USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 32
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Burns did not remain long because he did not satisfactorily perform "ministerial visits and catechize yearly the several quarters of the Parish."
Palmer District records contain little allusion to the French and Indian War, which ended in 1749, and none to the one which was carried on between 1754 and 1763, but State records show that the militia was organized and requisitions for men were met.
The meetinghouse, built when the plantation was new and poor, now needed repair and to be put more in keeping with the stand- ing of a district. Twenty shillings were voted to Ephraim Gates to do over the minister's pew and stairs and lower the pulpit, "without making it look worse than it does now." The roof is to be shingled and new window frames and sashes put in of a "handsome" size. Also, the floor is to be repaired and the "pew ground" revalued and sold. The owners of the pews could then rebuild, and if any pew lacked a window against it the owner could make a window for him- self, provided he finished it "outside and in handsomely and well."
The War of the Revolution began several years before there was any actual fighting. "Taxation without representation" annoyed the colonies, and associations known as the "Sons of Liberty" were organized. They included both men and women, who pledged them- selves to forego the luxuries of life rather than be indebted to Eng- land. Sheep were not killed, but kept for their wool, and the acreage of flax much increased. To be dressed in "home spun" was a mark of distinction. The Palmer inhabitants increased their stock of pow- der, lead and flints, and the minute men were organized and began to drill. The news of the battle of Lexington probably reached Palmer late in the evening of April 19 and forty-four minute men marched for the scene of action the next morning. Three days later the con- stables went from house to house calling the people to a public meet- ing to procure supplies and send them to the soldiers. This meeting was called as usual "In his Majesty's name," but after May 16, 1775, the calls were issued "In the name of the General Court and of the people of this Colony," casting off British allegiance in less than a month after our troops were fired on.
The minute men were volunteers, but now regular soldiers were needed and eight months' service called for. Colonel David Brewer, of Palmer, had a set of nine "beating papers," as they were called,
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and easily secured his nine captains, who in turn made up their com- panies. Lists are so incomplete that it is not known how many Palmer men took part in this war. On the seventeenth day of June, 1776, at a "very full meeting," the inhabitants of Palmer solemnly and cour- ageously issued what has been called THE PALMER DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, saying they would support with their "lives" and their "fortunes" a movement for separation from Great Britain.
The next year the Continental Congress called for three-year enlistments for the regular army and there followed short drafts for special service. Contagious diseases were prevalent in the army and many soldiers furloughed home failed to reach there. The town of Palmer paid Phineas Mixer two pounds and four shillings for taking care of a transient soldier, cleansing him from lice and curing him of the itch. Soon a committee was appointed to take care of soldiers' widows and families and to abate the taxes of men engaged in actual service. Clothing was requisitioned and bounties paid. Some of Burgoyne's men strayed from the ranks when marching through town and remained to make useful citizens.
September 1, 1779, a convention met to prepare a new State Con- stitution, to which Palmer offered some amendments. Lieutenant Joshua Shaw was the delegate and he received $555 for his services. It was now more difficult to fill up quotas for the army and the sur- render of Cornwallis was cheering news.
The eight years of war had upset codes of morals and codes of honor, as well as industrial and agricultural conditions. Real estate was unsalable and taxes heavy; lawyers and sheriffs were kept busy drawing up and serving writs and summons. People were uneasy over conditions and finally rebellion flared up under several leaders, among them Captain Francis Stone, of North Brookfield; Luke Day, of West Springfield; and Daniel Shays, of Pelham. Insurgents broke up court sittings, opened jails and planned to capture the arsenal at Springfield. Palmer was a convenient place for forces to meet and in January, 1787, Shays was there with a thousand men, who marched hopefully with their sprigs of hemlock and poor equipment on to Springfield, but were repulsed and fled in confusion without fir- ing a gun. Three of them were killed and one mortally wounded and so the Rebellion ended.
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While the towns were reestablishing themselves financially, they were quite particular about strangers who came in and might gain a residence and so claim support. Many were "warned out" and some left and some remained to make good citizens. A parade ground of four acres near the meetinghouse was laid out and guide posts set up at all the principal roads. The earliest burying ground at the Elbows Plantation was near King's Row and after the Revolution it was enlarged and fenced, and again in 1865 it was enlarged. Graves were dug in 1800 for twenty-five cents each.
