USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Middlefield > History of the town of Middlefield, Massachusetts > Part 8
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After the failure of the attempt to capture the Springfield Armory, the dispersing bands of rebels took to the mountains. On January 29, 1787, one of these bands, commanded by Captain Luddington, and numbering one hundred men, while retreating through Southampton surprised and captured fifty of General Shepard's men and their provisions. The news of this capture reached Springfield the following day just as General Lincoln was arriving with state troops from Boston. In spite of their fatigued condition from several days' travel, Colonel Baldwin with fifty Brookfield volunteers in sleighs and Colonel Crafts with one hundred horse were despatched in pursuit of Lud- dington's men. The insurgents in the meanwhile were retreat- ing slowly with their booty through Norwich and nightfall found them at Middlefield. About half of them were quartered at the Jones house and the rest in neighboring houses. In this remote region they probably thought themselves perfectly safe ; but Lincoln's men had found their trail and, pushing on over the hills in spite of all hardships, had surrounded the Jones house by midnight.
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It happened that in the pursuing party was General Tupper under whom Captain Luddington had served in the Revolution as corporal. Surprised by the stern order of his old commander to surrender, the captain became disconcerted and made no resistance. The door was opened and he was on the point of surrendering when the remainder of the insurgent force ap- peared two hundred yards away, ready for battle. The state troops advanced to meet them and each party was about to open fire, when the rebels, overawed by the apparent superiority in numbers in the opposing ranks, gave themselves up without firing a shot. The next day Lincoln's men returned to Spring- field with fifty-nine prisoners and nine loads of provisions. Thus ended one of the last important incidents of the Rebellion.
During the short life of the insurrection many Middlefield citizens were more or less active in this ill-advised attempt to better their condition. All such were required to subscribe to the oath of allegiance. Eight of those who took this oath during 1787 were Benjamin Eggleston, Solomon Root, Daniel Root, Tabor Pelton, John Meeker, Samuel Jones, Jr., David Carrier and Oliver Blush, and their arms were returned to them except in the case of Daniel Root. The note that Root's arms were "lost at West Springfield" would seem to indicate that he participated actively in the retreat of Captain Luke Day's forces from West Springfield to Northampton. As the state required that participators in the rebellion could not hold office that year, we know that the selectmen, David Mack, Matthew Smith and Bissell Phelps, the town clerk, Solomon Ingham, the town treasurer, Erastus Ingham, were on the side of the law and order. The clannish character of the opposing factions is again evident. Four of the five town officers elected during the crisis were of the Hebron Colony. On the other hand, all the officers of the insurgent company and some of the men were En- field people. The rest of the rebels were probably mostly Scotch- Irish, as this element throughout the state gave the revolutionary movement considerable support.
The widespread sympathy for the hardships of the mountain farmer seems to have been intensified rather than dissipated by the failure of the rebellion. Samuel Jones and James Dickson soon regained their political power as their names appear upon
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town committees again before the end of the year. Further- more, their candidate for the ministry, Rev. John Robinson, was given a call to settle, with the somewhat ominous proviso, "in caise the church and the town agree in matters respecting church discipline." The absence of gold and silver in the state made it necessary to provide that the salary and settlement should be paid in "neat cattle, wheat, rye, indian corn, pork, flax, oates, beef, wood, butter, and cheese . . . at the then market price." As nothing further is heard of Mr. Robinson, it is evident that he either refused the offer, or that the town could not come to a final agreement in the matter. At any rate, the problem of procuring a minister was displaced by the re- vival of demand for the erection of the meetinghouse which absorbed the attention of the citizens for the next three years.
