USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Picturesque Hampshire : a supplement to the quarter-centennial-journal > Part 7
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THE OLD MOODY TAVERN,
ROBERTS MEADOW.
LONELY " LONETOWN."
THE UPPER RESERVOIR.
objects with the exterminated, aboriginal dwellers. Their heroism and suffering is reealled, their name perpetuated by that of every height or sinuous water-course.
Having once been brought into sympathy with the spirit of such surroundings, there is no need of men- tor to show the way, or additional stimulus to strengthen and support pursuit. Here is the broad portal to all arts ; picturesqueness and heroism in human life, grandeur and simple beauty in natural scenery, to quicken the poet, the sculptor or the painter ; a deep placid current of inspiration.
Witchcraft in the Connecticut Valley.
It was not many years after settlements were formed in the valley that the witcheraft delusion man- ifested itself. To our credit it must be said, it never
OLD BRIDGE AT LOUDVILLE.
raged, as in the eastern part of the province, in the epidemic form. The cases that occurred, at in- frequent periods, were sporadic in their character. and merely served to show that the inhabitants were imbued with the opinion, then almost univer- sal, that any person so inclined, could easily con- tract an alliance with the devil, and through his aid and assistance, perpetrate all manner of mis- chief. Lamentable as was the slaughter of men and women in the Salem frenzy, it was exceeded in atrocity in numerous instances in the mother coun- try, where they were not content with hanging the alleged witches, but actually burned them at the stake. The number in England thus tortured to death, has been estimated at tens of thousands; and still England, in her treatment of witches, was merciful compared with some portions of the con- tinent of Europe. Indeed, there were so many offenses then punished with hanging, that it was a somewhat difficult matter for a man or woman to keep clear of the law, attain to a good old age, and depart to the invisible world by a natural death. And to make the matter as bad as possible, usually, though not invariably, these witches were old women, harmless, inof- fensive creatures, whom, in this enlightened age we should consider the very last persons to enter into unholy and diabol- ical " compactions " with Satan.
It is not the purpose of the writer to enter into minute de- tails in all these cases. Two or three will be selected merely to show the frivolous and slender evidence upon which persons accused of this crime were in danger of ending their days sud- denly and violently upon the gallows.
Shortly after the settlement of Springfield, Hugh Parsons was accused of witchcraft. It seems that he had, a few years previously, married a young woman named Mary Lewis. After the birth of their second child, which soon died, Mrs. Parsons, suffering from physical and mental prostration, became hopelessly insane, In her paroxysms of madness she accused her husband and herself of witchcraft. Then she charged her husband with cansing the death of the child by means of satanic influences; and finally accused herself of murdering it, prompted thereto by the same malign agency.
The result was that Hugh Parsons was arrested and arraigned before the magistrate, William Pynchon, on the very serious charge of killing his infant son Joshua by witch- eraft. Some of the testi- mony was of such a trivial character that in these days it would be laughed out of court; but poor Hugh Parsons found, to his cost, that it was a very serious matter for him.
Let us scrutinize some of it in as brief a manner as possible. One George Lankton had a pudding boiled for his dinner -probably an old-fashioned Indian pudding on three several occasions. It was about these pud- dings that something exceeding marvellous oeeurred. When the puddings were slipped from the bags they came out in pieces, as though they had been eut with a keen knife from end to end. It seemed highly probable, in the minds of Mr. and Mrs. Lankton, that Hugh Parsons, being in league with the devil, some infernal imp, at his instigation, had performed this wonder. What particular harm eould arise from cutting the pudding, thus preparing it to be served at the table, does not appear. It seems never to have occurred to them that the falling apart of the
LOWER RESERVOIR.
pudding in smooth and even lines, when slipped from the bag, could be traced to very simple canses, entirely independent of the devil or any of his agents. This evidence appeared to weigh heavily against the accused.
