USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 12
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Still further east and separated from the second division by the East street, was the third of the three divisions ordered by the town. The lots in the first two divisions were evidently meant to be home lots, but those in the third division were as clearly not for homes, but for cattle, etc. The third division was two miles in width instead of being 240 rods as the others were. Its length north and south was 1,97 1 rods and it contained 7,884 acres, divided into ninety-three lots. In this division was included a part of the land north of Mill river, now forming the extreme northeastern limit of the town. Each citizen of Hadley of the requisite age received a lot in either the first or sec- ond division for a home, and also one in the third division for his cattle and meadow land. The town measurers had no compass to aid them in laying out these divisions. The first person who owned a compass in this vicinity
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was Timothy Dwight, of Northampton, grandfather of President Dwight of Yale college, and he was not born until 1694. Nearly forty years after the town ordered this division, a more accurate survey showed that the measurers of 1700-1703 had begun with a base line too far to the east, and in conse- quence had encroached upon the " equivalent lands" (now in Pelham and Belchertown) to so great an extent that nearly three thousand acres of land in the third division was beyond the outermost limits of Hadley. Those who lost lands by this correction of the survey, were afterwards com- pensated with lands situated farther north, called " Flat Hills," and adjoining the border of the present town of Shutesbury. It is a singular coincidence that the "equivalent lands" thus encroached upon by these early surveyors, were the lands which had been assigned by the province of Massachusetts to the province of Connecticut, in recompense for an error of location, whereby the southern boundary of Massachusetts was extended so far to the south as to include over an hundred thousand acres of land, and a large part of the towns of Suffield, Enfield and Woodstock, which rightly belonged to Connect- icut, but owing to inaccurate surveys were long supposed to be in Massachu- setts.
Of the ninety or more persons who thus became the first proprietors of the present town, very few ever occupied their lots in person. The French and Indian war of Queen Anne's reign broke out in 1703, the very year of the completion of this division, and raged until 1713. Deerfield was burned February 29, 1704, and all exposed places became unsafe for inhabitants and of slight value to their owners. A few inventories of estates taken during this war showed that the lots thus assigned were valued at one shilling per acre in the first and second divisions, and at four and sixpence per acre in the third division. After the close of the war this land advanced in value, and the best lots were considered worth three shillings per acre ; while after settlements began to be made the most desirable lots were worth from six to ten shillings per acre in proclamation money, six shillings of which would be a dollar. In the depreciated province bills the value would be apparently much higher.
Surface .- The town presents an uneven surface, being diversified by wide ranges of broken upland, and low level reaches, some of which are swampy. The village itself occupies a wide flattened ridge of considerable extent from north to south, with Mt. Pleasant at the north and the elevation occupied by the college buildings as prominent features. A large tract of wet land in the southeastern portion of the town is known as " Laurence Swamp." The Holyoke range forms the town's southern boundary, while the hills of Pel- ham and Shutesbury jut over the eastern border. Northward loom the rugged prominences of Sunderland and Leverett, with Amherst's intervening " Flat Hills." Westward lie the broad and fertile intervals of Hadley.
The only streams worthy of note are Fort river and Mill river. The for- mer rises in Pelham, enters Amherst about two miles south of the northeast
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angle thereof, flows southerly under the Pelham hills, and thence south of west across the town, passing the western bounds into Hadley, two and a half miles from the southwest angle. Mill river rises in the hills of Shutesbury, crosses the southeast corner of Leverett, enters Amherst a short distance west of the northeast angle, traverses the town in a general southwesterly direction, and thence into Hadley, across the south line of the 800 acres added to Amherst in 1814.
First Settlers -It is not known when the first permanent settlements were made upon the lots laid out, as we have stated, but it was probably not far from 1725 .* The first settlers from the mother town of Hadley, followed the course of the river and located in the present limits of South Hadley. So great seemed the peril of lonely dwellings to those who had grown up amid the alarms of the Indian wars, that tradition affirms that aged parents in Hadley wept in anguish, and prayed most fervently for Heaven's protec- tion upon the daring youths and their brides, who sought new homes on the south side of Mt. Holyoke ; but as peace continued and families increased, more and more were new towns built up.
