USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 16
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The Northampton revival of 1735 was the most remarkable, and the fame of it penetrated to England and Scotland. That there was no revival in the Springfield church is credited to Mr. Breck and, in fact, many in his time deplored the liberality that he encouraged, and they even separated from the parish.
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Such a one was Joseph Ashley, who absented himself permanently. When he was asked why, he replied that he looked on Mr. Breck's church as no church of Christ, and the greater part of its members as carnal. He said that most of the discourse of most of the mem- bers was on worldly affairs, and that he believed such discourse was delightful to them. Also, he objected to the manner of admitting members because "a particular account of their experiences was not required, and instead, accepted a profession of dedicating themselves to God, and a life and conversation corresponding thereto." The increase of church membership during Mr. Breck's ministry was remarkable, and it continued even when a congregation gathering on Springfield Mountains drew heavily from the first parish. As a rule everyone went to church and the meetings on lecture day were largely attended.
Reverend Mr. Breck died in 1784, in his seventy-first year. In his early life the funeral costumes would have been severely righteous, but in these later times there were silk stockings, and silver buckles, and lace, and powder, bowed in grief. However, the old first parish meetinghouse was draped in black, Reverend Mr. Lathrop delivered the funeral sermon, and a solemn anthem was sung. The whole assembly followed the body to the grave. Mr. Breck had lived in the parsonage where his dignified manners, tie wig, shoe buckles, silk stockings and a slave attendant served to fill out the ancient notion of ministerial importance. The old Breck residence in its later years served as a laundry on Hillman Street. Mr. Breck left at his death a negro slave named Pompey, who probably was the last of Springfield's slaves. He died in 1813. The first wife of Mr. Breck passed away in 1767, and his second survived him.
Pompey, the slave, served her faithfully as long as she lived, and when the old darky was left alone in the world he now and then visited in the Springfield and Northampton region among "Massa George's folks and Massa Robert's folks."
An important event of 1749 was the building of a new meeting- house. This, however, was not entirely finished until 1752. The length was sixty feet, the width forty-six feet, and the height between joints twenty-six feet. It was the third meetinghouse and the prede- cessor of the one used at present. It stood directly east of the one now occupied. There were two entrances, the principal one on the
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east side and the other through the tower. For a long time the imposing square pews were retained.
In the natural course of things a few cases of discipline disturbed the serenity. The most singular one first got active attention when complaint was made against a rather prominent but very eccentric member. He was charged with disturbing the devotions of his fellow Christians on the Lord's Day, and interrupting the public worship of God, by reading aloud while they were singing His praise.
After prayer for divine direction, the church found him guilty, and voted to debar him from Christian privileges until gospel satisfac- tion should be made.
Eighteen months afterward the offending member wanted a chance to confer with the church, and he asked whether his confession would be accepted, if made to the church in the absence of the congregation. The church voted to adhere to their ancient practice of receiving con- fessions of public offenses only before the congregation. Six more months passed and the member renewed his proposal to present his confession before the church only. After prayer and consultation, the church decided to comply with his request provided the confession should afterward be read to the congregation by the pastor. Another interval of six or eight months passed, and then the last course sug- gested was adopted, and the offender was "restored to charity."
In 1784 the church voted unanimously to choose Mr. Bezaleel Howard to be their minister. He came to Springfield an entire stranger to the village and its people, sent by the president of his col- lege to supply the vacant pulpit for six Sabbaths. His journey was on horseback, the road was solitary, and the approach from the east far from attractive. As he rode down the hill to the Main Street, then the only settlement, he saw buildings mostly unpainted, and many of them dilapidated. The aspect was chilling to the young minister, and he said to himself, "The day when the six weeks of my engagement ends will be a happy one to me."
When he had that settled in his mind, he saw directly opposite the road by which he entered the village one white house that had a more cheerful aspect. He presented himself at the door of the house, and announced his name and errand to the man who lived there. "You have come to the right place," the man said, and there the six weeks were spent very pleasantly. The call to settle followed, and in that
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white house the young preacher found his future wife. He was ordained pastor of the church in 1785.
