USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 22
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Hampden-52
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business men going as rapidly as this method of travel would permit from one manufacturing town to another, or to leading commercial centers such as Boston and New York.
The fact that waterpower had been so largely developed in the region between Brimfield and Providence gave special importance to the Springfield and Providence stage line and it seems to have been the chief reliance for mail transportation for at least twenty years.
The first Brimfield postmaster was "Squire" Stephen Pynchon and the post-office was kept at his house; for a good many years a box two feet square was large enough to hold all the mail. The second postmaster was appointed in February, 1823, and the office was kept in the hall of his house. Very little space at the foot of the stairs was needed for the purpose, the bulk of the mail was so small, and thus it continued to be during all the earlier periods. But the importance of letters forming the only and infrequent connection between friends enduring the separation not only of distance, but difficulty of travel and communication, cannot be realized. The contents of the mail bags differed from those of the present time in appearance, as well as quantity. Letters were written on letter-size sheets of paper, which were folded and sealed and sent without envelopes or stamps, and the amount of postage was marked in the righthand upper corner. Rates for postage were according to distance for single letters, and the rates were double for double letters. They were an expensive joy at the lowest and were not to be lightly dispatched.
The charges, however, were more often paid by those who received them than by the senders, and people were allowed to keep an open account with the postmaster. An account at Brimfield shows a bill of a year's standing. A record in 1835 shows charges of six cents, ten cents, twelve and one-half cents, eighteen and three-fourths cents and twenty-five cents for one letter. For two letters there were charges of sixteen cents, twenty cents, twenty-eight and three-fourths cents, forty-seven and one-half cents. Both weight and distance seem to have been calculated in the charges. One cent was charged for a paper.
In bringing this drama of the highways to an end, I have chosen to dwell on the charm of the Long Hill Road, which winding for a mile, climbed the ascent of the rough mountainside from the Quaboag valley to the level of the Brimfield plateau, and was a distinctive fea-
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ture of the route between Palmer and Brimfield. A long mile the ascent seemed, but going down was speedy and sometimes exciting ; yet in spite of the absence of brakes in the earlier years, and the fact that drivers were in the habit of taking loads of twenty passengers at full speed down the hill, no accident ever occurred. The only approach to catastrophe was when the load was light and a lone passenger suf- fered violent contacts of Sunday bonnet or beaver hat with the roof of the stage, as the vehicle bounded over the "thank-you-ma'ams" 01 water bars with which the road was generously provided. The driver, while duly conscious of his responsibility for life and limb, scorned to consider the danger of injured headgear or wounded pride, even if he did not sometimes take a little wicked pleasure in exercising his command of the situation.
There was real peril in winter on a section of the first "old road" between the schoolhouse and another building when there was ice under foot. Then the heavily loaded coach descending the ice-coated road was in danger of sliding into the ravine below. At such times a pair of oxen was kept in readiness to be hitched by the yoke to the hind axle of the coach, while the owner of the oxen by a dexterous wielding of his whip would skillfully manage this curious combination of brake and rudder until the descent was safely accomplished. A morning ride in summer down the Long Hill gave whoever had gained the coveted top seat a glorious exaltation. The scenery was at first picturesque and then grand.
To begin with, the traveler looked down on either hand into deep ravines with their rushing brooklets bordered by the tangle of the wildwood. Farther on there opened to view a noble panorama of lofty hills raising their forest-clad cones against the western sky. The exhilaration of motion through the morning air, the sense of sharing in Nature's renewal, gave a new infusion of the joy of living, while the world seemed freshly created.
When the Boston and Albany Railroad was built the Brimfield people are said to have opposed it because the use of steam would lessen the value of horses and the price of oats, but in 1872 the town subscribed $25,000, hoping to secure railroad connections with Palmer through the Hartford and Erie Railroad Company.
