USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Longmeadow > Proceedings at the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883 > Part 9
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Will Dr. Frederick Colton of Brooklyn, N. Y .- an Hebrew of the Hebrews-respond for the Colton, and any other, boys of later years.
DR. FREDERICK COLTON'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President :
Longmeadow is very dear to me; I am proud of her history, and never so proud as to-day. I am bound to her by the living, and by those who sleep among her dead. My arrangements are never made to revisit the old place but I feel the thrill of a boy's anticipation at returning home.
As soon as the train, sweeping around the curve, glides upon the long meadow stretch, and the familiar landmarks are one after another passed, my childhood begins to come back with a delightful vividness. Glancing over to where the Goss house used to stand, opposite the station, upon the river bank, my heart beats quicker ; for I recall how, one April day thirty-six years ago, a little fellow with pockets bulging with base balls and hands clutching tightly his cap lest it be lost, struggled hopelessly in the swollen river, until a brave man of the town periled his own life and saved mine. I would that he, the old parish sexton, Mr. Skinner Coomes, were alive, that he might know how gratefully I still cherish the memory of his heroic deed.
With a quaint and pleasing voice all her children were sum- moned "to celebrate in song and thanksgiving and historic reminiscences the one hundredth birthday of the town." My own recollections stop a little this side of the half-way mile- stone, but the contrasts between then and now are, some of them, sufficiently sharp.
There was the old meeting-house, with its high pulpit at one end, and choir at the other sustained by the base-viol, violin, and flute. Earnest exhortations from the pulpit, and copious drip- pings of liquified soot from long spans of stovepipe, furnished
THE MAJOR LUTHER COLTON HOMESTEAD AND ELM
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the spiritual and material droppings of the sanctuary. How delightfully I used to sleep there, if only I could get to my mother's end of the pew, and lay my head on her friendly lap. What jolly excursions into the sanctuary spire, to the great dismay of the swarming bats, when we boys climbed up the winding stairway and out upon the balcony, which commanded that rich view of mountain and meadow, and quiet river.
How eagerly did I watch for the crowing of the gilded cock -the "old Probabilities" of the village, before weather bureaus were invented-assured by gravest testimony that he did crow "every time he heard another rooster crow!"
And then the old brick school-house, which stood near by, since gone up in flames, where the brace of elms still chant their mournful requiem. Shall the boys and girls of my day ever forget the story of the ant, with which the good Parson Tupper of the East Parish was wont to point the lesson of perseverance ? How that seventy times the insect attempted to climb with its burden before accomplishing its purpose,-which was only a few times less than we heard the story. Shall we ever forget how we used to be got ready for examination by reciting, day after day, the same passages of English history, and placing the same examples on the black-board ? And when the great day came, how delighted our fathers and mothers were with our astonish- ing proficiency ; until, one luckless day, a new minister came into town and into the school-he seems almost as young to-day, so lightly do the years rest upon him-and after we had been put through our parrot-like performances as usual, took the question- ing into his own hands. How dumb as oysters we suddenly became! I think I can still hear the melodious strains which the master, in shirt sleeves, used to squeeze out of a mammoth . accordion, to the tune of "Oft in the Stilly Night;" or those which oftener came from some recalcitrant scholar under the infliction of his ruler.
Ah, those were the days of the ferule code, the thrashings, the dunce cap, standing on one foot, holding the arm extended at a horizontal, or bending the body forward until the hand touched the floor, with an occasional stroke-but I will not dwell longer upon these tender recollections ! And of the
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"select schools" which followed these juvenile experiences ; how gratefully the honored names of Goldthwait and Lawton are remembered by those who enjoyed their instructions.
Those, too, were the days when, on Saturday night, I wished the western mountains were deep valleys, that the sun, going down, might not so soon interrupt my sport; and on Sunday night, that the valleys were high mountains that the Sabbath rigor might sooner end.
Not unknown then, too, were the tavern and the toddy- stick; the horse-racings, foot-racings, and turkey-shootings, which, with their accompaniments, lowered the morals and cheapened the social values of our community.
