USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden > Early Hampden, Mass., its settlers and the homes they built; > Part 10
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The next point listed was the home of Mrs. John McCray who owned the house where Mrs. Anton Woska now resides. The McCray family had taverns in town in various houses in the early days.
The road, which was laid out three rods in width the whole dis- tance, then proceeded along Allen Street passing the residence of Joel Allen, for whose family the street was named, to the U. S. Watershops and then to Dwight's Store at the corner of Main and State Streets.
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OTHER QUAINT AND INTERESTING OLD ROADS
Henry I. Edson, Wilbraham historian, has told us of some old roads in the northern part of the town which have long since been discontinued.
One left Glendale Road just north of the residence of Arthur Gerrish, on the opposite side of the road, and went northeast toward Glendale passing where Hamilton deLisle lives. On this spot was a Steb- bins home which burned when Persis Stebbins went into a clothes closet with a lighted candle. From there the road went northerly to two houses back of where August Lindberg now lives. One of the houses was owned by Phineas Stebbins and the other by Jesse Carpenter.
A road west from North Road went back of where E. N. Davis now has his packing house and down the mountain through the pasture north of the present Burleigh Road to Wilbraham.
Another road which came out near the Davis house was one that went west from the John Carpenter place (John J. Moriarty's) on Glen- dale Road, passing the home of John Allard.
Mrs. Florence Ballou has called our attention to an old road that left Chapin Road south of where Walter Lunden now lives and proceeded west, coming out near her home on South Road. She said a family by the name of Burdick lived on the road and that the cellar hole may still be seen. Peck's History of Wilbraham shows Cary Burdick as paying a real estate tax in 1771. Probably he was the Burdick who lived on this road.
Mrs. Mina (Sessions) Gibson of Lakewood, Ohio states that two old deeds to the Sessions property on Wilbraham Road refer to the "Road leading from Thomas Lewis' to Ezekiel Russell's" This must be the old road east over the mountain from Wilbraham Road to Mountain Road which passed the Beebe house that stood near where H. H. Thresher afterwards had a peach orchard and came out near the present Morgan- Kinney properties.
HAMPDEN ANTIQUE FURNITURE OWNED BY MRS. MARCUS GOTTSCHE, SR.
We are pleased to show a picture of the antique furniture owned by Mrs. Marcus Gottsche, Sr., which came out of old Hampden houses.
On the left may be seen the Peregrine White Grandfather's Clock with brass face which used to be in the Joshua Stanton House off South Monson Road, now owned by Edward Kronval. It was willed to Mrs. Gottsche by Calista Stanton, Joshua Stanton's daughter, who at the time
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Hampden Antiques owned by Mrs. Marcus Gottsche, Sr.
of her death owned the Thornton W. Burgess house. You will note, there- fore, that this clock came out of two of our oldest homes.
In the center may be seen a pine desk made in 1812 by David Calkins for his granddaughter Almina Calkins. The latter was the daugh- ter of his son John who lived in a house on Ames Road on the property now owned by Atty. Thomas F. Moriarty. Miss Calkins married Davis Pease and this couple were the grandparents of Mrs. Gottsche.
At the right may be seen a curly maple chest of drawers willed by Marilda (Stanton) Vinica, another daughter of Joshua Stanton, to Mrs. Gottsche, and this piece also came from the present Kronval house.
On the desk may be seen a basket which was made by Davis Pease, referred to above, and who built the house now owned by Donald Wilcox.
THE OLD LANGDON GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK
An old clock, which once served as a timepiece for the whole west side of our town, is now the treasured property of Mrs. Howard Case of 26 Manitoba Street, Springfield. She is a direct descendant of Lt. Paul Lang- don who first brought it to this part of the state. The timepiece is an old fashioned Grandfather's clock with brass works operated with weights complete with a calendar attachment. It was brought to this country from England sometime during the early 1700's.
In 1741 Lt. Paul Langdon came to town, having earlier lived in Salem, Hopkinton, and Union. He brought his worldly goods including his clock in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. That four-wheeled wagon was probably the first of its kind this side of Worcester and excited as much comment and attention as would a circus coming over those same
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roads today. The settlers along the route continually stopped the party for the purpose of examining the vehicle. After the death of Lt. Paul Langdon, the clock became the property of his son Capt. Paul Langdon and it was during the time of his ownership that record is had of its being the only clock in the district.
