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 36
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Seas shall join the regions they divide.
Albany still lingered over its part of the great work, and in 1840 George Bliss, Charles Stearns, and a large delegation of Western stockholders visited the capital of New York. They secured an agreement with the city of Albany to subscribe $650,000 to the stock of the Albany Railroad Company ; the Albany company agreed to intrust to the Western road the location and construction of the road lying in New York, and further agreements were made with the
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Hudson and Berkshire company. Albany raised more funds, the total bonds of the city reaching $1,000,000, less ten per cent. to the sinking-fund. The cost of the road was estimated at $1,412,804, which deficiency was met by the Western company.
General extravagance was charged upon the directors of the Western road, and in the winter of 1840 an investigation, extending over a month, took place, Henry Sterns, of Springfield, and Edmund Dwight, of Boston, appearing as complainants, while George Bliss defended the road. It was, in fact, an investigation of George Bliss himself, as he was charged with quite an extensive scheme of land speculation ; but it was proved that instead of making money out of the location of the road it was the corporation that was benefited by his liberal terms. Other officers emerged with equally clean skirts.
A third grant of scrip was asked of the Legislature in 1841, which was secured after the usual fight. Thus the funds were provided and the trains running between Boston and Albany before Christmas of that year.
George Bliss soon became interested in railroading. He was event- ually chosen president of the Michigan Southern road, which position he held until the road was completed to Chicago. He also became president of the Chicago & Mississippi road, one of the projectors of the Hartford & Springfield road, and director of the Chicago & Rock Island road. He was instrumental in building more than six hundred miles of the through line between the Mississippi river and Boston.
The Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company were in trouble in 1832, and some of the stockholders withdrew from the concern, which was $17,000 behind its accounts. The river traffic was cer- tainly not flat at this time. The " William Hall " and " John Cooley " brought from Hartford, June 2, twelve boats with two hundred and fifty tons of merchandise, one-half for this town. But the Valley Steamboat Company failed in August, 1832, and boating was carried on by smaller companies and concerns.
Gro Blifs
.
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We have spoken of several steamboats built in Springfield. In 1837 Erastus Reed, ship-carpenter, of Longmeadow, turned out a new boat, the "Agawam," for Frink, Chapin, & Co., the " enterprising mail contractors and stage proprietors." The steamboat " Massa- chusetts," which had been built about three years before, proved too large to enter the canal at the falls below. The " Massachusetts " was a Blanchard boat, and was bought by Chester W. Chapin to run as a day boat between Springfield and Hartford. It was built on Main street, near Union street. The "Agawam " made its trial trip down the river July 20, 1837, and it ran the falls on the return trip easily, no polemen being employed. The first steamboat, " Barnet," was three days in running the Enfield falls, - and this, too, with the assistance of no less than fifty men. So that the " Agawam's " trip of six miles of rapids in an hour's time was considered a great triumph.
The communities along the Chicopee river were fast growing in importance. The " Springfield Republican," speaking of the improve- ments at D. & J. Ames's paper mill, January 21, 1832, remarks : " If the improvements in the manufacture of paper and in the art of print- ing proceed as they have for the last ten years, we may expect to see a machine which will receive rags at one end and deliver the books, all printed and bound, at the other." The Ames mill at this time had a capacity of thirty-nine thousand three hundred and twenty-four reams of paper ; value, $150,000. No single industry of the county equalled this, except, of course, that of fire-arms. The wool product of Hampden county was about $115,000, and harnesses, whips, etc., $121,882. By the autumn of 1832, a canal, one-third of a mile long, was completed on the bank of the Chicopee river by the Cabot Manu- facturing Company, and their mills were being built. There were two cotton-mills already on the Chicopee, employing nearly two thou- sand people. The Cabot Manufacturing Company was organized in 1832, with a capital of $1,000,000. The first products of this com- pany - ten bales of cotton goods - were shipped in 1834. In that year, also, Mr. Adams built a large hotel at Factory Village. The
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Springfield Locks and Canal Company were supplying water-power to the mills at Cabotville. The Cabot Company had built a new mill. N. P. Ames's edge-tool factory had put its golden sword on the cupola, and Mr. Chapin, the stage man, was putting up a hotel there.
