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 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
is now owned by Reuben Field Wells, a direct descendant, though the place has had many changes of ownership. In 1660 Field's family consisted of his wife and five children : Mary, aged 17, Zechariah, 15, John, 12, Samuel, 9, Joseph, 2. He continued his trading operations in Hatfield, then the Hadley west side, but the business was not very profitable and he made an assignment in 1664. He died June 30, 1666.
Of Richard Billings not very much has been discovered. He was in Hartford in 1640. His wife's name was Margery and they had one child Samuel, probably a man of mature years at the time of the settlement of Hatfield for the allotment was made to the two men together. Their place was on the east side of the street, the third house lot from the south end, and it has remained in the hands of direct descendants down to the present day, Mrs. Mary A. Bil- lings Dickinson owning the house on the original allotment.
Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., was a youth of seventeen when he came to Hatfield, if the record of his birth is correct, Aug., 1643. He was probably married at that time or expected to be soon, for he shared in the distribution of lands with the other heads of families. He was born in Wethersfield, where his father was a man of prominence, town clerk in 1645, representative in 1646-56. Nathaniel, Sr., removed to Hadley in 1659 and was made a freeman in 1661. He was a deacon and the first recorder, or town clerk. The homestead of Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., in Hat- field was the fourth from the south on the east side of the street, the lot on which the Sophia Smith house stands. He was made a freeman in 1690 and died Oct. 11, 1710.
Of John White, Jr., not very much is known. His father, Elder John White, who was born in Chelmsford, Essex County, Eng., probably before 1600, was a passenger on the ship Lyon which sailed from England, June 22, 1632, arriv- ing in Boston, Sept. 16; he settled in Cambridge. John White, Sr., moved to Hartford with Mr. Hooker's company and took a prominent part in the affairs of the town and of the South Church of which he was an elder. His name stands fifth on the list of Engagers to settle the Norwottuck plantations and he was one of the first Townsmen chosen at Hadley to "order all publick occasions." He returned
1
33
HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
to Hartford about 1670 and died about the first of the year 1684. John White, Jr., the third of the six children of Elder John, was buried in Hatfield, Sept. 15, 1665. His age is not known, but it was probably less than thirty-five years. His house lot was the next above that of Nathaniel Dick- inson, now owned by Daniel White Wells, who is not, however, a direct descendant. He was a man of some wealth and owned a house and land in Hartford, of which he retained possession after leaving that town.
These men and the others who soon came to aid them in establishing the town were for the most part men well along in years. It has been stated that the average age of all the persons who made the journey from Connecticut was thirty-three, but it must be taken into consideration that there was a large number of children, and few very old persons attempted the trip. From what has been said it will be seen that they were already experienced in the building and governing of towns. The founders of Hat- field were men in the prime of life, of maturity of judgment, and experienced in the work before them.
Comparatively few natural obstacles had to be overcome to prepare the chosen site for habitation. The region of the Connecticut valley was described by travelers who had explored it as a pleasant land. The general features of the country in the vicinity of Hatfield at the time the first settlers came were much the same as now. There was the same broad expanse of fertile meadow land near the river ; the same small streams, ponds, and marshy places, probably in about the same locations; the same upland plains with sandy soil; the same surrounding hills. The "great river" was probably much the same in appearance then as now, with its banks fringed with trees and bushes, its sand bars and stretches of sandy beach, its ever shifting channel and its destructive tendencies in time of flood.
These floods have been the cause of great changes in the bed of the Connecticut river since the settlement of its valley by the whites. A gradual wearing away of the bank on one side and addition on the other is constantly going on. The oxbow at the point known as the "Turn of the River" above Hatfield village was formed by the river cutting an entirely new course in 1862. The wear-
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
ing away on the Hadley bank and the gains on the Hat- field side have been particularly noticeable at the curve where the river swings to the westward at the north end of the Hadley streets. Judd writing in 1847 said, "Opposite to this grass meadow, the inroads of the river upon Hadley
THE CONNECTICUT RIVER AT HATFIELD.
have been destructive. The homesteads where some of the early settlers lived and died, the lands which they culti- vated, and the highways which they traveled, have been , carried away, and more serious consequences have been threatened."
