USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Whately > History of the town of Whately, Mass., including a narrative of leading events from the first planting of Hatfield, 1661-1899 : with family genealogies > Part 21
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 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
1779. Whately Town Treasurer to Rufus Wells, Dr.,
To one year's salary, from March ye Ist, 1779, to March ye Ist, 1780, in hard money, £71 To providing my fire wood, 6
-£77
This year the town voted me sixteen-fold in Continental money which, when I received it, was depreciated seventy-five for one.
Balanced, and settled by a note from ye town for the depre- ciation of the paper currency.
To one year's salary, from March ye Ist, 1780, to March ye Ist, 1781, in hard money, £73 6
-£79
To providing my fire wood,
For this year's salary and fire wood ye town voted me the
228
nominal sum in state emission which, when I received it, was depreciated six for one in part, and three for one in part.
Balanced and settled by a note from ye town for the depre- ciation of the paper currency.
1780, 6 Jan. The town chose a committee to settle with the men that went in the service to New London and those that went to Claverack.
May II. Voted, "To give notes on interest to those sol- diers to whom the town is indebted."
Voted, "To raise a bounty of three hundred and thirty pounds to be paid to each soldier that shall engage in the army, also to give each soldier three pounds per month in silver or gold, to be paid at the expiration of his term of service of six months. Benjamin Scott, Jr., offered to get seven hundred dollars to give gratis to seven soldiers that should enlist."
July 3. Voted, "To make the two Continental men that will enlist in the army equal to the seven before raised, which is, eleven hundred dollars bounty, and three pounds per month, in silver money." The seven men who enlisted, as above, were : Abel Scott, aged 29; Oliver Graves, 19 ; Graves Crafts, 20, who was one of the detail that stood sentry over Maj. Andre the night before he was hung ; Philo Bacon, 22 ; Salmon White, Jr., 19 ; Amasa Edson, 16; Abijah Brown, 28. The two were Wil liam Giles, aged 18; Stephen Orcutt.
July 3. Voted, "To give five hundred and fifty dollars in hand, and three pounds per month, in gold or silver, to soldiers that will enlist for three months." Paul Harvey, aged 18, Beza- leel Smith, 19, Elijah Smith, 18, enlisted on these terms, and served three months at West Point.
August. An order was passed by the General Court, authorizing the selectmen of towns to purchase blankets and clothing for the soldiers then in the field, and the town voted to procure the needed supply. In response to another order of the Court, the town voted, "To raise three thousand six hundred pounds to provide beef for the use of the army." Committee to purchase the beef: Lieut. Elisha Frary, Capt. Salmon White, Dr. Perez Chapin.
Sept. 14. Voted, "To raise one hundred and seventy-seven pounds in silver money, to pay the soldiers that the town is in- debted to, for service done or doing in the army." To whom this vote applies is not known, but the following Whately men, in addition to those already named, were in the service during
229
this year : Reuben Crafts and Reuben Graves, in Capt. Ebe- nezer Sheldon's company, from 23 July to 10 Oct ; John Walls, or Wallis, aged 17; Samuel McIntire, 17; and Moses Crafts (all credited to Whately) detached for three months service, from Col. Israel Chapin's regiment ; John Brown and Jona. Bacon, in Capt. Adams Bailey's company, from I Jan. 1780, to 19 Jan., '81. Henry Green enlisted, but who he was and whether he was mustered in, does not appear.
1781. In response to the requisition of the General Court, for four men to enlist in the Continental army for three years, the town paid two hundred and ninety-three pounds, seven shil- lings, in silver, bounty money, as follows:
April, to Jonathan Bacon, sixty pounds.
May 6, to Bernice Snow, eighty-one pounds, seven shillings.
June 14, to Stephen Keyes, sixty pounds.
June 14, to Gerrish Keyes, sixty pounds.
In answer to another requisition, the town voted, "To raise £6 in silver money to purchase horses for the army."
Sergt. Abel Scott was in service this year from 6 July to 14 Dec. Elisha Belden was a member of Capt. John Carpenter's company of guards, stationed at Springfield, and was detached for field duty from I May to 30 Sept. In a company of militia, under command of Lieut. Col. Barnabas Sears, in service from 17 July to 8 Nov., were : Oliver Shattuck, captain ; Abial Hard- ing, sergeant; Abel Bacon and Abraham Parker, privates. The surrender of Cornwallis, 19 October, virtually closed the war.
