USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 11
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Unlike Coe, he thought he was giving up a sure, safe, economic future, but explained: "A more important question is, how my in- tellectual and moral condition, and ability to be useful would be affected by merging myself in a community. I confess to you, my dear Sir, it is my present belief that I can best attain the higher ends of my life by retaining the ordinary relation to society."
Apparently this did not make Mack wonder if Hawthorne's words might apply to others as well. A young Amherst lawyer who had turned to education for his career, he was in the first flush of his devotion to the community. His faith was to burn with a steady flame that warmed and lighted the whole experi- ment through the darker years ahead until it literally consumed him. But at this early moment everyone was full of optimism. Coe's stock had been snapped up by William Adam, a former Baptist missionary now teaching Oriental languages at Harvard, who was more of a kindred spirit anyway. Samuel Hill had also been an ardent Baptist until a mob of his fellow churchmen in Connecticut had stormed and broken up one of his anti-slavery meetings. Benson himself, though he had been too much inter- ested in business projects to stay in law, had shown his colors by defending a lady brought to trial for teaching colored girls in her school at Canterbury, Connecticut.
Racial equality was perhaps the most unifying of the "strange notions" which caused the "former inhabitants of this rural ham- let," as Frances Judd remembered, "to look with suspicion and distrust at this new order of things." The shades of belief and dis- belief made a picture as colorful and perhaps as distracting as a rainbow. "New people constantly came," according to Mrs. Judd's memoirs, "drawn by sympathy of views on one subject or another ... many were deeply interested in non-resistance, all were temperance people ... Some members were advocates of
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vegetarianism, discarding animal food and all stimulating drinks ... many of them imbued with Quaker ideas and thinking all days were alike holy .. . " She adds mildly that "some did not reverence the church and priesthood." Here she may have been referring to her own husband, the first Northampton member and one who stuck to the bitter end, of whom his father once wrote sadly in his diary: "Hall is stubborn in his ways, conscientious but an infidel."
Sylvester Judd, one-time publisher of the Hampshire Gazette, may have been as unable as other fathers to examine his son's ideas with objective fairness. Certainly the community was not atheistic. Though many members felt that churches often used re- ligion wrongly to "tyrannize over men's minds," the constitu- tion's expressed aim was to fulfill God's design for man, conced- ing that "it is not He who has failed in His purpose, but man who has wandered from his true course." One former schoolboy re- calls that a Catholic seminarian was in charge of his activities, and as a reward for good behavior would repeat Latin prayers to the raptly listening group. Giles Stebbins, who grew up in the com- munity, always treasured the memory of Garrison leading the outdoor summer service: "The listening group, the speaker stand- ing by the massive trunk of the towering tree, his bold yet rever- ent utterances, the fragrance of the pines, the mountains in the distance and the blue sky over all." Such experiences in his forma- tive years must have played their part in his choice of a career. He became one of the noted preachers of his time.
The "laborites," sure to be present in any group of idealists then, caused the first commotion by insisting that the working day must be shortened if the community were to lead the way out of the sweatshop conditions prevalent in industry. "That the im- mediate consequences ... were injurious to the financial interests of the association there is no doubt," Mrs. Judd admits, "but the final results were satisfactory, especially to those who gained an hour a day for rest and recreation by the change from twelve to eleven hours."
Equality of the sexes was taken for granted: William Adam had once "created quite a stir," as Alice McBee reports in her study of the community, by walking out on an important international convention in London when the doors were shut against the fe- male members of his delegation. Yet there were some odd coinci-
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dences there, as elsewhere, among happily married couples. One lady whose husband was on a trip at the time of a vote, declined to state her views, explaining, "My opinion has gone to the west."
The records show no slump in the quality of the conversation, but some painfully practical topics must have taken priority fairly soon. By the end of 1842, the community had lost Joseph Conant, its president. With him departed Orwell Chafee and Earle Swift, the superintendent of the silk mill. The three withdrew not only their valuable business brains and technical skill but their capital as well.
