USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 39
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CITY OF NORTHAMPTON.
EARLY PRICES.
During the first hundred and fifty years of the town's existence, in a finan- cial point of view, the inhabitants had most emphatically a dreary experience. They rested literally on hardpan. There was no coinage of money in the province, and consequently it was very scarce and dear. It required a large amount of agricultural products to purchase a very small sum of the precious metals, and they, except at intervals, constituted the only circulating medium. As an illustration of the hardness of the times some of the prices then pre- vailing may be mentioned. Butter was worth six cents per pound, beef and mutton two cents, wheat and peas about two shillings, and corn and oats one shilling and sixpence each per bushel. A good horse might possibly bring twenty dollars in the market, provided a purchaser could be found, and a pair of working cattle would command the same price. It was a first-class cow that would bring eight dollars. No buyers then for fancy Jerseys, Ayrshires and Holsteins at fabulous prices. But as some compensation for these low prices, luxurious living did not involve a large expenditure. Eggs were three pence per dozen, wild turkeys one shilling, and fowls four pence each. Good, juicy, fat, luscious shad from one to two pence each, and salmon one penny per pound. Land was cheap, but the population being scanty, purchasers were few in number. Choice land was valued at one dollar an acre, and this, for ought that is known to the contrary, included the fertile river bottoms, and out-lots twenty-five cents. The salaries of ministers ranged from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per annum, with a fair allotment of land by way of settlement. The settlement of a clergyman implied a loca- tion for life unless irreconcilable differences should arise between pastor and people. Differences did sometimes arise, and a notable one did in North- ampton, as will be observed in the course of this narrative. When young men and maidens wished to be united in wedlock-that state of happiness to some, of misery to others-the parson exacted three shillings for securely fastening the nuptial shackles.
STREETS.
The older streets of the city are somewhat winding and irregular. Two reasons have been assigned for this divergance from straight lines. One is that the early settlers consulted convenience and economy in the construc- tion of roads; the other that they adopted the paths made by the cows in going to and returning from their grazing grounds, the bovine race instinct- ively selecting such routes, and adhering to them, as were the easiest to travel. Either reason is sufficient to account for the peculiar character of the old highways now transformed into streets. Whatever may be said against such streets in a busy, commercial city, the objection will not be regarded as valid in a rural one like Northampton, where they may be con-
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sidered as an attribute of beauty. At least, this may be said that, had the surveyor with his compass and chain laid out the original highways at right angles one with another, every person of taste would have been forced to admit that art had marred the symmetry of nature. The principal streets of the old town, following the sinuous paths made by the cows more than two hundred years ago, extend in all directions from the center or Merchants' Row. Fancy Pleasant street extending as a wide avenue in a direct line over Round Hill, in one place obliterating a charming plateau, in another destroying a delightful terrace, and the people of this model city will realize their great obligations to the brute creation in deviating in their daily walks from right angles.
SETTLEMENT AND GROWTH.
Previous to the settlement of Northampton, civilization in Western Massa- chusetts was confined to Springfield. But the residents of the latter place were familiar with the adaptability of the location for purposes of improve- ment, and in 1653 a petition was presented to the general court for liberty to plant in Nonotuck, and the request was granted. Nonotuck, however, already contained a small aboriginal population with whom resided all pro- prietary rights, and before occupation and planting could begin on the part of the petitioners or their representatives, justice required that these rights should be equitably extinguished. To the honor of the founders of Nono- tuck it should be stated that they dealt uprightly with the native and original owners of the soil. The price paid for this magnificent domain was, indeed, insignificant, but to the Indian mind it seemed an ample equivalent for the territory they surrendered to the whites, and, it may be remarked, they never afterwards complained that they had been overreached in the bargain. It may be mentioned that, among others who held vested rights in the property thus transferred, was Awonusk, the wife of Wulluther. The deed was given to John Pynchon, of Springfield, for the planters, and some of them immedi- ately removed to the new plantation. Of the twenty-four persons who peti- tioned the general court for liberty to plant in Nonotuck, for reasons which do not appear, only eight availed themselves of the privilege. These were Edward Elmore, William Miller, William Clark, Thomas Root, Robert Bart -- lett, John Webb, William Holton and William Janes.
