USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Ludlow > The history of Ludlow, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of leading citizens, reminiscences, genealogies, farm histories, and an account of the centennial celebration, June 17, 1874 > Part 2
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"And there our doom, our death was sure For no escape could we procure. Our fate ill fortune strong did bind With cliff before and foe behind.
"Our choice was given, though seal'd with woe, To yield to them, or leap below, Whiche'er we did was certain death, But soon we chose to plunge beneath.
"Within my arms I took my son And to the awful brink I run, Then one wild, deathly whoop I gave, And cried, 'Come on, my warriors brave.'
"O! then what pain my bosom felt, I drew the hatchet from my belt And hurled it down beneath my feet, Then headlong plunged my death to meet.
"A moment and the scene was o'er, My brothers breathed in life no more. Each of my tribe, unflinch'd and brave, Had sought with me a watery grave,
"Save one old squaw by accident Escaped the death of her intent, But soon a bullet from the foe Laid her within the river's flow.
"Thus, paleface, we red men died, By cruel hands that sought for pride. And by yon cove where whirlpools play Our fractured bones in silence lay.
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"You ask me why my bow's unstrung, And why my quiver is unslung. Alas, the tale too true I've told, We died defenseless, but were bold.
"Long years have passed since that dread day. My kin are gone, and where are they? Ah! paleface, 'twas thy cruel race That drove them from their native place.
"And now where yonder dwellings rise And towering steeple stares the skies, The red man's hut once quiet stood Well lined with furs and stored with food.
"But all have gone, go thou, pale son, Go, tell thy kin of wrongs they've done. But now the Spirit calls me home, Farewell, farewell, my tale is done."
One moment more and he was gone.
I gazed around, I was alone. A gloomy aspect nature wore, But that red chief I saw no more.
I homeward turn'd my strolling feet, And soon they trac'd the village street. And when I reached my dwelling door, The bell pealed forth the midnight hour.
I paused and sadly gazed around But deathly silence reigned profound, Save the low wind that sighing came With piercing breath that chill'd my frame.
Gladly I sought my couch to rest, While sadness settled in my breast. But soon my thoughts were hush'd in sleep And I forgot the Indian Leap.
NOTE .- The story of the Great Cove, I believe no history contains, but it has been handed down from generation to generation and bears the character of truth. In the fields around this spot are often found Indian arrows, knives, etc., which give evidence that the aboriginal tribes formerly occupied the spot. The serious wanderer who visits this place finds himself doubly repaid for his pains. As the spectator stands upon the dizzy brink, gazing down upon the foaming waters dashing from rock to rock, the scene awakens in the mind the sublimest thoughts that imagination can produce. A beautiful grove borders its edge, afford- ing a pleasant walk to those that desire it, and it is often enjoyed by the residents of the neighboring villages.
28
HISTORY OF LUDLOW
The account by Mr. Booth will probably be more pleasing to young lady readers, from the different standpoint it assumes. We regret the necessity upon us to cut out any of the interesting narration. His story is abridged as follows:
On this narrow tract of land tradition says there lived in all their native simplicity a small tribe of the red men. They had for a long succession of years there erected their rude wigwams, their wives and children had there rested amid the most retired and happy security, whilst he who was master of the lodge was chasing the frightened fawn or with eager eyes watched the stealthy fox, or, reclining upon some favorite rock, barbed the darting fish. They lived in peace with all their Indian neighbors and spent their time in hunting or in fishing. The squaw or little one greeted the return of the red man to his wigwam with the smile of affection, and listened with interest to the tale of his hair-breadth escapes. The chieftain, called by the English, Roaring Thunder, cultivated a spirit of love and peace among his band.
Philip of Pokanoket had been roused from that state of peace and harmony which so long had existed between his father and the English. He had put out the pipe of peace, and the tomahawk and scalping-knife were ready for their bloody use. By the most artful means he had aroused nearly all the Indians of Massachusetts and Connecticut to take arms with him against the paleface. Cries of the helpless, sounding terror and distress, were heard far and wide through the colonies. The bloody tales of Springfield and Deerfield massacres had been recited, and the inhabitants assembled at their places of worship with arms in their hands, and when they rested at night it was with one arm encircling the child trembling with fear and with the other grasping the firelock, expecting to hear the dread footsteps of the Indian ere the sun arose. Years rolled around, and the mighty chief and many of the tribes were conquered.
