USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 42
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532
CAPTAIN ELISHA MACK
[1792
said Burnham's Rock, called the 'boiling place,' & running on said Rock northwest two rods, thence running on said rock west ten degrees south eight rods, thence running south on said Rock six rods, thence running on said Rock to the first mentioned corner." If any of the descendants of those old worthies wish to make claim to their interest in said " Rock," they will find it submerged in about twenty feet of water, the the result of the building of the great dam.
Hoyt, in his history of the Indian wars, says : "No river in New England afforded a greater number of fish than the Connecticut ; and no place on the river presented a more fa- vorable station for taking them, than the falls between the present towns of Gill and Montague. Upwards of five thou- sand shad have been taken in a day, by dipping nets at Burn- ham's Rock at that place. This rock was situated at the pitch of the cataract, and none but the most skillful waterman at- tempted to navigate a light canoe or batteau to it; and even to these the task was considered extremely dangerous. It was only approached from above by a delicate use of the paddle, and an eye that could measure a mite, and resolve compound forces at a glance. A deviation of a few degrees in steering was certain to plunge the adventurer down the rugged cataract, in which case drowning must ensue."
A writer in the Student and Schoolmate says : "Two instances in which a canoe has been carried over these falls and the oc- cupants have escaped drowning, have been transmitted to us by tradition. One was that of an Indian. The other instance belongs to the story I am to tell you, which occurred about 1792. A Mr. Burnham, supposed by my informant to be- long to the Montague side (Jonah or Moses Burnham, of Montague), had, with a company of eleven, taken possession of this rock, making yearly use of it, to the envy and vexation of a community which considered itself as having equal claims on the location. On one year, a Captain Mack (Elisha Mack, the builder of the first Turners Fall's dam), an ingenious,
533
A FISH STORY
1792]
persevering man, proposed to eleven other men to join him in an attempt to gain possession of the fishing-rock.
" Burnham's men had used a large canoe scooped out of an immense tree which, being attached to the rock, held the twelve men, as they dipped their nets in the current. Secretly as possible, Capt. Mack's company felled a giant tree in the forest on the river bank above the falls, intending to dig themselves a canoe which would be a counterpart of Burnham's, and firmly believing that ' turn about was fair play ' hoped to launch it and take possession before their neighbors thought of begin- ning their fishing season.
" But one of the enemy's company discovered the half made canoe, and taking the hint, made known the same to his party. Consequently the public soon became informed through the public papers, that Burnham's party had obtained a legal claim on the rock, from the Great and General Court.
"' We wont be outwitted so,' said Capt. Mack; 'they have paid their three hundred dollars, let them enjoy it. Do as I tell you, and we will have equal chance with them.' The eleven having full confidence in the genius of their leader, as- sented without hesitation, though how they were to have equal chance with Burnham's Company baffled even their Yankee sharpness to guess. I give you this story as it comes to me, from a family connection of one of Captain Mack's company.
" Under their leader's direction they felled large trees, and · floating them down the river, drew them upon the island op- posite the rock of contention. These logs they hewed on two sides, and when finished the first two were thirty feet long, ten feet were placed on land and twenty feet projected out over the river, the shore ends being secured by heavy stones. These timbers were partly covered with plank to support the next timbers. Then two timbers forty-five feet long were prepared in the same manner, thirty feet projecting over the water, and fastened to the lower logs. Then followed a tier of logs sixty feet long, and a tier ninety feet long, the shore
534
A LUCKY ESCAPE
[1792
end being loaded by stone to counterbalance the added weight. The top was now covered with a floor and steps reaching nearly to the water attached to the projecting timbers. Then they launched their canoe, and to convey it to the exact spot from which they wished to throw their nets, they attached a large stout rope to a tree standing upon the upper end of the island, and fastened the lower end to their bridge near the steps. Around this stout rope they looped a smaller one which was attached to the boat. It was expected that the rushing current would swing the boat into the exact position which they cov- eted. When all was ready some sort of ballast was needed ; instead of putting in stones, Captain Mack in the moment asked if some of the men wouldn't like to jump in. Two men vol- unteered, one of whom was the ferryman of the place.
