USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
In 1747 agitation for a new meeting house at Springfield became so insistent that at a parish meeting it was "voted to build a timber meeting house fifty-six by forty-five feet". Intentional hindrances, . by a group of irresponsibles acting on behalf of the Chicopee irrec- oncilables, caused a complete stoppage of work on the project for ten months, and in November, 1748, those obstructionists packed the meeting and so engineered the procedure at a parish meeting that it was "voted to build a brick meeting house sixty feet by forty-six feet". Such tactics were of course merely to gain time, in an effort to force a compromise that would result in the building of two churches, one in the town plat and the other at Chicopee. The parish later "voted that the controversy between those desiring a brick meeting house and those desiring a wood one should be settled by a majority of the assessed valuation of the parish and a wood meeting house was decided upon".
This took the affair back to the beginning, and in 1749 it was "voted to build a meeting house with timber, sixty feet in length and forty feet in breadth, with a steeple as far up as the square or platform, exclusive of the banisters and spire". Later, it was further voted "to erect a spire with bell and weather-cock on top of the steeple and a porch over the east door".
This, of course, was the cock that still presides over the church spire. The bell was the one that warned the Minutemen , when Israel Bissell, the express rider, galloped into Springfield in the small hours of the night on April 20, 1775, with the news of the Battle of Lexington.
303
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS
This third building was the first Springfield church to have "sash casements with square glass".
In December, 1753, the building committee submitted its final account, showing the complete cost to have been £8,544, or twenty-one times the cost of the previous building.
The first Meeting House stood at the southeast corner of the present Court Square, which was then the corner of the Town Street and the way to the Burying Place, by the River. This Way was later known as Meeting House Lane and is now Elm Street. A bit to the west of that first building and on the "hill" was the Church of 1677. In April, 1674, it was ordered that the new church, then contemplated, should be "in Thomas Stebbins' home lot, on the hill by his pasture". This "hill" was a section of the hill extending parallel with Main Street, from Round Hill to York Street. The present Court House stands on a vestige of it. It is impossible to determine its height, but it must have been quite noticeable.
In 1749, in preparation for the third meeting house, it was voted to "tear down the meeting house", and it was ordered that "digging be done, leveling the hill where the old house stands, in such manner as shall be proper for a suitable setting of the new meeting house in that place". This third building stood east of the present Church. Provision for a "porch over the east door", indicates that this was the main entrance.
When it became apparent that the building of a new church was inevitable, a petition was submitted by the Chicopee people asking leave to withdraw and form a church of their own, only to have it rejected. But the people were in earnest. In 1750 a plea was sent to the General Court, "showing that the greater part of them dwelt from four to eight miles from the place of public worship and now that their numbers had greatly increased, they esteemed themselves able to build a house for public worship and give sufficient encouragement to a minister of the gospel", and asking that they be set off as petitioned. This document was signed by thirty- three inhabitants of Upper Chicopee, twenty-four of whom bore the name of Chapin.
The First Parish was so unwilling to let those people go that Josiah Dwight and Edward Pynchon were for two years in succes- sion sent to Boston to oppose the petition. The General Court, however, listened with sympathy and acted favorably. By June, 1751, the framework of the Chicopee Church was "raised", though the building was not wholly completed until 1765. Thus, Upper, Chicopee became the Fifth Parish of Springfield.
It was during this period that the Springfield Church acquired a pewter communion service, dated 1742. In 1789 this was given to the Church at Ludlow, where it was used until 1846, and where it is still owned.
At the Springfield Church, the pewter service was replaced by one of silver that continued in use until 1896, when it was in turn
304
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
replaced by the individual cups used at present. The most interesting items in the old silver service are the four plain, bellied mugs. Two are inscribed in a floreated panel :
The Gift of Edwd Pynchon Esqr to the first Church of Christ in Springfield.
These two mugs are five and three-quarter inches high, and are marked J. Coburn, by the maker. John Coburn was born in Boston
Pewter Communion Set of First Church, Springfield
in 1725. His first wife was Elizabeth Greenleafe; his second, Catharine Vans, daughter of Hugh Vans, the first Dutch citizen of Boston. The records give evidence that he was working at his trade of silversmith in 1750. On August 2, 1776, Coburn advertised in the New England Chronicle as follows:
"JOHN COBURN informs his customers that he has removed into Boston again and carries on the goldsmith's business at his shop in King street opposite the American Coffee-House, where they may be supplied with any articles in the goldsmith's or jewelry way. He like- wise continues to take ladies and gentlemen to board as usual."
