USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Springfield old and new. Tercentenary souvenir, 1636-1936 > Part 2
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Appreciating the ready market for the corn which was raised by their women, the Indians began, in 1639, to "break up" new ground already granted to the English, contrary to agreement. A committee of three whites was then appointed to confer with the Indians and take out the bounds beyond which they should not pass in land-cultivation. No attempt was made to restrict their labor in the domain which by agreement had been left to them; and the white representatives, Rev. Mr. Moxon, Henry Smith, and Thomas Mirick, satisfactorily curbed this source of annoyance. Swarms of "moskeetoes", too, began to cause the settlers vast annoyance!
It is recorded that in April, 1640, such was the scarcity of timber partly due to the Indian custom of burning over their lands in November, that without special permission, not even "canoe trees could be cut or destroyed within the bounds of the plantation." In March, 1647, on account of the great, "scarcity of tymber about the towne for buildings", the selling of any timber to out-of-town buyers was expressly prohibited. The new settlers found the pine and oak more useful to them than all others of the trees with which they had been unacquainted. The former furnished the candlewood or "weakshackquock" of the Indians; and the latter a much larger variety of acorn, for "hog-mast", than the English oak. Sickness, and weather conditions, too, were among the worries of William Pynchon. In July, 1646, there is record of a "great damage to grain by a caterpillar like a black worm one and one-half inches long" especially destructive to almost the whole crops of wheat and barley. June, 1647, was very cold, with frosts killing many growing things; and "an epidemic" sickness, sparing neither English, Indians, French nor Dutch. "The New England Adventure", covering less than two decades for the "Ruling Spirit and Good Genius", had proved exciting, strenuous, highly successful and completely creditable to His Ex- cellency, William Pynchon.
In June, 1638, two years after the settlement, "in the afternoon, it being clear, warm weather, with a westerly wind, came a great earthquake . .. continuing for about four minutes. . . The earth was un- quiet for twenty days after, at times!"
The founder of Springfield was not in accord with the chief men at "The Bay" in theological mat- ters, who had for some time looked askance at Pynchon's rather outspoken utterances both in and out of the church. The storm broke when "The Meritorius Price of our Redemption, Justification and Cleering it from some common Errors", was published in London in 1650. Copies of this tare work reached Boston at the October term of Court that year, and produced mingled dismay and consternation. So ' important did the authorities (some of whom had fled from the home-land danger of like persecution) feel this evidence of liberalism to be, that all obtainable copies, with exception of a handful saved for evidence in Court, were ordered to be "burned in the Market Place, at Boston, by the Common Ex- ecutioner, after lecture !" The orthodox stalwarte Rev. John Norton of Ipswich, was ordered at the time
SPRINGFIELD Old and New . . 1636- 1936
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A REMINDER OF THE PAST, A SPRINGFIELD HORSL. CAR
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SPRINGFIELD Old and New 1636-1936
to prepare and publish a reply to the pernicious work of "William Pinchin, Gentleman of New England !" He did so and demanded and received good pay from the Court for this elaborate "reply."
In pursuance of his careful plans for retirement, William the Founder conveyed to his son, John, as a gift, September 28, 1651, all his lands and buildings on both sides of the river at Agawam and Springfield.
The new magistrate, Henry Smith, appeared at the October term of Court, but William Pynchon did not. On hearing that the man accused of heretical tendencies was to absent himself, it was promptly "voted, that the Court is willing that all patience be exercised toward Mr. Pynchon, that, if it be pos- sible, he may be reduced into the way of truth!"
In case he should not give good satisfaction, the Court doth therefore order that the judgment of the cawse be suspended till the court in May, and that "Mr. Pinchon be enjoyned under the penalty of 100 pounds to make his personal appearance at and before the next Court to give full answer :- other- wise to stand to the judgment and censure of the Court! And it is ordered that the answer by Mr. Norton shall be sent to England to be printed."
