History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 114

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896

USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II > Part 114

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" It will be asked how these red men subsisted without salt. This question may be answered by saying that men never sigh and grieve for an article of which they have never known the use. Had the Indies of West Springfield never heard of tra, or tasted it, certain it is that they would not repine because they did not have it."

FISILERIES.

" The Chicopee, as well as the Agawam, was celebrated for shad, salmon, ale- wives, lamprey- and silver-cels, and almost every other kind of the finny race. " I well remember the time when, at the fish-place called Squash Point, oppo- site the house of Roderick Palmer, I have seen lying upon the shore 100 fine sithmon, taken in a single day by the owners of the fishing-ground ; une weighed 42 pounds, the largest over caught here, I remember the names among them uf Tilly Merrick, dubbed Dr. Till, Heman Day, Elijah Day, David Mason, and others.

" The same day about 50 salmon were taken at the place above, called ' Stub Hole,' owned by Horace White, Jonathan Morgan, and Ixiael Williston. An- other fishing-place was up the river some 50 or GO rods,-the starting-point at the old Rogers house, and the hanling-in-ground opposite the middle of Hurace White's home-lut. At this place there were never canght many salmon, It had in s mne suitable seasons good success in taking shad. It was a hard place to manage a long net; the water was deep and the stream heavy. The place was named, by the facetions Calvin Miller, ' Hard-Scrabble.' Bass, pickerel, perch, suckers, and many other kinds of hook-fish were plenty in the Connecticut.

" In the season of taking shad, and once in a single morning, I threw upon the shore eight fine bass, standing in a fish-boat and using the roe of shad for bait. I never canght a bass weighing over twelve pounds, but Justin Ely, the first, took one on a line weighing twenty-two pounds.

" My skill in fishing I learned from my uncle, Mr. Walter Cooley, who of- tained his from that prince of hook-fishermen, aml great wit, Joshun Roll in, an Indian, who gave me some lessons also. Mr. Cooley, one day, seeing Josh coming along with a very large string of trunt and of uncommon size, asked the fellow where he caught them, and where the best fishing-ground lay. The Indian pro- posed to tell if Mr. Cooley would give him a gallon of cider, which he readily consented to do. Then said the witty Indian, ' Keih! the best place to catch fish, Mr. Cooley, is where they will bite best, mind that.'

" Benjamin Ashley & Co. had a fish-place just below where the new ferry is, and on seeing the shad running down the river went round to haul, and caught 1100, and never before or after ward caught a single shad.

" Some days when the weather was warm shad were offered at six and one- fourth cent- apiece, but generally brought ten and twelve and a half cents cach. In the month of May, 1770, in Horace White's day-book, a number of persons were charged with shad at two cents apiece.

" Col. Benjamin Day, Capt. Abel Cooley & Co., hul a net twelve rods in length, and fished with it in the mouth of Agawam River. They took so great a number of them that they did not draw the net ashore, but tied it at each end, leaving

901

HISTORY OF IIAMPDEN COUNTY.

room for the fish to swim. They took what fish they wanted and left it for their friends to go and help themselves to as many shad as they wished for.

" The name of Shad Laue was given to the great thoroughfare street in West Springfield. It was done at the time when shad were so cheap.

" Great secrecy was once observed in Shad Lane by the lovers of shad, and a knock at the door by a stranger was the signal for the worthy granddame to order off, or to be covered up under the table-cloth, the massive pew ter [ latter of shad, lest her family shouldl le scoffed or jeered at for living upon Agawam pork, the name given to shad. This done, the guest was sure to be invited to take it seat at the table and partake of the bounties of the board, consisting of flongh- unts, pancake, and, if on Saturday, hasty pudding, and he was allowed to drink cider as often as he pleased frioon the honest two-quart earthen jitcher, which gradually went round from mouth to mouth until it was drained of its contents and filled as often as it was emptied."

REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS .*

" In the Revolutionary war Capt. Levi Ely of this town raised a company of men, and, under the command of Col. Brown, of Pittsfieldl, marched into the then frontiers of the State of New York, at a place upon the Mohawk River called ' Stone Raill'y or ' Raby,'t fell into an amlmscade and their whole army were thrown into confusion by a tremendous fire from the British and the In- dians who lay concealed behind a brush fence.

