USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 9
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sisting of Samuel Root, Dr. Vincent Holcomb and Rufus H. Barlow, was chosen to have the charge and management of the Harden Estate. The members of this committee are not designated in the vote as trustees, but they were charged with the administration of the Harden trust, so it seems as though they were de facto trustees in possession of the corpus of the trust under the will. So it matters little how they were designated. Nothing appears to indicate that their management was unskillful or improper. In fact, if anything, the contrary appears, for at the annual Town meeting on March 2, 1863, the voters undertook to compel the Committee, who in this vote were designated as "the Hardin Estate Trustees," to loan its funds to the Town. Whether this particular vote is an indication of the beginning of dissatisfaction or the culmination of much argu- ment, is not at all clear. But it is plainly manifest that there was friction somewhere and the prospect of an agricultural school in Granville was not progressing favorably. It might be that the Trus- tees were coming to the opinion that the Harden bequest would prove to be a burden rather than a benefit, or it might be that the Harden heirs were pressing to secure the estate for themselves. Probably the latter. At any rate something was wrong. The ma- chinery did not run smoothly, for at a special Town meeting April 25, 1863, Rufus H. Barlow was appointed "to compromise with the heirs of the Harden Estate."
It is not difficult to visualize the remainder of the episode. Com- munications, travel back and forth, haggling over terms, each party in interest trying to secure a little more for himself until finally agreement was reached. The matter was taken up in a special Town meeting August 12, 1864, when it was voted "to authorize R. H. Barlow to quit claim all rights in the Harden Estate and one of the heirs will pay the Town $2000.00 above the income now on hand." Even after such an unequivocal vote the authority to con- clude a settlement appears to have been insufficient. Another special Town meeting was necessary and this was held December 10, 1864, at which time it was voted "that the Town refuse to perform the conditions of the will of Isaac Harden" and R. H. Barlow was authorized as a committee to settle the affair. Everything was now set. The record was clear; the authority was sufficient; so it was
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settled and Mr. Barlow made his report at the annual Town meeting in 1865 giving the details of the transaction. The report was accepted and he was paid fifty dollars for his services. Thus the hopeful vision of one more progressive citizen went glimmering into the realm of dreams. What might have been the opportunity for Granville to have the pioneer Agricultural College in the country, and be a leader in that field had, after twenty-four years of effort, fallen flat. The Town was more interested in $2000.00 than in education. However, there still remains the row of noble maple trees set out in pursuance of the terms of Mr. Harden's will, on Maple Street and the Old Road to Westfield, along the former Harden farm. And further, the existence of these beautiful trees doubtless is the reason why the main street in the village of Gran- ville is called Maple Street.
The collection of taxes is sometimes difficult, sometimes unpleas- ant and always arduous. And as the Town is divided into two nearly equal portions by the Great Valley, it occurred to someone that it would be fine, and much easier, to have two tax collectors instead of one, so in 1848 two were chosen, one to collect the taxes from persons living east of the Valley and the other to collect from those on the west. This method prevailed for many years, and the way the collectors were chosen must have been unique. It operated like this : the task of collecting the taxes in one Parish was put up at auction. The lowest bidder got the job. Then the collection in the other Parish was disposed of in like manner, and after the bids had been accepted and the auction was over, the successful bidders were elected to office. The charges for collection were usually more in the West Parish, but they varied from year to year. The peak seems to have been in 1859 when the charge in the East Parish was one and three-quarters per cent. of the amount collected, and in the West Parish it was two and one-eighth per cent. Finally, however, the Town returned to having one collector and the voters fixed the compensation.
In 1852 the Town made a progressive move when it voted to have the annual reports of the Selectmen and Treasurer, which had up to that time been given orally at the annual meeting, printed and as many copies procured as there were voters, and have them dis-
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tributed. Later it was voted that these reports be distributed before Town meeting. Gradually the reports of other town officers were included until the annual town report has come to its present form.
In these days (1935) when so much is heard about the distress- ingly hard times, and it is said that there never has been such diffi- culty in procuring the bare necessities of life, and it seems to be a source of gratification to be supported by the public funds, rather than one of humiliation as it formerly was, it may be interesting to know that existence, even in Granville, has heretofore been equally, if not more, difficult. Fortunately man's memory is short, but once in a while an old letter or other old document turns up to give us courage. In the years just preceding the Civil War, men were hunting and begging for work. If one had a few extra clothes he was lucky. It was sometimes impossible to find a job where one could even work for his board. A sufficient commentary on the times is a letter written in Granville dated December 27, 1859, by Orestes Smith to his father wherein he comments at length on the difficulties of the people, and among other things, he says that he, like many others, was looking for work and had made up his mind he must go elsewhere to get a job. He says: "Edward Holcomb says he can hire any quantity of able bodied men, those that are willing to work, for their board." Mr. Holcomb had a shop a short distance below the present Noble & Cooley factory, where he employed several men.
