USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 34
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From about 1780 on a number of the people of the town became believers in the doctrine of Universal Restoration. Reverend Elhanan Winchester, who had relatives in the town, was apt to preach there when he made his frequent visits, and his writings were extensively circulated and read. A group of Universalists, or Restorationists, as they were formerly called, was organized and held occasional preach- ing for some years.
While the Baptist meetinghouse was being demolished, a new one was in process of construction close by. It was built by the town, but the pews were sold at public auction to defray the cost, the town reserving the right to use the building for town meetings. Each denomination was to have the Sabbath Day use of the meetinghouse a number of days in proportion to its purchase of pews, with the pro- viso that any Sunday it was not used the Baptists might rightfully occupy it. By the first apportionment thirty-two Sabbaths were assigned to the Baptists, twelve to the Universalists and eight to the Congregationalists. It remained a union house until 1846, when it was wholly taken over by the Baptists.
The Methodists organized in Wales in 1830 and built their church two years later. The first pastor was Reverend Horace Moul- ton. Sometimes the preachers divided their services between this town and Monson.
South Brimfield was incorporated as a district in 1762 with all the duties and privileges of a town except that of sending a representa- tive to the General Court. This right was granted them in 1775, when Massachusetts asserted her independence and raised a number of dis- tricts to the standing of towns.
One of their first votes as a district was to hire Dr. Isaac Foster for preaching in the east part of the town. And to show that they were ready to look after themselves they voted to buy "two quires of paper" to record births and deaths. A few months later they voted "to provide a place to have smallpox in" and "that those taking infec- tion repair within the lines."
Samuel Moulton is thought to have been the first innkeeper on the Wales Tavern stand. The first town pound was located in his barnyard. An interesting vote was to build a pound "with stones"
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forty feet square, four feet of wall at the bottom, two feet at the top, and with a six-foot gate having lock and key. Only forty dollars was appropriated to pay for all that. A later pound with wooden fence, which was located on the west shore of the pond, was used until about 1865.
The name of South Brimfield remained until 1827, when the town voted it should be changed to Clinton, but this did not give complete satisfaction. Moreover, word had gotten around that James L. Wales, a prominent citizen, had planned to leave the town a generous sum in his will, and at the next meeting of the General Court the name of South Brimfield was changed to Wales. The population showed a gradual increase up to 1880, when it reached its highest point of 1,030 inhabitants. The shutting down of the mills brought about a great decrease in the population, which in 1930 was only three hundred and sixty.
Reverend Elijah Coddington was installed as the fourth pastor in 1773 and remained with his people for fifty-seven years. He taught school a number of seasons and was chaplain of the State Militia for ten years. During three consecutive years of his pastorate he baptized over two hundred people.
Dr. Thomas Green is the first physician's name to be found on the town books. He was a resident and a landowner, but for several years was supported by the town. Dr. James Lawrence came from Connecticut about 1746 and located in what is now Wales, rather than in the center of Brimfield, because he considered it the "smarter" of the two places. He successfully continued in his profession until he died of smallpox at the age of fifty-eight.
The people of Wales have mostly engaged in agriculture, but enough shops were established in early days to take care of their needs and enough manufacturing in later years to bring some cash into the town and furnish employment for many hands. Boots and shoes were made in a half dozen small shops, which reached their peak of production in the 'fifties, when over 40,000 pairs were turned out in a year. Phineas Durkee started a small tannery in 1752 and different men carried on the business down to recent years. Zeno Farrington, Jr., had an extensive tannery in 1853 and at times fin- ished as many as 3,000 sides of leather and calf skins each year. Pot- ash was made from the plentiful wood ashes and a soap and candle
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factory added to the welfare of the village. Sawmills were common and the "Valley Mill" was at one time a box shop. A few wagons, carriages and farm tools were made. The "Eden Shaw" mill at the upper village produced doe skins from 1866 to 1869, and later made cloths of various kinds. Cotton batting was manufactured by Dun- ham on Mill Brook. William P. Osborn started a wicking factory, and then with Needham as partner, made plow handles, farming tools and shingles. This plant eventually passed into the hands of Elijah Shaw for whom "Shawville" was named. The Shaw Manufacturing Company started in 1847 and has helped to give the town the promi- nence it has received in making satinets, cassimeres and other grades of cloth. When the business of cloth manufacture was at its height in Wales about three hundred and fifty workmen were in regular employ.
