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 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
And first, I must say how much obliged we all are to you for your stand at the legislative canens. The proceeding is most disastrous, as respects to the prospects of the whigs, if indeed we are now known by that name. Brother B. is all wrong. You know how much is said in our country about Boston influence, and how much more has been said to the west of us, and how much we have labored to undo any such belief. But now what can we say to any such charges? They have not only, in violation of all precedent and in disregard to the late practices of the party, put an obnoxious candidate before the people, but they have confederated with the Jackson party to uncap the commonwealth in order to make way for him. And for what reason? Why, ostensibly to unite with the anti-Masons - as if we could not do it at any time - by coming upon their ground and playing second to their fiddle. The Jackson party increases its chances of electing their stereotyped ticket - the anti-Masons choose a governor who believes that the obligations of Masonry destroys the allegiance of govern- ment (who of course acting upon his principle in relation to appointments is a thorough anti-Mason) and the poor whigs get nothing. It won't do!
But Mr. Bliss would not give way. While admitting the irregu- larity of Everett's nomination, there was never any doubt about the general desire among the whigs that he should be their candidate.
Edward Everett ran in on a somewhat reduced majority, but George Bliss lost his seat in the Senate by an adverse vote, which his bravery and good judgment had by no means merited. He had been president
433
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
pro tem. of the Senate during Mr. Pickman's illness, and upon his election as president a Boston paper had remarked that it had been said of George Bliss's father that " nothing escaped his notice or ex- amination. This is true of the son, - his mind is extremely active, and its activity is more than ordinarily apparent in the variations of his countenance and in his whole air and movements. No person of observation can fail to perceive that he is constantly intent."
The festivities attending the second centennial of the town's birth began upon Tuesday afternoon, May 24, 1836, when Gov. Edward Everett and suite, Col. Robert C. Winthrop, General Dearborn, and other officials arrived at Springfield from Boston by the old Moseley stage line. A cavalcade of citizens, and as well many in carriages, met the party at the Five Mile House, and conducted them to the Hampden Coffee-house upon Court square. Charles Stearns had also arrived from Maine the same day, bringing with him four fresh salmon and trout caught nearly four hundred miles from Springfield, he " hav- ing been only forty-three hours on the way." John Howard opened his residence in the evening, and the citizens of Springfield had an oppor- tunity to become acquainted with his Excellency and party.
The eventful 25th was heralded with the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. The fire department, under Stephen C. Bemis and George Dwight, assembled at an early hour upon Chestnut street and proceeded to Court square, where it showed to a large crowd what the hand-engine pumps could do upon occasion. The governor was escorted to the scene of the oratory by five hundred mechanics, the procession being formed upon Elm street. The printers had provided a hand-press from " The Springfield Republican " office, and as they moved along they worked off an edition and distributed copies to the people. The mechanics of the armory followed with a banner, then the carpenters and workers in wood, then machinists, shoemakers, and so on through the list of trades. The hardware mechanics from Wil- limansett were conspicuous in the line. The military escort included the Springfield Light Infantry, the Springfield Artillery Company, the
434
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
West Springfield Grays, and an independent company from East Longmeadow, which latter were noticeable by having two men at their head in Indian costume. The mechanics marched through several streets before they halted at the Hampden Coffee-house, and were there joined by the governor and staff, officers of the day, and soldiery. They proceeded at once to the First Parish meeting-house, whose capacity was sorely taxed with as brave a throng as ever gathered there. Judge Morris's address took two hours in its delivery, and is quite familiar to the people of this generation and to library frequenters, and has been much used abroad as the basis of historical articles upon the early history of this town. After the exercises in the meeting-house, the guests and the officers of the day were es- corted to the town-hall on State street ; George Bliss was president of the day, and John Howard, Justice Willard, Charles Stearns, James W. Crooks, George Ashmun, Charles Howard, and George Baneroft were vice-presidents. Tables, provided for nearly four hundred guests, were furnished by Mr. Bishop, of the Springfield Hotel. Governor Everett, George Bancroft, and other distinguished gentlemen "occupied the circular seats around the president." The galleries were filled with soldiery, but its interest to us centres in the toasts and speeches.
