beginning, as has been said, no one in Massachusetts could be made a freeman but church-members. It was ordered (1634) that the General Court, only, should have power to admit freemen. This was followed up the next year by a vote prohibiting any but freemen voting in any town on questions of " aucthorit}^ or necessity," such as receiving inhabitants, and laying out lots, etc. There would seem to lie an implied right or privilege of voting on lesser matters. Thus a member of a training-band could vote for the officers, although not a freeman, provided he liad taken the resident's oath, and balloted for freemen only. The churches were warned to deal with those' who were not inclined to become freemen, and this not producing the desired effect, the General Court came to the conclusion (1647) that it was best to allow inhabitants who had taken the oath of fidelity to be eligible to town offices, even though not freemen, provided the freemen on the board, as selectmen or townsmen, should still consti- tute a majority. The object of this was to put a stop to the prac- tice among church-members of escaping duty as jurymen, constables, surveyors of highways, and the like, by refusing to become freemen. And to give point to the above order these men were visited with fines if the}^ refused to serve when elected. In 1658 it was ordered that regular inhabitants above twenty-four years of age, with an estate of £20, who had taken the oath of fidelity (not freeman's oath), were eligible as jurymen and constables, and could vote for select- men, a majority of the latter to be freemen. Church-membership, as to the qualification of freemen, was reaffirmed two years later. Now, the question is, could an inhabitant, not freeman, refrain from being a full communicant, and still vote in the prudential affairs of the town, under the above law? He undoubtedly could. All inhabi- SPBLVf; FIELD, 1636-1S86. 225 taiits were compelled, after reinaiuiiig two mouths, to take the short oatli of fidelity to the ]Vrassachiisetts government, and there was no church-membership re([uirement in this oath. But the King of England's attention to his obdurate New England dependency forced the march of events as to religious qualification. Charles II. wrote a letter to the General Court in June, li;G2, direct- ing that -'all the freeholders of competent estates, not vicious in conversacon, & orthodoxe in religion (though of different persua- sions concerning church government) may have their votes in the election of all officers both civil and military." This forced the General Court to repeal the law prohibiting all p(a's Ministers the Rev^' Wm Cooper, Wm Welstead and Sam^ Mather all of Boston in the County of Sufeolk, Clerks, and Wm Cooke of Sudbury in the County of Suffolk, Clerk, Now we say that the said Number of men liave set up and do assert the Power of an Ecclesiastical Council in this Town. And wliereas Mr. Rob* Breck has had a Call to the Pas- toral office of the Church here, tho as we apprehend not according to Law, and we have Exhibited agt the said Breck Sundry articles of Charge for that in Gen- eral he has broched and vented many articles of Faith wholly subversive of the most Holy Eaith of our Christian Religion, as well as been guilty of moral Immoralities, Now tlie said number of men having asserted the Power aforesaid do also assert their Power to hear Judge and act upon the said articles, although we say they have no Juridicial Power therein for these Reasons namely for that this Church never at all applied to those churches from whom they Respectively Pretend to be Delegated, Neither secondly can their be any Pretence that those Churches were applied to send in their advice and Council in those articles, but in fact so it is that the sd Mr. Breck has apply \1 Personally to them at his own election Avhile this Church did not know that those Churches were apply'd to. So that in fact they are here as they say Avith a Proper Juridical Power in the Prem- ises and do pretend to assert maintain and exercise the same. Now we say as much as they Avere applied to in no other manner but as above being Chosen Judges by Mr. Breck himself Avhile Ave are Deny'd the Liberty of Choosing others to Joyn them therein, is an Invasion of our Natural Rights as men. and it is a Method of Judging Avhicli neither the Platform of these Churches nor the LaAv of this Province or Nation do in the Least Countenance and therefore their Pretences thereto and Exercise of the same is against the LaAv and Peace of our Sovereigne Lord the King his croAvu and Dignity. Your Complainants therefore Pray for Justice. Springfld Oct 8th 1735. johx ayorthingtox' Ebr Warriner R. Harris O. COOLEY B. Wait D. Cadavell John Chapix H. Chapin S. Bliss E. Warner Jed Bliss L. Bliss. SFE I XG FIELD, 1 OS 6-1 SS6. 249 It is a curious fact that with the exception of John Worthington and H. Cliapin not one of the above men was in full connnunion with the Springfield church. A number of the ordination council appeared to defend the pris- The Reading of Mr. Breck's Confession of Faith. oner before the judges, and Mr. Clap was at once put on the witness stand. He was followed by Kirtland and others. That night Breck slept in the custody of the law. The next morning (October 9) the ordination council assembled again in Mistress Brewer's house and attempted to continue its investigation, the whole town being at fever heat and many people being present from the surrounding country. Clap and Kirtland refused to obey the summons of the council, the 250 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. latter gentleman saying that bis evidence could be obtained from the justices at the town-house. A curious episode took place before Mistress Brewer's house that morning. A copy of Breck's coufession had been secured, and a young man mounted a white horse and proceeded to read it to a large crowd, consisting of both friends and foes of the young minister. The crowd both applauded and showed signs of disapproval. One of the dissatisfied who witnessed the demonstration said afterward : "The old horse stood astonished at what was doing, and if he had had the tongue of Balaam's ass he would have reproved the madness of the prophet." It may be here remarked that Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow, and Messrs. Hopkins, Reynolds, Bull, and Ashley, with " a person of distinction from Connecticut," had come to Springfield from Northampton with the justices a few days before, and that the first plan had been to arrest the council itself, but two of the justices re- fused to sign such a warrant. It is also known that on Monday, the 6th, Captain Pynchon, Jr., went to Northampton with the complaint, and the plan to arrest Breck seems to have been decided upon suddenly after the plan to arrest the council failed. The closing scenes of this drama are soon told. Mr. Breck was ordered by the justices to be taken to Connecticut, where he had preached his heretical sermons, a friend being detailed to accompany him as a mark of distinction, and many of the sorrowing and indig- nant congregation following their 3^oung hero until well out of town. That was a dark and an exciting night for Springfield. Some rejoiced, some feared evil results, and some were bowed in anguish. The next day a public meeting of humiliation and pra3^er was held. The suspense was not long. The Connecticut judges had no notion of putting chains upon a Massachusetts congregational council. Breck was discharged, and he returned at once. It was the ordination party that now triumphed. Tlie action of these Hampshire justices was brought up in the SrRIXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 251 House of Representatives on the 'Jth of December following, and, after a long debate, the principal parties to the dispute were summoned to Boston on the 24th of the same mouth, in order that " this House may better Judge what may be proper for them to do in so Extraor- dinary affair, and for protecting and Defending the Churches in the free and peaceable exercise of those Libertys and priviledges which are secured to them by Law." On the 26th of December the House declared the council regular, and resolved that " Altho the Justices had Right by Law to Enquire into the Extraordinary Facts charged upon 3Ir. Breck, yet they ought not by any means to have Literrupted that Church and Eclesiastical Council while they were in the Exercise of their just Rights Enquiring into the Same." This is a very important decision, and is a stake in the great boundary line between the civil and religious jurisdiction which was subsequently more fully delineated. We soon find the Springfield church setting January 27, 1736, as the day of Mr. Breck' s ordination. Dr. Cooper came on from Boston and preached the ordination sermon. We cannot omit the fact that a few days later Islw Breck was joined in marriage to Eunice Brewer, Rev. Stephen AYilliams graciously performing the ceremony. Their engagement probably took place during the dark days when the Hampshire association was trying to drive Breck out of the valley. At the February meeting of the precinct twenty-three men re- corded their protest against the support of Breck, upon the ground that he was not an orthodox minister. They were Wilham Pynehon, Jr., Robert Harris, John AVorthington, Ebenezer Warrmer, Benjamin Wait, Ebenezer Warner, Daniel Cadwell, Jedediah Bliss, Samuel Bliss, Henry Chapin, Simon Smith, Increase Sikes, Jr., Abner Ely, Obadiah Cooley, Abel Bliss, Timothy Bliss, Pelatiah Bliss, John Chapin, Luke Bliss, Joseph Ashley, Thomas Horton, Da\Hd Chapin, and John Chapin, Jr. The dissatisfied were soon at it again, and subpoenas were sent 252 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. to all the Counecticut witnesses to appear at the May term in Spring- field. But INIr. Clap and Kirtland had no taste for further fight, and in a joint letter to William Pynchou, Jr., in April, they quer}^ whether a second Springfield journe}^ would " not look with the aspect of an unwearied pursuit of a personal controversie." This hint was taken, and we find the dissatisfied on the 18th of November, 1736, taking a receipt from the precinct committee for £6 18s., costs of court ordered at the August session. The young minister and a congregational principle had received recognition, and Rev. Robert Breck began a ministry which extended through half a century. It is an irony of events worth mention, that fourteen years later Jonathan P^dwards found himself compelled to make a plea against a council of local ministers to investigate the issues between himself and his Northampton church. He was reminded that in the Breck con- troversy^ he had taken just the other view, objecting to the presence of foreign ministers ; and his reply was that ordination councils and advisory councils were two different things. Mr. Edwards argued that churches were not obliged in every case to " submit to the neighboring ministers and them only." At the famous council of February, 1750, at Northampton, Mr. Edwards returned to the sub- ject by saying, among other things, " Mr. Stoddard & Mr. AVilliams of Hatfield, formally went, wdieu invited to a council at Norwich in Connecticut and, if I mistake not, to another Council at Lebanon ; which surely they w^ould not have done if they had thought the law of God and nature settled such an establishment in vicinities." And we may add, to complete the record of this struggle in church polit}', that Mr. P^dwards carried his point by securing invitations for min- isters from the east to join the council. It sounds quite like fiction, moreover, when we record the fact that Mr. Breck sat in this council, and gave the casting vote which dismissed EdAvards from his North- ampton church. Mr. Breck began his ministr}^ under depressing circumstances. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-ISS6. 253 Young as he was, however, he developed the very genms of diplomacy. In any new project of the advancement of the church he was quite inclined first to consult those most hostile to him. It is a great pity that the records are so silent upon the career of this remarkable man. He evidently had a broad, stalwart common sense which kept him from extremes. Hardly was he under way in his new work when Whitefield appeared in this valley. While no bigot, Mr. Breck proved him- self a firm champion of his creed. He had evidently little de- sire to see his people crying out in hysterical felicitations over an anticipated eternity of bliss. It was remarked along the valley that Mr. Breck rather snubbed young Mr. Whitefield, for the latter was yet under thirty. Mr. Whitefield's journeyings greatly stimulated the wonderful revivals in religion which were breaking over the valley. That Mr. Breck distrusted the effect of special religious re- vivals may be safely accepted as a fact. In later years one of his congregation openly said that Mr. Breck opposed the '' late stir" in religion. It is of passing interest to note that our contentious friend Rev. Thomas Clap rode with Jonathan Edwards to Boston in 1743, and that afterward Mr. Clap circulated the curious report that Edwards understood AVhitefield to say that he had a design of '' tm-ning out of their places the greater })art of the clergy of New England, and of supplying their pulpits with ministers from England, Scotland and Ireland." Mr. Edwards publicly denied making such a charge, but jMr. Clap reiterated it ; and there the matter rests. The discourtesy charged upon Mr. Breck toward the English Methodist is undoubtedly overdrawn. There is no sufficient reason to doul)t the statement made in the accounts of Whitefield's first Ameri- can journey, that he preached in Springfield in 1740 on his way with Jonathan Edwards from Northampton to East AVindsor. If Mr. Breck had refused the use of the meeting-house, and Whitefield had really preached, say, at West Springfield, it seems that the circum- 254 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. stance would have lieeii noted in the diaiy of the journey. Just as AVhitefield was leaving the village, on horseback, the animal stumbled on a defective bridge, and threw the brilliant revivalist over the animal's head. AVhitefield said afterwards, '^ ^ly mouth was full of dust. I ])lew a little, but falling upon soft sand got not much damage. After I had recovered myself and mounted my horse, God so filled me with a sense of his sovereign, distinguishuig love and my own un worthiness that my eyes gushed out with tears." His neglect to re- flect upon the Springfield surveyors of highways did his forbearing spirit great credit. AYe think that Mr. Breck's objection to Mr. Whitefield was of a later growth. Some years afterwards AVhitefield returned to America, distinguished, portl3% and richly dressed. The picture evidently did not please Mr. Kreck. In a Connecticut minister's diary of 17G4 is this: ''Mr. Whitefield came along; People seemed very fond of gazing on him. He rode in his chariot with a gentleman — had a waiter to attend on him, and Sampson Occum, y*" Indian preacher, who rode on one of the horses, there being three to y^ chariot. Messrs. Breck and Whitne}^ came and dined here. Mr. Breck said he did not know but I was right in asking Mr. Whitefield to preach ; however, he believed he would not have done it." Ellen D. Larned, who wrote the Histor}^ of Windham County, remarks after the above quotation, " If Mr. Breck of Springfield, always inclined to arminian- ism and heterodoxy, could thus scruple, it may be seen that the cau- tious pastor (Kev. James Cogswell) did indeed run some risk in extending civilities to the great pulpit orator." It was about the time of the second visit of Whitefield that Joseph Ashley, a member of the Springfield church, charged Mr. Breck with a refusal to admit into his pulpit Whitefield, Wheelock, and Dewey. The church promptly voted that Ashley had " manifested a censo- rious and uncharitable Spt towards this Chh and the Pastor of it." This, however, does not })rove that Whitefield was actually excluded at the time of his first visit. SPRIXGFIELD. 1636-1 SS 6. 255 These were trying times for the First Church. Mr. Breck went into the pulpit just at the turning of the tide in New England. The waters were broken by cross-currents, and noise and confusion were everywhere. Men's speech was changing. Old English words and phrases with New England meanings were in common use, while other words and phrases were falling into disuse ; conversation was more deliberate and cold. The ver}^ costuming of the people was peculiar. The Puritan garb was originally of thorough Quaker caste, the difference being that the Puritans regulated it b}' law, and the Friends made it a matter of duty. The result was tliat the broad- brim and the Puritan cap were gradually put away, and the three- cornered hat and lace and ruffles were growing in favor. William Pynchon died with a Puritan skull-cap hanging by his bedside, but his son John left a wig, and garments covered with gold lace. John Pynchon's sons wore cocked hats. The first and second generations of ministers were warm in their devotion to the principles of the Puritan. Whitefield found the third generation quite cold and undemonstrative. He even spoke of many of the New England divines as unconverted. He noticed in the Bos- ton congregations that "jewels, patches, and gay apparel" were commonl}^ worn by the women, while little boys and girls were " dressed up in the pride of life ; and the little infants that were brought to baptism were wrapped in such fine things, and so much pains taken to dress them, that one would think that they were brought thither to be initiated into, rather than renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world." There is enough in our records to show that in Springfield the same elements were at work. Arminianism and Calvinism were at logger- heads ; poverty and riches were on indifferent terms, and even vice and error were abroad in the fields. The First Church practised the half-way covenant, so that men might be admitted to baptism on the virtues of their grandfathers. Mr. Breck had been ordained but a few weeks, when a peculiar case came before the society. Daniel Par- 256 SrRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. sons, Jr., and wife, desired to " own y^ Cov* in order to have their child baptised. It was objected by some y' they had a child born wHn about seven months after marriage w'^ being consider' d by y^ chh, and after some time of consideration, It was on the 22nd of August put to vote whether y"' sd Daniel Parsons & wife should be admitted to the Privilidges y* y-^' saught for & pass'd in y^ neg." Daniel Parsons seems to have been a man of some local note. At any rate, in 1738, the town granted him liberty to build a grist-mill and a dam across the Chicopee river. But Mr. and Mrs. Parsons weie not content to rest Avith the refusal of baptism to their child ; and on the 18th of November, after much debate, the church, underpressure, laid down the ride : '' That every p'son having a child seven months after marriage w^''out any other proof or Demonstration of y'^ guilt, shall be call'd upon and treated as Innocent p''sons." This was simply a recognition of the old custom of '' troth-plight" or " hand- fast," which was practised in England to the Puritan era. In the " Christian State of Matrimony," published in 1543, is this passage : " Every man lykewyse must esteme the parson to whom he is hand- fasted, none otherwyse than for his owne spouse, though as yet it be not done in the church ner in the streate. After the hand-fastynge and makyng of the contracte, the churchgoyng and weddyng should not be deff erred too longe, lest the wyckedde sowe hys ungracious sede in the meane season." The First Parish, in the early part of :\Ir. Breck's ministry, put a liberal construction upon the rule requiring a declaration of convic- tion of sin on the part of candidates for church-membership. It was formally voted that it " did not look upon y'^ Making a Relation to be a necessary term of Comunion." It appears that AVidow Abigail Parsons, who wanted to join the church in full communion, was troubled in her mind about the usual way of making a " relation " of her religious experiences, and had desired to be excused from it. The Springfield church had certainly gone as far as the most liberal Congregationalist could have desired. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 257 It had admitted to the half-way covenant persons who entered into the Abrahamic covenant by virtue of the " relation " of tlieir grand- fatliers, and it had now admitted persons without any public "rela- tion." We cannot see from any evidence extant that the visit of Whitefield, the wonderful revivals of reli Drums for the companies, ^__ 8- 0-0 Springfield miniite-meu marched under Maj. Andrew Colton. The following company, which left Springfield April 20, 1775, was in ser- vice as a distinct company but one week and three days : — Gideon Burt, 1st Lieut., Walter Pynchon, 2d Lieut., Aaron St^el, ser- geant, William White, sergeant, Ambrose Collins, corporal, Luther Hitchcock, corporal, William Colton, 3d, fifer, David Justus Chapin, fifer, Lewis Chapin, Drummer, Jeduthan Sanderson, " centinel," Israel Chapin, Samuel Gridley, Alexander Bliss, Aaron Parsons, Jr., Aaron Ferry, Gad Horton, Samuel Bliss, James Nash, Abel Hancock, Geo. Wright, Jr., Matthew Lancton, Peter Colton, Jno. Stedman, Abner Russell, Asahel Cooley, Jno. Warner, Jr., Justin Smith, Samuel Edson, Patrick Nugent, Benjamin Parsons, Jonathan Ingersoll, Calvin Bliss, Henry Stiles, Luther Colton, Abner Cooley, Lemuel Parsons, Noah Bliss, Joseph King, Caleb Cooley, Zadock Bliss, Ebenezer Romerill, James Taylor, Spencer Merrick, Sylvanus Hale, Moses Bliss, and Joseph Parsons. Here is the muster-roll of the minute-men under Lieut. David Burt, of Longmeadow, and Lieut. Jonathan Hale, who "marched in order to assist our Brethren at Lexinoton : " — SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 283 Ebenezer Colton, Samuel Keep, Nathaniel Ely, Josiah Cooley, Abner Colton, John Colton, Ebenezer Bliss, Jr., Aaron Bliss, Samuel Smith, David White, John Ashley, Elijah Burt, Richard Woohvorth, Oliver King, Nehemiah Rumrill, Thomas Stebbins, Samuel Morgan, James Parker, Gad Lamb, Ebenezer Steb- bins, and Samuel Burt. Other men from this region who marched east on April 20 were Solomon Brewer, Jonathan Colton, Thomas Bates, Matthew Keep, Benjamin Colton, Jr., Abijah Edsou, Jno. Burt, Jr., Jacob Kellogg, Moses Harris, Josh. Kellogg, Jr., Oliver Burt, Robert Stevens, Jacob Chapin, Oliver Field, P^leazer Chapin, Jr., Medad Stebbins, Jonah Coole}', Simon Moore, Thos. Hale, Jr., Seth Storer Coburn. Jeduthan Sanderson, father of the venerable Harvey Sanderson, still living, wrote his father, Medad Sanderson, the following letter, which is now in the possession of Maj. C. P. Nichols of this cit}^ : — RoxBURY, June 29^^^ 1775 HoNORiD Father ater my regards to you i take this opertunity to let you no that i am Well as i hope that these lines will find you and all ray Brothers and Sisters i have Some news to rite in the fust place their was a [word omitted] between Charlstown and Cambridg and the Kings troops drove our men out of their intrenchment Becaus they had no powder and they have burnt Cliarlstown and have intrenched on Buncors hill and our men Have intfencht on winter hill wheir the regulers retreeted to Avhen the fust battle Was at Concort which was June 16"^ they fired the same day att roxbury and threw Bums And Carkeses in order to Set the street on fire but by the goodness of god they did not for Our men as Soon as they had Set it a fire would go and put it out and they fired No more untill last Saterday then thay fired again and tried to Set it on fire But they would go and put it out one of our men tuk one of the Carkises and Brot it up to the general before it Avent out and they set 2 or 3 houses afire But they ware as Ferce as a bludhown to put them out then the Rodeilanders went down on the neck with 2 or 3 feild peses and fired att them and made their Sentrys run to the brestwork and then they fired upon our Sentry and kiled two of them We are Building a fort in Roxbury and diging a trench a Crost the neck No more att present So i reman e your obdiant son Jeduthan Saxdersox, 284 SPRINGFIELD, 163G-18S6. Ill June, 1775, Dr. Benjamin Cliurcli, Jr., of Boston, and Moses Gill, of Princeton, met Washington and Lee in this town, at the old tavern on Elm street, in their progress to Boston, where the father of his countr}^ was to take command. A company of horse accompanied the party to Brooktield, where local soldiery did escort dut}^ to Worcester. Later in the year 177") many enlistments of Springfield men are recorded. The}^ scattered about in various regiments. In October Capt. Isaac Colton was encamped at Eoxbury (Col. David Brewer's regiment) with the following: Lieut. Nathaniel Alexander, Corporal David Miirphey, Corporal Mose Wait, Drummer Benjamin Colton, Ely Barrister, Stephen Hunt, James Ives, William Hancock, Abel Hancock, Thomas Ferre, Elijah Hancock, Joseph Parsons^, James Parker, Ebenezer Edd}^, and Moses Wait. David Lancton had be- come a drummer in the 8th Massachusetts, and with Captain Longley (Colonel Whitcomb) were David Powers, Solon Stephens, Asahel Stebbins, and Samuel Remington. In Capt. Gideon Burt's company (Col. Timoth}^ Danielson's regi- ment) w^ere the following Springfield men, who enlisted April 24, 1775, for three and a half months : — Gideon Biirt, captam ; Waker Pynchon, first fieutenant : Aaron Steel, second Heutenant; WiUiara White, Samuel Gridley, Ambros Collins, and Aaron Parsons, sergeants; Luther Hitchcock, corporal; Simon Moore, Samuel Bliss, Samuel Edson, Luis Chapin, William Colton, Spencer Mirick, Nathan Bliss, Caleb Cooley, Lemuel Parsons, Justin Smith, Aaron Ferry, Beriah Jennings, Benjamin Parsons, Jeduthan Sanderson, Matthias Lankton, Noah Bliss, Able Hancock. James Taylor, Jabez Cooley, Stephen Kussell, Theodore Smith, Frederick Col- ton, Ebenezer Puinrill. Abner Cooley. Justis Moore. Abner Russell, Benjamin Howard, Elihu Colton, Jacob Ward, Henry Stiles. Silvanus Hale, Moses Bedeu- nah, Luther Colton, Josejjh King, Calvin Bliss. Benoni Banister, Joseph Chapin, John Hendrick, Robert Stephens. David Chapin, Zadocli Bliss, Patrick Nugent, George Wright, James Nash, Arthur Hitchcock, Jonas Christian, Luther Colton, Moses Bliss, Jonathan IngersoU, John Stedman, Peter Coutson, and Ebenezer Martin. SPRING FIEL D, 1 636-1 SS 6. 285 ]ylany of these men were titled out by well-to-do citizeus, such as Abner Cooley, Ebenezer Coltou, Israel Chapln, John Worthington, Richard Woolworth, Aaron Colton, Josiah Chapin, Charles Pynchon, James Sikes, Daniel Chandler, David Burt, Stephen Colton, Phiueas Parsons Tavern, 1776. Stedman, Jedediah Bliss, George Colton, George Chapin, Zachariah Hale, Samuel BKss, Aaron Warriner, Joseph Stebbins, Justice Steel, and Luke Bliss. John Hale and William Pynchon, Jr., were chosen representatives to the General Court in July, and in November Thomas Stebbins, Jonathan Hale, Jr., Reuben Bliss, William Pynchon, Jr., and Dea. Edward Chapin were chosen to " take into C^onsideration the charge of Providing for the Souldiers and the pay of the minitmen." A com- 28^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-188 6. paiiy of Highlanders was billeted in Springfield from June, 1776, to the March following, and in July, 1777, Colonel Cheever had charge of the transfer of army supplies to Springfield, where it had been de- cided to establish an arsenal and supply depot. P^rom the town ac- counts it appears that he made large use of the local horses and wagons in this business. We have the voice of tradition that the news of the Declaration of Independence set the village aglow with enthusiasm. Moses Bliss, it is related, was coming from West Springfield with a load of hay when the good tidings met him, and he at once touched a light to the hay as the most ready way of expressing his delight. It is a thankless task to combat a pleasing tradition, and it would, indeed, be a misfortune to unnecessarily put out this little torch of patriotism that has so long flickered before our local firesides. There are doubts, however. Moses Bliss was not a man to be driving a team with a load of hay, in the first place ; and a very fair chain of circumstantial eWdence could be constructed to nail such a denial to the wall. John Worthington's toryism is beyond dispute ; up to the Revolution both he and Moses Bliss were active in town, and even state, affairs ; but when Worthington's disapproval of a revolt from the authority of King George found expression in a retirement to private life, Moses Bliss followed his example, and aside from furnishing an occasional vehicle or blanket or brass kettle for the soldiers, his war energies slept profoundly. His name almost disappears from the town-meet- ing records, and when it does rise to the surface it is but a reminder of a very noteworthy silence. In other words, if Moses Bliss had been a toi'y, he would have acted precisely as he did. At the annual March election of 1776 Edward Pynchon declined reelection as town clerk, a position he had held for so many years, and this office was passed down to William Pynchon, Jr. The town did a very unusual thing in spreading upon the records a vote of thanks to Edward Pynchon for his services as town clerk. The selectmen in this eventful year were ; Dea. Aaron Colton, James SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 287 Sikes, Dr. Edward Cliapin, Daniel Harris, and AYilliam Pynchon, Jr. The committee of safety consisted of Ephraim Chapin, Ensign Phineas Chapin, Moses Field, Daniel Burt, 3d, Moses Church, Capt. Thomas Stebbins, Joseph Stebbins, Thomas Stebbins, Jr., John Pynchon, and Joseph Ferre. The town-meetings in those trying days were held in the court- house. The names prominent in the doings at that time were not the best-known Springfield names, unless we except the Pynchons. This latter name came well to the front in the hour of peril. Take the year 1777. We find Edward Pynchon moderator ; Maj. William Pynchon was chosen representative that year ; William Pynchon, Jr., was town clerk ; Edward Pynchon was treasurer ; William Pynchon, Jr., was on the select board; William Pynchon, Jr., was an assessor; and John Pynchon a constable, as well as a member of the committee of safety. Here are seven prominent positions held by four Pynchons. In February, 1777, town committees of safety met at Northamp- ton, Robert Breck, clerk. Arrangements were made for sending supplies to the army. The convention (Northampton, 1777) called attention to the "conduct of inimicable persons" of the county who were '^ daily increasing," and declaring that the selectmen of the various towns '^ dare as well be damned as to draught them for the army, and that if they were draughted, they would rather fight against our own men than against our enemies." The town had also not forgotten the general concerns of the coun- try, and at the close of the year 1777 Dea. Nathaniel Brewer headed the committee on the proposed articles of confederation among the States. A committee dealing with such a weighty matter of states- manship, headed by a deacon, with a captain and a physician, making a quorum, felt a becoming embarrassment as long as two of the best lawyers of the State were in Springfield. It is, therefore, not sur- prising that they were applicants for some legal assistance. The town added the names of Worthington and Bliss to the committee, but both hnmediately declined to serve, and so another deacon was 288 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. selected. We canuot see wli}^ this does not throw a cloud over the politics of Moses Bliss, at least at tliis early day. But want of a professionall}' legal hand to indict the document did not stay the arm of the town. That la3nnan'8 committee had the spirit that broke through the embarrassments of a leaderless com- munity and led it to spread its judgment and devotion before the world. It was in February, 1778, when the town representatives received their instructions. Tlie}^ wei-e told that the subject was the "• most interesting matter that was ever, or perhaps ever will be referred to yonr Deliberation," — tlie proposed "perpetual union of the thirteen United States of America." The}^ were reminded that " the plaiijof Union laid before you is not to be Temporary but perpetual, and is so framed that being once satisfied it is no more to be altered without universal Con- sent." "An inquiry," continues this remarkable report, "by what unhappy defect or error in the Inherent Constitution of most of the nations of P^urope (not excepting those who have Bled for the defense of Liberty) are now fallen under so Despotic and Arbitrary gov- ernment, might aid you in forming a Judgment of the Good or 111 tendency of the proposed Confederation. ... It cannot be ex- pected that we the Inhabitants of this Town, many of whom have little leisure for Politicall speculation should be so capable of Judgeing in a matter of this intricate nature as you are whom we have chosen to represent us. We must confide much in you and your associates The representation in Congress appears to Us too unequal. Why may it not be proportioned to the taxation? To the unequal representation in parliament have been imputed more of our late oppressions. ... A Constitution Gentlemen should be formed upon a supposition that it may in some future period be admin- istered by Designing men. What has happened in Europe may happen in America. How easy it is for those who have the forces and money of the people in their own hands to Subvert a Constitu- tion and establish themselves in Power. We rather choose that the SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 289 Congress should only ascertain and proportion the sums necessar}^ for the Publick service & Lay the estimate before the several Legis- latures & that the Legislatures make grants for the supply of the Continental Treasury." In April, 1777, two battalions from Hampshire county were ordered to Ticonderoga. Soldiers were forw^arded from Springfield in short order, their families being placed under the special care of the town. Capt. Gideon Burt with Lieut. Ebenezer Coltou (Col. David Seward's regiment) made the forced march from Springfield to Ticonderoga. The Springfield men accompanying them were Samuel Gridley, Jona- than Burt, Ambrose Collins, Ebenezer Morgan, Ephraim Brown, Thomas Colton, Ebenezer Rumrill, George Cooley, Eestus Colton, Simeon Colton, Samuel Keep, Henry Colton, P^zra Stebbins, Will- iam Hunt, O. Hitchcock, .leduthan Sanderson, Daniel Bliss, Luther Vanhorn, Ephraim Chapiu, and Japhet Chapin. The nine-months' men drafted and sent from Springfield to Fishkill in 1778 were : — William Hitchcock, Justin Smith, Austin Brooks, David Bonner, James Mills, Israel Bond, Martin Smith, Ezekiel Chapin, Leba Bel- man, Abel Coburn, Jabez Crosby, Abner Russell, and Daniel Hancock. In Captain Rowle's company (Col. John Jacob's regiment) were the following Springfield men in 1778 : Capt. Nathan Rowle, Lieut. Enoch Leonard, P^benezer Bliss, Ebenezer Pumery, Simeon Colton, Oliver Hitchcock, A. Stephenson, Jonathan Stephenson, William Pepper, Gad Warriner, Timothy Hopkins, George Blake, Russel AUin, and James Howard. In 1778, in Capt. Phineas Stebbins's company (Col. N. Sparhawk's regiment) were these Springfield men : Na- than Chapiu, sergeant ; Rubin Ferre, John Ferre, William White, Moses Barber, and Moses Stebbins. During the summer and autumn of 1780 there were gathered at Springfield forty-three divisions of six-months' men, who marched from here as fast as they were ready for service. This was in accord- ance with a resolution of the General Court passed in June. In the 290 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. list was Capt. Daniel Shays, who commanded the tenth division. General Grover was the officer in command. Here are Springfield's six-months' men who joined the army in 1780: — William Hitchcock, Elias Hitchcock, Amaziah Sanderson, Noah Frost, Aaron Parsons, Alexander P21y, Gad Bliss, Moses Bliss, Jr., David Bannon, John Morgan, Thaddeus Ferre, George Smith, Oliver Field, Zachariah Hancock, Oliver Hancock, Jonathan Stephenson, Solomon Loomis, Gideon Cooley, Joshua Brooks, 1. Chandler, AVilliam Hancock, David Hubbard, Joseph McGreney. Springfield had, in 1780, three-mouths' men in Capt. Joseph Brown- ing's company (Colonel Murry's regiment), as follows: Isaac Steb- bins, Lieut. John Colton, A. Brooks, Corp. Nenoni Chapirr, Marsh Bissell, Consider Bement, Luther Smith, Moses Parsons, Jonathan Felt, Moses Hancock, Beriah Howard, Justin Bliss, Zenas Bliss, Samuel Sikes, Isaac Bliss. We find that there were, in June, 1781, seventeen Springfield men in the Continental army who had enlisted for three years, or during the war, as follows : — When Eu listed. Regiment. David Day, Jan.. "80. od Mass. John Stevenson, April, 79, - John Pease, April, 79, " Samuel Edson, Dec, 76, 11 Joseph Chapin, Nov. '76, li James Warner, Ai)ril, 79, " Zachariah Warner. March, 79, " Corporal Gideon Jones, Nov., 79, ■ith Mass. Simon Johnson, Dec, 76, " Daniel Stephenson, 77, " James Mills, June, 78, 5th Mass. Joseph Maxfield, Jan., 79, 6th Mass. Loyal Sanderson, Nov., 79, " Asabel Mighel, March, 77, 7th Mass. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 291 When Enlisted. Regiment. May, '79, 7th Mass, Dec, 76, " April, 79, Theodore Smith, Samuel Stebbins, Henry Stiles, Other three-years' soldiers during- 1781 appear upon the records, as follows : Wait, farmer ; Sutton, weaver ; Pooly, farmer ; Alpheus Hancock, farmer ; Jonathan Cooley, farmer ; Caleb Williston, farmer; Hanon Colton, farmer; Alplieus Colton, farmer ; Jacob Hills, wheelwright ; Joshua Brooks, farmer ; James Reed, farmer ; Joseph Dunham, farmer ; Titus AVelch, farmer ; Dan- iel Murphy, blacksmith : James Eaton, blacksmith ; John Fox, far- mer ; George Smith, shoemaker ; Micah Grant, farmer. It cost the town £750, in 1778, to raise and forward thirteen men to the seat of war ; but somehow the persons intrusted with the care of soldiers' families failed to do their duty, and the selectmen were given charge of this matter. This board consisted of William Pynchon, Jr., Dr. Edward Chapin, Capt. David Burt, Capt. Thomas Stebbins, Ensign Phineas Chapin. It took £21, GOO of depreciated paper mone}^ to fill the town's quota of men in 1780. In March of that year Capt, James Sikes headed a committee to inquire into the state of the town's militia, and to inquire ' ' how and by what means the s*^ Town have incurred the fine set upon them in the last Tax Acts and also to Inquire w hether the money received by the Militia officers in Consequence of Drafts or by Subscriptions has been appropriated for the purposes for which designed." There are stray reports in the old packages of documents preserved which seem to be the outcome of this resolution. Thus we have payments to soldiers dated three months later, as follows : — To David Bonner, $660 ; AVm. Hitchcock, $200 ; Alexander Ely, $100 ; Jona- than Stevenson, $60; Z. Hancock, $60; Aaron Parsons, 3d, $1,000; Moses Bliss, Jr., $1,000; Amaziah Sanderson, $850; Aaron Parsons, 3d, $200; Z. Hancock, $358 ; Thaddeus Ferre, $100 ; Noah Frost, $120 ; George Smith, $100 ; G. Bliss, $536; Noah Frost, $100; Oliver Field, $2; Moses Bliss, $120; Oliver Hancock, 292 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. $1,400; J. Stephenson, $62; Noah Frost, 8500; Samuel Sikes, 880; Moses Par- sons, 8150; Marsh Bissel, 81?280; Consider Bement, $1,280; Benoni Chapin, Jr., $1,280; Luther Smith, $1,280; Moses Hancock, $1,280; John Baxter, $200; Beriah Howard, $370; Jonathan Felt, 8350; H. Brooks. $300; Noah Warner, $1,280; Zenas BHss, $1,280; Justin BUss, $1,280. Here is a short list, endorsed: " Return of the Mens Names & the Sums of hire Each Man has Received in the Continental Service in the fourth Compan}^ of foot in Springfield Com'' by Cap^ Ephram Chapin : — John Frink, £(> ; Thomas Frink, £12 ; George Chapin, £6 ; Joseph Chapin, £3 ; Paul Chapin, £3 ; Justus Moore, £12 ; Simon Moore, £12." In 1781 there seems to liave been some contention about the beef quota, and after several adjournments it was agreed (February 5) that the appropriation be raised. A montli later the poll-tax of those in the army was remitted. In May, 1777, the General Court recommended the towns to authorize the next Legislature to frame a constitution for popular adoption. The towns agreed. Accordingly, in Februar}^, 1778, the General Court, sitting as such a convention, drew up a constitution; but it was rejected b}^ a large majorit}^ both on account of the in- strument itself and the bod}' framing it, — assuming, as it did, both legislative and constitutional functions. After due formalities the Legislature provided (June, 1779) for the assembling of another con- vention which latter adopted both a constitution and a bill of rights in March, 1780, and tliis was ratified by the people. This constitu- tion was declared the fundamental law in June IG, 1780. The representatives of 1776 were Dea. Edward Chapin, Moses Field, and Maj. William Pynchou, Jr., as we have seen. The fol- lowing year Maj. William Pynchou, ]Mr. Hale, and Dea. Edward Chapin went down to the Bay. Luke Bliss and AVilliam Pynchou, Jr., were there in 1778, tmd Col. Jonathan Hale, Jr., was substituted for Bliss in 1779. There was trouble the next year, probably on account of differences of opinion as to the State constitution. Pynchou SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 293 and Iliile had been reelected : Pynclion declined ; Luke Bliss was then chosen, but declined, and finally Thomas AYilliston was pitched upon, and stood, though not until he too had tried to avoid the service. In the autumn Dr. C'hauncey Brewer was chosen representative, and after he had declined, the town in November refused to fill his place. The year 1781 found AVilliston and Gideon Burt in the General Court. By this time was o]:)servable a distinct reaction, as ancient Springfield seemed almost l)ent upon a reminiscence, by calling once more upon John Worthington to go down to Boston. He refused to obey the summons ; so did Dr. Chaunce}^ Brewer ; and Col. Gideon Burt and Moses Church were chosen by a vote of 128 to 2. William Pynchon was chosen to carry the objections to the Bay. But it was too late. The convention had been adopted, and the election, under the new constitution, resulted in Springfield as fol- lows : " The votes for a Governor were brought in at s'd meeting & it appeared that the Hon''''' John Hancock Esq"" had 102 out of 113 Votes: The Hon''''^ James Bodoin Esq-- 10 out of 113; Mr. Reuben Bliss one out of the same number." AVe cannot but think that Air. AVorthington at this time was gain- ing a new^ hold upon his fellow-townsmen. The return to a law-re- specting or even a law-constructing spirit would commend itself to his legal judgment. He acted as moderator of the town-meeting in March, 1782 ; both he and ^Moses Bliss received stray votes for State senator; and in 1783 Springfield's vote for Governor stood: John Hancock, 50 ; John AA^orthington, 32 ; James Bowdoin, 7. But, before detailing the outcome of the financial distress and the political uncertainty that attended this period, let us add a word about purely local matters. In 1777 an alarming spread of small-pox led to measures to build a "' Cleansing House" near the pest-house, and for the complete isolation of these buildings. There is evidence of a cautious but wholesome sober second thought in the provision that the " Physicians of the Town be Desired not to innoculate any persons for the Small-Pox or give them any preparatory medicine therefor 294 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. without the Allowance of the major Part of the Select men." But the inoculation part}^ again captured the town, and that remedy Avas recommended. The First Parish was the greatest sufferer, but the proposition to set apart several houses for inoculation was not agreed to. However, during the following j^ear the sentiment had graduall}' changed, and we find the town appointing a committee to draw up regulations for inoculation. This committee, which included Jona- than Dwight and Colonel Worthington, recommended that inoculation committees be chosen from each parish, which should have power to license doctors, establish hospitals, etc. Jonathan Dwight headed a board to see these regulations duly executed. Several deaths from inoculation among soldiers had increased the popular distrust of that remedy. At the close of the year 1777 Edward Pynchon died at the age of sixty-five, and Jedediah Bliss at the age of sixty-nine. It is well to note that as early as 1778 John Worthington again consented to act as moderator of the annual town-meeting in the spring, and to continue in this service through the war. He also did not refuse to perform strictly local services. He examined the records of the "outward commons" to settle disputes raised by the settling up of affairs with Wilbraham ; he made the " proper propor- tion of the stocks " between West Springfield and Ludlow and the parent town ; and he was active in the business complications attend- ing the building of a bridge over the Chicopee river. This bridge, by the wa}^, was in part the product of a lottery. Three men of means — Worthington, Moses Bliss, and Jonathan Dwight — secured leave to run a lottery for this purpose in about 1782, and the town ordered the bridge built at once. The building conunittee was headed by Lieut. Josiah Hitchcock, and the financial committee were John AVor- thington, Moses Bliss, and Jonathan Dwight. The town appropria- tion was £200. This was in addition to the proceeds from the lottery, the limit of wliicli was £500. The tickets did not sell rapidly, and the town agreed to take all unsold tickets and to be responsible for the payment of all prizes. In March, 1783, when the Chicopee bridge SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 295 was nearly completed, tlie buildiiiii- eoininittee complained that while they had anticipated the earnings of the lottery, most of the tickets were unsold, and the town reaffirmed its agreement to take the unsold tickets. Meantime the selectmen were authorized to sell the bar in the Chicopee river. In 1779 the proprietors of the iron-works on ^lill river were granted lands and water privileges near by for a paper-mill ; but this was soon cancelled. These iron-Avorks were the first s^^mptoms of our famous Water Shops ; and it may be here noted that the first appearance of the name " United States " on our town record is in August, 1779, when a committee, headed by C'apt. Thomas Stebbins, was ordered to lease, at the request of Col. Thomas Dame, a piece of land to " the Treasurer of this State in trust to the United States." Five years later the selectmen were authorized to lease ground on the training-field for a magazine. C'apt. Joseph Stebbins ran a l^attery on the east side of North Main street all through the Revo- lution. He was a man of influence, and much respected. During the war market prices were carefully regulated, the list of prices of the necessities of life being submitted for the approval of a special committee. The town stock of salt was distributed at times by the selectmen. We do not think that the select board at this time was as important a branch of government as it had l)een seventy-five or one hundred years before. The tr3nng times when the monarchy ended and republicanism under constitutions began had restored the town-meeting to its ancient glory. This sovereign body met in the old court-house, was opened by prayer, and, we believe, still dis- missed with a blessing. It w^as sad to find in these gatherings men notably rich and notably poor. A deep gulf yawned between the two classes of men, and while the course of public business went on. now tinkering a State constitution, now authorizing 3'oked swine to run at large, and now building a school or a poor-house, men looked into the future with deep concern. There w^as a cloud over the Commonwealth during,' the Revolution that not even the "lories 296 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. of a struggle for liberty could dissipate. This cloud was the great confusion about property and finance. The community of land and the community of interest in market values, religious prerogatives, and so on, had fostered rather than hindered petty monoi)olies, that sprang up like poisonous dogwood in the shadow of the Puritan struct- ure. The Land theory of the Henry Georges of the nineteenth century, which was the practice of the seventeenth century in Massachusetts, was the consternation of the eighteenth century, and we can find here in Springfield how it ended. The common ownership in land, whether by the unconscious native or the followers of a speculative theory, is a step through which natives may advance ; but after a certain point this land communism is reactionary and mediaeval. A\^e have seen how tlie parent plantation, with communistic motives, soon by local gravitations divided up the land into common fields, the proprietors of which becoming regular incorporators empowered to hold meetings, transact business, sue, and be sued. These " com- mon fields " ripened into parishes and precincts, while these in turn became '' districts" and independent towns. The province first issued indented bills of credit in lODO. They passed at a discount of about thirty per cent., but as they were re- deemed in part they rose to their par value. They were accepted for "country rates," though for many years, as we have seen, the river towns paid their taxes in produce. A want of a circulating medium had forced Massachusetts in 1702 to emit "province bills," which were continually redeemed and reissued or burned until 1749. The duties of impost and excise added to the public rates did not equal the amount of the " province bills" set in circulation. Prop- erty, labor, and produce advanced in value ; or, to state it more accurately, paper money depreciated. In 173fi the bills issued were to be equal to coined silver at 6.s. 99 — S84,000 ! And the appropriations for IT'SO mounted up to £2(1,- 190 7.s>. 6rL— over 8100,000! The town this year (1780) had to appropriate £18,000 to pay its quota of beef to the State. The num- ber of men required was twenty-four, and the town, for some un- happy motives, was all winter getting to work. Meeting after meet- ing was held, and not until April, 1781, did the opposition give way. An extra allowance was granted the constables "for their extraor- dinary Trouble in collecting the moneys that may be assessed upon the Town for the Current year." Further requisitions for men and provisions late in the year were promptly responded to. An idea of true values is gained by this order, passed in September, 1780: "Voted, that the Treasurer be directed to receive into the Treasur}^ the new mone}^ emitted, at the discount of forty to one." The town had to pay £100 in specie the year following, to meet the loss " from the late, depreciation of the Continental money ; " but the accounts look much better with £160 for schools in place of the £16,- 800 in 1780. There was a long list of delinquent tax-payers upon whom were assessments in old Continental money. These delinquents were dealt with at the January meeting of 1782. Reuben Bliss was moderator. This town-meeting demonstrated that the blood-bought privileges and honors of self-government were not to be put on like a garland of roses. To meet the unpaid State taxes assessed in old Continental money, it was directed that Treasurer ATilliam Pynchon, Jr., issue " his warrants of distress upon the Constables that had the old Continental money Committed to them," and Pynchon was also directed to dispose of both the new money and the old Continental bills in his hands as best he could. And another financial matter of far-reaching import began to aifect the inhabitants. This was the excise act. The town-meeting dismissed this subject in short order by directing its representatives to " endeav- our a repeal of it." In the autumn there w^as a feeling of despair about back taxes, and a special committee, which had been chosen to examine the securities of the town in order to raise funds for Chicopee 300 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. bridge, was also empowered to collect their taxes as best they could. It had been estimated that the overdue taxes would rueet the £200 appropriated for the bridge. In November the constables were again threatened with "warrants of distress" if the}^ do not pay taxes assessed in paper mone}^ ; and things went on from bad to worse until 1783, when the twenty per cent, added to delinquents for taxes for the soldiers in the Continental army brought complications that will be detailed in a separate chapter. CHAPTER XIV. 1783-1787. The Debtor Class in Massachusetts. — Rev. Samuel Ely. — Spi-ingfield Jail broken open. — A Mob at Northampton. — Hatfield Convention. — Commotion in other States. — Views of Washington and other Americans on the Situation. — Unsuccessful Attempt to prevent the holding of the Courts in Springfield. — Town Officers. — Warrants of Distress. — Prominent Money-Lenders. — The Town-Meeting on the Situation. — Daniel Shays. — The Court Calendar loaded with Suits against Debtors. — Courts interfered with at Northampton. — The Elections of 1786. — Trouble at Worcester. — Mobs at Northampton. — Extra Session of the Legislature. — Shays makes a Demon- stration at Springfield. — The Town-Meeting again. — General Lincoln. — Lincoln's March to the Connecticut Valley. — General Shepard's Defence of the Springfield Armory. — Shays defeated. — The Towns send in Petitions praying for Peace and Pardon. — The Triumph of Law. The returu of peace brought grave responsibilities upon the shoul- ders of the American leaders. The Continental soldiers were poor, and the money was largely in the hands of civilians. The men who, by their valor, put property in New England beyond the reach of England found themselves bui'dened with personal obligations, and the fiercest conflict was precipitated between debtors who had borne arms and creditors who had not. This is the general statement, but there were other complications. A worthless paper medium, a sham- bling and ill-defined union of the States, a jealousy of military power, and wild visions of what the new American democracy could do, com- bined to still further torture the commonwealth. If 1770 was the time which tried all men's souls, 1786 was the time which tried the poor man's soul, for fully one-half of the citizens in the State were in debt. The multiplication of judgments, and the excursions of sheriffs in search of property to levy upon, embittered the people against the courts of law. 302 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Eveu before the close of the Revokitioii the spirit of discord rose to the surface. Rev. Samuel Ely, of Somers, Conn., with uncertain de- nominational connections and an unsavory character, interfered with the courts at Northampton in 1782. He was convicted and thrown in- to the Springfield jail, from which he was released by a mob. It was the 12th of June ; Springfield was in great commotion. About one hundred and fifty men, mostly strangers from up the river and from the Berkshire hills, with swords, guns, and bayonets, demanded the keys of the common jail. Being refused, they broke open the doors, and released Ely, McKnoll, a debtor, as well as a negro. A majority of the people of the parish, including Rev. Robert Breck, were at Longmeadow, attending the funeral of Dr. Stephen AYilliams. Re- turning citizens pursued the party, and caught and lockedT up three men as hostages for the return of Ely. Northampton and other towns joined in the chase, and no less than one thousand armed men figured in this episode. On Sunday word Avas spread abroad that the hostages at Northampton were to be liberated by a mob, and two hundred armed men marched in short order from Springfield to the rescue. General Porter, of Hadley, called out the militia. The alleged release of the three prisoners on parole, upon assurance that Ely would be surrendered, has been called '' contemptibly pusillanimous" on the part of General Porter ; but a competent authority (George Sheldon) sa3's : " It was by the firmness of General Porter that the hiAv was sustained, and b}- his prudence that a disastrous scene of bloodshed was averted, when six hundred determined men confronted the five hundred and fifty who guarded the Northampton jail, — men equal in courage and social position. The mob had been misled by false reports, and it is a fact that the hostages, while still in prison, made such representations to Captain Dickinson and others, that this well-organized, well-led, and well-armed body of men, whom that distinguished patriot, Joseph Hawley, dignified by calling ' insur- gents,' were induced to disband and disperse without firing a shot." YAy claimed that he had acted upon the authority of a convention SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. 303 of several towns which had met at Hatfield in April. Springfield, on the 19th of March, had chosen as delegates to such a convention Capt. John Morgan and Dr. Chaunce}' Brewer. They were to re- ceive their instructions from William Pynchon. Jr., John Hale, and Capt. James Sikes. In August delegates were chosen to another Hatfield convention. These were part of a series of count}^ conventions in this and other portions of the State. The usual course was to first declare that the conventions were legal bodies, then counsel peaceful jnodes of agitation ; but, as was the case in Northampton, the counsel was a mere fonn. AVe will not follow the example of some writers on the Shays insurrection, and enter into bitter denunciations of the insur- gents. There was not an exceptionally unruly spirit among the ^Massachusetts people of that day. They had simply become poverty stricken and distressed. Poverty knows no law. Self-gov- ernment was new, imperfect, and, in fine, ill-understood, and the great mass of the rebels never thought of shouldering a musket for the purpose of securing from others what did not belong to them. During the years between the departure of British soldiers in 1 783 and the meeting of the Philadelphia convention of 1787, which drafted the United States Constitution, the thought of the New AVorld was largel}^ centred upon Massachusetts and New England, and even public men on the other side of the Atlantic were beginning to l)redict the immediate collapse of the experiment of self-government. The tory element in the States, which the stress of war had forced into sullen silence, had come to the surface, and in Massachusetts and in portions of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, to say nothing of Pennsylvania and Virginia, the common people seemed bent upon plunging into a democracy that was but one remove from comnumism in both property and i)olitics. "An aboli- tion of debts, both public and private," writes Mr. Madison in 178G of the Shays movement, "and a new division of propert}^ are 304 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. strongly suspected to be in contemplation." While the monarchy is the refuge and prayer of the tory wherever found, communism in some form is the untutored aim of democratic mobs. Congress in 1786 heard of the doings of the Massachusetts insur- gents, and was asked by the Governor of Massachusetts to loan sixty field-pieces ; but that body refused the request. The majority felt that Congress had no right to send arms or move to subdue a rebellion in any State. The spirit of 1776 was the pulsation of a democratic sentiment; the spirit of 1786 was a contention about con- stitutional forms. "We are certainly in a delicate situation," George Washington wrote to John Jay in the spring of 1786, " but my fear is that the people are not sufficiently misled to retract from error. To be plain, I think there is more wickedness than ignorance mixed in our counsels. Under this impression I scarcely know what opinion to entertain of a general convention." The development of this feeling in Washington's mind was gradual, but the condition of unhappy Massachusetts soon determined his course, and the statesmanship at the bottom of it was finally elab- orated by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison in "The Federalist," where the Sha^'s rebellion figures as the most conspicuous argument against the shambling league of sovereign States. One of the strongest papers, contributed by Alexander Hamilton to the " Federalist," turned upon this very tendency among neighboring States to distress- ing contentions. " To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood," said Mr. Hamilton, "would be to disregard the uni- form course of human events." He goes on to dispute that com- mercial interests will not prevent rivalry, and adds : " Perhaps, however, a reference tending to illustrate the general principle may with propriety be made to a case which has lately happened among ourselves. If Shays had not been a desperate debtor, it is much to be doubted whether Massachusetts would have been plunged into a SrRIXGFIELD, 2636-1886. 305 civil wai-." He then answers his own question as to M'hether it is time to " wake from the deceitful dream of a golden age : " — " Let the points of extreme depression to which our national dig- nity and credit have sunk ; let the inconveniences felt everywhere from a lax and ill administration of government ; let the revolt of a part of the State of North Carolina, the late menacing disturbances in Pennsylvania, and the actual insurrections and rebellions in Massa- chusetts declare ! " Mr. Hamilton, in another part of the " Federalist," asks with much feeling : " Who can determine what might have been the issue of her (Massachusetts) late convulsions, if the malcontents had been headed by a Cfesar or by a Cromwell ? Who can predict what effect a despot- ism, established in Massachusetts, would have upon the liberties of New Hampshire or Rhode Island, of Connecticut or New York?" Four months after the defeat of Daniel Shays, General Washington was presiding over the convention that drew up the Constitution of the Ignited States. When General AYashington heard of the repeated stop- ping of courts of justice in Massachusetts, he made no attempt to conceal his consternation. '""For God's sake, tell me," he wrote to Col. David Humphreys, " what is the cause of all these commotions? Do they proceed from licentiousness, British influence disseminated by the tories, or real grievances w^hich admit of redress?" It is dis- tressing to follow his agitation. " There are combustibles in every State," he writes to General Knox, '*• to which a spark might set fire. In bewailing — which I have often done with the keenest sorrow — the death of our much lamented friend, General Greene, I have ac- companied my regrets of late with a query whether he Avould not have preferred such an exit to the scenes which it is more than probable many of his compatriots may live to bemoan. You talk, my dear sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachu- setts. I know not where that influence is to be found ; nor, if attain- able, that it would be a proper remedy for these disorders. Influence is not 2:overnment. Let us have a ofovernment bv which our lives. 306 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. liberties, and properties will be secured ; or let us know the worst at once." When General Washington heard that the Massachusetts in- surgents had rejected the pardon extended by the General Court, and the governor had called out the militia, the great Virginian wrote : "What, gracious God, is man, that there should be such inconsis- tency and perfidiousuess ? " General Lincoln wrote Washington a long letter at the close of the exciting year 1786 in answer to the question of the latter : '' Are we to have the goodly fabric, that eight years were spent in raising, pulled down over our heads ? " A long quotation is here made, be- cause Lincoln was made a prominent figure in the Shays rebellion, and because his letter has never been read by the general public : — There is great danger that it will be so, 1 think, unless the tottering system shall be supported by arms ; and even then a government, Avhich has no other basis than the point of the bayonet, should one be supported thereon, is so totally different from the one established, at least in idea, by the different States, that if Ave must have resource to the sad experiment of arms, it can be hardly said tliat we have supported •• the goodly fabric,"' — in this view of the matter it maybe " pulled over our heads." This probably will be the case, for there doth not ap- pear to be virtue enough among the people to preserve a perfect republican government. •• What is the cause of all these commotions? " The causes are too many, and too various for me to pretend to trace and point them out. I shall therefore only mention some of those which appear to be the principal ones. Among those 1 may rank the ease with which property Avas acquired, with which credit was obtaineil, and debts were discharged in the time of the war. Hence people were diverted from their usual industry and economy ; a luxurious mode of living crept into vogue; and soon that income by which the expense of all should, as much as possible, be limited, Avas no longer considered as having any- thing to do Avith the question — at Avhat expense families ought to live, or rather Avhich they ought not to exceed. The moment the day arrived Avhen all discov- ered that things Avere fast returning back into their original channels ; that the industrioiis Avere to reap the fruits of their industry : and that the indolent and improvident would soon experience the evils of their idleness and sloth, very many started at the idea, and, instead of attempting to subject themselves to such a Une of conduct, as duty to the public and a regard to their o^vn happiness evi- SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-lSSG. 307 dently pointed out, they contemplated how they sliould evade the necessity of re- forming their systems and changmg their present mode of life. They first com- plained of commutation ; of the weight of public taxes ; of the unsupportabie debt of the Union ; of the scarcity of money ; of the cruelty of suffering private creditors to call for their just dues. Tliis catalogue of complaints was listened to by many ; county conventions were formed ; and tlie cry for paper money, subject to depreciation, as Avas declared by some of their public resolves, was the clamor of the day. But, notwithstanding instructions to members of the General Court, and petitions from different quarters, the majority of that body were op- posed to the measure. Failing of their point, the disaffected in the first place attempted, and in many instances succeeded, to stop courts of law, and to sus- pend the operations of government ; this they lioped to do until they could by force sap the foundations of our constitution, and bring into the Legislature creatures of their own, by whom they could mold a government at pleasure and make it subservient to all their purposes : and when an end should thereby be put to public and private debts, the agrarian law miglit follow with ease. A citizen of western Massacliusetts asks soberl}^ in a Springfield paper : " If any or all the States in the Union should pay no atten- tion to the resolves and recommendations of Congress, of what consequence is Congress to them? " And adds : '" I seldom converse with a judicious, well-disposed man, but supposes there is a dreadful storm gathering." The obligations of Massachusetts at the close of the Revolution were in round numbers as follows : — Regular or private debt £1,300,000 Due to soldiers 250,000 Share of federal debt 1,500,000 £3,050,000 One-third of the amount was to be paid by ratable polls, which did not reach one hundred thousand. Exports were reduced to compara- tivel}^ nothing, and agriculture was at a distressingh' low ebb. Writs of creditors almost confounded the courts and made the legal profes- 308 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. sioii aud the sheriffs a by-word and a hissing. The passing of the tender act of 1782, by which neat cattle and other specified property could be offered to satisfy executions for debt, opened the door for greater irregularities. A war between rich and poor was precipitated, and the judgment debtor and the judgment creditor crossed swords. More people were in debt than out of debt, and a good authority says that from 1784 to 1786 every fourth, if not every tliird, man was a defendant in writs of execution in Massachusetts. The great object of tlie insurgents was, at first, to stop the courts, in order to prevent the entering of judgments. In May, 1783, a mob of debtors attempted, with clubs, to prevent the judges, headed by the sheriff', from entering the Springfield court-house, but were re- pulsed and several arrested. Many were clubbed, and it is said that one offensive insurgent was thrown into the town brook. Conven- tions were held at Deerfield in September, 1783, and at Hatfield the following October, but no violent measures were recommended. As lawyers were considered instruments of oppression to the debt- ridden people, a general agitation against the profession followed. At the Deerfield convention the town committees of Hampshire county voted: "It appears to us absolutel}^ impossible that tlie people should be able to grapple with the burdens Ijing on them, and that notliing but a general bankruptcy must soon inevitably be our por- tion." Tlie Springfield representatives to the General Court for 1783, Thomas Williston and Gideon Burt, were given sundry instructions in view of the popular commotions. These instructions are lost, but certain it is that they both declined to serve, and Thomas Stebbins and Nathaniel Ely went in their stead. AVe would infer that the lat- ter were more in S3nnpathy with the debtor class than the former. On October 17 the town-meeting was presided over by James Sikes, and the delegates to the Hatfield convention of October 20 were Luke Bliss and Thomas Williston, for which service they received £3, showing that these conventions were recognized bv the towns. It was claimed SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. o09 that the conventions of these dii^^s were not legal ; bnt it wonld seem that a convention composed of delegates chosen by the various towns, and supported by the town treasury, was quite as legal as a constitutional convention assembled at the invitation of the Massa- chusetts committee of safety to the various town committees of safety. The town of Springfield maintained an even course during these troublous times, so far as overt acts go. The debtor class was more numerous up the river and on the hills. Springfield had several money-lenders who were widely known, and, of course, not a little unpopular in the rural districts. Here are the principal ofhcers elected in March, 1784: Moderator, John ^yorthington ; clerk and treasurer, William Pynchon ; selectmen, William Pynchon, Moses Bliss, Y.. Chapin, Thomas Williston, and Reuben Bliss. Here is also the result of the elections of 1784, so far as Springfield is concerned : Governor — total, 65 ; James Bowdoiu, ,31 ; Jolm Hancock, 7 ; John Worthington, 7. Lieutenant-Governor — total, 68; Thomas Gush- ing, 13 ; Jolm Worthington, 46 ; James Bowdoin, 4. Senator — total, 49 ; John Worthington, o ; Caleb Strong, 47 ; Moses Bliss, 38 ; John Bliss, 6 ; Timothy Danielson, 40 ; John Hastings, 3 ; Noah Goodman, 1 ; Luke Bliss, 1 ; John Ingersoll, 1 ; A. Burbank, 18 ; Samuel Mathew, 1 ; Simeon Strong, 37. Thomas Dwight was representative, and was reelected in 1785. In the March meeting of 1784, above referred to, over which Colonel AA'orthington presided, it was proposed to create the office of collector of taxes ; but the motion failed. The old rule was that the constables should collect the town rates. It was difficult to get men to serve in that capacity. Those elected that year at an adjourned meeting included Luther Van Horn and Rufus Sikes, who accepted ; but Judah Chapin and Gerald Warner seem to have declined the honor, as did also Dr. Joel Marble at a still later meeting. The town records during these weeks are as defective as the popular feeling was disturbed. Warrants of dis- 310 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. tress were ordered against some of the constables in April, and in May stray bits of town lands were looked to for financial relief. In November, 1784, £213 19s. 6d. was voted for town expenses. At the spring meeting (1785) the constables selected were William Cooley, Charles Sheldon, Seth Chapin, Jr., Calvin Stebbins, Calvin Bliss, Jnstin Lumbard, and William Smith ; but only Sheldon, Chapin, and Lumbard agreed to serve ; but subsequently they de- clined, and Aaron Morgan and Lieut. John Colton substituted. Morgan was an experienced hand at the business, and Lieutenant Colton's name added dignity to what was ordinarily a perfunctory and ministerial service, but had now become solemn exploits in finance. A committee, headed by Colonel Worthington, gave Representa- tive Dwight the following instructions as to matters and things in general in November, 1785 : — Sir this Town placing great Trust & Confidence in your Integrity & abiHties & which they trust will be sufficient to direct your General conduct as a member of the Representative branch of the Legislature, nevertheless have thought fit to Instruct you in some few matters that perticularly respect this Town. We desire your perticular attention to the General vahiation, we suppose this County in General is taxed beyond their due proportion, with other Counties and that this Town in perticular is taxed beyond their due proportion. Compared with the Towns in the Country It is manifest the same Estates pay more in this ToAvn than in any other Town we are acquainted with Avhich has brought upon us great arrearages of past Taxes and if not remedied soon must effectually discourage all attempts & Efforts to discharge them and render the burthen quite Intolerable, we therefore Instruct you, to use your utmost Endeavor, in Union with other County mem- bers, in the first place, that a due proportion, be laid on the trading part of the Community, the want of which is one principal source, of the present Inequality, and then that only a due proportion be set on this Town, Compared with others in this County, and also that you Endeavour a Remedy, for the great Inequality of the past Taxes, another matter tho' indeed of a more General & public, con- cern to Avhich we desire to recall your perticular attention, is the act passed by the last General assembly granting certain diities upon Vellum Parchment & SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 311 Paper and commonly called the Stamp act. This we do Instruct you to use your utmost Endeavor to obtain a repeal of, if it be possible, and if that cannot be obtained, that you Endeavor to procure such alterations and amendments both in the articles dutied and in the mode of Collection as will render it less burthensome to Individuals as well as more beneficial to the Community the perticular dutied articles, which we would mention as most burthensome, are notes of Hand & publish News papers, the former is such an Intolerable burthen as has never been attempted, even in great Brittain. And the other being about I3 of the value which is indeed a very high duty, must greatly discourage the Circulation of those Useful vehicles of public knowledge, if not cause them wholly to be laid aside, or perhaps throw the business of printers, into the neighbouring States. As to the mode of Collection, if the act Avere to Continue, most of the duties might be collected and paid by the several publick Officers, Issuing the dutied articles so as to prevent the burthen Expenses of Stamps & Stamp officers, as for Instance, the Clerks of Courts may receive the duties upon writs & Execu- tions &c, Registers of deeds the Duty on deeds, the Naval Officers such duties as are appointed on ye Papers, used in their respective Offices, by which means there would of Consequence be a great saving of Expence, and Ave believe, more money, neated to the Treasury as well as great Trouble and Inconvenience pre- vented. Warrants of distress were once more ordered that month (Novem- ber, 1785) against tax delinquents prior to 1783. In March, 1786, we find Colonel Worthington moderator and Moses Bliss on the select board. There was more difficulty about constables ; a list was finally made out, but Charles Sheldon had had his share of trouble, and retired, in spite of the general desire to have him serve. Evi- dence of the popular distress in money matters is seen in the fact that over ninety per cent, of the Springfield inhabitants for several years had worked out their highway tax instead of paying money. The con- stables were given two and a half per cent, specie for their common- wealth tax collections, but finally John Pynchon came to the rescue in May by actnig as constable for the first parish for £20, and two and a half per cent, on the commonwealth tax. A little earlier the pro- posal to make Northampton the shire town had created some concern. 312 SPRINGFIELD, I636-1S86. and John Worthiugton, backed by ]\Ioses Bliss and Thomas Dwight, were set at the gates of Spriugtield to oppose such a disastrous transfer. The popuhir upheavals induced Springfield to send Thomas Dwight and Luke Bliss to the May convention at Hatfield, 1786. The selec- tion of Dwiglit is proof positive that the majority felt that these conventions would serve an important public service. The unhappy town was frequently battling with povert}' in legal meetings, but to little purpose. An important appeal for relief was sent to the General Court in June, 1786 ; Thomas Dwight refusing the offer of reelection to the Legislature in 178(), Samuel Lyman was chosen in his place. Moses Bliss was moderator in August, 1786, when William Pynchon and Capt. James Sikes were sent to the Hatfield convention that month, and at an adjourned meeting Bliss and Worthington refused to serve on an advisory committee on the state of affairs. William P^mchon was the moving spirit of this com- mittee, and the following report, adopted September 25, 1786, is added as expressing an heroic faith and admirable self-control amid deplorable commotions, hungry men, swarming debtors, exacting creditors, obstructed courts, dismembered families, and the plots of sundry seditious spirits ready for adventure on general principles : — To Sami^ Lyman Esq"" Sir as the approaching Session of the General Court, at which you are to attend as the Representative of this town will be pecuUarly important, we think it our duty to Communicate to you our sentiments on sundry matters Avhich may probably then be subjects of dehberation and debate. While we disapprove the late voilent proceedings which have obstructed the Course of public Justice in this & some other Countys, we are constrained to say, we feel in Common with others, the pressure of public burthens, and fully persuaded that some measures, perfectly consistent with Justice, and the honour of Government, might be adopted, Avhich would afford sensible relief, and restore general tranquility. The late appropriations of revenue, arising from liscences and Impost, and liscences from Inholder and retailers of Spiritous liquors to the payment of interest on our state securities has given us as well as others, erreat Uneasiness. