USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 31
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One of the interesting spots we boys used to enjoy was "Goosy" or Goose Pond. It was located just east of Sherman Street and covered a few acres south of Bay Street. The pond was very shallow and made safe skating in winter and fine wading and "polly wogging" in summer. To go swimming we used to travel over the rough land south of King and east of Hancock Street to Watershop Pond. It was wild land and some of it adjoined the slaughter houses of Perkins and Nye.
The only traveling I did was between Springfield and Wales and Southbridge. We had many relatives in those towns, and on the occasions when my father gave me a trip I was filled with joy. Some-
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times we would take a lunch and eat it on the way under the Wash- ington elm in Palmer or some other big tree. My father loved horses and if his horse had any speed, and the opportunity presented itself, we would have one of those quickening experiences-a horse race.
I had only two vacations in my early days, the first when I was ten or eleven years of age and was visiting an uncle in Wales. He announced he was going to Martha's Vineyard and invited my sister and me to go along with an aunt and cousin. This was one of my first big experiences. We left very early one summer morning, in a high three-seated wagan drawn by his horses Sam and Bill, who under- stood they were allowed one hour to make ten miles. That ride down the hills, through the valleys, following the brooks, and passing through charming woodland was a great treat, but I leave the trip to your imagination. The second vacation was entirely different. I was large for my age, and when I went to visit relatives on Tower Hill, at Brimfield, they allowed me to take part in the farm activities, no mistake about it; also, they allowed me to do work that required the use of a horse, and that delighted me.
I remember going alone to the Warren cheese factory with the milk, starting at six in the morning and driving grey Dan, a beautiful and gentle horse bred on the Parker farm. I was allowed to drive the hay rake; and with my small cousin take a one-horse cart and get in hay all on our own. I certainly felt important, and was delighted to work in this way to the limit of my strength. I picked quantities of berries and brought home a half bushel for canning. It was a hard- working vacation, but a happy one.
As a smaller boy, I occasionally saw three rather weird acting chaps who made an impression on me. They were "Pop Corn" Paige, "Soapy" Allen, and Daniel Charter. All elderly men. "Old Pop Corn" had one short leg, and he used to rest the foot attached to it on a bracket of the crutch. Sometimes he would suddenly rise on this bracket with the aid of his cane, and yell "pop," looking as if he was going to swoop down on you. He had a little cart drawn by a donkey, and in that he rode to town. His habit of yelling "pop" or "corn" in the ear of some unsuspecting person as he went up and down Main Street was unusual advertising.
"Soapy" Allen was a member of a well-known firm of well diggers. I don't know how he got the name of "Soapy." He had the look of a
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little monkey, and sometimes he wore clothing that was far too large for his meager frame. Much of the time he was full of firewater, or nearly so, and crept about the streets of the hill, talking to himself, eyes nearly closed, and given a wide berth by the boys. When he was really at his worst, he sometimes preached vociferously to fallen humanity. A good deal of the time he went about barefoot, which was partly accounted for by his occupation as a well digger.
Daniel Charter was a farmer and a good citizen. He was an ardent temperance advocate, and though usually reserved, he would
SPRINGFIELD POST-OFFICE
occasionally burst forth on a street corner and tell the world where he thought rum drinkers would finally land. It wasn't in the frigid zone, I assure you. His sturdy figure was clad in overalls, and the fact that he was sober used to sometimes draw him listeners.
Primus Mason was another unusual man. He amassed a consider- able fortune, some of it in rather strange ways. Probably the business most talked about was that of undertaker for horses. I recall his telling me of his experiences as a "Forty Niner," and about his passage around the "Horn," on his way to the gold fields of California. He was black, weighed about three hundred pounds, and talked in a high squeaky voice. One couldn't possibly think of him as a "no 'count"
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darkey. He had too much poise, and talked too intelligently to be considered that. We all know of the monument he left -- the Old Men's Home.
