History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 126

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 126

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In the year 1870, Mr. Taft married Miss Kate T., daughter of J. C. Parsons, Esq., and has one daughter, Lucretia P., born in 1875.

DR. JAMES I. O'CONNOR

was born on the 19th day of September, 1842, in Pittsfield, Mass., where the new Catholic Church now stands. He is de- seended from Roderick, the last king of Ireland, through a long line of ancestors. His father, Eugene O'Connor, and his inother, Honora Kinney, were both born in the county of Kings, Ireland. The doctor is the oldest of ten children,- seven sons and three daughters. When James was three years old his father moved to Springfield, and since then the son has resided in that city, where he received a liberal education in the public schools. Afterward he acquired a thorough knowl- edge of the drug business, while in the employment of Lom-

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HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

bard & Crandall, a well-known firm on Main Street. During his five years' stay with this house he rose to the position of first prescription clerk, and held the same up to the evening on which he left Springfield to prepare for the practice of medicine. At the age of nineteen he entered Harvard Medi- eal College, with the advantages of a good education and a thorough knowledge of the apothecary business. Ifere he pursued the regular course of study, and was graduated on the 1Ith of February, 1865.

At a special examination held to supply ten surgeons for the United States army, in answer to a call from the surgeon- general (the call being considered a great honor by that insti- tution), he received his diploma and commission in the regu- lar army, but, being attacked with pneumonia, he resigned his position.

Dr. O'Connor, immediately after his recovery, began the practice of medicine in Holyoke, Mass., and soon acquired a large and remunerative practice. Ile has the reputation of a skillful and successful physician and surgeon.

In the years 1872 and 1873 he erected a fine briek block of six dwelling-houses, at a cost of $45,000, on Dwight Street, opposite the city park. He has taken an active part in every- thing relating to the interests of Holyoke, as well as the church (the Roman Catholic) with which he is connected, and is esteemed by all as an upright and energetic eitizen. On the 3d of January, 1867, he married Miss Mary Ann Elizabeth, daughter of Commodore Beahn, of Springfield, and has had five children,-Mary, Margaret, Edward, Agnes, and James, only two of whom (Agnes and James) are living.

JOHN DELANEY

was born in the village of Collahill, Queens Co., Ireland, in the year 1815. He was the son of James Delaney and Julia Camphion. His father was a farmer, and died when John was but sixteen months old. Left fatherless, he was early compelled to earn his own living. He learned the trade of a stonemason, which he has since followed. In December, 1835, the great fire occurred in New York, and, rightly judg- ing this to be a good time for him to strike out for America, on the 1st of April, 1836, he left his native town and em- barked at Liverpool, April 8th, in the packet-ship "Star," Capt. Glover, and landed in New York May 9th. His first work in New York was on the extension of the Vassar Brew- ery at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he remained about a year, when he went to Hudson, N. Y., and remained a year, and in the fall of 1837 returned to New York City, where he was employed on the Croton Water-works for two years. In April, 1840, he went to Becket, Mass., where he worked on

the railroad bridges at that place, and remained a year. In 184f a portion of the Croton dam was washed away, and he was engaged as superintendent of the work, and remained in charge until the dam was restored, in 1842. Ile then returned to Massachusetts, and was employed on Fort Warren in Bos- ton Harbor for two years. Subsequently be returned to Brooklyn, and was employed on the Atlantic doek for two years, whence he went to Brunswick, Me., and was employed on the erection of a chapel for Bowdoin College. In the fall of 1846 he again returned to Massachusetts.

