USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year 1876 to the year 1916 > Part 32
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The celebration was formally opened Sunday forenoon, July second, when specially arranged services were conducted at the churches. The corner stone of the new Morningside Baptist Church was laid by the pastor, Rev. Harry C. Leach; and the exercises included addresses by Louis A. Frothingham, lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth, Rev. Herbert S. Johnson, and Kelton B. Miller. Mr. Frothingham, in the course of his speech, laid stress upon the propriety of making the laying of the corner stone of a church an integral part of the anniversary observances.
"We meet at an auspicious time for the dedication of this holy edifice. It is the 150th anniversary of the founding of Pittsfield. As the church has ever been the bulwark of the state and nation, it is appropriate that such a ceremony as we are to perform today should begin the anniversary exercises. You are fortunate, ladies and gentlemen, in your history, in your sur-
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roundings, and in your successful accomplishment. The very name of your city recalls the life of a great Englishman whose soul breathed forth the spirit of freedom and brotherly love. To Chatham, who stood on such a high plane as a statesman and brought his country to the zenith of her power, this country, too, owes a debt of gratitude, and any city should be proud to bear his name."
In the afternoon, a mass meeting assembled at the reviewing stand on South Street. Music was supplied by a chorus of one hundred singers, directed by Charles F. Smith. Mayor Miller presided, the principal address was made by President Harry A. Garfield of Williams College, and other speeches by Rev. William J. Dower, Charles E. Hibbard, and Hezekiah S. Russell, who was one of the three former selectmen then surviving. Mr. Hibbard reminded his hearers of the true significance of the occasion :
"The birthday of a nation, of a municipality, or of an indi- vidual in and of itself is of small moment, but when the birthday marks the beginning of a life or career of service to humanity, or the practical working out of high ideals in national, communal, or individual life, then that day has significance, and is worthy of commemoration. Pride in Pittsfield's past history and her present worth is pardonable and justifiable, and is a marked characteristic of her citizens, but as mere pride in ances- try and family possessions never yet made a useful man or woman, and is a worthy sentiment only when it incites to emula- tion of the virtues of the past, so mere pride in Pittsfield's past will not make of us useful citizens except as it inspires us with the ambition to maintain the high standard of the past, to con- tinue her honorable record, and to perpetuate, enlarge, and make more effective the blessings we have inherited.
"What an array of noble men and women have made Pitts- field their home, and what a record of service to Pittsfield, to the state, and to the nation they have made! We need not the record of the printed pages or the words from the platform to re- mind us of what the citizens of Pittsfield have done. As we look about us, we see on every hand memorials of their devotion to the best there is in life, in the institutions and organizations estab- lished, or endowed, or supported, to promote the religious, moral, and intellectual uplift of the people, to cultivate the right think- ing and right living of our youth, and to minister to the wants of the aged, the sick, and the unfortunate. Would you understand in part the price Pittsfield paid for the preservation of the nation,
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go stand before yonder monument, Pittsfield's memorial to her soldier dead, and, with bared heads, read from the tablets thereon the roll of honor, the names of Pittsfield's sons who gave their lives a sacrifice that the nation might live. If it be true, and it is true, that memorials of great events and of distinguished service in the lives of nations have ever been a power in keeping alive and operative love of country and devotion to duty, these many memorials of ours should be a power in this community. .
. for keeping alive our love for Pittsfield and our devotion to her highest interests."
President Garfield found occasion to describe pleasantly the impression made by the city upon a visitor:
"Founded when her sister cities to the east and west were old, Pittsfield is still young in strength and beauty, though six gen- erations, as men count time, have lived to serve and honor her.
"The visitor to your fair city must almost conclude that you are spared the hard problems which beset other municipalities. He sees no places crowded and ill-kept, wherein lurking disease and sordid vice find easy prey; no buildings smiting the sky and casting black shadows on damp and narrow streets; but broad avenues bulwarked by friendly buildings, and stately highways shaded by the sheltering foliage of a thousand trees. He sees no masses of humanity filling the streets, madly pursuing fortune and pursued by care. Friend meets friend in pleasant inter- course; keen in rivalry but considerate; proud of the city's growth, but rejoicing in her natural beauty and cultivation.