For many years it was the timepiece by which the entire district regulated its comings and goings. Every day when the old clock indicated 12 o'clock noon and every evening at nine o'clock, Capt. Paul Langdon or someone of his family, came to the door of the old homestead on Somers Road and "blew a long and vigorous blast on a horn that all the neighbors might heed the passing of time and act accordingly"
It is not too much to expect that the evening blast at nine o'clock was a "curfew" to the entire settlement and that it was the signal for all honest and peaceably inclined people to put out their lights and retire. From father to son unto the fifth generation is the history of this clock to this time and today as it stands in the corner and ticks away the moments it would seem to promise as much more.
About 1828, the owner of the clock, grandson of the first owner and great-great-grandfather of the present owner, had a new case made for the old time piece. This case was made by one Lloyd, a cabinetmaker, whose place was at the "South Ferry near where the South End Bridge now is" (Springfield). The case is old cherry with finely fluted columns at the corner supporting the headpiece and at either side of the dial and supporting the rounded top. It is a handsome piece of workmanship.
Since the above was written the writer was thrilled to see an article in the Springfield Sunday Republican for February 17, 1957 regarding William Lloyd, cabinetmaker, and a photograph showing one of the sideboards made by him.
The old Langdon Grandfather's Clock which told the time of day for all of Somers Road.
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HOW AND WHERE THE EARLY SETTLERS OBTAINED THEIR BUILDING MATERIALS
Foundation Stones or Underpinnings. Many of the early houses in Hampden had granite foundations, the stones having been quarried in town, some on the builder's farms. Several of the homes on Ames Road and upper Glendale Road, a well as houses in Wilbraham, had foundations from the Dwelly Quarry on Ames Road. The finished stone steps at the home of Charles Smith (the former Evanore O. Beebe place) on Monson Road, Wilbraham came from this quarry. The foundations under other houses on lower Glendale Road probably came from the quarry on the Harry Goodwill farm, evidences of which may still be seen in the pasture west of the barn. The Lunden and Wilcox properties in the same neighborhood also show evidence that granite stone has been taken from these farms. The Flynt Quarry in back of the home of Dr. John Moran on Chapin Road probably furnished the foundation for many of the homes in the area while the John B. Morris family owned one near the Kenneth Moody property farther up Chapin Road.
The brown stones under the two old Congregational Parsonages on East Main Street as well as the stone steps probably came from the old McGregory Quarry off Somers Road in East Longmeadow near the present Goldstein property or the Burt Quarry in Wilbraham Center near the Mile Tree School. There are no brown stone deposits in our town. The builders of these two houses must have gone to the quarry with stone boats and oxen, if they were built in the summer, or with oxen and sleds if in the winter. Brownstone or sandstone was considered public property previous to 1800 and any person had a right to quarry it where- ever it was found.
Bricks for chimneys and fireplaces. These were hand made from clay in the fields.
Timbers for Framework. The early builders went into the forest and took the first good tree they found, cut it down, and squared it with a broadaxe. The beams were pinned together with oak pins in sections of the right length. This was done while parts were lying flat on the ground. When they had two sides ready they called in the neighbors and the sides were pushed up into place and the end members pinned to them. The trusses were also made on the ground and raised. After the framework was completed they passed the cider and doughnuts and perhaps some flip. Records indicate that the old church on the green was raised in a similar manner under the supervision of Capt. Paul
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Langdon in 1783. There are some living in town who still remember the barn raising at the George A. Chapin Farm, now owned by Walter Labodycz, on Somers Road. This was probably the last "raising" in town.
Interior Boards. Before the days of saw mills, planks were sawed out by hand by two men, one above and the other down in the saw pit, using long bladed saws with cross handles. The first saw mills worked such up and down (or straight) saws by water power. Circular saws were not in- vented until about 1777 in England, nor used in New England until 1814.
The house builder naturally patronized the saw mill nearest to him. In 1750 Lewis Langdon erected the first saw mill in town below where the present ice plant stands. Abner Badger had such a mill in operation at Goodwill's Pond before 1772. In 1780 David Burt erected one on what is now known as the Wesson Pond on Scantic Road. In the early 1800's Capt. Charles Sessions built a saw mill near the present Buereau's Garage, on the opposite bank of the river.
