USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Longmeadow > Proceedings at the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883 > Part 10
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ship with the most vaunted, perhaps, of your noted families - the Williams family-for William's my front name !
But, suppose it were true that Springfield has been, as your President claims, the guardian of Longmeadow-he is unwise in calling for a guardianship account. I should not have thought of bringing up such an unpleasant matter at a festivity like this ; but now that the demand has been made upon me, " officially," and in a manner that implies that Springfield is a delinquent, I am bound to state the case as it actually is ; unfavorable as it may be to the so-called "ward" of Springfield.
The fact is, that a hundred years ago, Longmeadow ran away from home, and took with her the fairest possessions and many of the best of the tenantry of Springfield, and set up for herself upon the richest of the outlying lands. Not, I admit, like a prodigal, but like a provident child; for she was then, as now, shrewd and thrift-sighted ; and, perceiving that the increase of family, the requirements of fashionable life, and the demands of enterprise at the old homestead would soon make the contribu- tions levied upon individual pockets onerous, she said, "Go to ! I will get from under. Let there be drawn between us a line that shall be called a town line, so that it may be lawfully said : 'Thus far shall the tax assessors of Springfield come, and no further ;'" And, carelessly and improvidently, Springfield suffered such a line to be drawn; and, ever since, northward of it there has been grimace, and southward of it smiling, as the tax-gatherers have made their annual rounds. . And so it has come to pass that Springfield has been paying anywhere from $10 to $18 per $1,000, while Longmeadow has paid from $4 to $8 per $1,000 taxes, for a century.
And yet, Longmeadow has enjoyed all for which Springfield has thus paid ! We have paved our streets and hardened our roads to save the wheels which rolled your garnered harvests to our eager market ; we have called, by our allurements, thou- sands of customers for your productions, and have built school- houses, churches, theatres, hospitals, court-houses, and bridges for their accommodation, that they might content themselves to stay within reach of your thrifty grangers, and you haven't paid one dollar toward the expense of all this. Therefore, the
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account of guardianship, as I must render it, in justice to Springfield, shows a balance against the " ward" of-well, the arrears of taxes for a hundred years - say the difference between what you have paid, and what you would have paid but for that thrifty dodge beyond that town line! A little arithmetic will give you the exact sum due.
But, Springfield forgives the debt. You have given her more than an equivalent. You have more than repaid her by the gen- erous hospitality that you have shown to her through all these years, even to the present day. You have given and are giving her lessons in the etiquette of the heart and in the esthetics of sociality, not alone on public occasions like your May Breakfasts and to-day's Fête, but in the private welcomes to your individual homes, that are educating her to a better, more hearty,-the good old-fashioned social life. We are quits ; or rather we are, in all save pecuniary matters, your debtors. Give us time, and a little longer good example, and we will try to get even on that score.
I am proud to respond for Springfield to-day, although I must know that I have been called upon as its representative only because those who are more representative than I, are not at this late hour in attendance ; and speaking for Springfield, I have to tell you what is her feeling for you. I shall ask my own heart to prompt me, but I feel sure that what it shall suggest to me, the hearts of all of old Springfield, at least, will confirm.
There is an Old and a New Springfield,-the Old, made up of the descendants of ancestors who were fellow-townsmen with yours,-the New, composed of later-comers and the children of later-comers, all strangers to the old times. Old Springfield has for you the love of the olden time. New Springfield admires you, and wonders at you a little. Both delight to visit you. Only the bad Springfield,-and with such a numerous and mixed population we necessarily must have some bad un-Longmeadow- ish people among us - only the bad Springfield is not attached to you. They find it lonely when they come here. When we want to impress our visitors, we drive them down here and don't let on about the town line, and they say, " What a lovely place Springfield is, to be sure !"
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Your historian said, to-day, as he modestly closed his chroni- cle at the opening of the present era, "We will not praise ourselves, but let our eulogy be left to the next centennial cele- brators." I cannot delay so long. I must say now for myself, that I regard Longmeadow as exceptional in the world - my world. It reminds me, most, of one of those delightful quiet English villages in interior England, away from the great mer- cantile or manufacturing cities, wherein for generations old fam- ilies have dwelt on broad, fair lands, surrounded by an industrious peaceful, happy peasantry ; where for generations have been wealth, culture and comfort undisturbed. Longmeadow and its people, to me, are just what New England and New Englanders were intended to be, and should be ;- the Old English culture, comfort, and repose, with the New England independence. .