But according to popular belief, not content with slicing Lankton's puddings, Parsons must, forsooth, bewiteh Alexander Edwards' cow. This Alexander Edwards was the remote progenitor of most of those of the name now residing in the valley. Parsons on one occasion had purchased a small quantity of milk of Mr. Edwards. At the next milking the flow of milk greatly deereased. Besides, at each milking the hue of the milk varied, having some strange and "cdd color." This continued for one week, the cow in the meantime exhibiting no indications of disease. At the expiration of that time this family cow regain- ed her normal condition so far as the quantity and eolor of the laeteal fluid which she yielded were concerned. Both Mr. Edwards and his wife were
32
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
fully persuaded that Hugh Parsons was the cause, by his diabolical mach- inations, of this eccentrie conduct on the part of the cow. This evidence also bore heavily against poor Parsons.
Anthony Dorchester, Parsons and two other persons were the equal owners of a cow, and when the animal was slaughtered each took a quarter. Parsons desired the "roote of the tonng." but it was allotted to Dorches- ter because he had an infirm wife. One Sunday morning Dorchester de- posited the "roote of the toung" in a
kettle, and then placed the kettle over the fire, so that the meat would be sufficiently boiled for dinner on his return from attendance on divine wor- ship. Mrs. Dorchester was the only inmate of the house during his absence. On his return he examined the con- tents of the boiling "pot," and lo! the "roote of the tonng" had disap- peared. The natural presumption was that Mrs. Dorchester, who had a pecu- liar weakness for this description of food, had appropriated it while her husband was listening to the orthodox discourse of Parson Moxon.
To the accusation that he had abstracted it by his diabolical agencies, Hugh Parsons returned for answer, that he knew no more what became of Dorchester's "roote of the toung" than an unborn child. But this solemn assertion availed nothing against the belief of Dorchester that it was spirited away from the boiling kettle through the witchcraft of Parsons.
Blanch Bodorthe was another important witness against Parsons. She said that one day her little child two years old, exclaimed, "I am afraid of the dog, " which had gone under the bed. Being asked what dog it was, he said, it was Lumbard's dog, meaning Par-
A "BIT" OF "SONNY SOUTH" AT THE NORTHI-IN HATFIELD.
sons' dog all the time, although Parsons was not the owner of the dog. A search of the premises did not reveal the presence of any dog, which fact induced Mrs. Blanch Bodorthe to "conceive that it might be some vile thing from Hugh Parsons."
It is no new thing that when a man is down from any eanse white ver, the community is only too ready to jump upon him. Parsons found it so in his case to his sor- row. Pynchon considered the matter of such importance that the accused was sent to Boston for trial, and convicted of "killing his own child by witchcraft," and sen- tenced to be hanged. Poor Par- sons ! These proceedings must have made him doubt whether he lived in a civilized, much less a Christian, community.
In the meantime Parsons' wife, wretched, miserable and insane, in her incoherent ravings, had confessed that she killed the child by the practice of witchcraft. The child seems to have died from some infantile disease. But that made no difference in the minds of those who passed judgment upon her. She was found guilty upon her own confession, and the poor demented creature, for all that appears to the contrary, was
A HAMPSHIRE HOMESTEAD-HATFIELD.
hanged. These proceedings had an important influence upon the case of Parsons. The matter was reviewed by the General Court, the judgment re- versed, and the prisoner acquitted. It was probably thought that, as the wife had been convicted and executed for killing the infant by witchcraft, it would hardly do to hang the husband for the same offence. Parsons never returned, so far as is known, to Spring- field. He wiped the dust of that em- bryo city from his shoes, not consider- ing it prudent to trust himself in a place associated with so much wretch- edness and cruelty, and among people who manifested an eager disposition to swear away his life.
Take another case, that of Mrs. Mary Parsons, the wife of Joseph Parsons of Northampton, a man of considerable property, and of reputable character. Mary Parsons has been described as a woman of many accomplishments for the times. It seems that Mary Bart-
THE HUBBARD ELM.
lett, the wife of Joseph Bartlett, died of some disease which the medical practitioners of those days could not by any diagnosis explain or define. The superstitions of the age induced the people to attribute her death to the malign influence of witek- craft. The next thing to be done was to locate the witch, and sus- picion was directed towards Mrs. Parsons, who, if contemporaneous accounts can be credited, was a kind, benevolent and estimable woman. Why a woman of this character should have been aceus- ed of this crime, is a conundrum that has never been explained. All the trivial acts and words of Mrs. Parsons for years were eager- ly recalled, and the most sinister significance attached to them. Gradually it dawned upon their minds that Mary Bartlett had been killed by the infernal incantations and practices of Mary Parsons; and the bereaved husband became so impressed with this idea that he spent much time in collecting evidence against her. Learning that such injurions innuendoes and insinuations were in circulation
NEAR OLD TAVERN IN HATFIELD.
