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 25
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The facilities for sending our surplus products to market are now such that there is no trouble in sending milk, cream, butter, eggs, poultry and every kind of perishable produce to a speedy, as well as a lucrative market. Tobacco that is now grown in a year would be worth more than all the crops they raised in a year. Now we shall expect to see some of the best farms that were abandoned rehabitated and very few ever again abandoned. Many of them have abundance of good natural pasturage, but are deficient in good mowing lands. When corn for ensilage can be grown a silo laughs at one who has only hay to depend upon.
A SEQUEL TO OUR ABANDONED FARMS.
While traveling over our little town enumerating the peo- ple, in accordance with the laws of our state, I was compelled to pass place after place where once a dwelling stood, where once busy feet pressed the soil of a once busy farmhouse, and its sur- roundings, where parents with their laughing boys and blush- ing girls filled the home with their gladsome voices ; where once was busy life, now, alas, is naught but the partially filled cellar hole and all is silent, as though the surrounding hills had never reverberated the gladsome laugh or sent back in echoes the merry songs of a once numerous and happy progeny.
I was going from the center of the town by the Irving Allis place, thence over the old Easter road to West Whately, some- thing over a half mile from Mr. Allis', by the roadway passing the "coon dens" and rising the Easter Hill, reached the first of the abandoned farms. The ruins consist of a partially filled cel- lar some fifteen feet by about twenty-four, thus indicating the size of the house. Here I stopped and sat down on a beautiful plot of grass, going back in memory to its early occupants and tracing their history and life work, and then their sons and
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daughters, their children and grandchildren, and as I thought aloud and mentioned names so I will now do the same.
In the year 1775 my great uncle, John Crafts, built a dairy house here. In 1779 Joseph Crafts, after faithful service in the Revolutionary army, married and soon after occupied this dairy house and the adjacent lands. Here his family, consisting of three daughters and six sons, was born. The two oldest chil- dren were daughters, then came Chester Crafts who was the father of Josephus, Chester, Jr., David W., Roswell P. and Albert W., all of them wealthy. Roswell P. has twice served Holyoke as its efficient mayor ; three of them have been direct- ors in different banks, and all of them much in office and held in high esteem. The daughters, sisters of these parties, were married to men of good and reputable standing at Northampton.
Then in my mind I traced another of the sons of Joseph who married and removed to Ohio. He was by trade a black- smith and also carried on the business of manufacturing agricul- tural implements; sold out and removed to Illinois; was con- tractor on the Central Illinois railroad. His wife died and he was prostrated with typhoid fever and died, leaving eight chil- dren. The oldest, named Josephus Crafts, was a woolen man- ufacturer; removed to Alabama, where he owned a plantation of 800 acres, and his descendants still live there ; one is a lawyer, and others in trade, besides carrying on the farm ; one other son, James, was a Methodist preacher, was in a cavalry regiment in the war of the rebellion and died in the service.
Then I thought of another grandson, David K. Crafts, who was a mere lad when his parents died, and among strangers. He was put out to a farmer with whom he lived until about seven or eight years of age, when he was sold to a drinking fellow for a keg of cider brandy. When he awoke in the morning and found that his drunken master was sleeping off his last night's debauch, he slipped out of bed determined to kill the man who had bought him, and seizing one of his boots he struck with will on his head, but the fellow jumped up before he could repeat the blow. He had to go with him, and when thirteen years old went to Nauvoo and learned the tinner's trade, and the family being Mormons went to Utah, and he of course went. He owns a large farm and a large interest in the mining business; has a family of seven or eight children, well educated.
All these thoughts ran through my mind as I sat there. Then I thought of the grand old grandfather, of his long con-
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tinued service in the army, assisting at the capture of Burgoyne and his whole army. Here they lived. The house stood in a warm, cozy place on an eastern slope of Mt. Easter. In the cellar is growing a stalwart butternut tree, a part of the cellar wall being intact and pieces of brick are strewed around. There is but little land in any way suitable for tillage or mowing, and how they managed to live here is a question that I am unable to solve, yet here was their home and here their children often disported. It is no wonder that when Mr. Crafts died in 1815, the house was deserted and the land used for a pasture even to this day.