"And yet no visitor familiar with municipal life in the United States can fail to know that you have not wholly escaped. The change from town to city in 1891 was momentous. It produced as well as reflected conditions. When you became a city, you thought as a city. Undoubtedly new kinds of problems have pressed upon you during the last twenty years and some of them may be traceable to your thought of Pittsfield as a city. But manifestly the strong, simple life of the New England town has not been spoiled. Your inheritances remain, guaranteeing a future of unexcelled influence."
In the evening, anniversary addresses were delivered at St. Joseph's Church by Rev. P. W. Morrissey, at St. Charles' Church by Rev. William J. Dower, and at the First Church by Rev. I. Chipman Smart. Father Morrissey asked attention to some of the virtues of those responsible for the early development of the town:
"Our present material prosperity assures us in no uncertain
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way that our forefathers, who lived their years in this beneficent clime, were men and women devoted to work, and the evidences of industry, which we behold around us, fill us with admiration and gratitude for the proud possessions which we enjoy at a cost to them of great suffering and much personal sacrifice. From a small and insignificant hamlet, with a few scattered settlers, our city has grown and flourished until in its present magnificent development it gives shelter to thousand of industrious and peace-loving citizens. Some of the present day population can trace relationship back to the sturdy men of Pittsfield's early foundation. Most of us, however, have come here, or are des- cendants of men and women who came here, to unite their toil with the toil of the citizenry of the past in the upbuilding of our city in its present healthful proportions.
"But proud as we are of the record of accomplishment achieved through the labors and sacrifices of a sturdy ancestry, and grateful as we all must be for the happiness and comforts which are ours in abounding measure, we must not be unmindful of the fact that material accomplishment and civic betterment can only come and in truth have only come to our community life as a reward of virtue, and resultant of religious conviction and practice."
Father Dower eloquently reviewed the work of Catholicism in America. Dr. Smart, speaking at the First Church with a peculiar knowledge of the city and its citizens, prefaced his ad- dress with an interesting estimate of certain local characteristics:
"Pittsfield people think well of Pittsfield, not with loud boasting, at least, in the typical Pittsfield man, but with an air of satisfaction which recalls the princes in 'Cymbeline'. They dwelt modestly in a cave, but their thoughts 'did hit the roofs of palaces'. This habit of Pittsfield people to rest content with Pittsfield is not new. Neither is it comparative. It would be the same if we knew no other places, and it would be the same if we knew all other places.
"It is positive appreciation of our own things. The self- contained quality of life in Pittsfield is due partly, perhaps, to the fact that it was so long an outpost of civilization in the Commonwealth, too far from Boston, behind its protecting mountains, to snuff up the east wind. Isolation often means a life poverty stricken, cramped, stranded in muddy shallows. Pittsfield was spared loss through isolation by her strong men. In the professions and in business, she had men of stature, men of vision, men of wide repute, gifted for service and rule, and devoted to the town, some of them traveled men, not a few of them
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men of marked and unrestrained individuality. What they did and thought and said in the town is a large part of what they did for the town.
"Some conditions which helped to make a self-contained life in Pittsfield are no longer operative. We are not now aloof from the world. A growing number of our inhabitants are here today and gone tomorrow. The control of our great business is elsewhere. Some elements, inner and outer, which went to the making of our leaders and procured them deference, are wanting now. When our heroes go, we do not replace them. We have the temper of the men who voted for Andrew Jackson long after he was dead. We have a custom of the heart and will not break it. But the fathers did not exhaust heroism. There are, there will be, heroes serving their generation better than the fathers could serve it, and we shall approve them and follow them, al- though of course we cannot feel towards them quite as we feel towards the heroes who kindled our imagination of successful life in the days of our youth."
Finally, among the anniversary observances of the first day, was a brief speech at the railroad station by the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, who happily chanced to be passing through the city. The attendance at the services and meetings of Sunday was admirable, both in numbers and spirit, and it was manifest that the people were entering upon their celebration with an adequate sense of its significance. The weather was fair, and so continued, but the unusual heat of the three days was long remembered.
