USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Ashfield > History of the town of Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts from its settlement in 1742 to 1910 > Part 27
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Henry Church and George M. of California are now living. A short distance up the stream on the other road, Eli Sprague had a small tannery. Opposite each other at the top of the hill east, lived David Howes and David Eldridge; later Esquire Bement, mentioned among the magistrates. On the Darwin Pease place lived one Bloodworth, also Peter Sears. Below, was Jasper Bement, afterwards the enterprising merchant on the Plain already mentioned. His son, Samuel, was a popular principal of a grammar school in Lowell for many years. Near the Blaksley place, perhaps at the Butler place, lived Horatio Bartlett, the mill owner; then Abner Kelley, Jr., for many years. Roswell Ranney lived where Sanford H. Boice does, selling the farm to Sanford's grandfather in 1832. Mr. Boice was from Blandford, married a daughter of Paul Sears, lived for a time in the northeast part of Goshen, then moved to Savoy, came to Ashfield in 1819 and bought his wife's father's farm where he remained until he purchased the Ranney place. They had twelve children, all of whom are dead except Sanford of Amherst. Russell Bement was an early owner of the Henry Pease place. The place below was settled by Archibald Burnet. The exodus of his family to western New York has been mentioned. Up stream near Guilford's mill was Elijah Field, the clothier. He was a much prized Sunday School teacher at the Congregational church. His son, Solomon, was a teacher and is now with his sons a prosperous farmer and seedsman in Iowa. Part way up the hill towards George Chapin's in the pasture to the left is the spot where Dea. Nathaniel Sherwin from Enfield, Conn., settled. His son, William, went to Buckland. William's son, William F., was a noted singing teacher in this section, after- wards musical director in the Chautauqua Assembly, and for a time professor in the New England Conservatory of Music. Many hymns from his pen are found in our sacred hymn books. The George Chapin place, as told on another page, was the town farm from 1839 until 1874 when it was sold to Luther Chapin, father of George and Arthur. His grandfather, Nathan, was one of the nine men sent up in 1757 to guard the fort around Chileab Smith's house. Nathan is the guard mentioned who
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fell in love with Chileab's daughter, Mary, and married her in 1759. These Chapins are descendants of Samuel, whose statue stands on the Library grounds in Springfield. The Pease place north was lot No. 1, 2nd Division, and was bought by John Pease who moved from Enfield, Conn., to Conway in 1800, and to this place in 1811. He had eleven children. He was a common school and sacred music teacher. The brick house occupied by Wallace Whitney was built in 1821 by Samuel Ranney, son of George, who built the Albert Howes house. Alvan Hall, a successful farmer, occupied the place for many years. Going up the Briar Hill road from the Dorus Graves place, on the corner, opposite the George Ward place, lived Joseph Lillie, the man who brought back the town guns in Shays' time. Lewis Warren lived there later. The house occupied by Mrs. Underhill was probably built about 1790, by Solomon Fuller. He sold in 1808 to Joseph Barber. Joseph first settled in Savoy but soon got out of the town, saying he never knew a good cornfield fenced with spruce poles. His sons, John and Henry, built saw and wood working mills on the stream below the house. They had quite a genius for invention. Henry discovered the modern process for making lead pipe, but another party finding it out secured a patent before the discoverer. He also invented a useful device for a bit brace from which he gained some benefit. One of Joseph's daughters was the mother of George B. Church. About half a mile to the south up the hill on what is now the town farm lived Ebenezer Cranston, later his son-in-law, Elias Rogers. Oppo- site, settled Micajah Howes mentioned in another page as moving here from the "Edge of Hawley." Still farther up the old road, nearly at the junction with the new, on the left was the home of Elder Josiah Loomis. He married Susannah, daughter of Joshua Howes, who lived across the valley on the hill lot now owned by Mrs. Curtis on the old road then leading to the Plain. They had a large and somewhat noted family. Their son, Nathan, married Waite Barber, daughter of their neighbor, Joseph. Several of Nathan's sons were located in Washington, working in astronomical and mathematical lines. One of them
