USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Middlefield > History of the town of Middlefield, Massachusetts > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
150
HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD
in 1871 by John W. Crane, now of Springfield. After Sumner Church moved into his new residence the storekeepers lived at the Uriah Church house.
By 1870 Factory Village had reached the height of its pros- perity and contained one fourth of the families of the town. It was here that the outside world made its most obvious impres- sion on the community. Besides the English and the Irish new- comers, there had been added a number of German families, but particularly a larger number of French Canadian families. These people lived together in comparative peace, in spite of their different customs and religious beliefs, and frequently intermarried. In these days of industrial unrest and boisterous diversions their simple and satisfying pleasures,-rowing on the Reservoir, fishing and occasional dancing,-seem quite idyllic.
The number of factory workers was not so large that the Church Brothers who had grown up in the business could not take a personal interest in the welfare of their co-workers. The just and humane policy of the employers is shown by the general tribute of respect paid to them and by the lack of strikes and other industrial disturbances. Though welfare work had not become a profession in those days, yet the proprietors provided a room in the old office building where the men might meet and smoke and have their own social life. Prayer meetings were sometimes held in the dining-room at the "white boarding- house." Those of the Catholic faith went to other towns to at- tend service. The Protestants who desired to worship at the Center were taken thither on Sunday morning in the company's long five-seated wagon, familiarly known as "the big team."
When the hours of labor are considered, the conditions may not seem so favorable for the workers. They sometimes started working at six A. M. with half an hour for breakfast at seven- thirty ; half an hour for dinner at noon was allowed and an hour for supper; then they worked in the evenings from seven until nine except on Saturdays. Daylight saving was practiced in summer when the factories opened at five-thirty A. M. instead of six. It is indisputable to-day that these hours were too long, but at that time there was no such agitation for the shorter working days that are now almost universal. The workers were, in fact, eager for the opportunity to earn the extra money.
CHARLES F WRIGHT
RESERVOIR
A. SCHRAKER WNOBLES J. ROWEN
JAMES 1 CHURCH
DAM
WM. WIL COX D.EVANS IS J LATHROP
N
ALFRED BROWN- JOSEPH KING -
8 I CIL J. DOLMAN @ SVC. & B BARN
WOOL HOUSE W
E
LA MYRON L. CHURCH
STORE
SCOURING SHOP
SUMMER U CHURCH
5
OLIVER CHURCHEL
AMBROSE NEWTON
J. T. MECUM
MARY BLUSH
DA C'E STARKWEATHER
WILLIAM D BLUSH
SOLOMON ROO, REY ALEX. DICKSON
O ROYALD. GEER P MATTHEW SMITH
O. BLUSH & CO.
OLIVER BLUSH JEROME P. BLUSH
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
SMITH BAPTIST CHURCH
TOWN HALL & SCHOOL
ALEXEJ 0
INGHAM |MRS A
SBLACKSMITH SHOP
CHAPEL O
ISTEWART
P JL.BELL
JOHN L. BELL
N
A. J. BUCK P. BOUCHAN
SCHOOL HOUSE
- S
A GORDON
L. BOUCHAN
H.CARN E PERRY
J TURCOTI
MILL
S.U.CHURCH & BROS LOWER MILL
M HOUCK
E.BOTTOM
8
W BRALINKAITG GILBERT
DANIEL MCCARTHY
D
FOWLER
E
STATION
ABEL CHEESEMAN
SCHOOL . HOUSE
8 & ARR
0
ORRIN R WHEELER
P
HP HOLDE STORE
BULKLEY, DUNTON & CO PAPER MILL
FACTORY
FACTORY
OF
THE
WESTFIELD
VILLAGE
AT
HIRAM LEACH
BLUSH HOLLOW
1870
BANCROFT P.O MIDDLEFIELD STATION 1870
E.C SMITH
E.C SMITH
MIDDLEFIELD CENTER 1870
JESSE F. WRIGHT
HIRAM TAYLOR
REV JOSEPH M.
