USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greefield, shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 24
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969
DEXTER MARSH
which came from the river bank. It is asserted that he called the attention of William Wilson and Dexter Marsh to this fact, but he gave the subject no further study or development. However Dexter Marsh may have come by his knowledge of the existence of these " tracks," the fact excited in his active mind the importance of the discovery, and during the remain- der of his active life, all his energy, spare time and money, were given to the study and collection of specimens of rock containing undisputable evidence of his theory, that these " tracks " were made by living animals.
He immediately enlisted the attention of Dr. James Deane in his theory, and working together they fully established the fact of the existence of curious animals upon the earth, during the formative period of the new red sandstone.
A few of the elder people of the town will remember a small cottage which stood in a yard upon the right-hand side of Clay Hill as you approached the village from the south. An addition to the original house had been built, extending almost to the sidewalk, and about its door and leaning against the building were large and small slabs of the new red sand- stone of the Connecticut valley. Inside, the room was filled with a motley collection of curiosities of various kinds, in great part received by the owner in exchange for specimens of his " bird tracks."
This was the " Museum" of Dexter Marsh. His name is now held in honor among scientific men throughout the world. He is called the " Hugh Miller of the New Red Sandstone." Mr. Marsh was the son of Joshua Marsh of Montague, a man who was so poorly endowed with worldly goods that his son was deprived of even a good common school education. Dexter Marsh came to Greenfield in 1834, and with his own hands built the house in which he dwelt until his death. He remained a day laborer all his life, but from the avails of this labor, beyond the support of his family, he found means to gather the most complete and valuable collection of specimens
970
DR. JAMES DEANE
of fossil footprints ever collected. His theories and his rea- sonings have been accepted by students of fossil geology the world over.
It is said that in 1835, while laying some flagging stones upon the sidewalk on Clay Hill, he first noticed upon the stone what he took to be footprints of a bird. Although he had no knowledge of geology, he was an original thinker and possessed a scrutinizing mind. He was convinced that the impressions upon the stone which had been gathered from a quarry, then several feet below the surface, were made by a bird. How it came about he knew not. He found other footprints about the village walks, and through the aid of Dr. Deane, who took plaster casts of the impressions, and for- warded them for proof, they obtained the attention of Drs. Hitchcock and Silliman. Mr. Marsh employed all his spare time in the collection of additional specimens. He built himself a flat bottomed boat in which he travelled, carrying with him drills, wedges, powder and provisions, searching along the river banks from the northern line of the state to Weathersfield, Conn. He obtained one slab in Gill which was ten feet long by six in width and contained fifty perfect tracks. Four of the tracks were twelve inches in length. When this slab was split in two, it showed perfectly the relief and the intaglio sides. When his collection was sold, this slab was purchased Mr. Alger of Boston for $375. Prof. Oliver Marcy, of Evanstown University, in an article in the National Magazine, says : " In 1851 his cabinet contained from four to five hundred slabs of stone upon which were one thousand tracks of birds and quadrupeds ; some of the slabs weighed less than an ounce, and others two tons, and contained from one to fifty tracks each, from one half inch to nineteen inches in length; also two hundred fossil fishes, three thousand sea shells, twenty-six hundred rock crystals, two hundred specimens of Indian antiquities, besides num- erous specimens of zoology and botany, minerals and fossils
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971
INTERESTING DISCOVERIES
from foreign countries. . Since the discoveries of Mr. Marsh, there have been discovered in the new red sandstone of the Connecticut river valley the tracks of fifty species of animals, all described and named by Dr. Hitch- cock. Of these, four were lizards ; two tortoises ; six batra- chians ; twenty-two were birds, all waders. One of the bipeds, the Otozoun Moodii, was a huge monster, a sort of biped toad as large as an elephant. His tracks were near together, from which is inferred the shortness of his legs, and were twenty inches long and twelve inches broad. The tracks of the largest species of birds, the Brontozoum Giganteum, are from fourteen to twenty inches long, the stride from four to six feet. The large ones were probably twenty feet high, weighing nearly one thousand pounds.
Many of these tracks are very distinct; even the papillæ on the sole of the foot are distinctly seen.
If the reader will now strive to comprehend the labor necessary to accomplish such a survey as is referred to ; the collection, single handed and without money, of so extensive and valuable a cabinet, and at the same time remember that Mr. Marsh, as a day laborer supported his family in compe- tence, he cannot fail to recognize in him the soul of a true, and even a great man "of one who lays his hand on the mane of restive and hostile circumstances and compels them to bear him to usefulness and honor."