Among those who settled and erected houses within the first four years, that is, previous to 1658, these names occur : Robert Bartlett, Richard Ly- man, James Bridgman, John Lyman, Thomas Bascom, Thomas Root, Alexander Edwards, Samuel Wright, William Miller, John King, Isaac Sheldon, Samuel Allen, Joseph Parsons, William Hannum, William Hulburt, Nathaniel Phelps and John Stebbins. In the next four years they were followed by Edward Baker, Alexander Alvord, Rev. Eleazer Mather, William Clark, Henry Woodward, Enos Kingsley,
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Aaron Cook, John Strong, Medad Pomeroy, Jonathan Hunt and John Searle. And shortly afterwards came Mark Warner, Samuel Judd, Robert Danks, Thomas Judd, Israel Rust, Rev. Solomon Stoddard and Preserved Clapp. Most of these names still survive in the city, or did until a very re- cent period, in the persons of their descendants. Subsequently the increase of population was greatly accelerated by the arrival of new settlers.
It may be interesting to know how the first plantation was defined by the commissioners appointed by the " honored General Court " to perform this duty, namely, John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Samuel Chapin. If the description lacks clearness it is not deficient in quaintness. " We," the com- missioners say, "allow the great Meadow on the west side of Conecticote River, as also a little meadow, called by the Indians (Capawonke), which lieth about two miles above the great Meadow, the bounds of which planta- tion is to extend from the (south side) of the little meadow, called Capa- wonke, to the great falls, to Springfield ward; and westward is to extend nine miles into the woods, from the river of Conecticote, lying east of the fore- said meadows."
The settlements in point of time were made, first, about Pleasant, King, Hawley and Market streets ; then west from the Old Church, and still later on the south side of Mill river. The growth and fluctuations in the population since 1776 is represented by the following figures : 1776, 1,799; 1790, 1,628 ; 1800, 2, 190 ; 1810, 2,631 ; 1820, 2,854; 1830, 3,613; 1840, 3,750; 1850, 5,278 ; 1855, 5,819 ; 1860, 6,788 ; 1865, 7,925 ; 1870, 10, 160 ; 1875, 11, 108 ; 1880, 12,176.
INDIAN TROUBLES.
It may be noted as a significant fact of the terror created by French and Indian forays upon the outlying settlements of New England, that more than a century elapsed after the settlement of Northampton before any improve- ments were made or dwellings erected in Westhampton, although it was only a few miles distant from the center of the town. It virtually remained an unbroken wilderness until the subjugation of Canada by the English, when the incursions of the savages ceased. Indeed, many tracts that had been cleared at a short distance from the town at an interval of peace, were aban- doned for a long series of years, and in most instances reverted to a state of nature. President Dwight, whose statements in regard to everything which relates to Northampton may be implicitly relied on, mentions, as illustrating the insecurity of the times, that his father or grandfather cleared and grew crops upon several acres of land two or three miles from the village; but the cultivation was discontinued owing to the almost uninterrupted prevalence of hostilities, and after the lapse of half a century it was covered with a dense and heavy growth of pines.
The relations existing between the people of Northampton and the In-
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dians of this vicinity were of an amicable nature for nearly twenty years. The former red proprietors were permitted to build a fort on the south side of Mill river as a protection against the assaults of their less peaceably dis- posed brethren. This fort occupied a site near the residence of E. H. R. Lyman, Esq., and in close proximity to the most populous part of the town. There seems to have been some solicitude on the part of the inhabitants for the welfare of these poor, ignorant creatures, as a few regulations were adopt- ed at a town meeting (1664) for their guidance, the "town's mind" being delivered to them by John Lyman, David Wilton and Joseph Parsons. On the following points the "town's mind" was clear and decisive :
(1) " They shall not break the Sabbath by working or gaming, or carrying burdens or the like. (2) They shall not Pow-wow on that place or any where else among us. (3) They shall not get Liquors or Cider and drink them- selves drunk as so kill one another as they have done. (4) They shall not take in other Indians of other places to seat amongst them, we allow Nowutague Indians that were the inhabitants of the place. (5) They shall not break down our fences and let in cattle and swine, but shall go over a stile at one place. (6) The murderers, Callawane and Wuttowhan and Pac- quollant, shall not seat amongst them. (7) They shall not hunt or kill our cattle or sheep or swine with their dogs ; if they do they shall pay for them."
At the beginning of King Philip's war the village was fortified by palisades -stakes driven into the ground-the whole place being thus enclosed. On the 14th of March, 1676, the Indians suddenly assaulted this barrier and suc- ceeded in breaking through it ; but were forced back by the inhabitants, not, however, until they had killed six persons and burned several dwellings. The town was not again disturbed, but at the Deerfield fight in the following May, fifteen residents of Northampton lost their lives. In the meantime the Nonotuck Indians had decamped and joined Philip.
