USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 12
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In the William F. Whiting woodland case a green heron and an American bittern may be seen among the tall grasses and cat-tails in a
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swamp, while close by on a water washed stump a barred owl is keenly scanning the surroundings in quest of prey. In a white pine is another barred owl, the mate to the one below, and this particular wise old bird is in rather dire straits, being forced to defend itself from an attack by blue jays. This battle in the woodland is made the more realistic from the fact that a lone crow is calling to his brethren, tell- ing of this chance to enter into a general melée.
A study in the nesting habits of brown creepers and juncos is a habitat donated by Aaron C. Bagg. The nest of the brown creeper is well hidden under the loose bark of a paper birch and one must look sharply to observe it. The junco's nest is located on the ground at the base of a small birch and the mother bird is shown just about to enter the nest.
Other habitats include the nesting of the crested flycatcher show- ing the characteristic habits of this bird in using a castoff snake skin to fashion the nest in a hollow limb.
An exceptionally fine, dark and large otter was taken in South Amherst on June 6, 1931, and it is as fine a specimen as may be seen in any museum. When killed the specimen weighed twenty pounds. A Cumberland turtle was taken at "The Island" in the Connecticut River by Teddy Kozak, Mater Dolorosa School, June 25, 1932. It is believed this is the first record of this southern species coming so far north. A snapping turtle that weighed forty-four pounds was presented by Frederick Bach.
The Joseph E. Chase collection of several thousand tropical and native butterflies and insects is a remarkable display. The death's head moth of Europe, which has upon its back the likeness of a skull and cross bones, is described as having been engraved on tombstones before the advent of Christ to represent the resurrection of life. The Japanese beetle that is causing so much alarm among growers and gardeners, is spoken of as having been first discovered in 1916 in New Jersey. At the time only about a dozen beetles were found. In 1919 it had increased to such an extent that twenty thousand beetles could be collected by one person in a day.
The Gardner M. Sherman collection of Indian relics contains in the neighborhood of 16,000 specimens of implements of war, amuse- ment, manufacture, surgery, art, ceremonial and domestic life.
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From five hundred to one thousand boys and girls are enrolled annually in the Nathan P. Avery Wild Flower Contest and this is an undertaking that has in the past several years opened the way for thousands of young people to see the beauty and wonder in the works of nature.
Burlingham Schurr, the naturalist in charge of the museum, is sponsor for the following lists of the flora and fauna of Holyoke which, with few changes or additions, would answer for Hampden
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, HOLYOKE With Skinner Memorial Chapel on Right
County. Starting in early spring and following through the season we have: Skunk cabbage, marsh marigold, dandelion, hepatica, pussy- toes, horse-tail, bloodroot, bluet, yellow adder's tongue, wild ginger, rock cress, Dutchman's breeches, common cinquefoil, early saxifrage, coltsfoot, rue anemone, shepherd's purse, purple trillium, yellow
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rocket, downy yellow violet, sweet white violet, wood anemone, birdfoot violet, painted trillium, crinkle root, oakesia, dwarf ginseng, two-leaved bishop's cap, Jack-in-the-pulpit, common mustard, shad- bush, common violet, arrow-leaved violet, Canada violet, field sorrel, goldthread, balloon plant, watercress, small bittercress, wood straw- berry, woolly blue violet, black mustard, columbine, early meadow parsnip, moss pink, mouse-ear chickweed, marsh violet, round-leaved yellow violet, foam flower, blueberry, spicebush, white trillium, long- spurred violet, wood betony, daisy fleabane, Whitlow grass, swamp buttercup, star flower, showy orchis, harbinger of spring, Solomon's seal, early buttercup.
Wild geranium, chickweed, cypress spurge, red chokeberry, red baneberry, field chickweed, small-flowered crowfoot, robin's plantain, sow thistle, bellwort, Canada Mayflower, flowering dogwood, pale violet, mountain fly honeysuckle, barberry, pale corydalis, sheep sor- rel, Norway cinquefoil, Indian hemp, pink azalea, wild coffee, common speedwell, mandrake, moccasin flower, blue lupine, nodding trillium, hobblebush, highbush blueberry, celandine, swamp fly honeysuckle, yel- low wood sorrel, wild sarsaparilla, white baneberry, water or purple avens, small green orchis, cut-leaved toothwort.
