USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 14
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About 1907 or 1908 the Hampden County Improvement League attempted to get the people of Granville interested in raising apples. It offered to set out an orchard of several acres and take care of it for twenty years, giving demonstrations of how to trim and prune the trees, without charge, if some farmer would give the use of the land for the orchard. At the end of twenty years the orchard should belong to the owner of the land. The late Lester B. Dickin- son, always a progressive farmer, offered a part of his field across the road from his house. The orchard was set out. Other farmers came to look on and learn. They went home and set out orchards
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for themselves. They learned how to prune them scientifically. Soon nearly every farmer had a bearing orchard and now it is not uncom- mon for a single farmer to raise 3000 to 6000 bushels of apples in a year. Granville has come to be one of the greatest apple grow- ing towns in western Massachusetts. The soil seems to be just fitted for that fruit, and no better flavored fruit is grown anywhere in the country.
In November 1929 the apple growers of Granville held the first Granville Apple Show, being the first town show in Hampden County. It has been an annual event ever since. The principal varieties grown are Baldwin, Greening, Northern Spy, McIntosh, Roxbury Russett, Wealthy, King, Delicious and Wolf River.
Apple growers in Granville are now well-to-do farmers, and it is chiefly due to the Hampden County Improvement League.
Mention should be made of the artificial lake created by the late Ralph B. Cooley. About a mile south of Granville village and just east of the road to Granby, there was formerly a swampy area through which meandered a tiny trout stream. Mr. Cooley was an enthusiastic sportsman and he conceived the idea of turning that particular bit of unattractive land into a beauty spot. He must have had in mind a miniature of some of the beautiful lakes in Maine where he had fished and around which he had hunted. So in 1896 he purchased this swamp, the largest part of which he secured from the late Miles J. Rose, and some of the surrounding land, and started to make his dream come true. He engaged a large force of Italian laborers who grubbed out the bushes, cleaned off the top soil and built a dam where the waters of the swamp naturally collected into a small brook. The result was the present beautiful forest- bordered private lake.
Mr. Cooley then proceeded to provide for further enjoyment of this area. He stocked the lake with game fish and built a boat house and sportsman's lodge, which he furnished with all the necessary equipment for fishing and boating. He also built a summer cottage nearby where he spent most of his summers thereafter.
In common with other New England towns Granville has experi- enced the various improvements in the matter of lighting, from pine knots, whale oil and kerosene, until in 1926 electric lights came
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to these hills. During the summer of that year a transmission line was built from Southwick to Granville. Many houses were wired for the lighting, and provision was made for street lights. In the evening of December first the subscribers were pleased to be sur- prised with a flood of artificial light, when the electric current was turned on to test the system. On December 6 the street lights began to function. From that date onward electricity for light and power has been available to all would be purchasers.
The Roads
T HE story of Granville's roads is one of evolution. It is a far cry from the Indian trails of the days of Toto, which were more or less fit for pedestrian travel, to the highways of today, fit for the most speedy travel by automobiles. In the days of the Plan- tation, the only traffic was either on horseback or on foot, and bridle paths led from one dwelling to another. The location of the cabins determined the location and course of the travel. The paths dodged the trees, the rocks and the swampy places. There were no wagons, not even a chaise, so it mattered little how crooked the trail, nor how steep the side hill along which it led. It is reasonable to believe that the Indian trails were few, and quite possibly there was only one.
When Samuel Bancroft established himself by the side of the little brook in the northeast part of the town, he was not primarily interested in any trail except the one between his cabin and the village of Westfield. When the next settler came, he had to pick out his own path from Samuel Bancroft's to the place he had chosen for a home. So it went on, each settler going a bit farther into the woods and selecting for his road, the easiest place to travel to it. However, as more settlers appeared, the paths became wider and in some places straightened out somewhat, and then primitive vehicles began to appear; sleds and ox carts. Then there began to be concerted action for improving the highways. Finally farm wagons appeared as well as chaises. A large part of the early town votes had to do with the repair and laying out of roads.