ROCKWOODP
SU.CHURCH & BROS. UPPER MILL
HENRY HAWES
REV. CHARLES M. PIERCE P
3
CARDING MILL AND GRIST MILL
W. D. BLUSH TURNING SHOP
BROOK
GROUCHER ₿ 2 PLANT JENETTER
WALL
FACTORY
BROOK
JEREMIAH LO GALLIVAN
JOHN TRACY
C. WEST
WEST BRANCH
& Po.
RIVER
P KYLE
W
SAW
LYMAN CHURCH
151
FACTORY VILLAGE, THE CENTER AND "THE SWITCH"
While Factory Village was thus developing, the Center was undergoing a similar change, but the growth was slow. The un- settled conditions following the War of 1812 brought about the failure of the company store as a co-operative enterprise, and in 1818 it passed into the hands of Orrin Smith, son of Calvin Smith, one of the members of the company. Orrin Smith had been trying to better his fortunes in Camillus, New York, but this frontier town had also been experiencing hard times. As it did not exhibit "that order and regularity that is observed in an older town," he returned to Middlefield. Smith lived in the house across the county road which had probably been erected by the company for its storekeeper, Edmund Kelso, who was also the first postmaster in Middlefield.2 Smith ran the store for about ten years and then sold out to Solomon Root who initiated his successful business at the Center which was to con- tinue for thirty years.
Except for the Blush Tavern, only one other dwelling, so far as is known, stood near the church and store. This was the house which stands opposite the church, but facing the road to Worthington. The original house was supposedly built by Ambrose Church who erected on the north side of the Worth- ington Road a joiner shop where the skillful cabinetmaker no doubt made furniture, farm tools and other wooden utensils when not engaged in building houses and barns. In 1828 he sold his property to Alexander Ingham who enlarged the house and built an ell toward the west which he used for a tailor shop. North of the Center was the Lewis Taylor farm and the small farm cultivated by Rev. Jonathan Nash.3
Half a mile south of the Center, however, was a rival com- munity which must have competed for the trade of the township. Here at the fork in the road leading to Windsor Street stood the large houses of Colonel Mack and General Mack who kept tavern, and also a store which antedated the company store at
the Center. Opposite Colonel Mack's was the house and black- smith shop of Ebenezer Emmons. A little further south was
2 The Geer house now owned by Mrs. May Youtz. (1924)
" The site of the James Cody house. (1924)
152
HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD
located the first schoolhouse for all the pupils living in the cen- tral region. Here was also located the post office after Mr. Kelso had left the company store.
In spite of this, however, a marked growth began at the Center after 1830, coincident with the general prosperity of this period already mentioned. Solomon Root must have demonstrated that his location was the more favorable for trade, as the Macks soon moved their store building to its present location nearly opposite the meetinghouse. Just north of the store they built a dwelling
aug 22/66
middlefield Village
From a sketch by wm F. Church
1866
house for Edmund P. Morgan, a partner of General Mack, and later owner of the Mack store. General Mack moved to Amherst in 1834 and the post office was transferred back to the Solomon Root store where it remained until 1857.
Most of the other houses in the Center were built about this time. North of the Blush Tavern Dr. Joseph Warren built the house later occupied by Henry Hawes.4 South of the tavern the house now owned by Mrs. Abbe (1924) was built for Ira B. Sampson, a shoemaker, constructed according to tradition from
4 Now owned by the Duggan family. (1924)
153
FACTORY VILLAGE, THE CENTER AND "THE SWITCH"
an ell of the neighboring hostelry. On the opposite side of the street adjoining his store Solomon Root built a house for his brother, Timothy Root, the next occupant of which was Rev. Alexander Dickson. Sardis Putnam, another shoemaker, pur- chased the old Thomas Blossom house at Blossom Corner and moved it to its present position south of the Alexander Ingham house. It is now owned by Mrs. Mulcay (1924), and is the sec- ond oldest house at the Center. Near the Town Pump stood the blacksmith shop of Benjamin Stewart, and his house later known
E!