Edward Everett added the elegance of his diction when he spoke to propose the toast, " The fathers of New England - their faults were the faults of the age ; their piety, courage, and perseverance were their own. Time, which destroys all things, will strengthen their work and honor their memory."
Mr. Bliss had noted in his remarks that Richard Everett, one of the early settlers of Springfield, was a relative of Governor Everett. His Excellency expressed his surprise and gratification, and then took up the weighter matters of the hour, in the following manner : -
I regard such a celebration as a noble day of recompense for the tribulations of other times. Would not William Pynchon, sir, on the very day when his book, written with the heavy rebuke of the fathers of church and state, was igno-
435
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
miniously burned on Boston Common, have felt his heart cheered and his spirit soothed, even under the infliction of that burning stigma, could he have foreseen that when near two centuries should have passed, on an occasion like this, amidst thousands of an admiring posterity, his name would be repeated with respect, gratitude, and veneration, as the great founder of what we behold around us? Could I hope, sir, that after the lapse of 200 years, my humble name would be remembered with kind feelings of those who shall come after us, as one who had sought to promote the public good, I should deem any labor, care, and sacrifice as cheaply encountered for such a recompense. If to the moral interest of the festival which has called us together you add the attractions of nature at this pleasant season of the year, and in this beautiful region, you will not wonder, sir, at our readiness to leave the noisy streets and smoky atmosphere of the city for a visit to the banks of this most lovely river. A poetical writer, a native of our sister State which bears the name of the Connectiont, has exclaimed in the most beautiful lines of a long work -
" Thy parent stream, fair Hartford, met his eye, Far lessening upward to the northern sky ; No watery gleams through happier valleys shine, Nor drinks the sea a lovelier wave than thine."
Many speeches were delivered upon this occasion. Charles Stearns drove a nail into this thesis upon the wall of an ancient town's his- tory in saying, "The interlopers will endeavor to leave old Spring- field in as good condition as they found it." George Bancroft, the future historian, chose as his toast the noted Capt. Samuel Holyoke, " the hero and the martyr of the Falls fight. His memory shall be cherished till the cataract of the Connecticut ceases to roar ; his fame shall stand as imperishable as the mountain that bears his name." A toast was proposed to the county of Berkshire (a part of the original county of Hampshire), which was hailed "not as a colony, but as an independent and sister county. May our union be still more strongly connected by the increasing enterprise and public spirit of the inhabitants of both counties." This was a fitting intro- duction to the toast of Col. Robert C. Winthrop, a descendant of John Hampden, whom he extolled, and said, " A noble name, and
436
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
worthily bestowed upon the county which bears it." Julius Rock- well turned the attention of the table to the future by referring to the commercial enterprises that were absorbing public attention at that time, dwelling upon the benefit to be derived from the Western railroad, the route of which was then being surveyed. John Howard proposed as a toast, " Modern antiquarians : " Justice Willard " The land of our home and the home of our fathers ; " George Ashmun, "School-houses ; " Major Inches, of the Boston Independent Cadets, "The orator of the day; " S. O. Russell, "The history of the settlement of Springfield ; " and E. D. Beach, "The Springfield Light Infantry."
Many letters from prominent men were read after the speaking. John Quincy Adams wrote from Washington proposing the senti- ment, " The Puritan principles purified by the school of time, still improving from age to age, the physical culture of the Western hemisphere and the moral culture of the human mind." Daniel Web- ster took occasion to write: " Two centuries have made a great town out of a handful of settlers, and the present prospect is that its future history is to be marked by a still more rapid degree of growth and improvement. Long may education and knowledge, sobriety, morality, and religion characterize their enjoyment under the blessings of Providence." Alden Bradford, the president of the Pilgrim Society at Boston, paid a high tribute to William Pynchon, saying that, while he had the misfortune to differ with his associates upon matters of dogmatic theology, his " probity, piety, and learning were never doubted." Mr. Bradford proposed this toast : " Perpe- tuity to the essential principles of the Puritans, - a preeminent regard for the authority of God and for the rights of men." Let- ters were also read from Levi Lincoln, Judge Story, W. B. Calhoun, Thomas L. Winthrop, and others.
