Massachusetts : a guide to its places and people, Part 59

Author:
Publication date: 1937
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company
Number of Pages: 802

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Among the Indian remains in the town are the underground granaries and the sweating pits; the former are circular holes about 5 feet deep and from 3 to 16 feet across, usually in the side of a knoll. The sweating pit near Farm Pond is a circular hole about 4 feet deep; small stones placed on its bottom were heated and water poured over them, making steam. The Indians used this steam as a purification bath before tribal ceremonies.

West of Framingham State 9 passes through sections of the Metropolitan Water Works Reservoir System. At 22.6 m. is the Sudbury Reservoir.

At 23.5 m. is the junction with State 85.

Right on State 85 is SOUTHBOROUGH, 1.1 m. (town, alt. 314, pop. 2109, sett. 1660, incorp. 1727). The settlement of Richard Newton and his family was the nucleus of the community. When there were about 50 families here, the area was separated from Marlborough and incorporated.

Although the town was primarily concerned with farming, manufacturing flour- ished during the 19th century, producing boots, shoes, and cotton and woolen.

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goods. The factories gradually disappeared, and when the Metropolitan Water Commission took over 1200 acres of land, and Stony Brook became a Metropolitan Aqueduct, the last of the mills was abandoned. The remaining acreage is now devoted to the production of milk or fruit. Thousands of pine trees planted on the watershed add beauty as well as revenue to the district.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, a beautiful edifice of multi-colored stone with a slate roof, has a tablet commemorating its founder and builder, Joseph Burnett of South- borough.

Deerfoot Farms (open), on Deerfoot Rd. was founded in 1847 by Dr. Joseph Burnett, a pioneer in scientific farming and an early importer of Jersey cattle.

At 27.3 m. is the junction with State 30.

Left on State 30 is WESTBOROUGH, 1.5 m. (town, alt. 298, pop. 6073, sett. about 1675, incorp. 1717), originally granted by the General Court to several individual proprietors in return for services to the colony. Among these grants was one of 500 acres, made in 1659, to Charles Chauncy, second president of Harvard College, but revoked in 1660, when it was found to be a section of the Marlborough grant of that year. The Westborough section was called Chauncy until it was separated from Marlborough and became the hundredth town incorporated in the State.

Westborough's agricultural character was changed by the busy Boston-Worcester Turnpike, a stagecoach route after 1810; its industrial character was firmly estab- lished when the Boston and Albany Railroad was run through the village in 1835. Boots and shoes were the principal manufactures, but straw goods, particularly straw hats, and sleighs and tools were produced in quantities.

Left from Westborough on Main St. to the junction with Ruggles St .; left on this to Eli Whitney St .; left on this second street to the Site of the Birthplace of Eli Whitney (1765-1825), 1.3 m. (open; adm. 10g). The site of the home of the inventor of the cotton gin is marked by a boulder.

On Ruggles St. about 0.1 m. south of Eli Whitney St., a marker says: 'An Indian trail prior to 1630 crossed here. The Old Connecticut Path.' On Jack Straw Hill, back of the marker, Jack Straw, a Christian Indian who held much of this section built his cabin. Jack Straw, believed to have been the first Massachusetts Indian converted by the white men, was one of two Indians taken to London by Sir Walter Raleigh and presented to Queen Elizabeth.

At 27.9 m. is the junction with Lyman St.

Right on Lyman St. to Chauncy Lake, 0.4 m. (fishing, bathing, boating, dancing, and picnicking), on the rescinded grant of Harvard's second president.

To the southwest is Hoccomocco Pond, named by the Indians after an evil spirit. This was the scene of the activities of one Tom Cook, a highway- man, born in Westborough in 1738, who used to rob the well-to-do and give to the poor. The wealthy are said to have paid this local Robin Hood large sums annually for immunity from his depredations. Though there seems to have been an engaging side to Tom's character, he seems incon- trovertibly to have been the original racketeer.