William Pynchon, now sixty-two years old, had given the best years of his life to the upbuilding of the colony. He possessed not only rare executive ability but the vision to see which principles should make for the greatest permanence in the State. He had founded two great settlements which flourished. He had promoted a most successful business, and had vigorously maintained the principles he believed in. He was no coward; but he saw the uselessness of continued controversy with the little handful of leaders of thought in the new world, some of whom were by no means his equal in either intellect or education. In the last analysis he found himself only slightly at variance with certain nice points in basic principles held by a few ministers, and the leaders in the colonial legislature. The intolerant reception in Massachusetts given his little book was doubtless to some extent a disappointment to him and his American friends. But he knew there were numerous friends abroad who would express interest and even approval for his religious views. Undoubtedly the book episode hastened his plans for returning to his native England,-an ambition quite worthy of any prosperous, successful man of large affairs. But that fire proved a great help to the sale of new editions of more of the same ideas!
The founder of Springfield passed through Hartford on his way home in July, 1652. With him was Rev. George Moxon, who had arrived at "Agawam" in 1637 with his family.
Henry Smith followed his father to England on a later ship, though the wife, Anna, decided to remain with her sister and brother in Springfield. It is certain that Smith stayed over until sometime later than the date of his making his wife his "lawfull Atturney to dispose of any of his lands, houses or goods." William Pynchon's hundred-pound forfeit for not appearing before the intolerant Massachusetts Court when it met the following May was honorably paid;and it must have been a disappointment to some who were so unexpectedly deprived of another chance to labor with the author for his "errours and haercsies!" They were to hear from him later, and in no uncertain way.
Another proof of Henry Smith's staying until after the main Pynchon party had returned to England, is found in the Anna Smith deed of 1654. This contains allusion to the "deed under his hand" made October 17, 1652, "when the said Mr. Henry Smith who since went onto England." The deed also fixes the exact date of the settlement of lands on his daughter Anna by her father as April 17, 1651. It is in the fine legible hand-writing of another son-in-law of Pynchon, the Elizur Holyoke before mentioned, whose signature as one of the three witnesses is attached to this deed of 1652. It is to be recalled at this point that the same "Captain" Elizur Holyoke, first man to be married in Springfield (at very near the time he drew up and signed this paper) was appointed Magistrate in place of his brother-in-law; but another evidence of the respect and esteem in which all members of Pynchon's farnily were held by the General Court, re- gardless of any religious differences.
SPRINGFIELD
Old and New .
1636- 1936
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Top. Famous old fire-fighting company. "The Waterspout Engine Company", which stood fast on Memorial Sunday afternoon in May, 1870, stopping at Vernon Street the great fire which threatened to burn the whole of Springfield.
Bottom: The United States Armory in 1864. The Manufacture of small arms began here in 1795.
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SPRINGFIELD Old and New 1636-1936
Abigail Smith, eleventh of Anna's children, was but six months and eight days old when her mother signed this interesting deed of relinquishment of about twenty-seven acres of valuable Springfield land to her brother, John, "for the summ of Five & Twenty pounds." The John Allyn, whose name is also signed as a witness, is stated in Burt, volume II, to be a Hartford nephew of John Pynchon.
"CONVINCED" AGAINST HIS WILL-That the Western Massachusetts pioneer-promoter had decided to remain, so far as religious views were concerned, "of the same opinion still", is apparent from his course when he reached home. Whatever errors he had made were plainly those of judgment rather than conscience. In May, 1653, he purchased land in Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire, near his Bulstrode family connections. The same year he published "The Jews' Synagogue, A Treatise Concerning the Worship Used by the Jews", and Rev. John Norton's reply to Pynchon's "Meritorious" first edition, was published in England about the same time. Pynchon's pen was the busy one of a man by no means crushed or cast down. He published in 1654, a treatise on "The Time When the First Sabbath Was Ordained", in 1654, and quickly followed it with another treatise on "Holy Time, Or the Time Limit of the Lord's Day", both with his own name. The greatest of his works was published in 1655, a new and enlarged edition of the book which had been called heretical; "The Meritorious Price of Man's Redemption, Or Christ's Satisfaction Discussed and Explained", by William Pynchon, late of New England." In this he controverted Mr. Norton's arguments, and strongly reaffirmed his own views, this time in a work of four hundred and forty pages. There is a single copy of this in the library of Harvard University. Thus are some "convinced against their will!"
He followed up the success which this book proved with his last religious book, "The Covenant of Nature Made With Adam,-Cleerd From Sundry Great Mistakes." In this volume he dates the pre- face, "From My Study, Wraysbury, February 10, 1661."