So the beginning of the war was not wholly an unmitigated evil. It took care of the unemployment. From the very first of the war men from Granville volunteered, but it was not until the 27th Massachusetts Regiment was raised that the war made any serious inroad upon the manpower of the Town. That regiment took most of the young men available in this historic community. The war was barely six months old when at a special Town meeting Novem- ber 5, 1861, it was voted to take steps to relieve the families of volunteers. Winter was approaching, and those who have lived in any hill town in New England know what that means. It is a pretty hard time of year to be left with children and cattle to be cared for, and the man off to the war. But no one grumbled. Those who remained helped the families of those who went. In July 1862, when from the standpoint of the Union the war was going badly,
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Granville promptly voted to raise $2000, each volunteer to be paid $100 when he was mustered into the United States service. It takes courage and stamina to do that, and the hill dwellers of New England never lacked those qualities. The very next month the Town voted a bounty of $150.00 for every nine months man and $75.00 additional for two or three years men. A year later it was voted to pay a further bounty of $125.00 to every volunteer for one year or more, and to abate all taxes of the three-years men. In addition to giving her men, Granville was giving her money. She was in the war to stay till the finish. All told, 110 men went from Granville and many never came back. The Town was fortunate her loss was not greater. Of the men from Granville who returned from the war, and those who went from other places, and came to Gran- ville after the war to live, the last survivor was Edwin L. Hartley, Company A, 7th Connecticut, who died January 29, 1930.
Whether it was because all the straight-shooting men of the Town had gone to war, or for some other and more obscure reason, a considerable number of wildcats infested the Town in 1863 and did sufficient damage so that at a Town meeting January 6, 1864, it was voted to pay a bounty of five dollars for each one killed in town and proof thereof submitted to the town Treasurer. Like Ishmael, everybody's hand was against them, and whether they were exterminated or whether they just left for more safe surround- ings, it matters little. At any rate they ceased to bother the farmers and at the annual meeting in 1870 the vote was repealed.
In the 110 years of Granville's existence as District and Town, it had never had a permanent business headquarters and there were those who thought something ought to be done about having one. Each town officer had conducted his part of the town business at his own residence and such books and papers as pertained to his particular office he kept there. This method had its drawbacks, for sometimes, through fire or carelessness, town documents and books were destroyed or lost; and what was equally annoying, when a different person was elected to an office, it was not always easy to secure the books and papers belonging to that office. This condition of affairs had existed for some years and as the town's business increased, had steadily grown worse, until at the end of the Civil
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War the Town's records, correspondence and other papers were scattered over all parts of the Town. So, at the annual meeting in 1865 it was voted to provide a suitable place in which to keep the Town papers and books, and that all such be collected and kept there. All those persons having any Town books, etc. were required to turn them in. As a result of this vote the Town secured by pur- chase a plot of land two rods square with a small frame building on it situated on the north side of the road in East Granville. This was the first Town Building used as a headquarters for the trans- action of the Town's business. It was obtained from T. M. Cooley and James P. Cooley by deed dated May 13, 1865, and recorded in Hampden County Registry of Deeds in Volume 234 at page 596. The land is described as being on "East Granville Hill" and was bounded south on the highway; east and north on land of Almeda Brown; and west on land of Hiram Vaille; "being the buildings & Lot formerly owned and occupied by the late James Cooley, Esq., as an office." The building here referred to was the one used by James Cooley as his law office. Mr. Cooley died in 1851.
This little building served the Town as a business office for the next five years. The convenience, however, which it proved to be, merely whetted the appetite of the "town fathers." Soon they had a chance to improve their situation and secure larger and more con- venient quarters. Ralph S. Brown owned the Academy Building which stood on the south side of the road not very far from the little Town Building. Scholastic studies at the Academy had been given up, and Mr. Brown wanted to sell it. The Selectmen, like Barkis, were "willin'," and so the matter was brought up at the annual Town meeting in 1870 and it was voted "to purchase the Academy Building of R. S. Brown for $400.00." This was done, and the little old Town Building and lot on the other side of the road were traded in at a value of $50.00, as part of the price. The deed of the Academy Building and lot is dated April 19, 1870, and is recorded in Hampden Registry of deeds in Volume 276 at page 136. It describes the lot as being bounded north on the highway; east and south on land of E. L. Brown; and west on land of T. M. Cooley or E. L. Brown "with the building standing thereon known as the Academy Building." Here there was an abundance of office
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room on the first floor, and the second floor could be, and was, used for holding Town meetings. For the first time in its existence, Gran- ville could hold a Town meeting in its own building. Heretofore all Town meetings had been held in the meeting houses. At first all the Town meetings were held in East Granville, there being no other building in town large enough to accommodate all the voters who came to Town meeting. Then later some were held in East Granville, some in Middle Granville and some in West Granville. Then after the West Parish in Granville had become the Town of Tolland, the Town meetings were held part of the time in East Granville and some of the time in West Granville, but always in the meeting houses. About the time of the Civil War the center of population in the Town began to shift toward the east. One of the first tangible evidences of this shifting is a vote at the annual meet- ing in 1867 when a motion was made and carried that two-thirds of the Town meetings should be held in the East Parish and one-third in the West Parish. Now with a hall owned by the Town in the East Parish, it was likely that more rather than less meetings would be held in it. In fact it was voted at the annual meeting in 1875 to hold all future meetings in the Town Hall. It is said that the principal reason why it was voted to hold no more meetings in West Gran- ville is that at the last one held there one of the matters voted upon was the election of a member of the School Committee and the candidate, who lived in West Granville, received seven votes more than there were voters present at the meeting. Apparently that sort of politics does not go in Granville, for no Town meetings have been held in West Granville since that time.
