USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > Northampton, the meadow city > Part 3
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A VIEW ON ELM STREET
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THE MEADOW CITY.
names of sixty-two men who were on duty at this time are on record. William W. Partridge was captain of this company. A regiment was formed in this county, and among its officers were Wil- liam Edwards, Lt. Col. ; Sam'l Henshaw, Adj. ; John Brown, Sergt. Maj .; Geo. Bridgman, Quartermaster, all of Northampton. Elisha Strong and Asahel Strong had command of companies in this regiment.
THE "OLD CHURCH"
While this war was in progress, and the conse- quent disturbance in all business transactions was everywhere felt, the town entered upon the expense of erecting a new meeting-house. This was the wooden building, so long conspicuous on Main street, and known far and near as the " Old Church," a fine picture of which forms the fron- tispiece to this work. The edifice cost about $20,000. About two-thirds of this sum was obtained by the sale of pews to individuals. These pews passed by will from one generation to another, were bought, sold and deeded like real estate. This ownership survived in part, not- withstanding all at- tempts by the parish to buy out the holders, till the property went up in smoke at the destruction of the building by fire in 1876. Out of this sys- tem arose the profane saying that no man in Northampton was sure of heaven unless he owned a pew in the meeting- house, possessed a few acres of meadow land and was a subscriber to the Hampshire Gazette.
"THE KIRKLAND HOMESTEAD, PLEASANT STREET
RAILROADS
The growth of the town during the present century, if less rapid than that of many others has been steady and sure. Remarkable for its conservatism, notable for its culture and the general thrift of its inhabitants, it has gone grad- ually onward till it has attained an enviable position among the cities of the commonwealth.
When the Boston and Albany railroad was projected, the conservatism of the place repelled the advances made toward its location here, and it was built elsewhere. But when the Connecti- cut River road, in later years tentatively thrust
its antennæ northward on both sides of the river, every effort was made to secure the iron highway, and fix its final location within our borders. From that time the advancement of the commu- nity has been much accelerated.
The earliest successful project for opening up communication with other sections of the country, was the canal which united the waters of Connect- icut river with those of New Haven harbor. This water way was opened in 1835, amid great rejoicings. It lingered feebly for about a dozen years, with scarce business enough in its most prosperous days to pay running expenses. A few years afterward a railroad was constructed along its right of way. But it never paid interest on the cost of construction. When that road came under the control of the New Haven, Hart- ford and Springfield corporation a northern con- nection was made. Northampton people were greatly interested in both these enterprises, and much capital was permanently invested in them. Though the original stockholders in both canal and railroad sacrificed all their hold- ings, the city is now reaping the advantage of their public spirit.
When the project came for a railroad to the eastward, from which resulted the " Central Massachusetts, " the town promptly subscribed $300,000 to promote the enterprise. Many years elapsed before the road was completed, and the town lost nearly all its investment, but there is every reason to believe that in the future, it will be worth to the city in increased facilities for business, all that has been paid toward its construction.
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION
The war of the rebellion stirred the blood of our people, and when the requisitions for soldiers were made, Northampton responded with a pat- riotism worthy of the fathers. Many of us recall the meetings held in the town hall, the patriotic speeches, and the promptness with which the citizens came forward and filled each quota. Who does not remember with enthusiasm the. record of the old Tenth regiment, whose battle
28
NORTHAMPTON,
scarred flags are now carefully guarded in Memo- rial Hall ? Three other regiments contained companies composed almost wholly of North- ampton men. In the Tenth were 62 men, in the Twenty-seventh 64, in the Thirty-seventh 87, all enlisted for three years, and in the Fifty-second, enlisted for nine months, were 80 men. In all Northampton furnished during the war 655 men, who were distributed among thirty-seven regi- ments, and in the naval service. They were in some of the bloodiest battles of war. They fought under Burnside at Roanoke, under Mcclellan before Richmond, under Hooker at Chancellors- ville, under Mead at Gettysburg, under Banks at Port Hudson, under Grant at the capture of Lee.
RESIDENCE OF REV. R. S. UNDERWOOD, CRESCENT STREET
Of the whole number of enlisted men 91 were either killed in battle or died in the service. A list of all who served as well as of those who lost their lives, may be found upon the tablets in Memorial Hall from which the above figures were obtained. Many others, sons of Northampton, residents in other places, also enlisted, but their names do not appear there. Only the soldiers who filled the quotas, assigned to Northampton, are upon that record. It is asserted by those who are familiar with the muster rolls, that not less than 100 more than the number given above born in Northampton, were in the army.
