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 41
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SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886.
George Dwight, Estate David Ames, John Mills, Philo P. Wilcox, Jolin Child, William Howe, James Brewer, Homer Foot, Thomas Bond, Daniel L. Harris, Charles G. Rice, Frederick Dwight, Elipha- let Trask, and so on.
The Wason Car Works started in 1845. The Agawam Bank was organized in 1846 as a State bank, with Chester W. Chapin as
DEPOT AND OLD RAILROAD BRIDGE.
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
president, in which year also Chicopee was connected with Springfield by telegraph. In 1849 the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company was incorporated, and the year following the John Hancock Bank was organized as a State bank. The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company was incorporated in 1851, and Caleb Rice chosen president.
In 1850 the temperance men elected their county commissioners. consisting of N. T. Leonard, Melvin Copeland, and William V. Sessions, and also their special commissioners, L. F. Newton and Elizur Bates. N. T. Leonard was made chairman. The old board of commissioners (democratic) caused a great excitement by issuing liquor licenses for one year upon the last day of their term of office, and there was thunder all round the horizon.
The annual April town-meeting did not work smoothly. After the election of Joseph Ingraham, as usual, for clerk and treasurer, and Dr. Osgood as a member of the school committee, it was im- possible to go any further, except for minor positions. On the 22d two assessors and seven constables were chosen (whigs), and for the purpose of filling the list a town-meeting was appointed for April 26. The locos, the free-soilers, and the independents ran separate tickets. On the 26th in question, sharp at 12, the appointed hour, a loco foco moved an adjournment without day before the whigs had assembled. Charles Beach was in the chair, and as the motion was carried by four majority, the meeting was declared adjourned. By this stroke the loco foco selectmen of 1849 held over. Application was at once made to the Legislature for power to hold a special town-meeting in May. The General Court met the case by passing a general bill authorizing town elections as late as May. A citizen ticket was at once made up, John Mills being nominated as moderator, and Ephraim W. Bond heading the list of selectmen. The locos nominated a select board, with E. D. Beach at the head. It was a pretty exciting time, party feeling run- ning high. The result was a loco foco victory, the board being ;
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Ephraim W. Bond (citizen), E. D. Beach (loco), Oliver B. Bannon (citizen), Simon Sanborn (loco, or some called him liberal whig), and Henry Gray (loco). The locos thus had a majority of the board in a ballot larger than any in the history of the town. The whigs were utterly taken aback, while hundreds of loco focos marched through the streets that night shouting the cry of victory. Henry Gray was superintendent of the Western Railroad, and the cry of " corporation influence " was at once raised.
The census of 1850 put the figure for Springfield down at 11,330, showing that it had made no progress since 1848, when the division left a population of 11,328. Of these, in the 1850 census, about one hundred resided on the United States ground, and two hundred and forty-three were colored. The total valuation was $4, 734,050.
Springfield figured prominently in the Webster convention, in November, 1851, at Boston. Henry Vose was temporary chairman, and Ansel Phelps, Jr., chairman of the committee on permanent or- ganization. George Ashmun was made president of the convention, Vose, permanent secretary, and George Bliss was on the committee to prepare an address to the people giving Mr. Webster's claims to the presidency. It was indeed a curious spectacle for a convention ; but after the delegates had given nine cheers for Webster, and then for George Ashmun, they added three for the ancient and honorable town of Springfield.
The annual militia reviews were continued during this period. These were famous occasions, next to the Fourth itself, the country companies marching in their best style. How the country looked on these occasions is seen by this passage from Hyde's interesting History of Brimfield : -
" Occasionally the militia companies went as far as Springfield or Hatfield for a grander military display. If, on the march, the toll- gate keeper demurred at giving free passage, the captain had but to say, ' Men, do your duty.' At the word, Hiram Gleason, Warren Nelson, Silas Parker, and Hiram Powers would lift the gate bodily
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out of its place, and the company would pass on. These Samsons of Brimfield were equally ready to fight the Philistines in Springfield who jeered at their up-country ways as to carry off the gates that barred their march."
The Hampden County Agricultural Society was chartered in 1844. The St. Paul's (Universalist) Church was built on Main street in 1844, and that year, also, the Trinity Methodist Church was organized, - the Asbury Chapel congregation being transferred there. The place of worship on Pynchon street was dedicated the following year. The North Church was organized in 1846, St. Benedict's ( Roman Catholic) Union-street Church was christened in 1847, the Catholic cemetery, Liberty street, opened, and the Baptist church edifice built on Main street. The First Congregational (Evangelical religion) Society of Indian Orehard was organized in 1848. Dr. A. N. Littlejohn, after- ward Bishop of Long Island, was made rector of Christ Episcopal Church in 1850.
