USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Springfield, 1636-1886 : history of town and city, including an account of the quarter-millennial celebration at Springfield, Mass., May 25 and 26, 1886 > Part 2
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI. - (1800-1821.)
The United States Armory. - David Ames. - Roswell Lee. - " Toddy Lane." - The Dwight Store again. - Other Buildings of Interest. - Incorporation of Hampden County. - Fight over the Offices. - The Embargo Troubles. - The Hartford Convention. - The Character of George Bliss, First. - Town Acts. - William Ely. - Town Officers for 1808. - Bridges over the Connecticut. - Visit of President Monroe. - Population. - The Spring- field Bank. - Springfield Fraternities. - The Old Academy. - Samnel Osgood. - Baptists and Methodists. - Rev. W. B. O. Peabody. - New Congregational Meeting-House and Court-House.
CHAPTER XVII. - (1821-1831.)
The " Federal Spy " and " Hampshire Federalist." - Samnel Bowles, the First. New Blood in the Village. - The Characters of William B. Calhoun, John Mills, Oliver B. Morris, and George Bliss, Jr. - Philanthropy. - The Colonization Society. - Population. - Fourth of July Celebration. - Polit- ical Banquets. - River Traffic. - River Steamers. - Stages. - Factories. - Postmaster Lombard. - Politics. - The Poor-House. - Selectmen from 1822 to 1826. - Destruction of the Pynchon Fort. - Temperance Society. - Jackson's Triumph. - Masonry. - Chapman & Ashmun. - Military Com- panies. - Ancient Trees. - Fire Department. - Lawlessness. - Death of Jonathan Dwight. - Commerce on the River.
CHAPTER XVIII. - (1831-1841.)
The Era of Railroad Building. - Canal and Railroad Advocates. - The Old Western Road. - A Mass Meeting at Springfield. - Hartford's Rival Scheme. - Stock Subscriptions. - Seeking State Aid. - Democratic Party Opposition. - River Boats. - Chicopee and Cabotville. - School Districts. - Activity in Real Estate. - A Washington's Birthday Celebration. - Visit of Henry Clay. - William B. Calhoun. - Temperance. - Elliot-Buckland Murder Trial. - Revolutionary Pensioners. - George Bliss in Politics. - Springfield's Bi-centennial. - Fourth of July at Factory Village. - George Baneroft in Local Politics. - The Fifteen-Gallon Law. - Marcus Morton. - A Harrison Demonstration. - Slavery. - Dr. Osgood. - Springfield Statistics. - Newspapers. - Dr. Joshua Frost. - Churches. - The Fire Department. - Military Companies.
CHAPTER XIX. - (1841-1852.)
Maj. Edward Ingersoll. - Colonel Ripley. - Military Superintendents. - Pro- test of the Armorers. - Charles Stearns. - Col. Roswell Lee. - The " Stearns Riot." - Long Litigations. - Politics. - Ashmun's Defence of
CONTENTS.
Webster. - Liquor Licenses. - Arrival of John Quincy Adams's Body. - Ashmun's Publie Career. - The Thompson Riots. - Eliphalet Trask's Posi- tion. - Erasmus D. Beach. - John Mills again. - Chapman as a Statute- Maker. - Railroads. - Visit of Charles Dickens. - More River Steam- boats. - The Fire of 1844. - Real-Estate Changes. - Proposal for a City Charter. - Deaths of N. P. Ames, David Ames, and Dr. Peabody. - Newspapers. - Churches. - Removal of the Old Cemetery. - Jenny Lind. - New Business Enterprises. - Militia. - The New City.
CHAPTER XX. - (1852-1860.)
The New City. - Ansel Phelps, Jr. - New Buildings upon Main Street. - The Growth of Holyoke. - Labor Troubles. - The Boston & Albany Railroad .- Kossuth. - Philos B. Tyler. - Retirement of Dr. Osgood. - Gen. Whitney. - Know-Nothingism. - Mayor Trask. - Dedication of the City Hall. -- The Fremont Campaign. - The City Library. - The Home Exhibition of 1853. - Death of Daniel Lombard. - Panic of 1857. - Failure of the Western Bank. - George Bliss and Benjamin Butler. - Politics. - Dr. Chaffee. - Free-Soil Excitement. - John Brown. - The Club. - The Dred Scott De- cision and Springfield. - More Politics. - John Brown's Letter to Chapman.