Ile was married to Miss Bridget Lahey, of Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, in the Franklin Street Cathedral, Boston, on Nov. 20, 1846. Soon after he then went to Lowell, and took charge of very important work for the Loek and Canal Company under Engineer J. B. Francis until the spring of 1849, when he moved to Holyoke, where he has since re- sided. His family consists of six children,-two sons and four daughters,-four of whom are living. His oldest son, James E., was born in Lowell, Nov. 7, 1847, the other five in Hol- yoke : John L., Nov. 15, 1849 ; Julia A., Nov. 23, 1851 ; Mary Elizabeth, June 4, 1854; Elizabeth A., Nov. 18, 1855; and Mary L., March 23, 1859. Mary E. died Dee. 16, 1854, and Julia A. Dee. 19, 1854. In Holyoke, under Engineers John Chase and his nephews, S. Stewart and William A. Chase, Mr. Delaney has done all the important stonework on the head gates, wheel-pits, raceways, and the many extensive canal walls, as well as on the bridge between Holyoke and South Hadley, on the several bridges that span the canals, and on the foundations of the several mills, city-hall, churches, and business blocks in the city. In Springfield he did all the stonework at the water-shops on the dam, put in the founda- tions for the gun-level machines, built the stone dam at Smith & Wesson's Works, Mill River, built the masonry for the Connecticut River Railroad Company for the entrances to the Hampden Park, and the extensive river wall along their premises ; for the Otis Company at Ware he performed very important work, consisting of their dam, bridges, and mill foundations. He also built the dam of the Nonotuek Silk Company at Florence, and in 1874 was awarded the contract to rebuild the bridges, dams, retaining walls, and foundations washed away by the great Mill River flood at Williamsburg and Ilaydenville. He has always done his work in a thorough and substantial manner. In 1876, business being a little dull, he took the opportunity to visit the land of his birth, and, in company with his daughter Mary L., sailed from New York on the steamer " Abyssinia," on July 5th, and landed in Queenstown July 14th. After a very pleasant visit with friends in Ireland, they made a tour of England and France, and returned home.

WESTFIELD.

GEOGRAPHICAL.

WESTFIELD, lying on the Westfield or Agawam River, is about eight miles distant from Springfield, and is one of the important manufacturing towns of Hampden. It is bounded on the north by the town of Southampton, in Hampshire County, on the south by Southwick, on the east by Agawam, Holyoke, and West Springfield, and on the west by Russell and Montgomery. It is traversed east and west by the Boston and Albany Railroad, and north and south by the New Haven and Northampton Railroad.

NATURAL FEATURES.

The surface is generally flat or undulating, except on the east and west, where hilly ranges border the town. The een-

tral portion of Westfield is an expansive valley, surrounded, save at the northwestern extremity, by abrupt terraces, rang- ing in height from 20 to 70 feet. According to geological authorities, this valley was once a lake about seven miles in length, three in width, and forty feet in depth in its deepest part.

The Westfield or Agawam River enters the town in the northwest, at the foot of Mount Tekoa, and, flowing eastward, empties into the Connecticut, receiving en route, near the village of Westfield, the waters of Little River.

Among various water-courses are Pond, Moose Meadow, Powder Mill, and Great Brooks.

A spur of the Green Mountains fringes the western border, and in the northwest rises Mount Tekoa, from whose summit,

John Delaney

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HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTY.

it is said, the eye may describe a circle of vision seventy-five miles in diameter. Among other conspicuous elevations are Pochassic Mountain on the west, and Ball and Grindstone Mountains on the northwest. Limestone is found in the western part of the town.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Touching the date of the earliest settlement of the tract now occupied by Westfield, authorities differ, but it seems to be agreed that it took place some time between 1658 and 1662. It is, however, known that grants of land in the section were made in 1658 to Thomas Cooper, in 1660 to Deacon Chapman, and in 1661 to Capt. Pynchon, Robert Ashley, and George Colton. In 1666, George Phelps, Isaac Phelps, Capt. Cook, W. Cornish, Thomas Dewey, J. Noble, David Ashley, John Holyoke, John Ponder, and John Ingersoll received grants, and settled here in that year. It is recorded that the first child born here was Benjamin Saxton, in 1666. He lived to be eighty-eight years old, and left a numerous family, who have handed the name down to the present generation of dwellers in Westfield.

As to an argument in favor of the theory that there were settlements here previous to 1658, it may be noted that in the colonial records under date of 1641 it was declared by the General Court that the people of Connecticut had encroached npon the domain of the Massachusetts Bay by permitting per- sons of theirs to establish a trading-house at Woronock (the original Indian name of Westfield). Again upon the records of Massachusetts in 1647 it was provided " that Woronoco shall be a part of the town of Springfield, and liable to all charges there as other parts of the same town," etc. It was also or- dered " that the trading-houses established at Horonoco and all trading-houses to be erected should he contributory to all public and common charges, 'both in towne and county.'" The Records of Massachusetts, vol. iii. pages 131 and 164, show that about 1648 there arose a controversy between Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut as to the right of jurisdiction over l'oronoco. In 1649 it was determined that the dividing line between the two colonies should be run so as to settle the question of title to Woronoco. Connecticut failed, however, to send a representative, as she had agreed, to be present at the running of the line, and thus " Woronoco was ordered to Massachusetts." Massachusetts offered to give Connecticut further opportunity to prove her claim, but she did not choose to avail herself of it, having probably ascertained that her title was defective. At all events, the controversy was never after revived.

