USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 15
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HISTORY OF GRANVILLE
Bates, Enoch Bancroft, Oliver Dickinson, Moses Parsons, Israel Parsons, Ezra Baldwin, Peras (probably Perez) Marshall, Jr., Stephen Dodge, Chauncey B. Fowler, William Moore, Ephraim A. Judson, William Granger, Drake Mills, Elijah Deming, and eight- een others from other towns were the incorporators of The Sixteenth Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation. The route over which they were authorized to construct a turnpike was as follows: "beginning at the west line of West Springfield about seventy rods eastward of Moses Hayes Jr's, dwelling in Southwick, thence westward in the most convenient route to Edmund Barlow's dwelling house in Gran- ville, thence westward in the most convenient route to Middle Granville and the West Parish meeting house in said Granville, thence in the most convenient route to the dwelling house of San- ford Brown in Sandisfield" and thence on through Sandisfield, past the meeting house in that town to connect with the turnpike from Hartford, Connecticut, to Hudson, New York, "near the meeting house in Sheffield." The road was to be eighteen feet wide with railings where necessary, and there were to be two toll gates in Hampshire County and two in Berkshire County. The rates of toll were for each coach, phaeton, chariot, or any four wheeled carriages drawn by two horses 25 cents and four cents for each additional horse. Other tolls were similar to those fixed for the Eleventh. The first meeting of the corporation was to be held at the dwelling house of Titus Fowler. The road must be completed within five years from the passage of the act of incorporation, otherwise the charter was to be void. The act was approved by the Governor February 14, 1803 .*
The charter of the Sixteenth was more liberal than the charters of the Eleventh and Thirteenth in that the corporation could within certain limits, choose the most convenient route between certain points. However, the privilege of selecting the exact location for the turnpike did not produce the necessary funds for construction. This corporation was soon stranded on the same financial rocks which had wrecked the Eleventh and Thirteenth. Nothing seems to have been done toward construction and such records of meetings, surveys, etc. as may have been made, are either lost or reposing
* Massachusetts Acts and Resolves, 1802-1803, page 123.
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innocuously in some unfrequented attic. But hope died hard. Appli- cation was made to the General Court for an extension of time within which to complete the road, and the time limit was extended two years from February 14, 1811 .* But it was futile. The Sixteenth was as dead as the Eleventh and Thirteenth.
Hill dwellers are not quitters and there were men living in Gran- ville and Tolland who really wanted a turnpike road. Another effort was made by a few who would not admit failure. These quixotic few were Gad Hamilton, Allen Bidwell, Jonathan Hamilton and Perry Babcock, who were incorporated as the Granville and Tolland Turnpike Corporation and authorized to build an eighteen-foot road over the route formerly granted to the Sixteenth. This act was approved by the Governor June 13, 1814.1
That was the end. There is no further record. Farmers are not financiers. The pattern of the Eleventh had been followed to the letter, and Granville was destined not to have a turnpike road. Transportation over the hills continued to be laborious for nearly another hundred years until it was revolutionized by the automobile.
Granville, like many other towns, could not get through the period of passing from poor to better roads without an excursion or two into the realm of theory. When the system of highway dis- tricts and highway surveyors was abandoned, and one person was at the head of the road work for the whole town, it was the fashion to designate him as Road Commissioner. Having a single head for that department of the public business worked out very well, but in 1880, whether it was thought that if one Commissioner was good, more would be better, or whether someone besides the incumbent wanted the job, or for some other reason, three were elected. One for three years, one for two years and one for one year. Theoreti- cally that was fine, but one year of it was enough. The next year they went back to the single Commissioner, without regard to any rights of the second and third Commissioners. Someone, however, could not get away from this idea, for in 1891 it was tried again. This time one Overseer of Roads was elected for each Parish. But two did not work any better than three, so finally the theorists subsided, much to the benefit of the Town.
* 5 Laws of Massachusetts 307.
+ 6 Laws of Massachusetts 503.
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HISTORY OF GRANVILLE
In this same year (1891), it is interesting to note, the Town voted to purchase oxen to be used in working the highways. In less than 40 years the Town has passed from the slowest motive power to the fastest; from oxen to tractor.