In the evening a reception at the elegant residence of George Bliss and a concert by the Springfield Musical Society made their bids for the local public. The occasion softened the rigors of political rivalry,
437
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
and Oliver B. Morris, Edward Everett, and George Bliss fraternized with perfect cordiality.
But the non-partisan spirit of anniversaries soon departed. The Fourth was coming, and Mr. Beach announced in his paper that the celebration was not to be on the hill, but Factory Village. Cabotville was aroused, and protested, and some one, signing as " Skipmuck," remarked, "There are some very important characters at Cabot- ville who want to control everything ; but they will not prevent us at Chicopee Factory from doing as we please." Another disquieting rumor was that the pure democracy was preparing for a celebration on the hill, and that George Bancroft had engaged to deliver the oration. So it proved. But the "union celebration," as it was called, came off at Chicopee Factory, and was an immense success. A procession, under Colonel Nettleton, formed at the Adams House and marched to the meeting-house. "The operation of the mills being suspended," says the ancient chronicler, " the doors and win- dows of the boarding-houses were filled with bright eyes and smiling faces. What a sight for a bachelor ! Nearly in front of the meet- ing-house the national flag, in right good taste, waved on the top of an aged white oak." Rev. Dorus Clark was chaplain, and Myron Lawrence orator. S. Shackford presided at the banquet at the hotel that followed, and speeches were made by Wells Southworth, J. Johnson, E. Edwards, J. C. Bemis, George W. Culver, Elihu Adams, Charles Stearns, Samuel Bowles, J. M. Colton, and others.
George Bancroft's Fourth of July oration on the hill to the Spring- field democrats made quite a stir at the time. " Whiggism, the party of vested rights ! " he exclaimed ; " it perpetuates established wrong on the plea of vested rights." The whig, he maintained, " pants for monopoly." The curious thing about this was that at this time the whigs had nominated Webster, who was not rich, and had sent to Con- gress Mr. Calhoun, who had been offensively called a pauper ; while the democrats had put up wealthy men all down the ticket, including the Hampden senators. A very amusing contest followed, in which
438
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
rich and poor, whig and Jacksonian, were very much mixed up. It was made none the less diverting when Bancroft, the "white kid- glove and silk-stocking democrat " was nominated against Calhoun for Congress.
Mr. Bancroft had been a whig but two years before. He was what was known as a JJackson federalist. Not the least inter- esting phase of this canvass was the dragging in of Mr. Bancroft's connection with the Masons. It will be remembered that an anti- Masonie convention was held at Warriner's tavern on the evening of October 14, 1834. A resolution was proposed commending Mr. Bancroft for a letter written by him to some Northampton voters, and asking him to take a seat in the convention and become its candidate for Congress. Seth Flagg, the chairman, came to the front in that canvass of 1836 in explanation thereof. He claimed Mr. Bancroft had approached him before the convention met with resolutions favoring his own nomination for Congress : that Mr. Bancroft was invited to take a seat ; that he (Flagg) presented the resolutions as requested ; that Mr. Baneroft read amusing extracts from a book on Free Masonry, and then withdrew ; that the next day Mr. Bancroft complained to him (Flagg) that he had been accused of looking into the windows of the Warriner tavern while the convention was in session, and demanded of Flagg a paper to the effect that this was not true, which he secured ; that he returned shortly with another stronger paper for Flagg to sign, stating that the convention had asked Bancroft to sit in the convention, had recommended him as congressional candidate, and then reconsidered this action; that Flagg signed this paper with the understanding that it was not to be cirenlated publicly. Mr. Flagg claimed that in spite of this state- ment, over his own signature, the resolutions recommending Bancroft as a candidate were not passed, but simply presented and laid on the table. Here was a pretty complication, and cansed no end of crimi- nation and recrimination then. Mr. Bancroft certainly had the written statement of the chairman of the convention that he was
John Butler ·
Fish House
S
T
N º
12
Harvey Clarke
Thaddeus Ferre/
$0. Eaton
Nath Moseley
School House
Wm. Carlisle
Nathan Bliss Jr.
