USA > Connecticut > Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley > Part 24
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On the ground floor in the middle of the house was the hall from the front to the rear. On either side were two large rooms and a small room without windows, that was used as a store- room. The kitchen, pantry and a bedroom were in a wooden building at the rear, which was probably the house built by Wil- liam Pynchon. This building at the rear was about twenty-five feet square and one and a half stories high. On the upper floor of the brick house were two very large bedrooms, that were separated by a hall similar to the main hall on the ground floor. The walls of the lower story were two feet or more thick and of the second, a little more than a foot thick, so it is easily under- stood that the house was an impregnable fort against any weapons of offence possessed by Indians.
The brick of which the house was built were small, about two- thirds the ordinary size. The severe plainness of the brick walls was broken by a rounded projection of red sandstone, running about three sides of the house, and two feet from the ground. This is what architects call a water-table. The chimneys were at either end of the house, thus giving a fireplace in each of the four rooms. The roof was as high as' the main body of the house, that is, the line of the eaves was half the height of the house from the ground to the ridge-pole. It was, in fact, similar
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to the high, pitched roofs of the Dutch in the Mohawk Valley. This steepness of the roof - of the old Dutch houses as well as of Major Pynchon's - was doubtless for protection from fire in case of an attack by Indians. It was so steep, that an arrow with a flaming torch of birchbark would not remain on the roof, but would slide to the ground. As originally built, the house had a projection, or inclosed porch in front, two stories and a half high. It hardly seems possible that descendants of those "best of men" could have been guilty of tearing down the historic home of their ancestors, in 1831, but such is said to be a fact. Springfield must have been in a state of coma when it was done, otherwise the people of Springfield would have rescued it from the hands of over-practical persons as the people of Boston saved the Old South Church, when it was proposed to tear it down thirty years ago.
After the destruction of the jail, or prison, when Springfield was burned by Indians in 1675, there was no place in the county for the confinement of prisoners and it must be remembered that till 1730, Hampshire County included nearly all of western Mas- sachusetts. On January 10, 1677, the County Court, in session at Northampton, ordered a new prison and house of correction to be built in Springfield, at an expense as near £50 as was pos- sible and not more than £55. Major Pynchon selected a site on Main street, on the west side, where the hotel called the Union House was later built. It was a building of two stories, twenty- five by eighteen feet. One room, with several closets, occupied all of the first floor, and on the second floor were three rooms. The walls and the partitions between the rooms, were of very heavy oak planks, and although such a prison would easily be broken by the skilled mechanics who belong to the criminal class of this century, it was then regarded as being entirely satisfac- tory and safe. For many years this was the only place of con- finement in the county, for the great variety of offenders who were declared to be criminals by the queer laws of those days, and it was the place of confinement for the southern part of the county for 114 years. No deed to the property was given by Samuel Ely or by Thomas Merrick, from whom it was purchased by Major Pynchon for the county, till 1683, and 1684, respec-
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tively. The house for the jail-keeper stood on the same lot with the jail.
Up to 1794, the courts had met alternately in Northampton and Springfield, but in that year they were transferred to Northampton, on account of its central location, so the jail in Springfield was of no further use, as a new jail was built in Northampton. Moses Bliss, Warham Parks and Sylvester Judd, were appointed by the court as a committee to sell the county's property in Springfield. They sold the property to the jail- keeper, William Colton, for £200. Colton moved the building used for a jail to the rear of the keeper's house and used a part of it as a kitchen. About 1816, the jail property was owned by Elam Stock- bridge, who lived in the house, and when Bliss street was opened the old jail was torn down and the house was moved to a site further west, on the southerly side of Bliss street. The most exciting events in the history of the old jail were the murder of Edward East by his fel- low prisoner, William MONUMENT OF MILES MORGAN, ONE OF THE FOREMOST OF THE EARLY SETTLERS Shaw, in 1770, and the rescue by a mob in 1782, of Samuel Ely, one of the instigators of the series of mobs which culminated in Shays' Rebellion.
Springfield had a fire-engine at least a year before the first in- dependent volunteer fire company was organized, possibly more than a year, but the first mention of it was in 1793, when money was spent by the parish for repairing it. The fact that it needed repairing. would make it seem that it had been in use for several years previous to 1793.