At the United States armory, the residences of the paymaster and master armorer were going up, as well as a new factory building at the water-shops. The frame of the new Congregational church (Rev. Mr. Baldwin), on the hill, had been raised. Real estate was, low- ever, stagnant here in the village, although two purchases, in 1834, gave new life to speculation. Col. Galen Ames bought, for $1,740, the old Jonathan Dwight place (Whitney & Adams), with the avowed intention of building an elegant block, and James Byers secured, for $6,000, the Daniel Lombard property. The contract for blocks on both of these sites were given to Goodman & Gorham. In the autumn the post-office was moved from the " uncomfortable little coop" to Mr. Byers's building "opposite court square," on Elm street, and there was a reading-room above. We add the cen- sus for 1835 by school districts : Willimansett, 242; Chicopee, 281 ; Paper Mill, 163 ; Lower Chicopee, 220; Skipmuck, 133; Sixteen Acres, 138 ; North End, 298 ; Centre, 1,675 ; Long Hill, 425 ; South Hill Road, 116 ; Armory Hill, 1,034 ; Carlisle, 95 ; Upper Water- shops, 437 ; North Side Chicopee River, 58; Next to Granby, 13 ; Chicopee Factories, 1,356 ; Five-Mile House, 118; Ames's, 255 ; Cabotville, 915 ; Jenksville, 197; United States Grounds, 242; total, 8,411.
There were at this time in Springfield seventy-three mechanic shops, six cotton factories, three paper-mills, four printing-offices, thirteen warehouses, two card factories, one rifle factory, six saw- mills, four grist-mills, one powder-mill, three tanneries, two joiners' tool factories, two forges, one sword factory, and one spool factory.
In the spring of 1836 the Colonel Worthington homestead (Bridge and Main streets), which in 1835 brought $3,500, sold for $12,500 to Charles Stearns. When Worthington street was opened, in 1839, from
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the river to Chestnut street, by Mr. Stearns, he had a house warming at the old Worthington house, which had been moved back to Water street. Judge Morris entertained the company with reminiscences.
There was quite a brisk trade in lots at the time, and a fifty per cent. advance over ruling prices for years was the rule. The Lyman farm, owned by R. Emery, East North Main street, had jumped from $10,000 to $20,000. It was natural that in the real-estate activity that rumors connected the railroad promoters with speculations. These insinuations were resented and the rumors formally denied.
In 1831 the democrats put up for senators James Kent and Harvey Chapin, and one of their handbills gives the best expression to their notions of the situation. Here it is : -
Shall a Charles X. and his Polignae grind us to the face of the earth? It was for their enormous expenditure, and taking from the mass of the people - the workingmen - the real bone and sinew of the country - their just rights, that the good LaFayette placed himself at the head of the noble workingmen of Paris and hurled their oppressors from power. We have our aristocracy, our Charles X. and our Polignac, and we have them at our very doors. Who have hitherto controlled the elections in this county? A small band of lawyers and Springfield aristoerats. Who boast that Enos Foote and John Nyles shall be forced upon the workingmen? This little band of lawyers and aristocrats who nominated them. Who boast that the present splendid State Government to the tune of $293,000 per annum shall continue to be forced upon the people? This same aristocratie ruffled shirt party ! Who will sustain the lawyer's bar rules? Who will continue to oppress the people with the present oppressive laws for the sup- port of religious worship? Who would deprive every independent workingman but to deceive and cajole us? The aristocracy ! The lawyers! The ruffle shirt party !
The celebration of Washington's birthday in 1832 was another of those fête days that the town may well remember. No less than three thousand people participated, and politics was forgotten. Cannon on Armory hill and Court square were thundering at daybreak, and every church bell was ringing. Col. Ithamer Goodman formed the
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procession at the town-house just before noon, the escort comprising the Springfield Home Guards under Captain Upham, the Springfield Artillery under Captain Cooley, the Hampden Grays (Westfield) under Captain Parsons, and the Hampden Guards under Captain Bates. The column proceeded to Dr. Osgood's meeting-house, in the galleries of which, we are informed, the " ladies seemed animated." Hundreds on hundreds were unable to get inside the house. The Springfield Musical Society performed an overture, and Colonel Warriner led the choir in rendering some sacred music. Rev. Mr. Putnam led in prayer, and J. W. Crooks read passages of Washington's farewell address. Then came more music and the oration by George Ashmun.
