USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Conway > History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917 > Part 5
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On the 24th of May, 1776, being assembled at the meeting house, and having appointed a committee to frame the vote, they proceeded to declare that "If the Honorable Continantial Congress Should think it Requisit for the Safety of the North- american Coloneys on this Continent to Declare a State of In- dependency of Greatbriton that we will abide By and Conform to their wisdom to the Expense of our lives and fortunes." Im- pressed, it seems, with the weightiness of the occasion, the
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recording officer adds: "N. B. The above menchaned meeting was Called on purpose for the above business and the Town Voted Affairmative 83, Negative 6. Cyrus Rice, Moderat or. A trew coppy from the Minits, attest, Oliver Wetmore, Town Clerk."
They stood resolutely by this pledge through the war. The number of men they furnished is not known. It was as many as was called,for. The names are not all preserved; many have been already mentioned. In 1777, when Burgoyne was marching from the north, every able-bodied man went out to meet him. It was thought when he sent off Baum toward Bennington, that he meant to strike across the country eastward to the seaboard. The alarm was beat on the Sabbath day by the meeting house. Boys were sent to spread the call. One of them, a son of Robert Hamilton, seven years old then, was living three years ago and could tell of the errand he went on. He could remember, too, how there was left in that neighborhood but one, a lame man, who helped the women and boys gather in the corn on the farms. Mother and boy were little ready for the work. It was the year of the great sickness and the saddest autumn harvest our town has ever known. One was taken of nearly every twelve of all its inhabitants. And of the children there must have been buried one for every three or four.
The fear of invasion this year led to more apprehension con- cerning the resident Tories. At a town meeting held August 24, it was resolved "to proceed to some measure to Secure the Enemical persons Called Tories amongst us"; and the account goes on, "then the Question was Put Wheather we would draw a line between ye Continent and Great Briton. Voted in the affiarmative. Voted that all those Persons that Stand on the Side of the Contanant Take up arms and go on hand and hand with us in Carrying on the war against our Unnatural Enemies, Such we Receive as Friends and all others treat as Enemies. Voted that the Broad alley be a line, and the South end of the meeting hous be the Continant Side, and the North End the British Side then moved for Trial and found 6 persons to stand on the British Side (viz.) Elijah Billings, Jonathan Oakes, Wm. Billings, Joseph Catlin, Joel Dickinson and Elias Dickinson. Voted to set a gard over those Enemical persons. Voted the
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Town Clerk Emmediately Desire Judge Mather to Issew out his warrants against those Enemical persons returned to him in a list heretofore." These six only, of the score or so of Tories that may have been in the town, seem to have chosen to at- tend the meeting that day. They were less malignant than in some other towns. And there was little or no violence used against them. A sharp eye only was kept on them at critical times, and their guns were taken away. After the war, Captain Arms, by much persistence, got his gun again in his own keeping.
In 1778 the town voted to accept the propositions made by the Continental Congress for a union between the states. The towns were of consequence in those early times. Both in this case and in deliberating a little later upon the adoption of a state constitution, the business was conducted almost as if the local organization had been an independent nation. There was no returning of votes for and against to be counted along with votes from other towns, as is now done. The town voted, bodily, one way or the other on the whole proposition, or if it saw fit, on each of its parts, accepting or rejecting; or advising to such modifications as were desired.
Throughout the Revolutionary period the currency was in a very unsettled state. The government issued paper money to carry on the war. This caused inflation and high prices. Our fathers, not wiser than others of their generation, undertook to check the rise by establishing fixed rates for work and com- modities. The following are specimens, from among many, of the prices settled upon: "Men's labor three shillings per day in the summer season;" "fresh Poark of the best quality," three pence per pound; "good grass fed beef," two pence one farthing; "Best Cheas," six pence; "good Spanish potatoes in the fall of the year," one shilling; "Yern Stockings of the best sort," six shillings "a pare"; "good Sap berials," three shillings, and "all other cooper work in proportion"; "good common meals of Victuals at Taverns Exclusive of Sider," nine pence, and "other meals in proportion"; "Horsekeeping a Night, or twenty-four howers," ten pence; "shoeing horses all round, Steal, tow and heal," six shillings four pence; "good yerd wide toa cloth," two shillings three pence, and "other cloth in propor- tion"; "a man with a sufficient team to plow or drag shant
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exceed" six shillings per day; "hors travel" two pence "per mile"; "to pasturing a horse on good feed," one shilling six pence; "a yoak of oxen," two shillings, and all other creatures in proportion. It is hard to keep the stream from rising while the rain continues to fall. This legislation did not prevent the town from subsequently paying Daniel Newhall fifteen dollars per day for "ten days riding to hire money" to pay soldiers; and twenty dollars for a man's work on the highway.
