USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Hatfield > History of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts: I. An account of the development of the social and industrial life of the town from its first settlement. II. The houses and homes of Hatfield, with personal reminiscences of the men and women who have lived there during the last one hundred years; brief historical accounts of the religious societies and of Smith Academy; statistical tables, etc. III. Genealogies of the families of the first settlers > Part 23
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It was the custom in some families to have liquor in some form passed around at eleven o'clock every morning, and a very general custom that all who were at work in the field should be served with drink at that hour. It was not uncommon to hear this lunch called a "bever." This custom I have no doubt is very old and was brought from England by our ancestors, as the English had a lunch called by that name consisting mostly of drink, certainly as early as the time of Henry VII., and probably earlier, as the word indicates a Norman origin.
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Notwithstanding the general use of spirituous liquors, I think that drunkenness was no more prevalent then than now. In the first place the population was thoroughly Anglo- Saxon,-only men of good character could sell, and they would have forfeited their character by an indiscriminate or careless use of their license. The law authorized the selectmen to forbid the sale of spirits to such individuals as they might designate as unworthy the privilege of buying. Then, too, the article drank had little resemblance to the compound now used; in fact, I do not recollect any case of "delirium tremens" until a much later period than that of which I am now speaking.
At this period also, there was no more suggestion nor suspicion of immorality in the sale of lottery tickets than there was in the sale of schoolbooks. If, for instance, a bridge was to be built across the Connecticut river, after having raised as much money as possible by individual subscriptions, the Legislature would be petitioned for leave to raise the balance by lottery. In those days there were few rich men, and not all who were rich were public-spirited, and there seemed to be no other way of accomplishing large undertakings; and it was never difficult to obtain for the managers of these lotteries men of the highest re- spectability.
I will turn from this digression. I find that in 1753 Lieut. Samuel Partridge bought of Capt. Seth Dwight the south- ern half of his homestead, and about twenty years later he bought the remaining half; and that still later he added to the north side two rods purchased of Isaac Graves, while to the south side he added one and one half rods by pur- chase from Aaron Graves; thus, the old Dwight homestead was not so wide by three and one half rods as the two lots of John A. Billings and Otis Wells. The beautiful elm tree now standing in front of this lot was set out by Josiah Dwight, son of Seth Dwight, about the year 1768.
The house now occupied by Mr. Otis Wells was built by Dea. Cotton Partridge, and is now, I suppose, not far from ninety years old. He died in 1846. His children are scat- tered from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and from Vermont to North Carolina, and no descendant of Lieut. Samuel Partridge bearing his name is now living in Hat-
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field. When I last saw the homestead the buildings were the same, and occupied the same place which they did in my early childhood.
The next house, on the site now occupied by Mrs C. M. Billings's house, was owned and occupied by Mr. Amasa Wells, the grandfather of Mr. Otis Wells. He was a man of such irreproachable life, and so highly esteemed and re- spected, that even the bitterest partisan never uttered a word against him. The house on the homestead was very old, and was called the oldest in town. It was two stories in
THE JENNY LIND ELM, ON THE ISAAC GRAVES ALLOTMENT.
height, with the second story projecting in front over the first, for purposes of defense against the Indians. I remem- ber being told while it was in the occupancy of Mr. Wells, that is, before he died, that it was one hundred and eleven years old; which, with the fact that it was built with reference to attacks by the Indians, leads me to conclude that it was built early in the eighteenth century. Mr. Wells was killed by a fall from the roof of this house. He left four sons, all of whom but Elisha emigrated. An only daughter, Hannah, married Joseph Smith, Jr., and lived and died in Hatfield.
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The next was the house of Capt. Elijah Smith, brother of Oliver Smith, where he lived with three sons and one daughter, all of whom died in Hatfield. Another daughter was married to Dea. Joseph Billings, and one of the sons, Charles, was afterward married and left the homestead. The only material change which had taken place in the appearance of this homestead when I last saw it, was the loss of the large elm tree which stood in front of the house.
