History of the town of Middlefield, Massachusetts, Part 9

Author: Smith, Edward Church, 1877-
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: [Menasha, Wis.] Priv. Print.
Number of Pages: 738

USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Middlefield > History of the town of Middlefield, Massachusetts > Part 9

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HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD

education of the children. The intellectual achievements of many of those who received their early education in Middlefield is inspiring testimony to the wisdom of the town fathers in making liberal contributions for "schooling." In the first year ten pounds was set aside for this purpose, and the following year this amount was doubled. In 1786 the town voted that "each school district shall draw the money raised on the non-resident lands lying within each school district for school the year past and the year ensuing." By 1792 the appropriation had risen to forty pounds, and thereafter sufficient funds for education seem to have been regularly provided.

As there were over four hundred children in Middlefield in 1800 under sixteen years of age, the interest in the establishment of the schools and the division of the town into districts must have nearly equalled the interest taken in the location and erec- tion of the meetinghouse. The value placed upon education is shown in the attitude of Colonel David Mack, who, to supply the deficiencies of his eight weeks' early training was not above going to school with his children. The hiring of a singing teacher during the winter of 1800 testifies to the early appreciation of the value of music as an aesthetic and social force in the com- munity. This practice was continued in later years and sing- ing schools became one of the pleasantest features of Middlefield winters.

For the first few years there were apparently four general school districts corresponding to the four main sections or terri- tory originally belonging to the neighboring towns, and school was kept in private houses in different parts of the town. The topography of the township was naturally a deciding factor in forming the districts. In the north half of the town the four roads running north and south along the tops or the sides of the ridges each constituted a school district ; these were the West Hill District, the district north of the Center, the "North Dis- tric" along the old Peru road passing the Smith farm, and the Northeast District along the road north of the Cottrell place. In the southern half of the town there was a Southwest District including the region around Ford's or Loveland's mill on Fac- tory Brook; a South District including the plateau between Johnnycake Hill and Walnut Hill; a Southeast District corre-

THE NEW COMMUNITY AND CHURCH

sponding to the Eggleston District established by Chester before the incorporation of Middlefield, and an East District which was apparently the Den region.

Curiously enough the people living nearest the Center rather than those on the outskirts were the most difficult to satisfy as to school accommodations. So few people were living near the meetinghouse that the Center District as first constituted in- cluded a large area in the middle of the township, particularly to the north and west. In 1792 this district obtained permission to build a schoolhouse on the highway north of Oliver Blush but the building was apparently not erected as a school committee was appointed the following year "to make such alterations as they think proper regarding school districts." These "alter- ations" were the abolishment of the Center District and the assignment of its inhabitants to the nearest outlying district. The measure must certainly have been disapproved by William Church, the only member of the committee from the Center Dis- trict, who living only a quarter of a mile from the meetinghouse, was assigned to the West Hill District.

Renewed calls at subsequent town meeings for alterations in- dicate that the abolishment of the Center District was unsatis- factory. Finally at the March meeting of 1794 the Center District was re-established to include only those living about half a mile from the meetinghouse. The Blush Hollow people, who were formerly included, were assigned to the West Hill District, while those living on the upper part of Factory Brook were added to the district north of the Center. Particular diffi- culty was encountered in the assignment of Amasa Graves, who was situated at about an equal distance from the central points of three districts. With the splitting up of the Center District Graves was apportioned to the Southwest District, but when it was re-established, he was transferred to the South District. In 1795 he was joined to the Center District again, but a few months later found his final place in the Southwest District.

The school districts having been definitely determined, the building of the schoolhouses was the next matter to occupy the attention of the town. In 1796 an assessment of four hundred pounds was laid on the citizens and each district allowed to draw its proportion toward building its own educational center. This

HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD

work was not finished until 1798 when three hundred pounds more was appropriated for this purpose.

Until within a few years the old schoolhouse of the West Dis- trict stood south of the fork in the road at the top of the West Hill. The Southwest District schoolhouse stood half way down Johnnycake Hill, and the South District building on top of that hill near the Lang place. The original Eggleston or Southeast District school stood just south of the farm of Mr. Henry Pease. In the Cottrell District the first schoolhouse stood north of Mr. Cottrell's barn, from which point ran the original road to Smith Hollow. In the North District the schoolhouse stood originally at the foot of the hill south of the Smith farm, but was later moved to a point just north of the Smith homestead.

