USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Deerfield > History of Deerfield, Massachusetts: the times when the people by whom it was settled, unsettled and resettled, vol 2 > Part 20
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VITALITY OF THE OLD GUN.
Hoosác, the troop halted, and the astonished denizens of Pumpkin Hollow soon heard their houses rattling about their ears, and their late captive exulting in thunder tones over its freedom. We really believed the old cannon had a personal- ity. How else could its voice always be in harmony with the occasion, as it certainly was, unless our imaginations deceived 11s.
The old cannon was often fired on the common, and woe betide the windows of the surrounding houses, if the lower sash was not raised before the first boom; even then, some damage was apt to follow. The householders tired of this after a while, and the gun was now and then found spiked over night. This must have been at one time uncommonly well done, that the town should be called upon to take a hand in the matter.
At a town meeting, April 9th, 1828, Art. 9 of the warrant was: "To see if the town will take means to unspike the old cannon, or take any measures to recover damages of the person or persons who spiked the same. Voted in the nega- tive." The spikers had been on the alert, and Art. 10 in the warrant was: "To see if the Town will authorize the Select- men to sell or otherwise dispose of the old cannon belonging to the Town." This was an offset to Art. 9, put in by the spikers, who had force enough to back it, and it was,-
Voted that the Selectmen be directed to deposit the cannon in some safe and convenient place, and not to suffer it to be used on any occasion without special permission, and only at such places as they shall direct, and upon no occasion within the limits of the Town Street Village.
I do not think the provisions of this vote were very strictly enforced; it depended a good deal upon who the selectmen were. The old men sometimes forgot they were ever young and through their means, the old cannon would now and then mysteriously disappear. It would be buried, perhaps, for years at a time, until some one "peeped," or it was discovered by accident. It was usually heard from on these occasions. Every fibre of the old gun must be of the very best material. It has been abused in every possible way with never a bit of paint or drop of oil, or the slightest care; it has long been corroded by rust inside and outside, and by all scientific stand- ards it should have gone to fragments long years ago with
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MILITARY OFFICERS-AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.
the lightest charge ; but it has never gone back on its trust- ing friends of its own will. By gross carelessness, however, the last time it was loaded a premature discharge occurred, by which three men were mangled and maimed for life.
In 1858 the mayor of Cambridge mnade application for the old cannon, to place it in Fort Washington, the old earth- works in that town on the bank of Charles river. Of course this was labor lost.
In 1880, as it seemed almost like inviting murder to allow its use any longer, it was given a safe resting place under the wings of the P. V. M. Association and placed in Memorial Hall.
Fire Engines. In March, 1830, a movement was made to procure some apparatus for extinguishing fires. A subscrip- tion paper was started and forty-six men gave enough to buy a pretty good "tub" for those days. A volunteer company was organized under the statutes, which did fairly good ser- vice when called into the field of its action, and also at its an- nual suppers which became a feature of the times. The ma- chine was a square box worked by horizontal levers. It was housed in a building put up for it by the town on the south- west corner of Col. Asa Stebbins's home lot where the old schoolhouse of a century ago stood, and where Philo Munn's shop now stands. Modern "extinguishers" succeeded it.
Town House. After the meetinghouse was torn down in 1824, town meetings were usually held in the hall of the brick schoolhouse on the common. In 1839, the question of build- ing a Town House was agitated, and at the March meeting a committee of six was chosen to take the matter into consid- eration. The result of this movement was an article in the April meeting to "see if the town would build two Town Houses." Bloody Brook people never failed to claim for them- selves the duplicate of anything proposed for the Old Street. In this case the whole matter fell through. In March, 1841, the matter again came up in the same form and came to the same end. The main project, however, was not killed or even scotched. April 5th, 1841, the town voted to " build a Town House, and erect the same on land east of Mr. Beldings meetinghouse on land purchased of the Trustees of Deerfield Academy, by the subscription of individuals in Deerfield Street." The interest of the "Surplus Revenue Fund," and
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THE FARMERS ORGANIZE.
the one hundred and fifty dollars for which the "Poor house" at Wapping sold, were appropriated towards the expense. Pliny Arms, Charles Williams and Timothy Billings were made a building committee, with discretionary power as to material and size of the house. March, 1842, they reported the work done at a cost of $1730. The structure was of wood, one story high.