Near the end of the war it was voted in town meeting to ask the General Court for liberty to make a Lottery with Deer- field to raise money to build a bridge over Deerfield River,-an item which I note for the comfort of those who are pained by the corruption of these degenerate days.
When independence came it did not bring at once prosperity with it. The war had made people poor; and they were poor before. Large sums of money had been called for. Many were brought into debt, and this, together with the depreciation of the continental money to almost utter worthlessness, caused great distress. The times came when without law a man worked a day for twenty cents in silver. Meanwhile, and out of these causes, arose the disreputable troubles connected with Shays' rebellion. Poverty and debts brought it on. The pressure of them is to be admitted in palliation. But for the reason in what was attempted, impartial history and all sober reflection have pronounced it folly. Courts were to be broken up and govern- ments overthrown that debts might not be collected. Yet the delusion bore away men of clear minds and of unquestionable patriotism. Malachi Maynard, Captain Dinsmore, and our "Captain Barefoot" and many others, mostly from the southern half of the town, went into the riotous and revolutionary pro- ceedings. There was great sympathy with the movement through the whole town; and a very few only resolutely opposed it. Along with much other action of the same sort it was voted, October 24, 1785, to instruct our representative to use his in- fluence in the General Court "to have a Bank of Paper money emitted that shall sink one penny a pound per month." The clearness that belongs through all time to what is financial is in this. We cannot wonder that, meditating on such matters, the men of the south end concluded to rebel.
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POPULATION.
During all this period Conway was growing rapidly in pop- ulation, both by natural increase and by immigration from abroad. Of those who came in were the Howlands-of whom we have the orator of to-day-with a pedigree straight from the "Mayflower," the Wares and the Billingses, with Clary, Parsons, Childs, Field, Dunham, Hopkins, Bigelow, Hayden, Stebbins and Andrews, with very many others. The population of Conway in 1790 was 2,092. There were but two larger towns in the county of Hampshire, embracing what are now the three river counties. These were West Springfield and Westfield. The rank of some of the principal towns as then was follows: West Springfield 2,367, Westfield 2,204, Conway 2,092, Northampton 1,628, Springfield 1,574, Greenfield 1,498, Deerfield 1,330. The figures for Conway throughout its first hundred years may here be given. Date of incorporation, estimated population 200. 1769 estimated by Mr. Emerson between 400 and 500; 1776, 905; 1790, 2,092; 1800, 2,013; 1810, 1,784; 1820, 1,705; 1830, 1,563; 1840, 1,409; 1850, 1,831; 1860, 1,689. The number was at the highest between 1790 and 1800. The farmhouses stood thickly over all the hills. There were thirty on the road from the old meeting house over Field's Hill and Popple Hill, to the Whately line. These houses were well filled withal; ten or twelve children being often found in one dwelling. The schools also were large, much beyond what they are now. In the Broom- shire district there were once nearly one hundred scholars; now there are scarcely twenty. As late as 1816 William A. How- land kept a school of more than sixty scholars in his own, the East side district (late No. 2), which district, having almost no children, has ceased to have a separate existence. These are but specimens.
At this period Conway, suitably to its position as a leading town, had its newspaper. It was the Farmers' Register, pub- lished weekly in the years 1798 and 1799, by Theodore Leonard. It was printed first in the house now occupied by Osee Adams (then standing a little southeast of where the Baptist meeting house now is, and afterwards used as a tinshop), and later "a few rods north of the meeting house" in Pumpkin Hollow, in
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the building recently occupied by Lucy Severance. It had for its motto the lines from Thomson :-
"Here truth unlicensed reigns, and dares accost Even kings themselves, or rulers of the free."
