USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Westfield > History of the town of Westfield; comp. for the public schools from Greenough's History of Westfield in the Annals of Hampden County and other sources > Part 3
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present in every room a large fireplace, and rising above the ridge of the house with a top square and large as if defying the fiereest storms was one of the most distinctive features of the earlier colonial houses. The front door opened into a small entry, on the right and on the left of which was a door opening into a front room, one the parlor occasionally used the other the sitting room. Back of these rooms was the long kitchen, or living room, running the whole length of the house save as it was shortened by "mother's bedroom." a pantry and a closed stairway leading from the kitchen to the attic. The kitchen by doors communi- cated with all the other rooms of the house and with the woodshed. A side door in many houses, opening on to the yard, gave an unhindered view of the fields, and added to the good cheer of the room in summer time.
Larger houses, though of the same general plan, were two stories in height and had four front rooms. The chimney held so large an area that the space for the front hall and angular stairs was often quite lim- ited. The kitchen with its concomitants was nsnally provided for under a lean-to roof. The Moseley homestead, on Union street, which long ago passed its centennial, is a stately example of this sort of house, though it has a rear ell instead of the lean-to roof.
Another plan, more aristocratic, was that of a two-story honse hav- ing eight rooms nearly square in the main house, with a generous hall on each floor running from front to rear. The kitchen was in an ell pro- jecting from one-half of the rear of the main house. As provision was made for heating all the rooms by fireplaces, two chimneys were required in the main house and one in the ell. Such a house when standing on rising ground in an ample yard bordered with Lombardy poplars, origi- nally imported from over the sea, was indeed a stately reminder of the manor house of old England and of ancestral rank. The monldings and carvings of the front entrances of these old houses, the chaste man- tels. the panelled wainscot and the corner cupboards of the front rooms are much admired.
The finish of the front entrance of the large gambrel-roofed house on Main street, near Noble street, is yet well preserved. This house was long known as Landlord Fowler's house and later as Harrison tavern.
Burgoyne, with some of his companions, after his defeat at Sarato- ga. is said, under the convoy of American soldiers, to have slept here one night while on his way from Albany to Boston, hence the house is often called the "Burgoyne house."
The kitchen in these colonial houses, with its long mantel spanning the huge fireplace and oven and with its high-backed settle, that, in zero weather, attempted to wall off the frigid cold in the rear of the room from the torrid heat of the fire, well nourished by wood from four to eight feet in length, was the center of the home life of the household.
The kitchen was indeed a place where these suggestions were heed- ed. Time was improved. In addition to the usual cooking and clean- ing there was soap-making, brewing and dyeing. the making of cloth for the family and the cutting and making of garments. At one end of
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the long room stood the spinning wheel and the loom. The whir of the one and the rattle and thud of the other made music in the ear of the thrifty housewife. Here the flax which the men had raised. threshed, retted and broken, the women with distaff and spindle wrought into thread to be woven into linen-some of which woven more than a cen- tury ago is among the heirlooms of Westfield homesteads to day-or to be woven with woolen yarn into linsey-woolsey.
Over the mantel hung the gun proved in many a hunt and relied upon as a stanneh weapon of defense. On the mantel the little hoard of books, well read because without competitors. There also was the box containing the flint and steel. the tinder and lint wherewith to start a fire, if the fire on the hearth should go out. When other sources of fire failed. a tramp to some neighbor's house must be taken with tin lantern to bring home the lighted candle.
The kitchen was at times the workshop of the men and boys as well as of the women. During the long evenings shingles were shaved, yokes and other farm implements were fashioned.
