USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 26
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one for use in the East Parish and the other for use in the West Parish.
As the population in the easterly part of the Town increased, it became a matter of convenience to have a cemetery in the southeast section for their accommodation. Just how this was worked out is not entirely clear, but it seems as though a plot of land nine rods long from north to south and extending back from the road now called Silver Street not far from its junction with the road from Granville to Granby, in the northwest corner of that part of the cemetery now occupied, was fenced off and was in all probability donated as a burial place by its public spirited then owner. Two facts lead to this conclusion. First; the most ancient date on any headstone, originally set in this cemetery, is in this earliest plot and it is March 24, 1808, on the stone at the grave of William C. Marvin, the seven months old son of Capt. William Marvin. Sec- ond; this land was at that time privately owned, because later a deed of it was given by Jonathan B. Bancroft and Ohel Spelman to the East Parish in Granville which describes a parcel of land nine rods long by six rods deep "being all the land within the present fence" which is also mentioned as a "board fence." The date of this deed is March 27, 1829, and it is recorded in Hampden Reg- istry of Deeds in Volume 503 at page 310.
An interesting fact concerning the fence around this ancient plot may be noted. Soon after the cemetery was conveyed to the East Parish, the fence referred to in the original deed came to be in such a sad state of dilapidation that a new one was an imperative neces- sity. The matter was duly considered and a committee was appointed to ascertain the relative expense of a new fence, and the committee was directed to get figures for each of the following kinds; a board fence, a picket fence and a stone wall. When the estimates were all received, it was finally decided to have a stone wall and a contract was made for it to be laid at a price of one dollar a rod, the builder to furnish and draw his own stone. How wise this choice was may easily be appreciated if one looks at this old wall, two thirds of which is now standing. That part of the wall marking the south side of the cemetery as it then was, has long since been removed for the accommodation of additions to the south. How skillful and
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honest the builder of this old wall was, is demonstrated by the wall itself. It has needed no repair for over a century and it still stands in its rugged simplicity just as it was built.
This little plot of ground filled all the needs of neighboring popu- lation for the next thirty years. Then an additional area on the east and south was obtained by a deed dated May 13, 1859, from Sparrow Crosby. This deed conveys half an acre of land, more or less, and speaks of the original plot as the "Burying Ground". It is interesting to note that this piece of land was conveyed to the "Proprietors and Owners of the Burying Ground in the Southeast School District," a long and rather vague title. The deed is recorded in said Registry in Volume 504 at page 183.
Thus matters stood for about another thirty years, when a cor- poration was formed by the name of Proprietors of the Granville Cemetery to put the affairs of the cemetery on a business basis and attend to the care of the premises which had theretofore been left to the interest of the families having lots there. This corporation is now called the Granville Cemetery Association. One of its first acts was to secure some additional land which it did by deed of Charlotte E. Malone, dated November 18, 1892, describing an irregular shaped lot 225 feet on Silver Street and about 178 feet deep. This piece is also south and east of the last mentioned piece. This deed is recorded in said Registry in Volume 504 at page 184. Then, to get its affairs straightened out, the Association secured a deed from the East Parish conveying the Bancroft plot and the Crosby plot to it March 15, 1893, which is recorded in Volume 502 at page 210.
The south line of the cemetery then was not just as desired, so a small triangle of land was purchased from the late Sherman Beck- with by deed dated November 18, 1895, and recorded in Volume 538 at page 380. This piece was forty feet wide on the highway and running to a point at the southeast corner of the cemetery.
A few years later an additional piece of land was secured from the same Mr. Beckwith. This time the area was described as one acre, more or less, and was immediately south of the last described piece, and extends southerly as far as a private road of the late
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Ralph B. Cooley. This deed is dated May 15, 1915, and is recorded in Volume 928 at page 274.
All these additions to the original plot have been toward the south, or south and east, so that now the south line of the cemetery is very near the top of the hill.