At the town-hall banquet, later in the day, Colonel Lee - that famous toast-master - presided, and it was said that never did "a cold cut and a glass of wine " go with better relish than this temper- ance collation. In the evening there was dancing at Colonel Rus- sell's hall, while at Factory Village " 300 fair spinsters skipped over the floor" of the new factory building.
In November, 1833, Henry Clay and family arrived at Springfield and were warmly welcomed. A Hartford committee escorted Mr. Clay to Enfield, where a large cavalcade of Springfield men met them. Their entrance into the village was heralded by ringing of bells and the firing of cannon. William G. Bates, of Westfield, was at the Hampden Coffee-house (then kept by Horatio Sargeant) with an ele- gant whip which had been made for Mr. Clay, who took it with the remark that he was proud of such a gift from friends, but that he would not take such a thing from an enemy, - a bit of grim pleas- antry, by the way, as his political enemies had just given him a sound thrashing. Mr. Clay held a reception in the town-hall, which was attended by ladies, and accompanied by a formal address of welcome from the lips of Judge Oliver B. Morris.
The Hampden Coffee-house would make a rare subject for an anti- quarian, but we must be content with passing references and a repro- duction of its ontlines, so familiar to the older inhabitants.
HAMPDEN COFFEE HOUSE,
NORTH SIDE OF COURT SQUARE,
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
THE subscriber has furnished the new and elegant brick house, erected the last season on the corner of COURT SQUARE, for the reception of company. It is deemed by competent judges to he the most commodious building of the kind in the state, west of Boston, and its situation is peculiarly pleasant and attractive .- Travellers and parties of business or pleasure, will find every accommoda . tion usual in such establishments, and can at all times have access to a room regularly provided with the leading newspapers and journals in the United States.
The CHOICEST LIQUORS will at all times be kept ; and during the summer months a
. SODA FOUNTAIN
will be attached to the establishment.
HORSES AND CARRIAGES
will be furnished at the shortest notice .- The subscriber will be assiduous and devoted io his atten- tion to all who may honor him with their company.
ERASTUS CHAPIN.
Springfield, June, 1822.
Tannatt & Co, Printers, Springfield.
٥٠
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
William B. Calhoun was nominated for Congress as a whig in 1834. The " Hampden Whig " called him a poor man, and the " Re- publican " retorted : " They now sneer at a man because he is poor.
THE OLD HAMPDEN COFFEE-HOUSE.
O shame ! " This flier, sent to the voters by the whigs, more fully reflects the tension of that canvass : -
What do the Tories want? They have got complete possession of the United States Armory. They now want to get hold of the treasury of Massachusetts. Van Buren has chained United States with his great league of Safety Fund Banks ; and he now desires to put the chains upon us. Citizens of the Bay State. will you submit? Will you bend the knee to the great Golden Calf which Van Buren is setting up? "Let the aristocracy of Springfield support their own paupers ! " So speaks the Jackson paper of our friend and fellow-citizen, William B. Calhoun ! ! Yes - in order to defeat the election of William B. Cal- houn and to help O. H. Warner and J. W. Crooks, &e., the leading Tories denounce Mr. Calhoun as a pauper of Springfield. Men of honorable feeling of all parties ! show your indignation at the polls !
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Calhoun got a rousing majority. He had had the satisfaction also that year to have received all the votes but one for the speakership at Boston. He probably never came nearer to eloquence than in his Fourth of July address that year. The celebration was made of special interest by the death a few days previous of Lafayette. " Deep is the sleep of the hero!" exclaimed Mr. Calhoun, and he paused, when the choir, under Colonel Warriner, burst forth with an anthem beginning with those words, and there were patriotic tears for the dead. The peculiar quality in Mr. Calhoun, - this career of dignified posturing for a principle or an economic fact, this life-study for the wealth and prosperity of public institutions, with the utter neglect of his own finances, this old-fashioned faith, that eased his declining years by the acceptance of a deaconship in the First Church with deeper gratification than a score of politi- cal honors, - what wonder that he remained for so many years the publie man of Springfield? His tall figure was made historic in the troublous session of 1833, when, as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he put the famous resolves condemning nullification, in which it was declared that the " right claimed by the convention of South Carolina for that State of annulling any law of the United States which it may deem unconstitutional, is unau- thorized by the letter or spirit of the Constitution ; " and there was quite as much impressiveness in his movements when, as selectman of the village, he apportioned a dollar here and a dollar there for the poor of the community.