A CITY CHARTER
Town action was first taken on the question of a city charter at the annual meeting held in March, 1882. After a full debate, the town de- cided to petition the legislature for such a charter, by a vote of 776 in favor to 325 in opposition. A committee was appointed to act with the select- men in preparing the document and presenting
it to the legislature. At its next session, in 1883, that body granted a charter which was accepted by the town in September, by a majority of 239 votes. The first city election was held in Decem- ber, when Benj. E. Cook, Jr., was chosen Mayor by a majority of 37 votes. E. I. Clapp was elected Clerk, and Hiram Day, Treasurer.
CONNECTICUT RIVER BRIDGE
A ferry across Connecticut river was established when Hadley was settled in 1661, at the upper end of Bridge street. The terminus in Hadley was at the southern extremity of Front street, and the landing place on this side was in the meadows, at a point in "Old Rainbow." In after years an- other ferry was established in the vicinity of the present bridge, and was continued in that location till the beginning of the present century. The lower crossing, known as "Goodman's ferry," was the main thoroughfare, and the stage route. Most of the travel from Springfield came up on the east side, and crossed at Goodman's ferry. In 1803, a company was incorporated to build a bridge across the river, but it was not erected till 1808. Its completion was duly celebrated by a procession, military and civic, a sermon in the meeting-house, and collation in the tavern. This was an open bridge and was in use nine years. The new one which replaced it was carried away by a freshet and a covered bridge, familiar to many now living, was built in 1826. This struc- ure was partly demolished by high water at different times, and was finally wrecked by a hurricane in 1877. It was lifted from the piers and landed in the river. Although eleven teams and sixteen persons were on it at the time, having sought refuge there from the storm, only one was killed and three injured. The next year the present iron bridge was built. Toll was exacted from all passers till 1875, when the bridge was made free, by the purchase of the rights of the bridge com- pany by the towns of North- ampton, Had- ley, Amherst, and the county of Hampshire. The bridge is 1,218 feet long and cost com- plete, $27,578.
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THE MEADOW CITY.
JONATHAN EDWARDS
Rev. Jonathan Edwards, third minister at Northampton, was born in East Windsor, Ct., Oct. 5, 1703. His father, Rev. Tim- othy Edwards, was for sixty-four years, pastor of the Con- gregational church in that town. He married Esther, daughter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard. Jonathan Edwards was the fifth of eleven children, and an only son. Each of his sisters it is said, was six feet
THE HOMESTEAD OF JONATHAN EDWARDS, KING STREET
tall, hence the statement of an eminent divine, who married one of them, that he was allied to a family in which were " sixty feet of daughters." At the age of six years, he commenced the study of Latin, under the tutorship of his father and sisters, and entered Yale college when in his thirteenth year. Four years later he graduated with the 2 first honors of his class. Two years more were given to the study of theol- ogy at New Haven, and in 1722 he was licensed to preach, at the age of nine- teen. The same year he was selected to preach to a small Presbyterian church in New York city. Finding the parish too poor. to support a minister, he returned to East Windsor in April, 1723. The remainder of that year he spent in close study. During his preparatory studies for the ministry, his short pastorate at New York, and subse- quent residence at home, he formed a series of resolutions, seventy in number, for the government of his own heart
THE TWO EDWARDS ELMS
PFIGHY
IN THE CEMETERY
THE PRESENT EDWARDS ELM
30
NORTHAMPTON,
FIRST CHURCH PARSONAGE
and life. These were all written before he was twenty years of age, and ever afterward he made it a point to read them over once every day. In September, 1723, he received the degree of Master of Arts, and was at the same time chosen a tutor in Yale college. There being no immediate vaeaney in the tutorship, he passed the ensuing winter and spring at New Haven, in dili- gent study. About this time he received invitations from several congregations to settle in the ministry, but declined them all. In June, 1724, Mr. Ed- wards commeneed his duties at the college, which he discharged with great benefit to that institution for about two years. Rev. Solomon Stoddard was then in his eighty-third year, and had become so infirm as to require an assistant. In 1726, the town invited Mr. Edwards to settle here as col- league with his grandfather. He accepted, and in the following February, in his twenty- fourth year, he was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry, and installed as colleague pastor of the First church in this town.
He entered upon the duties of his pastorate with such seriousness and diligence, that in a short time lic won the esteem and regard of his
people. At this time, ordinarily when in health, he spent thirteen hours daily in his study. A favorite diversion was riding on horseback. His practice was to ride some three or four miles to a lonely grove, where he would dismount and walk about. Generally he carried writing materials, with which to note down any thoughts that were suggested to his mind. In winter his daily exer- cise consisted in chopping wood for half an hour or more.