When, in 1852, it was found that the population of Springfield had reached 12,498, the call for a city charter became irresistible, and at a special meeting, in March, Henry Vose, S. C. Bemis, John Mills, George Dwight, and Henry Gray were chosen to make application for the charter. It was promptly granted, and at a special meeting, April 21, 1852, the town adopted the act according to law by a vote of 969 to 454, and the deed was done.
CHAPTER
1852-1860.
The New City. - Ansel Phelps, Jr. - New Buildings upon Main Street. - The Growth of Holyoke. - Labor Troubles. - The Boston & Albany Railroad. - Kossuth .- Philos B. Tyler. - Retirement of Dr. Osgood. - Gen. Whitney. - Know-nothingism. - Mayor Trask. - Dedication of the City Hall. - The Fremont Campaign. - The City Library. - The Home Exhibition of 1853. - Death of Daniel Lombard. - Panic of 1857. - Failure of the Western Bank. - George Bliss and Benjamin Butler. - Polities. - Dr. Chaffee. - Free-soil Excitement. - John Brown. - The Club. - The Dred Scott Decision and Springfield. - More Politics. - John Brown's Letter to Chapman.
ONE fine evening in May there was a great concourse of people in Howard street, where Caleb Rice lived. He had beaten William B. Calhoun by four votes in the contest for the honor of being Spring- field's first mayor. The crowd called for a speech, and got one. Ansel Phelps, Jr., spoke for the crowd, and the new mayor's residence was thrown open to the public. There was no party ticket put up at this election. They were picked men. The first city goverment was as follows : -
Mayor, Caleb Rice; clerk and treasurer. Joseph Ingraham; aldermen, - S. S. Day, Eliphalet Trask, E. D. Beach, George Dwight, Albert Morgan, Charles G. Rice, Oliver B. Bannon, and F. A. Barton ; common council, -J. B. M. Stebbins, Eleazer Ripley, Jolmn V. Jones, Warner C. Sturtevant, Francis Bates, Henry Fuller, Jr., Charles Merriam, Willis Phelps, Cicero Simons, Henry Morris, Alexander H. Avery, Benjamin F. Warner, William Hitchcock, H. Q. Sander- son, Nathaniel Cate. Henry Adams. Ezra Kimberly, and Rodney Holt; school committee, - Josiah Hooker, C. A. Winchester. A. S. MeClean, George Walker, William P. Bagg, Henry Adams, Marcellus Pinney, and Frederick Holt.
This government was inaugurated on the two hundred and sixteenth anniversary of the settlement of the town. Mr. Calhonn, chairman
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of the retiring and final board of selectmen, administered the oath of office to the mayor, who swore in the rest of the city government.
The mayor and aldermen were immediately confronted with the license question. The new license law went into effect on July 22, and, on motion of Eliphalet Trask, who in later times stood, and still stands, as a temperance tower of great strength, moved that licenses be granted to that date. George Bliss opposed this motion, but Mr. Trask gained his point. City Marshal Adams had his hands full before the year closed, raiding saloons and rumholes.
Petitions were circulated in this, the first year of the municipality, for the removal of Postmaster Stowe and the appointment of Charles Stearns. This was called persecution for opinion's sake, Mr. Stowe having been an active military armory superintendent advocate. Both of these gentlemen were whigs. Stearns was in Washington at the time, and upon hearing of the petition requested that his name be withdrawn, and it was.
During the last eight years of Springfield's township the business street had undergone, as we have had occasion to note, great changes. In fact, Main street had been largely rebuilt or remodelled. There had gone up the Union House, Burt's block, Foot's block, the burned district buildings, about Sanford street, Hampden Hall block, Good- rich's block, City Hotel block, the new arsenal at the armory, and the John Hancock Bank on the Hill. The corner bookstore of the Merriam's began to take on the dignity of age, owing to these new buildings. There were also four church edifices, as we have noted, - Universalist, Pynchon-street Methodist, the Baptist, and the North Congregational churches. The new block above the depot, with many houses in that region, was a real estate feature of that day. A dozen elegant residences had been built on Maple street, and the railroad buildings were nearly all new.
