USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Shelburne > History and tradition of Shelburne, Massachusetts > Part 40
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She was a member of the school committee for several years. Genealogical work had a great attrac- tion for her, especially in connection with her own family. She was a gifted speaker, and her interest in
women's suffrage found her urging this reform at meetings all the way to Boston; the public notice for such a meeting in Deerfield on February 17, 1900, ends with "the unconverted are invited." After a long illness, during which she was cared for by Dr. Mary Dole - another native daughter then living in Greenfield - her gentle and devoted life came to an end on November 23, 1905.
Dr. William D. Otterson practiced over a decade in Franklin County and the period from May 1889 to October 1890, was spent in this town, his resi- dence being in the Dr. Charles Severance house. Dr. Otterson was a gifted singer and participated in an excellent quartet as well as being a soloist in church programs and the locally-sponsored cantata.
Dr. P. E. Ayers, who moved restlessly through this general area after the drowning of his recent bride in 1875 in Hawley, was located in Shelburne Falls for the five months ending in May 1893, and then moved to Springfield. Seven resident physicians were just too many for the medical needs.
Dr. Charles L. Upton, a native son who practiced here for three decades, will be remembered by many. He was the grandson of Dr. Charles Duncan who practiced at the Center for fifty years. After prep- aration at Arms Academy he attended Amherst Col- lege, from which he was graduated in 1891. He was an excellent athlete while there, and won several prizes, including the Lincoln scholarship which gave him a full graduate year in chemistry. For the first half of the 1892-1893 year he taught natural sciences in the Southern Kansas Academy in Eureka, Kansas, and during the latter half he taught in the preparatory school at Concord, Massachusetts.
In the fall of 1893 he entered the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from that institu- tion in June 1896. He opened his office in the Merrill Block at 8 Main Street on July 23, 1896, and for a time also maintained an office in his old home at the Center. He remarked to me after he had moved to Greenfield that he had such a slow start because of his youthful appearance that he wore a beard for awhile. It must have been effective, because he had a long, active practice, and as one who had the good fortune to follow in his footsteps it is my pleasure to verify that it was also a very capable one.
He immediately started upon his support of the local athletic sports which he so enjoyed, and for a long time this town dominated the county in the field of athletic sports. In 1896 he helped form, and then coached, a football team. In 1906 this team was led by a group still well known here - Dr. Upton as coach, Percy Rickett as manager, and William Noonan as captain.
Dr. Upton served in World War I as chief of the convalescent section of Camp Taylor in Ken-
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tucky. After his return he served on the school committee.
Dr. Upton will long be remembered by his friends and patients for his professional skill, his tremendous vitality, and the devotion of his family. His mother, the former Sarah M. Duncan, and his wife, Mrs. Katherine J. Upton, have passed away. His daughter, Ruth, and his son, Duncan, are well known to the townspeople.
Dr. John S. Outhouse, the youngest of the trium- virate which protected the sick in this town for such a long period, came here in the summer of 1898 and opened an office in the Bank Block the first of August. He was a native of St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, New Brunswick. He was graduated from Mt. Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, in 1894 and from McGill University, Montreal, in 1898 with a Doctor of Medicine degree, leading his class.
He was an ardent sportsman and immediately took an active part in this field. In 1902 he was president of the bicycle club and one of the directors of the Shelburne Falls Club. In 1904 he was president of the Shelburne Falls Fish and Game Protective Associ- ation, which pushed strongly for the restocking of the Deerfield River and the ponds, and he was also vice- president of the Rifle Club. This club visited many towns in rifle-shoots.
On September 4, 1900, he was married to Miss Adeline R. Foster, and they had two daughters. Dr. Outhouse died in 1944. Mrs. Outhouse is now liv- ing quietly in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
Dr. Bruno Thurber Guild, who was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, in 1908, was a practicing physician here from 1912 to 1918. For many years he has not been in the practice of medicine, being instead an executive in the drug production field in New York City.
In 1920 Dr. F. A. Edmunds, a graduate of the Baltimore Medical College, settled here for about three years with an office at 45 Bridge Street.
Dr. Howard 'B. Marble, a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School, settled here in 1921. He was a big, active and very pleasant physician, who entered into the community life readily and was very quickly accepted. In 1920 he had mar- ried Miss Lucille I. Smith of Colrain, and their children were born here. During the Second World War he moved away and is now located in Tennessee, where he has found an area which gives him freedom from asthma.
