USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 27
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Political animosities are frequently the most bitter of all those arising out of our social relations, and such would seem to have been the case of the Merriam brothers who lived in the Silver Street section of Granville in the 1850's.
These brothers, Elizur and Hira, were of opposite political beliefs. Elizur was a Whig and Hira was a Democrat. Each one subscribed to a weekly newspaper which set forth the political views he favored. Elizur took the Hartford Courant, a Whig paper, and Hira took the Hartford Times, a Democratic paper. Each of the brothers was so violently hostile to the newspaper of the other and the principles maintained by it, that whenever it became necessary for Elizur to handle the Times, he always used the tongs in so doing. Hira returned the compliment as to the Courant. That was the nearest they were willing to approach such detested publication.
An episode occurred in the Granville Center meeting house, and at this late date seems rather humorous. It happened during the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Geikie. Some slight misunderstanding in the choir caused a schism. The situation went from bad to worse. Tem- pers flared up. No one was willing to concede anything. Soon there were two choirs. On the Sunday in question, the choir which arrived first at the meeting house promptly took possession of the choir loft. The other choir took up its position in one of the side galleries. When Mr. Geikie announced the first hymn, both choirs sang the words of the hymn given out by the minister, but each to a different tune. The remaining hymns were served in the same way, each choir singing lustily so as not to be outdone by the other. It must have been near pandemonium. The congregation was at first thunder- struck and shocked, but soon saw the funny side and laughed. That laugh worked wonders. The singers could stand spiteful words and other displays of temper, but not ridicule. Soon the rumpus quieted down and ere long peace reigned again.
Life was at times somewhat strenuous in Granville in the early days, but seldom monotonous. Teaching the three R's was not exempt from occasions when the teacher needed to be in full pos- session of his faculties, physical as well as mental. It was usual
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that the boys in a family did not attend school except for a few weeks in the winter. One result of this custom was that very gen- erally the boys went to school every winter until they were well past their majority, and the mischief these young men could not think of was not worth mentioning. One of the chief sports was throwing the teacher out into the snow. When this happened it usually broke up the school, for a time at least.
The following incident occurred in the Stow District. A man teacher was engaged as usual. Also as usual there were five or six boys from 21 to 24 years of age attending that school that winter, primarily for the fun there might be in it, and secondarily for such a modicum of learning as they might chance to acquire. Before the end of the first week of the term, they had thrown the teacher into a snow drift and he was ready to quit. Another teacher was engaged, and he met the same fate. The residents of the District were dis- posed to resent such treatment of their servant, but although they grumbled, they engaged still another teacher, who was expected to keep order in that remote temple of learning. He lasted three days. By that time the people of the Stow District were aroused. At a meeting of the inhabitants it was decided to seek for, and to secure, a man who could "teach school," whether he had any education himself or not. Such a man was found and engaged. He started on Monday morning. Everything went smoothly that day.
One of the features of that school house was that it had two doors leading from the vestibule into the school room. For years it had been the custom, and the rule as well, for the boys to enter the room by one of the doors and the girls to enter by the other. The school master's desk was between these doors.
On Tuesday morning all was quiet as usual. When the bell rang for the pupils to assemble after the noon intermission, the teacher was standing by his desk. All the big boys came marching in through the girls' door.
One who was a small boy and was present at that school on that day told the writer that things began to happen very fast at that moment. He said that the teacher's coat flew off "as though stripped off by lightning. He jumped at the boys and knocked them down right and left as fast as they came through the girls' door." In less
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than a minute it was all over. There was no more trouble all winter. The old resident said with a smile: "He sure was a school teacher."
