USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Ludlow > Ludlow: a century and a centennial, comprising a sketch of the history of the town of Ludlow, Hampden County, Massachusetts > Part 11
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If the raising of men be your chief aim, men whose lives shall be a blessing, whether they have their mission in your quiet town, or are called to other fields of duty, you have, then, no occasion to envy the
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dwellers in cities. And we need not fear to extend this comparison of advantages with our city neighbors. If their larger material wealth can build more elegant houses and furnish them more sumptuously than you, you can surround your homes with attractions in the form of lawns and flowers and trees, which may well excite their envy. If they can build finer school-houses than you, see that you have as good teachers, and you can build men as well as they. If they wor- ship in costlier temples of granite and marble than your means can af- ford, you may offer as acceptable worship in your modest and not less tasteful churches. Nor need your prayers and praises be restricted to these temples made with hands. They may go up daily,
"From that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply, Whose choir the winds and waves, whose organ thunder, Whose dome the sky."
If the libraries of the city are not easy of access to you, yours are the more inspiring volumes of nature, spreading out for you on every hand their eloquent pages. If you can but rarely visit the galleries of art found in the city, nature's grand museum, filled with the work of the Divine artist, is open to you freely at all times, open to all who have eyes to see. If you may not so often in the country hear words of wisdom from the silver-tongued orator, or music from the great masters, for those who have ears to hear, your wooded hills and vales are vocal with richer melodies.
To make the most of our advantages, however, requires us not to be proud of them and satisfied with them, but steadily to increase them. To this end your fruitful soil is an unfailing source of supply. You do not expect to find here buried mines of gold. But even more won- drous is the wealth that slumbers in these lands. They scarcely need your bidding to yield with each returning Summer in infinite variety their boundless profusion of grasses, flowers, foliage and fruits. And this it is in your power to increase almost without limit. Where now the earth sends up the thistle, you can cause it to send up the bearded grain. Where weeds have full possession of the soil it will presently reward your care with the luscious strawberry, or with flowers fragrant and beautiful. Where the ground is cumbered with thorns, we find it
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ready under the hand of culture to grow the apple, the pear, the peach, the cherry, the grape and the plum.
But plant not always in hope of speedy returns. Plant for genera- tions and centuries. By all means plant trees ; multiply your groves, that shall be more to coming generations than to yourselves. Neg- lected fields wait only your planting and culture, to produce thrifty and fruitful orchards for you and the generation after you. The grounds that front your dwelling are waiting only for you to put in the tiny seed or tender sapling, to bless the next Centenary with the thrifty maple, the graceful ash, the evergreen pines, the stately elm, and the giant oak.
Carry the same spirit of improvement with you everywhere. Leave all good things that come into your hands-buildings, grounds, fences, roads-better than you found them. At the same time clear away that which is not good. Above all, make your schools and churches the best and best sustained, the most truly, liberal as well as earnest, and keep them always abreast with the times in every real improve- ment. When the city gets the start of you in a good cause learn from it, and so make it your tributary. From the exhaustless fount- ains of your highlands you are to supply Springfield with living water. Draw upon her in return from whatever fountains of health she may have for you. No people can afford to live within themselves. A breeding in-and-in policy is always one of degeneracy. If we draw only from the fountains of our own life we shall presently find that the currents of life run low and languidly. Therefore constantly seek fresh currents of life from abroad. Welcome all new ideas and new things which are good. So may you steadily add to all your resources of power, multiply the advantages of life, reflect honor upon your wor- thy ancestors, and transmit the goodly heritage received from them, not only unimpaired, but with a generous increase to those who live after you. Above all, may you hope to raise up for the future a gen- eration of men worthy of the name. And this can not fail to carry with it prosperity in every thing good. To your lasting honor may these results appear when a hundred years hence a happy and intelli- gent people shall gather here to celebrate the second Centennial Jubi- lee of Ludlow, perhaps under the shadow of the very trees of your planting.
