USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
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Cc 974.401 H17j v.II 1127395
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00085 0500
£
HAMPDEN COUNTY
1636-1936
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/hampdencounty 16302john
THIS set, "Hampden County, 1636-1936," by Clifton Johnson, is one of a series produced over the past half century by noted historians and educators, each work a distinct entity, but joined with the others to form a library of regional history that stands without parallel in the publishing field.
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
THE
AMERICAN
HISTORIC
IETY INC.
ORICAL SOCIETY
AGARVS NOOVES
ST. GAUDENS' PURITAN STATUE, SPRINGFIELD
(Photo by Woodhead)
HAMPDEN COUNTY 1636 - - 1936
By CLIFTON JOHNSON Historian and Author
VOLUME II
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. NEW YORK 1936
COPYRIGHT THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. 1936
1127395
Education and Institutions
CHAPTER XXXI
Education and Institutions
In the field of education, outside the public school system, the 'eighties are distinguished for two notable events. In 1885 Reverend David Allen Reed founded "The School for Christian Workers" and installed a department specifically for training young men in Young Men's Christian Association secretarial work. Five years later the name was changed to the International Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation Training School and a piece of land purchased on Massasoit Lake, where a gymnasium, administration building and later a dor- mitory were built. From time to time new buildings have been added in the region of the lake itself, and today the Springfield college has an international reputation as being one of the best training schools in existence for its type of work. Its graduates have gone to the four corners of the earth, and to Springfield come young men from every- where to take advantage of the excellent athletic plant and instruction offered at the college. It was here that the well-known game of basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith.
In 1888 the American International College was established in Springfield. At that time it was known as the French-American Col- lege, and had been founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, three years before, under the name of French-Protestant College. The grounds of the college were located between State and Wilbraham streets, and finally the name was changed to "American International College." To this school for a number of years came foreigners bent on getting an American education, and this added a cosmopolitan touch to the cultural and educational life of Springfield. At times the students have been from as many as twenty-four different countries, but since immigration has been so closely restricted the college has changed, until today it is a compact and well-equipped general college, with new buildings and a schedule of courses allowing wide selectivity.
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In June, 1679, the town of Springfield contracted with Thomas Stebbins, Jr., to build a schoolhouse for the sum of fourteen pounds, or seventy dollars in terms of present currency. In the early days no special committee had charge of the work of popular education. At town meetings and in the sessions of selectmen questions relating to teachers, pupils and school buildings were considered and settled. The need of direct supervision was afterwards met by the organization of school districts, each under the care of a local committee. But the district system did not make for progress. Petty jealousies and
SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE BUILDING
neighborhood quarrels divided the town and set district in opposition to district. Thus a high school, opened in 1827, closed its doors from 1839 to 1841 because of opposition from the outlying parts of the town. A superintendent of schools, the first officer of the kind in Massachusetts, was appointed in 1840, and again divided public opinion compelled the abolition of this office after something like a year's trial.
Meanwhile the State, under the leadership of Horace Mann, was calling for more efficient conduct of schools and for higher stand-
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ards of instruction. In response to these demands the town began to consider the placing of all control in the hands of a central committee.
After much discussion the abolition of the district system was brought to pass in 1855. With this date and under the policy then inaugurated begins the modern school department of Springfield.
An outstanding early superintendent was Dr. Thomas M. Balliet, who assumed charge of the schools in April, 1888. He brought to his task a broad and thorough training in the philosophy of education and a mastery of the best methods of instruction. His inspiration and influence soon made themselves felt on teachers, committee and com- munity New lines of development were opened to meet the social and economic needs of the city. Kindergartens were placed on a per- manent basis. The practical spirit of the time showed itself in the opening of cooking schools for both day and evening classes. Elemen- tary evening schools were improved and extended and an evening high school established. With clear understanding of the city's indus- trial needs, Dr. Balliet encouraged the development of the manual training course.
Material equipment made rapid advances during the period from 1888 to 1904. Over a million dollars were spent on school buildings and some of these are recognized as among the best examples of school architecture in the country.