The forenoon of the next day, July third, was devoted in chief to the dedicatory exercises of a stone and tablet, commemorative of the headquarters of some of the town's early patriots. The marker, placed at the northwest corner of the premises of the Museum, bears this inscription:
NEAR THIS SPOT STOOD EASTON'S TAVERN HERE ON MAY 1, 1775, COL. JAMES EASTON AND JOHN BROWN OF PITTSFIELD AND CAPTAIN EDWARD MOTT OF PRESTON, CONNECTICUT, PLANNED THE CAPTURE OF FORT TICONDEROGA, WHICH ON MAY 10 SURRENDERED TO THE CONTINENTAL VOLUNTEERS UNDER ETHAN ALLEN WITH COLONEL EASTON SECOND IN COMMAND.
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This memorial had been provided by Berkshire Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, and the dedication accordingly was under the auspices of the chapter. Joseph E. Peirson presided. The reviewing stand nearby was occupied by a large chorus of public school children, so arranged in costumes of red, white, and blue as to present the appearance of a huge United States flag. Speeches on behalf of Berkshire Chapter were made by Dr. J. F. A. Adams and Edward T. Slocum, and on behalf of the national society by Luke S. Stowe of Springfield. Walter F. Hawkins made the address of dedication. In a tribute to Col. Easton and men like him, who wrought our national independ- ence, Mr. Hawkins said:
"All honor to the settlers of Pontoosuc, to them who 'wan- dered in the wilderness in a solitary way and found no city to dwell in'; who, with indomitable courage and incredible exer- tion, wrested from the frowning asperities of nature sufficient space for a habitable abode, and within its limits constrained the wilderness to blossom like the rose; who fought stoutly and nobly in the fight for liberty and for the new nation's right to live; who set so shining an example so splendidly followed, in heroism and devotion, by Pittsfield's sons and daughters through- out the Civil War; who founded, strengthened, and gave shape to what is worthiest and likeliest of permanence in our municipal life today. Still higher honor, if there be room for higher, be- longs to the women of those days, for their cheerful fortitude under common hardships; for their heroism in times of stress; suffering on their remote farms, their husbands absent in the wars, who knows what toil, what harrowing anxieties, what un- imaginable loneliness.
"These are the sources to which we trace the Pittsfield of today, these are the just objects of our fervent gratitude. But gratitude is but a weak tribute when unaccompanied by any pledge of determined effort; and it is a poor heart that only re- joices in the felicities of the moment and takes no thought of its responsibilities for the morrow. Surely the one hundred and fifty years to which Pittsfield's history has measured are but a span in that period of healthful and honorable existence that we believe ordained for her by a benignant providence. 'For we are Ancients of the earth, and in the morning of the times.' We must set our faces steadfastly forward, harking back only so far as may be needed to catch a whisper of the message of the past, and glancing behind us only for guidance in the direction in which our feet should press forward. Civic duty is no hollow
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phrase, nor its performance an impractical and a fanciful ideal. As honesty, in the lowest view of it, is the best commercial policy, so is patriotism the surest promoter of the prosperous community; and patriotism, like charity, begins at home."
On Monday afternoon, a street pageant, illustrative of Pittsfield history, interested several thousand spectators. The procession, in which about six hundred men, women, and chil- dren participated, was composed of scenic floats and costumed groups, each representing an episode or period in the past of the town, and was the result of the public-spirited effort of the city's social, fraternal, and patriotic organizations. The pageant was animated, the colors were well selected, and the effects, whether stirring or humorous, repaid many laborious weeks of prepara- tion.