It was unfortunate that, in addition to political and religious differences, the topography of the township should be one of the hindrances of an early decision on the site of the meetinghouse. Extending south from the Peru line through the center of the town was the range of Robbins and Pelton Hills, terminating in the knoll on which the Agricultural Hall now stands. This ridge acted as a wedge between the settlers in the northeast and those in the northwest, who could reach each other only by the roads running south and meeting at the Mack Tavern or at the
Was Skinner
Blossom Tavern. At this time, it should be remembered, there was neither any "Center" nor any "Blossom Corner," nor any cross road between these points. As the center of the township was apparently somewhere on the ridge, the town voted to select "the most convenient place nearest the center of the town on the public or town highway." But to carry out these in- structions it was necessary to make a choice between the high- ways on either side of the ridge, to the disadvantage of the settlers on the side not chosen who would be obliged to make a circuitous journey to attend Divine service and town meeting.
By this date many more people had moved into the township, especially into the eastern section. Moreover, three of the com- mittee chosen to select the site, "the selectmen and Mr. Dickson," lived on the eastern side of the ridge, or accessible to it. It was
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but natural, therefore, that the original site near Widow Ford's on the west side of the ridge which had been chosen in 1783 should be rejected in favor of "the height of land between Justus Bissell and Bissell Phelps." This location cannot be identified with accuracy as Bissell is supposed to have been living near the Matthew Smith farm, nearly a mile north of Phelps who lived near the Coleman house.2 It is unreasonable to suppose that the site was at any great distance from the Phelps' farm, however, and in any case it was much more easily reached by all the people east of the central ridge than the original site on the western side.
If there was any opposition at this June meeting to the town's decision, it was evidently not considered important, for the ac- ceptance of the Phelps' site was immediately followed by a vote that the meetinghouse should be fifty-two by forty-four feet. The townsmen also voted to raise 200 pounds to provide building materials and appointed a committee to receive and inspect them. The collection of money and materials, however, pro- ceeded slowly, both on account of the hard times and the grow- ing dissatisfaction of those living in the western part of town who desired a more convenient location of the meetinghouse. In November matters were brought to a standstill by a vote to re- consider the Phelps' site.
Despairing of settling this question among themselves, the town appointed a representative committee consisting of Lieu- tenant Matthew Smith, of the east side, Lieutenant James Dick- son, of the west side, and Major David Mack, a neutral, to apply to the General Court for a committee to make the momentous decision. This move was quickly superseded by a vote in De- cember that Deacon Jonathan Brewster, of Worthington; Dea- con Jesse Johnson, of Chester, and Lieutenant Scott, of Norwich, be asked to perform this delicate task. As there is no record of their consenting to serve, these two deacons and one lieutenant probably considered that discretion was the better part of valor in the face of a reception committee consisting of the aforemen- tioned military escort reinforced by two more lieutenants, one deacon, and the late chief insurgent, Samuel Jones.
Although the vexatious problem was repeatedly mentioned in
2 About half a mile east of the Center where Ralph Bell now lives. (1924)
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the warrants for town meetings during the following year of 1788, no attempt seems to have been made to find a solution. Just at this point when religious conditions were in their most unsatisfactory phase, a new element of controversy was injected into the situation by "those who call themselves Baptists." Assisted, no doubt, by the other dissenters, they obtained a town vote whereby the minister rates of Ebenezer Babcock were abated "from the time he joined the Baptist Church in Chester- field which was September 18, 1785." It was probably fortunate for the town that this new issue did not become of vital im- portance until several years later.
The Presbyterians also were taking advantage of the discor- dant situation. On April 30 the Presbytery, sitting at Peter- boro, New Hampshire, appointed the Reverend John Houston "to supply Middlefield and Chester, and to certify to them while there, if he judge proper, that they are an organized Presbyterian Church." As nothing further is heard of this movement to form such a church, it is evident that some under- standing was reached between the dominant factions, for the town voted in December "to settle Mr. Frederick Parker on either the principles Prespeterian or Congragational as he pleased." Unfortunately Mr. Parker, who seems to have given general satisfaction, could not be induced to accept the call, the probable reason for which was the lack of a meetinghouse. At any rate, the town at once made another strenuous effort to cut this Gordian knot.
