USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 34
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Francis Newton, son of Francis, was born in Hadley, married Abigail Dickinson, July 21, 1794, and his children were Theodosia, Obed and John. Obed was born in Hadley, November 29, 1800, learned the carpenter's trade, and married Eliza Walker, in October, 1822. He had born to him six chil- dren, namely, Jason W., Julia E., Sarah A., Francis L., Eliza A. and Mary N. The mother of these children died in 1835, and he married for his second wife, Catherine Bugbee, and had born to him three children, George, Charles and Elizabeth. Jason and Francis are fariners, residing in this town, and Eliza A. married Charles B. Armstrong, of Buffalo, N. Y.
Winthrop Cook, a descendant of Capt. Aaron Cook, the first of that name in town, was born in 1785, married twice, first, a daughter of Joel Smith, and second, Sophia, daughter of Erasmus Smith, and died in 1854. Horace, son of Winthrop, was born in 1824, married Cornelia Asenath, in 1855, and had born to him two children, Herbert S., who died in 1860, and Fannie A., born in 1863. Mr. Cook represented the town in 1862 and in 1876, has been selectman seventeen years, has been assessor, and has held other offices. His house was built previous to 1800.
Aaron Cook, son of Dan, was born April 21, 1800, married catherine Ly- man in 1832, and his children were as follows: Julia, who married Amasa B. Davis, Henry L., who married Harriet A. Morton, and resides on road 40,
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and Rufus, who served in the late war, in Co. D, 27th Mass. Vols., and died in the hospital at Newburn, N. C.
Joseph Marsh was born in Worthington, in 1786, a son of Dr. Job Marsh, who came to Hadley when Joseph was about eight years of age, and died here soon after. Joseph subsequently, after a few years' residence at North Am- herst, went to Hatfield, and learned the joiner's trade of Cotton White. He then came back to Hadley, located on the farm now owned by his son Henry M., and died here in 1871, aged eighty-five years. He was the husband of four wives, and reared five children, four of whom, Elvira, Mary, Charles C. and Henry M., are living.
Luther Barstow was born on the place now owned by him, on road 45, De- cember 27, 1813. His father, Septimias, came here from Connecticut about 1805. Luther married Llizabeth C. Graves, May 5, 1847, who bore him seven children-Asaph S., Harriet E., John S., Susan S., Hannah, Sophia G. and Sarah O. Mrs. Barstow died December 24, 1881. All of the children are living, four of them residing in town.
Hiram Thayer located in Hadley about 1820, coming from Williamsburg, and located upon the farm now owned by E. and C. N. Thayer. He married Calista P. White, who bore him nine children, three of whom are living, Mor- ris, Ezra and Eben. For his second wife he married Laura M. Stiles, who bore him three children, Charles S., Francis and Hiland H. Hiram died in 1854, aged fifty-three years. Mrs. Thayer died in 1850.
Elam Cutler was born in Leverett, Mass., in 1792, married twice, first, Judith Thayer, in 1816, who bore him one child, Judith O., and died about 1817. He married for his second wife, Mary M. Gaylord, of Amherst, in 1820, and had born to him eight children, viz. : Lizzie, Mary G., Elijah B., Elan B., Fanny M., George H., Charles H. and Jennie E. In 1829 he moved to North Hadley, and bought the place where he died in 1883, aged ninety years.
Zachariah Hadley was born in Amherst, married Anna Howard, and reared ten children, viz. : Roswell, Esther, Zachariah, Louis, Eli, Anna, Malinda, Gideon, Eliza and Clarrissa. He moved to Hadley, and died on the place now owned by Albert Hawley, in October, 1836. Zachariah, Jr., married twice, first, Malinda Belden, who bore him three children, two of whom are living, Allen and Emily. Mrs. Hawley died in 1862, and he married for his second wife, Maria A. Bancroft, in March, 1863, and has had born to him one son, Charles, who lives at home. Mr. Hawley is now nearly eighty years of age.
Edward Cunningham was born in September, 1816, married Honorah Dalton, about 1846, and came here from Ireland, in 1850. He has had born to him six children, four of whom are living, John, Edward P., William J. and Mary A. Edward P. and William J. reside at home and help carry on the farm with their father. This place is noted as having been at an early period the camping-ground for the Indians.