The Stow District was not the only place where events sometimes moved at a faster tempo. In the winter of 1883-4, the teacher in the grammar department of the Granville school (District No. 3) was Miss Susie A. Rockwood. Some of the scholars were of a mis- chievous turn of mind and were ready for anything that offered variety in the daily routine. It occurred to some of these youngsters that it would be very funny to create an unwholesome smell in the school room and see what would happen, so on January 16, 1884, when the stove was quite hot, some scraps of rubber were thrown onto the hot stove. The odor was pretty bad and the teacher was pretty angry, but the mischief-makers were not satisfied, so in the early afternoon, having procured a generous supply of black pepper, and having seen to it that the stove was nearly red hot, this lot of pepper was thrown onto the top of the hot stove. The effect of the burning rubber in the morning was a very mild prelude to the after- noon pepper. The atmosphere at once became almost strangling and the school had to be dismissed. Miss Rockwood knew when she had been crowded too far. She immediately went to the School Com- mittee and filed charges of misconduct against certain of the pupils and demanded that the Committee do something about it. Where- upon the Committee did do something, and just what is better set forth in Mr. Felton's record, as follows :
Jan. 22, 1884.
"Pursuant to a call from the Chairman and the Secretary of the S. Com., said Com. met at the home of the Sec. at 2 P.M. for the purpose of examining the charges brought by the teacher of the Grammar School, Miss Susie A. Rockwood, against (and here are named nine of the pupils of the school), these pupils having been on Monday, Jan. 21, suspended from the school until the S. Com. could consider and decide upon the case.
2. The Com., all being present, proceeded at once to examine the evidence submitted by the teacher with a view to define the charges and if possible ascertain the measure of guilt attached to each delinquent.
3. While engaged in this labor the Com. were waited upon by all but one of the men whose children were under censure asking
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for a hearing and earnestly requesting the Com. to adjourn their meeting to the school room.
4. After some consultation the Com. conceded to the request and, it getting late in the day, adjourned to meet on the 25th at 1 o'clock P. M. or as soon thereafter as they could get together in the upper school room in Dis. No. 3.
Jan. 25, 1884.
School Com. met according to adjournment at 2 P. M. in the Grammar School Room.
1. The meeting called to order by the chairman, Mr. J. C. Carpenter, 1st Selectman, was unanimously requested and chosen by the S. Com. to preside as Moderator. Mr. Carpenter took the chair.
2. Rev. L. Warner, member of the S. Com. by invitation of the Moderator, offered prayer.
3. The following Preliminaries having been previously adopted by the Com. for the conduct of the meeting were read by the Sec. of S. Com.
(1) That our first business shall be to finish the work commenced yesterday.
(2) That our voting shall be by Yeas and Nays written on ballots deposited independently of each other; that the Moderator shall count the votes and mark the results unbe- known to any member of the Com .; that two Nays shall be a decisive vote against expulsion but if two Yeas only are cast, it shall not be declared a vote, but the Com. shall be requested to vote again. If only two Yeas are cast on the 2nd balloting even this shall not be declared a vote; but on the third balloting, even tho there be but two Yeas cast it shall be declared a vote, and the pupils thus designated shall by this threefold affirmative vote be expelled. Never the less, the Moderator who counts the votes shall not reveal whether any of these votes are Yeas or Nays.
(3) If any of these pupils shall by vote of the Com. be expelled for the remainder of the term, they are by the same vote of the Com. also expelled for the same length of time from the school premises, but such expulsion shall affect their attendance only during the remainder of the present term.
(4) No one of those pupils now under censure, even tho not expelled by vote of the Com. shall be permitted to return to school as a pupil without having first made to the teacher a solemn promise to obey her instructions and to maintain proper deportment.
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4. The Sec. after reading the Records of yesterdays meeting, asked the privilege to read the following paper, namely-
Before presenting the charges preferred against the pupils now under censure the Com. wish to state one fact which we consider of very grave importance, namely-That in consequence of what occurred on Tuesday P.M., Jan. 15th, the teacher on opening her school on the morning Jan. 16th, before allowing any of her pupils to stand at the stove, exacted from each one of them a solemn promise to do nothing more to cause disturbance in the school, and yet in less than two hours she was annoyed with rubber on the stove and just before 1 P.M. her room was so filled with fumes of burning pepper that no one could stay in the room and the school was entirely broken up for the remainder of the day.