The valuable contributions by Mr. Marsh to the scientific world were duly recognized, and in 1846 he was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ; in 1852 he was elected a member of the Lyceum of Natural History in New York, and the same year a cor- responding member of the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia.
The late Rev. L. L. Langstroth in 1839 was the principal of the High School for Young Ladies, in Greenfield. He was on intimate terms with Mr. Marsh and very much interested
972
A SUCCESSFUL LIFE
in his discoveries. In 1864 he wrote out his recollections of Mr. Marsh, with a very interesting sketch of his early life. Mr. Langstroth says : " I was with him frequently in his last sickness which he bore with the resignation and fortitude of a martyr. It was his earnest desire that his cabinet should not be divided, but if possible be sold for a moderate sum to become a nucleus of a permanent cabinet in the town of Greenfield.
" In speaking of a visit by a near relative who had been for years absent from his native home, he said, a remark which he made gave me more pain than any word ever spoken to me. After showing him my collection and speaking of them with my usual enthusiasm, he said to me, ' Dexter, I wouldn't give you a penny for all your old stones.' After his death his collection having been suitably advertised was sold at public sale and quite a large sum of money was realized. Speaking then to this same friend who could see only 'old stones ' in his relative's cabinet, I took uncommon satisfaction in reminding him that Dexter Marsh in consequence of his devotion to those pursuits, had left his family better provided for than he could possibly have done if he had, to use his relative's words, 'stuck to his own calling and business ;' while at the same time he had left to his family a name which would always be mentioned with profound admiration and re- spect by the scientific world, to be associated with that of Hugh Miller as the Hugh Miller of America."
Mr. Marsh died in 1853, leaving an estate appraised at $8,620.83.
In this connection, the valuable cabinet of Dr. Roswell Field, late of Gill, willed by him to the Moody school, and the extensive collection of Timothy M. Stoughton, of River- side, ought to be mentioned.
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CHAPTER LXIII
GREENFIELD IN 1801
T HE late Reverend Preserved Smith, father of Judge Fayette Smith, was in 1800 a student in Greenfield. While attending school he drew a plan of the village, putting down the residences and the business places of Main and Federal streets.
At the east end of Main street stood the house of George Grennell, Sr., and on the elevation in the rear he locates the artillery house. Mr. Grennell's barn stood where Wil- liam H. Allen's house now is. The other lots were vacant as far down as about where Hope street now is, where stood the house of Ruel Willard. David Ripley's bookstore and Major John Russell's jewelry shop were located where the Strecker block now is. Samuel Pierce's tin shop stood near the S. Allen's Son's corner and on Bank Row stood the apoth- ecary's store of Caleb Clap.
Commencing at the east end of the street on the north side, the house of Abner Wells stood where Arthur D. Potter now lives. The road leading north (now High street) then ran on the west side of the Wells house, which at one time was palisaded. The next two houses were owned by Captain Caleb Clap. Hart Leavitt owned the next house, and adjoining him on the west was the residence of his brother, Judge Jona- than Leavitt (now known as the Hovey house,) which was built in 1797. Then came Hart Leavitt's store over which was the printing office of the Gazette. On the corner was Calvin Munn's tavern, now the Mansion House. Turning
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REVEREND PRESERVED SMITH'S PLAN
up Federal street (laid in 1788) where the Columbus block now stands, Daniel Clay then had a cabinet shop and Samuel Pierce a dwelling house. On the opposite side of Federal street on the corner of Main, stood the old Willard tavern, called Wells tavern in 1801. Next north stood W. Forbes's store, and just beyond that Isaac Merriam had a barber's shop. The next north was the carpenter shop of Calvin Hale, and north of that a building erected by subscription of shares by citizens, for use as a schoolhouse, standing where M. R. Pierce & Peck now have their store. Captain Ambrose Ames had a blacksmith shop next, where the photographic saloon now is, and just north of that was his residence still standing. About where Dr. Walker now lives, Aaron Green, merchant, had his residence. On the west side of the common, John E. Hall owned the Hollister house and had a store on the premises. Reverend Roger Newton's house then stood where the courthouse now does, and the building erected in 1793 is still standing in Newton Place. On the Arms corner Roger Newton owned a store in which his son Ozias H. and Aaron Green did business as Newton & Green, and then next to it, on Main street, Beriah Willard's dwelling house, Timothy Hall, hatter, and Silas Wells's house and tailor shop. Below on that side there was nothing until Colonel Samuel Wells's house was reached (where B. B. Noyes's house now stands), and beside it was his large garden. On the north side of Main street, beyond Captain John Wells's tavern came the Willard store, R. E. Newcomb's office, Jerome Ripley's house and store, Colonel Gilbert's house and saddler's shop, Daniel Forbes's store, Thomas Chapman's house, Thomas Dickman's house (where the Elm House now stands), Colonel Daniel Wells's house where Wells street now is, a small house- called the Bird house-Mr. Alvord's house, the Elihu Sever- ance house, a house occupied by Cornwell, the hatter, Col- onel Wells's carriage house and barn, and below the hill, at what is now the Caroline Miller place, a sawmill. Beyond
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975
STAGECOACH DAYS
the bridge on the Shelburne south road was Judge Solomon Smead's house, where J. M. Woodard now lives.