In 1893 Granville tried another experiment. At the annual Town meeting it was voted to let the maintenance of the highways for the ensuing year to the lowest bidder and require him to give bond for the faithful performance of his contract. Whether this plan worked well or not, does not appear, but it seems likely that it did not because it was not followed long. It may well be that this plan developed as a result of the building of the road down through the notch, which was done in 1892.
The building of this road had been in mind for over thirty years. It was agitated before the Civil War, and at a special Town meet- ing October 2, 1861, a Committee was chosen to confer with the County Commissioners about a road through the Notch. The Com- missioners looked the territory over and decided it ought to be built. A map was made of the proposed layout, which was filed in Gran- ville early in 1862. It was to extend from a point on the road to Southwick near the house now occupied by Richard G. Dickinson, down through the notch, or gorge, where the Dickinson Brook, and further on the Munn Brook, flows, to Loomis Street in the Town of Southwick, a distance of something over two miles. It was a task of considerable magnitude to undertake when oxen were the motive power and all the excavating and filling had to be done by hand. The layout was approved and the construction ordered to be done.
By this time the Civil War had been in progress long enough to make it evident that it was going to be a long struggle, and a costly one, so the Town voted in 1862 to ask the County Commissioners to suspend the building of the road "for the present." This the Commissioners did, and the plans for the road were indefinitely laid aside. When that happens to any one's plans it is entirely uncertain when, if ever, they will be taken up again.
Then came the dreary, weary years of the War. After the War came depression, failures, panic. Everyone, particularly farmers, had difficulty in eking out a living. The result was that the plans for the new road lay unmolested in their pigeon-hole thirty years.
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THE ROADS
At last, in May 1892, the Town voted to proceed with the con- struction and build the road through the notch by contract. After considerable official red tape was surmounted, a contract was made with Horace I. Simmons, of Pittsfield for the job and a satisfac- tory bond filed with the Town. The construction work was begun promptly and pushed along as rapidly as could be expected under the circumstances. Much of the way it was necessary to cut back into a ledge. This was done by blasting, and the drilling was all done by hand and the explosive used was the so-called "blasting powder," a coarse black powder which was exploded by means of a fuse. Before this road was built it was possible to pass up or down through this defile over a narrow, crooked road on either side of the brook, but these roads were poor and ill kept. In fact they were more like rabbit tracks than highways, but the present road is one of the scenic highways of western Massachusetts.
The late Lester B. Dickinson told the writer that he was employed on this project and that he worked with a pair of his oxen ten hours a day and six days a week, and was glad to do it for $20.00 a week. He also related an incident which occurred to his oxen while work- ing on this road at that time. The spot where it happened is a short distance east of the Granville-Southwick town line where the descent from the road to the brook is very steep and the drop is about sixty feet. His oxen were being used to haul a rather large log from one point to another past this steep place. They were left standing hitched to the log, while the driver, a young man, prudently went forward to see how about getting by such a bad spot. Another work- man, for many years a resident of Granville, but now dead, re- marked that that was not such a bad place and picking up the whip started to drive the oxen past it. The oxen started when spoken to, but the log in some way rolled over the bank at the point where the bank was steepest and pulled the oxen after it. Down they went, log and oxen, clear to the bottom, for there was no other stopping place. Once the log was over the brink, nothing could be done to prevent the accident and the onlookers gazed in horror, expecting the oxen to be killed or so maimed that it would be necessary to have them killed. But to everyone's amazement there was no apparent damage done to the oxen except a small scratch on one of them.
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They were unyoked and driven out of the gorge and were on the job the next day apparently none the worse for their experience.
Although this road has been in use for more than forty years, it is still called the "new road to Westfield" by the local inhabitants. Well, it is new when compared to the Old Road to Westfield, which has been in use about two hundred years.
With the coming into common use of the automobile, there also came the demand for better roads on which to use them. To meet this need Granville received assistance from the State and County. For some years this assistance was used in grading, draining and putting gravel on the surface of the principal highways, but later the New Road was widened and paved with macadam, and there- after a hard surface was made on the old County Road from Gran- ville village to the Tolland line. Thus the dream of the sponsors of The Eleventh Massachusetts Turnpike Company began to come true. That part of their projected Turnpike from Jockey Corners to East Granville was a hard surfaced road. In 1932 paving that part of their Turnpike from the State line at the end of the Granby Turnpike was begun and it was finished as far as Granville village in 1934. It is hoped that ere many years the remainder of the Eleventh will also be paved, and the dreams of our forefathers will have been realized.
