USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 27
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Fifteen miles from the first planting, on a plot of land near Sala- manca, the second quart of seeds was put in the ground, the pro- spective orchard roughly fenced, and a man agreed to take care of the trees as they grew if he could have some for his own use. By the time the seed-loaded canoe reached Pittsburgh a few more nurseries had been planted. At this place we can be pretty sure that John sent a letter to Sarah Crawford, daughter of his former employer, with whom John had fallen in love, but whose father did not approve of the suit. It may be that John's wanderings toward the West were started because the Crawfords had migrated to some unknown region and he had a hope of finding Sarah again.
For the next four years John Chapman worked around New York State, western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, planting his nurseries wherever he saw the need and supplying thousands of seed-
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lings to farmers. He made friends all along the way and although often ragged and barefoot he was welcome everywhere. To children and animals he was especially kind. At night in the cabins where he stayed he would read earnestly from the New Testament and set forth the glories of the New Jerusalem.
In 1792 John Chapman built a four-room log cabin on land which he owned near Pittsburgh and there he had a flower garden, as well as a nursery of plums, cherries, peaches and his favorite apples. For a number of years this was his headquarters, but his longing to see his old home and his family finally led him to put his property in care of a neighbor, and start the long journey back to Springfield dressed in a new suit of buckskin.
Before long John Chapman returned to his lonely home and his orcharding and Bible reading. By this time some of his trees had grown to good size and he had many farmers handling them here and there, selling when possible, but giving them away in case of the needy. Some of his nurseries were so far away from his regular travels that he put up a sign saying : "Help yourself to the trees, but guard the fence."
When the region near Pittsburgh seemed pretty well covered, John Chapman sold his farm, and with more bags of apple seeds on his horse, set out armed with a hoe, hatchet and corn cutter for new regions. He was again ragged and barefooted, long-haired and bearded, and as he did not have any other convenient place to carry the pan he cooked his corn-meal mush in, he placed it on his head and started for Ohio.
There, in spite of his odd looks, he received a warm welcome on his travels and started his nurseries at convenient intervals. The fer- tile soil made him think of his father and finally the whole Chapman family was settled on a farm not far from Marietta. Johnny did not stay with them, but kept on with his work. Several anecdotes are told about his peculiar beliefs. Once when he had a smudge to discourage the mosquitoes that were swarming about, he noticed that they were perishing in the flames, so he put out the fire rather than destroy any of God's creatures. He was always careful not to put a stick on the fire if he thought there were any worms or ants in it, and once when a hornet crawled up his pant's leg he gently forced him downward, preferring to be stung rather than kill the insect. He was stoical
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about pain and when he had a bad bruise or snake bite would sear it with a hot iron. The Indians regarded him as a medicine man and never molested him.
All this time John Chapman carried the memory of Sarah Craw- ford with him and made inquiries as he went about, hoping to find the family, for Sarah was not uninterested in him. One story is that he finally located them below Louisville and made his appearance at their home dressed in a new suit and shoes and hat. They were in poorer circumstances than when he worked for them in Springfield and Mr. Crawford's attitude toward him was changed, so that a wedding was quickly arranged for the next day. But Sarah never was a bride, her wedding dress was her burial robe, and Johnny Appleseed once more went his lonely way.
This often took him among the Indians, whose language he learned and who treated him with respect. He was able to warn the settlers of approaching danger from the redskins and was a skilled woodsman and scout. One story about him tells how he ran barefoot and hatless through the night with only a coffee sack for covering, crying at the cabin doors: "Behold the tribes of the heathen are about your doors and a devouring flame followeth after them." At one time he went about wearing a woman's long Mother Hubbard gown. He usually had money which he received for his trees, but he gave it away to the needy as fast as it came to him.