CHAPTER XXI. - (1860-1886.)
The War and Politics. - Springfield in the Chicago Convention. - Lincoln's Letter to George Ashmun. - City Politics. - Union Rallies. - Activity in Real Estate. - Various Enlistments. - A Record of Springfield Soldiers who died in Battle and in Hospital. - Fires. - Newspapers. - The Death of Samuel Bowles. - His Character as a Journalist. - Theology at Indian Orchard. - Rev. James F. Merriam.
CHAPTER XXII. - (MAY 25, 1886.)
Preparing to Celebrate the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Found- ing of the Town. - The Citizens' Committee. - Service of Praise at the First Church. - The Loan Exhibition. - Tuesday's Ceremonies. - Band Concert. - Judge Henry Morris's Address. - Judge William S. Shurtleff's Ode. - The Banquet at the Massasoit Hotel. - Interesting After-dinner Speeches. - Letters of Regret. - A Brilliant and Remarkable Occasion.
CHAPTER XXIII. - (MAY 26, 1886.)
The Second Day of the Celebration. - The Children's Concert. - The Proces- sion. - Distinguished Guests. - Historical Representations,-The Veterans in Line. - The Trades. - The Grand Ball at the City Hall, which closed the Ceremonies of the Great Celebration of May 25-26, 1886.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE SPRINGFIELD CHURCH, ENGLAND . vii
THE ROXBURY EMIGRANTS
7
OLD INDIAN DEED . 13
PYNCHON OPPOSING CAPTAIN MASON'S DEMANDS 27
THE INDIAN CORN FLEET 37
OLD DUTCH MAP OF CONNECTICUT RIVER . 40
PYNCHON'S BOOK BURNED ON BOSTON COMMON .
114
FAC-SIMILE TITLE-PAGE PYNCHON'S BOOK
117
THE PYNCHON TABLET AT WRITTLE, ENGLAND . 121
INTERIOR OF CHURCH WHERE WILLIAM PYNCHON IS BURIED 145
THE OLD PYNCHON "FORT" OR RESIDENCE 146
INDIANS FROM THE STOCKADE PREPARE TO BURN SPRINGFIELD, 1675, 163
MAJOR JOHN PYNCHON'S RIDE 167 206
PYNCHON COAT OF ARMS
CRADLE OF PYNCHON FAMILY 238
THE READING OF MR. BRECK'S CONFESSION OF FAITH 249
PARSONS TAVERN. 1776 285
DEFENDING COURT-HOUSE AGAINST SHAYS'S INSURGENTS 318
WARMING-PAN AND FOOT-STOVE . 0
330
1
THE DWIGHT BRICK STORE, AS IT APPEARED ABOUT 1860 339
MAP OF ARMORY HILL, ABOUT 1810 355
THE OLD TOLL-BRIDGE . 372
THE OLD TOWN-HOUSE, STATE STREET 377
0
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE BLISS RESIDENCE
. 385
BURNING U.S. ARMORY, 1824
392
ARCHWAY TO THE SPRINGFIELD CEMETERY . 403
THE OLD ELM ON ELM STREET
C 405
EXPRESS TRAIN ON WESTERN RAILROAD
416
ADVERTISEMENT OF HAMPDEN COFFEE-HOUSE
424 425
THE OLD HAMPDEN COFFEE-HOUSE
REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONERS AT THE COURT-HOUSE. 1832 429
MAP OF SPRINGFIELD, 1836
· 438
DEPOT AND OLD RAILROAD BRIDGE
479
THE CORNER BOOKSTORE
485
CITY HALL TOWER AND CHURCH SPIRES
492
JOHN BROWN ORGANIZING A SECRET LODGE AMONG NEGROES, 1851,
505
THE WAIT MONUMENT AND ROCKINGHAM HOUSE
508
ENTRANCE TO U.S. ARMORY .
