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 32
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We cannot dwell at any length over the new men. Thomas Dwight was a favorite for moderator in this period ; so were George Bliss and Oliver B. Morris. The town collector of taxes in 1803 was Pitt Bliss, and to him was committed no less than five separate rate lists, - town, county, state, parish, and district. Pitt Bliss was also
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a constable. The following year William Pynchon declined to serve as clerk any longer, and Edward Pynchon was chosen in his place. William received a generous vote of thanks for his long services. Jolin Hooker appears upon the select board.
We will here give a full list of officers of 1808, in order to show some of the changes that time was making in the personnel of the town : -
Moderator, Jonathan Dwight ; clerk and treasurer, Edward Pynchon ; seleetmen, Thomas Dwight, George Bliss, Major Moses Chapin, Rufus Sikes, and John Hooker; overseers of the poor, Justin Lombard, Judah Chapin, Walter Stebbins, Jonathan Dwight, Jr., and Zebina Stebbins; tythingmen, Edmund Dwight, Oliver B. Morris, Erastus Chapin, and Samuel Orne; assess- ors, Zebina Stebbins, Moses Chapin, and Pitt Bliss; hog-reeves, Lewis Good- now, Frederick Burt, and Frederick Chapin ; field-drivers, Silas Holton, Martin Burt, Thaddeus Ferre, Lewis Robinson, Joseph Robinson, Calvin Cooley, Caleb Simons, Ithamer Stebbins, and William Gaylord; pound-keeper, Preserved White; sealers of leather, Dormer Chapin and Pitt Bliss; fence-viewers, Festus Stebbins, Moses Burt, Jr., J. A. MeKinstry, James Meloin, William Sheldon, Levi Stedman ; firewards, Moses Burt, Jr., Major Jacob Bliss, Benjamin Pres- cott, Elisha Tobey, George Bliss, Frederick Chapin, Luther Hitchcock, Zebina Stebbins, and James Byers, Jr. ; surveyors of shingles and clapboards, Jacob Bliss, Joseph Pease, William Chapin, Jr., Festns Bliss, Pelatiah Bliss, and Joseph Griswold; surveyors of highways, Abel Chapin, David Arms, and Thomas Stebbins; constables, Henry Brewer and Oliver Chapin, Jr. ; collector, Jacob Bliss.
Springfield sent four representatives to the General Court in 1810, - Moses Chapin, Jacob Bliss, Oliver B. Morris, and Edmund Dwight. Four years later the list was reduced to three, - Samuel Orne, Edmund Bliss, and Joseph Pease.
The first proposals for a bridge over the great river were received with ridicule. "Parson Howard talks like a fool," said Colonel Wor- thington, in 1786, when the reverend gentleman predicted such an engineering event. But the bridge was a necessity, and it came. It was the younger men that carried the day, and October 30, 1805, the
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bridge was opened. The fact that financially it was the child of a lottery did not prevent the famous Dr. Joseph Lathrop, of West Springfield, from delivering a dedicatory sermon and offering prayer in the presence of some three thousand people gathered upon the bridge. The church bells were rung, cannon fired, and the people split their throats in their rejoicings. The bridge was a creditable piece of engineering for the times, it being considered equal to anything in America ; but a succession of floods weakened it, and it gave way to a heavy load of army supplies, nine years later. It has recently been incorrectly stated that the designer or builder is not known. A great many complimentrry things were said at the time of the master- builder, Jonathan Wolcot, of Windham, Conn., who had charge of the work. The piers and stone-work were done under a Worcester county contractor, named Israel Reed. We are informed that he had under him masons who were " artists in that branch of the business." The bridge was an open one, painted red, was 1,234 feet long, 30 feet wide, and stretched 40 feet above low-water mark. The six spans were supported by two abutments and five piers, each pier and abutment containing about 2,000 tons of stone. Two guard piers to check the force of the ice were built 80 rods above the bridge ; the curve in each arch was 187 feet. A local paper remarks with pride in 1805, just after it was opened: "This bridge is so con- structed with frames upon each pier connected by long timbers with the arches that the traveller passes over nearly the whole extent of it on an elevated plane, affording a view of extensive landscapes in which are blended well-cultivated fields, pleasant villages, rivers, meadows, lofty mountains, and indeed a wildness and variety in the beauties of nature which is highly gratifying to the eye." This clumsy and indeed grotesque structure, so arranged that the traveller was compelled to go up and down with the curves of each span, was pulled down soon after the freshets of 1814. It had cost $36,270, and the following tolls were charged : Foot passengers, 3 cents ; horse and rider, 7 cents ; Horse and chaise, chair or
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sulky, 16 cents ; chariot, phaeton, or other four-wheeled carriages for passengers, 33 cents ; curricle, 25 cents ; horse and sleigh, 10 cents ; neat cattle, 3 cents ; sheep or swine, 1 cent.
