USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 2 > Part 33
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successive grades, and remained with the army until the con- quest of Canada established Anglo-Saxon supremacy in North America. He then returned to Westfield, married, hung up his sword and put his hand to the plough, hoping to enjoy the peace of a farmer's life. The thrill of the slaughter at Lexington and Concord was felt by all. William Shepard hastened at once
The General Shepard Elm Franklin Street, Westfield, Mass.
to the camp at Roxbury. He was made colonel and was the com- panion of Washington in most if not in all his battles. By him he was appointed to protect the retreat from Long Island, dur- ing which his neck was pierced by a ball. He was borne from the field. While the surgeons were probing for the ball his con- sciousness returned. "Bring me a canteen," said he. Finding
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that he could drink, and that the organs of his throat were not severed, he said to the surgeon: "It is all right, doctor, stick on a plaster and tie on my cravat, for I am going out again." In spite of the remonstrance of the surgeon, and to the amazement of the attendants, out he went into the battle. This was but one of the twenty-two battles that tested his valor and proved that the commission of general was justly and wisely given him.
When the war was ended, and the impressive words of Washington had been spoken to the officers, who, through so many years, had been his companions in toil, privation and "on the perilous edge of battle," General Shepard again returned to his little estate to maintain himself and those dependent upon him by his toil in the fields. He did more. His simple style of living, his exemplary conduct, his public spirit, his Christian endeavor and his neighborly kindness furnished a model for younger men and kindled their aspirations for a noble life. Though his opportunities for intellectual culture had been re- stricted in youth, and though the routine of camp life had allowed little opportunity for adding to his general knowledge, such were his common sense, his bravery, his high character for upright- ness and intelligence, that the people were ready to trust him to perform the highest and most delicate services for the public good. He was chosen state representative, senator and coun- cillor. He was three times elected representative to congress. The governor of Massachusetts appointed him to treat with the Indians of Penobscot. The United States government appointed him to treat with the Six Nations. He served in many town of- fices and was deacon of the church for twenty-four years. He was a large, well formed man, six feet in height, compactly built, not corpulent, and weighing something more than two hundred pounds. His personal appearance was impressive. On training days, when, with others, he came out to observe the evolutions of the military companies during the closing years of his life, Mr. Bates, then a boy, says of him: "When I recall his large, im- posing figure, bedecked with his trusty sword and crimson sash, the modest insignia of his rank, accompanied by Adjutant Dewey, with the bright point of his spontoon glistening in the sun, and
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heard the whispers 'There's the general,' I remember the awe, notwithstanding his genial face, with which he inspired me."
After the reviews and evolutions were finished the soldiers were discharged. "Then came the greetings and the shaking hands with the general."
Speaking of his character, Mr. Bates adds: "The man, who for more than thirty years, was in the service of his country, in places of high emolument, the man who was esteemed by Wash- ington and was his companion in all the battles of the revolu- tion, who, being detached for that purpose, fought with Gates at the battle of Saratoga and contributed to the surrender of Bur- goyne ; the man who, notwithstanding his simple and frugal hab- its of living, in his small brown house, his constant and energetic labor, in the favorite business of his life, went to his grave a poor man !1 What a record is that to leave of him? No taint of mean- ness or dishonesty ever attached itself to him. He was distin. guished for his good character and his unbending integrity."
The rank and file of the leading men of Westfield during the Indian wars and the war of the revolution furnish many examples of worthy and valiant men. Our limits forbid the notice of more than one, though his cotemporaries were equally worthy.
"Eldad Taylor," according to the local historian, J. D. Bartlett, "the last son and child of Minister Taylor and Ruth Wyllys, his second wife, was born in 1708. He lived to be- come one of the eminent men of Westfield, both in church and state." Though not himself a clergyman, he was closely related to several, as his father was a lifelong minister, and each of his five sisters married a minister. In 1741, the year of the settle- ment of Rev. John Ballantine, Mr. Taylor became deacon, and was prominent in caring for the interests of the church. His large family, including several sons, well sustained the honor of the name in public and in private life.
