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 24
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he lived to be over ninety years of age. The house was painted a light yellow, but with the exception of its color presents much the same general appearance that it did sixty years ago.
Next to this house, on the site now occupied by Elijah Bardwell, Jr., was an old two-story house, in which lived Joseph, the eldest son of Perez Morton. He married a daughter of Joel Day and had two children, a son and a daughter. Some years after his death, his widow and chil- dren removed to New Haven, Conn.
The next house was owned by Oliver Smith and stood very near the site now occupied by Mrs. Joseph Smith's house. It was two stories high, painted red, and looked old and neglected. At different times private schools were kept in the house. I remember one taught by a Miss Childs, and another by the late Dr. Barstow of Keene, N. H. A family named Elderkin lived there many years since, but it was generally untenanted.
The next house was that of Dr. Daniel White, who kept it as a tavern many years ago. He was the son of Daniel, whose wife was Submit Morton, and his wife, who was living at my first recollection, was Lucy Allis of Somers, Conn. He afterwards married successively Lucy Burt of Longmeadow, Elizabeth, widow of Cotton White, and Sarah, daughter of Ebenezer Fitch. Dr. White had no children. The house, now owned by the children of his nephew, Elisha . Wells, is the same, but greatly changed in its appearance. I believe this to be the old White lot, the same originally allotted to John White, Jr.
The next house was that of Joseph Smith, but between that and Dr. White's was a barn, which stood at some dis- tance east from the street, and I suppose is still there, in the rear of the house built by Miss Sophia Smith and now owned by Mr. George Billings. Mr. Smith's wife was a sister of Elihu and Ebenezer White, who lived on "the Hill." Mr. and Mrs. Smith had three sons and four daughters. Of these all but one died unmarried, and that one, Joseph, Jr., left no children. Mr. Smith was a brother of Oliver Smith and the youngest but one of six brothers, who, with one exception, were married and had children, but none of the name are now living in Hatfield, and the number of those
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who have removed from town is very small. Three of Mr. Smith's children died before their father, Joseph, had re- moved from the homestead and lived in his own house, leaving this house occupied by the oldest son, Austin, and two maiden sisters. The homestead owned by Mr. Smith was originally allotted to Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., and the division lines, both on the north and south side, have never been changed. Sophia, the elder of the maiden sisters, was the founder of Smith College, an act which entitles her to the rank of a public benefactress. The greater part of the money which constituted the benefaction was amassed by her brother Austin. Mr. Smith, the father, having little education himself, placed a low estimate upon it for others. He gave his children very meager opportunities for mental culture, teaching them by his example that the chief object in life was to acquire property by industry and preserve it by economy. The grace of giving had no place in his teaching or example. Brought up in this way it is not surprising that his son became rich. This son had good natural abilities, with a quick and ready wit, and under favorable influences might have become a genial and generous man, but, devoting all his energies to the making and saving of money, he became narrow in the extreme and hostile to all public measures which involved any outlay of money. Like his uncle, Oliver, he always favored the smallest sum pro- posed for the use of public schools. I have known him to introduce resolutions in town meeting forbidding all instruction in those schools of any branches except reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. Fortunately, his in- fluence in town meetings was very slight. This brother with two surviving sisters remained in the old homestead, and having become somewhat advanced in life each made a will giving his or her property to the survivor. The younger sister died first, and the brother dying soon after left Sophia sole heir to a large estate. This was fortunate for the cause of education, as from neither of the others would there have been any impulse in that line.
Yet it would be a mistake to infer that Sophia Smith was a person of superior abilities, or that her education sur- passed or even equaled the ordinary standards of her day. Her opportunities for school education were slight, and
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during her early life she had access to few books. At a later period she availed herself of the advantages afforded by the Social Library, a well-selected, though not large, collec- tion of books, and from this source she acquired considerable information and a taste for improvement. She was con- scientious, felt deeply the responsibility attending the pos- session of wealth, and her need of counsel in regard to the disposition of her estate. She was at heart loyal to her native town, and when she had decided upon the establish- ment of a female college, she expected to locate the institu- tion in Hatfield. But those to whom she went for advice were of a different mind, some urging the claims of North-
HOUSE BUILT BY LIEUT. DAVID BILLINGS IN 1783.
ampton and some of Amherst, until she was finally per- suaded to locate it in Northampton; and it may be that circumstances in the future will justify this conclusion, which now seems so unsatisfactory to the friends of Hat- field. Miss Smith will also be remembered as the founder of an academy in Hatfield. She also gave the town five hundred dollars for the Library, although the benefits she had herself derived from it would have justified a much more generous donation.