The serious consequences threatened-the possibility of the river cutting off another oxbow and taking its course through the village-have been guarded against by the "rip-rapping" of the Hadley bank by the state authorities.
A similar protection on the Hatfield side was gained by the building of a dike in 1904 running from the street to the river on the lot given the town by Samuel H. Dick- inson and southward along the crest of the first elevation above the bank. Disastrous effects were feared from the strength of the current that flowed unchecked through the home lots on the east of the street at every time of high water. The opening back of John McHugh's house and the ditch across the lots were dug in 1706 to allow the
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
water to drain out of the lots back into the river, but it afforded an inlet as well as an outlet during floods. (See Appendix, Note 3.)
A large part of the wearing away on the Hatfield side from the ferry to Indian Hollow has been done within the memory of the men of the last two generations. The piece of land owned by Mrs. H. S. Hubbard a short distance below the Old Bridge Place contains only about four acres, whereas it was formerly fourteen. Bishop F. D. Hunting- ton, who died in 1906, stated that he remembered the time in his boyhood when the land between his father's barns in North Hadley and the river was less than half an acre in extent. On the opposite side of the river at that point five apple trees set fifty feet apart in a row running east and west have disappeared one after another in the water within the memory of men now living.
The Connecticut river abounded in fish in the early days so that its waters were an important source of food to the savages and the whites and also a source of considerable revenue before the dams were built across it. Salmon and shad used to come up the stream to spawn, the latter being so common that at one time they were not thought worthy of a place on the table and families surprised by unexpected guests would apologize if shad happened to be on the bill of fare. Often they were thrown contemptuously back into the water as "pumpkin seeds" are when hooked by the angler to-day.
It is not likely that Mill river, the Capawonk brook of Indian times, has changed its winding course to any appre- ciable extent since the first coming of the white settlers. Some of the swamps have been drained by the residents of the town and some ponds created by artificial means.
The clearing of forests was not a part of the work of the first settlers in preparation for establishing themselves in their new homes, for the meadows and uplands were kept free from underbrush and to a large extent of trees by the annual burnings by the Indians every November to check the growth of brush so that they could get about more easily to hunt and fish and to have cleared land for culti - vation. The fires once started were allowed to burn them- selves out and consumed the young forest growth for miles
1148957
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
around. It is doubtful if there was much timber within the present boundaries of the township, a reason for the specification in the Indian deeds of the right to cut trees for use. The forest growth now covering the hills at the
A VIEW IN THE MEADOWS.
west of the town and parts of the plains is of comparatively recent development.
The early settlers made stringent regulations against the unnecessary felling of any tree and the town of Hatfield
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
voted in 1671, the year after its incorporation, that no man should sell clapboards, shingles, or rails out of town, and coopering stuff was not to be delivered out of town unless made into casks. For white pine in any quantity they had to go as far as Northfield. Pine and chestnut and other soft woods could not stand the ravages of the fires, but there was probably a considerable quantity of oak and elm scattered about through the meadows, standing in clumps or as isolated trees. The swamps were heavily wooded, mostly with oak. The elm in front of the Congregational church that blew down in 1868 was probably there before the white men came.
The first white inhabitants adopted the Indian custom of annual burning to keep the unused land free from bushes, which became a source of great annoyance if allowed to grow unchecked. The practice was common throughout the colony and was continued till 1750 or later, when the danger from unlimited burning of the woodlands was finally realized and the practice stopped. The colonial govern- ment of Massachusetts in 1743 passed a law to restrain such fires because they impoverished the soil, prevented the growth of wood, and destroyed fences.
The intervals or meadows thus cleared by burning were ready for immediate cultivation and they were covered with a growth of native grass which could be cut at once for live stock. The early settlers deemed most desirable the grass from the low bottom lands, or as they called them "boggy meadows." Grass seed was not sowed for some years after the settlement and there are some parts of Indian Hollow to-day which perhaps have never been plowed and reseeded. That part of the meadow was the best for hay and commanded the highest price per acre of any land in town till 1862 when the disastrous flood of that year buried it deep in sand. The higher parts of the intervals were used by the first settlers for cultivated crops.
