USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Southampton > Address delivered at Southampton, Mass. : at the centennial celebration of the incorporation of that town, July 23, 1841 > Part 1
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Gc 974. 402 So914℮ 1781127
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 8411
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ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT SOUTHAMPTON, MASS.
1841
AT THE
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE
INCORPORATION OF THAT TOWN,
JULY 23, 1641.
BY B. B. EDWARDS,
PROFESSOR OF HEBREW IN THE THEOL. SEMINARY, ANDOVER.
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ANDOVER: PRINTED BY ALLEN, MORRILL AND WARDWELL, (Successors to Gould & Newman.) 1841.
1781127
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844843 .25 1
Edwards, Bela Bates, 1802-1852.
Address delivered at Southampton, Mass., at the centennial celebration of the incorporation of that town, July 23, 1811. By B. B. Edwards ... Andover, Printed by Allen, Morrill and Wardwell, 1841.
54 p. 22cm.
OHELP CARD
1. Southampton, Mass .- HIst.
3-32070
Library of Congress
F74.ST1E2
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[3361) .
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AT a meeting of inhabitants of the town of Southampton, former resi- dents of the place, and others, July 23, 1841,-
Voted-That Rev. M. E. White, and Elisha Edwards, Asahel Birge, Asahel Chapman and Stephen Strong, Esquires, be a committee to pre- sent the thanks of the meeting to the Rev. B. B. Edwards, for his appropri- ate and interesting discourse, delivered at the centennial celebration this day, and to request a copy for publication.
For many of the facts communicated in the following Address, the au- thor is indebted to a MS. sermon of the late Rev. Vinson Gould of South- ampton, and to verbal and other information from Sylvester Judd, Esq. of Northampton.
2540
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
WE are met to celebrate the birth-day of this town. One hundred years have gone, since it became a separate muni- cipal corporation. It is, indeed, but a little one among the thousands of Judah. It may be thought by some of her elder and fairer sisters in the Commonwealth, that our observance, this day, was hardly called for ; that we have nothing to commemorate, except the lapse of years, and the short and uninteresting annals of two or three generations of men whose memories have now almost perished. Why not allow them to remain in their oblivious slumbers ? Why distinguish, by eulogy and solemn festival, plain and honest men who never sought distinction for themselves ?
To these charges we plead guilty in part. We have no forefathers' rock. Peregrine White was not born here. The graves of the Lady Arabella Johnson and of her hus- band, " the holy man and wise," are not with us. No Char- ter Oak here lifts its broad and time-worn arms to the sky. We have no cellar which concealed the royal judges ; nor any door that was pierced by Indian bullets. The drums, which awoke the sleepers at Lexington and Concord, were not heard in this peaceful valley. We have no great event to rehearse ; no stirring story to tell.
Yet, we are not without justification for our meeting to- day. The puritan blood flows in our veins. We claim a , common descent with the Winthrops, the Hookers and the Stoddards of more favored towns. Our ancestors helped to plant inestimable civil and religious institutions. Ought
Than 23 May 33
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their remembrance to cease? Theirs indeed are not the names which are green on the page of history. But is the subaltern to receive no credit? Is the faithful common sol- dier utterly undeserving of mention ? It was by his means that the stealthy Indian was discovered and repelled. Ben- nington and Saratoga obtained their renown by accident. These deciding battles of the revolution happened to be fought there. But it was the men from the little towns of New Hampshire and Vermont that gathered around Stark and Warner. The glory of General Gates was won for him by soldiers from Connecticut river. One of the stoutest spirits at Bunker Hill was a blacksmith from Northampton. It was our ancestors and their neighbors who dared the horrors of the wilderness and of a Canadian winter with Arnold. One of these adventurous soldiers, through the goodness of Prov- idence, is permitted yet to live .*
We celebrate, therefore, scenes and events which should not be forgotten. We call up the names of men which should be evermore honored. They acted their part well in times of sharp trial. Their trust was in the God of hosts when all around was dark. They often gathered their har- vest in silence and in fear ; with the weapon of defence in one hand ; or a detachment of their number guarding the passes of danger ; or far off on some harassing expedition. Thick woods and weary miles intervened between them and the parent settlement ; while in one direction, they were on a perilous frontier. On the North West, from this place to Canada, not a single white settlement existed to ward off danger, or to give tidings of its approach. The tragedy of Deerfield might have been enacted here at any moment. The picketed forts would have been no more defence than the stakes and the sleepy sentinel were at Deerfield. Those were hard times, not more from actual suffering than from
. Mr. Lemuel Bates of Southampton.