To give an idea of the magnitude and importance of the roads in Granville it is only necessary to recall that in 1935 the Town appro- priated for road work $16,370.87, and in addition to that the Town received from the State and County for general highway purposes and permanent road work (new construction) the further sum of $18,600.00.
Closely allied to the roads and turnpikes was one phase of the transportation maintained upon them : the travel by stage coaches. These were the only public conveyances prior to the railroads, and for hill towns like Granville, stages long remained. Granville had service by stage lines ever since the establishment of our independ- ence, and most probably before that time as well. In the earliest years of the nineteenth century there was one line running from Westfield through East Granville, Middle Granville, West Gran- ville, New Boston to Sandisfield. Considerable light on this line in
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THE ROADS
its later days is shed by a letter of Edwin C. Gibbons written in Granville July 12, 1857, wherein he says: "Mr. Underhill drives stage from Westfield to Sandisfield. He leaves Granville and goes to Westfield and back every day and to Sandisfield one day and back the next." Later this stage was driven by Bidwell and Harrison. Still later it went from Westfield only as far as Tolland, and after that there were two routes to cover this distance: one from West- field to Granville and one from Granville to Tolland. Many of those now living in Granville can readily recall that Burt J. Roberts drove the former and "Ed. L." Holcomb drove the latter. Both of these stages carried passengers as well as freight and mail.
Another of the important stage lines went from Hartford, Con- necticut, through Jockey Corners to Blandford, and thence to Albany, New York. The route of this stage was through Bloomfield, Tariffville, Granby, North Granby, Jockey Corners, East Granville to Blandford. The fare from Hartford to East Granville was one dollar. In 1845 this stage was driven by Denslow, leaving the Eagle Hotel in Hartford every Wednesday and Saturday at seven o'clock in the morning and arriving in East Granville about one o'clock in the afternoon. The return trip from Blandford to Hart- ford was made every Tuesday and Friday, starting at the same hour in the morning. In 1851 this stage was driven by W. E. Boies and started its trips one hour later. The running time remained the same. This through service seems to have been discontinued about 1856, but daily service to the south was maintained from Granville as far as Granby for thirty or more years thereafter. Eventually, however, the line was discontinued.
In 1841 the stage line in operation between Hartford and West Granville passed over the following route : leaving the Eagle Tavern in Hartford at seven o'clock in the morning, going through Bloom- field, Simsbury, West Granby, East Hartland to West Granville. The fare between Hartford and West Granville was one dollar and twenty-five cents, and the trip was made in about six hours. This stage ran twice a week each way, leaving West Granville on Mondays and Fridays, and leaving Hartford Tuesdays and Satur- days. This schedule was maintained until 1848 when the time of leaving Hartford was fixed at eight o'clock instead of seven
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HISTORY O OF GRANVILLE
o'clock. In 1852 George W. Shepard and W. S. Treat were the proprietors of this line, but the next year Mr. Treat seems to have had sole control. In 1854 the leaving time advanced a quarter of an hour. In 1855 the line was operated by Mr. P. B. Coe, then Mr. Shepard had it until about 1860 when it seems to have been discon- tinued, at least so far as West Granville was concerned.
So it can be seen that Granville had very good transportation service before the advent of the railroads. However, as might be expected, this service declined with the decreasing population in the hill towns and the coming of much speedier means of travel. With the coming of automobiles into common use, the stage business has practically disappeared, and Granville now has no public conveyance service, but the U. S. mail is brought twice daily to Granville, and a large part of the town is served by rural free delivery.
The Churches
The First Church
AT the time when settlers came first to Bedford, the maintenance of a church and minister in any community in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay was a duty required by law. This duty seems to have been considered most important of all, for a church must be maintained, even before the community was allowed any political powers. It was a condition of its very existence.
It will be recalled that the proprietors of Bedford, in response to their petition in 1737 to have the title to their land confirmed, were by the General Court subjected to the condition that they "do within the term of Three years from the end of the present session of this Court" build a total of seventy houses of specified dimen- sions; have that number of families settled there ; have a required number of acres seeded to English grass; "and also do within said time build a Meeting House for the public worship of God and settle a learned Orthodox Minister."