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After the choir had again sung, Rev. J. W. Tuck, of Jewett City, Conn., gave the Historical Address, in these words :
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
THOUGH I cannot claim the honor of my nativity with you, citizens of Ludlow, yet I am not a foreigner or stranger here. These fields and forests, so green to-day, are more familiar than those on which I first opened my eyes ; these venerable oaks around, seem as much like old friends as those others under which I sat in childhood; and in many of these open countenances I read the checkered history of a majority of your families, as well as much of my own for sixteen of the best years of my life. A few rods from this place of our gathering, six of my children were born, and the precious dust of half that same family now sleeps in yonder cemetery, side by side with dear departed ones of your own stricken households.
The invitation, therefore, of your honorable Committee of Arrange- ments to address you at this memorable period of your history, I regard as a call to come home again, to revisit the scenes of former years, to review the pleasant memories of the past, to shake friendly hands, and gather up inspiration from a new brief communion to go on in life's journey with Christian courage, that we may finish our course with joy.
But personal and particular reminiscences belong chiefly to the speakers that will follow me; and while I may indulge in some that have fallen especially under my observation, yet the broader though less luminous field of your local history has been marked out for my survey in this Centennial Anniversary of your town. I am aware of the more than ordinary difficulties of my undertaking, difficulties growing out of the comparative meagerness of your early district records, and also because of a lack of startling incident and adventure, such as may be found in the central, populous places whose history covers a much longer period,-but which can never obtain with a younger and scattered population, devoting themselves exclusively to the quiet pursuits of agriculture. While, therefore, Ludlow can not boast of many great and astonishing things,-of bloody battle-fields, of Indian burnings and massacres, of giving presidents, senators and
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governors to the country,-yet, if it be not assuming too much, in the words of another,-" She can, so far, claim the merit of never having done anything that she or her mother town need be ashamed of." We will take this as no faint praise. Though it be true, as pub- licly pre-announced of this celebration,-that this town has not a great deal of history all to herself, may it not be added,-neither has she the failing of coveting and contending for that in her chief places, which is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, and from which much claiming to be history frequently comes. No, her ambi- tion is of a higher type; her preference for the more useful, the prac- tical, the permanent. Hence of her sons it may be said, they are industrious, virtuous, sturdy yeomen, and her daughters,-they are fit to be the wives and mothers of husbands and children, that are "known in the gates, and who sit among the elders of the land."
With so much that is apologetic, and congratulating you, fellow- citizens, friends and former townsmen, for the auspicious circumstan- ces of this day, and the pleasing unanimity with which you enter on this Centennial, forgetful of political and denominational preferences, I now waive for the present all other things, and give precedence to a brief narrative of the good old dame that has just rounded out her first hundred years, and yet is none the worse for wear, nay, is more vigorous and comely, and even Christian than ever. May we not, then, those of us who are adopted children, as well as you who were to the manor born, like the loyal subjects of gracious sovereigns, say now with united voices, Live, O mother ! Live forever ! Live on, firm in principle, fair in countenance, of a truly healthy growth, and holding honorable place with a friendly sisterhood of towns around !
NAME.
" What's in a name ?" is sometimes asked. Enough, perhaps, to claim a moment's thought as we pass along. The name first on our lips to-day, and inscribed on the banner floating highest in the breeze above this assembled multitude, though not euphonious, as some have said, yet is not unpleasant to the ear, and, we doubt not, is of honor- able origin. While we have no certain clue to its history, yet it seems to me the most plausible theory among several is, that its derivation may be traced to a prominent English republican living previous to
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and during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell-Edmund Ludlow, a member of Parliament and a popular leader of the people in those stormy times, against the encroachments of the crown. Though he was one of the king's judges, yet he was, even then, a thorough, con- sistent republican, and afterward an earnest supporter of the bill for the abolition of the House of Peers. It is not unreasonable to sup- pose that his name, associated as it was with genuine republicanism like that of John Hampden, his contemporary,-a name afterwards given to designate your County,-should, for like reasons, have been previously joined to one of its towns. (I .* )
SETTLEMENT.
