USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Holyoke > Holyoke daily transcript > Part 3
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SKETCH OF HOLYOKE
- BY GEORGE H. ALLYN
Omar Khayyam wrote som un years ago "In the four quarters of the earth are many who ean write books, sonic who can rule empires, and some who can command armies, but few there be who can run a hotel."
If Omar were writing today he could add: "Or write an adequate history of Holyoke."
The writer serves not as a volunteer, but nnder merci- less conscription, and, therefore, proposes to shed inevit- able criticism as an armored cruiser wouldl mnsketry fire
He asserts that if events of which he writes didn't happen when stated they did at some time, or going even farther, if they never ocenrred, they ought to.
Thus fortifying ourselves against the shafts of Michael Cleary, J. F. and J. A. Sullivan, D. H. Ives, and several who are infinitely better qualified to deal with the situation, we'll attack the proposition.
Holyoke has often lamented the dearth of colonial history, the city's civic life only dating from 1850, but as an outside edge of West Springfield we can pose as fairly antique.
Back in 1684 some sixteen acres of land north of "Riley Brook" were conveyed by Henry Chapin to John Riley, comprising, it would seem, a part of what is now Holyoke.
But it seems improbable that Riley actually lived and built on this land until about 1725. He was, in all prob- ability. the first settler, though farther south West Spring- field had heen populated for about sixty years.
A Holyoke citizen informs us that his great-grand- father, Deacon Joseph Ely, married Mary Riley, daughter of the original settler, so Cupid defied locksmiths and re- ligious and racial prejudice then as now.
In that part of what is now Holyoke, formerly Smiths Ferry, there was one sturdy settler named Benjamin Wright back in 1704, for it is recorded that at the Pasco- muck massacre (an Indian attack on half a dozen families settled near Mt. Tom Junction on the road toward East- hampton) the savages sent a detachment to attack the Lower Farms (as it was then called) homestead, Init were repulsed with the loss of one warrior. They set fire to the house, but a youth named Stebbins wrapped a feather bed around him, and got water to extingnish it.
A rescue party from Northampton was - enbushed and repulsed by the savages.
Thus early did Smiths Ferry learn that Northampton was a broken reed, as regards substantial assistance, and over one hundred years later reached the same conclusion. Very little can be gleaned regarding the early colonial life of the Third Parish people. There were six families by 1743. who "forted together nights for fear of the In- dians," who, doubtless, annoyed them (as the poet says) "with their lust for human hair."
We may guess that they were the Days, Morgans, Elys, Chapins, Balls, and Millers. Soon after eame the Streets, Ashleys, Wolcotts, Ives, Goodyears, Hitcheocks, Mungers, Humestons, Tnttles, Dickermans, Allens (not Allyns, who didn't show up till about 1849). and others, while over in what is now West Holyoke settled the Boyds, Ludingtons. Winchells. Thorpes, Danks, Bassets, etc.
The Elys and Days seem to have been the "river gods" of the earlier times.
The old cemetery at "Baptist Village" affords some interesting data
For instance, Nathan Parks was, while hunting in 1797, and "lying concealed in a ditch," potted as unerringly by Luther Frink with a Aintlock as if the latter had carried a high-power Savage or Winchester, like the careless man- slaughterers of today.
Lieutenant Joseph Morgan is set forth as one of those included in the capture of Fort William Henry by the French and Indians in 1757, and how he retained his scalp in the massaere that followed deponent knoweth not.
The earliest inscription that the writer could decipher seemed to record that Josenh Day departed this life in 1738.
Benjamin Ball and Lieutenant John Miller (the latter probably ancestor of Abner Miller, who ran the old tavern now standing at the head of Dwight street) scem to liave been early patriarehs, dying in 1773 and 1772, aged 84 and 83.
The earliest inscription the writer could find in the old Rock Valley cemetery is that in commemoration of Jared Barker, who died in 1797.
The First Congregational Church of Holyoke (then West Springfield) was organized December 4, 1799, but no regular preacher is of record till 1810. The first services are said to have been held in a building one-half a mile south of the present church, and afterwards removed to near the new Elmwood school.
