USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Ludlow > The history of Ludlow, Massachusetts > Part 4
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A third theory is that it is from one Rodger Ludlow, who was prom- inent in the colonial history at the time Ludlow was settled, and owned lands in that vicinity .;
An objection against the two former suggested sources is the remote- ness of the characters, a full century intervening between them and their supposed namesake.
In response to a note of inquiry sent to the mayor of Ludlow in lingland, the following very pleasant and hearty letter was received.
The Historical Address, Part III
See Vol. Ii. " The Connecticut Lowns in ( obouial History."
53
TOWN AVMALS
Ludlow, Shropshire, England, December 21, 1871.
Sır .- I have received your letter of the 5th instant, and I have made enquiries upon the subject about which you write. Ham afraid there is no record of the origin of the name of your town here; those with whom I have conversed think that it may either have been taken from some person of the name of Ludlow, who accompanied the first settlers, or from a noted republican of that name, or from the fact that Milton, the poet, whose republican opinions were well known, was con- nected more or less with our town. But this is all conjecture.
I am sending you by book-post a small sketch of our town. The real history of Ludlow, which is an Svo volume of 500 pages, and writ- ten by Thomas Wright, the antiquary, is very interesting, but too large to send.
Ludlow is said to be a Saxon word- Low or "Illaw," signifying a hill or tumulus, and "Lud" or "Lude" may be the name of a person : London is said to be the Luds' town ;- or it may be a name signifying a number of people: the word "lewd" having been originally applied to "common people" not necessarily wicked, or lawless .-- In Wielit's New Testament, Acts is., verse 13, the apostles are called "unlettered, and lewed."
The word Ludlow may thus mean "the grave, or burial hill of the people." A tumulus formerly existing in the present church-yard was lowered in A. D. 1199, and bones of three men were discovered, who were made out to be Irish saints. They are now supposed rather to have been Roman or Celtic remains. There is a place called Ludford just below the hill on which Ludlow is built; - on the other side of the river Teme.
If I can afford you any further information I shall be happy to do so. I am, sir, yours faithfully,
John Adney, Mayor of Ludlow.
Alfred Noon, Esq.
In speaking of names, it is worthy of remark that while the name of Stony Hill, formerly given to Ludlow, has been appropriated by a ser- tion of Wilbraham, our town preserves in its most prominent landmark, Mt. Mineachogue, the title once given by the aborigines to all out- ward commons.
The provision made in the charter for the incorporation of certain farms within the limits of the district, probably accounts for the angles in the western line of the town, evidently made so as to include those lands belonging to the proprietors named. The original boundary was evidently very similar to the present.
The world may smile at the carlier annals of New England history,
5.4
HISTORY OF LUDLOW
but while smiling, may still read and ponder. There was little in the rugged commons which foretold a town. There was little in the appear- ance of these husbandmen that prophesied the Ludlow yeomen of to-day. If you would learn of the principle that gave to these seemingly inchoate elements their unity and combined strength, read of their religious longings. When will the lesson be remembered, that our nobler insti- tutions had their bases planted on the stone once rejected, but now " the Head of the Corner"?
Many a family lived in a log cabin, the older inhabitants remembering such establishments in various parts of the town. One stood near the
JOSHUA CLARK PLACE, FORMERLY OWNED BY ZACHARIAH DAY
Norman Lyon house, one on "Stallion Hill," near Miss Mary Lyon's (now Mrs. Solon Lyon'S), another opposite the Loren Wood place, and another in the extreme southeastern part of Ludlow. Frame dwellings followed in due time, indicating the progress of their owners.
At the second meeting, held April 22, 1774, it was voted to hire minister and a committee was chosen " for to agree" with him. With an eye to order, as well as sanctuary privileges, they "voted that Swine Should run at large yok' and with a King in their Nose as the law Directs. "
At an adjourned meeting heldl "June 1th," a committee was chosen
55
TOWN ANM.ILS
to locate the center of the town in order to build a meeting-house thereon.
In October, 1774, the district in meeting assembled ratified the action of the ministerial committee, and authorized it to continue its services, but nothing having been accomplished by the second committee, it was dismissed and another chosen. It was at this meeting that there occurred the first official measure bearing upon the coming struggle with the mother country. The call to a meeting of all the province had gone out to every town and district, asking for the appointment of one or more delegates from each corporate body, to a Provincial Congress to be held at Concord. Joseph Miller was appointed to go, and went, not only to this but to the succeeding session at Salem, held a little later, and also to still another like gathering at Cambridge, and another at Watertown the next May. A little idea of the expense of these journeys may be obtained from the item recorded later :
Voted that Joseph Miller be allowed his bill for attending the Several Congresses, which is 411 13s 2d, likewise voted that the said Capt. Joseph Miller have Two Shillings pr. Day for Thirty Two Days Service attending the Several Congresses.
