History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 78

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 78

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Regular meetings are held the last Tuesday of each month.

THE VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY

was originally formed as the "Ornamental Tree Association," of which R. B. Hubbard was the first President, Oliver D. Hunt, Secretary, and A. R. Henderson, Treasurer. In 1877 the name of the society was changed to that it now bears. The objects aimed at are local village improvements, such as do not come within the purview of the eustomary town regu- lations. The officers are E. F. Cook, President ; D. W. Palmer, B. F. Kendrick, O. G. Couch, Vice-Presidents ; H. M. McCloud, Secretary ; O. D. Ilunt, Treasurer; W. A. Dickinson, O. F. Bigelow, E. P. Crowell, W. L. Montagne, M. N. Spear, Charles Deuel, L. J. Spear, Mrs. - Cooper, Mrs. Edward Tuckerman, Mrs. J. L. Lovell, Miss Laura Emerson, Executive Committee.

THE AMHERST GRANGE, PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY,

has been in existence as an organization for several years. The grange store, established by a number of stockholders of the grange, was opened March 1, 1877. The following are officers of the grange: Charles S. Smith, Master; William W. Smith, Overseer ; Levi Stockbridge, Lecturer ; H. W. Cook, Steward; H. E. Stockbridge, Assistant Steward; Il. L. Cowles, Chaplain ; P. D. Spaulding, Treas. ; E. T. Sabin, Sec. ; H. D. Dana, Gatekeeper ; Mrs. W. W. Smith, Ceres ; Mrs. E. T. Sabin, Pomona; Mrs. C. S. Smith, Flora ; Mrs. H. W. Cook, Lady Assistant Steward.

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.

There are two temperance organizations in Amherst, as fol- lows : the " Temperance Reform Club," George W. Newell,

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IHISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

President, and D. H. Bartlett, Sec. ; and the " Ladies' Chris- tian Temperance Union," Mrs. P. H. White, President, and Miss Kate Merrick and Mrs. E. E. Wheeler, Secs.

THE EAST HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY

was incorporated by act approved May 1, 1850, constituting " Alfred Baker, Edward Dickinson, and their associates and successors," a society by that name, " for the encouragement of agriculture and the mechanic arts," and authorizing them to " hold and manage real estate not exceeding the value of $15,000," and personal property of like amount. The meeting for a formal acceptance of the act and for organization was held Aug. 20, 1850, at which Joseph Smith, of Hadley, pre- sided, and Joseph Colten, of Amherst, officiated as secretary. By-laws were then adopted and officers chosen, as follows : Alfred Baker, Amherst, President ; Luke Sweetser, Amherst, Joseph Smith, Hadley, Paoli Lathrop, South Hadley, Josiah B. Woods, Enfield, Horace llenderson, Sunderland, Vice- Presidents ; James W. Boyden, Amherst, Secretary and Treasurer ; Edward Dickinson, Horace Kellogg, and Willard M. Kellogg, Amherst, Levi Stockbridge, Hadley, William Thayer, Belchertown, Benjamin Witt, Granby, Asa L. Field, Leverett, Executive Committee.

At a regular meeting held the same day it was voted " to accept the pair of North Devon cattle received from the Mas- sachusetts Agricultural Society ;" and further voted, on mo- tion of Moses B. Green, "that ladies be admitted to seats on cattle-show day."

The first " show" was held in Amherst, Oct. 30, 1850, and was an inspiring success in all its features. The records re- veal that "the number of working-cattle on the ground at noon was six hundred and thirty, and was the largest display ever made in this part of the State," and that " the artillery company escorted a long and respectable procession to the church, where Rev. George Cook made a prayer introductory to the excellent address of Professor Fowler." The dinner was capital, speeches good, and " the presence of many ladies gave new interest to the occasion." The show was held upon the " common" and the satisfying dinner served at the Am- herst House.

This society, though somewhat local in its organization, welcomes all localities to a generous competition at its annual exhibitions. The present officers are W. L. Warner, Sunder- land, President; Charles S. Smith, Amherst, Vice-President ; Moody Harrington, Amherst, Secretary; E. E. Webster, Amherst, Treasurer; E. F. Cook, Amherst, A. W. Stacy, Belchertown, H. C. Comins, Hadley, E. IT. Judd, South Had- ley, Asahel Gates, Pelham, Executive Committee; D. W. Palmer, Amherst, Auditor.

EDUCATIONAL.

