USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Conway > History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917 > Part 6
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It needs not here to be marked that these were the years of war for the Union, and for Freedom. The shock of the open- ing fight, the shouts of the early enthusiasm, the days of gloom, the alternations of fear and of hope that followed, the steadfast purpose that did not change, the noise at last, crash after crash, as the rebellion fell, and ringing over all the mighty sound of triumph for Liberty and Union, proved to be inseparable, and both made certain to abide,-all these are hardly yet as of yesterday.
The citizens of the town-though political divisions still subsisted-were united, with only here and there an exception, which I forbear to name, in the maintenance of the govern- ment and the defense of the national life. The patriotic deter- mination approached nearer to unanimity than even in the first great war of independence. The women of Conway are meant to be included in these general statements. They were not behind
69
THE FIRST CENTURY.
those of any part of the country in abundant labors for the soldiers in the field, or in efforts of any sort to sustain the high and steady tone of public feeling and to keep the great purpose fixed.
To complete this review of our political history lists are here given of Representatives to the General Court, and also of the Town Clerks and Treasurers. These lists, though they have been re-examined in nearly every part, were made out as far as 1844 by Captain Childs.
REPRESENTATIVES.
1776.
Cyrus Rice. ..
1816. 1816. 1818.
David Childs.
1777. 1779.
Jonathan Whitney.
Joel Parsons.
1780.
1821.
1780.
Oliver Wetmore.
1824.
John Arms.
Lucius Allis.
1826.
Ira Amsden.
1781. 1782. 1783. 1785. 1786.
Robert Hamilton.
1829.
Samuel Warren.
1787.
66
1830.
66 Charles E. Billings. =
1788.
Consider Arms.
1831.
William Billings.
1832.
Darius Stearns.
66
1833.
Billings & Stearns.
66
1834.
Oliver Root.
1835.
C. E. Billings.
1835.
John Arms.
William Billings.
1837.
Phineas Bartlett.
Malachi Maynard. 66
1839.
E. D. Hamilton.
66
1840.
Reuben Bardwell.
1842.
Otis Childs. 66
1804.
66
1844.
Nathaniel P. Baker.
1806. 1807. 1808.
Capt. Bannister.
1846.
John Clary. 66
1809.
John Williams.
1851.
Otis Childs.
1809.
Isaac Baker.
1852.
1810.
John Williams. 66
1853.
James S. Whitney.
1811.
1854.
E. Fisher Ames.
1811.
David Childs.
1855.
Edwin Cooley.
1812.
Williams & Childs.
1856.
R. A. Coffin.
1813. Elisha Billings.
1857.
Wm. C. Campbell.
1813. David Childs.
1861. Emory Sherman.
1814. 1815.
Billings & Childs.
1862.
Franklin Pease.
1866.
Austin Rice.
6
1836.
C. E. Billings.
1838.
Christopher Arms.
1791. 1792. 1793. 1794. 1795. 1796. 1797. 1798. 1799. 1800. 1801. 1803.
Prince Tobey.
1827.
John Arms.
1828.
Joseph Avery.
1829.
1832.
1843.
1847.
66
1850.
James S. Whitney.
E. Fisher Ames.
1805.
From its incorporation to the end of town representation in 1856 the town failed to send a representative in 24 years, includ- ing eight years before 1776. For many years the town, and not
Samuel Warren.
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
the state, paid its representative; a circumstance which doubt- less had weight in deciding the question whether to send.
TOWN CLERKS.
1767 to 1775. Consider Arms.
1842.
1776 to 1783. Oliver Wetmore.
1843 to 1851.
Otis Leach. James S. Whitney. E. F. Ames.
1784 to 1806.
Oliver Root.
1852 to 1854.
1807 to 1826. David Childs.
1855.
Eurotas Wells.
1827 to 1836. Elisha Billings.
1856 to 1860. Franklin Childs.
1837 to 1841.
Otis Childs.
1861 to 1867.
H. W. Billings
TOWN TREASURERS.
1767 to 1775. 1776.
Consider Arms. Elisha Amsden.
1841 to 1845.
1846 to 1849.
1777 to 1783.
Benjamin Pulsifer.
1850 to 1851.
1784 to 1796.
Malachi Maynard.
1852.
1797 to 1799.
John Williams.
1853.
1800 to 1811.
Malachi Maynard.
1854 to 1855.
1812 to 1815.
Elisha Billings.
1856 to 1863.
1816.
Malachi Maynard.
1864 to 1867.
1817 to 1840.
Phineas Bartlett.
Anson Shepherd. Wm. C. Campbell. Gurdon Edgerton. T. S. Dickinson.