One old stone in the Palmer Center burying ground is ornamented with four faces in a row, two of them encircled with curls. It records the death of a man and his wife and their son and daughter. Besides the regular cut headstones of slate or marble or brown sandstone, there are many small native stones, without lettering, set on edge to mark the graves. One joyous inscription reads :
"When Gabriel sounds the trump of God, Then from my dusty bed I'll spring To sing and shout and shout and sing."
The matter of building a new meetinghouse was brought before the people in 1795 and they gradually made one important decision after another as to size, location, underpinning and pews, until it was dedicated October 21, 1798. It was voted to sell the old meeting- house at "public auction to the highest bidder," and people relinquished their rights in the structure, "excepting the window in Scott's pew and Deacon Joshua Shaw's pew, which they may take out and carry away. Also any person a pew holder may take off and carry away the hinges of his pew." Land for fifty-five horse sheds was staked out, each man to build his own shed and the persons who stood high- est on the estate bill had first choice of ground. A cupola was built on the church in 1808 for $470, and Aaron Merrick presented the town with a bell. In gratitude the town ordered that the bell should be rung each year on the donor's birthday. Mr. Merrick had already given Palmer a town house in which to hold its business meetings. The church was painted and repaired in 1828 and Benjamin Converse and some others were allowed to put in a stove at their own expense. Mr. Converse had interested himself in the purchase of a bass viol a little while before.
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The Congregational Society was organized in 1831 and used the old meetinghouse, but by common consent sixteen years later the territory was divided, the northern part of the town to belong to the First Parish and the southern part to the Second Parish. Churches were built at Depot Village and Thorndike and the old meetinghouse stood empty for a time. It was sold to the Catholics, who used it for a while and then it was taken down.
The ownership of the bell presented by Aaron Merrick was then a matter of dispute. The Thorndike parish claimed it as the First Parish and others thought it should remain in the old meetinghouse. Judge Chapman gave as his opinion that it belonged to the First Par- ish, but advised caution. About the middle of January, 1852, a church social was held at Thorndike and soon after midnight a party of about forty men in sleighs and an ox-sled went quietly to the Center, found their way into the meetinghouse, and with pulleys lowered the bell and loaded it on the sled. Just before starting away they gave the bell one loud ring, which waked the hamlet; but the invading force was too large to be overcome by the half-dressed dwellers and the prize was borne away to grace the cupola in the new meeting- house. The affair created much excitement and ill feeling and at the March town meeting the selectmen were ordered to secure legal advice which should be binding on both parties. The following year a com- mittee of ten was chosen to get the bell and rehang it in the old belfry, but soberer heads added a second vote that they give bonds of $5,000 against all costs and expenses, which apparently ended the matter.
The first incorporated turnpike road built in Massachusetts ran through Palmer Center. It was chartered in 1796 through the influ- ence of Captain Levi Pease, of Shrewsbury. Sometimes he had one passenger, sometimes none, but by regularity of trips, rain or shine, he soon enlisted confidence and secured patronage, and early obtained a contract from the government for carrying the mails. An addition as far as Wilbraham was built two years later with permission to set up a gate and take tolls. The Petersham and Monson Road also ran through Palmer from Stafford, Connecticut, and the stageman's horn frequently awoke the echoes.
The War of 1812 was very unpopular in the river towns and Governor Strong refused to order out the militia on request of the President. The conflict of State and National authorities seemed very
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serious, but when the harbor of Boston was menaced with a blockade, Governor Strong changed his policy and called out the State troops to defend the coast towns. Palmer voted three dollars to each of its men who saw service at this time.
Until then there was no place in Palmer which really could be called a village, though the old Center had a meetinghouse and horse sheds, a schoolhouse, a graveyard, the town house and a tavern or two. At what is now Thorndike the land was largely owned by three families. On the upper privilege by the dam were a few small shops. The village received its name from Israel Thorndike, an enterprising manufacturer, who with John S. Wright and Luther Parks had a char- ter to manufacture cotton, wool and silk. Three Rivers was known as "Dark Corners" and had only two houses besides the saw and grist mills. At Bondsville was the home of Ezekiel Boyden and a saw and gristmill, and the rest of the region was wild and rough. The great waterpower in the main was still unused. Emelius Bond improved the waterpower here in 1825 and started making cloth. He did much in laying out and building up the village which bears his name.
