USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 8
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John Pynchon and his young associates, Elizur Holyoke and Sam- uel Chapin, took the oath as magistrates in 1652, and this was the turning point in what makes Springfield a stronghold of regular gov- ernment in local affairs. John Pynchon was only thirty-one years of age. The business of administration had closer attention, and the grand juryman was instructed to seek out offenses against the laws of
Hampden -- 7
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the Colony. Richard Sikes was fined for smoking on a hay-cock; Goody Griffith was punished for carrying fire uncovered in the streets ; -and in a multitude of ways it became evident that a strong govern- ing hand had taken hold of the helm. Springfield had a training band, and John Pynchon was elected lieutenant and Elizur Holyoke ensign. Young Pynchon secured from the General Court the loan of a "great gun" for the protection of the town.
In 1653 the town appropriated a tract of land on Chicopee plain to support a schoolmaster, and at a later date Samuel Ely was released from duty on training days if he would agree to keep an ordinary.
A prison forty feet long, with a house for the prison keeper under the same roof, was begun at Springfield in 1661 and finished in 1668. Most of the boards, planks and timbers were sawed by hand. The prison was burned by the Indians in 1675.
Daniel, a Scotch servant, got twenty lashes for profaning the Sabbath. Jean Miller was summoned to answer the charge of calling her husband a "fool, toad, vermine," and threatening him. Samuel Ely was fined for selling cider to the Indians.
An Indian named Aguossowump was flogged for theft. Goodwife Hunter was gagged and made to stand half an hour in the stocks for sundry "exorbitancys of the tongue."
In May, 1653, John Pynchon's lot on Long Hill had been increased by the town on condition that he would buy a flock of forty sheep and sell them as he might to the inhabitants.
About 1659 John Pynchon planned to build the finest house in New England outside of Boston. He made it a combination of gar- rison, residence and courthouse. A Northampton man furnished the brick-in all 50,000-for which was paid over $2,000. It stood where Fort Street is now and for many years was the most outstanding structure in the valley.
The death of William Pynchon, in 1664, caused John Pynchon to make a voyage to England, where he found his estate considerably enlarged by his father's will, but John Pynchon, himself, was rich for those times before this enlargement. Previous to embarking for England he made a will of his own in America, and in that he speaks of his warehouses at Boston and of his wharf and lands adjoining.
Pynchon built a new mill in 1666, and later the town voted one- twelfth part of a bushel for all the grain ground in the new mill.
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Shortly afterward he was voted some land if he would build a saw- mill. "Harry" and "Roco," Pynchon's slaves, worked on the first mill put up at Suffield in 1672. About that time the old road along the brow of Maple Street Hill, through the pines to the dingle was laid out, and on it the house of correction was built. It was found convenient, also, to build a pound on the west side, at the "hay place," which probably was not far from the old upper ferry, opposite Cypress Street.
In 1667, John Pynchon headed a committee appointed at the Bay to lay out lands, admit inhabitants, and complete the town organiza- tion at Quabaug. Thus it happened that the first records of Brook- field are in Major Pynchon's hand writing. His church, judicial, mili- tary, and political duties pressed heavily on him, but his business- like habits enabled him to carry a load which might have overcome a stronger man.
Pioneer Life in the New County
CHAPTER VIII Pioneer Life in the New County
In 1662 Springfield appointed a committee "concerning settling the towns in this western part of the colony into the form of a county." As a result, the county of Hampshire was established in May of that year by the General Court, and it was proclaimed that :
"For as much as the inhabitants of this jurisdiction are increased, so that now they are planted far into the coun- try on the Connecticut River, and by reason of their remote- ness they cannot conveniently be annexed to any of the counties already settled, and that public affairs may with more facility be transacted, it is ordered by this court that henceforth, Springfield, Northampton and Hadley shall be constituted a county, the limmits on the south to be the south line of the patent, the extent of other bounds to be full thirty miles dis- tant from any of the other towns. The said county shall be called Hampshire, and shall enjoy the liberties and privi- leges of any other county. Springfield shall be the shire town, and the courts are to be kept one time at Springfield and another time at Northampton. It is further ordered that all the inhabitants of a shire shall pay their public rates to the county in fat cattle or young cattle, such as are fit for slaughter."
