History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 91

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 91

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The manufacture went on in this way by hand, employing thousands of busy and skillful fingers in a constantly-extend- ing circle of private families, and rewarding their industry with a corresponding increase of the comforts and elegances of life, for ten or a dozen years, when Providence opened the way for a still greater improvement and enlargement. In one of his visits to New York, Mr. Williston found there some buttons of English manufacture, made without thread, with- out needle, and, I had almost said, without fingers,-in short, manifestly made by machinery. He took these buttons to the Messrs. Joel and Josiah Hayden, who were then just begin- ning to be known as ingenious and enterprising mechanies in Williamsburg, and proposed to furnish the capital, sell the goods, and divide the profits equally if they would discover

the process, get up the machinery, and manufacture the but- tons. They entered with characteristic zeal and energy upon the experiment, and worked on patiently with hands and brains for years before their labors were crowned with com- plete success. It was a full year before they could make a button. When they had succeeded to some extent, they de- rived great assistance from a colored man who had been an employé in an English factory and knew the machinery and the process.

The perfecting of this machinery, and the successful carry- ing on of the manufacture, made the fortunes of both parties. It was the making-it was at least the beginning-of Hayden- ville. It has since done the same service for Easthampton.

It was when he was a little over forty that Mr. Williston began to lay " foundations" and build not only for himself, but for his native town, and for the larger publie. In 1837 he bore a prominent part in the erection of the house of wor- ship now occupied by the First Church in Easthampton. In 1841 he established Williston Seminary. In 1843 he built his own house. Early in 1845 he founded the Williston professorship of rhetorie and oratory in Amherst College. Later in the same year he spent six months in traveling in Europe. In the winter of 1846-47 he founded the Graves professorship-now the Williston professorship-of Greek, and one-half of the Hitchcock professorship of natural theology and geology in Amherst College, thus making in all the sum of fifty thousand dollars, which he had already given for per- manent foundations in that institution.

It was in 1847 that he removed his business from Hayden- ville to Easthampton.

Mr. Williston has filled not a few posts of honor and trust. Hle was a member of the Lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1841, and a member of the Senate in 1842 and 1843. He was elected to the Legislature as an anti-slavery Whig, and might doubtless have continued to occupy and adorn public life if he had not, after three years' legislative service, declined a re-election. In polities he has always been known as belonging to the school of progress and reform.

While a member of the Legislature, in 1841, he was chosen by that body a trustee of Amherst College. For thirty-three years, and throughout one entire generation, he has not only been a member of the corporation, but during the larger part of these years a member also of the Prudential Committee, and often of special committees on buildings and business matters of the utmost importance, and until the recent failure of bis health he was from principle an unfailing attendant of ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the board, and un- sparing not only of his money, of which he gave during his life a hundred and fifty thousand dollars from time to time as it was wanted, and would do the most good, but also of his time, which, for a man of business and wealth, it is often far more difficult to give than money. For the same number of years he has been not only trustee, but president of the trustees, of Williston Seminary, and with only two exceptions-the one occasioned by sickness, and the other by absence from the country-he has presided in all the meetings. He has been the acting treasurer also of the seminary, and has watched over all its external and internal affairs with the same wise and careful personal supervision which he has given to his business. Appointed by the Governor and Council one of the first trustees of the State Reform School, when that office was no sinecure, he was of great service in erecting buildings, im- proving the farm, and inaugurating the institution. He was one of the first trustees of Mount Holyoke Seminary, of which he helped to lay the foundations, and in which he ever felt a lively interest. Ile was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and for many years as constant in attendance on its meetings as he was in contributions to its funds.

The business corporations, manufacturing companies, banks,

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IHISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY .-

railways, gas and water-power companies in Easthampton, Northampton, Holyoke, and elsewhere, in which he was a leading corporator, and usually president, are too numerons to mention.

Mr. Williston's domestic life was marked by great trials as well as great blessings, and had a most important bearing on his character and history. For four years after their mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Williston lived without children. In 1831 they lost two children, then three and a half and one and a half years old, by scarlet fever. In 1837 they were called to experience the same deep affliction again in the loss, and by the same disease, of two children who had reached the age respectively of five and a half and three and a half.