At 31.2 m. State 9 overpasses US 20 (see Tour 4) at traffic cloverleaf. At 35.8 m. is White City Park, a large amusement area (fee) on the Shrews- bury bank of Lake Quinsigamond (annual regattas, boat races, picnic grounds).

At 38.2 m. is WORCESTER (see WORCESTER). Here is the junction with State 122 (see Tour 23), State 12 (see Tour 11), and State 70 (see Tour 7).

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Sec. b. WORCESTER to NORTHAMPTON, 56.3 m.

West from Lincoln Square in Worcester, State 9 passes Elm Park, 1 m. LEICESTER, 7.4 m. (town, alt. 1009, pop. 4426, sett. 1713, incorp. 1722), now a manufacturing and residential community, offered hospitality to Quakers and Anabaptists when they were persecuted elsewhere.

Since 1786 the town's history has been identified with the woolen trades. By 1890 approximately one fourth of the cards, both hand and machine, used in the United States were produced here, and 10 woolen mills, of which only two have survived, were established. Present manufactures now include cards and shuttles, children's games, advertising literature, and flannel cloth.

The Stone Walls of the Winslow Farms on Winslow Ave., off Paxton St., varying in width from 2 to 20 feet, are relics of privately subsidized relief work. During the panic of 1873 Mrs. Edward Flint, then owner of the farm, hired the unemployed of the town to clear her fields of stone and build these walls.

Left from Leicester on Rochdale Rd .; iett at 1.2 m. on a side road to the Site of the Shack of Peter Salem, 1.4 m. Salem, a Negro slave, killed the British officer, Major Pitcairn, in the Battle of Bunker Hill. After the War he came to Leicester, where he built a crude hut and lived in poverty until, in his old age, he was taken to the poorhouse in Framingham, where he died.

At 11.5 m. are the modern and sanitary Sibley Dairy Farms (open), con- taining one of the best Jersey herds in the East. On the crest of Moose Hill, left of the Farms, is the Sibley Mansion (closed), product of another private effort at relief, in 1898-99. All building supplies were purchased through local merchants, and the work was performed by unemployed workmen of the town.

SPENCER, 12.4 m. (town, alt. 860, pop. 6487, sett. 1721, incorp. 1775), named for Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phipps, instrumental in secur- ing the town's district status, has been a manufacturing town since 1810; its most important activity began in 18II when Josiah and Nathaniel Green began making shoes sewed with thread. Boot and shoe production, at present confined to two large firms, and the allied manufactures of slippers and heels, form the major industrial interest of the town. The Alta Crest Farms, producing dairy products, owns one of the largest herds of pure-bred Ayrshire cattle in America; and the Treadwell Farm is nationally known for the breeding of poultry, particularly Rhode Island Reds.

The Richard Sugden Public Library (open daily, 2-8), Pleasant St., is a brick building with brown stone trim, housing the Spencer Museum founded in 1874. This has a collection of Indian relics and historical ob- jects.

Left from Spencer on Maple St .; right at 1.2 m. on the first dirt road to a Cobble- stone Monument in front of the cellar hole of the old Howe Homestead, 2.2 m., where Elias Howe, Jr. (1819-67), who first patented the lock-stitch sewing machine, was born. This site is now a part of Howe Memorial Park (fishing, picnicking). .

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From Boston to Pittsfield

At 12.9 m., in front of the West Main St. School, is the Howe Monument, dedicated May 19, 1910, in honor of Elias Howe, Jr., his uncle William Howe, originator of the Howe truss-type bridge, and Tyler Howe, inven- tor of the spring bed.

At 15.9 m. is EAST BROOKFIELD (town, alt. 621, pop. 945, sett. 1664, incorp. 1920), the youngest town in the State. The vicinity was inhabited by the Quabaug Indians, who were visited in 1655 by John Eliot, apostle to the Indians.

Lake Lashaway (fishing, boating, swimming, picnicking; skating, hockey, ice-boating in winter) stretches north from the main highway in the village into North Brookfield; its wooded shores, once inhabited by Indians, are a popular resort.