It was a trying time for a new town, when its revenues were diverted to pay the costs of war, and its young men sent off to bear the musket. Yet the people persist in living, in supporting the institutions of religion among themselves, and, moreover, in planning for the interests and development of the town as well.
A pound was erected near Elisha Hubbard's in 1776, thirty feet square, which, sixteen years later, had fallen into decay. A little later a new one was erected of white oak, near Oliver Dutton's house (now Mrs. E. Newton Fisher's), and the timber of the old sold at vendue.
As occasion required, delegates were appointed to the conventions relating to troubles culminating in the Shays rebellion; the first represen- tation to the State legislature was in 1785, when Joseph Miller bore the honors. A committee of seven was intrusted to instruct him, though in what branch of education we have no intimation. A similar honor was borne by John Jennings in 1787. his tutors being Ave in number. John Jennings attended the constitutional convention of 1788.
We find but little in the records about warning people out of town,
50
HISTORY OF LL DEON
though in 1790 certain citizens were instructed to take the matter into consideration and three years later they made public the names of twelve persons who had signified their intention to locate without the town's consent, and who must leave within fifteen day's. This course was very likely taken in order that pauper- this once warned out could be thrown upon the State for support.
The town appropriated do for a singing school in 1791. With potatoes ten cents per bushel and lumber two dollars per thousand, our
-9
JOHN SIKES Your Taxes for 1815 are.
D.
C.
STATE TAX,
2
13
TOWN, do.
3
60
PARISH, do.
18
SCHOOL, do.
4
92
COUNTY, do.
2
32
$15
15
CALVIN SIKES, Collector.
Rec'd Payment, pr WILLIAM PEASE.
A DAA BHA OF 1815
ancestors gave liberally to the arts. They also had special lessons in penmanship by an expert teacher who taught a very good style of ver- tical writing. In 1804, the town magnanimously appropriated twenty - five dollars " to the present singers, on condition they sing well and still continue to sing to the Edification of the Inhabitants of s' Town," and two yours after a committee was empowered to hire a singing master.
In municipal affairs, the people seem to have proceeded much as where did at the same period. At first, the clerk and treasurer were separate officers, but the positions were finally vested in one person in 1796, John Jennings then wearing the double honor. Tax-collecting for
1
57
TOWA ANA.VS
the year seems at one time to have been intrusted to several constable's, but after a while this mode was unsuccessful. The next method was by two collectors, one for the outward and one for the inward commons. For a single year, one man undertook the Herculean task of collecting for the whole district. It was probably the custom at the warning of some of the earlier town meetings for the constables to notify the voters individually, but this method became too troublesome, and after a while the town resolved to post notices in several stipulated places: "the meeting-house and the houses of Joshua Fuller, Capt. Joseph Miller, Gideon Beebe, Benjamin Sikes, and Joel Nash's mill."
At the close of the eighteenth century the deer and wolves and bears Your Taxes for 181 must have been mostly driven away, but for a are, D. C. M. while they were doubtless STATE TAX, frequently seen. It is said 12 TOWN & COUNTY, do. kg PARISH, do. - 13 that when the first Lum- 27 bard was one day in the neighborhood of where Celon Life Collector. ៛ Lyman Graves now lives, he found a large bear and Ree'd. payment, two cubs. Having killed one of the cubs, the old bear pursued him, driving him to a well-known pre- Tix Bil.L. cipitous rock near by, on which he took refuge. Foiled in her attempt to avenge the death of her young, she kept guard nearly a whole night, springing frequently from the ground up the sides of the rock. Wolves were seen near the former home of Ambrose Clough and near where Warren G. Fuller now lives. But such days passed away, and with them the beasts which infested the region.
As relies of these days are shown at the present time a shoe worn by Captain Miller's grandchildren, and a shell used for calling together the "men-folks," whose resonant sounds (those of the shell, not of the men- folks) are said to have been heard three full miles when blown at the brink of the Chicopee.