When Hampshire was incorporated it had only the three towns, Springfield, Northampton, and Hadley. Westfield was allowed to be a township in 1669. Brookfield, which originally was included in the Hampshire County area, became a town in 1673, but was destroyed by Indians in 1675. A few of the pioneers resettled it, and a garrison was kept there. Town privileges, however, were not restored until 1718.
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After this new county of Hampshire was formed in 1662, the commissioner and selectmen of all the towns were summoned before the county court for not making out the tax assessment on time. Ensign Cooper, tax commissioner, who was specially summoned to appear, was fined six shillings, eight pence for not responding. The judges continued to have great difficulty in making the town and county officers do their duty for several years. The court found the burdens of administering justice no less severe.
A Hadley man who was to carry the votes for magistrates to Bos- ton failed to do so and was fined, and Anthony Dorchester, of Spring- field, constable, neglected to make returns of warrants for jurymen in 1666. Another Springfield delinquency was having a defective pound for stray cattle, and a five shilling fine was the consequence.
The fence question, which from the first settlement of the valley was a source of trouble, came under the eye of the county court, and it is interesting to note how the judges handled a matter that was the despair of local legislators. Here are some instances quoted from the records of the Hampshire County Court held at Springfield in 1664: John Dumbleton and Thomas Miller were presented to the court for not attending their office of viewing the fences on the west side of the river at Springfield, and the court freed Dumbleton on the plea that he would have attended to the fence viewing but could not get his part- ner to join with him. So Thomas Miller was fined the sum of two shillings for the use of the county.
Anthony Dorchester and Rice Bedortha, surveyors of the high- ways for Springfield, were presented to the court for neglecting their work in the season allotted by the town, "whereby the ways were very bad and dangerous"; therefore, they were fined five shillings.
The jury also presented Captain John Pynchon and John Scott for not maintaining their fences on the west side of the river. The court, after hearing the case and perusing the agreements between Captain Pynchon and John Scott, "did judge the blame of repairing the fences lies on Scott, because, though Captain Pynchon was to allow for mak- ing the fences, yet John Scott who improved the land was to repair the fence. Therefore we judge that John Scott shall pay his fine to the town."
The county court likewise had jurisdiction of the common lands, and were reported to for damages to crops by cattle. These disputes
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in the earlier years of the plantation were brought up in town meeting, and often put out to "two indifferent men." In 1664, John Leonard of Springfield, was fined five bushels of Indian corn to be paid Thomas Mirrick, for letting his cattle loose in the common cornfield.
In March, 1674, Anthony Dorchester was authorized to keep a ferry on the Connecticut, below the Agawam River, and to make these charges : Horse and man, eight pence; foot passengers, two pence ; troopers on training days, three pence.
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PYNCHON MEMORIAL MUSEUM, SPRINGFIELD
Mr. Glover was in court complaining against Robin, the Indian, for stealing three or four gold rings, two half crowns and some knives. When a search was made the rings were found in his wigwam, but he had sold the money to Goodman Ely. However, everything
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was restored to Mr. Glover. The Indian, after being caught and put in prison, made his escape from the jailor before any other pun- ishment could be inflicted on him.
Both the court and the town authorities kept a strong grip on church members in matters of discipline. In 1665 the county court had Walter Lee before it for threshing corn on the Sabbath at Woronoco. We learn by the record that Lee was a hard case. When presented to the court "for passing the Lord's day last winter thresh- ing corn on the Sabbath," he acknowledged it was so, and for calling Isaak Sheldon a member of Old Nick and a member of the Devil, he said that was so, and the court judged him to pay a fine of twenty shillings. It is sad to relate that this did not have a more salutary influence on him.
Pynchon, in 1672, was authorized to apportion land for a planta· tion at Squakheag, which the English called Northfield. A struggling community had been established at Brookfield some time before under the fostering care of Springfield.