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fear. To be constantly harassed with apprehensions was worse, it may be, than any actual infliction could have been. It were better to meet the enemy in battle, on one or two occasions, and run the risk of his balls, than to lie down at night, not knowing but that you might be awakened by the bursting in of your door, or the piercing shriek of a toma- hawked wife or neighbor.
Such lacerating anxieties our fathers felt for many years, while they were burning the forests by which they were sur- rounded, and supporting liberally, with their sinall means, schools of elementary learning and the institutions of the gospel. Obscure men, comparatively, they were ; but they labored wisely and with true zeal. The town of which they were the fathers, has been outstripped in population and re- sources by multitudes in the Commonwealth ; but in the In- dian and revolutionary wars, it supplied its full quota of men and means for the common cause. For almost one hundred years, no town was more united in religious opinion and be- nevolent labor. Its surplus productions have never been abundant, for the soil is not rich ; but it has cultivated with some assiduity the minds which have been found within its borders ; and given them a direction which has been not alto- gether without its benefits to the world.
We, therefore, hallow the precious memories of our fa- thers. We would reinshrine them in our affections. We ·would gladly plant a greener turf on their perishing dust. It is an office of filial and affectionate reverence, to retrace, im- perfectly though it may be, some of the prominent events in their history.
Two hundred years ago, Connecticut river from its mouth to Canada, was in possession of the Indians. From the fer- tility of the soil, the salubrity of the air and other causes, their number appears to have been larger than in any other part of New England. In the town of Windsor only, there
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were ten distinct tribes or sovereignties. There were large bodies of them at Springfield, Northampton, Deerfield and Northfield. For obvious reasons, they selected as places for their rude encampments the falls of a river, or where the smaller streams discharge their waters into the Connecticut. Consequently their wigwams would be found in the point where Westfield river joins the Connecticut, at Nashawan- nuck and Paskhomuck in Easthampton, and at the various localities where the larger brooks empty into the Manhan. The wigwams were commonly erected in groves, near some rivulet or living spring. The whole country was then al- most one unbroken wilderness. There were no cultivated fields, nor gardens, nor public roads. Except in places where the timber had been destroyed, and its growth pre- vented by frequent fires, the woods were thick and lofty. Where the lands were burned, for the sake of catching deer and other wild game, or for the purpose of planting corn, there grew bent grass, or thatch, as it was called, sometimes to the height of four feet. The Indians throughout New- England spoke the same language radically. From the Pis- cataqua to the Connecticut, it was so nearly the same, that the different tribes could converse together .* All the In- dians on Connecticut river were tributaries, a part to the Mohawks ; and the remainder, first to the Pequots, and then · to the Mohegans.
The still forest and tangled path of the red man was now to be broken by the white settler. On the 20th of October, 1635,t about sixty men, women and children took their de- parture from Dorchester, Cambridge and Watertown, to en- counter the perils of a trackless wilderness. They were four- teen days on the road. They struck the Connecticut river near the mouth of Scantic river in East Windsor. The
. See the communications of Mr. Pickering in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll.
t Some preparation had been made the previous year.
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Dorchester people began the settlement of the river on the west side, called by the Indians Manteneaug. Some of them were gentlemen of opulence and education. Among the emigrants from Dorchester to Windsor, were Isaac Sheldon and John Strong, the ancestors of those bearing these names now residents in Southampton and the adjoining towns. They appear to have belonged to a congregational church which was gathered at Plymouth, England, in 1630.
The first town which was settled in the western part of Massachusetts was Springfield. Some of the original plant- ers came from England in 1630, in Governor Winthrop's company. William Pynchon, the father of the town, and one of the eight original settlers, came from Roxbury. Ear- ly in 1635, Mr. Pynchon and the inhabitants of Roxbury had liberty granted them by the General Court " to remove to any place that they should think meet, not to the prejudice of any other plantation, provided they remained under the government of Massachusetts." They accordingly came in 1635, and built a house on the west side of the Connecticut, . on the Agawam, or Westfield river, called from that fact Housemeadow. A permanent settlement was made in the spring of 1636. The name was changed from Agawam to Springfield, by vote of the town, April 14, 1640. Among the carly inhabitants of Springfield who removed to North- ampton, and whose descendants now reside in Northampton and the towns which were formed from it, were Samuel Burt, Alexander Edwards and John Scarl.