Other abandoned farnis may have similar results following the removal to lands admitting of cultivation, several instances of which I could relate were it necessary.
Most of the farmers in the eastern and central part of the town raised broom corn, and quite a good proportion of them manufactured the corn into brooms. Those not choosing to manufacture had no difficulty in disposing of the broom corn. The price varied from five to seven cents a pound, probably six cents was about a fair average price, the green brush being always worth more than the red. It was confidently claimed that a good, well-ripened crop of seed would pay for the cost of labor and fertilizer for its production, so the farmer could well afford to take the reduced price for his brush. The manufac- turer would use the red brush for the inside and the green brush to cover it, a process that had some doubts as to its morality.
Among our largest manufacturers we will name a few only : Josiah Allis, Eliphas H. Wood, Abel W. Nash, Soloman Mo- sher, Calvin S. Loomis, Porter Wells, Lucius Graves, Stephen Belden, Reuben Belden, Carlos Swift, Justin M. Cooley, William J. and Josiah G. Wood. They soon began to buy broom corn grown at the west where it was always harvested green, and then broom corn raising ceased and the former growers turned their attention to growing tobacco.
The yield of broom brush averaged about six hundred pounds to the acre. Before the building of the Connecticut River railway the brooms were most generally sent to New York, shipping by boats to Hartford and from there by sloops or steam- boats, while many sent out teams through all the surrounding country, with an occasional two-horse load to Albany, N. Y. They used to laugh at one of our jocose broom manufacturers, who took a two-horse load of brooms to Albany, of course selling
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his wares as he had opportunity by the way. He closed out the end of his load to a wide-awake man in Albany, taking his pay in flour. He wasn't much acquainted with handling flour and the barrels were marked "fine flour." When he arrived home with his flour that he hoped to sell at a profit the people asked him why he didnt buy "superfine," instead of fine. He replied that they told him that old "Super" was dead so they could not use his name on that flour any more. He never outgrew that.
But then when we stop to think, in those days very few families ever bought flour by the barrel; they raised and ate rye bread. Once or twice a year they would buy a small amount for Thanksgiving and sometimes a little for haying purposes, a dozen pounds or such a matter at a time, an ounce of nutmeg, a quarter of a pound of allspice, some cinnamon and a pound or two of raisins also for Thanksgiving. To see how our people live to-day would excite their wonder. In my boyhood days I had to eat from a wooden trencher until I was ten years old.
As for eggs scarcely ten cents a dozen would be paid for them, but now they are carefully crated, and thus marketed or placed in cold storage ready for use when the season of scarcity arrives, and every week our merchants in villages receive them from Indiana and Illinois; and butter also is kept in cold stor- age, and the price seldom drops below twenty cents.
The west part of the town. comprising as it does the fourth division of Commons and nine lots of the third division, is stony and hilly, well adapted to pasturage, fruit growing and the pro- duction of meat and butter; with some good arable lands and a strong fertile soil. In fact I know that the lands from the top of Potash hill, including Pleasant hill, Spruce hill up Chestnut mountain, are remarkably rich soils producing every kind of crop in profusion, warm, quick to respond to treatment of ferti- lizers and easy of tillage.
As you go further west the arable lands are not so abundant, yet on the Poplar hill road from Conway line to and beyond Paul W. Field's, excellent farms are found, and Grass hill was considered many years ago as the farmer's paradise, but it was principally a stock keeping portion of the town. But now a change has come over the conditions of the agricultural products of the town. The reason is found in the growing of corn, and seed leaf tobacco. Lands that are suitable for the production of firm, light colored wrappers suitable for cigars, are now used largely for that purpose.
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This was commenced in a small way by Stephen Belden, Lewis Wells, Samuel and Horace Dickinson. Mr. Belden pro- cured some seed and raised a small quantity in 1843, and in 1844 took it to New York and sold it. At this time, 1844 or '45, Wells set out towards an acre and the Dickinson brothers about one acre. They took samples to Hadley, and sold their crops at six cents a pound for the wrappers and two cents for the fillers. Their next crops were somewhat larger and the buyer, Mr. Loomis from Suffield, Conn., came to Whately and better prices were paid. Then others commenced growing it, and in 1854 there were about seventy acres devoted to its culture.