The "Franklin Agricultural Society." Dec. Ist, 1813, at a meet- ing of the citizens of Deerfield, after due discussion, it was,-
Resolved that it is Expedient to form an Agricultural Society in this Town * that Rev. Samuel Willard, Ephraim Williams, Esq. Maj. Ep. Hoyt, Capt. Elihu Hoyt and Mr Augustus Lyman be a Committee to form a Constitution.
Dec. 13th, the committee reported a long preamble and a constitution with nineteen minute and prolix articles. This was signed by seventy-two men, all but sixteen from the "Street" and Wapping. The object of the association was declared to be "improvement in the whole management and economy of the farm with all its appurtenances." Quarterly meetings were to be held in Deerfield on the first Wednesday of March, June, September and December. An annual ora- tion was provided for the September meeting. It established a library; one catalogue, of forty-six leading agricultural publications of the time, has come to light. George Arms was secretary in 1814-15. In 1816 was the " cold summer," a diary before me notes a frost Aug. 22d, another Aug. 29th, and one Sept. 26th. The erop of Indian corn was almost ut- terly ruined. The annual meeting, Sept. 4th, was doubtless anything but a festive occasion. In 1819, Washington's birth- day was celebrated by the association at a meeting in Au- gustus Lyman's tavern hall. John Wilson was then secretary. In 1817 a list shows seventy members. No book of records has been found. The society had a short life, but another society with the same ends sprang up in its place, under the same hands.
The " Farmers Association" was incorporated under an act of the General Court, Feb. 13th, 1821. A constitution with the inevitable nineteen articles, similar to that of its predeces- sor, was adopted. The members of that society were admit- ted free members of this, provided they turn over their library, which was done. The declared object of this body was,-
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The improvement in the management and economy of a farm: promotion of domestic manufactures, and researches into the natu- ral history of our county, in the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdoms, so far as they are connected with agriculture.
No records of this association are found and what came out of it, or what became of it, I have no knowledge. Its place of meeting was over Orlando Ware's store.
Burying Yards. The Indians seem to have uniformly buried their dead in places peculiarly situated. Their graves have been rarely, if ever, found in any other. They selected a point or promontory running out from some plain and over- looking a stream of water, and the meadows towards which its sides fell off abruptly. Many such have been identified : The northwest corner of my own home lot,-five or six rods of which have been dug away,-with Great Pasture Brook be- low it: Broughton's Hill, east of Broughton's Pond; this has been lowered several feet: Bars plateau, where a point jutted out between Boggy Meadows on one side, and Stebbins Meadow on the other, a little south of Gifford's bridge; this has been obliterated by the road up the hill, digging gravel, etc .: points on the bluffs at Wisdom overlooking the mead- ows and the river. Graves might be confidently looked for on the northwest corner of Josiah A. Allen's home lot; on land of Eliza D. Williams in South Meadows, where Second Divis- ion brook sweeps round into Log Meadow; as also on the southeast corner of Petty's Plain, and the northwest corner of the home lot of Mrs. Lurane B. Wells, if the rivers at their feet have not washed too much away. There seems to have been no common burial place as with us; apparently each family or clan had its own, these were probably near their wigwams, since in their vicinity Indian relics are always more or less abundant.
The spot selected by the first white settlers and set apart for their "God's Acre," was one of the points already so occu- pied by the natives; it was the southwest corner of the central plateau of the village, at the foot of Hitchcock Lane, and is our "old Burying Ground." There rest the fathers and moth- ers of the settlement. In one awful grave, undistinguished save by a faint tradition, were laid the ghastly slain of Feb. 29th, 1704. There the murdered Mrs. Williams lies beside her husband, our first minister. Few of the earlier graves are
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THE DEAD OF ANCIENT TIMES.
marked by monuments ; that to Joseph Barnard, killed by In- dians, 1694, bears the oldest date to be found. There rest many other victims of the Indian wars,-John Allen, slain at the Bars, May 11th, 1704; his gallant nephew, Samuel Allen, who fell defending his children, 1746; Eleazer Hawks, Adoni- jah Gillett, Oliver and Simeon Amsden, who fell at the same time ; Ebenezer Sheldon, killed in 1746. Many unmarked graves contain the ashes of the Broughtons, Wellses, Bel- dings, and other victims of inhuman war. Here repose at least nine soldiers who followed Turner through the turmoil and din of the battle which cost him his life and named the scene of the conflict,-William Arms, Eleazer Hawks, Philip Mattoon, Godfrey Nims, Robert Price, William Smead, Ben- jamin Wait, Jonathan Wells, the young hero of the occasion, and his brother, Thomas Wells.
