USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 32
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October 16. Sixteen fire companys from other towns unite with the Greenfield lads, in celebrating the completion of the waterworks.
August. Mrs. E. V. Ward of Montague purchases the D. W. Alvord place on Franklin street for $7,500.
March 20, 1871. The new Franklin County National Bank building is opened for the inspection of the public.
April 6. S. S. Eastman & Co. purchase the old court- house of the Franklin County National Bank, for $10,500.
George Doolittle purchases of H. W. Clapp, the Mansion House for $ 50,600.
June. The county commissioners awarded to John Erving
395
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
1871-1873]
of Leyden, $900, to Eber Larrabee $ 500 and to Sylvester W. Hall $800 for their property taken for the new waterworks of Fire District No. I, in Greenfield.
August. J. L. Lyons is building a block on Main street. (Odd Fellows block.)
September. Dr. Deane and A. H. Wright lay out Lincoln street.
September 27. W. B. Washburn nominated for governor of Massachusetts.
The receiving tomb in the Federal street cemetery is fin- ished.
December. The new road from Silver street to the lower suspension bridge is opened.
January 1, 1872. J. D. Newton pays $12,000 for the Green river mills.
April. The Turners Falls Company purchase the Green- field Manufacturing Company plant at Factory Hollow. Price, $40,000.
May. W. O. Comstock purchased the Judge Mattoon place on High street for $6,000.
May 20. The corner stone of the high schoolhouse on Pleasant street was laid.
July. The old well on the northwest corner of the common was filled up by order of the selectmen. Here for- merly stood the town pump.
December. Simeon Peck was tried for the murder of Al- mira Cheney, of Colrain.
March, 1873. The county officers took possession of their offices after the rebuilding of the courthouse.
April. Shattuck and Sanderson purchased from F. M. Thompson for $7,000, about six acres of land where Fort Square is now located.
June 9. Harding S. Ford disappeared owing about $ 1 5,000. Miss Belle Woods was also missing. The first postal cards were received at the Greenfield post-office.
396
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
[1873-1877
July. The new gas works were built.
September. A concrete walk was built on the north side of west Main street. About the first concrete walk built in town. January 27, 1874. The Independent Book Club was or- ganized and still exists.
April 17. Governor Washburn was elected to the United States senate as successor of Charles Sumner.
May 16. The Williamsburg disaster occurred. One hun- dred and forty-five lives lost and $1,000,000 of property swept away.
November. The appearance of English sparrows first noticed.
July, 1875. The Colorado beetle first made its appearance in these parts.
July 8. The first regular passenger train came through the Hoosac Tunnel.
January, 1876. The Catholic parsonage in the rear of the church was finished.
February 16. Newell Snow bought the old agricultural grounds at auction sale for $7,200.
March. Work has commenced on the new American House block.
May I. P. P. Severance sold his house to J. C. Con- verse. (Franklin County Hospital.)
August 5. F. J. Pratt has bought the F. B. Russell place on Main street. Price, $10,000.
January 15, 1877. Peleg Adams buys the Mansion House at auction sale under foreclosure, for $48,500, subject to $1,700 taxes.
March 1. The Joslyn & Kimball stables sold to Lucius Nims, Jr.
June. J. D. Newton has sold the Green River Mills to Albert Mathai for $10,000.
October 29. William Potter place, Main street, sold to L. L. Pierce.
397
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
1878-1881]
August 6, 1878. A great storm occurred doing much damage to the streets.
December 9, 10. A great storm extending all over New England did much damage. This town escaped with a loss of about $1,000.
January 1, 1879. Montague bridge was made free. The town has to pay $120 rent each year.
Rufus A. Lilly became messenger at the courthouse.
June 3. The directors of the Greenfield Library Associa- tion held their first meeting in the new library building.
The people build a tower on Poet's Seat.
July 16. The houses of Doctor Deane and Governor Washburn robbed. One of the burglars was taken at Athol.
Manley McClure contracts to build the main sewer for $1.98 per running foot.
March 4, 1880. The Greenfield Power Company or- ganized.
The Connecticut River Railroad Company was awarded $15,809.74 for land taken for the Union station, about to be erected.
August. N. S. Cutler moved his shoe manufactory from Bernardston to Greenfield.
March, 1881. B. N. Farren purchases the Philo Temple farm for $9,000.
March 26. An attempt was made to blow open the safe in the post-office. The burglar got only a few postage stamps for his trouble.
April. The Pond brothers buy 35 acres of the Pierce farm for $7,000.
The Rural Club set out many elms on High and other streets of the village.