As Northampton men participated in the Falls fight, so-called, that expe- dition may be briefly alluded to. In May, 1676, it was ascertained that the Indians had gathered in considerable numbers at Pasquamscut, now known as Turner's Falls, and preparatory to taking the war-path, were in- dulging in a prolonged feast. Ample supplies for a sumptuous entertainment were at hand, consisting of cattle which they had secured in their raids upon the settlements, venison and shad. Shad, in the proper season, were then plentiful in the Connecticut river. The Indian palate is never exacting as to quality though it is as to quantity. It was not simply a matter of eating, but of thorough and complete gormandizing. With intervals of sleep both day and night were spent in stuffing themselves to repletion with beef, veni- son and shad. Imagine the condition of these dusky children of the forest when the thunderbolt burst upon them in the morning. No wonder they were dazed and bewildered, and incapable of making any effective resistance.
While the feasting and gorging were going on at the Falls, the settlers were in motion. One hundred and sixty men had been silently mustered and organized for the expedition. They were from Springfield, Hatfield, North-
23*
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ampton and Hadley. Those from Northampton were under the command of Lieutenant John Lyman, a wary and valiant Indian fighter. The chief command was vested in Captain Turner, an unfortunate selection, as he was so ill at the time as to render him somewhat inefficient. All were mounted. They started from Hatfield on the afternoon of the 16th of May. Following the usually traveled path, they crossed Muddy brook, the scene of the fear- ful tragedy of the previous year. Darkness had closed upon them as they passed through silent and deserted Deerfield. Presently they reached the Deerfield river, but by the mistake of the guide, and a fortunate mistake it was for the party, a short distance above the usual fording place. Up to this time there had been no indications of the presence of Indians on the line of their route to the Falls. Just as they entered the river the agitation of the water by the horses' feet aroused a red-skin sentinel who was dozing on the opposite bank at the ford below. A halt ensued, and the scout, prob- ably thinking the noise was occasioned by some deer sporting in the stream, either joined his companions in the vicinity or resumed his slumbers, and the alarm subsided. Passing up the banks of Green river to the northern part of the present town of Greenfield, they turned abruptly to the east and reached a point within a mile or a little more of the Falls. Here their progress was much obstructed by the fallen timber, and they were obliged to secure their horses and proceed on foot. Leaving a few men to guard the animals, the others pressed on as rapidly as possible. In the gray dawn of that May morning they fell suddenly upon the gorged and sleeping Indians. The surprise was complete, and the English applied themselves vigorously to the work of shooting and knocking on the head the unresisting enemy. Some plunged into the water and swam to the small island midway in the Falls, where, as they climbed up the rock, they were deliberately shot. Others rushed to the canoes, and, in the excitement of the moment, forgetting to take their paddles with them, helplessly drifted over the cataract and were drowned. A few succeeded in gaining the covert of the woods.
Thus far the slaughter had been entirely on one side. But several hun- dred Indians were encamped a short distance up the river. Their attention was first attracted by the firing; then the arrival of some of the fugitives gave them information of the fearful disaster that had befallen their brethren. They were soon in motion, and made an effort to gain the rear of the En- glish. The latter, fortunately and opportunely learning of this movement, fell back at once, standing very little upon the order of their going, to the fallen timber where they had left their horses, and retreated down the grassy margin of Green river much faster thanthey had ascended it the previous evening. It was a continued and desperate struggle all the way to Hatfield ; sometimes a hand to hand fight, as the colonists charged back upon their pursuers and drove them to the shelter of the forest. The most bloody en- counters were in the low grounds and thickets south of Muddy brook, in what is now known as Whately. For several miles the infuriated savages
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pressed upon the retiring soldiers as they slowly, rod by rod, relinquished the ground to their adversaries, and it was here that they suffered the greatest loss. It was night when the survivors of this raid found themselves in safety in the village of Hatfield. The result may be briefly summed up: Three hundred Indians had been suddenly hurled into the eternal world, and thirty- seven Englishmen, nearly one-quarter of the attacking force, had accom- panied them on the journey.
Nearly thirty years afterwards, in what is known as King Williams's war, the hamlet of Pascommuck, not far from Mount Tom station, in the present town of Easthampton, was attacked, and the inhabitants either killed or taken prisoners. During the French and Indian wars the savages constantly prowled about the settlement, but never attacked the village itself which was vigilantly guarded.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Northampton took an active part in the struggle with Great Britain which resulted in the independence of the colonies, appointing committees of corres- pondence, raising four companies of troops, voting bounties for soldiers, and furnishing a brigadier-general of the Continental army in the person of Gen- eral Seth Pomeroy, an ardent and unflinching patriot.