33
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
ON HATFIELD'S ELM STREET.
in the town, Mary Parsons did not wait to be formally arraigned, but voluntarily appeared before the court and indignantly repelled the infamous accusation. But all her protestations of innocence did not save her. The evidence was forwarded to the governor and assist- ants at Boston, and Mrs. Parsons was ordered to appear before them. She was eventually tried for witchcraft, and strange to say, consid- ering the dark and superstitious condition of the public mind, was acquitted of the charge of committing, in the language of the indict- ment, "Sundry acts of witcheraft on the person or persons of one or more."
One other case may be specially mentioned. Mary Reeve married William Webster of Hadley. It is quite certain that this Webster belonged to the same family from which the great lexicographer, Noah Webster, was descended. It is related that Webster was a poor man, and the hardships and privations which poverty entails did not sweeten a temper, which under other conditions would perhaps have proved of average amiability. It is feared that Mrs. Webster fretted and scolded both with and without occasion. It is hard to be poor,
THE PISTOL FACTORY.
and there is reason to believe that Mrs. Webster became, from the exhibition of certain eccentric traits of character, quite unpopular in the rural society of Hadley. Traditions of an ancient odor affirm that Mrs. Mary Webster per- formed some very wonderful feats. It was said that she caused cattle of the most docile and orderly habits, to conduct them- selves in the most disorderly and nnae- countable manner; that on at least one occasion she turned a load of hay upside down, and then turned it right side up; and that she, by her arts, raised an infant, without touching it, to the ceiling, and then returned it to the cradle. Of course there was no foundation for this idle talk and gossip; but in those primitive times trifles were magnified into marvels, and, as they passed from one individual to another lost nothing in volume and importance. Mary Webster at last found herself involv- ed in many perils. There was ominous and portentous whispering in the small com- munity of Hadley, that she was actually in league with the devil, to annoy, vex and injure the staid and pions people of that secluded and quiet hamlet.
She was at length arrested and tried before Mr. Peter Tilton, whose name is honorably connected with those of Goffe
A HATFIELD DOOR-YARD.
and Whalley, But it cannot be supposed that Mr. Tilton, naturally in- clined to be just and upright, was wholly free from the errors and delusions sedulously inculcated by the church, and generally accepted by the civilized world, in regard to the existence and practice of witch- craft. Mr. Tilton thought he saw reason why she should be bound over to the court in Northampton, before which tribunal she subse- quently appeared. The result of her examination at Northampton was that she was sent to Boston for trial. Bradstreet was then governor, and the record says that she was arraigned before his Excellency, Deputy-Governor Danforth, and nine assistants. The principal allega- tion in the indictment, as it appears in the record of the court, was that Mary Webster had entered into a league or covenant with the devil, and that he had familiarity with her in the form or shape of a "warransage," or black wild cat, which she nursed with maternal tenderness and solicitude. All this may seem absurd and ridiculous to the reader ; but it was a very serious matter with Mary Webster ; to her it was a question of life or death. If the nondescript beast from the infernal regions, styled the "warransage," had been omitted from the indictment, it is doubtful if Mrs. Webster would have escaped the gal- lows. But this "warransage" from the boiling, bubbling, seething pit, was a little too much for the stomach of the court and jury, and the
ELMS ON MAIN STREET.
persecuted woman was finally acquitted. Mary Webster's troubles, however, were by no means ended. Some two or three years after her return from Boston, a very reputable citizen of Hadley, Philip Smith by name, died from an inexplicable and mysterious disease. That Boston clerical humbug, Cotton Mather, says he was "murdered with an hideons witcheraft." But Mather is not very reliable authority in such matters. For the edification of the reader Mather's diagnosis of the case may be given. It is unique and peculiar and affords no clear idea of the real nature of Mr. Philip Smith's malady. He was exceedingly "valetudinarious," and manifested "wearied- ness from and weariness of the world." Such a complication of disor-
AN OLD HATFIELD HOMESTEAD.