Glancing at the table and cupboard, we should notice that pewter and woodenware were in common use. Crockery was sparingly used by settlers in the seventeenth century. The table was supplied with ar- ticles of food from the farm and house garden. The smoke-house and the meat barrels in the cellar furnished a continual supply of meat, al- ternated with fowl, game, fish and the snow-preserved fresh meats of winter. Boiled dinner, with Indian pudding, was a frequent midday meal and was served cold at supper to workingmen. Wheat bread seems to have been more common in the seventeenth than in the eighteenth century. Rye and corn came to be the common ingredients of bread. Brown bread, composed of two parts Indian meal and one part rye, was largely used. Prof. Shaler of Harvard has well set forth the value of Indian corn to the settlers. He says :
"The success of the first settlements in America was also greatly aided by the fact that the continent afforded them a new and cheaper source of bread in the maize or Indian corn, which was everywhere used by the aborigines of America. It is difficult to convey an adequate im- pression of the importance of this grain in the early history of America. In the first place, it yields not less than twice the amount of food per acre of tilled land, with much less labor ( ?) than is required for an acre of small grains ; is far less dependent on the changes of the seasons ; the yield is much more uniform than that of the old European grains ; the harvest need not be made at such a particular season : the erop may with little loss be allowed to remain umgathered for weeks after the grain is ripe : the stalks of the grain need not be touched in the harvest- ing, the ears alone being gathered; these stalks are of greater vahie for forage than is the straw of wheat and other similar grains. Probably the greatest advantage of all that this beneficent plant afforded to the early settlers was the way in which it could be planted without plough- ing. amid the standing forest trees which had been only deadened by having their bark stripped away by the axe. Its strong roots
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readily penetrated deep into the soil, and the strong tops fought their way to the light with a vigor which few plants possess. The grain was ready for domestic use within three months from the time of planting, and in four months it was ready for the harvest."
Tea and coffee were long considered rare luxuries in most families. Fortunately, they have taken the place of cider so long considered need- ful. Orchards are now reared for better purposes than for the filling of cider barrels for home consumption. In early times. before the set- tlers had planted orchards or built cider mills, home-brewed beer was a common drink. For many decades, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a supply of cider was considered as important as other ar- ticles of diet. Charles Francis Adams tells us that "to the end of his life, a large tankard of hard cider was John Adams' morning draught before breakfast ; and in sending directions from Philadelphia to Quincy to her agent in 1799, Mrs. Adams takes care to mention that the 'Presi- dent hopes you will not omit to have eight or nine barrels of good late made cider put up in the cellar for his own particular use.'"
Trumbull, speaking of the meals of these early times, says: "For breakfast, meat was seldom provided, but bread and milk or bread and cider, hasty pudding with milk or molasses, and sometimes porridge or broth, made of peas or beans flavored by being cooked with salt pork or beef. was the usual fare.
"Dinner was deemed the most important, and some kind of meat or fish, with vegetables, was always served. Potatoes were unknown ; but turnips, cabbages, beans and a few other vegetables were used to a con- siderable extent. Potatoes were introduced into the Connecticut valley about 1720, and were not used as a common article of diet until several years later.
One of the oldest colonial houses, built according to the plans we have noticed. is the Day house, as it is called, on the high land north of the Boston and Albany railroad and west of the trap rock ridge; an- other is the brick house in Pochassic, for several years the home of Bar- num Perry and his family ; and another is the Moseley house on the north side of Main street, just east of the junction of Meadow and Main streets. Other houses deserve mention, but these must suffice.
The genealogy connected with each of these houses is interesting. We will speak of those only who have occupied the Moseley house, using an account given by one of the family. In 1677 John Maudsley (or Moseley) removed from Windsor with his wife. Mary Newbury, to Westfield, and purchased the house and store of Mr. Whitney which thenceforth has been known as their home or the home of their descen- dants. Mr. Moseley had already proved his valor in battles with the followers of King Philip. Hence, he was warmly welcomed to the stockaded hamlet and chosen lieutenant of the little company of defend- ers. Ile was also recorded as one of the seven original members or "foundation men," of the church first organized under Rev. Edward Taylor. in 1677. The sons of "Lient. John" "struck ont" in new paths for themselves. Consider has many descendants in Westfield and else-
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where. one of them, Mrs. Bingham (Sydil Moseley) was among the earliest missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. "Quatermaster John," as he was called was another son. He was the father of Col. John Moseley, one of the committee of safety in the war for independence. Owing to his public services, his name often appears in the town and in the state records. While the widow of Joseph (another son) was living in the house, we find the record was made upon the town book that the selectmen had agreed with one John Negro to call the people to meeting by beating the first drum, "against the widow Moseley's house in good weather." This drum beating by John or some one else for about one hundred and fifty years served instead of bell-ringing to promote pune- tual attendance at church.