The First Baptist Church, organized in 1803, seems to
CITY HALL.
have been more prosperous, or of sterner stuff, for the Rev. Thomas Rand started right off and for twenty-five years was not only the shepherd of the flock, but also expounded the gospel to the Congregational people during the last ten or twelve years of his pastorate, they paying the money raised to the Baptist dominic, and he agreeing to exchange with Congregational ministers "sufficiently often to supply us with preaching our part of the time." Some Congrega- tional leaven was needed to neutralize the Baptist doctrine. A "Seminary" was built in 1808 on what is now Homestead avenne, south of the Rand residence, and was conducted by Elder Rand for 24 years. About 1846 this building was moved to the property afterwards bought hy Timothy Mer- riek near the corner of Northampton street and the West- field road, and was for years considered a center of learn- ing. It was sold at auction about 1872, torn down by the purchaser, George C. Ewing, and used in building a house at Ewingville.
In 1825 it is stated that the six leading families were the Ashleys, Ives, Wolcotts, Goodyears. Hinnestons, Dick- ermans and Fullers. Colonel Ball, who made the state- ment, should have included his own family ; but the Balls were proverbially modest.
The two Fuller brothers, Heman and Michael, occu- pied the place known as the Moss farm, and were colored men, but nevertheless, influential and respected citizens.
It's a remarkable faet that, nearly a century since, two Fuller brothers are prominent in our civie life, and though of lighter skin, there are old-timers still living who would maintain that the earlier Fullers were fully as white of soul ! !
A map of Ireland Parish, drawn in 1827, is most in-
teresting. It shows the old Crafts Tavern (then the Abner Miller Inn), and about 250 feet south and across the street, a schoolhouse, in which Mrs. Olive Day Crafts, who is still living, once taught. Just south of the school was the Theodore Farnum place, which now stands on the rear of a St. James avenue lot. On the west side, a little farther down, is shown the Orrin Street house, which we assume is the one still standing owned by William Street.
The Francis Ball house would seem to be the one oc- cupied in the writer's youth by Leroy Ball, and still stand- ing on Quincy avenue. The First Church building does not show on this map, as it was not built till 1834, the Rey. Hervey Smith being the first preacher to occupy the pulpit. The old Fairfield homestead, noted on this map as "Ros- well Morgan," is clearly located, but the Cyrus Frink house (where Mrs. A. D. Street now lives) was replaced more than forty years ago by the present residence. The C. H. Heywood place is noted as "Hiram Atkins," whom the writer ean just remember. This house (or its suceessor) now stands at the junction of Hampden and Lineoln streets, where the Northampton car turns off from Hampden, having been removed there by Daniel O'Connell.
About 200 feet south of Cherry street is shown Amos Allen's Inn on about the present line between the J. R. Ball and Mackintosh ( formerly Coit) properties. Farther south a house, marked "Enoch Ely." I should identify as the Horace Brown house of later years, torn down when the Moody-""arren Company eut up the traet for building lots.
The old county road down to Jedediah Day's place at Hampden Landing-celebrated in song and story by D. A. Healey and Hugh McLean-is clearly defined, and we
THE COBURN TROLLEY TRACK MANUFACTURING COMPANY PLANT
Efficient management coupled with inventive genius have de- veloped under the name of the Coburn Trolley Track Mannfactur- ing Company a permanent and successful business of no small magnitude.
This Company was organized in February, 1888, with a capi- tal stock of $10,000, which was some years later increased to $150,000.
The foundation of this business was the invention of a special form of enclosed traek for sliding doors by Mr. Lemuel Coburn. The manufacturing of same began in the basement of the old Whit- eomb hnilding on the first level eanal in a room about 50x30.
The superiority of the special form of track over other traeks used for similar purposes was soon demonstrated, and through the foresight and inventive genins of Mr. Lemnel Coburn in constantly finding new uses for their product, the Company was soon com- pelled to seek additional capital aud also larger quarters, and in December, 1891, moved into the quarters formerly ocenpied by the Deane Steam Pump Company on Bigelow street.
The development of the various lines here began in real earnest, and with the opening up of agencies in practically every eity in the United States, together with branch offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, and also in Man- chester, England, the business was given such an impetus that it became necessary to obtain still larger quarters, with the ultimate result of the ereetion of the Company's own plant at Williman- sett, directly opposite the river from Holyoke. This plant at the present time eovers something over two aeres of ground and is equipped with sneh machinery as is necessary to take care of the constantly increasing business.
