USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 2 > Part 32
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As the meeting-house was too small for the population of the town, now numbering upwards of two thousand, a movement was begun to secure another. At an adjourned meeting, June,
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Emerson Davis, D. D.
THE TOWN OF WESTFIELD
1803, it was voted "to build the meeting house by sale of pews." It was also voted that the committee should "prepare a plan of a meeting house, copies of same to be distributed in the several parts of the town, that they may have opportunity to inspect the same, and which plan the said committee are to lay before the town."
After the plan was agreed upon, it was voted, December 21, 1803, that the committee should "ascertain the exact length and bigness of each stick of timber that shall be wanted in building said house, and put the same up at vendue at the lowest bidder."
January 25, 1804, it was found that seventy-five pews had been bid off, by which $6,019.50 had been pledged toward build- ing the meeting-house. The town then voted that in considera- tion "of fifteen pews and the galleries to the use of the town, they will complete, finish, and forever keep in repair the said house." This was the last town meeting-house; this, as we shall see, was at length transferred to the Congregational church and society.
October 26, 1803, the town chose a committee to make ar- rangements on the occasion of settling Mr. Isaac Knapp. He was the last town minister, though his successor during the greater part of his pastorate discharged the functions of a town minister.
Mr. Emerson Davis, a graduate of Williams college and for a time tutor in the college, after fourteen years' service in West- field academy as preceptor, became pastor of the Congrega- tional church, in 1836, as colleague of Mr. Knapp. On the thir- tieth anniversary of his settlement he preached a sermon re- viewing the history of the church and recalling some of his own experiences. On the following Friday night he died suddenly, having had almost uninterrupted health during his long life of remarkable usefulness. No later minister may ever expect to hold such paternal relations as Dr. Davis to all the residents of the town.1
1The present pastor, who has himself served twenty-three years, in his bi- centennial sermon delivered in 1879, says; "It is a remarkable fact in these days of short pastorates and unsettled supplies, that the first six pastors of this church began and ended their ministerial work here, and were laid to rest by their grateful and loving people. Their average term of service is thirty-two years."
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Third building of the town church, Westfield. Dedicated Jan. 1, 1806 It stood on the site of the present First Congregational Church
THE TOWN OF WESTFIELD
Dr. Davis was no ordinary man. He was largely endowed with common sense and was noted for his industry, his sound judgment, his manly sincerity and his devotion to his pastoral duties. The town was his parish. He was ever the thoughtful and wise counsellor both in secular and in religious affairs.
His preaching, simple, straightforward and free from un- necessary words, was always practical and instructive. No one can estimate the value of his fourteen years' service as preceptor of the academy and his thirty years service as pastor to the people of Westfield. He was by nature a leader of men. He exerted a strong influence in the earlier councils of the state board of education, of which he was a member, and in all the progressive educational movements of his time. He was a mem- ber of the school committee twenty-five years, was the god- father of the state normal school and at the time of his death was vice-president of Williams college.
In 1856 the First Congregational church had become so large that from it was formed the Second Congregational church. The present church building of this church was completed in 1861. The same year the First Congregational church completed its present building (the fourth in order of succession) on the site of the third town meeting-house. Several years later the tall and beautiful steeple of this church was plunged into the body of the church by a terrific gale ; a safer but less impressive steeple has been erected. The later pastors of the First Congre- gational church are :
Rev. Elias H. Richardson, 1867-1872.
Rev. Adoniram J. Titsworth, 1873-1878.
Rev. John H. Lockwood, 1879 to the present.
WESTFIELD REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
The parliament of Great Britain, March 7, 1774, ordered the port of Boston closed to commerce and the custom-house, courts of justice and other public offices to be removed to Salem .. Salem refused to take them from Boston. The people of Marble- head offered the merchants of Boston the free use of their wharves. Other oppressive acts of parliament followed, affect-
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ing not only Boston, but Massachusetts, and General Gage, with his soldiers, was on the ground to enforce the acts. On the first of June the port bill took full effect. The ruin of trade resulted in the ruin of fortunes and abject poverty. "All classes," says Lossing, "felt the scourge of the oppressor, but bore it with re- markable fortitude. They were conscious of being right, and everywhere tokens of the liveliest sympathy were manifested. Flour, rice, cereal grains, fuel and money were sent to the suf- fering people from the different colonies; and the city of Lon- don, in its corporate capacity, subscribed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the poor of Boston."