In 1934 an additional area was secured from the late Ralph B. Cooley. This addition is on the northerly side of the cemetery and is stated to be 400 feet on Silver Street and 300 feet deep, having the easterly line parallel with the highway, which brings the south- east corner of the plot around into the rear of the original walled in area. This deed is dated October 31, 1934, and is recorded in Volume 1564 at page 335. Part of this section has been graded and cleared of brush and is available when needed.
In the year 1902 one of the Town's public spirited citizens, Mrs. Maria C. Holcomb, caused to be erected in the cemetery a com- modious and appropriate granite receiving vault, which she gave to the Cemetery Association for its use in behalf of those owning lots there. The cemetery was equipped with running water in 1925 and most of the area is provided with perpetual care.
The East Parish was provided with another cemetery by a gift of Elihu Stow, who owned the land on the east side of the Eleventh Turnpike just north of the small pond northwesterly from the pres- ent village of Granville Center. This gift included the small knoll near the road now well shaded with trees. The plot was described as being thirteen rods from north to south and seven rods deep, containing one half acre and eleven rods, to be used for burial pur- poses. Mr. Stow reserved a portion four rods square for a family lot for himself. This deed is dated April 15, 1811, and is recorded in Hampden Registry of Deeds in Volume 56 at page 596. This cemetery was first used in 1816 as appears by the following inscription :
The ground in this yard was first opened to receive the Body of Alsop P. Stow son of Alva & Lucy Stow died Feb. 2, 1816, aged 3 Ye. & 10 Mo.
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February in Granville is ordinarily a rather bleak month, and there were no trees around the cemetery then, neither was there any dwelling near by, so one can well understand that it was a quite lonely spot. It is known that the loneliness of the place caused much worry to the parents who had left their little one there, but this wore off as the cemetery was used by others and became a more frequented place.
Feeling that the cemetery should be somewhat larger, Mr. Stow gave some more land and executed another deed April 14, 1824, which contained a more accurate description, which begins at a rock a few rods north of the pond and makes the cemetery extend north- erly along the road eighteen rods and ten links, and is eight rods wide at the north end, six rods at the south end. This deed is recorded in said records in Volume 619 at page 256.
From the fact that the land was the gift of Mr. Stow and also the fact that not a few by the name of Stow are buried there, the cemetery came to be called the Stow Cemetery and this name ob- tained until it was desired to have a more definite control of the management and sale of lots therein. Then, in 1912, The Wood- land Cemetery Association was incorporated, and this Association now cares for the cemetery, which is now known as the Woodland Cemetery.
For the convenience of the residents in the northeast part of the Town a cemetery seemed to be needed, and thereby arose a very unusual condition. A gravelly knoll on the east side of the main road, as it then was, from Granville to Westfield, a short distance north of the point where Tillotson Brook crosses the road, was then owned by Joel Root. By some sort of private arrangement, to which all the residents in that part of the Town seem to have been parties, Mr. Root conveyed to them in common the plot of ground now known as the North East Cemetery. It appears that only those families of the grantees in the deed have the right of burial there. The deed sets forth a consideration of five dollars and is from Joel Root to Jonathan B. Bancroft, Timothy C. Tillotson, Levi Brown, Reuben Eno, Calvin Wells, Edmund King, Ely Strong, Lot Clark, Isaac Rose, Leander Strickland, Lemuel I. Bancroft, Alanson War- ner, Lyman Rose, William Cooley, Luke Winchel, Eleazer Strong,
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Harlow H. Hayes, Justus Rose, Jr., Roderick Pomeroy, Appollos Lambson, William Chickley and Giles Rose, and it conveys the following described land, viz., beginning at the southwest corner of land lately belonging to the heirs of Capt. Bela Bancroft, de- ceased, on the east side of the highway from Granville to Westfield, adjoining William Cooley's land, thence easterly on said Cooley eight rods ; thence northerly five rods ; thence westerly eight rods to said highway; thence southerly five rods to the place of beginning, containing forty rods of land to be used and improved by the above named grantees for a Burying ground only, and the said grantees agree to build and keep in repair a good board fence around the same. Reserving to myself and heirs one twenty-third part of the above named land.