Stone Pit Brook
S Branch of Mill A.
nop Pond
Island
Fir
Bu
13
Ph
Abisha Washburn
Pop
Harmons P
Luke & Marins Cooley
Wid. Allen.
Rod. Packart
Dingle Brook,
Entry
MAP OF SP
438
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
rich and poor, whig and Jaeksonian, were very much mixed up. It was made none the less diverting when Bancroft, the "white kid- glove and silk-stocking demoerat " was nominated against Calhoun for Congress.
Mr. Bancroft had been a whig but two years before. He was what was known as a Jackson federalist. Not the least inter- esting phase of this canvass was the dragging in of Mr. Bancroft's connection with the Masons. It will be remembered that an anti- Masonic convention was held at Warriner's tavern on the evening of October 14, 1834. A resolution was proposed commending Mr. Bancroft for a letter written by him to some Northampton voters, and asking him to take a seat in the convention and become its candidate for Congress. Seth Flagg, the chairman, came to the front in that canvass of 1836 in explanation thereof. He claimed Mr. Baneroft had approached him before the convention met with resolutions favoring his own nomination for Congress ; that Mr. Baneroft was invited to take a seat ; that he (Flagg) presented the resolutions as requested ; that Mr. Bancroft read amusing extracts from a book on Free Masonry, and then withdrew ; that the next day Mr. Bancroft complained to him (Flagg) that he had been accused of looking into the windows of the Warriner tavern while the convention was in session, and demanded of Flagg a paper to the effect that this was not true, which he secured ; that he returned shortly with another stronger paper for Flagg to sign, stating that the convention had asked Bancroft to sit in the convention, had recommended him as congressional candidate, and then reconsidered this action; that Flagg signed this paper with the understanding that it was not to be circulated publicly. Mr. Flagg elaimed that in spite of this state- ment, over his own signature, the resolutions recommending Baneroft as a candidate were not passed, but simply presented and laid on the table. Here was a pretty complication, and caused no end of crimi- nation and recrimination then. Mr. Bancroft certainly had the written statement of the chairman of the convention that he was
·
Don't Hitchcock
Francis Burl
„Asher Hitchcock
S
₸
N .
7
Lucius forem
.Heber Hiccheorx
EN Milchcock ry Goodale
Fish Nausa
Poor House Farm
.
"Chauncy Chapin
Warren Warriner
Stephen Hitchcock
Daniel Chopin
D
-
S
T
N º
12
Noah Ashley
Joseph Carew Tan Werks
Dis Nº 7 School House
Thomas Dande
Dorias Wright
With Marley
School House
Nathan Blys Jr
George Robbins
Amasa Parsons
. J. W Rice's Shop ·Zeina Stebbins
Daniel Hocfone
J.C Nelit samuel Dad
Richard Heath
Norman TraIk
Jam't Osgood Sylvester Clark ₩~ Pynchon
Duntyor
s Lathrop ;Cyrus Newals
11
Jacpo
Joshua Christa
.
Brid
Goodman
& Palmer
Ałyyh Alden
S
Jone Want
5 Branch of Mill A.
P
Deran DichJon ly & Copley
+Henry Blus
Hitchc
Wait Dont
# WestiuM . Boarding H
han Wood
First Settlea
May
25
1636
Burnt
by
the
Indians
in
Phillips War
Otl. 6 1675
Population In
1701
1574
Do
1000
2250
Hermans
Da.
In
1810
2767
Do
1820
3914
Do
1830
6784.
Do
in
1835
8411.
Samuel Walker
2
.E. Collins
D
I
S
T
N º
9
Rod Packard
E
Lower Fiery
James Lancton
Chester Osborne
LObed Lombard
A Russell
Mirace Olborne
Jawitti's Osborne
·Collins House
Perowith Milf
Salome!