" The canoe immediately swept down the swift current, when to the consternation of the occupants, and all of the beholders, the rope of the boat gave way. One man caught at the large rope which was attached to the bridge, and was rescued. The canoe with the ferryman in it went over the falls. Though once the boat, in the whirl of the waters, neared the island, there was not time for him to leap out before it was dashed onward and downward, toward the whirlpool below. The man had no oar or paddle, but with keen eye and senses all alert, he looked about for means of escape. He had perfect knowledge of his surroundings, and long experience in the management of a log canoe, and, just at the right moment, a small piece of board was swept by the waters within his reach, which he providentially caught and with it guided his canoe away from the whirlpools to a place of safety. The company were not discouraged and had no thought of giving up. Oxen were brought and the canoe was drawn up to the ferry and launched again, this time with perfect success. The rope was made firm, the canoe was ballasted with stone and swept beautifully to the desired point and stopped there. The next day the men entered from the steps with their nets. Burn-
1
535
1792]
THE FIRST CANTILEVER
ham's men fished from their canoe and the rocks, and each party had equal opportunity in the same channel. The haul of fish that day was five thousand from Burnham's Rock, and six thousand from the boat at Mack's bridge."
If this story is authentic, and I have no doubt of the build- ing of the bridge, it would seem that the first application of the principles of the cantilever bridge are to be credited to Captain Elisha Mack, the builder of the first dam at Turners Falls.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE OLD MEETINGHOUSE
T HERE are but few people, if any, remaining in Green- field, who have any distinct recollection of the first meetinghouse, which stood from 1760 to 1831, on Trap Plain. In 1894, while preparing an address to be delivered upon the old meetinghouse spot, finding it hard to obtain in- formation in regard to the old building, I wrote to Reverend Charles C. Corse, of East Smithfield, Pa., (who was a descend- ant of James Corse, an early settler of this town,) for some facts regarding the old meetinghouse, and received from him the following interesting statement :
F. M. THOMPSON, Esq.
Dear sir : You ask me to send you some recollections of the old meetinghouse which stood for so many years on Trap Plain. Are there no persons in Greenfield whose recollections of it go back as far as mine ?
I have no records or dates to depend upon, and hence my statements may not exactly agree with the facts in the case. It is supposed that there was a log house before the one on Trap Plain was built, but where it stood, I have no means of know- ing.
Materials for building the meetinghouse began to be col- lected in 1760, but it appears that pews were not put in until I773. The building was forty by fifty feet, and was located according to the fashion of the day, in the middle of a wide street. The sheds for the horses were on the northwesterly
536
537
WARMING THE MEETING HOUSE
1760-1831]
side of the street, and extended from the four corners ten rods or more, almost to the schoolhouse. They were built at dif- ferent times ; some were' deep enough to shelter a team and wagon, but most of them only the team and the front end of the wagon. The house and sheds were taken down in 1831, some of the sheds being re-erected at Nash's mills, and some of the timber of the old meetinghouse was used in the belfry of the new one.
My first recollections of the old meetinghouse must have been as early as 1810 or 1811. I could not have been more than six or seven years old. On reaching home from meeting one sabbath, I asked my mother who that man was who stood up in a high pew and talked with a sheep on his head. It was Dr. Newton, who wore a big shaggy white wig.
For the first fifty years or more, there was no way of warm- ing the meetinghouse, and yet there were two services with an hour between. Most of the families carried foot stoves. Fires were made in the schoolhouse near by, and after Landlord Ahaz Thayer built his tavern (where James R. Long now lives), many, both men and women, resorted to it at noon in the cold winter days. The kind hearted old gentleman always had two rooms well warmed every Sunday. I distinctly re- member the first stove that was put into the old meetinghouse .* It was a common box stove, not larger than would now be put into a private dwelling. There was considerable opposi- tion to it from the idea that a heated stove would vitiate the air, and that, too, in a church surrounded with two tiers of windows, one above and one below, and these rattling with the wind when there was a wind, besides three big doors, and no vestibule. It was supposed that a basin of water on the stove would neutralize the miasms of the atmosphere ; accord-
*January 16, 1816. " Voted, that the Treasurer be directed to pay to Mr. David Ripley, the sum of ten dollars and twelve cents out of money belonging to the Con- gregational Society in said town, it being the balance due to him for the Stove in the Meeting House." (Town Records.)
538
THE SOUNDING BOARD
[1760-1831
ingly certain good ladies became greatly alarmed if they found the basin empty. An amusing anecdote used to be told of another meetinghouse somewhere in your neighborhood.
A stove was put into a church in the face of considerable opposition and a good lady who sat near the stove fainted. Some of the enemies of the stove arose in their wrath to take the heated stove out of the house, when, lo, the stove was cold ; there had been no fire in it. The old meetinghouse had gal- leries on three sides. In front, all around, was a seat for the singers. Immediately back of this was another seat, and back of all, pews. In the southeast corner of the gallery was a pew, set on posts over the head of the stairs, called the negro pew, but I never saw a negro occupy it .* Men and boys occupied the west and south galleries, and the girls the east. Russell Hastings (if I remember the name) led the singing for a long time.t He had a pitch pipe to give the tune the right pitch. For a time a Mr. Wells, on the ladies' side, blew the flute.