Yellow lady's slipper, bulbous buttercup, English plantain, large flowering trillium, swamp saxifrage, water buttercup, golden ragwort, Indian cucumber, ginseng, dwarf cornel, sheep laurel, wild spikenard, cotton grass, white mustard, spring cress, creeping buttercup, pepper- grass, high bush blackberry, bullberry, cynthia, red clover, wild stone- crop, ditch stonecrop, tall buttercup, climbing bittersweet, long-fruited anemone, Greek valerian, blue-eyed grass, huckleberry, sweet flag, spearmint, alsike clover, maple leaf viburnum, yellow star grass, cow vetch, large flowered bellwort, false Solomon's seal, golden club, dwarf blue flag, Queen Anne's lace, evening lychnis, yellow water crowfoot, wild asparagus, wild rosemary, poison ivy, frostweed, golden ragwort, sundrop, white swamp honeysuckle, bladder campion, spiderwort, lamb's quarters, long-leaved stitchwort, white clover, Clintonia, Herb Robert, King Devil, American brooklime, pink clover, ragged robin, hawkweed, devil's paintbrush, bristly crowfoot, dangleberry, shrubby cinquefoil, wild licorice, one-flowered cancer root, carrion flower, star of Bethlehem, hop clover, pitcher plant, American buckbean, are- thusa, twin flower, American hellebore, sand spuny, fringed loose- strife, four-leaved loosestrife.
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Blue flag, mayweed, yarrow, common speedwell, marsh bell flower, forget-me-not, mountain laurel, bush honeysuckle, old-fashioned wild rose, Deptford pink, lesser stitchwort, rhodora, cow lily, wild onion, tufted loosestrife, pasture rose, cow parsnip, bittersweet, meadow- sweet, white melilot, black-eyed Susan, self heal, rattlesnake weed, sleepy catchfly, butter and eggs, spreading dogbane, New Jersey tea, Hudsonia, wild lettuce, toadflax, starry campion.
Common fleabane, thimble-weed, charlock, nightshade, purple- flowering raspberry, squaw huckleberry, four-leaved milkweed, whorled loosestrife, alfalfa, partridgeberry, checkerberry, northern bedstraw, viper's bugloss, hedge bindweed, rough-fruited cinquefoil, pink yar- row, wild garlic, spotted cowbane, rattlebox, water hemlock, parsnip, day lily, pale spiked lobelia, great lobelia, evening primrose, great mullein, moth mullein, small blue toadflax, feverfew, swamp rose, common mallow, cow-wheat, shinleaf, large purple-fringed orchis, smaller purple-fringed orchis, coronilla, moneywort, four-leaved milk- weed, poke milkweed, rabbit-foot clover, climbing false buckwheat, Venus' looking-glass, Asiatic dayflower, Indian pipe, chicory, bee balm, snow-on-the-mountain, water lily, hairy germander, upland white aster, Virgin's bower, ram's-head orchis, swamp candles, pigeonberry, rough bedstraw, tick trefoil.
Wood lily, steeplebush, bouncing Bet, double bouncing Bet, white vervain, sweet Cicely, green brier, hog peanut, stinging nettle, broad- leaved cat-tail, narrow-leaved cat-tail, blue vervain, agrimony, star thistle, hedge nettle, yellow meadow lily, calopogon, enchanter's night- shade, purple milkweed, mountain mint, fireweed, pearly everlasting, pale jewelweed, spotted touch-me-not, butterfly weed, lady's thumb, wild indigo, bluebell, catnip, pickerel weed, smartweed, arrowhead, pale St. John's wort, Culver's root, ragged fringed orchis, green- fringed orchis, early coral root, large coral root, false beechdrops, bull thistle, elecampane, Dillen's tick trefoil, prostrate tick trefoil, Canada thistle, monkey flower, Jerusalem artichoke, spotted wintergreen, smooth rose, sweetbrier, blunt-leaved milkweed, pipsissewa, mother- wort, cornmint, bugleweed, Hooker's orchis, richweed, ground nut, thoroughwort, pinweed, elderberry, clammy ground cherry, milkwort.
Long purples, corn cockle, wild bergamot, water plantain, water purslane, tansy, Joe-Pye weed, Culver's root, lance-leaved goldenrod, sharp-leaved wood aster, ladies' tresses, turtlehead, downy false fox-
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glove, meadow beauty, wild bean, Indian tobacco, hairy bush clover, arrow-leaved tear thumb, mad dog skull cap, thread-leaved sundew, spatulate-leaved sundew, round-leaved sundew, broad-leaved golden- rod, rough-stemmed goldenrod, beggar ticks, cardinal flower, fall dandelion, wormwood, climbing wild cucumber, many-flowered aster, heath aster, New York ironweed, late goldenrod, gray goldenrod, bog goldenrod, silverrod, stiff aster, Stuve's bush clover, purple St. John's- wort, larger skullcap, slender gerardia, seedum, fern-leaved false foxglove.