U.CHURCHES7.
aug 23, 1856
From a sketch Wm F. Church
U. Church & Sons Store.
as the "Aunt Stewart" place, was built about 1834 between the shop and the house of Alexander Ingham.
Between the Timothy Root house and the meetinghouse Solo- mon Root built in 1838 a two-story building used for a button shop. The molds and the "prunella" cloth were obtained from the Williston Company at Easthampton. The coverings, cut out by Mr. Root with die and mallet, were given to the farmers' wives who finished the buttons and took their pay in goods from Mr. Root's store. After two years machinery for this purpose was installed at Easthampton, and the button industry in Mid-
154
HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD
dlefield came to an end. The building was later used as a tailor shop, schoolhouse and doctor's office.
In 1841 Mr. Morgan sold his store to G. W. Lyman and went to Cleveland where he continued his successful business career on a larger scale. In 1848 Lyman sold out to a company com- posed of the son and two sons-in-law of Solomon Root, known as Boise, Smith and Root, which took over also the Root store carrying on the combined business in the old Mack building. Solomon Root remodeled his vacated store into a dwelling for himself, selling his former house to Uriah Church and Sons Com- pany who, curiously enough, turned it into a store. A success- ful business was conducted there by Oliver Church up to about 1858 when the store was moved to Factory Village.
Aside from the popularity of the Blush Tavern, the main rea- son for this growth of the Center seems to have been the enter- prise of the rival storekeepers. In addition to the ordinary retailing of dry goods and groceries to the local farmers, these merchants undertook to handle the export business of the farms as well, thus gathering in the trade which had hitherto been car- ried on at Westfield and other places. The farmers brought their cheese and barrels of pork to the stores, taking their pay partly in wares from the store and the balance in cash at intervals. The storekeepers made their profits principally in salting and repacking the pork. As ten barrels of fresh meat, weighing two hundred pounds each, after the salting process made eleven bar- rels of the same weight, the packers were amply recompensed by the returns from the sale of the extra barrel.
With their agricultural products thus prepared and collected the teams of the storekeepers made frequent trips over the hills to distant marts of trade, generally to Hartford if dry goods were wanted in exchange or to Albany when flour was needed. The latter trip consumed three days; the first day's drive ex- tended to Chatham ; the second to Albany and back to Chatham ; the third, back home to Middlefield. Not only the farmers of the immediate community but many also in the neighboring towns availed themselves of this opportunity to market their produce profitably within a few miles without the necessity of making individual trips to these distant points. The amount of business done during this period before the railroad is indicated by the
1
FACTORY VILLAGE, THE CENTER AND "THE SWITCH" 155
fact that the second story of the Root store was at times packed to the roof with cheese casks. All things considered, it seems likely that the decade beginning in 1830 was probably the most prosperous period of the town's existence.
The coming of the railroad was, on the whole, of doubtful benefit to the Middlefield merchants, some of whose customers lived in other towns. While the stores could now ship their products to distant markets and obtain their wares by a short haul of only four miles from the railroad, the same conveniences were open to the individual farmers. As the railroad ran through the neighboring towns on the south and west, the stores near the stations gradually absorbed the trade of many of the farmers who had previously hauled their produce to Middlefield hill-top. But the fact that the Church Brothers opened their store at the Center in 1847. as soon as the Root store had been consolidated with the Mack store, shows that for many years there was business enough for two stores at the Center.
The prosperity of the town in general during this period was further reflected in the changes in church buildings which greatly altered the appearance of the Center. In 1846 the Congregational Society, desiring a more modern edifice, turned their building ninety degrees so that it stood with the gable toward the highway. The old tower and belfry were re- moved and a new one erected; but the bad proportions of the belfry with its long, slender columns excited so much criticism and ridicule, that in 1855 "Jim Church's pepper-box," as it was called, was replaced by the graceful spire which was well known 10 later generations.