The next house was built in 1794 [1783] by Lieut. David Billings, the granduncle of Mr. Joseph D. Billings, the pres-
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ent owner. It presented quite a modern appearance as I first knew it, being then some fifteen or sixteen years old. It has always been well cared for and its general appearance is about the same now as then, except that there was a balus- trade around the roof, which has been removed. Its occu- pants in my early days were the widow of Lieut. David Billings, who was a sister to the wives of Hon. John Hastings and Gen. Lemuel Dickinson and a daughter of Rev. Ephraim Little of Colchester, Conn .; Deacon, then Capt. Joseph Billings, his wife, a daughter of Capt. Elijah Smith, and Caroline, a daughter of John and granddaughter of Col. Oliver Partridge. Caroline afterwards married Theodore Partridge, son of Dea. Cotton Partridge, and removed to Phelps, N. Y., afterwards removing to Raleigh, N. C., where they died. This is the original Billings lot, which, with the Cowles lot, are the only ones remaining on the street owned by the descendants of the first settlers bearing the same name.
The next house, which still stands, though uninhabited, was the residence of Dr. John Hastings, his wife, three sons, and two daughters. He was the son of Hon. John Hastings and his wife was the daughter of Elijah Dickinson, Sr. Chester, the oldest son, lived and died in Hatfield. John, the second son, graduated at Yale College in 1815, and is now living in Onondaga, N. Y. The youngest, Justin, still lives in Hatfield and he and his daughter, Mrs. Silas G. Hubbard, are all that remain in town of the Hastings family. Mary, the elder daughter, married Dr. Chester Bardwell and re- moved to Whately; and Sophia, the younger, lives with her brother in Onondaga, N. Y. The gambrel-roofed one-story building south of the house was built by Doctor Hastings, and the north room was occupied by him for an office, while the south room was occupied by Israel Billings as a law office. I remember afterwards attending a school there (in the south room) taught by Parsons Cook. The first ther- mometer I ever saw, I believe the first ever owned in town, hung in Doctor Hastings's office. An addition was made on the east side of this building when it was transformed into a dwelling house. In 1672 Thomas Hastings of Watertown married a daughter of John Hawks of Hatfield, where, about that time, he settled as a physician; but so little were the services of a physician required in those days that, although
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his practice extended to Springfield, Deerfield, and Brook- field, he still had leisure to teach the town school. He was succeeded by his son, Thomas, both as a physician and schoolmaster. He had two sons who settled in Hatfield; one, Hopestill, was a blacksmith and father of Perez Hast- ings and of Seth, the father of Dr. Thomas Hastings, presi- dent of Union Theological Seminary.
Waitstill, the other son, succeeded his father as a physician in Hatfield and was the father of Hon. John Hastings, who lived in a house a few rods south of his son's office just described with his wife, Content Little, and three unmarried daughters.' He died in 1811. I remember to have seen him many times leaning over the front fence, wearing a cocked hat. His was the last of the cocked hats in Hatfield. The house was then old and gave but slight indications of paint, though I think it had been red. Within a few years it has disappeared. "Squire Hastings," as he was generally called, had four sons and four daughters. Two of the sons were physicians,-John, who settled in Hatfield, and Waitstill, who removed to Ohio. Of the other two, Ephraim removed to Heath at an early day, while Samuel remained in Hatfield to a later period. Only one of the daughters was married and she became the wife of Daniel Wait. Squire Hastings was for twenty-eight years either a member of the State Legislature or a member of the Executive Council and for thirty-four years a magistrate.
His son, Samuel, lived in the next house, on the corner of Main Street and the road to the bridge. This house was comparatively new and of a yellowish color. His wife was Lucy Andrews of Ashfield. Before leaving Hatfield they had seven sons, and a daughter was born to them after their removal to Heath.