In the old meetinghouse, directly over the centre of pulpit, hung the sounding board. It was a conical shaped structure, of highly finished workmanship, and perhaps was as much intended for ornament as for use. It was supposed that it increased the volume of sound of the speaker's voice ; I doubt whether it did it. It was bell shaped, rather than a cone and the bottom was eight feet across, extending the whole width of the pulpit. An iron rod ran through the centre of the top, and was fastened to the timbers overhead. It was made of narrow strips of board like the staves of a barrel, tapering off
* The gallery was entered by stairs in the southeast and southwest corners of the room. The pew mentioned was the one named in the following vote of the town. 1784. " Voted, that Simeon Wells and others have the liberty of enjoying a pew built at their own expense over one pair of the gallery stairs, until the next time the house is seated, and if the cost is not then paid by the town, that it be granted till they see fit to pay it."
+ About 1815, a Mr. Allen, called " bushel face " was the chorister. Dr. Newton always wore a large horse hair wig.
THE SEATING OF THE
OLD
and his father.
Ahaz Thayer
Thos. Morley.
Selah Allen.
Merick Hitchcock.
David Stickland.
Amos Parsons.
Daniel Smead.
Elijah Coleman.
Hannah Root.
Widow Hastings.
Widow Allen.
William Join. Widow Smead.
Asher Corse.
Elihu Lyman. Ezekiel Bascomb.
Abner Wells.
John Graves.
Lemuel Smead.
Oliver Atherton.
Jonathan Smead.
Richard Johnson.
Jona. Severance.
John Strickland.
PULPIT.
DEACON'S
No. I.
Sylvanus Burnham. Pierce Chase. Widow Foster. Darius Kingsley. Jonathan Wells. Francis Blakeley.
No. 19.
Rufus Severance. Jona. Smead, Jr. Elihu Allen. Solomon Arms. Benj. Walker. Thadeus Coleman. Asher Corss, Jr.
No. 13.
No. 5.
John Sawtell.
Seth Smead. David Newell. Asaph Smead. Elijah Alvord. Reuben Bryant.
Timothy Hall. Thos. Griswold. Ephraim Hubbard. Asher Newton. Nathan Draper. Job Graves. Sam'l Pierce.
No. 9.
Eben'r Ames. Allen Holcom. Sam'l Hinsdale, Jr. Daniel Nash, Jr. Onesimus Nash. Luther Graves. Patrick Wells. John Newton, Jr.
Levi Stiles. Aaron White. Rufus Horsley. Curtis Newton. Quartus Nash. Moses Graves. Jane Strong.
No. 25.
No. 21.
.
No. 29.
Elijah Alvord, 2d. Hart Leavitt. John Russell. Thos. Smead. Amos Foster. Darius Hinsdale. No. 15.
Job Allen. Eben'r Graves, Jr. Eben'r Billings, Jonathan Bacon. David Smead. Lucy Billings. Daniel Pickett. No. 7.
DOOR.
.
POR
PORCH.
DOOR.
No. 17.
Solomon Smead. Jerome Ripley. Eben'r Arms. Sam'l Wells. Sam'l Stebbins. Benjamin Swan.
William Mitchell.
Wanton Bates. Mrs. Granger. Polly McHard. Lydia Strickland. Mary Hastings. Admiral Potter. No. 23.
Joshua Rugg. Moses M. Mitchell. Widow Jones. David Griffin. James Nutting. Elijah Mitchell. Lucretia Denio. Rebecca Marsh. No. 27.
STAIRS.
No. II.
MEETING HOUSE, ABOUT 1800.
PULPIT.
SEAT.
Sam'l Hinsdale. Daniel Nash.
Sylvanus Nash.
Jonathan Atherton.
Ariel Hinsdale. Widow Smead. Widow Arms. John Clark.
William Tryon.
Lemuel Hastings. Isaac Newton.
Moses Arms.
George Grennell. John Newton. ~ Hull Nims.
Beriah Willard.
Samuel Newton.
Thos. Wetmore. Stephen Pratt.
William Grinnell. Jos. Bascom.
Oliver Hastings.
Stephen Gates.
John Woodward. Ezekiel Hale. Giles Cook.
Elias Johnson.
No. 2.
No. 10.
Rev. Roger Newton's family. Daniel Wells. Elihu Goodman. Caleb Clap.
No. 4.