In 1847 the Baptist Society, desiring a more central location, erected a new house of worship at the Center just east of the present store, where the horse sheds now stand. The site is marked by a granite stone. Through this change the society took on new life, adding to its membership many of the leading families of the community. Five years later a parsonage was built for the Baptist minister on the main street" nearly oppo- site Dr. Joseph Warren's house.
In 1853 the Methodist Society, following the example of the Baptists, moved their chapel from the Den and rebuilt it at the
" Now owned by Mr. Griffin. £ (1924)
156
HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD
Center just south of the town hall. Unfortunately, however, their society did not benefit by the change, and services were discontinued after a few years. It was later seen that in its former location the Bethel Chapel ministered to a large number of people in the adjoining sections of Worthington and Chester who were not able to go all the way to Middlefield Center to attend service. On the other hand there was no real need at the Center for more than two churches.
Coincident with all this growth at the Center came the neces- sity for enlarged school facilities. The original schoolhouse of the Center District which stood on the ledge at the fork in the road south of the David Mack farm was moved to the Center, probably during the '20's and placed across the road from the site of the present town hall. A few years later a second story was added. In 1846 the town built a one-story town hall, just south of the Congregational Church and for some reason the schoolhouse was moved across the road and placed beside it. Twenty years later when the town built a two-story town hall with a schoolroom on the ground floor, the old school building was purchased for a barn and removed by Ambrose Newton who at that time occupied the Oliver Blush house. Around this building, which is still standing, cling the memories of the older citizens who recall besides their hours of instruction many scenes of merrymaking and stern debate.
At the Center, as at Factory Village, there occurred changes following the Civil War. After the removal of David Mack, Jr., his large square house south of the Center had been used as the Congregational parsonage. In order to provide a more modern and more conveniently located home for the minister the Church brothers in 1865 took this house down and rebuilt it into a com- fortable residence on a lot adjoining the Baptist parsonage on the south. As the classic frieze which decorated the original house was not in keeping with the Victorian style of the rebuilt dwelling, it was placed on the inside of the piazza where it can still be seen.
Opposite the Blush Tavern, at the fork in the road, there had been erected at an early date some barns which took care of a considerable livery business handled by the tavern. These buildings remained standing long after the tavern had become
157
FACTORY VILLAGE, THE CENTER AND "THE SWITCH''
the private residence of Oliver Smith, and later of Oliver Church, and became rather unsightly. In 1868 they were re- moved by Oliver Church, and a handsome residence, similar to that of Sumner Church in Factory Village, was erected on this site, thus adding much to the attractiveness of the Center. The building of this house marks the end of the growth of the Cen- ter for thirty years.
In contrast with the beginnings of Factory Village and the Center, the origin of "The Switch," being due entirely to the construction of the Western Railroad along the West Branch of the Westfield River, is of a much later date. Previous to the rail- road, it is true, the Pontoosuc Turnpike ran through this val- ley, but it is not known that anyone lived along it in the region of "The Switch." The first and nearest inhabitant seems to have been Avery Herrick, a farmer, who located, about 1820, in the comparatively level area to the north of where the railroad station now is, and whose means of getting to the outside world was a bridle path leading further north to the original high- way from Middlefield to Becket Center which crossed the rail- road valley at a considerable distance to the west of "The Switch" where the present road crosses.
In the late '30's however, the valley took on new life when swarms of laborers came to camp in temporary shacks on the hill sides while they constructed the railroad. These people, numbering a thousand, all moved on after a year or two. When the railroad began running in 1841 there was no station at Mid- dlefield, but only a "turnout" which allowed trains to pass each other. The switch for this turnout was tended by Daniel Fowler, who established a home near by, and from this circumstance the community which gradually grew up in this locality received its local name of "The Switch."