Lath. Very thin boards were split from hemlock plank. These pieces were then hacked and stretched sideways so that they split in several places along the grain. The whole board was then nailed to studs with the splits horizontal. Each piece was made to serve the purpose of several laths. The Howlett House on East Main Street has an unfinished room in the attic to which the plaster was never applied, clearly showing the hand split lath.
Shingles. The first houses in town probably had hand-shaved shingles. About 1810 Daniel Chaffee's Shingle Mill and Saw Mill was in operation on property owned at the present time by W. Harry Burns and from then on this was probably the source for shingles in town.
Hardware. The hand-made nails, latches, H, HL and Strap hinges were probably fashioned at one of the early blacksmith shops in town. Records indicate that Capt. John Carpenter operated such a shop on the present farm of John J. Moriarty on Glendale Road. Old maps show that another such industry was located a little east of the present St. Mary's Church. There was also one just as you cross Center Bridge, of which we have written further details in the paragraph on the early shops near that point.
Plaster. Very little plaster was used in the early houses since the inside was practically all wood. Some of the upstairs rooms in the old houses on Main Street still have wooden walls. The first plaster used was made of gray clay mixed with cattle hair and formed into a paste with water. Later lime and sand were used with cattle hair as a binder.
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Paint. The early houses were not painted. H. H. Thresher recently loaned the writer a picture of one of the old houses that used to stand on Thresher Road which had been taken before the house had been painted. In many places there were natural deposits of minerals, such as iron ochre, suitable for making paint. Red Ochre was burned and the clinker then ground into powder and mixed with skim milk. This color was known as "barn red" and was of great durability, which accounts for its use on barns. Indians knew these deposits and used the fine grained clay for ceremonial paint. The old schoolhouse on Glendale Road was probably always painted with red paint from its earliest days. Another old red house was one that used to stand between Goodwill's Pond and Glendale Road. White paint did not appear until 1800.
Wall Paper. Since the early houses had board side walls, paper of course was unnecessary. Then after plaster came in it was left unpainted and unpapered. Some times artists used to paint or stencil designs and emblems on the walls. At least four Hampden houses still have such designs on the walls. Wall paper came in about 1830.
With stone quarried on the farm, bricks hand-made from clay in the fields, hewn timbers and wide hemlock floor boards from trees in their own woodlots, the early settlers of Hampden must have received a good deal of satisfaction in building homes with products from their own land.
SOME INTERESTING HAMPDEN WILLS
Some of our residents who have been looking up the wills of early owners of their property at the Registry of Probate in Northampton and Spring- field have been fascinated and amused at the provisions therein.
Mrs. W .T. Olmstead of Chapin Road finds that Hezekiah Cady who probably built her house left the following part of the residence to his daughter Mariet:
" ... the parlor and the lower space in the new part of the dwelling house with the western half of the cellar, with the privilege of passing through the old part of said house into the cellar and to the well and taking water from the same"
In tracing the Hitchcock family, Mrs. Clifford Attleton of Wil- braham Road finds that in 1772 Luke Hitchcock left his wife Elizabeth the use of the following part of the house:
"The lower room and chamber over and one half of the garret, one half of the kitchen, one half of cellar and one third of the barn as long as she remains a widow'
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He also left at her disposal two beds and four pairs of sheets as long as she "remained a widow" If she remarried she could have but one bed.
Mrs. Mina (Sessions) Gibson of Lakewood, Ohio tells us that in the will of her ancestor, Robert Sessions of Wilbraham Road, there is an interesting bequest reading as follows:
"I give and bequeath to my said wife ( Anna) the South front room in my now dwelling house and the south bedroom chamber and all necessary privileges in the kitchen and cellar for and during the time of her natural life"
The rest of the house was left to his son, William V. Sessions.
Mrs. Clifford Hall of Somers Road found similar provisions in some of the Langdon wills as did Mrs. Byrd Hopkins in the will of Samuel Chapin.
OLD ACCOUNT BOOKS
After the Revolutionary War there was a shortage of money in this country and much of the business was done by barter. Almost every man employed by other townspeople had an account book. Each time he worked for a particular person he entered the day, type of work and amount of the bill in his book. In the meantime perhaps this person had been working for him and he, too, had an account book in which his debt had been entered. After a considerable period the men would get together, balance their accounts and make the proper payment. Each would sign the other's book showing the accounts had been cleared.