"They could or would not merge their private interests in the general and common interest," William Adam wrote to a friend, " ... their object in joining us appears to have been from the first, pecuniary advantage, not moral improvement, or social useful- ness."
Though the community in its first struggle for growth could afford to give up cash about as safely as a premature baby could donate blood, the group actually dug down to reimburse the de- serting members and even helped them make their new beginnings on farms in the neighborhood. Mr. Adam bravely concluded his letter, "We all feel that their departure has strengthened instead of weakened us."
The survivors valiantly tried to prove the words true. New members were taken in from the many still applying, and two more industries were started before the year was out. Yet 1844 began with Adam's own resignation. He had never been happy about the amendments to the constitution "to invest the whole body of the members with equal rights and powers" and to give "every member, whether stockholder or labourer, only one vote." He protested the move "as a direct violation of the constitution of law and morality."
The handwriting must have shown up clearly on the wall by this time, for George Benson offered to buy out all the property of the association for what it had cost, and assume all the liabili- ties. But the other members were not ready to disband and they told him so in a discussion which for the first time could be de- scribed as "heated."
The financial story is a complex one, but through its tortuous twists one fact comes out clear. All the frantic borrowing and
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reorganization was a hopeless effort to overcome the initial mis- take of starting too fast with too little capital.
In May, 1845, George Benson himself resigned, as a last resort, to form a stock company and buy the factory for a cotton mill, thus giving the community a cash transfusion.
But in September David Mack had to move his family away to Brattleboro where he could try to mend his broken health at the water cure. His loss was a crushing blow, especially to the school, which was already slipping. The parents were complaining be- cause the work hours of the children were too long, the older ones being able to study only in the evening.
A certain weariness in well-doing shows in the edgy tone of a letter written by Bailey Birge to answer an applicant's questions, which he rather sarcastically repeats:
" 'Is the divine art of music, "the soul of religion," as you are pleased to call it (though why I cannot perceive) cultivated among you?'-Answer ... Everyone sings who pleases. We have very few musicians among us. One lady has a piano, and one of our hired men has a fiddle, but, as I have not heard it lately, I do not know but he has disposed of it.
" 'What is the state of moral and intellectual cultivation?'- Answer. We all mean to behave well, and so teach our children. Our intellects are mostly exercised in contriving ways and means to earn a livelihood and to pay our debts . . .
" 'Is the location of the place agreeable or otherwise?'-Answer. About so so. Not remarkable either way . . .
" 'Do you consider the community a suitable and advantageous situation for the moral, physical and intellectual development of the man?'-Answer. If you allude to our association, I should say not for a man of your 'turn of mind,' and therefore cannot advise you to come."
With the members finding every prospect so far from pleasing, it seems hardly the moment to start a system of "mutual criticism." But that is what they did, in one more desperate, belated attempt to find out why things were going so very wrong. Some critics have said that this is the rock on which the whole scheme was finally wrecked. And surely a company of people in debt, over- worked, frustrated financially in every creative effort, were asking for punishment when they tried the experiment. Yet Samuel Hill, one founder who was loyal to the end, wrote:
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"The last two or three years of the association were decidedly pleasant and profitable to its members, except pecuniarily; they acquired a mutual familiarity with, and confidence in, each other, enabling them to speak plainly of errors and faults without the presence of anger, and to discuss calmly and candidly any differ- ence of opinion upon religious or other subjects."
The reminiscences of a former pupil at the school conclude: "And so passed the happiest hours of the happiest possible child- hood. And it lingers in the memory of all who enjoyed its privi- leges, as an ideal unattainable in these days .. . " Another student sums up, in words that perhaps hold good today: "The enterprise failed materially, but among the eternal forces that live and in- fluence the world, I believe the Community still has its being."