There are some things in the early parochial history of the church that appear strange from our modern outlook. One of these is a periodical assigning of seats to the congregation. The custom pre- vailed from the time the first meetinghouse was erected down to the present one. Thus, in 1664, when the town and parish were identical, it was ordered that "the select men and deacons shall from time to time seat persons in the meeting-house either higher, or lower, accord- ing as in their sound discretion they shall judge most meet."
What a strange jumble of officials! Selectmen and deacons, uniting in this difficult duty of seating persons higher, or lower, according to their discretion! A month later there is recorded an order of the selectmen which is a curious example of the way the parochial police work of those days was administered. It says, "Forasmuch as order is beautiful, especially in the house of God, and the want of it displeasing to God, and breeds disturbance among men-and whereas it doth appear that various young persons, and sometimes others, do yet neglect to attend to such order as is pre- scribed, either for their sitting in the meeting-house, or for their reforming of disorders in and about the meeting-house in time of God's publick worship-It is therefore ordered that whoever of this Township shall not submit themselves to the ordering of the Select- men and deacons shall, He or She, forfeit three shillings, four pence, to the town's treasury." By the same authority, it was ordered "that the seat formerly called the guard seat, should be for smaller boys to sit in, that they may be more in sight of the congregation." In this seat none were permitted to sit above the age of fifteen years.
Care was taken in the earlier period of the town's parochial his- tory that the men and women should be in separate seats. The first innovation connected with this practice came in 1751, when the parish voted to "seat the men and women promiscuously." Then, in order that those of tender sensibilities should not be shocked by so great a depar- ture from long-established custom, the committee in charge were directed, on application being made to them by any person or persons desiring not to be seated promiscuously, to gratify them as near as they can. It is not surprising that the parish selected two of the wisest and most popular men of the town to perform this delicate duty.
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At a parish meeting, in 1790, it was voted to choose a committee to seat the new meetinghouse. Twenty-two persons were chosen for the office, all of whom refused to serve. The meeting was then adjourned for two days. The seating had come to be attended with a good deal of difficulty, but after more meetings and adjournments a committee was provided, and "seating the meeting-house" continued until the erection of the present house of worship in 1819.
A record of a parish meeting held in 1737 indicates the rules by which the assignment of seats was regulated. The age of persons and the value of their estates, negroes excepted, are the principal considerations.
Few persons, if any, among the present inhabitants of the city are aware how largely the means for extinguishing fires used to be provided and controlled by the old first parish. The record shows that in November, 1792, the parish granted for the purpose of defraying the expense of building the enginehouse the sum of six pounds, eleven shillings, two pence and two farthings; and in March, 1794, voted to pay the expense for two firehooks and six leather buckets for the use of the fire engine. The same year Pitt Bliss was paid two pounds, twelve shillings and six pence for the six buckets and for "repairing the hose to the engine." Not content with repairing the old hose, the parish voted that Pitt Bliss and some others be a committee to examine the hose belonging to the engine, and if they judge it necessary, to procure a new one at the expense of the parish. All this makes the present-day reader wonder how the extinguishing of fires came to be regarded as a parochial duty. Be that as it may, the ancient church stands today on the spot where throughout three centuries it has always stood, and with vigor still unimpaired.
There were no means of warming the meetinghouse until 1826. Probably about that time winter Sabbath schools were introduced.
Hampden-14
The Revolution and Its Aftermath
CHAPTER XIV
The Revolution and Its Aftermath
The first evidence of the spirit that led to national independence came to the surface in 1774. Alarming letters from Boston were read in open town meeting about public affairs and the aggression of England, and Massachusetts was thrown into a state of wild excite- ment. A notable Springfield Tory was John Worthington, who eventually was forced to make a statement in town meeting that satis- fied the people. It had been said of him hitherto that he ruled the town with a rod of iron. The story has often been told beside Spring- field firesides that the Whigs, who dominated the town at this exciting time, were so angered by his refusal to join them, that they led him out into a field, formed a ring, and compelled him to kneel, and swear before God that he would renounce his Tory views. Later, we find him advancing money for arming soldiers, nor was this money reim- bursed until after the surrender at Yorktown.