The next year after acquiring the Academy Building, the Center School District was facing the ever troublesome need of building a new school house, but its Committee avoided the difficulty by hiring the hall in the Town Building for a school room. This worked out to the satisfaction of both District and Town, and the arrangement was continued as long as the District system prevailed (January 1, 1883). Thereafter the Town continued to have a school in the Town Hall until it was decided to transport the pupils to Granville village.
The doctrines of Susan B. Anthony had been heard of and found
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many adherents in New England. However, the political powers in Granville were not among them. When it was first mentioned, some- one had the boldness to suggest that the Town go on record as favoring woman suffrage. Would Granville have it? Most certainly not. No such revolutionary idea originating outside of Granville could be received warmly. Not so the Commonwealth. Massachu- setts was advancing slowly and carefully toward the now famous 19th Amendment. As early as 1882 a statute was in force whereby women were given the right to vote on all questions affecting the schools. Having this law in mind four courageous women, Mrs. Ralph S. Brown, Mrs. J. Murray Gibbons, Mrs. Silas Noble and Mrs. Edward Holcomb, appeared at the annual town meeting on March 20, 1882, and claimed their right to vote. The particular question which aroused their interest was whether or not the District system of schools should be retained. It is not known how these good ladies voted, but the District system was continued. It is believed these were the first women's votes cast in Granville on any measure of Town interest.
At best the path of any public officer is apt to be rough, and one of the easiest things to stumble over is, and always has been, the spending of public money. It is not difficult to spend freely the money of someone else, especially if there is apparent benefit to be secured by so doing. When a definite sum is appropriated for a specific department of public work, it is not always easy to keep within the appropriation and have one's constituents satisfied. If the money does not go as far as hoped or expected, then there is complaint. If the work is done but the appropriation is exceeded, then there is complaint. Sometimes, however, good comes out of evil and so it was with Granville in 1890. Some of the appropria- tions had been exceeded a little, others more, and there was some sharp and deserved criticism, but it all ended amicably by a vote requiring certain of the town officers to give bonds for the faithful performance of their duties. It would seem that this was an inno- vation at that time, but without doubt the town Treasurers had long since been accustomed to furnishing bonds. Later the Auditor of the Commonwealth gave instructions in such matters and also in the proper method of keeping accounts of public officers.
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In 1892 the Town voted to publish the assessors' valuations of the taxable property in Town, and so a Valuation Book, as it was called, was printed and distributed to the voters. This practice has been followed, and such books have been issued at reasonable intervals.
In 1900, the Town, which had survived more than a century without one, deemed it a proper time to have a town seal, and a committee consisting of Joseph Welch, Elmer E. Smith and Law- rence F. Henry was chosen to have one made. So, step by step the affairs of the Town were being more regularly conducted in con- formity with the requirements of the times.
