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 35
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
all this region. They had made raids upon the stores of Bemis & Sheffield, Chicopee ; J. & C. Ely, West Springfield ; Winslow's clock shop, and the residence of Jonathan Blake, in this town. Elijah Blake distinguished himself by organizing a party. The woods were scoured, and one Russell Stephenson and one George Ball were overhauled in the woods Sunday morning, May 24, 1829, in a hovel where booty was concealed. Stephenson drew a pistol on Blake, but he was not quick enough. Ball was seized by W. Chapin, and it was said at the time that some of the party were too busy looking out for their own safety in the event of stray bullets to be of service. Judge George Bliss committed the men for trial. Erastus Stephenson (a brother) was also arrested. At the trial of Stephen- son and Ball a Immorous court scene is still remembered. The prisoners had entered George Blake's house through the buttery win- dow by pulling away a twine net, and the lawyer for the defence asked the judge to charge that burglary implied a breaking of the house, and " that tearing down a net made of double twine nailed to keep out cats is not such a breaking as to constitute the offence charged." The judge declined to so charge ; the case went up on appeal, and the prisoners were sent to prison for life. William L. Loring was convicted this year also for receiving and concealing a body taken from the Springfield burying-ground on Elm street.
Among the prominent Springfield men who died during this period may be mentioned John Hooker, judge of probate from 1813 to 1829. He was president of the Springfield Bank, and was one of Springfield's substantial citizens, a man of integrity, and much hon- ored. Jonathan Dwight, JJr., succeeded him at the head of the Springfield Bank, Oliver B. Morris, his old friend, took his place as probate judge, and Justice Willard was made register of probate. George Bliss, Sr., passed away the 8th of March, 1830, aged sixty, and a few days later the venerable Dr. Chauncey Brewer died (March 15, aged eighty-seven). The doctor was the oldest prac- titioner of western Massachusetts, and the same age of Jonathan
That Chubbuck, Eng" Springfield, Muss
Adward Synchon.
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Dwight, a deacon at the First church and for over half a century prominent in town affairs, as we have seen. March, 1830, was in- deed a fatal month, for the same week (March 17) Edward Pynchon died, in his fifty-sixth year. Upon the death of his father, in 1808, he had become town clerk and treasurer. He was also county treasurer and register of deeds. The positions of county treasurer and register have been filled by a Pynchon for over a century. The death of Pynchon led to a hot struggle for the positions of county treasurer and register of deeds.
David Paine secured both for a year, but William Rice captured the registry of deeds at the second election, in 1831. George Colton was elected county treasurer in 1835.
Merchant Jonathan Dwight died in September, 1831, at the age of eighty-eight. We have described him as a man of great force of character, business energy, and integrity, and he was and is looked upon as the father of Springfield merchants, - not the first mer- chant, but the first to organize the business activities as they lay prostrate after the Revolution. He was collector of taxes in 1793 and several years thereafter. When Springfield makes up her list of men who contributed to her foundation-stones, Jonathan Dwight will have a place of honor.
Thomas Blanchard, the noted inventor, built a little stern-wheel steamboat, which he named after himself, and launched in the autumn of 1828. It was Tuesday, September 10, when the inventor invited a party of citizens to accompany him on a trial trip. The " Blan- chard " had a sixty-feet keel and twelve feet beam ; cabin, ten by twenty-four, divided into two compartments ; thirty tons burden ; four wrought-iron boilers, pressure, five hundred pounds to the square inch. The river was very high, and a few days before the " Blan- chard " had cruised round the swollen river, steamed up the Agawam to the bridge, and ventured across the flooded meadows to the Con- necticut river again, about a mile above the mouth of the Agawam. The first trip to Hartford was made in two hours fifty minutes, she
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carrying fifty passengers. Her arrival at Hartford was greeted with a cannon salute. The attempt to return was prevented by an accident to the rudder while ascending the falls. The Hartford people paid Thomas Blanchard and the Springfield company much attention, and gave them an excursion in the steamboat " Barnet ; " while the Hart- ford press took occasion to speak of Mr. Blanchard as an inventive genius, his machines for turning gun-stocks being particularized. The " Blanchard " soon became very popular as an excursion boat. During a single week it took no less than six hundred school children on various pleasure trips. It carried, in October, the Hampden Guards to Hartford, where they were handsomely entertained by the governor's Foot Guards and other organizations.
