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 42

Author: Green, Mason Arnold; Springfield (Mass.)
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: [Springfield, Mass.] : C.A. Nichols & Co.
Number of Pages: 740


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 42


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The city appro- priations for 1855 were about $65,000, and the debt about $100,000, mainly due to the new City Hall account. Spring- field had now reached 13,780 in population.


Ansel Phelps had announced his poli- tical conversion in the nick of time. The democrats put CITY HALL TOWER AND CHURCH SPIRES. him up for mayor and elected him in December, 1855, with a vote of 884, the Know- nothings being completely routed. Mr. Trask received 665 votes, and George Bliss 209. The aldermen were Samuel S. Day, Henry Fuller, Jr., Edmund Freeman, Stephen C. Bemis. Thomas HI. Allen,


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Henry Alexander, Jr., Henry Reynolds, and Samuel Webber. All of these were democrats but Mr. Webber, who belonged to the American party.


The new City Hall was dedicated Jan. 1, 1855. The architect was Leopold Eidlitz, of New York ; Baker & Graves, masonry contrae- tors. Chauncey Shepard did the carpenter and joiner work, and Almon Parker built the foundations. The corner-stone had been laid June 4, 1854, by Mayor Tyler and by Mayor Rice ; Judge O. B. Morris delivered an address. Mayor Trask, who had been a member of the building committee, had energetically pushed the work for- ward, but it was found that the city had a $100,000 building rather than a $40,000 structure, as first planned. On the dedication night, with a hall over-warmed through the zealous concern of the janitor, Mr. Trask and Mr. Rice, and Dr. Osgood and Dr. Holland, and members of the city goverement, all on the platform, proceeded with the programme.


Dr. Holland, the historian-orator of the occasion, was introduced by Mayor Trask, and after the dignified hour had passed there was dancing until a late hour, while in the basement-rooms refresh- ments were served. The City Hall was considered an architectural triumph in its day, and the tower was a fit companion to the First Church spire, both of which are destined to stand for some time.


The new city government was organized with no incident of note, except it was a little struggle for the presidency of the common council, which fell to James Kirkham, who received the votes of all the democrats, and of Dr. Nathan Adams, a lmunker whig, thus beating George Walker, republican.


People on the Hill and at the Watershops and Indian Orchard wanted to separate and form the town of Delano, in 1856: E. A. Fuller circulated a petition to that end, and public meetings were held at Gunn's Hall, on the Hill. A committee (Otis A. Seamans, Joseph Lombard, Nathaniel Cate, Lyman Wolcott, and John Brooks) was


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even appointed to carry on the agitation. The special grievance was the heavy taxes.


After the exciting Fremont campaign in 1856 the local leaders anticipated an easy time in electing their candidate, N. A. Leonard, mayor of Springfield ; but Ansel Phelps, Jr., had made a good mayor, and he was elected to a second term. Charles O. Chapin that year came very near beating Joseph Ingraham for city clerk. The aldermen were reelected except the fifth, sixth, and seventh wards, where Joseph Hannis, James Warner, and Henry Pomeroy, democrats, were victorious. The common council organized with George Walker as president and Charles O. Chapin clerk. Mr. Phelps was reelected mayor in December, 1857, George Bliss, the republican candidate, not being able to take a popular position on the subject of free rum. The venerable William B. Calhoun was placed in the mayor's chair in 1859, an honor to which his distin- guished services had entitled him.


The City Library Association was formed in 1857. The libraries of the Young Men's Literary Association and of the Young Men's Institute formed the foundation of the City Library. This library is interesting to students of municipal government from the fact that it is really an independent association, recognized by the city, which makes annual appropriations, and at the same time receives gifts and bequests from private persons. The experiment is a perfect success in this regard. Rev. William Rice was the first, and thus far has been the only, librarian. He combines the rare qualifications of wide reading, good executive ability, and perfect devotion to the in- stitution. The Springfield Public Library, in fact, will be his monument.


The western Massachusetts editors organized themselves into an association about 1853, and their annual dinners were occasions of cordiality and good cheer and wit. The dinner of 1856 was held at Worcester, and Samuel Bowles was made president. They called themselves "Editors and Printers' Association."