Gurdon Edgerton. T. S. Dickinson. Gurdon Edgerton. H. W. Billings.
PROFESSIONAL MEN.
The physicians living and practicing in Conway have been as follows: Doctors Moses Hayden, Samuel Ware, - - Kit- tredge, R. Wells, -- Halloway, William Hamilton, George Rogers, Washington Hamilton; and E. D. Hamilton, who is now in practice. And of the homœopathic order: Dr. H. A. Collins, Dr. Wilson; and Dr. D. T. Vining, who is still practicing. There have gone abroad from us, Dr. Joseph Emerson, son of John Emerson, and Doctors Eben Wells, Elisha Clark, William Billings, Lyman Bartlett, and Oliver D. Root.
Of resident lawyers the town has had William Billings, father and son; Albert Clark, now of Independence, Iowa; and for a short time, Edward P. Burnham, now of Saco, Me. It has sent .abroad a larger number. Among them are William Maynard, son of Malachi, and inheritor of his father's strength, going to Central New York, and not now living; Moses Hayden, Judge in New York, and not living; Samuel Eliot Perkins, Judge in Indiana; Henry Billings, Judge in Illinois, and first Mayor of Alton; Israel Billings, late of Hatfield; Caleb Rice, first Mayor of Springfield; Lincoln Clark of Chicago; Harvey Rice of Cleve- land, Poet of to-day; Charles Baker, not living; William How- land of Lynn, and William Whitney.
71
THE FIRST CENTURY.
Passing out of these professions, the remarkable men of Conway are so numerous as to be beyond reckoning.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRES.
I am able to give a list of conflagrations, which I hope will be found to include nearly or quite all that have occurred. We are indebted again to Captain Childs for a part. Dwelling houses have been burned belonging to the following persons: Nathaniel Marble, Heman Hitchcock, Luther Boyden, Consider Bond, Samuel Ware, Zelotus Bates, Josiah Halloway, Sally Murphy, S. P. Sherman; and the boarding house of Tucker & Cook. Other buildings burned have been Tucker & Jones' store, two gristmills, both on the site of the present mill, Christopher Arms' shop, Levi Gunn's blacksmith shop, David Newhall's shop, Jerry Severance's blacksmith shop, Aaron Colton's blacksmith shop, three schoolhouses, the academy building, Edwin Burke's first woolen mill, the Conway tool shop, L. B. Wright's cotton mill, and the old fulling, oil, wool, and cotton mill near the post office.
OLD FARMS.
There are sixteen farms that are still occupied by the descend- ants of the first owners and occupants. I give the names in the family down to the present owner: the farm of Jonas Rice, Joel, Calvin, Joel; of Josiah Boyden, Josiah, Josiah (owned and tilled, but not lived on) ; of John Wing (owned but not lived on by him), Isaiah, Lucius B .; of Consider Arms, in Hoosac (not lived on by him), Henry, Consider; of Israel Rice, Joseph, Austin; of Theophilus Page, Levi, Elijah; of Timothy Thwing, where the venerable Amariah, his son, still lives; of Samuel Newhall, James, Austin, Joseph; of Jabez Newhall, Bethia, wife of Daniel Rice, Rodolphus; of Solomon Field, Joel, Consider; of Isaac Amsden, Ira, Minerva, wife of Walter Guilford; of Consider Arms, John, Elijah; of Richard Collins (but not kept uninter- ruptedly in the family), Erastus, Hiram; of Malachi Maynard, occupied by Zelotus Bates, husband of his late daughter, Lydia, and by his daughter Lucy; of Abel Dinsmore, John, Alvan; and of Lucius Allis, Solomon, John. Three or four more might be added by counting those who, though perhaps the first clearers
72
HISTORY OF CONWAY.
and tillers of their farms, were not early either in occupying or owning them.
Few even of the families of the children are where their fathers were. From these and from all the ancient places the fathers and the mothers themselves have long since passed. Of the second generation there remain with us a few, a number too quickly counted, and too soon to fail from counting. In the third rank are our elder men and women, looking toward the declivity of life. We of middle age are in the fourth. They of the fifth and sixth generations are coming swiftly on and will soon occupy alone, in their brief possession, these seats of the fathers. Our town has given to those who have lived here before us her fresh air, her clear springs and streams of water, and her hearty soil. She has set their homes on her pleasant hills, and has kept them in plenty and in peace. She has furnished for them the opportunities of knowledge; she has called them to the duties and comforts and hopes of the Christian religion; and she has taken them, when their course of nature failed, to their last earthly rest within her bosom. Upon those who will come after us she will bestow the same, and, we may hope, en- larging bounties of the present life; and she will set before them with increasing care, we may confidently think, the light of that same precious faith which may bring both them and us to the land that does not change the generations of its people, and from whose established homes the blessed inhabitants "go no more out forever."
