USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > King's handbook of Springfield, Massachusetts : a series of monographs, historical and descriptive > Part 8
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The Boston and Albany Railroad now has 244 locomotives (193 of which were built in its own shops), 219 passenger-cars, 5,396 freight-cars, and 700 other cars. Upwards of 5,000 persons are in the employ of the company. In 1883 it carried 8,079,072 passengers. In 1881 its charges were at an average rate of fare of 1.98 cents each per mile, or 2.13 cents for local pas- sengers, 1.95 cents for through passengers, and .83 cent for season-ticket holders. It also transported, in 1883, 3,411,324 tons of freight, at an average rate for local freight of about 1.60 cents a ton each mile, and .79 cent for through freight. The total number of miles run by its locomotives amounted to 5,651,302 in the year 1883 alone. The net earnings from passengers and freight in 1883 were $2,380,971.81.
The total receipts of the Boston and Worcester line, for its first year (1835), for passengers and freight, were $161,806.95; and in 1867, the last year of its independent existence, they reached the sum of $1,742,909.72. The receipts of the Western Railroad rose from $182,309.99 in 1841, to $3,826,116.13 in 1867. The total transportation earnings are now in excess of $8,500,000 a year, and the expenditures are above $6,000,000. The annual receipts from local passengers are $2,100,000 ; from through passen- gers, $1,200,000 ; from local freight, $2,250,000; from through freight, $2,500,000 ; from mails, etc., $800,000. Of the capital stock of $20,000,000, the sum of $17,700,000 is held in Massachusetts, where dwell 5,093 of the 5,935 stockholders. The total property and assets of the company reach $35,412,158.75, and the total gross debt is $10,858,000.
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The total length of the main line, with double track, is 201.65 miles ; and there are also about 140 miles of leased lines and branches.
The precision and foresight with which the affairs of the line have always been managed have given it a singular immunity from accidents. During the first 32 years of its career, not ten passengers were killed in its cars, out of over 32,000,000 who had been transported. In 1840 the directors re- ported, with great astonishment, " the accidental and unexpected meeting of two trains of cars, carrying passengers, upon the same track." And the subsequent double-tracking of the road rendered such surprises still less likely.
The Boston and Albany Company is thus highly commended in the Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners' Report for 1882: " Having adopted a comprehensive policy for the renewal of the track of the main line, so as to raise the track construction from its present high standard to one still more perfect, the management of this road has now commenced a thorough improvement of the track construction of all its branches. In the main line it is proposed to have all the ties of uniform length and width, and steel rails weighing 72 pounds per yard, and to make the track, by careful con- struction and supervision, the very best of its kind. The management has also commenced a thorough improvement of the motive power of the road. The same improvement is noticeable in passenger-cars. . .. The stations of the road maintain their high standard. The management appears anxious to further the interests of the travelling public, by such improvements in and about the stations as experience indicates from time to time."
As it is now constituted, the Boston and Albany Railroad is one of the most important routes in America, joined on the west to the great lines which run to the Lake States and Canada; and on the east, delivering its freight at the magnificent Grand Junction wharves in East Boston, with elevators, warehouses, emigrant sheds, and docks in which the largest ocean- steamships load and unload. As Miss Sedgwick said, many years ago, it is "a road far superior to the Appian Way." Aside from its national impor- tance as a great factor in the east-and-west route from the grain-bearing prairies to the seaboard, this line has a peculiar interest from its connection with some of the most delightfully picturesque regions in America, bringing tourists to the lovely meadow and mountain towns, and quaint old historic villages of the Connecticut Valley, and to that glorious Berkshire region of which Beecher says, "From Salisbury to Williamstown, and then to Ben- nington in Vermont, there stretches a country of valleys, lakes, and moun- tains, that is yet to be as celebrated as the lake-district of England, or the hill-country of Palestine." Or, as another eloquent writer has said, " Berk- shire is a region of hill and valley, mountain and lake, beautiful rivers and laughing brooks, - the very Piedmont of America." All this great park of
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the hills, together with the thronged towns of Central Massachusetts, are made tributary to Springfield by the admirable route which her citizens have been so enterprising in founding, and so sagacious in conducting.