The medium of trade in the British colonies was for a long time agricultural products, peltry, and other commodities, including the Indian shell-beads called wampum. Money was seldom seen except around commercial places. From 1640 to 1700 the Massachusetts farmers generally did their buying and paid their debts and taxes with the produce of their farms. Such persons as common laborers, sol- diers, schoolmasters, ministers and magistrates usually received for their services something that was not money. In the remote county of Hampshire, gold and silver were more scarce than in other parts. Church members sometimes found it necessary to pay the sacramental charges in wheat. The Northampton church voted, in 1666, that each member should contribute toward the charge of the sacrament three half pecks of wheat for a year.
The old custom among ministers, of staying at each other's houses in their journeyings, was necessary as well as convenient. They had plenty of eatables, and could easily entertain a minister and his wife, but many of them did not have money to pay innkeepers.
In March, 1673, George Filer, a Westfield Quaker, was pre- sented by the jury for various disorders. Firstly, he was examined "for entertaining Quakers last summer"; he owned that he enter- tained them, but claimed it was a necessity because no one else would
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do so. He said he would own before the world that he is "one of them whom the world calls Quakers"; also he was presented "for staying away from God's public worship on the Sabbath, and likewise he generally absented himself last winter. His speeches have been contemptuous of the ministers of the word and their work, and he seems to be a very seminary of corrupt and heretical opinions tending to poisoning the minds of those who listen to them."
In speaking of the religion of the Quakers, he speaks of it as dis- tinct from that professed by our nation in this country and calls it our religion, that is-his own and such as he. Filer simply was repri- manded for his opinions, but a "five-pound fine, or be well whipped" was imposed for his "speaking against the ministry."
We find so often an unsympathetic hardness in the court dispensa- tions of Puritan New England that we are prone to forget there is another side, yet right on the heels of these attempts in reforming and punishing offenders come some truly Spartan exhibitions of jus- tice. We may not applaud the laws but must applaud their impartial application.
Three years later numerous ministers and judges alike shared the ill-will of unruly spirits. In 1668, for instance, John Matthews was led to the post and severely flogged for his exceeding contemptuous behavior toward Mr. Glover.
From evidence produced and read in this court, it appeared that his manner was odious to a very vile degree, and the court ordered that "John Mathews was to be well whipped on the naked body with fifteen stripes, and that he be bound in the sum of ten pounds for his good behavior in the court at Springfield in September, and that he pay the costs of court charges-twenty shillings."
One of the responsibilities of this John Mathews was the beating of the drum for divine service, and it is sad to relate that these duties did not have a more salutary influence on him. John Webb was before the same court for abusing the constables, saying of them "he would make it too hot for them if he lay there with his neck so streched." Also, he said he could afford to thumb both constable and his man that attended him. For his behavior toward the Northampton com- missioners he was fined forty shillings.
The county court kept a sharp eye on the home and was quick to enforce parental authority. Samuel Ball was ordered to be flogged
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because he used abusive language to his father-in-law, Benjamin Munn, saying that he respected him no more than an old Indian, and exclaimed, "A father! There's a father indeed !"
In 1675 the county court lamented much "idle expence of Precious time," and prohibited tavern keepers from selling liquor to any but "Governors of families of sober carriage." Whenever a town showed signs of relaxation in family government the court would sharply reprimand the selectmen. By order of the court "Nine of the clock" at night was the time at which people were required to go to their lodgings or homes.
The inhabitants of the new towns were industrious and frugal, as a rule, and their lands were productive. They built good houses and barns, made additions to their furniture and implements, and multi- plied their conveniences and enjoyments. The first emigrants to the Connecticut River were fully aware that their products must be sent to market by way of the river, and that their supplies would be received by the same channel. They simply selected a place that was safe. Mr. Pynchon and his associates made no attempt to plant them- selves above boat navigation, and the great falls north of Springfield were an obstacle that prevented any settlement beyond their foaming waters for almost twenty years.
