USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 28
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The Longmeadow Historical Society had made and sold the "Longmeadow Plate" of blue Wedgewood and in December, 1912, published for one day only "The Town Crier," a newspaper which sold for fifty cents.
The new town hall of Longmeadow gracefully fits into its Colonial background and fittingly supplements the other public buildings. It is of handmade water-struck bricks over a steel frame and has con- crete floors. It was designed after the style of Merchant Colton's residence and the doors have witches' crosses on the lower half. Semi-
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circular walks and three-tiered broad brownstone steps quarried in the town lead to the doorway. The interior has pine panelled walls and wide fireplaces. It is furnished with trestle tables and ladder-back and Windsor chairs.
The old white church which was erected on the village green in 1767-68 was moved about 1875 to a portion of the burial ground directly east of the original church site. In 1933 it was completely renovated and restored to true Colonial lines and is the oldest church building in the county. The church program makes use of the com- munity house for its educational and social program. This house was built by the church in 1921 and later sold to the town.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic parish built a new Gothic style church in 1931, which took the place of the old remodeled school building that had been used by them since 1870.
The first service of an Episcopalian group was held in a store in the Chaplin Building, but within six months a larger place had to be secured. In the summer of 1924 a part of the large edifice planned was erected and in 1930 foundations were laid for the complete church. St. Andrew's parish numbers about three hundred and seventy-five people and land has been given by the Bacon family for a parish house or rectory.
A group of Christian Scientists living in Longmeadow felt they were great enough in numbers and interest to hold services of their own, so in 1924 they effected an organization and secured an unoccu- pied house to meet in. In 1927 an addition was built on the south side of the house, so now the auditorium will seat two hundred and fifty people.
To further the interest of dramatic art the Longmeadow Players organized on October 7, 1925, and a great deal has been accomplished by them. A recent event was the drawing together of all the players' groups in the vicinity, which resulted in a permanent organization.
The first Boy Scout troop was formed in Longmeadow in 1915 and since then they have had an up and downhill career. Now there are several troops, eighty-one members in all, and they have a Boy Scout cabin on Provin Mountain. There are two Cub Packs for boys under twelve years of age, with sixty-two members.
The Longmeadow Maternal Association, the oldest woman's club in America, was founded in 1835 by thirty-one pioneer women who
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banded themselves together "to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Meetings were to be spent in prayer, reading and conversation, and once a month parents were privileged to bring female children and male ones not over twelve years of age. The association has now a membership of over three hundred and any Longmeadow mother is eligible to join. It is active in all phases of community welfare.
The Longmeadow Woman's Club has grown from sixteen charter members in 1893, when it was organized, to a list of over two hun-
LONGMEADOW GOLF COURSE
dred at the present time. Its aim is to improve the moral, social and intellectual life of the community and it gives generously for local needs.
The Albert T. Wood Post of the American Legion, among other activities, cares for the flag on the Green at the Memorial Boulder and assists with the observance of Memorial Day. The Post's stand with regard to veterans' legislation was independent and creditable.
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The Longmeadow Junior Horse Show was started in the spring of 1932 for the purpose of encouraging good horsemanship among the children of the town and vicinity, and it now is a member of the American Horse Show Association. An educational program has been carried on and a general knowledge class introduced which fea- tured an examination on the points of the horse and correct names for parts of the bridle and saddle. Another class had to name the bones, muscles and tendons as well as the location of unsoundness in the horse. An outgrowth of the Junior Horse Show is the Connecticut Valley Riding Association, which has the added interest of developing bridle trails.
A feature which has been of assistance in attracting residents to Longmeadow is the Longmeadow Country Club, which was organized in 1922, and has a fine eighteen-hole golf course laid out by the famous golf architect, Donald Ross. The attractive buildings of a rambling English design are set on a carefully landscaped tract of two hundred and twenty-nine acres. A well-stocked trout lake is free to members of the club.