The first settlement with specific date in this part of Springfield, called Stony Hill, was made in 1751 by Capt. Joseph Miller, who came from West Springfield, and pitched his tent on the banks of the Chicopee river, near where Elihu J. Sikes now lives, whose wife is a direct descendant of his of the fifth generation. But there were already several families here, supposed to have been on the ground a year or two; those of Aaron Colton, James Sheldon, Shem Chapin and Benjamin Sikes. Ebenezer Barber came in 1756, locating himself on the place now owned by David L. Atchinson, and Jonathan. Lombard followed in 1757. In 1767, Joshua Fuller, whose descendants are numerous, moved into the place, and settled on what is known as the Dorman farm, near the Methodist chapel. James Kendall came in 1769, from Ashford. Most of these names, together with those of Jones and Burr, representing families still living here, are found in the earliest records of Springfield. (II.t) Their present numbers, and the places of honor and usefulness they have filled through so many gen- erations, evince the extraordinary vitality and vigor of the stock from which they sprang.
SLOW PROGRESS.
For more than a score of years after the arrival of the pioneer set- tlers in the Eastern, or Stony Hill district of Springfield, the increase of the population, owing to a variety of circumstances, was very grad- ual. Persons coming from a distance, seeking new homes in this part
*See page 18, also see Appendix, C. tSee pp. 7-9.
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of the State, preferred planting themselves in the villages, and re- maining there, on account of their greater safety, and also that they might the better enjoy the advantages of religion, of education and social life. With reluctance they went out to take up new lands at a distance ; and only. the most venturesome, and such as had but small possessions at home, would do it. It is no disparagement of the early inhabitants of this locality, to say they were poor in this world's goods, and adventurers here, seeking to better their scanty fortunes. Their hardships, therefore, were many and great.
ORGANIZATION AND STRUGGLES.
At the end of the first quarter of a century, or in the year 1774, the population of the place having reached two or three hundred, meas- ures were taken and perfected for the organizing of a new town, which was denominated in the act of incorporation, separating it from Springfield, the district of Ludlow. It was thought the measure would give a new impetus to the prosperity of the place by adding largely to its numbers, and furnishing the people with superior advan- tages of every kind. But the expectation was not one to be realized then, since the date marks a period in our country's history, distin- guished for the beginning of hostilities between the home government of Great Britain and her American colonies. Just previous to this the tea had been destroyed in Boston harbor, in consequence of which Parliament had passed an act interdicting commercial intercourse with that port, and prohibiting the landing and shipping of any goods. This oppressive bill was followed by the passage of others more odious still, and a general state of alarm prevailed throughout Massachusetts and all the colonies. In a twelvemonth afterwards, the war of the Revolution opened in the fight on Lexington Green, followed by the famous battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June, 1775. The news of these battles arrived in this part of the State two days after their occurrence, though neither telegraphs nor railroads were then known, and immediately several companies of men, well-armed and equipped, were dispatched on their long and toilsome march to the sea-board. Others were organized as minute-men, and constantly drilled, preparatory to being called into the service.
I speak of these things here, not to impart information, but as sug-
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gestive of those dark and troublous times a hundred years ago, and as accounting for the slow growth of the new settlements in this part of the State, and particularly outside the larger towns. Men do not go forth into the wilderness in large numbers, nor engage extensively in agricultural pursuits, when the trumpet of war is sending its echoes through the land, and the young and brave are summoned to the bat- tle-field. Drawn from their homes, then, they dwell in camps and sicken in hospitals, or fall in the deadly strife.
EARLY TOWN MEETINGS.
The first town meeting in Ludlow was held almost immediately after its organization, at the dwelling-house of Abner Hitchcock, where Lucius Simonds now lives, and at the second meeting a few weeks after, a committee was chosen to secure the services of a minis- ter for the people. This seems to have been the universal practice of the fathers of New England, as soon as they could count up forty or fifty families within a reasonable distance, to provide themselves with the ordinances of religion, and enter into church relations with one another. Even before that, when they might not number more than a score of persons, they would initiate measures looking to their spirit- ual necessities.