Still he was far from being penniless at his death and it is esti- mated he left between five and ten thousand dollars' worth of prop- erty. He must have owned or leased hundreds of nurseries in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, New York, Vir- ginia, Michigan, and Missouri, which he traversed for over forty years. The latter part of John Chapman's life was spent largely in Indiana and for about fifteen years he made Fort Wayne his head- quarters. His sister, Perces, lived near there and he had many friends in the region. His death came on March II, 1847, at the home of William Worth, to which he had been carried after he was found exhausted in one of his young orchards, and friends buried him at the foot of a pine tree in the Archer cemetery.
When news of Johnny Appleseed's death reached Washington, General Sam Houston, of Texas, rose in his place on the floor of the Senate and said: "This old man was one of the most useful citizens
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of the world in his humble way. He has made a greater contribution to our civilization than we realize. He has left a place that can never be filled."
Several monuments have been erected to the memory of Johnny Appleseed in the region which he traversed. One of these is at Ash- land, Ohio, and the Fort Wayne Johnny Appleseed Memorial Asso- ciation of Indiana is creating a memorial park of one hundred and sixty-five acres located where the Saint Joe and Saint Mary rivers come together to form the Maumee River. The simple stone recently placed on John Chapman's grave bears the inscription : "He lived for others." An apple is carved above the lettering and an open Bible below.
Springfield is making a memorial to Johnny Appleseed in Steb- bins Park and received six apple trees from the Fort Wayne Associa- tion to set out. So Johnny Appleseed's good works return to bear fruit in the valley where they originated.
Springfield was still a town when the rumblings of the slavery issue began to disturb the national peace and, situated as it was on a highway to Canada, it was inevitable that it should be a station on the underground railroad. The traveling was done at night for secrecy and the stations were the homes of the friends of freedom.
The most active station seems to have been the home of Samuel Osgood, minister of the old meetinghouse. It was on Main Street, just below Howard Street. When a runaway came before daylight, he was given a breakfast and put to bed in a little back room which the minister called "the prophet's chamber." At night, the man seeking freedom resumed his journey. In one year as many as fifty slaves were sheltered by the minister.
But the most notable of Springfield's anti-slavery citizens was none other than John Brown, who, however, at that time was not famous.
On Franklin Street, a few doors from North Main, stood a plain, substantial, two-story house as late as 1900. It was painted white and had a veranda across the front, supported by four heavy pillars. As a matter of boards and timbers the house was not marked among its fellows, but here lived for some years one of the world's heroes- John Brown-and to those who have been stirred by the story of Brown's brave, self-sacrificing life, the house was approached with a certain feeling of veneration.
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Just across from where the post office used to be on Worthington Street was a little restaurant. Within the door one found a small room with two or three counters at the sides and a variety of shelves and cupboards along the walls, and in the open floor space were a few
JOHN BROWN
chairs and a table. Other rooms half curtained off opened back at the rear. There the hungry were served, but the front room was a place to sit and talk, and if the individual's taste ran that way, to smoke and chew and sip the small beer the place afforded. One afternoon I called at the restaurant and became acquainted with its proprietor,
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Thomas Thomas, one of the more elderly of Springfield's colored men. As he sat in his arm chair and between whiles read his news- paper, or served the occasional customers who dropped in, I ques- tioned him as to his knowledge of John Brown, with whom he was connected when Brown lived in the city. His replies are contained in the following :
Brown was the agent of the "Association of Wool Growers." It was like this: The manufacturers of woolen goods used to buy the wool in bulk of the farmers, without any sorting. The farmer couldn't judge exactly as to its quality, and the manufacturer always managed to get it at ten or fifteen cents a pound less than it was really worth. After a while the farmers found out that if they had the wool sorted they could get a higher and fairer price. Then they went to work and formed this association and chose John Brown as the fittest man to oversee the sorting and disposing of the goods. Head- quarters were established in Springfield and all the vacant lofts in town were hired for storing places. There was millions of pounds of wool sent here. There'd be enough in town at one time to make a pile bigger than our new post office. Brown had the wool sent him here from all over, and he sold it on commission of two per cent. They sorted the wool into seven grades. The coarsest and poorest sold for twenty-seven cents a pound and the finest for eighty-five. I worked in the sorting rooms all the time John Brown was here. He came in 1847 and stayed two years and a half. They say Brown was no business man, but I never see a better. His only fault was that he didn't succeed. George Washington himself would have been thought a poor stick if he hadn't succeeded. That's the way people have of measuring character and ability. But the only true way is to know the man and know what he had to fight against. Brown was a vigorous, pushing man, and he had good sense and he attended to his business, but he was crushed out by the manufacturers. He was preventing their making that ten or fifteen cents extra on a pound, and they went to work and squelched him.