One of our great winter sports was the horse racing on State Street, between Oak Street and Winchester Park. From three to four thirty almost every afternoon when the sleighing was good the "horsey" men enjoyed themselves, and the street from Hancock east would sometimes be lined with spectators. Springfield's ponies that possessed speed, or whose owners thought they had it, raced over the course. It was a gay sight and many of the horses were beautiful with wonderful style and action. Many of the sleighs were gaily colored with fine fur robes within and without, and the sleigh bells rang musically on the sparkling winter air.
Unless a person has lived in Springfield during the 70's or 80's, he has no idea of the importance and magnitude of the events staged on Hampden Park. Later days have had nothing that approached it excepting at the Eastern States Exposition Grounds. Springfield was one of a league of four cities that initiated grand circuit horse racing in the United States. About all of the fastest trotters and pacers and noted horsemen helped make the Springfield meets among the biggest harness racing events in the country. In 1882 Springfield became internationally famous on account of bicycle racing. It had the world's champion in George M. Hendee, and a little later was accounted as having the fastest track in the world. Still later, in 1889, the great Harvard-Yale football game was played here, and repeated every year until 1894, when the grand Harvard-Yale row spoiled everything.
Schools and Teachers
CHAPTER XXV Schools and Teachers
The first building erected in the town for a high school was on School Street. Later it was used as a dwelling and the bell has long ceased to summon pupils. It was on a day in April, 1827, that the town voted to choose a committee to report some plan for establishing a high school, and where it should be kept. In due time the committee recommended that the town build a schoolhouse of brick two stories high, with a woodhouse under it, and a cupola and bell on one end and with a proper outhouse attached. The house was to be fitted up in plain, strong style for one school room on each story, and the ground fenced in. August 2, 1827, School Street was opened from State to Union Street. The first instructor of the school was Storey Hebard, a native of New Hampshire, and a graduate of Amherst College in 1828. He took charge of the school, soon after his gradua- tion, and successfully conducted it until he resigned in 1830 because his annual salary of seven hundred and fifty dollars was reduced. After leaving the school he went to Syria as a missionary and died at Malta when not quite forty years of age.
The attachment of the pupils to Mr. Hebard was so strong that the boys rebelled against David Sheldon, of Suffield, Connecticut, who was hired in his place. They took advantage of the new teacher's ignorance of their names when the roll was called and answered to wrong names or did not answer at all. When his back was turned some of them crept out of the room on their hands and knees, and every sort of device was used to embarrass him. The monitors who were appointed to be on the platform with the teacher and notice any who were delinquent and report the same did not do so, as they were rebellious also. Mr. Sheldon resigned owing to the disobedience of the boys, but it seems that afterward he became a successful Uni-
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tarian minister. One of the scholars was in later life a Boston mer- chant, who writes of his school days :
"There was at one time considerable disobedience, espe- cially among the older boys, and this state of things made it necessary that the school committee should be informed. One day an officer called at the school to address the scholars on the matter. He said to them that if a change for better order did not speedily take place it might be necessary to call out the militia. This seemed to have the effect of awing the boys into a state of respectful obedience and unusual attention to their studies."
The securing of a live hen and placing it in the teacher's desk, its sudden flight when he opened the desk, surprising him as much as it delighted the boys, was one of many diversions.
The school committee, in 1831, secured Simeon Calhoun, a gradu- ate of Williams College in 1829. Mr. Calhoun was a man of much worth and great sincerity of purpose and was held in high esteem by the community. When he became the teacher, he was wise enough to have present at roll call one of the committee who knew the names of most of the students, so that the boys who ran out of school were caught. After a few days in which he let the boys have their own way, Mr. Calhoun said: "Boys, you have ruled long enough and now it is my turn," and with determined and severe treatment he brought the school into subjection. The school became harmonious and united. The teacher was loved and obeyed and during his administration a revival of religion took place.
Mr. Calhoun was a man of much religious fervor and kindness, and drew the scholars to him with great affection. He taught two years in Springfield, and later went to Smyrna as a missionary. Next, we find him transferred to the Syrian Mission, where he established a seminary on Mount Lebanon for the education of native teachers, and after long service abroad he returned to the United States, where he died at the age of seventy-two.