9 517
THE OLD COUNTY JAIL .
521
"AGAWAM " FERRY-BOAT
525
OLD ELY TAVERN AND BLAKE HOMESTEAD, DWIGHT STREET .
531
PARSONS TAVERN AS IT APPEARED IN 1886 541
WEST ENTRANCE TO OLD TOLL-BRIDGE 545
THE PROCESSION. MAY 26
619, 623, 626
STEEL ENGRAVINGS. WILLIAM PYNCHON.
JONATHAN DWIGHT.
GEORGE BLISS.
REV. B. HOWARD.
SOLOMON WARRENER.
REV. S. OSGOOD.
JUDGE R. A. CHAPMAN.
OLIVER B. MORRIS.
CHESTER W. CHAPIN.
EDWARD PYNCHON.
DR. DAVID P. SMITH.
GEORGE ASHMIN.
SAMUEL BOWLES.
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886
SPRINGFIELD 1636 - 18867
+P3ATAS
Chapter 1.
1635
- 1637.
The Roxbury Settlers. - Causes of their Migration to the Connecticut Valley. - The Probable Route from Roxbury to Springfield. - The " Old Connecticut Path" and the "Old Bay Path." - The First House. - The Dress of the Springfield Pioneers. - Buying Indian Lands. - The First Owners of House-lots. - The Peqnot War. - William Pynchon a Trader. - Rev. George Moxon. - The Town Meeting and the English Vestry Meeting. - Ownership of Lands in Common.
IN these simple chronicles of Springfield there is no occasion to give in detail the causes that led William Pynchon and his associates to leave Roxbury, and to settle in the Connecticut valley. The prospect of better trade in the west was no doubt one motive, and the exacting conditions of government, also, must have influenced them. The tendency at Boston to limit the qualifications of freemen, and to expand the prerogatives of those in authority, had already appeared. The setting up of the " standing council for term of life " had given rise to serious misgivings in the minds of many.
The Bay authorities looked with no little concern upon the first proposals to people the Connecticut valley. They had dismissed, with some show of impatience, Plymouth's proposition even to join in a western trading expedition ; nor had the adventurous John Oldham endeared himself to the people at the Bay, who frowned upon his "vast conceipts of extraordinary gaine." But it is quite possible that Mr. Pynchon gave Oldham substantial encouragement in his
2
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
work of exploring the Connecticut valley. When Oldham's estate was settled it was found that he owed Mr. Pynchon £22 19s. 9d.
It has been usually taken for granted that William Pynchon pros- pected in this valley in 1635. It must have been a hasty trip, how- ever, as he was at Boston in March, April, May, June, July, August, and November of that year. He did not attend the September court, however. The first house on the banks of the Agawam river, which empties into the Connecticut just below Springfield, was built in 1635, the workmen arriving in time for the spring planting. If Mr. Pynchon himself went thus early he anticipated the action of the General Court, which did not pass the vote authorizing the forming of a new plantation until May.
The route taken by the early prospectors and settlers of Spring- field rests under quite as deep a cloud of doubt as the dates them- selves. There is an old romance, written by a native of Springfield, entitled " Letoula ; or, a legend of Springfield ; founded on Fact." It contains the following passage : -
At the close of a summer evening in 1635. as the sun was sinking in the far west and casting its last brilliant beams through a hedge of willows which bordered the sparkling waters of the lovely Connectient, a birch canoe, shooting by an opening in the willows, approached the shore. A small party of English- men disembarked, and, accompanied by a guide, ascended the hill. They were met at the summit by a sachem, who conducted them inside the palisadoes. The next morning a council was held, and the strangers made known the object of their visit, which was to purchase land for a settlement.
There is probably as much truth in this avowed work of fiction as in some of the professedly historical accounts. A house was already up, and crops growing, in the summer of 1635, and the parley with the Indians had, of course, taken place before that. The story that the Roxbury party, led by William Pynchon, approached the Connect- icut valley substantially over the Boston & Albany Railroad route, may safely be set down as a piece of visioning. A speaker in an
3
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
historical address has recently assumed that the Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield parties came down the Chicopee valley, and thence drifted south. Dr. Holland also accepted tradition, and used it in his history, as well as for his purposes of fiction, when he described the approach of the Springfield pioneers from the " Old Bay Path." But the " Bay Path " was not opened until 1673, nearly forty years later.