For interior and surrounding beauty it is unexcelled. For the culture of its people it has always been and is remarkable and remarked upon. For honest thriftiness it has been, and is, notable and noted ; and for its morality it has been, since I have known it, unequaled. A single term of the Criminal Court of Hampden County would have easily disposed of all the cases of crime com- mitted within its limits for a century. Rarely have its domestic dissensions troubled the divorce courts, and I think fewer law suits have found entry upon the dockets of civil tribunals from here, than from any town of its population in the county. In the position which I have held for more than twenty years, I have had occasion to note and have noted this. Surely I may be permitted on such an occasion as this to say, that in administer- ing the affairs of my court, I have been accustomed to expect integrity from those who have come to me from among you to settle their accounts as administrators, executors, guardians, and trustees, and I have not been disappointed. There have been men among you who are now in honored graves, whose names you will recall without my mentioning them, who have so impressed me that I have come to consider a Longmeadow name as a synonym for rectitude ; and there are others now among you charged with affairs with which I have to deal, who are filling the places of their predecessors, and winning the same measure of esteem.
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As I have listened to the history of your-of our town to-day, and to the words of the speakers who have given utterance to so much genuine enthusiastic appreciation of their old home ;- as I have heard of your prosperity in the past ;- as I have seen your happiness and prosperity in the present, I have sought the causes : and I came to the conclusion that your past and present enviable condition is due - first, to the foundation laid by the sturdy Christian fathers-second, to the after culture you have so sedulously sought and found, - and third, but less in import- ance only to the first, - for to the first is most indebted for its prosperity not only your town but every town, city, state in the Republic and the Republic itself,-to the fact, that you have always been, and are, an independent people in your individual- ities.
You are composed of three classes ; - agriculturists, inde- pendent because they can produce upon their own glebes all that is essential for their support ; - laborers upon your farm lands and in your quarries, independent because by their own indus- try they are able to be self-providing ;- men of wealth, who hav- ing acquired or inherited ample means have remained, or come, here to enjoy the ease that competence affords ; - independent because they have enough. What is more conducive to happi- ness, and to moral, intellectual, and social prosperity, than such independence?
Here, many in elegant, all in comfortable homes, self-support- ing, drawing only upon your own resources, preserving the old traditions, and respectful of the old moralities, in a location so delightful that no other tempts you away, you have dwelt and dwell, a peculiar people, religious, cultured, independent. Why should you not continue to be prosperous and happy ?
I suppose that mine is the closing speech of the day-for I believe that your programme is concluded-and therefore I may without presumption venture upon lay bene-diction. Nearly all, perhaps all, of the "visitors " have gone. We are a family party ; and I want to say, what some one ought to say, that the day has been a perfect success. It has been a most delightful one to me, - a day of inspiration that I would not have missed for a hundred
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ordinary days of life. The exercises have interested me deeply. The Address of Welcome was a prose poem, inspired by the truest appreciation of the poetry of the occasion, and of the heart and soul feast to which it called us. The Historical Address was such as the racy, reverend predecessors of the racier and not less reverend historian would have vied, if they could have listened with us, in applauding ;- perhaps they did ! The poet's heart sang first the verses that his lips have repeated to-day. Truth has been eloquent by the mouths of the sons and daughters who came to tell of their respect, pride, and love for the "Old Mother," who had called them to the old home once more. The Collation was perfect! It would "go without saying" that a Longmeadow Collation would be perfect; but both gratitude and history bid me say it, nevertheless. Everything up to the time when your President required you to listen to me has been just right,- refreshing alike the body, brain, and heart of every one present. Evidently all came gladly, have remained gladly, and will go away reluctantly ; bettered by the influences which have here met them. Would that such occasions, in such places, among such people, might oftener come to give us restful pause in these too restless days !