This deed is dated April 2, 1831, and is recorded in Hampden Registry of Deeds in Volume 88 at page 67. So far as can be learned there has been no formal conveyance of his share by any of the grantees named in said deed, and the land seems to have been con- sidered as belonging to the local community, and used accordingly.
The earliest burial in this cemetery was that of Hannah B. Chickley, the wife of William Chickley, who died August 30, 1831. The inscription on her headstone states: "This is the first body buried in this yard." Most of the above named grantees, or some member of their family, are buried in this little cemetery, but there have been only a few burials there since 1900. This cemetery is now on the west side of the road due to a removal of the road to a more desirable grade.
A curious fact in connection with this cemetery is that on one headstone there are inscriptions relating the deaths of four children of Lot and Sibil Clark. These deaths all occurred before 1820, and two of them as early as 1803. It seems likely that these burials were first made in a private family cemetery and then later removed to this place. Such a procedure was not uncommon in Granville. There have been at least two well known instances of this kind in town in comparatively recent years. Otis Dickinson laid out and enclosed, prior to 1864, a family cemetery on the north side of the road to Southwick just west of the house where Richard Dickinson now lives. This private cemetery was used by the Dickinson family for
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forty or more years, but ultimately those buried there were all removed to the present South East Cemetery. Then too there was formerly a family cemetery on the west side of a cross-road, now little used, in the lowest part of the valley which runs northerly from the main road between Granville Center and West Granville to the Woodland Cemetery. In this instance, as in the case of the Dickinson family cemetery, all those buried there have been re- moved to other and larger cemeteries. This small burial place was not far from a blacksmith shop which used to stand on the west side of this little cross-road.
A lonely little burial plot, having only one headstone, lies in the southwesterly part of the Town. It is beside an abandoned highway which ran westerly from the principal road between West Granville and West Hartland, Connecticut. This abandoned highway is quite near the Connecticut state line. It is also near, or partly in, the Granville-Tolland State Forest. The only headstone in this plot is that of a Civil War soldier, Julius F. Searl, who died February 22, 1864.
The Taverns
T HE impulse of wanderlust is in us all. The only difference between individuals in this regard is the degree of the strength of that impulse. We all enjoy going to some place other than where we are. It is a far cry from the time when a convenient tree served as a shelter over night for a roving specimen of the genus homo, with his protecting war club in his hand, to the present day of pala- tial hostelries with swarms of servants, reasonable safety and delectable food. Somewhere between these extremes the tavern made its appearance, and when the word tavern is mentioned herein, it is used with its old original meaning of hotel, and it does not mean the present day tavern, which is merely the successor of the drinking saloon of a few years ago.
It was in the days of long ago, the days before the advent of the railroads, that the taverns had their most flourishing period. Our ancestors in early New England were doubtless influenced more by their church than by any other single factor, but the taverns ran a very close second. In addition to their religion, pioneers deemed it essential to have their rum, and frequently rum arrived in the frontier towns before religion. But it was not so in Granville, how- ever, because the Rev. Moses Tuttle, the first settled minister in Town, was ordained as pastor of the First Church in January, 1747, and the first mention of any tavern in Granville is in 1755, when a license as an "Innholder, Taverner and Common Victualer" was granted to Phineas Pratt. It is interesting to note that this license authorized Mr. Pratt to render these services "in his house." This feature was embodied in most of the early licenses. The next year Mr. Pratt renewed his license and Timothy Robinson also secured one to be effective "in his house." Thereafter the number of places of public entertainment and refreshment increased until in 1794 there were nine such places in Town. Those who kept the taverns were the most progressive and prosperous citizens of the commu- nity. Very generally their houses and barns were larger than those of their neighbors. These taverns were not confined to the main
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roads, although that was principally their location. Of course they sprang up on the turnpikes, because there the travelling was better and more people were going back and forth.
These old taverns not only furnished the traveler and his horse with food and shelter, but they were clearing houses for most of the news of the times. Not every one could read and newspapers were rare, but those who journeyed brought news from all parts of the Colonies, and later the States as well. Then too, in another way they served an important end. It was there that public opinion was in large measure formed. The affairs of Colony, State and Nation were talked over pro and con, and the followers fell into line with the leaders. They were the club houses of those days.
