USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Holyoke > Complete program of Holyoke's seventy-fifth anniversary and home coming days > Part 2
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In the spring of 1704, the Indians were again on the warpath, this time at the instigation of the French. In May of that year, led by Frenell
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THE MORGAN HOMESTEAD
officers, they raided Mount Tom Junetion settle- ments, killing nineteen persons and earrying three away to Canada. Deerfield was sacked at this time. The valley was infested by scalping parties and settlers were obliged to maintain scouting parties to protect themselves.
A Benjamin Wright lived in what is now the Smiths Ferry district of Holyoke but what was then Northampton. As early as 1704 his house was attacked by Indians. They were driven off with the loss of one warrior only to return and set fire to the house. A boy named Stebbins gathered a featherbed about him to protect him- self from arrows and got water with which he put out the fire.
What later became the old Fairfield home- stead on Northampton street was in early days the home of Lucas Morgan. One night. Mr. Morgan was awakened by the violent barking of his farm dog. Shortly the barking stopped with a yelp. Mr. Morgan, suspecting the cause of the sudden quietness, took his musket down from the rack. Soon it appeared that an Indian was trying to force the back door. Guessing at the location of the marauder he fired through the door. All was then quiet. The next morn- ing he found the Indian lying on the doorstep, shot through the head, and the faithful dog dead in the yard.
Early reference is had to wolves coming down from the hills to prey on the cattle and sheep of the settlers. Inws were in force compelling
members of the settlement to bring all livestock under protection at night.
A FARMING PEOPLE
Living conditions were simple but suffering for the necessities of life was rare. Game and wild fowl abounded in the woods. Wild tur- keys lived on Mount Tom. The rivers were full of fish. Salmon was plentiful and shad to be given away. Every householder was required to keep at least three sheep. Flax grew in the fields. Potatoes yielded in great multiple in the valley soil. Every family had its pork bar- rel, fresh pork in winter time and salt pork in the summer. Also every family had its buried cache of root vegetables from the late fall until early summer.
Riley, the original settler, was of Irish ex- traction. His was the glorious distinction of being the first permanent settler in the region that was to become Holyoke. Possibly because of his Irish lineage, possibly by virtue of other families of Irish descent later settled in the locality, Third Parish came to be known as "Ireland Parish."
Six families were living in Ireland Parish in 1729. They "forted together" at night out of fear of the Indians. In 1745, Benjamin Ball purchased a great tract of land at what is now the corner of Northampton and Cherry streets and began to develop a farm. Captain John
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THE OLD BROWN HOUSE
Miller also settled on the "County Road" as Northampton street was called in 1749. His land covered most of what is now the city. Cap- tain Miller had taken part in the capture of honisburg.
After Captain Miller's services in the army were ended he married and built a new house for himself. This property remained in the Miller family for more than a century and up until 1884, when it was torn down, constituted one of the landmarks of the town. During the Revolutionary War and for many years there- after it was occupied as a tavern, being the half-way house on the old stage route between Northampton and Springfield.
Colonel Ely aslo maintained a tavern in the early days in the region that is now Ingleside. Upon his farm the last of the Indians in the locality was permitted to build a hut. Being unwilling to follow the tribe to new hunting grounds, this Indian dwelt here for several years and died.
On the County Road also stood the Brown house which in time was to be an historic spot. Here in the early days lived Enoch Ely who fought in the Revolutionary War. It is report- ed in the old stories that the insurgents engaged in Shays Rebellion, on their trek down the val- ley, attacked this house, seeking to capture the occupant who was probably in hiding in the neighboring wood. For many years the doors with their bullet holes bore mute evidence of the incident.
In 1744 a public safety committee was set up. Money was voted to train soldiers. Every able bodied man was required to drill that he might be ready to defend the settlement. In the cap- ture of Lonisburg it is certain that one regiment of the provincial troops was drawn from old Hampshire County.
THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY
When the Revolutionary War broke out Cap- tain JJoseph Morgan gathered together a com- pany of recruits which became a part of the 3rd Hampshire Regiment. In this company was Lucas Morgan, Joseph Morgan, 2nd, and Eras- tus Morgan. They were from Ireland Parish. Captain Enoch Chapin commanded a West Springfield company. He also was from Ireland Parish.
