USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 26
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judge, after the ordination?" The judge was greatly taken aback, for he did not know it was common talk that he with three other church members repaired to a chamber over Elijah Blake's shop and played euchre ---- and it was not a dry game either.
One of the later ministers, destined to be long remembered, was Samuel Osgood, commonly known as Dr. Osgood. He was born at Fryeburg, Maine, in 1784, and completed his studies preparatory to entering college under the instruction of Daniel Webster. In after years, whenever Webster was in Springfield on the Sabbath, he was accustomed to attend the old church on Court Street and listen to the preaching of his former pupil and lifelong friend.
Dr. Osgood graduated at Dartmouth in 1805, and he preached his second sermon in Quincy, where he had for hearers Ex-President John Adams and his son, who afterward was President John Quincy Adams.
Mr. Osgood's ministry began under very auspicious circumstances. He was in the vigor of youthful manhood, with a constitution that gave promise of uniform health, a promise that was remarkably ful- filled for more than half a century of his after life. His parish included the population of the town from Chicopee River on the north to Longmeadow on the south, and from Wilbraham line on the east to the Connecticut River, and it included over 2,000 persons.
Many of the ministers and churches in this Commonwealth at the time of Mr. Osgood's settlement were drifting away from Trini- tarian orthodoxy toward Unitarian views. Mr. Osgood, although adhering in the main to the Trinitarian doctrine, was at first regarded in his own fold as too liberal, but as time went on, and the breach between the two faiths widened, he had no hesitation in ranging him- self with those who adhered to the tenets of John Calvin. In fact, he was one of the first ministers in this region who refused ministerial exchanges with the disciples of a laxer faith. It was a measure which at once alienated him from many who had been his warm friends, and brought him into collision with much of the wealth and influence of his church and parish. The storm had been gathering for some time, and now about twenty-five members, including "some of the most respectable and influential," prepared to form a separate church. The result was a secession, formidable, not in numbers, but in the standing and influence of those concerned. However, the era of ill-feeling
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gradually passed away and forbearance and courtesy eventually char- acterized the intercourse of the two parties.
Dr. Osgood died in 1862, and it is rare that the death of a min- ister, or any other citizen, leaves so wide a gap in a community. He always was prompt to lend a helping hand to the suffering poor, and his hospitality was unstinted, though often severely taxed. The posi- tion he occupied as minister of the first parish of the largest town in western Massachusetts, at the confluence of travel from every quarter of the compass, made his house preeminently a ministers' tavern. He was a genial man, fond of conversation, and ready to take an active part in it, and he had an immense fund of anecdotes with which he interested and amused those in whose company he chanced to be. He enjoyed a most robust health, and in reviewing his ministry at the end of forty years, he claimed that he never had been detained from his
THE OLD SPRINGFIELD DEPOT
pulpit a single Sabbath on account of sickness. It was said of him in his prime that he was the most athletic man in Springfield. The sermons that he wrote numbered more than two thousand. The old inhabitants treasured many stories of his wit and sound sense. He was brave, original, clear-headed and earnest, and he had a love of humanity and picturesque methods of oratory. Men remembered his wit, but better than that was his sterling worth.
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Dr. Osgood once, while in the pulpit, struck at a horn bug and hit the lamp, which fell to the floor. He coolly waited until it was picked up unbroken and said: "Good glass ! Let us pray."
While preaching one day he suddenly asked: "Who's asleep ?" It was suggested that the noise was not snoring, but came from the ducks under the building, and he went on. Again he stopped, saying : "Some one is alseep." But profound silence reigned and the sermon went on. A third time he stopped and asked: "Will somebody rouse that young man in the gallery?" The young man was roused and proved to be the minister's own son.
When the old Universalist Church on State Street was being built, Dr. Osgood accosted Mr. Trask with: "Well, Brother Trask, what are you building here?" Mr. Trask replied: "A house where the truth will be preached." "If it is," was the response, "there will be a scattering among the Universalists."
Mr. Bacon asked: "Why is it, Mr. Osgood, that they call the head of a hog a minister's face?" The doctor did not relish the slur on his profession and said: "I don't know. Perhaps for the same reason they call the other end the bacon."
