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 2
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III. The ecclesiastical era, from 1800 to 1828, or from the first attempts to establish a Congregational Church to the dedication of the Methodist "chapel," including the ministry of Revs. Alexander McLean and E. B. Wright.
IV. The zenith of the century, or the period of great- est prosperity ; from the completed establishment of the Center churches to the great failure of the Jenks's. The Congregational Church of 1840 is built, the old edifice be- comes the town-house, Put's Bridge is Jenksville. Money plenty, times easy, until the catastrophe. Period, 1828 to 1848.
V. The Ludlow of to-day, taking in scope the balance of the century, introducing the Centennial. This will in- clude the Rebellion record. 1848-1875.
THE HISTORY.
-
SECTION I.
TO 1774.
ANTE-LUDLOW.
Who constitute a town-The red man-Indian names-Relics of a departed race-An ancient armory-Legend of camp-fires-Of the Leap-Of the alleged Facing Hills murder-The tenure of soil -Springfield of old-Governor Andros-A Yankee trick-The commons-Sections of commons-Line of commons-Allotments -The river-Early settlers-The tar business-Joseph Miller- Others-A wooing-Glimpse at the region-Church service- Proposition for district-Will they get an organization ?
A COUNTRY, a state, a town, consists of the inhabitants thereof. Whatever the place is, or fails to be, depends not upon the conditions of its soil or weather, so much as on the people enjoying or braving the same. Spain, in the most favored of latitudes, may fail to influence its nearest neighbors, while a band of hardy colonists among the frozen seas, singing their sagas while reefing the sails of rude smacks, may make the name of Iceland famous. Our first acquaintance, then, will be with the earlier in- habitants of the territory now known as Ludlow.
The history of the region, before the pale-face had ap- propriated these lands, is preserved only in tradition. Some portions of these broad acres were, evidently, favor- ite haunts of the red man. The names, Minachogue and Wallamanumps, preserve the flavor of the aboriginal.
1
2
HISTORY OF LUDLOW.
The former name seems to have been applicable to the whole eastern region of Wilbraham and Ludlow, and sig- nifies " Berry land." The latter word seems to have been applied to falls of the "Chicuepe," now at Ludlow Mills and Indian Orchard. Places are pointed out in the town which the red man made his favorite resorts. At one spot the discoloration of the rocks is alleged to have come from the frequent camp-fires of the Indians. At other places, both in the extreme north and all the plain region, the frequency with which arrow-heads are found, and chip- pings of flint and stone, indicate that another nation than our own once used this region as the seat of an extensive armory.
Of the legendary lore of the territory, there seem to have been some specimens. After the destruction of Springfield by fire, October 4, 1675, the warriors retreat- ed eastward six miles, as we are informed by the annalists. The place of their encampment is said to have been on the peninsula, in the south part of the town, known as the Indian Leap; where twenty-four smouldering camp-fires and some abandoned plunder were all the vestiges remain- ing the next morning.
Of course, the story of all stories concerning the In- dians, within the limits of the present town, is the familiar one respecting the leap of Roaring Thunder and his men, in the time of King Philip's war. Although the account is wholly legendary, there is therewith so fine a flavor of the aboriginal, that it has ever been popular among those fond of folk-lore. It is reported that the band of warriors was camping on the sequestered peninsula, lulled into quiet by the sound of the roaring fall of water, precipitously tumbling scores of feet over the rocks, within a half mile of the stream-bed. Some aver, that upon this point there were spread the wigwams of the Indians, and quite a com- pany of them made the place their home; that at the
1
3
THE INDIANS.
time these tragic events occurred, the red man had cap- tured one of the women from Masacksick,1 and were pur- sued by the intrepid settlers, and finally discovered in their rude home on the banks of the river. In the midst of their quiet and solitude, came the alarm from the white man, closely following up their trail into the thicket. There was no retreat. They had taught the pale-face the meaning of " no quarter," and could expect nought but retaliation. Only one way of escape presented itself, and that was into the jaws of death. To the brink of the fear- ful precipice, then, before the back-waters of the corpora- tion pond had reduced the distance a hundred feet, did the painted braves dash on, and over into the wild waters and upon the ragged rocks they leaped, directly into the arms of hungry death. Roaring Thunder is said to have watched while each of his company leaped into the fright- ful chasm, and then, taking his child high in his arms, casting one glance back upon the wigwam homes, he fol- lowed the rest into the rushing waters. The pursuant foe looked, wonderingly, over the jutting sandstone walls ; but one living red-skin met his eye, and he was disappearing among the inaccessible forest trees which skirted the other shore.2
One other account, perhaps full as probable as either of those already related, bears a later date. On a prominent part of Facing Hills rocks, there rises an abrupt precipice, from which eminence a surpassingly grand outlook upon the region is to be obtained. This rock is supposed to have been the theater of one of those tragic events, too common in the days of early settlers. Away down the valley of the Chicuepe, was a little hamlet of hardy ad-
1Longmeadow.