July 3. Intelligence of the shooting of President Garfield received.
July 13. The Greenfield Free Library opened with three hundred volumes.
398
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
[1881-1886
December 3. Reverend Jeremiah McCarthy, parish priest, was shot and killed by David D. McMillan, of Boston. In March, 1882, McMillan, defended by Colonel Hopkins, was acquitted on grounds that the shooting was in self-defense.
May 5, 1882. Ten men employed as painters on the Cheapside bridge of the Connecticut River Railroad fell forty feet to the ground. A weak staging timber gave way. None were fatally injured, and all were taken to a hospital in Bos- ton.
May 13. The railroad bridge at Cheapside was finished, costing $ 56,000.
July I. Lewis Merriam after holding the postmastership for twenty-one years, gives way to Darwin F. Hamilton.
October. C. C. Hoyt of St. Louis has purchased a lot from Julia Bird, and will build a residence.
January 8, 1883. The Greenfield Tool Company owing $104,094.39 was declared insolvent.
August, 1884. M. A. Furbush purchased of Charles R. Field his place on High street for $11,000.
March 5, 1885. R. N. Oakman, Jr., bought the Whiting Griswold property on High and Church streets for $16,000.
April. Frank J. Pratt receives the appointment of Col- lector of Internal Revenue for this district.
April 12, 1886. Frightful railroad accident at Bardwell's.
May. Important change of grades at the " know nothing " crossing of the Fitchburg and Connecticut Railways at Cheap- side.
May. Heron island, Maine, purchased by Greenfield parties.
August. A stone crusher is erected on land of H. H. Fletcher.
County commissioners purchase land for the new jail of Mrs. A. E. Reed.
December 7. The Greenfield Electric Light and Power Company is organized.
399
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
1887-1893]
January, 1887. The state sells its interest in the Hoo-
sac Tunnel to the Fitchburg Railroad Company for $ 5,000,000.
February. The Fitchburg buys the Troy & Greenfield Railway.
March 7. The town treasurer is discovered short in his accounts $14,072.
Emil Weisbrod buys the old jail property.
July. Intelligence is received of the drowning of Edward Aiken, a promising young Greenfield man, in Mexico, on the 30th of June last.
October 5. The people are shocked by the sudden death at Springfield of ex-Governor Wm. B. Washburn.
March 8, 1888. The beginning of the great blizzard.
September, 1889. Citizens contribute $10,000 as a bonus to the A. F. Towle & Son silver works to induce them to re- move from Newburyport to Greenfield.
The elm tree at the northwest corner of the common was presented to the Rural Club by Captain George Pierce, and set out by Daniel W. Spear.
January 20, 1890. The selectmen granted a hearing to the Greenfield and Turners Falls Electric Railway, on their petition for a franchise in town.
February 2. Lincoln J. Randall is put upon trial for the murder of his father, David M. Randall, of Montague, on November 29, 1887.
April 12. The Towle silver factory is completed.
July 20, 1891. A severe storm passed over the north part of the town, doing much injury to crops.
August. Franklin G. Fessenden was appointed judge of the Superior Court.
January, 1892. The Nichols Brothers buy the old tool company works.
May. Joseph Griswold buys the Franklin Ripley place of G. Clinton Gardner.
400
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
[1893-1895
July. Arthur D. Potter buys the Henry W. Clapp place and George W. Jewett the Newell Snow property.
April 20, 1893. Edward Begor confessed to the killing of Abigail Rogers and was sentenced to State's Prison for life.
August 27. Occurred a great rain and gale.
September 26. Mrs. Henry L. Stevens and Miss Sophia T. W. Morton were instantly killed at the Allen street cross- ing of the Connecticut River Railroad.
May 12, 1894. Henry Couillard buys the Converse place on Main street for $20,000.
July 17. Frederick E. Pierce was nominated to be post- master of Greenfield.
September. W. E. Wood purchases the John Russell place at the corner of Franklin and Main streets.
October 4. A large stone watering trough is dedicated at the old meetinghouse place, the Pocumtuck Valley Memo- rial Association assisting in the exercises.
January 10, 1895. All Souls church was dedicated. Reverend Minot J. Savage of Boston preached the sermon. Reverend Dr. Moors was present, but died January 27.
February 25. The selectmen gave a hearing upon a new application for an electric railway between Greenfield and Turners Falls.
April 12. The Greenfield & Turners Falls Electric Rail- way let a contract for the construction of their road from the archway under the railroads to Turners Falls.