The F. M. Day Company has the only factory now running. Forty people are employed and as much as 8,000 yards of goods turned out each week.
Over a thousand acres of land in Wales are included in the Brim- field State Forest and a Civilian Conservation Corps camp is located there. Nearly a half of the town's 10,000 acres are in woodland. Mt. Pisgah has an elevation of 1,240 feet. The lesser heights are Mt. Hitchcock, Mt. Grandy and Mt. Warner.
In the southwestern part of the town is "The Gulf," a locally known scenic spot that can be reached by a pleasant walk of about a mile. In the same section is the thirty-foot Tuppet Counterfeiters' Cave with its local legend.
In 1885 the sale of medicinal and aromatic herbs and roots brought $905 into the town. Other industries were the making of charcoal, cider and brick. An old tannery is still standing on the Harrison G. Royce place. There are about two hundred acres of peat bogs from four to ten feet deep in Wales. Before 1840 the peat was often used for fertilizer.
Hampden-63
West Springfield, Home of the Eastern States Exposition
CHAPTER XXI West Springfield, Home of the Eastern States Exposition
A fact often forgotten by people in thinking of the settlement of the Connecticut Valley is that the first house was built on the west side of the river. William Pynchon himself had visited the locality and picked out the site to be occupied by his company of pioneers. Then John Cable and John Woodcock were sent on ahead from the Bay to build a house so that the first families to come might find a shelter awaiting them. On being told by the Indians that the location chosen by Pynchon for his village was subject to overflow from the river, and because the cattle of the whites encroached on the cultivated land of the redskins, the plans were changed and the mother settlement started anew on the east side. But Cable and Woodcock occupied the house and improved the land in what came to be known as "house meadow" all that first summer, probably returning to Roxbury in the fall. That was in 1635 and it was not until 1653 that the pro- prietors made the first allotment of the rich farming land on the west of the Great River. For some years after this the meadow lands were cultivated or hayed and the rest used as pasture with only an occa- sional brave settler establishing his home there. The house meadows and pasture lands had few residents earlier than King Philip's War, as the men returned each night to the protection of Fort Pynchon and the stockade on the east side. The Indians frequented the tracts even after they had parted with their title and were often a source of annoyance to the whites.
Canoes, made by scooping out the trunks of large trees and shap- ing them like a skiff were the first means used for crossing the river. Rude flatboats later carried over horses, cattle and carts. The usual manner of propelling the larger boats was by the use of "setting- poles." In flood time the water was too deep and ran too swiftly for
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these boats to be used. Crossing on the ice was done when possible in the winter, but there were many times when the new settlers on the west could not cross the river for Sabbath services, or people get to them from the east side. By 1674 the people on the west side had become so numerous that one flatboat could not carry them all over in time for the preaching, unless some started very early, with a con- sequent wait in the cold meetinghouse. There were long waits on the river banks, too, and the Sunday garments were sometimes soaked with rain. They petitioned the town for free ferriage, but this was not granted. On March 18, 1683, several persons were drowned when returning from church.
There were thirty-two families and more than two hundred per- sons on the territory in 1695 and they considered themselves suf- ficiently numerous and prosperous to support a minister of their own. Several years previous they had requested separation without suc- cess, but on May 29, 1696, the General Court established the second parish of Springfield and authorized the employment of a minister. An argument used to gain a separate parish was that crossing the river was an undue resort to labor on the Sabbath. In answer to that Springfield replied: "necessary Travell is Lawful on the Sabbath. As for servile labor: We count it as Lawful to Row in a Boat, or paddle a Canoe, or bridle and saddle a horse. Works of necessity are works of the Sabbath." In response to the argument that the cross- ing of the river occasioned discourse inconsistent with the holiness of the day, the reply was: "We say if they find themselves guilty they must mend as fast as they can and not bring their failings for an Argument in matters of this nature."