Edward Pynchon, who gave the Coburn cups to the church was one of the fourteen children of John Pynchon, Third, but, as he inher- ited some of the public offices held by his father, his lot was easier than that of some of his brothers. He died November 3, 1777, leaving
305
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS
no children. His widow continued in the Mansion House until her death in 1810.
The other two bellied, silver mugs in the communion service are inscribed in a heart :
The gift of Josiah Dwight Esqr to the first
Church of Christ in Springfield, 1761.
Silver Communion Set of First Church, Springfield
The maker's marks on these mugs is a script Z. Brigden in a cartouche, for Zachariah Brigden of Boston. Born in Charlestown in 1734, he lived until 1787.
The following advertisement appeared in the Boston News Letter of November 19, 1764.
"Just imported from London, and to be sold by Zachariah Brigden, Goldsmith; at his shop opposite the west door of the Town House, Coral Beads and stick coral for children's whistles, money scales and weights, neat watch plyers, sliding tongs, shears and hand vises, coarse and fine iron binding wire, brass hollow stamps and blow pipes, an assortment of files for the goldsmith's use, gravers, scorpers, dividers, sand paper, sandever, black lead pot, large and small crucibles, wood and bone polishing brushes. Also, shoe, knee and stock stone buckles, buttons, christal and cornelian seals, neat stone bosom broaches, garnet, hoop rings A few pair of neat stone earings set in clusters, in shagreen cases, cheap for cash."
W. Mass .- I-20
306
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Josiah Dwight was born in 1715, graduated from Yale in 1736 and married Sarah Pynchon, daughter of William Pynchon, brother of John Pynchon, Third. Hence, she and Edward were first cousins. Josiah Dwight was a successful merchant and iron founder, who died in 1768.
In addition to the four mugs mentioned, the First Church silver includes two flagons and two cups presented by John Worthington, and six matching cups evidently purchased by the church, but which bear no maker's mark.
Many tales are told of the weathercock on the Springfield Church which do not stand up under analysis. In Springfield Memories, Mason A. Green said that "an eagle once lit on the rooster, affording fun for local sports. Dr. Daniel C. Brewer brought out his rifle and fired under it. The impudent bird did not stir. The second shot put daylight through the rooster and the eagle flew". However, the cock itself bears no scars to support such a statement. Equally absurd is the repeated assertion that the body of the bird contains a package of documents, but a painstaking examination shows the fallacy of the story.
It has been often said that the Springfield cock was one of three imported from England, the others being for the Old South Church in Boston and the Church at Newburyport. Actually, the Old South never had a weathercock, but the one at Newburyport is a duplicate of that at Springfield as are the ones at West Barnstable, at Hadley and at Longmeadow.
When the Springfield cock was taken down in 1945 for its most recent refurbishing, an opportunity was afforded to examine it in detail. It measures three feet, seven inches from the soles of the feet to the crest of the comb. The body of the bird is hollow, as are the legs and the beak. The tail feathers, comb, dewlap, spur and feet are of sheet metal of about forty gauge. Over nearly two centuries, time and the elements have taken their toll, necessitating many repairs and replacements. The Springfield bird offers physical proof that neither the tail feathers nor the comb are original. At Longmeadow, there is ample documentary proof of repairs. The records show that after the blowing down of the church spire in the great storm of 1821, the parish voted "to repair the spire of the meeting house, put an iron spindle in the timber to set the weather vane upon,-the vane also to be repaired". The accompanying photograph plainly shows the dent in the breast made at that time.
All of these church weathercocks were made by Shem Drowne, a capable coppersmith, who, with his son Thomas, had a shop on Ann Street in Boston. Evidence of his craftsmanship is shown in the grass- hopper vane made by him in 1742 for Faneuil Hall, which was an exact duplicate of the one on the Royal Exchange in London, including the green glass eyes.