The Springfield Temperance Society was making fair progress in its crusade. Its membership in 1834, after a three years' existence, was two thousand five hundred. The town population was six thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, leaving four thousand two hundred and eighty-four for the society to labor with. Dur- ing the year previous eleven thousand five hundred gallons of rum alone was sold in Springfield, one-half of which, it was estimated, was consumed here. B. Fuller, Jr., proprietor of the Springfield
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House, announced, in 1834, that he had discontinued the sale of ardent spirits. The house was " genteelly furnished " and " free from the noise and bustle ineident to a stage-house." We might also here mention that in 1835 one thousand six hundred legal voters petitioned the county commissioners to refuse liquor licenses. R. A. Chapman presented it in a speech, and George Ashmun opposed it. The commissioners refused the petition. At the May elections the temperance issue was fought over, and James W. Crooks, G. Stiles, of Southwick, C. Knox, of Palmer, L. Bagg, of West Spring- field, and L. Wright, of Westfield, were elected. They granted licenses freely. The venerable and much-honored ex-Lieutenant- Governor Trask, who enjoys nothing better than to pass a genial afternoon talking about bygone days, says that Mr. Chapman's law partner signed the temperance pledge in 1840, and made one of the most eloquent temperance addresses he ever heard.
The Elliot-Buckland murder trial, in September, 1834, excited the interest not only of the town, but the whole country round. Moses Elliot, the accused, was a lad of twelve, and Josiah Buckland, his vietim, was but a year older. These boys had made up their minds to run away, and on a Saturday in April, 1834, had repaired to a hop-pole house on the Rice farm, on the Wilbraham road, to divide their clothing and to make some preparations for their journey. The upshot was that in the middle of the day Elliot fled home, and was subsequently seen going in the direction of the hop-house with a spade, presumedly to bury the dead. No boy so young had ever been tried for murder in the Commonwealth, and the greatest excite- ment prevailed when Chief-Justice Shaw and Judges Wilde and Putnam opened the extra session in the autumn of that year. Attor- ney-General Austin and District Attorney Dewey presented the case for the State, and Judge Morris was assisted by the brilliant and eloquent George Ashmun. People neglected their business in order to hear the evidence. The Elliot boy's name for mischief-making confirmed the popular belief in his guilt, and Judge Morris was set to
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confront a desperately strong tide of circumstances. His plea was over two hours long. The old court-house (Odd Fellows' building) was packed to the doors ; crowds hung about the building, and coun- try teams were standing in all the approaches to the Springfield hall of justice. Hundreds had driven into the village many miles to hear Morris's defence. The lawyer had first to sweep aside prejudice and a popular feeling of guilt, and then to offer explanations of the stern facts of blood, death, and of the secretive acts of Elliot. Morris had a rotund, sweeping, and impetuous style of oratory. His powerful arms would sweep through the air, and he would pose, or stamp his foot, or stride to and fro before the twelve jurymen, as was the wont of the profession half a century ago. The court-room had been gradually drawn to the prisoner's side, and under the skilful handling of Morris the jury, too, were affected ; and when the lawyer sat down women were in tears, and the whole body of listeners deeply moved. The jury acquitted Elliot after an absence of two hours, and a memorable scene of relief and congratulation followed.
Another graphic scene, but of a far different nature, occurred in August, 1832, when about one hundred revolutionary soldiers of the county assembled at the Probate Court to prove their pension claims under a new act, and the circumstance gave rise to a patriotic demon- stration. The portrait of George Washington, copied from the Gilbert Stewart painting at Hartford, by Mr. Elwell, then growing in popu- larity, was hung in the court-room, and one veteran said, with tears in his eyes, " Oh, yes, it looks like the old General." This venerable company, after the legal formalities, took their slow march to the Hampden Coffee-house in a pouring rain. A fine dinner was laid for them, and Judge Morris spoke, and Rev. Mr. Knapp, of Westfield, pronounced a blessing. Mr. Elwell's portrait of Washington now hangs in the Common Council room in this city, and serves to per- petuate the name of the artist whom so many in this region honored and loved.
