USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 8
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Cardinal Cheverus celebrated the first Mass in Northampton
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LENT HEAR NORTHAMPTON MASS.
Founded by David Ruggles, this Water Cure Establishment was later enlarged by Dr. Munde
From this little cart Elbridge Kingsley made the first engravings from nature
A view of mid-19th century Main Street from the piazza of Warner's Tavern
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Economic Transition: 1817-1860
listened eagerly for the ringing of the bell in Old Church tower at noon and 9:00 P.M., or that a snifter of rum now and then was considered an essential "stimulant" to flagging energies.
Early isolation made the Northampton community self-suffi- cient; improved transportation made it an industrial area, buying and selling in world markets. Connecticut River transportation, already improved by canals at Turners Falls, South Hadley, and Willimansett, was further improved by the Northampton-New Haven Canal, chartered in 1823, opened in 1834 and closed in 1847, killed by the opening of the railroad to Springfield in 1845. The loss to investors living here was estimated at $ 150,000, a very tidy sum for those days.
Stagecoach service, "with baggage service as well," was in full operation by 1817, with overnight stops here on both the Boston-Albany and the New Haven-Brattleboro-Dartmouth routes. The arrival and departure of the stages were principal events of the daily life and "the music of their bugles an ever pleasant sound" (Gere). Aided by the city's fame as a health re- sort, they made inn-keeping an important business with the War- ner, Mansion, and American Houses known throughout a wide area.
INDUSTRIES
It is impossible in a short sketch to give an account of individual industries. Moreover, it is impossible to separate completely in- dustries located here from those in neighboring towns, notably Haydenville and Williamsburg. However, it seems quite clear that wool carding, spinning, and weaving ranked first in the 1820's. The annual value of woolen products (broad and narrow cloth, cassimere, satinet, flannel, etc.) reached $300,000 in the 1830's but declined thereafter. It was accompanied by extensive sheep raising throughout the county. Leather tanning and manu- factures (boots and shoes, harness, saddles, etc.) owing largely to William Edwards, grandson of Jonathan, ranked second in 1831, but declined thereafter in relative importance. Far more impor- tant became the button industry, from the middle 1830's to the early 1850's. At one time Samuel Williston of Easthampton had 1000 women of this region working in his putting-out system. Later he and the Hayden Brothers, using a machine made by the latter, produced the first machine-made cloth-covered buttons
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made in America. The first vegetable ivory (palm seed) buttons made in the country came from the Critchlow plant in the 1840's. About that time buttons constituted about one-third, or $220,000, of the annual industrial production of Mill Valley. They de- clined greatly during the '50's but were revived by the Florence Manufacturing Company (S. L. Hill, D. G. Littlefield, and I. S. Parsons) during the following decade.
Though often told, some mention must here be made of North- ampton's romantic adventures with the silkworm. Many com- munities were infected by the silk craze. Enterprising housewives were making sewing silks at home, a prize exhibit at the Three County Fair in 1828 being declared by The Gazette "superior in thread and coloring to the imported article." The arrival of Samuel Whitmarsh of Boston the next year set off a local boom. He himself planted thousands of mulberry trees; brought back additional thousands from France and Italy, and quantities of seeds. Abetted by the promotional skill of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, he led the entire community onto the silk route to easy money. The bubble burst in 1839. Trees that sold for 30-35 cents each in 1835 went unbought at 10 for a penny in 1840.
Meanwhile Whitmarsh, as noted above, formed the North- ampton Silk Company in 1836. Ill-starred, it was leased to Joseph Conant in 1839, and in turn sold to the Northampton Association for Education and Industry in 1841. This Association, like many similar ones of the period, was inspired by the ideals of Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, and Brook Farm. It failed for several reasons. Like most such bodies it lacked efficient management, in part because of the democratic ways of reaching decisions of a business nature. Contributing factors were the burden of thou- sands of profitless mulberry trees and the institution of "mutual criticism," which resulted in jealousies and recriminations. The Association did, however, tide the silk industry over a critical period; and it left behind in Florence a high level of civic con- sciousness and leading families with an interest in public welfare. Samuel Hill of Florence, Judge Samuel Hinckley of Northamp- ton, and others took over a bad situation, imported experienced silk men, including A. T. Lilly as superintendent, and maintained an organization that became the Nonotuck Silk Company in 1866. They produced in 1850 what was said to be the first "acceptable" silk twist to be spooled and designed for the sewing machine.
