USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 2
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"Blame not the beast that sent me to the dust, For the God of nature said he must."
Rough stone was brought from East Longmeadow, in 1856, and cut at the cemetery for the arch which spans the Maple Street entrance. Later a Norman chapel was given to the cemetery and the crematory was added to the building in 1910. The plant was brought up-to-date by the building of the new columbarium and office building in 1932.
The Cherry Lane Cemetery, because of the destruction of the old burial place on Columbus Avenue, is the oldest established ceme- tery in Springfield. It was used first by the Baptists in 1826 and occu-
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pied the site of their parsonage and barn. Later they had a church at Maple and Mulberry streets, and their present place of worship is the Highland Church, but the cemetery remained where first started. In 1932 the old plot of land received a new lease of life and now is an attractive place with its barberry hedge and border of a continuous bed of plants. The tombstones lie flat on the ground and shield- shaped markers are placed on the graves of the Civil War veterans. The attractive service house, with its flagstone walk and Windsor chairs, contains the burial records for the city. The iron gates were
ENTRANCE TO SPRINGFIELD CEMETERY
a gift from the Daughters of the American Revolution, the flagpole was given by the Sons of the American Revolution, and the picket fence by the Girl Scouts.
Hillcrest Park is a comparatively new cemetery, which has a beau- tiful mausoleum set far back from the main road. Here there are vaults for the interment of the dead, and the park-like appearance is carried out in the use of flowers and shrubs instead of headstones to mark the graves.
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The Young Women's Christian Association building is located on Howard Street and has now about 1,000 members. The residence offers a pleasant home to the young women employed in Springfield. They have kitchen and laundry privileges as well as social and recrea- tional. The cafeteria service may be used by groups not living in residence. The industrial department furnishes club rooms and lead- ership and companionship for the working girl who wishes to join a group. Special classes are arranged for young married women, and the health education department offers its services to all. Over 7,000 young women are yearly using this fine institution on Howard Street.
The Girl Reserves are junior members of high school age organ- ized through schools and churches. Programs are based on the inter- ests of the girls and summer and winter conferences are an important feature.
Brookside Young Women's Camp at Chester, Massachusetts, offers a fine vacation for a small sum, and a chance to participate in a wholesome outdoor life. Swimming and water sports, golf and archery, hiking and camp cooking, music and dramatics, as well as many other interests, are featured.
The Springfield Boys' Club, located on Chestnut Street, serves mostly boys of grade school age and especially the underprivileged boy. Its winter program includes handicraft and recreation and is directed by a superintendent and a board of volunteer directors. It has a large camp at Brimfield, where over five hundred boys are given a good time each summer.
Libraries and Museums
CHAPTER XXXII
Libraries and Museums
Little more than a stone's throw from the busy streets that mark the modern and commercial world of Springfield is another and totally different world.
The transition is almost startling. As the observer walks up lower State Street from Main, he sees all about him the ebb and flow of traffic, the moving crowds of people on the sidewalk, the stores with their merchandise attractively displayed in the windows; to his ears come the sounds of the city, the honking of horns and the shifting of gears, the occasional strident hawkings of newsboys, laughter and chat- ter. At the corner of Chestnut and State streets, as he turns off the roadway and up an inclined walk through a sloping lawn past the statue of St. Gaudens' "Puritan," the city is still about him, although fainter. When he finally passes the northwest corner of the library the city disappears and gives way to a new and entrancing vista.
A long, cool green lawn, like some precious Persian rug of old, meets his eyes. He sees, too, a quadrangle of buildings, almost breathtaking in their beauty, stately in their dignity, and yet warm and inviting. He senses a quiet calm, an unruffled serenity; that this place is a haven of peace from the outside world, a segment of the past in the midst of modernity.
It is here that is located the cultural core of Springfield. On the south side, facing State Street, is the City Library; directly opposite, on the quadrangle, is the William Pynchon Memorial Building, where is housed the fine collections of the Connecticut Valley His- torical Society; on the east side is the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery and the Museum of Natural History; and on the west is the Museum of Fine Arts. If it is true that people of culture who visit a place judge that place by its libraries and museums, then Springfield is indeed favored. For perhaps no other city the size of Springfield
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in the entire country can give its residents better or fuller opportunities in this sphere.
The oldest institution on the quadrangle is a natural outgrowth of the public library movement in New England, which had its incep-
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Part II.
3. That Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfe of the Law (not by fuffcring the faid curfe for us, bat ) by a fatisfactory price of actonement; viz. by paying or performing unto his Father that invaluable precious thing of his Mediatoriall obedience, wherof his Mediatoriall Sacrifice of attonement was the mafter- piece. 4. A finners righteoufneffe or juftification is explained, and clec- red from fome common Errors.
By William Pinchin, Gentleman, in New England.