The day after the battle at, Concord Bridge two companies left West Springfield and marched to Boston to meet, further hostilities from the British. More than a score of men from Ireland Parish were included in these com- panies. or the most part, however, the revolu- tionary contributions of this region were to the armies of the north. Men from Ireland Parish took part in practically every important engage- ment of the war.
The graves of the soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War who were buried within the limits of what is now Holyoke are as follows :
Rock Valley Cemetery: Ichabod How, Dan- iel Imdington, Elish Perkins, David Wood.
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Smiths Ferry Cemetery : Eli Day, Asahel Parsons, Jonathon Parsons, Lewis Smith. Forestdale Cemetery : Erastus Morgan.
Elmwood Cemetery : Charles Ball, Asahel Chapin, Martin Chapin, Edward Day, Jede- diah Day, Joel Day, Joel Day, Jr., Joseph Day, Robert Day, Benjamin Ely, Enoch Ely, JJoseph Ely, JJube Ely, Levi Fairfield, Peresh Hitchcock. Ebenezer Jones, Abner Miller, Jesse Morgan, Joseph Morgan, Lucas Morgan, Titus Morgan.
The names of Edward Day and Robert Day are entered on the tombstone of their father, Joel Day, but they are not buried there. Ed- ward was buried at Troy, N. Y .; Robert at Ticonderoga.
EARLY DAYS
In 1758, a committee was appointed to peti- tion the town of Springfield for a ferry for the more convenient crossing of the great river and also to obtain a convenient road to the ferry on the west side of the river. A successful ont- come was had for this venture. For many years this was known as the JJones Ferry. The road leading to this old Ferry can still be seen a little north of the meadow now owned by Brightside.
At this early date the residents of Ireland Parish rode eight miles to attend town meetings or religious services, attendance at both of which was held to be an imperative duty. The people lived by farming. The "field" lying to the northeast of the settlement was an unpromising slope of sandy land. At variance with the rich- er farm lands of the upper reach this lonesome semi-barren tract with two sandy roads strag- gling down through it from the County Road to the falls in the river, was unproductive.
Even the County Road was sandy. Mrs. Willis Van Wagenen, a direct descendent of the Day Family and now eighty years old, reports hearing her mother tell of how the children of the settlement on their way to church used to take off their shoes and carry them because it was more comfortable that way than to walk with their shoes full of sand. Perhaps this bit of information might put a different light on why Whiting Street at a later date carried his shoes on the way to work.
Better methods of farming and ready though distant markets for farm produce gradually brought under cultivation all the lands lying along the road and much land even back to the foothills of the mountain range. Elisha Ashley and Deacon Peresh Hitchcock raised respective- ly 1300 and 1400 bushels of Rye in one year. Rye was then worth a dollar a bushel.
Originally Ireland had been part of the Sec-
ond or West Springfield Parish. In 1751, Chic- opee and Ireland were united and designated as the Fifth Parish of Springfield. In 1774, West Springfield was created as a town of which Ire- land was a part. In 1792, the petition of Ire- land to be separated from Chicopee and estab- lished as a parish by itself was granted after 4 contest of six years. During the period of union with Chicopee the residents had been compelled to go to Chicopee to church. Now as a separate Third Parish of West Springfield they must set up a church of their own.
Under early Massachusetts law a parish was an actual civil division of state, with territorial bounds as distinctly marked and duties as clear- ly defined as in the case of a township. Every citizen belonged to the parish, could vote in parish meetings, was eligible to parish office, and must pay all taxes imposed upon him by the parish.
BAPTIST VILLAGE
The Baptists of the parish would not vote to call a Congregationalist minister, so the Con- gregationalists let it be known that they would help support a satisfactory minister that the Baptists might choose. This resulted in the Baptists securing as pastor a Mr. Thomas Rand who served faithfully and well for a period of more than a quarter of a century.
The first Baptist meeting house was begun as early as 1792, near what is now the old Baptist cemetery. It was an ambitions effort for a rather small group of people. Money ran short and its construction halted.
The first Congregational Church was organ- ized in 1799, and arranged to hold services with the Baptists, holding one alone every fourth Sunday. The first Baptist Church was organ- ized in 1803. The two congregations wor- shipped together mostly under the leadership of Reverend Thomas Rand until 1834. The Congregationalists united with the Baptists in moving the new church a few hundred yards north on the road and finishing it.