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Economic Transition: 1817-1860
Two small cotton mills were in operation in Leeds and Hay- denville (Daniel and David Hayden) during the War of 1812, but were closed by the crisis of 1818-19. They produced yarn for home weavers, usually on the "putting out" basis. In 1846 the Greenville Cotton Manufacturing Company was incorporated by Samuel and J. P. Williston, Joel Hayden, A. Lyman, and D. G. Littlefield. It used a four-story building erected by Whitmarsh for silk manufacture. This was an important industry during the 1850's.
Paper had been made locally ever since William Butler, founder of the Gazette, set up the first mill in 1786. By 1845 there were two mills employing 7 1 persons, with a product valued at $64,000 annually. Ten years later there were three mills with 100 workers and $ 100,000 in products, selling over a wide area.
There remain an almost endless variety of locally produced articles, mainly of wood and metal. Anyone visiting a museum of household and farm tools and utensils of this period will be im- pressed by their endless variety and ingenuity. The Yankees loved to "tinker," and craftsmen skilled in wood and metal work- ing were numerous. Shepherd's began the making of looms in 1822; the Bay State Tool Company in the late 1850's, employing 150 men making various tools for farm and home, sold quantities of hoes to Southern plantations. For a time Northampton-made carriages, wagons, and cabinet work were sold as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Thayer Brothers clocks were sold by peddlers throughout New England, the works made in Connecticut, the cases here.
It is quite possible that this age of small shops and mills and varied handicrafts afforded the joys of creative workmanship to a larger proportion of the population than our present economy. The working day was long, but the pace was leisurely. Neverthe- less life was relatively short, the average being only 40 years in 1850 as compared with 70 today. Death rates were more than double, infant mortality more than treble current rates. Houses were heated by wood stoves and lighted by oil lamps. Life for many was relatively niggardly and mean. Certain it is that the industries of 1850 could by no stretch of the imagination feed and clothe the present population, to say nothing of providing the thousand and one new comforts, conveniences, and distractions of the modern age.
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Before ending this sketch it would seem desirable to form some idea of the activities of Main Street. If in 1845 one had, accom- panied by Henry S. Gere as guide, strolled from the home of Dr. Higbee, just west of the Baptist Church, down the south side of that street to Pleasant Street then back on the north side to the Mansion House on the site of St. Mary's Church, with side trips through King and Court Streets, he would have passed 4 general stores, 4 drug and grocery stores, 4 harness shops, 4 merchant tailors, 3 tinsmiths, 3 hatters, 3 boot and shoe shops, 3 livery stables, 2 furniture stores, 2 blacksmith shops, 2 paint stores, 2 print shops, 2 millinery shops, 2 jewelry stores, 2 bookbinders, one book-seller, and one meat market. He would have passed the homes of several leading citizens, one clock and watch repairer besides the jewelers, one store specializing in crockery and hard- ware, one barber shop and the shops of various other artisans, carpenters, marble workers, stone and brick masons. If now we add the girls' school on Round Hill and the 3 "water cure" estab- lishments on Round Hill, in Florence, and "Springdale," one of which was "the oldest hydropathic institute in America," as well as "one of the largest and best regulated institutions of its kind in the United States," we can see that the economic life in this fair city, Jenny Lind's "Paradise of America," was not lacking in variety or attractions.
Chapter Ten
The New Haven and Northampton Canal
By WILLIAM P. DONOVAN
NE of the more ambitious undertakings in New England from an engineering standpoint during the first half of the last century was the construction of the boat canal from tide water at New Haven to the Connecticut River at "Honey Pot Bend" 97 feet above sea level at Northampton.
Prior to the construction of the canal the principal means of freight transportation in the Massachusetts and Connecticut sec- tions of the Connecticut Valley was by flat boats propelled by poles on the Connecticut River. This was a slow and tedious proc- ess especially in times of high water and floods. The boats docked at the foot of Pleasant Street when the water was high enough in the Mill River. At other times it appears that the landing was below the Atwood Airport on what is now the Old Bed, for the Mill River entered the Connecticut at that point prior to 1845.