The present population of Longmeadow is over 5,000, scattered in many delightful residential groups, with Colony Hills at the north end, Greenwood Manor at the south end, and Glen Arden to the east. Other divisions are Wildwood, Green Haven, Laurel Manor and Riverview Knoll. Colony Hills and Glen Arden were laid out by the well-know landscape architects, Olmsted and Olmsted, of Boston, and are wonderful examples of modern landscape architecture.
Frank Crumit and his wife, Julia Sanderson, well known theatrical performers and radio stars, live in Longmeadow. Mr. Crumit is president of the Lambs' Club of New York City, an exclusive club for theatrical members. Julia Sanderson christened the Memorial Bridge in Springfield.
The Allen Guest House, built by Samuel Bliss in 1713, was used as a tavern from 1823 until 1852. When Zachary Taylor was elected President the Whigs celebrated with a fine supper there. On the third floor is a dance hall forty feet long with an arched ceiling. There are more than fifty other houses still standing in Longmeadow over one hundred years old.
Ludlow, Minnechaug or Berryland
CHAPTER XIII
Ludlow, Minnechaug or Berryland
The history of the Ludlow region before the white men came is preserved only in tradition, but it is evident that some portions of these broad acres were favorite resorts of the red men. The names Minnechaug and Wallamanumps preserve the flavor of the aboriginal. The former name seems to have been used in the entire eastern region of Wilbraham and Ludlow. It signifies "Berryland." The latter word has been applied to the falls of the Chicopee at Ludlow Mills and Indian Orchard. In one place the discoloration of the rocks is said to have come from the frequent campfires of the Indians.
In other places, some in the extreme north, and all over the plain region, the frequence with which arrowheads are found and chippings of flint and other stones, show that another nation than ours used this region as an extensive armory. After the Indians destroyed Springfield in 1675 the warriors retreated eastward six miles and encamped on the peninsula in the south part of the town known as Indian Leap. Twenty-four smoldering campfires and some abandoned plunder were all the vestiges remaining the next morning. But the story of all stories concerning the Indians within the limits of the present town is the one about the leap of Roaring Thunder and his men in the time of King Philip's War. The account is legendary, but there is so fine a flavor of the aboriginal that it always has been popu- lar among lovers of folklore. The story begins with a white man's reporting to nearby companions that a band of warriors was camping on the sequestered peninsula, lulled into quiet by the sound of the roar- ing fall of water tumbling scores of feet over the rocks.
Some say that on the point were spread the wigwams of the Indians and that quite a company of the red men made them their homes. It was also said that at this time the Indians had captured one of the women from Longmeadow and were pursued by the settlers
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and finally discovered in their camp on the banks of the river. There, in the midst of their quiet and solitude, came the alarm from the white men following up their trail into the thicket whence there was no retreat. They had taught the white men the meaning of "no quarter" and could expect only retaliation. The one way of escape that pre- sented itself was into the jaws of death, but the painted red men did not hesitate. At once they dashed on toward the brink of the fearful precipice, whence they leaped directly into the angry stream.
Roaring Thunder is said to have watched while each of his com- pany dashed over into the wild waters and onto the ragged rocks, and then taking his child high in his arms and casting one glance back on the wigwam homes, he followed the rest into the rushing river. The pursuant foes looked wonderingly over the jutting sandstone walls and saw just one living redskin, and he was disappearing among the great forest trees that skirted the other shore.
About 1748, Abel Bliss, of Wilbraham, and his son, Oliver, col- lected in the town of Ludlow and south part of Belchertown a suf- ficient quantity of pine to make two hundred barrels of tar and sold it for five dollars a barrel. With the proceeds Bliss built a fine dwell- inghouse in Wilbraham, which was the envy of all the region. In 175 1 the family of Joseph Miller came, braving the terrors and real dangers of a fourteen-mile journey into the forest, away up the Chico- pee River. The friends in their former home at West Springfield mourned them as dead, and tradition states that a funeral sermon was preached over their departure.