The year of 1789 must have been one of the most exciting in the history of Middlfield. The same popular sentiment in favor of a lenient attitude toward Shays and the insurgent leaders in general, which had carried John Hancock into the governor's chair at Boston two years previous, seems to have been operative in the hill town where the Smith-Mack régime was superseded by the Jones-Dickson faction. A new site for the meetinghouse was proposed,-"the height of land by Cyrus Cone's house," which the town promptly accepted. The uncertainty as to the location of Cone's house at this date together with the introduc- tion of new elements into the controversy make the interpreta- tion of events difficult, but we will proceed as best we can.
On April 29 the town voted the acceptance of a cross road
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beginning on "the main road" at Daniel Chapman's (near Widow Ford's), and running east over the ridge to Bissell Phelps'. This road undoubtedly brought into closer harmony the northeast and northwest sections by giving them direct com- munication with each other and by making both the Widow Ford site and the Phelps site more suitable as a location for the meet- inghouse. As the Cone site was promptly rejected at the same meeting that the new cross road was accepted, it seems probable that Cone must have been living some distance further south, so located that the site for the meetinghouse near his place would not be rendered more desirable by the acceptance and use of the new cross road. That Cone's house might well have been some cabin near the Mack tavern or Josiah Leonard's is further indi- cated by the appointment of a committee in August "to pitch the spot for the meetinghouse between Oliver Blish's and Josiah Leonard's," apparently a compromise measure which would satisfy both those who desired a site near the Blush tavern or Widow Ford's and those who believed that the cross roads at the Mack tavern was a more suitable spot.
One must not suppose that the selectmen were at all united on this point. It is a curious fact that of the three sites proposed Widow Ford's was nearest Dickson's house, the Phelps site not far from Phelps's house, and the Cone site nearest Samuel Jones. The three choices were now probably equally available, and doubtless each had its adherents, but the Phelps site was less acceptable as there was no tavern in that vicinity. While the contest was thus narrowed down to a site between two points on "the main road," the balance of power remained with the people in the east and northeast for whom there was not much choice between the two remaining sites. Only the presence of this third doubtful element, voting first one way and then an- other, can explain the rapid changes in sentiment as the situation reached its crisis.
The site between Blush's and Leonard's which the committee chose and which the town approved was "the beech staddle on the height of land near Oliver Blush's,"-some spot not far from where the present church stands. The north and south factions at last were reconciled. Collectors of material were again chosen and the erection of the meetinghouse about to be-
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gin, when the familiar query appeared again in the warrant of October 31,-"to see if the town will come to a better agreement in any other spot to build the meetinghouse." The difficulty at this point seems to have been that the people in the east felt themselves unjustly dealt with by the agreement between the north and south; that while they were willing to go. as far as the main road,-either to Widow Ford's or the Mack Tavern,- they balked at the prospect of traveling another half mile along the main road from either of these points in order to reach "the beech staddle."
The whole controversy was thus reopened and the partisans rolled up their sleeves to fight the matter through to a settle- ment. On November 11 the town voted again for the Cone site, reconsidered it a few days later, chose it again on December 14, and reaffirmed that vote on January 4. Finally, on the sixth, a majority vote was again obtained for "the beech staddle" site, but this time there was an important proviso attached to the effect that a highway should be laid out at once from that spot to Thomas Blossom's, or "Blossom Corner," thus giving the eastsiders a direct road to the meetinghouse. All parties now scemed satisfied, and after a slight change of location from "the beech staddle" to a point "on the rocks," the problem of "the most convenient spot for the meetinghouse" was finally solved.