The earliest route of travel in Bedford was in some measure the present road commonly spoken of as the Old Road to Westfield, which ran through Hooppole to Jockey Corners, then westerly up the hill to East Granville, and on to Middle Granville and West Granville. This road did not pass through the Narrows, as at present, but at the foot of the hill just westerly from the West Parish filter beds of the Springfield water department, it kept far- ther to the east and south, and ran over a high part of the hill and
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then down through what is now the bed of the Granville Reservoir of the Westfield water department and came out into the present road at the place where Peter Hendricksen formerly lived. All this portion of the ancient road has long since been discontinued, and the road used in its present layout.
It was not long before other roads were needed and were laid out. One of the next was the road to Southwick, as it was called after Southwick came into being. This was made so that Bedford could have a way to get to Suffield. This road was not the one through the Notch, now usually designated as the road to South- wick. It began at the Old Westfield Road, went out across the Plain past the new brick Village School building, then it followed the present Sodom Street going on easterly and down the steep slope of Sodom Mountain. The road from East Granville to Blandford was another early one, as well as the road from Middle Granville to Loudon (now Otis). Then came the road from Jockey Corners (now the village of Granville ) to Granby, Connecticut ; South Lane ; the road to Hartland Hollow; North Lane (West Granville ) ; the Wildcat road; Tice Hollow road; and many others which have since been discontinued. The layouts of many of these old highways are recorded in the Town records. However, it is now very difficult to recognize them because they are usually designated as beginning at some house or barn, the owner of which has been dead so long, the buildings now non-existent, and the land owned so many decades by others, that it is a very intricate task to determine exactly where they were. Another factor which adds to the difficulty is this: dis- tinguishing points in the layout are very generally some tree, or even the stump of a tree, all signs of which have long since vanished. An antiquarian with plenty of time and patience could work it out, but by comparison a modern jig saw puzzle is simplicity.
The District of Granville, however, received some help with its roads, for it was not so many years before the County came to its relief and expended considerable money for the improvement and upkeep of the main east and west road running from Westfield through East, Middle and West Granville and thence to Loudon, so that this was for many years called the County Road. After a
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time the County support came to an end, but the name stuck for several decades.
It may be recalled (p. 39) that one of the first moves toward better roads was made by the Plantation in 1750 when, at a meeting of the inhabitants, the entire settled area in this region was divided into three sections, as follows :
Voted "To divide the District and money that the Inhabitants granted for mending highways in the current year in said Bedford, and by said vote of said Inhabitants as to the District (sic) that part of the town which is under the care and charge of Mr. Dan Robinson Beginneth at the crossing said Township North and South by the dwelling house of Lieut. Daniel Brown in said Bedford and all the inhabitants west of said road are by said vote under the said Robinson as one of the Committee chosen by said inhabitants to mend highways in said Bedford as also the money arising on the settling Lands lying west of the Great Valley notwithstanding the owners of said Lands live on the East part of said Township as also the money arising on the settling Land on said west part if the owners are not in said Bedford to be to the benefit of said west part without any exception but only that Lieut. Brown and Jeremiah Griswold personally belong to the other District.
2nd Division belonging to Justus Rose that is to say all the inhabitants south of the Road East and West through Bedford from Lieut. Browns to Bedford East Line formerly to belong to Justus Rose's District.
(3rd) Division belonging to Nath1 District, that is to say (all the) Inhabitants East of the Road crossing said Township North and South by Lt. Brown's and north of the now travelling East and West Road threw said Bedford."
The other of said two votes is as follows :
Voted "That the inhabitants will be at cost of laying out the roads in said Bedford"
In as much as part of the record of this meeting is lost, it is quite impossible to learn just how this "cost of laying out the roads" was managed.