The new city of Springfield assumed its robes with becoming dig- nity and good nature, in spite of the misgivings of an influential minority. To William B. Calhoun, John B. Kirkham, Theodore
SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
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Stebbins, Joseph Ingraham, and Eliphalet Trask was intrusted the task of laying out the wards and apportioning the members of the common council. It was a good omen that, in all the popular votes attending the granting of a city charter and the municipal organiza- tion, there was no division upon party lines. Men considered each question upon its merits, and per- fect good-humor prevailed.
BOOK AND FANCY JOB, PRINTING OFFICE
G & C.MERRIAM. PRINTERS & BOOKSELLERS
PRINTING OFFICE
AMES & DWIGHT
THE CORNER BOOKSTORE.
field, and with it the fishing-grounds at the falls on the west side, and the territory known subsequently as "Ireland parish and Holyoke, " carried that manufacturing suburb beyond the limits of our narrative ; but that section is so connected, commercially, with Springfield, that it should not be ignored alto- gether. Deeds covering the site of Holyoke were made to Fairbanks & Co., and to George C. Ewing, during 1847. We have stated that the dam and canals were built the following year. Fairbanks & Co. had also secured the property of the Locks & Canal Company at South
The setting off of West Spring-
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Hadley Falls. The failure of D. & J. Ames (1853) and of Howard & Lathrop, and the burning of their South Hadley Falls mills, had only a temporarily depressing effect upon the place. R. O. Dwight, in a series of admirable articles on Holyoke, prepared for the " Springfield Republican," says, in reference to the year 1847: " The Eagle Paper Company, of Northampton, - whose organization was due to the revelations of business profits made to the late Judge Forbes while hearing, as master of chancery, some portion of the endless litigation between the Ameses and Howard & Lathrop, - the ancient mill of David Ames at Chicopee Falls, and the recently es- tablished Southworth Company at Mittineagne, were the only repre- sentatives of the industry in the river counties." Holyoke had been incorporated as a town in 1850. Mr. Dwight, in his article above alluded to, gives the following account of labor troubles : -
On June 25, about 9 o'clock in the evening, an outbreak between the rival nationalities occurred at Springfield, near the Hibernian, "a sort of rumhole below the depot," which became a riot. From 10 to 12 the church bells were rung and an immense crowd gathered. For an hour no carriage could pass along the street, and a foot-passenger only with serious danger. Finally Sheriff Caleb Rice arrived on the scene and dispersed the mob. They had their labor riots also in those days. The men at work for Boody & Stone on the canals at Ire- land Depot struck on New Year's day, 1848, because their pay had been reduced from 75 and 77 cents a day to 70 cents. For a week the works were at a stand- still. Then a dozen men went to work at the reduction, under protection of the company's engineer, Anderson, and Constable Theodore Farnham. The strikers, "armed with clubs and other weapons of Irish warfare." at once attacked them. The constable, while attempting to arrest some of the leaders, was knocked down and trampled upon until nearly senseless. Mr. Anderson was struck with a rail and received a bad gash in the cheek. The windows of a temporary grocery, kept by a Mr. Day, were smashed, but the shanties were not torn down, as had been threatened. At last one of the ringleaders was captured and sent to Northampton jail by a train which happened along opportunely. As soon as the news reached Northampton Sheriff Wright, with 25 men of the militia com- pany, armed with muskets, hastened by special train to the scene of disturbance. They, however, found all quiet and returned at 2 o'clock A.M. Tuesday morn-
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ing came Sheriff Rice from Springfield, with a Catholic priest, who guaranteed that there should be no trouble that day or the next night. Wednesday, bright and early, Sheriff Rice returned with a posse and made three arrests. In the afternoon Sheriff Wright took another man at the depot. Thursday morning the six men were examined before Justices Bridgman and Hooker at Springfield, and Thomas Long, Michael Brown, and James Connolly discharged, while James Faherty, Thomas Fitzgerald, and Jeremiah Bresson were held in $60 each to appear before the grand jury. After peace had been thus established the Springfield papers came near reawakening the sounds of strife on the banks of the Connecticut by innuendoes and sly allusions to a military company which went 9 or 10 miles at midnight to quell a riot without taking any flints for its guns.
Meantime the process of railroad consolidation had gone on, and by 1855 the Legislature passed an act anthorizing the Western, the Albany, the Hudson, and the Boston companies to unite, under the corporate name of the Boston & Albany railroad, and business was such that each year large sections of the road was being double- tracked. The controversy attending the freight apportionment between the Western and the Worcester roads does not properly concern us here, but this angry contest delayed the consolidation for nearly ten years.