In 1657 William Pynchon sent to his son John in Springfield, the oil painting from which the founder's portrait used in this volume was obtained. This was a year of real sorrow for him. On October 10, 1657, his wife Frances died at Wraysbury and there was a largely attended funeral for this former Springfield resident. Weeks later, from America, came the news of the death, sixteen days after that of her step-mother, of Pynchon's daughter, Mary Holyoke, "a very glory of womahnood", as her elaborate tombstone in the Peabody cemetery at Springfield declares. "I am the more solitary", wrote Pynchon "as son Smith is of a reserved melancholy, and my daughter (Anna) is crazy!" She lived until after her husband's death in 1681. William Pynchon, the founder, died in Wraysbury aged seventy-two years, October 29, 1662. This was the very year that "Hampshire County" was formed including all of the present counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire.
William Pynchon had no other children than the four already mentioned, John being his only son. The 1638 letter of Rev. George Moxon to Governor Winthrop, already quoted, contains the allusion to one of Pynchon's numerous hired helpers, which has misled so many historians :-
"Mr. Pynchon lately lost a boy who, tendinge cowes near our river, too venturously went into a birchen canowe, wch overturned & he was drowned."
SPRINGFIELD Old and New . 1636-1936
Y'S STORES
Main Street and Harrison Avenue, The Blizzard of 1888
Haynes & Company are 87 Years Old
Founded in 1849 by Tilly Haynes . . now recognized as one of New England's Outstanding Clothing Stores
More than 87 years ago . . . in April, 1849 . . . Tilly Haynes established the firm of Haynes & Co., in a one-room store on Main Street.
Through the years, under the able guidance of the founder and his capable successors, the firm es- tablished a reputation for business integrity, absolute reliability and honest merchandising methods that brought them ever-increasing patronage and necessitated many changes in location to secure larger quarters.
In 1880, the present Haynes building was purchased, and two floors were devoted to the firm's uses. In 1901, the entire block was occupied by the firm, and in 1914 the entire building was remodeled, to better fit the store's needs.
To-day, this great clothing establishment occupies five spacious floors in this entirely modernized building . . . a store that is recognized as one of New England's outstanding establishments in the Men's Wear field.
The present management, under the successful guidance of K. C. Dowley, is adhering strictly to the traditional Haynes principles of honesty, reliability and fair dealing which were the foundation stones on which the Haynes store was builded, and has added to these the modern methods and ideas in merchandising and selling that add to shopping enjoyment and insure excellent values to all customers.
المكافات
SPRINGFIELD Old and New 1636-1936
AGAWAM.
The Old Agawam Ferry which did service previous to the erection of the South End Bridge
Since 1845 the name E. A. Whipple has been identified as one of sterling worth and absolute de- pendableness, and a veritable landmark in Historic Springfield. Emocg A. Whipple, born in Hawley, Sept. 27, 1820, came to Springfield a town of 8000 in 1835 to learn watch making and served his ap- prenticeship under the late Seth Flagg and Henry Sargent, the latter being the first watch maker to open a shop in the town. Mr. Whipple began business for himself in Springfield in 1845 in a store at the corner of Main and State Sts. At one time Mr. Whipple went into the Gold Chain Manufacturing Industry at the corner of Sanford and Court Sts. When the 1st Wesson factory was built his firm went there under the name of King, Whipple and Morehouse and took the entire top floor, then the war broke out the business was seriously affected as most of the trade had been with the South. The firm was dissolved and in 1861, Mr. Whipple went into business alone. Later he transferred the business to his sons Oscar N. Whipple and Charles E. Whipple under the name of E. A. Whipple & Sons., Inc. Mr. E. A. Whipple died in 1900 at his home at 46 Florence St.
The firm at no time in nearly a century of business in its several locations has been but a short distance from its present location. 1
E. A. WHIPPLE & SONS., INC. 128 State St. - Tel. 3-8313
SPRINGFIELD
Old and New 1636-1936
MD IM 5.1647
DAVID INO JOHNI
FIRST PAPER MANUFACTURE NIF CONNECTICUT VALLE
SEAR THIS SPOT THEIF HONE'S AND
MILLS WERE LOCATED
4
5
ALL LANDMARKS OF THE PAST
1. Tablet erected to David Ames and sons. 2. Old Daniel Lombard Place on the corner of Besse Place and Main St. 3. First High School. 4. An old house of the carly settlers. 5. House of William Howe, brother of Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine; it stood on the corner of Main and Worthington Streets, opposite the Old Post Office, picture taken in 1867.