About 1839 John Mann, who was perhaps the earliest settler, located on the highway a short distance southwest of where the arch bridge over Factory Brook now is. In 1843 he built a saw- mill near by on the Westfield River. John Mann opened a store near the site of the present store, and a post office, called "Ban- croft," was established here in 1846. At the same time "The Switch" was made a separate school district and a schoolhouse built. Some time after 1847 Middlefield was made a flag station,
OLD MIDDLEFIELD STATION SCHOOLHOUSE AT BANCROFT
NEW MIDDLEFIELD STATION STORE OF THOS. H. FLEMING
FACTORY VILLAGE, THE CENTER AND "THE SWITCH" 159
and a small one-story station was built. The community began to grow immediately.
At about this time also John Mann started a paper mill on the Westfield River, his product being straw paper. About 1850 the property came into the hands of William West who built the brick paper mill which for many years was a familiar sight until its destruction by fire in 1913. Throughout most of its existence it was owned by Bulkley, Dunton and Company, of New York City, who manufactured hanging paper out of old rags and news- papers, and shipped it to Philadelphia where it was printed for wall paper. In 1855 the amount of capital invested in this enter- prise was between $25,000 and $30,000. The employees were mostly from Irish and French Canadian families, numbering fourteen in 1855, and twenty-nine in 1880. A half interest in the plant was for a time owned by Charles West, who sold it to his brother-in-law, John Tracy.
By 1850 Middlefield had been made a regular stopping place on the railroad, and the wooden building now used as a freight depot was erected for a station. Just across the River in Becket the Bulkley, Dunton and Company erected another paper mill for making hanging paper, adding more families to the com- munity, though some of them lived on the Becket side of the river. So long as the locomotives burned wood the supplying of this fuel furnished considerable employment for Middlefield citizens. Charcoal burning was another industry which was carried on at "The Switch" until 1875. Two brick kilns for making charcoal were in operation near the station, and in 1855 as much as 52,000 bushels were marketed. In its early days the store changed hands many times, one of its owners being Boise, Smith and Root, who ran the store at the Center; but for about forty years it has been owned by Thomas H. Fleming.
Only by looking back again from 1870 to the beginning of the century can we realize how great were the changes in the eco- nomic life of the town during the intervening period. In 1810 the people were scattered rather evenly over the township, living independently upon the food products which they raised, and making their own clothing, household utensils and farm imple- ments. Only three families lived in Blush Hollow, four at the Center, and none where "The Switch" now is. The churches,
160
HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD
stores and mills which sprang up in different sections to a great extent served the immediate neighborhoods in which they were located.
As has been already shown, the development of the factory system throughout New England, and even in Middlefield, created a demand not only for food products for the growing in- dustrial classes but also for raw wool, both of which the Middle- field farmers could for a time supply at a maximum of profit to the local woolen manufacturers. In addition to this, the mer- chants at Middlefield Center were able to retain a large part of this money in the town by offering sufficient inducement to the farmers to exchange their food products for dry goods and other wares at the stores on the hill-top rather than elsewhere.
As a result of these influences there were in 1870 thirty-nine families living in Factory Village, fifteen at the Center, and seventeen at "The Switch." These constituted about one half the families of the town, almost all of whom were engaged mainly in the mills and stores, or in other trades and profes- sions, leaving the remaining half carrying on a more or less specialized kind of farming. In a later chapter will be consid- ered the decline of the manufacturing and mercantile phases of the town's life, so important in this period now under discus- sion, leaving Middlefield again pre-eminently an agricultural community.