Mr. Edwards was married, July 28, 1727, to Miss Sarah, daughter of Rev. James Pierrpont, pastor of the church in New Haven. Mrs. Edwards was a most remarkable woman. Well educated, with an intelleet of more than ordinary brillianey, fervent in piety, possessing an uneom- mon share of prudence, dignity and polish, she
VIEW FROM ELIZABETH ROCK
adorned the position in which she was placed by her union with Mr. Edwards. Such was her firm- ness and energy of purpose, that soon after her marriage she took upon herself the whole manage- ment of the farm as well as the more domestie. duties of the family. It is related that upon one occasion her husband accosted her thus : " Is it not time, my dear, that the hay was made ?" To which she replied that the hay had been in the barn two weeks already !
Mr. Stoddard, his venerable colleague, died in February, 1729, and the whole care of the larg e
·
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THE MEADOW CITY.
CONNECTICUT RIVER BRIDGE
to be under conviction of sin. There was scarcely a single person in the town, old or young, that was left unconcerned about the great things of the eternal world." During this excitement, at differ- ent communion seasons, there were at one time, one hundred persons who presented themselves for admission to the church, at another eighty, and sixty at still another. In six months the number of hopeful conversions was more than three hun- dred. Mr. Edwards co-operated with Whitefield in his wonderful work. It was about this time that he became acquainted with David Brainerd, the mis- sionary, assisted him with his counsel, ministered to his necessities and finally closed his eyes in death
congregation devolved upon the youthful pastor. His ministrations were attended with the most wonder- ful results. There were many seasons of religious revival. Especially in the years from 1733 to 1735, it was so extensive and powerful as to con- stitute a memorable era in the history of the church. At the request of eminent English divines, Mr. Ed- wards, a few years after, prepared an account of the work of grace here, which was published in England, and in 1738, re-issued in Boston, in con- nection with five discourses preached during the revival. In this work he states, that during the summer of 1735, "the entire population seemed
TITAN'S PIER, CONNECTICUT RIVER
FROM TITAN'S PIER, LOOKING WEST
under his own roof. He afterward published an extended memoir of that devoted man.
Of the bitter controversy which resulted in his dismissal, little can be said here. The facts are too well known to need repetition. The first seeds of dissension were sown in 1744, when an ineffectual attempt was made to discipline some of the younger members of the church for reading and disseminating licentious books. It has been suggested that " possibly they preferred . Pamela,' which had then just revealed a new source of amusement to the world, to awakening sermons." The failure of this attempt at once stirred up a
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NORTHAMPTON,
feeling of hatred and animosity that finally drove the minister from his pulpit. This unfortunate affair was soon fol- lowed by another unhappy difference, which greatly widened the breach. Mr. Stoddard, during his pastorate upheld the doctrine that the Lord's Supper was designed to be a con- verting ordinance, and that genuine piety was not neces- sary in order to become a communi- cant. For a time Mr. Edwards acqui- esced in this belief, but at last came out in opposition to it, and refused longer to carry it out. In 1749 he published a book setting forth his views. This raised the flame against him and the contest was heated and unrelenting to a wonderful degree. People refused to read his book, the church would not allow him to touch upon the subject in his own pulpit and declined to attend the lectures in which he defended his position. Finally in June, 1750, a mutual council was called, which decided by a majority of one vote to dissolve the pastoral rela- tion, if desired by his people ; and they voted that they did desire it by a vote of two hundred to twenty. One of his most bitter opponents was Maj. Joseph Hawley.
Every pine and fir and hemlock wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm tree was ridged inch deep with pearl. Lowell.
After his dismissal, Mr. Ed- wards was occasionally invited to preach, as he says, "when no one else could be obtained." His biographers assert that at last the town voted that he should not be employed to preach at all, but no such vote can be found upon the town records.
In December, 1750, he re- ceived proposals from a church in Stockbridge, and at the same time the London Missionary Society offered to employ him as a missionary among the Housatonic Indians. Both these positions he accepted and removed to Stockbridge in the following year. In May, 1751, a council was called in North- ampton to take into considera- tion the formation of a new church here, with Mr. Edwards at its head. The council, in accordance with the views of Mr. Edwards, decided against the establishment of another church, and advised that he should leave Northampton.