In 1893 there were 412 acres planted ; but the usual amount of land devoted to tobacco varies from 364 in 1892, to 412 in '93. This yields very nearly 1600 pounds to the acre as an average ; this gives 620,800 pounds, giving a cash return of nearly $75,- 000, and when prices run higher the amount has reached over $100,000. There are years, like 1897, when the plants were so affected by the large amount of rain, that many acres were en- tirely worthless, entailing heavy losses upon the farmers. In- deed many acres of corn were also ruined.
At first the tobacco land was sowed to wheat after tobacco, and heavy crops resulted. I well recall a field of twelve acres raised by Alonzo and Walter Crafts, that was followed by wheat, that was claimed to have yielded 600 bushels, and as I have grown very nearly forty bushels to the acre on a poorer soil, I am disposed to say it yielded as above. Now the practice of sowing wheat has most generally ceased and the land if well adapted to the growth of tobacco is kept continually for that crop.
Since the completion of so many railways, affording as they do such facilities for the quick transportation of what is considered as perishable products, such as milk, butter and eggs, as well as small fruits, with the addition of cold storage, has almost en- tirely changed the conditions under which the farmer labors. Now it is possible, aye practicable, for the farmer to keep all the cows his farm can profitably carry. And when the hay crop is insufficient the silo and ensilage come in as important adjuncts to piece out his deficient forage crop, as now it is generally con- ceded that one acre of ensilage is sufficient to carry three cows through the usual foddering season, with one small feed of some dry material such as hay, oats, straw or cornstalks once a day.
The land in the west part of our town is peculiarly fitted
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for the keeping of poultry, particularly for the production of eggs. The land is not held so high but that a man might de- vote an acre or more fenced off in plats of eight or ten rods in a plat, with a woven wire fence, allowing to each plat about twenty hens and one cockerell; allow the grass to grow, thus affording valuable food for the hens, and set a number of pear or plum trees as he may choose in each plat. These will afford shade for the hens, and the fertilizer deposited by the hens would make the trees thrifty and productive.
For all these products there is an abundant market, and payable in good hard cash, not as formerly a barter trade. Then another excellent product is the raising of early lambs. They have the pasturage, and even though stone walls abound, yet wire is now so cheap that there need be no difficulty in mak- ing effective fences for sheep. Money is more easily earned in this way than in growing tobacco. Again a large portion of its area is well adapted to the growing of apples, for which we have the world for a market. But it is necessary to grow nice fat apples, not poverty-stricken specimens. To do this there must be supplied the needed elements contained in the fruit. No one would think of planting corn or seeding to grass a sand blow knoll, so no man should think of reaping "Where he has not strown." The old orchards are decaying, simply for the want of potash, and this is true as regards much of our New England pasturage.
Then as an incentive for improvement, real farmers' clubs should be formed wherever a dozen farmers can readily meet ; compare notes, try supposed beneficial experiments, and to de- plore farm wastes and suggest improvements; a real live insti- tution, and not a particularly literary affair attended by a thous- and and one degrees and initiations, with a bevy of officials too numerous to mention, where they discuss anything but farming.
CHAPTER XV.
WHATELY'S NATURAL SCENERY.
The Connecticut Valley has many beautiful localities of which those to the manor born are justly proud. In passing through the valley every one must be struck with the beautiful elevation on which the little hamlet of Whately is located. The hill is not sharp or abrupt, but slopes gradually to the south and east, catching the first rays of the morning sun and the equally cheery and balmy south winds. The hill's elevation does not exceed one hundred feet, and is underlaid with red sand stone. It is really a plateau and gives the name Chestnut Plain to the highway, commencing at the West brook bridge and extending to the north line of the town.
The soil is warm and fertile, producing large crops of grass or hoed crops. The hills west furnish a beautiful background, and serve to ameliorate the extremes of the weather. The water is of the best quality. It is an extremely healthy location, wholly exempt from malarial diseases. A wide area of flat lands lies at the base of this beautiful hill. A little ways from its base winds the wonderfully crooked, yet beautiful stream, usually known as Mill river, but by the Indians as Capiwonk, affording a meadow the whole width of our town.