Who will say that the former days were better than these ? Look at yonder beautiful house of worship, evolved as it were from the old, and none more attractive in any village of the Connecticut valley. Fire devoured the old brick school-house ; but out of the flames came a better one, and a new enthusiasm which put educational facilities on a higher plane. The best of teachers came, who used a kindlier discipline. Higher studies were introduced; and I have never ceased to appreciate my opportunity to get so far on in college preparation that one year more at Andover made it complete.
It may be that the pendulum is swinging too far from the rigid Sunday observances of the olden time ; but sure I am that the day has been brought into greater harmony with the declaration "The Sabbath was made for man."
In addition to the venerable "Benevolent Society," dating back in its origin to Pastor Williams, you have your "May Breakfast " and Christmas festivals ; your " Village Improvement Society," and your "T. T. T." clubs; all so conducive to good fellowship among the citizens, and to an enviable reputation ยท among the surrounding communities.
But I will not " extend my remarks," only to say that these days seem to me much better than the former; and to express the hope that, when the great-grandchildren of this generation shall gather under these elms to celebrate the next centennial, it may be not far from the gateway of the millenium.
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After a brief interlude by the band, the President said :
With a very tender partiality the Mother looks upon the children of her old age. Some bring it as a reproach against her that these younger children pull so stoutly and successfully away from her apron strings; and that her own attractions seem to have so little power to detain them at home. She herself, however, secure in her own conviction of their loyalty, bids them ever a hearty Godspeed when they go, and as hearty a welcome whenever, as this day, they return. Will the Rev. William W. Leete of Ridgefield, Conn .- under strictest seal of the confessional-indulge a Mother's affection with reminiscences of his own,-or his comrade's-boyish days.
REV. MR. LEETE'S ADDRESS.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :
This festal day is one of especial significance and sugges- tiveness to me. Elder John White, my ancestor upon my mother's side, and Governor William Leete of Connecticut, upon my father's side, from each of whom I am eight generations removed, died, both of them by a singular coincidence, in 1683, just two hundred years ago. It is not likely that I should be called upon to stand here except through my connection with the first of these names. My mother was born here. This ground was probably not unfamiliar to the Elder John. With that little company of one hundred he came under Thomas Hooker through the wilderness.to Hartford, and passed through your borders. Again and again he must have traveled on your roads as he went to found Old Hadley, and returned to spend his last days as Elder of the South Church in Hartford.
And I may fittingly mention my other ancestor, Governor Leete, to plead his example as an excuse from following exactly the line of thought which you, Mr. Chairman, have proposed to me. You have intimated that I might present some reminis- cences of the nature of a confession of my own boyish sins and those of my companions here. Permit me, rather, to draw from the example of my ancestor from Connecticut a lesson of reticence, at least, if not of charitable oblivion, for any such youthful peccadilloes of ours as you seem to suspect.
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When the ambassadors from the Court of England came, on the accession of Charles II, to search in this country for three men who had signed the death warrant of Charles I, they visited New Haven and Guilford. Coming to Governor Leete they desired him to assist them in seizing at once the transgressors whom they had reason to believe were hidden in his neighborhood. The day was the Sabbath, and the Governor's answer was that he could not offend against the sanctity of the Lord's day by engaging in a hunt for regicides. I wish that you would be so kind to-day as to call the misdemeanors of us young children, regicides. They were no doubt unjustifiable, and there ought to be a reckoning for them ; but we would not disturb the serenity of this your holy day in seeking them out. If these things must be revealed, let it be before a smaller company, where we should be less embarrassed and also probably more truthful.
But in regard to all else concerning the life of Longmeadow's younger children, I am glad to speak. Many of their faces have brightened the exercises of this hour, and their quick hands min- istered to your wants at the noon season. Another company must also be remembered, for I am sure they think of us to-day. How gladly would we take their hands in the midst of our festivities ! They are absent only because they cannot be here. But how attractive is Longmeadow to them still. Away in dis- tant homes, at school, journeying, or pursuing the life work of their various avocations-they pause to think awhile of the Mother's birth-day. Nor can we leave out in our computation a smaller company, and yet select, numbering in it some of the brightest, happiest of us all, whom God spared but too short a time in this earthly home, and whose departure started the tears which have not yet ceased flowing.