The steamer "Vermont," also built by Captain Blanchard, was completed in July, 1829, a Brattleboro' company having given the order. The hull was built on what is now Hubbard avenue, and was drawn on wheels through Main street and down Elm street to the river, and thence floated to the wharf at the foot of Harvard street. It was seventy-five feet long and fifteen feet beam, and a large promenade deck. It ascended the Willimansett falls with ease, and could also pass through the Willimansett canal. The "Hartford Mirror " noted, in July, 1829, as an evidence of business conditions, that four boats arrived there from Springfield in one day, loaded with produce and merchandise valued at $100,000. The steamer " Ver- mont" was able to run the Enfield falls without the aid of poles. The Enfield canal was opened in 1829.
In April, 1830, the townsfolk saw for the first time a schooner under full sail - " The Eagle" - on the river. She had come up through the Enfield canal. The " Blanchard " and the " Vermont " happened to be both lying at the wharf, and the excited people dreamed of a metropolis at once.
A convention of the river towns at Windsor, Vt., in October, 1830, recommended the formation of a company for a steam tow-boat navigation of the river. George Bliss took part in these deliberations,
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and arrangements were soon thereafter made with the proprietors of the locks and canals of the Connecticut. Books for subscription to the stock of the "Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company " were at once opened at the Hampden Coffee House. Charles Stearns contracted with the directors to superintend the building of a number of boats. Three boats were already plying between Springfield and Hartford. The steamer " Springfield " was run by the Connecticut River Valley Company. It was partly burned at the wharf in Novem- ber, 1830. The " Hampden," used mainly for freight, was owned by John Cooley & Co., and the " Vermont" was run by Sargeant & Chapin. The Valley Company launched the "JJohn Ledyard " in April, 1831. Captain Blanchard's new boat, the " Massachusetts," was launched April 14. It was ninety-six feet long, and considered a beauty. The " William Hall," owned by the Valley Company, ran up from Hartford in July, 1831, with a number of the directors. and received a warm greeting. Some people, with their feet in the dust of the past, called these Connecticut boats " sance-pans," and had their smile when the " Massachusetts " was not small enough to go through the Enfield canal, and had to wait high water in order to run up the falls. As an evidence of travel and curiosity as to western Massachusetts, it may be stated that one boat (Angust, 1831) took down to Hartford no less than sixty passengers, most of them tour- ists, and the steamboat " William Hall " would arrive at the wharf with six and eight boats in tow. The Valley Company, at this time, owned some thirty freight boats, and charged $2,000 for the season. It had $38,000 invested, of which $7,000 was borrowed. The Spring- field and Albany stage over the Pontoosne turnpike began running in June, 1831. The Farmington canal was opened in 1828, and con- tinued in operation eighteen years.
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 Bancroft in Local Politics. - The Fifteen-Gallon Law .- Marcus Morton. - A Harrison Demonstra- tion. - Slavery. - Dr. Osgood. - Springfield Statistics. - Newspapers. - Dr. Joshua Frost. - Churches. - The Fire Department. - Military Companies.
ON the 23d of June, 1831, the Boston & Worcester Railroad Corpora- tion was chartered. On the 21st of December, 1841, the railroad from Albany to Chatham Four Corners, N. Y., was so far completed that trains passed through to Worcester, thus joining Boston and Albany with a continuous rail. This, then, was the decade of pio- neer railroads. The project of a canal over this route had fallen through. Governor Eustis had favored it early in 1825, and Governor Lincoln later in that year viewed it with equal favor after a commis- sion had gone over the ground, although he took occasion to speak of railroads as a promising means of transportation. The commis- sioners' report of 1826 had favored a canal route through Worces- ter county, up the Deerfield river, and through Hoosae mountain by a four-mile tunnel ; estimated cost, $6,824,072. But at this session Senator Mills, Representative Calhoun, and the other members of the committee on roads and canals recommended that railroad commis- sioners be appointed to investigate the subject. The House refused to do so.