The Fire Company was organized on January 17, 1794, prob-
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ably at Parsons' Tavern, with the following members ; Colonel Dwight, Jonathan and Thomas Dwight, George and Luke Bliss, Colonel Williams, Joseph Williams, William and Charles Sheldon, Samuel Lyman, Zebina Stebbins, Chauncey Brewer, William Pynchon, John Hooker, Bezaleel Howard, Zenas Parsons and James Byers. The company entered into an agreement, that each would do all in his power to save the property of the others from destruction by fire. They were not the only fire-fighters in the town but they were the only organized firemen. As a matter of fact, nearly every man, boy and many of the women, turned out to do their full share in the efforts to save their own or their neighbors' property. The work done by the men was that of passing buckets, from the nearest well or brook along the line to the engine, when the water was emptied into the tank of the engine and then laboriously pumped through the hose onto the fire. The part taken by the women and boys in this opera- tion, was the passing back of the empty buckets. The first fire engine had two sets of brakes, so that it was possible for twenty- six men to work them at the same time. The upper set were worked by six men, who stood upon the top of the engine. When they were not needed they could be folded back, where they would be out of the way. The first line of hose was but five feet long, just long enough for the nozzle-man to direct the stream, but in 1809, there were thirty-five feet of hose. The old engine was taken on long trips occasionally, and several times it was present at fires in Longmeadow. At such times, a horse was used to assist the men up the grades. The engine house was a tiny affair, but little larger than was necessary to hold the engine. It was built on Market street near the corner of State street, on land owned by the parish. As the land was wanted for the Town hall, it was taken down in 1826 and a new engine house was built, on what later became the south-west corner of San- ford and Market streets. In 1792, Springfield had a population of but 1,800 so every body knew his neighbors and when an alarm of fire was rung from the church steeple the interest was general, as was the interest in the firemen and the engine.
One of the most active, as a member of the company and a worker at fires, was Elijah Blake who joined the company in 1809, and worked at the same position on the upper set of brakes
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for ten years. He was elected as the foreman of the company in 1820, and served in that capacity till 1830. In that year the State organized fire districts and created the office of chief engi- neer, to which office Mr. Blake was appointed and served in it for many years. George Bliss was his assistant.
The English home of the Holyoke family was in Tamworth, · Warwickshire, whence came Edward Holyoke to Chelsea, Massa- chusetts,- then called Rumney Marsh - some time in the years 1637 or '38, and his son Elizur Holyoke, then about twenty years old. Edward Holyoke was a farmer, who was possessed of some means and more than the average natural abilities. His worth was recognized by his fellow settlers of Chelsea, who elected him to the lower branch of the General Court for several years.
Elizur was attracted to Springfield, soon after arriving in New England, where he settled and became, with William and John Pynchon, Henry Smith and Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the chief men of the new settlement. The Pynchon and Holyoke families had been intimate friends in the old home in England, where Elizur knew and loved Mary Pynchon, William Pynchon's daughter. His regard for her was not greater than hers for him, so the reason for his leaving Chelsea for Springfield is easily guessed, as they were married in 1640.
Elizur Holyoke built his house on the lot that was between those of William Pynchon and Henry Smith, who had married Mary Pynchon's older sister, Ann. His home-lot extended from Worth- ington to Bridge street and from Main street back to the Connecti- cut River. He also owned his proper portion of farm, pasture and woodland outside of the village, on both sides of the river, and as time passed he acquired a large estate, partly by purchase and partly by grant from the Town for valuable services ren- dered. Mr. Holyoke's public life began soon after his marriage and while he was still a young man. In those days, when men were estimated for their personal qualities and intelligence and not by the size of their estates or the money they possessed, any office was an honor. Elizur's first public duties were as juryman and often as foreman of that body. When the land on the west side of the Connecticut River was laid out, in 1642, he was one of a committee of six other men to perform that work, and in
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1651, he was appointed to the office of constable, the import- ance of which office has been shown in a previous chapter.