Then there is a continued level strip of land about one and a half miles to the meadow that fringes the Connecticut, and beyond are the eastern hills dotted with villages.
At the north we have the mountain of Sugar Loaf, and across the river is Toby, which rear their proud heads and look
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down upon us in their rugged beauty, crowned as their summits are with beautiful summer houses. Still further north are the hills of Shelburne, Colrain and Leyden, while far away to the northeast we see the mighty Monadnock rearing its head ; be- yond this to the southeast of Monadnock is the Wachusett, ris- ing to the height of 2,900 feet. Then as you turn to the south, Holyoke and Tom stand as sentinels to guard our homes.
There are many rough and rugged hills, through clefts of which beautiful brooks have forced their way, making some very fine scenery. Among these I will only mention West and Roar- ing brooks. Whoever views the West brook as it runs between Stony hill and Chestnut mountain will be filled with wonder when they view the effects of the many tens of thousands of years of its continued efforts ; also they who follow Roaring brook and take cognizance of the beautiful scenery abounding at the glen and a long ways up the brook, that only needs to be seen to be admired.
These and many other beautiful places need no enconiums from my pen. They are rich in natural beauty, and are annu- ally visited by thousands. What a place for summer residences, and some day we will see the old and beautiful town covered by palatial places.
Not long since a wealthy hotel keeper remarked to me that if he was twenty years younger he would erect a first-class sum- mer hotel at Whately, and should consider it a good investment for a hundred-room house. That nature had here provided one of the finest and most desirable localities that he knew of for the purpose.
The main street has always been known as Chestnut Plain street even before its occupancy for residences. The views from the south end of the village embraces the mountains Holyoke and Tom, distant about twelve miles, with the long stretch of meadow, and beautiful view stretching on indefinitely. The landscape is dotted with farm houses and villages galore; the woodlands all in their rich vestments of green, intermingled with finely cultivated fields, and the rugged hills hiding from view the beautiful meadow city ; while to the east the spires of many churches can be seen.
But I am well aware that my descriptive powers are wholly inadequate to give an appreciative picture of the many charm- ing views to be had here. The reader will recollect that I have passed my eighty-second birthday, but my love for the old home of my active life still retains its hold upon me.
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We here present the fine view of Hon. H. S. Allis' very pleasant home, surrounded as it is with such a wealth of beauti- tul trees. It is located on the east side of Chestnut Plain street, which is ten rods wide, on the height of that beautiful elevation upon which the village is built. The point of view selected for this picture seems to possess a fine artistic effect. It gives a slight view of the cemetery, the wide street, the beautiful trees and the contour of the land, as well as a pleasant view of the large and commodious house. The front house was built by his father some years ago; the ell part now two stories high, affords an abundance of room. It is well divided, the apartments are large, finely furnished, and surrounded as it is with such magnifi- cent shade trees, and with the beautiful elevations, flecked as they are with villages, the mountains both north and south, and the hill at the west, makes a desirable residence.
BROOKS IN WHATELY.
There are quite a number of brooks, and as each of them has a local name, we will give them as fully as we can. We need hardly say that what we have is the result of many in- quiries and personal investigation. Bloody brook is a tributary of Capawong or Mill river. It empties into Mill river on the Bar- nard farm. It rises northeast of South Deerfield, is an inconsid- erable stream, and is famous for the massacre of Capt. Lothrop and his company, called the "Flower of Essex."
About one-half of a mile south we have Roaring brook which rises in Conway east of Cricket hill, flows southeasterly through the famous Whately glen, and affords much beautiful and wild scenery, some water power, and falls into Mill river. Chicken brook, sometimes called Uncle Nonies' brook, rises under Mt. Esther, and receiving some small additions, unites with Mill river. A small brook known as Brown's brook, crosses the road near the house of the late George Brown and enters Mill river.
The next one south is known as Gutter Hill brook. It crosses Chestnut Plain street just north of the center cemetery. It rises west of Stony hill and, collecting the springs flowing from Stony hill east and Spruce hill west, empties into Mill river. The next one south on the east side is the Great Swamp brook. This in former times was called Little River, and crosses Chris- tian lane just west of the house of Lemuel F. Graves, running
HON. H. S. ALLIS' RESIDENCE.