The New-York, New-Haven, and Hartford Railroad is one of the most important lines running to and from Springfield. By shrewd and careful management, the company have prospered almost from the first day of their organization, so that to-day their passenger and freight departments rank with those of the larger roads of the country. The terminus of the road is at Springfield ; but, by connecting with the Boston and Albany Railroad, a through line is established between New York and Boston, without change of cars. In October, 1883, arrangements were made with the Connecticut- river Railroad, whereby drawing-room cars were run from New York to Montreal. Travel over this line is very heavy, especially during the sum- mer months. The New-York, New-Haven, and Hartford Company have a capital stock of $15,500,000, with 123 miles of double track, from Williams Bridge, N.Y., to Springfield. By an agreement dated March 17, 1848, the company have used the New-York and Harlem tracks from Williams Bridge into the city of New York, paying a toll therefor. The company also have in Connecticut a three-mile branch running from Berlin to New Britain, a ten-mile branch from Berlin to Middletown, and a 32-mile branch from Windsor Locks to Suffield. All these branches connect with the main line. In addition to these, they have a perpetual lease of the Shore-line road from New Haven to New London, a distance of 50 miles ; one of the Har- lem-river and Port-Chester railroad, double track, from Harlem River to New Rochelle; and also a lease of the Boston and New-York Air-line Railroad, from New Haven to Willimantic, Conn. The majority of the officers, directors, and stockholders of the road have been, and still are, citizens of New-York State and Connecticut ; but a local interest has always centred in the road, from the fact that Chester W. Chapin of this city was a prime mover in its organization. There was no one who did more toward extending the through line of railroad to New York, and no one who was better qualified to promote its interests. First interested in the stage-coach lines running from Brattlebororough, Vt., to Hartford, Conn. ; and, later, a controller, and afterward owner, of the steamboat-lines from this city down the river, -. Mr. Chapin became thoroughly identified with local travel. The foundation of this road was largely due to him ; and upon its completion he became a director in the corporation, a position which he held up to the time of his death, in 1883. The New-York, New-Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company was formed by the consolidation, July 24, 1872, of the New-York and New-Haven and the Hartford and New-Haven railroad companies. The New-Haven Railroad was chartered in Connecticut in May, 1844, and in New York in January, 1846; and the road was opened
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in January, 1849. The Hartford and New-Haven Railroad Company was chartered in Connecticut in May, 1833, and was opened in 1839. The Mas- sachusetts portion of the road was built under the charter of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad Company, April 5, 1839, but was not completed until December, 1844. The several branches of the road were built at different times, under separate charters.
The Connecticut-river Railroad Company is a consolidation of the Northampton and Springfield Railroad Corporation and the Greenfield and Northampton Railroad Company, which were united on equal terms, in July, 1845, according to the provisions of the Act to incorporate the Greenfield and Northampton Railroad Company, passed Jan. 25, 1845.
An Act to establish the Northampton and Springfield Railroad Corpora- tion was approved March 1, 1842, and made John Clarke, Samuel L. Hinck- ley, Stephen Brewer, Jonathan H. Butler, Winthrop Hillyer (all citizens of Northampton), their associates and successors, a corporation, with power to locate and construct a railroad from a point in Northampton, commencing within one mile of the court-house, crossing the Connecticut River near Mount Holyoke, and passing down the valley of said river, on the east side thereof, through a portion of Hadley, South Hadley, and Springfield, to meet the track of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad Corporation at Cabot- ville in said Springfield, or diverging from said line at or near Stony Brook, in South Hadley, and passing over the plain, and crossing the Chicopee River near the falls, uniting with the Western Railroad, easterly of the depot in Springfield. By an Act passed March 21, 1845, the corporation was authorized to change its location, thus : "Commencing at a point in North- ampton defined in the Act to which this is in addition, passing down on the west side of the Connecticut River, and near the same, through a part of Hadley, Easthampton, Northampton, South Farms (so called), and West Springfield, and crossing said river at or near the village of Willimansett, in the town of Springfield, to a line designated in the Act to which this Act is in addition." The corporation was also authorized to construct a branch railroad from the main track of their road, in the village of Cabotville, passing up the south bank of Chicopee River, near the same, into Chicopee Falls village.