Children educated in the comfortable schoolhouses of the twentieth century have little conception of the hardships of ob- taining an education a century earlier. Even as late at 1830 the West Hill schoolhouse is described by a former resident as "very primitive in form and arrangement," and took care of from forty to sixty scholars. "The seats," he said, "were made from slabs with legs at the proper angles, often protruding through, making the seating surface uneven and uncomfortable when crowded. At one end of the schoolroom was an immense fireplace with chimney capacity well adapted to carry off all the heat from the fire below. In cold days the orderly routine of school was much disarranged by the frequent appeal, 'Please may I go to the fire ?' --- the reason for this appeal being so apparent that it could not be refused, and soon the fireplace was encircled with frozen ones who, when thawed, returned to their seats, to be re- placed by others in like condition. It was indeed a melting spectacle." Even later when a box stove was introduced, in the absence of a regular fireman, it was generally either too hot or too cold.

Yet the standard of teaching, even at the beginning, was high, as is shown by the lives of those who received instruction at this period. A number such as Samuel Smith and Uriah Church, Jr., were successful teachers for a few years. Among others who attained distinction in the world at large were Professor Eb- enezer Emmons, a graduate of Williams College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a noted geologist of New York State;

THE NEW COMMUNITY AND CHURCH

Rev. Lyman Coleman, a graduate of Yale, and a teacher, author and traveler, besides a minister of the gospel; Judge Elisha Mack, a graduate of Williams College, a jurist of Salem, Massa- chusetts; Azariah Smith, a successful merchant and manufac- turer in Manlius, New York, and a trustee of several institutions of higher learning in New York State.

Aided thus by the vigorous growth of the church and the schools, the community emerged rapidly from its pioneer stage. From this time Middlefield was to rise steadily to an honored place among the towns of western Massachusetts, achieving a notable success in material as well as cultural ways.

CHAPTER VII

THE PERIOD OF ISOLATED FARMING

I T IS difficult for the present generation, which has known or participated in the peaceful rural life of Middlefield during the last half of the nineteenth century, to realize that an entirely different mode of living and working existed in the town during the early years of the century. In retracing our steps from the present day to the time of the installation of Rev. Jonathan Nash we must think of life without the modern inven- tions which seem necessities to-day. We must picture the resi- dents of Middlefield living in farmhouses provided with great fireplaces to supply precarious heat until iron stoves were grad- ually introduced; working their farms without the machinery which lightens the labors of men to-day; lighting their houses with tallow candles, and traveling tediously over rough roads first with ox-carts and saddle horses with their limited capacity for passengers, but later with spring wagons drawn by horses.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of this early period was that most of the inland towns of New England were self- supporting and practically independent of each other in pro- curing necessities of life. We are prone to think of this feature as the natural result of the energy and ingenuity of the Yankee. but in reality the development of this type came as the result of the economic conditions under which he was forced to live. Without a market for his agricultural products and consequently without the money to purchase imported manufactured goods or the means of transporting them inland, every farmer looked to his farm, his family, and to his neighbor to produce or manu- facture the necessities of life.

The reason why the inland farmer had no market for his prod- uce was not primarily because of his distance from the coast. Had a sufficient demand existed in the seaport towns, there would have been built a system of good roads over which the back-country products could have been transported thither. But

CHAPTER VII

THE PERIOD OF ISOLATED FARMING

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of this early period was that most of the inland towns of New England were self- supporting and practically independent of each other in pro- curing necessities of life. We are prone to think of this feature as the natural result of the energy and ingenuity of the Yankee, but in reality the development of this type came as the result of the economic conditions under which he was forced to live. Without a market for his agricultural products and consequently without the money to purchase imported manufactured goods or the means of transporting them inland, every farmer looked to his farm, his family, and to his neighbor to produce or manu- facture the necessities of life.

PARKER FELLOWS

SIMEON & ELON BOOTH

ASA

DAN

BENJAMIN

MARTIN STARR

SAMUEL CLARK

PHASE

HEZEKIAH RUSS

BENJ. BLISH

JNO. WOODWARD

DAVID PHELPS

JOHN IDAMON

GIDEON RUSSELL, Jr.

ISRAEL · BISSELL

EDWARD BUSH

ORAIS CLAPP

JOHN NEWTO

ISAAC GLEASON

. SH.