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in the sixties, catching the spirit of prophecy, asked Congress for $50,000 for experiments in wireless telegraphy. Eben was employed in the Nautical Almanac office there for twenty-five years. He was the father of Mabel Loomis Todd, wife of Pro- fessor Todd of Amherst College. W. S. Loomis, late President of the Holyoke Street Railway Company, is of this family. Susan Look Avery, a granddaughter of Elder Loomis, was the wife of B. F. Avery of Wyoming, N. Y., who with his sons were large manufacturers of agricultural implements with Louisville, Kentucky, as headquarters. Some fifty rods to the south settled Stephen Cross from Ellington, Conn. His first child was born here in 1779. Stephen was the grandfather of Alvan, and of Levant and William Gray and great-grandfather of Henry Cross. It is not known that he was related to the Crosses in the north part of the town. The Grays bought land here in the eighties and nineties. They came from Pelham and were of the "Worcester Grays," many branches of that name being in this country. It is said they looked over Amherst before settling, but decided on Pelham as there were more stones there to build chimneys with. In 1793, Robert, Jonathan and James were on the tax list. Jonathan was the grandfather of Levant and William and built the old house now standing south of the little Briar Hill schoolhouse. The valuation list for 1821 says he had four acres of upland mowing from which he cut four tons of hay, ten acres of fresh mowing cutting ten tons, twenty- eight acres of pasturage and a hundred and eighty-seven acres unimproved land. Elias Gray built the stone house at the foot of the hill about 1830. Some fifty rods farther on settled Joseph Blake who came from Hingham to Goshen in 1766 and from there to Ashfield in 1811. He had seven children, of whom only Silas stayed in Ashfield. Silas had, with other children, Dorus and Hosea, who built the two large houses now standing near each other. They were enterprising and successful farmers. In 1821, Silas is credited with owning more land than any man in town except Esquire Williams. Beyond the Blakes was Lieut. Jeremiah Mantor from Tisbury, then Nathan Wood, now the Ludwig summer home. Down the hill to the east,
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past the Smith house, James Case, also from Tisbury, built the house now Miss Collis' summer residence. Nearly north from here ran a road to the C. F. Howes place on which lived Parsons Mansfield. Francis Ranney in 1786 settled on the Howes place, now the summer home of Professor Cockaday. Giles Ranney settled near where Herbert Church lives and was grandfather of Darwin, also of Mrs. Anna Bradford of Buckland. Northerly past the Francis Ranney house was Stoddard Nims and Simon Collins; still further down the hill on the old road was the Chapel schoolhouse at the Falls. Some one hundred rods to the east down the hill lived Alvan Clarke, the father of Alvan the famous telescope maker. He moved to Ashfield in 1794 and married Mary Bassett, daughter of Elisha, and sister of Esquire Bassett. He had ten children of whom Alvan, Jr., was the fifth, being born March 8, 1804. On the valuation books for 1817, Joshua Knowlton and Alvan Clarke were taxed for a grist mill they owned together. By the will of Alvan, Sr., Alvan was left a patrimony of fifty dollars, a small sum to begin life with. Those who knew him as a youngster spoke of him as a dreamy, absent- minded boy, not showing any particular talent when at school. However, he showed much interest in the mill. He says it was washed away when he was eight and he was so wonderstruck by the achievements of Captain Gates, the chief in the work of re- building, that he concluded he would bea millwright. Whenabout seventeen, he went into his brother's wagon shop and worked a year. He had developed to a certain extent a taste for drawing and engraving and he says that he returned to the paternal mansion and put himself at work in good earnest to learn alone more of the art. In 1825, he secured work as an engraver for the Merrimac Print Works at eight dollars per week. In 1826, he married a daughter of Asher Pease, a neighbor living about half a mile just over the line in Conway. They settled down to housekeeping in Lowell, living there and in other places, gaining a livelihood by his trade and as a portrait painter. About 1844, he and his son, George Bassett Clark, then only seventeen years old, became interested in telescopes. After much investi-
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gation they discovered the errors in the old telescopes and sought to correct them. A learned professor told Mr. Clark if he wanted to make telescopes he must go where they made them and learn how. But they persevered in their own way and finally produced a medium sized telescope of such power that new stars were discovered by it and their reputation was established in the scientific world. He and his sons were pioneers in first-class telescope making of a large size. Among the larger telescopes made by him and his sons, are the 20-inch for the National Observatory at Washington, the 30-inch for the Rus- sian Observatory at St. Petersburg, the 36-inch for the Lick Observatory in California, and the 40-inch for the Yerkes Ob- servatory of Chicago. The Lick telescope is claimed to be the best in the world. Alvan Clark died in 1887, and his son, Alvan G., in 1897.
Joshua Knowlton moved here from Belchertown and lived about half a mile north of the Chapel Corner. He was related to Dr. Knowlton, was the father of Friend, Madison and others. Friend remained on the old place. His sons were Nathan and Joshua. Nathan was on the board of selectmen for many years.