In 1730 the inhabitants upon these lots were sufficiently numerous to re- quire a burying place, and January 5, 1730, the town voted a little more than an acre of land for this purpose, which was duly laid out before the next March, " in the west highway adjoining Nathaniel Church's lot on the west." One hundred and fifty years and more after this laying out of the cemetery it is still the burial ground of Amherst Center, although enlarged from its original size. In the year 1731 Hadley distributed among her citizens the " inner commons" or undivided lands within the present limits of Hadley, and in the records of this division the following persons are named as " East Inhabitants," i. e., as residing in the present limits of Amherst :-
John Ingram, Sr., Richard Chauncey, John Cowls,
John Ingram, Jr.,
Aaron Smith,
Jonathan Cowls,
Samuel Boltwood,
Nathaniel Smith,
Samuel Hawley,
Ebenezer Kellogg,
Ebenezer Dickinson, John Wells,
Nathaniel Church,
John Nash, Jr.,
Joseph Wells,
Ebenezer Ingram, Ebenezer Scoville, Stephen Smith.
Of these, the names in the first two columns are of those who came from Hadley, while those in the third column were from Hatfield. Only four of these eighteen names are found in the allotment of lands in 1703, viz. : John Ingram, Sr., John Ingram, Jr., Samuel Boltwood, and John Cowls, (spelled " Cole," in 1703). The others must have acquired their land either
*Tradition asserts that a man by the name of Foote came to Amherst in 1703, located just north of the present Second Congregational church, where, for a time, he lived the life of a hermit. From this the section between the eminence on which the college buildings stand and the Pelham hills eastward took the name of "Foote's Folly Swamp ;" hence, the allu- sions in the early records to all this section of country in this vicinity as " Foote's Folly."
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by inheritance or purchase. In 1738, the assessors' records show that the following persons had been added to the population ·-
Joseph Clary, Nathan Moody,
Zechariah Field,
Jonathan Atherton,
Pelatiah Smith,
Joseph Hawley,
Solomon Boltwood,
John Perry,
Samuel Hawley, Jr.,
Charles Chauncey,
Moses Smith,
John Morton,
William Murray,
Ebenezer Williams.
The first nine of these came from Hadley, and those in the last column were from Hatfield, except Williams, who came from Deerfield.
The assessors' records for this year, 1738, also show that there were in the homes of those above named thirty-five taxable polls, a few householders having sons who were of age, and that their property consisted of forty-nine horses, thirty-nine oxen, fifty-two cows and three hundred and fifty acres of improved land, of which Ebenezer Kellogg owned forty-eight acres, or more than twice as much as any other person. There were also forty-three acres of improved land belonging to six non-residents, making three hundred and ninety-three acres of improved land. These persons and this property were assessed for the first £100 due the minister as follows : 35 polls, 25s. 6d. each, £44 125. 6d. The property was assessed at one shilling per pound and valued at £1, 101 1Is. 6d., making £55 Is. 6d.
Of the thirty two who thus became the first settle. s of Amherst, John Wells soon removed (probably to Hardwick) ; Joseph Wells, his brother, removed later to Sunderland ; Aaron Smith, Nathaniel Church and John Perry had also left by 1745, and Ebenezer Scovil died in 1731, aged twenty-four, and Ebenezer Ingram in 1735, aged thirty-two; John Ingram, Jr., died in 1737, Zechariah Field in 1738, and Samuel Boltwood, in 1738. Each of the last three left families, who remained in Amherst. Jonathan Atherton died in 1744.
From 1739 to 1745 there were added to the list of householders thirty-four names, and from 1745 to 1763 Judd's History of Hadley, page 425, records the names of sixty-nine more who had made settlement in Amherst. Of the one hundred and three names added between 1739 and 1763, twenty bore the name of Dickinson, and most of them left families, making the name of Dickinson the most numerous of any in town, and such it still continues.
The subsequent increase of population may be shown by extracts from the census tables, as follows : Colonial census, 1776, 915 inhabitants ; the United States census of 1790, 1,233 ; 1800, 1,358 ; 1810, 1,469 ; 1820, 1,917 ; 1830, 2,631 ; 1840, 2,550 ; 1850, 3,057 ; 1860, 3,206 ; 1870, 4,035 ; 1880, 4,298. The state census reports in 1855 give 2,937 ; 1865, 3,415 ; 1875, 3,937 ; 1885, 4,199.