A worthy gentleman who used to be the terror of the boys at Dr. Osgood's church was Elijah Blake. Another was William Hatfield, a constable of the town, who sometimes took care of the boys that made fun at the church. Once when a missionary spirit was prevail- ing in Springfield everyone was very much interested in the mission of Mr. Armstrong at the Hawaiian Islands. The Sunday school fre- quently made contributions for his and other missions, but Mr. Arm- strong's mission received more than any other, for he was known, and he sometimes sent curiosities to the Sunday school scholars of George Merriam. A contribution was to be taken up one Sunday after- noon for this mission and the Saturday evening before, the boys met, as was their habit, in front of a well-known store which did consider- able business with Mr. Cooley, who made soap and candles. The agreement between the firm and Mr. Cooley was that they should take their pay in pennies and, as a result, they had under their counter a large dry goods case almost filled with pennies-big old-fashioned cents. That evening the boys changed their ninepences and quarters into cents at the store. The next Sunday afternoon they all sat in the old square pew, at the corner of the gallery, and in due time Con-
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stable Hatfield rose to begin taking up the contribution. He wore an old-fashioned white wool hat, one of the kind that you can blow on and make windrows, and one that had been worn long enough to have the edges somewhat tender. He went first down to Charley Childs' pew, which was in the front row, and took his contribution, and then he came up to the pew where the boys were and they began to unload their pennies into the hat. They chucked them in with considerable force, and after the contribution from that pew had been taken up, the' constable went down the aisle to take up other contributions farther on. As he went along the top of the hat opened and the pen- nies began to drop out, and soon the hole became so large that down went all the pennies on the floor with a tremendous crash. Dr. Osgood spoke and said: "If Mr. Hatfield will wait where he is now standing I will pronounce the benediction." The benediction was pronounced and then the question arose among the boys as to how they were to get out. They could not jump from a window, and they waited and waited to help pick up the pennies. By and by they made a dash for the door, but the constable was ahead of them on one side and Blake on the other, and before they could pass either of them their ears had a fine twisting and some of them, after they arrived home, wished that their trousers had been reinforced.
One of the Pynchons long remembered was John as he appeared on the streets with cocked hat and small clothes. The boys were his friends, and they used to ride his horse without needing to ask permis- sion when it was turned out to pasture. John was the brother of Major William. He lived on the other side of the street and died at the age of eighty-four.
Harvey Sanderson, merchant, was born in Springfield in 1797 and was apprenticed to Jonas Coolidge to learn the hatter's trade. After- ward he went to Newark, New Jersey, where he worked as a journey- man hatter for some time and then returned to Springfield. In 1824 he was taken into partnership by Mr. Coolidge and engaged in the hat and fur business. The shop for the manufacture of hats was in a wooden building on Main Street, and at that time Garden Brook was open to Worthington Street.
Mr. Coolidge was often seen washing sheep skins in the brook in front of his shop. He made a dam by putting a wide board across the brook to collect the water, and then by fastening the skins to a hook
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at the end of a long stick he would throw them into the water and souse them around until cleansed.
Calvin Shattuck was born in Hawley in 1790 and reared in Charle- mont. He came to Springfield at the age of twenty-two years, and in 1814 he went into the United States service at the armory, where he continued for nearly thirty years. Afterward he engaged in farming and carried on a livery business. Besides, he went into the mulberry and silk culture about 1838 and was successful. At one time he fed 300,000 silk worms, said to be the largest number anyone ever had in the State. He was one of the original owners of the Hampden Brewery located on Myrtle Street, and through his interest he per- suaded his partners to give up the business.
Zebina Stebbins, born in 1755, was a merchant with a store on Main Street, where he sold dry goods, drugs, medicines and various other wares. He lived on the northwest corner of that street and Ferry Lane, now Cypress Street. One of his enterprises was a cord- age factory on the lane. This was a long, low building, which tumbled down in 1839.
Thomas Stebbins carried on the dyeing business and here is his advertisement :
"BLUE DYEING
"Zebina and Thomas Stebbins having commenced their blue dyeing, those who may wish either cotton or linen yarn dyed may have it done on the usual terms. Springfield, May 23, 1810."
