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 38
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was toasted in drinking-booths on the edges of the grove. It was a great day, and there were many great days before that canvass was over. Harrison won, and the whigs had their short day and deep mourning for the death of their standard-bearer.
Back of all this political commotion loomed the grim question of slavery, and the fine art of public life of that day lay in retiring the spectre of human bondage to the background. William B. Calhoun had been charged with foreing the issne by charging radical abolition upon Harrison. This was done to alienate the Southern whigs ; but Calhoun denounced the attempt in phrases very spirited for him. Early in 1836 some Hampshire men, in session at Amherst, had pro- posed an anti-slavery convention, to be held at Northampton, - a move that created much uneasiness. There was an anti-slavery prayer- meeting in Springfield on the evening of the Fourth, 1837, when the air was dismal with fire-crackers, and the first annual meeting of the Hampden County Anti-Slavery Society was held in January, 1838, at Dr. Osgood's church. The officers elected were : President, Abel Bliss ; vice-presidents, Rev. S. Osgood, Rev. J. A. Morrill, and Rev. H. Smith ; secretary, Chauncey Chapin ; treasurer, Edwin Booth ; directors, E. Chapin. Luther Bliss, Dr. Jefferson Church, Dr. J. Bassett, and Noah Merrick. Slavery was denounced as a national sin. Judge Morris made a memorable speech, the house being packed. Morris was not identified with any abolition society, which fact heightened the effect of his eloquence. Dr. Osgood and Dr. Ralph Emerson, of Andover Theological Seminary, were drawn into a fierce discussion over slavery. In one letter Dr. Osgood said : " But I ask, in what light ought Christians to regard that universal system of concubinage which is practised by the blacks themselves in all the slave States? The slave laws do not recognize the marriage institution. The master has the power to dissolve it at pleasure, and either of the parties cohabiting together may break off their connec- tion at will, and do so in multitudes of cases."
Channeey Chapin at this time took occasion to draw ont Mr. Cal-
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houn's opinion on slavery. The latter was again a candidate for Congress. He answered by calling attention to the fact that his vote against the admission of Arkansas upon the ground that slavery was recognized in its constitution was sufficient to indicate where he stood. He added : " I look upon this infernal traffic as but a slight remove from the foreign slave-trade now so abhorrent to all. It is the grand means of perpetuating slavery. . . I found no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that Congress, within its appropriate sphere, ought at once to adopt such measures of judicious and efficient legis- lation as shall bring this great moral, social, and political evil, in all its forms, as speedily as possible to an end." Mr. Garrison did not receive Dr. Osgood's support in his radical notions of forming a po- litical party at that time, and Garrison denounced Osgood in his paper in ummeasured terms.
It was of course to be expected that between the enterprise of the stage men, the boating men, and the railroad men, that the town would grow apace. In 1834 the population was 6,784. By 1837 Springfield was the sixth town in population in the State, and the third in the valuation of its manufactures. Here are some figures : · Population, 9,234 ; public schools, 20 : winter scholars, 1,617 ; aver- age winter attendance, 1,398: teachers (winter), 14 males and 16 females, (summer), 4 males and 26 females : academies and private schools, 4, with 168 scholars ; cotton-mills, 7, with $1,400,000 in- vested ; wool produced, 4,500 pounds ; value of boots manufactured, $10,000 ; tanneries, 3, with $8,000 capital ; hat factories, 2 ; paper- mills, 4, with $120,000 capital ; furnaces, 3, with $35,000 capital ; cutlery, 1, with $20,000 capital ; cabinet and chair factories, 6, with $16,000 capital ; plough manufactories, 2 : tinware factories, 4 : steam- boats built during year, 5, valued at $18,000. There were also manu- factured $14,000 worth of muskets at the armory. An indication of over-production was noticed in 1837, when many hands were dis- charged at Chicopee and Cabotville. By 1840. 2,558 persons were engaged in Springfield manufacturing.
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At a meeting of the manufacturers, farmers, and merchants of the town, held in the town-hall, May 18, 1832, Justice Willard in the chair, and Stephen C. Bemis secretary, resolutions favoring a continuation of a protective tariff were passed. Another meeting at Warriner's Inn, May 31, with the landlord in the chair, and Samuel Bowles secretary, passed resolutions against pedlers, as it was considered " fraught with injurious consequences to the regular business of the community and tends to the encouragement of bad habits and impo- sition." The committee to suppress this practice consisted of James Brewer, James Wells, A. G. Tannatt, Francis M. Carew, and Stephen O. Russell.
