USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 24
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AN ENGLISH RECLUSE
passeth on all men, inasmuch as all have sinned, which should learn us David's silence and submission, because the Lord hath done it, and the father seeing it pleased Him to continue him amongst us so long, to such an age, giving us the opportunities to reap the fruits of his godly and gracious examples and counsels, which, now he is taken from us, the Lord help us that we may practically follow, so running that we may obtain the promised recompense of reward; the crown of immortality and life, which he is now possessed of. Dear brother, this providence (I suppose) doth unavoidably call you to make a voyage into these parts with all possible speed for the transacting and settling of your affairs here, some things not being in so good a posture as were to be wished : viz: the business of Carleton's adminis- tration, which was like to be wholly obstructed on my father's death. But Mr. Wickins, a faithful friend, being intrusted in his will to act in his behalf, hath slacked no diligence or pains therein. He will write to you himself, therefore I'll say no more to that.
"You are made sole executor. Mr. Wickins, with myself are desired to be overseers of the same in your absence. I carried the will to him to London, which he hath since proved in the Prerogative Court, who will send you a copy thereof. I was lately at London, of purpose to communicate your letters and bills to him, for goods to be sent this year and care will be taken to send the greatest part of them by the first good ship.
"Though upon our conference with Mr. Bridge and partners, they make scruple of parting with any money of yours in their hands with out a particular order from your own hand, that which you gave to my father for the dispose thereof being (they say) dead with him.
"I spake with some of the men to whom you directed your bills for goods, and they were all cheerful to send what you write for, though they stay for payment till the next return of ships. In much haste and briefly I give you a hint of things, hoping this may come to your hands before other ships in which goods will be sent, by whom, if God please, you shall hear further. Clarke is not yet arrived, but daily expected.
"Sir, myself and wife, with all our children are at present in comfortable health, who all present our endeared respects to you and yours. The mercy of the blessed mediator overshadow you and yours and guide you in all your undertakings, that in due time we may see your face to our mutual comfort. So prays,
Your ever loving brother,
HENRY SMITH
Wyrardisbury Febr. 20, 1662. (1663) Superscribed, For his dear and wellbeloved brother, Mr. John Pynchon At his house in Springfield, on Conecticott, New-England. Present."
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
John Pynchon was again called upon to put his house in order for another tiresome and protracted journey to. England. There is but presumptive evidence of the length of his stay, but what there is seems quite convincing. The record of the Town Meeting at Spring- field on May 11, 1663, is in his handwriting, and his name does not thereafter appear on the records until December 30, 1664, when he
All Saints' Church, Springfield, England
Of which William Pynchon (founder of Springfield) was a Warden in 1624.
presented the town with a new record book, presumably brought from England. In the Pynchon ledgers is an item in the hand of Deacon Samuel Chapin, that in part reads as follows:
"Captain Pynchon, when he went for England, did agree with his brother Holyoke, to take the mill and Master Holyoke's share of the land belonging thereunto, for payment of the debt on the other side of this page and upon delivery of a deed of sale of the mill and the land, to his wife, Mistress Pynchon, he did order his said wife should cancel the debt. Now, the first of March, 1663-64, the said Master Holyoke did deliver to Mistress Pynchon a deed of sale of the said mill and land, whereupon the said Mistress Pynchon canceled the said debt".
"Witness, SAMUEL CHAPIN."
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AN ENGLISH RECLUSE
Later in that year of 1664 John Pynchon returned to Springfield. During his absence, his baby daughter Mehitabel, had died on July 2, 1663.
The Pynchon will represented an earnest attempt to consider all members of the family in an age when the eldest son was usually the favored legatee.
To the poor of Wraysbury was bequeathed £3.
Pynchon's own sisters, Jane Tesdall of Abington and Susan Platt received £20 each.
John Pynchon's children, Joseph, John, Mary and Hetabell (Mehitabel) also received £20 each.
To Elizabeth, Mary, Rebecca, Martha and Elisha Smith, children of his eldest daughter, Anna Smith, was given €20 each.
To Thomas, Benjamin and William Davis, children of his deceased daughter, Margaret, £10 each.
The children of his deceased daughter, Mary Pynchon Holyoke, received certain debts due in New England to Henry Smith and a horse of his at Barbadoes Island, previously assigned to Pynchon in payment of debts.