Mrs. Norris (Jones) Fitzgerald recently found in her attic a num- ber of such books yellow from age covering a period from 1784 to 1840 which she turned over to us. They are hand sewn and the leather for the covers was probably tanned by Stephen West himself, one of the owners. We have attempted, therefore, to incorporate in this section the most important data gleaned from reading her valuable documents.
Accounts Books of Stephen West. In Mrs. Fitzgerald's collection there were six account books belonging to Stephen West, her ancestor, which cover a period from 1784 to 1808. We have referred to the various buildings built by Mr. West in the section on East Main Street so we will not duplicate this information here. According to the account books he made shoes, gaiters, saddles for both men and women, saddlebags, har- nesses, as well as leather covers for books. He was such a well known shoemaker that people came from out of town to have him do their work. We find that he made shoes for Deacon William Colton of Longmeadow, The Reverend Samuel Willard, the minister in Wilbraham, and Ezra
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Barker, the famous Wilbraham schoolmaster. Mr. West had a bark mill and bark house and often people would bring him a load of bark for credit against their account.
From October 1799 until 1808 Mr. West operated a tavern in the house now owned by Frederick Maher, Jr., and we find from his account books that the most popular drinks for that period were egg punch, bitters, flip, cider brandy, rum, gin and sling.
Stephen West must have been a very busy man since besides carrying on the leather business and tavern, he made and sold bricks and furnished building material for some of the houses then being built in the area. We find that in 1789 he furnished oak and white pine boards, shingles, nails, lime and brick for the present home of Mrs. Ernest Howlett on Main Street, which was then either being built or extensively remodeled.
Since the heads of almost all the families in town came to Stephen West to get shoes made or tapped or something to quench their thirst, his account books are very valuable as a historical reference since they give us a list of residents as of that period.
Account Book of John West. Also in Mrs. Fitzgerald's collection was the account book of John West, son of Stephen West, for the years 1815-24. Mr. West evidently operated a livery stable, since he rented horses and wagons to people to go to various places. He also brought building materials into town for residents, including sandstone from the old quarry owned by Capt. Burt which used to be located near the Mile Tree School in Wilbraham.
Account Book of Joel Chaffee. The account book of Joel Chaffee, blacksmith, for the year 1802 was also found by Mrs. Fitzgerald. Mr. Chaffee, who was the brother of Mrs. Stephen West, had his blacksmith shop on property now owned by H. H. Thresher near the Center Bridge. Among the utensils which he turned out were cranes for fireplaces, and- irons, teakettles, skillets, pitch forks and slice bars. The latter was a form of fire iron with a broad flat end for stirring a fire of coals or cleaning out ashes from the fireplace. Every man in town who had to have his horse shod was a customer of Joel Chaffee.
A blacksmith shop was a very important industry in a town in the early days and we have recently read an article which stated that a village had "come into its own" when it had a settled pastor and a black- smith shop.
Account Book for 1833-40. Mrs. Fitzgerald also found a book for the years 1833-40, the owner of which could not be identified. We be- lieve it belonged to Norman Chaffee, one of her ancestors, who ran a
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sawmill on what is now known as the Wesson Pond on Scantic Road during the period in question. Most of the transactions in this book cover the cost of having logs sawed at the mill.
Account Books of Stoddard Burt. Perhaps the most valuable items in Mrs. Fitzgerald's collection were two account books of Stoddard Burt, one for the period from 1800 to 1814 and the other from 1819 to 1835. Mr. Burt built his own residence in 1796 where the Kirk Garage now stands on Main Street. He was evidently a very skilled carpenter and besides erecting many of the houses still standing in town, he also made furniture. We find from his account book that he made candle stands, tables, cradles, bureaus, chairs, bedsteads and even coffins. We are listing below the following items from his account books since we feel that they are of historical interest:
1800 - Made some window frames and a bookcase for The Rev. Moses Warren.
1803 - Spent many days building a house for Amasa Ainsworth. We do not know where Mr. Ainsworth lived.
1806 - Worked on house for Elizur Tillotson, Jr. and made 18 doors for same. This house is now owned by H. H. Thresher.