When the first meeting-house, near the bridge, over Little river. be- came inadequate to the needs of the growing town, in 1719, measures were taken to build another. After much discussion and disagreement respecting the site for the new building, the town by vote made Samuel Partridge final arbiter. His decision was that "the place for erecting and setting up the new Meeting House, to be knowl on Capt. Mandsley's lot on the north side of ve way behind his housing." This meeting- house stood not far from the present southwest corner of the Moseley place on Meadow and Main streets.
In 1749, we find David Moseley, Esquire, as he is named in his com- mission from George 2nd appointing him magistrate of Hampshire county, occupying the Moseley house. Like many other officers of law and landholders, during the earlier troubles with the mother country, he was known as a tory. Hlad he lived to feel the injustice of later and more oppressive measures of the home government he would doubtless have helped to swell the unanimous votes passed during the revolution- ary struggle, tending to secure independence. He was the first public surveyor of the town. His royal commission is still preserved by his descendants, and also his compass, used in running town and division. lines. His book shows the "Two Hundred Aeres lying on the Syms- bury Road," laid out by him for Jacob Wendell, Esquire, of Boston. These acres were afterwards given for the first bell hung in the "coney" on the town meeting house near the Moseley honse. His son, named David, was a staunch patriot, a selectman for several years, serving in other offices also and chosen, in 1775, one of "the Committee of Corre- spondence and Safety to carry out the Plans of the Provincial Congress appointed by the town." While serving in the war for independence he was commissioned colonel of the Third regiment militia in Hampshire county. In his diary we find :
"24th Day of September 1777. I went to Saratoga in the alarm of the militia ; General Burgoyne was Delivered into our hands a prisoner of War the 17th day of October 1777. I returned home the 19th day of October from the camps."
This Captain, afterwards Colonel, Moseley, had charge of at least one tory when a John Ingersoll was examined by the committee and placed under guard.
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Time had made sad inroads on doors and windows "since this old house was new," and about fifty years ago one of the descendants of "Lient. Moseley from Windsor" made repairs and changes. The huge central chimney, with its wide fireplaces, was taken out and a hall made through the center of the house. The panelled walls were stripped of much of their handiwork and a modern finish substituted. The corner cupboards were removed, windows changed and the decaying doors on the front and east side, with their artistie carvings, enrved mouldings and enormous brass knockers, gave place to modern contrivances. Four- teen brides, each bearing the name of Moseley, have been married in the "best room" on the west side of the house, during the more than two hundred years in which the house has passed in the same family from generation to generation. Those born and reared in the Moseley house. joining hands and hearts with others, have built up from time to time new homes, here and elsewhere, far and wide, under the colonial names, Noble, Ingersoll. Root, Sackett, Fowler, Dewey, Taylor and others as well as the name of Moseley.
Work was the motto of the settlers. Their circumstances compelled persistent industry. Yet they were not as gloomy a people as they are often represented. They made "the wilderness and the solitary place" glad with their good cheer, born of full health. The variety of their work made recreation less a necessity for them than for those of the present time, when division of labor has made so many well nigh parts of the mechanism of a factory. Nor did they lack amusement and recreation. There were training-days, when work was suspended, that the militia might assemble on the "common" and receive instruction and drill. The day of annual muster was another holiday. Old elec- tion day was maintained as a holiday long after the election of state officers was transferred from May to November. "Raising day" was anticipated by every boy, as he saw the heavy frame building nearing completion, for he knew that the able-bodied men and boys of the neigh- borhood would assemble in gladsome mood at the "raising," and feats of strength, skill and courage might be expected. It was the custom to levy the tax for the repair of the roads as a separate tax to be "work- ed ont" under district surveyors. After planting time the surveyors in the several districts summoned men with their teams to put the roads in good condition. Boys. allowed a wage according to their years, mingled with men. Working on the roads was a social affair. Local history, personal reminiscence and mirthful story gave zest to the busy hours. The noon hour, when under some wide, arching tree, each par- took of the dinner he had brought, was a time for nich discussion of the questions of the day. These were very democratic occasions, for the minister and the doctor . though doctors were rare) worked out their tax with others. Then there were husking parties, dancing, hunting parties. games of ball, in which all might play, being chosen as at evening spell- ing matches on one side or the other: spinning bees for the girls, and games at neighborhood parties, in which all might engage. that made the colonial houses, illuminated with generous hearth fires, resound with
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merry-making.