In accordance with the above terms of the General Court's re- quirements, the erection of a suitable Meeting House was forthwith begun, and we find in the proprietor's deed to Rev. Moses Tuttle dated February 25, 1747/8, after describing the one hundred acres of land conveyed to him as the first settled minister in Bedford, the following: "Together with the House built thereon for the Present Meeting House, only Reserving Liberty for the Inhabitants to meet in the same until the Other Meeting House intended to be built shall be compleated." What its size was and where it stood cannot now be exactly determined, but the fact remains that there was a meeting house in Bedford as early as February 25, 1747/8, and it had been built after January 9, 1738/9. The tradition seems to be firmly established that it stood on the "Great Rock" (or ledge) at the northwest corner of the main road from East Granville to West Granville and the road to Blandford, but there is no known evidence to prove this to be a fact.
As the number of settlers increased, efforts were made to secure
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HISTORY OF GRANVILLE
a minister in order to comply with that portion of the condition imposed by the General Court, and after a time success was assured. A call was extended to Moses Tuttle, of New Haven, Connecticut, and he decided to cast in his lot with the little group of pioneers in Bedford.
Moses Tuttle was the sixth and youngest child of John and Hannah (Johnson) Tuttle, of New Haven, Connecticut, where he was born June 25, 1715. In his boyhood he went to sea and later married his first wife and probably lived in New Haven. He attended Yale College and graduated in the class of 1745, at the age of thirty. After his graduation he taught in the Hopkins Gram- mar School in New Haven, where he was teaching when called to take charge of the church in Bedford. This call was probably received by him in 1746 and he was not then ordained. Steps were taken directly for his ordination which occurred in January, 1746/7. Apparently he left his school teaching and went immediately to Bedford where he was active in organizing the First Church of Christ. No list of the original membership is now extant, so far as is known. That he began to preach in Bedford before he was ordained, appears from a receipt for salary signed by him as follows :
Bedford, April 15th, 1751.
Then Received of the (Inhabitants) of sd Bedford by the hand of Mr. Daniel Brown and Mr. Phineas Pratt, Treasurers, the sum of Eight Hundred and Sixty three pounds Eight Shillings, old tenor, in full for two years salary, viz: the year 1748 and 1749, and for preaching before Ordination.
Samuel Church David Rose
pr. me Moses Tuttle
From this it seems that the minister's salary was not paid very promptly or else that a receipt for the payment was not given very promptly, and further, as we look back upon the condition of a pioneer settlement, it seems now that the salary was a very generous one.
About this time he married for his second wife, Martha Edwards, the youngest sister of Jonathan Edwards, the famous preacher at Northampton. This marriage took place, according to Jonathan Edwards' will, at some time after September 1749.
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THE CHURCHES
Among other things in which Mr. Tuttle interested himself, was improving conditions for public worship. As early as February 25, 1748/9 it was planned to build a larger, better and more convenient meeting house. The first meeting house was becoming too small to hold the congregation, and at some time prior to December 1750, it "was by the Providence of God consumed by fire," so that the "other Meeting House intended to be built" must now become an actuality.
The project of a larger and more commodious house of worship the young minister pushed along and on December 20, 1750, it was so far completed that it was "enclosed so as the Inhabitants have mett in the same of Lords Days."
It seems reasonable to believe that the first and second meeting houses were not very far apart, because they were both built on Mr. Tuttle's one hundred acres, and we know that the second meet- ing house was built on the north side of the main east and west road through the town, which was later called the County Road, and which is now the principal highway between Granville and West Granville. It stood on a plot of land which was ten rods long from east to west and eight rods deep. The southwest corner of this plot was twenty rods easterly from the east line of land formerly owned by August Bechmann, said east line being an old stone wall. A chestnut tree, unfortunately a very common landmark in those days, stood at the southeast corner of the plot, and the southeast corner of the meeting house was about five rods northwest from that chest- nut tree. This locates the site of the second meeting house on land lately owned by Morris Regan and a very short distance east of the road leading to the Barnard farm and South Lane. Traditionally it was "near the Big Rock," a few feet west of Regan Road, which was then the principal road to Blandford. A site near the junction of these roads was as nearly central as could be had in the area then settled. The fact that the second meeting house stood on Mr. Tuttle's land was to lead into difficulties later.