When economic prosperity returned to the country at large in the last decade of the 19th century, among other things which were a step in advance of the old order, were the electric street railways which had revolutionized transportation in the cities and were reaching out to the smaller places as feeders to their systems. The Woronoco Street Railway Co. was operating an electric line in Westfield and it seemed to the people of Granville that now their opportunity had come to be connected with the main lines of trans- portation, just as in earlier years the good people of this historic old Town had been thrilled by the prospect of a steam railroad. Other small towns had been connected up and why should not Granville experience the same good fortune? It had much freight coming in and it was sending out thousands of drums and other products of the Noble and Cooley factory, as well as considerable quantities of fruits. So at the annual Town meeting in 1896 a com- mittee of five was chosen to confer with the Woronoco Street Rail- way Co. about the feasibility and desirability of extending its line to Granville. This committee consisted of Ralph B. Cooley, Joseph Welch, Edgar B. Holcomb, Silas B. Root, and John M. Gibbons. The committee had many sessions with the Railway Company and worked hard on the matter, but it accomplished nothing permanent. Finally, however, after many years a bill came before the General Court authorizing an extension of the Springfield Street Rail- way to and through the Town of Granville, and giving the proposed layout. At the annual meeting in 1911 a committee of three, con- sisting of Joseph Welch, Silas B. Root and Hermann G. Patt, was
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chosen to go to Boston when the bill came up for hearing and urge its passage, and at a special Town meeting six weeks later $500.00 was appropriated "to protect and defend the interest of the Town in a trolley line from Springfield to Southwick and Granville." Meetings were held in Granville and West Granville to arouse support for the enterprise and some publicity work by way of articles in newspapers was done. The committee went to Boston and fought for the bill. All seemed to be going well, but Charles S. Mellen, who was then president of The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, broke into the affair. At that time Mr. Mellen had an idea of buying all the electric railroads in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, by securing control of the separate local Companies through a holding company owned by the "New Haven" railroad. Mr. Mellen was carrying things with a high hand and it was thought the committee representing the Town in the various hearings on the matter could be strengthened, so at another special meeting, the old committee was discharged and a new one of six was chosen, consisting of Joseph Welch, Her- mann G. Patt, Orville R. Noble, Roswell O. Rowley, Fred N. Gibbons and Silas B. Root, "to take charge of the Town's interest in the trolley merger." Five hundred dollars was appropriated for expenses and the committee was authorized to employ legal counsel if it thought fit. The committee worked industriously and did all that it was possible to do, but it was of no avail. Mr. Mellen was accustomed to riding rough shod over any and all opposition in order to attain his ends and no committee from Granville, or even the whole Town, could have changed his course. He did not care anything about Granville or any one who lived there. His only desire was to stifle competition. So another cherished hope passed into the realm of dreams, but the solution of Granville's transporta- tion problem was on the way. It came with the automobile.
Although Granville was doomed to disappointment in the matter of an electric railway to larger centers of population, the Town made some progress in the field of communication. Interest was aroused in having telephone connection with other places. A suffi- cient number of subscribers was secured and New England Tele- phone and Telegraph Company constructed its line from Westfield
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to Granville in 1905. The central office in Granville was opened on December 24th of that year. The equipment necessary to serve the Granville area was located in the store at the Center and Henry D. Colton, the store-keeper, operated the switch board. The sub- scribers were 21 in number.
In the fall of 1906 the central station was removed to Granville and installed in the house then owned and occupied by Charles H. Tryon, and later by Dr. Harold T. Beattie. When Mr. Tryon sold his house, the central equipment was moved to the house where Mrs. Tryon recently lived, the first house southeast of the Gibbons store, this property having been purchased by Mr. Tryon. There the tele- phone headquarters remained and was operated until May, 1939, when the dial system was installed and the equipment necessary for the operation of that system was established in the small building erected that year by the Company on land purchased from Peter Hendricksen.
One of the serious things with which Granville has for many years had to contend is forest fires. In the early part of the year there is quite generally a period between the time when the snow goes off and the time when the foliage is nearly full grown, when the fallen leaves of the year before get very dry. So dry, in fact, that the small showers of April do not seem to make them per- ceptibly damp. In this period the trout fishing season opens and most of the brooks have six fishermen to one trout. Most of the fishermen are smokers and some are very careless about throwing down lighted matches and burning cigarette butts. This causes many fires and great loss. Sometimes such fires in Granville have burned a week. Both the Commonwealth and the Towns have taken such steps as seemed feasible to prevent forest fires.
Like all New England towns, Granville, until recently, had only primitive equipment with which to fight fires. In the early days, if a building caught fire, building and contents were destroyed, except such movable items as might be removed from the burning struc- ture. If a forest fire started, all the men in that neighborhood turned out and with such tools as were at hand fought the fire until it was under control. Since 1907 the Town has had a Fire Warden with authority in the matter of fires. He is appointed annually by the
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Selectmen. The Commonwealth has erected a large lookout tower on the top of Sweetman Mountain where it maintains a fire warden during certain months of the year. From time to time the Com- monwealth has recommended to the towns various measures relat- ing to fire protection. In 1912 Granville voted to buy the fire fighting apparatus suggested by the Commonwealth and appro- priated $260.00 to that end. Since that time Granville has had fewer forest fires and none of alarming extent.
Gradually, as fire fighting equipment became available, it was secured and some homes were equipped with portable fire extin- guishers. Then the idea of Town equipment was entertained and steps were taken to accomplish that end. Water holes were made or enlarged at various strategic points about town, and finally in 1945 equipment consisting of an American La France fire pumper and a good supply of fire hose was purchased. A Volunteer Fire Department was organized with Arthur B. Case as Chief. Because of the contour of the town two divisions of the Department are maintained, one in the village of Granville and the other in West Granville, each having about twenty members.
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