Tribute to the excellence of Springfield's school system is given in the attention her schools have received from students of education. In 1902 commissioners from New South Wales, officially delegated by their government to examine the school systems of the world, spent two days in Springfield, and in their report gave high praise to what they saw in this city. Many foreign delegates to the educational con- gress at St. Louis, in 1904, made a point of inspecting the schools of Springfield on their way home. Most significant was the visit of Dr. Paul Albrecht, minister of public instruction for Alsace-Lorraine, who made a special study of methods of teaching ancient and modern languages, a field in which Germans are supposed to be masters.
Springfield was the first city to appreciate the industrial needs of the age and make an effort to meet them. In 1898, after twelve years of experimenting, she entered upon a distinct and comprehensive sys- tem of manual and technical training. An independent high school
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was then organized, of which the distinctive feature was that every student enrolled must take a four years' course in the mechanic arts, together with a full course in the usual academic studies. In the same year an evening trades school was opened, which at small expense to the city, offers free instruction and practice in fundamental trades. Meanwhile, the manual training, sewing and cooking lessons of the grammar grades took their place side by side with other school exer- cises in regular school hours.
The Technical High School, built in 1905, was the largest and probably the best equipped building of that type in New England. It was two hundred and thirty-eight feet long by two hundred and four- teen feet deep, and would accommodate nine hundred pupils. There were twenty-two class rooms in the main building, the largest planned for eighty pupils and the smallest for twenty-four. The building also included a gymnasium, lunch room and assembly hall.
Several private schools have added to Springfield's fame as an educational center. Among these is the MacDuffie School for Girls, which occupies the former home of Samuel Bowles. Here music, language and art are given careful attention and preparation is made for college.
Springfield has furnished many educators to the world, and espe- cially college presidents. Among them are President Burr, of Prince- ton, President Holyoke of Harvard, President Hitchcock of Amherst, President Day of Yale, President Colton of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Dr. William Harris, president of Columbia. The Dwights and Chaunceys are represented by the Yale and Harvard presidents of that name. Dr. William G. Ballantine, still a resident of Springfield, author of "Understanding the Bible," "Discovering Jesus," and other books, and translator of the Riverside New Testament, was president of Oberlin College from 1891 to 1896.
Dr. J. H. Van Sickle, for twelve years superintendent of schools in Springfield, was a vigorous, capable and progressive educator in his field. He was an inspiring speaker on school subjects and author of a number of text books. It was during his administration that the junior high school system was established.
William Orr, principal of the Classical High School from 1900 to 1910 was decorated by the Polish government for the educational work he did for them under the auspices of the Young Men's Chris-
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tian Association. Among his writings is a "History of the Springfield High School," which was issued for the tercentenary celebration.
Another outstanding principal of the same school is Dr. William Colver Hill, who took the position in 1910, following Mr. Orr. His maxim, taken from Immanuel Kant, "No one has a right to do that which, if every one did it, would destroy society," has been impressed on the minds of the boys and girls who have come under his care in the last quarter century. Dr. Hill was given the honorary degree of Master of Arts by Harvard College and of Doctor of Letters by Mount Holyoke College.
Among the many others who have been prominent in the school life of Springfield are Principals Charles F. Warner and Carlos B. Ellis, Dr. Walter V. MacDuffie, Dr. Jessie M. Law and Alice M. Wing. A great honor came to Central High School in 1920 when it won the prized Harvard interscholastic scholarship trophy for the third time and thus gained possession, the only public school ever to win the honor.
In 1895 an institution, not of the public school system, but in its own way sponsoring an educational as well as recreational program, was opened in Springfield at the corner of State and Dwight streets. This was the central branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. Later it moved to more ample headquarters on Chestnut Street across Hillman from the Hotel Kimball. Its large gymnasiums, swimming pool, handball and squash courts, recreation rooms, and meeting halls attract those who are interested in physical, mental and spiritual development. The Springfield branch of Northeastern Uni- versity is located in the building for the purpose of giving those who work by day an opportunity of college education at night. Another feature is the neat rooms, which under a benevolent hotel system provide inexpensive yet good lodging to transient young men as well as those without their own homes in the city.