THE REBELLION.
During the war of the Rebellion Northampton furnished 751 men for the Union army, and raised for bounties a little over $71,000.00.
INCIDENTS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
This queer entry is found in the ancient records under the following date : "17th day, 9th mo., 1663. At a legal town-meeting there was then granted to Cornelius, the Irishman, three acres of land, upon condition he build upon it and make improvements of it within one year ; yet not so as to make him capable of acting in any town affairs no more than he had before it was granted to him."
It seems that in 1660, and previously, town-meetings were sometimes tumultuous, many speaking at one time, and the selectmen in a formal order declare that the practice "is dishonorable to God and grievous to many per- sons." So they decree that there shall not be "more speakers than one at a time, lovingly and moderately, upon the'penalty of 12d. for every such offence, to be levied by distress." They did not intend to obstruct debate, nor "hin- der any man to give his advice in any matter one at a time."
Horse racing was not regarded favorably, and it was provided " that if any shall run races with their horses or mares in any street in this town shall for every such offence pay 2s. 6d., the one-half to the town and the other half to its informer."
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CITY OF NORTHAMPTON.
In 1660 "it was voted and agreed that the town rates for this present year wheat shall go for 35. 6d. per bushel." Not much chance for grain syndicates and grain gambling then.
The good people of Northampton in 1672 were not over friendly to strangers and foreigners, as the selectmen ordered that "whosoever in this town shall bring into it or receive into his family a foreigner or stranger, or any man from abroad, or entertain him in his house above ten days without liberty from the selectmen, shall forfeit to the town ten shillings for every week so entertaining him."
Voting was rendered imperative. Absentees were fined 12d. each. And if not present "at the beginning of the meeting when it is orderly begun," Id. was forfeited. This in 1658.
Northampton happily escaped the lamentable consequences of the witch- craft delusion towards the close of the seventeenth century. One Northamp- ton man did, indeed, appear before Colonel Partridge, a prominent Hampshire county magistrate residing in Hatfield, and made complaint against one of his neighbors for bewitching him. Colonel l'artridge listened to his story, and remarking that complainants in witchcraft cases were in certain instances en- titled to one-half the mulcts, he ordered the accuser to receive his share then and there, which consisted of twenty or thirty lashes well laid on. President Dwight, writing a century afterwards, said that strong doses of ipecacuanha administered to complainants and accusers would have effectually dispelled the witchcraft delusion from their brains.
They had sumptuary laws, too, in those primitive times and regulated dress by statute or by-laws. It might prove beneficial to society to revive some of these obsolete enactments, and return to the era of plain raiment and simple fashions. Fancy the feelings of these stern old puritans if they could only re- visit Merchants' Row, and gaze upon the stunning pull-backs or tie-backs, or whatever else they are called, which envelop the bodies of the angels of this lower sphere. They would stand aghast with astonishment, and wonder why the grand jury did not indict them, as were sixty-five persons about two hundred years ago from five towns in Hampshire county, thirty-five "wives and maids," as the ancient record affirms "and thirty young men some for wearing silk, and that in a flaunting manner, and others for long , hair, and other extravagances to the offence of sober people." One case will suffice as a sample of the rest. Hannah Lynian, a vivacious damsel of sixteen, and granddaughter of Richard Lyman, one of the first selectmen of the town, was a conspicuous offender against Puritanic notions of pro- priety. This young lady, occupying a position of the highest respecta- bility in society, appears to have possessed much independence and reso- lution, and when arraigned before the court was attired in the identical silk dress which had given such umbrage to "sober people." If the court of his majesty's county of Hampshire in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, did not understand from her language and demeanor on that occasion that she con-
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sidered this legal interference with her taste in matters of dress an act of in- tolerable impertenence, it must have been because the occupants of the bench were exceedingly stupid and obtuse. The august tribunal, however, took sweet revenge by fining Miss Hannah ten shillings for flaunting her silk " not only in ordinary but in extraordinary times." This language of the court was, no doubt, a foul libel on youth, innocence and beauty. Miss Hannah subsequently married Job Pomeroy.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Rev. Solomon Stoddard, the second pastor of the " Old Church," was born in Boston in 1643, and graduated at Harvard college. When about to sail for Europe he received a call to settle in the ministry at Northampton as the successor of Rev. Eleazer Mather, which invitation he accepted, and married the widow of his predecessor, a lady somewhat noted in her time, Esther Warham Mather. His labors extended over a period of nearly sixty years, and he could say at the close of his life that his ministry had been blessed with five great harvests of souls. With him and his church originated the Stoddardean or half-way covenent system of church membership, which invol- ved him in a controversy with Doctors Increase Mather and Cotton Mather, of Boston, in which his clerical opponents were clearly discomfitted. He was a man of profound learning, a powerful preacher, and was held in great rever- ence throughout the colony. Tradition says that he passed an ambush of French and Indians at Dewey's Hole while on a visit to his daughter at Hat- field. A Frenchman leveled his gun to shoot him. The act was arrested by an Indian who recognized him, and laying his hand upon the weapon impres- sively remarked : " Don't shoot. That man is the Englishman's God !" His house was on Prospect street.