After this the coming of others was frequent and, in 1774, there were two or three hundred inhabitants. About 1770 Jonathan Burr moved in ox-carts from Connecticut and settled near the mountains. Two years later Joel Willey came to Miller Corner. Isaac Brewer, Jr., a young man from Wilbraham, who had cast furtive glances toward the developing charms of Captain Joseph Miller's daughter and had braved the terrors of ford and ferry and wilderness that he might visit there, became more and more enamored until her graces and her father's lands won him from his boyhood home for life. The happy young couple settled where the same musical ripple of the Chicopee delighted them as had charmed the girlhood of the bride. Other families made homes in various places and Ezekiel Squires built the first gristmill.
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The region thus peopled must have been very wild. The roads in this period were hardly laid out for travel and no dams obstructed the onward flowing of the Chicopee River, and no bridges spanned its stream for the convenience of the townspeople. The grand highways of travel, then as now, were outside the confines of the town. The southeasterly trail of the red man went through wild Wilbraham Gap, as that of the white man must sooner or later, while the "Great Bay Road" wound its way over plains and through passes just across the river to the south.
The surface of the land was in no desirable condition. Where now are blooming fields were then malarious bogs and sunken quag- mires. The ponds caught the blue of heaven, but their approaches were swamps and their shores were strewn with decayed logs and underbrush. The region was infested with wolves and bears, while fleet-footed deer browsed confidently on the mountain foliage. Into such a region as this came the hardy adventurers from various other towns, until a goodly settlement was made.
Where these people attended church is left to conjecture. The Miller Corner people would naturally go southward to listen to the excellent sermons of Reverend Noah Mirick. The other people from the northwest part most likely sought the blind trail across the wooded plain, following the blazed trees until the center of Springfield was reached. There could have been no unity between the various parts of the town for a while, but presently neighborhoods were formed for mutual defense and sociability. As time went on people began to tire of this condition and wanted to have a town of their own. The waters of the Chicopee were often so swollen they could not be crossed and the rude paths so wet or rough or covered with snow that travel- ing on them was apt to be disagreeable. They wanted a church and a minister and a place to gather which belonged to them.
Thomas Hutchinson was Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony when the inhabitants of Stony Hill in Springfield applied for a town charter. He had fallen on troublous times. There were mutterings, frequent and painfully apparent, against the ruling power; men had even dared to question the right of the King to control their actions or levy taxes. Some had declared that the people of the New World could take care of themselves and spend their own revenues. One of the measures adopted by England for the control of the American
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subjects was the reduction of the representative power, and as a means of safety it was at length decided to give further applicants for town charters all rights save that of representation, calling the groups dis- tricts instead of towns.
At precisely this juncture in affairs did the Stony Hill settlers send in their petition for incorporation and it was granted, making them into a separate district with the name of Ludlow.
Prior to 1774 the region was called Mineachogue, Outward Com- mons, the Cow Pasture and Stony Hill. The origin of the name of Ludlow has never been satisfactorily settled. One theory is that it was named for Sir Edmund Ludlow, an ardent Republican living in England at the time of the protectorate. He won a warm place in the esteem of all true patriots by twice standing firmly against the ruling power in the interests of Republicanism. Another suggested origin of the name is from Roger Ludlow, a prominent citizen of Rox- bury, who drew up a code of laws long known as Ludlow's code, or it may have been named after the town of Ludlow in Shropshire County, England.
The warrants were posted for the first district meeting and the sixteenth of March, 1774, was eagerly awaited. At an early hour came the proud citizens, from the margin of Higher Brook and its tributaries, from the edge of Shingle Swamp northward, and Bear Swamp eastward; on foot and on horseback came the men and boys until the kitchen of Abner Hitchcock was well filled. Moses Bliss, of Springfield, was chosen moderator and other officers, including fence- viewers, tithingmen, hog-reeves and deer-reeves were duly elected, twenty-four in all.