2See Appendix A. The omnipresent iconoclast, who doubts a Shakespeare and a Homer, has thrown his shading over this legend, even suggesting that had the Indians varied a few feet from the alleged course, they might have reached the river by an easy path.
4
HISTORY OF LUDLOW.
venturers-so runs the story. Among the company was a family, in which were two women. Surprised by the blood-thirsty savages one day, when the men were out in the fields at work, one of the two found an opportunity to escape to the cellar, and hide under a tub. The other was so unfortunate as to become a prisoner, and accom- panied the captors, as they speeded away up the valley. Soon as possible the settlers were aroused, and started in pursuit. It was a fearful chase, and a fruitless one ; for the Indians, hurrying their booty along with them, reached this point on Facing Rocks, and, close pursued, put the victim out of misery by a tragic death.3
But the day of the red man is drawing to a close, and other claimants to the soil have appeared. The record of the purchase of the lands hereabouts from the Indians, is very clear, and shows that the settlers had all the rights of tenure which could flow from such transfers of prop- erty as gave the white man his possessions. That a con- nected account of the settlement of the region may be before the reader, it will be necessary to go back a little.
The original boundaries of Springfield circumscribed a region twenty-five miles square, including, west of the river, the land now comprising the towns of West Spring- field and Agawam, the city of Holyoke, and part of South- wick and Westfield in Massachusetts, and Suffield in Con- necticut ; on the east side of the river, besides Springfield, Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Chicopee and Ludlow in this State, and Enfield in Connecticut. So Ludlow comprises the north-easterly section of the Springfield of long ago.
The grant of land to William Pynchon, in 1636, in- cluded all this region, but no one had laid claim to the eastern-most and western-most limits. In the latter part
3This event probably happened July 26, 1708. It bears a strong resemblance to the account of the massacre of the Wrights at Skipmuck. See Holland's West- ern Mass., vol. 1, 158.
5
THE COMMON LINES.
of the century, the oppressive measures of the English governor, Sir Edmund Andros, gave color to the fear lest he should cause these out-regions to revert to the crown, especially as he had threatened to take away the charter of the colony.
So far as the governor was concerned, his right to take this action can hardly be disputed. He was the first royal governor of New England, and came to carry out the wishes of the crown. As the government in England had declared the charters of all the New England colonies for- feited, Andros could do little else than execute the royal intentions. However, the Springfield colonists did not propose to be cheated out of their wood-lots by the crown, and so, with Yankee ingenuity, devised a plan to ward off the danger impending. In town meeting, February 3, 1685, they voted that, after reserving three hundred acres for the ministry, and one hundred and fifty acres for schools, on the east side of the river, and due proportions for like purposes, on the west side, the remainder should be divided among the one hundred and twenty-three heads of families, or legal citizens. With the ministry and school lots, there were thus one hundred and twenty-five proprie- tors, among whom the land was to be divided. Not that there were, good reader, that number of actual citizens, for it seemed no harm to add to the list the names of all' male persons under age.
The " commons " east of the "Great River," seem to have included two sections, bounded by a line running north and south ; the line on the east side, commencing at Newbury Ditch, so called, on the boundary of William Clark's land, extending from the hill west of the Norman Lyon homestead, and passing southward near the present residence of Ezekiel Fuller, past the rear of Mr. Haviland's house, and near the crossing of the Springfield, Athol and North-eastern railroad with the Three Rivers road, across
6
HISTORY OF LUDLOW.
the river, and near the Stony Hill road, in Wilbraham. The land divided, as above described, was the outward commons, eastward of this line. Each of the one hundred and twen- ty-five took a share in each of the three sections east, and and the two west of the Great River. None of this outer common land was considered very valuable, but the method of division indicated was certainly fair.4
A glance at the map will show that the northern sec- tion of the east outward commons, and a small portion of the middle section, lies to-day in the town of Ludlow. The shares were not equal, but according to valuation, of course varying much. It is said that the narrowest were eight feet wide, measured at sixteen feet to the rod, much to the perplexity of proprietors in following generations. These original territorial divisions may be seen to-day on Wilbraham mountains, indicated by the parallel lines of wall running east and west.