Mr. Taylor's name is of frequent occurrence on the town records. He held many town offices at different times. At the
'The inventory of his real and personal estate as reported by his executors was $289, as proved by the researches of J. D. Bartlett.
27-2
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age of twenty-five he represented the town in the colonial legis- lature and many times during later years. He had a part in laying the foundations of our state government, for he, with Elisha Parks, Col. John Moseley, William Shepard and Daniel Fowler, all notable men, represented Westfield in the first "Con- tinental" legislature of Massachusetts, 1775. Mr. Taylor is al- luded to as " a member of the council," the following year. Some selections from a long letter written to his wife from Bos- ton, or the immediate vicinity, give some details of the evacua- tion of Boston by the British, which may not have been recorded elsewhere :
SUNDAY, March 18, 1776.
MY DEAR: This morning opens with much news, no doubt it will be pleasing to you and all friends to have ye most authen- tic account probable. The Ministerial Vermin left Boston yester- day morning in ye utmost confusion. This morning, I have been with Dr. Winthrop to get the best intelligence. They say that ever since our cannonading ye Sabbath before last, they, viz., ye Regulars have been upon ye move & designed to with- draw last Friday, but ye wind not favoring of ym were de- tained and left Saturday night. Our forces took possession of a small hill nearer Boston and ye shipping than ever before, on Dorchester Point [which] caused ye Regulars to fire at ym all night but without any hurt to any of our men except one a lit- tle, not much hurt by ye scattering of some gravel & we did not return one shot. In ye morning early they left in utmost haste and confusion and [are] below ye Castle and where they are destined is not known but supposed to Halifax. The tories are gone off with ye Regulars except a few. The Select- men say that ye tories were ye most dreadful against ym of any. They say that all ye sufferings of ye poor for want of pro- visions and necessaries of life, was not equal to ye insult, scorn & derision & contempt from them.
The Ministerial Butchers have robbed the Warehouses and shops of all ye best goods they could carry away and destroyed what they could in their hurry. In their hurry on pur-
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posely they scattered numbers of good blankets. It is said that in one of them was wrapped up a child that had died of Small Pox. We are more in danger in that quarter now than from the Enemie. The poor distressed captives from Boston come with a most pleasing aspect in their faces rejoicing at so great deliverance.
They say that ye tories about a fortnet ago was in high spirits encouraging ye troops that they should be soon masters of America but -- when ye orders were given to prepare to sail, they were struck with paleness & astonishment. Mortifying indeed. They, ye Selectmen, say ye town is in a most dreadful
Eldad Taylor
condition, houses torn, streets nasty, town empty. They carried away our prisoners taken at Bunker hill fight in irons, also Mas- ter Lovewell. They left some of their draft horses and about 1000 bushels of wheat. The Bells and organs are not hurt.
From as always your consort, ELDAD TAYLOR.
In the old burying ground is a tablet to Mr. Taylor's first wife, who died in 1740, in the twenty-ninth year of her age.
A second tablet bears his name and that of his second wife, to whom the letter was addressed. The inscription is :
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In memory of the HONORABLE ELDAD TAYLOR EsQ. who died in Boston the 21st of May, 1777, AEt. 69, and lies interred in the Tomb of the Hon. John Wendell Esq. ALSO MRS. THANKFUL TAYLOR his relic died Aug. 12th 1803 aged 82 years
Kind reader this stone Informs you who we are,
What we were we tell you not,
What we ought to have been that be thou,
Where we are now ye will know hereafter. REMEMBER THAT CHRIST IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
Before the town was organized the settlers provided a school for their children. After the incorporation of the town the se- lectmen annually, in town meeting, were required by vote of the town to provide a schoolmaster and to pay him a specified salary. No stress of war was deemed sufficient to excuse the town from caring for the school. The schoolmaster in the earlier days often received his pay in grain at the prices fixed by the town. Such was the scarcity of money that payments were often more promptly made in grain than in cash. The contract with the schoolmaster was a matter of sufficient importance to be at times recorded upon the town books. For instance :
"December 16, 1703. These presents testify an agreement made between the select men and Joseph Sexton in behalf of the towne of Westfield wc is as ffowlleth viz :- The said Joseph Sex- ton is hereby bound and obliged to keepe schoole from ye day of ye date hereof untill the fifteenth day of Aprill nexte ensuing all we time hee Doth Ingage to use ye best of his skill and industry
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soe far forthe as he is capassatated to teach children to read & wright wn sent to schoole during said terms.