" Col. Brown fell at the first fire, and Capt. Ely was so badly wounded that he was overtaken by the Indians before he reached the fort, and was tomahawked and scalpied, together with seventeen of his men; one of the number was a young man, Wainwright Breck, of Northampton, an apprentice to Horace White to learn the trade of a blacksmith. He was hired to go on the expedition thirty days, Mr. White consenting that he should go and take for his own bene- fit one hundred pounds, which he received before he started. The late Jonathan Taylor, of West Springfield, was in the battle and received a musket-ball in his sight thigh, but being an athletic man he, by throwing away bis gun and haver- sack, reached the fort in safety with the Indians close upon him.

" Thomas Taylor was also in the action and barely escaped with his life. . After he had reached the fort, panting for the loss of breath, the first words he uttered was, ' As soon as I reach home I will kill old Sam Robin and all the rest of Capt. Alud Cooley's Indians' Taylor did reach home, but Sam and the rest of the sons of the forest were still permitted to live many years to make brooms. baskets, entel fish, and drink cider.

" Capt. Levi was a man of great respectability, left a wife with a large family of children in West Springfield. He was buried npon the battk-ground with the slain, Int a monument was erected to his memory in the burial-ground near the town-hall,

" It is related of Jonathan Parsons that while driving a fine cattle team (two yoke of oxen and a horse) attached to a load of stalks, when near the southern end of Shad Lane two luisemen overtook him and ordered him to turn out for the roach of Gen. Washington. Not knowing that Washington was expected and doubting the courier's word, he refused, declaring he had as good a right to the road as the general.

" Soon after a coach passed, having forded the Agawam River near the house of James Leonard, on its way to the Springfield ferry. Parsons halted his team Bear Ferry Street and followed the coach. The boat was on the east side of the river, and while waiting for it the conriers spoke of the teamster that refused to turn ont. Parsons overheard Washington say,-& That man was right: he had as gond a right to the road as I have. '"

"A Revolutionary Reminiscence of the West Springfield Park .- Our old antiquarian friend from West Springfield, Sewall White, furnishes us the following Revolu- tionary waif, which is quite appropriate to the anniversary now upon us :t

""The West Springfield Park, which has been the seat of so much improve- ment lately, and whose fence has been twice painted, principally by the wives and daughters of that staid old town, was once the camping-grund of two British armies. Gen. Amherst, with an army of seven thousand men, first halted two days and nights there, when on his way to Canada ; and Gen, Burgoyne, with his captive army, stopped there the same length of time on his embar kation route to Boston. It was at that time that the accomplished Hessian commander, Gen. Riedesel, was by invitation the guest of Rev. Dr. Lathrop, between which puties conversation could be conducted only in Latin. Riedesel owned the best and largest horse in Burgoyne's cavalry, and the charger was resbod in West Springfieldl by the father of the waiter. On the morning of Burgoyne's departure from the Park, a number of his men were missing. The beanty and futility of the place led at least a dozen men of that army to desert comrades, friends, home, and country. They never saw their companions-in-arms again, but remained in this region, and their descendants are now identified with the best blood of the valley. The names and occupations of these men, most of wluan were pris mally known to the writer, follow :

"' Apollos Miller, farmer; John Andrice Isensee, farmer (he was killed by lightning, while having in Agawam meadows); Godfrey Vanpaneer, miller (com- monly called Old Waggoner) ; Daniel Hartank, mason (some of his descendants reside in Northampton) ; Valentine Worthy, weaver ; Thomas Pollock, weaver; Hendrick Falter, tailor; Frederick Stackman, shoemaker; Thomas Ewing, farmer; Doct. William, physician (who was considered very skillful, and lived to

* From Sewall White's journal.

+ " Stone Arabia." This was one of the five districts (the third) into which the new county of Tryon, organized in 1772, was divided. It was the centre one un the north side of the Mohawk River. This affair occurred on the 19th of October, 1780.

# Clipped from a paper of 1874.

a good old age in the enjoyment of an extensive practice in Chester, Blandford, and Granville),'"

REMINISCENCES OF THE SHAYS REBELLION .?

" The people of Massachusetts and New England generally have oot forgot- ten that a serious insurrection took place in this State in 178G.

" ('apt. Luke Day was born in what is now West Springfield, July 25, 1743. Hle was commissioned captain at the commencement of hostilities with Great Britain, and joined the Continental Army iu 1775, and served his country with credit through the war, and left the service a major by brevet.