58
HISTORY OF LUDLOW
At the very beginning of the Revolutionary War, August 23, 1775. the General Court of Massachusetts admitted the districts to the full privileges of towns, by a general act, as follows:
And he it further Enacted and Declared by the authority aforesaid. That every Corporate Body in this Colony, which in the act for the Incorporation thereof, is said and declared to be made a District and has by such act granted to it, or is declared to be vested with the Rights. Powers, Privileges or Immunities of a Town, with the Exception above mentioned, of chusing and sending a representative to the Great and General Court of Assembly, shall hereafter be holden, taken, and in- tended to be a Town to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever.
We have seen by the charter and various references that the town once held certain lands in trust for the maintenance of the ministry. From the time of its organization there had been committees chosen by the town to arrange a settlement with the town of Springfield concerning certain ministerial and school lands lying in the north division of the outward commons, which was included within the territory of Ludlow. A settlement was finally effected in 1802, and the town of Ludlow was to pay the town of Springheld $100, the First Parish of Springfield $250, and to Bezaleel Howard $250, or $600 in all. in consideration of which all rights in said lands were forfeited and they were deeded to the town of Ludlow to be held in trust for the support of the gospel ministry and schools forever. These lands were sold mainly in three years, 1803, 1804, 1805, and the report made by the committee of sale. November 13, 1800, acknowledged the amount received to be $2.265.80. This fund, we shall find, became later the source of considerable contention. The official report of this committee is as follows:
The Committee appointed to sell the Ministry and school land the property of the town of Ludlow have attended that service-and have sold the whole of the said Ministry lott lying within the said town from the inward Commons eastward to Chicopee River Also have sold some part of said school lott (viz) beginning two rods east of the inward Commons and extending eastward the whole width of said lott to the road leading Northerly from Titus Hubbards dwelling House also all that part of st lott which lieth east of the town Pound and north of the town road leading from thence to the Meeting house and west of the Cedar-swamp so called also beginning at or near the foot of the Hill east a few rods from the Meeting house and easterly the whole width of said lott to Belchertown line. Also one other piece of s' lot lying west of the pound & North of the road leading westerly from & pound.
59
TOWN JAMMIES
leaving unsold all that part of said school lott which lieth west of the foot of the Hill east of the said Meeting house the whole width of said lott so far as the west side of the Cedar swamp aforest, also all that of said lott which lieth west of said Cedar swamp and south of the town road leading west from said Meeting House so far as the Country road leading Northerly from Titus Hubbard's. And having agrecably to directions and orders from said town Made and excuted Warrantie deeds for and in behalf of the Inhabitants of said town-And have also received for and in Consideration of said sales and for the use and benefit of said Inhabitants Notes and Obligations of the following descriptions (viz) one signed Elisha Hubbard & Job Pease for the sum of 45 doll 9 cents dated Aug 24th, 1804-one signed Timothy Clough & Titus Hubbard for the sum of 37 doll 50 cents dated June 16 1805-one signed James Kendal for the sum of 67 doll 50 cents dated Aug 24 1804 -one signed John Jennings for the sum of 23 doll 25 cents dated Sept 28 1804-one signed Timothy Clough & Jon Clough for the sum of 600 doll dated June 16 1803 -- one signed Abel Wright & Abel Wright Jun' for the sum of 116 doll dated June 27th 1803 -one signed Elisha Fuller for the sum of 336 doll 31 cents dated Aug 24 1805 one signed Aaron Colton, J'. and Moses Wood for the sum of 185 doll dated June 26 1803-one signed Timothy Wright & Aaron Colton for the sum of 100 doll dated June 16 1803 -one signed Sam! Olds for the sum 47 doll 60 cents dated March 8th 1805 one signed Stephen Wright & George Miller for the sum 85 doll 25 cents dated June 17th 1803-one signed Elisha Fuller for the sum of 324 doll 73 cents dated Aug' 24 1805-one signed Benj" Sikes for the sum of 26 doll 51 cent- dated March 8 1805-one signed Ruben Burt & George Miller for the sum of 150 doll dated June 17th 1803 Containing in the whole the sum of 2145 doll 34 cents all on Interest from their dates-The Committee have recd in Cash over and above the aforementioned Notes to and for use and benefit of the sd Inhabitants the sum of 26 doll 5 cents -which sum added to the sum of the Obligations aforest makes in the whole the sum of 2171 doll 39 cents-The Committee further submit to the town the expediency of any further sale of all or any part of the remainder of said land conceiving it necessary at least to reserve some ground Cotiguous to the said Meeting House for the use ease and benefit of the Inhabitants of said town.
And the Committee further report that they hold themselves account- able and in readiness to deliver to any Person or Persons authorised to receive the foregoing Obligations and effects or other Obligations and effects of equal Value.