About a month after the first district meeting the people met again at the same place and voted to hire Pelatiah Chapin to preach. With an eye to order as well as sanctuary privileges, they, in the next breath, voted that swine should be allowed to run at large, yoked and with a ring in the nose. In June three men were chosen to find the center of the district in order that the location of the meetinghouse should be fixed. At a meeting in October of that year there occurred the first official measure bearing on the coming struggle with the Mother Country. The call to a meeting of all the province had gone out to every town and district, asking for the appointment of one or more delegates from each corporate body to a Provincial Congress
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LUDLOW, MINNECHAUG OR BERRYLAND
to be held at Concord. Joseph Miller was selected to go and went not only to this but to the succeeding session at Salem and to another at Cambridge and to another at Watertown the next May. He was voted the sum of eleven pounds, thirteen shillings and twopence for his expenses and also two shillings per day for thirty days while attending the several Congresses.
Ludlow may well be proud of her record in the Revolution. One in seven of her inhabitants left for a longer or a briefer time to engage in the fray. The records make evident the fact that every burden imposed was borne and every tax paid. In the apportionment of coats for soldiers in the service in 1775, Ludlow was to "find" twenty-three, and no doubt did. Twelve pounds annual bounty for two years was offered to volunteers in 1777, while a bounty of thirty pounds was deemed necessary two years later. The patriotism of the people in this western part of the State was not a whit behind that of their brethren in the eastern counties. All were ready to make the great- est sacrifices for the common safety. Stockings and shoes had to be made in the different families for the soldiers, for these articles could not be bought in one place as now, and blankets in many instances were taken from the beds then in use. Tax followed tax for seven long years, until nothing seemed left but a depreciated paper currency. The worthlessness of this, though it was nearly all they had, some of the votes on the records made at that time will show. One was to raise the sum of $11, 500 to buy grain to pay the three and six months' soldiers in addition to their stated wages, and another to raise $32,000 to buy beef for the State.
The war ended and peace and prosperity came once more. The people, as might be expected, turned their attention again especially to the erection of their long desired sanctuary. Accordingly, in town meeting it was voted "that Deacon Nathan Smith of Granby, Deacon Nash of South Hadley and Deacon John Hitchcock of Wilbraham be a committee to set the stake for the meetinghouse." Then the work went forward as fast as they were able to collect and prepare the mate- rial. At length the foundations were laid and almost a forest of heavy hewn timber covered the ground.
In October, 1783, a town meeting at the stake voted that the building committee procure a sufficient quantity of men for raising the meetinghouse frame. This was the only business done at the meeting,
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so far as the record goes, and no doubt was the last requisite step toward a successful end. A raising in those days was an eventful occurrence, especially if a public building, calling together whole com- munities, the men and boys to lift the heavy timbers by broadsides, and the women and girls to spread the tables for the unusual feast. It was a great day for the people of the town when the gigantic frame of that ancient sanctuary was lifted onto its foundations. Indeed, two days were consumed before the last timber went into its place, though scores of strong-armed men came in from the towns around and cheerfully contributed their aid. Then, at a given signal from the master workman, there was a tossing of hats into the air and a shout both loud and long rang out, followed by a round of rum. On account of poverty the meetinghouse remained unfinished within for several years and for some time its only pulpit was a carpenter's bench and its pews rough planks stretched from one block to another. But afterward, as the people prospered, a real pulpit was built, and how wonderful it was, perched high up like an eagle's nest. The dea- cons' seat was a little lower down in front, where grave men sat to watch the flock. As there were no means for warming the church each family took to meeting with them their little box-like stove for the women's feet, while the men sat and thumped their heels to force away the winter's cold.