At the May court in 1662 certain inhahitants of Windsor and Dorchester presented a petition in which, after setting forth that they were much in want of land, they asked for a tract six miles square at Woronoco to be joined with the farms of " the late much-honored Maj .- Gen. Atherton and Capt. Roger Clapp, of Dorchester," to whom grants had previously been made by the court. Fifteen persons signed the petition, which was granted, and at the same time it was decreed by the deputies that the farms alluded to should belong to the plantation in respect to public charges, and that "the order for Woronoco henceforth to lie to Springfield should be void," provided the petitioners should settle themselves and a min- ister within three years. The deputies appointed Capt. Pyn- chon, Capt. Edward Johnson, David Wilton, Samuel Smith, and Nathaniel Dickinson, Sr., to set ont the plantation, and order its affairs until twelve inhabitants (six of whom at least should be freemen) should be settled. Of the petitioners above referred to, mention is made in the records that George Phelps received in 1666 a confirmation of his title, and as they were not issued save upon a showing that the grantee had resided upon his grant for the space of five years, it is clear that Mr. Phelps must have settled at Woronoco in 1662.

Woronoco was considered one of the best localities for ob-

taining beaver, and in the skins of these animals the Indians used to drive a brisk trade with the settlers. For this reason the Indians abounded plentifully near Woronoco, and this view appears to be confirmed by the fact that the early settlers of the place exercised unusual precautions for mutual protec- tion from savage incursions. Mr. Pynchon, of Springfield, was an extensive trader in beaver-skins, and under a license from the General Court he controlled the entire trade in those commodities at Woronoco.

The pioneers did considerable in the way of gathering tur- pentine, and instances are frequent in the records of grants made to various persons " to set boxes for turpentine and to collect turpentine."

In the land records of the proprietors of Westfield mention is made of a transfer to Samuel Taylor, " blacksmith," of a parcel of land under date of April 9, 1697. From this it would seem that Taylor was the first blacksmith the town had, but where his land or shop was located the records fail to indicate.

The early Indian name of Westfield was known as Woron- oco, Warronoco, and Warorake, the latter being the name designated by the General Court in referring to matters touch- ing that portion of the town of Springfield. When the ques- tion of incorporation was first mooted it was proposed to give the town the name of Streamfield, from the fact that it was located between two streams, but the name of Westfield was finally selected as a mark of greater distinction, the town be- ing nearly west from Boston, and at that time the extreme westerly settlement of New England. The tract was under the control of Springfield, as has already been noted, accord- ing to the understanding of the General Court of Massachu- setts.

In the early records of Springfield, under date of Feb. 7, 1664, it appears that Capt. Pynchon, Maj. Holyoke, and Messrs. Ely, Colton, and Cooley were chosen a standing com- mittee with sole power " to order matters concerning Harron- oco, both for the admittance of inhabitants and to grant lands, etc." July 6, 1666, this committee made grants of land in Woronoco to the following persons : Capt. Aaron Cook, 50 acres ; Thomas Day, 30 acres ; James Cornish, 40 acres ; John Inger- soll, 20 acres ; Josiah Leeds, 30 acres ; Moses Cook, 30 acres ; John Osbourn, 25 acres ; Maj. John Holyoke, 40 acres ; David Ashley, 30 acres ; Thomas Noble, 30 acres ; Sergt. Stebbins, 35 acres ; Samuel Marshfield, 30 acres ; John Ponder, 35 acres ; John Root, 35 acres ; Benjamin Cooley, 14 acres ; Ilugh Dud- ley, 20 acres ; William Brookes, 30 acres ; Thomas Orton, 35 acres. A further grant of 30 acres was made to Samuel Marsh- field, conditioned upon his releasing an Indian chief then in his custody. Subsequent grants about that time were made as follows: Ambrose Fowler, 10 acres; Walter Lee, 20 acres ; George Phelps, 50 acres ; Joseph Whiting (or Whitney), 54 acres ; George Tyler, 112 acres ; Israel Dewey, 8 acres; Isaac Phelps, 30 acres ; John Sackett, 5 acres ; Thomas Bancroft, 30 acres ; Jedediah Dewey, 15 acres. Other grants were made about that time, but the imperfectly-copied records do not make it clear to whom they were made.

The above grantees were required to dwell in their own persons on these lands by the last of May, 1667, and to con- tinne thereon for the space of five years. They were further to use their endeavors for settling an able minister among them. Shortly thereafter it was ordered that each grantee should have an additional grant of a home-lot not to exceed six acres.