The lands bordering on Connecticut river, which are now in the towns of Northampton, Hadley and Hatfield, were first known by the Indian name Nonotuck. On the 6th of May, 1653, a number of persons petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to grant them liberty to possess, plant and inhabit the place on Conetiquot river, above Springfield, call- ed Nonotuck, as their own inheritance ; representing that the same was a place suitable to erect a town for the further-
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ance of the public weal and the propagation of the gospel. At the same time, in aid of this petition, John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Samuel Chapin of Springfield, present- ed a request, stating that the place was very commodious, containing large quantities of excellent land, and that at least twenty-five families in the neighborhood " had manifested a desire to remove thither, many of whom were of considerable quality for estates, and fit matter for a church." In answer to these petitions, the Court, in May, 1653, appointed a committee to divide the lands petitioned for into two planta- tions. One of them was afterwards formed into Hadley. The other plantation, Northampton, was to "extend from the upper end of Little Meadow to the Great Falls towards Springfield, and extend nine miles from the Connecticut." There is a tradition, that an English family came to North- ampton in 1652. In 1653, a number of families settled in the place. It was bought for 100 fathom of wampum and ten coats, besides some smaller presents in hand, paid to the sachems and owners, and also for ploughing up sixteen acres of land on the east side of the river. A new deed was subsequently executed, and a more satisfactory compensa- tion was given. In 1656, " townsmen," or selectmen, were chosen. March 18, 1657, the people voted to employ an agent " to obtain a minister, and to devise means to prevent the excess of liquors and cider from coming to the town." On the 7th of June, the town, by unanimous consent, desir- ed Mr. Eleazar Mather of Dorchester, "to be a minister to them, in a way of trial in dispensing his gifts." In 1661, the town voted to build a meeting-house forty-two feet square. May 7, 1662, Hampshire County was formed of the three towns of Springfield, Northampton and Hadley. When the church was first gathered at Northampton, June 18, 1661, it consisted of eight members, Rev. Eleazar Math- er, Elder John Strong, William Clark, Thomas Root, Thom-
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as Hanchet, David Wilton, Henry Cunliffe and Henry Wood- ward.
The first settlement south of the present limits of North- ampton, was commenced in Nashawannuck, (now in East- hampton,) in 1665, by Jolin Webb. It was continued . by two of his sons, and by Robert Danks, who married his widow. The second settlement was commenced in about 1686 or 1687, by Samuel Bartlett, or permanently, a little later by his son Joseph, at a place which was called for a long time, " Bartlett's Mills," near the centre of Eastliamp- ton. The third settlement was formed about the year 1700, by five families, those of Samuel Janes, Benoni Jones, Moses Hutchinson, John Searl and Benjamin Janes, at Paskhomuck, at the western base of Mount Tom in Easthampton .*
The precise date when the first settlement was made, with- in the present limits of Southampton, cannot now be ascer- tained. Samuel and Eldad Pomeroy, who lived in what is now called Pomeroy's Meadow, petitioned the General Court, that met May, 1742, to have their families and farms remain with the first precinct. It would appear, that they had pre- viously belonged to the old town, and not with those who had removed further south ; they had helped build the meet- ing-house in the first precinct, and had not asked any thing in return, like those who lived over the Manhan river. They mention, that of late about thirty families had settled, and were about to settle, at the south-west corner of the town bounds ; are now about to settle a minister, have actually begun their meeting-house, and have obtained a grant of the General Court for a tax of six pence per acre on all land in said precinct. The Pomeroys thought it hard, that they should pay this tax and the various expenses of the new pre- cinct. They state that they had improved their lands
. See the Half Century Sermon of Rev. Payson Williston of East- hampton, 1839.
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(meaning meadow lands) and paid taxes for them, forty or fifty years. This would seem to show, that the land at Pomeroy's Meadow was under cultivation as early as 1700. It cannot be ascertained, so far as I know, when the first building was erected, or in what year the Pomeroys made a permanent settlement. The tradition is, that they built their first houses in 1722. or 1721. After the meeting-house in the south precinct was built, and a minister settled, they were cordially received into the new society, agreeably to their own request.