Nearly all the lands in towns bordering the Connecticut River were laid out unaided by any surveyor's compass, and the town meas- urers depended on a measuring-chain, and perhaps a square to form right angles. In general their calculations were sufficiently accurate, though not exact. The north star was sometimes regarded in estab- lishing important lines. The first regular surveyor who had a com- pass and lived in a Connecticut River town was a Hartford man. He bought the compass a few years before 1700.
The early settlers owned fields in common, that were of neces- sity small, and surrounded by a common fence, except where a river, mountain or fence about other land served as a barrier against domes- tic animals. Each proprietor of a common field was to fence accord- ing to the number of acres he held in the field. The place of his fence, like that of his land, was fixed by lot. All fences had for their main object securing the meadows from domestic animals that roved in the woods outside. Some of the meadow fences, and most of the home- lot fences were made of posts and rails, but near the woods a ditch
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was often added. This type of fencing was taken from the English and was called "Ha ! Ha!" Traces of these old "Ha ! Ha's !" can still be found in the woods and brushland east of Longmeadow Street from Colony Hill down past the Longmeadow golf course to the Connecticut line. All fences were expected to be sufficient against horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. Gates were, of course, essential where fences crossed public highways, and these were rather troublesome to travelers. There were gates or bars that gave entrance from all highways into common fields, whether in a village or elsewhere. If a person left open the gate or bars of a meadow, he was to pay two shillings and six pence.
Complaints began to be made very early of dangerous places on the highways, and in March, 1664, the county court appointed a com- mittee to lay out highways on both sides of the river between Hadley and Windsor. Of the six men on this committee, George Colton and Benjamin Cooley were from Springfield. In May a report was sub- mitted which, much condensed, is as follows: "We agree that the highway from Hadley on the east side of the great river, to Fort Meadow gate, is in breadth six rods, and from there to the lower end of the meddow is ten rods." Then, omitting various measurements, we presently arrive where Mount Holyoke joins the Connecticut River. After that we go on with the cartway and come to Spring- field at the upper end of the causeway going down into the town. Then we pass on through Springfield to Longmeadow gate, and from there to the bridge at the lower end by the river's bank, and to Fresh- water River, so-called, and after that to Namerick, where John Bis- sell had a barn standing, then to Namerick Brook, which is the best place for a bridge, and then to the dividing line where the horseway is, and from the line on the west side of the river toward Waranoak and Two-mile Brook, and from there to Waranoak Hill where the trading house stood, and lastly to the passage of the river. Each town was to make its own landing places and provide for their "con- veniency." One of the committee's stipulations for the several ways and bridges was that they should "be made and repaired sufficient for travel with carts." And lastly they added: "We determine that they be done by the towns, at or before the sixth day of June next."
These were the first county roads in Hampshire, and Hampshire included Springfield at that time. They followed the ways previously
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HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
used by the first settlers, and the three towns maintained for some years two roads that averaged nearly forty miles each, and that extended from Hadley and Northampton to the Connecticut line. The large streams, such as Chicopee, Manhan, and Waranoke, had no bridges and it was hard carting on the primitive roads. As for traveling in the forests, those were open and crossed with little dif- ficulty. It was the streams, hills, and swamps that impeded the traveler. The Indian paths between their villages and tribes, which sometimes were followed by the English, were seldom broader than a cart's rut, for these red men of the forest traveled in "Indian file." There was a time when some of the Hampshire men had a project to lay out a way to the Bay for horses and carts, but it was not feasible, and runners did not pass from Hampshire to Boston for many years afterward.
Some of the millstones used in the valley in early days were of the red sandstone called pudding-stone. There were occasions when days would be spent looking for stones that were suitable. In 1666 John Pynchon gave John Webb, of Northampton, twenty pounds for a pair of millstones delivered in Springfield. These were probably sandstone from Mount Tom.