You can find at the City Hall in Springfield, in the first book of records, an ancient document signed by only eight persons, the first little band of immigrants that arrived on the banks of the Connecticut River in the Spring of 1636, written thus :
" Wee intend, by God's grace, as soon as we can, with all convenient speede, to procure some Godly and faithful minister, with whom we purpose to join in church covenant, to walk in all the ways of Christ."
Like the Pilgrims on landing at Plymouth, their first thought was a recognition of the hand that had led them, and a humble, public con- fession of the Mighty God, whom they loved and feared.
At another town meeting, held in less than three months from the first, a committee was chosen to find the center of the town, that they might build a meeting-house thereon. It was in their heart to build a house for the Lord at that time; but nine years intervened before the work was accomplished. The delay is easily accounted for, in the break- ing out of the Revolutionary war, the calling into the army of their
HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 129
available young men, and taxing their small pecuniary resources to the utmost to furnish equipments, ammunition and rations. What prevented their increase in numbers also laid an embargo on their re- ligious prosperity ; so that (III .* ) the very first tax levied, which was £20, lawful money, instead of being appropriated to their wants as a community, had to be diverted to the exigencies of the public peril. But it was done cheerfully. The patriotism of the people in this western part of the State was not a whit behind that of their brethren in the eastern counties, and all were ready to make the greatest sacri- fices for the common safety. Stockings and shoes had to be made in the different families for the soldiers, since these articles could not be bought in one place as now, and blankets in many instances were taken from the beds then in use. Tax followed tax and requisition followed requisition for seven long years, reducing their means of support until nothing seemed left them but a depreciated paper currency. The worthlessness of this, though it was nearly all they had, some votes on the records made at that time will show. I quote as examples :
" Voted to raise the sum of $11,500 to buy grain to pay the three and six months' soldiers, in addition to their stated wages ; also, to raise $32,000 to purchase beef for the State."
The price of wheat then was $30 per bushel, rye $23, Indian corn $15, a day's work $20, and other things in proportion. Another vote I transcribe, viz: "That we pay Sergeant John Johnson and Sergeant Ezekiel Fuller, Samuel Scranton and Samuel Warriner, Jr., £12 silver money for services in the army ; also, £6 to Joseph Hitch- cock for the same." This was near the close of the struggle for inde- pendence, in 1781, and yet I doubt if much more specie can be found in town to-day.
Thus it appears that the infant district of Ludlow, containing only about two hundred inhabitants, was actively engaged in the great Revolutionary conflict, and doing what it could. One-seventh of its whole population was mustered into the service, and stands enrolled in the army of Independence. Their names are worthy of record, and may properly be read in your hearing, since they are the inherit-
*See page 22.
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ance of so many in this assembly. Including those already called, there are :- (IV .* )
ICHABOD BARKER,
JOSEPH JENNINGS,
EZEKIEL BEEBE,
JOHN JOHNSON,
CÆSAR BEGORY (colored),
DAVID LOMBARD,
NOADIAH BURR,
JONATHAN LOMBARD,
REUBEN BURT, .
DR. AARON J. MILLER,
JOEL CHAPIN,
GEORGE MILLER,
CHARLES CHOOLEY,}
JOSEPH MILLER, Jr.,
AARON COLTON,#
LEONARD MILLER,
SOLOMON COOLEY,
DAVID PAINE,
EDWARD COTTON, §
TYRUS PRATT,
OLIVER DUTTON,
SAMUEL SCRANTON,
EZEKIEL FULLER,
THOMAS TEMPLE,
LOTHROP FULLER,
MOSES WILDER,
JABEZ GOODALE,
CYPRIAN WRIGHT ;
JOSEPH HITCHCOCK,
twenty-nine in number. There is no record of any tories here, and their number was small in this part of the State ; and yet there were a few in the larger places. It is not twenty years since an aged widow lady lived in Springfield, who received an annual pension from the British government for war services rendered the mother country, by her husband, nearly eighty years before. She had, at that time, been paid an aggregate of $10,000 in the course of her long life. (V.||)
FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
The war being ended, and peace and prosperity having come once more, the people, as might be expected, turned their attention again especially to the erection of their long-desired sanctuary. Accord- ingly, in town meeting it was "voted that Deacon Nathan Smith of Granby, Deacon David Nash of South Hadley, and Deacon John Hitchcock of Wilbraham be a committee to set the stake for a meet- ing-house." At a subsequent meeting their doings were accepted and £200 assessed for building purposes. Then the work went forward as
*See page 21.