This policy of having one man to attend to and care for the roads in a definite area in town was followed for nearly 150 years, until the coming of improved road making machinery. When a section came to have more roads than one man could conveniently look after, the section was simply divided into two. So in time there
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came to be many highway districts, laid out according to no definite, orderly plan, but entirely in view of the convenience or expediency of the particular situation to be dealt with. The title of the com- mittee which had charge of the upkeep of the roads was changed after a time to that of Highway Surveyors. These officers were chosen at the annual town meetings to serve for one year. They received from the Selectmen a list of the assessments levied for the maintenance of the roads in their respective areas, together with their authority to collect the highway tax. This particular phase of the procedure is most clearly set forth in the warrants issued to these highway officials. A copy of one such warrant is as follows :- Hampden, ss.
To Miles J. Rose, a Highway Surveyor of the Town of Gran- ville, in the County of Hampden, GREETING :-
In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are required to collect of the several persons named in the list herewith committed to you, each one his respective proportion therein set down, of the sum of two thousand dollars voted by the inhabitants of said town on the ninth day of March last, for repairing the high- ways, town ways and bridges in said town, you first having given reasonable notice to each person herein named, of the sum he is assessed to highways and town ways, and also seven days notice of the times and places you may appoint for providing materials and working on the highways and town ways within the limits assigned to you by the Selectmen for the present year.
You are to allow the several persons for work and labor accord- ing to the vote of the town, as follows, to wit :- For all work done before the first day of July next twenty-five cents per hour for each man; twenty-five cents per hour for each team suitable to plough and scrape on the road; fifty cents per day for each plough, each scraper and each cart; and for all work done after the first of July next, you are to allow fifteen cents per hour for each man; and fifteen cents per hour for each team suitable to plough and scrape.
You are to cause two thirds of said sum at least to be expended as aforesaid on or before the first day of July next.
And you are to exhibit this warrant, with your doings thereon, to the Selectmen on the first Monday of July next, and also at the expiration of your term of office, and at those times respectively, to render an account of all moneys by you expended on the highways and town ways.
You are also to complete and make up an account of your collec-
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tions of the whole sum on or before the first day of March, eighteen hundred and seventy.
And if any person shall refuse or neglect, upon demand by you made, to pay the sum he is assessed in said list, you are to distrain the goods of such person to the value thereof, and the goods so distrained to keep at the expense of the owner for the space of four days, at the least, and to sell the same within seven days after the seizure, by public auction for the payment of the tax and the charges of keeping and of the sale ; first giving notice of such sale by posting up a notification thereof in some public place in the town forty-eight hours at least before the sale.
If the distress shall be sold for more than the tax and the charges of keeping the same and making the sale, you are to return the surplus to the owner, on demand, with an account in writing of the sale and charges.
If any person shall refuse or neglect within fourteen days, after demand thereof made, to pay his tax and you cannot find sufficient goods upon which it may be levied, besides tools or implements necessary for his trade or occupation, beasts of the plough necessary for the cultivation of his improved lands, military arms, utensils for housekeeping necessary for upholding life, and bedding, and apparel necessary for himself and family, you are to take the body of such person and commit him to prison, there to remain until he shall pay the tax and charges of commitment and imprisonment, or be otherwise discharged by order of law.
(Then follows the date and signature of the Selectmen. )
This order of things worked very well when they repaired the roads with crow-bar, shovel, plow and scraper, and every one could bring his tools with him for use while working out his tax.
It was with these tools and under such conditions that the road across the Great Valley was built in 1843, a job of no mean propor- tions. But with the introduction of specially designed road making machinery, each highway district could not afford to buy a machine costing several hundred dollars, so the system of caring for the highways had to be changed. The Highway Surveyors were dis- carded and generally one person was chosen to have sole charge of all the roads in town. The Town purchased a "road machine," as it was called, which was to be, and was, used on all the town roads. This was an improvement over the old system, and it resulted in better roads.
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HISTORY OF GRANVILLE
The Revolution brought the necessity for better roads, for car- riages and light wagons were no longer uncommon, and the era of the turnpikes came. In all the New England states corporations were created by the various legislatures, giving Turnpike Companies the right to lay out, construct and maintain roads for public travel. Their compensation was to be by fees paid by those who travelled on these roads. They were toll-roads.
