USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 25
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At first the people went to the northern part of the town for the Sabbath services, but as the little settlement grew they came to feel strong enough in numbers to establish preaching of their own. Their first request to the town, twenty-four years after the first house was
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built in the South Parish, was simply for money to support preaching in the winter, when it was such a long and tedious journey to the meet- inghouse already established. Their request was refused and in 1767 they asked the privilege of having preaching two months during the winter season at their own expense, but this, also, was refused. The desire for a separate Sabbath service continued to grow, however, and in order to accomplish their purpose they asked, five years later, to be made into a separate town. When this request was refused, then reconsidered and voted and changed again, the people appealed to the General Court. Finally, at a town meeting held December 24, 1781, a committee from other villages was chosen to consider the method of dividing the town into parishes. The petition for the division of Wilbraham stated that there were forty-seven families within the limits asked for, as well as twenty young men and plenty of unoccu- pied land. They acknowledged and lamented that they were not all of one faith, but expressed the hope that the building of a "House of God" among them would make them of one heart.
John Hale, Luke Bliss and William Pynchon, Jr., of Springfield, constituted the committee and gave some good advice as well as mak- ing the desired division. They expressed their "great unhappiness that a town so respectable as the town of Wilbraham" should have gotten into such a state of affairs and their hope "that love and har- mony" might once more prevail. In accordance with this division, an Act of the General Court on June 20, 1782, created the North and South Parishes of Wilbraham, making Lieutenant Thomas Merrick, by his desire, a part of the North Parish and David Wood, Jesse Car- penter and Jonah Beebe and his lands a part of the South Parish.
About this time Deacon Nathaniel Warriner of the old church died and left four hundred pounds : "To be the one-half given to the support of a gospel ministry, provided that all other churches which are or may be in this town of a different constitution from the standing order of churches in this land shall forever be excluded from receiving any benefit from the same." With their share of this gift and other funds the South Parish had seven hundred and fifty dollars with which to start building a meetinghouse. They did not wait for the church building, however, but in summer held preaching service under some large oak trees and in winter met in private houses.
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The meetinghouse frame was put together by Paul Langdon and raised in June, 1783. It stood on the green facing west and for many years was unpainted. There were rough boards for pews and a box for a pulpit, but it was their sanctuary and dear to their hearts. It was two years more before the church organization was completed and the "Form of Union" signed. Mr. Abishai Colton preached a fast day and four Sabbaths at four dollars for each day. Mr. Ebenezer Kingsbury preached two Sabbaths and Mr. Lathrop Thomp- son ten Sabbaths, and there were others who "supplied." But finally when there were sixty-five members, and a meetinghouse with glass in the windows, they were ready to settle a minister. Rev. Moses Warren had preached for them as a candidate and they gave him the "call" with a vote of fifty-three against seven. He was to have a settlement of £150 with a yearly salary of £70 and twenty-four cords of wood. Wheat, rye, Indian corn, oats, wool and flax were to make up part of his pay. The young man was a graduate of Harvard and had studied theology under Reverend Elisha Fisk, his former pastor at Milford. When he was ordained he wore knee-breeches, long stock- ings and black silk gloves. The services occupied two days and a big dinner was served for the delegates and guests at the house of Colonel Bliss. Tradition says there was not room enough in the fireplace to cook for so many and a part of the dinner was prepared out of doors under the trees.
Church discipline was more rigidly enforced in the early days than it is now and John Williams, who was proposed for communion, confessed to his examiners that he had said "By George." But some witnesses testified that he said "By God" instead, and though one man was sure he only heard the word "By," the committee voted Wil- liams guilty. There followed the usual long sequence of votes and counter votes and disagreements, but the outcome was the reinstate- ment of Williams. He in turn complained to the Hon. John Bliss, justice of the peace, that Elisha Woodward, of Wilbraham, shop- keeper, "did utter profane oaths and curses," saying: "The infernal cuss, John Williams, I mean, if I had him out of the New England states, by G-d I would horsewhip him." He complained in the same manner of Phæbe Barton that she had behaved "rudely and inde- cently," but we do not know what penalties, if any, were invoked.