In all this struggle the little band of Caughmanyputs were the true friends of both red and white man. They harmed no one. On their isolated peninsula they lived harmoniously. The land they occupied was barren, and the white men were justified in forcing the Indian from the fruitful soil in other parts. This, we could readily suppose, would offer no temptation for a war of extermination against Roaring Thunder and his little band. But this could not be so. The Christian paleface was envious of the happiness of the Caughmanyputs, and was more dis- posed to believe their happiness arose from some hidden treasure in the earth rather than from contentment or domestic enjoyment. Preparations for an ex- termination were commenced and soon complete.
It was the habit of Roaring Thunder to take his little son of twelve with him each morning in the pleasant season to the extremity of the neck, and tell him of the land where dwelt the Great Spirit, and to which they must soon go. He would there pay devout homage to that Spirit whose voice he had heard in mighty thunder or roaring wind. After returning one morning from his service to the wigwams, where his people were amusing themselves in innocent pastimes, the startling
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ANTE-LUDLOW
intelligence came that a band of soldiers was seen approaching. Roaring Thunder at once commanded his men to arms to defend their soil and loved ones, gathering them into the narrow passage which led to their houses, and there waited to defend dearest rights. The soldiers, led on by their captain, advanced with slow and cau- tious step, and the first intimation of the presence of the Indians was a shower of arrows among them. Falling back for a moment, they fixed bayonets and charged. The Indians retreated to their wigwams, where they again attempted a defense, but were soon driven from their shelter by the merciless palefaces, who, still advanc- ing, heeded not the cries of children or lamentations of squaws. They drove the band of Caughmanyputs to the consecrated rock. Obeying the command of their chief, in an instant a score of red forms were seen leaping into the air, then sinking amid the foaming surge below. All but Roaring Thunder and his boy had gone. The old man clasped to his breast the black-eyed boy, as with uplifted eyes he committed him to the care of the red man's God. Then turning slowly around, as though he would even from his enemies conceal the dreadful deed, he dashed him on the rocks below, and gazing saw the waters hurry off his mangled form. Raising himself to his utmost height, conscious of his majesty of form, he takes a survey of his once happy home. The objects of his affection are not there. He gazes far upon his hunting grounds, his fishing-places and his target-sports, and to them he waves a deep farewell, then with an eye of vengeance sharp he looked upon his deadly foes,-throwing up his keen dark eyes into the blue arch of Heaven, he gave a terrific spring and a savage yell, and fell upon the rocks below, a mangled corpse,-the last of the Caughmanyputs.
His spirit went To safer world in depths of woods embraced, Some happier Island in the watery waste Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, -no Christians thirst for gold.
One other account, perhaps quite as probable as those already related, bears a later date. On a prominent part of Facing Hills rocks there rises an abrupt preci- pice, from which eminence a surpassingly grand outlook upon the region is to be ob- tained. This rock is sup- posed to have been the thea- ter of one of those tragic events, too common in the days of early settlers. (In 1907 Frederick L. Burr built a bungalow and barn upon INTERIOR OF F. L. BURR'S BUNGALOW this rock.) Away down the valley of the Chicuepe was a little
30
HISTORY OF LUDLOW
hamlet of hardy adventurers-so runs the story. Among the com- pany was a family in which were two women. Surprised by the blood- thirsty savages one day, when the men were out in the fields at work, one of the two found an opportunity to escape to the cellar and hide
BUNGALOW OF F. L. BURR ON FACING HILL ROCK
under a tub. The other was so unfortunate as to become a prisoner, and accompanied the captors as they speeded away up the valley. Soon as possible the settlers were aroused, and started in pursuit. It was a fearful chase, and a fruitless one; for the Indians, hurrying their booty along with them, reached this point on Facing Rocks, and, close pursued, put the victim out of misery by a tragic death. This event probably happened July 26, 1708. It bears a strong resemblance to the account of the massacre of the Wrights at Skipmuck. (See Holland's Western Mass., vol. 1, 158.)
But the day of the red man is drawing to a close, and other claimants to the soil have appeared. The record of the purchase of the lands here- abouts from the Indians is very clear, and shows that the settlers had all the rights of tenure which could flow from such transfers of property as gave the white man his possessions. That a connected account of
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the settlement of the region may be before the reader, it will be necessary to go back a little.