"lle was the strongest and most persistent of the leadris of the ontbreak. During the fall of 1786 he was busy inciting men to join him in open rebellion. The old Jeremiah Steblins tavern was the place where they most did congre- gate for council, and where he with Elijah and Benjamin Day and others made many flaming and traitorous speeches, which finally resulted in drawing quite a large number around him. They were drilled on the common, and were at first mimed with hickory clubs, while in their hats was a sprig of hemlock. lle soon found it a difficult task to find shelter for his force of about 400 mal- contents, for not all the community were in sympathy with his views. While exercising his men a few days before the contendated attack on the Spring- field Armory. he made a speech to them, an extract from which here follows : " My boys, you are going to fight for liberty. If you want to know what liberty is, I'll tell you. It is for every man to do just what he pleases, and to omake other folks to do as you please to have them, and to keep folks from serving the Devil.' Up to this time demonstrati ms had been muule mostly on the Inferior Courts, rendering them liable only for high misdemeanor ; but by the Legisla- ture the Supreme Court had been adjourned to meet at Springfield, Dec. 26, 1786. The rioters were determinedl to prevent this meeting, and gathered in force. Cant, Luke Day sent an order to the presiding judge not to organize the court or proceed to business.'| The insurgents were stationed at three places, viz., a few miles east of the armory at Springfield was a division of them, an- other at West Springfield, and a third at Chicopee, about a mile north of the bridge over Chicoper River. At a council of officers it was determined to attack the United States armory at Springfield and plunder it.

"Capt. Luke Day was one of Dr. Lathrop's parishioners ; he valued his minis- ter's judgment, and two or three days previous to the attack upon the public stores at Springfield be had an interview with Dr. Lathrop, and commenced coo- versation by asking bim if he could keep a secret; to this question he gave for answer that it was not certain that he could, especially if it was anything of im- portance, and if it was such, he had better not reveal it. Capt. Day, nevertheless, insisted nyon divulging it, and informed the doctor that upon such a day and such an hour the three divisions of the insurgents were to make a simultaneous attack upon the armory at Springfield, insisting at the same time upon having the doctor give his opinion at the prospect of their success. He did nut hesitate or delib- erate to reply, and said, 'C'apt. Day, your army is deficient of good, true, and trusty officers; you are engaged in a laul canse, and your men know it. I ad- vise you to disband them, and let them return peacealdy to their homes, for as sure as you advance upon the public stores 'tis as certain that you will meet with sure defeat " Whether it was the good doctor's advice that influenced him to give up the attack upon the armory or not is not known ; but neither Day nor l'arsons moved from their quarters on the day agreed upon, and left poor Shays to attack the public stores alone; and he, after having three men killed out of the head of the column, ordered a retreat. A few days after Shays was defeated, Gen. Lincoln arrived with astrong force from Roxbury, and dispatched Gen. Shepherd, with three divisions of his army, over to West Springfield to look for Luke and Elisha Day ; but as soon as these noble heroes heard that the government men were on the way to attack them they retreated so precipitately as to leave their bread baking in the oven and the pork and beans boiling in the put. The two Days, with their deluded followers, fled to New York, and there remained in exile several months, but were arrested at a later date, as would ap- jear by a mittimus issued by the clerk of the Suffolk County Court, on the 3d of April, 1788. This mittimus is preserved in the archives of Hampshire County, to which county he was transferred by his own request for trial. Two months after he was released by a general pardon, after which they were permitted to return to West Springfield, munch out of pocket, and both of them poor men, after being exiled from West Springfield some ten or twelve months ..

ANCIENT TAVERNS AND LANDMARKS.

" About 1780, Jere Steblins kept tavern, store, and manufactured saltpetre, on the corner south of the post-officer on Ramapogne Street, and with Muses Day was extensively engaged in boating on the river.

" Front Landlord Stebbins' Far-room fireplace came the live coals that re- plenished the foot-stoves of the good mothers in Israel during the intermission between service on the Sabbath.

" The obl house that stood on the bank of the river, directly opposite the 'dont le ditch' shad-fishery, was taken down a few years ago. Its age was but known, but was supposed to have been at least one hundred and twenty-five years. It is believed to have been built for a boatman's tavern by Solomon Steb- Lins. It contained a chimney with five separate flues, and three brick ovens, aud occupied fifteen feet square in the centre of the house. The mantles were of oak, and fom teen inches square, und ran the whole length of the chimney. Some of the floor-boards were eighteen inches wide and twenty feet long. The property is now in the possession of Mr. J. N. Bagg."