At the annual town meeting, in 1854, Samuel A. Hitchcock, a retired native of the town, made a proposition to establish a free
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high school, but it wasn't accepted, and the next year he offered to give $10,000 as a permanent fund, provided individuals would sub- scribe $4,000 toward the purchase of land and erection of a building. The money was over-subscribed and in subsequent years Mr. Hitch- cock gave other large sums. The name at first was the "Brimfield Free Grammar School," but later was changed to the "Hitchcock Free High School."
The Olympus Club was started about 1857 for the purpose of cleaning the sidewalk of snow during the winter season. The same year saw the organization of the Brimfield Thief Detective Society for the protection of its members. It had a board of directors and a "pursuing committee."
About 1820 the Brimfield Literary Association possessed quite a collection of books, but they became weary of the care of them and they were sold at auction. The town now has a beautiful library building of field stone, called the Danielson-Lincoln Memorial. It was given by James D. Lincoln, a jewelry manufacturer of Wrentham, in memory of his mother, Sarah E. Danielson, and of his wife, Eliza F. M. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was a native of Brimfield, but left town when a boy of ten and his mother died when he was so young that he could not remember her. The Danielson family held the thirty- ninth grant of land in the town and the library is built on the home lot, literally in the orchard. Sarah Danielson, who afterward mar- ried a country doctor, was a great social favorite when she lived in Washington, and two admirers are said to have fought a duel over the privilege of dancing with her. The library building was designed by Professor Arthur Houghton, chairman of design in the University of Manitoba. A feature of the interior is an ample and hospitable fireplace, "the hearthstone of the village." The flagstone path to the door was the gift of Mary Knight Hyde, of Warren.
For about thirty years after its dedication in June, 1904, the library had an unusual librarian in Miss Mary Anna Tarbell, a native of the village, and one who loved its history and its people. She was not satisfied simply to deal out books, but interested herself in the whole life of the town. Exhibits of grapes and apples were held in the library and she availed herself of traveling art collections. The famous Steerage Rock of Brimfield is appropriately used on the library book plate.
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An interesting feature in Brimfield not found in other towns is a burying ground for horses, surrounded by a stone wall built in the shape of a horseshoe. Here James A. Hoyt has buried some of his faithful friends who served him well for many years. Daisy and Jerry were both over thirty-two years of age when they passed on and had enjoyed a few years of good pasturage after many spent in the lumber business.
Chester, With Its Emery Mines
CHAPTER VII Chester, With Its Emery Mines
The town of Chester is located in the extreme northwest corner of Hampden County and Blandford on the south is the only town in this county which it touches. The other bordering towns are in Berkshire and Hampshire counties. Chester was originally called Murrayfield and included Huntington and nearly half of Montgom- ery and the southeast corner of Middlefield. Murrayfield was No. 9 of the ten townships sold at auction by order of the General Court in June, 1762. It was estimated to contain about 32,000 acres of land. In 1736 a grant of 4,800 acres had been made to David Ingersoll, of Westfield, in exchange for lands in Berkshire County which were wanted for the colony planned for the Stockbridge Indians. For the same purpose Joseph Green and Isaac Walker, of Boston, had traded their holdings in Berkshire County and received 2,000 acres in the east part of the township. About the same time Rev. Stephen Williams, of Springfield, petitioned the General Court that the heirs of his father, Rev. John Williams, of Deerfield, might receive some land in recompense for the expense his father had been put to in entertaining Indians from Canada. He received seven hun- dred acres out of No. 9, in the portion now the town of Huntington. There were a few other grants of similar sort, but the most compli- cating thing to the proprietors who purchased the big tract was the fact that nineteen settlers with their families had already taken pos- session of various areas, erected their dwellings and cultivated land. Some of them had been there for two years at least.