The original boundaries of Springfield circumscribed a region twenty- five miles square, including, west of the river, the land now comprising the towns of West Springfield and Agawam, the city of Holyoke, and part of Southwick and Westfield in Massachusetts, and Suffield in Con- necticut; on the east side of the river, besides Springfield, Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Chicopee, and Ludlow in this State, and Enfield in Con- necticut. So Ludlow comprises the northeasterly section of the Spring- field of long ago.
The grant of land to William Pynchon, in 1636, included all this region, but no one had laid claim to the easternmost and westernmost limits. In the latter part of the century the oppressive policy and evident hos- tility of the English king, Charles II., gave color to the fear lest he should take measures to cause these out-regions to revert to the crown.
Massachusetts had grown and prospered greatly and at the Restora- tion had become a powerful commonwealth. Soon Charles II., jealous of her increasing importance, proceeded to hinder it. He accused the people of transcending their charter and violating the Navigation Acts and finally succeeded in 1684 in having the charter annulled by the high court of chancery. However, the Springfield colonists did not propose to be cheated out of their wood-lots by the crown, and so, with Yankee ingenuity, devised a plan to ward off the danger impending. In town meeting, February 3, 1685, they voted that, after reserving three hun- dred acres for the ministry, and one hundred and fifty acres for schools, on the east side of the river, and due proportions for like purposes, on the west side, the remainder should be divided among the one hundred and twenty-three heads of families, or legal citizens. With the ministry and school lots, there were thus one hundred and twenty-five proprietors, among whom the land was to be divided. Not that there were, good reader, that number of actual citizens, for it seemed no harm to add to the list the names of all male persons under age.
The "commons" " east of the "Great River" seem to have included two sections, bounded by a line extending north and south; the line on the east side commenced at Newbury Ditch, so called, on the eastern boundary of the land formerly owned by William Clark, now by Ruther- ford H. Ferry, and extended from the hill west of the Norman Lyon home-
1 For more complete account, see " Mill Privilege of H. I. Carver."
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HISTORY OF LUDLOW
stead, now owned by Lucien N. Lyon. The Lyon house and barn, now burned, stood a little south of the present home of George Gates and on the same side of the road. This boundary line passed southward near the Ezekiel Fuller place (where Hiram Davenport now lives) behind the rear of the Haviland house (John O'Neil's) and near the crossing of the Springfield, Athol and Northeastern railroad with the Three Rivers road, across the river, and near the Stony Hill road, in Wilbraham. The land divided, as above described, was the outward commons, eastward of this line. Each of the one hundred and twenty-five took a share in each of the three sections east, and the two west of the Great River. None of this outer common land was considered very valuable, but the method of division indicated was certainly fair.
Proprietors of the Outward Commons, East of the River, North Division, called in records "First or Upper Division":
No. of Lot. Name. Rodds. Foots. In.
No. of Lot. Name.
Rodds. Foots. In.