The Sec. then read from the Statutes the penalty for disturbing a school and remarked to the school that everyone who was impli- cated in this matter was liable to be arrested and that whatever action the town may take today, whether to expel or not, it would not relieve them from such liability in that any citizen in town could at any time demand their arrest; that they had caused the town's money to be needlessly squandered and any voter in town had a right to demand redress.
5. At this stage of the meeting, papers being put into the hands of the Moderator, upon each of which was written the name of one of the suspended pupils, with charges against him, the Com. commenced examining these charges and invited any one present to show cause, if any there were, why any of these charges should be withdrawn.
6. When paper No. 1 had been in this way disposed of the pupil whose name it contained was voted upon and the result of the vote noted by the Moderator on the back of the sheet.
7. In this way, as rapidly as the disorder and confusion would admit, the several papers were disposed of, the Moderator in the mean time several times calling for order and even the Constable himself doing the same.
8. After having voted upon all under censure the Com. urgently requested all to be quiet long enough to enable the Moderator to announce the results of the balloting and to enable Rev. L. Warner to make a few closing remarks.
9. The Moderator declared the result of the votes to be that not one was expelled.
10. Rev. L. Warner then rose and remarked in substance, as follows : "The Com. have not voted as they have because they con- sider these pupils innocent of the charges, but because they desired
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to give the guilty ones another trial; that this case of insubordi- nation was the worst one he ever knew or heard of etc."
11. Voted to dissolve the meeting.
With the changing tempo of life, Granville has lost certain pic- turesque characters who formerly were frequently seen and well known in the town. These will soon be traditional figures.
In the days of domestic manufacture many homemade wares were marketed by their makers through the simple expedient of peddling them in the surrounding territory. The most striking of these peripatetic merchants was the so called "tin peddler." During the winter season he would make up a large stock of the ordinary household tin ware and, as soon as the roads became settled in the spring, he would load up his cart and set forth to sell his product. In addition to his tin ware he usually carried a stock of brooms and mop handles.
The tin peddler's cart was a vehicle in a class by itself. There was nothing else like it. It was always painted red. It was large and commodious. It had a high seat in front close to the dash board. The body was roofed over and the sides were so made that they could be securely locked up.
The usual tin peddler was essentially a trader. He would sell almost anything he had and would buy anything he could carry off in his cart and sell again. He took pay for his wares in many kinds of materials; rags, old brass and copper, raw furs, as well as cash. His appearance in town was a real event. He brought the news from far and near. He had a fund of stories, and could tell them well. He usually stayed over night with the same family year after year, and paid for his lodging with his wares. He was a real Yankee.
Another peddler well known in Granville was a man by the name of Bronson who sold essences and extracts of various kinds. These essences he prepared at his home, and then journeyed about the country selling them. His goods were dependable and had no small part in producing the remarkable flavor of the pastry for which the Granville cooks have always been famous. In the days before mass production and swift transportation, Mr. Bronson's coming was frequently awaited with eagerness.
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One more travelling merchant must be mentioned. He was the yeast peddler. Yeast was a very necessary item for every family in town. Some families made their own yeast. Commercial yeast was somewhat of a luxury and not always to be depended on. Commer- cial baking, except in large cities, was not known. Every woman made the bread used in her family, and if the family was large and hearty, it took a loaf or two every day to supply the need.
In the town of Agawam there was formerly a distillery which manufactured gin. In connection with this business great quantities of yeast were produced. Some intelligent individual conceived the idea of selling this necessary article in the surrounding towns. The result was that Myron Kent became the yeast peddler who came to Granville on certain days of the week with fresh and potent germs of fermentation. He, too, was in the nature of an institution, but his business, like so many other small lines of enterprise, has suc- cumbed to the changed economy of the times. Another picturesque character of the country side has gone with the wind.