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The American Institute of Instruction held its annual session for 1856 at Springfield in the latter part of August, presided over by John Kingsbury, of Providence, R.I. William B. Calhoun was its first president. The American Association for the Advancement of Science met in the City Hall the first week in August, 1859. Prof. Stephen Alexander, of Princeton, president. Mayor Calhoun wel- comed the learned body in an address, and some of the most promi- nent scientists of the country took part in the deliberations.


Rev. Mark Trafton left the Pynchon-street Methodist Church in 1859. He had been a candidate for Congress on the American ticket.


The militia of the five western counties of Massachusetts encamped at Hampden park in September, 1858, some one thousand three hun- dred strong. Among the Springfield officers may be noticed Col. Horace C. Lee, of the Twelfth Regiment ; Aid-de-camp William L. Smith, Lient .- Col. Charles L. Shaw, Adj. A. S. Haven, Quarter- master A. P. Galpin, Paymaster S. D. Bowers, Surgeon W. G. Breck, Surgeon (mate) George O. Otis, Sergt .- Maj. P. A. Rockwell, Capt. John Taylor (Co. B), and Capt. C. A. Baxter (Home Guards ) .


A national horse exhibition was held in Springfield October, 1853. The first proposition came from George W. Atwater to the Hampden County Agricultural Society, and a committee headed by William Pynchon took the matter in hand. George Bliss was finally made president of the board of managers, and Chester W. Chapin headed the general committee. Through the influence of Marshall P. Wilder, President of the United States Agricultural Society, that organiza- tion was enlisted in the enterprise. Colonel Ripley gave the use of the ground east of the armory. A tight board fenee. ten feet high. enclosed the entire grounds at that time. A grand stand with four thousand seats was built on the west side, while a banquet-tent and booths and lunch-stalls added to the impressiveness of the occa- sion. October 19, 20, and 21 were red-letter days in these parts. Over half-a-dozen governors and five times as many distinguished


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men, and four hundred and seventy-five distinguished horses graced this occasion.


Hampden park was inaugurated with imposing ceremonies in Octo- ber, 1857. The procession included all the military, fire, and civic organizations of the city. Col. Solomon Warriner directed the choristers in singing Dr. Holland's hymn -


Thou who didst bless the garden land.


George Bliss, Henry Ward Beecher, and Mayor Phelps made addresses. James K. Lombard, teacher, wrote a hymn which was sung upon this notable occasion. The park, it may be stated, was a part of the ancient " three-corner meadow " bounded by the river, the End brook and the upland. It included the forty acres originally assigned to William Pynchon, Jehu Burr, and Henry Smith for their extra charges in allotting the settlement of Springfield plantation. General Amherst's army encamped there for a week, during the French war, while going to Canada.


Daniel Lombard died in May, 1856 at the age of ninety-two. Mr. Lombard was thirty-six years old when Colonel Worthington died, and thus he was acquainted with the revolutionary generation. He was a soldier on the right side in the Shays's rebellion, and we have seen that he was postmaster, merchant, and a man of wealth. When Daniel Lombard was taken away, the people of Springfield thought, indeed, that the age of '76 had passed into history.


The general financial distress had its effect upon Springfield. Several failures had taken place. The deposits in the Springfield banks, in January, 1856, were : Agawam, $86,189 ; Chicopee, $90,178 ; John Hancock, $17,932 ; Pynchon, $31,295 ; Springfield, $38,437 ; Western, $20,097. In the dismal winter of 1857 provisions were unusually high. The factory had been developed at the expense of the farm. Provisions were coming in from the West, and the Connec- ticut valley was not feeding itself. The city debt was, in 1857, up to


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$123,000, and the taxes high. There was a deal of grumbling about the way things were going. By November the depression in manu- facturing in Springfield was very marked. Over one thousand mechanics were discharged between September and November. The railroads discharged many men. Bemis & Co. (locomotive works), Wason & Co., and the American Machine Works on the Hill dis- charged over half their men. The armory, however, maintained a pay- roll of over $20,000 monthly in gold. A number of miscellaneous companies like Bailey, Trask, & Co. (sash and blinds) ; James B. Rumrill & Co. (gold chain factory, Maple street), Harris & Colton (planing mill), had shut down. The height of the panic was reached by October, it was thought. By November the Western Bank's notes were discredited, and were bought in Boston at twenty cents on a dollar. In December the Western had $337,591 loans and dis- counts, less than $6,000 in specie, and less than $3,000 deposits. Things rapidly grew worse, and in January, 1858, Judge Merrick, of Boston, granted an order suspending the bank. The depression was only temporary, however. The Wason Car Company had success- fully appealed to Egypt for orders. In 1857 Horace Smith, of the firm of Smith & Collins, formed a partnership with D. B. Wesson, of New Haven, and began the manufacture of pistols in W. L. Wilcox's building on Market street. Shops and factories were soon running again, and confidence was restored.


