USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Wales > An address delivered in Wales, October 5, 1862 : being the centennial anniversary of the municipal organization of the town; with additions to January 1. To which is annexed a "Roll of honor," being a catalogue of the names, etc. of soldiers from this town who served in the late civil war > Part 1
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AN
ADDRESS
DELIVERED IN WALES, OCTOBER 5, 1862 ;
BEING
THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
Municipal Organization of the Town;
WITH ADDITIONS AND EXTENSIONS UPON SOME MATTERS NEEDFUL TO BRING THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN DOWN TO JANUARY 1, 1866.
TO WHICH IS ANNEXED A
"ROLL OF HONOR,"
BEING A CATALOGUE OF THE NAMES, ETC., OF SOLDIERS FROM THIS TOWN WHO SERVED IN THE ARMIES OF OUR GOVERNMENT IN THE LATE CIVIL WAR.
BY ABSALOM GARDNER.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
SPRINGFIELD : SAMUEL BOWLES AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1866.
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST
S.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Special Collections & Rare Books
Spec.
Coll. F
74
W16
G37
1866
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED IN WALES, OCTOBER 5, 1862;
BEING
. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
Municipal Organization of the Town;
WITH ADDITIONS AND EXTENSIONS UPON SOME MATTERS NEEDFUL TO BRING THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN DOWN TO JANUARY 1, 1866.
TO WHICH IS ANNEXED A
"ROLL OF HONOR,"
BEING A CATALOGUE OF THE NAMES, ETC., OF SOLDIERS FROM THIS TOWN WHO SERVED IN THE ARMIES OF OUR GOVERNMENT IN THE LATE CIVIL WAR.
BY
ABSALOM GARDNER.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
SPRINGFIELD : SAMUEL BOWLES & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1866.
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS.
INTRODUCTION.
Fellow Citizens and Townsmen :
IT is the custom with many of the towns of our Com- monwealth, in some suitable way, to commemorate the centennial anniversaries of their settlement, or of their municipal organization. And this seems very appropri- ate, as showing in the people of this age a due apprecia- tion of the labors and toils of their ancestors-as mani- festing a magnanimous and ennobling sense of gratitude toward the pioneer settlers of our land, and the fathers and founders of our municipal establishments and civil institutions. Our fathers and our mothers, with great assiduity and heroic fortitude, and under many and great privations and discomforts, labored and toiled to trans- form a wilderness country, inhabited only by wild beasts and savages, into cultivated fields and fruitful lands befit- ting the abode of civilized man, and to establish institu- tions worthy the character and conducive to the happiness of man in an enlightened and refined state. Is it not meet, then, that we, who are now reaping a rich harvest of benefits from the life-long toils of our ancestors, should devote an hour in manifesting a grateful recognition of those toils, and in commemorating the virtues of those noble souls who wisely laid the foundations of a very large share of our present civil and social enjoyments ?
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Since the date of the municipal organization of this town, a century has rolled its hundred years into the abyss of the past, the grave of Time, and long ago car- ried all the participators in the transactions of that day into
" That undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns."
And we, the descendants and successors of those noble actors, are here at this hour to devote a little time to the consideration of matters pertaining to the history of our town, not only contemporaneous with that event, but prior and posterior, together with some biographical sketches of some of the first settlers, and other principal inhabitants of olden time.
BRIMFIELD, ORIGINALLY
Comprised the territory now included within the lines of the present towns of Brimfield, Monson, Wales and Hol- land. In 1760 the west half of this domain was set off and incorporated as the "Town of Monson." Two years later, 1762, by act of the Collonial Legislature, another slice four miles wide, north and south, was dissevered from the parent town, upon the south side, and incor- porated into a separate municipality, by name of the "District of South Brimfield."
MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION.
On the 5th day of October, 1762, the people of the " District of South Brimfield," under the aforesaid act of incorporation, organized by the choice of the following municipal officers :
Captain Joseph Blodgett, District Clerk ; Mr. Humphrey Need- ham, Deacon Humphrey Cram, Captain Anthony Needham, Mr. Nehemiah May, Mr. John Moulton, Selectmen ; Mr. Daniel Thomp- son, Constable.