The impressions which the present generation have of Long- meadow are of the pleasantest kind. I do not here refer to those impressions which quick justice sometimes saw fit to give. They were duly painful at the time and called forth often loud lamen- tations. But their trace has long since passed away, and in spite of these chastisements it would be hard for us to find a place in which our life could have been happier.
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We are persuaded, moreover, that this is a good place in which to lay the foundation for a successful future. Great men have often been born in small places. As our thought roams over the past centuries, we see how, from one place and another, small in wealth and fame, have sprung the men who have stood in the front ranks of the theological, literary, political, and business world. Augustine, greatest of the four renowned fathers of the Latin Church, came from Tagasta, a minor town in Numidia. Anselm, the scholastic philosopher of the eleventh century, sprung from Aosta at the foot of St. Bernard. Jonathan Edwards, our New England theologian, whose voice was heard in the Long- meadow pulpit during the great revival of 1735-40, passed his early years a few miles below us at East Windsor. Shakespeare was christened in the little town of Stratford-on-Avon. Burns was born in the hamlet of Alloway in Ayrshire, the son of a peasant farmer of the humblest class. The republic is proud to tell of those who, like Abraham Lincoln and James A. Garfield, have risen to its highest honors from rural homes.
It may seem out of place to make such allusions, since none of us have attained to any great celebrity. But it is fair to con- sider the favorable conditions of our past and the possibilities, at least, of our unknown future. How appropriate this broad and sunny green and these overhanging elms, for the early home of such a man as Tennyson sings.
" Whose life in low estate began And on a simple village green. Who makes by force his merit known, And lives to clutch the golden keys To mould a mighty State's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne."
But if few great things can be reported of the later children of this village, it is fitting to say, that as far as I know, not a single one of the number has become openly vicious and depraved.
One noticeable peculiarity of our venerable Mother's house- hold is the mutual interest here felt by one child for another. The village is like one large family. There is a freedom allowed,
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and an interchange of social greeting which would be impossible except in a place as united and homogeneous as this.
It has been my privilege, within the last few hours, to con- verse with one of the older daughters attending the anniversary. While others were recalling names, a certain gentleman who once lived here was mentioned, and she remarked, " I knew him very well ; I was quite fond of him, and I think he liked me." This did not seem so strange ; but when several others were named, and she seemed to be equally fond of them all and they as fond of her, it led me to wonder whether social life was in those days, in this respect, at all peculiar. A moment's reflec- tion explained the matter. It was then even as now. The young people of Longmeadow to-day are attached to each other as the children of different families seldom are. To be sure the affinity becomes, in particular cases, so close that union becomes inevit- able ; and this, I suppose, was just the same long ago. But aside from these special cases. the esteem in which each holds the rest is something remarkable, and for this the younger children are thankful.
I would gladly speak did the time allow of our physical sports and recreations. What games we have had on this spacious green ! What long expeditions into the fields and wood for berries and nuts ! What enjoyable excursions to the river and ponds for fishing or bathing ! And how helpful all these to the muscular life of a boy !
Our thoughts, also, turn fondly to the intellectual and religious element in our early lives. Longmeadow would not be the Long- meadow of to-day without this venerable church. Around it has clustered the happiest associations, from it has emanated the spirit which has purified and beautified the social condition of this village. Here where you now sit stood the old church ; its slender and graceful spire, capped by the exultant rooster, of whose size we heard fabulous stories, and within whose body we conjectured all sorts of strange things were hidden. And high as that bird was, even beyond the reach of the arrows which we shot, and the stones which we threw, so high and shining was the ideal of Christian excellence preached within the walls,
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set before us by the pastor whom we loved and the teachers in the Sunday-school as the worthy object of our life's endeavor.
There are many thoughts of interest to which I might allude ; some tales, which, if unfolded, could create almost as much com- motion, as that which the ghost could have told to Hamlet. But I, like the ghost, will be considerate.