When he was here he was smooth-faced and had black, heavy hair brushed straight up from his forehead. He always dressed in plain browns, something like a Quaker. He wasn't tall, nor anything of a giant, as some represent, and he wasn't at all fierce or crazy looking.
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He was medium in height and he was quiet and agreeable to talk with. He was a gentleman and a Christian.
I met his son on the street the year before his father came. He had just got into town and he asked if there was a colored church here. I took him around to it and he came to my house and spent the evening with me. We had a long talk over the slavery question and he told me the plans of the wool association and engaged me to help in it.
There were quite a good many colored people in Springfield, and most of them had been slaves who'd taken French leave of their mas- ters. I've been a slave myself. That is, there were those said they had a claim on me. I never acknowledged this though, and I never have bowed to but one master, Him, God. But we were in no danger here. Runaways were all the time going through to Canada, mostly stopping with us colored people. They went about openly enough usually, but once in a while there'd be a timid one, or one would fancy he'd seen his master on the street. Then they'd keep dark. But after the fugitive slave law was passed, and some men were carried back from Boston, we all got pretty well scared and a good many went off to Canada. After a few years most of them came back. There was intense excitement here over the slavery question and we had the greatest speakers there were in the country at different times. Some- times they wouldn't let the Abolitionists have a hall, and then they'd come to the colored church and speak. They were stirring times. The whole town would come out to the meetings and the largest hall in the place wouldn't hold the crowds.
John Brown attended the colored church. He was a Presbyterian and had been educated for a minister. He often spoke in the evening meetings. He was a very earnest speaker, but he traveled a great deal and whenever there was an Abolitionist meeting anywhere near his stopping place he was sure to be there. And when he was there he couldn't keep still.
Brown had a large family and there were five boys and three girls here in Springfield. Some of the boys worked in the wool and the younger children went to school. You'd see the boys some cold Sat- urday night in winter carrying things to some poor family. One would have a handful of flowers and another would have a basket of food. Brown always looked after those that were in want. He
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often would send around coal or a barrel of flour to some one he knew was suffering, but he made no show of it and there was no name went with it. The family gave me a chair that I've got now down at my house. I've got besides a lock of John Brown's hair that his wife cut from his head and sent to me after he was hung at Harper's Ferry.
Yes, John Brown was a big-hearted man. There was nothing about him that was wrong. He was the honestest and truest man I ever knew.
Among the earliest and most influential of Springfield's settlers was Deacon Samuel Chapin. He came from England with his family in 1642, and after serving as magistrate and other impor- tant offices, died here in 1675. The bronze statue on the library grounds, representing a Puritan settler of New England, was erected as his memorial. Saint Gaudens was the sculptor and this is one of his most famous works. Numerous descendants of the deacon have helped to populate the valley and like him have been "useful and highly esteemed." The heredity was of the best. One descendant died in 1833 at the age of ninety-one. He had served as an ensign during the Revolutionary War, and always was called Ensign Chapin. In this same War for Independence another of these Chapins was present at the battle of Stillwater, and also at the surrender of Burgoyne.