That the large fireplaces were great consumers of fuel is evident from the annual supply of wood necessary for a household. The annual supply of a minister's family is fairly known from church and town records. Mr. Chauncey of Hatfield used from fifty to sixty cords. Mr. Edwards, after 1740, consumed, in Northampton, upwards of seventy loads each year. It has been estimated that one hundred families of Hadley, as late as 1765, when the size of fireplaces was less than a century earlier, consumed not less than three thousand cords annually. Westfield burned as much wood per family as other towns in the country. Sylvester Judd, the historian of Hadley wrote: "The minister's wood was got on days appointed, and the minister furnished the flip and other drink but not the food." These were high days for young men, and for some not young, in Hadley and in other towns.
It would seem that among other amusements there must have been sleigh rides in winter. Judd tells us that "the first settlers of New England knew nothing about sleds and sleighs, nor did they use them for some years. In Hampshire, wood was sometimes sledded before 1670, but in general it was carted long after that date. For many years logs were conveyed to saw pits and sawmills on wheels, and almost every-
thing was carted." He adds : towns till after 1730 or 1740." Later, as those now living can testify,
"There were no sleigh-rides in these
this form of winter amusement was common. Weddings were festive occasions and not infrequently both merry and boisterous.
During King Philip's war many believed that the sufferings the set- tlers endured were the result of their wickedness. Rev. Solomon Stod- dard of Northampton, writing to Increase Mather, says: "I desire that you would speak to the Governor that there may be some thorough care for a reformation." and among the "many sins grown in fashion" he mientions "intolerable pride in clothes and hair." At the November session of the legislature, in 1675, many sins were noted, with penalties provided for those who yielded to them. Under previous sumptuary laws three Westfield women were "presented." in 1673, for wearing silk contrary to law. In 1676 scores of persons in the Connecticut valley were fined, some for wearing silk in a "Haunting manner." and others for indulging in long hair. Five of these were from Westfield and in- eluded Elizabeth Lyman and Martha Wright, who was subsequently scalped by the Indians in July and lived until October, minus a scalp. But then, as now, men admired beautiful dress and the women were not averse, so that the sumptuary laws soon became obsolete.
We quote a paragraph from the history of Pittsfield, as it gives a glimpse of some of the sons and daughters of Westfield as inhabitants of that town. "Still another class of festivities, less generally remem- bered, were the evening suppers, at which the choicest of substantial country luxuries-from the goose and turkey, down to the pumpkin-pie and nut cake, not forgetting apples, chestnuts and cider-were served in turn at the houses of circles of friends, who formed a kind of informal club : the most flourishing of which was the Woronokers, composed of
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immigrants from Westfield, and their descendants-a right hearty and jovial set of men, noted for stalwart frames, vigorous and manly intel- lect, integrity of character, and devotion to the democratic party."
Holland says that a large portion of the inhabitants of Pittsfield at the time of its incorporation, 1761, were from Westfield.
Meeting Houses .- We are acenstomed to speak of church buildings as churches. The early settlers designated their houses for Sabbath gatherings, meeting-houses, for they were used, whenever they met to- gether, to transact any business requiring the meeting together of the people. Some room in the fort, or "forted house," was probably used for Sabbath meetings by the people of Westfield previous to 1672. In December of that year we find the town voted "that the town will go on with building a meeting-house with all convenient speed as may be. The dimensions are as follows ;- about thirty-six feet square. (Height of ceiling) is fourteen feet and for form like the Hatfield meeting honse." According to tradition, the settlement at Little river on the Windsor road, strove with each other and with the settlement between the rivers, respecting the location of the meeting house. Each wished the house to be located in its own precincts. After it was decided to build it on the "fort side." not far from the confluence of the rivers, there still was diversity of opinion respecting the place in which it should stand. The record says that "after solemn looking to God, the lotts were drawn. The lot came forth on the place before Goodman Phelps' or Goodman Gunn's, on the point."