The Mediator faith thus to his Father in Pfel 40.8, to. I delight to do thy will O my God, jea thy Law is wirbin my beart : (viq.) I delight to do thy will, or Law, as a Mediator.
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LONDON, Printed by F. H. for George Whittington, and James Moxon, and are to be fold at the blue Anchor in Corn hill neer the Royall Exchange. 16.50.
tion at the middle of the nineteenth century. The earliest library in Springfield was instituted some time before 1796, and was a subscrip- tion affair, called the Springfield Library Company. There were about three hundred and twenty volumes in the collection and they were ponderous tomes, consisting mostly of theological works and a few
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novels. It was not difficult to be an ardent library goer in those days, since the library was open only once a month, and then for only three hours. The librarian must have needed a head for figures, as a bor- rower could take out at the same time two folios, or three quartos, or three octavos, or two octavos and three duodecimos, or one octavo and four duodecimos, or six duodecimos.
Fines were assessed on a different basis, too. The time element was not so important and the librarian was rather lenient about whether the book was kept out another month or not. A borrower paid his fine for spilling candle grease on the pages, and the amount of the fine depended on how many leaves of the book had been pene- trated by the spot !
Other small.subscription libraries sprang up with the passage of years. The Franklin Library Association was formed by workmen at the armory. The Hampden Mechanics' Association, organized in 1824, later merged with the Young Men's Institute. These libraries were vastly different from those to which we are accustomed. Their patronage was limited to small, select groups, and their stock of litera- ture decidedly limited.
In 1855, as the library movement gained more impetus, a petition was presented to the Springfield City Council asking an appropriation of $2,000 for the establishing of a city library. That the city was becoming acutely aware of the need for a cultural center is indicated when out of 13,000 inhabitants at that time 1,200 people signed the petition, which was not at first successful. Two years later, with the weight of added public demand, the City Library Association was founded to "establish and maintain a public library in the city of Springfield accessible to all persons." The two words "all persons" indicate the changing trend of thought from the old idea of "privi- leges for the few."
A natural period of organization followed and the various col- lections about the city, including those of the Springfield Institute, the Young Men's Literary Association and the Hampden Agricultural Library were merged and placed in what was then the new city hall. Subscriptions to amount to about $8,000 were asked, and the women of the city held a fair and added about $1,800 more to the fund.
One of the most outstanding personalities in the history of the City Library Association was the Reverend Dr. William Rice In 1861
Hampden-37
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he returned to Springfield from other parts, broken in health, and fully resolved to end his days here. He became librarian, and from then on served thirty-six years in that position. The growth of the library was due in great measure to his almost fanatical zeal on its behalf.
A story concerning Dr. Rice has become a standing legend. When- ever a notable and prominent citizen died, Dr. Rice would escort the grief-stricken widow to the cemetery, and in the capacity of his added office of clergyman, would offer spiritual comfort. On the slow and sad return from the cemetery, in his capacity as librarian, he would eulogize the good qualities and sterling traits of the dead man, and gently express the need of a suitable memorial which would take the form of an endowment for the impoverished and yet infinitely deserv- ing City Library !
The first of these endowments, whether through Dr. Rice's adroit persuasion or not, was $5,000 in bonds from Mary Bryant, in memory of her father, John Bryant. Unfortunately there was a period of financial depression, and the bonds proved worthless. The donor was a conscientious woman and sent an additional sum for other bonds, which are good to this day.
This marked the beginning of many gifts and bequests. Probably many libraries have had larger individual endowments, but few have enjoyed the benefit of so numerous gifts. Of the forty endowments received, many came from people of only modest wealth. A case in point is that of Charles Emery, an armorer at the arsenal, who left most of his life savings amounting to $13,000 to the library.
Among his many other talents, Dr. Rice had an uncanny skill in selecting books. At the time of his death, in 1897, he had gathered together a large and valuable collection of 100,000 volumes, with little literary deadwood among them.
No one showed a truer interest in the progress of the City Library than George Bliss, who served as a director from the beginning of the association until his death in 1873. Although a busy man of widely varied interests, he never failed to be present at the yearly meeting, even when later his health failed and he almost had to be carried into the chambers. In 1864 he presented the "Hatch Lot" on State Street as a site for a library, and in addition contributed $10,000 from his own resources as the first subscriber. Seven years later a library
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building, on the Gothic style of architecture, was completed at a cost of $100,000, and was one of the best to be found in a city the size of Springfield.
The man who raised the bulk of the subscriptions for this building was John L. King, president of the association at that time, and gen- erally credited with being the "father" of the City Library. Mr. King gave generously out of his own pocket, and devoted practically every minute of his time toward appealing for money from others. It is said that King's pockets were stuffed with the subscription papers during the daytime, and that he slept with them under his pillow at night.