After the orthodox members of the General Court had deposed William .Pynchon and so caused his return to England, with his son-in-law, Henry Smith, in 1652, they appointed John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Deacon Samuel Chapin a commission to act as magistrates for the government of the town, and the trial of all civil and criminal cases. They were also the magistrates of Northampton when that town was settled. In 1665, three years after the organization of Hampshire County, the court was reor- ganized with John Pynchon as presiding judge, and with Mr. Holyoke one of the four associate judges, and the recorder of the court. Mr. Holyoke was Springfield's first representative to the General Court, the previous representatives being men who were living near, or in Boston. In 1653, he, with Pynchon and Chapin, were appointed by the General Court to lay out a new plantation at Nonotuck and the result of their work was the birth of North- ampton. It was probably when this survey was being made that Mount Holyoke was given his name. In 1670, Mr. Holyoke, with Thomas Cooper, George Colton, Benjamin Cooley, and Rowland Thomas, surveyed and laid out Suffield in Connecticut, which at that time was believed to be in Massachusetts.
His military career began in 1653, when he was appointed by the General Court as ensign of the militia ; in 1657, he was pro- moted to the office of lieutenant and in 1669, he was a captain, and he was still in that office when Springfield was burnt in King Philip's War, his house being one of the fifteen that was not destroyed by the Indians. In the years when Springfield was without a settled minister - 1652 to 1659- he frequently offi- ciated as leader of the Sunday worship.
In 1658, Mrs. Holyoke died and, as was the custom in those days, he soon married again. His second wife was Editha Steb- bins, the widow of Robert Day, and later of John Maynard. In 1676, Captain Holyoke died. He was survived by his second wife and the four sons and two daughters of his first marriage. Of these four sons, John, Samuel -- who was a captain in the Falls fight of 1676- and Edward, died without having married. The youngest, Elizur, moved to Boston and married. One of his sons became president of Harvard College.
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A man who was a little less prominent in the early history of Springfield than were the Pynchons, the Holyokes, Smith and Chapin, was Miles Morgan. But a lack of prominence does not mean an indifference to the welfare of the settlement, or a lack of energy, effort, and deeds in its behalf. The unknown man often makes as much history as the man whose name is fre- quently spoken. The unknown man is often as much a doer of great things ; of benevolent acts ; a reliever of distress ; a giver of encouragement to the disheartened and sympathy to the afflicted ; and as much a man of courage as is the man whom chance, or demonstrative characteristics, have made prominent.
Miles, John and James Morgan arrived in Boston in April, 1636, on a ship which sailed from the port of Bristol, in the west of England. James settled in Connecticut and was the first Connecticut ancestor of a great number of persons bearing that name. John settled in Virginia, and Miles went to Spring- field about 1643, seven years after the settlement by William Pynchon and his company of pioneers. His name is first men- tioned in the records in March, 1645, when the birth of his first child, Mary, is recorded.
On the ship in which he sailed was Prudence Gilbert, who, with her family settled in Beverly, Massachusetts. The long journey across the ocean provided the opportunity for the young persons to become well acquainted and finally to " fall in love". There is a tradition in the family, that Miles made the journey from Springfield to Beverly for the purpose of making Prudence his wife. He had proposed marriage to her by letter and she had accepted the proposal in the same manner, when Miles, with two of his friends and an Indian for guide, set out with a pack- horse through the forest to Beverly. After the wedding the pack- horse was loaded with the bride's effects and she, her husband, the two friends and the Indian began the return journey on foot, the distance being 120 miles. It was of such girls, healthy and vigorous in mind, body and spirit, that New England mothers were made and from whom were descended the heroic men and women of the Indian wars, the Revolution, and Civil War.
Miles Morgan's home-lot was south of Cypress street, then Ferry lane, on the west side of Main street. After the birth of their first child, Jonathan, David, Pelatiah, Isaac, Lydia, Hannah
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and Mercy were born with an interval of two years between births. Mrs. Morgan died in February, 1660, and nine years later Miles married Elizabeth Bliss, on February 15, 1669. In the mean time, Miles Morgan had become Sergeant Morgan of the militia. His first public service was in 1645, when he served with George Colton as a committee to secure a blacksmith for the town. In 1660, he was chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and in '62 was one of the committee to arrange with Elizur Holyoke for the management of the town gristmill. Miles Morgan and Elizur Holyoke did the greater part of the carrying for Pynchon, by boat on the river down to Hartford, and by cart to settlements back from the river.