The two sections of this district, for some time after its organization, bore no other distinguishing appellation than the simple designations of " West Part " and "East
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Part." But after a little time these "Parts " lost or changed their substantive names, retaining their designa- tory adjectives, in becoming organized and known as the " West Parish " and " East Parish " of South Brimfield. These parishes, however, continued as a single munici- pality for a term of twenty-one years, that was till 1783, when both came to feel that they had become "of age," and mutually agreed to separate, and their separation was authoritatively consummated by act of the State Legisla- ture of that year. By that act the East Parish was set off and incorporated as the "District of Holland," leaving the West Parish in area, four miles north and south, and three and one-half miles, very nearly, east and west, thenceforward to constitute the town of South Brimfield.
In those days, it was customary in the division of towns, to incorporate the part set off, sometimes as a town and sometimes as a district. In either case the mu- nicipal rights and powers were the same, substantially, excepting only the right of representation in the Legisla- ture; every town could send a representative-no district could do this. South Brimfield was incorporated a dis- trict in 1762; in 1775 the Legislature enlarged its powers to those of a town, and that year the town of South Brimfield sent her first representative to the "Great and General Court."
CHANGE OF NAME.
In 1827 the people of this town became desirous of changing their town's municipal name. One, and per- haps the principal reason creative of that desire, was the wish for a less prolix, a shorter name. A town meet- ing was held upon the subject, at which it was voted that the town should be named Clinton. This did not give satisfaction. Moreover, it had become whispered around that James L. Wales, Esq., one of our then most promi- nent citizens, had incorporated, or expressed a purpose to incorporate into his will, a clause making to the town a
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generous bequest. Another town meeting was called, at which the action of the previous meeting was annulled, and whereat it was further voted that the name of the town should be WALES. In accordance with this vote, and a petition based thereon, the General Court of 1828, by legislative enactment, changed the town's name, dis- carding that of South Brimfield, and in substitution giv- ing it that of Wales, which was, and is very palatable to all our people. And it may not be out of place here to add, that the anticipated legacy from the generous indi- vidual named was fully realized-the legacy of an estate that, since the town has had it in possession, has yielded the town an income of more than $4,000 over all ex- pense and trouble.
But we will now retrace our steps backward to what was perhaps our most proper starting point.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN.
And here, anticipating the inquiry which the lover of antiquarian lore will first and most persistently press upon us, we are constrained in all candor and frankness to say, there is no known evidence extant by which it can now be determined precisely when, where, and by whom the very first settlement in this town was made. Nevertheless, in respect to all these matters, we can, by the aid of recorded facts and traditional sayings, approximate very near the marks of absolute certainty.
The primeval settlers of this town did not keep diaries of their doings and concurrent events ; or if they did, the roll of years and the sweep of time long since consigned all their memoranda to that vast receptacle of by-gone occurrences, the pit of oblivion, and we are now none the wiser for them. All histories of first settlements and oc- currences of any region, written long subsequent to the times of such settlements and occurrences, are more or less encumbered, or their facts intermixed with romance
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and fiction, and no one may be able to separate the true from the false. Tradition, in regard to the outlines and prominent features of events long past, may be measura- bly reliable; but when tradition stoops to dabble in the minutia of such events, her sayings are not trustworthy.
Though, according to the most approved history, some settlements were effected in the central, and perhaps other parts of the present town of Brimfield prior to 1720, yet there seems a lack of any conclusive evidence that any white settlers were permanently domiciled within the lines now circumscribing this town earlier than 1726, although there were sales, purchases, transfers, and a limited occu- pation of lands inside of these lines at an earlier day. For instance, the tract now generally known in our local parlance as the "Coburn Meadow," but then called the " South Meadow," was occupied by the settlers in the now central part of Brimfield, very soon after settlement was there effected, by the cutting of the grass there grown, and transporting the same to the place of that settlement, for feeding their beasts and herds. And it may not be inappropriate to say in this connection, that there is strong reason to believe, though not indubitable proof, that the first way fixed in this town for the travel of man and beast was upon the line of what we now call the " Old County Road," upon the east border of our town, and leading direct from Brimfield center to the aforesaid "South Meadow."