Kinh
. A Antlefon
Frase"
Dongs
Lowarwater Shops
Mill BLIVER
Wices shop chos Rice
Hogy UDWAT
Luke & Marins Cooley
Ohver Jezion
Enoch Badyer Meacham
ngfe drosk
"L'od Warriner WEhas Ruzrett
· Wandweil House
Entry
MAP OF SPRINGFIELD, 1836.
Walter Subbing Synvca Cooley" Loc StebbinsD
Betyg Crant
Dates & Warner . Fertus Stebbins Burns & Couper+ Wright & Williston " J & M Stebbins Henry Comstock
. LowNi!
Wid Lyman
Robert Emery
Mhd Hubbard
ON
T
+ Quartos Demon
Worthington
putney punwas
Wurde Allen
Fided
Edmund P
yden! Pulnim
AN
Cemping AHIn,
N Chapel
Lewis Foster
upper Wate
leland P
R
.
comman
Appel tauer Shops
I
WHarvey Mitts
It lomba
David Itice
Vinh Thayer Micah. ThayerS
Vedle Water Shops
Warriner
Faper Mills
Ashley
Vi Lever Lending
bu s Forge
.
T
Absha Washburn
Alden & Mitter
ENid. noering
Jonas Guest Min
D. AmPs
Freit
.
.
lahry
Village Hotel Philip Apinwell
Theodore Blissd Jahn Burt Silas Cicek Luther Cutlee d
PElyan Finner
wester Worthington
Munn
Alexander
Michael Dalon
...
Jof Bongs povid Ameu
Rich & Walkley EbenezerTwing
" Zolotes Lombard warner RO "Elliott Thua Applied
Howky
Roger Roger
Milas Smith
Lagrange Scett
op' Pond
Tan Works Flyjah Phas Hubbard Bliss
ohn Jackert
blew's duts
Atrom Morgan
Kust
pond Cadmit
William Betut
Freeman Beugsy
13
Brook
Harry Clarin
Thaddeus Ferre
$0. Eaton
Samuel Lathrop'
Wm Cartute
Alezander Numrilt .
. James Chapin
D
John Butler .
5
Geo. Da-Sat
Baptist Church
Ezt Osbarne ·
439
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
nominated. But he did not secure the support of the anti-Masons sufficient to elect him in 1836. The vote stood : Calhoun, 3,958 ; Bancroft, 2,878. Baneroft, however, polled about four hundred more votes in the district than Warner, democrat, did in 1834.
George Ashmun was a member of the Whig State Central Com- mittee of 1835, when Webster had been put up for President. In 1837 George Ashmun and Reuben Boies, Jr., were whig nominees for the State Senate. The Loco Foco Van Buren convention at West Springfield nominated George Bancroft and Lucius Wright, of West- field. Hampden county had gone tory the year before, but Ashmun and Boies turned the vote to the whig column with a majority of one hundred and fifty. The representatives in 1837 were Daniel W. Wil- lard, Alpheus Nettleton, Josiah Hooker, William Dwight, Samuel HI. Stebbins, and Luke Bemis, Jr., all whigs. It was a bad year for Loco Focoism in western Massachusetts. Immediately after the elec- tion John Mills was offered the collectorship of the port of Boston, so it was understood by his friends ; but he declined, and George Ban- croft was appointed. When George Ashmun was renominated for the Senate, in the fall of 1838, Charles Stearns, Elijah Blake, and Samuel Bowles called his attention to the report that democrats were supporting him in consequence of a pledge that he would advocate the repeal of the fifteen-gallon law. Ashmun responded as follows : " I am bound to no man or body of men on that or any other sub- ject. The whole system of pledges I regard as odious and at war with the true principles of republican representation." This was considered satisfactory.