Some Revolutionary soldiers afterwards settled in Whately. Among them was Josiah Gilbert who enlisted from Murrayfield, now Chester, at the age of 18, in Capt. Jos. McNiell's company, for service in Rhode Island ; was also in Capt. William Scott's company, of six months men, from 22 July, 1780.
Dr. Francis Harwood, then of Windsor, went out first in his father's company, probably at the age of 14. He enlisted in Capt. Hezekiah Green's company for service at Saratoga, in 1781. His father, Capt. Nathan Harwood, was born at Ux- bridge, 1737; enlisted for service in the French war, 1756; was lieutenant in Capt. William Ward's company, 1777; captain in command of a company that marched from Windsor to Manches- ter, Vt., and was out from 19 to 31 July, 1777 ; was at Saratoga at the surrender of Burgoyne. Joseph Barnard is credited with service at "The castle," Boston harbor, from I April to 30 June, 1783.
230
When the colonies threw off the yoke of the British rule, they found themselves without an acknowledged central govern- ment and, in the emergency, the leading spirits organized them- selves into a "Committee of safety," and called upon the towns throughout the province to elect corresponding local commit- tees. This measure was prompted by necessity and proved a wise expedient. These committees were composed of the best and most patriotic citizens. But the responsibility was new, and neither its advantages nor dangers were fully comprehended, and it is not strange that having been entrusted with power, they found it easy to magnify their office, and hard to persuade themselves that they could err on the side of patriotism and per- sonal liberty. The same spirit of devotion to the country's wel- fare, which prompted the order to the constables by our town's committee, dated 4 May, 1775, (already quoted) also prompted other similar measures equally significant and vital in their character.
And so after the failure of the expedition against Canada in '76, the committees of safety of thirty-eight towns in Hamp- shire county met in convention at Northampton, 5 Feb. 1777, "For the purpose of taking into consideration the suffering con- - dition of the northern army." Among other things, the con- vention advised the committee of supplies to forward at once whatever was necessary for the comfort of the army, "Not doubting that the General Court will approve thereof." It com- mended the action of the legislature in setting up courts of the general sessions of the peace in the country, recommended to all innholders that they refuse to entertain persons traveling unnec- essarily on the Sabbath, and set forth a plan for securing uni- formity of prices. In a petition to the General Court, the con- duct of "inimical persons" in the country is severely censured-in that they sympathize with the British, cast reflections on the honorable Court, pay no regard to the committees of safety, use their utmost endeavors to destroy the currency of our paper money and to prevent the raising of new levies of men.
'The doings of this convention are thus set forth in detail for the purpose of showing how wide a range of subjects it acted upon, and the authority it claimed for the general and local committees of safety. The record is important also, as fore- shadowing the part which conventions of these committees, and other delegate conventions copied from them, were to play in succeeding years. These committees of safety became a power
231
in the state, whose authority in local matters was sometimes greater than that of the legislature, and their action was recog- nized as binding by the courts.
The reference above made to "inimical persons" in the county deserves notice in this connection. At the time the war broke out, all military and civil officers held commissions granted in the name of the king. This official relation, added to the attachment which had always been cherished for the mother country, was a strong bond, especially to men who were by nature conservative. The men of good estate plainly foresaw that, in any event, their pecuniary interests must suffer from the war, and human nature is always sensitive under such a prospect.
Men differ in methods of reasoning and in judgment as much as in character. One consults the past for his guide, another looks at the signs of the present, and another, of san- guine temperament, watches the promise of the future and rushes to meet it. Under the circumstances which existed in 1775, entire unanimity of thought and action on the part of the Amer- ican people, would have been an anomaly in the world's history.
Actuated by the usual variety of motives it is not strange that there were persons in almost every town who, from personal interest, or through regard to the established government, or fear of the failure of the attempt of the colonies for independ- ence, stood aloof, or entered with faint hearts into the struggle.