*1 Jonathan Burt, Jr., 5 13 7 27 John Keep's estate, 6
*2 Eliakim Cooley, 11 1
6 *28 Joseph Ely,
1
5 0
*3 John Warner, 11 1
7 *29 Increase Sikes, Sr., 10 8
0
4 James Warriner, Sr., 20 0 8 30 James Osborn, 2
5 Jonathan Ball, 11 13 0 *31 Obadiah Miller, Sr., 0
8 9
6 Jonathan Morgan, 5 10 1
32 Benjamin Stebbins, Sr., 5 4 10
*7 Qr. Mast. Geo. Colton, 25 7
3
33 Obadiah Cooley, Sr., 20 5 8
8 Mr. John Holyoke, 26 4 0
34 Widow Beamon, 8
12 0
9 Widow Parsons, 10 6
1
36 James Dorchester, 12
11 0
*11 Samuel Stebbins, 9 11
7
38 Thomas Swetman, 2
10 0
13 Samuel Osborn, 1 15 6
39 Lt. John Hitchcock,
22 2
4
15 William Brooks, 0
8
9
41 Nathaniel Bliss, Sr., 9
42 Nathaniel Sikes, Sr., 4
0 9
*17 Ebenezer Jones, 6
7 10
43 Capt. Thomas Colton, 10
13 8
*18 Benjamin Knowlton, 5 11 0
19 Samuel Jones, 3 13
0
45 Peter Swink, 3 46 John Colton, 1
5 0
21 Obadiah Miller, Jr., 2 15 3
47 Luke Hitchcock, Sr., 10
7 6
*22 James Petty, 4 6
3
*48 James Munn, 1 12 0
23 Joseph Marks, 1
5
9
49 Jonathan Ashley, 14
11 4
24 Samuel Ball,
12
4
0
50 Thomas Jones, 1
12 0
25 Daniel Cooley, 13
9
5 51 Thomas Taylor, 1 10 0
26 Ephraim Colton, Sr., 15 10
8 52 John Dumbleton, 11
4
3
5 2
8 35 Joseph Leonard, 10 10 7
9 37 Thomas Taylor, Sr., 6
7 3
12 Dea. Benj'n Parsons, 12 6
14 Thomas Merrick, Sr., 18
15 7 *40 Widow Sikes, Sr., 9
6 6
8 10
*16 Samuel Marshfield, 18 2
6
44 Samuel Miller, 5
7 6
13 3
20 Victory Sikes, 1 11
1
5 0
10 Japhet Chapin, 23 2
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ANTE-LUDLOW
No. of Lot. Name. Rodds. Foots. In.
No. of Lot. Name.
Rodds. Foots. In.
53 Jonathan Taylor's est., 5
11
0 90 Joseph Cooley,
5
14 6
*54 David Throw, 1
5
6 91 John Withers,
1
5
0
55 Nathaniel Burt, Sr., 23 0
4 92 Samuel Owen,
9
6
11
56 Samuel Ely, Sr., 11 7
9
93 Miles Morgan,
10
1 10
57 Thomas Stebbins, 5 10 6 94 Benjamin Cooley,
7
3 6
58 Samuel Bliss, Jr., 10 14 6 *95 Col. Pynchon, 133 15 9
59 John Hannon, 9 13 0 96 Nathaniel Munn, 3
8 10
60 Lt. Abel Wright, 16
14
4 97 John Baggs, children of 6 2 5
61 John Dorchester, 22 2
9 98 John Crowfoot,
3
8 0
62 Thomas Cooper, 18 7
3 99 John Miller,
6
5
0
64 John Clarke,
2
3 11
101 Joseph Leonard,
14 8
9
65 John Stewart,
7
7
10 102 Widow Horton,
19
2 9
66 Rowland Thomas,
12 6
7
103 Henry Rogers,
9
8
8
67 Daniel Beamon,
1
5
0 104 Dea'n Jonathan Burt, 12 6
21 8 9
69 Joseph Ashley,
14 11
4 106 Nicholas Rust,
7
0
0
70 Widow Munn, 2
10 0 107 James Barker,
5 4 0
71 Edward Foster,
9
7
4 108 Henry Chapin, 19
4 0
72 Richard Wait, 1
5
0
109 Lott for the Ministry, 37
4 0
73 John Bliss,
18 9
0
110 John Lamb,
17
10
2
74 Isaac Morgan,
0
13
1
111 Thomas Miller, 8
4 6
75 John Scott, 7
9
7
112 Thomas Gilbert,
5
8
4
76 Ensign Joseph Stebbins, 15 12 0
77 Henry Gilbert,
4
2 10
114 Samuel Bliss, 3d, 2
14 4 0
*79 John Burt, Sr., 5
4
10
116 Joseph Crowfoot's est., 7 14 0
80 John Norton, 8
3
8
117 Ensign Cooley's estate, 6
9 10
81 School Lot, 18 9
0
118 David Lombard, 8
1 11
82 Goodwife Foster's est., 9 7
4 119 Samuel Terry, Sr., 9
6 11
83 Lazarus Miller, 2
6
6
120 Abel Leonard, 6
3
9
*84 James Stephenson, 1
4
1
121 Nathaniel Pritchard, 8
1 11
85 John Clark's estate, 6
11
2 122 Isaac Colton,
13
3 3
86 Phillip Mattoon, 5
11
0 123 Charles Ferry,
14
10 11
87 Edward Stebbins, 5
4
5 124 Benjamin Leonard, 10
13 13
88 Joseph Thomas, 9
5
2 125 John Barber, 0
11
4
89 Samuel Bliss, Sr., 18 3
8
Second, or Middle Division, north of the Chicopee River:
No. of Lot.