The Company moved into its present buildings in the fall of 1900, and with the increased facilities tlms available was able stal further to develop the scope and usefulness of its product, and ex- tend the market for same to practically every eivilized nation.
At the present time the varied lines manufactured by them are such as to create a steadily increasing busine's each year, and with no such thing as a dull season.
It is an interesting faet of no small importance in illustrating the value of the original patent granted to Mr. Lemuel Coburn that in spite of many radical changes and improvements made in various ways to meet new conditions and also increasing competi- tion, the same form of truck has always been adhered to, althongb new sizes have been added from time to time, as was first made in
the Company's original quarters, It is also true that no form of traek was ever so closely imitated. Now that the patents have ex- pired many firms in this country, England and also Franee, here- tofore making imitations have discarded same for the Coburn form of track.
One of the first departures made in finding new uses for the enclosed track was its application to rolling ladders for the pur- puse of reaching or storing goods on high shelving. This meant to the storekeeper in many instances, then as now, inereased space and better and more rapid handling of the goods, and although originally designed for stores new uses are constantly being found for them, not only in this country but others, shipments having found their way to Cape Town, Australia and the Orient.
Sliding door hardware has, and probably always wdl, offer the greatest chance for variation. Under this heading is included all sort and kinds of doors, from a small eloset door weighing a few pounds to doors weighing several tous. Also under this head- ing eome Antomatie fire resisting doors which require special and carefully constructed hardware, made to comply with the insurance laws. The Coburn Company now has an enviable reputation for quality of their output, and as an evidence of this the Mexican gor- ernment has recently, through their agents, placed a large order with them for doors.
Conveying materials of any kind have always been to a great extent left for "BULL STRENGTH" and the "GANG" of ordi- nary laborers, and it was early .evident that here, too, was a field for "Coburn Produets." As soon as facilities permitted, they started the manufacturing of snitable traek, of the same design, for use in foundries, machine shops and other manufacturing plants, and within a short time so demonstrated the usefulness of the idea that they received a contract for equipping one of the largest foundries in Massachusetts with their "SYSTEM." This branch of the business has unlimited possibilities along the lines of modern business development and conservation of energy where- in the necessity for the moving of raw or unfinished material oe- enrs, and the problems presented for solution require engineering ability and lung experience to determine the proper method of pro- cedure.
The organization of the Company consists of Azro A. Coburn, president : Willis D. Ballard, vice-president and general manager, and George D. Miller, treasurer.
The Coburn Trolley Track Manufacturing Co.
Holyoke, Massachusetts
SKETCH OF HOLYOKE
BY GEORGE H. ALLYN C
GEORGE HEYWOOD, JONES S. DAVIS, AND GEORGE L. THAYER.
think a surveyor could re-trace the line. Over on Back street were the Goodyears, Rands, Humestons, Wolcotts, etc., and in Rock Valley the Dankses, Perkins, Howes, Ludingtons, etc,, are frequently noted. We may speculate whether hard cider abounded in that region, and wonder if the results were then as later.
Down on what we call the Ingleside road (there was no lower road in those days) were Peletiah Ely and Moses Ely and several Days. Over beyond Ashley Ponds, right at the West Springfield proper line of today, was a grist mill and hydraulic cement manufactory, and a little south, in West Springfield, on a brook, was a saw and shingle mill. Down near the present dam is shown a grist mill and cotton mill, which last must have been the fulling mill, operated by Warren Chapin.
On Cherry street are shown the houses of Bishop Allen and Stephen Hayes, apparently where D. E. Day and J. B. Whitmore now reside, though the houses may have been rebuilt
In 1832 Chester Crafts bought the Abner Miller Inn property and conducted it as tavern, store or post office till his death, in 1871. His brother, R. P. Crafts, after- wards mayor of Holyoke, drove a four-horse stage from Springfield to Northampton, about twenty miles, carrying mail and passengers. For three years, abont 1842 to 1843, he was in partnership with his brother, under the name of Chester Crafts & Co., in general store keeping.
Something stronger than water used to be sold in those old stage-driving, river-boating, canal-freighting and fishery days, and Deacon L. F. Thorpe used to relate that one Richard Thorpe, after imbihing somewhat freely at the tavern, had his bottle properly filled with New England rum, then proceeding up the road toward Easthampton. After toiling up the steep incline he laid down and fell asleep, and a wag, mowing in the field nearby, saw the bottle protruding from his pocket, emptied the contents into his dinner pail, refilled the flask with pure water from the brook, and left the wayfarer to awake later to slake his thirst. When he did so his wrath was boundless. He "beat it" back to the tavern, and made the air bine with resentment. No human power could have convineed him that the aqua pura hadn't been placed in the bottle at the tavern, so his bottle was again refilled, free of charge.
