USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Hawley > History of the town of Hawley, Franklin County, Massachusetts, 1771-1951, with genealogies > Part 12
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Mr. Kirby R. Thwing resides in town. His wife is a dau. of Dr. Cox of Hawley. Mr. Thwing is a teacher.
Mrs. Walter A. Turner resides in West Hawley.
Mr. B. Joseph Ward has a summer residence in town, the former farm of Mr. Herbert A. Holden. Mrs. Ward is the former Louise Smith.
CHAPTER 6
Incidents
One of the most disastrous events taking place in the town was the burn- ing of Leavitt Hallock's tannery and several thousand cords of bark, Feb. 11,1846. Copied from Atkins' 'History of Hawley':
"Soon after the first settlement of Hawley, Col. Ethan Allen, so well known in the history of the Revolution, came here with a large drove of hogs and spent the winter for the purpose of having them shack on beech- nuts. "
There were beds of iron ore in West Hawley and there was formerly a forge there, which was given up for want of facilities for taking the iron to market. Hence the name, "Forge Hollow".
On Monday Eve., Mar. 7,1887, a reception was held at Pittsfield in honor of Hon. Henry L. Dawes and his re-election to the U.S. Senate. Among the letters read was one from Mr. P. L. Page of Ann Arbor, Mich., a descendant of Hawley: "Massachusetts and the equal rights of man fought for on her soil, in the first battle of the Revolution, át Lexing- ton and Concord, maintained by the first blood shed in the war for the preservation of the Union by her sons, in the streets of Baltimore, con- tented for by her distinguished Legislators, John Quincy Adams and Charles Sumner, inour National Congress, in behalf of the African; and nowby the Senior Senator of Massachusetts in behalf of the Indian. May his efforts be crowned with complete success."
About 1847 a company of boys in their teens was organized for military practice. They were uniformed with red stripes on their trousers, belts, wooden swords and plumes. The group was guided mainly by Clark W. Fuller, one of the oldest in the group. Edwin A. Atkins was the first cap- tain. The first parade was at Hallockville with 18 men. As time passed the interest and members increased. A small cannon was bought by sub- scription, afterward exchanged fo r a larger one, and by sundry manipul- ations of shares. an adjoining neighborhood claimed a part of its control. This resulted in a feud between the two factions until the more staid citizens became involved in the matter and finally the cannon disappeared from sight. By tradition it is said to have been sunk in an old abandoned ore mine.
In 1865 Mr. Taylor Grout was chosen to go to Troy, N. Y., to buy a bell for the church. He made the trip with two horses and a sled, and purchased the bell from the Meneelys Bell Foundry. Returning in the evenings, arrangements were made to swing the bell into place the next morning. Being anxious to hear the tone of the bell that night, some men lifted it free of the sled while another struck it with a hammer. The tone carried to West Hill in West Hawley, where two men heard it as
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they stepped out of a barn where they had been threshing rye. Listening, they remarked, "Grout has come with the bell!" The date stamped on the bell is: "Meneelys, Troy, N. Y. -- 1795." Painted upon the bell, which is still in use in the present church, are these words: "Wells & Finck. Oct. 3,1865."
During the blizzard of ' 88 a diary was kept by Mrs. Asa Holden, mother of Mr. Herbert A. Holden. According to this account, snow fell from the morning of March 11th through the morning of the 14th without stopping, accompanied by high winds at times. There were no roads open and no mail until the 20th. On the 22d of March she wrote: "The men finished shoveling .the Buckland road. The mail went by foot power."
In September, 1938, the damages of floods and a hurricane were heavy in Hawley. Previous to the hurricane rain had been falling for five days and nights, until each tiny stream was full to over-flowing. At four o'clock on the afternoon of the fifth day, Sept. 21st, the hurricane struck. It lasted until early evening, leaving the town without communication of any type with the outside world. All roads were destroyed, every bridge in the town was washed away. The day after the hurricane Mr. Harrison Raymond called for volunteers to build a temporary bridge. Mr. Earl Gould made a small plank bridge over the washed-out culvert, then went to work on the temporary bridge. Gradually the work of reconstruction went on un- til the task which had seemed insurmountable, had been accomplished.
