USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Picturesque Hampden : 1500 illustrations > Part 2
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THE CREST OF THE DAM.
been to save the expense of a team, his own explanation being that hitching up and caring for the creature was too much trouble. On a warm summer's day you might often see him on his way to North- ampton, with his coat over his arm, barefoot, and his shoes and stockings carried in his hand. Having made this saving of leather, he could, with a clear conscience, put his shoes on again when he approached the town. His shoes were always of stout cowhide, and he did not black them, for that made them stiff, but used grease instead. He wore a black slouch hat, which was only replaced at long intervals by a new one. A collar he never wore in his life, but his white cotton shirt had a turn-over fold at the top. His clothes, though cheap, were always clean and well mended. The farm- house was neatly kept, and there was always plenty of wholesome food on the table. Mr. Street was fond of playing checkers and the old-fashioned game of cards called "loo." In this the opponents were in the habit of risking a cent or two " just to make it interest- ing." Down to the last year of his life, he liked to drop in at some old friend's of an evening and engage in one of these games. His acquaintances sometimes chaffed him on his econ- omy, and hint- ed he might as well spend his money as to
THE DAM BEFORE THE APRON WAS ADDED.
keep it accumulating till his death for others to spend. His reply was that, " If people take as much comfort in spending it as I do in saving it, they will get a good deal, and I don't grudge it to them."
Among the other craft on the river was the "Bill Hall," a flat-bottomed, stern-wheel steamboat,
THE MOUNT TOM RANGE FROM PROSPECT PARK.
MOUNT TOM.
Like a giant he lies- With the swift flying rack
Of the storm at his back.
Let the hurricane shake him !
Let the thunderbolt wake him !
Let him stretch his huge limbs and arise
Till his head meet the skies.
Does he dream in his sleep
Where deep calls to deep, Where the whistle resounds through the air ?
Does he dream that the braves.
So long in their graves,
Are on the warpath ? Does he dare
Our civilization-
The great Yankee nation ?
I know not-and you do not care.
ARTHUR MITCHELL.
MT. TOM FROM THE FIRST LEVEL CANAL.
10
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
eighty or one hundred feet long, used in towing boats up from Hartford. The " Bill Hall " had John Mulligan, now president of the Connecticut River Railroad, for its engineer and captain. After a service of fifteen or twenty years the railroad was built, and the boat's usefulness was then practically ended.
Some distance below the present iron bridge, was a ferry. In former times the boat had been poled across the stream, but latterly a stone wharf had been built in mid-river, a little above the ferry, and a tall pole erected on it. From the top of this was strung a long wire, to which the boat was attached, and, by adjusting the boat diagonally to the current, the swift water carried it across. The whari yet holds its stand in mid-stream, a little below the new bridge. For years its tall sentinel pole stood stiffly erect on the little island, but like all things prominent and unprotected this was a temptation to the boys, who built
11
THE CITY HALL.
fires about its base and brought it down. There is still a charred stub left, and in its company a sturdy little elm has started to grow. If ice jams and boys will spare this, it will make a very pretty feature out there in the stream some day. In the early days the boat only carried an occa- sional team, but later, by reason of Holyoke's rapid growth, it became one of the busiest ferries on the river, and this ferry-right in its last years-was one of the most valuable pieces of property in the whole region. For the few last seasons before the bridge was built, lines of teams would be waiting on either side to cross a good deal of the time. The boat ran all winter, as the current was swift enough here to pre- vent freezing ordinarily. On the rare occasions when ice did form, the river could be crossed down stream a few miles, or, after the dam was built, it was always good crossing at such times on the
LOOKING TOWARDS THE CITY HALL FROM HAMPDEN PARK.
ice above it. Connected with the ferry is the following bit of romance :- A young man from Chicopee, who was in the habit of calling on a South Hadley Falls young woman, found it con- venient to cross here frequently. But one evening, having received a negative answer to a certain important question, he came down to the ferry and sat on the edge of the boat, looking quite dejected. Then of a sudden there was a splash, and the startled ferrymen noted the unfortunate young man had gone over backwards into the water. They made haste to fish him out, and he being half drowned, the question was what to do with him. Now the ferrymen knew at which house it was his habit to call, but did not know the circumstances of his last leaving it. They therefore bore their unconscious charge thither. Between the tragic facts of the case, the neigh- bors and the doctor who came to assist, there was great excitement. The sequel is of the kind one finds in novels more often than in real life. The man lay there in the house sick for some time, his mother came to nurse him, and, last but not least, the young lady in the case repented her former decision and changed it to a "yes."