Dr. Amedee P. Lamoureux, after an internship at the Farren Memorial Hospital, commenced practice here in January 1926, in the offices vacated by Dr. Upton. He'was very industrious, made many friends,
and left quite a vacancy when he left in January 1929. He moved to Washington, D. C., where he died.
Into this vacancy came, on February 15, 1929, Dr. Lawrence R. Dame, a graduate of Tufts College Medical School in 1927, who had just finished his internship in the Worcester, Massachusetts, City Hospital. He remembers with deep appreciation the friendly acceptance of his services during those seem- ingly endless days of the depression. The friendly days of boarding with Mrs. Upton while trying to reach the homes of seemingly inaccessible patients on Chris- tian Hill, the hills of Heath and Rowe, and the valleys of Hawley, produced irremovable memories.
On June 15, 1932, Dr. John B. Temple com- menced his quarter-century of service to this commu- nity. The designation "Dr. Temple" is a familiar one in this area, John B. being the sixth one to be known as "Doctor"-the previous ones being Jonathan, Frederick, Cyrus, Theron, and Hiram, the last named being his grandfather and the resident physician of Charlemont for many years - and all stemming from Heath. He is a native son who successfully, and with great relish, aided in maintaining the reputation of athletic sports of this town.
His education was received at Arms Academy, Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the Uni- versity of Massachusetts), Harvard Medical School, and the Worcester, Massachusetts, City Hospital. In addition to an extremely active practice he has served on many community projects which included service on the school committee. During his recent extremely serious illness, his progress was followed by the entire community as a family would follow one of its mem- bers, and his return to practice, even though restricted, was greeted with a community-sized sigh of relief.
Dr. Wendell C. Matthews, a graduate of Tufts College Medical School, came to town in 1933. He carried on a very active practice from his home and office at 12 Main Street for nine years, and then entered the Army Medical Corps to serve on the European continent. He returned after the war and enlarged his activities with X-ray services. On June 1, 1949, he left to join the Alaska territorial health service and has continued in that field.
Dr. Samuel Galbo came to town in 1941, but had hardly become settled firmly in practice before he left for military service on the European continent, where he received a personal citation for the value of his services. He re-established his practice here after his return, and when Dr. Matthews left, he purchased the property at 12 Main Street, where he maintains his home and office. One of the outstanding changes in the appearance of property in this town in recent years has been his renovation of the house and grounds, where at least five physician predecessors have been located.
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Dr. H. Eugene Oxman moved into town in 1944 to help out when the community so needed more medi- cal coverage during the war, and very soon found out how much work there was to be done. He and his family have fitted snugly into the community life.
His participation in the services of his congregation are well known, and those who first realize the excellence of his hobbies of photography and numismatics are really surprised. His gentle and courteous habits have won for him many friends and a very active life.
OTHER WELL-KNOWN CITIZENS
THEOPHILUS PACKARD
Rev. Theophilus Packard, D.D., was born in North Bridgewater, March +, 1769. He was a grad- uate of Dartmouth in 1796 and studied theology with the Rev. Asa Burton of Thetford, Vermont. He received his doctorate from Dartmouth, was a member of the board of trustees of Williams College, one of the overseers of the Charity Fund of Amherst College, and also one of the trustees of Amherst and president pro tempore. He was pastor at Shelburne for fifty-six years, but during part of his pastorate his son was his colleague. Dr. Packard prepared many students for college. He instructed thirty-one persons in theology, all of whom became preachers. He served in the House of Representatives in 1829 and 1839. Dr. Packard died in 1855.
IRA ARMS
Ira Arms was born in Greenfield on May 14th or 15th in 1783 and died in Shelburne Falls, September 9, 1859, having spent part of his life in Shelburne in the house now owned by Mr. Friend and also in Buckland on the site of Walter Legate's house. His last years were passed in the Thaddeus Merrill house south of the Congregational Church at Shelburne Falls.
The monument in the cemetery indicates that he was a Mason and his will indicates that he was a Congregationalist. He served in the House of Repre- sentatives in 1830, 1832, 1835 and 1838.