Springfield was not wanting in newspapers at this time. The " Republican " was a great success as a stanch anti-Jackson sheet. It absorbed the " Hampden Journal," started in 1807 by Thomas Dickman. The "Hampden Whig" was started in February, 1830, by John B. Eldredge, who sold out to E. D. Beach, in 1835. The "Springfield Gazette " was started in September, 1831, with G. W. Callender, Henry Kirkham, and Lewis Briggs, proprie- tors. William IIyde was editor. In 1832 Callender and Kirkham withdrew, and the "Gazette " was published by Mr. Briggs and Josiah Hooker, the latter being editor as well. The "Hampden In- telligencer " had started up in 1831 as an anti-Masonic paper, but was short-lived. In 1840 Mr. Beach, then editor of the " Hampden Post," was nominated by the Loco Foco party as county treasurer, but was defeated. In 1840 William Stowe became editor of the " Spring- field Gazette."
Dr. Joshua Frost was buried from Mr. Peabody's church in April, 1832. He was a man of fine education and admirable character. He was a model village man, being always present at town-meetings, and ready to bear his share of public burdens. Dr. Frost gradu- ated at Harvard, and was State senator in 1826. He was sixty-five when he died. The year following (August 25, 1833) Col. Roswell Lee passed away, and with him a prominent actor in local affairs.
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He rivalled George Ashmun as a guest or host, and had sat at the head of many banquet tables, political and social. His honorable record as superintendent of the armory is a matter of history. He had command of Fort Griswold, Groton. Com., in the War of 1812. William Bliss, the lawyer, died March 3, 1838, aged forty-one. IIe ranked in' his profession among the first in the county, and was prominent in town affairs. He was chairman of county commis- sioners in 1834. Mr. Bliss was a very companionable man, and was very much of a wit. Many anecdotes are associated with his name. Perhaps it would not be out of place to give one of them. Samuel Bowles was very fond of pictures, and delighted especially in a good portrait. He was very much interested in Mr. Elwell's paint- ing, and gave him much encouragement. Mr. Elwell used to tell of an artist who had a studio in the Byers building, facing on Court square, and to please Mr. Bowles it was arranged one day that an empty frame should be placed in a remote and somewhat shaded cor- ner of the studio. Behind this William Bliss was placed in tableau, and Mr. Bowles invited in to view the new portrait. The visitor was wonderfully impressed, and finally when Mr. Bliss stepped aside and left the frame empty, Mr. Bowles threw his hands across his breast and sighed deeply.
It may be mentioned by way of church activities that the Baptist meeting-house was dedicated Sept. 12, 1832. In that year was held a convention of the Baptist denomination of Massachusetts in the new Baptist church, one hundred and eighty churches being repre- sented. Rev. Dwight Ives was ordained pastor of the First Bap- tist Church, in January, 1836, Rev. Dr. Davis, of Hartford, preach- ing the sermon. In October, 1836, Rev. Simeon Howard Calhoun was ordained at the First Church as an evangelist preparatory to his duties in Greece and the Holy Land. Christ Church (Episcopal) was christened April 1, 1840, and on the following day Mr. HIeny W. Lee was installed rector, Rev. Dr. Stone, of Boston, preaching the sermon.
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In the autumn of 1833 a new school building for the Centre Dis- triet was completed. It was situated " near the foot of State street." The old building was bought by Philip Wilcox and fitted up for a tin factory. The Misses M. and N. Holland were teaching a young ladies' seminary at this time, and Mrs. A. P. Curtis was principal of the Springfield Female Academy. The school-house belonging to the armory was burned in January, 1840.
The fire department was in a flourishing condition. In October, 1837, there was a grand muster with five engines, one hundred and sixty-two men, and one thousand three hundred and seventy feet of hose, not counting the Independent Fire Club. The engines were tested on Liberty square, when they proceeded to Court square. By the use of two engines hose was run to the balustrade at the foot of the spire of Dr. Osgood's church and a stream of water thrown ten feet above the old rooster. The annual festival of the Springfield Fire Department took place .Jan. 2, 1838, one hundred and seventy- five sitting down at the Hampden Coffee-house table; George Colton presided, and Col. I. Goodman, E. Hitchcock, F. M. Carew, and Samuel Bowles acted as vice-presidents.