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 313 You will use your influence, that this revenue be in future applied to purchase this states share of the final settlement Certificates, which may now be obtained at a low rate, for this purpose Agents may be employed, nor do Ave see why the impost and excise may not be payable in the Certificates made themselves, or solid Coin at the option of the debtors, with such difference as obtains in private dealings. Thus we shall be able to answer the requisitions of Congress Avithout a future tax, for probably this State which has all along distinguished not to say distressed herself by her forward exertions in the common Cause, Avill appear to have a ballance due to her from the United States whenever her accounts Avith them are adjusted. Avhich Ave Avish may be soon as possible. Let the interest on our State securities no more be paid in Coin, Avhich Avas not the original promise, nor expectation nor can Justice require it, as these securities haA^e been generally transferred, and are noAv negotiated at a Ioav rate, and the possessors have in various ways received peculiar advantages already ; but let it be paid in ncAv Certificates or in orders on the taxes that have been or shall be granted for the redemption of said securities, as is practised in other States. When a tax is issued for the redemption of securities already due, let it fall a little beloAv their full amount, as has been Avisely practised heretofore, to prevent an appreciation; and, to facilitate the payment of the tax, Ave Avould advise, that the possessors of securities be notified to bring them to the treasurer and receive for as much as is due on them Certificates of smaller denominations, Avhich may more conveniently circulate, and let them that have been or shall be granted for the redemption of said securities, as is practised in other States. When a tax is issued for the redemption of securities already due, let it fall a little beloAv their full amount, as has been Avisely practised heretofore to prevent an appreciation, and to facilitate the payment of the taxAve avouM advise, that the possessors of securities be notified to bring them to the treasurer and receive for as much as is due on them Certificates of smaller denominations, Avhich may more Conveniently circulate, and let them be received in payment of the tax. Those Avhich remain after the first collection is finished may be transferred to the succeeding tax, thus Ave apprehend. Justice may be done, and the people relieved and all the advantages of a paper Currency may be obtained, and the Common Mischief of it avoided. If a motion should be made for a paper medium to be substituted in the place of solid Coin, as a tender in discharge of private debts, you Avill oppose it Avith all your influence, such a medium is insignificant in itself, pregnant of innumer- able Evils, both political & moral, contrary to the Spirit of our Constitution, and 314 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. inconsistent Avitli the rights of Mankind ; whatever orders government may see fit to make with respect to future contracts, no government can possibly have a rigiit to aher private contracts, already made under her jjatronage, and the pro- tection and security of laws then existing. A Usurpation in such an instance might soon become a precedent for Usurpation still more dangerous, till the liberties of the people Avere Annihilated, not to add that the hicrease of our i)aper debt at a time when it is already a burthen, appears a preposterous and ridiculous remedy. You are not to favor any motion for a present revisal of our Constitu- tion, we are far from thinking it too perfect to be amended, but as within a few years it is to be revised, of course if then found necessary, we cannot suppose, it would be prudent, to incur the extraordinary expense and peculiar danger of attempting an alteration, in so burthensome & so critical a time as tliis, there are matters of greater & more immediate consequence which require your attention, and on which present relief more Especially depends the general perturbation of peoples spirits at tliis instant, will scarcely admit that calm dispassionate deliber- ation which is necessary in laying the ground-work in government in so large and so commercial a state, and a state Mdiich has so many foreign as well as domestic connections, and probably would prevent a tolerable agreement in any amend- ments that could be proposed. We Avould further observe that the tax granted in march last and the method proposed for the payment thereof, under our embarrissments we conceive caimot be complied with, nor does it appear to us that Justice requires it should, for if individuals are possessed of Certificates which the legislature has directed to be received in part of said tax. why should they be precluded from paying the same in discharge of? unless a certain sum be likewise paid in Coin ; or rather Avhy should we be obliged to pay any part which is to be applied to Congress, so long as the neighboring states are making no such provision? You will there- fore consider this as an object of your attention and use your endeavour that such an alteration take place Avith regard to the collection thereof as will be con- sistent with the abilities of the people, or that it be suspended to some future period, or until our Sister states adopt similar measures. If the legislature could devise a more expeditious and less expensive method of administering Justice in future, and for that end some alteration be made in the Courts of Common pleas and general Sessions of the peace, we Avould most heartily acquiesce therein. It may perhaps deserve a thought Avhether certain Justices specially appointed, may not be empoAvered to go into one tAvo or three Countries and try causes, such as are now tryed by the Common pleas and General Sessions of the peace, and by that means prevent the needless expence of so SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 315 great a number of Justices giving their attendance at the general Sessions of the peace as before express^ but this you Avill consider as a mere suggestion not as a positiA'e instruction. A long list of delegates to the Hadley conveiitiou of November 7 declined to serve, except Joseph Ferre. On what class of men, it may be asked, did the burdens rest the heaviest? Let us take speci- men cases. In 1783 Noah Copley, of Westfield, allows his note for £4 1 7s. bd. to John Worthington to go to protest, and the latter se- cures judgment with £1 9s. 2d. in costs. That is to say, to use round numbers, a man owing S24 had to pay $7 for the privilege of having the sheriff sell S24 worth of his goods. There were hundreds of such cases in the Court of Common Pleas. At the February (1784) session of that court, one Daniel Sha^^s, of Pelhani, " Gent'"," was defendant in a suit brought by John Johnson " yoeman," for the enforcement of a promissory note for £12. vShays did not appear, and judgment and costs were recorded against him. Shays was a hired man at Brookfield at the opening of the Revolu- tion. He entered the arni}^ as a sergeant, being under Washington near New York. He received one of the swords which Lafayette dis- tributed to American officers. It is said, with what truth we know not, that he was for a time ostracized by his associate officers, be- cause he sold this sword, and continued to use his old one. Shays eventual^ became captain in the 5th Massachusetts regiment, com- manded by Rufus Putnam, and his record at Bunker Hill, Stony Point, and Saratoga was creditable. Being a judgment debtor, and naturall}^ a reckless character, he did not allow the sales of property under judgments in Pelham to pass without protest. The sale of the bedding of a sick woman gave him a good text for tavern harangues. The Conkey tavern at Pelham was made vocal with these "results" to self-government ; so Avas the Clapp tavern in East Amherst, as well as the West Springfield tavern, where Luke Day — legislator- at-large and captain in the 7th Massachusetts regiment — talked by the hour. 316 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. AVe find that in the winter term of the Court of Common Pleas in 1784, Moses Bliss, AVilliam P^-nchon, Luke Chapih, Isaac INIorgau, Zenas Parsons, Abel Chapin, Jonathan Dwight, and man}^ more were crowding on each other's heels to secure judgments against debtors, and Colonel AVorthington and others foreclosed mortgages against the same unfortunate class. The February term of the Common Pleas, 1786, was held at North- ampton, the justices present being Eleazer Porter, John Bliss, and Samuel Mather. No less than three hundred and thirty-three cases, mainly occasioned by the poverty of the unhappy debtors, were called up, and judgment obtained or action deferred. It is a monotonous record on the books, but was dramatic enough in results. There was a general wail of despair. Jonathan Dw^ight, " trader, " seciired, for example, a judgment of £8 Ss. 9cL and £1 15,9. lOf/. in costs against Ebenezer Rumrill, of Longmeadow, and Elihu Murray, of Deerfield. Their note was £7 15s. Their property was at once levied upon. We find John AYorthington, Ephraim Chapin, Pliineas Chapin, Josel Day, Luke Bliss, Closes Bliss were plaintiffs in similar actions. The Mays term was equally full, and the enraged army of debtors from all parts of western Massachusetts, would not let the judges proceed with busi- ness on the first Tuesday in August. Robert Breck, of Northampton, clerk of the court, says : " Early in the ^Morning of this Day, there was collected a considerable number of Persons under Arms, who paraded near the Court-House, with a professed Design to prevent this Court from sitting ; a Committee from whom presented a Petition requesting the Court would not proceed to do any Business. The Court being convinced thereof, thought propper to open the same at the House of Captain Samuel Clark, Innholder." An adjournment of the court was then made until November, but the insurgents inter- rupted all courts until Ma}^, 1787. The elections of 1786 were hotly contested. Lawyers became special objects of contempt, on account of their agency in securing judgments, and the feeling was sufficient to exclude most of the pro- SPRIXGFIELD, 2036-1886. 317 fession from the House. That bod}^ was found to be completely in the hands of the debtor element. They filled the vacancies in the Senate with men after their own ilk ; they passed a bill admitting to the bar all persons of good moral character ; they limited the fees of attorneys ; they imposed an oath on lawyers, to be taken before plead- ing, to provide against the cheating of clients ; and they attempted to issue more paper money. But the Senate was proof against these vagaries, and the session ended in smoke. An angry county convention met at Worcester August 15, and an- other at Hatfield on the 22d, the latter body continuing for three days. Their demands included the abolition of the Senate, the Court of Com- mon Pleas, and General Sessions of the Peace, the lawyers' fee table, land grants to government officials, unequal taxation as between polls and estates and landed and mercantile interests, and the holding of sessions of the General Court at Boston. The convention also voted in favor of the election of civil officers by the General Court, the emission of paper money, and the calling of a State constitutional convention. Although this assembly recommended that the inhabi- tants of Hampshire county abstain from " mobs and unlawful assem- blies, until a constitutional method of redress can be obtained, " the judges at Northampton, four days later, were greeted with an ugly crowd armed with clubs and muskets. They surrounded the court- house, and demanded an adjournment sme die. After an informal session at a tavern, the court yielded, and adjourned to .Springfield on the second Tuesday of November. The Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace at Worcester had been interrupted in a similar way, that same month, and a most alarming state of things existed, not only in the counties of Hampshire, Worcester, and Berkshire, but also Bristol, Middlesex, and other eastern counties, (tovernor Bowdoin issued a proclamation calling upon all people to keep the peace. The Legislature Avas also assembled September 27. At Concord, Great Barrington, and other places the same scenes were enacted, and the courts compelled to adjourn. General Shepard, 318 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. of Westfield, was ordered to take possession of the Springfield court- honse, which he did two days before the meeting of the Legislature. The Senate passed a joint resolution denouncing the interruption of the courts, approving the act of the governor in calling out the mili- tia, and providing for the suspension of the , ~ — habeas corpus. The House refused to agree to the latter co- ercive measure, and hung up the report. A number of bills were passed b}^ the House in the spirit of Defending the Court-House against Shays's Insurgents. the insurgent conventions. The Legislature was flooded with petitions from suffering towns ; and if it had not been for armed resistance in Hampshire the General Court would not have passed, as they did, a bill authorizing the governor and council to imprison disorderly per- sons without bail or mainprise. A bill offering pardon to all taking the oath of allegiance was likewise passed, but to no purpose. Daniel Shays and Luke Day took a bold step at Springfield, Sep- SPRIXGFIELD, 2636-18S6. 319 tember 20, b}^ interfering witli the session of tlie Supreme Judicial Court, Chief Justice Cushing presiding. General Shepard discreetly prevented a collision with the forces of Shays, as the}^ marched and countermarched before the Springfield court-house, or rendezvoused at Stebbins's tavern, in North ]Main street ; and after the court had adjourned, and had also almndoned the October term at Cxreat Bar- rhigton, he withdrew his militia companies to the arsenal, and the Shays men returned to their homes, well pleased that no indictments had been found against them. Three weeks later Daniel Shays issued an order from Pelham requiring all his men to arm and furnish them- selves with sixty rounds. He proceeded to Rutland, and superintended the interruption of the courts at Worcester and elsewhere in Decem- ber. He turned up in Springfield on the 22d of that month, and found the judges of the Court of Common Pleas an easy prey to the clubs, drums, muskets, and threats of his men. The legal profession continued to be the object of bitter attack. Demagogues and lampoonists plied their trade industriously. The following lines were dropped upon the floor of the Springfield court- house : — " If Sampson's foxes tail by tail With firebrands were set running, My God, Avbat havock ranst prevail, When Lawyers" tails are burning I *' Quoth Jack, ' Tis true as any fact Established in the nation. Unless their tails were often wet They'd cause the conflagration.'" While these sorry matters divided brother and brother in the village of Springfield, and set friend against friend, the Springfield town- meeting was not swamped by the debtor part3^ It voted that the in- crease of paper money at a time when it was already a burden was 320 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-18S6. " a preposterous and ridiculous remedy ; " it opposed a revision of the State constitution on account of the passions of the people so danger- ously excited, but it called upon the Legislature for remedial measures that would remove the " imaginary as well as the real grievances of the people." These resolutions had been passed in September, when the Legislature met ; but, as has been seen, tlie}^ produced no effect upon the people. The insurgents found hearing in the papers, and loud-mouthed men declaimed in the taverns of Springfield and elsewhere against the riot act, the expensive mode of collecting debts, and the pa3mient of mon- eys raised by impost and excise to discharge the interest of govern- ment securities, instead of the foreign debt. These agitators, who sported the hemlock twig, had a scheme of repudiation on hand con- cerning government securities, w^hich speculators had bought up from 2s. to 66'. Sd. on the pound. They not only objected to applying the revenues from impost and excise to meet the interest, which in some cases amounted to more than the price paid for the securities, but they proposed to repudiate or refund upon the basis of the market value of the securities. Army officers who remained in the service were prom- ised by Congress half -pay for life, but this w^as soon changed to pay for five j^ears ; and this, considering the depreciation of paper money, made the fate of the officers doubly unhappy. This conmuitation added another harsh string to the orchestral discord that assaulted the unhappy air. Boston itself was not untinged with the spirit of revolt, and the mone^^ed men of that city found that the time had come for them to put their hands in their pockets and furnish the sinews of war. After it had been decided to call out the troops the commissary- general reported that he could get no supplies without cash, and of this the treasury was empty. General Lincoln immediately visited a prominent Boston club, and laid the case before them. A subscrip- tion w^as started the following morning, the governor heading the list, and the money was raised before sunset. An army of four SPRTNGFTELD, 1636-1886. 321 thousaud five hundred was collected in short order, and General Lincoln x^i'epared for his long march. To show how some of the towns felt the strain, it may be said that tlie remote town of Rowe, December 4, 1786, " being Repeatedly Requested to Join in the Dispute between the Court and those called the Regulating party," but not being able to get at the merits of the controversy, recommended that as many as " can conveniently march " should repair to Springfield, and after hearing the particu- lars " join that party as they shall Judge to be in the right of the cause, the}^ acting entirely for themselves in that matter." Governor Bowdoin in his letter of instructions to General Lincoln said, " You are to consider ^^ourself in all your military offensive operations constantly as under the direction of the civil officer, saving where any armed force shall appear and oppose your marching to execute these orders." General Lincoln protested against these instructions, being placed as he was under the orders of the local civil authorities wherever he might be ; and the governor, after con- sulting the council, wrote : " As you are accompanied by Gentlemen of the Law, who are also Justices of the Peace, and as you can have a number of Deputy Sheriffs to attend you by applying to the High Sheriff to depute some of your own Corps or others as you shall judge proper, the Council apprehend there is scarcely a sup- posable case, to which your powers, as expressed in my orders, do not extend." Lincoln turned up with his battalions at Worcester, January 22, and protected the courts with little difficulty ; Daniel Shays, after sending to the governor a pacific message intending to mislead the authorities, essayed the difficult feat of capturing the federal arsenal at Springfield. He made a dash from Rutland with over one thousand men, indifferently armed with guns, but thoroughly equipped with an incendiary vocabulary. He reached Wilbraham on the 24th, and the women and children of that terrified community were transferred to Longmeadow for safety. General Lincoln was two days' march in SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886. the rear of Shays, aud the plaD was to overpower General Shepard before the eastern troops came up. Eli Parsons, with four hundred Berkshire insurgents, was at Chicopee ; while Luke Da}^ was the only man among* the rebels who made any pretence at military discipline. He was resting under arms at AYest Springfield with a company of four hundred, whom he kept in good temper by occasional orations of the oppressions of the government. Shepard was thus confronted b}^ about two thousand rebels, twice his number ; but there was divided counsel in the ranks of the enemy. Sha3'S ordered Day to attack on the 25th, but the latter said he Avould not be ready to move until the 26th. This answer miscarried, and thus Shays advanced on the eventful 25th. Day meantime demanded that the militia lay down their arms, not knowing that Shays was already on the march. General Shepard was doing his best to hold an ugly people in hand. Public sentiment was against him, although in this immediate vicinity the majority of those who spoke their mind were in favor of the government. He did not reall}^ take in the situation, however, until about a fortnight before the Armory Hill fight. As late as Januar}^ 12, General Shepard wrote Lincoln from Northampton that two hundred or three hundred men would be ample to defend the stores at Springfield, and that he himself would be ready to march to Worcester to defend the courts there. He adds : "I can appre- hend no danger of so desperate and senseless a measure as burning towns or an attack on unembodied inhabitants ; and Springfield, besides containing stores of exceeding great consequence, is in the line of intelligence and perhaps of march, and has buildings to accommodate a considerable part of the men, which are to be found nowhere else in this county." In speaking of supplies he says the rum and spirituous liquors must be forwarded from Boston, as there was little to be had in Hampshire county ; and he added that ' ' the men cannot be kept together especially in this season without a daily allowance of spiritous liquors." General Shepard, who had taken possession of Springfield on the SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 323 18tli, found that all the insurgents in the southern part of the county had received orders to assemble at Palmer, and that the Berkshire and the Northern Hampshire men were directed to march to Pelham, Greenwich, and Hardwick. There was a pressing need of mone}" at Springfield for the support of the soldiers, not a cent subscribed at Boston having been forwarded here. No man in Springfield felt disposed to loan Shepard money to any amount. He asked for at least £2,000, and he remarked: '' I do not think the men can be kept together long unless they are pretty well supplied with rum, etc., and a little mone}-." Man}^ of the militia in this county were prevented from assembling by their disaffected neighbors. As neither Congress nor Creneral Knox had given permission to take arms from the arsenal. General Shepard's men were poorly equipped. AVith some bitterness Shepard writes to Lincoln the day after taking possession at the arsenal: " It will be very disagreeable for me to be defeated by such a wicked banditti when I am guarding the arms of the Union, and command for the purpose of supporting the dignity of the government when I had no arms to defend myself even from insult." Shepard began to feel very much concerned on the 21st, and he sent to General Lincoln, at Worcester, for a Hying column to fol- low in the rear of Shays. He was cut oft" from Berkshire b}' the vigilance of Luke Da}' , and his lack of communication with North- ampton led Caleb Strong, of Northampton, to write Lincoln that insurgents had taken possession of Chicopee bridge, and had capt- ured a provision train on its way to Springfield for the militia. This party was from Berkshire, and was commanded by Eli Parsons. Shepard himself did not hear of this until the 23d. The weather was bitterly cold, and Shepard called upon Lincoln for at least four hundred men to be forwarded in sleighs. Shepard's provisions were limited to a five days' stock, and the loss of his pro^^sion train was especially disturbing. He had ordered " two loads of rum," to be consigned to Jonathan Dwight. Money was also scarce. Not only 324 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. were his men unpaid, but he was compelled to be personall}' respon- sible for what fuel and forage he needed. It must have been dis- tressing to Lincoln to be informed b}' Shepard that his force " could not continue in the field much longer " unless money was sent him. This was three days before the Shays rencounter. Maj. Levi Shepard, of Northampton, was his commissary, and Col. William Smith, of Springfield, the quartermaster, — two men who must have been at their wits' end to meet the emergency, with a disturbed or a disaf- fected and hostile community about them. Shepard had learned that three hundred insurgents from Berkshire lodged at Northampton on the night of the 2 2d. He was not at all reassured by the silence of Lincoln, who had not answered the five messages sent east in quick succession. Shays, Day, and Parsons had completely cut Springfield off from all approaches, neither troops nor supplies being obtainable, and the insurgents were enjoying the contents of Shepard's pro^'i- sion train. He would have retired to a stronger position if it had not been for the arsenal. As it was he wrote Lincoln once more, saying, " If you cannot grant me any reinforcements or relief I shall try to work out my own salvation before it is too late. Shays's and Day's forces are about two thousand strong. Before to-morrow morn- ing I expect the trial will be made to force me from this post. It is no time for delay ; your operations must be quick and spirited, or they will answer no purpose. That man's party is increasing fast." Luke Day had scoured the country on the west side, and his sen- tries and reconnoitring parties were very annoying. He had even deployed a body in the Longmeadow direction and secured many prisoners. He captured General Parks and Dr. Whitney in sleighs, and had taken a loyal man in Longmeadow out of his bed and shut him up with other prisoners of war at West Springfield. Shays was at Palmer on the 23d with eleven hundred noisy men. The insurgent officers held a council of war there, and a friend of the government overheard the proceedings. It was decided to join Day's forces and to attack the arsenal before Lincoln could come to SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 325 Sheparcl's relief. Lieut. Aaron Graves, of Palmer, hastened to inform Lincoln of these facts. Adam Wheeler did what he could to detain Lincoln, by asking for a " Conference" in order to " bring about a Settlement with the Government." Deputy Sheriff King rode through the crusted snow across fields from Wilbraham to the Ston}- Hill road on the 25th, drawing blood from the legs of his horse, and warned General Shepard in less than an hour ; but Shays did not appear on the Boston road, in view of the armor}^, until late in the afternoon. Shepard sent several messages of warning to Shaj's not to advance, but received only insolence and defiance for his pains. At a hundred yards a howitzer was discharged each side of the advancing forces ; and, a few minutes later, a shot, at short range, was levelled directly at the column. Ezekiel Root and Ariel Webster, of Gill, and John Spicer, of Le3^den, were killed, and John Hunter, of Shelburne, mortally wounded. A scene of ridiculous con- fusion followed. Not a return shot was fired at the militia, and about twelve hundred very-much-affrighted men raced for their dear lives toward Ludlow. The killed and wounded were taken to a house opposite the site of Olivet Church. The well near this house is still to be seen in the cellar of the arsenal. General Lincoln reached Springfield on the 27th with the main body of his troops. At nine o'clock of the 25th the news of Shays's defeat had reached Palmer, and Colonel Baldwin had sent word to Lincoln that Captain Shaw reported that the insurgents made the attack about four o'clock, "on the plain, near the magazine." General Lincoln gives the following account of the movements of his troops upon reaching Springfield : — Part of them with the hght horse I moved ujj the river on the ice, with the in- tention to prevent the junction of Shays & Day, & if that was not attemiJted, to cut off Day's retreat. With the other part of the troops I moved across the river, in front of his guard. They soon turned out, & retreated to his main body. They retreated before us about half a mile, then made some disposition to attack, but soon left that post & retreated to a high piece of ground in their rear, where 326 S PR mo FIELD, 163G-2SSG. thev were met b}- the Liglit liorse ; thence tliey tied in every direction, but most of tliem reached Northampton, about 20 miles distant. This left Shays' right uncovered, & induced him to move the same night to Amherst, tAventy miles Korth of Springfield. At 3 o'clock in the morning of the 20th we moved toward Amherst, where Shays had been joined by Day. On our arrival in the borders of the town, the rear of Shays' force left it , some few fell into our hands ; he then took post at Pelham, east from Amlierst: we filed off to the left & took post in Hadlev & Hatfield on the river. Lincoln said at Pittsfield, after the scattering of the insurgents in western Massachusetts, that lie found that " the people in general had been in arms, or had been abettors of those who were : and that their obstinacy was not exceeded by anything but their ignorance of their own situation." Governor Bowdoin in Februar}^ offered £150 for the arrest of Shays, and £100 each for the arrest of Adam Wheeler, Luke Da}^, and Eli Parsons. Day was eventually brought to Springfield, a prisoner, but Shays made good his escape. This region round about was for some weeks made lively Avith sun- dry martial episodes. Gen. John Peterson, at Stockbridge,with three hundred men, was so anno3'ed with insurgents hovering around and distressing loyal people, that he made a raid on the 29th of January, and succeeded in capturing eighty-four prisoners, and his couriers reported such an ugl^^ feeling that he applied to Lincoln for more troops. He said the "deportment of the Faction in this county against government has induced a kind of frenzy." At Hadley, on February 1, seven soldiers were court-martialled for stealing property from private citizens, and Avere condemned to march before the army on parade with a paper pinned to their breasts, on which was written, in capital letters, " FOR PLUNDERING." Col. Gideon Burt, at Springfield, informed Lincoln on the 1st of February that it would be dangerous to withdraw the horse from the town, as both to the east and west hostility to the government continued. He had found that one hundred and twenty armed insurgents were feeen at South- wick on the road to AVestfield on the last da^^ of March, and he added, SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. S27 " It is very difficult for me to obtain meu who I can confide in to bring & carry Intelligence & horse who will parole Roads." Colonel Burt was an energetic officer, however, and he inspired a wholesome fear of the militia in these parts, by scouring the country and bring- ing in prisoners. Col. Israel Chapin received at South Hadley ten of Shays's men, captured near Ware river on the 2d of February, and upon reaching Springfield he took a much brighter view of things than Burt did. Chapin had sent his troopers as far north as Amherst and as far east as Palmer, so he reported to Lincoln on February 5. lie made the expedition with four hundred men. There was much dis- content at Springfield among the soldiers, as the prospect of peace increased their anxiety to return to their neglected families. The last of February a band of insurgents plundered several houses at Stockbridge, taking several prisoners, and marched for Great Bar- rington, but were soon put to rout by the Lenox and Stockbridge mili- tia after a slight brush, in which two or three on each side were killed. Gen. John Ashley, who was in command, w^as a descendant of John Pynchon, through his daughter Mary, w^ife of Joseph Whiting, whose daughter married Col. John Ashley, of Westfield, grandfather of Maj.-Gen. John Ashley. On March 31 sixty of Shays's men at- tacked the house of Colonel Dwight, at Belchertown, and carried off a young man in charge of the family, but did not capture the colonel. The people at Belchertown were in constant communication with Shays at Pelham, and the loyal portion felt themselves much exposed. Rev. Justus Forward, informing Lincoln of the situation there, said that Shays's spies were constantly in the place, and he added dryly, " I am not so anxious for myself as for others ; for I don't think Shays wants a Chaplain ! " The news of Shays's defeat determined the course of many a waver- ing town. The little town of Granby, for example, had witnessed the passing of armed men in the direction of Springfield, and five days after that town saw the affrighted army of the insurgents sweep back over the mountains, suffering the discomforts and humiliations. 32S SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. with none of the glory, of defeat ; a full town-meeting was held, and resolutions passed appealing to General Lincoln to spare his hand and " prevent the awful destruction of Mankind." Almost the moment that the Springfield fight reached Leverett, a petition to Shepard and Lincoln Avas drawn up to the same effect, lamenting that some b}^ "a misguided Zeal have fermented, and Kindled Coles of strife the flame of which has slain a Number," and hoping for the " interposition of Heaven," and the smile of the " God of Sabbaoth " upon all efforts to restore peace. Shays, at Pelham, was meantime sending petitions for pardon to Lincoln, at Hadley, and to the General Court. AVhat Governor Bowdoin thought is expressed in a letter to Lincoln, dated January 27 : " I am not disappointed in your having applications for the compromision of affairs, b}^ 3ielding up some part of the Dignity and spirit of Government, in exchange for a certain quantity of re- bellion, obstinacy and insolence ; but my dependence on the good people of the commonwealth is so great that I cannot harbour a thought of making such dishonorable barter." The petition from Pelham to the GeneralCourt, dated Jauuar}^ 30, and signed by the officers of Worcester, Middlesex, Hampshire, and Berkshire counties, who were in arms, was a meek affair. It " humbly sheweth that your Petitionners being senciable that we have been in error in having recourse to arms, and not seeking redress in a consti- tutional way " etc. The inhabitants of Colrain also appealed to Lincoln for " clemency, — a most darling attribute when connected with Power and Legal authority," in order to prevent the " cutting off the members of the natural body." The selectmen of Williamstown sent resolutions to both contending parties recognizing at once the " Necessity and im- portance of supporting the government" and the "equal impor- tance" of paying attention to the "Redress of all Grievances of the People." The town of Conway, in its appeal to Lincoln, drew a lurid picture of civil war in western Massachusetts, throwing society " into a State Little short of that where the offenders a2:ainst the SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 329 Majesty of Heaven are Doomed to suffer according to their crimes." General Lincoln is then asked by the town to lift his " eyes up to him who in the Heavens beholding the Follies of men overlooks their Crimes and bestows his Favours on the most undeser\dng." These quotations, as well as others in this chapter, are taken from manuscripts in the possession of General Lincoln's descendants which have never been in print before. The answer to these petitions came from Boston in the shape of a new levy of troops, and there followed a vigorous restoration of order in the stalwart spirit of Governor Bow- doin's proclamation of January 12, in which he asked the question: ' ' Is then the goodly fabric of freedom which cost us so much blood and treasure so soon to be thrown into ruins ? " All insurgents were forced to take the oath of allegiance. Those pardoned were not to hold otiice or vote for three years ; neither could they legally be em- ployed as schoolmasters or innkeepers. This act of the Legislature provoked a protest from General Lincoln. " In her right hand," said the general, " the government nuist hold out such terms of mere}' in tlie hour of success with such evident marks of a disposition to for- give as shall apply to the feelings of the delinquents. . . . Al- though I think the proceedings of the Legislature and their conduct will make a rich page in history, yet I cannot but suppose that if the number of the disfranchised had been less the public peace would have been equalW safe and the general happiness promoted. The act includes so great a description of persons that in its operation many towns will be disfranchised." The sullen feeling in this part of the State survived for a time. Indeed it was at one time considered doubtful whether Massachusetts would cast her lot with the constitution framed b}^ the convention that met in the following May at Philadelphia and presided over by George AVashington. The sentiment in Hampshire county was about evenly divided. The vote in the convention was one hundred and eighty-seven yeas to one hundred and sixty-eight nays. It was in the nineties when General Shepard complained that he had 330 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. not been repaid by the State for his services in defending Springfield, and he added : ' ' As to private injuries and insults which I have re- ceived, some have been by the burning of my fences and injuring my woodlands by fire bej^ond recovery for many years ; by most wantonl}^ as well as cruelly destroying two of my horses by cutting off their ears and digging out tlieir eyes before they were killed ; by personally insulting me with the \\\q epithet of ' a murderer of brethren,' and through anonymous letters threatening me with the destruction of my dwelling-house and family b}^ fire." But the time did finally come when men learned to have enough faith in their personal convictions to be content to promulgate their views unattended by coercive weapons. Then it was that the ancient lampoon became history : — " Politicians of all kinds Who are not yet decided, May see how Yankees speak their minds And vet are not divided." CHAPTER XV. 1783-1800. Oeath of Rev. Robert Brock. — Pompey. — The Chaug-e in Dress. — Carriages. — Post- master Moses Church. — Death of Charles Brewer. — Zebina Stebbins. — Capt. Luke Bliss. — The Dwights. — Merchant Jonathan Dwight. — The Old Red Store. — Other Merchants. — A Glimpse at Main Sti^eet. — Zenas Parsons. — Taverns. — Maj. Joseph Stebbins. — Earh' Newspapers. — Post Riders. — Samuel Lyman. — Spring- field's College Presidents. — The Hitchcocks. — Col. Thomas Dwight. — Daniel Lom- bard. — Town Officers. — Fourth of July Celebration. — Timber Trade. — More War- rants of Distress. — Town Treasurer's Report. — Canals. — Deserting Soldiers and Lawlessness. One would find an endless source of diversion in putting together the stray bits of information touching the appearance of the village between the Revolution and the present century. It was a common thing in those days to paint dwelling-houses bright red, or even yel- low, which, with the eighteenth century costuming, must have given a graphic appearance to Main street. Before the Revolution Merchant Storer, of Boston, sent a bill of goods to George and Robert Breck. In an accompanying note Mr. Storer said, by way of business : " The crimson Snail & Bandanna handkfs I could not procure, tho' I tried at sundry places — nor could I get a scarlet AVhitney which I thought suitable for a Great Coat." In the list sent were pieces of crunson broadcloth, green durant, blue serge, crunson bays, and black taffeta. This letter, curiously enough, was found floating down the Connecticut river in 1887 by a Springfield canoeist. The paper had been thrown upon the river-bank after the demolition of an old house, and the rising water had swept it away. Rev. Mr. Breck died Friday forenoon of April 23, 1784, in his sev- enty-first year. The burial took place on Monday the 26th, the clergy 332 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. from siirroiiiicling towns aud iiiaii}^ outside of Springfield being present. The funeral of his predecessor, Mr. Brewer, was as different as pos- sible. Little or no religious services attended the last rites previous to 1730. It was then considered Romish and vicious. The dress, too, was more the garb of the severely righteous. But the scene at Mr. Breck's funeral was one of comparative prismatic mourning. Silk stockings and silver buckles, and lace and powder, were bowed in grief ; women, too, wore garments of silk, — faded and worn, to be sure, for the times were hard. The old first parish meeting-house was draped in black. Rev. Mr. Lathrop delivered the funeral ser- mon, and a solemn anthem was sung. The whole assembl}^ followed the body to the grave. Mr. Breck had four children by his wife Eunice Brew^er, who died in 1767. Two sons and a daughter — wife of Rev. Joseph AVhitney, of Pomfret, — survived him. Mr. Breck had married for a second wife, in 1773, the widow of Dr. Edward Dorr, of Hartford, Conn., daughter of Governor Talcott. Breck was a hard student and a close reasoner. It has been said of him that " history was his study." He was an easy and entertaining conver- sationalist, and " affable without meanness." This is also said of him by one who knew him personally : ' ' His religious sentiments were formed upon a careful examination of the sacred scriptures, without attachment to sects or systems. His turn of thinking was liberal, yet pious ; exalted, yet humble. His sense of the deplorable weakness and corruption of human nature led him to admire the gracious provisions of the gospel." Mr. Breck lived in the parsonage (Fallon's block) , where his digni- fied carriage, tie-wig, shoe-buckles, silk stockings, and a slave attend- ant served to fill out the ancient notion of ministerial importance. The old Breck residence is now doing dut}^ as a laundry (Hillman street) . The Doctors Breck of the present day are descendants of a brother of Rev. Robert Breck. Rev. Mr. Breck left at his death a negro slave named Pompey. He was not technically a slave, however, as the State constitution had, by SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 333 implication, abolished slavery. Pompey was probably the last Spriug- field slave to pass away, his death uot taking place until 1813. Mrs. Breck returned to her home at Hartford after the death of her hus- band, and Pompey accompanied her, and served her faithfully until she died, in 1798. The old darkey was thus left alone, and he would occasionally pay a visit to this region and Northampton among " Massa George's folks and Massa Robert's folks." Returning to the subject of dress, there is evidence that the new king, the populace, had a penchant for finery, even in that period of hardship and toil. There were reigning beauties in those days, of whom one local doggerilist wrote out a recipe : — " Let her flaps fly behind for a yard at the least, Let her curls meet just under her chin ; Let these curls be supported to keep up the jest, With an hundred instead of one pin. " Let her gown be tucked up to the hip on each side. Shoes too high, or to walk, or to jump; And to deck the sweet creature complete for a bride, Let the cork-cutter make her a rump." When the Revolution opened, scarlet cloaks were worn by women, also blue silk cloaks, richly flowered. There were also the furbelow scarf, camlet riding-hood, long silk hood, and white hoods trimmed with lace, and the calash. The girls of families of more moderate means had hoods of coarser material, and calico gowns. Woollen petticoats with calico borders were common. It was a rare daughter who could not ride horseback either single or on pillion. Tourists from abroad speak of these healthy-faced girls racing down a country road in white aprons and calico gowns. Both men and women patronized the hair-dresser. William Doyle kept a fashionable place after the Revolution, opposite Zenas Par- sons's tavern, and a little north of the court-house. He made wigs. 334 SPRIXGFIELD, 1G3G-1SS6. '' attended the call of ladies," aud kept a stock of cushions and curls, '^ false clubbs" for gentlemen, full-bottomed wigs, periwigs, and " scratches." We would give much to see reproduced a Springfield scene of that age, either on Sunday morning, or during court week, or even on the arrival of the stage. On Fridays (1783) the Hartford '' stage wag- gon " left David Bull's inn for Parsons's tavern (in Springfield), aud returned Saturdays. A little later (1788) Reuben Sikes ran a line of stages from New York to Boston, through Springfield, — three times weekly in summer, — the fare being three 3s. per mile. It was an event of no small account, — the arrival and departure of such ladies and gentlemen as were equal to the expense of travel. It was not permitted every one to own a carriage. They were heavily taxed. In 1791 a fall-back chaise was taxed 106-., a stand-up chaise 6s., and a sulky or riding chair 46'. Those taxed as owners of fall- back chaises m 1791 were: Zebina Stebbins, Samuel Lyman, Capt. George Pynchon, John AVorthington, Col. William Smith, William Pynchon, Lieut. Charles Sheldon, Jonathan Dwight, Jacob Sargeant, Col. Joseph Williams, Thomas Dwight, Alexander Bliss, Joseph Stebbins, Jr., Moses Church, Zenas Parsons, Moses Bliss, and Daniel Lombard, Jr. The '' whisky, " or two- wheeled sulky, was owned by Zebina Stebbins and Colonel Smith. The three-wheeled sulky was owned by John Worthington, Col. Joseph Williams, aud Moses Bliss ; and common chairs were owned by Judah Chapin, John Pynchon, Capt. James Byers, Lieut. Jacob Bliss, and Gad Horton. Moses Church's place (Five-Cent Savings-bank) was north of the court-house. This well-known and honored individual sold hats on one side of his little shop, and officiated as postmaster on the other. Opposite his office (Tinkham's) Church ran a tavern, and he filled, all in all, a large place in the community. Church inherited the hat business from his father, and passed it down to his son. Harvey S. Sanderson took the business from Jonas Coolidge, who took it from the Churches in 1796. Jeduthan Sanderson, father of Mr. Sanderson, SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 335 lived ou the site of the Boston & Albany depot. He learned the cooper's trade in the shop of Captain Alexander (near the carriage- shop of David Smith). The captain, like all his calling, went about from house to house hooping barrels. We have referred to Dr. Breck's notable funeral in 1784. The previous year Springfield was called to the solemn service of burying another notable man. Dr. Charles Pynchon, whose name figures often in the local annals. He lived on the south side of Ferry lane (Cypress street) near the corner of Main, and he owned the building on the corner, having there an ofiice and an apothecary's shop. In former 3^ears Ferr^^ lane promised to be the business centre of the town, and even at that late date it had its ambitions. Dr. Pynchon had a wide practice all through the valley. Opposite the doctor's office Zebina Stebbins had his residence as well as a dry-goods store. Mr. Stebbins was a good deal of a character, thrifty in business, and faithful to all trusts. He was overseer of the poor, and if he once proposed to make up a job-lot of coffins for a group of aged unfortunates under his charge, pending their demise, it was because he had an eye to finance, and not because he was lacking in qualities of heart. Zebina desired finally to get rid of the building on the south side of the lane. In 1785 this building was moved to the east side of Main street. It contained a printing establishment, and there also Gad Stebbins had his apothecary" shop. Dr. Stebbins sold also tea, coffee, needles, and Bibles. The death of Dr. Charles Pynchon had been preceded in January by the death of the venerable William Pynchon, aged eighty, who had spent his last da3's with William, his son (Haynes's hotel site), familiarly known as Major William. The major's brother John lived opposite, on the east side of the street, dying also at an advanced age (1826, aged eighty- four ) . There are still living a few persons who will remember John Pynchon, as he appeared on the streets with cocked hat and small clothes. The boys were his friends, as they used to ride his horse 336 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. without molestation when turned out to pasture. Above John Pynchon's house on the east side there were standing probably the old Lloyd house (opposite the Lombard place), then the Stebbins house, and the chair- factory of Horace Lee, father of Postmaster Henry Lee. IMajor William died in 1808. As we have seen by the records, he had been register of deeds, treasurer, town-clerk, magistrate, and selectman. His residence was finally moved back on Pynchon street, next to the old Methodist church. The old garrison-house of the Pynchons, built by the "worshipful Major "in 1660, was occupied by Edward Pynchon, magistrate, where he died in 1777. George Pynchon lived next house to the north. Walter Pynchon had become a merchant at Great Barrington. Another important family, as we have learned, was the Bliss family. Luke Bliss lived on the south corner of Main and State. He was a son of Capt. Luke Bliss, and brother of the Jonathan Bliss who became chief-justice of the province of New Brunswick. Luke Bliss was a courtly gentleman, a solemn and impressive singer, and thus an ideal choir-leader. His daughter became the wife of Solomon Warriuer, the famous choir -leader of the early part of this century. His brother, Jonathan Bliss, who had studied law with Colonel Worthington, was a " rescinder" in the Legislature of 1768. This was the beginning of the serious break with the town which ended in his retirement to England. Moses Bliss, the merchant, lived in South Main street (Main and Bliss) . The business rivalry among the merchants at this time interests us, as out of it came the establishment of a new family. The Dmghts were planted on Springfield soil long before the Revolution. Col. Josiah Dwight, son of Capt. Henry Dwight, of Hatfield, and husband of Sarah Pynchon (daughter of Col. William Pynchon and Catharine Brewer), was a man of note, dying in Springfield in 1768. He was a militia officer, a Common Pleas judge, and merchant. He was in- terested in an iron foundry, and was a manufacturer of potash. He SPRINGFIELD, I6S6-1SS6. 337 died worth some S50,000. His brother, Edmund Dwight, a Halifax merchant of moderate means, sent a ten years' old son (born at Boston) to the colonel at Springfield in 1753. The lad's name was Jonathan ; he grew^ up in his uncle's store, succeeded to his business, managed his estate, and perfected the foundation on which the D wight family in Springfield have since builded. Jonathan D wight was of medium size, engaging in his manners, a great smoker, a fine business man, and thoroughly honorable, upright, and church-going in his habits. His first wife was Margaret Ashley, of Westfield, to whom, as with the case of many other successful men, was due an appreciable portion of his social and business progress. We refrain from being led into a sketch of this interesting and capable family of the Dwights, so many representatives of which have risen to such substantial importance in New PLngland. The biographies of Capt. Timothy Dwight, of Northampton, Capt. Henry Dwight, of Hatfield, Gen. Joseph Dwight, of Stockbridge, Edmund Dwight, of Boston, and President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, have all been well written. When Merchant Jonathan Dwight re- sumed business during the Revolution, his dry goods, his rock salt, his cherry rum, and his imported stock were in a red dwelhng- house fixed over as store on the north-east corner of the town street and the Boston road (State street). Thus there grew a rivalry between the tv>o extremes of the town for commercial prestige. At this time the thirty-foot causeway still bridged the marsh ; the rear of Dwight' s and other buildings was confronted by a little wilderness of hassocks, bushes, springs, and stumps. This was the well-known •' Hasseky marish." 3Ir. Dwight lived opposite his store on the west side of Main street in a conspicuous white house. This resi- dence was moved up the street (Bridge) some years later, and finally burned. The "Old Red House" of Jonathan Dwight lives in storied memor}'. Here used to gather for converse and to smoke and to trade people of all classes and conditions. This red building was 338 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. removed in 1799, and a more commodious one built. The old store was drawn by long lines of oxen up Main street to Mr. Dwight's meadow (Barnes's lot), an event which greatly impressed the school children of that day. When Jonathan's son, James Scutt Dwight, grew up (Master James they called him) , he was taken in as a partner. This was about 1790. At the time of the building of 1799 the firm was Jonathan Dwight & Son. About 1804 Jonathan Dwight withdrew from the firm, the name of Henry, the youngest son, was added, and the firm was James & Henry Dwight. About 1809 Henry removed to Utica, N.Y., and the firm of J. & E. Dwight was formed, embracing James Scutt, Edmund and Jonathan Dwight, Jr., and this was dissolved by the death of James in 1822. The firm had distributing branches at Huntington, Greenfield, South Hadley Falls, Northampton, and Westfield. In November, 1813, they sent J. D. Whitney, of Northampton, to England during the war as their agent to purchase goods, to be ready to ship on a return of peace. In 1815 they opened a store in Boston (Broad street) ; goods to a large amount were stored and sold there and distributed to the branches, under the management of William H. and J. W. Dwight. One cannot dismiss the Dwight corner without indulging in a little antiquarian dissipation. At that old corner resided the spirit of the- ology, politics, and business. If the ideas of trade were progressive and full of faith in the town, the religion and politics were both of a reactionary nature at times ; and who will dispute us in saying that over the Dwight counter local toryism gradually died out and local Unitarianism was born ? The new Dwight building was of brick, two stories, but another story was added later. On the south side of the causeway, near Main street, a large watering-trough blocked up the street somewhat, espe- cially on the days when the farmers drove to the Dwight corner to trade. The Luke Bliss residence, on the corner, near this watering- trough, was an ancient two-story brown house, and attached thereto 'cm ^^' 00 i\ an exhaustive report. The town, and particularly the selectmen, were taken to task for allowing pauperism to spread. They went into history, showed that the original New England idea was that the town should maintain public worship, schools, highways, and the poor, etc. ; but then (1824) churches were taking care of themselves ; the law obliging the rich to pay for the poor was continually attacked, tolls had been substituted for highway taxes, while " the poor are to be thrown not upon those who are able, but upon those Avho are will- ing to maintain them." To which a town committee responded ]jy giving the historical fact that " our ancestors came to this country a very short time after the P^ngiish poor rule system was adopted and after there had been full trial of the system of begging in England both before and after Popery was abolished and Monasteries sup- pressed." In 1825 the schools were also thoroughly looked into. Total number between the age of four and sixteen was one thousand three hundred and six. It was found that some schools had been closed for want of funds, and some partly supported by private subscriptions. '^Noue of the schools," so runs the report, "have kept pace with the improvements and advancements in the science of instruction." :Mention is made of the "inductive system," whose " Hght has been but faintly shed upon the free schools of Springfield." A school committee was at once appointed, headed by Mr. Calhoun, and including the clergymen of the town. AVe add the selectmen for several years, for convenient reference : Selectmen for 1822, Jesse Pendleton, Solomon Hatch, AVilliam Childs, Joseph Carew, and Simon Sanborn ; 1823, John Hooker, Robert Emery, Israel E. Trask, Jonathan Dwight, Jr., and Joseph Pease; 1824, Jesse Pendleton, Solomon Hatch, AVdliam Rice, George Colton, and Allen Bangs ; 1825, Solomon Hatch, George Colton, AVilliam 39^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Rice, Alien Bangs, au^ Ri-idgman Chapin ; 1826, William Rice, Joslnia Frost, Bridgman Chapin, Harvey Chapin, and Solomon Hatch' We make a period at 1831, for during that year the old Pynchon manor-house on Main street was i)ulled down, by what ill-advice we know not. It had figured in history and fiction, was indeed so an- cient that the local newspaper notices occasioned by its demolition were not accurate. Fiction first borrowed from history, and then his- tory from fiction. By August the building was pretty well de- molished. Men stood mournfully about the ancient site where Will- iam Pynchon had built his modest house, and John Pynchon thi& palace fort, and vainly protested against its removal. In philanthropic and literary matters the aggressive spirit was pro- nounced. The Springfield lyceum was in its glory. Debates and lectures followed in rapid succession. The soft-tongued Peabody, the learned and serious Calhoun, the prismatic and popular George Ashmun, the painstaking and candid Willard, in turn addressed the lyceum ; and among other lecturers were William C. Dwight, Thom,^ Dwight, Lieutenant Tyler, Dr. L. W. Belden, Rev. BTl^utnamS Samuel Bowles, William Bliss, 3d, and J. B. Eldridge. '-^' The society for the promotion of temperance had made substantial advances. It had been an ancient custom to have beer on the table. In the early part of this century beer had given place to hard liquors^ The society had already induced many to remove the spirits from the table. Even at gatherings of militia and other organizations less liquor was drunk. This meant much for Springfield. Parson How- ard was president of the society in 1828, and at the meeting m Mr. Peabody's church in September John Hooker was chosen vice-presi- dent and AYilliam B. Calhoun corresponding secretary. George Ban- croft was present, and standing upon a chair made a ringing tem- perance speech. The sale of spirituous liquors in Springfield had decreased one-half since the previous year, and the society was en- couraged to continue its noble work. The Springfield debating society was at this time in full blast. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18SG. 397 Specimen question: "Are well-regulfited theatres injnrions to liu- manity?" Probably not five per cent, of the debaters bad ever been inside of a theatre. In August, 1829, came the first annual examina- tion of the Springfield High School : average age of the boys, twelve ; number, fifty ; special efliciency in algebra, natural i^hilosophy, and mental arithmetic, reflecting the commercial trend of the day. The infant school, in the centre of the town, numbered sixty. One was started also near Ames's mills. It was in 1829 when Miss Hawkes opened a young women's seminary here with eighty and more pupils. The triumph of the Jackson party in national politics intensified the feeling locally for some time, even to the invasion of patriotic events. March 4, 1829, w^as a famous day in Springfield. The im- agination of the man of battlefields challenging conflicting feelings. Cannon was thundering at daybreak on Armory hill and again at noon, and a few hours later artillery was drawn into Court square, where Jackson powder w\as burned for a long time. Meantime one of the new public storehouses was transformed into a banquet-room, and fully two hundred and fifty gathered about the board, delegates coming in from neighboring towns. Before the banquet Samuel Johnson, of Chester, delivered an oration. The banquet-room was elaborately decorated. Colonel Lee sat at the head of the table, and John Chaffee assisted at the bottom as vice-president. We have no such days now. In the evening the hall of the Hampden coffee- house, " where so much good living and fine dancing has been seen," was taken possession of by the John Quincy Adams men. They were cheered by a band of music and a good supper, and, " willing to hope for the best, were rather disposed to be merry than sad." Fourth of July was made the occasion of another display of patriotism decked with the robes of party ; a banquet was served at the armory, and a young man stationed on the field of ordnance yard swung a flag when each speaker sat down, which was the signal for a volley of cannon. The removal of Postmaster Lombard was the first realizing evi- 398 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1886. deuce that there was a new Presideut. Lombard's successor was Albert Morgan. A protest, signed by a majority of the business men of the town, was forwarded to Washington ; but it Avas useless. It was the day of Jacksonianism, with all that implies. November, 1829, Charles Howard was appointed paymaster and military store- keeper at the armory, vice John Chaffee, which caused the anti- administrationists again to cast reflections ni)on the '' new scheme of rewards and punishments." Major Howard was said to have been, in 1823, one of the only three Jackson men in the county. In 1829 William B. Calhoun was unanimously elected speaker of the House of Representatives, at Boston, the first time in its history, which caused the " Boston Courier " to remark that the Connecticut valley " may feel proud of its present distinction." Samuel Lathrop, of AYest Springfield, it will be remembered, was at this time president of the Senate. The Fourth of July of 1830 was celebrated by the colonization societ}^ of the local branch, of which Samuel Bowles was secretary, by special contributions taken in the churches, the Fourth falling on Sunday. On Monday there was the usual celebration on the hill, managed by the Jacksonians, while the Hampden Guards paraded with Henry Clay banners, and dined at the Springfield hotel. Some enterprising women of the town organized a patriotic tea-party the day following at Worthington grove, east of the AVorthington house. The Springfield artillery were encamped there under Captain Dwight ; a liberty-pole had been put up and hung with evergreens, and sup- porting astral lamps properl}^ decorated. The tea was followed by music, dancing, and a gay time generally, participated in by over a thousand people. Masonry and politics were becoming wofully mixed. The anti- W masonic party had put up Samuel Lathrop, of West Springfield, as candidate for governor against Levi Lincoln. Indignant '' national republicans " of the county met at Springfield November 1, 1831, Festus Foster, of Brimfield, in the chair, and Samuel Bowles secre- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2S86. 399 tary. They demanded that Mr. Lathrop should siibiiut his letter to the anti-masonic convention, Jonathan Dwight, George Ashmiin, and Simon Sanborn being appointed a committee for that purpose. Mr. Lathrop replied that he would produce the letter, provided he was in- formed of the action of the meeting. Nothing came of this cor- respondence, and the committee printed a statement that Mr. Lathrop had shown his letter of acceptance of the anti-masonic nomination to Oliver B. Morris, R. A. Chapman, and others before it was sent. Lathrop in his letter had spoken highly of Governor Lincoln, and had disapproved of the nomination of Wirt, for President, \s an anti- mason, and called himself a friend of Henry Clay. Lathrop had finally concluded to break from the whigs. Two new actors had appeared upon the local stage, — George Ashmun and Reuben Atwater Chapman. These two young men drifted to Springfield from Blandford, and formed the law firm of Chapman & Ashmun. One rose to be chief-justice of the Supreme Court, while the other was invited b}^ his fellow-citizens into the field of politics, and figured honorably and brilliantly in national affairs. The old English rules of common-law pleading had a partial hold of the State courts at that time, and it was the custom for young law3^ers to associate older members of the bar with them as counsel. But the young firm introduced an innovation that was, at once, pro- nounced glaringly impertinent. Judge Chapman, in his later days, often reverted to the storm of resentment that both were compelled to meet. Judges frowned upon the young men, giants of the law were covered with sardonic smiles or frigid glances, and even their patron, District Attorney Wells, of Greenfield, revealed his an- noyance. Ashmun was quick, facile, and witty, while Chapman was ^'sarcastic and tremendously sauc}^," to use the words of an aged resident who remembers the dramatic entree of this firm upon its nota- ble career. Those were days when it was not considered out of place to call out the heavy ordnance over very insignificant causes. '' A jackal ! " cried Chapman, in reference to a man who was pursu- 400 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. ing Ms client, as he thought, too closely. '' A defender of jackals," he added in low-voiced severity, glancing at Mr. AVells. The Green- field attorney rose, white w^ith indignant emotion. He pictured the birth of the child Reuben Chapman on the shores of Eussell pond, his farm-work, his weighing sugar in a country store, and, finally, the kindly aid extended him by the speaker. " And this is the return for my kind ofliices ! " Young Mr. Chapman looked very sober, but the figure of the jackal would not dow^n, and the prosecuting attorney made no headway against the burglar whom Chapman was defending. Mr. Chapman might be called a wheel-horse to the legal car rather than a brightly caparisoned leader. His days were spent in laborious application. He w^as learned, courtly, kind, set ; his pleas were models of brevit}", but disclose no imaginative and birt slio-ht forensic quality. He contributed little to the amusement of the bar, but much to its form of legal practice. Mr. Chapman seemed bred and trained for the express purpose of contributing to the great task of sweeping away the mass of technicalities involved in ci^il practice. Before he could become a maker of statutes of this Commonwealth, however, he was compelled to climb into notice, both giving and taking hard blows. The Hampden bar needed neither color nor incident fifty years and more ago ; but it did need new blood, and this it got in good measure with the law firm of Chapman & Ashmun. These men were in a Avay complements of each other. Chapman was a man of books ; Ashmun was a man of action. Political honors knocked at Mr. Ashmun's door, and it w^as within his grasp to play a national part. He did to a certain extent, but the creditable lack of a desire for personal pre- ferment prevented that cohesion of political action and ambition which is an element in conspicuous careers. Springfield never made to the great public the gift of a character about which is associated more good-humor, genial humanit3% brighter morality, or more dignified eloquence than that of George Ashmun. The lover of old times delights to this day to tell how he would drop -^, aJ^ ^1-^ -^-^/^'1^.-^n_^ SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886. 401 in of an afternoon, " rnb his nose and take some snuff," and awake the pleasantries of cordial conversation. The more serious read his political addresses, pitched in lofty sentiment, while the gossips treasure a fund of anecdote concerning him. He had the rare faculty of hospitality which is spontaneous without being familiar. If the tradition of the town is authority, one of the most brilliant occasions in oar local annals was the dinner given by Mr. Ashmun to Thackeray, the English novelist. We have the word of " The Republican," long since recorded, that the " company floated out for hours on a tide of humor, of brilliant gossip and suggestive criticism, in which Mr. Ashmun was astonishingl}^ seconded by his friend from Green- field, the most brilliant table-talker in America (George T. Davis) ; so that even Thackeray, accustomed to the finest society of England as well as America, often laid down his knife and fork, — a thing he was not wont to do without occasion, — and listened or applauded with wonder." With the decline of training-da}^, and the multiplication of special feast days, sprang up a number of special military organizations that graced many a festal occasion and covered the town with glory. The old artillery company, organized before the War of 1812, was the admi- ration and wonder of these parts. This compan}^ had a couple of six- pounders which were kept at the foot of P^lm street, near the gate of the old cemetery. The dark blue coats, and belts with big brass buckles, still linger fondly in the memory. But it was the Hampden Guards, already alluded to, that took the lasting honors for socio- military prowess. This organization included pretty much the flower of Springfield, over which commanded in succession Alpheus Xettle- ton (father of Colonel Nettleton, of Governor Ames's staff) , Solomon Warriner, Jr., Captain ]>ates, and others. The Hampden Guards wore white trowsers, tall leather caps, blue dress coats with bell buttons and standing collars. The local organizations often partici- pated in the ]May trainings, and always in the fall muster, when the militia of the county rendezvoused for inspection and parade and sham- 402 SPRING FIF.LD, 163G-18S6. battle. The fields adjoining North Main street, the " rye field " on the hill (McKnightville), and West Springfield have been the scenes of these martial displays. In the autumn of 1828, at a meeting here of the First Regiment (1st Brigade, 4th Division Artillery), Lieut. - Col. Galen Ames was elected colonel in the place of Colonel Good- man, and Maj. David Moseley was elected lieutenant-colonel. It was noticed, by the way, that no liquor was passed round on this occasion. In 1824, the Governoa:^ Foot Guards, of Hartford, under the com- mand of Major PutnamPmade a return visit to Springfield in the " Blancharcl '^ Tn August, 1824. They were welcomed by the select- men, a company of sixty horsemen, the Hampden Guards, Springfield Artillery, and a large crowd. Colonel Ames commanded the military, and Colonel Xettleton the civiliary. They repaired to Ordnance yard, and a banquet followed. There was a reception iu the town- hall in the evening. The next day there was much marching, and also speeches by Colonel Ames, Judge Morris, Major Putnam, and others. The Hampden Guards were commanded by Captain War- riner, and the artillery by Captain Dwight. Warriner had been elected captain of the light infantry company of the Hampden Guards in January. Capt. Benjamin J. Boardman, of Hartford, died sud- denh^ in his bed at the Hampden coffee-house, during the visit of the Foot Guards, which lent a tragic view to the otherwise perfect occa- sion. In October of that year the artiller}' regiment (Col. G. Ames) and the infantr}^ regiment (Col. D. Wood) were reviewed in this town b}^ General Warner. The First and Second regiments of infantry, under Colonels Wood and Eh% with the local artiller}^ oom- pau}', all commanded by Brigadier-General Warner, were reviewed October 7, 1830, in this town, b}^ Major-General Sheldon. The}- made a fine appearance and drew a big croAvd, wlio improved the da}' by " stowing awa}- oysters, gingerbread, etc., well peppered with dust, and seemed as much fatigued with the labors of the day as the military." The Hampden Guards received in this month a " splendid SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 403 standard " from the citizens. Colonel Nettleton made the presenta- tion speech, and Ensign Spencer responded. The following year, Lieut. Erastus M. Bates was elected captain of the Hampden Guards, y!i^ ^^^fe> •*.%,- Archway to the Springfield Cemetery. vice Capt. Solomon Wamner, Jr., resigned. Captain AVarriuer's last military act was to carry the standard to Pittsfield, where the Grej's received them in their best style. Their appearance was applauded upon all sides, and a sarcastic remark in a Northampton paper about the Guards shows that the green -e3Td monster knew a good thing when he saw it. But what of the condition of the town in these days? Let the 404 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. following table, gathered from the records for 1831, speak: Population (about), 6,700; dwelling-houses, 722; stores, ware- houses, and shops 118; barns, 580; cotton factories (370 looms), 3 ; bleachery, 1 ; paper-mills, 3 ; printing-offices, 5 ; grist-mills, 5 ; saw-mills, 7 ; card factories, 2 ; carding-machine, 1 ; fulling-mill, 1 ; breweries, 2; distilleries, 2; tan-houses, 3 ; tillage lands (acres), 5,301; meadow, 1,807; horses, 389; oxen, 321; cows, 474; steers and heifers, 237 ; sheep, 954 ; newspapers, 4. Armory property is not here enumerated. The town had increased in population 2,870 between 1820 and 1830, when the figures were 6,784. The popula- tion of the county in 1829 was 33,000. Much attention was now paid to village improvements. New streets w^ere being laid out. In 1828 Charles Stearns was ap- pointed to widen and deepen a part of the town brook, for which he used 1,500 feet of block stone, over 10,000 bricks, and 9,000 feet of planking. There was a bit of what now seems vandalism attending these improvements. In May, 1829, Charles Stearns proposed to cut down an ancient elm standuig on Main street, near the land of George Bliss, in order to carry out the work of draining the meadow by enlarging the brook. The elm was in the way, and much feeling was caused b}- the plan to cut it down. The Blisses applied to Chief-Justice Parker for an injunction, which, after a learned argu- ment, was denied, and the elm fell. It stood on ^lain street, opposite Bliss street; a handsome elm stood in the ^^ard of James Bliss, which was cut down in 1853. A West Springfield farmer, it is said, gathered some seeds under this tree, sowed them, and in due time traded elm saplings for a cemetery lot, whence came the ave- nue of elms leading to the beautiful Maple-street entrance of the cemetery. The oldest elm on Court square was planted by the Pynchon family, according to tradition, and was a large tree at the Revolution. It is understood that the tree at the north-east corner of Court square was set out by Mrs. Charles Sheldon in what was then her door-yard. The other trees in the square were The Old Elm, on Elm Street. 406 SPRTXGFIELD, 2636-1886. planted in 1829, by Major IngersoU, David A. Adams, and others. The subscription to meet this expense was signed by Daniel Bontecon, Ebenezer Russell, William Dwight, George Bliss, Ben- jamin Day, Henry Sargent, and others. One of the trees which figures in " The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table " stood on Barnes's lot, on the old line between the Dwisrht pasture and the Pynchon lot. It was called the largest tree in New P^ngland, and Dr. Holmes calls it one of the very largest. At its most slender girth, which was about two and a half feet from the ground, it measured twenty-eight feet in circumference. It stood but a few feet from the brook which flowed through the lot and there joined the town brook along the side of Main street, and one could almost sit under its great branches and catch the trout Avhicli abounded in the stream. The rails of the fences for which the old tree was the union post had been placed agamst it so long that it is said the tree had grown around them. In July, 1858, the eastern half felL but the other half stood until April, 1864. The tree in front of the Elm-street school-house was planted by Dr. William Seldon, who lived on the site of the Elm-street school, over one hundred years ago, and despite some attempts to have it cut down still stands. A. D. Briggs saved this tree when the school-house was built, in 1867, from being destroyed to give a little more sidewalk room. There was another elm opposite Worthington street, on the east side of Main, which was cut down when that street was laid out in 1841. This tree was often called the '^ offering tree," as the dense shade of the tree and the unfrequented neighborhood made a favorite resort. The roots of the tree protruded in a snarl on the south path. We have before spoken of the trees in North Main street which were set out in 1770, by Maj. Joseph Stebbins and his son, Festus Stebbins. Mr. Stebbins brought the trees from West Spring- field on his back and in a boat. The row formerly extended from Carew street to Cypress street, but it has been reduced so that there are but five elms and a button-ball of the orioinal row standino-. The SPRINGFIELD, I636~2SS6. 