Few domestic animals were brought by the pioneers on account of the length and difficulty of the journey from Connecticut and their numbers increased slowly during the early years of the settlement. Cows and oxen were of course necessary, and some sheep and hogs were kept and
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
probably some poultry. Horses were not abundant and were not indispensable, for they were of little use except in the saddle, as there were no carriages in any of the valley settlements and almost all the farm work was done with oxen.
CHAPTER III.
A CHAPTER OF FOUNDATIONS. THE STREET AND HOUSE LOTS, DIVISION OF MEADOWS, MILL AND MEETING.
" They builded better than they knew."
First steps in the establishment of the west side plantation .- Laying out of street and assignment of house lots .- Names of the proprietors and subsequent changes in ownership .- Meaning of the term "estate."-Lumber used by first settlers and its preparation .- Building of the gristmill .- Division of the meadow lands .- The common land .- Fencing the meadows and house lots.
It was necessary for those of the Hadley Engagers who intended to take up their residence on the west side of the Connecticut to be inhabiting the spot by Sept. 29, 1661, to fulfill the terms of their engagement, and there was little delay about the matter. Following the lead of the six pioneers the other west side Engagers took definite steps to lay the foundations of their town. The purpose to have at first two villages of one town separated by the river as they had been at Hartford is evident, but later developments cannot be well explained except on the sup- position that in the minds of some at least was the plan for two distinct towns as soon as they were large enough. The fact that a majority of the west side Engagers were from Hartford has been pointed out in Chapter I. Many of those who came soon after the first settlement were from places other than Wethersfield and while the views of the settlers on both sides of the river were in general in accord with those of the pastor, Rev. John Russell, it seems a reasonable inference that some of his congregation early hoped to be able to have as their leader a more discreet and tactful man such as Mr. Hooker had shown himself to be. Mr. Russell had a successful pastorate in Hadley and was able and courageous, but he was engaged in many controversies and the last years of his life were embittered by a quarrel over the school funds. Agreement was made to have two ministers if necessary, probably one, as assist-
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
ant, to give his attention to the work on the west side of the river, but the Hatfield men, independent to the last degree, merely bided their time and when another minister was secured it was to be the settled pastor of the church of a town wholly free and independent. Rev. Samuel Hooker, son of Rev. Thomas Hooker, was preaching at Springfield and the settlers of the Norwottuck plan- tations appointed a committee in 1660 to "confer together and send propositions to Mr. Hooker about his removal to us." Under date of Dec. 12, 1661, this entry appears on the Hadley records :-
"The Inhabitants on the West side of the river proposing that there might be some of them added to the committee chosen for the looking out for another minister that soe they might be one with us, According to a former agreement :
"The town ordered that Gdman Meekins and Gdman Alice should be added to the committee aforesaid."
The negotiations did not accomplish anything and Mr. Russell continued alone in his labors in Hadley.
Jan. 21, 1660/61, a committee, consisting of William Westwood, Nathaniel Dickinson, Sr., Samuel Smith, Thomas Coleman, Peter Tilton, and Zechariah Field, was appointed "to lay out a tract of land on the West side of the river for houselots." The 4th of March, William Allis, Zechariah Field, Isaac Graves, Thomas Stanley, Andrew Warner, Philip Smith, and Samuel Porter were "to take a survey of the land on the other side of the river and as near as they can to equalize the apportionment of those that have taken up lots there; and the Inhabitants on the other side of the river are to remain there; and to make report to the town thereof; and if both parties cannot agree to a free choice then a lot to determine it."
The street was surveyed that spring or summer, probably without the aid of a compass. Its location was the same in width and extent as at the present day, running nearly north and south for the distance of a mile. A wide space was reserved near the south end for a common as was the custom in most New England towns, following the English practice. This helps to confirm the supposition that the likelihood of two towns was borne in mind by the founders. The street was ten rods wide through most of the part built upon at first. The upper end is now and probably was
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
then somewhat narrower, but for what reason is unknown unless it was to equalize the acreage of the house lots, keeping the frontage the same. Few of the house lots at the upper end were assigned till after the incorporation of Hatfield. They were probably staked out at the begin- ning, however, and reserved for later comers as was the case with the meadow lands when they were distributed. Some of these lots at the upper end were assigned by the west side inhabitants previous to their separation from Hadley.