May 25, 1774, a town meeting was called "to see what an- swer the town will make to a letter received from the Town Clerk of Boston setting forth the sore calamities the town labors un- der." Eldad Taylor, Elisha Parks, John Phelps, Dr. Samuel Mather and John Ingersoll were chosen a committee to inquire into the state of Boston and report at a subsequent meeting. July 19 they made the following report :
"Whereas the State House of Representatives of this Prov- ince on the 17th of June last past taking into consideration the many distresses and difficulties into which the American colonies and this Province in particular, are and must be reduced by the operation of certain late acts of Parliament, did resolve to de- termine that it is highly expedient that a Committee should be appointed by the several British Colonies on this continent to consult together on the present state of the colonies and to de- liberate and determine upon Proper Measures to be by them recommended to all colonies, for the recovery and establishment of the just rights and liberties, and the restoring of that Union and Harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies ardently desired by all good men; and did, on the same day, appoint a comtee of five Gentlemen to meet said Committee on the first day of September next at the city of Philadelphia for the purposes ยท before said ;-
"Voted that we the inhabitants aforesaid in town meeting assembled, do cordially approve of the above measure taken by the said House, and would fervently pray that the Great Father
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of the Universe out of his abundant goodness, would bless their meeting, and afford them that wisdom that is profitable to direct upon measures most salutary to Extricate us from ye difficulties and distresses under which we are laboring, and that we are cheerfully ready to adopt and strictly to adhere to any practica- ble measures said Congress may recommend relative to said re- lief not inconsistent with our duty to God and allegiance to our Rightful Sovereign George the third; and in the meantime we shall encourage our own Manufactures, and discountenance un- necessary use of India Teas and British goods, and that we shall not be wanting of charity to the town of Boston and Charles- town in their Distressing Day ;- but think they ought to be re- lieved and sustained until the sense of the colonies may be had touching their conduct and shall send them that relief that their Circumstances and our abilities upon due consideration shall dic- tate and direct."
"The foregoing was voted to be accepted by the town unani- mously, and the Clerk of the Town is desired to forward it to the Chairman of the Congress at Boston, and that it may be pub- licly entered in ye Publick Prints."
July 19, 1774, the town voted unanimously and granted, to be paid out of the town treasury, forty shillings for the committee of congress.
September 19, 1774, Capt. John Moseley, Eldad Taylor and Mr. Elisha Parks were chosen delegates to a county congress to meet at Northampton.
Capt. John Moseley and Mr. Elisha Parks were chosen as representatives of the town to attend the general court, to be held October 5 at Salem. It was voted "that if the General Court doth not act constitutionally, that our Representatives, with Rep- resentatives of the Provinces, if they judge it expedient, do form themselves into a Congress unitedly to sit at Concord or any other place where they may agree, to consult the best interests and safety of the Provinces at this critical time."
At a town meeting November 14, 1774, it was "voted and ac- cepted the list of the soldiers as is returned by the Comtee, viz. Eldad Taylor, Elisha Parks, Joseph Root, Capt. John Moseley,
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Daniel Sacket, Daniel Fowler, Oliver Ingersole, Capt. Shepard appointed to make a division into two companies."
"Voted that Capt. John Moseley and Mr. Elisha Parks be desired to attend the Congress at Cambridge next or next ses- sion. "'
At a meeting called in Jan. 1775, the same two men were chosen to attend the congress at Cambridge and instructed "that our Comtee shall not consent when in ye Provincial Congress, to any acts that may be there made to take up the Government or to assume kingly authority."
At a meeting in February, 1775, "the Comtee appointed to search for Province Guns and to see what may be procured for the use of the minute-men on a sudden emergence," reported that they found in the houses of sundry persons some province arms, "with what can be hired is between 30 or 40, and a few Bagganets."
"Voted to provide necessary provision for those persons that are not able to provide for themselves & to see that all persons be immediately Equipt with Millitary accoutrements as the law of the Province requires."
"Voted that the Comtee of Correspondence be a Comtee with the select men to make the necessary Provision as Granted above."