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1
SPRINGFIELD Old and New . . 1636-1936
Springfield's United States Armory BY ERNEST NEWTON BAGG
The selection of Springfield as the safest and most conveniently-located site for the 'established Armory and its work-shops became the fixed idea of General George Washington, as soon as he received his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army. Careful investigation by the new Secretary of War and chief of the Revolutionary Artillery, General Henry Knox, gave full approval to Washington's momentous decision after the strong claims of both Brookfield and Hartford had been duly examined. "Proceed with the establishment of the Laboratory at Springfield" were the orders of Washington to Knox in February, 1777", And I will at once inform Congress of this Necessity."
The Commander made emphatic his entire approval of the judgment of Knox in the lengthy official letter to Congress. In this letter was written, "Besides the many advantages cited by Gen. Knox, Springfield stands on the Connecticut River, on navigation, and is much more secure against an Enemy." Eight months after this, orders ceased to come to Brookfield for small arms; and the orders for Springfield included, among other details, extension of magazine facilities "sufficient to make and store 10,000 stand of arms, 200 tons of gunpowder, and sufficient adjacent Laboratory." So, in an era of "rush orders" at the beginning of the Revolution, the Springfield Arsenal establishment began to function; and carly boasted that the output, among other interesting details, included 7584 cartridges in a single week. The Springfield Arsenal plant was the joint result of the genius of Washington and Knox. The latter, in the Bowdoin correspondence, vigorously set forth that "when the buildings for this shall be erected in a complete manner, the 'plain' just above Springfield" (where Col. Joseph Wait, narrowly escaped death in a snow-storm fourteen years earlier,) "will be the most proper spot in all America on every account."
The official establishment of the Springfield Armory by Congress was in April, 1794, beginning with a force of about forty hands. Under Superintendent David Ames, Sr., and Master-armorer Robert Orr, 250 muskets were turned out that first official year. From a start of operations involving less than a thousand dollars, the munitions plant grew in importance in Civil War times to require disbursements of more than $200,000 a month, and to require the employment of as high as 3400 hands.
At the time of the brief domestic disturbance known as the "Shays' Rebellion", the limited stores of powder and weapons were kept in two long barracks-like buildings near the brow of Armory Hill; and there was then but one private dwelling house on the site of the present so-called "middle arsenal." The old larger powder-magazine was in the woods at "Magazine Street." "Armory Square" was Spring- field's public training field, and was devoid of gun-shops: Previous to 1809 there had been at the present "Water shops", a small powder mill which was later blown up. As occasion began to require, buildings were added which necessitated water power.
Early began the serious enterprise of planning, manufacturing, and improving the best possible guns and ammunition made in the world. There have been at least thirty different models of muskets made here. The famous "Queens' Arms", "Kings' Arms", and other makes appeared for short periods. Now and then scattering attention was paid by the armorers to the so-called "toy percussion" models of the French type. The first American model guns with flint locks were made here in 1822, and this grade of weapon was constantly perfected in the decade that followed. Improved model guns were brought out at the time of the Mexican war in the forties; and the 1855 model, or "Maynard primer" pattern, used in the frontier engagements by the regular army in Indian war-fare, still further sent ad- vanced the fame of Springfield. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the country was in sad need of sub- stantial, uniform-pattern arms. Inventive genius was again put to the task of devising better equipment; and soldiers in the field seized eagerly the improved 1862 model guns, then and for some time hailed as the most effective made. Another high water mark of improved production was reached when the Krag
SPRINGFIELD Old and New . 1636-1936
Jorgensen breech-loader model was being perfected and made the object of untiring and intensive ex- perimentation.