This division of parishes brought up the matter of ratings to pay the minister, the new parish refusing to pay any longer its assessed share for the Springfield services, and those living on the east side, but cultivating land on the west side, refusing to assist where they did not attend. The General Court had this matter to settle also.
The first meetinghouse stood on the common and was occupied in 1702, six years after the parish was set off. No doubt preaching services were held in the homes until the meetinghouse was ready. It was a most unusual structure, forty-two feet square and ninety-two feet high. There was a steep hip roof on each side of the building covering the high first story, and then what seemed to be a miniature
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duplicate of the lower part was perched on the center of the roof as a start for the steeple. Topping that was a still smaller reproduc- tion of the first story, which came to a point surmounted by an iron rod. This supported a huge vane of sheet iron and above this was a weather-cock. The windows were of diamond panes set in lead. The floor of the building did not rest on the sills, but on separate sup- ports built up from the ground, and it only came to the bottom of the sills, so that people stepped over the timber and down on entering. There were fifteen pews along the wall and two rows of seats fronting the pulpit, one row for the men and one for the women. The gal- leries were supported by pillars and the whole interior was open to the second story, exposing to view beams, studding, rafters and out- side boarding. The building was clapboarded, but never painted. The timber for it was prepared from trees grown on the commons. This meetinghouse was used for a full century and stood for one hundred and eighteen years before it was torn down. There never was a fire kindled within its walls, and though the sermon ran to "seventeenthly" the people could but endure. A drum called the con- gregation together and a fine was imposed on such as absented them- selves without just cause.
The first minister was Reverend John Woodbridge, descendant of seven others of the same name and profession. His wife, Jemima, was a granddaughter of the celebrated missionary to the Indians, John Eliot. Mr. Woodbridge's salary was £80, to be paid in part by provisions, and he was given a house and home-lot of three acres and the use of the ministry land of sixty acres. He was an able man, a graduate of Harvard College, and filled the pastorate for twenty years.
The still unsold lands originally belonging to Springfield were divided among the townsmen in 1707, each male person who had completed his twenty-first year sharing in the apportionment. The several localities were given distinguishing names, Agawam on the south; the Street district, now West Springfield, and the Chicopee Plains, which included the northern part of the town and the present city of Holyoke. As early as 1654 school lands had been set off on Chicopee Plains and the proceeds devoted to school support, and a school is supposed to have been opened on the west side of the river several years before the Second Parish was established. In answer
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to a petition from the Second Parish, Springfield voted, in 1706, that a schoolhouse be built under the supervision of Deacon Parsons, Sam- uel Day and Samuel Ely; and later that a "meet person" be provided to teach children to read and write. A few years after that Benjamin Colton received twenty pounds for one-half year's teaching. Another was given fifteen pounds for a half year, with permission to take a fortnight out of that period for his harvest and getting in his hay. Practically nothing is known about the early schoolhouse or houses until a two-story wooden building was erected on the common in 1752.
In addition to the expense of maintaining their families and their church the people paid taxes for the necessary expenses of the town of Springfield, of which they were still a part, and there was a rate fixed for supporting the Colonial government at Boston. Massachu- setts is one of the few states of the Union that assesses a poll tax and the custom evidently goes back to an early day. Instead of having a fixed sum as now, the value of the poll was rated according to the earning capacity of the individual. If a man was old and infirm or disabled he might not have to pay any poll tax, but they ran from eight to twelve pounds ordinarily.
The old parish records show how difficult it was to secure a new minister and what trouble and expense they went through. Some- times one or two men were sent to Boston with instructions to bring back a minister and at other times the parish more thriftily voted to send by somebody who was going that way on business. In the first case the expenses of travel were paid by the parish and usually a small sum added for the men's time. In the second case they would pay only the expense of the minister as he came back with the messenger.