At 16.4 m. is the junction with State 67, a part of the Old Post Rd. skirt- ing the former Great Swamp.

Right on State 67 at 0.4 m., on the Drake Farm, in a one-room wayside stand, is the carefully mounted Drake Collection of Indian Relics (open; adm. free), con- taining 119 specimens. Most of these artifacts were found within 10 miles of this farm.

Left on State 67 at 0.8 m. (dirt road) are several milestones set out when Benjamin Franklin was Deputy Postmaster-General of the Colonies, the longest unbroken line of them known.

At 4.2 m. on State 67 is NORTH BROOKFIELD (town, alt. 960, pop. 3186, sett. 1664, incorp. 1812), agricultural till its incorporation, when manufacturing began, first with tanning, then shoemaking. Today the leading manufactured products are rubber goods and asbestos matting. Farming, however, is still important, with dairying, poultry-raising, and orchardry predominating. The setting of George M. Cohan's play 'Fifty Miles from Boston' is thought to be here.

At 18.2 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Left on this road to Lake Quabaug (fishing, boating, camping). It is annually stocked by the State with bass, bluegills, and white perch.

BROOKFIELD, 19.2 m. (town, alt. 706, pop. 1309, sett. 1664, incorp. 1718), was originally called Quabaug. The territory surrounding Brook- field was granted by the General Court to residents of Ipswich in 1660. Brookfield was the most important township in the county until about 1810. Although there was a large boot and shoe industry here in the 19th century, the two factories remaining in the town produce electric wire and gummed papers. The main occupation is dairying, and the region is known for its Jersey herds.

The Merrick Library (open weekdays 2-5, Sun. 3.30-8), built of stone, at the northeast corner of the Common, houses the French writing desk of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, a gift to William Draper in 1863 from the Marquis Bernard De Marigny.

The Brookfield Inn (open), on State 9, with low ceilings, a taproom, and a sign dated '1771,' still has the atmosphere of an ancient hostelry.

On West Main St. opposite the Inn is the Chapin House (private), built in 1797. Its doors and windows are among the finest of their period in New England.

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In the village cemetery on State 9 is the Grave of Joshua Spooner, whose epitaph states that he was

'murdered by three soldiers of the Revolution, Ross, Brooks, and Buchanan,

at the instigation of his wife, Bathsheba.'

This event, which took place March 1, 1778, was one of Worcester County's grisliest tragedies, culminating in the hanging of Mrs. Spooner and the three soldiers. The execution proved a gala event for Worcester, with a long sermon full of sulphurous fumes preceding the grisly climax and a terrific thunderstorm illuminating the path to the gallows.

At 20.3 m. a marker records: 'Brookfield - settled in 1660 by men from Ipswich on Indian land called Quabaug. Attacked by Indians 1675, one garrison house defended to the last. Reoccupied 12 years later.' Massasoit is supposed to have died in the Quabaug settlement in 1662. The highway here follows the Quabaug River, which in the springtime is a vast lake spreading over miles of lowland, and in August is a narrow stream twist- ing in and out among the hummocks, and forming strange geometric figures on the green table of the meadow.

WEST BROOKFIELD, 22 m. (town, alt. 604, pop. 1258, sett. 1664, incorp. 1848), first section of the original Brookfield grant to be settled, was, prior to 1789, the most important section. Of the various industries that have been in the town, only one, a yeast manufactory, remains. Farming and dairying are the principal means of livelihood.

In the two-story Brick Building on Main St., Isaiah Thomas in 1798 ed- ited the first newspaper of the Brookfields. Four years later Ebenezer Merriam & Co. acquired the paper and conducted a general printing business for 60 years. The sons of Ebenezer Merriam opened a printing shop in Springfield and published Noah Webster's dictionary.

Right approaching Common on Foster Hill Rd. is a huge Boulder, from which George Whitefield preached, in 1741, to more than 5000 people.

At 0.7 m. Indian Rock is clearly visible. This natural breastwork was used by the warriors of King Philip, August 2, 3, and 4, 1675, when they directed their fire on 'one garrison house defended to the last.' The Fortified House Site is marked.