Boards had always been sawed by hand in England. There was no sawmill in Virginia when that colony had been settled forty years, and there were no sawmills in the old colony towns of Massachu- setts for some years, so boards, plank and slit work were sawed by hand. Wages of sawyers were regulated by law in Springfield, Hartford and other towns. At New Haven, the "top-man," who was on top of the log and guided the work, had a little higher wages than the "pit man," who was in the saw-pit below. Two men were expected to saw about one hundred feet of boards in a day when the logs were squared and brought to the pit. The first sawmill in Springfield was built by John Pynchon, in 1667, after the town had been settled thirty-one years. He had previously paid to hand-saw- yers two shillings a day for sawing many thousands of boards. The clapboards of those days, which were split out like staves, helped to supply the deficiency of sawn boards.
A Massachusetts law, passed in 1647, ordered that every town with fifty families should provide a school where children might be taught to read and write; and every town with a hundred families or
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PIONEER LIFE IN THE NEW COUNTY
householders should provide a grammar school and master able to instruct so far as to fit young men for college. There were previously many schools in the Colony, but this was the first law requiring them. By a somewhat earlier law selectmen were to look after the children of parents and masters who neglected to train them up "in learning and labor."
Long before this the Puritans meant that every child should be taught to read, at home or at school, and be able to read the Bible. New England grammar schools, with few exceptions, were Latin and English schools united. Some students were fitted for college, but about nine-tenths were confined to English studies. Before being sent to these schools, children were generally taught to read, at least, in the primer.
In the towns on the Connecticut River schools were commonly sup- ported partly by the parents of the pupils and partly by the town. Schools were not maintained wholly by towns until after much discus- sion and agitation. Persons in moderate circumstances, with large families, wanted free schools. The wealthy, and those who had no children to send, were inclined to oppose them. Few towns would vote for schools entirely free until after 1700, and it was many years after that before free schools became general in Massachusetts.
The laws of the Colony and the votes of towns relating to schools used the word "children," and did not exclude females, yet it was plain that girls seldom attended the town schools. There was no controversy on the subject; it simply seems to have been considered unnecessary that girls should be taught as boys were.
There were many cheap private schools in Massachusetts dur- ing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were kept by "dames," and the teaching was done in their own rooms. Girls were instructed to read and sew, and in some of these schools small boys were taught to read. Children who did not attend school were taught to read at home. Writing was considered much less important, and it was not judged necessary that females in common life should learn to write. As a matter of fact the ability to write would have been of little use to them in former times. Probably, in the period when the War for Independence was being fought, very many of those wives and mothers whose patriotism we praise could not write, but they could read.
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HAMPDEN COUNTY -- 1636-1936
The early school books of New England were the same as those of Old England and were listed in 1690 as the Hornbook, Primer, Psalter, Testament and Bible. These were the only books used to engage the liking of children and tempt them to read. They were sold to the people of Springfield and its vicinity by John Pynchon, from 1656 to beyond 1672. Afterward, to 1680, he had customers for many catechisms, and paper books for writers, but he sold no spelling books and they were little used in the seventeenth century. Arithme- tic was taught, though the books were rare. Hornbooks were not used in Hampshire County after 1700. They contained the alphabet, with a few rudiments on one page, covered, as Cowper says, "with thin, translucent horn," to keep them from being soiled. A book called a Primer has been used by children in schools for centuries. Our early Primers were imported from England, and probably were Puritan Primers. The New England Primer seems to have been pub- lished about 1660, and to have been intended for a child's school book.
One thing that required the town's attention was the management of the turpentine business. The inhabitants were prohibited from "boxing turpentine trees" on the inmost "common," and a committee was appointed to "regulate the drawing of turpentine." The region for operating in boxing pine trees was regulated by the proprietors of the commons, and no one was allowed to work more than one thou- sand new trees and for these there was a license fee.
When our forefathers crossed the Atlantic to establish homes in New England, they brought with them the habits of the Mother Country. The English of that time were addicted to malt liquors, the country was full of licensed alehouses, and an alewife was a woman and not a fish. Inns, taverns and ordinaries abounded. Wine and ale were the principal intoxicating beverages, but distilled liquors also were used. The English, as Shakespeare says, were most "potent in potting." "Drunkenness hath diffused itself over the nation," another authority tells us in 1617.
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