¿ From White's journal.

1. This manuscript, with his name affixed to it, was found among the papers of the late Gov. Stroog, and it is now in safe-keeping in the han's of the Rev. Dr. William Sprague. [Written some years ago.]

902

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

SILIP-BUILDING.

"The rast end of the common was used as a ship-yard, and it is related that while a vessel was building on the common the raising of the frame of the church on 'Orthodox Hill' took place, and the men there employed assisted in raising the steeple.

" 'T'he schooner " Trial,' of 60 tons Im then, the sloop ' West Springfield,' of about the same capacity, and the sloop ' Hampshire,' of 00 tons, owned by Daniel Ely and Benj. Ashley, were built and sailed down the river about the year 1800-2.

" Jonathan Morgan and Israel Williston followed boating on Connecticut liver many years. The boats were open, and carried from 10 to 14 tons. They went one year, every month, to Hartford. It required six men to haul a boat up Enfield Falls without a wind. The men who poled the boat had one dollar a trip. They resided at Warehouse Point, and expected the owner to furnish a gallon of good St. Croix rum for each trip."

REMINISCENCES OF SHAD LANE.

" Beginning south at the old Ferry Lane and go north to the head of the street fronting the Common, 'The Great Ferry,' connecting the town of West Springfield with Springfield, was for a long time leased to Capt. Gideon Leonard, a man ardent in habitual and incurable indolence. He did not tend the Ferry himself, but nudlerlet it to Hezekiah Warriner and Seth Leonard. Warriner and Leonard in succession occupied the old ' Log Cabin,' which stood on the bank of the river. This was the last building to stand of those built by the Hortons, Merricks, and Ashleys, who were ancestors of the inhabitants of West Spring- field. This house was taken down some forty years since, and nothing is left to mark the spot it occupied.

" About 100 rods north of Ferry Lane stood the dwelling-house of Deacon Jo- soph Merrick. This building was unique in its construction throughout, the second story being several fert larger than the first. The yellow pine timbers were massive, the rooms very large and few in number, the white-oak needle posts hung down several feet outside the house and terminated in the form of n heart. The fireplace was so constituted as to consume the greatest quantity of fuel, and at the same time be used a sitting-room by the children of the family. The roof was peaked like the old houses in New York built by the Vanderspyles, Ten Eyeks, Hardenburgs, etc. Up the street about the same distance stood the house of Ilezekinh Day, about the same size as the Merrick house, and in a simi- Jar style of architecture. Mr. Day was the owner of a large landed estate en- bracing some of the best lands of the town. Directly opposite, across the street, was the dwelling-honse of his brother, Col. Benjamin Day. This building was more modern in its style. The old Boylston House in Springfield is an exact copy of it. Ilalf a mile up the street stood the ancient mansion-house of the Ely family, which was built more than a century ago. At the head of Shad Lane, fronting the Common, stood the old red dwelling-house of Capt. Abel Cooley, so renowned in story and song for killing British Regulars on the Com- mon."

SKETCH OF THE EARLY FAMILIES.

Among the carly families whose descendants now reside in West Springfield, were the Baggs, Merricks, Ashleys, Smiths, Cooleys, Parsons, Days, Elys, Rogerses, Whites, Champions, and Blisses. John Bagg is supposed to have emigrated from Plymouth, England ; died at Springfield, Sept. 5, 1683. In 1660 he conveyed lands in the " second division," probably on the west bank of the river, to Hugh Dudley, of Chicopee Plains; in 1668 his name was signed fourth to a petition against imposts ; in 1678, Jan. I, he was one of the citizens to whom Maj. John Pynchon administered the oath of alle- giance. Among his children was Mercy Thomas, born May 15, 1671, and he had eleven children, from three of whom all the Baggs now living in West Springfield are descended. They are the sixth, seventh, and eighth generations from John Bagg. Among these are Col. Aaron Bagg, who has been one of the leading citizens of the town for many years, representing it in the State Legislature, as well as State Sen- ator from the Western Hampden district, and the wealthiest man in town; Harvey Day Bagg, for several years one of the selectmen; James Newton Bagg, an agricultural writer and member of the State board of agriculture; Richard Bagg, a well-known and extensive market-gardener.