The name of Baptist Village seems to have attached itself to the neighborhood that is now Elmwood at an early date. In 1740, three resi- dents of the locality, Colonel Benjamin Ely, Captain Joseph Ely, and Asahel Chapin, trav- elled as far as Feeding Ilills to attend a Baptist Church. As the years went by the Baptist in- fluence grew stronger. By 1799, the Baptists. though not numerous enough to outvote the Congregationalists of the parish, vet held the balance of power as between them and the non- church group. The erection of the Baptist ('Imreh in the neighborhood re-enforced the
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THE OLD RAND HOMESTEAD, BACK STREET (Homestead Avenue)
Baptist complexion. The Elmwood of that day was Baptist Village . . . of Ireland Parish.
As to the families who lived in this Elmwood of two hundred years ago the records give us a glimpse here and there. The petitioners from Ireland for the union with Chicopee in 1850, were Ebenezer Jones, John Miller, Benjamin Jones, John Day, 2nd, Timy Miller, Joseph Ely, 3rd, Charles Ball, Ebenezer Taylor, Joseph Ely, 2nd, Ebenezer JJones Jr., Gideon Jones, John Day, 3rd, Joseph Day, Benjamin Jones, Jr., and Abel Stockwell. In 1786, Lieutenant John Miller, Lieutenant Charles Ball and Lucas Mor- gan petitioned the General Court to be incor- porated into a separate parish.
A. J. Rand, in his paper on early Holyoke, prepared for the Semi-Centennial celebration of the city in 1923, tells of a runaway slave by the name of Lot who in the early days lived near the present day City Farm. Lot did his work: with a gun strapped on his back ready to pro- teet himself in case of attack.
Ireland after the thirties had its station of the underground railway. Runaway slaves who came up the river on the way to Canada were concealed in the Rand home and were then transported to Northampton, usually in the dead of night. Among those fugitives who received hospitality in the valley were Lewis and Milton Clark. Lewis Clark was an original character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Unele Tom's Cabin."
Two negro settlers were among the contrib-
utive early pioneers of the parish. Their name was Fuller and they carried on a prosperous importing trade from down the river.
PURITANISM SIMPLIFIED
Theirs was a simple philosophy of life and an elementary manner of existence. The "Blue Laws" of the old Bay Colony were somewhat softened and ameliorated in their applications to this remote community. Sabbath observ- ance and church attendance was insisted upon and faltering in the first respect at least was punishable by fine. Laws relating to the com- mon good were strictly enforced. Moral values were inculcated through lengthy sermons on Sunday and by discussions through the week. There was a common, standard code of what was right and what was wrong and a universal acceptance of that code, at least in principle. These pioneer settlers tried to live according to the will of God, as interpreted to them by their appointed pastor
The intellectual life of the community cen- tered about the church, and the pastor was not only the spiritual shepherd of his flock and a godly man, but the source of much of the mental stimulation of the group. The men working in their fields found time to ponder upon the pro- found truths expressed firstly to sixthly in the Sunday sermon. The one book which those who could read loved to read was the Bible.
If there was vacillation in the establishment. of
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a minister of the gospel in the parish it was dne rather to lack of means and factional theol- ogy than to indifference.
The old "Baptist Village" cemetery ou Northampton street, which was the burying ground of the Ireland Parish settlement at that early date, indicates that common family names were those of the Elys, the Morgans, the Days, the Balls, the Chapins, the Rogers, the Hume- stons, the Millers, the Taylors, the Hitchcocks, the Ives and the Sextons. A Stockwell was buried there in 1768.
This old cemetery whose old brownstone tab- lets offer chilling bits of philosophy upon the inevitability of death also gives us some insight into the military contributions of several meni- bers of the village. Captain Elisha Chapin was killed by savages at Williamstown in Berkshire County during King Philip's War. Captain Joseph Morgan was captured and included in the capitulation of Fort MeHenry. Ennice Day gave her husband Joel Day and her five sons, Joel, Jedediah, Eli, Edward and Robert, to the canse of liberty during the American Revolu- tion. It was in her honor that the Holyoke Chapter of the D. A. R. was named ..