Reverend Antipas Steward, the first settled pastor, was ordained in November, 1793, but before that time the town had a number of other preachers, none of whom had stayed very long. Perhaps this could partly be accounted for by the fact that there was no meeting- house and the services were often held in barns. One of these early preachers was the afterward notorious Stephen Burroughs, who in 1783 or 1784 preached his first sermon in the town, using the assumed name of Davis. After mentioning the chain of circumstances leading to his determination to preach and describing his clothing, "which con- sisted of a light gray coat with silverplated buttons, green vest and red velvet breeches," Burroughs goes on thus :
"Hearing of a place called Ludlow, not far distant, where they were destitute of a clergyman, I bent my course that way, it being Saturday and I intended to preach the next day if I proved successful. I arrived about noon and put up at the house of a man named Fuller, whom I found to be a leading
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man in their religious society. I introduced myself as a clergy- man and he gave me an invitation to spend the Sabbath and preach. I retired to rest at the usual time and composed my mind to consider what was to be done under the present circum- stances. People had been notified that a sermon would be delivered, but this business I never had attempted. These considerations made so dismal an appearance that I at once concluded to get up, take my horse privately out of the stable and depart, rather than run the risk of the dangers which were before me. But on more mature reflection I found the hard hand of necessity compelled me to stay and the next morning with Bible and psalm book under my arm I ascended the pulpit, finding a stare of universal surprise at my gay dress. I went through the exercises of the forenoon without any difficulty and also those of the afternoon. Then being informed they did not agree to hire me any longer, I found my business here at an end and the next morning set out for Palmer."
The Reverend Steward's salary was to be sixty pounds, with thirty cords of wood annually, and it was a proud day for Ludlow when it had a pastor of its own. Mr. Steward was a small man and very near-sighted, so that he had to hold the manuscript close to his eyes while reading. Gad Lyon led the singing, standing in front of the minister and "lining out" the psalms of easy meter. Mr. Steward possessed a stentorian voice and Mr. Lyon was similarly blessed, so that irreverent auditors used to say that parson and chorister vied with each other to see who could make the most noise. The minister, with his powdered locks and three-cornered hat would visit the homes and the schools encouraging the children by a pat on the head and an exhortation to be good, or warning them with the statement that if they lied he would find it out, though miles away. At the time Mr. Steward's ministry began there were fifteen church members, but that number decreased rather than increased in the next few years. The labors of the reverend gentleman seem to have lacked appreciation before the century closed, for the town voted that they were willing he should be "disconnected from the people in this place, if he should be willing himself." Finally, the town, after several votes, agreed to
Hampden-58
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make him a donation of eighty pounds on condition that he should leave in June and draw no more salary, though they assured him of their disposition "to cultivate peace, love and concord among them- selves, and a good understanding toward their minister."
In December, 1779, two young men, Jedediah Paine and Solo- mon Olds, started on Saturday to go to Springfield on business, driv- ing an ox-team. They were delayed there until late and when they reached the fording place on the way home the shadows of night had gathered about the stream, rendering the crossing dangerous. They tarried there until morning light and then by its aid finished their journey. But the Sabbath law was broken and an eye witness living near the ford complained of them and carried the case to the county magistrate at Northampton. They were fined and returned home- ward on Christmas Day. While coming through South Hadley they undertook to cross a pond on new ice, but were so unfortunate as to lose their lives in the attempt. There was great lamentation in Lud- low over the melancholy event and some deemed it a judgment of God. There was also great indignation felt against the informant, who received half the fees.
In 1787 came the events of Shays' Rebellion, in which Ludlow had its share, furnishing recruits for both sides, and one Ludlow man was killed in South Hadley by a chance shot from a house. Shays came into town from Ludlow City, quartering his troops at Fuller's Tavern. On his inglorious defeat he retreated to Ludlow and thence northward at a high rate of speed.
The first burial in the cemetery by the Congregational Church was that of a child run over by a cart in 1786, but it was not until six years later that the selectmen were instructed by vote of the town to pro- cure a bier and keep it in the meetinghouse.
A pound, thirty feet square, was built in 1776, but sixteen years later it had fallen into decay and a new one was constructed in a dif- ferent place of white oak, the timber of the old one being ordered sold. The first reference to guide boards is in 1795, when it needed a committee of nine to erect "way-posts."
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