407 row of elins on r>entoii park was set out by Stephen O. Russell in 1835, and Mr. Russell set out many other trees. The trees for a great part in the armory grounds were planted under the supervision of Major IngersoU, who must be called one of the patron saints of Arbor Day. There is a large elm nearly opposite the Olivet church which was native where it stands. The Federal-street trees were set out luider General Whitney's administration. Another fine specimen of the old elms is the one near York street on Main street. The tree near the jNIemorial church is a very fine specimen. The two magnificent trees on State street, just above P^lliott, were set out by Capt. William Childs about 1832. Charles Stearns moved an elm from his garden to the street in front of his residence and carefully watered and cared for it. It stands on the corner of Maple and Union streets, and is sometimes called the Stearns elm. In 1830 the Springfield fire department was incorporated, and here follows the first officers : Elijah Blake, chief engineer ; George Bliss, first assistant ; Simon Sanborn, second assistant ; Edwin Booth, third assistant. The fire wardens were Charles Stearns, Charles Howard, Joseph Lombard, Jr., Silas Stedman, Stephen C. Bemis, Samuel Henshaw, William Childs, Theodore Bliss, Allen Bangs, Ithamer Goodman, and Charles J. Upham. Elijah Blake Avas the soul of this department, and stands now as the father of Springfield fire depart- ment. An engine-house had been built in 182G (corner Sanford and Market streets) . Evidence of lawless men abounded in those days, and the author- ities had their hands full for a time. In 1828 a number of bold bur- glaries took place, and the people began to know the value of lock and key. Up to the War of 1812 no one bolted the door of their residence in the town. This was true, by the way, of most of the New England villages. In 1828 John Kinder, employed by Coolidge & Sanderson, stole one hundred and sixteen musk-rat skins from them, and was arrested Avhile attempting to dispose of them at Worcester. A gang of tliieves had spread their operations through 408 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. all this region. They had made raids upon the stores of Bemis & Sheffield, Chicopee ; J. & C. Ely, West Springfield; Winslow's clock shop, and the residence of Jonathan Blake, in this town. Elijah Blake distinguished himself by organizing a party. The woods were scoured, and one Russell Stephenson and one George Ball were overhauled in the woods Sunday morning, May 24, 1829, in a hovel where booty was concealed. Stephenson drew a pistol on Blake, but he was not quick enough. Ball was seized by W. Chapin, and it was said at the time that some of the party were too busy looking out for their own safety in the event of stray bullets to be of service. Judge George Bliss committed the men for trial. Erastus Stephenson (a brother) was also arrested. At the trial of Stephen- son and Ball a humorous court scene is still remembered. The prisoners had entered George Blake's house through the buttery win- dow by pulling away a twine net, and the lawyer for the defence asked the judge to charge that burglary implied a breaking of the house, and " that tearing down a net made of double twine nailed to keep out cats is not such a breaking as to constitute the offence charged." The judge declined to so charge ; the case went up on appeal, and the prisoners were sent to prison for life. "William L. Loring was convicted this year also for receiving and concealing a body taken from the Springfield burying-ground on Elm street. Among the prominent Springfieid-^nen wlio died during this period may be mentioned John , ^Hooker, judge of probate from 1813 to 1829. He was president of The Springfield Bank, and was one of Springfield's substantial citizens, a man of integrity, and much hon- ored. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., succeeded him at the head of the Springfield r>ank, Oliver B. Morris, his old friend, took his place as probate judge, and Justice AVillard was made register of probate. George Bliss, Sr., passed away the 8th of March, 1830, aged sixty, and a few days later the venerable Dr. Chauncey Brewer died (March 15, aged eighty-seven). The doctor was the oldest prac- titioner of western Massachusetts, and the same aoe of Jonathan ^da^O/rdy ut/znyJuw SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 409 Dwight, a deacon at the First church and for over half a centuiy prominent in town affairs, as we have seen. March, 1830, was in- deed a fatal month, for the same week (March 17) Edw^ard Pynclion died, in his fifty-sixth year. Upon the death of his father, in 1808, he had become town clerk and treasurer. He was also county treasurer and register of deeds. The positions of county treasurer and register have been filled by a Pynchon for over a century. The death of Pynchon led to a hot struggle for the positions of county treasurer and register of deeds. David Paine secured both for a year, but William Rice captured the registry of deeds at the second election, in 1831. George Colton was elected county treasurer in 1835. Merchant Jonathan Dwight died in September, 1831, at the age of eighty-eight. AVe have described him as a man of great force of character, business energy, and integrity, and he was and is looked upon as the father of Springfield merchants, — not the first mer- chant, but the first to organize the business activities as they lay prostrate after the Revolution. He was collector of taxes in 1793 and several years thereafter. When Springfield makes up her list of men who contributed to her foundation-stones, Jonathan Dwight will have a place of honor. Thomas Blanchard, the noted inventor, built a little stern- wheel steamboat, which he named after himself, and launched in the autumn of 1828. It was Tuesday, September 10, when the inventor invited a party of citizens to accompany him on a trial trip. The " Blan- chard " had a sixty-feet keel and twelve feet beam ; cabin, ten by twenty-four, divided into two compartments ; thirty tons burden ; four wrought-iron boilers, pressure, five hundred pounds to the square inch. The river was very high, and a few days before the " Blan- chard " had cruised round the swollen river, steamed up the Agawam to the bridge, and ventured across the flooded meadows to the Con- necticut river again, about a mile above the mouth of the Agawam. The first trip to Hartford Avas made in two hours fifty minutes, she 410 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. carrying fift}^ passengers. Her arrival at Hartford was greeted with a cannon salute. Tlie attempt to return was prevented by an accident to the rudder while ascending the falls. The Hartford people paid Thomas Blanchard and the Springfield company much attention, and gave them an excursion in the steamboat " Barnet ; " while the Hart- ford press took occasion to speak of Mr. Blanchard as an inventive genius, his machines for turning gun-stocks being particularized. The "Blanchard" soon became ver}^ popular as an excursion boat. During a single week it took no less than six hundred school children on various pleasure trips. It carried, in October, the Hampden Guards to Hartford, where they were handsomely' entertained by the governor's Foot Guards and other organizations. The steamer "Vermont," also built by Captain Blanchard, was completed in July, 1829, a Brattleboro' company having given the order. The hull was built on what is now Hubbard avenue, and was drawn on wheels through Main street and down Elm street to the river, and thence floated to the wharf at the foot of Harvard street. It was seventy-five feet long and fifteen feet beam, and a large promenade deck. It ascended the Willimansett falls with ease, and could also pass through the Willimansett canal. The "Hartford Mirror " noted, in July, 1829, as an evidence of business conditions, that four boats arrived there from Springfield in one day, loaded w^itli produce and merchandise valued at $100,000. The steamer " Ver- mont " was able to run the Enfield falls without the aid of poles. The Enfield canal was opened in 1829. In April, 1830, the townsfolk saw for the first time a schooner under full sail — " The Eagle" — on the river. She had come up through the Enfield canal. The " Blanchard" and the " Vermont" happened to be both l^^ing at the wharf, and the excited people dreamed of a metropolis at once. A convention of the river toAvns at Windsor, ^"t., in October, 1830, recommended the formation of a company for a steam tow-boat navigation of the river. George Bliss took i)art in these deliberations. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 411 and arrangements were soon thereafter made with the proprietors of the locks and canals of the Connecticut. Books for subscription to the stock of the " Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company " were at once opened at the Hampden Coffee House. Charles Stearns contracted with the directors to superintend the building of a number of boats. Three boats were already plying between Springfield and Hartford. The steamer '' Springfield " was run by the Connecticut River Valley Company. It was partly burned at the wharf in Novem- ber, 1830. The " Hampden," used mainly for freight, was owned by John Cooley & Co., and the "Vermont" was run by Sargeant & Chapin. The Valley Company launched the "John Ledyard " in April, 1831. Captain Blanchard's new boat, the "Massachusetts," was launched April 14. It was ninety-six feet long, and considered a beauty. The " William Hall," owned by the Valley Company, ran up from Hartford in July, 1831, with a number of the directors, and received a warm greeting. Some people, with then- feet in the dust of the past, called these Connecticut boats "sauce-pans," and had their smile when the " Massachusetts " was not small enough to go through the Enfield canal, and had to wait high water in order to run up the falls. As an evidence of travel and curiosity as to western Massachusetts, it may be stated that one boat (August, 1831) took down to Hartford no less than sixty passengers, most of them tour- ists, and the steamboat "William Hall" would arrive at the wharf with six and eight boats in tow. The Valley Company, at this time, owned some thirty freight boats, and charged $2,000 for the season. It had $38,000 invested, of which $7,000 was borrowed. The Spring- field and Albany stage over the Pontoosuc turnpike began running in June, 1831. The Farmington canal was opened in 1828, and con- tinued in operation eighteen years. CHAPTER XVIII. 18;31-1841. The Era of Eailroad Building. — Canal and Railroad Advocates. — The Old Western Road. - A Mass Meeting at Springfield. — Hartford's Rival Scheme. - Stock Subscriptions. —Seeking State Aid.— Democratic Party Opposition. - River Boats. — Chicopee and Cabotville.- School Districts. - Activity in Real Estate. -A Washington's Birthday Celebration. ^ Visit of Henry Clay.. -William B. Calhoun. - Temperance. - Elliot- Buckland Murder Trial. —Revolutionary Pensioners. —George Bliss in Politics. - Springfield's Bi-centennial. - Fourth of July at Factory Village. — George Bancroft in Local Politics. — The Fifteen-Gallon Law.- Marcus Morton. —A Harrison Demonstra- tion. — Slavery. - Dr. Osgood. — Springfield Statistics. — Newspapers. - Dr. Joshua Frost. — Churches. —The Fire Department. — Military Companies. On the 23d of June, 1831, the Boston & Worcester Railroad Corpora- tion was chartered. On the 21st of December, 1841 , the railroad from Albany to Chatham Four Corners, N. Y., was so far completed that trains passed through to Worcester, thus joining Boston and Albany with a continuous rail. This, then, was the decade of pio- neer railroads. The project of a canal over this route had fallen through. Governor Eustis had favored it early in 1825, and Governor Lincoln later in that year viewed it with equal favor after a commis- sion had gone over the ground, although he took occasion to speak of railroads as a promising means of transportation. The commis- sioners' report of 1826 had favored a canal i-oute through Worces- ter county, up the Deerfield river, and through Hoosac mountain by a four-mile tunnel; estimated cost, $(3,824,072. But at this session Senator Mills, Representative Calhoun, and the other members of the committee on roads and canals recommended that railroad commis- sioners be appointed to investigate the subject. The House refused to do so. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 413 '^ There are possibilities here," remarked Daniel Webster, in July, 1826, as he saw loaded cars drawn on rail by horses. He had gone down to Quincy to attend the funeral of John Adams, and had chanced upon the only railroad then in the country. It was a three- mile track, designed to transport granite from the quarries to the water. In 1828 we find the Legislature discussing a southern railroad route through Worcester and Springfield, and a northern route through Watertown, Rutland, Belchertown, Northampton, Adams, and Hoosac Four Corners. Here arose a danger to Springfield's su- premacy in western Massachusetts. Under the transportation sys- tem of stage, canopied wagon, and boat, Springfield had won. With the rise of the new day-star of commerce, Hartford and Northamp- ton and Worcester were ready to renew the fight. The directors of the Boston & AVorcester Railroad Company secured a charter in March, 1833, to run a railroad from Worcester to Spring- field, and thence westward to the State line. This supplementary company was called the Western Railroad Corporation. Povver was given this corporation to build branch roads. New York State responded to the call by chartering, in 1834, the Castleton & AVest Stockbridge Railroad, or, as it was called two years later, the Albany & AYest Stockbridge Company. The stock was readily taken, and the company organized in 1835. The Boston & AYorcester road was opened to AYestboro' in November, 1834, but aside from Spring- field and the towns east, no town made any determined effort to place the stock of the AA^estern road. Popular scepticism was about equally divided between the financial and engineering difficulties. The New York Stock Exchange made an attempt to get control of the proposed road, but the offers were de- clined with thanks. At a meeting of the citizens of Springfield, January 2, 1835, this committee of inquiry and correspondence Avas appointed: William B. Calhoun, George Bliss, George Ashmun, Charles Stearns, Justice AYillard, AV. H. Bowdoin, and J. B. Shef- 414 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1886. field. The result of their deliberations was a mass meeting at the Sprnigfield town-hall, February 16, George Bliss making a favorable report upon the practicability of a road, and advising a convention of delegates from the towns on the proposed route to consider the ways and means of building the road. Worcester was the place and March the date of this convention, which numbered over one hundred delegates. Caleb Rice was in the chair, and Reuben A. Chapman secretary. Aside from a desire in Worcester that that place be the permanent terminus of the Boston road, there was little opposition in passing resolves to make surveys from Worcester to Springfield. The executive committee intrusted with this work were the chairman and secretary of the convention, W. H. Bowdoin, of Springfield, Joel Norcross, of Monson, and N. P. Dewey, of Leicester. The onus of this survey fell upon George Bliss, who was, in fact, the apostle of railroading here in western Massachusetts. Col. John M. Fessenden, chief engineer of the Boston & Worcester Railroad, made the sur- vey, and also examined a route between Springfield and Hartford. He was assisted by William S. Whitwell, now of Brookline, and the late William Parker, Samuel Nott, of Hartford, and others. It was found, by reference to stage-books and landlords, that 55,510 people had passed in one year between Worcester and Springfield, and that the freight was 42,000 tons. Allowing $1.75 fare for passengers, and $4 per ton for merchandise, they had an annual revenue of about $265,100, less $85,000 estimated expenses, leaving $180,100 net in- come, Avhich was about 16 per cent, on the estimated cost of the road. This report was printed and used to secure subscriptions. Hartford was now anxious to snatch the crown from Springfield by making a railroad connection directly with A¥orcester, cross country. A large convention, held at Hartford in March, 1835, voiced her desires, and another convention was arranged to be held at Worcester a little later. By May the A\^orcester & Hartford Railroad Company was chartered by the Connecticut Legislature to connect the Hartford & New Haven SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1 S 8 6. 415 road with the Boston & Worcester. The next thing which the people of Springfield had to meet was a proposed road from Hartford to Albany. This meant a Boston, Hartford, & Alban}^ Railroad, and Springfield a tributar^^ snbnrb. All these interests came together with a clash at Worcester, July 2, 1835, as arranged by the Hartford convention. Levi Lincoln was called upon to preside. There were more Connecticut than Massa- chusetts delegates from the thirty-fi^'e towns represented. George Bliss spoke for Springfield, Nathan Hale for the Boston & Worcester road, John A. Rockwell for the Norwich route, and General Johnson pleaded the cause of Hartford and " the direct " route. He w^as sup- ported by Nathan Smith, of New Haven, and Major Putnam, of Hartford, the latter stating, upon the authority of Albany business men, that, in the winter, communication between Troy and New York was destined to be via Hartford and New Haven. It would have been unwise to try to commit the convention to any one route, and each party hastened away to make the appeal to moneyed men. Stock-books of the Western road were opened in August, and pub- lic meetings were held from one end of tlie State to the other. The $2,000,000 asked for was not secured, however. The influence of New York city was against the road, since it was feared at the metropolis that trade would be drawn from Albany to Boston. The merchants of New York did not propose to " let Boston people come Yanlvee over us." In this emergency a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Oct. 7, 1835, delegates being present from all the towns along the route, including Albany itself. The old hall was full. North Appleton gave figures, Hermanns Bleeker promised that Albany would do her duty up to the State line whether Massachu- setts did or not. Edward Everett pledged tlie Commonwealth to a policy of progress, and AVilliam B. Calhoun announced that his town of Springfield had already taken one-eighth of the two million, and the towns from the river to Worcester had done nobly. Another canvass was made, and 18,300 more shares were sub- 416 SPRINGFIELD, 1036-1886. scrii bed, and another meeting held at Boston, this time in the Supreme Court room, on the 20th of November. There was still a deficiency, and they beat the bushes once more, and on the 5th of December, 1835, the stock had all been taken, — $2,000,000 with 2,200 share- holders. The company was organized in January following, with these du-ectors : Thomas B. Wales, William Lawrence, Edmund Dwight, Henry Rice, John Henshaw, Francis Jackson, and Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Boston, and Justice AYillard and George Bliss, of Springfield. We do not know why Worcester was not represented. The fear that Worcester was to be simply a way station was at the bottom of much opposition to the Western road, and Nathan Hale, who was at the head of the Boston & Worcester road, had at one time met opposition to his scheme by threatening not to deflect the track into Worcester at all if obstruction continue. This had a very sobering effect. Thomas B. Wales was made president of the board of directors of the Western road, and George Bliss general agent of the corpora- tion, the latter being authorized to " make all contracts and trans- act all business which he may deem necessary for its interests." George Ashmun soon presented in the Legislature a petition for aid in the construction of the road. The stock of the road had been taken not by capitalists, but by men of moderate means, and the State, in the Ashmun petition, was asked to charter a bank to be called " The AYestern Railroad Bank," located at Boston, capital, $5,000,000, the usual bank tax of which to be paid to the corporation for twenty years. Tlie charter of the United States Bank had ex- pired that year and a new charter refused. Thus the withdrawal of the capital of the United States Bank was the Western's oppor- tunity. Other petitions for a bank followed, and the Ashmun scheme was pushed aside. A bill was reported in March, 1836, to establish the State Bank of Massachusetts, capital, $10,000,000, half to be subscribed by the State ; payment to be made in coin or State scrip, interest \\ per cent. ; time, twenty years. The directors were SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. 417 to be authorized to subscribe for 10,000 shares of the Western road, the bank to retain one-half the bank tax on its capital, and the in- come on the stock in the road until the assessments on the road were refunded. The democratic party declared war against the bill on account of the provision for such an immense bank, and they succeeded in putting through a substitute bill, authorizing the State treasurer to subscribe $1,000,000 to the Western stock, provided that three of the directors be chosen by the Legislature. George Bliss had the pleasure, as he tells us, of carrying this bill to Governor Everett for his signature. The following year the State treasurer was authorized to issue scrip to pay assessments and to establish a stock sinking-fund. The Massachusetts Bank project meantime fell through. Hartford was still an applicant for a Massachusetts charter for its road, being supported, too, by many influential men in Worcester county ; while Berkshire furnished a respectable petition for a road from West Stockbridge to the Connecticut State line toward Hartford. Mr. Bliss was appointed to oppose the Hartford scheme, and after a heated contest in committee the petitioners were given leave to with- draw. Surveys along the Western railroad route were actively pushed during 1836, and the first grading was begun in the following winter. The manner of entering Springfield furnished occasion for man}^ local heartburnings. The four routes discussed were : (1) Cabot- ville, a little south of Chicopee Falls, with a bridge just south of the mouth of the river ; (2) End brook, crossing the Connecticut midway between the village and the Chicopee river; (3) Garden brook, very much as it was finally built; and (4) Mill river, thence north below Maple and Chestnut streets to the Garden brook line. When it was thought probable that the Worthington property would be the site of the depot, an agent secured of the New York owners the refusal of the property at a certain sum. A charge of speculation was subse- quently made. The present route was approved by the directors in 418 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. the spring of 1837. The work during this year was delayed on account of lack of funds ; many refused to pay assessments and surrendered their stock, which was in some cases resold. Six assess- ments ($900,000) had been made, but only about two-thirds of the amount had been realized. Mr. Bliss, who took a prominent part during these trying days, says : — The estimates of the engineers for the whole line were before the board by midsummer (1837), requiring for grading, bridging, superstructure, and land damages a little less than $4,000,000, exclusive of engineering, depots, and gen- eral expenses. The funds provided were only f3, 000, 000 in stock, if the whole should be paid ; and under the most prosperous condition of the country, there was enough to dishearten the most arduous friends of the enterprise. But superadded to this came the tinancial storm of 1837, which Avas winging its fearful course over the entire land, visiting Massachusetts, and particularly Boston, and sparing no commercial community. Those who had subscribed to the stock taxed every energy to meet the calls. But the cold paralysis had blighted the fairest prospects. The stockholders of this company suffered wiih the rest, and it became necessary that some jjower, measurably unaffected by the pressure, should again step forward. This relief was the credit of the State, and State scrip to the amount of $2,100,000, payable in thirty years in London, at five per cent, interest, was authorized after a severe struggle. The directors of the Western road were compelled to combat lukewarmness also at Albany, as Uttle or nothing was being done by the Albau}^ company but talk, and there was every evidence that the stock of that com- pany was to fall into the hands of the New York capitalists. The directors of the Western were again before the Legislature for State aid in 1839, and secured, after another investigation, author- ity for $1,500,000 more in scrip, and by October, 1839, trains were running between Worcester and Springfield. There was a grand celebration upon the arrival of the first train the first week in Octo- ber. James Parker was the conductor, and continued in that service for many years. A procession was formed, and after marching down SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 419 and up Main street, a stop was made at the round-house at the depot, where a dinner was in waiting. The tables were arranged like the spokes of a wheel. George Ashmun presided, and at the table were Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, Amasa Walker, Nathan Hale, Justice AVillard, and editors and public men from half-a-dozen towns. Let- ters were read from John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Russell, Abbott Lawrence, Stephen Fairbanks, Chief-Justice Ward, Julius Rockwell, and others. Edward Everett made a very glowing speech, closing with this passage : — On my last visit to Springfield, a year or two ago, my esteemed friend, just named (Mr. Peabody), who has labored with so much diligence and success on the ornithology of the State, informed me that one of these little sea-birds (stormy petrel) had left his mark upon the mountain wave, his home upon the deep, and had been found near the Chicopee river, within the limits of the town of Spring- field, seventy miles, at least, in air line from tide-water, and hundreds of miles from his accustomed range on the seas. What could be the object of this mys- terious little visitant ? Who can tell ? On his native element the sailors regard him with an unfriendly eye ; on shore, by the rule of contraries, he may come as the harbinger of God. Perhaps, sir, he had heard of your railroad, and had come to try the speed of his pinions with your locomotives. Whatever be his object, I am disposed to regard his visit as a good omen. As the bird of the land in the infancy of our race came back to the ark with an olive branch in her mouth, as a sign that the waters were abated from off the earth, let us welcome the little sea-bird who has come up to the hills as the herald to tell us that the portals of the deep are thrown open, that the chariots of fire and iron are rolling over its waters, and that henceforth, if never before — Seas shall join the regions they divide. Albany still lingered over its part of the great work, and in 1840 George Bliss, Charles Stearns, and a large delegation of AYestern stockholders visited the capital of New York. They secured an agreement with the city of Albany to subscribe $650,000 to the stock of the Albany Railroad Company ; the Albany company agreed to intrust to the Western road the location and construction of. the road lying in New York, and further agreements were made with the 420 SPRINGFIELD, I6S6-1SS6. Hudson and Berkshire company. Albany raised more funds, the total bonds of the city reaching Si, 000, 000, less ten per cent, to the sinking-fund. The cost of the road was estimated at 81,412,804, which deficiency was met b}' the Western company. General extravagance was charged upon the directors of the Western road, and in the winter of 1840 an investigation, extending over a month, took place, Henry Sterns, of Springfield, and Edmund Dwight, of Boston, appearing as complainants, while George Bliss defended the road. It was, in fact, an investigation of George Bliss himself, as he was charged with quite an extensive scheme of land speculation ; but it was proved that instead of making money out of the location of the road it Avas the corporation that was benefited by his liberal terms. Other officers emerged with equalh^ clean skirts. A third grant of scrip was asked of the Legislature in 1841, which was secured after the usual fight. Thus the funds were provided and the trains running between Boston and Albany before Christmas of that year. George Bliss soon became interested in railroading. He w as event- ually chosen president of the IMichigan Southern road, which position he held until the road was completed to Chicago. He also became president of the Chicago & Mississippi road, one of the projectors of the Hartford & Springfield road, and director of the Chicago & Rock Island road. He was instrumental in building more than six hundred miles of tlie through line between the Mississippi river and Boston. The Connecticut River Valle}' Steamboat Company were in trouble in 1832, and some of the stockholders withdrew from the concern, which was $17,000 behind its accounts. The river traffic was cer- tainly not flat at this time. The " AYilliam Hall " and "John Cooley " brought from Hartford, June 2, twelve boats with two hundred and fifty tons of merchandise, one-half for this town. But the Valley Steamboat Company failed in August, 1832, and boating was carried on by smaller companies and concerns. ^u)rH^ SPRINGFTELD, 1636-1SS6. 421 We have spoken of several steamboats built in Springfield. In 1837 Erastus Reed, ship-carpenter, of Longmeadow, turned out a new boat, the "Agawam," for Frink, Chapin, & Co., the " enterprising mail contractors and stage proprietors." The steamboat " Massa- chusetts," which had been built about three years before, proved too large to enter the canal at the falls below. The " Massachusetts " was a Blanchard boat, and was bought by Chester W. Chapin to run as a day boat between Springfield and Hartford. It was built on Main street, near Union street. The "Agawam " made its trial trip down the river July 20, 1837, and it ran the falls on the return trip easily, no polemen being employed. The first steamboat, " Barnet," was three days in running the Enfield falls, — and this, too, with the assistance of no less than fifty men. So that the " Agawam's " trip of six miles of rapids in an hour's time was considered a great triumph. The communities along the Chicopee river were fast growing in importance. The " Springfield Republican," speaking of the improve- ments at D. & J. Ames's paper mill, January 21, 1832, remarks : " If the improvements in the manufacture of paper and in the art of print- ing proceed as they have for the last ten years, we may expect to see a machine which will receive rags at one end and deliver the books, all printed and bound, at the other." The Ames mill at this time had a capacity of thirty-nine thousand three hundred and twenty-four reams of paper ; value, $150,000. No single industry of the county equalled this, except, of course, that of fire-arms. The wool product of Hampden county was about $115,000, and harnesses, whips, etc., $121,882. By the autumn of 1832, a canal, one-third of a mile long, was completed on the bank of the Chicopee river by the Cabot Manu- facturing Company, and their mills were being built. Tliere were two cotton-mills already on the Chicopee, employing nearly two thou- sand people. The Cabot ]\Ianufacturing Company was organized in 1832, with a capital of $1,000,000. The first products of this com- pany — ten bales of cotton goods — were shipped in 1834. In that year, also, Mr. Adams built a large hotel at Factory Village. The 422 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2886. Springfield Locks and Canal Company were supplying water-power to the mills at Cabotville. The Cabot Company had built a new mill. N. P. Ames's edge-tool factory had put its golden sword on the cupola, and Mr. Chapin, the stage man, was putting up a hotel there. At the United States armory, the residences of the paymaster and master armorer were going up, as well as a new factory building at the water-shops. The frame of the new Congregational church (Rev. Mr. Baldwin), on the hill, had been raised. Real estate was, how- ever, stagnant here in the village, although two purchases, in 1834, gave new life to speculation. Col. Galen Ames bought, for $1,740, the old Jonathan Dwight place (Whitney & Adams), with the avowed intention of building an elegant block, and James Byers secured, for $6,000, the Daniel Lombard property. The contract for blocks on both of these sites were given to Goodman & Gorhani. In the autumn the post-office was moved from the "uncomfortable little coop" to Mr. Byers's building "opposite court square," on Elm street, and there was a reading-room above. AVe add the cen- sus for 1835 by school districts : Willimansett, 242 ; Chicopee, 281 ; Paper Mill, 163 ; Lower Chicopee, 220 ; Skipmuck, 133 ; Sixteen Acres, 138 ; North End, 298 ; Centre, 1,675 ; Long Hill, 425 ; South HUl Road, 116; Armory Hill, 1,034; Carlisle, 95 ; Upper Water- shops, 437 ; North Side Chicopee River, 58 ; Next to Granby, 13 ; Chicopee Factories, 1,356; Five-Mile House, 118; Ames's, 255; Cabot^^lle, 915 ; Jenksville, 197 ; United States Grounds, 242 ; total, 8,411. There were at this time in Springfield seventy-three mechanic shops, six cotton factories, three paper-mills, four printing-offices, thirteen warehouses, two card factories, one rifle factory, six saw- mills, four grist-mills, one powder-mill, three tanneries, two joiners' tool factories, two forges, one sword factory, and one spool factory. In the spring of 1836 the Colonel Worthington homestead (Bridge and Main streets), which in 1835 brought $3,500, sold for $12,500 to Charles Stearns. When Worthington street was opened, in 1839, from SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 423 the river to Chestnut street, by Mr. Stearns, he had a house wanning at the old Worthington house, which had been moved back to Water street. Judge Morris entertained the company with reminiscences. There was quite a brisk trade in lots at the time, and a fifty per cent, advance over ruling prices for years was the rule. The Lyman farm, owned by R. Emery, East North Main street, had jumped from 810,000 to $20,000. It was natural that in the real-estate activity that rumors connected the railroad promoters with speculations. These insinuations were resented and the rumors formally denied. In 1831 the democrats put up for senators James Kent and Harvey Chapin, and one of their handbills gives the best expression to their notions of the situation. Here it is : — Shall a Charles X. and his Polignac grind us to the face of the earth? It Avas for their enormous expenditure, and taking from the mass of the people — tlie workingmen — the real bone and sineAv of the country — their just rights, that the good LaFayette placed himself at the head of the noble workingmen of Paris and hurled their oppressors from power. "We have our aristocracy, our Charles X. and our Polignac, and A\e have them at our very doors. Who have hitherto controlled the elections in this county ? A small band of lawyers and Springfield aristocrats. Who boast that Enos Foote and John Xyles shall be forced upon the Avorkingmen? This little band of laAvyers and aristocrats Avho nominated them. Who boast that the present splendid State Government to the tune of .$293,000 per annum shall continue to be forced upon the people? This same aristocratic ruffled shirt party! Who Avill sustain the lawyer's bar rules? Who Avill continue to oppress the people Avith the present oppressive laAvs for the sup- port of religious Avorship? Who Avould deprive every independent Avorkingman but to deceive and cajole us? The aristocracy ! The laAvyers ! The ruffle shirt party ! The celebration of Washington's birthday in 1832 was another of those fete days that the town may well remember. No less than three thousand people participated, and politics was forgotten. Cannon on Armory hill and Court square were thundering at daybreak, and every church bell Avas ringing. Col. Ithamer Goodman formed the 424 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. procession at the town-house just before noon, the escort comprising the Springfield Home Guards under Captain Upham, the Springfield Artillery under Captain Cooley, the Hampden Grays (Westfield) under Captain Parsons, and the Hampden Guards under Captain Bates. The column proceeded to Dr. Osgood's meeting-house, in the galleries of which, we are informed, the " ladies seemed animated." Hundreds on hundreds were unable to get inside the house. The Springfield Musical Society performed an overture, and ColonelAVarriner led the choir in rendering some sacred music. Rev. Mr. Putnam led in prayer, and J. W. Crooks read passages of Washington's farewell address. Then came more music and the oration b}^ George Ashmuu. At the town-hall banquet, later in the day. Colonel Lee — that famous toast-master — presided, and it was said that never did "a cold cut and a glass of wine " go with better relish than thiS^ temper- ance collation. In the evenino; there was dancino^ at Colonel Rus- sell's hall, while at Factory Village " 300 fair spinsters skipped over the floor" of the new factory building. In November, 1833, Henry Clay and famiW arrived at Springfield and were warmly w^elcomed. A Hartford committee escorted Mr. Clay to Enfield, where a large cavalcade of Springfield men met them. Their entrance into the village was heralded by ringing of bells and the firing of cannon. William G. Bates, of Westfield, was at the Hampden Coffee-house (then kept by Horatio Sargeant) with an ele- gant whip which had been made for Mr. Clay, who took it with the remark that he was proud of such a gift from friends, but that he would not take such a thing from an eneni}^, — a bit of grim pleas- antry, by tlie way, as his political enemies had just given him a sound thrashing. Mr. Clay held a reception in the town-hall, which was attended by ladies, and accompanied by a formal address of welcome from the lips of Judge Oliver B. Morris. The Hampden Coffee-house would make a rare subject for an anti- quarian, but we must be content with passing references and a repro- duction of its outlines, so familiar to the older inhabitants. m 4 4 4\ NORTH SIDE OF COURT SQUARE, SPRLVGFIELD, MASS. THE subscriber has furnished the oew and elesani brick house, erected the last season on lUe comer of Court Sqoare, for the reception of company. It is deemed by competent judges to he llie most commodious building of the kind in the state, west of Boston, and its situation is pecuHarly pleasant and attractive. — Travellers and parties of business or pleasure, will find every accommoda • tlon usual in such establishments, and can at all limes have access to a room regularly provided uiili the leading newspapers and journals in the United States. The CHOICEST LIQUORS will at all times be kept ; and during the summer months a 0©®^ i^^wif^^isr Vill be attached to the establishment. HOUSES AXT) CAHISIIAGES will be furnished at the shortest notice. — The subscriber will be assiduous and devoted in his atten- tion to all who may honor him with their company. E.UAST\I^ CHAP IX. Springfield, June, 1822. Tanaatt ^ Co, Printers, Springjield. '^■^^i'^^^'^^f 5pl|' 5|f5p!5f ■! SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18SG. 425 William B. Calboim was nominated for Congress as a whig in 1834. The " Hampden Whig " called him a poor man, and the " Re- publican " retorted: " They now sneer at a man because he is poor. The Old Hampden Coffee-House. O shame ! " This flier, sent to the voters by the whigs, more fully reflects the tension of that canvass : — What do the Tories vrant? They have got complete possession of the United States Armory. They now want to get hold of the treasury of Massachusetts. Van Buren has chained United States with his great league of Safety Fund Banks ; and be noAv desires to put the chains upon us. Citizens of the Bay State, will you submit? Will you bend the knee to the great Golden Calf which Van Buren is setting up? "Let the aristocracy of Springfield support their own paupers ! " So speaks the Jackson paper of our friend and fellow-citizen, William B- Calhoun ! ! Yes — in order to defeat the election of WiUiam B. Cal- houn and to help 0. H. Warner and J. W. Crooks, &c., the leading Tories denounce Mr. Calhoun as a pauper of Springfield. Men of honorable feeling of all parties ! show your indignation at the polls ! y 426 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. Calhoun got a rousing majo^it3^ He liad liad the satisfaction also that year to have received all the votes but one for the speakership at Boston. He probably never came nearer to eloquence than in his Fourth of July address that year. The celebration was made of special interest by the death a few days previous of Lafayette. " Deep is the sleep of the hero !" exclaimed Mr. Calhoun, and he paused, when the choir, under Colonel Warriner, burst forth with an anthem beginning with those words, and there were patriotic tears for the dead. The peculiar quality in Mr. Calhoun, — this career of dignified posturing for a principle or an economic fact, this life-study for the wealth and prosperity of public institutions, with the utter neglect of his own finances, this old-fashioned faith, that eased his declining years by the acceptance of a deaconship in the First Church with deeper gratification than a score of politi- cal honors, — what wonder that he remained for so many years the public man of Springfield ? His tall figure was made historic in the troublous session of 1833, when, as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he put the famous resolves condemning nullification, in which it was declared that the " right claimed by the convention of South Carolina for that State of annulling any law of the United States which it may deem unconstitutional, is unau- thorized b}^ the letter or spirit of the Constitution ; " and there was quite as much impressiveness in his movements when, as selectman of the village, he apportioned a dollar here and a dollar there for the poor of the community. The Springfield Temperance Society was making fair progress in its crusade. Its membership in 1834, after a three years' existence, was two thousand five hundred. The town population was six thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, leaving four thousand two hundred and eighty-four for the society to labor with. Dm-- ing the year previous eleven thousand five hundred gallons of rum alone was sold in Springfi^, one-half of which, it was estimated, was consumed here. Bl Fuller ^ Jr., proprietor of the Springfield SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 4:27 House, announced, in 1834, that he had discontmued the sale of ardent spirits. The house was "genteelly furnished " and "free from the noise and bustle incident to a stage-house," We might also here mention that in 1835 one thousand six hundred legal voters petitioned the county commissioners to refuse liquor licenses. K. A. Chapman presented it in a speech, and George Ashmun opposed it. The commissioners refused the petition. At the May elections the temperance issue was fought over, and James W. Crooks, G. Stiles, of Southwick, C. Knox, of Palmer, L. Bagg, of West Spring- field, and L. AYright, of Westfield, were elected. They granted licenses freely. The venerable and much-honored ex-Lieutenaut- Governor Trask, who enjo^'S nothing better than to pass a genial afternoon talking about b^^gone days, says that Mr. Chapman's law partner signed the temperance pledge in 1840, and made one of the most eloquent temperance addresses he ever heard. The Elliot-Buckland murder trial, in September, 1834, excited the interest not only of the town, but the whole countr}^ round. Moses Elliot, the accused, was a lad of twelve, and Josiah Buckland, his victim, was but a year older. These boys had made up their minds to run away, and on a Saturday in April, 1834, had repaired to a hop-pole house on the Rice farm, on the Wilbraham road, to divide their clothing and to make some preparations for their journey. The upsliot was that in the middle of the da}^ Elliot fled home, and was subsequently seen going in the direction of the hop-house with a spade, presumedly to bur}' the dead. No boy so young had ever been tried for murder in the Commonwealth, and the greatest excite- ment prevailed when Chief-Justice Shaw and Judges Wilde and Putnam opened the extra session in the autumn of that year. Attor- ney-General Austin and District Attorney Dewey presented the case for the State, and Judge Morris was assisted by the brilliant and eloquent George Ashmun. People neglected their business in order to hear the evidence. The Elliot boy's name for mischief -making confirmed the popular belief in his guilt, and Judge ]Morris was set to 428 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. confront a desperately strong tide of circumstances. His plea was over two hours long. The old court-house (Odd Fellows' building) was packed to the doors ; crowds hung about the building, and coun- try teams were standing in all the approaches to the Springfield hall of justice. Hundreds had driven into the village many miles to hear Morris's defence. The lawyer had first to sweep aside prejudice and a popular feeling of guilt, and then to offer explanations of the stern facts of blood, death, and of the secretive acts of Elliot. Morris had a rotund, sweeping, and impetuous style of oratory. His powerful arms would sweep through the air, and he would pose, or stamp his foot, or stride to and fro before the twelve jurymen, as was the wont of the profession half a century ago. The court-room had been gradually drawn to the prisoner's side, and under the skilful handling of Morris the jur}", too, were affected ; and when the lawyer sat down women were in tears, and the whole body of listeners deeply moved. The jury acquitted Elliot after an absence of two hours, and a memorable scene of relief and congratulation followed. Another graphic scene, but of a far different nature, occurred in August, 1832, when about one hundred revolutionary soldiers of the county assembled at the Probate Court to prove their pension claims under a new act, and the circumstance gave rise to a patriotic demon- stration. The portrait of George Washington, copied from the Gilbert Stewart painting at Hartford, by Mr. Elwell, then growing in popu- larity, was hung in the court-room, and one veteran said, with tears in his eyes, "Oh, yes, it looks like the old General." This venerable company, after the legal formalities, took their slow march to the Hampden Coffee-house in a pouring rain. A fine dinner was laid for them, and Judge Morris spoke, and Rev. Mr. Knapp, of Westfield, pronounced a blessing. Mr. ElwelFs portrait of Washington now hangs in the Common Council room in this city, and serves to per- petuate the name of the artist whom so many in this region honored and loved. George Bliss came quite prominently into politics in 1835, when he ribvq |rv Revolutionary Pensioners at the Court-House, 1S32. 430 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. was a member of the State Senate, and upon the death of Benjamin Pickman he was chosen president of that body. In 1832 Mr. Bliss had reported a bill enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court of Com- mon Pleas in criminal cases and regulating the appointment and duties of prosecuting attorneys. It passed the House without amend- ment. The great legislative event of the exciting year of 1835 was the consideration of the new code. A large committee of the Legis- lature took the voluminous report of the commissioners for the revision of the statutes, and considered it during the recess. Mr. Bliss was chairman of this committee. Governor Davis had mean- time been elected to the United States Senate, and Lieutenant-Gov- ernor Armstrong wanted the section about poor debtors to be stricken out, even threatening to veto the whole bill if this were not done. Mr. Bliss wrote William B. Calhoun on the matter, and re- ceived this reply : "A single provision is arra^^ed against the whole labor of years. It is fashionable to assume responsibility, but this would be a most fearful kind for any individual." This reassured Mr. Bliss, and the committee stood firm. Armstrong finally signed the bill, contenting himself with a protest against the action of the House requiring him to approve the whole bill or veto it. When it was rumored in Springfield that Governor Davis was a candidate for the United States Senate, Judge Oliver B. Morris wrote Mr. Bliss in a distressed state of mind. He asked : " Are there any among the whig party who are willing to remove Governor Davis from his present situation, and thereby endanger the integrity of the party in the selection of a successor? . , . The Jackson folk among us are delighted with the idea." But their and simi- lar protests were unavailing, and Davis's advancement to the L'nited States Senate brought the adverse elements of the whig party to the surface, and Judge Morris's fears were realized. A convention of the whig members of the Massachusetts Legislature had nomi- nated Mr. Webster for the presidency in January, 1835, George Bliss being on the counnittee which drew up the Webster appeal to SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 431 the people of the United States. Davis was elected to the Senate in the middle of February. On the evening of the 27th a legis- lative convention of whigs was called on only two or three days' notice to nominate a candidate for governor. It was not a conven- tion of the party, but the legislative members of the party ; and when Senator Allen, of Worcester, proposed a ballot without debate, George Bliss sprang to his feet and voiced the sentiment of western Massachusetts when he said, with great earnestness, " Sir, the mem- bers of this Legislature were not chosen with reference to any object of this kind. They have no power from the people to act for them in this matter. . . . The great whig party of Massachusetts is not fairly represented in this convention. Gentlemen will be surprised when I state the astounding fact that there are at least 115 towns in the Commonwealth which cannot be represented by whigs on this floor. . . . And let me add, sir, there is already in the river coun- ties a great excitement, a strong feeling caused by the proceedings of the last few weeks." After the excitement was over, Mr. Bliss, with others, were finally convinced, in view of the figure which the Massachusetts whigs were attempting to cut in national politics, that the best thing to do Avas to swing into the Everett line. This decision w^as not reached, however, until home influence had been brought to bear upon the president of the Senate, as appears by this extract from a private letter sent Mr. Bliss from Samuel Bowles, father of the late Samuel Bowles, dated March 5, 1835 : — But while we agree with you in disapproving tlie hasty and unfair manner of the nomination, I am sorry to see a few — Judge Morris, Mr. Bontecou, and others — taking the occasion to oppose the candidate, and openly electioneer for S. T. Armstrong I . . . The sentiments you may see in my next paper are in accordance Avith those of Messrs. Calhoun, Willard, and Ashmun. If it should prove that Mr. Everett is the candidate of the majority (and I believe it will so j)rove), we do not think it best to make any unnecessary distraction in the whig party, because some of oiir friends, whose good and patriotic motives we see no reason to doubt, have nominated the risrht candidate in the wrong wav. -j:32 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. That one iwfxy understand the extent of men's feelings, this pas- sage from a letter from Oliver B. Morris to George Bliss may be added: " Under present circumstances, if those who voted for Mr. Davis at the last election can be made to vote for Mr. Everett next November, in my judgment they will be no longer worthy to be called whigs. We have been accustomed to call, and I think properly, the followers of Van Buren ' collar men,' and under the control of a regency. Now it seems to me that those who undertook to act for the whig party in the nomination of Mr. Everett usurped power which the party never conferred upon them." AVilliam G. Bates, of Westfield, wrote Bliss as follows : — And first, I must say how much obliged we all are to you for 3'our stand at the legislative caucus. The proceeding is most disastrous, as respects to the prospects of the Avhigs, if indeed Ave are now known by that name. Brother B. is all Avrong. You knoAv how much is said in our country about Boston influence, and how much more has been said to the Avest of us, and how much we have labored to undo any such belief. But now what can we say to any such charges? They have not only, in violation of all precedent and in disregard to the late practices of the party, put an obnoxious candidate before the people, but they have confederated Avith the Jackson party to uncap the commouAvealth in order to make Avay for him. And for Avhat reason? Why, ostensibly to unite Avith the anti-]\Iasons — as if Ave could not do it at any time — by coming upon their ground and playing second to their fiddle. . . . The Jackson party increases its chances of electing their stereotyped ticket — the anti-Masons choose a governor Avho believes that the obligations of Masonry destroys the allegiance of govern- ment (Avho of course acting upon his principle in relation to appointments is a thorough anti-^Iason) and the poor Avhigs get notliiiig. It Avon't do I But Mr. Bliss would not give way. AVliile admitting the irregu- larity of Everett's nomination, there was never any doubt about the general desire among the whigs that he should be their candidate. Edward Everett ran in on a somewhat reduced majority, but George Bliss lost his seat in the Senate by an adverse vote, which his bravery and good judgment had by no means merited. He had been president SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 433 pro tern, of the Senate during Mr. Piekman's illness, anil upon his election as president a Boston paper had remarked that it had been said of George Bliss's father that " nothing escaped his notice or ex- amination. This is true of the son, — his mind is extremely active, and its acti^^ty is more than ordinarily apparent in the variations of his countenance and in his whole air and movements. No person of observation can fail to perceive that he is constantly intent." The festivities attending the second centennial of the town's birth began upon Tuesday afternoon, May 24, 1836, when Gov. Edward Everett and suite, Col. Robert C. Winthrop, General Dearborn, and other officials arrived at Springfield from Boston by the old Moseley stage line. A cavalcade of citizens, and as well many in carriages, met the party at the Five Mile House, and conducted them to the Hampden Coffee-house upon Court square. Charles Stearns had also arrived from Maine the same day, bringing with him four fresh salmon and trout caught nearly four hundred miles from Springfield, he " hav- ing been only forty-three hours on the way." John Howard opened his residence in the evening, and the citizens of Springfield had an oppor- tunity to become acquainted with his P^xcellency and party. The eventful 25th was heralded with the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. The fire department, under Stephen C. Bemis and George D wight, assembled at an early hour upon Chestnut street and proceeded to Court square, where it showed to a large crowd what the hand-engine pumps could do upon occasion. The governor was escorted to the scene of the oratory by five hundred mechanics, the procession being formed upon Elm street. The printers had provided a hand-press from " The Springfield Republican" office, and as they moved along they worked off an edition and distributed copies to the people. The mechanics of the armory followed with a banner, then the carpenters and workers in wood, then machinists, shoemakers, and so on through the list of trades. The hardware mechanics from Wil- limansett were conspicuous in the line. The military escort included the Springfield Light Infantry, the Springfield Artillery Company, the 434 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. West Springfield Grays, aud an independent company from East Longmeadow, which latter were noticeable by having two men at their head in Indian costume. The mechanics marched through several streets before they halted at the Hampden Coffee-house, and were there joined by the governor and staff, officers of the day, and soldier3\ Tlie}" proceeded at once to the First Parisli meeting-house, whose capacity was sorely taxed with as brave a throng as ever gathered there. Judge Morris's address took two hours in its delivery, and is quite familiar to the people of this generation and to library frequenters, and has been much used abroad as the basis of historical articles upon the early history of this town. After the exercises in the meeting-house, the guests and the officers of the day were es- corted to the town-hall on State street ; George Bliss was president of the day, and John Howard, Justice AVillard, Charles Stearns, James AV. Crooks, George Aslimun, Charles Howard, and George Bancroft were vice-presidents. Tables, provided for nearly four hundred guests, were furnished by Mr. Bishop, of the Springfield Hotel. Governor Everett, George Bancroft, and other distinguished gentlemen '' occupied the circular seats around the iDresident." The galleries were filled with soldiery, but its interest to us centres in the toasts and speeches, Edward P^verett added the elegance of his diction when he spoke to propose the toast, " The fathers of New P^nglaud — their faults were the faults of the age ; their piety, courage, and i)erseverance were their own. Time, which destroys all things, will strengthen their work and honor their memory." Mr. Bliss had noted in his remarks that Richard Everett, one of the early settlers of Springfield, was a relative of Governor Everett. His Excellency expressed his surprise and gratification, and then took up the weighter matters of the hour, in the following manner : — I regard such a celebration as a noble day of recompense for the tribulations of other times. Would not "William Pynchon, sir, on the very day Avhen his book, written with the heavy rebuke of the fathers of church and state, was igno- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 435 niiniously burned on Boston Common, liaA^e felt his heart cheered and his spirit soothed, even under the infliction of that burning stigma, could he have foreseen that Avhen near two centuries should have jmssed, on an occasion like this, amidst thousands of an admiring posterity, his name would be repeated with respect, gratitude, and veneration, as the great founder of what Ave behold around us? Could I hope, sir. that after the laj)se of 200 years, my humble name would be remembered with kind feelings of those who shall come after us, as one avIio had sought to promote the public good, I should deem any labor, care, and sacrifice as cheaply encountered for such a recomi)ense. If to the moral interest of the festival which has called us together you add the attractions of nature at this pleasant season of the year, and in this beautiful region, you will not wonder, sir, at our readiness to leave the noisy streets and smoky atmosphere of the city for a visit to the banks of this most lovely river. A poetical Avriter, a native of our sister State which Ijears the name of the Connecticut, has exclaimed in the most beautiful lines of a long work — " Thy parent stream, fair Hartford, met his eye, Far lessening upward to the northern sky ; No watery gleams through happier valleys shine, Nor drinks the sea a lovelier Avave than thine."' Man}^ speeches were delivered upon this occasion. Charles Stearns drove a nail into this thesis upon the wall of an ancient town's his- tory in saying, ''The interlopers will endeavor to leave old Spring- field in as good condition as they found it." George Bancroft, the future historian, chose as his toast the noted Capt. Samuel Holyoke, " the hero and the martyr of the Falls fight. His memory shall be cherished till the cataract of the Connecticut ceases to roar ; his fame shall stand as imperishable as the mountain that bears his name." A toast was proposed to the county of Berkshire (a part of the original county of Hampshire ) , which was hailed ' ' not as a colony, but as an independent and sister county. May our union be still more strongly connected by the increasing enterprise and public spirit of the inhabitants of both counties." This was a fitting intro- duction to the toast of Col. Robert C. Winthrop, a descendant of John Hampden, whom he extolled, and said, " A noble name, and 436 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. worthily bestowed upon the count}^ which bears it.'* Julius Rock- well turned the attention of the table to the future b}^ referring to the commercial enterprises that were absorbing public attention at that time, dwelling upon the benefit to be derived from the AYestern railroad, the route of which was then being surveyed. John Howard proposed as a toast, " Modern antiquarians ; " Justice Willard '' The land of our home and the home of our fathers ; " George Ashmun, " School-houses ; " Major Inches, of the Boston Independent Cadets, "The orator of the day;" S. O. Russell, "The history of the settlement of Springfield;" and E. D. Beach, "The Springfield Light Infantry." Many letters from prominent men were read after the speaking. John Quincy Adams wrote from AVashington proposing the senti- ment, " The Puritan principles purified by the school of time, still improving from age to age, the physical culture of the Western hemisphere and the moral culture of the human mind." Daniel Web- ster took occasion to write: "Two centuries have made a great town out of a handful of settlers, and the present prospect is that its future history is to be marked by a still more rapid degree of growth and improvement. . . . Long may education and knowledge, sobriet}^, morality, and religion characterize their enjoyment under the blessings of Providence." Alden Bradford, the president of the Pilgrim Society at Boston, paid a high tribute to William Pynchon, saying that, while he had the misfortune to differ with his associates upon matters of dogmatic theology, his " probity, piety, and learning were never doubted." Mr. Bradford proposed this toast: "Perpe- tuity to the essential principles of the Puritans, — a preeminent regard for the authority of God and for the rights of men." Let- ters were also read from Levi Lincoln, Judge Story, W. B. Calhoun, Thomas L. Winthrop, and others. Li the evening a reception at the elegant residence of George Bliss and a concert by the Springfield Musical Society made their bids for the local public. The occasion softened the rigors of political rivahy, SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 437 iiud Oliver B. Morris, Edward Everett, tind George Bliss friiternized with perfect cordiality. But the Don-partisau spirit of anniversaries soon departed. The Fourth was coming, and Mr. Beach announced in his paper that the celebration was not to be on the hill, but Factor}' Village. Cabotville was aroused, and protested, and some one, signing as " Skipmuck," remarked, "There are some very important characters at Cabot- ville who want to control everything ; but they will not prevent us at Chicopee Factory from doing as we please." Another disquieting rumor was that the pure democracy was preparing for a celebration on the hill, and that George Bancroft had engaged to deliver the oration. So it proved. But the " union celebration," as it was called, came off at Chicopee Factor}^, and was an immense success. A procession, under Colonel Nettleton, formed at the Adams House and marched to the meeting-house. "The operation of the mills being suspended," says the ancient chronicler, " the doors and win- dows of the boarding-houses were filled with bright eyes and smiling faces. What a sight for a bachelor I Nearly in front of the meet- ing-house the national flag, in right good taste, waved on the top of an aged white oak." Rev. Dorus Clark Avas chaplain, and Myron Lawrence orator. S. Shackford presided at the banquet at the hotel that followed, and speeches were made by AVells Southworth, J. Johnson, K. Edwards, J. C. Bemis, George W. Culver, Elihu Adams, Charles Stearns, Samuel Bowles, J. M. Colton, and others. George Bancroft's Fourtli of July oration on the hill to the Spring- field democrats made quite a stir at the time. " Whiggism, the party of vested rights ! " he exclaimed ; "it perpetuates established wrong on the plea of vested rights." The whig, he maintained, " pants for monopoly." The curious thing about this was that at this time the whigs had nominated Webster, who was not rich, and had sent to Con- gress Mr. Calhoun, who had been offensively called a pauper ; while the democrats had put up wealthy men all down the ticket, including the Hampden senators. A very amusing contest followed, in which 438 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1 88 6. rich and poor, whig aud Jacksonian, were very much mixed up. It was made none the less diverting when Bancroft, the " white kid- glove and silk-stocking democrat " was nominated against Calhoun for Congress. Mr. Bancroft had been a whig Init two 3"ears before. He was what was known as a Jackson federalist. Not the least inter- esting phase of this canvass was the (U'agging in of Mr. Bancroft's connection with the Masons. It will be remembered that an anti- Masonic convention was held at Warriner's tavern on the evening of October 14, 1834. A resolution was proposed commending Mr. Bancroft for a letter written by him to some Northampton voters, and asking him to take a seat in the convention and become its candidate for Congress. Seth Flagg, the chairman, came to the front in that canvass of 1836 in explanation thereof. He claimed Mr. Bancroft had approached him before the convention met with resolutions favoring his own nomination for Congress ; that Mr. Bancroft was invited to take a seat ; that he (Flagg) presented the resolutions as requested ; that Mr. Bancroft read amusing extracts from a book on Free INIasonry, and then withdrew ; that the next day Mr. Bancroft complained to him (Flagg) that he had been accused of looking into the windows of the Warriner tavern Avhile the convention was in session, and demanded of Flagg a paper to the effect that this was not true, which he secured ; that he returned shortly with another stronger paper for Flagg to sign, stating that the convention had asked Bancroft to sit in the convention, had recommended him as congressional candidate, and then reconsidered this action ; that Flagg signed this paper with the understanding that it was not to be circulated publicly. Mr. Flagg claimed that in spite of this state- ment, over his own signature, the resolutions recommending Bancroft as a candidate were not passed, but simply presented and laid on the table. Here Avas a pretty complication, and caused no end of crimi- nation and recrimination then. Mr. Bancroft certainly had the written statement of the chairman of the convention that he was SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 439 nominated. But he did not secure the support of the anti-Masons sufficient to elect him in 1836. The vote stood : Calhoun, 3,958 ; Bancroft, 2,878. Bancroft, however, polled about four hundred more votes in the district than Warner, democrat, did in 1834. George Ashmun was a member of the Whig State Central Com- mittee of 1835, when Webster had been put up for President. In 1837 George Ashmun and Reuben Boies, Jr., were whig nominees for the State Senate. The Loco Foco Van Buren convention at West Springfield nominated George Bancroft and Lucius Wright, of West- field. Hampden county had gone tory the year before, but Ashmun and Boies turned the vote to the whig column with a majority of one hundred and fifty The representatives in 1837 were Daniel W. Wil- lard, Alpheus Nettleton, Josiali Hooker, William Dwight, Samuel H. Stebbins, and Luke Bemis, Jr., all wliigs. It was a bad year for Loco Focoism in western Massachusetts. Immediately after the elec- tion John Mills was offered the collectorship of the port of Boston, so it was understood l:)y his friends ; but he declined, and George Ban- croft was appointed. When George Ashmun was renominated for the Senate, in the fall of 1838, Charles Stearns, Elijah Blake, and Samuel Bowles called his attention to the report that democrats were supporting him in consequence of a pledge that he would advocate the repeal of the fifteen-gallon law. Ashmun responded as follows : " I am bound to no man or body of men on that or any other sub- ject. The whole system of pledges I regard as odious and at war with the true principles of republican representation." This was considered satisfactory. The election was a draw, and was thus thrown into the Legislature, which had no trouble in choosing Ashmun and Boies. When the fifteen-gallon law came up in the Legislature in 1839 in the shape of a bill to regulate the sale of spirituous liquors, George Bliss made a telling attack upon it. The fifteen-gallon law made no end of trou- ble. In June, 1839, Elisha Edwards was arrested for violating the fifteen-gallon law by selling liquor to an employe of Charles Stearns, V 440 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. ou the latter's order, and a troublesome prosecution followed. The liquor issue was a prominent factor in the caucus of 1839, when Everett and Morton were pitted against each other once more, the former being defeated by one vote ; and the first important step of the new Legislature was to repeal the obnoxious fifteen-gallon law. Marcus Morton was the father of Judge Morton of this cit}^ An incident of the Morton election is preserved b}' an odd com- munication of that day, headed: " The Complaint of the town clock to the Parish committee of the First Society m Springfield." This chronometer said : '• Marcus Morton would not have been governor but for me. On the day of the election in November last I was 10 minutes too fast. The polls were to be closed at half -past four. A good whig in the upper part of the town who was chary of his time calculated that he could leave home at four o'clock and be at the town- hall in time to vote. His calculations were right. He left home ex- actly at four o'clock, but he was too late. The polls w^re closed by my time ; his vote was lost, and Morton was governor by one vote." The temperance issue made trouble for the wliigs also in the Legis- lature. The delegates of 1838 were George Bliss, Orange Cliapin, William Childs, Elijah Blake, S^dvester Taylor, and Charles McClallen, all whigs. There was no choice in the election of 1839, and a second ballot was equally unsuccessful. This was because there was a union temperance ticket in the field, made up of three Loco Focos and three whigs. Springfield thus was not represented in the Legis- lature. The Hampden whigs were greatly irritated by these events, and the Whig Republican Association of Springfield was organized early in the year 1840, with these officers : President, George Ash- mun ; recording secretary, William Stowe ; corresponding secretary, Henry Seymour ; treasurer, George Dwight ; executive committee, Elijah Blake, Luke Bemis, Jr., Edward O. Morris, Elihu Adams^ Francis 31. Carew, and Otis Skeele. The 23residential election Avas now coming on, and the old-liners gathered at Springfield, Feb. 19, 1810, to give the wliig nominee for President, William Henrv SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 441 Harrison, a good send off. George Ashmun was made president, and Henry Seymour, of Springfield, secretary. vSpeeches were made by Isaac C. Bates, P^mory AVasliburn, of Worcester, Judge O. B. Morris, William Stowe, and others. Ai)ril, 1840, the famous cam- paign of " Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was now under way, with all its picturesque features. One day some Longmeadow boys rigged up a log cabin and made a call on "Uncle Jere's," the cabin being drawn by six horses. A fifteen-gallon keg served as a chimney. The hard-cider candidate was well toasted. The year was full of excitement, and the demo- crats were also ripe for the fray. There was a grand Harrison demon- stration in Springfield, October 0, 1840. William B. Calhoun had just been nominated for Congress. On the evening of the 8tli the town- hall was occupied by the whigs. A triumphal arch spanned Main street, near the Chicopee Bank, put up l)y the merchants of " Fountain row." Earl 3^ Friday morning a cavalcade with a band rode in from Monson, and some Avagons and horsemen poured in from Wilbraham, Ludlow, Longmeadow, Northampton, West Springfield, Granby, Belchertown, and dozens of places. The Westfield delegation to the convention came in a huge wagon drawn l)y twelve horses, and " Old Tip's Buggy " inscribed on its banners. Over half-a-dozen bands were tuning up the party patriotism. Capt. George Dwight formed the procession at ten o'clock, assisted l)y H. Seymour, AVilliam M. Town, C. A. Mann, R. Shurtleff', and others. Revolutionary soldiers were at the head, and the column, six deep, proceeded to Worthiug- ton grove, where that inspiring leader of men, George Ashmun, called the assemblage to order, and Oliver B. Morris was made presi- dent. All the afternoon was spent in speech-making and singing whig- songs. The American eagle, in all sizes and conditions, perched on the decorated floats about the grove ; whig mottoes floated in the breeze on familiar terms with the stars and stripes, broken democratic arches lay in ruins, and lampoons furnished food for the merry. Stuffed roosters stood proudly upon log cabins, and General Harrison 442 SPRINGFIELD, 1G3G~1SS6. was toasted in driukiiiii-booths on the edges of the grove. It was a great day, and there were many great days before that canvass was over. Harrison won, and the whigs had their short day and deep mourning for the death of their standard-bearer. Back of all this political commotion loomed the grim question of slavery, and the fine art of public life of that day lay in retiring the spectre of human bondage to the background. AVilliam B. Calhoun had been charged with forcing the issue by charging radical abolition upon Harrison. This was done to alienate the Southern whigs ; but Calhoun denounced the attempt in phrases very spirited for him. Early in 1836 some Hampshire men, in session at Amherst, had pro- posed an anti-slavery convention, to be lieid at Northampton, — a move that created much uneasiness. There was an anti-slavery prayer- meeting in Springfield on the evening of the Fourth, 1837,, when the air was dismal with fire-crackers, and the first annual meeting of the Hampden County Anti-Slavery Society was held in January, 1838, at Dr. Osgood's church. The officers elected were : President, Abel Bliss ; vice-presidents, Rev. S. Osgood, Rev. J. A. Morrill, and Rev. H. Smith : secretar^^, Chaunce}" Chapin ; treasurer, Edwin Booth ; directors, E. Chapin, Luther Bliss, Dr. Jefferson Church, Dr. J. Bassett, and Noah Merrick. Slavery was denounced as a national sin. Judge Morris made a memorable speech, the house being packed. Morris was not identified with any abolition society, which fact heightened the effect of his eloquence. Dr. Osgood and Dr. Ralph P^mersou, of Andover Theological Seminary, were drawn into a fierce discussion over slavery. In one letter Dr. Osgood said : " But I ask, in what light ought Christians to regard that universal system of concubinage which is practised by the blacks themselves in all the slave States? The slave laws do not recognize the marriage institution. The master lias the power to dissolve it at pleasure, and either of the parties cohabiting together may break off their connec- tion at will, and do so in multitudes of cases." Chauncey Chapin at tliis time took occasion to draw out Mr. Cal- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-lSSG. 443 houn's opinion on slavery. The latter was again a candidate for Congress. He answered by calling attention to the fact that his vote against the admission of Arkansas upon the ground that slavery was recognized in its constitution was sufficient to indicate where he stood. He added: •• I look upon this infernal traffic as but a slight remove from the foreign slave-trade now so abhorrent to all. It is the grand means of perpetuating slaver}^ ... I found no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that Congress, within its appropriate sphere, ought at once to adopt such measures of judicious and efficient legis- lation as shall bring this great moral, social, and political e\il, in all its forms, as speedil}- as possible to an end." Mr. Garrison did not receive Dr. Osgood's support in his radical notions of forming a po- litical party at that time, and Garrison denounced Osgood in his paper in unmeasured terms. It was of course to be expected that between the enterprise of the stage men, the boating men, and the railroad men, that the town would grow apace. In 1834 the population was 6,784. By 1837 Springfield was the sixth town in population in the State, and the third in the valuation of its manufactures. Here are some figures : Population, 0,234; public schools, 20; winter scholars, 1,617; aver- age winter attendance, 1,398; teachers (winter), 14 males and 16 females, (summer), 4 males and 26 females; academies and private schools, 4, with 168 scholars; cotton-mills, 7, with $1,400,000 in- vested ; wool produced, 4,500 pounds ; value of boots manufactured, 810.000 ; tanneries, 3, with $8,000 capital ; hat factories, 2 ; paper- mills, 4, with $120,000 capital; furnaces, 3, with $35,000 capital; cutlery, 1, with $20,000 capital; cabinet and chair factories, 6, with $16,000 capital ; plough manufactories, 2 : tinware factories, 4 ; steam- boats built during year, 5, valued at $18,000. There were also manu- factured 814,000 worth of muskets at the armory. An indication of over-production was noticed in 1837, wlien many hands were dis- charged at Chicopee and Cabotville. By 1840. 2,558 persons were engaged in Springfield manufacturing. 