The next house was the residence of the Rev. Dr. Lyman. This was an old house of two stories with a gambrel roof. A few rods south of the house there stood a large elm tree, which I am told was there, though quite small, at the time of his settlement in 1772, and consequently, if still standing, is more than a hundred years old. Near this tree was his study, a small building which was purchased by Mr. Pliny Day about the time of his marriage, removed to the lot where Mrs. Silas Billings now lives, and became his dwell- ing house for a number of years. It was afterward removed to Mr. Rufus Cowles's lot and became one of his outbuild- ings. In the northeast corner of the front yard, on the line of the street, there was a small building erected by Jonathan H., son of Dr. Lyman, for a law office, and after he left town used by his father for a study. Some years after the death of Dr. Lyman, this building was removed up the street to a location between the house then occupied by Mr. Joseph Smith, Jr., and the Bardwell place; subsequently it was purchased by Daniel White and removed to his lot in Middle Lane, and finally transferred from thence to the "Stone Pits," where I believe it now stands, though some- what changed in appearance. The house in which Dr. Lyman lived (before mentioned) was built and occupied by the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge, his immediate predecessor. The home lot, sixteen rods in width, was made up of two rods from the Eleazer Frary lot, John Graves's lot of twelve rods, and two rods of Isaac Graves's lot.
The next object of interest was the old elm tree standing on Benjamin Smith's place, immediately on the street line. It had a large trunk, measuring, at the top of the fence, twenty-seven feet in circumference and about two feet from the ground its circumference was nearly forty feet. It was very old and there is a tradition that it exhibited signs of
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age when seen by the first settlers of the town. Mr. Jon- athan Morton, brother of Perez Morton, told me forty or fifty years ago, and he was then an old man, that it seemed an old tree as long ago as he could remember. I am told that its stump gave evidence of having stood there four hundred years.
A short distance north of the old elm tree, on the same line, there stood a small building which was known as
1
"THE OLD ELM."
"Squire Smith's store," though it never had a stock of goods since my memory, and possibly may have stood there when Mr. Smith came into possession of the property. The dwelling house of Mr. Smith stood some twenty-five or
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thirty feet back from the street. It was a two-story gam- brel-roofed house handsomely finished inside, and had been in earlier days the residence of Col. Israel Williams by whom it was built. Colonel Williams was a son of the Rev. William Williams, a former minister of Hatfield, and a brother of Elisha Williams, the third president of Yale Col- lege. Colonel Williams previous to the Revolution was a man of large influence and filled important offices; but, espousing the wrong side, he lost both office and influence. He is alluded to in the couplet with Murray in Trumbull's "McFingal." He was killed by falling down his cellar stairs in 1788. In the rear was an extension much older than the gambrel-roofed building in front, which was built by his father, the Rev. William Williams, the third minister of Hatfield. In my childhood the house was occupied by Mr. Benjamin Smith, his wife, and daughter, afterwards Mrs. Samuel F. Lyman of Northampton, and his bachelor brother, Mr. Oliver Smith. The lot owned by Benjamin Smith was sixteen rods in width, twelve rods of which com- prised the original allotment of Thomas Meekins, and four rods were the balance of Eleazer Frary's lot. The line between this and the Chapin Porter lot has never been changed.
Mr. Oliver Smith, mentioned above, was even then con- sidered a very rich man. When a boy wished himself as rich as Oliver Smith, he was supposed to wish for boundless wealth. Since he will be known to posterity as the founder of the "Smith Charities," it may not be improper to notice some of his prominent characteristics. He had naturally a good mind with plenty of hard common sense, and was of a rather taciturn habit. He was honest in his dealings, intend- ing to claim no more than what rightfully belonged to him; yet he managed to withhold the greater part of his property from taxation, thus adding to the burden of his townsmen. He possessed an uncommon judgment in busi- ness matters, so that his investments, so far as I know, were invariably successful. He was ambitious in a certain way, but his ambition was satisfied with being considered the richest man in that region, and the leader of those with whom he associated. Among these associates, I am told, he was genial and often evinced a sense of humor. Al-
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though he had naturally a strong mind, yet his want of edu- cation and the low estimate which he put upon education had the effect of making him very narrow-minded; so that his only standard of valuation was the result in dollars and cents. He always argued that a liberal education was a hindrance in a man's career, and carried statistics in his pocket which he would often read to enforce his argument and show that learning seldom helped a man to wealth. He was very penurious, spending little on himself and imparting little to others. During the thirty years or more of my recollection of him, he wore the same overgarments; yet by reason of a certain trimness and neatness, he always appeared respectably dressed. It does him no injustice to say that he was destitute of public spirit; and efforts to improve society either by a higher education or by religious teaching met with very little encouragement from him. On one occasion he gave fifty dollars to assist in building a schoolhouse at West Farms, and at another time he gave the same sum for a schoolhouse in West Brook; but few, if any, of his contemporaries supposed that his love for edu- cation prompted him to make these gifts. He also made a donation of fifty dollars to the Colonization Society, and for some years gave two dollars annually to the Bible Society. So far from being forward in raising money for the support of schools, if he favored any, it was always the smallest amount proposed; and he also claimed that it was unjust to tax him for the support of schools as he had no children.