The second toll-bridge was opened to the public October 1, 1816, at a cost of $22,000. In November the advertisement of H. Brewer appeared in a local paper in this style : " There's a tide now flowing and is almost flood tide. Springfield bridge lottery is a fine tide of riches. Improve it. Set every sail. Soon it will be too late. The 26th is at hand." According to a large hand-bill issued by the man- agers, - N. Freeman, Justin Ely, Jr., and JJonathan Dwight, JJr., - and dated Boston, March, 1816, the toothsome particulars of a re- arranged scheme had been dwelt upon in very large letters. The head-lines ran : " All prizes - No Blanks and no Deduction - Springfield Bridge Lottery - First Class Scheme." The tickets were $6 each, so that the profits to the bridge company, not allowing for expenses and commission on sales, would be only $11,000. Some five hundred numbers were drawn per day, and accordingly for two weeks the local public was served with a series of conflicting sensations. There were several drawings in this town, and at least one local tavern scene is recalled where little girls, dressed in white frocks, per- formed the office of drawing the numbers. The Harvard college lottery, which was running in 1807, was well patronized in Spring- field. One of the men of Springfield who offered Harvard college lottery-tickets for sale was Landlord Eleazer Williams. Williams is remembered as a man who divided his time and peculiar genius im- partially between the ruffle in his bosom and the mixing of toddies, for which he was famous in these parts. It is recorded in the "Hampshire Federalist " that Williams sold the ticket which drew a $5,000 prize in the Harvard lottery ; but the name of the lucky ticket- owner is not known. We find that lottery-tickets were offered for sale here by J. & E. Dwight, Moses Bliss & Co., H. Brewer, and others.
In 1816 James S. Dwight, Samuel Lathrop, and JJosiah D. Whitney
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acted as the managing committee of the second Springfield bridge incorporators. This latter bridge was partly carried away in 1818 and restored in 1820, and has done much service until this day. The tolls were abolished in 1872. It is a longer bridge, and not as high as the first one, and is an exceedingly interesting structure. The
THE OLD TOLL-BRIDGE.
foot-path on the south side of the bridge was added in 1878. One cannot wander through this tunnel of early, hand-hewn New England timber and not see at every step the records of the years.
President Monroe passed over the bridge upon his famous New England tour in 1817. It was a very important occasion politi- cally and socially for this valley, and Massachusetts also. The opening of the bridge and the visit of Monroe may almost be said to
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mark a new era. The bitterness in politics occasioned by the em- bargo had been carried even to the breaking up of families. It was not, however, quite so bad as at the election of Jefferson, when many New England women hid their Bibles in the belief that the Virginian would inaugurate a system of persecution against Puritanism.
Monroe had been so well received at New York and elsewhere that by the time he reached our bridge he was greeted by a thoroughly cordial community. When the visiting chief magistrate reached the Massachusetts line from Connectiont, ascending the west bank of the river, he found sixty Springfield citizens upon horseback, many of them in military uniform, as well as scores in carriages, making a procession half a mile long. As they approached the village Captain Warriner had assembled his company of artillery at the bridge, where also a crowd had gathered. The church bells were rung, and a federal salute was fired. Old inhabitants can recall that memorable day : how a formal address was presented the President when he arrived at the Parsons tavern, then kept by Captain Ben- nett ; the visit to the armory, and the review of four hundred and ten
school-children. President Monroe was much interested in the little ones, and he said to the committee of entertainment standing beside him on the veranda of Parsons tavern, "I am much pleased and grati- fied with their appearance, and pray God to bless them, and you to carry your good designs into effeet." They say that men fraternized after the Monroe visit who had not spoken to each other for years.
Springfield had entered the century with a population of 2,312, which was less than the West Springfield figures. Even with the armory population the west side still led. The struggle was severe, ten years later Springfield having 2,767 inhabitants and West Spring- field 3,109. But in 1820 the village had risen to 3,914, with West Springfield a good second at 3,246, - the first time the village had secured the advantage in the memory of any man then living.