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Deacon John Hitchcock, a pillar of the church, resigned his office in the midst of the discussions over John Williams, because he felt he had been misrepresented in a report Colonel Bliss had made. He gave as his reasons for resigning, "that he was advanced in life and also on account of some present circumstances." He was the son of John Hitchcock, of Springfield, and was physically the most remark- able man of his day. It was said of him that he could outrun a horse, turn over a hay cart and lift a load of hay. He had a double row of teeth, sound at the time of his death, and he could break a tenpenny nail in his mouth. He said he did not know a man he could not whip or run away from. The day he was seventy years old he remarked to his wife that when he was first married he used to amuse her by taking down his hat from where it hung with his toes and added : "I wonder if I could do it now." Thereupon he jumped from the floor, took off the hat with his toes, came down on his feet like a cat, hung up the hat on its nail, turned to the table, asked a blessing and ate of the repast then ready.
The first treasurer in the parish was Colonel John Bliss, a promi- nent citizen of the town, who had been a member of the Legislature and was a judge of the Court of General Sessions of Hampden County for many years. Elizur Tillotson, Jr., was keeper of one of the taverns in the village. He had had a license, but when he applied for one in 1807 some of the leading men of the parish disapproved of his request and stated that his place was not a proper one for a tavern, nor was his condition such as would enable him to keep a house of any benefit to the public. This statement was signed by twenty men and Tillotson failed to get his license. He was quite angry at those who signed the petition, but chiefly against Judge Bliss, and his actions were such that Mr. Bliss brought the matter before the church in a letter saying that Tillotson had accused him of lying. "And also that if I and General Shepard and one more had been dead or in our graves, where we ought to have been years ago, he should have obtained his license. And further, that on hearing of the death of Captain Stebbins, he observed that the Lord had begun a good work, and that if he would proceed and carry off Colonel Bliss, Com- fort Chaffee and John Goodwell we should have good times; all of which I think are contrary to a Christian profession and I desire the church to take them under consideration and to proceed with Brother
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Tillotson as the gospel directs." Mr. Tillotson was censured and suspended, but at last restored to good standing.
Hampden experienced a strong wave of the revival which swept over New England about 1822, when the Reverend Asahel Nettleton, of Somers, was invited to visit the town after some of the young people had been greatly stirred by attending meeting when he was preaching. Only a few hours' notice was given of his first service, but when he reached the hall it was crowded and "multitudes" were still assembling. They stood at windows and doors and even trees and the roofs of adjacent buildings were occupied by anxious hearers. The preacher's subject was "The ground of alarm to awakened sinners." There had never been a general revival in the place from its first settlement and the scenes were new and interesting to the people. Opposition was offered by the Universalists as well as by the irreli- gious. Reuben Hendricks stood at the door with a club one night determined to break up the meeting, but Captain Comfort Chaffee opened his house and Mr. Nettleton preached there. Opposition somewhat subsided as people came under the spell of the earnest and eloquent preacher who so vividly pictured the joys of heaven and the sufferings of hell. Sobs and sighs accompanied his sermons and his words were echoed by groans of distress. Some were so overwhelmed that they had to be assisted home. Piercing cries of "I am sinking to hell" showed the distress of the sinners. Nearly a hundred were con- verted in this revival and sixty-two joined the church.
All this excitement occurred during the pastorate of Mr. Warren, of whom a few anecdotes are remembered. On a Sunday before Thanksgiving he exchanged with the minister at Somers, Connecticut; and when he finished reading the proclamation of the Connecticut Governor, he added: "God save the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts." His family government was mild and his failure to use the rod is named as the reason for his children's disobedience. Once when he was entertaining a neighboring minister he asked his son, John, to get some cider from the cellar. John replied, "I won't," and his father apologized to his guest by saying, "John is generally a good boy, but he has a very bad cold just now."
Mr. Warren died soon after his wife, in 1829, at over seventy years of age, after being pastor in South Wilbraham over forty years. He was a good man, full of sympathy for the needy and beloved by his people.