Elihu Severance. Julia Smead. Ephraim Wells. Caroline Wells. Consider Cushman. Edward H. Wells. William Wait. Dorothy Severance. No. 12.
Eliel Gilbert. Jonathan Leavitt. Aaron F. Wells. Oliver Wilkinson. David Ripley. Ambrose Ames.
No. 8.
Thomas Chapman. John E. Hall. John Stone. Richard E. Newcomb. Daniel Clay. Jonathan Bird. Sam'l Holland. Mrs. Jones.
No. 16.
John Denio. Calvin Wells. Hooker Leavitt. Alpheus F. Stone. Calvin Hale. Porter Johnson.
No. 20.
William Marshall. Abner Newton. Solomon Wells. James W. Honsey. Jesse Smead. Amos Parsons, Jr. Cynthia Severance. Sally Lyman. Jona. Pierce. No. 24.
No. 28.
STAIRS.
DOOR.
Samuel Pickett. Quintus Allen. Benj. Hastings. Jos. Atherton. Uriah Martindale. Calvin Munn. No. 6.
Elijah Smith. Eli Graves. Joel Allen. Eber Nash. Andrew Adams. Jona. Atherton, Jr. Sally Graves. No. 14.
John Bell. Jona. M. Bissell. Widow Loveland. Levi Wells. Seth Arms. Simeon Munn. Israel Phillips. No. 18.
John Bush. Benj. H. Carrier. Reuel Allen. Jos. Severance. Widow Mott. Mrs. Jennings. Philip Alexander. No. 22.
Reuben Hastings. Warham Hitchcock. Abel Guillow. Robert Clark. Abner Wright. Sylvanus Bates. Rodolphus Wells. No. 26.
DOOR.
PORCH.
CH.
No. 3.
539
.
1760-1831]
SEATING THE MEETING HOUSE
to a point at the top. How the staves were bent into shape, is more than I can imagine. As I used to view it from the side gallery, it seemed to me, hung as it appeared by a small string, in danger of falling upon the minister. When the house was demolished, I wonder that the thing was not pre- served, as it would be a great curiosity now, and you would prize it highly .* It had been so long a familiar sight to the people, that they did not seem to think of preserving it.
At that early day bells in meetinghouses were few and far between ; the buildings were not constructed so as to hang one. At an earlier day than I can remember, the beginning of meeting was announced by the beating of a drum, and my grandfather was hired to announce the time by blowing of a conch shell, and when the wind was right it is said that it was often to be heard several miles. Russell Hasting, already named, was the tithingman for I know not how many years. Why he was called tithingman, I never knew. His business was to keep mischievous boys in order, and I have seen him snatch a troublesome boy from his seat and set him down by his side ; and no boy attempted to have any fun in meeting without keeping one eye on the tithingman.t
The most troublesome office and the duties of which were most reluctantly performed, was that of being on the commit- tee for seating the meetinghouse, which was done each year ; the committee being required to grade all the pews, and also all the families ; but the consequences were usually what might have been foreseen : that it was impossible to satisfy all parties with the grade assigned to them. Funerals were seldom at-
* When the old meetinghouse was demolished, the sounding board was taken to the Thayer tavern, where it remained for several years. Afterward Dr. Stone, who owned the Swartz place, took it and erected it over a large spring which is near the farmhouse, and pieces of it were to be seen lying about the place a few years since.
t In Hadley, in 1672, it was " Voted, that there shall be some sticks set up in the meetinghouse in several places, with some fit persons placed by them, and to use the same as occasion shall require, to keep the youth from disorder." (Judd's Had- ley.)
540
THE NOTICE BOARD
[1760-1831
tended in the church buildings. A prayer was offered in the house where the body laid ; and generally a few remarks were made, the body being then placed on a bier, and carried on men's shoulders to the burying ground, sometimes at a dis- tance of more than a mile. In going up and down hill, the shortest bearers were put on the uphill side or end of the bier. The sabbath after the funeral all the family attended meeting, and sat in seats by themselves. The minister then read from the pulpit a request for the prayers of the church that the death of their relative might be sanctified to the spiritual good of the mourners. While this prayer was being made all the family stood up, so that all present might see them. I re- member this was done on occasion of a death in our family. Our pew was the second one from the pulpit on the left-hand side of the broad aisle. There was no professor of religion in the family. Custom is a relentless tyrant. But the most curious and attractive thing about the old meetinghouse was the bulletin board. It was a block or board about a foot square, its four edges surrounded by a moulding, and was nailed to the building near the left-hand side of the south door, and was used for posting every sort of notice. In those days notices of marriage were required to be published to the world three weeks before the marriage ceremony could take place. It might be "cried off" as the expression was, by the town clerk three Sundays in open meeting, or have the notice posted on the bulletin board. Our fathers and our mothers, espe- cially the latter, to say nothing of ourselves, were like the Athenians of old, whom the apostle charged with hearing or telling some new thing, as the first object of their lives. It was not common for a whole family to attend meeting at the same time; some stayed at home to take care of the house. What do you think were the first questions asked when we got home from meeting by those who remained at home ? Was it what was the text? What instruction have you got to-day? Can you give an account of what you have heard?