A famous incident in the annals of Springfield has to do with Zebina Stebbins' horse. On Sunday the family used to ride to meet- ing in a one-horse shay and were prompt to start at the ringing of the bell. But one Sabbath they got ready to go as usual and then were long delayed. So serious was the occasion that they left the horse without hitching, and what did he do when the bell leisurely rang, but walk off with the empty shay to the meetinghouse, where he stopped for a few moments to let his imaginary passengers alight. Next he went to his familiar horse-shed and stayed until meeting was over. Then he backed out, made the usual stop at the meetinghouse door, went home to his master's house and returned to his yard. It was said in those days of whoever showed intelligence above his fellow-beings that he was as smart "as Zebina's horse."
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William Ames for many years made two visits to the town annually, and so timed his visits that he came with the arrival of shad in the spring, and the celebration of Thanksgiving. Many per- sons are said to have continued doubtful as to the exact time of these events until the presence of Mr. Ames in town was known to be a certainty. Another character was Eleazer Williams, prince of inn- keepers, and famed for his politeness to everyone, but specially to ladies. It was said of him that on one occasion when he came unex- pectedly on a "setting" hen and perceiving her to be disturbed by his intrusion, he took off his hat gracefully, bowed respectfully, and speedily retired with the remark: "Don't rise, madam; don't, I pray you."
In October, 1844, Springfield was visited by a serious fire, which started at Main and Sanford streets. Five buildings were consumed. The fire spread because there was no water in the town brook. A mill owner had shut it off during the night to get water for the next day, and the fire gained a lively start before the gates were opened. Three or four small fires which followed led to the general belief that a fire-bug was at work.
It was said, in 1841, that ten years previous Cabotville had been "a wild spot, the habitation of frogs, quails, snipes, rabbits, and similar untamed life." Now, at the end of that period, there were six cotton mills, eighteen boarding houses for operatives, a forge and two machine shops, a cannon foundry, and several small mills. N. P. Ames came to Cabotville in 1834 and was one of the founders of its commercial prosperity. He was a dignified and generous man and he gave $5,000 to build a Congregational Church.
The concert of Jenny Lind in July, 1851, has been a treasured memory. Dr. Osgood's church was filled with music lovers, and Mr. Goldschmidt, whom she married shortly afterward, was her accompanist.
Chester W. Chapin, once the driver of an ox team, but in 1851 the wealthiest man in Springfield, was the president of the Connecti- cut River Railroad and had made the town a railroad center. An important industry was added when the Wason car works started in 1845.
Holyoke was incorporated as a town in 1850, and its factories attracted many new nationalities, which was bound to make some dif-
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ficulties. As an example : On a June evening about nine o'clock an outbreak occurred between rival nationalities at Springfield, near the Hibernian, "a sort of rumhole below the depot." A riot developed, and from ten o'clock to twelve the church bells rang and a big crowd gathered. For an hour no carriage could pass along the street, nor could a foot passenger do so without serious danger. Finally, Sheriff Caleb Rice arrived on the scene and dispersed the mob.
The men at work on the canals at Ireland Depot, as Holyoke was then called, struck on New Year's Day, 1848, because their pay had been reduced from seventy-five and seventy-seven cents a day to sev- enty cents. For a week the works were at a standstill. Then a dozen men went to work at the reduced wages under protection of the company's engineer, Anderson, and Constable Theodore Farnham. The strikers, "armed with clubs and other weapons of Irish war- fare," promptly attacked them, and the constable, while attempting to arrest some of the leaders, was knocked down and trampled on until nearly senseless. Mr. Anderson was struck with a rail and received a bad gash in the cheek. The windows of a temporary grocery were smashed, but the shanties were not torn down as had been threatened. At last one of the ringleaders was captured and sent to Northampton jail on a train that happened along opportunely. As soon as the news reached Northampton, Sheriff Wright, with twenty-five men of the militia company armed with muskets, hastened by special train to the scene of disturbance. They, however, found all quiet and returned at two o'clock in the morning. Early Tuesday, Sheriff Rice came from Springfield with a Catholic priest, who guaranteed there would be no trouble that day nor the next night. Promptly, on Wednesday, Sheriff Rice returned with a posse and made three arrests, and in the afternoon Sheriff Wright arrested another man at the depot.