A library, like any other institution, changes with the times, and credit must go to John Cotton Dana for recognizing this fact and applying modern methods to the library of Springfield. Mr. Dana succeeded Dr. Rice as librarian after the latter's death, and although he served but a short four-year term, he accomplished far-reaching and significant changes in the library organization. A firm believer in the value of publicity, he stimulated community interest in the library to the utmost, so that the people of Springfield began to estab- lish the reading habit much more seriously than before. He organized a training school to prepare young women for library work, and gathered a collection of inexpensive pictures classified by subjects for general circulation. The fruits of his efforts may now be seen in the fact that the City Library has about a half million of these prints and over 175,000 are borrowed annually.
Perhaps the most outstanding change instituted by Mr. Dana was the "open shelf" system, or the placing of books on shelves where the reader could have easy access to them. Although this sounds only commonplace now, it was a radical step in those days. The books were kept out of sight, and under lock and key, and much time and energy was consumed when the reader had to ask the librarian for a book, and the librarian, after ascertaining whether the book was available, had to make a trip to the rear, unlock the case, and procure it for the reader.
There are various highlights which have occurred from time to time under the public library system that are more or less amusing or unusual. One man took out eighty-eight books at once, to keep six months for heavy literary work ! The story goes the rounds, too, that
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a woman with a mind toward finance drew numerous novels at one cent a day from the Springfield library and rented them to her friends at two cents a day, and further, it is said that she made rather a nice profit before the story leaked out !
By 1909, the City Library was becoming totally inadequate for the demands it was subjected to. As a natural outcome, and under the leadership of Nathan D. Bill, president of the association, branch libraries were opened at Forest Park and Indian Orchard, and five
SPRINGFIELD CITY LIBRARY
years later another branch at Memorial Square, which was made possible by a donation of $60,000 from Andrew Carnegie, in addi- tion to gifts by Springfield citizens. Later the residents of Forest Park, feeling that their library was becoming inadequate, raised among the people of their own neighborhood $45,000 to build an addition.
The present City Library building was erected in 1912 at a cost of $350,000, of which $200,000 was contributed by Andrew Carnegie and the rest by a large number of residents, including many school children, who donated their pennies to the cause. The library interior is split up into various sections; Rice Hall, which is the reference
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room, the periodical room, the art room, the children's room, and others. The various museums, which all come under the City Library Association, are completely endowed privately, but the library itself is maintained by the city, supplemented by moderate endowments from private sources.
The production of literature in Springfield really began with the Springfield "Republican," long the most famous product of the town. The first of Springfield's essentially literary figures was Josiah Gilbert Holland, who was born in Belchertown, but here entered on his career as a moralist, novelist and poet. His local historical romance of the Puritan day, "The Bay Path," was written here, as was the idyll of Kathrina by the "winding and willow-fringed Connecticut," and it was for the "Republican" that he wrote his "History of Western Massachusetts." In Dr. Holland's later career he became editor of "Scribner's Monthly," and he added several novels to his list of fic- tion. "Sevenoaks" is the public's favorite among his books, and in all his writings Springfield may take a just share of pride.
George Spring Merriam, who was born in Springfield, was an author of rare and beautiful gifts, both literary and spiritual. In his "Life and Times of Samuel Bowles" he is said to have produced one of the few absolutely truthful personal biographies linked to the story of the Nation. One of his books was the story of slavery in America, an admirable survey of the striking moral advance of the Nation.
On the death of Noah Webster, G. and C. Merriam became the publishers of "Webster's Dictionary," a Connecticut Valley product. The first edition appeared in 1828 and had been twenty years in prepa- ration. The latest edition of "Webster's New International Diction- ary" was published in 1934, after ten years of hard work by a corps of two hundred and fifty editorial workers. It has over 600,000 entries and 122,000 words not found in any other dictionary.
Another author was Mason A. Green, who compiled an unusually valuable history of Springfield in connection with its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1886. Other historians connected with Springfield are Alfred M. Copeland, George Bancroft, and Charles Henry Barrows. Among the well-known literary preachers was Washington Gladden, who wrote some of his books while a pastor in Springfield. He also edited a magazine called "Sunday Afternoon" and wrote many fine hymns. Charles Goodrich Whiting, for a time
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literary editor of the "Springfield Republican," has produced a num- ber of nature books, among which were "The Saunterer" and "Walks in New England," which were especially popular.
Palmer Cox, an artist-writer for children, taught them moral lessons quite happily through his "Brownies," which are a great contrast to the present barbarous comic strip. Thornton Burgess is well known by children of the present time for his bedtime stories of "Old Mother West Wind" and for his nature work.