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It was during the service of the second pastor, Lucius W. Clark, that the Ladies' Benevolent Society was formed "to raise funds by means of manual labor for the purpose of promoting some benevolent object." In the summer of 1838, after much agitation and collecting of money the meetinghouse was moved from the green where it had long marred the looks of the street. The expense of moving was cal- culated at $50 and the new site, Captain Sessions' corner, cost $300, but the captain pledged $5 for every $100 raised. Extensive altera- tions included rooms built on the lower floor, ten feet added for a belfry and the buying of a bell.
The story of Hampden during the Revolution is a part of the history of Wilbraham, as only church matters were handled sepa- rately. Sometime after the South Parish was set off it seemed to the residents of that part of the town that they did not receive equal consideration with the rest of the town and that fewer of their members were put in positions of authority. Still some of the finest timber for town offices came from there and it was a progressive and prosperous part of the region.
Agriculture was the predominant industry, but the Scantic has fur- nished power for manufacturing since the first sawmill and gristmill were built on its banks in 1772 by Lewis Langdon. Walter Burt and Jonathan Flint each had fulling and carding mills just below the village bridge. A short distance from there a man by the name of Roper had a clover-cleaning mill and also made chains for farm use. The Chaf- fees were early tanners and sold their product to the shoe factories in Wales. There were potash plants and paper-mills, and Marcus Beebe made plows which he sold mainly in the South. Sumner Ses- sions built the first woolen mill in 1843, and after several changes the business passed into the hands of the South Wilbraham Manufactur- ing Company with increased output. Sumner Sessions was a descend- ant of Robert Sessions, who had taken part in the "Boston Tea Party" and came to the town in 1781. The Sessions family has since been prominent in the civil and religious life of the town. The Hampden woolen mills were started by Eleazer Scripter in 1858 as the Ravine Mill. The Scantic Woolen Mill Company made fancy cassimeres and when John Kenworthy got the plant he manufactured yarn, cloth and blankets.
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Soon after 1840 a number of public-spirited men wanted to estab- lish a school of higher grade than the town afforded and gathered funds by private subscription until Hampden Academy was founded in 1844. George Brooks was the first teacher and the school flour- ished until the increasing improvement in the town schools made it unnecessary.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in Hampden dates its history from 1830. Soon after that a church was built and the organization became a strong factor in the life of the town. Robert Sessions, Jr., a farmer in the town, is credited with being the founder.
During the pastorate of Reverend James Hazen the Millerites created considerable excitement over their prophecies of the end of the world. Mr. Hazen felt it his duty to expose the fallacy of this movement and courageously preached strong sermons denouncing it.
A Baptist society and church was organized in 1855, drawing its original membership from the recently dissolved Monson church.
South Wilbraham became the town of Hampden by an Act of the Legislature on March 28, 1878. The town immediately voted $1,000 for schools and $1,000 for the care of paupers.
Repairs were needed in the meetinghouse by 1883 and funds gathered for a new bell could be turned to this purpose because Fran- cis C. Sessions, of Columbus, Ohio, had given the parish a bell. Work and materials were donated, the church was painted and a new carpet laid. A final touch was added with the gift of a chandelier from the Beebe family.
Hampden was sometimes called "Pokeham," either in humor or derision. Poke is the plant "everlasting" or tobacco of the Indians. The name is traceable as far back as the Revolution. Another name, "Rocky Dundy" or "Rocky Dunder," was applied to the mountain regions of the easterly slope. Dunder is German-English for thunder and refers to the noise from the guns of the early settlers.
Goat Rocks is where an early settler saw a goat tumble from the rocks. World's End Brook and World's End Meadow received their names because they are so far from Springfield. The three mountains in the town are called Pine Mountain, Bald Mountain and Mount Vision.
The story of Hampden's "glass steamer" is told to all strangers that come to town and related also by former residents wherever
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they may be. The steamboat had a glass bottom, but the upper part was built of solid brick for the protection of passengers against hurri- canes such as destroyed the mills of the town years ago. It made one trip in July and one in August each summer from Brennan's Dock on the upper Scantic to the Connecticut River and back. It was the only boat of its kind in the world.