In the Indian attack which resulted in the burning of Spring- field, Sergeant Morgan fought with courage and gave repeated evidence of his bravery.
THE BRECK CONTROVERSY.
Reference has been made frequently to the fact, that as a whole, the New England orthodox Christians were "God fearing people," but there were some notable public exceptions to this general condition of holy-fear and, no doubt, thousands of pri- vate exceptions. By public exceptions it is meant that there were ministers of the early Congregational Church who -- no doubt were inspired by personal experience of it - preached God's Love instead of His wrath. One of these public exceptions was the Rev. Robert Breck who committed a sin against orthodoxy -re- garded as being but little lower than a sin against Jehovah - by saying in a sermon preached in New London :
What will become of the heathen who never heard of the Gospel I do not pretend to say, but I cannot but indulge the hope that God, in His boundless benevolence, will find out a way whereby those heathen, who act up to the light they have, may be saved.
What could possibly be more sinful, than for a man, a minister, a Congregational minister, to hope that the heathen - who did not " own a covenant " and had never heard of the Puritans - would be saved ! It may seem like a significant fact, that when Timothy and Jonathan Edwards died, they were buried and no one has ever heard that they walked the earth after death and
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burial. When Solomon Stoddard, Robert Breck and the few other "public exceptions " died, they too were buried but their great, loving spirits-which caused them to hope God would save and not damn " those heathen, who act up to the light they have " - penetrated every nook and corner of New England until to-day every minister and member of the Congregational Church not only hopes that God will save the just heathen, but believes that He will.
This horrible sin against orthodoxy soon was known all over New England. The fleetest and most loquacious busybody of the settlement was slow and dumb in comparison with the minis- terial news-mongers, whose infinitesimal souls actually glowed with a brilliancy as great as the fire-fly's (in holy anticipation of the ecclesiastical orgy about to begin) as they tattled or scrib- bled the news, that this stripling of twenty-two had actually dared to believe that God is what He says He is, instead of the jealous, revengeful Spirit of Wrath they in their pulpits declared Him to be.
The advance of civilization and of education had deprived them of the gentle joy of burning a neighbor's wife at the stake as a witch, but the gladsome occupation of proving a great-hearted, God-and-man-loving Christian to be un-orthodox was still theirs. So the Rev. Robert Breck was tried. The news of Robert Breck's sin was sent to Springfield by the Rev. Mr. Williams, of Mans- field, Connecticut, in a letter in which he mentioned, that the Rev. Mr. Clap and the Rev. Mr. Kirtland were willing to testify to Mr. Breck's unfitness for the ministry. They even dug back into Mr. Breck's short life and found, that when a child of thir- teen - while he was a student in Harvard - he had stolen some books and also that he had called the Rev. Mr. Clap a liar. So long as Mr. Breck was orthodox, these childish sins were over- looked and probably never would have been mentioned. As soon as Mr. Breck had transgressed the laws of orthodoxy, they resur- rected his childish transgressions of the laws of God.
The story of the " Breck Controversy" is little known. It possesses great historical value because it shows that the early Congregationalists were not so different from the Church of Eng- land. If Episcopalians sometimes forgot the founder of Chris- tianity, in their anxiety to observe the proper form and to wear
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CHAPIN MONUMENT, SPRINGFIELD.
Deacon Samuel Chapin was one of the " mighties " of Springfield in 1675.
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the correct vestments, Congregationalists also, sometimes, for- got Him in their anxiety to maintain their man-made dogmas.