Incorporation and Names .- The first name applied to that part of Hadley now known as Amherst, in any records now extant, is that of "New Swamp" and " Foote's Folly Swamp "; but as people began to reside here these names gave way to " Hadley Farms," " East Farms" and "East Hadley." In June,
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1734, John Ingram headed a petition to the general court that East Hadley might be incorporated as a separate precinct. The mother town not liking to have its property subject to "the minister's rate " decreased, sent an agent to Boston to oppose the granting of this petition, and it failed for the time. In December, 1734, the petition was renewed and granted by the general court December 31, the record stating its boundaries thus : "The precinct being of the contents of two miles and three-quarters in breadth, and seven miles in length, bounded westerly on a tract of land reserved by the town of Hadley to lie as common land forever, southerly on Boston road, easterly on equivalent lands, and northerly on the town of Sunderland." The name con- ferred by this act was "Hadley Third Precinct," the second precinct (now South Hadley) having been formed after the failure of two previous attempts in 1732. The term "precinct " was nearly equivalent to " parish " in our day. The laws required every one to pay a tax for the support of the Gospel ordi- nances proportioned to his property, and this tax was levied by the original church upon all the inhabitants of the town. Thus the "East Inhabitants " paid their proportion of the salary of Rev. Mr. Chauncey in Hadley until their incorporation as a precinct released them from this requirement, at the same time that it laid upon them the new requirement of supporting a " learned orthodox" minister by themselves. In 1753 the second precinct having been incorporated as the district of South Hadley, " Hadley Third Pre- cinct " became " Hadley Second Precinct," by which name it was known until February 13, 1759, when Gov. Pownall signed the bill incorporating it as a district. The general court had left the name of the district blank in the act of incorporation, the privilege of bestowing names upon the new districts being one of the perquisites of the colonial governor. In signing the bill Gov. Pownall complimented his friend, Gen. Jeffrey Amherst (who had just been appointed by George II. to the command of the expedition against Louis- burg), by naming the new district " Amherst" in the bill. The success of the campaign against Louisburg (the French stronghold upon Cape Breton island) and the subsequent rapid promotion of Gen. Amherst (afterwards made Lord Amherst for his military success) contributed, no doubt, to the popularity of the name among the inhabitants of the new district. Amherst was now politically, as well as ecclesiastically, independent of the mother town of Hadley ; except that the district could not send a representative to the legis- lature, that right being jealously reserved for towns. In all other respects the district enjoyed all the advantages of a town. The plan of restricting the right of representation was not of colonial origin, but was enjoined upon the colony by Great Britain, and when the revolutionary feeling overcame the love for the mother country, this restriction was removed, not indeed by law until 1786, when all districts incorporated before January 1, 1777, were declared towns. But practically the requirement of the government of Great Britain was done away with in 1774, when the provincial congress, which met successively at Salem, Concord and Cambridge, admitted Mr. Nathaniel
9*
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TOWN OF AMHERST.
Dickinson, Jr., to a seat in their body as representative from Amherst. Two years later the district openly assumed the designation of "town," the district clerk for 1775-76 commencing his record of a meeting held January 24, 1776, " At a legal meeting of the Inhabitants of the town of Amherst quali- fied to vote in town affairs," and while all previous records speak of the dis- trict of Amherst, all subsequent records speak of the town of Amherst, and this revolutionary assumption of withheld rights was first officially recognized in the following legislative record : "In Council Aug't 27, 1776. Ordered that the Commissary General be directed to deliver to Mr. Simon Smith one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of gunpowder for the town of Amherst, he paying therefor at the rate of 5s a Ih to the said Commissary."
Thus, Amherst was " Hadley Third Precinct " from December 31, 1734, until April, 1753, when it became " Hadley Second Precinct," until February 13, 1759, when it became the "District of Amherst." Legally it remained a district until March 23, 1786, but in reality the district became a town in 1776, and in accordance with this reality celebrated, in 1876, the centennial anniversary of its own (and the country's) independence.