I congratulate the Committee of Arrangements ;- I congratu- late their beneficiaries ;- most of all, I congratulate myself for having been here. Up to last midnight I had thought it impos- sible to be present ; but then the presentiment of regret was so strong that I determined to make it possible, and I did. When I was informed that I might be called upon for a speech, I felt a natural reluctance and embarrassment, and would have been glad to have been excused ; but now, I thank you for permitting me to say what I should be sorry to have left unsaid. Again I congratulate you all. I do not congratulate the "Old Mother" upon having reached her one hundredth birthday, but upon hav- ing lived one hundred years so worthily; and the best wish I can leave with her is, that at her next Centennial she shall exhibit no change in feature or in heart. For her to change would be to deteriorate. And you, fellow townsmen, keep just as you are-Puritans-with all the modern improvements.
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CONCLUDING EXERCISES.
The hour for bringing the exercises to a close had now unmis- takably arrived. The chill of an October afternoon was begin- ning to steal into the tent, which had been wholly comfortable during the day.
Gathering more closely together, at the suggestion of the President, and clasping hands with each other as they conveni- ently could, the audience and the band united in the good old parting hymn and tune of " Auld Lang Syne," as given upon the programme.
AULD LANG SYNE.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind ?
Should auld acqaintance be forgot, And days of auld lang syne ?
And here's a hand, my trusty friend, And gie's a hand o' thine ; And we'll take a right guid parting grasp For auld lang syne.
CHORUS.
For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, And we'll take a right guid parting grasp For auld lang syne.
The Doxology in long meter was then sung, after which the Benediction was pronounced by Rev. Mr. Harding, and the cen- tennial services were ended.
A social gathering of the young people of the town enlivened the tent early in the evening; and finally, with the concurrence of the band, resolved itself into an impromptu serenade of distin- guished guests in various homes. Later, the music died away ; one by one the village lights went out ; and the full moon alone looked down, only upon a ghostly tent, with a solitary sentinel watching for the dawn of THE NEW CENTURY.
J.LES YSHON UN
APPENDIX.
A .- CELEBRATION PRELIMINARIES.
The earliest efficient action of the town in regard to a Centennial Celebration was taken by a vote of the Town Meeting, April 3, 1882, adding to the Committee of Inquiry-previously appointed and con- sisting of Rev. John W. Harding, David Booth, R. S. Storrs, Edwin Indicott, and Oliver Wolcott-the Selectmen, ex officio, Charles S. Newell, Abel H. Calkins, and Edward H. Tabor ; and constituting the whole a permanent Committee of Preparation, with an appropria- tion of $50 to meet its incidental expenses. The following year a further appropriation of $900 was made to meet the expenses of the celebration and of the subsequent publication of the proceedings ; and Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., was designated as Orator of the Day.
At a meeting of this Committee of Preparation in June following- changed in its personnel only by the election, meantime, of a new Board of Selectmen, J. C. Porter, Henry Hall, and J. A. Mckinstry -the resignation of Mr. Booth, on account of the infirmities of advancing years, was reluctantly accepted, and the vacancy was filled by the appointment of Mr. John McFethries. Mr. Harding was chosen Chairman, and Mr. Storrs Secretary, of the Committee.
At subsequent meetings of the Committee, Rev. Mr. Harding was unanimously chosen as Orator of the Day, in place of Dr. Storrs, whose engagements had compelled him to decline the service; the Secretary of the Committee, Mr. Storrs, was chosen President of the Day; and a special Committee of Preparations was appointed, con- sisting of Messrs. McFethries, Porter, Hall, and Mckinstry, with the following ladies-Mrs. Brinton P. Allen, Mrs. Roman A. Crane, Mrs. John Hooker, Mrs. Edwin Indicott, and Mrs. Charles S. Newell; Chas. S. Newell and William B. Medlicott were chosen as a Committee on Music ; Ethan C. Ely was appointed Chief Marshal of the Day,
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with five Assistant Marshals from each part of the town, viz., J. M. Burt, William Eaton, Nelson Lombard, J. C. Pease, and Edgar Sellew, from the East part, and Sylvester Bliss, Stephen Colton, Thomas F. Cordis, Sumner W. Gates, and William C. Pease from the West part of the town. Mr. Storrs was chosen Committee upon Invitations and Programmes.