A former resident of the town, Anice Stockton, now Mrs. Anice Terhune, wife of Albert Payson Terhune, is the author of two novels of New England life, "Boarder Up at Em's" and "Eyes of the Vil- lage." While the names in them are fictitious it is surmised that early Hampden residents are depicted.
The little red schoolhouse on Glendale Road has been bought by the Art Guild of Springfield and is used by them as a summer art center. In the rear of the building is an old Indian oven which eventually will be placed in the museum at Springfield.
Hampden now has one central school building to which busses bring the pupils. It was the gift of Elizabeth Sessions in 1932 and a part of it is used as a town hall.
A boys' camp is run by Cyrus Gannon, of Springfield, on Glendale Road. It is by an artificial lake and there is a chance for all sorts of sports.
The East Longmeadow Rod and Gun Club, one of the largest of its kind in the State, owns the old Carmody farm on Mill Street. Skeet shooting and rifle shooting are indulged in on Sunday after- noons in summer. Field trials of bird and 'coon dogs are held there in the fall and a few pheasants are raised each year.
A handsome World War Monument, erected by C. H. Burleigh, stands on an adequate plot of ground in the center of the town.
In recent years may of the old homes have been attractively remodeled by prominent Springfield residents for summer homes and several new places have been built.
Holland, Settled by Pioneer Blodgett
CHAPTER XI
Holland, Settled by Pioneer Blodgett
The small Massachusetts town named Holland used to be a part of Old Hampshire County, but now it is in Hampden County and has for near neighbors Brimfield on the north and Wales on the south. Its area is about twelve square miles.
Governor Winthrop secured from two Nipmuck Indians a deed of land about ten miles square around the black lead mines in the vicinity.
Here were hills and valleys heavily covered with timber and the streams and ponds were full of fish. Soon the earliest settler, Joseph Blodgett, arrived. He was married in 1719 and it seems likely that he went from Lexington to Brimfield shortly after his marriage. He had seventeen children, eleven of them sons. Beyond Brimfield Vil- lage is Steerage Rock with its watch-tower. Northward the eye roams to where Monadnock in New Hampshire looms in the distance and easterly Wachusett with its summit house can be distinctly seen. On every hand are deposits of glacial drift that form much of the surface. A village of Indians is believed to have been located on what is known as Curtis Island, near Five Bridges Corner, and another was on Indian Field Hill. Arrowheads are found in the region and some wigwams stood on or near the shores of the ponds, where food was plentiful. The cleared patches about it were sandy or loamy and easily worked by the squaws for raising corn and beans. According to tradition there was a natural cavity in a ledge at the northwest corner of Holland that was used as a pot for cooking by heating the stone.
Holland derived its name from Lord Holland who, as Charles James Fox, won America's affection as an eloquent defender of its rights. The first town meeting assembled in July, 1783, and among other things made choice of a constable and a tything man. Also they chose fence-viewers and voted that the constables warn town meetings by posting a copy of the warrant on the meetinghouse door. They
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made choice of a "hogreaf," that is, a man to look after stray hogs. It was voted that swine could run at large when properly ringed and yoked, and they chose Sherebiah Ballard for sealer of weights and measures. They ended by voting that the annual town meetings be on the first Monday of March.
Preaching services were held in the homes at first, but a meeting- house was built in 1764 and a Congregational church organized in 1765. The first regular minister, Reverend Ezra Reeve, was ordained the same day and faithfully served the people for fifty-three years.
In 1760 the General Court, in regulating the observance of the Lord's Day, enacted "that each town and district within this province shall chose certain persons of good substance and sober life and con- versation to be wardens of each town or district, and all such wardens shall be under oath to serve in such office." They were obliged to inspect inns or houses of public entertainment on the Lord's Day and in the evening, and were to examine persons suspected of unnecessary travel on the Lord's Day. A warden was to carry a white wand not less than seven feet long. Profaning the Lord's Day made the offender liable to a jail sentence of five to ten days. Tything men were to have a black staff two feet long tipped with brass. Refusal to serve as tything man subjected the offender to a fine of forty shillings. Maintaining order in the meetinghouse came to be their chief function.