You have alluded, Mr. President, to the fact that the boys go away from Longmeadow. But you cannot wish to keep us all. There is a plant growing by your roadside,. which all the summer time is storing up seeds and fastening to them the softest and most delicate wings. Then when the frosts have come, and the fields are golden with autumn glories-the seeds fly away, and borne on the zephyrs or the storms they pass far beyond the house-lot, and the township, and resting at last, repeat in a new soil with the coming spring the same story of life and growth. If we who go forth are as true to your nurture as these humble plants, we shall but be, to your lasting honor, reproducing in other States and lands the charac- teristics of the place in which we had our training.
WVe, who are the young, have been asked to-day to listen to the things which have been done in the days of old. We have heard with abundant pleasure what has been told us, and the Mother never seemed so worthy, to us, as she does to-day. But I am sure we have a higher purpose in this celebration than merely to review the past, and to develop a wide self-consciousness. Our poet singing beautifully has also expressed the prayer-
"That the new century Break not the olden charm."
As the good Mother has rested her hands upon our heads in welcome and in blessing, she has turned her ear to catch from us some word of promise. The younger children speaking through me would utter it. 'Your future fame and glory rests with us. And as the day is closing, and ere we say good bye, we make the pledges to preserve as best we can, in time to come, that ancient and honorable name for sterling character, pure society, and enlightened faith, which has crowned this good old town through all her departed years.'
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The President : As the Austrian Empire is said to owe more of its standing among the nations to the matrimonial alliances of its royal daughters, than to its arms, so has Mother Longmeadow through many a daughter's plighted affections wedded herself to fame and fortune. Will the Rev. Dorus Clark, D.D., of Boston, speak of Long- meadow as a mother-in-law ?
REV. DR. CLARK'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President :
In obedience to your call upon "the sons-in-law" of Long- meadow, allow me to say, that the first time I saw this town was in the year 1822. I had occasion to go from Springfield to En- field, and " must needs pass through " Longmeadow. The Rev. John Wheeler, afterwards President of the University of Ver- mont, then preaching here as a candidate for settlement, was boarding with Capt. Burt, in the house now occupied by Mrs. Medlicott. I called to pay him my fraternal respects, as we had been well acquainted at Andover, and, after a little conversation, he said that his preparatory lecture was appointed that after- noon, and that it would be a great favor if I would stop and preach it. I did so; and, after the service, as we were saunter- ing up and down this beautiful street, talking over Andover mat- ters, he suddenly turned the conversation into another channel by saying, "Brother Clark, have you got a wife in training yet ?" I told him that I had been impervious to the attacks of Cupid unto that day. "Well," he said, " there are a dozen young ladies here, all of them well educated and qualified to be ministers' wives, and I advise you to look around." I replied that my time would not suffice to call on a dozen, but if he could narrow the case to a single individual, and that the right one, I might be open to conviction. "Well," he replied, "here she is; right here " (we were then passing by Mr. Bliss' door). "I know her well ; she is just the right one." You know that Davy Crockett used to say, "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." My friend was sure that he was right, went ahead, and introduced me to a young lady, who, within two years, became my wife, and contin- ued my beloved wife fifty-four years. Since her translation I have been a lone wanderer. If sainted spirits are permitted to
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visit this world, she is here to-day, for she was deeply interested in everything which concerned Longmeadow. She had a fer- vent love for the old church, which stood on precisely the spot we now occupy ; and, if possible, a warmer regard for the confer- ence-room in the attic of the old brick school-house hard by, where the beams and the rafters were visible, and where large audiences were often densely "compacted together." Sometimes a " Bochim," where the young people poured out their tears over their sins ; and sometimes the "land of Beulah," whence they could see the " Delectable Mountains," and, further on, the super- nal radiance of the "Celestial City."
Her brother, the Hon. Gad Olcott Bliss, was some five years younger than herself. When I first knew him, he was a stout boy, somewhat rough and brusque in his manners, and very willing to have his own way. He became interested in a young lady in this village, who was five years his senior. The Hon. Patrick Boies of Westfield, who knew the parties well, celebrated that event in heroic verse. One stanza ran on this wise :
" Bliss Olcott Gad, while yet a lad, Love did possess him wholly ; And under age he did engage To marry Harriet Cooley."
That early marriage was a benison to him. Harriet Cooley saved him, and she made him ; and though he stood at the head of his family and governed it, as by God's ordination every hus- band should do, yet after all she governed him, and very suc- cessfully too, because she did it so cautiously, kindly, deftly, Christianly, and because she had good sense enough never to tell him of it, and he never found it out.