"Voted by Great Majority That there shall or may be Raised a Company of minute men."
On the 19th of April, 1775, Major Pitcairn ordered the ad- vanced guard of the British forces, sent to Lexington to destroy the military stores there collected. Eight colonists were killed and many others wounded. "When the news of Lex- ington reached Westfield," Holland says, "seventy men at once set out for Boston, under command of Capt. Warham Parks and Lieutenants John Shepard and Richard Falley." According to Holland this is the largest number of soldiers that went at once from any town in Hampshire county, then including the three river counties. To this number we must add one officer, Lieu- tenant-Colonel William Shepard, who, with Colonel Timothy Danielson of Brimfield, commanded a regiment.
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Some who have given us an account of the men who set out from Westfield the day after the battle at Lexington say that there were seventy-six men from Westfield, others that there were fifty-three. There were probably fifty-three in the company that marched from Westfield on the 20th of April, the day after the fight at Lexington. Others were delayed a little in Westfield, it seems, and joined the advance division near Boston. The follow- ing names are accredited to the first division: Zechariah Bush, Amos Bush, Moses Bush, Lewis Charles, James Culverson, Aaron Chapman, Moses Dewey, Benjamin Dewey, James Derrick, Eliab Dewey, Jonathan Dewey, Stephen Dewey, Moses Gunn, Eli Granger, Daniel Gunn, Warham Gunn, Joseph Kellogg, David King, Agnatius Linus, Bartholomew Noble, Asa Noble, Roger Noble, James Minocks, Azariah Moseley, Asahel Owen, David Piercy, Jared Plumb, Justus Pomerory, William Robinson, David Ross, Martin Root, Jonathan Snell, John Smith, Joshua Senn, Phineas Sexton, Abner Sackett, Israel Sackett, Gideon Shepard, John Shepard, David Taylor, Nathaniel Tremain, Jedediah Tay- lor, Ruggles Winchell, William Welch, Luther White, Reuben Wharfield, Solomon Williams, Abner Ward.
A partial list of others than those named who served as sol- diers during some part of the war, we also note: William Ashley, Simeon Burke, Amos Barlow, Lieut. Bagg, Lieut. Buell, Aaron Bush, Elijah Bliss, Titus Bigelow, James Carter, John Carter, Buckley Caldwell, Noah Cobley, Aaron Dewey, Deacon Israel Dewey, John Dewey, Noah Dewey, jr., Asaph Dewey, David Dewey, Sergt. Moses Dewey, Ely Danielson, Sergt. Benjamin Dewey, Timothy Dewey, A. Eager, Isaac Ensign, Samuel Fowler, Frederic Fowler, Ebenezer Fowler, Blackleach Fowler, Luther Fowler, John Fowler, Daniel Fowler, John Frost, Capt. John Ferguson, Stephen Fowler, Bildad Fowler, jr., David Fowler, jr., Capt. Gray, Elijah Haxman, Enoch Holcomb, jr., Moses Han- chet, Jacob Halliday, Oliver Ingersoll, John Ingersoll, Capt. John Kellogg, Aaron King, jr., Peter Kitts, Silas King, Gideon J. Linsey, Seth Linsey, Jonathan Lyon, Capt. David Moseley, Sam- uel Mather, Zadoc, Edward and Samuel Martindale, Bilda Noble, Lieut. Stephen Noble, Paul Noble, Sergeant Gad Noble, Shadrack
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Noble, Aaron Phelps, Justin Pomeroy, David Province, William Palmer, Silas, Samuel and Jonathan Root, Joseph Root, jr., Datis E. Root, jr., Abner Stevenson, Simeon Stiles, William Sackett, Thomas Sparks, John Stiles, Phineas Southwell, Jona- than Sibley, Elijah Williams, Sergt. Martin Way, James Wood- bury, John Wilson, Nathan Waldron. During the first three years of the war it is estimated that more than a hundred men entered the army from Westfield.1
The town meeting, in April, a few days after the battle of Lexington, gave evidence of progress towards independence. The second article of the warrant was "to consult what measure may be best to be done to secure our privileges and whether it is ad- visable to take up government." Money was also voted to pur- chase "powder and warlike stores." As the town records are imperfect, the record of the earlier committee of "Correspond- ence and Inspection" is wanting; but the names of those chosen by the town in December, 1775, are as follows: Col. John Mose- ley, Col. Elisha Parks, Daniel Fowler, Dr. Samuel Mather, Capt. David Moseley, Lieut. John Kellogg, Lieut. Daniel Sacket, En- sign Zachariah Bush, Bohan King, Oliver Ingersoll, David Wel- ler, jr., Ensign Daniel Bragg, Lieut. Stephen Noble.