April 9. Terrible rains. Lenus E. Burt of North Wind- ham, Vt., a laborer for Edward Simons on his meadow farm, was drowned in the overflow west of the Smead bridge. Mr. Simons was rescued with great difficulty after being in the water for a long time. Water on the crest of the dam at Turners Falls reached the unprecedented height of eleven feet five inches, one inch higher than in the flood of October, 1869.
May 30. The town is greatly agitated over the question
401
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
1895-1896]
of letting the electric railway come through the arch to Main street.
June 22. Electric cars run from the arch to Turners Falls.
July 29. The selectmen gave another hearing on letting the electric road come through the arch. Two propositions were laid before the meeting : I. To enter the village through the arch. 2. To grant a franchise to lay tracks down Mill street across Green river to Water street and enter the village by the Newton bridge and west Main street. The people were called upon to express their preferences ; 510 voted for the route through the arch ; 302 for the west Main street route, and 33 did not wish any franchise granted. The select- men stood : one for the arch route ; one for the arch provided a track be laid down west Main street, and one against letting the road through the arch upon any conditions.
August 3. Two of the selectmen signed a franchise per- mitting the electric road to come through the arch.
The Franklin County Public Hospital was opened at the house of Reverend Dr. F. L. Robbins. It so happened that Doctor Robbins was the first patient.
September 28. The electric cars first run to the Long corners.
November 23. The Federal street high school building is finished. Work is commenced upon the new Masonic building.
November 30. The new iron bridge over Green river is opened. The bridge which was removed was built in 1843, by Major Orra Sheldon, the stone abutments being built by Washington and Lorenzo Severance of Shelburne. A. H. Wright & Son built the new stone work.
January 6, 1896. Joseph P. Coburn, a former resident of Greenfield, died in Williamsburg, aged seventy-two. He was born in Vermont, ran away when a lad and joined the navy. He served in the Florida and Mexican wars, enlisted in the Ioth Massachusetts, in the War of the Rebellion, and was the regimental color sergeant.'
26
402
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
[1897-1898]
January 12, 1897. Our neighboring town across the Deer- field is making a brave fight to retain the eight thousand acre line for its northern boundary.
February 29-30. All the rivers and streams are at their flood. The water in the Connecticut comes within five inches of last year's record breaker.
May 2. The bill for the setting off of Cheapside is signed by the Lieutenant Governor. Cheapside jubilant.
May 16. George Sheldon's History of Deerfield is com- pleted.
July I. The District Court of Franklin County is organ- ized, with Honorable Edward E. Lyman as Judge, and W. S. Allen, Clerk.
August 26. The state furnishes Greenfield with a steam road roller.
September 30. The post-office is established in the Masonic block.
June 9, 1898. A heavy rain and much damage done by flood. The dam at Nash's mills goes out, and the booms at Bellows and Turners Falls break and let loose 60,000,000 feet of lumber.
July 12-14. Another great flood of water.
July 18. The trial of John O'Neil for the murder of Mrs. Hattie McCloud at Shelburne Falls, January 8, 1897, begins before Justices Henry N. Sheldon and Franklin G. Fessenden. O'Neil was convicted of murder in the first de- gree, and on the 20th of November he was sentenced by Judge Fessenden to be hanged on the 7th of January, 1899. At the time set he was executed in the jail in this town. This was the first legal execution occurring in Franklin county, and may it be the last.
September 7. John A. Aiken was nominated to be a judge of the Superior Court.
September 10. Patrick Toomey was fatally shot by Mel- vin Hamilton in a fracas near Franklin Park.
403
RECORD OF DAILY EVENTS
1898-1900]
October. The Supreme Judicial Court appoint Frederick L. Greene a member of the board of bar examiners for the Commonwealth.
December 13-14. A heavy storm. The dam at the Wiley & Russel Company works is carried off.
May 5, 1899. Memorial services were held in honor of Lieutenant Charles H. Field killed at the battle of El Caney.
Chester C. Conant, after several months' illness resigns his office as Judge of the Probate Court. He had been con- nected with the probate office as Register and Judge for thirty-five years, and the cause for his resignation was greatly regretted by the people.
May 10. Francis M. Thompson for twenty-eight years register, has been nominated by Governor Walcott to succeed Judge Conant.
May 31. Francis Nims Thompson is commissioned by Governor Walcott as Register of Probate Court.
July. The electric cars begin running to Montague centre.
October. The telephone wires are put under ground in Main, Franklin and some other streets near the centre of the village.
January 1, 1900. The Greenfield Recorder, Herbert C. Parsons, editor and business manager, issues its first number.
February. Judge Fessenden purchases the Bird place. February 13-14. Great storm. Railroad tracks at Orange submerged.