SAMUEL PHELPS

SAMUEL LEALAND LUTHER LEALAND

JOHN & AM BROSE MEACHAM

ITHAMAR PELTON

S.M ... G.M.

CALVIN BENJ. SMITH PHELPS

EBENEZER LEALAND

& GIDEON & ABEL

THOMAS WOODS

RUSSELL

S.H.

WM. SKINNER

ERASTUS INGHAM

· SILAS BUSH PHINEAS · PERKINS

TIMOTHY MCELWAIN

. S.M.

·ISRAEL PEASE

ALPHEUS

· THEODORE COATS

BENJAMIN EGGLESTON

.RUSSELL TIMOTHY REY. JNO ALLEN

THOMAS WARD

CHARLES GILBERT

JOHN . SPENCER

JOHN SMITH

LEWIS TAYLORO

OLIVER COLEMAN

SAMUEL GOWDY

· SLUSH

S.H ..

THOS.

ERASTUS GRAVES

WILLIAM TAYLOR

AMASA CHURCH BLUSH

MEETING- HOUSE

ENOCH

BILDAD KABBEY

SAMUEL CROWELL GRAY

DANIEL BABCOCK

JOSEPH SMITH CYRUS CONE

ISAAC

DAVID MACK

ABNER CLAPP

SYLVANUS NOR KOTT

ELI

AMASYA

RUSSELL GILLETT

CROWELL

GO.

ROBERT

ANDREW MEACHAM

ISAAC

BISSELL

JOHN METCALF

JUDE

S.H.

WRIGHT

Wm. GRAHAM

SH.

.WOOD

JONES

PAIN LOVELAND

ELISHA MACK

ANDRUS LOVELAND

JAS. GAMEVELY

JOHN VONES

OZEM ·

BARZILUNI LITTLE GAO PEASE

OBADIAH

EOEN. COLLIN'S

JOSEPH MOORE

JNO. ELY

BENAJAN VONES

JOHN

BENJ. CHEESEMAN

JOHN . WARD

- E

THOMAS, SOLOMONE DANIEL ROOT

MIDDLEFIELD

1800

PHILIPS & JAMES MEACH M

THOMAS DURANT

LUTHER GRANGER

JOHN COATS

JOB ROBBINS

RIVER

JOHN DICKSON

ELIAS WARES

JOHN

MEEKER

AARON WHITTEMORE

MATTHEW SMITH .

URIAH CHURCH

WORTHINGTON

ARTEMAS

·NASH

WM.

wood

NATHAN WRIGHT

BLOSSOM SAMUEL TAYLOR

JOHN WHEELER

EZRA PELTON

ELIJAA WHITE

&EBEN. EMMONS

ELIJAH CHURCHILL

RHOADS'S BROOK

JAMES & GEORGE HOLLAND

PRINCE WILLIAM SIMEON GRAVES · WOOD

ELIAKIM .WARDWELL

LITTLE

STREATOR SAMUEL HAMILTON

JAMES & SILAS CLARK

GRAHAM'S MILLS

SOLOMON IN GHAM

STEPHEN

EZRA

RUFUS SMITH

BECKET

ELAN & ELKANAH VIKING

JUSTICE B BISSELL

HENRY NADERKIN

MERRIFIELD

PHELPS

EBEN. SELDEN

DANIEL

ALDERMAN

E.C. SMITH

PINNEY.

RIVER

FULLING/BARTLETT MILIST

SH.

MILLI

JAMES DICKSON

THE PERIOD OF ISOLATED FARMING

no such roads were created. The plain facts of the case were that even in the coast towns half of the population was engaged in agriculture so that the demand for foodstuffs to support the relatively small number engaged in manufacture, commerce and shipping activities, and also for export to the West Indies and other parts of the country, could readily be supplied by the towns situated on or near the coast or along the navigable rivers. The almost complete absence of inland manufacturing plants of any significance is shown by the fact that in 1810 the only towns of Massachusetts at a distance from the coast which had a popu- lation over 3,000 were the large farming communities of West Springfield and Brookfield.