Jonª Burr Aaron Colton John Jennings Benja Sikes
Committee.
( 1)
HISTORY OFLIDLOW
After having proceeded as above stated the Committee have pro- ceeded further and sold all that part of the school lott which lieth west of the Cedar-swamp and south of the town road leading westerly from the Meeting house so far west as Al' Titus Hubbard's dwelling-house and have received to and for the use and benefit of the Inhabitants of said town of Ludlow one Obligation or Note for the sum of Ninety three dollars sixty nine cents which being added to the sum in the fore- going report makes in the whole for the benefit of said town the sum of two thousand two hundred and Sixty five dollars and 8 cents and the Committee further state that agreeably to their orders and directions from the said town they have made and executed a warrantee deeds of the last mentioned piece of land as well as that mentioned in the fore- going report and that this last mentioned Note of 93 dollars and 09 cents i- dated June 16, 1803, signed by Titus Hubbard and Gad Lyon.
Aaron Colton John Jennings Benj' Sikes 1 Committee.
The bounds of the town were changed in 1805 so as to include a large slice of Springfield, from the mouth of Higher Brook northward to the
2
5
HARTFORD BAYES imer Shinyst Adnak, " for FIVEDOLLARS
& Bunt
Cash
HARTFORD BANK NOTE OF 1820
South Hadley line. In 1813 this had evidently been returned to its former association.
Our annals become more and more mere recitals of detached facts. because the various interests of the town, considered in town meetings, are treated in special articles by themselves.
The voters seem to have indulged in all the privileges of American
61
citizenship. At one time they solemnly and with full assurance "voted that James Bowdoin. Esq .. he governor."
There was a genuine smallpox scare in 1810, a committee being appointed to introduce the inoculation of the complex.
In 1812, the County of Hampden was formed, a great convenience to the Ludlow people, whose distance to the county seat, Northampton, was lessened one half. Another convenience was the post office at Put's Bridge, established not far from 1815.
As illustrations of the value of commodities and wages paid, we cite the following: Ezekiel Fuller cut his logs, paid two dollars a thousand for sawing at the mill, drew the stuff to Willimansett, and sold it, nice
TWO
The PRESIDENT DIRECTORS
BOSTON BANK
promise la joy
or bearer on di mand
TIVO DOLLARS
BOSTON
VM Chchman, CASAS
PRES
BOSTON BANK VOLL OF 1828
yellow pine, for two dollars and a half per thousand. As late as 1820. good potatoes brought ten cents a bushel. A curious idea of the extent of the earlier crops of this esculent may be gained from the fact that one man who had half a hogshead and another showing a crop of four barrels were the wonder of the town. In 1541, allowances for labor on the high- ways were sixty-seven cents a day in the spring and fifty cents in the fall.
A few incidents may perhaps be noted. The citizens at town meeting adjourned on May-day of 1837 to attend in procession the funeral of their aged neighbor, Lewis Barber.
There were two hundred and fifty-seven votes cast in 1840. The anti-masonic vote in the Morgan days was thirty -two in a hundred and sixty-one.
62
HISTORY OF LIDLON
The town clerk was so much impressed with a twelve-hours thunder- Storm, March 25, 1842, that he made note of the fact - the only attention paid to meteorology in all the town books, unless we infer that the earlier fathers adjourned from the meeting-house stake to the house of Joshua Fuller because of the cold.
In the early days of the town, the old First Church building was used for a place of divine worship and for the transaction of town business. I ntil 1835, when the church was incorporated, all matters relating to it were voted upon in town meeting. In 1841, after a new house of worship had been built, religious services were discontinued in the old building and it was purchased by the town. The town house was changed little by little from time to time, though the most marked alterations, in the partition and fitting up of a town office, and the removal of some of the old seats were of more recent date; the latter, in fact, having been made necessary by the centennial celebration. All town meetings were still held there. But March 14. 1881, at the annual town meeting, the Selectmen were instructed to procure a suitable place in the village of Ludlow for the next annual State election, and Joy's Hall was secured. This was only the beginning of an effort to have all the meetings of the town held at the village; and at the annual meeting. March 13, 1893. the town voted that future annual town meetings be held in the village. and a committee of five was appointed to secure suitable accommodations. Joy's Hall was engaged for all meetings and a room in the basement of the building for use of the town officers. At a later meeting, the voter- in the uptown section made a strong effort to return to the Center for the manual meetings, but the village people outsoled them and all meeting- have since been held at the village. In November, 1906. Joy 's building was destroyed by fire. A new building was soon erected and larger quarters were secured for the town officers in the basement of the build- ing. The town records are kept here in a fireproof safe and vault. . room for a lock-up was also secured in the basement of this building.