Both truth and error must in fact have "reigned" with- out license or other control in Mr. Leonard's paper. He had no editorial sentiments, and published with a looseness whatever came to his hand, on all sides. Part was Federal, part Republi- can, part moral, part more thoroughly the opposite than would be tolerated in any paper now circulating among us,-which again it is hoped may comfort a little those that mourn for the times.
News from Washington was published in Conway in twenty days, and from London, sometimes in sixty, sometimes in ninety days. The advertisements were largely of stock, lost or taken up. Asahel Wood, the negro, gave notice to the people that he "proposed to discontinue ringing the bell but once a day, unless some encouragement was given him, by subscription or other- wise." The poet's corner is full of Delias and Clorindas, after the dull manner of all the poetry of the 18th century.
The population of the town, as has been said, was greatest near the close of the last century. It was at this period that there began the great outward flow of emigration from us to the westward, which has not ceased to the present time. It went first to Central and Western New York, then to Northern Ohio, then beyond to Michigan and Illinois, and then still further to Iowa, or wherever now the West may be. How many have gone is not known. But the descendants of these children of Conway towards the West must far outnumber those that still remain upon her soil. One may travel over all that region and rest morning, noon, and night, in the homes of these Conway men. Viewed in all its results the going out from us of this great emigration is not perhaps to be regretted. We may wish, however, that it had not been accelerated and indeed necessitated by the improvident husbandry of the first generations of farmers. The soil was thriftlessly drawn from and its riches spent. The steep and fruitful hillsides were plowed and sowed, and suffered to be washed by the rains, often for many successive years, until
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they would yield no more. The effects of this wretched cul- ture are still too plainly visible. The process of waste has been arrested; and it may be hoped it is being reversed. It is believed that the productive capacity of the soil is at present increasing rather than diminishing. As interested in the pros- perity of the town we must regret however that so much of the best pasturing ground we have, in the east and south, is passing into the possession of non-resident owners.
It is to be said, moreover, that the men of this middle period of our history did not make in all cases the most profitable use of what the soil could produce. Enormous crops of apples were raised, which went into cider, and then into brandy. It seemed to be making rich those that sold, but it made poor more that bought, or that drank of their own production. There were probably fifty cider mills and upwards, and there were at the least six distilleries, all in operation at the same time. One of them consumed a thousand barrels of cider annually. Brandy took off much barn boarding, and overthrew many fences and men. Parson Emerson, in 1819, congratulated the town that it had "so few comparatively downright sots." Yet he speaks with earnestness against the evil. And there was need that the word "comparatively" should then be introduced. The change from that time, if it is not complete, is a great and happy one.
INDUSTRIES.
The first gristmill was built about the year 1767, by Caleb Sharp. Another was built in 1770 or 1771, below the Thwing place, in the north part of the town. There was also a third for a few years on Bear River, above the Macomber bridge. Every one bolted his own grist at first, in a hand-bolt. Saw- mills were in operation all along South River, and on some other streams. There were several tanneries while the hem- lock bark held out. One establishment of this kind is now in operation, located on South River, near the post office, and owned by William T. Clapp. Very near the site of this tannery Aaron Hayden set up a "fulling mill," about 1780. About 1797 Dr. Moses Hayden, with R. Wells (his son-in-law), made an addition of an oil mill. The cakes of meal rolled into the river, save as the boys took them to play "grindstone." In 1810
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there was established here a broadcloth manufactory, and again a cotton mill; and with changes and disasters the concern was finally destroyed by fire, in 1856, while under the management of B. W. Wright. The woolen mill of the Conway Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1837, was built nearly half a mile higher up the stream. A larger one, which now stands, replaced the first not far from 1846. It was under the direction and subsequent ownership of Edmund Burke, whose name the upper village bears. And it has now passed into the possession of Edward Delabarre. Midway between these two is a cotton mill, erected in 1846, by Gen. James S. Whitney and Charles Wells, burned in 1856, while owned by L. B. Wright, replaced, and now owned by the firm of Tucker & Cook. These parties built in 1866 a fine stone dam, making a large reservoir, a mile westward up the river. Three quarters of a mile below the post office, Messrs. Tucker & Cook also own a cotton mill, erected in 1837 by Gen. Asa Howland. A large manufactory of tools was established in Burkeville, under the direction of Alonzo Parker, not far from 1845, about forty rods above the woolen mill. The building was burned in 1851, and the company removed to Greenfield. The South River Cutlery Company began operations in 1851, erecting a building in Burkeville, on the right bank of the river, toward the old center of the town. Here for four or five years were made knives, forks, and great losses, until the business was closed up, and the buildings at length mostly removed. Besides these comb manufacture was formerly carried on by Deacon Jonathan Ware, and by his sons, at the place now occupied by Lemuel S. Boies. And tinware has been made from an early period, at one time largely in Sherman Corner, and since then at various establishments in the middle of the town. The Conway Stock and Mutual Fire Insurance Company began business in 1849. The Stock Com- pany subsequently went to Boston, and to final grievous disso- lution. The Mutual department remains and prospers. The Conway Bank has a capital of $150,000, and has been in suc- cessful operation since 1854.