In the north section, east, the school and minister lots ran through Cedar Swamp and over the north end of Mina- chogue mountain. The south boundary of the section must have passed not far from the south shore of Wood pond, and past the Miller Corner school lot to the river. The Chicopee river seems always to have constituted the boundary between Ludlow and Wilbraham, though by a singular oversight, the hither shore of the stream seems in both cases to have been fixed as the limit of the respective towns, leaving the Chicopee to flow uninterruptedly down- ward through the limits of Springfield, disowned by both towns on the borders.
This little section of the middle portion of the outward commons, east, has the honor of being the first settled in the territory since bearing the name of Ludlow. Who was the first settler, is as yet a question undecided. Tra- dition gives the post of honor to one Aaron Colton, whose
4See Appendix B.
7
EARLY SETTLERS.
home was situated on the bluff, just above the Chicopee river, where Arthur King now lives, and who must have settled prior to 1751. James Sheldon, Shem Chapin, and Benjamin Sikes are said to have been living in the town at the same period. James Sheldon is supposed to have lived on the site now occupied by Elijah Plumley's red house ; Benjamin Sikes, at the place just north of the Mann farm, on his allotment of commons; and Shem Chapin, near the home of Samuel White. Thus of the first four homes known in the town, three were in the outward commons.5
We read, also, that " about 1748, Mr. Abel Bliss, of Wil- braham, and his son, Oliver, collected in the town of Lud- low, and west and south part of Belchertown, then called Broad Brook, a sufficient quantity of pine, to make two hundred barrels of tar, and sold it for five dollars per bar- rel." With the proceeds, Bliss built a fine dwelling-house in Wilbraham, the envy of all the region.
In 1751, came the family of Joseph Miller, braving the terrors and real dangers of a journey fourteen miles into the forest, away up the Chicopee river, to the present place of Elihu J. Sikes. The friends in their former home, West Springfield, mourned them as dead, and tradition has even stated that a funeral sermon was preached over their departure. Under their careful management, a pleas- ant home was soon secured, charmed by the music of the running stream. As the wild forest trees succumbed to the prowess of the chopper, tender plants grew up in the home, and made the desert region glad by the echoes of childish prattle.6 A little later, in 1756, Ebenezer Barber's eyes turned toward "Stony Hill," and, beholding acres
5It is rumored that a man named Antisel occupied a log house on the edge of Facing Hills, subsisting on game, and that he antedates all these settlers. One Pe- rez Antisel was deer-reeve in 1777.
6They brought with them a female slave, who afterwards married.
8
HISTORY OF LUDLOW.
of attractive land, sought out for himself a home near Shem Chapin's, in the inward commons. The advent of others was, after this, quite frequent; so much so that when the town was incorporated, in 1774, there were from two to three hundred inhabitants. Jonathan Lumbard commenced to clear a farm in the upper part of Cherry Valley, in 1757. Joshua Fuller cleared a spot on the Dorman place, at the Center, in 1767, probably bringing with him his father, Young Fuller. James Kendall seems to have made the common line his eastern boundary, when he came into town, May 2, 1769. In 1770, Jonathan Burr moved in ox-carts, from Connecticut, and settled between Mary Lyon's and the mountain. In 1772, came Joel Wil- ley, to Miller Corner ; while a young man from Wilbra- ham, Isaac Brewer, Jr., who had cast furtive glances to- ward the developing charms of Captain Joseph Miller's daughter, and had braved the terrors of ford and ferry and wilderness, that he might visit there, became more and more enamored, until her graces, and her father's lands, won him from the home of his boyhood, for life. The happy young couple settled on the Lawrence place, where the same musical ripple of the Chicuepe delighted them, as had charmed the girlhood of the bride.