STAGECOACH DAYS
In June, 1792, Levi Pease* announces that " he has at great expense established a line of stages from Springfield to Han- over, N. H. Stages will leave Springfield every Monday at I o'clock P. M. and Dartmouth College at the same time, and meet at Brattleborough on Tuesday evening of each week, where they will exchange passengers and return. Fare is 3d. per mile. Fourteen pounds of baggage is allowed each pas- senger. One hundred and fifty pounds is charged for the same as a passenger. Every attention will be given to secure the comfort of the patrons of this line."
A post-office was established in Northampton in 1792. Previously Springfield had the only office in western Massa- chusetts.
In June, 1819, stages leave Boston every Friday and Mon- day at 2 o'clock A. M. and arrive at Greenfield at 3 P. M. the same day. They leave Greenfield every Saturday and Tues- day at 3 o'clock A. M. for Albany and arrive there at 3 o'clock A. M. the same day. They leave Greenfield for Bos- ton at 3 o'clock A. M. and arrive in Boston the same even- ing.
July, 1824, there are three stages each week between Albany and Boston and the fare either way from Greenfield is fixed at $3.00. In September a stage route was established between Greenfield and Wilmington, Vt., via Colrain, Heath and Whitingham, making two trips per week. October 12,
* Captain Levi Pease had been engaged in the stage business for many years, and was well equipped for such an enterprise. He was a native of Enfield, Ct., born in 1739. Throughout the Revolutionary War he served in the commissary department, and as a bearer of despatches. After its close he engaged in staging and established a line between Hartford and Boston. He was one of the first to organize a stock company and maintain turnpikes. In 1794 he was a resident of Shrewsbury. Temple's History of Palmer.
976
RIVAL LINES
the same year, it was found upon the arrival of the stage in Greenfield that one of the passengers had the smallpox. He was immediately placed in quarantine, but many persons had been exposed.
In July, 1825, a new line of stages was put on between Boston and Albany by way of the Deerfield valley, the other line running through Conway, Ashfield and Savoy. The fare from Greenfield to Boston was $3.75 and to Albany $4.00. In September the two lines were running three stages each week, and business was brisk. In 1826 there was a daily line of stages from Hartford to Hanover, N. H.
In 1828 Isaac Abercrombie, Jr., was the agent at Greenfield of one of the lines from Boston to Albany, and among his papers the following waybill was found :
Post Coach Way Bill for Monday April 21st, 1828.
Passengers Names. Seats. From Greenfield to Albany. $. cts. By whom rec'd. Mr. Stevens I Greenfield to Conway 62 C. Bartley 66
66 Mr. Snow I Conway to Albany 3 00 Mr. I Plainfield to Cheshire Ct. 62 D. Smith
Mr. Wilcocks I Lanesborough to Albany I 25 Wm H. Averill
Mr. Valkenburgh 2 Alps to Troy I 25
" The stage started from Greenfield this Morning at 2 o'clock for Boston and is expected to continue in one day in Future and the Proprietors East Expect we will do the same from Greenfield to Albany you will be making up your minds on the subject, (to run for the proffet & not for Pleasure is my wish).
ISAAC ABERCROMBIE, JR."
In March, 1831, there were two lines of stages passing through Greenfield to Albany, going through in two days in- stead of three.