The second minister was Reverend Samuel Hopkins, whose wife was a sister of the notable Jonathan Edwards. By some he is said to have been "heterodox," but he served the people honorably and well for thirty-six years. Maple sugar was introduced to the public through a pamphlet published by him in 1752 giving an account of the Indian way of making it. His headstone in the old cemetery in West Springfield reads : "Here rests the Body of Rev. Samuel Hop- kins, In whom, sound Judgment, solid learning, Candour, Piety, Sin- cerity, Constancy and universal Benevolence combined to form an excellent Minister, a Kind Husband, Parent and Friend."
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The ministers were, in general, men of decided ability, of education, and often of superior culture. They had received all the training the universities could give and were able, even noble leaders. Relig- ion was the motive power of both minister and people and not com- mercial gain. With their piety the ministers brought their learning and their trained habits of thinking. With their learning they brought their books, in some instances considerable libraries. They were formal and reverent without being morose, and did not consider it a sin to laugh and joke. Few were fine orators, but they kept abreast of the times and made their opinions known in no uncertain terms.
The question of "seating the meeting-house" was a vexing one here as well as in other towns. One vote was "that the seators should observe as a ruil to do their Worcke by to consider Persons Age," and another that it should be "by men's Estate." A lot in Agawam meadows is still known as the "Seatin' lot" from the fact that the committee, while resting from their work at noon, gathered under the elms and seated the meetinghouse.
The first doctor in the west parish was John Van Horn, a native of Springfield, who graduated at Yale College in 1749. He was a skillful physician and practiced his profession over fifty years. He was a scholarly man, fond of literary pursuits and was prominent in public affairs. In the later years of his life he imagined himself incapable of making any effort whatever, so took to his bed, where he remained under the constant care of an attendant for four years. Dr. Seth Lathrop, son of an early pastor, studied medicine under Dr. Van Horn and became his assistant, a common practice years ago. Lathrop was over six feet tall and imposing in figure, his very appear- ance inspiring confidence. He was very successful in his profession for his good practical common sense supplied the want of an extended education.
Dr. Timothy Horton, whose father was a physician before him, was a practitioner of considerable ability, a man of means and public spirit, noted for the extremely small charges for his services. His regular fee in his own neighborhood was twelve and a half cents per visit and he was frequently known to go four or five miles, spend con- siderable time in consultation on the call of another doctor, and only charge a shilling.
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Reverend Joseph Lathrop, a graduate of Yale, was the pastor who followed Mr. Hopkins. He filled a ministry of sixty-three years and was one of the most remarkable divines that ever spent their life in the Connecticut Valley. He wrote 5,000 sermons in his long pas- torate, seven volumes of which have been published. Over six hun- dred people were admitted to the church while he was minister, and he baptized 1,266 children, whose parents were members. After graduating from Yale College he taught school in Springfield and pursued his theological studies under the pastor, Reverend Mr. Breck. Reverend John Hooker, of Northampton, gave a ""preparatory lec- ture" for Mr. Breck at that time and made a great impression on the young student, who ever afterward spoke of him in terms of unqualified praise. A few weeks after Mr. Lathrop was examined and licensed at Suffield, the parish knowing that he was considered a young man of more than ordinary promise, asked him to supply their vacant pulpit and he remained with them until his death. In May, 1759, mindful of the fact that it is not good for man to be alone, he married Elizabeth Dwight, youngest daughter of Captain Seth Dwight, of Hatfield.
One of Dr. Lathrop's sermons was preached from the text "When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel." It was occasioned by some one getting into his garden and carrying off his watermelons just as they were ripe. Mr. Lathrop had secured the first seeds in the region and naturally preached a blistering sermon.
Dr. Lathrop received many tokens of public respect and confi- dence. In 1791 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Yale College and, in 1811, from the Cambridge University. He was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was chosen professor of divinity at Yale. He assisted about twenty young men in their preparation for the ministry. Dr. Lathrop wrote with a quill, turning it 'round and 'round, so that one lasted for several sermons. He lived with great economy and no carpet was in his house for many years. He always dressed in black and when his coat faded a tailoress came to the house and turned it. For twenty years Dr. Lathrop visited Mr. Howard, minister of the First Church in Springfield, twice a week, usually riding over on horseback. Madam Lathrop was a good housekeeper and on every day in the
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year, except Sunday, a boiled Indian pudding was served at her dinner table.