Many of the early settlers of the town buried their dead on their homesteads, a custom very general here in New England that often led to losing all knowledge as to where persons were buried. The Indians had a burying ground in Holland in a pasture back of a house and tradition says that the Indians sometimes came back to visit these graves. In 1763 an acre of land for a burial ground was voted and here are the oldest graves of white settlers, but no plan of the cemetery was made to show the position of graves and who was buried in them. Thus, the graves of many soldiers of the Revolution have been lost so that only eight graves of that war are known. An old hearsehouse used to stand on the north side of the roadway not far from the gate. It was later sold and others took its place. The years went on and in 1866 we find the following: "voted to buy a good decent hearse forth-with."
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Holland became a town in 1836. Some interesting notes about a Holland mill are these: Mr. May was developing the power and his neighbor, Mr. Back, was sceptical. He didn't believe there was suf- ficient water to grind corn and he ridiculed the builder. When the mill was completed, just to make merry with the miller and demon- strate the shortcomings of the mill, Mr. Back sent his boy, Harding Gates, down to the mill with a peck of corn to be ground. He was greatly surprised when the little boy soon returned with the meal and he had to admit that the mill could grind. That was the first grist which came to the new mill.
In later years this son, H. G. Back, and Gardner Wallis quarreled and they agreed never again to speak to each other. But shortly after, Mr. Back was crossing this mill pond on the ice when he broke through. He was unable to get out and he looked around and saw Gardner Wallis in his yard above the pond. He remembered their agreement never to speak to each other, but rather than drown he shouted to Mr. Wallis for assistance. Mr. Wallis rescued him and the two men became staunch friends. Mr. Back in telling of the acci- dent in after years would close the tale as follows: "Don't never say you won't say nothing to nobody, for you don't know how soon you may have to."
When South Brimfield, which included Holland and Wales, was incorporated into a town the colonies had just secured their freedom from England and they were very jubilant over it. In celebrating an event so significant and glorious it was natural that they should be joyful not with explosives only, but with what would tend to hilarity. In colonial times England had kept her colonies supplied with rum and molasses from her West Indian colonies and the grocers well knew what commodity they could sell readily and realize a good profit. Testimony is not lacking with regard to the general use of alcoholic stimulants, especially rum at celebrations, Fourth of July, Cornwallis Day, election day and the like, when many of the gathering would be in a condition not strictly sober. Pastors on calling days would return home in a state which showed that they had partaken of the cup which cheers, and the adage "like parson, like people" proved too often true.
Before the district of South Brimfield was incorporated in 1762 it had two schoolhouses, which were torn down in 1783 and four
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new ones built in their place. These buildings were of wood, and not being painted, soon were weather beaten on the outside and beaten by rough usage on the inside. This explains why the district had to rebuild its schoolhouses again in 1800. One vote records that a "bridle path" was to be bulit in 1789 from Dr. Thomas Wallis' to the south schoolhouse. One schoolhouse was built of brick which were probably made in Holland. It seems to have been more pretentious than some of the others for the floor was inclined, each row of desks being higher than the row in front.
The old district schools served their day and generation well, but they would have served the public better if they had not been hornet nests of factions, which trained politicians among the voters, but often defeated instruction for the pupils. When harmony prevailed under efficient teachers good progress was made, but otherwise chaos reigned. Young men from seventeen to twenty years frequently attended in the winter and young women, too. This made the district school a social as well as an educational center, which with its school exhibi- tions and debates furnished mental stimulus for young and old. Neigh- borhood prayer meetings were sometimes held in them as was the old- fashioned singing school.
One of the teachers that the southwest district secured in later years was Daniel H. Chamberlain, who became Governor of South Carolina during Reconstruction days. It was his first effort at teach- ing and he was regarded as a success by the town's people.
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