On the opposite side of the bridge road stood the same house which now stands there, occupied by Dwight, a son of Dea. Cotton Partridge, with his wife, Betsey Sabin, and five or six children. They removed to Phelps, N. Y. This had been the home of John Dickinson, a brother of Gen. Lemuel Dickinson, who removed to the state of New York. The house, which is probably among the oldest in town, remains unchanged in its form.
The toll house, at the bridge, was a one-story building and was occupied by Simeon Smith with his wife, three sons, and
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three daughters. This bridge had a fine appearance and was built on four arches. Mr. Smith was the son of Simeon Smith of Amherst and a descendant of Samuel, who was the ancestor of Oliver Smith. He was a brother of Maj.
DOORWAY OF THE JOHN DICKINSON HOUSE.
Sylvanus Smith and of Asa Smith of Northampton, both at one time deputy sheriffs in Hampshire County. He was the first man to raise broom corn and manufacture brooms in Hatfield. In 1816 or 17 he removed with his family to Amherst.
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On or near the spot where the house of Mrs. Polly Graves now stands, looking up the street, there stood a house bear- ing marks of age, where lived Cotton White and his family, who are also the first whom I recollect as occupying the Jesse Billings house nearly opposite. It was an old Dickin- son homestead. The last of the family who owned it was Gen. Lemuel Dickinson, who, about the year 1806, removed with his wife, Molly Little, and four sons to Lowville, N. Y. His three daughters remained in Hatfield, Mabel, the oldest, being married to Samuel Partridge (my father), Polly to Israel Dickinson, and Sophia to John Smith. Col. John Dickinson,' the father of Gen. Lemuel Dickinson, lived on this place, where he died in 1799 in the ninety-second year of his age, and my impression is that his father, John, who was born in 1667, died here in 1761, aged ninety-four years. The estate was subsequently purchased by Obadiah Smith, son of Windsor Smith of Hadley, who built the present dwelling house and a store a little to the east of the house. This store has since been removed to the Meadow, where it is occupied as a dwelling house. Col. John Dickinson and Elihu represented the town in a Congress held at Watertown in 1775.
Of the forty-seven places on Main Street which I have above attempted to describe with their occupants as they were in my early childhood, only nine now remain in the same name and family; and of all the lots assigned in 1661, only two remain in the same family and name. These are occupied, one by Mr. Joseph D. Billings and the other by Mr. Rufus Cowles.
About midway between the Medad Field place and the Mill river, where the house of Mrs. William H. Hubbard now stands, Dea. Moses Warner lived in a two-story house which has since been burned. Mr. Warner was a descendant of Andrew Warner of Hadley, and his wife was the daughter of Elisha King. They were married in 1779 and the house was probably built about that time. Two sons, Elisha and Moses, and two daughters, afterwards Mrs. Hubbard and Mrs. Morgan, all remained in Hatfield and all died there, except Mrs. Morgan. Deacon Warner was a man highly esteemed in the church and community, and was regarded with esteem by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lyman.
John Warner, son of Deacon Moses, lived in a brick house
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on the opposite side of the street, and the house now pre- sents the same general appearance which marked it then. Mr. Warner's wife was a Miss Whiton from Berkshire County. They then had two children, but five were added afterwards. With the exception of one, who died young, and James, who now occupies the place, they all found homes away from Hatfield. The north side of Deacon Warner's lot was bounded on the west by Mill river, and from the point where the river turns to the west a fence ran south to the street. Sometime before his death, Deacon Warner ran a fence from the southwest corner of his lot to a point .on the river a little above the bridge, inclosing a triangular piece of the highway. The highway south of this road was much larger than at the north, extending south to his pasture a distance of several rods beyond the line of John Warner's front fence. In those days a kind of fine white sand was an important article to housekeepers, and this sand being found here a few feet below the surface, it was said that the town reserved this tract for the benefit of housekeepers.
The next house on the left, beyond the bridge, built by Deacon Church, is the same now occupied by Mr. James Porter, but at the time of which I write it was the residence of Col. Erastus Billings. His wife was Abigail Allis, daugh- ter of John Allis and Esther Partridge. Their three sons and a daughter were born there. The house appeared to be considerably old and showed no signs of paint. David Wait and his family lived there sometime after the removal of Colonel Billings, but the property passed many years ago into the hands of Maj. Jonathan Porter. Between this and the next dwelling stood a building which, after the town was divided into school districts, was used for a schoolhouse, and possibly it was so used previously.