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Wooster H. Tuttle and Albert Tuttle, brothers, came to Hadley from Holyoke, in 1850, and bought about fifty acres of land on Front street. Albert died about 1863. Wooster married Margaritha Helmsing, who bore him four sons and four daughters, viz. : Edward W., George A., Charles A., Franklin E., Anna, Clara, Maria and Eurania. Two of the sons are graduates of Amherst college, and a third is attending that college. The mother of these children died in 1872, and two years later Mr. Tuttle married Mrs. Caroline Smith, widow of Jacob Smith, The oldest daughter, Anna, married Dwight Morton, and resides about a half mile from the homestead. Clara has been twic emarried, but is now a widow. Maria L. married George Fen- ton, and resides in Nebraska.
Jesse L. Delano, of Hadley, is a native of Sunderland, the adjoining town north, having moved from there to Northampton in 1883, and from thence to Hadley in 1884. His ancestors came from France and settled in Marsh- · field, his great-grandfather, Lemuel, moving from there to Sunderland about 1779, and his son William held the office of postmaster there for thirty six consecutive years. A part of the family still reside there on the old home- stead that has been in the family for over 100 years, while other members of it have migrated far and wide, though very few have ever settled in Hamp- shire county. The late Charles Delano, who died in Northampton in 1883, belonged to the same family, the genealogy of which is easily traced back to Philip De La Noye, a French Protestant who joined the English at Leyden, when they were about to start for America, and was allowed to come with them in the second vessel, "The Fortune," which arrived at Plymouth Rock, Novem- ber 9, 1621. He settled in Marshfield.
VILLAGES.
HADLEY, the largest of the two villages, settled in 1659, is situated chiefly on the neck of the large peninsula which projects westward-within a large bend of the Connecticut river-from the western border of the town, and is somewhat south of the town's central line of latitude. It contains upwards of one hundred and fifty dwellings, a postoffice, town-hall, two church edifices, and a high school building, besides four others for the minor schools ; also a grist and saw-mill. The ancient cemetery lies immediately west of the vil- lage. "West" and Middle streets, running north and south, contain the major portion of the dwellings, and are bordered with elms and maples of magnificent growth and graceful proportions, some of which have braved a century's storms. West street, with its generous breadth of nearly three hun- dred feet, its marginal elms and intervening meadow, fronted sparsely by dwellings, some quaint and olden, its charming vista southward, enriched, though interrupted, by stately Holyoke, has not a peer in all New England. Russell street, lying east and west,-the old "Middle highway to the woods," -is handsomely lined with forest-trees, chiefly maples.
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TOWN OF HADLEY.
NORTH HADLEY is a small village on Mill river, between two and three miles north of Hadley, and near the Connecticut. It contains from sixty to eighty dwellings, two stores, a postoffice, a public hall, connected with a grammar school building, one meeting-house, a grist and saw-mill, and a few other manufacturing establishments. The village has also a small park and cemetery.
Five other thickly settled neighborhoods are called, respectively, Russell- ville, Plainville, Fort River, Hart's Brook and Hockanum.
Stores of North Hadley .- The earliest account of a store in the north part of the town is that of Windsor Smith & Co., at North Hadley, Chester Smith being the junior partner. In January, 1818, they sold to John and Elias Hibbard, who sold on August 2Ist of the same year to Erastus Smith, 2d, Chester Smith and Cotton Smith, who then owned the grist-mill. The next we find is John Hibbard selling to Albert Jones, on August 12, 1822, who kept the store till 1829, when Edward Huntington took it, and on May I, 1831, we find that Albert Jones sold the store building to Edward P. Hunt- ington, probably the same man named just above. On the same day Mr. Huntington leased the land on which the store stood, of the mill owners, John Hibbard, Cotton Smith, Elias Hibbard and Albert Hibbard, at $2.00 per year. In 1834 Ebenezer W. Skerry took the store, Mr. Huntington going to Northampton. From 1835 to '37 it was run by Skerry, Hibbard & Co. On February 8, 1837, Elias Hibbard sold one-fourth of the store to Thaddeus Smith and Alonzo Dougherty, and two days later Mr. Skerry sold one-twelfth to the same parties, and on the rith of the following July, Tru- man Hibbard sold one-fourth to Mr. Dougherty.
From 1837 to '40 the firm was known as Skerry, Smith & Co., and their assignees, Cotton Smith and Erastus Smith, Jr., sold on April 27, 1841, to Dexter M. Leonard, who took the store in 1840 and kept it till he went to Providence, in 1851, when Dexter S. Cooley, of Springfield, had it about a year, or until his death, when, in 1852, his brother Simon F. Cooley of the same place carried it on, and on April 10, 1855, bought the store of Mr. Leonard. Mr. Cooley owned it till it was burned, with the mills, in 1875.
In the spring of 1877 Geo. C. Smith, owning the land, rebuilt the store on the old site and business was conducted by G. C. & G. M. Smith, until the fall of 1885, when they sold out to their clerk, John H. Mordoff.