Of the other families, who came to town and settled about this time, we have but room to give the names. Northward of Colton and Miller, and towards the present Center, lived Benajah Willey, afterwards the first district " clark." Just south of him was a Mr. Aynesworth, whom fame has left without a memoir. Benjamin Sikes, the father of Benjamin, Abner and John, occupied the ances- tral farm, now owned by J. Mann, north of the Center, while his son, Lieutenant John Sikes, remained with his father. The son Abner went away to the eastward, three miles, to settle, near the present Alden district school- house. Near the line of the commons, and westward
9
THE REGION FORMERLY.
thereof, was, in '74, quite a settlement. The Hitchcock home, occupied by Josiah and his son Abner, with fami- lies, now forms the homestead of Lucius Simonds, while another son, Joseph, lived next west, and probably Ezra Parsons and John Hubbard, not far away. Beriah Jen- nings was near the present site of Ezekiel Fuller's house. Shem Chapin's neighbors were Aaron Ferry, Jacob Coo- ley, at the Torrey place, Noah Bowker, on the Samuel White farm, Israel Warriner, a little below, and farther to the south, at the mill privilege, were Ezekiel Squires, who built the first grist-mill there, and hard by, Oliver Chapin and the Zechariah Warners, father and son.
The region thus peopled must have been wild, indeed. The roads were, in this period, hardly laid out, much less prepared for travel. No dams obstructed the onward flowing of the Chicuepe, no bridges spanned its stream for the convenience of the towns-people, and others. The grand highways of travel then, as now, were without the confines of the town, the north-easterly route from Spring- field crossed the plains within the inward commons, the south-easterly trail of the red man went through the South Wilbraham gap, as that of the white man must sooner or later, while the "Grate Bay Rode" wound its way over plains and through passes just across the river to the south, as far from Joshua Fuller and his neighbors as the more pretentious successor of the "Rode " is to-day from his descendants, occupying the old acres.
The surface of the land was in no desirable condition. Where now blooming fields are spreading to the sun their luxuriant herbage, were then malarious bogs and sunken quagmires. The ponds caught the blue of heaven then as now, it is true, but their approaches were swamps, and their shores were diversified with decayed logs and de- caying underbrush. The region was infested with wolves and bears, while fleet-footed deer browsed confidently
2
10
HISTORY OF LUDLOW.
upon the foliage of Mineachogue mountain, sipped the waters of Mineachogue pond, reposed in slumber sweet under Shelter rock, in Cherry Valley. Into such a re- gion as this came the hardy adventurers, from Spring- field, from West Springfield, from Ashfield, from Wil- braham, from Shutesbury, from Ellington, from Glaston- bury, from Somers, from Brookfield, from Bridgewater, until a goodly settlement was made in all parts of the present territory.
Where these people attended church, is left to conjec- ture, but conjecture is not difficult. The Miller Corner people would naturally go southward, to listen to the ex- cellent sermons of the Reverend Noah Mirick, and, doubt- less, it was while there the furtive glances of young Isaac Brewer met, in spite of vigilant tithing-men, those of Captain Miller's daughter, until their blushes would display the ripening admiration. The other people, from the north-west part, most likely sought the blind trail across the wooded plain, following the blazed trees, until the center of the town of Springfield was reached.
There could have been no unity between the various parts of the town, for a while. After a time, however, neighborhoods were formed for mutual defense, the peo- ple stopping at night at some convenient head-quarters, safe from an attack by savage wolf or bear, or no less sav- age Indian, to disperse in the morning, each family to its own rude cabin, for the day's duties in the field, and home again at night, to heed the horn in lieu of curfew bell, and hie them to their lodging-house.
But as time rolled on, the people began to tire of this condition. The waters of the Chicabee were, at times, so swollen they could not cross them ; the rude paths so wet or rough they could not with convenience traverse them. Why not form a community of their own? Could they not have a church, and a minister ? Could they not
11
THE PETITION.
gather at some nearer center, and enjoy the immunities of other towns and districts ?
Would that the records of these preliminary meetings could be spread before us to-day ! But we may almost read of their doings. Capt. Miller, and his son-in-law, from the bank of the stream, Joshua Fuller, from the present center, the Hitchcocks, and Jennings's, and Ken- dalls, from the common line, the Chapins, and Bowkers, and Cooleys, from over the hill westward, the Lombards, and Sikes's, with their neighbors, would meet at Abner Hitchcock's, or Jacob Kendall's, or Joshua Fuller's, and talk the matter over, until in their minds the town was already in existence, and then the work was easy. A pe- tition was drawn up, very likely by Benajah Willey, pray- ing " His Excellency, the Honorable Governor, Thomas Hutchinson," representative of His Royal Majesty, the King, " Dei Gratia," to grant to the people the rights and privileges of a district. The petition was duly signed and sealed, and either carried by special messenger, or sent by some traveler, by way of the Grate Bay Rode, to the head-quarters of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in the far- off town of Boston. And with what result ?