There was formerly still another kind of merchandise which came to Granville. That was fine linens, cotton goods, laces and notions. These things were carried by a class called "pack peddlers." These men were generally newly arrived from eastern Europe. They worked out from the larger cities carrying their stock, or "pack," on their backs. When starting on their trips these packs weighed from 75 to 100 pounds. These pack peddlers, if they chanced to have a fair command of the common English words, were sometimes most interesting people to talk with. However, with the coming of rapid transportation, these travelling merchants have become merely a memory.
Sarah Gibbons knew a bear when she saw one, and, what is more to the point, she was not afraid of one. We know this by virtue of what happened at Oven Rock one balmy summer evening nearly 200 years ago.
Peter Gibbons, the first of the name to come to Granville, and his wife Sarah, came to Bedford in 1750 and built their cabin near the tiny brook which has its rise near the southerly end of Water Street and flows southeasterly into Connecticut. There is now a
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road extending from the southerly end of Water Street down the valley joining the Granby Road at the old Daniels Place in the Town of Granby. Roughly this road runs east and west. The tiny brook rises on the north side of it and flows in its own little valley southerly crossing this road a few rods east of Water Street. Almost immediately after crossing the road it turns easterly and tumbles down over the hill in the same direction as the road. When Peter and Sarah arrived in Bedford this road did not exist, so they placed their cabin in a convenient spot and started their home in the wilderness. Among other things necessary to their mode of life, was an oven in which to cook food. As brick with which to build one could not be had, they made their oven out of stones and mud, and in order to have it as substantial as possible, it was built against a large rock or boulder which was not far from their house. That boulder was called the Oven Rock, and the name persists, even till today. Peter had cleared the land in this little valley and was bring- ing it into a tillable farm. For more than a century the field in which Oven Rock lies was a hay field. Now it is all grown up to trees and brush. This Rock lies on the south side of the road to the Daniels Place and is about six or eight rods easterly from the point where the brook crosses the road. It is about three rods south of the road and a little less than that distance north of the brook.
One day in August, 1752, Sarah had done her baking and the food had been left at the oven door to cool off. Or possibly the oven was used as a safe place to keep food. However that may be, along toward sundown Sarah and her little daughter were going to the oven to get some bread. As she came near she saw a black bear at the oven door helping himself to her bread. Did she cry, or run back to the house, or call for Peter? Nothing of the kind. Her bread must be saved. No bear should have it. She seized a club and with a yell she ran at the bear, brandishing her stick. The bear, unused to the terrifying sight of an enraged woman with a club, dropped the bread and ran for the woods as fast as his legs could carry him.
Oh yes, our ancestors had courage, the women as well as the men.
Many, perhaps most, New England towns have Indian tradition
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or history connected with their beginnings of development. Gran- ville has both. To begin with, there was Toto. That is a matter of public record. The tradition has to do with certain Indian burials. There are certain residents in Granville who have a fixed belief that certain graves in the old cemetery west of Granville Center are graves of the long since vanished red men. Like most traditions, there are certain phases of the story, about which it would be more reassuring if we had some definite knowledge. However, upon the authority of an old resident, this tradition chronologically put together seems to be as follows :- After the settlement of the Gran- ville area by white men, a family or two of Indians, probably Mo- hawks, temporarily settled here. What were their names, where did they live, whither did they go, are facts which have escaped the rec- ord. It is said that six of their number died here and were buried in a small plot, about a rod square, near the road in the southwest corner of land in Granville Center formerly owned by Mrs. A. C. Stern- berg, Jr. This part of the story is supported by the fact that at that location there is a small plot about the size mentioned which is raised slightly above the level of the surrounding land. And further, there formerly stood in that plot six common field stones, each about six inches square and sticking up out of the ground about a foot and a half. In that condition the plot remained until some time prior to the Civil War, when, so the story goes, somebody living at the Corners had the idea that those unoffending and long dead Indians should be removed to the Southeast Cemetery and a stone, with a suitable inscription, be erected to their memory. This idea was not acceptable to the residents of East Granville, as the Center was then called. Those residents had no objection to the removal, but they did object to the Southeast Cemetery being brought into it. There was a cemetery on the hill and if there was to be any removal, it should be to that cemetery and not to the Southeast, and to make sure that their side of the controversy should prevail, they proceeded at once to remove such remains as could be found and made new burials in the Old Cemetery. Whether or not this is exactly what occurred, it is a fact that there are a few graves in the Old Cemetery which are marked only by field stones, and these graves are the ones pointed out by those who say Indians are buried in that cemetery.