Though personally opposed to mixing politics, schools, and religion, he was induced to include a clause in his will requiring the school he intended to found to use only orthodox Congregationalists as trustees. This clause prevented the building of the school as a public institution. It was about twenty years after his death before Arms Academy, a private institution, was built. By that time the fund of $20,000 had reached $50,000 - largely through the sale of land owned by Arms on Severance Street, which he had given, with the money, as a site for the school. Arms graduated its first class in 1882. It was made a high school in 1895, the town renting the building and managing it through the school com- mittee.
For a cemetery, one thousand dollars and a plot of land on the Buckland side of the river fronting it was given by Arms, November 28, 1845, at the same time as the school gift. Because it seemed a poor location, with Arms' approval, land for the present Arms Cemetery was purchased and laid out. In 1855
the ground was consecrated and the Arms plot ar- ranged by Mr. Arms, then blind. It is said that the cemetery was laid out by George G. Merrill with a copper wire.
His wife, Sophia, died in 1848; his adopted daugh- ter, Isabelle G. Newton, died in 1853, aged twenty. Both the Congregational Society at the Falls and the
church in Shelburne were mentioned in his will, the former with a bequest of $5,000 and the latter $500. Arms Library received $5,000.
At exercises in Arms Academy Hall February 13, 1889, the occasion of the unveiling of the portrait of Ira Arms painted by Willis Beals, Mr. Frederick Allison Tupper read an original poem. This poem is prophetic of the wider opportunities and privileges opening to both women and men, due to advancing educational institutions.
Thus did a simple, industrious farming life in Shelburne provide means for enduring influence for good and furnish an incentive to many an ambitious boy and girl to secure an education.
The following excerpts from the speech of Zebulon Field at the Centennial Exercises shed additional light on the character of the man: "His sympathies were always with the common people and for their welfare. No attractions of wealth or fashion or rank could ever withdraw them. With them he associated and as familiarly with the laborer as with the capitalist.
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A pattern of industry, he honored labor. He never sought an unfair advantage, never drove a hard bar- gain, and as a point of honor, would never receive in any way more than legal interest. He never over- valued his services. Though often called to represent his town in the legislature, he never retained his full pay, but paid into the town treasury for the benefit of its schools a generous portion, as wages not earned, and that too when sessions were short, and pay per diem low compared with those of modern time!"
LINUS YALE
Linus Yale, Sr., was born in Middletown, Connecti- cut, in 1797 and became a lockmaker about 1840 in Newport, New York. The son, Linus, was born in Salisbury, New York, and was an artist. Turning later to develop his aptitude for mechanics, he moved to Philadelphia. At his father's death in 1855, he returned to conduct the family lockshop. In 1860 he moved the concern to Shelburne Falls, probably attracted hither by the abundant water power. He was a genius as an inventor, though a poor business- man. George G. Merrill was one of six men who contributed five hundred dollars each to a fund to make patterns and devices for the manufacture of locks. The original locks were very large and heavy.
At the time the whole town was lock-minded, others interested being Sargent and Greenleaf; H. S. Shep- ardson; William Buzzell, a mechanic; and Allen Little, who, tradition says, gave the idea of the time lock. The location of the shop was down under the hill. In 1868, Yale took as a partner Henry Towne of Philadelphia, and the business was moved to Stam- ford, Connecticut. Yale died before the close of the year and was buried in the west side of Arms Ceme- tery.
During his stay here, he lived in the house on Maple Street, later occupied by the Patch family. Tradition says that the partners left Shelburne Falls with all their capital, small patterns and so forth, in a handle basket.
The company, known here as the Yale Lock Com- pany, became later the Yale and Towne Manufactur- ing Company, the largest business of its kind in the nation, having branched out to include Materials Handling Equipment. Annual income in 1954 was reported to be $110,000,000.
Mrs. Yale was a daughter of Brooks Whitney. She was interested and active in the Abolitionist cause in Philadelphia and a leader among the women here. Through her efforts, a club of women called "The Neighbors" planted the trees on Bridge Street and helped beautify the town in many ways.
JARVIS BODMAN BARDWELL
Jarvis Bodman Bardwell was born in Leyden, Mas- sachusetts, January 1, 1802, the fourth of a family of eight children. He remembered being in church one Sunday with his mother as a young lad, when
suddenly the service was interrupted by soldiers and the beat of the drum. The men lined up, and every seventh man had to step forward three paces, being thus drafted to go to Boston to guard a prison.