A store was once kept in the house just north of the old hotel and later owned by Hubbard Lawrence. Dwight Ben. Smith had charge of it for a time, and we think it was this one for which O. Marsh & Co. were taxed in 1836 and Skerry, Hibbard & Co. in 1838.
A new store lot was at one time sold by Albert Hibbard to D. M. Leonard.
Austin Lyman sold a few groceries in connection with a bar in the building which stood in the saw-mill yard and was later used as a carpenter shop by Darius Howe.
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TOWN OF HADLEY.
When the present school-house was built the old one at the north end of the street, opposite the parsonage, was converted into a store, which was conducted by Thaddeus Smith & Co., Francis Smith being the junior part- ner. G. Myron Smith succeeded Thaddeus Smith and the firm was known as F. Smith & Co. In a few years F. Smith conducted the business alone, excepting a year or two when Fred S. Smith was a partner.
In 1875 when Mr. Cooley's store was burned he moved his goods into this building, which had been vacant for a time, and kept it about two years, when it was given up.
Alvah Park opened a store in the first house south of the grist-mill, on the same side of the street, and in six months (1870) moved into the building he now occupies as a store and dwelling.
A Frenchman, Peter Parenteau, kept a store a short time, about 1875-76, in the second house south of the grist-mill on the east side of the street.
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
The history of North Hadley, which until about fifty years ago was called Hadley Upper Mills, begins with the establishing of a saw-mill on the east side of the stream, a little over a quarter of a mile above the point where it empties into the Connecticut river. The town granted on January 27, 1662, Thomas Meekins and Robert Boltwood the privilege of setting on this stream a saw-mill, which was probably built about three years later. The first dam, which was probably built in 1662, was located nearly thirty rods above the present one, and beside which the first grist-mill was probably located in 167 1 or 1672. This mill was burned by Indians in September, 1677, and re-built by Robert Boltwood, encouraged by the town, about 1678; the grammar school obtained it again in 1683; Samuel Boltwood, by aid of the town, in 1685 ; and in 1689 it was delivered up to the Hopkins school, in whose pos- session it remained for years. It was probably in 1692 that the dam was re- moved to its present site, and the mill built by it. A new mill is recorded in 1706, and another in 1721. John Clary was the miller in 1683, and in 1687 Joseph Smith began a long service in that capacity, and is recorded as the first permanent settler at " Mill River," now North Hadley.
We are unable to find any records which give us a history of the events of interest concerning the mills for about a century, or until January 25, 1796, we find Isaiah Washburn deeding one-half of the grist-mill as a security. September 11, 1812, Lewis Jones, Jr., sold one-half the grist-mill to Isaac Abbercrombie, of Pelham, who, on October 24, 1818, sold to Charles and Calvin Lamson, of Greenwich, who bought the other half of Erastus Smith on the same date, when also they leased the stream and dam of the Hopkins academy for ninety-nine years, at $20.00 per year. On January 3, 1818, they sold to Erastus Smith, 2d, Chester Smith and Cotton Smith. The 12th of the following December Chester Smith disposed of his interest to John Hibbard,
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who, on April 18, 1821, sold to Elias Hibbard, who probably sold one-half of his interest to William Montague, Jr., a blacksmith. On December 25, 1824, Erastus Smith. 2d, sold his third to John Hibbard and Albert Hibbard, the latter of whom also bought one-twelfth of Elias Hibbard and William Mon- tague, Jr., and on the same date Cotton Smith sold a twelfth to John Hib- bard, thus making a new arrangement and division into quarters, with John Hibbard, Albert Hibbard, Hibbard & Montague, and Cotton Smith, as the owners.
We find up to this time in relation to the saw-mill, which had for years been held in sevenths, that Daniel Bartlett sold, on September 23, 1808, three- sevenths to John Hibbard and Chester Smith, the latter of whom sold to the former January 2, 1810, one-fourteenth part. On March 8, 1822, Chester Smith's administrator sold two sevenths to John Hibbard "who owns the other parts," thus making him the sole owner of the saw-mill, which, however, he shared with Albert Hibbard on June 18, 1822. On December 25, 1824, the day mentioned of the re-arrangement of ownership of the grist-mill, there was a like exchange of the saw-mill property. Albert Hibbard sold one-half of his interest to Elias Hibbard and William Montague, Jr., and John Hib- bard sold a half of his part to Cotton Smith, thus making the saw-mill and grist-mill owned alike by the same parties.