CHAPTER XXXI
The Knox Trail
I N THE winter of 1775-1776 Colonel Henry Knox transported from Ticonderoga, New York, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, certain ordnance for the use of Washington's army. One hundred and fifty years later, the states of New York and Massachusetts directed that the route used on that occasion be designated as The Knox Trail, with a granite and bronze marker in each town through which the road led. From Springfield to Cambridge, Knox's route was much as the traveled road goes today. From the Hudson River to Springfield, the changes have been many, but fortunately there is available, ample contemporary documentary evidence to correctly determine the route of 1776.
Any attempt to trace that route should utterly disregard local historians and local traditions. Local histories have usually been com- piled by persons of limited horizon, many of whose statements reveal their own absurdity when considered in relation to known facts. The "oldest inhabitant" may have a smattering of knowledge of an old road, but his information, acquired by hearsay, gives him meager basis for an accurate estimate as to when it came into being or ceased to be used. It is the use of such sources of information that has given birth to the statement that Knox traveled over a road "carved out of the wilderness by General Amherst in 1758". While it is true that Amherst led his army over the road later used by Knox, and improved some portions of it, yet the evidence shows that the road was well known and in common use at least twenty-six years before the date of the Amherst expedition.
Probably J. G. Holland is most guilty for the perpetuation of this story. In his History of Western Massachusetts, written in 1854, he said: "The first road or path through Otis was made by General Amherst and his army in 1759, on his way from Boston to Albany. On this passage he stayed one night each at Westfield, Blanford, Sandisfield on Noble Hill and Monterey at the Brewer place".
But Holland didn't get even the year right. He was a novelist and writer of historical romance, who built fantastic tales on slight foundations. Writing ninety-six years after Amherst's expedition,
308
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
he probably secured his data from some octogenarian who had little conception of locality. Since then, local historical writers have repeated the tale, though there are no facts to justify the statement, and many to refute it. In the hill towns, Holland's history was a fireside companion for a generation or so and there the tale has been read and reread so often that it will probably live forever.
It was evidently all due to the lack of a capital letter "G". Amherst said that when he reached Springfield, on his way to Albany, he "changed the route and resolved to go through the green woods". Through lack of knowledge that the "Greenwoods" was a definite tract between Blandford and Monterey, it was assumed that "through the green woods" was synonymous with "through the forest" and that Amherst meant that he took a beeline through the woods.
In the early days of the colonies, Albany and Springfield were connected by what the Dutch called the New England Path, which had not been established all at one time, but section by section as occasion demanded. The earliest section, which was in use long before the English came to the Connecticut Valley, led from Albany to the Great Ford of the Housatonic at the present Great Barrington. Soon after the settlement of Agawam (Springfield) a path to Westfield was in common use and it was not long before the gap between the two sec- tions was eliminated, providing a continuous path from Springfield to Albany. It is possible that this New England Path followed the route of an Indian trail, for it passed through the only district of southern New England where the forest was of sufficient density to make a marked trail feasible.
It is not clear why this forest existed, or why it was not consumed in the burnings of the natives such as were then so common east of the Connecticut River. Possibly it was because Western Massachu- setts was so sparsely inhabited by the Indians. More probably it was because nature, by a process of elimination, had set up a forest of fire-resistant species. There is scant evidence available to provide an accurate picture of the situation or to explain the condition that must have existed there.
Proceeding westward from Springfield, the path did not follow the common route of today through Westfield, but on the line of the present Court Street, continuing to Blandford via the site of the country home of the late Horace Moses. It would appear that on this mountain-side approach to Blandford, the first appreciable forest growth was encountered. West of Blandford and extending some twelve miles westerly towards Monterey, was the forest known as the "Greenwoods". In 1758 General Amherst said that this was made up "of Weymouth pine and the largest oaks I have seen (in America) but not so good by a great deal as in England". Amherst was acquainted with the Weymouth pine as it was the American white pine, largely planted in England by Lord Weymouth.
309
THE KNOX TRAIL
In time the New England Path became a bridle path and even- tually a wagon road. In 1663 John Pynchon of Springfield was trans- porting trading goods over it by pack-horse, to and from his partner, Major Hawthorne, ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne, at Ausatinneag (Housatonic), and Fort Aurania (Albany). Later, in association with Timothy Cooper, of Springfield, Pynchon raised cattle at Ausatinneag for the Albany market. In 1676 Major Talcott led sixty troopers over the same road in pursuit of the scattered remnants of King Philip's defeated army, which he overtook on the banks of the Housa- tonic, the third day after leaving Westfield.