In his sixteenth year, with all his possessions tied in a red bandana and carried on a stick over his shoulder, he made his way through drifted snow to . the home of his brother, Apollos Bardwell in Shel- burne Falls, where he learned tanning and boot- making as an apprentice, later becoming associated with his brother as a partner.
Many people began settling in Shelburne Falls about this time, the impetus being given by the ar- rival of the first carding machine and the first cloth- dressing machine. It was said to be a common sight to see six or eight heavy loads of wool in the street at the same time. Also, land was cheap and easily obtainable. Located here were, also, a gristmill, saw- mill, and tannery. The crossing of the river was accomplished by means of a ferry - an old pine hollowed out for the purpose - said to be three feet wide and twenty feet long.
In 1828 Joseph Merrill built, on the land formerly occupied by the Jenks Shoe Store, a brick tavern to replace a wooden building which Nathaniel Haw- thorne's visit here had advertised as being no fit place in which to sleep. This venture opened a new oppor- tunity for Jarvis Bardwell, as he soon bought a half interest in the building where he was tavernkeeper.
The first post office in Shelburne Falls was in this tavern twenty-three years, and Mr. Bardwell was postmaster from 1844 to 1853. Postage varied from six and a quarter cents to twenty-four cents a letter. It was in this building that Ole Bull delighted the dancers gathered there by his famous sudden appear- ance in the hall, adding to the gayety with the lively strains from his violin.
In 1899 Mr. Bardwell's portrait was hung in the vestry of the Baptist Church, where he had served as
assistant superintendent of the Sunday school, trustee, clerk, and treasurer. He also contributed to the endowment of the church. His organizing ability and enterprise was further displayed as founder of the Shelburne Falls Savings Bank, where he served as president and director, and also as president of the National Bank. Other offices he held indicate the industry of the man and the variety of his inter- ests - selectman, treasurer of the Franklin Academy for forty-two years, postmaster for nine years, auction- eer in Franklin and Berkshire Counties, executor or administrator of thirty to forty estates, also active in the Agriculture Society. Mr. Bardwell often enter- tained, with stories, Sidney Wood when a boy, thus inspiring him to seek similar offices for himself.
He married Emily Merrill September 27, 1832. Only two of their four children lived to grow up - Francelia, who married George L. Fairbanks, and Delia, who married William H. Tyler. His second wife was Betsey Long.
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DAVID MERRILL
David Merrill, a member of the famous large fam- ily, was born in Shelburne Falls in 1812, the son of Thaddeus and Achsah Severance Merrill. He mi- grated to Beloit, Wisconsin, arriving there in Octo- ber 1841. The first choirmaster of the Presbyterian Church there, he conducted a circuit of singing schools not only in Beloit, but also in Janesville, Fort Atkin- son, and Whitewater, keeping his appointments by traveling on horseback. His class in Beloit had fifty to eighty singers. He had a fine lyric tenor voice.
In his church work, the violin, bass viol, flute, and clarinet were used to assist the choirs with few solos or duets, the aim being to heighten and inspire devo- tion and to avoid rivalry among singers. It was his practice to keep a large choir of twenty-five to fifty voices.
He was also the leader in martial music, directing Beloit's first band soon after his arrival and playing a copper bugle. The band used to meet evenings for practice, marching up and down a few of the streets so that the players would become accustomed to keep- ing step to their own music.
Mr. Merrill continued his interest in music to a fine old age. On his ninetieth birthday on December 9, 1902, he played his favorite violin to lead the party, gathered there for the occasion, in the singing of many favorite hymns.
In the early days of Beloit College, Mr. Merrill had a prominent part in the Commencement Exercises and organized the music department there.
NATHAN O. NEWHALL
Mr. Newhall was born in the Foxtown District on March 17, 1815. He was well educated. After completing district school, he attended a select school in Conway, studying under John Clary, a noted edu- cator in that day. Having much ability along mechani- cal lines, he was apprenticed to Ira Barnard to learn the carpenter's trade.
For over forty years. he worked at that occupation. He built many houses in Shelburne, and his work- manship was noted for its durability and superior finish.
In 1875 he gave up carpentry work and did farm- ing exclusively, and was numbered among the most progressive farmers. He also took a leading part in public affairs; always an enterprising, useful citizen.