POLITICS.
The first record of voting for Governor of the State appears in September, 1780, soon after the adoption of the State Constitution.
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For many years when John Hancock, patriot and Republi- can, was candidate for Governor, he took almost the entire vote; though on other offices there was division. As parties began to form near the end of the century Conway became Federalist. There are strong reasons for thinking that purely political considerations would not, in our town, have led to this result. There were tendencies, from the time of Shays' re- bellion, and from the Revolution, looking in the other direction. But the supposed, or real, pointing of the great figure of Wash- ington was towards the Federal side. And the dread especially of infidel sentiments in religion associated with the name of Jefferson, proved decisive here, as it did throughout most of New England. Yet there were Republicans in respectable numbers. In 1804 the vote stood, Federal 134, Republican 63. In 1808 Gore (Fed.) had 142 votes for Governor, and Sullivan (Rep.), 123. In 1812 Strong (Fed.) received 181, Gerry (Rep.), 136. These figures represent the ordinary relative strength of the two parties. The town representatives were all one way. The first gap in the Federal succession occurs in 1824, when John Arms was chosen. But this was after the lines were broken, and while we were "All Republicans, all Federalists."
During the earlier years, embracing the period from the beginning of the century to the close of the war with England, the contest was carried on, as it was over all the country, with great zeal. There was also a degree of personal animosity which has not been equaled since, so far as relates to our town or this section of the country, in the history of our politics. Political feeling entered then far more than now into the relations of social life. Opposition of party between some families at times seriously disturbed neighborly intercourse. Political agreement, on the other hand, aided more powerfully perhaps than it has since in the formation of friendly connections.
Many incidents are preserved from those times, illustrating the liveliness of political feeling that then existed. When either party raised a "liberty pole," it was not an easy thing to keep the flag on its staff. Upon the day before a Fourth of July the Republicans lifted one in and above the elm tree by the Baptist meeting house. That flag they declared should fly undisturbed; and that the thing might be made sure, they set an armed watch
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through the night in the meeting house. But Jesse Severance walked carelessly under the tree and leaned against it, and Levi Parsons ran up from his shoulders, whereafter what seemed the one man walked leisurely away. But with the morning light the Republican watchers saw not the flag of their country.