At the landing on the Holyoke side was a little ferry shanty, and just above it a " shad-house." The latter was owned by the fish company, and in it they stored their net, boat, oars, etc. In one corner was a rude bar and a long, cast-iron wood stove. Here Chester W. Chapin presided for some years during the fishing season, selling flip and cheap cigars to such of the crowds which resorted thither as felt the need of refreshment. Mr. Chapin was then a tall, slim, smooth-faced young man, quick, good natured and energetic. He employed his winters in teaching school, and in the spring invested in a puncheon of rum and made his headquarters at the Holyoke fish house. A little later he engaged in driving one of the valley stages, and presently became one of the owners of the route. Af- terward he was interested in the river passenger business below Springfield, and in his last years was one of the New England Railroad magnates. When he died he was the richest man in western Mas- sachusetts.
USTES
CO
003
THE BUSINESS CENTER.
The shad fishery here was a mine of wealth in Holyoke's village days, and he was a lucky man who owned a share in it. Some evening late in the winter, the members of the fish company would meet at Crafts' tavern to organize for the coming year. There would fifteen or twenty men come together, and, having ordered a pitcher of flip, they proceeded to discuss busi- ness. The company drank several pitchers of this flip before it got through, a quan- tity which, if of modern liquor, would have been sure to produce serious results. But no one got drunk. The company became mellow and happy as the evening wore away, but still all could walk
11
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
home straight. Flip was made in a large, brown stone pitcher. A dozen eggs and a pound of sugar were beaten to- gether, a pint to a quart of "old Santa Cruz rum " was added, and then such amount of water as was deemed to the company's taste. Meanwhile the flip iron had been heating among the coals of the wide fireplace. It was pulled red hot from the fire, wiped, and plunged into the liquor, which, when it was sufficiently heated, was served steaming hot. The pitcher was passed about on a platter. There were no accompanying glasses, and each man drank from the pitcher. After it had gone the rounds, it was set on the shelf by the fire to keep warm. The busi- ness of the evening was to select a cap- tain, a head seine man and a shore seine man, and a committee was appointed to calk the boat, to see to the net and mend it if need be, or perhaps to buy a new one.
As soon as the ice had gone out and the water began to catch the heat of the returning sun, the shad commenced to run. At sunrise some May morning the fish company gathered, the boat was slid into the river, and the fishing season had opened. There was no favorable fishing place along the shore on the Holyoke bank, and therefore a little island had been built somewhat out in the stream. The boat was poled up along the shore of this island to its upper end, where the " shore seine man " took his stand with one end of the net, while the head seine man com- menced paying out the net piled in the bow of the boat as the craft swung out into the stream. The captain stood at the stern steering and giving orders as his men poled across the current, and allowed the boat presently to drop down stream, and finally brought it up at the foot of the island, having described a long loop in his course. Now all was ex- citement and hurry. The shore seine man had already brought his end of the net to the lower extremity of the island ; out leaped the head seine man with the other end, and into the water went the whole crew to pull in the net and to hold down its lower edge to prevent the shad from darting beneath it. Two hundred was considered a big catch for a single haul in those days, but tradition handed down from days still more remote tells of taking in a single haul as many as two thousand. The shad when taken from the net were thrown into some big baskets, and these from time to time were conveyed to the shore, where they were dumped into a broad, shallow box and
exposed for sale. The farm- ers and peddlers would come from twenty miles around to purchase shad, and many families salted down a barrel or two for use in summer. Prices ranged from ten to twenty cents apiece, and a generation earlier shad had sold for six or eight cents. A salmon weighing five or six pounds was occasionally taken from the net, but this was rare. The shad them- selves were handsome fish, weighing from three to six pounds, and were esteemed better eating than any steak, turkey or chicken. Prices of shad were quoted in the papers, and it was a common question along the road, " What's shad worth to-day?" A man could take a load up through Northampton, Wil- liamsburg, Goshen, Conway and Ashfield, and make eight or ten dollars in a day. Single families would often buy a dozen or two of them. At a
WINTER PICTURE - HAMPDEN PARK.