The last house this side of the then "Northampton line" noted on this map is that of Fred Street, but it was not probably the one now standing. Just beyond the line was Sherlock Thorpe, Whiting Street, and np near the present Whiting Street reservoir a little northeast, lived Moses and Phochus Pomeroy, two thriftless mountain farmers, in "Pomeroy meadow.“ Moses, however, had an imaginative disposition and a turn of humor. He must have lived on till about 1850, as some of those still living clearly recall him. He used to relate to the credulous boys that sixty years agone there was no Mt. Tom, the view to Easthampton being clear and unobstructed. "But."
said Moses, "une spring the floods were tremendous, and spread far and wide. One morning as I was looking up the swollen river, I saw what is Mt. Tom come floating majestically down. Several gigantic Indian war- riors with paddles, made out of half- grown tree trunks, were keeping it in the course of the current. Just as it reached a point opposite where it now stands the current swung it off toward the Hadley side, and it al- most grounded. But a gigantie sav- nge, quick as a panther, dug his tree paddle into the shallows, and, with fearful strength, fended off so hard that a cross current impelled it to the west side, where it grounded hard and fast, shutting off our view of Easthampton,“
Moses claimed that rattlesnakes were so thick that it was sometimes impossible to hay, and that he went out one day with a dump cart and pitched in a writhing load of them, carrying them home to feed the pigs.
It was Moses, also, who passed the Fred Street place one evening with a pail. the contents of which may be surmised. A maiden sister, noted for her curiosity, was in the yard and called out inquiringly : "What have you got in your pail, Mr. Thorpe?" "Manners, by -. " replied the indignant Moses.
Moses' rattlesnake tale had some little basis of truth, for E. R. Crafts relates that his brother-in-law, George Smith, and a relative named Merwin Allen in the late 50's killed twenty-six rattlesnakes at the mouth of "Snake Den," in the trap rock.
The first serious attempt to utilize the great water power was when Warren Chapin. Asahel Chapin, and Alfred Smith procured legislative authority, as the Hadley Falls Company, to build a wing-dam, extending obliquely up the river, conducting the water into a canal above the Hampden Mill, Jr., which the concern built about 1831. This was designed for a cotton mill of 4,000 spindles. Thus, until 1847, the commercial and manufacturing po- tentialities of Holyoke were dormant.
The central part of the present city was called "The Fields," and comprised about a dozen hottses.
Meantime, South Hadley Falls, across the river, called the "Canal Village," was very prosperous from 1835 to 1840.
A lock and canal system brought a big freighting and boating business, A paper mill was built in 1824 by How- ard & Lathrop, and another in 1831 by D. & J. Ames, of which J. C. Parsons (afterwards of the Parsons Paper Company) was superintendent. In 1837 the "Canal Vil- lage" was on the top wave of prosperity, with three paper and two woolen mills, while the fu- ture Holyoke was "in escrow," as the lawyers say.
A swing ferry was the means of communication with Holyoke, and from the west bank a county road went along up Money Hole hill and wound westerly to Northampton street, at a point opposite the inter- section of the Easthampton road, the road through the "Fields" intersect- ing near the grist mill above the Par- sons Paper Company, according to the 1827 map.
Whiting Strect, Peletiah and Joseph Ely were associated with Broughton Alvord and Josiah Bard- well of the "Canal Village" in the bonting business, and Messrs. Street and Alvord laid the foundations of great fortimes. They were both unique New England characters with great sagacity.
The writer inclines to the belief that a large number if not the major- ity of those living today, think of Whiting Street as a sordid, life- long miser, whose death-bed charity
redeemed him. But Whiting Street, though he had some traits common to misers, such as careful hoarding of wealth, and extreme parsimony in personal expenditure, was far from being one. His tahle always abounded with good, wholesome food, and people who worked there or dined temporarily, never complained of quantity or quality. He loved to acemulate money for the joy of accumulation rather than for what it would bring, which gave the public a false perspective.
