USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Conway > Celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Conway, Massachusetts : at Conway, June 19th, 1867 : including a historical address by Rev. Charles B. Rice poem by Harvey Rice oration by William Howland and the other exercises of the occasion > Part 4
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Notice of casualties in the late war may be found connected with the list of soldiers.
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It may here also be appropriately mentioned that there are now living in Conway 57 persons-and the enumeration may not be complete-who are above 70 years of age. And there are 18 who have reached 80 years or more.
On the day of the celebration the speaker made a pause at near this point in the address, and, observing that the ancient preachers often so framed their discourses that they might be cut abruptly off to suit the times, proceeded to read from a book of hymns published in Conway in 1798, by Elder Josiah Goddard .* Franklin Childs, who has rendered many good offices to the wri- ter of this sketch in its preparation, and who has long been prominent as a leader of choirs, had arranged for singing in the style of the olden time ; and the singers were already in their places. Mr. Childs took the key of "St. Martyns " from an ancient wooden pitchpipe, and " deaconed" the lines in a musi- cal tone, as the manner was. Many voices throughout the assembly joined in the song. And the effect, so peculiar and impressive, will long be remembered. The verses sung were the following, being part of a hymn entitled, "The Slow Traveller."
O happy souls, how fast you go, And leave us here behind ; Don't stop for me, for now I see The Lord is just and kind.
When you get to the world above, And all their glory see, When you are home your work is done, Then look you out for me.
For I will come fast as I can ; Along that way I steer. Lord give me strength, I shall at length Be one among you there.
The singing having ended, the speaker remarked that his address, resembling again the old discourses, had also, unhap- pily, an equal facility of being resumed, and went on with the narrative.
* Elder Goddard was a man of excellent sense, of a strong mind. He was a worker withal with his hands; and he has left the reputation of being the swiftest reaper the town ever produced.
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It has been commonly supposed that the first County Road leading from Deerfield to Ashfield through Conway, left the Mill Brook valley just above the old " Hawks' place," passing up the hill to the left by Cyrus Rice's, and thence over the Jonas Rice hill (where Joel Rice now is) to Pumpkin Hollow, from which point it turned northward, crossing South river near the post office, then rising the hill by Franklin Arms', and continuing on by the Amsden (now Guildford) places into Ashfield. The latter part only of this course is correctly stated. The laying out of the first half of the above described route in town roads can be traced on the Records. And plain references fix the county road on another track. The laying out of this road " from Deerfield to Huntstown " in 1754 has already been referred to. From the record, kept at North- ampton, it is only to be learned that there was then a cart track leading from the top of Long Hill in Deerfield, to a saw mill on Mill Brook, (which no doubt was near where the saw mill below the "Hawks' place " now stands), and that just before coming to the mill " the Huntstown Path " turned northward from the cart track "into the woods," and that the said county road was laid out ten rods in width following this path through its whole course. The road kept upon the hills just north of Mill Brook until it reached the spot where Robert Hamilton afterward settled, (at Madison Stearns') and then turned squarely to the left across the valley, rising past the place of Wm. Avery Howland and passing over the top of the hill, some distance to the north of the present road, and descending to the old Jonathan Whitney place, northeast of Capt. Charles Parsons'. The next stage alone is in some doubt. The road probably bore toward the north, crossing the river a little above where is now the dam built by Gen. Asa Howland, near his house, and at the foot of the old burying-yard hill, and from thence westerly to the neigh- borhood of the Baptist meeting house ; and thence over the Arms' hill, as before described. The first bridge over South River was probably at the spot just mentioned. But it was swept away within three or four years, at the farthest, and was never replaced-the passage remaining afterwards a ford- 'way. The first bridge built after the incorporation of the
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town appears to have been not far from the Post Office, where the road now crosses. The fixing of the center of the town and the location of the meeting house near it drew the roads more to the southward ; and led finally to the entire discon- tinuance of this middle portion of the old county road .* Withal as to the road over the Jonas Rice hill, from the east, the same attraction to the center, taken in connection with the fact that the southeastern portion of the town became early quite populous, will account for its being, as it certainly was, a line of much passage. The opening of the route next to be spoken of may afterwards have contributed to bring, or to keep, travel on that track.