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Chapter Fifteen
The Water Cures
By DOROTHY B. PORTER with the collaboration of EDWIN C. ROZWENC
T HE 1840's are known as the "fabulous forties" because of the great number and variety of reform activities which swept the country. The organized movements for the abolition of slavery, for temperance, for prison reform, for equal rights for women, and for the establishment of Utopian com- munities are well known to every American schoolboy who has read a good textbook in American history. Fewer people are aware of the reform efforts in the field of health and personal hygiene. Among these efforts were the dietary reforms of Syl- vester Graham and the "hydropathic institutes" or water cures which developed treatments based upon baths, hot and cold packs, fresh air, proper diet, and rest.
One of the characteristics of the reformer of this period is the variety of reform interests which occupied his attention. A man of reformist temperament who was active in the anti-slavery movement, or the temperance movement, would more likely than not be interested in educational reform, vegetarianism, woman's rights, and other proposed reforms. In particular, the Utopian communities were active centers of experimentation with almost every reform idea that came along. So it was that the Northamp- ton Association of Education and Industry became the means by which the central European method of hydropathy was intro- duced in Northampton. Indeed, Northampton, with its several hydropathic establishments became a center in the water cure movement.
One of the most colorful figures to live in the Northampton As- sociation of Education and Industry was David Ruggles, a free Negro, born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1810, who at one time
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was one of the most daring and active conductors of the Under- ground Railroad. Prior to his residence in Northampton, Ruggles had been a very active leader in the anti-slavery movement in New York City.
In 1842, Ruggles, almost blind, ill, and penniless from his anti- slavery efforts, was invited by Lydia Maria Child who had learned of his destitute condition, to visit Florence where she resided at that time with her husband, David Lee Child. Ruggles was ad- mitted into the "Community" and cared for with "brotherly love and kindness." In November 1842, he became a member of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, and soon was a settled member of the community. While recuperating in Northampton, Ruggles heard of the successful treatment of dis- ease through hydropathy, or the water cure method, as practiced by Vincent Priessnitz in Austria. Weary of unsuccessful attempts to cure his own ills through various drugs, he turned hopefully to the natural remedy of water, diet, and rest, under what he con- sidered the "most embarrassing circumstances," and with only a "vague notion of the application of water as a remedy."
While attempting to cure himself, Ruggles corresponded for two years with Dr. Wesselhoeft, a practitioner of homeopathic medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Occasionally, too, he made a visit to Cambridge to consult with him. At the end of 18 months of treatment Ruggles was so greatly improved that he suggested to several of his ailing friends that they consult with Dr. Wesselhoeft and then try the water treatment under his (Ruggles) care, since he already possessed some equipment for the baths which he had constructed for his own use.
David Ruggles' first "patients" were his invalid friends who enjoyed with him membership in the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. He began with about twelve persons whose ills he was able to diagnose. Ruggles had acquired such sensitiveness of touch that by manual exploration he could diag- nose disease. He then prescribed a suitable water and diet treat- ment. It was not long before his headquarters were inadequate to accommodate the applicants who came for treatment. A building of some kind was now necessary and so, early in 1844, Ruggles rented or leased a small building. Among his first patients were the Rev. Payson Williston of Easthampton and his son, Joseph P. Williston who, it appears, were greatly benefited by Ruggles'
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treatment. Rev. Mr. Williston, 84 years of age at the time, claimed that after using crutches for 40 years because of an injury to his legs he was cured by this treatment in less than eight weeks. The Willistons were among the friends who later advanced Ruggles $2000 for the erection of a more suitable building.
On January 1, 1846, Ruggles with the financial aid of friends purchased from Benjamin Barrett the "oil mill house," a building located about two and one-half miles from the center of North- ampton, in which Ruggles was already living.
Ruggles' Water Cure Establishment, which gave Florence con- siderable celebrity, was probably the first building erected specifi- cally for hydropathic purposes and was one of the finest in the country. It was a two and one-half story building, 36 x 70 feet, and contained 20 double rooms. There were also separate parlors and bathing and dressing rooms for ladies and gentlemen. A venti- lator was maintained through the roof of the building. From Janu- ary 1846 to March 24, 1849, records indicate that Ruggles was constantly buying and leasing additional property in the same vicinity from various persons.
