USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Conway > History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917 > Part 17
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
Conway is credited by the Adjutant General of Massachusetts with one hundred and fifty-eight enlistments, which he says was a surplus of eleven over and above all demands. This number, however, includes re-enlistments and thirty-one non-residents who were hired by the town at various times to fill its quota. The following list from the town records gives the names of one hundred and six men who were residents of Conway and person- ally represented the town in the great conflict :-
10th Regiment .- William H. Adams, J. Dickinson Allis, Alonzo Bates, John P. Clark, Welcome F. Cone, Edward R. Gardner, Horace W. Graves, F. E. Hartwell, E. G. Hayden, W. Rollin Smith, Lathrop Smith, Alonzo H. Warren.
31st Regiment .- Adelbert Bailey, Liberty Burnett, Francis A. Clary, S. H. Dyer, John W. Goland, Patrick Hayes, Fred D. Howland, James F. Hunter, John Island, Gordon H. Johnson, James Johnson, William C. Maynard, Edward Metivier, Pliny F. Nims, S. R. Walker, Sylvester M. Ware, C. George Wells, John White, Charles F. Wright.
1st Massachusetts Cavalry .- George A. Abell, Henry C. Allen, George F. Arms, Elias F. Bradford, E. A. Burnham, Lieut. George W. Flagg, Hiram A. Gray, Eliphalet L. Hall, Baxter Harding, Tyler Harding, Albion F. Hubbard, John W. Jackson, Orrin D. Remington, Charles M. Smith, Henry A. Stearns, Samuel Ware, Henry J. Wilder.
37th Massachusetts Regiment .- William H. Averill, Samuel Bigelow, E. A. Blood, Lyman A. Bradford, Otis F. Childs, George C. Johnson, Lucius W. Merrifield, Fred E. Rowe, Sumner Warner.
52d Regiment .- William D. Allis, A. Judson Andrews, Na- thaniel Bartlett, John W. Bradford, George D. Braman, William H. Clapp, Charles E. Crittenden, George F. Crittenden, Lieut. O. P. Edgerton, Wilson G. Field, Manley Guilford, E. W. Ham- ilton, Medad Hill, Charles A. Hocum, Capt. Horace Hosford, Marcus Howland, M. S. Jenkins, Franklin B. Lee, Charles Ma- comber, Henry F. Macomber, Patrick Manning, Henry C. Mun- son, Henry Nye, Capt. F. M. Patrick, E. W. Richardson, Oscar Richardson, William D. Sanderson, H. G. Scott, George Shep- pard, Alonzo O. Sikes, James S. Stebbins, Chauncey G. Town- send, William Townsend, Jr., William Watson.
20th Regiment .- Henry Bowman.
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27th Regiment .- George H. Smith, J. W. Smith.
32d Regiment .- Lieut. James H. Clapp.
34th Regiment .- Patrick Gallivan, Peter Hackett, Ira N. Hitchcock.
38th Regiment .- Silas N. Peterson.
57th Regiment .- John Connelly, Dennis Lee.
7th Co. Heavy Artillery .- Horace Dill.
2d New York Infantry .- Fred Wrigley.
5th New York Cavalry .- George W. Dinsmore, John Lanigar.
Connecticut Regiment .- Charles Richardson.
From this list it will be seen that Conway furnished five com- missioned officers.
The cost to the town for the enlistment and equipment of soldiers during the war was $9,350. The aid furnished to the families of soldiers, afterwards refunded by the state, was $5,228, making $14,578 actually raised and expended for the expenses of the war. In addition to this the Ladies' Aid Society sent supplies for the army and the hospitals to the value of $4,600. This large contribution in money must have seemed trifling, however, in comparison with the contribution in men. The following died upon the field of battle or of wounds and disease contracted in the service: J. Dickinson Allis, William D. Allis, William H. Averill, Nathaniel Bartlett, Ebenezer T. Blood, Francis A. Clary, Welcome F. Cone, George W. Dinsmore, Edward R. Gard- ner, John W. Goland, Manley Guilford, Marcus Howland, Albion F. Hubbard, John Lanigar, Dennis Lee, Silas N. Peterson, Harrison G. Scott, Alonzo O. Sikes, Lathrop Smith, James S. Stebbins, Samuel Ware, Sumner Warner, Henry Q. Wilder, and Fred Wrigley. When the Conway Post of the G. A. R. was formed in 1884 it was named in honor of one of these "fallen heroes," Francis A. Clary, who was killed at Port Hudson, June 14, 1863. Francis Amsden Clary, son of Deacon John Clary, was born in Conway, August 19, 1836. When the war began he was a student in Amherst College preparing himself to be a missionary to China. He enlisted in the fall of 1861, in the 31st Regiment, of which he was made color-sergeant, January 5, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel Hopkins of the regiment writing of Clary's death paid him the following tribute: "He was early selected for color-sergeant of the regiment on account of his soldierly
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bearing and the accuracy of his marching. From the first every one felt that the colors were safe in the hands of Clary; for there was in him that quiet but intelligent determination which stamped him as a gallant man even before his bravery was ever tested. He was reserved as a sacrifice for the last fight of that siege which finally opened the Mississippi River."