Both business and church activities were marked. In March, 1814, the Springfield bank (the first local bank of discount) was organized
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at Uncle Jerry Warriner's tavern. This was a part of a movement in favor of bank expansion. In 1811 the first United States bank had been refused a renewal of its charter by Congress, and this de- veloped the State banks. The New England banks did not suspend specie payments, as was the case elsewhere. The Springfield bank, like others, kept a deposit of specie at the Suffolk Bank of Boston, and it was no unusual thing for a cashier to bring back, by stage, 850,000 or $100,000 in bills in his valise. The Springfield Bank became the Second National Bank in 1863.
In 1820 an invention was made at the armory which gives Spring- field a notable place in the annals of mechanism. Thomas Blanch- ard's machine for turning irregular forms was introduced at the armory, under Col. Roswell Lee, the forerunner of the " interchange- able system," - a device which has revolutionized the whole subject of mannfacture, and is only next in importance to the great inventions of steam and telegraphy. Other places have claimed the credit of this great inventive discovery, but we think unsuccessfully ; and were we to give a history of industrial Springfield, we would be justified in devoting a whole chapter to this subject. Manufacture has been completely revolutionized by the interchangeable system, which has made it possible for Americans to undersell Swiss watchmakers in their own country, put cheaper and better pistols and rifles in foreign markets ; and, indeed, compelled other nations to take lessons of us in practical mechanics.
It was during this period, also, that Springfield started an interest in secret societies which has given the town and city such a position in the world of chaptered fraternities. The Hampden masonic lodge was formed in March, 1817. Its meetings were discontinued during the Morgan excitement from 1832 to 1846, which will be spoken of hereafter. It would not be surprising to see a masonic temple here before many years, contributing materially to the appearance of the city architecturally.
The slave had gradually lost his hold here, and it is mentioned
REV.B.HOWARD, D.D.
REV.S.OSGOOD,D.D.
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more as a graphie incident than a business matter that the citizens in 1808 bought and freed a fugitive. It was in February that a bill of sale was given by Peter van Geyseling, of Schenectady, to the select- men of Springfield, by which a negro woman, " Jenny," a fugitive, was given her freedom. "Jenny" had become favorably known in Springfield, and the subscription of $100 was easily raised. She and her husband, " Jaek," lived for many years near Goose Pond (Lake Como), and they added to their fame by selling a fine quality of spruce beer.
The " Old Academy " was started in the exciting year of 1812, and while many a struggle was precipitated over the raising of funds, its record was worthy of the people who were destined to found a city of homes.
Religious matters also largely occupied the thought of the town at this time. The half-way covenant was discontinued at the First Church in 1795. Mr. Howard, whose voice had failed him, retired from its pulpit in 1803, with a payment of $2,000, in three annual instalments, as a recognition of his work here. It was not until 1809 that Samuel Osgood, a young man of parts, was ordained and settled over the church, which had a membership of two hundred and twenty-five, with a precinct population of two thousand two hundred. Mr. Osgood was at first considered in danger of drifting with many other New England ministers of the day into Unitarianism, but he developed into a stout Orthodox divine. The old inhabitants have many anecdotes of this remarkable man. He was brave, original, clear-headed, earnest, and sound. Had he been called to public life, it would have been as a Garrison or Phillips. He had the commanding qualities of a moral sentiment, love of humanity, and picturesque methods of oratory. Men remember his wit, but better than that was hiis sterling worth. He carried his warfare, however, to great length. Owing to his personal opposition the Baptists were prevented from securing a foothold for some years. Osgood's parishioners were afraid even to attend Baptist meetings. The Baptists, after a
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struggle running over many generations, finally secured a lodgment at the water-shops, in 1811, with a membership of nineteen. The Methodists also followed in 1815, when a society connected with the Tolland (Conn.) circuit, that had met in private houses, reorganized with eleven members, under the ministry of William Marsh ; in 1819 it became a separate church, Rev. Daniel Dorchester, pastor.
In 1817 the first Episcopal services were conducted at the armory by Rev. Titus Strong, of Greenfield, and in 1820 the Methodist chapel known as Asbury Chapel was built at the water-shops. The First Episcopal Church was organized in 1821, with Rev. Edward Rut- lidge as pastor. This year also the first Baptist edifice was built at the water-shops, - 36 x 26 feet.