In April, 1852, Kossuth visited Springfield, coming directly from New York. There were quite five thousand people present at the depot to welcome him, and the constables had much trouble in clear- ing a way for his passage to the Massasoit Hotel, at the balcony of which the distinguished Hungarian presently appeared and made a short speech. On the day following a public reception was held in Dr. Osgood's church. His name thus appears in the registry-book at the Massasoit, - " L. Kossuth and Lady," and under the column of residence he wrote " Nowhere"; then followed the names of his suite - " P. Hajnik, Homeless ; Capt. George Grechenek, Homeless ; Therese Pulszky, Homeless ; Francis Pulszky and servant, Homeless ; W. T. Coggeshall, Homeless."
George Merriam and two members of his family gave Kossuth
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substantial aid. The patriot's address at the old First Church was elaborate and eloquent. It was his first sight of Massachusetts, and his tongue was loosened : " With you, citizens of Massachusetts," he exclaimed, " the love of liberty is more than affection - it is prin- ciple," and he added : -
One of my companions stopped here in New England, in the house of a workingman, who labors hard at the wages of $2 a day, and he found in the modest but neat and comfortable house besides the bible and newspapers, a trans- lation of some Roman classics, Bentham and Patrick's history of the United States. Now, gentlemen, where the workingmen draw spiritual life from divine revelation by private judgment and converse daily with Roman classics -those ever-fresh sources of generous sentiment -and are familiar with Bentham's An- alysis of Diet, philosophical utilitarianism, and draw daily inspiration of philan- throphy and of their country's history, there I easily can understand how the heart of man remains generous in common national prosperity and wraps itself not up in the selfishnesss of undeserved happiness.
Rev. Francis Tiffany, of Baltimore, was ordained as pastor of the Unitarian church, in December, 1852, Dr. G. W. Burnap, of Balti- more, Md., preaching the sermon. The Hampden Savings Bank was organized at this time.
The Springfield City Guard, in 1852, elected these officers : Cap- tain, John B. Wyman ; first lieutenant, Timothy D. Pelton ; second lieutenant, Joseph C. Pynchon ; third lieutenant, James Kirkham ; fourth lieutenant, Burton M. Ford. In the autumn of 1852 Richard Walkley, Jr., was tried for the murder of his father, Augustus L. Sonle and William G. Bates defending him, and District Attorney Sumner was assisted by Attorney-General Clifford. He was eon- victed.
The legislative committee reported favorably in April (1853) a bill chartering a branch of the Canal Railroad, to be called the Springfield & Farmington Valley Railroad. This was secured after a long contest which had entered into most of the local elections in this region for some time. The Senate, however, killed the measure,
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through the Westfield influence. The road was incorporated in 1856.
R. A. Chapman and Charles Stearns were once more pitted against each other in 1853 over the armory superintendency matter, the Presi- dent of the United States having appointed a commission of military men and citizens to investigate the merits of both systems. After many weeks of labor the commission was suddenly called to Washington, and a report of the Secretary of War showed that the government was de- termined to stand by military superintendents. Abijah W. Chapin, son of Col. Harvey Chapin, was made postmaster in 1853. The Pynchon Bank was organized this year. The Springfield Society of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) was organized. In the spring the " Con- necticut Farmer and Mechanic " was started, and also the " Chic- opee Weekly Journal." In 1854 the Springfield Five Cents Savings Bank was organized.
The State temperance convention met in Hampden Hall June, 1853, and was presided over by Dr. Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst College. This convention, while it believed in moral suasion, had still greater faith in the " necessity of legal action." The municipal elections of December, 1853, at the close of Caleb Rice's second term of office generated into party strife. The dream of non-partisan contests was indeed too good. A workingmen's caucus was called to nomi- nate a mayor, and Philos B. Tyler was nominated. The democratic caucus, a few days later, made the same nomination. The whigs then nominated Col. James M. Thompson. Persons dissatisfied with these nominations met in the police court-room, but it was claimed that they were ontvoted by machine-shop workmen, and Tyler was nominated. The animus of this charge, whether true or false, lay in the fact that Tyler was president of the American Machine Works. Many prominent citizens, free-soilers and temperance whigs, turned to Caleb Rice, and he was put up again. Some independent working- men set up a ticket with Charles Stearns at the head, and the bolting democrats nominated E. D. Beach. The polling stood as follows :
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Total vote, 1,763 ; necessary for a choice, 887 ; James M. Thompson, whig, 510; Philos B. Tyler, democrat, 707; Caleb Rice, citizens' union, 348 ; Charles Stearns, independent workingmen's, 109 ; E. D. Beach, bolting democrat, 68 ; scattering, 21; no choice. Eliphalet Trask was the only whig alderman elected, and Roderick Lombard the only democrat. The second election was also futile, Tyler lead- ing with 806 votes, and Thompson and Rice holding the majority from him. On the 9th of January, 1854, however, the democrats carried their point, and Philos B. Tyler was elected over the Eliphalet Trask citizens' ticket.