Toryism had taken a deep hold on several leading Springfield families, and there are in New Brunswick many tombstones bearing old Springfield names. Such relics give us a curious testimony to the tenacity of the Tory spirit. Among those who went to New Bruns- wick was Jonathan Bliss, who became Attorney-General of the Prov- ince and also Chief Justice. His wife was the daughter of John Worthington.
The Springfield Pynchons, during the Revolution, were notably patriotic.
Merchant Jonathan Dwight, at the first echo of war, closed his store and made his plans to leave Springfield. Then he heard a rumor that a decree had gone forth from Boston to seize his goods, and he directed his slave, Andrew, to drive his cattle across the Connecticut line. He modified his political sentiments later, due to the influence of his wife, and reopened his store.
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Means were taken in Springfield to aid the poor at Boston, and the town stock of ammunition was increased. An association had been formed pledging the members not to wear or use any clothing or produce imported from Great Britain. This self-imposed embargo was a severe test of patriotism. The subsequent exclusion of tea from the table was accepted in good part by the community, although tradition infers that some worthy dames of Springfield were not above steep- ing tea at the hour of midnight and drinking it in the seclusion of their closets.
OLD DAY HOUSE, PRESERVED AS A MUSEUM, WEST SPRINGFIELD
On the day that the battle of Lexington was fought, the British soldiers left Boston before daybreak on the tenth of April, 1775, and on the next day Captain Kent, within an hour's notice, was at the head of a Suffield company of fifty-nine men and a provision wagon, rushing for Springfield, where they ate supper, and then hurried on. Each Springfield soldier was given a half pound of powder and a supply of flints. The Springfield taverns and the streets were in a perfect
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uproar, and during the next two days soldiers were constantly for- warded. The British troops had left Boston to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." In twenty-four hours it was the other army which was playing that tune.
George Washington was in Springfield in 1775 and stopped at the old Parsons' Tavern on Elm Street. He was on his way to Boston to take command of the Continental Army. A company of horsemen went with him and his party to Brookfield.
A company of Highlanders was billeted in Springfield from June, 1776, to the following March ; and in July, 1777, Colonel Cheever had charge of the transfer of army supplies to Springfield, where it had been decided to establish an arsenal and supply depot. Large use was made of local horses and wagons in this business. Town committees of safety met and arrangements were made for sending supplies to the army. A Northampton convention called attention to the conduct of persons in the county who were unsuitable persons and declared the selectmen of the various towns "dare as well be damned as to draught them for the army, and that, if they were draughted, they would rather fight against our own men than against our enemies."
The year 1777 brought an alarming spread of smallpox and led to measures for building a "cleansing house" near the pesthouse and for the complete isolation of these buildings. At the same time pro- vision was made that the "Physicians of the Town be desired not to inoculate any persons for small-pox or give them any preparatory medicine without the allowance of the larger part of the Selectmen." But the inoculation party again captured the town.
During the following year sentiment gradually changed and we find the town appointing a committee to draw up regulations for inocu- lation. Then came another setback. Several deaths from inoculation among soldiers increased the popular distrust of that remedy.
The following notice of General Washington's reception in Spring- field was published in the "Hampshire Chronicle" of October. 28, 1789:
"Last Wednesday about 3 o'clock in the afternoon this town was honored with the presence of the President Gen- eral of the United States accompanied by his two private secretaries. He was met at the 'Great Ferry' (now Cypress Street, but formerly Ferry Lane) and a number of gentlemen
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on horseback escorted him to Landlord Parsons'. There he was received by the Independent Cadets who saluted with three volleys, and paid him every other respect which the dig- nity of his character merited. They were politely noticed by the President, who soon after visited the arsenal on Federal Hill, where he spent considerable time viewing the public stores deposited there, and was well pleased with the good order in which he found them. Early on Thursday morning he proceeded on his way to Boston."
In his diary Washington mentioned that "Colonel Worthington and many other gentlemen sat an hour or two with me in the evening at Parsons' Tavern where I lodged."