The committee made allotments to 28 individuals of 192 acres on both sides of the street. All the lots on the east side were 16 rods wide except that of John Wells, which was 18 rods. The proprietors in order beginning at the south were Thomas Bull, Daniel Warner, Richard Billings, Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., John White, Jr., Edward Benton, Samuel Dickinson, William Gull, Samuel Belding, John Coleman, John Wells, Samuel Gillett, Philip Russell. The allotment of Thomas Bull was the place now owned by A. W. Morton at the corner of Bridge Lane and that of Philip Russell is part of the W. H. Dickinson estate, his north line being near the large buttonball tree in front of the Dickinson house. The width of the lots has not been changed much, though some of the homesteads have passed through several changes of ownership. The distance be- tween the south line of Thomas Bull's allotment and the north line of Philip Russell's was 210 rods with no highway to the east between. Fixed points to measure from are the north line of the Billings allotment and the boundaries of the John White, Jr., allotment, which are believed to be the same as when originally staked out. Both these home- steads, as noted in the previous chapter, have been passed down in the family, though not without change of name. After the lapse of 250 years there is not a single place that has been handed down from father to son in an unbroken line from the beginning.
The lots on the west side of the street varied somewhat in width. Those of Richard Fellows and John Cole were south of the highway to Northampton. They contained eight acres each. Eleazer Frary's allotment of four acres, six rods in width, was exactly in the middle of that side of
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
the street between the highway to Northampton and the Middle Lane, or Mill Lane, now School Street. It is now occupied by Roswell Billings. Many changes have been made in the original boundaries of the lots by subsequent transfers. South of Eleazer Frary's were the house lots of John Graves, Isaac Graves, Stephen Taylor, Ozias Goodwin, and Zechariah Field, each twelve rods wide and containing eight acres. North of Eleazer Frary's, allotments were made to Thomas Meekins, William Allis, Daniel White, Jr., and John Allis of eight acres, twelve rods in width, and to Obadiah Dickinson and Samuel Kellogg of four acres each, six rods wide. Above Middle Lane, for which eight rods were reserved, was the allotment of John Hawks of four acres and sixteen rods wide. The highway to Northampton was eight rods wide; the distance from the northern boun- dary of Hawks's lot to the southern side of the Northampton road was 158 rods, from the south side of Middle Lane to the north of the Northampton road, 126 rods. School Street is now only four rods wide, three rods having gone to the lot on which Smith Academy and the buildings west of it stand and one rod to the lots on the north of the street. The lots on the west side of the street ran back to Mill river as far as its course was north and south ; beyond that they had a depth of 80 rods. The boundary between the Academy lot and the Israel Morton place, the original allotments of Samuel Kellogg and Obadiah Dickinson respectively, has never been changed. Directly opposite their line was the boundary between William Gull and Samuel Belding.
The chart on the opposite page shows the location of the first house lots with the width of each and the location of the highways. Against the name of each settler is put his "estate." This did not mean the amount of his prop- erty. Some were undoubtedly possessed of more than the amounts set against their names and others had less, but as will be seen the estates ranged from £50 to £200, most being £100. The amount of each one's estate was set arbitrarily with the desire to secure a substantial equality among all the settlers and to serve as a basis for distribut- ing the land. Church members and freemen had no advantage over others. Thomas Graves had no house lot
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
Estate. Acres.
Rods wide. Rods wide.
Acres.
Estate.
16 Philip Russell
4
16 Samuel Gillett
4
18 John Wells
41/2
£100
4 John Hawks 16
16 John Coleman
4
100
Middle Lane or Mill Lane 8
4 Samuel Kellogg
6
16 Samuel Belding
8 100
4 Obadiah Dickinson 6
8 John Allis 12
16 William Gull
8
100
£100
8 Daniel White, Jr. 12
16 Samuel Dickinson 8
100
200
8 Thomas Meekins 12
16 Edward Benton 8
100
50
4 Eleazer Frary 6
16 John White, Jr. 8
100
100
8 John Graves 12
16 Nath'l Dickinson, Jr. 8
150
150
8 Isaac Graves 12
50
8 Stephen Taylor 12 16 Richard Billings
8
100
100
8 Ozias Goodwin 12
16 Daniel Warner 8
100
125
8 Zechariah Field 12
16 Thomas Bull 8 125
Highway to Northampton 8
150
8 John Cole
100
8 Richard Fellows
PLAN OF THE HOUSE LOTS IN HATFIELD ALLOTTED 1661-1670. Inclosure shows the line of first stockade, built in King Philip's War.