ders would be enough to kill an ordinarily robust man. While this good man was longing to depart to some invisible and super- nal Hadley by the side of a celestial river whose waters glittered and sparkled like a stream of molten silver, Mrs. Webster, it was claimed, persisted in keeping him on the earthly side of the dividing line, thus rendering him extremely nnhappy and miser- able. The enchantment was not removed, Cotton Mather being authority, until some of the young men of Hadley put Mrs. Web- ster through a course of heroic discipline. They "dragged her out of her house, hung her up until she was near dead, let her down, rolled her some time in the snow, and at last buried her in it, and there left her." It seems that Mr. Philip Smith then shuffled off this mortal existence in tolerable peace and quietness.
This brutal usage did not quite kill Mary Webster. She lived several years longer. But Hadley witchcraft culminated in the death of Philip Smith and the mobbing of poor, persecuted Mary Webster.
These cases have been selected from several others for the pur- pose of showing the peculiar opinions which our ancestors enter- tained in regard to the cruel and lamentable witchcraft delusion.
34
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
But, if the advent of this delusion in our beautiful valley was attended with tragical results, its exit was marked with comical and amusing inci- dents. When the Salem fury had well nigh spent its force, and was verging towards the ridiculous by the preferring of charges of witchcraft against some of the members of the aristocratie society of Boston and its vicinity a certain inhabitant of Northampton appeared before Samuel Partridge of Hatfield, a magistrate of the connty of Hampshire, of approved ability and sagacity, and preferred a charge of witchcraft against one of his neighbors. Long before this Mr. Partridge had, doubtless, become fully convinced of the hollowness and emptiness of this witchcraft fallacy, and he acted with commendable promptitude and efficiency. After listening to the complaint, he informed the accuser that there were certain conditions in witchcraft cases in which the accuser and accused were entitled to share, and that whipping was one of them. And he then and there directed that the accuser in this case should receive a sound walloping, which direction was immediately carried into effect. This summary pro- ceeding effectually eradicated any disposition which people in the valley might entertain to prefer charges of witchcraft against their neighbors, as such conduct would pretty certainly result in conse- quences personally unpleasant and disagreeable.
President Dwight of Yale college, than whom Northampton had no more distinguished son, writing a century afterwards of these events, said that, had powerful doses of ipecacuanha been adminis- tered to those persons who fancied they were suffering from the effects of witchcraft, their minds would have been speedily disabused of this pernicious fallacy. It is unfortunate that these prescriptions
THE OLD KINGSLEY PLACE.
Most lives are too scattered by the resistless tide of adverse circumstances to serionsly consider any vital principle underlying human welfare, and much less the giving of a life to making a spring in the mountains that shall push its chan- nels through hill and rock to the sea. It is much easier to ride in the carriage of enrrent literature past our neighbor's house and patronize his art and architec- ture. The pulling it all to pieces is quite exhilarating. But the building of our own house is quite another matter, and it soon becomes a very serious consider- ation if it is to cover the ground of all our future wants. To illustrate the prin- ciple, I compare youthful aspiration with the cooler judgment of later years; ] compare the aspiration of all beginners with the feeling of the veteran artist who has seen the best the world can show. It is always the same story of unsatisfied ambitions and weary struggling after the unattainable. The difference in the two stages of experience is simply that the youthful aspirant thinks he can catch the trick of opening doors to fame, while the older man knows that he cannot. So it comes to the finding of content at home, by the old doorway, and the reading from a book that is as a familiar friend.
I recall a picture of boyhood so familiar to New England life of fifty years ago. A bare-footed boy, with overalls rolled up, is trudging after the cows over the hill pastures. A ragged straw hat, that had seen duty in catching "polly-wogs" barely kept the sun from the brown neck and face. Perhaps a checkered shirt under the "galluses " completed the costume. But this light trim fitted him to be the " Arab " of the hillsides. No tree was too high for him to climb, no pool too deep to swim in, no orchard too private, or bird's nest too carefully hidden for his searching eye. Every rail fence, with its covering of berry vines, became his , property, in company with the squirrels. He knew when "young- sters," huckleberries, dewberries, raspberries and every eatable thing should ripen for his benefit. And the dreams and superstitions of such a period! The woods and pastures were full of omens, from the buttercup and clover leaf to the deserted ruin by the
DINNER-TIME AT KINGSLEY'S CAR.
of President Dwight and the Hon. Samuel Partridge could not have been administered in the earlier and more malignant stages of this dreadful malady.