George Bliss came quite prominently into politics in 1835, when he
REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONERS AT THE COURT-HOUSE, IS32.
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was a member of the State Senate, and upon the death of Benjamin Pickman he was chosen president of that body. In 1832 Mr. Bliss had reported a bill enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court of Com- mon Pleas in criminal cases and regulating the appointment and duties of prosecuting attorneys. It passed the House without amend- ment. The great legislative event of the exciting year of 1835 was the consideration of the new code. A large committee of the Legis- lature took the voluminous report of the commissioners for the revision of the statutes, and considered it during the recess. Mr. Bliss was chairman of this committee. Governor Davis had mean- time been elected to the United States Senate, and Lieutenant-Gov- ernor Armstrong wanted the section about poor debtors to be stricken out, even threatening to veto the whole bill if this were not done. Mr. Bliss wrote William B. Calhoun on the matter, and re- ceived this reply : " A single provision is arrayed against the whole labor of years. It is fashionable to assume responsibility, but this would be a most fearful kind for any individual." This reassured Mr. Bliss, and the committee stood firm. Armstrong finally signed the bill, contenting himself with a protest against the action of the House requiring him to approve the whole bill or veto it.
When it was rumored in Springfield that Governor Davis was a candidate for the United States Senate, Judge Oliver B. Morris wrote Mr. Bliss in a distressed state of mind. He asked : " Are there any among the whig party who are willing to remove Governor Davis from his present situation, and thereby endanger the integrity of the party in the selection of a successor? . . . The Jackson folk among us are delighted with the idea." But their and simi- lar protests were unavailing, and Davis's advancement to the United States Senate brought the adverse elements of the whig party to the surface, and Judge Morris's fears were realized. A convention of the whig members of the Massachusetts Legislature had nomi- nated Mr. Webster for the presidency in January, 1835, George Bliss being on the committee which drew up the Webster appeal to
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the people of the United States. Davis was elected to the Senate in the middle of February. On the evening of the 27th a legis- lative convention of whigs was called on only two or three days' notice to nominate a candidate for governor. It was not a conven- tion of the party, but the legislative members of the party ; and when Senator Allen, of Worcester, proposed a ballot without debate, George Bliss sprang to his feet and voiced the sentiment of western Massachusetts when he said, with great earnestness, "Sir, the mem- bers of this Legislature were not chosen with reference to any object of this kind. They have no power from the people to act for them in this matter. . . The great whig party of Massachusetts is not fairly represented in this convention. Gentlemen will be surprised when I state the astounding faet that there are at least 115 towns in the Commonwealth which cannot be represented by whigs on this floor. . . . And let me add, sir, there is already in the river coun- ties a great excitement, a strong feeling caused by the proceedings of the last few weeks."
After the excitement was over, Mr. Bliss, with others, were finally convinced, in view of the figure which the Massachusetts whigs were attempting to cut in national politics, that the best thing to do was to swing into the Everett line. This decision was not reached, however, until home influence had been brought to bear upon the president of the Senate, as appears by this extract from a private letter sent Mr. Bliss from Samuel Bowles, father of the late Samuel Bowles, dated Mareh 5, 1835 : -
But while we agree with you in disapproving the hasty and unfair manner of the nomination, I am sorry to see a few - Judge Morris, Mr. Bontecou, and others - taking the occasion to oppose the candidate, and openly electioneer for S. T. Armstrong! . .. The sentiments you may see in my next paper are in accordance with those of Messrs. Calhoun, Willard, and Ashmun. If it should prove that Mr. Everett is the candidate of the majority (and I believe it will so prove), we do not think it best to make any unnecessary distraction in the whig party, because some of our friends, whose good and patriotic motives we see no reason to doubt, have nominated the right candidate in the wrong way.
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That one may understand the extent of men's feelings, this pas- sage from a letter from Oliver B. Morris to George Bliss may be added : " Under present circumstances, if those who voted for Mr. Davis at the last election can be made to vote for Mr. Everett next November, in my judgment they will be no longer worthy to be called whigs. We have been acenstomed to call, and I think properly, the followers of Van Buren ' collar men,' and under the control of a regency. Now it seems to me that those who undertook to act for the whig party in the nomination of Mr. Everett usurped power which the party never conferred upon them." William G. Bates, of Westfield, wrote Bliss as follows : -
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