In the fall of 1762 the proprietors, John Chandler, of Worcester ; John Murray, of Rutland; Timothy Paine, of Worcester; and Abijah Willard, of Lancaster, employed two surveyors from West- field to lay out their holdings. They surveyed one hundred and twenty lots of one hundred and eight acres each in the center of the township,
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which is now known as Chester Center. No roads were surveyed or laid out, but an allowance for roads was made by adding two acres and eighty rods to each one hundred-acre lot. At a meeting of the proprie- tors held at the inn of William Lyman in Northampton, January 5, 1763, fifty-one men drew lots and were admitted as settlers on condi- tion that each one within the space of three years should build a dwell- ing house, twenty-four by eighteen by seven feet, and have seven acres of land cleared and fenced. They must also within three years settle a "Protestant minister of the Gospel." Only thirteen of the nineteen settlers who had taken up land before the proprietors took possession were allowed to draw lots, and of these only seven were permitted their one hundred acres where they had already made their homes. The remaining six were neither permitted to draw lots nor keep the lands they had already worked on, but three of them remained and purchased farms. The other three left the region. No reason is given in the records why these nineteen were not all treated alike.
It appears to have been the policy of the proprietors to so locate the settlers as to secure the settlement and cultivation of lots in all parts of this first division. Settlements had already been begun on the Ingersoll tract, which lay nearer Westfield. The early arrivals were many of them adventurers seeking cheap land and most of them were poor. Some Scotch came from Blandford and from Pelham, and a few men were from Rutland, Lancaster and places in Connecticut. Stephen and Timothy Lyman, of Northampton, packed their worldly effects into a chest, and carrying it between them, one hand grasping a handle of the chest and the other an ax, made their way on foot to the highlands of No. 9. John Smith, another settler, also from Northampton, was said to have been a man of extraordinary strength and physical endurance. He carried a five-pail iron kettle on his back all the way to his new home.
The first houses built by the settlers were rudely constructed. A huge stone chimney went up through the center of the house with a spacious fireplace in each of the principal rooms. These were plenti- fully supplied with wood in cold weather, but even then often it was only with the aid of screens and high-backed settles that the inmates of these houses could keep themselves comfortable while hovering around the blazing fire. Few of the houses at first had glass windows. The doors were large and heavy, hung on wooden hinges and were
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fastened with great wooden latches, which were lifted from the out- side by pulling a string called the latchstring. This passed through a small hole in the door, just above the latch, and at night the door was made secure by drawing in the latchstring. To say "You will find the latchstring out" was an invitation to come and an assurance of welcome. Tallow candles were a luxury and a lighted pine knot served well for a torch to go about at night. The preservation of the household fire was a matter of great concern. To lose it involved a journey to the nearest neighbor to borrow live coals and the nearest neighbor might be half a mile or more away. It is said that one of the early settlers brought the household fire with him when he came with his family, carefully preserving it during a journey occupying several days.
Furniture was rude and homemade, and kitchen utensils few. Clocks were rare and people learned to judge time by observation. A noon mark cut on the door or window sill served like a sun dial in fair weather. Twenty-five years after the settlement of the town, Pearly Cook, a young unmarried man, came alone into the region to make his home. He built a rude house and lived like a frontiersman. Neither pails nor pans were to be had, so he cut the butt of a tree into short blocks, which he hollowed out into troughs for milk pail and pans. He finally succeeded in getting a large iron spoon with which he skimmed his "pans" of milk and stirred the cream into butter.
A minister lot of one hundred acres was laid out by the first sur- veyors and eight acres for "a meeting-house place, training field and burying place." This was where is now Chester Center and the meetinghouse was erected in 1767. It was forty-five feet long, forty feet wide and the posts were twenty feet high. The frame was set up and boarded and shingled and the doors hung by the proprietors according to agreement, but several years passed before the inhabi- tants were able to complete the structure. In cold weather preaching, as well as town meeting, was often conducted in a tavern or private home. A schoolhouse was set on this land in 1783.
The front door of the meetinghouse was on the north and there were smaller doors on the east and west. Each of the proprietors reserved pew space for himself. John Murray's was seven feet long by six feet wide and was at the right of the front door, while Timo- thy Paine's, of the same dimensions, was on the left. John Chandler's
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was eight feet long and six wide and was located at the right of the east door, and Abijah Willard's, of the same size, was built opposite. The windows were put in one at a time, as the town could afford it, and were boarded up during the winter.