The place is beautiful for situation : a southerly view over- looking the Pocumtuck river and a far-reaching spread of the quiet meadows through which it winds. Pocumtuck Rock stands a grim sentinel ever guarding it on the east, while the blue of the hills is seen touching the blue of the skies in ev- ery direction around it. This was the last resting place for the village dead until 1802. To this place the following votes refer.
1703. March 5th, in voting regulations about working on the highway, the town also included "clearing the Burying place."
1721. The town directed the selectmen to enclose the bury- ing place with a fence. This was done and the place was thereafter called the "Burying Yard."
1721, Dec. 7, another method of "clearing " the ground was adopted; the town granted,-
'To Edward Fogg the use of the burying yard for feeding, six years, and the land lying between the rear of the town lot, Mr. Williams, Thomas Wells, his lot, & the river, running North to the top of Lit- tle Meadow hill, he to keep the burying yard free from brush, and fence it, the town finding the material, provided he does not infring on the highway.
1735. Thomas Wells 2d, was allowed the privilege of feed- ing his horses "in the Burying yard this year, provided that he pay all damages that shall occur thereby."
1745. March 4th, voted to lease out the burying yard to
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MILITARY OFFICERS-BURYING YARDS.
some person who will "engage to be always ready to dig Graves when wanted and will keep said lot clean & well fenced."
1751. Voted to " Fence the Burying Yard with a Good five rail fence with a good Gate to enter sd Yard."
1755. Dec. 11th, " a committee was chosen to see the Bury- ing Yard be well cleared and fenced with a good board fence all round except the south side & that to be ditched & the east side to be fenced as it is by the present owner of the meadow fence."
1761. It was to be fed with sheep and calves only. In 1776 it was to be enclosed with a new fence. In 1792, a new fence was to be built or the old one repaired.
1802. "Voted to do nothing about fencing the Burying Yard."
1803. A committee was chosen to buy a new burying yard. It was also voted " to recomend discontinuing burying in the old Burying Yard." It was high time. It had been in use over a century and a quarter and probably room for a new tenant could only be made by ejecting or disturbing an old one.
The lower part of the ground now called the " Hill burying yard," was bought by the town in 1803 for twelve dollars. It was on the "east end of Ebenezer Saxton's home lot," and appears to have been already occupied for burial purposes. The following note from Henry Hitchcock to my grand- mother tells the status of affairs on this place at date.
Mrs Sheldon JANUARY 29th 1827. At this date there is 242 persons buried in the new burying ground. Mrs Bard- well has been dead 28 years She died August 1798, aged 62, and was taken from the old yard and buried in the new yard. This num- ber includes all in graves and Tombs and not Mr Dennisons daugh- ter that was taken up. They began to bury in the yard in 1800.3 was brought from the old yard
Respectfully yrs H Hitchcock
The purchase of this spot by the town seems to have been the beginning of a new order of things. Apparently, down to this time, there had been no systematic ownership or care of any burial places. There were grave yards convenient to the scattered hamlets, but they were on private lands and used only on suffrage. But now as the town had bought new land for the old street, why should the people in the out parts
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THE TOWN ACQUIRES BURIAL PLACES.
be taxed to pay for it without a corresponding benefit to themselves. April 4th, 1803, the town voted to " buy the bury- ing yard at Muddy Brook. Mr. Graves, the original Proprie- tor being free from making any fence. Capt. Arms, Capt. Cooley, Col. Stebbins, Capt. Tryon, and Eli Cooley," were chosen a committee to buy the land and fence. May 2d, Zebe- diah Graves deeded to the town "& of an acre Lying in the Long Hill Division bounded North & West on his own land, South on Eber Allis, and East on the road to Sunderland."
1804. Voted not to take a deed of the burying ground on Mr. John Robbins's land at North Wisdom.
1806. May 5th, the selectmen were authorized to buy the burying yard near Jonathan Cobb's. Price ten dollars. The same vote passed two years later.
The South Wisdom ground was used for burial purposes about a hundred years ago. This does not appear to have been town property. It lies in a pasture, and has long been unused, even the gravestones are in a ruinous condition.
1807. Voted to fence a burying ground near Ebenezer Hoyt's to accommodate the North and South Wisdom school districts, "provided they will get a deed of the same, free."