In September, 1757, he was chosen president of the College
PARADISE LAKE IN WINTER
33
THE MEADOW CITY.
of New Jersey, at Princeton, and in the following January, left Stockbridge. The former president of the college, Rev. Aaron Burr, married Esther, third daughter of Mr. Edwards in 1752. He remained at its head for ten years, but died very suddenly in the autumn of 1757, two days before commencement. The trustees then made choice of Mr. Edwards to fill the vacancy, and he was inaug- urated in Febru- ary, 1758. Small pox was prevalent at this time in Princeton, and Mr. Edwards and his daughter were inoculated. The result was favor- able and it was thought that all danger was over, when a secondary fever intervened, and he died in March, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, just five weeks after his introduction into office. Mrs. Edwards died in the following Octo- ber, at Philadelphia.
Mr. Edwards was a little more than six feet in stature, and his countenance was strongly marked with benignity and intelligence. His voice in public speaking, was feeble and he made use of but few gestures, looking intently forward when not reading from his manuscript. In the old meeting-house the bell rope hung down in the centre of the broad aisle. It was said of Mr. Edwards by some of his irreverent parishioners, that " he looked at the bell rope till he looked it off."
The preaching of Mr. Edwards and the reviv- alists of his time was largely emotional. The men of that day were seldom accused of suffering from weakened nerves. Nervous prostration was not among the ills for which physicians then prescribed. Still during seasons of revival, when the outpouring of the spirit was most remarkable, the hearers of Mr. Edwards were often wrought into ecstacies. There were tears, outcries, fallings, shoutings, faintings, trances, convulsions, such as follow the impassioned
ELM STREET STODDARD HOUSE
harangues of religious enthusiasts in all ages. Disturbances of this nature became so frequent that on several occasions meetings were com- pletely broken up by them. It was not the eloquence of the preacher, for he was not an eloquent man, that caused these manifestations. Given the postulate that the wicked are to be eternally pun- ished, his pitiless logic left no pos- sible mode of escape, no avenue of mercy, as he pictured in scath- ing words the constant, unre- lenting, unending torments that awaited every un- repentant sinner. He so worked upon the fears of his audiences that they were beside themselves with horror. It has been said of that time that "no sermons please but such as heat the passions or scare or frighten " the hearers. No wonder there were convulsions and faintings, outcries and shoutings. One cannot now read, without a shudder, those sermons which picture the torture of the wicked, the horrors of hell, or the insatiable vengeance of an angry God. It was the terrible earnestness of the preacher, the strong appeal working upon the passions, that so wrought upon his listeners. While his voice was heard and his logic clove the brain, frenzy pre- vailed. When the sermon was ended, passion subsided, and finally burning itself out, left the hearer, though in the meantime he had become a church member, little better than before. The results of those scenes of revival were quick and responsive, the lasting benefits few and unnoted. Witness the speedy and bitter vindictiveness against the minister that followed those heated and boisterous responses to his fervid appeals, when a few years after, among the hundreds of persons who joined the church before their frenzy had quite subsided, only twenty could be found to vote in favor of retaining him in his pulpit.
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NORTHAMPTON,
That Jonathan Edwards was a man as yet without a superior among theologians of the western hemi- sphere, cannot be gainsaid. That he was not fairly treated by his people is generally conceded. That his memory is still revered in the old town where most of his life was spent, and that it will be still more widely recognized as years go on is apparent to every one. In the distant future, not the slight- est honor Northampton can claim will be that here was once the home of Jonathan Edwards, theologian divine, missionary, president.
The homestead owned and occupied by Mr. Edwards was situated on King street and com- prised that now owned by the heirs of the late J.
1
RESIDENCE J WHITTELSEY.
ELM STREET
D. Whitney. The homestead, con- taining three acres, was purchased of Jonathan Sheldon, of Sheffield in 1727, for £330, deeded to Mr. Ed- wards, and paid for by the town treasurer. Its owner sold it in 1753, to John Pomeroy. Mr. Ed- wards planted with his own hands, two elm trees in front of his house. One of them is still standing, though it shows signs of age. Its companion was blown down by a high wind in 1885. The date of their planting is not known. As it is 144 years since Mr. Edwards was dismissed, it is probable that the tree still remaining is not much less than 160 years old.
The most famous writings of Mr.