After William Montague, Jr., sold his interest in the mills to his special partner, Elias Hibbard, on February 23, 1828, there was no change of owner- ship until February 11, 1835, when Elias Hibbard sold his quarter to Cotton Smith. September 23, 1835, John Hibbard disposed of his quarter of the saw-mill to Albert Hibbard, and soon after, on October 16, 1835, his quarter of the grist-mill to Elias Hibbard and Albert Hibbard, the latter of whom bought the former's eighth on April 9, 1836, thus making Cotton Smith and Albert Hibbard the proprietors of the mills.
Albert Hibbard soon retired by selling. on August 7, 1837, to John Smith, 2d, and Lorenzo N. Granger. After the death of John Smith, 2d, August 13, 1843, his interest in the saw-mill was set off to Frederick D. Smith, and sold by his guardian to L. N. Granger, on April 24. 1845. The quarter of the grist-mill left by John Smith, 2d, was bought, as personal property, by L. N. Granger. After the death of Cotton Smith, on June 25, 1860, his son, George C. Smith, assumed title to his father's half of the mills and sold it to I. N. Granger, on May 1, 1874, who bought of the trustees of Hopkins academy, on August 24, 1875, the water and dam, thus terminating the ninety-nine-year lease. Mr. Granger died March 27, 1876, and his widow, Sophronia Granger, chose as part of her interest in his estate the mills, which she sold on December 25, 1876, to George C. Smith, who conveyed them to his mother-in-law, Martha Smith, on October 26, 1877. The trustees of Hopkins Academy gave to Martha Smith, on March 30, 1881, a quit-claim deed to the land on which the grist-mill stands. Upon the death of Martha Smith, August 4, 1882, her will gave possession of the mills to Nancy B.
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TOWN OF HADLEY.
Smith, who sold them, on September 14, 1884, to the present proprietor, John C. Howe.
Most of the above named men have been of the foremost importance in the history of the village. John Hibbard was an innkeeper and a very influ- ential man. It is said of Cotton Smith that he could count off lumber with surprising rapidity and converse fluently at the same time.
There was a flax carding machine in connection with the grist-mill for many years, but it is not spoken of after the disaster of the fall of 1847, which was the tipping of the grist-mill and wire-mill just south, into the water, caused by a sudden freshet in the night breaking away the flume during repairs.
From 1840 to 1850 the firm of C. and J. Smith and Co., afterwards Smith & Granger, had an extensive lumber trade down the river. They furnished Springfield and Hartford and even New Haven with quantites of lumber which they delivered in rafts. Besides drawing on the local timber supply to fill their bills, they floated down logs from Vermont and New Hampshire. Mr. Granger did a large contracting business from 1860 to 1874, building several of the Agricultural college buildings at Amherst ; Memorial hall, at Northampton ; and other important buildings in the vicinity.
The mills were destroyed by fire the 27th of June, 1875, and immediately rebuilt. Mr. Granger is remembered by those who knew him as a successful large-hearted business man.
Under the present ownership there have been extensive repairs and im- provements made. In 1884 grinding plaster was discontinued, the machinery taken down and the mill turned into a store-house. Early this summer ( 1886) a new elevator and store-house was built as an addition to the grist-mill, which increases the storage capacity from six or eight to twenty or twenty-five car loads according to the feed or grain put in store.
The water privilege consists of a fall of about fourteen feet with a pond of about one hundred acres surface. In the grist-mill there is a flouring-mill with its cleaning and bolting machinery, and two corn mills, which are kept busy most of the year.
There have been three different wire-works started in connection with the grist-mill, which are now prosperous concerns in other places. The first one was that of Nathan Clark, of Spencer, who bought of the mill owners on April 28, 1834, the building standing just south of the grist-mill, and the privilege of a certain quantity of water, where he manufactured piano-string and other wire, until the disaster of 1847. On April 5, 1849, he re-sold his right to the mill owners, and continued his business in the second story of the new grist-mill, until either late in 1851 or early in 1852, when he moved his business to Holyoke, which is probably now that of Geo. W. Prentiss & Co. His place here was immediately fitted by Horace Lamb, of Worcester, who conducted the wire business over the grist-mill until late in 1859, or early in 1860, when he moved it to Northampton, where he still carries it on.
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TOWN OF HADLEY.
George C. Prouty was the next wire manufacturer over the mill. He went to Charleton in about 1868, where he continues the same business.