The original area of Amherst has been somewhat enlarged since the incor- poration of Hadley Third Precinct. In 1778 the town chose a committee "to take some measures for annexing the first Division of Inner Commons in the Town of Hadley to the town of Amherst." A year later the town promised Hadley to maintain " all roads and bridges within the bounds of S'd Land." In 1786 John Field and others whose lands lay within this division had petitioned the general court that they might " be Disannexed from the town of Hadley and annexed to the town of Amherst," and the town voted that the matter be referred to arbitrators mutually appointed by each town. This attempt to enlarge the area of Amherst at the expense of Hadley was a failure apparently, but in 1789 the farms of Silas Wright (father of the well known political leader of New York) and of three men by the name of Dickinson, were annexed to Amherst from Hadley. These men lived on the road from Sunderland to Amherst, and all their business and church connections were in Amherst, and they deemed it a burden to go to a more distant place and meet those who were comparatively strangers at the town meetings. For the same reason the entire section of territory border- ing on the old road from Sunderland to Amherst, and comprising between 700 and 800 acres of land, was annexed to Amherst by act of the legislature in 1814. In 1812 the southern boundary of the town was moved from the old " Bay road " to " the top of the mountain," between Amherst and Gran- by, thus increasing the town's area by about 1,700 acres ; much of it was, however, mountain land.
One more addition to Amherst's territory was taken out of Hadley when the farm of Elias Smith, situated on the road to Hadley from Amherst, was annexed. The curious turn of this strip of land, measuring only sixteen by one hundred and fifteen rods, makes the traveler from Amherst to Hadley
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TOWN OF AMHERST.
cross the boundary line three times on a straight road, the line between the towns forming a huge letter Z at this point. This annexation was the result of private quarrels. Efforts have been made at various times to annex parts of Belchertown and Pelham to Amherst, but the town has refused to receive these additional lands. The present area of the town is a little over 18,000 acres.
Miscellaneous Items from the Early Records .- When Hadley Third Pre- cinct was incorporated, the year began March 25th instead of January Ist ; the first five precinct meetings being respectively dated October 8, 1735, November 25, 1735, December 25, 1735, March 10, 1735, and September 16, 1736. But there were many authorities for beginning with January Ist even then, and the months of January, February and March were often written with double dates ; thus, the third annual March meeting of the precinct is dated " March ye 14th, 1738-9." It was 1738 for those whose year began the last of March, but 1739 for those whose year began in January. The discrepancies in the dates of ancient records arise often from such double standards. The English parliament enacted a law that after 1752 the new year should begin with January Ist instead of March 25th, as previously, and the legal date soon became the customary one. The double dating passes out of Amherst's records with the recording of the precinct meeting held " Jana'r ye 18th, 1749 -- 50." The March meeting of 1755 is, however, dated " March the 24th, 1754," but the next precinct meeting is dated "Janawr ye 12th, 1756," and the new custom was henceforth followed. The first month is spelled " Janawary" in 1761, which probably represented its pronunciation throughout New England.
The early settlers seemed to have had hard luck about getting their pound built. In the March meeting of 1743 they voted to build a pound, and appoint- ed a committee to do it. In 1744, 1746 and 1748 they passed similar votes and chose committees each time to carry them out. Deacon Ebenezer Dickinson was on all these committees, but why nothing was done is unknown. Finally, in 1750, the precinct voted £19 10s. for building a pound, instructed Ebenezer Mattoon to do the work ; "& to finish sd pound workman Like." This vote seems to have accomplished the desired object.
Like her neighboring towns, Amherst permitted "Hogs Rung & Yoakt Acording to Law to Run at Large." The time, at first unlimited, was after- wards limited by town votes. In 1763 the limit was " from the first of May to the first of September and after the middle of October till winter." In 1770 it was " from ye first of May to the middle of August."
It was customary for the town to instruct its officers to hire bulls for the use of the farmers, In 1753 the assessors were instructed " to Hire foure Bulls for ye use of this precinct for ye space one yeare." In 1754 the pre- cinct appropriated £32 old tenor for this purpose. In 1759 the selectmen were to hire six bulls; in 1760 the appropriation for this purpose was £8.
In the early history of Hadley, mention is made of licenses for the sale of
1
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TOWN OF AMHERST.
liquor. but the only mention of anything of this kind which I have found in the Amherst records is under date of March 28, 1775, "That this District Doth approve of Elisha Ingraham as a Tavern Keeper and recommend it to the selectmen that they grant him their approbation for the same."