The urge for a turnpike did not strike Granville until the begin- ning of the nineteenth century, when toll roads had come into exist- ence quite generally all over New England. Massachusetts had already granted charters to ten or more such corporations and some of the progressive men in Granville and Blandford thought it would facilitate travel and help everyone if a good road could be had from the Granby Turnpike in Connecticut, with its direct connection to Hartford, to the main turnpike running westerly from Springfield to Albany. So a bill was introduced into the General Court for a turnpike company to build and operate such a road. This bill was passed by the House and Senate and signed by the Governor and became a law June 19, 1801. This act of the Legislature is of much interest for several reasons, and it is inserted here substantially complete, for the information it contains.
Whereas the highway leading from the south line of Massa- chusetts through the East Parish of the Town of Granville and through the Towns of Blandford and Becket, untill it comes to the turnpike road laid out by the Eighth Massachusetts Turnpike Cor- poration north of the meeting house in said Becket, is rocky and mountainous, and the expense of straightening, making and repair- ing the same through said Towns so that the same may be a good carriage road, is greater than reasonably ought to be required of said Towns,
Sec. 1. Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That Ezra Marvin, Elihu Stow, Enoch Bancroft, William Cooley, William Cooley, Jr., Clark Cooley, David Jones, Samuel Bancroft, Jesse Munson, Amos Root, Lee Tinker, Jesse Spelman, Thomas Gillit, Azariah Bancroft, Zadock Cooley, Roswell Rowley, Abner Warner, Nathan Bates, Oliver Dickinson, Israel Parsons, Timothy Spelman, Martin Moses, Charles Spelman, Asa Seymour, Eli Gibbons, James Coe, Oliver Coe, Samuel Thrall, Bethuel Jones, Joel Root, Jonathan Barlow, Daniel Cooley, James Barlow, Rich-
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ard Dickinson (and others from Blandford) were constituted a corporation by the name of The Eleventh Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation .... for the purpose of laying out & making a turn- pike road, to begin at the south line of Massachusetts, at or near the ending of a turnpike road lately established by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut from the City of Hartford to said south line of Massachusetts, thence into and through the east parish of Granville to Blandford meeting house and from thence .... to the Eighth Massachusetts Turnpike in Becket. And "when completed as far as Blandford meeting house, could erect one toll gate" in such place on the road so made and completed as the Committee appointed by the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the County of Hampshire shall judge most convenient for the col- lection of toll.
Sec. 2 concerned itself with the rates of toll, fixing the amount to be paid by the various classes which might have occasion to use the road, vehicles of sundry kinds, animals, pedestrians. The first item on the list will serve as a sample: "For every Coach, Phaeton, Chariot, or other four-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses 25 cts." The penalty for evading the toll was a fine of not more than $40.00 nor less than $2.00 .*
The good citizens of Granville had every reason to expect a good road from the state line to Jockey Corners, East Granville and up North Lane past the Pilgrims Rest (the Stow tavern), over Beech Hill and thence to Blandford meeting house. But there is many a slip. The Corporation obtained a slight change in its charter in 1802, and then proceeded to lay out its road, which layout was accepted by the Committee appointed by the Court and damages were awarded to those whose lands were taken, but here it ran into difficulty. It should have been expected. It was the same thing which bothered, and now bothers most such enterprises. Money. The Corporation needed money to pay for the construction of its road. None of the towns through which the road was to run was wealthy, nor even well-to-do. It was a farming community in a hill country. They did not have the cash, and the devious ways of modern high finance were then unfamiliar and untrodden by rural financiers. So the plan just died, from lack of money. It passed into the limbo of good intentions.
* Massachusetts Laws and Resolves, 1800-1801, page 294.