As to the matter of time, then, finding the same envel- oped in some obscurity, we rest upon the belief that the first settlement permanently fixed in this town was made in or about 1726. And, connectively with this, we are next to encounter these rugged questions-where, and by whom was that settlement made ? If we could brush away the somber shades of a hundred and thirty years by-gone, undoubtedly we might, with scrupulous exactness, deter- mine these matters. But we cannot now undo the past, nor create facts for retrospective application. The most
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we can do is to make the best possible use of the facts of which we now find ourselves in possession.
There is satisfactory evidence, gleaned from recorded facts, that the elder John Bullen, with his family, was lo- cated in 1727, if not a year sooner, upon the premises now owned by the widow of our lately deceased townsman, Mr. Samuel L. Moulton, bordering on the Coburn Meadow ; and also, that, at the same time, the elder Anthony Need- ham, with his family, was domiciled upon the premises now constituting the homestead of our neighbor, Mr. Na- than Green, west of the Pond. That there were then other settlers in those localities, or elsewhere in the town, may be guessed, but not proved. Taking then the cri- teria which we have, and knowing of no other data war- ranting adverse conclusions, we feel irresistibly led to be- lieve that John Bullen and Anthony Needham were the first domiciliated in this town, and upon the premises al- ready indicated. Further than this, touching the matters in question, we cannot exhume anything reliable from under the rubbish of uncertainty that encumbers much of what in those early times occurred. Hence we pass on to our
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
The NEEDHAMS were evidently among the very first set- tlers of this town. Anthony was first here. His wife, whose maiden name was Molly Moulton, was sister of the four Moulton brothers soon to be mentioned as among the first permanent settlers of the place. They reared eleven children, six of whom were sons. The oldest of these was Captain Anthony, who married Rebecca Munger, a sister of the four Munger brothers, also soon to be named as among the earliest of our town's settlers. His home- stead comprised the farms in the west part of the town, and which afterward, divided, made the homesteads of our former highly respected townsmen, Alvin Needham and Cyrus Munger. Captain Anthony was a man greatly re-
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spected, was the first Representative from South Brim- field in the Massachusetts Legislature, and was the pro- genitor of some of the most noted and worthy of our town's former inhabitants, among whom may be named Mr. Alvin Needham, already mentioned, and Alfred Needham, Esq. Another of the sons of Anthony, that was Nehemiah, was forefather of our late highly esteemed townsman, Deacon Jonathan Needham, and of several other Needham families, now component parts of our community. A small, moss-covered stone, erected in memory of the eldest Anthony in our old burying-ground, and bearing the date most ancient of any stone there be- ing, tells us that he died July 2, 1763, aged 67.
Humphrey Needham, junior brother of Anthony, sen- ior, came hither direct from Salem, in 1728, as shown by a deed he then took from Nathaniel Munger, of a tract of land here which subsequently became his after-life homestead, and which, at a more modern day, being sub- divided, became the homesteads of our late respected townsmen, Danford and Orrin Needham, who were his grandsons. He wedded Dorothy Munger, sister of the Munger brothers alluded to before, and they reared ten children, of whom our former much esteemed townsman, Mr. Stephen Needham, was the youngest. He was a man of high standing and character, and among the pub- lic offices he filled was that of Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of South Brimfield for some years next suc- cecding its organization.
From those two Needham brothers, Anthony and Humphrey, have descended all the Needhams of name and blood that have ever been dwellers in this town; and here we leave them with this superadded statement, that the families and individuals of the name have been more numerous than those of any other name ever of the town.
The BULLENS were here cotemporaneously with the first of our settlers, and during the first sixty years of the town's history were prominent among the people here re-
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siding, one of whom, David Bullen, grandson of the elder John, who has been hereinbefore mentioned as the cotem- porary of Anthony Needham in settlement here, was the representative from this town in the Legislature of 1780. The first death recorded as occurring in this town was that of Mary Bullen, daughter of John, senior, who died July 15, 1735 ; but it is hardly presumable that this was actually the first occurrence of the kind in the place. The locality of the Bullen settlement here has been before pointed out. John, senior, and John, junior, and their wives, all died here, but all their posterity of the paternal name removed herefrom in 1785.