The next house was owned by Israel Dickinson, who occupied it with his wife and daughter. He was the son of Elihu Dickinson, and brother of William and Silas Dickin- son; his wife was the daughter of Gen. Lemuel Dickinson, and his daughter subsequently became the wife of Rodol- phus Morton. Their son, George, was born much later. As Mrs. Dickinson was my aunt, my visits to the house began very early, so that I think I recollect its appearance seventy years ago. It had been painted red, but the paint was considerably worn off. It is the same house occupied by the late Moses C. Porter, by whom its appearance was materially altered. The two elm trees in front are some- what larger than they were seventy years ago, but their appearance is not greatly changed. [One of these trees is
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a hackberry.] Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson removed to Lock- port, N. Y., many years ago, where they both died. Their son, George, returned to Hatfield, where he and his sister died. The daughter, Mrs. Morton, was a woman of uncom- mon intellectual powers and of a lovely disposition. She was a fine scholar and few young women of her day excelled her in mental culture. She engaged in teaching at one time, and there are those now living who will never forget her gracious influence upon them in that capacity. She had the rare and happy faculty of calling out all that was best in her scholars, and her resignation as a teacher was felt to be a public loss.
The house now occupied by Mr. Silas G. Hubbard was then occupied by Lieut. Rufus Smith and wife, and his son, John, and his family. Mr. John Smith's wife was a daugh- ter of Gen. Lemuel Dickinson. The house was of com- paratively recent structure. Mr. Smith and his wife and son died in Hatfield, but his son's widow with all the chil- dren who had not previously removed from town, went to Connecticut. Previous to the occupancy of Lieutenant Smith this place was occupied by Col. William Allis, the father of Dexter Allis and of Mrs. Jonathan Porter. It includes nearly the whole of two lots granted by Hadley to John Allis and Daniel White, Jr.
The next house north was that of William Morton, which is the same with that now occupied by the widow of his son, Israel, by whom it was repaired and remodeled. As I re- member it, it was quite an old house; it might have been painted, but showed no trace of it. Mr. Morton lived here with his wife and a maiden sister, familiarly known as "Aunt Eunice." He had five sons and five daughters, all of whom lived and died in Hatfield, with the exception of one son and one daughter. One of his sons, Pliny, was a sur- geon's mate in the United States navy, and died while on a visit at home. The first owner of this place was Obed Dickinson. It was then six rods in width; now it is ten rods, three rods coming from Silas G. Hubbard's and one from Chapin Porter's.
The ground now occupied by Smith Academy is the same as that originally allotted to Samuel Kellogg. The house which was removed to make room for the Academy, in early
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days was owned by the widow of Benjamin Morton, who was subject to rather protracted attacks of insanity. She was a sister of Ebenezer White. Her sister, Mrs. Robbins, with two daughters kept the house. Mrs. Morton had no children. This lot was originally six rods wide, but is much wider now having gained most of what Middle Lane has lost. The line between this and Israel Morton's lot has never been changed. On the other side of Middle Lane, on the lot first owned by John Hawks, stood the house of Daniel Wait, occupied by himself and his wife, a daughter of Hon. John Hastings, who both died in Hatfield. They had one child, a daughter, who married Dexter Allis and removed to Springfield. The house seemed comparatively new and when I first saw it had never been painted. It has been considerably changed by additions and otherwise, but is the same as that now occupied by Mr. Baggs.