In 1835 the Springfield Light Infantry organized as follows : Edward Rowland, Jr., captain ; William W. Orne, lieutenant ; George Dwight, ensign ; Nathaniel Lombard, orderly sergeant; R. T. Saf- ord, S. B. Hodgett, and Dwight Smith, sergeants. The follow- ing year Lieut. George Dwight was elected captain, Capt. E. Row- land having been appointed division inspector. R. T. Safford was eleeted first lieutenant and Edward D. Chapin ensign. A brigade muster followed in this town a few weeks later, eleven companies being present, under command of General West. The column was reviewed on Walnut street by Major-General Moseley, and by Governor Everett in the afternoon. The artillery and the light infantry had another gala day in September, 1837. They were out one thousand strong. Artillery was represented by companies from West Springfield, Monson, Westfield, and Belchertown, Colonel
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Gorham in command; and the infantry and riflemen came in from West Springfield, Longmeadow, Brimfield, Ware, and Ludlow, and were commanded by Colonel E. Parsons. Captain Dwight's light infantry (Springfield) were said to have taken the palm.
CHAPTER XIX.
1841-1852.
Maj. Edward Ingersoll. - Colonel Ripley. - Military Superintendents. - Protest of the Armorers. - Charles Stearns. - Col. Roswell Lee. - The "Stearns Riot." - Long Litigations. - Politics. - Ashmun's Defenee of Webster. - Liquor Licenses. - Ar- rival of John Quincy Adams's Body. - Ashmun's Publie Carcer. - The Thompson Riots. - Eliphalet Trask's Position. - Erasmus D. Beach. - John Mills again. - Chapman as a Statute-Maker. - Railroads. - Visit of Charles Dickens. - More River Steamboats. - The Fire of 1844. - Real-Estate Changes. - Proposal for a City Char- ter. - Deaths of N. P. Ames, David Ames, and Dr. Peabody. - Newspapers. - Churches. - Removal of the Okl Cemetery. - Jenny Lind. - New Business Enter- prises. - Militia. - The New City.
MAJ. EDWARD INGERSOLL was appointed paymaster and keeper of the military stores at the United States Armory in May, 1841, in the place of Maj. Charles Howard, who had held the place for twelve years. Ingersoll is the son of John Ingersoll, of Westfield, who for so many years filled the position of clerk of the courts, and died in 1840. He had grown up in Springfield as a lad, tending school, driving cows for his father up Main street, then learning business over the counter of Reynolds & Morris. He has a rare faculty of observation and a regular antiquarian memory ; we may here pay him the tribute of having furnished for modern local writers more color and diverting incidents, probably, than any other citizen now living. His touches are on many of these pages, as he has been a never-failing source of information as to what he has seen or heard from men now long gathered to their fathers.
Major Ingersoll became paymaster at the armory at a very critical time in its history, and it may be said that his good judgment and considerate actions had much to do with the restoration of a better
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feeling between the armory administration and the citizens of Spring- field. This was the year also when Col. J. W. Ripley was made superintendent. There was almost immediately a loud call for Rip- ley's removal. His discipline was of the strict military order, and regulations like forbidding the reading of books or newspapers in the shops during working hours occasioned bitter resentment. The armorers, in fact, objected to a military man on general princi- ples. This unpopularity of a whig superintendent delighted the loco focos ; and well they might feel pleased, for the disaffection was great enough to bring about a draw in the November elections for representatives, the whig abolitionists contributing to this result by running a " liberty " ticket. The political confusion had been in- creased by the failure of the whigs, in April, to elect town officers. There were no less than four tickets in the field, - whig, loco foco, independent, and abolition.
In the spring of 1842 the armorers sent a committee to Washing- ton to protest against the "system of military superintendence." The claim was made at that time that not only the discipline of the men had deteriorated, but that it was less economical to place a mili- tary man over the armory. There had been an uncordial feeling in the armory toward the army officers, running back to 1833, when an application for more wages for the armorers was referred to a commis- sion of three armory officers, which promptly recommended a reduc- tion of wages. This recommendation was not followed. During the sickness of Colonel Lee, in 1833, Lieutenant-Colonel Talcott had a short trial as superintendent, and his $12.31 musket and $15,000 deficit did not aid the cause of military superintendency very much. In 1834 a civilian, John Robb, paid off the old debt, made a musket for $11.05, and showed a surplus at the close of the year. In 1835 the musket was reduced to $10.94, and when he was superseded, in 1841, he had a surplus of $42,000. The return to a military superintendency had been recommended by the Board of Ordnance, of which Lieutenant-Colonel Talcott was president.