But when the subscription for the founding of the Massachusetts Agricultural College was started Mr Merrit Clarke of Northampton relates that he called on Whiting Street to head the list, which he proceeded to do with $5,000. The cause appealed to him. And he was a judge of men; not narrow in his business dealings. A successful young merchant bargained with him for the larger part of what is now the Highlands back in 1864 for about $6,500. Agreeing on the price he said to Mr. Street: "I don't like to give baek a mortgage, but I'll give you so and so, or so and so, or so and so, for an endorser on my note or all of them."
"Jim," said Uncle Whiting, "I don't want all, or any of them. I want just your note."
The charity to which he left the residue of his estate was so beautiful and broad, so almost divine in its rugged, simple tenderness that the tears start unbidden when one thinks of it. This minn, who had worked so hard and lived so simply, recognized the call of blood and kindred-no man ever felt it more keenly -- but the residue of his posses- sions he left to the "worthy poor" of the regions with which he was familiar. Not to the Protestant or the Cath- olic, or the native American or the Irish poor, not to white or black; just the "worthy poor."
When the will was made public the Springfield Repub- lican rose to the occasion with an appreciative editorial that was a classic.
The Northampton-Springfield Railroad Company, or- ganized in 1842, changed their route from the east to the west side of the river, and completed the railroad in 1845 with seemingly inspired foresight. For in 1846 George C. Ewing, of the firm of Fairbanks & Co. of New York, began negotiations for land adjoining the falls; m March, 1847, had purchased thirty-seven acres, and a little later the mills and property of the original Hadley Falls Company, meor- porated in 1829.
The first development company, organized in 1847, in- cluded J. K. Mills, treasurer ; John Chase of Chicopce and P. Anderson, a West Pointer, engineers, and George C. Ewing, land agent. It was casy to diseern grand possi- bilities in a series of rapids affording a fall of sixty feet in one and one-half miles. In 1848, Mr. Ewing resigned, the Fairbankses withdrew, and the property passed into the hands of a new Hadley Falls Company, which included George W. Lyman, Thomas H. Perkins, and Edmund Dwight. This company secured 1,100 acres of land and also the rights of the proprietors of the locks and canals at South Hadley Falls, or "Canal Village." The capitaliza- tion of the company is given by some authorities as one million and by others as four millions.
The building of a great wooden dam was commenced,
PARSONS HALL.
SPRINGFIELD BREWERIES COMPANY
"NEW ENGLAND'S GREATEST BREWING INSTITUTION"
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SPRINGFIELD BREWERIES CO.
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SPRINGFIELD BREWERIES CO HAMPDEN BRANCH
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There is no question that beer has become the popular beverage of the American peo- ple. During the last decade the consumption of beer has in- creased twice as fast as the population, It is a significant fact that coincident with this large increase in the use of brer drunkentess has decreas- ed. The New York Sun in an editorial on August 22, 1905. reaches the couchision thai "beer drives out hard drink." The Sun also untes as a con- sequence that public drunken- ness is comparatively rare in all the cities of America today among all classes of society. It is quite true as Henry Watter- son recently said in The Louis- ville Cour rier-Journal : "The introduction of beer in America has done more for temper- ance than all the temperance societies and all the prohibition laws combined."
With Iteer established as the National beverage, the consumer should be interested in knowing of the excellence of American beer in appearance, taste and quality. When the pure food bill was on its passage in Congress, Senator MeCumber, in the Congressional Record, is recorded as follows: "I believe that we manufacture in this country the purest beers that are manufactured on the face of the earth, and the fact that the brewers' asso- ciations are all in favor of this pure food bill evidences the fact that they are satisfied that they manufacture a pure article."
New England's leading brewing concern is the Springfield Breweries Co., of Spring- field, Mass. The three main breweries of the company are illustrated on this page. In addition the company has branches in Boston, Mass., New Haven, Conn., and Schenectady. N. Y, besides agencies in all the principal New England eities. This aggressive concern is today putting on the market in draught and bottled goods, some of the very best beers
produced in this country. The more notable products of the company are Gold Medal Tivoli lager, Gold Medal Wurzburger. Hampden ale, Hampden porter, Flighland alı, Highland lager and Highland malt extract.
The Gold Medal Tivoli beer is especially notable because of its having won the first prize and gold medal at the Baden Baden World's Exposition, where it mnet in competition 126 German and American beers.
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