The proprietors sent a petition to the General Court, in 1763, tell- ing of their dissatisfaction with their grant because of its being so mountainous and "divided into three parts by three very rapid, rocky rivers, the banks of which rivers are so steep and rocky that it is almost impossible to pass from one side of said rivers to the other"; and that they must necessarily expend great sums of money in making roads over mountains and building expensive bridges over the three rapid rivers. They asked that either a part of the sum paid by them be refunded or they be given another grant near their township. This latter plea was granted, but the proprietors never built the roads or bridges and the settlers, in 1779, sent a petition of their own to the General Court. By this time Chandler, Murray and Willard had left the country as Tories and had been forbidden to return, so on Timo- thy Paine came the burden according to the decision of the court and several lots belonging to him were sold to pay for building a bridge.
The proprietors had called the town in No. 9 Murrayfield and under that name it was incorporated October 31, 1765. But another town in Hampshire County was called Myrifield, afterward Rowe, and on account of the confusing of the two, as early as 1775 there was some talk of changing the name of Murrayfield. One town meet- ing voted to change to Mount Asaph, and another decided Mountfair was preferable. Still later Fairfield was the choice of the town, but the General Court gave it the name of Chester.
The first sawmill in town was built by John Chandler in 1764 at his own expense as the proprietors had failed in living up to their duty of establishing one. It was south of the meetinghouse on Nooney Brook. About 1765 a gristmill was built on the left bank of the Mid- dle Branch. This was under the auspices of the proprietors and was probably the first gristmill in the town. The first vote of the incorpo- rated town with regard to schools was taken in 1769, when it was voted not to raise any money for schools that year. But the town was not as indifferent to education as it sounded for they soon voted four pounds for schools, to which they added eight pounds the same year. When the town pound was built in 1774 it cost as much, twelve
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pounds, as was voted for schools that year. Another interesting vote gave a bounty of twelve shillings for wolves' heads. At this time no person was qualified to vote in town affairs unless taxed for £20 or more. There were seventy-six polls, but only forty-nine qualified voters.
The subject oftenest before the town in the early days had to do with the meetinghouse or with the preaching. The settlers were spread over a large territory without good connecting roads or bridges and it was a hardship for many of them to go up to the old Center, in some cases eight miles, in all weathers. So at various times other places were selected for holding Sabbath worship, a favorite one being Isaac Mixer's Tavern on the east side of the stream north of what is now known as Norwich Bridge. For a while they met three Sabbaths out of seven at the dwelling house of Israel Rose and for a time one- half of the preaching was to be at Ebenezer Webber's barn. Finally, discussion became so warm over the choosing of places to meet that Captain Nathan Leonard, of Worthington; Lieutenant Nathaniel Kingsley, of Becket; and Deacon Benjamin Tupper, of Chesterfield, were called in to decide and they settled the matter for three years by appointing the services two out of three Sabbaths at the meeting- house and the third at Mixer's.
Reverend Aaron Bascom was ordained and settled as minister on December 20, 1768. He received a settlement of £70 and a salary of £40 a year, which was to be increased yearly by £5 until it reached £60. Firewood was later added by his request. His ordination was accompanied by the usual feasting and drinking as evidenced by bills brought in to the town for keeping people and horses, and for men and wine. James Hamilton received the sum of eight shillings for going to Brookfield and Weston after ministers. The towns were required by law to support preaching, but it was often difficult to har- monize the various ideas and beliefs in one unit. The Scotch element in town was quite large and they would naturally prefer the Presby- terian form of church government, while the English leaned toward the Congregational. Compromises were effected and an agreement containing fifteen articles was drawn up "under a solemn sense of the importance of peace and union among churches."