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" There are possibilities here," remarked Daniel Webster, in July, 1826, as he saw loaded cars drawn on rail by horses. He had gone down to Quincy to attend the funeral of John Adams, and had chanced upon the only railroad then in the country. It was a three- mile track, designed to transport granite from the quarries to the water.
In 1828 we find the Legislature discussing a southern railroad route through Worcester and Springfield, and a northern route through Watertown, Rutland, Belchertown, Northampton, Adams, and Hoosac Four Corners. Here arose a danger to Springfield's su- premacy in western Massachusetts. Under the transportation sys- tem of stage, canopied wagon, and boat, Springfield had won. With the rise of the new day-star of commerce, Hartford and Northamp- ton and Worcester were ready to renew the fight.
The directors of the Boston & Worcester Railroad Company secured a charter in March, 1833, to run a railroad from Worcester to Spring- field, and thence westward to the State line. This supplementary company was called the Western Railroad Corporation. Power was given this corporation to build branch roads. New York State responded to the call by chartering, in 1834, the Castleton & West Stockbridge Railroad, or, as it was called two years later, the Albany & West Stockbridge Company. The stock was readily taken, and the company organized in 1835. The Boston & Worcester road was opened to Westboro' in November, 1834, but aside from Spring- field and the towns east, no town made any determined effort to place the stock of the Western road.
Popular scepticism was about equally divided between the financial and engineering difficulties. The New York Stock Exchange made an attempt to get control of the proposed road, but the offers were de- clined with thanks. At a meeting of the citizens of Springfield, January 2, 1835, this committee of inquiry and correspondence was appointed : William B. Calhoun, George Bliss, George Ashmun. Charles Stearns, Justice Willard, W. H. Bowdoin, and J. B. Shef-
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field. The result of their deliberations was a mass meeting at the Springfield town-hall, February 16, George Bliss making a favorable report upon the practicability of a road, and advising a convention of delegates from the towns on the proposed route to consider the ways and means of building the road. Worcester was the place and March 5 the date of this convention, which numbered over one hundred delegates. Caleb Rice was in the chair, and Reuben A. Chapman secretary. Aside from a desire in Worcester that that place be the permanent terminus of the Boston road, there was little opposition in passing resolves to make surveys from Worcester to Springfield. The executive committee intrusted with this work were the chairman and secretary of the convention, W. H. Bowdoin, of Springfield, Joel Norcross, of Monson, and N. P. Dewey, of Leicester. The onus of this survey fell upon George Bliss, who was, in fact, the apostle of railroading here in western Massachusetts. Col. John M. Fessenden, chief engineer of the Boston & Worcester Railroad, made the sur- vey, and also examined a route between Springfield and Hartford. Ile was assisted by William S. Whitwell, now of Brookline, and the late William Parker, Samuel Nott, of Hartford, and others. It was found, by reference to stage-books and landlords, that 55,510 people had passed in one year between Worcester and Springfield, and that the freight was 42,000 tons. Allowing $1.75 fare for passengers, and $4 per ton for merchandise, they had an annual revenue of about $265,100, less $85,000 estimated expenses, leaving $180,100 net in- come, which was about 16 per cent. on the estimated cost of the road. This report was printed and used to secure subscriptions.
Hartford was now anxious to snatch the crown from Springfield by making a railroad connection directly with Worcester, cross country. A large convention, held at Hartford in March, 1835, voiced her desires, and another convention was arranged to be held at Worcester a little later.
By May the Worcester & Hartford Railroad Company was chartered by the Connecticut Legislature to connect the Hartford & New Haven
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road with the Boston & Worcester. The next thing which the people of Springfield had to meet was a proposed road from Hartford to Albany. This meant a Boston, Hartford, & Albany Railroad, and Springfield a tributary suburb.
All these interests came together with a clash at Worcester, July 2, 1835, as arranged by the Hartford convention. Levi Lincoln was called upon to preside. There were more Connecticut than Massa- chusetts delegates from the thirty-five towns represented. George Bliss spoke for Springfield, Nathan Hale for the Boston & Worcester road, John A. Rockwell for the Norwich route, and General Johnson pleaded the cause of Hartford and " the direct " route. He was sup- ported by Nathan Smith, of New Haven, and Major Putnam, of Hartford, the latter stating, upon the authority of Albany business men, that, in the winter, communication between Troy and New York was destined to be via Hartford and New Haven. It would have been unwise to try to commit the convention to any one route, and each party hastened away to make the appeal to moneyed men.