As early as 1732 a petition of Christopher Jacob Lawton referred to "the extreme badness of that part of the road from Westfield to Albany that lies between Westfield and Housatannuck and the great hardship that travelers are forced to suffer, especially in the winter season, there being no house for the space of forty miles, and praying the grant of five hundred acres of Province land upon condition that he build and keep a house of entertainment near midway on the said road". This tavern, shortly after known as "Pixley's", was three or four miles westerly of the present Blandford Town Street.
Existence of the road in 1734 is evidenced by the granting of four townships, each six miles square "on the road between Sheffield (upper Sheffield, now Great Barrington) and Westfield".
A petition to the legislature in January, 1738, by eleven individ- uals, stated that seven months before, they had made a good sleigh road "from Sheffield and the several settlements upon the Housatonic river to Westfield and the neighboring towns, and whereas, before, it was a very difficult matter for anybody, and for strangers almost impossible, in a snow of any considerable depth, without a track, which often happens in the winter season, to find the way, now by our having marked a sufficient number of trees, on each hand, an entire stranger cannot easily miss it, and the people living in these parts are now able, and in the winter past, actually did pass and repass to and from Westfield, with more than twenty sleighs, well laden, through a wilderness that was almost impassable on horseback before".
The concluding phase of the French and Indian War came in the decade of 1753-1763, and as usual the burden fell on the American colonies of the two powers. In Western Massachusetts, the Canadian Indians were soon on the war path and though the destruction of property was not as pronounced as in other years, yet through those ten years, no man left his home in the morning with assurance that he would return in safety. During the entire conflict, New England was of great value to the cause of the colonies.
Col. Ephraim Williams was appointed commander of a regiment of colonial troops raised in Old Hampshire County (Berkshire, Frank- lin, Hampshire and Hampden) for the purpose of wresting from the
310
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
French their American colonies. This regiment was included in the force of nearly five thousand New England and New York troops raised for effecting the capture of the stronghold of Crown Point on Lake Champlain in 1755. The expedition was unsuccessful, and Colonel Williams was killed, the Hampshire regiment suffering severely, forty-six being killed and twenty-four wounded. Before leaving Albany on his fatal expedition, Colonel Williams made a will
Col. Ruggles Woodbridge House, Hadley
directing that the residue of his estate be used for providing for a Free School in a town to be called Williamstown. From this founda- tion grew Williams College.
In 1757 Pitt became the British prime minister, determined to bring the warfare to a permanent conclusion. To that end he recalled from the German war a comparatively unknown colonel named Jeffrey Amherst, whom he elevated in one move to become a brigadier gen- eral. To Amherst was intrusted the taking of the French stronghold of Louisburg, in Nova Scotia, which was accomplished July 27, 1758.
The earliest official recognition of the New England Path by the county was on August 27, 1754, four years before the Amherst expedi- tion. This provided for the adoption of a layout entitled, "a road from the town of Westfield, through Blandford and Number One, to the North Parish in Sheffield". Number One is that part of Tyring-
311
THE KNOX TRAIL
ham which became Monterey and the North Parish of Sheffield became Great Barrington.
The journal of James Hill, now in the library of Wellesley College, gives his route on the Expedition to Crown Point in 1755. On June 2d, he lodged at the house of Luke Scott, in Springfield. The following day he crossed the Connecticut and spent the night at Ezra Clapp's in Westfield. On June 4th he dined at the house of Joseph Starr and "marched twelve miles over a very bad mountain and lodged at the house of Huston in Blandford". This was situated below the meeting house on the road to the Housatonic Valley. Robert Huston took out an innholder's license in 1736, and continued until 1740, when the tavern was taken over by John Huston. On July 7, 1756, William Huston had an allowance from the public treasury "for entertaining soldiers on their return from the forts near Lake George". On June 5th Hill went twenty miles through the woods without seeing a house until he came to John Brewer's at Number One, where he spent the night. On the sixth he passed through Sheffield (Great Barrington) where he dined with the Dutch people, and continued on, lodging that night in a barn. On June 7th he dined at Kinderhook, and continued on for twenty miles more, arriving at Albany at noon, Sunday, the 8th.