Name.
Rodds. Foots. In.
No. of Lot. Name.
Rodds. Foots. In.
1 Samuel Marshfield,
18 2
6 5 Samuel Stebbins,
9
11 9
2 Coll. Pynchon, 133 15
9
6 James Stephenson, 1
4
1
3 David Throw,
1
5
0 7 Benjamin Knowlton, 5
11 0
4 John Warner,
11
1
7
8 Joseph Stebbins, 15 12 0
9
13 6
78 Widow Riley,
4 13
10
115 Joseph Bedortha,
9
6
3
*63 Widow Bedortha, 4 3
4 100 Thomas Day, Sr., 16
5
7
68 Samuel Bedortha, 4 14
3 105 Rev. Mr. Glover,
113 David Morgan,
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HISTORY OF LUDLOW
No. of Lot. Name.
Rodds. Foots. In.
No. of Lot. Name.
Rodds. Foots. In.
9 Obadiah Miller, Jr., 0
8
9
15 John Burt, Sr.,
5
4 10
10 Ebenezer Jones, 6 7 10 16 James Petty,
4 6 0
11 Eliakim Cooley, 11 1
6 17 Quartermaster Colton, 25 7 3
12 Jonathan Burt, Jr., 5 13 7 18 James Munn,
1 12 5
13 Widow Bedortha, 4
3
4 19 Joseph Ely,
1
5 0
14 Increase Sikes, Jr., 10 8
0
20 Widow Sikes, Sr., 9
6 6
The list of the first division is from the records kindly furnished by Clerk Folsom of Springfield; those of the second from Stebbins' Wilbraham, page 196. A glance at ancient deeds will identify many of these lots. Those drawing lots in Ludlow in both divi- sions are starred in the first. The dis- crepancy in names and amounts may occur from a varia- tion in the draft, first placed in good shape for preserva- tion a hundred years after the allotment, or from an error on the part of copyists, or from former mis- prints. Lots Nos. 33 to 39 were not far from Gilbert Atchin- son's house ; the school lot, No. 81, ON STEPSTONE OF ONE OF THE FIRST HOUSES BUILT IN LUDLOW was in the range of the present Center schoolhouse; No. 66 was near S. P. Parsons', and No. 104 passed through D. K. Paine's farm. Others can be readily traced. For a long period the commons were free plunder, so far as pasturage, wood, or herbage were concerned.
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ANTE-LUDLOW 1307975
The committee to run the outward. and inward common line was Capt. Natha. Downing, Henry Burt, and Pelatiah Glover, the latter to arrange for a meeting of the committee. The allotment was made March 13, 1698-9. The commons are said to have extended four miles and forty rods to the Chicopee River.
A glance at the map will show that the northern section of the east outward commons, and a small portion of the middle section, lie to-day in the town of Ludlow. The shares were not equal, but according
ARTHUR D. KING'S HOUSE Formerly a tavern kept by Aaron Colton
to valuation of course varying much. It is said that the narrowest were eight feet wide, measured at sixteen feet to the rod, much to the perplexity of proprietors in following generations. These original territorial divisions may be seen to-day on Wilbraham mountain, indicated by the parallel lines of wall running east and west.
In the north section, east, the school and minister lots ran through Cedar Swamp and over the north end of Mineachogue mountain. The south boundary of the section must have passed not far from the south
36
HISTORY OF LUDLOW
shore of Wood pond, and past the Miller Corner school lot to the river. The Chicopee river seems generally to have been considered the dividing line between Ludlow and Wilbraham, but it is not entirely. There is a point at the southeast corner of Ludlow where Belchertown, Palmer, Wilbraham, and Ludlow join; the monument marking the begin- ning of these towns stands on the sidehill between the East Cemetery and the river. By a singular oversight, the hither shore of the stream seems in the case of both Ludlow and Wilbraham to have been fixed as the limit of the respective towns, leaving the Chicopee to flow uninter- ruptedly downward through the limits of Springfield, disowned by both towns on the borders.