June. The Golf Club purchases fifty acres two miles north of the village.
October 23. The Farren Hospital at Montague City is dedicated.
CHAPTER XXXI
TOWN RECORDS
1
1865. The town voted that the assessors may abate the taxes of such volunteers absent in the army as they may think proper.
March 5, 1866. Conway street extended to Nash's mills. Park street accepted. Reverend John F. Moors, Captain George W. Bartlett, Captain George Pierce, Jr., Joseph H. Hollister and Theodore Leonard were appointed a committee to report what form shall be taken to erect some monument to our fallen soldiers, and report at the November meeting. An elaborate scheme for a sinking fund was adopted at this meeting.
November 28. The owners of land abutting upon the grist mill pond on Green river agreed upon the height of the dam, and caused an iron bolt to be placed in the stone abut- ment of the bridge on the east bank of the river. (See page 42, Vol. V, of Town Records.)
April 4, 1868. The town voted not to abolish the school districts of the town.
June 27. The selectmen were instructed to remove the iron fence from the common and also the fountain. (Fountain presented to the town by P. T. Sprague.) The fence had become dilapidated and the fountain out of repair.
November 24. Alfred R. Field was chosen to appear be- fore the county commissioners to advocate the granting of the petition of John Russell and others for a new road to Turners Falls (via the lower suspension bridge). The old road from
404
405
1868-1870] TOWN PURCHASES ALL SCHOOL PROPERTY
F. H. Ballou's to the "poor farm" was discontinued. Mat- thew Chapman, Joseph H. Hollister and William Keith were appointed a committee to purchase a new town clock, and find a location for it.
March 1, 1869. The town voted to erect a suitable mon- ument in memory of the soldiers of the town. (See chap. XXX.)
ยท April 10. A committee was appointed to appraise the schoolhouses in town under the new law abolishing school districts. At an adjourned meeting held April 24, they re- ported as follows : District No. 1, $4,000; No. 2, $ 45 ; No. 3, $415 ; No. 4, $850; No. 5, $371 ; No. 6, $415; No. 7, $ 160; No. 8, $30; No. 9, $ 300. Total, $6,586. That sum was raised to purchase the same.
October 16. The town raised $ 5,000 to repair roads and bridges injured by the great storm. The writer passed in a boat from the foot of Nash's mills falls to the watering trough near the E. Q. Nash house, and Major Henry G. Nims and Miss Delia Nims returned the same way the day the rain ceased.
March 7, 1870. The town voted Chauncey Bryant and L. D. Joslyn $ 150 for capturing Morrell and Baker, the rob- bers of Thomas Wait.
May 28. The act of incorporation of the Greenfield Water- works was accepted by the town. The town voted to guar- antee $ 40,000 of the fire district water scrip.
November 8, $ 1,200 was raised to purchase hydrants and water gates for town use.
December 12. A town meeting was held to see if the town would choose a committee to advocate the erection of the new Turners Falls suspension bridge lower down the river (nearly opposite the Swartz farm buildings), and to try and induce the commissioners to assess a portion of the expense upon the county. D. H. Newton and J. H. Hollister were elected such committee. The former committee (in favor of the present route) were discharged.
406
LOWER SUSPENSION BRIDGE
[1871-1875
March 6, 1871. Voted $ 200 to build a fence around the monument upon the common.
Voted $ 1,500 for the erection of a receiving tomb in the Federal street cemetery.
The Turners Falls road and bridge were laid by the com- missioners as it is travelled to-day, and the town made provision for its construction April 10, 1871. P. P. Severance built the road in Greenfield for the sum of $ 8,400; Day and Parks the Greenfield abutment and anchorage, for $ 6,778, and Charles McDonald the west half of the bridge for about $ 10,000, making the total cost of the bridge and road to Greenfield $ 17,545.51.
November 8, 1871. The town chose a committee to ad- vocate the petition of Matthew Chapman and others for a railroad from Turners Falls through Greenfield to Blakeley Hollow.
May 7, 1872. The highway running from the house of J. P. Morgan to the Turners Falls road was accepted. (Over Canada Hill.)
March 3, 1873. The selectmen were empowered to employ a competent engineer to make a plan for a sewer system for the town.
June 24. The selectmen were instructed to move the fences on all the highways back upon the original lines as originally laid out.
August 27. The selectmen were instructed not to enforce the above provisions in regard to the lots upon which buildings were burned July 4, 1873. (Pond's, Hollister's and Hovey's.)