Probably the first record of the Ashleys is in a grant of land to one Robert Ashley on Chicopee Plain, in 1660. In 1818, John Ashley made a will, appropriating a fund for educa- tional and religious purposes. The will reads as follows :

"The pions education of youth and the diffusion of Christian knowledge among the ignorant and uninformed, and among those whose local circum- stances forbil their enjoyment of the stated instructions of the gospel ministry, are objects which now engage the attention of the Christian world, and to the promotion of which I wish to contribute my mite, with my humble and fervent prayers that the great truths of Christianity may spread aud pervade the whole earth, and all may be brought to the knowledge and belief of the truth as it is in Jesus."

An act of incorporation, known as the " Ashley Fund Act," was passed and trustees were appointed, who were ordered to divide the sum intrusted to them "into two distinct parts ; two-thirds to be appropriated exclusively toward the educa- tion of youth within the town of West Springfield, and the remaining one-third to be appropriated toward the propaga- tion and diffusion of Christian knowledge." He directs that the money be placed upon interest, and that the portion be- . queathed for the spread of the gospel be equally appropriated for the use of home missions and foreign missions. In regard to the distribution of the income of the school fund he says : "It is my will that no district shall at any time be entitled to or shall receive any part of the annual dividend, unless their instructor passes the qualifications and produces the evi- dence of good moral character by the laws of the common- wealth, and unless he shall daily make use of the holy Serip- tures as a school-book, and shall daily address the Throne of Grace in prayer with his scholars."

The provisions of the will are fully carried out by a board of trustees elected from time to time. John Ashley also en- dowed the First Parish of West Springfield with a generous fund for the maintenance of the gospel, the income of which is now annually applied to that purpose.

The Day family in Springfield and their descendants have been numerous. The widow of Robert Day, who came to this country in 1648, married for her third husband Elizur llo]- yoke, of Springfield, and removed to that town from Connec- tieut in 1648, her eldest son, Thomas, coming also. He married a daughter of Thomas Cooper. Three of their sons, Samuel, John, and Eleazer, removed to this place, and from them all of that name in this town descended.

Col. Benjamin Day was most prominent. He was the first moderator of town-meetings, the first selectman, and the first representative to the General Court. He held the commission of major under George II., and was made colonel in the war of the Revolution. Heman Day, son of Col. Benjamin, was noted in his time. A trait in his character is illustrated by the following dialogue between his neighbors, which has been handed down :

"' What time D' dre?' says Walter Cooley ;

"' Eleven o'clock,' says Judah Bagg ;

"' Time to repent,' says Parson Lathrop;

"' Time enough yet,' says Ileman Day."

Capt. Luke Day, who became noted in his later days for his connection with the Shays rebellion, was also of this family.

The Cooleys, of West Springfield, descended from Benjamin Cooley, who came to Springfield in 1640. Ilis grandson, Obadiah, Jr., made a purchase of land in 1730 "on the west side of the Great River," and located on the bank of the river, at the present corner of Park and Main Streets, where Samuel Reynolds now lives. His son, Capt. Abel Cooley, purchased G acres of land on the opposite corner, and the homestead is still in the hands of his descendants. About this time the Indians were troublesome, and it is related of Capt. Cooley that he had port-holes made through his house, and kept a loaded gun ready to fire at the intruders. One night, hearing the Indians, as he supposed, he looked out and saw their heads dodging up and down behind the well-curb. Ile thereupon opened fire, continued it as often as he saw a head rise up through the darkness, breathing out threatenings to them, and saying, " If you will come into the house, I will treat you like gentlemen." An examination of the spot in the morning revealed the fact that he had filled the bucket attached to the well-sweep, which the wind had made to dance up and down at intervals, full of shot.

Roger Cooley, a great-grandson of Benjamin, settled in the western part of the town-" Paeawtuck"-in 1759. He served as a lieutenant in the war of the Revolution. Roger, Jr., the sixth of his ten children, also served his country in the Rev- olutionary war, and was on duty at the execution of Maj.

903

HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTY.

André. After the war he became a noted military-man, serving several years as colonel in the Massachusetts militia.

Henry Rogers was born in 1733, and resided in this town and lived on the bank of the Connecticut River, south of the house now owned by William Fox. He was a strong, athletic man, and did valuable service in the wars. He was killed in 1795, and is buried in the Town-House Cemetery. Hle had several children united by marriage to the Ashley and Bliss families.

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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. II, Part 114

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 896

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896