Copied to a large extent from Atkins' "History of Hawley:"
For some years after the first settlement of this town, the inhabitants were considerably annoyed by bears committing depredations upon their corr. fields. To prevent this traps were set and the marauders taken captive. Aaron Burt was the first man who built a house and lived on what was later the Hawley Town farm. One morning in 1795/6 he dis- covered that abear had entered his yard and killed one of his best sheep and left it partly devoured near by. He set a trap, baited with the re- mains of the sheep, attached a heavy clog and awaited the result. The next morning the trap was gone, the trail showing the track of a bear. The news was soon spread and his neighbors turned out to secure the game. Among those joining in the hunt were Capt. Simeon Crittenden and John Stratton, living at Hallockville, about a mile from Mr, Burt's. Most of the men took the precaution to leave their boys at home, but Mr. Stratton allowed his son, a boy of 10 or 12, to go, charging him to keep behind thé men, which he did. The party in their search passed by the bear and wher the boy came on, the bear sprang from his hiding place and caught him, fastening his jaws firmly on his thigh and held him fast. His cries soon made his condition known -- but what was to be done? To shoot the bear might kill the boy. No time was to be lost. Mr. Critten- den stepped forward and buried an ax in the bear's head, which caused him to release his hold, and the boy was liberated from his terrible con- dition, his wound bound up and he was carried to his home, where he lay many weeks under the care of Dr. Bryant of Cummington. He nearly
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bled to death at the time of the accident, and his recovery was a won- derful one, though he lived for many vears.
REMINICENCES.
Written by Pindar F. Cooley of Pittsfield: "In the early days, with the scarcity of reading material, it was costomary for the inhabitants of compare their prophetic skill pertaining to weather. If the corn husks were thick and heavy it was concluded that a hard winter was to come. If the musk rats were slow in making their holes in early autumn a long and pleasant fall was to be enjoyed. If the autumn winds howled with a peculiar noise about the buildings, it would be fair on the next day, but if it settled into the valleys it would be a "catching" time for harvesting till after the next good shower had come and gone. There was a sign for almost everything, and each event had a sign preceding it. When the time for "hog-killing" came, it must be done in the full of the moon, and the hog must receive the death stroke while the tide was coming in, or the pork would shrink in the pot. When the cat washed her face, the direction of her paw showed which way the wind would blow the next day. During a rain if a rooster crowed on the fence it would soon be fair, but if he crowed standing on the ground, the rain would continue until another day. . ..
"The east part of the town was settled by people coming from the eastern part of the state, from all the way as far as Cape Cod. My grand- father, Noah Cooley, came on horseback from Palmer in Hampden Co., guided by blazed trees to indicate his road, and built a house (shanty, it was called) near the line between Hawley and Buckland, in the prime- valforest. The country was thenfilled with wild life such as black bears, raccoons, wolves, lynx and foxes, the latter being very plentiful and tame. After felling the trees and making a clearing sufficient to raise a few potatoes and some corn, he built a barn near by for his horse and cow, for which he had to return to Palmer on foot, and drive back, making a journey of about 120 miles, round trip. He also combined pleasure with business, by paying a visit to his future wife, which visits he kept up annually for seven years. By that time he had so far made a home in the wilderness that he had erected a more commodious house, and cleared more land for cultivation, so that on the eighth year Esther Hyde accompa- nied him as his wife to their home, he on horseback, she riding behind on a pillion. Their housekeeping goods which she had been preparing were hauled by a yoke of oxen attached to a two-wheeled cart, the only wheeled vehicle then in common use ..
"As a result of such hardships, the early settlers were hardy, self- reliant people, brave and daring. They built a community strongly re- ligious, fervent in spirit and diligent. "
"My earliest recollection of one of the early settlers, Dea. Isaac To- bey. was when I was a boy. He must have been 75 or 80 yrs. of age, straight as an arrow, full of energy, and fully believing the next gen-
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eration had deteriorated, both mentally and industrially. His son, John, with whom he lived, was a perfect contrast to his father, large and stout. He had a good education and his lymphatic build compelled him to be- come more sedentary, in fact the deacon considered him lazv. At the age of 85 the old deacon with cane in hand, would visit every day the farm work as carried on by his grandsons, and suggest how the work should be done, which advice was not always acceptable to the boys, who were not particularly pleased with his frequent visits. Yet his demeanor could but inspire them with respect for the old gentleman, as they called him.