Near the Young Men's Christian Association stands the Bay Path Institute, founded in 1897. To those who desire a business training in any branch of modern commerce, the Bay Path Institute is invalu- able, both for its convenient location and excellent instruction.
Springfield was a city for over twenty-five years before a hospital was provided, but in 1869 land and buildings on the Boston Road
Hampden-36
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were appropriated for such a purpose. Up to this time there was little demand for such an institution, the average citizen fearing the blood poisoning and gangrene rampant in many a hospital of the period. The building used was an old farmhouse and beds were placed wherever possible, one end of a large room used as a ward, being cur- tained off for an operating room. The report of the City Hospital for the year 1880 mentions that seven patients were in the hospital on January 1. Of the forty-nine admitted during the year, seven died, a percentage of fourteen, which would hardly be a matter of pride at the present time.
MERCY HOSPITAL, SPRINGFIELD
In 1883 was organized the Springfield Hospital Association, and two years later Dorcas Chapin, widow of Chester W. Chapin, bequeathed to the corporation $25,000 on condition that a like sum should be contributed, and that the city of Springfield should give to this corporation its hospital and equipment. This plan was carried out and on May 4, 1889, the dedication of the new hospital on Chest- nut Street took place. The report for the year 1892 shows that two
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hundred and sixty-one patients were admitted, with a death rate of 13.06 per cent. Nine of the fifty-one operations performed were major amputations, a startling contrast to four major amputations out of the 4,322 operations performed in 1925. Various additions to the hospital have been made from time to time and in 1914 the Frederick Wilcox Chapin Memorial Building was opened for patients. It was considered, then, the very best thing in modern hospital con- struction, and was for the accommodation of the wealthier class of private patients. 1932 saw the opening of still another large new building, accommodating three hundred and twenty-three beds. In connection with this is the out-patient department, social service, can- cer clinic and other special divisions and laboratories. Five thousand and eighty-eight patients were admitted in 1934, with a death rate of only .047.
The Right Reverend Bishop Beaven purchased property on Carew Street in 1896 and with the Sisters of Providence established a hospi- tal. This, though conducted by the sisters, was understood to have no distinction of class, race or creed in its service. The "House of Mercy" was brought into prominence for its fine work in connection with the return of American soldiers from the Cuban War. From four hundred and three patients in the hospital's first year, to 5,762 in 1934, is a long step. A private ward building, together with a new nurses' home, were completed in 1928, so that now Mercy Hospital can adequately accommodate three hundred and thirty patients and fifty babies.
The Health Department Hospital was opened in 1899 with a bed capacity of twenty-four. Various changes took place until, in 1931, a new Isolation Hospital, containing ninety-six beds, was opened. In 1934 the patients admitted numbered 3,291.
Daniel Baird Wesson presented his residence, in 1900, to his attending physician, Dr. J. H. Carmichael, for the purpose of estab- lishing a homeopathic hospital. The donor, among other things, was a partner in the Smith and Wesson gun factory in Springfield and had amassed a large fortune during and after the Civil War. The bed capacity of the hospital was at first only twenty, but in 1906 Mr. Wesson gave a new building as a memorial to his wife and the name was changed from Hampden Homeopathic Hospital to Wesson Memorial Hospital.
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The same generous giver of the Wesson Memorial Hospital made possible a sanctuary for mothers, in 1908, when the Wesson Maternity Hospital was opened with a capacity of twenty-five beds. This has gradually increased, and while in 1918 it was recorded that the births in this hospital were more than one-fourth of all those recorded in the city, in 1934 the proportion was one out of every two. The prenatal clinic was created by the Visiting Nurse Association and later taken over by the hospital. This hospital, as well as the Wesson Memorial and Springfield hospitals, has a school of nursing.
L
SHRINE HOSPITAL, SPRINGFIELD
A unique and welcome addition to the hospital field came in 1925, when the Shrine Hospital was opened on Carew Street. This is sup- ported by the Shriners of Springfield and houses a large group of crippled children whose parents are too poor to pay for the care and surgical attention they so vitally need to remedy their unfortunate physical defects. This public-spirited organization, through its various activities, collects the necessary money to maintain the hospital.