This little section of the middle portion of the outward commons, east, has the honor of being the first settled in the territory since bearing the name of Ludlow. Who was the first settler is as yet a question un- decided. Tradition gives the post of honor to one Aaron Colton, who must have settled prior to 1751. His home, once a tavern, where Arthur King now lives, was situated on the bluff just above the Chicopee river. James Sheldon, Shem Chapin, and Benjamin Sikes are said to have been living in the town at the same period. James Sheldon is supposed to have lived on the site occupied by Elijah Plumley's red house, where the late Alexander Whitney lived; Benjamin Sikes, on his allotment of commons, at the place just north of the Mann farm, now E. J. Streeter's; and Shem Chapin near the Samuel White farm, where James M. White now lives. Thus of the first four homes known in the town, three were in the outward commons. It is rumored that a man named Antisel occupied a log house on the edge of Facing Hills, subsisting on game, and that he antedates all these settlers. One Perez Antisel was deer- reeve in 1777.
We read, also, that "about 1748, Mr. Abel Bliss, of Wilbraham, and his son, Oliver, collected in the town of Ludlow, and west and south part of Belchertown, then called Broad Brook, a sufficient quantity of pine, to make two hundred barrels of tar, and sold it for five dollars per barrel." With the proceeds, Bliss built a fine dwelling house in Wilbraham, the envy of all the region.
In 1751, came the family of Joseph Miller, braving the terrors and real dangers of a journey fourteen miles into the forest, away up the Chicopee river, to the Elihu J. Sikes place, later the home of Frank Sikes, now owned by the Collins Manufacturing Company. The friends
37
ANTE-LUDLOW
in their former home, West Springfield, mourned them as dead, and tra- dition has even stated that a funeral sermon was preached over their departure. Under their careful management, a pleasant home, charmed by the music of the running stream, was soon secured. As the wild forest trees succumbed to the prowess of the chopper, tender plants grew up in the home, and made the desert region glad by the echoes of childish prattle. They brought with them a female slave, who afterwards married. A little later, in 1756, Ebenezer Barber's eyes turned toward "Stony Hill," and, beholding acres of attractive land, sought out for
THE DORMAN HOUSE
himself a home near Shem Chapin's, in the inward commons. Mr. Barber's home was later the Dea. Elisha T. Parsons place. It adjoins the farm of the late Gillen D. Atchinson on the north. The advent of others was, after this, quite frequent; so much so that when the town was incorporated, in 1774, there were from two to three hundred inhab- itants. In 1757 Jonathan Lumbard commenced to clear a farm in the upper part of Cherry Valley. In 1767, Joshua Fuller, probably bringing his father, Young Fuller, with him, came and cleared a spot just south
38
HISTORY OF LUDLOW
of the old Methodist Church at the Center and made a home. This was later the Dorman place and is now owned by Charles M. Foster. No doubt this was the one built at that time as it was an old house seventy years ago, and has been lived in until a recent date. It was one of the houses where town meetings were held. Joshua Fuller was chosen one of two wardens and, in 1778, chosen one of three to hire a minister; one of the privileges of such a committee was to entertain candidates when preaching on trial. Stephen Burroughs, afterwards notorious, preached his first sermon here, under the assumed name of Davis, was entertained in this house and informed by Mr. Fuller that the people did not agree to hire him longer. This was also one of the places to post notices of town meetings. James Kendall seems to have made the common line his eastern boundary, when he came into town, May 2, 1769. In 1770, Jonathan Burr, great-grandfather of Benjamin F. Burr, moved in ox carts, from Connecticut, and settled south from Mary Lyon's (now Mrs. Solon Lyon's) toward the mountain. Formerly there was a road leading to the house. In 1772, came Joel Willey to Miller Corner; while a young man from Wilbraham, Isaac Brewer, Sr., who had cast furtive glances toward the developing charms of Captain Joseph Miller's daughter, and had braved the terrors of ford and ferry and wilderness, that he might visit there, became more and more enamored, until her graces, and her father's lands, won him from the home of his boyhood, for life. The happy young couple found a home near the banks of the Chicuepe, where the same musical ripple delighted them as had charmed the girlhood of the bride. They settled south of the present highway leading from Edward E. Fuller's to Arthur D. King's, on land later known as the Lawrence place, and now owned by the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates. There is a road leading from the main highway to the cellar hole.
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