EDWIN STRATTON
Edwin Stratton was born in Northfield, Septem- ber 17, 1815, son of Elihu and Electa Stratton. In young manhood he did a great deal of engineering in New England and the Middle West. He assisted in the Hoosac Tunnel survey. In 1880 he was elected register of deeds and moved from Shelburne Falls to Greenfield. He held that office until 1898, when he retired. He died at the age of ninety-five. At
age ninety, with a party of friends, he walked over Hoosac Mountain, a distance of nine miles.
ELIZABETH PARSONS WARE PACKARD
Mrs. Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, wife of Theophilus Packard, the second minister of that name to preach in Shelburne, was known throughout the United States as a reformer of hospital practices and laws.
Mrs. Packard was a highly cultured woman. She was born in Ware in 1816. Her family name was Ware, her father being the founder of the town.
After a preliminary schooling in the local academy she was sent to The Women's Seminary in Amherst, where she met Henry Ward Beecher, who was taking a collegiate course there. They became fast friends and carried on a correspondence for over forty years, Mr. Beecher being her confidant in her work as a humanitarian.
It was at Amherst that she met MIr. Packard who was studying for the ministry. After their marriage Mr. Packard worked with his father as associate pastor for nearly twenty-six years.
After leaving Shelburne Mr. Packard preached in several different churches in Ohio and finally settled in Manteno, Illinois. While at Manteno Mr. Pack- ard became convinced that his wife was insane and had her committed to an asylum. She was not so far from being a sound-minded person as to be unob- servant of conditions there. She believed she was wrongly confined and, when she secured her release, started at once to improve methods of commitment and care of the insane. Incidentally, but nonethe- less vigorously, did she set forth the failings and faults of the Rev. Theophilus Packard, Junior, whom she blamed and blamed aloud, for her incarceration. She did not return to him and some of her personal let- ters might be quoted to show the reason.
It was in 1868, while Mr. Packard was in charge of the church in Manteno, that Mrs. Packard began her labors to ameliorate the conditions of insane per- sons and secure safeguards in the manner of commit- ment. It was then the custom to order people sent to an asylum, and once there they were debarred from communication with their friends, save at the pleasure of the officials in charge. This system had led to many grave abuses and Mrs. Packard made up her mind they must be remedied. Her means were small but she went ahead as confidently as though she had unlimited resources at her command. She first wrote and printed a book outlining the work she had in hand and from the sale of it secured a fund with which to begin her campaign. She advised from time to time with Henry Ward Beecher as to the best course to be pursued so that when she began active operations she had a definite program mapped out. At the start she met with many rebuffs, but she allowed nothing to discourage or dissuade her from her self-appointed task. It took thirty years of her time and $50,000 of hard-earned money, but in
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the end she had the satisfaction of securing the desired reforms in every State in the Union.
In pursuing this work Mrs. Packard would go into a State prepared to stay six months, two years, or any length of time that was necessary to insure success. She simply would not leave until the measures she demanded were adopted by the Legislature and signed by the Executive. Her first move in each instance would be to take up the existing law and study its defects. This done, she would draft a new bill and present it to the Justices of the Supreme Court for criticism and correction.
Some of these Justices snubbed her, some ridiculed her, but in the end she conquered them all and got their assistance. With a bill of the proper kind, she would get petitions signed by lawyers and prominent citizens, enlist their active sympathy and support, and then present the bill herself to the Legislature. Some- times Mrs. Packard met with strong opposition from asylum authorities, who did not like the idea of a change, but she kept up the fight until they surren- dered. The reforms which she accomplished in this way are now recognized as eminently proper and beneficial by jurists and insanity experts.
It was while visiting in Washington that Mrs. Packard had her attention attracted to the virtual slavery of married women. Under the old common law, a husband had absolute control over the per- sonal property of his wife and was supreme dictator in the disposition of his children. He could confiscate her wealth to his own use and give his children away, and she had no relief in court. By Mrs. Pack- ard's efforts, all this was changed and a "married woman's act" generally adopted, giving a wife control of her own property and equal voice in the manage- ment or disposition of the children. In testimony of this reform, the women of Washington presented Mrs. Packard with a beautiful gold watch on which a graceful sentiment was engraved.
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