In the broad field of politics Springfield had not been a mere spectator. During the Scott campaign of 1852 the whigs wanted to to put up George Ashmun for governor, but he declined positively. George Dwight was running with E. B. Gillett, of Westfield, as the whig senator for Hampden, in 1852. Mr. Dwight had voted against the Maine law, but had concluded to oppose its repeal, as it was desirable that it should be fairly tested. He so declared, and was elected on that issue. George Bliss was made Speaker of the Legis- lature in 1853. Mr. Bliss presented, in January, 1853, the names of George Ashmun for the position of United States Senator at the


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whig legislative caucus, and Ashmun received fifty-four votes, but Edward Everett's ninety-eight was a majority over all the opposition candidates. Much was said at the time about the pions desire of Benjamin F. Butler, during the secret ballot debate in 1853, to " knife " George Bliss. The position was briefly this : The whig majority desired to repeal the secret ballot law, which attempt the anti-whigs opposed on general principles, and also because the elec- tion of delegates to the constitutional convention was abont to take place. The House, on the 19th of February, held an exciting session which was protracted late into the evening, the majority being bent upon passing the bill at once, and the opposition filibustering for delay. The repeated rulings of the Speaker declaring dilatory motions out of order was the occasion of Mr. Butler's knifing desire. When the circumstance was subsequently printed, an explanation was published to the effect that Butler simply meant that he should "like to put the knife to the rulings of the Speaker." When the roll had been called, late on the eventful February 19, by the use of the previous question, and the bill had been passed and the House adjourned, Mr. Butler sought out Mr. Bliss and said, "You will be sorry for your action this day to the longest day you live." The Speaker replied, "I have not many years to live." "Thank God for that," was the excited rejoinder of Butler.


When the State Constitutional convention of 1853, of which E. D. Beach was a member, had long passed into history, Henry Wilson said, with much irony, that not one in fifty could remember whether Beach was or was not a member, so insignificant a part did he form of its deliberations. The record does not bear out the distinguished republican's sarcasm. Mr. Beach joined in the debate on several subjects, and made the motion to limit the representation in the Lower House, on which there was a heated discussion. His associate from Springfield, Chester W. Chapin, was the silent member of the delegation. The struggle over the basis of representation culminated over the plan of Benjamin F. Butler, which was described as a com-


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promise between town representation and the district system. This, in the opinion of Mr. Beach, surrendered into the hands of less than a third of the people the right to elect a majority of the Representa- tives. Mr. Beach made a motion that the House should consist of two hundred and sixty-one members, divided according to the number of " legal voters," and in his speech he said, " What is the proposition proposed to be submitted to the people? Not the surrender of a mere privilege, but of a great political right. To abrogate, not in terms, but in fact, the ninth article of the Bill of Rights, which deelares that all the inhabitants of this Commonwealth have an equal right to elect officers and to be elected to public employments. Do you think, sir, the people of Massachusetts are prepared to abolish from the Bill of Rights this article, and to surrender the great political right of elect- ing and being elected? If they are just and true to themselves, they will not. I go farther, sir, I maintain that we have no right, moral or political, to make this surrender for ourselves, - much less for our children and their posterity. I am aware that gentlemen have again and again declared on this floor that political inequality is not injustice, is not anti-republican, is not violation of the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights. If it be so, then, sir, I have learned my moral and political creed to no purpose."


