USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume II > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
Public excitement was at a fever pitch. Idle, curious crowds swarmed along the main streets, some with grave faces, some smiling, as though it were a huge public holiday. Eyes turned constantly toward the west, where the river rolled. Newsboys hawked their extras in the street, their strident voices laden with excitement as they raced down the sidewalk waving their papers. Above it all was the steady throb, throb of the pumps as arching streams of water poured out of the basements onto the streets. Areas were roped off and the National Guard came out in their khaki uniforms and patroled the streets, aided by members of the Naval Reserve. The commercial life of the city was stricken and only in the cellars below the street level was there activity. Theatres without exception on Main Street closed their doors as water in some cases came up over the seats. An
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overworked sewer caused a terrific explosion in the morning which shook the Hampden County Courthouse and other buildings in the vicinity. Still the river kept rising at the rate of a foot an hour.
Drama was enacted at the Hampden County Jail on York Street as the waters swirled over the tracks and around the building. This emergency was met by Sheriff Manning, who commandeered rowboats and transferred the inmates to safety on dry land and from there to a secret destination, later discovered to be the Prison Colony at Nor- folk. An added disaster was the fire at the Moore Drop Forging Company, which caused $100,000 worth of damage. Firemen called to the scene by two alarms helplessly watched the building which was surrounded by water.
The North End, South End and Memorial bridges were closed to traffic. Driftwood, parts of houses, dead cattle and every conceivable kind of débris rode on the bosom of the swollen stream. As the hours passed into the day of March 20, 15,000 people in Spring- field alone were driven from their homes and took refuge in the various schools and churches throughout the city which had been turned into emergency relief centers. Volunteer workers took charge. Appeals were broadcast for money to aid the refugees and purchase supplies for their maintenance. Fears were allayed somewhat when Alderman Philip V. Erard reported that there was no immediate chance of a food or milk shortage. There was little looting through- out the flooded areas as National Guardsmen and others maintained vigilance. Rumors flew thick and fast. The South Hadley Bridge was tottering. At several locations heavy railroad cars filled with coal were left on railroad bridges to prevent them from being ripped from their moorings and swept away.
Power failed and a great part of the city in the downtown area was thrown into darkness. Without power business and transporta- tion were crippled. Ten thousand industrial and other factory work- ers were thrown out of work. The presses at the various newspapers went dead, and the editorial rooms kept going by light from oil and alcohol lamps. Flooded manholes, which submerged conduits and transformers, made it impossible to provide any kind of service through emergency tie-ups with outside plants. Westfield and other cities were plunged into darkness before this.
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The main streets of Springfield at night presented an unforgetable scene. The buildings, looming in the blackness, looked like haunted tombs. The streets were deserted, except for an occasional shadowy figure of a guardsman with a flashlight. Pedestrians without official passes were questioned. Although martial law was not officially in existence, it was in the air. Canoes were used to ferry an occa- sional pedestrian through the Main Street railroad arch as though the scene were in far off Venice instead of Springfield in Hampden County.
Through the cooperation of the Holyoke "Transcript," people were still able to receive news of the havoc wrought by the turbulent flood. That newspaper generously contributed its composing room and press room facilities, and while the "Republican" was editorially turned out in Springfield, in the main, it was printed in Holyoke, while the "Union" was printed in several different places. Transportation of copy and some type was made possible through a roundabout route into Holyoke. Special loops of the Associated Press and Universal Service were set up to give the telegraph news.
At four o'clock on the morning of March 20 the flood reached its high crest of 28.6 feet. It held for a short time and then began to drop, but only a tenth of a foot an hour. Five hours later the river had receded less than a foot. Yet, although the rising of the river had stopped at last, the real crisis had only begun.
First came the vital problem of relief as thousands of refugees needed care and attention. The Red Cross, under the leadership of Dr. W. A. R. Chapin, was battling against overwhelming odds to handle systematically the horde of refugees who kept crowding into the relief centers. Women's groups, church groups, clubs, city organi- zations, all did their part and responded with their time and money. Army cots were placed in the corridors of the schools and people accustomed to privacy lived in semi-public. Nurses and doctors gave generously of their time.