Most, if not all, of the tavern keepers in Granville were such in addition to their regular means of livelihood. Thus Ephraim Mun- son was Town Clerk and a maker of potash as well as a tavern keeper; Levi Curtiss was a cabinet maker; Theodore Goodwin was a hatter ; Oliver Phelps was a merchant; Thaddeus Squire was post- master (and probably a merchant as well) ; many were farmers. About 1810 Elihu Stow built a building expressly for use as a tavern. It was on the east side of the road and a short distance south of the house formerly occupied by the late Marshall V. Stow. This tavern was one of the most pretentious in Granville at any time. It was large, commodious, two stories high and painted white. It was called Pilgrims' Rest. It had a large coach yard and the out buildings incident to its business. Mr. Stow was granted a license in 1811 and for seventy-five years the place was used as a first class tavern. That it was a popular stopping place may be judged from the fact that more than eighty teams have been known to stop there in a single day for food or shelter or both. This venerable building was torn down about 1925 in preparation for the building of the Cobble Mountain Reservoir.
Many of the buildings formerly used as taverns have been de- stroyed by fire, and in as much as the records of the ancient licenses do not disclose the locations of the old taverns, other than the Town where they were, very little trustworthy information has come down to us concerning buildings now standing wherein taverns formerly were kept. From the best information obtainable it is believed the
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following houses are among those once used as taverns: the one where Nelson M. Frisbie lived; the house on Beech Hill where David Smith formerly lived; the one in Granville Center where Edward A. Jensen lives; the house southerly from the Great Rock where David Kenney lives; the one where Dr. Clifford A. White lived, about half way from Granville Center to Granville; the one in Granville village where Miss Clara Wilcox lives, which survived the tavern days and was later called a hotel and is the last building in Town to have been conducted as such; the house where Douglas Davin lives; the house where Joseph L. Dickinson now lives, which has the old wine cellar still intact. Part of the original Gibbons Store (the one burned in 1884) was used as a tavern and was kept by Frank Tinker.
Sometimes when a tavern keeper died his widow would secure a license in her own name and carry on the business. Such was the case of Joseph Baldwin who had kept a tavern seven years and died in February, 1798. His widow promptly had the license renewed in her name and kept the tavern until she married again and removed from Granville. Another was Nathan Curtiss who kept a tavern in West Granville two years and died in December, 1817. His widow Nancy continued keeping the tavern until 1824.
Curiously enough there appears to be no record of any tavern licenses issued to Granville applicants in the years 1776, 1777 and 1802. It may be that in the former two years the County authorities were so busy with the War for Independence that they had no time to waste on keeping records, but the lapse in the latter year is inexplicable. It is not reasonable to think that those having taverns in Granville during the years just previous to, and also just subse- quent to the lapse in the records should have in those particular years shut up their taverns and refused to entertain travelers seek- ing food and shelter. That was not like the Granville people. Samuel Dodd Wilcox kept a tavern continuously from 1792 to 1807, but there is no record of his having a license in 1802. Others had similar records. It is safe to say that the tavern keepers in Granville kept open house during the hiatus, even though there is no record to prove it.
Tavern keepers were not the only ones who had licenses to sell
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intoxicating liquor. It seems to have been customary for those who conducted the country stores to have a license to sell liquor which was not to be drunk on the premises. These were called "retailers licenses" and were common until the Civil War.
The sale of food, drink and lodging was not the only thing requir- ing a license in those early days. George Pynchon, Jr., for several years beginning with 1760 was licensed to "sell tea, coffee and china ware." Apparently he was so successful in this line that he also took up the tavern business in 1764 and followed it for at least ten years thereafter.