It is not strange that there were some who were ready to sell themselves to the highest bidder or who waited for some decisive battle before taking sides. And it is not strange that the ardent patriots, who had accepted the issue and had staked their all, should make small allowance for difference of motives and temperament, and reckon all who did not keep pace with their bold aggressive movements as inimical to the country.
A few of our town's people were at one time suspected of being loyalists at heart, and the town required certain specific declarations, or test oaths, of them, which they all, it is believed, freely took.
An incident which occurred about the middle of the war will show the temper of the town. A man by the name of John Trask came to Whately and built a hut on the river bank near the outlet of Hopewell brook. No one knew his business or intentions, and he generally kept himself aloof from society, but in an unguarded moment he boasted that he had helped to hang
232
some Yankees who were captured by the British. The next day, when he returned from a stroll, he found a paper nailed to his door, on which was written, "Death to the hangman!" He took the hint and left for parts unknown.
The expenses of the war, the depreciation of the paper issues of money, the heavy taxation and the extent of town and individual debts, began, two or three years before the close of the war, to awaken a spirit of popular discontent in Massachu- setts. Everybody was behindhand. Real estate was unsalable, provisions and clothing were scarce and dear, the hard money had gone for public uses, and the paper bills had lost their credit. The soldiers came home poor and were urgent that the town should redeem its pledges, on the strength of which they had enlisted. Very likely the soldiers' creditors were not dis- posed to grant them unusual indulgence, and wait for the tardy action of the town.
The state levied taxes, the town levied taxes and the real estate owners were called to bear the chief burden of this direct taxation. The commercial interest was the first to feel the pressure of the war, and the landed interest suffered less, but now it was reversed ; commerce began to revive at once with the success of our arms, but the heavy taxes, scarcity of help and high wages swallowed up all the farmer's resources. He could not conceal his farm from the assessor, the taxgatherer or the sheriff. And this pressure upon the agricultural industry accounts for the distress, disorder and opposition to state taxes, which showed itself in the central and western counties, and ripened into open resistance. Everybody pleaded poverty and put off the payment of his debts. Legal prosecutions became frequent and oppressive. The courts were the means relied on to compel settlements, and not unnaturally incurred odium, and became the objects of popular vengeance.
A calm review of the situation will not find reason for sur- prise that disturbances arose, but the wonder is that the new state-crippled in its resources, loaded down with debts, weak- ened by conflicting interests, and with a financial system to adjust, if not to devise, and a form of government to establish on the basis of equal rights-the wonder is that the new state sur- vived the perils of its birth.
The success of the earlier conventions of the committees of safety indicated the most direct way of carrying out schemes for opposing, as well as supporting, the constituted authorities.
-
233
Conventions, "To consult upon the subject of grievances," a word quick to catch the popular sympathy, began to be held in Hampshire county as early as 1781. They were made up of del- egates chosen by the several towns, and thus had a semi-official character. For a time these delegates were men of the highest respectability and influence, and the meetings were moderate in their counsels, while firm in the determination to secure what they held to be their just rights. . But prudence and wisdom were not always in the ascendant. These delegate conventions degen- erated, and irregular conventions were held, which became the instruments of faction and mob rule, and culminated in the Shays rebellion.
The history of one of these earlier uprisings must serve as a sample of all, and is selected because a Whately man played an important part in it. In April, 1782, one Samuel Ely, a deposed preacher, of Somers, Conn., got together a so-called convention at Northampton, at the time when the Supreme Judicial Court and the Court of Common Pleas were holding sessions there. For an attempt to prevent the sitting of the Court of Common Pleas and for disturbing the peace generally, Fly was arrested, and pleading guilty to the indictment against him, was condemned to a term of imprisonment at Springfield.