RESIDENCE J. L. MATHEK, ELM STREET
Edwards were prepared after his removal from Northampton. His important treatise on the "Freedom of the Will" was published while in Stockbridge. Among other works, was a " Dissertation on God's last end in the creation of the world," and another on "the nature of True Virtue," published in 1755. His next great work, the treatise on "Original Sin," was issued in 1757. Up to 1796, thirty volumes and tracts of his writing had been pub- lished, and since that time numerous editions of them have been reprinted.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
35
THE MEADOW CITY.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY SCENERY
The Creative Hand that wrought the frame and carved the features of that division of the Connecticut river valley belonging within the bounds of Massachusetts began its mystic work
CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY FROM MT. HOLYOKE
long before there were human eyes to see or a science to interpret it. Across the broad mead- ows, less than twenty miles above Springfield, lies Mt. Holyoke, a sharp acclivity, wooded for the most part on both its uneven sides, eleven hundred feet in height, above the level of Long Island sound. Volcanic in its origin as its basaltic pillars and other geologic marks show, it was cast up by fires cooled so many ages ago that the parallel grooves cut, in a period incalculably later, on the top, from northwest to southeast, by the grating drift of the glacial epoch, are still to be seen under the gathered mould and pulverized stone, along the whole range. Mt. Tom, losing itself in lessening elevations toward the southwest, beyond Easthampton, must have been only a continuation of Holyoke, till, by some wrench or flood, the river forced its passage between the two, tumbling down the " Falls," southward to Saybrook and the ocean. Joined as they once were, they evidently formed the south bank of a lake, covering these rich alluvial fields where live now the thrifty populations of a dozen
towns, and where great elms lift their domes of green every summer and swing their strong, bare arms in winter. Tobey, Sugar Loaf and Deer- field mountains made the corresponding north- ern wall ten miles away. The Pelham and Williamsburg hills, fifteen miles apart, conform- ing to the general hill system of our New England Palestine, held the rounded loch in its bed. Mt. Warner may have been an island in the centre, its summit-rock still offering a view than which the lover of natural order and beauty can hardly find one more perfect, in symmetry and variety, anywhere between Passamaquoddy Bay and Lake Ontario. Less lofty than the White Mountains of New Hampshire or the Catskills of the Hudson these heights have more friendly faces. Less abrupt and bold than the Palisades, they are more exquisitely moulded and fin- ished. Less jagged and rocky than the ledges of Mt. Desert or the Saguenay they are clad in a softer and more diversified forest-verdure. Looking along the Holyoke horizon an artist would be puzzled to draw a line of such length, with such slight total variation, yet with the diversity of slope, pitch, angle and curve so surprising and so satisfying, as is here set before generation after generation by the Master Builder who built a thousand centuries before His family came, laying "The beams of His chambers in the waters."
Certainly no water-course in the Mother Country, in England or Scotland or Ireland, can be compared with the Connecticut in. breadth,
MT, HOLYOKE FROM HOSPITAL HILL
36
NORTHAMPTON,
purity, the graceful windings of its current, School, by its high-bred, old-fashioned education and salubrious air, under Cogswell and Bancroft and Pierce and Roelker, and its Law School under Mills and Ashmun, drew students from southern plantations and northern capitals, and associated its reputation with that of brilliant authors in the literature of the Nation. Smith College now joins its celebrity with that of the seats of learning at Amherst, South Hadley, and Easthampton. the meadows it moistens, or the fringes of willows and grapevines and clematis and morning-glory on its shores. Gliding out from between Tobey and Sugar Loaf at Sunderland, and disappearing below Titan's Pier and the Ox-bow at Hockanum, its course is a succession of gentle or sweeping bends,-the largest of these a circuit of five miles around the Hadley " Honey-pot," the string of the bow being the The materials for the present publication are therefore suitable to the artistic skill and cost expended -upon it. Into the river, widening as it runs, are poured from uplands on either side brooks and larger tribu- taries, named and nameless, bab- bling over pebbly or grassy beds, through shadowy glens, or shining in open and sunny pastures. Enter- prise, traffic, fac- THE OX-BOW BEFORE 1840 enriching and enlivening the people, have not spoilt the landscapes or robbed the recesses, roads, foot-paths and bridle paths of their wide West street with its four rows of elms, little less than a mile long, unmatched on the continent. When they were planted they began to shade the colonial parsonage of Pas- tor Russell where the exiled Regi- cides, Goff and Whaley, were hidden, opposite the old stockade that, with the con- tinental troops quartered there, protected the farmers in the . tory wheels, steam whistles, busy industries, protracted and bloody border-wars with the Indians, jealous as they were for their rights in their maize-fields and fishing-grounds. Presi- dent Dwight, of Yale college, whose enthusiastic description of the region may be found in his Travels and Journal, poetically attributed the slackening and lingering of the stream at this particular point to its reluctance to lose sight of the beau- ties of Northampton. Beauties there unquestionably were of more kinds than one. Midway between Brattleboro on the north, and Hart- ford on the south, it has from an early time been famous beyond any rural community in the State for its natural attractions, social refinement, literary culture, fair women and accomplished men. A list of its chief families would contain names THE OX-BOW BETWEEN 1840 AND 1845 distinguished for many kinds of eminence in the country at large. Its celebrated Round Hill
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