"2nd. The Select men as aforesaid in behalf of ye towne Doth Ingage to pay to ye afore sd Sexton or to his order ye sums of ten pounds att or before ye afour sd terms shall be expired Viz. Wheat at 5s per bushell, Good white pease at 4s. 6d pr bushell, Ry at 3s. 3d. per bushell, Indian corn at 2s. 4d per bushell, barley at 3s per bushell in any or either of ye afoursd species being good and merchantable. This ye afou sd parties Doe acknowledge to be ye trew intent and meaning of ye a four'sd bargaine in every particular.
"Entered by order of the selectmen.
"Attest :
JOSEPH SEXTON, Town Clarke."
If the spelling of these early records is defective, this should be remembered : There was no fixed standard of spelling avail- able for the common people, beyond the limited lists furnished in spelling books. Johnson's dictionary was not published until after the middle of the eighteenth century. Walker's dictionary was published a score of years earlier, but its vocabulary was lim- ited and it was rarely seen in rural communities.
That Latin was taught by the town or grammar school- master is evident from the vote passed in 1724 respecting Mr. Isaac Stiles, whom the town promises to pay "fivety pounds for keeping the school one year, that is to say the three sum- mer months, he shall be obliged only for keeping the Latin school- ers. "'
Yet when there were no pupils in the school studying Latin the selectmen do not seem to have been required to obtain a col- lege graduate as teacher, but might obtain a "scolar or some other lit person."
In several towns the grammar school became at times migra- tory. There were reasons why families living on Union street and in Little river district should wish to bring the school to their neighborhoods. January 15, 1774, the town voted not to move the grammar school from place to place. It was customary to charge tuition to those attending the grammar or town school. Votes similar to the following frequently occur. December 2,
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1698, it was voted "that all boys capable to go to school, their parents or masters to pay three pence a week for readers and four pence a week for wrighters." The grammar school was in part to prepare for college. As there were no higher institutions during the first century after the incorporation of the town open to women, one reason for the attendance of girls at the grammar school was wanting. The main reason, however, for their non-attendance was that the opinion generally prevailed that it was neither needful, fitting nor wise to educate girls be- yond the ability to read and to write. The duty of educating boys was recognized. The duty of educating girls was disre- garded after they had learned to read and write.
In a vote passed April 26, 1705, the first mention of girls as pupils of the town school occurs. They are to pay the same tui- tion as boys "if they goo," but all boys from 7 to 12 are to pay "whether they go or not."
The town took no action respecting the "Dame" or primary schools for many years. These seem to have been maintained by private effort. With, or without schools, all children, in respect- able families, were taught to read, for it was deemed the duty of parents to see to it that their children were trained to read the Bible.
At the town meeting, held March 9, 1719, action was taken recognizing one other school than that taught at the center or fort side of the town. It was voted "to allow forty five shillings towards the school over Little River." In 1724 three pounds were voted "to be improved in hiring a schoolmaster there this winter season." May 13, 1725, the town voted to "give the widow Catharine Noble twenty five shillings a month for keep- ing school so long as the town sees cause to improve her in that service and if she sees cause to assent to it." This appears to be the first recognition in the town records of a female teacher.
The wood for fuel was furnished the school by the parents and guardians of the pupils. In December, 1698, the town voted that "such persons that send their children to the school shall provide a load of wood for each scholar; it is to be understood that boys from 4 to 14 are to pay." This action seems to be but
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the legal enforcement of a custom that for many years obtained in the country towns.