As to the First Congregational Church, the ministry of Dr. Osgood was carrying the congregation through the breakwaters of theological dissensions. The most complicated was precipitated in 1819, when Mr. Howard and twenty-five members of the church asked certificates of regular standing, that they might form a separate church. The application was refused. In June, 1818, fifty-four members of the First Parish had petitioned the Legislature to be set off as the Second Society. The petitioners paid one-third of the taxes of the parish, and they referred to the change that had come over Mr. Osgood in doctrinal matters. Mr. Osgood had gradually gained in power as an interpreter of the Scriptures in conformity with historical Congrega- tionalism, and the split was inevitable. In December, 1818, Mr. Howard and the Unitarian minority attended a parish meeting, but nothing was done beyond illustrating the hopelessness of a united congregation. The minority thought they were treated like " a com- pany of unprincipled men," and the souls of the majority burned with zeal for the ancient faith. Jonathan Dwight had a notion that if Dr. Osgood would resign they might unite upon a new minister ; but Dr. Osgood was not a resigning man, and so the break came. Mr. Howard was a man of singularly placid disposition, good judg- ment, and candor. He was a Calvinist by education, but a Unitarian
SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886.
377
by natural bent. How wisely, and with what inoffensive firmmess, he conducted the controversy with the First Church may be seen in the tracts issued at the time over the "old " and " new " theology.
E HOLY STOVE PHILIP WILCOX. TIN CUPPER SHEET MAX
HENRI L BUINFER FAMILY CHOPETUIET
NEW MILLENARY
ispelard-,
THE OLD TOWN HOUSE, STATE STREET.
His personal virtues and gifts are more than a tradition. Men still talk of Parson Howard, and honor his memory.
Jonathan Dwight, who was one of the men electing to die in old- fashioned small-clothes, but a newer religious faith, was the wheel- horse of the new organization. Dwight offered to build a house of worship for the new society, which was incorporated February 15, 1819, provided the rest of the congregation would establish a fund for the permanent support of the minister, to which there was a ready
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and substantial response. The corner-stone of the church, situated on State street (Kirkham and Olmsted block), was laid May 20, 1819, and in July of the following year a call was extended to Rev. William B. O. Peabody, and he was ordained October 20. Mr. Pea- body was a complete counterpart of Dr. Osgood, and when it is said that they became friends, it is only offering a tribute to the character of both. The stalwart Calvinist could shake hands with the mild- eyed Unitarian, and in time the two congregations came to look upon their old dissensions with the pleasurable feelings of the antiquarian.
But the building fever was contagious. The First Church was engaged upon its new house of worship, with its tall pillars, that now seem so ancient.
We have before referred to the court-house (Sanford street, built in 1720), which was used as a town-hall. It was occupied by the courts until 1820, when a new court-house (present Odd Fellows hall) was built ; but the old building was used as a town-hall eight years later, when the State-street town-hall was built on land owned by the First Parish, which took the building as part pay, and moved it back on Market street, where meetings were held. It was finally disposed of to the South Church, which in turn passed it on to be used as a car- riage-shop.
The need of a new court-house, and the building of the church, which latter was dedicated in August, 1819, led to the project of a public square, so much needed. The Dwights wanted it located some- where on State street, but the First Church people and Main-street business men struggled to some purpose. Daniel Bontecou, Edward Pynchon, Eleazer Williams, James Wells, Justice Willard, and others raised $3,000, bought the land constituting Court square, and deeded it to Hampden county in April, 1821, and in this year the new court- house (Odd Fellows hall) was occupied. Modern Springfield begins from this point ; and so it was through honest enmities, a considerate spirit, and the friction of business, religion, and politics, that the town grew and waxed strong in limb.
CHAPTER XVII.
1821-1831.
The " Federal Spy " and " Hampshire Federalist." - Samuel 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. - Popu- lation. - Fourth of July Celebration. - Political Banquets. - River Traffic. - River Steamers .- Stages .- Factories. - Postmaster Lombard .- Politics .- The Poor-Honse, - Selectmen from 1822 to 1826. - Destruction of the Pynehon Fort. - Temperance Society. - Jackson's Triumph. - Masonry. - Chapman & Aslimun. - Military Com- panies. - Ancient Trees, - Fire Department. - Lawlessness. -- Death of Jonathan Dwight. - Commerce on the River.