With his high intellectual endowments he united that in- tegrity and fidelity to all his engagements which alone can inspire confidence, and therefore which alone ean insure last- ing prosperity.

Mr. Williston died July, 1874.

The aggregate of his charities in his lifetime must have exceeded a million of dollars. Ilis will provides for the dis- tribution of from one-half to three-quarters of a million more. Considerably more than half of this magnificent sum he gave to two institutions.

HORATIO GATES KNIGHT,

son of Sylvester and Rachel Lyman Knight, was born in Easthampton, Mass., March 24, 1819. His boyhood was passed in his native town, where he was edneated at the common and seleet schools. In 1841 he commeneed business as a partner of the late Samuel Williston in Easthampton, and continued in business with him more than thirty years. During this time Mr. Knight resided at Easthampton, although having a mereantile house in New York City.

In political matters he has affiliated with the Whig and Republican parties. He has ever manifested a decided interest in the political issues of the day, and has held many offices within the gift of his fellow-citizens. In addition to holding various town offices, he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1852-53, Massachusetts Senate in 1858-59, Massachusetts Executive Couneil in 1868-69, and was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts in the years 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878.

He was chosen as a delegate to the convention that first nominated President Lincoln at Chicago, and to the conven- tion that nominated President Grant the second time at Phil- adelphia. Ile was appointed by Gov. Andrew in 1862 " com- Inissioner to superintend the drafting of militia ;" by Gov. Washburn in 1873 as " Massachusetts commissioner to the Vienna Exposition ;" and hy Gov. Talbot in 1879 as " mem- ber of the Massachusetts Board of Education."

He is president of the First National Bank of Easthampton ; president of the National Button Company of Easthampton ; president of the India-Rubber Thread Company of Easthamp- ton ; president of the Northampton Institution for Savings ; director or trustee of various other corporations or institu- tions in Easthampton and Northampton; trustee of Williams College, Williamstown; and trustee of Williston Seminary, Easthampton.

He was married in New York City, Sept. 28, 1841, to Mary Ann Huntoon. Their children have been as follows : Alice, Luey, Mary, Horatio Williston, Charles Huntoon, Russell Wright, and Frederick Allen.

During the rebellion Gov. Knight was very active in pro- moting enlistment, and spent much time and money in filling the quotas of this section and aiding soldiers' families. HIe has ever taken a deep interest in the prosperity of his native

town, and every movement looking toward the welfare of town, county, or State has received his earnest support.

EDWIN R. BOSWORTH

was born March 16, 1826, in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., Mass. In the same town his grandfather, Peleg Bosworth, lived and died. His father, Peleg Bosworth, a prominent con- tractor and builder, was born in the same town in 1778, and died in 1829. His mother was Susanna, daughter of Chase Rounds, of Rehoboth. Edwin R. was the youngest of twelve children, and passed his boyhood at home on the farm, attend- ing the distriet school during the winter. When he was seven- teen years of age, in 1843, he left home and went to Provi- dence, R. I., where for two years he worked, learning the business of a carpenter and joiner. In 1845 went to Fall River, Mass., and remained there one year. In 1846 he re- moved to Palmer, Mass., and worked as a journeyman until 1850, when he commenced business for himself as a carpenter and builder. During this period, with others, he built the Baptist church and the New London and Northern Railroad depot. In 1854 he discontinued business in Palmer, and spent a portion of that year in travel, looking over the West, with the intention of finding a suitable place for his business. Failing in this, he returned to Massachusetts, and in the summer of 1855 was in Amherst superintending the creation of the fine Appleton Cabinet building, and at that time the elegant resi- dence of Prof. Thekerman, of Amherst College. In 1855 he removed to Easthampton, where he still resides, and has wit- nessed the remarkable growth of that town. At the time of his arrival this had just begun, and he was soon recognized as an honest and thorough builder. Important contraets were given him, and from that day he has been prominently iden- tified with the building interests of this and other towns ; was superintendent, builder, and assistant architect of the town-hall of Easthampton ; builder of the Methodist church, the gymnasium, and North Hall of Williston Seminary ; arehi- tect and builder of the First National Bank building, the high- school building, many of the large mills, business blocks, and private residences, among which are the residences of E. T. Sawyer, E. H. Gale, II. L. Clark, J. E. Clark, and F. J. Gould ; also built the fine residence, on Park Street, of Hon. E. H. Sawyer. In Northampton he built the First National Bank building and the residence of William B. Ilale, its president.