The objects sought by those who first settled our state made the school the necessary complement of the church. When the community came to be made up of denominations differing in re- ligious belief, as well as of those caring little for any form of faith, public schools could no longer be maintained by one de- nomination. The school was no longer the handmaid of the church. The religious motives for maintaining the public school declined. The terrible war of Philip, soon followed by French and Indian wars, prolonged with uncertain intervals through two generations, and the long and exhausting struggle for inde- pendence, diverted attention from the public schools and dimin- ished the means for their upbuilding. They were in a wretched condition at the close of the war for independence. Those inter- ested in the education of the young were obliged to provide other schools. With no little self-denial on the part of the donors, aided from time to time by legislative grants, academies were estab- lished. The centering of the interest of the friends of popular education in academies increased their number and their effi- ciency, but helped also to increase the neglect of the common schools and to postpone any generous attempt to improve them. In the dark age, as it has been called, of the common schools, ele- mentary education was persistently cherished, at the firesides of the people, however defective the public schools, until men who had learned the value of better schools by attending academies and by informing themselves of the methods of educational re- formers in Germany and elsewhere, introduced a new and pro- gressive era in the common schools of the state and the nation.
Westfield Academy was chartered June 19, 1793, though not opened for the admission of students until January, 1800. The scholarly and energetic minister of the town, Rev. Noah At- water, for three years previous to his settlement, in 1781, a tutor in Yale college, evidently had much to do with the founding of the academy. The minister in most of the settlements was the educational, no less than the religious, leader of the community. Mr. Atwater seems to have been especially earnest in caring for
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the culture of the young. At times he joined the work of teach- ing to that of the ministry, that he might help boys on toward college. The state authorities willingly granted the act of incor- poration of Westfield academy, as there was no other institution of the sort in Western Massachusetts. It was the fourth academy incorporated in Massachusetts.
That the academy might be established the town voted £600 towards its endowment. The act of incorporation named Gen- eral William Shepard and others as trustees of Westfield acad- emy, "to be and continue a body politic, by the same name, for- ever." The trustees were authorized to hold lands or other es- tate, the annual income of which should not exceed $2,000. In 1797 citizens of the town had subscribed $1,000. In response to a petition of the trustees half a township of land in the district of Maine was granted by the legislature in aid of the academy. The sale of this land and private subscriptions so increased the funds that a building was completed in 1799, at a cost of about $5,000. Hon. Samuel Fowler, agent for building the academy, in town meeting, April 13, 1803, reported the cost to be £927 10s. 8d.
On the first of January, 1800, the building was opened with appropriate dedicatory exercises. Rev. Joseph Lathrop of West Springfield preached the sermon, taking as his text Ps. 144:12. In the closing paragraph occurs this passage : "This day intro- duces a new year-the year that closes the eighteenth century from the era of your redemption. On this day we are assembled to dedicate to God and commit to his blessing this infant semi- nary, hoping that here 'our sons will be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace'-that here formed to useful knowl- edge, pious sentiments, and virtuous manners, they will bring honor to God, do service to men in their day, and transmit to another generation the pious principles and the excellent wis- dom which they here imbibe."
The sermon was followed by a brief address, and the present- ation of the keys by Hon. Samuel Fowler, president of the board of trustees. The following passage occurs in the first part of his
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address : "We have assembled this day for the delightful pur- pose of dedicating and setting apart this building for the im- portant design of education, that the rising generation may be instructed in the various branches of human and sacred erudi- tion.
"We rejoice that this happy lot has fallen to us and that we have an opportunity to impart a small portion of our property in laying the foundation of so useful an institution.
"The attention of the citizens of this commonwealth to the education of the rising generation affords a most pleasing pros-
H
The old Academy, Westfield
pect of the future support of religion, science and morality. These are the grand pillars on which this country has been raised to its present opulence and splendor and on which the principles of our most excellent frame of government must be continued and supported."
Preceptors following Peter Starr, the first preceptor, were : Henry C. Martindale, afterwards member of congress; Lyman Strong, Alfred Perry, M. D., Horatio Waldo, Saul Clark, Theo- dore North, Sylvester Selden, Francis L. Robbins, Samuel M.