Apple Valley in the northwest part of the town was so named by Jonathan Johnson, for a long time connected with the New England Homestead. Zephaniah Richmond came from Taunton about 1790 and settled in a log house on the sand bank opposite where Frank Willis lives. He was ancestor of the Richmonds living in this section. Sandpaper was made on the place where Mr. Willis lives. Ziba Leonard bought the place above it of John Porter in 1808 and built a house on the knoll west of where Mrs. E. P. Williams lives. He sold the farm to Edwin Williams, Sr. Later the house was burned and Mr. Williams built the house nearer the road which was burned in 1910 and a new house was erected in its stead. The Clinton Wing farm had many owners, namely, Jonathan Alden, Isaiah Taylor, John Porter, Geo. Graves and others. Israel Williams had his house, cider mill, and still near where the schoolhouse is. The farmers from Buckland used to draw their apples up here and sell them for four cents per bushel. Israel Williams sold the place to
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Hiram Richmond, who built the house in which Herbert Clark lives. Mr. Williams then bought the place where W. S. Williams now lives.
The name "Northwest " came very naturally, as it was in that part of the town. It was sometimes called "Nobscusset" as most of the settlers came from a part of Yarmouth bearing that name. Ebenezer and Daniel Forbush lived at the foot of the hill below John W. Howes. Daniel has already been noted as the teacher and great fruit lover. He and his son, Frederick, afterwards moved to the W. S. Williams farm, then to the H. Clark farm, and finally to the Buckland farm where the grand- son, Warren Forbes, now resides. In 1794, Joseph and David Vincent from Yarmouth came here, Joseph building the house where Charles Tatro lives and David settling half a mile west of Abbott Howes. Barnabas Howes, son of Kimball, lived near where John W. Howes does. The location of Mark and Ezekiel Howes has already been given. Daniel Sears, son of Enos, lo- cated about a half mile northwest of where David Vincent settled, on the farm lately bought of the Polanders by J. W. Howes and his brother. Daniel married the daughter of Moses Rawson, his next neighbor on the north. Beyond the Raw- sons, in the edge of Buckland, lived the Roods and Nathan Howes, father of Mrs. Moses Cook. Quite a few from these families moved to Oak Creek, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where their descendants may be found. Returning to the corner, just over the hill to the west, in the pasture on the left now owned by Robert Howes, Forris Cranson had a log house. He was ancestor of the Cransons of Buckland. Some flat flagging stone was once quarried here. The Ezra Williams hotel, burned while occupied by the father of J. R. Smith, has been described. The long rows of maple trees by the roadside were set out by Mr. Williams. He spaced off the distance for just one thousand trees, but by a miscalculation it fell a few short of that number. About half a mile south on the right at the foot of the hill on the school lot was the place where Tim Warren was planted and asked to get a living for himself. Forty rods to the south on the left Barnabas A. Howes built a house about 1830. This was burned in 1877 while occupied by Joseph Keach.
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There are two theories as to the origin of the name for the "New Boston" district. One is that it came from a locality on the Cape by that name; the other, that a young lady from the eastern part of the state, a relative of the Fosters, while teaching one of the earliest schools there, kept in Capt. Kimball Howes' house, said that the place was so much like Boston that she was going to call it New Boston. When the post office was estab- lished there the change was made to Watson because there was another New Boston post office in this state. In the old records this part of the town and Spruce Corner was called West brook. Joseph Porter, son of Rev. Nehemiah, early owned consider- able land in the west part of this district. His son, Nathan, lived where Lucius Hall now does. One of his sons, William Pitt, graduated from Williams College and was a successful lawyer in North Adams. He was law partner of Henry L. Dawes, afterwards United States Senator. Mr. Porter married a daughter of Dea. Alvan Perry of this town. Sumner Church and Thaddeus Rood were occupants of the two houses south. Seth Church built the house now occupied by Archie Jenkins. He was a son of Caleb. The registry records say that in 1785 Caleb Church of Oakham bought portions of lots Nos. 48 and 32 in 4th Division, one half of 22 and 52, 5th Division, also ten acres not then laid out. These lots were apart from each other and it looks as if he might have traded for them as boys sometimes swap jackknives "without seeing." He settled at first about half way from Spruce Corner up to the Lesure place in what is now Streeter's pasture, later moved up near the Lesure place. The son, Seth, was the grandfather of George B. and great- grandfather of Claude. His name appears on the list of select- men, also as representative. The Anderson house on the oppo- site corner was said to have been built by Sylvester Davis who sold to Lemuel Eldredge, he to Francis Bassett, who lived there many years and raised a large family. Lyman Cross, after- wards the hotel keeper, built the Albert Lilly house and sold it to Emory Knowlton, a brother of the doctor. Samuel Lilly, father of Albert, lived here for many years. A short distance above lived Timothy Hammond who had a still. The William
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Ford house was early owned by sons of Ezekiel Howes who sold to Joel Lilly, the father of Joel, Rufus and Oscar. Forty rods to the north on the left is the birthplace of Zebulon B. Taylor, who did the good work for the Northwest cemetery. About the same distance farther up the hill is the cellar hole of the house where Enos Howes had a large family. Half a mile to the east on the Bear Swamp road Barnabas Howes and sons built their house about 1850. William H. Howes lives on the farm which his great-grandfather, Capt. Kimball Howes, settled. Nathan Vincent was an early owner of the Ralph Phillips place, later the Bryants and Woodards. On the Lilly place above, once lived Granville B. Hall. At the top of the hill was Bethuel Lilly.