The history of the Springfield Armory has been that of a progressive series of triumphs, not only in the matter of manufacturing arms, but in the inventing of epoch-making machinery for the purpose. A certain master-mechanic for Superintendent Col. Thomas W. Ripley who was one of Springfield's most noted military men in this section of the country during his incumbency as Armory head-did more than any other one man to make famous the operations of the Springfield Armory. This man, Thomas Blanchard, worked for years devising lathes which would turn and shape irregular forms in gun-stocks; and his ingenious "stocking machine" perfected and improved after 1820 was completely evolved when Col. Ripley's advent brought the necessary encouragement. Later perfections made the Blanchard lathe one of the world's epochal devices. His rather crude machines contained for the first time the golden principle which has later proved of so much time and labor saving value. The two outstanding names connected with our Armory's history are of two men who wrought more efficiency for the lasting good of the community at large and the armory itself than all the rest of the first 20 Commandants. Both were Colonels, and both favored in every way the cause of the gifted Thomas Blanchard, whose struggles were at first severe ;- Col. Roswell Lee, sixth superintendent for the 18 years following 1815, at the time when Blanchard needed earliest encouragement. Col. Lee was first master of Hampden Masonic Lodge and the founder of Christ Church Cathedral. The other philanthropist was the ninth Commandant, Lt. Col. J. W. Ripley, who during all his 13 intensely active years, beginning 1841, took keenest satisfaction in the years when Blanchard's great invention was coming to its inevitable fruition.
Towns and cities that were once a part of the old Springfield Plantation.
Westfield organized . 1689
Enfield organized 1752
Wilbraham organized 1763
West Springfield organized 1774
Longmeadow organized .
1783
Holyoke organized . 1850
Hampden organized
1878
Somers, Conn. organized about
1749
Suffield, Conn. organized about 1752
Southwick organized 1770
Ludlow organized 1774
Chicopee organized .
1848
Agawam organized 1855
SPRINGFIELD
Old and New . . 1636-1936
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Reserved exclusively for this book is the accompanying example of the work-a-day hand- writing of William Pynchon, Founder of Springfield. It has never before been published and is taken from the only copy in existence of William Pynchon's Little Book.
SPRINGFIELD
Old and New . . 1636-1936
How the Everyday Handwriting of Willian Pynchon, the Founder of Springfield, Looked
BY ERNEST NEWTON BAGG
Reserved exclusively for this Springfield Souvenir is the accompanying example of the work-a-day handwriting of WILLIAM PYNCHON. It was never before published anywhere, and is taken from the only copy in existence of "Mr. Pynchon's Litle Book" referred to in various deeds and other memoranda made by both Pynchons and by that very legible writer, Elizur Holyoke. Enough of the fragmentary pages of "the Litle Book" have been preserved to throw a great deal of hitherto unobtainable light upon the landing and storage-place selected for the Pynchon goods on the first arrival of the two cargoes from England. Frequent allusion is made here to the name given by the Pynchons to "Warehouse Point, which name it has retained for over three hundred years.
Paper then was of course at a premium, and the space used on it was carefully conserved. The hand- writing of the Leader is that appearing at the head of the preceding pages and whatever witnesses and other names essential to the different transactions involved were for convenience, filled in. The page before the signed page here shown gives the elder Pynchon's own notes of "the tunnage of the Blessing", and data about the contents of the accompanying draft, "the Bachelor." Plainly are named such com- modities as the "Nayles", "Pistill bullet", "trundle Beds" "carte Wheels" "cart-pole and harnis" and other articles of "my Owne goods", or "Readers' goods" in the "tunnage of the Blessing", from the Rivers' mouth to the Warehouse", with various amounts of the weights and their values. The specific items of agreement in the dealings with "Henry Wolcott of Windsor, unto whose custody & under whose charge 1 (meaning Millard) was brought out of England"; the scrawled "marke" (in lieu of his signature of the lad Thomas Millard himself, who could not write,) and the date, September 29, 1640, of the beginning of the young mans' 8-year service to Mr. Pynchon, are all shown in this fragment from "my litle book". Millard's final release, (this recorded by John Pynchon in the note at the bottom,) shows where Millard left in "May, 1648, being 4 months before his Tyme comes out, in consideration whereof he Looseth 40 s. in mony which wch sh have bin pd him, but Mr. Pynchon giveth him one New sute of aparell." It would be interesting to learn what became of Thomas and how long his "sute" lasted. . .
The leaves of this famous "litle book" of William Pynchon, carefully compared with original documents now filed in the Massachusetts Archives at Boston, have been authenticated by Harry Andrews Wright and other historical .experts. Further "unexplored" Pynchon historical material will undoubtedly be gained in the ultimate later accounts of the Anniversary celebration.
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