At 23.2 m. is the junction with State 19.

Left on State 19 at 0.5 m. are evergreens planted in the gravel bank of a high cut; originally they spelled in green letters: 'Keep your roadsides clean.' Besides add- ing beauty to the road, these trees prevent soil erosion.

At 1.7 m. is the junction with Washington St., part of the Old Bay Path traversed in 1759 by Lord Jeffrey Amherst with over 10,000 men on the way to join Wolfe at Quebec. General Burgoyne traveled over the same route after his surrender at Saratoga, and General Washington used it earlier on his way to Cambridge. At 0.3 m. on this road is a Franklin Milestone reading '71 miles from Boston,' and just beyond in the yard of a house is a tall elm (1750) under which Washington is said to have stopped in 1775.

At 2.5 m. on this road is WARREN (town, alt. 609, pop. 3662, sett. 1664, incorp. 1742), called Squabaug ('Red-Water Place') by the Indians. This town was incorporated as Western and renamed in 1834 in honor of General Joseph Warren, author of the 'Suffolk Resolutions' and Revolutionary hero, killed at Bunker Hill, 1775. An outpost frontier town, it was heavily garrisoned against Indian attacks.

BY ROAD, BY TRAIL, AND BY CHANNEL

IN MASSACHUSETTS, whether you tour by land or by sea, by car, by boat, or on foot, there are continually agreeable vistas and close-ups that confront you. A few such are in- cluded here: seascape and landscape, city and farm, winter and summer. The memory of such scenes as these must have heartened many a Massachusetts man when crossing the Western Plains or sailing the China Seas.

STREET IN MARBLEHEAD

BOSTON FROM THE AIR

Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. N.Y.C.

HARVARD BUILDINGS ON THE CHARLES, CAMBRIDG

WINDMILL, CAPE COD

MARBLEHEAD HARBOR

ORLEANS

LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE COD

CONNECTICUT VALLEY, NEAR NORTHAMPTON

LEXINGTON GREEN

MEMORIAL TOWER, TOP OF MT. GREYLOCK

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A story is told of a Mrs. Mark, who, frightened by lurking Indians while her hus- band was away and the garrison unmanned, put on her husband's clothes, shoul- dered a musket, and marched up and down in front of her home crying 'All's well! All's well!' at intervals till the Indians disappeared.

Warren's industrial activity, at its height in the 19th century, has declined. Nathan Read, a native of Warren, is said to have constructed and in 1789 suc- cessfully operated a steamboat. He also invented a nail machine now in general use.

Right from the village on the West Warren Rd. about 0.5 m. is a place described as the Site of the Wooden Truss Bridge Invented by William Howe of Spencer. To the south is Mark's Mountain (no direct road), a favorite hunting-ground of the Indians; a primitive stone fireplace was found here.

At 26.4 m. is the Rock House, formed by large fragments dropped from an overhanging ledge; it is frequently used by picnic parties.

At 27.5 m. as State 9 enters the Ware River Valley, is the junction (R) with State 32 (see Tour 23A), which unites briefly with State 9.

WARE, 28.8 m. (town, alt. 488, pop. 7727, sett. about 1717, incorp. 1775), was called Nenameseck ('Fishing Weir') by the Indians, a name applied also to the river, where salmon were caught. The town seal represents an Indian standing, spear in hand, above a roughly constructed weir.

The town supported Shays's Rebellion, and Captain Jacob Cummings's home here was a supply depot. At the beginning of the 19th century, sawmills and gristmills and a textile mill were opened in the Ware River Valley.

Grenville Park (amphitheater; baseball field, tennis courts, picnicking), be- tween Church St. and the Ware River, was established to preserve the rustic beauty of the area.

From the river bank is visible the upper side of the dam, the setting of the 'Legend of Nenameseck.' White Dove, an Indian girl, was betrothed to Gray Eagle; his rival, the Squirrel, ambushed him, but was himself killed in the encounter. The Council, deceived by false testimony, found Gray Eagle guilty, and bound and set him in a canoe above the falls. While the tribe watched for his destruction, White Dove leaped into the fragile craft, and together the lovers were swept over the falls to their death on the rocks below.