Church discipline was strong from the first. A scandalous report that Jonathan Wait and his wife had taken undue toll at their grist-
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mill had to be investigated. Caleb Bascom was dealt with for the excessive use of intoxicating liquor. Abraham Flemming was sum- moned before the pastor and elders for fighting, and on confessing his fault he was forgiven. Timothy Smith was complained of by his brother for "profane swearing." Timothy refused to acknowledge his fault and was excommunicated, but afterward his heart softened, or the odium was too much to bear, and he repented and was taken back into the fold.
When James Holland settled in Murrayfield he built his house on an elevation a little way east of the Middlefield Road. Some dis- turbance of the elements unroofed the dwelling soon after its complet- tion. Surveying the ruins after the gale subsided he remarked to his young sons: "We will move the house down the hill into the brush out of the range of the wind." For James Holland to resolve to do a thing was to do it; and the house, with the simplest and rudest mechanical appliances, was gently moved, with no assistance other than that of his boys, down the slope to a sheltered nook, where the violent winds no longer annoyed and vexed him.
James Holland was a Presbyterian, but when an itinerant preacher named Thrasher came to supply the wants of the followers of John Wesley, Holland was urged to attend one of the services and at last he complied. In the course of his sermon Thrasher exclaimed : "You miserable, rebellious sinners, unless you repent God will shake you over hell as a dog would shake a woodchuck." To the orthodox, devout mind of James Holland, this illustration seemed coarse, vulgar and utterly lacking in that reverence which is due the deity. Quickly uprose this descendant of the reformers of Scotland and sternly said : "Thrasher, you have said too much ! Sit down. If you don't sit down I will sit you down." The significant gesture that accompanied these words indicated to Thrasher that he had better obey and he sat down and the exercises of that meeting were abruptly brought to a close.
Isabella Walker Quigley, the wife of James Quigley, carried heroic blood in her veins. Her father was the near kinsman of George Walker, the famous defender of Londonderry, in the war between James II and his son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange. In colonial times the Walker family received considerable grants of land in the District of Maine on the southwest side of Penobscot Bay, and
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while Isabella was still a young girl, her brother, in company with several associates, commenced a settlement on these lands. The times were perilous and the location was a dangerous one, as there was an almost constant state of hostility between the inhabitants of New England and the French in Canada. To insure the safety of these pioneers in the wilderness a blockhouse was erected.
On a certain occasion, during the French and Indian War, indica- tions not to be disregarded were observed that hostile Indians, intent upon mischief, were lurking in the woods, waiting for a favorable opportunity to make a descent upon the settlement. Being obliged to procure forage for their cattle at some distance, the few men left in the morning, giving strict injunctions to the women, in case of the appearance of savages, to retire within the fortress and give the alarm which had been previously agreed upon. Nothing occurred to excite the attention of the women until late in the afternoon, when their suspicions were aroused by the appearance on a near hillock of an evergreen bush, which they had not previously noticed. Presently it approached nearer and similar bushes also made appearance. Clearly something was wrong. The blockhouse was immediately barricaded and the alarm given and preparations were instantly made to give the redskins a warm reception. It so happened that one of the women had been boiling soft soap in a large caldron at the blockhouse, and now, while scalding hot, rye flour was added to the liquid to render it adhesive. The blockhouse was so constructed that the second story projected several feet over the lower one and was pierced at intervals with port holes for the purpose of dislodging any enemy who should be able to reach the side of the building. To this second story the mixture of soap and rye flour was instantly conveyed. With a ladle in her hand the courageous girl Isabella, just entering her teens, took her station by the port holes and awaited the assault of the foe. At the same moment the savages threw aside the bushes that had con- cealed them and made a rush for the blockhouse. In the dim twilight Isabella poured ladleful after ladleful of the seething, bubbling mix- ture of soap and rye flour through the portholes upon the upturned faces and half naked bodies of the savages. Wherever it touched it stuck. With terrific yells and shrieks they started for the woods and were seen no more. Years afterwards, upon the peaceful heights of Chester Center, Isabella Walker Quigley would narrate this and other
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adventures among the Indians in the wilds of Maine to a group of interested and delighted grandchildren.
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