As early as 1818 a few Palmer people began to hold meetings with Baptist ministers from neighboring towns as preachers, but it was not until 1832 that they built the Baptist Church at Three Rivers. The Methodists first met in a schoolhouse there, but finally built a small chapel. Another group of this denomination was formed at Thorndike and in 1855, after changes and difficulties in both societies, a church was built at Four Corners. The Second Baptist Church was built near the railroad station. The Union Evangelical Church was built in 1877. The Advent Christians built a chapel, but did not have a large organization, and the Universalists built an imposing edifice of Monson granite with a main tower one hundred and thirty feet in height. The Roman Catholics started their services in the old dryhouse of the Thorndike Manufacturing Company, about 1851, but eventually had three parishes, St. Mary's at Thorndike, St. Thomas' at Palmer Village, and St. Bartholomew's at Bondsville. A French Catholic church followed in 1884.
The Boston and Albany railroad was opened through Palmer in 1839 and marked a new era in business life. It wasn't long until the cheap depot and single track gave way to the freight yard and
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enlarged facilities for transportation. The New London Northern, the Ware River and the Athol Branch all fed into the town and bene- fited its manufacturing interests.
Blanchard's scythe factory, which also turned out plow and shovel handles, ox-bows and wheel rims, was an important establishment. Blanchard was a celebrated inventor in a wide and varied field. He made a machine for heading tacks, one for bending wood, and one for turning irregular forms of wood. This last the United States Gov- ernment secured for turning out gun stocks. The Three Rivers Manu- facturing Company was incorporated for the purpose of producing cotton, woolen and linen goods, iron and machinery. They built a dam and a factory, but the canal which had to be blasted through solid rock was an expensive proposition and the company failed. The Palmer Company bought them out and was more successful under the leadership of Joseph Brown, who was a man of energy-"down in the cut, and up on the bank, and everywhere." The Thorndike Company was started in 1836 with plans similar to the Three Rivers Company and made a steady growth erecting dams and mills and factory houses. Other companies in Palmer were the Munroe Com- pany, manufacturers of woolen goods; the Boston Duck Company, which also turned out cotton flannels; the Palmer Carpet Mill; Ridge's Food for Infants and Invalids; the Palmer Wire Company, and some minor ones. The Palmer Mills Otis Company of Three Rivers is now the largest manufacturing concern in Ware. The Bos- ton Duck Mills and the Bondsville Bleaching and Dye Works are located on the same grounds and belong to the Otis Company of Boston. The Duck Mills manufacture cotton piece goods, blanket and robe cloth. The Wickwire Spencer Steel Company is located on the Springfield Road and makes wire, wire cables, screen cloth and netting. George F. Wright organized the Wright Wire Com- pany in 1883 and the making of wire has been a main industry in Palmer ever since.
One day in February, 1849, two young men out hunting rabbits on the farm of Samuel Shaw found a sealed glass bottle well hidden under a ledge of rocks. When the sheet lead cap and cork were removed a lengthy letter signed "Robert Kidd" and dated 1700 was taken out. It told of buried money on Conant's Island in Boston Harbor with such detail and antique flavor that it seemed an authen-
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tic document and aroused such interest that Samuel Shaw made a trip to Boston and visited the islands in the harbor, only to find that the spot described had been washed away. Robert Kidd wrote to his friend, John Bailey, in New York, that he had been taken for a pirate and thrown into prison and feared being carried to England. He wanted his friend to secure the money and diamonds and sent the letter by a messenger who could not read, with instructions to hide the papers in some safe place if he met with trouble or was taken by the Indians. The two young men who found the sealed bottle went to California as "forty-niners," but left behind them sworn state- ments as to the truth of their find. Their fathers quarreled over the ownership of the interesting letter and the case was taken to court, where Samuel Shaw swore the letter was a forgery and so the matter ended.