Commercially the county suffered terrific financial reverses. Over $3,000,000 in damages in the business district of Springfield alone was estimated by city officials, and a total damage throughout the city from $6,000,000 to $7,000,000. So widespread was the devastation caused, and so multiple the property and goods affected, that per-
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haps even an approximate figure will never be computed. Bridges weakened or torn away, huge holes in the roads, with ripped up pav- ing blocks scattered about, sewers rendered useless, a foot deep of mud in some of the flooded sections, buildings undermined and akilter, merchandise lost, workers idle-the list is infinite. Months of reha- bilitation will be required before the county can even begin to fight its way out from the ruck.
It is fitting that this history of Springfield should end with the three hundredth anniversary of its settlement by that courageous pioneer, William Pynchon. In 1636, Springfield had but a few small dwellings. In 1936 it is a busy city of tall buildings, of beautiful homes, of paved streets, of fine public institutions, of everything that comprises a thoroughly modern metropolis.
The anniversary celebration was spread over quite a period, but centered in the month of May. The committee in charge was origi- nally appointed by Mayor Dwight R. Winter, in 1933, and elaborate plans were made, which were somewhat dampened by the disastrous flood in March, 1936. But the city rose triumphant over its afflictions in this century, as the little village of Springfield did nearly three hun- dred years before when fire swept through its homes.
The celebration began with a banquet in the auditorium on the evening of May 13, when greetings were exchanged with Spring- field in England by means of the transatlantic telephone. During the program Mayor Henry Martens placed a floral crown on the pageant queen, Eleanor Cabana, of Technical High School. The banquet was attended by Lorna Magore, of the mother town in Great Britain, a little hamlet virtually unchanged in the last three hundred years. Mayors and other representatives of surrounding towns, once included in Springfield's large territory, were also present.
The following evening was taken up with the three hundredth anniversary ball, a colorful affair, preceded by a reception in the mahogany room. Among the honored guests were Lieutenant- Governor Joseph L. Hurley and Mayor Frederick Mansfield, of Bos- ton. Some of the attendants were costumed in old-time apparel, which added much to the interest of the occasion.
May 15 was school day and pageants and exhibitions featuring the past history took place all over the city. On Old Home Day which followed, downtown Springfield celebrated with block dancing,
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historical exhibits in the store windows, and the circulation of wooden nickels, coined of balsam wood by the tercentenary committee.
On Sunday the churches held appropriate services, some of them with costumed tithing men in attendance.
"Doctors' Day" was marked by a pilgrimage to the grave of Dr. John E. Leonard, Springfield's first doctor, who was buried in the Agawam Cemetery in 1744. Dr. Henry E. Sigerist, of Johns Hopkins University, was the speaker at a public meeting in the evening.
The weather was uncertain on the evening of May 19 when the pageant, "The Wings of Time," was scheduled to be presented for the first time, but it was successfully presented on the three following evenings to increasingly large audiences. The pageant was held in Pynchon Park and opened with a court scene in which the queen of Springfield appeared to greet visitors from the North, South, East and West, followed by Miss Columbia and her forty-eight states.
The ballet of creation, which came next, was a symbolical episode interpretive of the Spirits of Nature at play. An Indian village scene preceded the coming of Pynchon and his party in the shallop and the signing of the deed to the land. More settlers came, and an early church service was shown in the pageant. Tragedies followed in the burning of Pynchon's book and the episode of King Philip's War.
The school scene was a striking contrast to present-day Spring- field, which has nothing to compare with Goody Gregory in the stocks. A minuet made a beautiful opening for the Revolutionary War with its tableau of the making of the flag, the thrilling leave of the minute men, and the well-known picture, "The Spirit of '76."
The early 1800's were represented by a stagecoach, and a wedding party which danced the Virginia reel. Lincoln and John Brown were central figures in scenes of the Civil War, to which a lighter touch was added by another ballet.
In 1886 Springfield celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anni- versary and the grand ball which was held at that time was repro- duced in the pageant. A tableau of the World War was followed by scenes showing industrial growth and the progress of education.