White panicled aster, Tradescant's aster, showy goldenrod, sweet everlasting, white snakeroot, bottle gentian, New England aster, fringed gentian.
A list of the fauna native to Holyoke follows: Spotted newt, two-lined salamander, dusky salamander, spotted salamander, mar- bled salamander, mudpuppy, American toad, spadefoot toad, tree toad, spring peeper, leopard frog, pickerel frog, eastern wood frog, green frog, bull frog, Virginia deer, bay lynx, red fox, gray fox, raccoon, otter, mink, New York weasel, cotton-tail rabbit, woodchuck, gray squirrel, red squirrel, chipmunk, flying squirrel, common mole, star-nosed mole, long-tailed shrew, field mouse, white-footed mouse, jumping mouse, red-backed mouse, house mouse, Norway rat, black rat, muskrat, porcupine, varying hare, brown bat, hoary bat.
The reptiles of the region are: Copperhead, black snake, com- mon water snake, milk snake, checkered adder, common garter snake, ribbon snake, Storer's or red-bellied snake, hog-nosed snake or puff adder, green or grass snake, ring-necked snake, DeKay's snake, common box turtle, eastern painted turtle, spotted turtle, snapping turtle, musk turtle, wood turtle, Cumberland turtle.
For fifty years Dr. William Churchill Hammond has been a leader in musical affairs throughout the Connecticut Valley. He has been both organist and choir master at the Second Congregational Church during that period and has headed the music department of Mt. Hol- yoke College for thirty-five years, besides taking an active interest in many other musical events.
Dr. Hammond was born in Rockville, Connecticut, in 1860. His parents were thoroughly in sympathy with his early desire to make music his career and he received excellent training from the very beginning. The Hammond family enjoyed music and a tale is told of
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a Fourth of July in the organist's boyhood when they all marched down the Rockville street, his ex-soldier father ahead blowing his fife in martial tunes, himself beating his snare drum lustily, and in the rear Mother Hammond thumping the bass drum carried by a brother. At the age of fifteen he began playing the organ in the Congrega- tional Church in Rockville.
As a youth Mr. Hammond had a vision of bringing music to everybody, so that every man, woman and child could share in it, and that has been a part of his life work in Holyoke. The free organ recital in a small New England city was a new thing when Mr. Ham- mond started to work out his life plan. He has now given over eight hundred of them in the Holyoke church. While he was connected with the Smith College School of Music he gave fifty free recitals and the total number given during his thirty-five years at Mount Holyoke College is four hundred.
The full value of this to a small locality cannot be measured. Mr. Hammond has gladly encouraged local musicians to take part in his concerts and has brought in soloists of note to add quality and variety to his programs. In 1896 Mr. Hammond was instrumental in found- ing the American Guild of Organists, and in June of 1925 the degree of Doctor of Music was conferred on him by Mt. Holyoke College.
Mr. Hammond's love of his fellowmen reaches beyond organ lofts and church choirs. Personally one of the happiest and sunniest of men, in church and college he radiates a cheer and force that has made his choirs notable now for many years. He is very fond of flowers and always wears one in his buttonhole. He is fond of color, too, and may have a gay bit of feather in his hatband. His habit of writing his notices on the Mt. Holyoke College bulletin board in inks of the various class colors, so they will not be overlooked, has led to his using the same gay inks for his checks and letters. He is still fond of martial music and his rehearsal of a processional is sometimes very spirited.
The Second Church in Holyoke has heard much besides sacred music and concert pieces. It has heard the music of the people, played by a man of the people. Dr. Hammond is reverent to his art and to the church, but he is, after all, essentially human.
The farthest reaching single philanthropy in Holyoke is the City Hospital, which was first started in the mind and heart of William
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Whiting. A friend of his was taken ill at a hotel in the city and there was no place where he could go, or any nurse to send to his care. Mr. Whiting gathered a group of people at his home in 1891 and as a result the City Hospital was dedicated, free of debt, on June 10, 1893. The Hospital Aid Association, composed of Holyoke women, was organized, and while Mrs. William Whiting was president, at a fair held on her lawn, $15,000 was raised to help the work of the hospital.