444 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. At a meeting of the manufacturers, farmers, and merchants of the town, held in the town-hall, May 18, 1832, Justice Willard in the chair, and Stephen C. Bemis secretary, resolutions favoring a continuation of a protective tariff were passed. Another meeting at AVarriner's Inn, May 31, with the landlord in the chair, and Samuel Bowles secretary, passed resolutions against pedlers, as it was considered " fraught with injurious consequences to the regular business of the community and tends to the encouragement of bad habits and impo- sition." The committee to suppress this practice consisted of James Brewer, James Wells, A. G. Tannatt, Francis M. Carew, and Stephen 0. Russell. Springfield was not wanting in newspapers at this time. The ^ " Republican " was a great success as a stanch anti-Jackson sheet. It absorbed the " Hampden Journal," started in 1807 by Thomas Dickman. The "Hampden Whig" was started in February, 1830, by John B. Eldredge, who sold out to E. D. Beach, in 1835. The " Springfield Gazette" was started in September, 1831, with G. AY. Callender, Henry Kirkham, and Lewis Briggs, proprie- tors. William Hyde was editor. In 1832 Callender and Kirkham withdrew, and the "Gazette" was published by Mr. Briggs and Josiah Hooker, the latter being editor as well. The " Hampden In- telligencer " had started up in 1831 as an anti-Masonic paper, but was short-lived. In 1840 Mr. Beach, then editor of the " Hampden Post," was nominated b}^ the Loco Foco party as count}^ treasurer, but was defeated. In 1840 AVilliam Stowe became editor of the " Spring- field Gazette." Dr. Joshua Frost was buried from Air. Peabody's church in April, 1832. He was a man of fine education and admirable character. He Avas a model village inan, being always present at town-meetings, and ready to bear his share of public liurdens. Dr. Frost gradu- ated at Harvard, and was State senator in 1S2G. He was sixt3^-five when he died. The year following (August 25, 1833) Col. Roswell Lee passed away, and with him a prominent actor in local affairs. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 445 He rivalled George Aslimim as a guest or host, aud had sat at the head of many banquet tables, political and social. His honorable record as superintendent of the armory is a matter of history. He had command of Fort Griswold, Groton, Conn., in the War of 1812. AA^illiam Bliss, the lawyer, died March :), 1838, aged forty-one. He ranked in his profession among the first in the county, and was prominent in town affairs. He was chairman of county commis- sioners in 1834. Mr. Bliss was a very companionable man, and was very much of a wit. ]Many anecdotes are associated with his name. Perhaps it would not be out of place to give one of them. Samuel Bowles was very fond of pictures, and delighted especially in a good portrait. He was very much interested in Mr. Elwell's paint- ing, and gave him much encouragement. Mr. Elwell used to tell of an artist who had a studio in the Byers building, facing on Court square, and to please Mr. Bowles it was arranged one day that an empty frame should be placed in a remote and somewhat shaded cor- ner of the studio. Behind this William Bliss was placed in tableau, and Mr. Bowles invited in to view the new portrait. The visitor was wonderfully impressed, and finally when Mr. Bliss stepped aside and left the frame empty, 3Ir. Bowles threw his hands across his breast and sighed deeply. It may be mentioned by way of church activities that the Baptist meeting-house wvas dedicated Sept. 12, 1832. In that year was held a convention of the Baptist denomination of Massachusetts in the new Baptist church, one hundred and eighty churches being repre- sented. Rev. Dwight Ives was ordained pastor of the First Bap- tist Church, in January, 1836, Rev. Dr. Davis, of Hartford, preach- ing the sermon. In October, 1836, Rev. Simeon Howard Calhoun was ordained at the First Church as an evangelist preparatory to his duties in Greece and the Holy Land. Christ Church (Episcopal) was chi'istened April 1, 1840, and on the following day Mr. Henry W. Lee was installed rector. Rev. Dr. Stone, of Boston, preaching the sermon. 446 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. In the autumn of 1833 a new school building for the Centre Dis- trict was completed. It was situated " near the foot of State street." The old building was bouglit by Philip Wilcox and fitted up for a tin factory. The Misses M. and N. Holland were teaching a young ladies' seminary at tliis time, and ]Mrw. A. P. Curtis was principal of the Springfield Female Academy. The school-house belonging to the armory was burned in January, 1840. Tiie fire department was in a flourishing condition. In October, 1837, there was a grand muster with five engines, one hundred aud sixty-two men, and one thousand three hundred and seventy feet of hose, not counting the Independent Fire Club. The engines were tested on Liberty square, when they proceeded to Court square. By the use of two engines hose was run to the balustrade at the foot of the spire of Dr. Osgood's church and a stream of water thrown ten feet above the old rooster. The annual festival of the Springfield Fire Department took place Jan. 2, 1838, one hundred and seventy- five sitting down at the Hampden Coffee-house table ; George Colton presided, and Col. I. Goodman, E. Hitchcock, F. M. Carew, and Samuel Bowles acted as vice-presidents. In 1835 the Springfield Light Infantry organized as foUows : Edward Rowland, Jr., captain ; AVilliam W. Orne, lieutenant ; George Dwight, ensign ; Nathaniel Lombard, orderly sergeant ; R. T. Saf- ord, S. B. Hodgett, and Dwight Smith, sergeants. The follow- ing year Lieut. George Dwight was elected captain, Capt. E. Row- land having been appointed division inspector. R. T. Safford was elected first lieutenant and Edward D. Chapin ensign. A brigade muster followed in this town a few weeks later, eleven companies being present, under command of General West. The column was reviewed on Walnut street by Major-General Moseley, and by Governor Everett in the afternoon. The artillery and the light infantry had another gala day in September, 1837. They were out one thousand strong. Artillery was represented by companies from West Springfield, Monson, AVestfield, aud Belchertown, Colonel SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 447 Gorham iu commaud ; and the infantry and riflemen came in from West Springfield, Longmeadow, Brimfield, Ware, and Ludlow, and were commanded by Colonel E. Parsons. Captain D wight's light infantry (Springfield) were said to have taken the palm. CHAPTER XIX. 1841-1852. Maj. Edward Ingersoll. — Colonel Ripley. — Military Superintendents, — Protest of the ArmA-ers. — Charles Stearns. — Col. Roswell Lee. — The "Stearns Riot."— - Long- Litii^atious- —Politics. — Ashmun's Defence of Webster. — Liquor Licenses. — Ar- rival of John Quincy Adams's Body. — Ashmun's Public Career. — The Thompson Riots. — Ehphalet Trask's Position. — Erasmus D. P>each. — John Mills again. — Chapman as a Statute-Maker. — Railroads. — Visit of Charles Dickens. —More River Steamboats. — The Fire of 1S44. — Real-Estate Changes. — Proposal for a City Char- ter. — Deaths of N. P. Ames, David Ames, and Dr. Peabody . — Newspapers. — Churches. — Removal of the Old Cemetery. — Jenny Lind. — New Business Enter- prises. — Militia. — ^The New City. Maj. Edward Ingersoll was appointed pa3^master aud keeper of the military stores at the United States Armory in May, 1841, in tl > place of Maj. Charles Howard, who had held the place for twelve 3'ears. Ingersoll is the son of John Ingersoll, of Westfield, who for so man}^ 3'ears filled the position of clerk of the courts, and died iu 1840. He had grown up in Springfield as a lad, tending school, dri\ang cows for his father up Main street, then learning business over the counter of Reynolds & Morris. He has a rare faculty of observation and a regular antiquarian memory ; we ma}" here pay him the tribute of having furnished for modern local writers more color and diverting incidents, probably, than an^^ other citizen now living. His touches are on many of these pages, as he has been a never-failing source of information as to what he has seen or heard from men now long gathered to their fathers. Major Ingersoll became paymaster at the armory at a very critical time in its histor}^, and it may be said that his good judgment and considerate actions had much to do with the restoration of a better SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18 86. 449 feeling between the armory administration and tlie citizens of Spring- field. This was the year also when Col. J. W. Ripley was made superintendent. There was almost immediately a loud call for Rip- ley's removal. His discipline was of the strict military order, and regulations like forbidding the reading of books or newspapers in the shops during working hours occasioned bitter resentment. The armorers, in fact, objected to a military man on general princi- ples. This unpopularity of a whig superintendent delighted the loco focos ; and well they miglit feel pleased, for the disaffection was i>-reat enough to bring about a draw in the November elections for representatives, tlie whig abolitionists contriluiting to this result by running a "liberty" ticket. The political confusion had been in- creased by the failure of the whigs, in April, to elect town officers. There were no less than four tickets in the field, —whig, loco foco, independent, and abolition. In the spring of 1842 the armorers sent a committee to Washing- ton to protest against the "system of military superintendence." The claim was made at that time that not only the discipline of the men had deteriorated, but that it was less economical to place a mili- tary man over the armory. There had been an uncordial feeling in the armory toward the army officers, running back to 1833, when an application for more wages for the armorers was referred to a commis- sion of three armory officers, which promptly recommended a reduc- tion of wages. This recommendation was not followed. During the sickness of Colonel Lee, in 1833, Lieutenant-Colonel Talcott had a short trial as superintendent, and his $12.31 musket and $15,000 deficit did not aid the cause of military super intendency very much. In 1834 a civilian, John Robb, paid off the old debt, made a musket for S11.05, and showed a surplus at the close of the year. In 1835 the musket was reduced to $10.94, and when he was superseded, in 1841, he had a surplus of $42,000. The return to a mihtary superintendency had been recommended by the Board of Ordnance, of which Lieutenant-Colonel Talcott was president. 450 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. Colonel Ripley showed little disposition to mend the breach of good feeling between the two factions, and when Aniadon, Foster, and Hopkins, the committee of protesting armorers who had been sent to Washington, returned, they were promptly discharged. About forty armorers were sent away in a bunch, and at one time the shops were closed. Some one hundred and fifty men were compelled to seek employment elsewhere. The bitter feeling was increased by the circulation of an unproven report that Ripley asked X. P. Ames & Co. not to employ discharged armorers, and there were many of them at that time. Piece-workmen were immediately exchanged for time- hands at 81.75 per day. The reason for this was simply a matter of economy. Piece-workmen would save in a month wages for two months, and lock the work in their drawers. They were able by this means to be absent two weeks at a time, their names appealing on the pay-rolls just the same. Under civil rule the men often worked only from three to five hours, when they would hasten off to their farms or homes. When military rule was fairly established, some men earned more money per month at twelve and one-half cents, piece price, than they had formerly earned at thirty- three cents per piece, because they were obliged to work stated hours. The contest broadened out into a fight between army men and civilians generally, and a local paper remarked : " The officers of the army all over the country are banded together by a sort of Free Mason tie, contracted at the AVest Point Academy to carry out the schemes of their leaders." The nomination by the whigs of Charles Stearns for one of the Hampden senators, in 1842, may be considered evidence of the heat of the armory disaffection, he being an implacable foe to military superintendencies. The county vote defeated him, however, and Asa Lincoln and Reuben Champion were elected. Until the appointment of Colonel Lee at the armory, it may be said the armorers were in the main unmarried or transient men. Colonel Lee, however, induced many to build houses for them- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 451 selves. The chariicter of the men nnproved under botli Lee and Robb. They became inventors, were even elected to the Legislature, and filled a large place in Springfield town. The change from prac- tical gunsmiths to ordnance officers could not fail to make trouble, and many of the old armorers were very exasperating in their manners. They avoided the order against smoking by puffing their pipes in the stove, claiming that they were not smoking in the shops. Such men were given their walking-papers in short order. A strenuous effort was made in 1843 and 1844 to get these men reinstated, and Charles Stearns even went to Washington to see what could be done there for them. One of the arguments used was that many of these armorers, under the belief that their places were permanent, had made valuable inventions, and given their ideas to the government without a tliought of pay. When Mr. Stearns returned he had an unsatisfactory interview with Colonel Ripley, who was accused of extravagance in pulling down the superintendent's residence and putting up a better one. He was taken to task also for clearing away several small build- ings rented to armorers. Talcott, lieutenant-colonel of ordnance at Washington, was a firm friend of Colonel Ripley, and put aside the protests as the interference of civilians in military matters. A communication signed b}^ Chauncey Shepard, Charles A. Bartlett, Thomas S. Williams, and John D. Lord was circulated on the heels of this little fight, certifying to the fact that the superintendent's house was old and rotten, and that it was wise to pull it down. Charles Stearns felt called upon to respond, and the quality of the timbers and foundation-stones of the superintendent's house became an issue of prime moment. The bitter feeling was increased, in January, 1845, by a side issue, — a trial in the United States court at Boston. A strip of ground on Prospect street (since discontinued and now a part of the armory grounds on the west side) had been bought by Charles Stearns of Col. Israel E. Trask in 1827. This strip ran from Byers street due east, and abutted on the then Prospect street, which ran south to 452 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. State street, parallel to Byers street. A United States engineer, in surveying the United States lands, found that Prospect street be- longed to the government, and Ripley, knowing that Stearns expected to cut up his land into building lots, which would be useless for that purpose unless Prospect street was kept open, put up some sheds in the middle of the street in front of Stearns's property, in order to test the question. Stearns at once ordered his workmen to tear down the buildings and the fence, and remove some lumber there deposited. Mr. Stearns began the work himself by cutting down the first fence-post. When the Avork was in progress. Major Ingersoll appeared and ordered the Stearns party off. Stearns replied that he thanked God he lived under the Constitution and the law, and refused to stir. Some words passed, but no personal violence was done. This w^as called, locally, the Stearns riot, for w^hich he and his men were arrested and tried in Boston ; verdict, not guilty. There was subsequently another trial at Boston over the title of the land, and Stearns was beaten. The opposition to Colonel Ripley and a military superintendenc}' culminated in February, 1846, when Adj. -Gen. R. Jones directed a court of inquiry, consisting of Gen. J. E. Wool, Lieut. -Col. N. S. Clark, and Maj. S. Cooper, to examine the charges formally pre- sented by Joseph Lombard, Calvin Shattuck, and many others. R. A. Chapman appeared for Ripley, and ex-Senator William Eaton, of Hartford, and D. H. Dustin for the complainants. There were thir- teen counts to the indictment, including the malicious discharge of faithful armorers, the employment of '' reckless foreigners " for night watches, the deterioration in the quality of the gun manufactured at an increase of cost, the extravagant building of a new residence, the receiving of commutation for quarters when elegant houses were standing empty, the wanton and illegal fencing up of Prospect street, the swearing out of a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Stearns, and, linally, threatening to discharge armorers if they read certain local newspapers. There were some points of truth and right on both Tho? Chuiluck.En-g.' Sprmgfiell.Ma., ^.AYc^,^. SrRIXGFTELD, 1636-1S86. 453 sides ; that is, it was possible for men to honestty differ as to the jjolicy of employing a practical gunsmith or a military officer to run the armory. Men who had grown gray in the ser^^ce of the gun-shop resented the supervision of a military man who could not put a gun together, or even name its parts with technical accuracy. Upon the other hand, the public demands were clearly against a civilian as commander of a United States arsenal. The da3^-laborers in the shops had come to think that they had vested rights there. This was their mistake. Springfield had no claim upon the general govern- ment. The armory had done more for Springfield than Spring- field had done for the armory. The verdict of the court of inquiry was in favor of Colonel Ripley. The Board applauded his administration, honest purpose, and *•' enlightened zeal for the public interest," and acquitted him "fully and honorably of all the charges." Time has put these animosities to sleep, and the militar}^ super- intendent is the adopted policy in United States armories. The cost of the Springfield musket, which, in 1841, was $13.56, was gradually reduced until, in 1851, it was $8.75. The average wages of the men were meantime increased from $37.87 per month, in 1841, to $38.85, in 1851. In the political world Springfield had, in 1841, George Ashmun in the Speaker's chair at Boston. Col. Solomon AVarriner was made postmaster in the place of Mr. Morgan, in 1842, and during that year John Mills was accused of turning federalist by voting to increase the capital stock of the Springfield Bank. Mr. Mills replied, defending corporations so long as they did not unneces- sarily interfere with private enterprise. In April Mr. ]Mills was secretary of a protective-tariff meeting, presided over by Elijah Blake. Mills, Ashmun, and others made addresses. In 1843 Maj. Charles Howard was made State treasurer, but declined, and became a councillor. John Mills was then elected State treasurer. The re2:ular democrats, who had been disgruntled at ]\Ir. Mills's 454 SPRTXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. business-like attitude toward banks, were by no means pleased at this selection b}^ the Legislature. In July, 1843, Springfield had a reminder of revolutionary times by a letter from H. A. S. Dearborn, from Roxbury. He said that on June 17, 1843, he heard a fife in the room where the Society of the Cincinnati was assembled (Boston) to observe the sixty-eighth anni- versary of the battle of Bunker Hill, and going up to an aged man who had been playing Washington's march, the following conversa- tion took place : " AYere you a fifer in the Revolutionary War?" — "I was." — "In what corps?" — "Nixon's regiment and Mxon's brigade." — " How long did you serve ? " — " Thi'ee years. I was in the campaigns in the Jerseys, and I was at the execution of Major An- dre." — " How old are you ? " — "I am in my 83d year." — " Where do you live?" — "In Springfield." — "What is your name?" — " Thaddeus Ferry." For many years Thad. Ferry, with Pierpont Edwards and Major Sanborn, brother of Simon Sanborn, appeared in a carriage on the Fourth of Jul}^ these thi-ee veterans of the Revolution rousing the memories of '76 as nothing else could. "Thad." Ferry was the best fifer of his day in these parts. John Quincy Adams lectured before the Mechanics' Lyceum in Oc- tober, 1843. The most interesting feature of the visit was a dinner at Warriner's United States Hotel, Judge Morris presiding. Gen. George N. Briggs had been nominated by the whigs for governor, and the Boston "Emancipator " said that the reason William B. Calhoun w^as not cliosen was because he was suspected of a want of fidelit}^ to Mr. Cla}^ — a charge that was resented at the time. It ma}' be noticed here that Mr. Calhoun spoke at an Irish repeal meeting at Cabotville in 1843. He said that he had advocated the cause of Po- land and Greece, and for the same reason stood up for Ireland. The rumor that Royal B. Hinman, of Hartford, was to succeed Major IngersoU as paymaster and military storekeeper produced loud protests, not only as an injustice to the major, but because it Mas too evidently a move for the spoils. A loco foco meeting was held at SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1S86. 455 Union Hall to choose delegates for the State convention, and the Tyler men carried the day. Chester W. Chapin presided, and Mr. Mnnn, the leader of the administration faction, had little tronble in subduing the Van Burenites. James Cristy, the Cabotville postmaster, was at this time removed without cause, to make a place for A. W.-Stockwell, a locofoco law- yer and the editor of the Cabotville " Chronicle." Stockwell was de- fendant in a libel suit brought by T. D. Bonner, editor of a temperance paper at Stockbridge. Even the democrats were displeased at the removal of Cristy, and remonstrances went to Washington from both parties. The following week the axe fell at the Centre, Colonel War- riner, the postmaster, being superseded by Col. Harvey Chapin. The former had held the position seventeen months, greatly to the satis- faction of the public. These changes, ordered by an " accident Presi- dent," by which the men who had elected him were turned into the streets, and loco foco men put in, greatly embittered the politics of that day. Locally, the ''Post " had become a Van Buren organ, and the "Democrat" had weekly bouts with the "Post" over the issues inside the party Unes. The attempt of the postmaster- general to compel all newspapers to be delivered by mail, and not by express or private messenger, did not mitigate the austerities of politics. Mr. Calhoun was nominated for State senator by the whigs, but he declined, and George Bliss was substituted. The election was a draw, and was thrown into the Legislature, and Joseph M. Forward declared elected over Bliss. On New Year's day, 1844, the local district voted the sixth time for congressman, and the whigs tried to elect Osmyn Baker, of Amherst, while Chester W. Chapin was still pushed in the interests of a bankrupt law, an anti-United-States bank, anti-high tariff, and always a simon-pure democracy. Baker ran in on a very narrow margin. The loco focos carried their county commissioners' ticket, on which was Willis Phelps, in 1844. Phelps was made chairman of the 456 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886, Board. He was auti-^^all Buren, liowever, and many of the demo- crats were disappointed. Charles Howard, chairman of the select- men, was summoned (May, 1844) by the commissioners to explain why no licenses were granted to innholders, and he replied that the town had so instructed. The commissioners then decided also not to grant " approbations" to sell liquor. Howard himself believed in a limited license system, but the rest of the selectmen objected. There had been a succession of exciting town-meetings over this issue. The majority "not to approbate" was finally three hundred and eighty-eight ; so that the temperance wave had swept everything before it. A citizens' committee of fifty was appointed to prosecute violators of the excise law. The democrats had a rousing ratification meeting of the Baltimore nomination of James K. Polk at the town-hall in June, 18447 John Mills presided, and Dr. Champion headed the list of vice-presidents. "Wells Lathrop, the Baltimore delegate, told how the nomination was brought about, and E. D. Beach introduced the resolutions. A few days later the whigs assembled in the same place, with George Ashmun in the chair and ]Mr. Vose one of the principal speakers, and ratified the Clay and Frelinghuysen ticket with no less enthu- siasm. Mr. Ashmun rebuked the democrats for truckling to the slave power and tlie Texas party in makmg up the nominations at Baltimore. So the famous campaign of 1844 was inaugurated in these parts. The Senate had no notion of swallowing the postmaster nomina- tions. In June both Dr. Elijah Ashley and Ethan A. CJary, subse- quently nominated, Avere rejected. Then Col. Galen Ames was nominated and confirmed. He was removed, however, and Col. Harvey Chapin confirmed. Henry Stearns, who had been appointed by Levi Lincoln inspector of the Boston Custom-house, was removed in July, 1844, for political reasons. The great whig demonstration of western ^Massachusetts took place the first week in August, 1844, at Springfield. Round Hill was SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 457 tnmsforined into a camp-ground of delegation's from a hundred towns, and it was said that no less than twenty thousand people were in sigiit from the canvas-covered grand stand when the eloquent George Ashmun sounded the whig bugle, and Robert C. Winthrop, Rufus Clioate, Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley, Daniel P. Tyler, William E. Robinson, Joseph Hoxie, and others marshalled the whig forces in telling addresses. Springfield probably had never witnessed such a day before. The democrats responded in a mass meeting at Cabot\dlle the next week ; A. W. Stock well, Arthur McArthur, and others woke the echoes, and party feeling ran high. A series of meetings was held in the town-hall, and heated debates conducted between David L. Child and George Bradljurn on the question whether the local aboli- tionists should follow Child's advice and support Clay. The result of the elections was locally close. Polk carried Hamp- den county, and so did George Bancroft, who ran against Briggs for governor. But Springfield went whig in both cases. George Ashmun made a fine showing, he scoring a plurality of five hundred and more against Chester W. Chapin and others for congressman. Edmund Freeman, whig, was elected to the Legislature ; but there were four vacancies. Chester W. Chapin was subsequently elected. There was no election in the State Senate contest, — J. Abbott and Charles Stearns, wliigs, and Forward and Beach, democrats. The Legislature elected Abbott and Stearns. The loco focos had held the town offices since 1841, and the whigs now made an assault upon them in good earnest. The town meeting of April, 1845, resulted in the choice of William Dwight as moderator, and Austin Chapin, Jr., Allen Bangs, Henry Morris, Titus Amadou, and Adolphus G. Parker, all whigs, were elected selectmen. The selectmen were again instructed not to "approbate" any one to sell liquor. A curious episode in party feeling was re- ported at this time in West Springfield, when about one hundred and forty men and women signed a paper pledging themselves to do all 458 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. their mailing* business at the Springfield post-office, on account of the appointment of an objectionable postmaster. In 1846 came the exciting debates in Congress over Mr. Webster's political status and personal character, and our brilliant George Ashmun was the most potent champion against the attack of C. J. Ingersoll. George Ashmun also made a memorable speech on the Mexican War in August, 1846. William B. Calhoun was elected as an anti-war whig State senator in November, 1846. His associate from Hampden failed, but was elected b}^ the Legislature. This was the first time in nine years that a whig senator had been elected by the people, and Mr. Calhoun enjoyed his victory. Springfield's representatives were all whigs, — Henry Morris, Walter Warriner, George Dwight, Timothy M. Carter, and Alfred White. George Ashmun presided over the whig State convention at Worcester in 1847, when Mr. Webster declared, amid tremendous ap- plause, " I never have, I never shall, I never will vote for any further annexation to this country with a slave representation upon it or in it." George N. Briggs was again nominated, and William B. Calhoun was soon after again running for the State Senate. In the v\'inter of 1848 William Dwight, one of Springfield's representatives in the Legisla- ture, made a notable speech on the Mexican War and slavery, in which he said, " If you summon Massachusetts to conquest, to drive away freemen and put slaves in their places : if you summon her to fight under the black flag of slavery with conquest as her motto, — her heart fails her, and her arms are palsied." George Ashmun attended the whig Philadelphia convention in 1848, and vainh^ tried to prevent General Taylor's nomination by working for AVebster. He submitted with the better grace because the whigs of the North refused to meet the South by uniting their forces upon one man. The whigs of this section were not so ready to support a general for President, even upon a whig platform. It was the sentiment that called together the anti-Taylor convention at Worcester, in June, in accordance with a call sigued by Charles SPRINGFTELD. 2636-1886. 459 Sumuev, Charles Francis Adams, E. Rockwood Hoar, Francis VY. Bird, and others. Allen Bangs, of this town, was on the State committee appointed by the convention. At a mass convention of the Sixth Congressional District, at Northampton, to continue the anti- Taylor movement by sending delegates to Buffalo, some fifty Spring- field citizens were present, mainly of the abolitionist stripe . John Mills, who had come out for anti-slavery measures, headed the delegation. The whig State convention was held in September, 1848, at Worcester, George BUss, John Howard, and Mr. Vose figuring in the proceedings. In October, Charles Sumner advocated Martin Van Buren's election as an anti-slavery candidate. Ashmun was returned to Congress and Briggs reelected governor, and the whigs were m clover. The county commissioners of 1847 granted thirty-six liquor licenses for Springfield, and as Hampden county was the only one in the State with licensed bars, there was much talk. Possibly this was why the various orders of temperance held their national festival in Springfield in that year, which was followed a few weeks later by lectures by John B. Gough. The body of John Quincy Adams arrived in Springfield in the after- noon of March 9, 1848 ; all places of business were closed and many buildings draped. Minute guns were fired when the procession passed down Main street, and all the bells were tolled. The military companies, both local and from surrounding towns, were under the command of Colonel Shurtleff, father of Judge W. S. Shurtleff, fol- lowed by the congressional and legislative committees, members of the bar, and the clergy, fire department, armorers, and many others. The remains were placed in the broad aisle of the First Church, a funeral car having been built for it by David Smith. The congres- sional committees stopped at the Union House. The frequent visits of Daniel Webster to Springfield were probably due in part to the firm friendship subsisting between him and Ashmun Morris, and several other men of prominence here. 460 SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1886. George Ashmun was a mau whose companionship was profitable. The town was onh^ too willing to honor him politically. He had l)een, as we have related, reelected to the Legislature in 1835 and 1836. He went to the State Senate in 1838 and 1839, and returned to the House in 1841, when he became speaker. If he had given his later years to his memoirs, his incisive style, wide acquaintance, and inside knowledge of State affairs, he would have contributed to the making of a memorable volume of political and social literature. Mr. Ashmun and Daniel AVebster had together faced the Southern spirit of aggression, and it was the most dramatic moment in Mr. Ashmun's life when the great Massachusetts senator showed the spirit of concession in reference to the Wilmot proviso as to slavery in Texas. How could it be otherwise with a man wlio said, as Ashmun did upon the floor of the House a little later (1850), in a debate on the state of the Union : " There is a spring higher up the hill which is the great fountain from which these ])itter waters flow. I refer to the annexation of Texas. It was that stupendous scheme for the extension of slaver}^ — conceived in iniquity and brought forth in sin — which fully roused the slumbering anti-slavery feelings of the Northern people " ? But in the self -same speech, thus denouncing the conspiracy of slaveholders, Mr. Ashmun's regard for Daniel Webster, and his utter fearlessness of political consequences, led him to defend the senator in these words: "-Whether my difference with him [Webster] upon any of the points involved is not more seeming than substantial, I leave for others to decide ; but of one thing I am sure, that ui}' tongue shall sooner cleave to the roof of my mouth than it shall join in the temporary clamor which malignity has raised against hhn. The insects of the hour may strive to fasten their slime-spots upon the fair disk of his fame, but they will disappear, transient as breath-stains upon a mirror. Envy, political hatred, sectional jealousy, and republican ingratitude may disturb the judgment of to-day, but the future is secure." The friendship which the broadest statesmanship had challenged SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 461 and agreeable couverse had ripened acted as the cloud that threw Mr. Ashmun into political retirement. PLvidences of his power lin- gered, but the door of a statesmanlike career was closed upon him. Both Webster and Ashmun contributed to the disintegration of the whig party. The course of the latter reveals the impressionable phase of his character. Ashmun was forced into private life by an admiration for Webster's personality, which warped his private convictions. The late Samuel Bowles used to say in private conver- sation that the only man he ever felt dominate him was George Ash- mun, and that the way he measured Daniel Webster was to remem- ber that Ashmun himself had had the same feeling in the presence of the distinguished statesman. We may remark, incidentally, that Dr. Osgood was another chain linking Webster with Springfield. James Osgood, of Fryeburg, father of Dr. Osgood, w^as the register of deeds referred to in Mr. Webster's autol)iography as having employed hmi. Dr. Osgood became well acquainted with Webster when the latter taught the Fryeburg Academy. Those who only remember AVilliam B. Calhoun as the placid talker at temperance meetings or before agricultural societies, may be sur- prised to learn that he could fight, when put to it. '' Let us withdraw for consultation," said Mr. Calhoun, in the spring of 1851, when Town-Clerk Joseph Ingraham refused to qualify him, Governor Trask, and Theodore Stebbins as selectmen. They withdrew, and Mr. Calhoun said to the other two, " Now, I propose to tell Clerk Ingraham that if he refuse to swear us, we will go be- fore the justice of the peace and take the oath, and if then he refuse to act as our clerk, we will choose another." Clerk Ingraham gave way. The complications that led to this conflict are matters of history. It was during the trying hours when the village of Springfield was expiring. There may not have been any connection between the con- vulsions of the village and its death, but it certainly did die in a spasm. Slavery was the thought of the hour. In February, 1851, 462 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. George Thompson, the English iibolitionist, who had not been allowed to speak m Faneuil Hall, Boston, was announced to address the friends of freedom in Springfield. A series of meetings had been planned. The local hostility to Thompson was by no means grounded in an anti-slavery sentiment, but in a feeling that British wisdom was not needed to settle a domestic difficulty. The town was up in arms. Thompson was burned in effigy. Unsigned handbills were circulated, exclaiming, ^' Is it rational, is it reasonable, is it even plausible, that George Thompson, a member of that very British Parliament whose laws have placed the masses of the P^nglish and Irish people in a position of such want and oppression that they would gladly exchange their lot for the comparative freedom of the negro slave of the South, can be aught but a paid emissary and spy of England ? " Hampden Hall was shut against Thompson ; Court square was made dismal with drums, fifes, bonfires, fire-crackers, and a howling mob. There was, however, a Thompson meeting held in a small hall on Sanford street the following night, and the Eng- lishman's departure from the village was a signal for more lurid disturbances. '' But what a sad, what a pitful spectacle it was ! " ex- claimed Rev. George F. Simmons from his Third Congregational pulpit the following Sunday afternoon (Feb. 2:3, 1851). '' What a mixture of the vulgar, the nonsensical, and the profane ! To begin with, those burlesque figures, w^ith which some hopeful citizens saw fit to desecrate the Sabbath, to the scandal of the gathering congrega- tions, that they might insult a stranger and make Springfield a laugh- ing-stock ; for the rope that suspended them was round the neck of all of us, and we are still dangling in ridicule before the whole country." The ugly feeling engendered by these troubles came to the sur- face at the spring elections. Eliphalet Trask had figured as a vice-president at the Thompson meeting, on Sanford street, and in spite of the hue-and-cry Mr. Trask was the only selectman chosen at the town-meeting, April 7, 1851. Two adjourned meetings were SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 463 held, accoiiipaiiied by the most intense excitement, before the angry elements could come to an agreement as to the election of the rest of the selectmen. On the day of the last meeting, April 28, even the armory was closed, and a frigid stream of surly workmen was thus turned upon the town-meeting. But the staying hand of reason was upon the meeting also, and William B. Calhoun and Joel Brown were added to the list of selectmen. ^Ir. Brown declined to serve ; but Mr. Calhoun did not, and he did his town great service by a firm and dignitled bearing in an awkward situation. At a subsequent meeting Theodore Stebbins was chosen selectman, but the town failed to elect the other members. The friends of the Thompson rioters had surrounded Clerk Ingraham and induced him to refuse to administer the oath to this selectmen's board of three, but the demand ot Mr. Calhoun could not be resisted. ^' Hold up your hands, then," said Ingraham. The oath was administered May 5. The town-meeting called for the 19th of that month assembled, and in great excitement passed a resolution that the '' attempt by three individuals to assume control of the public affairs, in direct opposition to the recorded vote of the town, is high-handed and revo- lutionary, and calculated to seriously embarrass the business of the town ; that we deny the right of such persons to act in our behalf, and that their bold attempt can be excused only by the charitable supposition that their eagerness for office made them blind to the rights of the comnumity and the interests of the town." These resolutions were expunged by a subsequent town-meeting, and the three selectmen had the honor of presiding over the adminis- tration of the town affairs during the year. The resolutions reflecting upon the select board of 1851 were unjust to Mr. Calhoun, if they referred to him as president of the board ; for although a public man, and repeatedly honored with polit- ical trusts, he was for many years in direct antagonism to the local sentiment on the subject nearest his heart, — popular education, — and never used it to gain an office. Springfield must allow to Mr. Cal- 464 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. hoiiii the distinction of sharing with OUver B. Morris the honor of loy- alty to the public schools. Ten years before, when S. S. Green, the first school superintendent in Massachusetts, had presided over the Springfield sch(jols for one year and nine months, Calhoun had stood up in the town-meeting and faced the clamoring tax-payers, who were willing to bank up on their children's ignorance in order to pocket a few shillings tax money. Calhoun lost in the fight, and Green was allowed to go and make for himself a reputation as an educator in Ehode Island. Erasmus D. Beach, whose prominence in the camp of the democracy we have noticed, was also making his mark at the bar. Mr. Beach was a man of fine presence, — genial, condescending, courtly, and gracious. He was a master of the arts of persuasion, receiving a client with great suavity and consideration : and his i)owei- with the jury was a mystery which much better lawyers never fully compre- hended. His practice was large, and his office was always well patronized by all classes of litigants. He would listen to the state- ment of a case with the greatest deference, and w^ould make a client almost feel that It was a positive delight to go to law with such au advocate to represent his interests. If a man came to him with a com- plicated case he would hear him through, and with a wave of the hand, or a smile of relief, he would give the impression that, after all, the case was not important enough for him to conduct, and that his partner — Gillett, or Bates, or Bond, or Stearns — could give the counsel required as well as more able jurists. As a diplomat of the office, H D. Beach never had an equal at the Hampden bar ; but he knew his limitations thoroughly enough not to appear before a bench of Supreme Court judges. He never was without a strong man as partner, to aid in conducting his large practice. These partners, while w^ondering at his extended practice, had the deepest respect for him. " Is His Serene Highness in? " William G. Bates would ask in the morning, and this plausible sereneness he never lost nor outgrew. When Mr. Beach bought the "Hampden AVhig," in 1835, he moved COLL^a^J SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 465 it from the hill to the centre of the village, and changed the name to the "Hampden Post." During the nine years that it was under the management of Mr. Beach, the " Post" grew in importance and influ- ence as the mouthpiece of the democracy for this section of the country. Mr. Beach was a frequent candidate for local and State offices, but not until 1850 did he score an important victory. This was in the memorable campaign when the whigs were beaten by a com])ination of the democrats with the free-soilers. The coalition did not care so much for the governor as for the Legislature, and after Mr. Beach's election to the Senate he challenged much personal vitupera- tion by refusing to go with other democrats into the free-soil camp and place Charles Sumner in the United States Senate. Day after day he, with a handful of irrepressible democrats, repulsed every effort to whip them into the Sumner column, and it may be said that this party devotion prevailed with Mr. Beach to the end of his career. He strikingly resembled George Ashmun in personal appearance, and was frequently mistaken for the latter upon the streets. They were occasionally pitted against each other, and while it was not a case of the two Dromios in a court-room, it would indeed have been a re- markable jury that would not have been confused by the suavity of one, the legal finesse of the other, and the personal magnetism of both. Mr. Beach at one time was captain of the Springfield Home Guards, and by a curious coincidence he appeared at the head of this noted organization to do escort duty at a Fourth of July cele- bration, while his law partner, Ephraim Bond, headed the Light In- fantry, which Colonel Thompson had long commanded. This legal firm made a fine appearance as leaders of Springfield's crack com- panies, and the}^ were the subject of man}^ humorous remarks. When a loan of $2,000,000 was proposed, in 1851, for the purpose of tunnelling the Hoosac mountain, Mr. Beach made a very thorough calculation, and showed how small was the amount for the proposed 466 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. work, and he was able to forecast very accurately the financial bur- den involved in such a venture. In speaking of the claims of the Troy & Greenfield road, which sought the credit of the State for $2,000,000, in order that it might cut a tunnel in from three to five years, Mr. Beach characterized the scheme as thus presented " a wild one, — baseless and visionary as the dreams of childhood." In John Mills was a democrat of a different stamp from that of PI D. Beach. Schooled to democratic politics, often a standard- bearer with hopeless majorities against him, even accounted worthy to contest a seat in the United States Senate against Daniel Webster, and looked up to as a pillar of the western Massachusetts democ- racy, he suddenly turned about, in 1848, and advocated a free-soil polic}" more radical, probably, than even his wdiig foes would accept. At that early day the men of the Horace Greeley stamp were not prepared to come out in a third-party movement like that which gathered about Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, not perhaps because they were not as strong in anti-slavery sentiment, but because they had not given up the hope that the work of the great whig fight was ended. The third-party experiment was a perilous one, and it was at this juncture that Charles Sumner withdrew from the whig ranks and joined the free-soilers. Sumner made a mem- orable speech at Boston before the free-soil convention over which Mr. Mills presided, in September, 1848. This was a few months after the national convention at Buffalo had nominated Van Buren and Adams. The whigs nominated Taylor and Fillmore, as we have seen, and the regular democratic candidate was General Cass. The free-soil ticket for governor was S. C. Phillips, and for lieutenant- governor, Jolm Mills, who was the unanimous choice of the conven- tion. The friendship between Sumner, the whig, and Mills, the democrat, meeting as they did from opposite sides upon the common and inspiriting giound of free soil, is Avorthy of mention. Mr. Mills nuist have been gratified at the showing of the new party, so far as Springfield was concerned. SPRINGFJELD, J6S6-1SS6. 467 At the gubernatorial election Springfield had stood : Whigs, 8,272 ; democrats, 3,209 ; while at the November election Taylor polled 3,302; Cass, 3,0(i0 ; Van Buren, 1,200. And this was in the face of a remarkable series of political orations which the brilliant George Aslnnun had delivered througli this part of the State. Mr. Mills was an extensive speaker himself, but the demand for him in the eastern part of the State weakened his home canvass. Sumner wrote the following letter to Mr. Mills, dated Boston, Nov. 19, 1850: " Can't you come to the House of Representatives at Boston this winter? We all feel that your presence would add much to our strength and character. You have already, 1 know, made sacrifices for our cause ; but I have thought that you might serve in our supreme court without any serious inconvenience, while the good to be derived from such service would be incalculable. We need wise, discreet, and just counsels ; and I know no person who can give them better than yourself. Our party must now meet the trials of success, which are more dangerous than those of defeat." Mr. 3Iills obeyed the summons, but owing to a deadlock the town was not represented in the Legislature for two or three years. Henry Wilson, the Natick shoemaker, another free-soiler destined to rise to senatorial distinction, w^as another personage that Mr. Mills came in contact with at this time. In his " History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Powder in America " Mr. Wilson refers to Mr. Mills as a man " Avho had long been one of the honored and trusted leaders of the democratic party." In accordance with a legislative resolution, in 1849, Governor Briggs appointed B. R. Curtis, of Boston, N. J. Lord, of Salem, and Mr. Chapman to draw up a practice act for the courts of justice of the Commonwealth, except for criminal cases. The rules of practice had become involved. No uniform principle was dis- coverable in the various acts of the Legislatiu'e on this subject. At the foundation was the old common-law pleading. Thirteen 468 SPRIXGFIELD, 1G36-1S86. years before special pleas in bar had been abolished, but general demurrers, pleas in abatement, writs of error, and other intricate and time-consuming contrivances under the old S3^stem were retained. As the commissioners in the report accompanying their draught of a practice act say, he who *' surve^^s what remains, sees eyer}^ plain- tiff left to inhabit the old building, while all others are turned out-of- doors. We seem to be walking for a short distance in the ancient but strongly-built streets of an open town, and all at once to step into the open fields, having here and there a piece of sunken fence or a half-filled-up ditch and some ruins of broken walls, which afford excellent lurking-places for concealment and surprise, but no open highway for the honest traveller." The task of Mr. Chapman and his associates was to build a liighwa}^ through this ancient legal land- scape. How well the}^ succeeded, the unanimous vote of the Legisla- ture adopting their practice act fully attests. It is understood by lawyers that the hand of Mr. Chapman is seen in the blanks or prac- tical forms that constitute a part of the act. The importance of this move of Massachusetts was that it was the initiative in New England towards a reform in procedure, and went upon ground which even New York had not then occupied. In February, 1842, George Bliss resigned the office of agent of the Western Railroad, and was soon afterwards chosen its president. The completion of the independent road of the Albany- & West Stockbridge Company, between Chatham Four Corners and the State line, enabled the AVestern Company to dispense with the Hudson & Berkshire road. The Western bridge over the Connecticut was considered quite an engineering feat. It had seven spans, one hun- dred and eighty feet each. It was a covered bridge. The heavy AVinans engines had too high chimneys for some of the bridges on the road, and they were lowered, but as this reduced the draught, the lower bridges were raised. In 1844 the Hartford & Springfield Railroad was opened, joining Springfield with New York, — rail to New Haven and thence by /l^^c^ ^^C^.-^^.__. SPRING FIELD, 1 636- 1886. 469 Steamboat. In 1845 Geoi-ge Bliss declined a reelection as direc- tor of the Western road on account of ill-health, and Addison Gil- more was elected president ; and he was succeeded, in 1850, by John Gardner, and a year later by Capt. William H. Swift. In March, 1847, the old passenger-house was burned and was replaced by a brick station, four hundred feet by one hundred and thirteen. The shares in the Western Railroad were thus held in 1849 : In Boston, 1,095 ; Roxbury, 43 ; Charlestown, 42 ; New York, 1 1 ; Springfield, 209 ; and elsewhere, 549. The Connecticut River road was also well under way. By the consolidation of the Northampton & Spring- field Railroad Company and the Greenfield & Northampton Com- pany, the Connecticut River Railroad Corporation was formed in 1845. The road was opened to Greenfield m 184G. The fourth annual report (1849) showed that it was completed to the Vermont hue; length, fifty-two miles; total cost to that date, $1,588,874. The i-oad was originally a Northampton enterprise, but was absorbed by Springfield capitalists. — ^ The railroad era had given Springfield a genuine business boom./ In 1840 agriculture was in a flourishing condition, as appears from these statistics: Springfield, — acres cultivated, 6,369; produce,— wheat, 285 bushels; rye, 29,184; corn, 27,095; oats, 18,125; and/' tons of hay, 2,537. lu the winter of 1842 the wooden buildings opposite Court square, owned by John Childs and George Dwight, and occupied by A. C. Cole & Co., tailors, and Covell & Goodwin, druggists, were burned. It was a big fire, but if it had not been for the admirable work of the fire department it would have been bigo-er. Charles Dickens passed through Springfield a month later. Adin Allen, the noted river pilot, piloted the steamer '-Massachusetts," in which Mr. Dickens took passage. It was the first trip of the sea- son. Mr. Sargeant suggested to Mr. Dickens that as the roads were bad he had better go by steamer. Accordingly, Mr. Sargeant asked " Kit " Stebbins to captain the " Massachusetts " and Adin Allen to 4:70 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. pilot her. The " Massachusetts " was the largest of the boats then built. It could not go through the canal, and as the canal was still covered with ice it would not have done to send any boat but the "Massachusetts." The "Massachusetts" had a high ladies' cabin built up on the rear of the deck ; the steersman stood on top of this cabin (Avhich accounts for Dickens's impression as to the insecurity of the steamer) , and Mr. Allen was stationed at the bow while shooting the rapids, and the rest of the time he was in the cabin. When the}^ reached Hartford Mr. Dickens asked Pilot Allen if he chewed tobacco, and a few daj^s later Allen received a package from Dickens enclos- ing a tobacco-box, B. M. Douglas, wiio was an active boatman of that day, and who is occasionally seen nowadays upon the streets of Springfield, de- scribes Mr. Dickens's personal appearance as follows: "The light- weight Englishman wore a swallow-tail snuff-colored coat, short red and white figured vest that was not long enough to reach his panta- loons, which latter were of the true Yankee check, and looked as though they had been bought from a North-street Jew shop in Boston. Another thing I remember, and that was his short, bell- crowned hat." We might remark here that two years before the visit of Dickens the steamboat " Greenfield " had exploded near South Hadle}' Falls, killing two men and wounding several others. The boilers of the " Greenfield " and " Agawam " were made on Mill River by Mr. Lancy, who was killed at South Hadley Falls when the former boat exploded. Still another boat, the " James Dwight," was built by Charles Stearns, at the foot of State street. This boat, in making a return trip from Hartford, hit a rock at the head of the falls. Help was procured from Thompsonville, and Dr. Osgood, Mr. Stearns, and others waded into the water and worked the boat off with levers. Samuel Bowles was on board, with a new font of type for the " Republican." This was the period, also, of the underground railroad. Mysteri- SPRIXOFIELD, 1636-1S86. All ous bands of fugitive slaves were continiiall}^ passing up the Connect- icut valley on their wa}^ to Canada. Dr. Osgood's kind oflices in furthering this scheme have been referred to. The negroes usuall}^ travelled at night, and were sheltered by true and tried friends during the day. The houses of Dr. Osgood, Joseph C. Buell, John How- land, Mr. Church, and others were used as stations of the under- ground railroad. In 1847 Osgood, Calhoun, Rufus Elmer, and a local negro preacher secured a house situated in the woods at Bright- wood, for the shelter of fugitives. Parties had unloaded by night in the AVorthington grove, and taken to the Buell house (the Widow Frost place, corner of Spring and State streets) or other houses ; but this was considered a dangerous practice, and they were finally sent to the woods of the North End. The negroes never knew the names of the men at whose houses the}' slept. 31 r. Buell was the preacher at the jail for many years. The population of Springfield in 1843 was 10,985. Among the business events of that year was the opening. of the Massasoit Hotel, in July, Mr. Chapin receiving many congratulatory visits, and a good house-warming followed. The Springfield House (corner of Bridge and Water streets), owned by Charles Stearns and leased by Bugbee & Clark, was opened the followmg year. The Dwight Manufacturing Company had been incorporated in 1841, with a capital of half a mil- lion. Some years later it was consolidated with the Cabot Manu- facturing Company and the Perkins Mills, making it the largest cotton-mill compau}' m the Connecticut valley. The public schools were not in the best condition, one would say, when, in 1843, the average attendance was onl}^ seventeen hundred out of three thousand children who ought to have been at school. While the town was spending 810,000 annually upon their schools, they were so bad that no less than one hundred scholars were sent to private schools, at an extra expense of over 82,000. On October 13, 1844, Springfield was visited by another destructive fire, which broke out in the shop of E. T. Amadou, in the Frost building 472 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2SS6. (Main and Sanford streets), and five buildings, including eight stores and shops, were consumed; losses, $25,000, including Daniel Bonte- cou's frame building, INIain street, in which were Briggs & Forward, dr}^ goods ; Smith & Taylor, printers ; Cowles & Lombard, barbers and fancy goods ; andT. L. Clark, tailor : Joshua Frost's frame build- ing, corner of Main and Sanford streets, in which were Palmer & Clark, ready-made clothing ; J. L. Skinner, printer ; and William B. Hancock, tailor ; Daniel Bontecou's brick building, Sanford street, in which were Henry Adams's meat market and Willis Phelps's wool-room: Dr. Chauncey Brewer's wooden building. Main street, in which were H. & J. Brewer, druggists : Justin Lombard estate's frame building, in which were Rufus Elmer, boots and shoes ; F. R. Rider, shoe- maker ; Simons & Kibbe, confectioners. The buildings of Elijah Blake, Cicero Simons, and Rayuolds & Morris were also damaged. The fire spread because there was no water in the town brook, a mill- owner above having shut it off during the night in order to get water for the day. Before the gates were opened the fire had become seri- ous. Three or four small fires that followed led to the general belief that a fire-bug was at work. The armory barracks had been burned in LS42. But these fires seemed to stimulate enterprise. The popu- lation passed the fourteen-thousand mark in 1845, which was an in- crease of over thirty per cent, in five years. The open pastures on the east side of Main street were being filled up. The seven streets open from Main street to the river in 1838 had increased to eighteen by 1845. Chestnut street had been continued through from Bridge street. The burned district had been covered with brick buildings. Cal)otville and Chicopee P'alls were growing rapidly, and Springfield was being called a " city -like town." There were twenty-two churches, — ten at the Centre. The Dwight & Orne building (Main and Bliss streets), fitted for stores and a hotel, was one of the most conspicuous additions to the street. ]Mr. Byers was putting up four stores opposite the Alden House. The Brewer & Lombard block was also going up. The valuation of real estate was $3,801,917, SPRING FIFA.]), 1G36ASS6. 473 and personal property, $1,447,129, — nearl}^ half a million increase in a year. James Byers completed Hampden Hall (opposite the Alden House) in 184G ; Chauncey Shepard, architect. The Niagara Fire Company opened this, the largest hall in western Massachusetts, hy a ball, in F'ebruary. P^lam Stockbridge completed his block in the rear of the Universalist church hi 1846, and many private resi- dences were going up. At a meeting of School District No. 8, William Dwight, Eliphalet Trask, Simon Smitli, John B. Kirkham, and Benjamin Day were appointed a building committee for a school-house on Elm street. The average wealth of Springfield was a matter of remark ; the largest estate being in 1846 only $68,000, and there were but five estates with a valuation of over 850,000 ; but twelve exceeded $40,000, twenty exceeded $30,000, thirty-eight exceeded $20,000, fifty-one exceeded $15,000, and ninety -one exceeded $10,000 ; total valuation, $7,078,500, there being $5,000,000 distributed among those having less than $10,000. There were comparatively few poor people in Springfield. The general condition of the town religiously was perhaps not so good, although the ministers in those da^^s maintained sharper lines of demarcation and made more direct denominational appeals than at present. There w^ere about eighteen hundred families in 1847, divided roughly as follows : Congregationalists, 430 families ; Methodists, 250 ; Roman Catholics, 170 ; Unitarians, 130 ; Baptists, 112 ; Episco- palians, 90 ; Universalists, 80 ; Wesleyaus, 20 ; " Come-outers," 14 ; Lutherans, 4 ; non-church-goers, 500. Negotiations had been long- pending for the purchase of the water-power at Ireland parish and South Hadley Falls. This culminated in 1847, and the work of building a manufacturing city began at once. Men spoke of the "coming city" before a stroke of work had been done. John Mills bought the Alden (Hampden) House, furnished, in 1846 for $26,000. He had entered upon a career as real-estate owner, and was in the end crippled by these investments. Homer Foot bought 474 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. the United States Hotel property of Jeremj^ AVarriner, iu 1847, for $19,000, and " Uncle Jerry " retired covered with laurels. He, how- ever, could not remain long quiet, but with his brother, L^-man AVar- riner, took the Union House. The question w^as already being asked, " Shall Springfield be a city ? " and the setting up of Chicopee as a separate town also became an acute issue. When a proposal for a division was up in the town- meeting, December, 1847, Judge Oliver B. Morris made a strong plea against division. A legislative committee was in Springfield, March, 1848, and listened to arguments, both upon a division of the town and a city charter. At the April town-meeting a pitched battle was waged over division, and the final vote stood : For division, five hun- dred ; against, seven hundred and twenty-two. The legisl^ive com- mittee had, however, already drawn a bill creating a new town out of Cabotville, Old Chicopee, and Chicopee Falls, although there was clearly a majority of the town against it. There were a succes- sion of town-meetings that year, the charter of the Springfield Aqueduct Compau}^ and other matters seeming to demand special consideration. The Springfield G as-Light Compan}^ was organized that 3' ear. We will not linger over the struggle attending the division of the town. It was said in 1841 that ten years before Cabotville had been " a wild spot, the habitation of frogs, quails, snipes, rabbits," etc. It had now six cotton mills, eighteen operative boarding-houses, a forge and two machine-shops, the Ames Bell and Cannon Foundry, and several small mills ; while the Universalists, Congregational ists. Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics had secured lodgments there. The thirtj^-seven stores and shops and three thou- sand five hundred population were the nucleus of a village, indeed. "The Cabotville Chronicle" of that day was quite a paper. The question of division had become so heated in 1843 that at the annual meeting the town failed to elect a board of selectmen. The " Cabot folks " renewed the fight in 1844 for their section, which had five SPRINGFIELD, 1GS6-1SS6. 475 hundred voters, three thousand nhie hundred and forty-six population, and a tax-rate of $5,000. N. P. Ames, of Cabotville, died in the spring of 1847. He was born near Lowell in 1803. He removed to Chicopee Falls in 1829, and to Cabotville in 1834, and was one of the founders of its commercial prosperity. He visited Europe in 1840 in order to study the mechani- cal arts for the benefit of the Ames Manufacturing Co., and returned broken in health. He was a dignified, affable, and generous man, and was an active church-member. He gave $5,000 to build a Congrega- tional church. Among other deaths during this period may be men- tioned those of Justin Lombard, October, 1841 ; Samuel Bowles, founder of the " AVeekly Republican," September, 1851 ; John Howard, lawyer, 1849 ; and Moses Bliss, merchant, 1849. The di\'ision of the town came in 1848 by a decree of the General Court, and the selectmen's board of Springfield was reorganized as follows : Solomon Hatch, William E. Montague, Philo F. Wilcox, Waitstill Hastings, and E. W. Bond. The committee of the two towns appointed to divide the property of the original town decided that the surplus revenue was to be di- vided on the valuation of the two towns, giving Springfield sixty-one per cent, and Chicopee thirty-nine per cent. Chicopee got a little larger share of the school fund and property. The debts of the old town aggregated $20,000, and Chicopee made a point, as $8,000 of this was for the two new bridges over the Chicopee river. Spring- field took the town farm, town hall, etc., except the old safe, which was to remain with the Springfield town clerk for the preservation of the old records. But the town, reduced in territory as it was, seemed as gay and full of business and pleasure as it ever was. Trade was good, and we notice that the following January (1849), in one week the Niagara Fire Company had a ball at Hampden Hall ; the Campbell minstrels followed ; Eastcott gave a musical soiree at Concert Hall, Foot's block ; while J. H. Green, the reformed gambler, exposed the secrets 476 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. of the profession in so adroit a manner that it is said a clergyman wanted to bet a small amount that a certain card had not changed from one hand to the other. The introduction of gas, also, was a matter for self-felicitation. " We shook off our suburbs," one man remarked, *' and now Spring- field is in better shape for becoming a city than ever before." . David Ames died in August, 1847, at the age of eighty-six. He was born at Bridge water, and became a manufacturer of shovels and guns, supplying both for the American army. Ames was an officer in the Revolution, and in 1794 was appointed by Washington superin- tendent of the national armory in Springfield. After nine years of service he became a manufacturer of paper, and, in the course of the establishment of the largest paper manufactory in the _ country, made many inventions and improvements, including the system of " hot pressing," which subsequently came into general use. In June, 1847, came the death of Dr. William O. B. Peabody. He was a son of Oliver Peabody, of Exeter, N.H., twin brother of Rev. Oliver B. W. Peabody, of Burlington, Vt., was graduated from Harvard in 1816, and, as we have said, settled in Springfield in 1820. Two 3^ears later Edmund D wight, of Boston, died. He was a large owner of the factories at Cabotville and Chicopee Falls, and was one of the first to take up the project of starting a new^ city at Had- ley Falls. He was born at Springfield, was brother of Jonathan Dwight, represented Springfield in the Legislature several 3^ears, and was a substantial friend of the Western Railroad. As to newspapers, it may be noted that the "Republican" be- came an evening daily in 1844, the first daily paper in this part of the State. It was changed to a morning paper in 1845. E. F. Ashley & Co. sold out the " Hampden Post " in 1843 to Alan- son Hawley, and Mr. Beach retired as editor, after nearl}^ nine years' work, and turned his attention to the law, as has been stated. The local papers at this time were : The " Republican," age, 19 ; " Hamp- den Post," age, 14; the "Gazette," age, 12 years; "Cabotville SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1SS6. 4:77 Chronicle," age, 4 years; "Independent Democrat," age, 2 years; ''Hampden Wasliingtonian," age, 1 year; and the "Olive Leaf" (Cabotville). There were abont one hnudred and twent3^-five papers m Massachusetts at this time. The " Semi- weekly Sentinel" ap- peared in Februar}^, 1847, published by Hawley & Tenney, and edited b}^ Alanson Hawley, of the " Hampden Post ; " politics, dem- ocratic. William L. Smith began editing the "Post" February, 1848. He started life in the very pit of political contention, never deserted a friend or quailed before an enemy, was lionest and capa- ble, and lived to preside over the city of Springfield and to enjo}- an age of honorable repose. P^aichon-street Methodist church was built in 1845. It was dedi- cated in ]\Iarch, the sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. Olin, presi- dent of Wesleyan University. It is to be noted that Dr. Osgood made the concluding prayer. Tlie Baptist church, corner of Main street and Harrison avenue, was completed in 1847, at a cost of $14,000. In this year, also, Dr. Samuel G. Buckingham began a forty years' pastorate over the South Church. He, as much as any minister known to Springfield, reflected the virtues and softened the austerities of Puri- tanism. The South Church had been organized in 1842 by thirty- four members of the First Church. The edifice was on Bliss street, and Rev. Noah Porter, Jr., was pastor. It was in 1847, also, that Rev. Mr. Porter preached his farewell sermon at the South Church on Bliss street, and left Springfield to assume the duties of Professor of Moral Philosophy at Yale College. The high school was completed in 1848, at a cost of $10,000, the building committee being AVilliam Dwigiit, Chester W. Chapin, Eliphalet Trask, Josiah Hooker, Simon Smith, and Sanniel Raynolds ; architect, Josiah Allen. Judge Morris denounced the high school as a " palace," but he became reconciled to it. The Springfield Young Men's Institute, which had been an informal association, was incorpo- rated in 1847, and these officers chosen : President, John Mills ; vice- presidents, Ariel Parish, E. D. Beach, and Hmu-y ^Morris ; corre- 478 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. spoiiding secretary, E. W. Bond ; recording secretary, Samuel Bowles, Jr. The Hampden House was repaired in 1845 by O. M. Alden, and the name changed to tte Alden House. The new hotel below the depot (Pynchon House), built by Chester W. Chapin and kept by Mr. Jennings, was called the City Hotel, in anticipation of a charter. The w^ork of removing the old cemetery was completed in 1848, under the supervision of Elijah Blake. Some women formed an association in October, 1840, to raise money to be devoted to the project of opening a new cemetery. They opened a fair in Sep- tember, 1841. Both town and Masonic halls were secured for the exhibition of fancy articles, which were contributed by people of all denominations and classes. Tlie gross receipts were 81,300, and thus netting over $1,100. The concert of Jenny Lind, in July, 1851, is still treasured as one of the happy memories of Springfield. Dr. Osgood's church w^as filled with music-lovers, and those who had gone to Boston to hear her pronounced her vocalization quite as good as it had been there. She was entertained by a brother of Solomon AVarriner. on Howraxl street. Mr. Goldschmidt, whom she married shortly afterwards, was her accompanist. The school children marched in procession to the Warriner house, just east of Mr. Charles Merriam's residence, and the distinguished singer appeared upon the balcony and acknowledged their attention by bowing. It was not until 1851 that the directors of the Western Railroad ordered a new depot, but they appropriated the then fabulous sum of $50,000. Chester W. Chapin, once a driver of an ox-team, as was Willis Phelps, had, by 1851, become the wealthiest man in Springfield. He was president of the Connecticut River Railroad, and had fully George Bliss's faith in Springfield as a railroad centre. As a matter of curiosity w^e add a few names in the order of worldly possession, as appears by the assessors' books : Chester W. Chapin, James Byers, George Bliss, Jonathan Dwight, James Barnes, M. and E. S. Chapin, ■^'^^hKB.SattkSons.l SPRIXGFIELD. 1636-1SS6. 479 George D wight, P:state David Ames, John Mills, Thilo P. Wilcox, John Child, AVilliam Howe, James Brewer, Homer Yoot. Thomas Bond, Daniel L. Harris, Charles G. Rice, Frederick Dwight, Eliplia- let Trask, and so on. The Wason Car Works started in 1845. The Agawam Bank A\ab organized in 1i /^ '^7^^^ PiiOJ^-ESSGi^ D-F ■mm^B'&W -IJ? TALE COLLEGE. MetiopolitmfuJj3isJiiiig Scingianng Co.HewTarE.. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 507 warrants for the arrest of escaped slaves, and denied the negroes at the hearings the right to testify in their own behalf. The local feeling among the ultra abolitionists ran high. Springfield became a very important way station on the underground road which ran from Southern bondage to Canadian freedom, and the Emigrant Aid Sociery was generously supported here. Mr. Chapman was a United States commissioner, and great pressure w^as finally brought upon him to resign, that he might escape the offensive duty of restoring fugitive slaves to their masters, as he was not then a freesoiler. " I refuse to resign," was his determined reply. When an explanation of his real position was demanded, he said, in the event of the pursuit of a slave to Springfield, " As officer of the Emigrant Aid Society I would forward the fugitive to other parts ; as United States commis- sioner I would then issue a warrant for his arrest." There was flourishing in those days a Springfield organization known ^_^ as "The Club." It had no written constitution and no archives; it met on every other Monday night, and was a medium of communica- tion on public topics among prominent citizens. Mr. Chapman is credited wdth the honor of having originated The Club. At a Mon- day meeting, during the Kansas troubles, some member asked what was to be done with Kansas. Mr. Chapman replied, " We will send on emigrants there ; we will send rifles with them. I will furnish one gun." "And I another," said Samuel Bowles. " And I another," said Daniel L. Harris. "And I another," said the good and true Dr. Buckingham. So the offers went round the room. Mr. Cham- berlain, now of Hartford, and then a law partner of Mr. Chapman, hesitated for some reason, not, however, because he was hostile to the free-soil sentiment, and Mr. Chapman noticed the fact, and said, with as much vigor as he ever displayed on any subject, " And I will give a second gun for the credit of the firm." Mr. Chamberlain, it may be stated, now tells this anecdote on himself. The rifles were all duly furnished, taken apart, and sent in separate boxes and by different routes to Kansas. 508 SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886. The Bocbanan democrats of Springfield raised a hickory pole ou the Hill, near the Rockingham house and the AYait monument, ^yith O. A. Seamans, E. D. Beach, and William L. Smith as orators. The whigs put up Robert C. Winthrop for governor upon a Fillmore plat- form, placing our fellow-citizen. Homer Foot, beside him as lieu- tenant-governor. The Buchanan democrats met in Springfield, in the Cit}^ Hall, and with Ansel Phelps, Jr., in the chair put up their war steed, E. D. Beach, for governor. Superintendent AVhitney of the armor}' figured as peace-maker V4 P r^ _K - The Wait Monument. J in the convention, "« and General Butler, with "• rolled-up coat cuffs" and "" tipped- up visage," started the party enthusiasm. A fiag with sixteen stars was suspended across the hall, but soon torn down. " The flag of our Union I " exclaimed Mr. Beach, after his nomination, and the response was quick and spontaneous. It may be said that later, when Mr. Beach had beaten Benjamin F. liutler hi the democratic State convention of 1858, he The Rockingham House. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 509 said to that body, " I have no new pledges to make to you, no new theories to advance, no new principles to follow. The principles 1 maintain to-day I have maintained always. They are as old as Jefferson's." General Whitney was bitterly taken to task for refusing to reemploy armorers who had applauded Dr. Chaffee's course in opposing the use of United States troops in suppression of the Kansas freesoilers. This was used as a Fremont cry in the town with some effect. At one of the largest Fremont gatherings in this memorable cam- paign, Mr. Patterson, fresh from the Missouri, exhibited on the platform the very chain with which John Brown was led for thirty miles in a hot sun after his capture. Its claukings touched a cord, and the City Hall was thundrous with emotion. One hundred women had formed a sewing club with Mrs. George Bliss president and Mrs. Charles Merriam treasurer, for the purpose of preparing clothing for the emigrants there. The first meeting was held in the Unitarian Chapel, and pins and needles were enlisted for the cause. But the decree of the nation was for Buchanan and democracy. Springfield's share was small. Mr. Beach polled about 40,000 to over 92,000 for Gardner, the Fremont candidate for governor. Con- gressman Chaffee was triumphantly returned to his seat. The Fillmore ticket flatted out. Homer Foot, the candidate for lieutenant- governor, ran over 8,000 ahead of the Fillmore ticket. W. S. Shurt- left", Fremont candidate for register of insolvency, ran about 4,000 votes ahead of H. B. Lewis, in Springfield, and was elected. The Fremonters elected as Representatives Henry A'ose, Eliphalet Trask. Daniel L. Harris, and John H. P\iller. If Springfield, by the incident of John Brown's wool agency, was connected by special and local ties to the Kansas embroglio, an odd incident linked her with the equally famous Dred Scott decision. This negro and his family had been the slaves of Dr. Emerson, a United States Army surgeon. After Dr. Emerson's death, Dred 510 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Scott brought suit against John F. A. Sauford, the administrator of tiie estate, cLaiming that he and his family had been carried across the border of the slave region into Illinois and Missouri, and still compelled to suffer a slave's burden. The decision of the United States Supreme Court upon this question amounted to nothing short of nationalizing slavery, and its announcement was reall}" the beginning of the slaveholders' rebellion, as Northern revulsion from this politi- cal theory and princple was deep and unalterable. Mrs. P^merson, the owner of Dred Scott, had married, after the doctor's death. Congressman Chaffee, of this town, and Mr. Sanford, the administrator of the Emerson estate, was the brother of Mrs. Chaffee, nee Emerson. Mr. Chaffee's political enemies were not slow in piling the dry fagots of insinuation under his reputation and light- ing a blaze. He was charged with the intent of making money out of the very slave system which upon the floor of Congress he had condemned. With a twenty years' honorable record as an anti- slavery man, he was compelled to den^^ these strictures, and to say in public, '' There is no earthly consideration that could induce me to exercise proprietorship in any human being ; for I regard slavery as a sin against God and a crime against man," and he added, "• If, in the distribution of the estate, of which this decision affirms, these human beings to be put, it appears that I, or mine, consent to receive any part of the thirty pieces of silver, then, and not till then, let the popular judgment, as well as the public press, fix on me the mark of a traitor to my conscience." Dred Scott said that the suit had cost him " a heap o' trouble, and if I'd a known it was gwine to last so long I'd wouldn't a started it." When the decision went against him he simply laughed at " de fuss dey made dar in AYash'nton 'bout de old nigger." But the North did not laugh. It was a dark day ; the Chaffees did not take advantage of their decision and claim him as their property. The charge that Dr. Chaffee did actually profit pecuniarily by the Dred Scott decision makes a further statement necessary. Reuben A. SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1SS6. 