The Indian situation may enlighten us somewhat upon this sub- ject. The English explorers of that early day found that the site of Woodstock, Conn., was in a rich corn region, where the grain was stored in Indian " barns," or cellars with baked-clay walls. From Woodstock ran old trails in every direction. It was, in fact, an Indian trail centre. Governor Winthrop was supplied with corn in 1630 by Indians, who bore it in skins upon their backs to the Bay. This early supply-train proceeded from Woodstock past the site of Dudley, Grafton, Hopkinton, South Framingham, Cochituate pond (Framingham), north bank of Charles river, and thenee to Cam- bridge and Boston. Nor did these Indians even then break through an untrodden forest. They took the trail known later as the Old Connecticut Path, the one followed by John Oldham on his way to the site of Wethersfield in 1633. Hooker and Stone took this route in June, 1636. It had been developed from an Indian trail to an English bridle-path for horses and cattle. No one ever accused William Pynchon with any lack of business qualities. He was a practical man of affairs. It is absurd, therefore, to suppose that he rejected the forest-trail connections of the country, and pushed on with his little company of men, women, and children through a trackless wilderness.
We have spoken of Woodstock as a trail centre. One trail ran from thence to the Narragansett country and to Norwich ; another north-west, through Southbridge to Sturbridge, there splitting, - one continuing to Springfield, and the other to the Falls on the Connect- icut, at Holyoke. There was still another Indian trail, which left
4
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
the Old Connecticut Path at Wesson, and ran through Sudbury Centre, Nashaway, Princeton, New Braintree, West Brookfield, Warren, Brimfield, and Springfield ; but, from Winthrop's Journal, it appears that the English did not know of it till 1648. It was in 1649 that John Eliot wrote : " 20 myles up the river layeth Spring- feild where Mr. Moxon is pastor. And this towne overland from the Bay layeth : 80 : or : 90 : myles South West and is the roade way to all the towns upon this river and lye more southward." This was true in 1649, but not in 1636.
We feel free to conclude, therefore, that Mr. Pynchon approached the Connecticut valley, on his preliminary expedition in 1635, by the Old Connecticut Path. He had with him John Cable, John Woodstock, and an Indian interpreter. With an eye for trade he at once saw that he would not be content to settle his Roxbury com- pany below the other Connecticut plantations, and he determined to prospect. Ile ascended the " grate ryver " until he came to the mouth of the Woronoco river (Agawam), where he found Indians noted for their beaver-hunting propensities. He was unaware that he had pushed far enough north to be outside the Connecticut juris- diction. He struck a bargain with the Agawam Indians, who had a fort on a hill overhanging the east bank of the river, and who had extensive planting-grounds on the west side of the Connecticut, south of the Woronoco river. Leaving his men to plant. and to build a house about half a mile above the mouth of the Woronoco river on the south side, he hastened back to the Bay. A Dorchester party visited the Agawam in July, but returned to the site of Windsor.
Having begun to tamper with tradition as to these ancient matters, we are impelled also to cast a doubt over the usual narrative that Mr. Pynchon's company encamped on the present site of Springfield upon their arrival in the spring of 1636. The Indians had told them, so the story goes, that the house in the Agawam meadow was exposed to floods in the spring and autumn, and it was accord- ingly abandoned the year it was built. What little is known about
5
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
this house points just to the other conclusion, - that it was not only not pulled down, but actually sheltered some of the first arrivals in 1636. The truth is, that when the English put in an appear- ance in 1636 with their families, the Indians raised on the price of their lands along the Agawam, and it was not the danger from floods alone that induced the settlers to change the site of the pro- posed town.