Henry Fuller's grandfather, Jonathan, moved from Haddam, Conn., to Lenox, from there to Hawley about 1785, where his son William was born, who came to Ashfield and settled the farm his son Henry owns. A hundred rods south on the right was the large two-story house built by Lucius Smith, occupied later by Addison G. Hall. The Lesure house was built by Asa Guilford. Jacob Gardner, before he went to South Ashfield is said to have lived near here. He was an ancestor of Charles (the lawyer) and E. C. Gardner of Springfield.
The name "Spruce Corner" came naturally from the abun- dance of spruces there.
Ephraim Williams was the first settler here in 1771. A notice of this is given under "Old Mills." A graphic account of his settlement is given by his nephew, Rev. Francis Williams, quoted on page 395 of the Ellis book. His mill was near the corner and the house a few rods to the north. Ephraim's son, Daniel, built a large brick house and in time his son Darius built a fine barn. They were considered the best farm buildings in town, but unfortunately all burned in 1885. Ephraim's son, Apollos, built the brick house where A. R. Streeter lives. Capt. Elisha Cranston lived on the corner opposite. Directly south from here to the Goshen line ran one of the four county roads. Within about fifty rods of the Goshen line settled Stephen War- ren. His deed given in 1778 says, "land between Alder Meadow
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and Grassy Mcadow." He built a large two-story house which for a time was a hotel. He was a great-grandfather of Warren Forbes of Buckland. North of him were Lazarus Barrus, John Eldredge and Ebenezer Palmer.
On the hill to the west of the corner came Lot Bassett from Yarmouth about 1784. He was brother of Elisha, father of Esquire Bassett. He married a sister of Mark Howes and had ten children. Many descendants of this family are living in this vicinity. Elisha Bassett of Boston, for many years clerk of the United States District Court was a grandson of Lot. Three children, Lot, Samuel and Abigail were unmarried and lived and died on the old place. By economy and careful management they accumulated an estate which inventoried nearly $100,000.
The settlers west of here, the Jenkins, Stetson, Beals, Ford, Packard, Dyer and Gurney families, nearly all came from Abing- ton and vicinity about 1800. Lemuel Phillips, the third of Esquire Phillips' twelve sons, settled on the hill about forty rods southwest of where Harry Shippee now lives. He had eleven children.
Nelson Gardner, while living in this district, proposed to change the name to "Wyoming Valley," but the love of the old was too strong and "Spruce Corner" still reigns.
William Hawkes lived a few rods west of the Bassett place on the hill. With other boys he had a son Enos, whose son Clarence, born 1869, is now the well-known blind author, poet and lecturer, living in Hadley. When he was thirteen years of age, living in the southwest part of Spruce Corner, while hunting with his father in thick underbrush they became separated and when the father fired at a woodcock on the wing, the son received into his face the full charge of twenty-eight bird shot, com- pletely destroying his eyesight. After trying in vain for two years to have it restored, he was sent to the Perkins Institute for the Blind where he remained four years, graduating as valedictorian of his class. He afterwards took a post graduate course. Mr. Hawkes has written much and his dozen or more books on animal life take equal rank with those of John Burroughs and Ernest Seton Thompson. It is
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wonderful that a person with only thirteen years of the memo- ries of childhood should be able to give such vivid descriptions of nature, and that with all his misfortunes he has accomplished so much in life. He says, "The three P's-Patience, Perse- verance and Pluck have been my motto." Of his boyhood life here, Mr. Hawkes says:
I certainly have a warm spot for Ashfield and her people in my heart. Some of the pleasantest days of my childhood were spent there, and it was there while going and coming from the schoolhouse down at Wyoming Valley, and upon the farm, as well as on long tramps in field and forest, that I gathered all the fund of Natural History which has stood me in such good stead since.