Important assistance was rendered to the Committee on Invitations by several persons, especially by Mrs. G. McQueen in superintending their distribution. The method adopted was to request, by public notice from the pulpits, that all families should send in to the Com- mittee names of their personal friends, and also of non-residents without resident kindred. The memoranda thus obtained were col- lated and catalogued by Mrs. McQueen, as the basis for the distribu- tion of invitations.
The varied and arduous duties of the sub-Committee of Preparation were still further subdivided and assigned among its own members and invited helpers, to whose cordial co-operation they were greatly indebted. To the almost ubiquitous presence and untiring zeal and energy of the Chairman of this Committee, Mr. McFethries, should be attributed in large measure the success which crowned its efforts.
Each family in town was invited to contribute cake for the celebra- tion, the cheerful response to which suggestion brought to the colla- tion tent more than three hundred loaves. Some of the other items of supplies were 400 lbs. of beef, ham, and tongue, 4,000 rolls, 50 lbs. of butter, 1,500 crullers, 50 lbs. of coffee, 70 lbs. of sugar, 5 barrels of pears, 300 lbs. of grapes, etc.
The seating capacity of the tent, accurately estimated, was more than twenty-three hundred ; and, making due allowance for those who took their refreshments in the collation tent, the number of persons dined can fall little short of twenty-five hundred. It was only the exact order and rapid succession in which the various items of supply followed each other in the systematized service of the waiters, which rendered it possible to supply the wants of so large a number so satis- factorily and in so short a time.
Doubtless, also, the experience of the villagers in their annual May Breakfast Festivals during the last fifteen years, had assisted in preparing them for this occasion. Cheerful and experienced co-opera- tion was here, as always, the secret of success.
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B .- PRESS NOTICES.
Editorial, Springfield Republican, Oct. 18, 1883.
The Longmeadow centennial, yesterday, was one of those occasions that should be precious to every Yankee, because in them the undi- minished fire and force of New England is shown. It is not in the cities any longer that the noble God-fearing and self-respecting com- munity of the fathers of the nation is to be seen,-it is in the country towns, where every man of foreign birth or foreign tradition who is present must either merge his antecedents in the prevailing sentiment and be thenceforward a whole-souled American,-or stay without and curse the place with a hateful alienism. This country is yet New England,-it is better than the old England, and infinitely better than any amalgamation of European peasantry can make her. The life of the land is shown in such truly representative gatherings as this centennial brought forth.
From the Springfield Republican, Oct. 18.
The centennial celebration of Longmeadow, yesterday, was one of the rare occasions whose excellences far surpass their prefatory promise ; for noth- ing of the sort was ever more modestly heralded, and assuredly nothing of the sort was more rich. satisfying, and complete. Almost everything from dawn till dusk was characteristic of New England-old New England ; the brass-band, which certainly would have been thought rather elaborate a hundred years ago, was after all a legitimate successor of the fife and drum ; and as for the tents, they date farther back, even to the red men themselves, for their local nativity. The golden weather of brave October, though most of the trees are bare, inspired every friend of the old town with a heartiness and courage that at least might sympathize, though it might not be com- pared, with the spirit of the fathers. The green was early alive with gath- ering sons and daughters, and through the greater part of the day they continued to come. The scene of the village green was indeed festal. The tents,-the big marquee for the speaking, and the smaller one where the collation was prepared, with their passages and entrances,-were surrounded with groups of young and old in various disposal, and down the eastern road for a furlong the horses and buggies of the visitors made a long row, as if some great church affair had taken place, as in the old times, whereto all the clergy and the deacons of the settlements for sixty miles around had come. The grave-yard fence was lined without by horses gravely contemplating the stone memorials of the founders of Longmeadow, and through the green and in the several yards other horses stood. The trains brought their scores, and the town itself represented fully all that it was in the audience of the tent.
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The occasion was pure New England, and that only, from first to last. The elms, that had strewn most of their leaves for carpet on the green, rose in air loftily with their enduring Benedicite, and the old houses that are still numerous along the broad street bore witness to the historic dignity of the town.
There was every arrangement made that could be for the comfort of the visitors, men ready to take care of horses, guides ready to show the way to any place, and the most good-natured and genial of Aids of the day to keep the world still and orderly. The long and generous open green ; the houses alongside that confide themselves so unreservedly to the public by taking away their fences, opening so a noble democratic park throughout the vil- lage ; the church with its hospitable doors, and the social hall so well known to all May breakfasters ; everything beneath the benignant brightness of the sky and in the brisk and bracing air breathed the welcome that the speakers uttered.