To his only living daughter Anna Smith, he gave a note for a sizeable sum due him from her husband, Henry Smith, thus, in effect canceling the debt.
The realty and the residue of the personal estate all went to John Pynchon, who was named executor, with Henry Smith and Mr. Wickens, "citizen and girdler of London", as overseers. Mr. Wickens was also made special executor in connection with "eighteen thousand of tobacco and a £30 bill of exchange" in litigation in Virginia. The Pynchon interests were far-flung.
Amongst the assets of the estate was a note of Henry Smith's for £220 and accrued interest, and a note of John Pynchon's for £106, dated April 15, 1654.
When his eldest son Joseph became of age, John Pynchon con- veyed the Wraysbury realty to him by deed-of-gift, but it was years before the personal assets were finally liquidated.
CHAPTER XXIII The Old Order Changeth
F OR a brief period following the departure of William Pynchon, Springfield was without a magistrate or governing body, but eventually John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Samuel Chapin were appointed by the Court and took oath as Commissioners on November 22, 1652. For more than two decades thereafter, the town continued to progress in a placid and uneventful way.
SIXTEEN ACRES
On the easterly outskirts of Springfield is a section known since 1652 as Sixteen Acres. The circumstance is unique, for there is no other community in America where such an appellative has persisted. Adjoining territory was designated by other unusual place-names; names reminiscent of the Elizabethan era. Northward was Peggy's Dipping Hole; to the east was World's End. At the south was Neces- sity, with The Plumtrees westward. In the center was Bask Pond, a sand-bottom pool still used exclusively for bathing. Springfield people were literal folk and their place-names had meaning. Another bathing pool, whose bubbling waters were impregnated with sulphide of iron, was with real reason called Stinking Hole Bask. In 1802 the main highway through the Sixteen Acres hamlet was called "the road to Dartmouth College", the Indian school at Hanover, New Hampshire.
Whence came this name of Sixteen Acres?
East of the arable meadows by the Connecticut River and extend- ing ten miles to the Wilbraham Mountains, the ground was so sterile as to be of little value. In 1758 Sir Jeffrey Amherst attested to its worthlessness, and in 1789 Washington called it "eight miles of almost uninhabited pine plain much mixed with sand". On the 1795 may it is designated as "pine barrens interspersed with unimprovable swamps". This condition was due to the Indian custom of burning over the land each year and so continuous were such fires that eventually even the humus and organic matter of the soil were consumed, exposing the glacial sand. The natives spared only ground too damp for fire to run over.
Flowing into the Connecticut River from the east were several small streams such as Mill River and Pecousic Brook, where number- less beaver dams produced ponds and swamps that protected those
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THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
valleys from fire. When such dams were destroyed by the settlers, the waters flowed out, leaving the silted-up pond floors that provided those much desired flat "beaver meadows", highly fertilized and ready for the plow. After all of the alluvial meadows contiguous to the town had been allocated to the earlier settlers, later arrivals eagerly sought those outlying valley fields. Hence, Rowland Thomas petitioned for such an allotment and in January, 1652, he was granted "six acres of meadow lying remote from the town, upon the Mill River, in a parcel of meadow judged to be sixteen or seventeen acres". There was also granted "to Francis Pepper, four acres of meadow adjoining Rowland's; also to Thomas and John Stebbins, each of them three acres". Here, then, were sixteen acres at the exact spot where the name has been perpetuated.
There is nothing in the phrasing of that order to indicate that this grant differed from any other. However, when, later in that same month, there was granted to twenty-two individuals, forty-seven acres "on the Mill River, going up to the sixteen acres", the inclusion of the definite article is rather provocative. Suspicion is further whetted by a conveyance of 1653 whereby the Indians sold land for the site of Northampton. As partial consideration, the purchasers agreed to "cause to be plowed up for the Indians, sixteen acres of land on the east side of the Connecticut River", for the exclusive use of the natives. But why sixteen acres ? Why not fifteen? Or twenty ? It suggests the possibility that sixteen acres represented a unit of land measure in common use at that time and that it was just as distinctive and familiar as were the now obsolete rood, or pole or perch.
In 1664 Henry Chapin was granted "sixteen acres of land above Chicopee Plain". John Pynchon's ledger shows a debit in 1670, to Joseph Whiting "for your sixteen acres at Woronoco". In 1672 John and Samuel Barber were each granted "sixteen acres of land by Agawam river". That same year Thomas Cooper received a grant of "sixteen acres of land by Three Mile Brook". In 1684 Henry Chapin received "sixteen acres at Chicopee". In 1689 John Riley bought "sixteen acres on the west side".