The Masque of Nations was a gorgeous spectacle, which included dances of many nations as well as the American Jackies and U. S. A.
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Girls. The finale depicted the entire cast, literally, in the immense Wheel of Progress.
The cast was drawn from schools and clubs, various organizations, and the surrounding towns. Walter Kerr, of Agawam, represented William Pynchon; James Sullivan was Abraham Lincoln; and Charles F. Weckworth, Springfield College authority on Indian dancing, made a striking figure.
Springfield's famous wanderer, Johnny Appleseed, had a pageant all to himself, when a boulder in his memory was dedicated in Steb- bins Park on the afternoon of May 28. The Springfield Garden Club presented a bronze marker for the boulder. Over a thousand school children took part in the exercises which commemorated the life of this simple lover of nature. A Johnny Appleseed Arboretum has been started in the park and one of the gifts it has already received is eight apple trees from Fort Wayne, Indiana, which are said to be descend- ants of those planted by John Chapman himself. The Art Museum was a center of interest during this historic period with its exhibits of old furniture, portraits and other interesting relics of the past.
The tercentenary exercises are planned to include a Boy Scout circus at the Eastern States Coliseum and a parade sometime in the fall. Greetings were exchanged with Texas, which is celebrating its centennial, and with Providence and Harvard University, both observ- ing three hundredth anniversaries.
The people of Springfield have found, as President Roosevelt stated to them in a letter: "The observance of the tercentenary of the city's founding is sure to stimulate and quicken interest in the past."
PART II REGIONAL
Chicopee and Skipmuck
CHAPTER I
Chicopee and Skipmuck
The first settlers in Chicopee were Japhet and Henry Chapin and their brother-in-law, Rowland Thomas. Japhet and Henry were sons of Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the most valued of Springfield's early settlers. He was influential in the affairs of the town and province as well as in the church. His social position is shown by the edifying record that in the meetinghouse Goodwife Chapin was to sit in the seat along with the minister's wife and Mrs. Holyoke. An old writer has said, "God sifted three kingdoms that He might plant the finest of the wheat in New England." From whatever climate or province these sturdy ancestors of ours came, their history shows they were the finest of the wheat.
The early records are imperfect, and it is difficult to determine the exact date of the first settlement of Chicopee, but we know that by 1675 Japhet and Henry were in homes of their own. Japhet's house was on the bank of the Connecticut River, in Chicopee Street, where for a long time the cellar hole and the old road leading to it were in sight. Henry's house was near the west end of Exchange Street in Chicopee Center, and Rowland Thomas lived nearby. The first land grant was in 1659, when a farm was given to John Pynchon. It lay over the Chicopee River, with the islands of the river below the wad- ing place and the meadow on the south side. Also there was a swamp betwixt the meadow and the river, and one boundary ran up the "Grate River." The first mention of a road is in 1665.
Sons and daughters were born to these Chapin brothers, and in a few years there were eighty-eight grandchildren, and other settlers joined them. At first the Indians were friendly, but King Philip's War changed all that. Springfield was burned and the frontiers were in constant anxiety.
Hannah, daughter of Japhet Chapin, was married, in 1703, to John Sheldon, of Deerfield. When she was preparing her wedding
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outfit her mother was careful that she should have a dress suitable to wear into captivity. The dress was made of flannel probably spun and woven by her own hands. Three months after her marriage Deerfield was attacked in the night. In jumping from a window Han- nah sprained her ankle and was unable to escape or secure her dress, and a few days afterward she saw it on an Indian woman. With other prisoners Hannah was taken to Canada and their footsteps stained the snow with blood. By the energy of her father-in-law she was later redeemed and brought to her old home in Chicopee, and from there she returned to Deerfield. She was probably ransomed by the payment of twenty pounds, which seems to have been the price put by the French on their English women captives.
Greylock, the famous Indian chief, after whom the mountain in Berkshire was named, was often in this vicinity. He had only one foot, as the other was lost in a trap, and his trail was easily detected but he was never captured. His object seems to have been not so much scalps as prisoners, whom he sold in Canada.