The celebration in the tent began with perfect fitness for a New England gathering by the singing of the doxology. It was led ably by the principal singers of the village choir, though not lined off as once hymns used to be, or started with the pitch-pipe's toot. All the singing was led in the same way, although the audience were not all sure of their cue, and came in very assiduously in the interlude by the band, with the first lines of the succeed- ing stanza. But there was good, hearty singing, for all that. After this praise to God, nowhere more consonant than in religious Longmeadow,- came a seasonable reading from the Bible by Rev. A. I. Dutton of the East village : then Rev. Dr. Samuel Wolcott, pastor of the church more than a generation ago, offered prayer, and a hymn of Dr. Wolcott's writing was sung.
The tent, that held over 2,000 persons, was filled, every seat and much of its standing-room, and with solid New England, the best illustration of democracy in the world. The speaker's platform was on the east side, and filled with men and women of consequence. There were present Prof. Edwards A. Park of Andover ; Rev. Dr. Dorus Clarke, that veteran of Con- gregationalism ; the eloquent Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Rev. Aaron M. Colton, formerly pastor in Easthampton ; that noble and venera- ble woman, descendant of Rev. Stephen Williams, wife of the lamented missionary, Rev. W. G. Schauffler, and partner in his labors in Turkey : Rev. Dr. Wolcott of Cleveland (but soon to be again of Longmeadow) ; Rev. Dr. S. G. Buckingham, Rev. L. H. Cone, and Rev. Charles Van Nor- den of this city; Rev. Hubbard Beebe of New York, another former pastor ; Rev. W. E. Park of Gloversville, N. Y., son of the Andover pro- fessor ; Rev. Dr. Russell of Holbrook ; W. R. Sessions of Hampden, and others. Among the large group of octogenarians now living in Longmeadow and only recently thinned by the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Eliazer Wil- liams Storrs, aged 81 and 83, and Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Colton, 84 and 83, are
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still living Miss Eunice C. Storrs, only surviving child of Pastor Storrs, aged 82; Mrs. Cyrus Newell, 94 ; Dr. George Hooker, 90; Mrs. Wareham Col- ton, 86; David Booth, 86, with his sister, Mrs. Margaret Bartlett, 83, from Coleville, Ohio, several of whom occupied prominent places on the plat- form. Among other notable lady guests on the platform were Mrs. Prof. B. B. Edwards, of Andover, a granddaughter of Pastor Storrs, with her younger sisters Mrs. Prof. Mead of Oberlin, and Miss Billings, her daugh- ter Rev. Mrs. Park of Gloversville, and several other lineal descendants of Pastors Williams and Storrs, to whom, as will be seen, Prof. Park paid his particular respects in his after-dinner speech. The pastor of the church to-day, Rev. Mr. Harding, and the president of the day, Prof. R. S. Storrs of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Hartford, were the foremost ornaments of the first session of the day; and no two men could better have accomplished their public service.
Opposite the speakers hung a large placard bearing an inscription ; above in the center the date " 1644," beneath that "Welcome !" and flanking the welcome on either side the dates, " 1783," " 1883." It was facing this pla- card that President Storrs, himself a grandson of the second minister of Longmeadow and a cousin of Rev. Dr. Storrs of Brooklyn-both of them bearing the full name of their common ancestor-uttered his most poetic address of welcome given by Longmeadow to her children. The address is given elsewhere in full: and our readers will notice how naturally it runs into rhythmic melody, and how finely poetic its thought and phrase is throughout. It was in fact a gem of oratory, and was delivered with such grace of gesture and such fervor of utterance as rendered it doubly admir- able. The ease of Prof. Storrs' delivery reminds us to say that without doubt it is largely due to his long experience as a teacher of the deaf and dumb in the Hartford asylum ; for in that work not a few notable orators have been trained. His speaking was followed by the singing of a hymn he had written for the occasion, to the familiar " Missionary chant." and thereupon came the principal particular of the day, the centennial address by Rev. Mr. Harding.
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