In 1852, Kossuth, the famous Hungarian statesman and patriot, visited Springfield and there were fully five thousand people at the depot to welcome him. The constables had much trouble in clearing a passage to the Massasoit Hotel, on the balcony of which Kossuth presently appeared and made a short speech. Next day there was a public reception in Dr. Osgood's church. His name, as it appears in the registry book at the Massasoit is "L. Kossuth and Lady," and under the column of residence he wrote "Nowhere." Then followed the names of his six other companions, each accompanied by the
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word "Homeless." George Merriam and two members of his family gave Kossuth substantial aid.
Springfield used to have a flourishing organization known as "The Club," It met every alternate Monday night, and was a medium of discussing public topics among prominent citizens. Reuben Chap- man, a United States Commissioner, is credited with the honor of having originated the club. He was John Brown's attorney there in the wool business and was always enthusiastic in his tributes to Brown's integrity and sense of justice. At a meeting of "The Club" during the troubles in the western border region, a member asked : "What is to be done with Kansas?" And Mr. Chapman said: "We will send on emigrants, and we will send rifles with them. I will fur- nish one gun." "And I another," said Samuel Bowles. "And I another," said Daniel Harris. "And I another," said the good Dr. Buckingham. Thus the offers went round the room.
Mr. Chamberlain, Chapman's law partner, hesitated for some rea- son, and Mr. Chapman said, with as much vigor as he ever displayed on any subject: "And I will give a second gun for the credit of the firm." The rifles were all duly furnished, taken apart, and sent in separate boxes and by various routes to Kansas.
When John Brown was finally in the hands of the law in Virginia, his first thought was of the cool, judicious Reuben Chapman, of Springfield, and he appealed to him for legal assistance in the follow ing letter :
CHARLESTOWN, VIRGINIA, October 21, '59. "Hon. Reuben Chapman, Springfield, Mass.
"DEAR SIR :- I am here a prisoner with several sabre cuts in my head and bayonet stabs in my body. My object in writing is to obtain able and faithful counsel for myself and fellow-prisoners, five in all, as we have the faith of Virginia pledged, through her governor and numerous other prominent citizens, to give us a fair trial. Unless we can obtain such counsel from outside the slave States, the facts in our case cannot come before the world nor can we have the benefit of such facts as might be considered mitigating in view of others at our trial.
"I have money in hand to the amount of $250, and per- sonal property sufficient to pay a most liberal fee to yourself
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or to any suitable man who will undertake our defense, if I can have the benefit of said property. Can you or some other good man come imediately for the sake of the young men prisoners at least ? My wounds are doing well.
"Very respectfully yours, "JOHN BROWN."
Mr. Chapman was about starting on court business and could not go to Virginia, but he gave his imprisoned friend what advice he could by letter.
Judge Chapman called to order Springfield's first grand war rally, in April, 1861. He exclaimed with a vigor quite uncommon to him : "I believe in nothing but the unconditional surrender of the rebels. I would have that, or hang every man of them." The city govern- ment promptly voted $30,000 for volunteers. Springfield was an active place, and the whole community kept a sharp watch on govern- ment property. Strangers were seen prowling about the watershops, and a guard sent a bullet whistling by their ears. In June, 1861, Hampden Park was turned into a military camp, and there was the usual friction between the raw recruit and the mess room. One hun- dred volunteers mutined on account of inferior rations. On one June Sunday, Dr. Tiffany's Unitarian Church was filled with soldiery. Muskets were stacked in front of the pulpit and decorated with flow- ers. The building shook with the thunderous strains of the "Star Spangled Banner," and Dr. Tiffany's sermon was pitched on that same patriotic key. The matrons and sisters of the community were soon enlisted in the task of contributing to the comfort and conven- ience of the soldiers. It was a time for picking lint, knitting mittens, and furnishing extra clothing. The destruction of the Harper's Ferry Armory left the Springfield Arsenal the main resource of the govern- ment for a time, and it was turning out three thousand five hundred . muskets each month, with some of the departments running the full twenty-four hours.