Samuel Partridge, with his second wife and the two daugh- ters of his first wife, lived in the next house. He was gen- erally known as "Lawyer Partridge," was the son of Col. Oliver Partridge, and a graduate of Yale College. His daughter, Caroline, married Harvey Ely of Rochester, N. Y. His other daughter, Clarissa, married Sewall Sergeant of Stockbridge, to which town Mr. Partridge and his wife late in life removed, having sold the place to Mr. Ebenezer Graves. The part of the house which is now standing was built by Col. Oliver Partridge; the back part was built by
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Col. Samuel Partridge and was torn down by Mr. Graves when he took possession. The house is undoubtedly more than a hundred years old, as Oliver died in 1792. This is the homestead on which Col. Samuel Partridge settled after his removal from Hadley in 1687 and where he resided from that time until his death in 1740. He was among the ablest men of the colony. Savage and Judd both speak of him as being after the death of Colonel Pynchon the most influ- ential man in the western part of the colony; and he, to- gether with Colonel Pynchon and Colonel Stoddard [of Northampton], were known in Boston as the "River Gods." His son Samuel, my ancestor, returned to Hadley and settled on the property there. His son Edward remained in Hatfield. His grandson, my grandfather, Lieut. Samuel Partridge, was born in Hadley, but removed to Hatfield, where he was married in 1754. Col. Oliver Partridge was quite a distinguished man in his day. He was one of the representatives of Massachusetts in a Congress convened previous to the adoption of the Constitution, held many important offices, and in 1758 commanded a regiment belong- ing to the expedition for the invasion of Canada which took part in the battle of July 6, 1758, at Ticonderoga, N. Y., where the British were badly beaten by the French under Montcalm. William, the father of Col. Samuel, wrote his name Partrigg, but the form of the last syllable was changed during the life of Col. Samuel, and after his removal to Hatfield. The descendants of Col. Samuel of the same name are not numerous, but probably more than half bearing the name, or the blood of Dwight, among them President Dwight of Yale College, are descended from him.
The next house west was that of Mr. Levi Graves. It had a rather new appearance, more so than any other on "the Hill." Mr. Graves was a man of more than ordinary good sense and a successful farmer. He was a son of Capt. Perez Graves and a brother of Solomon and Timothy Graves. His wife was a Smith from South Hadley. His children were three sons and a daughter. The two eldest sons removed from town. The daughter married Silas Billings and died in Hatfield. The youngest son, Jonathan, resides on the old homestead.
Ebenezer Fitch lived in the next house. He came from Suffield, Conn., and his wife's name was Taylor. A son and
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two daughters lived with him; another daughter had been married to Sylvanus Smith. The son lived and died on the old homestead.
The next was the house of Mr. Silas Graves, who lived here with his son, Silas, Jr., and two daughters. Mr. Graves was a brother of Perez Graves. One of his daughters mar- ried Mr. Starkweather of Northampton, and the other be- came the second wife of Elisha Wait of Hatfield. The son died unmarried. Henry Hitchcock lived in the family and the place passed into his hands.
The next house was owned and occupied by Elihu White, a brother of Ebenezer White. His wife was Sarah Smith. Besides the three sisters of Mr. White living in Hatfield, he had three sisters who were married and lived in Vermont, and the wife of Senator Edmunds of that state is a grand- daughter of one of them. Mr. White had one son and three daughters. One daughter married Seth Kingsley and re- mained in Hatfield; the other children removed from town. The house was old, and is now occupied by Mrs. Packard.
The next house was owned and occupied by Mr. Solomon Graves. He was a son of Perez Graves and was highly respected in town. His sense of humor was somewhat remarkable, especially for those severe and earnest days. His wife was a sister of Abijah Bliss. They had four sons
and one daughter. The two eldest sons, Thaddeus and Solomon, lived and died in Hatfield. Ebenezer removed to Michigan. William, the youngest, died suddenly while a member of Williams College. He was a young man of bright promise, and died greatly beloved and lamented by all who knew him. The daughter married John Wells of Williams- burg. Thaddeus, the eldest son, died in the prime of life, and was a great loss, not only to his family, but to the town itself, for he was a citizen of enlightened public spirit and alive to all the best interests of the community. He cher- ished high standards and was always on the side of right. The general appearance of the house, which is now occupied by his grandson, Thaddeus Graves, son of Solomon, Jr., is not materially changed.