convenient spot on the island the fish company kept a jug of Santa Cruz rum, which the members visited with more or less regularity. It is supposed that they drank just "enough to keep the wet out," as no one was ever known to get drunk. Fishing began at sunrise and it lasted till sunset, when the boat was brought to shore, the net reeled up, and the men were ready to scatter to their homes. First, however. receipts from the day's sales and the fish left over were divided. To do this last, the follow- ing plan was adopted to secure perfect fairness. First the fish were laid into as many piles as there were men, an equal number in each. Then the captain called forth one of the men, who turned his back upon the pile of fish, and as the captain pointed to each pile in turn he put to him this question, "Who shall have these?" And the man thereupon gave the name of some member of the company. Thus the piles were disposed of ; each man took his share and was presently jogging home- ward. There he sold some of them to the neighbors and the rest he salted down.
The fishing season lasted somewhat over a month. Then the boat was drawn out of the water, and the net, after a few days' drying, was stowed away in the fish house. At some time in summer, when the water was low, a rope was dragged along the bottom of the fishing ground and the snags and rocks cleared out.
At night the shad dropped back from the falls to the quieter water below, and at Jed Day's landing another company was ready to attack them. This company fished nights altogether.
THE STORY OF THE DAM.
In 1847, George C. Ewing, a salesman for the Fairbanks Scale Company of St. . Johnsbury, Vt., and who in his journeyings up and down the valley had acquired con- siderable familiarity with the region, became impressed with the idea that at the South Hadley falls was one of the largest available water powers in the country, going to waste. He interested his employers in the scheme of building a dam here, and shortly had bought up 1,100 acres of land on the present site of Holyoke. The total number of acres was afterwards increased to 1,500. Large prices were paid for the land, if viewed from a farming standpoint, which had previously been the land's only claim to worth ; but from a manufacturing standpoint the prices were extremely moderate. Five thousand dollars, at the time the dam was completed, would have bought fifty acres right in the best part of the present city. Most of the farmers were ready enough to sell at the prices offered, and the only one with whom any trouble was had was Sam Ely, who had an eighty-acre farm on the river-side, some distance below the proposed dam. Half he sold, but the rest he clung to. He was an old- fashioned farmer, who had an antipathy to innovations, and he wished to keep the old homestead on which he had - been brought up and where he had always lived. Be- sides, he said he didn't want to see the corporations con- trol everything, and he was sorry they had come there. "He didn't s'pose he could raise nothing now ; it'd all be stolen." But the company wanted the land, and they kept after him. "Uncle'
THE CITY HALL FROM DWIGHT STREET.
12
PICTURESQUE
HAMPDEN STREET, NEAR THE PARK.
John]¿Chase?was their emissary in this" matter. Finally Sam got sick of the harassing and one day, seeing Uncle Chase approaching on his usual errand, he raised his chamber window and poked the muzzle of his old gun over the sash, and warned Uncle Chase to come no nearer or he would shoot. Uncle Chase thought this an idle threat and kept right on, and Ely pulled the trigger. The musket was heavily loaded and the discharge was quite startling. The visitor was not hurt, but he was well scared, and made haste to retreat. This event was the sensation of the town for some time. There was talk of arresting Ely; but this was not considered politic, as anything to dis- turb him would but put off the day of securing the land. The wisdom of this course was proved, when a little later the desired transfer was made.