The Act incorporating the Greenfield and Northampton Railroad Com- pany was passed Jan. 25, 1845, and names Henry W. Clapp, Ralph Williams, and Henry W. Cushman, as corporators, with their associates, successors, and assigns, who were authorized to locate and construct a railroad from some convenient point on the location of the Northampton and Springfield Railroad, at or near the terminus of said railroad in the town of Northamp- ton, northward, across the canal of the New-Haven and Northampton Company in said Northampton, passing near the bend in the Connecticut
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River; thence through the westerly part of the town of Hatfield, and the easterly part of the town of Whately, near the villages of South Deerfield and Deerfield, crossing Deerfield River at Cheapside in said Deerfield, and terminating at some convenient point in or near the village of Greenfield aforesaid.
An Act was passed April 16, 1846, authorizing the Connecticut-river Railroad Company to extend their road from Greenfield to any point on the north line of the State, west of the Connecticut River, in either of the towns of Bernardston or Northfield. On the 28th day of February, 1845. the road was opened for the transit of passengers and freight to Cabotville (now Chicopee), a distance of about four miles.
Dec. 13, 1845, the road was completed and opened for business to North- ampton, and three trips per day were made each way over the road. The road was extended and opened for use to South Deerfield, II miles above Northampton, on the 17th day of August, 1846; and to Greenfield, on the 23d day of November, 1846.
On the first day of January, 1849, the road was completed to the south line of the State of Vermont, thus adding 14 miles to the length of the main road, which, with the branch of two miles to Chicopee Falls, made the entire length 52 miles. Since that time a branch from Mount Tom to East- hampton, 3} miles, has been added, making the total road belonging to the company 55.85 miles, while it controls and operates 129.85 miles.
In 1866 a second track was completed from Springfield to Chicopee, 33 miles. In 1873 the second track was extended to Holyoke, and brought into use in August of that year ; and in August, 1874, a further extension of 8₺ miles of second track to Northampton was completed and opened for use.
In 1883 the company began the work of building a second track from Northampton to Greenfield. A section of this last extension was finished and opened for business between North Hatfield and Deerfield, on the third day of December, 1883.
It is said, that, when the people were contemplating the building of the railroad from Northampton to Springfield, they estimated that the passenger traffic would be double the amount of that of the two stage-lines then run- ning between the two places. Now, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1883, the Connecticut-river Railroad carried 1,484,155 passengers, and 632,865 tons of freight. The total traffic earnings for the same period were $870,038.14. The road pays 8 per cent dividends. The capital stock paid in, $2,370,000 ; surplus, $919,039.91.
Thus it is seen that the results of the building and operating of this railroad - the success of which its projectors and many other persons along its line viewed as doubtful -have been a great increase in productive in-
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dustries, and an astonishing growth in the population and wealth of the whole valley through which the road runs. Within a year after the road was opened to Northampton, preparations were made for the founding of a large manufacturing town at Hadley Falls, on the line of the road; and from these beginnings has sprung the important and prosperous city of Holyoke, now numbering about 25,000 inhabitants.
The road was practically at first an institution of Northampton, where the main offices and workshops were located; but, after a while, it passed chiefly into the hands of people of Springfield, where the headquarters now are, in the building on the east corner of Main Street and Commercial Row, almost opposite the Union Passenger-Depot. Here, too, are the shops, just north of the freight-house, - which is itself on the river-bank north of the Union Passenger-Depot. The connections of the road are important, and lead in all directions. The first president was Erastus Hopkins, who also served again after the retirement of President Clapp; the others being suc- cessively Chester W. Chapin, Henry W. Clapp, and Daniel L. Harris, who remained until his death, which occurred in 1879. For a short interregnum, Mr. Chapin acted as president, until N. A. Leonard, for a long time the company's legal adviser, was chosen in 1880, and who is now in office. The superintendent is J. Mulligan. The treasurer for the past 25 years has been Seth Hunt, who has been the clerk of the corporation for 21 years, and whose connection with the company began 38 years ago. He has been longer in the service of the company than any person now living. His predecessor was the late Samuel F. Lyman of Northampton, who was the first clerk and treasurer, and who served until 1858. He was the register of probate for Hampshire County for 30 years ; and, after retiring from the treasury of the Connecticut-river Railroad Company, he became the judge of probate.