It seems that he was an artful demagogue-though at the time a favorite with a considerable portion of the people-and, watching their opportunity, a band of his friends attacked the jail and released him. Three persons, believed to be ringleaders in the rescue, were arrested and committed to jail in Northamp- ton. These were: Capt. Abel Dinsmore, Lieut. Paul King and Lieut. Perez Bardwell. And it was proclaimed that they would be held as hostages till the body of Ely was delivered to the sheriff. The three arrested were military men, who had seen large service in the war, and the spirit of their old comrades in arms was aroused, and about three hundred of their friends assembled at Hatfield, under Capt. Reuben Dickinson as leader. Sheriff Porter of Hadley called out twelve hundred of the militia for the protection of the jail. After maturing his plans, Capt. Dickinson sent three messengers, 15 June, to Northamp- ton, with a proposition that the sheriff should send a committee to meet him at a place one mile from the jail, in two and a half hours from the delivery of the message. The sheriff declined acceding to the demand, and the next morning Captain Dickin- son sent the following pretty explicit note : "The demands of
234
our body is as follows : "That you bring the prisoners that are now in jail, viz .:- Capt. Dinsmore, Lieut. King and Lieut. Bardwell, forthwith. That you deliver up Deacon Wells' bonds and any other that may be given in consequence of the recent disturbance. The above men to be delivered on the parade, now in our possession, the return to be made in half an hour."
For reasons which are not known, but from motives which were approved by the state authorities, this demand was com- plied with, and the three men were released on their parole of honor, agreeing to deliver up the body of Samuel Ely to the sheriff, or in default thereof, their own bodies, on the order of the General Court. In after years, General Porter was greatly blamed for his conduct in this matter, but the General Court. at its session in November, emphatically endorsed it and granted a pardon to all concerned in the affair except Ely. It is to be borne in mind that this outbreak was wholly an irregular pro- ceeding, in which the towns, as such, were not concerned.
In the autumnn following (29 Sept., 1782,) a meeting of the committees of seven of the northerly towns in the county was held at Deerfield, "To take into consideration the deplorable situation that the people of the county and the Commonwealth are in, and the more deplorable situation they are soon like to be in, by reason of the great scarcity of a circulating medium." The question was also raised of dividing the county, or fixing upon Northampton as the single county seat, the courts being held up to this time at Springfield and Northampton alternately. The latter question seemed to make a convention of the whole county necessary, and this meeting issued a call for delegates from the several towns to meet at Hatfield, on the 20th of Octo- ber, at the house of Seth Marsh.
In response to this call, delegates from twenty-seven towns in the county met and discussed the matter of a county seat and the subject of both national and state debts, also the matter of the commutation of officers' pay-the half pay for life, first offered, having been by resolve of Congress commuted to a sum equal to five years' full pay. This body was moderate in the expression of opinions and judicious in its recommendations. It admitted the necessity of the full payment of all public as well as private debts, and urged the good people of the country, by industry in their general callings, to acquire the means for the prompt payment of all taxes, etc., but at the same time inti- mated that in its opinion such prompt payment was impossible,
235
at the rate then demanded by the government. Whately sent three delegates to this convention : Salmon White, Noah Wells and Benjamin Smith.
This may be taken as a sample of the numerous delegate conventions held in the next two years. They were the com- bined efforts of the people struggling to maintain their dearly bought liberties, under burdens of taxation, and the uncertain bearing of well-meant but crude legislation. The state debt, at this time, amounted to £1,300,000. There was due the Massa- chusetts troops alone not less than £250,000. The proportion of the Federal debt, for which this state was responsible, was over £1,500,000. The conflict of opinion between the landed interest and the commercial interest, already alluded to, made the adjustment of impost duties and taxation extremely difficult.
The "Tender Act," of July, 1782, passed in the interest of private debtors, which made neat cattle and other articles a legal tender, rather increased the evil it was intended to cure. By its ex post facto operation and its suspension of existing lawsuits, it complicated all questions of debt and credit.
A convention was held at the house of widow Lucy Hub- bard, in Hatfield, 19 March, 1783. This town voted to send as delegates, Nathaniel Coleman and Joseph Nash.
April 7, 1783. The town voted to send Noah Wells dele- gate to a convention to be holden at Hadley the third Wednes- day of the current month.
June 9, 1783. The town chose Capt. Henry Stiles and Nathaniel Coleman delegates to a convention to be holden at Springfield on the second Wednesday of June instant.
October 16, 1783. Chose Oliver Graves and John Smith delegates to a convention to meet at the inn of Col. Seth Murray, in Hatfield, on Monday, the 20th instant.