Mr. Judd in his history of Hadley says, " The first vote of East Hadley relating to schools was March 13, 1749. A com- mittee was to hire three school-dames for three or four months, in the summer season, to teach children to read. Undoubtedly there were private schools before 1749, and some boys were sent to the Hopkins school. Samuel Mighill, an old school- master, resided in East Hadley in 1739. In 1753 there were to be three schools in the precinct,-in the north, middle, and south parts. The schools were long kept in private rooms. The first vote to build school-houses was in 1761, and they could not agree where to set them. In 1764 the precinct voted to build four school-houses, named north, south, west-middle, and east-middle. One was built near the llartling Stake .*

In 1780 there were to be six schools, and each was to be kept three months. There were six districts in 1809."

In regard to school-dames, he adds, " Females taught pri- vate schools, but were not often employed and paid by towns previous to the Revolution. They were commonly married women or elderly maids, and rarely young women, and they taught in their own rooms. Amherst hired school-dames to teach children to read, and perhaps girls to sew, in 1749 and 1752."

The late John Dickinson, born in 1757, said that " females seldom taught a public school in Amherst when he was a young man." And again, " Oct. 27, 1766, Josiah Pierce, the Hadley schoolmaster, began to teach school in Amherst, and he taught six months or more in a year for three years, half the time in each of the middle school-houses, which were then new. His pay was 32s., or $5.33, a month and his board. In winter evenings he kept ciphering schools a few weeks at Is. an evening. In cold months from 30 to 42 scholars attended his day school in Amherst, and in warm months from 15 to 30. Ilis family resided in Hadley. He sometimes preached in vacant pulpits gratis, or at 18 or 20s. a Sabbath. March 29, 1769, he dismissed the school for want of wood. Such things happened in other towns. In 1769 he lent three volumes of Dryden to Ebenezer Williams, a farmer in Amherst. Ile probably taught Latin if any desired, and in 1772, Wm. G. Ballantine taught Latin and English, and read theology with Mr. Parsons."t

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Previous to 1860 the schools of Amherst were not graded. Three, called North, South, and Centre High-Schools, per- formed each in part the functions of the more modern schools of that name. In the year named, the town, after some years of opposition and delay, voted to " grade the schools, with one high school at the centre," and the subordinate schools in various localities substantially as now, 1879.

The high-school building, now standing on School Street, was erected and made ready for occupancy in September, 1861, when 26 scholars were admitted .; Mr. Samuel J. Storrs was the first principal, and remained until the fall of 1862. Ife was succeeded by C. D. Adams, one termi ; J. G. Merrill, until the fall of 1863; E. S. Frisbie, until January, 1867; C. II. Parkhurst, from spring term, 1867, until the end of the school year, in 1869; W. J. Holland and A. H. Buek, each one term ; Harvey Porter, until the fall of 1870; E. C. Winslow, until the close of winter term, 1871; J. K. Richardson, until spring, 1872; Vincent Moses, three weeks ; H. B. Richardson, one year ; Arnold N. Heap, spring, 1873, one year ; C. II. K. Sanderson, two years ; George L. Smith, two years. Edward B. Marsh succeeded, and is now principal.

Buildings and Departments .- The public schools consist of eighteen departments, embraced within eleven structures, some of which are large and substantial. The buildings and departments are distributed in the town as follows : lligh School, School Street, a large and elegant brick building, contains the high and first and second grammar grades ; Amity Street School, of briek, contains first and second primary, and first and second intermediate grades ; East Am- herst School, on East Street, is of wood, and has one primary and one intermediate grade ; North Grammar School, Lever- ett Street, North Amherst, of wood, has a grammar and an intermediate grade; North Primary, West Pleasant Street, North Amherst, of brick, has one primary grade, and accom- modations for one other; City Primary, Northeast Street, North Amherst, of brick, has one department ; Mill Valley School, South Pleasant Street, of brick, has one primary and one intermediate grade ; South Green School, on South Green

* Mr. Judd, on page 413, makes this note: " The Hartling Stake was noted in East Hadley, and is several times mentioned. The records state in 1795 that it stood one rod east of the northeast corner of Lieut. Gideon Parson's house. That house was where Howe's public-house now stands, * near the northwest corner of the common. There was formerly a school-house not far from the Hartling Stake, and a pound." The public-house mentioned is now the " Amherst House."

* Written about 1860.

· + See Judd's Ilist., pp. 421 and 426.