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Colonel Ripley showed little disposition to mend the breach of good feeling between the two factions, and when Amadon, Foster, and Hopkins, the committee of protesting armorers who had been sent to Washington, returned, they were promptly discharged. About forty armorers were sent away in a bunch, and at one time the shops were closed. Some one hundred and fifty men were compelled to seek employment elsewhere. The bitter feeling was increased by the circulation of an unproven report that Ripley asked N. P. Ames & Co. not to employ discharged armorers, and there were many of them at that time. Piece-workmen were immediately exchanged for time- hands at $1.75 per day. The reason for this was simply a matter of
economy. Piece-workmen would save in a month wages for two months, and lock the work in their drawers. They were able by this means to be absent two weeks at a time, their names appearing on the pay-rolls just the same. Under civil rule the men often worked only from three to five hours, when they would hasten off to their farms or homes. When military rule was fairly established, some men earned more money per month at twelve and one-half cents, piece price, than they had formerly earned at thirty-three cents per piece, because they were obliged to work stated hours.
The contest broadened out into a fight between army men and civilians generally, and a local paper remarked : "The officers of the army all over the country are banded together by a sort of Free Mason tie, contracted at the West Point Academy to carry out the schemes of their leaders."
The nomination by the whigs of Charles Stearns for one of the Hampden senators, in 1842, may be considered evidence of the heat of the armory disaffection, he being an implacable foe to military superintendencies. The county vote defeated him, however, and Asa Lincoln and Reuben Champion were elected.
Until the appointment of Colonel Lee at the armory, it may be said the armorers were in the main unmarried or transient men. Colonel Lee, however, induced many to build houses for them-
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selves. The character of the men improved under both Lee and Robb. They became inventors, were even eleeted to the Legislature, and filled a large place in Springfield town. The change from prac- tical gunsmiths to ordnance officers could not fail to make trouble, and many of the old armorers were very exasperating in their manners. They avoided the order against smoking by puffing their pipes in the stove, claiming that they were not smoking in the shops. Such men were given their walking-papers in short order. A strenuous effort was made in 1843 and 1844 to get these men reinstated, and Charles Stearns even went to Washington to see what could be done there for them. One of the arguments used was that many of these armorers, under the belief that their places were permanent, had made valuable inventions, and given their ideas to the government without a thought of pay. When Mr. Stearns returned he had an unsatisfactory interview with Colonel Ripley, who was accused of extravagance in pulling down the superintendent's residence and putting up a better one. He was taken to task also for clearing away several small build- ings rented to armorers. Talcott, lieutenant-colonel of ordnance at Washington, was a firm friend of Colonel Ripley, and put aside the protests as the interference of civilians in military matters. A communication signed by Chauncey Shepard, Charles A. Bartlett, Thomas S. Williams, and John D. Lord was circulated on the heels of this little fight, certifying to the fact that the superintendent's house was old and rotten, and that it was wise to pull it down. Charles Stearns felt called upon to respond, and the quality of the timbers and foundation-stones of the superintendent's house became an issue of prime moment.
The bitter feeling was increased, in January, 1845, by a side issue, - a trial in the United States court at Boston. A strip of ground on Prospect street (since discontinued and now a part of the armory grounds on the west side) had been bought by Charles Stearns of Col. Israel E. Trask in 1827. This strip ran from Byers street due east, and abutted on the then Prospect street, which ran south to
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State street, parallel to Byers street. A United States engineer, in surveying the United States lands, found that Prospect street be- longed to the government, and Ripley, knowing that Stearns expected to cut up his land into building lots, which would be useless for that purpose unless Prospect street was kept open, put up some sheds in the middle of the street in- front of Stearns's property, in order to test the question. Stearns at once ordered his workmen to tear down the buildings and the fence, and remove some lumber there deposited. Mr. Stearns began the work himself by cutting down the first fence-post. When the work was in progress, Major Ingersoll appeared and ordered the Stearns party off. Stearns replied that he thanked God he lived under the Constitution and the law, and refused to stir. Some words passed, but no personal violence was done. This was called, locally, the Stearns riot, for which he and his men were arrested and tried in Boston ; verdict, not guilty. There was subsequently another trial at Boston over the title of the land, and Stearns was beaten.