Mr. Bliss was a highly respected and useful citizen. He was a man of affairs, and often employed to write deeds, execute wills, settle estates, - the untitled "Longmeadow lawyer." He was a Director of the Chicopee Bank, and at one time a Senator of the Commonwealth. Now, I hold that a young lady who can do what Harriet Cooley did ; who can save a young man, make him a man, and "govern " him when he needs it, deserves to be canonized. And, if the young ladies in this great assembly intend to "govern" their husbands, when they get
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them,-and some husbands need a good deal of "government,"- I hope they will do it after the fashion of Harriet Cooley.
Longmeadow has never been distinguished for lawyers. When Peter the Great was in London and he saw the law lords in their bag wigs coming out of Westminster Hall, he asked " who those fellows were." Being told that they were lawyers, he exclaimed, "What ! Lawyers ! What do they need so many lawyers here for? I have only two in Russia, and I mean to hang them as soon as I get home." I do not know that Long- meadow people have ever hung a lawyer, but they have starved them all out of the town !
Longmeadow is much noted for her religious activity. She has raised up a large number of eminent clergymen, and quali- fied not a few young ladies to become the worthy wives of cler- gymen. She has sent out her sons to "teach the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak." She has furnished wives for several foreign missionaries,-Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Schauffler, Mrs. Tem- ple, Mrs. McQueen, Mrs. Garner,-names lustrous in the annals of Missions.
Of that memorable "dozen" of young ladies who were here when I first knew Longmeadow, only one I believe, Miss Eunice C. Storrs, after the lapse of more than sixty years, now survives. She is widely known, and as widely beloved, respected, and hon- ored. I regret her inability to be with us here to-day, and my fervent prayer for her is, if I may adopt the old Roman suppli- cation, Serus in calum redeas.
Upon the tomb of John Howard, the English philanthropist, in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, you will find this inscription :
" He trod an open, but unfrequented, path to Immortality."
Longmeadow has done herself the credit, and the world the benefit, of sending forth many of her sons and daughters, east, west, north, and south, on multiform pursuits of usefulness ; and they have trodden the "open," and yet comparatively " unfre- quented paths to Immortality."
Mr. President, I have nothing but benedictions, of the most heartfelt character, to pronounce upon Longmeadow.
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The last of the series of After-Dinner Addresses was given by Judge William S. Shurtleff of the Probate Court of Hampden County, in reponse to the following introduction by the President :
In her Urban neighbor on the north, Mother Longmeadow recog- nizes not so much a mother to herself, as, rather, an elder sister, under whose legal guardianship she passed the years of her minority. The period of that guardianship was one of sisterly affection, and of due respect and subordination on the younger sister's part ; and the sub- sequent years have been fruitful of mutual harmony and happiness. Whether the guardian's final account has ever been rendered, the Mother is not wholly sure. If not, surely no extension of time beyond a century can reasonably be asked.
Will Judge Shurtleff of Springfield, respond for the guardian her- self.
JUDGE SHURTLEFF'S ADDRESS.
I regret to begin what I have to say to you with the correction of an error which the President of the Day has made, in stating that Springfield has been used to regard Longmeadow less as a daughter than as a ward, and that Longmeadow has been accus- tomed to consider Springfield rather as its guardian than as its parent.
As far as Springfield is concerned this is not so ; for she has never ceased to regard Longmeadow as a part of herself. Inter- meddlers have drawn a geographical line between the two sections of the old town, but no barrier has ever been estab- lished between the people. We do not recognize your right to a separate social existence from us, nor do we admit the validity of any decree that excludes us from co-socialty with you. Nor are we of old Springfield, a different people. New comers, during the past century, have crowded in upon us, bearing names strange to the old lists ; but we have still, as you have, the Blisses, the Coltons, the Elys, the Williamses, and certainly more Storr(e)s than you have. The Act of the "General Court" did not sever the ties of family relationship ; and, I repeat, despite the invisible geographical line of separation, we are still of you, and you are still of us, and we are of each other. I am of you, anyhow, and I shall adhere. Besides, I claim kin-
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