State 32 (see Tour 234) branches left at the western end of Ware.

WARE CENTER, 30.7 m. (alt. 481, town of Ware), was the original Center of the town. In the late 18th century it had eight taverns in which public affairs were really settled, though they were officially ratified at town meetings in the meeting house; even the formal sessions were at times adjourned to a tavern to enable the participants, fortified by cider and applejack, to continue their arguments in the taprooms.

The Meeting House, 1820, was the work of Isaac Damon. It is simple and dignified, and its interest centers in the Ionic portico and in the cupola topped by a dome and surrounded by an open balustrade.

The old Gould Tavern (18th century), two stories, with a hip roof, stands on a low bank surrounded by overhanging trees. L-shaped in plan, the

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front and east sides look much alike, each having a center door with flanking windows and a fanlight and five windows in the second story.

At 33.4 m. is the Quabbin Park Cemetery established by the Common- wealth for the bodies disinterred when the Quabbin Reservoir was built. At 34.5 m. is the junction with an improved road.

Right on this road is the dam of the Quabbin Reservoir, constructed (1937) in the Swift River Valley, inundating the towns of Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott. It has 177 miles of shore line, surrounding 39 square miles, with a maximum depth of 150 feet and a storage capacity of 415 billion gallons. The water will flow by gravity into Wachusett Reservoir, through Quabbin Aqueduct, a 24.6 mile tunnel through solid rock.

At 39.4 m. is the junction with US 202 (see Tour 13).

At 40.9 m. the road passes a group of Ponds (swimming, boating, fishing). At 42.3 m. is a beautiful path (R) along a brook to Holland Glen, a park developed by the Belchertown Historical Society.

At 48.8 m. is AMHERST (see AMHERST) (alt. 249) and the junction with State 116 (see Tour 15B).

At 50 m. is a view of the Mt. Holyoke Range and the summit-houses on Mt. Tom and Mt. Holyoke.

HADLEY, 53.3 m. (town, alt. 129, pop. 27II, sett. 1659, incorp. 1661), named for Hadley or Hadleigh, England, former home of its founders, was settled in 1659 by John Webster and the Rev. John Russell, who had left Connecticut because of religious dissension.

Hadley indulged in a bit of witch-baiting. In 1683 Mary Webster, ac- cused of bewitching and murdering Deacon Philip Smith, was 'hung till nearly dead,' taken down, and buried in the snow. In spite of this she survived, and died several years later from natural causes.

Broom corn, introduced here in 1797 by Levi Dickinson, had by 1850 become an important product.

The Hadley Farm Museum (open Wed., Sat., Sun. 2-5; adm. free), is an old barn (1782), with a large well-sweep in front of it, and a Colonial door- way with a pediment resembling the bonnet tops of highboys or secre- taries. The museum contains a large collection of farm implements that trace the evolution of farming in the Connecticut Valley; it also has early vehicles, and a number of old household articles.

-- Adjacent to the Town Hall on State 63 (Middle St.) is the First Congrega- tional Church (1808), with a Wren-type spire surmounted by a weather- cock brought from England in 1752. Over the large double door at the front is a semicircular fanlight, the whole framed by beautifully carved trim. The church has a silver communion service and cups of odd design, presented to the parish in 1724, and a pewter platter of unrecorded age. Several of the original pews are still in use.

The ancient Allen Tavern (open) on Middle St. (18th century), contains many old relics and pieces of furniture. This large white Colonial house is notable for its row of seven windows on the main façade and its gable

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end, which has two more windows and a large door. At the rear an ell connects the structure with an old-fashioned carriage house.