The year 1862 was the centennial of the settlement of the town and it had been planned to hold a celebration in October of that year. But as the time approached the people were in no mood for a celebration and none was held until the centen- nial of incorporation in 1867. The country's peril and the thought of so many loved ones at the front in mortal danger took away the voice of song and gladness. It was a case of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted. The citizens of Conway at their annual town meetings appro- priate a sum of money for the observance of Memorial Day which is still kept reverently with tender memories.
THE WAR WITH SPAIN.
On the 11th of April, 1898, President Mckinley sent his message to Congress recommending armed intervention in Cuban affairs. The 2d Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry began at once to recruit its numbers to a complete enrollment. Six young men from Conway offered to enlist but only one passed the phys- ical examination. This was Peter A. Greenia, who was received into Company L at Greenfield, commanded by Capt. Frederick E. Pierce. The company was called into service on May 3, and joined the other companies of the 2d Regiment at the state muster grounds, at South Framingham, from which place the regiment took its departure for Cuba on May 12. It joined in the advance movement against Santiago and suffered heavy loss at the battle of El Caney. After suffering in the malarious camps of Cuba for many weeks the 2d Regiment was taken on board of the transport "Mobile" and on August 19 arrived at Montauk, L. I., with 306 men on the sick list. Among the sick was Peter Greenia, who died September 1, at his home in Conway, of typhoid malaria, caused by lack of food in the advance toward Santiago and exposure in a weakened condition to the unhealthful climate.
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Conway was represented in the occupation of the Philippine Islands by Leo Paul Furkey, who enlisted in the spring of 1899, and was mustered into the service, June 12, 1899, at Albany, N. Y. He was assigned to Company G of the 17th U. S. Regiment of Infantry, which he joined at Manila, in August of the same year. He at once saw active service in skirmishing and resisting night attacks, receiving a wound in the wrist from the thrust of a bolo knife. He remained in the Philippines three years, part of which time he was detailed to the postal service. He returned to this country in 1902, and received honorable discharge at the U. S. military station, at Vancouver, Wash. He arrived in Conway on June 18, and called it the happiest day of his life when he saw the village from the top of Parsons Hill. Other Conway boys have served from time to time in the standing army. Myron Dorset, Company H, 10th U. S. Infantry 1913-16, helped to guard the Canal Zone, and Dan Brady, who enlisted December, 1914, in the 23d U. S. Infantry, was with the 2d Battalion of Engineers in the notable pursuit of Francisco Villa into Mexico, in 1916.
CHAPTER X. USEFUL MEN AND WOMEN.
REMINISCENCES WRITTEN IN 1900 BY REV. WILLIAM FISHER AVERY.
I have been asked to trace briefly the history of those families most conspicuous for their usefulness, in the first two or three generations of the town. We must pass by a far greater company of those who have been truly useful in the home, the schools, and the churches, but less observed. We have in Conway now many whole-hearted workers, equal perhaps to any who have gone before them. But my task refers rather to previous generations, whose memory is growing dim and in danger of being altogether lost to most of their townsmen.
Let our rapid survey of one district after another have its beginning at the house of God.
In imagination we will go back sixty years and join the long row of plain, but full wagons, as they leave the old Congre- gational church. It is taking the winding road toward Cricket Hill. An equally long black line is seen across the valley, crawling up Field's Hill, and another, somewhat smaller, worming its way over as steep pitches to the east.