A later example of the Chapin quality was Ethan in this same family line. He was unusual in various ways. For instance, he never was fond of sports and seldom took part in games with children of his own age. While the other boys played he was trying to make some- thing with whatever tools he could find. At about the age of ten he made a little water-wheel which he set up in a stream near his father's house. He was unusually mature and delighted in poring over books and in thinking out some novel theory for what he saw about him in nature. He lived on a farm and had to do his share of work, but his father failed as a farmer when the boy was nine years old. As there were eight children in the family, the situation was serious and it was necessary to make new plans for each one. The misfortune fell most heavily on Ethan, who was sent to live with his grandfather. He was allowed to attend school a part of the time for three years, but as he was given no school books, he was unable to make any satisfactory
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progress in his studies. At the age of nine his schooling practically ended.
As soon as possible Ethan left his grandfather's farm and went forth to seek his own fortune. There were no longer the restraints of home life, and he was without friends to aid or guide him. He went to work in a factory at Chicopee, which was then called Cabot- ville, and he experienced all the disadvantages of extreme poverty. Often he went hungry to bed and suffered cold for lack of sufficient clothing. However, he learned in this hard school habits of patience, industry, economy and self-reliance, which in time made him a man of rare quality.
The Cabotville mill operatives began work before sunrise, as soon as there was light enough to see, and spent fourteen and a half hours a day at their task. The work started so early that they all went to the workshops before eating and were allowed twenty minutes for breakfast. Those who were a trifle late were locked out.
Young Chapin was one of three boys who worked together. It was their duty to draw boxes of bobbins by means of ropes attached to three boxes. The box was divided in two compartments, one for the empty bobbins, the other to receive the full ones. In speaking of the work long afterward, one of Mr. Chapin's bobbin-boy companions said, "I can hear the rattle of those old looms today, and see in imagi- nation the three young boys dragging their boxes along, and the women scolding because we didn't come sooner. I remember we were very tired every night. Ethan, at that time was a tall, slim boy, kind- hearted and good-natured. We were both poor, and our small earn- ings went to our parents."
Later Chapin worked at the Ames arms factory in Chicopee, and in a gun shop. He was constantly devising something new, and his services as a designer of ornamentations for swords and for the han- dles of guns and pistols were highly prized. Although never taught the engraver's art, his hand seemed naturally to take to it, and when he left the Ames factory he was considered its most skillful workman. While still less than nineteen he was made an overseer. At about twenty he came into possession of Comstock's "Natural Philosophy," and afterward of a book on chemistry. These two books were fairly consumed, they excited such interest and enthusiasm in his mind. He kept them near by while at work, and read them as opportunity offered.
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The year 1836 was a landmark in Mr. Chapin's life, for he made an entire change in his congenial occupation that so well fitted him, and when he turned from it his friends were exceedingly regretful. His brother, Marvin, had bought the old Cabot House at Cabotville, and such was his need for help that he sent for Ethan to join him in the venture. Ethan was anxious to be of service to his brother, and he was aware that his eyes were being injured by his present occupa- tion. Immediately he left the Ames factory and joined his brother in the care of the hotel. At one time or another all the four brothers shared in the responsibility of the Cabot House. The conduct of these brothers toward each other was very interesting, for there was an unusual spirit of family loyalty among them. Each one seemed to regard the interests of the others as his own, and it was largely due to this spirit that Ethan Chapin became a hotel keeper and business man, instead of a mechanic and inventor. Mr. Chapin lived six years at the Cabot House, and while there married Louisa Burns, of East Windsor, Connecticut.
The building of the Boston and Albany Railroad through Spring- field, in 1838, assured the future growth and importance of the city. Those who foresaw this growth and took advantage of it soon reaped the benefit of their wisdom. Hitherto, Court Square had been the center of the town, as it had been the center of business. All the lead- ing taverns, such as The Exchange and the Hampden Coffee-House, were in that vicinity.