A second county road, laid in 1785, led from the old meet- ing house over the hill to Consider Arms' (now Elijah Arms') through what has since become Burkeville, and thence up the river to the large dam lately built, and then, crossing the hill on the south, it struck down again upon the valley a mile and a half above, and continued on to Ashfield, and beyond to the county line. The gap in the valley above the dam was sup- plied in 1824. It was reckoned a hard road to build; and Dea. Elisha Billings eloquently declared in town meeting that it led through a gorge " into which the sun in heaven had not shone since the morning of creation." Still later, in 1837, the river line was completed by the road from the bridge near the Post Office up the valley to the old grist mill. On the east the road to Deerfield was brought down from the hills to the side of Mill Brook, where it now is, in 1832.
The roads to Broomshire and South Part were laid in 1767. Those to West Street, Cricket Hill and Poland in 1769. The present improved South Part road dates from 1846; the Broomshire from 1847; the Cricket Hill from 1850; and the new Shelburne Falls road from 1856.
* There is no question of locality connected with the early history of the town so puzzling as this concerning the course of the first county road in passing South river. There are very distinct traces of an old road in the direction here laid down on the eastern side of the river. I was once inclined to think that this might have been only a road made at first to reach the saw mill which stood at that point on the river, and leaving the county road near Jonathan Whitney's. But I have become convinced that the account given above is most satisfactory. I will not be further tedious by entering into the grounds of this conclusion.
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The tracks at first were marked with a purpose to reach and connect the settler's houses. The houses were on hills, where the soil could be most easily worked ; and not in swamps and gullies. So the roads kept well on the uplands. Here, too, they were made with less work, required fewer bridges, and were for those days really better roads than valley roads could have been. Though these highways were at first mere paths for horses and men, and next no more than cart tracks, yet the amount of hard work done upon them within twenty years from the occupation of the town must have been prodigious. They seem to have been early put in creditable shape for the country and the time. It is related that when Dr. Samuel Ware came to Conway, about 1770, his wife, struck with the good appearance of the roads, remarked that "there might some day be chaises in this town ;" a womanly fancy which her husband rebuked as wild and extravagant. It was not long, however, before Parson Emerson had a chaise. Others followed him later. Lucius Allis and Elisha Clark grew aristocratic enough after a time to ride each in his "hack." One horse wagons were not known till the beginning of the present century. The first one was built by Robert Hamilton, who was a clockmaker ; and a sufficiently solid man to need a carriage. He thought · himself the inventor of the institution ; and held that there . was not another like it in all America. Not far from the same time Dr. Ware built the first single sleigh or " cutter." Be- fore then the lively young people went sleighing upon wood sleds, or haply on a " pung; " saving that it was more fash- ionable to go horseback.
It may be observed that for conveying their baggage the first settlers sometimes made a rack, like a broad ladder, with stout side pieces between which in front they put a horse, trailing the rear end on the ground. This instrument was called " a car." The men who went early beyond us up the Deerfield river used such ; but cast them aside on reaching the smoother country at the foot of the hill toward Shelburne Falls. The strange looking wrecks thus left aftracted the at- tention of a philosophical traveler who repaired to a native.
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for an explanation. He was informed that Satan with part of a legion had once been traveling down the valley and at this spot, not liking the looks of the road and bethinking him of the river, he had taken to navigation and left behind him his land gear. It may be added that although the ways in that neighborhood have been much improved, this personage has not been seen there since,-nor indeed in any part of the town. Other cars more modern may this year be running past the hills over which the old racks were drawn.