Mr. Perez Hastings lived in the next house with his wife and four children. He was a blacksmith and the son of Hopestill Hastings, and his wife was a daughter of Salmon White of Whately. He died in this house, but his children all emigrated to the state of New York. After the death of Mr. Hastings this house came into the possession of Mr. Joseph Smith, Jr., who with his wife lived in it until his death. I suppose this house stands on the land origi- nally occupied by Richard Morton, the first settler in town by that name. The late Moses Morton told me that an old house which stood a little south of this was an old Morton house, was removed from that place by Nehemiah Wait and is the same in which Lewis Dickinson and his sisters lived during the latter years of their life. A few rods north of the house was a blacksmith's shop, which was afterward occupied by a store. The town originally owned a space of sixteen rods between the John Hawks place and the Richard Morton lot, but that ownership ceased before I was born.
The next house north was owned and occupied by the widow of Mr. Seth Bardwell with three sons, William, Jeremy, and Salmon D. Mr. Seth Bardwell was killed by lightning. Mrs. Seth Bardwell was the daughter of Salmon Dickinson, the brother of Col. John Dickinson, the father of Gen. Lemuel Dickinson. This was by no means a new house as I remember it.
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
Next to this, on the corner of Main Street and Upper Lane, stood the house of Mr. Solomon Dickinson. It was a large square house and apparently new; it has since been burned. Mrs. Dickinson was a Huntington from Norwich, Conn. Mr. Dickinson was the son of Daniel Dickinson, Sr. Their children, with the exception of one daughter who died, still reside in Hatfield.
On the opposite side of Upper Lane, farther back from Main Street, in the house now standing there lived Mr. Elijah Dickinson, his wife, and two sons. Mrs. Dickinson died early and he afterwards married a daughter of Mr. Daniel Dickinson. After the death of Mr. Dickinson, Oba- diah, his eldest son, removed from town, and Norman, the younger son, who had been a cripple from his birth, died. Two children by his second marriage are still living, Nancy, the wife of Mr. Joseph D. Billings, and the son, Elijah, whom I well knew as a noble, generous-hearted young man, respected and beloved by all who knew him. He has been for many years an inmate of the Hartford Retreat. The general appearance of this house when I last saw it was much the same as when I first knew it.
In the next house lived Mr. Daniel Dickinson, his wife, his son, Daniel, Jr., and his two daughters, Lois and Nancy. His two other children, a son and a daughter, were married. Mr. Dickinson was the brother of Aaron and Roger; his wife was the daughter of Gideon and the sister of Joseph Dickinson. The house in which they lived stood on the site of the house now occupied by Mr. John Brown, and was burned many years since.
Next was a house consisting of one story and, as I re- member it, a pretty old house. It was occupied by David Wait, one of whose daughters, Lucinda, became the second wife of Elijah Bardwell, Sr. Jeremy Morton afterwards lived there and subsequently built the house in which his widow now lives. David Wait was a descendant of Benjamin Wait, and this home lot was the dwelling place of that heroic man on the 19th of September, 1677.
The next and the last house on the west side of the street was owned and occupied by Abijah Bliss, his wife, and three sons. Mr. Bliss came from Longmeadow. He was a cloth-
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ier and his shop stood near his house. Adjoining the place was the gate leading into the North Meadow.
Directly east of this gate, and very near it, was a one- story building facing the south, which, as I first remember it, was not used as a dwelling house, but afterwards was occupied by Roger Dickinson and his wife. At that time Mr. Dickinson lived in an old-looking, one-story house perhaps twenty feet to the northeast of this house, with his wife, and son, and possibly a daughter. Mr. Dickinson was a blacksmith by trade and in the Revolutionary war joined the British army, and was employed in shoeing horses. He named his son Loyal George, who removed to Leicester, where, after burying five wives, he left the sixth a widow.
The first lot on the east side of the street was granted to Hezekiah Dickinson, the son of Nathaniel, Sr., and the father of Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, the first president of New Jersey College (later called Princeton). He removed from Hatfield and died in Springfield in 1706.
The first house on the east side of the street, as I recol- lect, was the house lately occupied by Jeremy Bardwell. It was unpainted and looked old. The first occupants whom I remember were Heman Swift and his wife, three sons, and a daughter. The daughter became the wife of William Bardwell. The rest of the family removed from town many years ago.