In a memorandum made by John Holyoke, over forty years later, is to be found a sentence that tends to clear this question up, and to show that the old house in the Agawam meadow was standing in 1636. Here it is : -
Memorandum : Agaam or Agawam. It is that medow on the south of Agawam River where ye English did first build a house, wh now we comonly cal house medow, that peice of ground it is wh ye Indians do call Agawam, & yt ye English kept ye residence, who first came to settle and plant at Springfeild now so called : & at ye place it was (as is supposed) that this purchase was made of the Indians.
It is argued, however, that the word "purchase " in the above document means the original verbal bargain struck by Pynchon and the Indians in 1635, and not the actual passing of the deeds in July, 1636. This inference would compel us to make a forced construc- tion to the following passage in the compact that was drawn up a few days after the arrival of the Roxbury pioneers, in May of that year : -
* 10ły. That wheras a howse was built at a comon charge which cost 6£ and alsoe the Indians demannd a greate some to buye theyr right in the sd lands. and alsoe a greate shallope, which was requisite for the first plantinge. the valew of which engagements is to be borne by each inhabitant at theyr first entrance. as they shall be rated by us till the sd disbursements shall be satisfyed, or else in case the sd howse and boat be not soe satisfyed for. then soe much meddowe be sett out about the sd howse as may countervayle the sayd extraordinary charge.
6
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
It would be rather a difficult thing to set apart meadow land about a house that had been pulled down, and we can safely assert that the original house on the banks of the Woronoco river had not been pulled down in the spring of 1636, tradition to the contrary notwith- standing ; and it is equally safe to infer that it sheltered, at least, a part of the Roxbury arrivals.
The year 1636 was indeed an active and trying one for Mr. Pyn- chon. Besides his duties as a member of the Board of Commis- sioners appointed by the Massachusetts Bay General Court, to govern for one year the plantations that might be started in the valley of the Connecticut, Mr. Pynchon had to take full charge of the transportation of his party, and their household goods and effects, advancing a large part of the money required for that pur- pose. The March session of the General Court was full of excite-
ment. The insecurity felt on account of the restless Indians, the reconstruction of the courts, the establishment of quarter sessions, the special religious meetings of sundry uneasy spirits in some of the churches, the setting up of a standing council from among the magis- trates with life terms, and finally the appointment of the Connecticut commission of eight, were but the most important matters considered at that time.
Sixteen hundred thirty-six may be called the exodus year to the Connecticut valley. Parties from the east were pushing to the sites of Hartford, Windsor, Springfield, and Wethersfield all that spring and summer ; and while the men at the Bay could do no less than bid them God-speed, we know that nothing but the stoutest ties that keep 1 just minds to their moorings prevented an open rupture.
Governor Winthrop's " Blessing of the Bay " sailed from Boston for the Connecticut river April 26, and about this time the body of the Roxbury pioneers penetrated the Massachusetts wilderness. A reference to this vessel and its service to Pynchon is made in a subsequent letter to John Winthrop, Jr., in which he writes : -
.
THE ROXBURY EMIGRANTS.
8
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
Pray accept my Bill of exchang to you by Mr. Peeters for 63 li : & as for the freight of the Blessing formerly, I have a perfett account of it: but I have not writt with Anthony Dike to confer my notes with him, & as for the freight of the Batcheller. I shall make up the tumnag with Mr Gose at Watertowne; for thither I have conditioned that she must deliver our goods. I asked Lieftenant Gibbins, before I would hier her, if she might goe as far as Watertowne, & he confidently affirmed she might, & that there is water enough; therefore I pray give all the furtherance you can. .
Both the . Blessing " and the "Batcheller " carried goods for the Roxbury party, it would seem from this. The first instalment of the Roxbury band accomplished its journey between April 26 and May 14, when the first recorded meeting took place. This instalment in- cluded at least a dozen families. The horse-litter for the aged or indisposed was the only vehicle practicable along the forest bridle- path to the wild west. Cows and pigs were included in the pioneer procession, while the armed outpost would lead the way over a pine plain or down a forest ravine, in order to clear natural obstructions or prospect for savages. While the colony was upon the verge of a terrible Indian war, there is no reason to doubt that the Pynchon party was well received at the Indian villages which they passed. Mr. Pynchon was accompanied doubtless by his bride, Frances Sanford, "a grave matron of the church at Dorchester," whom he had married not long after the death of the first Mrs. Pynchon.