541
WERE THE OLD TIMES BEST ?
1760-1831]
Not at all. The first question sure to be asked when we got home was,-Who was published to-day ?
I remember when Gamaliel S. Olds was ordained, in 1813. Those were great occasions in those early days; they called together great crowds of people, and at that time it was feared that the galleries would not hold them up, so to make them sure and safe, they were securely propped up. I think the first sabbath school was instituted when Reverend Sylvester Wood- bridge was pastor. (1817.)
Now the question arises, were the former times better than these. Perhaps it would be expected that one like me, ninety- one years of age, would decide in favor of former times, but, the former times were not better than these. Were I to begin my life anew, I would say, let me begin now, rather than as the times were a hundred years ago. One little incident: It must have been nearly one hundred years ago that some youngsters wanted some lead for bullets, and seeing no other way to get it, they stole the sheets of lead with which the caps of the doors to the old meetinghouse were covered. I could name the persons who had a hand in it.
Yours Truly, C. C. CORSE.
The father of Aaron Burr, of national fame, was also named Aaron Burr. He married a daughter of Reverend Jonathan Edwards, was a clergyman, and preached his first sermon at the old meetinghouse on Trap Plain, in this town.
In 1795-6 repairs amounting to £ 192, 6s. 6d. were made upon the meetinghouse. New windows were put in, the glass being seven by eight and nine by ten with new sashes; the house was clapboarded and newly shingled, and considerable painting was done. Noadiah Kellogg and Elijah Alvord (carpenters) were paid the most of the money. Levi Stiles did much of the painting.
Mrs. Mary P. W. Smith found among the papers of her
542
THE OLD STYLE MEETING HOUSE
[1800-1874
late husband, Judge Fayette Smith, some interesting papers, written about 1874 by Judge Smith's father, Reverend Pre- served Smith, who died in Greenfield in 1881, aged ninety-two years. By favor of Mrs. Smith, I am permitted to use the following :
"REMINISCENCES OF AN OCTOGENARIAN
"It may be amusing to the present generation to learn something of meetinghouses and their congregations as were their fashions and usages at the beginning of the present cen- tury in this vicinity and generally throughout the rural towns in New England. The house of religious worship was called a 'meetinghouse.' This was its Puritan name, derived prob- ably from the fact that Dissenters in England were not allowed to have churches with steeples and bells like the Establish- ment; i. e., the national church, but plain, humble buildings, which were called chapels.
" It was natural that our Puritan ancestors, who were a plain people, in humble circumstances, should have their houses of worship of a corresponding character. New Eng- land meetinghouses with a few exceptions as prevailed sixty years ago, were fashioned after the same pattern. They very much resembled a large barn, without belfry or bell. The interior was furnished with large square pews; in front of the pulpit there was a seat more elevated which was occupied by the deacons. The pulpit was ascended by a flight of stairs and was sufficiently elevated as to require the people to look up to the preacher not only in a literal, but as it was supposed, in a spiritual sense.
"Above the pulpit there was suspended a kind of canopy called a sounding board. This was done to aid the speaker by preventing the sound of his voice from ascending, and thus propagating it further in a horizontal direction. On three sides of the house there was a gallery supported by pillars. The front seat was appropriated to the singers, which was
543
1800-1874]
PREACHING IN OVERCOAT AND MITTENS
usually filled with a good old-fashioned New England choir. The leader occupied the centre with his pitchpipe to set the tune, for there was no musical instrument used in the sanc- tuary in those days. Then it was regarded as a privilege as well as a duty to belong to the choir, and those who could sing, and even some not gifted by nature in that accomplish- ment, were ready to avail themselves of it. As the attitude of prayer was that of standing, the seats in the pews were hung on hinges so that during that part of divine service, they could be turned up for the convenience of the worshipers, and when the exercise closed there was a simultaneous replacing them which produced such a clattering through the house as very much to resemble the roll of a drum. Over one of the side galleries there was usually a trapdoor which gave access to the attic, which was in many instances used as a magazine for powder. Rather a perilous place for such an explosive article, when oftentimes the doctrines preached beneath were of a very igneous character.
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