¡Cooley ?
§Colton ?
ISee page 29.
!
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
fast as they were able to collect and prepare the material. At length the foundations were laid, and almost a forest of heavy hewn timber covered the ground.
Again turning to the records we read :-
"October 23, 1783 .- Town-meeting at the stake. Voted that the building com- mittee procure a sufficient quantity of rum for raising the meeting-house frame."
This was the only business done at the meeting, so far as the record goes, and no doubt was the passing of the Rubicon, the taking of the last desperate step toward a successful end. A house-raising in those days was an eventful occurrence,-especially if a public building,- calling together whole communities,-the men and boys to lift the heavy timbers by broadsides, and the women and girls as joyful wit- nesses, and also to prepare food and spread the tables for the unusual feast. It was a great day to the people of this town, ninety-one years ago, when the gigantic frame of that now ancient and forsaken sanc- tuary, standing hard by, was lifted on to its foundations. Indeed, two days were consumed before the last timber went into its place and the last trunnel was driven home, though scores of strong-armed men came in from the towns around, cheerfully contributing their efficient aid and joining in the work from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. At length it stood erect, complete, immovable.
Then, at a given signal from the master workman, believe me, there was a tossing of hats and bonnets such as you never saw, and a shout so loud and long that it
" Shook the depths of the desert gloom,
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang."
Where the rum came in or went out, or what the young folks did that night, till the "small hours" of the morning, I leave to your conjectures. Strange as it may seem, some of the witnesses to that raising still survive ; but they tell no tales, only they whisper at times with bated breath. Do any doubt ? Look at those aged oaks. They were then in their prime, and swung out leafy bowers all over this pleasant green ; and now, though they are old and less comely than in their youth, they are still loved and cherished, as all tried and time-long friends should be. There is a tradition that when that an- cient frame comes down, they, too, will bow their heads and fall.
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Long may it stand, therefore, let us pray, to befriend and bless this beautiful grove, and tell the old, old story of the past; though we would not object to its being clad in a more comely covering, and looking down upon us, children, with a more cheery, improved face. Built by the hands of the fathers, who gave the chief materials from their forests, and devoted now to secular purposes, let it stand, reju- venated, as we hope it soon may be, to signalize their worthy deeds and join the generations, old and new, in one.
On account of the poverty of those fathers, it remained unfinished within for several years; and there were those living a short time since, who could remember when its only pulpit was a carpenter's bench, and its pews rough planks, stretched from one block to another. But afterward, as the people were prospered, these rude forms gave place to the improvements of a later day. A real pulpit was built; and how wonderful it was, perched like an eagle's nest far up some dizzy hight; and then the deacon's seat a little lower down in front, where grave men sat, 'tis said, to watch the flock, and wake the con- gregation nodding and, withial, to keep the boys and girls from spark- ing. As there were no means for warming churches then, each fam- ily took to meeting with them their little box-like stove for the women's feet, while the men sat and kicked their frozen cowhides to force away the winter's cold.
Prayer-meetings, at that day, were seldom known. They would have been an intrusion on the dignity of the dominie, whose sole pre- rogative it was, publicly to pray as well as preach.
THE FIRST CHURCH AND ITS PASTOR.
At the formation of the church here, which was in 1789, it was pre- sented with a heavy communion service from the mother town, on which was inscribed, " Springfield 1st Church, 1742," and which was continued in use more than a hundred years, or until 1846, when it gave place to other and more valuable furniture, the bequest of Abner Cady, the former still being preserved as a remembrance and relic of the past.
The Rev. Antipas Steward, the first pastor, was ordained, Novem- ber 27, 1793. He was a native of Marlboro, a graduate of Harvard University and afterward tutor, and distinguished for scholarship.
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