The proprietors of the second precinct were all, or nearly all, inhabitants of the old settlement. As some of them had a number of sons, their fathers offered them extensive farms if they would effect a permanent settlement upon them. But the 'hardships incident to such a removal were too great to be easily surmounted. A number of persons who made the at- tempt soon relinquished it. The date of the first meeting of the proprietors on record is March 21, 1730. This was an adjourned meeting from the 31st of January. At this meet- ing the question was put, " Whether the proprietors would divide the land beginning up the hill over Manhan, upon the west side of the country road, and to extend beyond White- loofe brook, so far as our old bounds went, in such form and manner as to be suitable (together with the additional grant that now belongs to the town) to make a precinct or town ; and the division to be made to and amongst the original or ancient proprietors, their heirs or assigns, or any that hold by purchase under the ancient or original proprietors, or their heirs." The committee appointed to effect a division of the land were Hon. John Stoddard, Ebenezer Pomeroy, Dea. John Clark, Hon. Joseph Hawley and Ensign Ebenezer Par- sons. The lands were accordingly divided and assigned by lot to thirty individuals, on condition that they should make . improvements and erect buildings upon them within a speci- fied time. The first notice of the second precinct in the
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Northampton town records is Dec. 22, 1732, when the town chose Ensign John Baker and Moses Lyman a committee " to lay out a highway over the branch of Manhan river at or near Pomeroy's Meadow, or some other suitable and con- venient place, so as to accommodate the new settlement."
It does not appear that any family commenced a permanent residence south of Pomeroy's Meadow, prior to 1732. It is probable, that single individuals resided on their lands for short intervals of time, for the purpose of preparing them to be permanently occupied. In 1732, Judah Hutchinson and Thomas Porter came to the precinct and erected houses. In May, 1733, fourteen settlers joined them. These were Dea. John Clark, Joseph Clark, Samuel Danks, Phineas King, Ebenezer Kingsley, Nathan Lyman, Elias Root, Stephen Root, Nathaniel Searl, Ezra Strong, Ichabod Strong, Dea. Waitstill Strong, John Wait and Moses Wright. During three or four of the succeeding years, fourteen additional settlers united with the little plantation. Their names were Jonathan Bascom, Samuel Burt, Roger Clap, Aaron Clark, Elisha Clark, Jonathan Clark, Ebenezer French, Eleazar Hannum, Elias Lyman, John Miller, Noah Pixley, Israel Sheldon, Noah Sheldon and Stephen Sheldon .*
The second Precinct was first named as such, on the North- ampton Records, Sept. 14, 1739. There was a clause in the warrant, " to see whether the town would consent to setting off the new town, so called, by the bounds following, viz., be- ginning on the south side of Manhan river a little above Bartlett's house [Clapp's Mill], and so bounded eastwardly upon the country road, till it extends southwardly unto the dividing line between Northampton and Westfield, and then bounded southwardly upon the line between Northampton and Westfield, and then bounded westwardly upon land be- longing to the province [Montgomery], and bounded north-
· See Appendix, Note A.
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wardly upon the Long or West Division so called [West- hampton] ; all which land and the inhabitants thereon, as be- fore described, the town voted should be set off a distinct and separate precinct, that so by consent of the General Court, they might be under a capacity to carry on the worship of God among themselves."
The new settlement was incorporated into the second Precinct of Northampton, July 23. 1741. We here present the petition of the proprietors, and the action of the General Court thereon.
" To His Excellency, Jonathan Belcher, Esq., Capt. Gen. and Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, etc. The Honorable His Majesty's Council and House of Representatives in Gen- eral Court assembled at Boston, July 8, 1741.
The Petition of us whose names are undersigned. That your Petitioners dwell on a certain Tract or Parcel of land in the Township of Northampton in the County of Hamp- shire, intended for a Precinct. The Centre of which is near about eight miles from Northampton Meeting house ; and your Excellency and Honours by observing the votes of the Town and Proprietors herewith presented, [will perceive] that the Town have given their consent, that we should be a distinct Precinct ; and the Proprietors, [have con- sented] that a Tax of six pence per acre should be laid on the whole of their Tract (being about fourteen thousand acres) in the Propriety besides what belongs to the Town ;- the whole, both Town and Propriety, bounded South by Westfield bounds, East by the Country Road,-North by Proprietors' lots in the long division, so called,-West by Country land,-to enable us to defray some necessary pub- lic charges, that may arise among us .- and as we apprehend nothing stands in our way .- We therefore most humbly move that your Excellency and Honours would be pleased
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to set us off to be a Precinct with usual privileges, and order the aforesaid Tax to be raised, that we may be enabled to build a meeting house, settle a minister and have the wor- ship of God among ourselves, and your petitioners, as in du- ty bound, shall ever pray, etc.