One of Mr. Calhoun's scholars, who went to live in Ohio, said of him: "I remember well the morning of his advent, and how we all saw at once he was not to be trifled with, and how he said: 'Boys, I am going to teach this school; if you obey the rules, all is well; if you don't, I shall flog you !'"
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A qualification that always appeared necessary for teachers in those days was that they should be orthodox in religion.
A lad who used to live in the city recalls what follows: One cold winter morning one of the boys who was fond of making chemical experiments put on the hot cast-iron box-stove a quantity of brimstone, which in melting sent forth a peculiar, suffocating odor and smoke that filled the room, and the windows had to be opened for ventilation. Before that could be accomplished the teacher arrived and the scholars hurriedly took their seats; but a considerable time elapsed before the windows could be closed. After the school was quiet the teacher asked who caused the breach of peace, and it soon was evident that a boy named Jim was the guilty one. The teacher ordered him to come forward and hold out his right hand with the palm up. On that he struck two or three hard blows with the ferule, which Jim received with Spartan firmness, and then smilingly took his seat.
Sardis Morley, of Otis, Massachusetts, was the next instructor. He fitted himself for college and supported himself by preaching and teaching. In his ministry he was blessed with many revivals and con- versions. When roused he was capable of speaking with great elo- quence. One of his scholars recalled an occasion in the old high school. On the north side of the school room the wall was painted black between the windows and used as a blackboard, and it so happened one noontime that a boy drew the grotesque figure of a man and forgot to do the erasing. When Mr. Morley came it was at once the object of everyone's interest, and Mr. Morley began a careful process of ques- tioning that on his part left no doubt of the picturemaker.
This and previous pranks seemed to justify heroic treatment, and the boy with his coat buttoned around him was ordered to come for- ward with his hands held out of range of three twisted withes. Then the teacher struck three blows that brought the withes around his body with a loud crack. Not a word was uttered and the boy submissively took his seat.
Another Springfield youth remembered a summer morning before the teacher arrived, when some of the boys were very busy digging a pit directly in front of the steps at the south entrance to the school room. After completing this task they covered the top with light material and on that put a layer of dirt. Then they took favorable positions under cover and awaited the coming of the teacher. He
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soon appeared, but only to disappear with startling suddenness, all but his head. By his own efforts, and those of some of the boys, he was brought to the surface without much delay and very little injury. The expression of the teacher's face as he entered the school room gave the impression that if he could find the boys that dared to do such a thing he would give them a severe flogging, but his efforts to discover them were of no avail.
One of the Springfield boys makes this confession: My brother George and I stole out of the school room by crawling under the seats, in order to see the first train from Worcester in 1839, and after seeing the event we came back to school without being missed by the teacher. We thought it quite an exploit. One lad tells of a boy who sat next to him who came to school one day with a striped snake in his bosom, inside his shirt, and it gave him a chill which he thought had always clung to him.
In November, 1830, the town paid Caleb Hopkins seven dollars for taking care of the schoolhouse, and Joseph Bull was paid five dol- lars for ringing the bell at twelve o'clock.
One school instructor had a habit of wearing green goggles, which prevented the boys from seeing whether he was looking at them or not. If they made any noise or were not in their seats he was quick to detect it, much to their surprise.
A boy who became a successful merchant in Michigan tells how he entered the high school under the tuition of Mr. Vaille :
"He was a lovable person except to evil doers, and he had a faculty of taking kinks out of boys. He took several out of the writer. I hailed from the upper Watershops and was one of some ten or twelve who trailed through mud and snow from there to the high school. We had room enough for travel in those days for the houses were few in that region. We made our own path in the snow and on our return at night found it much the same as we left it in the morning.