How the agricultural towns maintained themselves with only slight dependence upon the seaboard is a matter of common knowledge. The men raised, slaughtered and salted their own beef and pork. The beef hides, after being tanned by the local tanner, were made into shoes, boots, harnesses, or saddles either at home or by the saddlers and shoemakers. Candles were made from the tallow and soap from the grease. From the flax and wool grown on the farm the women of the household spun, wove, knit and dyed almost all of the summer and winter cloth- ing and household linen. Woolen cloth was finished at the fulling mill and fashioned into suits by the village tailor if there was one. Corn, rye, and in the early days, wheat, ground into flour at the gristmill formed the staple articles of diet. Car- penters made furniture and wagons as well as houses and barns. Blacksmiths made nails and iron parts for wagons and farm implements in addition to shoeing horses. Only firearms, gun- powder, iron, salt, rum, spices and a few dry goods were pro- cured from the coast towns.

In Middlefield, as elsewhere, some of the farmers developed special industries in addition to the general activities just men- tioned. David Mack established a potash works on his farm, purchasing ashes from his neighbors at fourteen cents a bushel, and hauling his marketable product to Westfield and Hartford. James Dickson, finding a deposit of clay on his farm, made bricks for the chimneys of the community: At least one house, that of Benjamin Eggleston on the West Hill, was made from the product of Dickson's brickyard. South of where the Factory

HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD

Village schoolhouse now stands was a quarry of limestone, where as early as 1797 lime was produced in a primitive kiln. Dr. William Coleman and his successors at the Arthur Pease place operated a distillery located near what is yet known as the ,"'Still Bridge," near the Pease District schoolhouse. In view of the popularity of cider brandy which was an important product of the farmers' apple orchards, it is probable that Dr. Coleman did not restrict the output of his still to medicinal use only.

2pm Coleman

In this rapidly growing pioneer town with forested hills and abundant water power lumbering was naturally a thriving in- dustry. Before 1800 there were probably a dozen sawmills on the principal streams. Most of the town carpenters seem to have been interested in these ventures. Elijah Churchill and his sons established on the Den Stream above Rhoads' Mills a sawmill which later became a wood-turning works. Ithamar Pelton op- erated one sawmill at the McElwain farm and another in Blush Hollow. In 1793, at the height of the boom period William Church and his sons, who were the leading artisans in this line, built a sawmill situated a short distance north of the site of the Church Brothers' lower mill on Factory Brook near a tract of woodland on the eastern side of the valley, which he purchased at the same time. On this stream were also the sawmills of Malachi Loveland at the foot of Johnnycake Hill, of Amasa Blush in Blush Hollow, and of the Meachams farther north. Still others were operated by Theodore Coats on Coles Brook, by Matthew Smith on the upper part of Den Stream and by some early settler on Tuttle Brook.

The coming of the new people necessitated the building of roads into the outlying portions of the town until only the steep hillsides along the Westfield River branches and the rugged northwest corner remained sparsely inhabited. In the north- east corner where the valley of the "Worthington River" widens sufficiently to pemit profitable farming, a number of families settled, the most permanent of whom were the sons of Calvin Smith, so that the locality came to be known as "Smith Hollow." On the Ridgepole Road there were twice as many farms as at present. On the road along the West Hill ridge,

HOUSE OF THOMAS BLOSSOM

HOUSE OF CALVIN SMITH

HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD

from the Savery place north to the Washington line there were fifteen farmhouses where to-day there are but three. In the southwest part of the town the two square miles of pasture land known as Johnnycake Hill and the Walnut Hill section was in- habited in 1800 by at least a dozen families who were well con- nected by roads to the Centers at Middlefield, Chester and Becket.

It is important to note that none of this early building activity took place at the Center, except the erection of the parsonage1 a quarter of a mile north of the Center. The reason for this was that the Center was simply the geographic middle of the town- ship where citizens met for Sunday worship or for town meet- ings. Under the conditions already outlined the natural meeting places for trade and industry were the mills and taverns scat- tered about the town, while the small amount of products ex- ported at this time were hauled by the farmers themselves to distant markets. David Mack's two-story store building, half a mile south of the Center built about 1804, represents perhaps the first serious attempt to draw the currents of trade inward toward the center of the township.

But it was at the taverns situated along the county road from Chester Center to Hinsdale that the social and political life of the community was really fostered. Although these hostelries are thought of generally as ministering mainly to the wants of travelers, emigrants and farmers passing along this thorough- fare, the larger part of the patronage came from the town itself. The three principal taverns within the town, of which mention has already been made, were those of Enos Blossom, David Mack and Oliver Blush. At the first two, most of the town meetings and church services were held during the long period before the building of the meetinghouse, and all of them were natural meet- ing places of town committees and informal gatherings. As Shays' Rebellion was greatly stimulated by the harangues of agitators at the taverns throughout the state, it is quite likely that the Blossom Tavern, near which the prominent insurgents of Middlefield lived, was the scene of some of this revolutionary spirit.