THE " Federal Spy " had passed into the hands of Timothy Ashley in 1799, when he took in Henry Brewer (father of H. & J. Brewer), who became sole proprietor in 1803, and in turn the property passed to Luther Baker in 1805, and Thomas Dickman in 1806, when the paper was called " The Hampshire Federalist." A. G. Tannatt & Co. followed Dickman in 1819, a year after the establishment of the " Hampden Patriot " by Dr. Ira Daniels, and lingered till about 1824, when Samuel Bowles, a Hartford printer, started the "Springfield Republican." Mr. Bowles came from a Roxbury family of quality. He had rare good judgment, was odd in appearance, of a scholarly temperament, though denied a college training, and ambitious be- yond the capabilities of a weak body. He had as an ancestor John Eliot, the Indian missionary, while the young woman whom he married was a descendant of Miles Standish. The early repre- sentatives of the Bowles family were church elders, members of the General Court, or town officials, and usually college educated ; the later members of the family, on whom rested the burden of a paper that became an institution in this country, as a rule declined positions
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of Church and State, while the college course was not permitted them. Mr. Bowles entered upon his newspaper venture just in time to have a hand in shaping the reorganization of parties in this region, and to stand behind and lend aid and encouragement to the business men of the community who were bent upon taking invention by the hand, that wealth might follow. The old federal and democratic parties were disintegrating, and Mr. Bowles started out as the local organ of the national republican party, which was really the demo- cratie party ; but Mr. Bowles passed to the whig party, and sup- ported Levi Lincoln for governor in 1825. The first number of the weekly " Republican " appeared September 8, 1824, and was issued on Wednesdays from a modest little office opposite the present Chico- pee Bank. The " Hampden Patriot " had been discontinued. There was a national republican (democratic) majority in Hampden county and in Hampshire county ; the party had a good footing ; but Mr. Bowles found that he could not work for the best interests of his State and the democracy at the same time, and so changed the politi- cal complexion of the paper. His whig affiliations continued until the coalition of 1848 and the formation of the republican party.
Springfield was even at this early day an important factor in State politics, due in a measure to the able men gathered at the Hampden bar. We find the names of George Bliss, Jr., William B. Calhoun, Justice Willard, and John Mills, figuring frequently on the pages of the press from this period down for many years. Mr. Calhoun early took an interest in public affairs ; but he was a contemplative, serious man, who dwelt upon problems, social and political, with the spirit of a philosopher, rather than upon the manipulation of caucuses. He inspired confidence rather than enthusiastic admiration, and during a long public career was in turn State representative, congressman, State senator, secretary of state, State bank commissioner, presi- dential elector, county commissioner, and finally mayor of the city. Springfield never had a citizen who received so many political favors from her, and did so little to secure them. Mr. Calhoun had the
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quality, inherited from his Scotch father, of candor and discretion. He was honorable, self-reliant, true, and religions. But he was lacking in the qualities that shine in a court of law. He, indeed, chose the profession that least befitted him ; but his law education, though meagre practice, was of value as an equipment for public life. He had been but a few years engaged in the law when he was picked out by the local public as a man for representative in 1825. Mr. Calhoun was an editorial writer on the weekly "Republican," and in later years he was a contributor to the daily "Republican ; " his success editorially was based upon the importance and soundness of his views, rather than upon the manner of presenting a subject. " Calhoun is an erudite writer," Mr. Bowles, the second, used to say, " but he needs some pepper injected into his veins."
Of John Mills we have already spoken. He was a man of sin- gularly pleasing address, and as he grew in popularity and avoir- dupois, his gracious and almost ducal bearing, his candor and old- fashioned methods of reasoning, and his scrupulous uprightness minimized the effect of his besetting weakness, - a too implicit con- fidence in human nature. An old Springfield whig once remarked that he happened to know but one honest politician, and that was John Mills.
A curious circumstance attending Mr. Mills's career at Boston has survived the visit of Lafayette to this country. Mr. Mills was the youngest member of the Senate. The two houses were gathered to- gether at the reception given General Lafayette, and the distinguished Frenchman passed along shaking hands with every member. When he came to Mr. Mills the great visitor stopped, glanced at the prema- turely bald head of the precocious Hampden county senator, and ex- tending both hands exclaimed, " My dear friend, I recollect you in the Revolution." This absurd scene suggests a remark of Patrick Boise, of Westfield, a man of parts and one of the wits of the old Hampden bar, that it was John Mills's shining bald head that made him president of the Senate. Mr. Mills was a member of the Massa-
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