When the Rev. Robert Breck came to Springfield, in 1734, he was regarded with suspicion by the clergy. In August of that year he was called by the Springfield Church, and two months later the objections to his settlement were presented to the Hamp- shire Association at Suffield. As Mr. Breck's terms were not satisfactory to the Church the matter was dropped. It was taken up again, in November, when it was known that certain persons of prominence had obstructed his settlement. The Church asked for the advice of the ministers of the county. It found that six of the thirteen ministers were opposed to again calling him. The advice was not heeded and so Mr. Breck returned to Springfield. In April, 1735, the Church formally requested the Association to state its objections to Mr. Breck and to suggest a remedy. In reply, the Association recommended that the matter should be re- ferred to the Association of Windham, Connecticut, or to a com- mittee of Hampshire ministers. The Church rejected the recom- mendations, as it did not care to migrate to settle the matter, nor was it willing to leave it to the Hampshire ministers as one of them, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow, was known to be prejudiced against Mr. Breck. From all this, and from what followed, it is plain to be seen that the people of Springfield liked Mr. Breck and believed in his Christianity, and that Mr. Breck's fellow ministers feared his catholicity.
The Church was willing to submit the case to the Hampshire ministers if Mr. Williams would withdraw from the committee, but he refused, and the Association supported him. Thus far, the Church had asked advice only from the Association. The Church had a right to call a council to try Mr. Breck with a view to his ordination. The Rev. Jonathan Edwards - the in- ventor of that unique pavement - claimed that the Association was the only proper judge in the matter, but his claim was seem- ingly not on Congregational authority. In the hope of improv- ing the conditions, Mr. Breck asked that ministers from out of the county might sit with the Association to try the case. Many members of the Association objected to this request, but the moderator, the Rev. William Williams, of Hatfield, did not object openly. Mr. Williams was something of a politician. He made
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the people of the Springfield Church believe that he favored Mr. Breck's request in regard to ministers from out the country, and at the same time, he was secretly doing all he could to . prevent it.
A joint letter was written to the Church by Mr. Williams, Samuel Hopkins, Jonathan Edwards, and N. Bull, dated Au- gust 14, evidently in Mr. Edwards' handwriting, in which they say :
We account it preposterous for the Church of Springfield to call him or for him to accept a call to the ministry, till the matter objected to against him has been duly inquired into. .* * * We hardly think any number of ministers will be' found to serve the scheme of Springfield and Mr. Breck.
In commenting upon this joint letter, Mr. John A. Green says, in his paper on the controversy :
The right of Mr. Edwards to stigmatize a regular council to try a minister on definite charges, a " scheme " must be doubted, as must also be his congregationalism, when a few days before he had said the Asso- ciation was the only proper judge of the case. According to history, a Congregational Church has exclusive control of its own affairs, and the association is an organization of ministers -not of Churches - for mutual benefit, having the privilege of fellowship, giving of advice and other things of that nature.
October 8 was fixed upon for the ordination of Mr. Breck. The Rev. Messrs. Cooper, Welsteed, and Mather, of Boston, and Cook, of Sudbury, made the journey from Boston through the woods to be present at the ordination. They were coldly and somewhat discourteously received by the Hampshire ministers. The council consisted of the Rev. Messrs. Chauncey, of Hadley : Devotion, of Suffield; Rand, of Sunderland; Cooper, Welsteed and Mather, of Boston; and Cook, of Sudbury. They met in the morning of October 7, in the parsonage, with closed doors. The dissatisfied brethren of the Springfield Church presented their charges, but they refused to give proofs of the charges, on the ground that the council was illegal. The hostile ministers brought with them some Northampton justices. They were visited at the tavern, where they stopped, by the dissatisfied mem- bers of the Springfield Church and, as a result, many rumors were heard.
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When the Council met, the following morning, it demanded proofs of the charges, but they were again refused, and the in- formation was volunteered that the Rev. Messrs. Clap and Kirt- land, of Connecticut, Mr. Breck's chief accusers, were in the village. A verbal and written discussion followed, between the Council and Messrs. Clap and Kirtland, and finally they gave a written statement to the Council. Mr. Clap - afterward Presi- dent of Yale- read the charges and when Mr. Breck started to answer them, he was not permitted to do so.
"This secret chamber trial ", says Green the historian, "was indeed a memorable scene - seven wigged judges, two accusing wigs from another Colony, and the broad-shouldered, high-bred, generous-hearted boy minister, whose large inspirations had charmed a village congregation and given a shock to the Con- necticut River Calvinism ".
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