Dr. Osgood retired after a ministry of forty-five years, and was succeeded by Rev. Henry M. Parsons, of East Haddem, who had been brought up a Presbyterian. He had just graduated from the Connecticut Theological Institute, and came to Springfield through the encouragement of his relative, Aaron Colton, and walked into the First Church pulpit over the aspirations of no less than seventy-four candidates, young and old. The retirement of Dr. Osgood should not pass without another tribute to his stalwart character. A glance through the early records shows that Dr. Osgood (he was made doc- tor of divinity by Princeton in 1827) was especially active in the cause of temperance, cooperating with Renben A. Chapman and others in beating back the fearful habits of rum-drinking, so common at that time. He was for many years a member of the school board, and he was also an important factor in formulating the anti-slavery sentiment of this valley. He first joined the Colonization Society, and opened his church for its meetings, and as this did not meet with sat- isfactory results, he came out as an anti-slavery man, but not as an extreme abolitionist. If the duties of his profession had not pre- vented, Dr. Osgood would have had a prominent place among the anti-slavery leaders of the Republic. His eloquence was undoubted, he was a natural leader of men, and he had many of the minor quali- fications of an effective speaker, - ready wit, graphic descriptive powers, and a deep knowledge of human nature.
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Springfield was completely taken aback by the action of Congress, in the summer of 1854, which decreed that civil superintendents should be appointed at Springfield and Harper's Ferry. After so long a dispute the local heart of anti-militarianism palpitated withi delight. Among the names mentioned for the Springfield appoint- ment were Mayor Tyler, Otis A. Seamans, and John Chase, of Chicopee. Master Armorer E. S. Allin was placed temporarily in charge of the armory (August, 1854) after the removal of Colonel Ripley by Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War. When General Whitney had received the appointment, a rousing civilians' jubilee was planned. It was the beginning of November. A procession was formed at the Pynchon-street Church by City Marshal Churchill. In line conspic- uously placed were the aged armorers who had been discharged, as well as three revolutionary veterans, - Reuben Burt, age ninety- three ; John S. Edwards, age ninety, and Jonathan Smithi, of Chicopee, age ninety-three. The procession brought up at Hamp- den Hall, where a banquet was spread. Mr. Tyler sat at the head of the table, and among the vice-presidents were Stephen C. Bemis, Charles Stearns, S. R. B. Lewis, Seth B. Bliss, John C. Stebbins, Dr. J. Hooker, G. W. Harrison, and Lewis Foster. The toastmaster was Grove H. Loomis, of the Boston Custom-house, and among the speakers were ex-Governor Steele, of New Hampshire ; ex-Alderman Whiting, of Boston ; Superintendent Whitney, Dr. Osgood, Charles Stearns, who might have been called " The Happy." Ile, by the way, secured from Congress, in 1856, his long-sought indemnity for losses resulting from " the riot." In the evening the rejoicings were renewed in the City IIall. The ladies of Springfield gave Mr. Stearns a silver pitcher, and the civilians' jubilee closed with speech- making and general felicitations. The next week Mr. Stearns' friends put him up for Congress, and he accepted it on the armory issue.
In the fall of 1854 came the Know-nothing whirlwind. Eliphalet Trask was put up by the Know-nothings for Mayor, and was over-
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whelmingly elected. Mr. Trask had been alderman every year since the city started, and his intimate knowledge of local affairs eminently fitted him for the position. The aldermen elected with him were James M. Blanchard, W. C. Sturtevant, David Smith, Daniel Reynolds, William E. Montague, Henry Adams, James P. Chapman, and Harvey Foster. The local democrats organized in August, 1855, for the campaign by appointing a city committee, with William Patton, chairman. Ansel Phelps, Jr., announced himself a convert to the administration.
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