Between this and the Northampton line, on the same side, there were but two dwellings. One, near the meadow gate on the road leading to Little Ponsett, was the house of a colored man named Jason and his wife, Orin. The other, at
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some distance, and almost to the Northampton line, on the land now owned by James Warner, was the home of Michael Kelly, an Irishman, who married the daughter of Henry Wilkie, Sr., and in a few years left for New York.
Having reached the boundary of the town, we cross the road and, going castward to the fork of the roads, come to a small house, where lived Thomas Banks and his wife, Sarah. "Tom," as he was generally called, was somewhat of a character about whom many anecdotes are related. I don't know whence he came, but when a boy he lived with "Clerk" Williams. This gentleman, with his wife, was on one occasion about to leave home for a few days and gave Tom particular instructions for taking care of the garden, and, as they drove away, Mrs. Williams called out from the carriage, "Tom, don't you leave a green thing in it." On returning they found that this last charge had been obeyed to the letter, all trace of vegetation having disappeared from the garden. Mr. Williams, who had borne a great deal from Tom, thought this was a little too much, and proceeded to tie him up preparatory to whipping him. By way of pre- paring Tom's mind to profit by the discipline, he said, "Now, Tom, if you had such a boy, what should you do with him?" To which Tom, with great presence of mind, quickly replied, "Mr. Williams, I should try him once more." Tom was at the battle of Bunker Hill, but is reported to have shown the white feather, and left the field early in the engagement.
Going north from this place, at no great distance, we come to the house occupied by Ebenezer Dwight and his brother, Daniel Dwight. The family of Ebenezer consisted of his wife, two sons, and three daughters, one of whom married Erastus Knight. Ebenezer, the eldest son, married a daugh- ter of Silas Porter and died in Ohio. William married a Miss Sadler of Williamsburg, and lived and died on the home- stead. Daniel Dwight was unmarried and had previously been in trade with Lieut. Samuel Partridge.
Further on, though I do not remember its exact location, stood a house said to have been occupied by Gen. Israel Chapin, before his removal to Canandaigua, N. Y. It was then called the "Pest House," having been used for smallpox patients.
Returning now to the Northampton road, and going east a short distance, we come to a house on the left hand side
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occupied by Joseph Smith, known familiarly as "Wicked Joe," to distinguish him from another townsman of the same name. A son lived with him, named Joseph. They only remained a few years.
A short distance farther on lived a colored man named Pedro Fenimore.
The next house to the east, and standing directly opposite the house of Solomon Graves, was owned and occupied by Phineas Graves. It had an old appearance and had been owned and occupied by his father, Seth Graves, who was the brother of Silas. His family consisted of his wife, who was a Pomeroy, a son, and a daughter. He died when I was very young, and his family removed from town. The place is now owned by Jonathan D. Porter.
The next house was owned and occupied by Timothy Graves, the son of Perez, who also lived there. His family consisted of his wife, who was a Graves from Middlefield, three daughters, and two sons, who all lived and died in Hatfield except one daughter, who married and went to Maine. The house is still standing and must be a hundred years old, perhaps more. One of the daughters married Henry Hitchcock.
The next house was that of Ebenezer White, brother of Elihu White, Jr., and was kept by him as a tavern. His wife was a sister of Elijah Dickinson and they had five daughters and two sons. The three eldest daughters married and re- moved from town, while the two younger married and remained in Hatfield. Only one of the sons married, and both lived and died in Hatfield.
Next lived Dea. Jonathan Porter, whose wife was Ruth Chapin of Somers, Conn. He had four sons and four daugh- ters. Reuben, the eldest son, removed to Heath. Jonathan, Jr., married Electa Allis. Chester married Rachel Smith, and both lived and died in Hatfield. Samuel died unmarried. One daughter married John Graves, son of Seth Graves, and removed to Williamsburg. The house, though much changed, is still standing and occupied by Mr. Henry Porter. Mr. Porter was for many years a deacon in the church, and was much respected.
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