The Springfield and New-London Railroad was begun and finished in 1875. The records of the road show that a meeting was held July 24, 1874, when Willis Phelps was chosen president, and William Mattoon clerk. It was voted to issue 2,000 shares of stock at $100 each. Of these, 1,500 shares were taken by the city, and the rest divided among 70 stockholders. At the next meeting, July 14, 1874, Charles Marsh was chosen treasurer; and in the next November, T. M. Dewey was made clerk in place of William Mattoon. Jan. 27, 1875, a memorable annual meeting of the officers, direct- ors, and stockholders of the road was held; Daniel L. Harris appearing in behalf of the city, and Willis Phelps for the directors. The meeting was a stormy one, and resulted in an entire change of directors and officers. The following board of officers was chosen, April 9, 1875: President, Gurdon Bill ; vice-president, Lewis J. Powers ; clerk, Daniel L. Harris; treasurer, James Kirkham. The contract to construct the road was given to Birnie
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& Warren, $100,000 having been paid to them for grading. The entire cost of the road was about $200,000. The road is about eight miles long, and extends from the Union Depot to the Connecticut State line. One mile and a quarter of the new road was leased from the Athol road. In 1875 the Springfield and New-London road was leased by, and run in conjunction with, the Connecticut-valley Railroad; and in 1880, the New-York and New- England leased it for a term of five years, paying $5,500 per year. At this time the New-York and New-England road leased the Connecticut Central road for 15 years, thus making a direct line from Springfield to Hartford. In 1881 or 1882, Charles O. Chapin succeeded Gurdon Bill as president, and Chauncey L. Covell succeeded Lewis J. Powers as vice-president. That portion of the line lying between the junction with what was formerly known as the Athol Railroad, and the Connecticut State line in Long- meadow, is owned and controlled by the Springfield and New-London Company, of which the following are the officers : President, Chauncy L. Covell; vice-president, William Birnie; clerk, T. M. Dewey ; treasurer, James Kirkham. In August, 1883, the New-York and New-England road rented ground from the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, and built a passenger-station at the corner of Spring and Lyman Streets. The station up to this time had been in the Athol Depot building, opposite the Union Depot. The division now has two passenger-trains running daily to Hart- ford and Rockville, Conn .; but the freight business is the chief revenue of the division.
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The Public Hospitality.
THE TAVERNS OF OLD, AND THE HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS OF TO-DAY.
S PRINGFIELD has always been famous for its hospitality, not only in the homes of which it is justly proud, but in the many houses of public entertainment which have flourished at this centre of travel. Before the time when the question of fame or of history trembled in the balance, -
HANGde LAUNDRY
The Ely "Ordinary," or Tavern, as it is in 1883. Dwight and Sanford Streets.
before the hamlet's future was established against the Indian's efforts to blot out even the brief note of a settlement, - there was need of a public house; for the village was at the outset the county-seat, and the county court must have entertainment. For this reason, the court in 1665 licensed Nathaniel Ely to keep an "ordinary." Ely had appeared in the village six
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years previous, and was not one of the original settlers. The license pro- vided for the keeping of a " house for common entertaynment, also for selling wines and strong liquors for the year ensuing, provided he keepe good rule and order in his house." He was further released from "Trayning in ye Towne soe long as he continues to keepe ye ordinary." This license was renewed, year by year, till his death in 1675. He must have been no ordinary man in the community, for tavern-keeping was no sinecure. He was twice before the court for violation of his duty : in 1667 he sold four quarts of cider to an Indian, and was fined £16; in 1674 the court then sitting in his house found fault with his beer, claiming that it was not up to the legal standard, - "four bushels good barley-malt to ye hhd.,"-and accordingly fined him 40 shillings. His house stood just south of the present Belmont Hotel, and is still standing, at the corner of Dwight and Sanford Streets, having been moved there 40 years ago.