EARLY INDUSTRIES
With the turn of the century the tempo of life in Ireland Parish began to move faster. Industries of a simple homely kind began to grow up to complement the farming activity of the people. In 1786, Enoch Ely conveyed to Caleb Humeston of New Haven, a tanner, 75 acres of land located on what was known as Tannery Brook. A tannery grew up here.
A family living on what is now the Sheehan farm devoted itself to making wooden-works cloeks in the winter time, taking orders for the clocks in advance. Farming must have been profitable for the eloek making was only a part time activity, A man by the name of Heming- way operated a combination shingle saw mill and paint grinding mill at what is now near the corner of Westfield road and Homestead avenue, the house and barn standing on land now flooded by a pond. On the Rock Valley side of the mountain was a cider mill whose power was supplied by a large overshot water wheel much higher than the mill itself.
In the Riley Brook seetion was a mill where paper was manufactured out of straw. At an earlier date this mill had been a cement grind- ing establishment at which roek quarried from ledges near-by was converted. Later a Mr. Bar- tholomew took over this mill and converted it
into a grist mill and a saw mill. A former Hessian soldier who had deserted the British Army ran the mill.
In this vicinity also in the very early days had been an old-fashioned up and down saw mill. White oak timbers of considerable height were to be found on the plains of Rock Valley, Southampton, and Westfield. These logs were hanled down to the mill, sawed to straighten, lashed to pine carriers, and floated down the river to Hartford to be used in the ship build- ing industry.
PAPER MAKING
A Mr. Phinie made paper by the old screen method in his home near Riley's Brook. Half a dozen smithies grew up around the village, Deacon Harvey Chapin conducted a wheel- wright business near what was shortly to be- come Craft's Tavern. Parley Gilmore conduct- ed a like business near the river. Another wagon shop and blacksmith shop stood on the Southampton road near the old tavern. Abner Rogers maintained a blacksmith shop on what is now Homestead Avenue near the road leading to the City Farm.
A number of lime kilns operated in the Ire- land Parish region in the early days. Originally these kilns were in the Riley Brook area, but later on were moved up to the present Jarvis Avenne locality. Probably the last lime burn- iug done in this area was in the days of the construction of the New Haven and Northamp- ton Canal. The lime produced was not of high quality. It did not set as well as that later made in the Berkshires.
In 1783, Titus and Erastus Morgan built a sawmill in the "Fields" about half a mile above the site of the present dam. This is believed to be the first instance of the utilization of the water power of the great rapids. It was a nat- ural site for a sawmill, located as it was on a river which tapped the north country and down whose broad highway each spring could be floated the harvest of the logs chopped through the long cold winter. Ont of this eventually came the Connecticut River Valley Lumber Company's mill.
On the site of what is now the homestead of P. J. Kennedy at Smiths Ferry was another water mill established by damming a brook and installing an overhsot water wheel. At one time here was a grist mill. At another it may have been used for sawing logs. Probably it ran the gamut of New England industrial development as so many of these early New England water mills did.
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Bog iron was mined in very small quantities along the old Tannery Brook. The story is that the settlers used the erude iron in making their farming implements.
Large quantities of standstone were quarried on the left side of the upper Easthampton Road and later on the Rock Valley side of the moun- tain. The business seems to have become less and less profitable and the coming of the rail- road put an end to it entirely.
Distilleries were located in the Parish. Much of the rye that the farmers raised found its way into spiritous liquors. A great value of liquor could be transported in a little space. A com- mon practice during this period for farming roimmunities in remote regions was to convert their crops into liqnors and send them out to commerce. There is good reason to believe. however, that much of the spirits distilled in the Ireland Parish region was consumed at home.
THE WHITE MAN'S RIVER
With only back country roads connecting the settlement with centers of population down river it was inevitable that river traffie become important. From the earliest days flat boats and lumber had been floated down, As the settle- ment developed, its needs in relation to the out- side world inereased. Much corn, some wheat, and a large exeess of rye in Insh years moved down the river.
Now the potentials of the hinterland and the upper reaches of the Connectient were being realized. Settlements were developed in New Hampshire and their main broad highway to the world was the Connectieut. Treland Parish was situated at a strategie point in the river where, because of the falls, every pound of the carry- ing trade up and down river had to be portaged. The farmers of Treland managed to earn an honest dollar now and then by carting river cargos around the white water.