The plain, white, clap boarded First Church, which represents the oldest religious group in the city, has stood for one hundred and seven-
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teen years on Court Square. It was built by Isaac Damon, who also built the old toll bridge, and was paid for by the sale of 15,000 shares at $50 each. The exterior, with its graceful spire, remains practicallv the same as when erected, but the interior has seen some changes. A furnace was installed in 1826 and the comfort of cushions in the pews was added in 1862. Jenny Lind sang in the church when she visited Springfield, and in 1848 the body of John Quincy Adams, a friend of the pastor, Dr. Osgood, lay in state there for three days.
Eight churches call the First Church "Mother," four of which withdrew before 1819. It recognized the importance of religious instruction of children by organizing a Sunday school as early as 1818. The parish house was added to the church building in 1874. The rooster which surmounts the spire came from England and measures four feet above his claws. The figure is cast from bell metal and has a tiny cylinder sealed in the head, from one eye to the other, which contains a few brief historical items.
Trinity Church is called a community cathedral. It is Methodist Episcopal, but its buildings are at the service of the whole city. This group, in fourteenth century Gothic style, consists of Trinity Sanc- tuary, Grace Chapel, the Singing Tower and the Community House, which contains social halls, committee rooms, library, gymnasium, swimming pool, game rooms and little theatre. The building was made possible through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Horace A. Moses. There is a series of twenty-four fine windows, the most notable of which is one of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. The Trinity carillon in the Singing Tower is one of the largest carillons ever made by the famous bell founders, John Taylor and Company, of England, and consists of sixty-one bells.
Another notable church building in the city is the Church of the Unity, erected in 1869. It is of Longmeadow freestone and was designed by H. H. Richardson. An interesting item in its construction was the concealing of the chimney in its spire. The church has four- teen beautiful windows: Rebecca at the Well is by LaFarge, The Holy Family by Will H. Low, and The Light Bearer, in memory of Samuel Bowles, is by Edward Simmons. The other windows are for the most part by Louis Tiffany, or from the Tiffany studios. In 1884 Mrs. Chester W. Chapin gave $10,000 for a parsonage, which later was used for a parish house.
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One of the notable ministers of the Church of the Unity was the Reverend Augustus P. Reccord, who served the parish over fourteen years. He was interested in civic and welfare matters while in Spring- field and took an important part in whatever was for the betterment of the city. St. Paul's Universalist Church was merged with the Church of the Unity and contributed a handsome rose window, which was placed in the north wall of the building.
TRINITY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, In the Forest Park Section, Springfield
The Unitarian organization came before that of the Methodists, Baptists or Episcopalians, and their first church was built by Jonathan Dwight in 1819. This was of the plain, white clap boarded style, like its parent, the old First Church, and was later used as a furniture warehouse.
St. Michael's Cathedral parish is the oldest and largest Catholic parish in the city and originally embraced the territory of all the other parishes. The cathedral, dedicated in 1861, is a brick building with brownstone trimmings, the spire rising one hundred and ninety feet above the street. In a niche on the outside of the tower is a life-size statue of St. Michael, a spear in his hand and a dragon at his feet.
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The windows are of stained glass and on those in the transepts are beautiful figures representing Biblical scenes.
The Church of the Sacred Heart at the corner of Chestnut and Linden streets is one of the grandest church edifices in New England, truly cathedral in its proportions. It will accommodate over two thousand people at one time. The parish was set off in 1873 to minister to the north part of the city, and in 1877 estab- lished the first parochial school in this region.