HOLYOKE HOSPITAL
It would need many pages to tell at all completely the story of the work done by the Sisters of Providence in Holyoke. They have charge of a hospital, an orphanage for girls and one for boys, a home for old men and another for aged women. All this has been accom- plished since the first two sisters came to Holyoke in 1873.
"Experience in Self Healing" is the title of a book written by Elizabeth Towne, who also publishes the "Nautilus Magazine" in
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Holyoke. This self help magazine, first started in Portland, Oregon, has a wide mailing list, even going to the Fiji Islands, and its list of contributors is equally far flung.
John B. McCormick is a name that should be better known in Holyoke, as he was the Edison of his day. He had been running a small chair factory when his waterwheel gave out and he decided he could improve on it. An Ohio firm seized on his idea, quite literally, and he came to Holyoke, where he invented first the Hercules water- wheel and then the McCormick turbine, said to be the two best water- wheels in the country.
Quite a number of business blocks were built on Main Street in the 'sixties and the section between Dwight and Cross streets came to be known as "Rum Row." A church had been built on Cabot Street, which was the scene of a terrible tragedy on May 27, 1875, when fire caught the altar draperies and seventy-one persons perished. The fire chief, J. T. Lynch, displayed splendid heroism, standing at the door of the blazing furnace-like church and dragging out people from the heart of the flames. Holyoke is proud of his record. After the destruction of the Exchange Block, Parsons' Hall on Race Street was built and many a rip-roaring old-time show was given there. It also sheltered many a heated political meeting. The Whiting Paper Company's business had gone ahead with such tremendous strides that the big No. 2 mill on Dwight Street had been built.
The Allyns and Perkinses controlled the meat business for a time. William Nash, mounted on a wiry old mare, used to drive the west- ern cattle to the respective slaughter houses. The "critters" were about as fierce as tigers to a man on foot. One yellow steer escaped from the Perkins' slaughter house and was later shot on Blandford Mountain. A pair of horns was exhibited with a spread of five feet from tip to tip. Much of this beef was butchered in the afternoon and sold for consumption next day and naturally was very fresh and very tough.
The city hall, for which land was bought in 1871, wasn't finished until five years later. The cost was $400,000, a big project for a city of only 12,000 people, and could only have been carried through by men of great faith in the growth of the place.
Governor Washburn, on April 7, 1873, signed the bill incorpo- rating Holyoke as a city and the first city election was held that fall.
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The recriminations of the present day are weak and feeble compared with what passed between the advocates of W. B. C. Pearsons and R. P. Crafts, candidates for mayor. When Pearsons was elected by a majority of sixty-two the Holyoke "Transcript" came out with a cut of the most exultant, arrogant, loud-throated rooster they could find. Pearsons was reelected and then R. P. Crafts had his turn, to be succeeded by William Whiting in 1878. Mr. Whiting, in his youth was quite an athlete and adept in boxing, getting instructions from a little "English Irishman" named Burke. It was said that "Big Tom" Sheehan was about the only boxer able to hold his own with the future mayor and Congressman. The most admirable trait of Mr. Whiting's character was not his great business ability, but the fact that he esteemed the humblest, hard-working man far above those of wealth and snobbery.
C. B. Harris was a strong character and most successfully con- ducted a store in the early 'seventies. He was something of a wag and at one time gave an organ grinder a dollar to play before the elegant new Hadley Falls bank. President Ranlet came out in high dudgeon and drove the musician away.
W. S. Loomis, publisher of the Holyoke "Transcript," sold out to W. G. Dwight and went into the real estate business and from that to the Holyoke Street Railway in the early days of the horse cars. John MacDonnell used to stand ready on Appleton Street with an extra pair of horses to couple on for the pull up hill. The street rail- way was a great market for the purchase and sale of horses until it was electrified in 1891. When the first electric car came up Dwight Street the sidewalks and windows were filled with people gaping at it. For a long time the cars were a source of terror to the country horses and some old nags never became accustomed to them. In 1893 the electrics went through to Springfield and the next year the line was extended to Mountain Park. This tract of over four hundred acres is the largest street railway park in the world. It has a casino which will seat 2,500 people, where entertainments are given, a dance pavil- lion, restaurant, merry-go-round and "Tango Dip." It has beautiful walks which wind through the gay beds of flowers and past the rose garden and lily pond, and it is a favorite recreation ground for both adults and children.