In 1822 plans for the construction of the canal took shape, and Benjamin Wright, chief engineer of the Erie Canal, was engaged to make the preliminary survey and his report was favorable to its construction. The Connecticut legislature then granted a charter to the Farmington Canal Company for the construction of the Connecticut section of the proposed canal, and the next year the Massachusetts legislature issued a charter to the Hampden and Hampshire Company for the Massachusetts section.
Work was begun on the Connecticut section at the state line in July of 1825 and on the Massachusetts section at the same point in November of 1826. Several contracts were let in Connecticut but only two in Massachusetts. The one from the state line to West- field was given to the Jarvis and Hurd Company, and Thomas Shepherd of Northampton received the other for the section from
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Westfield to the Connecticut River. Several contractors went bankrupt as a considerable portion of their pay was in stock of the company which had no market value. Among these was Mr. Shepherd, who lost his entire fortune of $75,000.
The canal appeared to be a feasible project and stock sold readily. The promoters envisioned a branch up the Farmington River Valley connecting with the Erie Canal in New York and also a continuation north from Northampton following the Con- necticut River to Lake Memphremagog and the St. Francis Val- ley where a group of Canadian financiers would continue it to the St. Lawrence River, but these dreams, of course, were never real- ized.
The canal had two summits in its course-the northern one at Timber Swamp a few miles north of Westfield and the southern at Congamond Lake on the Massachusetts-Connecticut border, and it was at these points that the principal supply of water was introduced. The water came from the Westfield River to Timber Swamp by means of a canal seven miles long. Congamond Lake supplied the section to Westfield and the Connecticut section to Farmington at first, but litigation arose over water rights. The operation of the locks in dry season reduced the lake level and Salmon Brook in Connecticut and Little River in Westfield were tapped in to reduce the drain on the lake. The Farmington-New Haven section was supplied by a canal three miles long from the Farmington River at Unionville. Other smaller streams were tapped in where the terrain permitted, including Rocky Hill Brook which now supplies Grant's ice pond in this city.
A few statistics concerning the canal are interesting. The cost of construction was approximately $13,000 per mile and the en- tire cost was over a million dollars. The total length was 80 miles. The elevation at Congamond was 220 feet and Timber Swamp 23 1 feet above sea level. There were 32 locks in Massachusetts and 28 in Connecticut; 13 of these were from the Connecticut River to Westfield.
As for the locks, their exact location is not known as the blue prints were lost in a fire which destroyed the engineers' field office on the bank of the Connecticut River at the completion of the canal, but the ruins of the locks where the canal entered the river can still be seen. The Rocky Hill Basin near South and Earl Streets was probably formed by one or more of these locks.
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The New Haven and Northampton Canal
The specifications of the canal were as follows:
Width at bottom
24 feet
Width at top
34 feet
Depth of water
4 feet
Tow path
Io feet wide 2 to 5 feet above water
Locks
90 feet long and 12 feet wide with a lift of from 7 to 10 feet.
Other traces of the canal can still be seen locally. In its course it went under the foot of the Mansion House, now College Hill, through an arched culvert. It is interesting to note that the Gas and Water Departments still strike the masonry when excavating at this point. It then continued under the now west corner of the old High School to the Mill River where it crossed on an aquaduct 246 feet long, presumably of masonry, as the cost is listed at $4,900. It then followed along the westerly embankment of South Street, where it now appears as a terrace in places, to the junction of what used to be Grove and South Streets; then turned westerly to the cut of the present railroad where it was stepped up by one or more locks. Remains of it can be seen beside the railroad tracks to the McConnell farm. At this point it turned southwesterly, crossing the present O'Neil Street, where today it can be seen with water in it, thence to the north end of the bridge over the Manhan River at Northampton Street in Easthampton, and then along West Street, where its outline can still be seen as a terrace, continuing through the lowlands south to Southampton.
From the warehouse at the corner of Main and State Streets, then called Canal Street, it ran along the entire length of State Street to the coal yards, then north through the level land crossing King Street at Damon Road and entering the Connecticut River in the rear of the Gleason homestead.