One of the lines running stages north and south was the celebrated " Telegraph Line," which had the mail contract, and was required to average seven miles per hour, including stops, running night and day. The very best horses were
977
THE TELEGRAPH LINE
used on this line and special coaches were built for it in Albany, weighing about 1,800 pounds. These were painted red, and the old drivers always recalled them as " perfect beauties." They were not allowed to take over six passengers, and must make time or forfeit $100. The regular coaches ran as usual, mak- ing ordinary time, and passengers on the " Telegraph " paid about twenty per cent higher than on the regular coach. Captain Ambrose Ames was the postmaster here, and all the mails were changed in his office, which was the little building now standing on Ames street and was used by Charles L. Smith for a paint shop. It was formerly attached to the southeast corner of the Ames homestead. A few years since Mr. Smith found several old letters in the walls of the little building. Whether any broken hearts resulted from their loss is not known. The old stage road from here to Boston was nearly twenty miles shorter than the present railroad line. The fare from here to Brattleboro by the ordinary coach was one dollar and by the mail line one dollar and a quarter. From here to Springfield, slow line, two dollars ; fast line, two and a half. Asher Spencer was the great stage man of this town. He had a big barn which stood about where Olive street now runs and another on Main street where the Cohn block now stands. He received about $2,000 each year for mail contracts. David Long, Jr., and Barnard A. Newell were interested with him. The building of the railroad in 1846 blotted out the staging and the boating business, and many little country towns, once progressive and of importance to the surrounding rural districts, date their decline from the abandonment of the old methods of travelling. Charles Henry, Medad Squires, Harvey Gill and other old stage- coach drivers, while they continued among us, told interesting tales of the old stagecoach days.
Closely connected with the stage lines were the great four and six horse freight wagons owned or driven by Thomas Wait, David Wait, Henry S. Robbins, John J. Graves, and 62
978
THE POST RIDER
others making trips to Boston, carrying down country produce and bringing back merchandise of all kinds. The round trip took about ten days, and many an old tavern now stands deserted and crumbling to ruin, around whose hearthstones, sixty years ago, the drivers of these coaches and freight wagons met, and while sipping the steaming mug of hot flip or toddy, swapped stories or traded horses, to the great de- light of the interested spectators and listeners.
The author's great-grandfather, Edward Adams, Sr., a descendant of Henry Adams (Quincy, 1634) " rode post " for fourteen years previous to and during the Revolution, carry- ing the mail on horseback between Boston and Hartford. The innumerable stories told by him, and repeated by my grandfather of the revelings at these old-time taverns, when a dozen or more travellers were storm bound or compelled to lie over upon the Sabbath, would hardly bear repeating in the more refined society of the days in which we live. Rough and ready wit and practical joking seemed to be highly ap- preciated by our forefathers.
The jolly landlord met his guests at the door in the spirit of the verse which often adorned the great open fireplace .-
" I'll toll you in if you have need And feed you well and bid you speed."
Lone travellers often sought the companionship of the " post rider," feeling sure of good company, and a safe guidance in unmarked ways. Riding one dark night between Springfield and Hartford, with a jolly companion, the "postman " was much to his disgust called upon to wait, while his companion rode up to the door of a house beside the road, and with his whip pounded on the door, shouting " Hallo! the house !" Soon a night-capped head appeared at an upper window, and answered the call. The joker says, " Have you lost a knife?" "No, have you found one?" "No, but I didn't know but I should."
979
STORIES FROM DAVID WILLARD'S HISTORY
STORIES FROM DAVID WILLARD'S HISTORY
These anecdotes are somewhat abridged in form but it is hoped that the gist of the stories will not suffer thereby.
BENJAMIN HASTINGS
The third of the name in direct descent from Thomas of Watertown was born in Greenfield in 1728, and was a lead- ing citizen of the town. He was a lieutenant in the French and Indian War in 1755, captain in 1759, and a lieutenant in the 5th Hampshire Regiment in 1776; was at Saratoga and New London, and resigned in June, 1780, " on account of his infirmities." He died January 21, 1786. He was a large landowner and his descendants held much real estate in the town. His house stood on the high ground some dis- tance west of the present residence of Seorem B. Slate on High street.
At one time he lived at the old fort where the Hovey resi- dence now stands, and going across the street one day to Aaron Denio's tavern, Landlord Denio said to several persons sitting in his barroom, " Here you are, a parcel of lazy drones, lounging about doing nothing, but here is Hastings, who never puts on his leggins and comes across the street with- out earning a dollar."