Having concluded this important business, one might suppose that the details of building the structure could have been safely left to a building committee, so that the townsmen might be frce to give more attention to their farms. But the intense individual- ism and extreme confidence which each man had in the worth of his private judgment, which were characteristic of this period, made it seem necessary to hold frequent meetings to decide upon the master workman, his assistants, their hours and wages, the method of raising the frame, and many other minor points. The fluctuating value of currency rendered it necessary to recom- pense the workmen "in produce of the earth," and considerable discussion must have been necessary to arrive at the decision that Ithamar Pelton should receive sixty pounds for covering the meetinghouse, "he finding the whole of his board, to be paid in rye at 3s per bushel, and good merchantable barrel beef 16/8 per cut and one third thereof in neat cattle priced by indifferent men and other articles of produce at the market price."
FIRST MEETINGHOUSE IN MIDDLEFIELD
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The building of the meetinghouse was proceeding expeditiously, considering the absence of a permanent minister and the prob- lems of raising funds, when a new element of discord was in- jected into church matters by the Baptists. At this date this sect centered in the Babcock and Rhoads families and their relatives and neighbors in the southeast part of town, particularly in the Den. Having previously refused to pay their minister rates, they presented a petition at the town meeting of November 11, 1790, which stated that the fifteen subscribers were attending "upon the Publick Instruction of the Rev'd Eleazer Rhodes a Publick Teacher of Piety Religion and Morality and of the Bap- tist Persuasion," and which demanded that the money which they had paid or would pay in the future for public worship be given to this minister.
Here was an issue of vital moment to the town. In these days of prosperity and complete toleration of religious sects nothing seems more reasonable than the request of the Baptists for the right to support a preacher of their own doctrines. But un- fortunately this demand came at a time when it was a question whether even with the united efforts of all the citizens the town would be able to complete the meetinghouse. This is shown by the appeal of the town to the General Court for the abatement of their state taxes, sent in December, stating that the town "was settled by People whose circumstances were Low in the world"; and that "having the Burden of the Late War to support and the uncultivated wild to encounter," and not having "the Ad- vantage of any Public Land for the Support of the Gospel or Schools as is customary in other new towns," the raising of three hundred sixty pounds within a year for the meetinghouse was "such a burden upon a considerable Part of the Community as to Prevent their completing the Building," if they were com- pelled to pay their state tax also.
As Congregationalism was still the established religion of the state, the town had an undoubted legal right to enforce the col- lection of the minister tax from the Baptists. Whatever their differences on doctrine and church discipline the Presbyterians and Congregationalists were in agreement on the present ques- tion. James Dickson, the most prominent Presbyterian, was the man whom the town chose to seek legal advice as to how to pro-
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ceed with the petitioners. It is important to note here that not one of the Smith, Root, Pease and other families who were later active in the formation of the Baptist Church in Middlefield was a signer of the petition or apparently in favor of the movement at this time.
Under the circumstances the town was justified in denying the request of the Baptists. That the affair caused considerable feeling is shown by the fact that the town also refused to grant them "a little span of time to turn themselves" before paying the amount due. As nothing further is heard of this question for several years, the Baptists seem to have acquiesced in the decision without further remonstrance. Aside from the merits of the de- cision, it is refreshing to observe the town fathers taking prompt and decisive action on important local issues,-an indication of the growing coherence of public opinion which hitherto had been sadly lacking.
Just how far this decision affected the fortunes of the settlers in the Den is an interesting speculation. It is a curious fact that before another decade had passed every one of the Baptist peti- tioners living in that valley had moved away from town. In view of the later erection of a Methodist Chapel in this region, it is probable that a Baptist Church, if permitted, would have flourished here also for a time, and have given an opportunity for many in the outlying parts of Worthington and Chester to hear the Gospel. But a church is ultimately dependent upon the economic prosperity of the community. As the forests were gradually laid low, the profits of the sawmills steadily dimin- ished, and no doubt, financial considerations were quite as potent as religious beliefs in causing the Rhoads families and their con- nections to move to other parts.