As a more purely social force the influence of the tavern was 1 Site of present house of James Cody. (1924)

THE PERIOD OF ISOLATED FARMING

equally marked. Here were posted notices and here the news from the outside world and gossip from other parts of the town were dispensed to those who gathered there. Here were held also balls, receptions and other festivities. Some of the older in- habitants have spoken of one occasion at the Blush Tavern when the guests marched through the rooms around the center chimney to the tune of "Old Hundred." What has been well said of the tavern in general was no doubt true of those in Middlefield,- that it was the only rural institution "where prosy people broke into merriment and song, and spun yarns of human delight as they had from time immemorial in Merry England."

This jovial atmosphere was, of course, induced to a certain ex- tent by the general drinking habits of the time. Whatever rea- son may be ascribed for this craving for strong drink,-the ill- balanced diet or the monotony of farm life, or the severity of the climate,-the fact remains that the innholder's bar was a place of relaxation and good cheer. Oliver Blush's ledgers contain long accounts for "grog," "sling," "toddy," and "flip" and other ancient mixtures. "Grog" was a strong mixture of gin and rum with water, and when sweetened with sugar was known as "sling." "Toddy" was a weaker mixture, sweetened and served hot in a large toddy glass. "Flip" was a more elaborate concoction. This popular drink was made in a great earthen pitcher or pewter mug into which was poured a mixture of beer, rum or gin. After sweetening with sugar, molasses or dried pumpkin, and adding ginger or nutmeg, if desired, the finishing touch was given by thrusting in a red hot iron which made the liquor foam and gave it a delightful burnt taste. Beside holi- days, the gala occasions for the Blush Tavern were the "train- ing days" when the town youth met according to the law of the state for drill and instruction in military tactics on the parade ground adjoining the meetinghouse. After the exhibition nearly everyone gathered at Blush's Bar to celebrate the event with a glass of stimulating drink.

Although Enos Blossom was at the Arthur Pease place as early as 1780 and is supposed to have built the tavern which still stands in its original style, with its two parts joined at a right angle without a gable, it is possible that it was built at an earlier date. (As early as 1772 the decade before the incorporation of

HISTORY OF MIDDLEFIELD

the town of Middlefield, John Taylor was living near the Pease place. As he is spoken of as "Landlord John Taylor," in 1779, when the town of Murrayfield voted to build a road out to his house to connect with Partridgefield, it is possible that he and not Blossom was the builder and the first tavern keeper here.

In 1786 Blossom sold out to Ebenezer Selden, but tavern- keeping was resumed by Elijah Bartholomew and Russell Gillet from 1791 to 1804 when the property became a private farm- stead. After passing through the hands of several occupants it was bought by Dan Pease in 1821, the grandfather of the pres- ent owner, Arthur D. Pease. The southwest corner room, which is now used for a sitting-room, originally contained the bar, and the usual outside door has been replaced by a window looking out upon the county road. The room overhead was the ballroom, built with a spring floor, and formerly extending over the pres- ent dining-room. The ancient traditions of hospitality which center around this house are still maintained by the Pease fam- ily whose guests and friends are entertained there at all seasons of the year.

The prospect of a flourishing village growing up around the Blossom Tavern began to diminish with the establishment in 1784 of a new county road from Westfield to Hinsdale and Pitts- field which followed the west branch of the Westfield River to the foot of Mt. Gobble in Chester where it climbed up the hillside to Middlefield, passing through what is now the Alderman farm. The travel north and south which had previously passed the tavern over the highway through Chester Center was now partly diverted over the new county road which required less hill- climbing. As a result, Ebenezer Selden and the Roots, who had first settled near Blossom's, took up farms bordering on the new thoroughfare. The fact that David Mack opened his house for a tavern in 1785 indicates that he benefitted substantially by the patronage which had previously been enjoyed by Blossom.

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History of the town of Middlefield, Massachusetts, Part 9

Author: Smith, Edward Church, 1877- Publication date: 1924 Publisher: [Menasha, Wis.] Priv. Print. Number of Pages: 738

Author: Smith, Edward Church, 1877-
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: [Menasha, Wis.] Priv. Print.
Number of Pages: 738