It might well be supposed that in times of such excitement and conflicting interests, the citizens would attend in a body all town meetings, and take part in the election of state officers, but it appears to have been the reverse in Whately. Only a small minority took part in the popular elections. The following statistics are given, for the study of those who are curious to trace out political causes and effects. The number of legal vot- ers in town, at the time under consideration, could not have been less than ninety. Perhaps twenty of these were in the army, leaving seventy at home. At the first state election, 4 Sept., 1780, the whole number of ballots cast for governor was seven-
236
teen. The same number of ballots was cast in '82 and '83. In 1784, the total number was fourteen; in '85, seven; in '86, eight; in '87, nine ; in '88, twenty-four.
The town voted not to send a representative to the General Court, till 1783, when John Smith was chosen at the regular meeting, but afterwards the vote was reconsidered.
THE SO-CALLED SHAYS REBELLION. The causes that led up to the defiance of the laws for the collection of debts, had many justifiable reasons for the action, in part, of the people. Money was almost an unknown commodity among the common people. Taxes were heavy and the cash to pay them was only among the wealthy classes. Those holding bills, notes or accounts against their destitute neighbors were bringing suits for their collection. The tax collectors were inexorable. The poor men's cows were seized and sold for cash down, and I heard one old gentleman say that he knew of cows being sold for twenty- five cents each. Men who held small farms were sold out of house and home. They asked for a stay law, but this was de- nied them, and measures of relief were denied.
Then the wrong step was taken. They broke up the. courts and prevented in that way the immediate collection of debts. - They formed in battle array to compel the class of greed to re- spect their rights. And here they failed, as they might have known they would. While we do not uphold them in this last resort, yet we can see that they had many justifiable reasons for their course. It would have been far better to have used ballots rather than bullets.
Mr. Temple says : "The town records are nearly silent on the subject." This is so : A great majority of our people were participants in the overt acts or real sympathizers with them, and as a result many men left the town and state. When Mr. Temple says : "Probably a part of those 'warned out of town' in 1791 were of this class, and the town took this method to show its displeasure at their course." Really, he knew better than this, for elsewhere he says: "It was only a measure to prevent them from becoming in any way chargeable in the event of pauperism."
One of our citizens, Jacob Walker, was killed in a skirmish at Bernardston, 16 Feb., 1787, by Captain Jason Parmenter. "He and Walker both raised their guns, took deliberate aim and fired simultaneously and Walker fell mortally wounded."
The town furnished various supplies in 1787 for the commis-
237
sary department of the state : Sixty-six pounds of beef, seventy- six pounds of pork, ninety-seven pounds of bread, one bushel of peas and three different quantities of New England rum : The first, thirty-two and a half gallons; the next, thirty one and five-eighths gallons; and then, thirty-six and one-fourth gallons ; in all, one hundred and three-eights gallons of rum. What a commentary on the advocates of law and order.
Three men who had fought valiantly in the Revolutionary army, Capt. Abel Dinsmore of Conway, Lieut. Perez Bardwell of Whately and Lieut. Paul King were selected as hostages for the delivery of Elder Ely of West Springfield, who had been active in fomenting rebellion, and they were confined in the jail at Northampton, contrary to the terms agreed upon. The result was that a mob collected and demanded the release of the hos- tages. But the sheriff had collected a strong guard to prevent the delivery, and men who had stood shoulder to shoulder in the ranks of the Revolutionary army were bound to release their comrades. But this ended in more talk than the use of gun- powder.
Later, three Revolutionary officers, Capt. Dickinson of Hatfield, Capt. Stiles of Whately, and another officer from Wil- liamsburg, with a two-horse sled and some straw, drove to Northampton and called upon the jailer to release the hostages. This he declined to do, when Capt. Dickinson turned to Capt. Stiles and ordered him to bring up a section of artillery and bat- ter down the prison door. He started, but just then the jailer's courage failed him, and he gave up the hostages and they were speedily conveyed to places of safety.
Lieut. Perez Bardwell soon became an inhabitant of New York state and Whately lost a valuable citizen. We had some abandoned farms in consequence of the farms being sold off to pay small debts that the owners could not raise money to pay. These were either added to the purchasers' farms or speedily turned into pastures. So we account for many abandoned farms.
THE DRAFT. As I differ widely from the statement of Mr. Temple I will give an account of the matter as recorded in the Book of Records kept by the company, which is in my posses- sion, going back to the May training, 3 May, 1814.
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.