Some note may here be made of the names of localities in our town. Cricket Hill was so called first by a party of hunt- ers who were annoyed by the crickets as they camped there for a night. Capt. Childs, in the calm and confident exercise of that foreseeing faculty which belongs ever to the true his- torian, declares that as " it has been known by that name from that day to this" so it " will continue to be as long as the hills remain." I here officially reaffirm the declaration. " Hardscrabble " sets forth that it is hard serabbling on that soil to live. Of Hoosae I have no satisfactory explanation. Broomshire, as is well known, has its name from the walnut brooms Wm. Warren made, and sold in Deerfield, one broom . for a pound and a half of pork. He did it because he was hungry ; being out of meat for several years by winter. He used to walk first 'to Deerfield to get a horse and "pung " to 'carry his brooms. Concerning Shirkshire Capt. Childs shall give the narration. "Old Mr. Sherman," he says-it was doubtless John Sherman- "happened along as the people were upon the roads, and at their request assisted them a num- ber of hours, hoping thereby to earn and get his dinner. But no one seemed willing (as the services rendered were for the public) to bear the burden alone,-they all shirked, and left him to shirk for himself as best he could. Ilighly indignant at the neglect with which he was treated he left the place in a state of great excitement, saying, 'let it be called Shirk- shire from this day forward ; ' and so it has been and will be as long as wood grows and water runs."-It is an affair of seriousness ; and the ordinance looks unchangeable. But one
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main feature escaped the historian's eye. The time was doubt- less while the district belonged to Shelburne. The thing was not done, as of course it never could have been, in Conway. Remembering this, and considering that it is not just that the children's teeth should be forever set on edge because the father ate no grapes-or other dinner, I suggest that we might at once propitiate the hungry and indignant shade of John Sherman and commemorate the integrity and manly vigor of his son Caleb, by calling that district Sherman Corner ; or by fixing in some other similar manner that fam- ily nanie upon it." As to Poland Capt. Childs professes that he knows no derivation for the name, and thinks it must be due to the deeply planted liberty loving and slavery hating instincts of its people,-allying them to the Polanders of Europe. The prevalence there of these noble sentiments is a matter of conspicuous knowledge, and this is the association which the title should ever suggest, but the serious verities of history constrain me to record that the name itself originated in the strife of two boys over the skins of certain slain " Pole Cats." I do not know but the animal may also bear another name. Of " the city " no account is preserved, except that two girls, about to depart from it, left it the name. It ob- viously comes of the great number of buildings; the neigh- borhood has-room for. Lastly, in the center is Pumpkin Hollow. Into it the pumpkins once rolled from the eastern . if not also from the western cultivated slope. We hear that there are those who have ventured to tamper with the whole- some and savory and venerable appellation.t Let it not be
*From 1797 to 1842 Caleb Sherman was a drover. He made about 500 trips to Boston. "He paid promptly," says Capt. Childs, " for every hoof he purchased, and, as is believed, returned good weight for every one taken on drift." On the first day of July, 1813, he fell through the Connecticut river bridge at Montague, with his drove, and had his leg so injured that it was amputated above the knee. By the next October he was again in Boston following his business.
+They went, with maidens, and children of the schools, and others following, up the eastern hill; and there they sang and poured libations, and called the name that had not been heard before. Howbeit some part sang in the words of one song and some part sang in the words of a song that was contrary thereto. George Moulton Adams was Pontifex Maximus ; but neither were the omens duly taken, nor was the deity of the place made propitious.
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done. Clothed to day with the prophetic mantle my prede- cessor dropped, I make it here to be known that, so long as the greatest of those vegetable orbs will roll from the top of Field's or Newhall's hill the valley that lies between shall be called of men Pumpkin Hollow. For the information of the curious mind I will add that the locality sometimes en- titled " Church Green " is in Pumpkin Hollow.
The dress worn by the first settlers and their families was, as might be supposed, of the plainest fabric. Tow cloth and linsey wolsey were the common materials for men and boys. Some men, not of the tailors' craft, and not forced either to such a resort, used to cut for themselves the garment that was worn where pantaloons ought to be. Stout linen, checked or striped with blue, was for Sunday wear. The busy wives and daughters spun and wove it; and wore it also for them- selves. So they made table and pocket linen, very similar, of which here is a specimen (displaying a checked handkerchief made in the old time). No Conway inan is expected to-day . to use one of any other description. Infant children were baptised wearing dresses of this material. Our stylish girls had then for winter flannel frocks, red or of butternat color, which they made and dyed themselves. They became irresist- ibly charming when they added a Boston ribbon for the waist and neck. Silks, though not absolutely unknown, were . very rare. And so, too, was cotton. For many years a first class bridal suit was of calico. When the town had a repre- sentative at the General Court it was often sent for by him. The cost was a dollar a yard. As to the quantity required there are no means at the present time for forming a judg- ment.