CHAPTER III. FIFTY YEARS MORE. BY REV. CHARLES STANLEY PEASE.
The Centennial Celebration of Conway took place on Wednesday, June 19, 1867. A large committee of leading citi-
CENTENNIAL ELM, MARKING SITE OF FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE
zens had been appointed at a town meeting to make the neces- sary arrangements. This committee had appointed a number of sub-committees to assist in carrying out the details of the programme. Mr. D. C. Rogers was the president of the day and Mr. Thomas S. Dickinson was the chief marshal. At sunrise the bells were rung and a salute was fired from a cannon placed on Prospect Hill. At seven A. M. a procession was formed, led by the Greenfield Drum Corps and consisting of a cavalcade headed by Mr. Amariah Thwing, who was ninety years of age, and Gen. Asa Howland, who was in his eightieth year. Following the horsemen was a long vehicle decorated
74
HISTORY OF CONWAY.
with evergreens and drawn by two yokes of oxen. In this were a number of men and women dressed in antique costume who were busily engaged in various industrial employments belonging to olden times. This was followed by a carriage with girls dressed in white, carrying banners which represented the states of the Union. Last in order came a team drawing an elm tree of considerable size. The procession, after marching through the principal streets of the village to Pumpkin Hollow, stopped at the site of the first schoolhouse erected in town. Here, after a few appropriate remarks by Rev. Charles B. Rice, the selectmen set out the elm tree since known as the "centennial elm."
At nine A. M. another procession was formed for Arms' grove where the outdoor exercises were held. It was estimated that more than three thousand persons were present. An ode written for the occasion by R. A. Coffin was sung by the audience, after which Rev. Charles B. Rice of Danvers, Mass., a native of the town, delivered the historical address. Hon. Harvey Rice of Cleveland, Ohio, a grandson of Cyrus Rice, the first settler in Conway, then read an extended poem based upon the century's history.
In the afternoon William Howland, Esq., of Lynn, Mass., another son of Conway, delivered an oration and a number of people made brief addresses. An interesting feature of the afternoon was the presentation to the audience of Mrs. Mary Crittenden, who lacked at the time only a few weeks of being one hundred years old. She lived a year and six months after her own centennial. . Dinner was served in a large tent on the land recently acquired for a community athletic field, then owned by Capt. Charles Parsons. Seats were provided for one thousand persons. That number of dinner tickets was sold at one dollar each, but the demand for them could not be supplied. It was truly a home gathering. Welcome was expressed by banners hung in conspicuous places but was felt most of all in the glad greetings of old friends. Many living in town to-day who were then children remember vividly the enthusiastic crowds and the festive appearance of the village on that notable occasion.
Many things contributed to make the day joyous. The war cloud was but recently dispelled and the surviving sons of
75
FIFTY YEARS MORE.
Conway were still regarded as restored from the dead. More- over, the town was at this time enjoying a boom in its business conditions. Mr. Edward Delabarre had shortly before this acquired the woolen mill property and Burkeville had taken on new life and activity. Richard Tucker and Chelsea Cook were reorganizing the cotton manufacturing. The local correspond- ent for the Greenfield Gazette and Courier contributed a column article in September of the centennial year setting forth the prosperity of Conway in glowing terms. This correspondent, who signed himself "Senex," was Mr. Abner Forbes, a retired school-teacher from the vicinity of Boston highly respected for his character and intelligence. It is interesting to get his point of view regarding the general outlook in Conway fifty years ago. We quote in part from his letter to the Gazette and Courier :-
"There is no town in Franklin County that offers more encouraging inducements for investment of limited capital than Conway. South River could naturally furnish a large amount of power, but the recent improvement made by Tucker & Company in the construction of their reservoir with its granite dam has increased that power very much. There are at present below the reservoir seven wheels. And there might be from Ashfield to the mouth of the river many more sites where a vast amount of machinery might be operated especially by additional reservoirs for which the track of the stream is admi- rably adapted. Unquestionably at no distant day a railroad will cross the town. Several routes have been surveyed and in none of them does any serious obstacle interpose. Already has business been revived and increased. Mr. Delabarre has recently purchased, improved, and put in operation the Burke- ville woolen factory. Tucker & Company and Tucker & Cook in their cotton mills give employment to a large number of hands. John Sprague has lately purchased the ancient Arms gristmill and is now in progress of enlarging and improving this valuable property. William Clapp purchased twenty-one years ago a small and almost dilapidated tannery. He does a business of from $50,000 to $75,000 a year. The energies of the inhabitants generally are not sleeping, and there appears nothing wanting but outside capital to make Conway a flourish- ing place with probably a population of ten to twelve thousand.