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SAMUEL DANKS
THOMAS PORTER
ROGER CLAP
SELAH CLARK
EBEN. POMEROY
AARON ROOT
STEPHEN SHELDON
ELIAS LYMAN
SAMUEL BURT
NOAH SHELDON
JOSEPH KING
ICHABOD STRONG
JOHN WAIT
NATH'L SEARL, Jun.
EBEN. KINGSLEY
JONA. MILLER
NATH'L SEARL
JOHN MILLER
EZRA STRONG
CHARLES PHELPS
WAITSTILL STRONG
EBEN'R FRENCH
JONA. BASCOM
JONA. CLARK
JUDAH HUTCHINSON
ELISHA CLARK
STEPHEN ROOT
PHINEAS KING
NATHAN LYMAN
JOHN CLARK
MOSES WRIGHT
ELEAZAR HANNUM
NOAH PIXLEY
ISRAEL SHELDON
AARON CLARK.
In the House of Representatives July 17, 1741. Read and in answer to this Petition, ordered, that the following part of the said Town of Northampton be and hereby is set off a separate and distinct Precinct by the bounds hereafter men- tioned, viz. Bounded on the South by Westfield bounds,- East by the Country Road,-North by Proprietors' lots in the long division, so called,-West by Country land,-together with the inhabitants thereon, and are hereby vested with the powers and privileges which other Precincts within this Prov- ince do, or by Law ought to enjoy .- Also voted, that there
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be a 'Tax of three pence* per acre per annum, for the two succeeding years, upon the land of the Proprietors (being about fourteen thousand acres) to enable the said inhabitants to build a meeting-house and settle a minister.
Sent up for concurrence,
J. HOBSON, Speaker. In Council July 18, 1741-Read and Concurred,
J. WILLARD, Sec'y. July 23, Consented to, J. BELCHER."
The first meeting of the freeholders of the Precinct, after its incorporation, was holden at the house of Phineas King, September 21, 1741. The following officers were chosen. Ebenezer Kingsley. moderator ; Phineas King, clerk ; Wait- still Strong, Ebenezer French and Aaron Clark, assessors ; Stephen Sheldon, collector. Samuel and Eldad Pomeroy were included in the second precinct, as their buildings, and most of their lands were south of the Long Division. Na- thaniel Searl, John Wait and Phineas King were appointed . a committee to set up meetings. John Clark, Ebenezer Kingsley and Phineas King were chosen a committee " to seek out some suitable person to preach the gospel to us."
In 1743, the number of rateable polls in the town was thir- ty-six, Nathaniel Scarl, Ezra Strong and John Wait hav- ing two cach ; all the others but one each. The valuation of the whole settlement in that year was £750 7s., in the currency of the time. The estate, which was rated highest, was that of Nathaniel Searl. The next in value were those of Ebenezer Corse, Ebenezer Kingsley. Ichabod Strong, Ezra Strong, Moses Wright and Noah and Stephen Sheldon.
In 1750, eighteen years after the settlement of the town,
* Three pence per acre for two years makes the six pence request- ed in the petition.
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the number of polls, including the inhabitants of Pomeroy's Meadow, was sixty two; and the valuation was stated at £1205 2s. 9d.
The second vote on the Northampton records, relating to Southampton, is the following, which was passed Dec .. 25, 1733. " The town voted to repay £5 to those persons who advanced the same in recompense for divers ministers who preached at the new settlement over Manhan river." It thus appears, that provision was made for the preaching of the gospel in the very beginning of the settlement, before many of the settlers were provided with houses, and when there was hardly a bridge or road completed. Among the preachers . who supplied the inhabitants in 1737, and during one or two of the following years, were Mr. David Parsons, afterwards settled in 'Amherst, and Mr. John Woodbridge of Suffield, who was ordained over the church in South Hadley in 1742. Ministers were then paid at the rate of 40s. a Sabbath or £104 a year. In 1737, Northampton voted, that a part of the tax levied on the inhabitants of the new precinct, should be applied towards the building of a meeting-house among them. This house seems not to have been completed for a number of years .* The town records contain many votes in relation to it. It should seem that a considerable part of the expense was paid in labor by many of the inhabitants. In January, 1753, it was voted, at a meeting of the second precinct. that " they would give Asahel Judd, seventy pounds old tenor, for the work he has done towards the meeting-house, a finishing of the pews and galleries." At the same meeting it was vo- ted that " Samuel Burt, Jonathan Clark and Stephen Shel- don should be a committee to dignify the seats and pews." It seems that " dignity" was in the compound ratio of age and property. Afterwards, one year in age was voted to be
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