The first town meeting to be held in the meetinghouse was on April 4, 1791. The structure was not completed at this time as the first eight meetings there were concerned with the under- pinning, "plastairing," clearing the parade around the build- ing, laying the step-stone, and selling the ropes, spikes and hooks which had been bought to raise the frame. Ithamar Pelton was paid two pounds ten "for the extrordinary work done on the meetinghouse," but the following year some of his painting and joiner work was voted unsatisfactory, and he promised the in-
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vestigating committee to "paint the house again by the first of July next and do all in his power to nail caps over the windows when it is painted and where the work inside is not sufficiently nailed to nail the same sufficiently and nail cleats on the roof where the snow drives through."
The last difficult problem concerning the meeting-house had to do with the seating of the citizens. One might at first think that if every townsman was taxed for the support of the church the seats should be equally free to all. But in these olden times when the church besides fostering the religious life of the people was also the only social institution of the town, human nature found its vent in demanding some recognition of the individual's standing in the community. It was therefore necessary to "dig- mify the pews," that is, number them in the order of their desirability and endeavor to arrange the families therein accord- ing to their deserts.
As the church taxes were apportioned according to wealth, the best seats would naturally go to those who had paid the most toward the erection of church, but the town reconsidered the vote to accept "the doings of the committee appointed to seat the meetinghouse," and appointed a new committee. To give due respect to age, the town gave instructions that "five years age shall be equal to £1 in the valuation." It was also decided that the children should sit in the gallery according to their parents' list, and "the foar seats around the galleries shall be for the use and benefit of those that perform the singing to sit in."
Even with this guidance the report of the committee was voted unsatisfactory. The historian of the Middlefield Centen- nial has suggested that probably an unnamed factor, political influence, was potent in the negotiations in order that seats might be obtained on the broad aisle. A third and larger com- mittee, consisting of most of the leading men, was necessary be- fore an acceptable plan was devised. According to this plan, be it noted, the most desirable seat was to be occupied not only by David Mack, but also by his erstwhile opponents in the forum and elsewhere,-Samuel Jones and James Dickson, a welcome indication that these brethren were now prepared to dwell to- gether in unity.
During the erection of the meetinghouse preaching had not
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been carried on with regularity. Mr. Joseph Strong preached again on probation the latter part of 1789 and Rev. Stephen Williams in the spring of 1790, but as the expenses of the build- ing increased and as the Baptists refused for a time to pay their rates, it was not until August, 1791, that the question of raising money for preaching again appears in the records. At this date the meetinghouse was sufficiently completed so that the neigh- boring ministers might be invited to preach one Sunday each.
It was probably early in 1792 when Rev. Jonathan Nash, a graduate of Dartmouth College and a resident of Amherst, Massachusetts, began preaching in Middlefield. In June the town voted to hire him "to preach on probation for settlement, " and in August they voted to give him a call, offering him "two hundred pounds money's worth of neat cattle as a settlement, to be paid in two years, and also a salary of sixty pounds the first year, this sum to be increased by five pounds yearly until the salary reached seventy-five pounds." Mr. Nash accepted this offer with slight variations. In his letter of acceptance he states that after due consideration "of the great trials which ministers are called upon to encounter," "the present situation in which you as a people stand,-the danger of your being more unhappy without a settled minister,-your desire that I should under- take in that character manifested by your unanimity and the proposals made for my support point out to me as duty thus publicly to manifest my compliance with your invitation."
On October 31, 1792, Mr. Nash was ordained as the first minis- ter of the Middlefield Church in the presence of a council of pastors and delegates from the churches of South Hadley, Green- wich, Coleraine, Blandford, Partridgefield, Washington, Worth- ington, Williamsburg and West Springfield. It was indeed an auspicious event for the town. The earlier wisdom of the town leaders in not forcing the acceptance of a minister who was op- posed by any considerable number of citizens and in compro- mising on the less essential points of church discipline and doctrine was now clearly apparent. Mr. Nash remained the be- loved pastor of the church for nearly forty years,-a happy outcome after the years of controversy, discouragement and hard conditions of living.
Next to the proper provision for religious worship came the
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