The local free-soilers supported Henry Wilson for governor in the fall of 1854. At a free-soil rally in Hampden Hall, during that campaign, John Mills was on the list of vice-presidents, and Judge O. B. Morris made an address. He had attended the Worcester con- vention in the hope that whigs and free-soilers would nnite in check- ing the power of the slaveholders of the South. But this union had not taken place, and the judge concluded not to turn back. The candidates for governor that year were Emory Washburn, whig ; Henry Wilson, free-soil, or republican ; Henry W. Bishop, demo- crat ; and Henry J. Gardner, know-nothing. Springfield had its place upon these tickets. Stephen C. Bemis was democratic candi- date for Congress, and James M. Blanchard, whig, was on the


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know-nothing ticket for Congress. He declined, and the name of Henry Morris was substituted, beating Edward Dickinson, of Amherst, whig : Stephen C. Bemis, democrat ; and Charles Stearns, by a large majority. Mr. Stearns polled five votes. But Stearns was consoled in the following January when he received eight votes for United States Senator against Henry Wilson.


The ministers of Hampden county held a meeting in Springfield, in March, 1854, presided over by Dr. Osgood, to protest against the Nebraska bill, and a political gathering followed at Boston, in August, 1855, to secure a union of the anti-Nebraska and anti-administration elements. Samnel Bowles headed the committee to draw up resolu- tions, which expressed alarm at the encroachments of slavery. Both Mr. Bowles and George Bliss were on the committee to issue a call for a convention.


The extent of the movement may be judged from the names upon the address to the people, which included Samuel Hoar, H. L. Dawes, Charles Francis Adams, George Bliss, and Samuel Bowles. Congress- man Henry Morris also came out for the new party. The date of the convention was September 20, and Worcester was the place decided upon. Morris, by the way, did not take his seat in Congress, on account of a judicial appointment.


Mayor Trask headed the delegation from Springfield to Worcester. Ile figured as a vice-president, Mr. Ilixon as a member of the com- mittee on credentials, George Bliss as a member of the committee on resolutions and future organization, and Charles R. Ladd as a member of the State committee. When (Gardner know-nothing) led the informal ballot, a resolution was passed by know-nothings in Spring- field which seemed to imply that if Gardner was not nominated the know-nothings would bolt, and this, with the uneasiness of some who were not enemies of E. D. Beach, the democratic nominee for gov- ernor, produced a change of sentiment, and so Julius Rockwell was promptly nominated. The straight whigs put up Samuel H. Walley, of Roxbury, and the American party Mr. Gardner. Reuben A.


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Chapman was Secretary of State on the Walley ticket. It was a famons campaign, when men agreed upon denouncing the ethics of slavery, and differed to the core upon public policy. The sentiment that dominated the new movement is reflected in these lines of J. G. Holland : -


God give us men ! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, trne faith and ready hands ; -


Men whom the lust of power does not kill ; Men whom the spoils of officee cannot buy ;


Men who possess opinion and a will ; Men who have honor; men who will not lie ; Men who can stand before a demagogne


And damn his treacherous flatteries withont winking, -


Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and private thinking;


For while the rabble with their thumbworn ereeds,


Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps !


The democratic nominee for Congress in the tenth district was H. H. Chilson, of Northampton, while no less than three men were running in opposition to the administration, -C. C. Chaffee, of Springfield, American ; John W. Foster, of Monson, republican : and Edward Dickinson, of Amherst, straight whig. Mr. Bowles addressed ardent private appeals to these gentlemen to unite upon one man. Colonel Foster promptly agreed to withdraw in favor of Erastus Hopkins, William Hyde, or any other competent man. Dr. Chaffee declined to follow this example, but said he would with- draw in favor of Alanson Hawley, of Northampton. Colonel Foster in turn declined, and the proposal failed. Well, Gardner was re- elected governor, and Dr. Chaffee went to Congress. The Con- gressional election was a special one, owing to Henry Morris's resignation.


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Dr. Chaffee soon offended his party by supporting Mr. Banks for Speaker of the House of Representatives. At a tenth distriet con- vention a resolution applauding Dr. Chaffee's course was tabled upon the ground that Banks was a " black republican," and an unfit man for the American party to support.


The Fremont campaign had opened with a whirl in this part of the State. In June, George Dwight, chairman of the citizens' committee of arrangements, and William S. Shurtleff, president of the Young Men's Fremont Club, invited the friends of " Fremont and Freedom " in western Massachusetts to gather at Springfield, in mass conven- tion, on the fourth. A huge tent was pitched near the railroad on Chestnut street. George Bliss, who presided, announced a recon- sideration in the House of Representatives of the vote against the Free State Kansas bill. Julius Rockwell, Judge E. Rockwood Hoar, A. O. Brewster, of Boston ; Congressman Stanton, of Ohio ; Senator James Dixon, of Connecticut ; and General Pomeroy and William J. Calhoun, of Kansas, spoke.