The town of Palmer is rugged in aspect, though abundantly inter- spersed with productive vales and meadow lands. Many hills diversify the landscape. These rise to a height of from seven hundred to 1,000 feet. Pattaguatic Hill, in the northern part of the town, is the high- est; but Mount Dumplin, near the center of the town, is more striking for its abrupt rise from the lowlands. Watercourses are abundant and afford excellent power for manufacturing. Swift and Ware rivers join with the Quabaug to form the Chicopee River. The largest pond is Calkins or Yellow Lily, more commonly called Forest Lake. Two smaller bodies of water are Crawford Pond and Glassford's Pond, which is also known as Beckwith's Pond.
Three different trees have played an important part in Palmer history. The first was the "great white oak tree" under which the ordination of the first pastor took place. Another is the pine over a hundred feet in height standing not far from the St. Thomas' Roman Catholic Church. It has a girth of seventeen feet and won its fame over one hundred and fifty years ago. Thomas King, a son of the first settler, was on his way to church when he caught sight of a large bear in its branches. He brought it promptly down with his gun and gave as an excuse for this desecration of the Sabbath that the bear was a menace both to the flocks and the families of the neighborhood and ought to be killed, even on the Lord's Day. His excuse was favorably accepted by the elders of the church.
Hampden-61
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The other famous tree is the Washington elm which long stood beside the highway between Palmer and Wilbraham. It was under this elm that General Washington rested on the thirtieth day of June, 1775, when on his way to Cambridge to take command of the army.
The old Palmer "Journal," so long an important part of the town, is now the Palmer "Journal-Register," published by Mrs. Ethel F. Keller, widow of the former owner.
PALMER
NATIONAL
BANK
PALMER NATIONAL BANK
Palmer's two banks have native sons at their heads: Freeman A. Smith at the Savings Bank and Louis J. Brainerd at the National Bank.
The many former manufacturing concerns have dwindled to a few, of which the Wright Wire Company is the most important. This manufactures various kinds of wire cloth, trellises, flower bed guards and kindred articles. George M. Wright, the president of the concern, lives in Worcester.
The New England Metal Culvert Company, with Theodore A. Norman at the head, turns out a necessary and much used product for
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PALMER, THE "ELBOW TRACT"
this era of extensive road building. A. B. and J. Rathbone are at the head of the Pinion Wire Manufacturing Company.
One of the busiest and most useful of Palmer's citizens is David L. Bodfish, who has lived anything but a life of ease since he retired from the dry goods business which formerly occupied him. He acted . for sometime as correspondent for the "Springfield Republican" and is in demand as a speaker on special occasions. He is well versed in both the past and present history of the town and is taking great pride in beautifying the Thorndike Street Cemetery.
A recent event in Palmer history was a dinner given by the Palmer Teachers' Association in honor of Clifton H. Hobson, who has been for the last twenty-five years superintendent of the public schools. Dr. George. A. Moore, for seventeen or eighteen years on the Palmer school board, was the guest speaker and paid tribute to Mr. Hobson's outstanding service.
Russell, Which Includes Woronoco
CHAPTER XVII
Russell, Which Includes Woronoco
The town of Russell is one of Westfield's daughters and belonged in the "New Addition." This extra land was added to Westfield in answer to a petition of the people of that town who wished for the land on account of its stone. Russell was incorporated in 1792, when it had about four hundred inhabitants. The territory lies south of the main branch of the Westfield River and the reason given for the petition of separation was the common one of difficulty in getting either to Westfield or Montgomery for religious and civil affairs. Probably the incorporation of Montgomery twelve years earlier had stimulated the movement among the citizens to the south. Tradition says that the name, Russell, was given in honor of a promi- nent citizen of Boston who was closely associated with public events, and who, in consideration of the honor thus bestowed on him, prom- ised to donate to the first church society of the new town a bell for use in calling the settlers to worship.