The opposition to Colonel Ripley and a military superintendency culminated in February, 1846, when Adj .- Gen. R. Jones directed a court of inquiry, consisting of Gen. J. E. Wool, Lieut .- Col. N. S. Clark, and Maj. S. Cooper, to examine the charges formally pre- sented by Joseph Lombard, Calvin Shattuck, and many others. R. A. Chapman appeared for Ripley, and ex-Senator William Eaton, of Hartford, and D. H. Dustin for the complainants. There were thir- teen counts to the indictment, including the malicious discharge of faithful armorers, the employment of " reckless foreigners " for night watches, the deterioration in the quality of the gun manufactured at an increase of cost, the extravagant building of a new residence, the receiving of commutation for quarters when elegant houses were standing empty, the wanton and illegal fencing up of Prospect street, the swearing ont of a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Stearns, and, finally, threatening to discharge armorers if they read certain local newspapers. There were some points of truth and right on both
Tho & Chubbuck, Eng: Springfield, Mass.
J. Warren.
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sides ; that is, it was possible for men to honestly differ as to the policy of employing a practical gunsmith or a military officer to run the armory. Men who had grown gray in the service of the gun-shop resented the supervision of a military man who could not put a gun together, or even name its parts with technical accuracy. Upon the other hand, the public demands were clearly against a civilian as commander of a United States arsenal. The day-laborers in the shops had come to think that they had vested rights there. This was their mistake. Springfield had no claim upon the general govern- ment. The armory had done more for Springfield than Spring-
field had done for the armory. The verdict of the court of inquiry was in favor of Colonel Ripley. The Board applanded his administration, honest purpose, and " enlightened zeal for the public interest," and acquitted him "fully and honorably of all the charges."
Time has put these animosities to sleep, and the military super- intendent is the adopted policy in United States armories. The cost of the Springfield musket, which, in 1841, was $13.56, was gradnally reduced until, in 1851, it was $8.75. The average wages of the men were meantime increased from $37.87 per month, in 1841, to $38.85, in 1851.
In the political world Springfield had, in 1841, George Ashinun in the Speaker's chair at Boston. Col. Solomon Warriner was made postmaster in the place of Mr. Morgan, in 1842, and during that year John Mills was accused of turning federalist by voting to increase the capital stock of the Springfield Bank. Mr. Mills replied, defending corporations so long as they did not unneces- sarily interfere with private enterprise. In April Mr. Mills was secretary of a protective-tariff meeting, presided over by Elijah Blake. Mills, Ashmun, and others made addresses. In 1843 Maj. Charles Howard was made State treasurer, but declined, and became a councillor. John Mills was then elected State treasurer. The regular democrats, who had been disgruntled at Mr. Mills's
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business-like attitude toward banks, were by no means pleased at this selection by the Legislature.
In July, 1843, Springfield had a reminder of revolutionary times by a letter from H. A. S. Dearborn, from Roxbury. He said that on June 17, 1843, he heard a fife in the room where the Society of the Cincinnati was assembled (Boston) to observe the sixty-eighth anni- versary of the battle of Bunker Hill, and going up to an aged man who had been playing Washington's march, the following conversa- tion took place : " Were you a fifer in the Revolutionary War?" - " I was."- " In what corps?" - " Nixon's regiment and Nixon's brigade." - " How long did you serve?" -" Three years. I was in the campaigns in the Jerseys, and I was at the execution of Major An- dré." - " How old are you ? " - " I am in my 83d year." - " Where do yon live?" - " In Springfield." - " What is your name?" - " Thaddeus Ferry." For many years Thad. Ferry, with Pierpont Edwards and Major Sanborn, brother of Simon Sanborn, appeared in a carriage on the Fourth of July, these three veterans of the Revolution rousing the memories of '76 as nothing else could. " Thad." Ferry was the best fifer of his day in these parts.
John Quincy Adams lectured before the Mechanics' Lyceum in Oc- tober, 1843. The most interesting feature of the visit was a dinner at Warriner's United States Hotel, Judge Morris presiding. Gen. George N. Briggs had been nominated by the whigs for governor, and the Boston " Emancipator " said that the reason William B. Calhoun was not chosen was because he was suspected of a want of fidelity to Mr. Clay, -a charge that was resented at the time. It may be noticed here that Mr. Calhoun spoke at an Irish repeal meeting at Cabotville in 1843. He said that he had advocated the cause of Po- land and Greece, and for the same reason stood up for Ireland.
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