For a century after the death of this pioneer in tavern-keeping, the court records are sprinkled with licenses to numerous persons ; but none made the business successful enough to leave any noteworthy record. By the close of the Revolutionary War, powdered wigs and small-clothes were passing out of use ; and the town, although small, was putting on a recog- nizable aspect. Main Street was less of a cart-path than formerly, and com- munication with Boston had made the Bay Path something more definite than an Indian trail. Yet all the houses in the town were confined to three streets, - Main Street, State Street, and "the road to Charles Brewer's." The present site of Court Square was always the centre of attraction; for here were the church, the court-house, the whipping-post, and most of the trading-shops. No wonder that here, too, was one of the most famous taverns of the day. It stood 18 feet north of the great elm now standing on Court Square, - a huge, rambling, unpainted building, with a lofty wing, which, when afterward detached, was called the "light-house." Here the famous Zenas Parsons held sway a hundred years ago, and many an anec- dote remains of those days of flip-irons and toddy. Gen. Washington tarried here over night, while on his New-England inspecting tour. But Parsons retired with the century in which he was born ; and the dignified, slow Eleazer Williams succeeded him. When James Monroe paid Spring- field a visit, early in his presidency, he found John Bennett in charge. Soon afterward the property was sold to Erastus Chapin ; and in 1819 he sold the place to a company of public-spirited townspeople, who forthwith bought the adjoining homestead and opened Court Square. In its last days the tavern is remembered as the humble lodging-place of two boys, who slept together on the attic floor, and were up early in the morning to drive ox-carts from the middle landing, and deliver the river merchandise to the various stores. Their names were Chester W. Chapin and Willis Phelps. The main part
2
3
I American House. 2 Stebbins's Tavern.
3 Hampden House.
SOME OLD-TIME TAVERNS.
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of the old tavern was moved back toward the river at the foot of the then new thoroughfare, Court Street, where it now stands, still guiltless of paint and in its simple colonial architecture.I
A few rods north of the Parsons tavern, stood the public-house of Moses Church, the postmaster. Walking up the village street, the stranger in town would find a hearty welcome from Lieut. John Worthington. His estate ran back to the river, and included Bridge and Worthington Streets. Lieut. John died in 1774; and his son, "Hon. John," a Yale graduate, was too proud to mix toddy. But some time after his death in 1800, the house reverted to its former use ; being kept during the War of 1812-15 by Elijah Goodrich, the founder of Springfield's fame in horse-trotting. Charles Stearns, the pioneer real-estate speculator of the town, got possession of the building about the time the Boston and Albany Railroad opened, after it had been used as a dwelling-house about 20 years, and moved it back to Water Street. As western travel was opened, early in the present century, several small taverns were opened on Ferry Lane, the northern of the three approaches to the river from Main Street. Still farther north, opposite the buildings of the Street-railway Company, stood the house of Major Joseph Stebbins, who died in 1819. The Major was said to be in league with Capt. Joseph Carew, who operated a tannery on the other side of the street, along the town brook. When the Captain's customers came to buy leather, he would invariably tell them that he had none "ready;" advising them to stay over night at the Major's, and get the leather in the morning. So, while the Major's pocket was being enriched to the extent of four-and- sixpence, the Captain dipped his hides in the brook, and in the morning weighed them out, dampness included. The Major's name will not be lost to sight as long as his elms, now a century old, remain in sentinel row in the centre of North Main Street. The tavern has since been occupied by Thomas Bond and Horatio Sargeant.
Retracing his steps, the ideal tourist finds a tavern on the south-westerly corner of State and Main Streets, although there was no such "corner " a. hundred years ago. This was known as the Bates Tavern. It does not appear who built it; but it was kept by Elijah Goodrich from 1815 to 1820, and then by Thomas Bates, whose daughter Phoebe married Jeremy War- riner. This famous couple (Uncle Jerry and Aunt Phoebe, as the older gen- eration now living knew them) made their reputation in the Bates Tavern ; and it was indeed enviable, not only locally, -although their suppers were a. matter of jealousy to housewives and a marvel to husbands, while Uncle Jerry's bar-room was the rendezvous of all the wild and reckless youngsters of the day, - but not triflingly cosmopolitan ; for travellers from across the Atlantic have been known to take stage, immediately upon their arrival in
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