To his original business as architect, builder, and dealer in lumber he has added civil engineering, and from 1873 to 1876, while still condueting his business in Easthampton, was connected with C. W. Richards in the Inmber business in Springfield.

Mr. Bosworth married, May 20, 1849, Hannah E., daughter of Nathan Barron, of Lyndon, Vt. By this union he has had four children, two of whom are living,-Frank E., born Aug. 4, 1853, in Palmer, and Susie B., born April 6, 1866, in Easthampton. His son, Frank E., is now on the editorial staff of the Boston Globe.

Mr. Bosworth is a self-made man. Prompt and ener- getie in all contraets intrusted to him, he has won a repu- tation as a contractor and builder second to none in this sec- tion. Although his business affairs have been of an onerons nature, he has found time to assist in all measures tending to the advancement of the interests of Easthampton, and is at present a selectman, a justice of the peace, director of the National Bank of Easthampton, and a trustee and member of the finance committee of the savings-bank. His political sen- timents are Republican, and he has always aeted with that party.

6 1

WILLIAM N. CLAPP.

William N. Clapp is the descendant in the seventh generation of Roger Clapp, who came to this country from Englaud in 1630, settling in Dorchester, Mass. There be married Miss Joanna Ford, daughter of Thomas Ford, of Dorchester, England, who, with her parents, came over in the same ship with himself.

Roger Clapp was appointed by the General Court, in August, 1665, captain of the Castle (the principal fortress in the province), which position he held for twenty years, and was universally respected and honored. He also held various other offices, both civil and military. In 1686 he removed to Boston, where he died in 1691, in the eighty- second year of his age. His wife died in 1695, in her seventy-eighth year. By this union there were fourteen children, one of whom was Preserved, horn Nov. 23, 1643, who married Sarah Newberry, of Wind- sor, and settled in Northampton. He was a captain of the town, a rep- resentative in the General Court, and ruling elder in the church, and died from the effects of a gunshot wound received from an Indian. Hle had seven children, one of whom, Roger, was the father of Maj. Jonathan, one of the first settlers of Easthampton, who removed to that towa ahout 1730. He was a man of great energy, and was very prominent in the early history of the town. He had three sous and eight daughters. The youngest son, Quartermaster Benjamin Clapp, was born in 1738, and married Phebe Boynton, of Coventry, Conn.

He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1815, at the age of seventy-sevea. IFis wife died in December, 1847, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-seven years. She retained her activity, hoth of body and mind, till the last year of her life. There were born to theu fifteen children. The eighth was Solomon, the father of Wil- liam N. Clapp, who was boru in Easthampton, Sept. 2, 1782, and died Nov. 25, 1827. He was a farmer, and lived on the place occu- pied by his father. He married Paulina Avery, daughter of Abner Avery, of Northampton, who was a native of Wallingford, Conn .; was in the Revolutionary war, holding the rank of lieutenant; removed to Northampton in middle life; lived there a number of years, and removed to Easthampton, living the last years of his life with a son, and died in 1836, aged eighty-eight.

There were ten children by this marriage, of whom William N. Clapp is the second sou. He was born in Easthampton, Nov. 3, 1810.

Mr. Clapp spent his hoyhood at home, receiving his education io the public schools, and attending one term at the Hopkins Academy, in Hadley, Mass. In his seventeenth year his father apprenticed him to a jeweler and watch-maker, in which position he remained but a few months, when he returned home in consequence of the death of his father.

la the winter of 1829, beginning in December, Mr. Clapp taught

l'hoto. by Hardie & Schadee.

Milliany. M Clup

a district school in Sooth Amherst, Mass., and again, in 1830, in West- hampton, Mass., and, in 1831, in Grafton, Worcester Co., Mass. He then chose the calling of a farmer, which he has steadily and success- fully followed to this time, 1879.

Mr. Clapp is a member of the Payson Congregational Church of Easthampton. He is a firm supporter of the publie-school system, and is warmly interested in all educational matters.