In 1656 Rowland Thomas received an additional grant of "meadow on Mill River above the falls which are above the sixteen acres". In 1667 John Clark was appointed overseer "for the way to the sixteen acres". In 1680 liberty was granted for a sawmill "at the falls at sixteen acres". In 1700 land was granted on "Sixteen Acre plain, on the south side of the path that goeth to Sixteen Acres". It is apparent that by the end of the century Sixteen Acres had definitely become a place-name.
In the nineteenth century that great expanse in the western United States, known as the Public Lands, was organized into town- ships that became grouped into territories and eventually into states of the Union. Those townships comprised thirty-six sections, each of which contained six hundred and forty acres. When, after the Civil War, allotments of the public lands were made to Union veterans, the
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
unit was a division of a section, known as a quarter-section. In the final quarter of the nineteenth century, a quarter-section was a house- hold word in America.
As a section contained six hundred and forty acres, it was, per- force, a mile square, and one is reminded that a quarter-section there- fore contained one hundred and sixty acres, which is exactly ten times sixteen acres. In other words, sixteen acres equalled one-tenth of a quarter-section and one-fortieth of a square mile.
The Sixteen Acre plot allocated to Rowland Thomas and his associates was in the valley of the South Branch of the Mill River, directly west of the present Parker Street. The adjacent millpond is an artificial body created by a dam, but in its natural state, there was and still is, west of the street, a fall that quite early was utilized for supplying power for a sawmill and up to quite recent years it continued in use for one enterprise after another, such as a gin dis- tillery and lastly a gristmill.
As one drives about the community time rolls back for many generations. Going northward on Parker Street, on the right is Hill- crest Park Cemetery, with which is incorporated Maplewood Cemetery first used in 1816. The projectors of the modern cemetery found it more feasible to secure a permit to enlarge an existing cemetery than to acquire permission for a wholly new and independent affair.
Continuing north, Parker Street crosses the North Branch of Mill River, where, east of the road and north of the stream, was the home of Zenas Parker, for whom the road was named.
At the intersection of the next road is a marker giving the name of Fern Bank Road to the thoroughfare, as part of an ill-advised attempt to modernize the district. For generations, the way was known as Dipping Hole Road, commemorating an episode of an earlier century, and the alteration is regrettable. After crossing the Wil- braham town line, Peggy's Dipping Hole is encountered. Quite recently this came to be used as a dumping place for rubbish, but when the condition came to the notice of the town fathers, it was promptly corrected. At the end of the road, where it enters Stony Hill Road, is another example of the good judgment of the Wilbraham authorities, for the street marker reads, "Dipping Hole Road".
At first thought, the name of Stony Hill Road would seem to be a misnomer, for neither stones nor hills are apparent. Actually, it was so named because it led to the Stony Hill district of Ludlow. Circling around World's End and back into Sixteen Acres, the Tinkham Road is on the left, with the home of David Tinkham still standing on the easterly side of the road bearing his name.
Southerly from the center, Parker Street crosses Mill River South Branch on a bridge west of the Mill Pond Dam, but in colonial days, the crossing was at the head of Rowland Thomas' meadow, and below the natural fall in the stream. There, as early as 1667, was Warriner's Bridge.
South of the center is Bask Pond, a reminder that in the days of Queen Elizabeth and of Shakespeare, people basked both in the sun
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THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
and in the water. When the ice went out in the spring, the neighbors gathered there for the annual spring cleaning of the person. Hence the name.
Continuing on, the road rises to the highest altitude within the city limits. Necessity, the settlers called it, but today it is Markham's Hill, a poor substitute for a name with which George Washington honored a fort in the Old French War.
The Plumtree Road runs westerly from the center. Each spring the damp, low grounds south of the road were bright with the plum blossoms. The wild plum was no rarity in the vicinity. In 1707 there was a Plumtree Meadow on Riley's Brook in West Springfield and a district in Sunderland is still known as "Plumtrees". Where the road crosses the South Branch, just before the stream enters Water- shop Pond, more than a century ago there was a dam creating a pond for power purposes, the long narrow pond extending easterly toward the Sixteen Acre center.