The Continental soldiers at the end of the war were poor, and a fierce conflict followed between debtors who had borne arms and credi- tors who had not. It was a time that tried at least every poor man's soul, and fully half the State's citizens were in debt. The excursions of sheriffs searching for property to levy on embittered the people against the courts of law. There was a spirit of discord even before the end of the Revolution. Reverend Samuel Ely, a Connecticut min- ister of unsavory character, interfered with the courts at North- ampton in 1782. He was convicted and imprisoned in the Springfield jail, from which he was released by a mob. It was the twelfth of June, and Springfield was in great commotion. About one hundred and fifty men, mostly strangers from up the river, and from the Berk- shire Hills, with swords, guns, and bayonets, demanded the keys of the jail. When refused, they broke open the doors, released Ely, and a debtor, and a negro. Some citizens returning from a funeral pur- sued the party and caught and locked up three men as hostages for the return of Ely. Northampton and other towns joined in the chase, and no less than one thousand armed men took part in the episode. On Sunday word came from Northampton that the hostages were to be liberated by a mob, and two hundred armed men marched in short order from Springfield to the rescue. General Porter, of Hadley, called out the militia, and it was by his firmness that the law was sus- tained when six hundred determined men confronted the five hundred and fifty who guarded the Northampton jail. It is not to be inferred that the spirit among the Massachusetts people of that time was excep- tional. They simply became poverty-stricken and distressed.
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Daniel Shays, at the beginning of the Revolution was a hired man at Brookfield. He entered the army as sergeant under Washington near New York, and he received one of the swords that Lafayette distributed to American officers. It is said that he was ostracized for a time by his associate officers because he sold this sword and con- tinued to use the old one. Eventually he became captain in a Massa- chusetts regiment, and his record at Bunker Hill, Stony Point and Saratoga was creditable.
At his home in Pelham after the war he was sued for debt, and as he did not appear judgment and costs were recorded against him. He was naturally a reckless character and liked nothing better than to spend his evenings in the taverns criticizing the government. The sale of a sick woman's bedding gave him a good text for tavern harangues. The Conkey Tavern at Pelham was made vocal, and so was the Clapp Tavern at East Amherst, and likewise the West Springfield tavern, where Luke Day, legislator-at-large, talked by the hour.
Daniel Shays and Luke Day took a bold step at Springfield by interfering with the session of the Supreme Court, but General Shep- ard, of Westfield, prevented a collision with the forces of Shays, as they marched and countermarched before the Springfield Courthouse, or gathered at Stebbins' tavern, in North Main Street. After the court had adjourned he withdrew his militia companies to the arsenal, and the Shays men returned to their homes. Three weeks later, Shays issued an order from Pelham requiring all his men to arm, and furnish themselves with sixty rounds. He went to Rutland and supervised the interruption of the courts of Worcester and elsewhere. Then he hurried to Springfield and found the judges of the Court of Common Pleas an easy prey to the clubs, drums, muskets, and threats of his men.
While these sorry affairs divided brother and brother in the vil- lage of Springfield, and set friend against friend, the Springfield town meeting voted that the increase of paper money at a time when it was already a burden was preposterous.
The insurgents found hearing in the papers, and loud-mouthed men declaimed in the taverns of Springfield and elsewhere against the riot act. These agitators sported the hemlock twig that was their banner and emblem. When it had been decided to call out the troops, the commissary-general reported that he could get no supplies with-
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out cash, and the treasury was empty. At once General Lincoln vis- ited a prominent Boston club and laid the case before them. A subscription was started the following morning with the Governor heading the list, and the money was raised before sunset. An army of four thousand and five hundred collected in short order, and General Lincoln prepared for his long march. He arrived in Worces- ter January 22 and protected the courts with little difficulty. Daniel Shays, after sending to the Governor a message intended to mislead, tried the difficult feat of capturing the Federal arsenal at Springfield. He made a dash from Rutland with over one thousand men armed with a motley array of guns, but thoroughly equipped with an incen- diary vocabulary. On the twenty-fourth they reached Wilbraham and the women and children of that terrified community were trans- ferred to Longmeadow. General Lincoln was two days' march in the rear of Shays, and the plan was to overpower General Shepard before the eastern troops arrived. Eli Parsons, with four hundred Berkshire insurgents, was at Chicopee. Luke Day was the only man among the rebels who made any pretense at military discipline. He was resting at West Springfield with a company of four hundred whom he kept in good temper by occasional orations on the oppres- sions of the government. Thus, Shepard was confronted by about two thousand rebels, twice his number.