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The stone markers in the plot in Mrs. Sternberg's land for many years lay on a large boulder near by, but have now been removed and put to other uses.
However near to, or far from, the truth this tradition may be, there is authentic record of a few Indian burials in Granville. These were made prior to 1796. Four Mohawk children died and were "buried in Buttles' land near State line." So runs the record.
In Conclusion
T HE foregoing is an effort to depict the principal events and the actors therein, occurring in the present life span of a typical small hill town in New England. To witness the carving of home- steads from the primeval forest should be an inspiration. To recall the hardships encountered and the obstacles overcome should be a challenge. To know the aims and aspirations of a vigorous people should give us confidence in the future of our Town, our Common- wealth and our Country.
The dwellers on the Granville hills have always been willing to toil, to give adequate value for what they received, to stand up for their opinions, to defend, with their substance and their lives, our country in time of stress. They have a record of two centuries of achievement, and the end is not yet. We may well be proud of Granville and its people. An historic town and a sturdy race ensconced in the everlasting hills.
APPENDIX
T HE official description of the Town of Granville promulgated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is as follows :
SOUTH SIDE: Beginning at the corner of Granby-Granville-Southwick at a merestone, thence north 88° 47' west seventy-eight hundred seven feet to the corner Granby-Granville-Hartland merestone; thence north 88° 49' west twenty-six hundred fifteen feet to a corner merestone on a southerly slope of South Mountain ; thence south 89º 48' west seventeen thousand eight hundred thirty-three feet to a corner merestone on the westerly brow of cultivated land sixty feet east of the traveled way following the east bank of Hubbard Brook; thence north 88° 33' west ten thousand eight hundred eighty-eight feet to the corner Granville-Hartland-Tolland merestone.
WEST SIDE: Beginning at the corner Blandford-Granville-Tolland mere- stone, thence south 8° 30' east twenty-one thousand two hundred sixty-two feet to a merestone fifty feet east of the east bank of Hubbard Brook; thence in the same direction one hundred thirty-five feet to a point in the middle of a wooden bridge over the brook on the Granville-Tolland road; thence south 9º 13' west fourteen thousand nine hundred ten feet to the merestone at the corner Granville-Hartland-Tolland.
NORTH SIDE: Beginning at the corner Granville-Southwick-Westfield merestone, thence north 9° 22' west thirty-five hundred twelve feet to a mere- stone ; thence south 73º 12' west forty-one hundred thirty-one feet to a mere- stone at the corner of Granville-Russell-Westfield ; thence north 73º 59' west eleven thousand seven hundred eighty-nine feet to a merestone at the corner of Blandford-Granville-Russell; thence north 78° 43' west twenty-three thou- sand eight hundred fifty-three feet to a merestone at the corner of Blandford- Granville-Tolland.
EAST SIDE: Beginning at the corner Granville-Southwick-Westfield mere- stone, thence south 19° 63' east three thousand fifty-three feet to a merestone ; thence south 4° 20' east thirty-seven hundred twelve feet to a merestone ; thence south 14° 23' west thirty-six hundred thirty-five feet to a merestone ; thence south 24° 32' west twenty-one hundred feet to a merestone; thence south 14° 22' east twenty-six hundred thirteen feet ; thence south 24° 23' east fifteen hundred ninety-eight feet to a merestone; thence south 1º 41' west seventy-seven hundred forty-six feet to a merestone at the corner of Granby- Granville-Southwick.
Political Divisions
The Town of Granville is now embraced in the following political divisions : First Massachusetts Congressional District ;
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Eighth Councillor District ;
Berkshire-Hampshire-Hampden Senatorial District ; Second Hampden Representative District.
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