The canal was completed to the Connecticut River in 1835 and officially opened on July 29 of that year. It was a gala day in the town. At 10 A.M. the boat, Davy Crockett, left the wharf near the Mansion House drawn by four grey horses with about a hundred passengers and a band on board. It set out to meet the boat, North- ampton, which had left New Haven probably three days before with an equal number of passengers and a band. These passengers
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included many dignitaries. The boats met about noon in the Rocky Hill Basin amid great rejoicing. They pulled alongside each other and Mr. George Bancroft, chairman, delivered a rous- ing speech of welcome to which Mayor Flagg of New Haven responded. The bands played and the passengers joined in song, and the boats then proceeded to Northampton. As they entered the town from the arch under Elm Street, they were greeted, ac- cording to Harte's Old Northampton Canal, by "the waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies on the rear verandas of the Mansion House (which stood where St. Mary's Rectory and Church stand today), the huzzas of the crowd, the ringing of bells, and the firing of cannon." It was probably the greatest welcome the town had ever given. The boats continued to the Connecticut River and then returned to Lyman's Lane, now Finn Street, where the passengers disembarked and, led by the two bands, proceeded through King and Main Streets to the warehouse at Elm and State Streets where "plates were laid" for 300 at $1.00 apiece. There were more speeches and general celebration here.
Up to 1836 the canal was operated by two companies, the Farmington Company and the Hampshire and Hampden Com- pany. Even at that early date they were experiencing financial difficulties. The subscribers to the stock were slow in meeting their payments and it was decided to form a new corporation under the name of the New Haven and Northampton Company. The anticipated freight traffic never materialized, and mainte- nance costs were excessive. The spillways were inadequate to carry off the excess water during heavy rains, causing washouts, and the muskrats dug holes in the banks releasing the water. The human element entered the picture when some of the landowners, whose land had been taken by eminent domain, were not averse to digging holes and emptying the basins. One such incident oc- curred during the trip of the boat from New Haven on the open- ing day. The boat was delayed several hours at Southampton where some "low-spirited wag" released the water in one of the basins during the night. Droughts and the leachy nature of the soil in some areas were also obstacles to its operation. Another detrimental factor was the fact that it was possible to operate the canal only seven or eight months a year as navigation was impos- sible during the winter months.
In 1846 the company was advertising passenger and freight
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The New Haven and Northampton Canal
service to Cheapside in Greenfield from the canal at the Connecti- cut River via the steamer, Franklin, three times a week. It is not known whether or not they owned this boat. Freight rates were also quoted. The rate on a barrel of flour from Albany via the Western Railroad to Westfield and then by boat to Northampton was 34 cents. The peak loads were carried in September of 1839 when 106 boats cleared from New Haven with cargoes totaling 2000 tons or approximately half the capacity of a single freight train of 100 cars today.
The advent of the railroad spelled the death of the canal and it gave up the ghost at the close of the 1847 season. A total loss of over a million dollars to the stockholders had been incurred. Judge Samuel Hinckley was the heaviest stockholder at this time, and he lost his entire investment of $40,000.
An engraving made about this time shows the artist's concep- tion of the scene near the Edwards' Church corner on State Street showing the canal and the rear of the Mansion House with the Judge Talbot house, now Capen House of Smith College, and The Manse in the background. The warehouse stood at the junc- tion of Elm and State Streets, and this site is now marked by a plaque. This building was used in later years as a livery stable with a blacksmith shop in the basement.
Chapter Eleven
The Hanging of Daley and Halligan
By RICHARD C. GARVEY
N EVER in its 152 years had Northampton been so crowded as it was on June 5, 1806. Some estimated that the little township of 2500 souls was that day host to more than 15,000 persons.
Those who arrived here early were able to see Major General Ebenezer Mattoon of the Fourth Division, Massachusetts Militia, high sheriff of Hampshire County, ride in from Amherst on his parade horse. He was accompanied by his aides, all armed with pistols hanging by their saddles. According to the early risers, they "presented a very imposing appearance."