In January, 1668, the Springfield committee announced that, as many of the grantees had forfeited their grants by failing to settle, the committee, to give further opportunity to such as were serious in their intentions to settle, ordered that grants should be confirmed to all who should do their share in the erection of a fence about the general field, said fence to be completed by May 20, 1668, and all persons failing

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HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

to comply with these conditions were to utterly forfeit their grants. As can best be gathered from the records, only about one-half of the original grantees fulfilled the conditions.

When this general fence was completed, and provided with " a suitable gate," it was ordered that any person leaving the gate open should be fined tive shillings.

In accordance with the order above, concerning the settle- ment of a minister, Capt. Cook was instructed, July 24, 1668, " to go into the Bay to procure a minister for this place, such a one as he shall be advised by the Elders in or about the Bay, if the committee at Springfield do approve of our aets herein."

The copy of an old document, dated 1670, indicates that James Cornish and Joseph Whiting were selectmen of the town in that year, although the records do not note the elec- tion of selectmen earlier than 1672.

In March, 1669, Sackett's Creek was granted to Joseph Whitney and David Ashley, to set a mill thereon and grind corn.

The earliest purchases from the Indians of lands now in- cluded within the limits of Westfield were made by Capt. John Pynchon on behalf of the early settlers. An old ab- original document is the deed signed by Alquat, called " the Indian sachem of W'aranoake and Pochasuck," and witnessed by Wallump and Wallamunt (two Indian chiefs), transferring to Capt. John Pynehon, on behalf of certain inhabitants of " Waranoake, alias Westfield," a large tract of land lying be- tween Great and Little Rivers. The date of the document is June 30, 1669. The price paid for the purchase was £40, and the boundaries of the tract, as defined by the deed, were, in the language of the deed, as follows:

" A certain Parcel or tract of Land, Meddo & wood-Land, lying & being at waranoake afores, on ye side of woranvake river, ye greate River, and on ye north or northerly side of ye Little River, or Foart River, adjoining on ye south- cast, East, and Northeast, on Land formerly Purched by Saml Marshfield, of Springfield, for the Inhabitants of Westheld aforest, and on ye south and souwest, on ye Little River affoarnamed, commonly called the fort River. Ou ye North or Northerly it is bonnded by ye greate River called worunouk River, and so running up warunouk river to ye falls, near about a mile above ye present Ilousen to a marked tree thare, and from that marked tree it runs off westerly or southwesterly upon a straight line to the Little River or fort River to a stone at ye Nooke or Poynt whare all ye good land ends, and whare going up ye hill the pine plaine begins, the sd common or Pine Plain being ye westerly or Nor- westerly bounds of this tract of Land, ye line of Division Iwing run by several English going along with ye Indian from ye fawls in the greate River over to that stone aforenamed, which is on the top of the hill by the Little River, whare the l'ine plaine begins."

March 12, 1667 (the inhabitants living at " the cellars" re- questing it), George Phelps and John Williams were ap- pointed to lay out a " highway across the west medow, under the hill, to the pyne play nes."

The spot chosen for the first permanent settlement was near the Little River, and near its junction with the Great or Aga- wam River, and about where the iron bridge now crosses the smaller stream, a mile east of Westfield village. This settle- ment was inclosed by a strong palisade about two miles in circumference, built for protection against the savages, and within this, besides the dwellings of the settlers, was a strong log fort, beneath which was a wide cellar, provided as a place of refuge for women and children in ease serious danger from the Indians should threaten the settlement. The settlement began to thrive and expand, until several settlers, unable to get lands within the palisades, were forced to locate without its limits. This was because the land within had all been taken up in the original allotments of village lots, by which each householder received lots "according to the number of his family."

Fearing, therefore, that the security of the settlement might be endangered in being thus extended, it was determined, in 1677, to consolidate the people into a more compact community, and to that end the proprietors of town lots in Westfield, near " their meeting-house," agreed by a general vote to " break their lots" and allow other persons living in the remote see- tions to settle upon them, the persons so yielding up their

portions to new occupants receiving in exchange for every aere thus relinquished two aeres of town lots in some distant por- tion of the town.

In March, 1668, a division of the territory was made into three parts, and lots were cast for it. In the first division the lands fell to Thomas Gun, David Ashley, John Ponder, Sergt. Stebbins, Joseph Whiting, William Brookes (alias Israel De- wey), Thomas Bancroft, Hugh Dudley, Isaac Phelps, Geo. Phelps, Thomas Rootes, Thomas Noble. Grants were also made in 1668 and 1669 to John Sackett, John Ingersoll, Geo. Fyler, Capt. Cooke, Josiah Dewey, John Osborne, Mr. Fiske, and Thomas Ilandchett. At the time of the incorporation of the town grants had been made to thirty-four persons.