The county's most famous writer of dog stories, Albert Payson Terhune, was a resident of Springfield while his father was pastor of the First Church between 1879 and 1884. The author has traveled extensively, was for a time a reporter on the New York "Evening World," and had a reputation as an amateur boxer. His mother was a writer of magazine articles and novels under her pen name of Marion Harland and her famous cook book is still to be found in many homes.
Brewer Corcoran is well known for his Boy Scout stories and Charles Clark Munn for his novels. Franklin B. Sanborn, once on the staff of the "Springfield Republican," was author of the lives of Thoreau, John Brown, Alcott and Emerson. Harry A. Franck, invet- erate traveller and lecturer, for a few years head of a language department in one of Springfield's high schools, is author of many "Vagabond Journeys."
Springfield has been rather fortunate musically in its position half way between New York and Boston, not near enough to either to be reduced to servile subordination, and yet convenient enough to both to make it easy and natural for good attractions to visit the city. In the number and quality of the operas, symphony concerts, recitals and miscellaneous musical entertainments that are offered, it is to be rated among the more favored of the smaller American communities, and these advantages are an appreciable factor in its attractiveness as a place of residence. It is the natural musical center of western Massachusetts, and the spread of a network of good roads has in recent years greatly extended the population upon which it draws for the more important events, both musical and dramatic. On the other hand the music lovers of Springfield can considerably increase their opportunities by easy trips to Northampton or Hartford, in both of which cities first rate concerts are to be heard. The musical life is
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what might be expected of a predominantly American community, not exposed to any special influences, but favorably situated and intelligent and appreciative enough to take advantage of its opportunities. Like other communities in which the Puritan strain prevails, it has approached music from the side of religion and of general culture rather than from the side of æsthetics or of instinctive craving. The standards have been kept high for the reason that even those who are not by nature musical are intelligent enough to appreciate the dif- ference between the best and the second best, and to sustain the best as an invaluable instrument of culture.
The two great facts in the musical history of Springfield, the things that have rather distinguished it among the cities of its class, are the Orpheus Club and the Music Festival. These have served both to stimulate local interest and make sure of opportunities for hearing the best artists in the country, thus setting from the very beginning a high standard of technical skill. The Orpheus Club was founded in 1873 as a men's chorus, its first leader being a talented Dutch violinist of a noted musical family, who had come to Boston as a young man and, after playing for a time in orchestras, had settled in Springfield as a teacher.
Still another outstanding feature of Springfield's present-day musi- cal life is its fine carillon in the campanile of the municipal group. Ernest Newton Bagg, official chime ringer, has his office two hundred and twenty-one feet above the pavements. Here on the twelve bells, the largest of which weighs 13,000 pounds, he plays regularly or rings out special programs for holidays or visiting conventions.
In 1897, the illustrious Scotchman, Andrew Carnegie, came to Springfield for a short stay. His fellow-Scotchmen entertained him royally. Every minute of the great man's time had been planned far in advance. Like other visiting dignitaries, he was taken around the city and shown the sights by the proud Springfield citizens. In the course of the tour he was finally taken to see the Smith collection in the art museum. As he entered the galleries those with him were quick to see that the casual and politely attentive expression on his face had changed to one of keen, flashing interest.
"But gentlemen," asked Carnegie, "why didn't you bring me here first? This is what I wanted to see most of all." The time for luncheon drew near, and his hungry escorts notified him of the fact.
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"Never mind luncheon," he said. "I will eat on the train." Again he turned to his rapt study.
The time came for his train to leave, and his escorts, glancing nervously at their watches, notified him that he would have to hurry to catch it. Carnegie's reply was simple. "I'll catch the next train," he said.
It was not long after his return to Pittsburgh that George Walter Vincent Smith, the owner of the art collection was astonished and delighted to receive a beautiful bronze cast of a man sitting on a rock and known as "Hermes Resting." This Hermes was a replica of the one in the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh after the original one which was found at Herculaneum. Today that figure, a tribute of one lover of art to another, stands facing the entrance to the long southern gallery on the second floor of the art museum, for all to see and admire.
An art critic of distinction has said of Springfield, "there is prob- ably no city of its rank in this country so distinguished for its appre- ciation of art, yet its own production in painting and sculpture is not large. Nevertheless, the city that has given a home to such art col- lections as those of George Walter Vincent Smith has no rival."
As a young man still in his teens, Mr. Smith was a lover of beauty, and every dollar he could lay his hands on was invested in works of art. His early business connection with a prominent importing house gave him opportunities to pick up art treasures which later became the nucleus of his collection. As able a business man as he was a col- lector, he prospered, and at thirty-five retired from business, free to devote his life to study and travel and to the pleasant task of collecting rare and beautiful objects of all periods. The Smith collection con- tains a wide and varied selection of Oriental rugs and European fur- niture, ceramics from China and Japan, American paintings, arms, armor and statues from the Philippines and, in fact, almost all the various types to be found in the corners of the world, far and near.
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