A little girl in her trundle bed was roused one night from sleep by someone creeping from the window across the bed. She was too frightened to move and as she knew that her safety depended on per- fect quiet she watched the Indian while he helped himself to food from the cupboard. He left the house as stealthily as he came. It might have passed for the dream of a frightened child, but the empty cup- board confirmed the tale. The thief was Greylock, who was too hun- gry to be dangerous.
Skipmuck, a locality about a mile east of Chicopee Falls, that was started about 1660, was later attacked by the Indians. Some of the settlers were killed and one or more taken captive. Two soldiers had just finished cleaning their guns and they were saying: "Now we are ready for the dogs," when a young girl who was spinning by the win- dow exclaimed: "They have come." She ran and in her haste and fright drew the latchstring from the door shutting out the family. Lieutenant Wright, who was at work in a shop nearby crept through a window and with this daughter escaped. The soldiers and one child were killed, and another child was left for dead, but revived and lived to grow up. Mrs. Wright was taken prisoner.
The front door of the house built by David Chapin, about 1705, was thickly studded with nails to prevent the Indians from splitting it
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open with their tomahawks. Samuel Chapin was fired on and wounded while crossing the Connecticut returning from his work on the west side, but no serious injury seems to have come to any of the other settlers in Chicopee Street.
During these early years we find Japhet and Henry Chapin leaders in public affairs. Japhet's name appears as selectman, assessor and juror. Henry served on various committees and was deputy to the public assembly at Boston. His integrity is shown in this, that while four pounds was allowed by the town to their deputies, he refused to take more than thirty-four shillings, insisting that this was all it had cost him. Henry Chapin was one of those who were given permission to fish in Chicopee River. In 1694 iron works and a blacksmith in Skipmuck are mentioned and also a cornmill. Previous to this all the sawing and grinding had been done at the mills in Springfield. But in spite of all the difficulty of drawing lumber so far, log houses were not as common here as in most new countries. The dwellings were frame houses, many of them with two stories. Some were built with two stories in front and one in the rear with what was called a lean-to roof.
It has been said that after the burning of Springfield the peo- ple thought seriously of leaving, but the records do not show this. Other names appear showing that settlers did not fear to come even in those troublous times. In 1683 Henry Chapin deeded land on the west side of the river to an Irishman, and he with other settlers who came to that vicinity gave the name of Ireland Parish to that part of the town. Until this time it seems to have been known as "The Upper Wigwams," showing that there was an Indian settlement near.
In 1712 a county road was laid out from Hadley to the lower end of Enfield. This followed what is now known as the "old road" to Willimansett.
The first mention of a school in Chicopee is in 1713, when the sum of ten shillings was paid by the town to Daniel Cooley's daughter for keeping school. There had been schools in Springfield since 1641, but it was impossible for the smaller children and inconvenient for the older ones to go so far. All children were to be taught to read and must learn the catechism. About 1721 the first schoolhouse in Chico- pee was built on Chicopee Street. It was a one-story building, unpainted, with a huge fireplace, and stood until the "old red school- house" was built in 1761. Each parent was required to furnish one
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load of wood to be brought to the schoolhouse in October, and no scholar was to have benefit of the wood until his share was brought.
The school punishments were unique. A remedy to prevent whis- pering was a short wedge inserted between the upper and lower teeth, thus keeping the mouth open; but a girl might simply have to stand with her two lips pinched together with her fingers. For restlessness, a book was placed on the head, and the child expected to keep still so it would not fall. Sometimes a child was made to stoop over and hold his finger on a crack in the floor for a certain time, or to stand on one foot only. If the penalty consisted in holding several heavy books on the outstretched palm, and the hand drooped lower and lower, the teacher would give a whack on the elbow with the ruler. To be blind- folded and stood in the corner with hands tied behind one's back was bad enough, but no shame for a boy equaled that of being made to sit with the girls.
Much has been said of the hardship and poverty of those early days. Of poverty, in the sense of suffering for the necessities of life, there was little. Game and wild fowl abounded in the woods and the rivers were full of fish. Every householder was required to keep at least three sheep. These and their fields of flax supplied them with clothing and bedding. Every young girl was taught to spin and the stronger ones learned to weave, both plain and fancy, according to their skill and taste. Some of their table furnishings were of wood and others of pewter, but the wood was scoured to a beautiful white- ness and the pewter shone like silver.