North of Plumtree Road was Venturer's Pond, probably the scene of some speculative "adventure", the details of which were long since lost.
In the 1870 period, when "McKnightville", the Armory Hill sec- tion of Springfield, was being developed, especially the Lake Como section north of Winchester Square, the farmers of Sixteen Acres had a dream. In 1871 the Springfield Republican said :
"Sixteen Acres is chiefly a farming community and is six miles east of City Hall and two miles south of Indian Orchard station on the railroad. There are perhaps not more than a dozen houses clus- tered together with a grist mill, blacksmith shop, ward building for voters and a school house near by. Two freestone quarries are in the vicinity. The people expect our horse railroad will be extended there and then when the vicinity of Lake Como becomes too thickly settled, their land will be wanted for city lots and suburban villas."
But the street cars were never thus "extended", and it was another half-century before the automobile brought a realization of the dream.
CHICOPEE
When, in 1636, William Pynchon bought of the Indians the lands which became Springfield, the northerly bound of the tract was at the Chicopee River. Five years later, to provide for future expansion, he purchased a tract three miles by four miles, bounded southerly by Chicopee River and extending easterly four miles from its mouth, to the present Higher Brook. There are indications that to the natives, this was neutral ground, and it is certain that the Chicopee River provided community fishing places. Schonunganuck, Skipmuck and Wallamanumps were much frequented. In later years there was keen rivalry for the fishing rights amongst the settlers, while the fishing at other streams in the section was seldom of sufficient importance to be worthy of mention.
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Payment for this tract was made to Nippumsuit and Jancom- powin of Nonotuck, now Northampton; to Misquis of Skipmuck, east of Chicopee Falls; to Mishqua and her son Saccarant; to Secousk and to Wenepawin, the latter four being all of Woronoco, now Westfield. Secousk was the widow of Kenix, one of the Indians from whom Pynchon had bought the land at Springfield, five years earlier, in which sale this Wenepawin had also joined.
Berry Pond, Highest Body of Water in Massachusetts, Berkshire County
To these seven Indians, besides "certain fish hooks and other small things", Pynchon agreed to give fifteen fathoms of wampum, one hoe and a "coat" or blanket of one-and-three-quarter yards of double width shag baize, all of which went to Nippumsuit personally, as the acknowledged leader of the band. Then, more significantly, was additional payment made of seven knives, seven awls and seven pairs of scissors, which seems a recognition of the fact that the above seven Indians alone claimed sole joint ownership.
On coming to put his mark to the formal deed, Wenepawin proved recalcitrant and Pynchon was obliged to give him a yard and a quarter of baize for a "coat" as well as a pair of breeches and a coat to Misquis "and six knives to them all". A month later, May 24, 1641, the widow Secousk came in to set her mark for which she
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THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
demanded and received another knife and twelve hands of wampum. Jancompowin delayed his part in completing the bargain for some two and a half years, but on the "9th day of the 8th month, 1643, he set his hand to this writing and Mr. Pynchon gave him a coat and a knife. He came not to set his hand till this day". So matters rested, until June 27, 1644, when "the woman called Secousk, above said, who was the widow of Kenix, came again to Mr. Pynchon, desiring a further reward, whereupon Mr. Pynchon gave her a child coat of red cotton, a glass and a knife, in the presence of Janandua, her present husband, and she was fully satisfied". Even this was not the end. Nippumsuit demanded "another large coat for his sister that he said had right in the land". With the delivery of this coat, the transaction was finally completed.
Another Indian, Wauhshaues of Nonotuck, also signed the deed, but merely as a witness making no claim to ownership. A final witness was the Indian Coa, and his inclusion explains much.
Coa (or Coe or Coo) was an Indian from whose wife, Niarum, Pynchon had bought land at Agawam five years earlier. When nego- tiating for that land, Pynchon brought from Boston a recognized Indian interpreter, who attested that "to all within expressed, they understood; by Ahaughton, an Indian of the Massachusett". When John Pynchon, in 1653, bought the land for the settlement of North- ampton, the deed was witnessed by "Wutshamin, a chief man of Nammeleck, who helped to make the bargain". To the 1660 deed for the land which became Hatfield, "Woassomehuc alias Skejask, an Indian witness", set his mark.