SECTION II.
1774 TO 1800.
LUDLOW IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Governor Hutchinson-Trouble-Districts and their functions-An- swer to petition-The charter-First district meeting-The set- tlers gathering-Original office-holders-Origin of the name- Geographical theory-The other Ludlows-Edmund Ludlow- Roger Ludlow-Remoteness of all these sources-Exchange of names with Wilbraham-West line-A church needed-Former ecclesiastical relations-Rev. Peletiah Chapin-Finding the cen- ter-The revolution-The record-Incidents and notes-Rev. Messrs. Davenport, Hutchinson, Haskell, Fuller, Pratt, Stone, Snell, and Woodward-Success at last-Stephen Burroughs- Call to Mr. Steward-Acceptance-Sketch of Rev. Antipas Stew- ard-A slice from one of his sermons-Erection of church-Im- provements on the edifice-Former chapels-Congregationalists -Mr. Steward receives a hint-Baptists-Methodism-Drowning of Paine and Olds-Shays-The Paine child-Sorrow in the Mil- ler family- Cemeteries -Schools -Districts -School-houses - Representatives-Pounds-Warning out-Highways-Bridges- Progress of the period.
Thomas Hutchinson was Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony when the inhabitants of Stony Hill, in Springfield, applied for a town charter. He had fallen upon troublous times. There were mutterings frequent and painfully ap- parent against the ruling power. Men had even dared to question the right of the King to control their actions or their revenues. Three thousand miles of ocean waves, and no steam navigation, or telegraphic cable, to connect the shores, did not strengthen the weakening bonds. Each winged messenger over the seas brought from the
13
PETITION FOR INCORPORATION.
old country tidings of the adoption of rigorous measures against the colonists ; returning, the same vessels bore to the perverse government news of increasing disaffection on part of the Americans. Some had even averred that the people of the New World could take care of themselves and spend their own revenues, while the more sagacious of English leaders foresaw the impending events, but in vain pointed out the true remedies. The more disaf- fected the colonists became, the more arbitrary were the measures of the crown.
One of the measures adopted by England for the con- trol of the American subjects was the reduction of the representative power. As the inhabitants increased in numbers, they formed themselves into town organizations, having as one privilege that of sending a representative to the general assembly. As these towns increased, of course the number of representatives became larger, un- til an unwieldy body was assembling at the head-quarters of the colony each year, rapidly assuming power, and en- dangering the tenure of the crown. As a measure of safety, it was at length decided to give further applicants for town charter, all rights save that of representation, calling the organizations districts instead of towns.
At precisely this juncture in affairs did the Stony Hill settlers send in their petition for incorporation. There seems to have been no good reason why the application of the people should not be granted, and it was evidently passed with no particular trouble. We append the an- swer received, in the language of the State records :
" AN Act for erecting that part of the Township of Springfield, called Stony Hill, into a separate District by the name of Ludlow.
" Whereas, by reason of the remote situation of the inhabitants of that part of Springfield, called Stony Hill, from the center of the town and parishes of which they are now parts, and their incapacity there- by of receiving any advantages from a longer union and connection therewith ; and they have represented to this court that they are of a
14
HISTORY OF LUDLOW.
sufficient number and estates to support the charges of a district, and have prayed that they may be accordingly erected into a district :
"Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and House of Representa- tives, that that part of the Township of Springfield called and known by the name of Stony Hill, and the inhabitants thereof, included and contained within the following lines and boundaries, namely, bounding southerly on Chicabee River, east on the east line of said Springfield and west line of Belchertown, northerly, on the north line of said Springfield, or partly on Belchertown and partly on Granby, and ex- tending westward so far as to include all that part of the outward com- mons, so called, that lies in the north-east corner of the Township of Springfield, and extending also in a line parallel with the west line of said outward commons, one mile and three-quarters farther west into the inward commons, so called, in said Springfield, north of Chicabee River, be erected into a separate District, by the name of Ludlow, and be invested with all the powers and privileges which towns in this Province enjoy by law; that of choosing and sending a Represent- ative to the General Assembly only excepted.
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