76
HISTORY OF CONWAY.
Judging from what small means has already accomplished this is not an extravagant calculation. Where Burkeville now is, a few years since there was not a tenement or building. The street from the gristmill to the village bridge now lined with dwellings, shops, and storehouses was almost an impassable gorge. In the vicinity of the bank at the same period there were only two dwelling houses, a schoolhouse and a blacksmith's shop. In Pumpkin Hollow the old church, Newhall's tavern, Captain Williams' store, Bartlett's harness shop, Lawyer Billings' office and a few other buildings constituted Conway's middle of the town. A manifest change for the better has been pro- duced and this change has been effected by determined energy and struggling enterprise aided by but meager capital. It is confidently trusted that the bright vision of hope that beams in the prospects of Conway is not a delusion."
This letter to the Gazette and Courier without doubt expressed the general sentiment of the community at that time. The town was prosperous and confident of increased prosperity.
RAILROAD SURVEYS.
One ground for this expectation was the prospect that a railroad would be built through the village. Mr. Forbes refers to surveys already made. These surveys were taken seriously by the community. The town at its annual meeting on March 9, 1868, voted to ask the Legislature for permission to subscribe for stock in a contemplated railroad from Williamsburg through Conway to Shelburne Falls. Different routes through Conway had been considered, but the one most in favor with the sur- veyors would have located a depot at Burkeville near the lower bridge. The railroad would have crossed South River near the shoe shop, then passing in front of Arms' grove and on the north side of Emerson Hollow would have kept along the side hill following the valley of South River for about a mile, then turning to the left and tunneling the ridge would have emerged in the valley beyond G. F. Hamilton's. From this point the survey led through the farm of I. G. Boyden toward the Ashfield line where a natural valley winds through Shirkshire to Shel- burne Falls. The town was to be disappointed, however. The
77
FIFTY YEARS MORE.
Williamsburg extension did not go beyond that point and the line from Northampton to Shelburne Falls was built by way of South Deerfield and the valley of the Deerfield River. Con- way's station was located four and a half miles from the village, which added very little to the convenience of traffic.
The agitation for a steam railroad to Conway village extended over a period of many years. Before the surveys were made for the proposed road from Northampton and Williamsburg, the Troy and Greenfield railroad had seriously considered running its road over the Hoosac Mountain instead of tunneling through it, and had surveyed a route through Conway, Ashfield, Hawley, and Savoy to North Adams. This was in 1849. As late as 1889 the town was aroused by still another plan to secure a railroad. This time surveys were made for a branch of the Connecticut River railroad from South Deerfield. An item appeared in the Gazette and Courier under date of August 31, 1889, beginning, "Attention, every- body! We are going to have a railroad through Conway." A special town meeting was called and a committee was appointed to confer with the officers of the railroad. The surveys were not completed until 1891, when the project was dropped. Thus it would appear that each of the three railroads in this vicinity has in turn seriously considered locating a station at Conway village, but was deterred by various considerations, chiefly the rugged character of the country and the impossible grades.
THE ELECTRIC STREET RAILWAY.
Fortunately for the town the advent of electric railroads in New England offered a new plan for communication with the outside world. And no sooner had hope of a steam road been given up than thoughts turned toward the building of an electric road. It was seen that this was wholly practicable and enthusiasm ran high. It was ascertained that the cost would be about $25,000. Soon $20,000 was secured by private subscription and the town at a special meeting held June 30, 1894, voted to subscribe for the last five thousand. This was appropriately celebrated on the night before the Fourth of July. There was a parade headed by a drum corps. Large paper lanterns were carried on which were emblazoned the words,
78
HISTORY OF CONWAY.
"Conway Electric Road," "Money All Raised." A cannon was fired throughout the night and there was great rejoicing. Hopes deferred during forty years were about to be realized, at least in part. The subscribers met at once and organized, with the following board of directors: Carlos Batchelder, Emory Brown, Arthur P. Delabarre, John B. Packard, Charles Parsons, Franklin Pease, and F. A. Delabarre. The directors in turn elected the following officers: President, Carlos Batchelder; clerk, Dr. J. B. Laidley; treasurer, W. G. Avery.