"Cricket Hill!" What a queer name to be linked in all its history to one district of the town just because some early hunters or surveyors were annoyed by crickets when camping for the night. But up Cricket Hill we are toiling on a warm Sabbath afternoon, the women and small children riding, numer- ous boys and men walking, and some with coats hanging upon their arms. It will take many of us an hour to reach our homes, hungry, but lifted up, if spiritually minded, by the weighty truths impressed upon us in the two preaching services and Sabbath School. I loved to walk in the rear of the carriages with the men, and hear their discussions of great gospel truths. Up three or four long hills we have been passing in diminished numbers to the first house of Captain Dunham, four or five carriages having turned to the right, on the road to the Eldridges' and Crittendens'. Captain Dunham was a lame, but energetic man. One tells me he would mend his fence on horseback,
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patiently drawing a rail up and balancing it before him and then as perseveringly ending it off to the place desired. I remember Mrs. Dunham as a woman of large frame, benignant face, and, at the neighborhood prayer meeting, always helpful to it in her quiet way. It does not surprise me to learn that two daughters went out from this plain farmhouse as wives of Congregational ministers. Louisa married Rev. Lucien Farnham, Olivia, Rev. Romulus Barnes. Tracing the stream from that hillside fountain a little further, I am delighted, when told that Mrs. Farnham's daughter became the wife of Owen Lovejoy, a most valiant champion for freedom, whose blood was shed because he pleaded the cause of the slaves so effectively. I spoke of Mrs. Dunham as a helper in that neigh- borhood prayer meeting, kept up, on Tuesday evenings, for a generation or more. Ascending the hill from her house we come to the place of those meetings, and of the district school. It stood upon the top of a great hill, with wide views, and steep descent to the east down which our boys' sleds glided in the winter as did our skates upon the smooth ice of the pond in the rear. But the gathering of so goodly a company of neigh- bors every week for worship was a power to cement and uplift the whole neighborhood, as truly as did the day school in another way.
Going west from this point half a mile, to the next hilltop, we come to where Malachi Maynard established himself in 1768, one year after the town was incorporated. He is described, in the address of Charles Rice at our Centennial, as strong bodily and mentally, a sturdy Puritan, who came from Westboro, in Worcester County, Mass. He enjoyed only six weeks of schooling in boyhood, but was made treasurer of the town for twenty-six years, and was sent to the Legislature three years in succession-a noble, reliable, and useful man. One son became a lawyer, in Central New York, vigorous, like his father. A daughter married Zelotes Bates, and lived long upon the old place. With them were two maiden sisters, Lucy and Anne Maynard. They were generous givers to Mount Holyoke Semi- nary at its very beginning. A dreadful calamity came upon this whole household. I remember it well, though a mere child. We were returning from church on Thanksgiving day, when,
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as our wagons came in sight of Mr. Bates' home, the flames were seen just bursting from it. A fire had been left to bake the Thanksgiving dinner, while the family were faithful to the public duties of the day. Alas, it burned down the house leaving little but some nicely baked potatoes in their large bin. A few silver dollars laid aside for the seminary were drawn out of the ashes, considerably marred. These two sisters went to work and patiently earned the remainder of the two hundred dollars, which had been subscribed, not permitting the proposed school to suffer from their loss. Those scorched coins were laid up in the archives of the seminary.
Going a quarter of a mile west from here, we then came to the house of Deacon John Avery, about as early a settler, from Dedham, Mass. He spent a long, useful life there, dying September 1, 1847. Look now at the precious influences for good which went out afar from his family. His eldest son, named John, in youth fell from a tree, and drove a sharp stub far up into his foot. This very painful wound proved a rich blessing. It laid him by for a long time, in which his attention was drawn to reading. A thirst for education was aroused. He graduated at Yale, and at length became an honor to the Episcopal church, laboring successfully in North Carolina and then in Alabama. He never attained the dignity of bishop, as some of his northern friends supposed, but he became a fine linguist, mastering several languages and accumulating a valu- able library of about five thousand volumes, some of them rare treasures. In the midst of great usefulness he was suddenly snatched away, leaving a widow with one son and two daughters. It was with very limited means that the children struggled up to a good education and positions of great usefulness. William became a physician, Fanny married the Episcopal rector in Greensboro, Ala., and Mary has lived in her family and taught a select school in the place, to the present time. Greensboro was the home of the Hobsons. There was trained by a noble Christian mother, Richmond Hobson, who periled his life to bottle up Cervera's fleet, in Santiago harbor. The Hobson children have been in Mary's private school and Sabbath School class, and under the preaching of Fanny's husband. Richmond's younger brother was asked, if it was not about time for him to leave
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Mary Avery's Sabbath School class, but replied, "I want only one teacher." All through his youth Richmond Hobson manifested the same qualities of daring courage and generosity which he displayed at Santiago. Soon after that exploit the Outlook had a sketch of him in which it justly remarked that if there were more ministers like Rector Cobbs there would be more heroes like Richmond Hobson. At a dinner given in honor of Hobson, Mary Avery, who happened to be in New York at the time, was given the first seat at the hero's side. I then conclude that our country is much indebted to influences which had their source in the firstborn son of this early settler on Cricket Hill.