June 21, 1875. The town chose William Keith, David Aiken and Lyman G. Barton a committee to appear before the governor and legislature and advocate a change of location of the Troy & Greenfield Railroad between Blakeley Hollow and Greenfield village, and to assure the legislature that the town will pay all land damages within the limits of Greenfield.
407
PUBLIC LIBRARY ESTABLISHED
1875-1880]
Three hundred dollars was raised for expenses of this com- mittee.
July 21, 1877. The town refunded $ 50,000 of its debt, and issued ten-year bonds at five per cent, which sold at a premium of one and one quarter per cent.
May 4, 1878. One hundred dollars voted for repairs on the tomb in the old High street cemetery.
August 10. Twelve thousand five hundred dollars voted to reimburse the commonwealth for land taken for the road- way of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad between the station and Blakeley Hollow. The money was borrowed on five per cent bonds for ten years.
March 3, 1879. Franklin G. Fessenden, Solon L. Wiley and Henry K. Simons were chosen a committee on sewers to procure plans and estimates for a sewer in the brook north of Main street.
April 7. Voted to construct a sewer in the first ravine north of Main street, from School street to the Nash's mill road, and that $ 8,000 be raised and appropriated there- for.
September 29. "Voted that the county commissioners be allowed to lay a highway through the 'Old Burying Ground,' and to take the land of the town therefor."
"Voted that in case the county commissioners lay a high- way through 'The Old Burying Ground,' the selectmen are authorized to purchase suitable lots in other cemeteries for the purpose and remove the bodies from the 'Old Burying Ground to such other lots."
March 1, 1880. " Voted, that the town hereby establish a free library, for the use of its inhabitants."
" Voted that A. K. Warner, F. G. Fessenden and C. D. Williams be a committee to report by-laws and rules for the management of the Public Library and report at an adjourned meeting, and that they consult with the Greenfield Library Association to see if any arrangements can be made by which
1
408
GRADE CROSSING ABOLISHED
[1880-1884
the town can gain possession of the property of the said As- sociation."
The selectmen were directed to petition the county com- missioners for such alterations in the highway that the cross- ing of the tracks near the station by the highway may be done away with.
A committee was appointed to report alterations and repairs needed in Washington Hall in order to make it more conven- ient and useful.
May 1, 1880. One thousand dollars raised to repair and change Washington Hall. The layout of the main sewer was accepted.
August 28, 1880. One thousand dollars raised to build the new road to the station. (Miles street.)
August 20. 1881. Town votes to build a lockup. Fif- teen hundred dollars raised therefor.
January 25, 1882. The town voted to pay ninety per cent of the cost of the main sewer on the north side of Main street, and directed the selectmen to assess the remainder of the cost upon the abutters and other parties benefited thereby.
March 6. The selectmen were instructed to build a fire escape from Washington Hall through Franklin Hall, and by a rear door into the town house lot.
March 5, 1883. A corporation having been formed for the care of the old High street cemetery the town voted to dispose of any interest the inhabitants of Greenfield might have therein. The original deed of the land to the inhabitants of Greenfield may be found recorded in the town records in June 1883, executed by heirs of Benjamin Hastings. Fifteen hun- dred dollars was appropriated to put new heating apparatus in Washington Hall.
April 7, 1884. The town raised $1,800 for the purpose of building a fireproof vault in the town house.
The Sparhawk house standing on the high school lot was ordered to be sold and that the lot be graded.
409
ANSON K. WARNER
1886]
March 1, 1886. The selectmen were instructed not to in- sure any of the property of the town.
April 27. A town meeting was held to choose a successor to Anson K. Warner, selectman, who had died from injuries received in the Bardwell's Ferry accident. Franklin G. Fes- senden was elected, but refused to accept the office.
The following resolutions were adopted by the town :
" Whereas, by a recent railroad disaster in our midst, Anson K. Warner, a life-long inhabitant and an honored cit- izen of the town of Greenfield, who for many years and at critical times in its history held important offices of trust in this town, was suddenly cut down in the prime of life, and whereas, it is fitting and proper that a suitable recognition of his character and services be placed upon the records of the town ; be it Resolved, by the inhabitants of Greenfield duly assembled in town meeting this 27th day of April, that in the death of Mr. Warner the town has lost an upright and public spirited citizen, a faithful and efficient public officer, and a man who had deserved and won the confidence and esteem of the public.
" That to the offices which he was from time to time elected, he brought an unquestioned ability, sound judgment, and an unswerving fidelity to the interests of the town.
" That in bequeathing a large sum of money to charitable and educational uses and purposes for the benefit of indigent boys and girls resident of the town, he manifested his interest in the welfare of its citizens and most generously supplemented the many kind and charitable deeds of his life time.
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