511 Chapman was called iu by Dr. Chaffee for advice, and he drew up a legal document, in the form of a quit-claim, of all interest, or sup- posed interest, in Scott and his family, authorizing Taylor Bloom, of St. Louis, to draw up manumission papers. If the United States Supreme Court had put a further stamp of bondage upon this unfor- tunate family the historical paper signed by Mrs. Chaffee, Dr. Chaffee, and Miss Emerson expunged the mark, and the negroes continued, as for years they had practically been, free residents of St. Louis. Dr. Chaffee was ignorantly and unjustl}' denounced from one end of the country to the other for this alleged traffic in human beings, but the hue-and-cry was of short duration. The facts became known, and, moreover, the man who liberated Dred Scott stood on the floor of Congress shortly afterward, during the Kansas debate, and during a long and masterly argument spoke as follows : " Are 3^ou, the con- servative slaveholders of the country, willing to alloAV the institutions of your section to become the cause and instrument of the future aggrandisement of this administration, — of building up and further extending the power and rule of the African democracy of this country who seek by their policy to Africanize the productive indus- try of the country ? I tell gentlemen plainly that while chivalry once had a name and a prestige, yet in these African democratic lauds its gold has become dim and its lustre is faded ; and unless it is speedily rescued, its glory will have departed forever. Sir, the civilized world cannot and will not look on complacently and see this great and monstrous wrong consummated upon this people." Eliphalet Trask accepted, in June, 1857, the nomination of the American State convention for lieutenant-governor upon the Banks ticket, and in his letter of acceptance Mr. Trask said that he did so upon the belief that the party's aim was to consolidate the American and anti-slavery sentiment of Massachusetts. Banks was also nominated by the republicans a few weeks later at Worcester, but Oliver Warner, of Northampton, was given the second place on the ticket. Mr. Beach was again the democratic standard-bearer. By 512 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6~1SS6. a subsequent arrangement Mr. Trask was made the candidate for lieutenant-governor on the Worcester ticket, and Oliver Warner Sec- retary of State. Springfield was also represented that year by George Walker on the republican senatorial ticket, and William L. Smith, his democratic opponent, and Heman Smith, American candidate, for county commissioner. R. A. Chapman supported the Banks ticket, and his old partner, George Ashmun, came out strong for Banks also. Banks was elected, and so was Walker. In the legislative contest Marvin Chapin and Henry Vose, republicans, and Hiram Q. Sanderson, democrat, were elected. The whole Banks ticket was renominated in 1858, and reelected. So was Senator Walker. The most important local item in the No- vember election was the defeat of William Hice, who for over a quarter of a century had been register of deeds or county treasurer. He was defeated by James E. Russell, democrat. Mr. Norton, a son-in-law of Mr. Rice, withdrew from the office of county treasurer at the same time, so that the change was the more marked. Mr. Rice had been first chosen register in 1830. There were heard upon all sides hearty tributes to Mr. Rice's fidelity and efficiency in the public service, and he was followed into private life by the honor and respect of all. Mr. Russell, who succeeded him, was for many years a conductor on the day express between Boston and Springfield, and had been the popular landlord of the Russell House. Mr. Russell always has shown an intelligent interest in Springfield history, and he has a fund of stories which then, as now, was a source of enter- tainment to his friends. One of his best relates to Daniel Webster, who was a passenger on the Boston & Albany Railroad one day when Mr. Russell was conductor. The distinguished statesman lost his hat out of the window, and he remarked to Mr. Russell that he would have some trouble in i>ettino' another lar^e enouoh. When the train stopped at Palmer Mr. Russell stepped off, and approaching Bill Childs, the station agent, who had the largest head in the county, asked, " What will you take for that hat? " Childs named his price SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 513 with a smile. Russell handed the astonished agent the money, seized his hat, and carried it to Webster. It was a perfect fit. Daniel Webster still owes Mr. Russell for that hat. E. D. Beach refused to run a fifth time for governor, and this opened the door for Benjamin F. Butler, as the democratic standard- bearer, in the exciting elections of 1859. Springfield still had a place on the ticket, however, Stephen C. Bemis being candidate for lieuten- ant-governor. A Stephen A. Douglas resolution, presented by ex- ^layor Phelps, was tabled by the convention. General Whitney was in those days an active politician, and had much to do in pouring oil upon the troubled waters. He was assisted by Postmaster Chapin in the convention. The republicans put up Banks and Trask again, and A. X. Merrick was made a member of the State Central Committee. At the time of John Brown's attack upon Harper's Ferry, the su- perintendent of Harper's Ferry was the guest of j\Iajor IngersoU in Springfield. Brown had been in Springfield the year previous, and was free to talk to his friends about running off slaves. While the judicious urged caution, they could not but pay him the tribute of re- ligious courage of conviction, and respected him even in his contempt of statute law. Men went to the polls here as in other Northern cities ready to fight as they voted. Governor Banks's vote reached nearly to 60,000 ; Butler about 35,000, and Briggs (American whig) 14,000, in round numbers. Springfield elected Daniel Gay and Rich- ard Bliss, republicans, and Ezra Kimberly, democrat, to the Legis- lature. The republicans also had their own way in the city elections, elect- ing Daniel L. Harris mayor. Col. Horace C. Lee also defeated Mr. Ingraham, as clerk, the latter having held that position in town and city for seventeen years. He had been a faithful, painstaking officer, but the desire for a younger man had asserted itself. The new board of aldermen were Edmund B. Haskell, Erastus Hayes, Franklin Chamberlain, John W. Hunt, William Hitchcock, John G. Capron, William Foster, and George W. Holt, — all republicans. 514 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. If a man loves auother for the qualities he himself has not, the friendship between Reuben A. Chapman and John Brown is explained, for they were not of kin in any quality of character save the cour- age of conviction and the root-sentiment of humanity and equal rights. Mr. Chapman heard Mr. Brown talk about the negro's wrongs, which he had made his own, collected Brown's wool bills for him, and acted generally as legal adviser. When John Brown was finally in the hands of the law in Virginia, his first thought was of the cool, judicious Reuben Chapman, of Springfield, and he appealed to him for legal assistance in the following letter, now in the hands of Mr. Chapman's daughter, Mrs. T. M. Brov^n, of this city : — Charlestown, Jeffer.son County,-Va., October 21, '59. Hon. Reuben Chapman, Springfield, Mass. : — Dear Sir, — I am here a prisoner with seA'eral sabre cuts in my head and bay- onet stabs in my body. My object in writing you is to obtain able and faithful counsel for myself and fellow-prisoners, five in all, as we have the faith of Vir- ginia pledged tlirougli her governor and numerous other prominent citizens to give us a fair trial. Witliout we can obtain such counsel from Avithout the slave States neither the facts in our case can come before tlie world, nor can we have the benefit of such facts as might be considered mitigating in view of otliers upon our trial. I have money in hand here to the amount of $250, and personal property sufficient to pay a most liberal fee to yourself or to any suitable man who will undertake our defense if I can have the benefit of said property. Can you or some otlier good man come immediately on for the sake of the young men prisoners at least? My Avounds are doing well. Do not send an ultra abo- litionist. Very respectfully yours, JOHN BKOWN. This letter was dictated, but is signed by Brown with a firm, plain hand. Mr. Chapman was about starting on court business, and could not go to Virginia, but he gave his imprisoned friend what advice he could by letter. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 515 One caunot renew acquaintances with tlie records of these terrible times, — the legal nuirder of John Brown, the heart of flame that burned with patriotic indignation in the North, the natural apprehen- sion for the future that faded before loyalty and a national sentiment — without the deepest consternation at the political blindness that im- pelled President Buchanan to urge in his message to Congress : "I firmly believe that the events at Harper's Ferry, by causing the people to pause and reflect upon the possible peril to their cherished institu- tions, will be the means under Providence of allaying the existing excitement and preventing further outbreaks of a similar character. They will resolve that the Constitution and the Union shall not be endangered by rash counsels, knowing that should the silver cord be loosened or the golden bowl be broken at the fountain, human power could never reunite the scattered and hostile fragments." So the year 1800 drew on under a lurid sky. A resolve was indeed made, — not the resolve of Buchanan and human slavery, but the nation's resolve, that the golden bowl should not be broken, — and it was not. CHAPTER XXI. 1860-1886. The War and Politics. — Spriugfield in the Chicago Convention. — Lincoln's Letter to George Ashmun. — City Politics. — Union Eallies. — Activity in Eeal Estate. — Va- rious Enlistments. — A Eecoi'd of Springfield Soldiers who died in Battle and in Hospital. — Fires. — Newspapers. — The Death of Samuel Bowles. — His Character as a Journalist. — Theology at Indian Orchard. — Rev. James F. Merriam. Daniel L. Harris, republican, was mayor of Springfield during the troublous year of 1860, having beaten AYilliam L. Smith, demo- crat, by a vote of 1,179 to 883. In June, 1860, John B. Floyd, sec- retary of war, appointed Col. I. H. AVright superintendent of the armory. He was surrounded b}^ Southern friends, and naturally ex- cited the suspicion of the loyal people. It would not have been a difiicult thing to blow up the armory. No one suspected Wright himself, but he had men about him quite capable of it. In 186-4 an attempt was actually made, but the infernal machine deposited in the main arsenal w^as discovered in time to prevent an explosion. AVright had been here but a few weeks Avhen a self-constituted committee of citizens watched the armory closely in order to frustrate the designs of any Southern agents or spies. " There is the slavery question," ex- claimed Carl Schurz, at Hampden Hall, in January, 1860, — " not a mere occasional quarrel between two sections of a country di\Hded by a geographical line, not a mere contest between two economical in- terests for the preponderance, not a mere wrangle between two politi- cal parties for power and spoils, — but the great struggle between the human conscience and a burning wrong, between advancing civilization and retreating barbarism." Thus was the grand issue made up in spite of the efforts of some to foist a constitutional SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 517 hypothesis into prominence by pleading the doctrine of extreme State rights. We have no space to deal with the multitudinous incidents that added to the local tension of the year 1860, — the private gatherings of loyal citizens, the personal encounters of political enemies, the feuds that disturbed clubs, churches, nay, even the family itself. A copy of the ' ' Springfield Eepubliean " mailed to a man in Georgia was re- turned by the post-office department, stamped " In- cendiary document." In making up the list of delegates to the Chicago national republican conven- tion that was destined to nominate Abraham Lincoln for President, in May, 1860, the name of George Ashmun was proposed ; but the latter considered him- self in permanent political retirement. He finally con- sented to go, however, pro- vided Governor Trask would accompany him. Even then, he did not agree to sit in the convention. Samuel Bowles, whose organizing genius came into play when a po- litical or patriotic sentiment moved him from the strict path of journalism, had gone on with a large Massachusetts delegation before Ashmun and Trask had perfected their arrangements. The latter overtook them at Niagara Falls. During the journey Mr. Bowles hit upon the idea of presenting George Ashmun as the candidate of Massachusetts for permanent president of the convention. It was V w^^ Entrance to U.S. Armory. 518 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. thoroughly talked up ou the train. The delegates began instinctively to treat Mr. Ashmun as the coming man, and thus it was that the eloquent advocate of Webster, Springfield's fallen whig leader, started West as an almost unwilling spectator, and arrived at Chicago the rep- resentative man from Massachusetts. The great wigwam, designed by Architect Boyington, — formerly a resident of Springfield, bj' the way, — was thronged with an excited crowd. The Massachusetts plan was at once laid before the leaders of the party. " Slaver}^ is sectional ; freedom is national ! " exclaimed David Wilmot, of Penn- sylvania, the temporar}^ chairman, and shortly afterward the conven- tion gave six tremendous cheers as the old Springfield whig was conducted by Carl Schurz and Preston King to the chair, the per- manent president-elect. Mr. Ashmun's speech was short but warm, with something of his old oratory. Mr. Bowles accompanied Mr. Ashmun and the committee of the convention to Springfield, 111., to deliver to Mr. Lincoln the great message of the party. Mr. Bowles stood near Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Ashmun while they were making their formal speeches, and after the ceremou}^ he wrote of Mr. Lincoln: "His face, which in repose seemed of bronze, was at the instant of speaking lighted up by an unmistakable fire of intelligence ; and as soon as it was subsequently relaxed b}^ the gentle and rapid question and reply of conversation, the warmth of a great heart shone out of every feature." Some debate having arisen in the papers about Mr. Lincoln's first name, he sent Mr. Ashmun the following letter : — Sprixgfield, III., June 4, 1860. Hon. George Ashmcx : — My Dear Sir, — It seems as if the question whether my first name is " Abra- ham" or " Abram" will never be settled. It is " Abraham," and if the letter of acceptance is not yet in print, you may, if you think fit, liaA-e my signature thereto printed " Abraham Lincoln." Exercise your judgment about this. Yours, as ever, A. Lincoln. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 519 But Mr. Ashinun had still an important service to peiforni after Mr. Lincoln's election. Thousands of men were waiting to hear from Stephen A. Douglas. Mr. Ashmun was a friend of both. It fell upon him to make the convincing appeal to ]Mr. Douglas's patriot- ism. It was a long struggle. The two men debated until late at night ; and when at length Douglas determined to stand by the Lincoln administration, he urged Ashmun not to wait until morning, but to hasten to Mr. Lincoln, who learned it before he slept, and the [)apers of the land had it the next morning. It is a fact that has escaped notice that Mr. Douglas stood immediately back of Lincoln on the platform during the delivery of his inaugural address, and held the President's tall hat for him, as tiiere was no place to put it. Mr. Lincoln w\as just starting for P'ord's Theatre on the fatal night when Mr. Ashmun called. He pencilled on his knee as he was about to take the carriage the following note : — Allow Mr. Aslimuu and friend to come in at nine A.M. to-morrow. A. LiNCOLX. Judge C. P. Daly, of Xew York. This note, tlie last Avords written by Abraham Lincoln, is now in the possession of George A. ]Morton, of this city, who also has Lin- coln's letter accepting his first nomination for the presidency. Ashmun's old law partner, Reuben A. Cliapman, Avas chosen a Lincoln presidential elector. He had received a handsome vote for attorney-general in the republican convention which nominated John A. Andrew for governor ; but a better position was open to him, and, in October, 1860, he Avas duly qualified judge of the Supreme Court. The Massachusetts democrats turned to K. D. ]>each once more for governor. The Bell and Everett convention put Henry Morris on its ticket as attorney-general. Stephen C. Bemis Avas a Douglas and Joiu^son elector, and Chester W. Chapin a Breckinridge and Lane elector. Homer Foot was a councillor on the Douglas 520 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-18S6. ticket, and J. AV. Crook a councillor on the Breckinridge ticket. Springfield also furnished these candidates in that famous campaign : State Senate : O. A. Seamans (Douglas) ; Luther Upton (Breckin- ridge) ; Timoth}^ W. Carter (republican). Representatives: Samuel Smith, Dennis Hubbard, and Henry Reynolds (Breckinridge) ; Will- iam B. Calhoun, Simeon Newell, and Oliver Bannon (republican). County commissioner, William Pynchon (Douglas) . The Springfield AVide-awakes organized with Hosea C. Lombard as captain, and A. X. Merrick, C. R. Ladd, A. G. Sinclair, George S. Haskell, Henry S. Lee, and A. J. Plummer, the executive committee. At a grand Wide-awake meeting in Springfield, in September, Henrj' Wilson said, '' On the slavery question the democratic party has divided ; the head is with Breckinridge in the South ; the tail is floatino' round with Dougias at the North." In spite of the stress of national politics the city went democratic a few weeks after the general election. The first election was a tie, ]\Layor Daniel L. Harris, republican, and Stephen C. Bemis, democrat, receiving each 889 votes. The contest was not strictly political, the question of free rum having come to the surface. Mr. Bemis secured a majority of 90 at the second election, December 19. Mr. Harris had made a courageous, business-like mayor. He was in no sense a politician. If he had looked to political preferment with the care he showed in securing a favorable balance-sheet for the city during his administration, his reelection would probably have been assured. Springfield entered the war period with growing demo- cratic procli^^ties. Henry Alexander, Jr., who was probably one of the best political managers of that day, was pitted unsuccessfully against ]\Iayor Bemis in 1861. The condition of the police depart- ment was tlie local issue in that campaign. S. B. Spooner, Jr., was elected clerk and treasurer without opposition. Col. James M. Thompson was elected to the State Senate in November, and Theodore Stebbins, William L. Smith, and Nathaniel Howard, to the Legislature. Postmaster Chapin retired in May, after eight years' SPR TNG FIEL />. 7 636-1 8S6. 521 faithful service, and was succeeded by William Stowe, who was at that time clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Capt. George Dwight superseded Colonel Wright as superintendent of the armory in the spring of 1S61. The time had now come for the expression of substantial patriot- ism, and the sons of Springfield forgot their party differences in the common cause. The War Department, just before the storming of Fort Sumter, ordered away from Springfield a lot of guns, an act that roused a deep feeling of resentment. Dr. C. C. Chaffee was consulted as to the best plan to pursue, and he intimated that it would take a long time to pack those guns properly. The hint was taken. The slowest workmen were detailed to box the weapons. The impatient authorities repeatedly asked why the arms had not been shipped. That boxing job was not finished until the " boys in blue " were ready to nse them. Thk Old County Jail. 522 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. Judge R. A. Chapman called to order the first grand war rally in Springfield, in April, 18G1. "I believe," he exclaimed, with an animation quite uncommon with him, — " I believe in nothing but the unconditional surrender of the rebels. I would have that, or hang every man of them." Mayor Bemis presided at this meeting. A large glee club of patriotic men and women furnished the music. The statel}^ and venerable William B. Calhoun offered the resolutions, and William L, Smith was the first to support them, with the senti- ment that the government should and would " go through Baltimore to Washington." This committee of finance and information was appointed : James M. Thompson, John L. King, Charles L. Shaw, Henry Alexander, Jr., F. A. Barton, and George R. Townsley. The city government promptly voted $30,000 for volunteers. Springfield was an active place, and the whole community kept a close eye on government property. A Boston reporter came up to Springfield to see the Desmarteau hanging in the spring of 1861 at the jail, and he was overhauled upon suspicion of being a spy. Strangers were seen prowling about the water-shops, and a sentry sent a ball whistling b}^ their ears. Otis Childs was appointed United States deputy marshal and Will- iam L. Smith United States commissioner. In June, 1861, Hampden park was turned into a military camp. There was the usual friction between the raw recruit and the mess-room. One hundred volunteers mutinied on account of inferior rations, but Lieutenant Lombard's company prevented their running the guard. On the last Sunda}^ in June Dr. Tiffan3^'s Unitarian church was flooded with soldiery. Muskets were stacked before the pulpit and decorated with flowers. The sacred edifice shook with the thunderous strains of the " Star-Spangled Banner," and Dr. Tiffany's sermon was pitched upon that deep, patriotic key. The matrons and sisters of this community were soon enlisted in the work of contributing to the comfort and convenience of the soldiers. It was a time for picking lint, knitting mittens, and fur- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-J8S6. 523 nisliing; extra clothino; ; and, after the solemn farewells, this service of the home groups made ver^^ touching pictures. The destruction of the Harper's Ferry aruKny left the Springfield arsenal the main resource of the government for a time. Superin- tendent Dwight was tin-ning out three thousand five hundred muskets per month, some of the depai'tments runnmg the full twenty-four hours. The large arsenal, emptied of arms, was fitted up for a work- shop. The new fence about the armory grounds was completed in the autumn. The material was secured from condemned cannon. Superintendent Dwight was superseded by Capt. A. B. Dyer, U.S.A., in August, 18G1, in accordance with a vote of Congress for military men as superintendents. Captain Dyer held his position until 1864. About one hundred and fifty small dwelling-houses were put up in Springfield in 1862. D. AV. Barnes built the Main-street block bear- ing his name. Day & Jobson added a block above the depot. Wilkinson & Cummings built near the corner of Main and Taylor streets. Private residences were erected by William Gunu, Gurden Bill, Dr. Holland, T. M. Walters, Dr. Brooks, and many others. The present court-house was built in 1874. The appearance of the river has been much changed since the building of tlie iron railroad bridge in 1873, the north end bridge in 1877, and the south end bridge in 1878. With the opening of the latter the career of the ferry-boat "Agawam " came to an end. The Springfield banks suspended specie payment in January, 1862, in accordance with a general movement. They were doing a good business, however. In the fall of 1862 Henry Alexander, Jr., was elected mayor over Willis Phelps, democrat. A. T. Folsom did not get the republican nomination for city clerk, but the democrats accepted him, and he was elected. Mr. P'olsom has proved by long and faithful service one of Springfield's l)est clerks. He overhauled and filed the docu- ments and loose papers of that office, and after months of dreary 524 SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1886. sorting the papers were put in packages and boxes in chronological aucl topical order. To Mr. Folsom's methods and industry is due the present admirable condition of the city clerk's office. The local canvass of the autumn of 1863 was very much mixed in reference to representatives. The attempt to return Trask, Harris, and Mosely to the Legislature failed. In Ward 4 Warner C. Sturtevant, republican, and E. W. Bond, democrat, were tied. Daniel L. Harris ran in AVard o as an independent republican, and Titus Amadou, republican, was elected in Ward 6. Sturtevant was subsequently elected. In the city elections, a few weeks later, ex- Mayor Bemis undertook to take the mayoralty away from Henry Alexander, Jr., and failed to do it, by five hundred votes. Mayor Alexander had favored macadamized streets and more school- houses, and as there was a bolt in the republican ranks, led by D. L. Harris, Mr. Alexander's reelection was a genuine triumph. The aldermen elected were : N. W. Talcott, William Patton, X. I). Briggs, F. H. Harris, Charles Barrows, W. H. Wilkinson, Virgil Perkins, and H. E. Mosely. William S. Shurtleff was appointed judge of the Court of Probate and Insolvency in the place of Judge John Wells, resigned, in Sep- tember, 1863. Mr. Shurtleff had made a good record as register of the court for several years. We will speak presently of his connuand of the Forty-sixth Regiment, which had just left the ser\ice. Samuel B. Spooner succeeded Shurtleff as register. A. D. Briggs, republican, was elected mayor in 1864 without op- position. Henry Alexander, Jr., was elected State senator, and Horace J. Chapin, Charles A. Winchester, and L. H. Taylor were sent to the Legislature. A. X. Merrick was elected county commis- sioner, Charles R. Ladd, county treasurer, and James 12. Russell, register of deeds. Lewis H. Taylor, a " prof under," made an unsuccessful attempt in 1865 to prevent Mayor Briggs's reelection ; and Willis Phelps was quite as unsuccessful, the next year, to prevent a third term for Mr. SPBINGFTELD, 1636-1SS6. 525 Briggs, wlio commanded the general confidence of the business com- munity, and he was also a man of substantial personal qualities. The Baptists held a semicentennial celebration in May, 1861. The Baptist Church was organized in 1811, at the residence of Solo- mon Cliapin, at the water-shop, with nineteen members. The first edifice was built in 1821, near the water-shops. Rev. Allen Hough, Agawam " Ferry-Boat, pastor; the second, at the corner of Maple and Mulberr}^ streets, in 1830 ; and the third, on Main street, was dedicated in 1847. In 1861 Dr. Ide was the Baptist apostle m these parts. Three full regiments were organized at Springfield during the War of the Rebellion. The Tenth Massachusetts Volunteers was one of the first enlisted, and mustered for three years' service. It was composed almost entirely of the militia companies of western Mas- sachusetts, reorganized to meet the requirements of the national ser- vice. It encamped on Hampden park, the first companies arriving 526 SPBIXGFIELD, 163G-1S86. on the 31st of May, 1861, the others following within a few days. The Springfield City Guard formed one of the companies, and in the organization of the regiment was known as Company F. Its officers were : Captain, Hosea C. Lombard ; 1st lieutenant, Hiram A. Keith ; 2d lieutenant, George W. Bigelow. The other officers of the regiment from Springfield were : 1st lieutenant and adjutant, Oliver Edwards : chaplain. Rev. Frederick A. Barton ; captains, Frederick Barton, Joseph K, Newell, George W. Bigelow, Homer G. Gilmore, and Edwin L. Knight ; 1st lieutenants, Byron Porter, L. Oscar Eaton, Ed- win B. Bartlett, and Levi Ross ; 2d lieutenants, James Knox, Henry E. Crane. In the non-commissioned staff were E. K. Wilcox and Roslin AY. Bowles, serving as sergeant-majors. Lieutenant Bartlett was killed on the 18th of ^May, 1804, at Spottsylvania. The regi- ment was reviewed by Governor Andrew and staff on the lOtli of July, and five days later was presented with State and national colors of unusual magnificence by the ladies of Springfield ; Mrs. Barnes, the v,^ife of Gen. James Barnes, making the presentation. Next day the regiment took cars for Medford, where, in Camp Adams, on the Mystic river, it found very agreeable quarters, in which, perfecting itself in drill and discipline, it remained till the 25th, when it left the State for Washington. The Twenty-seventh Regiment was made up from the four western counties of the State, under the call for five new regiments, issued the 1st of September, 1861, which later formed the Massachusetts quota of the " Burnside Expedition." The duty of recruiting and organizing the command was assigned to Horace C. Lee, of Spring- field, who had had large experience in militia matters. He had just before been offered the lieutenant-colonelc}^ of the Twentj^-first Regi- ment, then in camp at Worcester. Accepting instead the wider field of usefulness, Mr. Lee caused recruiting offices to be opened in ten of the principal towns of the district on the 10th, and in a few days several of the companies were well filled ; and Camp Reed, at Spring- field, — so named in honor of Quartermaster-General Reed, of Massa- SPEnVG FIELD, IGSG-ISSS. 527 cliusetts, — situated a mile east of the national armory, was appointed as the phiee of rendezvous. Two companies arrived on the 19th, others followed in a day or two, and the regiment rapidly took form, the last of the companies reporting on the 24th. In the organization of the regiment Springfield furnished the fol- lowing officers : Colonel, Horace C. Lee ; surgeon, George A. Otis ; cap- tains, Gustavus A. Fuller, AV alter G. Bartholomew, and Horace K. Cooley ; 1st lieutenants, John W. Trafton, Peter S. Bailey, Ed- ward K. Wilcox, and George Warner ; 2d lieutenant, W. Chapman Hunt. Ira B. Sampson, William A. White, and William H. Cooley were subsequently commissioned second lieutenants in the regiment. Many of the line officers received promotion, Captain Bartholomew becoming lieutenant-colonel. Edward K. Wilcox, having attained the rank of captain, was killed at Cold Harbor on the 3d of June. He was at the time on staff duty, but seeing his regiment about to en- gage in a desperate charge on the enemy's works, he sprang in front of the line, cheering them forward, but meeting a soldier's fate in the act of scaling the enem3^'s works. The regiment was reviewed on the 1st of November by Governor Andrew, and the next day camp was broken, a train of twenty- one cars taking the command westward over the Boston & Alban}^ Railroad at four o'clock in the afternoon. The Forty-sixth Regiment, recruited for the nine months' service, in the autumn of 1862, was composed of Hampden county men, and gathered at Camp N. P. Banks during September and October, the camp being commanded by Colonel Walker, of Spring- field. Company A was a Springfield organization, and was officered by Capt. Samuel B. Spooner, 1st Lieut. Lewis A. Tifft, and 2d Lieut. Daniel J. Marsh. It was in some respects a notable organization, being largely made up of young business men of the city. Another company was organized in the summer of 1864 for the one hundred days' service, and was attached to the Forty-sixth 528 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Massachusetts Regiment as Company A, having as officers Capt. Lewis A. Tifft, 1st Lieut. Gideon AVells, 2d Lieut. Chauucey Hickox, all of Springfield. William S. Shurtletf went out as lieutenant-colonel of the Forty- sixth, becoming colonel in January, 1863, on the resignation of Colonel Bowser. In fact, the regiment was under his command dur- ing most of its term of service, and to his ability owed much of its excellent reputation. Colonel Shurtleff was well qualified to have filled a position of greater importance. He enlisted as a private in Compan}^ A, Forty-sixth Regiment, was chosen first lieutenant on the organization of the company, was made lieutenant-colonel before taking the field, and colonel upon the resignation of Colonel Bowler. At the time of his promotion Captain Spooner was made major. Ilenr}' M. Morehouse, of Springfield, was quartermaster during the fegiment's service. The regiment, being filled to its maximum, was ordered on the 1st of November to prepare for departure, and left on the 5th for Boston, whence it at once sailed for North Carolina. The Thirty-seventh Regiment, although organized at Pittsfield, drew largely from Springfield for its officers and men. Company I being wholly and Company K largely recruited from the city. Of its officers. Col., afterward Gen., Oliver Edwards, Maj. Eugene A. Allen, Capts. Hugh Donnelly, John B. Mailoy, George B. Chandley, Francis E. Gra}^, 1st Lieuts. AVilliam A. Calhoun, J. Newton Fuller, Charles Phelps, and James O'Connor, and 2d Lieuts. Michael Harrigan, Robert A. Gray, and Joseph Follausbee were from Springfield. The last named was the only one of this number to die in service, he being mortally wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. On its return from service after the close of the war this regiment received a fitting ovation at the City Hall, on its way to be mustered out at Readville. There were, besides, several companies in other regiments princi- pally or largel}- made up of Springfield men. Such was Company H, of the Eighth Regiment, which served from Oct. oO, 1862, to Aug. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 529 7, 1863, Capt. George R. Davis and 1st Lieut. AYilliam J. Landea being from Springfield, while the enlisted men were about equally divided between that city and Boston. The same company, re- organized, went out again for one hundred days, from the 20th of July to the 10th of November, 1864. Its commissioned officers at that time were Capt. AVilliam J. Landen, 1st Lieut. Charles R. AYood, and 2d Lieut. John Thayer, — all of Springfield. Company H, Forty- second Regiment, Capt. George M. Stewart, for the one hundred days' term, was recruited here. The Thirteenth Unattached Company, Heavy Artillery, — afterwards Company I, Third ^Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, — which served from Feb. 10, 1864, to Sept. 26, 1865, was made up of Springfield mechanics, and after joining the Army of the James served as a special engineer corps, being in charge of one of the ponton trains. Of its otiicers, Capt. Oliver J. Bixby, 1st Lieut. John F. P3. Chamberlain, and 2d Lieut. Charles H. Ladd, were Springfield men. The Thirtieth Unattached Company Heavy Artillery, which served from Sept. 1, 1864, to June 16, 1865, was raised at Springfield, the officers from that city being 1st Lieut. Morrill Pres- cott and 2d Lieut. Samuel R. Siskron. Of Springfield officers serving in other commands the following may be mentioned: Col. James Barnes, Surg. David P. Smith, Asst. Surg. Edwin F. Silcox, Capt. James D. Orne, and 2d Lieut. John D. Isbell (died in service July 16, 1862), of the Eighteenth Regiment; 1st Lient. Wells Willard (afterward captain in the Thirty-fourth), 1st Lieut. Asa PL Hayward, and 2d Lieut. James W. Hopkins, of the Twenty-first Regiment ; 1st Lieuts. Joseph L. Hal- lett and Frank A. Cook (died at Baton Rouge, Aug. 6, I860), and 2d Lieut. Martin M. Pulver, of the Thirty-first Regiment; Capt. George W. Thompson (killed in action, Sept. 19, 1864), and 2d Lieut. J. Austin Lyman, of the Thirt}^- fourth Regiment ; Capt. Watson W. Bridge, of the Fifty-fourth Regiment; Capt. Robert J. Hamilton and 1st Lieut. Charles W. Mutell, of the Fifty-fifth; Asst. Surg. Jerome E. Roberts, of the Fifty-sixth ; 2d Lieuts. Henry B. 530 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Fiske and George S. Greene, of the Fifty-seventh ; Asst. Surg. Albert R. Rice, of the Forty-ninth ; Capt. Ira B. Sampson, 1st Lieuts. Alfred H. Kinsley and Horace L. Clark, of the Second Heavy Artillery ; 2d Lieut. Willard Holden, of the Third Heavy Artillery ; Asst. Surg. Homer H. Warner and 2d Lieuts. Horace M. Butler, George Howe, and George D. Davis, of the First Cavalry ; 2d Lieut. Henry M. Phillips, of the Fourth Cavalry. Brevet Brig. -Gen. Horace C. Lee was 'city clerk and treasurer of Springfield at the breaking out of the Rebellion, and his eminent military capacities, by which he had several years before risen to the rank of colonel and acting brigadier in the State militia, made it desirable that his services should be secured for his country. On the 23d of August, 1861, he was offered the second place in the field of the Twenty-first Regiment, then being formed, and went to Boston to accept it, when he was given authority to raise, in western Massachusetts, one of five regiments which had just been authorized. This he did ; and on the 20th of September was commissioned colonel of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, forming a part of the Burn- side expedition to North Carolina. He ably commanded the regi- ment at the battles of Roanoke Island and Newbern, and until July 4, 1862, when he took connnand of the brigade, leading it in the Trenton, Tarboro', and Goldsboro' expeditions, and winning praise for the able handling of his troops in repulsing General Clingman's attack at the latter place. He Avas recommended by General Foster for promotion to the rank of brigadier ; but the commission was not granted, on account of the number already given to Massachusetts officers. On the departure of General Burnside he was appointed provost-marshal- general of North Carolina, and, later, of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and acted in that capacity until the office was abolished by General Butler, in January, 1864. He then served upon conmiissions and court-martial until the opening of the campaign, in May following, when he resumed command of his regiment, leading- it at AValthal Junction, Arrowfield Church, and Drewry's Bluff". In SPRINGFIELD, 16S6~1S86. 531 the latter engagement he was made prisoner with a large portion of his command, and was confined in Libby prison and at Macon, Ga. From the latter place he was removed, June 10, and, with many other Union officers of like rank, placed under the fire of P'ederal batteries at Charleston, S.C. Being exchanged, on the 2d of August, 1864, Old Ely Tavekn and Blake Homestead, Dwight Street. he went North on a month's furlough, but returned to Fortress IMonroe in time to intercept his regiment, then under orders for North CaroUna, and procured the return to Massachusetts of those Avhose time was about to expire. He was mustered out of service with them, Septem- ber 27, 1864, and for meritorious service received a well-deserved brevet of brigadier-general, dating from March 18, 1865. He then served four years in the Boston Custom-house, and twelve years as 532 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-JS86. postmaster of Springfield, dying June 22, 1884, soon after vacating the latter office. Brevet Maj.-Gen. James Barnes, of Springfield, was graduated from the Military Academ}', West Point, in the class of 1829. He passed a year there as assistant instructor, took i)art in the Black Hawk expedition of 1832, and during the nullification controversy, soon after, was stationed at Charleston harbor. He then returned to AYest Point as assistant instructor, and served three years, when he resigned his commission in 1836. He became noted as a civil engineer and a builder of railroads, and was engaged in large business enterprises when the war broke out. But neither his business interests nor his advancing age and the comforts of home life could stand between this pure-minded patriot and tlie service of his country, and, at the age of fifty-five, on the twenty-sixth of July, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the Eighteenth Massachusetts Volunteers. He commanded his fine regiment with signal ability until after the close of the Peninsular campaign, when he succeeded to the command of Martindale's Brigade of the Fifth Corps, and, dating from the 29th of November, 1862, was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers. He was in command of the brigade during the Antietam, Fredericks- burg, and Chancellorsville campaigns, and at Gettysburg had risen to the command of the First Di^dsion, Fiftli Corps. Leading his com- mand to the relief of the Union left, near the close of the second day's battle, he was wounded, and did not again return to active duty in the field. After the battle he was placed in charge of the defences at Norfolk, Va., and vicinity, then, in succession, of St. Mary's Dis- trict and the encampment of Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, Md., where he remained till the close of the war, receiving the brevet of major-general of volunteers, from March 13, 1865. He remained in commission until January 15, 1866, when he was mustered out, and returned to his home, but never regained his health, dying there on the 12th of February, 1869. Brevet Maj.-Gen. Oliver Edwards entered the service as adjutant SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 533 of the Tenth Regiment, but was soon detailed as senior aide on the staff of Gen. D. X. Couch, commanding the division, in which ca- pacity he served with distinction until earl}^ August, 1863, when he was commissioned major and directed to organize the Thirty-seventh Regiment, of which he was made colonel. He served in that capac- ity until May 9, 1864, when he vras given command of his brigade, which he retained from Spottsylvania to Petersburg. On the 6th of July the renmants of the brigade were transferred to the Third Bri- gade, First Division, Sixth Corps, Edwards still retaining the com- mand, and with this force he fought at Fort Stevens and Opequan in the campaign against Pearly. At the latter battle Edwards com- manded the division after the death of General Russell and the wounding of General Upton, and in recognition Avas made post com- mandant at AVinchester, with his brigade and some other troops as garrison. This position he retained for some time after the return of the Sixth Corps to Petersburg to rejoin the army of the Potomac, and was offered by General Sheridan the position of provost-marshal- general on his staff" ; but Edwards preferred the command of his old brigade, to which, at his own request, he was returned in February, 1865. In the assault of April 2, on the lines at Petersburg, his bri- gade took an important part, being the first to break through the Con- federate works, and next morning General Edwards received from the mayor of Petersburg the surrender of the city, ver^^ soon after its evacuation by General Lee. For his services at this time he re- ceived the commission of brigadier-general, to date from May 19, having been bre vetted for his gallantry at Opequan ; and in the sharp fight at Sailor's Creek, April 6, he won the brevet of major- general. On the 15th of January, 1866, he was honorabl}^ dis- charged from the United States service. The hospitality of the people of Springtield was continued through- out the war. The crowning effort in that direction Avas the great Soldiers' Fair, held in City Hall, December 22, 1864. Avhen tlie people of the city, joined by all the neighboring communities, made a lavish 534 SPRINGFIELD, 16SG-18S6. outpouriDg of their meaus to help carry on the great work of caring for the sokliers' needs. In this connection it ma}^ be mentioned that during the entire period of the war no body of soldiers was allowed to pass through the city, no matter whence they came, or what their destination, without receiving such food and care as their circum- stances might require. An especially notable incident of this nature was the passing through the city, on the 8th of October, 1861, late in the evening, of the troops under command of Senator Wilson, con- sisting of the Twenty-second Kegiment, of which he was colonel, the Third Batter}^, and the Second Company of Sharpshooters, — all of which had been recruited at Readville under his personal supervision. The enlisted men were fed in the cars, the oflicers at the Massasoit Hotel, and from the balcony there Colonel Wilson, introduced by Ma3^or Bemis, addressed the immense gathering of people, after which the train proceeded on its way. The home demonstrations were uiany of them notable. On Wash- ington's birthday, 1862, Mayor Bemis, in the City Hall, produced the rebel flags captured b}- Colonel Lee's regiment at Eoanoke Island. Then Judge Chapman read AVashington's farewell address. But the most memorable days were those when Springfield wel- comed back from the field of war her broken regiments. The first to return was the Fort^^-sixth Regiment, which after its nine months' service came back to Springfield on the 21st of July, 1863. It was welcomed by Mayor Henry Alexander, Jr., Colonel Shurtleff responding, and a collation was served at City Hall, the regiment being mustered out a week later at Hampden park. It was almost a year before the shattered remnant of the Tenth Regiment arrived, June 25, 1864, its three years of service having been honorably filled. It received a ver^- enthusiastic reception at Court square, being welcomed by JNIayor Alexander, Colonel Parsons responding, and the usual col- lation being furnished in City Hall. The Twenty-seventh came on the 26tli of September following, and its reception was of a simi- lar nature, General Lee and Lieutenant Colonel Bartholomew re- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 535 spoiidiiig to the welcome by Mayor Alexander and ex-Mayor Bemis, and a hundred and fifty young ladies singmg songs of welcome. The Thirty-seventh, its period of service ended by the closing of the war, passed through the city on the 24th of June, 1865, on its way to Readville, to be mustered out; but with Springfield's pride in the regiment it was not allowed to pass without a rousing reception. Alderman N. A. Leonard made the speech of welcome, in the absence of the mayor, General Edwards responding, and a collation follow- ing at the City Hall. After the war the fraternal feelings of the soldiers of the city and vicinity found expression in the organization of E. K. Wilcox Post, No. 16, Grand Army of the Kepublic, on the 9th of August, 1867. This post, ranking among the largest and most efficient in the State, has remained the sole organization of its kind in the city, embracing also in its field a large number of the surrounding towns. It has at the present time an active membership of over five hundred members, and is well equipped for its work. Its commanders have been: H. C. Lee, L. A. Tiftt, H. M. Phillips, J. L. Rice, S. C. Warriner, E. A. Newell, A. H. Smith, J. L. Knight, S. B. Spooner, J. O. Smith, E. W. Lathrop, J. W. Hersey, C. H. Allison, J. H. Hendrick, Charles H. Rust, and James L. Bowen. In connection with the Post is an efficient Woman's Relief Corps and a prosperous Camp of Sons of Veterans. We close this record of Springfield in the war with the losses she sustained upon the field of battle and in the hospital and camp : — Second Regiment. — Henry 0. Howard, Company G, killed, Cedar Mountain; George A. Smith, Company K, killed. Cedar Mountain ; John Costello, Com- pany I, missing, Antietam ; Rufus A. Parker, Company I, died of Avounds, Gettysl)urg. Ninth Regiment. — Francis Ash, Company E, killed, Spottsylvania. Tenth Regiment. —JAewt. E. B. Bartlett, killed, Spottsylvania; Alonzo C. Brewer, Company D, killed, Spottsylvania; Thomas F. Burke. Company F, killed, Malvern Hill; Thomas S. Gleason, Company F, killed. Fair Oaks; Silas L. Put- nam, Company F, killed, Fredericksburg; Asa C. Merrill, Company H, killed. Fair Oaks; John E. Casey, Company I. killed, Wilderness; Sergt. Alva C. Phillips, 536 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. Company E, died of wounds, Gettysburg; Corp. Christian Lortscheve, Company E, died of wounds, Fair Oaks; Cliarles M. Hall, Company E, died of wounds, Marye's Heights; George G. Strickland, Company E. died of wounds, Xew York ; Elmer Crawford, Company E, died, White House, Va. ; Quintain Jame- son, Company E, died, Washington, D.C ; Mark C. Barnard, Company F, died, Washington, D.C ; Henry M. Hunt, Company F, died, Washington, D.C. ; John C. Squires, Company I, died, Washington, D.C. Eleventh Regiment. — Leonard Lewis, Company H, died, Andersonville. Fifteenth Regiment. — George Walker, Company I, missing. Ball's Bluff. Eighteenth Regiment. — Lieut. John D. Isbell, died; Thomas Donovan, Com- pany A, killed, Fredericksburg; Jackson W. Stebbins, Company K, killed, second Bull Run. Nineteenth Regiment. — Benjamin B. Nichols, Company G, died of v.'ounds, August U, 1804. Twentieth Regiment. — Sergt. John T. Burke, Company K, killed, June 20, 1864. Twenty-first Regiment. — John Dunn, Company B, died of wounds, May 1, 1862; George W. Mixter, Company B, killed, Bethesda Church; Daniel Pine, Company B, died, Richmond, Va. Twenty-second Regiment. — Corp. Eben B. Upton, Company B, killed, Wil- derness ; Wesley Shultz, Company G, died, Washington, D.C; John Davidson, Company D, died, Richmond, Ya. ; William A. Hart, Company E, died of wounds. White House Landing. Twenty -fourth Regiment. — Lawrence Doyle, Company D, died, Newbern, N.C ; Timothy Hayes, Company D, died, Newbern, X.C ; Frank C Brov/n, Company F, killed, Xewbern, X.C. Twenty-sixth Regiment. — William L. Weston, Company B, died, Wilming- ton, X.C. Twenty-seventh Regiment. — Killed, Capt. Edward K. Wilcox. June 3, 1864, Cold Harbor; Rodolplms L. Baker, Company E, Cold IL'U-bor; Joseph Doyle, Company F, DreAvry's Bluff; Reuben A. Richards, Company F, Cold Harbor. Died of wounds, — Xathaniel P. ^Mauley, Company D, Fort ^Monroe ; Frederick; Gutberlet, Company K, Washington, D.C; Jonathan D. Miller, Company K, Fort Monroe; Dennis Sullivan, Company K, Xewbern. Died, — John Donovan, Company A, Andersonville; John R. Burgess, Company B, Annapolis; Alfred E. Manley, Company D, Xewbern; Edward G. Kellogg, Company G, Anderson- ville; William D. Smith, Washington; AYilliam II. Davy, Company I, Anderson- ville; Sylvester Oliver, Company I, Washington, D.C; Albert W. Yaughn, Company 1, Washington, D.C: Thomas C Allis, Company K, Savannah; SPRIXCrFTELD, 16S6-18S6. 537 Joseph Day, Comixiuy K, Milieu; James B. Hills, Company K, Newbern ; John McGoAvan, Company K, Andersonville; Samuel L. Sherman, Company K, Aug. IS, 1864; Thomas Sullivan, Company K, Newbern; John M. Whipple, Company K, Xewbern. Missing, — Kobert McDonald, Company K, May 16, 1864. Ticenty-eighth Regiment. — Andrew Garvey, Company H, died, Kichmond. Twenty-ninth Regiment. — Emile Taubert, Company C, died, Arlington, Ya. Thirtieth Regiment. — AVilliam Brady, Company T, died, New Orleans. Thirty-fio'st Regiment. — Sergt. William Patch, Company G, died. New Orleans; Thomas Agin, Company G, drowned May 9, 1865. Thirty-second Regiment. — James A. Putnam, Company G, died of Avounds, May 13, 1864; Jolm Quinn, Company I, died; Albert P. McCann, died, Wash- ington, D.C. Thirty -fourth Regiment. — Capt. George W. Thompson, killed, Winchester, Ta. ; John M. Winans, Company D, killed, Cedar Creek; Thomas Gormley, Company D, died of Avounds, Annapolis, Md.;. William Henry, Comj^any D, killed, Hatcher's Run; Frank L. Kimball, Company D, killed. Piedmont; John M. Roach, Company D, died, DauA-ille, Va. Thirty-seventh Regiment. — Killed, Vincent H. Tanner, Company G, Win- chester; William Whitney, Company G, Wilderness; Josiah B. Hawks, Com- pany I, Spottsylvania ; AYilliam C. Stockwell, Company I, Petersburg; Clarkson H. Decker, Company I, Cold Harbor; George P. Edwards, Company I, Peters- burg; Edward S. King, Company I, Spottsylvania; Augustus E. Pease, Com- pany I, Winchester; Erastus B. Pease, Company I, Cold Harbor: Edwin 0. Wentworth, Company I, Spottsylvania; Michael Freeman, Company K, Spott- sylvania; Timothy McNamara, Company K, AVilderness. Died of wounds, — Lieut. Joseph FoUansbee, May 23, 1864; Edward M. Morley, Company A, City Point; Dennis Driscoll, Company K, Wasliington. Died, — Alpheus D. Lathrop, Company G, Washington ; Martin Luther, Company I, Springfield; Albert F. BroAvn, Company I, Hagerstown; William Daley, Comjjany I, Brandy Station; Edward Dunn, Company I, Harper's Ferry; James O. Lee, Company I, Fort Hamilton; Charles E. StockAvell, Company I, Washington. Missing, — Henry M. Clark, Company A, since May 6, 1864. Thirty-ninth Regiment. — Charles Swan, died, Salisbury, N.C. Fifty-fourth Regiment. — Peter B. Johnson, Company A, missing in action, July 18, 1863; Ralsez R. Townsend, Company A, missing in action, July 18, 1863. Fifty-seventh Regiment. — Killed, Waldo Sherman, Company C, Spottsylvania; Thomas Farrell, Company E, Wilderness; Robert McCoy, Company E, Wilder- ness; John E. Tuttle, Company G, Wilderness; Wilham Day, Company G, 538 SPRINGFIELD, 2G36-1SS6. Wilderness; Thomas Conway, Company I, North Anaa river; Albert W. Dow, Company K, Wilderness. Died of wounds, — Dennis Lee, Company G, Wash- ington, D.C. ; George W. Benton, Company K, jNIay 12, 1804. Died, — Michael Powers, Company C, Danville, Va. ; John Donnelly, Company D, Beverly, N.J. Fifty-eiglith Regiment. — Francis P. Lemon, Company G, killed, Petersburg. Sixty-first Regiment. — Edward M. Bent, Company F, died, Washington; Simon P. Shepardson, Company F, died, August 23, 1805. Forty-sixth Regiment. — Died. — Dexter C. Allen, Company A, Baltiinore; Henry D. Bartlett, Company A, Newbern, N.C. ; George D. Kingsley, Company A, Newbern, X.C. First Regiment Heavy Artillery. — Abril Farrer, Ccmipany M, died, field hospital. Second Regiment Heavy Artillery. — Missing in action, — Michael Flavin, Com- pany, D, February 2, 1805; James Scanlan, Company G, April 20, 1864. Died, — Mark Nalor, Company D, Florence, S.C ; Frederick Osborne, Company F, Newbern, N.C; Henry M. Barden, Company G, Florence; Albert W. Brewer, Company G, Andersonville ; Levi G. Harvey, Company G, Andersonville ; John Hilpold, Company G, died, prisoner; William H. Leonard, Newbern; Charles Seymour, Company G, Andersonville ; George H. Phetteplace, Company H, Newbern. Third Regiment Heavy Artillery. — Alexander Coates, Company E, died, Springfield; Albert H. Wood, Company I, died, Richmond, Va. ; John W. Thomas, Company I, drowned in Appomattox river. First Regiment Cavalry. — Killed, — William Maguiness, Company A, Aldie; Daniel F. Milton, Company A, Aldie; James W. Kearney, Company I, Vaughn road. Died, — William Allen, Company A, Potomac Creek; Leander F. Pierce, Company D. Potomac Creek; Keuben S. Bemis, Company E, Acquia Creek; William H. Church, xVndersonville ; William S. Fuller, Company E, Annapolis; Gilbert L. Miller, Company E, Andersonville; Charles H. Putnam, Company E, Springfield; Robert A. Remington, Company E. Andersonville; John Kirkland, Company F, Baltimore; Perry 0. Merrill, Company I, Florence; David Mil- liard, Company I, Washington : Jacob Pinseno, Salisbury ; William Collins, Company K, August 31, 18G4 ; Leonard Dinkel, unassigned recruit, November 6, 1864; John L. Harris, unassigned recruit, Washington. Missing in action, — Livingston Babcock, Comjjany F ; Irving R. Cheeney, Company F. Third Regiment Cavalry. — Joseph H. Sargent, Company A, died, Annapolis. Fourth Regiment Cavalry. — Henry T. ^Morgan, Company B, died, Richmond; Frederick H.ale, Company G, died, Fort jNIagruder, Va. SPUING FIELD, 163G-1886. 539 Fifth Regiment Cavalry. — Isaac H. Dorsey, Company D, died, Ncav Orleans ; Howard Long, Company F, died, Fort ^Monroe ; Elisha Gaskins, Company G, died, Point Lookout, Md. Recapitulation. — Killed, 59; died, 88; died of -wounds, LS ; missing 10; drowned, 2 ; total, 1G7. We have now reached a pohit in oiir long story where it is custom- ary for historians to pause. The immediate past is fresh in the mind ; many of the figures are still with us, and the olnions obstacles in dealing with this period is apparent. AYe have already transgressed somewhat the rule by speaking of many who still live ; but this seemed excusable in order to cover, in some small measure, the period of the great war. It is only meagrely presented, and much is left for the next generation to arrange and select for preservation. What remains to be said is soon told. Springfield's mayors and the dates of their elections were, successively : Charles A. Winchester, republican, 1867, 1868; AVilliam L. Smith, democrat, 1869, 1870; Samuel B. Spooner, republican, 1871, 1872 ; John M. Stebbins, demo- crat, 1873; Emerson Wight, republican, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877; Lewis J. Powers, democrat and citizens' ticket, 1878 (republican ticket), 1879 ; William H. Haile, republican, 1880, 1881 ; Henry M. Philhps, republican, 1882, 1883, 1884; Edwin D. Metcalf, republi- can, 1885, who thus was in office during the Springfield May cele- bration of 1886. There were two serious fires in the month of July, 1864, one at the water-shops, the forging-shop being consumed, at a loss of $50,000. On the 24th of July fire broke out upon Alain street, and the follow- ing buildings were destroyed : The Alusic Hall block, corner of Main and Pynchon streets ; the adjoining wooden buildings occupied by Geo. M. Law and E. Alalley ; the stables of the Thompson Express Co. ; the American Hook and Ladder Company's building ; and the Hitch- cock block, corner of Main and Pynchon streets ; loss, $122,000 ; in- surance, $80,000. The loss fell the heaviest upon Tilly Ha3^nes, the 540 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. owner and builder of the Music Hall block, and a very popular, public-spirited, and enterprising citizen. The most extensive conflagration of this period took place Sunday afternoon, April 29, 1875, it being within a few weeks of the two hundredth anniversary of the burning of Springfield by the Indians. The fire started in the planing-mill of H. M. Conkey & Co., Taylor street, swept away $181,100 worth of property on that street, de- voured $75,000 on Worthington street, cut a $191,200 hole out of Main street, and careened into Bond place on a $16,250 errand ; made ^Vight avenue $24,800 the poorer ; levelled dwelling-houses in Yernon street to the tune of $99,350, and exhausted its strength on Water street with a wind up of $8,200 ; total, $596,300 ; insurance, $445,- 270. Total buildings lost, 50, of which 30 were dwelling-houses. The losses of $20,000 and over are here added : Merriam & PVost, $40,000 ; Stebbins Manufacturing Company, $27,000 ; AVason Manu- facturing Company, $25,000; A. B. Abbey, $30,000; McKnight, Norton, & Hawley, $25,000 ; J. S. Hurlbut, 820,000 ; C. S. Hurlbut, $40,000; Livermore, Swan, & Co., $45,000; Joseph Shaw estate, $40,000. Upon Washington's birthda}^, 1876, an elaborate Washington part}'' was held in the old Parsons tavern now on Court street. The build- ing was filled with ancient furniture and bric-a-brac, and the actors generally appeared in costumes of the past. Several changes in newspapers took place after the war. Henr}'' M. Burt, who started the " New England Homestead," at Nortli- ampton, moved the paper to Springfield in 1867, and subsequenth^ published the '' Evening Telegram." In 1872 the business interests of the " Springfield IJepublican " were reorganized. Clark W. Bryan and Mr. Tapley left the firm, taking the job printing, and forming the Clark W. Bryan Company. The}- bought of Lewis H. Taylor the " Springfield Evening Union," founded in 1864 b}- Edmund Anthony, of New Bedford. William M. Pomeroy was made managing editor, and E. H. Phelps local editor. The "Union" developed marked SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 541 ability, especially as to local news, iiiuch above the usual run of provincial evening papers. In 1881 Dea. Joseph L. Shipley became editor of the •' Union," and soon afterward secured a controlling interest in the company. Mr. Parsons Tavern as it appeared [SS6. Shipley is a hard worker within the lines set by his party, and has fully maintained the reputation of the paper in the local field. Mr. Bryan had left the company, and after a short journalistic experi- ence in Berkshire, established a printing-house in Holyoke, which so grew upon his hands that he was forced to bring his business to Springfield. The " New England Homestead" was bought in 1878, 542 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. by E. H. Phelps and H. H. Sanderson, and a city edition was started a few months later. The Phelps Publishing Company was organ- ized in 1880, and the " Farm and Home," an agricultural paper, was started about the same time. Both this paper and the " Home- stead " have proved great financial successes. E. and C. J. Bellamy started the " Daily News" in 1880, and the latter subsequently secured his brother's interest. Three years later the dail}' "Democrat" was started by a company, with Lawson Sibley as president, but it was short-lived. In 1878 Edward Merriam started a magazine in Springfield called the " Sunday Afternoon," Rev. Washington Gladden, editor. It had a short and brilliant career. There is one man who for over thirty j^ears was an essential part of Springfield, but who, from the nature of the case, can com- mand but comparatively small space in this history. The thought of Samuel Bowles was the thought of thousands of men at each break- fast table, and the irritation of other thousands. He was a politician and the foe of politicians ; he was a man of deep religious percep- tions and a frequent combatant of religionists ; his literature was the record of the hour, and his rhetoric the elegance of exactness and terse detail ; his phrases were modelled by the exigencies of rapid preparation and a busy constituency. He was a lover of good men and the companion of men of action, but an incorrigible belligerent when the judgment or character of friend or foe fell below his stand- ard. Party ties were as nothing, neighborly feeling was as nothing, when battling for a public policy or principle. A member of the Cobden Club, he argued for a graduated protective tariff ; a charter member of the republican party, he struck that organization a full blow in the face when its standard fell below his. He grew and broadened and mellowed with each experience in life. Brilliant and aggressive in his youth, stern and cosmopolitan in middle life, he was fast maturing to one of the most admirable characters of his da}", when death deprived him of an age of distinction and wisdom SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 543 and usefulness. But his life can best be written as George S. Mer- riam has written it, — in the setting of his countr3''s history. For many years there was not a session of the Legislature or of Congress that was a stranger to the figure of Samuel Bowles. The corridor, the club, the banquet board, the conference-room, in fact, the resorts of public men, were his resorts ; he aided in planning cam- paigns, forming tickets or public measures, and carried his sharp lance so far to the fore-front that he was sometimes unhorsed, like other bold riders. '' This was not alway the case," he said, when subscrib- ers complained because republican postmasters would not deliver the "Republican" after it had come out for Horace Greelej'- for President. " But the paper will recover its influence," he added ; and it did. A more dramatic discomfiture, but one challenging deep sympathy, he had experienced some years before. It was in December, 1868, while Mr. Bowles was talking with Murat Halstead of the " Cincin- nati Commercial," at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, that an officer arrested him and hurried him off with unnecessary rudeness to Lud- low-street Jail. Many prominent men, like Chester A. Arthur, Hugh Hastings, and others, were refused admission to the jail, and the sheriff carried out the plan of the journalist's enemies by obstructing all efforts for securing his release on bail that night. This was the hour of Jim Fisk's triumph. He had jailed a New England editor, but at 11 o'clock next morning Mr. Bowles regained his liberty. A wide newspaper and lawyer's discussion followed this extraordinary^ episode. Mr. Bowles, by his brave course in attacking Fisk, and continuing to attack him, had earned the right to say editorially : " AVe find some consolation, however, in the aroused spirit of the press and people, which gives promise of greater courage and foresight here- after in counteracting the selfish schemes of adventurers and dema- gogues." Over fifty of the foremost citizens of Boston sent a for- mal request to Mr. Bowles for his presence at a dinner in his honor. Mr. Bowles followed his natural instinct and declined ; but he took 544 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1 8SG. occasion to write a fine letter on jonrnalistic ethics, which contained this passage : '' ■My own observation is that the press rarely does in- justice to a thoroughly honest man or cause. It may be deceived with regard to a private individual, and misrepresent him for a time, but with reference to public men and measures its knowledge is more intimate and complete than that of any other agency possibly can be ; and I know that it withholds unjustly to the public one hundred times when it speaks wrongly once of the individual." After the death of the great journalist, his son, Samuel Bowles, became editor and publisher of the " Springfield Republican." For several ^^ears, owing to the precarious health of his father, he had been called upon to follow very closely the course of public events, and to inspect his father's wide political correspondence, and this, with his business aptitude and industry, gave him a good l^quipment for his heav}^ responsibilities. After a short interregnum the edi- torial force of the " Republican " was organized, with Solomon Bulk- ley Griffin as managing editor, and the late Wilmot L. Warren and Charles Goodrich Whiting as his two important assistants in the fields of finance and literature. All three had won their spurs under the exacting conditions and trying ordeal of Mr. Bowles's supervision, and were notably well equipped to carry on the great work given the " Republican " to do. The churches of Springfield enjoyed a stead}^ growth dm-ing this period, quite up to the material increase of the community. There was but one incident that commands special attention, and that was the refusal of a Congregational council to install Rev. James F. Merriam over the Indian Orchard Church, November 7, 1877. A question of orthodoxy was involved. Mr. Merriam, in his decla- ration of faith, had said: "In regard to the matter of the eternal punishment of those impenitent at death, I believe the Bible does not teach it ; nor do I believe it teaches the contrary." The Indian Orchard affair gave rise to a long newspaper discussion that spread all over the countr\', and now forms a chapter of the religious SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 545 history of the land. A local paper sent out these questions to the ninety-six Congregational ministers of the four western Massachu- setts counties : — 1. Do you teach that endless conscious suffering awaits the im- penitent? 2. Would you have voted to install Rev. Mr. Merriam? The answers were: Question No. 1 — Yes, 41. No, 4. Question No. 2 — Yes, 7. No, 27. No questions were sent to the Spring- held ministers. They stood, however, five to two against instal- lation. Many ministers, it will be seen, chose not to veply, and some who did, made it a condition that their names should not be published. t;« CHAPTER XXII. May 'Ih, 1886. Preparing to Celebrate the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Town. — The Citizens' Committee. — Service of Praise at the First Church. — The Loan Exhibition. — Tuesday's Ceremonies. — Band Concert. — Judge Hemy Morris's Address. — Judge William S. Shurtletf's Ode. — The Banquet at the Massa- soit Hotel. — Interesting After-dinner Speeches. — Letters of Eegret. — A Brilliant and Remarkable Occasion. There are few memorial occasions which Springfield can look back upon with deeper feelings of pride and felicitation than the quarter- millennial celebration. May 25 and 26, 1886. All classes of citizens responded cordially to the call. The city government made a gener- ous appropriation ; and during the two da^^s, when the city was over- whelmed with honored guests, interested spectators, and patriotic and curious crowds, there was not a single incident, except an accident to a boy, which interrupted the current of general rejoicing. Mayor Phillips, in 1885, had placed the matter of a celebration in the hands of an advisory committee, of which the late William L. Smith was chairman. As the appropriations w^ould have to be made by the succeeding city government, nothing definite was done thus early beyond drawing up a petition to the Legislature for permis- sion to appropriate $10,000 for the celebration. Upon the election of Edwin D. Metcalf as mayor plans took definite shape. The mayor appointed a committee of fifty citizens to take entire charge of the memorial services, and to expend, at their discretion, $9,500. The committee of fifty organized with Wm. L. Smith as chairman, and to his executive abilities and good sense was due much of the success of the anniversary. It was the last service Mr. Smith ren- SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1S86. 547 clered the city which had often trusted and honored him. He kept a careful eye upon the general proceedings ; and the committee supple- mented this by faithful service in elaborating the details of the pro- gramme. The full committee of fifty was as follows : — William L. Smith, chairman; C C Spellman, secretary: AV, H. Haile, treas urer; W. S. Shurtleff. H. S. Hyde, H. M. Philhps, L. J. Powers, E. Morgan, Jas. A. Rumrill, A. B. Wallace, R. F. Hawkms. H. E. Ducker, C. E. BroAvn, E. H. Lathrop, S. C. Warriner, Daniel J. Marsh, J. D. Gill, E. P. Chapin, J. B. Carroll, Theodore Geisel, Milton Bradley, C. J. GoodAvin, C. W. Mutell, E. H. Phelps, R. O. Morris, L. C Hyde. George H. Bleloch, T. O. Bemis, S. B. Spooner, F. W. Dickinson, Edward Pynchon, F. H. Stebbins, Dr. C. D. Brewer, Wilimore B. Stone. P. S. Bailey. E. C. Rogers, H. S. Lee, Geo. H. Queen, E. C. AVashburn, J. D. Safford, Geo. A. Morton, E. A. Newell, Frank D. Foot, J. J. Toomey, C. C Merritt, A. H. Goetting, Nathan D. Bill, F. A. Judd, Jas. Mc- Kechnie, Henry AV. Blake. This committee apportioned the work among themselves as fol- lows : — Executive Committeee. — AA"m. L. Smith, chairman; AY. H. Haile, H. S. Hyde, L J. Powers, Jas. A. Rumrill, H. M. Phillips, Elisha Morgan, Nathan D. Bill, F. AA^ Dickinson, D. J. Marsh, AV. S. Shurtleff. C. AV. Mutell, R. 0. Morris, R. F. Hawkuis, Geo. H. Bleloch, Mihon Bradley, L. C. Hyde. Committee on Parade. — D. J. Marsh, chairman; S. B. Spooner, C. AA^. Mutell, R. O. Morris, R. F. Hawkins, Elisha Morgan, Geo. H. Bleloch, H. S. Hyde, Milton Bradley. Committees on the Various Periods Represented in the Parade. — 1600. R. O. IMorris, chairman; F. AA^. Dickinson, C. J. Goodwin, E. H. Phelps, AV. H. Haile. 1635-1735. R. F. Hawkins, chairman; C. C. Spellman, S. C. AA^arriner, J. D. Gill, E. P. Chapin, F. H. Stebbins, E. C. Rogers, Geo. H. Queen. 1735-1835. E. Morgan, chairman; S. B. Spooner, C AV. Mutell, L. C. Hyde, P. S. Bailey, E. A. Newell, F. A. Judd, H. S. Lee, Geo. A. Morton. 1835-1860. G. H. Bleloch, chairman; H. M. Phillips, A. B. Wallace, E. H. Lathrop, T. O. Bemis, Dr. C. D. BrcAver, Edward Pynchon, A. H. Goetting, Frank D. Foot. 1860-1886. H. S. Hyde, chairman; L. J. Powers, H. E. Ducker, C E. BroAvn, Theodore Geisel, J. J. Toomev, E. C AVashburn, N. D. Bill. 548 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 1935. Milton Bradley, clmirman ; W. S. Shurtlefe, J. B. Carroll, AVm. L. Smith, C. C. Merritt, W. B. Stone, II. ^\ . Blake, Jas. McKechnie. Finance. — AV. II. Haile, chairman; li. S. Hyde, L. J. Powers. Banquet. — L. J. Powers, chairman; J. D. Safford, P. S. Bailey. Jas. Mc- Kechnie, Henry AV. Blake. Invitations. — Jas. A. Kurarill, chairman ; C. C Merritt, AVillniore B. Stone, J. J. Toomey, E. A. Newell. Reception. — H. M. Phillips, chairman; V.. H. Lathrop, H. S. Lee, S. C. War- riner, F. A. Judd. Printing. — Nathan D. Bill, chairman; E. C. Rogers, C. E. Brown, F. H. Stebbins, G. H. Queen. Ball. — E. Morgan, chairman: F. D. Foot, G. A. Morton, Edward Pynchon, E. C. Washburn. Decoration. — L. C. Hyde, chairman; J. D. Gill, H. S. Hyde, C E. Brown, A. H. Goetting. Music. — C. W. :\Iutell, chairman; L. C. Hyde, F. D. Foot. Press. — Henry AV. Blake, chairman; E. A. Newell, H. S. Lee. Literary. — F. W. Dickinson, chairman: E. H. Phelps, Miltoii Bradley, A. B. Wallace, L. C. Hyde. A large honorary committee was chosen, as well as the following connnlttee from the outlying towns : — Agawam. — J. Henry Churchill, Reuben De Witt, Rev. Ralph Perry, C. C Wright. Chicopee. — George M. Stearns, L. E. Hitchcock. J. B. Wood, Matthew Ryan, T. W. Carter, Rev. R. K. Bellamy, Harrison Munger, F. H. Morton. Hampden. — Decius Beebe, Simeon Smith, A. C. Burleigh, Dr. George T. Ballard. Holyoke.—^Y. A. Chase, AV. B. C. Pearsons, William Whiting, W. S. Loomis, J. J. O'Connor, Timothy Merrick, James H. Newton, K. B. Johnson. Longmeadow. — Oliver Wolcott, T. F. Cordis, James Bliss, A. H. CalMns. Ludlow. — B. F. Burr, L. H. Brigliam, C F. Grosvenor, Rev. M. P. Dickey. Southwick. —Joseph W. Bickneli, John Boyle, Charles D. Abell, George W. Hamilton. Westfield. —^. B. Gillette, L. N. Clark, L. F. Thayer, M. B. Whitney, L. B. Walkeey, J. R. Dunbar, Henry Fuller, H. W. Ely. West Springfield. —II. N. Bagg, E. C. Brooks, B. F. Trask, George L. AVriffht. SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1SS6. 549 Wilhraham. —J. W. Bliss, F. E. Clark, M. F. Breck, Ira G. Potter. Enfield. — J. L. Houston, Samuel Hathaway, Joseph Allen, Thompson Grant. Somers.—\Y. B. Woods, S. M. Billings, H. R. Kibbe, D. B. Pomeroy. Svjjield.—i. Luther Sherman, W. L. Loomis, A. C. Allen, H. K. Wright. The cereinoiiies really began on Sunday, the 23d, when all the churches took occasion to recall the past 1)}^ appropriate exercises. It had been the intention of the historian to give extracts from the various anniversary sermons, both here and in the surrounding towns. After collecting over thirty abstracts of sermons, however, the plan was abandoned on account of the lack of space. The Sun- day exercises that attracted the greatest interest took place in the evening at the First Congregational Church. The age of that organ- ization is practically that of the town. Here is the programme. It may be added, that the tunes were taken from '^ The Springfield Col- lection," by Solomon Warriner, published in 1810, or the '" Musica Sacra ; or, Springfield and Utica Collections United," by Thomas Hast- ings and Solomon Warriner, published in numerous editions from 1816 to 1829. The dates mentioned with the tunes are believed to be approximately correct : INVOCATION, CONGREGATIONAL TUNES, — Judgment Hvmn (Hymn 1247, " Songs for the Sanctuary," two verses). " Great God, What do I See and Hear? " Martin Luther, 1530 Evening Hymn (Hymn 154, two verses). "Glory To Tliee, My God, This Night." Tallis, 155G SCRIPTURE. ANTHEM. — •' Glory Be To God On High." Bird, 1565 PRAYER. CHOIR TUNES,— Canterbury. — " O Thou. From Whom All Goodness Flows," Ravenscroft, 1633 550 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. Palmyra, — " That Once Loved Form, Now Cold and Dead," Buononcini, 1685 BuRFORD, — " O Sun of Righteousness, Arise," Purcell, 1695 Dunbar, — " When Overwhelmed With Grief," Corelli, 1700 LETTER from Rev. Thomas R. Pvnchon, D.D. CONGREGATIONAL TUNES, — St. Ann's (Hymn 230, first and last verses). " The Lord, Our God, Is Full of Might," Dr. Croft, 1720 Shirland (Hymn 881, two verses). '' Our Heavenly Father Calls," Stanley, 1734 Christmas (Hymn 281, two verses). " Awake, Awake the Sacred Song," Handel, 1740 CHOIR TUNES, — Truro, — " With All My Powers of Heart and Tongue," Dr. Burney, 1750 Protection, — " Up to the Hills I Lift Mine Eyes," Haydn, 1760 Westminster, — " Blest are the Sons of Peace," Dr. Boyce, 1760 Pastoral Hymn, — " The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare," Dr. Arne, 1762 TuNBRiDGE, — " There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood," Dr. Hayes, 1765 HISTORICAL PAPER, — *« Solomon Warriner, and the Music of His Day," Edward Morris CONGREGATIONAL TUNE, — St. Martin's (Hymn 110, omit second verse). "Lift Up to God the Voice of Praise," Tans ur, 17(^6 CHOIR TUNES,— Blendon, — " Jesus, My All. to Heaven is Gone," Giardini, 1770 HiNTON, — " With All the Powers of Heart and Tongue," Richard Taylor, 1779 REVIEW, — " Methods of Church Support," E. C Rogers ANTHEM, — "Lord of All Power and Might," William Mason, 1782 CONGREGATIONAL TUNE, — Brattle Street, — (Hymn 225), " When All Thy Mercies, O My God! " Pleyel, 1785 CHOIR TUNES,— Clapton, — "Thy Name, Almighty Lord,'" Rev. W. Jones, 1786 Wareham, — " Soon As I Heard My Father Say," Dr. Arnold, 1788 St. Philip, — "Join All the Glorious Names," Levesque, 1790 ADDRESS, — "Springfield Memories," J.L.Johnson CHANT, — " Gloria Patri," Battishill, 1790 SPRLVG FIELD, 1636-1S86. 551 CHOIR TUNES, — Florence, — " Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," Viotti, 1795 Funeral Hymn, — " The Righteous Souls tliat Take their Flight," Dr. Edward Miller, 1795 Cambridge, — " Come Sound His Praise Abroad," Robert Harrison, 1795 REMARKS BY THE PASTOR. HYMX-ANTHEM, — Denmark, — " Before JehoA'ah's Awful Throne," M. Madan. 