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a few rods on his lot, then crossing the Claverack road near the house of Sherman B. Bardwell and empties into Mill river.
The next brook, always known as Schoolhouse brook, rises from springs under Stony hill, crosses the Chestnut Plain road near the junction of the crossroad with Chestnut Plain road, runs thence southeasterly and empties into Mill river. White's brook is at the foot of the hill south of the Salmon P. White place. The next is Frary's brook, rising in springs northwest of Lincoln B. Sanderson's, crosses the road and runs on San- derson's land, and running between his house and barn, finds its way to Mill river.
Mill river, that has received all these tributaries, rises in the eastern portion of Conway, passes into the southwest part of Deerfield ; then through Whately and empties into the Connec- ticut river after passing through Hatfield, affording some water power in Hatfield and also in what we call Mill river in Deer- field. There are several large drains on the east side that dis- charge considerable water into it. Great Swamp drain has its outlet across Claverack and enters Mill river, and from this junc- tion takes the name of Little river. We have as tributaries of Roaring brook: Clark's brook which empties east of the place owned by Seth B. Crafts on the Easter road, Marsh's brook which rises in the southeast part of Conway, and also Burgess brook.
West brook rises in Conway, and the two streams that unite to form this brook are known as Sinkpot brook and Avery's brook. They unite in the south part of Conway, flow into the northwest corner of Whately. and flows southeasterly to its junc- tion with Mill river at a point near the line between Hatfield and Whately. This stream furnishes a large amount of water power. Its tributaries are first the Todd brook, which rises in Conway and runs southerly east of Rufus D. Waite's, and emp- ties into West brook. The next and largest tributary is known as Harvey's brook. It comes from Williamsburg and has long been used to furnish power for two sizable shops.
Poplar Hill brook is between Poplar hill and Mt. Esther. On this brook "Silver" Joel Munson and his father, old Uncle Moses Munson, had a mill for wood turning. Mitchell's brook, a small stream on the north side of West brook, and Potash brook empties east of the Otis Bardwell place. This unites, or receives several small streams that runs from under Mt. Esther and Bull hill, and takes its name from Potash hill.
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A small stream rises north of the E. S. Munson place and empties into West brook. Then to go back we will find a small brook under the hill near the West Whately cemetery. Then Munson's brook empties into West brook on the land of Otis Bardwell; this runs under Shingle hill and comes along near the Haydenville road, and is sometimes called "Still brook," from the fact that near it was one or more distilleries. All empty into West brook. Horse Mountain brook rises in the south- west part of Whately in that section known as Grass hill, flows southerly into Williamsburg uniting with the Joe Wright brook. The two united are afterwards known as Beaver brook.
The other brooks empty into the Connecticut river. Begin- ning at the north side of the town we have what the Indians called "Weekioannuck," but now known as Sugar Loaf brook. This rises in South Deerfield, crosses the Whately and Sunder- land road, near the house where Abraham Parker settled, and runs southerly emptying into the Connecticut on land owned by E. A. Scott's heirs. This affords power for a grist and sawmill.
Hopewell brook rises from springs under Hopewell hill and runs southerly, crossing the road near the East cemetery, then crosses the River road and empties on land of S. W. Allis. The fight known as the Swamp fight with the Indians was near the head of this brook. It has a small tributary from a small run near where the Wilcox house stands opposite Bartlett's cor- ner, and also takes the water from Poplar spring. There is a small brook that crosses the River road near Frank D. Belden's house. The water from all these brooks can be turned into one channel, and has been so used at Belden's mill. There is a small one near the south line of the town, near the Shaylor F. Belden place, sometimes called the Great Drain from Hopewell.
NAMES OF HILLS AND LOCALITIES.
"Old fields," so called, is a piece of ground tolerably level and rather free from stone, lying west of the Giles Dickinson house. These were old cultivated fields when the town was first settled. It is evident that the Indians planted the land for per- haps ages upon ages, as many relics of their manufacture were found here. Miron Dickinson found a complete stone pot or bowl and thoughtlessly broke it to pieces with his hoe. Arrow heads and other utensils such as pestles for pounding their corn, etc., were found here, and near "old fields" was an Indian resi- dent known as old Samson Johnson. He had three sons that I
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