The Rev. Edward Taylor, the first pastor of the church, was also a physician, and for years after his settlement he was the only doctor for miles around. Mention is made of a George Filer, who, removing in 1667 from Northampton to West- field, practiced medicine in the latter town a few years, after which he passed over to Connecticut.

From records kept by Rev. Edward Taylor concerning King Philip's war, it is learned that " the inhabitants were sorely distressed, yet sovereignly preserved. Our soil," he continued, " was moistened by the blood of three Springfield men,-young Goodman Dumbleton, who came to our mill, and two sons of Goodman Brooks, who came here to look for iron ore, but they fell in the way by the first assault of the enemy. Mr. Moses Cook, an inhabitant, and a soldier not an inhab- itant were killed, and the houses of Mr. Cornish, John Sacket, and Ambrose Fowler were burned." Shortly afterward nine Westfield men were at Deerfield, when that place was attacked, and three of them were killed. A place called Indian Plain marks the scene of the encounter of Noah Ashley with an In- dian, the latter being routed, but not killed. A daughter of the second wife of Mr. Saekett was captured by the Indians, and carried into captivity in northwest New York, where she married an Indian and remained until her death.

The central government at Boston, fearing disastrous re- sults to the frontier settlements from Philip's war, transmitted to them a letter of advice, which ordered the colonies, in effect, to desert their settlements and unite themselves with the in- habitants of Springfield for more thorough protection. The letter, dated March 20, 1676, coneluded thus :

" If you people bo averse from our advice, we must be necessated to draw off our forces from them, for we cannot spare them, nor supply them with ammuni- tion."

Westfield considered this order in town-meeting, and the protest of the inhabitants against it was conveyed to the gov- ernment through a letter, prepared by Rev. Edward Taylor, and signed on behalf of the town by Isaac Phelps, David Ashley, and Josiah Dewey. In this letter, the inhabitants took the ground that Springfield offered no better protection than Westfield, and by reason, morcover, of much sickness in the town (by which a removal of the settlement was imprac- ticable), they strongly objected to the change.

Tbe reasons set forth in the earlier letter of the two trans- mitted by Westfield to the government upon the matter, were as follows :

"Ist. Its Situation,-Lying on both sides of the great river Connecticut, whose east side is void of habitations, being bnt very few left, and those a great distance asunder,-those on the west side being scaltered about a mile up and down, some of which are hid with brambles; and as for its tillage-ground, most is a great distance from the town, and not clear from brush in some places of it and to it, insomuch as an indifferent person cannot hut judge (as we suppose) that the danger is double, in managing field-employments, to what ours is.

"21. Its Prepurution .- It is a place (with grief of heart be it spoken), most of the vast side in ashes, unbuilt and unfortified, unless some few honses,

"3dl. Its Proridential Dispensation .- It hath been sorely under the blasting hand of God, so that it hath, but in a lower degree than ordinary, answered the labor of the husbandman, and sometime his labor upon it is wholly cast away.

" Now, these thoughts are very discouraging unto all thought of our removal thither,-for to remove from habitations to none, from fortifications to none, from a compact and plain place to a scattered, from a place of less danger in the field to more, from a place under the ordinary blessing upon our labors to one

RESIDENCE OF H. J. BUSH, COURT ST, WESTFIELD , MASS .

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HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTY.

usually blasted, seems to us such a strange thing that we find not a man among us inclined thereto."

Three days afterward a second letter was dispatched, and, after repeating the protest contained in the first letter, thus continued :

" If we must he gone from hence, many of us have estates and friends calling of us elsewhere, and thereupon most of us incline, in case we remove, to come downwards. But yet the hand of God hath shut us up, so that we apprehend that we are under the call of God to abide here at present, hy reason of the sore hand of God upon us, disenabling Capt. Cook's family and others from a remove, who are low, and captain's wife at the point of death nuder the bloody flux. Wherefore the ground of these lines is, in part, to intimate unto yon that if there should be any convoy allowed at the present by your honored selves to any one for the bringing off their estate, the opportunity being su desirable to us all, if our town were not under the circumstances by the hand of God upon the persons of some amongst us, whereby it would be their death to remove (yet we see that it being such a desirable opportunity ), that we fear we should lay our hands upon . . . leaving our sick to look to themselves, and liable to the rage of merciless enemies.

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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 126

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