Among other duties, I used to drive out to the Plain two or three times a week to get the mail, and lay in a supply of gro- ceries. I can recall as though it were yesterday the beautiful scene from the top of the hill above Professor Norton's to the village below. When my old express wagon came rattling down the top of this hill it was usually about sundown, and the rays of the setting sun were falling aslant through the tree tops, gild- ing with finest gold the exquisite Florentine steeple upon the town hall, which rose majestically among the tree tops. How cool and restful, too, was the green vista of Ashfield village street, with its canopy of overarching maples and its well kept lawns, with its neat residences. Broadway, New York, does not appeal to my imagination nearly as much now, as did the pleas- ant country village of Ashfield to the mind of the country boy.
Professor Norton's place and that of George William Curtis always had a great attraction for me, for even at that early age. I was a bookworm and was glad to do homage to these great geniuses in my small way. Little did I then dream that in later years Professor Norton would become a sympathetic and valu- able friend to me.
The little white schoolhouse in Spruce Corner too, still calls to me with something of the old charm of childhood, but it can never be quite the same again, for while modern surgery can do wonders, yet it cannot put the heart of a boy back into the breast of a man of forty, especially if the man has traveled along the shady side of Life's pathway. Like Whittier's children in the school days poem, we were quick to leave our lessons and "go storming out to play." Our favorite playground was in Gard- ner's mill yard, or along the two streams that wound through
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the broad green meadows behind the schoolhouse. I remember that as I sat in the back seat close to a window, I could always hear the low murmuring of the brook, inviting me to its fern fringed banks, and trout haunted pools, and calling me away from the intricacies of Colburn's Arithmetic.
My father and mother were Ashfield born. My grandparents upon the Hawkes side spent nearly all their lives in town, while my great grandfather was old Dr. Enos Smith of whom so many witty stories are told. So I feel like a scion of the Ashfield tree although I was born in Goshen.
Cape Street, so named because peopled mostly from the Cape, has been noted in another chapter. Thomas Tower settled some fifty rods this side of the Goshen line on the Lithia road. He moved to Florida, Mass., and the place was occupied by Allen Eldredge. Where M. T. Clothier lives settled Abner Kelley and near the summer house called "Journey's End" settled the Seldens. Elisha Parker made his pitch at the top of the hill on the left about forty rods south of the schoolhouse. He was the father of Rev. Samuel Parker who in 1835 crossed the Rocky Mountains on foot, and came home two years later by the Sand- wich Islands. He wrote an account of his trip in a book of about 370 pages. A partial copy of this book was found with the Parker descendants and placed in the Ashfield library. An entire copy is in the old library at Northampton. On the "Paddy Hill" road leading from the Capt. Lot Hall-Jepson -- now Dyer's house, to the Goshen line lived Eli Eldredge, Eben- ezer Putney and Moses Belding.
CHAPTER XXI
MRS. MILES' AND H. M. SMITH'S REMINISCENCES
These Reminiscences were written by Mrs. Lydia Hall Miles after she had passed her ninetieth year, by request of her niece and nephew, Miss Julina O. Hall and Dr. G. Stanley Hall, also by others interested in Ashfield history.
My father was not a rich man and in order to support his large family must of course not only work very hard but practice also a strict economy. We never suffered for want of sufficient plain food but never enjoyed many luxuries, and for this reason grew up a healthy, happy family. In regard to clothing, not many dollars, and I might almost truly say, not many pennies were spent, for nearly everything worn by the family was of home production. For our summer wear flax was first needed. This was raised upon the farm and prepared for use by my father and elder brothers, then passed on to my mother who "hatch- eled" it. The long finer part was then ready to be wound about the distaff and spun upon the little wheel which was propelled by the foot. This part of the work was done by my mother and older sisters and was for the warp of the piece. The tow, or coarser part, that which was separated from the finer portion by the hatchel, was carded by hand into what was called rolls, why so called I cannot say, for they were flat. My mother often carded a lot of them in the evening for the next day's spinning and laid a board on the pile, to keep them flat and firm; these were to be made into yarn by the younger girls. A girl of seven years was expected to spin seven knots per day; then the rest of the day might be spent in play. (A knot of yarn was forty times around the reel, each round measuring two yards.) This yarn from the tow was not so strong and was always used for filling. Our yarn next must be boiled in ashes and water to render it soft and pliable, then it must be thoroughly rinsed to remove every particle of ashes. We took ours to the brook, rinsing it in running water which saved us much labor. Our yarn was now ready to be converted into cloth. Then came the spooling, warping, beaming on, the thread carefully drawn through the harness and reed, the harness hung in the pulleys, the treadles rightly adjusted, the tow yarn wound on quills and placed in the shuttle, and we are ready to weave. Recollect, all
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