There has been agitation occasionally for the erection of a new town house, and at a meeting of the town in April, 1872, it was voted to raise $3,500 for the erection of a new town house and that a schoolroom be connected therewith. Acommittee was chosen to look for a location
TOWN ANA.ALS
and report at a future meeting. At a later meeting the vote was recon- sidered and there has been no further action taken.
In 1873 the woodchucks were so plentiful and troublesome to the farmers, that a bounty of ten cents for each one killed was offered by the town. To prove one's right to the money, at first the heads were taken to the treasurer, later only the ears were required. Nearly $150 was paid for this purpose during two or three years.
At the annual meeting, March 8, 1880, the first woman voter of the town, Miss Asenath Jones, appeared at the polls, escorted by Major John P. Hubbard, and deposited her ballot for school committee.
It is noticeable that the town, since the temperance agitation has been under way, never has licensed the sale of intoxicating liquors.
The voters of Ludlow in 1888 will always remember the great bliz- zard of March 12, of that year. It was the day of the annual town- meeting held in Ludlow Center. Little attention was given by the voters to the storm, which commenced in the morning. At noon two or three of the men started for home but returned. When the meeting closed, and the voters prepared to go home, the roads had in some cases become impassable and others nearly so. Seventeen of the men were obliged to remain all night in the hall, while others were obliged to stop on the way, few reaching their own homes. One of the selectmen with forced to stay three or four days with a friend. Some of the roads were impassable for a week.
At a meeting of the town held March 9, 1896, the town paid tribute to Governor Greenhalge, who died in office, by the adoption of the follow- ing resolutions :-
Resolved by the citizens of Ludlow in annual town meeting assembled ; That in the death of Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge, every town in the Commonwealth, however small, has lost a true friend, an able champion for its petitions, an honorable, just, and wise chief magistrate, who took pride in serving the whole people, even unto death. And with sincere feelings of sorrow we extend to the afflicted family our most heartfelt sympathy.
Resolved: That these resolutions be placed upon the records of the town and that a copy be sent to the family of the deceased Governor.
MODERATORS OF TOWN MENINGS
The number appended to each name denotes the number of times that person has served.
04
IHISTORY OF LEDLOW
Moses Bliss, 1. John Hubbard, 3; Joseph Miller, 24; Jonathan Bartlett, 8; Joseph Hitchcock. 10: Jeremiah Dutton, 3; Abner Hitchcock, 1; Joshua Fuller, 3; James Kendall. 28; Joel Nash, 22: Gideon Beebe. 1; Israel Warriner, 14; John Jennings, 18; Jonathan Burr. 13: Eli Putnam, 7: Dr. Francis Percival, 1; John Miller, 1; Dr. A. J. Miller. 4; Elisha Fuller, 1; Oliver Dutton, 27; Benjamin Sikes, 1: Jonathan Clough, 2; Sherwood Beebe, 4; William Pease, 28; Ezekiel Fuller, 2; Increase Sikes, 1; Gad Lyon, 3; Dr. Simpson Ellis, 2: Joshua Fuller. 2; Noah Clark, 6; Timothy Nash, 13; Achbel Burr. 3; Theodore Sikes, 4; Alva Sikes. 3; Alexander McLean, 2; Paoli Lathrop. 1; Dr. Elijah Caswell. 1; E. T. Parsons, 30; John Cites, 2; Nathaniel Chapin, 3; Henry Fuller, 1; Col. John Miller, 9; Dennis Knowlton, 1; Eli M. Smith, 15; John B. Alden. 1; Jerre Miller, 2: Dr. W. B. Alden, 2; George Booth, 3; William Ray. 1; Manson Pool, 1: Dr. T. W. Lyman. 1; Artemas 11. Whitney, 1; Henry Charles, 1; Edmund Bliss, 1: John P. Hubbard. 3; Chauncey 1 .. Buell, 13; Francis F. MeLean, 9; Gillen D. Michinson, 3; Jackson Cady, 1; Adin Whitney, 1 : Benjamin F. Burr. 4; Charles F. Grosvenor, 3; George A. Birnie, 12: James B. Knowlton, 2; Austin (. Gove, 1: Charles Greenhalgh. 1.
TOWN CLERKS The following have acted as town clerks:
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