At a subsequent election of a "Committee of Correspond- ence, Inspection and Safety," August, 1776, the new men elected were Martin Root, Robert Hazard, William H. Church, William Hiscock and Oliver Weller. The following year the committee included Benjamin Saxton and Capt. John Gray.
During the winter of 1777-78, ever memorable for the patri- otic fortitude of the continental army suffering for clothing and other supplies at Valley Forge, Col. Shepard writes to his towns- men. At a meeting held March 9, 1778, it was voted to send War- ham Parks to Boston, "as an agent for the town in consequence of sundry letters from Col. Shepard & others in the continental
1J. D. Bartlett, of Westfield, who has spent much time in gathering facts for a history of the town tells me that he has evidence gathered from the state records and other sources that not less than two hundred and fifty men from Westfield entered the army during the Revolutionary war. Granting that the population of the town during this period was about 1,500, and that the males numbered 750, one-third of the males, practically all the able-bodied men of military age were at one time or another in the army.
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army,-on the cost of the town. Voted also to choose a com- mittee to remonstrate to the general court of the Nakedness of the Army, and of the Necessity of its being supplied with cloth- ing." It seems the state authorities acted promptly, considering the slow means of communication, for in April the town held a meeting and appointed a committee to provide the fifty-three shirts and fifty-three pairs of shoes and stockings, demanded for the army. The committee, according to their judgment, made requisitions upon each householder. There was not time to make the articles required. The army was suffering. The articles, we may believe, were collected and forwarded promptly. There were no stores of ready-made clothing as now. Each family, in the rural districts especially, made its own clothing.
At the May meeting, 1778, it was voted to pay thirty pounds to each soldier raised to reinforce the army. This was a bounty. At the May meeting of the next year the town, by a vote of 75 to 1. instructed their representatives to give their votes for call- ing a state convention to form a new (state) constitution or form of government.
June 29, 1779, it was "voted to raise the sum of Twelve Hundred Pounds for the encouragement of the soldiers to be raised to join the continental army forthwith, for the space of nine months." In August, Col. John Moseley was chosen a mem- ber of the convention to meet at Cambridge, September 1, to form a new (state) constitution. A committee of nine men were chosen to instruct the delegate.
At the same meeting August, 1779, appeared a hint of dis- satisfaction with the existing government, which later ripened into a threatened revolution under the name of Shays's rebellion. Then, and in the years following, the people of Westfield acted with due consideration, avoiding those ill-concerted gatherings and movements that disgraced many other sections of the state. Gen. Shepard of Westfield rendered most effective service in re- storing order to the state. It was voted at this time "that the petition of Benjamin Winchell and others for the purpose of stopping the Courts of Justice in the County be not entertained."
At the October meeting, 1779, a bounty of thirty pounds was voted for each soldier "now to be raised for the continental ser-
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vice & destined to Claversack and also their mileage at two shill- ings per mile." When the state constitution was formed, and sub- mitted to the people of the state, the town appointed a committee of eleven "to make objections," and report. At the adjourned meeting the town voted to accept the whole constitution, except- ing those articles objected to by the committee. Among the im- provements suggested by the committee were the following :
"The Senate should consist of 28 only."
"The Governor should declare himself to be of the Chris- tian and Protestant Religion."
"Justices of the Peace should be nominated by the town, and hold office for 3 years."
"No minister of the gospel should be allowed a seat in the House of Representatives."