In the next house which had two stories and was painted red, lived Mr. Joseph Dickinson, whose wife was a sister of Mr. Nehemiah Wait. He was the father of Mrs. Roswell Billings and of the first Mrs. Elijah Bardwell. At this time the occupants were himself, his wife, an unmarried son, and a daughter. Martha, the daughter, was a woman of more than ordinary mind, manifesting a strong desire for her own improvement and for the improvement of others, using all her privileges, however circumscribed, to the best advan- tage. It is reported of her that after finishing the tasks of the day, she would sit up far into the night reading and studying, and this self-denying application showed happy results in her superior culture and intelligence. Though she had not a long life her influence for good was not buried with her, but still continues. Caleb, the son, took
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down the old house and replaced it by a more modern structure.
The next house was that of Elijah Bardwell, the son of Seth and Hannah Bardwell, who lived here with his wife, the daughter of Joseph Dickinson, and two children. Han- nah, the daughter, married a Mr. Wright and removed to Deerfield, where she died. His son, Elijah, Jr., is still living. The house in which they lived has been removed to the Upper Lane, where it now stands. Between this and the next house there was, I think, a barn standing even with the street and a small red building used as a horse shed. The original owner of the Bardwell lot was Samuel Marsh, and the line between him and Nathaniel Foote was directly opposite the south boundary of the Upper Lane.
On the next lot stood the house which was occupied by the widow of Elihu Dickinson with two of her sons, Wil- liam and Silas. Silas died unmarried. William married a daughter of Lieut. Samuel Smith, and his son, William H. Dickinson, with his children are the sole representatives now living in Hatfield, of the Smith family, which was so numerous since my memory as to furnish on one occasion fourteen voters of that name. The old house has been removed into the Upper Lane and replaced by a very fine building. In front of the house there stood a very old buttonball, with a hole near the foot of its trunk so large that a good-sized boy could hide in it.
Lieutenant Samuel Smith lived in the next house with his wife, who was the sister of Daniel and Elijah White, and four daughters, and one son. These all with the exception of one daughter, who married William Dickinson, died in Hatfield unmarried. Mr. Smith was a very worthy man, the brother of Oliver Smith, and, I think, the oldest of the six brothers. The house showed little signs of paint and appeared to be considerably old. It is still standing. The original owner of this lot was Philip Russell, and it is the most northerly of the lots granted by the town of Hadley in 1661.
Ebenezer Morton lived in the next house with his wife, who was an Ingram from Amherst, and four sons and three daughters, all of whom with the exception of one unmarried daughter, who died in Hatfield, removed from town. The
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house, which was an old one, still stands, altered and re- paired. Mr. Morton served a term during the Revolution- ary war, and was present at the execution of Major Andre.
The house which now stands next to it was owned and occupied by Remembrance Bardwell, a blacksmith, son of Seth and Hannah Bardwell, with his wife, who was the daughter of John Allis, and their children, three daughters and two sons. One son and one daughter died in Hatfield; the others removed from town. His blacksmith shop stood a. few rods south of the dwelling house. The first pro- prietor of this lot was John Wells.
The next house was Mr. Silas Porter's. He was the son of James Porter and his wife was the daughter of Seth Graves, and a granddaughter of Col. John Dickinson. He was a shoemaker and a very worthy, industrious man. He had three sons and two daughters, all of whom but one, Theodore, removed from town. The house was by no means new and is now, I believe, occupied by his descend- ants. Mr. Porter obtained a pension for his services during the Revolutionary war. His shoemaker's shop stood a little south of the house.
Frederic Chapin, who came from Somers, Conn., had lived in the next house, but he died before'I was born. At my first recollection the house was occupied by his widow, with her two sons, Camillus and Frederic. The house was of two stories, painted red and appeared to be old. Frederic removed to New Jersey. Camillus lived and died in Hat- field, but no descendants of either are now in town. There was a large elm tree in front of the house, remarkable for its beauty. Some rods south of the house, on the line of the street, stood the barn belonging to the place.
Adjoining on the same line stood the barn of Perez Mor- ton, who lived in the next house a little further south. Mr. Morton was a son of Jonathan Morton, and his wife was a sister of Ebenezer Morton. He had four sons and three daughters, only one of whom has removed from town. An elder brother of Mr. Morton, Jonathan, lived with him. He was a man of a gentle, refined nature, fond of reading; small of stature, and of delicate health. I remember hear- ing him say that he had never seen a well day; yet by reg- ular habits, and in every way taking good care of himself,
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