Highways .- The first vote recorded on the records which does not relate to the meeting house, the minister, or the choice of precinct officers, is in relation to highways. March 10, 1735-36," Voted that ye Highway work be done by heads and Teams, and yt a Team shall be Equal to a hand per day." The various sums allowed for highway work fluctuated as the value of money rose or fell, and may be judged by the following votes passed by the precinct : In 1747, eight shillings per day ; 1759, sixteen shillings per day from April to October, twelve shillings the rest of the year ; 1762, two shillings per day in summer, eighteen pence in fall ; 1764, in summer two shillings and five pence, in fall one shilling and eight pence ; 1776, in summer two shillings and eight pence, in fall two shillings. In 1778 the town meeting voted to allow six shillings per day for work done the year preceding, but this year's work was to be paid for at the rate of fifteen shillings per day in summer, and twelve shillings per day in the fall. The allowance was the same for a man or for a team, meaning oxen and cart. At first the amount of work to be done seems to have been left to the discretion of the precinct officers, most probably the assessors. No regular surveyors were chosen until after the incorporation of the district, in 1759. In 1765 the district appropriated £30 for repairs on highways; in 1776 the appropriation was £60; in 1784 it was £70. In 1760 a county road was laid across the land of Jonathan Dickinson, and the town subsequently voted him four and three-fourths acres of town land as a compensation for damage to his estate. In 1774 the town ordered the town highways to be put in repair equally with the county roads, which indicates that previously the latter had been superior. Most of the town highways were laid out and recorded only a short time prior to the Revolution, and a large space of the town records for these years consist of the reports of the select- men defining the limits of these roads. The great breadth, forty rods, of the original highways was first contracted in 1754, when the West street was re- duced to twenty rods in width and the East to twelve. In 1788 both were narrowed to six rods, and the town disposed of the remaining lands. It must be remembered that these highways were not broad, leveled streets, like those of the present day, but were simply winding paths trodden by the feet of man and beast, very seldom cut by a passing wheel, except those of the rude ox- carts of the early settlers. Carriages came in general use after the Revolu- tionary war. The assessors' records show that so late as 1791 there was but a single carriage in the town of Amherst. This was a " fall-back chaise," owned by Simeon Strong. The first one-horse wagons made in this vicinity were made by Mason Abbe, of Amherst, after the year 1800, and it was twenty years later before they came into general use. Previous to the Revo- lutionary war almost all travel was on horseback, the men taking their wives
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TOWN OF AMHERST.
behind them upon a pillion. There are a few yet living who remember the days when the people came to church from long distances in this manner. Rude sleds were the first vehicles drawn by horses in Hampshire county, the first one, so far as known, belonging to Timothy Eastman, Jr., of Hadley. It is mentioned in the inventory of his estate in 1733, and is valued at five shil- lings. It was hardly more than a large box with runners beneath it and boards across the top of it for seats. Shortly before the Revolutionary war a few of the more wealthy had vehicles which somewhat resembled a sleigh, but sleighs did not come into general use until the beginning of the present cen- tury. Goods from Boston were brought around by water and up the Con- necticut river to Springfield, although goods of small bulk were sometimes brought from Boston to the Connecticut river on horseback.
In the year 1767 Simeon Smith, of Amherst, who lived upon the Bay road in the south part of the town, carried out his scheme of giving the people in this vicinity regular communication with Boston. With a large two-horse wagon he drove down and back, carrying produce and returning with goods for the traders, and with large quantities of New England rum for the gro- cery stores. He continued this business until the breaking out of the war, in 1775. His load probably seldom exceeded a ton's weight. His wagon was a rarity in this vicinity, although the Dutch in New York had been using two-horse wagons all the eighteenth century. In this connection it may be said that hearses for the conveying of the dead to cemeteries were not in common use in the vicinity of Amherst until about the time when stoves were placed in the churches. The town of Hadley had no hearse until 1826, and other towns about the same time probably. It is said that when Deacon Ebenezer Mattoon died, February, 1767, the snow was so deep on the ground that it was proposed to draw his body to the burying-ground (which was two miles away) upon a hand-sled; but when this was made known to his pastor, Mr. Parsons, the reverend man cried out in horror : " Such a saint as Deacon Mattoon to be dragged to his grave like a dead dog !" and then, putting into his word all the authority possessed by the clergy of that day, he said, "Never !" And the bearers were obliged to put the coffin upon their shoulders in accord- ance with the custom of the day, and tread their weary way to the distant burying-ground through the snow.
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