During the Revolutionary War the committees of safety as- sumed almost autocratic powers ; for instance: Now and then a smoke had been noticed coming from the deep woods near Fall river; the committee of safety was notified and Daniel Nash, Timothy Childs, Ben. Hastings and Aaron Denio made search and found in a hut a man named Harring- ton with a lot of tools used by counterfeiters of the coin. They took him to Northampton, but Judge Hawley told them that the jail was full of Tories and they could send no more to prison. He suggested that they take him back a mile or so into the woods and give him as many lashes as they thought best, and let him go. They did as suggested,
980
COMMITTEE OF SAFETY ACT
all but Nash giving light blows, but he put it on heavily, "drawing blood at every stroke." They then bathed his wounds with spirits, gave him some to drink and let him go. The victim thanked them for their lenity and struck out for liberty.
BEN HASTINGS S TRESPASS
August 8, 1760, Judge Joseph Lord of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas summoned Benjamin Hastings, Jr., of Green- field to appear at Springfield to answer unto Samuel Barnard of Salem for "entering the Plt's close in Greenfield called ' Capt. Barnards lot' in ye East additional grant to ye upper Goddards Meadow lots in Greenfield, and sixteen Pine Trees of him the PIt. then and there standing and growing (every one of which being 18 inches over and of the value of four shills.)cut down and carried away against our peace and against the form of the Statute of this Province in such case made and provided, whereby you have forfeited and are obliged to pay to the Plt. forty shills. for each and every of sd. Trees cut down by you as aforesaid, and also three times the value of them."
This Samuel Barnard was the son of Joseph Barnard who was killed at Indian Bridge, born in Deerfield, 1684, and was a captain in Father Rasle's war, afterward a merchant in Salem and died quite wealthy. The Goddard meadow tract lay near the mouth of Mill brook, and the trees grew nearly west of J. P. Felton's house.
OLD TENOR
Previous to 1780 slavery in a mild form existed in Mass- achusetts. Parson Williams and Parson Ashley of Deerfield as well as parson Roger Newton of Greenfield owned slaves. Old Tenor was a slave of Mr. Newton's and upon her death he preached a sermon saying among other things that she " was no pilferer." Tenor had a daughter " Phillis, comely, fair, and well to look upon, free as air, so far as she felt or
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981
PHILLIS AND JACK
knew or cared, and gay as a lark." Phillis lived with her mother at Mr. Newton's, and was at the time of this story " sweet sixteen," and the object of the affection of Jack, aged forty, and slave of Colonel William Moore. Phillis had a girl friend of about the same age as herself, and the trio fre- quently met at the Newton mansion. At that time the hill- side now occupied by the railroad station and the tracts lead- ing to the arch under Main street, were smooth and covered with tall walnut trees. One day when Jack was there, the girls were amusing themselves by rolling down the hill a little way in a barrel, but they had a way of stopping before great headway had been obtained. They persuaded Jack to try it, and nothing loth to please his young friends, he entered the barrel and with a gentle push by fair hands he started on his pleasue trip. " On it went and on, mid the chuckling and laughter of these fair damsels, until it encountered one of the large walnut trees, when with a horrible crash, the hoops and staves of the barrel parted company and scattered themselves far and wide in all directions. Poor Jack was terribly bruised, but after some time recovered, not however again to try the experiment or renew the journey. But still it seems he did not take." His visits to the Newton residence became so frequent that Phillis resorted to an expedient to be rid of them. He came one evening when she was carding tow, and managing to get a lot about his feet, the candle accidentally fell among it, and the flame spread over the victim.
" Like flambeau flashing to the morning skies-"
The workroom was sealed with wood and for a time the house seemed in danger, and but for the active aid of the fam- ily would have caught fire. " Phillis confessed, Jack was badly burned, but took the hint, and troubled her very seldom with his visits after this explosion." Phillis married Ceaser Fine- mur, son of Romus and Rose, and had thirteen children. Jack's history is not continued.
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OLD FISHERMEN
OLD FISHERMEN
Timothy Hall, a brother of the wife of Rev. Dr. Newton, came here about 1780. He was an inveterate fisherman. He was by trade a hatter, but found time to follow his favor- ite pastime, being one day above the Falls, another at the Lily pond or Deerfield river and perhaps another at Mill brook or some other trout stream. If business prevented he would slip down to Green river at dusk. Mr. Willard tells a story of Mr. Hall's apprentice, Sam. McDaniels, placing a bundle of hay under the window of his master one cold night after every one was asleep, and driving the old cow who wore a bell there to feed. Fun for Sam but not so amusing to his master.
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