# An interesting historical sketch of the Amherst high school was read before its alumni association in June, 1878, by Miss M. E. Harris. Vide Amherst Truns- cript of July 2, 1878.

249

HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY.

Street, of briek, has same as the preceding ; South Grammar School, Green Street, South Amherst, of wood, has one grammar department; Southeast School, on East Street, South Amherst, of wood, has one primary and one intermedi- ate department; Southwest School, on West Street, South Amherst, of wood, has grades like the preceding. Whole number of pupils, 654. Expenditures for school purposes for the years 1877-78, $9381.37, of which the sum of $0588.34 was for teachers' wages. School committee, Rev. Warren II. Beaman (Superintendent), Henry C. Nash, William B. Graves.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

Professor H. C. Nash has a select private school for young men at his residence on Mount Pleasant, north of Amherst " eentre." This residence is the " central edifice" of the once- renowned " Mount Pleasant Classical Institute," so famous in the school-days of Henry Ward Beecher, who, with hundreds of others, was there prepared for college. The long, low wings, formerly attached to the sides of the central building, have disappeared.

The Misses Howland have a select school of about thirty scholars; and Mrs. E. A. Stearns, widow of William F. Stearns, whose splendid gift of $30,000 secured to Amherst College her finest edifice,-the College Church,-conducts a small select boarding-school for young ladies, at hier residence, the " President's House."

LIBRARIES.

The North Amherst Library Association was formed by citi- zens of North Amherst, March 17, 1869, at a meeting pre- sided over by George Eastman. The following persons were then chosen an executive committee: George E. Atkins, George Eastman, James B. Roberts. Subscriptions were at once solicited, and the foundation laid for the present library of 641 volumes. For the first two or three years the number of books did not exceed 200.

Though not at first a free library, it was made such in 1876, when it was reorganized in conformity with the statute which requires that all libraries receiving aid from the town shall be free to " all the inhabitants thereof." The following officers were chosen by the new organization, and still continue to serve in their several capacities, having been each year re- elected : President, Harrison Ingram ; Vice-President, Almon E. Cowles ; Directors, Harrison Ingram, George E. Atkins, Henry W. Haskins ; Treasurer, Clerk, and Librarian, Forrester P. Ainsworth. The library receives annually $100 from the town.

The Amherst Free Library originated in a book club, formed in 1872, whose members contributed their individual private collections, or parts thereof, as a nucleus for a library. In the spring of 1873, at a meeting convened at the house of Dr. 11. J. Cate, one of the originators of the club, a three days' fair was determined upon, whose proceeds should, with whatever subscriptions could be obtained, form a book fund. The fair, which was held in the following October, netted $640. A meeting was then called and the present association formed, in which the annual membership fee was fixed at $5, and life- memberships at $25. A small association at East Amherst, pos- sessing about 200 volunteers, was absorbed by the new organ- ization, and its members admitted without payment of the regular fee. The library then contained, including recent purchases, about 750 books. The association was further strengthened by a stipulation on the part of twenty individ- uals to give yearly $5 each for five years. In addition, the town has appropriated annually $200 for this library. The number of books has now reached nearly 1800. The annual expenses are about $425.

The officers are E. A. Thomas, President; Levi Stockbridge, Vice-President ; H. J. Cate, D. B. N. Fish, P. E. Irish, L. II. Allen, J. A. Rawson, E. P. Crowell, O. G. Couch, HI. II. 32

Goodell, O. F. Bigelow, Managers ; S. C. Carter, J. L. Lovell, Auditors ; O. G. Couch, Secretary ; J. A. Rawson, Treasurer. The college library is mentioned in connection with the his- tory of the college.

AMHERST COLLEGE.

This celebrated educational institution is an outgrowth from Amherst Academy, whose origin and opening were synchro- nous with the events of the last war with England; but it was indirectly the result of the high moral and intellectual aspirations of the early inhabitants of this portion of the colony.

Fourteen years prior to the Revolution-Jan. 20, 1762-a portion of the people of Hampshire County memorialized the General Court, saying "that there are a great number of people of this county of Hampshire, and places adjacent, dis- posed to promote learning, and by reason of their great dis- tance from the colleges and the great expense of their education there, many of good natural genius are prevented a liberal education, and a large country filling up at the northwest of them, which will send a great number of men of letters." " They therefore pray for an act of the government constitu- ting a corporation with power to receive monies and improve them for setting upa seminary for learning, and that a charter may be granted to the corporation for the said seminary, en- dowing it with power to manage all the affairs relative to the same, and confer the honors of learning upon the students of the same qualified therefor."