Shays ordered Day to attack on the twenty-fifth, but Day said he would not be ready until the twenty-sixth. This answer miscarried and Shays advanced on the twenty-fifth. Meanwhile General Shepard was doing his best to keep an exasperated people in hand. Public sentiment was against him. In speaking of supplies, he said of rum and other liquors, "They must be forwarded from Boston as there is little to be had in Hampshire County," and he added, "the men cannot be kept together, especially at this season, without a daily allowance of spirituous liquors."
There was pressing need of money at Springfield for the support of the soldiers. Not one cent of the money subscribed at Boston had been forwarded. As neither Congress nor General Knox had given permission to take arms from the arsenal, General Shepard's men were poorly equipped and he felt more and more concerned. He was cut off from Berkshire by the vigilance of Luke Day and he was unable to communicate with Northampton. Caleb Strong, of that town,
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wrote Lincoln that insurgents had taken possession of Chicopee Bridge, and had captured a provision train on its way to Springfield for the militia. The weather was bitterly cold and Shepard called on Lincoln for at least four hundred men to be forwarded in sleighs. His food was limited to a five days' stock and the loss of his provision train was a serious handicap. Besides, his men were unpaid, and he was obliged to be personally responsible for the fuel and forage he needed. Evidently he could not continue in the field much longer unless money was sent to him.
Shepard had learned that three hundred insurgents had lodged at Northampton on the night of the twenty-second. Shays, Day, and Parsons had completely cut Springfield off from all approaches, and the insurgents were enjoying the contents of Shepard's provision train. Luke Day had scoured the country on the west side, and his sentries and reconnoitering parties were very annoying. He even deployed troops in the Longmeadow direction and secured many prisoners. He captured General Parks and Doctor Whitney in sleighs, and took a loyal Longmeadow man out of his bed and shut him up with other prisoners of war at West Springfield. Shays was at Palmer on the twenty-third with eleven hundred noisy men. The insurgent officers held a council of war there, and a friend of the government overheard the proceedings. It was decided to join Day's forces in an attack on the arsenal before Lincoln could come to Shepard's relief. This information was taken to Lincoln, and a deputy sheriff rode through the crusted snow across fields from Wilbraham to the Stony Hill Road on the twenty-fifth, drawing blood from the legs of his horse.
Within an hour General Shepard was warned, but Shays did not appear on the Boston Road in view of the armory until late in the afternoon. Shepard sent several messages of warning to Shays not to advance, but received only insolence and defiance for his pains. At a hundred yards a howitzer was discharged each side of the advancing forces; and a few minutes later a shot at short range was leveled directly at the column and three men were killed and one mortally wounded. A scene of ridiculous confusion followed. Not a return shot was fired at the militia, and about twelve hundred very much frightened men raced toward Ludlow. The killed and wounded were taken to a house near by.
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General Lincoln, with the main body of his troops, reached Spring- field on the twenty-seventh and at nine o'clock of the twenty-fifth the news of Shays' defeat reached Palmer. After getting to Springfield, Lincoln, with part of his army, moved up the river on the ice, intend- ing to prevent a junction of Shays and Day and, if that were not attempted, to cut off Day's retreat. The other part of the troops he moved across the river. Soon the insurgents turned out and retreated about half a mile to the main body, where they showed some dis- position to attack. But they changed their minds and went to a high piece of ground in their rear, where they were met by Lincoln's horsemen, and then they fled in every direction. Most of them reached Northampton about twenty miles distant. This left Shays' men exposed to attack and induced him to move on the same night to Amherst. At three o'clock next morning Lincoln went toward Amherst, where Shays had been joined by Day. On his arrival in the borders of the town, the rear of Shays' force left it, and some fell into his hands. Then Shays went east from Amherst and Lin- coln's men went to Hadley and Hatfield on the river.
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