As the war continued, the need of men at home was more se- verely felt and it was more and more difficult for Westfield to meet the requisitions for money and men. In 1780, June 16, the town voted "to give the nineteen soldiers to be raised for the con- tinental army for the term of six months three pounds per month in hard money, or Continental money equivalent, as wages, and one thousand dollars in continental money as bounty for each man and the bounty money to be paid before the marching of the men." July 5, five additional six months men were raised, to whom it was agreed to pay a like heavy bounty. As requested by the general court, the town, during the year, agreed to purchase twelve horses for the army. The town also voted to raise $44,000 to purchase beef, in accord with the order of the general court. Before the year closed they voted to raise eighteen more men. It was voted to raise 30,000 pounds to defray the expenses of the year.
January 2, 1781, it was voted to raise 130 pounds in hard money to buy beef ordered for the army by the general court. In September of this year the town resolved to give each one of the militia who should serve in Connecticut, under the com- mand of Governor Trumbull, 3 pounds per month, in hard money.
There was a public celebration in Westfield of the signing of the treaty of peace. Thirteen guns, in honor of thestates joined
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in one nation, was the morning salute. Rev. Noah Atwater, the town minister, delivered an eloquent discourse in the forenoon ; then followed the banquet, with many toasts, each followed by discharge of cannon. The fireworks of the evening closed the day.
Shays' Rebellion .- Freedom from British rule by the toils and privations of a seven years' war had been gained. New troubles arose. It was difficult in country towns to obtain money enough to pay the taxes. The settlement of debts had been de- ferred during the war. The courts were now busy in enforcing payment ; imprisonment was a penalty for non-payment.
Those who were in straitened circumstances, but who in- tended to pay their debts, keenly felt the need of delay, and would gladly have the courts stop for a time-at least until the state legislature would diminish what seemed unnecessary ex- pense in the legal processes of enforcing payments.
There was another class who wished in some way to avoid paying their debts. These had not forgotten that the colonists in freeing themselves from the government of Great Britain had freed themselves from debts due the English abroad. Why not have another revolution, set up a new government, and escape from the debts contracted under the present government ?
There was another class whose pleasure was found in ex- citement, in adventure and in change. The stirring events of the war had passed. The staid life of a New England farmer was irksome ; they preferred to be where something was "going on."
These several classes were in no sense bloodthirsty. They thought to stop the courts and compel acquiescence in their de- mands, by gathering crowds (mobs), hoping to prevail by force of numbers. Perhaps a hundred men and boys from Westfield were at one time and another with the rabble that made up the followers of Shays, yet the citizens of Westfield, as a body, as shown by the town records, were in favor of constitutional and conservative methods of adapting public measures to the ex- igencies of the times. They and some fifty other towns in Hamp- shire county, sent delegates to the Hatfield convention and after- wards instructed their representative to the general court to se-
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cure by legislative enactment, in a legitimate way, changes in the laws, that, as a result of the discussions in the convention, seemed desirable. The town in these troublous times was both considerate and conservative. The action of General Shepard, a leading citizen of the town, in resisting with his military force the mob intent upon plundering the arsenal at Springfield, was as humane as it was decisive, and quite in keeping with the hon- orable record of his unswerving patriotism.
General Shepard .- It would be fitting, if space allowed, to outline the personal history of men who have led in the pro- gressive development of Westfield, and who, by their deeds here, and elsewhere, have deserved lasting honor. The heroes of former days, whose exploits were worthy of fame, had no scribes to herald their deeds. A little fellow in one of our schools, after listening to stories and incidents of men engaged in one of our recent wars, was asked why these men went to war. He replied : "To have something written, and stories told, about them." Publicity was not a motive in earlier times and the products of the press were very limited as compared with the present. The materials for biographies of the founders of our nation are very scanty. We shall attempt to outline but two of the famous men of Westfield, making use, in the first case, of one of the sketches of William G. Bates, who, in his boyhood, had some personal knowledge of the man :
Major-General William Shepard was born December 1, 1737, and died November, 1817. The eighty years of his life included the times of all the wars with the French and Indians, beginning with King George's war and ending with the capture of Quebec and the conquest of Canada. These eighty years also included the time of the war for independence and the war of 1812. In all these wars, with the exception of the latter, Gen. Shepard was an active participant, and could his life in detail be written, as Irving wrote the life of Washington, it would be an epitome of the history of the wars. His limited common school education ended at the age of seventeen, when he entered the army at the beginning of the French and Indian war. Under Generals Aber- crombie and Amherst he was promoted from the ranks, through
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