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There were a few, however, who were not willing to give up the ship without a struggle. A new start was made and on June 20, 1809, another charter was granted to "Justus Rose and such others as may be or may become associated with him," constituting them a corporation by the name of The Granville Turnpike Corporation. It was granted all the powers formerly given to the Eleventh Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation, and was to follow the same route and direction as the Eleventh, and have the same layout, until it intersected a County Road near the house of Jedediah Smith, Esq., which was in Blandford. It was to have one toll gate at or near the dwelling house of Justus Rose, and it was to have the same rates of toll and be protected by the same penalties. See Massachu- setts Laws and Resolves, 1809-1812, page 38. On February 22, 1812, the Granville company secured from the General Court a modification of its charter, reducing the required width of its road from twenty-four feet to eighteen feet. This might have been of some help, but the same old bogie was in the way, and so far as can be discovered, nothing whatever was done, there being no records, or returns, found either in the State or County offices. Clearly nothing had been done prior to 1812. Although the scheme of a turnpike road failed, there is now a road over the entire distance which this turnpike was planned to cover in the Town of Granville.
It would seem that there was a considerable undercurrent of rivalry between the East Parish and the Middle Parish over this turnpike affair, because sundry men of the Middle Parish also had a bill before the same session of the General Court for a turnpike road through their village. This bill too, was passed by the Senate and House and was signed by the Governor and became a law on the same day as the bill incorporating the Eleventh. This charter is interesting for what it tells.
Whereas the road leading from the Line of the State of Con- necticut near Holmes Mills in Hartland, in the County of Hartford, to Loudon, in the County of Berkshire, is circuitous, rocky and moun- tainous and there is much Travelling over the same and the expense of straightening, making and repairing a road through the Middle Parish in Granville, the west part of Blandford and Loudon, so that the same may be safe and convenient for Travellers with Horses and Carriages, would be much greater than ought to be
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required of the proprietors and Inhabitants on said Road under their present circumstances,
Sec. 1. Be it therefore Enacted . ... That John Phelps, Levi Curtiss, Stephen Stow, Nathan Curtiss, Thaddeus Squires, Rufus Harvey, Abijah Knapp, Luther Hayes, Isaac Snow, Luther Coe, Moses Parsons, Ephraim Coe, Charles Curtiss, Linus Curtiss, David Curtiss, Rufus Rose, Enoch Johnson, Enoch Coe (and others from Blandford and Loudon) shall be a Corporation by the name of The Thirteenth Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation for the purpose of laying out and making a Turnpike Road from the line of the State of Connecticut near Holmes' Mill, by the Meeting house in the Middle Parish in Granville to the north Westerly part of the Town of Loudon, in the County of Berkshire, . and when said Turnpike Road shall be sufficiently made and shall be allowed and approved by the Justices of the Court of Sessions of the County of Hampshire, at any term thereof, then said corporation shall be authorized to erect turnpike Gates on the same in such manner as shall be necessary and convenient .... "
The rates of toll were a little higher than those fixed for the Eleventh, being 30 cts. for a Coach, Phaeton or Chariot, etc. The first meeting of the corporation was to be held at the house of Linus Bates, innholder, in Granville on the first Monday in the following August, to choose officers and do any necessary business. The penalty for evading toll was the same as for the Eleventh. The turnpike was to be "not less than four rods wide, and the travelled part not less than eighteen feet in width in any Place Excepting Steep side Hills, and there the said Road shall be of sufficient width for Car- riages and Teams of all kinds to pass each other."
This law is more skillfully drawn than the law establishing the Eleventh, and doubtless it was done by the practiced hand of John Phelps. But whatever the motive which prompted it, or however skillfully it was drafted, it came to shipwreck on the same rocks as the Eleventh. Without money the road could not be built, and money it did not have and was not able to get. There is no record that anything was ever done under this chapter.
Yet another turnpike was planned to serve this town on the Gran- ville hills. This one was to run from West Springfield to Sheffield. The turnpike fever took a firm hold upon the imaginations of these hill people. Again the locally influential men sponsored the enter- prise. Timothy Robinson, Titus Fowler, John Phelps, Nathaniel
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