It was a Pynchon custom and, without doubt in this case, it was Coa "who helped to make the bargain", and who was deputed to bring in the tardy Jancompowin. Which explains why the leader was called Nippumsuit; "he who speaks another language", that is, "a man of another tribe". And why his abiding place was called Nono- tuck; "the place far off", otherwise a "foreign land".
It might be added that the names Jancompowin and Janandua are entirely unlike any other local personal or place names. The initial "J" seems not to have existed in the Connecticut Valley. It might be suspected that Pynchon here used a "J" for a sound which might have been better represented by "ch"; giving Chancompowin and Chanandua.
Prior to Pynchon's permanent return to England he disposed of all his real estate, most of it being distributed to members of his family, but the Chicopee parcel was conveyed to his son John and to his two sons-in-law, Henry Smith and Elizur Holyoke, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the town. With the guiding hand of the master removed, loud clamor began to be heard for a fuller distribution of the common lands. Desirable property to the west and south became fully occupied and envious eyes were cast on the Chicopee meadows. In the meantime, Henry Smith had joined the elder Pynchon in Eng-
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
land, leaving John Pynchon and Elizur Holyoke to battle the towns- men alone. As they found it impossible to resist the pressure, they resorted to diplomacy and evolved a master scheme.
At a Town Meeting, held November 21, 1654, a farm by the Con- necticut and north of the Chicopee was granted to John Pynchon, and a farm east of that was granted to John Pynchon and Elizur Holyoke jointly. A committee, consisting of Thomas Cooper, Thomas Miller, Thomas Stebbins and Rowland Thomas, was instructed to determine proper bounds for the two farms.
Undoubtedly, Pynchon and Holyoke named this committee, and all four were men who were under deep obligations to the ruling family. When they reported their conclusions it developed that the entire tract had been divided into but two "farms", the westerly one being Pynchon's and the easterly one Pynchon's and Holyoke's jointly. There was not an acre of surplus remaining, the two "farms" covering the entire twelve square miles.
Thus the family had control of the situation. Sizable tracts were sold to such as had money, goods or labor to exchange for land. Meadows were leased on shares. All went well and the domain of Nippumsuit, the neutral ground of the natives, was on its way toward becoming a part of the present city of Chicopee.
Then came the year 1684. Elizur Holyoke had been dead for eight years. Henry Smith had recently died. John Pynchon, at fifty- eight, was the sole remaining trustee of the Chicopee acres. He was growing old. Parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, had all passed on. Though his wife remained, four of his five children had died, John, Jr., alone remaining. Possibly conscience pricked a bit. In any event, the record says, that in January, 1683-1684, "The Worshipful Major, John Pynchon, esquire doth surrender to the town all that large grant of land, November 21, 1654, beyond Schonungonucke and up to the head of Wallamansepe and eastward to the brook (Higher Brook) that runs into Skeepmuck River". Thus were the Chicopee lands returned to the people.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
John Pynchon was fully aware of the insufficiency of his own education and was determined that his sons Joseph and John should not be handicapped by a similar deficiency. Then as now, English lads were sent away to school at a very tender age. As early as 1643 a school, of which Elijah Corlet was master, had been established at Cambridge to fit pupils for Harvard, and Joseph entered that school in 1654, more than three months prior to his eighth birthday, with John following a year later. The children's aunt, Margaret Pynchon Davis of Boston, had died the previous year, but her husband, Captain William Davis, apparently kept in touch with the boys.
Details of the arrangements appear in the Pynchon journal.
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THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
April 11, 1654. I left my son Joseph at board with Goodman Beale of Cambridge, whom I am to allow for his tabling £10 pr annum.
£
S
d
April 17, 1654. Paid Goodman Beale in money .... 2 10 00
April 31, 1654. Paid him in money.
1 00 00
October, 1654. Sent him from Mr. Peck of New
Haven two firkins of butter, weighed neat 57 lbs. apiece
2 17 00
The two firkins
0 03
00
Paid in cloth by brother-in-law Davis
2 10 00
Paid by my brother-in-law Davis in money. 1 00 00
In all, for a year's tabling.
10 00 00
August 31, 1655. Paid Goodman Beale, six yards of serge at 6s, 8d, pr. yard. 2 00 00
Paid in money, 20s. More in money 20s. 2 00 00
April 11, 1654. Joseph Pynchon went to school with Mr. Corlet. April 17, 1654. Paid Mr. Corlet toward Joseph's schooling, --
In money
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