200
8 William Allis 12
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
and did not share in the distribution of the land as he was well along in years and lived with his son Isaac, to whose estate £50 was added. The monument erected in his memory by the Graves family in 1906 marks the spot where he had his home. One of his descendants, Mrs. H. L. Howard, now lives on the John Graves allotment.
What sort of houses were built at first is a matter of conjecture. Rude and hastily built shelters of logs are usually the first structures erected by pioneers and probably some log houses were found in both Hadley and Hatfield in the early days. However, in Northampton, a flourishing
ONE OF HATFIELD'S OLDEST HOUSES.
Built early in the eighteenth century, probably similar in style to those built earlier.
settlement seven years old in 1661, were plenty of sawyers and saw pits, so that some more substantial dwellings and perhaps also barns may have been built at the very begin- ning.
The scarcity of timber has been alluded to. White oak was used for framework, hewed and squared by hand. The use of pine as a building material did not seem to be appreciated by the early settlers in this region and many houses standing to-day which date back to colonial times
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
are framed and studded with oak. Oak seems to have been used in preference so that the scarcity of pine probably caused the first settlers little concern.
Boards had to be sawed by hand in a saw pit. The man who stood above and guided the saw was called the "top- man," and received a little higher wages than his fellow laborer in a pit below, who was called the "pit-man." Wages of 2s. and 2s. 6d. per day were common for this work and two men were expected to saw 100 feet of boards a day when the logs were hewed and drawn to the saw pit. Oak was the commonest material for boards also, chestnut, of which there was some quantity accessible, being used chiefly for fences. The price of sawed boards was very high. Judd says that before Pynchon built his sawmill in Springfield in 1667 they were 7s. per 100 feet, afterwards 4s. 6d. The edges of the boards were chamfered by hand to make a snug joint.
The side covering of houses and barns was in many cases clapboards nailed to the studs. They were split by hand like shingles and could be made much more rapidly and easily than boards. Any wood that could be split easily was called "rift timber" or "cleft timber." The wages of "rivers of clapboards" were regulated by law in some parts of the colony. Coffin's "History of Newbury" gives this derivation : "Clapboards were originally cloven, not sawn, and were thence called clove-boards, and in process of time cloboards, claboards, clapboards." They were of varying length, three to five or six feet, and made smooth by hewing or shaving.
There was probably no interior finish in most of the houses. Lath for plastering is rarely mentioned in any con- temporary accounts in the seventeenth century. The windows were closed with shutters, as glass did not come into general use till after 1700 on account of the difficulty of getting it. Possibly oiled paper or some similar material was used as a substitute. One of the settlers, Philip Russell, was a glazier by trade. He came to Hatfield about 1666.
The roofs were covered with split shingles two or three feet long. Barns and perhaps some of the houses at first were thatched. There was plenty of clay at hand for making bricks for chimneys or for laying up chimneys of
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
stone in clay. For hearthstones there was red sandstone in abundance.
The old expression "to mill and to meeting" is significant of many things. The corn mill and the meetinghouse were the first public structures necessary to the early set- tlers and they both ministered to wants which could not well be met without them. Public worship in Hadley was conducted on the east side of the river where the pastor, Rev. John Russell, lived and the first mill was set up on the west side. Negotiations for its building were begun in April, 1661, and in December after he had "expended con- siderable estate in building a mill" the town of Hadley voted to have all the grain ground by Thomas Meekins "provided he make good meal." In the same month prep- arations were begun to build a meetinghouse, but it was not raised until 1665 and probably not wholly finished until 1670. A house was hired in which to seat the congregation while the building operations were under way.
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