A daughter, named Rebecca Avery, married a farmer of Charlemont, Mass., whose name was Silas Hawks. Of several children only one lived to maturity.
After the early death of the father, this William Hawks and his mother removed to Williamsburg, Mass. He became deacon of the Congregational church there and prominent in all its Christian work. Being of rather slender constitution, he was unable to do much physical labor, but was a great reader and no mean thinker. Book after book was added to his private library. With painstaking care he fostered the little library in the village, thus helping much to turn public attention to the great advantages of a larger one. One of its citizens at length gave a munificent sum for the purpose. A handsome library building has been erected, with cases well filled. A son of Dea- con William Hawks was selected to give the address at the dedica- tion of this valuable library. Our neighboring town will readily admit that through Deacon John Avery's daughter, Rebecca, a refreshing stream of blessings has flowed to her also.
A boy, named William Fisher, was taken into John Avery's home, and helped in education, until he became a Congrega- tional minister. I conclude he was a man of influence, or my parents would not have named me William Fisher, in his honor.
Recently I visited the spot where stood my grandfather's home. Only an old shed was standing, at a little distance from the cellar hole, and the flourishing lilac bushes back of it; I discovered the old well and carefully pushing aside the half decayed boards upon it, dropped in a stone. The sound showed that it plunged into deep water. I said to myself, as this well,
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dug a century and a quarter ago, yields refreshing supplies still, so healing streams are yet flowing afar, from this early home, to bless many communities. Two other children of Deacon John Avery I wish to mention, in connection with their own homes, who will greatly increase the fulfillment to this good man of the promise, "His seed shall be blessed."
But now look a quarter of a mile north, to where Samuel Crittenden planted himself as early as 1772. In my boyhood his son Medad was filling his place, an old man with silvery locks but still erect, though very deaf. He used to stand close at Dr. Harris' side in the pulpit, and, with upturned ear, try to catch as much as possible of the sermon. It was a beautiful sight, for everybody loved and revered him, as like one of the ancient patriarchs, loaned to us for a time. In the midst of our Centennial addresses, his wife, Mary B. Crittenden, was presented to the great audience, as lacking only sixty-six days of being one hundred years old. She still lived almost two years.
Turning from this point a mile southward, we come to the place of another early settler, Elijah Nash. I thought my father far enough from church, the roads being so steep and stony. But this neighbor, next south, had to go almost half a mile further and up a steep hill. When the young wife was brought to this out-of-the-way place, to be cleared by hand toil, it may have seemed like throwing her life away. How little society could she expect outside her own family! Perhaps that concentrated the energies of those parents more upon the training of their own little ones. The rocky pastures, narrow mowings, and the distance from the village may have made those children, as they grew toward maturity, aspire to wider spheres of activity. Those parents could not have foreseen the greatness of the harvest for which they were sowing. I find Rev. John A. Nash one on the list of Congregational ministers who originated in Conway. I think I am safe in saying that he came from this home. He was born in 1789, graduated at Amherst College in 1824, being thirty-five, married Mary, the eldest daughter of Scotto Clark, over on Field's Hill, and lived till 1877, or eighty- eight years. What may not such a life have accomplished! His son Henry graduated at the same college in 1851 and for twenty
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years taught a boys' school on Mount Pleasant, a little north of his alma mater.
The daughter Minerva of this carly settler married Rev. Henry Eastman. They went as home missionaries to Michigan. One pastorate was at Somerset. When at length her husband died, Mrs. Eastman removed to Ann Arbor and educated her two sons amid its fine literary privileges. Afterwards one studied at West Point and became an officer in the army, the other became a physician. Mrs. Eastman's last years, spent in her native town, were a benediction to all about her. Her sister, Fidelia, married Mr. John Field and was the mother of Marshall Field.
Nor are these all the streams of influence which have flowed from that distant farmhouse. Within my memory Elijah Nash removed to the next town, Williamsburg, and a family by the name of Meekins came in his place. From that second home came Emory, who became partner in the great firm of Meekins, Packard & Wheat, Springfield, Mass. At his recent death very hearty tributes were paid his incorruptible integrity and Chris- tian activity by different papers of the city. Every Conway man read with pride of such worth and usefulness in one of its sons.