An American State convention had occupied the City Hall on the Tuesday previous with Thomas Colt, of Pittsfield, in the chair. By a large majority the Fremont ticket was applauded and support pledged. The minority bolted, and then the convention selected its presidential electoral ticket, Mr. Trask being chosen for the tenth district.


Springfield's part in the Kansas struggle was not inconsiderable, and requires a word. In the first place, John Brown had been in business here, - a member of the wool firm of Perkins & Brown, and the course of the first victim of the slave power was watched with substantial and prayerful interest. Among the Springfield men who went to Kansas was a Charles Stearns, who settled at Lawrence. His theory was that the doctrine of peace would prevail, but after being there for a while he wrote to his mother here : "I have actually bought me a rifle, and shall fight if the crisis demands it." He de- tailed the fights between the free-state men and these ruffians, and


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added : " In one of these skirmishes the free-state men lost several who were taken prisoners by the ruffians, among them John and Jason Brown, formerly of Springfield, where John Brown, the father, was once in the wool business. He is one of the most valiant men we have. His other son, John, Jr., is still a prisoner and insane. I saw Jason Brown, the son, released with his father, last night, and another son several days ago. I saw the chains which were put upon them, and by which the father was chained to his insane son."


The American party, with Millard Fillmore at the head, was held together under stress of weather, but was destined to break up, as the issue was reduced to slavery. The local Fillmore club organized with these officers : President, Homer Foot ; vice-presidents, James D. Brewer, D. H. Brigham, Deacon Clark, Dr. John Hooker, and John V. Jones ; secretaries, Horace C. Lee and S. E. Church. It might be said that Mr. Trask led the Fremont and Dr. Hooker the Fillmore sections of the party.


The position of the Northern men in Congress was most exasperat- ing. Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, took offence at a speech of Burlingame, of Massachusetts, and a dnel was on the tapis ; but, thanks to the firm hand of the brave George Ashmun upon the shoulder of Brooks, an affair of honor was avoided.


The Executive, following the policy of crippling the United States armories, had discharged two hundred and fifty-seven armorers in Springfield, leaving only the superintendent, paymaster, master ar- morer, a clerk, and seven watchmen in charge of the Federal arsenal. Men gathered around Frank Sanborn, who arrived from Kansas in August (and Kansas then was twenty days from Chicago), to hear the particulars of the outrages in that unhappy skirmishing-ground just before the great issue was joined, and the slave's friend and the slave's master tried conclusions in open war ; and as the story of the border life, ruffian, and freesoil emigrant was unfolded on these streets by the new arrival, and men thought of the pro-slavery ad- ministration, the empty armory, and a rampant dominating Southern


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planter element in Congress, the temper of the community grew to a white heat.


We do not know how widespread was the local resentment of the armorers at Dr. Chaffee, whose vote and influence, it is claimed, might have saved the appropriation bill ; but an objectionable Kansas provision had been attached as a rider, and, moreover, it should be re- membered that Dr. Chaffee introduced a resolution in the House to the effect that so much of the armory bill providing for the expenses of the war department proper, including arsenals, armories, surveys, arma- ment, and fortifications, without reference to army operations, be passed. But objection was made and leave was not granted ; so Congress adjourned without making the regular appropriations. An extra session was immediately called, the Kansas proviso was voted down and the supplies granted. The republicans had been defeated, but had put themselves on record. The armorers out of work may have looked upon Dr. Chaffee's action with pardonably narrow irrita- tion, but as a public act the Springfield Congressman stood upon firm ground. The dismal state of affairs in Kansas, in the autumn of 1856, should not be forgotten. " I went for the scalp of a damned abolitionist, and I got one," said a Leavenworth ruffian, after mur- dering Mr. Hopps, brother-in-law of Rev. Ephraim Nute, who wrote the full particulars to Rev. Mr. Tiffany of this city. David S. Hoyt, of Deerfield, was decoyed by a Freemason a few miles from Law- rence and murdered in cold blood. There was a rally, and in a few days his murderer was captured. He begged for mercy on his knees, and for some reason or other he was not hanged on the spot.




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