1799 PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. The choir performers were : Director and organist, Edward H. Phelps ; soprano, Miss Fannie B. Chamberlain ; alto, Mrs. J. C. In- gersoll; bass, George R. Bond; tenor, J. C. IngersolL Monday was the bns}^ day of the week. Decorators were at work upon all the principal buildings of the city. Two hundred and fifty electric lights were placed among the branches of the elms on Court square, and the carpenters were at work upon the arch that spanned Main street, opposite the square, as well as upon the various floats and exhibits for the great procession. Springfield never presented such a brilliant appearance. The chapel of the First Congregational Church was being meantime turned into an antiquarian museum of great interest, citizens generally contributing of their ancient bric-a- brac and heirlooms. The loan exhibition committee w^as divided up into the following sub-committees : — Executive committee. — Charles Marsh, chairman; EdAvard Ingersoll, V. N. Taylor, advisory; E. P. Chapin, E. C. Rogers, E. C. Pierce, J. D. Gill, Charles H. Southworth, Mrs. R. F. Hawkins, Mrs. W. L. Smith, Mrs. P. P. Kellogg, Mrs. N. W. Fisk, Mrs. L. J. PoAvers, Mrs. W. S. Shurtleff, Mrs. G. W. Tapley, Mrs. H. J. Beebe, Mrs. Heman Smith, Mrs. N. C. Newell, Mrs. Ellen A. Cha- pin, Miss Elizabeth Ames, Miss Mary L. Jacobs. Historical paintings and pictures. — James D. GiU, O. B. Ireland, W. W. Colburn, E. C Pierce, J. W. Cumnock, Mrs. P. P. Kellogg, Mrs. A. J. Smith, Mrs. William Whiting, of Holyoke; Mrs. N. C. NeAvell, Mrs. W. H. Wesson, 552 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. Mrs. E. W. Bond, Mrs. J. A. Rumrill, Miss N. Homans, Miss S. Manning, Miss M. Benton, Miss M. Bradford, Mrs. H. Kibbe, of Somers ; Mrs. A. F. Gaylord, of Chicopee ; Mrs. R. H. Seymour, of Holyoke; Mrs. L. H. Brighara, of Ludlow; Mrs. D. L. Gillett, of Westfield ; Mrs. J. W. Cumnock, of Chicopee. Textile fabrics, including costumes, laces, tahle and led covers, needle-work, e/c. — Mrs. W. L. Smith, Mrs. L. J. Powers, Mrs. A. A. Packard, Mrs. E. P. Chapin, Mrs. J. H. Carmichael. Mrs. H. S. Hyde, Mrs. T. F. Breck, Mrs. G. C. McLean, Mrs. A. B. Harris, Mrs. J. S. Hurlbut, Miss Sarah P. Birnie ; Miss M. K. Ely, of West Springfield; Mrs. T. B. Wattles, of Chicopee Falls; Mrs. L. Whitman, of Agawam ; Mrs. James Bly, of Chicopee Falls ; Miss Kate Woods, of Somers ; Miss Louise Dunbar. China, glass, pottery, etc. — ^Ivb. W. S. Shurtleff, Mrs. W. B. C. Pearsons, of Holyoke; Mrs. Homer Foot. Jr., Miss Ida Southworth, Miss Mary Bradford, Miss Maria Foot, Miss Grace Dwight, Mrs. J. E. Russell, Mrs. E. C. Pierce, Mrs. D. E. Taylor, Mrs. W. C. Simons, Mrs. F. W. Chapin, Mrs. Ellen H. Cha- pin, Mrs. G. W. Tapley, Mrs. T. O. Bemis, Mrs. W. M. Collins : Mrs. R. Bagg, Jr., of West Springfield; Mrs. C. S. Miller, of Southwick; Mrs. 0. K. Merrill; :\rrs. A. Bush, of AVestfield ; Mrs. Myron Bliss, of Wilbraham. Furniture, cabinets, mvsical instruments, clocks, etc. — J. P. Harding, George D. Pratt, Mrs. A. T. Folsom ; Mrs. C. W. Ranlet, of Holyoke ; Mrs. H. J. Beebe, Miss M. L. Jacobs, Mrs. E. C. Rogers, Mrs. T. B. A^alker; Mrs. A. Aitcheson, of Wilbraham ; Mrs. F. L. Gunn, Mrs. A. J. Pease ; Miss Hannah Bliss, of Longmeadow; Mrs. L. E. Hitchcock, of Chicopee; Mrs. E. Sproul. of Southwick; Mrs. G. O. Kingsbury; Mrs. A. F. Gaylord. of Chicopee; Mrs. Vs\ Austin, of Agawam; Mrs. J. L. Houston, of Enfield. Books, manuscripts, papers, deeds, maps, and autographs. — Mrs. Heman Smith, Mrs. Mary Calhoun, Mrs. R. O. Morris, Miss E. Mills, Miss Stella War- ren, Miss M. R. Leonard; Miss A. Xoble, of Longmeadow ; Mrs. Dr. Foskit, of AYilbraham; Mrs. Dr. Ballard, of Hampden; Mrs. T. J. Pease, of Enfield; Mrs. George R. Dickinson; Mrs. Charles Grosvenor, of Ludlow; Mrs. J. R. Dunbar, of Westfield; Mrs. J. V. Wolcott, of Agawam; Mrs. A. F. Webb, of Southwick; Miss I. T. Jones, of LudloAv. Curios, bric-a-brac, jewellery, plaques, coins, etc. — E. S. Brewer, C P. Nich- ols, C. D. Brewer, Mrs. R. F. Hawkins, Mrs. O. B. Ireland. Mrs. F. R. Hayes; Mrs. E. B. Hooker, of Longmeadow; Mrs. R. H. Seymour, of Holyoke; Mrs. X. W. Fisk, Mrs. C. P. Xichols, Miss EHzabeth Ames, Miss Mary Bill, Mrs. J. J. S. Bagg; Miss AHce Pendleton, of Willimansett ; Mrs. F. Carleton, of South- wick ; Mrs. F. Gallup, of Ludlow ; Mrs. H. A. Gibbs, Miss Annie T. Covell. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 553 Mrs. J. W. Kirkham ; Mrs. A. B. West, of Chicopee Falls ; Mrs. L. R. Norton, of Westfield; Miss Ambia Harris, Miss Belle Newell, Mrs. R. D. Whitney. Armorrj exhibit and Civil War. — Captain Starin, Captain Heath, Lieutenant Clark, Capt. E. C. Pierce, Maj. H. G. Gilmore, E. C. Rogers. Catalogue. —Fred L. Gillett, G. D. Button, G. D. Pratt, F. B. Marsh, J. W. Kirkham, H. G. Chapin. SJiow cases. — C. P. Nichols, J. D. Gill, V. N. Taylor, C. H. Southworth. Transportation. — A. B. Harris. N. D. Bill, C. E. Brown, T. O. Bemis. Police.— Y.. P. Chapin, H. G. Gilmore, E. C. Rogers. The formal programme of the qiiarter-millennial was begun at noon on Tuesday, when Captain Starring ordered a salute of fourteen guns, at the armory in honor of the fourteen towns situated within the original limits of Springfield, and this was followed by the national salute and the ringing of all the church bells of the city. It is not permitted us to give in detail the numerous scenes of graphic interest upon these two days in street and hall, but it would not do to pass by the gathering in the City Hall upon the afternoon of Tuesday. It was not the brilliant decorations that charmed, for that hall had been brilliantly decorated before ; nor the music, and one might almost say, nor the ceremonies either. The unique feature of the occasion was the audience itself. This generation never witnessed a ga.thering like it. Such a number of rare old faces, so many Yankee eyes, dimmed in brilliancy by time, but Yankee eyes all tlie same, such odd characters peering about the audience as if making comparisons between the high life of tlie present and the homely glories of the past. In fine, to one ^\\\o took the trouble to make the circuit of that audience and to study it from every side, it seemed for all the world as though the garrets had been swept for precious remnants of humanity to be sprinkled through a congregation of fashion. Patricularly did the address of Governor Robinson warm the blood of the true and tried lovers of old Springfield, the city of homes. That remarkable crowd of distinguished and obscure men, — the busy and leisurely men, those who had had borne burdens and those who had taken their places, were in touch with the gov- 554 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. eriior, and were frequent and hearty in their response and ap- l^lause. The literary exercises in the hall, upon this remarkable Tuesday, were preceded by a concert by Gartland's Tenth Regiment Band of Albany, N.Y. The president of the day and the vice-presidents were as follows :— President of the day, Dr. .Joseph C. Pynchon. Vice-presidents, Springfield, William L. Smith, Judge M. P. Knowlton, Judge Gideon Wells, E. B. Maynard, EUphalet Trask, Homer Foot, Maj. EdAvard Ingersoll, Henry Fuller, Jr., Harvey Sanderson, Bishop P. T. O'Eeilly. Agawam, E. K. Bodurtha. Chicopee, George S. Taylor. Hampden, W. R. Sessions. Holyoke, Oscar Ely. Long- meadow, Stephen T. Colton. Ludlow, Marvin King. Southwick, Joseph X. Forward. Westfield, Samuel FoMler. West Springfield, Aaron Bagg. Wil- brahara, John M. Merrick. Enfield, Charles Brisco. Somers, Amos Pease. Suffield, H. S. Sheldon. At 2.15 ex-Mayor William L. Smith, the chairman of the Citizens' Committee , arose and said : — Ladies and Gentlemen, — The Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of the tAvo hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Springfield had selected to preside at these exercises a lineal descendant of the man who stood foremost among the original settlers of the plantation of Agawam, and who. by his prudent and able administration of the affairs of that little colony, transformed it into a permanent and prosperous community. We recognize the distinguished services of the fathers of the city by honoring their worthy representatives. By the inability of Dr. Joseph Pynchon to be present here to-day by reason of infirmity of health, a matter, of course, of regret to all of us, the Committee of Arrangements have invited Marcus P. Knowlton, who has consented to act as presiding officer ; and I accordingly have the honor now to introduce to you Judge Knowlton, the acting president of the day. Judge Knowlton. —Ladies and Gentlemen,— It is not expected that I shall detain you with an address to-day. It is more fitting, in view of the feast to which you have been invited, that I should not delay you, but begin at once the exercises which you have come to hear. We shall commence our exercises Avith prayer, which Avill be offered by the Rev. Dr. Buckingliani. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-I8S6. 555 After Dr. Buckingham's prayer came music, the male chorus of the Orpheus Chib singing the ''Chorus of Pilgrims," from Tannhauser. Judge Knowlton. — The town of Springfield, adopting the fashions of modern times, has become a city, and she boasts a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council. Avhich administer her government Avisely and honestly. She will now speak words of welcome by the hps of her mayor, Edwin D. Metcalf. Mayor Metcalf. — J/r. President, Ladies and Gentlemen. —Tlv^o hundred and fifty years ago, after braving the dangers of the unbroken wilderness that separated the ^Massachusetts bay and the rich valley of the Connecticut, a colony, small in numbers, but strong in hope and courage, began the settlement of Springfield. Surrounded by inhospitable forests and hostile savage tribes, amid want, danger, hardships, and sore privations, these early colonists founded here a community that has changed the aspect of nature, filled this valley, and covered these hills Avith a numerous and happy people, rich in all those possessions and blessings which flow from industry, good government, universal education, deep and abiding principles. All that we enjoy is fruit from the seed they planted. It is to their courage, their industry, their love of freedom, their faith in and reverence for God and his word, that we in a large measure owe our abundant prosperity. In grateful recognition of our many obligations to them, to give public ex- pression of our respect for their virtues and achievements, to show our devotion to the principles they illustrated, to quicken our zeal for future endeavors, and refresh the recollections of the liistory of the past, our citizens have assembled for the second time in this century to celebrate the anniversary of its settlement, and welcome home all its sons and daughters. It IS not Springfield's anniversary alone. Many other towns are entitled to share with us in all these hallowed memories. For more than a century Spring- field exercised jurisdiction over all the territory originally assigned to her first settlers ; but in process of time, as new centres of population were formed and new interests developed, new towns were organized, so that Springfield now covers but a small portion of its original territory. All these towns, though independent of us, are yet closely bound to us by the ties of a common origin, a common history, and common interests. They have gone forth, as the grown-up daughters of a house, to estabhsh new homes and new centres of growth, and their progress has been watched by us with such care and interest as only a mother can have for her children, and now it is with great pleasure that we 556 SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1886. welcome them all, to partake with us in the memories and festivities of this occasion, as to a famih- festival - Enfield, Suffield, and Somers. early wooed and won by a neighboring State; Longmeadow, the gem and tvpe of all that is loveliest and best of New England villages ; Agawam, West Springfield. Wil- braham, Ludlow, Hampden, and Southwick, farming communities, strong in those industries and virtues, inherited from a common ancestrv. which have made rural Xew England the source from which has ever flowed the best and most healthful influences in American civilization; Westfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke, busy manufacturing towns, whose enterprising and ingenious citizens have taken possession of the streams and rivers, where once the Indians fished dammed up their swift-flowing waters, and led them into various channels of use- fulness, and made their latent powers mighty factors in our development, fillino- all these valleys with the cheerful music of busy and prosperous industries. It IS with special pride that we have witnessed the mcreased population and wealth and the development of all the resources at their command. All are indeed welcome. Though geographical lines divide us, our mterests are' one, and together we will review the ways in which Providence has led us throuc^h the difficulties which we have passed, thereby strengthening our mutual dependence and helpfulness. We extend a cordial welcome to those, and the descendants of those, who in the years that are past, animated by the spirit and imbued with the principles of the first settlers of Springfield, have gone forth from this valley to aid in building up new States and founding new towns, and implanting in them that love of order, industry, and respect for the rights of others, which characterize everv community in which New England influences prevail. To these, and all the sons and daughters of Springfield, who have returned to unite with us in celebrating the event which we here commemorate, we give a hearty and generous welcome. To Your Excellency, as the representative of the Commonwealth, as united to us by many ties of interest, of kindly association and honorable service in our behalf, and to all who by tlieir presence on this occasion have contributed so much in making it memorable in the annals of the city, we extend a sincere Avelcome. On rare occasions, it is the custom in European cities for the mayor, with elaborate and imposing ceremonies, to give the freedom of the citv, as an especial honor, to the city's most distinguished guests, and now, in the name of this munic- ipality, I would bestow the freedom of this, our city, upon all who are our guests, not with the pomp and ceremony of those older cities, but in plain New England fashion, as becomes the descendants of the Puritans, by bidding you all a most hearty and cordial welcome. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. 557 Judge Knoavlton. —The governor and his associate executive officers, bring- ing the congratulations and representing the poAver and protection of tliis ancient Commonwealth, our mother Springfield greets with profound respect and defer- ential loyalty. For our chief magistrate himself she entertains a warmer feeling. Since his home is in the family of one of her municipal daughters, she calls him her son by adoption, and with parental pride claims a share in the distinguished honor which he has won for himself and conferred upon his kindred. I present you His Excellency the Governor. Governor Robinson. — J/r. President, Fellow- Inhabitants of Springfield, and all interested in the delights of the present occasion,— ^o gracious and cordial a welcome as has been extended by the chief magistrate of the city can only be met Avith the most grateful acceptance ; and so, for so much as has been given to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I do, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, being present, here and noAv accept it all heartily. (Laugh- ter.) It Avas a Avelcome that touched not alone the citizens of the present Spring- field, but as Avell the residents in the numerous progeny of towns that started out from the impulse of the first settlement and have grown and thriven almost be- yond calculation or belief, and it reached even beyond these to the thousands upon thousands, some of Avhom may have come back here to-day, and others, who from distant homes are casting their hopes, and their thoughts, and their aspirations, their longings and then' loves, back here, to their home, and Avith you are deeply sympathetic in the aspirations of this joyous occasion. And it goes Avider, I think, and it takes in the Avhole people of our beloved State, from one boundary to the other. HoAv delightful, indeed, it is to gather Avith you at this anniversary of }our natal day. To run the thought back; to brighten in memory the evidences that reach to the beginnhig of this settlement: to note the struggle and the contest, the endurance and the patience, the fortitude and courage, that began this toAvn of Springfield ; to note the progress of your development ; to stand and Avatch as generation after generation has come upon and passed from the stage, and now, to-day, Avith prophetic eye, to look doAvn into the future, and to imagine, as far as Ave can, Avhat it shall bring to this community, and Avhat the fruitage sliall be of the effort that Ave put forth in her behalf ! One may almost Avonder, if tlie little band of early settlers could Avith mortal eye look in here to-day, Avhat Avould be their expression, and Avhether they Avould, after all, have so generous a welcome for such an assemblage as tlie mayor has given. What if they Avere to look you over in your dress ; look at you in your homes ; at these decorations ; consider vour follies and frivolities, your wayAvardness and your Avickedness and your 558 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. wanderings, as they would appreciate them, would they bid you come to their paternal acres and welcome you with open arms and cordial homes? Did they, the fathers of 1686, anticipate such a representation of human beings as are gathered within this city to-day? Were they to walk up and down these broad and spacious streets, surrounded on every hand by thrift, and luxury, and com- fort, they would say that it was extravagance, without limit, and they would not restrain their voices from feverish and vigorous denunciation. Are we welcomed to the Springfield of the fathers, or only to the Springfield of the sons? Think you that William Pynchon and his associates of the early days could behold the transfiguration of that little settlement here into the great city that lies along the borders of this river, taking within its embrace the thousands upon thousands of people, administrating to their wants and their comforts and their luxuries, deUghting itself with its own development, astonishing the Avorld with its accomplishments, and making it pause to wonder what it has for the future; could he have seen the schools that have started up innumerable all over the Commonwealth; the colleges, the great institutions of correction, and general beneficence to mankind — could he have thought of all this as the outcome of his efforts on this spot? Possibly not; indeed it is not probable that he could anticipate it all. But yet the chain is complete ; cause and effect follow each other in rapid and close succession ; and though he with his eye, as prophetic as It might be, could not look down the centuries to the present time, tracing the progress, and binding it link by link, after all we can, as we walk along back and tread our Avay to the beginning, see the close connection of the one with the other. The little acorn that comes noiselessly down from yon bough and drops at your feet may be taken in your hand, and if you had never seen another acorn or watched the growth of the oak, you would be at a loss to tell w^hat developments were stored Avithin. Now, no acorn of liberty had ever fallen on such soil as America at that time. No one had seen it bursting forth in all its grandeur and magnificence ; but the little seed of liberty, germinated in this soil, became a sprout, then a sapling, and then the mighty monarch that over- spreads not only this town but the State, and States upon States, the Union itself, from ocean to ocean. (Applause.) Two hundred and fifty years marked on the ages of the past are but a span, and yet two hundred and fifty years here designate the whole advance and accomplishment of America. Then, but eight famiUes ; now, forty thousand people Avithin your immediate precincts and as many more within the territory that IS allied to you from the beginning. Then, in the State of Massachusetts, there was a settlement here and there on the eastern coast ; now, nearly two million of people Avithin our border. Then, no States, no Union ; now, one grand SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 559 country of us all, proud in her strength and her freedom, with threats for none, and with fear for none. (Applause.) A quarter of one thousand years have passed. The same oceans bathe our shores on either hand; the delightful river rolls, as then, noiselessly to the sea; over us is arched the blue sky ; the rain falls ; the dew is dispelled ; men grow old and die ; God's bright constellations are set in the heavens above by night, as then ; and yet in all that man has done in industrial progress and development, how complete the change I Nature's sounds then delighted the ear, nature's decorations then pleased the eye; now, two thousand children are ready to chant the hymn of peace and success. Their sweet notes take the place of the savage cry ; and added to the gems of nature, man's hands wreathe the festoons of beauty, and spread over all the brilliant light of heaven. Where shall we look for the sources of this development? Touching the springs of their power we shall fail of our duty if we do not represent, as far as may be, the same influences, so that a quarter of a thousand years hence men may rise up and call us blessed. The founders of this community, as of others scattered through our Commomvealth and in New England, had confidence in man. They put their trust in manhood, pure, upright, courageous, enduring, fearless, God-fearing men, and they recognized their duty to contribute in every possible way to the development of that manhood. As the right of that man- hood, first and foremost, they placed his liberty, and they came to this country that they might have a fair, free field for its exercise. That he might appreciate his freedom, and that he might write out on the pages of history the grandest achievements, they made him an educated man; they cultivated his mind, puri- fied his heart ; they lifted up his soul. And the men of that time hesitated not to put their hands to toil. It Avas no fashion of that time to be ashamed of man- ual labor. It was then creditable for a man to earn his daily bread. Looking back we waste our symj)athy upon the people of that early day if we carry them condolence, because they Avere obliged to labor day by day. AVhy, that very strife against the elements of nature, that fight for life itself, brought out the strength Avithin them, and made them the brighter and better men ; gave them families of children that generation upon generation have blessed the people for them. No puny, sickly, sentimental, maAvkish specimens Ave are forced to call humanity, but good, strong, energetic, tough-fibred, moral, upright, religious men and Avomen. But given liberty, given education, given the fruits of toil, there Avas needed the restraint of laAv, and that the fathers supplied. Liberty, not license ; freedom, and yet a recognition of the equal rights of others ; and that they Avorked into the foundation of the government, so that it has stood in firm security to the present time. 560 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. What Avonder. then, that we observe the accomplishments of to-day? Whj', from that class of men and from that character floA^ed inevitably the current of life that has marked the development of American freedom; just as naturally as the breath in the living human body came the great advance in our history. It Avould have been impossible that there should have been no Lexington, no Bunker Hill, no Concord. It Avould have been impossible that whenever the cry to arms came the people should fail. It could not have been that when the Union itself was endangered and liberty threatened, that the young men, valiant and strong, Avould skulk in their homes. It is not surprising that yonder monu- ment points to heaven, and points also to the character and inspiration of the men who, true to the deeds of the fathers, were Avilling to save for the future Avhat had been guaranteed to them. Massachusetts Avould fail to express the force of her presence if she did not recognize her obligation to be here, and to express her full, cordial, and abundant salutation to Springfield. Wherever the good people of the State come together, to greet each other eye to eye, grasp each other in friendly hand ; Avherever the toAvn and city and th©- people are striving and uplifting the A^hole ; Avherever human rights are regarded : Avherever the people are vigilant that none, even the humblest and Aveakest, shall suffer, there is the inspiration of Massachusetts, true to her past, and there should be her presence in full poAver. What shall be AA^ritten of the next tAvo hundred and fifty years? We shall not be here to Avitness their close. A few more mounds by the hillside Avill testify of us. One after another is gathered to the dust of the valley ; but pity, indeed, it is if that is all Ave leave for testimony. Though Ave may not be present, Spring- field Avill be here ; Massachusetts assuredly Avill come, and the great Union of America in benignity and prosperity will regard Avith glorious benediction the triumphs Avon. It shall be for you, as far as lies in your poAver, to Avrite the page of history, and it is your duty to make it noAv. The present is all Ave can touch, and doing our duty properly in the present hour, seeing to it that Ave set as high an appreciation on jjrivate and public virtue as our fathers did ; regarding per- sonal character as of the highest importance in the estimate of citizenship; remembering that the country Avill ever set a high value on purity, honesty, cleanness and squareness of demeanor and conduct, and that truthfulness to one's w^ord, fidelity to man and to God, are yet a poAver, and are yet of saving influence, and constitute the abundant guaranty of the future. Judge Knoavlton. — Springfield, like many another matron, is proud of her groAvn-up daughters. This is her day of thanksgiving, and gathered around her hearthstone she sees them all — West Springfield, Westfield, AgaAvam, South- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 561 wick, Holyoke, Chicopee, Ludlow, Wilbraham, Hampden, Longmeadow, Somers, Enfield, Suflfield. She would hear of their prosperity and their progress, and whether they often think of the days of their childhood, when they sat by her fireside and were folded in her embrace. I call upon Hon. John L. Houston, of Enfield. Mr. Houston. — Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, — When the invita- tion of your committee came over the border to me, a few days ago, urging me to come and take part in the literary exercises of this occasion, my first feeling was one of wonder and astonishment that they should request a native and citizen of Connecticut to take a formal part in a local celebration in Massachusetts. But a little reflection satisfied me that there might be method in this seeming mad- ness, and that there were, at least, plausible reasons why the Connecticut town of Enfield should receive such an invitation. For, in recounting the historical events, traditions, and reminiscences of Springfield, the name of Pynchon be a name to "conjure with," as it certainly is, then may we, natives of the river border of Enfield, well lay claim to be " sons of the soil." We were born and have lived upon, and the ashes of our dead are mingled Avitli, the soil once owned and dominated by Pynchons. One of the earliest Avonders and mysteries of my childhood was the grist-mill located near my birthplace (where it still stands doing its useful work to-day), the lineal descendant, if I may so speak, of the grist-mill erected by Major Pynchon sometime during the seventeenth century. The extensive manufacturing corporation Avith which I am officially connected traces the title to its real estate back to the days and the persons of the Pynchons ; and the control which it exercises OA^er the stream on Avhose banks its manufactory is located, and Avhich is essential to its operation, is based upon a grant given by the plantation of Springfield to Major Pynchon more than tAvo centuries ago. Certainly, in all the early historic events and traditions to Avhich Springfield so fondly clings, we natives of the toAvn of Enfield cling as fondly and share as full an interest in as do you. But I must not forget that my duty here and noAv is to respond, very briefly, to the warm and generous A\'ords of Avelcome just uttered by his Honor the Mayor, so far as they apply to the thirteen toAvns that have, first and last, during the past tAvo and a half centuries, been carved from the territory of old Springfield. Springfield has indeed been a bountiful mother, and has given to each one of her children a magnificent doAvry; and they, emulating her thrifty example, have each and all made good use of their heritage. Time Avill not permit, and if it did I am not capable of doing justice to the distinguishing traits of each one of these 562 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. offshoots from the parent stem; but as a group, and especially as associated A^ith the mother town, they together make up one of the noblest garden spots of the world. A territory watered by noble streams, covered by a rich and responsive soil, displaying nearly all varieties of scenery to charm and dehght the senses, dotted all over with churches, school-houses, and institutions of beneficence ; with numer- ous busy hives of industry Avhose productions, useful and beautiful, are knoAvn as widely as civilization extends ; and more and better than all, a territory abound- ing in the happy homes of an industrious, self-respecting, intelligent, and virtuous people, — truly can we all say that ''our lines have fallen to us in pleasant places," and '-we have a goodly heritage." Mr. Mayor, in behalf of these thirteen outlying towns, I beg to assure you that we all reciprocate the feelings that prompted you to utter your words of hearty and sincere welcome to us, and we here and now join with you and the beautiful city over which it is your high duty to keep watch and ward, in acknowl- edging the debt of gratitude Ave all owe to those early colonists wKb, through hardships, the story of which has been Init half told, and through great tribula- tion, redeemed this fair heritage of ours from savagery, and dedicated it forever to freedom and the blessings of a Christian civiUzation. The relation of the Springfield of to-day to these outlying towns is aptly char- acterized, I think, by the simile you have yourself so happily chosen, — the simile of a queenly mother to her fair and comely daughters ; and on this most inter- esting occasion, this tAvo hundred and fiftieth anniversary, we, the daughters, gather from all points on the outer circle at this maternal home to say Hail ! and God bless ! — not to a venerable and wrinkled dame, stricken in years or by decrepitude, but rather to a stately matron, clothed to-day Avith more queenly grace and beauty than ever before, and still blooming Avith Adrginal charms. And if continued lack of appreciation at the White House in Washington shall forever debar this good old mother toAvn of ours from becoming a port of delivery; if no stately custom-house is ever to vie in goodly proportions Avith the great arsenal on yonder "heaven kissing hill"; if no dignified col- lector of the port is ever to become a prominent figure in her social circles ; yet she Avill ever have the fuller satisfaction, one that no veto from any quarter can ever deprive her of, that she is surrounded Avith a galaxy of thirteen beautiful and dutiful daughters, all proud of her honorable history, all jealous of her good name and fair fame, and Avho Avill ever affectionately regard her as the peerless queen of the Connecticut valley. SPRINGFIELD, 163G-1SS6. 563 This anniversary hymn, written by E. Porter Dyer, was then sung by the Orpheus Club : — O God of our fathers ! Their guide and their shield, Who marked out their pathway through forest and field, "We stand where they stood and with anthems of praise, Acknowledge thy goodness, O Ancient of Days! Thou leddest thy people of old like a flock; They trusted in thee as their Sheltering Rock ; The centuries pass — thou art ever the same, And children of children still trust in thy name. 'Twas here in the wilderness, silent, untamed, The gospel of freedom and grace they proclaimed, — The gospel of home, of the school, of the plough, — And this City of Homes is their monument now. O God of our fathers! By river and wood, "Where Pynchon, and Holyoke, and Chapin abode. Our heritage blossoms w^ith glory and praise To thee, their defender, O Ancient of Days! Judge Knowlton — Fifty years ago Springfield gathered her children about her as she has done to-day, and told them the story of her life, and taught them fitting lessons, by the lips of one whom many of us remember, who was for a long time prominent in the progress of the town, Hon. Oliver B. Morris. The mantle of history, then so worthily worn, has fallen upon the shoulders of his eldest son, who from youth to advanced age has never ceased to reflect honor upon his native town, and in recent times has done more than any other to em- balm in pure English the memory of her early years. I introduce our historian, Judge Henry Morris : — Judge Mouris. — So far as knoAvn, there has been but one attempt before this to celebrate the anniversary of the first settlement of the town of Springfield. Fifty years ago this day its bi-centennial was observed. It was an occasion of great interest to this toAvn, and other tow-ns in this vicinity. People flocked here from far and near. After a long procession through our streets, with a military escort and music, an address was deUvered in the ancient First Church, fronting on Court square, and other appropriate services held, including prayer by Rev. Dr. Osgood, anthems by the choir, under the direction of Col. Solomon "Warriner, and the singing, as a solo, by a lady still residing here, of the hymn of Mrs. 564 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Hemans, entitled •• Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers." After the services at the church, the procession was reformed and marched to the Town Hall, where a collation was served, and brief speeches made by invited guests and others. The late George Bliss presided at the Town Hall. Edward Everett, then governor of the Commonwealth, was present at the celebration with his military staff, and other distinguished citizens from abroad. Robert C. Winthrop Avas here as one of the governor's aids. It was my fortune, then a young man, to be present, and to unite in the re- joicings of that time. In the words of the orator of that day, " the occasion was one of deep and joyful interest, one on which to do homage to the memory of our fathers, to examine the record of their history, and to bow in humble gratitude to Heaven that we are descended from a most worthy ancestry." In the same spirit let us enter upon the present occasion. As this day is particularly an anniversary of the original settlement of the town, I propose, in this address, to confine myself to the circumstances attending that settlement, Avith some notice of the men and women who bore a part in it, without attempting to detail at length the subsequent history of the town through the two centuries and a half that have followed. Any attempt at such a detail would require a volume, and could not fail to try the patience of the hearers and exhaust the strength of the speaker. The return of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of such a town as ours is an event that will justify us in suspending for the time our ordinary pursuits, that we may recall to mind the origin of the toAvn, and note the contrast between its humble beginning and its condition at the present moment. It must be interesting, and ought to be useful to us as a people, to re- view the circumstances that gave birth to this place, which we call, and are proud to call, our home, — a place to which Ave are bound by so many ties of interest and affection, and around Avhich so many of our hopes cluster. "We find ourseh'es to-day the occupants of one of the most delightful spots in the Avorld. No A^alley fairer than this of the Connecticut can be found any- where, — no soil yielding the cultivator a richer return for his labor, — no streams that contribute more freely their forces to propel the machinery that giA^es life and activity to the mechanic arts, for Avhich this valley is so famous, and which furnishes so much employment to the capital and industry of its residents. Tavo centuries and a half ago this lovely valley Avas a Avaste, inhabited only by the savages that roamed through its Avilds. It is hard for us to realize that in this valley, and on these charming hillsides, uoav so rich in the tokens of ijivilization and culture, the rude wigAvams of the red men were once seen, — that SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 565 in these forests, which then covered these plains, they hunted their game, and in these rivers they caught their fish. Their agricultural industry was limited to the gathering of such grains as grew spontaneously or with little cultivation. Their mechanic arts went no further than the manufacture of bows and arroAvs, or the construction of their canoes and the rude stone vessels in which they cooked or kept their food. Such relics of the Indian as these have been found all through this valley within a few years past, and probably may still be found by any Avho Avill search for them. How changed is the valley now I And how has this great change been effected? By what agencies has this, that was once a wilderness, been con- verted into the abode of civilized man? Let us look back two hundred and fifty years and discover, if Ave can, the causes and trace the progress of this change from its beginning to the present time. Tavo hundred and fifty years ago the Old World, Aveary of the burden of forms that had been the groAvth of centuries of ignorance and oppression, began to reach forth tOAvard a neAv and better state of things. The discoveries of voy- agers had revealed to Europe this continent in the Avest as an open field for its enterprise, and the Old World began at once to seek a better home in the NeAv. Old systems of government began to be distrusted, and old forms of re- ligion began to be discarded. The minds of men craved a change Avhich should give them better and more hopeful conditions of living. The Ncav World opened to the Old just such a field as it aspired to possess. As a consequence of this, everyAvhere through England a spirit of emigration arose, and men Avho had chafed under the oppressions of an arbitrary gOA^ernment, and desired greater freedom of conscience in religion, and greater security in their persons and property, determined to seek a neAv home Avest of the Atlantic. AVith this object in vieAv, several influential gentlemen in England solicited and obtained from King Charles I. a charter Avhich created them a corpora- tion by the name of the " Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in NeAv England." This charter granted all the lands in Ncav England from a line running Avesterly three miles north of the Merrimac river to a line running westerly three miles south of the Charles river, and three miles south of every part of it. The grant to extend from the Atlantic ocean to the South Sea. The charter designated by name all the members of the corporation, and prescribed that the officers of the Company should consist of a governor, a deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, Avho should be elected annually from the freemen of the Company. As it Avas the purpose of the Company to send out a colony to settle in New England, the question early arose Avhether the charter of the Company should be transferred Avith this colony to New England, 566 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. or Avhether it should remain lu the mother country. After much debate and careful consideration, it was decided by vote on the 29th August, 1629, that the charter should be transferred with the proposed colony to New England, and the government of it settled there. This rendered necessary a new election of oflS- cers from among those members of the Company who proposed to emigrate and settle in New England. Accordingly, at a General Court or meeting of the Com- pany, held in London on the 20th of October, 1629, John Winthrop was chosen governor, John Humfry deputy governor, with eighteen assistants; William Pynchon being one of the assistants. Humfry soon afterward resigned the office of deputy governor, and Thomas Dudley Avas chosen in his place. In pursuance of the plan of colonizing New England, the Company had pre- viously sent out a pioneer party under John Endicott, as its leader or governor. This party had located at Naumkeag, now Salem, where they founded a church Avith Messrs. Skelton and Higginson as its ministers. A much larger number was now prepared to move to America, in all about fifteen hundred. The transportation of such a body of colonists at that time Avas a Avork of serious difficulty, and required careful proA'ision of stores for their support during the voyage, and on their arrival in America. On the 20th day of March, in the year 1630, four ships Avere riding at anchor in the harbor of CoAves, a seaport of the Isle of Wight, Avaiting for a favorable opportunity to begin a voyage to the Ncav World. These ships Avere a part of the fleet fitted out by the Company for the transportation of emigrants and their families, Avho had determined to settle in NeAv England. John Winthrop, the governor, and Thomas Dudley, the deputy governor, were on board ships of this fleet AA'ith their families. William Pynchon, the founder of Sjjringfield, was also on board Avith his Avife, his son John, and three daughters. Mr. Pynchon Avas a man of honorable lineage. His great-grandfather, Nicholas Pynchon, Avas one of the sheriffs of London in the reign of Henry VIII. This Avas a station of dignity and importance. The home of Mr. Pyn- chon, the emigrant, in England, had been at Springfield, in the county of Essex, about one mile from Chelmsford, the shire toAvn of tlie county. He Avas a man of learning and talent, accustomed to close thought, and could give a reason for his opinions. He M^as evidently familiar Avith the pursuits and methods of business. As such he Avas afterAvard chosen to be the treasurer of the Com- pany. No person could have been selected to hold such office of trust as he held, unless his associates had full confidence in bis capacity and integrity. When the fleet left its anchorage, near the Isle of AVight, England and Spain Avere at Avar. Their hostilities Avere carried on principally on the sea. It Avas understood the cruisers from Dunkirk, then a port of the Spanish Nether- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1 88 6. 567 lands, were lying in wait for the emigrant ships destined for Xew England. Hence it became important for these four ships to adopt measures for mutual defence and aid. For this purpose all the ships were armed, and to each ship was assigned a particular post of duty. To the " Arbella," a ship named after Lady Arbella, wife of Isaac Johnson, a lady of high rank in England, Avas as- signed the place and title of Admiral. The "Talbot" was appointed to be vice-admiral, the "Ambrose" rear admiral, and the "Jewel" a captain. IVIr. Pynchon and his family were on board the "Jewel." There was but little favorable Aveather before the 8th of April, when the fleet weighed anchor. (3n the morning of April 9 there Avas quite an alarm. Eight sail Avere descried astern, Avhich Avere at first supposed to be Spanish cruisers from Dunkirk, Avaiting for the emigrant ships. "Wherefore," as Governor Winthrop says in his journal, " Ave all prepared to fight Avith them. The Lady Arbella and the other Avomen and children were removed into the loAver deck, that they might be out of danger. All things being thus fitted, we Avent to prayer upon the upper deck. It Avas much to see hoAv cheerful and comfortable all the Company appeared, not a Avoman or child that shoAved fear, though all did ap- prehend the danger to have been great." " Our trust Avas in the Lord of Hosts, and the courage of our captain, and his care and diligence, did much to en- courage us." There Avas some sickness among the passengers, especially the children. AVinthrop says, " Our children and others that Avere sick, and lay groaning in the cabins, Ave fetched out, and having stretched a rope from the steerage to the mainmast, Ave made them stand, some on the one side and some on the other, and SAvay it up and doAvn till they Avere Avarm, and by this means they soon greAv Avell and merry." The emigrants suffered from the high Avinds and extreme cold Avliich pre- vailed the greater part of the voyage. Their attention, as they approached America, Avas called to certain facts, ucav to their experience, Avhich Winthrop mentions in his journal. The declination of the pole star Avas much loAver than in England ; the ncAv moon Avas much smaller, and the sun did not give as much heat as in England. On June 7 Winthrop says they put their ship " a-stays," and Avith a few hooks took, in less than tAvo hours, sixty-seven codfish, most of them very great fish, some a yard and a half long and a yard in compass." This Avas a very seasonable supply for the passengers, Avho had noAv been sixty- eight days on board ship. On Tuesday, June 8, they saAv land about ten leagues distant. Avhich they supposed to be the island of Monhegan, but Avhich proved to be Mount Desert. " They had noAv," AVinthrop says, " fair sunshine and so pleas- ant a sAveet air as did much refresh them; and there came a smell ofE the shore like the smell of a garden." Friday. June 11, they Avere all day Avithin sight of 5^S SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Cape Ann and the Isles of Shoals. On Saturday, June 12, they were near their destined port. This was at Naumkeag, the Indian name of Salem. That day they were visited by John Endicott, the founder of Salem, and by Mr. Skelton, the minister of the place. On their return to Salem, these gentlemen were ac- companied by Governor Winthrop and some of the assistants, and some of the women. There, Winthrop says, ''we supped Avith a good vension pasty and good beer, and at night returned to our ship; but some of the women stayed behind." While the chiefs of the party Avere thus entertained, the greater part of the voyagers went on shore upon the land of Cape Ann, which lay very near, and gathered store of fine strawberries." Such was the introduction to Massa- chusetts of that portion of our fathers Avho " came in the fleet with Winthrop." It Avas not the purpose of those Avho came to colonize New England to estab- lis themselves at Salem as the guests of Mr. Endicott. They began at once to look for desirable places in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay in Avliich to plant settlements. Boston, CharlestoAvn, WatertoAvn, and Dorchester Avere speedily occupied. Pynchon selected Koxbury as the site for his home, and became the founder of that toAvn. His Avife died soon after landing in America, leaving one son and three daughters. Mr. Pynchon afterAvard married, as his second Arife, Mrs. Frances Sanford, Avho is described in the Roxbury Church records as "a grave matron of the church at Dorchester." He had no children by his second Avife. Soon after the colonists arrived in New England an Indian chief from Con- necticut river, named Wahginnacut, called upon Governor Winthrop at Boston and urged that some of the English should visit the valley of the Connecticut and settle there. He described the soil as fertile, and promised to give eighty beaver skins yearly to the settlers Avho should come to the valley. This invita- tion, although, from motives of policy, not accepted at that time, produced an impression upon the minds of some of the colonists AA-hich was not at once effaced. And now, when the most desirable places about the bay had been taken up and occupied by emigrants, and they felt straitened by the nearness to each other, there sprung up in the minds of many a longing for ncAv plantations, and perhaps better ones, for themselves and their increased stock of cattle. From many of the toAvns about Boston there came petitions to the General Court for authority to remove " themselves and their estates to the Ryver of Connecticut," of whose attractions so much had been said. Liberty had been granted to some of the petitioners to remove, as prayed for, upon the condition that they should continue under the government of Massachusetts bay. Cambridge people had migrated to Hartford, Dorchester to Windsor, and WatertoAvn to Wethersfield, and began ncAV settlements at those points on the river. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 569 The emigrating party from Koxbury did not so soon commence a new settle- ment in the Connecticut valley, but Mr. Pynchon sent two men liere to explore and occupy a part of the valley, preparatory to the removal of his family and the actual planting of a new settlement. One John Cable came here in 1635 from the bay with John Woodcock, and built a small house on the west side of the Connecticut and south side of the Agawam river, in a meadow, vhich, from that circumstance, was long known as " House meadow." These men occupied this house that summer, and the " old Indian ground" about it, but abandoned it later, on being informed by the Indians that the spot was liable to be overflowed in time of frieshets. There can be but little doubt that Mr. Pynchon liimself came to this valley as early as 1635, to satisfy himself of its eligibility as the site of a new plantation. He was certainly absent from the General Court that met September 1, 1635. His absence from such a meeting Avas unusual, and can Avell be accounted for by the fact that he was then occupied in examining the place in this valley which he designed for his future home and that of the friends who should follow his lead. Until he himself had seen the flowing streams and fertile meadows of Avhich the Indian chief had given such a glowing description, and had ascertained the advantages of the place for his beaver trade, it is hardly probable that a man of Pynchoii's caution would have hazarded a step attended with so much peril as the removal of his family and his j)roperty from the bay to the river. It was not an enterprise to be undertaken without careful consid- eration of its difficulties and dangers. It Avas doubtless after a thorough personal investigation of the subject that Pynchon and his associates came here early in the year 1636, and prepared for a permanent settlement in this place, Avhich was known to them by its Indian name of Agawam. By this name Avas understood not merely the tributary of the Connecticut, still called by that name, and the meadow bordering upon it, but also the interval land on the east side of the river, now the site of our city. This Avas all called Agawam for scAcral years. In much the same Avay the term Connecticut Avas at first applied to designate all the plantations on the riA^er. The General Court of Massachusetts claimed and exercised the jurisdiction over all of them, Avhen first settled, and appointed commissioners to govern them. Koger LudloAv, of Windsor, and AYilliam Pynchon Avere members of this commission. In fact, the geography of the Connecticut valley Avas not perfectly understood, or the boundary line between Massachusetts and Connecticut settled, for a long time after the plantations on the river Avere established. Connecticut claimed Springfield and Westfield as falling Avithin the patent of Connecticut. And Springfield Avas represented in the General Court at Hartford in 1636 by deputies chosen by the plantation. 570 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. However vague and uncertain had been the ideas of the first settlers here as to the jurisdiction over this valley, there was no failure of their purpose to make a plantation here. So they drew up and signed a formal agreement, declaring the purpose of the signers " by God's providence to make a plantation at and over against ' Agaam ' on Connecticut/' and their agreement to " certain articles and orders to be observed and kept l)y themselves and their successors " in the management of their plantation. This paper was signed by eight persons, repre- senting themselves to be " all the first adventurers and undertakers for the Plan- tation." The names signed are William Pynchon, :Matthew Mitchell, Henry Smith, Jehu Burr. AVilliam Blake, Edmund Wood, Thomas UfEord, and John Cable. The paper bears date May U, 1G3G (old style), which corresponds to May 25 of the present calendar. Besides these eight signers, there were four others apparently concerned in the Plantation and named in tlie paper; to wit, Thomas Woodford, John Reader, Samuel Butterfleld, and James AVood. Of the eight names signed to the paper,' Mitchell, Blake, Wood, and Ufford remained here but a short time. Blake returned to Dorchester, from which town he had come: :^[itchell went to Connecticut, and lived in diiferent towns there until his death; Burr and Cable were here as late as 1640, when their names disappear from our records. Only Pynchon and Smith of the original signers remained here over five years. Soon after coming to Springfield Mr. Pynchon made a bargain witli the In- dians for the purchase of the land required for the intended settlement. This bargain was put in form July 15, 1(530, by a deed from Connnucke and Matan- chan, two " ancient" Indians of Agawam, for themselves and as representatives of tlie other Indian proprietors, conveying to William Pynchon, Henry Smith, and Jehu Burr, their heirs and associates forever, a large part of the territory now occupied by this city, Avith lands in its vicmity. Tliis deed was fully ex- plained to tlie Indians by Ahaughton, an Indian interpreter from the Bay, and was perfectly understood by them. For it they received an adequate considera- tion, according to the values of that day, and were never dissatisfied Avith the bargain. Eor the lands sold by the Indians in this purchase they received "18 fathoms of wampun, 18 coates, 18 hatchets, 18 hoAves, and 18 knives," and reserved to themselves the ground then planted, and liberty to take fish and deer, ground nuts, Avalnuts, acorns, and a kind of wild peas. Wrutherna, one of the Indians, received from Mr. Pynchon two coats as an extra con- sideration. There were fifteen articles or specifications in the original agreement signed SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 571 by the planters who first came here. The first three of tliese articles have a special significance. They read as follows : — ''Firstly. Wee intend by God's grace, as soon as we can, with all conven- ient speede to procure some Godly and faithful minister, with whome we purpose to joyne in church covenant to Avalk in all the ways of Christ. " Secondly. Wee intend tliat our towne shall be composed of fourty familys. or. if we think after to alter our purpose, yet not to exceed the number of fifty familys rich and poore. " Thirdly. That every inhabitant shall have a convenient proportion for a house lott, as Ave shall see meet for every ones quality and estate.'' By the limitation of the town to forty families it is evident that the original planters intended to make the town a compact settlement, and not one of scat- tered farms, separated from each other by long distances. This Avas essential for their mutual safety, living as they did in the midst of an Indian neighbor- hood, and so remote from the protection and assistance of the older settlements about Massachusetts Bay. Many of the early regulations, adopted in the in- fancy of the toAvn, Avere designed to secure, as one of their objects, compactness of settlement. The General Court early passed a laAv that all dAvelling-houses should be built Avithin half a mile of the meeting-house. The first settlers of our toAvn,in furtherance of the same object, in allotting house " lotts,"' made the lots, except in a fcAV special cases, so narroAv as to condense the population Avithin Avhat they considered safe limits. The street upon Avhich the houses Avere built f olloAved the general course of the river in a line substantially parallel to it. The house lots Avere all on the Avest side of the street, and, Avith some excep- tions, Avere generally about eight or ten rods wide. Three of them Avere four- teen rods, tAvo Avere tAventy rods, and that of Mr. Pynchon Avas thirty rods Avide. All of the home lots extended from the street to the river. Each of them had an allotment on the east side of the street, of the same Avidth as the house lot. The land east of the street, and adjoining it, Avas called in the allotments " hasseky " marsh. Still further east there Avas usually an allotment of the same Avidth, of upland, covered more or less Avith Avood. Very early the "hasseky" meadoAv Avas crossed by a road or path about two rods Avide, running east, and Avideuing after passing the meadow. This road crossing the marsh Avas made passable by corduroy logs laid across the path. At its easterly end it was probably connected Avith the path leading to the Bay, long known as the Old Bay road, of Avhich the Avestern end is the present Bay street. 572 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Some of the early settlers here came from the Connecticut towns down the river. Windsor, Hartford, and AYethersfield had each of them some representa- tives among the early inhabitants of Springfield. Such settlers could aA^ail them- selves of the river as a way of travel. Boats, or, as they were usually called, canoes, were in frequent use for the carriage of goods and the transportation of persons. Trees that were suitable for use in constructing boats were called '• canoe trees," and the cutting of such trees Avas restricted by vote of the Plan- tation. For the accommodation of those persons who wished to pass to or from the town by the river, three wharves or landing-places Avere established, one at the foot of what is now knoAvn as Cypress street, called the upper or "higher" wharf, another at the foot of Elm street, called the middle wharf or landing, and the third at the foot of York street, known as the loAver landing. To each of these a street or lane led from the main street. The street leading to the middle landing was the same that conducted to the training-place, part of which was afterward used as a burial-place. This street, the Elm street of our day, was at first one rod wide, but soon was widened to two rods. Probably the greater number of the settlers who came early to Springfield made the journey of one hundred miles from the bay to the Connecticut river by land. Some of them brought their families and goods with them. The journey in 1636 was a serious and liazardous undertaking for an emigrating family. There were no paths through the forest, except occasionally an Indian trail, no bridges over the streams, often swollen and rapid. Rough and rocky hills must be climbed, and tangled underbrush must be threaded. Savage beasts might be lurking in the thicket, and encountered at any moment. Some of these pilgrims, seeking a new home on the banks of the Connecticut, were the wives and young children of the emigrants, and this was their first experience of a journey through the wilderness. There were dangers to be met by day and by night. The forest was full of sights and sounds to which they were unused. The Indian Avas there, and the travellers Avere not so familiar with the savages as to feel perfectly easy in their neighborhood. After traversing the forests for many days Avithout coming to one friendly house, Avhere the Avomen and children could have needed shelter and rest, and Avithout seeing one Avhite face they had ever seen before, hoAv Avistfully must they have sought to catch the first glimpse of the beautiful river on the banks of which they hoped to find their home. ConceiA^e for a moment a party of these Avayfarers, fatigued Avith their long and wearisome journey, as they straggle out from the Avoods, com- ir.g, toAvard the close of an autumnal afternoon, to one of the knolls that mark the borders of our valley, and looking doAvn from it for the first time SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 573 in their lives upon that stream, which one of the poets of the valley thus apostrophizes : — Fair, noble, glorioua river, in thy wave The sunniest slopes and sweetest pastures lave ; The mountain torrent with its wintry roar Springs from its home and leaps upon thy shore — The promontories love thee, and for this Turn their rough cheeks and stay thee for thy kiss. The travellers now discover some indications of civilized life. Here and there the smoke from the chimney of a rude cabin arrests their attention, and they begin to realize that they are near to old neighbors and friends. They folloM- the course of a small brook, since called Garden brook, and descend the slope into the valley. They seek to find first the one man whom they had known in England, and with Avhom they had crossed the ocean. They find Mr. Pynchon's house. There was nothing striking or attractive about it to indicate that it was the residence of the leader in this enterprise of founding a town in the wilder- ness. It was a one-story-and-a-half wooden structure, unpainted, Avith a thatched roof, and a chimney of wood covered with mortar. Mr. Pynchon gives the new- comers a cordial welcome to the hospitahties of his house, and they are soon numbered among the settlers of the plantation. By such accessions to its inhabi- tants the population of the place is gradually increased, and from being the plan- tation of Agawam, it aspires to become a town, and in April, 1640, voted to change its name to Springfield. By this name it was recognized by the General Court in June, 1641, and ever afterward known. Previous to this action of the Legislature, the inhabitants, in view of the fact that by God's providence they were now fallen into the line of the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and that it would be inconvenient to repair to the Bay in cases of justice, such as might often fall out, requiring the action of a magistrate, by general consent and vote, until further direction should come from the General Court, ordained Mr. Pynchon to act as magistrate in the Plantation of Agawam, with the aid of a jury of six persons. The General Court, in 1641, gave Pynchon a new commission to exercise similar authority for one year. In 1643 this commission was renewed, and ex- tended until the court should further order. Mr. Pynchon acted under the authority thus conferred upon him until he incurred the displeasure of the General Court, by a theological book written by him and published in England. For this he was suspended from office, and Henry Smith, his son-in-law, appointed in his place. Pynchon was summoned to appear before the court and answer for his offence. He was a religious man of 574 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. the Puritan order, and was a zealous advocate of the faith he had chosen. In his opinion, there were some errors prevalent in New England, particularly on the subject of the Atonement. So, being a keen thinker and a ready writer, he undertook to correct some of the prevaihng errors and vindicate the truth, as he understood it, by writing a book, wliich he entitled '-The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, Justification, etc.. Clearing it from Some Common Errors, etc." This book was pubhshed in England under Mr. Pynchon's own name, and brought to America, where it soon attracted the notice of the General Court, and produced great excitement. It was pronounced false, erroneous, and heretical, and condemned to be burned by the common executioner in the market-place at Boston. This sentence was executed at once, and Pynchon was summoned to appear before the next General Court, in May, 1G51, to answer for liis offence, and not to depart without leave from the court. Some of the members of the court did not concur in the censure of Mr. Pynchon's book, and desired that their reasons for their dissent might be recorded or kept on file. The court would allow neither course. But it passed an order entreating Mr. Norton, an eminent divine of Ipswich, to ansAver the book. This vote was passed on the 16th of October, 1650, and then the matter rested until May, 1651. At that time the court passed a vote of thanks to Norton for his answer to Pynchon's book, and ordered the treasurer to pay him £20 out of the next tax leaded, and that Norton's answer be printed. At the same session Mr. Pynchon appeared before the court and avowed himself the author of his book, and quahfied some of the ex- pressions used by him, and explained more fully his meaning. Thereupon the court suspended all further action in the case until the 14th of October following, when he was required again to appear. In October the court extended the time for his appearance to May, 1652. At the session of the court in May, 1652, Mr. Pynclion did not appear. Indignant at the treatment he had received from the authorities at Boston, and apprehensive of further ill-usage, he left New England for Old England. He knew that if he should be convicted of heresy he could expect no lenity from the colonial authorities. John Endicott, one of the most rigid Puritans of the age, was then governor. The deputy governor was Thomas Dudley, a man who had persistently quarrelled with Winthrop, and whose in- flexible temper was satirized by one of the M-its of the time in this ironical epitaph : — Here lies Thomas Dudley, that trusty old stud, A bargain's a bargain and must be made good. Mr. Pynchon had come to New England to avoid persecution. He now left it to escape from intolerance. When out of the reach of the vindictive malice of SPBINGFIELT), I6S6-1SS6. 575 Ids enemies, he wrote and published a reply to Mr. Norton's book, in which he controverted Norton's arguments, and reaffirmed his own views. From the nature of the pviblic duties devolved upon him by the General Court, it is apj)arent that Pynchon was regarded as an astute man of affairs, capable of conducting any kind of business. He could make a contract with the Indians for a large tract of territory. He could manage successfully the financial concerns of the colony, and so was made its treasurer. He could dis- cuss and elucidate to the satisfaction of a man as captious Gov. Thomas Dudley, a question of policy in the treatment of the Indian, so as to avoid difficult and dangerous complications. All this Mr. Pynchon did. He could and did admin- ister AN isely the judicial duties that were devolved upon him as the only magis- trate in western ^Massachusetts. He was a man of great enterprise, and devoted liis energies to building up this town which he had founded. He intended that it should become a commercial centre in this valley, from which should radiate an influence for the prosperity of all this region. To this end he gathered about liim here men of various trades and occupations, with skill and resolution adapted to give success to the town. He established a trade here in furs and farm products that reached not only to the towns below on the river, but to Boston and the settlements on the bay. Mr. Pynchon never returned to America, but died at Wraisbury, in England, on the 29th of October, 1662, at the age of seventy-two. "With Pynchon went his son-in-laAv, Henry Smith, who had been appointed by the General Court as his successor in office. He was a man of capacity, and Avell qualified to fill tlie place vacated by Pynchon. But he preferred following the fortunes of his father Pynchon to remaining here. With Mr. Pynchon also went another early settler. Rev. George Moxon, Avho had come to Springfield in 1637, as its first minister. He brought with him a wife and several children, and had some cluldren born here. He Avas educated in England, and received ordination to the ministry there. So that, upon his arrival in New England, in 1637, he was ready to fulfil the purpose of the first settlers as tlie godly and faithful minister, with whom they desired to join in cnurch covenant. ]\[r. Moxon continued the minister of the town, and was useful in his vocation until 1651. About that time suspicions of witchcraft began to be entertained here. A nervous and probably insane woman by the name of Mary Parsons, wife of Hugh Parsons, was accused by Martha and Rebecca Moxon, the daughters of the minister, of practising the arts of witchcraft. To her agency were ascribed some distempers from which they suffered. She had killed her oAvn child, and so Avas arrested and taken to Boston, and tried there both for murder and witchcraft. Both of these offences 576 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. were capital. She was acquitted of the charge of witchcraft, but convicted of the murder by her own confession, and sentenced to death. The connection of his family with this case made it disagreeable to Mr. ]\Ioxon to remain here, and concurring with the troubles of his friend, Mr. Pynchon, induced him to accompany Pynchon to England, from which he never returned to America. The loss of these three so prominent men Avas a serious blow to the young town of Springfield. In his century sermon, delivered here October 16, 1775, ]\[r. Breck, speaking of it, says : -'It was a day of darkness Avith this toAvn," that he " remembered to have formerly heard some of the aged people, who had it from their forefathers, say that it went near to break up the settlement." The departure of William Pynchon brouglit at once into jirominence his son, John Pynchon, then about twenty-six years of age, who had come to Springfield with liis father at its first settlement, and was familiar Avith its history and all its interests. He had received a training under his father that prepared him at once to enter upon the management of all affairs, both private and publrc, that had previously been conducted by his father. John Pynchon l)ecame immediately the leading man of Springfield in every respect. His private business was very extensive. He Avas the merchant avIio carried on a large trade, buying of his toAvnsmen Avhatever products of their farms they had for sale. He had a storehouse at Warehouse Point, from Avhich his goods, received from Hartford, Avere transported to Sprmgfield and sold to his neighbors here. He Avas a large dealer in furs, particularly of the beaver, Avhich abounded in the Connecticut and AVoronoco (or Westfield) rivers. The collection of these furs gave employment to many men, as Avell Indians as Avliite men. He Avas part OAvner of a vessel that transported beaver skins and other goods from Hartford to Boston for transshipment to England. He Avas the proprietor, with his brother- in-law, Holyoke, of a corn-mill and a saAv-mill, at Avhich the grain of the inhabi- tants Avas ground, and their lumber saAved. He had in his employ boats on the riA'er, and teams on the land. All this Avork required the services of his felloAv- townsmen of different trades and occupations, and brought to Springfield many persons who became useful citizens. Many of them had experience and skill in some particular kind of business. But Avhatever that may haA^e been, they could readily turn their hands to almost any kind of work. In general, they appear to have been industrious and honest men, avIio feared God and Avere just to their neighbors. The public stations filled by John Pynchon, and the public duties performed by him, exceeded in number and equalled in importance those of his father. When the captaincy of the military company here was vacated by the departure S PR rXG FIELD, 1636-1886. 577 of Henry Smith, John Pynchon was appointed captain in Smith's place. From this lie rose to be the commander of the regiment of the county, which then com- prised all the State west of Middlesex county. In this capacity he acted during the King Philip Avar. In the records of that time he is commonly styled the •■ Worshipful " Major Pynchon. In 1G59 he was chosen a deputy from Springfield to the General Court, and continued in that capacity to represent the town until 1667, when he was elected by the court to the upper branch of the Legislature as an assistant. He held that office until 1686. He was often appointed to transact important business beyond the hmits of this State. In 1664 he was one of the commissioners who represented the English government in receiving from tlie Dutch the surrender of Xew Amsterdam, which then took its present name of New York. In 1680 he was sent as a commissioner by the General Court of ^Nlassachu setts to Albany to arrange, with the aid of the governor of New York, a treaty with the ^lacquas or ^Mohawk Indians, to secure the people of Massachusetts from the incxirsions of the Indians of that powerful tribe. In this negotiation he Avas successful. The Indians gave him a written ansAver to his jjroposition. This ansAver, originally drawn in the Dutch language, Avas translated into English by an interpreter, and recorded in the colony records. It is a curious and interesting document. Tlie Indians addressed the major as '■ Brother Pynchon," and expressed their gladness at seeing him again at Albany, as they had seen him four years before, and their resolution to keep iuAnolate the treaty Avhich they had just made Avith him. The General Court directed the entire paper to be recorded, and ordered " that Maj. John Pynchon, for his great paines in his hard journey last Avinter to the Macquas and concluding a peace Avith them, be paid £12." Often associated Avitli Major Pynchon Avere his brother-in-laAv, Elizur Holyoke, and Deacon Samuel Chapiii. Tlie three were appointed commissioners in 1652, after William Pynchon left, to liold courts and administer justice in Sprnigfield. They had jurisdiction in all actions of small amount, and in the trial of criminal cases that " reached not to life, limbs, or banishment," saving to tlie parties the right of appeal to the Court of Assistants at Boston. Holyoke Avas a native of Tamworth, in England, and came to this country Avitli his father, EdAvard Holyoke, about 16:57 or 1688, and lived for a time at Rumney ]Marsh, iioav Chelsea. He Avas probably draAvn to Springfield by an attachment formed for Mary Pynchon, the daughter of WilUani and sister of John, to Avhom he Avas married in November, 1640. She is described as a very lovely woman. '• a very glory of Avomanhood." 