"The high school gathered its pupils from different parts of the town, which at that time included the present limits of Chicopee. In those early days in the winter season the out- of-school hours were scenes of fierce snowball fights between the 'hillers' and the 'streeters,' as the scholars from the differ- ent localities were distinguished. One of the bright boys who
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later became a resident of California, tells of the floggings Mr. Calhoun used to give him, saying he thought he deserved them. Calhoun's successor, a most excellent man, taught only one term, during which the boys made things uncomfortable for him. During this term he organized an evening school 'in order to improve our minds,' and there a Jack-o-lantern was placed on top of the mineral case, ink stands and bullets were thrown about the room and through the windows, the old box- stove near the door was covered with tallow, and several lengths of stovepipe which ran the entire length of the room were let down on the desks, causing the school to be dismissed and giv- ing us a half holiday. Once brick-bats were hung under the floor suspended by strings from various stools. One boy would pull up a brick which would strike the floor from underneath with a loud thump. The teacher would start out to find where the noise came from and as he neared the spot a loud noise would again be heard across the room. Then he would start for that locality and when he arrived there the noise would be repeated from some other part of the room. Finally, as the noise seemed to come from below, the teacher visited the cellar and there saw to his amazement several bricks suspended by strings to the floor above."
One of the pupils who attended the old high school from its open- ing in 1829 until 1831, when he left to follow the sea after the example of his father and grandfather, was Charles Emery. His first voyage was made as a boy on the ship "Eclipse" from Salem to Manila and Canton. He sailed on his fifteenth birthday and was gone thirteen months. Other voyages he made took him to the West Indies, Liverpool and Calcutta. In 1836 he was offered the com- mand of the brig "Swan," fitting out for the west coast of South America, and made the voyage around Cape Horn as captain when but three months over twenty years of age. After spending two years on that coast and visiting all its principal ports, he returned as passen- ger on the whaling bark "Columbus," of New Bedford. He after- ward bought the brig "Wallace" and took out a cargo of naval stores for the United States fleet on the Rio Janeiro station, sold this vessel to the Russian governor of Kamchatka and came home by way of
Hampden-27
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Peru and the Isthmus of Panama. After remaining at home about two years he bought the brig "Grand Turk" and loaded it with mate- rial for a British shipyard in Hong Kong, China. He arrived there after a passage of one hundred and sixty-four days, sold his ship and came home to Boston.
Captain Emery was later agent of the New England Coal Mine at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and for several years was interested in Lake Superior copper mines. In the winter of 1878 New York parties were interested in exploring the Amazon River in order to obtain cedar and mahogany and other desirable woods of the tropics, and Captain Emery agreed to take charge of the expedition. He sailed for Para, Brazil, and proceeded up the big river carrying the United States flag where it had never been before. On another voy- age to Para he sailed farther up the Amazon to establish a branch for a rubber house, and there he remained two years. Captain Emery's later life was spent in the eastern part of the State, where with other old shipmasters he delighted in recalling the old days when they sailed the high seas before steam supplanted the sailing ships.
Another pupil of this old high school was Thomas Dale, who went on a whaling voyage and was absent three years. On his return he engaged in the business of selling buttons and tailors' supplies, and soon became the leading tailors' trimming house in the United States. As an importer he went to Paris, where he had an elegant mansion and dispensed a princely hospitality. He owned a residence in New York and a beautiful villa in Newport.
George Tannatt went to California in 1849, sailing from Boston. At the outbreak of the Rebellion he enlisted as first lieutenant and was later captain on the staff of General Prince at the battle of Cedar Mountain, where he fell, and was taken to Alexandria, where he died of his wounds. James Harding, who was on the staff of General Sterling Price of the rebel army, saw Captain Tannatt when he was taken prisoner in one of the battles in Missouri and Tannatt helped him to pass through the Union lines. He told Harding that he would much prefer to see him in a different suit from the one he had on.
David A. Wells, the well-known economist, a graduate of Wil- liams College, was on the editorial staff of the "Springfield Republi- can" and suggested the idea of folding newspapers and books by machinery in connection with the power printing presses. The first of these machines ever built was at his expense and was operated under
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his direction in the office of the "Republican." He was later a special pupil of Louis Agassiz and graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard.