Mrs. Thomas Chapin said she had two sons who were too rich to be comfortable, Abel and Japhet; and she had one son, Thomas, who was just about right as regards property; and one, Shem, who was too poor. Abel, whom she called too rich, was afterward known as Landlord Abel. He built the first house in Willimanset, east of the railroad station, but about 1730 removed to Chicopee Street, where he erected a three-story house with a gambrel roof. Here he kept a tavern for many years. Some portions of his account books that have been preserved are interesting as showing the habits and cus- toms of the period, and the items are chiefly of what was sold at the bar: "rum and cider," "bowls of punch" and "mugs of flip."
One of Landlord Abel's possessions was a "Negro Man." Others were a large Bible and law books. He had Watts' Psalms and
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Hymns and Mather on Congregational principles, and other books along such lines. They were a serious collection, with one exception, and that was "Robinson Crusoe."
For more than sixty years the people of Chicopee continued their connection with the old First Church of Springfield, finding their way on foot or on horseback, fording the Chicopee River at the Indian wading place, or sometimes going by canoe down the Connecticut. The Sabbath services and the weekly lectures were their edification and delight and their lives were regulated by its ordinances, and when death came they were laid to rest in the old burying ground at the foot of Elm Street, on the banks of the Connecticut. The faithfulness of these people in going to meeting was wonderful. For instance, Ezekiel Chapin said that for twenty-six Sabbaths in succession he went regu- larly to Springfield to meeting.
The first allusion to any public service in Chicopee is in 1728, when a meeting of the local church was held either in the schoolhouse or in one of the homes. From time to time there was a lecture or thanksgiving sermon preached, and as the group grew stronger money was raised for preaching during the severe cold of the winter. The homes of the Springfield people were mostly on what are now Main and State streets and their farmlands were at a distance, some of them across the "Great River." The mother church was about to build a new meetinghouse. A petition was sent from Chicopee asking leave to withdraw, but it was dismissed. The church in Springfield was unwilling to lose these faithful men and women who had contributed so much to its growth and prosperity and replied that other advan- tages more than compensated them for the extra fatigue endured. But as soon as the petitioners were assured of a favorable answer they set to work. On the evening of January 2, 1751, they met and "all with united voices declared for cutting timber for a Meeting House." The next day about forty men went into the woods, all of them volunteers, with weather "clear, cold and still." January 4, about twenty men finished the work of the day before. "The cold some- what abated." On the seventh a storm set in, but at the same time it furnished snow for "sledding the Meeting-House timber." A thaw delayed the work, but in February the timber was brought home very successfully.
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Winds and storms followed the beautiful February weather and it was not until April that timber-hewing began. This month they made brick and so the work went on until June 5, when it is recorded that "thro ye indulgence of Heaven, we have our Meeting-House raised with great safety and joy." At first the meetinghouse was covered with "Ruff Boards" only. It was used in this way until 1752, when the outside was covered with quarter boards and it was voted to glaze all the windows and to do the plastering overhead and finish all the lower part. The meetinghouse was nearly square, without bell or steeple and it stood in the middle of the then broad street. It was built of heavy oak timbers and there was carved work over the windows.
For those days it was a good looking building. The seats at first were benches, but afterward were changed to pews, the seats of which were hinged and could be raised for standing. As the custom then was to stand during prayer and to sit during singing, there was often a noisy clatter when the prayer began. The pew on the right of the pulpit was for the minister's family and the two in front were set apart, one for the deacons and one for the elderly men. A high pulpit was on the west side, with the sounding board above it. Some of the children thought it looked as if the minister were shut up in a box with a cover ready to fall on his head. The pulpit was painted pale green and it had a velvet cushion. The communion table was also painted pale green and it was suspended on hinges and raised or lowered at pleasure. On three sides of the house was a gallery well filled in later years with young men and maidens, who led the service of song. One corner was reserved as the "Negro's seat," for there were slaves in those days.
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