Ruggles' reputation became widespread. His medical opinion was sought by the ill from all parts of the country. Frequently addressed as "doctor" but without a diploma or medical degree, this man won a reputation as a most skillful hydropathist. He had, however, studied a little medicine with Dr. Swain of New York City some years before going to Northampton. Ruggles was re- ferred to as the "American Priessnitz." Column-long advertise- ments appeared, announcing the Northampton Water Cure, in the newspapers of the day. Ruggles proposed to cure many ail- ments-"headache, tendency of blood to the head, cold extremi- ties, general and nervous debility, bronchitis, pulmonary affection, liver complaint, jaundice, acute or chronic inflammation of the bowels, piles, dispepsy, general debility, nervous and spinal af- fectations, inflammatory and chronic rheumatism, neuralgia, sci- atica, lame limbs, paralysis, fevers, salt rheum, scrofulous and erysipelas humors."
Dr. Mack, a resident of Northampton and the editor of the Green Mountain Spring, a water cure journal, informed the pub- lic that Ruggles had been a patient of Wesselhoeft for two years and had consulted with him in cases of doubt and difficulty, and that during the summer of 1844, Ruggles had "performed some
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remarkable cures." Mack published in subsequent issues reports on these cases. Mack also spoke of his intimate acquaintance with Ruggles for some years and stated that he possessed "remarkable tact, sagacity in adapting treatment to symptoms." Other water cure journals spoke of Ruggles' "skill, acute perception, energy, perseverance" and praised his "pure carbon waters."
Among Ruggles' patients were men and women of all ages and many different professions. "Doctors, lawyers, clergymen, me- chanics, farmers, slaveholders and abolitionists from every part of the country and some foreign places." Dr. Wesselhoeft thought so well of Ruggles' procedures that he sent patients from his own establishment to Ruggles for cure. In fact, several ladies left the Brattleboro establishment and went of their own accord to the Northampton Water Cure for a "thorough cure."
It was not long after the opening of his establishment that Ruggles began to have competition in his own community. In October 1846, just about the time Ruggles was completing his new buildings, Samuel Whitmarsh announced that he proposed to associate with himself, as the medical superintendent of the establishment he expected to open soon, Dr. E. E. Denniston, formerly of Northampton, who was about to proceed to Ger- many to "further qualify himself for the undertaking." Mr. Whit- marsh had earlier purchased the Round Hill Estate for this pur- pose. By the next spring the Round Hill Water Cure was in operation and advertised to be a medical institution based on hy- dropathic principles. One writer, however, in describing the Round Hill Establishment, asserted that "patients were furnished with water, drugs, and high living, while Ruggles' cure was based on water, diet and rest, a true nature treatment." Nevertheless, the Round Hill Water Cure attracted as one of its patients, Major Thomas J. Jackson of Virginia who was to become famous as "Stonewall" Jackson, the brilliant general of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Dr. Denniston remained at the Round Hill Insti- tution for a while but later opened in 1848 his own establishment -The Springdale Water Cure.
On December 26, 1849, at the height of his success and when his sanitarium was filled to capacity, David Ruggles, at the early age of 38 died. His work, however, was continued and expanded by Dr. Carl Munde, another colorful figure in this period of Northampton's history.
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A man of ardent democratic convictions, Munde had taken part in the revolutionary movement of 1848 in his native Saxony. In- deed, he had shed some blood for those convictions in the ill-fated Dresden insurrection of May 1849 in which he received a severe shot-wound in the leg. The young doctor faced even greater troubles because he was proscribed in the political reaction fol- lowing the suppression of the Dresden uprising. Like so many other Germans, however, Dr. Munde avoided the long imprison- ment which certainly awaited him by fleeing to the United States. Undoubtedly, his escape from Saxony was made easier by the cir- cumstance that his wife was the daughter of Baron von Horne- mann, a councillor of the King of Saxony.
Immediately after his arrival in America, Dr. Munde began the practice of his profession in New York City, but he was not really settled. The exiled doctor was a firm believer in hydropathy and was anxious to find a suitable place to carry on his work.