1810. April 2d, the selectmen were directed to take a deed of land for a burying yard in Wisdom and fence the same at town charge.' The result of this action was that Ebenezer H. Williams sold the town for five dollars a lot of eight by ten rods, one rod and fourteen links north of the Baptist meet- inghouse. It was on "No. 31, in the First Division of Inner Commons." The town now called a halt and at the same meeting voted not to buy a burying yard in Pine Nook.
1811. April ist, voted not to buy a piece of land at Mill River for a burying yard. In a pasture at Pine Nook, on the old Brigham farm, lies a deserted graveyard of unknown or- igin, unused for fifty or sixty years. A new one was opened in that district about 1812. In 1816 the town voted twenty- five dollars to fence it, on condition the owner give a deed to the town. No deed has been found.
1819. The town voted to raise money for fencing the bury- ing yard at Pine Nook and Jonathan Loveland was made an agent to secure the money. At Mill River a burial yard was established about -. In 1826 the town voted to fence this ground, provided Mr. Hawks will give a deed of the land.
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MILITARY OFFICERS-BURYING GROUNDS.
In 1859 the lot was enlarged by land bought of Messrs. Tim- othy and Charles Phelps. There are also several private burial places, Stebbins's at Sugar Loaf ; De Wolf and Hawks's. in South Wisdom, and two belonging to the Catholics, in North Wisdom, near the Greenfield line; and a part of the new " Greenfield Cemetery," lies within our territory.
Funerals. In the earlier days of our fathers, funeral rites, except in case of high officials, were simple and unvarnished tributes to the King of Terrors. No heavy financial burden was laid upon the survivors by costly and fanciful exhibitions of floral art. No pride-fostering show cases, called caskets. A receptacle for the dead made in advance would have been considered presumptuous if not impious. Each coffin was made on the emergency from actual measurement and made to fit. They were of pine, stained black, with a small pane of glass let into the lid over the face, below this the initials of the name, and the age were outlined with brass headed tacks. The handles, unless of leather straps or cords of flax. were made by the village blacksmith. Was it an incongruity when in 1751 the town voted "to purchase a Pall for the use of the Town not to exceed the price of £5, 8s, 8d, Lawful Money *
* * but if any Person or Persons will ad to sd sum so as to purchase a velvet Pall the committee may pro- cure that." In the earliest days there was no religious rite at the house of the dead. There was no hearse garnished with plate glass and nodding plume of sable seen in the fu- neral procession. The body was laid upon a bier, and four " carriers " bore it to the grave, or if the burden or distance required it, a relief of four more was provided ; on each side of the bier walked two "pall bearers" each holding a corner of the pall which was spread over the coffin. The " mourners" followed on foot shrouded in garments of the deepest black, made or borrowed for the occasion, and niggardly indeed would be considered any who refused to lend their best on occasions like this. There was no ceremony at the grave, save that the chief mourners, or the persons of highest dig- nity present, supported the head of the corpse as it was being lowered to its last resting place. There was no official and officious sexton. The representative of the bereaved publicly thanked the friends who had assembled to bury their dead, and the procession returned to the funeral feasts at which
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strong liquors were an essential part. Gloves were furnished the "carriers" and the "bearers," and in families of wealth, scarfs and mourning rings were liberally distributed to friends of the deceased, and sometimes suits of black clothes to dependents. This being sometimes, in large towns, car- ried to an extent which "involved a great & unnecessary ex- pense." the General Court in 1741 enacted, " That no scarves gloves (except six pair to the bearers, and one pair to each minister of the church or congregation where any deceased person belongs) wine, rum, or rings be allowed and given at any funeral." During the sad ceremony, unrestrained by et- iquette, but encouraged by custom, the stricken heart gave full swing to the tragedy of grief and received and welcomed openly the tender sympathy of all. And who shall say that this natural outburst of an afflicted soul does not better serve to lighten the burden of sorrow, than the self-contained suf- fering of secluded grief! After all, however, the essential features of this event which comes to every family and to every member of it, remain the same. The funeral trappings and conventional show of sorrow, change from generation to generation, but there is no change in the desolation of death : no change in the bitter grief at the last parting ; no change in those sounds so utterly full of woe, the falling clod and the bursting sob. Then, as now, the sad significance of the va- cant chair, and the bereaved hearts yearning for the hand that was warm, and the voice that was dear. At no age or gen- eration does the popular faith triumph over death. The conso- lations of religion do not console : the pealing anthem or wail- ing miserere do not fill the aching void ; the hope of what is to be has not yet subdued the sad refrain, O, for what was and might have been !