Horace T. Draper, a member of the school during Mr. Vaille's administration, left Springfield for New York in 1842. He shipped for a voyage to China and followed the sea for twenty-three years, filling all positions from cabin boy to captain. He was in the United States Navy during the Rebellion and was on board the flagship "Hartford" with Admiral Farragut at the capture of New Orleans.
Ralph W. Kirkham, another graduate, was also a graduate of West Point, served in the Mexican War and was brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious conduct in battle. He assisted in the capture of the city of Mexico and was honorably mentioned in General Scott's dispatches. While in Mexico he was one of a party of six American officers and an Englishman who reached the summit of Popocatapetl. The original number that set out on the expedition was about one hundred. This mountain had never been ascended since the time of Cortez in 1519. He participated in the frontier Indian wars and was commissioned major in the Civil War. His grandfather had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
Francis Potter, when the "gold fever" broke out in 1849, embarked on a vessel bound for California by way of Cape Horn and was six months making the voyage. Later he was chief engineer on one of the steamers running between San Francisco and Panama.
Horace Fern was another California "forty-niner" and it took him seven months to make the trip around the Horn in the bark "Strafford." After the bark was towed up the Sacramento River to Sutterville he went to the mines and later was the first regular express messenger between Sacramento and San Francisco. In Octo- ber, 1851, he started an express line from Sacramento to Nevada City for Freeman and Company, afterwards Adams and Company, and was superintendent of the line for some years. This was followed by a period of quartz mining.
In 1831 the proprietors of the "female seminary in Springfield" bought a lot of land on Maple Street and soon erected a three-story building. This was heated during the winter by placing cast-iron box- stoves in the cellar and running tin pipes up through each floor to con- duct the heat from pine wood used as fuel. The first principals and teachers were women and the school was run for girls only, but after
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George Eaton, a Harvard graduate and a gentleman of scholarly attainments succeeded to the principalship, boys were permitted to enter. It was not agreeable to some of the boys to be obliged to attend school where girls were to be their schoolmates, but they soon became reconciled to the change under the encouraging sympathy manifested by the girls for their bashfulness. Children of parents living on armory grounds were not allowed to attend the town schools, and in consequence many attended this private school.
CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, SPRINGFIELD
One of the students at this school was Edward Flint, who later was superintendent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. In July, 1862, he started homeward for a visit by way of Panama, being a passenger on the steamer "Golden Gate," which took fire fifteen miles off shore and was burnt to the water's edge. About two hundred per- sons perished in this disaster and among those who were lost was the genial Flint, then only thirty-five.
William Dwight attended West Point Military Academy, but resigned before he graduated. When the attack on Fort Sumter was
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made he was commissioned captain and was soon made a colonel. At the battle of Williamsburg he received three wounds and was left as dead on the field, but was found alive by the rebels and was taken prisoner. On his release he was made brigadier-general for his gal- lantry in that battle. He was General Banks' chief of staff in the Red River campaign, and later served under General Sheridan in the Shen- andoah Valley. He rendered valuable service at Winchester when the Union Army rallied and defeated the rebel forces of General Early. At the close of the war Dwight's division was a conspicuous feature in the final grand review at Washington.
James Dwight Orne, a civil engineer, entered the Union Army and was three times promoted for gallant conduct in battle. He took part in thirty-six battles and was reported dead and left as such on the field in the second battle of Bull Run. At Chancellorsville the back of his saddle was shot off, and at Gettysburg a piece of shell nearly cut his hat into two pieces. He went through the whole Peninsular campaign and took part in nearly all of its battles.
Horatio Sargeant went west, where he was a railroad ticket agent and also superintendent of a Baptist Sunday school. He was instru- mental in starting several mission schools in Toledo, Ohio, and did a great amount of work for the cause of Christianity. While he was private secretary to the superintendent of the Lake Shore road, he was requested to sell tickets after midnight on Saturday. This he refused to do and tendered his resignation, which, however, was not accepted, and instead his salary was increased. He was ordained as a minister in 1864 and was later pastor of a church in the town of Huntington.
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