For the most part, however, the residents across the river had the better of this business. They had a good road around the falls. In Tre- land a road construeted from the upper way down through the field to the lower end of the rapids tended to equalize things somewhat, but in 1792. "The Proprietors of Loeks and Canals on the Conneetieut River" set up to eonstrnet a canal on the Hadley side that would do away with all portage.
By means of a long inelined plane and plenty of water power the shallow draft flat bottomed river boats were lifted from the lower to the
upper level of the river and vice versa aud through a two and a half mile canal passed safe- ly around the falls. From that day Canal Vil- lage, as the settlement across the river was called, held aseendency in the river trade. Ire- land, took the leavings.
Those old river boats were low, oblong. flat- bottomed craft, with a diminutive cabin in the rear and a heavy mast forward. When the wind favored, a big square sail was hoisted. This failing the boats were poled slowly along through the shallow water.
Nearly always in the first quarter of the eighteenth century these boats could be seen from the hills, their white sails giving an ani- mated appearance to what else must have been a lonely river. In the year 1824, the "Barnett." a steamboat 75 feet long and 14 feet wide but with a draft of only two feet came up the river from Hartford, passed through the South Hadley Canal and proceeded up as far as Bel- lows Falls. Shortly after there were other steam- ers, the "Blanchard," the "Vermont." and the "Adam Duncan." This last was an ill-fated craft which blew up on a Fourth of July picnic to Hanover and effectually dampened the ardor of the people of the valley for the new fangled contraption. A steamboat line between Spring- field and Hartford flourished until the opening of the railroad in 1824.
River eargos for Treland were unloaded at Jed Day's landing on his farm by the river side in what is now Springdale. In times of low water the boats of deeper draft were obliged to stop here. In the later days Whiting Street was local agent of transportation and one of the owners of the Canal Company.
When a boat was held up at the landing by low water Street would make his rounds of the Treland farmers, arranging with them to be ready to carry its cargo to Northampton the next morning. Oxen were used for this purpose most of the time but sometime in winter-time, horses.
Most of the farmers of the village had two teams of oxen and many of them a team of horses. They were ready to drop whatever they were doing to earn a little ready cash. Upon occasion a dozen of these slow-moving ox teams could be seen wending their way along the coun- ty road toward Northampton.
WHITING STREET
Whiting Street was a heavy, vigorous man. never known to be sick. The Street family. Whiting, a brother, and two sisters, lived in a big unpainted farmhouse on the northern stretch
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CONNECTICUT RIVER ABOVE RAPIDS - LOCATION OF DINOSAUR TRACKS
of the road. Whiting was given to saving and took innch joy in the accumulation of wealth. The old farm supplied the family with most of the necessities of life and the owner is said to have estimated his cash expenses at fifty-eight cents per week. He was a great checker player and liked to drop in at the house of a friend now and then to play the game. When he died it was found that he had left a fortune in trust for the worthy poor of Holyoke. Many a des- titute family over the past century has had occasion to bless his name and his widely her- alded saving.
A SWING FERRY
The earlier ferry from Ireland over to Canal Village was replaced in the first part of the century by a swing ferry which was an ingen- ious device making the river supply the propul- sion. A pier was mounted at midstream from which the ferry was suspended by a long wire far down the river. The main wire went to the front end of the boat. but a splice taken off above it went to the back end. By means of taking in or letting out this splice the angle of the boat in respect to the current was shifted. If the west end of the ferry was down river the boat driven by the current against its keel board travelled to the Hadley shore. If the east end were down stream it came back to Ireland.
In the early days this ferry carried only an
occasional team or two, but as the region grew more populous came to be one of the busiest places on the river and made money for its own- ers. The old timers told stories of waiting five or six hours in line to get across the river. The boat carried six two-horse teams and wagons for a full load. There was also a bench for foot passengers.
SHAD FISHING
Shad fishing was an important phase of the yearly cycle of the life of Ireland Parish. On a fine May morning after the ice had gone down the river the fishermen would slide their boats into the river and the season would therewith begin. Farmers and peddlers came from miles around to get their share of the shad. Nearly every family salted down a barrel for winter use. Oftentimes the season lasted for more than a month.
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