Four MUNGER brothers, Nathaniel, Elnathan, Samuel and Joseph, settled and reared large families here, and have sent forth their offspring into all sections of our country, yet only a single person, an unmarried female of ninety years, bearing the Munger name is now numbered among our town's population. Of those brothers, Dea- con Nathaniel was the senior. He was here in 1727 ; per- chance he came with John Bullen, whose eldest daughter, Elizabeth, he afterwards wedded. He settled, lived, died, and was buried upon what, in colloquial phrase, we now denominate the " Coburn Farm." He reared nine chil- dren to adult life, and had a host of more remote descend- ants ; was twice married, the last time in 1788, and died- no record telleth when, but sometime in the last decade of the 18th century. Pity that none of his posterity had the filial regard or gratitude to rear at his grave a simple granite or marble slab to indicate his place of burial, his age, and the date of his demise. His first son was Captain Jehial, a man of some distinguishing qualities, whose first wife was a sister, and his second a cousin, of our former honored inhabitant, Deacon Joel Rogers. He, with his family, emigrated in 1787 to Vermont. His fourth son was Deacon John, for many years a prominent citizen of the place, who succeeded his father in the ownership and occu- pancy of the paternal homestead whereon he died in the
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early part of the present century, but no record or tomb- stone gives the exact time. Solomon Munger, of whose peculiarities and dire misfortunes some of us have recol- lections, was reputed the seventh, though shown by the old Brimfield town records to have been the sixth, son of Nathaniel. He died in February, 1829, aged 78.
Elnathan, oldest brother of Nathaniel, settled a mile and a half west of the central village of our town, had eight children, all sons but one, the youngest, who became the consort of our former very respectable townsman, Mr. Paul Stewart. His first son, Joel, perished in the revo- lutionary war. His second son, Darius Munger, Esq., became in his meridian, perhaps the most distinguished personage then of the town. He represented the town four years in the State Legislature, being one year more than any other man of the town ever served in that office, and served as Chairman of the Selectmen thirteen years. He died November 21, 1815, aged 70. Deacon Daniel Mun- ger, Mr. Cyrus Munger, and Mr. Amasa Munger were all younger sons of Elnathan, and all prominent and highly respected citizens of our town, though Deacon Daniel left here in 1797.
Deacon Samuel, brother of Nathaniel and Elnathan, was here in early life, settled, lived and died upon the premises at this day making the homestead of Mr. Arba Squier. He was the grandfather of the only person of the Munger name now living in our town.
Joseph, the junior of the four Munger brothers afore- named, settled on the premises now constituting the homestead of Mr. Julius M. Lyon. His second wife, Naomi, was a daughter of the first Anthony Needham. They had a large family, all of whom removed to Ver- mont in 1780.
The MOULTONS now of this town count but a small number, yet, reckoning from the start to the present, in families and individuals, they number more numerously than any other name except the Needhams.
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Rev. Ebenezer Moulton was here in 1728, if not earlier. It is said he was married and had one child when he came here. He made his primal settlement upon what for long time past has borne the distinguishing appellation of the " Old Wales Tavern Stand," and it is not an improbable saying of tradition, that he was the first man to erect the rude habitation upon, the first tiller of the soil and culti- vator of, the fields of that noted place. The biography of this man is deeply ingrained with the early ecclesiastical history of this town. He was an ardent and somewhat enthusiastic advocate and disseminator of the sentiments of the Baptists; and it was under his auspices, and through the instrumentality of him and his labors, chiefly, that ' the Baptist Church here was gathered and organized in 1736. He was not then a regularly constituted minister of the denomination ; but he officiated as the religious teacher of that infant church till November 4, 1741, when he was formally ordained to the gospel ministry, and set over that church as their pastor.
At that day there was no other church of the Baptist order anywhere in this region, and Mr. Moulton, in his zeal and laboriousness, in addition to his duties here, per- formed much of a sort of missionary service in the preach- ing and promulgation of his doctrine in the neighboring towns and regions. And in this service he was some- times made to feel the rod of persecution. On one occa- sion, at least, after the conclusion of one of his usually earnest and spirited discourses in the town of Sturbridge, he was abruptly arrested and restrained of his liberty for a brief term, as a heretic or religious fanatic, a disturber of the public tranquility and promoter of sedition. But probably he was guilty of no wrong in the matter, only as his independent, fearless expression of his own relig- ious sentiments was considered such, and that the action of the civil authorities in the case of his arrest was only an outbreak of the persecuting spirit which was not then shorn of all its malign power.