In 1842 the property south of the railroad and west of Main Street was offered for sale. This property contained an acre and a half and measured one hundred and eighty feet on Main Street. Without question, it was the best site in Springfield for a hotel which hoped to catch the growing railroad traffic. Mr. Marvin Chapin foresaw this and, in partnership with a Westfield man, bought it at auction for eight thousand dollars. Then a contract was promptly made for the erection of a brick block to be used as a hotel. The undertaking was a large one for those times, and neither of the part- ners had money. Therefore, the property had to be mortgaged in order that the purchase might be completed and a new building erected. Meanwhile, the Westfield partner became alarmed at the risks assumed in the enterprise and withdrew. Then, as on a former occasion, the oldest of the Chapin brothers sent for Ethan, who imme-
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diately came and filled the gap. He took over the Westfield man's interest and the brothers became the sole members of the firm.
While the construction of the new building was being carried on as fast as possible, various names were suggested for it. Before any- thing definite had been settled, two barbers who had rented the base- ment room on the corner of Main and Railroad streets practically decided the question. They hung up their sign and advertised in the Springfield "Republican" that they were ready to receive patrons at their new shop under the "Massasoit House."
The friends of the Chapins were generally much disappointed in this choice of a name. They remonstrated, saying that many could neither spell nor pronounce it; also, it could not be remembered by those who had been pleased with the hotel on a first visit and wished to come again. The critics were likewise agreed that the name was odd and awkward, but experience showed that this unusual name helped to secure for the hotel its unusual success. There have been all kinds of hotels, but only one Massasoit House. Looking back now, it seems very appropriate that the famous Bay State Indian chief should have been thus remembered. The hotel was opened in June, 1843. In general the management of the house was in the hands of the younger brother, who gave himself with enthusiasm and patience to the oversight of everything. The building was enlarged three times, and each time the details of building had the careful oversight of Ethan Chapin. His inventive genius and mechanical skill were fre- quently put to use in improving the arrangements of the hotel. The laundry, the kitchen, the engine room and other parts of the building were fitted up with various devices of his own for lightening labor, saving expense, and for furthering the comfort of both guests and employees. He was always on the lookout for new things, and his mechanical skill enabled him to see with great shrewdness their prob- able utility.
He treated his help with friendly consideration, and on several occasions when he found the man who was in charge of a basement engine too ill to do his work, he ordered him to go home and sent word to the office that he himself was occupied and could not be seen. Then he pulled on some overalls and went to work in the midst of the oil, steam and dirt of the engine room, with an earnestness that seemed to imply this was his regular employment. There are few
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hotels whose proprietors either could or would have done this service. Another thing Mr. Chapin did with thoroughness was visiting the best hotels and examining their management to get suggestions for his own.
During the Civil War the owners of the Massasoit House proved themselves to be among the most loyal citizens of Springfield. When the first Massachusetts troops passed through the city, the entire north end of the hotel was beautifully illuminated, and hot coffee with other refreshments were distributed to the men. The same was done when the 2d Regiment was in Springfield on its way to the front. Later, when the veterans began to return, great attention was always given them, and none, no matter what his circumstances, was allowed to go unserved. But what was less well known was the part Ethan Chapin played in helping negroes escape in the unsettled days before the war. On more than one occasion, with the knowledge of but few in the city, he concealed on his own premises, or nearby, parties of these negroes, whom he fed and cared for until arrangements were completed for sending them farther North. Thus the Massasoit House was one of the stations of the "Underground Railroad" which safely conveyed hundreds of fugitive slaves from the South to Canada and freedom. Those were the days when the principles and the courage of anti- slavery men were put to the most severe test. As for Ethan Chapin, he never wavered. His principles did not vary with circumstances.
Although money matters in connection with the hotel were largely in the hands of Marvin Chapin, yet Ethan also was a very shrewd and successful business man, and at the same time he was trusted implicitly by all who knew him. As one of these said: "The city owes a great deal to such men as Ethan Chapin and the Merriam brothers." It was his opinion that as a result of the stand taken by them and others of their stamp, certain kinds of business that had a doubtful character could not enter the city.
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