"On one occasion when the boys were piling logs, the old deacon came out and seated himself on a log. When the log rolled over, throwing him on his back, the boys feared he was hurt, for he did not speak. Taking hold of him they slowly and gently tried to lift him. All at once the old man spoke out in strong tones, "Lift, boys, lift! You don't lift worth a copper!" Where upon they set him upon his feet.
"He was an honorable man in all transactions, and well fitted to adorn the position he held so long as deacon in the church. He dated his first religious impressions in youth, from an incident which occured while he was walking with a comrade. A bolt of lightning struck down and killed his companion but he was spared. From that time he made up his mind he would live a Christian life in gratitude.
"Directly north of the church, and on a little lower ground, was the Old Sanford place, a large pretentious building of two stories, and a long ell running out towards the west. It had never been adorned with paint, but the elaborate carvings and exterior adornments gave evidence that it had once been a place in which its owner felt pride. In fact, William Sanford was at one time looked upon as the 'millionaire' of Hawley. At one time he kept a tavern in the upright part of the house, and in the ell was a general store .... Mr. Sanford is said to have resorted to various devices by means of which he aimed to make trade at his bar more brisk, such as guessing on the weight of a block of wood, or even a stone by the roadside, the loser to treat the crowd. The knowing ones used to say that the landlord was seldom if ever caught, for secretely he had weighed and measured the articles upon which he proposed a guess ....
"As wealth increased, so did a desire for honors and by virtue of a commission from the Governor, Mr. Sanford received the title 'Esquire' ... At the time of his death he left a sizable fortune.
"Uncle Ephraim Marsh walked with two crutches, a short pendant stump taking the place of one lost leg. He went from place to place selling wood- en measures which he made. .. It is said that in his early life he had been a sailor, exceeding'y rough and profane, but having been brought under religious influence, his life became a perfect contrast to what it had been. He was a constant attendant at all Sabbath services and prayer meetings. Uneducated, his remarks at times provoked a smile, as for example,
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the following public prayer :'O Lord, come with thy holy spirit, and wake up these sleepy young lambs; yes, good Lord, and stir up the old sheep too. O Lord, you and I both know they need it. ' But he was a truly Chris- tian man.
"Uncle Hollister Baker was the exact opposite. He cared nothing for education, religion or popular approval. His ambition was the accumu- lation of wealth. The pastor at one time reproached him for his false idol, 'Bro. Baker' he said, 'you know that money takes to itself wings and flies away.' 'Know it, know it,' was the reply, 'so better put it into land. "
"Near by lived Dea. Zenas Bangs, a farmer who always performed his work in a slovenly manner. It was said of him he would tire out a dog following him when mending brush fence.
"West Hill, Bozrah, Forge Hollow, the Square, King Corner, Hal- lockville, South Hawley, Red Store, Hunt district, Dodge neighborhood, Parker Hill, are names of formerly familiar locations ... There were also the singing schools in which boys and girls met to practice music as taught by Col. Barr, Mr. Ford and Mr. Taylor Grout. There were also the old time district spelling schools .. "
Copied from an early church record to show the sentiment of those times: "Church met at the meeting-house. Dea. Lathrop presented a complaint against Brother ---- for absenting himself from the public wor- ship and ordinances of God. Voted that a communication be addressed to Brother in behalf of the church."
The following was written by Wm. G. Atkins for the Greenfield Gazette in 1901:
"The pioneer settlers were early interested in schools and in 1778 a meeting of the inhabitants of No. 7 was held at the house of Samuel Hitch- cock, with Thomas King, moderator, and Zebedee Wood, clerk. Several votes were passed relative to providing powder and lead, building mills, hiring a minister, etc., and a subscription paper was drawn up. See Miscellany' for a copy of this subscription.
"At the first town meeting in 1792, 30 lbs. sterling was voted for schools. In 1810, $300. was raised, in 1851.$900. These figures do not indicate the full cost of schools, as for many years it was the custom for teachers to board around among the patrons of the school during the term., there- by saving that expense from the public treasury. Teachers were employed at from one to two dollars a week, In those times five and a half days constituted a school week, with no legal holidays. Scholars furnished their own text books, which in turn were handed down to the younger members of the family.