The subjects, illustrated in the historical pageant were: "An Indian camp" (1600); "Early frontiersmen" (1743), "The first settlers" (1752); "The blockhouse at Unkamet's crossing" (1757); "The first town meeting" (1761); "Making uniforms for Capt. Noble's minute men" (1774); "Parson Allen leading Pittsfield farmers to the Bennington fight" (1777); "The Peace Party" (1783); "Lucretia Williams saving the Old Elm" (1790); "Printing the first Pittsfield Sun" (1800); "Wheelocks's dra- goons" (1812); "The visit of Lafayette" (1825); "A district school" (1830); "A volunteer fire company" (1832); "Life with the Shakers" (1836); "Building the Western Railroad" (1841); "The Berkshire Jubilee" (1844); "An old-time cattle show" (1855); "The Maplewood 'bus" (1858); "Parthenia Fenn and Pittsfield women sewing for the soldiers" (1861); "The Allen Guard leaving Pittsfield for the front" (1861); and "The City of Pittsfield" (1911). While the procession was a lively spectacle, it lacked neither a certain educational nor a sentimental value.
During the day the number of visitors attracted by the cele- bration had been greatly increased, the return of many former residents had gratified the older citizens, and hotels and hos- pitable homes witnessed countless pleasant reunions. Concerts by the Governor's Foot Guard Band of Hartford and the Pitts- field Military Band enlivened North Street and the Common. Although the celebration had been planned with the design of making Monday's proceedings of distinctively local and historical
THE POST OFFICE
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rather than of more widely popular interest, the popular appre- ciation was generous and responsive, and the scene was that of a popular festival.
In the evening, John D. Long of Hingham delivered the 150th anniversary oration to an audience assembled in the Methodist Episcopal Church. John C. Crosby presided at this meeting, which was formally the essential observance of the an- niversary. The eloquent orator was an old friend of Pittsfield, and could speak to the meeting almost with the intimacy of per- sonal acquaintance. Governor of Massachusetts in 1880, '81, and '82, and Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of William McKinley, he was esteemed for his record of distinguished public services; but, more than that, he was endeared to New England- ers by his stalwart belief in their civil institutions and his af- fectionate knowledge of their character.
Near the beginning of his address, Mr. Long said:
"I desire to felicitate you with no fulsome compliments to your community, which in its origin, its history, its consumma- tion, is perhaps not better than many another like itself. But I approach the theme before me, suggested by the celebration of the 150th anniversary of your incorporation, and I look back on that long vista of years with a feeling of profound respect and veneration. You could today have visited shrines of grander fame over which temples are wrought by masters of architecture and gorgeous with the works of masters of art. You could in imagination recreate from Greek and Roman ruins lying before your gaze the magnificent grandeur and beauty of dynasties that have ruled the world. You could in Westminster Abbey hold communion with illustrious dead who were living representatives of the most conspicuous achievement and the proudest glory of warrior, statesman, orator, poet, scholar, and divine. But I know not how it is that all these seem to me of lesser worth compared with the humanity and beauty and significance of the birthplace of a town like this, where no broken column of fallen temples tells of the magnificence and luxury of the few wrung from the poverty and degradation of the many; where no statue or shrine keeps alive the memory of conqueror, or king, or tyrant; but where rather began the growth of a people whose common recognition, in town organization, of the equal rights of all men could not endure that any child should be uneducated, or that any poor should remain destitute, or that any one caste should hold supremacy and another be ground under foot, or that any slave should breathe Massachusetts air."
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The general theme of thic charming and forceful address was the need of applying the spirit of old New England, exemplified by the founders of Pittsfield, to the national and social problems of modern America, and the peroration was introduced by a dramatic fantasy.
"I have seen among you today, not quite a stranger and yet like onc who, after long absence, revisits once familiar scenes, a venerable man clad in colonial costume, wearing a long coat with silver buttons, with his stout calves encased in homespun hose, with straps and buckles on his shoes, and ruffles around his wrist, and a broad brimmed, three-cornered hat upon his head. No spectator seemed to exhibit a deeper interest in your exer- cises, and yet it has been an interest tinged with a contemplative melancholy, as if he were groping in the past to recall, out of its shadows and gloom, scenes and faces that have vanished. Earlier in the day you may have noticed him in your most ancient bury- ing ground, pushing the grass from only the oldest stones and shading his dimmed sight to read the fading names; or visiting the spot where the first tavern stood, the proprietor 'allowed by the court to draw and sell wine, beer, and strong water'; or where was the original blacksmith's shop, or sawmill; or the manse of Parson Allen.