Dr. Lathrop once related an amusing description given by a child after attending its first meeting in those early days. She said "the men were all shut up in large pens, and there was a man a hollerin' up in the chimbly, and on the roost was a lot of gals squallin'!"
Dr. Lathrop's eyesight failed as he grew older and in 1818 he requested the parish to provide him with a colleague. From that time on he rarely took part in public services, but his last appearance was only two months before his death, when he made a prayer at the funeral of John Bagg, who was burnt to death in a distillery. He died as he had lived, full of peace and hope, in the ninetieth year of his age, having been in the West Parish sixty-five years.
The meetinghouse, built in such elaborate style in 1702, had been several times repaired, and after nearly a century of use it seemed better to build anew than to repair again. Perhaps a satirical poem of Dr. Lathrop's, where he referred to the geese and the cows as occupying the structure on week days that the people had to use on the Sabbath, somewhat hastened matters. Once the parish had decided to build, the usual controversy took place as to location, and it was only when John Ashley came forward with a donation of £1, 100 for "the support of the ministry on condition that he should be permit- ted to choose the building site," that the matter was amicably settled. With rare good judgment he chose a beautiful location on a hill, where they built in 1802 a plain white colonial church with a graceful spire. It still stands on what is now known as Mount Orthodox. The contract price for the building was said to be $1,400 and ten gallons of St. Croix rum, valued at about sixty dollars. No rum was used, but the money was divided among the workmen. Captain Timothy Billings, then only twenty-eight years old, was thought by some not to have "beard" enough for such a work. He replied that "skill and courage were more necessary than beard."
The raising took place while a vessel was being built on the com- mon and the men there employed assisted in raising the steeple. The story is told that when the steeple was complete and the vane which resembled a sturgeon adjusted, some waggish men assembled at the tavern of Rufus Colton, got a rich treat out of the landlord. They told him they had made a bet for the drinks, to be paid when the bet
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was decided. That was satisfactory to him and the drinks were con- sumed. Then he was told that one side had bet that when the church steeple fell it would go to the north, and the other side that it would go to the south. The landlord enjoyed the joke, but the bet is still unpaid.
In the year 1727 there were five persons, all men, baptized by immersion in the town. The minister who performed the ceremony was Reverend Elisha Callender, of Boston. Some years later they, with others who had joined them, were formed into a church with Reverend Edward Upham as pastor. This organization struggled along for some years before it finally lapsed into oblivion.
West Springfield, though long considered mainly as good farming land for Springfield settlers, gradually came to be important in other ways and even seemed likely for a time to dominate the mother town. In 1770, so strong was the west side element that they came within a few votes of carrying a motion to have half the town meetings held on their side of the river. The next year they tried, but without suc- cess, to have a grammar school held in their domain for one year. Three years later they had grown sufficiently strong in numbers so that they were able to adjourn the March town meeting soon after it opened and voted to hold it two days later on the west side. This was actually done and the aristocrats of Springfield had a chance to see what it was like to cross the Connecticut in March for the sake of attending a town meeting. A few sympathizers were on the east side of the river and the final result of a series of turbulent meetings, first in one center and then the other, was a resolution to call in advisers from the outside. This committee made an elaborate report in May, saying that they considered it "a Great Unhappiness that the most Antiant and Respectable town in the County of Hampshire, the wise and peaceable Conduct of whose public affairs has ever to this Day Done much Honour to the Inhabitants and established a just Veneration for their leading men, should by Means only of the sup- posed or Real Indiscretion and Mistakes of a few persons be Reduced to the necessity of a Division." The decision of the committee that a complete separation of the two parts of the town was not necessary did not settle matters, for meeting after meeting followed, and plan after plan was put forward and turned down. Finally, Springfield became apprehensive that it might become only part of the west side
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