The general use of the bier continued well into the present century, and gave way but slowly to the hearse, and this was at first, as near as it could well be, to a bier on wheels, the pall being still the covering for the coffin. Our bier was stored in the south porch of the old meetinghouse, a visible reminder that "man was made to mourn," and a powerful adjunct to the solemn warnings from the pulpit within, that " the last day draweth nigh and will soon be here."
At the March meeting in 1816, a committee was chosen to make inquiries concerning the substitution of a hearse for a
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MILITARY OFFICERS-BURYING GROUNDS.
bier. They reported in April in favor of the innovation, and the town voted to buy a hearse. At the same meeting the selectmen were made a committee to appoint a sexton, and agree with him on the price of his services. Until now prob- ably the offices of a sexton had been performed by the hands of neighbors. To their honor be it recorded, that this custom is still continued by the people of Wapping.
In 1818, there was a movement to build a hearse house, which came to nothing ; but in 1821, the town voted to build a hearse house "in the burying ground outside the fence." It was located, I think, at the foot of the hill a few rods north- west of the stone arch of the Boston & Maine railroad within the limits of the present highway. Until 1848 the road to Great River ran up the hill north of the burying ground.
In 1827, the town voted to buy a pall for the use of the people at Bloody Brook and in 1848, the town bought for them of Zebediah Graves, four acres on the Whately road for a village cemetery. This is now used as their principal bury- ing place.
CHAPTER XXXII.
BELLS-CHARITIES-NEGRO SLAVERY-CHEAPSIDE.
The "Bell of St. Regis." having been relegated by the his- torical student to the realm of myths, the first meetinghouse bell was purchased by the town with money loaned by indi- viduals, in 1729. Succeeding bells down to 1820 have been owned and controlled by the town, and the pay of the sexton has been a town charge. The Bell spread the fearful alarum when a lurking enemy was discovered. It was rung not only Sundays but also for Town and Proprietors meetings, lect- ures, celebrations, etc., at noon and at 9 o'clock, p. m.
The Passing Bell. It was the custom in my younger days to toll the Passing Bell on the death of any person in the com- munity ; nine strokes of the bell at half-minute intervals an- nounced the death of a man. six that of a woman, and three that of a child; after a short pause, a succession of quick strokes gave the age in years of the departed. As every dan- gerous siekness was known to the whole community, all ac- tivities ceased at the first peal, and in the silence everybody waited with bated breath to the last, to know what family among them was now bereaved, and where kindly help was needed and always welcome. How long this custom had ex- isted I do not know, but it was discontinued about forty or fifty years ago. At funerals the people were called together by the tolling bell, and by its sad and solemn tones it seemed certain that the bell was conscious of its office. Minute strokes were given as the procession moved to the grave and continued until the closing words were spoken and the body was laid down in its last resting place, when, at a given sig- nal, the service was concluded by rapid strokes giving the age of the departed.
The Nine o'clock Bell. From early times the nine o'clock bell was a regular institution. It was universally understood to be the signal for bed-time, and it was an unwritten law
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BELLS-CHARITIES-NEGRO SLAVERY-CHEAPSIDE.
that everybody should give heed to it. Custom and courtesy alike demanded that all visitors who had dropped in to make a call or spend the evening should make a move to do up the knitting work, or look for the hat, at the first stroke of the bell. To any polite request for a longer tarry the sufficient answer was, "Oh, no, the bell is ringing." It was an old and common saying on such occasions, " It is nine o'clock, time for honest men to go home and rogues about their business." This was doubtless the Curfew Bell of Old England, estab- lished by William the Conqueror, and brought over by our fathers. The name, "Curfew," however, was never heard this side the water, being considered by the Puritan, I sup- pose, analogous to dancing round the Maypole, Christmas festivity, ecclesiasticism and other national abominations, up- on which the emigrant had shaken off the dust from his feet. As there were few clocks and fewer watches, the nine o'clock bell was a great convenience and it became intimately in- corporated into the life of the town. Of course, in cases of balls, evening parties, or when young couples were "sitting up," the participants did not feel obliged to be "tied to the bell-rope." To supply the lack of almanacs, as well as time- pieces, it was the custom to wind up the nine o'clock bell with light, quick taps, indicating the day of the month.
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