Politically he was first a Whig, afterward a Republican, and at present is independent, supporting such men and measures as hest meet his views. lle is not an office-seeker, and is represented by those who know him well as heing an inveterate hater of rings or combinations, and as having the courage to support such measures as he deems for the best good of the community ; advocating retrench- ment and economy, and heing a positive man, he adheres somewhat tenaciously to this line, regardless of the effeet upon his popularity, but is ever deferential and courteous.

Mr. Clapp has held various offices. Was a justice of the peace for twenty-one years, declining a renewal of his commission ; was col- leetor and treasurer of the towu from 1839 to 1854. 1Te was col- lector and treasurer of the first parish from 1839 to 1853, ceasing to act in that capacity upon the formation of the Payson Society. Is a trustee of the Easthampton Savings Bank.

Mr. Clapp has been married three times. His first wife was Try-

phena Janes, second daughter of Parsons Janes, of Easthampton. Her grandfather was Jonathan Janes, a soldier in the French-and- Indian wars, and was present at the surrender of Louisburg, July 26, 1758. Mrs. Clapp died July 29, 1847. Their children were four in number: Sarah Eugenia, was educated at Williston and South Had- ley Seminaries, and for ten years has been a successful teacher in the public schools of Ohio and Massachusetts. William Edgar, served during the war of the Rebellion in the 52d Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers ; was at the siege of Port Hudson, and has a good army record. Solomon Parsons, was a farmer, and died in 1872, leaving a widow and two children. Eliza Tryphena, became the wife of George W. Guilford, and died Feh. 18, 1879, leaving one daughter.

Mr. Clapp married (second) Emily Janes, sister of his first wife, Jan. 4, 1848. There were by this union two children,-Emily Maria and Harriet Ellen,-both of whom are at present attending the Mount Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass. Mrs. Clapp died Nov. 8, 1861.

His present wife was Prudence T. Wait, daughter of Charles Wait, of Easthampton, and formerly of Williamsburg, whom he married Oct. 1, 1862. ller grandfather was Joseph Wait, of Williamsburg, Mass., a Revolutionary soldier. By this marriage there have been born to them two children, hoth of whom are dead.

JOSEPH W. WINSLOW, M.D.

This gentleman is of Puritan descent, and traces his ancestry far back into England to Edward Winslow, of Droitwich, England. From an old record the writer finds the following ancestral line : " Kenelin, a younger brother of Gov. Edward Wins- low, who landed at Plymouth, Mass., from the ship ' Fortune,' in 1621, was his first American ancestor. 2d, Lieut. Job. 3d, Dr. Richard W. 4th, Capt. Hezekiah W. 5th, Ezra Winslow, married the sister of Alden Spooner, printer of the first news- paper in Vermont. He was a man of sterling in- tegrity, and strictly religious. He was a staunch

royalist, hence the name of George Rex, his son," father of Dr. Joseph W. Winslow.

Joseph W. Winslow, son of George Rex Winslow and Lucy Clark Winslow, was born in Barnard, Vt., March 8, 1820. Here he remained until seventeen years of age, attending the village school and the high school at Rochester, Vt. His father, in the mean time, had removed to Ware, Mass., whither young Winslow subsequently followed, and attended the high school at that place.

He decided upon the medical profession as his life-work, and spent four years in the study of medi-

D. H. Winston m.D.

cine, principally under the preceptorship of Prof. Gilman Kimball, of Lowell, Mass., the last being as demonstrator of anatomy for him; and at the United States Marine Hospital at Chelsea ; and in 1845 graduated at the Berkshire Medical College with honor. He began the practice of his chosen pro- fession at Enfield, Mass., where he remained about twelve years, and then removed to Easthampton, where he has since been engaged in active practice.

He was coroner in Easthampton when the office was abolished, and was subsequently appointed by the governor medical examiner for Hampshire Co.

May 13, 1857, he united in marriage with Emily B., daughter of Dr. Jared Bement, and adopted

daughter of her uncle, Edward Smith, of Enfield. They have two children,-Susie E. and Edward S.

Dr. Daniel Thompson, of Northampton, speaking of Dr. Winslow, says : " He is considered by his professional brethren as a true man, whose integrity could not be questioned. Professionally, he is of quick perception, sound judgment, and has more than ordinary attainments in both the practice of medicine and surgery, and his professional application of means to ends have uniformly been judicious."