In August a contract for building the road was made with Daniel O'Connell & Son of Holyoke, and by September the work was well under way, beginning at Conway Station. A 'power house was located at Harding brook, and in October the big boiler, drawn by eight horses, was moved up from South Deerfield. Remarkable progress was made in the construction of the road, so that by November first the track was laid as far as the lower cotton mill with most of the poles set and wire strung. The greatest delay was occasioned by the construction of two new iron bridges; but even these were practically finished before winter. In the early spring of 1895 the tracks were cleared of snow and work was resumed with such vigor that on March 29 a trial trip was made successfully from the upper cotton mill to Conway Station. Three days later the road was open for traffic.
The Conway electric road was the first to operate in this vicinity and the first to carry freight anywhere in the state .. The Greenfield and Turners Falls electric line opened three months later and for several years there was hope of connecting the two. In harmony with this general plan efforts were soon put forth to extend the Conway line across the Deerfield River. This was accomplished in 1897 after heroic exertions both to raise the necessary funds and to overcome the opposition of the N. Y., N. H. & H. railroad. This extension gave connection with the Fitchburg division of the Boston & Maine railroad as well as with the New Haven.
In 1899 a dam was built across South River near Conway Station to furnish power to run the electric road and also to furnish electric lights and power for the townspeople. This dam was made of logs and crushed stone faced with plank.
79
FIFTY YEARS MORE.
The work was done by lumbermen from Maine. 'About three thousand trees cut in the vicinity went into the construction. The dam was one hundred and thirty-two feet in length extend- ing from a natural ridge which reached nearly half across the valley. The reservoir thus secured not only furnished power but also made a beautiful lake nearly a mile in length bordering on Wildwood Park, an attractive resort developed with the building of the electric road.
In 1908 the Conway electric road was sold to the Boston & Maine railroad, a special act of the Legislature of 1907, granting permission to do this, having been obtained with much difficulty. In taking over the electric road the Boston & Maine also acquired the power dam and other water privileges along South River. The same year the old log dam was replaced by one made of cement. For several years the townspeople were dependent for their electric lights upon the electricity which the street railway could spare. But in 1916 the Greenfield Electric Light and Power Company acquired the business of furnishing light and power in Conway and with unlimited resources are furnishing continuous light and any amount of power required.
TELEGRAPH AND. TELEPHONE.
The telegraph came into town in the fall of 1880. Mr. Charles C. Burdette, who had recently opened a drug store in the village, arranged with the telegraph company to run a line from Bardwell station to his store. The citizens of the town furnished the poles and Mr. Burdette received and sent the messages for one half of the receipts. The following summer the store of Lee & Dodge at Pumpkin Hollow was connected with the line. The telegraph was a great convenience to the town and was much appreciated until the coming of the tele- phone reduced the amount of service to a point where it ceased to be profitable, and for several years telegrams have been telephoned to and from Shelburne Falls.
The New England Telephone Company began business in town in the spring of 1897 with six subscribers. This number gradually increased, yet little effort was made to accommodate the outlying farms. In 1901 a local company in the neighboring town of Heath came to Conway and established a' farmers'
80
HISTORY OF CONWAY.
line, to the great satisfaction of the people. The Heath Com- pany began with forty subscribers and eventually secured all of the local business. There were, January 1, 1917, one hundred and twenty-five subscribers in Conway, representing every corner and neighborhood of the town.
IMPROVED MAIL SERVICE.
As a means of communication with the outside world the town is greatly indebted to improvement in the mail service during recent years. The rural free delivery was established July 1, 1901, with Charles Page as carrier. The mail is now carried into every neighborhood and within a reasonable distance of every farmhouse. The parcel post arrangement, which went into effect January 1, 1913, has been extensively utilized by Conway people in purchasing supplies through mail orders.
AUTOMOBILES.
Automobiles began to appear in town during the summer of 1902. With their rapid increase throughout the state came a demand for better roads and Conway has profited by this agitation. A state road already nearly completed runs through the town from South Deerfield to Ashfield and thence to the Berkshire Valley. For the past two summers an auto-bus line has been maintained by the Patterson Auto Garage between Conway village and South Deerfield railroad stations. About sixty automobiles are now owned by the townspeople.
THE NATIONAL CENTENNIAL.
The Fourth of July, 1876, was appropriately celebrated by the town of Conway. There was a salute with cannon at sunrise. A parade of antiques and horribles was followed at 10 A. M. by a procession to Arms' grove. Mr. John Sprague was chief marshal. Gordon H. Johnson, Charles Parsons, and Chelsea Cook were his assistants. The order of march was as follows: President of the day, Carlos Batchelder; invited guests; Conway Band; fire company; Sunday schools; citizens. The programme at the grove consisted of opening prayer by Rev. David Pease, a former pastor in town, now venerable with age;
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