The election was a draw, and was thus thrown into the Legislature, which had no trouble in choosing Ashmun and Boies. When the fifteen-gallon law came up in the Legislature in 1839 in the shape of a bill to regulate the sale of spirituous liquors, George Bliss made a telling attack upon it. The fifteen-gallon law made no end of trou- ble. In June, 1839, Elisha Edwards was arrested for violating the fifteen-gallon law by selling liquor to an employé of Charles Stearns,
440
1
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
on the latter's order, and a troublesome prosecution followed. The liquor issne was a prominent factor in the caucus of 1839, when Everett and Morton were pitted against each other once more, the former being defeated by one vote ; and the first important step of the new Legislature was to repeal the obnoxious fifteen-gallon law. Marcus Morton was the father of Judge Morton of this city.
An incident of the Morton election is preserved by an odd com- munication of that day, headed : "The Complaint of the town clock to the Parish committee of the First Society in Springfield." This chronometer said : " Marcus Morton would not have been governor but for me. On the day of the election in November last I was 10 minutes too fast. The polls were to be closed at half-past four. A good whig in the upper part of the town who was chary of his time calculated that he could leave home at four o'clock and be at the town- liall in time to vote. ITis calculations were right. He left home ex- actly at four o'clock. but he was too late. The polls were closed by my time ; his vote was lost, and Morton was governor by one vote."
The temperance issue made trouble for the whigs also in the Legis- lature. The delegates of 1838 were George Bliss, Orange Chapin, William Childs, Elijah Blake, Sylvester Taylor, and Charles McClallen, all whigs. There was no choice in the election of 1839, and a second ballot was equally unsuccessful. This was because there was a union temperance ticket in the field, made up of three Loco Focos and three whigs. Springfield thus was not represented in the Legis- lature. The Hampden whigs were greatly irritated by these events, and the Whig Republican Association of Springfield was organized early in the year 1840, with these officers : President, George Ash- mun ; recording secretary, William Stowe ; corresponding secretary, Henry Seymour ; treasurer, George Dwight ; executive committee, Elijah Blake, Luke Bemis, Jr., Edward O. Morris, Elihu Adams, Francis M. Carew, and Otis Skeele. The presidential election was now coming on, and the old-liners gathered at Springfield, Feb. 19, 1840, to give the whig nominee for President, William Henry
441
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
Harrison, a good send off. George Ashmun was made president, and Henry Seymour, of Springfield, secretary. Speeches were made by Isaac C. Bates, Emory Washburn, of Worcester, Judge O. B. Morris, William Stowe, and others. April, 1840, the famous cam- paign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too " was now under way, with all its picturesque features.
One day some Longmeadow boys rigged up a log cabin and made a call on " Uncle Jere's," the cabin being drawn by six horses. 1 fifteen-gallon keg served as a chimney. The hard-cider candidate was well toasted. The year was full of excitement, and the demo- crats were also ripe for the fray. There was a grand Harrison demon- stration in Springfield, October 9, 1840. William B. Calhoun had just been nominated for Congress. On the evening of the 8th the town- hall was occupied by the whigs. A triumphal arch spanned Main street, near the Chicopee Bank, put up by the merchants of " Fountain row." Early Friday morning a cavalcade with a band rode in from Monson, and some wagons and horsemen poured in from Wilbraham, Ludlow, Longmeadow, Northampton, West Springfield, Granby, Belchertown, and dozens of places. The Westfield delegation to the convention came in a huge wagon drawn by twelve horses, and " Old Tip's Buggy" inscribed on its banners. Over half-a-dozen bands were tuning up the party patriotism. Capt. George Dwight formed the procession at ten o'clock, assisted by HI. Seymour, William M. Town, C. A. Mann, R. Shurtleff, and others. Revolutionary soldiers were at the head, and the column, six deep, proceeded to Worthing- ton grove, where that inspiring leader of men, George Ashmun, called the assemblage to order, and Oliver B. Morris was made presi- dent. All the afternoon was spent in speech-making and singing whig songs. The American eagle, in all sizes and conditions, perched on the decorated floats about the grove ; whig mottoes floated in the breeze on familiar terms with the stars and stripes, broken democratic arches lay in ruins, and lampoons furnished food for the merry. Stuffed roosters stood proudly upon log cabins, and General Harrison
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.