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Mr. Moulton's pastorate continued with the church here twenty-two years, or till 1763, at which time he went hence to Nova Scotia. He was absent from here some twenty years, during which time, the saying is, that he rendered some service as a chaplain in the British Navy. If this saying be true, it tends to give a coloring of truthfulness to another legendary story concerning him, which is, that he was a tory during the time of our revo- lutionary struggle with Great Britain. About 1783 he returned hither, and here soon after died. His family left here with him in 1763, and none of them ever after returned here to tarry.
Samuel Moulton, brother of Ebenezer, was here some years prior to his marriage, which, as says the record, was January 30, 1739, to Molly Haynes, of Brimfield, and became proprietor of a tract of land here, which he in part cleared up, and whereupon he erected a rude dwelling-having thus provided a home for a companion before taking one-a very judicious calculation. The tract he selected comprised the premises, or the lands now constituting the homestead of the widow and heirs of our late respected townsman, Dr. Aaron Shaw. But not long after his marriage, he and his brother Ebenezer traded and exchanged residences, whereupon he became owner and occupant of what we term the "Old Wales Tavern Stand," upon which, as the legend has it, he opened, and for some years kept an inn, or house of pub- lic entertainment, the first ever kept in this town. He had eight children, one of whom, Robert, was the father of our present townsman, Mr. Horace Moulton.'
John Moulton, brother of Ebenezer and Samuel, was very early settled here, making his stand andj after-life home upon the place now being the residence of our neighbor, Mr. Henry Pratt, near the outlet of the Pond. He was a man of some note, was put upon the first Board of Selectmen of the town, and held other offices of honor and trust. He had six children. John Bounds Moulton,
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who had the acquaintance of most of us, and who recently died just over our town line in Stafford, was his grand- son.
Freeborn Moulton, brother of the three Moultons that have been mentioned, settled primarily in this town on the farm at this day owned and occupied by Mr. Wm. L. Needham, and was the primeval occupant of those prem- ises. However, he did not stop there many years, but sold that estate and made another purchase of a tract far- ther west, and there settled and became the forefather of a numerous race in that part of Monson called "Moulton Hill." Several families of his descendants have, at dif- ferent times, dwelt in this town, and among them that of our formerly very highly esteemed townsman, Mr. Jesse Moulton, who died, deeply lamented, November 28, 1815, in his meridian of life and usefulness.
Contemporaneous with the settlement here of the four brothers afore-named, came Jonathan Moulton, reputed to have been a cousin of those brothers, and made his life-long settlement on what we call the "Hall Place," in the south-west section of the town. He left a numerous posterity, one of whom was our lately deceased towns- man, Mr. Needham Moulton, his grandson.
There is a legendary saying that the Needhams, Mun- gers and Moultons all came hither from Salem. That the elder Humphrey Needham did so is conclusively shown, as has been before remarked; but the elder Anthony Needham resided some years in what is now Brimfield before fixing his permanent abode in this town. As for the four Moulton brothers who settled here, it may be said, there are strong reasons for believing that they were sons of Robert Moulton, senior, then a distinguished in- habitant of Brimfield, and the first Representative from that town in the Collonial Legislature after the town's incorporation in 1730. Nevertheless, all those persons may have come originally, and to the original township of Brimfield, from Salem; and as their descendants all
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have ever persistently claimed that derivation, it may not be an unreasonable conclusion that their traditionary claim is based in fact.
The families of JOHNSONS, JORDANS and HOVEYS were among those foremost in making their domiciliary lodg- ment in this place, and some of these included persons of distinction, especially in the Baptist Church here in its juvenile years. But as none of them have now living descendants here to be interested in a development of their biographies, and as no particular public interest would be thereby subserved, we pass them by without the labor of digging out such facts as might be obtained from underneath the rubbish of uncertainty which en- shrouds their histories.
The COLLINS families have never been numerous here, and the name has been extinct in our population for fifty years past, though the blood still courses in the veins of some of our people. Nathaniel Collins and Deborah Morgan were married March 31, 1730, which is the earliest marriage that can be found recorded of any par- ties resident in this town. They were among the emi- grants from Springfield to Brimfield, and fixed their home here immediately upon their marriage, upon the "Old Collins Place," half a mile south-east from the north-west corner of our town. There they lived, reared a family, and died at an advanced age.
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