578 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. A home lot twenty rods wide was assigned to Mr. Holyoke next south from that of his father-in-law, William Pynchon. It occupied the wliole space from the nortlierly line of Worthington street to the southerly line of Bridge street. He afterward acquired, hy purchase or grant from the town, large additional tracts of land on both sides of the river. In 1062 the towns of Springfield, Northampton, and Hadley were made a county by the name of Hampshire. Springfield was made tlie shire town, but courts Avere to be held alternately at Springfield and Northampton. In lOCo Jolm Pynchon was made presiding judge of tlie court, with four asso- ciates. Holyoke Avas the associate from Springfield, and Avas also the recorder of tlie court. Deacon Samuel Chapin came to Springfield, in 1642, from Roxbury, Avhere he had OAvued a lumse and lot. On June 2, 1641, lie took the freeman's oath at Boston, and so became legally a citizen of Massachusetts. It appears by the church records of Ivoxbury that he and his wife, Cicely Chapin, Avere both mem- bers of Ilev. John Eliot's church in that toAvn. His son, Japhet, avtis baptized there October 15, 1(542. In December, 1643, he appears by the records to have been at Springfield as one of a jury of Avhich Holyoke Avas foreman, and Samuel Wright, afterAvard a deacon of the church, Avas a member. Wriglit and Chapin Avere the first deacons of the church here. Deacon Wright removed to Northampton, and died there. His descendants abound in tliat place and A'icinity. Deacon Chapin continued to reside at Springfield, Avhere he had a large family of sons and daughters. The northern part of the town Avas at one time almost peopled by his descendants. On the 17th of September, 1862, a meeting of his descendants Avas held here in the old First Church, Avliich was largely attended from all parts of the country. Stephen C. Bemis, one of the descendants, and then mayor of this city, pre- sided. Judge Henry Chaiiin, of Worcester, delivered an address, and the late Dr. Holland, Avhose Avife Avas a Chapin, read a jioem. Other interesting addresses were delivered by other distinguished members of the family. In this Avay the memory of the old deacon Avas kept alive. And noAv, as if all this Avere not enough to perpetuate his memory, it is proposed to erect a bronze statue on Court square, in front of tlie cliurch in Avliich he once Avorshipped and officiated as deacon. An artist of renoAvned skill has been engaged to prepare this statue, and hiis already begun tlie Avork. AA''hen finished and erected, it Avill, undoubt- edly, be a fit memorial in a fit place of the Avorthy man it is designed to represent. While Ave hold in especial honor the fcAv men avIio Avere leaders in the early settlement of this tOAvn, and Avho shared Avith AVilliam Pynchon, during the six- SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 579 teen years of his stay here, the labor and responsibility of laying the founda- tions, we must not forget or overlook the names of others, who, Avithout aspiring to any post of leadership, Avere content, in the simple capacity of pioneer settlers, to aid in building up tliis town in the wilderness, although it required them to expose themselves and their families to tlie privations and dangers of a frontier life. Of this class of early settlers, in addition to those already named, may be mentioned John Searle, Thomas Horton, Thomas Mirrick, John Leonard, Robert Ashley, William Warriner, Henry Burt, Rowland Stebbins, Richard Sikes, Thomas Cooper, James Bridgman, Alexander Edwards, Francis Ball, John Harmon, Miles Morgan, Benjamin Cooley, John Matthews, George Colton, Joseph Parsons, John Clarke, Widow Margaret Bliss and her four sons, Nathaniel, Lawrence, Samuel, and John, also Reice Bedortha, John Lom- bard, George Langton, Anthony Dorchester, John Lamb, John Duml)leton, Rowland Tliomas, J(^natlian Taylor, Thomas Miller, Benjamin Munn, John Dibble. All these have descendants here, and their names have long been familiar to us. We are now at the commencement of a new vya in the history of this town. One quarter of a thousand years has passed since its corjwrate existence began in the mutual agreement of the first settlers. Although weak in its infancy, it gradually outgrew the discouragements of its origin. The steady courage of the founders never failed amid all the trials of its early years. When William Pynclion, the original leader of the colonists, w;is compelled to abandon the town and return to England, it seemed for the time that the enterprise was almost hopeless, and a deep gloom spread over the minds of the people. But a new leader came forward in the person of his son, John Pynchoii, who immediately showed his capacity to take the place which his father had vacated, and carry on the work that his father had l>eguu. And so a new impulse, for- ward and upward, was given to tlie enterprise, and the town continued steadily to grow and prosper until that disastrous day in October, 1675, wlien the Indians, stimulated by Philij), the chief of the Wampanoags, a tribe having its principal seat in Bristol county and the adjacent parts of Rhode Island, suddenly laid aside the pipe of peace, and with tomahawk, gun, and torch began tlie Avork of destruction and slaughter. Philip endeavored to combine all tlie lii(Uaiis of New England in a grand con- federacy against the English colonists, in the hope to expel or exterminate the colonists. Failing at first to secure the cooperation of the Narragansett Indians, and being hard pressed by the English and their allies, the Mohegan Indians, Philip was forced from his stronghold in Bristol county and its vicinity to the interior of Massachusetts among the Nipmuck Indians. These joined 580 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. him in a raid upon some of tlie towns of Worcester county and the u])per towns on the Connecticut river. They hurned Brookfield. Next they appeared at Deerfield and Northfield. A few days later occurred the massacre at Bloody Brook, where Captain Lathrop, with eighty-eiglit young men, the flower of Essex county, were attacked by a superior force of Indians, and seventy of their number slain. These assaults upon the upper towns on the river Avere attended with the barbarities usual in Indian warfare, and excited general attention and sympathy. Massachusetts and Connecticut sent tlieir forces to protect the endangered towns. Maj. John Pyn- chon was commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts forces. Major Treat com- manded those of Connecticut. Among the subordinate Massachusetts officers were Captain Appleton and Captain Mosely. The advice of Major Pynchon to the colonial authorities had been that garri- sons should be maintained in the frontier towns for their protection. But this advice had been overruled, and orders had been issued that whenever an enemy appeared, soldiers should be despatched in pursuit of them. In this kind of strategy the Indians were much superior to the English. They were familiar with all the paths l^y Avhich tlie forests could be traversed. Their movements were stealthy and rapid. They fell upon the amazed and beA^'ildered settlers when least expected, executed their savage and bloody Avork Avith fearful rapidity, and then disappeared as suddenly as they had come, leaving little or no trace of their course. It avms to little purpose tliat, Avlien tidings reached the nearest military force, detachments Avere sent in pursuit. Generally they reached the scene only to find the smoking ruins of houses that the savages had burned, and the mutilated and ghastly remains of their occupants. In pursuance of tlie orders Avhich he received from the commissioners, who had charge of the conduct of the war. Major Pynchon, Avitli all the force under his command at Springfield. numl)ering about forty-five men, was required to march northward on the 4th of C)ctober, 1G75, O.S. (October 15 of the present cal- endar), by tidings that a considerable body of Indians had been seen near Had- ley. To repel this enemy the English forces Avere ordered to concentrate in that town. So that Avhen tlie night of October 4 closed upon tlie inhabitants of Springfield they Avere entirely Avithout military defence. Their own militia Avere Avith Major Pynchon at Hadley, or on their march toward that place. Major Treat Avith his Connecticut troops was on the west side of the river at a consid- erable distance from this toA\ n. Notwithstanding their defenceless condition, the people of Springfield did not appear to feel, at first, any serious apprehension of danger threatening the tOAvn. Philip and his Avarriors Avere supposed to be engaged in distant operations S PR nVG FIELD, 16S6-18S6. 581 farther up the river, where he had the sympathy of the Indians. So the inhabi- tants of Springfield retired to their rest on the evening of Monday, the 4th of Octo- ber, 1<)75, -with a feeling of security. In tlie night they were aroused by a mes- senger from Windsor, Avith information that an Indian there, who lived in the family of Mr. Wolcott. had revealed the fact that a plot liad been formed to de- stroy Springfield, and that a large body of Philip's men had been admitted by the Springfield Indians to their fort on Long hill, about a mile south from the town, for this purpose. The alarm was immediately given to all the inhnbitanls, and messengers were sent to Major Pynchon and Major Treat. The villagers fled at once to the fortified houses Avith such of their more valuable effects as they could readily remove. At that time there Avere three fortified houses. One was the brick liouse of Major Pynchon, built by him in 16G0, standing near the head of Fort street, and known since, for many years, as the Old Fort. The other fortified houses were nearer the south end of the main street. Every preparation Avas made for defence that the nature of the case Avould alloA\-. But there Avas a painful consciousness of immediate danger. The peo- ple of the fortified houses aAvaited Avith sleepless anxiety the coming of day. The niglit Avore aAvay, and the morning of Tuesda}', October 5, dawned upon the Avatchers. It brought no confirmation of the fears. The risen sun disclosed no savage foes. The houses stretched along the street showed no signs of having been disturbed. Some of the inhabitants began to doubt the truth of the report from Windsor. Of this number Avas Thomas Cooper, who had been Ueutenant of the Springfield Company, a brave and experienced officer. He determnied to test tlie truth of the report from Windsor by making himself a personal visit to the Indian fort. Taking Avith him Thomas Miller, the tAvo set out on horseback doAvn Main street toAvard Long hill. They had just entered the Avoods Avhich skirted the settlement in that direction, but had not crossed Mill river, Avhen they Avere fired upon by some unseen foes. Miller Avas instantly killed. Cooper Avas mortally Avounded and fell from his horse, but succeeded in mounting again and rode to the nearest fort, before reaching Avhich he received a second shot and soon after died. The Indians then burst upon the toAvn Avith the greatest fury. Unable to gratify their thirst for blood by the slaughter of the people, who had taken re- fuge in the forts, they applied the torch to the buildings. About thirty-tAvo houses and tAventy-five barns Avith their contents A\ere destroyed. Major Pynchon's corn-mill and saAv-mill Avere consumed. While this Avork of destruction Avas going on. Major Treat arrived Avitli his forces on the other side of the river, but Avas unable to cross for want of boats. Nothing effectual for the relief of the town could be accomplished until about 582 SPRmOFIELD, 1636-1886. tlirot' o'clock in the atternoon. when Major P\ nchou with liis force of two hun- dred soldiers, after an exlia listing marcli from Hadley. arrived, only in time to see tlie ruin which tlie savages had wrought to the homes and property of the inliahitants. Besides Cooper and Miller, one woman, Pentecost Matthews, wife of John Matthews, was killed. Edmund Pringridays was severely wounded, and died a feAv days afterward. About forty families lost all their means of subsistence. Of the fearful incidents of that disastrous day I liavi' spoken on another occasion, and need not dwell further uixui tliem now. It was a time of great dis- tress, and came near to making an end of this town. But a brighter day dawned. Major Pynchon gave up the idea, whicli he at first entertained, of abandoning this frontier town for a safer liome in the eastern part of the State. He inspired his fellow townsmen with new courage, and trust in the protecting care of Heaven, and through all the remainder of his long life continued to devote his time and talents to advancing the i)rosperity of Spring- field. He died January 17, 1708, universally lamented. The estimation in wliich he was held by those who knew him is well expressed in a disct)urse delivered at his funeral by Rev. Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the church of Northampton, an eminent clergyman of that time. Taking for his text the first, second, and third verses of the third chapter t)f Isaiah, he said : •' A great man is fallen this day in our Israel, and it becomes us to mourn and lament under this dispensation. God has removed one that has been a long while serviceable, that has been employed upon public service for above fifty years. He has been serviceable unto the country in general, and in special among our- selves. He hath had the principal management of our military affairs and our civil affairs, and labored much in the settling of most of our plantations ; has managed things with industry, prudence, and moderation. He has been careful in time of war, and, as there has been occasion, he has been a peacemaker among us and helpful in composing of differences ; he has discountenanced rude and vicious persons, bearing his testimony against them. It is to be feared that we shall feel the sorrowful effects of his removal a long while. Sometimes where parents die. children do not at present so much feel the Avant of them as they do afterward. AVe may have occasion afterward to remember Avith sorrow that we had such an one among us. Though Ave have other useful men. yet there may arise such cases Avherein there may be great need of his conduct and lielp. He was honorable, and had great influence upon men of authority abroail and upon the people at home,.and had more experience by far than any other among us." To this justly deserved eulogium, uttered by one of his contemporaries Avho kneAv him Avell, I desire to add only a word. Springfield owes John SPRFNa FIELD. 16S6-1S86. Pynchon a debt of gratitude and honor, for all that he did and suffered as her preserver and benefactor, tliat will never be discharged until some memorial has been devised that shall adequately express in an enduring form her obligations to him as her foremost citizen during the first century of her existence. It is not my province to predict or anticipate tlie future of our city. We live in an age when knowledge is making rapid strides toward ultimate predominance in the world. Art and science have made wonderful progress during the half- century now closing. Xo man can foretell or foresee what the next half-century will develop or disclose. Nowhere, i)erhaps, is the ingenuity of men pushing more vigorously than in this valley the search for Avhatever will extend the boundaries of human knowledge and promote the comfort of man and the welfare of society. This enterprising spirit must have an important influence upon the coming generations in this city. The issue under heaven must depend on ourselves. If we are true to our responsibilities — if we perform faithfully our duties, both public and private — if we guard carefully against the intrusion of evil influences — if M^e cherish a regard for the memory of our fathers and maintain the standard of virtue, intelligence, and religion, which they established, there is no degree of prosperity and happiness, however exalted, to which we may not attain. Music by the Orpheus Club, assisted by Mrs. P. S. Bailey and Gartland's Band, followed the address. Ji'DGK Kkowltox. — The first settlers of New England were occupied with the practical affairs of daily life. It was not the beauty of the fair Connecti- cut, as eluding the two grim sentinels that stood hi her path, she escaped in graceful curves through this fertile valley to the sea, that attracted the attention and fixed the habitation of our fathers. It was her utility, as a bearer of bur- dens to and from the harbors on the southern shore, that made her priceless in their eyes. But their fathers in England had seen Shakespeare, and the spark of poetic fire Avhich they brought with them was buried, not extinguished, and it needed but a zephyr's breath to fan it into flame. Springfield now has poets not a few, and among them all there is none more beloved, or who sings sweeter songs, than he who adorns the judicial bench, and scatters by the wayside garlands of poesy. I introduce the poet of the day, Judge William S. Shurtleff. 584 SPRINGFIELD, IG3G-18S6. ANNIVERSARY ODE. BY JUDGE WILLIAM 'HURTLEFF. A timely thought, — Heaven sent, or by a happy fortune caught As it was wandering, like a floated seed. Seeking a soil in need, Its lodgment finding in a troubled brain That had been querying long, in vain, Why God in his just providence had wrought That reason should in all be free But action sometimes held in slavery, The servant of a single equal's will, — That somewhere in the new-found West There might be still, As yet concealed from keen Oppression's quest, Beyond the circle of the chainless sea, A haven God-reserved for Liberty. On Leyden strands A kneeling minister with heavenward hands Amid a tearful throng, Embraces close, and lingered long, Of separating friends. In parting that a life's association ends. And fervent farewells spoken fearing- ly,- A shallop beating out to sea, To westward sailed. Upon its prow a stately figure veiled, A cross within her hand. Her foot on Plymouth strand, And Freedom reached her heritage I Repressed in every Eastern land. Oppressed in every earlier age. At last she stood Untrammelled in the "Western solitude, Wherein, since air to sound was stirred. No irritated ear had heard The tones of tyranny, whose soil no step had trod Subservient to any one but God ! Above her haughty head Her pure white banner to the free air spread. Her cautious veil forever cast aside, Upon her girded waist displayed A gleaming blade She cared no more to hide, And facing to the Eastern sky Together sword and cross she lifted high. And, swiftly following hers. The feet of many hasteners, From out the cruel lands of eld, — The throne-emburdened lands, — Around the standard that she held Quick gathered on the narrow strands Between the wilds of wave and wood, A mightful multitude — With eager eyes Alight with hope and grand emprise, And hearts resolved with her to share Whatever fortune should await her there. Three thousand miles of separating sea Between them and the tyranny From which they fled, Three thousand miles Before them, open to their trustful tread, Of land in liberty ; Above them Heaveji's smiles Around them everywhere Extending to their bold adventurous eyes A new world uncorrupt and fair And free for every enterprise Consistent with their Christian creed, And in their ears God's own " God-speed I " 'Tis near three hundred years ago Since that brave pilgrim band Led by God's hand, As they believed and we their children know, (Accrediting the good that is the sequence of that planned In their heroic exodus), The pioneers for us And all who shall hereafter be Heirs of this land of liberty Upon this Western coast with Freedom made their stand. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 585 A quarter of a thousand years ago, These pilgrim-pioueers To westward wended from the eastward bay And hither plodded sturdily but slow (As needs they must through wilds would stay Their steps intrusive — from well- grounded fears That these stern strangers ill-disposed The calm in which the wood had long re- posed), And there, yon hill-top's brow below, They halted, pleased upon their rugged road, A\Tiere frequent fountains of sweet waters flowed, For needed rest awhile, and he Who led them, mindful of hie English home, To which his exiled thoughts would oft- times roam And mindful of the many sjrrings that yield Their largess still into the lower/eW, By cooling draught refreshed said grate- fully, •'Henceforth this spot shall 'Springfield' i)e!" Thus in their van, Leader by nature, and elect of man. Born to command, unfitted to obey. Spake William Pi/nclion, marshal of the day : " Had those adventurous men The troublous times that intervene Between the now and then. The toils and dangers Fate before them laid "With sight prophetic seen. Would they have undismayed Still followed Freedom in her perilous Cru- sade? " Ask of the Pilgrim statue there So sternly standing on our central square ! O Hartley! you, upon you pedestal of stone, Have better shown Than can the tongue of orator or poet's song Or History's pen, The spirit, mould, and measure of the men To whom the greatest glories of our belong; You have personified The pilgrim-pioneer and Puritan, Than which there none Of all the heroes yet by History descried In all the centuries flown. Since bravery in the world its deeds began, Stands forth so strong As type of God's intended manly man 1 The speech of orator, the poet's lay, And History's clearest printed page Will pass from memory of men'.s minds away. But there your work will linger long To passing generations' thoughts engage. And make them mindful of what men should be To win, and what they were who won, their liberty . Go, patriots of the present day Who valiantly at odds contend With every evil as it strides upon the way, And from those bronzed lips take cheer, And courage new that shall your hearts defend Against each fearing Doubt, each doubting Fear. Go, trifler of the present age, AVhose longest pilgrimage Extends from pleasures wearied of to pleasure's quest, And there, before that statute, prone, Your missing manliness bemoan, And, self-confessed, A pigmy by a giant's side, Make question then. If retrograding from his soul's selected plan Was possible for such a man. Ah no ! Those mighty men — Miles Morgan and his mates — Held God's commission here to bide And found His sovereign States; And bide they did and would have done, And biding, would have won, Against the threatnings of a thousand worser fates I The forest trees, Deep rooted here for centuries, Not firmer than their pui poses; The prehistoric hills Not stronger than their steadfast wills, The river at their side, — The massinsi of a myriad rills, 586 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1886. Re.sistless sweeping dowiiwani to the seas — Had not more trenchant tide Than their concurrent courses overwhehn- ing all Would hold their bodies or their souls in thrall. When to the Plymouth sands He bid the pilgrim bauds As pioneers advance To found a nation that should be The host of all the hosts that dare be fn But, ah ! could they have peered Adown the coming centuries, And seen in sequence swift unfold What our now retrospecting eyes behold, How had their hearts been cheered : Here, where they stood, With anxious but unfearing eyes. Surveying doubtfully the dismal wood That held, from them concealed, the wealth to be Their gift to their posterity. Ah ! had there been with them some bard Inspired to see, and seeiugsing To them the pennant that they bore, Succeeded by the banner many starred Round which our cheers rejoicing ring From eastern to the western shore. On land and ocean never fearing furled, Afloat above a crowded continent Of freemen of their own enfranchisement, Proclaiming to the watching world. Her latest and her greatest peril passed, Freedom secure at last. What comfort and content AVould his inspiring song have brought, To them so peril-fraught ! Ah ! had to them some seer foretold What now our prideful ejes behold Within the fairest bay That shelters commerce from the sea Where rises all triumphantly to-day The giant statue that shall stand Extending in its mighty hand To all oppressed of every other land The beacon light of liberty I Ah! happy sequence of the timely thought On Leyden strand '. O happy inspiration heaven taught '. O generous genius of Freedom - loving France ! Bartholdi ! you have wisely wrought In that momentous monument Expression of the end of God's intent But neither bard nor seer To them gave prophecy or cheer ; Xor did their visions seek to stray ' Bej'ond the dawning duty of each day. I If bards or seers there were they neither spoke j Or sung of warning or of hope ; Theirs only then to bend them to the yoke I Of present toil and stubbornly to cope With obstacles on every side Their onward movement stubbornly denied; They dealt with stern prosaic facts; And had no lime or mood for carolling; Xor were those days the days for poet's dreams; — They never sing Who are themselves for song tit themes,— Their poems are their acts ! And those men stood As Freedom's allies in her direst needs, The actors of an epic fuller of events, Of rare romance and daring deeds. Than any that the muse of any a^e pre sents, — An epic we continued, banishing the brood Of Freedom's foes in her last fray subdued, Of which the bronzed soldier there Xow picketed upon our public .square Companioning his Pilgrim prototype so well. Will to the Future's pilgrims tell. A quarter of u.thousand years have passed Since these few pioneers, Though peril-hunted and harassed Their courage still outmarching far their fears, Hither hewed the earliest pathway from the bay. By battling underwood At every step withstood ; — And homing halted here and were content to stay; No thronging to the self-same road — " The Bay Path "—now by steeples foresti-d. And garland-strewed, A vast procession of their sons appear.s — SPRiyOFIELD, 1636-1886. 587 In long and serried phalanx lined and massed, And at its head, As chosen leader still bestowed To guide these later pilgrims on their easy way, Rides William Pynchon, riui,-!<1inl of the day I Aye! still a Pilgrim band, Upon this midway mound (A foothill to the mountain of our hope, An Alpine altitude Unto our fathers, when they stood Upon their halting-grouud. Below upon the pathless plain) We make a momentary stand To take new horoscope And measure progress, and in resting gain Fresh breath for climbing to the higher height They scarcely saw with Faith's prophetic sight. And here we well may proudly pause And backward trace with well-contented eyes Each happy consequent to happy cause, — As lusty toilers, at noon-rest a-field. Review the well accomplished work that lies Behind them, promise of the generous yield With added toil in loaded wains shall come To glad their granaries at the harvest home — And here we might repentingly review The errors led our careless steps astray To wanderings untrue Unto the God-appointed path Whereon the pilgrim fathers took their patient way. To which turned backward by his wrath, Rebuked and lessoned, we at last have found Our feet upon this vantage ground, Successors of the pilgrim pioneers, And bearing still the standard that they bore (With added laurels wreathed) Each one a peer, and only such, 'mong only peers, Inheritors of all the wealth and lore Of all the centuries that have gone before, And heirs-apparent of the coming years, Inhaling freer air Than man in any other age or land has breathed. Our paths to choose, constrained alone to care To follow in the course that trends the way The Father of our fathers led them from the Bay. But not to us, as unto them, The task to stem Oppression's still pursuing wave That everrode the servient sea With following throngs of tyranny ; Not ours, as theirs, to brave The inland peril of the ambuscade. Our path secure is made ; On neither side Our ocean-guarded continent Dares any foreign foe display his tent ; On all the seas, Our ships at ease. Offending not, and unoffended ridt'. Protected by the menace of a flag that vies In glory won with all in all the skies ; No savage foes Disturb the quiet of our home repose; As safe as any star in heaven From onset from another star. Our perils come not from without or far— The wounds we have to fear are those self- given, — But this is festal day ; A day for gratulating song and speech; The pulpit and the press may preach But not the poet's lay Around this happy homestead hearth, "\,^Tiereto are called the wanderers, from the path Begun with us, who sought in pastures new A herbage sweeter than their home hills grew. And they have come at our behest; — Across broad prairies of the widening West ; Great oceans passing (pathways still For pilgrims that with freemen will Yet people every vacant rood remains Between the eastern and the western mains) ; From Xorthlands they persuade to yield The harvest of New England's fertile field; 588 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1S86. From Southern ])lains whose sensuous ease They have aroused to active industries; From crowded cities of the eager East Where Entei-prise sits goldeu-fleeced; Each prideful of his later choice, But all avowing with accordant voice Their loyalty, all other homes above, To this the city of their earliest love, Who, like a mild-eyed mother, at her mid- dle age, Content and cosey and serene and sage, With every added year Become more lovable and dear, As all New England mothers do Who Time to gentle treatment gently woo, Outspreads the old Thanksgiving cheer Before her children guests, assured that they With her are glad of one more homelife holiday ! And at the banquet she has spread Sit many not " unto the manor born," But to the manor warmly welcomed The fugitives forlorn : — And aspirants for liberty From every yet unliberated laud Around her crowded table stand, And she is smiling equally on all, Xor makes distinction, at her festival, Of race or color, rank or nationality. The Scotsmen with their kindred gift — Xew England thrift, — With Bismarck's absentees sit side by side Contented both to bide With us and Freedom fortune here; And, gladdened, draws a-near The sad Italian, in whose darkened eyes The gathered gloom of ages of depression lies ; And haught Hungarians, ever mutinous Against the edicts of the fateful day That gave them to the hated Austrian sway, Forego their fierceness here in feast with us; And here, the wrathful Russian refugees, Sojourning at their ease. Watch safely, from afar. The cordon closing round the Czar ; And hardy sous of Switzerland Have left their mountains grand With tales of glory of their own to tell. Half free at home, all free with us to dwell. And loiterers from the land of Lafayette, Whose gallant lance, — (Let no American forget On such a day as this that still uncancelled debt) — Stood for the sympathy and aid of France When both were sorely ueeded here, Take as of right a portion of the cheer ! And strangest sequel of our strange ro- mance, The self -expatriated Englishman, Withdrawing his allegiance From service of the gentlest Queen That ever sceptre swayed. Has here his home in preference made, Escaping so his part as actor in the scene That closes now the act America began ; And, near him at the banquet table sit (Of their parts, too, not yet acquit, Postponing them perhaps a \vJ3ile) The ousted owners of that injured isle — Ah ! once the land of laughter, song, and wit, — Where only Nature now is seen to smile— The ire-ful sous of well named /re-land, Compatriots of Parneil "The king uncrowned," whose more than sceptred hand Is raised to retribution's ready bell, In warning and command, — Descendants of the Pilgrims, in your needs They were your comrades in courageous deeds. Upon your every freedom-perilled plain Their blood as freely flowed as yours; The conquest that your peace secures They helped you gain. Send forth to-day across the sea To ears that wait it wistfully Your " God-speed Ireland to like victory! " And last, but far from least of all Who come to share our festival. Forgiving generously the wrong Repaired so late, endured so long. Sit those we have from our own slavery released. At such a feast There should not be — nor shall my sum- mons call — One spectre of the past ; one Futured fear. Xaught should be here SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 589 That Faith and IIopi^ and happy :Nremory Would have away ; Distrust and Gloom and boding Prophecy Must bide some other bard and day ! A quarter of a thousand years ago Our faith-led pioneers Here made an end of pilgrimage, Their object, as they thought, accomplished so, Contented in their simple spheres, No further purpose did their thoughts engage Than to Grod's instant willing know And do it instantly. But what say we, O Pilgrims of this later eager age? Where shall we fix in all the coming years The ending of our willing way ? When will your followers halt for hermitage, O William Pynchon, marshal of the day ? Ah, not until our latest energies Are lent unto the purposes That led our fathers here across the seas ; The pilgrimage by them begun Can be abandoned by no pilgrim's son. We have their duties with their dower inherited ; And go not of ourselves but, Heaveu-led, Each one an instrument Of God's will clearly manifest, On to the doing of his next behest. Search through the fabric of the Past, And trace the thread — Unparted and unf rayed from first to last That makes the warp on which is spread The wondrous wooi of our heroic history, And not one moment missed Nor once involved in mystery — The thread of God's intent — That will forevermore insist Till man shall weave thereon the last event Of Freedom's full accomplishment. From hence straight on. Upon the uncompleted pilgrimage Still Freedom's \var8 perhaps to wage, Our course and our successors' course is laid. And cannot be evaded or outstrayed Until the latest pilgrim's foot shall rest upon That farthest strand Which Time's last wasting wave Shall lapsing lave, Upon whose shining shore. With pilgrims who have gone before, Shall angels watching stand. With brightened eyes, to see The ending of the Leyden shallop's voyage of liberty. A quarter of a thousand years from now Another band of pioneers Shall pause to rest upon the brow- Of some far loftier height, We only see with Faith's prophetic sight, And, gazing back adown the years Upon our age shall say, " Ah, then and there the crucial time ap- pears ! They were wise men who met the issues of that day, — Men just, who set their bondmen free,— Men brave, who shed their blood. In lavish flood, Xot for their own, but all men's liberty,— Men fair, who filled the flaws Of justice — meting equitable laws ; That was the age When regnant stood Reform upon the civil stage ; The era when the red men long aggrieved Their wrested rights received ; The century when the color line Xo longer could the rights of man define; " When Capital and Labor sensibly agreed That each the other equally did need; When ISIammou was from pow-er dismissed ; When politics were purified And office its official sought And only merchandise was sold or bought; And, side by side, Accounted equals on the civil list. The Woman and the Mau Commenced anew upon God's primal plan. Ah ! those were pure and patriotic days ! " — Unto such praise. By lis to be deserved, from hence to-day The Pilgrim Pynthon^s spirit marshals us away ! ^^0 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. This memorable meeting closed with the singing of "America," and a benediction pronounced by Rev. John W. Harding, of Long- meadow. The event in the evening of Tuesday was the banquet at the Mas- sasoit Hotel. The dining-hall was decorated, and the guests were disposed at the tables as follows : — Table No. l._Hon. L. J. Powers, Hon. W. E. Locke, Hon. H. C. Greely Hon. L. J. Logan, Hon. A. B. Coffin, Hon. A. C. Chapin, Hon. J. Bourne,' General Dalton, Governor Robinson, Hon. E. D. Metcalf, Hon. E. H. Lathrop Lieutenant-Governor Ames, Hon. H. L. Dawes, Hon. G. M. Stearns, Hon. A.' E. Msbury, Hon. E. D. Allen, Hon. H. B. Peirce, Hon. J. H. Butler, Rev. 1. R. Pynchon. Table No. 2. - Geo. R. Dickinson, Hon. E. Wight, G. Bill, E. S. Flower J H. Newton, E. K. Bodurtha, A. F. Allen, N. C. Ne^^ell, C. L. Covell Wm' Birme, E. Stebbins, James Abbe, W. F. Fletcher, F. W. Dickinson,' J. B. Clements, H. S. Dickinson, J. S. Sanderson, John Olmsted, L. S. Stowe E Hedges, E. A. Russeh, C. D. Rood, D. Beebe, Rev. .L W. Harding, Hon. J j' O Connor, Hon. S. WinsloAv. TaUe No. 3.- Hon. G. Bliss, Judge W. S. Shurtleff, Rev. J. Cuckson, Samuel Bowles, Hon. W. H. Haile, E. W. Bond, Chas. Marsh, H. S. Lee, J. B Steb- bins, Captain Emery, A. Rumrill, Jas. Kirkham, J. S. Hurlbut, J. M. Cooley H D. Carroll, A. B. Underbill, E. Gallup, R. F. Hawkins, J. D. Safford, G h' Bleloch, Hon. G. Wells, E. W. Kinsley, N. A. Leonard, Hon. J. L. Houston! Hon. W. L. Smith. Table No. 4. -Judge A. L. Soule, Col. J. A. Rumrill, Hon. D. A. Wells Wm. Bhss, Col. Wm. Edwards, Hon. H. S. Hyde, C. A. Nichols, D. P. Crocker' Hon. E Gaylord, E. C. Rogers, F. A. Judd, W. K. Baker, Rev. M. Burnham,' R. O. Morris, W. O. Day, Col. W. P. Alexander, Maj. Z. C. Rennie, Dr. T. F Breck, E. Morgan, Col. M. V. B. Edgerly, Hon. H. M. Phillips, Col. M P Walker, Colonel Boynton, Colonel Greenough, General Nettleton Table No. 5. -Colonel Whipple, Colonel Currier, Colonel Stearns, Hon. W. Smith, C. P. Deane, G. N. Tyner, J. T. Abbe, W. H. Brooks, W. J Denver J. N. Keller, R. W. Day, J. G. Mcintosh, J. D. Gill, A. B. Forbes, A. B Wal- ace W. H. Wright, C. W. MuteU, T. M. Brown, J. L. Shipley, Hon. M G Bulkeley, Colonel Blakeslee, Colonel Hyde, D. J. Marsh, Gen. H. C Dwigbt Table No. 6. - Hon. B. Weston, J. H. Hendricks, Dr. Carmichael. E. Beld- mg, H. Smith, E. D. Chapin, E. P. Chapin, C. Fuher, Dr. Birnie, A. Birnie SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 591 Campbell Chapin. C. K. Stickney, N. D. Bill, Oscar Ely, F. D. Foot, C. A. Birnie, C. A. Fisk, E. Luther, Homer Foot, vS. B. Stebbhis, O. II. Greeiileaf. F. H. Harris, J. W. Cumnock, E. F. Hamlin. E. H. Lathrop being presented to the company by Mayor Metcalf, as toast-master, began the speaking by these remarks : — Appreciating the kindliness and courtesy of my introduction by His Honor the Mayor, it nevertheless is not my province or purpose to intrude upon the oc- casion with a speech. I am but the torch-bearer, and if I am successful in firing the fuse of eloquent talk of gentlemen about us, I am content. This anniver- sary marks the advance of successful civil government, and is the result of our American method of law, good morals, and good order, as well as of our local pride, enterprise, and growth. It is peculiarly appropriate that we should recog- nize now in our first sentiment a citizen loyal to good government, the repre- sentative head of the nation. As his representative, therefore, I call upon a gentleman as well known in this community as he is loved and respected. United States District Attorney, George M. Stearns. Mr. Stearns. — Mr. President and Gentlemen, — I thank you very heartily for the courtesy and the kind remembrance with which you thus compliment the President of the United States of America. I also thank you for permitting me to respond for him here to-night. It would be strange, indeed, if I were not desirous of so doing in view of the fact that by his generous favor I am now roll- ing in princely affluence, and I am just entering upon the rot and degeneracy engendered by luxuries which my magnificent salary affords. 1 can speak Avith the fullest confidence of the deep affection and high regard of the President of the United States for the city. [Tremendous applause.] For Avhom he loveth he chasteneth, and has he not just laid the warm, hot hand of his love upon you? No city east of the rolling waters of the Mississippi has thus been distinguished, and no other city has received such tokens of his fervent and abiding affections. I read in the " Union " of Saturday that the true reasons for the veto of the port of delivery bill Avere not contained therein, but that down under the surface, and deep in "unfathomable mines of never-failing skill." were treasured up dark designs and undeclared causes. I am not atithorized by the President to reveal those secrets, but any inquisitive Yankee can readily guess some of them. How could any one view this fair city, fringed Avith the daisy and the buttercup, the green fields and the silver river, its embowered homes, its shady streets, its hill and dale, its Stearns park [merriment], its Morgan monument, its City Hall, in ^^^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. which no words of contention or dispute were ever heard, and in which none ever will be, until the human voice attains proportions unknown even to Homer's giants. - endure the thought of casting over all the shadow of a great national mart? Do you think of the consequences that would have fallen on this city if they had not been averted by the President's generous act? Your elections now so peaceful, so simple, so friendly, so neighborly, conducted under the guileless guardianship of our friends, Powers, Hyde, Phillips, and a host of others, who hke them, have never sampled the arts of politics, nor been brought within the withering influence of a custom-house ring. Have you thought of the awful scramble for office that would have ensued? Do you say you could easily settle those matters among yourselves ? Then you reckon without your host. Do you thmk the resources of Chicopee are exhausted? [Laughter.] Do you imagine that the few contributions we have made to office have left us without a supply of material for public service? Do you forget that Berkshire lies within thirty miles of your custom-house door? and do you think that she would be so recreant to the traditions of the county, so false to the teachings of her history, that she will abridge the limitless sweep of her hungry hand? Fled like the golden sum- mer cloud would be the repose of this city when Berkshire's highlanders and Chic- opee's chieftains meet in battle array contending for the patronage of vour custom-house, and I behold poor Springfield, two hundred and fifty years ^old bowing her hoary head, and praying for her ancient peace, and serenity, and silence. The best recipe I have ever read for casting cannon was to take a great hole and pour iron all around it. It is satisfactory, because no matter how frequently you may fail, the hole remains uninjured; and so you have vour hole left (your beautiful Springfield), although the federal metal has refused to wreathe around It. What more do you need to make glorious this anniversary? Of far more importance are the ability, the integrity, and the honor of the municipal rules of the grand old cdty, than any federal aggrandizements, or enlargements, or acces- sories. It is of far graver import to you by whom, and bv what principles and what men your city shall be governed, than who shall be President of the United States. The conviction of Alderman Jaehne is of more value to the future his- tory of New York City than the distribution of federal patronage for the next fifty years. [Applause.] You have no scandal or stain on your municipal life. You stand here to-day looking back on your faint beginnings, made impressive by the dust that time has scattered over them, tracing your happy history to the present time, proud that your inheritance has not been made pathetic by sin, or a sor- rowing memory by wrong. What better purpose, what higher pride can vou have, than to keep unsullied the estate bequeathed to you? SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 593 Mr. Lathrop. — In the early days, Avhen the wise men of the East in Massa- chusetts Avere projecting their poHtical phms and purposes of state, they never decided important affairs until the " Elver Gods " of the Connecticut valley Avere consulted and heard from. Massachusetts has returned to her early custom. The " river gods" are yet hero, and potent in the politics and the material con- cerns of the Commomvealth. In response to our call, our friend, neighbor, and governor graces our occasion. Governor Robinson. — 3Ir. President and Gentlemen, — In behalf of Massa- chusetts, Avhom you delight so cordially to honor, I receive your testimonial, and shall bear it with me as your tribute. It comes not to me personally, for what- ever is accorded to the Governor of the State is ofRcial, and goes to the people as a Avhole and the government of Avhich he is so justly proud. My friend and neighbor on my left has spoken so eloquently of the whole United States of America that he has taken in the domain of Massachusetts, and still more closely the little village of Chicopee. Indeed, there is little left for me to say, and perhaps it Avill be all the more grateful to your ears and patience, for I know you are already adA^anced tAvo hundred and fifty years, Avith all the feebleness that comes Avith it, so you cannot bear very much at this hour, and I shall part Avith you Avith only a brief delay. Fortunately no one person present speaks for Massachusetts. She has voices in every town and city and at every point of her borders. For the time being one man stands officially for her, but everyAvhere her voice is heard. You have here at this board a long array of men, armed and equipped, impatient at the delay, to speak for the good old Commonwealth. It Avill be my gratification, therefore, to give them that opportunity, having already said in another place to-day something in her behalf. The toast-master has alluded to the place of my home, and it may not be out of place for me to speak of Chicopee ; to speak of her quietude, her good-felloAvship, and her good citizenship. Her mark in life has not been made in this year, but far back, before she was separated from the good old toAvn of Springfield. In fact, her attachment is so strong that she has draAvn many others Avithin the borders of her first settlement. My friend Stearns and myself, Avhile Ave could not woo the mother, have loved her daughter, and Ave love her still. Though aac live on the opposite sides of the street Ave are never jealous of our attachment to her, and never dare to say Avhich thinks more of her. It is the home and the place of men Avho this year and in many other years that are gone have made their mark on the business, the mercantile, and the governmental prosperity of the CommouAvealth. Do you need to be told in Springfield that your great man Avho led the Avay of transportation in Avestern Massachusetts found his birth in 594 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Chicopee? So it is not alone in the present year that the men of Chic;opee have been in the front and have gone into all parts of the State and country. Do you say that because Chicopee isn't a good place to live in? No, Chicopee is apt to say that they have gone because their presence was needed elsewhere, and they have gone where their strength was wanted. [Applause.] You may go north- ward from here, but you will find no natural line between Springfield and Chicopee. There is no actual separation between the two. Man may have tried to put them asunder, but God has joined them indissolubly, and there they stand, city and town, close together. She on the north has sought no other alliance since she parted with you temporarily, and she will not seek another. But if she does, it \v\\\ be a reunion with the good old town of Springfield. Whatever makes for the advancement of the city of Springfield contributes to the glory of Chicopee, and in everything that shows her prosperity rejoices our hearts. I thank you for your indulgence, and gladly give Avay to others who are to follow. Ex-Mayor William H. Haile, responding to the toast "The City of Springfield," said : — I am asked to respond to a toast which has been assigned to another, and to whom we should have all gladly Ustened ; but, at the same time, I have the feeling that any citizen who at such a time as this should refuse to respond to a call to appear in behalf of Springfield, even at the eleventh hour, would be a subject for proper discipline. This city may be pardoned if she seem to-night to be a little boastful. Our cup of joy is nearly full, and if we could have been made a port of deHvery, I think it Avould have overflowed. Let us hope that our senior senator and the representative from this district in Con- gress may yet persuade our President that for once he has made a mistake. This is Springfield's day, and she is proud of it. We do not wish to detract from the history of other towns, but we claim in various ways a somewhat remarkable record for ourselves, as regards growth, sound finances, and intellectual develop- ment, and we are surrounded by a galaxy of beautiful daughters. We believe that Springfield has a promising future. Relying on an overruling Providence, our people have but to do their duty, and we shall advance to a point of eminence which Ave can scarcely realize to-night. Thus we look into the future thankfully and hopefully. President A. E. Pillsburv, responding to the toast '• The Massa- chusetts Senate," said : — SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 595 Mr. Chairman, Mr. Toast-master, Citizens, and Guests of Sjyringfield, It gives me pleasure to be with you on tiiis festal occasion, and to add to the over- flowing congratulations which attend it, those of the less numerous and more modest branch of the Commonwealth's Congress, as you have styled it. I was pained to observe, Mr. Toast-master, that in calhng on me to speak for that body you did not favor us, saving an allusion to our dignity, with any expressions of complement such as you have liberally bestowed elsewhere. This was, doubt- less, an oversight, for you know that the Legislature has many virtues. We frequently manage to get through a day's session without doing any serious mischief. And if the good people of Massachusetts generally knew how much mischief we are asked to do, and hoAv much of that we refrain from doing, they would look upon the Legislature Avith a respect Avhich, I fear, that much-abused body has never commanded in their eyes. The strength of your own represen- tation there is one of the most creditable features of your history in the two centuries and a half whose completion you celebrate to-day. With the earlier part of that history I am bound to confess I am little familiar ; but in late years one of your most remarkable qualities, as it appears to us who live in the eastern part of the State, is the facility Avith which you acquire, and the urbanity with which you accept, the public offices. When a desirable place falls vacant in almost any department of the government we disinterested lookers-on down in Suffolk and thereabouts immediately say to ourselves, " What Springfield man Avill have that place?" And when it goes to a Springfield man it is but just to you to say that we always acquiesce in the propriety of the choice. I can see at this table at least two of your distinguished townsmen on whom the mark of destiny seems already to be set. Hoav fortunate it Avould have been if this anniversary had fallen one year later, AA'hen you probably could have graced your feast with a lieutenant-governor and a president of the Senate of your own production, instead of having to fall back on an imported article ! And speaking of imports I am naturally reminded of the cloud, no larger, indeed, than a man's hand, and not likely to be larger, the only cloud that dims the brilliancy of your prospects to-day, even by a passing shadow, cast by the late refusal of the Presi- dent of the United States to allow Springfield the empty honors and scanty emoluments of a port of delivery. Don't let that disturb you. Your distinguished fellow-citizen, the district attorney, has already pointed out to you that the denial of that boon is really a blessing in disguise. What are ports of delivery? There are hundreds of them, some hardly known even by name. " A breath can make them, as a breath has made." But there is only one Springfield. This splendid city, with all its wealth of character, association, and material prosperity, is yours still, and yours it will remain, while ports of delivery come and go unheeded. 596 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. You do not depend on the favor of Presidents. You can afford to laugh at a veto. The energy and enterprise Avliich have made Springfield what she is to-day, a monument of New England prosperity and an embodiment of the New England idea, will carry her on unchecked by accidents of fortune to new achievements and new glories in the future, and the congratulations and good wishes of the whole people of the CommouAvealth will attend her ouAvard march. Mr. Lathrop. — The Press. — To respond to this toast, I am pleased to pre- sent a gentlemen who, by inheritance and by instinct, by education and accom- plishment, most fitly illustrates and localizes tliis sentiment, — Mr. Samuel Bowles. Mr. Bowles. — Mr. Toast-master and Gentlemen, — Eor three generations my family have been engaged in the newspaper business in Springfield, and there appears to be some danger that a representative of the fourth generation may grow up to pursue the same calling. It has been one of the unwntten but respected rules of the house never to make a public speech. I felt, therefore, that I was running the risk of a hostile encounter Avith the shades of my an- cestors in accepting the invitation of the banquet committee to respond to the present toast this evening. But the call so stirred my pride in my heritage and my profession, that I could not decline it. After the eloquent exaltation of the press by your accomplished toast-master, little remains to be said in its behalf. The history of the press in Springfield, it may be claimed, without boasting, is a highly honorable one ; and the news- papers of the town have at least done their share in promoting its material groAvth and preserving its moral heahh. The marvellous development in the character and functions of our local journals, that has taken place Avithin the century that compasses their history, has been confined almost entirely to the last fifty years, the period during Avhich tlie telegraph, the railroad, and the steamship have broken doAvn tlie barriers that formerly separated toAvns and States and continents, and brought every part of the ciA'ilized Avorld into quick communication Avith every other part. During this time, too, there has gone on a wonderful improvement in printing machinery, enabling us noAv to circulate the neAvs of the day Avith a completeness and promptitude tliat a\ ould have been considered magical fifty years ago. The celebration of the two hundredth anni- versary of the settlement of Springfield occurred on a AVednesday. On the folloAving Saturday the local papers appeared Avith reports of the event, filling ■only three or four columns of space, and consisting largely of the letters from distinguished men read at the public dinner, and the toasts that Avere offered. SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1S86. 597 In an editorial paragraph the enterprising conductor of one of tlie papers said, " We think we shall be able in our next to give our readers the entire speeches of his Excellency, of the Adjutant-General, and of Colonel Winthrop." This would be ten days after the speeches were delivered. Mark the difference be- tween that time and this ! To-day our daily papers can hardly Avait for the speeches to be spoken, or events to happen, before they are offering their readers full and accurate reports of what has been said or what has occurred. A number of the foremost citizens of Springfield in the past have been more or less intimately associated with local journalism, and become a part of its liistory. AVllliam B. Calhoun, v.ho lionorably represented this part of the State in Congress at the time of our two hundredth anniversary, and was a man of a high order of ability, contributed liberally to the editorial columns of the local press. So, less frequently, did that rare companion and gifted laAvyer, George Ashmun, whose handsome presence especially graced occasions like this. The brilliant and genial William StoAve, Avhom many of us remember with pleasure, A\-as a regularly employed editor of one of the local journals. Ex-Mayor Will- iam L. Smith, also, to whose good taste and intelligent management, as chair- man of the citizens' committee, the success of this celebration is so largely due, was an able editor in his younger days, and would have responded for the profession this evening but for his frail health. That admirable and useful moral teacher, Dr. J. G. Holland, Avas another Avorker in the ranks of Avhom the fra- ternity in Springfield Avill e\'er feel peculiarly proud. These and others like them, men of position, of poAver, of conscience, and character, have made the press of Springfield Avhat it is to-day. Let us hope that their successors, in the present and coming generations, Avill seek to emulate their virtues, and to ad- minister Avorthily the larger trust, the heavier responsibility which the oppor- tunities of modern journalism lay upon them. Dr. Thomas R. Pynchun, of Hiirtford, Conn., responding to the toast "The first three mao-istrates of Springfield," said: — Mr. President and Gentlemen of Springfield, — I need not say that it gives me the greatest pleasure to be present on this occasion, for though our branch of the Pynchon family established themselves upon the beautiful shores of Long Island Sound nearly one hundred and fifty-eight years ago, yet Ave haveahvays regarded Springfield as the ancient home of our race, and taken the deepest interest in its prosperity. Avelfare, and success, and it is Avith feelings of no ordinary satis- faction that I rise to say a feAv Avords on behalf of my distinguished ancestor and his faithful friends, and attempt to justify his right to the title of Worship- 598 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. ful, by which lie is generally known in history. In order to do this I must take a brief survey of his career, for his life, from the beginning to the end, was a busy and eventful one. At this time, two hundred and fifty years ago, May 25, 1636, he was only fif- teen years of age, having been born at Springfield, in Essex, England, in 1621. He was, therefore, only nine years old when he was brought by his father to America, together with his mother and his three sisters, in the sMp "Jewell," one Hurlston, master, in company with the other vessels of the fleet that bore the Massachusetts charter to this side of the Atlantic. About ten of the clock, Easter Monday, those vessels weighed anchor at Cowes, Isle of Wight, and on Monday, the 14th day of the following June, they cast those same anchors in the inner harbor of Salem, in Massachusetts. In the course of a very few days they sailed again and landed their company at the confluence of two rivers, near the bottom of Massachusetts Bay. Winthrop planted himself at Charlestown, but Pynchon, almost immediately, removed to Roxbury, where we find him in the early part of July of the same year, and where he built a house, beautifully situated on rising ground sloping towards the east, afterwards sold to Governor Dudley and now occupied by the Universalist church. Hence the worshipful major, being now, as I have said, about nine years of age, first made his acquaintance with the great wilderness and with the copper- colored savages, in whose future liistory he was destined to play such an im- portant part. In the course of that summer, his mother dying, he passed into the care of his sisters, who were considerably older than himself, and a little later into the hands of Mrs. Frances Sanford. a grave matron of the church at Dorchester, whom his father married within a year. Of early schooling the worsliipful major probably had not much, but what he had, no doubt, came from Eev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, who arrived from England in 1631, and became the first minister of Roxbury, and from him he probably acquired that interest in the Indians and that knowledge of their character which was one of his leading characteristics during the whole of his life. Two hundred and fifty years ago it was a hurried and busy time in that house- hold at the foot of the Rocksborough clifPs. On the 22d of April his father had returned from his first trip, that season, to the Connecticut river, in order to ex- pedite the loading of the - Blessing of the Bay," as he wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., at Saybrook, at the river's mouth. On May 14 he was again at Springfield, and on July 4 was back once more at Roxbury. By July 15 he was once more in Spring- field, and the probability is that it was between these last two dates the famiry was moved, and that somewhere about the 8th or 9th of July the youthful major, being, as I have said, about fifteen years of age, gained his first sight of the Con- SPRINGFIELD, 2 636-1 SS 6. 599 necticut river, from the elevated point where the Bay path emerges, upon the top of the hill to the eastward of the toAvn, and caught his first glimpse of its mag- nificent curves as it sweeps through the fields of LongmeadoAv, and that he pres- ently found himself established in the little wooden house that had been built for the accommodation of the family, not far from the river's bank, and close by the very spot on Avhich we are now assembled. Here, no doubt, he enjoyed for schooHng the instructions of the Kev. George Moxon, and in his out-of-door life sailed up and down the river from South Hadley Falls to Enfield, and assisted in trapping beaver at Woronoco and in loading his father's vessels at Warehouse Point, and daily became more deeply interested in the dusky men who constantly tlironged his father's house ; and, no doubt, was present when a deputation of the Mohawks from the great river on the other side of the western mountains waited upon his father in order to present to him the scalp of Sassacus, the great Pequod chief, Avho had fled to them for safety, and which by him was carried to Gov- ernor Winthrop on his next visit to the Bay, together with his bloody hands. And in this school of business and affairs passed aAvay nine more years. Then comes his marriage, October 80. 1645, to Amy, the daughter of Gov. George Wyllys, of Hartford, and the owner of the famous Charter Oak. Four years after, in 1(350, when he was twenty-nine years of age, occurred the publication of his fathers book, " The Meritorious Price of our Redemption," and two years later, his return to England. Immediately after followed his own entrance upon civil and military life, as chief magistrate of the settlement and commander of the troops. Presently came the preparations, in 1658, for the erection of his great brick house, the Fort. During all this period prosperity flowed steadily in, and wealth accumulated. From Enfield and Suffield on the south, to the meadows of Deerfield on the north, most of the land was purchased by him, or through him, of the Indians, and nearly all subsequent titles are from him derived. Nor were his possessions confined to the Connecticut river valley, for Ave find him owning land in the Narragansett country, two thousand four hundred acres, between the Thames and Mystic rivers, to the east of New London. In 1662 occurred his father's death, and the year folloAving he visited England to settle the estate. In 1675 came King Philip's War, with all its anxieties, fatigues, and horrors, culminating in the burning of his settlement in October of that year. In 1679 we discover him assisting officially, as one of the assistants of the colony, at the imposing funeral of Governor Leverett in Boston. In 1680 we find him despatched to Albany with instructions from the General Court to get the advice and assistance of the Hon. Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of New York, to endeavor a treaty with the Schems and people called Mohawks, and they remind ^0^ SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. lum of his former visit to Albany, and their meeting him some four years before. No doubt in both journeys he followed the trail up the Westfield river over the mountains, and was thus the pioneer of the great iron road that now follows the same route, from his settlement to the same point. In 1659 began his legislative career, as a deputy from Springfield to the General Court. Erom 1665 to 1686, when the- government under the old charter came to an end, he was one of the Assistants, or Upper House. In 1686 we find him named by the Crown as one of the Councillors under Sir Edmund Andros's government of all New England. And finally, in 1703, when he was eighty-two years of age, and about one year after the accession of Queen Anne, and toward the beginning of the grand career of the great Duke of Marlborough, on the 17th day of January, he died, and was buried with great pomp a few davs after- ward on the banks of the Connecticut, which he had loved so well, and, as it were, under the shadow of Mt. Tom. The Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of North- ampton, preached the sermon, entitled " God's power shown in the death of useful men." He describes him as a man having great influence abroad asjvell as at home. It was the general feeling that a great man had indeed fallen in Israel. On reviewing his career, we perceive plainly that from 1650 to 1702, a period of more than fifty years, he was constantly engaged in public affairs. He was lionorable, and had great influence upon men of authority abroad. This is Mr. Stoddard's language, and he could not have had such a career if he had not possessed in an eminent degree those qualities which always command the respect of mankind. And in this career he was powerfullv supported by his brother-in-law, Elizur Holyoke, and by Samuel Chapin, whom vou have very justly associated with him in your remarks, and who was possessed of similar sterling qualities. He is said to have been much trusted and beloved by the Indians, and to have continued the wise policy of treating them that was com- menced by his father. Of this there is a notable proof in a letter from Jonathan Edwards, at Stockbridge, in May, 1751, in which he says "that the Mohawks desired that in future interviews and conferences. Brigadier Dwight and Colonel Pynchon might be improved, and as to Colonel Pynchon in particular, they urged their acquaintance with his ancestors, and their experience of their integrity." This I have always regarded as the finest compliment ever paid to the family, and its highest claim to distinction. The Brigadier Dwight here mentioned was the celebrated Gen. Joseph Dwight, who commanded at Louisburg and Lake George,' the ancestor of the Berkshire Dwights and of the Sedgwicks, and the brother of Col. Josiah Dwight, of Springfield. The Colonel Pynchon must have been, I think, my great-great- grandfather, William Pynchon, who married for liis wife Catharine Brewer, the SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 601 daughter of one of your early ministers; or else his brother, John Pynchon, who married the daughter of the Rev. Edward Taylor, of AVestfield. My conception of him is, that he was a wise, sagacious, sympathizing, honor- able, high-minded, religious, and friendly man, of immense capacity for business, a brave and energetic commander, a prudent counsellor, and possessed of all the qualities, the confidence, the affection, and love of men. He was, I think, a very different man from his father. His father was a great scholar and author, and a well-read lawyer, a man of a statesmanlike mind, a man who could conceive and assist in executing the plan of bringing the charter to this country, and of founding a new State. These great qualities are clearly shown in his Tetters to Governor Winthrop, printed in the transactions of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The son was possessed of the administrative qualities necessary to carry on a government that had been already founded. Thus, my fellow-townsmen, I have. I think, shown the reasons for the appli- cation to my distinguished ancestor of the title of Worsliipful ; it was because he possessed in an eminent degree all the qualities necessary to win and secure the confidence of the community. He was a man to whom men were attracted by his gracious qualities, whom they were inclined to revere, to Avorship, as it were. Hence he was styled the Worshipful Major. Mayor O'Connor, of Hol3^oke, responding for his city, said : — The " infant city"' of Holyoke, which I have the honor to represent to-night, is proud to own its kinship and anxious, I am sure, to show proper filial respect and affection for its honored and venerable parent, on this and all other occa- sions. Compared Avith Springfield, with its two hundred and fifty years of hoary tradition, Holyoke, even as a township, has barely reached the period of young- manhood. Reckoning age by date of city charters, Springfield may be said to be in the pride of manhood, while Holj'oke is but a stripling of twelve tender years. Originally a part of West Springfield (a pasture or a patch on the out- skirts, so to speak), Holyoke can properly claim to be a child of Springfield (its first-born municipahty) on the maternal side, perhaps, and Avith equal propriety can trace its noble lineage on the paternal side to the broad Connecticut liver, whose mighty forces have been transmitted and stand revealed to-day in no mean proportion in their joint offspring. Pardon, then, the boastfulness of youth, if, while Ave delight to honor our parents, and especially our beautiful and gifted mother, Springfield, Ave use, or abuse, this occasion to remind you all that both ■' mother and child are doing Avell," especially the ch^ld. Holyoke, I knoAv, wishes me to be modest, but also firm, on this point. 602 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Although not yet in our municipal teens, having set up housekeeping for our- selves, we gratefully accept the maternal hospitahty and extend our own. Two hundred and thirty odd years, however, is a long while to Avait for a like occasion to present itself within our borders, and Holyoke, therefore, authorizes me to extend the open hand of fellowship to-night, and to say that the latch-string is always on the outside, and a hearty welcome is Avaiting for the surplus popula- tion and capital of Springfield Avithin our gates. Already we proudly number a score or more of Springfield's brightest names upon the roll of Holyoke's suc- cessful business men, and Ave welcome them heartily, even though they prefer to seek the suburban quiet and repose of Springfield after the cares of the day in Holyoke. To the rising generation of Springfield, seeking fresh fields and pastures neA^ for the exercise of their inherent energy and enterprise, Ave extend a special invitation to join their fortune Avith ours, and reap Avith us the golden harvest of Holyoke's future. But this is a family party, and perhaps Ave have already spent too much time in admiring and praising the baby. Let me, in closing, add a personal tribute .to the liome of my childhood. Some one has said " that a recollection of old scenes and pastimes we often con- sider among the happiest moments of our Kves." Brought liere from my birth- place among the Berkshire hills, a child, educated in your schools, and entering my profession under the guidance and patronage of the noAv venerable Dr. Breck, I feel, and ahvays shall feel Avhile memory lasts, a warm afPection for Springfield and a debt of gratitude to her institutions, and I am proud of her record as the pioneer and preceptor of Avestern Massachusetts in all that makes for ciAdlization, education, and the progress of the human race. In the name of Holyoke, and for myself also, then, I greet you, I thank you, and congratulate you upon the record you have made as a representative New England city, and as an honor to the grand old CommouAveahh of Massachusetts. David A. Wells responded to the toast " Springfield — The flavor of old times makes fresh and sweet the new," and said : — Kemembering the Scriptural proverb, " A prophet is not Avithout honor save in his OAvn country," I could not help feeling greatly compHmented at receiving an official invitation to return to the place of my birth and participate in this memo- rable anniversary. Letting my memory run back also, some forty years or more, and recalling "how once upon a time" Elijah Blake— Avho Avas at that period pretty much all that the " Lord High Executioner," " The Lord Chief Justice," " The Lord Chancellor," " The Minster of Finance," and the " Chief of Police " ever avus to " Titipu" in the kingdom of the Mikado — fixed his eyes sternly on SPRINGFIELD, 1636-2SS6. 