It is not easy for us of today to realize how much of a religious cast the affairs of a pioneer community in Massachusetts bore in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Congregational form of the Protestant belief was the established religion in New England.
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HISTORY
OF GRANVILLE
When a settlement wanted to be set apart and have its own minister and meeting house, it was necessary to go to the legislature for permission to establish a new parish. This being the prevailing social condition, it is entirely normal to find a large part of the Town votes to have been concerned with the church and church affairs. In that regard Bedford and its inhabitants were no different from other settlements and settlers. Repeatedly Town votes appear choosing a committee to "state the minister's salary," and more frequently than otherwise, a certain portion, or all, of such salary might be paid in grain or other produce.
At least one such agreement as to Rev. Mr. Tuttle's salary has come down to us. It is the result of a vote passed at a meeting of the inhabitants held December 2, 1751, when Phineas Pratt, Samuel Bancroft and Stephen Hickox were chosen "to state the Rev. Mr. Tuttle's Salary the present year." The salary was "stated" as appears in a document, or agreement, as follows :
December 13th, 1751.
We, the subscribers, being a Committee appointed by the Inhabi- tants of Bedford to agree with Rev. Mr. Tuttle with respect to grain he is to receive for his salary for the present year, have accord- ingly agreed that the said salary be paid in grain, as followeth, that is to say :
Wheat at 3s. 5d. per Bushel £ 0.3.5.
Rye at 2s. 4d. 66
0. 2. 4.
Indian Corn 1s. 8d. " 66
0. 1. 8.
To the value of Thirty Six pounds nineteen Shillings and ten pence. £ 36. 19.10.
Witness our hands
Phineas Pratt
Stephen Hickox
Comtte. Moses Tuttle
Whether the above sum of £ 36. 19. 10. was the entire amount of Mr. Tuttle's salary for the year 1751, or whether it was all that he was bound to receive in kind, is not at all clear, but the wording of the agreement inclines one to the idea that it was his entire salary. If this is correct, it may be one of the causes for the increasing friction between preacher and flock.
About this time the question of ownership of the meeting house and lot came up and some, perhaps many, of the inhabitants thought
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THE CHURCHES
the title thereto should be conveyed by Mr. Tuttle to the inhabitants. This Mr. Tuttle appears to have been loath to do. At last a deed was prepared for him to sign, but whether of his own free will or by the inhabitants, can not now be discovered. At any rate the deed was dated August 7, 1751, although it was not signed for more than two years thereafter, during which time the difficulties between pastor and people increased rather than diminished.
The next votes of the inhabitants which indicate the widening of the breach were passed at a meeting held March 12, 1753, which are as follows: Voted that "Phineas Pratt, John Spelman and Ephraim Munson make up with Mr. Tuttle as to his salary the year past and Six Sabbaths this present year." At that same meeting it was also voted that "Phineas Pratt, Samuel Bancroft and Benjamin Meeker (act) as a Committee to Treat with Mr. Tuttle as to his Settlement." Other votes taken at that meeting mention "counsel charges," so it would seem that Mr. Tuttle was through. He had not been paid in full for his services and he would not give up the title to the meeting house. He engaged an attorney to collect his bill. The inhabitants engaged another to tell them what to do. Their counsel appears to have been a Mr. Mills. Hostility was growing on each side of the controversy, for on July 30, 1753, another meet- ing of the inhabitants was held and it was voted to choose a com- mittee to give "security to Mr. Tuttle or his Attorney" for the money due him. This committee was Phineas Pratt, Samuel Ban- croft and Dan Robinson. Just what the security was which was to guarantee the payment of this just debt owed to Mr. Tuttle, or whether there was any given, is of small consequence. It appears that Mr. Tuttle shook the dust of Bedford from his feet and departed, never, so far as appears of record, to return. He went first to Simsbury, Connecticut, but whether before or after he got payment for his salary cannot be determined, probably before, because he was living in Simsbury before he conveyed the meeting house lot to the inhabitants. At a meeting of the inhabitants held October 26, 1753, among other votes passed are these : voted "they would not hire any more preaching after next Sabbath untill the first of March next." Also voted "that if any Minister should offer to give us a Sermon or Sermons they would be at the charge of his
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