The manufacture of broom-tools here is the only one in America, and undoubtedly in the world. It was established in 1840, by C. D. Dickinson. For years the demand for tools was limited to this immediate vicinity, but it gradually spread with the migrations of the broom manufacturers, until now they go to Canada and Australia, and are scattered through most of the states and territories. Mr. Dickinson carried on the business at the black- smith's shop just east of the bridge and opposite the saw-mill, using what power he needed at the grist-mill for about twenty-five years. During the summer of 1848 his shop was burned and soon re-built. In 1865 the busi- ness had so increased that he had to abandon all other work and devote his entire attention to that, and on April 18th bought the water privilege formerly the seat of an oil-mill and later a saw-mill, just below the center of the vil- lage. Here he carried on the business until 1870, when it had so developed that he required an assistant manager and so admitted his son-in-law, John C. Howe, as an equal partner in the business, which has since been conducted under the firm name of C. D. Dickinson & Son. The company's buildings were burned in September, 1875, and re-built the same year. Additions were made in the fall of 1883, when they were just starting in the manufac- ture of razors and kitchen cutlery, and all burned again on January 10, 1884. Not discouraged, they had their new buildings up and were at work in them before the first of April. With the brick forging shop added during the fall of 1885, they are now model buildings for this limited but sure business.
G. M. Smith's broom factory is also located at North Hadley. He employs twenty hands, his goods being manufactured principally for the export trade.
Hadley grist-mill, on Fort river, operated by William Phillips, was built by Rodney Smith and his father, in 1852. The present proprietor leased it in 1879. It has three runs of stone, a cracker, bolt, etc. The mill is operated by water-power, and has the capacity for grinding 500 bushels of grain per day. Mr. Phillips does both custom and merchant grinding.
Alfred S. Willard's soap factory and cider-mill, at Hadley, was built by him in 1880. He manufactures about 2,500 barrels of cider, about six tons of hard soap, and 400 barrels of soft soap per year.
Hopkins Academy .- This well-known school came into existence as follows : Three years before the settlement of Hadley, Governor Edward Hopkins, then of England, died in London, and by his last will bequeathed a part of his property for the encouragement of learning in New England. He had been in earlier life a London merchant, but removed to New England in 1637, and established himself at Hartford, Conn., and was governor of that state every alternate year from 1645 to 1654. In his will he says: " And the residue of my estate there (in New England), I do hereby give and be- queath to my father, Theophilus Eaton, Esq., Mr. John Davenport Mr. John Cullick and Mr. William Goodwin, in full assurance, and trust, and faithful-
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TOWN OF HADLEY.
ness of disposing of it according to the true intent and purpose of me, the said Edwin Hopkins, which is to give some encouragement in those foreign plantations for the breeding up of hopeful youths, both in the grammar school and college, for the public service of the country in future times." He afterwards bequeathed "£500 to be made over to New England " for a like purpose. Mr. Davenport, one of the trustees, was a minister in New Haven, and Mr. Goodwin seems, at this time, to have resided in Hadley, though he had previously been an inhabitant of Hartford. These two gentlemen soon became the only survivors of the trustees, in whom was vested the power of disposing of the funds. They decided to " give to the town of Hartford the sum of £400, * for and towards the erecting and pro- moting of a grammar school at Hartford. We do further order and appoint that the rest of Dr. Hopkins' estate, both that which is in New England, and the £500 which is to come from Old England, when it shall become due to us after Mrs. Hopkins' decease, be equally divided between the towns of New Haven and Hadley, to be in each of the towns respectively managed and improved towards erecting and maintaining a grammar school in each of them." Mr. Goodwin, in a certain agreement with the town, desired that the " name of the school may be called the Hopkins school." Such was the foundation of this institution. Other donations were made by various indi- viduals, and the income of the funds is between five and six hundred dollars per annum. It appears that but a small portion of the sum bequeated by Mr. Hopkins ever reached Hadley. Three hundred pounds were invested in building a " corn-mill," which was burnt by the Indians ; and two hundred and fifty pounds, to be paid at the decease of Mrs. Hopkins, never came to Had- ley. The corporation of Harvard college, hearing that such a legacy was left for the benefit of New England, took measures to secure it for that college, and appointed an agent in London, remitting forty pounds sterling to stimu- late and aid him. He was successful. In 1840, according to president Quincy, these funds, "on a foundation of productive and well-secured capi- tal, amounted to nearly thirty thousand dollars."
In 1816 the Hopkins school became an incorporated institution, under the name of Hopkins academy. The new building was dedicated December 9, 1817, a brick structure facing the south on Russell street, about fifty rods east of West street. In 1860 it was destroyed by fire, and never rebuilt. The trustees of the fund maintained an advanced high-school department in the present town's high-school building, erected in 1865. The trustees hold over $30,000.00.
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