This effort, though meeting with some encouragement and the favor of Gov. Bernard,% was bitterly opposed by the au- thorities of Harvard College, who took immediate, earnest steps to prevent the founding of " a college or collegiate school in Hampshire County, by charter from home (England) or else- where." This and kindred opposition, together with the pre- Revolutionary agitations which soon followed, defeated the movement.

While the people of Western Massachusetts deemed the founding of a collegiate institution somewhere within their borders a necessity, they were not agreed upon the question of location. Among the competitors of Amherst in this mat- ter, Northampton seems to have been the most formidable. The claim of the former was subsequently strengthened by the action of the Franklin County Association of ministers, who, having convened at the house of Rev. Theophilus Pack- ard, at Shelburne, May 10, 1815, resolved that " knowledge and virtue might be greatly subserved by a literary institu- tion situated in that important section of the commonwealth," -Hampshire County ; and further, that Amherst was the " most eligible place for locating it."+ Such influential en- dorsement, from a foreign source, did much to disarm the opposition to a location at Amherst ; but the projectors of the college were destined to see another and less ambitious insti- tution in some measure anticipate their action, and eventually prove the stepping-stone to full success. This was the Am- herst Academy. It was opened in 1814 and dedicated in 1815. Because of "opposition in Amherst and in the neighboring towns," arising in part from local differences and religious prejudice, the charter was delayed until 1816. Samuel Fowler Dickinson and Hezekiah Wright Strong were active agents in establishing the academy, as afterward the college. Other

* At the instance of Gov. Bernard a charter was prepared, Feb. 27, 1762, in- corporating Israel Williams and eleven others " a body politic by the name of the President and Fellows of Queen's College." This college was to be in Northampton, Hadley, or Hatfield, and in the latter place a building was in fact erected, which was called " Queen's College," and was described by those who remembered it as an " old gambrel-roofed school-house."

+ Besides Mr. Packard, the following ministers were present : Samuel Tag- gart, Josiah Spaulding, Jonathan Grout, Joseph Field, Thomas A. Wood, Moses Miller, Alvan Sanderson, and Josiah W. Cannon. Among other early efficient friends of Amherst who resided in Franklin County were Rev. James Taylor, of Sunderland; Col. Rufus Graves, Nathaniel Smith, and Dea. Elish Billings, of Conway.

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IIISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

citizens of Amherst appear upon the honor-roll of helpers in the times of adversity and of prosperity through which the academy and the college passed. Dr. David Parsons-the second pastor of the original church, formed in 1739-gave the land for the academy building, and became the first presi- ident of its board of trustees. The following were the original trustees : David Parsons, Nathan Perkins, Samuel F. Dick- inson, Hezekiah W. Strong, Noah Webster, John Wood- bridge, James Taylor, Nathaniel W. Smith, Josiah Dwight, Rufus Graves, Winthrop Bailey, Experience Porter, and Elijah Gridley.

A grant was made by the State to the academy of half a township of land in the district of Maine, upon condition that the town of Amherst should raise $3000.

Female students were admitted to this institution for the first ten or twelve years. The instructors were, in the main, able, and placed the academy on a par with, if not in advance of, the other academies of New England.

Dr. Parsons, Noah Webster, and Dr. Packard, with other prominent citizens, were often present at the regular public exercises. It is written that "once a year, at the close of the fall term in October, the old meeting-house was fitted up with a stage, and, strange to tell, in the staid town of Amherst, where dancing was tabooed and cards never dare show them- selves, reverend divines went with lawyers and doctors and all classes of their people to the house of God to witness a theatrical exhibition."

Other influences combined to place this institution in the front rank of academies,-chief among which were the com- parative cheapness of living, and the intimate, kindly rela- tions existing between citizens and students. The same pleas- unt relations continued after the founding of the college, and in considerable measure still exist.

The number of students at its most flourishing period was about 180, of whom nearly one-half were females. Here, in 1821, Mary Lyon, who became the founder of Mount Holyoke Seminary, pursued her studies. After the abolition of the female department, at or about the year 1825, when the char- ter was granted to Amherst College and the trustees of the academy ceased to be trustees of that institution, the academy entered on what is termed a " second period," and became chiefly a preparatory school.