CHAPTER X
MID-CENTURY MIDDLEFIELD. 1815-1870
I N THE previous chapter consideration was given the eco- nomic phases of the life of Middlefield between 1815 and 1870, which resulted in the appearance of three distinct vil- lages with well defined manufacturing and mercantile activities. Coincident with the growth of the general prosperity thus estab- lished were developments in other directions not so obviously connected with the existence of communities within the township. In particular, the social, educational and religious influences of this same period demand attention, which, though less tangible, were no less vital in the life of the town, and in some respects were as notable as the more material achievements already described.
One of the early factors in bringing Middlefield more closely in touch with the outside world was improved transportation. Soon after the War of 1812 the increasing travel and cartage business between the Connecticut Valley towns and Pittsfield and the west led to a demand for a better thoroughfare from Springfield. Besides the Third Massachusetts Turnpike reach- ing Pittsfield by way of Northampton, Worthington and Peru, the most used road was the Hampden and Berkshire and Housa- . tonic Turnpikes, chartered in 1826, reaching the same point by way of Blandford and Lee. Both of these routes traversed steep hills, and both were notorious for accidents to stagecoaches.
As early as 1818 it had become known that an easy grade through the Berkshires lay through the "Pass of the Westfield" at the northern end of Mt. Gobble in Chester,-where the three counties of Berkshire, Hampden, and Hampshire meet,-and along the river to the mouth of Factory Brook in Middlefield. A preliminary survey of this route for a railroad was made at an early date, but such a proposition seemed visionary, and the building of the Pontoosuc Turnpike through this valley appeared much more feasible.
GOOSE POND
UPPER RESERVOIR
HARRY MEACHAM
1
JOHN WILLIAMS
TLE
LAWRENCE SMITH
SMITH . (GEO & CALVIN SMITH HOLLOW
S. W. THOMPSON
BROOK
JACOB ROBBINS
JOHN DAMON
CLY
SON SMITH
. HOWARD SMITH
S.H
SAMUEL L. HAMILTON BENJAMIN FRANCIS
T. B. CHURCH
E.J. INGHAM
1
THOMAS . MELLETTE
RESERVOIR
ORRIN PEASE
MRS. LUCY MCELWAIN
HARVEY ROOT
.THOS. O'NEIL
J.F. WRIGHT H.HAWES
CEM
TAYLOR
JNO
LVKAN
CHURCH AT CHURCH CENTER
MILTON
· DICKSON
C.Ch. :
HIGHLAND G Soc.
CHAS. NOBLE
JOEL. TAYLOR
FACTORY VILLAGE
. SILL CHURCH . WD. BLUSH O.BLUSH
S. ROOT
DEN
ALMON BARNES
C.S. AVERY.
S.H. BLUSH
HOLLOW
MRS. B. . MASKELL
ASHER PLEASE
COLES
AMASA GRAVES.
E. D. GRAVES
LABEL
B
ORRIN CHEESEMAN
$H
WHEEL.FR
MRS.L ELY
OHIMAM LEACH
MORGAN PEASE
AMBROSE LOVELAND COMBS
CEM
WEST
BRANCH
R.R.
BROOK
OF
JAMES GRANGER
E.C. SMITH
N
1
S. PATYOX
WILLIAM ALDERMAN
DANIEL MCCARTY
WODDY MILL
BANCROFT
GALLIVAN
5
WESTFIELD
TOWN SHIP OF MIDDLEFIELD 1870
-
RIVER
. S.H.
GEORGE ALDERMAN
N.V SOAPSTONE CO. .
SX
HENRY STERNAGLE
S. & M.J. SMITH
C.C. THOMPSON
MIDDLE BRANCH OF THE
Fi
MERCHAN
W.W. LEONARD
OLIN C. OLDS
· MILTON SMITH
·
STREAM
ARNOLD PEASE . WALTER METCALF
BROOK
C.M.
C. WEST'S GRISTMILL
LANSING FERGUSON
NARLOW LOVELAND
TAN BROCK
GEO.S. BELL
FACTORY
DANIEL ALDERMAN
THE
RIVER
·
PRAYERONO
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.