Dr. Winslow enjoys the confidence of his fellow- citizens in a remarkable degree, and has a large and remunerative practice. Politically lie is a Republi- can, and religiously a Congregational Trinitarian.

WESTHAMPTON.

GEOGRAPHICAL.

WESTHAMPTON lies principally west of the town of North- ampton, and centrally distant from the court-house about seven miles. Its figure is more regular than that of any other town in the county, the outlines forming a slightly oblique parallelogram. It is hounded north by Chesterfield and Wil- liamshurg, east by Northampton and Easthampton, south by Southampton, west by Huntington and Chesterfield. The farm acreage reported in the census of 1875 is 15,817 acres, or nearly twenty-five square miles. The town is a part of the original Northampton traet, and the title is traced back to the treaty conveying the land from the Indians to the first propri- etors. The following vote upon the records of Northampton appears to indicate an early division of a large part of what is now Westhampton among the proprietors their heirs, or assigns :

"Jan. 20, 1714, voted to throw up three miles of the west end of the westwardly division of commons, and to lay said three miles into two ranges; and each proprietor shall draw again for the said three miles, and to draw by the same rule as before, except some persons who were left out, who are then to have a draught."

This tract was known as Long Division. This was nearly fifty years before there was any attempt at settlement. The Northampton records are lost for a period of twenty-two years, covering the time of the first settlement of the Long Division.

Many facts of interest were doubtless recorded at that time which are not now obtainable.

NATURAL FEATURES.

The town is drained to the southeast in a general sense, and mostly by tributaries that unite to form the north branch of the Manhan River. These are Turkey Brook, Sodom Brook, and other streams. In the southwest part of the town, however, are found some small rivulets that, with others flowing from Huntington, form the south branch of the Manhan. In the northeast there are also found the head-waters of Roberts Meadow Brook, a stream that finally unites with Mill River at Leeds, in the town of Northampton.

The east branch of the Westfield River touches the north- west corner of Westhampton. In the north part of West- hampton, then, these three river-systems-the Manhan, the Westfield, and the Mill River-have some of their sources very near each other, the high hills along the Chesterfield line forming the water-shed of the three valleys. West- hampton may fairly he called a mountainous town. There are several distinct elevations with special names. Along the western side are Canada Hill, Spruce Ilill, Gob IIill, Break- neck Mountain, and Red-Oak Hill. In the centre, north of the village, is Tob Hill. Southeast of the reservoir is the eminence known as Hanging Mountain, and near the middle of the east side of the town is Turkey Hill. The names of two of these are evidently derived from the timher upon them, and a third from the number of wild turkeys found there origi- nally, and even within the memory of some now living in town.

There is a story that some cattle were onee killed by falling over a precipice on the hill known as Breakneck. The names of the others are more obscure, though vague tradition assigns Tob and Gob to certain reminiscences of Indian location.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The territory now included in the town of Westhampton, though only a few miles distant from the Connecticut River, and though it was an actual part of the town of Northamp- ton, remained unsettled for more than one hundred years after the commencement of the settlements at Northampton, ITatfield, and Hadley. Early pioneers pushed out into East- hampton and Southampton forty, fifty, and sixty years before any one ventured to seek a home amid the hills of the Long Division. Chesterfield, to the northwest, was in vigorous progress of settlement for several years earlier than West- hampton. Perhaps Huntington and Williamsburg did not much antedate Westhampton, yet practically the latter was the latest settled of any of these towns. The commencement of its history is nearer to the people of the present generation than any other in this seetion, and therefore it is better pre- served.

To the care with which the town records and those of the church were written up, and to the indefatigable researchies of the well-known historian, Sylvester Judd, are the people of this town greatly indebted, both for the fullness and for the accuracy of their annals, offering as they do to the writer of the present day a wealth of material difficult to select from, on account of the worth of the whole, and difficult to com- press into the limits of a single chapter in a work devoted to the three valley-counties.

From the historical address of C. Parkman Judd, delivered at the Westhampton reunion, Sept. 5, 1866, we take the fol- lowing passages as the best summary statements of early set- tlement :

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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 91

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