Apparently the town was settled largely by people from Westfield. Two brothers by the name of Barber and a Mr. Gray were the pioneers and are said to have located on Glasgow Mountain. Other settlers quickly followed. The French and Indian wars were over and it now seemed reasonably safe to make homes away from the earlier towns along the Connecticut River. Nor was the region too lonesome a one, for the road of the Eighth Turnpike Corporation went from Westfield through the southeastern part of Russell to Fal- ley's store in Blandford. Travelers on foot and on horseback, loaded ox-carts and horsedrawn vehicles, soldiers and pioneers settling farther west followed the turnpike and brought news from other places. The coming of the Boston and Albany Railroad changed the mode and route of travel, but was of benefit to local interests.
Before the bridge was built, in 1888, raw material for the mills was brought in by team and the finished paper carried out in the
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same manner. The paper company kept seventeen horses for the work and when the roads were bad two pairs were used at a time. After the railroad trains were available sometimes as many as ninety people would leave Russell station on Saturday evenings for West- field or Springfield and return on the midnight train.
Russell's 8,340 acres of land have been devoted chiefly to agricul- ture and the hilltops afford excellent pasturage. Lumbering was a leading pursuit in the early years and the streams furnished abundant waterpower for operating sawmills. The village which is the civic heart of Russell is called "The Center" and is especially attractive because of its tree-shaded streets. Here are small stores and shops and a hotel. The Blandford brick and tile works moved to Russell, but brought their raw material from the former town. This plant is now operated by the Westfield River Paper Company, manufac- turers of glassine. Their dam was built by a man named Otis, about 1905, to furnish power for the Western Massachusetts Street Rail- way, a trolley line which ran from Huntington to Westfield.
Woronoco is also in the township and was formerly known as Fairfield. Its early name was Salmon Falls, which long ago lost its meaning as far as the salmon are concerned. The place first gained manufacturing prominence about 1875, when the Jessup and Laflin Paper Company began making paper there, but it remained for Ros- well M. Fairfield to bring it to full development. He bought a thou- sand acres of land in 1887, including the massive stone dam and water- power, with the right to draw additional water from Hazzard Pond, located among the hills at a height of six hundred and sixty-seven feet. Mr. Fairfield had a stock farm west of the village where he raised thoroughbred horses and fine cattle and he furnished considerable milk for the homes of the mill workers. A third of a mile race track was built on the property and traces of it may still be seen. By 1890 Mr. Fairfield was employing two hundred and fifty hands and turning out a fine line of linen and ledger papers, of wedding stationery and pasted bristol board in his clean, well-arranged mill.
If the bell promised to the first church established in Russell ever was hung in that place, it probably went to the Baptists, for they organized as an offshoot from the church at Westfield in 1786 and built a house of worship in 1792. The old meetinghouse was burned in 1820 and replaced four years later.
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A Congregational Church was organized in 1800, but later its members affiliated with the Baptist and Methodist societies. This latter came into existence about 1818 and grew in strength and influ- ence. 1869 saw the erection of an adequate church building for the society.
There was a great deal of dispute between Blandford and Russell residents over the boundary line between the two towns, and Chapter 32 of the Massachusetts Laws was passed in 1809 to settle the dis- putes. The act established the line as "beginning at a birch tree with stones about on Granville corner" and running to a "beech tree marked on the east and west side with a great number of marks and letters." This beech tree came to be known as the "Love and Unity Tree" when the disputants agreed to live in love and unity ever after. It stood on the high level land of the old Holliday Hill Farm, near an old wood road, and now only a stump remains, but the bound has been marked by a stone.
The center of Russell is occupied by a small but attractive pond about two miles in circumference, formerly known as "Hazzard Pond," but now called Woronoke Lake. The remains of a wolf pit in this region is a relic of one of the hazards. Summer homes have sprung up in this vicinity as well as in other parts of Russell and the Mountain Road is well known for its quiet beauty.
Horace A. Moses, the president of Strathmore Paper Company, has a fine summer home at the head of Woronoke Lake. Nearby several other officials of the company have their summer homes. In the southwestern part of the town is the Noble View Farm, which now is owned by the Berkshire Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Here gather hikers in summer and skiers in winter to enjoy the rugged beauty of this section. Nearby Pitcher Brook tumbles in two wooded glens to form the charming Little Pitcher and Big Pitcher falls. The largest pot hole in the county is located in Little River, near the junction of Pitcher Brook.
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