In March of 1850, while traveling in the Connecticut River valley, Dr. Munde arrived in Northampton, a few weeks after the death of David Ruggles. Immediately taken with the advan- tages of the site, the enterprising doctor bought the property even before any steps had been taken by the creditors to dispose of it.
Soon afterward Carl Munde renovated and enlarged his water cure establishment. An old print shows it to have been a large three-storied building with two large wings, giving it a U-shape, and having, in addition, a large verandah sweeping around the front and one side of the building. The sanitarium had particular charm because of the romantic character of the natural setting which Dr. Munde described in the following terms:
"Under a dark blue Italian sky, which canopies the handsome little valley of about a mile and a half in length and a mile in breadth, and at whose southern extremity my house and gardens are situated, spread ever green meadows, forming one almost level plain, only in- terrupted by the limpid and rapidly flowing waters of the river and a few groups of trees spread here and there in a picturesque manner. All around, the valley is closed up by woody hills which rise higher and higher beyond one another."
Dr. Munde soon became a respected member of the village which clustered about the Mill River in this spot. As a matter of fact, in 1852, when the villagers met to choose a name for their place since they had just been allotted a post office, it was he who
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persuaded his neighbors that "the pretty village, the clear stream, the silk mill, all suggested . .. the propriety of naming the village 'Florence' and the stream 'Arno'." The villagers unanimously ap- proved the choice of the name, Florence, for their village-and so it has remained to this day-but the practical minded Yankee neighbors preferred to retain the name "Mill River" rather than to adopt the more fanciful name of the famous Italian stream.
By the middle '50's, the Munde Water Cure was equipped to handle as many as 150 patients and its fame had spread throughout the country. On the eve of the Civil War, many of the patients were coming from the southern states and occasionally such nota- bles as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catherine Beecher stayed for a few days, to enjoy the opportunity for a rest, for fresh air, for walks in the countryside, as well as the hot or cold packs, sitz- baths, Turkish baths, or whatever the treatment prescribed.
The Civil War disrupted much of the work of the Munde Water Cure since many of his patients had come from the South. In 1865, the establishment was totally destroyed by fire. By that time, the water cure movement had already lost much of its initial enthusiasm and momentum. But, in the meantime, the water cure practitioners had had an important influence in the effort to bring to an end some of the cruder medical practices of the day-such as the excessive use of "purging"-and to point the way to the im- portance of proper diet, fresh air, and rest in the development of personal hygiene.
Chapter Sixteen
Northampton in the Civil War
By EDWIN C. ROZWENC
I. "OLD HAMPSHIRE'S FAVORITE COMPANY"
N ORTHAMPTON'S contribution to the preservation of the Union in the bloody conflict of 1861-65 was made largely through four companies of volunteers raised in Hampshire County. These four were Company C of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment, Company A of the 27th Massachusetts, Company G of the 37th Massachusetts, and Company C of the 52nd Massachusetts-all four regiments being infantry regiments raised in western Massachusetts. Some Northampton men en- listed in other companies and others were conscripted later in the war and assigned at the discretion of the War Department, but the larger portion of Northampton's boys in blue were in the four companies organized and recruited in the shire town of old Hampshire County.
To do justice to the many experiences and exploits of the four Northampton companies of volunteers would require more space than this writer can have for our tercentenary history. Instead, we might better examine the exploits of one company in order to get a more vivid impression of the courage and the honor, as well as the hardships, the sickness, the frequent bungling, and the oc- casional dishonor that was part of the many-sided experience of service in the Civil War. For this purpose, "old Company C," in the 10th Massachusetts deserves to be chosen if only because it was the first to be called and had the longest period of service and the more numerous battle experiences.
Company C of the 10th Massachusetts was Northampton's
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militia company before the Civil War. Chartered in 1801, it was one of the oldest military companies in the state. Although the company also included in its ranks men from the towns of Had- ley, Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst, and Belchertown, North- ampton residents could think of old Company C as "ours" in a way that was not possible for the newer companies raised in the county during the war.
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