A stone marker north of the Center on the east side of West St. identifies the Site of the House of the Rev. John Russell. Edmund Whalley and Wil- liam Goffe, members of the High Court of Justice established by the Com- mons which condemned Charles I to death, fled to America when the monarchy was restored and Charles II issued warrants for the arrest of his father's 'murderers.' Landing in Boston in 1660 and learning that royal officers were hunting them, they hurried on to Connecticut; finding no safety there, they came in 1664 to Hadley, where they were hidden and protected by Mr. Russell for fifteen years. There is a tradition that Goffe, whose identity was not known locally, was of much service to the settlement, giving the alarm before a surprise attack by King Philip's warriors and leading the confused townsmen in a successful defense. Goffe's end is unknown, but Whalley died in the Russell house, and bones supposedly his were found in the cellar many years later. (See STOW, Tour 7.)

On West St. 0.2 m. beyond the site of the Russell house is the Porter House (1713), the oldest dwelling in Hadley, a white two-and-a-half-story house with gabled roof, large central chimney, an elaborate two-leaf Colo- nial doorway, with beautiful paneling surmounted by a highboy scroll.

A large white quartz boulder (L.) opposite the Porter house indicates the Site of the Birthplace of Major General ' Fighting Joe' Hooker, of Civil War fame, born November 3, 1814.

I. Right from Hadley on State 63 is (L) the Bishop Huntington House (apply to caretaker), 2.2 m. This house, built in 1753 and standing in a beautiful grove of elms, rock maples, and hemlocks, was for many years the summer home of Frederick Dan Huntington (1819-1904), a native of Hadley and the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. Surrounded by a split-rail fence, this large three-story gambrel-roof structure has (L) a kitchen ell, woodshed, and carriage house, in a long low line connecting it with a newer and smaller house of simple Colonial style. Beyond the house are the waters of the Connecticut and the roofs and steeples of Hatfield.

At 3.2 m. on State 63 is NORTH HADLEY (alt. 130, Town of Hadley). Opposite the church a farm road leads through fields to the Site of an Indian Fort on a bluff overlooking the banks of the Connecticut River; several Indian skeletons have been discovered here.

2. Left from Hadley on State 63 at 1.1. m. the Fort River is spanned by a concrete bridge. At 1.6 m. a farm road leads right to a bluff overlooking the Fort River, which was also the Site of an Indian Fort. At 2.4 m. State 63 enters a stretch of woodland, at the beginning of which are (R. and L.) the Remnants of a Ditch dug by the early settlers as part of the boundary of a sheep pasture, neither stones nor wood being available at that time for the building of fences. This ditch can be traced in a wide circle around the foot of Mount Holyoke, but is conspicuous at this point.

At 54.5 m. the road crosses the Connecticut River.

In NORTHAMPTON, 56.3 m. (see NORTHAMPTON) (alt. 145), is the junction with US 5 (see Tour 15) and State 10 (see Tour 15C).

Left from Northampton on State 66 at 8.2 m. is the junction with a road; right is WESTHAMPTON, 9.6 m. (town, alt. 460, pop. 405, sett. 1762, incorp. 1778).

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The western part of Northampton was set off as Westhampton in 1778. In 1765 a lead mine, partly owned by Ethan Allen, was opened, and is said to have furnished lead for Revolutionary War bullets. Natural resources led to the establishment of grist and lumber mills, and many of the attempted manufactures were connected with the natural resource of timber: chairs, boxes, potash, and firewood. A brass foundry was also in operation at one time. Today dairying, farming, and lumber- ing are the chief occupations.

The Sylvester Judd House (1816) is at the Westhampton Village. Sylvester was the first town clerk, one-time publisher of the Hampshire Gazette, and author of a 'History of Hadley.'

South of the village 0.2 m. is the Hale House (R.). Here lived the Rev. Enoch Hale (1753-1837), brother of Nathan Hale, for 57 years minister of the town. He was author of a spelling book, now a literary curiosity, written according to the then advanced ideas of adapting style and content to the understanding of the child. Later his daughters conducted a school in the house.

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Massachusetts : a guide to its places and people, Part 59

Author: Publication date: 1937 Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company Number of Pages: 802

Author:
Publication date: 1937
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company
Number of Pages: 802