An Artist's Recollections and Impressions.
BY ELBRIDGE KINGSLEY.
Life is made up of adverse elements, and the study of art of many seeming contradictions. The mature result rather than the school training makes this truth apparent in art matters. When we are young we aspire to golden illusions held out by others and when we are old deplore the neglect of early opportunities within ourselves. The question seems to be, not so much what has been said in the past by others, as to find our own best expression in the present ; a result devontly wished for by most human beings, but missed because of the insincerity of the searching.
Perhaps from necessity all systems of education eliminate the personal factor from the course of study, or the one vital element that makes its expression stand out from its fellows. To instrnet in drawing, perspective, and painting, definite formulas must be found
KINGSLEY AT WORK.
to suit the greatest number of pupils, and also have the greatest author- ity in the production gone before.
This in spite of the historical fact that no great name has been made in art through convention or in imitation of a past reputation. So that it happens that only a few minds can shed the old coat of the school environ" ment, and use the training as a servant to find the road that shall satisfy the individual aspiration. And so very few make it the pivot upon which the whole life moves. And unless the question assumes this importance, how can the result prove absolute and commanding ?
To analyze an impression of a passing event or a phase of nature, so as to present it fairly, is a very important undertaking. That another observer shall agree with the result is hardly probable, and that either shall be in- fallible is an impossibility. Hence, no past expression is absolute, no pres- ent reputation can assume to stay, and no future effort claim to be more than a searching in a vast field that has no beginning or ending.
IN THE HAY-FIELD,
THE KITCHEN DOORWAY
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PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
Some ANTIQUITIES
ANCIEN! OF & ANDMARKS
TOWN OF HATFIELD .
OLD CANDLE-STICKS,
TIN LANTERN.
roadside. "Darning needles" were made to pierce the ears of bad boys, and strange sounds from the dark woods were sufficient to send nimble heels flying far from danger. Then came the budding consciousness of something wrong in bare feet when a girl school-mate rode by, dressed for a picnic. Also the strange feeling of an im- mense beyond when a few borrowed books told fairy tales of distant lands. Next, the climbing of the tall pines to look over the rocky barrier of the range of mountains to the south. Every "ne'er-do-weel" who traveled with a fund of stories waved a wand of power over this youthful imagination. That the magician should be drunk most of the time was not of the slightest consequence. To reach ont aud do great things, like the heroes in books, to fly and ride upon the elouds, to annihilate the distance that gives enchant- ment-all of this, is the dream of youth.
Later, after long years of labor and care, the moun- tain barrier is approached from the other side, and the hill pastures of childhood burst upon the view ; but how shrunken and small, and yet how peaceful away from the noise and strife of the world. Other bare-footed boys tread the hill-sides, with eyes full of questions and hearts full of eagerness to reach out into the swift en- rents of life. Here is the same youthful aspiration, only more of it than of yore. Schools are taking up the study of art, and the sketching umbrella is becoming a familiar sight upon the green meadows.
The artist is not quite so strange a creature as in the old days and he is no longer a dreamer in public estima- tion. In many respects the picture is the same. The young are climbing the tall trees to look out just the same, but more of the old are coming back to climb the mountain barrier and look in. Perhaps it would do no good for the old to say that there is no more beautiful spot on the face of the earth than the Connecticut valley, and that it contains all that art can express. Perhaps it would not be any use to say that in the great world people chase each other like wolves, artists as well, and that figuratively speaking reputations may be built upon monuments of the bones left in the struggle.
Possibly it is much more charming for a youth to feel and a school to teach that sunny France or Italy has especial ingredients in the soil to make great artists out
FRANKLIN STOVE AND ANCIENT FURNITURE.
of bare-footed boys. Possibly if a boy learns to draw in a New England college it is not the same as if educated in Europe, so the weary round must be gone over, to find in the end that it is the name on the package that wins the prize. This is what the press wants to talk about, what public institutions want in their galleries, and what the millionaire wants to pay for.
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