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Emerson, Alfred Stearns, Charles Jenkins, Stephen Taylor, Fla- vel S. Gaylord, George W. Benedict, Elnathan Gridley, Alvan Wheeler, M. D., Parsons Cooke and Emerson Davis, who re- signed in 1836, after fourteen years' service, to become pastor of the Congregational church. The above named, with one excep- tion, were graduates of Williams college.
In his brief sketch of Westfield, printed in 1826, Preceptor Davis thus outlines the condition of the academy :
"The building was repaired in 1824. It has two school rooms on the lower floor and on the other a large hall and lecture. room. The institution is furnished with a sufficient quantity of chemical and philosophical apparatus for illustrating the gen- eral principles of those sciences. There is also a respectable col- lection of minerals for the use of the academy. Instruction is. given in the departments of natural history to those who wish. Terms continue eleven weeks-tuition is three dollars per quar- ter. During the fall, winter and spring quarters, twenty-five cents in addition is paid for fuel, sweeping, bell ringing, &c. Present number of students 110. About three thousand have been educated at this academy since its establishment, many of whom hold conspicuous stations in life, and many others are use- ful members of society. The funds of the academy are $5000."
The preceptors following Emerson Davis, between the years. 1844 and 1856, were: Ariel Parish, William W. Woodworth, Rev. Hubbard Beebe, William C. Goldthwaite, Ephraim Flint, William C. Butler and Moses Smith.
Many ushers and many ladies of superior ability and of gen- erous culture left the impress of their character and teaching upon students in attendance. Among the lady assistants, or pre- ceptresses, was Miss Emma Hart, from Connecticut, who after- ward married Dr. Willard of Troy and established the famous. Troy female seminary, one of the first schools in the country to. provide adequate higher instruction for women. Miss Philena Carpenter, preceptress for several years, added to her other ac- complishments skill in teaching needlework and painting. Pict- ures painted under her instruction were much appreciated in many homes. Another, among many others who won and who.
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deserved high esteem, was Miss A. Elizabeth Stebbins, after- wards the wife of Norman T. Leonard.
When Westfield academy was founded it was the only in- stitution of the sort in Western Massachusetts. During the fol- lowing half century rival institutions, better endowed, sprang up, and free high schools began to be established. This academy became but one of many institutions occupying territory once. exclusively her own. William G. Bates was the soul of a move- ment to prevent the decline of the institution. We quote from him :
"It became apparent to the friends of the academy, that, in its appointments, it was in a situation where a large expenditure should be, and must be, made, to prolong its usefulness. The building, though an elegant one for the time it was erected, had become dilapidated and old. It was still comfortable, and might by repairs have been made still more so; but it was 'behind the times,' in its extent and in its architectural beauty. It was there- fore determined to erect a new building as an addition-or, rath- er, to erect a new academy, and have the old building subserve the part of lecture rooms, and other similar purposes. An ad- dress was accordingly prepared and printed, addressed to the alumni and the friends of the academy. A response was made to the application, by, in some cases, very generous subscriptions. A contract was made for the building, and on the 31st of July, 1857, the corner-stone was laid, with imposing ceremonies, and an address was delivered by Mr. Bates, and original odes were. sung by a chorus of voices. The future seemed prosperous, and the donors felt that their benefactions had been judiciously ex- pended."
J. B. Holland was appointed preceptor in 1858. Circulars had been sent to the alumni to aid in securing students. The school opened with a full attendance. It was soon evident that the decline of the academy could not be permanently arrested. The rise of the Westfield and other high schools, the development of Williston seminary and other well endowed institutions within the territory once exclusively the territory of the Westfield acad- emy made it impossible without a large endowment to restore its
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pre-eminence or to continue its new life. Mr. Holland resigned in 1864. Charles F: Durfee was preceptor for a year. Mr. Geddes attempted to maintain the school another year. In 1867 the grounds and the building were sold to the town of Westfield and have since been the premises of the high school. The trus- tees added the proceeds to the fund of the academy to accumu- late until there should be suitable opportunity to use the same, in the words of the charter, in "promoting piety, religion, and morality, and for the instruction of youth in such languages, and such of the liberal arts and sciences, as the trustees shall direct."
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