Four Unusual Citizens
CHAPTER XXI
Four Unusual Citizens
One of the most unusual characters connected with old-time Springfield was Johnny Appleseed, whose real name was Jonathan Chapman. The family, which was of Scotch ancestry, came to this country about 1710 and settled near Boston. One of the sons, Nathaniel, who later became the father of John, was apprenticed to a carpenter. Nathaniel's first wife was Elizabeth Simonds, and rec- ords show that "John" was born in Leominster on September 26, 1774. Tradition says that this event occurred on the eleventh of May, just when apple blossoms were the most beautiful, and that ever afterward John was happiest in apple blossom time.
John's gentle mother had one more child, which probably was born while the father was still serving in Captain Pollard's company of carpenters in New York State. She died in Leominster, July 18, 1776.
A letter is still in existence which Mrs. Chapman wrote to her husband just a few weeks before she died. It was written in Leomin- ster and sent to him in New York State. In the letter Nathaniel's wife speaks of "our children," but the new baby did not long survive her. The letter is quite religious in tone and shows a rather beautiful personality in the writer. She hopes for grace to "patiently bear" her afflictions, but without complaining of her lot. She tells her husband of the health of their neighbors and friends and expresses a desire to be remembered in his prayers. She wishes him not to worry over her condition and states that she has as much money as she needs.
Nathaniel Chapman served some of his time as a soldier in Spring- field and eventually brought Johnny there. The young carpenter was frugal and hardworking and in a little while married Lucy Cooley, the daughter of a neighbor. After their marriage they lived on her father's farm in Longmeadow and had five sons and five daughters.
Tradition again gives us the interesting tale that Nathaniel was able to send John to Harvard, where he graduated with honors, and
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that while there, or soon after, he became interested in the teachings of Swedenborg. The tale is completed with an account of how he was sent out as a missionary from the headquarters of that sect in Boston and so made his first trip to the Potomac.
Apparently Jonathan Chapman was something of a reader and was especially attracted by books of a religious character. The New Testament interested him particularly and in some manner he came in contact with Swedenborg's beliefs and ever afterward was a disciple and, in a limited way, a missionary. His sister, Perces, said of him, later, that he was never happier than when he was wandering in the woods or had animals about him.
EXPRESS TRAIN ON WESTERN RAILROAD.
Truma a Daguerreotype, scade in 1842.
AFTERNOON TRAIN BETWEEN ALBANY AND SPRINGFIELD,
STILLMAN WITT, Superintendent at Albany.
THOMAS W. ALLEN, Mester Mechanic D. S. WOOD, Engineer.
JOHN B. ADAMS, Conductor. HORACE H. BABCOCK, Ticket Agent
The movement to the westward from the Connecticut Valley was already started when John Chapman was a young man, and his love for the open country, as well as the fullness of his father's house, furnished reason enough for his leaving home. The probability is that he planned to go up the Allegheny from Pittsburgh and visit an uncle near Olean, New York. It was a long and weary journey on , foot over the mountains, the trail was hard to follow, and lodging
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was only to be had in settlers' houses, or rude taverns, and sometimes in the open. Pittsburgh seemed a barren place to John and he espe- cially noticed its lack of fruit trees, for he had spent a number of previous summers caring for the large orchard of a man named Craw- ford in Springfield and had come to be fond of the work.
He bought a canoe in Pittsburgh and paddled up the river, but when he reached his uncle's cabin he found it deserted, and learned that the uncle had gone with his family to settle on lands near Mari- etta, Ohio. It was probably while at his uncle's deserted farm that the idea came to John Chapman of being an apple missionary instead of a religious one. The plan he developed was to go to cider presses in the fall and winter, wash out the apple seeds from the pomace, place them in bags for carrying about, and through the spring and summer plant them along the rivers and near the cabins wherever he could get permission. Bags were made of any materials at hand and twenty-five were filled the first winter. A small horse was bought to assist in transportation, tradition says, but he served John badly by kicking him in the head one day, with nearly fatal consequences. The first orchard of about half an acre was planted with a quart of apple seeds, and a brush fence built about it on the farm of Jesse Winrote, near the uncle's deserted cabin. This was the beginning of Johnny Appleseed's work in making the west blossom with fruit trees and it continued for fifty years.
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