With the coming of railroads, transportation of passengers by the slow-moving stage coach, and of freight by heavy horse-drawn wagons, began to diminish and soon ceased to be remunerative, and the tavern keepers' chief source of income was destroyed to such an extent that most of them were forced to close their taverns from lack of patronage. This, together with other causes which brought about a dwindling population, and also the rise of much anti-saloon sentiment, put the finishing touches on the tavern business, which became less and less until it is, in Granville, a thing of the past. Columbus Wilcox was the last person in Town to conduct a tavern or hotel as a regular business. Mr. Wilcox held his last liquor license in 1885, but continued to have a common victualer's license until his death in 1912. Since then there has been no inn or hotel in Gran- ville, except during the summer seasons of 1917 and 1918 when Mrs. John M. Stevenson caused most delightful summer hotel accommodation to be offered at the Oriole Inn in Granville Center, the beautiful mansion which Dr. Holland N. Stevenson now owns. The idea of such a hotel was prior to any paved road in Town and the anticipated travel did not materialize.
Traditions
IN the course of time anecdotes, traditions, myths and legends develop and accumulate around and about historic settlements to a greater or less extent. Few concerning Granville have come down to us. However, there are some which deserve to be rescued from oblivion.
The most interesting is one about the Counterfeiters' Cave. In the early days robbers, counterfeiters and other bad men, if they ran true to form, had caves, dens, hidden gold, etc., etc., with a map, more or less hieroglyphic, to describe the location, and the treasure, if any. Granville's tradition, or maybe myth, runs in the regular style, which may possibly be construed as an indication of its falsity. In any event the map existed.
Some years ago, perhaps fifty more or less, a stranger showed up in Granville. He came from the west. He claimed to be the son of a former counterfeiter. His story went on to the effect that his father and two others were, once upon a time, engaged in making counterfeit United States money and had their headquarters in a cave somewhere in the northeast part of Granville; that they had a considerable stock of both gold and silver in the cave as well as the necessary tools for use in making the coin; that the United States authorities were hot on the trail of these men who promptly decided it was more discreet to run than to stay and save their gold; that thereupon they covered up the entrance to their cave with a large A-shaped flat stone, made some sort of a sketch of the place and hurriedly sought safer territory; that his father, who was the survivor of the three men, had recently died; and that if he could find the cave, he would not have to work any more during his life time.
Up to this point the story follows the classic lines of such tales, and it might fit any place. This stranger had the sketch, and the curious part of the story is the fact that some of the data fitted this location. Then too, there was the further fact that many years before the appearance of this claimant, a notorious counterfeiter,
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Richard Brunton by name, had lived for a considerable time in or around Suffield, but was then dead.
The trail to the cave started at the cross-roads near the old "swamp house," so-called, where the Wildcat Road joins the Old Road to Westfield; thence it went easterly along the then public highway toward the Dexter Farnham place a certain number of rods; thence northerly following an old road (which was the origi- nal road from Westfield to Granville) a certain distance to a point where a stone in the wall beside this old road would be found marked with a cross; thence easterly to three stone steps set in a little steep slope; then due east to the cave. The directions seem to have been not very complicated. The distance from the starting point to the original Westfield road checked. The stone with a cross on it in the wall was where the data placed it. The stone steps were located, but the cave eluded all search.
The stranger hunted industriously several weeks without result and went away promising to return the next year and search further. During his stay here he became very friendly with the late Clinton C. Smith. The stranger never returned to Granville, and later Mr. Smith and one or two others searched at different times for the cave, but it was never found.
Whether it ever existed or not, it is a pretty tale of classic pattern.
Another legend, less fantastic, entirely plausible and probably true, relates to the visit of General Burgoyne to Granville. After the battle of Saratoga, the General and some of his officers were taken to Boston as prisoners of war. This much is a matter of record. The prisoners, under a sufficient guard, were escorted over the so-called Knox Trail through Otis, Blandford and Westfield. The Colonial officers in charge of the expedition were unfamiliar with the road, and taking a wrong turning somewhere in Otis or Blandford, found themselves, when it came night, at the famous Pilgrim Rest tavern kept by Mr. Stow in North Lane. Here the captured General was housed and fed for the night, and the group went on their way the following morning. Probably the details of this story are true.
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