"In the olden times domestic manufactures were the only ones available.
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Many of the matrons could cut from measure and make the clothing for the members of their families, and sometimes a maiden aunt followed the occupation of going from house to house making wearing apparel.
"In like manner there were shoemakers who went among families to supply the needs for footwear. Ready-made clothing, boots and shoes were then unknown, and the material for making them was all raised on the farm, as well as all produce consumed by man and beast.
"The spinning wheel and distaff were seen in every house and in many cases the hand loom, A girl was not considered eligible to go out into the world until she had learned to use them.
"An important branch of farm industry was the making of maple sugar for home use. The early settlers had to use rude troughs for catching the sap, which were afterward superseded by clumsy home-made wooden pails. The sap was boiled in iron kettles swung between two large logs, and usually without any roof or covering. If the sap boiled over in the kettle a piece of salt pork was usually at hand to throw in, and after sev- eral firebrands had fallen in and it had received a thorough smoking, but production of white sugar existed more in theory than practice. But it was all they had, and answered for the family sweetening.
"The attention of the people was early turned to the erection of saw- mills. Timber was of a good quality and could be had for the cutting, and the rapidly increasing population made a demand for lumber for building. About 1800 a mill was built at the Crosby place near Camp rock, and after a few years was burned late in the fall of the year. The people contributed their work, hewed the timber and built another mill on the same site and had it running the next spring. Other sawmills, gristmills and tanneries were built before 1800, one tannery being oper- ated by horse and hand power. The tanning business had to be abandoned later, owing to the scarcity of bark. When the original forests were cleared to make 'the land available for farming purposes, much good timber had to be burned, there being no demand except for local use and fuel. In preparing wood for family use the best trees were selected, as they split more readily.
"Fifty years ago there were a dozen or so shops in town equipped for making broom handles which probably turned out an aggregate of half a million a year, which found a market in Northampton and Hadley. But the denuding of the original forests caused that industry to be abandoned years ago. This also crippled the maple sugar industry.
"The Square was the business center of the town and people were drawn to it for religious teachings and business transactions. But when it was deemed necessary to have a new church, and the site selected was more than a mile from the old one. and another church was built in the west part of the town, business merged from the 'Square'. When the 'Square' or 'Common' was the business center of the town, a tavern, store, post-
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office, and various mechanic shops were located there.
"Asa Vining, with hisfamily, came from Weymouth to Hawley in 1806, arriving at the Conn. River opposite Northampton on June 6th, the day of the public execution of Daley and Halligan. The rush of people to cross the river to attend the hanging was so great that he could not get on a ferry. Finally Mr. Vining secured a passage for his family by doing some work for the ferry company in payment.
"When Phineas Scott came from Whately to Hawley in the early spring of 1782 the family and goods were transported by a pair of steers, lead- ing the cow behind. The first day's journey brought them to the west part of Conway. When the road from there on was found to be blocked with snow, the settlers turned out and helped them through. Upon ar - riving at their house, which Mr. Scott had previously built and covered with a bark roof, they found the roof had broken in with the weight of the snow. "
When Dr. Charles Knowlton from Ashburnham settled in Hawley, his fame as an advocate of views tending to atheism had preceded him. A rivalry instantly sprang up between Dr. Knowlton and Dr. Moses Smith who had long practiced in town. Each doctor had his strong partisan fri- ends and quite a number of families named their children after their fav- orite physician. Col. Charles Knowlton Hawkes, who d. in San Francisco, Cal., and Col. Moses Smith Hall of West Virginia, who was Colonel of the Virginia regiment which did outstanding service in fighting the West Virginia rebels, were natives of Hawley and named for their respective doctors. A brisk controversy sprang up between Dr. Knowlton and Rev. Tyler Thatcher, who had settled in Hawley as colleague with Mr. Grout. This resulted in a challenge from Mr. Thatcher to the doctor to meet him in a public debate in the old meeting house. The challenge was ac- cepted and a large audience gathered from the surrounding towns to hear the debate, at the close of which both sides claimed the victory. Soon Dr. Knowlton removed to Ashfield where he continued to publicize his atheistic views.