At 10:30, the sheriff, attended by his deputies, a company of artillery and a detachment of militia, removed from the new stone jailhouse on Pleasant Street the two men whose scheduled execu- tion had attracted the enormous crowd to the county seat. They were Dominic Daley, 34, and James Halligan, 27, of Boston, na- tives of Ireland, who had been in jail since their arrest in Novem- ber soon after the body of Marcus Lyon, a young Connecticut farmer, was found in a stream at Wilbraham. He had been bludgeoned to death and robbed, and Daley and Halligan were convicted of the hideous crime.
Those frugal Hampshire farmers who started estimating the cost of the military parade that was attending the prisoners on their way to the gallows were told of reports that the prisoners' fellow countrymen were coming from Boston to rescue the con- demned men from the sheriff. However, the only friend who walked with them was not an Irishman, but a refugee from terror- torn France, and his mission was of a different nature.
He was Reverend Jean Louis Anne Magdeleine Lefebvre de
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The Hanging of Daley and Halligan
Cheverus, a 38-year-old Catholic priest, assistant to Reverend Doctor Francis Matignon of Boston, whose parish embraced all of New England. Father Cheverus was born in Lower Maine, France, son of a police lieutenant, nephew of the mayor and of the local pastor. In his 23d year, he was made a priest in the last public ordination in Paris before the French Revolution.
Forced to flee France when the revolt brought in anti-clerical laws, Father Cheverus went to England and, in 1796, accepted the invitation of his former seminary professor, Father Matignon, to come to Boston.
Most of his time and energy were devoted to the Indians of Maine and to the scattered settlements of poor Catholics in New England, so Father Cheverus often found it necessary to shun the learned society which he would have graced. However, he helped to establish the Boston Athenaeum to which he donated some of his Hebrew and Latin texts, and became friendly with some of the state's most illustrious sons. He occupied the seat of honor at the banquet for President John Adams, who later con- tributed generously to help Father Cheverus and his pastor to build Holy Cross Church at Boston.
It was to the humble living quarters of this little church that the appeal of Daley and Halligan was delivered in the late spring of 1806. "We adore in the judgment of men, liable to be deceived, the decrees of Providence. If we are not guilty of the crime im- puted to us, we have committed other sins, and, to expiate them, we accept death with resignation. We are solicitous only about our salvation; it is in your hands; come to our assistance."
Father Cheverus answered the call and, arriving in Northamp- ton during the first week of June, 1806, went to the tavern of Asahel Pomeroy. It was the proprietor himself who turned him away, but it was Mrs. Pomeroy who received credit for warning her husband against letting a papist priest enter under the roof.
Father Cheverus joined his parishioners at the jail and there said the first Mass ever celebrated in Northampton. The prisoners received the Sacraments, and the priest gave them counsel and blessing to prepare them for death.
On the morning of execution, Daley and Halligan were not permitted to borrow razors, for the guards feared that the men would suicide and preclude the ceremonies which thousands were coming to witness. However, the word of Father Cheverus
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caused the guards to change their decision and the prisoners were clean shaven when the sheriff and numerous attendants arrived.
The procession followed the route taken by Daley and Halli- gan only seven weeks earlier when they had been removed to the Hampshire County Courthouse to face trial for the murder at Wilbraham. Except for Daley's wife and mother, there were none to sustain them as they went on trial for their lives. The prisoners would probably have felt even more abandoned if they had been better acquainted with those in the courtroom.
There was Justice Samuel Sewall who had joined Justice The- ophilus Bradbury in an opinion against Father Matignon in which Catholics were warned that they were only tolerated in Massa- chusetts and should expect nothing more. The other judge who was to conduct the murder trial was Justice Theodore Sedgwick whose contempt for the unlettered workmen and farmers had made his mansion at Stockbridge a target during Shays Rebellion.
The attorney general, James Sullivan, was the lawyer who had precipitated the case during which Father Matignon heard the court's warning about Catholics, and who had tried unsuccess- fully to convict Father Cheverus on a marriage law complaint for which Judge Bradbury was eager to impose a pillory sentence. With the attorney general was John Hooker of Springfield, who had been named special prosecutor of Daley and Halligan.
The commonwealth had had five months in which to prepare its case, but no one asked the defendants whether or not they wished to have counsel until after they had pleaded innocent on April 22. The court then assigned attorneys and allowed them 48 hours in which to prepare the defense.
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