603 one of the back seats at a public meeting in the old Town Ilall on State street, and audibly remarked, "If that Wells boy and those other fellows don't make less noise and disturbance they will be put out,"— those other fellows being William L. Wilcox and Albert Kirkham, now " grave and reverend seniors," and the late Charles 0. Chapin of honored memory, llecaljing all this, I could have little thought that the time would ever come when the successors in authority upon whom the mantle of Elijah has fallen would ever wish that the " AVells boy " AN'Ould come back again. From which, I think, I have the right to infer that if I have made any noise or disturbance since then it has not been, as formerly, altogether of a disagreeable character. I do not know that it has ever occurred to any one to make an analysis of the motives that are influential in drawing one back to the home of his childhood. At first thought it may seem that such tendencies are the outcome of an instinct, born and inbred in everyone; something akin to love of country. A little examination, however, will, I think, lead to opposite conclusions. And in sup- port of this view, I would mention that a question recently put to a gentleman who emigrated from this vicinity elicited the following reply: "I was born in such a place," naming a town not forty miles distant from Springfield; "and it is the only thing in my life that I feel particularly ashamed of." I have never visited that place ; but from what I used to hear of it, I should think the native referred to might have had some good and sulficient warrant for his opinion. Again, I sat some years ago at dinner beside one of the merchant princes of New York, a man whose name is well known in commercial circles and in public affairs. He informed me that he was born in a little town in New York, just over the Berkshire or Massachusetts line ; that he had only been back to it since he left to bury his father and mother, and that "he never meant," if he could help it, to go back again. Further conversation disclosed the fact that his father was a farmer, the owner and cultivator of one of those sterile side-hill farms of that section of country ; a man Avhose fundamental idea of life was work and religion, as he understood it, — to work unremittingly during all the hours of daylight; and to meet any demands of human nature for diversity and recreation by attending meetings, and the study of the Assembly's catechism or such other literature as made up the scant libraries in those days of the supporters of old-time New England Calvinism, — among which he remembered was a well- thumbed sermon preached by the father of David Dudley and Cyrus Field, at a public execution, in which the culprit was advised that although he had been a very bad f ello\\ , and A\as still impenitent, there was ample time for conversion and a change of heart between leaving the church and reaching the gallows. It was no wonder, then, that my friend, under the circumstances, bought his own 604 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. time — as was then customary, before coming of age — of Ms father, and emi- grated ; and that the town where he was born never left upon his memory suffi- ciently agreeable impressions to have yet received from his present accumulated millions anything commemorative of his childliood, and in furtlierance of the interests of its present inhabitants, or is probably ever likely to be thus remem- bered. Therefore, I conclude that there must be something more than the mere fact of having been born in a certain locality that constitutes the attraction in later life to those who have been long absent to return to it; and that it is necessary, in order that such attraction may be powerful, that the impressions of early life, whicli are so strong that old men babl)le of them when all other memories have departed, should have been pleasant. And so far as Springfield is concerned, I think I can truly say, not only for myself, but for all other of its children who have wandered from the old home, that the early impressions received here were always most pleasant. Nowhere among all the towns of New England did the current of life run more sweetly and quietly than here. How vividly can I reproduce-the former picture of localities ! On the spot where we are now gathered stood the family home, embowered among great trees, of the Hookers, — judges, legislators, deacons, and town councillors. Next below was the great gambrel-roof parson- age of the First Church in Springfield. Where the railroad station is, grew some of the earliest and sweetest apples,— sweeter if they could be gathered without the privity of their owner, the Widow Hubbard. Where the railroad bridge crosses, was one of the most famous of shad fisheries. Across the street, but lower down, ran, as I think it yet does, the " town brook," once sufficiently pure to be so stocked ^y\t\^ trout as to admit of their being caught Avitli a scoop. Across the square rose, as now, the steeple of Dr. Osgood's church, which, to my childish imaginings, seemed something akin in height to the tower of Babel ; and upon the top of its spire still sits that wonderful rooster which, as all children were in- formed, always crowed whenever he heard the other roosters. How little then occurred to break the current uniformity : the publication of the " Weekly Kepublican ; " the annual town-meeting, which seemed always to occur when the weather was most unpleasant and the roads the muddiest, to the inconvenience of the multitude, who came up as the tribes of old to Jerusalem, from Cabotville, Chicopee, or Skipmuck, " Jenksville," " Sixteen Acres," Long Hill, and the Water-shops ; the tolling of the " passing bell," to indicate that some one of the little community had joined the great congregation; the annual train- ing of the Hampden Guards and the Springfield Artillery ; the occasional show ; tlie winter's lyceum ; the arrival and departure of the good steamers " Agawam ' or - Massachusetts," Peck, master ; or the departure before daylight, or the arrival SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 605 after dark, of the Boston and Albany coaches, Avhose head-quarters were at the Hampden Coffee House. Good society in those days breakfasted between six and seven, dined at twelve, and supped at six. Most people, also, were then of the opinion that night was the time to sleep; and, lest somebody should forget it, the church bell was rung regularly at nine o'clock, when it was expected that fires would be raked up and courting be discontinued. Few of the citizens had trav- elled farther than to New York or Boston ; and as for the one or two who had made the journey to Europe, it was thought that there Avas little more remaining for them, except the kingdom of heaven. How incidents that are regarded as now of little moment swelled to great importance in those earlier days is well illustrated by the circumstance that the completion, in 1805, of the great bridge across the river, at the foot of what was then " Bridge lane," was considered of sufficient moment to require the preaching and printing of a sermon, by one of the most noted of New England divines, namely, Rev. Joseph Lathrop, D.D., pastor of the First Church in West Springfield. And from a copy of this now rare sermon which has come into my possession let me read you a brief extract : " Who among us, twenty years ago. expected to see the two banks of the Con- necticut river united at Springfield by a bridge which should promise durability? Yet such a structure we see, this day, completed and opened for passage, — a structure which displays the wealth and enterprise of the proprietors, and tlie skill and fidelity of the artificers, and which will yield great convenience and advantage to the contiguous and neighboring towns, and to the public at large. In a work of this kind there is the same reason to acknowledge the favoring and preserving hand of God, as in all other enterprises, and more in proportion to its complexity, difficulty, and magnitude. The structure which we this day behold suggests to us a most convincing evidence of the existence and government of a deity ; and also of the importance of civil society and of a firm and steady government." It is noAv the opinion of those most qualified to speak that there is hardly a single department of history, ancient or modern, that does not require to be reinvestigated and rewritten. But be that as it may, the inner, domestic, and social life of the people of New England has certainly never yet been fully explored and written; and it constitutes a most promising and inviting field, not only for the historian, but also for the novelist. Mrs. Stowe has worked this mine somewhat in her "Sam Lawson" and •' Oldtown Stories," and in the romance of " The Minister's Wooing," as has also Rose Terry Cooke in " Mrs. Beulah's Bonnet" and " Squire Paine's Conversion;" and in all literature there is no story clothed in purer English, richer in word painting, or more ingenious and delicious in plot, than " Twice Married." written by Calvin Philleo, of Suf- 606 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. field, who died Avlien the guild of literature had hardly made his acquaintance and who gave promise, if he had lived, of developing into one of America's greatest masters of fiction. What a wealth of character, material, and incident is embraced within the memories of Springfield during the fifty years or more prior to the advent of the railroads ! Stephen Burroughs, the rogue, whose memoirs, with " Kiley's Nar- rative," were read with wonderment by more than one generation of this vallev. Thomas Blanchard, the inventor, who built the steamboat " Massachusetts " on a lot on South Main street, and then drew it on massive solid wheels, with long yokes of oxen, amidst a wondering crowd, to its launching-place, at the foot of Elm street; and A^^ho, stimulated by a taunt of an armorer engaged in carving gun-stocks -that he could not spoil his business," invented that most A^^onder- ful machine for turning irregular forms, including such an irregular thing as a gun-stock. Elijah Blake, the terror of evil-doers, who seems to have extended his life to some fourscore years or more by becoming transfused with the toughness and strength of his own leather; Uncle Bill Cooley, the^ld sexton, who gathered in nearly two entire generations before he himself was gathered! William Ames, son of Fisher Ames, who for many years made two visitations to the town annually, and timed his visits so coincidently with the arrival of shad and the celebration of Thanksgiving, that not a few people, it is said, remained doubtful as to the exact time of these events until the presence of Mr. Ames in town was known to be a certainty. Captain Peck, the hardy navigator, who for many a season breasted the storm of the Connecticut, and safely guided his craft over the rocks and terrors of "Enfield Rapids." Eleazar Williams, the once prince of inn-keepers, who was so famed for his politeness to all, and his special courtesy to ladies, that it is said of him that once upon a time, com- ing unexpectedly upon a setting hen and perceiving her to be disturbed by his intrusion, he took off his hat gracefully, and bowing respectfully, speedily re- tired with the remark, "Don't rise, madam, — don't, I pray you." And last, but not least, that grand old man. Rev. Samuel Osgood, D.D., to whom Gold- smith's lines to a country clergyman are fairly applicable, — Remote from towns, he rau his godly race, Xor e'er had changed nor wished to change his place. New England never produced a more original cliaracter, more fertile in wit, more keen in repartee. One anecdote illustrative of the latter quality, which I will venture to relate, and which I think has never found its way into print, was told me by the late Gen. Dan Tyler. The general, when fresh from West Point SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 607 was ordered in company with two or three other young officers to Springfield, in connection with the armory, and to help pass the time pleasantly, a sort of social club was organized, and a meeting and reading room rented and fur- nished, on the same entry with the post-office, which Avas then kept by Daniel Lombard, in a little wooden building on State street. At this club Dr. Osgood was a frequent visitor and always a welcome guest ; and on entermg one day and asking the news, he was informed of a new engagement of a certain young and buxom damsel, the daughter of one of the first families, with an elderly bachelor, who was also one of the Avealthiest and most distinguished citizens of the town. " Well, doctor, what do you think of it? " Avas asked. " Think of it? " he replied. " I think there is a good deal of money got by marriage that better be hired at 6 per cent." The doctor was probably also the originator of the old story, Avhich runs to the effect that, visiting a sick man, and admonishing him upon the necessity of a change of heart, he Avas interrupted by the rejoinder from the patient, " I don"t think you understand my case at all, doctor. It isn't a neAv heart that I Avant, but a ucav liver." Eev. Dr. Sprague, Avho Avas for a time settled in West Springfield, Avas a man of great culture and refinement, and especially observant of all the '• proprieties" of his profession. Engaged to supply the pulpit of Dr. Osgood on one occasion, the latter announced him to his congregation as folloAvs : "On the morning of the next Sabbath Brother Sprague Avill occupy my place, and blow from the silver trumpet of the Ncav Testament, but in the afternoon I shall be present and Avill give you the ram's horn of the Old." And then if it is the more comic, as Avell as the poetical side of human nature that is to be sought, Avhat can be more originally ludicrous than the famous poem, or elegy, of " Springfield Mountain," Avhich has almost become a classic in English literature, and Avithout a sufficiently proper notice of Avhich any historical revicAv of Springfield Avould, it seems to me, be manifestly most incomplete. This elegy Avas Avritten by one Nathan Torrey, a citizen, at the time, of Springfield, about the year 1761, in commemoration of a tragic occurrence that caused a great local sensation at the time, namely, the death, from the bite of a rattlesnake, of the son of Lieutenant Mirrick, Avho resided in that part of the town which Avas then known as " Springfield Mountain," and Avhich Avas afterward incorporated as a toAvn by itself, under the name of " Wil- braham," — a name in some Avay undoubtedly derived from an old English family by the name of Wilbraham, Avhose ancestral records and sculptured memorials are still preserved in an old church at Chirk, in Herefordshire, on the borders of Wales. Nathan Torrey A\as an odd genius, and removed to Hinsdale, Berkshire county, about the tiine of tlie Revolution, and is said to have been the first settler of that 608 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. town. When the steeple of the Congregational Church in Dalton Avas raised, the parson, it is said, called upon Torrey for some poetry suitable for the occasion. He agreed to so do, and at the proper time took his stand before the audience, looked up at the steeple, then at the minister, and next at the people, and gave utterance to the following : — Little church, tall steeple, Blind guide, ignorant people. As the newspaper reporter Avas not round in those days, Ave have no knowl- edge of Avhat happened next ; but we can imagine what the ministers and the people thought, and, perhaps, of what they said. But I fear I have exhausted your patience and left myself but little time to speak of my boyhood associates. Springfield has many distinguished names on the roll of her sons. But the num- ber of boys who have notably made their mark from the comparatively small class of my school associates is, T think, someAvhat remarkable, ^avo Avere successful sailors, and walked the quarter-deck as captains of as noble vessels as ever flew the American flag. Four became general or field officers in the War of the Eebellion, and two fell on the field of battle at the head of their columns. One AA^as avowedly at the head of the editorial profession of the country. Three have risen to the front rank of the legal profession in the cities of New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Two now stand at the head of Ngav Eng- land's greatest railroad corporation, while another is at the head of Massachu- setts' railroad commission ; tAvo have become successful merchants in the Cen- tral West and on the Pacific ; and of the names of those who have remained at the old home, if they are not Avidely known, it is simply because to them the opportunity to become distinguished has been more limited. To be present upon such an occasion as this cannot, however, be a Avholly un- mixed joy to the sons of Springfield, who return to her after long absences, and the words of Rev. Dr. Peabody, in his address at the dedication of the Spring- field Cemetery in 1841, come back to me noAv AA^ith a fulness of meaning Avhich they did not convey when I heard them delivered : — '' When the native of this town, after long absence, returns to the home of his fathers, he Avill walk the streets, and all whom he meets will be strangers. He Avill inquire concerning familiar dwellings, and the names of their inhabitants will be ncAv ; and Avhen he meets his old acquaintances he Avill find that they know not the Joseph of former days. He Avill be forlorn and solitary among the living, and will not feel at home till he comes to the mansions of the dead. Here he Avill find the guardians and the playmates of former years. Here will be all SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 609 whom he used to reverence and love ; and here the heart will overflow with emotions." Gen. H. C. Dwight, of Hartford, said : — I regret exceedingly that our honored Governor of the Commonwealth of Con- necticut is not present to respond to your very complimentary toast to Connecti- cut, the State he honors, serves, and loves so well. In his name and for this old CommouAvealth I thank you for your cordial greeting, your neighborly interest, and kindly good-will. Connecticut heartily reciprocates them all, and congrat- ulates the ancient town of Springfield, on this her anniversary day, on her prosperity and success ; on what your city represents to-day, — enterprise, energy, happiness, and wealth, — one of the many pleasant, bright, prosperous cities of our sister CommouAvealtli of Massachusetts. Connecticut has now in her borders some of your former territory, and though not naturally covetous, 'tis a pity when the line was drawn including Enfield, Somers, and Suffleld in Connecticut, it was not put far enough north to have included your Avhole town. In fact, we could include the whole of Massachu- setts, so kind is our regard and so great our love for you. The same spirit was in your founders as in those of our beloved State, — the spirit of liberty, of government by the people, of freedom of worship, of free education, animated them, and the same spirit actuates them to-day. The people of Massachusetts and Connecticut have the same characteristics, — those of energy, industry, frugality, generosity, and inventive genius. The hum of their industries is heard, the products of their skill are known around the Avorld. In war both have proved their valor through these two hundred and fifty years. In peace both have gone hand in hand to the highest success ; no bickering nor enmity has been known, but as neighbors we have both gloried in the success of the other. The white flag of Massachusetts and the blue flag of Connecticut are both com- bined in the flag of our glorious, united country, each star shining as brilliantly as when first placed in the flag of our Union; and so may they shine, made more and more brilliant by the honor and righteousness of their people till the " perfect day." The town and city of Springfield may Avell and gladly welcome home her children, wherever they may be. Happy those who have never wandered from her pleasant firesides ; happy those who have so plea;sant a home to return to, Avel- comed by a happy, prosperous people, who have worked for, deserved, and earned success. We of Connecticut come with good wishes, and strong, hearty desire for your continued prosperity and success. May your future be in Avays of pleasantness ! As in the past two hundred and fifty years, so in the future 610 SPRIXGFIELD, 1636-1S86. times. Ave promise to be good neighbors, active, earnest workers with you for tlio i^rosperity of the State and nation, joining with you in every good word and work. United States Senator Dawes said : — Mr. Chairtnan and Gentlemen, — First let me thank you for this kind manifes- tation, and say that I am quite aware, at this festival of the sons of Springfield, that the time belongs to others, and not to me. I would be quite content to yield it all to those Avho have so many pleasant, friendly memories to recount to de- light and charm you. I know it becomes me to make acknowledgment of this toast in tlie briefest possible manner: but before I do that, j'ou Avill pardon me, even at this late hour, if I make my bow to the city of Springfield. She has Avon my heart to-day, and I am quite impatient to make avowal of the attach- ment. I have been captivated by tlie regal splendor Avitli Avhicli she has come forth to receive our congratulations upon this most distinguished of all her birth- day's, decorated and blushing like a bride, and yet as stately and dignified as a matron, swelling Avith pride as her children gatlier around her Avith their offer- ings. She receives our offerings, she receives our congratulations, and acknoAvl- edges the compliments Ave pay her Avitli becoming grace and dignity. Increasing years, as has been said so many times to-day, have not brought to her decrepitude or decay, but perennial youth and beauty adorn her broAv. The mother of a grand array of toAvns and cities Avhich have sprung up along this beautiful valley, she is yet the youngest of them all (applause), "the fairest of her daughters since born." Could the cities of Ncav York and Boston have seen her to-day in her glory, they Avould have been ashamed of that petty jealousy and rivalry to prevent her being a port of delivery for foreign commerce. But they fight against the stars, and their discomfiture, as Avell as her triumph, is certain in the near future. This spectacle Avhich Ave have Avitnessed to-day could have been Avitnessed noAvhere else but in this country, and under no other government but ours ; for noAvhere else could those elements of Massachusetts' groAvth, Avhich made her successful as the founder of toAvns and of States, have had free scope and development. I should have been glad, Mr. President, to have spoken of the place and functions of the United States Senate in that government, liad you not reminded me before I got up that there Avould not be any time to say much of anything to you on the toast to Avhich I Avas called to speak. But, sir, if I cannot say any- thing more, there is some satisfaction in saying that the United States Senate needs no defence or encomiums from me. It Avas placed in the Constitution of SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 611 the United States to protect the smaller States from the encroachments of the larger ones. It is the bulwark of the smaller States in the midst of those greater and more numerous, Avithout which the uncontrolled members would submerge and swallow them up ; and so important its provisions of equality of vote among the States, guaranteed in the Senate, appeared to the founders of our institutions, that they so built it into the Constitution that it cannot be taken out by any amendment, as every other provision of that Constitution can be. Massachu- setts holds the guaranty of her equality in the Senate by title absolutely inde- structible as long as the government endures. It can be Avrested from her only by revolution, or by revolutionary surrender. In that body Massachusetts has had in the past representation always worthy of her great name, and the high commission with which she has intrusted that representation. After the two great names of Webster and Sumner, the illustrious in history, the old county of Hampshire of blessed memory — alas that it was ever divided I — stands forth in the front rank with the names she has furnished to that representation. Caleb Strong, one of the first senators for Massaclmsetts, stern, stubborn, in- corruptible, and patriotic ; Ashmun, a name illustrious in both houses of Con- gress and at the bar of the Commonwealth ; Mills, the scholar, the statesman, and orator of a listening and charmed Senate ; Isaac C. Bates, whose voice rang in my ear like a silver trumpet the first time when a boy I entered the court- house at Northampton, and whose mantle is now worn so gracefully and so worthily by a descendant of the same stock in your neighboring town. These Avere the " River Gods" of their day (applause), and to these illustrious names the old county of Hampshire may point her present and future generations for ensample and for emulation. Railroad Commissioner Kinsley said : — 3Ir. President and Gentlemen, — It was always my luck when a boy in Spring- field to be put at the tail-end of any fun that was going on, but I generally got in. And now, at 12.45 in the morning, after you have listened to the eloquent speeches that have been made, I am called upon to say a few words for the '' old boys " of Springfield. I Avill begin where my friend Mr. Ames Wells left off.. He spoke of a worthy gentleman, Mr. Elijah Blake, Avho used to be the terror of the boys. But there was another worthy gentleman, whom I remember and whom you all remember very well, Mr. William Hatfield, who was a constable of the town, and who took care of the boys that sometimes made fun at Dr. Osgood's church. I remember one time Avhen the missionary spirit was prevailing in Springfield, 612 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6. and every one Avas very much interested in the mission of Mr. Armstrong at the Hawaiian Islands, that every little while the Sunday school made contributions for his and other missions. But Mr. Armstrong's mission generally brought more of our pennies than any other ; for we knew Mr. Armstrong, and he some- times sent curiosities to Springfield to be shoAvn to the Sunday-school scholars of Mr. George Merriam. I noAv recall that a contribution Avas to be taken up one Sunday afternoon for this mission ; and the Saturday evening before, the boys met, as Avas their habit, in front of a Avell-knoAvn store Avhich did consider- able trade with Mr. R. M. Cooley, Avho made soap and candles. The agreement Avith the firm and Mr. Cooley Avas, that they should take their pay in pennies for clothing bought of them ; so that they had under their counter a large dry- goods case almost filled Avith pennies, — old-fashioned cents. This evening the boys changed their ninepences and quarters into cents. The next Sunday afternoon Ave all sat in the old square pcAv, in the corner of the gallery, and in due time the contribution AA^as to be taken up. Mr. Hatfield, Avho Avore an old-fashioned Avhite AA'ool hat, one of the kind that you can bloAv upon and make AvinroAvs, and one that had been Avorn long enough to have the edges a little bit tender, began to take up the contribution. He Avent doAvn to Charley Childs's pcAv, Avhich Avas in tlie front roAv, and took his contribution, and then he came up to the pew where Ave boys Avere. We commenced to unload our pennies into the hat, chucked them in Avith some considerable force, and after the contribution from this pcAv had been taken up he began to go doAvn the aisle to take up further contributions. As he Avent along the toj) of the hat opened and the pennies began to drop out. Pretty soon the hole became larger, and down went the pennies on the floor Avith a tremendous crash. Dr. Osgood spoke, and said that if Mr. Hatfield Avould Avait there Avhere he was then standing he Avould pronounce the benediction. The benediction AA^as pronounced, and then the question arose among the boys as to hoAv Ave were to get out. We could not jump out of the AvindoAv, and Ave Avaited and waited to help to pick up the pennies. By and by Ave made a dash for the door. Mr. Hatfield was ahead of us on one side of the door, and Mr. Blake on the other ; and before Ave could pass either of them our ears got a fine twisting, and some of us, after Ave arrived home, wished that our trousers had been reinforced. In my travels around the Avorld I often go back, in mind, to this, the most beautiful city, in my opinion, that there is anyAvhere. There is no city that begins to be located as this is, on this beautiful riA'er, and so diA^ersified as it is with hill and valley. It seems to me that the trees are greener in Springfield than anyAAdiere else. But, after all, the great glory of Springfield is in the men and Avomen it has produced. AVhy, just think of it, gentlemen ! Go back fifty years and look for a SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 613 moment at the missionary spirit which then existed, and of the great number of missionaries that Avent out from this town. At this moment I recall the names of Van Lennep, Calhoun, and the Blisses (and there are others whose names do not come to mind now), men who have been stationed all over the world, and who have carried good living and pure religion Avherever they have been. This, in itself, is glory enough for Springfield. Consider, for a moment, that the Episcopal Church, which was formed here by the Eev. Henry W. Lee, has sent out three bishops, —Bishop Lee, of Iowa, Bishop Littlejohn, of Long Island, and Bishop Burgess. That, in itself, is glory enough for Springfield. I recall, Avith a great deal of interest, the name of a quiet, modest man, Avho, although he started his enterprise in another place, succeeded in bringing the manufacture of india-rubber to a high state of perfection in a shop now stand- ing on Mill river. I allude to Mr. Charles Goodyear, whose name is world- renowned. I remember distinctly a little incident which happened during his life in Springfield. He was very poor, and one day was arrested for the non- payment of a debt. He was put in the jail limits. He had a suit of clothes making at a tailor-shop in Springfield, and on Saturday night, when the clothes were to be delivered, one of the firm said that Mr. Goodyear was at Sheriff roster's. But he said to the trotter-boy in the shop, " When you go home, take Mr. Goodyear's suit of clothes to him, and tell him that he can pay for them when it suits his convenience." On his way to the jail the boy stopped at his home for supper. A barrel of fine red apples had been delivered that afternoon at the boy's house, and his mother requested him to unhead it. He did so, and took out of the barrel one of the largest apples and put it in his jacket-pocket. He then started for the jail, which was near by, to deliver the clothes to Mr. Goodyear. To his surprise he found Mr. Goodyear reading in Sheriff Foster's office!! He was not behind the bars, but was only in the jail limits. He deliv- ered the clothes and the message of his employer. It occurred to him that, perhaps, the red apple would be acceptable to Mr. Goodyear. He took the apple out of his pocket and handed it to Mr. Goodyear, who thanked him very kindly. On the Lst of January, 1854, this young man was in Paris, in John Munroe's office. It was Sunday, a fete day. Lord Palmerston and other notable Englishmen were there conferring with Napoleon about the allied army. The young man went into Mr. Munroe's office and sat down to read some letters that had been received there for him. After he had finished reading, he looked up and saw in the next room Mr. Goodyear. Soon Mr. Munroe came to him and said. " Do vou know that gentleman?" pointing to Mr. Goodyear. He replied that he did: that the gentleman was Mr. Charles Goodyear. ^Ir. Munroe then ^14 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-JS86. said, "He wishes to see you." The young man then went to Mr. Goodyear, who looked up from the desk at which he was writing, and said, " How do\vou do? You are from Springfield, and used to be a clerk for Palmer & Ckrk. Do you remember a certain red apple wliich was given to me once? " The young man replied that he did, and that he was very glad to know that circumstances had greatly changed ; and also that he had noticed with a great deal of interest what had been said of Mr. Goodyear, especially in regard to india-rubber pon- toons, which he Avas then making for the French government. After a pleasant conversation, Mr. Goodyear asked the young man to step around to his liotel at 12 o'clock. The young man did so, and soon he was invited by Mr. Goodyear to drive witli him to the Bois de Boulogne. The emperor, one other distin- guished party, Mr. Goodyear, and the young clerk from the Springfield tailor- shop were the only ones that drove that day up and down the avenue behind four horses. Mr. Goodyear showed this young man great attention afterwards, and they were constantly talking about Springfield. Why, gentlemen, the fact that Charles Goodyear carried to such great perfection his india-rubber inven- tions in this town is glory enough for Springfield. In my travels over the country I find, all the way from Halifax to San Fran- cisco, men scattered along the railway lines who have graduated from this Boston & Albany Railroad. And it is only a few days ago, when in the far West, I met several men of my set, and every one of them said something about this beauti- ful old town. They mentioned the names of friends whom they knew as boys, and after whom they asked with most affectionate tenderness. I should do them and myself injustice if I were to sit down without naming one, a lady, most beautiful in appearance, most dignified in her bearing, and lovely in her char- acter, who has done more for the boys of Springfield than any one person that I know of. She is now living among you, and I mention her with the greatest veneration and respect. Miss Margaret Bliss. I also Avish to mention three men (there are others, but these three names come to my mind at this moment), from whom most of the boys have received kind words of encouragement some' time in their lives, which they would never have had if it had not been for these three gentlemen now living among you, and after whom the boys always inquire when I meet them in my travels through the country. I allude to Mr. Homer Foot, Judge Henry Morris, and Mr. Henry Fuller, Jr. And all I desire is, that the men of to-day will continue and carry out the enterprise and high principles practised by the men of noble character of the last fifty years. Speeches were also made by the Rev. John Cucksou, of Spriugfield, and Rev. Mr. Harding, of Lougmeadow. Many letters of regret SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6. 615 were received, includiug a cordial one from the venerable George Bancroft. Gen. W. H. L. Barnes, of San Francisco, took occasion in his letter of regret to recall at length the scenes of his boyhood. Thus closed the most interesting banquet given at Springfield in this o-eneration. CHAPTER XXIII. May 26, 1886. The Second Day of the Celebration. - The Children's Concert. - The Procession. - Distinguished Guests. - Historical Representation. - The Veterans in Line. -The Trades.- The Grand Ball at the City Hall, n^hich closed the Ceremonies of the Great Celebration of May 25-26, 1886. The first feature of the second and closing day of the celebration was the children's concert in Court square. Raised seats to accom- modate nearly two thousand were put up in front of Odd: Fellows hall. The square was full of interested people, and tlie children of all the public schools, under the skilful direction of Prof. F. Zucht- mann, gave a charming entertainment. Military bands played before the children began. " The Puritan March," composed for the occa- sion by Prof. Edward B. Phelps, was rendered by Gartland's Band, and was received with great favor. The children began their concert with the " Pioneer Hymn," beginning Send forth a shout of holy joy! The words were written by a citizen of Springfield for the occa- sion, and were set to music by Professor Phelps. Many patriotic choruses followed, and were warmly received. The bands concluded the concert. But the event of the day, and, to many, of the week itself, was the procession which formed at 1 P.M., the first division being stationed on North Main street, and the others forming upon the various side streets, and falling into line as the column passed down Main street. The order of march was as follows : SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-18SG. 617 Two ^Mounted Police. Platoon of Police under command of Capt. Edward H. Boecklin. Chief Marshal, William Pynchon ; Major Samuel B. Spooner, Chief-of-staflf ; Charles W. Mutell, Adjutant, and aids. FIRST DIVISION. Assistant Marshal, Col. Homer G. Gilmore, and aids. American Band of Providence, R.I., twenty-five men, D. AV. Peeves, Leader. First Regiment Drum, Fife, and Bugle Corps of Boston, twenty-five men, James F. Clark, Drum-major. Co. B, Second Regiment M.V.M., of SpringfieUl. Co. G, Second Regiment M.V.M., of Springfield. Co. D, Second Regiment M.V.M., of Holyoke. Battery from United States Armory. Invited guests in carriages, as follows : — Governor Robinson, Mayor Metcalf, and Adjutant-General Samuel Dalton, of Salem; Gen. E. P. Nettleton, of Boston, and Colonels H. S. Boynton, of Boston, J. J. "Whipple, of Brockton, and T. E. Currier, of ]\Ialden, of the Governor's staff; Colonels Myron P. Walker, of Belchertown, and E. Stearns, of Maiden ; Lieut. - governor Oliver Ames, and Councillor Jonathan Bourne, of New Bedford ; Coun- cillors L. J. Powers, Warren E. Locke, of Norwood, Frank D. Allen, of Lynn, and J. H. Butler, of Soraerville ; Executive Clerk Edward F. Hamlin, of Newton, and Councillors L. J. Logan, of Boston, A. B. Coffin, of Winchester, and Henry C. Greeley, of Clinton; Secretary of State H. B. Pierce, Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Pynchon, of Hartford, Conn., Wellington Smith, of Lee, and Edward H. La- tlirop; William F. Edwards, of Cleveland, 0., George Bliss, of New York, and Hon. J. L. Houston, of Enfield, Conn.; ^layor Bulkeley, of Hartford, Conn., R. F. Hawkins, and F. A. Judd; D. J. Marsh, and Generals Stephen Smitli, Barton, and Goodrich; Colonels Blakeslee, Hyde, and Mowry, of tlie staff of the Governor of Connecticut; Mayor Benjamin E. Cook, Jr.. of Northampton, Edwin Hodges, of Westfield ; John C. Porter, of Longmeadow, and E. K. Bodurtha, of Agawam; A. F. Allen, of Enfield, Conn., E. A. Russell, of Suf- field, Conn., P. P. Potter, of Wilbraham, and Decius Beebe, of Hampden, — the last seven chairmen of the selectmen of tlie towns that were part of the old plantation ; Sheriff H. Q. Sanderson and the County Commissioners, Leonard Clark, Lewis Root, of AVestfield, and Henry A. Chase, of Holyoke; Aldermen Beach, Bidwell, Holbrook. and Tapley : Aldermen AVesson. Miller, and Pinney, 618 SPRINGFIELD, J636-1SS6, Bowman, Bill, Lyford, Bradford, Callender, Dickinson, Fisk, Hall, Margerum, Frink, and Smith, and Clerk E. A. Newell. SECOND DIVISION. Assistant ^Marshal, Capt. Peter S. Bailey, and aids, C. L. Chapin, and J. R. Wells. Historical display of Periods from 1600 to 1860 ; — 1600. Represented by Indians led by a sachem, and followed by squaws, children, and pappooses, seventy-three in all, represented by the Ousamequin Tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men. 1635-1735. /— 1st. A Band of Puritans. 2d. Float showing tlie purchase of Springfield lands l)y William Pynchon from the Indians. 3d. Model of the first house built in Springfield (half size). 4th. Model of the old Indian Fort. 5th. The burning of Springfield in 1675. 6th. The first church built in Springfield in 1645. and churcb congregation. 1735-1835. Weed's Band of Hartford, Conn., twenty-one men. 1st. Governor's Foot Guards, of Hartford, representing British soldiers in the Revolutionary War. 2d. Representation of the French and Indian War, by members of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Springfield. Twelve mounted Indians, thirty French soldiers in uniform. 3d. Uniformed Company, representing Continental soldiers. 4th. Visit of General Washington to Springfield, 1789. 5th. Declaration of Independence. 6th. Three Doctors of tlie last century in gigs and on horseback. 7th. A Wedding Party of six on horseback. 8tli. Four Couples representing costumes of the people, in chaises. 9th. First Governor of Massachusetts after the Declaration of Independence. 620 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 1835-1860. 1st. Ancient Stage-coach. 2d. Steamboat " Agawam." 3d. First Railway Train on Boston & Albany Railroad. THIRD DIVISIOX. Assistant Marshal, Abner P. Leshure, and Aids, AV. A. Withey and H. W. Keyes. Thompsonville Drum Corps. Ancient Fire-warden, Avith staff of office made for the town of Springfield, 1794, represented by G. H, Turner. Old Firemen, represented by Geo. Grouse. Ten men in costume of 177G. Old Hand-engine " Torrent," of Norwich Town, Conn., 110 years old, drawn by one horse, driven by Joseph Champ. An Ancient Tub, on tAvo Mheels, with pumps and bars, for four men to operate it, drawn by one horse, driA^en by John Clark. Old Hand-engine "Invincible," from Thompsonville, built in 1820, draAvn by two horses, Avith a company of nineteen men. R. B. Wilson, secretary. Hand-engine from NeAv Haven, built 182.5, and draAvn by tAvo horses, attended by a company of eight men. Geo. Chamberlain, foreman. Old Ocean Engine, No. 4, in use from 1844 to 1856, draAvn by tAvo horses, and attended by a company of eight men. Foreman, J. McQuire. Old Hand-engine " Torrent," of Chicopee Falls, in use since 1850, attended by sixty men of that department. Commanded In' O. K. Batchelder, Chief Engineer of the Chicopee Falls Fire Department, Avith his assistant chief, W. H. Osgood. Steam Fire-engine " Henry Gray." oAvned by the Boston & Albany Railroad, built in 1862. Steam Fire-engine from Chicopee Department, built in 1872, draAvnby tAvo horses, Avith a company of tAvelve men. Foreman, W. H. Lees ; assistant foreman, Gabriel Burn. The Avhole under the command of Chief Engineer Hosiey, of Chicopee. Fire Extinguisher, from Westfield, built in 1872, and draAvn by two horses, attended by ten men, under command of George Simpson, foreman, and Charles Allen, assistant foreman. The company and the apparatus in the regular service of the Westfield Fire Department. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 621 Hand-hose Company from West Springfield, organized 1885, twenty men. Four-wheeled Hose-carriage. Foreman, Frank ^Matthews ; all under command of John Emerson, Assistant Chief Engmeer West Springfield Fire Department. Tenth Regiment Band, of Albany, N.Y. First Assistant Engineer, J. A. Stevens, Third Assistant .Engineer, J. H. Gould, Springfield Fire Department, one hundred and forty men. Engine Company No. 1, Wm. Heffner, foreman; J. L. Strong, assistant. Engine Company No. 2, W. J. Lunden, foreman; B. J. Williams, assistant. Hose Company No. 3, F. E. Knight, foreman; Geo. Williard, assistant. Engine Company No. 4, F. L. Southmayd, foreman; Wm. Dagget, assistant. Hose Company No. 5, J. H. Lossee, foreman; C. Trim, assistant. Hose Company No. 0, Geo. Harrington, foreman; E. J. Flannery, assistant. Hose Company No. 7. J. H. McCleary, foreman; E. M. Holcomb, assistant. Hook-and-Ladder Company, F. L. Howard, foreman; A. J. Trask, assistant. Chief Engineer's Wagon. Water-spout Engine, Four-Avheel Hose-carriage. Engine No. 1. Two-wheel Hose-cart. Engine No. 2. Two-wheel Hose-cart. Engine No. -4. Two-wheel Hose-cart. Engine No. 5. Two-Adieel Hose-cart. Hose No. 3, four-wheel Wagon. Hose No. 6, two-wheel Cart. Hose No. 7, four-wheel Wagon. Hook-and-Ladder Truck No. 1. Hook-and-Ladder Truck No. 2. Supply Wagon No. 1. Supply Wagon No. 2. FOURTH DIVISION. Assistant Marshal, Col. E. P. Clark, of Holyoke, and aids, C. B. Ladd, M. E. Streeter, and N. E. Remington. Moodus (Ct.) Drum Corps. 622 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. IWS AVilcox Armed Battalion, as follow Major E. F. Cross, Quartermaster C. E. Kaplinger, Capt. S. B. Parker, Capt. F. C. Cook, Capt. James Shean, Sergeant S. F. Burlingame, Sergeant A. P. Adams, Sergeant William Buchanan, Adjutant N. E. Abbott, Sergeant D. ^X. Ware, Lieuts. Geo. Smith, A. J. Chapin, Chas. H. Emerson; Color Sergeants C. W. Gecklerand J. M. Glover; Markers, Sergeants H. S. Cullums and H. L. Brown, Sergeant-Major G. D. Shaw, Bugler, Charles Kaplinger. Privates : C A. BartholomeAv, A. X. Johnson, J. A. A. Packard, M. Harri- gan, A. N. Sollace, J. H. Brines, C. N. Wood, J. Jefferson, E. M. SaAvtelle, A. B. Wood, A. Sabin, G. M. Taylor, John Sullivan, H. S. Phelps, F. L. Perry, G. H. Thomas, Wm. Tattan, C. W. Garrett, James Kenna, C. R. Matthews, Wm. Thompson, G. W. Betterly, N. W. Storrs, Nelson Perry, D. Goodson, E.' Kunle, Geo. W. Cooley, H. M. Cooley, L. Harris, P. H. Elwell, L. P. Strong, N. R. Hall, F. W. Stacy, Eli Lapan, J. L. Gaboury, Wm. C. Goodrich, W. D. Phelps. Alex Smith, Julian Pomroy, Francis A. Taylor, Wm. G. Pond, H. X. Kellogg, Peter King, E. Warburton, James Anderson, C. C. Hastings, C. B. Blair, Geo. L. Warriner, Joseph Lombra, E. Wood, Louis Ashey, Wm. Hensley, John J. Walsh, J. C. Cooney. James Conway. E. K. Wilcox Post 16 : -J. H. Hendrick, P.C. ; W. S. Shurtleff, S.Y. ; S. B. Par- ker. J.V. ; C. H. Rust, Adjutant; D. W. Ware, Q.IM. ; W. I. Lyman. Chaplain; J. A. McGinley, O.D. ; A. W. Gushing, O.G. ; F. L Rollins, S. Major; Nathaniel Smith, C. H. Allison, A. H. Smith, J. S. Pierpont, Wm. Fogertv, C. D. Holbrook, A. H. Ward, E. C. Wilson, L. P. Strong. E. B. Lovering, c' H. Knight, James Murphy. A. E. Todd. J. M. Kelley, S. L. Hines, H. F. Fisk, E. D. King, Peter Shanley, AV. P. French, Frank Bordo, R. W. Millard, Daniel White, Levi B. Coe, Thomas Parker, M. J. Lynch, A. D. King, Jared Wheeler, R. M. Morse, John McCutcheon, John P. Hawkins. Benj. Kineston, H. C. Por- ter, J. F. Ross, W. X. Elmer, Geo. W. Tupper, H. A. Searle, Wm. LaFontaine, Edward Morrill, L. AVood. G. H. Nicholas, Justin Rogers, C. H. Hood, X. S. Smith. G. W. Gardner, G. Woodsworth, John Fremenwiler. E. L. Coville, L. D. Trask, Wm. Dugan, G. C Lougee, Wm. McGarrett, J. C. Condon, M. Dooley, A. C. Gove, E. E. Fisher. H. Gallup, A. J. Kay, G. M. Stowell, G. Barnum, Simon Katz. G. AV. Clark, J. ^Y . Clark, J. P. Coburn, D. T. Perkins, AV. B. AVatts, H. X. King, AA^ H. Duncan, D. AA^ Frost, H. L. Malory, Adiu Alden, F. A. Moody, AA^ C Eaton, J. E. Stewart, M. Gleason, D. X. Haskill. D. G. Hosmer, F. St. Johns, AA^ L. Parkhurst, AA\ H. Combs, Geo. A. Hill. S. B. Spooner, E. M. Tinkham, J. Stevens, A. H. Sanderson, M. H. Mclntire, A. E. Allen, H. AA^ Burke, Isaac AA^ Coomes. A. Roucton, T. Tirnine, C E. ^-4 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-lSSG. Iserman, W. G. Iddings, R. L. Ferris, F. A. Thyne, J. Churchill, W. D. Austin, A. K. Mathews, B. C. Davis, John Griffin, Charles Trim, W. H. Strong, J. B.' Hosmer, Alonzo Sabin, A. P. AVade, W. J. Langdon. Other Post, and old Soldiers : — C. H. Grant, Dennis Towne, H. M. Bliss, Wra. Potter, Edgar K. Sellew, Lambert W. Cady, E. N. Haskelh Wilcox Post:-Federick Gallup, Austin C. Gove, Arthur D. King, John McCutcheon, Ransom M. Morse, Edward Morrill, Lorin Wood, Edward Stewart. Otis Chapman Post No. 103, G.A.R., of Chicopee. Lyon Post, No. 41, of Westfield, Mass. .--George H. Prescott, Commander; C. A. Hedges, Judson Lee, Theodore Manee, Wm. Pohler, Joseph Halliday! Leroy Bosworth, George Bowen, L. F. Carter, W. C. Clark, H. H. Copley,' Elbert Gillett, E. R. Lay, David Maxwell, George Maxwell, Chas. 0. Kingsley,' Isaac Nash, A. IL Stebbins, C. A. Newell, A. W. Furrows, W. H. Fur^'rows,' Adam Swan, H. B. Graves, James Root, Cyrus Wells, John H. Miller, Chas.' Liswell, A. E. Humiston, Chas. Lambson, John Gorham, Horace Williams, E. J. Burt, R. J. Smith, A. E. Brooks, Edmund Noble, J. W. Gibbs, Buel Burt, David Keefe, Linus Burt, AV. E. Walton. Kilpatrick Post, No. 71, of Holyoke:-AY. H. Abbot, Commander; A. M. Cain, S.V.C. ; J. J. Callanan, J.V.C. ; ^Y. L Turner, O.D. ; D. E. Butler, G. E. Marsh, S. E. Gifford, A. N. Ricker, A. P. Ricker, A. P. Lewis, Fred Batch- elder, C. Sanborn, Fred AVestphael, P. A. Streeter, Geo. S. Avery, G. AV. Thomas, D. AV. Young, David Binns, C. Batchelder, Albert Loring, H. A. Deane, Chas. S. Knapp, S. Smith, Chas. P. Lyman, T. Shine, G. Brown, AA^m. Keyes, Jas. H. Howes, J. A. Cleveland, J. F. Canavan, Emil Ushman, B. Harobine, D. 0. Judd, Leander Pelot, Peter J. Donnelly, Dan Palmer. L. A. Tifft Camp No. 11, Sons of Veterans, of Springfield. Display representing A.D. 1935. 1st. A car carrying fifty young girls, preceded by twenty-four boys on foot, and followed by a like number ; the boys carrying banners inscribed with prophecies and mottoes suited to the occasion, representing the Spring- field that is to be. 2d. A car carrying boys and girls, representing the IMayor and Aldermen of fifty years hence in session. 3d. A car carrying boys and girls, illustrating the unification of nationalities under the stars and stripes. Representation of the towns comprising the old Springfield plantation. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 625 FIFTH DIVISION. Assistant Marshal, Major Zenas C. Kennie, and aids. Fitchburg Band, twenty-five men, G. A. Patz, Leader. Third Kegiraent Patriarchs Militant, I.O.O.F., Col. Eugene F. Cross, Com- manding. Grand Canton Springfield, No. 10, of Springfield. Canton Meadow City, No. 29, of Northampton. Canton Colfax, No. 28, of North Adams. Canton Tabor, No. 20, of Shelburne Falls. Band. Canton Capital City, No. 1, of Hartford, Conn. Band. Canton Excelsior, No. 11. of Middletown, Conn. Cathedral Cadets, of Springfield. St. James Cadets, of Springfield. St. Jerome Cadets, of Holyoke. Thompsonville Drum Band. Conclave No. 13, Knights of Sherwood Forest, Westfield. Conclave No. 20, Knights of Sherwood Forest, Holyoke. SIXTH DIVISION. Assistant Marshal, Charles D. Rood, and aids. Little's Band, of Springfield, twenty-five men, E. H. Little, Leader. Springfield Schuetzen Gessellshaft, of Springfield. .V ear representing Art. Springfield Turn Verein, of Springfield. Germania Lodge, No. 380, D. of H., of Springfield, and visiting Germans. Daughters of Cyrus, of Springfield. Drum Band, and St. Jean Baptiste Societ}', of Indian Orcliard, and all other Ununiformed Orders. SEVENTH DIVISION. Assistant Marshal, Lieut. Gideon Wells, and aids. Chicopee Falls Band. Association of Butchers, two hundred and fifty mounted men in uniform. Trades Wagons and Exhibits : — Smith. Adams, & Houghton. Downing, Sturte- vant. & Co., A. C Creighton, K. F. Hawkins, Kalmbach & Geisel, Hampden 626 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. Watch Company, C. H. Bennett & Co., of Springfield; Lamb Knitting Machine Company, of Chicopee Falls; G. W. Hall, Bigelow, More, & Marston, of Spring- The Procession — May 26. held; H. S. Martin & Co., of Chicopee, Mass.; Hartford Carpet Company, of Thompsonville, Conn. ; Springfield Glue and Emery Wheel Company, American Express Company, Mill River Carpet-Cleaning Company, Geo. A. Hill, J. H Kogers,B. L. Bragg & Co., Belcher & Taylor Agricultural Tool Company, of Springfield. SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1S86. 627 EIGHTH DIVISION. Assistant ^Marshal, Noyes W. Fisk, and aids. Trades ^Yagons : — M. J. D. Hutchins. S. Levison, E. M. Lyman, Homer Foot & Co., Lyman Griswold, B. Frank Steele, A. F. Niles & Son, Tinkham & Rogers, H. L. Niles & Co., Sanderson & Son, Max Lutz, Haynes & Co., J. S. Carr & Co., Mcintosh & Co., of Springfield; W. C. Wedge, of Chicopee, Mass. ; Adams & Thomas, CaldAvood & Burns, Springfield Foundry Company, of Springfield; W. W. Coomes, of LongmeadoAv, Mass.; Chas. C Abby, of Chicopee; D. B. Montague, Commerford & Daly, M. H. Hayden, I. P. Dickinson, C. Herbert Morton, C H. Haynes, E. O. Clark & Co., Dearden & Noble, of Springfield. NINTH DIVISION. Assistant Marshal. B. Frank Steele, and aids. Colt's Band, of Hartford, twenty men. Stone-cutters' Union, forty men. Trades Wagons : — Carlisle Stone Company, Milton Bradley & Co., West, Stone, & Co., Meekins & Packard, W. H. Smith, of Springfield; Dwight ISIan- ufacturing Company, of Chicopee, Mass.; Chicopee Manufacturing Company, of Chicopee Falls, Mass; Jas. E. Whittaker & Co., D. H. Brigham & Co., P. J. O'Connell & Son, W. L. Quinnell, Cutter & Porter, Metcalf & Luther, A. 0. Brooks, C. P. Alexander, D. J. Marsh & Son, Foster & Streeter, C M. Hibbard, Geo. A. Graves & Son, G. S. Barry, E. Dooley, Troy Steam Laundry, Morgan Envelope Company, Smith & Murray, of Springfield; Fenton & Dunn, of Holyoke, Mass.; W. H. Pinney & Co., C C Pease, S. E. Goodyear, H. Porter Company, John Hamilton, Fleischman & Co., of Springfield. TENTH DIVISION. Assistant Marshal, T. 0. Bemis, and aids. Trades Wagons : —Forbes & Wallace, Vienna Pressed Yeast Company, Fisk Manufacturing Company, of Springfield; T. J. Flannagan, of Holyoke, Mass.; L. E. Pease, of Springfield; John C. Schmidt & Son, of Westfield, Mass. ; Blair .Alanufacturing Company, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, of Springfield; Spencer Fire Arms Company, of Winsor; W. 0. Collins, Springfield Coal & Wood Company, Springfield Cooperative Milk Association, C. A Wright. J. M. Cowan, of Springfield; L. B. White & A. H. Ryan, Edward Connolly, of Hol- yoke, Mass. ; John Walsh, of Springfield. Q'2S SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. The route of the procession was from Emery street down Main to Locust, through Mill, Pine, Walnut, Oak, State, to Main, up Main to Carew, thence countermarching to State street, giving the Governor and guests an opportunity to review the procession. The day closed with an open-air concert on Court square in the evening and a preliminary concert at the City Hall, before the ball, which closed in a brilUant manner the stated programme of festivities of the quarter-millennial celebration of 1886. The ball committee were Messrs. Elisha Morgan, F. D. Foot, Edward Pynchon, George A. Morton and E. C. Washburn. The reception committee were Messrs. H. M. Phillips, E. H. Lathrop, H. S. Lee, S. C. Warriner, and F. A. Judd. The floor-director was George A. Morton, who was assisted by Dr. T. F. Breck, F. H. Gillette, George D. Pratt, James H. Pynchon, R. F. Hawkins, J. D. Safford, N. C. NewelT, George M. Castle, W. P. Alexander, L. C. Hyde, Harry G. Chapin, W. M. Willard, Charles A. Nichols, Dr. G. C. McClean, Charles H. South- worth, and George R. Bond. The ushers were Frederick Harris, Henry S. Dickinson, John P. Harding, and Robert W. Day. INDEX Adams, John, 278. " John Q., 459. Samuel, 278. A G AW AM. First house, 2, 4. Town meetmg, The, 19. Controversy with Connect- icut colony, 39. Act of secession from Connecticut colony, 46. First town-meetings, 47. Strangers ex- cluded, 48. Name changed to Spring- field, 60. See also Springfield. Agawams, The [Indians], 148, 155, 160, 162. Agreement, or covenant, of first set- tlers, 10, 570. Alexander, Henry, Jr., 520, 522-524, 534. Allen, John, 45. " Rebecca, 140. Alvord, Mrs. Noah, 222. Amadon, Titus, 457. American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, 495. American Institute of Instruction, 495. Ames, David, 356, 476. " N. P., 475. Andros, Sir Edmund, 190, 195. Anniversary ode, 584-589. Anti-slavery agitation, 142, 462, 471. Appleton, Samuel, 158, 160, 165, 169- 171. Ashley. John, 261, 327. Ashley, Jonathan, 187. Joseph, 176, 187. [2d], 222, 238, 251, 254. Robert, 45, 47, 53, 67, 69, 70, 77, 96, 97, 110, 125-127, 130, 134, 187. Timothy, 345. Ashmun, George, 399, 413, 416, 424, 439, 441, 453, 456-458, 461, 481, 517-519. Babcock, Elisha, 344. " Samuel, 347. Baker, Mrs. John, 139. Baldwin, Rev. Mr., 265. Ball, Francis, 77-79, 96-98. " Francis, Jr., 262. " Jonathan, 197. " Samuel, 142. Ball, Anniversary, 628. Bancroft, George, 434, 437, 438, 615. Bangs, Allen, 395, 396, 457. Banquet, Anniversary, 590. Barber, John, 143, 187, 197. " John, Jr., 187. Barnard, Goody, 139. Barnes, Gen. James, 529, 532, 615. Bartlett, Hannah, 222. Jonathan, and wife, 222. "Bay path," 3, 99, 571. Beach, Erasmus D., 464, 498, 519. I Bedortha, Blanche, 102. 630 INDEX. Bedortha, Joseph, 180, 197. Reice, 96, 102, 110, 134, 176, 187. " Samuel, 176. Beers, Richard, 157, 158. BelchertOAvn (Mass.), 195. Bellamy, Edward, 542. Charles J., 542. Bellingham, Richard, 118. Bemis, Stephen C, 433, 482, 513, 519, 520. Benton, Daniel, 182. Blake, Elijah, 407, 408. " George, 363. " William, 11. Blanchard, Thomas, 374, 390, 409, 606. Blandford (Mass.), 196. " Blessing of the Bay," 6, 8, 598. Bliss, Abel, 251. " Alexander, 341. " George, 360-367, 408. " George, Jr., 366, 384-386, 413- 417, 420, 429-434, 459, 468, 481, 496, 498. Hector, 141. Gen. Jacob, 364. Jedediah, 248, 251, 267, 294. John, 187, 275, 277. Jonathan, 265, 278, 336, 346. Lawrence, 132. Luke, 248, 251, 277, 278, 292, 308, 312, 336. Margaret (widow), 347. Moses, 265, 266, 269, 275, 278, 281, 286, 287, 294, 309, 311. Moses [merchant], 336, 475. Nathan, 96, 110, 139, 194. Nathaniel, 209. Pelatiah, 211, 251. Mrs. Pelatiah, 222. Pitt, 368. Reuben, 285. Samuel, 187. [2d], 209, 248, 251. Bliss, Timothy, 251. " Widow, 110, 222. " William, 445. " Mrs. William, and daughter, 222. Bloody Brook, 159. Bond, Ephraim W., 465, 475, 480. Booth, Dr. A., 346. Bowdoin, Gov., 317, 321, 326, 328, 329. Bowles, Samuel, 379, 431, 475. Samuel, 2d, 494, 500, 518, 542-544. Samuel [3d], 544, 596. Boylston, Edward, 345. Bradstreet, Simon, 118. Branch, William, 96, 98, 127, 187. Breck, George, 331. " Robert, 331. " Rev. Robert, 228-2587 316. Breck controversy, The, 228-258. Brewer, Charles, 222. Dr. Charles, 347. " Chauncey, 97. Dr. Chauncey, 289, 303, 345, 363, 408. Rev. Daniel, 193, 211, 212- 215, 227, 345. " Eunice [married Rev. R. Breck], 245, 251. ' Henry, 379. Isaac, 222. Dea. Nathaniel, 222, 275, 277, 287, 345. Bridges, Robert, 118. Bridges across the Connecticut Bridgman, Good, 69. James, 70, 71, 78, 96, Briggs, A. D., 524. Brimfield (Mass.), 197. Brook, William, 187. Brookfield [Quabaug], 127, 156, 189, 190, 191, 197. Brooks, William, 127. 369- 110. 157 INDEX. 631 Brown, John and Samuel, sent back to England, xii. " John, 502, 504-506, 509, 513, 514. Bryan, Clark W., 540, 541. Buckmgham, Rev. S. G., 477. Bull, Key. Mr., 237, 239, 250. Burr, John, 10, 11, 45, 65. Burt, Lieut. David, 281. " Gideon, 281, 293, 308, 326. " Henry, 66, 68-70, 73, 78, 80, 96- 98, 110, 126, 128. " Dea. Henry, 263. " Dea. Henry, wife and daughter, 222. " Henry M., 540. " James, 222. " Mrs. James, 222. " James, Jr., and Avife, 222. " John, 45. " John, Jr., 238, 262. " John, Jr., and wife, 222. " J. M., 340. " Jonathan, 102, 110, 127, 132, 134. 162, 172. 187, 195, 202. " Dea. Jonathan, 208. " Joseph's daughter, 222. " Nathaniel, 127, 187, 209. " Lieut. Nathaniel, 261. Butterfield, Samuel, 11. Byers, James, 346, 348. Cable, John, 4, 11, 45, 50, 52, 65, 569. Cabot Manufacturing Co., 421, 471. Cadwell, D., 248, 251. Calhoun, Rev. Simeon H., 445. William B., 380, 388, 393, 394, 398, 413, 425, 430, 443, 458, 461, 463, 464, 494, 495. Canals, 351, 352, 389, 410, 411, 422. " Canoe" trees, 65. Canonchet, 173. CareAv, Joseph, 395. Carriages, List of owners in 1791, 334. Caste in the settlement, 81. Celebrations. Fourth of July, 348, 388, 397, 437. Fourth of March, 397, 398. Com- pletion of the Western railroad, 419. Washington's birthday, 423, 534, 540. Bi-centennial, 433, 563. Harrison demonstration, 441. Appointment of civil supt. at U. S. Armory, 491. Return of regiments from civil war, 534. Chapin gathering, 578. Two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, 546-628. Cemetery, New, 478. Catholic, 482. _ ChafPee, C. C, 501, 504, 509, ^10(@^ Chapin, Abel, and wife, 2z2. " AbijahW.,489. Asabel, 261. Austin, Jr., 487. " Benjamin, and wife, 222. Chester W., 457, 478,519. David, 251 ; M'if e and daughter, 222. David, Jr., 222. Edward, 265, 285, 287, 292. Elisha,222. Enoch, 281. Esther, 222. Hannah (widow), 222. Harvey, 396, 455, 456. " Henr/, 110, 127,139.174, 181, 187. " Henry, 2d, 222, 248, 251. Mrs. Isaac, 222. Israel, 327. Japhet, 176,187 ; and wife, 222. John, 248, 251. " John, Jr., 251. Jonathan, 232 ; Avif e and daugh- ter, 222. 632 INDEX. Chapin, Jonathan, Jr., 222. " Jonathan, and wife [of Kings- ton], 222. Judah, 363. " Phineas [Ensign], 275. Phineas, 363. Samuel, 64, 69-71, 73, 77, 78, 80, 95, 97,98, 100, 111, 124, 126-128, 130, 133, 162, 175, 201, 203. Samuel, Jr., 261. ' ' Thomas, wife and three daugh- ters, 222. Chapin celebration, 578. Chapman, Eeuben A., 399, 4U, 467, 489, 506, 514, 519, 522. Chauncy, Charles, 345. Isaac, 228, 232, 237. Moses, 363. " Nathaniel, 345. Chicopee [Mass.], 16, 176, 210, 259, 393,421, 437, 474, 475, 593. Chicopee bridge, 294. Church, Dr. Benjamin, Jr., 284. " Jonathan, 262. Moses, 293, 334. Nathaniel [Dea.], 263. Church affairs. First parish. First minister, George Moxon, 16. Parsonage built, 39. First church built, 75. Second, 178. Third, 259. Fourth, 378. Church expenses, 112. Moxon re- turns to England, 122. Eev. Mr. Horsford, 125. Rev. Mr. Thomson, 128. Pulpit supplied by laymen, 128. Rev. Thomas Hooker, 129. Rev. Pelatiah Glover, 129, 181. Assign- ment of seats in meeting-house, 130- 132, 215, 259. Pulpit vacant, 193. Rev. Daniel Brewer, 193. Parish meetings, 208, 260. Extract from parish records, 213. Town divided Church affairs, continued. into precincts, 210. Trouble about Mr. Brewer's salary, 212. Condition of parish, 215. List of church mem- bers, 222. Half-way covenant, 216, 255, 256. Breck controversy, 228- 252. Changes in church rules, 255- 258. Trouble with Jedidiah Bliss, 267. Death of Rev. R. Breck, 331. Rev. B. Howard, 342. Rev. Samuel Osgood, 375. Troubles leading to division, 376. Dr. Osgood retires, 490. Rev. H. M. Parsons, 490. Celebration of 250th anniversary, 549-551. West Springfield Church, 197,208. Longmeadow, 210. Chico- pee, 259, 474. Wilbraham, 268. Indian Orchard, 482, 544. Olivet Church, 422. South Church, 477. North Church, 482. Baptist Church, 367, 375-376, 445, 477, 525. Epis- copal, 376, 445. Methodist, 376, 477. Swedenborgian, 489. Uni- tarian, 377, 378. Universalist. 482. Church-membership as a qualification for freemanship, 224-227. City Hall dedicated, 493. City Library Association, 494. Clap, Rev. Thomas, 230-233, 242. 244- 249, 253. Clarke, John, 96, 98, 99, 127, 142, 187. " William, 110. Clay, Henry, visit to Springfield, 424. Coleraine [Mass.], 328. College presidents, Springfield's, 346. Colonization Society, 386, 398. Colton, Aaron, 264, 269, 286. " Major Andrew, 281. Charles, 342. " Ephraim, 176. 187, 211. George, 96, 125-127, 132, 135. " George [of LongmeadoAv], 154, 175, 176, 181, 187. INDEX. 633 Colton, George, 395, 409. Goody, 139. " Isaac, 187. Israel, 143. Mary, 139. Sarah, 139. Capt. Simon, 275. '• Thomas, 187, 191, 193, 209, 262. " Commons " ontward and mward, 266, 268. Commucke, 11, 570. Concord, 317. COXXECTICUT COLONY. Controversy witli William Pynchon, 20-38. Jurisdiction over Agawam, 39, 569. Claim to Woronoco [West- field], 60, 569. Imposes a riA^er tariff, 83. Purchases the fort at Saybrook, 83. Removes duties from Massachusetts goods, 93. Sells land in Massachusetts, 195. Boundary controversy with Mass., 196. '■ Connecticut path," 3. Connecticut River Association, 388. Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Co., 411, 420. Conway [Mass.], 328. Cooley, Ensign Benjamin, 78, 79, 96, 97, 102, 110, 125-127, 130, 132, 154, 172. Benjamin, 209. " Joseph, 211. 0., 248, 251. " Sarah, 139. Coolidge, J., 334, 363. Cooper, Thomas, 64, QS, 70, 73, 75 77, 78, 80, 94, 95, 97-99 108, 111, 125-127, 130, 133 152, 157, 162, 168, 187, 194 201. Thomas [West Springfield] 197. Cooper, Timothy, 265. William, 243. Copley, Noah, 315. CORX. Controversy about trade in, Avith Indians, 22-38. Scarcity of, 29. County tax paid in, 183. Court-houses, 211, 378. County courts, 132-134, 183-186. Court Square, 378. Crooks, James W., 424, 427. CroAvfoote, John, 261. Mrs. John, 222. John, Jr., 222. Joseph, 127. Thomas, 222. Crown Point, Expedition to, 261. I Cuttonas, 11, 152. ! Cypress st. , 572. I Daniels, Dr. Ira, 379. Davis, Philip, 202. " Widow, 281. Dawes, Hon. H. L., 610. Day, Benjamin, 264-266, 269. •' John, 262. " Luke, 315. 322, 326. " Samuel, 211. " Thomas, 187. Deeble, John, 67, 69, 70, 71, 78. AVidow, 96. Deeds from Indians, 12-14, 149. 151, 154, 570. Deerfield [Mass.], 158, 159, 191, 207 261, 308. Denton, Daniel, 187. Devotion, Ebenezer, 228, 237. Dickens, Charles, 470. Dickinson, Dr. John, 265. Dickman, Thomas, 379. Distillery, 340. ' Dober, John, 70, 71, 77, 78. I Doctors, Prominent, 265. 634 INDEX. Dorchester, Anthony, 106, 110, 127, 134, 135, 154, 173, 187, 202, 203. " Mrs. Benjamin, 222. " Rev. Daniel, 376. " James, 187. John, 175, 180, 187, 194. " Eeuben, 261. Dover, John, 69. " Dred Scott" case, 510, 511. Dress. Of Springfield pioneers, 8. Regu- lated by law, 138. At the revolution- ary period, 333. Dumbleton, John, 110, 126, 134, 175, 187. Mary, 139. Nathaniel, 197. Sarah, 139. Drunkenness, 142, 185. Dudley, Thomas, 85, 118. Dwight, Edmund, 363, 476. George, 433, 482, 497, 521. Gen. H. C, 609. Henry, 338. James S., 338. Jonathan, 279, 294, 337, 377, 439. Jonathan, Jr., 338, 345, 395. " Joseph, 347. Josiah, 263, 264, 336. Thomas [Col.], 309, 312, 347, 363, 368. Timothy, 247. William, 458. D wight store, The, 358-359. Dwight Manufacturing Co., 471. Dyer, Capt. A. B. 523. " E. Porter, 563. Earl (murderer), 266. Editors' and Printers' Association, 494. Edwards, Alexander, 69, 70. 78, 96, 100. Edwards, Jonathan, 228, 232, 237-239, 252. Gen. Oliver, 528, 532. Sarah, 105. Eliot, John, 60, 161. " Moses, murder trial, 427. Elm St., 572. Elwell, William S., 428. Ely, Abner, 251. " Benjamin, 269, 272. " Joseph, 211. " Justin, 272, 340. " Martin, 281. " Nathaniel, 184. " Nathaniel [Deacon], 269. " Nathaniel, Jr., 266, 308. '* Samuel, 125, 187, 203. " Mrs. Samuel, 141. " Rev. Samuel, 302. " William, 368. Embargo troubles, 363. Emery, Robert, 345, 395. Endicott, John, 85, 118. Enfield [Conn.], 194-196. Episcopal Church, 376. Everett, Edward, 415, 419, 432, 434. Richard, 25, 45, 49. Exell, Richard, 96, 110. Exile, Lidia, 139. Family government, 142. Fencing lots ordered, 79. Sundry persons presented for neg- lecting, 134. Ferre [or Ferry], Charles, 187. Charles [2d], 347. Gersham, 222. John, 222. " Capt. Joseph, 278, 315. Samuel, 187, 202. " and wife, 222. Thaddeus, 454. INDEX. 635 Ferre \_or Ferry], Thomas, 222. Ferry, authorized beloAr the Agawam, 135 ; Suffleld ferry, 184. Field, Moses, 275, 292. Fifteen-gallon laAv, 439. Filer, George, 137. Fire department, 407, 446. Destructive fires, 471, 539. Fishing privileges granted, 177, 188. Folsom, A. T., 523. Foot, Homer, 508, 509, 519. " Mrs. Thomas, 222. Fort Massachusetts, 261. Forward, Eev. Justus, 328. Foster, Edward, 127, 187. Fowler, Samuel, 362. Freemanship, Conditions of, 224. Free-Masonry, 370, 438. Fremont campaign, 502-509. French and Indian V^ars, 189-193, 207, 261. Freshwater brook. 195. Frost, Isaac, 197. " Joshua, 363, 396, 444. Funerals, Services at, 332. Gaines, Samuel, 141. General Coiirt, 181, 187, 188, 194, 208, 251, 274, 292, 318, 351, 571. Gerry, Gov. Elbridge, 361. Gilbert, Jonathan, 202. Gilburt, Sarah, 139. Gill, Moses, 284. Gleson, Isaac, 144. Glover, John, 118. " Eev. Pelatiah, 129, 135, 136, 155, 162, 180, 187, 188, 193, 201. Goffe, WiUiam [The regicide] , 139. 158. Granby (Conn.), 197. Granby (Mass.), 327. Grand Army organizations, 535. Graves, Aaron, 325. Gray, Henry, 482. Great Barrington [Mass.], 317. Greek revolution, 386. Greenwich (Mass.), 267. Gregory, Goody, 65. " ^ Henry, 47, 49. 51, m, 68. Mark, 185. Griffin, Solomon B., 544. Griffith, Goody, 124. Hacklinton, Francis, 141, 146. Hadley (Mass.), 132, 157, 158. 159, 171, 173, 174. Haile, William H.,539, 594. Hale, John, 272, 275, 277, 285, 303. " Jonathan, 275, 277, 279, 285, 292. " Half-way Covenant." The, 216, 255. Hamilton, Alexander, 304, 305. Hampden Covmty, 360. Hampden County Agricultural Society, 482. Hampden Park, 495. Hampshire County, 132. Hancock, Abner, 261. Gov. John, 348. " Mrs. John [of Springfield], 222. Hardwick (Mass.), 267. Harmon, John, 78, 96, 98, 110, 187. Mrs. John, 222. Harris, Dea. Daniel. 266, 269, 275, 287. " Daniel L., 509, 516. 520. " R., 248, 251. Harrison, William H., 441. ^^ Harrison campaign," The, 441. Hartford (Conn.), 33, 64, 83, 171, 569. " Hartford Convention," The, 364. Hatch, Solomon, 393, 395, 396, 475. Hatfield (Mass.), 157. 158, 171, 172, 173, 174. 308, 317. Hawley, Joseph, 264. ^36 INDEX. Havnes, Gov. John, 3(3, 41. Rev. John, 193. Widow, 96. Hibbins, William, 118. Hillyard, Rev. Timothy, 342. Hitchcock, Aaron, 222. Ann, 222. " Ebenezer, 262, 264. " Mrs. Ebenezer. 222. " John, 172, 187; and Avife, 222. " Deacon John, 346. Josiah, 294. Luke, 181, 185, 193, 211, 212 ; and wife, 222. Luke, Jr., 230, 232. 261, 262; and wife, 222. Reuben, 261. " Widow, 222. Hobbs, Humphrey, 261. Holland, Josiah G.,493. Holyoke (Mass.), 485, 486, 601. Holyoke, Edward, 71.- Elizur, 64, QQ, QS, 69-71, 77, 78, 80, 95, 97, 98, 120, 124, 127. 128. 133, 155, 172, 577. Mrs. Elizur [2d]. 140. John, 176, 187, 194. Mrs. Mary, 71, 122. 144. " Capt. Samuel. 143, 173, 174, 435. " Corporal, 139. Hooker, John, 362, 363, 395, 408. Rev. Samuel, 32. Rev. Thomas, 41. " Rev. — [son of Thomas], 129. Hopkins, Dep. Gov., ^o. " Samuel, 228, 232, 238, 239, 250. Horsford, Rev. Mr., 125, 128. Horton, Benjamin, Jr., and Avife, 222. Thomas, 45, 52, 251. Horton, daughter of Thomas, 222. " WidoAv, 68. Housatonic toAA-nships, 211. House of Correction, 126, 176. Houston, John L., 561. HoAvard, Rev. Bezaleel, 342, 375, 376. Charles, 448, 456. " John, 475, Hubbard, Rev. Daniel, 229. Samuel, 51, 53, 65, 68-71, 78. Huit, Rev. Ephraim, 194. Hunt, Thomas, 340. Hunter, Daughter, 139. GoodAvife, 125, 139. John, 325. Hutchins, James R., 345. Indian Leap [Indian Orchard], 165. Indians. Deeds of, 12, 14, 149, 151, 154, 570. Pequot war, 16, 22. Contro- versy about trade Avith, 20-38. In- fluence of WiUiam Pynchon Avith, 64. Puritan a'Icav of, 147. AgaAvams, 148, 160, 162. English laAvs for, 149. Thefts of, 150. King Philip's Avar, 157-174,579-582. French and Indian Avars, 189-193, 207, 261. Ingersoll, Major EdAA^ard, 384, 448. John, 362. Mrs. [AvidoAv], 223. Ingraham, Joseph, 463, 480. Inoculation, 265, 293, 367. Ives, Rev. Dwight, 445. Jails, 347. Johns, Katherine, 96. Johnson, John, 315. Jones, Cornelius, 265. David, and Avife, 223. " Ebenezer, 197. Griffith, 96, 102, 105, 127. Hephzibod, 139. INDEX. 637 Jones, Mercy, 139. Pelatiah, 2G1. Jury trial, 51. Keep. John, 172, 173. Kellogg [daughter of Widow], 223. Kent, Capt. Elilm, 281. Killed and wounded in the Kebellion, 535. King [Deputy Sheriff], 325. " John L., 522. Kinsley, E. W., 611. Ivirtland, Daniel, 230, 231. Knowlton, Benjamin, and wife, 223. •• Benjamin, Jr., 261. M. P.. 554-563, 583. Kossuth, L.. 487, 488. Labden, Good wife, 139. Lamb, Huldah, 223. " John, 110, 142, 187. Laxds. First purchase of, 12. Assign- ment of, 10, 11, 45, 48, 67-69, 80, 98, 177, 188. Ownership in com- mon, 19. 80, 266. Regulations in reference to fencing. 78, 79. Langton, George, 102, 106. Larned, Ellen D., 254. Lathrop, E. H.. 591. Rev. Joseph. 370. Samuel, 398. Thomas, 157-159. Lawrence, John. 191. Lawyers, Prominent. 264, 362. 399. Contemj)t for, 316. Lee, Gen. Henry, 284. '■ Rev. Henry AY., 445. " Horace C, 526, 527, 530-532. ■• Roswell, 357, 424, 444. ■'■• Walter. 135. Leman. Joseph, 187. Leonard, Benjamin, 197, 269. Hannah, 139. John, 45, 47, 51, 65, 69, 70, 78, 96, 110, 127, 135. Deacon John, 266, 269. '• Joseph. 197. " Letoula." 2. Leveret, Sir John, 156. Leverett (Mass.), 327. Lewis, Mrs. Mary, 81. See also Par- sons, Mrs. Hugh. Licenses granted to sell liquor. 184, 185. Lincoln, Abraham, 518, 519. Gen. Benjamin, 306, 320, 321. Lind, Jenny, 478. Littlejohn, Rev. A. N., 482. Lombard, Daniel, 341, 346, 363, 397 496. " Ebenezer, and daughter, 223. John, 96, 102, 110. " Justin. 475. Long Hill fort, 160, 162. Longmeadow (Mass.), 79, 80, 110, 173, 209, 268. Lottery, for building bridge, 294, 371, Building canals, 352. Harvard College, 371. Louisburg, Loss of life at, 261. LudloAv [Mass.], 268, 274. Ludlow, Roger, 23, 41. Lyman, Phineas, 264. Robert. 139. " Samuel. 312, 345. Madison, William, 182. Manning, Samuel, 233. Maple street laid out. 126. Marble, Joel, 341, 346. Marcus. 348. Marshfield. Mrs., 103, 104. " Josiah, 197. 638 INDEX. Marshfield, Samuel, 104, 110, 130, 132, 151, 176, 181, 187, 195, 202. " Negro servant, Dinah, 223. Mason, Capt. John, controversy with William Pynchon, 20-38, 54-58, 85. Massachusetts Bay, Charter of, xi. Massachusetts Colony. Boundary line, 41. Protest against claims of Conn, colony, 60. Refuses to pay river tariff to Conn., 84. Im- poses retaliatory duties, 92. Sus- pends these duties, 93. Boundary controversy with Conn., 196. Massachusetts Medical Society, 345. Massasoit, 156. Matanchan, 11, 570. Mather, Cotton, 217. Increase, 193, 217. Matthews, John, 94, 96, 102, 136, 137, 187, 203. wife of, 164. Meacham, Isaac, Jr., 195, 196. Mears, Joseph, 261. Merriam, Rev. James F., 544. Merrick, Mrs. Capt. 223. Hannah, 140. " James, 211. John, 211. " Meriam, 139. Thomas, 45, 52, 65, 68-71, 78, 80, 96, 100, 110, 127, 135, 187, 202. Metcalf, Edwin D., 539, 546, 555. Military companies, 401-403, 446, 465, 481,488,495. Mill river. Lands apportioned at, 110. Mil er, Ebenezer, 140. Hannah, 140. John, 211. Mrs. John, 223. John, Jr. 223. Obadiah, 187. Miller, Thomas, 106, 134, 162, 168. Mills, John, 380-382, 393, 394, 453, 456, 466, 482. Mitchell, Matthew, 11. Mohegans, The, 156. Monroe, Pres. James, 372. Montague, William E., 475. Morals, Offences against, 139-141, 186. DecUne in, 217-228. Demoralization after Revolution, 352. Morgan, Albert, 398. David, 140, 162, 165, 194. Mrs. David, 139. Ebenezer, 223. Hannah, 139. " Isaac, 195. - John, 78. " Capt. John, 78. " Jonathan, 140. Lydia, 141. Miles, 95-98, 107, 110, 126, 127, 132, 140, 183, 187, 202. Morris, Henry, 457, 458, 500, 563-583. " Oliver B., 346, 362, 368, 382- 384, 408, 424, 427, 428, 430- 432, 434, 441, 442, 474, 493, 499, 519. Morton, Marcus, 440. Mosely, Samuel, 157-159, 172. Moxojf, Rev. George. Arrives at Agawam, 16. Present at the Mason-Pynchon interview. 26, 29. House built for him, 43. Brings suit against Woodcock, 52. Land allotted to, 68, 70, 71, 110. Suc- cessful in his ministry, 74. Charac- teristics of his preaching, 76. Tax, 77, 95. His daughters supposed to be bewitched, 104. His real estate purchased by the town, 111. His salary. 111. Return to England, 122. INDEX. 639 Moxon, Martha, 10-t. Parsons, David, 344. IMunii. Benjamin, 110, 127. David, Jr.. 344. •• John, 261. 341. " Ebenezer, 211. Xatlianic'l. and two laughters, Eli, 322-326. 223. Rev. Henry M., 490. •• Natbauiel, Jr., 223. Hugh, 82, 96, 102-109. Mygate. George, 2G1. Mrs. Hugh, 103-109. Joseph, 96, 202. 208. 210. Karragansetts, The, 156. Zenas, 341, 342. National horse exhibition, 49 5. Peabody, Rev. W. B. 0., 378, 476. Nebraska bill, 500. Pease, John, 195. New England colonies, con federation Pecowsic, 110. of, 41. Pedlers, 444. Newspapers, 343-345, 379, 425, 444, Pelham (Mass.), 195. 465, 474, 476, 540. Pendleton, Jesse, 395. Nipmucks, The, 156, 161. Pequot Avar, 16, 22. Nonotucks. The, 155, 156. Perkins mills, 471. Northampton (Mass.). 124. 132, 157, Peterson, John, 326. 158. 171, 173. 188, 277 302, 316, Petty, John, 176, 187. 387. Phelps, Ansel, Jr., 483, 492, 494, 496. Northfield [Squakheag], 127 , 158 159, " Edward B., 616. 189. " Edward H., 540, 542, 551. Norton, John, 114. Phelps Publishing Co., 542 Nowell, Increase, 118. Phelps, Willis, 455. Philip (King), 155-174, 579-582. Oldham, John, 1, 16. Phillips, Henry M., 539. Osborne, Chester, 160. Pierce, Jonathan, 223. Osburne, James, 95. Pillsbury, A. E., 594. Osgood, Rev. Samuel, 375, 442, 490, Plymouth Colony, 156. 606. Pocomtucks, The, 148. '• Outward commons," 188. Pokanokets, The, 155, 156. Pomeroy, E. E., 247. Packard, Frederick A., 394. " " AYilliamM.,540. Paper mills, 347, 389, 421. " Pompey," 333. Parish meetings, 208, 211. Poor-house, 367, 394. Parker, James, 418. Porter, Gen. , 302. Parsons, Aaron, 223. Porter, Rev. Noah, 477. Abigail, 223. Post-riders, 344. Benjamin, 175, 176 , 195. PoAvers, Lewis J., 359. " Benjamin, Jr., 187 Precinct meetings, 260. Daniel, 255. Prescott, Benjamin, 357. Mrs. Daniel, 223. Prichard, Nathan, 110, 176, 187. Mrs. Daniel, Jr., 223. Roger, 69, 78, 96, 98, 110. 640 INDEX. Pringrydays, Edmund, 165. Pynchon, Ann, 71. Dr. Charles, 265. 267, 269, 275, 277, 279, 335, Uo. EdM-ard [died, 1777], 262, 264,266.267,269,281,286, 294, 336. Edward [died, 1830], 362, 363, 393, 409. Capt. George, 2\ 336. 279. Col. John, 82, 98, 99, 111, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 132, 144-146, 152, 154,157- 174, 180, 187, 189-193, 194, 195, 198-206, 576. 577, 580- 583, 598-600. John, Jr., 204, 238, 263. John [died, 1826], 335. Joseph, 204. 262. 279. Mary [Mrs. Holyoke], 71. 122. Thomas R., 279. 597. Walter, 336. Pynchok, William. Becomes an incorporator in the Mass. Bay Co., x., 566. Character- istics of, xi., 566, 575. Sails for this country, xii., 566. Settles at Dorchester, xiii. Removes to Rox- bury, xiii., 568. Made treasurer of the Colony, xiii. Licensed to trade with the Indians, xiii. Visits the Conn, valley in 1635, 2, 569. Re- moves his family, 6. Allotted land, 10, 11, 69, 70. Purchases land of Indians, 12. Official position, 14. Letters to Gov. Winthrop, 14, 35, 64, 74, 84. Conducts religious ser- vices, 15. Controversy with the Con- necticut Colony, 20-38. Subscription to minister's house, 45. Made magis- trate, 47. Brings suit against Wm. Pi'xcHOX, William, continued. Merrick, 52. Tried by the Windsor Church, 54-59. Influence over the Indians, 64. Tax, 77, 95. Refuses to pay river tariff to Connecticut, 84, 87. Favors liberty of conscience, 93. Administers freeman's oath, 98. Holds courts, 98. His heretical book, 113-120, 573, 574. His character, 120. His return to England, 122. His death, 144. Pynchon, Col. William, 229, 234, 262, 263. " Mrs. Col. William and daughter, 223. William [son of Col. John], 335. AVilliam, Jr. [died, 1808], 277.285-287,292,303,309, 312. William [of Salem], 279. Family, Origin of, x., b^Q. Coat-of-arms, xi. Memorial of, 122. Fort, 146. 396. Quabaug [Brookfield]. field. Quakers, 137. See Brook- Railroads. Boston & Worcester, 412. West- ern, 413, 415-420, 469, 478. Albany & West Stockbridge, 468. Hartford & Springfield, 468. Boston & Al- bany, 487. Springfield & Farmingtou Valley, 488. Rand, AVilliam, 228, 237. Rawson, Edward, 170. Reader, John, 11. Reeve, Thomas, 95. Reward offered for the destruction of j\^ pests, 262. j^ INDEX. 641 Reynolds, Peter, 228, 232, 237. 250. Rice, Caleb, 414, 483. " William, 395, 396, 409. 512. " Rev. AVilliam, 494. RicharcLs, John. 183. Riley. John, 187. Ripley, Col. J. W., 449, 453. Robb, John, 449. Robinson, George D., 557. 593. Rogers, Henry, 170. " Mrs. Henry, 139. James, 202. Root. Ezekiel, 325. •• Joseph, 270. Rowe [Mass.]. 321. Rowland. Thomas, 95. 127. 180. Roxbury Church, Appeal of Wm. Pynchon, 60. ROXBUKY SETTLEKS. Causes of their removal to the Conn, valley, 1, 569. Probable route, 2, 10, 572. Covenant, 10. Rumreil. [Post-rider], 344. Russell, James E.. 512. Sabbath-breaking, 185. Sanborn, Simon, 394-5. Sanderson, Harvey, 8, 334. Jeduthan, 283, 334. William, 223. Sargeant, Thomas, 341. Sausamon, 156. Sawmills, 67, 189. Saybrook [Conn.], fort purchased, 83. Schonungonuck falls, 189. Schools. 125, 182, 183, 188, 209. 210, 260, 266, 349, 359, 395, 397, 422, 446, 464, 471, 477. Scotland [Conn.], 230. Scott, John, 134, 187. Searle, John. 45. 51. " Widow, 67. Sewall. Samuel. 211. Shaw, [hung], 266. Shays, Daniel. See Shays' rebellion. Shays' rebellion. The debtor class, 301. Jail broken open, 302. County conventions, 303. Views of Washington, Hamilton, and others , 304 , 308 . Interruption of the courts, 308. Instructions to repre- sentatives, 310, 312. Financial dis- tress. 311. Convention at Hatfield, 312. At Hadley, 315. Shays', 315. Money-lenders, 316. Courts inter- rupted, 316-319. Action of town meeting, 319. Gen. Lincoln at Wor- cester, 321. Shays at Springfield, 321-326. Gen. Lincoln in the Conn, valley, 325-329. ^ Sheldon, Charles, 340. S. S., 340. William, 363. Shepard. Levi, 324. Gen. WiUiam, 317, 322-325. Sherman, John, 209. Shipley, Joseph L., 541. ShurtlefE, William S., 509, 524, 528, 534, 584. Sidewalks, 368. Sikes, Mrs. Benjamin, 223. " Increase, 143, 144, 187, 211, 223. " Increase, Jr., 223, 251. " Mrs. Increase, Jr., 223. " James, 187. " James [1774], 275, 277, 279, 287, 303, 308, 312. " Richard, 68-70, 73, 77, 80, 94, 95, 97. 124. " Samuel, Jr., 223. •' Widow Thankful, 223. " Victory, 182, 187. Sill, Captain, 169. Simmons, Rev. George F. Simonds, Samuel, 118. Simsbury CConn.). 196. 462. 642 IXDEX. Skipmuck, 208, 210, 266. Slavery, 152, 186, 206, 332, 374, 412. See also Anti-slavery. Small-pox, 265, 293. Smith, Dr. David P., 529. '• Henry, 10, 11, 26, 15, 51, 53, 65, 68-71,73, 77, 80, 95, 97, 98, • 100, 106, 120, 575. " Mrs. Henry, HI. " Simon, 223, 238, 251. " Col. William, 321, 310. " William L., 508, 520, 522, 539, 546, 554. Smith & Wesson, 497. Somers (Conn.), 196. South Hadley (Mass.), 351. Southfield. See Suffield. Southwick (Mass.), 281. Spectacle pond, 189. Spencer, William, 42. Spicer, John, 335. Spooner, Samuel B., 520, 524, 527-528, 539. Springfikld. Name Agawam changed to Spring- field, 60. Petition to Mass. General Court, 61. Included in list of Mass. towns, 63. Regulates Avages of labor, 50, 66. Allotment of lands, 10, 11, 45, 48, 67-69, 80, 88, 177, 188. Regu- lations in reference to fencing lands, 78, 79. Various town orders, 99-100. King Philip's war, 157-174, 579-582. Town expenses, 179, 262, 350, 365. Parsonage lot, 180. Schools, 125, 182, 183, 188, 209, 210, 260, 266, 349, 359, 395, 397, 422, 446, 464, 471, 477. List of inhabitants in 1679, 187. Trouble with West Springfield, 268. Revolutionary war, 275-300. Shays' rebellion, 301-329. Principal mer- chants, 336, 341, 347; 359, 390. Em- bargo and war of 1812, 363, 364. Springfield, continued. Poor-house, 367, 394. Town oflficers, 73, 98, 125, 126, 175, 194, 262, 264, 266, 269, 275, 286, 348, 349, 363, 369, 395, 427, 457, 462, 475, 480. Popu- lation, 373, 387, 404, 471, 481. Fire department, 407, 446. Destructive fires, 471, 539. Lawlessness, 407. Bi-centennial Celebration, 433, 563. Business statistics, 443, 469, 472, 473. Stearns riot, 452. Thompson riot, 462. Becomes a city, 482. Mayors elected, 483, 490-492, 513, 520, 523, 524, 539. City Government, 483, 492, 494,524. Labor riots, 486, 487. City appropriations, 492. City Hall, 493. Financial troubles, 496. War of the Rebellion, 522-525. Tmo hundred and fiftieth anniversary, 546-628. See also Agawam. Springfield Fire Insurance Co., 359. " Lyceum, 396. " Mountains [Wilbraham], 268. " Young Men's Institute, 477. Squakheag (Northfield), 127, 158. Stages, 389, 411. Steamboat navigation, 409-411, 420, 421, 470. Stearns, Charles, 404, 411, 413, 433- 435, 451, 489. " George M., 591. Stebbins, Benjamin, 187. Edward, 187. " Francis, 345. Ebenezer, 223, 342. . " John, 95, 126, 139. Jolin, Jr., 223. John M., 539. " Jonathan, 139. Joseph, 187, 194. Joseph [2d], 212, 223. Joseph [Capt.J, 342, 343. INDEX. 643 Stebbins, Mrs, Joseph, 223. Rowland, 64, 67, 69, 70, 78, 96. Samuel, 209. Thomas, 64, 67, 68-71, 77, 95, 125, 126, 139, 187, 195. Capt. Thomas. 182, 223, 232, 26-2, 266, 285, 308. Mrs. Thomas, 139. William, 262. Zebina, 335, 343, 345. Stevenson, James, 176. Mrs. Jonathan, 223. Stewart, John, 187. Stoddard, John, 244, 247. " Rev. Solomon, 216. Stone, Rev. Samuel, 32. Stony brook. See Suffield. Stowe, William, 521. Strangers excluded from town, 48. Suffield [Conn.], 184. 194-196, 281. Swanzey [Mass.], 156. Swine, Trouble in regard to, 99. Tannatt, Abrjiham G., 379. Taverns and hotels, 125, 315, 341, 342, 343,345,346, 357, 392, 424, 471, 473, 474, 478. Taxes, 77, 127, 133, 134, 183, 218-221, 350. Taylor, Elizabeth, 223. " James, 143. >' Jonathan, 107, 111, 187. •' Lewis H., 540. Temperance, 396, 426, 439, 440, 459, 480, 489. Thomas, Benjamin, 144. " Ebenezer, 261. Rowland, 187, 194. Sarah, 223. Thompson, George, 462. James M., 520, 522. Thomson, Rev. Mr., 128. Tiffany, Rev. Francis, 488. Timber trade, 349. "Toddy road," 357. Tomson, Thomas, 96. Toryism, 278, 279. Totaps, 195. Town-brook, 50. Towsley, Michael, wife and daughter, 186. Training-day, 51. Trask, Eliphalet, 462, 484, 490-492, 500, 509, 512, 517. Treat, Maj. , 157-159, 168. Trees (Ancient), 404, 405. Turner, Capt. , 174. Turner, Preserved, 150. Turners Falls, 174. Tyler, Philos B., 489. Tything men, 142. Ufford, Thomas, 11. Uncas, 161. United Colony commissioners, 84, 92, 93. United States, 295. United States armory, 355, 356, 374, 422, 449, 453, 489, 491, 503, 516, 521, 523. Vahan, Will, 96. Vane, Sir Henry, 116. Vanhorn, Elizabeth, 223. John, 265. Vose, Henry, 481, 482, 509. Wages of labor, 50, &Q. Wait, Benjamin, 248, 251. " Joseph, 266. " Richard, 266. Wait monument. The, 266. War of 1812, 363. 364. 644 INDEX. War of the Eebelliox. Regiments organized, >vith lists of officers, 522-533. Soldiers' fair, 533. Record of soldiers who died during the war, 535-539. War of the Revolution. Town action; Resolutions, 275, 279. County Congress recommend- ed, 277. Toryism, 278. Minute- men, 281-283. Enlistments, 284. Arsenal established, 286. Declara- tion of Independence, 286. Com- mittee of safety, 287. Articles of Confederation proposed, 287. Sol- diers ordered to Ticoncleroga, 289. Soldiers drafted, 289. Six months' men, 289. List of men in the Con- tinental army, 290. Expenses for soldiers, 291. Financial troubles, 295, 300. Ware (Mass.), 195. Warner, Ebenezer, 2-18, 251, 261. Israel, 261. Mary, 223. " Samuel, wife and daughter, 223. Sarah, 223. Warren, Wilmot L., 544. Warriner, Mrs. Benjamin, 223. David, 223. Ebenezer, 248, 251. " Mrs. Ebenezer, 223. " Elizabeth, 223. " Gideon, 261. James, 187. 194, 208, 262. " Jonathan, 261. " Joseph, and daughter, 223. Martha, 223. Mary, 223. Solomon, 424, 453, 496, 549. William, 64, C^^, 68-70, 77, 95, 110. I " William and wife. 223. I Washington, George, 284, 304, 305, 341, Wason car-works, 479. Watts, Thomas, 157. Webb, Cornelius, and wife, 223. John, 136. Webster, Ariel. 325. Daniel, 458. 459, 512. Weld, E. W., 345. Welles, Thomas, 36. Wells, David A.. 602. Wequogan, or Wrutherna, 165. West Springfield [Mass.], 197, 208, 209, 268, 281, 387. 485. Westfield [Woronoco], 16. 171, 173, 184. 196. Wethersfield [Conn.], 84. Whalley, Col. [The Regicide] , 139. Wheeler, Adam, 325. ^ White, Horace, 281. " Jonathan, 269, 272. " Widow and daughter, 223. Whitefield, Rev. George, 253, 254. AVhitelocke. Bulstrode. 122. Whiting, Charles G., 544. Whitney, Gen. James S., 491, 513. J. D., 338. AVhittelsy, or Writtelsy, Rev. Samuel, 230. Wight, Emerson. 539. Wilbraham [Mass.]. 266, 267. Wilcox, Philo F., 475. Willard, Justice, 380, 393, 413. Simon, 156, 157. Williams, Eleazer, 371. " Rev. Eleazor, 2.30. Col. Ephraim, 261. Rev. John, 207. Rev. Stephen. 227, 228, 232, 237, 238, 250. Rev. William. 228, 232, 237- 239. 243, 270. Williamstown [Mass.], 328. Williston, Joseph, 234. (^ INDEX. 645 Williston, Joseph and wife, 223. Joseph, Jr., 223. Thomas, 293, 308, 309. Wilton, David, 202. Winchester, Charles A., 539. Windham [Conn.], 230. Windsor [Conn.], 83. Windsor church, 54-59. AVinthrop, John, 14-35, 41, 64, 74, 566-568. AYinthrop, Robert C 435. Witchraft, 101-109, 119, 186. Wolcott, Erastus, 270. Wood, Edmund, 11. " Jonas, 11. Woodbridge. John, 208. Woodcock, John, 45, 51, 65-67, 569. Woodford, Thomas, 11. Woodstock (Conn.). 196. Woodstock, John, 4. Worcester (Mass.), 17. Woronoco [Westfield], 16, 60. " river [Agawani], 4. Woronocos, The, 148, 155. Worthington, John, 212, 229, 234, 238, 248, 251. John and wife, 223. Col. John, 264, 266, 269, 275, 277, 278, 287, 293, 294, 309, 310, 311, 351. Wright, Abell, 187. " Mrs. Abell, 139. Eleazer, 363. Mrs. Henry, 223. Mrs. Henry, Jr., 223. Col. I. H., 516. Samuel,51,68, 69-71,78, 96, 98, 128, 157, 578. WylUs, Miss , 82. Yale College, 195, 233. 3?1