This first meeting house was probably made of logs and stood on the north side of Main street on the terrace near the confluence of the rivers and a little northwest of the bridge over Little river. A central aisle led from the entrance to the pulpit. On each side of this aisle, and at right angles to it. were the long benches that filled the body of the church. On the sides of the church were benches perhaps at right angles to those filling the body of the house. These were the flank seats.
As the little community increased in numbers more seats were needed. By vote of the town, May 10, 1703. "Gallareys" were built on each side of the meeting honse. The end gallery opposite the pulpit. may have been built when the church was built.
The body seats decreased in dignity from front to rear. The dig- nity of other seats was determined by vote of the town acting upon a report of a committee previously appointed. Change in seats of the church required a new dignifying of seats.
It appears that for more than one hundred and fifty years the peo- ple of Westfield attended church without any means of warming the church building. An ample force of "tithing men" was maintained all the while, who, according to the vote of the town, were to "have full power to take especial care that all disorders in the meeting house. es- pecially upon the Sabbath day. are stilled, and to give such correction that they shall think fit, unto the boys, to keep them in order." It is not strange that the boys in the gallery were restive under the long ser- mons, and were sometimes noisy as they attempted to warm their feet by
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striking their boots together. When it was first proposed in town meet ing that the Congregational society should raise money for stoves the vote of the moderator decided the tie vote in the affirmative: but a re- consideration followed and reference to a committee to report. Decem- ber, 1827. in the third meeting-house, to be described hereafter, the in- novation, so long dreaded by many, came. The town voted that the "selectmen provide at the expense of the Congregational society of this town two stoves together with pipes, not to exceed in am't 80 dollars."
William G. Bates, in his "Pictures of Westfield." says: "We can- not conclude, without referring to an incident, in those times, strongly illustrating the power of the imagination. The meeting-house' was then unwarmed. There was no fireplace, or stove in it, and no provi- sion for heat, except a hot brick, or soap-stone or a foot-stove. There were, besides, no sidewalks, as we have now ; and the article of overshoes was confined to a few persons. The congregation used to wade 'to meet- ing,' sit with wet feet during a long sermon, and then hurry home to those restoring influences, which so effectually guarded against colds. The project was agitated, of warming 'the meeting-house.' It met with a furious opposition. Dr. Atwater was one of the innovators : yet even his opinions could not dispel the dread of stove-heat. At last (many years after the death of Mr. Atwater), two stoves were put in. Some said. 'Oh how comfortable !' Said others, 'It makes me faint !' On the second Sunday, owing to a neglect to provide fuel, no fires were built. But the stoves were there! One lady, of Court street, who was annoyed on the first Sunday, was still more annoyed on the second. She at first resorted to the reviving fan. She brandished it furiously, but its breezes could not cool that odious and distressing stoveheat. She untied her bonnet-strings, threw off her shawl, and opened her eloak ; but the stove-heat increased upon her. Unable longer to sustain the fury of the Nebuchadnezzarean furnace, she rushed down the broad aisle, and sought relief from the internal heat in an atmosphere of 20 degrees be- low zero. It may readily he imagined, that good old Parson Knapp was seized with a fit of coughing about that time, and that the congrega- tion wondered, how two cold stoves could produce such an inflammation in only one person.'
The relation of the ministers of early New England to their people is vividly portrayed by MeMaster. "High as the doctors stood in the good graces of their fellow-men, the ministers formed a yet more re- spected class of New England society. In no other section of the coun- try had religion so firm a hold on the affections of the people. No- where else were men so truly devont, and the minister held in such high esteem. It had, indeed, from the days of the founders of the colony been the fashion among New Englanders to look to the pastor with pro- found reverence, not unmingled with awe. He was not to them as other men were. He was the just man made perfect ; the oracle of Di- vine will; the sure guide to truth. The heedless one who absented him- self from the preaching on a Sabbath was hunted up by the tithing man, was admonished severely, and if he still persisted in his evil ways,
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