During the first decade of the town's settlement two women were match- ed against each other for making the largest hasty pudding. Mrs. Tim- othy Baker was the winner, having made hers in a five-pail kettle, and the locality in which she lived has since been called "Pudding Hollow".
Mrs. Herbert E. Warfield told this story about her father, Mr. Wil- liam Bassett: "He was so distressed by the fact that there was one knot- hole in the third step of the attic stairs, it being the only one in the en- tire house !"
Mr. J. U. Houston was a man of sharp wit and keen sense of humor. The following story is told of him: "As a young man he went into part- nership to make scythe snaths. After a time the company got into finan- cial difficulties and the partner slid from under, leaving many debts
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which Mr. Houston was not legally bound to pay. He worked at the busi- ness of horse shoeing, which he disliked especially since he was afraid of horses. He had a mind which would have shone in the literary world. Nevertheless, he kept on shoeing horses until he had paid every cent that the firm owed, saying he couldn't leave his children much in the way of worldly goods, but he could leave them the memory of an honest man and that was what he wanted.
Warriner King, when a schoolboy, soon after the year 1800, attended school near the present site of Hallockville. more than a mile from his home, making his own track through the snow part of the way. During one winter he built the fire at the schoolhouse, which was in a large, open fire-place, his only remuneration being the ashes. These he sola to purchase a reading book then in use, "The American Preceptor". It bore the date, "Boston, 1801". He gave this book to Mr. Wm. G. Atkins in 1850.
The following is taken from Mr. Atkin's History of Hawley: "The Rev. Jonathan Grout was an inveterate smoker. He lived about 100 rods from the meeting house and used to go home to dinner between the two long Sunday services. On one occasion when returning from the respite, the fire from his pipe got in to the fence by the roadside. The alarm was given in the midst of the sermon, when the services stopped, the congregation rushed out to extinguish the fire, then returned for the remainder of the sermon. . . A family in Mr. Grout's parish kept geese, and the old gander had a habit of pecking on the door. One day Mr. Grout came to make a pastoral call. Knocking at the door, the housewife mistook it for the familiar tapping of the gander, and called, 'Peck away, old gander, you can't come in. '
"In the old sixth school district is a lot of land which has always been known as the 'Hitchcock lot', which was never transferred by deed. Be- fore the settlement of the town, the land was surveyed, the surveyors taking land in payment for their services. Among the party was a Mr. Hitchcock, whose son was one of the original settlers. This lot was taken by Mr. Hitchcock, though it is probable that he never saw it after acquir- ing it. Its ownership passed through successive generations to Joseph A. Hitchcock. who was b. there, being the head of the only family bear- ing that name in town. It was formerly occupied as a homestead, but later the buildings were removed and it was occupied as an 'out lot', a part of it being pasture."
The following story of Jack, the little white mule, was told to the writer by Mrs. Grace (Shaw) King, now residing at Buckland:
"In the 1880's the family of Elijah and Mary Shaw lived on Hawley Hill. One day in winter Mr. Shaw bought the little white mule of Mr. Manley Stetson in West Hawley. He became a great pet of the family, being gal- lant and lovable in disposition. Though it was difficult to get him into a trot when going from home, he could make his little hoofs fly when turned
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homeward. When Mrs. King taught school in the Doane district, she would load the buckboard with her sister Martha, and brothers, Arthur Ernest and Charles, and drive the two miles to school. The little mule, about the size of a shetland pony and weighing about 600 lbs., never ro- fused to drawthe load, though he looked rather small in the horse-sized shafts of a full-sized buckboard.
"In the summer Martha, mounted upon a two-wheel roadcart with Jack harnessed into the shafts much too long for his short body, would take her cargo of wild raspberries which she had picked ou the old Scanlon place, to market. She would drive to Buckland Center, a distance of five miles, where she sold the shaken-down berries to Rev. A. C. Hod- ges, minister of the Mary Lyon church at that time. Later her father took her to Shelburne Falls where she used her hard-earned money to buy the first new hat she had ever owned. It was a sailor hat, golden brown with a bright blue ribbon around the crown and fastened with a big bow in front. She paid $1. 25 for the hat which was sold to her by 'Marm' Koonz who remarked what a lovely child Martha was, and how perfectly beautiful she looked under that special hat!
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