A table on the flyleaf of the journal gives his itinerary as follows : Springfield, Westfield, Glasgow (Blandford) Number one, Sheffield, Kinderhook, Albany.
On the return journey, Hill left Albany December first, going as far as Half-way house, where he camped. The next night he camped in the woods, fifteen miles farther on. On December 3d he marched twenty miles to Sheffield (Great Barrington), and on the 4th arrived at John Brewer's at Number One, where "there was victuals enough provided". The following day he went twenty miles through the woods to Blandford and continued down the mountain twelve miles more. On Saturday, December 6th, he came to the Connecticut River at West Springfield, where he found that the ferry to Springfield was not in operation, the river being frozen over.
Dr. Caleb Rea made the journey to Albany in 1758, less than four months before. Amherst. On Monday, June 5th, he lodged at Day's, across the river from Springfield. The next day he rode through Westfield, Blandford and the Greenwoods to Number One, where he lodged at the Widow Brewer's. He found "extreme bad traveling through the woods by reason of the rain and teams that had passed just before". On Wednesday he rode through Sheffield (Great Bar- rington) and over the Housatonic into Claverack. "Dined at Briga- dier Dwight's and lodged at Hogeboom's, the Stone House". On the 8th he rode through Kinderhook into Greenbush.
When Louisbourg was completely in his hands, General Amherst was ordered to dispose of Fort Ticonderoga as a preliminary to the taking of Montreal and Quebec. Landing at Boston with five complete regiments he led his brigade over the road to Albany, advising Pitt of his proposed itinerary as follows :
312
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
From Boston
to Watertown, 11 miles
To Sudbury 10
To Marlborough 12
To Worcester,
15
To Spencer,
11
To Brookfield 9
To Palmer,
15
To Springfield, 15
98
To Suffield, 10
To Simsbury
13
To Harwington,
9
To Litchfield,
12
To Goshen,
10
To Canaan,
12
To Salisbury,
15
To Hackabon's als Claverack 9
To Kinderhook,
14
To Albany,
24
226
Amherst reported that "this is the route, from the best intelli- gence I could get at Boston. It may be changed during the march, on further inquiry".
Amherst reached Springfield September 24, 1758. His report to Pitt was as follows :
"25th .- I passed the Connecticut river and encamped a mile on the other side. I changed the route and resolved to go through the green woods, and sent forward the Pioneers.
26th .- I marched and encamped at Westfield.
27th .- I marched and encamped it Blandford.
28th .- I entered the green woods, marched ten miles. The troops lay on their arms this night.
28th .- I marched about nine miles through the greenwood. Arrived at No. 1 and encamped there.
30th .- I marched and encamped at Sheffield (Great Barrington). . 1st of October, I halted.
2nd .- I marched about fourteen miles, very rainy, stormy, bad weather. Made great fires and pitched but few tents.
3d .- I marched the troops and encamped at Kinderhook Mills. I went on to Albany, leaving the troops under command of Colonel Burton, with a route and orders to march them accordingly."
Amherst said that "I shall make all the expedition I can,-carry bread and drive cattle with the troops". Yet, with an unwieldly army, traveling over a rough mountain country, transporting his meat on
313
THE KNOX TRAIL
the hoof, he advanced only about ten miles a day, which would allow scant time for "road carving". However, he must have improved and widened the road sufficiently to permit the passage of artillery.
The foregoing itinerary, from Amherst's report to Pitt is con- siderably amplified in his personal journal, which reads :
"24th .- I marched before day break by the right and went through a woody country to Springfield. No part cleared, but the woods with no high underwood, as they had burnt it constantly for nearly two years past, and the country people say it has spoiled the ground. I arrived at Springfield in good time. Lt. Col. Robertson met me; he had been to the green wood and thought that by Pioneers and the help of some country people to work, we might pass that way, so I changed my intended route. Springfield has five parishes, about one hundred families in each; lays on both sides of the Connecticut River; is seventy-five miles from the sea and the river is very fine, about five- hundred yards over, but there are some falls between the town and the sea that hinder ships from passing. Navigable for flat bottomed boats. A sloop of seventy tons was built at Springfield and passed the falls and rocks in a flood. I received a letter from Mr. Pitt of June 10th.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.