Meanwhile the Fairbanks had sold out to a Boston company, and work on the dam at once commenced. This project of constructing a dam on the Great rapids - which should withstand the powerful current of the Connecticut river and afford motive power for a new city of mills and shops - was so gigan- tic, and the capital to be invested was so large for those days, that the under- taking was famous from its inception, and still ranks among the foremost manufacturing enterprises of the world. When the dam was completed and a day was set for testing it, crowds of people came from all the country about to observe this new marvel, and, I sup- pose, to "see how it would work." It
HAMPDEN.
had much the appearance of the rude horse-sheds we see behind the country churches, being a hollow framework of timbers, with a roof slanting up stream. There were those who scoffed at the new structure, and one man drew a line on it with a bit of chalk and maintained that when the water rose to that point the whole thing would give way. Others affirmed that it was as stable as the rock itself beneath, and one excited citizen declared that "God Almighty couldn't sweep it away." The gates were closed in the morning, and many people, as the waters slowly rose, walked back and forth on the top of the dam or jumped about on the dry rocks of the river-bed below. But in the
LOOKING DOWN MAPLE STREET, FROM DWIGHT.
afternoon the dam sprung aleak, and the people were warned back to the banks. Then it was seen that the great stone bulkhead at the west side showed signs of weakening. It was evidently going to tip over. In case it did, the vast body of water collecting above would sweep through the village below and destroy everything in its path. Quantities of railroad iron were brought and piled upon the bulkhead in great haste; but while this work was going on there was a crack in mid-stream, and the whole dam, save a little at each shore, was seen tipping over and crumbling before the pent-up waters of the river. A mighty wave rushed and roared over the ragged rocks of the river bed, and spent itself far below on the South Hadley shore. The water was full of broken timbers, tossing about in the surging torrent, and these seemed to the eyes of the excited crowds on shore to be struggling human beings. It was a terrible sight. Every house in the village, on the Holyoke banks, was emptied of its occupants, and for the moment each who had
THE CITY HALL, VIEWED ACROSS HAMPDEN PARK.
DWIGHT, STREET, NEAR HIGIL.
ST. JEROME'S CATHOLIC CHURCH.
13
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
friends or relatives among the laborers were sure they were lost. Women wrung their hands, and wept and shrieked. "Mikey 's gone, Mikey 's gone ! " one would cry. "Oh, I shall never see John any more!" sobbed another, while the ex- clamation of still another is remembered to have run in this wise: "Oh, my husband is in there! He's in there - and me with my seven children - what am I going to do?" The stream seemed full of men, and everybody thought they had some friend buried there. But the waters gradually subsided, and friends were found all safe and peace was restored. The flow of water from above having been stopped by the closing of the gates in the morning, the water had pretty much run out from the channel below, leaving the river very shallow and slow ; so when, toward evening, a sudden, muddy flood, filled with timbers and debris, came sweeping down from the north, the towns and villages along the stream were filled with alarm and curiosity, and each farmer made haste to hitch his
ERY AND FEED STABLE.
BS. BOARDING.
AT THE HAMPDEN PARK; WATERING TROUGH.
horse into his wagon and to take the up-valley road to examine into the cause. A telegram was sent to Springfield, informing them there was a "big freshet coming," and the railroad did a heavy business that evening bringing up the sightseers.
This disaster was a hard blow to the hopes of the company which built the dam, but they at once went to work on a new one. If the first attempt had not brought success, it had at least given valuable experience. The new structure was made immensely massive and solid. Timbers one foot square were used, laid in tiers across each other, bolted together, and the whole structure was firmly bedded and bolted at the bottom, four feet into the solid rock. Its lower face had a vertical height of thirty feet, and it had a very long
THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT -HAMPDEN PARK.
CONVENT OF NOTRE DAME.
slant up stream, its base having a breadth of eighty feet. The slope of the dam was covered with six-inch plank, bolted to the timbers, and the ridge capped with heavy iron plates. The total length of the structure was over 1,000 feet, and it rendered available a water privilege of 20,000 horse power.
Many foreign laborers came to the town to aid in constructing the dam, and they built for themselves quite a village of little shanties on the ground now given up to Prospect Park and the region back of it. This village was known as the " Patch." It was an inter- esting community, and had many peculiar characteristics. A shanty was built by put- ting in four upright posts, to which rough boards were nailed, and then a roof of over- lapping boards was put on top, places cut for a door and for two or three little half windows, and finally a lot of turf was cut and piled up to the eaves all about. A man would come into town in the morning, buy a thousand feet of hemlock boards, and have his shanty up by night, and the next morning would be ready to go to work on the dam and take boarders. Inside the shanty the earth was smoothed, scantling laid and a rude floor of boards put down. Underneath a little hole was dug for a cellar, and a trapdoor cut in the boards to get at it. A place was sawn in the roof and a bit of tin tacked about it, and the stovepipe run through into the open air.