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W. S. Loomis had long turned his eyes toward Mt. Tom, just on the edge of Hampden County, as a possible asset to the people of the region if only it could be made easily accessible. R. M. Fairfield had bought the summit of the mountain some time previous for the wood on it and was characterized by his wife as a fool for so doing. When she heard that Mr. Loomis had bought the property from her hus- band, Mrs. Fairchild remarked that there were two fools in Holyoke. The electric line from Mountain Park to the top of Mt. Tom, 1,218 feet high, was completed in 1897. With great satisfaction Mr. Loomis took his wife on the first car and remarked that he had been waiting five years for that moment. It is said that he traced out the route of the future railroad himself when he was on a walking trip with a friend, and that the bushes along the way were decorated with pieces torn from his shirt, as he had nothing else with which to show where he wanted the road to be built.
The cars which made the mile trip in seven minutes and fifteen seconds were built for going on an incline. Their names were, quite appropriately, Rowland Thomas and Elizur Holyoke, and they were beautifully painted, outside in blue and inside as near gold as they could be made to look.
A pavilion for shelter which was built when the railroad was finished in 1897 was burned in a fire of unknown origin on October 8, 1900. With it were destroyed many maps, charts and records which had been collected, as well as the telescopes. Immediately, however, plans were made to erect a still larger structure on the summit and soon a building seventy-eight by one hundred and eight feet and seven stories high was ready for use. Piazzas fourteen feet in width sur- rounded the first, second and third stories. The dome, one hundred and one feet from the ground, was covered with gold leaf and the observatory windows were of plate glass. There was a large dining room and an auditorium with ample stage.
This imposing structure was destroyed by a spectacular fire on May 2, 1929, and was followed by a comparatively small building which, nevertheless, is adequate for protection, for observation and entertainment.
Near the entrance road to Mountain Park the trustees of Public Reservations, established in 1891 largely through the efforts of Presi- dent Eliot of Harvard College, have acquired a sandstone ledge on
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which are various dinosaur tracks. These ancient footprints, lying within about 2,000 feet of the highway, are probably the only dino- saur tracks in the world which can be seen in their native setting and are easy of access. George E. Pelissier, assistant general man- ager of the Holyoke Street Railway, gave the ledge and the trus- tees of Public Reservations have bought sufficiently more land so that entrances and parking space can be provided. It is possible that a museum will be established here later. The Springfield Park system bought a large slab of stone with one footprint on it from a quarry not far away, and the college museums have other fossil tracks, but it is not likely that Dinosaur Park, dedicated to the use of the public in 1935, will ever have a duplicate.
There are a number of industrial institutions in Holyoke which are outstanding both through size and through tradition, and they have almost literally made Holyoke the city it is. As they grew, the city grew in size and in wealth, and the people of the city pros- pered. To the outside consumers who use their products, they are perhaps only names signifying the finest in their particular fields ; but to those of Holyoke, they are busy monuments to the men whose vision, industry and money made it possible for them to come into being and take their rightful places in the front ranks of the greatest manufactories in America.
The Farr Alpaca Company came into existence in 1873, the same year that the town of Holyoke was incorporated as a city. The quality of their textiles early made itself known when the company, then only two years old, was awarded the first prize in competition with exhibitors from all parts of the world at the Centennial Exposi- tion. This accomplishment, at such an early stage, augured well for the future of the company.
The policy of giving everyone connected with the organization all the opportunity possible was formulated in the very beginning of the company, when Herbert M. Farr and Joseph Metcalf talked over the advisability of moving Mr. Farr's small textile factory from Hespeler, Ontario, to some live American town and expanding. From that time Farr Alpaca has experienced over fifty years of growth, constantly adding to its mills and to the number and quality of its products. In 1923 the mill completed a 75,000 spindle cotton plant, which is twice or three times the size of the ordinary new cotton mill, and replaced
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its out-moded power plant at a tremendous cost. Of late it has directed its activity toward rayon manufacture. An outstanding personality in the organization was Joseph Metcalf, who lived to see many of his theories, far ahead of his own generation, come to successful culmina- tion. His central idea was based on the premise that the man who contributed capital to an industry and one who contributed labor or brains to the same enterprise, should have the same financial interest in the earnings. In Metcalf's time such a proposition was almost heresy, but he placed it in actual operation with such success that the Farr Alpaca workers on January 22, 1915, wrote: "The employees of the company believe this to be one of the most important steps which has ever been taken in the country to solve the relations between capital and labor." The letter was written after a week's trial and adopted at a formal meeting of the workers.
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