Let us now retrace our steps half a mile to the plain farm- house of Deacon Joseph Avery, son of Deacon John Avery, already mentioned. He married in 1788, Sylvia, sister of Deacon John Clary, living at the other end of the town. Their happy married life continued forty years and my father reached his seventy-eighth year. Not long before the death of Samuel Harris I met him in New Haven, when he at once alluded with much warmth, to my parents, remarking, "Your father's biog- raphy ought to have been written," and "your mother would have graced any circle in the land." For nine years he was their pastor and intimate associate in all Christian work. I am asked to speak freely of this Joseph Avery, as one of Conway's truly useful men. I think I have never met persons more thoroughly consecrated to the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom than my father and mother. The brief sentence upon our mother's tombstone expresses her life purpose, "Live for Christ." Some might say that the father in this small and plain house
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ought to have done a little more to enlarge it, and make the entertainment of cultivated company easier for the wife and daughters. But father would sometimes say, "When we reach heaven, I do not think we shall feel that we have made too great sacrifices for Christ." His farm, of about one hundred and fifty acres, was an exceptionally rocky one but as soon as the debt of six hundred dollars for it, with which they started, could be paid, this young couple put in execution their fixed purpose, to give to the Lord, year by year, all that they earned above current expenses. My father was a natural mechanic. By means of the good stock of tools in our little shop he readily shod a sled, made a yoke, or handled this and that tool. His boys took solid comfort in that "good room" on many a rainy day. I count it a great blessing that we were taught to work regularly and perseveringly. But a boy learns such a habit much more easily if he works side by side with his father, who does the hardest part, and allows some time for rest and sport. Hoeing with my father, I can still remember wishing the dinner horn would blow and wondering where I could find, among the many stones, dirt enough to round up the hills of corn. But, at noon, a full hour was given us to read the books we had drawn from the town library. If it was Thursday, a little less work was laid out, that there might be leisure to attend the church prayer meeting. Father did thoroughly whatever he undertook. Hence, although a great deal of town business was put upon him, his three boys were taught to carry everything for- ward in the regular way during his frequent absences. It must have been the silent impress of our parents' sacrifices for our good which made their children scarce ever think of any other way than promptly obeying.
In Deacon Avery, Mary Lyon found a most congenial helper for the great work of founding Mount Holyoke Seminary. He, with Deacons Safford and Porter, was placed upon its board of trustees from the very start. I find in the history of the seminary the statement that but for the co-operation of these three, the farmer, the smith, and the manufacturer, it did not appear how the enterprise could have gone forward. Father joyfully gave the work of his hands, and from his well-worn purse, to the erection of that first seminary building. I do not
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know how so much money for benevolence could have come out of his little flock of sheep, his few fatted cattle, and his stony acres, except by the fulfillment of the promise, "Give, and it shall be given unto you." The wife has much to do with her husband's ability to give. A graduate of the seminary tells me of Mary Lyon's bright look and zest in describing to her pupils incidents like this. In her great need of money, she came to Deacon Avery after he had already given most generously. He looked toward his wife questioningly, as he said, "I had set aside a sum of money for shingling my house this year." But she interposed, "I can set the milk pans under the leaky places another year." So the money went to what they regarded a greater necessity. Miss Lyon thought she uttered the truth when saying, "In the last twenty years prob- ably no man in New England has given so much to benevolence, in proportion to his means, as Deacon Avery." Although he denied his children some things we craved, yet he gave us most needful and best things with an exceedingly liberal hand. His three daughters were carried through a thorough course of study at Mount Holyoke, my younger brother and myself at Williston Seminary and Amherst College. With little over a year's teaching I pushed on through three years at Andover, and then was helped by him to the beginning of a good minister's library. He would have sent his eldest son to college had it been desired. My parents planned a thorough education for their children, in order to their greatest usefulness, and then meant they should take care of themselves. It would have been no grief to them if they could have foreseen that only the mother and a little infant daughter would sleep in the Conway burial place, while others would await the resur- rection morn in Wisconsin, the Indian Territory, Kansas, Alabama, New Jersey, and Maine. These parents lived to enjoy many labors of their children. Such benevolent parents often have more comfort in reading letters from children, dili- gently at work for the Master, than they could have by their presence, round about the old home. We paid twenty-five cents postage on the letters of Mary, as she went to teach Cherokee children at Park Hill, Indian Territory. She aroused an interest in the seminary, at which she had just graduated, so that, in
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