Puritanism was the religion of honest, unaffected, and stalwart simplicity, which expressed itself strikingly in dress ; but the plain garb of those days figures in our nineteenth century eyes as pictu- resque in the extreme.
There is a natural curiosity as to the costuming of the pioneers, and a diligent search has served to satisfy this curiosity in part. Most of the troopers and young men wore the customary jerkins or waist- coats of green cotton, caught at the waist with either red tape or a leather band. Over this some would wear a mandilion, or sleeveless jacket, held at the neck with hooks and eyes, and lined with cotton.
9
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
As the expedition was through a wilderness during a possibly rainy spring, some may have been dressed at times in the uncomfortably warm doublet and hose of leather lined with oiled skin, in which case they would abandon their large, conical broadbrims for cooler, red, knit Puritan caps. The half-boot was much worn then, and Mr. Pynchon would wear great boots, - a luxury limited by law to those whose estate was at least £200. The broad, white collar of the period would not be demanded upon such an expedition. The women of the band would wear strong, simple kersey gowns, with hoods, caps, high necks, and neckcloths, their home-made gowns falling to the stout boots with the directness of a decree from heaven. The short sleeves and bare arms, and bunches of green ribbon (not, however, required on such a journey), had been forbidden by the authorities ; but an inspection of the manuscript and printed remains of pioneer life in New England shows that neither the ingenuity of man, nor the dangers of the wild beasts or wilder men, kept the New England woman from reflecting in her attire something of the grace and taste that Heaven sheds upon her sex ; and, therefore, if during this expedition some yeoman did not discover it a pleas- ure to tramp beside his horse that a maid might be the better placed, and her forest-decorated gown appear to better advantage, then Springfield was not at first peopled with the average quality of Puritans.
It profits us little to linger over a chapter of history which is founded upon an hypothesis and developed upon slender threads of inference, but one cannot but look twice at the possible scenes along this route to the Connecticut, - the encampment at a hamlet of wig- wams, the fair-faced matron and the leather-dressed squaw, the ex- pressions of a mutual spirit of concord and curiosity among the soft-voiced strangers in green and black and the natives, the psalm-singing cirele about the camp-fire, and the wondering savages before their wigwams.
Mr. Pynchon had secured an interpreter named Ahaughton. through
10
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
whom he could communicate with the Indians, and, so far as is known, the great journey was accomplished withont accident, at least without serious delay.
It is quite possible that the pioneers turned north-west at Wood- stock, and followed the trail to the site of Springfield ; but as this trail was not a bridle-path for the admission of horses and cattle, and as their goods were sent on boat cie Saybrook and Windsor (for Pynchon had letters to the church at Windsor), even this supposi- tion is to be doubted. We believe that the pioneers came up the river to the Woronoco, or Agawam river, and were sheltered in the old, original house on the Indian meadows, now forming a part of the town of Agawam, on the south bank, about half a mile from the spot where it empties into the Connecticut.
Before the Indian deeds were secured the little company made a formal declaration of their intention to establish a town. They were three days in drawing up this covenant, or town constitution, as it may be called. No reference to any colony jurisdiction occurs in this document. They were theoretically under the Massachusetts Bay goverment, but really formed a part of Connecticut. They began their covenant by saying that they "doe mutually agree to certayne articles and orders to be observed and kept by us and by our successors, except wee and every of us for ourselves and in oure persons, shall therein meet uppon better reasons to alter our present resolutions." They declared first their intention to procure a minister. The town was to be limited to fifty families ; each inhabitant, that is, head of a family, to have a house-lot and an allotment of planting-grounds, pasture, meadow, marsh, and timber land. Taxes were to be levied upon land only. William Pynchon, Jehu Burr, and Henry Smith were given forty acres of meadow-land, south of the "End Brook," to be exempt from taxation on account of the money paid out by them in found- ing a town. No man but William Pynchon was allowed to have ten acres in his house-lot. The men signing this agreement were,
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