Stock-books of the Western road were opened in August, and pub- lic meetings were held from one end of the State to the other. The $2,000,000 asked for was not secured, however. The influence of New York city was against the road, since it was feared at the metropolis that trade would be drawn from Albany to Boston. The merchants of New York did not propose to " let Boston people come Yankee over us." In this emergency a meeting was held in Fanenil Hall, Boston, Oct. 7, 1835, delegates being present from all the towns along the route, including Albany itself. The old hall was full. North Appleton gave figures, Hermanus Bleeker promised that Albany would do her duty up to the State line whether Massaeliu- setts did or not. Edward Everett pledged the Commonwealth to a policy of progress, and William B. Calhoun announced that his town of Springfield had already taken one-eighth of the two million, and the towns from the river to Worcester had done nobly.
Another canvass was made, and 18,300 more shares were sub-
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scribed, and another meeting held at Boston, this time in the Supreme Court room, on the 20th of November. There was still a deficiency, and they beat the bushes once more, and on the 5th of December, 1835, the stock had all been taken, - $2,000,000 with 2,200 share- holders. The company was organized in January following, with these directors : Thomas B. Wales, William Lawrence, Edmund Dwight, Henry Rice, John Henshaw, Francis Jackson, and Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Boston, and Justice Willard and George Bliss, of Springfield. We do not know why Worcester was not represented. The fear that Worcester was to be simply a way station was at the bottom of much opposition to the Western road, and Nathan Hale, who was at the head of the Boston & Worcester road, had at one time met opposition to his scheme by threatening not to deflect the track into Worcester at all if obstruction continne. This had a very sobering effect.
Thomas B. Wales was made president of the board of directors of the Western road, and George Bliss general agent of the corpora- tion, the latter being authorized to " make all contracts and trans- act all business which he may deem necessary for its interests." George Ashmun soon presented in the Legislature a petition for aid in the construction of the road. The stock of the road had been taken not by capitalists, but by men of moderate means, and the State, in the Ashmun petition, was asked to charter a bank to be called " The Western Railroad Bank," located at Boston, capital, $5,000,000, the usual bank tax of which to be paid to the corporation for twenty years. The charter of the United States Bank had ex- pired that year and a new charter refused. Thus the withdrawal of the capital of the United States Bank was the Western's oppor- tunity. Other petitions for a bank followed, and the Ashmun scheme was pushed aside. A bill was reported in March, 1836, to establish the State Bank of Massachusetts, capital, $10,000,000, half to be subscribed by the State ; payment to be made in coin or State scrip, interest 43 per cent. ; time, twenty years. The directors were
EXPRESS TRAIN ON WESTERN RAILROAD.
From a Daguerreotype, made in 1842.
DEASE SINIRINIES
AFTERNOON TRAIN BETWEEN ALBANY AND SPRINGFIELD.
STILLMAN WITT, Superintendent at Albany.
THOMAS W. ALLEN, Master Mechanic.
D. S. WOOD, Engineer.
JOHN B. ADAMS, Conductor. HORACE H. BABCOCK, Ticket Agent.
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to be authorized to subscribe for 10,000 shares of the Western road, the bank to retain one-half the bank tax on its capital, and the in- come on the stock in the road until the assessments on the road were refunded. The democratic party declared war against the bill on account of the provision for such an immense bank, and they succeeded in putting through a substitute bill, authorizing the State treasurer to subscribe $1,000,000 to the Western stock, provided that three of the directors be chosen by the Legislature. George Bliss had the pleasure, as he tells us, of carrying this bill to Governor Everett for his signature. The following year the State treasurer was authorized to issue scrip to pay assessments and to establish a stock sinking-fund. The Massachusetts Bank project meantime fell through.