The establishment of new schools in other places and the quickening of many already founded subsequently caused the decline of Amherst, in common with other unendowed acad- emies, by robbing it of non-resident patronage, and it was finally superseded by the present high school.

The able historian of Amherst College, after indulging in a pleasant retrospect concerning the old academy building, says : "This venerable and saered edifice was taken down in the summer of 1868 to make way for the grammar-school, west of the hotel* which now ovenpies the site. Amherst Academy did a great and good work in and of itself, for which many who were educated there, and not a few who were spirit- ually ' born there,' will bless God forever. But the best work which it did, and which it is believed will perpetuate its mem- ory and its influence, was the founding of Amherst College."+

The principal male teachers during the first period, in their order, were: Francis Bascom, Joseph Estabrook, John L. Parkhurst, Gerard Hallock, Zenas Clapp, David Green, and Ebenezer S. Snell. Lady teachers : Lucy Douglas, afterward Mrs. James Fowler, of Westfield ; Orra White, afterward Mrs. Dr. Hitchcock ; Mary Ann Field, afterward Mrs. Henry Mer- rill ; Sarah S. Strong, daughter of H. W. Strong, who became Mrs. McConihe, of Troy ; and Hannah Shepard, sister of Prof. Shepard, afterward Mrs. Judge Terry, of Hartford. During

the second period, Elijah Paine, Solomon Maxwell, Story Hebard, Robert E. Pattison, William P. Paine, William Thompson, Simeon Colton, William S. Tyler, Evangelinus Sophocles, Ebenezer Burgess, George C. Partridge, Nathan Gale, and Lyman Coleman were among the principal or assist- ant teachers.

CHARITY FUND AND COLLEGE.

The Franklin County Association, previously mentioned, having directed the public attention toward the founding of a college at Amherst, did not appear again as such in the steps subsequently taken. The "Charity Fund," which ulti- mately proved the immediate basis of the college, and was aptly termed its " sheet-anchor," originated in a movement by the trustees of the academy to add to the usefulness of that institution by securing a fund for the gratuitous instruction of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a desire to obtain a liberal educa- tion with a sole view to the Christian ministry."'

Notwithstanding the ability and zeal of the committee ap- pointed to raise the fund, they reported that " the establishment of a single professorship," as contemplated, "is too limited an object to induce men to subscribe." They recommended the founding of a separate institution, of a higher grade, but with the same object,-the education of young men for the ministry,-and framed a constitution and by-laws for the raising and management of a charity fund. This was ap- proved by the trustees, but more than this was needed, and that nothing less than the favor and support of Christian brethren generally. To secure these, the scheme was sub- mitted to a convocation, duly appointed, embracing the Con- gregational and Presbyterian clergy and lay delegates from the nearer counties, held in the church of the west parish of Amherst, Sept. 29, 1818. While for a time the location of the proposed institution at Amherst was warmly opposed, the delegates seem to have been finally convinced of the superior advantages of that place by the eloquent appeals of Samuel F. Dickinson and George Grinnell, Jr., the secretary of the con- vention. This body thereupon not only approved of the "Charitable Institution," but recommended the establishment also of a college, to be connected therewith, " possessing all the advantages of other colleges in the commonwealth, and that such preparations and arrangements be made as will ac- commodate students at the institution as soon as possible."

Thus supported, the trustees made quick work in raising the fund, and by the following July had secured subscriptions amounting in money and other property to $51,404.

At this period, the question concerning the removal of Wil- liams College to some more favorable situation-a subject seriously debated at intervals since 1815-was again actively pressed by the friends of that institution. This fact caused the trustees of the Amherst Institution to delay further action until the question of removal should be settled. They appointed a committee, Oct. 26, 1818, consisting of Rev. John Fiske, Noah Webster, and Nathaniel Smith, to confer with the authorities of Williams College. This resulted in the appointment by Williams College of a committee, who were instructed " to visit the towns of Hampshire County, and determine the place to which the college shall be removed, the trustees pledging themselves to abide by their decision, provided the requisite sum be raised." The claims of Amherst were presented be- fore this committee by Noah Webster, John Fiske, Rev. Ed- wards Whipple, Rev. Joshua Crosby, and Nathaniel Smith, a body duly constituted for the purpose. Their efforts did not avail. The committee were " unanimous in naming North- ampton as the most suitable place for the institution ;" but upon an appeal being made to the Legislature for permission to remove the college to that place, it was determined that the step was " neither lawful nor expedient," and so the project failed.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 78

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700