There is evidence withal that what they had they took care of. The young woman, coming on Sunday to meeting, would not put on their best shoes until they were near the . meeting house ; wearing for the most of the way some coarser covering of art-or a finer one of nature. Often, though less uniformly, dresses as well as shoes were thus changed. I know not what ignominious man has cut down that chestnut tree near the western foot of the Jonas Rice hill that was
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the favorite dressing shelter of the maidens from the East Side and the South Part. As to the boys, shoes were of no account to them except in the very coldest months. Bonnets were prolonged " shakers." There is a South Part story that Capt. Lucius Allis used to keep cider-which may be believed-at some place near the meeting house to be had with the Sunday dinners, and that the women attempting to take a share- which is not so clear-were much embarrassed by reason of these bonnets. It is not believed that the present style would give occasion to such difficulties. Disregarding the cider, I do not know but there may be found those who will acquiesce in the change by which the faces of the mother's daughters have ceased to be so entirely inaccessible.
However this almost exclusively domestic provision for cloth- ing may now please the imagination, there is abundant evi- dence that it did not then adequately protect the body. Capt. Childs speaks of the clothing of the early inhabitants as " utter- ly insufficient ; " and facts transmitted to us will sustain his statement. That the settlers were generally healthy and that many of them lived to a great age, makes nothing against it. Vigor of constitution supported them ; and the strength that comes of working and sleeping in good air. Moreover as to the children the healthiness of the carly times is not ad- mitted.
It is pleasing to be able to reflect that notwithstanding poverty of dress and badness of the roads, with lack of car- riages, the first people here did not neglect social intercourse. Malachi Maynard used to come evenings with his family two miles down the hill to call on his neighbor Consider Arms. His wife carried one child, he another ; and there was left for him his right hand for a burning pine knot to light the way and keep off' wolves. So they refreshed them- selves after their day's work. When Mr. Emerson brought his young wife, Sabra Cobb, from Boston in 1770, almost the whole town came together to the reception at the house of Consider Arms. It may be guessed it was a new side of life the lady saw. The report, is still heard of the kisses she
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enjoyed-or endured. On this occasion her resolution to do appears also to have been equal to her fortitude to suffer. Eli Dickinson said the kiss he received was " the sweetest he had ever had." Whereat his wife gave him the boxing he de- served. Mrs. Emerson was a lady if she came from Boston. She had a silk umbrella; and because there was not an umbrella among her people she never carried it; but long after she made the silk into bonnets for her daughters. One day when Mr. Emerson was away a man brought to her house a choice piece of pork. To her horror he told her that his hog had died that morning " of a sore throat." She thanked him graciously, but being afraid her husband would be angry -for his temper rose on due occasion-and wishing to hide a matter'for trouble, she threw it away with the refuse for soap. Mr. Emerson, however, had heard of the gift, and came home to inquire, too late, after his expected dinner.
Thus the town was entered upon, cleared and populated. Man had his homes in the wilderness of the deer, and the wolf and the bear. And the varied scenes of human history began here to be enacted.