Hartford was still an applicant for a Massachusetts charter for its road, being supported, too, by many influential men in Worcester county ; while Berkshire furnished a respectable petition for a road from West Stockbridge to the Connecticut State line toward Hartford. Mr. Bliss was appointed to oppose the Hartford scheme, and after a heated contest in committee the petitioners were given leave to with- draw. Surveys along the Western railroad route were actively pushed during 1836, and the first grading was begun in the following winter.
The manner of entering Springfield furnished occasion for many local heartburnings. The four routes discussed were: (1) Cabot- ville, a little south of Chicopee Falls, with a bridge just south of the mouth of the river ; (2) End brook, crossing the Connecticut midway between the village and the Chicopee river ; (3) Garden brook, very much as it was finally built ; and (4) Mill river, thence north below Maple and Chestnut streets to the Garden brook line. When it was thought probable that the Worthington property would be the site of the depot, an agent secured of the New York owners the refusal of the property at a certain sum. A charge of speculation was subse- quently made. The present route was approved by the directors in
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the spring of 1837. The work during this year was delayed on account of lack of funds ; many refused to pay assessments and surrendered their stock, which was in some cases resold. Six assess- ments ($900,000) had been made, but only about two-thirds of the amount had been realized. Mr. Bliss, who took a prominent part during these trying days, says : -
The estimates of the engineers for the whole line were before the board by midsummer (1837), requiring for grading, bridging, superstructure, and land damages a little less than $4,000,000, exclusive of engineering, depots, and gen- eral expenses. The funds provided were only $3,000,000 in stock, if the whole should be paid ; and under the most prosperous condition of the country, there was enough to dishearten the most arduous friends of the enterprise. But superadded to this came the financial storm of 1837, which was winging its fearful course over the entire land, visiting Massachusetts, and particularly Boston, and sparing no commercial community. Those who had subscribed to the stock taxed every energy to meet the calls. But the cold paralysis had blighted the fairest prospects. The stockholders of this company suffered with the rest, and it became necessary that some power, measurably unaffected by the pressure, should again step forward.
This relief was the credit of the State, and State scrip to the amount of $2,100,000, payable in thirty years in London, at five per cent. interest, was authorized after a severe struggle. The directors of the Western road were compelled to combat lukewarmness also at Albany, as little or nothing was being done by the Albany company but talk, and there was every evidence that the stock of that com- pany was to fall into the hands of the New York capitalists.
The directors of the Western were again before the Legislature for State aid in 1839, and secured, after another investigation, author- ity for $1,500,000 more in scrip, and by October, 1839, trains were running between Worcester and Springfield. There was a grand celebration upon the arrival of the first train the first week in Octo- ber. James Parker was the conductor, and continued in that service for many years. A procession was formed, and after marching down
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and up Main street, a stop was made at the round-house at the depot, where a dinner was in waiting. The tables were arranged like the spokes of a wheel. George Ashmun presided, and at the table were Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, Amasa Walker, Nathan Hale, Justice Willard, and editors and public men from half-a-dozen towns. Let- ters were read from John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Russell, Abbott Lawrence, Stephen Fairbanks, Chief-Justice Ward, Julius Rockwell, and others. Edward Everett made a very glowing speech, closing with this passage : -
On my last visit to Springfield, a year or two ago, my esteemed friend, just named (Mr. Peabody), who has labored with so much diligence and success on the ornithology of the State, informed me that one of these little sea-birds (stormy petrel) had left his mark upon the mountain wave, his home upon the deep, and had been found near the Chicopee river, within the limits of the town of Spring- field, seventy miles, at least, in air line from tide-water, and hundreds of miles from his accustomed range on the seas. What could be the object of this mys- terious little visitant ? Who can tell ? On his native element the sailors regard him with an unfriendly eye; on shore, by the rule of contraries, he may come as the harbinger of God. Perhaps, sir, he had heard of your railroad, and had come to try the speed of his pinions with your locomotives. Whatever be his object, I am disposed to regard his visit as a good omen. As the bird of the land in the infancy of our race came back to the ark with an olive branch in her mouth, as a sign that the waters were abated from off the earth, let us welcome the little sea-bird who has come up to the hills as the herald to tell us that the portals of the deep are thrown open, that the chariots of fire and iron are rolling over its waters, and that henceforth, if never before -
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