The South Congregational Church, which was organized on March 23; 1842, had but forty members at first, all but six of them from the old First Church. Their first loca- tion was on Bliss Street, but in 1874 the edifice at the corner of Maple and High streets was completed. It is of Longmeadow sandstone with an underpinning of Monson granite and trimmed with yel- low Ohio stone. A decorative feature is the seven trefoil windows on one side under the handsome rose window. The substantial tower looms SAINT MICHAEL'S CATHEDRAL, SPRINGFIELD above a lower gable, set off by another gable, lower still. Under the auspices of the South Church a paper called the "Wide Awake," filled with local news and items from the South Seas, was published for some time. The Rev- erend James Gordon Gilkey, present pastor, has a wide program of activities under his charge and is also a writer and lecturer of note.
The Episcopal Church group, now housed in Christ Church Cathe- dral, was not an offshoot of the old First Church, but started at the armory under the leadership of Colonel Roswell Lee, then command- ant. It met at first in an upper room of the administration building.
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Colonel Lee asked the government for funds to build a chapel for the employees of the arsenal, who as workers for the United States Gov- ernment could not be taxed for the support of the First Church. No chapel was furnished, but this upper room had a cupola and a bell and served until a serious fire took place. The church furniture was saved and for a time the old town hall was used as a place of worship. Twenty members organized the church in 1838 and erected their first building in 1840. A group of West Point cadets attended the Episco- pal Church in July, 1821, and a second colorful visit of the cadets took place in 1922, just a little over a hundred years later.
Christ Church Cathedral is one of the famous Episcopal churches of New England, not only famous for its services, but for its art treasures as well-the memorial pulpit, the altar and reredos, the stained glass and some exquisite altar vestments. It became a cathe- dral through the efforts of the present bishop of the diocese, the Right Reverend Dr. Thomas F. Davies, who also is a writer of some note.
The most modern of Springfield's sixty churches is the First Church of Christ Scientist, on State Street, which was dedicated in 1922. It is an imposing structure of Indiana limestone with pillared front and classic lines that replaced a small wooden chapel on the same site. It was built on the pay-as-you-go policy and was completed without a debt. The basement was built in 1916 and used for services until funds sufficient to go on with were gathered. The pews in the spacious auditorium will seat 1,200 persons. It is carpeted in a rich blue and is soundproof. Quotations from the Bible and from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy are inscribed on the front walls. In addition, the Scientists maintain a public reading room on Vernon Street, which is open daily.
The first burying ground in Springfield was back of the old church at the foot of Elm Street, and it received the bodies of the early set- tlers for many years. But when the railroad was put through from Hartford to Springfield, in 1848, the ancient cemetery had to be abandoned. The training ground and the pound that used to be there had gone long before and for the cemetery there was provided another beautiful tract not far from the heart of the city. This was a property known as Martha's Dingle, a valley lying east of Maple Street, to which other pieces of land have been added from time to time, so that
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now the Springfield Cemetery includes the greater part of the area between Maple, Central, Cedar, Pine, Union, and Mulberry streets.
On the ninth of May, 1841, there was organized in the city of Springfield the first mutual park cemetery ever incorporated under general laws. Dr. William B. O. Peabody, then pastor of the Church of the Unity, was a prime mover in this project and was elected presi- dent, an office which he held until the time of his death. To his enthusiasm and foresight the early establishment of the cemetery is largely due and it is often spoken of as the Peabody Cemetery. The bodies and old headstones were removed from the burying ground on the bank of the Connecticut and were for the most part placed in the Pine Street section.
This cemetery is the final resting place of many of Springfield's distinguished citizens. Among them are: Mary Holyoke, daughter of William Pynchon; John Mallifield, the town's first benefactor, Dr. William B. O. Peabody, Dr. Samuel Osgood, Dr. Josiah Gilbert Holland, Chester Harding, General James W. Ripley, William B. Calhoun, Chief Justice Reuben A. Chapman and many others. Here, too, are found some very interesting inscriptions on the old head- stones, such as that of Susan Freedom, who died in 1803, aged nine- teen: "Tho' short her life, and humble her station, she faithfully performed all the duties of it. The wise and great could do no more. A Colored Girl bro't up by Col. Worthington." Another is: "In Memory of Mr. Earl Cooley, who by a casual blow in a well," died in 1809. The stone which marks the grave of Henry Starkey's child, who was killed by a horse, has this verse :
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