"More than once the tears have filled his eyes. You noted the gesture of almost exhausted wonderment with which, stand- ing a little apart from the rest, he saw the locomotive thunder through the town and bring to your station its freight of pas- sengers. It was my good fortune to speak with him a moment; and the rich depth of his voice, his statcly manner, his quaint dialect, his scriptural phrase, struck me like the fragrance that lingers around the wood of a perfumed box from distant lands.
" 'I never dreamed' said he, 'that I should live to see a day like this. The works of the Lord are marvelous and past finding out. I yearn for the former time, but I doubt not that in the providence of God all this growth and grandeur are for the best. I love most to see these happy homes, these beautiful and intel- ligent children. I trust they are all nurtured in the fear of the Lord. I scarce can comprehend what I see and hear. I am bewildered with your libraries, your newspapers, your school- books, your many churches, your railroads, and telegraph, and telephones, your automobiles and flying machines, your stories of a country that is free from British allegiance and that stretches from sea to sea, from gulf to arctic zone, and even includes the islands of the Orient, ten thousand miles away. I could not make out the ensign that floats above us until they told me it
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was the flag of the new republic. My eyes were seeking for the English colors.'
"And here the old man reverently removed his hat, and I thought I heard something like a prayer for long life to good King George. I do not know his name, but doubt not he is Jacob Wendell, or John Stoddard, or some other worthy of one hundred and fifty years ago. I shall not forget the tremulous voice in which, lifting up his hat, he said: 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel!'
"Farewell, brave, generous, true men who founded this good town! We venerate you. We take in solemn trust into our hands the work of yours."
It so happened that the people, as they left the church at the conclusion of the evening meeting, could realize vividly the contrast between the old and new Pittsfield which the orator had thus dramatized; for the streets, through which they had that afternoon seen pass the figures of Indians and frontiersmen, of the first settlers with their teams of oxen, and of Parson Allen, riding in a chaise at the head of his embattled farmers, were now filled by a parade impressively symbolical of the new Pittsfield and of the most recent development of American industry. This was a procession of 2,000 operatives from the Pittsfield works of the General Electric Company. The men had organized the affair at their own initiative, as their contribution to the cele- bration. The parade was made brilliant by electrical devices, floats, and colored lights, and as it proceeded through the glow of the elaborate illuminations on North Street and Park Square, the effect was memorably picturesque.
The Fourth of July celebration on the next day concluded the observance of the anniversary. This had been vigorously advertised by the publicity and transportation committees, ex- cursion trains brought crowds from neighboring towns, and it was believed that 50,000 spectators watched the parade of the forenoon. The marshal was John Nicholson, high sheriff of the county, David J. Gimlich was his chief-of-staff, and John White, Harold A. Cooper, Dr. W. J. Mercer, William H. Marshall, H. L. Hendee, and Harry D. Sisson led the six divisions, com-
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prising military organizations, a uniformed regiment of public school boys, veteran and active firemen, numerous fraternal and labor socicties, and a division of thirty-six industrial and com- mercial floats. About 3,000 marchers were in line. An exhibi- tion of aviation by aeroplane, from a field of the Allen farm near the road to Dalton, had been arranged for the afternoon. The first display of the kind ever attempted in the county, it was the most popular single attraction, perhaps, of the celebration; but the aviator, Charles C. Witmer, lost control of his biplane, the steering wheel broke, the machine fell, and the flier was carried to the House of Mercy, where he eventually recovered from his injuries. This was the only accident to mar the events of the three days. During the evening, a throng estimated to number 20,000 people was entertained by band concerts and an uncom- mon show of fireworks, in the natural ampitheater south and east of Colt Road.
As souvenirs of the occasion, the financial committee placed on sale an anniversary medal, and a tasteful and valuable book of portraits and pictures of old and modern Pittsfield, compiled by S. Chester Lyon and Linus W. Harger. This book contains also the anniversary ode, written by Harlan H. Ballard.
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