1806-7 - Was probably working for Eneas & William Clark on the store which used to stand where Conti's Store is now located.
1807 - Worked for Gordon Chappel building the house now owned by George Patric on Glendale Road. Norman Chaffee and Calvin Chaffee helped him with the carpentry.
1811 - Placed a stove pipe for Stephen West. This would indicate that Mr. West was converting from fireplace to stove heat.
1814 - Made a coffin for Levi Holt, father of Dr. Holt, the town physician.
1815 - Put up a stove for Calvin Stebbins. We do not believe this is the same Calvin Stebbins who, according to Stebbins' History of Wilbraham, brought the first cookstove into town in 1814. There were two men by the same name, one living on Wilbra- ham Road and the other where Thornton W. Burgess now lives on Main Street. We believe Mr. Burt worked for the latter.
1819 - Made a fire board for Aaron Warren, who was evidently also converting from fireplace to stove heat.
1820 - Made 11 doors and put in 371 lights of glass in the Orin Cone house on Mountain Road which is now owned by Edward H. Peterson.
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1823 - Worked for Noah Langdon on Somers Road. He took part pay- ment in brooms made by the Langdon family. Mrs. Clifford Hall also found that the Langdon family made brooms when con- ducting her research on Lower Somers Road.
1823 - Set 153 squares of glass in windows of the old church on the village green and repaired the meeting house doors.
1823 - Built a house for the hearse. The town must have owned one as early as this date.
1825-6-7 - Spent many days working for Robert Sessions, Jr. and made 20 window frames for his house and set 440 panes of glass. We believe this is the residence now owned by Herbert Wessman on North Road .
1827 - Repaired a "backhouse" for School District # 10. (Allen House Corner) No further comment needed!
1827-8 - Worked for Samuel Henry. We believe he was helping build the house now owned by Marcus Gottsche, Sr. on North Road.
1828-35 - Spent many days working for Wm. S. Burt. He could have been erecting the ell or upright part of the building which now houses Hatch's Store.
1833 - Put in 184 lights of glass for Edward Adams and made two outside doors. He was perhaps repairing the house now owned by Mrs. June Godfrey on Main Street.
1834 - Made window frames for Lombard Hancock. These frames were probably placed in the house now owned by Harold D. Jones on Main Street.
1835 - Put a picket fence around the Sumner Sessions house on North Road where Marcus Gottsche, Sr. now resides.
We believe that these account books are one of the most authentic "finds" ever made relating to Early Hampden History.
A FEW POINTS TO CONSIDER IN DETERMINING THE AGE OF A HOUSE
It is exceedingly difficult to ascertain when a house was built as many things have to be considered. However, we will list below a few of the points we have learned from our study of the old Hampden homes.
1. Ridge Pole. One way to determine whether your house is real old is to go into the attic and look at the construction of the rafters. If they have been mortised and held together with wooden pins the house was probably built before 1800. If on the other hand you find the rafters
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fastened to a long beam extending the length of the roof, called a ridge pole, the house may not be one of the earliest in town. The upright parts of the Ernest Howlett and Frederick Maher, Jr. houses on Main Street and the former Neil Kibbe house on South Road have no ridge poles.
2. Eaves. Another way to learn the age of a house is to look at the eaves, which are the projecting lower edges of a roof, overhanging the walls of a building. In the oldest houses the eaves just about come to the edge of the building, while in the later ones they extend down much farther.
3. Chimneys. Most of the large old houses had large chimneys to take care of the flues from the many fireplaces.
4. Bake Ovens. (Sometimes erroneously called Dutch ovens.) If you have a bake oven built into the back of the fireplace your house is very old. It was not until 1775 that they began to appear at the side. The old kitchen fireplace in the home of the writer has one in both spots - a rarity.
5. Foundations. The older a house is the nearer it sets to the ground.
6. Front Hall. Behind the rear wall of the front hall in the oldest houses is the chimney and the length of this wall denotes the width of the chimney, since the fireplaces in the rooms to the right and left of the hall are built into it. In later houses the chimneys were placed in a different position and a long hall went through to a living room in the rear.
7. Hinges and Latches. H and HL hinges predominate on the inside doors of the very old houses, while a long strap may often be found supporting the outside doors, particularly the kitchen doors. The early homes had latches, and knobs did not appear until later.
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