The adventure also of the old Deerfield gun into our town at this period should be recorded. This gun is a legacy that the town had from the Indian wars. It appeared to some of our younger Republicans that, since Conway was early a part of Deer- field, and since Deerfield had become Federal, and since before in the Revolution it was always near to being Tory,-it appeared to them that the cannon should be allowed a breath of different air. The unusual circumstance of the election in Massachusetts of a Republican Governor greatly confirmed them in this impression. So it was that year that on the morning of the "old-fashioned Election," or Inauguration Day, the voice of the gun was heard, deep and strong, and frequent, from the Conway hills. The Deerfield men listened and comprehended. But they also dis- approved. They armed themselves and swarmed out in great anger upon the Conway road, General Hoyt being military leader, and all together the posse of Sheriff Saxton. The report of the coming invasion spread, and a crowd was collected to hold the gun; or to see how the matter would go on. But the business grew serious, and the end was near to have been made in blood- shed. The cannon was carried into William Redfield's boarding house. "Bill Redfield" was of violent temper, and stood at nothing; and there were others with him of the same sort. They were ready to try keeping the house and the gun against all the Federalists of Deerfield. But the law looked the other way,- and so, after reflection, did the more sober men of the party. The piece was finally surrendered; but with a distinct agreement that it should not be fired by the Deerfield men within the bounds of the town. So the old cannon went sullenly back along the road over which it had passed as it came up with a brisk step and sounding cheer.
The contest over this gun has been continued in more recent times by the young men of Greenfield, which town was also for- merly included in Deerfield. The right of the matter is clear, and has happily become well fixed by time. The ownership of the
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gun belongs with Deerfield only; and Deerfield has a right to keep it, while Conway and Greenfield have no right except to remove it whenever they can from Deerfield.
The second war with England made little stir among us of a military sort, except that in 1814, when there was an alarm of British invasion on the coast, there went down a regiment from this section. The late Gen. Thomas Langley, of Hawley, was in command as Colonel, and Gen. Asa Howland, of our town, was Major. This was "Gov. Strong's war." The British prudently determined to have no part in it.
When new political connections began to be made in the times of John Quincy Adams, and of Jackson, the town swung to the Whig side. Yet there was again a strong minority with what had then become the Democratic party. Questions growing out of the temperance reform entered here also largely into town pol- itics. And between 1830 and 1840 the choice of representatives was influenced by these nearly or quite as much as by national politics. The voice of the town in the Legislature for most of these years was given against the reform. But in this respect that was an exceptional period. In 1840 the Presidential vote stood: Harrison (Whig) 171, Van Buren (Dem.) 134. In 1844, Clay (Whig) 147, Polk (Dem.) 119. In those years respectively, Dr. E. D. Hamilton and Capt. Otis Childs represented the town in. the Legislature. In 1848, Taylor (Whig) had 132, Cass (Dem.), 89. In 1852, Scott (Whig), 181, Pierce (Dem.) 131.
Our townsman, Gen. James L. Whitney, whose presence we miss to-day, was on this Democratic electoral ticket. He had been representative in 1850, and he was chosen again in 1853. Saving these years all had been Whigs since 1838.
These were the days of "the Coalition," a species of union which I am not now able very exactly to describe, made in Massa- chusetts between the Democratic party and the "Free Soil" party, then rising in numbers. For several years our town was more evenly divided between Whiggery and Coalition than it has ever been before or since on any other political issue. And as the choice of governor frequently devolved upon the Legisla- ture, no one having the popular majority then required, the contest for representative became active and exciting. There may be some of us still living who have faint recollections of those
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times. We may have heard, also, of committee meetings late and early, of diligent study of the voting list, of hunting trips and cattle driving expeditions, planned for election day for patriotic young men and others, and of various reported chicaneries, said to have been devised for effect upon the doubtful ballot. These and such like things,-being unwilling to rest upon mere re- port,-I record not. But I willingly recall these traditions, and the memories also of much Whig and Coalition feasting and merriment, in the narrow halls of the Conway hotel, because there was good temper in it all; and because, looking back upon it from across the sterner days we have known, the sight is pleas- ing. May there be in the coming times contests for principles and laws and policies, or even for men, but not struggles for government and national existence itself. The passage of the "Nebraska Bill" in the spring of 1854, destroyed the national Whig party, weakened before, and brought into life the modern Republicanism. In 1856, Conway gave to Fremont (Rep.) 139 votes, to Buchanan (Dem.) 81. The vote for governor for the same year stood, Gardner (Native American, or "Know Noth- ing") 129, Quincy (Rep.) 104, Beach (Dem.) 81. In 1860 all was Republican, Lincoln receiving 218 out of 260 votes. And at his re-election in 1864 there were given him 223, and to Gen. McClellan 62.
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