THE HIGH STREET SPRINKLING CART.
OLIVER STREET, FROM HIGH.
Under the V of the roof was a loft, reached by a rough ladder, where the boarders slept. A partition of boards or, perchance, in other instances, an old blanket, usually cut in twain the lower room. On one side was a sleeping apartment, on the other the kitchen. In the loft were no beds, but there was straw in plenty, and here the boarders reclined something after the manner of sardines in a box. Board was rated at three dollars each per week. The
14
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
food served was plenty and good, if not æsthetic in its nature. The bill of fare is, in the main, included in the following list : Hog's head, corned beef, pork, coffee. bread and " paraties." Most of the shanties were little af- fairs, but there was one with a length of forty feet, where thirty boarders were kept. The houses were ranged along irregular and narrow streets, about which the hogs,
hens and goats roamed at will, picking up the refuse. Behind the houses were little hovels for these creatures, though it is possible that in some cases they lived right with the family. The women of the neighborhood, as well as the children, were quite apt to go barefoot as long as mild weather lasted. Many houses were whitewashed within and kept with great neatness. Slovenliness makes no class distinctions. You may find it among the houses of the rich as well as the poor, and of the wise as well as the ignorant. Neatness is a virtue all may have, no matter what their property or what their education.
The inhabitants of "The Patch " came from various counties of Mother Ireland, and a clannish feeling seemed to prevail among those who came from the same region, which led to some desperate fights. Still, though quite free in the use of a shillalah and quick to anger, after a row the combatants were apt to be very good friends. While one of these diversions was going on the place was just about as safe as a powdermill, and those who were outside at such times were very sure to keep outside. Then there were family troubles. A man would be combating his wife, and quite likely the children were engaged too-all in a turmoil of slapping, hitting and screeching. But it was best to let these things settle in their own way, for if an outsider interfered, they would all turn around and give him " a most awful licking."
In the summer of 1849, when the dam was nearing com- pletion, the cholera broke out in "The Patch." It was very hot, the life in the little village was very crowded, and the surroundings of the buildings were in many cases very
A CIRCUS IN TOWN.
THE CITY HALL CLOCK.
HIGH STREET.
uncleanly. This and the salt food they ate, which inclined them to drink great quanti- ties of river water, brought on an epidemic. It made quick work. A man would be taken sick in the night and be dead before daylight. Whole families were swept away. There being no Cath- olic cemetery in Holyoke in those days, the dead were carried to Chicopee. Reli- gion, which up to this time they had little care for, as- sumed importance on the breaking out of the cholera, and it was then the first regu- lar Catholic services were be- gun in the Old Exchange Hall, then just built, though in the summer previous occa- sional services had been con- ducted under a large elm tree which stood in a pasture where is now the corner of Dwight and Elm streets. The cholera lasted but a few weeks, and a little later the dam was finished and proven a complete success.
Now business began to boom; there were big mills going up, houses multiplying along the newly laid-out streets, and the enthusiasts were going to have the place a city inside of five years. But in 1856 dull times came, the big Lyman mills were shut down all winter, and prop- erty owners of the vicinity were in the depths of despond- ency. The entire trade on High street could have been cared for by a single person. Time hung heavy on the merchants' hands, and on pleasant days you would usually find a group of them in an open lot in the vicinity pitching quoits while they watched for customers. On one day the proprietor of a certain shoe store remembers that he had but a single interruption, when he made a sale of one
CHRISTIAN A//OCIATION
HOLYOKE- \A/F
THE NEW Y. M. C. A. BUILDING.
cent's worth of shoe strings. On another day it had happened that there had been a light rain during the night, just enough to wet down the dust, and toward noon one of the merchants observed that a single wheel track had traversed High street. That was the only team that had been on the street that morning, and he called together his brother merchants to consider the matter. A committee was appointed to investigate and find out what the man's business might have been, though there were those who thought he was not on business at all, but simply out for pleasure.
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