The revolutionary war was soon coming on. Our fathers, though poorly prepared at that early day to contribute in car- rying it forward, yet entered heartily upon it. They made haste in 1774 to assure the Boston committee of correspondence that they should join with them in "all Lawful and Salutary Measures for the Recovery of those Inestimable Priviledges Wrested from us, and firmly to secure those that remain, for we are sensible,"-say they-" yt should we Renounce our Liberty and Priviledges we should Renounce the Quality of men and the Rights of humanity." They shortly directed that the selectmen should provide "Two barrels of powder and lead and flints answerable for a town stock of ammunition." (From the first the town had kept some "stock " of these articles). They "Established a Resolve," appointing a commit- tee of thirteen men to have an eye on the conduct of any per- Sons that should " Do or speak anything that tends to HIender Uniting of the People in opposing yekings laws yt Infringed on
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their rights," and to adjudge to such persons "a Certain Compe- tency of Punishment to be Inflicted on them not Exceeding the " punishment of Contempt and Neglect; " and they added the restriction, " Yt the said Committy nor no Other person shall not have power to go out of this town Except it be to assist a mob in the General Good Cause (viz.) in Prohibiting Persons taking or holding Commissions under the Present Constitution, Except it be for their own perticular Bisness."* This com- mittee of thirteen, as at first chosen, consisted of Dea. Sam. Wells, Dea. Joel Baker, Lt. Thomas French, Jonas Rice, Oliver Wetmore, Cyrus Rice, Consider Arms, Robert Oliver, James Dickinson, Israel Gates, Josiah Boyden, Elisha Clark and Alexander Oliver. In July, 1775, the old committee was dismissed, Capt. Arms and some others beginning to hold back from extreme measures, and Samuel Crittenden, Jonathan Whitney, Malachi Maynard, James Gilmore, John Thwing,' Jonas Rice, Isaac Amsden, Capt. Clark and Israel Rice were put in their stead.
On the 24th of May, 1776, being assembled at the meeting house, and having appointed a committee to frame the vote they proceeded to declare that " If the Honorable Continantial Congress Should think it Requisit for the Safety of the North- american Coloneys on this Continent to Declare a State of In- dependency of Greatbriton that we will abide By and Conform to their wisdom to the Expense of our lives and fortunes." Im- pressed, it seems with the weightiness of the occasion, the re- cording officer adds : "N. B. The above menchaned meeting was Called on purpose for the above business and the Town Voted Affairinative 83, Negative 6. Cyrus Rice, Moderat or.
* At about this time, Jan. 1775, the minds of our fathers became exercised, not to say unsettled, in the affair of a representative to the general court, or congress of the colony, in which Conway and Deerfield were then associated. The record Stands "Being put to Vote whether they will agree with Deerfield in the Delegate they Chose. Voted in the Negative. Voted that they will Reconsider the last Vote. Being put to Vote Wheather they will Establish the former Vote, Voted in the affirmative. Voted they will Reconsider the last vote and Send no Delegate to the Congress, Neither from Deerfield Nor Conway." It may be guessed that the matter of pay to be drawn from the town entered into these reconsiderations,
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A trew coppy from the Minits, attest, Oliver Wetmore, Town Clerk."*
They stood resolutely by this pledge through the war. The number of men they furnished is not known. It was as many as was called for. The names are not . all preserved; many have been already mentioned. In 1777, when Burgoyne was marching from the north, every able bodied man went out to meet himn.t It was thought when he sent off Baum toward Bennington, that he meant to strike across the country eastward to the seaboard. The aların was beat on the Sabbath day by the meeting house. Boys were sent to spread the call. One of them, a son of Robert Hamilton, seven years old then, was living three years ago and could tell of the errand he went on. He could remember, too, how there was left in that neighborhood but one, a lame man, who helped the women and boys gather in the corn on the farms. Mother and boy were little ready for the work. It was the year of the great sickness and the saddest antumn harvest our town has ever known. One was taken of nearly every twelve of all its inhabitants. And of the children there must have been buried one for every three or four.
The fear of invasion this year led to more apprehension con- cerning the resident tories. At a town meeting held Aug. .24th,¿ it was resolved "to proceed to some measure to Secure the Enemical persons Called Tories amongst us ;" and the account goes on, "then the Question was Put Wheather.
* Until the spring of this year, Consider Arms had been clerk. He had wished to be excused before the expiration of his term. But the town directed him to go on and keep the record ; as if he liked it. He was a decided but not a violent tory. His connections with Deerfield may have helped to draw him that way.
tThis turning out for a time of all that coall bear arms has made it difficult to learn by the family traditions only who were the regular continental soldiers from the town. Some of those named as in the war were probably only out a short time. Of those callel one in the fall of 1777 a pirt returnel after hearing of the vietory of Stark ; while some went on to the Halson and were present at the sur- ren ler of Burgoyne.
#Some had by this time returned from the march to Bennington; and there were others remaining at home for disability.
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