John Stoddard, known in colonial history as Colonel Stoddard, was, mor- ally and intellectually, one of the greatest men that New England ever pro- duced, and in the statesmanlike qualities of his mind he had no equal among his contemporaries. His nephew, Jonathan Edwards, who preached his funeral sermon, said: "Upon the whole, everything in him was great, and, perhaps, there never was a man in New England to whom the denomination of a great man did more plainly belong." He inherited the paternal home- stead, and his estate at one time included Round hill. One of his sons, Sol- omon Stoddard, was high sheriff of Hampshire county, and another, Israel Stoddard, filled the same office in Berkshire county. This story is told of Mary Stoddard, daughter of Rev. Mr. Stoddard. Rev. Stephen Mix, of Con- necticut, visited her and proposed marriage. Requiring time for delibera- tion, in a few weeks she sent him the following answer: "Rev. Stephen Mix : Yes. Mary Stoddard." The Stoddard family has always occupied a prominent place in the annals of Northampton.
Rev. Jonathan Edwards was the grandson and successor of Mr. Stoddard,
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his mother being Esther, second daughter of the Northampton divine, who married Rev. Timothy Edwards, of East Windsor, Conn. Mrs. Edwards was a lady of superior mental endowments. Jonathan Edwards graduated at Y'ale college in 1720, and became pastor of the Northampton church in 1727. Mr. Edwards gave great prominence to the distinctive doctrines of Calvinism, and declared that he could not see how any person who rejected them could " stop short of deism or atheism itself." He was conspicuous in the great revival in New England in the middle of the eighteenth century, and he was held in high estimation by the dissenting clergymen of the mother country. George Whitefield, the celebrated evangelist, visited him at Northampton and preached in the old church. Whitefield, though a minister of the Church of England, a church of whom it has been said that while its creed is Calvinistic it has an Arminian clergy, sympathized with the views of the great theolo- gian, and under his glowing and splendid oratory, Jonathan Edwards, cold, austere and stern, actually wept. His influence over the church was very great, until he attacked the half-way covenant system of his grandfather. This and his proceedings in regard to books of a questionable character, which were said to be circulating among the young people, utterly destroyed his capacity for usefulness in the town and engendered sentiments of bitter hostility to the pastor himself. The church refused to hear him preach upon the controverted subject. Finally the society voted, with few dissenting voices, to dismiss him, and he was dismissed. He continued to reside in the town for some months, but the inhabitants would not suffer him to enter the pulpit. Probably no church controversy in Massachusetts elicited such acri- monious and embittered feelings as those which unhappily existed between Mr. Edwards and his people. After some missionary labors at Stockbridge among the Indians, he was elected to the presidency of Princeton college in New Jersey, but died of confluent small-pox in the same year. His mortal remains now repose in the ancient burial ground in Northampton. Intel- lectually he was a great man ; as a theologian he was unsurpassed ; as an in- dividual opinionated, inflexible and unyielding. Had he been less obstinate and uncomplying in non-essentials, he might have lived and died as the es- teemed and beloved pastor of the Old Church. There is nothing on record to show that he ever thought his opinions other than infallible. His son, Jonathan Edwards, Jr., was a voluminous writer, a distinguished preacher, and a clear thinker. He was elected to the presidency of Union college, Schenectady, but died soon after. Timothy Edwards, the eldest son, became a respected citizen of Stockbridge ; was a member of the state council and judge of probate for Bershire county. The youngest son, Pierpont Edwards, graduated at Princeton, read law in Northampton, settled in New Haven, became eminent in his profession, was a member of the continental congress and judge of the United States district court of Connecticut. Three of his sons filled prominent positions. One was elected to congress ; another was a lawyer and judge in New York ; and the third was United States senator
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